A while ago we mentioned that Goro Miyazaki, son of Hayao, was making his first animated film, an adaptation of THE FARTHEST SHORE, Ursula K. LeGuin’s third Earthsea novel. It seems that the film was the subject of some discord between father and son, but the film opened in Japan a few weeks ago and topped the box-office, even unseating PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN II, a titanic achievement anyone could be proud of.

LeGuin is known for not being overly thrilled by adaptations of her work — one recalls her violent repudiation of the admittedly crappy Sci-Fi Channel adaptation of the first two Earthsea books.
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It is a name spoken of only in whispers; its deeds so dark and disturbing that none dare attempt to breach its veil. But now Craig Yoe at the Arf Lovers Blog has uncovered the latest chilling activities of…The Bushmiller Society:

One of the the nicest times I had at the San Diego Comic Con was an early morning breakfast with Amid Amidi, Jerry Beck, Leslie Cabarga and Harry McCracken. We were discussing Amid’s amazing new book Cartoon Modern. But then we were interupted by something very disturbing…

All of a sudden we all felt an eerie chill in the air. And then, mysteriously, a tall, dark figure appeared out of the morning shadows and thrust the button (seen below) onto the table right in front of me and then just as quickly disappeared. One glance and I knew what the object was: it was a button that members of the infamous “Bushmiller Society” wear under their collars to secrectly flash to fellow members at claudestine alley meetings and to enter their cell meetings. Who put this button on the table and why I was targeted I’ll probably never know–and actually don’t want to know.

In the interest of public safety, Yoe has gone public with his tale. We need to support him in this lonely, perilous crusade.

When you hear the phrase “New York Post” and “Amazing Fantasy” your mind immediately leaps to such topics as the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid’s unwavering support for Dubya or dogged interest in Christie Brinkley’s love life, but like the NY Times, the NY Post can now be officially classified as “Comics-loving” as they will be giving away reprints of Amazing Fantasy #15 in this Thursday’s paper (8/17/06).

Gary Dunaier sent scans of the ad trumpeting the event:

Sploid, our favorite faux tabloid news site closed up shop yesterday. Guess it wasn’t a favorite of enough folks. In its two year history, it covered many topics near and dear to The Beat’s heart:

Other topics of constant concern included robots, monkeys, occult killings, X-rays of humans revealing foreign (and frequently disturbing) objects lodged within, Nazis, dismemberments, frightening conspiracies featuring the Knights Templar and/or Dick Cheney, dumb and/or evil cops, UFOs and the many problems faced by America’s obese citizenry.

Indeed, we often snagged robot and /or monkey stories from its front page for those little extra curricular tales we know you like so much. But now it is gone, victim of the very tabloid society that it tried to expose, crushed by the indifference of a web without pity. But we will remember. Indeed, we will not go gently into Sploid’s good night. We’re here and we’re going strong, and we’re pledged to cover all the comics about robot monkeys turning into pirates that are currently in the pipeline as if our very lives depended on it.

This lucky fellow can just pull out his surgical steel spikes…but Logan must live with them forever! Tragic.

[Link found via Warren.]

Shocked reactions to the dismissal of Gabe Fieramosco and Stewart Morales, both here and at Newsarama have been overflowing. In Fieramosco’s case, in particular, professional after professional from Peter David to Talant Caldwell to Skottie Young has mentioned how helpful and on the ball he was in getting exhibitors and artists what they needed, making his firing somewhat baffling.

Beat operatives drew our attention to a couple of other interesting links. This story at MMA WEEKLY talks about the IFL presence in Chicago, and throws around that 200,000 attendance figure that was making the rounds early on:

Wizard World is a comic and pop culture convention held by Wizard Entertainment, the company of IFL president and co-founder Garub Shamus. This year’s four-day event was the 10th edition of the convention and was attended by more than 200,000 fans.

Meanwhile, Todd Allen at Indignant Online runs down the problems at the show and mentions the most easily solved one:

Please get it through your collective head, Wizard World Chicago can not go head-to-head with the San Diego Comicon. Not going to happen. This business of scheduling Chicago 2 weeks after San Diego is asinine. Please adopt a realistic attitude towards this and quit hurting the show.

Spelling this out:

Its not even two weeks. Day of close in San Diego (a Sunday) to preview night in Chicago (a Thursday) is 10 days apart.

Does any publisher want to pack up the majority of the office and be gone for 2-3 business days on alternate weeks? Of course not, it will play hell with the schedules. Is it going to cause scheduling problems for creators? Probably. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons the guest list seemed a bit sparse this year.

Speaking of which, the Texas guest list is up.

Comics fan Steven Johnson has done something very interesting with WATCHMEN, the comics classic by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. In the alternate world of THE WATCHMEN, pirate comics are the dominant comics genre (hm, Moore’s prescience strikes again?) and one of the stories-within-a-story is Tales of the Black Freighter:

As we learn from the postscript to Chapter 5, this is intended to be from an immensely popular pirate comic series called “Tales Of The Black Freighter”, which is essentially a horror comic themed on the concept of a pirate ship captained by an evil figure, and manned by the damned. The specific story being read has the title of “Marooned”, and recounts the story of a sailor who survives an attack by the Black Freighter and is marooned on an isolated island; he frantically attempts to escape the island in order to warn his hometown of the impending assault of the evil ship, which he presumes is headed there to destroy his friends and family. It’s a chilling story that still gives me the creeps today, even given the dozens of times I have read it over the years.

Johnson has taken the panels of the comic from the story and reconstructed them into a 20 page comic. The result is eerie and well worth a look.

If you’re still interested in THE BLACK FREIGHTER, we also recommend Nina Simone’s rendition of “Pirate Jenny” by Bertold Brecht and Kurt Weill which inspired the whole Black Freighter thing. “Noon by the clock and so still by the dock…”

Recently we told you of the big shake up at the Iowa State Fair, with apprentice butter carver Sarah Pratt taking over for Duffy Lyon-sensei, the greatest butter carver of them all. Pratt’s debut was to be a life sized statue of Iowa native Brandon Routh in his signature Superman role, or should we say, roll. We begged for photos of this epic confection, and Joe Lawler, blogging at the Des Moines Register has obliged. There are more pics in the link, and some commentary, as well: “I was a little disappointed in the Brandon Routh. There isn’t a lot of detail in the face. The body seems about right, though.” Perhaps Pratt is still the learner? Still, an impressive feat, and not one for the lactose intolerant.

The comment section of the blog reveals a few haters:

There are 100,000 things to see at the Fair everyday. Why do journalists always race to the Buttercow? Pretty easy and lame story year after year.
Come on people, get creative.

Ninja, please! The buttercow is creativity incarnate AND pasteurized.

Recently, we were given the means to video blog via our friends at Samsung, and our maiden voyage was Saturday night’s 24Seven East Coast Launch Party at Rocketship.

We’ve quickly learned that we’re not very good at it, but we PROMISE to keep the videos very very short, at least. Plus if you want to learn how to do something you have to do it.

Anyway, you’ll catch glimpses of Ivan Brandon, Andy MacDonald, Kristyn Ferretti, Rick Spears, Greg Thompson, Abby Denson. and, as they say, many many more. GLIMPSES, mind you.

Ellen Forney on Seattle NPR.

Forney will also be doing a unique reading/video performance
tomorrow at Elliot Bay in Seattle Mor einfo in the link at Flog!

Elliott Bay, Reading/Video/Performance: Wednesday, August 16, 7:30pm

ELLEN FORNEY’s biggest solo comic book project to date, I LOVE LED ZEPPELIN (Fantagraphics Books) hit bookstores in late July, and she’ll be having reading/video/performances at Elliott Bay on August 16.

What we mean by reading/video/performance:

Since comics are a visual medium, doing a regular reading isn’t really possible, so when Forney’s last book, Monkey Food, came out, she developed a “multi-media show” using a slide projector, boombox, props, and live narration, which she toured in nine U.S. cities, Canada, and Portugal. For I Love Led Zeppelin, the show is a little more high tech, with images and audio on DVD (directed by Ellen and produced by a couple of friend/techie artists) using a video projector and Forney’s live narration and props. There will be video adaptations of four of her comics, and the performance will last about 30 minutes.

GoComi’s Audry Taylor blogs from ComiKet

I went to Summer Comiket today and felt suffocated by the heat, as usual. The roasted scent of thousands of excited fans is unmistakeable. I made sure to bring water and a carry-on bag with wheels so that I wouldn’t break my back carrying around all the delicious dojinshi I bought. It gets tastier every year — mmm! Today I got to browse through Full Metal Alchemist, Gankutsuou, One Piece, BLEACH, Gundam Wing, and lots of other parodies. There was even an artist selling little pink panties with wicked little chibis on them!

The new CRACKED has finally launched and gets a wire service story

“I stopped thinking about Cracked for what it was and started thinking about Cracked for what it could be and what the potential was,” Sarhan said.

The new Cracked hits newsstands today after a two-year hiatus. It had a press run of 100,000 and has a cover price of $3.99. True to its heritage as a lampooner of pop culture, its debut cover features a doctored photo of Tom Cruise’s head pasted onto the body of Steve Carell and asks if he is “The 44-Year-Old Virgin?”

But the glossy new version resembles the modern breed of “lad mags” such as Maxim, Stuff and FHM.

A date and venue for the Doug Wright Awards have been announced — this will be a stand alone affair to be held on September 14th. More info here.

The 2nd annual Doug Wright Awards for Canadian cartooning will take place on Sept. 14 in Toronto at the Ballroom of The Gladstone Hotel (http://www.gladstonehotel.com/ballroom.htm ). The evening will kick off at 8 p.m. with an on stage interview of Chester Brown by Seth on the occasion of the softcover release of Brown’s best-selling Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography (Drawn & Quarterly).

Following this, the awards in two categories - Best Book and Best Emerging Talent - will be announced and handed out by Phyllis Wright (widow of Doug Wright). As well, Canadian broadcasting icon Lister Sinclair will be on hand to help induct the late cartoonist George Feyer into the Giant of the North Hall of Fame.

Appetizers and music will follow - hopefully well into the evening.

Everyone is welcome, but there will be limited capacity at the venue so come early!

What happens when famed fantasy artists Mike Kaluta and Charles Vess collaborate on illustrations for FABLES: 1001 NIGHT OF SNOWFALL? Editor Irene Gallo (who has nothing to do with the book) has the lovely answer at her blog, with comments by Vess.

Brian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris have contributed a comics story to New York Magazine for their What If 9/11 Never Happened cover story. We’ll read it when we stop crying.

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After a week of folks piling on with all their stored-up grievances against Wizard, things took a darker turn last week, as Wizard fired Stewart Morales and Gabe Fieramosco, the two folks most responsible for putting on conventions. Morales and Fieramosco took over the logistics of the shows after Brenda Cook moved to a different part of the company. Although Wizard told Newsarama, â€?It’s normal business cycle stuff. Nothing to do what happened in Chicago and we had a great show there,” that sound byte would seem to have about as much credibility at this point as Wizard’s ever spiraling attendance figures.

Tim Leong’s video post mortem of WIZARD was only the culmination of a very bad week for Wizard, as everyone but them seemed to think the Chicago show had been slower than usual.

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This weekend SPANIEL RAGE’s Vanessa Davis had a full page comic in the New York Times OpEd page. You’ll have to dig for the actual link but here’s a sneak.

Meanwhile, the disappointment of SUPERMAN RETURNS’ worldwide grosses continue to cause vague, disquieting unease in Hollywood:

Now that Warner Bros.’ “Superman Returns” has flown around most of the world, the question is: What was the factor that proved kryptonite to weaken the superhero’s results?

Was it the studio’s marketing campaign? A character too steeped in Americana, at a time when “truth, justice and the American way” is under fire? An inability to update the wholesome Man of Steel for the “Grand Theft Auto” generation? Or was it just the film itself? [snip]

“Some hardcore fans thought, ‘This is the way it is supposed to be,’ ” says one international vet. “But others thought it was old-fashioned. Maybe Singer was too much of a fan?”

A previous story digs even deeper into SUPERMAN RETURNS fiscal irresponsibility:

Warner Bros. Pictures execs are mulling whether to go ahead with a planned sequel and ink another deal with director Bryan Singer.

The film is not such a blockbuster that a follow-up is inevitable — but not such a disappointment that a sequel would be ludicrous. After all, the first “Austin Powers” pic was a modest hit that begat two huge grossers.

Word on the Warners lot is that the studio is trying to lock down a deal with Singer for a sequel.

Many speculate that WB has invested too much time and money to walk away. What’s more, the film fuels a number of Time Warner outlets, including homevid, ancillaries and merchandising — even subsid DC Comics.

Warners and co-financing partner Legendary Pictures have a shot at breaking even on “Superman” once all the revenue streams are accounted for, but it’s going to be a long, tough haul.

Biggest comic book movie bomb of the year? ZOOM which came in at a dismal 7th place.

“Zoom” opening was one of Tim Allen’s worst, ahead of only “Joe Somebody” and “Big Trouble.” Per-play take was a dismal $1,839 at 2,50. [sic]

Naniwa at Mangacast covers the biggest show of them all:ComiKet!

Twice a year doujin fans across the world head for the big one. This is the manga mecca. This is where people pass out in line for a book from their favorite circle covering their favorite genre and series. This is where it feels hotter and muggier inside than it does outside and its 30+celsius outdoors and their is air conditioning inside! This is where you can find pokemon doujin’s a few aisles away from Batman doujins a few feet away from Kino no Tabi books. This is where there is a whole hall for train “manga”, airplane doujins and homemade cooking books!!

ComiKet happens twice a year and the attendance for one of these is larger than the populations of many mid-market cities. 500,000 people will come through here. Through the three day event around 35,000 circles will be selling their wares to their fans and fellow artists. This is seriously a comic party and everyone involved is here for to have a blast - spending money and sweating like pigs - to get their hands on original goods ranging from comics, novels, model kits, cd-roms, books, dolls, crafts and games.

You read that right, Half a MILLION PEOPLE come out…not to see movie stars or play video games but to buy fan-made comics of their favorite characters. The Beat has yet to see any real analysis of how and why this show is what it is…it’s as if SPX turned into something four times bigger than San Diego.

Time continues to discover manga with an interview with FRUITS BASKET’s Natsuki Takaya:

TIME: What do you think about manga being attempted by non-Japanese creators? Do you consider it manga or another form?

NT: Simply put, I’m glad that manga as an expressive form is expanding. I think that nationality has no relation to that which gives rise to manga. Even among the Japanese, manga creators are making their creations everyday reflecting their own individuality, with none being the same. What is important isn’t the differences between the creators but their love for manga.

Manga Blog alerts us to a NEW blogManga Junkie, written anonymously by a manga publishers staffer. The topic is those oddball Japanese comics that will never get licensed here, alas. Up first, Chi’s Sweet Home the story of “a little kitten who gets adopted by a family comprised of dad, mom, and a young boy named Yohei. The family lives in an apartment building that doesn’t allow pets, so they don’t give the kitten a name at first… but as they teach the kitten how to pee (”chii” in little kid talk), it thinks its name is Chi.” and Arakawa Under the Bridge

It’s a gag manga about a young “elite” man who has a policy of not being in debt to anyone. But he ends up owing his life to a strange girl who saves his life.

Rino, the girl, believes she’s a martian & lives under the bridge by the Arakawa river. So the young man ends up living there too.

Pata updates us on live-action TV shows based n popular manga:

Nodame Cantabile It was never a matter of if, just a matter of when, for this adaptation of a quirky romance between music conservatory students. Juri Ueno, who’s already been a musician once in the jazz comedy Swing Girls, takes to the keys as scatterbrained pianist Megumi “Nodame” Noda. Airs October 16, 2006.

Detective Conan: Shinichi Kudo’s Challenge No, you won’t get to see an adorable 10-year-old kid talking into his bowtie — this version of the hit mystery series takes place entirely before the events of the manga. Shun Oguri, who played Hanazawa in last year’s Hana Yori Dango (Boys Over Flowers), takes on the role of teenaged Shinichi Kudo, no shrinking required. Airs Fall 2006, no specific date yet.

What is the deal with Adult Swim, anyway?

Sunday night’s mishmash starts with an hour of FUTURAMA/VENTURE BROTHERS, an hour of solid storytelling and resonance. The New Venture episode — “Victor. Echo. November.” — was one of the best ever, as everyone goes on a double date, a character gets a mechanical hand, The Phantom Limb is given four variant origins, and Brock goes on a particularly savage spree, naked and bloody a knife in his hand. “We might not win this one; just get to the panic room.” Plus, Kim was wearing goggles.

And then…it all goes kerflooie. What sort of drug are you supposed to be on to enjoy all this? Bad claymation, animation that rips off David Rees ripping off institutional art, hillbilly squid — lots of squid actually — crazed Swedish rockers. Every show on Adult Swim Sunday Night is symbolically — and often literally — bleeding from the eyes, ears and anus. The people who use this to ease back into the work week need to be kept under surveillance, because when they go, they’re taking the rest of us with them.

PS: we kind of like METALOCALYPSE.

We know Rocketship knows how to throw a party, and we know the 24Seven gang knows how to party. This is going to be good:

a number of the creators of 24seven will be appearing/drinking/talking this saturday at ROCKETSHIP in brooklyn for our east coast release party shinding now that we’re back in town.

people you might meet, if you’re there and smelling good:

(list subject to change)

DANIJEL ZEZELJ, BECKY CLOONAN. FRANK TERAN, MICHAEL AVON OEMING, LELAND PURVIS, ANDY MACDONALD, VASILIS LOLOS, NEAL SHAFFER, NATE BELLEGARDE, KRISTYN FERRETTI, IVAN BRANDON, RICK SPEARS, ROB G

and special guests abound

Party starts at 8PM

ROCKETSHIP
208 Smith Street
Brooklyn, NY
718-797-1348

The Pensacola News Journal is presenting comic book interview podcasts, and today it is Darick Robertson. “This week, we talk about Darick’s early career and “Transmet.â€? Next week’s second part will largely cover “The Boysâ€? and the current state of the comics industry.”

A string of CGI box office duds has proven that the magic of technology will not make lame stories and sloppy storytelling any more palatable Variety reveals:

In 2004, the average box office for an animated pic was $149 million. This year, it’s $88 million. But then, there are 50% more toons in release this year than in ‘04. Three toons have bowed in the past three weeks: Sony’s “Monster House,” Warner Bros.’ “Ant Bully” and Paramount’s “Barnyard.”

The bullish spirit of several years ago, when all these projects began production, has given way to introspection: How much is too much?

CGI-animated pics once were seen as the safe, flop-proof arm of the biz, but the 2006 box office is upending that optimistic view. Before this year, the only CGI failure ever was last summer’s “Valiant,” but this year has already seen three: “Doogal,” “The Wild” and “The Ant Bully.” One or two more are likely before the year is out.

The news is not entirely glum: Animation box office is on track to beat the $1.2 billion record set in 2004.