W. Haden Blackman
What Are You Reading? with Landry Walker
Hello and welcome to What Are You Reading?, where the Robot 6 crew shares their picks for the Royal Rumble … I mean, talks about what comics we’ve read recently. Today our special guest is Landry Walker, writer of Danger Club, Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the Eighth Grade, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Little Gloomy, Tron and more.
To smell what Landry and the Robot 6 crew are cookin’, click below.
Batwoman wins GLAAD Media Award
Kate Kane and Maggie Sawyer, from "Batwoman" #1
Batwoman, by J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman, won the GLAAD Media Award for “Outstanding Comic Book.” The award was announced last night in New York.
“This is extremely gratifying, because we’ve been working very hard to make this character multifaceted and someone to believe in, while showing her develop realistic personal relationships over time,” Williams wrote on his blog. “So the recognition from the GLAAD awards bolsters us greatly. And thank you for all of the support the series has been getting from you all, the comics readership community.”
The awards honor outstanding portrayals of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities in various media. Other comics that were nominated in the category included Avengers: The Children’s Crusade, by Allan Heinberg and Jimmy Cheung; Secret Six, by Gail Simone and Jim Calafiore; Veronica Presents: Kevin Keller, by Dan Parent; and X-Factor, by Peter David, Emanuela Lupacchino, Valentine De Landro and others.
You can find the complete list of winners on the GLAAD site.
What Are You Reading? with Jason Green
Gold Digger
Hello and welcome to What Are You Reading?, our weekly look at the comics, books and other things we’ve read this week. Today our special guest is Jason Green.
Jason Green is the editor of comics coverage for the St. Louis-based pop culture website PLAYBACK:stl, and a writer and editor for the comics collective Ink and Drink Comics, whose fourth release (a Western anthology titled Off the Wagon) will debut at this year’s C2E2.
To see what Jason and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below.
Comics A.M. | Is Amazon planning its own brick-and-mortar chain?
Amazon
Retailing | Rumors have begun to swirl that online retail giant Amazon plans to open a brick-and-mortar store in Seattle within the next few months to help gauge the profitability of a chain. The store reportedly won’t just sell e-readers and tablets, but also books from Amazon’s newly launched publishing division. [Good E-Reader, Gawker]
Publishing | Japanese publisher Shueisha Inc. released the 65th volume of Eiichiro Oda’s pirate manga One Piece last week with a first printing of 4 million copies, tying the record set in November by the previous volume. [The Mainichi Daily News]
Retailing | Howard Ackler writes about the final days of Dragon Lady Comics, the Toronto retailer that closed last week after 33 years in business. [National Post]
Toast the New 52 at Isotope Comics Dec. 3 with a JH Williams III-designed glass
Isotope Comics in San Francisco will host DC Comics’ traveling New 52 Art Tour in December, as all month long they’ll display six 11×17 sets of artwork (from script to inks to the final full-color production pages), along with every page from Batwoman #3.
And to kick it off, they’re planning a pair of events to kick it off on Saturday, Dec. 3. During the day they’ll host an all-ages autograph signing with Batwoman‘s JH Williams III and W. Haden Blackman, followed that night by an afterparty with both creators, Batwoman-themed cocktails and special highball glasses designed by Williams. The afterparty is a ticketed event, and you buy tickets here.
You can find an image of the glass after the jump.
J.H. Williams comments on latest Batwoman delays
Batwoman #3
J.H. Williams III has commented on last week’s news that DC Comics is again postponing the debut of the eagerly anticipated Batwoman, saying, “This was not our choice, and as to why, I’m not at liberty to really discuss.”
The series, by Williams, W. Haden Blackman and Amy Reeder, previously had been set to premiere in February. However, in January the publisher rescheduled the first issue for April, the date that appeared in the sneak peek included in last week’s comics. But even as those books arrived in stores, the publisher was canceling solicitations for Batwoman #1-2.
“It’s a bit ironic that the release has been pushed back again considering that DC decided to show preview pages this same week,” Williams wrote Saturday on his blog, where he also previewed the cover for Issue 3.
He assured fans that “work is still commencing,” with the latest delay allowing the creators to complete more work: “The only real downside is that solicits were pulled on us twice, making readers heads spin, wish that didn’t happen, but it has, let’s just make the best of it. I’m fast approaching the middle of issue 3’s interior art, Haden and I’ve started working on script for issue 8, the first 5 covers are done, and Dave [Stewart] has had issue 2 in his hands for his special magic touch.”
DC has yet to announce a new release date for Batwoman #1.
DC Comics postpones Batwoman debut again
Sneak peek of Batwoman #1
Even as DC Comics previewed Batwoman #1 on Wednesday, word circulated online that the publisher has again canceled orders for the first two issues for resolicitation at a later date.
The move, revealed Tuesday in an email to retailers and confirmed by Comics on the Green and The Launchpad, marks the second delay in as many months. The highly anticipated series, by J.H. Williams III, W. Haden Blackman and Amy Reeder, previously had been set to debut in February. But in January, the publisher rescheduled the first issue for April — a date that appears in sneak peek included in this week’s DC titles.
Although Batwoman, which spins out of Williams and Greg Rucka’s acclaimed run on Detective Comics, was widely expected to debut last summer, Williams explained in January that was never the case.
“February had been decided on the launch date by the company with reservations about that from me,” he wrote on his blog. “I felt that was a bit too soon in a realistic look at work progression. One of the reasons for this was that I had been seriously committed to making appearances around the world over this past year. I think maybe 3 months or more of work loss occurred during that time. I kept trying to point this out whenever discussions about schedule came up. When first discussing the launch date earlier last year we had originally wanted April 2011, and now ironically that is what we have. Only after solicits stating otherwise, causing some unnecessary frustrations.”
J.H. Williams III addresses Batwoman delay
Batwoman #1
As DC Comics’ solicitations confirmed yesterday, the much-anticipated debut of the Batwoman series has been moved from February to April — the date that writer-artist J.H. Williams III notes he originally wanted.
“Some think that this book was to launch last July,” the award-winning artist writes on his blog, “this was never the case, this was speculation on the part of some. The book was also never to launch in November either. The zero issue which came out at that time was never in the original plans, but was done as a bit of a reminder as requested by DC, and to set the stage, this of course took out time of the work already in progress. February had been decided on the launch date by the company with reservations about that from me. I felt that was a bit too soon in a realistic look at work progression. One of the reasons for this was that I had been seriously committed to making appearances around the world over this past year. I think maybe 3 months or more of work loss occurred during that time. I kept trying to point this out whenever discussions about schedule came up. When first discussing the launch date earlier last year we had originally wanted April 2011, and now ironically that is what we have. Only after solicits stating otherwise, causing some unnecessary frustrations.”
Williams, who’s collaborating on Batwoman with W. Haden Blackman and Amy Reeder, says his schedule was further complicated by the addition of the covers for the high-profile Batman Inc. (He’s since bowed out of that assignment, with the cover for Issue 5 being his last.)
“Even though there has been issues raised in the scheduling and plans being jumped the gun on, DC acknowledges for the greater good of the project we need more time,” he continues. “I’m glad that they saw this was a good idea, this will help maintain a certain standard that we’ve already set in place.”
Visit Williams’ blog for more of his comments, and to see his covers for Batman Inc. Batwoman #1 is set to debut on April 27, according to the DC Comics website (the solicitations released yesterday say April 6).
DC Comics delays Batwoman #1 until April
Batwoman #1
DC Comics’ Batwoman will undergo another delay, with the publisher moving the series’ debut from February to April.
The news was revealed online yesterday by retailers The Lauchpad and Comics on the Green. “What a surprise,” the latter wrote on the store’s Twitter account. “… It’s a JH Williams book, of course it’s not going to be on time.”
A spokesman for DC, which previewed art from the first issue just two weeks ago, didn’t respond this morning to a request for comment.
The much-anticipated comic, by J.H. Williams III, W. Haden Blackman and Amy Reeder, initially was scheduled to begin in July, but instead DC released a one-shot in November designed to serve as a primer for the ongoing series.
This delay is only the latest bump in the road for the new Batwoman — lesbian socialite Kate Kane — whose introduction in summer 2006 was met with a hail of mainstream-media coverage, perhaps far more than the publisher had anticipated. A long-rumored Batwoman series faced one setback after another until finally, in February 2009, it was confirmed that the long-awaited Batwoman comic by Greg Rucka and Williams would become an arc of Detective Comics, timed to coincide with the “death”-induced absence of Batman. Their tenure ended in December 2009, with Detective #860, followed by a three-issue arc by Rucka and Jock.
The same month their acclaimed “Elegy” arc ended, Rucka revealed he and Williams would continue the story in Batwoman. But in April, Rucka announced he was walking away from the character, and from DC Comics. Less than two weeks later, the publisher confirmed it was still committed to Batwoman, with Williams sharing writing duties with Blackman and art duties with Reeder.
(via DC Women Kicking Ass)