2011 November
Lovelace & Babbage gets its own app
Oh, the delicious irony of it: Sydney Padua, creator of the delightful quasi-historical webcomic Lovelace & Babbage, has launched an iPad app, thus bringing the parents of the computer to its most recent incarnation. The app is free and includes one complete story, with another available for $2.99.
Like a long-form Kate Beaton comic, Lovelace & Babbage casts Charles Babbage (inventor of the first programmable computer) and Ada Lovelace (the first programmer) as steampunk heroes fighting a variety of evildoers under the aegis of Queen Victoria herself. Padua sets up her stories in an alternate universe but brings in plenty of real historical figures, and both the comic and the app are graced with plenty of footnotes. Padua has a talent for picking out the odd but interesting bits of history, so while the footnotes are scholarly, they are not dry.
Here’s some more good news for Lovelace & Babbage fans: Padua recently announced she is taking time off her day job to focus on her comics, an effort that has already borne fruit in the form of Vampire Poets, a prologue in rhyme accompanied by a few actual contemporary poems about her heroes.
- November 2, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Nicola Scott joins Superman for three issues
Art from Superman #3
Former Birds of Prey artist Nicola Scott will step in for Jesus Merino on three issues of Superman, beginning with this month’s Issue 3.
DC Comics announced this morning that Scott will illustrate issues 3, 5 and 6, with regular artist Merino penciling Issue 4 before returning for Issue 7, which features the debut of new writers Dan Jurgens and Keith Giffen. The duo replaces George Perez, who leaves as writer and breakdown artist following the sixth issue.
Scott, a DC-exclusive artist who also worked on Secret Six and Wonder Woman, will next collaborate with James Robinson on the relaunched Justice Society of America.
Superman #3, which pits the Man of Steel against a new foe targeting those dearest to Clark Kent, goes on sale Nov. 23. Check out a preview of the issue below.
- November 2, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
A $2,200 table for the Spider-Man fan who has almost everything
If you’re a Spider-Man fan in need of a table and you also have $2,200 burning a hole in your web-lined pocket, allow me to draw your attention to this: a one-of-a-kind Spider-Man sculpture made from recycled metal and old automotive parts. While it is coated to protect the wall-crawler — or floor-crawler — from rust, it doesn’t come with the glass tabletop that will make the sculpture practical; you’ll have to shell out a little extra for that. You’ll also have to cover shipping costs from Thailand, which I imagine for a 110-pound object is probably pretty steep.
- November 2, 2011 @ 08:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Editorial cartoonist loses job following plagiarism allegations
It’s one thing to steal an idea and transform it into something new; lots of creators have stood on the shoulders of others. It’s another thing to copy something and make it into something worse.
The Daily Cartoonist has been hot on the tail of David Simpson, an editorial cartoonist for Oklahoma’s Urban Tulsa Weekly. The story started last week when blogger Alan Gardner noted similarities between one of Simpson’s cartoons and an old cartoon by the late Jeff MacNelly. They weren’t just similar concepts; Gardner overlaid the cartoons and they line up pretty well. He told the Poynter Institute’s Bob Andelman that it looked like Simpson didn’t photocopy the older cartoon but redrew it, down to the small details. The main difference between them was not visual but conceptual, as Schlock Mercenary creator Howard Tayler points out in comments to Gardner’s post:
- November 2, 2011 @ 07:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Steve Rude art discounted to raise bail following creator’s arrest [Updated]
Courtesy of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office
Prices of Steve Rude’s artwork have been reduced in an effort to raise money for bail and legal fees following his arrest late Monday in what’s characterized as a dispute with neighbors.
“Steve has had a back and forth with the neighbors for quite some time now that started over their barking dogs,” states a message on Rude’s website titled “Help Bail the Dude Out.” “Last night Steve got hauled in.”
While details are scant, the Maricopa County (Arizona) Sheriff’s Office lists the Nexus co-creator as being held on charges of assault and failure to comply with a court order.
Rude’s art auctions can be viewed on his website and on eBay.
Update (Wednesday, Nov. 2, at 6:50 a.m. PT): Rude’s wife Jaynelle wrote last night on his Facebook page that he was able to post bail, but that they’re still in need of financial assistance: “Now we have to pay for the legal counsel so he doesn’t end up back doing hard time for trying to keep his sanity. All he wants is to be left alone to create his art, not harassed by people who call the police on our kids because a frisbee ended up in their yard.”
- November 1, 2011 @ 05:16 PM by Kevin Melrose
Food or Comics? | Everybody wants a piece of the Action
Welcome to Food or Comics?, where every week we talk about what comics we’d buy at our local comic shop based on certain spending limits — $15 and $30 — as well as what we’d get if we had extra money or a gift card to spend on a “Splurge” item.
Check out Diamond’s release list or ComicList, and tell us what you’re getting in our comments field.
Graeme McMillan
It’s a slow week, this week; if I had $15, I’d use it to catch up on some recent enjoyments like Action Comics #3 (DC, $3.99) and OMAC #3 (DC, $2.99), two of my favorite titles from the New 52 relaunch–OMAC in particular has been a really weird and wonderful joy–as well as the final issue of Marvel’s great and sadly underrated Mystic revival (#4, $2.99). I’d also see if the parody-tastic Shame Itself #1 (Marvel, $3.99) lives up to its potential, because “Wyatt Cenac + Colleen Coover” sounds pretty promising to these ears.
- November 1, 2011 @ 04:00 PM by JK Parkin
Diamond to distribute Angry Birds books
Have you seen the video of the baby who plays happily with an iPad but gets frustrated when she tries to tap and swipe a print magazine? That’s what I thought of when I heard that Diamond Comics Distributors has inked a deal with Rovio, the company that makes the insanely popular Angry Birds game, to distribute Angry Birds books. Really? Angry Birds books? But when I read the press release, I realized that it’s actually kind of cool—the books include an egg cookbook and two finish-the-drawing books, so they are interactive and fun, as opposed to, say, an Angry Birds novel, which couldn’t help but be boring.
Anyway, Diamond will be the exclusive distributor for the books, which start rolling into bookstores later this month. First up is Angry Birds Bad Piggies Egg Recipes, which combines egg thievery with egg cookery and may be the first-ever action cookbook. Later this month, we will see Angry Birds: The Big Red Doodle Book and Angry Birds: The Big Green Doodle Book, two books filled with unfinished drawings for readers to complete and improve as they see fit. (You know, it seems like this unfinished-drawings racket might be a good one for some more mainline comics artists to get into.) More books are planned for next year.
- November 1, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by Brigid Alverson
The annotated ‘Love Bunglers’
from "The Love Bunglers" (top) and "The Death of Speedy Ortiz" (bottom) by Jaime Hernandez, assembled by Ng Suat Tong
As readers of this site are no doubt aware (to say the least!), Jaime Hernandez’s contribution to the recently released Love and Rockets: New Stories #4, “The Love Bunglers,” magisterially ties together some 30 years of history for its leading players, Maggie Chascarillo and Ray Dominguez. Now, the Hooded Utilitarian’s Ng Suat Tong has shown us exactly how.
His annotations for “The Love Bunglers” take the story’s many flashback panels, including all the scenes from the story’s centerpiece two-page spread, and place them side by side with the original scenes to which they’re flashing back, some of which were first published literally decades ago. It’s stunning to see how Jaime reinterpreted and re-interpolated his previous work– hifting our POV from one angle to another, showing moments that took place between the moments he depicted in the past, and of course re-drawing classic characters and scenes in his current style. Besides being a really useful post from a story perspective–surely everyone who read “The Love Bunglers” was hoping someone would do exactly this–as a demonstration of Jaime’s artistic intelligence and prowess, it’s tough to top. But then, so is “The Love Bunglers.”
- November 1, 2011 @ 02:00 PM by Sean T. Collins
Akamatsu: Japanese copyright changes threaten fan comics
Doraemon doujinshi
Here’s a quick thought experiment: What would happen to you if you made your own Mickey Mouse comic and sold it online or at conventions? You would expect to feel the wrath of Disney pretty quickly, wouldn’t you?
Yet doujinshi, fan-made comics, are a huge part of Japanese culture, and many of them involve characters from existing manga series. And Ken Akamatsu, creator of Negima and Love Hina—as well as his own doujinshi—wants it to stay that way, which is why he is speaking out against Japan joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, a trade agreement would make copyright laws uniform among the nine signatories, including the U.S. If Japan signs on, Akamatsu says, the new regulations would have a chilling effect on the doujinshi market.
Japan’s current copyright laws allow publishers to tolerate a certain amount of remixing of copyrighted characters, although there are limits: In 2007, for instance, the publisher Shogakukan took legal action against the creator of a Doraemon doujinshi that not only perfectly mimicked the look of the original manga (one of the most popular in all of Asia) but also sold over 13,000 copies.
- November 1, 2011 @ 01:00 PM by Brigid Alverson
Kevin Smith teases second volume of Widening Gyre is ‘half-done’
Pencils from the second volume of "Batman: The Widening Gyre," by Walt Flanagan
Filmmaker Kevin Smith this morning offered a first look at Walt Flanagan’s pencils for the second volume of Batman: The Widening Gyre, trumpeting that the remaining six issues are “half-done.”
The 12-issue miniseries, which debuted in October 2009, reacquaints Bruce Wayne with Silver St. Cloud and introduces Batman to a new partner in his fight against crime in Gotham City. Despite efforts to keep the project on schedule, the first volume met with delays, extending its conclusion to September 2010.
Smith built in a six-month break between volumes — “to insure we don’t run into my usual problems with lateness,” the writer said in 2009 — meaning the second leg of The Widening Gyre should’ve debuted sometime around March.
Now, however, Smith indicates on Twitter that Vol. 2 will arrive in early 2012, when his new AMC reality series Secret Stash is scheduled to debut: “Looking to street when AMC show starts (SMarketing, bitch)!”
- November 1, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by Kevin Melrose
Vertigo reveals the cover to Flex Mentallo deluxe edition
Sometimes I think I dreamed that DC Comics announced that they would finally collect Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s Flex Mentallo miniseries into a deluxe edition, but no, I didn’t dream it — it actually was announced earlier this year. And if you need more proof that it isn’t some sort of hoax, dream or Elseworlds scenario, today Vertigo revealed Frank Quitely’s cover for the Flex Mentallo Man of Muscle Mystery Deluxe Edition, which is due out in February.
Check out the entire cover after the jump.
- November 1, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by JK Parkin
Brooklyn creators welcome you to Trip City
Baby with a Mohawk
Several Brooklyn, N.Y. creators launched Trip City, a new “literary arts salon” website, this week, featuring free content by the likes of Dean Haspiel, Seth Kushner, Joe Infurnari, Kevin Colden, Chris Miskiewicz, Jef UK and many more.
“TRIP CITY reinvents the online arts collective with a virtual playground for a diverse set of accomplished and highly individualistic creators,” said Trip City founder Dean Haspiel, “spanning every borough of artistic endeavor from the visual arts to literature, music, video and beyond.”
Comis wise, there’s already a bunch of stuff to check out, including Dean Haspiel’s Bring Me The Heart Of Billy Dogma, Chris Miskiewicz and Kate McElroy’s Adrift, Joe Infurnari’s Memoirs of the Kid Immortal, Nick Bertozzi’s Lad Zeppelin, Kevin Colden’s Baby With A Mohawk and more. In addition to comics, the site will also feature profiles, interviews and podcasts with everyone from Moby to Henry Rollins to Michael Moore, who is interviewed by Dan Goldman in the site’s first podcast.
The release Haspiel sent out says that the group has future plans to take some of the content and perform it live on the road. “Working with so many Brooklyn locals, we have this great sense of community right out of the gate,” said Jef UK. “Then, when we take the next step and turn Trip City into a live event—which is in the works—our tribe is already gathered, so to speak.”
- November 1, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by JK Parkin
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 posters by Francavilla and Shinkiro
From Francesco Francavilla's poster for "Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3"
Marvel has announced the addition of Rocket Raccoon and Dead Rising protagonist Frank West to the ever-expanding roster of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, in the process unveiling new posters from Captain America & Bucky artist Francesco Francavilla and Capcom’s Shinkiro.
Check out the full images below. Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 will be released Nov. 15 in North America for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
- November 1, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Superhero street theater at Occupy Wall Street
Krug Man, possibly the first superhero inspired by a New York Times columnist
No matter how nuanced current superhero comics may be, to the general public they are still fairly simple. Superheroes are the good guys, supervillians are the bad guys, and it’s easy to see who is who. That’s why kids like to dress up as superheroes on Halloween — and why should they have all the fun?
Yesterday the Occupy Wall Street folks staged an event called “Superheroes versus Economic Supervillains,” featuring Gan Golan, creator of The Adventures of Unemployed Man, playing his own superhero. Golan orchestrated the event and created the other characters as well, including working-mom superhero Wonder Mother (at last!), a huge slot machine that stands in for the New York Stock Exchange, and my favorite, Krug Man, a superhero version of Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman. It’s all in good fun, but it’s also publicity for the book. Indeed, Golan’s rich imagination seems to be his most valuable asset; he is working on another book and a possible animated version of The Adventures of Unemployed Man.
- November 1, 2011 @ 08:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Comics A.M. | Other publishers benefit from DC’s New 52 bump
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Publishing | IDW’s Chief Operating Officer Greg Goldstein attributes a bump in the company’s September sales to several factors, including DC’s big relaunch: “The reality is the DC New 52 brought some people into comic book stores that hadn’t been in comic stores for a while, and we had the opportunity to sell them some of our books as well as the other books that are available to them. But clearly, people who had not been focused on comics came out of the woodwork a bit.” It didn’t hurt that IDW had its own launches of properties familiar to those outside of comics, including the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, an ongoing Star Trek series and the Star Trek/Legion of Super-Heroes crossover. [ICv2]
Legal | A Belgian judicial adviser has recommended that the nation’s courts reject a four-year-old bid by a Congolese student to have Herge’s 1931 Tintin in the Congo banned, or at least restricted, because of its racist depictions. The recommendation is being viewed as a major setback for the case, as the opinion of the Procureur du Roi (Senior Crown prosecutor) is requested and typically followed by the court. [The Guardian]
- November 1, 2011 @ 06:55 AM by Brigid Alverson and JK Parkin