Comic Book Resources

Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

Black Dossier

Libraries | The library board in Jessamine County, Kentucky, heard public comment last night about acquisition and borrowing policies and the recent firings of two employees who kept a copy of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier out of circulation. The hourlong meeting was marked by shouting, crying and the presentation of petitions, including one that called for the removal of two books and two DVDs -- Black Dossier among them -- from county library shelves. No action was taken by the board. [Lexington Herald-Leader]

Awards | A controversy emerged just a day before the National Book Awards ceremony as author/blogger Janice Harayda suggested that Kathi Appelt, a judge in the Young People''s category, should recuse herself because finalist David Small had illustrated her novel. In her response Appelt was cryptic, at best, saying that as committee deliberations are private, "I or any other judge might well have excused ourselves from voting on any particular book, if conflict of interest were an issue.” In the end, Small's celebrated graphic memoir Stiches didn't win last night; Phillip Hoose's Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice did. [ArtsBeat, Jacket Copy]

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Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

Weekly Astro Boy Magazine

Publishing | Tezuka Productions and D-Arc Inc. has launched Weekly Astro Boy Magazine, a service that delivers manga by Osamu Tezuka to iPhones and iPods in the United States. Announced last month, it's the first English-language manga service for mobile devices.

If I'm reading the site correctly, the premier "edition" of Weekly Astro Boy Magazine offers the first volume of Astro Boy for free. Subsequent volumes of that title, and other Tezuka classics like Phoenix, Dororo, Black Jack and Buddha, cost 99 cents each, and are available in weekly installments. [Weekly Astro Boy Magazine]

Education | Ryan Sohmer and Lar deSouza, creators of the webcomic Least I Could Do, have established The Rayne Summers Webcomic Scholarship at The Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont. Named for the protagonist of their nearly seven-year-old comic, the scholarship will cover tuition for one student each year who is working toward a career in webcomics. [Least I Could Do, via The Daily Cartoonist]

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SCAD Atlanta Comics Arts Forum Report

Murphy and Bernier

Back on October 23-25, the Sequential Art Department at the Atlanta campus of Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD Atlanta) hosted a comics art forum with Sean Murphy (2003 SCAD Savannah graduate and artist on the upcoming Grant Morrison-written Joe the Barbarian for Vertigo) and Matthew Bernier (School of Visual Arts in Manhattan graduate and currently at work on a book for First Second). Since I'm a Georgia-based member of the Robot 6 crew, Chris Schweizer, a SCAD Atlanta professor and creator of Crogan's Vengeance, invited me to the forum.

According to Shawn Crystal, SCAD Professor (as well as one of the artists on last month's Deadpool 900 [Marvel]), SCAD's Comics Art Forum tradition started in Savannah years ago. Crystal selects the guests that are invited to the forum. "Every year, when I pick guests, I look to pick progressive/passionate artists. Artists who are doing new and exciting things, helping to move the medium forward," he said. "Our Atlanta Faculty throw names around until we settle on the best choice for that year."

Schweizer echoed Crystal's thinking. "When we arrange these events, we try hard to pick guests whose work (and approaches to their work) varies from ours, because it opens our eyes to new ideas, and it does the same for our students," he said.

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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.

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

Footnotes in Gaza

• Tom Spurgeon once again beats everyone to the punch with a review of Joe Sacco's new book, Footnotes in Gaza: The first good news to report ... is that the cartoonist is in top form throughout." He also has good things to say about Prison Pit.

• Christopher Allen offers 60 ways of looking at Watchmen.

• Critics critique critics -- Robert Boyd reviews Bart Beaty's Unpopular Culture: "This is a thought-provoking book, and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in comics-as-art."

• David Welsh gets schooled in college manga.

• Rob Clough calls MK Reed's new book, Cross Country "the most complex, ambitious and visually interesting of her comics."

• Perhaps if I link to Sean Collins' review of Refresh, Refresh, he'll forgive me for accidentally (I swear) stealing the title of his review feature.

• Nina Stone enjoyed the first issue of Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love: "All the pieces of the story just started to fit together perfectly."

• Grant Goggans declares The Art of Osamu Tezuka "very highly recommended."

• Finally, Kristy Valenti looks at a 1999 graphic novel drawn by Mia Wolff and written by acclaimed sci-fi author Samuel Delany.

What Are You Reading?

Blood's A Rover

Welcome to What Are You Reading. I hope everyone had a nice Halloween and spent at least part of it reading comics.

Our guest this week is Chip Mosher, Marketing Director at Boom! Studios, publisher of such fine books as Irredeemable and The Muppet Show. As the image above hints, Chip's been reading some rather interesting (and gritty) material, so click on the link below to discover what he and the rest of Robot 6 have been reading recently. Oh, and don't forget to let us know what you have been reading in the comments section.

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First look (I think) at the cover for American Vampire #1

American Vampire #1

Since Vertigo's announcement late Sunday there's been a lot of coverage in the comics and mainstream press about American Vampire, the upcoming monthly series whose first arc is co-written by none other than Stephen King.

But while we've seen several pieces of concept art by Rafael Albuquerque, I believe this is our first look at his cover for Issue 1, which debuts in March 2010. The art accompanies a brief Q&A in USA Today with writer Scott Snyder, who discusses the comic's development, King's involvement, and what he likes about Albuquerque's art.

Stephen King helps to unleash American Vampire at Vertigo

Designs for Skinner and Pearl from "American Vampire," by Rafael Albuquerque

Late last night Vertigo announced the March premiere of American Vampire, an ongoing series by short-story writer Scott Snyder and Blue Beetle artist Rafael Albuquerque.

But there's an even bigger name involved -- much bigger: Stephen King, who will write one of the two stories in the initial five-issue story arc.

According to the DC Comics imprint, American Vampire will introduce "a new breed of vampire — a more muscular and vicious species of vampire with distinctly American characteristics."

Snyder's storyline, set in the Jazz Age, will focus on Pearl, an ambitious woman who dreams of becoming a star. King will provide the origin of the first American vampire -- Skinner Sweet, a murderer and bank robber of the 1880s.

“I love vampire stories, and the idea of following the dark exploits of a uniquely American vampire really lit up my imagination," King is quoted as saying. "The chance to do the origin story — to be 'present at the creation' — was a thrill. I owe big thanks to Scott Snyder for letting me share his vision, and sip from his bucket of blood.”

The Daily Beast has more details, including background from Snyder, who has written a Human Torch one-shot and an upcoming X-Men arc for Marvel.

For more, see Comic Book Resource's coverage.

Watch the Vertigo Crime television commercial

From the Vertigo Crime television ad

The Vertigo blog has posted video of the DC Comics imprint's first-ever television commercial, which debuted last night on BBC America. The ad, which spotlights the debut titles from the Vertigo Crime line -- Dark Entries by Ian Rankin and Werther Dell’Edera, and Filthy Rich by Brian Azzarello and Victor Santos -- will air on cable throughout the next month.

Congo's Patrice Masioni Makamba to draw Unknown Soldier arc

from Unknown Soldier #13

Pamela Mullins announced on the Vertigo blog yesterday that issues 13-14 of Unknown Soldier will feature artwork by Patrice Masioni Makamba, who is originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo and now lives in France.

In a follow-up post, series writer Joshua Dysart said they wanted to find a fill-in artist from Africa, where the story takes place, for series regular Alberto Ponticelli.

"But locating the perfect person for the job was no easy task," Dysart writes. "A lack of exposure to artists from that region of the world and the extremely jarring, culturally specific art styles of those we did find made the search difficult to say the least. But eventually we did discover our man – Pat Masioni, from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). He’s from a little further west than where our book occurs, but once you hear Pat’s story, in his own words, you’ll understand why he was the best choice for this mini-arc."

Graphic Content also reprints an introduction by the fill-in artist, which will run in issue 13. You can check it out at the second link.

Thin wallets, fat bookshelves | A publishing news round-up

The Losers

• In case you missed it earlier this week: Vertigo will reprint two books that tie into two of their upcoming media properties. First up, they're collecting the first 12 issues of The Losers into one large paperback that'll come out in January, three months before the movie adaptation arrives in theaters. They're also collecting the Peter Milligan/Edvin Biukovic Human Target miniseries, along with the Milligan/Javier Pulido Human Target: The Final Cut original graphic novel into one volume, just in time for the premiere of the Human Target show on Fox in January.

• SLG Publishing is collecting a couple of Gene Yang's previous books, Gordon Yamamoto and the King of the Geeks and Loyola Chin and the San Peligran Order, into a single volume called Animal Crackers. It'll include a new 12-page story by Yang, which he previews here.

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Straight for the art | Sean Murphy's Wolverine Alphabet (and more)

Sean Murphy's Wolverine ABCs

As we noted the other day, Vertigo has expanded the upcoming Grant Morrison/Sean Murphy series Joe the Barbarian from six issues to eight. Looking at Murphy's deviantart account, it's not hard to see why. Among the visual delights therein are letters A through H of a Wolverine Alphabet, featuring the Ol' Canucklehead and friends kickin' it Sesame Street style. (Unsurprisingly, the set has Marvel editors beating a path to the DC-exclusive artist's door.)

The gallery also includes page after luscious page of Murphy's work on Hellblazer, a few Joe the Barbarian preview pages, and random other goodies, from a recreation of the poster for Easy Rider starring Wolverine and Banshee in place of Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda to the below image of all of Murphy's childhood heroes one one team. No wonder Vertigo veterans Paul Pope, Cameron Stewart, and Jock have all been tweeting Murphy's praises.

We're guessing Einstein's the team leader

From Comic-Con to Fabletown With Love

Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love #1

On the Vertigo blog, Group Editor Shelly Bond provides a glimmer of hope for any artist who views the annual DC Comics portfolio review at Comic-Con as akin to tilting at windmills: It's through that process last year that she discovered Chrissie Zullo, cover artist for the upcoming miniseries Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love.

"I remember commenting on how much I liked her painting style — specifically the balance of the pretty and the 'don’t think you’re going to take me home just yet' power," Bond writes. "Chrissie has a mercurial charm, evident not only in the alluring execution of her figure work but also in her choice of rich, traditional color palettes. She finds inspiration from classical painters such as Jean Honore Fragonard and Francois Boucher, and modernists alike, including comic book artists Winsor McCay, James Jean and Adam Hughes."

So she asked Zullo to put together a few "mock" Fables covers to determine how the artist handled composition and typographical elements.

"When her camera-ready samples came in a few weeks later, I couldn’t believe my eyes," Bond writes. "And strangely enough, at that very millisecond, I was looking for a cover artist for the new Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love miniseries. One of Chrissie’s images in particular happened to look like Cinderella so it seemed like there was more than a good chance that she could handle this fantastic first assignment. Upon showing Chrissie’s samples to Bill Willingham, he replied 'Hire that woman!' on the spot."

Sure, Zullo was only one out of "the hundreds/thousands" of portfolio submission, but still ... that qualifies as a glimmer. Yeah?

Vertigo extends 'Joe the Barbarian' to eight issues

Joe the Barbarian

Vertigo announced on their blog yesterday that they've more than doubled the length of the upcoming Joe the Barbarian mini-series by Grant Morrison and Sean Murphy. What was originally going to be a three issue series will now run eight issues. You can also check out some additional preview pages by clicking on the link above.

Morrison has described the comic as "Home Alone meets Lord of the Rings," with the titular character entering a dream state in which his toys come to life. It begins in January.

Trick or treat fun at the House of Mystery

from House of Mystery Halloween Annual

I'm not sure I want to know what kinds of "treats" kids can expect when visiting the House of Mystery ... but anyway, the Vertigo blog Graphic Content has some preview pages up from this month's House of Mystery Halloween Annual.

They include looks at the House of Mystery framing sequence, a new Merv Pumpkinhead tale by Bill Willingham and Mark Buckingham, and one page of Chris Roberson and Mike Allred's "I, Zombie" tale. Now those are treats I can get behind.