2011 October
DC Fifty-Too does Marvel … as well
In the ramp-up to the New 52, it was a lot of fun checking in to the DC Fifty-Too blog to see what concepts and characters contributing artists would focus on if given the chance to reboot DC. And while DC’s initiative has been largely successful so far, there are still several of the Fifty-Too comics that many fans wish were real. But what about those fans whose tastes lean more towards the Marvelous?
Never fear. The blog has renamed itself Marvel Universe Too: What If and will ultimately sport about 70 covers to imaginary comics in a dream Marvel relaunch, many by the same artists involved in the Fifty-Too. There are only a couple of entries so far, so start checking in now.
- October 3, 2011 @ 02:15 PM by Michael May
Image Comics goes same-day digital on comiXology, Graphicly
Image Comics is making the plunge into same-day digital release on Wednesday, making the majority of its titles available on comiXology and Graphicly.
Working with Graphicly, the publisher will expand to the company’s new Facebook app as well as to Amazon’s newly announced Kindle Fire. Image’s Facebook page will serve as a browseable store where potential readers can preview and purchase comics.
As of Wednesday such titles as Chew, The Infinite, Pilot Season, Severed and Skullkickers will join The Walking Dead and Invincible is being available digitally the same day as print.
“Publishing our top titles the same day digitally as print will allow our loyal reader to buy their favorite comics on almost any smartphone and tablet, while also getting them into the hands of new readers and grow the market,” said Image Comics Publisher Eric Stephenson.
- October 3, 2011 @ 01:00 PM by Kevin Melrose
Start reading now: Michael DeForge’s Ant Comic
It was easy to miss amid the seemingly neverending torrent of incredible comics pages he’s posted to the Internet over the past couple years, but Michael DeForge, the Doug Wright Award-winning creator of Lose from Koyama Press, has quietly launched a biweekly webcomic called Ant Comic. Spinning out of a contribution to the newsprint anthology Smoke Signals from Desert Island Comics in Brooklyn, Ant Comic so far appears to be a series of standalone episodes in the lives of various ants, featuring exquisite coloring, existential angst, and deeply disconcerting imagery involving the fears and lusts of insects. DeForge is planning 50 installments, and he’s only up to #3 right now; a new one goes up every other Monday. Cans of Raid not included.
- October 3, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by Sean T. Collins
Benjamin Marra unleashes Gangsta Rap Posse #2 on an unsuspecting populace
You know, I briefly debated whether to slap the gloriously offensive cover for Gangsta Rap Posse #2, the latest installment in Benjamin Marra’s fictionalized/sensationalized homage to the likes of N.W.A. and other Tipper Gore–terrifying rap acts of the Bush-Clinton era, here on Robot 6. But then I realized: Is it really any worse than any given superhero comic image the Internet kicks around every week?
Marra’s series is a knowingly nasty-looking thought experiment, imagining what it would be like if hardcore hip-hop really were as Rambo-level violent as its practitioners sometimes made themselves out to be. This issue, which Marra unveiled on Thursday, sees the title characters square off against the LAPD, skinheads, record labels, and an ersatz George Clinton and Bootsy Collins, out for blood over uncleared samples. It’s coming straight outta Traditional Comics, Marra’s pulpy publishing imprint. Parental Advisory: Explicit Content.
- October 3, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by Sean T. Collins
Prepare to get freaked the eff out by Emily Carroll again
It’s hard to believe it’s been less than a year since Emily Carroll burst into comicdom’s consciousness with her miniature masterpiece of a horror webcomic “His Face All Red.” In that time she won a Joe Shuster Award for Outstanding Web Comic Creator — quite a feat for someone who’d literally never drawn a comic before May 2010. Now that it’s October, the spooky season is upon us again, and what better way to celebrate than “Margot’s Room,” Carroll’s new webcomic? Once again it’s an innovatively structured affair: The landing page is a picture of the titular room, and every week a new line will be added to a poem at the top of the page, hinting at the objects in the room you need to click on to read the next few pages. (Hint: Start by clicking on the flowers.) So far, so creepy, but what exactly are we in for? “There Will Be (More) Blood,” Carroll promises. I can’t wait.
- October 3, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by Sean T. Collins
Too Much Coffee Man creator takes on art galleries
Cartoonist Shannon Wheeler isn’t one to rest on his laurels; heck, do you know how uncomfortable laurels can be on your backside? After making a name for himself with the alt-comic series Too Much Coffee Man, Wheeler branched out and in recent years began aiming to join an exclusive club: artists whose comics are published in The New Yorker. And after achieving that, he’s showing off the plethora of comics that were turned down, and the accepted ones, in a new art exhibit in his hometown of Portland, Oregon.
Titled “Shannon Wheeler’s One-One-One-One: One-Man Show of One-Hundred-and-One One-Panel Comics, “this exhibit at Portland’s Center for the Performing Arts opens Thursday, and continues through Dec. 1.The life of a New Yorker cartoonist is arduous; for every accepted strip there are countless ones that end up rejected. The latter are often more intriguing than those that made the cut, for the joke inside as well as the imagined reasons why the editor passed on them.
- October 3, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by Chris Arrant
DC’s Crisis crisis: In New DCU, those major events never happened
Crisis on Infinite Earths #5
DC Comics Co-Publisher Dan DiDio triggered a minor crisis of his own Saturday when he announced on Facebook that, “after further review, there have been no Crisis events in the New DCU.”
The proclamation sent blogs and message boards into overdrive as fans grappled with the ramifications of no Crises — no Infinite Crisis, no Final Crisis, and no Crisis on Infinite Earths, the 1985 “maxi-series” whose impact was so profound that DC history became defined by “pre-Crisis” and “post-Crisis,” comics’ answer to B.C. and A.D.
But clearly in the universe of the post-Flashpoint New 52 there was a Final Crisis, as Bruce Wayne “died” — or, rather, he was hurled back through time — and was temporarily replaced as Batman by Dick Grayson. There are undoubtedly other loose threads that are best not picked at, but that’s the one that springs immediately to mind. It’s one of the pitfalls of leaving the continuities of some characters, like Batman and Green Lantern, essentially intact, while sending dozens of others back to square one.
Noting the tumult his announcement created, DiDio returned on Sunday with clarification. Sort of: “For those in crisis over Crisis, let me clarify. The topic of Crisis was much discussed among the editors and talent working on The New 52. With so many characters and histories restarting, major events like Crisis are harder to place when they work for some and not for others. (that was one of the problems coming out of the original Crisis). While we are starting aprx five years into our heroes’ lives, we are focused on the characters present and future, and past histories will be revealed as the stories dictate. Yes, there have been “crisis” in our characters lives, but they aren’t exactly the Crisis you read before, they can’t be. Now, what this means for characters seen and unseen…… well, that’s the fun of The New 52, infinite stories, infinite possibilities, with the best yet to come. [...] P.S. that’s the last time I try and answer a Facebook question before rushing out for dinner.”
That should clear things up! Right?
(via DC Women Kicking Ass)
- October 3, 2011 @ 08:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | Prosecution rests in Michael George murder trial
Legal
Legal | Prosecutors in Macomb County, Michigan, rested their case Friday in the second trial of Michael George, a former retailer and convention organizer accused of the 1990 murder of his first wife Barbara in the back room of their Clinton Township comic store. The judge this morning will hear a defense motion for a directed verdict, seeking dismissal due to lack of evidence, before testimony resumes.
George, now 51, was arrested in August 2007, after a detective reopened the cold case, and convicted seven months later of first-degree murder and insurance fraud, among other counts, and sentenced to life in prison. However, the judge later set aside the verdict, citing prosecutorial misconduct — George’s mug shot was shown to the jury — and the release of new evidence that could lead the jury to believe another person was responsible for the murder. His retrial began Sept. 14, and should conclude this week. Prosecutors contend that George staged the killing to look like a robbery so he could collect money from an insurance policy and a shared estate, and start over with another woman. George insists he was asleep at the time of the shooting, and that his wife was the victim of a robbery gone wrong. [Daily Tribune]
Publishing | Chip Mosher, marketing and sales director for BOOM! Studios, left the publisher on Friday after four years. Marketing coordinator Emily McGuiness will take over his duties. [BOOM! Studios]
- October 3, 2011 @ 06:55 AM by Kevin Melrose
What are you reading with Annie Koyama
Little Tommy Lost
Welcome to another round of What Are You Reading. Our guest this week is Annie Koyama, owner and operator of the wonderful Koyama Press, which publishes fantastic books that you should buy ASAP. To see what Annie and the rest of the Robot 6 crew are reading this week, click on the link below. Continue Reading »
- October 2, 2011 @ 02:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Dark Horse to unveil Brian Wood-Becky Cloonan project at NYCC
Dark Horse will announce a project at New York Comic Con that reunites Eisner-nominated Demo collaborators Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan.
Pointing to the “Comic TBA — Brian Wood (DMZ, Demo, Northlanders) and Becky Cloonan (Demo, Pixu)” entry on the publisher’s Oct. 15 signing schedule, Wood simply wrote “Huh?” on his blog and posted the graphic at right.
The duo first partnered on Channel Zero: Jennie One, the 2003 sequel to Wood’s first series Channel Zero. But the 12-issue Demo, published from November 2003 to November 2004, by AiT/Planet Lar, was the breakout book for both collaborators, earning Eisner Award nominations for best limited series and best single issue. Wood and Cloonan revisted their milestone work in 2010 with the six-issue Demo: Volume 2 from Vertigo. They also reteamed last year for “The Girl in the Ice,” a two-issue story for Wood’s Viking saga Northlanders.
Wood, whose Vertigo series DMZ and Northlanders end next year, is already working with his Supermarket collaborator Kristian Donaldson on The Massive for Dark Horse. He also has a Marvel project in the works. Cloonan’s Victor Von Doom miniseries, with writer Nick Spencer, debuts from Marvel in November.
New York Comic Con will be held Oct. 13-16 at the Javits Center in New York City.
- October 1, 2011 @ 07:21 AM by Kevin Melrose