2011 May
The Fifth Color | The fight for your first comic
This Threat Doesn't Always Work
If you’re reading this, you had a first comic. You probably can even remember the issue number. Often times, just the words “first comic” automatically conjure up images and speech bubbles freshly discovered to new eyes. Some of you may have liked your first comic, some of you may have had to read a couple before that shining moment of comic book glory arrived, but without a doubt, there’s always your first.
It’s odd to think, then, that there’s a segment of the pop culture populace that doesn’t really know how comics work. It’s like being aware of a hit TV show for them; yeah, they heard the name or saw a commercial when watching Dancing With the Stars, but they don’t watch it. Comic shop employees have probably heard the stupefied question, “They still make comic books?” on more than one occasion in a store that has comic books clearly on display. They might even have “comic books” in the name of their establishment, leading me to wonder whether people have walked into shoe stores surprised that they still put laces on the things. Still, they are out there: the new readers. It’s a just and important cause to make sure you are “new reader friendly” in the industry, because no matter how much money movies bring in, comics are a steady serial income. They are a unique staple of Americana in their own way, and it would be a sad day when you couldn’t read sequential pictures and words that tell a story on a monthly basis.
So let’s attract that new reader! Let’s be new reader friendly! I believe that children are our future, show them Spider-Man and let them lead the way! But should we give them everything? Should we be so reader-friendly that everyone who stuck with the Clone Saga and Chuck Austen’s X-Men be left in the cold for their dedication? New isn’t always better, and a continual reboot of your product or characters may leave them kind of teflon-like, where no story sticks and all your attachment wipes clean with a #1 issue.
Continue Reading »
- May 27, 2011 @ 03:30 PM by Carla Hoffman
Comics College | Jason
I Killed Adolf Hitler
Comics College is a monthly feature where we provide an introductory guide to some of the comics medium’s most important auteurs and offer our best educated suggestions on how to become familiar with their body of work.
With a few notable exceptions, most European cartoonists have a tough time getting noticed by U.S. audiences. That’s definitely not the case, however, with this month’s Comics College entry, the Norwegian artist John Arne Sæterøy, better known to most American readers by his pen name, Jason.
- May 27, 2011 @ 02:00 PM by Chris Mautner
SLG offers digital Sanctuary for free
SLG describes Stephen Coughlin’s series Sanctuary as part Lost, part Island of Dr. Moreau and part Jungle Book. The Jungle Book influence is easy to get from all the talking animals, but the other two aren’t as immediately apparent. At first Sanctuary reads more like Madagascar, a simple story about a bunch of funny animals hanging out at the zoo.
But things get strange quickly when Coughlin reveals that there are no visitors to this zoo and that the humans running the place may not be helping the animals. And then the first death occurs.
Sanctuary #1 can be downloaded for free from the SLG store.
- May 27, 2011 @ 01:00 PM by Michael May
Robot 6 presents Icarus #2, page 6
Icarus is a comic by Ryan Cody and is serialized here on Robot 6, with new pages every Monday, Wednesday & Friday. Comments welcome.
This weekend I will be a guest at The Phoenix Comic-Con. Stop by table #555 and say hi if you’ll be attending.
Ryan Cody is the creator, artist, writer, & colorist of ICARUS, a bi-monthly super-powered adventure/espionage book published through Super 75 Comics. Ryan’s past projects include illustrating the graphic novel VILLAINS forViper
Comics as well as contributing to the Eisner-Award winning anthology, Popgun Vol.3, from Image comics.ICARUS #1 is currently available as both a .99 digital download and in print. For more information or to order a print copy of ICARUS, please visit www.super75comics.com
- May 27, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by Ryan Cody
I’m not just pussyfooting around this time, Batman!
I like to imagine that “Love Signal“, Mike Maihack’s contribution to this year’s HeroesCon art auction is a prequel to that Morning After drawing by Natalie Nourigat.
- May 27, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by Michael May
iTunes store now lets you search for comics
ICv2 has news that the iTunes search engine now reaches all the way in to in-app purchases. That should make life a lot easier comics readers, especially those new to the system who haven’t yet internalized which comics are on comiXology and which are on Comics+ or Graphicly — or only in a single-publisher app.
This solves the problem I pointed out in December, that with no universal search engine, digital comics were becoming a walled kingdom. However, the search function has a ways to go. Searching on Stan Lee’s Starborn, which seemed like a good test case, returned six different apps that include the comic. However, the search results only lead to the app, not to the comic itself. The user still has to exit the iTunes store, go to the app, and search within the app to find the comic. Extra steps? That is not the sort of elegant user interface we iPad users are accustomed to. In a case like Starborn, where the comic is in multiple apps, readers who are new to comics may be confused by the multiplicity of choices. And it did occur to me to wonder what the logic is behind the order of the search results — why is comiXology first and Stan Lee’s own app in the last row?
Beyond that, the double search means that bad results are a bigger headache. Checking to see if scanlations linked to by bootleg manga apps were included in the search results (they aren’t), I searched for “Fairy Tail,” the name of a Kodansha manga, knowing that it is not available digitally. ComiXology turned up as the first search result, but of course (I double-checked), Fairy Tail isn’t included in comiXology. I’m sure there are comics with the words “fairy” and “tail” in their titles in the comiXology roster, and the result is that the user is led on a frustrating wild goose chase. One obvious way to reduce the incidence of bad results would be for the iTunes search engine to allow users to search on an exact phrase by enclosing it in quotes, as Google does, but that doesn’t seem to be the case (at least, I got the same funny results when I put “Fairy Tail” in quotes).
The new capability has the obvious benefit of drawing in readers who are new to comics. This wasn’t really possible before, but now if someone searches on, say, “Green Lantern,” they get the comics apps. The dedicated Scott Pilgrim and The Walking Dead apps were created precisely to address this problem, and while apps like that will still have some value, the new capability means they will no longer be necessary.
- May 27, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Cryptozoic brings back Warcraft manga
All over the Internet, folks (myself included) have been speculating about the fate of Tokyopop’s licenses once the publisher closes up shop next week. Fans have been listing their favorites, but I don’t think anyone would have guessed that the first license rescue would be a global manga. But it’s true: Cryptozoic Entertainment has acquired the digital rights to Tokyopop’s World of Warcraft and Starcraft manga, created under a deal with WoW parent company Blizzard, and today released them on the Cryptozoic iPad app. The app is free, and the first volume of Warcraft: Legends will be free through June 2; other than that, the manga is $5.99 a volume.
If you have never heard of Cryptozoic, don’t feel bad — the company was only founded in March 2010 — but now might be a good time to start paying attention. It makes comics, trading cards, and games, and its line includes the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game and The Walking Dead board game. The iPad app, provided by iVerse, also includes IDW’s Locke and Key comics, but the Warcraft and Starcraft manga are a big get, because fans can’t seem to get enough of those franchises.
(Hat tip: Steve Horton, via Twitter)
- May 27, 2011 @ 08:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Comics A.M. | PC Weenies call it quits; own a piece of Tokyopop
The PC Weenies
Webcomics | Cartoonist Krishna M. Sadasivam has announced he’s ending his popular webcomic The PC Weenies after 13 years. Thursday’s strip will be the last, “at least for some time.” In a post on his website, Sadasivam cites, among other reasons, a desire to focus on illustration, a plateauing audience and, “the biggie,” bills. “We’ve had a few emergency setbacks recently (two huge car repairs, a crazy water bill from hell, etc.) that are putting the squeeze on us financially. Big time,” he writes. “The time I spend on making the comic could be better spent on other income-generating areas, and right now I have to do what’s best for my family.” [PCWeenies.com]
Publishing | Ahead of the official closing of Tokyopop’s publishing division in Los Angeles on Tuesday, two of the company’s lighted metal signs have popped up for sale on Craigslist. [Anime News Network]
Comic-Con | Spurred by a recent newspaper profile that revealed the offices of Comic-Con International aren’t located in San Diego but rather nearby La Mesa, the city’s business license officer did a little research and discovered that convention organizers have been operating in the suburb for five years without a business license. Comic-Con has until June 2 to comply with La mesa city laws by submitting a business license application and the required fees. [Poway Patch]
- May 27, 2011 @ 07:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Grumpy Old Fan | Robin, The Flash, changes and rollbacks
Tim Drake and Wally West, in Robin #62
This is not necessarily another post about DC’s post-Flashpoint superhero titles. However, since we superhero readers must deal with a climate of perpetual change, I often wonder just how far DC could go in rolling back its big changes.
In a sense, the first big set of changes started in 1956, with Barry Allen’s debut as the new Flash. Barry’s introduction acknowledged explicitly that there had been a previous (albeit “fictional”) Flash, whose name Barry took and whose costume was Barry’s inspiration. You know the rest: new versions of Green Lantern, the Atom, Hawkman, etc., followed; they all teamed up as an updated Justice Society called the “Justice League”; and they were joined by a number of new characters like Adam Strange, the Hawk and the Dove, and the Doom Patrol.
After that, though, DC’s Silver Age of the 1960s was exciting but uneventful, because (outside of a few marriages) its status quo was never really challenged. Accordingly, when the Doom Patrol was murdered (in September 1968′s issue #121) and Dick Grayson left Wayne Manor (in December 1969′s Batman #217), DC’s shared superhero universe moved into a new phase.
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- May 26, 2011 @ 02:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
Is Superman still renouncing his citizenship?
The Internet may have exploded when Superman announced his intention to renounce his U.S. citizenship last month in Action Comics #900, but there was no similar hullabaloo two weeks ago when he kissed and made up in Superman #711.
What should we make of this apparent reversal in attitude? Is Superman #711 even meant as a commentary on Action #900? Doubtful. The issue of citizenship isn’t even brought up. Most likely it’s a case of left and right hands not talking to each other.
One of the most frustrating things about keeping up with corporate characters across multiple series is these inconsistencies. Usually it’s just something like, “Hey, why is Batman teaming up with Wonder Woman in this story? They just had a huge, unresolved fight over in Detective Comics.” But when it involves a story that received national attention from the general news media, it’s especially jarring.
As a reader, how do you resolve these situations in your mind? Do you even feel it’s an issue? Do you think Superman is still going to renounce his citizenship? Do you believe he ever really was?
- May 26, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by Michael May
Comic Strips to Comic Flicks: Marv Wolfman movies they haven’t made (yet)
In recent years, we’ve seen a boatload of comic books and graphic novels make their way to the silver screen, from Big Two stalwarts like Spider-Man and Batman to independent titles like Scott Pilgrim and 30 Days Of Night. Among the various adaptations, though, is an overlooked veteran who has fueled some of comics biggest successes on the big and small screen: Marv Wolfman.
With this year marking his 43rd year in the comic industry, Marv Wolfman has done it all: he’s been editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics, wrote one of the defining event series of all time in Crisis On Infinite Earths and created memorable characters such as Blade, Black Cat, Nova, Deathstroke and the New Teen Titans. He pioneered the idea of inventory stories at the major publishing houses, and as a creator he was the catalyst for companies to start crediting creators by name in comics. He’s been one of the key figures in comics adaptations in video games and animation, scripting episodes of Teen Titans, Batman: The Animated Series, Transformers, Spider-Man, Cadillacs & Dinosaurs and even some non-comics hits like Jem and The Garbage Pail Kids.
Marvel’s first major Hollywood success came thanks to the Marv Wolfman & Gene Colan creation of Blade, and his work on The New Teen Titans was one of the pillars of successful Teen Titans cartoon. But with all that work out there, comics still has a lot of Wolfman gems to offer movie producers. Here’s a highlight of some natural born hits coming from the mind of Wolfman and his collaborators.
- May 26, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by Chris Arrant
Holy Hi-Tops, Batman!
Journeys is selling Converse All Star Hi-Tops featuring a selection of DC superheroes for $60. Fans can choose between Superman, Batman, Green Lantern (in two styles, one featuring other members of the Corp), The Flash and The Joker.
Which would you get? Or would you rather hold out for another character?
- May 26, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by Michael May
Talking Comics with Tim | Nick Dragotta
Pages from Vengeance 1
If you were one of those folks who not heard of artist Nick Dragotta before this year, it’s quite feasible you learned about the storyteller after his work on Fantastic Four 588 (the silent mourning for Johnny Storm issue). If Dragotta’s next project is half as successful as I expect it to be, even more folks will know and like his art. That project? He and writer Joe Casey’s six-issue Marvel miniseries, Vengeance [set to be released July 6]. As described by Marvel: “When MAGNETO of the X-Men tries to rescue a young Mutant on the run, he accidently kicks off a series of events that will shake the very Marvel Universe to it’s core! Who are the new TEEN BRIGADE?! Who are the Brotherhood and what do they want with the YOUNG MASTERS OF EVIL?! And how is the RED SKULL pulling the strings from beyond the grave?” My thanks to Dragotta for the interview (and for the above preview art from the first issue). Once you’ve read this interview, be sure to also read Timothy Callahan’s When Words Collide column/Joe Casey interview.
- May 26, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by Tim O'Shea
Car damages Superman tribute fence surrounding site of Shuster home
The plates on the fence surrounding the site of the Shuster family home (via CapedWonder)
A month after thieves stole a historical marker near the Cleveland house where Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created the Man of Steel, a man drove through the fence surrounding the site of Shuster’s former home on Tuesday night, damaging large metal plates that reprint the first Superman story.
According to The Plain Dealer, the driver is believed to be a neighbor, who’s offering to pay the estimated $2,600 to replace the seven plates he destroyed. The panels, which reprint pages from Action Comics #1, were installed two years ago by the Glenville Development Corporation and the Siegel and Shuster Society.
There is good news, though, at least regarding the historical marker: The newspaper reports that the plaque, stolen in April from the intersection of St. Clair Avenue and East 105th Street, was left at the Glenville neighborhood fire station, presumably because of the intense publicity surrounding the theft. It’s thought that the aluminum sign was taken by scrap-metal thieves who mistook it for bronze because of its coloring.
- May 26, 2011 @ 08:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Warner Bros. may get access to sensitive papers in Superman battle
Action Comics #1
A ruling by a federal magistrate judge could open the door for Warner Bros. to gain access to confidential documents the studio insists support its claims against the attorney representing the heirs of creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in their fight for the rights to Superman.
Variety reports that U.S. Magistrate Judge Ralph Zarefsky ruled Wednesday that the documents, stolen from the office of attorney Marc Toberoff and delivered anonymously to Warner Bros. in December 2008, were not protected by attorney-client privilege. However, he postponed a final ruling until Toberoff and his attorneys can seek a decision from U.S. District Judge Judge Otis Wright.
At the time of the theft, a judge ruled that the documents were privileged, and ordered the studio to turn them over to a court officer within 24 hours. However, an attached seven-page cover letter called the “Superman-Marc Toberoff Timeline” was not privileged, and became the basis for Warner Bros.’ 2010 lawsuit against the attorney. The complaint alleges that Toberoff “orchestrated a web of collusive agreements” with the Siegel and Shuster heirs, leading them to reject “mutually beneficial” longtime deals with DC Comics and seek to recapture the Superman copyright. In addition, the studio claims Toberoff schemed to secure for himself “a majority and controlling financial stake” in the Superman rights.
Just last month Zarefsky rejected the studio’s argument that the documents, which purportedly contain a formula for how the two estates and Toberoff would divide the Superman assets, violate the U.S. Copyright Act and, therefore, cannot be isolated from discovery. But this week he determined that Toberoff actually waived privilege when he turned over the documents last year in response to a grand jury subpoena issued after Toberoff met with the U.S. Attorney’s office to discuss an investigation of the theft.
The decision is only the latest twist in Warner Bros.’ increasingly bitter legal battle to hold onto Superman following a 2008 ruling that Siegel’s widow Joanne Siegel and daughter Laura Siegel Larson had successfully recaptured half of the original copyright to the Man of Steel under the provisions of the 1976 Copyright Act. The window will open in 2013 for Shuster’s estate to do the same.
- May 26, 2011 @ 07:00 AM by Kevin Melrose