AdHouse announces Superior Showcase #3, an anthology of three damned fine cartoonists, and THE RETURN OF STREET ANGEL!!!

This issue explodes with the uber-talents of team STREET ANGEL aka Bodacious Brian Maruca & Jazzy Jim Rugg.
(This is the first STREET ANGEL story in years!)

Debuting the work of Dandy Dustin Harbin.

And last but not least, the Lovely Lady with Luscious Lines… Laura Park!

All wrapped in a fantastic cover by talented Rip-Roaring Roger Langridge!

Smack! Bam! Pow!

The cover is above but we’ll also reveal a pages from Park who has been been on the hot list for a couple of years now.

Technorati Tags: Jim Rugg, Laura Park, puppy

Following in the footsteps of Fantagraphics and Drawn & Quarterly, Picturebox, the Brooklyn-based art comix publisher, is opening a store in Gowanus, Brooklyn!

First, we are opening a retail store in Brooklyn’s sunny and breezy Gowanus, Brooklyn. The PictureBox Departmental Store will carry the full range of PictureBox publications as well as an international array of visual books, prints, editions, comics, clothing and stationary. It is a shopping experience you will never forget. Please join us on Saturday, March 22nd for the grand opening. Refreshments will be served.

Saturday, March 22nd
6 - 9 pm
PictureBox Departmental Store
121 Third St.
Brooklyn NY 11231

Second, we are now accepting pre-orders for GARY PANTER online at pictureboxinc.com. A handful of copies (as well as some Gary rarities) will be available at the store opening. For all Gary Panter book news, please check http://garypanterbook.com/

As if writing and helping produce ONE opera wasn’t enough, crazy Shannon Wheeler has gone to the Black & Decker auto-drip one more time for a SEQUEL to his well-received Too Much Coffe Man Opera. PR in the jump, production info below:

Too Much Coffee Man Opera the Refill

What: Too Much Coffee Man Opera: The Refill
The world premiere of the sequel to the highly acclaimed opera
Who: Music composed by Daniel Craft
Libretto and original comics by Shannon Wheeler
Additional lyrics by Damian Willcox and Carolyn Main
Directed by Randy Rollison
When: April 4 - April 20
Where: Brunish Hall, Portland Center for the Performing Arts
1111 SW Broadway, Portland OR
Admission: $20 - $25, through ticketmaster.com
Show: The show is two hours with a 15 minute intermission
More info: www.tmcm.com/opera

(more…)

“Great” might not be exactly the word some would use, but Marvel editor Tom Brevoort’s look back at some under-appreciated comics he worked on is a nice look back at some of the quirkier superhero-esque books of recent years.

I put out a lot of comic books every month–especially when you factor in the books I’m not directly editing myself, but am overseeing (which is just about all of the mainstream Marvel Universe output.) And as with almost everything, there’s a hit-to-miss ratio. Especially when it comes to projects featuring new characters, less mainstream genres or experimental approaches, it’s very easy for some of the very best stuff you do to be overlooked–consigned to the back issue bins of history despite whatever smattering of critical acclaim they might receive. Every editor has at least a couple of these, books they really loved and thought were unique but which for whatever reason failed to catch on with a broad audience. These are the Unknown greats, and here’s a series on a couple of mine.

He talks about The Hood by Brian K Vaughan and Kyle Hotz, Blaze of Glory by John Ostrander and Leonardo Manco, and Deadline by Bill Rosemann and Guy Davis. As always with Brevoort, there’s lot of interesting behind the scenes of stuff that was need-to-know only at the time. His comments on the Eisner-Winning Unstable Molecules by James Sturm and Guy Davis (again) will be the most interesting perhaps, as the history of the very brief period when Marvel was last hiring indie tooners like Bob Sikoryak and Michel Vrana is charted:

I remember the covers being a cause of some consternation at one point. This was during a period when there was a concentrated effort being made to have all of the covers basically be pin-up shots of a single character. In that environment, the UNSTABLE MOLECULES covers, with their emphasis on the design and typography, the unconventional Craig Thompson illustrations, and the drop-in Jack Kirby art, were about as far from this model as one could get. I can remember one or two heated discussions before those in power threw up their hands, decided that this was going to be what it was going to be, and let it go. (There was a bit moer drama after the series was completed, when Sturm’s design for the trade paperback collection was changed around at the last minute. Fortunately, after the book won the Eisner, a new edition was released, and this allowed Sturm to make adjustments to the design.)

Jeff Smith’s BONE has been picked up for development by Dan Lin, who is also working on the JUSTICE LEAGUE movie. This paragraph should tell you all you need to know:

Deal is a mid-six-figure option against seven figures for purchase. Property, described as Bugs Bunny meets “The Lord of the Rings,” likely will be developed as a CG toon for a broad family aud, but could turn into a live-action pic, depending on the director it eventually attracts.

Interestingly, BONE was long in development back in the ’90s as a big animated feature at Nickelodeon until Smith pulled the plug because of the changes the studio wanted to make. Since then Smith has been adamant about not wanting to try another film unless he felt it could be true to the book. Has that time come? Interestingly, in the 10 or so years since Bone was last at a studio, the importance of sticking to the spirit of the original as a way to make a successful film has been proven over and over again, from SPIDER-MAN to 300. WATCHMEN aside, it would be hard to make a comic book movie with the creator (especially one as engaged as Smith) sitting on the sidelines.

Speaking of Indie comics show, CAPE!, the Dallas, TX version, will be held May 3 at a new location:

The WORLD’S BIGGEST Free Comic Book Day Event has gotten so big, we had to move to a new location. CAPE! 4, Comic and Pop-Culture Expo, is back. On Saturday May 3, CAPE! 4 is hosted by Zeus Comics and Toys, PvPOnline.com, and Popsyndicate.com. This elite team of comic experts joins forces once again to bring North Texas a bigger and better Comic and Pop-Culture Expo (CAPE!), than last year – it’s the biggest Free Comic Book Day event in the world.

This year’s list of NEW guest comic book artists and writers includes industry giants Mark Waid, Chynna Clugston, Robert Kirkman, Greg Pak, Jason Pearson, Greg Pak, Matt Sturges and Paul Benjamin. They are joined by returning headliners Gail Simone, David Mack, Mike Huddleston, Tony Bedard, Jim Mahfood, Scott Kurtz, Jamie S. Rich, James O’Barr, Marc Andreyko, Kody Chamberlain, Dave Crosland, Lea Hernandez, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Mercedes Lackey, Ben Dunn, Kristian Donaldson, Kris Straub, Larry Dixon and many more, CAPE! just keeps getting bigger and bigger! For a complete list of guests go to www.capeday.com.

(more…)

A smattering of pictures and reports from this weekend’s duo of indie comics shows, SPACE in Columbus, OH and STAPLE in Austin, TX.

David Hopkins has a Flickr set of STAPLE, of which one is at left. Wayne Cheong also went to Staple, and began a collection of artist self portraits called How Do You See Yourself? ADDED: Scott Kurtz on Staple. [HT: Blog@]

Frank Santoro at Comics Comics has a SPACE report:

Went to SPACE in Columbus, Ohio. It was okay. Just no traffic really. The only people walking around checking things out were exhibitors. It felt like that until about 2 or 3 o’clock. I passed out some Cold Heat zines while Jim Rugg signed comics for his legions of fans (3 different people brought all their Street Angel comics, from home, to be signed. I’m not kidding! That shit never happens to me!) A little frustrated early on, I looked up to the end of my aisle — and there was Dave Sim. It’s not 1987 or 1995, it’s 2008, and there’s one of the most recognized figures in comics, still on tour, still hawking his vision.

Max Ink also has a brief SPACE report and mentions that traffic seemed to be down from last year.

But wait, there’s more! Austin, TX’s annual indie comics fest STAPLE! takes place at the Monarch Event Center this Saturday starting at 11. Guests include Eric Powell, Brian Wood, Danielle Corsetto, David Malki, Scott Kurtz and Kris Straub.

Of course there will be both pre and post parties:

As has become tradition the STAPLE! Pre-party will be held Friday night at Austin Books and Comics at 5002 North Lamar Boulevard. Festivities begin at 8pm and run till 11, but feel free to come in early and browse!

This year’s after-party will be held at Red’s Scoot Inn at 1308 E. 4th Street (4th and Navasota), just a few blocks east of I-35. Once again there will be a Live Art Show, another staple of STAPLE!, and the whole thing is a benefit for KOOP Radio!

Sounds like fun — take pictures and send ‘em to us!

The long running annual indie comics fest SPACE takes place this weekend in Columbus, OH. The entire guest list is up at the link but it includes special guest Dave Sim, along with Matt Dembicki, Matt Feazell, Jim Rugg, Carol Tyler, Steve Hamaker, Nate Powell, Frank Santoro and many many more.

The show kicks off with a big whoop-tee-do tonight. Details in the link.

For a while now, Dave Sim has been mentioning Secret Project #1, of which it was only known that 1) it would debut at the SPACE indie show, 2) Sim would not promote it, as he has Glamourpuss and 3) it made Neil Gaiman cry. Gradually word leaked that it was Holocaust-themed. Well the word is out, it’s Judenhass, which, we’re told, means more or less “Jew Hatred.” But it’s not what you think.

An examination of the historical roots of the Holocaust through quotes from historical personages drawn in a photorealism style from period photographs. Begun in response to the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz (2005) it will be released during the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of Israel.

Judenhass is a stand-alone one shot comic book, perfect bound and 56 pages long. It’s published by Aardvark Vanaheim Inc. for release in May 2008. It will be kept in print, and it’s hoped that the title will be kept in stock by retailers and supported by them as a perennial title.

Okay, show of hands: who saw this one coming?

Available in May.

[Via Panel & Pixel]

Technorati Tags: Dave Sim

Joey Weiser wrote to alert us to his new book.

Tales of Unusual Circumstance is here! Tales collects comics work from my output over the past 4 years that has appeared in anthologies, mini-comics, and more! PLUS, as mentioned above, it features 48 pages of never-before-seen material! And, by that I mean new comics!!

You had us at giant squid.

It seems that Boom! Studios has joined the ranks of comics publishers getting a little VC pie:

The Los Angeles company, officially known as Boom Entertainment, has just taken a $600,000 investment from DFJ Frontier and the Gideon Hixon Fund, following a particularly successful January. At the beginning of the month, it featured the first printing of a post-apocalyptic sci-fi fantasy novel
called North Wind, on MySpace. The comic, a five-part mini-series that takes place in a futuristic, frozen-over LA, sold out in ten days at brick-and-mortar retailers and has since gone through a second printing. Note: North Wind was available for free online, through the MySpace promotion — people were willing to go out and buy the print version, anyway.

Newsarama has a few more details. It’s not like $600,000 is a staggering, staggering amount of money. But it’s a tidy investment. Although Boom! has had a few wrinkles along the way, you’d have to say hey have earned it with an array of good hires, readable titles, and generally upward movement.

UPDATE: Apparently, both the original story linked to above and the Newsarama article have some inaccuracies. WE’re being told by sources close to Boom! that the $600,000 figure is the cap of a potential loan, not cash on hand.

Boom Studios

A couple of graphic novel film adaptations making the rounds this am. First, Columbia has a film based on THE BOYS in development, with producers Neal H. Moritz, Ken F. Levin and Jason Netter on board. THE BOYS by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson follows the darkly humorous adventures of a team assigned to clean up the often very excessive excesses of superheroes. The book is published by Dynamite after a much-publicized early run at Wildstorm.

Next up, Warner’s is fast tracking a two-picture adaptation of Katsuhiro Otomo’s AKIRA. The first part could be out as soon as 2009. Otomo, who directed an influential anime version in 1988, is listed as a exec producer, Leonardo DiCaprio is a producer, and first-time director Ruairi Robinson will direct from a script by Gary Whitta (”Book of Eli”). According to Variety, WB had held the rights to Akira for years, but had to recapture them in a “spirited” bidding war which ended up with a seven figure deal to publisher Kodansha.

Dark Horse last published the 6-volume AKIRA series in the US, but from a scan of the Dark Horse site it seems several volumes are out of stock. Time to fire up the presses!

Technorati Tags: Garth Ennis

A new edition of alt.comix anthology MEATHAUS is on the horizon, and Nerdcore has a big preview. Contributors include James Jean , Farel Dalrymple, Brandon Graham, Tomer and Asaf Hanuka, Thomas Herpich, Jim Rugg , Corey Lewis, Matt Furie, D-pi, Ross Campbell, Sheldon Vella, and Dave Kiersh. S.O.S. was edited by Brandon Graham and Chris McD, and that line-up (and the above collage) should clue you in that this is an essential purchase.

If you’ve been dying to ask Dave Sim a question about Gender Issues, today’s your last chance, as for one day only, he takes on questions at Sequential Tart. Enjoy!

There is an intrinsic nobility for a man in working hard to provide for himself and for his family, to improve their lot and give them every advantage in life. But I think I’m safe in saying that for most husbands and fathers, The Job was the means to the end, The Job was not an end in itself. The end was the home and the family. “This is why I work this hard.” And on the part of the wife and mother there was an ancillary motivation. He is working terribly hard to provide for us, so I, too, will work terribly
hard to make A Good Home with all that that entails, a place of rest for him from the dog-eat-dog world. This is what he is doing it for, so I have to do my part to live up to that.

Your grandmother and your great-grandmother didn’t see it as being “stuck at home all the time.” The idea of “stuck” and “home” being used in the same sentence would have struck any good Christian woman as ludicrous. How dare you say about My Home -the home I have made for my family, with all that that entails with regards to aesthetics, decor, cleanliness, craft, cookery,etc. etc. etc. that it is a place to be “stuck” in? It is a never ending challenge to maintain and improve, certainly, but “stuck” in? Never.

Of course our grandmothers and great grandmothers had centuries of tradition that were handed down carefully: how to do this more effectively, cooking and baking secrets and so on. They couldn’t have conceived of being “stuck” at home: every season had its own attendant problems and disciplines to enact as they had been enacted for untold generations.

It seems to me that the huge success of Martha Stewart illustrates that those instincts are dormant, not dead. She certainly never seemed to run out of things that could enhance, maintain or improve the home. Of course she was preaching to a generation who just wanted to know where they had to go to hire a Martha Stewart to do all that stuff for them.

Kristy Valenti at comiXology continues her essential series of interviews and profiles. This one with Randy Chang of Bodega proves that you can hang in the bar with a guy a dozen times and still learn more about him from a well written profile:

[…]Chang and Ralph had connected at the Highwater table at SPX: when Ralph began publishing Daybreak — the story of a one-armed survivor of a zombie holocaust — online, Chang made inquiries as to publishing it. Bodega’s flagship titles were well received: particularly Mourning Star, as it earned Strzepek an Eisner nomination and an Ignatz award. Chang acknowledged the award nominations “generated a lot of interest for the book that it probably otherwise wouldn’t have, for readers that don’t go to the shows and foreign publishers. But really what it’s changed is it’s made things easier for my parents. Before they would always tell their friends they didn’t really know what I was up to, some crazy comic-book thing. Now they can say ‘our son Randy is an AWARD-WINNING publisher,’ which makes them happy and which means less grief for me.”

Is at PANEL AND PIXEL:

Shared Risk, Shared Responsibility and Shared Rewards. If you are entering the comic book field on the creative end, you have to realize that what you are doing is participating in the day-to-day business of roughly 3,000 other businesses — that’s how many comic book stores there are. With a handful of exceptions, these guys are all incredibly reliable: that’s why they’re still in business after four years, eight years, ten years, twenty years. A big part of any success story is just showing up for work in the morning and then giving it your level best from the moment the door opens to the moment the door closes.

Put as plainly and as simply as possible: if we had even half the work ethic on the creator side that we see on the retailer side, this business would be functioning at a much higher level of success.

When you solicit a book in PREVIEWS, you are asking 3,100 retailers to Share the Risk with you that there’s an audience out there for what you do. You’re asking them to bet $5 or $10 or $15 on what you do, usually based on a cover reproduction the size of a postage stamp and two lines of copy.

Chris Pitzer has announced the imminent hardcover collection of Josh Cotter’s Skyscrapers of the Midwest.

Skyscrapers of the Midwest is best described as the winding tale of a young cat, his little brother, and the creeping shadow of imminent adolescence in the American heartland. Eisner and Ignatz nominated, Skyscrapers was the winner of the 2004 Isotope Award for Excellence in Mini-Comics.

Cotter will be hitting MoCCA Art Fest, HeroesCon, SPX and Baltimore Comicon to promote the book which goes on sales 2/27/08. In the meantime, here’s a 9-page preview, to give you a look-see.

Technorati Tags: Previews

porn video amaturewebporn amaturewife videos amature pornxxx porn amatures teengay amauter pornamauter tube pornporn amauteurporn amautur Map

For Feb 6th Dave will be at the Newsrama [sic] forums.

Future Dave appearances may be at these spots, according to the above posting by Cerebus Fangirl:

Comics Bulletin
Comic Book Resources
The Comic Forums
IMWAN
Bendis’ Board
MillarWorld Forums

UPDATE: Here’s the Newsarama thread.

Technorati Tags: Fandom, Promotions

Rick Veitch has printed up a new batch of t-shirts based on his classic superhero noir, BRAT PACK. To promote the shirts, he’s created a whole gallery showing how classic images might have been improved by the aaddition of a Brat Pack t-shirt.

See more images and find out how to buy your own shirt here.

Dave Sim makes an unannounced appearance at the Sequential Tarts board and starts chatting it up with Gail Simone, Pia Guerra and a few other regulars:
Dave:

Well, my views on feminism are, I think, foundationally the same: that is, I think that women are by nature and inclination wives and mothers for the most part. I don’t think and have never thought that women should all be forced to be wives and mothers exclusively but I think our society has gone to the other extreme and starts with the assumption that all women should go out and work and if they want to be wives and mothers as a secondary interest they’re free to do so. I think as a result that a lot of very good wives and good mothers are being subjected to working world pressures that are probably more than a little cruel given their natures and inclinations. This is an extreme minority viewpoint but it is the viewpoint I hold. My impression is that homemaking skills, as an example, are being permanently lost because they are viewed as being sexist or patriarchal or demeaning to women. Girls pick up on that and parrot the party line but I wonder how many of them are looking at movies from more traditional time periods and secretly longing for the “old way of doing things”. In today’s political context I don’t think we’ll hear from anyone who is thinking that way. She’d be denounced as a dupe unable to recognize her own victimization.

I do think that society is moving more and more in that direction and I think one of the net effects of that is going to be worldwide feminism moving in that direction that will basically attemptto steamroll Islam as constituted.

Gail:

Wow. Okay, well, here again, I have to say, maybe you needed to talk to a bigger sampling of women, that time you spoke for the ‘first time’ to women you didn’t want to sleep with, Dave.

I mean no offense, but the idea that domestic skills are disappearing…is that purely anecdotal, from personal experience?

I work mostly at night, I have a considerable workload writing comics, film, and other projects. I get up at 6:00 am each day to get my son (whom I adore, along with my darling husband) to school, I generally make breakfast, do most of the cleaning (they do help out considerably), and I do almost all the cooking. I’m damn good at it, in fact.

Working at the salon, I saw women poring over the recipes in the women’s magazines and often borrowing them, and talking about cooking and keeping house, and we’re not talking some small sampling, we’re talking dozens of women coming through the door every day. My sister does all the cooking in her house, and she has an advanced degree and runs a museum.

I don’t get it. Where exactly did this theory come from, if you don’t mind, Dave? What was the basis for such a conclusion?

[Link via Dirk]

Gary Panter looms large in American comics as a singular visionary and storyteller. So the new site for Gary Panter (the book) is cause to tremble with anticipation:

An intimate look at the work and life of a legendary artist. Gary Panter has been one of the most influential figures in visual culture since the mid-1970s. From his era-defining punk graphics to his cartoon icon Jimbo to his visionary design for Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, he has left his mark on every medium he’s touched. Working in close collaboration with the artist, PictureBox has assembled the definitive volume on Panter’s work from the early 1970s to the present. This monumental, slipcased set is split into two 344-page volumes. The first is a comprehensive monograph featuring over 700 images of paintings, drawings, sculptures, posters and comics, alongside essays by Robert Storr, Mike Kelley, Edwin Pouncey, Richard Klein, Richard Gehr, Karrie Jacobs and Byron Coley, as well a substantial commentary by the artist himself. The second volume features a selection from Panter’s sketchbooks–the site of some of his most audacious work–most of which has never been published in any form.

More pictures, tour info and more in the link.

[Thanks to Jeff for the link.]

It’s been CRIMINAL week on MySpace lately. Although that sounds dire, it’s really a promotion for the Ed Brubaker/Sean Phillips ICON title, CRIMINAL. The event has featured previews, interviews and so on, culminating in a preview of CRIMINAL 2 issue 1 today. Monday’s contribution was a clever interview between Bill Hader and Brubaker. Which doesn’t explain why there is a picture of Simon Pegg in the embed, but the moral is, this geek mafia hangs together.

It is happening:

Okay this is going to take some getting used to. Please bear with me. I’m going to be repeating a lot of stuff since the idea is to get the word out about glamourpuss. Particularly at this point, what I’m hoping to do is to persuade people to go into their local store mid-month when each of the stores should have a copy of glamourpuss No.1 that will be included with Diamond Dateline (Feb. 13). There are roughly 300 stores that should have an advance copy right now. I built my own Canadian mailing list from all of the stores listed in the various Yellow Pages at the Kitchener Library (about 80 directories) and then used the Fantagraphics “Brick & Mortar” list from the back of their catalogue from a few years back for international and US stores. It’s a good list, considering it’s a few years old. Good range of stores from specialty book stores to primarily super-hero stores.

Dave answers questions about lettering, whether he fears death, Glamourpuss and his views on Japanese porn comics before the store where he’s using the computer closes and he’s forced to pack it in for the day.

More tomorrow!

Brian Wood sent out a PR yesterday announcing that rights to another one of his books originally published by AIT/PlanetLar have reverted to him, namely Public Domain, a design sketch book of sorts for Channel Zero. This follows the move of Demo from AIT to Vertigo, which will publish a new edition of the book later this year. Quite fittingly, considering its name, Public Domain will be available as a .pdf download, which is free, although you are encouraged to donate via a Paypal button. Which is the right thing to do!

People who want to read between the lines of the press release can do so here. Full PR in the jump.

(more…)