2011 October
A short chat with Domino Books’ Austin English
Dark Tomato
Austin English has been one of the more unique cartoonists on the indie comic scene over the past decade, someone with a definitive ideas of what comics should be and how best to achieve those goals. You can see it in the childlike grace and artfulness that’s captured in his graphic novel Christina and Charles, as well as in the three issues of Windy Corner Magazine, which he edited. After being a mainstay in the Sparkplug line-up for many years, English is now trying his hand at being a publisher with his new company, Domino Books. The line’s debut comic, Dark Tomato by Sakura Maku, is a surreal tale about an MTA subway driver who has a supernatural encounter of sorts down in the bowels of New York City. It’s available now via the Internet and finer retail outlets.
I talked to Austin over email about his new business venture, the challenges of being a small press publisher and the wisdom he gained from the late Sparkplug owner, Dylan Williams.
So let me start by asking what made you decide to become a publisher. Was this something you were always interested in doing?
I wrote about it when I started Domino and it bears repeating down, given the circumstances: Dylan Williams is the main inspiration for Domino, and not just because he was a publisher too. Dylan advocated for art that he believed in and he thought advocating for art that you liked was important — I think, for him, it was essential to do what you could for artists that moved you.
I share this feeling with Dylan. Art is very important to me — I believe in the work an artist like Sakura Maku does very strongly. I feel this intense obligation to do something with her work so that its shown with the proper dignity and intensity that it deserves.
- October 21, 2011 @ 05:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Viz honchos talk digital
Manga blogger extraordinaire Deb Aoki sat down with the Viz folks at NYCC and asked some hard questions about their relaunch of Shonen Jump as a digital magazine (to be renamed Shonen Jump Alpha). The magazine will be available via the Viz iOS app and the Vizmanga.com website, but only in the U.S. and Canada.
Aoki asked Viz VP of digital publishing Brian Piech when Shonen Jump Alpha would be available in other regions, and he responded that it depends on Viz parent company Shueisha, which controls the rights. Simply put, Viz has the print rights in the U.S. and Canada, and other companies have those rights in other countries:
This is something that the entire publishing industry is dealing with, not just manga. Digital rights (to a given book or manga) wasn’t always included in the original contracts.
Now, with everything that’s happening, everyone wants the digital rights. But it’s not clear if the print publisher (of a given book in a given territory) has first dibs, or if the rights holder can just shop (the digital rights) around to whomever wants it.
So it’s possible that someone will be publishing Naruto digitally in other countries, but it won’t necessarily be Viz.
There are pretty much three reasons for piracy—price, speed, and regional availability. Viz has the speed thing licked—with the launch of Shonen Jump Alpha, they will be publishing chapters of six of the most popular manga in the U.S. within two weeks of their Japanese release, and there’s a good chance that they may eventually go to simultaneous release in the two countries. On price, the ability to buy a chapter for the magic price of 99 cents (through Viz’s website as well as iOS apps) is a pretty good deal for the casual reader (although the yearly subscription price of $25.99 is a better deal in the long term). But region restrictions, whatever the reason, are bad news; they seem to be driving a lot of the traffic on pirate sites, judging from the comments. Two out of three ain’t bad—but if Shonen Jump Alpha does well, and the Shueisha honchos loosen the restrictions, that hat trick could prove very lucrative for Viz.
- October 21, 2011 @ 04:00 PM by Brigid Alverson
Marvel cancels Alpha Flight with January’s Issue 8
Alpha Flight #8
Less than two months after announcing the title had been upgraded from an eight-issue miniseries to an ongoing, Marvel has canceled Alpha Flight — with Issue 8.
The blow was delivered this afternoon in Marvel’s January 2012 solicitations, where the publisher labels “the big showdown between Alpha Flight and the Master of the World,” somewhat uncharacteristically, as “THE FINAL ISSUE!” (Marvel tends not to telegraph a title’s cancellation.)
“Fans and friends, I’m sorry to confirm that #AlphaFlight will indeed end with issue #8,” co-writer Greg Pak said on Twitter, “but the book was originally conceived as an 8 issue mini, so we’re still telling the big, fun story we intended from the start. THANK YOU, #AlphaFlight fans — you guys are the best and have provided us huge amounts of fun and inspiration. And have no fear … the story’s heading for a huge, satisfying ending that @fredvanlente and I have been champing at the bit to unleash for months.”
Featuring the creative team of Pak, his Incredible Herc collaborator Fred Van Lente and artist Dale Eaglesham, Alpha Flight had a strong debut in June, selling an estimated 45,850 copies and claiming the 20th spot on Diamond Comic Distributors’ Top 300 for the month. Sales dropped off dramatically with the second issue, to 26,860; by September’s Issue 4, that number had fallen to about 23,400, barely hovering above Marvel’s traditional line of death.
The cancellation, however, seems par for the course for Alpha Flight, a property that’s had a difficult time finding its footing, and an audience, since the end of its original 130-issue run in 1994 (some might argue since creator John Byrne left in 1985 after 28 issues). The four subsequent revivals were short-lived, with the longest lasting just 20 issues.
- October 21, 2011 @ 03:30 PM by Kevin Melrose
You’ve come a long way, Jaime: or how I learned to stop worrying and love Love and Rockets
I just wanted to end Robot 6′s impromptu weeklong celebration of Jaime Hernandez and Love and Rockets by posting this portrait of “The Love Bunglers”‘ lead characters Ray and Maggie during their flaming youth. We knew them when.
But what if you didn’t know them when? What if this is your first real exposure to the worlds created by Jaime and his brother Gilbert? Jaime’s been writing his “Locas” saga — about a loose-knit group of (mostly) Latino/Latina men and women who (mostly) first met as teens in the Los Angeles punk scene — for thirty years now. Gilbert’s been chronicling his own group of characters — first the residents of the fictional Latin-American town of Palomar, then the family and friends of Palomar’s former mayor Luba, and now the on-screen and off-screen misadventures of Luba’s B-movie actress sister Fritz — for nearly as long. What if you’ve got no idea who these people are, or where you could possibly begin to learn?
That’s fine too.
- October 21, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by Sean T. Collins
This weekend, it’s Yaoi-Con—with Jo Chen
Yaoi-Con, subtitled “A Celebration of Male Beauty & Passion in Anime & Manga,” is an opportunity for yaoi enthusiasts to get together without distractions (unlike, say, New York Comic-Con, where you have to coexist with video games, movies, cars, and a bunch of comics you really don’t care about). This weekend, a couple thousand yaoi fans will crowd into the San Francisco Airport Marriott Hotel to enjoy panels, guest appearances, a scavenger hunt, and yaoi-specific events like Bishie Pictionary and a Bishounen Auction (one of the more controversial aspects of Yaoi-Con).
It says something about the importance of this event that Viz Media (the largest manga publisher in the U.S.) opted to launch its new yaoi manga imprint at Yaoi-Con rather than at NYCC. Digital Manga, which skipped NYCC altogether (as they have for the past few years) will also be there. Guests at this year’s con include Japanese manga creator Fusanosuke Inariya (Maiden Rose) and American artist Jo Chen, who draws yaoi doujinshi (fan comics) when she isn’t working on Buffy, Runaways, and Thor. Chen’s doujinshi In These Words has been picked up by the Japanese publisher Libre and will run in their magazine Be Boy Gold.
This year marks the tenth anniversary of Yaoi-Con, and while it is much smaller than most anime cons (with attendance that stays in the four digits), it has become well established as one of the moveable feasts of the manga lover’s year. And while I have never been, I have a feeling that Yaoi-Con is the ideal con, the one place where everyone in the room has something in common—and it’s something the rest of the world knows nothing about.
- October 21, 2011 @ 02:00 PM by Brigid Alverson
Artist Keron Grant resurfaces with new art book
Artist Keron Grant burst onto the comics scene in the late 90s, but really came into focus at Marvel a few years later with his work on Fantastic Four, Iron Man and a stand-alone issue of Grant Morrison’s New X-Men run. After a run on the DC series Son of Vulcan in 2005 however, Grant largely dropped off the comic map. Since then he’s become an illustrator and an artist outside comics, doing T-shirts, giclee prints and books. He’s had success in that field, but for alot of comic fans who don’t travel in that circle he’s dropped off the map.
But he’s out to change that.
Grant is collecting some of his most popular pieces from the past year into a limited edition art book. Measuring nine inches square and clocking in at 70 pages, Grant’s book is available directly through the artist for $35 by emailing him at Keron@KeronGrant.net. If you’ve forgotten how good he is, he’s given us a sample of what’s inside the book.
- October 21, 2011 @ 01:00 PM by Chris Arrant
Darren Aronofsky’s Noah graphic novel available in Europe
Last week I wrote a piece on CBR on movie screenwriters seeing comics as a home for screenplays that never got a shot at becoming a movie, and one of the subjects was Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky’s Noah. News coming out of Europe shows that the director’s done more than just talked about it, he’s done it.
/Film has the scoop that French publisher Le Lombard has released the first graphic novel in the series, titled Noe. This 72 page book is on sale for €15.95 and I can already feel Aronofsky fans in America and the UK looking for a place to buy it. No English-language release has been scheduled, but that doesn’t mean it won’t soon. After initially passing on the movie, Paramount has since greenlit this project for a movie — similiar to how Aronofsky brought The Fountain to Vertigo before getting a second chance to film it.
The graphic novel Noe is co-written by Ari Handel and illustrated by Nico Henrichon, best known for his OGN Pride of Baghdad with Brian K. Vaughn. Click through for a first look at pages from the book.
- October 21, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by Chris Arrant
de Campi and Broxton turn Smoke into Ashes
In 2005, writer Alex de Campi burst into the comics world with the IDW series Smoke. Illustrated by then-recent New X-Men artist Igor Kordey, it burst through the sea of work that year to earn an Eisner nomination — no small feat for such a new entry into comics. Since then she’s done a handful of OEL manga and BD comics but has largely fallen off the grid in favor of directing music videos. But now she’s coming back, and she’s coming back with a sequel to the book that made her name in the industry.
de Campi is working with artist Jimmy Broxton on Ashes, a graphic novel sequel to Smoke that she’s aiming to fund via Kickstarter. Described by the author as “a bullet ride through the brain of dystopian Britain into the dark heart of the American psyche,” it follows Smoke leads Rupert Cain and Katie Shah as the retribution for bringing down a government comes calling.
And they’re offering not only the typical incentives that come with a Kickstarter campaign, but also have listed the European trade rights, North American trade rights and film rights for it as incentives as well. “You can buy the trade rights and the film rights, right there on Kickstarter. Why not? The few book-to-film agents for comics that I’ve come across really have not added any value to the process. I’ve had agents at two of the major agencies as well as having worked with independents and nobody really did anything. Publishing and filmmaking will only continue to decentralise from their legacy past as groups of elite insiders based in NY and LA who required an agent to gain you access.,” de Campi told Bleeding Cool.
Aiming for a goal of $27,000, de Campi and Broxton have raised over $3,000 in just one day into the drive with just under two months to go. Notable backers at this point including comics creators Kieron Gillen and Dean Haspiel as well as editors Janelle Asselin and Tim Beedle. If you see something you like, add your name to the list.
- October 21, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by Chris Arrant
Middleman‘s Les McClaine creates Batman poster-as-comic titled ‘Mayhem At The Manor’
Comics creators come into the industry with a lot of talent and a lot of professionalism, but sometimes they do a project just as a sincere fan that blows your mind. This elaborate piece by artist Les McClaine (Middleman, The Tick) takes on Batman and his entire extended cast in a room-by-room battle inside Wayne Manor… all at once!
Click below to see the full picture.
- October 21, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by Chris Arrant
Fan-made version of The Avengers trailer goes all out
We’ve all seen fan-made trailers for comic book movies, but the most recent one takes the low-budget nature of them to full full comedic effect. Created by filmmakers Dumb Drum, this shot-by-shot remake of the trailer (complete with home-made version of the Nine Inch Nails song that goes with it) really shows just what can be done with a small budget and a big amount of fan appreciation.
- October 21, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by Chris Arrant
Your chance to name villain in Millar & Gibbons’ new series ends today
The auction for the rights to name the supervillain in the new comic from Kick-Ass writer Mark Millar and Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons ends in a matter of hours — at 3:54 p.m. Pacific, to be exact.
Officially unveiled Tuesday on Comic Book Resources, The Secret Service is the duo’s long-simmering first-time collaboration, based on an idea by Millar, Gibbons and Kick-Ass and X-Men: First Class director Matthew Vaughn (who holds the film rights to the project). More details will be revealed next month in CLiNT #12.
As he did with Kick-Ass, Nemesis and Superior, Millar is auctioning off the opportunity to name a character in The Secret Service — specifically, the villain — with the proceeds going to charity. This time the beneficiary is St. Bartholomew’s Primary School Pantomime Fund, established by Millar (a former student there) and Head Teacher Christine Boyle. The current bid on the eBay auction is $3,100, with mere hours to go.
The six-issue miniseries is set to debut in February.
- October 21, 2011 @ 07:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Read the Extreme Preview book right here
Image Comics has released a digital version of the Extreme Preview book that was available at the New York Comic Con last weekend, and thanks to the embed feature offered by Graphicly, you can read it right here. It can also be downloaded via ComiXology, Graphicly, iVerse and Diamond Digital.
The preview book offers a look at Brandon Graham and Simon Roy’s Prophet, Joe Keatinge and Ross Campbell’s Glory; Alan Moore, Erik Larsen and Cory Hamscher’s Supreme; Tim Seeley and Francheco Gaston’s Bloodstrike; and John McLaughlin, Jon Malin and Rob Liefeld’s Youngblood. The first comic from the revived Extreme, Prophet #21, arrives Jan. 18.
- October 21, 2011 @ 06:00 AM by JK Parkin
Grumpy Old Fan | Already? DC Solicits for January 2012
"I throw him a growl I've brought all the way from Africa"
I was going to open with some snotty Wow, the holidays went by super-quickly! comment, but then I read the first issue of Justice League in seven weeks. Sometimes DC gets ahead of itself; sometimes it’s a little behind. Happens to the best of us — sometimes you do two solicitation roundups in three weeks….
Anyway, with the January solicitations, the New-52 books each turn five issues old. Series wrapping up their first arcs this month include Blackhawks, Batwoman, Animal Man, and the Deadman feature in DC Universe Presents. (Not to worry about the latter, because there is a lot of Deadman in these solicits.) I’m not sure why five issues is such a wonky number for story arcs — there are five-issue miniseries all the time and they collect just fine. Still, I expected most of the New-52 books to take six issues for their introductory stories, and most of them may yet do that. Only a few books look to finish their first arcs after December’s issue #4s (Hawkman and Frankenstein, probably OMAC, maybe Batgirl), and those plus this month’s are barely an eighth of the relaunched line. It makes next month’s solicits more intriguing, I suppose.
Regardless, we live in the now (as it were…) so — onward to January!
Continue Reading »
- October 20, 2011 @ 02:12 PM by Tom Bondurant
Viva la Foletto!: On Adrian Tomine’s still floppy Optic Nerve #12
The last two pages of Adrian Tomine’s Optic Nerve #12 look like the roughest and most quickly considered and drawn pages in the entire issue, but they are also the funniest, and the most concerned with the quickly disappearing format of alternative comics like Optic Nerve.
In two black and white, 20-panel-grid pages that most closely resemble the style and tone of Tomine’s recent Scenes From an Impending Marriage, Tomine’s unshaven avatar in opaque spectacles gets lauched at by his fellow cartoonists when one refers to him as “The Last Pamphleteer.”
Stewing about the fact that the bound, book format has (what we commonly if not quite accurately refer to as “the graphic novel”) has become the default format for (non-superhero) comics, he laments sticking with “floppies”: “I even liked it when the artist was obviously just trying to fill a few extra pages, and you’d get a pointless, dashed-off autobio strip or something!”
Tomine works in an awful lot of jokes in so few pages, and rather masterfully fills those many panels so the art never looks small or claustrophobic (I read Optic Nerve #12 before and after this week’s Justice League #2, and I get such a case of whiplash reading superhero comics and “art” comics; people sometimes wonder why I’m so negative about super-comics, but how can one not be when you see the quality vs. quantity gap between a Big Two pamphlet and an issue of Optic Nerve?), eventually culminating in what is a (hopefully highly) fictionalized encounter with a comics reader at a shop signing.
The dashed-off autobio strip is endearing in the way it allows Tomine to honestly express his feelings about his chosen format and the way the industry is currently going, while also rather mercilessly ridiculing those feelings.
There are several arguments to be made for floppies (“Which is about as withering a terms as I’ve ever heard,” the Tomine character thinks in one panel), and while Tomine makes a couple of them, I think he left out one of the more compelling ones: Neither of the excellent stories in Optic Nerve #12, which are graphic short stories more than graphic novels or even graphic novellas, could have been published as books. They’re just too short to justify a book, and, I think, the expense of purchasing them.
- October 20, 2011 @ 01:00 PM by J. Caleb Mozzocco
Jack Kirby’s Space Busters art unearthed
Think you know Jack Kirby? Well, think again.
A piece of artwork by “The King” has resurfaced in an auction from the estate of one-time Kirby inker Marven Stein. This artwork is from an aborted comic strip pitch called Space Busters by Kirby and writer Dave Wood. The strip never saw life, instead evolving into another strip titled Sky Masters of the Space Force, which was syndicated in 1958. In 2000, Pure Imagination collected them in a single tome that’s worth tracking down.
Created in the mid-50s, this was after Kirby’s initial tenure at Marvel (then Timely) in the 1930s and ’40s, but before he returned to the publisher in the ’60s for the creation of the Marvel universe as we know it. Kirby’s ’50s work is relatively under-appreciated given the commercial peaks for him in the ’40s and ’50s, but this work shows Kirby as his style evolves into what he later became famous (again) for at Marvel.
- October 20, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by Chris Arrant