2010 August
The Middle Ground #18: From Point A To Point B
Somewhere along the way, I realized that I liked creators more than I liked characters. It’s not a revelation for the rest of you, of course – Or, at least, it shouldn’t be – but I remember, back in the late ’80s, early ’90s, realizing that seeing the names of certain creators (Mostly writers, although even earlier, I can remember thinking that John Byrne’s X-Men was somehow more enjoyable than Dave Cockrum’s) on the cover of a book almost guaranteed something approaching quality, and thinking “Does this mean I’m a snob?”
- August 24, 2010 @ 02:30 PM by Graeme McMillan
Talking Comics with Tim | Stuart Moore, Part II
Namor: The First Mutant 1
In the first part of my interview with Stuart Moore we covered the editorial phase of his career. In this second part, Moore and I discuss the freelance writing phase, which began in 2002. As part of this discussion, we discuss his plans for the new Namor: The First Mutant (previewed here by CBR and launching this Wednesday, August 25); Spider-Man: Back in Quack (A Howard the Duck-connected one-shot coming out September 15); his creator-owned collaboration with artist Jon Proctor, Shadrach Stone (also coming out on September 15 [Penny Farthing Press]); and his role as co-writer of the six-part JLA/The 99 miniseries (which launches on October 27) .
Tim O’Shea: Was there any one catalyst (or a number of factors) that prompted you to step fully into the freelance world and focus on your own writing in 2002?
Stuart Moore: It just seemed like the right time. I’d worked on a lot of really interesting projects, very fast, at Marvel, and the deal for PARA (at Penny-Farthing Press) came together. I decided if I was ever going to make a go of it as a writer, it should be now.
O’Shea: How did your projects at Penny-Farthing Press (including Para and Zendra) come to pass?
Moore: I first made contact with Penny-Farthing, a long time ago, when I was involved in the startup of a dot-com-style comics company that never fully came together. I really like the people who run Penny-Farthing; they’re very straightforward and honest, and they do beautiful production work. ZENDRA was a project created by two artists, and they needed someone to come in, flesh out the basic story, and write the scripts. A couple of years later I pitched PARA to them and they liked it, and that led, more recently, to SHADRACH STONE.
- August 24, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by Tim O'Shea
You, too, can own the (in)complete Battle Chasers — for just $10 an issue!
Battle Chasers Anthology
Battle Chasers combined elements of fantasy, steampunk and science fiction with creator Joe Madureira’s artistic energy and audience appeal to create one of the most popular series of the late 1990s. But it was plagued by now-legendary scheduling delays, including a 16-month lag between issues 6 and 7, before the title faded away in September 2001 with Issue 9. The 10th issue, which presumably would have resolved the story’s cliffhanger, was never released.
Madureira, much to the consternation of his fans, drifted from the comics industry to pursue a career as a video-game designer, finally returning in 2007 to illustrate Marvel’s The Ultimates 3.
But what was that about Battle Chasers? Glad you asked, because Image Comics’ November solicitations, released today, feature a listing for the Battle Chasers Anthology hardcover — not The Complete Battle Chasers or the Battle Chasers Omnibus — which collects “every issue ever published of one of the most beloved comic book series of all time.” Whether it is, indeed, one of the most beloved comics of all times is obviously debatable. The hardcover does, however, collect “every issue ever published” of Battle Chasers: issues 0 through 9. So there’s that. Unfortunately, the 10th issue was never released.
Here’s the real sticking point, though: The 340-page hardcover is priced at a whopping $100, or $10 per issue for a series that was never completed; $150 for the signed and numbered limited edition. Sure, there are never-before-seen sketches and additional artwork, but still — $100 for a story that was never completed? Yikes.
- August 24, 2010 @ 01:15 PM by Kevin Melrose
Kickstart my art | Kenny Keil’s Tales to Suffice
Tales to Suffice
A couple of years ago SLG Publishing released the first issue of Tales to Suffice, a fun anthology featuring corporate zombies, lazy superheroes and fake ads by creator Kenny Keil. The book stalled after the first issue came out, but Keil kept creating material … and now he’s using Kickstarter to raise funds to print a collection that’ll include that first issue plus a couple issues worth of new stuff he’s created since then.
“What I’d like to do through Kickstarter is essentially use it as a pre-order system to help fund the publication of GIANT-SIZED TALES TO SUFFICE, a 120-page, full color collection of the entire 3-issue series (plus some extras),” he said on the fund-raising site. “The content itself is 99% finished (At the moment I’m still working on a cover design), but what I need help with is covering the printing costs. I figure what better way to raise those funds than to just go ahead and pre-sell the book?”
Keil is offering several different reward levels based on how much folks donate, from PDF copies of the book to signed editions of the eventual print edition. Go check it out.
- August 24, 2010 @ 12:30 PM by JK Parkin
‘Mechanical difficulties’ cause delays at Diamond’s LA warehouse
Diamond Comic Distributors
Diamond Comic Distributors has notified retailers served by its Los Angeles warehouse that, “due to mechanical difficulties experienced in transit,” 31 items scheduled for release on Wednesday will be delayed until next week.
The comics are:
Marvel
The Amazing Spider-Man #638 (2nd printing variant)
Captain America in the 1940s Newspaper Strip #3
Dream Logic #2
The Essential Hulk, Vol. 6
The Heroic Age: Prince of Power #4
Namor: The First Mutant #1
Namor: The First Mutant #1 (Quesada sketch variant)
Namor: The First Mutant #1 (Quesada variant)
Punisher MAX: Happy Ending #1
Scarlet #1 (2nd printing-Maleev variant)
Shadowland: Moon Knight #1
Spider-Girl: The End #1
Thanos Imperative #2 (2nd printing-Sepulveda variant)
- August 24, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by Kevin Melrose
Start reading now: The Hero Business
The Hero Business, by Bill Walko, is a fun take on the superheroes-as-business genre. The Hero Business is a full-service agency providing advising, costume design, and other services to superheroes, told from the point of view of Parker Jameson, the new receptionist. The comic mixes up familiar characters and some fresh jokes, and the clean, easy to follow art style makes it work nicely as a gag strip as well as a continuing story. The first story arc has just wrapped up, so it’s a good time to jump in and start reading.
- August 24, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Quote of the day | Gareb Shamus, on WW Chicago’s dearth of publishers
Gareb Shamus
“When it comes to the comics industry, we invite the comics industry. You can ask them why they may or may not go to shows, but at the end of the day, we bring the fans. The fans come here because they want to be part of our experience […] and we create a very compelling experience for people, as you can see […] we have a lot of celebrities and a lot of TV stars.”
– Wizard Entertainment CEO Gareb Shamus, addressing the absence of most major comics publishers from this year’s Wizard World Chicago Comic Con
- August 24, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Scott McCloud defends (some) motion comics
It's a comic about drinking, OK?
Scott McCloud has posted an example of an animated comic, Vincent Giard’s bol, that works pretty well, along with a brief explanation of how motion comics can work:
The best way I’ve come up with to explain it is that looping animation (and sound, for that matter) still communicate a static span of time. If panel 2 clearly comes after panel 1 and before panel 3, it still feels like comics, even if panel 2 is a short loop of some sort.
It’s a good point, and in this case, the motion gets more and then less pronounced as the comic goes along, so there is a progression to it. Scott says,
The point isn’t whether or not we want to give it a particular label or not, but whether a given comic works as storytelling. Does it feel whole? Can we lose ourselves in the reality of the strip? And in this case, I’d say yes.
I agree that the animation fits the story, but looking a the comic as a whole is a bit like trying to read a comic printed on a bowl of Jell-O.
- August 24, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
‘Our goal is to hold the prices as low as possible,’ DiDio says
Dan DiDio
In an interview with ICv2.com, DC Comics Co-Publishers Dan DiDio and Jim Lee touch upon a wide range of topics, from the end of the CMX manga imprint to their digital plans to the company’s management transition. However, it’s the discussion of cover pricing, and retailer concern about the creep toward $3.99, that may be of most interest to budget-minded readers.
“Only 25% of our line is over $2.99,” DiDio tells the retail news and analysis site. “For the amount of books that we put out, the amount of product we have out there, to be over $2.99 for just 25% I think is a good, strong indication of how we’re dedicated to try to keep the prices down. [...] We’re trying to hold the price as much as possible.”
He notes, however, that readers are “willing to pay the higher price for books that they want.”
“They seem to be a little more cautious about the books that are higher priced that they’re on the fence about,” DiDio continued. “We’re well aware of that. Our goal is to hold the prices as low as possible. We don’t see our line getting to the point where our competition is at where so much of their line right now is higher than a $2.99 price point.”
You can read the full three-part interview beginning here.
- August 24, 2010 @ 07:47 AM by Kevin Melrose
Frank Miller directed a Gucci ad
Please just sit back a moment and let that sink in. Frank Miller directed a Gucci ad. Frank “Goddamn Batman” Miller. I’m not sure when the timeline we’re all currently experiencing diverged from the real one, but I’m sure as shootin’ glad it did.
And oh yeah, that’s Chris “Johnny Storm/Captain America” Evans and Evan Rachel “True Blood/Vampire Queen of Louisiana” Wood making out in it, to the tune of Friendly Fires covering “Strangelove” by Depeche Mode. What a wonderful world.
(via John Barber)
- August 24, 2010 @ 06:00 AM by Sean T. Collins
Walking Dead “No Way Out” teaser
Walking Dead teaser
Image Comics sent over the following teaser for The Walking Dead, with no explanation beyond what’s noted in the image itself … so make of it what you will.
- August 24, 2010 @ 05:00 AM by JK Parkin
Talking Comics with Tim | Stuart Moore, Part I
Namor: The First Mutant #1
Stuart Moore is a writer I’ve known and interviewed for a number of years. In the past, we’ve typically focused on near-term/upcoming project discussions in our interviews. But more recently, for nearly a year, he and I have been working on a series of email interviews trying to cover the scope of his career to date. This process started in mid-2009. Moore and I realized earlier this summer it would be best to get this interview finalized on the eve of Namor: The First Mutant 1′s release (which comes out from Marvel this Wednesday, August 25) . My thanks to Stuart for his time and patience on this fun and hopefully thorough examination of his work. The first installment of this two-part interview will focus upon his work as an editor. Tomorrow, in our second part, we will focus on his freelance writing. (My thanks also to fellow Robot 6er Tom Bondurant for giving me some feedback on the early stages of this interview and suggesting a question of his own.)
Tim O’Shea: You got your start at St. Martin’s Press, back in the mid-1980s, how did you get that job?
Stuart Moore: I graduated from college, not sure of what I wanted to do. Spent the summer in California, then came back east and started looking for a job. Book publishing at that point was very partial to Ivy League graduates — probably still is — so I got the referral through Princeton’s career services center. I worked for about 2 ½ years as assistant to a brilliant woman who edited craft guides, child care titles, and etiquette books. It wasn’t exactly my field, but to this day I still know that you say “Congratulations” to a groom and “Best wishes” to the bride.
- August 23, 2010 @ 03:00 PM by Tim O'Shea
Chew #13 second printing continues the Quentin Tarantino homages
Last week Chew #13 hit the stands with a pretty awesome Pulp Fiction homage cover … and subsequently sold out. With that issue getting a second printing, Rob Guillory pays tribute to another classic Tarantino film:
Chew #13 Second Printing
Now all we need is a third printing, as I’m sure there’s a fun Inglourious Basterds homage in Guillory’s head as well …
- August 23, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by JK Parkin
Big savings on Side A and Side B
In a story that is becoming depressingly familiar in the comics world, Rachel Dukes and Mike Lopez, the creative force behind Poseur Ink, are having a family emergency and need to sell off all their copies of their music-themed comics anthologies Side A and Side B.
Right now Side A, which includes work by Sean Azzopardi and Julia Wertz, is just five bucks, while Side B, with a cover by Lucy Knisley and comics by Knisley, Box Brown, Jeffrey Brown, Brandon Graham and Mitch Clem, among others, is $11.99. (Here’s a review, and Johanna Draper Carlson, who picked it up at MoCCA, said “So far, the best anthology I’ve seen all year.”)
Dukes says the books won’t be reprinted. Details on the liquidation sale are here.
- August 23, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by Brigid Alverson
Color commentary
Alec Longstreth, the colorist for The Unsinkable Walker Bean, is showing off his color schemes for the different characters at the First Second blog. The book, by Aaron Renier, tells the story of a boy who sets out to sea on a magical errand and winds up on a pirate ship. The story has a large cast, and it’s interesting to learn that Renier has background material on all the characters, even those who only have cameos. He also sent reference photos to Longstreth, who gave each character a unique set of colors. At the blog Longstreth shows off his reference sheet as well as a few examples of the finished work. This book is chock full of characters and detail, and this sort of consistency makes it much easier for the reader to follow.
- August 23, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by Brigid Alverson