2011 October
Judging comics fairly: Everyone’s a critic, so let’s be good ones
If you can read them, you can talk about them.
I’ve been thinking about comics criticism lately. That may sound a little inside baseball, but it’s not really. Not the way I’ve been thinking about it. As “real” critics are fond of pointing out, the threshold for criticism is extremely low. In fact, we all engage in criticism, even if we’re just talking with our friends about the movie we just saw or discussing our weekly comics stash on a message board. There are supposed to be some differences between someone writing a review for publication and people chatting on Facebook, but I’m not sure there always are.
Professional critics are supposed to adhere to some standards that in reality they sometimes disregard. In contrast, I’ve read some very insightful reviews and had some meaningful discussions about comics (and movies and TV) in the most informal of places. Good criticism isn’t about venue or credentials, it’s about gaining knowledge about a subject and being able to apply that knowledge thoughtfully to the things you read and watch. So when I talk about comics criticism, I’m not just talking about a particular kind, but simply the way we all talk about comics.
Whether they’re reading The New York Times or a comment on a blog post, readers decide whether or not to take criticism seriously based on how seriously the critic is taking his or her subject. And part of taking a comic seriously is thinking about things like authorial intent.
- October 20, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by Michael May
Warning: Jaime Hernandez may be hazardous to cartoonists’ work habits
I read ["The Love Bunglers"] one evening while sitting at my drawing table. When I finished it, I turned off the lights in my studio (spare bedroom), and decided to spend the evening hanging out with my wife. I knew I was done drawing for the day. It reaches emotional heights I rarely encounter when reading comics and was not prepared for.
—Afrodisiac and Street Angel cartoonist Jim Rugg, himself no slouch in the comics department, on encountering Jaime Hernandez’s astonishing work in Love and Rockets: New Stories #4. Hmmm, Rugg left his drawing table, Adrian Tomine left a signing party…I really hope no cartoonists read this book while behind the controls of an airplane or something.
In all seriousness, times when a comic emotionally incapacitates you for however long are times to be treasured. Last night, in prepping for this post, I flipped through the book one more time, and came across pages that made me gasp and swoon. Hey, kids! Comics!
(Image by the great Alex Kropinak from text by yours truly)
- October 20, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by Sean T. Collins
Start Reading Now | Brain Rot
You know what’s the only thing better than being BoingBoinged? Being on BoingBoing every day. That’s the happy position Ed Piskor is in; his new comic Brain Rot debuted there on Tuesday. Unlike his Boingthump! and Deleterious Pedigree, Brain Rot is in color, but it still manages to look like one of my old Zap Comix, an illusion that Piskor helps along by framing using a yellowed-newsprint background and mimicking the colors and textures of old-tyme four-color printing. God only knows that this is about—there’s only one page up at the moment—but Piskor usually takes us on a pretty wild ride.
If you have a minute, check out his Steve Jobs comic, a single page done in the same style as Brain Rot.
- October 20, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Incoming: Nelson, a collaborative graphic novel
A Nelson sampler
I happened across this because Roger Langridge was showing off a bit of art from it: Nelson is a collaborative graphic novel with an impressive lineup of 54 contributors, including Jamie Smart, Sarah McIntyre, Darryl Cunningham, Posy Simmonds, Duncan Fegredo, Warren Pleece, Andi Watson, Garen Ewing — a veritable who’s who of U.K. comics creators, representing children’s comics (including several members of the kids-comics collaborative The DFC), newspaper strips, even 2000AD.
The 250-page graphic novel, to be published by Blank Slate next month, follows the life of Nel Baker, born in London in 1968. Each chapter depicts a single day in her life, running from her birth to the present. The idea was cooked up by Rob Davis, who co-edited the book with Woodrow Phoenix. It looks like it will be available in the U.S., because Amazon has a listing, although there is no price yet. UPDATE: Blank Slate publicist Martin Steenton just e-mailed me to say it’s in the current Previews for a December release in the U.S.
- October 20, 2011 @ 08:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Comics A.M. | Stan Lee to receive visual-effects award
Stan Lee
Awards | The Visual Effects Society has named Stan Lee as the recipient of the VES 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award, which honors individuals whose “lifetime body of work has made a significant and lasting contribution to the art and/or science of the visual effects industry by way of artistry, invention and/or groundbreaking work.” Previous recipients include George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Ray Harryhausen and James Cameron. The award will be presented Feb. 7 at the 10th annual VES Awards. [press release]
Organizations | The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund reports it raised $12,500 last weekend at New York Comic Con. [CBLDF]
Awards | Comic-Con International has opened nominations for the The Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award, which awarded to “an individual retailer who has done an outstanding job of supporting the comics art medium both in the community and within the industry at large.” [CCI]
- October 20, 2011 @ 06:55 AM by Brigid Alverson and JK Parkin
Your Wednesday Sequence 29 | Jaime Hernandez
Love & Rockets: New Stories #4 (2011), page 89. Jaime Hernandez.
I don’t think I’m advancing anything too controversial when I say that if there’s a Platonic ideal for the comic book page, it’s a piece of sequential art that works both as an assemblage of individual panels and as a single, unified artwork. This, of course, is a lot easier said than done. When gridded layouts are discarded to turn the page into a poster-style piece of op-art there’s always some readability being sacrificed, and the grid is all too often a vehicle for cartoonists to work inside without paying sufficient consideration to what sum their page’s parts are creating.
- October 19, 2011 @ 04:00 PM by Matt Seneca
Ben Katchor singlehandedly enacts major corporate reforms
Media reports on the Occupy Wall Street movement tend to express confusion about what the protestors want. This usually leads me to express confusion about whether the authors of said reports have access to Google. But regardless, perhaps OWS should consider implementing the modest proposal advanced by The Cardboard Valise cartoonist Ben Katchor in his latest strip for Metropolis magazine. In it, Katchor imagines a world in which CEOs are mandated by law to work in every store they own for fifteen minutes each, every day. Crunching the numbers and allowing for serious workaholism, that basically maxes major chains out at just under 70 branches, reasonably regionalized. But would it really improve worker conditions? Katchor’s example culminates in a “cleanup in aisle five”-type situation that raises serious questions about the policy’s efficacy in that regard, at least where janitors are concerned…
- October 19, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by Sean T. Collins
Quote of the day #2 | Love and Rockets after death
I’ll freely confess that at the end of the new issue when I saw how Jaime had tied together the fates of Hopey, Maggie, and Ray I started crying like a baby. When I started burbling to Jaime about all this, he said that in working on his recent comics he was thinking that if he were hit by a bus tomorrow and killed he wanted to leave behind a story that would complete his life’s work. Having achieved that goal, the question now is what will Jaime do next.
–The Comics Journal‘s Jeet Heer on his recent conversation with Love and Rockets: New Stories #4 co-author Jaime Hernandez concerning the thought process behind his magisterial story “The Love Bunglers.” The only thing more striking than the fact that Jaime set this career-defining hurdle for himself is that he freaking cleared it.
- October 19, 2011 @ 02:00 PM by Sean T. Collins
New 52 Pickup | Week 8
This is a great week for DC Comics fans. Not only is there another wave of second issues from the New 52, but this week also heralds the release of Batman: Arkham City and a bevy of news coming out of New York Comic Con. There weren’t new No. 1s for any miniseries, though, but that didn’t keep some quality second installments off the shelves. Let’s jump in!
Warning! Spoilers ahead!
Batman
Written by Scott Snyder with art by Greg Capullo
Scott Snyder is poised to become one of the best writers in the New 52. Batman is one of those rare Godfather-like instances in which the second installment is actually better than the first – and considering the quality of the previous issue, that’s high praise. Snyder resolves last month’s cliffhanger somewhat dismissively, but it’s more than made up for by the new mystery of The Court of Owls and Bruce’s mayoral candidate friend Lincoln March. While Nightwing gets a little panel time this issue, Snyder’s real focus is Batman. Not only does the reader get a great feel as to who Bruce Wayne is outside of Batman, the writer also focuses a bit more on the city itself, making for an excellently structured and tightly plotted issue. Greg Capullo continues to show his versatility, making for a creative team that’s really firing on all cylinders.
- October 19, 2011 @ 01:00 PM by Steve Sunu
CDC comic helps you prepare for the zombie apocalypse
Back in May the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention took a fun approach to encouraging folks to prepare for disasters with a blog post about how to get ready for the zombie apocalypse. That post proved to be very popular, so they’ve followed it up with a comic on the same topic.
Preparedness 101: Zombie Pandemic was created in-house, the CDC’s David Daigle told USA Today. The same article points out that the initial zombie blog post cost $87, to buy a stock photo as an illustration. “We got an estimate for the blog that it’s worth $3.4 million in marketing value,” Daigle said. So maybe lightning will strike twice with the comic.
Their timing, of course, couldn’t be better, what with AMC’s The Walking Dead returning to television this past Sunday. Both the show and the CDC claim Atlanta as a home, which has led Atlanta Magazine to declare the city “the Zombie Capital of the World.”
- October 19, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
Jim Lee asks fans ‘to have a little patience’ with DC’s Amazon deal
Jim Lee
In the nearly two weeks since Barnes & Noble drew a line in the sand, pulling 100 of DC Comics’ top-selling graphic novels from its shelves to protest the publisher’s exclusive agreement with Amazon’s new Kindle Fire, there’s been little visible change in the tablet wars. That is, unless you count the decision by Books-A-Million to follow the chain’s lead.
Both sides appear to have dug in, with Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million insisting that books be available in all formats to all customers — specifically, their customers and their e-reader — and DC and parent company Warner Bros. insisting they’re misunderstood, and more than a little disappointed.
There are hints, however, that behind the scenes things may be a bit less … concrete.
Although there’s been some indication that DC’s exclusive arrangement with Amazon will last just four months, meaning graphic novels like Watchmen, Fables, Y: The Last Man and The Sandman could be available digitally for other platforms by mid-March, the publisher has yet to say so, much to the frustration of some fans (and, I would imagine, certain retailers).
In its overview of the dispute, The New York Times notes the DC website trumpets the books are available “exclusively to Amazon’s newly announced Kindle Fire,” period. No qualifiers. But comments for DC Co-Publisher Jim Lee lend credence to reports that the Amazon exclusivity is for a limited time.
Although he cited a nondisclosure agreement with the online retail giant, Lee still told the newspaper that, “Just because we’re starting with Amazon, this is not the be-all and end-all of our digital strategy and distribution.”
And to DC readers frustrated by the deal? “We say to our fans, have a little patience.”
- October 19, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Alfred is aces at dressing your wound or finding your website
Alfred At Your Service
Bruce Wayne’s butler Alfred Pennyworth has proven himself useful in many situations, whether it’s helping out at dinner parties, seeing Wayne’s “friends” out with a fresh-baked muffin or even using his archery skills to help Batman fight crime. Now Alfred is moving into new territory by hosting a search engine, Alfred At Your Service, to promote the release of the well-reviewed video game Batman: Arkham City. While it operates like an ordianry search engine, putting in Batman-related phrases like “Harvey Dent” and “Crime Alley” produces quotes from Alfred about the search term.
Ask Jeeves better watch his back.
- October 19, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by JK Parkin
Quote of the day | Ted Rall on working for free
Does the Society pay any of its staff? Does it rent office space? Does it buy office supplies? If the answer to any of these questions is “yes,” please consider paying cartoonists and other creators. Cartooning is hard work, and it deserves recompense.
– Ted Rall, when the American Cancer Society asked cartoonists to create three characters for a smoking-cessation campaign, by Nov. 1, for free. Rall’s response is polite but pointed, noting that the CEO of the American Cancer Society makes $914,906 per year. and advising them that many cartoonists resent being asked to work for free, so this could backfire on them.
(via The Beat, where a fascinating discussion ensues in the comments section)
- October 19, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Brandon Graham previews Prophet, teases Multiple Warheads
From "Prophet"
King City creator Brandon Graham updates his blog with a seven-page preview of Prophet, his collaboration with Simon Roy and Richard Ballermann — part of the resurrection of the Extreme Studios line announced Friday at New York Comic Con. Graham, who’s handling the writing for the series, describes their take on the ’90s Image property as “Fucking future space Conan ish.”
“This is the first really collaborative comic I’ve done,” he writes. “This is the first time I’ve had to work out how to collaborate and try to make it carry the weight of my solo comics. So yeah, this is the first time I’ve cared about collaborating.”
Graham also teases a two-page spread from Multiple Warheads, and shows off some gorgeous images from Orc Stain creator James Stokoe.
- October 19, 2011 @ 08:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | Dwayne McDuffie’s website to focus on writer’s legacy
Dwayne McDuffie
Creators | Eugene Son, a friend of late comics creator Dwayne McDuffie, announced plans to transform the writer’s website from “one that promoted his work to one that reflects his immense legacy.” The site’s blog will remain active, with plans to post old columns and scripts written by McDuffie, as well as tributes and stories from McDuffie’s friends. Earlier this week Son posted a 2002 essay he said was one of McDuffie’s most-read works, “Six Degrees of St. Elsewhere (aka The Grand Unification Theory).” [DwayneMcDuffie.com]
Publishing | Wizard has hired Kevin Kelly as managing editor of its “website, social media and digital content endeavors.” Kelly has previously worked for several entertainment websites, including io9, Moviefone, Cinematical and Joystiq, and was most recently senior features editor for G4tv.com. [press release]
Manga | Playback hosts a “Manga Moveable Feast” on Ken Akamatsu’s Love Hina, which returns to print from Kodansha Comics next week. [Playback:stl]
- October 19, 2011 @ 06:55 AM by JK Parkin