Comic Book Resources

Huizenga does Holmes

Elementary, my dear Ganges! Wildly acclaimed, prodigiously talented cartoonist Kevin Huizenga has taken a break from chronicling the vagaries of our daily existence in his series Ganges and (the late, lamented) Or Else to take on the greatest detective in literary history and his arch-nemesis. (No, not Batman and the Joker, but I like the way you think.)

At his blog, Huizenga has posted a two-page comic featuring the first and final face-to-face confrontations between none other than Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty. The strip is part of the Famous Fictional Villains show at St. Louis's Mad Art Gallery, curated by Huizenga's friend, fellow cartoonist, and occasional collaborator Dan Zettwoch. The opening reception for the show -- which features baddies ranging from Macbeth's witches to Alien's facehugger, interpreted by Zettwoch, Huizenga and over a dozen other artists -- takes place tonight from 7pm to 11pm.

Straight for the art | Huizenga's 'Fielder'

Panels from 'Fielder'

Kevin Huizenga has a two-page strip in the Italian magazine Internazionale and gracefully decided to share the comic, sans dialogue with the rest of the Internet.

Kramers Ergot meets the Simpsons in this year's Treehouse of Horror

©2009 Bongo Entertainment, Inc. The Simpsons © & ™Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

I somehow missed this in Tucker Stone's report from MoCCA last week, but luckily Heidi over at the Beat caught it -- Stone spoke with John Kerschbaum about his future projects, and the creator revealed that he's working on this year's Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror book for Bongo Comics.

Kerschbaum isn't the only one working on the book, though; as you can see below in the solicitation copy that Bongo was kind enough to send us, they've recruited a Murderer's Row of creators, including Jeffrey Brown, Kevin Huizenga, Matthew Thurber and many more, and it's edited by Sammy Harkham of Kramers Ergot fame:

Bart Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror #15
Edited by Sammy Harkham
$4.99
48 pages/standard format/color/humor
UPC: 01511 (7-98342-02851-5)

Guest edited by Sammy Harkham, the award-winning creator of the popular Kramers Ergot anthology, this year’s issue is a jam-packed with some of the most idiosyncratic (and weirdest) takes on “The Simpsons” universe ever. Among Halloween-inspired short strips by such visionary cartoonists as Jordan Crane (Uptight), C.F. (Powr Mastrs), Will Sweeney (Tales from Greenfuzz), Tim Hensley (MOME), and John Kerschbaum (Petey & Pussy), are four featured tales of inspired Simpsons lunacy: heralded artists Kevin Huizenga (Ganges, Or Else) and Matthew Thurber (1-800 Mice, Kramers Ergot) collaborate on a weird and wild story equal parts Lovecraftian eco-horror and Philip K. Dick identity comedy. Jeffrey Brown (Incredible Change-Bots, Clumsy) does a creepy and suitably pathetic story featuring Milhouse in a “Bad Ronald”-inspired tale of murder and crawl space living. Harkham and Ted May (INJURY) pull out all the stops for a tragic monster tale of unrequited love, bad karaoke, and body snatching at Moe's Bar. Ben Jones (Paper Rad) does the comic of his life with an epic tale of how bootleg candy being sold at the Kwik-E-Mart rapidly spirals out of control into an Invasion of The Body Snatchers-like nightmare of a Springfield filled with cheap bootleg versions of familiar characters. And nobody does squishy, sweaty, and gross like up and coming cartoonist Jon Vermilyea (MOME), who outdoes himself with “C.H.U.M.M.,” a C.H.U.D.-inspired parody featuring everybody's favorite senior citizen, Hans Moleman!

With a cover by Dan Zettwoch, Bart Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror #15 is like nothing you've ever seen, and is sure to be one of the most talked about comics of the year by alternative comic readers and Simpsons fans of all ages!

This goes on my "must buy" list.

Is the ship sinking? A short chat with Peggy Burns

Crickets

Continuing our occasional series looking at how small press and indie comics publishers are weathering the downturn in the economy, not to mention Diamond's recent policy changes, today we're talking with Drawn and Quarterly's Associate Publisher Peggy Burns.

D&Q rather unintentionally became regarded as one of the first martyrs of Diamond's new cut-off policy when two of their serialized comics, Sammy Harkham's Crickets and Kevin Huizenga's Or Else, were cancelled. The fact that said cancellations were due to the separate decisions of the artists themselves and not the publisher or Diamond didn't matter much at the time; its close proximity seemed to have a direct cause and effect.

I was curious as to what Burns had to say about that matter and the industry climate in general, since she's one of the most intelligent and candid people working behind the scenes in comics today. She didn't disappoint and I'd like to thank her for taking the time to respond to the plethora of questions I emailed her.

Can you give me any idea of how close Crickets and Or Else were to missing Diamond's new cut-off before the respective creators pulled the plug on the series?

I don't really want to get into a numbers game with our authors whose comics fell below or near the Diamond minimum. Obviously, the titles (Or Else, Lucky, Crickets) that have been announced as ending in their pamphlet form hovered around the minimum, though the conversation with Or Else happened before the minimum news. Ending a series is not something we want to do. The artist wanted to tell their story in this form, and we have the job of telling this form is no longer viable. It's not an easy decision and wasn’t fun to do.

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Harkham cancels Crickets

Crickets

OK, this is officially getting depressing now. Hot on the heels of Kevin Huizenga's announcement that he is pulling the plug on his D&Q pamplet series Or Else, cartoonist and Kramer's Ergot editor Sammy Harkham says on his blog that he is canceling his D&Q-published pamphlet series, Crickets after only two issues. Unlike Huizenga, he minces no words abou the reason why:

Wanted to just let those favorite few of you out there to know that my comic book, Crickets, has been cancelled due to changes made by the major comics distributor that effectively made it impossible to continue in the comic book format. Crickets #3 will come out in some DYI form in the next couple months...after that, I dont know exactly. While I am really bummed about this, as I feel I never even really got started on it, I appreciate all the people who supported it when it was coming out. Thanks. To the future.

Man, I really liked that comic too. Should we start some kind of Drowning Pool and take bets as to what series is next on the chopping block?

(found via)

Huizenga calls it quits for Or Else

Cover to Or Else #6

Over at his blog The Balloonist, indie comix superstar Kevin Huizenga (Ganges, Curses) announced that he has called a halt to his ongoing Drawn and Quarterly series Or Else:

I've decided that Or Else (the series) is done. It doesn't make sense to do it this way anymore. Drawn and Quarterly have been great and I want to thank them. For sure I will still be putting out a lot of books and zines, forever, so save your pennies, and watch this space for more news as it becomes available. Thanks for reading.

There have been five issues of the pocket-sized comic book, published on a yearly schedule, to date (that's the abandoned cover to the sixth one on the right). The comic largely seemed to serve as a forum for Huizenga's more experimental and avant-garde work, the last issue finding his everyman Glenn Ganges trapped in an imaginary country torn apart by religious fanaticism.

An email was sent to Huizenga, but he politely declined to comment any further at this time.

Update: It looks as though Huizenga will be releasing the material that was supposed to appear in Or Else #6 as a 28-page mini-comic, available in a few weeks.

(via)