2011 November
For the fan who has everything: generic superhero Snuggies!
If the rapid approach of the holidays has pushed you into panic mode, just relax, because you’ve already found the perfect gift for the superhero-comics fan in your life (or, y’know, yourself): a superhero Snuggie, or as the trademark sticklers prefer to call it, a “Comfy Throw Blanket With Sleeves”!
If you can’t fight crime like Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman or Spider-Man, you can at least look like them — well, kind of? — while remaining toasty in the comfort of your own beige living room, while sitting on your own beige sofa and watching your own (probably) beige television. Hey, I’m only going by the product photos, which do a better job of advertising furniture than selling one-size-fits-all Snuggies Comfy Throw Blankets With Sleeves using two models and Photoshop.
Batman is out of stock, but you can still get Superman ($30.97), Wonder Woman ($25.99) and Spider-Man ($24.95) while supplies last! Act now and you’ll get … I don’t know, peace of mind? The satisfaction of seeing your loved one smile uncomfortably while modeling, and pretending to appreciate, a garish, yet comfy, fleece shroud? Yeah, probably that.
- November 29, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Jen Lee Quick to resume OffBeat
Back when Tokyopop was churning out stacks of manga-style graphic novels (a.k.a. “global manga”), Jen Lee Quick’s OffBeat was one of the best. It was a bit like a high school version of Harriet the Spy with a touch of yaoi intrigue — a teenage boy spies on his mysterious new neighbor and gradually becomes fascinated with him. The story was supposed to run for three volumes, but after the first two came out, Tokyopop dropped most of its global manga line, and OffBeat was one of the casualties. By then it had attracted quite a following, and it was one of the few books that fans actually clamored for more of.
Well, good news: Last week, Quick revealed on her Deviantart page that the third volume of OffBeat will be published in 2012. Quick doesn’t name the publisher, but in the comments to the post she says “it’s a new publisher aimed at young women,” which is good news in and of itself. It’s interesting that she has the rights to the book at all, as most of the Tokyopop global manga creators have not been able to get their rights back and have had to leave their projects unfinished as a result.
Quick has done a significant amount of work on the third volume, but a computer virus wiped out much of what she had done. She will be re-scanning and re-toning the lost pages, and she says she will rewrite and edit them along the way, which should make the book stronger in the long run.
(via Comics Worth Reading)
- November 29, 2011 @ 08:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Comics A.M. | Man discovers $12,000 Spider-Man comic in attic
Amazing Fantasy #15
Comics | While going through a box in his attic, a Grange Park, Illinois, man discovered a copy of Amazing Fantasy #15, the first appearance of Spider-Man, that he had bought as a kid. While other copies of the comic have fetched as much as $1.2 million, Chimera’s Comics is selling it for $12,000 due to its condition. [LaGrange Patch]
Comics | Brian Truitt profiles Marvel’s Fantastic Four, talking to Mark Waid, Tom Brevoort and Tom DeFalco about the long-running comic. [USA Today]
Publishing | Janna Morishima, formerly of Scholastic and Diamond Comic Distributors, has joined Papercutz as its first marketing director. [Papercutz]
- November 29, 2011 @ 06:55 AM by JK Parkin
Talking Comics with Tim | Steve Orlando
Octobriana: Samizdat Edition
When writer Steve Orlando contacted Robot 6 about his 88-page graphic novel, Octobriana: Samizdat Edition (Poseur Ink), I was intrigued for a number for a reasons. First off, Orlando tapped artist Chaz Truog (Grant Morrison’s collaborator on his definitive Animal Man run) for the project. Also, of interest to me, was the Russian history aspect; SAMIZDAT, the underground Soviet movement for spreading censored art and literature and best of all, a character born partially from a pop culture hoax. Once interested, of course, I arranged an email interview and we discussed all of these topics and more.
Tim O’Shea: At the outset, for uninformed readers like myself, can you discuss SAMIZDAT- the underground Soviet movement for spreading censored art and literature?
Steve Orlando: Samizdat (which means “self-making” or “self-made” in Russian) was an underground publishing movement during the harshest times of Soviet repression. It’s best summed up by Vladimir Bukovsky, a doctor and writer that exposed psychological torture against Soviet prisoners- “(…) I myself create it, edit it, censor it, publish it, distribute it, and …get imprisoned for it. (…)” With Samizdat, banned documents were printed in secret and passed hand to hand between readers, under the radar. Because the documents were censored by the government, Samizdat was a dangerous movement, its printers were social and political zealots. But it was also extremely important- works such as Mikhail Bulgakov’s “The Master and Margarita” were among the circulated texts…making the movement responsible for the continued growth and expression of Russian literature. These were dedicated people- sometimes even recreating the texts word for word by hand or by typewriter.
- November 28, 2011 @ 04:00 PM by Tim O'Shea
The Robot 6 Holiday Gift-Giving Guide, Part 1
‘Tis the season for decking those halls, trimming those trees, lighting the menorah and, of course, figuring out what to buy for your friends and family. To help give you some ideas, we reached out to a few comic creators, asking them:
1. What comic-related gift or gifts would you recommend giving this year, and why?
2. What gift (comic or otherwise) is at the top of your personal wish list, and why?
We’ve gotten back a bunch of suggestions, which we’ll run between now and the end of the week. So let the merriment commence …
Jim McCann
1. Exclusive 2011 Janet Lee Holiday Ornaments
Every year, Janet does about 12 ornaments, three sets of four. This year, she has done Hipster Animals, Scary Toys and Art Nouveau Angels. They are signed and dated, and at the end of the season, that’s it! She stops making them. I’ve been collecting them since 2007, and now our tree is almost completely filled with Janet’s art. You can buy them exclusively through her Etsy shop.
Oh, and if you’re REALLY nice, she MAY have a very limited Dapper Men ornament or two. Just ask!
2. This year, for myself, I’m going with a mix of Blu-Rays (portable Blu-Ray player, please, Santa!) and books. But the thing I’m REALLY excited for is the hardcover edition of the Complete Ripley novels, by Patricia Highsmith. Most people only know of Ms. Highsmith through The Talented Mr. Ripley (and classic film lovers through Strangers On a Train). There were actually five Tom Ripley novels, and the collection looks amazing. Why these books? My spouse recently Tweeted a quote from John Lithgow that struck me as a writer: “Duality, duplicity, truth and deception, good becoming bad and vice-versa are crucial elements of great storytelling.” Highsmith was and remains an unsung hero of mastering that, so I hope I learn something in the process!
Happy Holidays from the Dapper Lariosa-McCann household!
Jim McCann is the writer of Return of the Dapper Men and its upcoming sequel, Marvel Zombies Christmas Carol, Hawkeye:Blindspot and the upcoming Mind The Gap.
- November 28, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by JK Parkin
Attention fans of beautiful, horrible drawings: Renee French has a new website
As a longtime admirer of H Day cartoonist Renee French’s delicate pencil art, and the frequently disturbing things she uses that delicate pencil art to portray, I’d been a bit dismayed by her Blogspot blog‘s radio silence this autumn. For several years she’d been posting art on a daily basis — what happened? Well, she appears to have switched over to her previously little used Posterous site, as I discovered this weekend. Add it to your RSS reader and your flow of French will remain largely uninterrupted.
- November 28, 2011 @ 01:52 PM by Sean T. Collins
Submissions for the 2012 Glyph Comics Awards being accepted
Glyph Comics Awards
Rich Watson, creator and administrator of the Glyph Comics Awards, sent word today that nomination are now being accepted for 2012.
Any comics publisher–small, large, corporate, independent, self-published–as well as online comic creators and cartoonists for newspapers and other periodicals, can submit black-themed material released between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2011 for consideration for award recognition. The Committee defines black-themed work as any comic with any combination of the following: a black protagonist(s), or at least a black character(s) pivotal to the direction of the story; a setting(s) or a theme(s) that explores the black experience within the United States and/or abroad, past, present, and/or future; and/or a comic of any kind written and/or illustrated by a black creator(s).
- November 28, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
Magneto’s ‘House of M’ uniform again draws royal objections
King Juan Carlos of Spain, left, and Mike Mayhew's Magento
In 2005, Marvel drew the displeasure of Spain’s royal family when the official portrait of King Juan Carlos — right down to the sash, medals and wall pattern! — was used as the basis of Mike Mayhew’s image of Magneto for the cover of The Pulse: House of M Special. There were rumblings of legal action, followed by an apology and a new cover.
More than six years later, Magneto’s Juan Carlos-inspired uniform is back, this time as a downloadable skin for Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. And so, too, are the royal family’s objections, apparently.
Courtesy of Kotaku and a Google translation comes word from the Madrid newspaper Heraldo that Zarzuela Palace has asked Spanish game distributor Koch Media to remove the skin, which is virtually identical to the uniform worn by Juan Carlos in his role as Captain General of Armies of the King.
- November 28, 2011 @ 11:15 AM by Kevin Melrose
Chris Weston paints the heck out of the Rocketeer
Chris Weston's Rocketeer
Over the past few weeks artist Chris Weston has been working on a Rocketeer painting, his first time using an airbrush, and he shared his progress along the way on his blog. He finished it up last week, so you can see it now in all its glory. Great stuff!
- November 28, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by JK Parkin
The Avengers show off their assets
Artist Kevin Bolk noticed that in the promo art for The Avengers movie the guys all are striking heroic poses while Black Widow is in the classic brokeback pose, twisting around so the reader can see both her boobs and her butt at the same time. So Bolk turned the tables and drew the male characters doing a little preening as well.
- November 28, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Comic Couture | Jill Thompson designs gear for WWE’s Daniel Bryan
Wrestler Bryan Danielson, a.k.a. the American Dragon, a.k.a. Daniel Bryan in the WWE, shares a design for a jersey/T-shirt designed by Beasts of Burden artist and wrestling fan Jill Thompson. It’s a pretty sweet design, and although I’ve already got a couple of shirts designed by Thompson in my closet, they could use a new friend if someone decided to make it.
- November 28, 2011 @ 08:00 AM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | DC Comics named one of America’s Hottest Brands
Action Comics
Publishing | DC Comics joins the Kia Soul, Goldfish, My Little Pony and several others on Advertising Age’s annual list of America’s Hottest Brands: “With decades of stories under their capes and utility belts, Superman — and other DC characters, including Aquaman and the Flash — had ossified. Though relaunching its entire cast and making their adventures available to print and electronic audiences might alienate some hard-core DC fans, it might also gain plenty of new ones. Making DC characters more popular is crucial for its parent company. While the comic-book business is way down from its heyday, its characters fuel big-ticket Hollywood movies that can generate millions of dollars in revenue and licensing. The pressure may be on DC because rival Marvel, now owned by Disney, has churned out superhero film properties on a regular basis for years.” [Advertising Age]
Broadway | Producers of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark have changed their tune on the $75 million musical; previously they predicted they wouldn’t make back the money invested in the show without franchising it in other cities and countries, but now they predict they’ll make it back entirely from the Broadway run. They also are considering adding in new scenes and a new musical number to the production every year, “making it akin to a new comic book edition, and then urging the show’s fans to buy tickets again.” [The New York Times]
- November 28, 2011 @ 06:55 AM by Brigid Alverson and JK Parkin
Cyber Monday sales-o-rama
Just like we did with Black Friday, we’ve rounded up various deals on comics and comic-related stuff that you can get on Cyber Monday. And since at least one of the deals kicks off at midnight Pacific time, I thought I’d go ahead and post the list now instead of waiting for tomorrow morning. I’ll add any additional deals I discover throughout the day.
Also, if you did check out our Black Friday list, some of these are repeats from it, as several places have deals that have been running all weekend and go through Monday. I’ve put the new stuff up top, after the deal that starts at midnight …
Dark Horse Comics has another digital deal set up for Cyber Monday: the first 500 customers through Dark Horse Digital will get a 50 percent discount. There’s a $20 minimum, and the deal runs for 24 hours beginning at midnight Pacific Time on Nov. 28; you’ll also need a coupon code: dhcyber. You can find more details here.
And if you buy $100 worth of stuff from Things from Another World on Monday, they’ll give you $10 worth of digital Dark Horse Comics.
- November 27, 2011 @ 09:47 PM by JK Parkin
What Are You Reading? with Andy Hirsch
Snarked!
Welcome to the turkey hangover edition of What Are You Reading?, your weekly look into the reading lists of the Robot 6 crew. Our special guest today is Andy Hirsch, creator of Varmints and artist of The Royal Historian of Oz.
To see what Andy and the Robot 6 crew have been reading lately, click below.
- November 27, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by JK Parkin
Saturday Shelf Porn | A map of Alison Sampson’s world
After a too-long hiatus, Shelf Porn is back! Today’s shelves come to us from Alison Sampson in the UK, an architect and comic creator who, as you can see in the image above, drew her shelves. How cool is that? The image above is part of a four-page story she did for a UK anthology, and she breaks down what was on them for this edition of Shelf Porn (and provides some photos of what they look like now).
If you’d like to submit your shelves to us, it’s easy — just send me a write-up and some images at jkparkin@yahoo.com.
And now here’s Alison …
- November 26, 2011 @ 01:00 PM by JK Parkin