2011 March
Comic artists document San Francisco’s Noise Pop festival
The Fresh & Onlys by Justin Hall
As I mentioned last month, Isotope Comics recruited several comic creators to document San Francisco’s Noise Pop music/arts festival. The team of “Sequential Reporters,” which included Justin Hall, Jamaica Dyer, Greg Hinkle and several more, drew their experiences as they attended concerts, hung out back stage and met the various bands who performed. As you can see from Hall’s entry (above), some of the stories may or may not be completely true.
You can see them all over on the Noise Pop website.
- March 18, 2011 @ 08:00 AM by JK Parkin
ComiXology lets retailers do what retailers do best
Digital comics distributor comiXology announced this week that DC Comics, Image, BOOM!, Dynamite and a number of other publishers have signed on with their Digital Storefront Affiliate program.
The program allows retailers to add a comiXology-run store and comics reader to their websites. Without seeing the numbers, it’s hard to see how good a deal this is for retailers in terms of how much they make on each book. However, it is a more elegant solution to the digital dilemma than Diamond’s digital distribution plan, in which shoppers who are already in the store can buy a download code for a digital comic, and it points to one way that brick-and-mortar retailers can prosper in a changing market: By using their skills and knowledge to sell comics digitally to customers who would never darken the door of a physical comics store.
David Brothers neatly outlines the current digital dilemma in his latest think-piece on digital comics: Publishers (especially DC and Marvel) are deliberately doing a bad job with digital comics so as not to undercut retailers, regarding digital comics as both a threat to the traditional comics infrastructure and too insignificant to bother doing well.
- March 18, 2011 @ 06:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Grumpy Old Fan | That flash of green: DC Comics Solicitations for June 2011
Dear Jack Black: you can be Green Lantern only if you are Arkiss Chummuck. Or G'Nort.
With the Green Lantern movie coming out in the middle of the month, June looms big for DC’s superhero line. Since writer/executive Geoff Johns has become so identified with GL, you’d expect it would be a big month for him too — and indeed, between GL-related items and the Flashpoint event, Johns’ influence is felt all around the June solicitations.
Away we go –!
* * *
MORE LIKE “CASHPOINT,” AMIRITE?
Sometimes I think Flashpoint should completely interrupt DC’s superhero line for three to five months. After all, if all of DC history is changed (again), but the ongoing books can still tell current, normal-timeline stories, aren’t readers just waiting for the reset button to be pushed? Still, whatever suspense might be gained from such a setup is probably outweighed by the aggravation it would cause; not just to readers who’d have to wait out those months, but to DC’s professionals themselves, who’d either have to arrange things logistically to avoid disruptions, or risk leaving an ongoing arc hanging. In any case, obviously none of the regular DC books are going on a break to accommodate and/or reflect Flashpoint — except for The Flash, which is eminently appropriate.
- March 17, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
Comic strip dogs remind you to scoop that poop
Dog poop T-shirt
Threadless has a fetching new T-shirt aimed at spreading the word about the growing epidemic of dog owners who won’t pick up after their pets. The shirt features various cartoon and comic strip dogs and their owners, um, doing their thing, including Snoopy and Charlie Brown, Scooby Doo and Shaggy, and Homer Simpson and Santa’s Little Helper. If I ever had the urge to wear a shirt featuring dogs dropping a deuce, which I haven’t, this would be the shirt for me.
- March 17, 2011 @ 02:20 PM by JK Parkin
Cooke, Sakai, Thompson and more nominated for Reuben Awards
Usagi Yojimbo #134
The National Cartoonists Society has announced the nominees for the 65th annual Reuben Awards, which honor creators in various illustration fields, including comics.
Nominees for the two comic book industry categories — comics books and graphic novels — are:
COMIC BOOKS
Stan Sakai “Usagi Yojimbo”
Chris Samnee “Thor the Mighty Avenger”
Jill Thompson “Beasts of Burden”
GRAPHIC NOVELS
Darwyn Cooke- “The Outfit”
Joyce Farmer “Special Exits”
James Sturm- “Market Day”
You can see the rest of the nominees in animation, comic strip and other categories, over at the NCS website. Winners will be announced over the Memorial Day weekend.
- March 17, 2011 @ 01:12 PM by JK Parkin
To do: An evening with J.G. Jones and John Arcudi in Philadelphia
Art from "Batman: Long Shadows," by J.G. Jones
Comics fans in the Northeast United States who aren’t heading to Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo or Wizard World’s Toronto convention this weekend might considering driving (or riding the Amtrak) to Philadelphia for this event: An evening with artist J.G. Jones and writer John Arcudi at Locust Moon Comics.
The event will be held from 7 to 10 p.m. Friday at the nearly one-year-old store, located at 4040 Locust St., near the University of Pennsylvania campus. Check out the press release after the break.
- March 17, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Terry Moore announces new series
Kachoo raises a glass to Rachel in a C2E2 commission by Terry Moore
Big news over at CBR, where Terry Moore (Strangers in Paradise, Echo) has announced his newest project, Rachel Rising, about a woman who has recently died but isn’t finished with life yet. Kiel Phegley zoomed in and got some details:
“This one will be ongoing because I’m developing a character and a whole world that I want a lot of open possibilities with,” Moore told CBR News. “I’m going for another genre that I love a lot. What I’m doing is that I’m still doing what I do with my character work, but like I’ve added a touch of sci-fi or what have you [to past projects], this one leans towards horror. And it’s not like gory horror or splatter. It’s more like, ‘This is not a town where you want to be on the streets at night.’”
I like it: The sort of horror that makes you uneasy, not grossed out. There’s more at the link, including a brief rundown of the premise of the story.
- March 17, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, an Irish Sketchblog works up Banshee
With today being St. Patrick’s Day, we thought the best way to ring in the holiday was to highlight a little Irish flavor that exists in comics. And who better to do that than the lads at the sketchblog the Eclectic Micks.
EclecticMicks.com is a collection of pro comics artists who happen to be Irish. The line-up includes Angel‘s Stephen Mooney, Thunderbolts artist Declan Shalvey, The Secret of the Kells animator Tomm Moore and several others. Every day they promise a new sketch, with each artist responsible for a certain day’s content.
And either by planning or pure happenstance, one of the group — Declan Shalvey to be exact — has worked up a new take on his fellow countryman… the Irish mutant Banshee. Head on over to the site for some more art — and perchance some more shamrock surprises!
- March 17, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by Chris Arrant
A retcon for the ages: Lex Luthor, cake-taker!
From Superman #709 (art by Eddy Burrows)
It’s days like this that I regret not being a regular reader of Superman.
Via Dean Trippe, Rob Bricken and undoubtedly countless others comes this glorious panel from Superman #709, out now. If you don’t get the reference, then you’ve probably not experienced the wonder that is The Super Dictionary, a bizarre 1978 children’s book that used DC Comics superheroes to define some 4,000 words. (Also, you’ve probably not spent much time on Tumblr.)
Assembled by Warner Educational Services, the surreal 416-page book utilizes an image of Supergirl, I don’t know, winking at a rat to teach kids the word “ever,” and a shot of Joker ready to hurl a woman to her death to illustrate “scream.” And for “forty,” the lil’ ones get a purple jumpsuit-clad Lex Luthor making off with 40 cakes. And that’s terrible.
But with this week’s issue, Superman writer Chris Roberson does the previously inconceivable: He introduces that dark chapter from Luthor’s past into DC canon! And that’s fantastic.
What’s more, if Luthor’s cake-stealing actually happened in the post-Crisis DC Universe, so did Wonder Woman’s tug of war with a shoe-stealing whale, and Hawkman’s possible devouring of the Atom! To heck with Flashpoint — Roberson has created the launching point for the next big DC event.
From The Super Dictionary
- March 17, 2011 @ 06:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
Your Wednesday Sequence 2 | Guido Crepax
Valentina: Magic Lantern (1976), page 17 panels 1-11. Guido Crepax.
On the most basic level, the vast majority of comics are designed to carry information. Panels hold individual units of whatever meaning is being communicated; sequence is there to make sense of them, to display multiple ideas so that the reader can understand them in the order that the artist intends. It’s my feeling that comparisons between comics and literature are both overused and rather unproductive, but the two media do share a fundamental goal: imparting information via the reading experience. Though it may be more valuable in the long run to consider comics next to other visual media, the device of sequence itself is perhaps closest to literature, given that it holds the meanings that go beyond the individual pictures, and that accessing it requires a reader’s active engagement, as opposed to a viewer’s passive reception.
At least, usually it does. While I think the broad classification of “information vehicle” works for a solid 95 percent of comics, it can’t be applied hard and fast to the medium as a whole. That’s because unlike prose, the visual component of comics is just as strong as the intellectual. Sequential art has traditionally been used as a straightforward, literalist storytelling medium, but it operates on the level of pure image also. Comics can be used to transmit sensation, sense experience, as well as more abstract information. They just usually don’t, especially not in sequence. Single panels that hit on the visual level but carry no rhetorical heft are uncommon, but they’re hardly impossible to find, even in an issue of Batman. But extended sequences that operate with the goal of touching readers rather than talking to them are pretty rare, and that’s why Guido Crepax’s comics are so special. Crepax’s sequencing is pure sensuality, with everything from overall design to panel content to the intricate spontaneity of his line created in the pursuit of sheer beauty. This alone is uncommon — how many comics can really be said to place greater importance on pleasantness of effect than some kind of more literal storytelling goal?
- March 16, 2011 @ 04:00 PM by Matt Seneca
Six Seven by 6 | Seven Seas, Seven Superheroes
MTV Geek recently ran a list of their 7 Best Superheroes of the Seven Seas and it got me thinking, as these things are designed to do. I love ocean-adventure comics and appreciate the topic, but on a list of superheroes, I think we can do better than One Piece and Last Airbender. Those are great characters; they’re just not superheroes. Superhero comics are full of fantastic, undersea heroes, so this is my list. To open up spots for some lesser-known (if not exactly obscure) characters, I decided to leave off the obvious Sub-Mariner and Aquaman. We can agree that they deserve to be here; I’m just not confident that I have anything new to say about them.
I worried at first about picking seven characters for a Six by 6 column, but since the precedent has been set…here they are in reverse order:
7. Triton
The Inhumans are a weird, mixed bag of characters. Medusa and Lockjaw are awesome, but Gorgon and Karnak? Not so much. Others – like Black Bolt and Crystal – are entirely dependent on who’s writing them. Triton’s one of the great ones though. An outsider amongst outsiders, Triton wears his strangeness right out there where it counts: on his skin. There’s something awesomely underdoggy about characters who can’t blend in with “normal” people and Triton gets props for not only being a fish-man, but looking like one too.
- March 16, 2011 @ 03:01 PM by Michael May
Japan update: ICv2 calls out Tokyo gov; Stu Levy now a hero
A Swamp Thing cover being auctioned off for Japan
As the drama in Japan continues, we are reminded that comics are everywhere. Tokyopop CEO Stu Levy has been ferrying food and supplies to the victims, charting his progress on Twitter as he goes.
On this side of the ocean, the response is less dramatic but no less heartfelt: Creative types are coming up with all sorts of benefits for Japan. Comics Alliance has a nice roundup of events and art sales, and Daniella Orihuela-Gruber and Michael Huang have set up Anime and Manga Bloggers For Japan, a site where blogger can direct their readers, with links to Doctors Without Borders and Shelterbox. The fan-run One PIece Podcast is planning a 24-hour podcast marathon this weekend that will feature many bloggers and voice actors and hopefully raise $25,000 for the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund. At the Otaku USA site, editor Patrick Macias explains why he is endorsing the Japan Society Earthquake Relief Fund. Dane Ault, of Monkey Minion Press, is auctioning off an original Swamp Thing cover on eBay. And Pinguino Kolb updated me on the We Heart Japan art auction, which happens tomorrow at Meltdown Comics in LA, saying that they are flooded with art and expect lots of celebrities to stop by, so if you’re in LA right now, that’s the place to be—and if you’re not, stay tuned, because they expect to do several more fund-raisers later this month.
- March 16, 2011 @ 02:01 PM by Brigid Alverson
Animators re-team for The Anthology Project
If you do something right, then you of course want to do it again.
A group of animators from the U.S. and Canada have teamed up for a sequel to their critically acclaimed book The Anthology Project. According their website, “The Anthology Project collects the comics of artists unified by their delirious pursuit of compelling narrative and notable artistic work in the medium of sequential art. Its humble intent is only to delight.”
With a list of contributors that spreads across several disciplines, it’s an interesting looking project for someone who’s a fan of the first volume or is hearing about it for the first time. Here are some pages from the book.
- March 16, 2011 @ 01:00 PM by Chris Arrant
Marvel.com editor breaks down why some characters can’t make an ongoing series work
Why is it that certain characters can never seen to make an ongoing series work? They are either B-List players from mainstream titles looking to break out on their own, or new characters introduced that never seemed to take hold on the sales charts. Fans can speculate, bloggers & journalists like me can make conjecture, but what if an actual comics insider breaks down the subject?
Marvel.com editor (and friend of Robot 6) Ben Morse has discussed this topic at length in a column he calls “Why Won’t This Work?” over at the blog The Cool Kids Table, where he posts with other Wizard alums Rickey Purdin (DC Editor) and Kiel Phegley (CBR’s News Editor). Morse has reviewed several characters and their inability to make a long-term viable series, such as the most recent post about Marvel’s Deathlok. Morse isn’t afraid to look at DC either, spending time and words looking at DC’s Martian Manhunter and Steel, and our own Kiel Phegley got in on the act, talking about Marvel’s Captain Marvel.
This is definitely a subject ripe for further review, and we hope Ben and the CKT crew do more of this in the future. What character or team would you like to see them review?
- March 16, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by Chris Arrant
Finalists announced for 2011 Doug Wright Awards
Reid Fleming
The Doug Wright Awards have announced their finalists for 2011. Established in 2004 and named after cartoonist Doug Wright, the awards recognize Canadian comics and graphic novels.
The nominees for Best Book are:
* Bigfoot by Pascal Girard (Drawn and Quarterly)
* Chimo by David Collier (Conundrum Press)
* Lose #2 by Michael DeForge (Koyama Press)
* Moving Pictures by Kathryn Immonen, Stuart Immonen (Top Shelf Productions)
* Streakers by Nick Maandag
The nominees for Best Emerging Talent are:
* Aaron Costain, Entropy # 5
* Alex Fellows, Spain and Morocco
* Keith Jones, Catland Empire (Drawn and Quarterly)
* James Stokoe, Orc Stain Volume One (Image)
* Tin Can Forest (aka Marek Colek and Pat Shewchuk),Baba Yaga and the Wolf (Koyama Press)
- March 16, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by JK Parkin