NBM
NBM/Papercutz pick up Garfield license, new David B., more digital
The Garfield Show
NBM publisher Terry Nantier posted some news yesterday about his company’s upcoming publishing plans. Papercutz, NBM’s all-ages imprint, has picked up the rights to publish a Garfield comic book based on the Cartoon Network show — which, of course, is based on the comic strip of the same name.
He also mentioned some new projects and initiatives for NBM proper:
I can tell you we’ve got a new David B lined up where we’re going to take a quite different approach to how we present it than what we’ve been doing. Also the next Louvre book will look quite different! Basically, we’re seeing we don’t need to be married to the 6×9 format as much as we were so we’re going to open things up!
Also, we’re seeing a need for our books to reflect what we publish: beautiful quality comics you want to have physically and keep proudly in your library. For those who’d rather not spend so much, we’ll be multiplying our efforts on the E-book side.
- October 12, 2010 @ 09:52 AM by JK Parkin
NBM at SPX!
The Broadcast
Small Press Expo happens next weekend, and NBM is ready with a nice lineup of creators and book launches, including the debut of The Broadcast, Eric Hobbs and Noel Tuazon’s suspenseful graphic novel about a group of neighbors and strangers weathering the panic caused by Orson Welles’s War of the Worlds broadcast.
In addition, there will be appearances by Brooke Allen (A Home for Mr. Easter), Greg Houston (Elephant Man), and Ted Rall, “fresh back from Afghanistan, if he’s still alive,” according to the blog. Nice to know they care!
- September 3, 2010 @ 02:45 PM by Brigid Alverson
Interview: Linda Ackerman on Networked: Carabella on the Run
Carabella values her privacy
Carabella has blue skin, a Princess Leia hairstyle, and an attitude about posting her personal details online. That’s because she comes from a planet where social networking has gone from fun to mandatory, and no one has any personal privacy any more. So when a friend posts her picture online—and a group of Princess Leia look-alikes show up at her door—she freaks.
Carabella is the hero of Networked: Carabella on the Run, a graphic novel with a message: Think twice before putting your personal information online, whether on Facebook or your favorite shopping site. Produced by the nonprofit Privacy Activism, the book was written by Gerard Jones, illustrated by Mark Badger and funded by a grant from the Rose Foundation and published by NBM last month; it’s also available as a webcomic on the Privacy Activism website.
I spoke to Linda Ackerman, the staff counsel for Privacy Activism, at the American Library Association meeting in Washington, DC, in June.
Brigid: Why make this a graphic novel?
Linda: Our purpose has been to try to educate people about privacy issues, visually where possible. There is enough legalese around. We wanted to be able to communicate information about privacy in an accessible way.
- August 2, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
SDCC ’10 | Stuff to do on the convention floor
Comic-Con International
With all of next week’s Comic-Con International’s panels fully revealed, those of you who are attending are probably putting together your schedule as we speak … but don’t forget to factor in some of the cool stuff that’ll be going on on the floor. Here’s a list of stuff you can do and people you can meet at various booths, with no doubt more on the way:
• Dark Horse Comics will have Gabriel Ba, Fabio Moon, Morgan Spurlock, Stan Sakai, Mike Mignola, Noah Wyle, Moon Bloodgood, Eric Powell, Joss Whedon, Janet & Alex Evanovich, Felicia Day and more at their booth.
• IDW will host Berkeley Breathed, Peter Beagle, Scott Morse, Steven Niles, Fiona Staples and more at their booth. They’re also holding a Tiger Tea Party.
• BOOM! Studios also released their booth schedule, which features appearances by Mark Waid, Claudio Sanchez, Peter David and Tad Stones, who created Darkwing Duck.
• Fantagraphics has released their booth schedule, along with a list of new books that will debut at the show. These include new volumes of their Peanuts collections, a new Prison Pit book, several Ignatz titles and Moto Hagio’s A Drunken Dream and Other Stories.
- July 15, 2010 @ 11:30 AM by JK Parkin
Free sample: The Broadcast
A panel from The Broadcast
As I was looking through the items on display at the NBM booth at ALA, the cover of The Broadcast really caught my eye. Written by Eric Hobbs and Noel Tuazon, it’s a story about how one isolated community faced the panic started by Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds broadcast—not realizing it is a hoax, four famlies come together for safety but the enemy, as is so often the case in these stories, comes from within.
Hobbs has just posted a scene from the story at the NBM blog, and it makes for powerful reading. There’s a bit more here. I enjoyed Tuazon’s art in Red Plains, so I’m really looking forward to this one.
- July 2, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
What Are You Reading?
Scalped
With the school year ending and summer arriving faster than you know it, now’s the time to update your summer reading list — and there’s no better place to find some good stuff to read than right here in our weekly What Are You Reading? column. This week our guests are Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt, the creative team behind The Sixth Gun, published by Oni Press. You’ll be seeing a lot of Cullen and Brian over the next few weeks here at Robot 6, so here’s the perfect opportunity to find out what comics they’re into.
- May 16, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
I’m filling in for Kevin on our daily roundup of news items, so my apologies for the lateness and any dip in quality in today’s edition. –JK
Angouleme
Conventions | The 36th annual Angoulême International Comics Festival starts today in France, running through Jan. 31. NBM’s Terry Nantier is on the ground and blogging from it, while Bart Beaty has kicked off his usual thorough coverage at the Comics Reporter. [Angoulême International Comics Festival]
Legal | An Australian man has pleaded guilty to downloading “graphic cartoon porn images” featuring child characters from The Simpsons, The Powerpuff Girls and The Incredibles. Kurt James Milner, 28, was sentenced to 12 months in jail, but it was “wholly suspended” for five years.
“The 28-year-old is now a registered sex offender and will have to report to police after pleading guilty in Ipswich District Court to having the bizarre images on his computer,” the Queensland Times reports. [Queensland Times]
- January 28, 2010 @ 10:30 AM by JK Parkin
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.
- July 13, 2009 @ 09:22 AM by JK Parkin
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.
- July 9, 2009 @ 11:20 AM by JK Parkin
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.
- June 12, 2009 @ 12:07 PM by Chris Mautner
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.
- May 18, 2009 @ 02:25 PM by Chris Mautner
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.
- May 13, 2009 @ 09:45 AM by Chris Mautner
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:
- May 10, 2009 @ 02:00 PM by Chris Mautner
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 …
- March 29, 2009 @ 09:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Robot reviews: 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.
- March 19, 2009 @ 09:00 AM by Chris Mautner