2010 September
Tell Tom Brevoort what you think of Marvel’s event comics
Tom Brevoort
Tom Brevoort has a question for you. During his regularly scheduled “Marvel T&A” Q&A alongside fellow Vice President-Executive Editor Axel Alonso, the outspoken editor wondered aloud whether Marvel’s new model for event comics — several smaller ones spread throughout various franchise families rather than one massive line-wide mega-story — was being received by the readership as Marvel had intended. So he decided to take it straight to the source and ask the readers what they think:
There’s one thing I want to ask the readership before we wrap things up this week. At the Baltimore show I held the “Marvel: Your Universe” panel on Sunday, which is our casual conversation panel where we solicit feedback to see what our fans are thinking and feeling about our stuff. And one of the things I came away from that panel with was that a great number of our fans seem to feel that, rather than doing fewer events, we’re doing nothing BUT events. From my point of view – and I don’t think Axel feels any differently – we shifted away from the model of doing one massive, concentrated event as we moved from SIEGE into The Heroic Age, with the idea of making every individual title its own event. And in some cases, every little subgroup forms its own event that’s a little smaller, a little easier to digest and a little easier for fans to get their teeth around. But at least judging by the casual reaction I got in Baltimore, the message they’re picking up from that is “Oh my God! There are events everywhere! I can’t read anything!”
So I’m curious as to what people are thinking about “Second Coming” and “Shadowland” and “Chaos War” coming up, or “Three” and the first arc of “Avengers” – all these smaller so-called events that we’re doing. We’ve very specifically stayed away since the end of “Siege” from doing any one, big, massive event. And yet, that doesn’t seem to be the message people are taking away from us. So I’d like to get a sense as to how people are feeling about what we’re doing right now – what they like, what they don’t like and how we could be doing things better.
Well, Robot 6 readers, what say you? How is Marvel handling its events and crossovers, and how is it affecting your enjoyment of the books, your budget, or both? Let us — and Brevoort — know in the comments below.
- September 13, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by Sean T. Collins
Winners announced for 2010 Ignatz Awards
Ignatz Awards
The winners of the 14th annual Ignatz Awards were announced Saturday during the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Maryland.
Named for the character in George Herriman’s classic comic strip Krazy Kat, the Ignatz Awards are a festival prize recognizing outstanding achievement in comics and cartooning. SPX attendees vote on nominees selected by a panel of five cartoonists (this year the jury members were Anders Nilsen, David Kelly, Rob G, Joshua Cotter and Trevor Alixopulos).
The winners of the 2010 Ignatz Awards are:
- September 13, 2010 @ 08:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Frank Santoro contributes Silver Surfer story to Strange Tales II
Silver Surfer by Frank Santoro
Our own Sean T. Collins interviewed Cold Heat creator Frank Santoro about his story in the upcoming sequel to Marvel’s Strange Tales anthology for Marvel.com, and with it came the above artwork. As you can see, Santoro did an airbrushed Silver Surfer story, which is included in the book’s first issue, due in shops Oct. 6.
- September 13, 2010 @ 07:00 AM by JK Parkin
What Are You Reading?
Blood's a Rover
Hello and welcome once again to What Are You Reading?, where the Robot 6 crew talk about the comics and graphic novels that they’ve been enjoying lately. Our special guest this week is comics journalist and critic Dirk Deppey of Journalista and The Comics Journal fame.
To see what Dirk and the Robot 6 crew have been reading lately, read on …
- September 12, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by JK Parkin
Preview: Thor, the Mighty Avenger #5
Marvel sent over a preview of Thor: The Mighty Avenger #5, which arrives in shops this October. The book features the son of Odin taking on Namor, the Sub-Mariner, and is written by Roger Langridge with art by Chris Samnee. You’ll find more info on the book and the rest of the preview after the jump.
- September 11, 2010 @ 07:00 AM by JK Parkin
The Fifth Color | Are You Strong Enough to be My Spider-Man?
I'd Drink Too.
You can love someone, but not be “in love” with them. Divorce rates in the United States will tell you that people can enter into marriage and then learn it’s not for them. I don’t think any of them will tell you that they split because of demographics.
Peter Parker did. He stopped being married due to an editorial decision that was made to make him appeal to a larger demographic and, as much as it pains me to say it, Joe Quesada was right.
Give me a minute, that was hard to say.
Joe Quesada was right because an unmarried person will, in this day and age, appeal to a larger audience by pure numbers. Emotional attachments to characters and years of storytelling, continuity and respect aside, yeah. It’s true. Spider-Man should fit in the “all ages” group that can entertain young and old, married and unmarried alike. Technically, more people can relate to being unmarried than being married. And while people have debated this technicality, the bottom line at the end of the day is Joe Quesada was and is editor-in-chief and was looking at a bigger picture than we, the fans. Quesada was looking at dollars, longevity and demographics. We just saw Peter Parker.
(WARNING: One Moment in Time Spoilers and Sadness inside. Grab a copy of Amazing Spider-Man #638 through #640 and read along! And then go visit CuteOverload because this isn’t pretty.)
- September 10, 2010 @ 03:00 PM by Carla Hoffman
Kickstart My Art | Ron Roach’s Armageddonquest
Armageddonquest
I vaguely remember reading about Armageddonquest back in the 1990s when it was published by Sirius Comics. The 900-page graphic novel by creator Ron Roach chronicles the life of the Anti-Christ from birth to Armageddon. “And in this story, the Anti-Christ is the good guy.” The book has received accolades from Scott McCloud and Warren Ellis, among others.
“AQ saw its first few chapters published by Starhead Comix in the 1980′s before the whole story was spotted, snatched up, and published in three 300-page volumes by Sirius Comics between 1996-1998,” Roach said in a press release. “Unfortunately, this was smack in the middle of the comic industry’s implosion during the mid-to-late 90′s. Armageddonquest was largely overlooked, and has since faded into obscurity. Tragic, I know. Now I’m hoping to achieve something I’ve always wanted to do: put the whole thing into a single giant-sized volume.”
Roach has teamed up with literary agency Killing the Grizzly and is using Kickstarter to bring the graphic novel back into print. If funding is successful, the new volume will feature a cover by Thomas Scioli and Bill Crabtree of Godland fame; design by Ronnie Casson, who did Viz’s Cat-Eye Boy volumes; and printing by Malloy, who did Bone: The One Volume Edition.
“If we can raise a minimum of $8500 we can reprint the first 1/3rd of AQ in this new edition, make it a ‘Volume 1 (of 3)’ kind of thing,” Roach said. “But if we can achieve the wild goal of raising $17,000 we can fit the whole 900-page monstrosity, plus bonus material, into a single ‘One Volume Edition’ a la BONE – the way it was always meant to be read. Either way, my hat’s off to anyone who helps us achieve even a stepping stone toward putting these comix back into readers’ hands, whatever the page count.”
Roach is offering various incentives to his Kickstarter supporters, from digital copies of the book all the way up to getting yourself drawn into a story. Head over there to see additional art and get more details on the project.
- September 10, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by JK Parkin
Help Ohio teens read comics in school
Back in March we featured Ohio teacher Chris Pearce in our weekly Shelf Porn column, as he shared pictures of the comic book and graphic novel lending library he’s been putting together for his classroom.
Now Pearce’s classroom is in the running for Sonic Drive-In’s Limeades for Learning fundraising campaign, where he has four different projects related to reading, including one that will help expand his graphic novel lending library.
“I’m really passionate about building up my classroom’s lending library- I feel it’s a sorely overlooked aspect of most high school classrooms and in the past year I’ve had great success in finding new ways to get exciting, interesting books to my students,” he wrote on his blog. “I’m hoping to use Limeades for Learning to fund at least one of four projects, including a set of music-themed books, a set of spooky horror themed books, an expansion of my classroom’s graphic novel lending library, and one general reading project.”
He gives instructions on how to vote for his projects on his blog. And now I’m really craving some Ocean Water from Sonic …
- September 10, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by JK Parkin
Use your Ralphs card to benefit the Hero Initiative
The Hero Initiative
One of the many ways the Hero Initiative, the nonprofit that helps comic creators in need, raises money is through the Ralphs Reward Card charity program. The grocery store chain runs a program where you can attach an approved charity to your Ralphs Reward Card, and a small percentage of your purchases goes to the charity, courtesy of Ralphs.
Every September, Ralphs resets the cards, so basically if you’ve signed up for the Hero Initiative in years past, you’ll need to do it again. You can find instructions on how to sign up on the Hero Initiative’s blog.
“Seriously, folks, if you do this once, we get a few nickels every time you shop, and multiplied by a San Diego Comic-Con full of people, it’s the best, easiest way we’ve found to raise funds,”writes Jim McLauchlin. “Totally painless. And hot dammit, you need bologna and Q-Tips anyway!”
- September 10, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
Comics economics
Marc Bernabe has posted a short video of Japanese creator Shuho Sato discussing (with subtitles) why he chose to publish his comics online. That may not seem like much of a jump to American readers, but as Bernabe explains in the accompanying blog post, manga creators don’t routinely include digital rights in their publishing contracts, so they can cut a deal for digital distribution that leaves the original publisher out of the loop. What this means is that publishers have little incentive to go digital.
Sato, the creator of Say Hello to Black Jack, blogged a bit last year about the economics of making manga, and Canned Dogs translated the posts here and here. Continue Reading »
- September 10, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Gendered or genred?
A quick guide to shoujo manga from Even a Monkey Can Draw Manga
There’s a big’ discussion going on right now in the manga half of the comics blogosphere about shoujo manga not getting any respect. One of the triggers was Melinda Beasi’s piece on Twilight and the Plight of the Female Fan at The Hooded Utilitarian and the other was Christopher Mautner’s review of Moto Hagio’s A Drunken Dream and Other Stories right here at Robot 6. Melinda’s thesis is that shoujo manga gets no respect, even from women, because we’re embarrassed about reading something so overtly gendered, and that if we want to be taken seriously, we need to take some pride in our comics. In a column at The Manga Curmudgeon, David Welsh singles out Chris’s review as an example of someone basically saying “this book is good despite the fact that it is shoujo manga”:
“Dream, on the other hand, has both feet firmly planted in the world of shojo manga. The ten tales that make up this book all consist of overly sincere, heart-on-the-sleeve-style work. There’s very little ironic distancing and self-effacing humor here, although it does peep its head out occasionally. Mostly though, that’s been ignored in favor of heightened melodrama and earnest heart-tugging. While it avoids the sort of contrived, romantic, situation-comedy type plots that mark a lot of the shojo manga that has been translated into English over the past decade, there can be little doubt that Dream has more in common with Fruits Basket and Boys Over Flowers than Red Colored Elegy or Abandon the Old in Tokyo.”
And then Melinda chimes back in at her blog, pointing out that people who drop Fruits Basket and Boys Over Flowers in the same bucket are ignoring the fact that they are totally different books.
Except… they aren’t, and that gets to the heart of the matter. Continue Reading »
- September 10, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Apple
Digital comics | Following more than two years of complaints, Apple has given developers the guidelines it uses to determine which programs can be sold through its App Store, and relaxed some restrictions on content and tools. The company recently was criticized for forcing the creators of a comic adaptation of James Joyce’s Ulysses to remove nonsexual nudity from some panels — Apple later changed its stance — and for initially rejecting an app from Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Mark Fiore because his animated political satire contained “content that ridicules public figures.” Alan Gardner notes that the revised guidelines specifically exempt “professional political satirists and humorists” from a clause prohibiting defamatory or offensive material. [The Associated Press]
Comic strips | After 60 years with United Feature Syndicate, Peanuts will move in February to Universal Uclick. The news isn’t totally unexpected, as Iconix Brand Group partnered with the heirs of Charles M. Schulz in April to buy the rights to the comic strip from United’s parent company E.W. Scripps. The $175 million deal was for the entire United Media Licensing division, which includes Dilbert. [Comic Riffs]
- September 10, 2010 @ 09:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
First look at Green Goblin, other designs from Spider-Man musical
Green Goblin design from "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark"
It’s taking ABC a long time to upload video of Reeve Carney lip-syncing performing the Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark anthem “The Boy Falls From the Sky” from the closing minutes of Good Morning America. But the website has posted the interview with director Julie Taymor and U2′s Bono and the Edge that features a first look at the costume designs for Green Goblin and a new villain, Swiss Miss — she’s made of Swiss Army knives, Taymor says — and the “pop-up” sets for a New York cityscape and the Brooklyn Bridge. They’re really, um, something.
With its estimated budget of $52 million, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark is expected to be the most expensive musical in Broadway history. Previews are set to begin on Nov. 14 at the Foxwoods Theatre in Manhattan, following by an opening on Dec. 21.
You can check out the screencaps after the break. I’ll post video of Carney’s performance when a decent version becomes available.
- September 10, 2010 @ 08:12 AM by Kevin Melrose
Grumpy Old Fan | Like the feel of your favorite leisure suit
Neal Adams covers the 1976 DC calendar
A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned The Comics Reporter’s excellent list of “emblematic” ‘70s comics, and how I’d like to put together something similar. Thus, with help from the timeline at comics.org, I started putting together a short list of significant creators, books and characters that I thought defined ‘70s DC.
However, the more I thought about my list, the more it struck me as indicative of a company at odds with itself. In the ‘80s and ‘90s, DC boasted several successful long-term marriages of professional and property, including Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing, Marv Wolfman and George Pérez’s New Teen Titans and Pérez’s Wonder Woman, Steve Englehart and Joe Staton’s Green Lantern, John Byrne’s Superman, Grant Morrison’s Animal Man, Doom Patrol and JLA, and Mark Waid’s Flash. In the ‘70s, though, this wasn’t necessarily the case. Writers like Gerry Conway and Cary Bates became synonymous with Justice League and Flash, so much so that by the mid-‘80s (and the Detroit League and “Trial of the Flash”) they had arguably stayed too long.
- September 9, 2010 @ 04:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
Marvel Minimates cosplayers are maxi-impressive
"Boxed Avengers" photo by Nikejerk3
I’m gonna make like Dr. Phil and get real in here for a second: I honestly think that these Marvel Minimates cosplayers are sporting the best comics-related costumes I have ever seen. Check out the entire photoset at Nikejerk3′s Flickr page and tell me if I’m wrong. Not that I’d listen if you did — I’ll be too busy staring at that Loki in slackjawed amazement.
(Via Agent M)
- September 9, 2010 @ 03:30 PM by Sean T. Collins