Peter Rios breaks open something that has been bubbling along under the radar for a while: Devil’s Due is under negotiations to buy Archaia Studio Press. ASP is best known as the publisher of MOUSE GUARD.

Archaia announced a reorganization back in May when bus sider Aki Liao left, leaving publisher Mark Smylie to find new investors. Most creators being published under ASP expressed solidarity
with Smylie, but the fate of the company and its projects has been up in the air for some time.

Now it appears that Devils Due, which recently announced a licensing deal with Les Humanoides, is also looking to acquire ASP’s properties. It’s our understanding taht negotiations with various ASP creators — who all have their own creator-owned contracts — have been in negotiations with DD for a while now. However, according to Rios — or someone he’s quoting, it isn’t really made clear — this has hit some snags:

The purchase has hit a serious snag. A large number of the ASP creative roster are upset that Devil’s Due is refusing to honor their old ASP contracts. Under threat of non-publication, creators are being pressured to sign a new agreement which grants Devil’s Due each and every worldwide right, trademark and copyright, of every nature. Since most of Archaia’s talent signed to the company precisely to retain control of their books, this has been a major stumbling block. With DDP’s unwillingness to honor the spirit of the old contract and refusal to allow creators to take their books elsewhere severe friction has developed between publisher and talent.

Other ASP creators respond anonymously, including this one:

Truthfully, if there isn’t another publisher currently willing to pick the project up right now I’ll simply move on to other projects and give this one a whirl again later.While I don’t think everything is as sinister as your initial informant made it out to be - not being published isn’t a “punishment” of not signing on, nor is it a strong-arm tactic. It’s simply the result of not coming on board with a new regime and deciding to take the book elsewhere - it does suck that a company formed by an independent creator FOR independent creators has pulled a 180 on it’s stance regarding a creator’s rights to his or her property, as these new contracts would indicate.

Sadly, this is increasingly the way of the world. Devil’s Due is certainly within their rights to ask for the kind of deal they offer their own people, but the creators at ASP originally signed on to escape just that kind of control. And yet, clearly, being proftiable wasn’t in the cards for ASp or they wouldn’t be getting shopped around.

We have a few emails out there. Developing.

UPDATE: There is apparently much more to this story, but we’re waiting for official statements.

Today’s “It Kids” of snark and anti-establishmentarianism, Tucker and Nina Stone, are interviewed by Chris Mautner at Blog@Newsarama. Depending on your point of view, you will find them to be ultra-haters or honest proponents of an outsider viewpoint. Nina, who is new to comics, comments on the rollout of her exposure. Sometimes it pays off:

NS: OK. I saw that some of [the site comments] directed toward me were saying things like “this is like jumping into chapter seventy in a seventy-five chapter book and you really shouldn’t expect to understand.” And, you know, I learned from my American Splendor experience. I didn’t like the comic – and my opinion was based solely on that comic, at that time. People “commented” that I should really read his older stuff to get a better picture of what he’s really all about. So, I read a bit of his older stuff and watched the movie…and now I totally adore Harvey Pekar. And his wife. And I get it. I get what the comic was about, how it came to be, why it was successful, etc.

Sometimes it doesn’t:

So, after reading Final Crisis and all those comments, I decided to go to DCcomics.com, and spend a little time around there. Maybe there is some little primer there? Well, there actually IS some section that says “New to comics?” — so I clicked on it and it’s basically — I found it really funny because it has a FAQs page with minimal links and the questions are: “What are comics?” “Where can I buy comics?” “Where can I learn about comics and the comic fan community?” “And How does DC Comics, WildStorm, and Vertigo fit into all of this?” None of those FAQs really helped. So I clicked on Heroes and Villains and basically it tells me that to get caught up I need to read — 52, was that it?

Tucker argues from a more informed viewpoint, and once again, depending on which side you’re on, he’s either a connoisseur or an elitist:

It’s the same standard—that if it’s good, then it’s art, and if it’s not good, well it’s comics and you should shut up–over and over and it shouldn’t be because comics are in the same exact some marketplace as everything else. They’re not fighting for the comics dollar. There isn’t a comics dollar. They’re fighting for the entertainment dollar, It’s not just that manga sells more. Comics are up against TV, movies, video games, playing outside with a rope—run of the mill super-hero comics are fighting for the same free time that everything else is fighting for. It’s not enough that a comic is entertaining—it’s got to be more entertaining then it would be to watch a cat do something cute on YouTube, because that’s what it’s competing with for my time.

Stone also deals directly with the problem so many critics have: Contact between author and subject is all too possible and taints the whole barrel:

I made the mistake of responding directly to a creator who didn’t like the way I treated his shitty comic book. Back and forth, debating it like we respected each other’s opinion when in the end, I didn’t feel any different, he didn’t like me, and it wasn’t like he was going to break down and admit the thing was trash, and it wasn’t like I was going to lie and pretend I was kidding. At the end I felt dirty. I shouldn’t have done that. That’s me though, I had to learn. Now, I think I would just not get into it with them.

In a way,Tucker Stone is saying the most obvious thing possible: We should raise the bar to separate what is considered good from the vast sea of mediocrity masquerading as the majority of comics. And yet so many people spend so much time talking about that mediocrity. Dick Hyacinth picks up on the theme:

Comics readers seem to love the mediocre. I don’t think the problem with comics criticism (in a broad, broad, very inclusive sense) isn’t that it rewards terrible, bottom-of-the-barrell work; it’s that it rewards second-rate work. Any stab at respectability, no matter how modest, is too-often greeted with hosannas. I’ve seen people laud Kingdom Come because it used foreshadowing–which I’m sure we all remember is an actual, honest-to-god literary technique! I guess that’s a step up from those who think crying superheroes holding the charred remains of less-famous superheroes connotes respectability.

The way the comicnets obsess over mediocre comics, it’s as if movie blogs kept arguing the deep meaning and value of Beverly Hills Chihuahua and College all the time.

In all candor, The Beat is as guilty of this as anyone. Confronted with a sincere press release on something of, shall we say, “limited appeal,” we run it anyway, just in hopes that improvement is in the offing.

Look, did you see? We did it again. “Limited appeal.”

We meant to say “mediocre comics.”

We truly believe that this is a golden age for the graphic storytelling medium. Our recent trip to SPX proved that; it was the comics equivalent of a Christmas stocking, full of goodies and treasure. There are more and better trained cartoonists around us than at perhaps any time since the Golden Age of illustration.

Yet, every week we get stacks of comics from major publishers, and just sorting them out is a tedious chore, one to be fobbed off on interns, who, in turn, hate doing it. These comics have become so inbred, so tortured in their self-reflexive appeal to an an ever shrinking base that the brain automatically shifts away. Don’t get us wrong; there will be some new readers who will take the Nina Stone challenge and like it; in an Internet-driven world where mastery of inane factoids is currency, the draconian choice between total immersion or total rejection makes some kind of sense. So creating products for the cult makes economic sense. It’s the dearth of NON-cult products for new audiences that seems total nonsense. And despite what you may have heard, good comics(FUN HOME, WATCHMEN) win over more new readers than crappy comics do.

At the same time, having worked in the comics industry, I know that the monthly or weekly grind lowers one’s resistance to crap. The joy of just getting a book out every month soon drowns out the tastebuds, and it’s only long afterwards that, stepping back, you can see the poverty of imagination.

There are lot of barely readable or unreadable comics out there, and yet they are being argued over as if they were a novel by Dostoyevsky. And you know what? They aren’t.

And people gradually wake up to that fact. Every once in a while, a comic comes along that hastens the awakening. This week, it’s NIGHTWING #149. Greg Burgas tales up the call.

Over at Every Day Is Like Wednesday, I came across a description of Nightwing #149: “[I]t is incredibly, spectacularly awful.” Caleb goes far more into it, and I just thought, “I must buy this. I must read it.” And so I bought it. And I read it. Boy howdy, he’s right. He celebrates its awfulness, however, believing that nothing can come “anywhere near the terrible glory” that is Nightwing #149. I can’t be quite so blasé about it, however. This is a bad comic. More than that, it’s a depressing comic. In a DC Universe that has recently been all about cruelty, this stands out. If you didn’t buy it, I thought I’d break it down for you.

Everyone grows up sometime. You just can’t keep arguing over this stuff and thinking about it without a little bit of your soul dying. Thus it pleases us to see a bright, perceptive person like Laura Hudson beginning to emerge into the light:

Coming directly off of my weekend at SPX, as well as recently reading a string of excellent, engrossing non-superhero graphic novels like Skim, Swallow Me Whole, and Alan’s War, picking up a comic book like Nightwing #149 feels a lot like shutting my hand in a car door. And I’m thinking — I’m thinking I should stop doing that.

We all need to raise the bar a little. I do; you do. We all do. It’s not that potboiling pieces of mediocre pap (or worse) won’t still come out. It’s just that we need to stop pretending they matter in any way, shape, or form.

Over at Blog@, Jeff Trexler reports that ne of his posts has been introduced as evidence in the Siegel/DC copyright lawsuit. Under examination is the post discussing a collaboration between Jerry Siegel and an artist named Russell Keaton on what appears to be an early version of Superman.

The discovery of this new material set off a heated legal exchange. DC’s lawyers challenged the Kitchen documents on several fronts, prompting Toberoff to defend Joanne Siegel’s ability to verify her husband’s signature and Denis Kitchen’s trustworthiness. DC claimed that the new material was filed too late to be considered at this point in the proceedings; the Siegels argued that DC had made a series of its own “rogue filings” with “unauthenticated evidence.”

The reason why the Siegel/Keaton material has received so much attention lies in one of the hottest issues in the comics business today: work for hire. A creator cannot use termination rights to regain ownership of material created as work made for hire, since the creator did not own the material in the first place. However, the Siegel heirs were able to regain half of the copyright in the Superman material in Action Comics #1 in part because Jerry Siegel had co-authored it before entering into the September 22, 1938 employment agreement with Detective Comics.

More in the link.

Watch legendary illustrater Bob Staake create this week’s New Yorker cover in this video. Apparently his process is quite amazing, according to Drawn!

Thanks in part to YouTube, author and illustrator Bob Staake gives the world an inside look at how he goes about creating his one-of-a-kind illustrations. Believe it or not, Bob creates all of his digital work in Adobe Photoshop 3.0… with a mouse… all on one layer!

After a flurry of rumors that he was ending his OPUS comic strip, cartoonist Berkeley Breathed has confirmed it is ending on November 2.

WPWG Editorial Director/General Manager Alan Shearer praised Breathed, saying the cartoonist “pushed all sorts of topical and stylistic envelopes” and “influenced a generation of new cartoonists.” Lago said Breathed is ending his comic with a contest asking readers to guess Opus the penguin’s fate. Currently, the character is in prison courtesy of U.S. authorities. The actual solution will be available only on the Internet, not in newspapers, according to WPWG.

The Internet thing is a nice twist.

Some good news from Rick Veitch: he’s collecting BRAT PACK in a remastered edition:

When the fifth printing of my BRAT PACK tpb sold out a few months back, I promised I’d have big news about the next edition and here it is! King Hell Press will release INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH BRAT PACK, a 300+ page limited hardcover collection of all things Slumbergian, in Spring of 2009. The book will include the completely remastered original graphic novel (I’ve been able to rescan all the original art thanks to good guy art dealer Albert Moy), all the various color covers, over fifty pages of sketches, unused pages and promotional art along with the never before seen original proposal that I presented DC Comics with back in 1998. On top of that I’ll be writing a behind the scenes history of Tundra, King Hell and the whole furshlugginer comics scene circa 1991 when BRAT PACK became the #1 best selling independent comic and was nominated for an Eisner Award as best new series. And as icing on the cake, Steve Bissette has written an enlightening historical and cultural appreciation of the sidekick phenomena in comics and film titled TEEN ANGELS.

For those not familiar with it, BRAT PACK completes the troika of immortal works dissecting the superhero genre, with the other two being DARK KNIGHT and WATCHMEN. Indeed, for those brave readers looking for a follow-up to WATCHMEN, BRAT PACK could be just the thing. We were flipping through a copy the other day, and it’s just as disturbing and horrific as it ever was. Now, if only we could get a COLOR reprint.

While there are countless blog posts about SPX out there, a few of them merit more than passing mention.

§ The I love Rob Liefeld blog has a good rundown of purchases.

§ Of course we loved Brian Heater’s report, because we’re IN IT. But he also catches that special SPX vibe:

The magic of SPX has always been, at least in part, due to the fact that the show is held in a Bethesda, rather than New York or San Francisco, so most of those in attendance haven’t just happened onto the showroom floor to get in out of the heat or the cold, but have rather devoted a significant chunk of time and money into attending the show. The location also ensures that those present don’t scatter to the wind as soon as the floor closes, but rather hop in massive carpools to the next location. And, when you wake up, bleary-eyed the next morning, there’s a pretty good chance that the person riding down in the elevator with you or stumbling down the hotel halls is there for the same reason. It’s a sense of comradery by necessity almost entirely absent in big shows like San Diego, and even smaller ones like MoCCA or APE

§ Ben Towle has the fun:

I returned in time for the post-show booze-fest, which was, as usual, a lot of fun. Again, pretty much everyone I talked to had nothing but great stuff to say sales-wise about Saturday. The cheery mood led to much merriment of course. In some strange manifestation of “six degrees of separation,” I wound up sitting at a table with a bunch of comics bigwigs far, far out of my league–including novelist and professor Tom DeHaven and his wife, and Fantagraphics/Comics Journal founder Gary Groth. I mostly talked to that guy that always comes to SPX in drag… who was curiously also sitting at this same table with us.

But he also does a breakdown of his sales at Heroes Con vs SPX… with numbers and GRAPHS. This part is definitely worth looking at:

Interestingly, as far as cash-in-hand goes, I wound up with almost exactly the same amount of money walking out the door at both shows. It says a lot about how brisk SPX was, though, that it’s a two day show and Heroes is a three day show. On the other hand, the hotel at SPX costs about 160% of the hotel at Heroes. A huge factor for me personally, though, is that I’m usually a guest at Heroes, but have to pay for a table at SPX–and of course Heroes is just down the road from me, whereas I have a long drive and one extra day in a hotel for SPX.

§ Nate at Bramble Vine Comics chose this year’s Balitmore show over SPX and has exhibitor’s remorse:

Don’t get me wrong, I still had a lot of fun at BCC. I met a lot of people and sold a ton of pins and sketches. The crowds at BCC were overwhelming and everyone I spoke to about it while at the con who had exhibited there last year agreed that there were far more people attending than last year. But, us indie folk in the Artist Alley, which ringed the convention floor, all saw mediocre sales. I could see it in people’s eyes as they walked past my table, they were searching for things they knew. They wanted something familiar, something that matched the superhero logo on their t-shirts. The majority of people at the BCC were not interested in new unknowns like myself. Webcomics were not on their radar screens, they wanted a deal on a new copy of Watchmen and the latest Batman action figure.

SPX 2007 was such a different experience for me. The folks that went to SPX were hunting for new comics and cartoons. They wanted to feel like they were discovering something, they wanted fresh, weird and experimental. Webcomics were high on their agenda of things to check out. There may have been fewer attendees, but I sold a lot more books and got a lot of encouraging comments there. The crowd that goes to SPX are far more likely to open their wallets on something that they haven’t seen before

And from the Chris corner:
Chris Mautner
Chris Pitzer

Laura Park has been one of the most admired cartoonists around for a few years. Her output has been mostly confined to minis and an issue of SUPERIOR SHOWCASE. But following her Ignatz win for “Best Artist,” one had to wonder, which lucky publisher was going to glom on to her? It seems she’s joined the Fantagraphics list, as she’ll be appearing in an upcoming issue of MOME.

§ We told you Domingos Isabelinho’s blog was gonna be deep:

There are, at least, four cultural fields that can help to expand comics as an art form: Medieval (or older art) painting and book illustration; the wordless engraving cycle; Modern and Post-Modern painting; Concrete and Visual Poetry. None of these fields are linked to comics on the gentiles’ heads. For a variety of reasons they all have problems to be accepted by the comics milieu as well. Let’s briefly examine some of these objections.

§ Bill Griffith is interviewed at CBR:

“Zippy”is a vehicle for you to do pretty much anything. Some good examples are the autobiographical strips you’ve done, which are very different from the typical strip. Was it always your intention to make “Zippy” a vehicle for anything you wanted? I’ve always thought that an essential quality of Zippy’s character is his unpredictability. He can talk or think about anything and isn’t constrained by “reality” or even time. That makes for a lot of flexibility in what I can deal with in any given strip or storyline. I like to experiment with the strip structurally as well as with subject matter. For instance, I recently introduced two new characters from a kind of “parallel universe” to Zippy’s, Fletcher and Tanya. They look like pinheads, but are drawn in a minimalistic style and speak entirely with text clipped and pasted from old magazine advertising. Likewise the autobiographical series I did about my father some years ago. I just launched into it and hoped readers would come along. Sometimes I need a break from doing “just” “Zippy” and my regular cast of characters. I enjoy surprising readers—and myself. It keeps things from stagnating.

§ Also at CBR, John Mayo’s monthly sales analysis:

While this could be seen as a sign of the strength and longevity of “Watchmen,” what it really demonstrates is a major marketing success for DC. In a brilliant move, DC set up a consignment program for “Watchmen” and offered it to retailers for free provided they return any unsold copies in salable condition between December 1 and December 30, 2008. By doing this, DC is taking on the risk and making it as financially viable as possible for retailers to have as many copies of “Watchmen” as they want over the coming months. DC was under no obligation to do so, particularly for as well known a product as “Watchmen.”

§ How much do people love IRON MAN? So much so that the IRON MAN Blu-ray disc is the fastest selling Blu-ray in history. So many people bought it that downloading additional content from Paramount’s website, crashed the site big time

That alone wouldn’t have been a problem, but because this caused the loading of the movie to halt while the content was downloaded lots of people thought the disc itself was defective. Paramount has now issued a statement to explain the problem.

§ Liquid Comics is flowing — to Hollywood. The former Virgin Comics has had one of its properties — Ramayan — picked up by Mandalay:

Sony Online Entertainment optioned “Ramayan,” first published in 2006, last year to turn the game into a massively multiplayer online role-playing title.

John Collee is adapting the comicbook, based on epic Hindu poem about the adventures of legendary blue-skinned warrior Prince Rama, who fights to rescue his wife from the demon king who kidnapped her.

According to the piece, several other Virgin/Liquid projects — including VIRULENTS and THE GAMEKEEPER — are still in play in Tinseltown, and others are still hoped to go into development.

§ MEANWHILE, the only REALLY important thing going on is: Guillermo del Toro talked The Hobbit this weekend:

I find you have to discipline yourself to write in the morning, and then watch and read in the afternoons stuff that seems relevant, even in a tangential way. For example, reading or watching World War I documentaries or books that I think inform ‘The Hobbit,’ strangely enough, because I believe it is a book born out of Tolkien’s generation’s experience with World War I and the disappointment of being in that field and seeing all those values kind of collapse. I think it’s a turning point that you need to familiarize yourself with. I’m starting.

We’re busy writing up our official SPX report for tomorrow’s PWCW, but a very few quick notes:

The show was generally speaking, a big success; everyone was having fun and selling books and talking about making comics. Future Mr. Beat — an indie show near-virgin — had a telling comment, comparing it to last week’s Baltimore Comic-Con (which was also fun). He pointed out that at Baltimore, as you walked through Artist’s Alley, there would inevitably be people sitting there all by themselves with that puppy dog look of desperation, trying to sell their books. At SPX, by contrast, everyone was busy and happy, whether selling to the eager crowd or checking out each other’s work. It was just an engaging, lively place to be.

That observation was dead-on: SPX is full of so much enthusiasm, joy, and talent. It brings a tear to the eye, it does. It’s also, as always, a chance to watch the changing of the guard. This year’s Saturday/Sunday timeframe, a change from the Friday-Saturday of years past, was a selling success and all of us old-timers who liked the idea of Sunday as a Summit and picnic/softball game realized that pining for that was useless. That was 10 years ago, fer cryin’ out loud — we might as well yearn for grunge and Pets.com. And the kids of today have their own bonding SPX rituals: the Nerdlinger Awards and Saturday night’s karaoke fest, which was stinky and loud and chaotically groovy. (Above photo from Brian Heater’s Flickr stream captures the mayhem (although not the madness of the group “Yellow Submarine” singalong.)

The show also had Joost Swarte and Kramers Ergot #7 and all the things that push the needle artistically. Jog also caught the vibe:
Now it’s like a city. A small city, but still something you can’t cover in its entirety. The population has bunched up into closer, self-sufficient groups, which is as natural as a city gets. I know its contours, and its basic layout, but I couldn’t name every cheese shop or hairdresser. And there’s no need to, really - I know the places I like, and I know how to find other places, and there’s enough transportation by communication to keep the place lit. It’s even gotten so there’s cleaner borders with other (sub)cultural municipalities, like Anime City, which is where I go to buy meth away from the eyes of my family.

For pictures, check out the link above and doubtless many more to come. In closing many thanks to the road trip crew of Jah Furry, Brian Heater and Ben McCool for laughing all the way. Thanks also to Laura Hudson, Jimmy Aquino, Calvin Reid, Greg Bennett, Van Jensen, Jill Friedman and Bill K. for help of various types.

The Comics Reporter has a list of “If I Were The Emperor of Comics: Two Dozen Things I’d Decree To Make Comics Better,” none of which we’d disagree with outright, few of which any responsible comics observer could disagree with, although some of the business suggestions would get a fight. As we head into the Cormac McCarthy model of a world economy, making cave drawings to amuse ourselves may be the only thing we have, so all this may be moot; however, we’d add another one:

#26: Make POS systems of some kind universal in comics shops.
I vividly remember walking into LA’s Meltdown Comics for the first time in many years or so and being amazed at its size and vibrancy, as owner Gaston Dominguez-Letelier ran us through the wide variety of items that sold well in his store. I asked about what he thought of using a point-of-sales system to track sales and he just smiled. “I’ve had POS for 10 years,” he said. Accurate sales information, via computerized inventory tracking, as Brian Hibbs has been telling us, is not only a way to save money but to gauge what readers like buying, not based on prior prejudices of the seller but actual sales numbers. Many retailers have told us that after installing POS systems, they made unexpected discoveries about what kinds of items had the highest turnover in the store. Hint: They were not published by Marvel and DC. Diamond’s POS has been slowly rolling out as it is tweaked, but there are already good systems available, such as MOBY, which Hibbs uses. While some people rail against the direct sales market as an outmoded superhero delivery system, as many people in the book industry would attest, having a dedicated nationwide base of thousands of specialty stores is something most publishers would kill for.

We’ll have more, maybe, after today’s deadline crunch, but in the meantime, read Tom’s piece and ponder.

More legal maneuvers in the case of Michael George, whose conviction in the killing of his wife has been sent back for a new trial: Although judge James Biernat Sr. did not remove the Macomb County Prosecutor’s office from the case, he has issued a gag order:

But Biernat instead imposed a gag order prohibiting attorneys from speaking to the media about the case, because he said he’s concerned about a tainted jury in an upcoming trial.

Advertisement

“The defense has presented a colorful argument,” Biernat said. “However, the court finds that given the present status (of the case) with the Court of Appeals, it would be inappropriate.”

Apparently all the Ignatz winner lists out there have left off the Debut Prize winner, probably because the nominees weren’t part of the original press release. At any rate, the winner was Nate Powell’s SWALLOW ME WHOLE (Top Shelf.)

Congrats to all the very deserving winners.

§ ICv2 has the most information yet on Fred Pierce leaving Wizard:

Gareb Shamus, founder and Chairman of the Board of Wizard Entertainment, told ICv2 that “the parting was amicable, and we wish Fred well in his new endeavors.” Shamus indicated to ICv2 that he is open to the idea of filling the position held by Pierce, but has no plans to do so at this time.

According to the piece, Shamus is more involved and sees “great things ahead” for Wizard.

§ Rivkah has more on publihsing and payments and the realities of the world::

In no way do I believe that the principals and pay that should be applied to a major, potentially global endeavor should be applied to the grassroots press or small publisher, and I want that to be absolutely clear. For two years I helped run a publishing company putting out fiction novels from non-agented, beginning writers. We paid 10%-14% on gross sales (that’s gross, not net), put no holds against returns, held no “costs” or “administration fees” against the writer, and paid bi-annually so that writers were getting paid within six months of publication with a thorough summary of what sold where for how much. And we had a damn good grassroots free marketing campaign. Not once did we pay an advance.

§ Best Week ever presents a fumetti with Paul Pope and clothing:

§ Vulture responds to Tom Spurgeon with Ten Oddball Things Your Comics Collection Truly Needs:

1. Anything by Rob Liefeld.
The artist may be the laughingstock of the comics industry, but his hilariously awful drawings of hysterical ponytailed men with extraordinarily improbable anatomy, an abundance of shoulder pads and pouches, and machine guns the size of Buicks define an entire era of superhero comics.

§ Finally, hours and hours of fun: Google in 2001.

Quite a busy weekend for comics-related group activities: FallCon, Mid-Ohio, and the Birmingham International Comics Show all took place, in addition to SPX.

§ In the UK, this year’s BICS sounds like it was bigger than ever:

About 3,000 fans, artists, writers, publishers and comic dealers were treated to exhibitions, demonstrations, workshops and discussions involving some of the comic world’s greatest names.

Co-organiser James Hodgkins said: “It’s getting bigger every year. We’ve got a great guest list. A bigger theatre and more exhibitors than before.”

He added that the show is now established as a part of the national comic industry calendar.

Biggest draws included a theatre presentation by leading British artist Dave Gibbons whose Watchman pipped Japanese classic Akira to be voted the greatest graphic novel of all time by convention goers.

Based on various emails, Twitters, and text message received by Future Mr. Beat, it also seems that great deals of alcohol were consumed at the show. Tony Lee has more on the show as a whole, not just the drinking.

§ As for Mid-Ohio, moved to the early October time slot by new owners after a long run as the post-Thanksgiving con, it went well, Mark Evanier reports:

Everyone seems to have had a good time at this year’s Mid-Ohio Con here in Columbus, Ohio…which is where I’m blogging from as we speak. This has always been one of the friendliest comic/s-f/media conventions around and its new proprietors are continuing that tradition. I didn’t hear a bit of industry news here — it’s not that kind of convention — but I sure got to see and talk with a lot of great people…especially yesterday when I interviewed the great Joe Kubert for an hour. Joe has been drawing comics since John McCain was in knee pants and it’s warming to hear that he still enjoys doing it. I did Joe the great favor of not giving him the big hug and a kiss that Sergio sent for him.

Lurid.com has a Mid-Ohio Con photo gallery, most centered around artist P. Craig Russell, such as the above shot of him and Chris Claremont.

§ Meanwhile, FallCon was also fun, based on a few online reports we glanced at. We randomly chose Matt Schuler’s blog to quote, and he got his picture taken with Alex Niño.

Fall-con is finished, and it was another fun one to attend. I got to meet a ton of new people, and got to catch up with some that I have talked to before. One of the ‘great’ moments of the convention was the talk I had with Alex Nino, who is pictured above.

“And…here our troubles began…”

Photo by Brian Heater. Soon after this photo was taken, one man involved was battling explosive diarrhea, another was nauseous, and yet a third had a Cúchulainn-like gout of blood spurting from his nose. We have to give a call-out to Jah Furry’s cat-like survival instincts: after a bite or two of a biscuit, the techniques taught him by an ancient Navajo shaman kicked in, warning him that to finish it would mean total incapacitation for at least 18 hours, as well as chronic dropsy for the rest of his natural life. The Beat? The Beat is okay because we had stuck with an actual Waffle, which had a seemingly lower lard content than anything else on the menu. We don’t know how you people live, we really don’t.

Anyway, aside from the Waffle House disaster, our trip to SPX was fine and dandy. Many comics purchased, many old friends seen, much news exchanged, many songs sung. More in the next post!

But before we do, welcome aboard to the new Beat Intern, Aaron Humphrey, who lives on the other side of the world in Australia, but is doing our events calendar to get warmed up before he does great things for the world.

Monday, October 6
Washington, D.C., 5 PM - “Happy Accidents” Panel at George Washington University’s Gelman Library

Cartoonists Jesse Reklaw (THE NIGHT OF YOUR LIFE), Dash Shaw (BOTTOMLESS BELLY BUTTON), Trevor Alixopulos (THE HOT BREATH OF WAR), Ken Dahl (WELCOME TO THE DAHL HOUSE), and Sarah Edward-Corbett (SEE-SAW) will join a reading and panel discussion titled “Happy Accidents,” about contemporary themes and issues in graphic novels. The event is free and open to the public. Photo ID is required to enter the library.

Monday, October 6
New York, NY, 6:30 PM - Dojinshi with Dan Pink at the Japanese Society

Dan Pink, author of the business-by-manga guide THE ADVENTURES OF JOHNNY BUNKO (above), will discuss the world of dojinshi, and explain why the amateur manga artists who remix and repurpose popular titles into new creations are actually helping the Japanese manga industry. Tickets are $5 - $10 and are available online.

Thursday, October 9
New York, NY, 7 PM - late - Comic Foundry Release Party

Comic Foundry editors Tim Leong and Laura Hudson celebrate the release of the magazine’s fourth issue with a party at The Irish Rogue on 356 W 44th St. Free copies of the new issue to the first 50 guests to arrive.

Saturday, October 11
San Francisco, CA from 1 - 3 PM – Mike Gray at The Cartoon Art Museum

Award-winning cartoonist Mike Gray, creator of THOM CAT, (which will air on Nickelodeon in December 2008 as part of the Random Cartoons series) will appear at the Cartoon Art Museum as part of its ongoing Cartoonist-in-Residence program. Visitors will have the chance to see Mr. Gray at work, watch his cartoons, chat with him about cartooning, and get a free sketch. Free and open to the public.

Saturday, October 11
San Francisco, CA from 6:30 - 10 PM - Game Over: Art of the Gamer Generation opening reception at Giant Robot

Giant Robot presents a group show that pays homage to the massive influence and continuous evolution of videogames. The impact and inspiration of videogames will be represented through a wide assortment of styles and genres provided by top artists in the fields of illustration, painting, sewing, and indie comics.

Saturday, October 11
Chicago, IL from 7 - 8 PM - Release Signing for THE HOT BREATH OF WAR at Quimby’s Bookstore

To celebrate the release of Trevor Alixopulos’ 2008 Ignatz Award-nominated graphic novel, THE HOT BREATH OF WAR, by Sparkplug Comic Books, Alixopulos and fellow 2008 Ignatz Awards nominees Laura Park and Jeremy Onsmith will be signing comics at Quimby’s Bookstore.

Posted by Aaron Humphrey

If you weren’t at SPX this weekend, then maybe you were parked in front of the tube watching either the baseball playoffs or the Elite XC show on CBS last night. And you could only be left asking one question after the night was over.

Who had a worse night: The Cubs or Kimbo Slice?

The heavily-favored Cubbies had the best record in the National League and were expected to perhaps end their century-long championship drought. Instead, the Dodgers, led by ex-Yankee skipper Joe Torre and former Red Sox slugger Manny Ramirez, swept the Cubs and sent a whole region of the country into despair.

Meanwhile, Slice, MMA’s most notorious fighter, had his night and aura and future ended after fourteen seconds, losing to a replacement fighter with blotches of pink hair. Seth Petruzelli, a one-time participant in the Beat’s favorite TV show The Ultimate Fighter, was supposed to fight on the show’s undercard, but was vaulted into the main event after Ken Shamrock was injured the day before the fight and ruled ineligible by the commission.

The one highlight of the EXC show was the peformance of the promotion’s other star, Gina Carano (aka Crush from American Gladiators). Carano managed to make weight for this show (although not before having to strip naked behind a towel to get light enough) and dispatched her opponent, setting up a fight with Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos, who also won last night.

Of course, the big question today is whether there even will be another event on CBS. EC has been hemorrhaging money and if last night’s rating wasn’t to CBS’s liking, there will probably not be any more shows. Did Shamrock’s scratch from the lineup hurt viewership? Numbers are not in yet, but there have been arguments made today that the number could go either way. So we’ll just have to see on this one.

Oh, and if you’re a Dodgers fan today, you’re far from melancholy. You should just be getting ready to play the Phillies and hoping for a repeat of when the teams met 30 years ago in the playoffs. Is Danny Ozark still around anywhere?

Posted by Mark Coale

Outstanding Artist
Laura Park, Do Not Disturb My Waking Dream (self-published)

Outstanding Anthology or Collection
Papercutter #7, edited by Greg Means and Galen Longstreth (Tugboat Press)

Outstanding Graphic Novel
Skim, Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki (Groundwood Books)

Outstanding Story
The Thing About Madeleine, Lilli Carre (self-published)

Promising New Talent

Sarah Glidden, How To Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less (self-published)

Outstanding Series
Snake Oil, Chuck Forsman (self-published)

Outstanding Comic
Snake Oil #1, Chuck Forsman (self-published)

Outstanding Mini-Comic
Bluefuzz, Jesse Reklaw

Outstanding Online Comic
Achewood, Chris Onstad (www.achewood.com)

After the awards, there was the traditional bathing in chocolate fondue, followed by karaoke armageddon.

Just preparing for the Ignatz awards in our room, but today looked to be a boffo day for the SPX, with a LINE of people as the show opened at 11 and reports of brisk sales from the jammed hallways.

Last night’s party at Atomic Books in Baltimore was also a blast from reports, and the Nerdlinger Awards were handed out in what we’re sure was a dignified and stentorian manner. And here’s the list of winners:

Kate Beaton - The Dangerous Minds Award for Bringing History Back To the Streets
Justin J Fox -The Significancy Award for Significant Significance
Jeff Lok - Single Best Sentence in A Short Form Comic, or The “I Just Shot The Fucking Sun” Award
Maris Wicks - Random Informative Facts About Invertebrates & Best All-Around Coffee Shop Drawing Session Chatter.
Alec Longstreth - Most Missed Cartoonist
Alex Bullet and Andrew Greenstone - The Maypole Celebration Award for Editing an Anthology that Reached Positive-Numbered Issues
Tim Piotrowski - Best Heart-Wrenching Journey of Self-discovery of a Sugary Drink
Dada Detective’s team of Dave, Matt and Stephanie - Most Outspoken Mime Character
Laura Park - The Warmest Drawings In Comics
Kevin McShane Best Rationalization For Retaining A Ridiculously Counter-Intuitive Comic Title
Dustin Harbin – Greatest Gentleman/Greatest Smile in Indie Comics
Sarah Oleksyk - Teenager Comic Character of The Year
Jamie Tanner – Style Award for Making Comics Look Good
Dylan Williams – MCA Award for Making Comics Awesome
Miss Lasko-Gross – Third Annual Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence

That’s all for now…more after the Ignatz / Karaoke Extravaganza.

Our email inbox is stuffed with word that Wizard COO Fred Pierce has been let go. Pierce was definitely the mover and shaker who ran Wizard’s day-to-day business and was probably much more involved than CEO Gareb Shamus for the last few years.

Newsarama reports:

The move (which is seen as cost-cutting by observers) is the latest in what seems to have become a steady stream of layoffs, departures and shifts within the company structure over the past two to three years. The business is soon to move to a new building as well, something also cited as a cost-cutting measure. With Pierce’s departure, insiders report that Gareb and his brother Stephen Shamus are running the day to day operations of the business.

Pierce was not well liked by many ex-Wizard staffers, as Sean T. Collins shows by breaking into an Ewok-style celebratory “yub nub” at the news.

Everyone knows that magazine publishing isn’t exactly a huge growth industry these days, but an observer can’t help but think that things must be very dire at Wizard World for a fixture like Pierce to be let go.

Who’s left? EIC Scott Gramling, Joe Yanarella and Mike Cotton are the best-known names.

Observers we spoke with were shocked, and the prognosis for Wizard’s continued health is considered questionable. Others, however, saw the often confrontational Pierce as a major impediment to moving forward with a new direction.

Developing, as they say.

More, from Tom Spurgeon:

Update: A few more reactions from the grapevine, including a publishing exec who told us, “Fred made it pretty clear to us that buying ad pages and getting editorial coverage were very much related.”

Deb Aoki has more on DMP’s reductions in staff and output, as more info filters out on the web. Five people have been let go, and publishing volume is being cut from 12 to 7 titles a month.

“The seven titles per month is a mixture of new and existing scheduled titles. In essence, to make room for titles that are more in demand, some titles got pushed into 2010. So each month, there is a mixture of new June, one 801 Media title (per usual), continuing series from June, DMP, and usually one or two novels per month. It’s a little more diverse that way — and because of the current market at the moment, we want to push the titles that the fans have really been asking us for.”

One of these fan-favorite series is Flower of Life, so fans will be happy to hear that the long-awaited Volume 4 of Fumi Yoshinaga’s hilarious high school manga series is scheduled for release in May 2009.

In addition, the yaoi-themed 801 line is being folded into the also-boys love-themed June line. Incorrect — see comments.

Reader Pepo points us to this site, with examples of recolored Moebius. On the top, Yves Chaland; below, Valerie Beltran.

This is not as bad as the stuff we posted yesterday, but it’s still…problematic.

Any colorists out there to comment on what we’re seeing?

It’s here! SPX debuts! Make sure you click the links for ALL THE GOODNESS.

Secret Acres

Secret Acres will be debuting Capacity by Theo Ellsworth. It features new material as well as content from Ellsworth’s Capacity mini-comics. Theo will be in attendance at SPX, signing books and posters.

Intricate, even exquisite - but never immaculate, Theo Ellsworth’s Capacity is a mind turned inside out. Ellsworth’s careful line gives shape to profound and profoundly silly thoughts alike, bringing a visionary, startling new life to the doubts and hopes that are so familiar to everyone.

New Reliable Press

You Ain’t No Dancer Vol. 3 makes it’s official debut at SPX this year.

New format! The third volume of You Ain’t No Dancer anthology goes themeless. Featuring a wrap-around cover by Kazimir Strzepek, You Ain’t No Dancer Vol. 3 contains 30 new stories from indy-comic favourites and up-and-comers.

Vol. 3 Contributors:
Kazimir Strzepek, Becky Dreistadt & Frank Gibson, Blaise Larmee, Catia Chien, Coleman Engle, Colleen MacIsaac, Dalton Sharp, Dalton Webb, Dorothy Gambrell, Graham Kahler, Grant Reynolds, Ira Marcks, Jason Turner, Jeff Bent, Jeremy Sorese, Jon Sukarangsan, Jordyn Bochon, KC Green, Kate Beaton, Ken Dahl, Kim Hoang, Lars Brown, Lucy Knisley, Mike Laughead, Mitch Clem & Jason Oberbichler, Patrick Murphy, Phil Barrett, Phil McAndrew and Steve Rolston & Sabina.

Exhibit A

We will be debuting The Soddyssey, And Other Tales of Supernatural Law (by Batton Lash of course) at the Exhibit A table.

Boston Comics Roundtable
Inbound #2 – A Boston Comics Anthology Premieres at SPX 2008

The Boston Comics Roundtable has returned with their second anthology, featuring a wide variety of comics from Boston-based creators. From would-be supermen to foibles in space to real-life stories from the streets of Iraq, Inbound #2 is the best of Boston. This 64-page book retails for $7.95 and is available at www.bostoncomicsroundtable.com.

Contributors include:
Might - Matt Reidsma (High Maintenance Machine)
Watcher Wanted - Shelli Paroline (Harvest is When I Need You the Most) & Jason Salzarulo
Bad Topology - Charles Schneeflock Snow (Sordid City Blues) & Erik Haines
The Walk - Kevin Kilgore (Center for Cartoon Studies)
Little Cody Visits the Underworld - Rachel Maguire
Too Many Robots! - Ron LeBrasseur
Endlessly She Said - Jay Kennedy
unWendy - Cathy Leamy (Geraniums and Bacon)
Cover - Braden Lamb

Big Head Press

Our newest book, LA MUSE by Adi Tantimedh and Hugo Petrus, will not ship until shortly after Thanksgiving, but it is listed in the current Diamond PREVIEWS we are previewing and promoting it at SPX.

LA MUSE is the story of two sisters who are secretly the daughters of powerful beings from another dimension. Buttoned-down Libby, who seems normal in every way, works for an LA talent agency. Wild-child Susan has the near-omnipotence of her parents and wants to save the world, whether the world wants saving or not. When Susan gains fame and implements her grand plans, she meets opposition from both the world’s elites and a completely unexpected quarter.

Alan Moore says of LA MUSE: “… the purveyors of today’s sprawling super-hero culture would do well to read Adi Tantimedh and Hugo Petrus’ LA MUSE and learn how to do these things properly.”

Technorati Tags: SPX

Read the rest of this entry »