Comic Book Resources

Road to San Diego: Talking to Neil Kleid

The Big Kahn

I thought it might be fun to check in with a few people who are heading to the San Diego Comic-Con next week to see what they have planned for the big show, then follow up with them afterward to see how everything went -- provided they make it out unscathed.

Up first is comic writer Neil Kleid, who used to blog with us in a previous life. Kleid writes Action, Ohio, a webcomic hosted at the Shadowline website. He's also written Brownsville, Ursa Minors and Ninety Candles, and has contributed to Tales from the Crypt, Comic Book Tattoo, X-Men Unlimited and the Postcards anthology. His new book, The Big Kahn, will be published by NBM later this month.

JK: So before we get into the con, you have a book coming out this month, correct? Tell us a little bit about it.

Neil Kleid: I have two, in fact — the first drops next Wednesday and it's an eight page horror story in Dark Horse's new Creepy Comics #1, the resurrection of the old Warren anthology. My story, "All the Help You Need," is illustrated by Brian Churilla and takes a unique look at weight loss camps -- mirroring my growing concern about my growing midsection, perhaps.The book is 48 pages and $4.99. Considering most comics these days, at 22 pages or so, are pricing in around $3.99, it's a great value for quality horror/suspense by quality creators. It's my first work for Dark Horse, so I'm fairly excited about it, and hopefully not my last.

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SDCC '09 | NBM, Disney and more

The 2009 San Diego Comic-Con kicks off in two weeks. If you are a publisher, creator, retailer or any other kind of exhibitor who would like to let folks know about any special plans you have for the show (panels, signing schedules, exclusives, debuts, etc.) drop me an email and I'll run it here.

Registered Weapon

Webcomics | Gardner Linn, one of the creators behind Registered Weapon, sent word that the first print collection of "the webcomic about a crime-fighting robot who used to be a cash register" will premiere at San Diego, "guerrilla style."

"Booths will soon be an outmoded concept in the every-man-for-himself comics industry of the future (just like paper and paying for things), so writers Gardner Linn and Chris Thorn will be hitting the show guerrilla-style, passing out copies to anybody who wants one (and even more people who don't)," he writes. "And keep coming back to http://registered-weapon.com for more info as the con approaches, and new comics four times a week."

BTW, I really dig this webcomic; go check it out if you're looking for off-the-wall laughs.

Comics | NBM has released their booth signing schedule, which includes appearances by Lewis Trondheim, Neil Kleid, Rick Geary and more. Kleid's new book, The Big Kahn, will debut at the show.

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Robot reviews: Clearing off the pile

A Mess of Everything

Like the subject line suggests, my review pile has become alarmingly tall and precarious over the past few weeks, so I'm going to try a few lightning-round reviews of books that were at the bottom so the whole thing doesn't come crashing down on me over the weekend. I'll probably end up doing another of these next week. Anyway:

A Mess of Everything
by Miss Lasko-Gross
Fantagraphics Books, $19.99.

A Mess of Everything, the second in Lasko-Gross' planned autobio trilogy, is a much better and more confident book than her first entry, Escape from 'Special'. Part of that is because she displays a bit more subtlety and balance in her portrayal of her teen-age years than she did in showcasing her insecure childhood. In particular, she shows how her alienation and hormonal angst blinded her to other people's pain or sincere attempts at sympathy or help. A sequence involving a concerned teacher, for example, is spot on in showing how her self-pity keeps her from seeing how genuine the teacher's concern is.

The book also works because halfway through it narrows its focus on the author's relationship with her best friend, if anything a more troubled girl who is very likely suffering from an eating disorder. Everything suffers at times from  a "me, me, me, me" perspective that can occasionally prove claustrophobic, but in its portrayal of the importance and tenuous nature of teenage friendships, it glows with sharp recognition.

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Thin Wallets, Fat Bookshelves: A publishing news round-up

Strangers in Paradise Omnibus

* Remember that Strangers in Paradise Omnibus I mentioned awhile back? Apparently you can pre-order it now:

Abstract Studio is pre-selling this very limited definitive edition on line, before its debut at the San Diego Comic-Con. The complete SIP story is contained in two 1,100 page hardcovers with dust jackets and a bonus color cover gallery hardcover with dust jacket all in a gorgeous slipcase! This mammoth collection is only $159.95! Shipping in the continental US is $15.00 via FedEx but if you are attending the San Diego Comic-Con you can pre-purchase your copy and pick it up there! All other orders will be shipped the first week in August.

* Nonfiction prose publisher Hill and Wang announced they're going to expand their graphic novel offerings.

* Also from ICv2: "DMF and Bleach Studios will launch a series of comics based on the Storm Hawks animated series this summer." Apparently this is a show on the Cartoon Network? I never turn on my TV anymore.

* Missed it: NBM will publish The Big Kahn by Neil Kleid and Nicolas Cinquegrani this fall:

Rabbi David Kahn has lived a forty-year lie: he is not, nor has he ever been, Jewish. At his funeral, the “rabbi’s” grifter brother reveals the truth to Kahn’s family and his entire congregation. Author and Xeric Award winner Neil Kleid and artist Nicolas Cinquegrani explore a family secret that forces the nature of faith into question.

Everyone's A Critic: A round-up of comic reviews and thinkpieces

Power Girl

* Nina Stone can't get worked up enough to hate on Power Girl: "I guess I just don't see what is being oppressed here. Is there some strong feminine story that could be told if this character didn't have large breasts? What is it I'm missing?"

* Noah Berlatsky, meanwhile, wants to remind you that no one really cares about Power Girl anyway. If you have time, you should also check out Noah's savaging assessment of Jeffrey Brown's ouevre.

* Is Storm a racist character? Discuss.

* Writing for Reason magazine, Brian Doherty examines Harold Gray's classic comic strip Little Orphan Annie, with a particular eye to its political themes:

These first two volumes of the series, both of them pre–New Deal, are individualistic, but the anti-government mood is generally quietly suggestive, not obtrusive. The subtle politics are highly individualistic, promoting the virtues of the hard-working common man. The strip was suffused with Midwestern values (hard work and cheerfulness) and prejudices (pro-fisherman, anti-beard) and a very populist sense that it was who you were inside, not money or station, that mattered, and that “just plain folk—and plenty of ’em” were best.

* Both the Los Angeles Times and David Welsh praise Yoshihiro Tatsumi's A Drifting Life.

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What Are You Reading?

Thunderbolts

Welcome to What Are You Reading! Our special guest this week is Kirk Warren, the brains behind the great blog known as The Weekly Crisis and all-around nice guy.

Remember, we want to know what you've been reading this week as well, so feel free to let us know what comics, strips, graphic novels and other assorted sequential art you've been perusing in the comments section.

To find out what Kirk and the rest of the Robot 6 crew are currently reading, meanwhile, click on the link below:

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What Are You Reading?

Sam's Strip

Wow, has it been a week already? Welcome to another round of What Are You Reading. Our special guest this week is the mighty blogger, photographer and writer Kevin Church. To find out what he and the rest of the Robot 6 crew are currently reading, just click that little link below ...

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Robot reviews: Miss Don't Touch Me

Miss Don't Touch Me

Miss Don't Touch Me
by Hubert & Kerascoet
NBM, 96 pages, $14.95.

Miss Don't Touch Me is a fairly conventional sex/murder mystery thriller from France, which is interesting (at least from my perspective) since it's rendered in an art style that owes quite a bit to Joann Sfar, Dupuy & Bebarian and what I'll tentatively call the "new wave" of cartoonists that eschewed traditional genres (sci-fi, noir, etc.) in favor of more "personal" and experimental work.

But while the comic may use a modern style to tell a familiar story, that doesn't make it any way rote or dull. In fact, it's a pretty engaging, entertaining thriller that while it may not necessarily surprise, delights nevertheless.

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Robot reviews: These stories are totally true

American Elf Book Three

Ah, the autobiographical comic. Is there a genre more maligned and misunderstood. Apart from superhero comics I mean.

It's a genre that tends to get lumped together as "too much of the same thing," a criticism I really don't agree with. Two recent autobiographical diary comics -- Little Nothings: The Prisoner Syndrome by Lewis Trondheim and American Elf Book Three by James Kochalka --  for example are very similar in execution and style (both are diary comics) but very different in what they reveal and the ways they present themselves to the reader.

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Collect This Now! The Julius Acquefacques series

L'Origine

Welcome to Collect This Now, a weekly (or, if I’m hungover, semi-weekly) column where we look at good comics that for whatever reason have never been translated, archived or just collected into trade paperback.

It's a pretty good time to be an English-only Eurocomics fan. A number of great contemporary artists and cartoonists that have been reshaping the comic book landscape on the other side of the ocean are slowly but steadily having their work translated and released here. In the past few years we've seen great works by such folk as Lewis Trondheim, Dupuy and Berberian, Joann Sfar, David B. and many others available here thanks to the hard work of a number of small publishers.

There's one author (well, probably more than one, but I have to limit myself for now), however, whose absence seems rather gaping to my mind and that's Marc-Antoine Mathieu. More specifically, it's the series that' he's best known for: Julius Corentin Acquefacques, prisonnier des reves.

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Mijeong preview

Sample panel from 'Mijeong'

Johanna Draper Carlson has a 14-page sneak preview of NBM's upcoming Mijeong by Korean artist Byun Byung-Jun over at her Web site. The book will be released in April.

What are you reading?

Complete Peanuts, Vol. 10

Welcome to another weekly round of What Are You Reading, where we talk about what comics and books we're currently in the midst of perusing and hopefully get you to share your reading habits as well.

This week our special guest is none other than Richard Thompson, cartoonist extraordinaire and creator of the thoroughly delightful comic strip Cul de Sac, one of the best things to appear in a daily newspaper in years.

Click on the link to find out what we're reading ...

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NYCC | Art Spiegelman keynotes ICv2's Graphic Novel Conference

With the New York Comic Con coming up Feb. 6-8, we'll be collecting and posting information on the various things you can do and see while at the show. If you're a publisher, creator, retailer or otherwise exhibiting at the show, feel free to drop me an email with your booth schedule, any comics you might be debuting, giveaways or any other fun stuff you have planned for the show.

General information: Ticket info | Panels | Autographs | 2009 ICv2 Graphic Novel Conference | Blog

• ICv2 has announced details on the Graphic Novel Conference they host the Thursday before the convention, which will include a keynote address from Art Spiegelman and panels on topics like comics on the web, social networks and literary adaptations. Note that this conference isn't open to the general public, but "is open only to those who hold a Professional or Exhibitor Pass," the site says.

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Thin wallets, fat bookshelves: NBM's plans for early 2009

Miss Don't Touch Me

Before we begin today's run-down, a quick word on the dates listed below. I'm going by the catalog I received in the mail here, and not by the dates listed on the company's Web site. In other words, even though NBM says the next Trondheim book is coming out this month, I'm saying March, because that's what it says in their catalog. I apologize in advance if this screws anyone up.

Now with that out of the way, let's move on ...

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