Check out Diamond’s release list or ComicList, and tell us what you’re getting in our comments field.

Fantastic Life

Chris Arrant

If I had $15, I’d try something new first with the Xeric-winning Fantastic Life GN (Big If, $9.95) by Kevin Mutch. I’ll always give Xeric winners a second look, and this looks built for me: slackers, punk rock, zombies. Next up I’d get the ongoing adventures of Butcher Baker – the Image one – with Butcher Baker Righteous Maker #8 ($2.99). I’ll admit that the series went off a little bit around #5, but I’m still holding on for hopes it’ll right itself or I’ll figure out what I’d been missing. Lastly, I’d get Secret Avengers #21.1 (Marvel, $2.99). Seriously, is Rick Remender becoming the writer of all-things secret in the Marvel U? I’m not complaining though, as he’s bringing his Uncanny X-Force mojo and, from what it looks like, a lot of new cast members.

If I had $30, I’d get my usual pull of The Walking Dead #93 (Image, $2.99) and a Hickman two-fer, Fantastic Four #602 (Marvel, $2.99) and FF #14 (Marvel, $2.99). If you would have told me two years ago I’d be seeing two Fantastic Four titles (and two I’d be reading, no less) I would have been gobsmacked. Hickman does it again. And that’s it.

What, you say I didn’t spend my full $30? It’s a light week for me, so I’d spending the remaining on bags and boards or, *gasp*, food as it says in the title. Tijuana Flats, Taco Tuesday, be there.

Coming back if I could splurge, and I’d put down my tacos and pick up the ADD HC (Vertigo, $24.99) by Douglas Rushkoff, Goran Sudzuka and Jose Marzan Jr. From the outside it looks like The Hunger Games meets Ender’s Game, and Rushkoff looks to be just the one to make that mash-up more than, well, a mash-up.

The Silence of Our Friends

Brigid Alverson

If I had $15, I’d get Avatar: The Last Airbender: Vol. 1: The Promise, Part 1 ($10.99), despite the staggering title, because it is written by Gene Luen Yang (American Born Chinese) and I’m a fan. The art looks nice and clean, and this looks like a book I could enjoy, at least until my nieces and nephews snatch it away from me. And then I’d pick up the latest issue of The Sixth Gun ($3.99), because how could I miss out on that?

If I had $30, I’d have to put The Sixth Gun back on the shelf for a little while, or borrow two dollars from someone, because The Silence of Our Friends ($16.99) is the must-have book this week. Writer Mark Long based it in part on his father’s experiences as a white reporter covering the civil rights struggles of the 1960s, and Nate Powell’s atmospheric art really brings the era to life. It’s deep without being preachy, with characters that are good but flawed, and while politics shape the plot, the true story is about the interior reality, the clumsiness and missteps that occur even among people of good will. It’s a truly stunning graphic novel and the standout choice for this week.

The splurge choices are pretty good this week, but this former reporter is not going to even try to resist the first volume of Hermes Press’s collection of Brenda Starr, Reporter, even at a stiff $60. On the off chance that a bit of extra dough comes my way, though, my next choice would be the trade of Spontaneous, a smart and beautifully illustrated comic about the mystery of spontaneous human combustion. Since it features a more modern woman reporter, I’m sure Brenda would approve.

Manara, Volume 2

Chris Mautner

If I had $15: I haven’t read The Bulletproof Coffin yet, but I know a number of folks who thought it was pretty nifty, and I do like what little of Shaky Kane and David Hine’s work I’ve read before. So I’d probably be willing to flip through the first issue of The Bulletproof Coffin: Disinterred, the first issue of the six-part sequel.

If I had $30, I’d grab Wally Wood’s Strange Worlds of Science Fiction, a hardcover collection of sci-fi stories Wood did for publishers during the 1950s that were not EC. Wood’s one of those classic comic artists I’d really like to learn more about and this seems like as good a place to go as any.

Splurge: More Milo Manara goodness awaits with the release of The Manara Library Vol. 2, which contains El Gaucho, the second of his collaborations with Hugo Pratt, and Trial By Jury, a collection of shorts never released in the U.S. before now.

The Bulletproof Coffin: Disinterred

Graeme McMillan

If I had $15 this week, I’d apparently be most interested in some sequels; like Chris M, I’d go for Hine and Kane’s Bulletproof Coffin: Disinterred #1 (Image, $3.99) – because I like my comics meta and slightly disturbing, apparently – and I’d follow that up with the debut of IDW’s new cross-continuity crossover Infestation 2 #1 ($3.99), which replaces zombies with Lovecraftian monsters as the threat du jour, something else that feels more than a little meta for some reason. As far as I know, Rick Remender and Patrick Zircher are staying entirely un-meta for Secret Avengers #21.1 (Marvel, $2.99), but as I’ve been reading a lot of Captain Britain and Excalibur lately, I’m picking this up to get a jump on the Brian Braddock era for the title.

If I had $30, I’d continue a recent Warren Ellis run and pick up the reissue of Atmospherics (Avatar, $7.99), to see what his Avatar crime work is like. Sticking with big name creators and indie companies, Kirby Genesis #5 (Dynamite, $3.99) is finally out this week, so I’d grab that as well, and then finish everything off with the latest issue of Peter Milligan’s Justice League Dark (#5, DC, $2.99).

When it comes to slurging, there’s a lot to choose from this week. I’m tempted by the Spontaneous HC (Oni, $24.99), Daredevil by Mark Waid Vol. 1 HC (Marvel, $19.99) and Catwoman Vol. 1 (DC, $29.99), but I’ve already read those books in their original serialized format, so I think I’d probably go for the Strikeforce Morituri collection from Marvel ($34.99); I vaguely remember the series past its early issues way back when, and I’d be interested to see if it holds up to my memories…

Polly and the Pirates, Volume 2: The Mystery of the Dragonfish

Michael May

I usually spend my $15 allowance on single issues, but this week I’m making a beeline for Polly and the Pirates, Volume 2: The Mystery of the Dragonfish ($11.99), a comic I’ve been waiting five years for. I’m so excited I don’t even care that Ted Naifeh didn’t draw it, especially since Robbi Rodriguez’ art looks so great. My remaining three bucks would of course go to Alpha Flight #8 ($2.99), an issue I’m both looking forward to (because it resolves the excellent story that Van Lente, Pak, and Eaglesham have been telling) and dreading (because there’s no more after it).

If I had $30, I’d circle back for my monthly series: Aquaman #5 ($2.99), Superman #5 ($2.99), X-Men Legacy #261 ($2.99), and All-Star Western #5 ($3.99).

My splurge item this week is the Daredevil By Mark Waid, Volume 1 hardcover ($$19.99). I’ve been looking forward to reading it anyway, but it made so many year-end lists that now my mouth is watering about it.

Comics College is a monthly feature where we provide an introductory guide to some of the comics medium’s most important auteurs and offer our best educated suggestions on how to become familiar with their body of work.

This month we finally break Comics College’s glass ceiling (what took us so long anyway?) with an in-depth look at one of the many notable female cartoonists to come out of the alt-comix scene of the 1990s, Jessica Abel.

Why she’s important

Abel was one of the leading lights of the alt-comix scene of the ’90s, a warm, observant artist whose richly detailed stories of anxious young people looking for love and success helped propel comics from towards the — if not financial success — then more mainstream acceptance they endear today. And while she may have entered the scene a bit too late to be called a pioneer, there’s little doubt that her work, along with that of peers like Megan Kelso, helped encourage other women to read and make their own comics.

What’s more, she’s been a tireless advocate of the medium, both as a creator and as an educator and editor, shepherding young cartoonists and getting noteworthy work out in the face of a larger public. She may be one of the best ambassadors comics has at the moment.

Where to start

La Perdida

It might be nostalgia on my part, but I think the best place to be introduced to Abel’s work is Mirror, Window, which collects the second volume of Abel’s seminal series, Artbabe. Befitting the author’s own age at the time, the stories here deal with freshly minted adults who struggle with friendships being tested, young love, making drastic changes in the hopes of improving your lot, trying to decide which direction you want the rest of your life to go and other things that plague modern day 20-somethings. Far from being solipsistic, or indulging in whiny navel gazing, Abel presents her stories with a good deal of grace and even poetry at times; her characters are rich in telling, nuanced details and their behavior suggests an author who has sharply observed the world around her. Really, it’s a killer collection of work.

From there you should read

Abel’s next project, and the one that’s won her the most acclaim so far, is La Perdida, a 250-plus-page story of a young woman who moves to Mexico seeking a different life but ends up involved with some seedy characters. And then things take a turn for the worse. Although it takes some time to get all the ducks lined up in the row — this is a very character-based work – Perdida is more of a straight-up thriller than any of Abel’s previous stories, and also one of her darkest works to date. She also adopts a much looser, rougher art style here, which fits the main character’s seeking, confused tone as well as the violence that occurs afterward. It’s not my favorite comic of hers — I find the main character to ultimately be too willfully naive to root for — but it definitely has its charms and has won enough acclaim to be a good next stop on your tour of Abel-land (definitely opt for the collected version, which is much tighter and better than the serialized issues).

Further reading

Soundtrack

Abel began her rise to prominence with her first, self-published run of Artbabe, which won her a Xeric grant in 1995. Most of the material from those comics are collected in Soundtrack: Short Stories 1990-1996, a swell little compedium that also compiles a number of illustrations as well as some interesting nonfiction, journalistic pieces she did for various alternative newspapers.

As it turns out, Abel is quite good at comics journalism, a notion that Radio: An Illustrated Guide confirms. This is a 32-page comic she did with public radio bon vivant Ira Glass for Glass’ weekly program This American Life. It’s an in-depth look at the acclaimed show and how it comes together. Abel does a fantastic job of breaking down the ins and outs of radio production and what makes a compelling story, and as a result it’s one of her best comics to date.

Ancillary materials

Abel has had a noteworthy second career as an educator and comics advocate, mainly at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Drawing upon her experience in the classroom she and  her husband and fellow cartoonist Matt Madden created Drawing Words and Writing Pictures, an exemplary textbook on making comics. Just about every aspect of comics, from dialogue to scenery to lettering and making mini-comics is discussed at length here, making it the most essential, thorough book on the subject so far.

Madden and Abel are also the co-series editors of the Best American Comics series that Houghton Mifflin puts out every year. These books tend to be more reflective of the instincts of the special “guest editors” that oversee these yearly volumes, but it’s worth noting if just to remark how varied and busy her current workload seems to be.

Those looking to get hear the artist talk about herself and her work can check out The Comics Journal #270. She also did a recent interview with Mike Dawson as part of his TCJ Talkies series.

Finally, Abel has a number of irons in the fire that should appear soon, including a sequel to Drawing Words and a children’s prose novel that has yet to see the light of day. Her most intriguing upcoming project is Trish Trash, Rollergirl of Mars, which Abel has started a Kickstarter project for to help get it off the ground.

Avoid

Life Sucks has a great hook, combining the world of vampires with that of young adult slackerdom. The notion that vampires have to deal with the same shitty jobs, poverty and unrequited love affairs as normal human beings is a great one. Unfortunately, the book, co-created with writer Gabe Soria and artist Warren Pleece doesn’t go much further than that. It seems mostly content to rest on the laurel of its initial premise and doesn’t really develop the cast well enough to get the reader to care too deeply about what happens to them. Honestly, the book feels like a warmed-over movie pitch, but I give Abel and company credit enough to assume that’s not the case. It’s not a horrible book, but it’s far removed from the type of stuff Abel was doing in Artbabe and La Perdida, and not the first book you should turn to when going through her bibliography.

Next month: Gabrielle Bell

The barriers to entry for getting your comic work out in front of people may have changed, but as Sean Kleefeld points out, the Xeric Foundation provided another benefit to comic fans. “…here’s why I’ll miss the Xerics: they have been an incredibly powerful shorthand for identifying great comics,” he wrote on his blog. “Oh, there’s other comic awards out there, of course, but those always come across as hit or miss for me. Just because a comic won a Harvey or an Eisner or whatever doesn’t mean I’ll really enjoy or appreciate it. But the Xerics, I’ve found, are consistently high quality and enjoyable. I have yet to read a Xeric-winning book that I didn’t enjoy, a claim I can’t make regarding the Eisners.”

So when I threw out the idea to do a Six by 6 list highlighting some of our favorite Xeric Foundation recipients over the years, I didn’t realize what I was asking; it didn’t register just how many completely awesome creators out there have benefited from the grant. So, when I say “Six Xeric Foundation grant recipients we love,” that’s not to say that they are the only ones we love. Hell, just throw all the names in a hat and pick out six, and you’ll have a list just as legitimate as this one.

Also, it was interesting to see how my fellow bloggers interpreted my request for entries for this list; while some, like Chris Mautner, did what I was expecting and talked about what one of their favorites went on to do after receiving the grant, others reached out to some of them to get their thoughts on the discontinuation of the grants. So the content of the list is … varied.

As always feel free to share thoughts on some of your favorites in the comments section. You can find a list of all the recipients here.

Jeff Lemire

Lost Dogs

When I talked to Jeff Lemire back in early 2008, he did not mince words when emphasizing how important his March 2005 Xeric grant had been (for Lost Dogs, which Lemire self- published through his own Ashtray Press imprint):

“It was a huge break. I would never have gotten a book distributed by Diamond without a publisher if it wasn’t for the Xeric Grant, and that helped put me on the map with publishers like Top Shelf. I also learned a huge amount about the business side of the comics industry, which, even though I am not self-publishing any more, still helps me a lot.” (Tim O’Shea)

Sam Hiti

Sam Hiti won the Xeric Grant in 2002 and used it to produce his first graphic novel, Tiempos Finales. The book used a combination of influences from Jack Kirby and manga to Christian imagery and Latin artwork that resulted in a unique style and brought Hiti instant acclaim from fans, critics, and professionals alike. I asked him how winning the Xeric affected his career:

“I was saddened to hear this morning that the Xeric Grant will be no more. I received mine in 2002 when I published my first graphic novel Tiempos Finales. Wow. It’s almost been ten years. Time flies.

“I remember the work that I put into filling out the forms; the inside scoops I received from Rhode Montijo and Nick Bertozzi (also former winners). Rhode was the one who pushed me to apply last minute and I am so grateful, because I thought I had no chance of winning.

“I remember that someone congratulated me through an email that I had won, so I called up Xeric and they confirmed. I was so ecstatic! Awards like this are good for new creators. It gave me momentum and let me know that somebody other than myself believed that I was capable of doing good work. I wanted to make Xeric proud and show them that their money wasn’t going to waste. The pressure was on.

Tiempos Finales

“I reworked the book, adding many pages and a second color. I wanted to bleed every penny that they gave me. My thought was that if this book was my last project, I would go out in a ball of flames. It took what seemed like forever to finish it, I was learning many new things. I was painting houses in those days and I had little bursts of time to work on the book. The Xeric people would check in periodically and ask if I had printed the book yet. I told them I was working on it and not to worry. I hoped that they didn’t think that I had already blown the money on toys and candy.

“In the spring of 2004, about a year-and-a-half later, I printed the book at a local mom-and-pop shop with whom I built a great relationship. I’m still using them to this day. I remember holding the final book in my hands as if it was my first child. I remember handing over the complete $5000 to pay for the printing. I remember meeting Peter Laird at the Toronto Comic Con a few months later. His booth was right next to mine and I thanked him and apologized that I reworked the book from what I’d originally sent in. Peter shook my hand and assured me that he was very pleased with the way the book had turned out.

“I am honored to be a Xeric Grant winner, it pushed me to my creative limits and allowed me to be at the right time and place to launch my career. As they say, the rest is history.” (Michael May)

Megan Kelso

Gilrhero

The central and simple idea behind the Xeric grant was to give budding cartoonists a financial leg up, and it’s hard to think of a better example than Megan Kelso. The spring 1993 recipient had been self-publishing her initial, magazine-sized comic Girlhero for about two issues before getting the award, which enabled her not only to publish a more slicker looking product, but also reach a wider array of stores and readers.

Since then she has gone on to become one of the most notable women cartoonists in the alt-comix field, publishing such acclaimed books as The Squirrel Mother, the (recently re-released) Queen of the Black Black and Artichoke Tales. She’s had her work published in The New York Times (“Watergate Sue”) and won several Ignatz Awards for her work. Would she have stuck with it and had her work as well-received if she hadn’t won? Probably. But winning the Xeric surely gave her the self-confidence and enough of a financial windfall to keep her publishing and convince her to turn it into a career. Considering this is still an industry where women cartoonists seem like an anomaly, that’s something worth celebrating. (Chris Mautner)

Jason Lutes

Jar of Fools

Lutes received his grant in 1993 to collect his weekly comic strip, Jar of Fools, which was running in The Stranger, a Seattle alternative newspaper. I remember discovering it in 1995, shortly after moving back to Dallas after living in an outlying suburb. As a life-long reader of comics, I never truly gave up on the medium, but there was a time in the 1990s when I came close. A few books like Sandman and Bone kept me coming back to the shop each week, but it wasn’t until I discovered a shop called Einstein’s in Garland, Texas that I felt a sense of renewal and excitement about comics and what they could be.

Einstein’s was one of those stores that went out of their way to push, promote and carry comics from the back section of Previews — the stuff from smaller companies who were coming into their own at the time. In fact, they had a money-back guarantee section in their shop; if you didn’t like one of the books the store recommended, you could bring it back for a full refund. These shelves had some of the staples I was already enjoying, like the previously mentioned Bone and Sandman, as well as one I had never heard of called Jar of Fools.

In its pages I met Ernie the alcoholic magician, plagued by the death of his brother; his estranged girlfriend Esther; con man Nathan and his daughter Claire; and Ernie’s mentor Flosso. It was both depressing and uplifting to see this complex cast struggle through life, emotions and their problems. It was subtle, and ultimately fantastic, and I can remember thinking not only what a great story it was, but how much skill and talent Lutes brought to the storytelling. Thanks to Drawn & Quarterly, the book is still in print, so if you’re a fan of Lutes’ Berlin or just good stories, check it out. (JK Parkin)

Tyler Page

Nothing Better

Tyler Page first came to my attention through Stylish Vittles, his heart-breakingly honest trilogy of graphic novels depicting his relationship with his college girlfriend. I’m a total sucker for realistic college stories and ate it up, so I was also thrilled when Page announced his follow up project, another college series, but this time completely fictional. He launched Nothing Better as a webcomic and in 2007 won the Xeric Grant to publish his first collection. I also talked to Page about what that meant to him:

“I was definitely surprised by the news about the Xeric Grant, as many were. I think it’s unfortunate, though I do understand where Peter Laird is coming from. But even with the Internet and things like Kickstarter, I feel like the Xeric still had a place. For me, winning a Xeric was a big deal. I’d heard about it from a colleague back when I was in college and I made it one of my missions to try and win one some day. While I was committed to self-publishing on my own, and racked up an impressive amount of debt doing so, I wouldn’t have ever published the first Nothing Better collection if I hadn’t won the grant for it.

“Getting the grant did a lot to boost my sense of professional approval and it got me a lot of free press at announcement time as well. And at the time I got it, I was at the end of my financial rope as far as publishing. I couldn’t really risk any of my own money any more on publishing; getting the Xeric really helped in that regard. Then again, who’s to say that if I hadn’t gotten a Xeric and waited a few years until Kickstarter was around, that wouldn’t have worked just as well?

“I think the main difference is just the process of having the work judged and the place of honor the Xeric seemed to hold within the comics community. Funding your comic through pre-sales or crowd-sourcing with Kickstarter is fine, but it will never have the caché the Xeric Grant did.

“I’m sure we’ll continue to see lots of amazing work from newcomers, but it’s still sad to see the Xeric leave the comics world.” (Michael May)

John Kerschbaum

The Wiggly Reader

For creator John Kerschbaum receiving a September 1996 Xeric Grant (for The Wiggly Reader) literally changed the kind of work that the cartoonist wanted to pursue. As he succinctly put it in a public statement on Google+ “Sad to see this end. I would most likely not be making comics if not for the Xeric grant I received.” His statement was reminiscent of something he said in a January 2009 Comics Journal interview–and that Tom Spurgeon picked up on in a March 2009 interview:

“SPURGEON: You once told The Comics Journal that you might not be making comics at all if it weren’t for the Xeric grant you received. Why is that? What did the Xeric give you that’s continued to pay dividends in terms of your overall artistic output the last 10-12 years?

KERSCHBAUM: What I meant was that prior to submitting to The Xeric Foundation, my goal was to sell gag cartoons to magazines. I wasn’t doing comics longer than a page. So writing The Wiggly Reader and getting a Xeric grant turned my attention to longer-form comics, comic books, self-publishing, etc.” (Tim O’Shea)

Stormwatch #1

Publishing | DC Comics Co-Publisher Dan DiDio talks about the gay and lesbian characters appearing in the company’s books come September, including Batwoman and WildStorm imports Apollo, Midnighter and Voodoo: “When we looked at trying to incorporate some of the characters that inhabited the WildStorm universe Apollo and Midnighter are two characters that have always popped out. Not because of what they represent, but they’re just strong characters in their own right and [they] were able to represent a story, a style of character that wasn’t represented in the DC Universe. There’s more of an aggressive nature with those characters that will interact interestingly with other characters and allows us to tell more and better stories.” [The Advocate]

Publishing | Todd Allen, Tom Foss and Graeme McMillan react to the list of changes to the “younger, brasher and more brooding” Superman who will inhabit the DC Universe following the September relaunch. [Indignant Online, Fortress of Soliloquy, Blog@Newsarama]

Publishing | David Brothers takes a sharp-eyed look at the DC relaunch: “The fact that Vertigo isn’t included in the digital releases highlights a glaring problem with DC’s big relaunch. They’re playing it safe, essentially, by catering to the same audience that they’ve always served, while offering a few brief nods in the direction of new readers.” He also sees their digital strategy as falling short because it lacks a mechanism for pre-orders and subscriptions. [Publishers Weekly]

Comics | Todd Allen responds to a recent list by Marvel of “required reading” Captain America stories by providing one of his own. [Indignant Online]

Art by Rian Hughes

Creators | Rob Harrigan kicks off a series of Comics & Design Interviews with a discussion with U.K. artist Rian Hughes. [The Offset Past]

Creators | Robot 6 contributor Brigid Alverson interviews novelist Anne Rice about Yen Press’ planned graphic-novel adaptation of her Interview with the Vampire. [Publishers Weekly]

Comics | Forbes interviews Jordanian comics publisher Suleiman Bakhit, who views comics, games, and social media as paths to greater hope and tolerance in the region: “I go to a lot of poor areas and ask the kids, ‘Who are your role models?’ Sometimes they say Zarqawi and Bin Laden. But in one neighborhood I gave them comics and when I went back a few months later; the superheroes were now their role models.” [Forbes]

Vintage manga | The Comics Journal has a preview of Tank Tankuro, a 1934 manga featuring a superhero robot that’s worlds away from Astro Boy. [The Comics Journal]

Awards | Sean Kleefeld reflects on last week’s announced changes for the Xeric Foundation, which will no longer provide grants to self-publishing comic book creators, and instead devote funds to charitable organizations: “Clay Shirkey has noted that, culturally, we tend to bemoan the over-abundance of information when, in fact, the problem is more that we simply don’t have the proper filters in place to remove what’s irrelevant to us as individuals. The Xerics have been, for me at least, one of those filters. If I was looking for good books, I knew that simply choosing something off a list of Xeric-winners was a sure bet.” [Kleefeld on Comics]

Previews | Critic Paul Gravett pulls out the graphic novels you should be looking forward to in the latest Previews. [Paul Gravett]

Sales | John Jackson Miller detects a slight uptick in June sales. [The Comics Chronicles]

Founder Peter Laird (the co-creator of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) posted a message on the foundation’s website saying that the world has changed, and it’s time for the Xeric Foundation to change as well:

The advent of essentially free web publishing has forever altered the way aspiring comic book creators can get their work out into the public eye. With this in mind, I have decided that it makes sense that the Xeric Foundation will no longer provide grants to self-publishing comic book creators, and instead devote all of its available grants funds to charitable organizations.

However, aspiring creators do have one last chance: The foundation will award one last round of grants, with work being reviewed in May 2012.

The most recent Xeric award winners were announced in February.

(via Comics Worth Reading)

The Governator

Publishing | As the fallout mounts from the revelation that former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger fathered a child more than a decade ago with a member of his household staff, plans to revive the Terminator star’s acting career have been put on hold — a move that now extends to The Governator, the comics and animation project co-developed by Stan Lee. “In light of recent events,” representatives announced last night, “A Squared Entertainment, POW, Stan Lee Comics, and Archie Comics, have chosen to not go forward with The Governator project.” However, Entertainment Weekly notes the statement was revised two hours later, putting the project “on hold.”

Unveiled in late March, on the cover of Entertainment Weekly, no less, The Governator features a semi-fictional Schwarzenegger who, after leaving the governor’s office, decides to become a superhero — complete with a secret Arnold Cave under his Brentwood home that not even his family knows about. “We’re using all the personal elements of Arnold’s life,” Lee said at the time of the announcement. “We’re using his wife [Maria Shriver]. We’re using his kids. We’re using the fact that he used to be governor.” But even before the couple’s separation became public, producers had backed off depicting Shriver and their children. [TMZ, Entertainment Weekly]

Retailing | Barnes & Noble announced Thursday that Liberty Media, which has stakes in cable, satellite television and interactive companies, has offered to buy the nation’s largest book chain for about $1.02 billion. The proposal, which comes nine months after the retailer put itself up for sale, is contingent on the participation of Barnes & Noble chairman Leonard Riggio. [The New York Times]

Amazon Kindle

Retailing | Reaching a digital milestone, Amazon has revealed it’s now selling more e-books than print editions, just four years after launching its Kindle. [TechCrunch]

Awards | The Anthony Awards, presented annually at the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention for excellence in crime fiction, have introduced a graphic novel category. The inaugural nominees are: Scalped, Vol. 6: The Gnawing, by Jason Aaron and Jock (Vertigo); Richard Stark’s Parker, Vol. 2: The Outfit, by Darwyn Cooke (IDW Publishing); Tumor, by Joshua Hale Fialkov and Noel Tuazon (Archaia); A Sickness in the Family, by Denise Mina and Antonio Fuso (Vertigo); Beasts of Burden, by Jill Thompson and Evan Dorkin (Dark Horse); and The Chill, by Jason Starr and Mick Bertilorenzi (Vertigo). The winner will be announced in September at Bouchercon in St. Louis. [via Comics Worth Reading]

Conventions | Nick Thompson previews this weekend’s Dallas Comic Con, which is expected to attract about 10,000 people. [CNN.com]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1

Publishing | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman will team with co-writer Tom Waltz and artist Dan Duncan on IDW Publishing’s upcoming TMNT series. [Comics Alliance]

Publishing | Jason Wood examines “the myth of the sell out announcement.” [iFanboy]

Creators | Michael Cavna profiles Cul de Sac creator Richard Thompson, soliciting quotes from reclusive cartoonist Bill Watterson and others in the process. “Where to start?… ” Watterson writes in an e-mail. “The strip has a unique and honest voice, a seemingly intuitive feel for what comics do best … a very funny intelligence … the artwork, which I just slobber over. It’s a wonderful surprise to see that this level of talent is still out there, and that a strip like this is still possible.” [The Washington Post]

Creators | Mark Andrew Smith discusses using Kickstarter to fund the second volume of The New Brighton Archeological Society, and surpassing the $6,000 goal: “This got the word out on a huge scale. We saw other high-profile creators throw their support behind us and we got a lot of mail from people telling us how much they enjoyed the book. It was an incredible feeling to see such a show of support and to have people be so vocal that they like our work, and to see them rallying to support us.” [USA Today]

Shinku #1

Creators | Ron Marz talks about Shinku, his new samurai vs. vampires series from Image Comics. [USA Today]

Creators | Matt Wagner chats about his Dynamite Entertainment series Zorro Rides Again. [ICv2.com]

Creators | Jaime Woo profiles Snow creator Benjamin Rivers, recipient of a 2011 Xeric Grant. [Torontoist]

Creators | Collaborators Zan Christensen and Mark Brill discuss their anti-bullying comic The Power Within, which was inspired by Dan Savage’s It Gets Better project. [KOMOnews.com]

Comics | Comics historian Paul Gravett selects the Top 5 political graphic novels. [CNN.com]

Comics | Mark Ginocchio, whose blog chronicles his efforts to collect every issue of The Amazing Spider-Man, explains why he’s expanding to include the newly launched FF: “… Something felt different about this new Fantastic Four series. Yes, I realize that Spider-Man is also technically a member of the Avengers, in a series being written by Brian Michael Bendis that is drawing both extreme praise and criticism. But Spidey and The Avengers don’t resonate with me. When I look at the current Avengers lineup and see characters like Spidey and Wolverine, it feels like a professional sports all-star game. Sure it’s entertaining to watch all these guys get together once a year, but you wouldn’t want to see it every night.” [Chasing Amazing]

reMIND

Awards | The Xeric Foundation has announced its grant recipients for spring 2010: Margaret Ashford-Trotter, Thunder in the Building #2; Jason Brubaker, reMIND; Jonathon Dalton, Lords of Life and Death; Wei Li, Lotus Root Children; Jed McGowan, Lone Pine; Ansis Purins, Zombre #2: The Magic Forest; and Brittney Sabo and Anna Bratton, Francis Sharp in the Grip of the Uncanny! Book 1. A total of $32,761 was awarded for the seven projects. The next deadline for comic-book grants is Sept. 30. [via The Beat]

Retailing | Bookstore sales in May slipped 2.6 percent to $1.09 billion, while e-book sales rose 163 percent to $29.3 million. [Publishers Weekly]

Creators | The Washington Post has named Olivia Walch, a 21-year-old rising senior at the College of William and Mary, as the winner of the America’s Next Great Cartoonist contest. [Comic Riffs]

Stuck Rubber Baby

Creators | Howard Cruse talks about the rerelease of Stuck Rubber Baby: “My goal was to create the kind of novel that is too full of incident for someone to simply summarize in their mind in one sentence. I wanted it to be like life, where you spend a year of your life and you can’t just remember everything that happened, but it’s all part of a process. I think that’s the way the book turned out. You’re talking about the density of the incidents. Each of those incidents was carefully thought out, but many of them were little moments that I forgot about. When I reread the book I’ll see a moment and think, That’s pretty good. I remember that vaguely. [...] I think that’s what makes books rereadable. I wanted a book that was worth rereading.” [Hartford Advocate]

Creators | Veteran writer Cary Bates discusses his return to DC and Superman with Superman: The Last Family of Krypton. [iFanboy]

The Walking Dead #75

Creators | It’s all Walking Dead, all the time, with writer Robert Kirkman discussing the latest storyline, artists Charlie Adlard and Cliff Rathburn chatting about their work, and AMC offering a preview of the 75th issue. [The Walking Dead]

Creators | Alex Dueben talks to Gail Simone about returning to DC’s Birds of Prey: “Once a character is really in my brain, they never really leave. When I was a reader of comics, my big pet peeve was always boring dialogue. I have no interest in hyper-realism, at least not in superhero books. I like the dialogue to be lively and surprising. I want each voice distinctive and layered. There are still a lot of books out there where the characters, particularly the female characters, all have the same patois and cadence, and it just feels so empty to me. I want to be surprised.” [Suicide Girls]

Creators | The Eastern Edge continues its translation of a conversation between Takehiko Inoue and Eiichiro Oda. [The Eastern Edge]

Comics | Douglas Wolk leads a discussion of the third volume of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim series. [Techland]

Comics | How did Marvel lose control of Wolverine? [Techland]

Comics | Ben Morse looks back at Karl Kessel and Tom Grummett’s run on DC’s Superboy. [The Cool Kids Table]

Fandom | A photo gallery of cosplayers from the recent Anime Expo. [Brand X]

Duncan the Wonder Dog

AdHouse has a nice-looking book called Duncan the Wonder Dog shipping in September, by Xeric recipient Adam Hines. The description of the book reads:

What if animals could talk? Would some of them form a militant group in reaction to how humans treat them? Would humans treat them different? Come explore this dense tome of an alternate universe where the lavish renderings recall Dave McKean. 2009 Xeric winning Duncan the Wonder Dog WILL be one of the most talked about books of 2010.

After the jump you’ll find a preview of the first few pages of the book, but there’s an even longer one over on AdHouse’s site, available as a PDF. Go check it out.

*****

"Haunted" signing

Xeric grant-winning cartoonist Joshua Smeaton will mark the release of his graphic novel Haunted with a signing from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday at Read More Comics in Brandon, Florida.

Haunted is a full-color collection of Smeaton’s webcomic about a group of middle-school friends who want nothing more than to sneak into a high-school Halloween party at an abandoned mansion. But once they get there, they discover they’re not the only uninvited guests. (I interviewed Smeaton about Haunted in November.)

My copy arrived in the mail today, and it looks great: digest-sized, beautifully colored and with a half-dozen pages of extras. If I were near Brandon on Saturday, rather than almost 800 miles away, I’d definitely stop by the signing.

Shi Long Pang

Awards | The Xeric Foundation, the nonprofit corporation established in 1992 by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Peter Laird, has announced the recipients of the fall/winter grants: Sarah Becan, The Complete and Original Ouija Interviews; Sixta C., Soldiers of God; Ben Costa, Shi Long Pang, The Wandering Shaolin Monk; Blaise Larmee, Young Lions; Lane Milburn, Death Trap; Stefan Salinas, Within the Rat; and Nathan Schreiber, Power Out.

The Xeric grants assist creators with the costs of self-publishing. [The Xeric Foundation]

Retailing | Ron Marshall has resigned after just a year as chief executive of the financially troubled Borders Group. Michael J. Edwards, who joined the book chain in September as chief merchandising officer, has been appointed as interim chief executive. [The New York Times]

Bluewater Productions

Publishing | Criticism of Bluewater Productions’ work-for-hire agreements — creators get paid when, and if, a comic turns a profit — continues to mount in the blogosphere, where Heidi MacDonald pledges to no longer run the company’s press releases. More commentary from Simon Jones, Tom Spurgeon and Johanna Draper Carlson. [Bluewater Productions]

Conventions | This article about the opening of the Taipei International Book Fair is worth reading just for the penultimate paragraph: “At the opening ceremony for the Anime and Comics Pavilion, Kazuo Umezu, author of the Japanese horror manga series The Drifting Classroom, was invited to sing a song.” [Central News Agency]

Creators | Brian Heater continues his multi-part conversation with Eddie Campbell. [The Daily Cross Hatch]

Batman and Robin #8

Creators | Grant Morrison talks about Batman and Robin, the return of Bruce Wayne, and introducing new villains without getting bogged down by backstory: “I like the idea that the Joker was never really explained, and then six months later you got another Joker story in 1940 or whatever. They didn’t explain his origins or motivations at all. They just kept telling more cool stories and showing more sides of his character. He was built up, developed and refined along the way rather than introduced as a complete package. To me that seems to be the mark of the best villains – they’re introduced in a really cool way and then left for the future to play with. Like some future Alan Moore and Brian Bolland will come along one day and tell the origin of Professor Pyg and it will be the best comic ever. [laughs] That’s how it should be.”

Morrison also notes — and I don’t recall seeing this elsewhere — that “Season 1″ of Batman and Robin has been extended from 13 issues to 16, with “Season 2″ featuring Bruce Wayne and “a different sort of dynamic.” [IGN.com]

Creators | Arthur de Wolf interviews Italian cartoonist Andrea Castellan, better known as Casty, about his Disney comics work. [Disney Comics Worldwide]

Creators | I like this overview of “the finest comics writers in the universe” simply because it notes what work the author considers the “shining moment” and “darkest hour” of each creator. Runaways represents Brian K. Vaughan’s creative low point, apparently? [Indiana Daily Student]

Comics | Preservation work is largely complete on a Roman ship discovered in 1982 at Saint Peter Point, Guernsey. It’s been named Asterix in honor of René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo’s pint-sized Gaul. [BBC, with video]

Haunted

A recipient of a 2009 Xeric Foundation grant, cartoonist Joshua Smeaton wasted little time in moving his comic Haunted from the Web, where the story has unfolded for the past two years, and into print.

Beautifully illustrated and colored, Haunted centers on a group of middle-school friends who want nothing more than to sneak into a high-school Halloween party being thrown at an abandoned mansion. But once they get there, they soon discover that they’re not the only uninvited guests. (Smeaton has described it as “like Goonies in a haunted house.”)

Smeaton, who lives outside of Tampa, Florida, took some time over the weekend to talk about the graphic novel, which is listed in November’s Previews (order code: NOV090896).

I believe I only became aware of Haunted back in July, when you received a Xeric Foundation grant. When did you begin working on it, and how long has it appeared online?

I originally wrote Haunted as a screenplay with the idea in the back of my head that I would eventually draw it as a comic. That was around 2003/2004. I started putting Haunted online in July 2007.

From "Haunted"

The orientation of the pages and the division into issues suggest that Haunted was destined for print from the start. Was the move online a matter of economics? Had you shopped the comic to publishers?

I had always planned for Haunted to be printed. But I knew that was going to be a ways off. So the idea of putting it online and having it immediately available to people was appealing. It would also enable Haunted to find an audience while I was working on it as opposed to just releasing it cold as a book.

When I initially sat down to draw Haunted I got about 30 pages in to it. I had sent some of those pages along with a synopsis to a handful of publishers. I didn’t get anyone that was interested though Brett Warnock at Top Shelf was encouraging. At some point I realized I was unhappy with the way it looked and I could do better. So even though I had done a lot of work I decided to scrap it and start completely over.

Haunted‘s prologue clearly establishes a supernatural backdrop, but much of the first four issues is a funny and charming slice-of-life tale about a group of middle-schoolers. How did the story evolve? Were these two separate stories, and genres, that came together, or did you know from the beginning that they’d be intertwined?

It was always one idea. It evolved from me wanting to write a kid’s haunted-house story. I also wanted you to know the characters a bit before just throwing them in to a fantastic situation. And I wanted choices and motivations to be believable. Not just “I dare you to go in to that spooky house.”

You’ve mentioned on your Livejournal that you’ve redrawn some characters and other elements — and even hinted that you might redo a whole page — for the print edition. Are those things that have bothered you all along, or that you only really noticed as you were preparing the collection?

A few jumped out when I was putting the collection together but most were things that bugged me all along. Typically it’s just a panel here and there but there was one page I completely redrew. Had it been just a random page I probably wouldn’t have redone the whole thing but it was a pretty significant page and I wanted it to have the right impact.

From "Haunted"

Did you find it difficult to let go — to say, “All right, it’s done” and send it to the printer? Are you one of those artists who can fuss endlessly over a page?

I’m getting better at letting go. I find it best to keep moving forward even if that means coming back later to fix something. If I worked on a page until I thought it was perfect I’d still be on the first page.

I doubt that I’ll ever draw something that I won’t come back to later and see where it could be improved. Which isn’t to say I’m unhappy with my work. I do occasionally feel like I’ve knocked one out of the park. I think that’s the nature of most artists: the desire to hopefully continue to improve and grow. I bet even someone as amazing as J.H. Williams sees things in his own work that he wants to make better.

You’ve left more than four issues worth of Haunted online, even as you’re soliciting the print collection. Did you ever worry that people may not buy what they can read online for free, or do you think we’re safely past that perceived web-to-print hurdle?

From "Haunted"

There will always be the folks that read online and that’s the end of their involvement. And that’s fine. I do the same with a lot of stuff. But there are those that I seek out and want a print version of the work. When people buy my or whoever else’s book it’s their way of being a part of it and saying, “I support what you do.” Music is a bit like that, too. I can listen to a song on the radio. Sometimes it’s available for free download or maybe I’ll even buy it. But if I’m a fan I want to go see their live show. Perhaps I’ll buy a t-shirt because that band and their music is something that I identify with. In a way it’s kind of an extension of my personality.

Likewise, I’m offering something the reader isn’t getting on line or the radio. Not everyone feels the need to own a book but there are plenty that do and prefer that experience to reading online. I’m also in the process of putting together a digital version of Haunted that will be available through Clickwheel.net. I’m pretty excited about it. I think it offers a satisfying digital reading experience that really hasn’t been tapped into yet.

Aside from some redrawn elements and more colored pages, what’s new or different in the print edition?

There’s a bonus section that offers behind-the-scenes stuff as well as some rare or unseen bits.

The Xeric grant provides you with money to help publish your comic, but you still have to assemble it, deal with the printer and distributor, and market it to stores and readers. How has that experience been? Is it as daunting as you imagined? What have you learned from the experience?

It’s definitely more involved than I anticipated. I had a lot of it planned out pretty well but there are always things you don’t anticipate or don’t go according to plan. It’s been fascinating being involved with a book on pretty much every level. From just a vague idea to a finished book anyone can buy off the shelf at their local comic shop.

I love the idea that anyone can make comics. It takes a lot of work to make something worthwhile but if you put in enough time and effort it pays off.

What’s next for you after Haunted‘s release? A second volume, or another project?
There will be another volume of Haunted. I’ll be working on it for a bit. After that I’ve got some ideas for other books but one thing at a time.