While EXIT WOUNDS has been getting much well-deserved acclaim, it seems that THE ARRIVAL is the graphic novel that is picking up, as they say, awards seasons mo. This story from a local Aussie paper profiles creator Shaun Tan and lists some of the book’s kudos:

Tan said yesterday he had begun talks with a Los Angeles producer about turning The Arrival into a film, vindicating his decision to knock back a job on an American animated film six years ago to spend four years hunched over his drawing board to create the book.

The book has been a publishing hit around the world. It reached No. 7 on the New York Times children’s book bestseller list and the Mexican Government bought 30,000 copies for distribution to schools around the country.

The book was published in Australia originally, and won the WA Premier’s Prize and the NSW Premier’s Literary Award, beating out Robert Hughes and celebrated novelist Peter Carey. and now, of course, book of the year at Angoulême.

The wonders continue to unfold over on the newly refurbished and enhanced Fantagraphics website. For instance, they are now running free webcomics, and the first is “Chocolate Cheeks” by Steven Weissman. Now, to be honest, in order to get to the comics, you have to sign up in a way that might please the Dept. of Home Security—they want everything but your shoe size. But still, it’s STEVEN WEISSMAN! When asked for this kind of information, The Beat always uses a well disguised alias.

Meanwhile, over on Flog, they ask you to guess who this cartoonist is. The answer may surprise but to play is FREE!

On the other hand, if women in comics are responsible for this kind of thing, then we must say it is time to call a halt:

June Manga invites you to join the Mile High Club in All Nippon Airlines: Paradise at 30,000 Feet by Kei Azumaya!

ANAL – All Nippon Air Lines – is a unique airline company. All of its employees are beautiful gay men. On top of that, relationships between employees, or even between passengers and employees, are highly encouraged! This is of course the premise for many hilarious situations and strange adventures both for them and for their passengers.

“This is pretty much all the staff member’s favorite title to work on this year,” explains production manager Fred, “It has gotten us into all kinds of trouble with its somewhat controversial title!”

To celebrate the release, June Manga is producing a limited edition dust jacket. “The bookstores didn’t want to actually see ANAL written on the cover,” explains sales manager Eric. “But the play on words is what really makes the book unique. We figured a limited edition dust jacket would be a way to give the fans what they want, but also make the bookstores happy.”

DMP/June is the publisher behind this effort.

Above, Kanako Inuki’s PRESENTS

Dave Carter decided to count the number of female creators working at the Top Four publishers as listed in the latest Previews, and comes up with a list of 9. Two (Robin Furth and Jessica Ruffner) are writing various book-related adaptations at Marvel. One (Amy Wolfram) is a TV writer working on a comics based on the show she writes. One is Gail Simone. Artists: Adriana Melo, Nicola Scott, Sandra Hope, Jan Duursema and Laura Allred.

I’m pretty sure Allred is a colorist and not an artist, but at least her name was in the catalog.
Carter’s nut ‘graph:

So as far as creator gender representation in mainstream comics goes, things are no better than they were ten, twenty or thirty years ago–the days of Louise Simonson, Jo Duffy, Ann Nocenti, June Brigman, Marie Severin, Ramona Fradon, etc.

In fact, there are more female editors at the major companies than there are female creators. Over at Image, there’s no one, except the occasional Colleen Doran and contributors to anthologies like NYC Mech.

Which all sounds very depressing, but then you look back in the real world, and Marjane Satrapi, Gabrielle Bell and Nina Paley are all making movies; Posy Simmonds, Hope Larson, Jill Thompson, Carla Speed McNeill, Raina Telgemeier, Ellen Lindner, Jessica Abel and Sara Varon are all making books; and so are Svetlana Chmakova, Queenie Chan, Amy Hadley, Joanna Estep and Rivkah, not to mention Clamp and Hiromu Arakawa, Natsuki Takaya, Kanako Inuki and Maiocco Anno; and Danielle Corsetto, Dorothy Gambrell, Dylan Meconis, Julia Wertz, and Lauren Weinstein and probably one or two other people I’ve forgotten.

Isn’t this just a comment on how pinched and narrow the entire “comics mainstream” has become? Isn’t it sad?

We are a sucker for a curmudgeonly old timer (or at least someone who writes like a COT) taking to a local editorial page on a comics related topic, and today’s piece by Cathy Gillentine in The Galveston County Daily News fills the bill just right. Gillentine is annoyed by the shrinking comics page in the paper:

To me, it looks kind of strange. I carefully check out each page figuring the page with the puzzle and Heloise contains the least popular comics, the full black and white page has the next favorite bunch and the colored comics are supposedly everybody’s favorites.

The problem with this is, I don’t agree with the choices and I don’t know who decided the positions. My two favorites, “One Big Happy” and “Sally Forth,” are both on the black and white, middle choice page.

Incidentally, when they made the announcement, they said everything missing off the pages would be in the online comics collection. I got online and counted 225 comics, more than anybody ever had.

Our takeaway? This is an outrage and something must be done!

PS: we’re guessing the “Sally Forth” Gillentine enjoys is not the one by Wally Wood but rather the one created by Greg Howard (above.)

[via io9]

Annnnd here’s the top selling graphic novel chart. Manga has its own chart which we’ll hopefully be posting later on.

Sorry this looks funny. We’re trying to fix.

2007 TOP 100 GRAPHIC NOVELS
QtyRank	RetailRank	Description	Price	Ven
1	1	CIVIL WAR TP	$24.99	MAR
2	6	MARVEL ZOMBIES HC*	$19.99	MAR
3	2	HEROES HC*	$29.99	DC
4	7	WATCHMEN TP	$19.99	DC
5	3	300 HC	$30.00	DAR
6	13	WALKING DEAD TP VOL 06 SORROWFUL LIFE (MR)	$12.99	IMA
7	4	LOEG BLACK DOSSIER HC (MR)*	$29.99	DC
8	16	CIVIL WAR ROAD TO CIVIL WAR TP	$14.99	MAR
9	18	Y LAST MAN TP VOL 09 MOTHERLAND (MR)	$14.99	DC
10	34	WALKING DEAD VOL 7 CALM BEFORE TP (MR)	$12.99	IMA
11	14	FABLES TP VOL 09 SONS O/EMPIRE (MR)	$17.99	DC
12	57	WALKING DEAD VOL 1 DAYS GONE BYE TP	$9.99	IMA
13	15	CIVIL WAR AMAZING SPIDER-MAN TP	$17.99	MAR
14	26	ASTONISHING X-MEN VOL 3 TORN TP	$14.99	MAR
15	28	BOYS TP VOL 01 (MR)	$14.99	DE
16	5	HULK PLANET HULK HC	$39.99	MAR
17	66	FABLES VOL 1 LEGENDS IN EXILE TP	$9.99	DC
18	10	DARK TOWER GUNSLINGER BORN PREM HC	$24.99	MAR
19	17	ULTIMATES 2 VOL 2 GRAND THEFT AMERICA TP	$19.99	MAR
20	21	52 VOL 1 TP	$19.99	DC
21	63	CIVIL WAR CAPTAIN AMERICA TP	$11.99	MAR
22	50	WALKING DEAD VOL 5 BEST DEFENSE TP (MR)	$12.99	IMA
23	54	WALKING DEAD VOL 2 TP MILES BEHIND US TP (MR)	$12.99	IMA
24	41	BATMAN DARK KNIGHT RETURNS TP	$14.99	DC
25	56	Y LAST MAN VOL 1 UNMANNED TP	$12.99	DC
26	31	30 DAYS OF NIGHT TP*	$17.99	IDW
27	44	CIVIL WAR FRONT LINE BOOK 1 TP	$14.99	MAR
28	12	MARVEL ENCYCLOPEDIA VOL 4 SPIDER-MAN HC	$24.99	MAR
29	27	JUSTICE VOL 2 HC	$19.99	DC
30	43	BUFFY VAMPIRE SLAYER LONG WAY HOME TP	$15.95	DAR
31	49	BATMAN YEAR ONE DELUXE SC	$14.99	DC
32	32	52 VOL 2 TP	$19.99	DC
33	37	CIVIL WAR WOLVERINE TP	$17.99	MAR
34	77	WALKING DEAD VOL 4 HEARTS DESIRE TP (MR)	$12.99	IMA
35	33	MARVEL ZOMBIES ARMY O/DARKNESS HC	$19.99	MAR
36	90	DMZ VOL 2 BODY O/A JOURNALIST TP (MR)	$12.99	DC
37	91	FABLES VOL 2 ANIMAL FARM TP	$12.99	DC
38	22	MOUSE GUARD VOL 1 FALL 1152 HC NEW PTG	$24.95	ARS
39	64	KINGDOM COME TP*	$14.99	DC
40	36	MARVEL ENCYCLOPEDIA VOL 3 HULK HC	$19.99	MAR
41	68	CIVIL WAR FRONT LINE BOOK 2 TP	$14.99	MAR
42	118	CIVIL WAR X-MEN TP	$11.99	MAR
43	38	52 VOL 3 TP	$19.99	DC
44	70	JACK OF FABLES VOL 1 NEARLY GREAT ESCAPE TP (MR)	$14.99	DC
45	105	Y LAST MAN VOL 2 CYCLES TP (MR)	$12.99	DC
46	74	PREACHER VOL 1 GONE TO TEXAS TP NEW EDITION (MR)	$14.99	DC
47	47	FABLES VOL 8 WOLVES TP (MR)	$17.99	DC
48	80	Y LAST MAN VOL 8 KIMONO DRAGONS TP (MR)	$14.99	DC
49	187	SERENITY TP	$9.95	DAR
50	42	ALL STAR SUPERMAN VOL 1 HC	$19.99	DC
51	133	ULTIMATE X-MEN VOL 15 MAGICAL TP	$11.99	MAR
52	51	CIVIL WAR FANTASTIC FOUR TP	$17.99	MAR
53	85	FABLES VOL 3 STORYBOOK LOVE TP (MR)	$14.99	DC
54	135	CIVIL WAR IRON MAN TP	$11.99	MAR
55	53	CIVIL WAR PETER PARKER SPIDER-MAN TP	$17.99	MAR
56	45	JUSTICE VOL 3 HC	$19.99	DC
57	30	ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN VOL 17 CLONE SAGA TP	$24.99	MAR
58	128	EX MACHINA TP VOL 05 SMOKE SMOKE (MR)	$12.99	DC
59	132	100 BULLETS TP VOL 11 ONCE UPON A CRIME (MR)	$12.99	DC
60	48	SANDMAN TP VOL 01 PRELUDES & NOCTURNES	$19.99	DC
61	95	ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN VOL 18 ULTIMATE KNIGHTS TP	$15.99	MAR
62	103	ULTIMATE X-MEN VOL 16 CABLE TP	$14.99	MAR
63	142	Y LAST MAN VOL 3 ONE SMALL STEP TP (MR)	$12.99	DC
64	237	DMZ VOL 1 ON GROUND TP (MR)	$9.99	DC
65	24	SPIDER-MAN BIRTH O/VENOM TP	$29.99	MAR
66	451	STAR WARS CLONE WARS ADVS VOL 7 TP	$6.95	DAR
67	55	V FOR VENDETTA TP	$19.99	DC
68	364	RUNAWAYS VOL 7 LIVE FAST DIGEST TP	$7.99	MAR
69	174	CIVIL WAR YOUNG AVENGERS & RUNAWAYS TP	$11.99	MAR
70	73	FABLES VOL 4 MARCH O/WOODEN SOLDIERS TP (MR)	$17.99	DC
71	116	FELL VOL 1 FERAL CITY TP	$14.99	IMA
72	59	52 VOL 4 TP	$19.99	DC
73	479	HELLBOY ANIMATED VOL 1 BLACK WEDDING TP	$6.95	DAR
74	266	FRUITS BASKET VOL 16 GN (Of 20)	$9.99	TKP
75	62	BATMAN THE LONG HALLOWEEN TP	$19.99	DC
76	84	HELLBOY VOL 7 TROLL WITCH & OTHERS TP	$17.95	DAR
77	164	WALKING DEAD VOL 3 SAFETY BEHIND BARS TP	$12.99	IMA
78	401	NARUTO VOL 13 TP	$7.95	VIZ
79	147	CIVIL WAR X-MEN UNIVERSE TP	$13.99	MAR
80	149	CIVIL WAR THUNDERBOLTS TP	$13.99	MAR
81	168	Y LAST MAN VOL 4 SAFEWORD TP (MR)	$12.99	DC
82	197	CIVIL WAR MARVEL UNIVERSE TP	$11.99	MAR
83	413	DEATH NOTE VOL 1 TP	$7.99	VIZ
84	69	BATMAN YEAR ONE HUNDRED TP	$19.99	DC
85	71	SPIDER-MAN REIGN PREMIERE HC*	$19.99	MAR
86	296	PLAIN JANES	$9.99	DC
87	138	NEW AVENGERS VOL 4 COLLECTIVE TP	$14.99	MAR
88	183	DMZ VOL 3 PUBLIC WORKS TP (MR)	$12.99	DC
89	144	FABLES VOL 5 MEAN SEASONS TP (MR)	$14.99	DC
90	145	Y LAST MAN VOL 5 RING O/TRUTH TP (MR)	$14.99	DC
91	457	NARUTO TP VOL 1	$7.95	VIZ
92	460	NARUTO VOL 14 TP	$7.95	VIZ
93	148	Y LAST MAN VOL 7 PAPER DOLLS TP (MR)	$14.99	DC
94	190	Y LAST MAN VOL 6 GIRL ON GIRL TP (MR)	$12.99	DC
95	456	DEATH NOTE TP VOL 12	$7.99	VIZ
96	462	RUNAWAYS VOL 1 PRIDE & JOY DIGEST TP	$7.99	MAR
97	314	FRUITS BASKET VOL 17 GN (Of 22)	$9.99	TKP
98	152	FABLES VOL 7 ARABIAN NIGHTS & DAYS TP (MR)	$14.99	DC
99	467	NARUTO VOL 15 TP	$7.95	VIZ
100	575	STAR WARS CLONE WARS ADVS TP VOL 08	$6.95	DAR

* - Combined multiple covers with same SRP.

Diamond has released its year -end figures for 2007, and as soon as we figure out the HTML, we’ll be putting up more of them. In the meantime here’s how to publishers shook out — it was Marvel’s year all the way as it widened its lead in both unit and dollar share over DC.

CAPTAIN AMERICA #25 was the top selling periodical of the year and CIVIL WAR was the best selling graphic novel.

Publisher	Dollar Share	Unit Share
MARVEL COMICS	40.25%	44.72%
DC COMICS	31.92%	34.71%
DARK HORSE COMICS	5.61%	4.48%
IMAGE COMICS	3.82%	3.41%
IDW PUBLISHING	2.08%	1.69%
VIZ MEDIA	1.84%	0.93%
TOKYOPOP	1.76%	0.75%
DYNAMIC FORCES	1.56%	1.87%
WIZARD ENTERTAINMENT	1.27%	0.90%
DEVILS DUE PUBLISHING INC	0.77%	0.68%
AVATAR PRESS INC	0.59%	0.52%
RANDOM HOUSE	0.52%	0.18%
EAGLEMOSS PUBLICATIONS LTD	0.46%	0.15%
GEMSTONE PUBLISHING-MARYLAND	0.45%	0.14%
FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS	0.38%	0.14%
DIGITAL MANGA DISTRIBUTION	0.36%	0.12%
ARCHIE COMIC PUBLICATIONS	0.30%	0.47%
A. D. VISION	0.29%	0.11%
VIRGIN COMICS LLC	0.25%	0.29%
ONI PRESS INC.	0.23%	0.15%
OTHER NON TOP 20	5.29%	3.58%

Book Forum runs an excerpt from David Hajdu’s upcoming The Ten Cent Plague, a history of the persecution of comics books in the ’50s as the source of all juvenile delinquency.

The progressing crusade against comics on multiple levels provided Harry Wildenberg the opportunity to light many a cigar in satisfaction by 1949. In the final weeks of the preceding year, the National Parent-Teachers Association had issued a directive for a “national housecleaning” of comic books and had distributed a tutorial to help its local chapters spur municipal and state legislation to regulate the sale of comics, and thousands of PTAs around the country began following the plan. Around the same time, the National Institute of Municipal Law Officers distributed a set of guidelines for enacting comic-book controls. “The criminal and sexual theme of these tales have [sic] been the direct contributing cause of many incidents of juvenile delinquency and to the imbedding of immoral and unhealthy ideas in the minds of our youngsters,” wrote the general counsel for the institute. “It is inconceivable that a workable plan cannot be evolved. The police power can and must be exercised so as to eliminate the vice of objectionable comic books.” Shortly thereafter, the United States Conference of Mayors published a ten-page handbook, Municipal Control of Objectionable Comic Books, and the municipal-government trade journal, American City, reported, “Comic Book Control Can Be a Success.”

This looks to be an essential volume for the shelf on comics history. Oddly, we were checking out the Amazon page for the book and saw this plug from one Sean Wilentz, Professor of History, Princeton University:

“Every once in a while, moral panic, innuendo, and fear bubble up from the depths of our culture to create waves of destructive indignation and accusation. David Hajdu’s fascinating new book tracks one of the stranger and most significant of these episodes, now forgotten, with exactness, clarity, and serious wit, which is the best kind.

“Now forgotten”? Ah, Prof. Wilentz, you must have never met a 40-year-old comic book fan. Fear of a New Wertham is a clear and present danger for those of us who grew up schooled on the Seduction of the Innocent Menace lurking around the corner. Hopefully reading this book will help us say “Never again!” and mean it.

Link via Bookslut

A rather haltingly written wire service story once again proclaims that sisters are pow! bam! sock!ing it for themselves:

A program at an Upstate New York college has taken a look at the changing role of females in comic books, noting the transformation that characters such as Wonder Woman have undergone since their creation.

Drawn to Diversity, a program of Alfred University, examines cultural diversity and stereotypes in comic books, newspaper comic strips and advertising cartoons.

“We want people to be more cognizant of what they see,” said Mechele Romanchock, coordinator of the university’s diversity programs.

At first we were trying to be polite about the whole thing, but we’re increasingly baffled to see all these stories coming out that somehow posit that Wonder Woman is at the epicenter of the “women in comics” movement, whatever that is. Viz, Tokyopop, Marjane Satrapi, Alison Bechdel, Megan Kelso…THAT is where the change is coming from, not from a character that hasn’t been marketing towards girls in 30 years. Heck, even Archie comics are more germane than Wonder Woman.

Or maybe we’re all wrong and it’s this.

To cleanse the palette, we recommend this nice profile of Colleen Coover by Steve Duin.

Colleen and her sister, Janine, grew up reading coverless comics that her grandmother salvaged from her job at the neighborhood Five & Dime. Archie Andrews and Richie Rich taught her to read, and Dan DeCarlo and Harvey Comics’ artists like Warren Kremer, Ernie Colon and Sid Couchey introduced her to the wondrous effect of sharp, clean lines on the comic page.

UPDATE: The Daily News story is up now

Captain America is back and he’s packing heat. Less than a year after the legendary star-spangled superhero was killed off in his comic book, his former teenage sidekick is being promoted to fill those big red boots in the latest issue, out Wednesday.

ICv2 rounds up plans for mainstream media coverage of the new Captain America this week. There will be a story in the NY Daily news, an appearance by Ed Brubaker on NPR on Monday morning, and a return trip by Joe Quesada to the Colbert Report on Tuesday night.

With an actual election underway, it may not be a slow news week, so who knows if news of a gun-toting Captain America will take off again?

Meet The Spartans, a compendium of near-humor from the “Creators” of Epic Movie, Scary Movie, etc etc. was the winner at the box office this weekend, taking in $18.7 million to Rambo Part XLVII’s $18.1 million. Rambo put up a valiant effort before succumbing to the Greek hordes. 300’s place in lore is secure, if regrettable.

We’re a little under the weather and behind the eightball, so no major postings today.

Evan Dorkin talks about DC’s “cartoonist ban”:

First up from the files, the only piece of art I was allowed to draw for the Superman and Batman: World’s Funnest book for DC Comics. Not that it appears anywhere in the book. Long story short, part of which has been covered here before: DC has a clause that prevents folks from writing and drawing material unless said person is on the payroll or incorporated. Fear of lawsuits from freelancers claiming their work-for-hire entitles them to ownership of Batman or whatever the hell under some newly-inaugurated copyright laws or whatever the hell. I guess based on DC’s history they fully expect people to try to do whatever underhanded thing they can to chisel money and ownership of other people’s characters when the opportunity even vaguely arises. Or whatever the hell.

End result, I wasn’t allowed to draw a page of World’s Funnest even though I tried to get around it by various means, all of which went bust. Can I have someone else write the page I would draw? A hassle, apparently. Pretend Sarah wrote it? We’d get in trouble and the world would break in half. Use a pseudonym? It could mean jail time and Siegel and Schuster regaining control of Pete Ross. Sign an agreement that I wouldn’t pursue my questionable rights to the DC empire if I drew a goddamned page of a comic? No, no, a thousand times no. They wouldn’t put me on the payroll for a lousy single page, and I wasn’t going to incorporate for a lousy single page, so, no go (Somehow this hasn’t been an issue at Marvel, expect them to lose the rights to every one of their characters any minute now. I’ve got dibs on Fight-Man and whoever else is left over after the great purge).

Philippe Dupuy and Charles Berberian have won the Grand Prix* at Angoulême. It’s the first time a team of cartoonists have won. As winners, they will chair the jury for next year’s festival. As Tom points out, it’s another win for the ’90s generation of cartoonists who have defined recent French comics.

Depuy and Berberian have several books available from Drawn & Quarterly including Get a LIfe, which features their best known character, Mr. Jean, and the more autobiographical Maybe Later.

* Note, the Grand Prix is the prize given to the top cartoonists at the festival, not the top book, as we had mistakenly posted yesterday. Sorry for the dumbass mix-up. As punishment, we need to go to Angoulême to learn the difference first hand.

We haven’t been covering this story because, frankly, everyone else has, and also it’s just sad. The rampant speculation and tasteless grandstanding following the young actor’s death is typical and yet the accelerated pace in the internet era makes it even more instantaneous and unavoidable. Nonetheless, a few notes that are germane to the topics of this website:

• Warner’s Dark Knight movie site, which had been rolling out a viral marketing campaign using Ledger’s Joker character, has gone to a simple tribute to the actor,

• Comicmix has a short audio interview with the actor about his role as the Joker.

• While Ledger’s entire , no one is saying how much ADR work had to be done, EW reports.

Dark Knight director Chris Nolan and execs at Warner Bros., the studio releasing the film, were not available for comment, and have not issued any public statements about the status of the movie. EW placed a call to Oscar-winning sound designer and sound editor Richard King, who’s handling the Dark Knight audio work, but he declined to comment. According to several other sound-mixing experts who also declined to speak on the record, there’s no way to tell what the situation is with Dark Knight from the outside, since the amount of ADR required, and the timetable for doing it, varies wildly between films. (In plenty of instances, looping is not completed until very close to the final release date, perhaps as little as a month or two out.)

• The marketing campaign will probably need major adjustments. Various pundits and studio types analyze the situation here. The marketing exec who came up with the campaign recently left WB.

“Warners are in a difficult position. Initially they wanted to capitalize on the early buzz that has surrounded Heath’s performance,” Bock told AFP. “Now they’re going to have to do a 180 from that.”

While the death of an actor before a film’s release is not unknown, with famous examples being 1994’s “The Crow”, starring the late Brandon Lee, and 1956’s “Giant”, released a year after James Dean’s death, the situation with “The Dark Knight” was unprecedented in the modern era, Bock said.

“This is something we’ve never seen before,” he said. “On the one hand they have to pay tribute to Heath and the performance that he gives, but on the other hand this is going to be one of the biggest films of the summer.

• Ledger’s final film was with director Terry Gilliam, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Major shooting had been completed but much SFX work remained to be shot in Vancouver. It’s not the first time a Gilliam film has been plagued by tragedies and accidents. The film’s future remains very much up in the air.

• And finally, in the most enigmatic note, when former Joker Jack Nicholson was apprised of Ledger’s death (by papparazzi), he muttered, “I warned him.” Which doesn’t mean anything at all really, except where the Joker is concerned, you should always go out on a mystery. You can watch a video of the comment here.

Shaun Tan’s wordless meditation on immigration The Arrival won Book of the Year at the Angoulême fest. Matthias Wivel has the other winners:

Essentials
Rutu Modan — Exit wounds
Pascal Rabaté & David Prudhomme — Marie en plastique
Cyril Pedrosa — Trois ombres
Jean Regnaud & Emile Bravo — Ma Maman est en Amerique, elle a rencontre Buffalo Bill
Pierre Dragon & Frederik Peeters — RG

Discovery of the Year
Isabelle Pralong — L’Elephant

Fanzine Prize
Turkey #16

Heritage Prize
Tove Jansson: Moomin

Youth Prize
Philippe Buchet & Jean-David Morvan — Sillage vol. 10: Retour de flammes

Prize of the Public
Catel & José-Louis Bocquet — Kiki de montparnasse

Our five lucky Lulu reprint winners have been chosen. Congrats to:

Brian Winkeler
Joe Williams
Jason Green
Jennifer Sweeney
and
Richard Krauss

Your winnings are in the mail. Thanks to everyone who entered — the response was tremendous. We will be doing MORE Beat Giveaways as we find more stuff that deserves loving homes.

Fantagraphics’ Eric Reynolds weighs in on the pre-sell controversy, and manages to see both sides. Ultimately, however, the benefits far outweigh the costs.

The Direct Market is important to us and there’s no reason it won’t remain so. So I hope we all remain interested in working with each other to grow. I believe that our con sales serve to promote our artists and books more than those sales have an adverse effect on the industry’s bottom line. I can’t prove this, but no one can supply any hard evidence to the contrary, either. I really need to see some harder figures before I can really believe otherwise and start considering doing fewer shows or considering giving up much-needed revenue at those that we do attend. We debuted 50 copies of I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets at Comicon last year (to 100,000+ people!) because we thought it would be worthwhile beyond just the cash value (after factoring in airfreight from asia and other comicon overhead, it’s not all that) — there was an unquantifiable promotional value. Paul Karasik was there and did a hugely popular presentation. We sold out and everyone wanted a copy and blogs were writing about the book and creating demand. When the book hit stores a few weeks later, we had an immediate sellout of the 1st printing and have had two subsequent printings in the seven months since. How can you tell me everyone would have been better off if that book had not hit cold there and knocked people out the way it did?

Gary Groth chimes in at the end and makes a very persuasive case for the benefits of preselling a few copies at conventions far outweighs to costs:

This may be a case where we have to continue promoting our books in this fashion for the good of retailers despite their wishes that we stop the practice. Which is pretty damned weird, but there you have it.

When all is said and done, the retailers who vocally oppose the practice  — led by Robert Scott — have been asked again and again what would be the absolute, provable benefits of stopping the practice of pre-selling at conventions for the publishers. The answer almost always comes down to “Retailers will like you more.” We’re sorry, but given the very strong case that Reynolds and Groth make in the above linked post about the benefits for the entire medium, that just doesn’t wash.

In Tokyo, a promotion for The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep set on Tokyo Bay is what we could call “pant-peeing good.”

Sometimes we forget that comics isn’t just an industry of self-publishers, it’s an industry of SELF-RETAILERS. Thus, everyone is still chiming in on the whole pre-selling at cons thing. Colleen gives a little historical perspective on how folks in artists alley used to be FORBIDDEN to sell their comics . She also explains how that had to change. Johanna has a big wrap-up post that includes the Boom! North Wind matter.

In a follow-up to his many posts on the topic, Brian Hibbs explains why returnability isn’t really an option.

You know, on the face of it, we’d agree whole heartedly, but we were reminded of something interesting the other day. Remember that “Think Future” panel we co-moderated back in November? On it, Diamond’s Bill Schanes said that publishers might want to start thinking about returnability. We don’t remember the context — it was surely no more than a passing comment — but our pal who recalled it said it made more of an impression on him than anything else said on the panel. So…who knows, maybe it’s not as impossible as it seems.

(more…)

Valerie finds a demographic survey from a publicly-traded company:

The portrait that it painted of the average mainstream comic book reader is as follows:

Male, 20-25, video-game player, disposable income, “techie,” single.

What is the breakdown of male versus female readership?

More than 90% of the readers of mainstream superhero comics are male.

See, I feel that as president of Friends of Lulu I am betraying my own gender by sharing this information. But it is better that we know and move on from there.

Although the methodology is unknown, and one would hope for some improvement, it doesn’t really come as much of a surprise: every comics reader demographic survey we’re EVER seen has 5-10% female readership. Although things have clearly changed, maybe the methodology hasn’t?

Bart Beatty is reporting on all the festival doings at The Comics Reporter. Check back daily for Bart’s view on the goings on.

It was slow today — the biggest hall was empty at opening, but most of the artists were arriving today and the signings, and crowds, will grow in earnest on Friday. The weather has been a boon to smokers now confined to the outdoors, as it is positively springlike, a big change from the past couple of years. All in all, an auspicious start that bodes well for a crisis- and scandal-free Festival.

Spring, comics and a cloud of Gauloises smoke. We must make it to Angoulême one day before its all over.

Speaking of French comics, they are having something of a snit which Matthias Wivel explains: A newspaper piece claims that Sfar and Satrapi and co. make up a French comics mafia:

While nowhere near the hatchet piece Ted Rall’s now infamous Village Voice article was, Brethes is tilting at windmills here. As he acknowledges himself, Satrapi; Sfar and the rest have influenced French comics significantly, and he is right that they have spawned a number of epigones, etc. But intimating that they are somehow at fault, and using a criminal metaphor to boot, is just dumb. Who can blame them for embracing the media attention they have earned through producing quality work? Or for promoting the kinds of comics they like when they attain editorial positions? And how, exactly, is any of this different from earlier times — Dionnet/et. al. at Métal Hurlant or Brétecher/Gotlib and Co. at Echo des savanes/Fluide Glacial publishing artists they themselves enjoyed? Furthermore, how is this different from what goes on in the rest of the literary/art community, or indeed the world at large?

Here is the link. Go forth and nominate, people, and none of that “voting bloc” shit this time. According to the PR 2000 people voted in last year’s Harvey Awards.

The Executive Committees of the Harvey Awards and the Baltimore Comic-Con are proud to present the official Nomination Ballot for this year’s Harvey Awards . Named in honor of the late Harvey Kurtzman, one of the industry’s most innovative talents, the Harvey Awards recognize outstanding work in comics and sequential art. Ballots are due for submission by March 21st.

The Harvey Awards will be presented on September 27th, 2008 in Baltimore as part of the Baltimore Comic-Con. The Master of Ceremonies for the awards dinner and presentation will once again be the wonderful and hilarious Kyle Baker.

Nominations for the Harvey Awards are selected exclusively by creators - those who write, draw, ink, letter, color, design, edit or are otherwise involved in a creative capacity in the comics field. The Harvey Awards are the only industry awards both nominated and selected by the full body of comic book professionals.

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§ The secret origin of Top Shelf’s Brett Warnock:

[On his schooling] Very broad, very general. Design courses, fundamental courses, plus just me getting stoned and drawing on my own time. That was its own education. But you gotta understand, I think this is still true in art departments, but especially then in the mid- to late-‘80s, if you were a comic book fan and you made that known in the art department, in any classes, painting classes, illustration classes, whatever, boy that was frowned upon. That was so not a legitimate form of art. It’s funny, I always thought that when and if comics broke into the college scene, it would be through the art department and it’s not, it’s been through the lit department, and that’s been a surprise for me. Looking back, it makes sense, because it’s about stories and storytelling, not making pictures, per se.

§ Tim O’Neil at Pop Matters looks at the impact of Todd Hignite’s Comic Art magazine:

In this respect, Comics Art was actually ahead of its time, proposing as it did a much more holistic vision of the medium. Admittedly, I doubt at this point that it’s had much of an influence beyond the small market of “art”-comics aficionados, but within that supposedly monolithic group there is actually a far more accepting middle ground than most believed existed. It’s far more healthy for the art form that the supposed divisions between “high” and “low” art remain as pliable as possible.

§ In Indonesia, a local artist gets some artistic props, but some fashion don’ts

That is an episode from the comic book Deviant Execution by Marico, a newcomer to the world of comics. It was his first comic, printed in 2007. His lack of experience, however, is not evident in the comic, which has a unique storyline. Deviant is a profession that is a product of graphic designer Marico’s imagination. A profession that will exist in the 28th century, according to Marico, a skinny guy who has a penchant for hats.

§ Minneapolis–a mecca for cartoonists?
The National Post wonders if Julie Doucet is kinda of Bobby Fischer of comics only, not, you know insane in the aptly-titled “A life less cartoony”:

Drawn & Quarterly publisher Chris Oliveros has been impressed by her post-comic career: “It’s really funny to see how she keeps on progressing,” he says. “She certainly has not stayed in one place.”

But had she stayed in one place — comics — it’s likely she would be as well known as some of her Canadian contemporaries, such as Chester Brown and Seth. Oliveros remarks that “had she done a graphic novel now, she probably would have had maybe some more mainstream acceptance.” Birkemoe calls her “very much ahead of her time.”

Doucet, though, doesn’t feel like she missed a gold rush.

“Oh, I really don’t care about that. I felt so trapped,” she says. “You know, when you’re a cartoonist it’s like being a priest: If you quit, everybody around you goes crazy … I mean, when you’re a cartoonist you’re supposed to be doing the same thing over and over again until you die. And I didn’t want that. It was very frustrating and I needed to try a different thing.”