Peter Bagge
Food or Comics? | This week’s comics on a budget
Kirby: Genesis
Welcome to Food or Comics?, where every week we talk about what comics we’d buy on Wednesday based on certain spending limits — $15 and $30 — as well as what we’d get if we had extra money or a gift card to spend on a “Splurge” item.
Check out Diamond’s release list or ComicList, and tell us what you’re getting.
Chris Arrant
If I had $15 this week, I’d start it off by buying Kirby Genesis #0 (Dynamite, $1); I love the idea of world-building from older characters, and Jack Kirby left a treasure trove of ideas even he couldn’t get a handle on completely. I’m interested to see where Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross take this, and I hope with Busiek’s addition it can be more tantalizing than Project: Superpowers was. Second up, I would get the penultimate Secret Warriors #27 (Marvel, $2.99); when this series started I was an ardent reader, but it lost me along the way. For some work-related research I caught up with the series, and since the last Howling Commandos story it’s been going great; I hope Hickman can stick the landing. Third I would get Vertigo’s new anthology Strange Adventures #1 (DC/Vertigo, $7.99); a pricey experiment, but I’m in the mood to get blown away. Lastly would be FF #4 (Marvel, $2.99) – I’m really enjoying what Hickman and Epting have done in the new simply titled series.
Comics A.M. | Strong debut for Fear Itself; is Borders doomed?
Fear Itself #1
Publishing | Marvel’s Fear Itself #1 topped Diamond Comic Distributors’ April charts with an estimated 128,595 copies, the highest monthly sales for a comic since X-Men #1 surpassed 140,000 copies nine months ago. Retail news and analysis site ICv2 sees the strong debut of that crossover and the performance of DC’s Flashpoint prequels as signs “that this summer’s big events may be able to reverse the downward sales trend in the first quarter of 2011.”
DC’s Fables, Vol. 15: Rose Red led the graphic novel category with about 11,600 copies, followed distantly by Dynamite’s The Boys, Vol. 8: Highland Laddie. [ICv2.com]
Retailing | The bankrupt Borders Group reportedly has been unable to find a buyer for its entire business, which could signal the end of the second-largest book chain in the United States. The company filed for bankruptcy protection in February, and is closing about one-third of its locations. [Detroit Free Press]
What Are You Reading?
The Essential Doctor Strange Vol. 3
Welcome once again to What Are You Reading? Today our special guest is John Jackson Miller, writer of Star Wars: Knight Errant and Mass Effect comics for Dark Horse and various Star Wars prose novels. He’s also the curator of The Comics Chronicles research website. His next comics series, Star Wars: Knight Errant, Deluge, starts in August.
To see what John and the Robot 6 crew are reading, click below.
What Are You Reading?
Yeah!
Welcome to What Are You Reading? Our guest today is Leslie Stein, creator of Eye of the Majestic Creature, a collection of semi-autobiographical and fantasy-based comics published by Fantagraphics.
To see what Leslie and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below.
Food or Comics? | This week’s comics on a budget
Bakuman Vol. 4
Welcome to Food or Comics?, where every week we talk about what comics we’d buy on Wednesday based on certain spending limits — $15 and $30 — as well as what we’d get if we had extra money or a gift card to spend on a “Splurge” item.
Check out Diamond’s release list or ComicList if you’d like to play along in our comments section.
Chris Mautner
If I had $15:
I have a couple of options here. The new issue of The Boys is out ($3.99), as is Vol. 4 of Bakuman ($9.99) and both are currently on my “must-buy” list. But then there’s I Will Bite You ($14), a new collection of comics by Joseph Lambert, courtesy of Secret Acres. I’ve enjoyed the few mini-comics by Lambert that I’ve read, enough to at least consider putting my other purchases aside in order to get this book instead. There’s also what I believe to be the final issue of Alan Moore’s Dodgem Logic ($8), which I’d likely ask my retailer to put aside for me for a week when the pickings were slimmer.
Food or Comics? | This week’s comics on a budget
House of Mystery Halloween Annual #2
If it’s Tuesday, it must be time for Food or Comics?, where every week some of the Robot 6 crew talk about what comics we’d buy if we were subject to certain spending limits — $15 and $30, as well as if we had extra money to spend on what we call our “Splurge” item. Check out Diamond’s release list to see what arrives in comic shops this week,then play along in our comments section.
JK Parkin
If I had $15 to spend:
Strange Tales 2 #1 ($4.99)
House of Mystery Halloween Annual #2 ($4.99)
Two $5 anthologies that should be well worth the asking price. Strange Tales II, the sequel to Marvel’s indie cartoonist anthology from last year, features new stories by Rafael Grampa, Kate Beaton, Frank Santoro, Dash Shaw, Jeff Lemire, Kevin Huizenga, Jhonen Vasquez and many more. House of Mystery Halloween Annual #2, meanwhile, features stories by folks like Mike Kaluta, Jill Thompson, Chris Roberson, Mike Allred, Matthew Sturges and Peter Milligan. Most notably, it has a new “Lucifer” story by Mike Carey and Peter Gross, which is the big draw for me personally.
Update: I received an advanced copy of this in the mail tonight, and saw that the Madame Xanadu story isn’t actually by Mike Kaluta and Jill Thompson, as was noted in the above-linked CBR story. No, the Madame Xanadu story is actually by Matt Wagner and Brandon Graham. And it is pretty awesome.
SDCC ’10 | Highlights of Saturday’s comics programming
Comic-Con International
Like clockwork, Comic-Con organizers have released the schedule for the third day of the convention, Saturday, July 24.
Below you’ll find highlights of the comics-related programming, ranging from movie panels for Warner Bros.’ Green Lantern and Marvel’s Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger to Joe Quesada’s traditional “Cup O’ Joe” and “Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 6: Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour vs. The Fans.”
The full programming schedule for Saturday can be found here.
10 to 11 a.m. Spotlight on Carla Speed McNeil — Comic-Con special guest Carla Speed McNeil is best known for her creator-owned title Finder. A few years back, Carla took new stories of Finder to the Internet, and the result was an Eisner Award for best webcomic of 2008 and a new series of reprints from Dark Horse. Carla talks about her work and what’s next in this Spotlight panel. Room 3
10 to 11 a.m. The Black Panel 2010 — This year’s Black Panel will be one for the ages. The focus will be on empowerment, education, real-world networking, and finally but never last, fun. The panelists include entertainment attorney Darrel Miller, novelist Nnedi Okorafor, artist Denys Cowan and writer/producer/director Reggie Hudlin, with moderator Michael Davis. Once they answer life’s burning questions, they’ll chill with a salute and Q&A from the audience with actor/writer/director Bill Duke. As always, surprise guests who will rock your world. Room 5AB
10 to 11 a.m. Marvel Comics Writers Unite! — The third in Comic-Con’s series of “Year of the Writer/Comics Writers Unite!” panels focuses on Marvel Comics and includes Comic-Con special guests Brian Michael Bendis (Avengers, New Avengers, Ultimate Spider-Man), Matt Fraction (Invincible Iron Man, Thor) and Chris Claremont (X-Men Forever, X-Women) in a discussion with writer Mark Waid (Amazing Spider-Man, Irredeemable). Room 6DE
Comics Cavalcade | Turtles, pandas and Peter Bagge
Every day people post comics on the Internet. Here are a few that caught our eyes.
Nevermind The Bollocks, Here’s a Comic! by Nomi Kane
Your video of the day: Fallout trailer
Did someone tell me that the English producer/director Tupaq Felber is attempting to do a six-part adaptation of Peter Bagge’s Apocalypse Nerd for the BBC and I just conveniently forgot? Egad, I hope not. At any rate, above is the teaser trailer Felber put together. Hopefully the BBC will pick it up tout suite and BBC America (or some other Brit-loving American channel) will bring it stateside soon. (via)
Your video of the day: ‘Buddy Bradley,’ the song
Adam Green (formerly of The Moldy Peaches) sings an ode to Peter Bagge’s surly hipster. I was wondering when someone would do that. (via)
Vertigo previews Daytripper, Other Lives
Other Lives
It’s a good day for previews over at the official Vertigo blog, Graphic Content. Pamela Mullins has posted some pages from Peter Bagge’s Other Lives, which is due from the publisher next year. She also shares more preview pages from Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon’s Daytripper, which comes out in December. And lastly, check out the cover to Joe the Barbarian #2.
Comics Cavalcade: Ayn Rand and Wonder Woman
Will Everyone Please Stop Freaking Out Over Ayn Rand by Peter Bagge
Your video of the day: Backroom talks Bagge
Or rather, the comics podcast The Backroom talks to Peter Bagge in the first of this two-part interview. (found via Flog)
Peter Bagge’s Bradleys are heading for FOX
Move over, American Dad
Could Buddy Bradley be the next Bart Simpson? That’s the tantalizing possibility presented by Fantagraphics’ Eric Reynolds today, as he revealed that writer/artist Peter Bagge has signed a deal with the FOX network to produce a pilot for a potential prime-time animated series based on the Bradleys, the less-than-functional family at the heart of Bagge’s series Neat Stuff and Hate. The show would reportedly focus on Buddy’s teen years at home.
This caps off a rather high-profile few months for Bagge (ahem, Professor Bagge) , a period that has seen the release of his political-strip collection Everybody Is Stupid Except for Me from Fantagraphics and his long-suppressed Incorrigible Hulk story in Marvel’s Strange Tales anthology. No word yet on whether he plans to have Mrs. Bradley pose for Playboy.
Robot reviews: Everybody Is Stupid Except for Me
Everybody Is Stupid Except Me
Everybody Is Stupid Except for Me and Other Astute Observations
by Peter Bagge
Fantagraphics Books, 120 pages, $16.99.
Peter Bagge’s seminal work in the 1980s and 90s (Hate, Neat Stuff) always featured characters going off on extended rants about one subject or another, so it’s no real surprise to find that the author has managed to transition himself into something of a reporter/editorial pundit.
Nor is it any real surprise that the pieces collected in awesomely-named Everyone Is Stupid Except for Me — all of which were done for Reason magazine over the past nine years or so — are wonderfully entertaining and often fall-on-the-floor funny, even when you find yourself at odds with Bagge’s viewpoint.
