2010 May
Straight for the art | Little Lulu, by Marge
The original Little Lulu, with a slimmer Tubby
Shaenon Garrity digs up some of the original Little Lulu comics from the pre-John Stanley days. It turns out that creator Marge Henderson’s vision was a little bit darker and definitely of her time; as Shaenon says,
I admit to being a sucker for 1930s-1940s magazine cartooning, whether it’s the inhuman crispness of Gluyas Williams or the funky scribblings of William Steig–or Marge’s style, which is somewhere in between. I can see why Seth and those guys want to draw like this, but honestly, you can’t fake it with a modern line. It’s about more than men in walrus mustaches and matronly women with triangular noses; you’ve got to capture that understated wit that says, “It’s the Depression, people–we can’t waste a single ounce of comedy. Also, we will be very grey.”
- May 26, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by Brigid Alverson
Alas, the Green Lantern Corps was ineligible to vote in North Carolina
Hal Jordan
Contrary to 50 years of DC Comics continuity, it turns out that Coast City isn’t in California, but rather somewhere in North Carolina. As incontrovertible evidence, allow me to direct you to the website of one Hal Jordan, former Republican candidate for North Carolina’s 8th congressional district.
That’s right, Hal Jordan for Congress. Take that, Oliver Queen!
A conservative businessman, Jordan describes himself as “pro-life, a member of the NRA and a supporter of traditional marriage between one man and one woman.” However, he makes no mention of a career as a test pilot or stint as a spirit of vengeance. In Jordan’s defense, the latter is difficult to work into a brief biography.
None of that matters now, though: Jordan came in third in the May 4 Republican primary, behind Tim D’Annunzio and Harold Johnson, who face a runoff election next month.
It’s probably all for the best, as there was undoubtedly a pesky reporter waiting to ambush Jordan with a question about how an intergalactic police force infringes on the sovereignty of the United States. Either that, or something about Parallax. Stupid “gotcha” journalism.
- May 26, 2010 @ 12:30 PM by Kevin Melrose
Comics Cavalcade | Johnny Ryan and bear-riding cowboys
Every day people post comics on the Internet. Here are a few that caught our eyes.
Reed Gunther by Shane and Chris Houghton
- May 26, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
Everyone’s a Critic | A roundup of comic book reviews and thinkpieces
M.K. Reed's Cross Country
Indy comics: Johanna Draper Carlson reviews a handful of self-published comics at Comics Worth Reading.
History: Jason Thompson takes a look at the early days of manga publishing and the creator Ippongi Bang, who drew rebel manga and liked a good party, too.
Quickies: Top Shelf recently brought over not one but four Swedish graphic novels. Not sure where to start? Rick Marshall has quick looks at all four, ranked in his order of preference.
Art comix: Charles Hatfield is pleasantly mystified by Blaise Larmee’s Young Lions, a wispily drawn story about conceptual artists.
Previews: The reader is the winner every time when Paul Gravett plays the Previews game.
Review: Greg McElhatton reads the graphic novel version of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and concludes that you can stretch a joke too thin.
Politics: I don’t follow DC’s non-manga lines closely enough to be able to intelligently evaluate Rob McMonigal’s claim that the company is regressing into a white-male bastion, and I won’t go there with the Tea Party logic, but I’m including this link for discussion purposes. One could argue the opposite, that they kept CMX going long after they probably should have killed it, but I think that CMX, like Minx, could have been a success if anyone outside the immediate circle of editors had acted like they cared.
Criticism: Domingos Isabelinho launches his new column at The Hooded Utilitarian with some musings on criticsm, wondering, “What twisted mind picks up the scalpel after love?” and then puts Pierre Duba’s Racines under the microscope. Also at HU: Noah Berlatsky, ever the contrarian, turns in a rare negative review of Naoki Urasawa’s Monster.
- May 26, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Straight for the art, shirts, mugs, etc. | Ty Mattson’s Lost merch
Ty Mattson's LOST designs
A while back we told you about artist Ty Mattson’s rather stunning, gorgeously retro Lost-inspired art, created in part as invitations for a Season Six premiere party. Apparently we’re not the only people who dug ‘em: ABC is now selling merchandise featuring Mattson’s designs in its official Lost store, including silkscreened prints, t-shirts, hoodies, tote bags, mugs, mousepads, even skateboard decks. Looks like even showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse are getting in on the act…
Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof
- May 26, 2010 @ 10:30 AM by Sean T. Collins
Compare and contrast: Virgin Comics goes digital two ways
Megas, from Virgin's Directors Cut line
Headed by flashy airline and music entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson and self-help writer Deepak Chopra—an odd couple if ever there was one—Virgin Comics launched in 2006 with a line of comics based on figures from Indian mythology and soon added two other lines, Directors Cut, which featured comics created by well known movie directors, and Maverick/Voices (the imprint was renamed), featuring comics by musicans, actors, and relatively unknown artists. The company didn’t last long; in 2008 they closed their New York office and changed their name to Liquid Comics after a management buyout.
Liquid has put up a good-sized selection of the original Virgin comics online at their website, which makes it odd that I read an announcement this morning that they are making their comics available on Scribd. It seems to be the same set of comics in both cases; the difference may be that Scribd is better known and has ads. If I had the urge to read the Jenna Jameson comic, though, or Dock Walloper, I’d head to the Liquid site, as their Flash-based reader is simpler and easier to manage than Scribd’s feature-laden HTML5 interface. If you’re looking to download, though, only Scribd will support that, and presumably that’s the go-to site for iPad users as well.
- May 26, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Start reading now: Heaven and the Dead City
Heaven and the Dead City
CO2 Comics is a webcomics site that presents a mix of classic and new comics. Heaven and the Dead City, their newest addition, looks like a classic but is actually new work by emerging artist Raine Szramski. It’s a fantasy tale drawn in a nice, chunky, old-fashioned style; they only have two pages up so far, but you can see more of Szramski’s fantasy art here.
- May 26, 2010 @ 09:30 AM by Brigid Alverson
Aldridge and Tartakovsky reinterpret Iron Man for Marvel variant covers
Alan Aldridge's variant cover for Avengers #2
As wonderful as those “Iron Man By Design 2.0″ covers by animation artists Ronnie del Carmen and Bill Presing were, I think Marvel may have topped them this morning with two from legendary graphic designer Alan Aldridge and renowned animator and director Genndy Tartakovsky.
Aldridge, who’s widely known for creating illustrated lyric books for the Beatles, album covers for the Rolling Stones, the Who and Elton John, and the children’s book The Butterfly’s Ball, and the Grasshopper’s Feast, offers his psychedelic take on Iron Man for the variant cover for Avengers #2.
Tartakovsky, creator of Dexter’s Laboratory and Samurai Jack, and director of 2003′s Star Wars: Clone Wars, delivers a quirky clockwork Armored Avenger for Invincible Iron Man Annual #1.
Both issues will be released in June. See the full covers and solicitation text after the break.
- May 26, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Why Gene Yang won’t be watching Airbender
Comics creator Gene Luen Yang (American Born Chinese, Prime Baby) has made a webcomic to explain why he won’t be going to see the Last Airbender movie in theaters—in short, Gene takes exception to the producers’ decision to use an all-Caucasian cast for a movie in which all the characters are Asian. He makes the argument better than I do, though, and of course a lively discussion breaks out in the comments section, so go, read.
I’m not a big movie fan anyway, so I’m much more likely to while away a summer afternoon with the manga.
- May 26, 2010 @ 08:30 AM by Brigid Alverson
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Neil Gaiman
Legal | Neil Gaiman and Todd McFarlane will return to court next month after more than seven years to hash out how much Gaiman is owed for his copyright interests in Medieval Spawn, Angela and Count Nicholas Cogliostro. Gaiman wants to learn how much money was generated by three other characters he claims are derivative of those he co-created with McFarlane: Dark Ages Spawn, Domina and Tiffany.
McFarlane asked for another trial on the issue, but on Tuesday U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb ruled that Gaiman has a plausible claim, and ordered an evidentiary hearing to be held on June 14. [Wisconsin State Journal]
Conventions | As the bidding war for Comic-Con International continues, convention organizers have asked San Diego hotels to sign contracts guaranteeing room rates for the next five years. A decision on whether the four-day event will remain in the city after 2012 was expected weeks ago, but Comic-Con spokesman David Glanzer said that’s been delayed because the competing cities — Anaheim, Los Angeles and San Diego — continue to amend their offers. He now expects a decision within the next month. [The San Diego Union-Tribune]
- May 26, 2010 @ 07:31 AM by Kevin Melrose
John Cassaday redraws Superman #1 cover
J. Michael Straczynski’s first issue of Superman, issue #701, joins the list of comics that will feature classic DC covers redrawn by contemporary artists. However, unlike the covers unveiled so far, this one is the comic’s main cover, rather than a variant.
Check out the full cover after the jump.
- May 25, 2010 @ 03:00 PM by JK Parkin
Do you need to like a character to like the comic he’s in?
from Wilson by Daniel Clowes
“Likable characters are for weak-minded narcissists.” So says Daniel Clowes, the author of the recently released Wilson — and given that the book and its irascible protagonist have proven about as divisive as the Lost finale, his tongue may be only partially in cheek. The titular character in Clowes’s novel is a self-described people person who’s constantly decrying the way culture and technology fragment and divide society, but he does this in the nastiest and most insulting way possible to everyone he knows, leaving him no better off than the IT workers, superhero-blockbuster fans and so on he lambastes. He’s a tough character to like.
But does that mean Wilson is a tough book to like? Isn’t there such a thing as an unlikable character you love to read about nonetheless? Tim Hodler of Comics Comics says no and yes, respectively. In a post on the book, Hodler argues that the response to Wilson, particularly the negative response, has centered far too much on Wilson’s unlikability, ignoring the way other art forms have showcased jerks for centuries to memorable effect:
- May 25, 2010 @ 02:16 PM by Sean T. Collins
Marvel reveals ‘Iron Man By Design 2.0′ covers by del Carmen and Presing
Bill Presing's variant cover for "Iron Man: Legacy" #3
Marvel has unveiled two beautiful “Iron Man By Design 2.0″ variant covers by acclaimed animation storyboard artists Ronnie del Carmen and Bill Presing.
Del Carmen, who’s best known for his work for Disney/Pixar on Up, Finding Nemo, Ratatouille and WALL-E, sets Iron Man in the Old West in the variant cover for Invincible Iron Man #27. Presing, co-creator of the comic Rex Steele: Nazi Smasher and a storyboard artist on Up and Ratatouille, envisions the Golden Avenger as an aerial machine in World War II for Iron Man: Legacy #3.
Both comics are due in stores in July. See the full covers and solicitation text after the break.
- May 25, 2010 @ 01:37 PM by Kevin Melrose
That ol’ double standard
The Importance of Being Earnest, as seen on the iPad
At the Prism Comics website, Charles “Zan” Christensen takes a look at the maybe-we-will-maybe-we-won’t world of the Apple app store.
The iPad has been getting plenty of raves as a comics reader, and yet, as Jason Snell points out in his recent exhaustive look at the device’s comics capabilities, the technology may be great but the content is spotty, with some comics available for in-app purchases, others available only as single apps, and quite a few unavailable altogether.
Christensen’s story explores why that is, and it’s an important question. Remember, print comic distribution is already a near-monopoly, at least when it comes to comics stores, and with Diamond refusing to carry books that don’t reach a minimum number of orders, the market has become bleak indeed for new and niche publishers. Webcomics seemed like the logical alternative, but no one wants to pay for webcomics. But iPod/iPhone/iPad users have been trained from the beginning to pay for their content, so these are logical outlets, and Apple’s terms are actually quite good for publishers.
Except that Apple is being very selective about which comics it will carry, and that selectiveness seems to go not only to content but also to how large and established the publisher is. As Christensen points out, Apple shut down a swimsuit catalog app because it had pictures of women clad only in bathing suits but left Sports Illustrated alone.
- May 25, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by Brigid Alverson
The Lost-Northlanders connection revealed! (In my mind, at least)
From Northlanders #28, by Brian Wood and Leandro Fernandez
I concede that, like so many people, I’ve had Lost on my mind for the past couple of days. However, am I the only one who, upon seeing this lovely preview for Northlanders #28 by Brian Wood and Leandro Fernandez, instantly thought of the closing moments to Sunday’s series finale?
To prove I’m not totally crazy, I’ve included a couple of screencaps after the break. Isn’t it a little eerie? (The similarity, I mean, not my craziness.)
- May 25, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by Kevin Melrose