Wolves
Becky Cloonan spills some details about ‘Demeter’
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly about her early involvement with comiXology Submit, the new digital comics platform for independent creators, Becky Cloonan finally reveals details about her new minicomic Demeter, which she teased in January.
“It’s a short story, about 27 pages,” she tells the website. “I can’t say too much about it without giving away the huge spoiler at the end. It has a little bit to do with the Greek myth of Demeter, the god of the harvest. It follows a fisherman’s wife as she kind of waits for her husband to return from sea. She tends to the crops and the animals. While she’s doing this, things start to bubble to the surface.”
Cloonan’s previous two minicomics, Wolves and The Mire, are now available from comiXology.
Becky Cloonan debuts final cover for The Mire
Becky Cloonan has premiere the final cover for The Mire, the follow-up to her acclaimed minicomic Wolves. The self-contained story is set on the eve of a battle as a humble squire is tasked with delivering a letter to a decrepit castle within a swamp. “Met with mysterious apparitions,” the artist writes, “he slowly unveils the truth about why he was sent there, as his past is re-written over the course of twenty-two pages.”
Pre-orders are being accepted now through Big Cartel, with The Mire set to debut May 5 at the Toronto Comics Art Festival. The comic can be purchased for $5; for an extra $20, Cloonan will add a sketch of one of the characters. Check out the full cover below.
Comics A.M. | Matt Groening donates $500,000 for UCLA chair
Matt Groening, by Matt Groening
Creators | The Simpsons creator Matt Groening has given $500,000 toward the creation of a chair in animation at the University of California, Los Angeles. The Matt Groening Chair in Animation at UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television will “allow visiting master artists to teach classes” and “bring working professionals with wide-ranging expertise” to work with students. The cartoonist, a graduate of Evergreen State College in Washington, makes an annual $50,000 donation to UCLA to help students who create socially conscious animated shorts. [The New York Times]
Legal | Attorneys for comics retailer and convention organizer Michael George, who’s serving a life sentence for the 1990 murder of his first wife Barbara, made arguments Monday on a motion for acquittal or a new trial — that would make George’s third — on the basis that there was insufficient evidence for conviction, and that the prosecutor raised a new issue in closing arguments. [Detroit Free Press]