Harvey Awards
Comics A.M. | Despite overall growth, sales slipped for most of Top 25
Aquaman #12, one of just two ongoing titles in August's Top 25 that saw an increase
Retailing | ICv2 analyzes the August direct market numbers and comes up with some interesting patterns: While the market as a whole is up, the number of comics with sales of more than 1,000 has been declining; sales dropped a bit for most ongoing comics series in the Top 25, but strong sales of Before Watchmen and two annuals more than compensated for that; and graphic novels sell in far lower numbers than comics, but because many of them are backlist titles, the numbers still increase from year to year. ICv2 also posted lists of last month’s Top 300 comics and graphic novels. [ICv2]
Publishing | Yet another big publisher spawns a graphic novel imprint: This time it’s Penguin, whose Berkley/NAL division will launch a graphic novel imprint, InkLit, next month. Helmed by former DC vice president and Yen Press co-founder Rich Johnson, InkLit will publish both original graphic novels and adaptations of prose works. The line will begin with Vol. 1 of Patricia Briggs’s Alpha and Omega, which collects the trades published by Dynamite; the second volume will be all new material. Also in the works are books by Charlaine Harris, Laurell K. Hamilton, and Sage Stossel. [Publishers Weekly]
Winners announced for the 2012 Harvey Awards
Daredevil #4
Daredevil, Kate Beaton, J.H. Williams III, Jim Henson’s Tale Of Sand and Walt Simonson’s The Mighty Thor Artist’s Edition took home multiple honors at the 2012 Harvey Awards, held tonight in conjunction with the Baltimore Comic-Con. Named for the late Harvey Kurtzman, the awards are selected by comics professionals, who offer nominations and vote on the winners.
Also during the ceremony, Kevin Brogan presented the Hero Initiative‘s Dick Giordano Humanitarian of The Year Award to the late Joe Kubert, while Stan Lee and John Romita Sr. presented the Hero Initiative’s Lifetime Achievement Award to John Romita Jr.
You can find a list of all the nominees with the winners in bold below.
Best Letterer
Chris Eliopoulos, Fear Itself, Marvel Comics
Laura Lee Gulledge, Page By Paige, Amulet Books
Todd Klein, S.H.I.E.L.D.: Architects Of Forever, Marvel Comics
David Lanphear, Secret Avengers, Marvel Comics
Jason Shiga, Empire State: A Love Story (or Not), Abrams ComicArts
2012 Harvey Awards nominees announced
The executive committee of the annual Harvey Awards today announced the nominees for 2012, which will be presented at the Baltimore Comic-Con Sept. 8.
Named in honor of the late Harvey Kurtzman, the cartoonist and founding editor of MAD magazine, the Harvey Awards recognize outstanding work in comics and sequential art. Nominations for the Harvey Awards are selected by creators–”those who write, draw, ink, letter, color, design, edit or are otherwise involved in a creative capacity in the comics field,” according to the press release.
The nominees are:
Best Letterer
Chris Eliopoulos, Fear Itself, Marvel Comics
Laura Lee Gulledge, Page By Paige, Amulet Books
Todd Klein, S.H.I.E.L.D.: Architects Of Forever, Marvel Comics
David Lanphear, Secret Avengers, Marvel Comics
Jason Shiga, Empire State: A Love Story (or Not), Abrams ComicArts
Comics A.M. | Marvel’s big push for AvX; New 52 hurting GN sales?
AvX #1
Publishing | David Gabriel, Marvel’s senior vice president of publishing, says that Marvel is putting “the biggest marketing investment that we’ve ever put into a series or an event” behind its upcoming Avengers vs. X-Men event. The campaign will include online, social media, radio and television promotion. “They’re actually treating every issue as an event, because there’s a different fight going on in every issue, and I’m told that they are pushing every single issue through all 12 issues,” Gabriel said. “The story itself has three acts, and each of those acts has a natural marketing hook to it, so they’re pushing those as well.” [ICv2]
Publishing | While DC’s New 52 has been good for comics sales overall, there is a dark side: Sales of pre-reboot collected editions are down. ICv2 also lists the Top 10 comics and graphic novel franchises in a number of different genres. [ICv2]
Legal | The Justice Department brought more charges of fraud and copyright infringement against Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom and his colleagues on Friday, but also revealed that Megaupload isn’t all that mega: The file-sharing site had only 66.6 million users, not the 180 million previously claimed, and fewer than 6 million had ever actually uploaded a file. The indictment mentions one user who uploaded almost 17,000 items, including copyrighted movies, which were viewed 34 million times. [The Washington Post]
Talking Comics with Tim | Roger Langridge
Snarked 2
Close readers of this weekly interview column will realize that I have interviewed Roger Langridge a couple of times. And I never tire of chatting with Langridge about his storytelling approach. Next Wednesday, November 2, marks the release of the second issue for his Kaboom! creator-owned Snarked series. The series has been building its audience, first through the $1 #0 issue,and then Snarked 1 sold out of its first printing–warranting a second printing. In addition to discussing Snarked, we also got a chance to discuss his recently released The Show Must Go On (BOOM! Studios) as well as his writing the Marvel five-issue limited series, John Carter: A Princess of Mars. If you want evidence why I love interviewing Langridge, the man revealed a slight connection between his work and musician Robyn Hitchcock’s The Soft Boys. After reading the interview, please chime in with which current Langridge projects you’re enjoying the most.
Tim O’Shea: What was the most enjoyable aspect, in the run-up to Snarked’s premiere, of building up the potential reading audience through the Snarked website (Snark Island)?
Roger Langridge: Partly just to see if I could do it, and to try to be creative about what could be done with it. I’m planning to continue putting content up on the site each time a new issue comes out, so it’ll be a constant, evolving thing – but mainly, I wanted to do a letters page, and having somewhere to direct people so they could e-mail us was essential. It helps if there’s some other stuff to look at when they visit, of course!
Winners announced for 2011 Harvey Awards
Parker: The Outfit
Darwyn Cooke, Roger Langridge and Daven Stevens’ The Rocketeer: Artist’s Edition led the 2011 Harvey Awards, presented Saturday night in conjunction with Baltimore Comic-Con. Named in honor of the late Harvey Kurtzman, the awards are selected by comics professionals, who offer nominations and vote on the winners.
The 2011 Harvey Awards winners are:
Best letterer: John Workman, Thor (Marvel)
Best colorist: Jose Villarrubia, Cuba: My Revolution (Vertigo/DC Comics)
Best syndicated strip or panel: Doonesbury, Garry Trudeau (Universal Press Syndicate)
Best online comics work: Hark! A Vagrant, by Kate Beaton
Best American edition of foreign material: Blacksad, Juan Diaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido (Dark Horse)
Best inker: Mark Morales, Thor (Marvel)
Best new series: American Vampire, Scott Snyder, Stephen King and Rafael Albuquerque (Vertigo/DC Comics)
Most promising new talent: Chris Samnee, Thor: The Mighty Avenger (Marvel)
Special award for humor in comics: Roger Langridge, The Muppet Show (BOOM! Studios)
Best original graphic publication for younger readers: Tiny Titans, Art Baltazar and Franco Aureliani (DC Comics)
Best graphic album — previously published: Beasts of Burden: Animal Rites, Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson (Dark Horse)
Best anthology: Popgun #4, edited by D.J. Kirkbride, Anthony Wu and Adam P. Knave (Image Comics)
Best domestic reprint project: Dave Stevens’ The Rocketeer: Artist’s Edition, designed by Randall Dahlk and edited by Scott Dunbier (IDW Publishing)
Best cover artist: Mike Mignola, Hellboy (Dark Horse)
Best biographical, historical or journalistic presentation: The Art Of Jaime Hernandez: The Secrets Of Life And Death, Todd Hignite (Abrams ComicArts)
Special award for excellence in presentation: Dave Stevens’ The Rocketeer: Artist’s Edition, designed by Randall Dahlk and edited by Scott Dunbier (IDW Publishing)
Best graphic album — original: Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 6: Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour, Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni Press)
Best continuing or limited series: Love And Rockets, Vol. 3, Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez (Fantagraphics)
Best writer: Roger Langridge, Thor: The Mighty Avenger (Marvel)
Best artist: Darwyn Cooke, Richard Stark’s Parker: The Outfit (IDW Publishing)
Best cartoonist: Darwyn Cooke, Richard Stark’s Parker: The Outfit (IDW Publishing)
Best single issue or story: Daytripper, Fabio Moon and Gabiel Ba (Vertigo/DC Comics)
Talking Comics with Tim | Steve Ellis
High Moon
All this month, the creative team of High Moon has been celebrating its third anniversary of entertaining folks. Robot 666 is joining in the celebratory fun today by interviewing artist Steve Ellis. In this email info exchange we delve into the series moving away from ZUDA and growing its audiences through different digital platforms. While he was unable to go into details, I think fans of High Moon will be happy to learn there will some more Western horror in the High Moon creative team’s future.
If you’ve not read High Moon, at their blog the creators posted where to find High Moon: “The first three chapters of High Moon were collected last October by DC Comics. You can order the print collection through your local area comic book shop, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Borders.
The entire series is also available digitally through Comixology’ Comics or DC Comics apps for the iPhone and iPad Operating System. You can also download the issues from here – and read them on your computer or import them them into your ipad or iphone. The first issue is free — and every additional issue is just 99 cents!
And finally, for those of you savvy comic reading gamers our there — HIGH MOON is also available through the DIGITAL COMICS store on the Playstation Network for your PSP.”
Added bonus at the end of this interview, instead of answering a question, Ellis asks the readers a question.
Tim O’Shea: This month marks the third anniversary of High Moon. Looking back at the past three years, what have been some of the high points for you?
Steve Ellis: The first high point was meeting David at NYCC and starting the whole process of collaboration and building the working friendship that we’ve built. The rewards of working in comics come in different forms, but the collaborative process is one of the greatest parts of it.
Read Mark Waid’s controversial Harvey Awards keynote address
And BOOM! goes the dynamite: Writer/editor Mark Waid has posted his keynote address from last weekend’s Harvey Awards on the CBR mothership. Arguably the most talked-about such speech since Frank Miller ripped up an issue of Wizard, Waid’s address tackled the thorny issues of copyright law, public domain, and digital piracy.
To hear Waid tell it in his intro to the CBR post, a combination of nervousness and not hitting certain points hard and often enough led some in the audience — including Sergio Aragonés, who confronted Waid about it — to believe Waid was attacking the very notion of creator ownership of art and defending illegal downloads. In reality, the speech was not nearly as radical, and a great deal more interesting. The most thought-provoking part of it, to my eyes, is the passage in which Waid argues that Internet culture, with the premium it places on distributing content people enjoy to as many other people as possible, has actually reinvigorated the notion that art has inherent value, in cultural terms if not financial ones:
And I’ll tell you why. It’s not because people “like stealing.” It’s because the greatest societal change in the last five years is that we are entering an era of sharing. Twitter and YouTube and Facebook–they’re all about sharing. Sharing links, sharing photographs, sending some video of some cat doing something stupid–that’s the era we’re entering. And whether or not you’re sharing things that technically aren’t yours to share, whether or not you’re angry because you see this as a “generation of entitlement,” that’s not the issue–the issue is, it’s happening, and the internet’s ability to reward sharing has reignited this concept that the public domain has cultural value.
Waid and his audience didn’t have the luxury you currently have, of being able to go through the speech at your leisure when you’re not reaching the end of a long convention day with a few vodkas under your belt. Take advantage, read the whole thing, and let us know what you think.
Looking at the Harvey Awards’ Best New Talent winners over the years
Harvey Awards
Saturday’s Harvey Awards ceremony got me thinking about the auspicious Best New Talent category. This year’s recipient is Rob Guillory for Chew, which is fairly apt given Guillory’s unique style and ability for this book to catch on the way many have failed.
But back to the award itself. In some industries, the idea of a Best New Talent award is the kiss of death for artists just breaking onto the scene — giving them too much attention too early in their career, akin to a child star trying to grow up in the entertainment industry. But as it turns out for the Harvey Awars’ Best New Talent, they’ve picked some winners. Here’s a list of the winners since the category’s inception in 1990:
Irreproducible: Waid, Aragones, and Levy on copyright
Comics writer and BOOM! Studios Chief Creative Officer Mark Waid delivered the keynote address Saturday at the Harvey Awards ceremony at Baltimore Comic-Con, and from all accounts, it was a doozy. Heidi MacDonald live-tweeted the event and summed it up later in a post.
From her account, Waid’s speech was about the importance of having a public domain, and his point was that, originally, copyright existed to give creators an exclusive right to their work for a reasonable time and then release it to the public domain. “No one would argue that the world isn’t better by being able to see a Renoir for free,” MacDonald quoted Waid as saying, adding, “Now big corporations use copyright extended under the illusion it helps us all. Giving back to public domain helps culture, says Waid.” As for file sharing, Waid says, it’s “legit” to worry about it but “it isn’t going away. We can’t stop it and we’re entering the sharing era.” (All quotes drawn from MacDonald’s tweets.)
After the ceremony, MacDonald reported, Waid and cartoonist Sergio Aragones had some sort of heated discussion, although it ended in a hug. She caught up with Aragones after everyone was thrown out of the bar and did a quick interview:
Winners announced for 2009 Harvey Awards
Harvey Awards
Asterios Polyp, Chew, The Rocketeer: The Complete Adventures and The Walking Dead were among the titles winning multiple honors at the 2009 Harvey Awards, presented Saturday in conjunction with Baltimore Comic-Con.
The ceremony, hosted by PvP creator Scott Kurtz, also featured the presentation of The Hero Initiative’s first Dick Giordano Humanitarian of the Year Award to Tim Sale and Jerry Robinson, and The Hero Initiative Lifetime Achievement Award to Walter Simonson.
The complete list of Harvey Awards nominees can be found here. The winners are:
Best Writer
Robert Kirkman, The Walking Dead (Image Comics)
Best Artist
Robert Crumb, Book of Genesis (W.W. Norton)
Best Cartoonist
Darwyn Cooke, Richard Stark’s Parker: The Hunter (IDW Publishing)
This weekend, it’s Baltimore Comic-Con
The 11th annual Baltimore Comic-Con opens Saturday morning, drawing an expected 15,000 attendees, and more than 150 guests, to the Baltimore Convention Center.
But none of those guests is a television or movie star, a professional wrestler, or a “model,” notes The Baltimore Sun. No, every one of them is actually involved in the creation of comics.
“It doesn’t make sense for our vendors to have these other people there to take up valuable space that would otherwise go to people who do make sense,” convention organizer Marc Nathan tells the newspaper. “… Having fringe sci-fi people, from shows that were popular back in 1972, doesn’t make that much sense to me. That’s not my show, that’s not what I want to do.”
The people you will find at the event include Laura Allred, Mike Allred, Sergio Aragones, Ivan Brandon, Tom Brevoort, Bernard Chang, Howard Chaykin, Ciff Chiang, Mark Chiarello, Frank Cho, Mike Choi, Kevin Colden, Amanda Conner, Ramona Fradon, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, Ron Garney, Mike Gold, Michael Golden, Jimmy Gownley, Gabriel Hardman, Tony Harris, Dean Haspiel, Jonathan Hickman, Greg Horn, Adam Hughes, Jamal Igle, Klaus Janson, Georges Jeanty, Dave Johnson, J.G. Jones, Denis Kitchen, Barry Kitson, Scott Kurtz, Erik Larsen, Steve Lieber, the Luna Brothers, Ron Marz, Todd McFarlane, Carla Speed McNeil, Terry Moore, Sean Murphy, Steve Niles, Phil Noto, Denny O’Neil, Ryan Ottley, Jimmy Palmiotti, Jeff Parker, David Petersen, Paul Pope, Eric Powell, Chris Roberson, James Robinson, Don Rosa, Jim Rugg, Louise Simonson, Walter Simonson, Jim Starlin, Billy Tan, Ben Templesmith, Herb Trimpe, Timothy Truman, Mark Waid, Marv Wolfman, John Workman and Bernie Wrightson.
Exhibitors include Adhouse Books, BOOM! Studios, comiXology, IDW Publishing, Image Comics, Top Cow Productions and Top Shelf Comix.
In addition, the 2010 Harvey Awards will presented Saturday evening in a ceremony hosted by Scott Kurtz. Baltimore Comic-Con runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
Nominees announced for 2009 Harvey Awards
Harvey Awards
The nominees have been announced for the 2009 Harvey Awards, which recognize outstanding work in comics and sequential art.
Named in honor of the late Harvey Kurtzman, the cartoonist and founding editor of MAD magazine, the awards are selected entirely by creators. Final ballots are due by Aug. 7. Winners will be announced Aug. 28 in Baltimore in conjunction with Baltimore Comic-Con. Scott Kurtz will again serve as master of ceremonies.
The nominees are:
Best Writer
• Jason Aaron, Scalped (Vertigo/DC Comics)
• Geoff Johns, Blackest Night (DC Comics)
• Robert Kirkman, The Walking Dead (Image Comics)
• Jeff Kinney, Diary of a Wimpy Kid #3: The Last Straw (Amulet Books)
• Mark Waid, Irredeemable (BOOM! Studios)
Best Artist
• Robert Crumb, Book of Genesis (W.W. Norton)
• Guy Davis, B.P.R.D.: Black Goddess (Dark Horse)
• Brian Fies, Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow? (Abrams ComicArts)
• David Petersen, Mouse Guard: Winter 1152 (Archaia)
• Frank Quitely, Batman and Robin (DC Comics)
• J.H. Williams III, Detective Comics (DC Comics)
Awards reminders: Eisner voting open, Harvey nomination deadline looms
Harvey Awards
Two important notices regarding the top comics-industry awards:
• The deadline to submit nominations for the 2010 Harvey Awards is Friday. So, if you’re a comics creator, you have just two days to email your ballots, as snail mail is probably cutting it close at this point.
• Online voting is open for the 2010 Eisner Awards. Creators, editors, publishers, and owners and managers of comic stores are eligible to vote.
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)