OJINGOGO returns
11/18/09
Chris Oliveros announces a new edition of Matthew Forsythe’s OJINGOGO. We need more of this!
Archive for the 'Drawn & Quarterly' Category
The Funnies Business
11/16/09A few links making the rounds related to the health of various sectors of the comics business.
§ In Boston, while book industry sales are “in freefall”, comics sales are strong enough to support new retail outlets:
They couldn’t find a single financial backer willing to risk a penny on a comic book store, but the pair knows something about their kind: namely, that comic book fans, who number more adults than kids these days, are serious about their reading material. Look no further than the man who posted a comment on the store’s Facebook page praising the recommendations of the “in-house sommelier.’’ Reed has faith that the business, which has seen heady peaks (hello, Stan Lee) and crushing lows (television nearly wiped it out half a century ago), is poised for another revival.
§ Meanwhile, in Japan as the above scary chart shows, this writer believes the manga industry is in “Dire straits.” In the above chart, magazines sales (red) are plunging, while tankōbon sales (blue) are flat:
The very notion that the health of a medium can be measured by the number of blockbusters it produces is itself increasingly obsolete – in music, books and other media, markets are increasingly centred on the so-called “long tail,” with modern distribution allowing vast numbers of niche titles to be economically supported where before only a few very popular titles could ever find commercial success. Having low or high sales is thus not a measure of how “good” a title is, but instead merely reflects the size of the particular niche a product serves.
§ Meanwhile, Canadian Business magazine salutes the success of Drawn & Quarterly:
While Oliveros is reluctant to claim credit, D&Q was pivotal in that transition. Its titles were lavishly, lovingly produced, and mainstream media outlets took breathless notice of this blurring of publishing boundaries. In 2004, The New York Times noted D&Q’s (along with its closest competitor, Seattle’s Fantagraphics’s) role in shaping the renaissance of the comic book form. Crossover success was concomitant: the titles started to appear in traditional bookstores where, suddenly, every self-respecting independent and chain devoted a section to graphic novels, and major publishing houses started getting into the game. D&Q’s fastest bestseller, Chester Brown’s Louis Riel, an improbable “comic strip biography” of the controversial 19th-century Métis leader, sold 10,000 copies in its first season, and to date has sold more than 36,000, more than most bestselling books in Canada. Publishers Weekly called it a “major achievement.”
Coming soon: Imiri Sakabashira
11/9/09
According to Drawn & Quarterly’s blog, the next gekiga artist we need to pay attention to is Imiri Sakabashira. He’s also been published in Vice, so that should give a little idea of what to expect. Can’t wait!
21 Days of Halloween: Seth
10/30/09
The NY Times teams up Lizzy Ratner and Seth for some haunting views:
Even in this cheek-by-jowl town, the realm of other people’s apartments remains resolutely mysterious. Sure, New Yorkers share walls, overhear fights, inhale the sweet-spiced victories (and, all too often, failures) of sundry kitchen experiments. But the odd, unholy secrets of our neighbors’ homes remain hidden — and some of these secrets are very odd indeed. Voices whisper, spirits hover, stereos scream and stuffed animals rearrange themselves on beds. While we enjoy cozy, sleep-filled nights in our shoebox-sized sanctuaries, our neighbors toss and turn in the Gotham equivalent of Whaley House or Bly. And why not? New York is a city built on the dead, on mass graves and potter’s fields, old battlefields and spiffed-up shooting galleries. Surely some spirits are hanging around.
Marc Bell on Tour
10/1/09
| 10/17-18 | APE | San Francisco, CA |
| 10/19, 7-10pm | Lucky’s | Vancouver, BC |
| 10/21, 8-10pm | Family | Los Angeles, CA |
| 10/25, 5-7pm | Desert Island | Brooklyn, NY |
| 11/20, 7-9pm | Magic Pony | Toronto, ON |
| 11/27, 7-9pm | Librairie D+Q Bookstore | Montreal, QC |
Tonight!
