2011 August
Comics A.M. | Keatinge, Cho sign with Delcourt; comiXology rolls out affiliate program
Brutal
Publishing| Joe Keatinge and Frank Cho have signed a three-book deal with Delcourt, a comics publisher in France. The first book of theirs Delcourt will publish will be the first volume of Brutal, which will debut at the Festival International de la Bande Dessinée d’Angouleme 2013. Delcourt publishes many American comics in France, including Walking Dead, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Invincible, Rocketeer, Hellboy, The Goon, Haunt and many more, as well as many manga titles.
“On a personal level, French comics have had a huge influence on me. Working within that industry is something I’ve wanted to do for as long as I wanted a career in comics at all. Being an author with a book debuting at Angouleme is a goal I thought was many a year away, so this has taken things to a whole new level much sooner than anticipated. While I do plan on going back in 2012, this still gives me a year to work on my awful command of the language before I have to do a signing. Being in the good hands of Delcourt makes me think it’s a good start,” Keatinge said. [Joe Keatinge]
- August 25, 2011 @ 06:55 AM by Brigid Alverson and JK Parkin
Your Wednesday Sequence 23 | Atak
Ada (2010), pages 2-3. Atak.
The sequence that the pictures on a page of comics run in is the most important decision an artist in the form can make; everything proceeds from there. Less pressingly important, but still often worth examining, is the sequencing of words. I don’t mean the poetic order that the individual units of language are put in, but the actual organization of text on the page, the way the reader’s eye is invited to move from one line of text to the next. It’s so important to effective comics storytelling that the through-lines between blocks of type be clean and easy to follow that it can be difficult to find anything really out of the ordinary being done with them.
The predominance of designated letterers in commercial comics only adds to this homogeneity. A good letterer’s typefacing and balloon placement can elevate a comic greatly, but division of labor between the hands putting the pictures and words on the page places an inevitable disconnect between the two. Cartoonists of all stripes forget too often that words can be made to work as pictures, with the same telegraphing power and simplified grace as the most elegant drawings. And that the words on a comics page, just like the pictures, are open to bold and different sequencing techniques, pieces to be moved into place with all due abandon.
- August 24, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by Matt Seneca
Hiti, Fury, and Cap: Together at last!
"It was nice knowing you, Colonel!"
Sam Hiti (Death-Day) redrew a panel from Tales of Suspense #78 and this is how it turned out. Somebody call that man for the next Strange Tales volume, please.
You can see the original Jack Kirby/Frank Giacola panel at Kirby-Vision.
- August 24, 2011 @ 01:00 PM by Michael May
Gene Luen Yang to write Avatar: The Last Airbender comic
Gene Luen Yang, creator of American Born Chinese and The Eternal Smile and writer of Level Up, announced on his blog Tuesday that he is undertaking a new project: He will be writing the upcoming Avatar: The Last Airbender graphic novel, The Promise. Yang is working closely with Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, the creators of the original cartoon series, on the book, and the artwork is being handled by the Japanese duo Gurihiru, who illustrated some of the earlier Airbender comics and have done work for Marvel as well.
As Yang points out in his blog, this is not quite his first Avatar comic: When the movie came out last year, he drew a webcomic protesting the casting of Caucasians in roles that were clearly derived from Asian traditions. This book is based on the television series, not the movie, though, and Yang says he hasn’t seen the movie and doesn’t want to see it: “the only A:TLA universe I want inside my head as I’m writing these comics is the animated one. The real one.”
Oh, and don’t get too excited about an Avatar-Monkey King crossover—that’s just a bit of fan art that Gene drew to celebrate the occasion.
- August 24, 2011 @ 11:13 AM by Brigid Alverson
Mike Maihack’s Supergirl/Batgirl really, really needs to happen
Supergirl/Batgirl, by Mike Maihack
Although we covered the launch of DC Fifty-TOO! just last week — it’s the Jon Morris-spearhead blog on which cartoonists offer their own ideas for DC relaunch titles — I already find myself revisiting it to spotlight a cover. Heck, I could close my eyes, point and land on a half-dozen pieces worth highlighting, but today I’ll focus on the contribution by Cow & Buffalo creator Mike Maihack, who floats an irresistible spin on DC’s classic World’s Finest formula starring Supergirl and Batgirl (Barbara Gordon):
Can the same blonde-haired, wonder teen from Metropolis who helped Barbara Gordon finally put an end to Killer Moth’s week-long crime spree also be the new popular transfer student at Gotham High? Good thing they have superheroics in common because Babs’ and Kara Zor-El’s student lives are about to clash.”
That’s a rough tagline for a book that shouldn’t come as any big surprise for those who have followed me online for longer than a week. I would take a more all-ages approach to the series, placing Babs and Kara in high school who, despite some social differences, eventually become best friends. That’s when I would introduce an idolizing fourteen-year-old Mary Marvel to annoy the heck out of them.
It’s the promise of Mary Marvel that really sells it, isn’t it?
- August 24, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Josh Siegel’s minimalist superheroes
Doctor Strange, by Josh Siegel
Honestly, I’m kind of over the tidal wave of “minimalist” takes on superheroes, movies and whatnot — a little of that goes a long way — but I was struck by Josh Siegel’s sampling of work featured this morning on Super Punch. Maybe it’s because Siegel doesn’t stick to a single style or approach (I’m not sure that I’d even consider some of the images “minimalist,” but Siegel labels them as such). Or maybe it’s because he gives props to Aquaman and the original X-Men. Whatever the case, he has prints available for sale.
- August 24, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
BOOM! to publish monthly Peanuts comic
Peanuts #0
Their Disney comics may be all but gone — and they will be gone after October — but BOOM! Studios’ kids line, kaboom!, isn’t going away. Joining Snarked!, Wordgirl and the other post-Disney era of kid’s comics from the company will be an ongoing Peanuts series.
The book follows BOOM!’s Happiness Is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown, a graphic novel adaptation of the TV special by the same name. They’ll kick it off with a $1 “zero” issue this November, and the regular series will kick off in January.
“It’s a daunting task to follow in the footsteps of a master,” BOOM! Studios Editor-in-Chief Matt Gagnon said in a press release. “But with the team we have assembled and the guidance of the folks at Peanuts Worldwide and Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates, we’re confident that we’ll be delivering to fans the best Peanuts monthly comic book series anyone could imagine.”
Unfortunately the press release makes no mention of the “team” they have assembled to work on the comic. It does note that these will be new, original stories, rather than reprints of any previous Peanuts material. You can find the release after the jump.
- August 24, 2011 @ 07:29 AM by JK Parkin
Sam Costello brings back the weird old days
One of the weirdest books I ever ran across was Wisconsin Death Trip, a compilation of old photographs and newspaper articles that put the lie to the notion that things were better in olden times. It read like a fin-de-siecle version of the New York Post, with clippings about murders, abductions, all manner of craziness, juxtaposed with period photographs. What was interesting about the book, at least to me, was that it showed there is a hidden side of human nature that is universal — yes, there were murders and sex crimes in the 1890s — yet at the same time so far removed from our current existence that it seems unreal.
A similar spirit seems to underlie Sam Costello’s upcoming graphic novel Labor & Love: A Garland of American Folk Ballads, which is set to debut in October at SPX. Costello is best known as the writer of the horror comic Split Lip, and this comic, illustrated by Neal Von Flue, features comics based on four folk songs about craziness and death that all have a surrealistic feel.
- August 24, 2011 @ 07:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Hey, how about some more DC Comics ‘New 52′ art?
Supergirl by Mahmud Asrar
And again, the #52splash hash tag on Twitter remains active, as more artists post more art from DC’s relaunched September titles (and beyond, in some cases). I’ll start with some that came in last night, and add more throughout the day when I get a chance.
- August 24, 2011 @ 06:00 AM by JK Parkin
The Middle Ground #66: Who is Number One?
A funny thing happened while listening to a recent Word Balloon interview with Robert Kirkman; Kirkman talked about his desire to see Invincible continue with different creative teams after he’s done with the book, and I ended up thinking about the nature of work for hire in independent books.
Okay, so maybe “funny” wasn’t the right word.
- August 23, 2011 @ 04:30 PM by Graeme McMillan
Buy some great Sparkplug comics to help out Sparkplug’s ailing publisher
Critic Rob Clough reports that Dylan Williams, the publisher of the idiosyncratic small-press outfit Sparkplug Comic Books, is dealing with a serious health crisis. And as with many problems involving people who’ve dedicated their lives to this art form, there’s a win-win solution: You can help support Dylan financially simply by buying some of Sparkplug’s awesome comic books.
Which ones, you ask? Good question! My first and foremost recommendation would be John Hankiewicz’s Asthma, one of the very best comics by anyone since the turn of the millennium — a cutting, haunting masterpiece of image-making and image-juxtaposing that’s one of the rare instances where calling it “comics as poetry” doesn’t make you feel like an idiot. There’s also Chris Cilla’s The Heavy Hand, a funny, foul-mouthed and strange science-fiction comic, or Inkweed by Chris Wright, a stunningly well-written short story collection about Muppet-like monsters in very human struggles.
Williams does important work with Sparkplug, putting out work of sparkling intelligence, with visuals that run the risk of not having a built-in audience for them. By publishing what he publishes he seeks to create that audience. That takes guts, putting your money where your mind is like that, and Dylan deserves to be rewarded for it, in sickness or in health. Right now, it’s in sickness, which makes buying his books an even better idea.
- August 23, 2011 @ 03:02 PM by Sean T. Collins
Food or Comics? | Doctor Who, Batman Inc. and more
Doctor Who
Welcome to Food or Comics?, where every week we talk about what comics we’d buy at our local comic shop based on certain spending limits — $15 and $30 — as well as what we’d get if we had extra money or a gift card to spend on a “Splurge” item.
Check out Diamond’s release list or ComicList, and tell us what you’re getting in our comments field.
Graeme McMillan
Let’s give all credit to IDW for their sense of timing. I’m so psyched up in advance of this Saturday’s return of Doctor Who to my television screen that this Wednesday’s release of Doctor Who Annual 2011 (IDW, $7.99) seems like the ideal way to prepare myself. If I had $15, I’d happily spend more than half of it on that particular anthology. The rest would go towards closing out the current incarnation of the DCU, as I’d be grabbing both Action Comics #904 and Batman: Gates of Gotham #5 (Both DC, $2.99).
- August 23, 2011 @ 02:00 PM by JK Parkin
More DC relaunch art hits Twitter
Following yesterday’s Twitter-thon of artwork from DC’s “New 52″ titles, several more tweets featuring various pages from various books hit today — including another puzzle by David Macho that revealed the above Grifter art by CAFU.
Follow the hash tag #52splash for more, or check out additional pieces after the jump.
- August 23, 2011 @ 11:48 AM by JK Parkin
Good God, this is a scary webcomic [UPDATED AGAIN with translation and creator credit]
[UPDATE: Big thanks to commenter SKFK, who tells us that the story is called “Bongcheon-Dong Ghost” (Bongcheon-Dong was the name of a poor area of Seoul, since renamed to avoid past negative associations), and was written and illustrated by Horang (the pen name of 25-year-old cartoonist Jong-Ho Choi).]
…and that’s about all I can say about it, really: This is a very scary webcomic. The text of the strip and the site on which it’s found is in Korean, which I cannot read, and Google Translate doesn’t clearly indicate an author or title, nor translate the text in the comic itself. But the content is crystal-clear even despite the language barrier. As Batman Incorporated artist Chris Burnham (through whom I found the comic) put it, “The pictures tell the story.” And the story, about a girl walking on a deserted city street who sees a strange-looking passerby in the distance, is scary as hell. Like Emily Carroll’s “His Face All Red” before it, this comic uses the unique properties of the web (albeit in a totally different way — you’ll see when you read it) to deliver an intensely uncomfortable experience. Read it yourself, preferably with your speakers on and nothing you can’t afford to drop in your hands.
Meanwhile, if any Korean readers or manhwa fans out there can help us out with the creator, title, and translation of the comic, please let us know in the comments below.
UPDATE: Commenter GlassThorne directs us to this translation of the comic on Tumblr. Still no word on the creator, though.
- August 23, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by Sean T. Collins
Interactive comic defines comics journalism
Dan Archer has a very nice comic at the Poynter Institute website—a site devoted to journalism, not comics—about the use of comics in journalism. It’s an explanatory comic about comics, in the Scott McCloud tradition (complete with bold-face for the important terms), but it adds a new dimension: Click on a panel and you are taken to a new page with source material and background information. That’s the sort of thing you can only do on the web, and I can only think of a handful of comics that have used it (Josh Neufeld’s AD: New Orleans After the Deluge being a stellar example). It’s a natural for online journalism, and with more periodicals shifting to the web and the iPad, it’s something I’d like to see more of.
- August 23, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by Brigid Alverson