2011 June
Winners announced for seventh annual Joe Shuster Awards
Joe Shuster Awards
The winners of the seventh annual Joe Shuster Canadian Comic Book Creators Awards were announced last night in conjunction with the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo. The awards are named in honor of Toronto-born artist Joe Shuster, co-creator Superman. The full list of nominees can be found here. The winners are:
Outstanding comic book artist: Francis Manapul – Adventure Comics #6, The Flash #1-6, Superman/Batman #75 (DC Comics)
Outstanding comic book cartoonist: Tin Can Forest (aka Pat Shewchuk and Marek Colek) – Baba Yaga and the Wolf (Koyama Press)
Outstanding comic book colorist: Julie Rocheleau – La fille invisible (Glénat Québec)
Outstanding comic book cover artist: Fiona Staples – Mystery Society #1-5 (IDW), DV8: Gods and Monsters #1-8 (DC/Wildstorm), Superman/Batman #79 (DC Comics), Acts of Violence: An Anthology of Crime Comics (New Reliable Press), Magus #1 (12 Gauge Comics)
Outstanding comic book publisher: Koyama Press
Outstanding webcomics creator: Emily Carroll – His Face All Red, Dream Journals, The Death of José Arcadio, Out the Door, The Hare’s Bride
Outstanding comic book writer: Émilie Villeneuve – La fille invisible (Glénat Québec)
Comics for kids: Three Thieves Book 1: Tower of Treasure, by Scott Chantler (Kids Can Press)
The Gene Day Award for Self-Publishers: John Martz – Heaven All Day
The Harry Kremer Award for Outstanding Comic Book Retailer: Planete BD (Montreal, QC)
Canadian Comic Book Creator Hall of Fame: Chester Brown (1960-) and Todd McFarlane (1961-)
Judges’ comments can be found here.
- June 19, 2011 @ 06:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
Skyhorse to publish Tangles graphic novel
Friday’s New York Times had a fascinating article by James Warren about Comics & Medicine: The Sequential Art of Illness, a conference that was held this past week at Northwestern University in Chicago. The article mentioned a number of comics and graphic novels that deal with medical issues, including slice-of-life stories of working in the medical field, instructional manuals, and accounts of living with an illness. One of the latter that caught my eye was Sarah Leavitt’s Tangles, which deals with her mother’s struggle with Alzheimer’s disease—a story that is all too familiar to readers of my generation (including myself). The graphic novel was published in Canada, but later on Friday, Skyhorse Publishing announced via Twitter that they will be publishing it in the U.S. as well. Skyhorse is an independent book publisher with a wide repertoire, from the looks of their website, and they are distributed by W.W. Norton (which also distributes Fantagraphics books), so Tangles should be easy to find when it is published.
For more on the conference, which included guest appearances by Scott McCloud, Phoebe Gloeckner, David Small, and Paul Gravett, check out the blog of Mom’s Cancer creator Brian Fies, as well as Publishers Weekly’s writeup.
- June 18, 2011 @ 08:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Quote of the day | Mark Millar on the Green Lantern movie
Green Lantern
“I hereby declare Green Lantern the worst superhero movie ever made. And yes I count The Phantom and The Shadow as superhero movies. Green Lantern was the cheapest-looking 300 million dollar movie I’ve ever seen. Why didn’t they give that money (to) Africa? It had a couple of good moments, all coming from Mark Strong. But oh man. It was just such an ODD movie. Like it travelled here from a parallel universe where they made a Green Lantern movie in 1995. But it was only eight quid and thus worth it. And I know I’ll go and see it again 
”
–Comics writer Mark Millar, reviewing in a few quick tweets this weekend’s big movie release, Green Lantern. Millar’s not the only one who found the movie lacking, as witnessed on review aggregation sites Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic. The less-than-stellar reviews, combined with what looks to be a very nice weekend in my neck of the woods, will likely keep me out of the movie theater, but I believe our own Tom Bondurant will have a review.
- June 17, 2011 @ 04:00 PM by JK Parkin
The Fifth Color | Forward into the Past with Marvel in September
They're breaking up Superman and Lois Lane?!?
What’s the point?
This is like hosting the best block party for three months straight, and then suddenly the guy next door rents an outdoor projector and starts playing “Best of the Web” YouTube videos on the side of his house. People just can’t help but turn their heads. Is it a wise idea? Aren’t these just constant clips of low-rent YouTube versions of Jackass? Why can’t I look away?
So here we are, minding our own business, when the Distinguished Competition comes out with a hefty announcement for their September line-up. It’s bright and shiny and controversial and loud, and maybe this is what the other half feels like every time Marvel announces that they are going to create a studio to make their own movies, make a push for trade paperbacks, support digital comics or kick off a whole new universe where characters are younger and more movie-savvy for the modern comic reader.
Yeah! So let’s look at September, people! Let’s face front to the future and remind ourselves that no matter the number on the cover, it’s the content that counts. What’s Marvel bringing to the fore in September?
Continue Reading »
- June 17, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by Carla Hoffman
Kickstart my art | Help fund a second tour of duty for Guerrillas
Creator Brahm Revel’s Guerrillas series, about a squad of chimpanzees fighting in the Vietnam War, started as a mini-series at Image Comics, with Oni Press eventually publishing a collection of those issues last October. Revel still has two more graphic novels starring the simian soldiers he’d like to publish, and he’s turned to Kickstarter to speed up the process.
“While my publisher provides a modest advance, the majority of my pay on the book comes after the book is published,” Revel said on his Kickstarter page. “To pay day-to-day living expenses until then, I have to keep a day job as a freelance illustrator and work on the book in my spare time. If I can raise the money to pay those expenses outright, I will be able to focus all of my attention on the book instead of having to take any new illustration jobs.”
Like with all Kickstarter projects, he’s offering a series of rewards based on what you contribute, which range from free stickers to actually being drawn into the book. I’d love to see the next edition, so I’ve already contributed. If you’re curious to see what the book looks like, Revel has some preview pages up on his blog.
- June 17, 2011 @ 02:00 PM by JK Parkin
Akadot advertises too-hot-for-Kindle bundle
It used to be gospel among publishers that getting a book banned in Boston juiced sales. Can the same be true for Kindle? Digital Manga is banking on it; the Akadot retail site is offering all three of the books that were removed from Kindle (presumably for adult content) as a discount bundle. These are print editions, and the price, $18.99 for all three, is a considerable discount over regular retail, so it’s a good deal. The Digital folks have done well for themselves out of this whole affair, as the three books in question (two of which were deep backlist) have gotten a lot of attention; advertising them as too hot for digital is a pretty shrewd move.
- June 17, 2011 @ 01:00 PM by Brigid Alverson
Conan O’Brien reimagines Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark
Theater critics and even Sesame Street have had their say on the long-troubled musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, which finally — finally! — opened on Tuesday. And then Conan O’Brien took his turn, examining the assessment by Ben Brantley of The New York Times that the revamped $70-million production is suitable only for “a less-than-precocious child of 10 or so.”
O’Brien reimagines a scene from the show an elementary-school nutrition play that takes a disturbing turn about the time a G-string clad Green Goblin makes an appearance waving around an enormous banana and carrot. And then things get worse …
- June 17, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by Kevin Melrose
Judge Dredd Day of Chaos series coming this summer
Day of Chaos
Rebellion sent over the above teaser by Clint Langley for the upcoming Judge Dredd mega-series, Day of Chaos, written by Dredd co-creator John Wagner. The series starts in the UK on July 29 and will appear in the United States “in the July pack from Diamond, hitting stores at the beginning of August.”
- June 17, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by JK Parkin
Jason: The Teen Years
Jason: Then and Now
One of the most interesting things about following artists’ careers is seeing their styles evolve from mimicry of their influences to their own, unique way of depicting the world. Very rarely do we get to see an artist’s very earliest attempts at developing a style, mostly because so many artists are too ashamed of their early work to share it.
Not so Norwegian cartoonist Jason, who’s started a blog to showcase – in chronological order – his early work. It’s a fascinating look at a world-class artist figuring out his craft.
- June 17, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by Michael May
Caanan Grall draws Muppet Thor
For his 24-Hour Comics Day challenge, Caanan Grall came up with a brilliant mashup: Muppet Thor, in which the Muppets discover the mighty hammer Mjolnir and the Thunder God himself makes a surprise appearance with Miss Piggy. Grall does a nice job drawing the Muppets, and the story has some clever twists.
If you can’t get enough of Muppet mash-ups, head over to our sister blog Comics Should Be Good for a few more.
- June 17, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Comics A.M. | FCBD attracts 1 million; Bill Finger Awards announced
Free Comic Book Day
Retailing | More than 1 million customers visited participating stores on Free Comic Book Day, according to a survey conducted by Diamond Comic Distributors. More than 2.4 million of the record 2.7 million comics ordered by retailers were handed out. What’s more, nearly 54 percent of stores saw higher profits than usual for a Saturday, while more than 37 percent reported higher profits than on a typical Wednesday. [ICv2.com]
Awards | Bob Haney and Del Connell will receive the 2011 Bill Finger Award for Achievement in Comic Book Writing, established in honor of the late writer, considered the “unsung hero” of Batman. Haney, who passed away, in 2004, is best remembered as co-creator of the Doom Patrol and Metamorpho and for his work on DC titles like The Brave and the Bold, Teen Titans and Aquaman. Connell, who began his career at Disney Studios working on such animated projects as Alice in Wonderland and The Three Caballeros, became a prolific writer and, eventually, editor-in-chief at Western Publishing. He also wrote the Mickey Mouse comic strips for more than 20 years. Connell, 94, will accept his award July 22 during the Eisner Awards ceremony at Comic-Con International. [Comic-Con]
- June 17, 2011 @ 06:55 AM by Kevin Melrose
Dan DiDio signals the end of the Clark Kent/Lois Lane marriage
Superman: The Wedding Album
DC Comics Co-Publisher Dan DiDio has all but confirmed that one of the effects of the publisher’s line-wide relaunch will be the end of the marriage between Superman and Lois Lane.
“Let’s just say it’s being reexamined,” he tells NBC New York’s PopcornBiz blog, “because it’s something that I think is something that is so valuable to the character’s story that you really want to explore all facets of it. Not just as it exists currently.”
Rumblings of the dissolution of the 15-year-old marriage began on May 31, even as the company announced it will debut 52 first issues in September as part of a sweeping overhaul designed to introduce “a more modern, diverse DC Universe.” Among the changes to characters and continuity, Bleeding Cool contended, would be a clean slate in which the big 1996 wedding never happened, apparently freeing Superman to have a relationship with Wonder Woman.
The marriage, depicted in the one-shot Superman: The Wedding Album, was a major media spectacle — it was even billed as “The Event of the Century” on the cover — that coincided with the episode of the popular ABC television series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman in which the characters tied the knot.
Fifteen years later, a relaunch of Action Comics — the title whose 1938 debut introduced both Superman and Lois Lane — by Grant Morrison and Rags Morales promises “a new chapter” for the Man of Steel that attempts to “refresh some ideas that have maybe become so well known that people think they’ve got it all figured out.” One of those ideas, it looks like, is his marriage to Lois.
“I think what you’re going to see is a lot of big changes for Superman,” DiDio tells PopcornBiz. “We really went back to the core of the character. And more importantly, we got somebody in Grant Morrison, who’s really taking the character and reinventing him so you feel a real contemporary tone, a really contemporary time, but still staying true to the core. I think it’s so important for us to make sure Superman stays as relevant today as he did when he first was created back in the ’30s.”
- June 16, 2011 @ 04:42 PM by Kevin Melrose
Grumpy Old Fan | New DCU revue: DC Comics Solicitations for September 2011
Sexy Black Flash. Sexy. Black. Flash. SEXY ... BLACK ... FLASH.
Even after all the news, and all the reactions thereto, I thought there was still a little to be revealed in September’s DC solicitations. Would the First Wave books or Batman Beyond be there, moved “outside” the scope of the superhero-dominated main line? (Apparently not.) Would there be obscure reprints to pore over? (Oh my yes.) How weird could the Ame-Comi line get? (Three words: Sexy Black Flash.)
Nevertheless, this week I’m looking at the New 52′s impact on my personal bottom line, and — although I am far from the first blogger to do so — offering my take on what looks good for the foreseeable future.
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- June 16, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
Save the alternative comic book!
Eightball. Love and Rockets. Hate. Yummy Fur. Grit Bath. Meatcake. Palookaville. Dirty Plotte. In a distant time, serialized staple-bound solo anthology series dominated the alternative comics scene, and these (more or less) regularly published floppy-formatted comics roamed the earth in huge hordes. They also gave people interested in genres other than superheroes a reason to come back to comic shops week after week. Today they’re on the verge of extinction, supplanted by graphic novels and webcomics as the venues of choice for alternative work, with only a quixotic few — Alvin Buenaventura’s Pigeon Press, Igort and Fantagraphics’ Ignatz Line, Anders Nilsen’s recently completed Big Questions, the occasional issue of Uptight or Optic Nerve — keeping the torch lit.
But cartoonist Box Brown is looking to pull this fabled format back from the brink in a big way with Retrofit Comics, a new Kickstarter-funded publishing imprint seeking to publish fully 16 32-page pamphlet-format alternative comic books in a single year. Brown’s assembled an impressive line-up of creators for Retrofit Year One, including James Kochalka, Liz Bailie, Noah Van Sciver, L. Nichols, and Chuck Forsman — as well as a murderer’s row of retailers committed to carrying the comics, including The Beguiling, Jim Hanley’s Universe, Quimby’s, Desert Island, Floating World, Bergen Street, Chicago Comics, and Forbidden Planet UK. I think this last part is key. Brown explains that he’s doing this in part to provide alternative comics creators with the regular feedback of an audience as opposed to having them disappear from view for years at a time to draw a graphic novel, but that’s the sort of thing publishing to the web can take care of. What it can’t do is create an incentive for altcomix fans to visit their local comic shop, which would presumably drive more demand for similar books down the line. That’s worth pushing for.
- June 16, 2011 @ 02:30 PM by Sean T. Collins
Supernature: Read Michael DeForge’s Spotting Deer online
Maintaining their respective recent hot streaks, cartoonist Michael DeForge has posted his 2010 Koyama Press release Spotting Deer in its entirety on Jordan Crane’s resurgent, resplendent alternative-webcomics portal What Things Do. Structured like a field guide to an imaginary animal that winds up revealing a surprising amount about its imaginary author, it’s also a rare full-color work for talented young writer/artist DeForge, who proves himself just as innovative with color as he is with creature design, typography, urban wastelands, and the rest of his usual tricks and tropes. If you’re tired of the same old same-old in comics, here’s something that feels exciting and new.
- June 16, 2011 @ 02:10 PM by Sean T. Collins