2011 March
Good Lord, do these Floyd Gottfredson Mickey Mouse comics look amazing
Over on the CBR mothership, Shaun Manning interviews Fantagraphics co-publisher Gary Groth about his upcoming reprints of the Mickey Mouse comic strips by artist Floyd Gottfredson, kicking off with Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse, vol. 1: The Race to Death Valley in May. With his trademark blend of erudition and bluntness, Groth details the nuts and bolts of the whole project: The reason Mickey Mouse’s comic strip was an action-adventure serial to begin with, Mickey’s surprisingly feisty personality, the basics on the first few storylines being collected, the essays and other supplemental materials being included in the package, the eventual inclusion of racist material and other items of potential controversy, how big the books will be, and even a bit about Fantagraphics’ parallel plan to release the complete Carl Barks Disney Ducks comics. But I’m sure Groth wouldn’t mind if I said that the real star attraction for the piece are the actual Gottfredson strips used to illustrate it. Simply put, my jaw literally dropped once I opened up these action-packed images, so impressed was I by their power and grace. And since most of Gottfredson’s work has been reprinted rarely, if that, chances are you’ll be bowled over too. Click on over and check them out for yourself.
- March 1, 2011 @ 12:30 PM by Sean T. Collins
March means MODOK madness
MODOK SMASH!
Remember all the hubbub earlier this year around everyone’s Zodiac sign changing when really nobody’s Zodiac sign changed? There was widespread panic about it for a couple of days before everything was okay again, and during the mass confusion I thought about starting an initiative to have MODOK declared my own personal Zodiac sign. But then everything returned to normal, and I guess I missed my window.
So, like Ophiuchus, M.O.D.O.K. may have missed his chance to have his own day-by-day calendar, but at least he still has March. Once again the folks over at the March MODOK Madness blog are posting all sorts of artwork honoring everyone’s favorite giant head. In addition, MightyFine T-shirts, who do the build-your-own Scott Pilgrim shirts, have added MODOK to their mix. Currently they offer shirts featuring MODOk dressed as Captain America, Thor and Hulk (as well as in original MODOK goodness), and they’re also asking fans to tell them what other Marvel characters he should dress as. So head over to either site and share in the MODOK love.
- March 1, 2011 @ 11:30 AM by JK Parkin
Project: Rooftop casts a wider net for Aquaman redesign contest
Aquaman by Giorgio Viola
Project:Rooftop just wrapped up one of their character redesign contests, this time for Aquaman. This contest was a bit different than past ones, as they reached out to several other sites that host redesign competitions, including Whitechapel, Superhero Cocoa and Superhero of the Month. Above is my favorite of the runners up, by artist Giorgio Viola.
You can see all the winners and runners up over at Project: Rooftop.
- March 1, 2011 @ 10:30 AM by JK Parkin
The March edition of Ten-Minute Tokyopop
Love, hate, OCD, ghosts … High school never goes smoothly, especially in manga. Tokyopop is launching three promising new series in March, and they have second volumes of a couple more, so it seemed like a good time to do another quick roundup of their new releases. This is actually quite a strong lineup; each of these five books is well done and fits neatly into the well-worn genres, yet each offers something more. Eensy Weensy Monster and Skyblue Shore, both of which are up to volume 2, are my choices for the best reads of the month.
Eensy Weensy Monster, vol. 2: This is a two-volume romantic comedy by Masami Tsuda, the creator of Kare Kano. A lot of hardcore manga fans won’t be able to make it through that sentence without clicking over to Amazon to buy it; it’s short, witty, and well drawn, so that’s a good call. Tsuda puts a sly twist on the basic high school romance: average-girl Nanoha goes nuts whenever she sees her schoolmate Hazuki, a handsome but vain guy known to his fan club as “The Prince.” Nanoha sees her rage as an ugly little monster living inside her, but when the monster takes over and she tells Hazuki off, he has an epiphany and decides he wants to be humble and sincere—and only Nanoha can teach him these things. He then follows her around like a puppy, which just enrages her even more. It’s an upside-down version of the classic shojo story and Tsuda pulls it off beautifully. The pick of the month!
- March 1, 2011 @ 09:30 AM by Brigid Alverson
Dave Kellett shows off his original art
A George McManus Bringing up Father strip from Dave Kellett's studio
Dave Kellett has posted a set of photos of original art he has hanging in Small Fish Studios, including a few fan-made objects and original comic art by everyone from Mort Walker to Dylan Meconis. Dave is the creator of the long-running webcomic Sheldon, and the newer sci-fi comic Drive. The interesting thing about these photos is they are showing the strips as objects, but I really wanted to read them. Alas, the tinted glass and occasional awkward angle make that hard to do. (Alas, Kellett has hung his artwork up high.) Still, it’s worth clicking over to see an original Richard Thompson piece, David Malki’s Wondermark-esque take on Sheldon, and even an 18th-century print by the godfather of sequential art, William Hogarth.
(Via The Daily Cartoonist. Photo (c) All rights reserved by smallfishstudios)
- March 1, 2011 @ 08:40 AM by Brigid Alverson