A little while ago, Dave Sim’s supporters posted an online petition aimed at…well, it was a little hard to tell what it was aimed at, but gaining public support would be the most obvious guess. Sim said he would only correspond in the future with those who signed the petition. Confusion over the appropriateness of this petition led to a crisis over at the Yahoo Cerebus Group, as Sim lashed out against many of his long term supporters. Things got even more complicated with a series of faxes between Sim, fellow cartoonist Chester Brown and Sim’s webmaster Jeff Tundis becoming something of a touchstone. As near as I can make out, Sim wanted the whole thing to be published, but Tundis didn’t because he felt it would make Sim look bad. This and Sim’s rejection of some of his most faithful readers, like Margaret Liss Fisher, have caused much discussion and confusion.

While Tundis has refused to have his side of the faxes published, Rick Sharer has gone ahead
published the Brown/Sim correspondence. This one outburst from Sim seems to sum up his current mindset:

In other words you think I’m the gender equivalent of a racist. This is what I’ve come to realize: that people genuinely believe that I’m the worst imaginable thing (literally: a non-person, a sub-human) in our society. That being the case the only honorable thing is to withdraw from society completely and limit my contact with society to necessities (my rep at Diamond, people I buy food from). Would you associate with anyone who thought you were a subhuman?

Now you may have noticed that I am using the “I” pronoun which I reserve for thing of some serious note. That’s because one of the reasons I’ve read this is my name comes up in my RSS-feeds from various postings. It seems that the hounding of Dave Sim by myself and Gail Simone is being held up BY SOME as what had driven Dave to this sad state of isolation and persecution. I stress the “by some”, as others think he may have been mentally ill to begin with, and others think he had other motivations.

Some think that this is all because of the low sales on Glamourpuss, but according to the John Jackson Miller figures I just linked to, the first issue of Glamourpuss sold 16,515 copies, way more than lots of Marvel and DC books, and nothing to sneeze at for such an oddball title.

Anyway I’ll do no more here than note the above correspondence. There are certainly some notable bits to be mined from them, but the interest is drowned out by the sadness, for me anyway. It’s sad when a great artist goes into a state of self-mandated social withdrawal; the entire matter is sad.

John Jackson Miller has posted his April 2008 sales estimates via Diamond. Jackson relates that although several categories were down, over all backlist propelled sales over a year ago:

Overall, the comics industry fared better against last April — but only overall. Comparatives in the narrower categories remain slightly down, even considering this April had five ship weeks (versus four last year). But the backlist strength bumped the overall category up 6% this month — with the year-to-date now ahead by nearly $1 million, or 1%.

We’re in another one of those horrible time crunch periods so we’re just skimming the highlights. And it’s horrible in general. Gerber, Stevens, now Rory Root. People taken too soon. People who were our contemporaries. People who need help, like Gene Colan and Dave Pirkola. Tom Spurgeon has a sobering post about the need for planning:

I’m slightly terrified that this is only going to get worse in the years ahead. I’d say about half of the creators that have been hit right now tend to be those who worked when there was more of a functioning industry than I think there’s been over the last 25 years. If a creator getting a steady page rate for years from a top company has these problems, there will likely be more folks in the next three decades experiencing severe problems that worked within the context of an industry that barely supported their efforts. Comics people don’t give up even when it’s good for them to do so. Many don’t take care of themselves. A few don’t take care of themselves at the expense of pursuing their love of the medium or the goals they have for their art.

It’s not always nice to think about, but a lot of us are in that boat. So…some days of light posting.

Numerous sources are telling us that Rory Root has passed away this evening.

Our sincere condolences to his family and his friends. We’ll have more later.

Top Shelf has launched its new webcomics site, dubbed Top Shelf 2.0! . Spearheaded by Brett Warnock and Leigh Walton, it sounds like a lot of fun:

From here on out, every weekday (M-F) we’ll post a new story. It might be a new chapter in your favorite serial, it might be a new short from a previous star, or it might be a totally new artist ready to show off their digital mojo.

Thursday will be Archive Spotlight Day — each week, we’ll pick a great story from Top Shelf’s library of previous webcomics, polish it off, and give it a new chance to shine in front of you guys.

So, check back every weekday for updates! And be sure to click on each artist’s name to find out more about them. Meet some new favorites! You may not dig every single story, but that’s the beauty of Top Shelf 2.0: there’s always something new coming!

Contributors include Chris “Elio” Eliopoulos, Edward J. Grug III, Bart Johnson, Steve Lafler, Lizz Lunney, Jed McGowan, Kagan McLeod, Jessica McLeod, Aaron Navrady, John C. Ralston and Matt Wiegle. Above: Kagan McLeod’s Infinite Kung Fu.

The D&Q blog runs this picture of cartoon master John Stanley when he was a teenager. It’s always refreshing to see a great artist captured in the full bloom of youth; our ideas of Stanley are mostly of the older, curmudgeonly but still insightful playwright of the heart.

Jeet Heer takes the oppotunity of D&W’s thrilling announcement of more John Stanley reprints to take on the great debate:Stanley vs. Barks:

There are not many cartoonists who have claims to greatness; perhaps a dozen or a score. Of this elite group, the least known to the general public and most underrated even by the cartooning cognoscenti is John Stanley (1914-1993). To the extent that he’s remembered at all, Stanley is known as the writer for the Little Lulu comic book series published Dell Comics. Stanley worked on the series from 1945 till around 1961 but during his long tenure at Dell worked on many other titles, ranging from characters created by others (Tubby, Nancy, Andy Panda) as well as characters he himself invented (the horror-spoof Melvin Monster, as well as teen comics like Dunc and Loo, Thirteen, and Kookie).

Heer judges Stanley to be the better writer, an assessment we agree with but only by a whisper. And that whisper could change when the wind does. Such comparisons are not really necessary — in the shorter stories of Walt Disney Comics & Stories, even those starring bit players like Gyro Gearloose and Gladstone Gander, Barks showed a mastery of relentless destiny and stinging irony that few could surpass. Let’s just say they are BOTH great and reprint everything they ever did in living color!

Writer Hudson Phillips runs a “women in Comics” roundtable:

I recently had a conversation with 5 brilliant, creative, funny women who are up and coming (if not already established) in the world of comics. I asked artists Rebekah Isaacs (Hack/Slash, Drafted) & Amy Reeder Hadley (Fool’s Gold, Madame Xanadu), journalists Johanna Draper Carlson (Comics Worth Reading) & Angela Paman (Comic Addiction), and web-comics creator Julia Wertz (The Fart Party) about their thoughts on the state of women in the comics industry. Everyone was very vocal about their opinions and I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of diversity. I hope that this can be a springboard for more of these types of healthy conversations in the industry.

Now, you know how we feel about “Women in Comics” panels and so on. Until you see these same five women being interviewed about the future of comics, or how to break in to comics, or some non-gender-related issues, it’s still a bit of a pigeonhole, wethinks. However, all caveats aside, it’s an interesting piece, well worth reading if only to see how a generation that has had little if any nay-saying directed against them, views these old issues:

Amy: I know being female is still an issue in some ways, but from what I can tell, it’s getting much better. In fact, I honestly think some of my good fortune entering the mainstream comics world came FROM being female. I’ve felt completely welcome working for DC Comics, and I think people are just so happy to see a new female creator. They want diversity. It’s good for the medium and it’s good for business.

Julia: I think it’s become less of an issue while the pool of women cartoonists grows. I think it’s still surprising to find women in mainstream comics, but the alternative comics scene has a large number of female cartoonists involved with it. So in regards to alt. comics, I’d say it’s no longer an issue. (Although we do have to deal with Cathy jokes constantly).

Also of note is the discussion of why women don’t write or draw more superheroes. While several of the respondents go for the accepted notion that girls just don’t like boy’s fantasies, this negates the huge female readership for a lot of shonen manga, which are just as boy-themed as superhero stuff. Could there be OTHER factors at play? Hmmmmmmmm…

While we were off the grid Cliff Meth passed along some great news:

I am delighted beyond delighted to announce that Marvel Entertainment has made clear its intentions to help Gene and Adrienne Colan.

In a warm conversation this morning, executives at Marvel offered Adrienne and I some of the many things that they plan to do for the Colans to provide immediate and long-term relief. I will provide the details soon.

We had some tart words for Marvel earlier last week, but let’s be equally effusive in our praise: by doing the right thing, Marvel is really stepping up to the plate and reversing some of the injustices of the past, Hooray for Marvel!

So cute! From 10 years ago, a Cliff Chiang reinvention of the DCU via J-pop stylings.
[Via Blog@]

About Comics has just announced a collection of Gail Simone’s HIGHlarious “You’ll All Be Sorry” columns, originally published on Comic Book Resources. The cover is by Scott Shaw! (left):

The entire comics community will rue the day they entertained Gail Simone when she unleashes You’ll All Be Sorry!, a collection of her hilarious prose pieces. Featuring a mixture of classic entries culled from her popular online column and brand new pieces, this About Comics paperback will delight Simone’s growing legion of fans.

Behind a Scott Shaw! cover, readers will find dozens of articles as Simone turns her sharp wit on Wizard, Watchmen, Whiteout, bad Batman fan fiction, and even the Internet itself. This was the work that launched her comics writing career, leading to her writing first for Bongo, then for Marvel and now DC, where she has gained acclaim for her runs on such books as Birds of Prey, Wonder Woman, and her original series Welcome to Tranquility.

In addition to the original pieces that Simone built her career on, the book features original articles, including the revelatory “How to Write Comics (with food and boobs) the Gail Simone Way!” Readers will also be invited to “Choose Your Own Crossover,” and Gail has also blackmailed a bunch of her pro friends into crafting an all new set of “Condensed Comics Classics”. Each piece is being freshly laid out to reflect the material being parodied, and many come with illustrations.

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The winners of the 2008 Glyph Comics Awards were announced in a ceremony at the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention on Friday, May 16. Aya, Sentences and Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow were multiple winners. The list:

Story of the Year
Sentences: The Life of MF Grimm; Percy Carey, writer, Ronald Wimberly, artist

Best Writer
James Sturm, Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow

Best Artist
Kyle Baker, Nat Turner: Revolution

Best Male Character
Emmet Wilson, Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow; co-created by James Sturm, writer, and Rich Tommaso, artist

Best Female Character
Amanda Waller, Checkmate; Greg Rucka, writer, Joe Bennett & Jack Jadson, artists

Rising Star Award
Marguerite Abouet, Aya

Best Reprint Publication
Aya, Drawn & Quarterly; Chris Oliveros, publisher, Helge Dascher, translator

Best Cover
Sentences: The Life of MF Grimm; Ronald Wimberly, illustrator

Best Comic Strip
The K Chronicles; Keith Knight, story and art

Fan Award for Best Comic
Fantastic Four: The New Fantastic Four; Dwayne McDuffie, writer, Paul Pelletier & Rick Magyar, artists
According to pr:

Sentences is the first DC comic to win Story of the Year out of four nominations, including Welcome to Tranquility (2008), The American Way (2007), and Seven Soldiers: Guardian (2006). This is the third consecutive year that the Story of the Year winner also won Best Cover. Baker and Knight have won for the third year in a row in their respective categories. Baker’s win is his fifth overall, the most by any individual. Baker has eleven total nominations, also the most by any individual. A Marvel comic has won the Fan Award three straight times. The previous wins were for Storm (2007) and Black Panther: Who is the Black Panther? (2006).

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Mort Walker’s International Museum of Cartoon Art has had a long (more than 30 year) history of diaspora: from its first home in Greenwich CT, to a castle in Rye, NY, to a new home of Florida, to a proposed home in the Empire State Building that never came through, to a warehouse in Stamford, it’s had a cursed life, it seems. We spoke about it with Walker about a year ago, and he mentioned that he was negotiating with Ohio State for a permanent home, and happily, that is just what has happened:

Mort Walker’s International Museum of Cartoon Art (IMCA) will be moving its estimated 200,000 piece collection to the Ohio State University Cartoon Research Library creating the largest collection of original cartoon art in the world.

IMCA’s collection consists original drawings from all genres of cartoon art (comic strips, comic books, animation, editorial, advertising, sport, caricature, greeting cards, graphic novels, and illustrations), display figures, toys and collectibles, and works on film and tape, CDs, and DVDs.

[snip]

Lucy Shelton Caswell, professor and curator of the Cartoon Research Library, said that efforts are already underway to increase its space necessary to receive the additional art.

It was big, big news recently when the entire original art for Amazing Fantasy #15, the origin story of Spider-Man himself, was presented to the Library of Congress by an unidentified donor. An incredible story. But who was that masked donor? Charles Yoakum looks at the evidence:

While I’m missing the attribution, it has been said that the donor asked Steve Ditko’s blessing before making the donation, so the question is, who is the donor? Or should we say, who isn’t the donor? And I certainly, with no other information other than real, true fanboy supposition, have to say: is there anyone in the world other than Stan Lee that could be the donor?

Lets use a little logic here. Artwork from that era is rare, and having an entire story together speaks volumes over who might have had their hands on the originals. Fantastic Four pages from a similar time frame have hardly shown up even after Jack’s death, and when they do, they are split up and scattered across the world.

Who do we know that was around the office back then?

You may find Yoakum’s logic unpersuasive, but it’s an interesting line of inquiry.

Beat readers were divided over the $600k sale of recognized Pop Art master Mel Ramos’s painting based on a Gil Kane cover. So here’s a little cosmic balance: The art for the cover of WEIRD SCIENCE #16 has sold for $200,000:

A major, sophisticated collector of comic book art has paid $200,000 for the original cover art of a 1952 horror/science fiction comic in a transaction brokered by Heritage Auction Galleries, the Dallas-based firm announced. Wally Wood’s cover art for Weird Science #16 (EC Comics, 1952) had been the property of another private collector.

“This the highest price we’re aware of for a single comic art page,” said Jared Green, Vice-President of Business Development for Heritage, who negotiated the terms of the sale on the owner’s behalf. “Then again, this cover had everything the collector looks for: a highly collectible artist in the talented Wally Wood, rendering what is considered by many collectors to be the most striking cover scene of his entire career. EC’s publisher Bill Gaines reportedly said that their bestselling issues were the ones that showed boys in trouble, so this comic with its menacing aliens must have flown off the stands.”

When you put it that way, it’s quite the bargain. (Via Tom.)

If you missed the article in Gamepro this month spotlighting the new LEGO Batman game, why not take a look at this clip featuring LEGO Two-Face and LEGO Scarecrow?

And before we get LEGO Batman, We’ll be getting LEGO Indiana Jones on June 3.

Time for the return of some old faces. And some bombshells of course.

SPOILERS after the jump
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Journalista is reporting the death of legendary MAD artist Will Elder at age 86. The Bronx-born Elder went to school at the Manhattan High School of Music and Art where he met the young Harvey Kurtzman. The two went on to work at EC, where Elder inked John Severin. Later, when Kurtzman created Mad, Elder become a mainstay with his dense, joke-packed work. The two created Goodman Beaver for Help! and Little Annie Fanny later on for Playboy.

Elder worked extensively in advertising, as well, and his style, cartoony yet solid, was a huge influence on the underground comics to come. He was inducted into the Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2003.

Elder’s funeral will be held Sunday in New Jersey.

Related: Excerpts from a Gary Groth interview with Elder.
ASIFA-HOLLYWOOD archive of Little Annie Fanny art.

Drawn and Quarterly continues to do God’s Work be announcing even more John Stanley reprints:

We’ll be starting off with a three volume set of Stanley’s Melvin Monster. During the “monster” craze of the Sixties, Dell Comics launched this short-lived but hilarious and weird series about a good little monster boy and his disappointed family. While primarily know as a writer, Stanley actually wrote and drew all nine issues of this series. This series will be designed by longtime Stanley champion Seth.

Next up, a three-volume set of the Stanley “Teen” comics–Thirteen going on Eighteen, Around the Block with Dunc and Loo, and Kookie. These frantic comics about teenagers and beatniks remain compelling 40 years later largely because of the skill that Stanley brought to his pacing, joke-writing, and character development. Thirteen is again almost all Stanley written and drawn and is one of the great “lost” treasures of silver age comics. Dunc and Loo and Kookie feature other artists (notably Bill Williams) finishing Stanley’s layouts but still maintaining that manic quality that was a Stanley trademark. Again, Seth will lend his design talents to this set.

This is fantastic news. With Dark Horse’s Little Lulu project rounding up nearly 20 volumes of Stanley’s best known work, this should supplement it nicely and show future generations just what a genius Stanley was.

Elizabeth Genco, whose graphic novel Blue was recently announced, does a lot of heavy lifting by surveying several indie friendly retailers to find out how on earth to get publicity for a lone indie book these days:

The fact that Blue is in Previews doesn’t mean bupkus. There are a squillion books in Previews. The fact that someone other than me is printing Blue doesn’t mean bupkus. Ordering new books is a financial risk. How do I get a harried, pressed-for-shelf-space retailer to take a chance on me, a first-timer with no track record? That’s the question I posed to four of my prospective customers, indy-friendly retailers. They are: Rory Root, owner of Comic Relief (Berkeley, CA), Alex Cox, owner of Rocketship (my home store here in Brooklyn, NY), Andrew Neal, owner of Chapel Hill Comics (Chapel Hill, NC), and Ben Trujillo, owner of Star Clipper (St. Louis, MO). Boy, have they got answers.

Among the commons sense dispensed: suggestions on marketing, packaging and important design issues, such as this from Neal:

* Bad design both from a visual standpoint and a financial one: an unreadable spine, an unattractive cover or a cover that doesn’t reflect the interiors in some way, a title or price that’s impossible to find. You need to have an ISBN on there, too, even though it’s not pretty.
* A lack of consideration for the details that add up to the overall product: bad lettering can ruin an otherwise attractive book.
* Bad (or no) editing: incorrectly spelled words and bad grammar can hurt a book, too.

You’d be surprised how may publishers violate these seeming no-brainers.

Diamond sent out a press release yesterday confirming that Fantagraphics is going exclusive to the comic shop trades with Diamond. You can read the whole thing in the jump. While Norton’s exclusive with FBI to bookstroes remains untouched, Diamond Books will sell them in Canada. The main reasons for the move are covered in a very lengthy report at The Comics Reporter, including the ability to offer a higher discount to comics shops, and the growing costs of selling direct to over 3000 retailers. Or as Tom sums up:

As for why Fantagraphics made this move, the fundamental reason is likely to be found in what they describe as the declining fortunes of the DM side of their overall business and what they as a small company with limited resources is able to invest in that side of their business in order to give it the best chance running smoothly and perhaps enabling it to grow.

As much sense as it makes, there is a feeling that you can’t escape the Diamond monopoly any more, and that just doesn’t make sense on principle. Chris Butcher leads the loyal opposition:

We really wish that Fantagraphics had consulted us as their retail partners before they made this move, because we would have said “Good God No, Don’t Do It.” We’re very sympathetic to the general indifference of the Direct Market to good comics, including those that Fantagraphics publishes, and we understand the reasons they made their decision. Speaking from our point of view though, we like the opportunity to deal directly with Fantagraphics, because if Fanta has a book in print, then they will have it in stock. That is not the case with Diamond. Even on the largest publishers that have moved their Direct Market business exclusive with Diamond, publishers like Viz and Tokyopop, our fill rates on in-print books are less than adequate. We hope that Fanta knows what they’re in for on that front.

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Over at his blog, Clifford Meth continues to enlist aid for a benefit to help defray the medical costs of Gene Colan’s recent health issues:

Numerous artists and writers will be contributing drawings and/or signed books to help Gene and Adrienne Colan with their mounting medical costs. Items will be auctioned by ComicLink.com

This list will be updated regularly. So far, it includes (in alpha-order):

Neal Adams, Norm Breyfogle, Randy Bowen, Ed Brubaker, Adam-Troy Castro, Paty Cockrum, Peter David, Tom DeFalco, J.M. deMatteis, Pat DiNizio, Harlan Ellison, Mark Evanier, Neil Gaiman, Sam Keith, Joe Kubert, Erik Larsen, Bob Layton, Jim Lee, Stan Lee, Leah Moore, Albert Moy, Michael Netzer, Josh Olsen, Tom Palmer, Mike Pascale, Jim Salicrup, Bob Shreck, Dave Simmons, Gail Simone, Walter and Louise Simonson, Jim Starlin, Juan Torres, Marv Wolfman and Ash Wood.

It should be noted that this benefit is being assembled by Meth; Colan’s wife, Adrienne hasn’t been asking for help publicly.

However, it should also be noted that when you drew comic books all your life, even comic books as lucrative as those drawn by Colan, like BLADE, you don’t get a pension or residuals or anything really. We’re not here to hang Marvel in effigy, since they have been an extremely frugal company since emerging from bankruptcy. However with reports circulating that Marvel Studios has already made some $200 million from IRON MAN, the #1 movie two weeks running, you would HOPE that a little fund raising could be set aside for one of the five or six greatest Marvel artists of all times. Better than Lenil Yu, even.

UPDATE: Dirk suggests you donate directly to the Colans via their Paypal account: genecolan@optonline.net.

A painting of Green Lantern pop artist Mel Ramos (a cohort of Lichtentein, Warhol, Rosenquist, etc.) sold for $600,000 this week.

Chew on that, Warner Brothers.

Via The Ephemerist which incorrectly reports the price.