2010 May
RIP Go! Comi?
After School Nightmare
The manga publisher Go! Comi launched in 2005 with four series aimed at older teenage girls: Crossroad, Cantarella, Her Majesty’s Dog, and Tenshi Ja Nai. The opening line spanned several styles and tastes—romance, horror, some light boys’ love—and all the books were beautifully produced and edited with obvious care.
From there, editor in chief David Wise and editorial director Audry Taylor went on to publish a greater variety of series—the slapstick Hikkatsu, the beautifully drawn Song of the Hanging Sky, Wendy Pini’s The Masque of the Red Death, and Aimee Major-Steinberger’s Japan Ai: A Tall Girl’s Adventures in Japan. Their ten-volume series After School Nightmare was nominated for an Eisner award, and the Young Adult Library Services Association named it one of the ten best graphic novels of 2008.
- May 11, 2010 @ 09:30 AM by Brigid Alverson
Panel votes to keep Death Note in school
The first volume of Death Note
A seven-member committee voted unanimously last week not to remove the manga series Death Note from the library of Volcano Vista High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The committee included librarians, someone from the school district, a parent, a local businessman, and the pastor of a local church.
According to the Albuquerque Public Schools website, the series was challenged by Peggie Salazar, the parent of a Volcano Vista student, who stated, in her request for a hearing, “The book talks about killing the bad guys. Even though the death note is toward bad people, it is still killing and who the bad guy is could be different in everyone’s eyes. You never know what were the thoughts of the killer for the Columbine killings.”
- May 11, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
From Wikipedia's lolicon entry
Internet | Wikimedia co-founder Jimmy Wales has relinquished some of his website privileges following complaints by contributors that he deleted images without consultation. Last week administrators of Wikimedia Commons removed hundreds of images in the wake of a complaint filed with the FBI in April by Wikipedia co-founder Lawrence Sanger accusing the media repository of “knowingly distributing child pornography” in violation of the U.S. PROTECT Act. Sanger, who left Wikipedia in 2002 and four years later launched the rival Citizendium, specifically pointed to entries on pedophilia and lolicon.
Wales, apparently feeling pressure from a Fox News report on Sanger’s accusations, posted his support for removing “images that are of little or no educational value but which appeal solely to prurient interests,” and deleted many pictures himself. Some images deemed by the Wikipedia community to have educational merit have returned to the site. [BBC News]
- May 11, 2010 @ 08:11 AM by Kevin Melrose
Talking Comics with Tim: Jim McCann
Dazzler
Jim McCann‘s name is going to be popping up in Marvel Comics more regularly starting toward the end of this month. First up is the May 26 release of the writer’s Dazzler one-shot, followed by the June 3 launch of his Hawkeye & Mockingbird ongoing monthly series. I recently got to discuss both projects in an email interview. It’s never dull for me to chat about Marvel characters with a writer who clearly both enjoys and does his research. My thanks for McCann’s time.
Tim O’Shea: For folks that are afraid the Dazzler one-shot is a nostalgia romp, far from it–in fact the story comes out of the recent Necrosha event. Can you talk a little bit about it?
Jim McCann: Dazz has a bit more heat & attention on her post-Necroshia, both with the fans…and with her enemies! Specifically Mortis, a.k.a. Lois London, her long-absent half-sister, who has massive anger issues and a very strong desire to kill Dazzler!
I wanted to give Dazzler a strong nemesis and family, two things all great characters need, and found both in Lois. They avoided the fight in Necrosha, but, as the cover & solicit says, THIS is the fight, the Necrosha Aftermath for these two!
- May 10, 2010 @ 03:15 PM by Tim O'Shea
Race and superheroes: touching fanboy politics’ third rail
from Spider-Man: Fever #1 by Brendan McCarthy
Warning: People who use the phrase “playing the race card” need not apply to the following post. I guess that rules out, y’know, our entire political class, but oh well. Anyway, a trio of recent pieces have taken on the issue of race in contemporary superhero comics and movies.
Perhaps the most high-profile of the three pieces is Chris Sims’s essay on “the racial politics of regressive storytelling” for Comics Alliance. Sims argues that DC Comics’ current penchant for restoring the Silver Age versions of Green Lantern, the Flash, the Atom, the Legion of Super-Heroes and so on has the unintentional but regrettable effect of pushing their successors — in many cases, non-white characters created to replace their slain or off-stage white predecessors — to the sidelines. While he’s quite clear that he doesn’t believe Geoff Johns or any of the other writers or editors involved are motivated by racial animus, he laments the way in which several decades’ worth of minority characters are now becoming “footnotes” in the race to create comics that evoke the creators’ and readers’ memories of their childhood favorites. I’m sympathetic to the obvious truth in Sims’s argument — replacing Ryan Choi with Ray Palmer, for example, does indeed “whiten” the Atom concept once again. But as I wrote in an essay on my own blog, I think the blame lies not with Johns and his Rebirths and Brightest Day and so on, but with the creators who, instead of creating strong non-white characters out of whole cloth like Luke Cage or Storm or Black Panther, simply put new guys in the old guys’ outfits, thus all but inviting readers to think of them as substitutes and pine for their original favorites.
- May 10, 2010 @ 02:17 PM by Sean T. Collins
Dave Cockrum’s Futurians return this summer
Avatar of the Futurians #1
Back in the 1980s, before OGNs and trade paperbacks were as prominent as they are now, Marvel had an over-sized graphic novel series that did things like introduce the New Mutants, kill Captain Marvel and, on occasion, feature creator-owned work by the likes of Jim Starlin, Walt Simonson and Dave Cockrum, among others.
Once I discovered the joys of the comic shop, I made it my mission to buy up as many of Marvel’s graphic novels as I could, whether they featured Marvel’s characters or not. I remember Cockrum’s graphic novel, The Futurians, fondly; I of course was a fan of his work on X-Men, and the Futurians featured his incredible artwork coupled with a pretty cool story that begged to jump from the pages of that graphic novel into a regular series. Lodestone published a three issue mini-series, and a #0 issue was published by Aardwolf back in the 1990s. And now, some 25+ years after that first graphic novel, the Futurians return, courtesy of Clifford Meth, David Miller and Kickstarter.
Meth, who has been attempting to get the Futurians up on the big screen, talks about a new mini-series coming this summer on his blog:
First at bat is the new Avatar mini-series from David Miller Studios. This is the first time Cockrum’s “Andrew Pendragon” gets top billing. As David Miller explains, “Avatar returns to his English home for a family funeral and encounters an ancient evil from his past; an evil that could consume all of Great Britain.” Issue #1 features a cover by Greg Larocque, who was drawing DC’s Flash back when my buddy William Messner-Loebs was turning in the finest scripts that title ever saw ever (note the double use of the word ever). The incomparable Michael Netzer and inker Joe Rubinstien will be joining the series with issue #2.
- May 10, 2010 @ 01:08 PM by JK Parkin
Legendary artist Frank Frazetta passes away
Frank Frazetta in his Florida studio
Renowned fantasy and comic-book artist Frank Frazetta passed away today as the result of a stroke. He was 82.
Heidi MacDonald has confirmation from his agent Robert Pistella that Frazetta died in a hospital near his home in Boca Grande, Florida.
Born on February 9, 1928, in Brooklyn, Frazetta began illustrating comic books at age 16, later working on titles like Barnyard Comics, Thrilling Comics and Happy Comics for Standard Publishing Co. By the early 1950s, he was drawing the Shining Knight stories for DC’s Adventure Comics, New Heroic Comics for Eastern Color and Durango Kid for Magazine Enterprises. In 1953, he started working as an assistant for Al Capp on Li’l Abner.
Frazetta left Capp in 1961 and started illustrating for men’s magazines, eventually teaming with Harvey Kurtzman on the bawdy “Little Annie Fanny” strip that appeared in Playboy. It was during this period that Frazetta began painting movie posters, and covers for paperback editions of action-adventure and Warren magazines like Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella. Frazetta’s work from the mid-1960s to the early ’70s became the primary influence for science fiction and fantasy art for decades.
Frazetta’s work and legacy were at the center of a bitter family feud that seemed to erupt in July 2009 after the death of his wife Eleanor “Ellie” Frazetta, who had long run her husband’s business. The dispute played out in public, with criminal charges, a lawsuit and angry allegations. Luckily, though, the family seemed to resolve its differences just last month.
Frazetta is survived by four children: Alfonso Frank Frazetta (Frank Jr.), William Frazetta, Holly Frazetta and Heidi Grabin.
- May 10, 2010 @ 11:23 AM by Kevin Melrose
Straight for the art | Brianne Drouhard’s magic world
Brianne Drouhard's Pegasus
Brianne Drouhard is a professional animator whose credits include character designs for the Teen Titans, but the work she shows off on her blog has a decidedly different appeal: It’s heavy on the unicorns (but with plenty of pixies and cute animals as well) and has a nice classic feel to it as well—some of her drawings would be right at home in a Little Golden Book. She can also dash off a nice, simple, kitten or puppy, so she has a lot of range. Her character Billie the Unicorn has just been picked up by Immedium for a children’s book.
- May 10, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Kickstart my art | He had me at Nicolas Cage
Comics creator Todd Webb is using Kickstarter to raise funds so he can create what could possibly be the greatest comic book about actor Nicolas Cage of all time:
Why make a comic book about Nicolas Cage? Because I think it would be a really funny, strange, and entertaining thing to do! Also, Nicolas Cage is probably the biggest comic book fan in Hollywood (he changed his last name to Cage, after a comic book character, and named his son Kal-El) and I have a hunch it is his secret dream to BE a comic book character – so why not? I promise to make Nicolas Cage! The Comic Book Experience the best comic book it can possibly be – it will not suck! It will SHINE!
Here’s a sample of what the comic will look like. Webb, the creator of Tuesday Moon and several other comics, has put together several prize packages for folks who contribute. For instance, the $35 package includes the above T-shirt. Go check out his Kickstarter page for more information.
- May 10, 2010 @ 10:30 AM by JK Parkin
Attention artists: Design the NYAF mascot
Here’s a challenge for budding and experienced artists alike: Design the mascot for New York Anime Fest. The organizers are holding a mascot design contest, and the prizes are pretty good—the winner gets 10 free weekend passes to the con, 50 volumes of manga from Del Rey, and a copy of every piece of swag that bears their design. Runners-up do OK too. TheOtaku.com, which is one of the co-sponsors (along with NYAF, Del Rey, and Kinokuniya) has all the fine print, and the deadline is May 20, so start drawing now!
- May 10, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Doug Wright Awards announced
The cover of Lose #2, by Michael Deforge
The winners of this year’s Doug Wright Awards for best Canadian comics and creators working in English were announced at the Toronto Comics Art Festival last weekend. The Best Book award went to George Sprott, by Seth; the Best Emerging Talent award to Michael Deforge; and the Pigskin Peters award to Hot Potatoe, by Marc Bell. (That last is for “experimental and non-narrative efforts of Canadian cartoonists,” in case you were wondering. Pigskin Peters was a character created by cartoonist Jimmy Frise.)
The National Post provides a bit of context and notes that Martin Vaughn-James was also honored at the award ceremonies.
- May 10, 2010 @ 09:30 AM by Brigid Alverson
Straight for the art | Amy Reeder’s Supergirl cover
Amy Reeder's Supergirl cover
DC just announced that Amy Reeder will draw the covers for Supergirl. Reeder’s most recent work was on Madame Xanadu, but some of us are fans of her (sadly, unfinished) global manga series for Tokyopop, Fool’s Gold.
- May 10, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Tintin
Publishing | Stanley Pignal takes a look at the transformation of the Tintin brand since the death of Hergé in 1983, as the cartoonist’s widow Fanny Vlamynck and her husband Nick Rodwell drastically changed merchandising strategies. In the process, the prickly Rodwell has become a controversial figure, running afoul of fans and journalists alike in his effort to exert control over Tintin’s image.
Of particular interest is a brief profile of Bob Garcia, a novelist and fan who published a series of books examining Hergé’s possible inspirations for Tintin. Garcia believed he could legally reproduce a few copyrighted illustrations for the purpose of critique, but Moulinsart saw things differently: The writer is now fighting to keep his home as penalties and legal fees mount. [Financial Times]
Crime | Danny Wayne Barton, owner of Kryptonite Komics in Carbon Hill, Alabama, was arrested Thursday after he allegedly sold marijuana to police informants on four separate occasions. Three of those incidents reportedly occurred in Barton’s shop, which also sells smoking devices as the Good Karma Store. The 38-year-old retailer faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison on four counts of unlawful distribution of a controlled substance within a three-mile radius of a school. [Daily Mountain Eagle]
- May 10, 2010 @ 08:07 AM by Kevin Melrose
What are you reading?
Astonishing Spider-Man and Wolverine
Welcome once again to What are you reading? Today our special guest is comics retailer James Sime, owner of the world-famous Isotope Comics in San Francisco. As a retailer, James has the opportunity to read a lot of comics, and his submission this week reflects the diversity of great stuff you’ll find in his shop.
Click below to see what he’s been reading lately, as well as what the rest of the Robot 6 crew has had on their reading lists this week ….
- May 9, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
Robot Sixth Gun | Read the first issue of Oni’s The Sixth Gun right here
The Sixth Gun
Last weekend Oni Press released the first issue of Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt’s new ongoing series The Sixth Gun as one of their Free Comic Book Day offerings. If you missed it last Saturday, never fear — you’ll have the opportunity to buy it (with a new cover) on the same day that issue #2 is due in stores in July. And even better, courtesy of our friends at Oni, you can also read it right here on Robot 6 for free!
Here’s a description of the book: “During the darkest days of the Civil War, wicked cutthroats came into possession of six pistols of otherworldly power. The Sixth Gun – the most dangerous of the weapons – has vanished. When the gun surfaces in the hands of an innocent girl, dark forces reawaken. Villains thought long dead set their sights on retrieving the gun and killing anyone in their path. Only Drake Sinclair, a gunslinger with a shadowy past, stands in their way.”
But wait, he said, there’s more! As we’ve been anticipating The Sixth Gun for awhile now, we’ve invited the creators to guest blog with us here at “Robot Sixth Gun” over the next few weeks as we get closer to the release of the second issue. We’ve got a lot of cool stuff lined up, from Cullen and Brian helping us out with stuff like Shelf Porn and What are you reading?, to interviews and some secret surprise Sixth Gun stuff.
Check out the full issue after the jump, where you’ll also find a press release about the reissue and an order form you can take to your retailer to reserve the reissue and the second issue. Or you can download it as a PDF.
- May 7, 2010 @ 04:45 PM by JK Parkin