Alan Moore

Creators | Watchmen writer Alan Moore responds to recent comments made by The Dark Knight Returns creator Frank Miller: “I think that the Occupy movement is, in one sense, the public saying that they should be the ones to decide who’s too big to fail. It’s a completely justified howl of moral outrage and it seems to be handled in a very intelligent, non-violent way, which is probably another reason why Frank Miller would be less than pleased with it. I’m sure if it had been a bunch of young, sociopathic vigilantes with Batman make-up on their faces, he’d be more in favour of it. We would definitely have to agree to differ on that one.”  [Honest Publishing]

Conventions | Tom Spurgeon files a lengthy report from the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival, held Saturday in New York City. [The Comics Reporter]

Ashes

Creators | Uncanny X-Men writer Kieron Gillen comments on the use of sites like Kickstarter to fund comics projects through the lens of Alex de Campi and Jimmy Broxton’s Ashes: “I think that Kickstarter or – if you’re not a yank – Indie Go Go is the single biggest new thing to be considered by a working creative this year. And not just comic creatives. Digital is something people have been chewing over for years now – and I suspect it’s going to be next year when we see some more movement there – but this has surprised a lot of people, and lead to a cheerily wild-west vibe to it all. People running Kickstarters are still trying to work out how to do this thing, and balance all sorts of questions of personal moral integrity. And this is important to do, just because when you don’t, things go bad quickly and you’re risking tarring the very concept of kickstarter-esque funded projects.” [Kieron Gillen]

Creators | CNN profiles legendary MAD cartoonist Al Jaffee. [CNN]

Creators | Gerry Alanguilan talks about his graphic novel Elmer. [Philippine Daily Inquirer]

The Last Dragon

Creators | Rebecca Guay discusses her Dark Horse adaptation of Jane Yolen’s short story “The Last Dragon.” [Sequential Tart]

Creators | Box Brown discusses his career and approach to making comics, among other topics. [The Comics Reporter]

Comics | Deb Aoki previews some of the manga we can expect to see in the coming year. [About.com]

Marketing | Johanna Draper Carlson, always quick to call out bad marketing tactics, takes a Kickstarter creator to task for not responding well to criticism. The creator responds in the comments; you be the judge. [Comics Worth Reading]

Commentary | Chris Murphy looks back at “four incredible years” with Marvel’s Hercules. [ComicsAlliance]

Commentary | David Anderson looks at the first issue of John Byrne’s Cold War. [Spandexless]

Chris Claremont

Creators | Longtime Uncanny X-Men writer Chris Claremont is donating his archives to Columbia University’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The collection includes materials for all of his major writing projects over the past 40 years, notebooks with story ideas, drafts of short stories, plays, novels and comic books, and materials from his early training in the theater and his career as an actor. “We hope this is the first of more comics papers to come to the University,” said Karen Green, Columbia University’s ancient/medieval studies librarian and graphic novel librarian. “We want it to be a magnet for these kinds of archives in New York City, where the comics medium was born.” [Publishers Weekly]

Awards | USA Network and DC Comics’ Burn Notice webcomic has won a Media Vanguard Award from Advertising Age. [Advertising Age]

Creators | Michael Cavna talks to two comics creators with very different takes on Occupy Wall Street, sequential journalist Susie Cagle, who was arrested as part of the Occupy Oakland protests, and conservative editorial cartoonist Nate Beeler, who walks past the Occupy D.C. site every day and regards it as “quaint,” smelly, and out of step with the rest of the country.” [Comic Riffs]

Bleach, Vol. 49

Publishing | Viz Media prepares for its digital relaunch of Shonen Jump, which will feature near-simultaneous releases of Naruto, Bleach and four other series with their Japanese counterparts, by speeding up its digital releases of Bleach — and skipping ahead to the next story arc. [About.com]

Creators | Eight veteran MAD Magazine creators, including Al Jaffee, Sergio Aragones and Jack Davis (whose work appeared in the very first issue) got together in Georgia recently to talk over old times. Jaffee and Aragones are still going strong, but Davis quit the magazine 20 years ago. He explained, “I like all the guys up there a lot, but I felt like it kind of got a little raunchy.” [The Associated Press]
Retailers | Ralph Gardner Jr., revisits St. Marks Comics after 20 years away and finds it still going strong. [The Wall Street Journal]

Habibi

Commentary | Jonathan Liu looks at Craig Thompson’s Habibi. [GeekDad]

Commentary | Just call them comics, says Dave Scheidt, who decries the blurring of the distinction between comics and graphic novels: “A graphic novel in the purest definition is a front to back story in which told in a single volume most usually self-contained, and not a collected edition of numerous single issues, even if they are apart of an ongoing story. If it were just released as volumes and never single issues, ding ding! Graphic novel.” [The Huffington Post]

X-Men writer Chris Claremont gets the Graphic NYC treatment this week: A stylish photograph by Seth Kushner and an in-depth interview with Christopher Irving. And this is just part one. Claremont starts out with an account of what might have been: His first foray into comics was thanks to a required internship while he was a student at Bard College. Not sure of what to do, he asked family friend Al Jaffee if he could do an internship at Mad Magazine.

“As it turned out, he went to my parents and said ‘There is no way in hell I’m going to recommend your son for an intern—Do you know what we do? Do you know what happens when we get together? You’d never forgive me!’

“He said ‘I’m friends with Stan Lee. Would you be willing to work for Marvel?’ and I said ‘Hell, yes.’”

“So, Al called Stan, Stan called me, and I told him I’d work for free. Stan, and Marvel, were never one to turn down a free lunch in those days, and he said ‘Come in and be a gopher for two months.’”

The rest, as they say, is history, and the interview that follows is a must for anyone interested in the inner workings of Marvel Comics back in the day.

It sounds a little shady, but The Art Hustle is actually a trading card series featuring original works of art (backed by a photo of the artist), because why should baseball players get all the trading-card glory? You can mix and match and collect the whole series, and there’s also a set of menko (which are apparently like POGs, only rectangular). And the latest contributor to the set is Camilla d’Errico, whose works include Make 5 Wishes (the Avril Lavigne graphic novel), Sky Pirates of Neo Terra, Burn, and a new art book from Dark Horse, Femina and Fauna. Al Jaffee is also represented in this pack, but other than that there don’t seem to be a lot of comics artists on the roster.

Comiket 79 catalog

Conventions | Comiket 79, the winter installment of the self-published comic book fair held twice a year in Tokyo, set a turnstile attendance record last week with 520,000 people over three days. That’s just 20,000 less than the summer record — and the equivalent of about four Comic-Cons. [Anime News Network]

Legal | Archie Comics reportedly has threatened legal action against the in-production Indian film Boys Toh Boys Hain, which, according to this description, is “based on the lines of the celebrated [Archie] comic book but set in Delhi instead of Riverdale.” However, the director now claims that, “We never made any statement which suggested that the film is inspired from Archie comics. One of my actors may have said in an interview that the film has a feel similar to Archie, but never that the film is based on it.” The publisher was dealt a blow in an unrelated legal matter in September when India’s Delhi High Court refused to hear a complaint challenging the use of the name “Archies” by a Mumbai company. The court said it had no jurisdiction in the matter because Archie Comics doesn’t have an office in India. [Hindustan Times]

From "Troop 142"

Publishing | Secret Acres will publish a collected edition of Mike Dawson’s award-winning webcomic Troop 142 next fall. [press release, via The Beat]

Media | The Philadelphia Daily News has ended Jerome Maida’s weekly “Comics Guy” column after nearly five years. [Philadelphia Daily News]

Retailing | Carolyn Kellogg spotlights Secret Headquarters in Los Angeles. [Jacket Copy]

Blogosphere | Tom Spurgeon continues his excellent holiday interview series with blogger David Brothers and Cartoon Art Museum curator Andrew Farago. [The Comics Reporter]

Al Jaffee

Creators | Dan Lybarger talks to the legendary Al Jaffee about the new biography Al Jaffee’s Mad Life, the cartoonist’s childhood, working with Stan Lee, Fold-Ins and more. [The Huffington Post]

Best of the year | Ain’t It Cool News contributors look back at the year in Marvel and in DC Comics. [Ain't It Cool News]

Best of the year | David Harper considers the best, and the worst, of 2010. [Multiversity Comics]

Best of the year | Iann Robinson counts down the 20 biggest comic book moments of 2010. [Crave Online]

Best of the year | Brett Williams hands out awards for categories like “Best Unexpected Source of Enjoyment” and “Best Creator to Watch in 2011.” [PING!]

DC Comics

Publishing | Following Friday’s news that as many as 80 employees will be relocated or fired in DC Entertainment’s restructuring, Rich Johnston claims that most of the staff reduction will come from the end of temporary contracts. “DC has made it a policy to replace outgoing support staff with temporary staff for just this eventuality,” he writes. “New positions will open in Burbank to cover what is now needed over there, but there will be no cross-country moving arrangements for temps to fill them.”

Sean Kleefeld, meanwhile, provides commentary on the cuts: “Those layoffs? Those are for actual employees. Those are going to be admins and accountants and file clerks and licensing specialists and whatnot. Probably an editor or three. People who come in to DC’s offices in New York City to do their job. But what about the comic creators who also suddenly have the rug pulled out from under them? With Wildstorm and Zuda going away, won’t that mean all those creators who were working on books under those imprints no longer have an outlet for their work?” [Bleeding Cool, Kleefeld on Comics]

Digital comics | Deb Aoki interviews comiXology CEO David Steinberger about distributing Tokyopop’s Hetalia: Axis Powers, and the possibility of more digital manga. [About.com]

X'ed Out, by Charles Burns

Graphic novels | The Graphic Novel Reporter has released its list of essential fall reading, divided into categories for kids, tweens, teens, nonfiction and adult fiction. [Graphic Novel Reporter]

Comic strips | The Bradenton, Florida, newspaper bids farewell to Cathy with an interview with cartoonist Cathy Guisewite’s parents, Sarasota residents William and Ann Guisewite. [Bradenton Herald]

Creators | Legendary cartoonist Al Jaffee talks about his new memoir, his childhood, his early work for Timely Comics, and how the current Mad compares to the magazine’s heyday: “The old version was easier for me to work in, because they did a lot of repeat articles like, ‘Don’t You Hate Christmas?’ and then you do a lot of funny stuff about Christmas. I could keep coming back to Snappy Answers every six months or so. But now they decided that they have to be more on top of the news. They are also employing a lot of young cartoonists, like Johnny Ryan and others, who are very popular in alternative comics. There are things in it that don’t appeal to me simply because I’m too old — references to new music groups, for example, that just go over my head. But I do read each issue cover to cover, and I think it is still a very good package.” [Mother Jones]

Dean Haspiel

Creators | Chuck O’Donnell profiles cartoonist Dean Haspiel, “the Godfather of Brooklyn’s comic scene.” “Dean can take credit for mentoring dozens of cartoonists and writers here in the Brooklyn area, and is easily the most outspoken voice on the comics being done from Williamsburg to Carroll Gardens or Gowanus,” says Christopher Irving, author of the upcoming book Graphic NYC Presents: Dean Haspiel — The Early Years. “But if you ever go to an event at Bergen Street [Comics] or to a local comic convention like King Con or the Museum of Comic and Cartoon’s annual fest, Dean is like the eye of a hurricane, and a lot of people count on him for his input. Dean doesn’t just put himself out there — he reaches out to others and makes things happen.” There’s also a sidebar with a selection of Haspiel’s quotes about Brooklyn, its comics scene and his work. [YourNabe.com]

Creators | Joe Vince compiles the first part of a two-part list highlighting the “New Crop of Female Comic Creators” — Kate Beaton, Julia Gfrörer, Jöelle Jones, Amy Reeder Hadley, Julia Wertz and G. Willow Wilson. [OC Weekly]

Craig Hamilton

Creators | Chris Horne profiles artist Craig Hamilton as part of a series focusing on Macon, Georgia, as “an unexpected hub of world-class comic book creators.” [Macon Telegraph]

Creators | Dustin Harbin discusses becoming a full-time cartoonist, lettering Casanova, and releasing Diary Comics No. 1. [Charlotte Observer]

Creators | American Vampire writer Scott Snyder chats about genre, his upcoming first novel, and his “tremendous year.” [Publishers Weekly]

Creators | Dale Lazarov briefly spotlights Multiplex creator Gordon McAlpin. [Bleeding Cool]

Comics | Chris Cummins recommends nine “under-the-radar indie comics,” from Incredible Change-Bots to The Muppet Show. [Topless Robot]

Al Jaffee’s Mad Life chronicles the octogenarian’s start as a child in Lithuania, his family’s escape from the Third Reich, and his heights working for Mad Magazine. The book, which will include 65 new illustrations be Jaffee, is scheduled to come out in October.

In addition to the book, the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art is raising funds by way of Kickstarter for an Al Jaffee exhibit curated by Danny Fingeroth and Arye Kaplan. See more on that here.

And hey, Jaffee has a Facebook page!

The 2009 MoCCA Festival poster, illustrated by Molly Crabapple

While I did not attend Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA) Art Festival 2009, held back on June 6-7, I was struck at the amount of constructive feedback that came out of people’s reports after the festival. It goes without saying that almost everyone thought the new venue (the 69th Regiment Armory) needed air conditioning and many folks were understandably dismayed with the logistical challenges and delays that occurred at the festival’s start. While reading a great deal of reactions from attendees and exhibitors, I was curious to get a lessons learned perspective from the organizers. Fortunately, Karl Erickson, MoCCA Director, was willing to take my email questions. In his answers, Erickson seemingly made it clear he was open to constructive feedback. While my questions aimed to cover a great deal of various concerns, I welcome folks to chime in with additional thoughts in the comments section. My thanks to Erickson for his time.

Tim O’Shea: The first question has to be–did you explore the possibility of air conditioning this year? Was it deemed just too cost prohibitive? If you’re staying at the Armory, do you intend to have air conditioning in 2010?

Karl Erickson: We did explore air conditioning for the Armory, but, yes, it was just too expensive. As far as staying at the Armory we are looking at dates earlier in the spring to help alleviate the heat.

O’Shea: Can you speak to what happened to cause the hour-long delay on Saturday and logistical challenges (like delayed book deliveries, only one trashcan on the show floor [by some reports], names missing from the guide book)–and are you establishing measures to try to minimize these situations next year?

Erickson: The delay was due to a few different factors, the major being a severe miscommunication with the trucking company that was to deliver not only many of our exhibitor’s books, but all of our supplies for the festival, not least being our cash registers and other check-in essentials. Of the problems that we did have, having one trashcan for the entire show floor was not one of them. We definitely had many trashcans.

We are certainly taking steps to contain and minimize the mistakes of this year, the most important of which is getting a much earlier jump in the planning and execution of the Festival. This includes a lengthy review of the 2009 Festival with practical solutions suggested. These include moving the Festival earlier in the spring (as this is not the first year we have had heat problems, AC or no), starting on every aspect of the Festival earlier, and creating a new MoCCA website that will deliver information much more effectively to exhibitors and attendees.

O’Shea: Every show has snags, I know, but I was curious if there were scenarios that you know now how to avoid going forward–what are some of the lessons learned?

Erickson: Certainly, and I think I went over a lot of them above. Of course, one of the main lessons is to be in touch with our exhibitors earlier and more regularly.

O’Shea: Am I correct in thinking the dates have not been announced for next year? With that in mind (and please correct me if I’m wrong) how realistic is it to ask exhibitors to make a commitment and pay a $50 nonrefundable deposit for table reservations without knowing MoCCA’s 2010 dates?

Erickson: We are still researching dates for 2010. The Armory isn’t able to commit dates until later in July, the beginning of New York State’s fiscal year, so that is part of the delay in announcing dates. Also, as mentioned, we are also researching dates earlier in the spring.

Nearly 50% of our 2009 exhibitors renewed their tables for the 2010 Festival, which is pretty close to par. As far as the $50 non-refundable deposit: if an exhibitor reserved their table at the 2009 Festival and aren’t able to attend once we announce the date, we are happy to completely refund their money within 30 days of the date announcement.

O’Shea: How much of a priority is it to improve promotions/communications for the MoCCA festival overall and gain a stronger web presence?

Erickson: We feel that promotions for the Festival in 2009 were fairly strong: we had active presences on the Onion, Village Voice, and Time Out NY, as well as strong chatter over blogs and other internet sites. With over 4,000 attendees (our most yet!), we are pleased with the number of people coming to the Festival, though we always want more. As mentioned above, we plan on being more in touch with our exhibitors and other stakeholders earlier in the planning stages, especially through our soon to be launched new website.

We also sent out a steady stream of press releases leading up to the festival, and we look forward to partnering with others to strengthen our press relations. Except for a few key personal, this years festival was put on by a new team at MoCCA, starting nearly from scratch, including having to rebuild our press lists.

And yes, we are in the process of re-designing our website into a much more user-friendly experience, which we expect to have up soon.

O’Shea: While there have been a great deal of complaints about the festival and concerns about the MoCCA Art Festival going forward, it was almost always in the context of “there’s so much I love about MoCCA, but …”. Did you take solace that while people were making negative comments it was frequently in the context of accompanying praise?

Erickson: Yes, we do take to heart all of the positive comments people have made both publicly and privately, as well as the criticisms. We also realize that people are very vocal about their negative reactions because they care very much for the MoCCA Festival. It should also be said that the quality and variety of comics, books, and other great items on view this year were just great.

O’Shea: Enough about the festival’s challenges this year–what were some of the highlights/successes of MoCCA 2009?

Erickson: Well, of course, the brightest highlights are all of the fantastic comics, cartoons and graphic novels! It would take up to much space to list individual favorites and delights! For me, being able to give the Klein Award to Jerry Robinson was pretty special, having Al Jaffee and Arnold Roth on stage was great, comics from Derek Van Gieson, The Moth and the Flame by Joshua Ray Stevens, Sugar Booger, Sara Edward-Corbett, Becky Cloonan, the entire Scandanavian contingent, Hard Comics from Romania, and just everything else was a highlight. Another major positive factor is the dedicated volunteer core that puts the Festival together. The panels were incredible, and very well attended. And the Festival was a successful fundraiser for the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art.

O’Shea: In terms of exhibitors how many did you have in 2009, compared to years past? And how much growth did the festival experience in terms of international exhibitors?

Erickson: We had over 250 exhibitor tables, with more than 750 individual artists, publishers and creators exhibiting. We had 43 artists and creators from Scandanavia, and Ireland, England, Romania, and Japan were all represented. We keep getting more and more from around the world. It is great and a vital part of our Festival to have the international comics community represented.

O’Shea: What were the biggest benefits gained by moving to the Armory (as compared to years past at the Puck Building)?

Erickson: The biggest benefit to moving to the Armory is having all of the exhibitors in one area, no one was hidden away are stashed around a corner. Plus, we were able to have all of our programming on site, which greatly benefit the excellent talks and lectures MoCCA hosted. We understand how attractive the character of Puck Building is to people, however, it is just not available to us, given their rising fees and space redesign. Plus the Armory has a significant bit of history itself, for those into modern art.

O’Shea: What’s on the horizon at the museum this year? I know the Conversation with David Mazzucchelli and Dan Nadel is set for July 16, but are there other events you are busy arranging for in 2009?

Erickson: Immediately upcoming we have the Mazzucchelli/Nadel conversation, we have Molly Crabapple talking about her new book on July 21st. By the time this sees print, we have had an evening with TYPHON and Carousel with Danny Hellman and R. Sikoryak. Upcoming we have shows planned with Archie Comics, romance and love in comics and cartoons, and a whole host of youth workshops. We have on view “Meanwhile… at 594 Broadway: The Art of MoCCA’s Volunteers” as well as the Mazzucchelli show.

O’Shea: Any final thoughts you want to share?

Erickson:  MoCCA would like all of our exhibitors, attendees and press to know that we value them very highly and we are working diligently on making the 2010 Festival the best yet.

We would also like to thank all of the volunteers that make MoCCA and the Festival possible. Neither would exist without their dedication and efforts.