2011 January
The death of Wizard and ToyFare, from the inside
Last week’s news that Gareb Shamus was shutting down the print versions of his long-running magazines Wizard and ToyFare to pursue a new business model centered on digital publishing, conventions, and a reverse-merger-based penny stock was the talk of comics. This is hardly surprising, given not only Wizard once-outsized influence on and increasingly maligned role in the field, but also the vast number of former Wizard staffers and freelancers populating the industry. Many of those ex-employees, myself included, hit the Web with their thoughts on the demise of the publications they once worked for.
Most of their posts focus in large part, or even in full, in praising the work and character of their co-workers. (There are exceptions, of course: Writing for Bleeding Cool, recently laid-off freelance price guide writer Mark Allen Haverty mostly praises the work and character of…Mark Allen Haverty.) And no one — not even writer Chris Ward, whose comments about the Shamus Brothers are among the most scathing you’re likely to see — has come forth with the full-on “here’s where all the bodies are buried” piece some folks are no doubt waiting for. Nevertheless, the picture that emerges when the remembrances of the Wizard diaspora are pieced together is a clear one: Wizard and its related publications employed a staff talented enough to land on their feet in positions across the length and breadth of the comics industry and pop culture at large; a staff whose bonds of mutual admiration and respect last to this day; a staff that has high hopes for the employees who were let go in this most recent spate of cutbacks (laid-off Research Editor Dan Reilly, an 18-year veteran of the company, and still-standing ToyFare editor Justin Aclin are repeatedly singled out for high marks); a staff that includes many who feel their potential and that of the publications for which they worked were consistently squandered by what they deem the erratic and unscrupulous management of the company. In a way, they indicate that while the death of Wizard is unfortunate, the death of the alternate-universe Wizard that might have emerged from a better marshaling of their talents may be the bigger loss.
Below you’ll find links to a comprehensive list of posts by former Wizard, ToyFare, Anime Insider, and WizardUniverse.com editors, writers, and contributors. It will be updated as more become available.
- January 31, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by Sean T. Collins
Talking Comics with Tim | Sean T. Collins
Destructor
It’s happened again (last time it was Michael May), I am interviewing one of my fellow Robot 6 pals. This time it’s writer Sean T. Collins, regarding Destructor, the webcomic described as an “ongoing story of villainy byCollins and Matt Wiegle, updated Mondays and Thursdays … ‘Alone he fled, and came in from Outside. Upon the seething streets of Planet D he landed, in his armor and his rage. With General at his side and Wall behind, he wrote his name in blood across the worlds, worlds he would conquer, filled with foes to crush. He formed the Mob and set their star alight, the guns and gangs, machines and magic theirs, the red ambition his and his alone, until the System shuddered at his name: Destructor—the most dangerous man alive.’” As engaging and sometimes maddening a co-worker (we have vastly different critical minds, an observation that I hope he takes as the compliment it is) as Collins may be, I was not surprised in the slightest to find him to be a great creator to interview.
Tim O’Shea: You are a faithful reader of Tom Brevoort’s Twitter account, do you think he returns the favor and is an avid reader of Destructor?
Sean T. Collins: Hahaha! Aw, I’m sure we don’t have nearly enough commenters asking us who would win in a fight, Jean Grey or the Blue Marvel, and given how much he looooooves that sort of thing we’re probably not high on his reading list. He’s a reader I’d love to have, though. Are you there, Tom? It’s me, the guy who makes posts out of your tweets.
- January 31, 2011 @ 02:00 PM by Tim O'Shea
Paul Maybury may not be a comics legend just yet, but he has proof he was a good Whole Foods employee
Mr. T, legendary bad ass and meat fan
This one has been making it’s way around the ‘net over the past few days … Paul Maybury, artist on Aqua Leung and the upcoming D.O.G.S. of Mars, used to work at Whole Foods and would regularly design promotional signs (like the one above) for the store where he worked.
Although it’s a pretty creative sign, apparently not everyone was a fan. He noted on his Tumblr blog last week, “I apparently offended a lot of people with it. Once older white lady didn’t like the angry black man yelling at her. And a Vegan didn’t like that Mr. T. pitied her because she wouldn’t eat meat.” Later he notes that he wasn’t actually fired, but “they just kind of blocked me from any sort of advances and left me with the option to more or less leave, which I did.”
He’s posted several of the signs over on his Tumblr; you can find some here, here and here. The Mr. T post was picked up by Cory Doctorow over at boingboing, a post which now has more than 100 comments … Maybury responded to some of the comments about whether or not he was a good Whole Foods employee here.
- January 31, 2011 @ 12:55 PM by JK Parkin
Process: Becky Cloonan’s Thought Bubble Festival illustration
by Becky Cloonan
Demo artist Becky Cloonan went really deep on this post that details the process of creating an illustration for this fall’s Thought Bubble Festival in Leeds, England. While you can see the final “Snow White and the Seven Comics” artwork above, click on over to her blog to see it go from pencils to color tests to inks and so on, until it was completed.
- January 31, 2011 @ 11:04 AM by JK Parkin
Davis, Manchess cover Solomon Kane: Red Shadows #2
Solomon Kane: Red Shadows #2
Dark Horse has a new Solomon Kane miniseries, subtitled “Red Shadows,” that starts in April. Written by Bruce Jones with art by Rahsan Ekedal, each issue will feature covers by Guy Davis and Gregory Manchess, with an assist from colorist Dave Stewart. And courtesy of Dark Horse, we’re pleased to bring you a first look at the covers for issue #2.
The Davis cover is up top, and you can find the Manchess one, along with solicitation info, after the jump.
- January 31, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by JK Parkin
Piracy: The Fractale debacle
So, there was a big dust-up on the anime side of the blogosphere over the past two weeks, and since it was about piracy and global rights and other things that are relevant to comics readers, I thought it would be interesting to do a quick summary over here.
Basically, a U.S. company, Funimation, got the rights to show the anime Fractale online one hour after it was broadcast in Japan. This simulcasting is the holy grail of anime — nobody wants to wait months and months for a product that is already out somewhere else, so the usual solution is that bootleggers make their own subtitles and stream the anime on pirate sites. The simulcast gave anime fans a legitimate alternative. (Here’s Funimation’s Fractale page, which currently has three episodes up, if you want to check it out yourself.)
But some pirated versions of the anime got online anyway, and the Fractale Production Committee reacted by telling Funimation they could not simulcast future episodes until the bootleg videos were removed:
- January 31, 2011 @ 09:20 AM by Brigid Alverson
Comics A.M. | Spiegelman wins Grand Prix, Borders delays more payments
Art Spiegelman
Awards | Art Spiegelman on Sunday won the Grand Prix at the Angoulême International Comics Festival, marking only the third time an American has received the honor (the other two were Will Eisner and Robert Crumb). “Considering my poor skills, I’m looking a little like the president Obama receiving the Nobel Peace prize,” he told the festival by telephone from the United States. Spiegelman will serve as the grand marshal for next year’s event.
Other winners at the four-day festival, which drew an estimated 200,000 visitors, include David Mazzuchelli for Asterios Polyp (Grand Jury Prize), and Naoki Urasawa and the late Osamu Tezuka for Pluto (Intergenerational Award). The full list of winners can be found here. [Agence France-Presse]
Retailing | The beleaguered Borders Group announced on Sunday that it’s delaying January payments to vendors and landlords in an effort to save cash while it tries to complete a debt restructuring. This marks the second round of delays for the bookseller, which has been pressuring large publishers and distributors to agree by Feb. 1 to convert late payments into $125 million in loans. The bookstore chain announced just last week that it secured a $550 million credit line from G.E. Capital, but only if several tough conditions were met — including an unlikely agreement from publishers. [The Wall Street Journal]
- January 31, 2011 @ 07:20 AM by Kevin Melrose
What Are You Reading?
Kill Shakespeare
Hello and welcome to What Are You Reading? Today’s special guests are Johnny Zito and Tony Trov, writers of Black Cherry Bombshells, Moon Girl, Lamorte Sisters and D.O.G.S. of Mars.
To see what Tony, Johnny and the Robot 6 crew are reading, click the link below.
- January 30, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
Saturday Shelf Porn!
Hello and welcome to the long-running-but-recently-moved Shelf Porn, now on Saturdays to help make your weekend more super. Today’s Super Shelf Porn comes from Jason George, who shares his collection of items featuring the Man of Steel — he’s got statues, toys and even a guitar.
If you’d like to share your collection with the world, please email a write-up and pictures to jkparkin@yahoo.com. We’re always looking for collections large or small, even if it’s just a picture or two … I’ve got a couple of single pictures I’ll group together into one post when I get a few more in. So send’em today!
And now here’s Jason …
- January 29, 2011 @ 12:02 PM by JK Parkin
Hero Initiative on Russ Heath’s knee surgery, Cooke art auction results
Last month Parker: The Outfit creator Darwyn Cooke auctioned off some of his artwork to benefit the Hero Initiative. Now the organization, which provides financial aid for comic book veterans, has announced Cooke presented them with a check for $10,000 — complete with a hilarious faux check presentation ceremony:
According to the post, the Hero Initiative will use the money to help out Will Eisner Award hall of famer Russ Heath, who this past week underwent knee surgery.
“The deposit is well-timed, as yesterday was the day 1960s war comics legend Russ Heath went under the knife for knee replacement surgery,” said the Hero Initiative’s Jim McLauchlin in the post. “We’re happy to report that the surgery was a success, and Russ is resting comfortably. He’ll need the rest, as rehab is several months long, but if there’s one tough SOB who will get through it, even at age 84, it’s Russ Heath. Hero has been and will be along for the ride to help Russ out as well, of course.”
- January 29, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by JK Parkin
Fans petition DC to collect The Monolith
Social networking has done a lot to bring people together on the internet, and comics are no different. Over on Facebook, several determined comics fans have banded together to petition DC Comics to collect The Monolith, a superhero series written by Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti that ran for 12 issues over the course of 2004 and 2005. Primarily illustrated by co-creator Phil Winslade, The Monolith followed a superheroic golem of the Jewish tradition and the granddaughter of one of the people responsible for his creation in the 1930s.
Although DC has yet to comment on it, co-creator Jimmy Palmiotti made a comment early on to the group’s Facebook wall, saying, “This page is hyterical [sic]!!! MONOLITH DOES NEED A TRADE!!!” Co-creator Phil Winslade, as well as several other comics creator have also chimed in, such as Steve Pugh, John McCrea and Joe Jusko.
Since the series’ final issue in March 2005, the Monolith has guest-starred in two subsequent series also written by Gray & Palmiotti — Hawkman #33 and Crisis Aftermath: The Battle for Blüdhaven.
- January 29, 2011 @ 08:00 AM by Chris Arrant
The Fifth Color | The Value of One
I hope this isn't like nails on a chalkboard to anyone
I hate polybags.
The very idea of selling a comic in thick, super-sealed plastic really bothers me. It’s hard to find a reason for them besides keeping you from reading the comic inside. If you want them to be protected, a bag and a board would do better. If you were preserving them for posterity or value, send them to the CGC. Even if you want something like a ‘slipcover’ for your book, something that would hide the actual cover to preserve the front-facing artwork, a stiff sort of outer cover would probably hold up a lot better.
That polybag is going to get ruined if all goes well. The first thing I did when I got the book is cut the darn thing open. OH NO THE VALUE HAS DROPPED! I actually lowered the value of my comic because I tried to read it; essentially, by getting to the value of the book (story, art, content) I ruined its value (collectability, condition). Weird, ain’t it?
So, is this book still valuable?
Well, as in the above, there are different kinds of value to different kinds of people. Not just collectability and content, there are even different levels to how readers approach a story that will calculate its essential worth as opposed to the collector, who will inevitably realize that Fantastic Four #587 will only be worth as much as other people invest into it. That’s the thing about collectibles: anyone can save something forever, it’s just when other people didn’t save that one thing and really want it later on in life that it gets seen on Auction Kings. Just because you saved eight long boxes of Deathmate Black doesn’t mean someone wants to pay you money for them.
There’s been media buzz, people who don’t normally talk about comics have talked about this comic in particular, it’s in a polybag, inside there’s a secret that everyone wants to know the answer to, tons of outside qualities to make Fantastic Four #587 memorable to the public. All of these things are externally tough, and it really takes taking a pair of collapsible knitting scissors to find the real gold in Jonathan Hickman’s web of comic book storytelling. Is this web impenetrable? Is it expertly woven? Is this an organic web or are they self-invented? Click below and find out!
(WARNING: Guys, I can’t even say there are spoilers for this. Marvel themselves totally revealed who exactly it was who died online, so if you’re reading an online Marvel comics column, you probably know by now. If it helps, I don’t say the name of who exactly it is or describe the Big Event, and this should help you explain what all this is to people who haven’t read it, so … I guess I’ll be talking about Fantastic Four #587. Be warned?)
- January 28, 2011 @ 04:00 PM by Carla Hoffman
Quote of the day | Tom Brevoort on the spinner racks of this century
Tom Brevoort
I could spend a tremendous amount of time, effort and energy trying to get comics back onto spinner racks in 7-Elevens. But that would be a waste of resources because the reason there aren’t any spinner racks in 7-Elevens anymore is because they were no longer fiscally feasible. The amount of money those racks generated for the amount of space and maintenance they required was not worthwhile for that organization. All the wishing in the world on my part is not going to change that. I think it’s imperative for us to reach out to the youngest possible demographic and appeal to their sensibilities to draw them into this world, but I think you’re going to see that through digital and animation more than traditional comic book publishing.
–Marvel’s SVP of Publishing Tom Brevoort in his brand-new Axel Alonso-less column “Talk to the Hat” on CBR, noting how 7-Eleven spinner racks are no longer a realistic gateway for kids into comics, despite what some fans may think. He also talks a lot about comics aimed at kids, and shares his thoughts on why certain titles work (Marvel Adventures Spider-Man) and certain titles don’t (Thor: The Mighty Avenger) to bring kids into comics.
- January 28, 2011 @ 03:30 PM by JK Parkin
Drawing a Game of Thrones
Jon Snow and Ghost by Gianluca Maconi
As reported in What Are You Reading?, I am a huge, huge, huge fan of writer George R.R. Martin’s bold, bloody, brilliant epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire. And I pretty much can’t wait for HBO’s adaptation of the series, Game of Thrones, which stars Sean Bean, Peter Dinklage, Mark Addy, and Lena Headey and hits televisions on April 17. Finally, of course, I like comics and cartooning. So here’s a two-great-tastes-that-taste-great-together situation if ever there was one: deviantARTist Gianluca Maconi’s A Song of Ice and Fire gallery, featuring drawings of many of the major characters. That’s the black-clad bastard son Jon Snow and his direwolf Ghost above; click the link for Maconi’s vivaciously drawn takes on the rest of the Stark family, the Lannister siblings, King Robert Baratheon, Danaerys Targaryen and more. (And if you’re curious about the books but aren’t convinced they’re worth your while, allow me to make the case.) Winter can’t come soon enough.
- January 28, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by Sean T. Collins
Axe Cop: The Movie!
Axe Cop: The Movie – Part 1 from Peter Muehlenberg on Vimeo.
Okay, not quite: It’s just a two-minute fan film by Peter Muehlenberg, based on the first installment of the overnight-sensation webcomic written by 6-year-old Malachi Nicolle and illustrated by his 30-year-old brother Ethan. But for God’s sake, film producers of the world, you are looking at a gold mine. With a mustache. And an axe.
- January 28, 2011 @ 02:00 PM by Sean T. Collins