Comic Book Resources

Al Columbia: Good news, bad news

Al Columbia's Pim & Francie

If fans of mercurial cartoonist Al Columbia have learned anything over the course of his sporadic but storied career, it's "get it while it's hot." He's got talent to burn, but he burned out on Alan Moore's Big Numbers, his groundbreaking work in Zero Zero and The Biologic Show has never been collected, and he kind of disappeared from the scene for a decade or so, infamously scrapping much of his own work before it could see the light of day. But after the recent release of his stunning art-comics-detritus collection Pim & Francie and signings at SPX and the Fantagraphics Bookstore, all is forgiven, right?

Let's hope so, because it seems Columbia's once again becoming an elusive commodity. First Columbia's signing at Brooklyn's Desert Island last Friday was canceled. Then, fellow artist Ashley Wood blogged that Columbia's planned installment of the Sparrow art-book series from IDW has been canceled as well.

But all is not lost: Pim & Francie is out and is awesome, Providence's Ada Books was still touting Columbia's scheduled December 11th appearance there yesterday afternoon, and as Robot 6 has noted, Floating World is selling a jaw-dropping print by Columbia titled "Toyland." (Thanks to Tom Spurgeon for the reminder.) Frankly, as long as the man produces work that looks like that, who cares what else he does (or doesn't do)?

Scott Dunbier talks about Parker distribution problems

Crime!

If you live on the West side of the United States, then good news -- your comics retailer should have received their copies of IDW's excellent Parker: The Hunter book by Darwyn Cooke this week.

If you live out East, well ... the news isn't so good. It's not terrible, mind you, but you'll have to wait until next Wednesday to pick up the book.

After seeing some buzz around the internet that some retailers didn't get their copies, I contacted IDW's Scott Dunbier, who clarified why part of the country didn't get it, as well as why Amazon was saying the book wouldn't ship until August.

JK: I've seen some excited reports around the 'net about retailers and fans receiving their copies of The Hunter this week. I've also seen some reports from retailers who didn't get their copies. What was the reason some retailers didn't get it this week?

Scott Dunbier: Yes, all the feedback we’ve received so far has been incredibly positive. But, as you point out, some shops didn’t receive the book this week, ones in the Eastern half of the country. The book was held up in customs for a couple of days, which threw distribution for a loop.

JK: Is there an update on when these shops will get their copies?

Scott: Every comic shop should have their copies by next week.

Continue Reading »

SDCC '09 | Thursday programming schedule released

Comic-Con

Comic-Con International has released the programming schedule for Thursday, July 23, as well as some special programming for preview night. You can check out the entire day's worth of activities right here for yourself. Here are some of the highlights ...

• During preview night on Wednesday, Warner Bross Television will show some of their pilots for upcoming TV series -- Human Target, Vampire Diaries and the remake of V.

Continue Reading »

Talking Comics with Tim: Bob Fingerman

From the Ashes

When I learned that IDW was publishing Bob Fingerman's newest project, From the Ashes, I'll admit I was pleassantly surprised, given that it seemed outside of IDW's typical market focus. So when he recently agreed to an email interview I was eager to find out how it landed at IDW in addition to his thought process on this speculative memoir (as well as his latest Fantagraphics release, Connective Tissue). The first installment of the six-issue From The Ashes miniseries hits the market this Wednesday, May 13. Here's the official snippet on the miniseries from IDW: "Fingerman and his wife Michele find out the apocalypse isn’t the end of the world in this hip satirical survival romp through Manhattan’s ruins. Think The Road, only funny!" My thanks to Fingerman for his time and to Emma Griffiths and Martin Wendel for facilitating this interview, as well as Chris Mautner for his help in formulating questions. If you happen to be in New York this Friday, May 15, Fingerman will have an art show/signing at Rocketship at 8 PM.

Tim O'Shea: Why did you opt to do this series as a mini-series, as opposed to a graphic novel?

Bob Fingerman: It wasn’t my choice. I’d have preferred to release it as a book straight off, but that’s not IDW’s business model. Still, they put out classy looking comics on good paper. And it will eventually get collected as a book.

O'Shea: You consulted with your wife, Michele, throughout the development of this story. But before embarking on this project did you tell her you intended this to be an "open love letter" (as you describe it in your recent Huffington Post piece) to her? Anyway you slice it, she clearly loves you a great deal to support a work that aims to capture your relationship with her and features "mutants, cannibals, zombies".

Fingerman: Michele is the center of my life. She’s very supportive of everything I do. “Open love letter” is pretty corny, I’ll admit. But it’s honest. My consulting with her basically entailed repeatedly asking her, “Is it all right if I have you doing this or that?” She got final approval.

Continue Reading »

Send Us Your Shelf Porn!

Welcome to another edition of Send Us Your Shelf Porn. Our special guest this week is Joe Hare, the manager at Comix Connection in Mechanicsburg, Pa., one of several stores in my area and one of my favorite places to shop. Joe's a great guy and he's got quite an impressive collection of comics, as I think you'll agree.

Before we start down that road though, it's time for the weekly pitch: Shelf Porn needs your help to keep it going. Send us photos of your collection or perhaps just suggest some people you know who might be interested in contributing by emailing me at cmautnerATcomcastDOTnet. We're always on the lookout for good shelves.

And now here's Joe ...

Continue Reading »

WonderCon | Day two thoughts

• Got to the city a little earlier on Saturday than Friday, as I had an 11 a.m. panel to cover. Friday was absolutely beautiful in San Francisco. It wasn't quite as sunny on Saturday, but it also wasn't raining, which it very well could have been. So let's offer something up to the rain gods that Sunday lives up to its name (it's a bit darker today, so I'm a little worried I might get stuck in a downpour). When I arrived Saturday, here's what was outside the Moscone Center:

WonderCon day 2 line

One big line going down the block as people waited to buy their pass. Like last year, Friday was pretty low key, but Saturday saw people come out in mass. You could see it and feel it on the floor as well.

• First panel I covered was the IDW Publishing panel, where Scott Dunbier talked about several very cool things, such as The Rocketeer collection. I'm also jazzed about Bob Fingerman's From the Ashes, though that's not a new announcement. It was also nice to meet Scott, who has been a tremendous help with all the auctions we did for Lance and Carla.

Continue Reading »

Munroe's Rapture rolls into the Motor City

Sword of My Mouth #1

I really liked Jim Munroe and Salgood Sam's "post-Rapture" graphic novel Therefore Repent!, which came out at the end of 2007. Imagine its the end of the world, the Book of Revelation was right and all the good folks were zapped up to Heaven ... that's where the story of a couple called Raven and Mummy begins.

Munroe's been working on the sequel, Sword of My Mouth, with artist Shannon Gerard. While Repent! saw angels with machine guns bringing the hammer down in Chicago, this one features Famine of Four Horsemen fame riding into a Detroit where crackhouses are being replaced with farms.

The mini-series from IDW starts in May, and to help people get caught up on the story, Munroe is offering the complete Therefore Repent! online for free. Check out his blog for info on where you can download it. (It's also for sale in his store if you want to actually touch it).

WonderCon '09 | Panel schedule announced

Comic-Con International has posted the programming for WonderCon, which is coming up Feb. 27-March 1 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. As its run by the same folks who do San Diego, it has that same feel and variety, but is a little more laid back and low key than the madness that is the San Diego Comic Con. My brother and I were able to walk right into the X-Files panel last year just as it started ... same with the Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles panel. I don't think you could ever do something like that at San Diego. In any event, it's a great opportunity to see creators and actually chat with them a bit.

Let's see what will be going on ...

• Marvel's been absent from WonderCon for the past couple of years, and while they don't appear to have a booth, they do have a presence this year. Both Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction are guests of honor, and it looks like Jeph Loeb, Mark Paniccia and Axel Alonso, among others, will also be there. Of note is a discussion between Fraction and author Michael Chabon on Saturday that will likely be worth the price of admission alone.

• Speaking of special guests, Brian Azzarello and Dave Johnson are also attending and will host a panel on 100 Bullets on Saturday ... followed by a night at Isotope Comics. And although Dan DiDio won't be at the con this year, DC's got Jim Lee, Will Dennis, Ian Sattler, James Robinson and Aaron Lopresti, among others.

• Oni Press, IDW, Dark Horse, BOOM!, SLG, Aspen and Top Cow will also be on hand, both on the floor and at various panels to talk about their latest projects.

Continue Reading »

Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs: Dream Girl

The Dreamland Chronicles, Book One

The Dreamland Chronicles, Book One
Written by Scott Christian Sava
Illustrated by Scott Christian Sava, Karen Krajenbrink, Ivan Perez, Can Tuncer, Marcello Bortolino, Peter Starostin, Jenn Downs, Kobi Alony, Joel Carlson, Peter Wong, Trung Tran, Jeremy Chapman, Frank Lenhard, Stefano Tsai, Antero Pedras, and Heather Shipman.
IDW; $19.99

This review is based on the Blue Dream edition of the book. The Dreamland Chronicles is currently published by IDW.

The first time I read The Dreamland Chronicles was in single issues when it originally came out. I remember being impressed with the three-dimensional, CGI artwork and entranced with the story. I’ll come back to the story in a bit, but first I want to talk about the art.

It was about that same time that I read another CGI book (the name of which mercifully escapes me) that looked like a bunch of stills from a low-budget kids’ cartoon. In comparison, The Dreamland Chronicles was gorgeous. The character designs are wonderful; second only to the fantastic imagination that went into creating the cities, buildings, and countryside for those characters to inhabit. And Sava knows enough about comics to lay everything out in an exciting way, not a collection of static shots. His characters are dynamic and his panels flow very nicely.

Continue Reading »