2010 September
Lisa Hanawalt’s SPX badges are adorable and very brightly colored
I know I’d feel like a V.I.P. were I sporting a picture of this fine gentleman. For the complete set of badges that I Want You cartoonist Lisa Hanawalt designed for this weekend’s Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Maryland — all of which feature animals wearing elaborate hats against some seriously neon-ass backgrounds — check out Hanwalt’s Flickr page.
(Via Ken Parille)
- September 9, 2010 @ 02:30 PM by Sean T. Collins
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: ‘Don’t Get Emo. Get Even.’
Dark Horse's teaser for "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" #37
On the heels of Georges Jeanty’s cover for Buffy the Vampire Slayer #36, Dark Horse has fired another good-natured shot at Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight empire with a promo for Issue #37, the second part of the final arc of the bestselling Season Eight.
See the full image after the break. Buffy the Vampire Slayer #37 is due in stores on Oct. 6.
- September 9, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by Kevin Melrose
Fantagraphics to publish lost William S. Burroughs graphic novel
from Ah Pook Is Here
As someone who spent a goodly portion of the night of his junior prom listening to a Psychic TV song consisting of little more than a repeated sample of Burroughs saying “Boys — school showers and swimming pools full of ‘em” over and over again, I cannot WAIT for this: Fantagraphics has acquired Ah Pook Is Here, Beat legend William S. Burroughs’s long-lost proto-graphic-novel collaboration with British artist Malcolm McNeil.
Expanded from a collaborative comic strip that came to an end when the magazine in which it was published folded, then abandoned when no publishers of the time were willing to take the risk of publishing something in the then-unheard-of format, Pook is the story of John Stanley Hart, a William Randolph Hearst-like figure who attempts to utilize ancient Mayan science to achieve immortality and thus unleashes the fury of Ah Pook, Mayan god of death. The book will come packaged with Observed While Falling, McNeil’s prose memoir of his collaboration with the hugely influential author of such books as The Naked Lunch, Junky and Queer. For Fantagraphics’s full press release and a gallery of impressive art from the project, click here.
- September 9, 2010 @ 01:30 PM by Sean T. Collins
Quote of the day | Alan Moore on constantly going back to the well
Alan Moore, by David Ma
“At the end of the day, if they haven’t got any properties that are valuable enough, but they have got these ‘top-flight industry creators’ that are ready to produce these prequels and sequels to WATCHMEN, well this is probably a radical idea, but could they not get one of the ‘top-flight industry creators’ to come up with an idea of their own? Why are DC Comics trying to exploit a comic book that I wrote 25 years ago if they have got anything? Sure they ought to have had an equivalent idea since? I could ask about why Marvel Comics are churning out or planning to bring out my ancient MARVELMAN stories, which are even older, if they had a viable idea of their own in the quarter-century since I wrote those works. I mean, surely that would be a much easier solution than all of this clandestine stuff? Just simply get some of your top-flight talent to put out a book that the wider public outside of the comics field find as interesting or as appealing as the stuff that I wrote 25 years ago. It shouldn’t be too big an ask, should it? I wouldn’t have thought so. And it would solve an awful lot of problems. They must have one creator, surely, in the entire American industry that could do equivalent work to something I did 25 years ago. It would be insulting to think that there weren’t.”
– Alan Moore, in a lengthy interview on Bleeding Cool about Watchmen, any potential sequels to it and his thoughts on the comic industry
- September 9, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by JK Parkin
Song from Spider-Man musical to debut on Good Morning America
Early design rendering for Oscorp Labs from "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark"
Reeve Carney, star of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, will premiere a song from the $52-million musical Friday on ABC’s Good Morning America.
This may mark only the second public performance of a number from the Julie Taymor-directed production: In May, Carney sang the anthem “The Boy Falls From the Sky,” by Bono and the Edge, at the New Dramatists benefit luncheon in New York City. The song includes such lyrics as, “You can fly too high and get too close to the sun/See how a boy falls from the sky.”
The delay-plagued production is set to begin previews on Nov. 14 and open on Dec. 21 at the newly renamed, and renovated, Foxwoods Theatre (née Hilton Theatre) in Manhattan. Spider-Man, which could be the most expensive musical in Broadway history, stars Carney as Peter Parker, Jennifer Damiano as Mary Jane Watson and Patrick Page as the Green Goblin.
According to the official synopsis, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark “spins a new take on the mythic tale of Peter Parker, a teenager whose unremarkable life in Queens is turned upside-down — literally — when he’s bitten by a genetically-altered spider and wakes up the next morning clinging to the ceiling”:
- September 9, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by Kevin Melrose
The world’s most expensive comic?
It only counts if someone will actually pay for it, but the asking price for this ashcan edition of Flash #1 is a cool $5,000,000, plus $10 (Canadian) shipping. According to the listing, there are only six copies in existence of this particular comic, and this one is the highest grade (9.6). Of course, a good story helps to sell the product, and here it is:
In late 1939, DC and Fawcett, coveting this title, each raced to get its own ashcan version printed and a copyright secured. Each succeeded in printing an ashcan, but DC beat Fawcett to the punch, ever so barely, and gained the copyright to Flash Comics. The title became one of DC’s mainstay Golden Age series, and, later, in 1956, the prime namesake character, The Flash, was instrumental in launching the Silver Age. This COMIC was acquired from long-time Golden Age DC Editor/Production Manager Sol Harrison, who was an excellent custodian of the rare copy.
If that’s not enough to make you take out a second mortgage, then your nerd cred is due for a checkup.
Of course, the 5 mil is only the Buy It Now price; the seller will consider the best offer. Eli at Comic Attack, who found this listing, did a bit of research and determined that the comic had already been up for sale once, with a winning bid of US $4,950,990, but the sale didn’t go through; apparently (amazingly) the would-be buyer had trouble coming up with the scratch. Or maybe they just woke up the next morning and came to their senses.
- September 9, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Business cards for LexCorp, Stark Industries and more
If you’ve ever dreamed of working at LexCorp, Stark Industries or even Acme Labs, here’s the first step to making that dream come true — business cards. Fro Design Co. has created a print featuring business cards for Wayne Enterprises, Duff Breweries, Sterling Cooper, the Dharma Initiative and several other fictional companies.
- September 9, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by JK Parkin
Another scanlation site disappears
Deiri by Gengoroh Tagame
At his blog Yaoi 911, Alex Woolfson notes the disappearance of Baralover, a scanlation site for bara manga, which is gay-male romances written for a male audience (as opposed to yaoi, which is mostly written by women, for women). Upon contacting the site, Woolfson learned that its hosting provider changed the terms of service and is no longer allowing adult content. So it wasn’t shut down by publishers’ threats, just a change in terms of service and a webmaster who decided to move on to other things.
Unlike yaoi, which has a small but insanely dedicated following, bara hasn’t made much of an impact in the U.S., and I don’t think anyone is publishing it commercially here. However, Christopher Butcher just blogged about one of the more popular creators, Gengoroh Tagame, who not only has an English-language blog but has expressed a willingness to have his work published in English. Apparently a rumor has been going around that he was approached by the Tom of Finland Foundation but turned them down; Tagame wants the world to know that the rumor is not true, and he is willing to entertain offers, and his work is already being published in several other languages. Could this be the next publishing niche?
- September 9, 2010 @ 09:07 AM by Brigid Alverson
Comic stores vs. the economy: a grim tale of two retailers
Comic Evolution
Economic forces continue to take a toll on comic retailers — online stores and brick-and-mortar shops alike — a gloomy reality illustrated by two recent developments.
The first comes from Khepri Comics, the 12-year-old Internet bookseller specializing in independent comics and the works of creators like Brian Wood, Becky Cloonan, Ross Campell and Cliff Chiang. According to owner Brian Johnson, it’s been a brutal past few months, with “gross ‘summer’ revenue” down 43 percent versus 2009, and 58 percent versus 2008. “Sorry — one more summer of decline, and Khepri is done,” he writes on the store’s blog.
“Sure, the economy is crap,” Johnson says in a follow-up with The Beat. “Undoubtedly, downloading (legal or otherwise) must takes its toll. But excuses won’t pay the bills. So I’ll redouble my efforts and see what the next twelve months bring.”
As Johnson suggests in his nod to downloading, he doesn’t think the recession is solely to blame for Khepri’s declining revenues.
- September 9, 2010 @ 08:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
Fight the power: Get the women of DC their own logo
So, DC Comics has a new logo for its 75th anniversary, and it features Superman, Batman and … The Flash and Green Lantern. Not Wonder Woman, the traditional third member of the DC Trinity. Determined to reverse this injustice, the folks at the DC Women Kicking Ass blog are fighting back with a 21st-century weapon, the Internet petition. Sign — well, enter — your name here to ask DC to create a second logo featuring female characters.
Actually, if I were running this campaign, that’s the last thing I would want. I would ask them to redesign the original to include Wonder Woman, rather than giving the girls their own logo. But then, if I start thinking about it real hard I’ll start worrying about other causes like pay equity or health care and education for girls in developing countries, and I just get all distracted.
- September 9, 2010 @ 07:30 AM by Brigid Alverson
Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs | What Looks Good for November
Island Tales
So, let’s see what looks good in new, adventure comics in this month’s Previews…
Ape
The Misadventures of Clark & Jefferson: Hairy Things – The cowboys vs. Bigfoots (Bigfeet?) series is collected.
Arcana
Poe & Phillips – I’ve got precious little confidence that this will be any good. Mostly because of the solicitation copy that uses the future tense to describe activities that took place in the 19th century. But it’s an adventure with Edgar Allan Poe and HP Lovecraft looking for treasure in order to prevent the rising of an undead emperor, so it needs to be mentioned.
Ardden
Flash Gordon: Invasion of the Red Sword #1 – After Dynamite’s announcement that they’d acquired the Flash Gordon license, the first comic out of the gate is by Flash’s other license-holder, Ardden. I’m curious now to see what Dynamite’s got planned.
Big Dog Ink
Island Tales #1 – I’m not sure what to make of this. The solicit refers to a “contemporary exploration of a popular Hawaiian folktale,” romance, a “ferocious family legacy,” supernatural action, and sharks. I can only assume that it’s about a boy whose shark-people ancestors hate his hula-dancing girlfriend and he has to fight them. At least, that’s what I hope it’s about. But is this a stand-alone story or is it continued in issue #2? If it stands by itself, does the second issue feature a whole different island tale? I’m intrigued.
- September 8, 2010 @ 08:55 PM by Michael May
Food or Comics? | This week’s comics on a budget
Batman and Robin #14
Welcome once again to our weekly round of “What would you buy if your budget was limited?” — or, as we call it, Food or Comics? Every week we set certain hypothetical spending limits on ourselves and go through the agony of trying to determine what comes home and what stays on the shelves. So join Brigid Alverson, Chris Mautner, Kevin Melrose and me as we run down what comics we’d buy if we only had $15 and $30 to spend, as well as what we’d get if we had some “mad” money to splurge with.
This week we’re coming to you a day late, as comics won’t arrive in shops in the United States until tomorrow due to this past Monday’s big holiday. And check out Diamond’s full release list if you’d like to play along in our comments section.
Chris Mautner
If I had $15 …
Batman and Robin #14 ($2.99)
Glamourpuss #15 ($3)
Starstruck #13 ($3.99)
My three main purchases for the week. The one of note is the final issue of Elaine May and Michael Kaluta’s Starstruck. I have no idea if IDW plans on collecting the series or not, or if there are other Starstruck mini-series in the works (I’m guessing not; my Spidey-sense tells me that the series wasn’t a solid seller for the company), but if this is the end (at least for now), I’m grateful to IDW for taking a chance and introducing me to what can only be described as an utterly dense and utterly unique comics-reading experience.
- September 8, 2010 @ 04:05 PM by JK Parkin
Send Us Your Shelf Porn!
It’s always nice to check back on previous Shelf Porn, to see how it’s been doing since we last saw it.
This week we have a return performance by artist, blogger and graphic designer Dan Bru, who shared his collection with us back in January. It was well received, even bringing tears from one person in the comments section who gave it an A+.
This time around Dan shares “all the new swag I’ve acquired since then – my crown jewel being the old-school spinner rack with ‘DC Depot’ lighted globe on top and decked out with 1977-78 Marvel & DC comics (the years I first got into comics).”
Dan is now doing his own art full time, selling it through his site as well as various stores and galleries. Be sure to click over to his site to see some really cool T-shirts and other items you can buy, as his art is very cool.
If you’d like to share your own Shelf Porn, drop me a line at jkparkin@yahoo.com. And now, onto the pics …
- September 8, 2010 @ 02:12 PM by JK Parkin
Sony Classics releases Tamara Drewe trailer, movie poster
Tamara Drewe movie poster
Sony Pictures Classics sent over the movie poster and trailer for the upcoming film Tamara Drewe, based on the award-winning comic of the same name that originally ran in the Guardian. After the jump, you’ll also find a montage of clips from the film; here’s the trailer:
- September 8, 2010 @ 01:34 PM by JK Parkin
A first look at Jock’s cover for Detective Comics #872
From Detective Comics #872, by Jock
Jock’s website has been a treasure trove of sneak peeks lately, from his covers for Tron: Betrayal to unused concept art for a Dune film to his cover for Daredevil: Reborn #1 (okay, the last one debuted first on Twitter, but still). Now comes a first look at the cover for Detective Comics #872, the second issue of his upcoming (ongoing) run on the series with American Vampire writer Scott Snyder.
It’s the second installment of “The Black Mirror” arc, in which “a series of brutal murders pushes Batman’s detective skills to the limit and forces him to confront one of Gotham City’s oldest evils.” Detective Comics #872 is due in stores in December. See the full cover after the break.
- September 8, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by Kevin Melrose