2011 October
Lucy Knisley gets ‘Scaredcited’ (with a little help from her fans)
From "Scaredcited," by Lucy Knisley
Getting into the Halloween spirit, Lucy Knisley has posted a terrific two-page comic called “Scaredcited,” a crowdsourcing experiment. “I asked my twitter followers (LucyKnisley) to send me a deep fear of theirs along with their photo in order to incorporate them into the second page,” she writes. “It’s sort-of auto-bio-for-everyone. [...] One thing that struck me as I was drawing out the page was that so many of us share specific fears. Drawing everyone in a place where we all faced our fears was really comforting. At least we’re all in it together.”
- October 25, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Check DC wrote in 1938 for rights to Superman goes up for auction
Characterized by Matt Fraction as “the most important $412 dollars in comics history,” the check written to a young Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, in part, for the rights to Superman, has surfaced among the items for an upcoming auction.
“Have you ever made a business decision that haunted you?” writer Gerry Duggan tweeted Monday, pointing to images of the check. “This piece of true comics history will make you feel better.”
Indeed that check, written March 1, 1938, by Detective Comics Publisher Jack Liebowitz, has been key to several legal and moral disputes, the first beginning barely a year after its signing. (Bleeding Cool notes an April 6, 1939, stamp on the back for the U.S. District Court of New York, suggesting it was entered as evidence in DC’s copyright-infringement lawsuit against Bruns Publications over the Will Eisner-created Wonder Man.)
- October 25, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
King Con Brooklyn III postponed as organizers plan overhaul
King Con III poster, by Bobby Timony
Organizers have abruptly postponed King Con Brooklyn less than two weeks before the third annual event was set to kick off in New York City. They pledge to revamp the convention to appeal to a wider audience by encompassing elements of science fiction, fantasy and pop culture.
“In an age where even Spiderman has a hard time keeping on schedule, after consulting our own divining rods, we have opted to postpone King Con III,” a message on the convention website states. “King Con I and II were enjoyable successes pulled out from many long hours and hard fought compromises in the independent comic world, and while we were looking forward to a third year to run even smoother, by trying to keep to the same principles of independent fortitude, we hit some unfortunate speed bumps that would have sullied the experience and choose to postpone in order to ensure a great Con in the spirit of all we have worked for.”
Although the two previous installments were largely well-received, with attendees appreciating the laid-back, DIY atmosphere, there was also some criticism of the venue — the century-old Brooklyn Lyceum, a public bathhouse turned gymnasium turned warehouse turned arts venue, has no heating or air-conditioning and a unisex restroom — and a general lack of organization.
- October 25, 2011 @ 08:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | Tom Ziuko health update; women and comics
Tom Ziuko
Creators | The Hero Initiative offers an update from colorist Tom Ziuko, who was hospitalized earlier this year for acute kidney failure and other health conditions, and then returned to the hospital for emergency surgery about a month ago. “I can’t impress upon you enough how frightening it is to actually come up against a life-threatening medical situation (not to mention two times in less than a year), and not have the financial means to survive if you’re suddenly not able to earn a living. Like so many other freelancers out there, I live paycheck to paycheck, unable to afford health insurance. Without an organization like the Hero Initiative to lend me support in this time of dire need, I truly don’t know where I would be today,” Ziuko said. [The Hero Initiative]
Publishing | CNN asks the question “Are women and comics risky business?” as Christian Sager talks to former DC editor Janelle Asselin, blogger Jill Pantozzi, Womanthology organizer Renae De Liz and others about the number of women who work in comics, the portrayal of female characters and why comic companies don’t actively market books to women. “Think about it from the publisher’s point of view,” Asselin said. “Say you sell 90 percent of your comics to men between 18 and 35, and 10 percent of your comics to women in the same age group. Are you going to a) try to grow that 90 percent of your audience because you feel you already have the hook they want and you just need to get word out about it, or b) are you going to try to figure out what women want in their comics and do that to grow your line?” [CNN]
- October 25, 2011 @ 06:55 AM by Brigid Alverson and JK Parkin
Talking Comics with Tim | Roger Langridge
Snarked 2
Close readers of this weekly interview column will realize that I have interviewed Roger Langridge a couple of times. And I never tire of chatting with Langridge about his storytelling approach. Next Wednesday, November 2, marks the release of the second issue for his Kaboom! creator-owned Snarked series. The series has been building its audience, first through the $1 #0 issue,and then Snarked 1 sold out of its first printing–warranting a second printing. In addition to discussing Snarked, we also got a chance to discuss his recently released The Show Must Go On (BOOM! Studios) as well as his writing the Marvel five-issue limited series, John Carter: A Princess of Mars. If you want evidence why I love interviewing Langridge, the man revealed a slight connection between his work and musician Robyn Hitchcock’s The Soft Boys. After reading the interview, please chime in with which current Langridge projects you’re enjoying the most.
Tim O’Shea: What was the most enjoyable aspect, in the run-up to Snarked’s premiere, of building up the potential reading audience through the Snarked website (Snark Island)?
Roger Langridge: Partly just to see if I could do it, and to try to be creative about what could be done with it. I’m planning to continue putting content up on the site each time a new issue comes out, so it’ll be a constant, evolving thing – but mainly, I wanted to do a letters page, and having somewhere to direct people so they could e-mail us was essential. It helps if there’s some other stuff to look at when they visit, of course!
- October 24, 2011 @ 05:43 PM by Tim O'Shea
BOOM! brings Dracula: The Company of Monsters back as a webcomic
Dracula: The Company of Monsters
This past summer BOOM! Studios promoted two of its new ongoing series, Elric and Planet of the Apes, with dedicated websites that included, among other things, brand new content in the form of webcomics. The Elric site had a new 10-page story, while Planet of the Apes had a “prequel” story for the big blockbuster movie Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
And now BOOM! is launching another microsite that, appropriately enough, brings Dracula: The Company of Monsters back from the dead. BOOM! put a stake in the series with issue #12, but just like the title character it seems you can’t keep it down. In a press release BOOM! said they plan to serialize the print comic first and eventually will post new material. They also plan to include commentary from the series’ creators, which include writers Kurt Busiek and Daryl Gregory, and artists Scott Godlewski and Damian Couceiro. And they have a web store set up so you can go from reading to buying with a click.
It’s an interesting approach for the company, taking a print comic that didn’t work out for them and posting it for free on the web. It’s a model that worked well for Phil and Kaja Foglio’s Girl Genius, which started out in print, then moved to the web and does well in trade collections. And it’s a good test case scenario for the company, as they’ve already got two Dracula trades in print that they can drive people to buy right away after sampling the free webcomic. Added to that, it’s a great series by some talented folks, so I’ll be interested to see how it does.
- October 24, 2011 @ 03:46 PM by JK Parkin
A NSFW sneak peek at the DC Comics/Robot Chicken special
DC Comics Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns announced at the New York Comic Con earlier this month that the animated series Robot Chicken is planning a special all-DC Comics episode. Johns himself is writing some of the segments, along with MAD‘s Kevin Shinick. Today on Twitter, Johns shared a link to “a taste of Robot Chicken: DC Comics Special Summer ’12 on Adult Swim” in the form of a video featuring Green Lantern and Sinestro. Note that it’s very much not for kids and probably not safe for work, either:
- October 24, 2011 @ 02:00 PM by JK Parkin
This weekend, it’s Women of Wonder Day
Women of Wonder Day
Returning this year “with a new name and an expanded mission,” the event formerly known as Wonder Woman Day is now Women of Wonder Day. This year the event will expand to a third location on Oct. 30 as a part of its mission to raise money for domestic violence programs.
The three events will occur at the following shops, where you can bid on art, meet creators and more:
- Excalibur Books in Portland, Ore. with special guests Joelle Jones, Kelly Sue DeConnick and more.
- Comic Fusion in Flemington, N.J. with Jamal Igle, J.K. Woodward and more.
- Heroes and Fantasies in San Antonio, Texas with Benn Dunn and more.
In addition, there’s an online component, and you can bid on artwork and other items on eBay — including the chance to appear in a Brian Michael Bendis comic book.
You can find the complete press release after the jump.
- October 24, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
Quote of the day | Scott Snyder on the success of DC’s New 52
“The numbers were sort of staggering for me. It was definitely immediate and intimidating, seeing there were all these people reading it and this is working. Then it became really exciting to see DC bringing a lot of people to comics that haven’t been reading them for a while or are new to them entirely. I guess the challenge becomes finding the line between — I’m trying really hard in Batman and Swamp Thing in particular to tell stories that appeal to the character’s long-time fans who know everything in an encyclopedic way about these characters, and at the same time, making the stories acceptable for people who are picking up their very first comic book. That to me is the thing that all of us are getting our sea legs with: There are huge populations of new readers coming to the books. I think maybe some of us hoped that would be the case, but didn’t believe that there’d be as many as there are. But I get questions all the time like, ‘Why does Batman has a live dinosaur in his Batcave?’ or, ‘Doesn’t Swamp Thing come out of the swamp when they hit a remote button and then fight other monsters like Godzilla in the cartoon?’ And that’s wonderful to get those questions, because that means someone who’s never seen the character is seeing them for the first time in your book. So being aware of those fans and not alienating fans who have been there a long time is something I think is exciting and that we should all be conscious of.”
– Scott Snyder, writer of Batman and Swamp Thing, discussing the much-publicized DC Comics relaunch
- October 24, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by Kevin Melrose
Green rabbit from Marvel’s Star Wars comics competes to become an action figure
Jaxxon ain't no rodent
Back in the 1970s Marvel Comics was saved by a little film called Star Wars, according to Jim Shooter. As Marvel’s editor-in-chief at the time notes, Marvel’s adaptation of the film “sold and sold and sold” no matter what format they released it in.
And after Marvel adapted the film into six-issue series, they continued to tell tales set in the Star Wars universe. Issue #7 sported a cover promising new stories about Han Solo and Chewbacca, as the duo appeared in a “Seven Samurai” style tale with a whole bunch of new characters, including a big green rabbit named Jaxxon. While Jaxxon only appeared in a handful of Star Wars comics at the time, he made enough of an impression to achieve a sort of cult status with some folks. IGN ranked him as #97 in their top 100 Stars Wars characters, while Bully the stuffed little bull advocated that they should have replaced Jar Jar Binks with Jaxxon in the prequel films. And he even appeared in a webcomic at TheForce.net.
And now the Bugs Bunny tribute character is up for the ultimate form of recognition, as Hasbro and Star Wars Insider magazine are holding a “Fans’ Choice Poll” where fans can vote on which action figure Hasbro will make next. Jaxxon is going up against some other “expanded universe” characters and the expected “Hey, weren’t they on the screen for five seconds? Make a figure!” characters from the films.
The polls close Dec. 1, so head over there and show your support for the rodent, er, rabbit.
- October 24, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by JK Parkin
Kurt Cobain graphic novel to rise again on iTunes
A British firm called Musicroom has published a digital graphic novel about Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. The basis for this is the graphic novel Godspeed: The Kurt Cobain Graphic, originally published in 2003. Here’s a bit of background on Godspeed, which apparently caused a bit of controversy but not enough to sustain its own Wikipedia page. (Check out the mixed reviews on that Amazon link.) Interestingly, according to Amazon, a new edition of the print graphic novel just came out in April.
Musicroom seems to specialize in sheet music and music instruction materials, both digital and print, and the graphic novel looks like a bit of a departure for them, but there is something very logical about this. In the ideal case, a graphic novel like this would be packaged with some of Cobain’s music and maybe some video clips as well, making full use of the iPad’s capability. That doesn’t seem to be the case here, alas—from the front page, it just looks like a print graphic novel reformatted for the iPad. And there is something kind of weird about the image of Angel Kurt weeping over a set of menu options. Perhaps they should have thought about redesigning the cover for the app.
(Via the Seattle PI blog, which has a preview of the app.)
- October 24, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Viz goes full-on digital with new BL line
As the shape of the digital comics world emerges from the haze of uncertainty, readers are saying one thing loud and clear: “I want to own my digital comics.” And most publishers are sidestepping the whole issue by saying “We will gladly sell you a license to read our digital comics” and going no further.
So when Viz Media reps unveiled their SuBLime line of Boys Love (yaoi) manga at Yaoi-Con on Saturday, they made manga history: They will be publishing some titles digitally in a download-to-own format, according to manga blogger Deb Aoki, who was tweeting from the panel. The licenses will be worldwide, not restricted to the U.S. and Canada like Viz’s other digital releases. What’s more, the downloads will be PDFs, which can be read on a Kindle, Nook or iOS device as well as pretty much any computer.
That’s right: DRM-free downloadable comics, available worldwide. And the cover price on these e-books is a very reasonable $5.99.
- October 24, 2011 @ 08:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Comics A.M. | More on Marvel layoffs; CCI plans Balboa Park event
Marvel
Publishing | Heidi MacDonald and Tom Spurgeon offer commentary and context regarding last week’s layoffs by Marvel. [The Beat, Comics Reporter]
Conventions | San Diego City Council President Tony Young and Comic-Con International staff are working together on a “marquee event” at Balboa Park that around the time of Comic Con. While convention organizers are interested in a Balboa Park event, they don’t support Yong’s original proposal, a nationally televised parade that would kick off or end the con, saying that the logistics, traffic and crowding would be problematic. [Sign On San Diego]
Conventions | Ohio State University’s student newspaper covers this past weekend’s Mid-Ohio Con. [The Lantern]
- October 24, 2011 @ 06:55 AM by Brigid Alverson and JK Parkin
What Are You Reading? with Brian Ralph
Setting the Standard: Comics by Alex Toth 1952-1954
Welcome to What Are You Reading?, where each week we talk about what comics, graphic novels, books and what-have-you we’ve been reading lately. This week our special guest is Brian Ralph, creator of Daybreak, Cave-In and Reggie 12.
To see what Brian and the Robot 6 crew have been reading lately, click below.
- October 23, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
The Fifth Color | Nothing to Fear, everything to gain
“This store is so negative!,” a woman said in astonishment. She had a kid with her, a happy elementary schooler who was perusing our new comics wall. The young shopper’s mom, perhaps grandmother had ambled her way to the counter to make this proclamation. I asked her why she thought the store was negative and the woman went right to the heart of the matter: violence. There was just too much of it in the store for her to consider this a positive place for her child. Calmly going into “Oh man, what did she see?” mode, I calmly explained that not all comics were for kids and that Batman sometimes has to fight a bad guy or two to make sure they go to jail. She understood, but there was something displayed behind me that got to the heart of the matter: our Fear Itself promotional poster.
“Fear, that’s terrible for kids to see, and all the violence, it’s just too negative for them,” she explained. I looked at the poster, wondering if there actually was something terrible on it but no, no gore, sexual situations or excessive violence. She actually had a problem with the title. I told her the title came from the quote that we have nothing to fear but fear itself, an appeal for strength. How every kid faces a fear at one time or another and why not show them how super-heroes handle theirs? “After all,” I told her, “… you know the good guys win.”
She thought about it and we talked about fear and being strong. In the end, I hadn’t changed her mind entirely but she did admit that saying the whole store was negative was probably a bit rude. The young customer bought something he liked and everyone went home happy. If a robot had carried in a cupcake for me, it would have been the perfect day.
But then again, nothing in this world is perfect, not even my unflinching adoration for one of Marvel’s finest architects (FRACTION 3:16!). But if you boil Fear Itself down to its base elements, you will find jewels of the human spirit expressed in the Mighty Marvel Manner. It may not be the best event book, but I’m starting to think that the core of Fear Itself is one of the most important stories you can read for inspiration.
(WARNING: We will be talking about Fear Itself, including this week’s cataclysmic issue #7, grab your copies and read along)
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- October 21, 2011 @ 06:00 PM by Carla Hoffman