2010 November
Quote of the Day | Larry Marder on stupid ideas
Larry Marder
“The best part of owning your own work is no one can stop you from trying your most stupid ideas. Cuz sometimes those are your best ideas. I’ve made a lot of mistakes marketing Beanworld over the years but they were MY mistakes. And It’s in the best shape its ever been.”
–Tales of the Beanworld creator Larry Marder on the merits of creator ownership and learning by doing
- November 22, 2010 @ 03:30 PM by JK Parkin
SLG Publishing gets into the music biz
San Jose, Calif.-based SLG Publishing is getting into the music business with a side venture called Slab Yard Sound. Per a marketing email, they plan to release music created by their employees and relatives, as well as help local indie musicians in “developing, packaging and publishing their music all the while bringing the same energy, creativity and passion to the music scene that we have been putting into comics for the last 25 years.” Here’s the entire email:
Days of Bright Commotion
The comic book industry is melting down around us, so naturally SLG Publishing’s next step should be to get into the music business. Figuring we would help turn out the lights on TWO separate industries, SLG today rolled out Slab Yard Sound Company.
Many of you have wondered where the cool music on our trailers have come from, well most of them were done in-house by our own stable of talented musicians/relatives. Slab Yard Sound is a company dedicated to those talented individuals giving them a place to showcase their talents.
SLG is also hoping to bring it’s production expertise to the local Indy music scene by helping musicians/artists in developing, packaging and publishing their music all the while bringing the same energy, creativity and passion to the music scene that we have been putting into comics for the last 25 years.
Visit the Slab Yard Sound Company website and you will find a load of free music to download. Keep an eye on the site (as well as this one) as we roll out new tunes and projects.
If you want to own the very first CD produced by Slab Yard Sound Company, check out Days of Bright Commotion by Bacchus Joint. The entire disk was recorded in the SLG Warehouse/Studio!
- November 22, 2010 @ 02:58 PM by JK Parkin
A sticky situation: Box Brown on the “COEXIST” bumper sticker and its enemies
from "To Exist" by Box Brown
How can a harmless, feel-good bumper sticker get people so riled up? That’s what Box Brown sets out to explain with his webcomic “To Exist,” which traces the history of the “COEXIST” bumper sticker. Famous or infamous, depending on your political leanings and/or feelings about sloganeering, the sticker cobbles the word “Coexist” out of symbols for major world religions and has a tendency to spur some religious and political conservatives to paroxysms of conspiratorial rage, as you can see in the excerpt above starring Representative-Elect Allen West.
In addition to cataloging some of the more outlandish reactions to the sticker, Brown also traces its origin to the work of Polish designer Piotr Miodozeniec; the version you’ve likely seen is an unauthorized knockoff, making “COEXIST” the “Calvin Peeing” of the bleeding-heart set. Brown also advances some theories about why people would answer the equivalent of “Can’t we all just get along?” with such a resoundingly angry “NO!”, all while working through what looks to me like a pretty heavy Seth influence. Read the whole thing.
(via Jess Fink)
- November 22, 2010 @ 12:55 PM by Sean T. Collins
McCarthy’s Flash redesigns, new Judge Dredd story
If you’re a fan of Brendan McCarthy or the short-lived DC series Solo, do I have the post for you … The Strangeness of Brendan McCarthy has posted two sketchbook ideas “generated when Brendan was working out material for his issue of DC Comics’ SOLO,” both featuring redesigns of the Flash.
And if that’s not enough, they’ve also posted info and images on a new Judge Dredd story that will appear in 2000AD Prog 1712, which goes on sale this week in the U.K. “In a new story called Dr. WHAT? Judge Dredd tracks down a time-travelling Doctor who rides a Mega-City Portaloo along the timewaves, altering history and changing the future in a potentially catastrophic way,” the blog says.
- November 22, 2010 @ 11:22 AM by JK Parkin
Lessons learned in a year of webcomicking
Adam Huber is the creator of Bug, which for my money is the most consistently funny gag comic on the internets, and today he looks back on what he has learned during the first year of his webcomic. His advice is concise and useful for beginning creators: Accept that you’re going to make mistakes, switch to something else if you hate what you’re doing, prepare to give up some of your free time, and don’t forget to lawyer up:
At some point, once you feel you got a handle on your comic and it’s cast of characters, go find a lawyer and make sure your comic is not infringing on someone’s already established property. The lawyer I saw charged $100 just for a meeting but it was money well spent. I learned a lot. You don’t want to get hit with a cease & desist letter from a company with deeper pockets than yours.
- November 22, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Smells like teen spirit
A panel from last week's chapter of Naruto. Took me 10 seconds to find it.
There has been plenty of talk on this blog and elsewhere about the economics and ethics of scanlation, but let’s face it, we’re all grownups here. The vast majority of the audience for manga in the U.S. has been teenagers, and teenagers don’t necessarily operate under the same logic that the rest of the world uses.
The anime blogger who goes by the handle One Great Turtle encountered that logic recently during a chat with a college freshman at the University of Kentucky’s Asia Arts Festival. OGT and a friend were discussing the recent trend toward alternative manga:
After hearing this, the freshman subsequently asked “So, like, are they trying to make it cool to read print manga?” at which both I and the graduating senior goggled for a moment before going “what the hell are you on about?”
Apparently, in his high school, it was seen as uncool to read print manga. I didn’t find out then why it was particularly considered uncool, although the perpetual-behindness of licensed releases may have been a factor, as well as a certain sense borrowed from underground aesthetics that licensed titles may have “sold out” or were otherwise “too mainstream”. It’s also interesting to note that the act of “reading manga” itself apparently wasn’t considered uncool. Just reading print manga.
Which, of course, totally makes sense. Teenagers have always hated anything that smells of a sellout, and scanlations are to their readers what bootleg Grateful Dead tapes were to my generation, much more desirable than the commercial product (except the Dead didn’t get all uptight about it and lawyer up). Copyright is utterly meaningless to a 15-year-old. However, this is a phenomenon the publishers ignore at their own peril, because those 15-year-olds are their core audience. The guys in the suits can splutter about contracts and rights and logistical difficulties, but the kids don’t care. And if a bunch of high school students can translate, edit, clean, and post a chapter of manga in a day, a big corporation like Shueisha should be able to do it too.
(Via Ogiue Maniax, which has additional commentary.)
- November 22, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Epic Fail: Comic-Con registration closes down again due to technical glitches
Technical difficulties this morning once again forced Comic-Con International organizers to close online membership sales. Their site currently reads:
REGISTRATION IS CLOSED!
Once more, unfortunately, there have been issues with Comic-Con registration. So we have again decided to close it down.
We are well aware that many people have taken time from work, school or other activities and others woke up very early. There really is no way to convey our level of regret for this turn of events.
We are currently researching our registration options.
Based on the first response in the comments thread of Comics A.M. from earlier this morning, it looks like the servers crashed sometime before 6:24 a.m. Pacific, not even a half hour after going on sale at 6 a.m. Kiel has comments from CCI’s David Glanzer over on CBR.
Update: A commenter notes that the server never appeared to be up this morning at all.
- November 22, 2010 @ 08:46 AM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | Comic-Con sales, credits mystery and women creators
Comic-Con International
Comic-Con | Registration opened this morning at 6 PST for Comic-Con International following technical problems on Nov. 1 that forced organizers to shut down sales after only a handful of badges were purchased. Registration is for daily passes and four-day memberships without Preview Night. Those with the Wednesday preview sold out on the final day of this year’s convention (more could be released later, depending on returns and cancellations). Prices have increased slightly, from $100 to $105 for four-day memberships and from $35 to $37 for single-day passes ($20 for Sunday). Comic-Con International will be held July 20-24 in San Diego. [Comic-Con International]
Legal | Sankaku Complex wades into Tokyo’s resurrected “anti-loli” legislation, and finds the revised bill has been expanded to target manga, anime and video games that “‘improperly glorify or emphasise’ illegal sexual acts, such as rape, groping, BDSM, voyeurism, exhibitionism, etc., by extension including underage sexual activity as well.” The previous version focused on the depictions of “fictional youths,” a controversial term that’s been dropped from the legislation. [Sankaku Complex]
- November 22, 2010 @ 06:05 AM by Kevin Melrose
What Are You Reading?
Daredevil: The Man Without Fear
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. Today our special guest is Chad Nevett, who talks about comics in several different places around the web — at his personal blog GraphiContent, at our sister blog Comics Should Be Good!, as a reviewer for Comic Book Resources and on the Splash Page podcast. He also writes about wrestling for 411mania.
To see what Chad and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click the link below.
- November 21, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
IDW picks up Jericho license
Jericho Redux
IDW Publishing has picked up the license to produce comics based on the canceled CBS show Jericho.
The license was previously held by Devil’s Due Publishing, who have had financial troubles of late and parted with Diamond Comics Distributors earlier this year. IDW will reprint the three issues Devil’s Due published in a collection called Jericho Redux for $8, due in February, when IDW will also publish the fourth issue. Issues #5 and #6 will follow in March and April. Beginning with issue #4, the series will be written by Matthew Federman, with artist Matt Merhoff, and Scott West, who will provide covers.
The release also says that “IDW and CBS Consumer Products will work diligently to make sure that subscriptions to the original series are fulfilled.”
Jericho, which was about a small Kansas town in the aftermath of nuclear attacks on 23 U.S. cities, ran from 2006 to 2008. The storyline for the comics is a direct continuation of the show.
- November 20, 2010 @ 09:30 AM by JK Parkin
Some assembly required
Ikea’s assembly instructions are so iconic, and their faux-Swedish names so easy to parody, that it’s amazing someone hasn’t done this already: College Humor has several sheets of instructions for making almost everything (a house, a baby, meth) Ikea-style. This one’s the best, though—maybe next week we’ll see one for Antijmätter Åtöms.
- November 20, 2010 @ 08:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
The Fifth Color | Forward into the Past: Marvel Solicitations for February 2011
Deadpool Team-Up #884
February! Love is in the air! Presidents are in the air! The holiday season is done with, and we can all look forward to a bright new year.
Or not, as Marvel is bringing you this future month (and I do quote from THUNDERSTRIKE #4 (of 5)‘s solicit) “scenes of excessive action and angst in the mighty Marvel manner”. Angst! Not just fear, anxiety or strife, but angst in the mighty MARVEL manner! That’s right, other guys! You don’t do trauma like we do trauma!
Really, it looks like February is just going to be promoted as a downer with a lot of terrible things happening to good people and then Captain America takes on some pigeons. But it can’t all be doom and gloom, can it? Can there be a prevailing mood for books during certain seasons? Does the House of Ideas have a post-holiday melancholy? And if so, what’s Deadpool doing in the bathtub? Please, join us as we click for more information below and look at Marvel’s menu for February 2011.
- November 19, 2010 @ 03:00 PM by Carla Hoffman
Now read this: Kill All Monsters
Kill All Monsters
Our own Michael May has teamed up with artist Jason Copland and letterer Ed Brisson for a new webcomic called Kill All Monsters, which kicks off today on Review 2 a Kill. Go check it out.
- November 19, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by JK Parkin
Collect this now! Sweet Cream and Red Strawberries
Sweet Cream and Red Strawberries
One of the first casualties in what became the bottoming out of the American manga market was CPM, also known as Central Park Media. A multimedia company known for releasing such fan-favorite anime like MD Geist and the tentacle porn extravaganza Urotsukidoji. Having dipped their toe into the manga waters in the mid-2000s, the line released a host of titles like Plastic Little and Geobreeders, as well as a host of yaoi books through their Be Beautiful line. The whole thing — well, the whole manga thing — came crashing down around 2005-6 when the company discontinued their the line. The rest of the company slowly imploded and eventually went bankrupt in 2009.
Whenever any publishing company like this goes belly up, there are a number of planned and promised titles that never get to see the light of day, and CPM was no exception. The most egregious manga of theirs that never saw the light of day, and one that many serious manga fans were anticipating, is today’s CTN pick, Sweet Cream and Red Strawberries by Kiriko Nananan.
- November 19, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Can all-ages comics survive on the direct market alone?
On the heels of Marvel’s cancellation of the all-ages Thor: The Mighty Avenger, iFanboy’s Jason Wood asks Can the Direct Market Save All Ages Material?
Wood starts off with a little analysis, pointing out that although TMA was well loved by some vocal fans, it didn’t sell well, and in fact, all-ages material doesn’t do well in the direct market. There is also the fact that Thor is not a particularly popular character, and there are a number of other Thor titles on the market. On the other hand, Wood feels that TMA was at least as high quality as the others, and better than some, so why didn’t it sell? A commenter gets to the heart of the matter:
Consider too that Thor TMA is neither in 616 or Ultimates continuity. As much as some hate this fact, if it “counted”, more traditional consumers would have bought it.
You know, I do hate that fact. There’s an element of trying to squeeze a square peg into a round hole here. Most comics shops don’t have a big kid audience, and despite Diamond’s attempt to change that, the fact remains that most comic-shop customers aren’t kids and most kids never go near a comics shop. The direct market does a good job of delivering a specific product to a narrowly defined audience. That audience is not very interested in all-ages comics, and children aren’t interested in complicated continuity. This is a basic structural flaw: You have a huge potential market for these comics, but you are selling them in a place the target customer seldom goes to and may not even realize exists.
- November 19, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by Brigid Alverson