Kyle Baker
Comics A.M. | Egyptian artist Magdy el Shafee arrested in protest
Magdy el Shafee
Legal | Egyptian artist Magdy el Shafee, creator of the graphic novel Metro, was arrested by security forces in Cairo and is being held in Tora Prison. The arrests weren’t directly related to his graphic novel, which was banned by the regime of Hosni Mubarak; el Shafee went to Abdel Moneim Riyad Square to try to stop a showdown between protesters and the Muslim Brotherhood, and ended up being arrested in a sweep that rounded up 38 people. [Words Without Borders]
Legal | The local paper profiles Susan Alston, who has been active in the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund since the 1990s and even ran it for a while from the garage of her Northampton, Massachusetts, home. [Masslive.com]
What Are You Reading? with Brandon Thomas
Happy Easter and welcome once again to What Are You Reading?, where we review the stuff we’ve been checking out lately. Today we are joined by Miranda Mercury and Voltron writer Brandon Thomas, whose collection of original art and other stuff we featured in Shelf Porn yesterday.
To see what Brandon and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below.
Does ‘free’ devalue comics?
Download this graphic novel for free or the smooching couple gets it
In case you hadn’t already read, cartoonist Kyle Baker on Tuesday casually made put up on his website free digital versions of eight of his creator-owned graphic novels. That includes acclaimed works like Why I Hate Saturn, Nat Turner and You Are Here. You can read them through an embedded reader on his site, or download them. Sometimes the digital files aren’t the best, but all the more reason to go for the print version if your interest is piqued; each page has links to Amazon listings. While most are out-of-print, re-sellers are offering new and used copies for less than cover price in most cases.
This is a veritable feast for readers, but it’s an interesting and unexpected move by the artist. As mentioned, only three of the eight downloadable graphic novels appear to be in-print: Nat Turner, The Bakers: Babies and Kittens and Special Forces. As this doesn’t appear to be a promotional campaign to boost sales, it may be a way to prove audience interest to a publisher. Baker mentioned on Twitter last night that he’s negotiating for a new publishing deal, which could include a sequel to Why I Hate Saturn.
So if he doesn’t really have to worry about cannibalizing print sales (even though we know that doesn’t happen; we’ve seen time and again evidence to support the theory that digital sales actually help boost print sales), why just give them away?
David Lloyd announces digital anthology, all-star list of contributors
David Lloyd and U.K. comics mainstay Bambos Georgiou are launching a digital anthology comic called Aces Weekly, and have released a large and impressive list of future contributors to the U.K. comics blog Down The Tubes. The press release continues:
Reading the Internet so you don’t have to, Part 4
Dylan Teague is a U.K. artist few in the United States will have heard of. He has a great style, in a very British tradition — you’ll see the influence of artists such as Sydney Jordan, Don Lawrence or Brian Bolland in his work. Unfortunately, he’s not particularly prolific and he certainly doesn’t update his blog often enough. The sod. But he has updated it with pages scanned from his sketchbook twice in the last week.
More interesting work spotted recently at assorted artists’ blogs below.
Your Wednesday Sequence 44 | Kyle Baker
Truth #2 (2003), page 12 panels 1-4. Kyle Baker.
When you boil it down to the core, action comics is basically an artist manipulating a set of stock poses. The writing can invent different reasons for conflict to come about and layer significance into it as it’s happening. Different page construction tools — both layout and in-panel composition — control the ebb and flow of what we’re reading, making each impact feel a little different and each action taken pop out as unique. Even if we’ve all read thousands of panels in which someone gets punched, each one is the only one that shows it happening a certain way. Finally, the stylism a cartoonist blankets their drawing with is as much a part of any piece of comics as the content — even if an artist copies another’s page panel for panel, the mannerisms that are an unavoidable byproduct of the act of drawing ensures that the result will be something significantly different.
The Middle Ground #60 | First Things First
The news last week about the return of First Comics makes me happier than it has any right to. Although I haven’t read an incredible amount of the publishers’ 1980s/1990s output–which included a couple of gems, which I have read: American Flagg! Nexus! Those two alone feel like they should earn First a place in most comic lovers’ hearts–the publisher holds a weird place in my heart for being, I’m pretty convinced, the first American indie publisher I ever bought a comic from, way back when.
Collect This Now! The Shadow
Shadow #9
In my debut CTN column, I raved about Justice Inc., a two-part prestige format series DC put out in the late 1980s, written by Andrew Helfer and drawn by Kyle Baker. The book starred a long-forgotten pulp hero known as the Avenger. That comic was actually a spin-off of another comic Helfer and Baker were doing at the time, which was also based off of a pulp hero, although in his case he was far from forgotten. I’m talking, of course, about The Shadow.
Your video of the day: A trailer for Kyle Baker’s ‘Dexter’
Remember when I mentioned the other week that Kyle Baker was going to be doing a cartoon based on the popular Showtime series Dexter? Well, here’s the first trailer, found via Beaucoup Kevin.
Straight for the art: Baker’s ‘Dexter’
Scene from Baker's 'Dexter'
Kyle Baker did an animated cartoon for Showtime based off of their popular live-action series Dexter, and he’s got the screenshots up on his blog to prove it. No word on when this goes live, but I’m stoked to see it. (found via Beaucoup Kevin.)
What are you reading?
Modern Masters: Kyle Baker
Comic-con or no comic-con, gods or no gods, we aim to keep What Are You Reading up and running every Sunday regardless. Our special guest this week is none other than the one, the only Abhay Khosla. Abhay’s a regular contributor to Brian Hibbs’ Savage Critics Web site, but can also usually be found lurking about here.
To see what Abhay and everyone else is reading, click the little linky …
Thin wallets, fat bookshelves: A publishing news round-up
Moomin kids' book
* Over at the Drawn & Quarterly blog, Tom Devlin announces that the company will be starting a children’s book line, entitled “D&Q Enfant.” The first few titles in the line will consist of Moomin picture books.
* The blog Monster Brains has a brief preview of Johnny Ryan’s upcoming grand guginol graphic novel, Prison Pit. It’s probably NSFW.
* The Cartoon Network and Del Rey have joined forces to produce a series of graphic novels based on the popular Secret Saturdays cartoon show. The first volume will hit stores in September.
* Zenescope has announced plans for a third and final Wonderland mini-series.
Hawkman + dinosaurs = cool
Kyle Baker's Hawkman
Earlier this month Kevin posted about Kyle Baker’s Hawkman story; over at the Pulse, Jennifer Contino talks to Baker about the book and several other projects. Per the interview, the story will appear in some sort of anthology and will feature an alien invasion and Dinosaur Island:
THE PULSE: When you think Hawkman, what ideas immediately came to your mind about what a story featuring this hero HAD to be about?
BAKER: In most of his adventures, Hawkman usually defends Earth from space alien invasion, so that’s what my story’s about. There’s also action on Dinosaur Island, because dinosaurs are always cool. Hawkman carries a mace, so it’s important for a writer to create dilemmas which can be resolved with a mace. A guy with a mace fighting a T-Rex is a good fight to watch.
An official release date for the book has yet to be announced.
Kyle Baker’s Hawkman: Have mace, will pummel
Hawkman, by Kyle Baker
I’m not a fan of Hawkman — nothing against the hairy-chested Thanagarian; I just haven’t given him much thought — but glimpses of Kyle Baker’s upcoming DC Comics project have me a little excited.
Announced by Baker in October, the book is being teased as “ultra-realistic and violent.” How violent? Well, there’s a scene in which Aquaman’s giant seahorse is killed by a Tyrannosaurus rex.
On Friday Baker posted a couple of pages from the comic, saying that he should finish the art over the weekend. Maybe we’ll see an official announcement, and release date, during New York Comic Con.