2011 February
Grumpy Old Fan | The earnestness of being important
The Flash #163
As we all know by now, DC’s big summer event Flashpoint includes the main five-issue miniseries, fifteen three-issue miniseries, and an as-yet-undisclosed number of one-shots. My first reaction to this format was along the lines of oh good, just five issues. I take it this is a minority opinion.
To be sure, it makes Greater Flashpoint about 90% ancillary, and that is a proportion more suited for profit than for narrative. There is also the notion that DC is diverting resources to all those tie-ins which could just as easily have been used on projects aimed outside the insular superhero readership.* It’s usually the case with these kinds of events that you buy the titles you want and you leave the rest on the shelf; but here, the sheer magnitude of tie-ins suggests that DC is doubling down on Flashpoint in a very specific, market-targeting way which will be hard to ignore.
- February 3, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
Blaise Larmee’s spacey new webcomic 2001
Trust me, you’ll want to click this link — the image above doesn’t begin to do justice to 2001, the new webcomic from Xeric Grant winner Blaise Larmee (Young Lions). The comic’s vast starfields (and/or snowstorms) cover Larmee’s entire site, truly giving a “ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space” feel to the actions of its running, leaping, dancing, chatting characters. I’m generally a skeptic about the notion that webcomics aren’t worth reading unless they’re taking advantage of the Internet’s unique properties — no one says “I don’t use Netflix Instant because I want each ten-minute chunk of every movie to be in a separate, embeddable YouTube clip” — but when someone does do something with their digital canvas as impactful as what cartoonist (and Gaze Books publisher) Larmee is doing here, it’s worth standing up and taking notice.
- February 3, 2011 @ 02:00 PM by Sean T. Collins
Process: Nick Bertozzi draws Lewis & Clark
At the First Second blog, Nick Bertozzi takes us through a page of his newest graphic novel, Lewis & Clark, which is due out later this spring—including lessons learned:
I tried using a new roughing technique for LEWIS & CLARK, putting together all of my layout using Adobe Illustrator. It’s great for positioning text exactly where you want it, but drawing right onto a computer is a crazy idea. Just think, you can draw your image up to 800% magnification which means the awesome detail that you’re drawing on Meriwether Lewis’s epaulets will look like a muddy splotch at 100% magnification. Stay AWAY from the zoom tool is my advice here.
Incidentally, I have an advance copy of this and it looks awesome—it’s a historical tale told with a light touch and plenty of humor, and it’s well worth checking out.
- February 3, 2011 @ 01:00 PM by Brigid Alverson
MoCCA adds two new staff
MoCCA
The Museum of Comic & Cartoon Art in New York, or MoCCA, today announced they’ve hired two new staff to replace departing Museum Director Karl Erickson, who left late last year.
“During the search process, the Board of Trustees realized that the museum’s growth has made it necessary to fill a wide variety of skill sets in order to help MoCCA achieve its future goals,” said Museum President Ellen Abramowitz. “There was clearly a need to build greater leadership capacity at the staff level in order for us to continue growing. Sometimes when you have big shoes to fill, it makes more sense to add an extra set of feet.”
Cartoonist Doug Bratton will take on the role of museum manager/director of development, and Mell Scalzi has been hired to serve as registrar. Per a press release that you can find after the jump, both have worked with the museum in the past.
Both will work on the upcoming MoCCA Festival, set for April 9-10, as well as “a 10-Year Anniversary Celebration that will include the unveiling of future plans for a permanent, state-of-the-art facility.”
Check out the full press release after the jump.
- February 3, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
Are teasers big pleasers in comics marketing?
Although they’ve existed in comics — and other entertainment mediums — for years, it’s only recently that comics readers are seeing so many of them.
Teasers.
From last summer’s “I Am An Avenger” campaign rolling out the “Heroic Age” era members of the flagship team to DC’s recent Flashpoint teasers with simply a logo and some text. Image Comics has even taken part in this trend, with not-so-subtle jabs at it in the parody “I am A Guardian” with characters like Gary Popper, and the month-long string of teasers hyping the upcoming Butcher Baker series.
They’ve become a well-worn tool in every comic publisher’s marketing toolkit — and with good reason. A well-crafted teaser sparks the minds of the comic-buying public’s imagination, much in the same way as a good cliffhanger at the end of an issue would. And better yet, they don’t really have to spend anything to circulate these promos; comic websites large and small, including ours, snap them up and readers seem to follow suit. You could call them advertisements, but “advertisement” means a paid announcement, and these are more like flyers solicited through the comics sites.
But why are they so popular? We asked the experts — the people that are using them — to find out.
- February 3, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by Chris Arrant
Voting opens for the first Stan Lee Awards
Voting is open for the inaugural Stan Lee Awards, presented in conjunction with Kapow Comic Con to recognize “the cream of comic book talent for all their creativity and imagination.”
The finalists in each of the 12 categories were selected from nominations submitted by a panel composed of actors Seth Rogan and Clark Duke, Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof, retailers, and comics and entertainment journalists.
Online voting continues through March 4. The winners will be announced April 9 during a ceremony at Kapow Comic Con in London. The nominees are:
- February 3, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Blogging the Best American Comics
Well this is gonna be a heckuva resource: Best American Comics editors (and fine cartoonists in their own right) Jessica Abel and Matt Madden have launched a series of posts on their Drawing Words and Writing Pictures blog called Notables, in which they’ll shine the spotlight on every single one of the 71 “Notable” comics (aka Honorable Mentions) listed in the back of the Neil Gaiman guest-edited 2010 edition of the anthology. Says Abel:
…when looking for good comics to read, why limit yourself? We’ve always hoped readers will delve a bit into the list to find more great stories once they finish reading BAC. Realistically, though, we know that’s tough. What can you know about a story from a title and author?
Hence the blog posts, which tell you much more about each book — including recommended age guidelines for curious librarians and educators. So far they’ve fleshed out their recommendations for Kevin Cannon’s Far Arden, Mat Brinkman’s Multiforce, CF’s Powr Mastrs, Tim Hamilton’s Fahrenheit 451 adaptation, Nick Bertozzi’s “How and Why to Bale Hay” and more. They’re doing a book a day until the list is done, so keep tuning in.
- February 3, 2011 @ 09:30 AM by Sean T. Collins
The Webcomic List Awards are presented… in a webcomic
The envelope please! The 2010 Webcomic List Awards are out, after a slight delay, and just like last year, they are presented in a webcomic, a sort of sequential-art version of the standard TV awards show. This is actually a nice format as it allows them to present a sample of each nominated comic without making the reader click away from the page. Plus it’s well done. (Don’t miss the little companion comic at the bottom about the latecomers racing to the ceremony. I was hoping there would be a webcomic afterparty in which the creators and judges get drunk and disgrace themselves in entertaining ways, but no dice.)
The organizers don’t seem to have posted a single list of the winners anywhere, so the only way to find them is by reading the whole webcomic. Which isn’t so bad, really, but if you’re in a hurry to find a good webcomic (and who isn’t?), here’s the list:
- Best Writing: xkcd
- Best Colour Art: Dresden Codak
- Best Black and White Webcomic: The Abominable Charles Christopher
- Best Non-Traditional Art: Romantically Apocalyptic
- Best Character: Cleo, from Cleopatra in Space
- Best Long Form Webcomic: The Abominable Charles Christopher
- Best Gag-a-Day Webcomic: Bug
- Best New Comic: Scenes from a Multiverse
- Best Comic: Red’s Planet
This is the second year for the Webcomic List Awards, which grew out of the forums for The Webcomic List.
- February 3, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Comics A.M. | Comic-Con registration tips, pledge for ‘a strong Borders’
Comic-Con International
Comic-Con | Lori Weisberg provides a reminder, and a primer, for online registration for Comic-Con International, which goes live Saturday at 9 a.m. Pacific. Registration is for daily passes and four-day memberships without Preview Night. Those with the Wednesday preview sold out on the final day of the 2010 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) — plus a $2 processing fee for each badge. Comic-Con will be held July 20-24 in San Diego. [San Diego Union-Tribune]
Retailing | Responding to reports that Borders Group may file for bankruptcy as early as next week, a spokeswoman asserts the struggling book chain intends to stay in business. “Our goal is to have a strong Borders for the long term, ” Borders spokeswoman Mary Davis said. “As such, Borders is involved in discussions with multiple parties – including lenders, vendors, landlords and other business partners – to determine the route that will provide it with the best opportunity to move forward with its business strategy.” [The Plain Dealer]
- February 3, 2011 @ 08:19 AM by Kevin Melrose
Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs | The Creator-Owned “Revolution”
Steve Niles
There’s some disagreement about where it started, but it couldn’t have been much earlier than Steve Niles’ blog post, which is where I first heard about it. Some credit Eric Powell and it’s true that this is a drum that he’s been beating for a while now. As has Robert Kirkman and others. But Niles’ post last week called for specific action (that doesn’t necessarily require walking away from well-paying corporate gigs) and inspired a flurry of opinions and commentary about supporting creator-owned comics and what that really means. Readers and creators alike have been talking so excitedly about it that some have called it a revolution. But is that really what it is? And if so, a revolution of what? Since most of the books this column covers are creator-owned, these are good questions to try to answer here.
When Kevin quoted Niles’ post for Robot 6, he pulled this piece of it: “Can I say something I’ve wanted to say for a long time? If you like something, tell your friends. If you love it, tell the world. But if you hate something, just throw it away, don’t buy it again and move on. We spend way too much time tearing shit down. I just want to try the other direction for a while.”
The commentary on that quote was split between defensive and supportive. “I don’t get that logic,” wrote one person. “That’s like going to see a movie and finding out it’s really, really horrible. Then you hear that a dozen of your friends are going to see that same movie. Wouldn’t you want to warn them about what they are about to endure, the time they will waste, the money they will lose, etc, etc?”
- February 2, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by Michael May
After Zuda, the War continues at comiXology
War of the Woods
A little more than a year ago, Matthew Petz saw his webcomic War of the Woods win Zuda’s monthly contest. A few months later, Zuda ended their monthly contests, then shut down the website and by the fall the imprint was shuttered by DC — all before Petz’s strip ever began its run on the site.
“A year ago this month I was trying to win the Zuda competition. I finally DID pull off the win…only to watch Zuda fold a few months later,” Petz told me last week. “That was kinda brutal.”
But the end of Zuda wouldn’t mean the end of the strip, as War of the Woods, like several other former Zuda strips, has found a new home on comiXology. But while some of the strips offered on Zuda are still being sold and branded under the Zuda imprint — and through the DC-branded application for the iPhone and iPad — Petz’s strip is now completely creator-owned.
- February 2, 2011 @ 02:00 PM by JK Parkin
Niles, Morse team for Crime and Terror ongoing
Crime and Terror
Scott Morse (Strange Science Fantasy, Soulwind) and Steve Niles (30 Days of Night,Criminal Macabre) are teaming up on a new monthly series called Crime and Terror. Both writers announced the project on their respective blogs.
“It’s filled with episodes detailing the events in the life of a detective named Mike Fallon who’s going through some serious personal problems,” Morse said on his blog. “On top of THAT, we’ll be smacking you upside the head with a bunch of short, stand-alone stories: noir, horror, sci-fi, whatever we want. All drawn by me, some written by me, some by Steve. On top of THAT, we’ll be throwing in new prose stories with spot-illos by me. Seriously, monthly is the plan, and every month, you’ll cry with glee as you scream your face off.”
“I’m thrilled about this project,” Niles told me over email. “It’s sort of the ultimate DIY book, Scott and I are emailing each other back and forth with stories and ideas and we’re going straight to the comic page! Scott is incredible and fast and the excitement of see thing thing grow daily is amazing. I did a small Frankenstein book with Scott years ago but that was more of a case of my writing and him doing the art. This is immediate, and spontaneous and I’m loving the results.”
The Frankenstein story appeared in the IDW-published Big Book of Horror, which also included Niles’ collaborations with artists Ted McKeever and Richard Sala.
“Scott and I have known each other for years. I think we actually met at House of Secret, a comic store in Burbank where we all hang. Scott and I both have a huge love of pulp and the pre-hero monster books. Scott actually reads Tales to Astonish and books like that to his boys. I love that,” Niles said. “So we’re doing this. We have no idea where it will wind up, but we’re doing it.”
Morse, whose day job at Pixar keeps him pretty busy, also noted he’s working on another five-issue series for later this year called Ten Against the World, which he described as “hot rods and monsters, Rebel Without A Cause a’la pre-hero Kirby. Kinetic, insane, pure comic.”
- February 2, 2011 @ 01:01 PM by JK Parkin
Fine Artist Mike Kelley uncorks Superman’s Kandor
Kandor 18 B, 2010 by Mike Kelley
Comics and fine art have a long history together — from Roy Lichtenstein’s appropriated comic panels re-imagined as fine art to fine artists spending time in comics. But in a new exhibition at Los Angeles’ Gagosian Gallery, one artist highlights not the characters of comics — but the amazing worlds.
In a series of sculptures titled “Cities,” artist Mike Kelley has sculpted different representations of the Kryptonian city of Kandor. Referred to in conversations by the artist as “common images of the city of the future,” these pieces — 20 in all — are scale models based on specific comic book panels depicting Kandor throughout comic history.
If you’re in the L.A. area, the show is on display through Feb. 19.
(via PictureBox)
- February 2, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by Chris Arrant
Bantam and Dynamite to adapt George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire
Jon Snow sketch, by Tommy Patterson
Bantam Books has acquired the worldwide comic-book rights to George R.R. Martin’s bestselling fantasy epic A Song of Ice and Fire for a monthly series published by Dynamite Entertainment. Collected editions will follow under the Bantam imprint.
The comic, by writer Daniel Abraham (Fevre Dream, The Hard Call) and artist Tommy Patterson (Farscape, Tales from Wonderland), will debut in the late spring, around the time the television adaptation Game of Thrones premieres in April on HBO.
“With so much top rank talent to pick from, it was a tough choice,” Martin writes on his blog, “but Daniel and I and our editors at Bantam and Dynamite were all knocked out by the character sketches and sample pages that Tommy submitted.”
Debuting in 1996, Martin’s planned seven-book saga is set primarily on the mythical medieval continent of Westeros, whose seven kingdoms are torn between a dynastic civil war, a threat of invasion from the North and the impending return of the rightful heir to the Iron Throne.
Read the official press release, and see another character sketch, after the break.
- February 2, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Artists with Cartoon Sensibility: Cartoon Polymaths, the exhibit
Note: An earlier version of this story identified Kevin Huizenga as an artist in the exhibit; rather than exhibiting, he has a 2-page comic about the show that’s given out as a handout.
At New York City’s Parsons Art & Design College, aficionados of comics, cartoons or just fine art in general are getting something special to look at starting Feb. 4: a new exhibition called “Cartoon Polymaths”. Curated by Bill Kartalopoulis and set to open this Thursday, this exhibition of multimedia work profiles several high-profile artists who are cartoonists themselves or show “cartoon sensibility.” The premise of the exhibit, taken from Parsons’ website, is: “While the word cartoon is usually associated with humorous line drawing, the form has a deep influence across many types of art and design, from animation and children’s books to puppetry and product design. What is it about the cartoon that permits—or enables—such an evolution? “
On display will be newspaper tearsheets, comics, puppets, posters, zines, animated clips and other media from artists such as Winsor McCay, Saul Steinberg, Kevin Huizenga and more. The show’s organizers even commissioned Kevin Huizenga for a two-page comic about the show that’s available as a free booklet. In addition to the exhibition itself, Parsons and Bill Kartalopoulos are coordinating a slate of public programs for the area featuring Ricard McGuire, R. Sikoryak and Jacob Ciocci.
The exhibition opens Friday, Feb. 4 at Parsons’ Sheila C. Johnson Design Center and will be on display through April 15. An opening reception will be held Thursday, Feb. 3 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
- February 2, 2011 @ 10:32 AM by Chris Arrant