2010 August
Hope Larson talks comics
The past 15 years have brought about one of the strongest — and broadest — generations of new comic creators since the medium’s inception in the early 1900s. For that you can credit the groundswell acceptance of manga, the opening of doors to more genres thanks to the graphic novel format, and a generation of children brought up on comics, cartoons and countless other artistic entertainment. One of those is cartoonist Hope Larson.
Larson started out in comics during her junior year at Chicago’s School of the Art Institute, when renowned cartoonist Scott McCloud happened upon her personal art website and posted on his blog that she should be doing comics. Shortly after that, Lea Hernandez invited her to contribute a webcomic to girlamatic.com. Although Larson calls the comic she did there a failure, it put her on a path toward a career in comics. Hand-made minicomics soon followed, as well as stories in several anthologies including Flight. Her first full-length book, Salamander Dream (2005), was originally serialized as a webcomic. In the following years, she completed three more books, coming to the attention of book publishers and the wider young-adult market.
Following a move west from her native North Carolina with her husband, Larson resumed work on her biggest project yet: a graphic novel adaptation of Madeline L’Engle’s classic sci-fi novel A Wrinkle In Time. It’s Larson’s first adaptation, and one she chose out of love of the book; but while her drawing board might be full with the adaptation, her keyboard is keeping busy as she finishes the script of a new YA comic series, to be illustrated by Tintin Pantoja, that is her first attempt at a series, mixing the magical girl genre of manga with her own takeaway of superheroes.
- August 31, 2010 @ 04:30 PM by Chris Arrant
The Middle Ground #19: Hi Yo, Silver Lining
It was only a few weeks ago in this very space that I was complaining about Dynamite’s treatment of The Green Hornet, but this week, I guess, is the yang to that yin. Finally catching up on stacks and stacks of comics around me recently, you see, I remembered just how much I love their The Lone Ranger series.
There are so many reasons why that shouldn’t be the case. For one thing, I really don’t like westerns, as a matter of course. I don’t know if it’s a generational thing, or simply a stupid prejudice, but cowboys have always left me cold. Their outfits looked ridiculous, and their adventures dull: Why couldn’t they have had more outrageous enemies, or guns that shot lasers instead of bullets, I always thought in the back of my mind. What’s with this whole “…and Indians” thing? Isn’t that kind of racist? and so on, and so on.
- August 31, 2010 @ 03:30 PM by Graeme McMillan
Food or Comics? | This week’s comics on a budget
Avengers: The Children's Crusade #2
Welcome once again to Food or Comics?, where every week we talk about what comics we’d buy based on certain spending limits — $15, $30 to spend and if we had extra money to spend on what we call the “Splurge” item.
Join Brigid Alverson, Chris Mautner and me as we run down what we’d buy this week, and check out Diamond’s release list to play along in our comments section.
Kevin Melrose
If I had just $15 to spend, I’d pick up …
Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #2 ($3.99)
The second issue of the nine-issue miniseries reuniting Young Avengers creators Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung finds the teen heroes, the Avengers and the X-Men racing to discover the Scarlet Witch. This bimonthly schedule is going to excruciating. (Marvel)
I Am an Avenger #1 ($3.99)
I’m picking up this anthology miniseries on the strength of its creative teams. This issue, for instance, features Jim McCann and Chris Samnee on a Young Avengers story, Duane Swierczynski and Jason Latour on Iron Fist and Misty Knight, Alex Zalben and Tom Fowler on Squirrel Girl, and Chris Eliopoulos on the Pet Avengers. It’s hard to go wrong with that lineup. (Marvel)
- August 31, 2010 @ 02:07 PM by Kevin Melrose
Quote of the Day #2 | Scott Kurtz on Mark Waid vs. Sergio Aragonés
If you’re a member of an industry that let Dave Cockrum die in a VA hospital after helping give us most of the X-Men characters that comprised three blockbuster films and you get pissy about what Mark Waid said, then you deserve to remain on this sinking ship.
When Diamond Comics can’t make money despite being a monopoly, it’s time to start listening to people like Mark Waid.
Half of the people he delivered his speech to were over the age of 50, currently not working on a project in comics, and are most likely without health insurance, retirement or savings accounts.
Mark Waid had the audacity to warn a group of people he cares about, that nobody is putting the internet in a god damn DeLorean and driving it 88mph towards the twin pines mall. And for that he got dressed down by Santa Claus in front of his peers.
That’s how scared people are right now.
And the bottom line of it all is that in about 5 years, a lot of people are going to owe Mark Waid a fucking apology.
–PVP writer/artist and Harvey Awards emcee Scott Kurtz reacts with characteristic, shall we say, candor to Mark Waid’s keynote address on copyright and piracy and white-beardedGroo cartoonist Sergio Aragonés’ heatedly negative reaction thereto.
(via Joe Keatinge)
- August 31, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by Sean T. Collins
Set to Sea: It’s a wrap
Drew Weing has finished his nautical adventure Set to Sea, bringing the story neatly back around in a circle. Told in a series of beautifully drawn single panels, Weing’s comic is the story of a sea-loving poet who gets shanghaied and learns the real thing is rougher and yet more beautiful than he had imagined. Fantagraphics has published a lovely print volume, and Weing is selling the original panels as well. Each of these panels is a self-contained image in a nice size and format for framing, and Weing has a fine hand with the pen, so at $145 each, they are an extraordinary bargain. So go, read, and browse!
- August 31, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by Brigid Alverson
Terry Moore does SiP, Slave Leia-style!
One of the things I love most about conventions is the artists who visit and show off their sketchbooks and draw sketches for people. Even if you don’t attend the convention, you can follow artists’ blogs and see work they did during the con begin to trickle in. With last week’s Baltimore Comic-Con in the rear-view, that’s beginning to happen. Take, for example, Terry Moore, who did a phenomenal drawing of the girls from his Strangers in Paradise series dressed up as Slave Leia from Return of the Jedi.
You can view several additional pieces on his blog, including a Red Sonja and a piece he did for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund!
- August 31, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by Chris Arrant
Quote of the day | C.B. Cebulski hates handles
“Reminder to writers/artists, if you’re contacting editors about work in a professional capacity, please use your real name. When I get e-mails from people using nicknames [like] ‘Dark Spidey’ or ‘Elflord’ asking about submitting, it’s hard to take you seriously. Be smarter.”
– Marvel’s Senior Vice President, Creator & Content Development C.B. Cebulski, with another pearl of wisdom from his magic box of “how not to break into comics” tidbits. Protip: This applies to comment-thread posters, too. Just sayin’!
- August 31, 2010 @ 10:15 AM by Sean T. Collins
A first look at Jock’s cover for Daredevil: Reborn #1
Daredevil: Reborn #1, by Jock
Jock has unveiled his cover for Daredevil: Reborn #1, the four-issue miniseries set to debut in January following the conclusion of the “Shadowland” crossover and the end of the Daredevil monthly title. Announced Saturday at Fan Expo Canada, the miniseries, by writer Andy Diggle and artist Davide Gianfelice, is designed to rebuild Daredevil — who may or may not be Matt Murdock.
See the full cover after the break.
- August 31, 2010 @ 09:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
Diamond announces day-early delivery for comics
Day-early delivery
As expected, Diamond Comic Distributors announced this morning that, beginning in January, all direct-market retailers in North America and the United Kingdom will be able to receive comics on Tuesdays for sale on Wednesdays. Currently only the larger stores have the option of Tuesday delivery; most everyone else receives shipments on Wednesday morning.
Although Tuesday delivery has been bandied about for years, the proposition gained traction in April at the Diamond Retailer Summit at the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo. The distributor followed a request for a show of hands with a formal survey in which more than 52 percent of responding retailers said they would “benefit significantly” from day-early delivery.
During the presentation at the April summit, retailers were told that those who opt for Tuesday delivery will have to pay a $5-a-week charge to fund a mystery shopper program to help ensure Wednesday street dates aren’t broken. According to Heidi MacDonald, that is still under review.
Day-early delivery will take effect with shipments delivered on Jan. 11 for sale on Jan. 12. Read Diamond’s official announcement after the break:
- August 31, 2010 @ 09:05 AM by Kevin Melrose
Mark Crilley shows how it’s done
Dark Horse has had a number of process-oriented posts up on its site recently. Here’s the latest: Mark Crilley demonstrates how he draws Brody’s Ghost, from roughs to finals.
- August 31, 2010 @ 08:30 AM by Brigid Alverson
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Friends of Lulu
Organizations | Friends of Lulu, the comics advocacy group whose struggles have come to light in recent months, is in danger of losing its tax-exempt status as a charitable organization. Johanna Draper Carlson reports the 16-year-old group appears on the Internal Revenue Service’s “List of Organizations at Risk of Automatic Revocation of Tax-Exempt Status,” which includes organizations “for which the IRS does not have a record of a required annual filing for 2007 and 2008, and whose 2009 return, due on or after May 17 and before October 15, 2010, has not yet been received.” [Comics Worth Reading]
Publishing | One year ago today, Disney announced its intent to acquire Marvel Entertainment. James Hunt looks back at the purchase and its effects: “A year on, the content of Marvel’s books has seen no significant shift. It’s true that the year-long ‘Dark Reign’ meta-arc has recently given way to a more upbeat, optimistic ‘Heroic Age’ meta-arc, where heroes are heroes and villains are villains, but mature readers comics such as Punishermax, Deadpoolmax and, yes, the sequel to Kick-Ass are all still coming out. If Miramax could aim its product at adults from within Disney’s backyard, so, it seems, can Marvel.” [Den of Geek]
- August 31, 2010 @ 07:46 AM by Kevin Melrose
Talking Comics with Tim | Adam Hines
Duncan the Wonder Dog
Every once in awhile in the course of a year, a book gets my attention in a way that other books do not. Adam Hines‘ Duncan the Wonder Dog (coming out from AdHouse in September) is one of those books for 2010. I hope my gut instinct is right and that this book lands on many “best of” lists for 2010. Hines’ story challenged me immensely in terms of the questions I wanted to ask–and thankfully he indulged my abundance of queries . Here’s AdHouse’s description of the book: “What if animals could talk? Would some of them form a militant group in reaction to how humans treat them? Would humans treat them different? Come explore this dense tome of an alternate universe where the lavish renderings recall Dave McKean.” My thanks to AdHouse’s Chris Pitzer for allowing me to get an advance peek at the book.
Tim O’Shea: How and why did you come up with the iconic dialogue aspects early on?
Adam Hines: It was a solution to a problem. I wanted to show crowds of people talking, but without ascribing them any real character beyond their appearance and only giving the conversations’ general topics. It’s a nice little effect that can only be done in comics, and I thought a way to just fade into the world slowly, like hearing a conversation between two people far down a hall as you approach them.
- August 30, 2010 @ 03:30 PM by Tim O'Shea
Get Dharbin’ed!
By Dustin Harbin
The above is a pipin’ hot new strip from cartoonist Dustin Harbin. Harbin, who recently left his job working for Sheldon Drum’s Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find comic store and companion comic convention HeroesCon, has embarked on a full-time career in comics writing, drawing and lettering — the latter seen in the pages of the Marvel/Icon edition of Casanova. I hope this lands him a stint on Superman — seriously.
- August 30, 2010 @ 02:30 PM by Chris Arrant
Shootin’ from the Hipp: Dan Hipp wows with Western illustration
Illustration by Dan Hipp
This certainly isn’t the first time Dan Hipp has graced the pages of Robot 6 with his one-off illustrations, but now his rousing and relentless blog features a drawing of the so-called Harmonica from a Clint Eastwood Sergio Leone classic. Hipp has a habit of posting new artwork almost daily, spanning superheroes, Hayao Miyazaki and now Western movies. Earlier this year, Kevin Melrose spied some pages from an unpublished spaghetti Western that Hipp is also working on.
The postings will continue until Hipp is hip-deep in tall dollars. Be warned.
- August 30, 2010 @ 01:30 PM by Chris Arrant
Cartoonists for Criterion
Night of the Hunter, by Matt Kindt
Top-of-the-line DVD house the Criterion Collection is no stranger to comics. In addition to employing the likes of Adrian Tomine and Jaime Hernandez to draw covers for classic films from around the globe, they’ve also recently received rave reviews for their deluxe rerelease of Terry Zwigoff’s stranger-than-fiction documentary Crumb.
- August 30, 2010 @ 12:30 PM by Sean T. Collins