2010 August
Cathy hangs up her baggy sweats
Cathy Guisewhite is bringing her long-running newspaper comic Cathy to an end; the last strip will run on October 3. I’ll confess I haven’t read the strip in over a decade—my daily paper doesn’t carry it—and on those odd occasions when I do see it, it strikes me as being awfully stale. But back when I was young and single, Cathy was a comforting presence, someone with self-esteem issues, a couple of extra pounds, and hair with a mind of its own—just like me! I could start off each morning with a chuckle and the feeling that I wasn’t some sort of a freak, and particularly when you’re living in New York, that’s a valuable thing. I even tried to line up an interview with Cathy Guisewhite when I worked for a women’s magazine for a stretch, but for some reason it never came through.
Guisewhite has been drawing Cathy for 34 years, and it sounds like she’s tapped out creatively. She also has a teenage daughter which, I can testify from real life, is a strain on one’s time. And maybe, although she doesn’t say as much, she realizes the comic is in a rut and doesn’t want Cathy to become a zombie strip, running on in perpetuity long after the creative spark, and for that matter, the creator, is gone. So good for her for moving on and ending it on her own terms.
(Via Comics Worth Reading.)
- August 12, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Quote of the Day | Paolo Rivera on finishing ‘One Moment in Time’
“The image above comes from Amazing Spider-Man #33, 1 of 2 Spider-Man comics that happened to be in my household while growing up (thanks, Dad). Of course, it happened to be one of the greatest Spidey stories ever told, but how was I supposed to know? I couldn’t drive, and I spent what allowance I had on toys. Looking back on the issue now, it’s hard not to draw parallels between Spidey’s dedication and my own work ethic. My adolescent mind was in awe of Spidey’s resolve: he “rested” while being pummeled by Doc Ock’s henchmen in order to gather strength for the final fight. What? Mind: blown. People ask me how I can sit in my room for months on end (the “Bat Cave” and “Fortress of Solitude” comments are incessant). The answer is very simple: I love my job. It’s extremely challenging, but that’s the point. It makes finishing a project feel just like lifting tons of steel machinery off your back to reach the serum that will save your dying Aunt May. Love can give you power you didn’t know you had.”
–Artist Paolo Rivera, on completing his work on the Amazing Spider-Man: One Moment in Time storyline
- August 12, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Borders Group headquarters
Retailing | About a week after laying off 100 people in its Tennessee distribution center, Borders Group has cut an unspecified number of jobs from its corporate headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The company laid off 88 corporate workers in January following disappointing holiday sales. [AnnArbor.com]
Legal | Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter and state broadcaster Sveriges Television have been reported to the police for publishing “child porn” in the form cartoons. According to a news report, the illustrations (identified as manga) depict “two men having sex in the background, and one of an obviously under-age girl exposing herself to an older man who becomes so turned on that he suffers a nose bleed.” [The Local]
Legal | Robin Brenner attempts to put a recurring argument to rest by explaining why scanlation websites are not like libraries. [About.com]
- August 12, 2010 @ 08:25 AM by Kevin Melrose
Batman: Brave and the Bold comic gets rebooted this November
All-New Batman: Brave and the Bold #1
Remember when DC co-publisher Dan DiDio said last month that the kid’s line, which appeared to be ending when DC’s October solicitations were announced, weren’t really ending? I guess this is what he was talking about: Batman: Brave and the Bold is dead, long live All-New Batman: Brave and the Bold.
It’s a mouthful, sure, but DC’s comic tie-in to the Batman: Brave and the Bold series on the Cartoon Network isn’t ending, just getting a name change and a new first issue. Writer Sholly Fisch and artist Rick Burchett will chronicle the adventures of Batman and “an A-list cast of co-stars and surprise guests” starting in November, with Superman and Shazam! appearing in the first two issues.
Now when are we getting Billy Batson and the All-New Magic of Shazam! #1?
- August 12, 2010 @ 06:00 AM by JK Parkin
Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs | Should There Be an Intestine-Tripping Double Standard?
Face it, Tiger. You just ate the jackpot.
So last week Robert Kirkman made a statement that got some folks kind of riled up. Kevin already quoted the relevant bits, so I’ll just try to paraphrase it the way I understand it. Everyone remembers Kirkman’s controversial plea from a couple of years ago when he asked “top creators” to give up doing corporate-owned comics and concentrate on their own stuff, claiming that’s what it’ll take to save the comics industry.
At the time, I could sort of see what he was getting at, but disagreed with how he was getting there. If I understood him correctly, what he meant by “top creators” was older writers who are producing overly complex, dark stories that kids can’t connect to. The implication was that these top creators needed to move on to their own material and make room at Marvel and DC for new blood that – Kirkman assumes – will be better able to write the kinds of corporate-owned stories that kids want.
The problem with this was that he was dismissing the efforts that Marvel and DC were already making in that direction. He briefly mentioned Marvel Adventures – a much bigger endeavor in 2008 than it is in 2010, as was Johnny DC – and immediately blew it off it as an imprint that “talks down to kids” and said that “that’s not what kids want.” As a grown-up who loves Marvel and DC’s kids comics and the parent of a kid who loves them just as much, I beg to differ. And from all the stories I’ve heard from other comics-loving families, my son and I aren’t alone. I question if Kirkman had ever read a Marvel Adventures comic when he made that statement.
Guys like Jeff Parker, Paul Tobin, and Fred Van Lente were killing on those series two years ago and – no coincidence – they’re still killing on the “regular” series they’re currently writing for Marvel. The issue isn’t the age of the writers or whether they’re a “top creator;” it’s the kind of stories they’re telling. There’s a lot more causing the failure of Marvel Adventures and Johnny DC to thrive in the Direct Market than just “kids don’t like them.” In fact, since I know that kids do like them, I’m pretty sure we can eliminate that as a cause altogether. Far more relevant to the discussion is whether or not parents are willing to buy them for their kids, and there are all sorts of pieces we need to look at in preparation for that discussion. My point is that it’s going to take a lot more than new blood at Marvel and DC to fix what’s wrong with their comics. Which brings us to Kirkman’s comments this week.
After the break: Image vs. Marvel over who gets to keep the kids grown-ups.
- August 11, 2010 @ 09:13 PM by Michael May
Captain Britain, Warrior’s Three guest star in Thor, The Mighty Avenger #4
Marvel has provided a preview of Thor, The Mighty Avenger #4 by Roger Langridge and Chris Samnee … which gives me an excuse to link to Tim’s recent interview with Samnee. The issue features Thor and the Warrior’s Three meeting up with Captain Britain in the traditional way that heroes usually meet in comics (i.e. Fight!)
You can check out the preview and info on the book after the jump …
- August 11, 2010 @ 03:30 PM by JK Parkin
Scott Pilgrim trailer gets graphic
This is pretty clever … YouTube user theMrblonde2010 has taken one of the Scott Pilgrim vs. The World movie trailers and replaced the scenes in it with panels from the graphic novels.
“This is a recreation of the Scott Pilgrim vs. the World Theatrical Trailer. I used images from the Scott Pilgrim graphic novel and matched the trailer as best I could. Also you may see things here that differ from the trailer and that is because there are things in the movie that arent in the graphic novel and vice versa,” he writes. But judging just by what’s seen here, there aren’t that many difference in the dialogue.
- August 11, 2010 @ 03:00 PM by JK Parkin
Send Us Your Shelf Porn!
Welcome to another edition of our long-running and always fun Shelf Porn feature, where we ask fans to show us their collections.
Today’s shelves come from Connie, who shares her collection of manga, graphic novels, figures and more. If you’d like to have your shelves featured in a future column, you can send your pictures and write-up to me at jkparkin@yahoo.com.
And now here’s Connie …
- August 11, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by JK Parkin
Paquette’s cover to Batman Inc. #1
Yesterday brought the first look at the first issue covers for the Batman: The Return miniseries and the ongoing Batman: The Dark Knight, both of which kick off this fall. And today brings the first issue cover for Batman Inc., the ongoing by Grant Morrison and Yanick Paquette:
Baman Inc. #1
- August 11, 2010 @ 01:01 PM by JK Parkin
Todd Klein designs dapper cover for Return of the Dapper Men
Return of the Dapper Men
We already know that Todd Klein is an award-winning letterer for all sorts of comics, and if you’ve been following along, you also know that he’s worked with various writers and artists to design some really awesome prints. So it’s no surprise that he designed the cover for writer Jim McCann and artist Janet Lee’s upcoming graphic novel, Return of the Dapper Men. The book is due from Archaia in November.
“Having a master designer like Todd Klein on board Team Dapper is a great honor,” said Archaia Editor-in-Chief Stephen Christy in a press release. “I’ve been talking for months about how special this book is, and how much fun it is as an editor to be working on a fairy tale entirely unlike anything seen in comics before. With Todd joining creators Jim McCann and Janet Lee as we bring Dapper down the homestretch to publication, I can promise readers that this is one of those instances where the quality and artistry of this book lives up to the hype!”
- August 11, 2010 @ 12:30 PM by JK Parkin
Life With Archie magazine released
If you only read one review today, make it Chris Sims’s appraisal of Life With Archie, the new magazine that carries dual storylines about Archie’s marriage to Veronica and to Betty, respectively. I really didn’t know what to expect from the magazine (I still haven’t seen a copy), and Sims says it’s an odd juxtaposition of Justin Beiber pix and adult melodrama:
I’ve joked before that a comic that was really about “Mature Themes” wouldn’t have swearing and sex and violence and other stuff teenagers like, it’d be about a guy who was really dissatisfied with his job and worried that he’d made the wrong choices and become a failure in his life while slowly growing more isolated from the people he once called friends. And that is exactly what this comic is about.
He puts it into context (like me, Sims is a huge, unashamed Archie fan) and teases out some of the subtleties of the stories, including the ways in which Michael Uslan and artist Norm Breyfogle seem to be bringing some of their superhero sensibility and story devices into the comic. Who knew Dilton Doiley could end up being the key to it all?
- August 11, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by Brigid Alverson
Milligan and McKeever’s The Extremist resurrected at Vertigo
Following last month’s announcement that they’re planning to release older material under the “Vertigo Resurrected” banner, DC’s Vertigo imprint announced today that Peter Milligan and Ted McKeever’s 1993 miniseries The Extremist will return to print in November. Unlike the first Vertigo Resurrected title — Warren Ellis and Phil Jimenez’s “Shoot” that was originally intended to be published as Hellblazer #141 — The Extremist was published, but I don’t think it has ever been collected in trade paperback form.
According to the Graphic Content blog, the book is about “three ordinary people who succumb to the allure of a mask and a costume and all the power that comes with it, creating a shocking and controversial exploration of the nature of freedom and sexuality.” Greg Burgas at Comics Should Be Good! has a great overview of the series here.
- August 11, 2010 @ 11:30 AM by JK Parkin
Del Rey: We’re still making manga
Nodame no more?
Viz and Tokyopop may be bigger, but Del Rey manga has always been the prestige manga publisher, the home of smart, mature titles like Love Roma, Mushishi, and Nodame Cantabile, as well as solid genre favorites like Kitchen Princess (arguably the shoujo-est shoujo manga ever), Air Gear, Negima, and Basilisk. Sure, there was the occasional dud, but overall their line was strong, their production values were high, and the translations didn’t insult your intelligence.
Lately, though, things seem to have slowed down over at the Del Rey shop. Ali Kokmen, their affable and well-liked marketing director, was let go. Their website got swallowed up by a generic graphic-novel website run by parent company Random House; their old site got everything I talked about in yesterday’s post right, and the new one gets everything wrong. And a reader who pre-ordered volumes of Nodame Cantabile and Gakuen Prince got this e-mail recently:
Volumes 17 and 18 of “Nodame Cantabile” have been cancelled prior to publication, as have volumes 4 and 5 of “Gakuen Prince.” We have no additional information available as to why this may have occurred. At the present time there are no upcoming releases scheduled for either series within the next 12 months.
Comments at the site indicate that another series, Pumpkin Scissors has also been canceled (although in the word of comics retailing, “canceled” may simply mean postponed).
Is Random House is washing its hands of manga? I e-mailed Del Rey associate publisher Dallas Middaugh and asked some pointed questions; here is his answer:
- August 11, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Kevin is out sick today, so I’m filling in on Comics A.M. … apologies for the lateness.
Viz Media
Publishers | Viz Senior Vice President and General Manager Alvin Lu discusses the state of the company after the layoffs that occurred in May, as well as the overall manga market. “We continue to get great support from our retail partners. They do see that these very popular series continue to do well. They are getting up there in the 40s and 50s of the volume count, and there is the challenge of bringing in newer readers, to catch them up. I was looking though a calendar from several years ago when we were looking at Bleach Vol. 5 or something. That is a conversation we’ve been having with the bookstores, and they’re being very responsive on how to work with us, to continue to drive the category. They’ve been very supportive of helping us launch new series as well. So it’s a balancing act of getting the space to launch new series while nurturing the more mature series that continue to enjoy a loyal readership.” [ICv2]
Events | Brian Heater from the Daily Cross Hatch and Sarah Morean from Blog Chicka Blog Blog have declared Aug. 28 “International Read Comics in Public” Day. They’ve started a blog that features, as you might guess, people reading comics in public. [Daily Cross Hatch]
- August 11, 2010 @ 10:26 AM by JK Parkin
Viper nabs Inspector Gadget, Johnny Test
Inspector Gadget
Viper Comics, publisher of the Middleman comics and Dead@17 before it moved to Image, announced yesterday that they have picked up the licenses to produce graphic novels based on two animated series, Inspector Gadget and Johnny Test. From the press release:
Jessie Garza with Viper states, “We’re ecstatic to have been granted the opportunity to give both of these characters the comic treatment. These are two awesome properties to add to our line-up of recently acquired license (Odd Rods).”
Inspector Gadget is a semi-bionic detective who is the cartoon descendant of Inspector Clouseau and Maxwell Smart; the live-action movie came out last year. Johnny Test is a normal 11-year-old boy who frequently serves as an experimental subjet for his super-genius 13-year-old twin sisters; the animated cartoon runs on Cartoon Network. Both graphic novels are due out in 2011.
- August 11, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by Brigid Alverson