2010 November
Oni’s Yo Gabba Gabba! board comics take longer to eat than regular ones
Yo Gabba Gabba! Gabba Ball!
As Graeme noted yesterday, Oni Press is releasing two Yo Gabba Gabba! “board comics” today, for which they released a press release and preview pages yesterday. So what exactly is a board comic — or for that matter, a board book? Not having kids, I wasn’t familiar with the term, so I reached out to the Robot 6 crew for an explanation.
“A board book is a book with cardboard pages, suitable for babies and very young children, as they take longer to eat than a regular paper book,” Robot 6′s Brigid Alverson told me.
So there you go. Paper books are snacks, board books are meals. You can find the preview pages and the press release after the jump.
- November 24, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
Dustin Harbin’s etiquette pep talk
Graphic advice for keeping things in perspective: We all could be subatomic dust tomorrow.
So the other day, Christopher Butcher—a blogger I both like and admire—Tweeted this: “Gross hit-piece on a cartoonist I love by a cartoonist I can now no longer respect? Certainly takes the wind out of my sails for the day.”
… and then he got into a big discussion about it with a few people, but no one else knew what they were talking about because no one would link to the piece. I can certainly understand that, but I was taught it was rude to have a conversation in front of people without including them in it.
Hit pieces and personal slams are ruder, of course, and there was more of that on Twitter yesterday, which is apparently what inspired Dustin Harbin to post some gentle reminders about good behavior on his blog. It really goes beyond etiquette to the most basic points of being aware that 1) you’re not always right, 2) even if you are right, it may not matter, and 3) regardless, it’s important to consider the feelings of others. This struck me as good advice not only for the comics community but also for the holiday dinner table. So go check it out, and regard it as a pep talk for Thanksgiving dinner with the relatives.
- November 24, 2010 @ 11:30 AM by Brigid Alverson
BOOM! hits the road to promote Stan Lee’s The Traveler
Brigid posted BOOM!’s promotional Xtranormal video earlier today, for Stan Lee’s The Traveler. The book arrives in comic shops today, and just like last month when Stan Lee’s Soldier Zero hit shops, BOOM!’s marketing team of Chip Mosher and Ivan Salazar are visiting Southern California comic shops to see how the book is doing.
Traveler writer Mark Waid was supposed to join them, but apparently that didn’t work out (nice house, though, Mark … it looks very familiar):
- November 24, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by JK Parkin
It’s hard out here for a cartoonist
Mr. Porcellino's neighborhood
John Porcellino, creator of the long-running self-published minicomics series King-Cat Comics and Stories, is arguably one of the most influential comics creators of the past quarter century. That and $2.25 will get you on the subway, apparently. Today Porcellino blogged a series of photos of the seemingly economically depressed Illinois town to which he recently moved “in desperation” after losing his previous place of residence. “It’s times like these that make a man wonder ‘How?’, ‘Why?’,” Porcellino writes. And that is your soul-crushing quote of the day. Oh well, I suppose you could cheer yourself up by reading several complete King-Cat issues on What Things Do while waiting to hear how many Social Security cuts will be required to offset additional tax cuts for our billionaire overlords.
- November 24, 2010 @ 10:30 AM by Sean T. Collins
BOOM! Studios goes super-cute in The Traveler trailer
Everyone else does pan-and-scan trailers for their books, but BOOM! Studios decided to take the road less traveled by, with a video of robot-like animated teddy bears (I think) standing in a deserted landscape that is apparently a comics store and discussing the week’s purchases. The customer confesses that complicated comics continuity makes him weary and occasionally confused, and the retailer recommends Stan Lee and Mark Waid’s The Traveler with the ironclad endorsement “It doesn’t suck.” I couldn’t figure out if the robotic delivery is ironic detachment or cheap technology (they have trouble with the word “superhero”) but the whole package is pretty funny, including the classic fanboy moment at the end.
- November 24, 2010 @ 09:30 AM by Brigid Alverson
Jeff Lemire’s Essex County among finalists for Canada Reads honor
Essex County
Jeff Lemire’s Essex County Trilogy is among the five contenders for CBC’s prestigious Canada Reads program, marking the first time a graphic novel has been considered for the distinction.
Lemire’s award-winning look at life in a rural community was selected from the list of Essential Top 10 Canadian Novels of the Decade by panelist Sara Quin, one-half of the indie-music duo Tegan & Sara. She will defend the book in February at the Canada Reads debate.
Published by Top Shelf Productions, the Essex County Trilogy — Tales from the Farm, Ghost Stories and The Country Nurse — is an award-winning examination of family, grief, memory and reconciliation set in an imaginary version of Lemire’s hometown in rural Ontario.
Essex County will go up against The Bone Cage by Angie Abdou, The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis, The Birth House by Ami McKay, and Unless by Carol Shields.
- November 24, 2010 @ 08:40 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | The graphic novel market, and webcomic economics
Diamond Book Distributors
Publishing | Calvin Reid interviews Kuo-Yu Liang, vice president of sales and marketing at Diamond Book Distributors, about the state of graphic novel sales, the international market, manga and more: “I think we are entering the golden age of selling graphic novels. The demographics and the audience are both broadening. We are lucky that the core readers have stuck with us through the recession. We are finding new readers crossing over from literary, commercial, speculative and genre fiction. Non-fiction graphic novels are doing well. We’re getting more kids and parents (I’ll talk more about that later). I also think the growth of internet shopping has changed the game, because now it is easier than ever to find what you like to read, and get recommendation from fellow readers. The key is still good books. Without them, we don’t have an industry.” [Publishers Weekly]
Publishing | Heidi MacDonald spotlights BOOM! Studios, with a focus on the publisher’s marketing efforts. “The secret to our success to go to the thing that other people haven’t done; it isn’t to go head to head against people, or trying to take their market share away or trying to duplicate their editorial style,” says co-founder Ross Richie. “We’ve had to invent a space in the market place to exist. ” [Publishers Weekly]
- November 24, 2010 @ 07:41 AM by Kevin Melrose
Food or Comics? | This week’s comics on a budget
Chaos War: Alpha Flight #1
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 us as we run down what comics we’d buy if they only had $15 and $30 to spend, as well as what we’d get if we had some “mad money” to splurge with.
Check out Diamond’s full release list for this week if you’d like to play along in our comments section.
Michael May
If I had $15:
I’d pick up Salimba ($9.99), because it’s Paul Chadwick drawing a jungle girl who fights pirates. Then I’d add Chaos War: Alpha Flight #1 ($3.99) to that pile. I’m a huge Alpha Flight fan and can’t wait to read about the original team’s new adventure, even if they are dead.
- November 23, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by JK Parkin
The Middle Ground #30: Back of My Neck Gettin’ Dirty, Gritty
Depending on who you believe, the final issue of Brandon Graham’s King City might be hitting stores tomorrow – Previews say yes, but Diamond’s shipping list says no – bringing to an end one of the most enjoyable series in recent memory, and the book that convinced me that Graham is one of the best cartoonists around.
I use the word “cartoonist” deliberately, but not pejoratively. Graham’s work, at its best, is a mix of words and images that goes beyond both categories – There’s a blurring of the lines between them, as his language works on visual cues as well as aural, and his art contains more than a little amount of pictorial wordplay (The puns, people, the puns) – and somehow makes the idea of thinking about him as anything other than the complete story package a mental dead end. While he can do just art or, presumably (I’ve not seen it happen yet, but I can’t see why it couldn’t) just story, what makes Graham’s work so completely addictive is the amount of information and fun he can pack in by doing both. Continue Reading »
- November 23, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by Graeme McMillan
A glimpse inside Spider-Man, ‘Broadway’s most expensive musical ever’
Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, by Annie Leibovitz
As the delay-plagued Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark finally prepares to begin previews — Sunday, if nothing else goes wrong — New York magazine takes us “Inside Broadway’s Most Expensive Musical Ever.”
The longish cover story serves as both a profile of Julie Taymor, the visionary director who’s been a lightning rod for criticism, and a chronicle of a production troubled by a financial shortfall, a ballooning budget, the loss of two stars, and technical difficulties that have thrust the musical into the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.
Here are some of the more interesting tidbits:
• The widely reported budget estimates, which range anywhere from $50 million to $65 million, apparently are “fantasies.” Says the show’s lead producer Michael Cohl: “They are like asking my dog ‘How much is the budget?’ and counting how many times he barks.” New York writer Jesse Green suggests the actual figure is even higher, “in the vicinity” of $70 million.
• Taymor wonders why writers even care how much the production costs: This is a drama–rock-and-roll–circus, or a circus–rock-and-roll–drama; there’s no word for it. And what do they want? Two-character, one-set musicals? How is that helping the theater?” She likes that “rock-and-roll-circus” description.
- November 23, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
‘Lost’ Secret Wars action figures emerge from the 1980s
Secret Wars Returns
Here’s a fun piece of comic history … back in the early 1980s, Marvel released their big crossover series Secret Wars. It was the series that introduced Spider-Man’s black symbiote suit, brought She-Hulk into the Fantastic Four, drove a wedge between young lovers Kitty Pryde and Colossus, and spawned a toy line. Mattel released a couple of waves of figures, starting with characters from the series — Dr. Doom, Spider-Man, Wolverine and several others — then followed it up with some who didn’t make it to the Beyonder’s battle planet, like Falcon, Hobgoblin and Daredevil. Just as a third wave of figures was being created, the line was killed — so abruptly that three of the figures from the third wave were already in production. So Europe saw the release of Iceman, Constrictor and Electro.
But as Jason Geyer details over on Action Figure Insider, that wasn’t quite the end of the line. Geyer has posted artwork for several figures that never made it into production, including Mr. Fantastic, Abomination, Thunderball, Mystique and the Dazzler. He even includes artwork from the lenticular shields that would have come with each figure, one of the trademarks of the line. Go check it out.
- November 23, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by JK Parkin
Digital Comics: Year One in review
Who owns this comic? Not you, if you bought it digitally.
Over at Comics Alliance, David Brothers sums up the state of digital comics in a comprehensive article that covers all the bases: Format, cost, DRM, file-sharing, and more. Spend ten minutes reading this article and you will know pretty much everything there is to know about the state of the digital comics scene today.
People talk a lot about price and day-and-date releases, but Brothers points to a more fundamental issue: Who really owns “your” comics? A few weeks ago, Marvel accidentally released Ultimate Thor #2 a week early. Benjamin Simpson of iFanboy.com bought it on Tuesday night and woke up on Wednesday to find it had disappeared from his “My Comics” list; it was still on his device but locked so he couldn’t read it. Marvel e-mailed him to explain that it would be unlocked a week later. When Amazon pulled the same stunt with an unauthorized Kindle version of George Orwell’s 1984 last year, the resulting outrage (and lawsuit) forced them to apologize and promise never to do it again. The Marvel incident aroused little comment, but it should be worrying; as Brothers points out, the Marvel app lacks that most basic bit of boilerplate, a statement of Terms and Conditions:
What’s all this mean? It’s a huge step in the wrong direction, to be perfectly frank. Simpson paid for the comic and it was downloaded. Someone elsewhere flipped a switch and his access was removed, but the comic remained on his device. The lack of Terms and Conditions is also worrying. There is no document that details exactly what you can and cannot do with a comic, nor what a publisher can do to a comic you’ve purchased. If you buy a video game or album from a store before its street date, you can still play that game or listen to the music when you get home. Mistakes happen, but the consumer generally isn’t punished for someone else’s mistake. Why should it be different for digital comics?
More directly, why is anyone modifying something you have paid for without your permission? If the answer is “to protect the integrity of the story,” the only appropriate retort is a series of four letter words. This is a prime example of what not to do.
The next time a publisher pulls a move like this, the pitchforks should come out, as they did with Amazon. Otherwise, how will they know we care?
- November 23, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
DC superhero and Oz drinking glasses recalled over lead levels
The DC Comics superhero glasses in question
A Utah company has recalled drinking glasses featuring DC Comics superheroes and Wizard of Oz characters after independent testing revealed they contain high levels of lead. Federal regulators have begun an investigation.
The tests, commissioned by The Associated Press, found the glasses contained lead up to 1,000 times the federal limit for children’s products, as well as lesser amounts of the more-toxic heavy metal cadmium. The AP purchased the China-made glasses from Warner Brothers Studios store in Burbank, Calif.
The central issue may be whether the glasses are intended for children or for adults. Salt Lake City-based importer Vandor contends the products are targeted to adult collectors and passed testing for lead. However, a spokesman for the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission told The AP the agency considers the glasses to be children’s products, which are subject to more strict lead limits. The CPSC is collecting samples for its own testing.
In a press release announcing the voluntary recall, Vandor said that less than 10,000 sets of each item have been shipped since their January release.
- November 23, 2010 @ 06:59 AM by Kevin Melrose
First look behind the scenes of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark
From the "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" video
A video posted today on the Facebook page of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark provides the first peek, costume sketches and stylized photos aside, at what the $60-million musical will actually look like.
Set to the tune of the show’s anthem “Boy Falls From the Sky,” the video features some of the flying sequences — the source of the production’s most recent problems — as well as footage of stars Reeve Carney, Jennifer Damiano and Patrick Page in rehearsal, and clips of interviews with composers Bono and the Edge. Front and center, though, is director Julie Taymor’s pitch: “We can’t really tell you what this is, but it has rock and roll, it has drama, and it has circus. [...] Yes, we have the spectacle, but the spectacle is at the service of a good story.”
If all goes as planned — let’s face it, very little with this production has gone according to plan — Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark will begin previews Nov. 28 and open on Jan. 11.
(via The New York Times)
- November 22, 2010 @ 05:08 PM by Kevin Melrose
Talking Comics with Tim | Van Jensen
Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer and the Great Puppet Theater
It was bound to happen at some point and today’s the day: I interview a talented creator who frequents the same comic shop I do. As Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer and the The Great Puppet Theater writer Van Jensen and I realized several months or so, he and I both shop at Book Nook (located in Decatur, Georgia). Jensen was kind enough to do an email interview regarding the December 2 release of the second volume in the Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer universe. As regular readers are well aware, we are big Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer fans here at Robot 6. Back in late October, we offered an exclusive sneak preview of the book, which we invite you to peruse after reading the interview.
Tim O’Shea: I think it’s safe to say that the latest volume of Pinocchio: Vampire Slayer is being released later than you would have hoped. I mainly ask, because unlike most delayed book situations where the delay results from creators missing deadlines, that’s not the case here. Care to explain some of what delayed the book?
Van Jensen: The very short answer is overseas printing. The costs for printing are such that it’s cheaper to have a book printed in Asia and then shipped via the Pacific. That distance lends itself to delays arising. Both of the Pinocchio books, for instance, were in cargo containers that got held up in customs.
I know it’s frustrating to fans, though. And it’s frustrating to Dusty and me. We’re both newspaper guys, and that job drills the importance of deadlines into your head. You get your work done, and it’s in print the next morning, every morning. I really pride myself on turning work in early. So with the book being late, I feel like it’s breaking a promise to the fans, and I feel awful about it.
- November 22, 2010 @ 04:00 PM by Tim O'Shea