Comic Book Resources

Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

I believe we've reached the pre-Thanksgiving industry slowdown.

Green Arrow: Year One

Internet | A website called the Home of the Green Arrow, which supports the far-right British National Party in its "fight to secure a future for the indigenous peoples of these islands in the North Atlantic which have been our homeland for millennia," has co-opted Jock's art from the DC Comics miniseries Green Arrow: Year One for its banner. "This is leaving a horrible taste in my mouth," the artist wrote this morning on Twitter. He has contacted DC's legal department. [Jock's Twitter feed]

Art | Frank Frazetta's original cover painting for the 1967 Lancer paperback edition of Conan the Conqueror sold at auction last week for a reported $1 million. That's nearly four times the previous record price for the artist's work -- $251,000 -- paid in 2008 for the cover to Edgar Rice Burroughs' Escape on Venus. [Spectrum Fantastic Art, via Sci Fi Wire]

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Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

Black Dossier

Libraries | The library board in Jessamine County, Kentucky, heard public comment last night about acquisition and borrowing policies and the recent firings of two employees who kept a copy of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier out of circulation. The hourlong meeting was marked by shouting, crying and the presentation of petitions, including one that called for the removal of two books and two DVDs -- Black Dossier among them -- from county library shelves. No action was taken by the board. [Lexington Herald-Leader]

Awards | A controversy emerged just a day before the National Book Awards ceremony as author/blogger Janice Harayda suggested that Kathi Appelt, a judge in the Young People''s category, should recuse herself because finalist David Small had illustrated her novel. In her response Appelt was cryptic, at best, saying that as committee deliberations are private, "I or any other judge might well have excused ourselves from voting on any particular book, if conflict of interest were an issue.” In the end, Small's celebrated graphic memoir Stiches didn't win last night; Phillip Hoose's Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice did. [ArtsBeat, Jacket Copy]

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Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

Weekly Astro Boy Magazine

Publishing | Tezuka Productions and D-Arc Inc. has launched Weekly Astro Boy Magazine, a service that delivers manga by Osamu Tezuka to iPhones and iPods in the United States. Announced last month, it's the first English-language manga service for mobile devices.

If I'm reading the site correctly, the premier "edition" of Weekly Astro Boy Magazine offers the first volume of Astro Boy for free. Subsequent volumes of that title, and other Tezuka classics like Phoenix, Dororo, Black Jack and Buddha, cost 99 cents each, and are available in weekly installments. [Weekly Astro Boy Magazine]

Education | Ryan Sohmer and Lar deSouza, creators of the webcomic Least I Could Do, have established The Rayne Summers Webcomic Scholarship at The Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont. Named for the protagonist of their nearly seven-year-old comic, the scholarship will cover tuition for one student each year who is working toward a career in webcomics. [Least I Could Do, via The Daily Cartoonist]

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Winners announced for 2009 Friends of Lulu Awards

Friends of Lulu

The winners were announced this morning for the 2009 Friends of Lulu Awards, which recognize "the people and projects that helped to open eyes and minds to the amazing comic and cartooning work by and/or about women."

Nominees were selected by a panel of judges, with the winners voted on by the public.

The winners are:

Kim Yale Award for Best New Talent: Kate Beaton for Hark, A Vagrant

Lulu of the Year: Danielle Corsetto for Girls with Slingshots

Woman of Distinction: Joanne Carter Siegel

Leah Adezio Award for Best Kid-Friendly Work: Rapunzel’s Revenge, by Shannon Hale, Dean Hale and Nathan Hale

Female Comic Creator’s Hall of Fame: Gail Simone

Best Female Character: Monica Villarreal, from Wapsi Square by Paul Taylor

Brief biographies of each of the winners can be found here.

Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Libraries | In the wake of the recent firings of two Kentucky library employees -- circulation desk attendants, not librarians -- who refused to allow an 11-year-old to check out a copy of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the crew of Good Comics for Kids discusses who should decide what children may read. [Good Comics for Kids]

Publishing | Simon Jones questions why Japanese publisher launched its long-anticipated U.S. division with a reprint of the first volume of Ghost in the Shell that's flipped and missing pages that Dark Horse had restored: "What’s your master plan, Kodansha? Why was it necessary to take this license away from Dark Horse, if you’re not doing a different treatment of the book? It couldn’t have been because you felt Dark Horse wasn’t promoting the property, because I haven’t seen any marketing efforts from you.  I can’t even find your URL in this book." [Icarus Publishing]

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Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

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]

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Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

Wowio

Publishing | Gary Tyrrell reports that publishers have begun receiving payments for the second quarter of 2008 from long-struggling e-book site Wowio. All publishers are expected to be paid by Nov. 15. [Fleen]

Awards | When the National Book Award nominations were announced Wednesday, some wondered why David Small's graphic novel Stitches: A Memoir was included in the young people's literature category. It turns out the publisher nominated it as a young-adult title. [GalleyCat]

Business | Former DC Comics President Jenette Kahn and ICv2.com President Milton Griepp have joined the board of advisers and directors of comiXology, which produces the Comics by comiXology digital comics application. [press release]

Conventions | Remember that ad incorrectly announcing Warren Ellis as a guest at Toronto Comic Con? It turns out they totally meant Dollhouse star Eliza Dushku. Not Warren Ellis. Eliza Dushku. [Bleeding Cool]

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David Small's Stitches nominated for National Book Award

Stitches: A Memoir

David Small's well-received graphic memoir Stitches has been named as a finalist for the prestigious National Book Award in the category of young people's literature.

The bestselling graphic novel, released in September by WW Norton & Co., recounts Small's experience as a young teen who hadn't been told he had cancer and was expected to die.

Stitches is the second graphic novel to be nominated in the young people's literature category; Gene Luen Yang's American Born Chinese was a finalist in 2006.

Established in 1950, the National Book Awards are presented annually to American authors for works published the previous year. The winners, announced in November, each receive $10,000 and a bronze sculpture. Finalists each receive $1,000, a medal and a citation.

Winners of the 2009 Harvey Awards

All-Star Superman, Vol. 2

The winners of the 2009 Harvey Awards were presented last night during a ceremony at Baltimore Comic-Con.

Named in honor of the late cartoonist and Mad magazine editor Harvey Kurtzman, the awards recognize outstanding work in comics.

The winners of the 2009 Harveys are:

Best writer: Grant Morrison, All-Star Superman (DC Comics)

Best artist: Gabriel Ba, The Umbrella Academy (Dark Horse)

Best cartoonist: Al Jaffee, Tall Tales (Abrams Books)

Best letterer: John Workman, Marvel 1985 (Marvel)

Best inker: Mark Morales, Thor (Marvel)

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Nominees announced for Friends of Lulu Awards

Friends of Lulu

Nominations have been announced for the 2009 Friends of Lulu Awards, which recognize "the people and projects that helped to open eyes and minds to the amazing comic and cartooning work by and/or about women."

Voting is open via email through Oct. 19, with winners announced in November.

The nominees are:

Kim Yale Award for Best New Talent

• Kate Beaton, Hark, A Vagrant
• Liz Baillie, My Brain Hurts
• Mariko Tamaki, Skim
• Madeline Rosca, Hollow Fields
• Kathryn Immonen, Hellcat

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Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

Marvel

Business | Propelled by Disney's planned $4-billion purchase of the company, Marvel CEO Isaac Perlmutter debuts at No. 230 on Forbes magazine's annual list of the 400 richest Americans. The 67-year-old Perlmutter has an estimated net worth of $1.6 billion. [New York Post]

Creators | Several sources report that cartoonist Rusty Haller passed away this week of as-yet-unknown causes. He was 45. Haller, who began his comics career in the mid-1980s, is perhaps best known for his work in the early '90s on Marvel's licensed ALF and Count Duckula titles and, later, on Archie Comics' The Flintstones. He also created Ace and Queenie, an anthropomorphic spy/romance series that appeared in the Radio Comix anthology Furrlough. [The Beat]

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Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

The Avengers #4

Creators | Using the copyright-reclamation bid by Jack Kirby's children as a news hook, Geoff Boucher takes a look at the artist's legacy, his creative partnership with Stan Lee, and his bitter feud with Marvel. "A lot more people know the name Stan Lee than the name Jack Kirby," says daughter Lisa Kirby. “I’m not putting down Stan Lee’s talents but it’s difficult for us to see that he does dominate the credit. That doesn’t reflect the work or the reality. To see Jack Kirby in small letters and Stan Lee in big letters, that’s hard for us.” [Los Angeles Times]

Publishing | Jim Shelley considers what effect the recession may be having on the illegal downloading of comic books. He finds there are more downloads, but they've become more difficult to track. [Flashback Universe, via Kleefeld on Comics]

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Winners of the 2009 Joe Shuster Awards

2009 Joe Shuster Awards

The fifth annual Joe Shuster Comic Book Creator Awards were presented last night at the University of Toronto as part of the Word on the Street National Book & Magazine Festival.

Named in honor of the co-creator of Superman, the awards recognize achievement in comics by Canadians.

The winners of the 2009 awards are:

Artist: David Finch -- Ultimatum #1-2 (Marvel Comics)
Cartoonist: Dave Sim -- Glamourpuss #1-4, Judenhaas (Aardvark-Vanaheim)
Colorist: François Lapierre -- “Gédéon et la bête du lac,” Contes et légendes du Québec (Glénat Québec), Magasin général 4 (Casterman)
Writer: Mariko Tamaki -- Emiko Superstar (DC/Minx), Skim (Groundwood Books)
Cover: Niko Henrichon -- Hostile Tome 1 (Dupuis)
Webcomics: Cameron Stewart -- Sin Titulo
Publisher: Les 400 Coups/Mécanique Générale
Comics for Kids: Kean Soo -- Jellaby, Book 1 (Hyperion)
Gene Day Award for Canadian Self-Publishers: Jesse Jacobs -- Blue Winter, Shapes in the Snow
The Harry Kremer Award for Outstanding Canadian Comic Book Retailer: Legends Comics and Books (Victoria, British Columbia)
Canadian Comic Book Creator Hall of Fame: George Menendez Rae, Réal Godbout, Ken Steacy and Diana Schutz

Congratulations to all of the winners. The complete list of nominees can be found here.

Strangeways: Murder Moon named best local graphic novel by Sacramento News & Review

Murder Moon cover, dig?

Congratulations to our own Matt Maxwell, whose graphic novel Strangeways: Murder Moon was named best local graphic novel by the Sacramento News & Review, the local independent paper.

"We’ve got some serious local talent when it comes to comics and graphic novels (including artist Sam Kieth, who lives up in the foothills), so it’s no surprise that every so often a graphic novel crosses the transom that looks pretty damn good," the write-up says. "Strangeways: Murder Moon, the first in a series written by El Dorado Hills resident Matt Maxwell, is a genre bender that adds to werewolf mythology and transforms the traditional Western. The slightly retro black-and-white drawings are stark but detailed. It’s extremely unnerving and just right for this horror-slash-oater story of a Confederate veteran out to stop a family curse. Maxwell’s going places—and not just to Rocklin, either."

Be sure to check out the follow-up, The Thirsty, right here at Robot 6.

Slash Print | Following the digital evolution

Ant Man

Webcomics | In case you missed it, like I did ... Chris Eliopolis shares a fun Ant Man tribute comic on his website. (via Comics Alliance)

Webcomics | Alex Hoffman of the webcomics site Transmission-X discusses how webcomics are usually limited to one category when awards time rolls around.

"The issue is that since webcomics are allowed nominations in only a single category - while print comics are nominated under a multitude of aspects of comic production – webcomics are severely limited in their recognition," he writes. "The online comics community is large and growing quickly, but as yet, all the major awards exclude them from the majority of categories. While they do honour the Best Webcomic, they do not allow those strips to compete for recognition as Best Artist, Best Cartoonist, etc."

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