This Sunday’s Popeye comic strip by Frank Caruso and Ned Sonntag featured the band Wilco joining the regular Popeye cast in handing out Wilco-brand spinach. The band’s guest appearance was just part one of the crossover, however, as Wilco’s latest video features the band jamming with Popeye, Wimpy and the rest, with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy providing a third potential suitor for the ever-popular Olive Oyl.

The song, “Dawned On Me,” is from the band’s album The Whole Love, and the video is directed by Darren Romanelli, who conceived the collaboration between Wilco and King Features for the band’s first video since 1999. No doubt a cover of “I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today” can’t be too far away.

Neil Gaiman

Internet | Sandman co-creator Neil Gaiman joined with Trent Reznor, Aziz Ansari, OK Go and 14 other members of the creative community in signing an open letter to Congress against the PROTECT IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act. “We fear that the broad new enforcement powers provided under SOPA and PIPA could be easily abused against legitimate services like those upon which we depend. These bills would allow entire websites to be blocked without due process, causing collateral damage to the legitimate users of the same services – artists and creators like us who would be censored as a result,” the letter states.

Warren Ellis and Fantagraphics have also come out against the bill, while Peter David, who is against the bill in its current form, takes aim at those who “endorsed the piracy, supported the piracy, enabled the piracy, felt their own actions weren’t piracy, and now refuse to accept the consequences of their own actions.” ComicsAlliance has posted an editorial against the bill and rounded up webcomic reactions to the blackout. [NeilGaiman.com]

Alex de Campi

Creators | Artist Jimmy Broxton, a.k.a. James Hodgkins, shares his side of being asked to leave Ashes, the sequel to Alex de Campi’s Smoke that held a successful Kickstarter campaign last year. “… I’m incredibly sorry about the whole thing, and for me, it’s not just about the money, or lost earnings, or how Kickstarter works, this has come as a huge creative blow. I had committed to spend the next year drawing Ashes, the script is quite brilliant, Alex is an extremely talented writer, I very much wanted to be part of something that I thought was going to be special. I hope people can see that commitment from the work I have already produced for the series.” De Campi responds on Kickstarter, relating what she contends was a tumultuous collaboration process in which she “felt bullied” by Hodgkins. [The Beat, Kickstarter]

Retailing | Ryan Haupt argues that better comics shops are one solution to the problem of piracy, a notion that gets some pushback in comments. Regardless, he does make some good suggestions as to how comics shops can improve (some are obvious, yet widely ignored) and points out the problems with buying comics at bookstores. [iFanboy]

Retailing | ComicsPRO President Joe Field talks up the sixth annual meeting of the retailer trade and advocacy group, being held Feb. 9-11 in Dallas. [Flying Colors Comics]

DC Comics

Publishing | DC Comics Co-Publishers Dan DiDio and Jim Lee talk at length about the thinking behind the company’s line-wide relaunch. “I’ve been using the expression ‘death by a thousand cuts,’” DiDio says. “There are a lot of things that we could have been doing better across the line: We could have been writing better, we could have been drawing better, we could have been editing better, we could have been marketing better. By doing the relaunch it allowed us to examine every aspect of our business and look at it from a point of view of if we were building a business today, how would we build it? How would we create characters? What types of stories would we tell? How would the world feel? And we changed the interior look of our books and we changed the exterior of our books. And by introducing the same day digital aspect, it forced us to rethink our production process. We were faced with a lot of delays. And we were losing loyal fans who were coming week in and week out because the books weren’t there. And we had to make a new commitment to deliver our product on time. People said to me, ‘How’d you let things get so out of control?’ It’s like one day waking up and you’re 30 pounds overweight. You’re not exactly sure how you got 30 pounds overweight, but you know you didn’t eat 30 pounds of food the night before. It just happened.” [Fast Company]

Awards | Sarah Glidden’s How To Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less won a 2011 MEOC Middle East book award, presented last month at the Middle East Studies Association conference in Washington, D.C. [Middle East Outreach Council]

• Feb. 16 | Seattle | Nectar w/ Klopfenpop, DeathStar
• Feb. 17 | Portland | Mt. Tabor w/ The Doubleclicks
• Feb. 19 | Berkeley | Gilman St.
• Feb. 21 | Los Angeles | The Mint
• Feb. 22| San Diego | Ruby Room w/ Doctor Awkward
• Feb. 23 | Las Vegas | Beauty Bar w/ Dead Neon
• Feb. 24 | Tempe | Stray Cat Lounge w/ MegaRan
• Feb. 26 | Ogden | Mojo’s Music w/ DJ RoboRob

The excellent poster art at right was done by cartoonist Dean Trippe.

The team-up plans to bring along some special guest performers to be announced soon. No word yet whether Lila Cheney will open for them.

Comic book rapper Adam WarRock is following up his last project, The Serenity-themed Browncoats Mixtape, with a new album called “You Dare Call That Thing Human?!?” And the comic book reference-filled album’s first single, called “616,” is available now on his website.

The song is jammed pack with all sorts of shout outs to Marvel and DC Comics, from the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants to Wally West’s appetite to, naturally, the Infinity Watch. The new album will be released on Feb. 13 in both digital and disc formats, and will feature notable indie and nerdcore acts MC Lars, Doctor Awkward, Beefy, Dual Core and more. You can listen to “616″ above, or head over to his website to download it for yourself.

KCRW, a National Public Radio affiliate that broadcasts in the Los Angeles area, regularly hosts celebrity disc jockeys, and in the past have welcomed Mark Waid and Jimmy Gownley. This week Action Comics writer Grant Morrison spun a few tunes for the station, including “The Queen Is Dead” by The Smiths, “Mogadishu” by Baader Meinhof (“this would have been the theme song of The Invisibles“) and “Blue Flowers” by Dr Octagon:

The next song is “Blue Flowers” by Dr Octagon, and this one’s here to represent Hip Hop, because I do listen to quite a bit of Hip Hop. But this one was kind of what got me into it back in the 90′s. And it came out at the time when I was working on Invisibles and we had a character in Invisibles called Jim Crow. He was kind of a master of voodoo Hip Hop, or trip hop, and someone wrote to me and said, ‘You know, you’ve got this Jim Crow character, and this is the music he would make.’ And they sent me this album, and I just was blown away by it.

Again, to hear something so intelligent, it was a Sci-Fi album but it was Hip hop. It sounded like comic books, it sounded like my favorite science fiction, it sounded like the weirdest television show you’d ever seen. So again, it’s on the psychedelic theme, I mean, this is Hip Hop’s finest expression of psychedelia, “Blue Flowers”, and the bizarre trip to the park is very much in the Lennon mold, but for a new generation.

You can hear the whole thing and read a transcript on the KCRW site.

Eric Stephenson

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Image Comics, the company formed by a group of artists who left the security of work-for-hire comics to create and own their own comics. It’s been 20 years of ups and downs, but one thing that has remained consistent is a focus on creator-owned work.

With 2011 in the history books and their big anniversary kicking off with the first Image Expo, a new ad campaign and high-profile series by big-name creators like Brian K. Vaughan, Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, Jonathan Hickman, Nick Spencer and many more, I thought it was a good time to chat with Publisher Eric Stephenson about the state of the company, the year that was, their upcoming plans and anything else he was willing to talk about. My thanks to Eric for taking the time to answer my questions.

JK Parkin: Thanks for agreeing to do this interview, Eric. Incidentally, another feature we’re running as a part of our anniversary bash is one where we asked various comic industry folks about what they’re looking forward to in 2012. I got one back yesterday where the answer was basically “everything from Image Comics.” I find that interesting, because there’s a lot of diversity in Image’s line and although I think you guys probably publish something for every kind of taste, I wouldn’t think that every title would appeal to every comic reader. And yet I also find myself checking out at least the first issue of everything you guys have done lately. So from your perspective, what’s the unifying factor (or factors) right now among your titles, if there is one?

Stephenson: I think the main thing is that we’re moving forward and creating new things. We’re not content to just recycle the same old ideas month in and month out and then market it all as brand new. If this was another publisher, we’d be debuting our latest spin-off of The Walking Dead in March, but instead, we’re launching a new series by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples, a new series by Jonathan Hickman and Nick Pitarra, a new series by Joe Keatinge and Andre Szymanowicz, and so on. For 20 years, Image has put its faith in creative people, and it’s the power of their imagination that links all our titles together, now more than ever.

Parkin: Back in 2008, when you took your current job, you told CBR that one of your goals was “to make more people aware of some of the great comics Image is putting out, getting our books in front of more eyes.” From your perspective, are you meeting this goal? And what’s changed in this regard over the last three years?

Stephenson: I don’t know if you’re familiar with the fast food chain Hardee’s, but they’re a hamburger chain out in the Midwest and thereabouts. They were bought by the company that owns Carl’s Jr. here in California toward the end of the ’90s, but in the period leading up to that sale, they were kind of horrible. They developed a really bad reputation. After the takeover, they did some amusingly blunt ads that basically said, “We don’t suck anymore,” that attracted a bit of attention, but ultimately, the thing that turned their business around–and along with Carl’s Jr., they’re one of the top fast food chains in the country today–is that they started making better burgers. They stopped sucking, basically, and I think the message there is pretty simple: Quality never goes out of style.

Hardee's old logo

Using that as kind of a point of reference, I don’t think I’m speaking out of turn by saying Image has produced its fair share of shit over the years. You win some, you lose some, right? Well, I think we got to a point a while back where the losses were outnumbering the wins, and regardless of whether it’s right or wrong, reputations are based on things like that. And that affects everything: How retailers order the books, how people perceive the books when they see them on the stands, how creators weigh their publishing options. I don’t think we were ever in as dire shape as Hardee’s, but our reputation had definitely suffered, and I think the main thing that’s changed over the last three years is that Image is perceived in a much different–and much better–light.

It’s an ongoing process, though. I don’t think the work of making readers and retailers more aware of what we do ever really ends, regardless of the level of success. For every great new series we launch, there’s always going to be someone pointing at one of our missteps from the past. It’s that old “fool me once” thing–some people, especially retailers, remain skeptical. It’s a trust issue, basically, and ultimately, the only way you earn that trust–or earn that trust back, if that’s the case–is to keep producing the best work possible. Things are looking good on that front.

Parkin: 2011 was an “up” year for you guys, in terms of overall sales, on top of an already strong 2010. Looking back, what factors do you think led to this success?

Stephenson: I don’t mean to sound repetitive, but I do think a lot of it has to do with not running on the spot. We’ve continued to move forward, you know? It hasn’t hurt that The Walking Dead is a tremendously successful television show, but let’s be clear–if we were just pushing out spin-offs of The Walking Dead and publishing a bunch of crap alongside that, our situation would be much different right now. We got a bit lucky in terms of the timing, I think. The Walking Dead show on AMC came at a time when we were actually ready to capitalize on it.

Parkin: As far as digital goes–I don’t think I can do an interview anymore without asking a “digital” question–I believe most, if not all, of your books are coming out digitally on the same day the print version hits comic shops. What kind of affect has going “same day digital” had on digital sales? Have print sales been affected? What plans do you have next year to get digital comics in particular in front of more people’s eyes?

Stephenson: Same day as print for digital has helped, definitely. There’s been no negative impact on print sales so far, at least nothing that’s particularly quantifiable anyway. Something I rail on about from time to time is that it’s not necessarily the same audience, and I think that’s kind of the beauty of it all. Having digital sales as an option broadens our reach. It broadens everybody’s reach.

I think people spend too much time hemming and hawing over format, really, and with that in mind, our plans for 2012 are less about just narrowing our focus on digital, and more on reaching out to more readers across the board. We’re going to do everything we can to raise awareness of Image in general, which serves the purpose of exposing more people to our comics, whether the format is digital or print.

One of Image's new print ads

Parkin: Speaking of raising Image’s profile, you sent over a sample from an upcoming ad campaign. Can you talk a little bit about the concept behind it? And where will it be appearing?

Stephenson: Yeah, that ad will start running online and in most of our comics this week. We’re doing one of these a week over the course of the year, each focusing on a different creator, and there will be some video components to the campaign as well.

The message is pretty simple: Our business thrives on creativity.

Everyone else throws their weight behind characters, behind IP. We put ours behind the people create those characters and develop that IP. The men and women who write and draw comics are Image’s–and this industry’s–most valuable resource. It takes a certain amount of bravery to create something of your own and share it with the world. We support those people, and we salute them.

Parkin: You guys put out a lot of new books in 2011 that shined the light on several new creators. Were there one or two projects you personally were particularly proud of in this regard?

Stephenson: The Strange Talent of Luther Strode is something I’m specifically proud of. I think Justin Jordan and Tradd Moore are doing great work with that, and it’s been a real pleasure to see that book do as well as it has. Witch Doctor is a similar story–Robert found Brandon and Lukas and they’ve done some amazing work on that book. I think it’s cool when someone kind of comes out of nowhere like that and just immediately start producing these great new comics. There’s also Kurtis Wiebe and Scott Kowalchuk on The Intrepids. That book flew a bit under the radar for a lot of people, I think, but Kurtis and Scott are both tremendous talents that I think people need to pay more attention to.

The Activity #2

Oh, and man – Nathan Edmondson! I really can’t say enough about Nathan. Nathan did a book for us with Christian Ward called Olympus a while back, but as good as that was, it didn’t quite prepare me for Who Is Jake Ellis? or The Activity. There’s more where that came from, and I really couldn’t be happier to have him here at Image.

Parkin: One Image book that had a lot of good buzz going this past year was Nonplayer #1, which came out early in the year and while initially under-ordered, seemed to do well in its second printing. Nate Simpson went on to win the Russ Manning Award at the Eisners this year. But then Simpson posted on his blog that he was involved in a bicycle accident that left him in a sling. Can you give us an update on how Nate is doing?

Stephenson: Well, Nate’s finally drawing again, which was welcome news to receive. The original plan was to get Nonplayer out twice a year, and I hope we’ll get back on that kind of schedule at some point in the future. It’s too early to say just yet, though, and really I’m just happy Nate wasn’t more seriously injured and that he’s on the mend. We should have the second issue out sometime around the middle of the year.

Parkin: It also seemed to be a good year for older Image properties as well. Witchblade hit its 150th issue, Walking Dead is on its way to issue #100 and was a constant on the New York Times bestseller list. I think you guys published, what, 15 issues of Spawn this past year? And Savage Dragon doesn’t seem to ever miss a beat. How do you keep the creative momentum going on long-running titles, and how do you get new readers to check them out?

Stephenson: It’s not always easy, especially with something like Savage Dragon. Erik and I actually talk about this a lot, because he’s been doing Savage Dragon for 20 years, and he is the sole creator. He writes it. He draws it. We can’t spike sales with a new writer. We can’t promote a new artist. It will always be Erik Larsen. No one other than Dave Sim has committed to the kind of undertaking Erik is engaged in with Savage Dragon, but longevity isn’t something that’s necessarily rewarded these days. Erik provides a unique comics reading experience with the book, though, and ultimately, I think that becomes a selling point of its own. Erik has his own sensibilities and there’s just no other comic like Savage Dragon.

Witchblade #151

On the other hand, we’ve got things like Witchblade or The Darkness, which is rapidly closing in on its 100th issue, and they do undergo changes in their creative teams. Tim Seeley is taking over Witchblade with #151 – I just got a printed copy of that today, actually – and I think people are really going to like what he’s doing with that. It’s a new beginning for the character and whether you’re a fan of Tim’s or a fan of the character, it’s great work. David Hine and Jeremy Haun take over The Darkness with issue #101 and that’s going to be a great jumping on point for that book, too. We could have relaunched that with a new number one, but you know – that’s been done before. It’s been done to death, in fact. There has never been a Darkness #101 before. There actually haven’t been a lot of #101s where independent comics are concerned. There’s like a handful and Spawn, Savage Dragon, Witchblade and The Darkness are amongst them. I think that’s something to be proud of, frankly.

And you’re right, there were 15 issues of Spawn during 2011, and that’s something to be proud of, too. Todd and his team took that book from being months behind and got it back on track, and better yet, did so not only without sacrificing quality, but by upping their game. That book is currently the best it’s been in years and years, and I think it’s really cool that with everything else he does, Todd was able to kind of regroup and infuse the book with some new energy.

Parkin: Speaking of older properties, Extreme is back, and it’s where you got your start in the industry. Now that you’re seeing new kids playing in the sandbox you helped create back in the 1990s, is there any urge on your part to jump back in on the creative side and work on any of the titles?

New Men

Stephenson: Rob and I have talked a bit about adding New Men to the line-up, so that’s kind of a possibility, but I don’t know. We’d have to find the right artist, especially given that the previous artists on that title–first Jeff Matsuda, then Todd Nauck and then Chris Sprouse–were such amazing talents. I kind of think of Todd as the definitive New Men artist, because he and I worked really closely on the book and did all but what?–nine of the issues together. But he’s busy with a new project, and I don’t think he’s sitting around thinking of ways to eliminate all his free time by taking on another series. I always liked those characters, though, and under the right circumstances, it would be fun to revisit them. I’d have to have time, too, because I have a couple projects of my own that are moving along at a dreadfully slow pace. I have the first issue of a new series sitting here that is completely drawn, colored and lettered, but no one’s going to see a page of it until I’m certain it can come out regularly, and there are a lot of other factors involved in making that happen. My absolute first priority is Image Comics and whatever creative work I do comes well behind that.

Parkin: Looking at 2012, it’s the 20th anniversary of Image, and you’ve announced several new projects by big-name creators (like Fatale and Saga), as well as the Image Expo in Oakland this spring. What else does Image have planned to celebrate the big anniversary?

Stephenson: Our primary focus over 2012 is to publish great new comics. We got a little lucky in that we have some outstanding work by some truly brilliant writers and artists on tap for our anniversary, and I think that’s the best way to celebrate 20 years of creativity. We hit the ground running this week with Ed and Sean’s Fatale #1 and we’re just going to keep going from there. Every single one of our 2012 books is going to be worth watching.

We have a couple of fun retrospective things we’re doing–there’s going to be a series of tribute cover variants by a single artist. I know some people groan at the merest mention of variants, but these are done out of fun and they’ll make a nice little set when they’re all out. There will be a couple other things like that, but really, we’re celebrating our 20th anniversary by being at our all-time best.

Parkin: Do you have specific goals set out for Image to achieve in 2012? What do you think will be the biggest challenges for Image in 2012?

Stephenson: I think the biggest challenge is pretty much the same as it’s been the last few years, because I think we all know there are segments of this industry that take almost a strange kind of pride in complacency. There’s a growing aversion to new ideas that I find really puzzling, because this entire business was built on new ideas. It’s self-sabotaging, and it gets a bit depressing, really, because it reduces this business to… Have you seen Midnight In Paris? Owen Wilson’s character in that, he’s writing this novel about a guy who owns a nostalgia shop, a shop where people can kind of wallow in the ephemera of the past. If all we’re going to do as an industry or even as a readership is cling to the past, then that’s what the direct market will become: a dwindling handful of nostalgia shops catering to the narrow interests of a greying market that collects the same thing month in and month out, out of habit or misty-eyed sentimentality. Because that’s the crossroads we’re at: We can either move forward and support the kind of unbridled imagination that has fueled this industry since it began, or we keep rummaging about in the same old bag of tricks until it’s finally empty.

Savage Dragon #177

So that’s the challenge. And it’s a big challenge, but our goal at Image, going into 2012, is to remind everyone that creativity is the lifeblood of this industry. Creativity gave us Superman. It gave us Batman. It gave us The Spirit. The Fantastic Four. Spider-Man. Cerebus. Maus. Watchmen. Sandman. Sin City. Spawn. Savage Dragon. Hellboy. Bone. Stray Bullets. The Invisibles. Transmetropolitan. Y: The Last Man. The Walking Dead. Scott Pilgrim. The Umbrella Academy. Kick Ass. Every great success this industry has ever known is the result of creativity.

And creativity doesn’t come from playing it safe, and it doesn’t come out of nowhere. It starts with people, and over the course of the next year, Image Comics is going to shine a light on all the wonderful creative people we work with, because if creativity is the lifeblood of this industry, then creators are its heart. We’ve been behind the men and women who enrich our lives with the fruits of their imaginations for 20 years, and this year, it’s our mission to make that commitment clearer than ever.

Parkin: As far as projects go, we’ve heard about comics like Fatale, Saga and Thief of Thieves by big-name folks, but Image is also really good at finding unknown or new talent. Is there a particular project coming up in 2012 by someone we may not have heard about that has you particularly excited?

Stephenson: Yes.

Parkin: What’s the status of Image United?

Stephenson: Me sobbing uncontrollably in the bathtub? (laughs)

Seriously, it’s being worked on. Slower than we would all like, for sure, but it’s coming along. The unfortunate reality of the situation is that not finishing it sooner complicated things more than it should have. With six different artists all working on almost every page, once things started to run off the rails, we began running into scheduling conflicts that became more and more unavoidable. The good news–or the better than completely fucking terrible news, really–is that the fourth issue is very close to being finished. At this point, the goal is to complete the remaining three issues and release them monthly sometime in 2012.

Parkin: DC and Marvel seem to always be under the gun to produce books with female lead and/or female creators. How is Image doing on the female lead and female creators front?

Stephenson: That’s a tricky question, because there’s a very profound difference between Image and DC/Marvel and that’s that we don’t dictate who our creators are or what they do. If female creators don’t pitch projects to us, then we don’t have projects by female creators, and we don’t receive that many pitches from women. Blair Butler brought us Heart, though, and Emi Lenox did EmiTown here. Marian Churchland won a Russ Manning award for her graphic novel Beast, and she’s done some great work on Elephantmen. Half the staff here in the Image office are women.

Saga

You just noted that Witchblade recently hit #150–it’s the longest running independent comic with a female lead. Glory, Hack/Slash, Avengelyne and Shinku all feature female leads, and while I realize the politically incorrect satire of Bomb Queen may not be for everyone, the title character is definitely a woman. One of the biggest books we’re putting out this year is Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples’ Saga, and one of the main characters in that is female. Alpha Girl seems pretty self-explanatory. Next month, we’re publishing more work by Emi, along with a new autobio book by Natalie Nourigat. Blair is putting together another project for us, and those are just the things I’m at liberty to discuss right now. Every now and then we’ll reach out to someone specific – I’d love it if we were working with Marjorie Liu, for instance, and getting Pia Guerra to do something here would be a dream come true, and the same goes for Chynna Clugston – but ultimately, it all comes down to when people are available and whether they actually have something they want to do.

Or to put it another way: If you’re a female writer or artist with an awesome creator-owned project you’d like to get off the ground, send me an email. Even if you’re just thinking about it and you have some questions about how Image works or whatever – send me an email. If I get eight killer proposals, then that’s eight new Image books by female talent. It’s that simple.

Parkin: Speaking of pitches, how many do you receive via email in a given week? And how many of the blind ones go on to become comics?

Stephenson: Dozens. I get dozens of proposals every week, but very few are accepted. In the 10 years I’ve been on staff at Image, I think we’ve accepted fewer than 10.

Parkin: On your personal blog, where you occasionally talk about Image and the industry and what not, you also spend a lot of time talking about music. As we move into the new year, what’s on your playlist right now?

Stephenson: You know, it’s a funny thing with my blog. When I first started it, I was really reluctant to focus too much on the industry or comics at all. I was mainly doing it for my own edification, just keeping a journal about things that caught my attention, but the comics stuff slowly crept in. It’s hard not to comment on certain things, whether it’s something I’m excited about or something that rubs me the wrong way. Usually, though, I’m waxing enthusiastic about the things I love, and a great deal of the time, that’s music. I’m pretty sure I would fade from existence without music, it’s such a vital part of my life.

Future of the Left: Polymers are Forever

Playlist-wise… I listen almost exclusively to vinyl at home, and I’m always on the hunt for more – I just picked up albums by Horace Silver, the Detroit Emeralds, Marvin Gaye, Joni Mitchell, Fairport Convention, David Bowie and the Swingle Singers, and then there was that big Smiths box set with all the remastered albums. There’s just so much great music out there, and it’s fun to kind of connect the dots between different things.

Probably the thing I’ve been listening to most frequently over the last couple weeks, though, is this EP by Future of the Left called Polymers Are Forever. That made me go back to the band that Future of the Left grew out of, Mclusky, and start listening to those albums again, which I hadn’t done in quite a while. Both bands are so loud and angry, but not necessarily in the way you might expect. A good touchstone might be Big Black, or maybe Shellac. There’s a lot of dark humor to their lyrics and that always appeals to me. They have a full album coming fairly soon called The Plot Against Common Sense and I’m looking forward to that. I’ve really been enjoying this album by a guy called Jonathan Wilson, too. It’s called Gentle Spirit and it has a very Laurel Canyon in the early ’70s kind of vibe about it, if you know what I mean. I have the same sort of outlook to music that I have towards comics, or anything, really–I like discovering new stuff. Like everyone, I have my old favorites, but there’s nothing quite like the experience of coming across something new.

Stuck in the Middle

Libraries | A committee recommended Monday that Stuck in the Middle: 17 Comics from an Unpleasant Age, an anthology of comics about middle school edited by Ariel Schrag, should remain in the Buckfield Junior-Senior High School library in Dixfield, Maine, after the mother of a student challenged its appropriateness because of “objectionable sexual and language references.” The local school board will make a final ruling in January. The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom sent a letter of support for the book prior to the hearing. A school board in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, pulled the graphic novel from middle-school libraries in November 2009, but allowed teachers to continue to use it in class. [Sun Journal]

Digital | Charlie Sorrel looks at the iPad comic reader called, appropriately enough, Comic Reader. [Wired]

From "Foul Play"

Creators | Cartoonist Jack Davis looks back on his lengthy career, the influence of Harvey Kurtzman, and the dislike for his own Tales From the Crypt stories, like “Foul Play,” which became one of Frederic Werthem’s targets in Seduction of the Innocent: “I have a hang-up. I love horror. I love ghost stories, but when it comes to illustrating it for thousands and thousands of young people to see it, I don’t go along with it. I think that happened, and I didn’t know it was happening at the time. I just knew that I would go in and I’d get a check and pick up a script and go home and do it. I sat in a little room and did this horrible baseball story, and it made the Senate [hearings] and everywhere. People liked it but I didn’t. I said, ‘I can’t do that.’ To this day I love all the people at Mad, but Mad had changed. It’s not like it used to be. It has some very good artists but their philosophy is not mine.” [The A.V. Club]

Creators | Larry Gonick talks about his long career creating nonfiction comics and his latest magnum opus The Cartoon Guide to Calculus. [Graphic Novel Reporter]

Brilliant! Tragic!

Creators | Jamie McKelvie’s illustration for Art Brut’s album Brilliant! Tragic! is among Paste Magazine‘s 50 Best Album Covers of 2011. [Paste]

Creators | Health Care Reform artist Nathan Schreiber is profiled by his hometown newspaper. [The Milford Daily News]

Craft | Kevin Huizenga shares one of the templates he uses for drawing a comics page: “I draw most of my comics — the Ganges stories, especially — with 4 rows. When I’m starting a new story I usually print a few of these out on copy paper and sketch on them. Sometimes I figure out a page pretty much exactly right the first time, but often it takes a few tries. Or I’ll just sketch scenes and characters in the boxes and not worry about where each panel is going to go until later. For a few years now I’ve worked this way and it’s become second nature.” [New Construction]

1. What comic-related gift or gifts would you recommend giving this year, and why?
2. What gift (comic or otherwise) is at the top of your personal wish list, and why?

We’ve gotten back a bunch of suggestions, which we’ll run between now and the end of the week. So let the merriment commence …

Jim McCann

1. Exclusive 2011 Janet Lee Holiday Ornaments
Every year, Janet does about 12 ornaments, three sets of four. This year, she has done Hipster Animals, Scary Toys and Art Nouveau Angels. They are signed and dated, and at the end of the season, that’s it! She stops making them. I’ve been collecting them since 2007, and now our tree is almost completely filled with Janet’s art. You can buy them exclusively through her Etsy shop.

Oh, and if you’re REALLY nice, she MAY have a very limited Dapper Men ornament or two. Just ask!

2. This year, for myself, I’m going with a mix of Blu-Rays (portable Blu-Ray player, please, Santa!) and books. But the thing I’m REALLY excited for is the hardcover edition of the Complete Ripley novels, by Patricia Highsmith. Most people only know of Ms. Highsmith through The Talented Mr. Ripley (and classic film lovers through Strangers On a Train). There were actually five Tom Ripley novels, and the collection looks amazing. Why these books? My spouse recently Tweeted a quote from John Lithgow that struck me as a writer: “Duality, duplicity, truth and deception, good becoming bad and vice-versa are crucial elements of great storytelling.” Highsmith was and remains an unsung hero of mastering that, so I hope I learn something in the process!

Happy Holidays from the Dapper Lariosa-McCann household!

Jim McCann is the writer of Return of the Dapper Men and its upcoming sequel, Marvel Zombies Christmas Carol, Hawkeye:Blindspot and the upcoming Mind The Gap.

Matt Kindt

The Sixth Gun, Vol. 1

1. The gift I’d recommend would be The Sixth Gun trade #1 and #2. There are very few comics that are just good fun well-told stories. And even less that are also westerns. And it’s got a giant mummy. Seriously. I love it.

2. What I really want is for publishers to start bringing back comic book subscriptions. And I don’t mean iPad notifications. I want them to mail me single issues as they come out and wrapped in those brown kraft paper envelopes that are open on the ends.

Matt Kindt is the writer of the Robotman comic you can find in issues of DC’s My Greatest Adventure and artist on the Oni graphic novel The Tooth. He’s also the man behind Revolver, 3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man, Super Spy and the upcoming Supernatural.

Daryl Gregory

1. For the kids in your life, you can’t do better than the e-Comic. It’s as thin as a monthly comic book, with a folding screen that opens to allow two-page spreads. It’s high-res, so you can read word balloons easily while still be able to take in all of the surrounding art. The e-Comic comes loaded with every Jack Kirby comic, under a generous licensing deal with the Kirby estate. Plus, it only costs $25. When it’s invented in 2018, give one to every kid on your Christmas list, and SAVE COMICS.

Journey into Mystery

Until then, take the kids to a comics shop and buy them something great. My son highly recommends Journey Into Mystery by Kieron Gillen — it’s loads of fun.

2. I very rarely allow myself to play video games–nothing destroys writing time like a good game–but every Christmas I take a week off and do nothing but hang out with my family, eat and play with toys. I usually ask for one video game, and for that week I throw myself into it. Previous stockings have been stuffed with Battlefield 142, Company of Heroes, Left 4 Dead 2, Portal… and this year I want to play Arkham City. There, I’ve said it. Fortunately, it’s also on my son’s wish list, so I don’t have to use up one of wishlist slots I usually reserve for specialty beer. So you know what that means: Dad gets to punch the Joker while buzzed on Westemalle Tripel.

Daryl writes Planet of the Apes for BOOM! Studios. His novel Raising Stony Mayhall was named one of the best SF books of the year by Library Journal, and his short story collection Unpossible and Other Stories was named one of the best SF books of the year by Publisher’s Weekly. Daryl loves one of them better than the other, but won’t say which–it would hurt their feelings. You can reach him at darylgregory.com.

Jim “Zub” Zubkavich

Green Wake

1) There are a ton of great new comic titles to give/receive this year. High on my giving list are:

• 27 for music-loving friends
• Atomic Robo for people who crave action/comedy/pure joy
• Chew Omnivore Edition for dark-hearted humorous pals
• Green Wake for horror and mystery readers
• Return of the Dapper Men for fans of faerie tales and the fantastic
• The Sixth Gun for the western aficionado
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Ultimate Collection for Gen X-Yers
• Who is Jake Ellis? to the espionage-thriller reader
• and One Soul for the intellectual poet in your gift-giving circle.

See? Comics for everybody!

2) Original comic art is a unique and classy thing to give a comic fan and it’s always high on my personal wish list. Even less expensive options like a convention head sketch or random comic page original can make for a great show piece in the home of a fan. I have a lot of framed originals and they give the right touch of geek chic to my place. Getting an original from my favorite artists, new or old, is now something I look for throughout the year and Christmas is no exception.

Jim Zub is the co-creator and writer of Skullkickers from Image Comics and the creator of Makeshift Miracle, UDON’s online graphic novel serializing with new pages every week at www.makeshiftmiracle.com.

Jamie S. Rich

Petrograd

1. If you’re giving the gift of comics, than my cohorts at Oni Press have the two books from 2011 that I think have the broadest appeal and will get you the most mileage this holiday season. First, there is Petrograd, Philip Gelatt and Tyler Crook’s riveting alternative history of the assassination of Rasputin. It’s got danger and intrigue and Tyler is one hell of an artist. The handsome hardcover package has a lot of flair and though the $30 price point is totally reasonable, it would never occur to the person you’re giving it to that you were at all frugal.

Second is Ray Fawkes’ amazing One Soul. Ray has done an amazing thing here, using the standard nine-panel grid to tell the concurrent stories of 18 different people spanning the ages, separated by space and time. Though it’s possible to read each life individually front to back, the experience of reading each one moment by moment, cycling through all 18 on every double-page spread is exhilarating. One Soul is both emotionally moving and intellectually thought provoking, and despite all the formalist experimentation, a damn good read. Also another wonderfully designed, smartly priced hardcover.

More self-serving for me, and a higher ticket item, is the Madman 20th Anniversary Monster, coming from Image in just a few short weeks. I helped Mike Allred put this massive hardcover together, and I even wrote the two-page framing sequence that he and Jim Valentino drew to tie it all together. Mike has done a new story, there are 20+ all-new one-pagers from the likes of Matt Wagner, Darwyn Cooke, Patrick McEown, and all three Hernandez Bros., and also every pin-up we could get our hands on from the last 20 years of the series. Yes, that includes masters like Jack Kirby, Alex Toth, and Frank Frazetta, and also relative newbies like Joëlle Jones, Emily Carroll, and Chris Samnee. There are over 260 pages and the whole shebang is 11″ x 17″, the same size as the Wednesday Comics collection.

2. There are three items I would really like this Christmas. All of them are expensive collectors editions of material by artists that have been extremely influential on my creative development, but that I have yet to save the pennies to buy myself. They are:

(1) The Blu-Ray edition of Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, bundled with the DVD of his second film The Magnificent Ambersons.
(2) The Smiths Complete–All of the Smiths albums remastered with Johnny Marr at the boards. I’d love the Super Deluxe box with the book and the dual version on vinyl and CD, but I’d settle for the straight CD versions, too. The music is the thing, and what I have heard of these new mixes is quite astonishing.
(3) The Who: Quadrophenia Director’s Cut: Super Deluxe Box Set: Okay, here is one where I have to have the massive version with the bonus 5.1 disc and all the books and such. Quadrophenia is like a religious experience for me. My first book, Cut My Hair, is named for a track on the original album, and so this new opening of the vaults is utterly essential.

Both the Smiths and the Who, as well as Orson Welles, helped change my artistic path when I was a teenager, and they still provide inspiration to this day.

Jamie S. Rich is a writer who regularly publishes through Oni Press, and quite often with the likes of Joëlle Jones, Nicolas Hitori de, and soon Natalie Nourigat and Dan Christensen. His most recent comic book release was Spell Checkers, vol. 2: Sons of a Preacher Man. You can read his sort-of kind-of frequently updated blog at http://www.confessions123.com.

Ryan Cody

Bone

1. The one comic related gift I always recommend is the Complete Bone by Jeff Smith. My children read it cover to cover at least once a year. Jeff Smith’s epic is a great read, fun and adventurous for any age group. For adults I would recommend American Vampire, it’s been my favorite book this year as I catch up on it. You can also never go wrong with Hellboy. A more unique gift for a comic or pop culture fan would be original art. Full size comic pages look gorgeous framed and hung and there is probably artwork out there to fit all budgets.

2. I don’t usually buy a lot of comics myself, but I’d be more than happy to get some original art, or a nice sketchbook or two from my favorite artists. An original Sean Murphy, Cory Walker or Mignola page and I’d be one happy camper Christmas morning.

Ryan Cody is an artist and writer whose past credits include ICARUS, Jesus Christ: In the Name of the Gun V2 and Villains. See more of his work at http://super75comics.wordpress.com/

Be sure to come back tomorrow for more suggestions!

Action Comics

Publishing | DC Comics joins the Kia Soul, Goldfish, My Little Pony and several others on Advertising Age’s annual list of America’s Hottest Brands: “With decades of stories under their capes and utility belts, Superman — and other DC characters, including Aquaman and the Flash — had ossified. Though relaunching its entire cast and making their adventures available to print and electronic audiences might alienate some hard-core DC fans, it might also gain plenty of new ones. Making DC characters more popular is crucial for its parent company. While the comic-book business is way down from its heyday, its characters fuel big-ticket Hollywood movies that can generate millions of dollars in revenue and licensing. The pressure may be on DC because rival Marvel, now owned by Disney, has churned out superhero film properties on a regular basis for years.” [Advertising Age]

Broadway | Producers of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark have changed their tune on the $75 million musical; previously they predicted they wouldn’t make back the money invested in the show without franchising it in other cities and countries, but now they predict they’ll make it back entirely from the Broadway run. They also are considering adding in new scenes and a new musical number to the production every year, “making it akin to a new comic book edition, and then urging the show’s fans to buy tickets again.” [The New York Times]

V for Vendetta Guy Fawkes mask

Creators | V for Vendetta writer Alan Moore comments on the use of the book’s notorious Guy Fawkes masks by various protest groups, including the Occupy movement. “I suppose when I was writing V for Vendetta I would in my secret heart of hearts have thought: wouldn’t it be great if these ideas actually made an impact? So when you start to see that idle fantasy intrude on the regular world… It’s peculiar. It feels like a character I created 30 years ago has somehow escaped the realm of fiction.” [The Guardian]

Creators | Tony Millionaire comments on 10 of the musician portraits that are included in his upcoming 500 Portraits book from Fantagraphics: “I’ve always loved David Byrne. When the Talking Heads started, that’s when music totally changed for me. I had been lost with music. I was cutting my hair shorter and shorter. I was like, ‘I don’t want to be a hippie anymore.’ Music was just getting prettier and more refined – Crosby, Stills and Nash, and all that – and suddenly, it was wild again. And then the girls in the bars had big hair, and leather jackets and fishnet stockings. And I was like, ‘Wow!’ So then the Talking Heads came around and there was not only punk rock, but there was also art music – which, I felt like I could some how get more involved with it. The punk rock bouncing around and smashing in to each other thing wasn’t my idea of a good time. But art music, forget about it, I loved it.” [Rolling Stone]

Creators | ICE writer Doug Wagner discusses writing one of the Justice League comics available in various General Mills cereal boxes. [Park Record]

Chew, Vol. 3

Creators | Marc Oliver-Frisch posts an interview with Chew artist Rob Guillory conducted last year that will appear in a German collection of the popular Image series. [Comiks Debris]

Creators | Former Captain America artist Alan Bellman still gets fan mail—and still draws on commission—at the age of 87. [The Miami Herald]

Retailers | In a story on Small Business Saturday, Christopher Brady, owner of 4 Color Fantasies in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., discusses how his shop took advantage of the American Express-sponsored event. [Contra Costa Times]

Commentary | Lauren Davis looks at one of Robot 6′s perennial favorite webcomics Max Overacts, by Caanan Grall. [ComicsAlliance]

Awards | The Quebec Writers Federation’s young adult novel prize went to a graphic novel, Alan Silberberg’s Milo: Sticky Notes and Brain Freeze. [CBC News]

Fandom | IndyStar.com profiles Kevin Silva, a Batman collector who has nearly 1,600 pieces of Batman memorabilia, including a Gotham City phone book used in the 1960s television show and a Batman lunchbox he took to school as a kid. [IndyStar.com]

History | J.L. Bell chronicles the evolution of the Tin Woodman’s head. [Oz and Ends]

Cosplay | Toy enthusiasts in Jakarta, Indonesia are using the city’s many malls to host Nerf gun battles. Participants dress as movie, comic book and other pop culture characters and battle amongst the shops and food courts, with some malls even setting up designated areas for these “Mall Wars.” [Jakarta Globe]

There’s always some education to be had from looking at comics by artists who are better known for their work in other media.  Victor Moscoso is one of two members of hippie-era San Francisco’s legendary Zap Comix collective whose work on rock concert posters is arguably more notorious and influential than his comics.  (Rick Griffin accompanies him in this category.)  That isn’t to say, however, that Moscoso’s comics have wielded anything less than a tremendous influence over the past few decades, despite the fact that they remain somewhat under-discussed.  Moscoso brought color printing to the medium’s underground, did work in Zap that anticipates the most adventurous of today’s experimental comics, and brought a cubist-inflected fine art sensibility to his pages that echoes in the work of cartoonists from Gary Panter to Art Spiegelman.

But the most striking thing about Moscoso’s comics work is just how effectively he was able to translate the action and effect of his stroboscopic posters into sequential form.  Moscoso has spoken of attempting to create posters that worked more like comics than advertisements, forcing the viewer to spend time carefully reading them rather than imparting information as quickly and effortlessly as possible.  The vibrating colors and eye-straining typography of his single images mimic the dense linework and slow progression of a paneled page in a fascinating way: Moscoso used both the single image and the sequence to create a fully realized world for the eye to inhabit.

The poster Moscoso created for SF-based motion picture company Pablo Ferro Films, above, is a watershed moment in the artist’s oeuvre, the place where his works in comics and posters unify with perfect elegance.  It’s also a fascinating, formally audacious piece of comics, one that breaks rules and innovates furiously without giving up an iota of visual beauty.  Moscoso’s work in more traditional color comic books was muted by his era’s production methods: benday dots on newsprint have a beauty all their own, but the furious clarity of Moscoso’s rich screened colors screams like a symphony here.  The intense saturation of this poster manages to irritate the eye to such a degree that it becomes difficult indeed to take the full sheet in all at once.  That is, it’s much easier to fall into this image using the simple, step by step comics-reading method than anything else.

Moscoso subverts that method, however, to produce a reading experience that’s both smoother and more jarring than what we’re used to.  His use of photographic imagery, no matter how heavily remixed, brings this page into dialogue with film, and the tight sequencing, moment-to-moment progression, and screen-shaped frames do more still to recall it.  Moscoso, however, doesn’t treat the panel like a screen, a fixed canvas that must hold the entirety of his images.  Ever the poster artist, he utilizes the full canvas available to him, walking figures between his frames, treating his gutters as inhabitable spaces rather than negative zones.  There’s no wasted space here, and Moscoso’s virtuosic eye for color ensures that nothing becomes too cluttered either.

Equally astounding is how effectively the usual pitfall of photographic comics — a sense of static deadness to the imagery — is sidestepped.  The figures moving freely in between panels are a big help, but the doubled images, screened in opposing colors a few instants apart, lend the moments Moscoso captures both a definite sense of gesture and the fleeting lightness of real motion.  (It only gets more impressive when you think about how hopelessly impossible it would be to achieve the same thing with comics’ typical black linework.)  The effect ends up more like that of animation than anything else, the overwhelming flicker of the colors creating something impressionistic, a flurry of time communicated more than actually seen.  It’s literally impossible to nail down a single space that these figures inhabit — even within the rectangles of single panels, they manage to move.

As gorgeous a piece of pure visual information this comic is, though, it’s equally inspiring as a model for cartoonists to follow.  Moscoso innovates within the comics medium by pulling in technique and theory from other media, making a statement in a fused form that manages to harness the power and individuality of both sequential and fine art, with no small amount of silver screen sheen thrown in for good measure.  A single, indelible moment of genius, “Pablo Ferro Films” throws down a psychedelic-comics gauntlet that, decades later, remains unchallenged in its particular, sublime beauty.

Big Questions

Hello and welcome once again to What Are You Reading?, where every week we talk about the comics, books and other stuff we’ve been reading lately.

Our special guest this week is musician and comic creator Nate Powell, who you might know from his most recent graphic novel, Any Empire, or the Ignatz and Eisner Award-winning Swallow Me Whole. When he’s not creating comics, he’s hanging out at the United Nations with the likes of R.L. Stine, Ann M. Martin and other teen-fiction writers in support of What You Wish For, a collection of young adult stories and poems. Proceeds from the book will be used to fund libraries in Darfuri refugee camps in Chad.

To see what Nate and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below.

*****

Michael May

Planet of the Apes

In this week’s Food or Comics I said that I’d run out of ways to praise BOOM!’s Planet of the Apes series. Having read the seventh issue, I’ve found another one.

As the series has progressed, writer Daryl Gregory has been using the ape/human conflict to shine a light on human atrocities like terrorism and containment camps. I wasn’t comfortable with that at first-–in fact, I’m still not–but I realize that that’s the point. These are complex issues and it’s very much in the Planet of the Apes spirit to touch on them in a way that lets them remain difficult. Is terrorism always evil or are there ever causes that justify it? Planet of the Apes doesn’t claim to have the answers, but it’s raising the questions in fascinating and, perhaps more importantly, entertaining ways. It also helps that the art’s so beautiful and exciting, it makes me cry.

Tim O’Shea

Gladstone’s School for World Conquerors #6: Writer Mark Andrew Smith completely surprises me with the conclusion to the first arc. Instead of being the reveal I thought it would be, he instead gives us a plot moment that will serve as a catalyst for even bigger things in the series. The battle scenes that dominate the issue are some of artist Armand Villavert’s strongest pages of the series. If I have not convinced you to buy the series before now, you may be interested to know that Image will soon be releasing a trade paperback of these first six issues.

Secret Avengers #18: This issue in particular reminded me of writer Warren Ellis’ early 2000s Global Frequency series. As much as I appreciate the writer’s approach to Shang-Chi with this issue, what really shines (and makes the issue a must read) is David Aja’s Escher-like layouts on a particular series of fight scenes.

Avengers Academy

Avengers Academy #20: Writer Christos Gage’s ability to write an ensemble cast never ceases to amaze me. This issue serves as a major transition point in the series, allowing readers and characters to look in the rear view mirror and see where the story has gone and the potentials of where it might travel. When I started reading this series, I never fathomed that Veil would be so central to the book’s appeal and theme. Not to be a stuck record, but if you are one of those readers who have been left cold by most Avengers writing for the past several years, this is the book for you.

Avengers Solo #1: Jen Van Meter’s script (Hawkeye as detective is the core premise) works for me, but is severely hindered by the art. I normally like Roger Robinson’s art, but for whatever reason in this particular assignment he is inked and colored in a vibrant noir style that comes across as a poor imitation of Howard Chaykin. Two characters in the book have a costume so similar in design; I could not tell who was who. I so wanted to praise this story from the rooftops, as I am a huge Van Meter fan. The back-up Avengers Academy tale is a solid follow-on to this week’s issue, written by Jim McCann and with art by Clayton Henry.

All-Star Western #2: This is one of the new DC universe books that are not hindered by starting from scratch. Jonah Hex is Jonah Hex and Moritat on art is just some of the most exquisite Hex/horror/Western art you can buy for—oh crap I just realized I paid $3.99 for it. Memo to DC, you are really annoying me with making me pay an extra buck for a preview of a crappy-looking Lee Bermejo story that I will never buy.

Daredevil

Daredevil #5: I have run out of words to praise Mark Waid’s Daredevil. Just go get it. This may be the first current mainstream Marvel book I will let my 12-year-old son read (he normally reads the all-ages titles), That’s how much I enjoy the series.

Spaceman #1: Not really sure what story Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso is trying to tell with this nine-issue mature reader miniseries. But offering the first issue for a buck made me buy it. The art is, as always with Risso, strong as hell. But the dialogue that Azzarello saddles some of the characters with is quite annoying. I will leaf through the next issue, but I am unsure if I will actually buy it.

Spider-Man Marvel Adventures #19: Sean T. Collins writes a really great battle story between Kraven and Spidey in an office building. That’s a
sentence I never fathomed writing. Seriously, artist Pere Perez has a stairwell layout that was a sheer delight to view, would love to know if that was Collins’ idea or totally from the mind of Perez. And that was after getting to enjoy the first half of the comic, which has J.M. DeMatteis and Clayton Henry doing a Freaky Friday-type tale with Spidey and Silver Surfer.

Nate Powell

Master Of Reality by John Darnielle (33 1/3 series, Continuum Books, 2008)

Master of Reality

“I opened up my eyes, and I wondered whether my younger self was actually somebody who’s still inside me at all… I’m 26, but I’m not ready for my 16-year-old self to be dead. So I bring his ghost to work with me and hold séances behind a locked office door and when I come out of it there’s this gigantic salad in front of me and I want to start eating it with my bare hands, reciting these childish lyrics out loud, spitting sunflower seeds and bacon bits in big chunks at the wall.”

I can’t believe it took me this long to get around to reading this book. I’d eagerly awaited its release from the moment I heard news of its existence, but it finally arrived in my mailbox as a considerate gift from Leigh Walton with the attached note, “See if it isn’t the most Nate Powelly book ever written.”

Almost immediately, this novel just felt right. Darnielle’s music has proved crushing and illuminating, particularly the 1997 Mountain Goats album Full Force Galesburg, having both encompassed the shittiest period of my life and having held some responsibility for pulling me out of that self-erasing era. Master Of Reality (using Black Sabbath’s 1971 masterpiece as its core) challenges itself to represent certain sentiments we’d only admit we truly take or took seriously in trusted company—that music can truly be salvation, that our surroundings are truly ugly and lame, that the people we think we know truly don’t understand. What makes this kind of exploration bold is the potential for embarrassment, as creators and as readers. Darnielle’s protagonist and narrator is a smart, sensitive, troubled teenager in the mid-1980’s—but importantly, not too smart, and troubled because he’s simply too sensitive for the strip-mall blight around him. I accept this contract with the author, and I believe in the gravity of his character’s assessment of the world, of clichés laid out with an intimate enough lens, close enough to the embarrassment itself, that such statements immediately cease to be clichés.

Darnielle’s protagonist ruminates on Sabbath as a teenager and again later as an adult having unearthed his old psychiatric center-mandated journals, hammering in the fundamental, primal function of headbanging, assumptions on the fathers of metal’s decision-making processes through the limited perspective of an American teenager, and for any true lover of Black Sabbath, an utterly convincing blueprint of their two-dimensional.

“Normally even the hard music is supposed to sort of take you higher but when I borrowed this album from Mike I knew it wasn’t just the pot, it was like the whole point was ‘everything is a bummer, even your fantasies are a bummer.’”

Downtune those guitars, children.

From The Graveyard Of The Arousal Industry by Justin Pearson (Soft Skull Press, 2010)

From The Graveyard Of The Arousal Industry

As abrasive and impenetrable as his musical endeavors can be, Justin Pearson’s memoir is laid out the only way I could imagine it, as the music’s blunt, brash foil. Pearson’s account is incredibly intimate without even a trace of sentimentality, and this is important to accept early in the reading process. He makes no qualms about the emotional and physical barriers he’d learned to establish for the sake of survival in a fucked-up childhood and adolescence, and the necessity of building something real under his own power, and through whatever means were available at the time.

Struggle, Pearson’s first band, was one of the earliest hardcore punk bands I was exposed to as an eighth-grader. Our bands floated and toured around in the same circles for years, but only played together a few times. His most widely-known band, The Locust, drew as much ire and hatred as it did excitement and anticipation. As a 22-year-old stuck in the trap of needing to be painfully earnest about every goddamn thing that came out of my mouth, I found myself as frustrated as I was stimulated at Locust shows, which inevitably spawned 3-hour debates about the band later that night at the diner. When Soophie Nun Squad and The Locust occasionally shared the stage, we were (cosmetically) polar opposites trying to communicate similar things with our music, and this healthy-but-dissonant relationship was hard to reconcile in a well-meaning but deeply flawed late-90’s punk climate—a climate stating that we should make waves against the shores of the outer world, but should generally avoid challenges to our collective concept of why we think we’re not a part of the world we hate, why we think we’ve got so much in common anyway, and who we alienate.

Pearson’s music has always been a part of this essential push-pull relationship, and I’ve grown to increasingly love and respect his bands’ dedication to the truly annoying, the truly questioning, the truly interesting. Decade-old memories of naked young men wearing only gas masks shitting on a Michigan venue floor while uprooted shrubbery is thrown amidst makeshift fires and flying bodily fluids finally get the answers they’ve been longing for. His narrative is honest and unabashed enough to raise the question within me, “why didn’t I just ask him all these questions when I was twenty? Just how many assumptions did I make about people around us? What the hell was wrong with me?”

Big Questions by Anders Nilsen (Drawn & Quarterly, 2011)

I started reading Nilsen’s individual issues starting with #3, and had been waiting for this collected volume for ten years. I won’t hesitate to say that Big Questions is probably my favorite comic of the last decade, and that it approaches uncertainly, darkness, hope, cruelty, dedication, and selfishness in a way that makes most other efforts seem like a waste of paper.

Nilsen gets away with a task of this size by simply following the (mostly animal) characters’ actions without an obvious directorial perspective—the reader never feels that they’re being intentionally moved in a particular direction or towards a certain topic by the creator. This might be because the narrative took nearly 15 years (in as many installments) to unfold, and a lot changes in a creator’s priorities in that time. Major events in the storyline come as genuine surprises, and my emotional response to the losses of certain characters was much heavier than I expected.

The world depicted in Big Questions is certainly aware of ours, and of its political and social realities, but only one ambassador from “our world” makes his way through the book, slowly and begrudgingly adapting his method of interacting with others, relearning what it means to survive. Most of the internal social structure is found within a group of birds who are drawn so similarly that it came as a shock and a true joy to discover that I’d grown to care about each bird and their individual struggles so deeply. A kind of magic was at work; the birds’ once-uniform depictions retroactively became nuanced, attentive, undeniably unique.

Big Questions, like McCarthy’s The Road, is not in any way a pick-me-up, but its flashes of lightness in an impenetrably grave situation provide measured glimpses into the other side of a world just behind it, or just before it. This collection is a necessary exploration of an endlessly murky and uncertain existence.

Americus by MK Reed and Jonathan Hill (First Second, 2011)

Americus

Reed and Hill are successfully making a case against people losing their goddamn minds these days. Americus is a focused, efficient narrative tackling the poisonous, anti-intellectual, privileged forces of the authoritarian evangelical Neanderthals we know so well against, well, a world they think is theirs.

I grew up in the suburbs of Arkansas, just down the road from Americus’ fictional Oklahoma town. The setting could have truly been anywhere in the country, but at no point came off as a generic depiction of suburbia. No, this was the world in which many of us came of age. Cultural threats and scapegoats shifted every few years—the Satanic Ritual Abuse craze of 1985 begat the Judas Priest suicide trial-farce that fueled the proper Satanic Panic in which I devoted myself to heavy metal, the occult, and fantasy storytelling. This era was essentially put to rest with the West Memphis Three witchhunt of 1993, to be quickly replaced by a deep suburban terror of Dr. Dre’s The Chronic, only to be dethroned in time by Marilyn Manson. What made the perceived threats so bizarre was the evangelical Neanderthals’ insistence that depictions of reality and fantasy were interchangeably dangerous.

Americus centers around a popular all-ages fantasy epic patterned after the success of Harry Potter and its predecessors. We get glimpses into the literary adventures cherished by so many folks in the book, but don’t get too much, and this is important, as the town’s (and my town’s, and yours’) authoritarian evangelicals have never really been concerned with what’s actually in the offending articles. In fact, the whole crux of the book and its frustrating reality is that such vocal opposition is focused on what the books represent, which is a world that has room for more than just one perspective or value system. Possibility really is frightening.

MK Reed’s dialogue is quite natural and believable, and Jonathan Hill’s brushstroke is clear, competent, and descriptive. Americus, as a graphic novel readable by anyone age 12 and up, is an welcome addition to the much-needed broader discussion about the role of the Arts in our society, the powers and motivations at play in the effort to crush a more truly representative world, and the terrifying rise of these proto-fascists we know so well, not just at the local level, but when the battlefield is what we read, listen to, and how we think.

Manga Music

Artist, musician and our buddy Akira the Don has released a new mixtape, titled Manga Music, featuring “a tribute to the monumental works of Manga Entertainment, who this year celebrate 20 years of serving us Westerners with the very finest anime.” Each song samples and is named after one of their releases, such as Evangelion, Full Metal Alchemist, Crying Freeman and, naturally, Akira.

“Twenty years ago I was a little boy living by the sea in North Wales gaping in awe at their advert for Akira in the back of my Dad’s copy of Vox magazine,” Akira the Don wrote on his site. “A little while later I was pushing a big VHS cassette into its slot, an a few hours after that my life was changed forever.”

You can find it on his site, along with a new T-shirt and hoodie, as well as on YouTube and, thanks to the magic of Soundcloud and embed codes, right after the jump.

Akira The Don – ATD26: Manga Music by Akira The Don

Youngblood

Creators | With the announcement that Rob Liefeld’s Extreme Studios is back in business, former Extreme Studios employee and current Image Comics publisher Eric Stephenson reflects on his time with the studio. “From 1992-1998, Extreme Studios was more or less my life. Youngblood, Supreme, Brigade, Bloodstrike, Team Youngblood, New Men, Prophet, Youngblood: Strikefile, Bloodpool, Glory… We put out a lot of comics, and for the most part everyone involved was incredibly young. Rob and I were amongst the oldest at 25. So many of the artists involved in various aspects of production were just out of their teens, and that made the work as frustrating as it was fun. But looking back, the main thing I remember about that time is Rob wanted to share his success with people who loved comics and wanted to make a living in the business as much as he had.” [It Sparkles!]

Webcomics | A Distant Soil creator Colleen Doran, who began serializing the comic online in 2009, notes “my bottom line is up significantly, and my online audience is ten times higher than when I started the five day a week online serialization of A Distant Soil 2.5 years ago.” She also shares advice she received when she started the endeavor that hasn’t worked for her. [A Distant Soil]

Tom Morello

Creators | Orchid writer and musician Tom Morello shares his thoughts on his new book, politics and social issues in comics, and the story in Action Comics #900 that featured Superman renouncing his citizenship, among other topics. [Vulture]

Creators | Speaking of politics in comics, Marzena Sowa talks to Hero Complex about her upcoming Vertigo graphic novel Marzi: “When I started to write Marzi, the first stories concerned my daily life in Poland: I wrote about my family, my neighbors. Then, progressively, political questions started to appear and I realized that the politics had so much space in my childhood life I hadn’t even imagined. Marzi is getting bigger, and her curiosity and will to understand the world is getting bigger too. She feels concerned by the world and she tries to understand it — understand why it doesn’t work correctly. At a certain point she starts to speak, she is not only a mute witness of what is happening in her country. She starts also to claim her own freedom; but for instance she is maybe too small to be heard by her parents, but she won’t give it up.” [Hero Complex]

Creators | The New York Times profiles the husband-and-wife cartooning duo Raina Telgemeier and Dave Roman. [The New York Times]

Creators | Phil Hester and Jonathan Lau discuss their work on Dynamite’s Bionic Man comic book. [TFAW]

Creators | Mark Waid talks about his work on Marvel’s recent revival of the CrossGen title Ruse. [Mulholland Books]

The Death-Ray

Creators | Daniel Clowes talks about re-release of “The Death Ray” and his “drift toward more sympathetic figures” in his work: “I decided at a certain point that one of my goals is to find a way to connect with the characters no matter how awful they may seem or how hard they are to be around, to try to look at their humanity and find a way to love them by the end.” [Montreal Gazette]

Creators | Jonathan Liu catches up with Anya’s Ghost creator Vera Brosgol after sitting on a panel with her at Portland, Oregon’s Wordstock. [Wired]

Creators | Underground comics legend Robert Crumb shares his other “passion” — early 20th-century popular music. [BlogCritics]

Creators | Robin Furth discusses adapting Stephen King’s The Dark Tower to the comics medium, collaborating with Peter David, and Stephen King’s thoughts and involvement. [Biff Bam Pop! - part 1, part 2]

Comics | Saladin Ahmed looks at four of comics legend Jack Kirby’s “most ethnically adventurous creations” — The Thing, the Howling Commandos, Black Panther and The Black Racer. [tor.com]

Black Hood

Comics | The Beast Must Die at the Mindless Ones blog looks back at Mark Wheatley and Rick Burchett’s covers for Black Hood, from DC’s early 1990s !mpact line [Mindless Ones]

Commentary | Robot 6′s own Sean T. Collins reviews Brian Ralph’s Daybreak. [The Comics Journal]

Fandom | Looking for a Halloween costume? Found Item Clothing details 34 pop culture costumes you can make on your own, including Wonder Woman and Charlie Brown. [Found Item Clothing]

Robots | The Calgary Sun spotlights Phil Allen, who created a giant robot he hopes to sell to help pay for his wife’s liberation treatment for multiple sclerosis. “Science fiction has been talking about robots for 70 years and now I know why there aren’t any … It’s a huge undertaking when you decide to build one.” [Calgary Sun]

Shirts For A Cure, a project started by the Syrentha J. Savio Endowment to raise money in their efforts to provide financial assistance to underprivileged women who cannot afford breast cancer medicine and therapy, sells exclusive shirts for various bands and musical artists on their site. And they’ll be at the New York Comic Con this weekend selling shirts created by artists like Mike Cavallaro (his design is shown above), Molly Crabapple and Brian Ewing.

In addition, Wonder Woman artist Cliff Chiang will hold a signing at their booth Friday at 4 p.m., where you can get one of the last 50 of his limited edition Wonder Woman print.

And even if you can’t attend the con, go check out their site … they’ve got some cool shirts for a great cause.

Animal Man #1

Welcome to another edition of What Are You Reading? Today our special guest is Kevin Colden, whose comic work includes Fishtown, I Rule the Night, Vertigo’s Strange Adventures and Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper, among others. He’s also the drummer for the band Heads Up Display.

To see what Kevin and the Robot 6 crew have been reading lately, click below …

*****

Michael May

Justice League #1

I spent most of my week getting caught up on the New 52. I liked some of Justice League #1, but have many of the same problems others did. I’m primarily interested in Justice League to see what kind of relationships the heroes have with each other in this new version. That’s what I like most about team books anyway, and I did enjoy Green Lantern’s feeling like Batman needed to prove himself and how Batman reacted to that. It was a new take that couldn’t have been done without the reboot. But stretching that out to an entire issue was disappointing and I may wait until Wonder Woman shows up in the series before I buy another issue. I’m very curious to see how Johns’ version compares to the way Azzarello’s going to write her.

Action Comics #1 was a nice surprise though. I love, Love, LOVE the less-powered Superman. I’ve been watching the Fleischer Superman cartoons lately and this reminded me a lot of those. Superman’s incredibly tough and strong, but not invincible and I sincerely hope he stays that way. Even though it reminded me a lot of Batman: Year One and Spider-Man 2, I also liked the Superman vs. the cops scene with the people coming to Superman’s defense. I don’t care that it’s not the first time I’ve ever seen that kind of thing, it’s the first time I’ve seen it with Superman and it was awesome. Lois reminds me of Fleischer’s Lois too: badass and capable, but not immune to getting in over her head and needing some help. There’s so much storytelling potential there that doesn’t have to have her be as goofy and helpless as her Silver Age version. I bought the issue out of curiosity, but I’m very much looking forward to more like it.

Batgirl

Batgirl #1 was another disappointment though. I typically love Gail Simone’s work so much, but I wanted a light-hearted superheroine (like the one on the cover) and didn’t care at all for Batgirl’s dealing with the Post Traumatic Stress of being shot by the Joker. I’m not saying it’s a bad story, it’s just very heavy and not what I’m looking for. I won’t buy the second issue, but may come back to it in the collected version if the buzz is good.

Static Shock #1 – My hopes that this will include more Milestone characters than just Static are encouraged by Hardware’s playing a major role in Virgil Hawkins’ story. I’m hoping for more like that (Blood Syndicate please!), but in the meantime, this was a lot of fun with some great, new villains and I can’t wait for the next issue.

Demon Knights was always going to be a hard sell for me because I’m not a big Demon fan, nor do I generally care for the way Marvel and DC have portrayed medieval times. But Diogenes Neves has some nice designs and halfway through the issue Paul Cornell threw in a romantic triangle that hooked me but good. Then he netted me and put me in the boat with the last page. I not making any long-term commitments, but there are some great elements here and I’m excited to see where it goes.

Brigid Alverson

MetaMaus

I got an advance copy of MetaMaus this week, and when I sat down and started flipping through it I couldn’t put it down. It’s basically a book about Art Spiegelman’s Maus, and the heart of it is a lengthy interview with Spiegelman himself in which he talks about the thought process that went into the book, how the making of Maus affected his relationship with his father and the origins of many of the images in the graphic novel. The book is crammed with visuals, including photos from Spiegelman’s bar mitzvah album and pictures from books about the Holocaust that once belonged to his mother. The result is fascinating, at least for a Spiegelman fan like me. The book comes with a disc that includes Maus in its entirety as well as recordings of Spiegelman’s father. I haven’t cracked that yet, but I know it will add a whole new dimension to the experience.

On a much, much lighter note, I worked my way through the first year of the Life With Archie magazine, with its dual Archie-marries-Veronica and Archie-marries-Betty storylines, this week. I have been picking these up and putting them down all year, but sitting down and reading them all at once makes the stories come into sharper focus. It’s interesting that some events occur in both storylines, while other outcomes are totally different—for instance, Moose becomes mayor of Riverdale in one story and janitor of Riverdale High in another, for reasons that have nothing to do with Archie’s choice of a spouse. Although the multiplicity of characters and subplots makes it a bit confusing to read both at once, it’s hard to put the stories down, as writer Paul Kupperberg keeps the plot twists coming thick and fast. It’s good melodrama, and because the characters are all familiar faces, it’s fun to see what directions they evolve into from their teenage selves.

Tim O’Shea

Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E.

Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #1: When I picked up this week’s comics from the local store, my pal Dugan admitted that this comic reminded him somewhat of Hellboy. After I read it, I had to agree with him to a certain extent. Oddly enough, it also reminded me of another Dark Horse property, The Umbrella Academy. One major thing that annoyed me about Jeff Lemire’s writing (as much as I typically enjoy it) was this issue seemed really too text-intensive–and I hope the S.H.A.D.E.NET narrative. (If I never see another writer use narrative elements like “Data incoming…97% downloaded” I will be happy). But the first issue, despite its hiccups, introduced enough interesting characters (I bailed on Flashpoint after the first issue) to me to want to return for issue #2.

Black Panther: The Man Without Fear #523: This series is at its strongest when writer David Liss is teamed with artist Francesco Francavilla (as with this issue), Since this series began (with the departure of lead character) a major focal point of the series has been the importance of Hell’s Kitchen. T’Challa/Black Panther’s efforts to help Hell’s Kitchen continues to pay off in the neighborhood’s darkest hours. In terms of the supporting cast, I love love love Sofija.

Daredevil #3: I would not be surprised if Marvel is pitching Mark Waid’s Daredevil run as a TV series at some point. The surprise twist involving Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson’s law firm in this latest issue was really what triggered my theory. While the book is called Daredevil, Waid has devoted a good amount of time to showing Murdoch attempting to rebuild his life and career, which has entertained me to date. This was my favorite read of the week.

Gladstone’s School for World Conquerors #5: I feel for independent creators trying to garner attention for their respective series in a month like this, where the new DCU 52 dominates the news and review cycle. If you have not checked out Mark Andrew Smith and Armand Villavert’s Gladstone’s School for World Conquerors, you are genuinely missing out on a quirky series. In this issue, all the kids get a hold of the comics that the Nefarious Kid has been reading. (The two-page sample of those comics that Villavert offers early in this issue is executed with such great homage-level attention, it actually reminded me of some of the scenes from Jim Rugg’s Afrodisiac). The story really kicks into high gear in this installment and I really love where the creators leave things at the end of this installment (always leave folks wanting more, of course [which surprisingly some creators fail to do]).

Chris Mautner

Prison Pit 3

Prison Pit 3 — I had the opportunity to do a Q&A panel with Johnny Ryan at SPX last weekend. One of the more interesting parts of discussion was when Ryan said how each volume of Prison Pit had to have a different vibe or theme so that the different books didn’t feel interchangable. That’s certainly true in volume three, as we see the inclusion of a new character, who, while just as violent and vicious as CF, is completely different in attitude and demeanor. Plus, he has one of the most amazing (and utterly grotesque) resurrection scenes I’ve ever seen. There’s also a neat little bit toward the end where it seems like Ryan is heavily drawing upon the Fort Thunder crowd, particularly Mat Brinkman. All in all, it’s another excellent volume.

Prince Valiant Vol. 4 — This volume covers the most of the WWII years, 1943-44, when the paper shortage was at its highest. As Brian Kane notes in the introduction, this meant creator Hal Foster had to format the strip so parts could be cut for papers that had been forced to shrink their page count. He did this by adding a bottom strip, The Medieval Castle, which, while certainly informative and amusing, wasn’t necessarily as good as pure, unadulterated Valiant, especially since this new situation meant that Foster was unable to do the big, impressive vistas that had quickly become the strip’s trademark. Still, while no doubt hampered by this new situation, it did nothing to harm his storytelling skills, and Valiant remains a hugely enjoyable action strip, as Valiant battles a variety of ne’r do wells on a quest to find his true love, Aleta.

Mome Vol. 22 — I’ve talked at length before about how good the Mome anthology has been, and while I’m sad to see it come to a close, it’s nice to see it end on such a high note. Seriously, this is the best volume of Mome yet, with standout contributions by Chuck Forsman, Eleanor Davis, Laura Park, Dash Shaw, Jesse Moynihan and Sara Edward-Corbett. But really, there’s not a bad story in this entire book. It might seem weird recommending the last book of a series, but if you gotta only read one of these things, this would be the one.

Kevin Colden

Besides obsessively lurking on my Twitter feed and the typical mind-sucking websites like Damn You Autocorrect my, um… INTELLECTUAL reading time has been chock full of good stuff.

I suppose the elephant in the room would be the DC New 52 books – of which I’ve read about half so far (maybe 13 of the 27 to date). The overall concept of the reboot is solid, though some of the books have nailed it better than others. Animal Man in particular is one of the best new books I’ve read in a long time. I’ve always thought that Jeff Lemire was an interesting, unorthodox choice to write DCU books, and he and Travel Foreman have crafted an eerie, tonal work that recalls Moore and Totleben’s Swamp Thing – and it lives up to its pedigree. I got really excited for this title when I saw a preview of Foreman and inker Dan Green’s artwork for this book – creepy, angular and distorted, with a tasty late-80′s vibe – and it delivers. Colorist Lovern Kindzierski complements their work by smartly keeping it subtle, not eating the ink with rendering and doing some sweet limited-palette work as well. This one is on my regular list now and forever.

Bakuman

Keeping my comic selection broad and stroking my passion for well-crafted manga, a few months back DC Digital super editor and newly-installed Angeleno Kwanza Johnson recommended I read Bakuman by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata. Or maybe he strong-armed me into reading it. I don’t remember. Either way, I loved the creators’ previous work Death Note (which I also highly recommend; I read the first five volumes -about 1000 pages – in one sitting), so I figured this one was a good bet. Bakuman is about two high school-age kids making comics. Yeah. It’s about writing and drawing – possibly the least interesting and least active things in the universe – yet somehow the creators infuse the story with drama, tension and suspense. Besides some inexplicably bizarre behavior by two characters that requires Herculean suspension of disbelief, it’s thoroughly enjoyable and the art is stellar. Interestingly, Viz released volume 4 as a digital day-and-date experiment, and then promptly abandoned that plan with volume 5. Boo.

On my bookshelf, you will find many, many a finely bound graphic novel. You will also find my only two other reading passions – mountain-climbing memoirs and music biographies. I kid you not. I love reading about climbing because I will never be able to do it myself. I like to read about being a touring musician, because I will likewise never be able to do it myself. My current musical selection is See A Little Light: The Trail of Rage and Melody by Bob Mould. It’s a great companion piece to Andrew Earles 2010 Husker Du biography (for which Mould declined to be interviewed, in anticipation of his own book), detailing Mould’s view of the band’s acrimonious history, and moving further into his time with Sugar, his solo career and his life as a gay man. It’s a fascinating, unflinching, sometimes brutal portrait of a self-made artist, and it’s one of the best and most inspiring I’ve read.

Those selections, by the way – all purchased and read digitally. The revolution is here, and it will not be televised. It will be downloaded.

Willworld

Which is not to say I’m all ones and zeroes here – quite the opposite. I’m a biblio-junkie with a bad habit. Two weeks ago, I read WE3 by Morrison and Quitely, Green Lantern Willworld by DeMatteis and the late, great Seth Fisher (buy all of his work – ALL OF IT), and when my wife is done with it, our pal Mike Dawson’s Troop 142 is in the pile. Last weekend, I was at Small Press Expo and went on such an insane buying binge that I’m not even sure what I bought. I know I had Jennifer Hayden sign a copy of her new book Underwire, and I picked up Eddie Campbell’s Alec (both from Top Shelf), got a few Roger Langridge’s books, and went on a blind spree at Fantagraphics with Four Color Fear, an Alex Toth collection, some books by Jordan Crane and an impulsively bought Jacques Tardi book because CBLDF’s Alex Cox told me I needed it. That’s the first bag of three.

What am I reading? Everything, apparently.

Brutal

Publishing| Joe Keatinge and Frank Cho have signed a three-book deal with Delcourt, a comics publisher in France. The first book of theirs Delcourt will publish will be the first volume of Brutal, which will debut at the Festival International de la Bande Dessinée d’Angouleme 2013. Delcourt publishes many American comics in France, including Walking Dead, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Invincible, Rocketeer, Hellboy, The Goon, Haunt and many more, as well as many manga titles.

“On a personal level, French comics have had a huge influence on me. Working within that industry is something I’ve wanted to do for as long as I wanted a career in comics at all. Being an author with a book debuting at Angouleme is a goal I thought was many a year away, so this has taken things to a whole new level much sooner than anticipated. While I do plan on going back in 2012, this still gives me a year to work on my awful command of the language before I have to do a signing. Being in the good hands of Delcourt makes me think it’s a good start,” Keatinge said. [Joe Keatinge]

Comics by comiXology

Digital | comiXology rolled out 100 online storefronts as a part of their affiliate program for online comics shops. Heidi MacDonald has commentary on the contract between retailers and comiXology, while retailer Brian Hibbs shows up in the comments section on her site: “…speaking only for myself, I could not possibly sign the offered contract. It is, in my personal opinion, a shit sandwich, embarrassingly one-sided and unreasonable in virtually every particular.” [press release]

Pricing | Von Allan looks at the costs of comics over the years as compared to minimum wage. John Jackson Miller offers commentary. [Von Allan Studios, The Comichron]

Publishing | James Sturm recounts his quest to get a cartoon published in The New Yorker and posts a number of his cartoons, along with the editor’s critiques. At least he had a nice lunch. [Slate]

Digital | Robot 6 contributor Graeme McMillan questions Marvel’s statement that it is the No. 1 digital publisher: Given that sales information is not shared widely within the industry, how would they know? [Blog@Newsarama]

Comics | David Brothers looks at how Frank Miller “built a better Batman” by, among other things, focusing on his mom: “Frank Miller and Jim Lee’s All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder is a shining spot in the catalog of Batman comics because Martha gets all the attention, barring a mention of The Mark of Zorro being Thomas’s favorite movie. For once, Thomas is on the sidelines. This a notable and surprising shift in focus in the discussion of Batman’s origins, and one that I missed on the first read. Thomas Wayne is the steel in Bruce Wayne’s spine, the will that lets him stand up tall when battling the Joker. Martha, however, is the hope inside the Batman, the little voice that elevates him above the Punisher (driven by anger) or Spider-Man (driven by guilt). Yes, his quest is one of revenge against the nebulous idea of crime, but at the same time, he’s genuinely trying to protect others from his bogeyman. He doesn’t want other children or people to go through what he went through. There’s an altruistic element there, wrapped in a seriously personal, and possibly even selfish, crusade.” [ComicsAlliance]

Conventions | Heidi MacDonald and Ed Sizemore report on their experiences at last weekend’s Baltimore Comic-Con. Heidi also shares pictures from the con. [The Beat, Comics Worth Reading]

Creators | Joshua Hale Fialkov discusses how he got involved in DC’s New 52, as well as his work on I, Vampire and Echoes. [TFAW]

Forming

Creators | Cartoonist and animator Jesse Moynihan discusses his webcomic Forming. [The Daily Texan]

Creators | Webcomics creator Kevin Church about the process of writing: “I hate plotting longer form things. With most projects that are finite, I just know how they end and I try to get to that point by any means necessary, winging it a bit, but I’ve found that I lose a bit of an edge if I’m not being panicky and trying to connect the dots. I recently came across the first plot synopsis of She Died In Terrebonne and it’s not nearly as engaging on any kind of emotional level. This thing I’m working on now with the new artist (who I won’t name until we’ve actually got something in the can) is more ambitious than anything I’ve done, so I’ve worked out a lot of character beats and motivations in advance.” [eat the funny pages]

Comics | Carol Burrell, editor of Lerner’s Graphic Universe series and creator of the SPQR Blues webcomic, discusses page composition, panel flow, and thumbnails, using examples from Jaime Hernandez’s “Flies on the Ceiling” and James Sturm and Rich Tommaso’s Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow. [Graphic Universe Blog]

DC Comics

Retailers | Web Behrens talks to several Chicago-area retailers about DC’s upcoming relaunch: “DC sales have been dwindling for years. There are enough new, potentially good books coming out that a lot of customers, angry or not, are still going to buy more DC titles than they do presently,” said Eric Thornton, manager of Chicago Comics. [Time Out Chicago]

Manga | Deb Aoki reviews five manga she found on the new JManga.com digital manga portal, including Star Protector Dog (out soon in print from NBM) and Ekiben Hitoritabi, a manga about a man who travels around the country in order to experience the bento lunches sold in train stations. [About.com]

Manga | Jason Thompson looks at a classic gender-bender series, After School Nightmare (which was nominated for an Eisner award). [Anime News Network]

Comics | Scholar Qiana Whitted looks at comics about blues singers. [The Hooded Utilitarian]

Comics | Sean recently posted the news that Sparkplug Comics publisher Dylan Williams is in poor health, and he and others are urging people to buy some Sparkplug books to help Williams out financially. To help you choose, Brian Heater polls some prominent editors and creators on their favorite Sparkplug comics and Craig Fischer links to some reviews. [The Daily Cross Hatch, The Panelists]

Robert Crumb

Creators | Robert Crumb has decided not to attend Graphic 2011, an arts festival scheduled for Aug. 20-21 at the Sydney Opera House in Australia. Crumb told The Australian he withdrew from his headline appearance because of an article in the Australian newspaper The Telegraph that called him “a self-confessed sex pervert.”

“It’s a very, very disappointing situation,” Graphic co-curator Jordan Verzar wrote on the show’s Facebook page. “There were a legion of people eagerly anticipating his visit and the Graphic team and Sydney Opera House had been working for months to pull together the shows he was involved with and to supply an enjoyable first visit to Australia for him. I sincerely doubt that he will ever make it to Australia now. It’s a very sad day, but I’m still excited and looking forward to the rest of the great shows happening at Graphic next weekend.” [The Australian]

Retailers | Birmingham, England comics shop Nostalgia and Comics was damaged during the riots of the past few days; no one was injured, but the windows were broken. [The Forbidden Planet blog]

Comic strips | For Better or For Worse creator Lynn Johnston has posted her entire foreword for Fantagraphics’ The Complete Peanuts (1981-1982) on her site. [For Better or For Worse, via Flog]

Creators | Batman annotator David Uzumeri interviews Grant Morrison about, well, Batman, as well as Action Comics, Multiversity and more. [ComicsAlliance]

"Saga," from Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

Creators | Nathan Wilson interviews Fiona Staples, one of the creators who was name-checked a lot during last week’s women-in-DC-comics discussions. Don’t get your hopes up, though: Staples would rather be drawing horror comics. “You’re limited by a lot of things when dealing with superheroes. There are constraints from the fans, the publishers, and the companies who own the characters. There are the decades of history that bind the characters. It’s possible to be innovative with them, but it’s a struggle.” [Graphic Novel Reporter]

Creators | In a pair of interviews, J.H. Williams III discusses his career and the long-anticipated debut of Batwoman: “I’ve always handled female characters, dating back to my time as co-creator on Chase, then Promethea, and then Desolation Jones, to show how strong they are.  I’m not interested in drawing sexy vixens, but rather realistic women.  I find this much more attractive and beautiful.  This allows them to be fully formed characters, and not just fantasy objects.  It allows you to get involved with them.” [ComicsBlog, Multiversity]

Creators | We all know about musicians who make comics; Josh Flanagan takes a look at comics creators who make music, from Scott Pilgrim creator Bryan Lee O’Malley to Joe Quesada (seen filling in on guitar with Kirby Krackle). Rock on! [iFanboy]

Crawl to Me #1

Creators | Alex Dueben talks with Alan Robert about Crawl to Me, his new horror miniseries from IDW Publishing. [Suicide Girls]

Creators | Steve Bennett takes a look back at Carleton Waugh and his comic strip Hank, the story of a serviceman returning to civilian life after World War II: “Hank had also lost a leg in the war and he just one of a number of wounded servicemen being targeted by a group of leftover isolationists to ferment discontent and spread racist, anti-Semitic propaganda. The politics were extremely progressive and according to Waugh the strip was ‘a deliberate attempt to work in the field of social usefulness’.” From an artistic point of view, Waugh did some interesting experimentation with lettering, but alas, most of the strips have disappeared. [Super I.T.C.H.]

Commentary | Call this “Caleb reads the comments so you don’t have to”: Robot 6 contributor J. Caleb Mozzocco provides a quick roundup, with links, at the big comics controversies of the past week or so, in case you were too busy living your own life to follow them closely. [Every Day Is Like Wednesday]

Reviews | Rob Clough reviews Jason’s Isle of 100,000 Graves. [The Comics Journal]

Reviews | Richard Bruton dives into the latest Alan Moore opus, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen—Century 1969. [The Forbidden Planet blog]

Craft | Gerry Giovinco meditates on how hard it actually was to draw a straight line (let alone a curved one) before we had computers to do it for us. [CO2 Comics]

Amazing Spider-Man #666

Today our special guest is the recently married Akira the Don, a musician and artist whose latest album, The Life Equation, can be heard on his website.

To see what Akira the Don and the Robot 6 crew are reading, click below.

*****

Michael May

Alpha Flight #2

I finally caught up with Alpha Flight #2 this week with the return of Puck. I like the way he’s a little unhinged after his time in Hell with Wolverine. He should be unhinged after that. But he’s also still very much Puck, and I appreciate that even more. In the Unity Party, Van Lente and Pak have created a group of villains that I’m learning to hate with relish. They’re not as overtly cool as, say, the Master, but they hit where it hurts most,and I’m looking forward to their comeuppance.

I also read Mystery Men #3 and though I’m not souring on the project, I’m not as excited as I was after the first issue. It keeps introducing new characters to join the team and while they’re interesting, there are already so many of them that no one’s getting the attention they deserve. Hopefully we’re done adding members now and the next couple of issues will let us get to know them better and tie everything together.

As I read The Vault #1, it felt very much like an adaptation of a movie that hasn’t been made yet. There’s a diverse cast of characters in a tense setting and a cool reveal of the high concept on the last page, but the story that ties it all together feels clipped. Like it’s just hitting the high points from a movie script without taking the time to get me invested in any of the characters. Now that I know that it’s already being developed as a movie, that all makes sense. It very much reads like a comic that was created specifically to pitch a film, even if it’s not. I think I’ll wait to see the rest of it in that format.

Ending the week on a high note though, I read Cole Haddon and MS Corley’s The Strange Case of Mr. Hyde #1. It’s like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen except I don’t need annotations to feel like I’m getting the whole story. Haddon includes some cool cameos in the script (Hello, Dr. Moreau!)  and Corley’s artwork is even sort of reminiscent of Kevin O’Neill. A different way to sum it up – Hollywood style – is Silence of the Lambs meets From Hell with Jack the Ripper as Buffalo Bill and Mr. Hyde’s taking the place of Hannibal Lector. That description captures none of the charm and action of the finished comic though. Inspector Thomas Adye is a serious young man, but there’s some very subdued humor in his weariness and that makes him likable. Haddon and Corley also know how to present a creepy Ripper and lay out a mean Underground chase sequence. I’m very excited to catch up on the rest of the series this week.

Brigid Alverson

Black Jack

Vertical puts out a new volume of Black Jack every two months, so you can count on that being on my stack every two months as well. Volume 15 is a little odd. The first story mixes violence and sentimentality in almost equal measures as thugs torture Black Jack to find out where his money is stashed, and it turns out that (spoiler alert!) he spent it on an island tomb for a dear friend. Another story sermonizes about the evils of plastic surgery. Still, the stories are entertaining and you can’t beat Black Jack for some good summer pulp.

Still in the manga realm, I got an advance look at one of Kodansha’s new series debuting in August: Cage of Eden is a sort of cross between Lord of the Flies and Jurassic Park; a planeload of teenagers crashes on a remote island filled with prehistoric creatures—some large and bloodthirsty, some small and cute. Ordinary guy Akira, his brainy friend Mariya (whose laptop, thankfully, survives the crash—it’s the manga equivalent of Piggy’s spectacles), and perpetually bewildered but well-endowed flight attendant Kanako are somehow ejected from the plane, and they learn of their companions’ fate from a video left in a video camera. With prehistoric-animal violence, a weird mystery, and plenty of fanservice, it’s manga doing what manga does best.

In complete contrast to this, Allen Say’s Drawing from Memory is a lovely, quiet, beautifully drawn memoir of a boy who wanted to draw manga. It’s a picture book for older readers, filled with sketches, photographs, and illustrations of the people in Say’s life. This is not a shonen manga—there is no noble struggle, no shaking of fists and vows to be the best manga-ka ever—just the story of a lonely boy who was more or less abandoned by his parents and taken in as a student by a kindly older man who just happened to be drawing one of the most popular manga in Japan at the time (1950). It’s an unusual book and presents a very different view of the manga industry than what we are accustomed to seeing.

Tim O’Shea

Team Cul de Sac

Favorites: The Team Cul de Sac Fanzine/benefit book is an impressive collection (edited by my pal, blogger/scholar Craig Fischer [http://thepanelists.org/]). Don’t ask me to pick my favorite essay, the fanboy in me digs Ben Towle’s dissection of Archie Goodwin/Walt Simonson’s Manhunter; the critic in me was shocked to discover that both Noah Berlatsky and I share an appreciation for Jim Aparo; and there’s a tie (between Ana Merino and Sean Kleefeld) for the most engaging personal essays about people impacted by reading comics. It’s a hell of a 40-page read for a damn fine cause. As detailed at the website: “The cost is $5.00 plus $1.25 shipping and handling. (All the money that isn’t spent on envelopes and postage will go to Team Cul de Sac, and research into a cure for Parkinson’s disease.)” And any Richard Thompson fan will love the cover.

Superman #714: Sigh. As much as Chris Roberson salvaged a crappy JMS storyline and made it a delightful read, I hate hate hate that this storyline was the sendoff to the current incarnation of Superman. I would have enjoyed seeing what Roberson might explore with the whole “Supermen of America” network (which included several superwomen, despite the name). I have to say the plot resolution for Grounded had a Silver Age vibe to it–not sure if that is thanks to Roberson or JMS, but I did get a slight pleasure from that. Sadly I do not think Grounded will be looked back with fondness in the way many of us view 1986′s Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?

Hulk #38: Jeff Parker is one sneaky bastard as he actually has figured out a way to write a new improved M.O.D.O.K. that wields as much wit as he has power–and possibly (God help us, introduce an opportunity for a love life. I’m not really digging this whole Fear Itself event, but I do appreciate the ability of some creators (like Parker) to build engaging tales out of the ruins of this event. Fellow Hulk fans, has Annie always called Red Hulk “Thad” or is this an acknowledgment of increasing affection on the LMD’s part?

Snarked #0: Roger Langridge is the best creator producing All Ages comics. This special issue is a bargain at $1.00. Rather than sound like a stuck record, go back and read the intro to my Langridge interview to see how highly I regard this new creator-owned project.

Akira the Don

Wide World of Marvel

Mighty World Of Marvel

I was pulled back into the Marvel Universe after a multi-year post -Civil War hiatus by one of these ill-ass Panini collections us Britishers can pick up in newsagents. I’d woken up on the floor of a strange house in Brixton the day after my bachelor party and had a 70 minute bus ride back to Olympic East London with the Godfather of all hangovers and a borked back (I had inexplicably decided I had superpowers and thrown myself down a flight of stairs on the way out of whatever club we’d ended up at the previous night), so I needed something engrossing to take my mind of the almighty pain and shame that clung to my personage like bricks. I fell into a newsagent, pulled myself up on my elbows and was faced with the leering face of Norman Osborne in an Iron Man suit clutching A COSMIC CUBE with shapeshifting asshole Hank Pym in it.

“Woah,” I said, softly. I apologised to the newsagent, bought the comic, and hauled my sorry carcass onto the top of a double decker, where my world of pain became a world of joy, as I fell back into a familiar world of espionage and lunacy told across 76 beautiful pages of ridiculous fights involving seventeen weirdoes in tights swapping bad jokes and punching the crap out of each other.

Stuff was much as I remembered it, except the bad guys seem to be running the world which seems to me to be at once a way more realistic and way more fun state for a superhero universe to be in. And that was it. I thought I was out, but they’d pulled me back in again…

Amazing Spider-Man #666

Now, a few months later, I am reading flipping Spider-Man for the first time in a decade, and it seems to be in better shape than its been since JM DeMatteis and Sal Buscema were killing off the Vulture and I was waiting for my balls to sprout hair. It is SO FLIPPING FUN. Peter Parker is young again, spending seemingly 24 hours a day swinging around Manhattan being flipping Spider-Man, rather than mooning about over his wife or whatever it was that bored me to the point of not reading it anymore a decade or so ago. He’s in the Fantastic Four. He’s in the Avengers (who sit around being seedy and playing cards). He says things like, “But first things first. A quick adjustment to my unstable molecule suit”, and does actual science.

Spider-world is a great big maniacal smorgasbord of action and intrigue. Some unspeakable supervillianous fakery means that bedbugs are giving people spider powers, and Manhattan is crawling with souped-up web spinners. Meanwhile sometime spider-boo Betty Brant is a self proclaimed “one woman newsblog” blogging from hospital much to the chagrin of her boyfriend FLASH FLIPPING THOMPSON who protests, “Betts! You were targeted by the Crime meter! Strapped to a bomb! And the recent victim of a violent assault!” FLASH FLIPPING THOMPSON meanwhile is flipping VENOM, doing sneaky superviolent CIA type shit for the government. Sweet baby jesus on a hoverboard, it is nuts in Spiderland! Beautifully drawn, deceptively simple but cleverly interwoven nuts that never feels cluttered, or confusing, or anything other than delirious FUN. Damn! I thought I was out…

Cerebus: Guys

Cerebus passed me by in the, um, past, apart from when he turned up in Spawn that one time, but last year one of my reader listeners started sending me the phone books every few months, and I got hooked instantly, and am now over half way through the thing.

What a ride it’s been! From Conan parody to the meaning of life and the birth of the universe, via some of the most gripping character envelopment and the greatest speech bubbles in comics history. It even stopped being a comic a few phone books back and turned into a great big angry patience-testing lady-lambasting wah-fest presumably inspired by the writer’s divorce, or something, but in Guys it is back on track, and a comic once more, exploring with documentary-detail and almost clinical attentiveness the nature of the Male in one of his natural habitats: the pub. Indeed, 407 pages of dudes sat around in a pub drinking and thinking and occasionally falling of bar stools might not sound like the most riveting thing in the world, yet somehow it is. It is sad, sweet, ugly, beautiful and unflinchingly raw meditation on the triumph and tragedy of the conditioned human male. With some jaw-droppingly amazing speech bubbles.

Batman and Robin Must Die

Batman and Robin Must Die

I just got back off of honeymoon, which myself and my new wife spent on a tiny Greek island, frolicking in the surf and reading Grant Morrison’s Batman and Robin run in its glorious entirety in the hotel pool on a lilo. I’d been Waiting For The Trade on the thing since the third issue… the month plus wait for a new issue was was proving too painful and distracting, so I hung a poster of the first issue’s cover on the wall above my twin monitors as a sort of inspirational sigil and left it alone for a year, in which time I made five mixtapes and completed my second album, knowing my reward was imminent.

And what a reward. It looks better than any superhero comics in recent memory, From Frank Quitely’s scratch scratchy all action carnie-ballet at the start to Frazer Irving’s Warhol-With-Photoshop Korean horror movie climax. And it reads like some all consuming Hitchcockian revenge fantasy, the story deepening and spiraling further with every page turn, a thrashing multi-layered abyss-dream with so many OH FUCK moments I had jaw ache by the end of the thing. I read it three times over in a week and if I were still out there on that fucking paradise island I would probably still be reading it, and still finding new things to go OH FUCK at.

My only complaint is the brevity of Tim and Damian’s tenure before Pappa Bruce swashbuckles back into the picture. I could have had years of those two finding their way, but never mind. By the time I’ve finished another fistful of mixtures and my third album, the Multiversity will have explained away the DC Universe Reboot, or whatever they’re calling it, and there’ll be three trades worth of Batman Inc stories for me to enjoy on a lilo on some tropical island I’ve bought with the proceeds of my second album. I better switch the poster above my desk…

Axl Rose

Earlier this summer indie rock band Art Brut released a comic book that had Bryan Lee O’Malley, Hope Larson, Jeff Lemire, Jeffrey Brown and several others creating comics based on tracks from Art Brut’s Brilliant Tragic! album. (The band’s lead singer, Eddie Argos, is a big comic book fan, and even writes a column on them).

Artist and musician Akira the Don, whose new album The Life Equation can be heard on his blog and opens with a speech by Grant Morrison, created a comic for the song “Axl Rose.” Naturally, it features the Guns N’Roses front man leaping out of a kid’s poster to ride a motorcycle and flip off the world. The Don has posted it on his website, so you can go check it out for yourself.

If you’ve been following the media on Spider-Man:Turn Off the Dark, then no doubt you’ve already heard “Rise Above,” the song written by Bono and the Edge for the multimillion-dollar musical. If not, the producers have you covered, as they’ve released a video of the song featuring the two U2 members and Reeve Carney, who plays the webslinger on Broadway. The video shows rehearsals as well as a few on-stage clips, but probably not nearly enough Spider-Man. Watch it above and see.

Via Vulture