The Comics Reporter

November 3, 2010

Happy 36th Birthday, Karen Sneider!

posted 2:00 am PST | Permalink

Happy 35th Birthday, Zack Soto!

posted 2:00 am PST | Permalink

Happy 49th Birthday, Tom Grindberg!

posted 2:00 am PST | Permalink

November 2, 2010

Missed It: Richard Sala Two-Pager

posted 11:30 am PST | Permalink

This Isn't A Library: New And Notable Releases To The Comics Direct Market

*****

Here are the books that make an impression on me staring at this week's no-doubt largely accurate list of books shipping from Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. to comic book and hobby shops across North America.

I might not buy all of the works listed here. I might not buy any. But if I were anywhere near a comic shop, I would indulge in some eyeball consumptions, that's for sure.

*****

AUG101027 XENOZOIC COMPLETE COLL TP $39.95
It's a sign of how ridiculously full the publishing slates are right now that this book collecting one of the most important indy comics of its day is likely to go unremarked upon. A lot of how good this collection of Mark Schultz's gumbo of classic adventure comics traditions will be depends on the quality of the presentation, so I'd love to have a comics shop nearby where I could look one over.

SEP100045 BALTIMORE PLAGUE SHIPS #4 $3.50
SEP100053 BUFFY VAMPIRE SLAYER #38 LAST GLEAMING PT 3 (OF 5) JEANTY CV $2.99
JUL100146 BATMAN AND ROBIN #16 $3.99
MAR100429 GODLAND #33 $2.99
MAY100412 INVINCIBLE #75 (MR) $5.99
SEP100673 STRANGE TALES 2 #2 (OF 3) $4.99
SEP100817 ALAN MOORE NEONOMICON #2 (OF 4) AUXILIARY ED (MR) $3.99
SEP100169 BATMAN CATWOMAN FOLLOW THE MONEY #1 $4.99
Here's a smattering of works that I've seen someone out there write about in positive fashion and that I can conceive of being the kind of books you might use to build a small-stack-o'-comics type reading experience. The "Follow the Money" book is Howard Chaykin doing a Batman/Catwoman book, which would definitely make it worth a check out from my book. I haven't been following the Neonomicon stuff and couldn't tell you a thing about it beyond, "well, there it is." The Baltimore book is the latest in Dark Horse's offerings of all things Mike Mignola, the Buffy book still brings in customers who buy that and that alone, the Batman and Robin material by Grant Morrison has been intermittnedly fun, the Godland books are always worth a peek, the Invincible issue may contain more gore than some issues of Robert Kirkman's Walking Dead albeit of the arms-being-pulled-off variety, and the Strange Tales book I think features Los Bros.

JUL100982 BERLIN #17 (MR) $4.95
Or you could blow all that off and read the latest issue of Berlin, a dual time-trip to between-wars Germany and the 1990s comic shop when serial funnybooks like Berlin were much more common. I'm filled with love for this comic book just thinking about it.

SEP100240 DC COMICS PRESENTS CHASE #1 $7.99
This is a reprinting of a few issues of DC Comics' series Chase, one of those well-done mainstream comic books that never had the chance where you read it and count the number of things that were taken from it and employed by lesser comics in subsequent years. What's odd is that if you really want this material, you can find it super-cheap, but I guess it's cool that DC wants to place it back in front of audiences this many years later.

SEP101002 DENYS WORTMANS NEW YORK TP $29.95
This is one of those books that I saw pieces of when James Sturm would bring the work to conventions and show it to people spread out on the tops of stacks of graphic novels: a fascinating series of drawings of 20th Century New York in all its muscular, dirty-under-the-nails glory. Seriously, if you're in a shop that carries it, 1) check out the art, 2) thank the comic shop's owner for having such a cool store.

JUL100071 BPRD TP VOL 14 KING OF FEAR $17.99
It's amazing this series of trades is up to fourteen volumes right now; one of the big shifts in market trends the last half-decades is that there are series that people are buying as a series, just in book form rather than comic book form.

JUL100051 LITTLE LULU TP VOL 25 BURGLAR PROOF CLUBHOUSE $14.99
It's doubly-amazing that this series is up to a 25th volume. I have a couple of friends with young kids that swear by this series.

JUN100768 HOKUSAI DEMONS & OTHER TALES OF THE FOX MOTHER TP $17.99
Al Davison is always worth a pick-up-and-look.

MAR100236 ABSOLUTE ALL STAR SUPERMAN HC $99.99
Well, this has got to be pretty. Someone wrote me this morning that the great genius of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's series was to publish so slowly in serial form and subsequently in multiple formats so that some iteration of it made best-of lists for nine years in a row. I liked the series as much as the next guy, mostly for its eye-candy qualities, although like many Grant Morrison works it's about mortality and the transcendence of imagination.

JUL100244 HOW TO UNDERSTAND ISRAEL IN 60 DAYS OR LESS HC (MR) $24.99
I'm still processing Sarah Glidden's debut graphic novel, detailing a birthright trip to Israel in vibrant color. I really hope that DC in its new property-fluffing era will continue to have a space for books like these, although I have my doubts.

JUL100361 ART OF JIM STARLIN LIFE IN WORDS & PICTURES HC $49.99
Jim Starlin has certainly enjoyed an interesting career in mainstream comics and along its outer rim, one that's uniquely his own. I assume that whenever anyone uses the phrase "words & pictures," there's going to be a lot of pictures.

SEP100391 KILL SHAKESPEARE TP VOL 01 $19.99
I don't remember hearing a ton about this series after its first issue, but I suppose as one of the chattering class the blame for that lies with me as much as with anyone.

SEP100413 WALKING DEAD TP VOL 13 TOO FAR GONE (MR) $14.99
That's good timing. I'm not sure anyone watches a TV show and then hits a funnybook shop to buy a 13th volume of something, but I have to imagine that if you're already a reader and see this book juiced up on the buzz from the television show you'd look on it with that much warmer of a heart.

MAY100654 SQUADRON SUPREME BY MARK GRUENWALD OMNIBUS HC $74.99
Never a fan, although some people swear by this extended What If?-style march through "realistic superheroes" dorm-room conversation plot points. I was fond of Gruenwald as an industry figure, certainly, as were so many folks, and this was certainly an extended, loving expression of his way of thinking about comics and their universes.

AUG101054 BARTIMAEUS GN VOL 01 AMULET OF SAMARKAND $9.99
AUG101055 BARTIMAEUS HC VOL 01 AMULET OF SAMARKAND $19.99
I read these prose books, a kind of tonal halfway point between the Harry Potter series and that big-ass book from Susanna Clarke whose name I can never remember without looking. You know the one. I had no idea that a comic book version was being done, and I hope it's good enough I'll be amazed I hadn't heard a peep about it.

AUG101077 LOUIS NIGHT SALAD HC $14.99
The return of metaphrog!

JUL101021 MOME GN VOL 20 $14.99
Congratulations to Eric Reynolds on a mighty run of books, and let's hope it continues until it's a undeniable all-timer in the very tough room that is the comics anthology.

*****

The full list of this week's releases, including some titles with multiple cover variations and a long, impressive list of toys and other stuff that isn't comics, can be found here. Despite this official list there's no guarantee a comic will show up in the stores as promised, or in all of the stores as opposed to just a few. Also, stores choose what they carry and don't carry so your shop may not carry a specific publication. There are a lot of comics out there.

To find your local comic book store, check this list; and for one I can personally recommend because I've shopped there, albeit a while back, try this.

The above titles are listed with their Diamond order code in the first field, which may assist you in finding comics at your shop or having them order something for you they don't have in-stock. Ordering through a direct market shop can be a frustrating experience, so if you have a direct line to something -- you know another shop has it, you know a bookstore has it -- I'd urge you to consider all of your options.

If I didn't list your comic here, that's because I didn't have full control of the list as I landed out of bounds.

*****

posted 11:00 am PST | Permalink

Go, Look: Emily Carroll's Blog

i bet some of you found this for yourselves

posted 10:30 am PST | Permalink

"I'm Looking For A Hungry Cartoonist Who Wants To Draw Some Disney Stuff And Kick Ass"

Here's a much longer than typical cartoonist profile of Gary Hallgren, focusing on his involvement with the Air Pirates and subsequent Disney lawsuit. The article does a pretty good job of drawing out a few of the 18 billion fascinating elements about the Air Pirates legal battle, such as the way our cultural memory was set at the time where they were working with a conception of what Disney was doing that was involved characters only a couple of decades old but that had been shunted into oblivion for then-current visions of what Mickey represented to the company. The fact that someone out there had made naughty versions of Disney characters was something even elementary school children from Indiana talked about on their family's trip to Disney World; what they did represented a clash of culture and counter-culture that even our tiny minds and our limited experiences allowed us to grasp. Also, every single one of us should at some point in our lives be called upon to the higher purpose of kicking some ass.

posted 10:00 am PST | Permalink

Go, Read: Voyeurs

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Swedish Newspaper Removes Episode Of Martin Kellerman's Rocky From Its Site

An episode of Martin Kellerman's long-running alt-comics strip Rocky was removed from the web site of the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter after editors spotted a character in the strip published on-line Monday referring to the newspaper's owners as "the Jews at Bonnier." (Bonnier is both the media company that owns the publication and a family affiliated with that company.) In doing so, the culture editor of the publication claimed that the strip "contained an Anti-Semitic message" and shouldn't have been published. What's slightly odd about this is that the strip was published in the newspaper itself during the summer months, and was automatically published more recently on the blog according to how they use Kellerman's strip. The same editor, Bjorn Wiman, blamed the fact the paper published the strip in print on it being summer when the regular staff was on vacation. Wiman said it was his personal decision to remove the strip, and not something dictated to him by his employers.

posted 9:00 am PST | Permalink

Go, Look: Hidden Stanley Gems

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David Horsey Plans Election Marathon

The Seattle P-I's David Horsey is going noon to midnight with quickie cartoons about election results, the natural capper to a very odd ramp-up to election day and something that takes advantage of Horsey's primary on-line platform. KAL is also doing some live-drawing tonight at a Baltimore-area event. I've been looking at the editorial cartoons with some purpose for about a week now, and I don't think there's any one person that's super-distinguished themselves with a great run of work corresponding to the political season, although I liked this one by Tom Toles as a sort of grand summary statement of what's going on. As always, Daryl Cagle indexes the work he makes available for quick sampling of the field's offering on various election-related subjects.

posted 8:00 am PST | Permalink

Go, Look: On James Jean's Covers

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Leo Cullum's Final Cartoon Being Funny Isn't Really A News Story; Still: Funny

Michael Cavna talks about the final cartoon that the New Yorker will publish from the late Leo Cullum, noting that it's a funny send-up of a traditional comedy situation that depends on both drawing and caption for full effect. He also includes some nice words from Roz Chast on the quality of Cullum's gag-writing and his cartoons overall. While I would never go so far as to call Cullum an iconic cartoonist -- he never made that kind of overall impression -- his work was certainly emblematic of the best New Yorker traditions: funny, crystal-clear, gag-focused, and cognizant of comedic traditions. The publication and its fans will certain miss his work.

You can read Chast on Cullum here.

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Go, Look: Early John Byrne

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If I Were In Amsterdam, I'd Go To This

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Forthcoming Comics-Related Events

Go, Look: JM DeMatteis Sketches

posted 4:00 am PST | Permalink

Go, Look: More Trash #1

posted 4:00 am PST | Permalink

Go, Look: Combat Casey #7

posted 4:00 am PST | Permalink

Go, Look: Saturday Evening Post Cartoons

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Go, Look: Zago Fights A Robot

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Random Comics News Story Round-Up

* there's always a chance I could have screwed the dates up here, but it looks like the Supreme Court will today review the California video game law struck down in February 2009. The CBLDF is one of many organizations that have targeted the precedents set in this case as important ones.

* working on spec for a comics company sounds fairly depressing to me, and I would advise against it on general principle. Other pundits will tell you that all of the arts are headed in this direction.

* Chris Mautner interviews comics artist, historian and industry advocate Jerry Robinson.

* if I were making up subject matter for videos to put up on the weekends "video parade," one of them would surely be Vanessa Davis holding forth about watercolor technique.

* this 30 Characters Challenge looks pretty cute, although it's hard for me to imagine just creating creators for the sake of creating characters. There's something very... corporate? is that the word I'm looking for? about such an activity.

* Heidi MacDonald analyzes the book charts. One reason people advocate for change in the Direct Market is because it's long been clear that bookstores would eventually calcify into their own buying patterns, reminiscent of how they approach prose books.

* here's a nice, numbered essay on why Love & Rockets: New Stories #3 is so astounding. It really is, you know.

* everyone has a better Halloween than Peter Parker. The artists here do a magnificent job with J. Jonah Jameson's hair. It's like its own character in this scene.

* please feel better, J.M. DeMatteis.

* not comics: this Bam Bam Bigelow costume made me laugh. I heard that Bam Bam was once the subject of a Jeopardy question in a professional wrestling category, with the awesome answer/question of "What are... 'squiggles and flames'."

* old Wonder Woman letters pages are the second-best (after the ones in Lois Lane) that DC ever published.

* as expected by most people heading into the weekend, the Walking Dead TV adaptation on AMC killed it in the ratings. I'm happy for all the people made happy by that news, unless you're over-invested in something that's not yours in any sense, in which case I'm still happy for you and slightly unsettled by your devotion. Here's a review by Don MacPherson. Here's a short piece by Curt Purcell.

* I've never really understood the wacky Internet handle thing. I sort of understand utilizing and maintaining a nom de plume, just not one that humiliates any person who uses it on your behalf.

* Comics Alliance has a long list from Alan Kistler describing the entirety of the Final Crisis mega-crossover. That's one thing that comics will always have over TV -- the baffling sprawl of its mega-events. Imagine if watching a random episode of According to Jim contributed to your experience of seeing Lost. Half-depressing, half sort-of-awesome, right?

* hey, more Dave Eggers World Series sketches. I'm not sure this is the kind of thing best parceled out in installments, but that ain't my publication and I imagine San Francisco audiences are absolutely lapping up any and all unique content concerning the World Series.

* not comics: I kind of thought James Nesbitt was slightly higher profile than to play one of the dwarves, but that shows you what I know.

* finally, this just in: it looks like we may have a late and very strong contender for the title of Most Handsome Comics Maker In The World.

posted 3:00 am PST | Permalink

Happy 57th Birthday, Tom Lyle!

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Happy 83rd Birthday, Steve Ditko!

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Quick hits
Craft
Saturday Night Engine
Steve Bissette Sketches
Ben Towle Makes A Card
Colleen Coover Sketches
Ale Garza Draws Scarecrow
Kyle Baker's More Wrongness
Matt Seneca On An Astro Boy Panel

Exhibits/Events
Report From MCM London Expo
Mark Waid Answers 50 Questions
Visiting The Edd Travers Exhibition

History
Yokai As Protagonists
On Heroes With Disabilities
He Was A Teenage Cartoonist
Jaime Hernandez's Life In Comics

Industry
On CCS And Its Comics
More Post-Cathy Pick-Ups
Scholastic Repurchasing Its Stock
Pictures Of Overseas Pop Culture Stores
JH Williams Is Happy About His Eagle Award
What Being A Freelance Manga Editor Is Like

Interviews/Profiles
CBR: Brian Bendis
CBR: Renee French
Faith Erin Hicks Interviewed
Deconstructing Comics: Greg Hinkle

Not Comics
New Superman Movie Title?
On-Line Journalism Awards Winners
The Insidious Nature Of Book Reviews

Publishing
On Sleepyheads
Jim Lee Art Book Previewed
Sneak Peek At Next Hive Cover
Missed It: Jason Cover For Next Glenat Book
Next Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer Book Previewed

Reviews
Paul O'Brien: Various
Andrew Wheeler: X'ed Out
Richard Bruton: 7 Psychopaths
Andrew Wheeler: Strange Tales
Sean Kleefeld: The 14th Dalai Lama
Chad Nevett: Captain America #611
Sean T. Collins: Human Diastrophism
Robert Greenberger: Dragon Puncher
Shawn Daughhetee: Action Comics #894
Sean Gaffney: How To Draw Shojo Manga
Johanna Draper Carlson: Animal Crackers
Greg McElhatton: Incognito: Bad Influences #1
Johanna Draper Carlson: The Peanuts Collection
Todd Klein: Hellboy: The Crooked Man And Others

Daily Blog Archives
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October 2010
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