2010 September
From the archives: Steve Ditko’s 1957 take on CEOs and capitalism
From "Director of the Board," by Steve Ditko
The excellent blog Ditko Comics routinely unearths some rarely seen gems from Steve Ditko’s immense bibliography, and one last week really caught my eye.
Inside the pages of Charlton Comics’ Strange Suspense Stories #33 from 1957, Steve Ditko wrote and illustrated a five-page highly charged boardroom drama called “Director of the Board.” As the site owner describes it, it’s a “strange little story about an executive turning down a job applicant but encouraging him with the tale of a dream he had as a struggling young job-seeker, dreaming about taking the initiative and risks to rise in the company through any number of unethical actions.” Read on here for the full story.
- September 6, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by Chris Arrant
Online magazine showcases emerging manga artists
From Vapor Trail, by Baka Inoue
I don’t think I could have read Manga Boshi, the new online manga magazine from the Japanese internet service provider NEC-Biglobe, last week, when the temperatures here on the East Coast were still in the 90s (with humidity to match). Most of the short stories in this delightful little manga take summer as their theme, and the sweltering heat features in several. It would just have made me more miserable.
Now that we’re getting a few cool breezes, though, I can cheerfully recommend it as light end-of-summer reading. Most of the stories are just four or five pages long, but they display an impressive variety of styles and all are well drawn. All are by young creators, and they are definitely more indy comics than the traditional manga genres. The plan is for the magazine to update monthly, and eventually French and Italian versions will be available as well.
- September 6, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Make your plans: Intervention vs. SPX this weekend
If you’re in the Baltimore area this weekend, you will have an embarrassment of riches to choose from: Small Press Expo, which is just what it sounds like, and Intervention, a brand-new webcomics convention, both will be going on. And you don’t even have to decide between them; as Intervention organizer Onezumi Hartsein points out, you can do both:
A lot of people are doing both since we are in walking distance from each other. SPX seems to focus more on print and close around 5 or 6pm. We are all Internet and have huge events running until at least 3 AM. It’s almost like the yin and yang of comics. Some fans have nicknamed this weekend, “Comicspalooza”
Guests at Intervention include Fred Gallagher, Molly Crabapple and Ben Bova (who was recently rather critical of comics … hmmm), and activities will include not only webcomics panels but a class on WordPress and ComicPress taught by the developer of ComicPress. SPX will feature Richard Thompson, Nate Powell and R. Sikoryak.
Still can’t choose? Intervention press agent Brian Lynch lays out the options this way for Wired’s Geek Dad blog:
“we’re the only con to ever host a two-night, Cthulhu-themed goth/industrial dance party, replete with cosplaying go-go dancers. Alternately, I hear that SPX has a very nice chocolate fountain …”
- September 6, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Delays in Grant Morrison’s work?
Grant Morrison
Is Grant Morrison overworked?
That’s the question going through my mind with the recent news that Batman: The Return of Bruce #5 was confirmed as being postponed for two months. Originally scheduled for Aug. 5, the DC Comics website now has it coming out on Oct. 6. Blogger David Uzumeri brought this to my attention with a Twitter poster on Friday, and the realization of the delay dovetailed in with two other pieces of stray information from weeks ago.
The first was the news of a sudden artistic change-up to Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #4 from Cameron Stewart to Georges Jeanty; originally solicited for July 21, the book only came out one week late, but the artwork looks a tad rushed. Stewart wrote on his blog that “conditions were such that I felt that my work would be drastically compromised and subpar should I stay on board, and so I felt that it was best that I walked away.” It has proven to be amicable, with pages already filtering out online of a future collaboration with Stewart, Morrison and DC on the 16th issue of Batman & Robin.
The second is from the blog of Sean Murphy, artist of the Morrison-penned Joe the Barbarian. According to his post, he’s waiting on the script for the final two issues of the series. Joe the Barbarian #7 was originally scheduled for release on July 21, while DC’s website now has a release of Sept. 15.
Checking with the solicitations for the past three months, Morrison is working on four series: Batman, Batman & Robin, Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne and Joe The Barbarian. He’s also been announced to work on two miniseries, Batman: The Return and Multiversity, a new series titled Batman Inc., as well as a prose book titled Supergods: Our World in the Age of the Superhero.
Delays are to be expected on comics at some point, but these news tidbits add up to a possible trend. What do you think?
- September 6, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by Chris Arrant
Gabrielle Bell’s comic about Comic-Con
Autobiographical artist Gabrielle Bell recently turned her attention to the process of attending a comic convention … and not just any convention, but Comic-Con International. She goes on to explain her current visits as a professional cartoonist, and also her earliest visit where she obtained free entry by working as a volunteer.
At the beginning, Bell describes the experience as “because there is experiencing a thing and there is drawing comics about that thing and there is reading those comics about that thing, but it’s best not to think about those things in terms of time.”
There are currently five parts, but by all means start with Part One here.
- September 6, 2010 @ 08:00 AM by Chris Arrant
What are you reading?
The Wild Kingdom
Welcome to another round of What are you reading. JK is off enjoying the Labor Day weekend somewhere far away from any Internet connection, so I’m filling in for him this week.
And what a perfect week it is for me to fill in as we’ve got not one but two special guests this week! First up is Kristy Valenti, associate editor of The Comics Journal and Comixology columnist. If that weren’t enough we’ve also got Chris Arrant, who has been kind enough to guest-blog with us all this week.
Click on the link to see what they and everyone else has been perusing lately. And be sure to tell us in the comments what comics you’ve been reading as well.
- September 5, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Girl Genius wins 2010 Hugo Award
Girl Genius, Vol. 9
The ninth volume of Girl Genius, the popular fantasy-adventure series by Kaja and Phil Foglio and Cheyenne Wright, has won the prestigious 2010 Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story. This marks the second win for the comic in the two-year-old category.
Presented annually since 1955 by the World Science Fiction Society, the Hugo is among science fiction’s most prestigious awards. This year’s winners were announced today in Melbourne, Australia, at AussieCon 4, the 68th World Science Fiction Convention.
Described as a “gaslamp fantasy,” Girl Genius follows the adventures of Agatha Heterodyne, a student at Transylvania Polygnostic University who inherited the Spark, the element in the comic’s world that makes mad scientists what they are. The series debuted in print in January 2001, and made the move online in April 2005. There Girl Genius has flourished, with storylines appearing in webcomic form before being released in print collections.
The other nominees for Best Graphic Story were: Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?, by Neil Gaiman, Andy Kubert and Scott Williams (DC Comics); Captain Britain and MI13, Vol. 3: Vampire State, by Paul Cornell, Leonard Kirk, Mike Collins, Adrian Alphona and Ardian Syaf (Marvel); Fables, Vol. 12: The Dark Ages, by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, Peter Gross, Andrew Pepoy, Michael Allred, David Hahn, Lee Loughridge, Laura Allred and Todd Klein (Vertigo); and Schlock Mercenary: The Longshoreman of the Apocalypse, by Howard Tayler.
- September 5, 2010 @ 08:03 AM by Kevin Melrose
Chain Reactions | Wolverine #1
Wolverine #1
This week was marked by the debut of a new Wolverine series — it’s at least the seventh, by Douglas Wolk’s reckoning — in which the hirsute mutant goes, quite literally, to hell. Or at least his soul does. His body, meanwhile, is on Earth, possessed by demons who have nefarious plans for the fleshy vessel.
The premise undoubtedly leads more than a few readers to cringe, at least until they consider the creators behind the storyline: writer Jason Aaron (Scalped, Wolverine: Weapon X) — it’s based in part on an idea he pitched for Hellblazer — and artist Renato Guedes (Superman, Supergirl).
“It’s my ‘Heroic Age’ story of sending Wolverine to hell and watching him grapple with this sense of hope and faith and what’s really more scary to him: more of the same old dark, pessimistic Logan he’s always been, or him actually thinking that there is a chance things can get better and wonder where he fits into that,” Aaron tells USA Today.
But the first issue also includes a Silver Samurai back-up feature by Aaron, artist Jason Latour and colorist Rico Renzi, which, judging from the reviews, may have stolen the lead story’s thunder.
Here’s just a sampling of what people are saying about Wolverine #1:
- September 4, 2010 @ 08:23 AM by Kevin Melrose
Robot reviews | A Drunken Dream and Other Stories
A Drunken Dream and Other Stories
A Drunken Dream and Other Stories
by Moto Hagio
Fantagraphics Books, 288 pages, $24.99.
It will be interesting to see what sort of response A Drunken Dream has in the alt-comix community. While I’m have no doubt that more traditional manga fans (especially older manga fans with an interest in the medium’s history) will lap it up and ask for more, I’m not as convinced that your average Fantagraphics reader (if there is such a thing, and I acknowledge full well that I might be off the rails here in even thinking such a thing) won’t find this to be a little far afield from their purview.
- September 3, 2010 @ 06:30 PM by Chris Mautner
Paul Pope talks Battling Boy, DJing and the new THB
Screengrab from the upcoming documentary 'Soul Trading' about the Thee Hypnotics (Director Phil Staines, Cinematographer Andrew Foster)
Paul Pope is comics’ closest equivalent to a rock star.
It’s a reputation he’s garnered by both his comics works and his personality — and by the fact he’s an active DJ. He now splits his time between New York City and Europe, the latter of which is the first to see some of his anthology work. Last weekend, Pope and AdHouse Books stealth-released a new issue of his seminal series THB at Baltimore Comic-Con, with extra copies now available on AdHouse’s website. The unique nature of this release was due in no small part to Pope being off the shelves of American comic book stores for years while he completes the graphic novel Battling Boy for First Second.
Just moments after riding back from Baltimore, I spoke with Pope about the new THB, as well as Battling Boy and a creation of his even more rare than the new THB.
- September 3, 2010 @ 05:30 PM by Chris Arrant
The Fifth Color | Rest in peace, Betty Banner
Betty's Futher Away Than You Think
I made peace with Betty Banner’s death a while ago. Her death was in 1998 in one of Peter David’s final issues on his historic run on the title, and it not only fit with the personal tragedy in his life at the time, but it fit with Bruce Banner’s own themes of loss and solitude. The Hulk isn’t known for his jet-setting and warm family life after all. After her death, the book went on in a new “Rampaging” direction, and that was that.
Paul Jenkins came along later and, at least for me, squared away some of the lingering hurt and loss from losing such a central character of the book. We had not just the Hulk, but Bruce Banner himself defeating the man/monster who killed Betty in The Incredible Hulk Vol. 2 #50; the battle between the two is barely kept on the physical page by the brutal force of John Romita Jr.’s artwork, and the final moments of Banner walking away from the emotional prison he’d created for Blonsky is just as powerful. Three years later someone pays for Betty’s death and a couple issues later, Bruce himself comes to understand that her death is permanent. In The Incredible Hulk Vol. 2 #28, the darkest and most evil part of Banner’s personality tries to make a deal with Bruce: He would allow Bruce to live out a dream life with his beautiful wife and kids in exchange for full control over Banner’s body and, by extension, the Hulk’s. Bruce kisses the image of his wife goodbye, walks away from the deal to accept his fate and weeps for the loss.
That’s the issue I finally said goodbye to Betty Banner. The idea of ever getting her back would be a fantasy, some sort of trick because without her, Bruce moves on. With her comes the expectation that he could live happily ever after and, as Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada loves to remind us, no one would want to read a book about the Well-Adjusted Adventures of Married Man. Or at least a Hulk that’s settled down and worries about PTA meetings. If he doesn’t get the good life with Betty, then all he’s doing is dragging her through one tragedy after another, and if you truly love someone, you’ll let them go.
But heaven forbid we ever do that. Real death certainly doesn’t equal comic book death, no matter how much readers may tire of the revolving door. Editorial decides death due to character arcs and sales concerns, not for the soul-searching reasons we deal with as people. If done right, death is a setting stone both in the dead character’s life and the stories of those around them. Captain Marvel inspired a heck of a lot of people by dying from cancer, the Vision has been torn apart to give weight to “Avengers Disassembled” and returned to give even more weight to Young Avengers. Most importantly, if a death is good enough, they can always do it again.
- September 3, 2010 @ 04:30 PM by Carla Hoffman
Ken Akamatsu talks shop
Ken Akamatsu, creator of Love Hina and Negima, discusses his schedule and a bit about his process in this short video made by Mark Bernabe of Masters of Manga. His schedule is rigorous, but his veteran status seems to have earned him a bit of leeway.
- September 3, 2010 @ 03:45 PM by Brigid Alverson
NBM at SPX!
The Broadcast
Small Press Expo happens next weekend, and NBM is ready with a nice lineup of creators and book launches, including the debut of The Broadcast, Eric Hobbs and Noel Tuazon’s suspenseful graphic novel about a group of neighbors and strangers weathering the panic caused by Orson Welles’s War of the Worlds broadcast.
In addition, there will be appearances by Brooke Allen (A Home for Mr. Easter), Greg Houston (Elephant Man), and Ted Rall, “fresh back from Afghanistan, if he’s still alive,” according to the blog. Nice to know they care!
- September 3, 2010 @ 02:45 PM by Brigid Alverson
James Turner shows off exclusive posters and comics from Warlord of Io
At last weekend’s Fan Expo Canada, cartoonist James Turner (Nil, Rex Libris) debuted several color posters spinning out of his graphic novel Warlord of Io from SLG Publishing.
He calls the above poster “Tiki Mek”! Expect Turner to have a larger print run available on his website in the coming months. He’s also working on posters featuring his characters from Nil and Rex Libris.
Also, James is letting us run two exclusive short comics he’s done. Read on, faithful readers …
- September 3, 2010 @ 01:45 PM by Chris Arrant
Themed convention sketchbooks
The Royal Tenenbaums, by Matt Wagner
One of the more unique aspects of comics conventions in the United States is the general amount of creativity bursting at the seems. One of the biggest signs of this is the generosity that most artists have for doing rough sketches to attendees.
Generally artists will do these for free, or for a small fee, but if you can get your hands on one it’s well worth the effort. I’ve been collecting sketches for several years at cons, and I thought myself the norm until I first glimpsed the themed sketchbook of Oni Press Editor-in-Chief James Lucas Jones.
In 2002, Jones began having artists and friends in the industry contribute to an ongoing sketchbook centered on the characters from the 2001 Wes Anderson film The Royal Tenenbaums. It’s been years since I’ve seen it, and it’s probably filled to the brim and Jones moved on to other themes. But it always sticks in my mind as one of the first themed con sketchbooks and one of the best. Here’s a sample:
- September 3, 2010 @ 12:45 PM by Chris Arrant