2010 October
Gary Groth and Jim Steranko: two great tastes that taste great together
Gary Groth and Jim Steranko by Robert Kline
He’s one of the godfathers of alternative comics now, but Gary Groth was once a fanboy like any other. Well, that’s not quite true, as the future Fantagraphics publisher was always a lot more enterprising than most. The illustration above of Groth in the home of Nick Fury artist Jim Steranko comes from Groth’s Fantastic Fanzine #11, available for perusal and full download at Comic Attack. The issue dates back to 1970 and chock full of juicy Steranko interviews, Dave Cockrum illustrations, and drawings of shirtless barbarians of both genders. We’re a long way from Ghost World, but you’ve gotta start somewhere!
(via Fantagraphics)
- October 6, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by Sean T. Collins
Agent M Unveiled: Marvel’s Ryan Penagos
The Digital Age has washed over comics in the past few years the same way it hit the music and film industry years before. And no one at the major comics publishing houses have taken to it more, seemingly, than Ryan Penagos.
Penagos, who many know by the moniker of “Agent M,” works as editor of Marvel’s website, coordinating its content and direction as well as monitoring the company’s reach through social networking. When he started, the site was merely a portal of press releases for the print books, but in the four years he’s been with the company it has expanded to be a hub of information for all things Marvel, with interviews, features, artwork, databases and — most importantly — comics. But this probably isn’t how you know him.
Penagos has developed quite a fanbase on Twitter as @Agent_M, accumulating 1.4 million followers — keep in mind that Marvel Editor-In-Chief Joe Quesada has just 22,000 and writer Brian Michael Bendis has 28,000. He gets his thoughts out there with Twitter, his Marvel blog and an after-hours Tumblr blog.
Full disclosure: Penagos is one of my editors in the writing I do for Marvel.
Chris Arrant: You’ve long been part of the online world, going back to generating ideas for Wizard magazine’s website when you worked there from ’03 to ’06. Now as editor in charge of Marvel.com, you’re continuing that. What do you think are the big things you’ve learned about writing for the internet audience instead of the print audience?
- October 6, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by Chris Arrant
Sketchbook: Ben Towle creates some characters
A character evolves in Ben Towle's sketchbook
Ben Towle has been working up his characters for his next graphic novel, In the Weeds (which sounds like it will be set behind the scenes at a restaurant), and he shows off his thought process at his blog. The book presents some challenges:
About half of the book takes place in a restaurant kitchen and this presents a prickly problem in that everyone will be dressed the same. It’d be really easy here to fall into an “Alien 3″ situation here where you’ve got a bunch of (mostly) white guys running around in the same outfit and you can’t tell who’s doing what or saying what unless you’re seeing a close-up of their faces.
It’s interesting to see how much the characters change as he refines them.
- October 6, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Nexus, by Steve Rude
Creators | Renowned artist Steve Rude and his family are in danger of losing their home, so the co-creator of Nexus is auctioning art in hopes of raising the money to meet a Nov. 15 deadline. [Steve Rude's Facebook, The Comics Reporter]
Publishing | Retailer news and analysis site ICv2.com suggests Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim series could close out 2010 as the No. 1 graphic-novel property of the year, surpassing the top-selling adaptation of Stephen Meyer’s Twilight. [ICv2.com]
Digital comics | David Brothers wonders how the rise of digital comics might change comics “culture,” and the Wednesday ritual. [4thletter!]
- October 6, 2010 @ 08:25 AM by Kevin Melrose
Chris Ware covers The New Yorker
If it’s our umpteenth month with 9.5+% unemployment, it must be Chris Ware on the cover of this week’s “Money Issue” of The New Yorker, showing a family rendered faceless and hopeless by the economy. That’s our Chris — always good for a laugh!
In other news, you must read The ACME Novelty Library #20 when it comes out in November. That is all.
(via Whitney Matheson)
- October 6, 2010 @ 06:00 AM by Sean T. Collins
Food or Comics? | This week’s comics on a budget
Parker: The Outfit
Welcome to another installment of “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, Michael May and Chris Mautner as they run down what comics they’d buy if they only had $15 and $30 to spend, as well as what they’d get if they had some “mad” money to splurge with.
Check out Diamond’s full release list if you’d like to play along in our comments section.
Chris Mautner
If I had $15:
The latest issue of The Boys is on my pull-list for this week ($3.99) and I’m anxious to see how Hughie reacts after discovering Annie’s big, horrible secret last ish. (sounds like I’m talking about a daytime soap, doesn’t it? If daytime soaps had more vomiting, cuss words and dismemberment.)
I’ll also likely pick up the fifth issue of James Stokoe’s Orc Stain ($2.99). I’m coming into the series a little bit late, but based on raves it’s been garnering across the Interwebs, I tried a random issue and dang if I wasn’t tickled with it’s wit and dense world-building sensibilities. Now I’m trying to track down the other issues I’ve missed.
If I had $30:
There’s a lot of good stuff this week, but (assuming I put aside my two previous purchases for a later date) what would easily top my list (and that of my fellow Robot Sixers I’m sure) is Richard Stark’s Parker: The Outfit, the second book in Darwyn Cooke’s ongoing adaptation of Donald Westlake’s (writing under the Stark nom de plume) series of hard boiled crime novels. I hadn’t been a Cooke fan previously, but the first book, The Hunter, made me a believer and the recent mini/prologue that IDW released earlier this year, The Man With the Getaway Face, sealed the deal. I’m very much looking forward to reading this.
- October 5, 2010 @ 07:28 PM by JK Parkin
The Middle Ground #24: I’m the most important guy in this bestiary
It’s my birthday, so I’m going to be more than usually self-indulgent this week and just say this as if it were a demonstrable fact: Eddie Campbell’s Graffiti Kitchen is the best comic ever made.
(It’s not, of course, although I say that more because I don’t believe in such concepts as “best [whatever] ever made,” when it comes to art – I think that it’s the kind of quality distinction that doesn’t really exist, because it’s so subjective; it’s definitely my favorite comic, but try extolling its virtues to someone who’d rather read Youngblood in any of its multiple incarnations than cracking open a black and white book with scratchy art and absolutely no superpowers whatsoever. To someone like that, the Joe Casey/Rob Liefeld YB hardcover may be the best comic ever made, just like I don’t expect that many people to believe me that “From A Basement On The Hill” is Elliott Smith’s best album, even though it clearly is. I mean, come on.)
- October 5, 2010 @ 02:30 PM by Graeme McMillan
Do comics sell short stories short?
From Warren Ellis & Colleen Doran's 'Superidol'
In recent years there has been a resurgence of anthologies in comics, and with good reason. Anthologies offer a taste of numerous styles through varied creators telling a concise story. Even if one story is lackluster, there’s several other stories in the anthology that should outweigh that to offer an interesting package.
Anthologies are a common trend in the wider publishing medium, especially when it comes to fantasy and sci-fi — genres that are spiritual brethren to the comics medium by and large. But one thing that hasn’t crossed over is short-story collections. Short-story collections are — what else — collections of short story with one unifying point — the author. Just look at Joe Hill, prose author and comics writer of the IDW series Locke & Key. His first book was a collection of his short stories called 20th Century Ghosts.
- October 5, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by Chris Arrant
My mom and dad went to Disney World, and all I got was a lousy T-shirt comic book
Marvel merchandise at Disney World
Last week I was away from the blog on vacation (big thanks to Chris Arrant for helping out last week!) and I thought I’d share a couple of vacation pictures here on the blog. Before clicking away in horror, though, I should point out that they’re actually comic-related.
My wife and I spent last week at Disney World; it wasn’t our first trip, but it was the first time we’ve been there since Disney bought Marvel. And while you still have to go across town to Universal to ride the (ultra cool) Spider-Man ride, you can now get a pretty decent Marvel comic book fix at the Disney parks. As you can see in the picture above, Marvel costumes, toys, action figures and the like were readily available in the toy store in Downtown Disney. That same shop also had lots of comic books, trades and hardcovers for sale:
- October 5, 2010 @ 01:30 PM by JK Parkin
Now read this: Uncle Bob and the Frankenstein Monster
From Uncle Bob and the Frankenstein Monster
Darryl Cunningham has just posted a new chapter of his Uncle Bob adventures on his blog. It’s both whimsical and sorta heartbreaking—anyway, you’ll probably like it better than Cockbone, so go take a look! The book is due out from Blank Slate sometime next year.
- October 5, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by Brigid Alverson
Diamond offers details of day-early delivery
Day-early delivery
Diamond Comic Distributors this morning provided retailers with details of its day-early delivery program, which will enable direct-market stores in North America and the United Kingdom to receive comics on Tuesday for sale on Wednesday.
The release day for new comics will continue to be Wednesday in North America, but will move from Thursday to Wednesday in the United Kingdom.
Announced in late August following public discussion at the Diamond Retailer Summit at the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo and a formal survey, the program will take effect with shipments delivered on Jan. 11 for sale on Jan. 12. Retailers have until Oct. 25 to notify Diamond whether they plan to participate.
Store owners in North America who opt for Tuesday delivery will be charged $4 a week to fund a mystery shopper program to help ensure Wednesday street dates aren’t broken. Retailers who are found to be violating street dates will lose early delivery for one month for their first offense, three months for their second, and indefinitely for their third.
Read part of the official announcement below:
- October 5, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by Kevin Melrose
The comics writer who wants to be his own man: Jimmy Palmiotti
Photo by Seth Kushner
Jimmy Palmiotti has been a lot of things in the world of comics: inker, publisher, editor, writer and even journalist and interviewer at times. A veteran inker who transitioned to writing and editing, back in the late 90s and early 2000s he and Joe Quesada helped turn around then-beleaguered Marvel Comics giving the publisher a new style and swagger. But when Quesada became Editor-In-Chief, Palmiotti famously decided to jump back into the freelance world and carved out a niche for himself as a go-to writer for superhero titles and also a strong voice in independent comics.
Fast forward to today, and he’s riding high on the success of his longest running series ever, DC’s Jonah Hex, is doing some editing for publishing newcomer Kickstart, and has a bevy of projects on both sides of the Big Two on the verge of announcement. But despite his success as writer, or perhaps because of it, his name is often bandied about as a viable candidate for top jobs at both Marvel and DC — but as of yet, Palmiotti continues to freelance. Why? That’s because he likes it.
- October 5, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by Chris Arrant
Themed sketchbook: Smurf that Smurf!
Jim Salicrup's Smurf/Hulk mashup
Matt. Murray (the period is part of his name, apparently) writes about all things Smurf at his blog, appropriately titled Smurfology. This is more than a casual Smurf-fan thing—Murray is a former executive director of the Museum of Comics and Cartoon Art, and in 2006 he curated an exhibit on Saturday morning cartoons. That experience got him back to his childhood love of the Smurfs, and he not only gave a lecture on Smurfology 101 at MoCCA, he wound up helping with the special features on the Smurfs DVDs and even appearing in a Smurf documentary.
Stop and savor those words: A Smurf documentary.
Anyway, Murray has been collecting Smurf sketches from a variety of artists, and he is posting them at his blog. The drawings seem to lean toward the dark side—there’s an After Hours Smurfette, a Smurf pole dancer, a Smurf on ‘roids, and even a Smurf getting stabbed in the eye (a reference to the incident at this year’s SDCC), not to mention a drunken Gargamel drawn by Murray himself. This is one to bookmark, as he adds a new drawing every Saturday.
- October 5, 2010 @ 10:30 AM by Brigid Alverson
Read Thom Zahler’s 24-Hour Comic, ‘Haunted’
Thom Zahler
This past weekend Love & Capes creator Thom Zahler spent the night at the Great Lakes Mall creating a comic from scratch as a part of 24-Hour Comics Day, complete with a Jack Bauer-ish 24 countdown clock. You can read about his mobile art studio and the entire experience on his blog, and you can download the complete story here.
- October 5, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by JK Parkin
New comic spins up with Spinning To Infinity
While advance solicitations let us know about upcoming print comics, where are those advance notices of upcoming webcomics? Here’s one — an upcoming webcomic from writer Steve Horton called Spinning To Infinity.
Page from 'Spinning To Infinity' by artist mpMann
- October 5, 2010 @ 09:30 AM by Chris Arrant