Is that the demon pike???

Many thanks for making The Beat’s birthday yesterday a memorable one. Each and every message was read and appreciated. Unfortunately we are still recovering from the festivities.

Adrian Tomine has drawn his share of magazine covers in his day, but it appears that it’s his MUG that adorns the latest issue of LA City Beat. Within lies a profile as his SHOERTCOMINGS tour winds up:

“Even since I was a teenager doing these little mini-comics out of my parents’ house, I would get these totally divergent and sort of irreconcilable opinions of my work,” says graphic novelist Adrian Tomine. “It would be, like, ‘You’re great; you’ve got a lot of potential,’ or ‘Give up; you suck!’”

On a recent sunny Saturday afternoon, the 33-year-old is sitting in a Los Feliz café down the street from Skylight Books, where later he’ll be signing copies of his new book, Shortcomings. Bespectacled and mild-mannered, the Sacramento-born artist-writer seems an unlikely candidate to incite such extreme reactions. The clean-lined, black-and-white cartoon vignettes in his long-running, critically lauded comic book Optic Nerve do occasionally depict grueling or even violent moments, but mostly they capture scenes of everyday life, usually in minute emotional detail.

Tomine winds up his book tour tonight at Cody’s in Berkeley.

Is there anyone out there who doesn’t like Dave Roman, because if there is, we’ll knock your lamps out. The Nickelodeon magazine editor and cartoonist is back with a guide to being a freelancer that might just be the best advice you will ever read:

What kind of illustrator are you?
For any one assignment there are thousands of artists that could potentially be hired. Why should an editor or art director hire you? You need to figure out what makes your art unique. Because when there are a thousand artists who would all like the same gig, often just being good isn’t enough. You have to have a distinctive voice. It’s not about whether you can draw a bowl of fruit, it’s about how bad-ass, or realistic, or cute you can draw that fruit and convince people that no one has ever drawn it that way before. This sometimes gets confused with “the hot style,” but really it comes down to making art that lots of people find appealing and want to see more of. Figure out what your strengths are and what adjectives people use to describe the way you draw. Is it elegant, surreal, old-fashioned, cute, edgy, hip, classy, pretty, dynamic, dramatic, soft, hard, or all of the above? You may not want to categorize yourself, but to a certain extent you will need to if you want to focus yourself and find the places that will actually hire you.

Much more sense in the link. Bookmark and print out and learn the rules, like “Don’t be a jerk.”

Via Mark Evanier. Shot by Lee Hester.

Some journos went down to the set of THE SPIRIT, which is being shot right now by Frank Miller down in Albuquerque, At Newsarama, Tom McLean steals a few words with Miller :

“That was The Spirit hunting down The Octopus and going through some of his snappers on the way,” Miller said after approving the shot.

This is Miller’s first time directing a film solo, after co-helming the adaptation of his own comic book, Sin City, with Robert Rodriguez. Miller says he’s having a ball bringing The Spirit to life. “I knew from working with Robert Rodriguez that virtually anything was possible, and certainly with (senior visual effects supervisor) Stu Maschwitz, I’ve learned some brand new things.”

Superhero Hype has a long report with much detail:

To some, Gabriel Macht might not seem like the best visual match for Denny Colt, being that he’s known for his blonde hair, but it’s been dyed jet black, and unlike Eisner’s comics where the Spirit’s coat is seemingly colored blue, Macht wears a solid black coat, pants and hat with a white shirt and a bright red tie, which really stands out against the black outfit. Later, we’d get to meet with him for a few minutes and up close, you can see that the costume is ripped in places, at least at the end of the movie after fighting with The Octopus, giving it even more of the look of Eisner’s raggedy take on the character, who rarely looked as pristine as Macht. We could also see that his mask seemed to be painted on his face, although it was just wafer thin and attached to his face with spirit gum. Macht really looked great and any diehard Spirit fan should be happy with this unconventional choice. Macht considers the role one of the greatest opportunities as an actor and he felt that it was his “absurdity” that came across in his first meeting with Miller that got him the part since it lent itself to the character’s sense of humor.

Although the movie is being shot in green screen, Miller says it won’t look like SIN CITY or 300, which sounds feasible. The green screen process is a very economical way to make movies that have a distinctive look — get humans to do the subtle stuff, and go to town in the backgrounds.

The film opens in January 2009.

We missed this the other day, but a Dragonball Z movie has been confirmed with Stephen Chow to produce and James Wong (The One)to direct. Justin Chatwin (War of the Worlds) stars as Goku, and James Marsters (Spike on Buffy) plays bad guy Piccolo.

Based on the manga by Akira Toriyama, Dragonball Z has been a multi platform sensation in books, video games, toys and cartoons. We’ve never been able to make sense of it, but that must mean it’s good! According to the THR piece, it’s generated some $4 billion in worldwide licensing. We’re happy to hear of Chow’s involvement, since he’s one of the finest moviemakers on the planet for this kind of action genre romp.

Our advice to Chatwin? Stock up on the hair gel!

Adi Tantimadh interview Alan Moore for very long paragraphs about everything. The interview touches on some of the production problems that plagued the book, but focuses on how the book draws together the strains of 20th century pop culture for a very entertaining romp.

“The planet of the imagination is as old as we are. It has been humanity’s constant companion with all of its fictional locations, like Mount Olympus and the gods, and since we first came down from the trees, basically. It seems very important, otherwise, we wouldn’t have it. Fiction is clearly one of the first things that we do when we stand upright as a species - we tell each other stories. Now, Nature doesn’t do things for decorative purposes, except like giving peacocks wonderful plumage so they can attract a mate, but since there seems to be little point to telling each other stories all the time — except there must be. We have depended upon them and to some degree the fictional world is completely intertwined and interdependent with the material world.

That’s just a teensy excerpt. You’ll want to read the whole thing.

§ The Times (UK) reviews Posy Simmonds’ Tamara Drewe and we learn much literary history along the way, including Thomas Hardy’s tragic encounter with an illustrator. Simmonds’ graphic novel is based on Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd. The review is quite positive:

If there was a time when what Posy Simmonds seemed to offer was an “entertaining satire on the middle classes”, that limitation no longer applies. There is nothing in Hardy, you might say, which more grimly conveys the paralysis of lesser rural life than her pictures of Casey and Jody at the old bus shelter.

§ Comics autuer/cosplayer Gene Simmons blames the kids for ruining music: That’s right Gene, they once bought YOUR albums.

§ Ben Katchor, man of the musical theatre

§ Mysterious press release of the day: James. C. Shooter? Who is this young upstart?

§ LEGO BATMAN GAME!!!

Much online chatter that the long-planned Marvel online role playing game has foundered on rocky shoals. This follows a bunch of moves involving City of Heroes:

Last week, NCSoft announced it had acquired the City of Heroes IP from Cryptic Studios. Additionally, the staff behind the franchise — approximately 15% of Cryptic — was moving to Mountain View, CA and opening a new studio to operate within the NCSoft umbrella. During and following the announcement, no comment was made about the status of Marvel Universe Online. Curious, then, when we heard the game’s status was in danger and contacted Microsoft for an update on the game’s progress. Given there’s been nothing new about Marvel Universe Online (outside of bringing comics writer John Layman on board in July) since an October 2006 interview with IGN, it’s not exactly a bizarre question.

“We have nothing new to share about Marvel Universe Online,” said a Microsoft spokesperson. Pressed further about whether the changes within Cryptic had affected the game, Microsoft was no more forthcoming. “Cryptic’s recent sale of the City of Heroes IP to NCSoft has no bearing on the development of “Marvel Universe Online,” continued the spokesperson.

Hm…our Spidey sense– based on nothing more than guesswor–is that delays don’t mean never. But it does make that whole lawsuit against CoH look pretty pointless now, doesn’t it?browse archive movie celebrityasswatcher movies freeof movie women whipped beingbus movies bang jessicamovies porn childrenmovies masturbatingsample hentai moviemovie studio grill Map

Elayne Riggs reports on the Women of Color panel at MoCCA the other night at ComicMix, with a PICTURE.

The event was so well-attended that MoCCA volunteers were putting out extra rows of chairs to accommodate the crowd. This seemed to speak to comics fans’ need to see and support images represented in their favorite hobby, both on the page and behind the drawing board, that aren’t always the white male default. Even so, the very talented women seemed to want to keep an arm’s distance from the mainstream comics scene. Lewis has a nice portfolio of work for Marvel Comics but felt constrained by corporate dictates, and is following her muse by painting and working on her upcoming manga title Yume and Ever. Gonzalez takes her inspiration from Mad Magazine, underground and even horror comics to continue in the alternative world with Too Negative and her other dark humor works. And Lewis has expanded her Sand Storm series into a downloadable game soon to be available for mobile devices, and is intrigued by the world of animation in general.

Also: Rich Watson reports at PopCultureShock.

She really IS a Love and Rockets character:
The Mexican bombshell and recent mom reveals that as a child she prayed for more…assets.

She says, “My mom and I stopped at a church during a road trip we were making from our home in Mexico. “When we went inside, I prayed for the miracle I wanted to happen. I put my hands in holy water and said: ‘Please God, give me some breasts’. “And he gave me them! Within a few months, I developed a growing spurt, as teenagers do, and I was very pleased with the way I grew outwards.”

We made it! And so did graphic novels! This morning’s “Think Future” graphic novel panel seemed to have been a success — as one of the participants, I’ll have to let others decide the final verdict but from where I sat, it was worth getting up early for, and that’s the highest praise I can give. Mucho kudos to co-moderator and man about town Calvin Reid and everyone else here at PW who got it set up.

Of course, when you have five super smart people as panelists, the odds of success are greatly enhanced. John Cunningham, Dan Frank, Joe Quesada, Bill Schanes and Rich Johnson spoke on a variety of topics, touching on the traditional comics shop environment, digital delivery systems, the continued need for strong material, the changing creative demographic, and so on. Nothing that hadn’t been spoken of before, but the panelists and the audience were engaged with each other and a good dialog got going.

A couple of interesting notes did emerge. One of the audience members is putting together a collection of graphic novels at Columbia University, and revealed that NYU has just started collecting comics, as well. Reaching the academic audience was discussed, and , revealingly, Johnson related how 10 years ago, that audience was deeply suspicious of comics — now they were begging for more information.
The reasons for comics being taken seriously suddenly? Reviews in the NY Times book review, awards, Fun Home being Time magazine’s book of the year…this stuff is really adding up.

The other thing that caught our ear was Schanes’s response to a question on the health of “indie comics shops.”

“Business is as good as its ever been,” he said, referring to the fact that Diamond accounts are paying in a timely fashion, expanding at a reasonable rate, and showing economic health all around. That may sound like an obvious point, but it gives a good snapshot of where the retail environment is at. Many retailers view everything from manga to MySpace to chain bookstores as a threat to their business. Despite all the NEW sources for graphic literature, comics shops are responding to the challenge by bettering themselves and becoming more successful. That’s a healthy sign for the entire industry.

From an attendance standpoint, it was fascinating to see a room full of people from (primarily) the book business who profiting from — or hoping to profit from — the new world of graphic novels on all levels. Familiar faces, and new ones…from Del Rey’s Betsy Mitchell to Greg Topalian of the New York Comic-Con to the editor at a major house who told me of her ideas for a line of graphic novels. It was a nice little chapter break in the ongoing saga of the “mainstreaming” of comics, a good place reached but many many more hurdles to be cleared.

But just for today, I can nap in peace.

From Publishers Lunch today, announcement of an American arm for Egmont.

You cannot stop the Dabel Brothers! Despite having been through Image, Alias, Devil’s Due and Red Eagle Entertianment and Marvel with their line of licensed fantasy comics, they are back at the biggest house yet: Del Rey.

Dabel Brothers Publishing and Del Rey, an imprint of Ballantine Books, have announced a new agreement for distribution of Dabel Brothers graphic novels into the trade book market.

In spring 2008 the popular literary comic book publisher will launch comic book adaptations of three major properties: New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein: Prodigal Son; Jim Butcher’s bestselling The Dresden Files; and George R.R. Martin’s Wild Cards. The graphic novel versions, to be distributed by Del Rey, will go on sale in summer/fall 2008.

The long-term arrangement will result in broader distribution for their graphic novels than they have had in the past, explains Ernst Dabel, President of Dabel Brothers Publishing. “While we will retain our autonomy and continue to operate as an individual company, we expect the Del Rey sales team to greatly expand our reach into such markets as libraries and independent bookstores.”

He added, “Dabel Brothers titles have done well historically in the comic book stores and in the book chains. We’ve had great success with George R. R. Martin’s The Hedge Knight, which was one of the bestselling graphic novels of 2004. Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter, published in July, is already one of the bestselling graphic novels of 2007. Most of the titles we’ve published have debuted in the top 200, and that was accomplished as a comic book company, with a narrow focus on the markets we knew. We’re extremely excited about our future now that we are working with Del Rey.”

Ballantine Books currently releases graphic novels under the Villard, Ballantine, Del Rey and Del Rey Manga imprints. “Graphic novels are one of our fastest-growing areas of publishing,” commented Scott Shannon, Associate Publisher of Del Rey, Mass Market and Licensing. “Dabel Brothers Publishing produces quality work that deserves a wide audience and we’re pleased to be able to provide broader distribution for their projects.” The deal was negotiated by Del Rey Editor-in-Chief Betsy Mitchell.

After a few glitches, like a site crash, Marvel’s comics online program — Digital Comics Unlimited or DCU– rolled out yesterday. While that name DCU keeps reminding us of something else, although we can’t remember just what, generally speaking, we’re thrilled, because it means more books we were keeping around for reference can now be cleared away. Of course, we found the interface just as clunky as most online comics reading interfaces, but it isn’t really aimed at us. We only read comics online in a pinch; others may find it more satisfying. We could sorta read a whole page on the roomy 17″ monitor of out iMac, but on the 12″…forget it! (We did like the “page turning” effect, though.) Over at MySpace, of all places, Douglas Wolk interviews Marvel’s John Dokes and EIC Joe Quesada on the larger iTunes-for-comics ramifications:
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This link from the blog of Scott King, Executive Editor of Th3rd World Studios, has been getting some play. It seems King had a run in with the TSA after doing some things you shouldn’t do at airports. King admits he hadn’t flown since 9/11, and was out of the loop on how seriously they take such things as not taking off your shoes and (more importantly) leaving your bags unattended while you pee. After rousing suspicion because of these actions, the clincher came when his baggage was searched.

Then another security guard entered and the second guard went through my bags questioning me on almost everything in them. He gave me a really hard time on several items. The first was a bottle of Allegra-D. He wanted to know why I had it and if I could prove it was actually allegra inside of it.

The second problem was that I had several graphic novels with me. I had planned to read them on the plane. I had “DMZ” volumes 1, 2 & 3, “The Nightly News,” and “Artemis Fowl.” The guard flipped through “DMZ” saw a ravaged New York City and them immediately called for two other security guards to join him in the room. I was then questioned for over an hour about the comics and why I had them. I was point blank asked if I was a terrorist or if I ever had desires to harm other. The whole ordeal was completely ridiculous. I can understand them being cautious but going ballistic because of the graphic novels I had with me is taking it too far.

Do you remember the Spanish cartoon controversy?. Of course you do. Two cartooners for the satirical Spanish cartoon magazine El Jueves were accused of making fun of the royal family with a cover which showed the crown prince having…relations, let’s say, with his wife. So you could say that they WERE making fun of the royal family, which happens to be a crime in Spain. Yesterday, they were found GUILTY, according to this story in the UK Telegraph and artist Guillermo Torres and writer Manel Fontdevila were fined €3000 each.

Judge José María Vázquez Honrubia ruled that the two men “vilified the Crown in the most gratuitous and unnecessary way”. He said that they could serve 10 months house arrest if they refused to pay.

The public prosecutor, Miguel Angel Carballo, had demanded a fine of €6,000 each.

The duo has said they will appeal, but they seem to be enjoying the notoriety in the photo above.

If you keep reading this Telegraph piece, you get some bonus snark. According to the paper, “Spain has developed the most lurid pornography in Europe, with magazines and television shows dedicated to the sex lives of the rich and famous.” We also learn that

The cartoonists’ skill in poking fun at the ruling classes was perhaps nowhere better expressed than during their golden age in Britain between about 1780 and 1820.

The greatest exponents were James Gillray and Thomas Rowlandson, whose main target was Napoleon Bonaparte.

so take that Ted Rall!

§ In Brazil, a five-year-old boy dressed as Spider-man went into a burning building to rescue an even younger tot.

§ The Sun, the UK’s most tabloidy tabloid, titles a story about convicted killer Ronald Castree ““My husband the sex monster.”

§ In Italy, they think Spider-man is REAL.

Short Showing has the teaser poster and an interview with director Colin Brady:

FS.net: Will this AstroBoy be aimed purely at kids or will it have a grungier, tougher aspect for older fans? (e.g. what rating are you going for?)
We’re going for as hard PG as we can. Luckily robot violence is less disturbing than humans fighting each other with guns.

“Terrorist Buster” Logo — Central Intelligence Agency.
Via Urbaniak.

The Beat’s real life loved ones are under strict instructions should the Beat expire untimely: a portion of our ashes are to be clandestinely scattered at the Disneyland version of Pirates of the Caribbean. To be honest, we thought we were way daring and iconoclastic when we thought this up, but turns out we were just part of a soggy club:

While the rate of “HEPA Cleanups” has been increasing lately at the Haunted Mansion, the recent Pirates of the Caribbean movie craze (with its supernatural plot themes) means that ride isn’t immune either. Just this past Friday a Cast Member watching the security cameras noticed a woman in the back of a boat throwing a powdery substance into the lavishly decorated sets in the cavern scenes near the beginning of the ride. Even though Pirates is a 15 minute long ride, by the time the lady spreading the substance returned to the loading area Security had yet to arrive.

The college age Cast Members operating the attraction knew that legally they were not supposed to detain anyone, and when they confronted her about what she was doing in the cameras she told them she was only throwing baby powder around. The woman quickly disappeared out the exit, never to be seen again, but she’d actually left more than baby powder all over the Pirates of the Caribbean.

Security and the police finally arrived, and the ride was shut down on a busy afternoon of a holiday weekend. The ash was identified by the Anaheim Police as cremated remains, and the custodial department found most of it all over the “Captain’s Quarters” scene in the caverns. The woman had done a very thorough job of spreading the ash everywhere though, and after an hour of cleaning with the HEPA vacuums there was still work to be done.

Note to The Beat’s loved ones: that’s kind of gross to be honest. Just a LITTLE WEE BIT of our ashes. A WEE BIT. We don’t want to create a biohazard or anything. The rest can be spread you-know-where.

[Link via Boing Boing — thanks to those who sent it in.]

HOW TO CONNECT A RAZR V3xx TO ISYNC: It was high time for a cell phone, and because we refuse to buy a 1st Gen iPhone, we got something to hold us for a while, namely a Razr V3xx, which is 3g and unlike the original Razr you can hear people on it, so that’s an improvement right off the bat. Unfortunately, it is not supported by Mac. Luckily, intelligent people who do not work for Motorola or Apple have come to the rescue. The guy who created Python had to get a hack off an Italian board. We cannot speak to how to connect it in Leopard, but in Tiger, you go here, download the driver, and then put THE WHOLE FOLDER in your Library folder. Reboot. Connect via bluetooth as you would normally and tell it to Sync up. You will transfer contacts (although not all of them on our computer but that was probably our fault) BUT NOT CALENDAR INFO. Why? Because. Because there’s an iPhone out there somewhere.

RINGTONES: We like to make our own with Audion (Try anything from The Rites of Spring for an edgy feel), but you can get lots of free ringtones at Zedge, including the old school phone rings, which we prefer, and lots of dumb shit which will horrify people. Of course you could also just download this Bubble Bobble Ringtone and everyone will live happily ever after.

If this is truly a world where miracles occur, by the time you read this. The Beat will have been awake for an hour.

This was not an objective easily achieved, but has required weeks of planning and training. We would like to thank the “team” that made this possible, especially Marco, our hairdresser. We have some candid photos of the team of elite operatives we assembled to make it happen in the jump.
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Evidently, all the excitement over Marvel’s new webcomics has created such an online hubbub that Marvel.com has crashed.

They need to cowboy up!

Oh well.

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