Over at Activate Nick Bertozzi is recounting a tale of Ernest Shackleton, the English explorer who was trapped in the Antarctic for over a year. Bertozzi has a previous story about Shackleton, Patience Camp, up as well.

We think Bertozzi is one of our finest cartoonists, but what’s interesting here is that he actually has redrawn the first chapter of this comic, having realized he wasn’t stretching himself. You can see the first version here and the new version here.

We Were Wrong Dept: While reporting on Barbie and Tanner, the amazing crapping toy, yesterday, we mentioned that the Teresa and Mika cat-themed playset does not come with cat turds. It turns out that it doesn’t, but it does come with piddle.

Teresa doll has an adorable cat named Mika who is just like a real cat! Mika can drink some water from a bottle and then wets in her litter box. Teresa scoops up the litter clumps. Teresa doll and Mika come with a kitty litter box, bottle, cat litter in a variety of colors, litter scooper, cat food bowl and cat toys. Teresa doll measures 12″ tall.

The product information also notes that the toy is intended for “ages 3-14″ which might be a bit over-optimistic, we think. Any 14-year-old who has nothing better to do than sift pretend cat pee clumps from a tiny litter box has more problems than we can solve.

Barbie also comes with a horse, so there may be no end to Mattel’s line of toys that poop and pee.

Rick Remender, Tony Moore and Jerome Opena move their book FEAR AGENT from Image to Dark Horse, a move a couple of books have made recently, but one that Image’s creator oriented publishing deal allows. Remender talks about the move at CBR:

:”The move is a business decision based on things that we’re going to keep quiet about,” he said. “We all love and respect both companies very much. Dark Horse gave Jerome Opena and I our first big penciling gigs and Image gave me my first big writing gigs and Tony his first big penciling gig, they have both been supportive and wonderful to us all. Though I will not go into many details about the move I hope to stop any speculations before they begin, this move is not because of any ill-will toward Image Comics. In fact Kieron Dwyer, ‘Fear Agent’ co-creator Tony Moore and I have a new ongoing series, ‘XXXOMBIES’ launching at Image in February. Everyone still loves everyone.”

If you’re thinking that this move might be motivated by Dark Horse’s success in translating its properties into other media (”Hellboy” being a prime example), Remender isn’t going to try and dissuade you of that notion. “Obviously, Dark Horse is a powerhouse in this area. I’d be a liar if I said this wasn’t one of the motivations in the move,” he admitted.

Actual PR in the jump which adds that Dark horse will be re-releasing the first FEAR AGENT collection which originally came out from Image.

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A couple of days ago we covered — or uncovered — the censorship in Marvel’s TOMB OF DRACULA reprints where several previously topless young victims got new wispy smoke bras.

Around Comics - The Comic Book Podcast contacted the artist, Gene Colan, for his take, and he responded:

I’m not personally upset or affected by the alterations. But, I suspect those in charge of making those decisions would be wiser to clean up their own ‘dirt’ than worry about blood, gore or naked ladies.

More in the link.

The schedule for International Comic Arts Festival, held Octover 12-14 at the LIbrary of Congress is up. Events include talks with Jules Feiffer, and a look at the Rwandan genocide through comics. And also superheroes and politics.

Steve Bunche alerts us to one of the most alarming Barbies ever: Poopin’ Pup Barbie. This Barbie comes with a lovable Lab named Tanner who just can’t stop pooping! In fact, since Barbie is feeding him shit, it’s no wonder it goes right through him. You can see a video of Barbie and her pooper scooper in action here at the Mattel website.

But wait, there’s more! For those more feline-friendly, there’s Teresa, who spends her days joyfully lifting turds from cuddly Mika’s litter box. Sadly, this play-set does not come with toy turds, because nothing says fun like cleaning clumps of cat shit. And trust us, we know.

You might think that this was the worst Barbie ever, but it probably isn’t. There was Potty Training Kelly, who sat on the pot herself (accompanied by a merry tinkling sound in the TV ads), and Cock-Ring Ken, of course. Kids gotta learn somehow.

By Paul O’Brien

Even with the parent title running late, CIVIL WAR dominated Marvel’s output again in August, with a raft of crossover titles including the newly launched HEROES FOR HIRE. The Ultimate titles ship their second annuals, and the core ANNIHILATION miniseries gets underway. Other than that, it’s a fairly quiet month, as Marvel hold off on the big launches while the massive crossover is still getting all the attention.

As usual, even though DC did take the top spot, Marvel are still the largest publisher in the North American direct market. In unit share, it’s 41.0% to 39.0%; in dollar share, it’s a slightly closer 36.3% to 35.4%. Pretty close, then. But perhaps the most remarkable feature of this month’s chart is the sheer number of high-selling comics. Thirteen comics broke the 100K mark, which is a remarkable figure.

Granted, five of those thirteen comics are issues of DC’s weekly title 52, but a comic is a comic. If ULTIMATES had shipped this month, it wouldn’t have made the top ten. It would have been somewhere in the mid-teens.

Thanks as always to Milton Griepp and ICV2 for permission to use their figures for these calculations.

2.  NEW AVENGERS
08/01  #45 -  61,572
08/02  #57 -  55,931
08/03  #69 -  57,850
08/04  —
======
08/05  #8  - 156,037  (  -1.7%)
08/05  #9  - 147,501  (  -5.5%)
09/05  #10 - 143,014  (  -3.0%)
09/05  #11 - 134,125  (  -6.2%)
10/05  #12 - 130,110  (  -3.0%)
11/05  #13 - 126,148  (  -3.0%)
12/05  #14 - 126,583  (  +0.3%)
01/06  #15 - 124,143  (  -1.9%)
02/06  #16 - 124,256  (  +0.1%)
03/06  #17 - 122,847  (  -1.1%)
04/06  #18 - 121,550  (  -1.1%)
05/06  #19 - 125,223  (  +3.0%)
06/06  #20 - 125,600  (  +0.3%)
06/06  #21 - 142,625  ( +13.6%)
07/06  #22 - 143,391  (  +0.5%)
08/06  #23 - 154,262  (  +7.6%)
              6 mnth  ( +24.1%)
              1 year  (  -1.1%)
              2 year  (   — )
              3 year  (+166.7%)

With CIVIL WAR itself running late, NEW AVENGERS picks up the slack as Marvel’s top selling book of the month. This is, of course, a Civil War crossover storyline, and the title continues to gain sales as the arc continues. Meanwhile, last month’s issue #22 picks up 18,774 reorders to chart at number 112. As usual, those sales are included in the figures above.

These are huge numbers, and although the crossover obviously helps, it’s hardly gratuitous - the storyline really is central to events in this title. Plenty for Marvel to be happy about here, although delays to CIVIL WAR itself mean that this title is set for an unwanted hiatus at the end of the year.

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Last Friday Brian Hibbs had one of his usual thought provoking columns at Newsarama, and this one looked at a very interesting trend: comics shops opening up accounts with Baker & Taylor to buy graphic novels. B&T is NOT a comics distributor, but rather a traditional book distributor, meaning the books are returnable. B&T even has an online brochure called “Graphic Novels At Your Doorstep”.

Hibbs writes:

…Diamond’s next big challenge isn’t coming from a Direct Market distributor (they’ve killed most of those) – it’s coming from the bookstore distributors.

This next part is hard, because it takes me having to admit I’ve been a dumb-ass. I should have read the deal and figured it out two years ago (no, this isn’t a new program) when my peers first started telling me about it, but I, as many comic retailers, am slow to change sometimes.

Baker & Taylor has a program called “First Call� where you agree to make them your primary source when buying from the book channel. It makes no claims over the Direct Market channel. That’s about it – there are no minimums, or any other hoops to jump through. B&T doesn’t have a fixed discount per book like Diamond.

Hibbs runs through some numbers which shows that a retailer can order a small number of books from B&T at just about the same discount as through Diamond, while the books are still returnable.

In addition, B&T has been making lots of actual graphic novels available as much as a month before Diamond. In a post at his LJ Cold Cut’s Matt High basically agrees with Hibbs and offers this:

This is a trend I’ve really been tracking for the past two or three years, from inside the comics distribution chain (I can certainly tell, based on ordering patterns, which of Cold Cut’s customers have switched their orders over primarily to the bookstore distributors). I’m sure Brian Hibbs and various other retailers have been aware of it for some time as well, it’s just really never been talked about much. One recent example is a discussion on the CBIA board a month ago, where one retailer said “Hey, don’t forget to order the latest Bone trade paperback, which only appeared in the Diamond weekly update, and not in the Diamond Previews catalog”. Half a dozen retailers replied back immediately with, “Yeah, we’ve actually had that book in stock for weeks now, ordering it from Baker and Taylor, and we’ve restocked it repeatedly already. Anyone who’s waited to order it through Diamond missed the boat.”

Everyone, including myself, was lamenting the death of virtually every comic book direct market distributor, leading to a de-facto monopoly of comic book distribution in America. But very people were noticing that a new form of competition was growing outside the direct market, as mainstream book distributors gained a tiny toehold in the comics market, and have been edging into Diamond’s territory little by little ever since.

Naturally, only stores that carry a significant amount of graphic novels will need to set up a B&T account. But with more and more high selling, and profitable book-format material coming out, and traditional book publishers like Houghton Mifflin (FUN HOME) and Pantheon (BLACK HOLE) putting out material of interest in the Direct market, it’s making more economic sense for comics retailers to order some material from B&T.

What does this mean? We’re not exactly sure. But we’re open to interpretations.

It’s up here.

He also has a new book coming out: The Mother’s Mouth

The first HEROES webcomics are up, this first by Aron Collette, Michael Turner and Koi Turnbull, telling a tale of Suresh’s childhood.

UPDATE: HEROES’ debut issue was a ratings winner for NBC quoth Variety:

NBC drama “Heroes” opened to strong numbers on Monday, dominating its broadcast rivals and looking like the first breakout performer of the fall season. The Peacock captured the night in 18-49, with CBS on top in 25-54 and total viewers.

According to preliminary nationals from Nielsen, “Heroes” (5.9 rating/11 share in adults 18-49, 14.3 million viewers overall) topped CBS’ second-place comedy block of “Two and a Half Men” (5/12 in 18-49, 15.7 million viewers overall) and “Old Christine” (4/10, 12.6 million viewers overall) by a hefty 31% in adults 18-49 and also led in total viewers. This is the best fall premiere for an NBC drama since “Crossing Jordan” five years ago.

An excited Shannon Wheeler writes to tell us that the world premiere of the Too Much Coffee Man opera was a big success — the run has sold out and been extended. Two city commissioners were at the opening. “We have buzz,” Shannon writes–a common occurrence when working with coffee, it seems. He also sent to above pic from the dress rehearsal.

The Oregonian has a very positive review:

There was a special brew on tap Friday night at the Portland Center for the Performing Arts to celebrate the world premiere of “Too Much Coffee Man,” and it wasn’t exactly coffee.

Jim Parker, publican of Oaks Bottom Public House, had brewed a delicious stout with a heavy dose of Stumptown Roasters coffee, and it was strong stuff, with just a pint leaving a person simultaneously tipsy and buzzed. Which is to say, it was pretty much like the opera itself.

In a very long interview with Scott King the best selling author talks about doing creator owned material:

Scott: …I know you write comics but do you have any desire to do a creator owned comic book?

Brad: You know, if time was not an issue I would. But when I do the comics I love playing with those established toys. I love playing with Superman and Batman, but as much as I love that there is nothing like your own toy. Even though a creator owned book can be like that the novels are the houses I get to build brick by brick with my hands and I like that. My novels are my creator owned books. So I feel like when I play with comics I’m going to go play with the established toys and when I do the novels I’m going to build a house. But if time weren’t an issue I probably would do creator owned comics and that’s something I may try to figure out in the future.

[Yes this is our first attempt at being a little more organized about events listings. It’s definitely a work in progress, so please, hold your applause. And still way to NY-centric, but we’re working on that.]

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26th
Boston, MA: Scott McCloud at Northeastern U.
When: Tuesday, September 26, 2006, 6:00 PM
Where: Northeastern University’s Blackman Theatre, 360 Huntington Avenue
A book signing will immediately follow McCloud’s talk.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27th
– Toronto, ON : J. Torres Signs Ninja Scroll #1 at the Beguiling. Wednesday, September 27th from 5pm-7pm at The Beguiling, 601 Markham Street, Toronto
FREE. All attendees will receive a FREE 8 page preview of the upcoming DEGRASSI graphic novel.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28th

– New York, NY: Opening reception of “FANTAGRAPHICS 1976 - 2006″ at the Society of Illustrators in New York. This massive art exhibition features over 100 original pieces by dozens of authors published by Fantagraphics over the last 30 years, including Daniel Clowes, Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez, Chris Ware, Peter Bagge, Jim Woodring, Joe Sacco, Carol Tyler, Ivan Brunetti, Tony Millionaire, Roberta Gregory, Bill Griffith, Richard Sala, Bob Fingerman, Steve Brodner, David B., Kim Deitch, Al Columbia, Drew Friedman, Kaz, Frank Frazetta (!) and many others. It will be an amazing show, with many iconic pieces from Fantagraphics’ history.

OPENING RECEPTION: Thursday, September 28th, 5:30 - 8:00PM

EXHIBITION: September 27th through October 21, 2006

WHERE: Museum of American Illustration at the Society of Illustrators
128 East 63rd Street, New York, NY 10021
Tuesday 10 - 8, Wed-Fri 10 - 5, Sat 12 - 4

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 29th
–New York, NY: Marisa Marchetto signs CANCER VIXEN, 7:00 p.m., Barnes & Noble, 2289 Broadway @ 82nd Street, New York, NY 10024. Talk, Q&A and booksigning.

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 30th

–New York, NY Nog a Dod opening
Reception: Saturday, September 30, 6:30 pm - 10:00 pm
Show: September 30 - October 25th
Curated by Marc Bell and Dan Nadel for PictureBox Inc.
Giant Robot Gallery, 437 East 9th Street, New York, New York 10009 (212) 674-GRNY (4769)

Okay here’s some news of the weird we just can’t resist:a director who took on his critics in the ring…and won:
It’s seems German director Uwe Boll was angered by the critical reception of his film BLOODRAYNE, based on the videogame of the same name. So angered that he challenged his critics to a fight. And four internet critics decided to take on the 41-year-old director — and they are sorry they did.

Jeff Sneider of Los Angeles, a journalist with Ain’t It Cool News, went down in a technical knockout in the first round after his trainer threw in the towel.

He said Boll, 41, had told him it was just a joke, a public relations stunt.

“Then he started beating the crap out of my head,” he said. “I think he’s a jerk. This might be PR but I don’t want to keep getting punched in the head.”

Another of the critics was more creative: he spwed fake blood from his mouth after taking a few punches.

(Kotaku has a picture of the spectacle.)

The victorious helmer was jubilant.

“I like now the critics,” Boll told a news conference after the fights on Saturday. “Everybody who was in the ring showed (guts). Nobody dived.

“If they write about my movies without even seeing the movies then it’s really annoying. If you make a movie like ‘House of the Dead,’ a zombie movie, what are they expecting? ‘Schindler’s List’?”

YouTube has the humiliating video which proves that wimpy internet writers should avoid physical activities at all costs.

Emboldened, Boll will take on another videogame for his next movie, In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale. Will audiences throw in the towel? Developing…

The cover to ONE of Jeffrey Brown’s new books from Top Shelf.

HEROES, the NBC television series about a bunch of ordinary folk who gain mysterious powers that they cannot understand but must learn to live with, airs for the first time on network television tonight on NBC at 9 pm EDT. To say it is debuting would be inaccurate, as the pilot has been floating around on the internet since July and you’ve been able to download the pilot from iTunes and Yahoo for days.

Obviously, in the new, competitive landscape of television, producers have made no effort to keep the pilot under wraps, hoping instead to create a groundswell of grassroots interest based on the developing mystery of the storyline. It’s all viral, all the time. (All similarities to LOST entirely coincidental — and yet it’s funny that Lost was launched with a raft of comics-loving folk on staff — JJ Abrams, Damon Lindelof, Jeph Loeb, Paul Dini — while HEROES’ creator Tom Kring admits he’s not a big comics person. Loeb and Aron Collete are board with HEROES, however, so quality control will be in effect.)

More interesting from our standpoint is HEROES’ online comics support, at a site called 9th Wonders, which bills itself as the “official unofficial fan site for Heroes” but which is very official indeed, with comics and pin-ups by Tim Sale and Dave Johnson (one reproduced above). Apparently this all ties in to the mystery, so you must spend mucho time clicking around to get in on the fun.

In addition, Webcomics by Michael Turner, Jim Lee and Tim Sale will be debuting at NBC.COM as soon as the shows finally “air”, as well. (We’ll link up in the morning.)

As for even more comics connections, Sale is the staff artist for the show — one of the characters is a painter with strange visions, and Sale creates the art used for this character.

Also, for trivia buffs, actress Tawny Cypress, who plays Simone Deveraux, is the sister of comics artist Toby Cypress, so she may know a thing or two about comics.

As for ourselves, we don’t really watch television aside from THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER and THE VENTURE BROS, so it will be hard to remember to tune in let alone play all the online games. So, we’ll see.

ICv2 notes that since BLEACH starting airing on the Cartoon Network, manga sales have soared.

The BookScan list of graphic novels sold in bookstores for the week ending September 17th displays the effect of the debut of the Bleach anime on the Cartoon Network on September 9th. The first volume in the Bleach manga series, which was originally released in June of 2004, soared to #7 on the list, while Bleach Vol. 2 jumped up to #20. It was the strong backlist sales of Naruto that heralded the “Cartoon Network effect,” after the Naruto anime debuted last September.

It’s unlikely that Bleach will be able to fully replicate Naruto’s performance — for one thing there are 14 volumes of Bleach out now versus seven volumes of Naruto in 2005, which means that new adopters have to make a much bigger commitment to Bleach. Also the scale of Naruto’s success was, and remains, staggering. So far in 2006, Naruto Vol. 1 has sold more than 70K copies in the bookstores — and the only books that have sold more are Volumes 9 & 10 of Naruto. According to one industry observer, sales of the 11 volumes of Naruto so far in 2006 account for just under 10% of total manga sales for the year.

Much more of ICv2’s usual insightful analysis in the link.

It’s worth noting that the Kid’s WB/CW Saturday morning line-up debuted this weekend, with a significant amount made up of comics-based shows.

7:00-7:30 am, KRYPTO THE SUPERDOG (E/I Compliant)
7:30-8:00 am, KRYPTO THE SUPERDOG (E/I Compliant)
8:00-8:30 am, MONSTER ALLERGY
8:30-9:00 am, TOM AND JERRY TALES
9:00-9:30 am, SHAGGY & SCOOBY-DOO GET A CLUE!
9:30-10:00 am, JOHNNY TEST
10:00-10:30 am, LEGION OF SUPER HEROES
10:30-11:00 am, THE BATMAN
11:00-11:30 am, XIAOLIN SHOWDOWN
11:30 am-12:00 pm, LOONATICS UNLEASHED

Is there the potential for any kind of KWB bounce here?

OBSERVATION: When looking at this list we were shocked to see that the much derided LOONATICS was actually on the air, let alone in its second season. Has anyone seen this show. Was it as bad as everyone thought it would be?

Click on picture for friendage.

Confirmation this morning from THR that Doug Jones will play the Silver Surfer, with the wizards at the WETA workshop finalizing the CGI character for the upcoming FANTASTIC FOUR 2:

Jones will take part in a process similar to that in which Andy Serkis portrayed Gollum in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The voice casting of Silver Surfer has yet to be determined, the trade paper reported.

Weta (King Kong) has developed an advanced computer-generated-animation process that employs motion-capture techniques updated to add further dimensionality to the liquid-metal hero.

[snip]Jones is widely known for his performance and mime-like work under prosthetics. He has become a regular player in the oeuvre of director Guillermo del Toro, who previously cast Jones in 1997’s Mimic and 2004’s Hellboy. Jones also co-stars in del Toro’s upcoming Pan’s Labyrinth, in dual roles as Pan and the villainous Pale Man.

Also in the news: Sam Raimi has optioned Dark Horse’s ARCH ENEMIES by Drew Melbourne, Yvel Guichet and Joe Rubenstein,

…the story follows two roommates who, as their costumed alter egos Star Fighter & Underlord, are mortal enemies.

Sam Raimi, Josh Donen and Mike Richardson will all be serving as producers. No writer or director have been decided on as of yet.

Platinum is joining the stampede to the web, the New York Times reports. Platinum Studios is the long gestating comics publisher run by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg that has been developing hundreds of properties over the last few years, optioning many for Hollywood development. Now, after some rumblings that Platinum would be ramping up it’s interactive division, comes the announcement that their comics will be appearing on the DrunkDuck.com site, which Platinum purchased. The article is from the tech section of the paper, and focuses on the forward-looking aspects of this deal:

The revamped DrunkDuck site will continue to encourage the growth of independent comic book creators by distributing their work digitally at no cost to them or to consumers, Mr. Rosenberg said. Some of the comics appear as static panels, while others are lightly spiced with soundtracks, audio effects and minimal animation, and this will continue.

But a crucial difference, he said, will be in how Platinum plans to use the site to create a broad mix of revenue streams, “full-circle commercialization,� for the company and its content contributors.

For example, Mr. Rosenberg said he planned aggressive marketing of the site — which already receives a million unique viewers a month, mostly drawn by word of mouth — coupled with advertising sales. While the advertising revenue would not be shared with the comic creators, artists would share in the revenue from downloadable comics for cellphones and mobile media devices like iPods, comics-related ring tones, wallpaper and items like T-shirts or plastic scale models of comic book characters.

Product creators, Mr. Rosenberg said, can expect to receive 10 percent of the adjusted gross revenue earned by sales.

100 Platinum graphic novels and comics will start appearing online this week, the article says.

We’re sure the webcomics community will have much to say about this, as always. The Times’s “Gosh wow! You can publish comics on the web!” attitude is a bit jarring, admittedly. We’ll just note that this effectively make Platinum the latest “we’re going to the web” publisher, after years of development heck for their properties.0.7117 Ironic0.1274 Fleshlight ModificationsDavid Bowie 0.0882 Free Downloads Music Spiralfrog0.0882 sandee fleshlight westgate exclusiveFleshlight Video 0.1274 UsingGreenberg: Lady's 0.0882 Hope Book Godey'sYour Fleshlight Homemade 0.0882 MakeFlightss 0.195 Fleshlight Map

Marisa Acocella Marchetto’s CANCER VIXEN is believed to have nabbed the highest advance ever for a graphic novel but it looks like it’s earning its keep, with a movie deal in place before it’s even released, on Tuesday.. Cate Blanchett has signed on to star in the movie version of Marchetto’s battle with breast cancer.

Marchetto’s autobiography, which has been generating buzz ahead of its release by Knopf on Tuesday, describes how she fell in love with a celebrity restaurateur and was planning their wedding when she was diagnosed with breast cancer and realized that she had let her health insurance lapse. Her friends — stylists, gossip columnists, designers — rallied around her as she wore killer shoes to chemo sessions and strove to get married on time.

Blanchett and her husband, Andrew Upton, are in talks to serve as producers of the Working Title Films project.

Marchetto also write to tell us that she’ll be using some of the money from the book to sponsor a a day of free mammograms for women who don’t have insurance at the hospital where she received her treatments: St Vincent’s Comprehensive Cancer Center.

That’s pretty darned swell of her, and she wanted us to pass the news along for any uninsured women cartoonists out there. We’ll pass along details as we get them.

Over the weekend we got a mailing from animator Mark Simon leading to a story in the Orlando Sentinal about an animator named Jeffrey Varab who it is claimed has defrauded hundreds of people. The story has cycled off the Sentinal website, but the Google cache is here and you can read a bit of the sad story surrounding an animated film called TUGGER: THE 4X4 JEEP WHO WANTED TO FLY that received limited release in Florida in 2005, and is now the basis of a bunch of lawsuits.

Tugger’s production and failed distribution efforts to date created a trail of angry investors, contractors and ex-employees who say they didn’t get paid. There are now eight lawsuits against Genesis or its founder, Jeffrey J. Varab, including a move by 11 investors last month to have the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Orlando declare an involuntary bankruptcy of the company and wrestle away its assets — notably Tugger.

There’s a bit more at this blog posting. It seems that the animators who worked on the film floated production costs on their credit cards, and the man who came up with the story of Tugger, Woody Woodman, wasn’t invited to the premiere, and has lost all copyright, etc etc. Like we said, sad. What’s remarkable from where we sit is how, given the enormous complexities of bringing an animated film to the screen, so many people could have gone along with what sounds like a very unstable situation for so long.

– The Miami Herald interviews Alison Bechdel, whose recent interviews have mostly been about the after-effects of writing a tell-all family memoir that gets enormous amounts of attention:

‘’I'm beginning to wonder if they’re right,'’ says Bechdel of people who suggest that maybe full disclosure is not always the best course. “I thought that revealing the truth is good. I just took that as a dictum, because that’s what my generation believes. But maybe you don’t have to spill your guts all the time.'’

– ALSO: Blogcritics reviews Sloth by Gilbert Hernandez:

He has a knack for visualizing all three of his teens as they emote their way through a series of self-inflicted crises – at one point, making a trip into a lonely lemon grove as ominous as a teen-centered horror flick; later, showing Lita screaming in impatient frustration for a pair of concert tickets (as in other Hernandez comics, rock music plays a vital part in the story) – and the ability to convey both the seriousness and absurdity of each moment simultaneously. Though his characters may at times appear to be inhabiting a 2-D world (most clearly repped by the lemon grove with its blackly flattened lemon trees), they remain some of the most vibrantly multi-layered, unpredictable characters in comics.

– PLUS: In an increasingly common marketing move, THE OTHER SIDE, the upcoming Vertigo series by Jason Aaron and Cameron Stewart, has its own MySpace page. Friend up to be eligible for cool prizes!

The New York times has a looong story about John Cameron Mitchell’s new movie Shortbus. Mitchell is best known as the guy behind HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH. Shortbus is a film about sexuality that includes actual sex scenes between actors who were cast because–well you kinda gotta read the article. Why is The Beat writing about it? Because one of the actors is Sook-Yin Lee, a Canadian music personality who is also an ex-girlfriend of cartooner Chester Brown and made a few comic book appearances here and there.

Ms. Lee seemed to be the most unsettled of the group. After just a few minutes of talking about her experience, she asked to take a break, in order to steady herself. “There’s this assumption that everybody’s really cool about their bodies,� she said. “I’m not. I’m as repressed as you are, maybe even more so.�

She said she grew up devoutly Roman Catholic in Vancouver. She now lives in Toronto and is the host of an irreverent public radio program. Her bosses, she said, initially discouraged her from being in the movie. But she knew Mr. Mitchell, so she forged ahead, even though it meant that naked rehearsal. Even though it meant that marathon with Mr. Barker. Even though it meant masturbating in full view of camera.

Oh my.

Jeff Smith, Alison Bechdel, Frank Cho, Frank Brunner, Rich Buckler, Bill Sienkiewicz, J. David Spurlock and Jhonen Vasquez will all be guests at the 2007 New Yorl Comic-Con. We predict long lines for Jhonen Vasquez. PR in the jump;

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