2011 August
Girl Genius, Shaun Tan win Hugo awards
The Hugo Awards for excellence in science fiction were presented Saturday night in a ceremony in Reno, Nevada, during the sci-fi convention Renovation, and the winner in the Best Graphic Story category was Phil and Kaja Foglio’s Girl Genius, Volume 10: Agatha Heterodyne and the Guardian Muse. This is the third year that comics have been included in the Hugo categories, and it is also the third year in a row that Girl Genius has won the award, volumes 8 and 9 having taken the honors in 2009 and 2010, respectively.
The Foglios weren’t the only sequential artists to win an award, however; Shaun Tan, creator of The Arrival and The Lost Thing, won the award for Best Artist. Tan’s mantelpiece must be getting crowded; earlier this year he won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for excellence in children’s literature, and the film version of The Lost Thing, which he directed, won an Oscar.
- August 21, 2011 @ 02:49 PM by Brigid Alverson
What Are You Reading? with Mike Baehr
Elf World
Hello and welcome to What Are You Reading? Today our special guest is Fantagraphics’ Marketing Director Mike Baehr, who runs their indispensable company blog, Flog!, among other duties.
To see what Mike and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below.
- August 21, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
Winners announced for 2011 Harvey Awards
Parker: The Outfit
Darwyn Cooke, Roger Langridge and Daven Stevens’ The Rocketeer: Artist’s Edition led the 2011 Harvey Awards, presented Saturday night in conjunction with Baltimore Comic-Con. Named in honor of the late Harvey Kurtzman, the awards are selected by comics professionals, who offer nominations and vote on the winners.
The 2011 Harvey Awards winners are:
Best letterer: John Workman, Thor (Marvel)
Best colorist: Jose Villarrubia, Cuba: My Revolution (Vertigo/DC Comics)
Best syndicated strip or panel: Doonesbury, Garry Trudeau (Universal Press Syndicate)
Best online comics work: Hark! A Vagrant, by Kate Beaton
Best American edition of foreign material: Blacksad, Juan Diaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido (Dark Horse)
Best inker: Mark Morales, Thor (Marvel)
Best new series: American Vampire, Scott Snyder, Stephen King and Rafael Albuquerque (Vertigo/DC Comics)
Most promising new talent: Chris Samnee, Thor: The Mighty Avenger (Marvel)
Special award for humor in comics: Roger Langridge, The Muppet Show (BOOM! Studios)
Best original graphic publication for younger readers: Tiny Titans, Art Baltazar and Franco Aureliani (DC Comics)
Best graphic album — previously published: Beasts of Burden: Animal Rites, Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson (Dark Horse)
Best anthology: Popgun #4, edited by D.J. Kirkbride, Anthony Wu and Adam P. Knave (Image Comics)
Best domestic reprint project: Dave Stevens’ The Rocketeer: Artist’s Edition, designed by Randall Dahlk and edited by Scott Dunbier (IDW Publishing)
Best cover artist: Mike Mignola, Hellboy (Dark Horse)
Best biographical, historical or journalistic presentation: The Art Of Jaime Hernandez: The Secrets Of Life And Death, Todd Hignite (Abrams ComicArts)
Special award for excellence in presentation: Dave Stevens’ The Rocketeer: Artist’s Edition, designed by Randall Dahlk and edited by Scott Dunbier (IDW Publishing)
Best graphic album — original: Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 6: Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour, Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni Press)
Best continuing or limited series: Love And Rockets, Vol. 3, Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez (Fantagraphics)
Best writer: Roger Langridge, Thor: The Mighty Avenger (Marvel)
Best artist: Darwyn Cooke, Richard Stark’s Parker: The Outfit (IDW Publishing)
Best cartoonist: Darwyn Cooke, Richard Stark’s Parker: The Outfit (IDW Publishing)
Best single issue or story: Daytripper, Fabio Moon and Gabiel Ba (Vertigo/DC Comics)
- August 21, 2011 @ 07:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Play it again, Tony: Day two at D23
Incredibles by Bill Morrison
Day two of D23 kicked off early for us, as the big movie presentation kicked off at 10:30 a.m. and we knew there would be a line. We just didn’t realize how long of a line …
- August 20, 2011 @ 08:06 PM by JK Parkin
Everyone was wearing a Disney shirt but me: Day one at D23
D23 2011
We’re back in our hotel room after a day at Disney’s big D23 event in Anaheim, and what a day it was … you can check out some pictures from it after the jump.
- August 19, 2011 @ 09:47 PM by JK Parkin
The Fifth Color | Your supporting cast and you
Spider-Man can be on every team!
So, yeah, it looks like Fantastic Four, one of the most important comics to come from the House of Ideas, will return for its 600th issue. A momentous occasion to be sure, as a little less than a year seems to be about enough time for people to understand Johnny Storm’s place on the team, what makes the Fantastic Four different without one of its founding members and, hopefully, we’ll all appreciate him a little more now that he’s … well, on the cover. Gotta wait for the issue to be super-sure, but let’s give the boys in the Bullpen the benefit of the doubt and say that the Human Torch is back to stay.
Technically, he’s been gone for nine months, an auspicious amount of time as the rest of his team has somewhat given birth to an absolutely new idea: the Future Foundation. A sort of in-house Illuminati, if you will; the same old adventuring team paired off with its greatest villains, looking to safeguard all their interests at once. The white-and-black uniforms don’t really do that idea justice, do they? That’s a lot of gray area to be working with. And in the end, it was all masterminded by a little girl named Valeria.
The Richards’ kids have their own plot, their own motivations and their own secrets to keep. These two supporting characters have taken a lot of the center stage, both in Future Foundation and even in Fear Itself (seriously, go read Book Five and tell me these kids don’t deserve their own title). Franklin’s been around for years, an interesting new generation that actually was born and grew into an independent character as we read. He’s like the child actor who grows up and gets his own prime-time TV show.
Tell me that’s not cool. Tell me that seeing background or supporting characters step into the foreground and, sometimes, even get their own books is not a masterful trick of storytelling. Writer Jonathan Hickman wasn’t telling the story of the Death of Johnny Storm, he was telling us of the Rise of Franklin and Valeria. And now when November hits, Future Foundation stories will have gotten their foundation, so to speak, and support themselves as their own title while the newly reformed FF can go have a different style of adventure.
More about character balance, the size of your supporting cast and M.O.D.O.K. fighting Nazis after the break …
- August 19, 2011 @ 04:00 PM by Carla Hoffman
Collect this now: The Gargoyle
So does anyone out there remember the Gargoyle?
I wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t. Even in an era where every comic character is allegedly somebody’s favorite, and even though he put in a couple of appearances in various Civil War: The Initiative books, it’s not like the Gargoyle has that huge of a fan base.
(By the way, just so we’re clear, I’m not talking about this character. Or this one.)
- August 19, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Darryl Cunningham investigates chiropractics
Daniel David Palmer discovers chiropractic therapy
Darryl Cunningham, creator of Psychiatric Tales, has a new medical comic up at his blog, this one taking on the pseudo-science of chiropractic therapy. He takes a pretty strong line in this, as in his other comics debunking the vaccination-autism connection and global-warming deniers. Cunningham’s style is a bit monotonous — six panels per page, most containing a text box with narration — so reading the comic is like watching a documentary. It doesn’t make for an action-packed experience, but it is a good way to bring the reader through a complicated topic like this, introducing information a little at a time. The comic will eventually be published in his book Science Tales, where, he promises, he will provide references and background material. In the meantime, it’s a great short course in the subject.
- August 19, 2011 @ 02:00 PM by Brigid Alverson
Chicago gets its own indy comics show
The East Coast has MoCCA and SPX, the West Coast has Stumptown and APE, and now there’s a show for the middle of the country as well: The Chicago Alternative Comics Expo, or C.A.K.E.:
Taking place June 16th and 17th at Columbia College’s Ludington Building, CAKE is focused on celebrating independent and alternative comics of all stripes.
The festival plans to feature over 100 exhibitors along with a two-day program of signings, panels, workshops and lectures. With Chicago’s long legacy as a stronghold for underground and alternative comics, the Windy City is an ideal locale to showcase some of the most wild, weird and wonderful contemporary comics talent.
Yes to all this! There’s a lot of comics talent in the Midwest, and while I selfishly want them to keep coming to MoCCA, it’s great that there’s a show that will be closer to home for many creators and will bring in a whole new audience. I was impressed with the number of local creators at C2E2, and this show (which will be curated) will be an opportunity to see even more (not to mention an excuse to visit one of my favorite cities). No guests have been announced yet, but it’s early days, so stay tuned.
- August 19, 2011 @ 01:00 PM by Brigid Alverson
So is this what nostalgia feels like?: Re-reading my favorite Batman creative team via DC’s Retroactive project
Scottish writer Alan Grant and American artist Norm Breyfogle started working on DC’s Batman comics during what must have been a particularly fertile and exciting time to do so—1988, the just after Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns helped redefine the possibilities of comics for a new generation (as well as redefining the Batman character and milieu), and the year before the Tim Burton-directed Batman feature film would replace the 1960s TV Batman as pop culture’s default view of the character.
The pair would work with other collaborators over the next decade or so, but had a long and fruitful run as a team, starting with a three-year run on Detective Comics (at first with John Wagner as co-writer), followed by two years on Batman, the launch of their own Batman title in 1992, Shadow of the Bat (which, after Breyfogle left, became Grant’s showcase title, pairing him with different artists for different arcs). They also produced a few original graphic novels (or “prestige format” comics as they were then called) like 2000’s Batman: Dreamland, and first a miniseries than a short-lived monthly starring one of their signature creations, Batman villain Anarky.
Grant continued writing for the Bat-books into the new decade, up until around the time of one of the cross-book crossover events, “Cataclysm,” which lead into “No Man’s Land” and then a relaunch of the line.
Breyfogle’s byline popped up here and there in unexpected places, but he hasn’t drawn Batman in a while.
I think about them both a lot.
- August 19, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by J. Caleb Mozzocco
Start reading now: Smash
Usually this feature highlights webcomics that have just gotten started and have a small archive, but today’s choice is a little different: You should start reading Chris and Kyle Bolton’s Smash now so you will be up to speed when Season 2 debuts on Aug. 25. Briefly, it’s the story of a 10-year-old boy who inherits superpowers —a nd the great responsibility that comes with them — when his local superhero bites the dust. The opening chapters are notable for some very funny sequences in which Andrew, our hero, has to master his superpowers; there’s a lot of slapstick, and it turns out the ability to fly is a mixed blessing if you’re afraid of heights. Candlewick will publish the first season in book form, which is another reason to read it online now, as comics have a tendency to disappear from the web once they are published in print.
- August 19, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
This weekend, it’s D23 in Anaheim
D23 2011
Disney’s D23 Expo takes place this weekend in Anaheim, as all things Disney converge at the Anaheim Convention Center for three days. This is the second D23 event; the first one took place a few short weeks after Disney bought Marvel, so they weren’t at the event, but what a difference two years makes.
Marvel CCO Joe Quesada will host a session on Marvel on Sunday, and Kevin Feige, president of production for Marvel Studios, will join the movie presentation on Saturday. Does that mean we’ll get to see all the Avengers come out on stage in their costumes? One can only hope. The LA Times takes a look at how Marvel is going to fit into the mix, and since I’m in Anaheim right now, watch for reports on Robot 6!
- August 19, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by JK Parkin
Jim Henson fansite celebrates 10 years with artist-led cavalcade
A
lthough the Muppets and the gang at Sesame Street might be puppets, they’ve made their way into comics on multiple occasions, and with the 10th anniversary of the Jim Henson-centric fansite Tough Pigs coming around this year, a number of artists have chipped in to celebrate the occasion.
For this event, Tough Pigs reached out to a variety of artists, including those from the Muppets and Fraggle Rock comics, the Sesame Street storybook illustrators and even fan artists to celebrate the event and the impact of Henson’s creations. One of the standouts of the bunch is the illustration at right by Mouse Guard creator David Petersen, who also contributed covers to to both BOOM! Studios Muppets titles and Archaia’s Fraggle Rock series.
Head over to the Tough Pigs site to see all of the artwork they’ve assembled, and look into the archives for other original art collected related to Jim Henson.
- August 19, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by Chris Arrant
Quote of the day | Warren Ellis has hope for the DC relaunch
“The New DC comics stuff looks so much like stuff I would never read that it oddly fills me with hope that they are targetting the core audience they want. If a 43-year-old man looks at most of this promo stuff and goes meh, then that’s very probably a good sign for them. Best of luck to Dan D, Jim L et all for the imminent relaunch.”
– Warren Ellis, suggesting that the publisher’s much-debated September relaunch
may actually appeal to a new audience
- August 19, 2011 @ 08:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Poster debuts for Frank Miller’s Holy Terror
Legendary Entertainment has premiered the poster and print ad for Holy Terror, the long-awaited graphic novel by Frank Miller.
The revenge tale, set for release in September, follows The Fixer, a “Dirty Hairy”-style hero who takes the fight to al Qaeda after his city is target by terrorists. Initially, and famously, conceived as a Batman story, Holy Terror is described as “a no-holds-barred action thriller told in Miller’s trademark high-contrast, black-and-white visual style, which seizes the political zeitgeist by the throat and doesn’t let go until the last page.”
See the full poster below. And don’t miss the five-page preview of Holy Terror released last month.
- August 19, 2011 @ 07:15 AM by Kevin Melrose