Director Zack Snyder just can’t get enough comics book movies to direct!
his upcoming film of 300 is generating huge buzz, he’s supposed to be next in line to direct WATCHMEN, and now he’s signed on for a film based on Vaughn Bode’s COBALT 60:

Taking place in a postapocalyptic world inhabited by mutants and fantastical creatures, the story follows the masked hero Cobalt 60, who embarks on a quest to avenge his parents, who were murdered by the evil Strontium 90.

Underground artist Vaughn Bode created “Cobalt 60″ and its characters in 1968, but after one story the characters languished in obscurity. Bode’s son, Mark, picked up his father’s mantle in the 1980s, reviving the trippy art style and violence. The stories, plotted by Larry Todd, were published in comics magazine Epic Illustrated.

You can actually see a rather home-made animation for COBALT 60 by one kurt5 here.

§ Charles Schulz trails Kurt Cobain and Elvis as the highest crossing dead celebrity:

Angst-ridden grunge rocker Kurt Cobain has pushed Elvis into second place in a list of highest-earning dead celebrities, with the late Nirvana frontman raking in 50 million dollars in the past year.

The Forbes.com website ranks 13 celebrities pushing up daisies on their income and proves that death need not be an obstacle to making money, with the group collectively earning 247 million dollars in the last year, AFP reported.

“Peanuts” creator Charles Schulz, whose cartoons are syndicated in thousands of newspapers worldwide, came third after earning 35 million dollars, ahead of John Lennon with 24 million and Albert Einstein with 20 million.

§ Josh Neufeld receives letter written on handsome stationery.

§ Adam Beechen does what many have longed to do with this headline.

§ Matt Silvie and his friends really don’t like Anne Elizabeth Moore.

Someone had given the group a pie, so while people were asking her questions, Anne would just eat bites of pie, and speak to the crowd with her mouth full. So arrogant.

§ Cartoonist is also a firefighter — women don’t know whether to scorn him or date him.

Combs will produce three nationally oriented cartoons per week (in color and black and white) while also creating local cartoons for The Crescent-News in Defiance, Ohio. He’s a firefighter in nearby Bryan, Ohio, a job he says helps him draw from the perspective of an average citizen.

mortgage officer leads loan

The Finnish government decided in 2005 that home new loans purchase way to warn citizens of disasters was the home new loans purchase network.

…and bought a scanner. We’re raiding the vaults.

And we’re totally scanning in pages of old comics just like other bloggers…once we learn how to do it!

From the family vaults.
[”Harvest” ©2003 Peter McFarland]

Harvey Pekar, Stumptown, Bryan Lee O’Malley — this week has it ALL!

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24
NEW YORK, NY — 8 pm: Best American Comics signing at Galapagos, 70 N 6th Street, Williamsburg Brooklyn, $2. Booksigning with editors Harvey Pekar and Anne Elizabeth Moore - plus slideshow with local artists Kurt Wolfgang, Jessica Abel, David Heatley, Kim Deitch, and Tom Hart.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26
NEW YORK, NY — 7 pm: Of Mice and Cartoons, Makor, Steinhardt Building, 35 West 67th Street, Tickets are $12 in advance ($15 at door).
Gabrielle Bell, Jonathan Bennett, Ivan Brunetti, David Heatley, Adrian Tomine and Lauren Weinstein appear.

From R. Crumb and Art Spiegelman to Kim Deitch and Chris Ware, the pioneers of comics and graphic fiction are now being recognized as important artists in an emerging medium. Enjoy a slideshow and talk on the art and pleasures of comics by Ivan Brunetti and fellow cartoonists. Brunetti is the creator of Schizo and editor of the new book An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, & True Stories.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27
TORONTO, ON — 8 pm:Ralph Steadman reading
Brigatine Room

Ralph Steadman’s The Joke’s Over, is a memoir of his remarkable friendship and collaboration with Hunter S. Thompson, a relationship which spanned more than thirty years. Steadman is the illustrator of many books, including Thompson’s legendary Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and the fiftieth-anniversary edition of George Orwell’s Animal Farm. He is the author of The Grapes of Ralph, which won a Glenfiddich Food & Drink Award, Still Life with Bottle, The Book of Jones, and Gonzo: The Art. Steadman will be reading alongside Patrick McCabe, Tom McCarthy, and Clifford Chase.

NEW YORK, NY — 8-10 pm: Release Party for Tales Designed to Thrizzle (#3). at Rocketship, 208 Smith Street in Brooklyn. Beer and wine will be served.
BEAT RECOMMENDED!!!

Via Lea Hernandez, the winners of four year long accounts on Webcomicsnation.com:
WOMEN WEBCOMICKER GRANT NAN: 2006 Recipients

Blue Canary, Kit White

Chasing Daylight, Ann Kennedy

Circuit of Heaven, Julia Claire Begley (URL forthcoming)

Primary, Rachel Dukes

Before September 6th, for me to say I understood the reach of the Internet would mean that I knew it was an end run around many obstacles facing artists who wanted to share their work with the world. It’s an end run I have been making since 1991, a decade and a half of dodging and weaving, and in that, a bit more than ten as a webcomicker, one of the first to make the print-to-web transition with Rumble Girls: Silky Warrior Tansie. I started Women Webcomicker Grant Nan because I was challenged to do something about the problems I saw with comics, instead of just talking about them. Inspired by Peter Laird’s Xeric Grant for self-publishers and Dr. Keith P. Taylor’s Modest Needs foundation, which gives small gifts to people to help pay emergency expenses, I realized it was within my grasp to do something, and even a “small” something was still something.

Anyone who says that a $100 grant isn’t big has never experienced choosing between two things equally needed for a creator; food and supplies, but I bet everyone knows the giddy thrill of twenty dollars at just the right time.. On September 6th, I had a house fire that gutted my home and killed nine of eleven pets. Word spread quickly over the Internet, thanks to pushing by Gail Simone, Lisa Jonte, Scott Kurtz, and Eisner-winning retailer Richard Neal of Zeus Comics, (and enough many others to make a phone book), and I was buried (in a good way) in over 3,000 emails, and many donations, small ones, that added up to enough for me to take care of my family until my house is rebuilt. I was aware, before September 6th, of the ability of the Internet to make and reach friends, but I had no idea it had the ability to turn my life into a crossover between “It’s a Wonderful Life”, “Miracle on 34th Street” and “Ferris Beuller’s Day Off.” As Bugs Bunny might say, “I didn’t know ya cared.”

Now it is seven weeks since September 6th, and my understanding of the reach of the Internet is the same, but better. In giving to take care of my material needs, or even just writing notes of encouragement, people have given me immaterial gifts: the strength to pick up and go on, the motivation to be a better person, and a new focus on my own work to honor the thousands of tiny kindnesses with something in return.

I sincerely hope my tiny kindness of the Grant NAN can do for four other women in some way what has been done for me. I wish for these recipients much creative happiness, long careers as cartoonists, and friends like mine.

Eric Shanower is once again offering his Wizard of Oz Lunch Box Only $16.95. Seriously, how could you not want this?

PS: we recently received a copy of Eric’s ADVENTURES IN OZ compendium, published by IDW, and it is stunning and lovely.

The Kansas City Star looks at the recent controversy over FUN HOME and BLANKETS:

But the books are notable because they’re also graphic novels, stories told primarily with drawings instead of words. They resemble comic books, but graphic novels typically run hundreds of pages and often tackle mature subject matter. And as graphic novels have become more common in libraries and bookstores, they have started to run into critics who say they’re too easily available to young children.

Meanwhile, in King County, WA kids can’t get enough of the comics!

Graphic novels are enjoying a meteoric rise among readers young and old.

The books, many of which are attractively bound and printed on high-stock paper, fall into many genres, and they’re so popular that three-quarters of the Kirkland Library’s teen collection is checked out at any given time, according to library staff.

To cater to the growing demand, and in recognition of Teen Read Month, library staff have created a new teen graphic novel section to display the library’s collection of popular titles, from old superhero standards to edgy new manga, from mainstream to alternative.

Though often stigmatized as trivial or juvenile, many graphic novels today grapple with heavy cultural or political issues.

They just couldn’t resist: “And they’re not just for kids.”

rate ct equity home loan

Mobile phone use on aircraft is also prohibited and many airlines claim in their in-plane announcements that this prohibition is due to possible interference with aircraft radio communications.

Cinematical sums up the latest “director’s cut” comic from VIRGIN, this one from director Guy Richie:

There was an announcement on comic book writer Andy Diggle’s blog that he will be writing Ritchie’s 10-part series The Gamekeeper for Virgin. Diggle is based in the UK and has written for Batman Confidential and Green Arrow. The series, conceived by Ritchie, is about a nature-loving killer. Sounds fun, I wonder if it will be chock full of Kabballah and Cockney thugs? There aren’t many publishing details yet, but considering that Ritchie will not be writing or storyboarding the illustrations, you have to wonder why they even bothered calling it a Guy Ritchie comic in the first place. I guess they’ll give him a call when they do the movie version.

We had a brief conversation this afternoon with Howard Jurofsky of Heavy Metal. He says that they will be publishing the first CORTO MALTESE book, THE BALLAD OF THE SALTY SEA, and see how it goes before doing any more of the books. The book will be in the 6 x 9 format, smaller than previous U.S editions or the “album” size usually seen worldwide. Jurofsky says they also hope to use the English translation as opposed to the much-maligned translation used in the NBM editions.

Heavy Metal already has many relationships in place with French publishers, and that’s how this deal came about.

More details when they become available.

UPDATE: We’re going to assemble a more definitive FAQ on this, but several people have pointed out that when NBM published THE BALLAD OF THE SALTY SEA, they used the translation from the English Harvill edition which goes for $132 on eBay. So there is only ONE English translation available and it is one that has been widely praised.

We missed this the other day Terminator 3 hottie Kristanna Loken will be PAINKILLER JANE in the upcoming series, but we didn’t want you to miss a photo op!

‘Painkiller Jane’ is executive produced by showrunner Gil Grant (24, NCIS). Loken will serve as co-executive producer. The series is slated to premiere on SCI FI in Spring 2007, followed by a domestic broadcast weekly syndication window in Fall 2007. Starz Media will handle U.S. DVD and syndication sales, as well as distribution to key worldwide markets. Additional casting is currently underway.

Hugh Jackman is excited about the upcoming Wolverine solo movie –which is ironic, because we’re excited about Hugh Jackman!

But thanks to a new script that recently arrived on the doorstep of Hugh Jackman, the saga of Wolverine is only just beginning.

“We have our final script,” Jackman grinned like a proud papa this week, announcing his satisfaction with the untitled Wolverine prequel that he’ll begin filming in late 2007.

Little is known about the Wolverine spinoff flick, which — like a similarly conceived Magneto prequel in development — will tell the early story of an X-Men character while continuing to employ the fan-favorite star who brought him to life. Jackman’s comments, however, would seem to suggest that controversial “Last Stand” director Brett Ratner will not be returning.

We guess it’s time to admit that YouTube has its uses. We had long sought a replacement for a now-vanished .mp3 of the classic safety film song “Shake Hands With Danger” and lo and behold, here’s the whole movie, a Caterpillar safety film from the early ’70s with so much to enjoy.

•SQUEAL at the menace of runaway backhoes and bulldozers.

• THRILL to the sight of hapless hippy types–who would never in a zillion years be seen around heavy machinery to begin with–fucking up gearshafts,

• MARVEL at the haunting chorus: “I used to laugh at safety and now they call me (ba da da ba da bum) Three Finger Joe.”

• CLENCH IN TERROR as you await the curiously bloodless payoffs of the unbearable tension as foolish workers climb ladders while encumbered and forget to pull both axles before unlocking the differential.

• WONDER at the tight jeans of the era, with hankies safely stowed in the RIGHT SIDE.

There’s also much to be learned here about SAFETY, amazingly enough. Sure any ninny knows “the risk of striking hard against badly chipped metal.” But who could have foreseen this mishap?

“At this point the service manual calls for a the insertion of a threaded tool to hold the spring force. Sam hasn’t read the manual.”

Best of all is the almost lyrical narration, a solemn meditation on human frailty and the inevitable weaknesses that bring us ever closer to mortality. “The people who shake hands with danger are those who don’t learn beforehand what they’re gettin’ into.” Sho’ nuff.

Parts two and three can also be seen — and learned from. Use a swab when greasing up an axle, we’re just sayin’.

A tribute to Filipino Comics by the legendary Sonny Trinidad, you can bid on this here.

[Link via PilipinoKomiks]

If anyone has been sending email to my AOL account, I haven’t been able to reply, due to a SMTP error. Please use my Gmail address.

Not only is Slave Labor publisher Dan Vado “the smartest guy in the room”, but he is also the king of the hill, which he reveals as he shows off his barbecue prowess in these photos. Is there anything he can’t do?

Perhaps the most in-depth profile ever of DOONESBURY’s Garry Trudeau appeared in this weekend’s Washington Post magazine, with an emphasis on how the story of B.D. losing a limb in Iraq has reenvigorated the strip and brought Trudeau closer to vets.

IF YOU DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT GARRY TRUDEAU, AND YOU PROBABLY DON’T, it’s because he has done his best to keep it that way. With the exception of the time in 1980 when his island wedding to America’s sweetheart, TV personality Jane Pauley, turned him into a sullen bridegroom hounded by paparazzi in boats and helicopters, Trudeau, now 58, has managed to remain comfortably obscure. Aside from a couple of semi-recent TV interviews, he’s had almost no public presence for three decades. Considering the extraordinary reach of his comic strip, and the role it has had over the years in analyzing, reflecting and even helping shape American culture, he may be the most famous unknown person.

It turns out Trudeau is — brace yourself — a nerd who likes to enthuse about Walt Kelly. Yes, not so different from you and I. Read the whole thing–Trudeau has been doing–for him–an inordinate amount of press of late, perhaps to draw attention to his new blog and his work with Iraq vets.

We’re also reminded that strip cartoonists seem to be, by nature, the most reclusive creative types, the occasional Aaron McGruder aside. They just like to sit at home and draw.

It’s interesting to compare to the new generation of webcomics cartoonists. We don’t know how much they like to get out of the house — a god bit from what we’ve seen — but they certainly enjoy communicating directly with their public. Another shift in the paradigm.

Newsweek looks at the popularity of comics delivered via cell phone:

Consumer demand for manga (the Japanese word for print comics) has surged in recent months, thanks to high-speed 3G phones, the proliferation of fixed-rate plans, and high-quality LCD displays.

The growth in manga shows how hard is it to predict what effect new technologies will have on old markets. Manga publishers initially thought that a phone service would appeal to commuters, but customers have turned to their mobiles to read comics more at home, especially after 11 p.m., than on the move. “I’d imagine at that time of day many people are reading comics in the dark,” says Yutaka Tashiro, director of content planning at Shueisha Inc., Japan’s major publisher.

The other surprise is that women account for the lion’s share of mobile manga consumers. NTT Solmare, one of the nation’s largest content providers, initially targeted salarymen but received a tepid response. Women then wrote in asking for more female-oriented titles. When the company added them last summer, demand soared, says Katsuyuki Kobayashi, a deputy general manager. Today 60 percent of his customers are female, up from 20 percent. One of the appeals to an online comic, he believes, is that people can buy racy titles like “Love Junkie” or “I Could Not Wait Until Night” without being seen.

Read the whole piece. When our phones catch up with Japan, this might very well be us.

The Top Shelf site has posted some new comics, including WARUM by Gregory Benton, which originally appeared, we beleiev, as part of Opolis.. Check out the other new comics here.

THE ENGINE thread on the new Fantagraphics stroefront i Seattle craw more shocking revelations from Eric Reynolds, in response to questions from retailer Brian Hibbs:

“If you’re talking initial orders here, how does that work out after returns are factored in?”

That’s a good question that I haven’t done the math on recently. I did mispeak a bit in saying “the direct market accounts for about one-fourth of our initial sales.” What I should have said was, “Diamond accounts for about one-fourth of our initial sales,” which is much different and I should re-read my posts before I post them. But it’s still interesting, no?

I came to this by looking at a few recent or about-to-ship titles, including THE COMICS JOURNAL LIBRARY VOL. 7: HARVEY KURTZMAN, which I would consider a strong direct market title. Initial Diamond sales accounted for about 27% of the total initial orders. Other “direct market” avenues (direct accounts, Gasp, Bud Plant, etc.) accounted for another 4-5%. The remaining sales — almost 70% — went to Norton.

Our book trade returns hover around 20%, on average (which is pretty much optimal). So, you might see the direct market’s share go up a bit over time, but not necessarily — it really depends on reorder activity between Diamond and Norton, and Norton’s reorder activity is much stronger — and reliable — across the board than Diamond’s, as well.

Anyway, to answer your last point, I wasn’t referring to PEANUTS — I think the Kurtzman book is a pretty solid example in the other direction; unlike many of our books, this book is probably better-suited for direct market sales than book trade sales, given that it’s positioned to people well-versed in comics history.

The return rate in particular is very interesting. When the graphic novel boom began, he return rate was 8-10% which was ridiculously low. 20% is indeed a healthy number, meaning enough books are being ordered in.

Read the entire thread for more frank talk on the new reality.

STAPLE! The Independent Media Expo, an indie comics fest in Austin, TX has announced its 2007 dates:

The date is set for STAPLE! 2007: March 3rd, 2007 in Austin, TX. Exhibitor registration is open! We are also happy to announce that Dean Haspiel will be a special guest at the show.

Go to link for more info.

§ Johanna has more commentary on ICv2’s Most Powerful People in manga list, including spots 11-20:

# Robin Brenner, Young Adwult Library Services Association
# Jim Chadwick, Editor in Chief, CMX
# Liza Coppola, Senior VP of Marketing, Viz Media
# Jason DeAngelis, Founder, Seven Seas Entertainment
# Rika Inouye, Senior Director of Licensing, Viz Media
# John Ledford, CEO, ADV Films (with the blurb “Although ADV’s launch of its manga line involved thrusting too many titles into a crowded market, the company still controls a number of great licenses and remains a player.� Which reads to me as wishful thinking)
# Kuo-Yu Liang, VP Sales & Marketing, Diamond Book Distributors
# Michael Martens, VP Special Markets, Dark Horse
# Charles Solomon, Journalist (�the leading commentator on manga (and anime) in the mainstream media�)
# David Wise, Editor in Chief, Go Comi

§ Mark Evanier reports on the debut of “The Sergio” and has pictures of Jack Davis AND the REAL Sergio.

§ Scott Kurtz and Mike Krahulik collaborate; world axis shifts?

§ An early play by Brian K. Vaughan will be performed in Chicago he reports at his news blog. He quotes the organizer:

DROP will be performed on October 26th, 27th, and 28th at 8:00 PM in the Francis X. Kinahan Theater at the University of Chicago.

5706 S University Ave
Chicago, IL 60637

Admission price is $6.

“Now wait!” you might say, “that’s a lot of money for a twenty-minute show!” Well, yes. Yes, it is. But there are three other shows going on: Strindberg One on One (”Pariah” and “The Stronger”), Edward Albee’s “Zoo Story”, and an adapted version of Ray Bradbury’s “The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone”. DROP is simply going up first, so people can duck out afterwards if they’re just there for the BKV love.

§ One more SPX link, a photo which proves either that:

a) if you order a “crib” instead of a cot you will get…a crib

or

b) Indie cartoonists really are babies.

§ In case you’re wondering with this…”Nar-oo-toe” business is all about, Blogcritics has a review understandable by all:

Reading his adventures in graphic novel format, it didn’t take me long to discover the character’s appeal.

The series opens in an undefined period within a well-to-do village called Konohagakune. There, we meet our hero as he’s vandalizing the Rushmore-like mountain faces of the village’s four champions. “You don’t have what it takes to do something this low!” he taunts the outraged villagers, and it’s quickly established that orphaned Naruto is the local scapegoat (colloquialisms courtesy of onetime Marvel writer Mary Jo Duffy), the kind of kid who primarily seeks attention by either making mischief or by loudly bragging about himself.

§ Meanwhile, Salon on “How the World Works” :

But what really caught my eye was a clip from the animated series Naruto set to the soundtrack of a hip-hop song from an Asian American Berkeley duo called Magnetic North. The graphic novel series Naruto is a huge seller in the United States, a fact that is driven home for me every time I wake my son up for breakfast and his first conscious act is to pick up his latest installment and start reading. A Berkeley Asian-American duo providing the soundtrack to a Naruto video is just too close to my home territory to ignore. It’s like they’re rehearsing in my attic.

§ The New York Sun has a lengthy and interesting obit for Hilda Terry,

Clickee for more.

BTW, we saw the 300 trailer in a real theatre for the first time this weekend and it looked pretty amazing, but the whole “yelling and screaming every line” thing was more noticeable in the theatre. One hopes there will be moments of contrast.

Oh, who really cares…it’s not like we’re not going to go see it anyway!