Marc Mason has a excellent report on Saturday over at The Comics Waiting Room:

This year’s show displayed its ambition not only in becoming a two-day con, but also in its guest list. The previous one-offs had a small, but solid, list of pros on the bill, but 2006 promised far grander things. Arizona fans weren’t just getting one or two out of town guys and all the locals (like Mike Bullock and Raven Gregory); instead, folks like Mike Mayhew, Billy Tan, Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner, and Josh Blaylock were going to show. That not only enhanced the con as a destination for future guests, but should also serve to draw a solid attendance number when badges are counted after Sunday closes

That isn’t to say, however, that all things were pulled off smoothly.

More in the link, including good quotes from panels. Mason notes that the show was almost 50/50 boy girl and had a big manga turnout. Sounds like a show that’s developing nicely.

Hello people, looking for a ride or a room or have a ride or a hotel room for this year’s SPX. We are getting querys and requests for this. We don’t really have time to hand-connect people (although we said the same thing about SD and hooked up people with last minute rooms and cheap airline tickets) so if you are looking POST HERE!

We’re back. Thanks to all who wrote to say the site was down.

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Today this signal may be transmitted digitally for much of the journey, provided as credit car bad loan current only because a majority of landlines are not digital end-to-end.

Milk is an illustrator from Tucson, and we don’t know much more than that but her MySpace page is amazing.

[Click on all images for larger versions]
By now most everyone who spends a lot of time readings blogs an message boards has seen this: reproductions of a letter from 1986 wherein legendary cartoonist Alex Toth critiques Steve Rude’s layouts for a JONNY QUEST story. The critique is not kind. “FAKE! …Too little thought or care…What the hell kind of camera or tripod is this?” The height of praise is “Okay…I guess.” (Actually coming from Toth that was high praise.)

The critique has engendered much talk here, here, and here. Most agree that Rude was due for a larnin’ and that he continues his eccentric ways to this day. Toth was certainly known as a man who didn’t mince words, but one can only wonder at the effect it had on Rude at the time: It’s well known that Toth was one of his artistic heroes, and such a devastating dress down from an idol would have been painful for anyone. At the same time, Toth would certainly not have spent so much time on someone who didn’t have talent to begin with. (We usually save our toughest critiques for the people we think have the most potential ourselves.)

Although Rude addressed the pages in an interview (helpfully scanned by John Jakala), we asked Rude what he thought of the current revival of the critique, and he graciously wrote this:

Interesting how this Toth letter has gained such momentum over the years. I recall the whole incident fairly well, probably because Alex’s reaction to it was so severe. Let me dig out a copy of this Jonny Quest book from 20 years ago and take a look.

On page 1 (I’m going from memory now on Alex’s responses), but I remember Alex being upset about not showing the main characters more upfront. Since my story was basically a continuation of what Doug had done in the first half of the book, Doug had already done the introduction shots of all the regulars, though Alex wasn’t aware of this context. ( I informed Alex of this, but he just got more mad.)

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Apparently, the late shipping CIVIL WAR #4 shipped this week, with many shocking revelations. (Hint: We’re going to need a bigger grave.) However, reaction in the blogosphere has been, well, contemptuous.

Normally we take such things as momentary ventings, not life-changing moments of clarity: despite all the retailer and internet whining about CIVIL WAR, no one is going to stop buying it with 3 issues to go. Please, these are comics fans you’re talking about.

We did find this very very spoiler heavy analysis from Ye Olde Comick Booke Blogge very interesting though for pointing out what could be one of the marketing weaknesses of the series:

I have one interesting final note that came up while discussing this debacle with Chris from 2 Guys. This “Marvel Event” got major media coverage. It’s supposed to draw in non-comic readers and pique the interest of readers who stick primarily with DC books or may have shyed away from mainstream Marvel in favor of Image or even Marvel’s Ultimate or MAX lines. Yet, all the iconic characters that are known to non-comic fans–meaning even my mother knows who Spider-Man and Hulk are–are completely out of character.

Spider-Man: Wearing completely new costume, revealing secret identity, living in penthouse apartment, operating as part of a team and taking orders from Iron Man
Hulk: Not even there.

[snip]Is this really the Marvel Universe Joe Quesada thinks the masses wants?

New readers coming in off the streets after reading the Daily News really don’t care about shocking plot turns that involve subtle character changes in characters they didn’t really know about to begin with. One also wonders how these events would set up Marvel’s movie franchises, surely wthe most important thing going at Marvel, and an 800-lb gorilla that has forced many changes to comics storylines at both Marvel and DC in the past.

The common wisdom among comics insiders is that one of the greatest benefits of CIVIL WAR to Marvel merchandising will be to put Spider-Man in his bachelor state again. If that is indeed the case, you can see how that goal makes as much sense as the supposed “real world” ramifications in CIVIL WAR.

Us? We’ll read the trade.

Will COMICS AS ART: WE TOLD YOU SO, the oral history of Fantagaraphics be published, in the wake of the Harlan Ellison lawsuit? We sure hope so, especially after reading
this review in PRINT MAGAZINE:

Compiled by comics historian Tom Spurgeon and related in anecdotal fashion, Comics as Art is an entertaining, engaging dialogue that captures comics at a pivotal turning point, when steroidal protagonists and stories about Moleman attacks gave way to mature themes and intimate reflections. But rather than a sonorous art-historical review of the form, this is a 30th anniversary celebration of Fantagraphics Books, the publisher that fueled (and in many ways founded) the alternative comics scene, as told by its founders and an endless parade of such renowned talent as Chris Ware, Charles Burns, Peter Bagge, Los Bros. Hernandez and Daniel Clowes.

McCloud was right! Micropayments! Sort of. DriveThruComics.com is a spin off of a very sucessful RPG downloading site that has begun to offer downloads of comics from Dabel Brothers Productions, Shi, About Comics, Arcana, Archaia, NBM, UDON, Heroic Publishing, and Kenzer and Company, with more on the way. ICv2 has an informative write-up.

The business model derives revenue by selling PDFs of comics to consumers via download. Prices are set at $1.99 for most comics, and around 30% off for most graphic novels.

Comics are made available via download at a variety of times relative to street date, from slightly before to considerably after.

Apparently, many more publishers are about to sign on, meaning commercial indie comics have embraced the digital delivery method. The Beat’s only question is when this method will become a success, not if.

Bob Fingerman’s new book Recess Pieces is gory horror fest about kid zombies, but Bob admits he’s squeamish about violence, and was even grossed out by Monty Python as a kid. “I remember being pretty freaked out by the “goreâ€? in that Monty Python “Salad Daysâ€? sketch (the one with all the ‘20s fops sitting around a piano outdoors, and Michael Palin getting hit on the nose with a tennis ball, which causes an eruption of blood and cartoonish gore),” he recently told CBR….meanwhile, director Kevin Smith is more afraid of tackling a sci-fi movie. “It’s on the way, but it’ll be a few years before I finally get up the balls to try it! Sci-fi’s more visual, and I’m not really known for that kind of thing.”

On the other hand, director Brett Ratner was more alarmed by fan demands while making X3. “If I start to listen to that stuff, it’ll just drive me nuts,” he says. But he did pay attention to the actual comics. “Every scene in this movie you could find in an existing comic book — a portion of it or the idea behind it. So I made Zak and Simon show me the comic book references. Every single scene I had on my wall in my office in comic book form.”

Too Much Coffee Man’s Shannon Wheeler confides that he’s on pins and needles for tonight’s opening of the opera based on his creation…Image Comics upcoming Drain has been getting a lot of buzz for the art by Japanese digital painter Sana Takeda, but writer C.B. Cebulski fuels his work with iced green tea lemonade from Starbucks. “I’m addicted,” he admits.

Landry Walker enjoys writing the TRON comic for Slave Labor but thinks he learned little from the experience. “There are probably all sorts of deep and insightful things I could have learned, if only I had been paying attention enough to absorb them.”

Director Guillermo del Toro held a special screening of his new film PAN’S LABYRINTH just for Neil Gaiman, who thinks the spectacular new fantasy film is “astonishing.” The film has been getting great reviews at film fests but doesn’t open in the US until December….and…Warren Ellis is off to Helsinki this weekend for the Comics Festival. So far, he’s impressed by the design of his hotel room, and found local energy drinks surprisingly affordable….meanwhile…Cartoonists Across America’s Phil Yeh is over in Berlin with Phil Ortiz (The Simpsons) and Mark Bode (Cheech Wizard) to paint a mural. Mark has just debuted a new line of Cheech Wizard clothing for Puma. Yeh says the Germans are a comics loving people, and he’s been enjoying a friendly reception.

As a young cartoonist, Carla Speed McNeill showed her work to Charles Vess for a critique. “He said I should open up my panels, set scenes, and establish atmosphere, and I’ve been struggling to follow his advice ever since,” she says. Carla’s supposed struggle doesn’t seem to have hurt her new FINDER collection, FIVE CRAZY WOMEN, which has been getting raves….plus…Abby Denson has to be one of the hardest working women in showbiz. When she’s not touring for her new book Tough Love: High School Confidential she’s fronting the popular band The Saturday Night Things, who just released a new single on MySpace, “Oh Helene.” “It’s live, so this is the raw stuff,” Abby reveals….Evan Dorkin recently inhaled too much bug spray while trying to nuke some ants in his kitchen. Luckily, it didn’t stop him from getting the new issue of Dork finished. The long awaited issue drops in a few weeks and contains 527 panels.

Kitten’s Kittens: Jamie McKelvie of PHONOGRAM is known on the Engine by the nickname of “Kitten” because of his cuddly appearance, but now he’s living up to it in another way: he just adopted two four-month old kitties, named Inigo and Fezzik. …meanwhile, John Layman the scribe of Dynamite’s XENA among many other fnie comics, has discovered that his cat, Bumble Buzz, is afraid of ceiling fans, which had led her to start pooping in his bathtub.

Ed Brubaker has been feverishly writing a ton of books lately, including his new Icon title, CRIMINAL. In fact, even winning his first Harvey Award for Best Writer couldn’t take him off schedule. “Hurray for me, and now I’ve got to get back to work, because I’ve got deadlines, and editors could care less about a slab of glass,” he confessed on his blog.

Looking for a good slice of Red Velvet Cake in New York City? Manga Hamlet artist Tintin Pantojathinks she’s found one of the best at the Sugar Hill Coffee and Tea Lounge up in Harlem. Red Velvet cake is a mix of flavors, Tintin explains, with ingredients including cocoa, cream cheese and vinegar. “It’s supposed to be tangy and a bit sour. Sugar Hill Tea Lounge preserves the moist, buttery batter, but makes the frosting less viscous, more of a sugary glaze than a cream, and with a stronger hint of cream cheese.” Okay sign us up…we’re out of here to eat some cake!

[The above all taken for a few days worth of blogs, interviews and message board postings. A few verbs were added for color. Apologies to all.]

The long awaited TOO MUCH COFFEE MAN opera opens tonight, and The Portland Tribune has a preview:

They sing another ode to coffee, and that’s it.

“In the comic there were three locales, but I cut them down to one so we could do this cheaply,� Wheeler says cheerfully, as he lurks at the edge of the action.

Wheeler embraced the chance to work collaboratively — cartooning is an intensely lonely job, as local successes Joe Sacco and Craig Thompson have admitted. Tonight, however, Wheeler is on the margins. He sports a bemused smile, as though surprised at how much better things have turned out than he expected.

ITEM! Of all the pages that have linked to us, this is probably the coolest

ITEM! New York Times covers Invisible Woman/Mr. Fantastic break-up.

ITEM! Pia Guerra blogs the last year of Y THE LAST MAN.

ITEM! Funky Winkerbean creator gives character cancer.

ITEM! The Kryptonese Alphabet. {Link via Kottke.]

Mark Martin is selling this.

[LInk via Jim Woodring]

Too bad the sound is a bit wonky in this clip. Almost defeats the purpose. It’s the trailer for the Hollywood Reporter Key Art awards, given to movie trailers. (Trivia: In our own slender youth, we were once one of the awards girls at this ceremony, you know, helping befuddled winners off stage at the DGA.)
[Link via Risky Biz Blog]

Check it out quick,because it’s up on some Greek website we can’t even read.

The footage is toned down a bit from what we saw at Comic-con — no topless women and decapitated heads flying through the air propelled on spurts of gore — but it does look…impressive. Very impressive. Violent yet lyrical and heroic. Our only cavil is the Lisa Gerard-inspired soundtrack that must accompany all post-GLADIATOR sword-and-sandal epics, but that is to be expected.

[Thanks to ‘MA’ for the link.]

Gail Simone has news of an impressive benefit for Lea Hernandez over at Newsarama:

Lea’s family’s emotions have been all over the place, but the concern and heartfelt support of so many people has been one consistent bright spot. To that end, an Art And Other Stuff Auction has been organized, spearheaded by the amazing Jeffery LaJaunie, with help from his lovely wife Tonia and others. This thing has grown wild, and aside from doing a lot of good for some really good people, it’s one incredible parade of great stuff you definitely need. Honestly.

There are all sorts of tpbs and comics at bargain prices, along with one-of-a-kind collectibles and best of all, original art by some of the biggest talents in comics. I know I sound like that guy on QVC, but we’re talking Tom Derenick JLA, Halo and Kabuki art by Andrew Robinson, Wonder Woman art by Anne Timmons, an amazing Avengers piece done Simpsons style by the great Bill Morrison, and TWO unbelievable pieces by Mike Oeming that you have to see to believe.

On top of that, we’ve got sketches by some unknown figures like John Cassaday, Jim Lee, Kevin Nowlan, Brandon Peterson, Andy Park and Jimmy Palmiotti and many more. Honestly, you may never see these sketches available so cheaply again.

And this is just the start. More is coming, lots more. Lions, Tigers and Bears art, Planet Karen pieces from Karen Ellis, and beautiful Marvel art from Valentine De Landro.

One piece so incredible it’s hard to even figure out how to list it is a Tom Beland sketchbook that he’s donated, the first of its kind he’s ever sold. To say this is one-of-a-kind is a grave injustice. We’ll notify people when this piece goes up, as it literally is the ultimate Tom Beland fan catch, short of kidnapping Tom himself.

The first round of stuff is up, but please keep checking back. This is an opportunity to do something great for Lea’s family that will also bring you joy for a long time to come, and there’s something there for any budget, starting at just a few dollars.

The Ebay address is:

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZblaizeQQhtZ-1

This link from The Groovy Age of Horror Censored Essentials has been going around the internets for a few days. Apparently, when Marvel reprinted an Essentials version of the TOMB OF DRACULA magazine, they took it upon themselves to cover the naked boobies drawn with loving care by Gene Colan with wispy shreds of cloth. (You’ll note that the perky areolae have been left in place.)

Everyone has been yakking about this. Tom, Dirk, and best of all John Jakala.

Dirk goes on a fairly wide-ranging rampage about how mainstream comics today can’t be truy adult or child friendly but can only appeal to the twiight world of tweeners from the ages of 20-40. While we wouldn’t say that showing naked titties is the mark of maturity, it is instructive to see that 30 years ago, we were a bit looser and freer with our low-cost entertainment. While the sight of female frontal nudity usually strikes us as exploitive and juvenile, these pages somehow have an aura of Swingin’ Seventies Sophistication about them. Maybe it’s just that Colan was drawing in the era of real boobs, and not the hard plastic ones everyone seems to prefer these days. Ah, nostalgia.

At any rate, we’re not reproducing the panels here because we try to keep this site PG-13 on the visual side anyway. But the salient point to note is that in the 70s, Marvel published a line of black and white comics magazines sold on newsstands that were aimed at readers squarely over the age of 21. Marvel deemed it more proper to make the material all-ages…ish in a reprint which could easily just been marked “Mature” like the Marvel Knights Line, or RAWHIDE KID or something. Now go back to surfing your internet porn.

Sony Pictures Classics has up some still from the PERSEPOLIS animated film which is due out in 2007. Creator Marjane Satrapi wrote the script and co-directed along with Vincent Paronnaud. The film is being made in French, but one assumes Sony will be releasing an English language version. Chiara Mastroianni voices young Marjane, and Mastroianni’s real-life mother, Catherine Deneuve plays Marjane’s mother.

Yesterday we reported the unbelieveably thrilling news that Johnny Depp may star in a comic book movie and today the websites are all over REX MUNDI creator Arvid Nelson including this interveiw at IESB.net:

IESB: I first heard about Rex Mundi about one year ago when Barry Levine mentioned this top secret project with Johnny Depp, how long have you been hoping to get this onto the big screen.

Arvid Nelson: Barry first approached me about four years ago it seemed like a long shot at the time but ever since then it just been kind of a cycle of emulation and additional despair and I guess I have kind of learned to take everything with a grain of salt but it feels really different this time. It’s been a really long haul.

IESB: How early on was Johnny Depp’s involvement, he’s been looking at it for about a year?

AN: Yeah, it been a bit longer than that, I am not exactly sure, to tell you the truth, I think he’s been involved, it’s been as much as two years ago, I guess things just grind really slowly. I think he just needed to get his schedule figured out to focus on it so…it’s been a while, these things take time.

Carol Tyler has been named an Ohio Arts Council Artist In Residence:

Cincinnati’s underground comics queen Carol Tyler has been named an Artist in Residence by the Ohio Arts Council and is raring to line up gigs.
“What this means,” she e-mailed, “is that I will be available to share the comic making experience with schools, hospitals, libraries, arts organizations and community groups.”

“We can shape anything we want and have fun at the same time.”

“Pretty cool, huh?”

Ah, yes.

She asks anyone out there who’s interested, to think about a project you might want to do, one that supports your goals and your mission, then let her know about it via an e-mail.

We chatted with Tyler at the recent opening of the Telling Tales art show, and she did indeed strike us as someone “raring to go.” Congrats!

Arizona Central previews this weeked’s Phoenix Cactus Comicon, and kicks it off with a startling discovery.

Comic conventions are not just for comic books anymore. And they’re not just for geeky 30-year-old guys who still live in their parents’ house.

Comicons, as they’re called, are appealing to a wider range of people these days, including women of all ages.

Okay okay, we kid. The rest of the article is a really nice preview that indicates that this huge market is getting soime of the comic-con goodness that the rest of the nation has been enjoying:

Matt Solberg of Tempe, director of the comicon and owner of Planet Neo comics store in Tempe, said the rise in superhero movies, the broadcast of Japanese animation on television, the popularity of manga (Japanese comic books) in library programs and the crossover of creators from film to comics all are attracting more fans.

For example, Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and writer/director/actor Kevin Smith (Clerks, Dogma, Chasing Amy) have written comics.

“It’s drawing in people who may not have normally read comics but respect those creators,” Solberg said.

He said 432 people attended the first comicon he organized in 2001, but he expects at least 2,500 this weekend. The convention moved to Mesa this year and expanded to two full days and a preview night because it outgrew the Glendale Civic Center.

We know a recording of the Seth/Chester Brown talk at the Doug Wright Awards is up so you can just listen to it yourself…but wouldn’t you rather read Dave Sim’s report? Come on now.

With about a half-hour to the interview segment it looked as if it might be touch-and-go as to whether they could fill even half the 40 or so seats set out in rows. Seth and his lovely bride Tania arrived and, with Seth occupied with all the last-minute details—including one last “I only smoke in Toronto� cigarette—I had a chance to talk with Tania (who I had never met) and within minutes the room was packed (I mean standing-room only plus) with the room temperature starting to soar.
The one-hour interview segment was a lot of fun as Seth grilled Chester on any number of subjects that you could see Chet would really like to have had a few minutes to mull over before answering, many of which verged on the boundary of “too personal� and others of which left Chet flummoxed as to whether to disagree with the “liberal-centric� premise of the question or to answer it as if he agreed with the premise and which were, consequently, the show’s highlights, all us voyeurs in the audience eating it with a spoon. At one point, answering a question about his Libertarian political views Chet said, “All of my friends are liberals� and I momentarily considered yelling “HEY!� really loud from the back of the room for comedic effect (being, I was pretty sure, the only other person in the room besides Chet whose politics were to the right of Pierre Trudeau’s) but thought better of it (yelling tends to frighten liberals terribly at the best of times and therefore has limited comedic applications in their native habitats) and Chet apologized the next day when I pointed out the omission. It was pretty formal and genteel but there were a few moments where Seth and Chet seemed to forget the audience was there and it was just like being back at Sushi on Bloor where it was usually Joe Matt asking the most provocative questions—in that case, just to get a rise out of someone.

Many pictures and much much more in the link. MORE. MUCH MORE. The blogspot address has been set up to make Sim’s blog more findable, and Sim rewards with LONG posts. Who knew he could write so much?

We’d like to pick the brains of our loyal Beat readers. As messy as that sounds, it’s not that dire. Our normal procedure for posting “events listings” here at The Beat is to do it the day of (usually in the morning.) That works for The Beat because our usual planning is along the lines of “Oh rats, that’s TONIGHT? I gotta comb my hair!” but others prefer a more structured approach.

We’re revamping our calendar policies a little, so we were wondering, what is more useful:

– Listing events when they are announced, sometimes long in advance.

– Listing events a day or so before.

– Continuing our last minute preparations.

There is no one single answer to this, obviously, so we’re open to the greatest good for the greatest number of people, etc etc etc.

Thanks!

UPDATE: Thanks for all the feedback, peeps. And no we’re not goin gto create a clickable calander in the sidebar because…well we’re not an events site. (We do recommend Egon’s excellent listings for indie comics type events.) WE have always just listed interesting events that catch our fanyc, not every signing and tour. We just want the events we DO list to be more useful for the people who read the site. And we know from our extensive market research (i.e. shooting the breeze) that people do patronize events we list.

We don’t usually carry sell-out stories here, but it’s nice to hear of micro-indie and self published success stories, especially with a book as good as ACTION PHILOSOPHERS. Plus we always like. amusing press releases:

Evil Twin Comics is pleased to announce that due to the selling out of the first printing of the first trade paperback collection of their Xeric-winning, Ignatz-nominated non-fiction comic book series Action Philosophers, AP Giant-Size Thing Vol. 1 (ISBN #0-9778329-0-2), that the publisher would immediately go to second printing on the title, which will be offered in the October 2006 Diamond PREVIEWS catalog, along with the second TPB in the series, entitled, shockingly enough, Action Philosophers Giant-Size Thing Vol. 2, both of which see a December 2006 release.

Many observers — especially those who write Evil Twin Comics’ press releases — believe that the overwhelming popularity of Action Philosophers heralds a tectonic shift in the comic book Direct Market, away from the fantastical adventures of colorfully-costumed adventurers, and toward the more rarified air of the alienation of the proletariat in capitalist society, existentialism, logical positivism, and the application of Aristotelian logic to medieval theology, all of which are covered, and mercilessly satirized with ca-ca and doo-doo jokes, in Action Philosophers Giant-Size Thing Volume 2.

As Caleb Mozzocco writes on bamkapow.com, “In the world of philosophy comics, writer Fred Van Lente and artist Ryan Dunlavey are giants, towering above all of the other creators working in the genre. In fact, it’s probably safe to say that their Action Philosophers series is the single best philosophy comic book on the shelves today.â€?

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