Comic Book Resources

Thin wallets, fat bookshelves: A publishing news round-up

Polly and Her Pals

• IDW announced over the weekend that it will be collecting the Sunday strips from the Cliff Sterrett classic Polly and Her Pals. The first volume, encapsulating 1925-27, will be in stores this coming August.

The strip began in 1912, but it was in the 20s that Sterrett's art really took off. Influenced by the modernist art movements, he started incorporating abstract and surrealists motifs into his Sunday pages, and many historians and critics have compared this period favorably to strips like Krazy Kat.

Kitchen Sink attempted to publish these strips back in the 90s before going under but they were only able to get two volumes out the door. Having managed to find those books in a back issue bin years ago and devoured them several times since then, let me say this is fabulous news and I'm really looking forward to seeing this release.

• IDW also posted about their intention to publish a four-issue mini-series about the Weekly World News' Bat Boy, which I imagine will be quite different from Polly and Her Pals.

• Writer Clifford Meth reports on his blog that Marvel will be publishing The Invincible Gene Colan in February 2010. The 128 page book will feature art work by the master as well as appreciations by folks like Stan Lee, Marv Wolfman and John Romita Sr.

• Apparently Erik Larsen (and his Savage Dragon) is featured in the latest edition of McSweeney's newspaper. That's kinda cool.

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

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]

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Straight for the art | Silvestri & Portacio's Philippines flood relief jam piece

Witchblade by Marc Silvestri & Wetworks' Dane by Whilce Portacio

Sure, Image co-founders Marc Silvestri and Whilce Portacio have teamed up in the past—most recently for the Robert Kirkman-penned mega-crossover Image United—but this is their noblest joint effort yet. The pair is auctioning off the above jam piece, starring Portacio's Wetworks character Drew and Silvestri's flagship heroine Witchblade, to raise money for flood relief in the Philippines.

The Southeast Asian nation was recently hit hard by back-to-back typhoons Ketsana and Parma, and the number of casualties and people left homeless by flooding is grim. But as reported by Comic Book Resources, the burgeoning Filipino comics scene—which includes such world-famous artists as Leinil Francis Yu, Francis Manapul, Philip Tan, and Carlo Pagulayan, plus a thriving national industry--is rallying to help raise much-needed funds for the victims. The effort has been led by Gerry Alanguilan, Yu's frequent inker and a writer-artist in his own right, and the Silvestri/Portacio jam is just one of several items that will be made available through benefit auctions on Alanguilan's eBay page. Go and bid, then check out Alanguilan's blog for photos of the live relief auction he helped conduct this weekend at Manila's Komikon 2009, plus more info on what else you can do to help.

What are you reading?

Labor Days Vol. 2

Welcome once again to What are you reading?, the weekly column where the Robot 6 team runs through what comics and other stuff they've been checking out lately. As Chris is in Bethesda this weekend, I'm filling in for him as your host.

Our special guests this time are Philip Gelatt and Rick Lacy, creators of the Labor Days graphic novels published by Oni Press. Volume two, Just Another Damn Day, is now available in finer retail establishments everywhere. (You can check out a preview here).

See what they've been reading, as well as the rest of the Robot 6 crew, after the jump ...

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

Johnny's Resin figures

Legal | DC Comics has dropped its lawsuit against a Florida man who made and sold figurines based on the 1960s Batman television series. John Stacks, owner of Johnny's Resin, claimed he had agreements with the actors. Stacks apparently no longer produces the resin kits. A message on his website now encourages visitors to "buy licensed products only": "When you buy products not licensed by DC Comics you only hurt the hobby. Let's all work together to keep Batman alive!!!!" [The Tampa Tribune]

Creators | More details have emerged in the death of Crayon Shin-chan creator Yoshito Usui that seem to confirm his fall on Japan's Mount Arafune was accidental. The last picture on a digital camera retrieved near the body was taken looking down from Tomoiwa cliff. [The Asahi Shimbun]

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Send Us Your Shelf Porn!

Welcome once again to Send Us Your Shelf Porn. Our guest this week is Marc Mason, newly established PR guru for NBM and proprieter of the Comics Waiting Room Web site.

Remember, you too can be a featured Shelf Porn guest. All you need do is take some photos of your burgeoning comics collection and send them to me at cmautnerATcomcastDOTnet. Feel free to include as much or as little info about yourself and your collection as you like.

And now here's Marc ...

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What Are You Reading?

Ninja

Welcome to What Are You Reading. Our guest this week is Sean T. Collins, who should be no stranger to most of you as he's been guestblogging with us all week while JK Parkin was on vacation.

To find out what Sean and the rest of us have been reading this week, just click on the link below ...

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Send Us Your Shelf Porn!

Welcome to Send Us Your Shelf Porn, where the collections are shared and the eyes are dazzled. Our guest this week is Steve Flack of Brooklyn, NY. Steve recently moved into a new apartment, and just finished refurbishing it, comics collection and all. He's eager to take us on a tour of the place, so get your guidebooks and click on the link ...

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Follow the path of The Walking Dead using Google Maps

"The Walking Dead" Google Map

A fan of The Walking Dead has plotted out the events of the Robert Kirkman-Charlie Adlard zombie/survivalist series using Google Maps. Now you can follow along as Rick awakens from his coma, the survivors take (brief) refuge in Wiltshire Estates and assorted characters die or, yes, have sex.

No event is too small to escape this fan's notice!

(via Image Comics)

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

Harvey Awards

Awards | Tomorrow is the deadline for industry professionals to vote for the 2009 Harvey Awards. [The Harvey Awards]

Events | Stephanie Wright Hession previews the "Monsters of Webcomics" exhibit, which opens tonight at San Francisco's Cartoon Art Museum. [SFGate]

Comics | Oliver Ho offers an in-depth comparison of Dylan Dog and Hellboy: "As characters, they could be satanic siblings, or infernal in-laws: Hellboy, the Hades-born offspring of a witch and a demon; and Dylan Dog, in love with an undead woman who was likely his mother, and battling his nemesis, the devil, who could be his father. Despite their fantastic and often horrific circumstances, at heart each character is a working-class hero, just trying to get the job done." [PopMatters]

Creators | Editorial cartoonist Mike Lane is recovering from open-heart surgery. [Daryl Cagle]

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Comics on the PSP: 'There will be quite a few titles on the platform'

Star Trek on the PSP

Earlier this week Sony answered a question that Chris Mautner had asked earlier this year when they announced a new Digital Comics service that's coming to the PlayStation Portable in December.

They also announced partnerships with Marvel Comics and IDW, which means they'll offer everything from Spider-Man to Star Trek on the PSP. If I'm not mistaken, this is Marvel's first major foray into portable digital comics besides the Spider Woman motion comic that came out this week on iTunes and the N project they were involved in with Stephen King.

Sony is also working with iVerse Media, who have steadily been making deals with various companies and creators to bring their comics to the iPhone for the past nine months (and in fact, they just passed one million downloads for the iPhone and are expanding onto Google's Android platform as well).

While the press release from Sony highlighted iVerse bringing titles by Archie and Image, I checked in with them to see if there was a list yet of everything they'd be doing on the PSP.

"We'll have a more comprehensive list of everything that is coming to the PSP closer to the launch of the platform, but most of the titles and publishers we currently release on the iPhone will be available on the PSP," said Michael Murphey, CEO of iVerse Media. "There will be quite a few titles on the platform."

iVerse has published iPhone applications for comics from Archie, BOOM!, Ape Entertainment, IDW, Red 5 Comics, Dabel Brothers, Ardden Entertainment and Image Comics, among others. So it'll be interesting to see what makes the jump.

I personally don't have a PSP, and I don't know if this is enough to make me want to go buy one. I would, however, love it if this service was available on the PlayStation 3. Having a comic on a portable device for airports or planes is nice, but having a comic available on my flat screen would be even nicer.

Digital Comics coming to the PSP in December (updated)

Marvel Digital Comics

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe announced a new digital reader for their PlayStation Portable device today at gamescom in Cologne, Germany, which will allow PSP users to download comic books and other media to read on the device. The Digital Comics service will include titles from Marvel, Archie Comics and Image Comics.

Per a story posted on Marvel.com, "The digital reader for PSPTM will offer content from Marvel that includes Spider-Man, X-Men and the Fantastic Four (and so many others!) whilst other content will include graphic novels, comics from a variety of local publishers and the latest underground sensations. More and more titles will arrive on PlayStation Store with monthly content updates, offering a huge choice of quality titles at your fingertips, allowing you to take your favorite comic characters with you on the move."

The new reader and Digital Comics service will be available in December. Sony made a number of other announcements as well, which include a cheaper PlayStation 3 and a PlayStation Video store, so be sure to click on the first link to read all about them.

Update: After the jump you'll find the official press release from Sony for the Digital Comics initiative. It will include titles from Marvel and IDW, as well as material that iVerse has licensed, which includes Archie Comics and some Image titles like Proof.

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The Walking Dead: Survivalist fiction, or a sign of things to come?

The Walking Dead, Book Four

Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard may have gotten things right with The Walking Dead: When the zombie apocalypse comes, it will mean the end of civilization.

Hey, I'm just repeating what researchers in Canada have found. In short, unless the undead are dealt with "quickly and aggressively," we'll all be doomed -- or else forced to rely on our own Rick Grimes to save our sorry butts.

BBC News reports that a study by researchers from the University of Ottawa and Carleton University posed a simple, and amusingly fanboy-ish, question: If there were to be a battle between zombies and the living, who would win?

For the answer, scientists used "biological assumptions based on popular zombie movies" -- and the classic slow-moving zombie model. But even with the lumbering variety, the answer is pretty grim.

"It's imperative that zombies are dealt with quickly or else ... we are all in a great deal of trouble," the scientists conclude.

What Are You Reading?

The Harvey Girls

Welcome to another edition of What Are You Reading. We had a bit of a scare this week at WAYR Central, as our planned special guest fell through at the last minute due to a lack of proper communication on my part and a sudden illness on his. Quickly becoming panic-striken, I turned to the person I always turn to in such matters -- my wife, Evelyn, who handed me a paper bag to breathe into and said she'd fill in this one time as long as I promised never to ask her to do something like this again.

So without further ado, let me present our very special all-nepotism edition of WAYR! Click on the link to find out what delightful comics we're currently reading ...

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AMC rounds up The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead #48

In what's being billed as the cable network's biggest development deal to date, AMC has acquired the rights to The Walking Dead, the long-running zombie/survivalist series by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard.

Frank Darabont (The Green Mile, Shawshank Redemption) will write and direct the drama. Gale Anne Hurd and David Alpert will executive produce.

Joel Stillerman, AMC's senior vice president of original programming, production and digital content, said the show will remain faithful to the tone of the Image Comics, which follows survivors of a zombie apocalypse as they search for a safe home.

"This is not about zombies popping out of closets," Stillerman tells Variety. "This is a story about survival, and the dynamics of what happens when a group is forced to survive under these circumstances. The world (in The Walking Dead) is portrayed in a smart, sophisticated way."

AMC is, of course, home to the critically acclaimed series Mad Men and Breaking Bad as well as the annual Fearfest horror-movie showcase.

Created by Kirkman and artist Tony Moore, The Walking Dead debuted from Image in 2003. Adlard came onboard as artist with Issue 7.