Asterix

Creators | Eighty-four-year-old artist Albert Uderzo, who created Asterix the Gaul in 1959 with writer René Goscinny, has announced he’s retiring, saying he’s “a bit tired” after 52 years of drawing. The news came as publisher Hachette celebrated the sale of 350 million Asterix books worldwide. Uderzo, who took over writing after the death of Goscinny in 1977, said he has found an as-yet-unnamed successor to continue his legacy, beginning with a new book planned for release in late 2012. [Reuters, BBC News]

Passings | Italian comics writer and publisher Sergio Bonelli, whose company Sergio Bonelli Editore (formerly CEPIM) releases such titles as Dylan Dog and Nathan Never, passed away Monday in Milan. He was 79. [UPI]

Legal | A witness testified Monday in Michael George’s murder trial that she heard the defendant and his first wife Barbara George have a particularly heated argument in their Clinton Township, Michigan, comic store on July 13, 1990, only hours before Barbara was shot and killed. [Detroit Free Press]

Makeshift Miracle

Creators | If, after reading Brigid Alverson’s Robot 6 interview with Jim Zubkavich, you’re itching for more about the return of Makeshift Miracle, USA Today’s Brian Truitt profiles the creator and offers a look at some of Shun Hong Chan’s concept art. [USA Today]

Creators | Batman writer Scott Snyder talks more about Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, and a war between the Dark Knight and a centuries-old organization for the soul of Gotham City. [Hero Complex]

Creators | Writer Duane Swierczynski chats briefly about DC’s relaunched Birds of Prey, and how Poison Ivy fits into the team: “She wants to be a force for good, right now. At this moment. And she brings a skill that they really need because part of the threat in the first couple of issues is someone who uses mind-control drugs and she’s immune to that stuff. She doesn’t have that problem. And she’s extremely useful at interrogating people as you will see. Again, though, her story won’t be told for a few issues as to what’s going on in her head. I never think anyone though is a true villain, I think everyone just has different motivations honestly. Even the worst villain in a crime novel — they have good reasons for doing what they’re doing usually.” [Ology]

Process | J.M. De Matteis shares his 2003 proposal to CrossGen for Abadazad, “the one that fired up editor Ian Feller and publisher Mark Alessi and lured the legendary Mike Ploog back into the comic book field.” [J.M. De Matteis]

Asterix

Poring over 34 volumes of Asterix, German scientists were astonished to discover 704 cases of traumatic head or brain injury, a staggering 65 percent of which involved Roman soldiers, making you wonder whether the conquest of Gaul was really worth it.

René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo’s heroes, Asterix and his sidekick Obelix, delivered more than half the blows, which The Telegraph points out frequently left the victims unconscious or amnesiac, but never, y’know, dead. Surprising … in a children’s comic? Well, the scientists seem to think so.

“The favourable outcome is astonishing,” lead researcher Marcel Kamp is quoted as saying, “since outcome of traumatic brain injury in the ancient world is believed to have been worse than today and also since no diagnostic or therapeutic procedures were performed.”

Hey, maybe the Romans were swigging that druid-brewed magic potion, too.

The study found that although Romans accounted for 450 of the victims, there were plenty of injuries to go around: 120 Gauls, 59 bandits or pirates, 20 Goths, eight Vikings and five Britons.

If, like me, you thought this study sounds vaguely familiar, you’re probably thinking of the 2004 analysis of Tintin, which attributed the boy reporter’s delayed puberty and lack of libido to a growth-hormone deficiency and … repeated blows to the head. Specifically, “50 significant losses of consciousness in 16 of Tintin’s 23 books.”

There’s no word yet as to whether the Romans suffered the same problems.

Asterix

Publishing | In the latest twist in a bitter, and prolonged, family feud, the daughter of Asterix co-creator Albert Uderzo is seeking to have her parents declared mentally incapable of running their affairs. Uderzo’s only child, Sylvie, accuses her parents’ advisers of “pillaging” and “destroying an entire family.” Albert Uderzo, 83, fired back by accusing his daughter and her husband of “legal harassment” stemming from his 2007 decision to remove them from senior positions in Editions Albert-Rene, the publishing company he founded in 1979, following the death of Asterix co-creator Rene Goscinny. The family quarrel erupted into the public eye in 2009, when Sylvie Uderzo criticized her father’s decision to sell his stake in the company to Hachette Livre and authorize the publisher to continue Asterix after his death. [The Independent]

WonderCon

Conventions | Marc Graser previews this weekend’s WonderCon in San Francisco, “a more intimate affair than Comic-Con” — it will attract about 39,500 people — that’s appealing more and more to film studios and television networks. “It’s not a regional show any longer,” says David Glanzer, director of marketing and public relations for Comic-Con International. “It’s a national show. We like to call it the comic industry’s biggest little secret. It’s intimate enough where people have a good time but attracts superstar guests.” [Variety]

Retailing | Calvin Reid Ada Price surveys a half-dozen comics retailers, who offer a perhaps surprisingly upbeat snapshot of the direct market. [Publishers Weekly]

Creators | By now you’ve probably seen something about Rob Granito, who for several years has traced other artist’s work — everyone from Ty Templeton to David Finch to Arthur Adams — and passed it off as his own on eBay and at conventions. In addition, his list of fake credits includes everything from Calvin & Hobbes to Batman to Iron Man 2. Following the death of Dwayne McDuffie last month, Granito even posted a Facebook message saying “he was a pleasure to work with,” despite never actually working with the well-respected creator.

Several sites have already hashed through the details: Bleeding Cool’s Rich Johnston has been on the story since last week, while Andy Khouri at ComicsAlliance has a thorough summary on the situation. Heidi MacDonald Kate Fitzsimons has an editorial up over at The Beat, while the site Legit-o-mite has a collection of exhibits that include not only pieces of artwork Granito is alleged to have copied, but also a news article that shows he appeared at a post office in Kiamesha, N.Y., in 2006 and signed DC Comics postage stamps he didn’t draw. Since the allegations came to light, Granito has reportedly been banned at several conventions, including DragonCon and Wizard World. [RobGranito.com]

Art Spiegelman

Creators | Art Spiegelman talks about the evolution of comics: “There was this generation that grew up reading comics, having been turned into social misfits by them, and they wanted to make comics for their peers. It was the first time you had comics by and for adults that weren’t just about making money. That movement planted the seeds for what we have today.” [Calgary Herald]

Creators | In a wide-ranging Q&A, Todd McFarlane discusses everything from toys to plans for another Spawn movie to his approach to comics: “Sometimes being different — not better, just different — can score you a lot of points for your career. So when I went off to do Batman, I put my interpretation down for that. People thought it was cool. There was lots of black and big giant capes. Then with Spider-Man I put these new webbings on him, and changed the way he swung and even the way the webs looked. I remember thinking, what if you shoot the webs toward camera and do all these kinds of clever shots? So I had to create the webs to feel like they were three-dimensional instead of the way they had been doing them for, literally, 30 years which was three lines and a bunch of Xs through it. It looked flat. Some of the management thought I was messing with Spider-Man because I didn’t think what they had done was [relevant] anymore. They wanted to know why I didn’t draw the classic Spider-Man? My answer was that John Romita Sr. had done that already. I’d be a fool to draw like that. So why don’t I draw a funky Spider-Man that no one has ever seen and just let the chips fall where they may? Luckily, people were looking for a refresh at that moment and they went ‘Oh!’” [My DVD Insider, via The Comics Reporter]

Comics | The secret origins of Charlton’s Thunder Bunny. [Big Shiny Robot]

Asterix

Creators | Ruling that cartoonist Albert Uderzo can’t benefit from tax breaks extended to authors, French authorities have ordered the Asterix co-creator to pay $273,000 in taxes on the 24 books he and late collaborator late René Goscinny produced between 1959 and 1979. The country’s tax office asserts the extra tax exemption applies only to “people who have participated in writing the texts of the comic strip.” “This is an injustice and a scandal,” the 84-year-old Uderzo said. [The Telegraph]

Creators | Cartoonist Dick Locher is retiring from the Dick Tracy comic strip after 32 years, handing the reins to artist Joe Staton and writer Mike Curtis. Their first strip will appear in newspapers on March 14. “It’s time to move on to other things,” the 81-year-old Lochner tells Michael Cavna. “It’s time to do normal things with my family, to travel, to paint in the American Southwest.” [Comic Riffs]

The Walking Dead, Vol. 10

Publishing | In an article focusing on the commercial success of The Walking Dead, Image Comics reveals that initial print runs for the collected editions are 100,000 copies. More than 2 million copies of the trade paperbacks have been sold. [Publishers Weekly]

Legal | Running counter to arguments used in the United States to criminalize cartoon depictions of “a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct that is obscene,” a researcher at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience is proposing the use of comics containing child pornography to steer “pedophiles’ impulses in the right direction” and reduce the abuse of actual children. A Dutch anti-child pornography group supports the sure-to-be controversial plan. [Radio Netherlands Worldwide]

Retailing | Although San Antonio, Texas, retailer Atomic Comics & Gaming announced just days ago that it would close at the end of next month, owner Gary Ruiz now says the store will remain open. “Alright, we have not taken our last breath here,” he writes on the store’s website. “We will ride this store till the wheels fall off.” He tells Rene A. Guzman: “We had a small financial scare but thanks to some backing from individuals we are able to keep our doors open and will continue to serve the San Antonio community.” [MySA.com]

Retailing | Jeffery Klaehn surveys a half-dozen retailers about the state of the comics industry. [Pop]

"Parker: The Outfit" on the iPad

Publishing | Jeff Webber, IDW’s director of e-publishing, talks about his company’s approach to digital comics. [TFAW.com]

Publishing | Later this year Archie Comics will release its first-ever graphic novel, Archie Babies, by Mike Kunkel and Art Mawhinney. [Publishers Weekly]

Publishing | Th3rd World Studios, publisher of The Stuff of Legend and The SuperFogeys, has signed an exclusive agreement with Diamond Comic Distributors for direct market and bookstore distribution. [ICv2.com]

Creators | Matt Fraction chats about The Mighty Thor, the new series set to debut in April to serve as an entry point for new readers/movie audiences and lapsed fans. [Hero Complex]

Creators | Montclair State University’s student newspaper interviews cartoonist and letterer Chris Eliopoulos. [The Montclarion]

Creators | Ariel Schrag profiles the late mystery writer and comic artist Patricia Highsmith. [After Ellen]

Creators | Brian Heater continues his multi-part interview with Sarah Glidden, creator of How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less. [The Daily Cross Hatch]

Comics | John Przybys spotlights Southern Nevada’s comics scene. [Las Vegas Review-Journal]

Comics | Gina Gagliano recommends seven comics that feature supernatural teenagers. [First Second Books]

Astérix: No longer fresh and new

The French love to complain that anything that isn’t French is ruining their culture, so the manga boom (it’s huge over there, and for pretty much the same reasons it was a hit over here) occasioned much tut-tutting when it was still fresh. Uderzo, the illustrator of the venerable Astérix, even made a comic in which his characters were attacked by foreign creatures called “Nagma,” a fairly transparent acronym. But complain as he might, as this 2006 article attests, the kids were gobbling up InuYasha, while “Visitors clustered around the Asterix booth nearby were mostly men over 40.”

Last week, France Today took a fresh look at the French-language comics scene (many well known BDs are actually by Belgian and Swiss creators) and presented a different take on the influence of manga. Most of the biggest sellers—Tintin, Astérix, Blake and Mortimer—are over 50 years old, and their sales have been slipping for some time.

The lesson, says Xavier Guilbert, editor-in-chief of the comics website du9.org, seems to be clear: their age is beginning to show. “It’s reasonable to think that the stalwarts of the comic books market might not resonate as much with the younger generation today,” as he puts it.

What the success of manga over the last decade has done, says Guilbert, is not so much push out traditional BD as distract French publishers from the falling sales they were seeing in their existing stables anyway. “They went after manga and forgot to develop their own catalogs,” he argues. That’s a problem now, because with most of the successful Japanese titles now translated into French, manga sales have started to slow.

The France Today article does miss another point, made in the earlier piece, that manga are more inviting for girls. BDs tend to be guy comics, with mostly male characters doing things that guys like to read about, and that’s fine, but it leaves half the potential audience with few choices. If there is a BD renaissance, it would be nice to see more female creators and characters take center stage.

McDonald’s established a beachhead in France long ago, so I’m not exactly sure why this is news, except that August is a slow news month in France because everyone is on vacation: The handful of writers who are left to mind the store have apparently whipped themselves into a lather of indignation over the use of an Asterix cartoon to advertise McDonald’s.

“After resisting the Romans, have the Americans finally scalped the invincible little Gaul?” thundered Le Figaro, according to the UK paper The Telegraph. Having eaten pizzas shaped like Smurfs and ice cream from a plastic Pingu head when I lived over there, I’m not sure what the fuss is about. The French aren’t usually adverse to using licensed characters to sell crap, and this isn’t even the first time Asterix has been used to plug the Golden Arches; he subbed for Ronald McDonald briefly in 2001. Nonetheless, a spokesman for Asterix’s publisher, Albert René, had to rise to the Gauls’ defense: “Asterix remains a rebel,” he said. “He doesn’t work for (McDonald’s) but with (McDonald’s). The Gauls ‘come as they are’, as the slogan says. We are not defenders of ‘malbouffe’ (bad food)”. And, he pointed out, they declined to use Obelix in a Diet Coke ad because it did not “correspond to the values of the character.”

Asterix co-creator Albert Uderzo OK’d the ad campaign, and his studio did the art.

(Via ICv2.)

by Chris Samnee

Above is Chris Samnee’s Magnus, Robot Fighter; you can see more Magnus drawings here.

by Mitch Gerads

And here’s Mitch Gerads’ Tintin. I wasn’t as familiar with Mitch’s work as I was with some of the other artists involved, but all of his pieces for the blog have been really impressive. Mitch draws the indie title Johnny Recon, which you can out more about on the Popgunpulp website. And you can check out more Tintin art here.

by Evan Shaner

One week the group did tributes to artist Al Williamson; above is the piece by Evan “Doc” Shaner. Evan has a lot more art over on his own blog, too.

by Francesco Francavilla

And here’s Francesco Francavilla’s Asterix. See more here.

by Ron Salas

And finally, Ron Salas draws the Thing. I had a hard time picking which Thing drawing to include, as they had a lot of fun with him. Be sure to check out the renditions of Ben Grimm by Francavilla, Tom Fowler and Dan McDaid.

And be sure to go through the rest of the blog, to see renditions of Hellboy, Batman and G.I. Robot, among many others, as well as their tribute to Frank Frazetta.

Iron Man on the iPad

Publishing | Within a day of DC Comics’ entry into digital distribution, one commentator declares that “DC and Marvel Are Killing Digital Comics.” Aaron Ting points to pricing, the lack of “3D page-turning interactivity,” and the use of separate applications: “There should be one unified store, like iTunes or iBooks. Having separate digital stores makes sense if you’re just trying to reach your individual loyal fans — they’ll download anything you ask them to. But digital comics needs to be about reaching out to people who don’t currently read print comics, and those people aren’t going to intuitively know that they should download an app put out by this ‘DC’ company — even if that company owns Batman and Superman.” [WordsFinest]

Retailing | A bailiff changed the locks on Toronto independent bookstore This Ain’t the Rosedale Library on Friday because the store’s owners owe their landlord more than $40,000. Owners Jesse and Charlie Huisken explain their situation, and ask for donations, at the store’s blog. Chris Oliveros comments on the store’s early support of Drawn & Quarterly, and stresses the importance of independent booksellers. [The Globe and Mail, via Rory Seydel]

Legal | Malaysia’s Home Ministry has banned a book and two comics by popular political cartoonist Zunar (Zulkifli Anwar Ulhaque) on the grounds that their contents “can influence the people to revolt against the leaders and government policies. The contents are not suitable and detrimental to public order.” [Bernama]

Case Closed, Vol. 11

Crime | A gang of “teenage dropouts” in Korea reportedly held one of its members hostage and beat her to death for gossiping about the “very bad behavior” of one of its leaders. The teens then allegedly disposed of the body with the help of a man who suggested they drain the 15-year-old girl’s blood — an idea he’d supposedly gotten from Gosho Aoyama’s popular detective manga Cased Closed (aka Detective Conan). The details are horrific, obviously. But the U.K. newspaper Metro has gleefully pounced on the story, transforming it into “Blood of teenager is drained in ‘manga’ killing.” The article goes on to define manga: “Manga are comic strips or cartoon films originating in Japan and drawn in a distinctive style. The adult versions of the comics are extremely popular in the Far East and often contain scenes of girls and women being raped and tortured.” [Metro]

Creators | Bob Greenberger writes about the memorial service hosted by DC Comics for Dick Giordano. [Bob Greenberger, via The Comics Reporter]

Creators | Alan Gardner chats with 81-year-old Dick Locher, Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist and longtime artist and writer of Dick Tracy. [The Daily Cartoonist]

Creators | At The Comics Journal, Ian Burns begins a three-part interview with Air and Cairo writer G. Willow Wilson. [Part 1, Part 2]

Prophet #5

Creators | Benjamin Bailey pens an ode to quintessential ’90s artist Stephen Platt: “It only takes one look at the cover of Prophet #5 to understand why he appealed to those of us that were raised on 80′s and 90′s action movies. Sure it was hulking and overblown, but so was Rambo: First Blood Part 2. For me, Platt’s work is the peak of the 90′s comic book explosion, both the good and the bad of it. Most of us have moved on, and we look for different things in comic books these days, but I can’t help but feel a little bit nostalgic about Platt’s Prophet work.” [Earth 616]

Creators | Christopher Farnsworth, author of the new vampire novel Blood Oath, reveals that he’s in talking with comics publishers about potential projects: “I hope to do something with one of the comic companies, and I’m talking to them. As a kid, I wanted to grow up to write comics. I’ve been a reporter, screenwriter and now novelist. It’s been a long way around, but I’m getting closer.” [Bakersfield.com]

King City #4

Comics | Frank Santoro: “You know who’s publishing the best art comics for the disaffected 19 year old kids who hang out at the record store? Image Comics. I sell the shit out of King City, Orc Stain and Bulletproof Coffin to the kids who hang out at the record store downstairs. Just sayin’.” [Comics Comics]

Comics | Bully spotlights that wondrous piece of Marvel Universe technology — the image inducer. [Bully Says: Comics Oughta Be Fun!]

Comics | John R. Platt rattles off the five best supehero sidekicks. [Tonic]

Comics | Dave Banks pays tribute to classic comic-book ads. [GeekDad]

Pop culture | Fred Mawer visits Parc Asterix, the 20-year-old Asterix-themed amusement park just north of Paris. [Telegraph]

Asterix

Politics | Ah, comics, the language of diplomacy. During his visit this week to the White House, French President Nicolas Sarkozy gave President Obama an 18th-century document accrediting Benjamin Franklin as ambassador to France and, for his daughters, a collection of Asterix graphic novels. [AFP]

Publishing | Rebellion Publishing, publisher of U.K. comics anthology 2000AD, will begin releasing U.S. editions of new and classic titles in graphic-novel format beginning in June with The Judge Dredd Complete Case Files and The Complete D.R. and Quinch. [PW Comics Week]

Publishing | Two more profiles of Last Gasp Books as the independent publisher celebrates its 40th anniversary. [PW Comics Week, San Francisco Bay Guardian]

Newave!

Publishing | Brian Heater begins a two-part Q&A with Michael Dowers, editor of Fantagraphics Books’ Newave! The Underground Mini Comix of the 1980s collection. [The Daily Cross Hatch]

Publishing | Jim Gibbons, Dark Horse’s publicity coordinator, chats about his history with comics. [Graphic Novel Reporter]

Retailing | Retailer Kendall Swafford and writer Heidi MacDonald report on the annual meeting last week in Memphis, Tennessee, of ComicsPRO, the direct-market trade organization. At the meeting, comiXology announced the launch of Retailer Tools 2.0, which allows direct-market stores to offer the Previews catalog on their websites, host their own blogs and online communities, and improve retailer control over pull lists. [ICv2.com, PW Comics Week]

Creators | Charles Hatfield posts a gallery of covers by artist and editor Dick Giordano, who passed away on Saturday at age 77. Bob Greenberger, KC Carlson and Mark Evanier also post remembrances. [Thought Balloonists]

Grizzly Shark

Creators | Ryan Ottley (Invincible) and Jason Howard (The Astounding Wolf-Man) chat about their upcoming one-shot Sea Bear & Grizzly Shark: They Got Mixed Up! [Big Shiny Robot!]

Creators | Rob Liefeld and pastor Phil Hotsenpiller discuss Armageddon Now, their comic series about the End Times. [Christian Examiner]

Creators | The Comics Journal posts the first part of a 2005 panel discussion at the International Festival of Authors in Toronto featuring Charles Burns, Chip Kidd, Seth and Chris Ware. [TCJ.com]

Creators | Brian Heater wraps up his four-part interview with Graham Annable. [The Daily Cross Hatch]

Shi Long Pang

Awards | The Xeric Foundation, the nonprofit corporation established in 1992 by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Peter Laird, has announced the recipients of the fall/winter grants: Sarah Becan, The Complete and Original Ouija Interviews; Sixta C., Soldiers of God; Ben Costa, Shi Long Pang, The Wandering Shaolin Monk; Blaise Larmee, Young Lions; Lane Milburn, Death Trap; Stefan Salinas, Within the Rat; and Nathan Schreiber, Power Out.

The Xeric grants assist creators with the costs of self-publishing. [The Xeric Foundation]

Retailing | Ron Marshall has resigned after just a year as chief executive of the financially troubled Borders Group. Michael J. Edwards, who joined the book chain in September as chief merchandising officer, has been appointed as interim chief executive. [The New York Times]

Bluewater Productions

Publishing | Criticism of Bluewater Productions’ work-for-hire agreements — creators get paid when, and if, a comic turns a profit — continues to mount in the blogosphere, where Heidi MacDonald pledges to no longer run the company’s press releases. More commentary from Simon Jones, Tom Spurgeon and Johanna Draper Carlson. [Bluewater Productions]

Conventions | This article about the opening of the Taipei International Book Fair is worth reading just for the penultimate paragraph: “At the opening ceremony for the Anime and Comics Pavilion, Kazuo Umezu, author of the Japanese horror manga series The Drifting Classroom, was invited to sing a song.” [Central News Agency]

Creators | Brian Heater continues his multi-part conversation with Eddie Campbell. [The Daily Cross Hatch]

Batman and Robin #8

Creators | Grant Morrison talks about Batman and Robin, the return of Bruce Wayne, and introducing new villains without getting bogged down by backstory: “I like the idea that the Joker was never really explained, and then six months later you got another Joker story in 1940 or whatever. They didn’t explain his origins or motivations at all. They just kept telling more cool stories and showing more sides of his character. He was built up, developed and refined along the way rather than introduced as a complete package. To me that seems to be the mark of the best villains – they’re introduced in a really cool way and then left for the future to play with. Like some future Alan Moore and Brian Bolland will come along one day and tell the origin of Professor Pyg and it will be the best comic ever. [laughs] That’s how it should be.”

Morrison also notes — and I don’t recall seeing this elsewhere — that “Season 1″ of Batman and Robin has been extended from 13 issues to 16, with “Season 2″ featuring Bruce Wayne and “a different sort of dynamic.” [IGN.com]

Creators | Arthur de Wolf interviews Italian cartoonist Andrea Castellan, better known as Casty, about his Disney comics work. [Disney Comics Worldwide]

Creators | I like this overview of “the finest comics writers in the universe” simply because it notes what work the author considers the “shining moment” and “darkest hour” of each creator. Runaways represents Brian K. Vaughan’s creative low point, apparently? [Indiana Daily Student]

Comics | Preservation work is largely complete on a Roman ship discovered in 1982 at Saint Peter Point, Guernsey. It’s been named Asterix in honor of René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo’s pint-sized Gaul. [BBC, with video]

Google's Asterix doodle

Google today celebrates the 50th anniversary of Asterix with a nice spotlight — otherwise known as a Google Doodle, I guess — on its homepage in a reported 40 countries.

René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo’s diminutive warrior, who debuted in the French magazine Pilote on this day in 1959, has appeared in 34 volumes that have sold more than 352 million copies worldwide.

Tales of the TMNT #55

Publishing | Following the purchase last week of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles property by Viacom/Nickelodeon, Mirage Studios announced it will publish Tales of the TMNT at least through May 2010.

On the official website, cartoonist Dan Berger writes that co-creator Peter Laird retained an option to publish up to 18 TMNT comics a year. Elsewhere, writer Tristan Jones notes that the agreement only covers single issues “based on the current Mirage Universe stuff (eg: a continuation/conclusion to Volume 4).”

However, judging by comments made yesterday afternoon by Laird, it seems unlikely he will invoke that option in the near future: “One thing that is becoming clear to me is that, right now, I need to really step back from Turtle stuff. I am feeling strongly that I need to distance myself from the TMNT to truly grasp what has happened, and become accustomed to it. With that in mind, I have to say that it is likely that any new TMNT comics coming from me/Mirage (under the ‘reserved rights’ clause negotiated in the sale) are probably not going to be seen anytime soon. Although I do have the right to publish up to eighteen issues of TMNT comics per year, it is highly unlikely that I will do that right away. In all honesty, the idea of doing ANY new Turtle stuff right now leaves me cold.” [NinjaTurtles.com]

Legal | A court has ordered South Korean cartoonist Choi to pay $17,000 to settle a dispute with Wonju City over a cartoon that included offensive words about President Lee Myung-bak. The city recalled about 20,000 copies of the promotional paper after readers discovered the hidden message. [The Korea Times]

Retailing | Dirk Deppey wonders whether the current state of specialty music, movie and video-game stores offers A Christmas Carol-like glimpse at the future of the direct market. [Eurogamer]

The Muppet Show #1

Publishing | I knew that Disney’s Studio Fountain and Soda Store carried the BOOM! Kids line of Muppets and Disney/Pixar comics, but this is the first mention I’ve seen of any of the books in a Disney theme park. [Westfield Comics]

Publishing | Jessica Reed uses an appreciation of Asterix on the eve of the character’s 50th birthday as an opportunity to take a few jabs at the French: “There’s something endearing about the French and their illusions de grandeur, in which they like to think of themselves as the underdogs putting up a righteous fight for the survival of their perceived uniqueness. I fear the French are too often guilty of clinging to obsolete historical landmarks, most of which paint a picture of their country as having an important and respected say in world culture – from international diplomacy to food, fashion and art. This is a vestige of the past, and yet Asterix charmingly perpetuates this comfortable illusion of control for many a French reader: they’re depicted as feisty, fun-loving patriots with a culture and spirit of résistance that can’t be obliterated, even under duress.” [Guardian]

Casper, The Friendly Ghost #1

Publishing | Speaking of milestones: Casper, The Friendly Ghost is 60. [Express-News]

Creators | Brian Heater continues his multi-part interview with Guy Delisle. [The Daily Cross Hatch]

Creators | Deb Aoki talks with Matt Alt and Hiroko Yoda about their book Yokai Attack! [About.com]

Manga | David Welsh gathers a panel of notables to recommend horror/supernatural manga. [The Comics Reporter]

Comics | A Welsh scholar has included the 1970s DC Comics series Beowulf, Dragon Slayer in her study of “representations of masculinity in modern reworkings of the Beowulf story.” [WalesOnline]

Comics | A candidate for the most boring superhero comic of all time: Adventures of the Super Site Selectors: The Search for the Perfect Location. [The Charleston Gazette]

Legal

Legal | Twin brothers in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, have been sentenced to three months in jail for possessing anime- and manga-style images depicting children in sexual situations.

David Scott Hammond and James Cory Hammond, 20, pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography after police discovered the images downloaded on their home computer last November. Although David Hammond’s attorney said his client didn’t realize it was illegal to download cartoon pornographic images of children, the prosecutor asserted that, “Every one of these images involves the victimization of children. The victimization wouldn’t happen in the first place if there weren’t people there to look at this material.”

Earlier this month, lawmakers in Alaska began considering a bill that would expand the state’s child-pornography laws to include cartoons. And in June a U.S. appeals court upheld the conviction of a Virginia man who was prosecuted, in part, under a 2003 federal statute outlawing possession of cartoon images depicting the sexual abuse of children. [The Chronicle Herald]

Viz Media

Publishing | The San Francisco headquarters of Viz Media was closed for two days this week after an unexpected downpour on Monday caused storm drains to overflow, flooding parts of the city. [Anime News Network]

Publishing | Just last week we were reporting that Villard had acquired the rights to Fated, a graphic novel written by Michael Jackson and Gotham Chopra. Now comes word that the Random House imprint paid $800,000 for it. Illustrated by Mukesh Singh, artist of Virgin Comics titles Gamekeeper, Devi and Jenna Jameson’s Shadow Hunter, the black-and-white book is due out in June. [Crain's New York Business]

Publishing | On the day of the release of the 34th Asterix album — Asterix and Obelix’s Birthday: The Gold Book — and just a week before the series turns 50, Hugh Schofield asks whether it’s time for the little Gaul to hang up his helmet: “… While The Gold Book will doubtless sell as well as ever, the continuing commercial success of the Asterix series masks a painful reality that many fans prefer to ignore: For the past 30 years — ever since [writer René] Goscinny’s death in 1977 — the books have been frankly second-rate.” [BBC News]

Cla$$War

Publishing | Ben McCool talks to publishers Eddie Deighton and Ben M. Shahrabani about the return of Com.x, a company that launched with a bit of a splash in 2002 with Cla$$War and Razorjack before fading away a couple of years ago. [Publishers Weekly]

Retailing | Dragon’s Horde, the only comics and used-paperback store in Danville, Illinois, will close on Nov. 20, a casualty of the recession and a 2007 fire that wiped out most of its inventory. “I decided two weeks ago that I could close the store now on my terms, or close it soon afterwards because I just couldn’t pay my bills,” said owner Richard Garrison. [The News-Gazette]

Retailing | The Village Voice has selected Brooklyn store Rocketship as New York’s Best Comics Outpost. [The Village Voice]

Naruto, Vol. 46

Sales charts | I somehow missed the debut of the 46th volume of Naruto on last week’s USA Today’s bestseller list. But this week Masashi Kishimoto’s wildly popular manga series slips 29 places from No. 110 to No. 139. [USA Today]

Conventions | The first Bellingham ComiCon will be held on Saturday at the Hampton Inn near Bellingham International Airport in Bellingham, Washington. Guests will include Paul Chadwick, Michel Gagne, Bob Smith, Brandon Jerwa and Eric Trautmann. [Bellingham ComiCon]

Conventions | Sarah Morean posts her report from last weekend’s Alternative Press Expo. [The Daily Cross Hatch]

Creators | R. Crumb talks about his much-publicized adaptation of The Book of Genesis:  “I don’t think Genesis is a good place to look for spiritual guidance or moral guidance. I don’t believe it’s the word of God. … At the same time, I think the stories are very powerful. I’m not out to ridicule them or belittle them.” [The Associated Press]

North 40 #5

Creators | USA Today gives a boost to Wildstorm’s North 40 miniseries by way of a Q&A with creators Aaron Williams and Fiona Staples, and a seven-page online preview of Issue 5. I hate the interface — the same one used for the serialization of the Superman strip from Wednesday Comics — but the interview is pretty good. [USA Today]

Creators | Geoff Boucher profiles Adam Byrne, “producer”/cover artist of The Strange Adventures of H.P. Lovecraft. [Hero Complex]

Longbox

Digital comics | Technology columnist Andy Ihnatko spotlights LongBox Digital, the much-anticipated “iTunes for comics,” and claims he’s “pretty sure” the company is entering into a “formal alliance” with Apple: “Comic-industry cluelessness and their inability to unite towards a common, mutual good are the two main reasons why we haven’t seen anything like LongBox before. But they probably haven’t been as serious a roadblock as the simple lack of any portable device that’s perfectly-suited to reading digital comics. This is a form of storytelling that needs a tablet. A big, page-sized color screen with lots of resolution and a touch interface for turning pages and navigating from panel to panel. Apple is rumored to be making one of those things. And they’re also rumored to be speaking with a great many high-profile print publishers about bringing their content to this new device.” LongBox CEO Rantz Hoseley wouldn’t confirm Ihnatko’s Apple assertion. [Chicago Sun-Times]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Business | Nickelodeon has purchased the global rights to the 25-year-old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise from The Mirage Group and 4Kids Entertainment for a reported $60 million. [Variety, press release]

Publishing | Dark Horse’s Aaron Colter, Fantagraphics’ Eric Reynolds and Top Shelf’s Brett Warnock tackle questions about digital piracy. [Graphic Novel Reporter]

Publishing | Deb Aoki interviews Garrett Boast, publisher of ShojoBerry, the planned shojo manga magazine. [About.com]

Publishing | Your “Asterix turns 50″ story of the day. [Time]

Publishing | John Jackson Miller crunches the direct-market sales figures for September, and spotlights bestsellers from Septembers past. [The Comichron]

Stitches

Awards | NPR’s Glen Weldon takes a look at the nomination of David Small’s Stitches for the National Book Award. [Monkey See]

Retailing | Tony Grove, owner of Kingdom Comics in Keizer, Oregon, has had to cash in an IRA and refinance the mortgage on his house to maintain his store, which he uses for community outreach. [Statesman Journal]

Creators | Emmanuel Guibert discusses The Photographer. [Graphic Novel Reporter]

Creators | Brendan Wright chats with Steve Lieber about Periscope Studio, his new series Underground, Whiteout, and more. [The Wright Opinion]

Creators | Berkeley Breathed will be interviewed from 11 a.m. to noon Pacific today on KPCC 89.3 FM. [KPCC]

Creators | Brian Heater continues his interviews with Ken Dahl and Guy Delisle. [The Daily Cross Hatch]

Creators | Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon discuss their collaborations on The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation and the new Vlad the Impaler. [Graphic Novel Reporter]

Creators | Abby Denson talks about her new graphic novel Dolltopia. [Rutland Herald]

Iron Man #18

Creators | Tom Spurgeon has word from a former George Tuska spokesman that the longtime Iron Man artist has passed away. He was 93.

Tuska began his career in 1939 as an assistant on Scorchy Smith, and worked for the comic “packaging” studio owned by Will Eisner and Jerry Iger. He later drew for Fawcett and Quality, and then moved to Marvel in the 1960s, where he penciled such titles as Daredevil, Ghost Rider and The X-Men before beginning a decade-long run on Iron Man. Tuska left Marvel in the late 1970s for DC Comics and in 1978 helped launch a new Superman daily comic strip, on which he worked until 1993.

Tuska is survived by his wife of 61 years Dorothy, their three children and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. [The Comics Reporter, Tony Isabella]

Big Apple Comic Con

Conventions | As Big Apple Comic Con — “the New York area’s largest pop culture festival” — opens, Variety and the Los Angeles Times spotlight the official launch today of GeekChicDaily, the new e-newsletter founded by Wizard Entertainment CEO Gareb Shamus, movie producer Peter Guber and digital entertainment entrepreneur Peter Levin.

Meanwhile, comics and TV writer Paul Cornell explains why he won’t be attending the convention: “The guy who originally invited me was made redundant the day after he did so. Which doesn’t fill one with confidence. But, sure enough, his boss was kind enough to honour the commitment. And there was some communication on that score. However, by the start of this week, I’d noticed that days were ticking by without any actual arrangements being made. So I finally said that if they’d already bought the air ticket, then of course I’d come, because I didn’t want them to lose out financially because of me, but if they hadn’t, then not to worry about it. Which resulted in… absolute silence. So when I say I’m not going to New York… well, that’s my best guess as we speak.”

Heidi MacDonald reported earlier this week that “several announced guests” hadn’t received their travel arrangements, “and several others who were invited pulled out when such arrangements were not forthcoming.” [Big Apple Comic Con]

Canandaigua Comic Con

Conventions | Pulp Nouveau Comix in Canandaigua, New York, on Sunday is sponsoring the first Canandaigua Comic Con. Guests will include Nicholas Gurewitch and Chris Yambar. [Daily Messenger]

Events | An exhibit will debut Saturday at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art that highlights the connection between ancient Indian paintings and modern Indian comics. “Heroes and Villains: The Battle for Good in India’s Comics” will run through Feb. 7. [The Wall Street Journal]

Publishing | Here’s another look at 50 years of Asterix, which has sold 325 million books worldwide. [AFP]

Retailing | Amazon has introduced same-day delivery in seven U.S. cities: New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, Baltimore, Las Vegas and Seattle. Chicago, Indianapolis and Phoenix will be added soon. [Bits]

Sales charts | The New York Times Graphic Books Best Seller List is filled with debuts this week, led by the first volume of Bloom County: The Complete Library as the No. 1 hardcover, The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks at the top paperback, and the ninth volume of Rosario Vampire as the No. 2 manga. [The New York Times]

Comics | Christopher Allen, Michael Paciocco and Marc Sobel discuss Planetary. [Trouble with Comics]

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Legal | Anime producer and distributor Funimation Entertainment issued a Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown notice to the webhost of AnimesFree demanding that the fansub site remove more than 1,000 infringing episodes of more than 40 series. The site’s administrator complied, and then complained about the company enforcing its copyrights: “AnimesFree.com will continue just as STRONGLY as it has been these past three months. Meeting everyone new on the website was great and I don’t intend for it to stop anytime soon. So we’re not going to quit just because of a few dozen series. There’s two things that you can do when a bully pushes you down. You either stay down and cower, or you stand back up and fight until you can’t walk anymore. There are just some things that the ‘Anime’ corporate giants will never understand about how people rely on online Anime communities.” The commenters on the post aren’t particularly sympathetic to the administrator’s plight. [AnimesFree, via Deb Aoki]

Rich Hafstead

Retailing | Heidi MacDonald reports that Rich Hafstead, partner in the Jim Hanley’s Universe chain in New York City, passed away Oct. 9. He had been semi-retired since suffering a heart attack in 2006. [The Beat]

Retailing | A 10-year-old girl is in a coma after she was trapped Tuesday under shelves that collapsed in a bookstore in Sapporo, Japan. The girl’s 14-year-old sister also was injured. The store, Daily Books, sells secondhand manga and video games. [The Japan Times, The Mainichi Daily News]

Legal | In light of recent legal moves by the heirs of Jerry Siegel and Jack Kirby, Christopher Murray and Paul Iannicelli consider the termination provisions of the 1976 Copyright Act. [ Mondaq]

Events | The Library of Congress has launched a retrospective of Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Herblock (Herbert Block), who would have turned 100 on Tuesday. Lindsey Ellerson pens a nice look at Herblock’s career and legacy — which includes coining the term “McCarthyism.” [ABC News]

Asterix at 50

Publishing | The Independent spotlights René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo’s Asterix as the popular series approaches its 50th anniversary at the end of the month: “Asterix has now been translated into over 100 languages, sold 325 million copies of 33 books, spawned eight animated adventures and three live action films (how did Gérard Depardieu ever live his turn as Obelix down?). The unsung heroes, though, as far as British audiences are concerned, have to be Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge, who have translated the books into English. Without their work, there would be no ‘by the gods,’ or ‘by toutatis,’ just two of many catchphrases they have helped popularise. Altogether now: ‘These Romans are crazy!’” [The Independent]

Publishing | Tokyopop is hiring a personal assistant for the office of the CEO. [Comix 411]

That looks like more than $521

Crime | Police in Gastonia, North Carolina, are searching for a man who wore a Spider-Man mask as he robed a convenience store at gunpoint: “Police say the man fled after the robbery – apparently, the conventional way, on foot … not by jumping from building to building, like the cinema version of Spider-Man.” [Charlotte Observer]

Creators | Brian Heater launches multipart interviews with Ken Dahl and Guy Delisle. [The Daily Cross Hatch]

Creators | Scott McCloud ponders the role of negative reviews: “… I always consider reviews useful — even the hatchet jobs. It makes my heart sink a little when I hear other artists dismiss all reviews as irrelevant to their process. A common claim is that reviews tell us ‘only about the reviewer’ and tell us ‘nothing about the work,’ but I disagree. Yes, reviewers have biases. Yes, they miss the point sometimes. But there’s always some kind of information embedded in any reaction to any creative effort.” [Scott McCloud]

Comics | Matt Ampersand considers the “anthology dilemma,” but neglects to mention Viz Media’s successful Shonen Jump. [The Weekly Crisis]

Giant-Man's wafer-thin cybernetic helmet

Comics | Bully spotlights one of my favorite elements from comics of (mostly) yesteryear: cutaway diagrams of buildings and equipment. Seriously, as a kid I could spend hours looking at schematics of Legion Headquarters and Titans Tower. [Comics Oughta Be Fun!]

Art | It’s been a while since I linked to Paolo Rivera’s “Wacky Reference Wednesdays,” so … [The Self-Absorbing Man]

Music | Singer-songwriter Daniel Johnston talks about Captain America and Jack Kirby: “When my mom would go to the grocery, she’d give me a dollar for helping out, and then I started buying some comic books. And about the third week or so, I walked up to the comic book stand, and there was Captain America, and it just looked like some kind of prize. Like the Ten Commandments. [Laughs.] I just went crazy for Captain America. I would buy only Captain America comics, and then, when I was looking at the first one, I recognized the name. It said ‘Jack Kirby.’ I used to say, ‘Jack Kraby.’ I didn’t know how to pronounce it, you know. I started collecting Kirby until there was nothing else but Kirby on my mind.” [A.V. Club]

Asterix and Obelix

The daughter of Asterix co-creator Albert Uderzo is publicly criticizing her father for selling his stake in the books’ publisher to Hachette Livre, and authorizing the company to continue the series after his death.

“Today, I’m rebelling,” Sylvie Uderzo wrote in the French newspaper Le Monde. “Why? Because Asterix is my paper brother. I find myself entering into battle against, perhaps, Asterix’s worst enemies — the men of industry and finance.”

Albert Uderzo, now 81, created the enormously popular Asterix in 1959 with the late writer Rene Goscinny. Editions Albert Rene was founded in 1979, two years after Goscinny’s death.

The sale last month to Hachette, approved by Goscinny’s daughter Anne, gives the French publishing giant a 60-percent stake in Asterix.  The remaining 40 percent remains with Sylvie Uderzo, who claims her father previously had intended the comic to end once he dies.

She blames her father’s advisers for pushing him into a “180 degree turn.”

The Asterix albums have been translated into 107 languages, and have sold more than 300 million copies worldwide.