This has been up for a while, but we’ve never linked to it. Reknowned fantasy artist Charles Vess has been designing a fountain themed “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” for Abingdon, VA. In this post on his blog he offers tons of photos of the design and construction process of what will be an incredibly lovely piece of public art.
More big media love for the comics! Newsweek gushes over Papercutz’s revamped Classic line:
Along with Lincoln Logs and chemistry sets, Classics Illustrated was part of that goofy but well-intentioned trend in the mid-20th century that sought both to educate and entertain America’s youth. Each issue contained a retelling of a well-known novel, supplied facts about the author and also included—I am not making this up—a biography of a scientist or inventor and the stirring tale of a brave dog. There were also issues on science and history and fairy tales. If that sounds dreadful—it wasn’t. I should know. That was where I first discovered just how good stories could be.
Now bound in hardcovers, and selling for $15—a hundred times the original cover price—the new Classics Illustrated books don’t closely resemble their predecessors, whose style was generally uniform, more or less like Prince Valiant in the funny papers. (Note to purists: if it’s the old versions you hanker for, they’re still being published by Jack Lake Productions.) The new series will use a different artist with every book, and the styles will vary radically. If the first two, “Great Expectations” and “The Wind in the Willows,” are any indication, Papercutz, the company now licensing the brand, has set very high standards for its new series.
We’ve been too busy to get as excited about this as we should, bit it looks like Dynamic Forces’ long long delayed (it was first announced in 2004) AMERICAN FLAGG collection will finally be out this July. Howard Chaykin’s run ‘n’ gun, media saturated vision of the US ’s future was great fun when it came out over 20 years ago, and we suspect it will still be fun now: Why all the delays? Chaykin explains in an interview.
Howard Chaykin: It was a jumping of the gun in the first place, which held the assumption that the material was more ready than it was. The situation really boiled down to the fact that the reproduction of stuff at that time is very different than it is today. The assumption was that it would be a mistake to publish, cold, that is, without doing a lot of clean-up work on it, to create a more beautiful facsimile, if you will. The assumption was that it would be easier to do that than it turned out to be.
Flog alerts us to a couble of appearances by Drew Friedman. They may not become as famed as his Friar’s bash, but should provide good fun:
THURSDAY NIGHT IN SEATTLE:
DREW FRIEDMAN: THE FUN NEVER STOPS!
March 27 – May 6, 2008.
Opening Reception and Book signing
Thursday, March 27, 5:00 – 8:00 PM
Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery
1201 S. Vale St. (at Airport Way S.)
Seattle, WA 206.658.0110
SATURDAY NIGHT IN LOS ANGELES:
WHO: Drew Friedman & SPECIAL GUESTS!
WHAT: Discussion, Q&A and book signing
WHERE: Skylight Books
1818 N. Vermont Ave. • Los Angeles, CA 90027 • 323.660.1175 tel.
WHEN: Saturday, March 29, 5PM
At Skylight, Drew will be joined by several very special surprise guests, as well as discussion moderator Ben Schwartz and comedian Andy Kindler (whose father, Larry Kindler, was good friends with comic book legends Harry Chester and Harvey Kurtzman).
Michael Keaton’s Batman costume from Batman Returns is up for auction and it’s expected to fetch $60-80K :
The impressive outfit from the 1992 sequel, directed by Tim Burton, includes Batman’s black rubber body suit, boots and gauntlet gloves with serrated fins.
It also comes with Batman’s rubberised cape and iconic cowl, which Bruce Wayne wears to mask his true identity.
A spokesman for auctioneers Profiles In History said: “This is a complete costume, from head-to-toe, with the zipper in the back to allow entry for Keaton.
Chris O’Donnell’s Robin suit from Batman & Robin is also up, with an expected price of a mere $8-10,000.
§ Does giving things away for free work? Neil Gaiman reports on AMERICAN GODS download stats. The novel has been made available for download for the month of March.
It’s worth drawing people’s attention to the fact that the free online reading copy of American Gods is now in its last six days online (it ends 31 March 08). I learned this from an email from Harper Collins, which also told me the latest batch of statistics.
For American Gods:
68,000 unique visitors to the book pages of American Gods
3,000,000 book pages viewed in aggregate
And that the weekly book sales of American Gods have apparently gone up by 300%, rather than tumbling into the abyss. (Which is — the rise, not the tumble — what I thought would happen. Or at least, what I devoutly hoped would happen.)
300% eh? This free sampling thing may have legs.
§ Jennifer de Guzman’s “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now column” returns at Blog@Newsarama.
§ Detective Johanna Draper Carlson of Toontown yard has many unanswered questions about this year’s Free Comic Book Day. We’re not quite so sure why she’s so darned suspicious of the event, which has become a huge PR event for retailers savvy enough to jump on board, but it is reasonable to ask some of the questions. Our 2¢: Making the comics offered be All-ages is not such a big deal. We’ve got the adult nerd demographic covered pretty well, let’s try to open things up.
§ Canadian retailer strives to recommend comics for kids
Comic books are known for their fantastical characters, dynamic artwork and controversy, but are they useful mediums to get fickle teenagers and kids to turn the page?
George Zotti, manager of the Silver Snail, a Toronto comic book retailer, seems to think so, but adds it can be difficult to pick up a title and immediately follow the story.
“The only problem with buying the standard comic book is that the stories continue from one issue to the next — they’re serialized,” he says, adding that some story arcs span months, which can make it difficult for new readers to follow.
His solution is to get parents to buy trade paperbacks — including anime and from the ever-adapting publishers Marvel and DC — which include entire story arcs in one book.
§ ‘Wimpy’ author entrances tots with visit
§ Actor James Sturgess tells more of his involevement with the SPIDER-MAN musical
Director Julie Taymor was so pleased with Sturgess’s work in Across The Universe that she asked him to become involved in preliminary development on her projected Broadway musical version of Spider-Man.
“It’s there and Julie’s definitely going to make it,'’ Sturgess says. “Whether I’ll be in it or not, I don’t know.'’
What he does know is that his input during a two-week workshop in New York helped shape the show that will eventually hit the stage. Taymor phoned him to ask if he and Evan Rachel Wood would come to New York and “help out'’ with her new musical.
“I love Julie. She’s kind of a mentor for me. Evan is one of my best friends, so it was a chance for us all to get together and we just saw it as a fun thing to do for two weeks in New York City - writing songs with Bono and The Edge about Spider-Man.'’
Confession: We’re mighty anxious to see this musical.
§ Georges Jeanty, artist on the Buffy comics, is rarely given the spotlight so so it’s nice to see an interview with him at horroryearbook.com
HORROR YEARBOOK: What were your feelings on Buffy sleeping with another female slayer, Satsu? Was it hard or easy for you to draw?
GEORGES JEANTY: This was the thing that I thought was going to be the climax. I mean how do you come back from that? And we’re only in the 12th issue! I knew how important this was going to become so I was thinking about this issue months before I was to draw it. When I did start to draw it I thought that first page of Buffy and Satsu in bed was something we were going to have to handle very delicately so there would be a lot of back and forth about what should be seen—or so I thought. I read the script from Drew, who is an absolute joy to work with, and sat down and drew out the page. I expected lots of changes when Joss, Drew and Scott saw it, but they thought it was perfect. Rarely do I hit something on the first try. I was on a high the whole day after that!
§ Fun bonus link: § In author’s day men did not loaf!
Studio chieftain Harvey Weinstein struck a devious blow to the dreams of fanboys everywhere when he decreed that cuts must be made to FANBOYS, a long awaited films about some, er, fans who sneak onto the Skywalker Ranch for a sneak peek at PHANTOM MENACE. One of them has cancer, making the beak-in a matter of great urgency. This film has been in the can for two years, and with the involvement of such now-well known players as Seth Rogen and Kristen Bell and delighted screenings at Comic-Con you’d think all would be well, right? Not so fast, says the Hollywood Reporter. The movie has lain frozen in carbonite while Weinstein demanded a recut:
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Belgian comics publisher Raymond LeBlanc (above left, with Hergé) died on March 21 at age 92. Best known as the publisher who gave Tintin a home after World War II, he was also a real life hero, if such a phrase can have any meaning. A member of the Resistance during the war, he later persuaded the demoralized Hergé to begin publishing Tintin in the new Tintin Magazine. The move changed the history of comics. In later years, LeBlanc developed Lombard into a publishing powerhouse, and at 2003’s Angouleme won the first ever Honorary Alph Art award for an editor.
Tom has more, but
Forbidden Planet’s translation of an interview with LeBlanc as good a place as any to learn about this seminal figure in world comics history.
Sixty years ago Raymond Leblanc founded the Magazine Tintin, he produced six Belgian animated features and, when the final history of the Belgian comic is ever written, he will have one of the leading parts. In his glory days Leblanc seemed to lead nine different lives at once. We present you an exclusive and especially frank interview with a living legend of 92 years.
The man sitting in front of me folds his hands and holds them under his chin, the elbows full of self-confidence on his desk. “Tell me”, he says, “How may I be of service?” We are sitting in a cosy, warm and luxurious office on the eighth floor of the Lombard Publishers building near the Gare du Midi in Brussels. The man in front of me is 92 years old, but shows no signs of getting old. “You will have to speak up, though. I have a little problem hearing”. Other than that, Raymond Leblanc is as lucid as the next guy. He remembers things that happened sixty years ago as if they were yesterday. He answers to the point and without hesitation. Even at 92, Leblanc will not be silenced in what he says will be his last interview.
In more NPR comics news, they present Adrian Tomine’s ‘The Donger and Me’, an examination of the character from John Hughes lovably racist Sixteen Candles.
You say you would like a site with streaming video of every South Park episode ever? M-kay. South Park Studios has launched. And you can search and embed clips. Like this one, in which the valiant Lesbos take on the Persians.
Oh hell…one more…
LEMMIWINKS!
Bryan Lee O’Malley was sort of non-plussed by all the news reports about the Scott Pilgrim movie last week
The Hollywood Reporter prints a story hastily sent in by someone’s publicist. Nobody fact-checks anything. The rest of the internet / world hastily copies the facts in the article into their own hastily-published articles. It’s amazing!
Anyway, I can “confirm” that Michael Cera is going to play Scott Pilgrim in this movie adaptation.
It is not called “Scott Pilgrim’s Little Life”, as the whole internet has been saying. Gee, I wonder why they took out “precious”, the internet wonders? Maybe because some idiot made an error while filing the story? No, couldn’t be. There must be some deeper meaning.
It isn’t even called Precious Little Life, but I defer to the film’s creators as to when and how they want to make their announcements.
Technorati Tags: Bryan Lee O’Malley
Nancy, the comic strip beloved of ontologists every where, will be appearing in color starting Monday, E&P reports. The strip is currently drawn by Guy Gilchrist.
In the first color strip, Nancy will start a new activity — karate. “I’m into the martial arts myself, and have seen how empowering it is to girls, boys, men, and women,” said Gilchrist. “Thankfully, it can also be pretty funny!”
Is this change to the eternal Nancy just a fun and progressive upgrade, a nod to emerging technologies or the first sign of the apocalypse? Find out on Monday.
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We ran across this picture of the late Dave Stevens and pal on our internet patrol and it was too cute not to share. One of our big regrets in life is not buying that Bulldog Cafe cookie jar when we had the chance.
Technorati Tags: Dave Stevens, puppy
Tony Lee’s He’s Only A Writer column at Comics Bulletin surveys a bunch of folks, including Lee Nordling, Andy Schmidt, Rob Levin, Joshua Hale Fialkov, Keith Giffen, Andrew Foley and even (gasp) The Beat on pitching and how to convey yourself during the long, grueling task of selling yourself as a writer:
[Nordling]: Ask for advice, not for jobs. Listen. Discuss what they’ve suggested, showing that you listened. Thank them in person (if that’s how you met them), and thank them later by correspondence - then ask for suggestions about whom they might recommend you speak to that they know. You’ll then be able to use their name as a reference to begin the process over again.
Eventually, you’ll come across somebody who’s interested in what you do, and you’ll get work or the job you’re seeking. This is advice I got from a professional counselling company that specializes in this kind of work, and it’s never failed me.
§ Matt Madden reports on the eerie fate of Sof’ Boy!!
§ Len Wein reacts to his nomination for the Eisner Awards Hall of Fame:
What fascinates (and, I must admit, terrifies) me most about my nomination is that I’m nominated for the Hall of Fame, which either means that I’m being recognized for my considerable body of work over the years, or my career is officially over. I’m frankly not sure which.
By what may or may not be an odd coincidence, my 40th anniversary as a professional writer is this Friday, March 28th. Four decades ago on that date, I sold my first story to DC’s House of Mystery title, a still-(thankfully)-unpublished little opus called “The Final Day of Nicholas Toombs.”
§ Chris Butcher looks at Viz’s US edition of Umezu’s CAT-EYED BOY and interviews Viz VP of Publishing, Alvin Lu:
Looking at it from a North American publisher’s perspective, there are some problems. Having a naked little boy on a book cover doesn’t fly in North America, for the most part (even if he’s got creepy claw feet). The book also looks a little young… Though its original audience is likely that same “Shonen Sunday” crowd as Drifting Classroom, in North America these are quite clearly going to be intended for an adult audience that is equally as likely to appreciate these works as viscerally enjoy them. (Though I feel it’s important to note that these re-releases were probably intended for an adult audience in Japan, likely the same adults who bought the stories as children originally). I’d love to own these two book covers, and chances are I’ll just pick them up next time I’m in Japan, either that or a nice Umezu art book maybe? But on North American shelves, they’d be pretty unlikely at best.
§ Over on the Hero Initiative blog, Jim McLauchlin posts some of the logos for FOOG, TOO, a benefit for the ailing writer planned before Steve Gerber’s death.
§ You don’t say dept via NPR: Three Writers Feel the Lure of Comics. You don’t say!
§ Peter Sanderson has been writing about KIRBY: KING OF COMICS since December. He took a break, but he’s at it again. We may kid Peter from time to time, but no one goes in-depth on a subject like he does, as in this passage which not analyses the Kirby book, but Glen David Gold’s REVIEW of the Kirby book:
In his review Gold refers to David Michaelis’s recent biography Schulz and Peanuts that portrayed cartoonist Charles M. Schulz as a deeply troubled man (see “Comics in Context” #204: “Was It a Dark and Stormy Life?”). “Evanier, in contrast, presents Kirby as a decent and generous soul with some understandable fits of frustration. . . .but a reader”–by which Gold really means a specific reader, himself–”hungers for something deeper to explain his violent and angry imagery.”
§ The New Yorker reports on the Friars Club party for Drew Friedman’s More Old Jewish Comedians, book.
Technorati Tags: Len Wein, Steve Gerber
Now here is the interview we have been waiting for! Hugh Jackman and Marc Guggenheim are teaming up on the latest Virgin Comics panel-to-screen project, Nowhere Man. Is it about a guy who doesn’t have a point of view and knows not where he’s going to? Not really, but he may be just a bit like me and you.
Story was being kept under wraps, but Jackson’s Seed Productions partner John Palermo said it features a protagonist reminiscent of the one Will Smith played in “I Am Legend.” The concept is a futuristic world where mankind has traded privacy for safety, a premise that sprouted with Seed, Virgin CEO Sharad Devarajan and chief creative officer Gotham Chopra.
“This is our first comic, and we feel the concept is transferable to other arenas, perhaps first as a videogame, and then a movie,” Palermo said.
You don’t’ say! According to Variety, Jackman is in love with the comic book world. “I’ve had so much fun in the graphic novel world with the ‘X-Men’ franchise that I wanted to get even more involved.”
We want you to get more involved, too, Hugh. Very very involved. We’re here to help you every step of the way. Just say the word.
We’ve been tinkering with our blogging set-up a bit. Ecto 3 still doesn’t cut it for features, so we’re still using the now unsupported but still peerless Ecto 2. But we’ve discovered that we can now clip via Google notebook and import the html via Google Docs. It adds a bit of unnecessary code as far as we’re concerned (we blog in html mode not rich text) but seems clean enough and adds a bit of flexibility that the promising but still weak Scribefire doesn’t. Does this mean that Google is learning more and more of our precious secrets? Absolutely.
Now if only we could perfect that drag and drop calendar technique we’ve been tinkering with. We really love our blogging shortcuts and timesavers. This may look easy but blogging with a cat on your lap and a show about catching giant alligator gars on the TV means we need all the help we can get.
If any of the above actually interests you, you are truly a wonk.
Technorati Tags: fascinating software
You just can’t. Check previous entries for even more breath-taking Wyeth goodness. Ah, far Selidor!
Legendary Stan Lee will be given the first New York Comics Legend award at this year’s New York Comic-Con. Lee will be presented with the award at a VIP reception at the Virgin Megastore. You can read all the PR in the jump, but it’s a nice touch that the award, the first of an annual tradition, will only be presented to individuals who have made a contribution to civic life in New York and lived in New York for a significant number of years. By that criterion, it will be only 150 years before The Beat gets one!
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In January, Mid-Ohio Con owner Roger Price announced that he was selling the show. Now it appears a buyer has been found: GCX Holdings. A little Googling reveals little about this new company, except that it is located in Stamford. Managing Director James H. Henry is similarly Google-free, but for those who enjoyed this con over the years this can come as nothing but good news.
The convention has also been moved from its traditional post-Thanksgiving date to October 4-5, as the above graphic shows.
Alex Robinson’s next book is out this July, a graphic novel entitled TOO COOL TO BE FORGOTTEN; it’s the cmedic tale of a sorty-something man who is transported back to his high school days and gets a second chance to ask that girl in math class out.
Doc Lehman wrote to share a gallery of photos from the 1930’s and 1940’s of people reading comics and newsstands. You should go check out all of them, but several are quite interesting — to us anyway!
Given the era indicated by the clothing in these photos, it’s quite unlikely that they are some kind of propaganda created by feminist fangirls to prove that girls once read comics. In fact, as we all know from contemporary research back in the 405 and 50s, back then, comics were read equally by boys and girls. There was no gender segregation for the medium.
Tom Brevoort has his own trip in the wayback machine with this house ad from the Marvel/Timely comics of 1947 (click for larger version.)
As this ad reveals, Marvel had three lines of comics — the superheroes, the funnies, and what looks to be the girls line — Tessie the Typist — with Gay Willie Joker coming up in the rear. (They were actually three different titles.) Two things strike us looking at that image. #1, given Marvel/Atlas/Timely’s publishing line, and Stan Lee’s age, it’s easy to see why the early Marvel female characters had such wimpy powers. #2, with the passing of time, Marvel Golden Age characters would come to mean only the superhero characters. (Given how vivid and unique they were, it is not that hard to see why.)
The why and the how of it all — how a little girl enjoying the funnies became increasingly unlikely and then impossible according to even smart people — has been oft discussed and debated. Thankfully, the girl nerd is now back in force and updated for a grim and gritty world.
Speaking of last week’s ComicsPRO meeting, CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein was generous enough to make the text of his presentation available to us. In a meeting themed “Full Steam Ahead,” Brownstein discusses the importance of the direct market in the comics renaissance and announced that Jeff Smith would be doing his only store signing of 2008 for the ComicsPro member who best supports the CBLDF in an auction.
Full Steam Ahead.
When I saw that as the theme of this year’s conference I gave one of those knowing nods. Because if anything portrays the state of comics right now, it’s those three words.
Full Steam Ahead.
Today, comics are everywhere. After 50 years of skulking in the poorly lit corners of popular culture, comics are now front and center. We have captured the imaginations of audiences worldwide. Our finest creators and creations are reinvigorating screens big & small. Our news stories are being broken in the most popular and influential media outlets. Our authors are cultural luminaries achieving the sort of notice that practitioners of other media aspire to and rarely achieve. Our history is being explored by some of the country’s most respected thinkers.
We have overcome the biases and stigmas that made us a subculture. Now we are the culture.
After decades of being looked down upon as an unworthy art we are now looked up to as the standard bearers of adventurous and compelling free expression.
This is the Golden Age that we’ve all been working for.
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