Starting with a letter to subscribers which Tom Spurgeon unveiled, today’s it’s being announced that The Comics Journal, which is about to release its gala 300th print edition, is going to change its presentation drastically, with fewer, bigger biannual print editions and an increased online component. Dirk Deppey, has more:

The expanded, full-service TCJ.com will deliver everything readers love — in-depth interviews, smart columns, sharp criticism, real journalism — on a daily basis. And not only will readers get the traditional Comics Journal content faster, but they will also be able to access features beyond the reach of print magazines: videos, slide shows, audio files, original-art galleries and an army of both new and established Journal-caliber bloggers filtering the comics world through their unique perspectives. In short, it is the dawning of a Comics Journal that knows no bounds.

Focusing on what print does best, The Comics Journal magazine will be more beautiful than ever, an elegant combination of criticism, journalism and objet d’art. Uniquely sized and formatted, evocatively visual and tactile, each issue will be an event. Readers will get their first look at the direction The Comics Journal will be moving in with issue #300.

Spurgeon follows up with a brief interview with TCJ’s Gary Groth on the change

“It was always a strain to assemble eight commercially viable issues that were also aesthetically pleasing — balancing that fine line — every year. I feel much more comfortable concentrating our resources on fewer print editions each year and spending some of those resources on our web presence. It’s no secret that newspapers and magazines are suffering because so much of what they’ve traditionally done can be done on the web, faster and cheaper. We decided therefore to redesign the editorial and physical format of the magazine to take advantage of what print’s best at — upscale production values, longer prose, more permanent content — and bring the Journal’s mandate for criticism and commentary to the web with a vengeance.

Coming, as it does, on the heels of the sale of the once-preeminent online comics news source Newsarama, it’s clearly another step in the evolution on online comics journalism. A beefed up TCJ online, with perhaps a return to some of its take-no-prisoners investigative reporting would be much-needed electric cattle prod to the hindquarters for everyone.

At the same time, the rules are changing so fast and quick. Newsarama’s sale comes at a time when its position as the must-do news source has almost completely eroded. Everyone seems to use their own outlets for breaking news, and there are so many other choices. It’s notable that when Monday’s news of a new Stephen King comic at Vertigo came out, it was announced at Vertigo’s own blog and the first, presumably embargoed, interviews were at the NYT, the Daily Beast and AOL’s comics blog, Comics Alliance. Comics news is now big enough that it doesn’t even get broken on comics news sites any more — with a variety of “mainstream” news outlets covering comics on a regular basis, news can reach a (one hopes) even wider audience.

On a more personal note, the main thing all this reminded us of is a panel at San Diego in 1996 or 7 or so that included The Beat, Gary Groth, and other folks on “The Future of Online,” or some such, where we predicted a “bigger, stronger, faster” model for Online, and Gary said something along the lies of “I like holding things in my hands.” Sometimes it only takes 15 years for dreams to die. (Pretty sure this panel was written up in an issue of the Comics Journal? Maybe one of our helper monkeys can dig it up, because if there’s one thing that’s certain it’s that my memory really sucks these days.)

Via Flog:

Saturday, Nov. 7, 6PM

Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery, Seattle, WA

Friday, Nov. 13, 7PM

Desert Island, Brooklyn, NY

Friday, Dec. 11

Ada Books, Providence, RI

The child is father to the man…or else there is always room for redemption and wisdom, Saul of Tarsus style.

A few weeks ago, Jeet Heer unearthed a newspaper profile of Fantagraphics co-publisher Gary Groth at the age of 17. The young Groth was even then interested in publishing — the profile was published in no less an outlet than the Washington Post — but his feelings then were somewhat…well, unevolved.

As Steve Duin shows with an editorial on Superman from Amazing Heroes a mere 16 years later, things had changed.

Superman is an American Symbol, though; notwithstanding his humble beginnings at the hands of Siegel and Shuster, Superman was sold to the American public by a company who couldn’t care less for “courage and humility,” and stands as the successful marketing of pop mythology, and like a political candidate who offers image, bombast, and demagoguery over substance and ideals, Superman has come to stand for values he never consistently realized as a creation. He’s the ultimate America icon — he can be sold, marketed, and merchandised, whose image can be replicated on everything from pillowcases to beach balls to underwear.

Via pr:

FANTAGRAPHICS SIGNINGS AT APE:

SATURDAY
11AM - 1PM: Jon Vermilyea (MOME) & Frank Santoro (MOME)
12:00–12:45  Spotlight on Dash Shaw
1PM - 3PM: Dash Shaw & T. Edward Bak (MOME)
3PM - 5PM: Daniel Clowes & John Pham
5PM - 7PM: Renee French (MOME) & Andrice Arp (MOME)

SUNDAY

11AM - 1PM: Jon Vermilyea (MOME), Frank Santoro (MOME) & Dash Shaw
1PM - 3PM: T. Edward Bak (MOME) & John Pham
3PM - 5PM: Renee French & Andrice Arp

NEW BOOKS INCLUDE: The Troublemakers by Gilbert Hernandez, Conceptual Realism: In the Service of the Hypothetical by Robert Williams, Pim & Francie by Al Columbia, Sublife #2 by John Pham, The Unclothed Man in the 35th Century A.D. by Dash Shaw, MOME Vol. 16 by various, The Great Anti-War Cartoons by Craig Yoe, and Ganges #3 by Kevin Huizenga!

As an added bonus, DASH SHAW is an official APE guest this year and will be signing copies of his new book, THE UNCLOTHED MAN IN THE 35TH CENTURY A.D. For anyone who buys the book at one of his Fanta signings during APE, Dash will do an original PAINTING on the front cover! You will not want to miss out.

After having been ripped off countless times in the past 25 years, Peter Bagge’s BRADLEYS comics have been given a pilot deal at Fox. Flog reports that Bagge is writing the pilot for an animated series, which will deal with über-slacker Buddy Bradley’s teen-aged years with Butch, Babs, and the ‘rents.

This is actually at least Bagge’s second go-round with TV, as he had a pilot development deal with MTV back in the ’90s. Hopefully, his brand of painfully honest but manically inventive social satire will fit in better with the existing Fox lineup of dysfunctional families.

As if that isn’t enough, we seem to be entering the Bagge Deacde, as this article reveals he’s teaching writing at Seattle University, has just finished a Vertigo graphic novel, and is trying to develop a line of graphic novel bios of “independent and influential” women, such as Zora Neale Hurston, Margaret Sanger, Rose Wilder Lane, Laura Ingalls, Ayn Rand, Betty MacDonald, and Isabel Paterson.

While Bagge says he doesn’t have a publisher lined up, we can think of a few who are looking for just this kind of educational/historical material, so go for it, people.

Via Hypebeast, a new line of on beyond tasty Jaime Hernandez T-shirts. Want, want, want.

Locas II: Maggie, Hopey & Ray (Fantagraphics)

Jaime Hernandez will discuss Locas II with Ben Schwartz.  This is the first Skylight visit for Hernandez (even though our book buyer Charles has had a large Love and Rockets tattoo on his arm for years!).   Of course, Hernandez is the great co-creator (with his brothers Gilbert and Mario) of the legendary independent comic Love and Rockets, now over a quarter century old, with new work continuing to evolve.

Essayist/screenwriter Schwartz has written extensively about comics as well as comedy (his Best American Comics Criticism of the 21st Century comes out this fall), and will lead the conversation with Hernandez about his work through the years.

Jaime Hernandez is a lifelong Los Angelean, where he continues to chronicle Maggie’s life in the pages of Love and Rockets: New Stories.

We got a big email from Dan Nadel at Picturebox with announcement of a sale — including some fun sets — and immanent new books, like POWR MASTRS 3, above. If you’re looking for adventure, this is the right place .

Fantagraphics is having a sale at Fantagraphics Books their brick and mortar:

What, me study? Not this Saturday, when Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery hosts a storewide sale! Get 20% to 50% off cover price on cool comix, graphic novels, and awesome art books. Lots of gorgeous new books by Fantagraphics favorites as well as some pleasant new surprises. And you’ll get a chance to see the critically acclaimed exhibition “Comics Savants: A Survey of Seattle Alternative Cartoonists” featuring local legends like Jim Woodring, Peter Bagge, Ellen Forney, Charles Burns, Jim Blanchard and others.

It’s confirmed that cartoonist Joe Lambert will be joining the MOME line-up, and, clearly, that is really good news. (Click for larger version.)

Can you believe that none of the marquee comics blogs have a feature called Comics 101? That was low-hanging fruit. Over at Robot 6, Chris Mautner remedies that, inaugurating the new feature with a look at Los Bros Hernandez:

In the early 1980s, Love and Rockets was one of the seminal titles, along with books like Cerebus and American Flagg, in shaping the sensibilities of the nascent indie scene. Their influence since then has been enormous, both in the indie world and the mainstream (writer Matt Fraction cites Gilbert Hernandez as a strong influence). Their jump-cut style, which forces the reader to connect the narrative dots beetween the panels, their blend of genres (science fiction, realism, romance), their use of magical realism all helped show that not only could comic be serious literature, but how to achieve such a goal.

Lighten the mood with a well-timed reading.

We got a lot of nice linkage for our interview with Fantagraphics’ Eric Reynolds the other day, and the piece included a few snippets of little-seen art, but just in case you missed it, here’s the cover to MOME #16 by the great Renee French. WOOT, as they say.

UPDATE: File fixed. Sorry ’bout that.

And yet another fantastic announcement you may have missed in the San Diego scramble: Fantagraphics is reprinting NANCY, Ernie Bushmiller’s great experiment in ontology, starting in early 2010.

According to Co-Publisher Gary Groth, who inked the deal, Fantagraphics has contracted to publish the first 24 years of Nancy dailies, beginning in 1938 (when Nancy took over the strip from its former star, Fritzi Ritz) through 1961. “If the demand is there,” Groth noted, “we will of course want to continue into the 1960s and beyond, if for no other reason than to run all those great ‘hippie’ Nancy episodes. But we’ll cross that bridge in 2016 when we finish publishing the books we’ve contracted for.”

“I was a late Nancy convert,” admits Co-Publisher Kim Thompson, who will be editing the series. “It wasn’t until Denis Kitchen published his Nancy collections in 1989 and 1990, after people like Bill Griffith and Scott McCloud had been touting it for years, that I finally ‘got’ it. It’s one of the all-time greats — way ahead of its time in its own goofy way. Ever since then it’s been at the back of my mind to do a more extensive reprinting, and our ongoing successes with classic reprint series these past five years told me the time is now ripe.”

Jacob Covey will design the series, while Daniel Clowes will provide the intro to the first volume.
In addition, there is a call for help from the great international Nancy Cult:

Fantagraphics will begin with the “second” volume, 1942-1945. According to Thompson, “While we have access to great, nearly complete runs for most of the 1940s dailies, it looks like it will be far more trouble to collect the 1938 and 1939 material. So we’ll be putting out a call to Nancy fans, both over the internet and in the first book itself, until we eventually secure the missing strips to double back and release the best possible 1938-1941 volume.”

At the very least, this could make games of Five-Card Nancy even more exciting!

It’s for an upcoming issue of MOME and it looks rich. Kaczynski writes and does layouts, while Shaw finishes.

Reading or conducting an interview with Norwegian comics genius Jason can be kind of frustrating, because he’s just not a fountain of words. But Brian Heater gets him to yap about as much as possible:

That multimedia aspect doesn’t interest you? Doing slides and presenting the work?

No, I don’t really like to talk about my comics. They should speak for themselves.

Indeed. But in news we’re surprised that Splash Page hasn’t jumped on already, Jason lets slip the info that I KILLED ADOLF HITLER, his time travel masterpiece, has been optioned for a film.

Have you been approached by anyone about adapting one of your comics?

People have expressed interest in doing movies versions. One of the books, I Killed Adolf Hitler has been optioned. I’m not holding my breath though. If it happens, it happens. It just seems like a small miracle every time a good movie is made, especially in Hollywood.

We won’t hold our breath either — and it’s certainly not necessary–but it would be a great story for a movie. Is there anyone who would be up for the task of directing this tale? What do YOU think?

I’m working on a focused BEA wrap-up for PW Comics Week, so I’ll post some of my more random thoughts here.

• I twittered that it was a “good show”, although that’s a hugely subjective analysis, and many would disagree. Most BookExpo vets thought the show was down and slow, with anxiety, layoffs and giant Kindles haunting everyone’s steps. When I said good show, I meant, selfishly, that *I* had a good show, but I think graphic novels had a great show, too. Business — as defined by meetings and enthusiasm, at least– was UP at some publishers, and the mainstreaming of graphic novels is utterly complete. As mentioned several times, David Small’s graphic memoir, STITCHES, was one of THE big books at the show, and no one had to explain or apologize for it being told in “comics’ format.

Of course, a lot of people were still caught up in the general gloom and doom. The meteor of electronic distribution has crash-landed, and the dinosaurs are wandering through a dust-choked world, trying to see their way clear. Part of the problem is that BookExpo itself is a big lumbering dinosaur, like many trade shows in the new business model. The call to make it a consumer show is strong. Richard Nash, formerly of Soft Skull, and now launching Round Table, a new interactive, social media kind of publishing venture, blogged about this — he seems to have left out a word or two, but I made a guess as to what it was:

(more…)

Via Flog, Dash Shaw’s next project will be a book from Fantagraphics, and an animated web cartoon on IFC.com, entitled The Unclothed Man in the 35th Century A.D. The book arrives in November 2009 and the web series comes soon after. The book will be previewed at this week’s BEA.

Each short episode of this five-part web series chronicles Rebel X-6, a man who works for a well-funded anti-droid organization. The fifth episode will provide behind-the-scenes footage of the making of the series. The premiere on IFC.com marks Dash Shaw’s first animated series and will be based on a story line he has developed for several years. Seattle’s Fantagraphics Books is set to publish a book by the same name and characters.

“Dash Shaw is a known entity in the comic book realm with a cult following. We’re excited to bring him, his art and his fans to IFC.com, a platform that recognizes and broadens the reach of up-and-coming, independent content makers,” said Craig Parks, vice president of digital media at IFC. “Shaw’s work on IFC.com will offer a fresh and completely unique take on the animation genre; the type of approach that defines our brand.”

The series features an animated hero, Rebel X-6, and his quest to bring out change in the 35th century A.D.. Rebel X-6 works for an anti-droid organization that opposes the use of droids in all sectors of modern society. An artist guild that opposes the use of droids in art class hires Rebel X-6. They believe living people should model for life drawings. Rebel X-6’s assignment is to enter Art School 46 posing as “Model-Droid #343.” Model droids appear life-like but do not laugh, cry, swear or exhibit other human shortcomings. His mission is to subvert the school’s ban on drawings of real humans by tricking the students into drawing him.

In news that must have many people standing around looking blank and confused, Fantagraphics has announced plans to publish a series of GNs that tie in with a new animated kids series. Yes, a licensing deal for FBI!

Seattle-based indie comics publisher Fantagraphics Books and animation developer Lincoln Butterfield have agreed to collaborate on the publication of a graphic novel based on RIP, M.D., an animated cartoon series in development by Lincoln Butterfield. The first volume of the graphic novel series is slated to be released in 2010. RIP, MD is the story of a little boy who discovers that monsters are real and sometimes are hurt or need help and he becomes an MD—or Monster Doctor. Lincoln Butterfield is a newly launched independent animation house, founded by animators Robert Hughes and Joseph Walker. Fantagraphics Books is the publisher of such distinguished comics artists as Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez, Dan Clowes and Joe Sacco. But while Fantagraphics has been instrumental in the growth of independent comics publishing, the house is not known for publishing kids-oriented material.

You can check out the Lincoln Butterfield website here.

§ In today’s dog-bites-man story, a comic book character may die in an upcoming issue. Been there, done that. When is Ramesh Ponnuru going to get around to analyzing comics’ “culture of death”?

§ In a more touching and final exit, Marvel is ending CAPTAIN BRITAIN AND MI-13 with issue #15. Writer Paul Cornell has the news and the thank yous.

As you may have noticed, there’s no solicitation today for #16 of Captain Britain and MI-13. That, unfortunately, is because #15 is the last issue. A lot of books end without a word from their creative teams, but, with Marvel’s blessing, I didn’t want that to be the case this time. There are, I think, a few things worth saying at this point.

§ PW reports that POD and short run titles now outnumber traditional books:

U.S. book production rose and fell in 2008, according to preliminary statistics released this morning by Bowker. The number of new and revised titles produced by traditional production methods fell 3% in 2008, to 275,232, but the number of on-demand and short run titles soared 132%, to 285,394. The on-demand and short run segment is the method typically used by self-publishers as well as online publishers. With the decline in the number of traditional books released last year and the jump in on-demand, the number of on-demand titles topped those of traditional books for the first time. Taken together, total output rose 38%, to 560,626 titles.

What does this mean? We have no idea.

The Flog Blog at Fantagraphics previews one of this summer’s must-haves: Everybody Is Stupid Except for Me by Peter Bagge, which reprints his various comics for Reason and other places. The site has a slideshow, ordering info, and a ton of other extras, like a screensaver. And here’s a link to a 12-page preview.

Around Stately Beat Manor, few names are held in such reverence as that of Michael Kupperman, because he makes us laugh tears of unfettered joy and abandon. Well, not only is a new Tales Designed To Thrizzle upon us (a collection looming — can such laughs even be survived?) but a Snake’N’Bacon pilot will air in a few short weeks on Adult Swim!:

Snake’N’Bacon the TV show pilot is going to be broadcast as part of Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim block of programming, on May 10th at 12:45 AM. The cast includes Kristin Schaal, Dan Bakkedahl, Bill Hader, Peter Serafinowicz, James Urbaniak, Brian Stack, and David Rakoff, in live-action and animated segments.

Need we point out that this cast encompasses a veritable laffs-a-plenty Hall Of Fame, with the pedigree of SNL, The Daily Show, Conan O’Brien, Flight of the Conchords, and Look Around You? Kupperman posts a few stills from the show on his blog, and it’s pretty safe to say that the world is never going to be the same.

May 10th. Mark your calendars and prepare for the arrival.

How on earth are we supposed to find money and shelf space for all the incredible books of fantastic historical material that keeps flooding out? Who knew that so much of the good stuff would all be available?

§ Chris Duffy notes that King Aroo is coming!, in reference to the cult comic strip by Jack Kent which Dean Mullaney is collecting for IDW. Duffy posts a sample of the strip, endlessly charming in its simple, clean lines and whimsy.

King Aroo lasted from 1950 through the mid 60’s–a pretty long run by today’s standards, but when talked about historically it’s always considered a strip that got cut off in its youth. Only one reprint book ever came out during its run–covering much, but not all, of the first year. Rick Marschall’s NEMO reprinted a fantastic surreal run of dailies in the 80s, and Tom Devlin edited a collection of Sunday’s for an oversize Comics Journal special a few years ago (using Sundays from my collection, I’m collector-proud to add.) But all that adds up to a small fraction of the run of the strip.

(PS: There’s some other fairly awesome old comics at Duffy’s blog if you dig around.)

§ Via Flog, a preview of The Brinkley Girls: The Best of Nell Brinkley’s Cartoons from 1913-1940 by Trina Robbins. Brinkley was an incredibly popular illustrator/cartoonist early in the last century — “The Brinkley Girl” was considered a style icon and helped popularize the idea of the young, attractive fun-loving suffragette. There’s a video slideshow and a 12-page preview, and the artwork within can only be considered….wild. We stole one page from the preview to show you, but you gotta see it all.

§ Over at Comics Comics, Dan Nadel notes that he and Mark Newgarden are working on a book of Milt Gross art:

We have spoken to hitherto undiscovered sources, found incredible artwork, and are finally beginning to understand the scope of Gross’s epic career in comics, film, prose, animation, fine art, and even television. We don’t have a release date for the book yet, but assure you that we will spend summer ‘09 sweating it out over our keyboards. Anyhow, should any of you out there have rare Gross photos or ephemera, please contact me: dan (at) pictureboxinc (dot) com.

Gross is generally considered one of the greatest cartoonists of all time, evolving styles over his long career but never losing his wacky, kinetic style. He helped to popularize several Yiddish–influenced catchphrases like “Banana Oil!” His ’30s graphic novel, HE DONE HER WRONG (reprinted in a modern edition by Fantagraphics a few years ago), was an early, and popular example of the form. (The above art taken from an ASIFA archives post on Gross.) [Link via Robot 6]

Wow, with such riches raining down on us, is there anything left to savor and rediscover?

YES!

SMOKEY STOVER!

But in the meantime, this will keep us all pretty busy.

Tonight, a comic event which will be very difficult to top no matter how many more you see this year:

An Evening with HUMBUG
Featuring Arnold Roth and Al Jaffee in conversation with Gary Groth
Tuesday, April 14, 7:00PM
The Strand Bookstore
12th St. & Broadway, New York, NY

The occasion is a discussion of HUMBUG, the humor magazine launched by Harvey Kurtzman, Roth, Jaffee, Will Elder and several other geniuses in 1957, which has just been reprinted in a deluxe edition by Fantagraphics. Stephen Kroninger has more background and some pages from the book:

In 1957, five artists — HARVEY KURTZMAN, WILL ELDER, ARNOLD ROTH, AL JAFFEE and JACK DAVIS — hot on the heels of creating MAD magazine, pooled their money and their talent and entered into the creative, exuberant folly of a lifetime by creating the greatest satirical magazine of their careers. Join HUMBUG co-founders Arnold Roth and Al Jaffee in a book signing and discussion about this historic publication with Fantagraphics Publisher and editor of the collected HUMBUG, Gary Groth. Attendees will also enjoy an exclusive screening of a documentary short film about the late Will Elder.

A mammoth collection assembling three previous reprints by the peerless Gilbert Hernandez.

Want.

The Fantagraphics website even has a Flickr slideshow.

As reported in PW Comics Week, one of the famed masters of international comics is finally getting an American edition: the great Jacques Tardi:

All that is changing this summer as Fantagraphics is launching an ongoing hardcover series of Tardi’s graphic novels. The first two releases this August will be West Coast Blues (Le petit bleu de la Côte Ouest), a hard-boiled crime thriller adapted by Tardi from the novel by Jean-Patrick Manchette, and You Are Here (Ici même), a satirical, surreal story about a man who lives on a wall, written for Tardi by Barbarella creator Jean-Claude Forest. The line continues in Spring 2010 with the release of It Was the War of the Trenches, a grueling story set in World War I.

Fantastic news, as most English language Tardi has been out of print for years and years, or was published by now defunct publishers (iBooks.)

We’ve been waiting a long time for someone to sit down and ask Eric Reynolds what he thinks about Diamond’s benchmarks, and Chris Mautner finally stepped up to do it himself. The general thrust is that…the indie periodical was already looking a little green around the gills:

Let me put it this way. I think some publishers are probably using this new policy as an excuse to curtail their pamphlets than I think it’s a hard cause and effect. I don’t begrudge anybody doing that, but my point is the writing was already on the wall. I think publishers were already steering away from periodicals by and large. I read an interview with Mike Richardson not too long ago prior to the Diamond policies talking about how they were really scaling back the pamphlets and they’re one of the few publishers that’s still been really agressive in that format.