§ Robert Venditti, creator of THE SURROGATES, has a blog! Here, he shares some concept art for his next project, THE HOMELAND DIRECTIVE, with art by Mike Huddleston.

§ Scott McCloud has a little bit more on the influence of the silent GI JOE issue, with some interesting comments that cast more light on the impact of this issue. We’ve often heard it said how important the G.I. JOE comic was to readers of its generation in helping them see comics as a storytelling medium. Are there other comics of the ’80s and ’90s that had a similar impact?

§ Even before our post yesterday on Amazon’s odd author policies, David Welsh was looking at current practices for credits, especially where the author is the selling point.
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§ Shaenon K. Garrity does what they said couldn’t be done and offers A Crash Course in Boys’ Love , with a historical context.

In America, “yaoi” has become a catchall term for any manga or anime that includes suggestive situations between male characters, including mainstream shojo (girls’) manga that would not be classified as yaoi in Japan. In Japan, the general term for this type of manga is “boys’ love,” often abbreviated as BL. The term shonen-ai, literally “boy love,” is also used, but today often refers to older titles, especially early BL manga set in private boys’ schools. In American fandom, “yaoi,” “BL,” and “shonen-ai” tend to be used interchangably. The characters themselves are called bishonen, “beautiful boys.”

§ Jog investigates an early and unsuccessful attempt at bringing manga to the US.

§ Marc-Oliver Frisch continues his look at comics of olden days with Steve Gerber’s great “Headmen Saga” from THE DEFENDERS.

The creators confront their readers with the uncomfortable truth that sometimes there is no solution, and violence only serves to exacerbate the problem. What’s left for the characters—and the audience—to do with the situation is to live with the consequences and, hopefully, learn from it so it won’t happen again. It took decades for this kind of self-reflection to become more common in a genre that’s still largely based on men in tights trying to resolve conflicts by beating each other up at sight—and even when this reflective aspect is present, even today, it’s rarely as well-executed.

§ Joss Whedon talks about Dollhouse and up-and-coming director John Cassaday.

I have the same feeling about Cassaday; he’s a storyteller. I gave him shorter scripts than any other artist I’ve worked with because he has an extraordinary visual sense and it very much matches my own. Now directing is such alchemy, it’s so easy to fail. And I’ve seen people who are great at their jobs because everybody has a go. Editors, DPs, actors, craft services guy, everybody wants to try it out but it is such a diffuse but necessary set of skills that you never know which one this person might lack. It’s a risk that in the old days I never would have taken, I was too busy going “I’m hanging on for dear life.” With Cassaday, I know he can tell a story, I know him as a person, his sensibility, the way he is with other people and I just feel that this step is logical for him, it’s something he’s been pursuing for a while.

§ Alex Hoffman at the Transmission X blog wonders if webcomics should really be thought of as separate from the rest of the industry vis–à–vis the segregated nominations for the Joe Shuster Awards:

Could it be that the lack of webcomic nominations for Best Artist, Best Writer, Best Cartoonist or Best Colorist are due to their method of publication? Isn’t it possible that somehow, somewhere, people are writing on the internet just as well as others are writing for print? It’s too early to be pointing fingers or yelling about prejudice, but this division of suitability seems somewhat arbitrary and unfair. But how do we know this to be the case? Maybe webcomics are considered, but none have been good enough to merit a nomination. Well, this year’s nominations prove that isn’t so: Nominations for Best Artist list all credited work for the past year, for instance: “Steve McNiven – Amazing Spider-Man #546-548, Wolverine #66-70 (Marvel Comics)”. Yet, for Karl Kerschl, only his print work is mentioned.

§ Fashion corner: D~LuxeList spotlights Barbie-themed accessories from Jonathan Adler and Christian Louboutin

OUCH.

§ Quotable Interview with Alan Moore #147 in a series is up at Mania, and whle the most quoted part has been where he marvels that Blackest Night is mining a story he wrote over 20 eras ago, we’ll quote this part:

AM: Yes, it has. And, can I just say I’m sorry? That was never my intention for every book to be like that. The reason I wanted to do them like that was because nothing else was like that. I wanted to do something that was different. If I were, god forbid, still doing superhero comics today, just like my ABC work from a couple of years ago, they’d be very very different from the Watchmen or Marvelman template. They’d be much more about having fun—whether that be intellectual fun or just plain fun—much more about that than doing any revisions. I think, ultimately, that approach that I brought in—taking previously existing characters and reinterpreting them—has probably led to very grim and very un-enjoyable comic books. I didn’t want everyone else to copy what we were doing. And especially, if they were going to, I’d have preferred it if they’d copied the freshness and originality of the ideas—and, if they had managed to express a bit of the joy that we expressed, even in Watchmen, in Marvelman, and Swamp Thing.

Yes, there were some very grim passages in all those books, but there were also passages of great joy. And, it seemed to me that people basically took from it what they were able to take from it—mostly a slightly depressing atmosphere and the idea that everybody had to be a grim, ruthless psychopath. Even characters like Stanley and His Monster—should they be reinvented as grim, brooding psychopaths? That completely robbed comics of a lot of the charm that, for me at least, they once had. Again, it was never intended as a blanket approach for all comic books. It was just an experiment that I was trying, and it worked better in some cases than it did in others. Yeah, Marvelman and Watchmen—those are pretty good books. On the other hand, where I was doing the same things in The Killing Joke, it was entirely inappropriate.

§ Speaking of joy, Richard Bruton reviews The Toon Treasury Of Classic Children’s Comics, which is a marvelous feast for any comics lover, but he reports, that it impressed the most important audience of all, at least in his household:

And when it does fall into the little hands it’s intended for it is a wonderful thing to behold: I left it on the coffee table last weekend and come back half an hour later to find Molly lying on the floor face buried in the adventures of Scrooge McDuck and absolutely engrossed. After that she went on to discover Sugar & Spike, Little Lulu, Pogo and countless other wonders. They may be old, but these are classics for a reason and the joy they bring is a delightful thing to witness.

§ Opposite direction: 10 of the worst manga of all times.

§ Speaking of Alan Moore, ADD wonders…

How great would it be if someone at the new, post-Levitz DC started asking why Alan Moore won’t work for them anymore? How much greater would it be if the company actually made it right with the man? The only ones that would benefit from such a scenario, of course, would be Moore, DC, and us, the readers. In other words, everybody. These corporations have an obligation to look inside themselves at the harm they have done, to their industry, to the artform, and to their own bottom line.

§ What is PIctureBox doing at SPX? Find out the exciting answer right here!

§ The very smart G. Willow Wilson discusses Islam and comics at Broken Frontier:

There’s a general belief that you can’t stop controversy from springing up around Muslims, yet I couldn’t start one. I was pretty excited about this—it hinted at something I’ve believed for a long time, namely, that there is more room for art among the orthodox than is commonly thought.

The success of THE 99 in the Arab world—a theme park is in the works—was the first encouraging sign that the relationship between Muslims and comics were thawing. Though billed as a comic attenuated to orthodox Islamic beliefs, THE 99 actually goes places I wouldn’t dare: it ascribes the qualities of God to human heroes.

§ R. Sikoryak profiled in the NY Daily News — once that would have been a headline, now it’s just a nice story!

Sikoryak combines iconic American comics with complimentary literary classics, creating a new identity for both works that is entertaining and thought-provoking. His comics are an example of how much the genre has grown up, and how far it’s come as a serious form of art.

§ Another nice profile, this one of Robert Venditti, which is timely ‘cuz THE SURROGATES is opening this weekend!

§ Morning must-read: Over the weekend, Maltdown Comics in LA had a huge manga sale — 2000 titles on sale at $1 each — and Deb Aoki asks owner Gaston Dominguez-Letelier about the state of manga in his shop. The overage is the result of unwise buying early on, he says; manga still sells, but it’s purchased more sensibly:

Gaston Dominguez-Letelier: That time (when we order any and all manga) has passed for us. We are left with 2,000 over-stocked books and we learned a lesson. We’ve since curbed our appetite for taking risks on unproven titles and are just stocking the greatest hits now.

Nowadays for us, it’s all about getting books that appeal to the more sophisticated readers out there and figuring out how best to cater to them.

§ Did you know that when you buy a copy of the new xkcd collection, you help build a library in Laos? That is a good deed. (Via Scott McCloud)

& And speaking of Scott McCloud, Shaenon K. Garrity writes of a recent encounter with him:

Every time I see McCloud, he’s got a new theory. I suspect this would be the case if I saw McCloud every twenty minutes. He just dropped by the Cartoon Art Museum to peruse the Monsters of Webcomics show, and at one point he leaned over and asked me, “Are you familiar with something called the ‘silent issue’ of the G.I. Joe comic?”

Did he mean “Silent Interlude,” issue #21, starring Snake-Eyes? I was familiar. Oh yes.

“I’ve come to realize,” he said, “that comic was a kind of watershed moment for cartoonists of your generation. Everyone remembers it. All these things came out of it. It was like 9/11.”

The payoff to this column is terrific. And worth pondering.

§ Comics professional goes to comics shop; finds little to buy.

§ The venerable comic strip Hi and Lois recently referenced webcomics and the monetization thereof via merchandising in a vaguely humorous fashion, leading to cries from many corners that the strip was attempting to be hip and cutting edge.

§ When being a pack-rat pays off: More of Scott Edelman’s stupendously fascinating collection of memos.

§ John Hodgman spotted the reclusive Brian K. Vaughan at the Emmys!

§ When we read something like this piece by Vaneta Rogers we totally feel like a freak

The anthropologist, who is a long-time comic book fan but recently got involved in “Harry Potter” and “Twilight” fandom, made the comparison of a boy who studies the back of a football player’s rookie card while his sister couldn’t care less about those statistics, instead focusing on how seeing a touchdown made her feel. She said the same can be said about how most men and women communicate about properties like Pokemon or the X-Men.

because growing up, we TOTALLY read the stats on the backs of baseball cards, and studied ERAs and batting averages and so on.

Actually that whole piece is a little annoying because it supposes that women fans are something new. Woman have ALWAYS been big, big fans of all sorts of things, with clubs and membership cards and everything. It just seems that women’s interests and “fan” interests are increasingly overlapping. And why should that ever be a bad thing?

§ Sorta related, Laura Hudson discovers that Marvel Divas isn’t as girl unfriendly as it seemed.

§ Two reports on this weekend’s BangPop show in Bangor, ME. This one focuses on a guy who dressed as a Transformer.

“I’ll take you all on,” Ray Maddocks, 39, of Morrill said as he struggled Saturday in the bulky homemade costume to make his way into the second annual BangPop Comic Book and Pop Culture Convention.

Maddocks and his friend Elmer Nickerson, 38, of Searsport dug out the costumes they made seven or eight years ago for Halloween to show off at the event, which is designed to bring a slice of big-time comic culture displayed at events such as the Comic-Con International in San Diego to the Queen City.

This one provides a nice overview. One story says that 300 people attended on Saturday, which sounds quite petite, but there’s a lot of enthusiasm captured in both pieces.

§ Speaking of enthusiasm, two brothers find happiness opening a comics shop in Joplin, MO:

“It’s a little bit nerve-racking, but it’s the greatest thing we could ever do,” Nathan said. “We’re working harder than we ever have before, and there’s a lot more overhead now. But we’re having more fun than we ever had.”

§ Marc-Oliver Frisch reviews MARVEL SUPER-HEROES #18 which introduced the Guardians of the Galaxy. I had no idea Arnold Drake created these guys, along with Gene Colan, but I would so buy a cover that looked like that right this minute.

The highlight of the piece, in lieu of an engaging plot or compelling characters, is the plainly fantastic artwork by Gene Colan, who’s doing some incredibly dynamic and flashy page layouts and figures here. Neal Adams’ work around the same time immediately comes to mind as a point of comparison, but to be fair, I couldn’t tell you which of the two gentlemen got there first. The way Mr. Colan composes his pages and stages the action looks expressive, refreshingly creative and exciting all the way through, without making any sacrifices towards clarity. You can tell that the artist had the time of his life drawing this, and even forty years later, I can’t think of many of his colleagues who are able to produce equally dynamic visuals while still guiding you through the story as sure-footedly as Mr. Colan is doing here.

§ A brief interview with strip cartoonist Berkeley Breathed doesn’t mince words on the future:

This is a sad topic but I’m going to be blunt. Newspapers have about five years left. Young readers of the newspaper comics simply don’t exist anymore in numbers that count. Those eyeballs are elsewhere and will not come back. Online comics are terrific. But they will never have 1% of the readership any major comic had 20 years ago, by the nature of the technology. They’re different beasts now. No, after having 70 million daily readers in 1985, getting 3000 a day online isn’t terribly energizing at this stage. I’m happy to go to the storytelling potential of film and books now. My heart was always there anyway, to be honest.

§ Folks have been linking a bit to this weekend’s debut of the new HBO series Bored to Death since it is created by the comics friendly author Jonathan Ames, and one of the main characters is a cartoonist. David Press rounds up all you need to know on that score. And once you’re all informed, go to Amazon and watch the first episode FREE and clear. Early reviews are positive.

§ Gary Groth (Happy Birthday, old man) suggests why you might wish to financially aid comics retailing pioneer Bob Beerbohm.

§ Eddie Argos is back with an overview of HELLBLAZER.

My friend Keith TOTP, who I live with, has a huge suitcase full of comics which he keeps in our front room. Whenever I have a long tour or flight, I raid it. I thought I’d pretty much finished all of the comics in it. Delving through it this time though, I found a huge pile of Hellblazer books. I didn’t know much about Hellblazer so I took all of them and read them over the course of my many flights to Chicago. They were all pretty ace. I read most of Garth Ennis’ run on my first flight, and then on my next I read all of Mike Carey’s run. On my third, I read Andy Diggle’s and Denise Mina’s. You don’t need me to tell you that it’s ace. Hellblazer is Vertigo’s longest running title, and I’m clearly coming to it really late. I’m just setting the scene to let you know that I am a relatively new fan of Constantine in case I put a foot wrong with what I’m about to write.

§ Dash Shaw went to Brazil.

§ Bleeding Cool has a bit more on The Return of Ross Rojek. Many old-timers will recall Rojek as the one time force behind Another Universe, as well as an early proponent of getting graphic novels into record stores; unfortunately both efforts ended up being tainted by the whiff that they were naught but rip-off schemes. AU went under owing publishers and customers a lot of money. Rojek’s next effort was an even more blatant investment scheme that tried to get people to invest in nonexistent software. That effort got him sent up the river for four years.

Rojek writes to Rich Johnston that his time in jail helped him find a new path, to running a book review newspaper.

When I got out of prison, I started working for a friend who was interested in publishing my book review idea. I had been thinking about what to do with my life after I got out of prison, and I’d always been interested in published, so I began looking into it while in prison. I also went back to school while at one institution, and did some book reviews for the school paper, which helped take me down this path.

I had been the librarian at two different prison camps, and in trying to find enough new books to keep me busy I ended up reading a number of different book reviews and review sections. From there I started drafting my “dream” book review that would be helpful to me in my situation.

He also states that all the monies owed from back in the day are lost in the mists of time and various bankruptcies–probably true enough.

* Yesterday, it was Art Brut at DC. Today it’s Slate at Marvel.

* We have definitely not been linking to enough of the fine interviews that Brian Heater has been conducting at Daily Cross Hatch. In a world where most interviews are naught but PR, Heater is getting people to actually talk about things. Case in point, a multi-part interview with rising star Hans Rickheit, whose THE SQUIRREL MACHINE is one of the oddest books of the year. In Part Two, we begin to see why:

How do you draw inspiration from keeping a scrapbook of medical images?

Oh, I mostly keep the scrapbook as a way to kick my brain into gear. I look at things and draw connections between random images and words and they suggest ideas that I wouldn’t be able to come up with on my own. I was working on some comics jams with friends and we were fascinated by the idea that a third mind was sort of composing the story as a result. It was nothing either of us would have composed on our own. Nor would we have necessarily wanted to.

Another recent interviewee is Jason Lutes, whose inspiration for BERLIN was not what you think:

In the two years that you spent research the book, were you ever afraid that it just wouldn’t come together for you?

No. there was certainly the possibility that I wouldn’t be interested in the subject, but I think because I had the initial intuitive impulse, I just sort of trusted that there was something there for me, and I discovered that, as I read stuff, whatever my unconscious interests were, would just sort of bubble to the surface through what I consumed. And then, just looking at those books of photographs, I’d see really interesting looking people, and those people would become a character in the story.

Here’s an index of all DCH interviews.

* Sean T. Collins reviews NIGHT BUSINESS, and it is not what you think.

* What is Fantagraphics doing at SPX 2009? Click for the answers!

* What is Sparkplug doing at SPX 2009? We think you can figure out how to find the answer.

* The Two Bens — McCool and Templesmith — talk CHOKER at Newsarama.

* ADD catches up with his former Comic Book Galaxy contributor, now IDW e-i-c, Chris Ryall.

* Michael May looks at Anne Freaks, Volume 2, one of those very good manga that was published by a now nonexistent company, in this case, ADV, so….hold on to those back issues!

* Colleen Doran points to the return of Ross Rojek , whose interesting past includes a four-year stint in jail. But in the spirit of second acts, Rojek seems to have found happiness publishing a book review section.

* J. Caleb Mozzocco continues his “calling a spade a spade” tour, by pointing out that Philip Tan is not as sympatico with Grant Morrison as Frank Quitely was.

I was expecting the drop in quality though, and I’m glad to report that it’s not that bad. It’s not good work, it’s certainly the worst work on any of the comics I’ve read this week (and you’d think one of DC’s best-selling comics penned by one of the company’s best-selling writers would have better art than Brave and The Bold, wouldn’t you?), but it’s not it usually didn’t take too long to figure out what was supposed to be happening in the panels, and the mis en scene wasn’t as messy as it was during Tony Daniel’s partner ship with Morrison (although as with those issue, I found myself in a constant state of reimagining each panel the way it might look if it were drawn better).

§ Kristy Valenti on Dario Argento’s horror comics anthology. Argento is the Italian maker of some extremely violent horror films, so we’re guessing this anthology did not really resemble Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery.

§ The folks at The Hooded Utilitarian cast an impartial eye on The Sandman. Ng Suat Tong:

The most surprising thing about my current reappraisal of The Sandman is how little my impression of these initials issues has changed. I’ve been impressed by the extensive planning involved from the very first issues, now confirmed by a review of Gaiman’s initial Sandman proposal at the back of The Absolute Sandman Vol. 1. He has a good feel for the material and has the right ear for the kind of dialogue required by his characters. These comics are clearly the receptacle into which Gaiman poured a multitude of his ideas. His script for the aforementioned Shakespearean story is precise and well planned, meeting its equal in his collaborator, Charles Vess.

Noah Berlatsky

Aside from the inconsistencies in the art, though, the real problem is that my former enthusiasm for Gaiman’s writing has dimmed a lot. I can still appreciate his cleverness and the care of construction…but after a while, both of those virtues are pushed so enthusiastically and unilaterally that they start to feel oppressive. After a while you start to almost want to plead — please, somebody, anybody, could you just once say something that doesn’t come back a panel, or a page, or several issues down the road with an ironically profound or profoundly ironic twist? Could we have a story end without a smug little O’Henry meets dumbed-down Borges twist? Could everybody just for a fucking second stop talking?

Also: Vom Marlowe and Tom Crippen.

§ Pitchfork presents a video of Art Brut’s Trip Around DC Comics, a tour which greatly excited frontman Eddie Argos:

I dont actually remember saying any of that. I remember giving a guided tour ending in The Bat cave. There really is a Bat cave at DC Comics and a Bat signal. It is someones job everyday to come into work and turn on that Bat signal. Thats when I really started rocking out. I just couldn’t help myself.

§ Speaking of Argos, we just found this old link to his review of SCOTT PILGRIM.

§ It’s time for Nick Bertozzi to get the Graphic NYC treatment

“Jason was originally going to draw Houdini until he realized how many crowd scenes he’d drawn in his layouts. So the publisher called me and said: ‘Nick, we want to pay you X amount of dollars to draw this from Jason’s layouts.’ I said ‘You’re going to pay me that much to learn at the knee of one of the greatest American cartoonists, and it’s going to be edited by my favorite American cartoonist, James Sturm? No problem, sign me up.’ Maybe I should have thought twice before signing since I had to draw so many crowds of people wearing bowler hats.”

§ When her identity is revealed to anyone who has studied her work, the usual comment is “Impossible. A girl couldn’t draw, convincingly, about boys and dogs.”

§ Brian K. Vaughan talks about the last six issues of EX MACHINA and hints at his new comics project.

§ Jeet Heer has a fascinating look at Crumb’s textual take on Genesis.

§ Mike Russell’s partially cartoon interview with artist Steve Lieber about WHITEOUT, which, even if the movie was an underperformer, is still a pretty good comic book.

§ According to John Lasseter, all that Pixar Ant-Man talk may have been a tad ephemeral:

“I had met all the folks from Marvel a couple of times and they’re terrific,” says Lasseter, a man of few words regarding Pixar’s interest in Marvel properties, “The whole ‘Ant-Man’ thing is just a rumor.”

§ Cameron Stewart talks Batman & Robin and another page of art is revealed.

I’m a huge fan of the series as it’s been so far. Frank Quitely is my favorite comic book artist so it’s pretty exciting to be drawing stuff that follows his design work. That’s what I’m trying to do. It’s pretty hard for me not to be influenced by it. Because he is my favorite artist and having already seen the first three issues of this comic book, it’s hard not to be influenced by him in some way. What I’m going for is not a direct copy of what he’s been doing but I do want it to be consistent. I think my style fits in with that. I think I’m in same vein. I grew up in England and he’s from Scotland so we have a lot of the same childhood comic touchstones. I think we have a similar sensibility.

§ Reverse Direction interviews artist Hwan Cho about the new webcomic KGB

That comic is something that me and Becky, we thought of the idea almost 10 years ago as a fun project and it was based on our interest in Korean pop culture, because we thought it was ridiculous — it was fun and it was cute. We decided to see if we could do a web comic on it, but I think 10 years ago, we were also still in school, we were also, you could say, still kind of young in regard to the comics field, things like that, so we couldn’t really organize ourselves to make that into a comic. It feels like now we’re a little bit more mature — we definitely know which direction we want to go in with the comics and art in general. Plus we though it would be a fun project to revisit and to just share our stories with everybody else.

§ At Comics Waiting Room, Matt Maxwell weighs in on the matter of the day.

§ The swine flu outbreak which hit PAX has struck two Oni employees, but they are resting comfortably, according to Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Twitter stream.

Occasional Superheroine: The First Motion Comic?

§ Ken Parille looks at Tim Hensley, whose Walter Gropius strips are worthy of growing attention.

§ What are Art Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly reading, anyway?

§ We wish more people were talking about this.

§ PajCat compares the ADV and Yen versions of Yotsuba&!

§ Abhay looks at Crime Novels and reproduces this cover…so we are, too!

Swiercynski almost gets by on style: single-page illustrations, text messages, layout hijinks. Simple sentences; fast-pace; everything fast, fast, fast. He almost makes up for story with verve. The giddiness is likable. If it’s not quite a book, you know, it’s at least not the worst popcorn movie. Sometimes, being able to turn pages rapidly is enough for me. Sometimes, I’m on airplane.

So behind in link-blogging, but here’s a ton of stuff to keep you going.

§ How could we have missed the ‘Lord of the Rings’ lawsuit ending? Christopher Tolkien — amazingly still alive after decades poring through his dad’s papers — issued a statement and all the squabbling over the money from the New Line trilogy were wrapped up. Meaning: HOBBIT HO!

At the time, the plaintiffs wanted a court order that would give them the right to terminate any rights New Line might have to other Tolkien works, including “The Hobbit.” New Line and MGM have announced plans to turn that work into a film with “Rings” helmer Peter Jackson producing.

But in a statement on the settlement, Christopher Tolkien said, “The Trustees regret that legal action was necessary, but are glad that this dispute has been settled on satisfactory terms that will allow the Tolkien Trust properly to pursue its charitable objectives. The Trustees acknowledge that New Line may now proceed with its proposed films of ‘The Hobbit.’ “

§ American Entertainment’s Jeff Katz got named one of 10 Producers To Watch by Variety.

Jeff Katz’s career in entertainment began in earnest at the age of 9. At a dinner party in his hometown of Franklin, Mich., the young horror and comicbook buff found himself seated next to Max Shaye, the father of New Line topper Bob Shaye, the man responsible for unleashing Katz’s all-time favorite villain, Freddy Krueger, into the nightmares of millions of terrified viewers. The pint-sized operator-to-be turned on the charm with his hero’s dad, and within weeks, he and Bob had become pen pals. “As I soon as I got my first letter from (Shaye), I thought, ‘OK, I’ve got my in,’” Katz recalls.

§ Sean Kleefield is planing to write a book about comics fans.

§ Paul Karasik is interviewed on Inkstuds.

§ Our OWN Indie Comics Marketing from this year’s SDCC has been posted — it features The Beat, Kevin Church and Chip Mosher.

(more…)

They stacked up like cordwood.

§ Eddie Campbell looks back at his own contribution to the Spirit:

For the second issue, April 1998, in which the 10 page Gaiman/Campbell piece appears, Eisner himself provided the cover, but it was the only issue for which he did so. And while it was neat to see him put his mark of authority on our story, Eisner’s late comic book covers always look too much like the Marvel formula to be entirely enjoyable. And also, somebody is always biting somebody else’s clothes.

§ Vaneta Rogers pokes around the potential impact of the rumored Apple tablet with Andy Ihnatko.

§ Shaenon K. Garrity looks back on 300 issues of The Comics Journal and observes one of the great coelacanths of the comics world

TCJ’s next most notable feature is, of course, the Ken Smith column, which has graced the back pages for over twenty years without ever having anything to do with comic books, or, for that matter, reality. Smith is, to put it simply, Ignatius J. Reilly, except that he saved Gary Groth’s life in ‘Nam or something and has been rewarded with a somewhat public platform for his ten-dollar-word-padded Miniver Cheevy rants about the decline of modern culture, said decline having begun, in Smith’s estimation, roughly around the time the Greeks let their women go outdoors. In his inaugural column, did Smith quote both Kierkegaard and Keynes? Did he type, non-ironically, the sentence, “Ah Yeats, where are you when we need you?” He did indeed. But let it never be forgotten that he once wrote a column entitled “Modernism in My Pants,” and for this we should, as Smith would put it, proffer a modicum of the gratitude all-too-seldom exhibited in this hollow age of value-neutral ideologues and chattering dullards, an age foolishly hostile to the wisdom, the crowning virtuosity of the philosopher-saint.

§ You maybe have missed last week’s update on Alan Moore and Marvelman :

Alan Moore: After being initially informed by Neil’s lawyer, I had to think about it for a couple of days. I decided that while I’m very happy for this book to get published—because that means money will finally go to Marvelman’s creator, Mick Anglo, and to his wife. Mick is very, very old, and his wife, I believe, is suffering from Alzheimer’s. The actual Marvelman story is such a grim and ugly one that I would probably rather that the work was published without my name on it, and that all of the money went to Mick. The decision about my name was largely based upon my history with Marvel—my desire to really have nothing to do with them, and my increasing desire to have nothing to do with the American comics industry.

§ Prof. Henry Jenkins, the king of transmedia studies, lists his personal Graphic novel recommendations. [Via Sean Kleefeld]

§ Matt Fraction is profiled in the LA Times, with a snappy picture and all.

§ It’s from long ago, but Sequential has a thorough roundup of Toronto Fan Expo links, including an interesting one from Tara Tallan

Now, the strange thing about the Small Press area is, the actual comics there are far outnumbered by the fan-art prints, cosplay accessories, and other handmade items. This is a stark change from what I used to see ten years ago, when the Small Press area was full of self-publishers like myself. Perhaps this is because Fan Expo is trying to be an All-Things-To-All-People kind of show, with areas for horror, gaming, and anime in addition to the comics, and the Small Press area is the catch-all section for all the artists of all the different mediums. But as I said, I haven’t been to any of the other big comic shows lately, so I don’t know if this trend is just a Toronto thing or if it’s an industry-wide thing.

§ Business news: A look back at ADV Films, what they did and what they didn’t.

These have been stacking up for a while. Sorry.

§ Th Flog blog FOUND Ivan Brunetti’s cover for this week’s New Yorker.

§ Sean Kleefeld explains that Flash was awful when Zuda decided to use it and Flash is still awful, but throws in some analysis of why it may have been chosen:

The situation, I daresay, is similar at Zuda. Using a Flash platform to host comics forces users to their site. That would increase site traffic, which are some nice, easy numbers for managers to understand. This is decidedly NOT the best way to win over users, though, and prevents the users you do win over from becoming as enthusiastic as they might otherwise be. They’re not as likely to recommend Zuda comics as others, not because the comics aren’t good, but because it’s physically and mentally harder to do so.

§ First Second’s Calista Brill speaks out on the art of editing

What an editor is: Someone who provides a second pair of eyes for your work. Think of a good editor as a mildly reactive surface for your work to reflect off of so you can see it better. Both flaws and strengths in your writing that you have been too close to it to see may be a lot clearer to someone else.

What an editor is not: A mind-reader. Although someone with some experience and skill may be able to intuit a great deal about what you’re trying (whether you’re succeeding or not) to say in your story, it doesn’t always work out that way, especially not at first. I’ve found that the editorial process often involves a certain amount of groping around in the dark on the part of both editor and author.

§ When we linked to a Marvel motion comic the other day, it was not met with great acclaim. We’ll say, charitably, that we’re still waiting for D.W. Griffith. And indeed, this piece by Andy Doan suggests that material created for the format, like Spider-Woman may take better advantage of it:

If we can count on Marvel learning it’s lesson from this experiment and producing more motion comics like Spider-Woman rather then X-men I think fans have cause for excitement. Not only is this format great for new fans not familiar with the printed works, I think it offers a fresh enough look at the genre for regular fans. With Spider-Woman they were able to maintain the feel of a comic without crossing the line and becoming a half-assed cartoon (like X-men). Motion comics is another big step towards the digitalization of medium while leaving little of the experience of a comic behind. This format is highly portable and above all does not require trips to the comic store or large amounts of space for storage.

Related: a discussion at the Whedonesque message board.

§ At Graphic Novel Reporter, Alex Simmons asks Are Comics Like Real Books?

§ As if in answer, Jeet Heer provides the first in depth review of R. Crumb’s GENESIS and he makes it sounds, oh so irresistible:

Crumb has returned to the sacred text at the heart of Western civilization, but the result is a comic as unsettlingly drenched in sexualized violence as Tales from the Crypt and as subversively disrespectful to cultural icons as Mad.

§ A film sequel to 30 DAYS OF NIGHT is moving along.

§ Frank Santoro continues his interview with Ben Katchor

§ SFGate looks at the Monsters of Webcomics show at Cartoon Art Museum, which certainly does sound kinda epoch-defining:

Just as the underground comix movement liberated cartoonists to express alternative viewpoints and cover controversial subjects not found in the traditional comic strips of mainstream newspapers, the Internet provides Webcomic cartoonists an avenue to do the same and flourish. It also gives them the ability to publish their unedited work immediately and potentially reach millions of readers.
Images
“Slow Wave” by Jesse Reklaw can be seen in the “Monsters …This strip by Nicholas Gurewitch is among those featured … View Larger Images

The Cartoon Art Museum’s exhibition, “Monsters of Webcomics,” explores this cultural phenomenon. It features nine comics - from four-panel comic strips to full-length graphic novels - by artists Kate Beaton, Phil and Kaja Foglio, Dorothy Gambrell, Nicholas Gurewitch, Jenn Manley Lee, Dylan Meconis, Chris Onstad, Jesse Reklaw and Spike, along with cartoonist-created tutorials.

§ Johanna Draper Carlson looks at Bizenghast, the long running OEL manga, now reaching its sixth volume.

Even though I’ve never read earlier volumes in the series, I figured the longevity deserved recognition, so I’d check it out. And I can see why Bizenghast has found an audience: M. Alice LeGrow has created an involving fantasy world that reuses classic elements with plenty of features the teen audience will find appealing.

§ Frequent Beat poster Christopher Moonlight interviews Alex Ross’s manager, Sal Abbinanti, on the subject of the controversy of Ross’s use of photos.

§ Spekaing of blogging vacations, Whitney Matheson was away last week, and got a bunch of guest bloggers, several of whom were familiar faces or had some tpoical thigns to say:
• Tasha Chemplavil looks at Dsney’s first black Princess.
• Zack Smith looks at weird ’80s kids movies
• Justin Aclin looks at ’80s toys
• Matt Bogdanow asks “What if your favorite ‘Lost’ characters were superheroes?”
• And Alex Segura looks at Comics websites you should bookmark immediately

§ATTENTION SCUM BABY HEADS SPANNERS PLAGUE COCKS

That’s from TalkLikeWarenEllis.com, hours or minutes of fun:

This page randomly generates a Warren Ellis-like greeting based on his tweets. All respect and credit for the words here should be given directly to him, we just thought it would be funny to do this. Please don’t destroy us, Mr. Ellis.

§ How on EARTH did we manage to miss this comics in NY Mag by Lane Brown and Frank Stockton and about the Jackman/Craig Broadway manfest? (Maybe because they somehow couldn’t translate the colors to the web?) Funny, nonetheless.

§ Hero Complex briefly looks at BlizzCon the recently concluded show for fans of various Blizzard games, like World of Warcraft and Diablo.

“It’s fun for us,” Sams said. “It gives us an opportunity to interact with the players. The players are very passionate about these products.”

Interaction with fans is becoming an increasingly larger part of the company’s overall strategy. Next year, it will launch a revamped version of its online multiplayer network called Battle.net, which puts an emphasis on keeping players connected.

§ Blog@ talks to former Top Cow e-i-c- Renae Geerlings, who, in addition to marrying Tyler Mane, has joined Radical Comics:

GEERLINGS: I’m up to LOTS. In terms of comic books I just started working with Radical Publishing on a few projects which is exciting. David Wohl was the one who hired me a Top Cow so when he called and asked if I was ready to pick up a project with his new company, I said yes. I’m back to smiling and wearing cute outfits. We’ll see how long that lasts…

§ The deadline for voting in the Harvey Awards is midnight Friday! Go here to vote.

§ Brigid Alverson has some basics of webcomic design that are very basic, but still good advice:

DON’T hide your comic. This should be obvious, but a lot of webcomics fail this basic test: When I go to the front page of your domain, I should see your comic. Similarly, if I click on your Project Wonderful ad, it should go right to the comic. Not your blog, because I won’t care about your blog until I read your comic. Not your latest avatars, a picture of your desk, or a pitch for T-shirts. Just the comic. Or, at the very least, a large, very obvious link to it. If I can’t find it, I can’t read it.

§ Screenwriter Alex Tse (WATCHMEN) teases his work on the BATTLING BOY movie a bit. [Via Splash Page]

§ We love those historical comics that reveal interesting facets of history. Ben Towle is working on one now, OYSTER WARS (above).

I’ve been reading a lot about the Chesapeake Bay at the turn of the century, and in particular about the town of Crisfield, Maryland. Around this time Crisfield was the center of a huge boom in oyster production, and with the building of a railroad into the town, it became the seafood capital of America… and with the influx of money inevitably came an influx of lawlessness, prostitution, corruption, crime, and all that other good stuff. For a while, Crisfield was a little like Deadwood, South Dakota in the 1870s, but instead of gold, it was oysters that were fueling the fervor. The oyster beds were such a valuable asset that an Oyster Navy, established by the state of Maryland in the late 1800s, was involved in skirmishes in which shots were fired as recently as the 1950s.

[Via JK Parkin]

§ An interview with Karen Berger that reads as if its questions were written by a PR agency. However, the Sweet Tooth preview looks…sweet (above.)

§ For ’80s indie comics buffs, a rare public comment from CEREBUS collaborator Gerhard that talks about his financial settlement with Dave Sim.

§ Apropos of stuff people have been talking about this week, Sean Kleefeld talks about comics journalism and social media via the writings of Henry Jenkins:

What motivation might these “new journalists” have? Well, there are any number of things, I’m sure, depending on the individual, but I think Jenkins’ idea about “Here I am” almost definitely comes into play for the vast majority of them. Part of the reason I, and many others, write these kinds of things is simply to keep my name and identity in your conscisousness on an ongoing basis. Years ago, while I was still running my Fantastic Four fan site, I made a point of making regular, weekly updates so that there was always something there for people to check in on. The same holds true for my daily blogging today. Part of it is an exercise in writing regularly as a form of practice, but part of it is to keep my name out there. I make a point of trying to write posts in advance of every day that I know I won’t be at a computer and able to blog, precisely so that the stream of information coming from this location is continual. (I’m not always successful, admittedly, but I do try.) I’m deliberately trying to build cultural capital within the comics community by standing up every day to say, “Here I am.”

We’ve been kind of spotty with our kibbling and bitsing of late, so we’ll try to catch up a little.

§ LINK O’ THE DAY: Yet another reminder that comics are HERE, man, The Washington Post — the WASHINGTON POST asks, of all things, why movies don’t sell more comic books:

But the celebrity dazzle obscured the strange reality: Movies based on comic books often turn into box-office hits, but their sources rarely see a related boost. Why? And why aren’t comics publishers doing more to sell their material to moviegoers when their business has been dampened by the recession?

§ Frank Santoro at Comics Comics reruns an interview from Ben Katchor from 1996, that’s still good.

Santoro: How do you feel about the different media you employ? Right now, you’ve got a weekly strip in many national newspapers, and you’ve begun doing short radio segments for NPR based on your Julius Knipl strips.

Katchor: Well, there are things you can do in comics, I suppose, that you can’t do in these other forms, and vice versa. So hopefully you should be doing what you’re supposed to be doing in each medium. There are things that you don’t…I guess you could draw certain kinds of textures and certain ephemeral light effects, but in a way then you are sort of approaching the power of photography. The picture that would result would be very…well, at least not the kind of picture I would want to make by drawing. Drawing is a more, y’know, shorthand reference to hw things look. There are certain limitations, but I guess they’re more imposed by my taste. You could draw anything…I suppose. But it wouldn’t…

§ Johanna Draper Carlson looks at a WSJ article on motion comics from 2008, and wonders why everyone is getting into them so much — the article suggests that because motion comics are sold on iTunes it represents a way to actually get people to pay for something for a change. But…

So is this the future of comics, or just another stunted branch of experimentation? (That many of these efforts are only available in the U.S. may affect the answer.) Have you watched a motion comic? Would you want to? Does your answer change depending on price?

Our answer: Someday there will be a D.W. Griffith of motion comics. When that day arrives, please let us know and we’ll race on over.

§ Tom Mason unearths job postings at DC and, in a separate piece, Viz, Disney, and Hastings. Don’t everyone send in their resume at once.

§ George Gene Gustines talks to Chip Kidd about cover design.

… and to Josh Neufeld about his new Katrina comic.

The winding road leading to the New Orleans novel began when Mr. Neufeld signed up to work with the Red Cross after the hurricane hit, serving as a disaster response worker in Biloxi, Miss., for almost a month. He said the catalyst for volunteering was 9/11. “Having been in New York when the towers fell, I remember that overwhelming feeling of helplessness and displaced anger,” he said. “When Katrina hit, I saw what was happening, and I realized that I, as a single person, could somehow help.” Mr. Neufeld blogged about his experience and self-published a collection of his dispatches called “Katrina Came Calling.” That book got into the hands of Jeff Newelt, the comics editor for Smith, an online magazine (smithmag.net) with a focus on personal narratives.

§ Over at Comixology, Jason Thompson looks at one genre that ISN’T wildly popular in Japan:

Traditionally, Japan is not known for autobiographical comics. True, Frederik Schodt singled several out in Dreamland Japan, and the works of Hideo Azuma (Disappearance Diary), Kazuichi Hanawa (Doing Time) and Yoshihiro Tatsumi (A Drifting Life) have been acclaimed both in Japan and overseas. But European and American comic artists—Harvey Pekar, Robert Crumb, Marjane Satrapi, Ariel Schrag—produce, proportionally, more and more-acclaimed autobiographical works.

Things have kinda piled up in the old link bin, so we’re just shoveling them out:

§ A brief report on how the Brooklyn Library handles the racially insensitive material in Tintin in the Congo — they keep the book off the shelf and available by appointment only.

§ For your Marvel history buffs, Scott Edelman unearths The Unseen Scarecrow of Don Perlin.

§ Webcomics 101: someone sent us this link to Worlds of SF’s lists of href="http://worldofsf.magugu.net/2009/08/08/the-webcomics-you-should-be-reading/">The
webcomics you should be reading, whch, if you are scared to dip in a toe, should provide a nice jetty from which to embark.

§ JM Ringuet writes to tell us that his new comic is available for free on iTunes

[T]he first chapter of my graphic novel ‘Stolen Suns’ is available for free on iTunes. It’s a bit an experiment for me because I’m trying to test the market on Iphone and Ipod Touch. …I’ve designed and formatted this comic especially for cellphones and I tried to use the new medium in creative way.

The comic is downloadable (for iPhone users) here. We don’t necessarily endorse this comics — we haven’t had a chance to download it — but pass this along as as example of even the smaller publishers getting in on being distributed via iTunes.

§ Speaking of iTunes, David Pepose of Blog@ reports on the problems you can have with getting past Apple’s quality assurance team, as when Kyle Hurlbut put FALLEN JUSTICE on iPhone:

So imagine his surprise when he got an e-mail from Apple saying that the second issue could not run with the 9+ rating, due to two panels with some sexually charged content — in this case, the character Dyna-girl laying in bed with protagonist Justice Theta, clearly topless.

“I felt this rush of guilt like our mom had caught you,” Hurlbut said. “And then they included a zip file with those two panels and I opened it up and said I guess, okay, I didn’t even think about it.”

§ Apparently, there is a display of the art of Sergio Aragonés at the Ojai Valley Museum? Sweet!

§ Yesterday, we told you about the planned motion capture/CGI remake of YELLOW SUBMARINE, the decade-dependent cartoon about the Beatles adventures in a hoppy wonderland. Cartoon Brew has a couple of posts on why this idea stinks on ice, including one bluntly entitled Zemeckis to ruin Yellow Submarine (Comments are MUST READ), and a follow-up looking at how YELLOW SUBMARINE has already been adapted to a 3D environment for part of an amusement park ride.

People sent us these links somewhere along the way — thanks to our helpers!

§ A podcast with John Morrow of TwoMorrows

§ The development of a comics artist, via the early artwork of Michel Fiffe

§ The idea of a comic book on the front page of the New York Times Arts section would once have been unimaginable in comics circles, or at least something reserved for MAUS or WATCHMEN. But now it is for the worthy but under-seen UNKNOWN SOLDIER revival by writer Joshua Dysart which is getting this top-level coverage. The story explains the lengths to which Dysart went to research the tale, which is set in Uganda, a real-life world of long-term civil war, child soldiers and almost unimaginable savagery:

With his pitch accepted, Mr. Dysart visited the public library, pulled all the books he could find and combed the Internet. “There was a thin Wikipedia page,” he said.

Mr. Dysart decided that “if I was going to deal with the absolute worst aspect of these people’s lives, I was going to have to go there.” He visited Uganda in early 2007, months after a cease-fire was declared the previous summer. Mr. Dysart spent time with the Acholi and visited the cities of Kampala and Entebbe.

§ According to a recent podcast, CLERKS producer Scott Mosier and artist Jim Mahfood have sold an animated series to Disney. No more details yet.

§ A. David Lewis wants to know what you think of his new book, SOME NEW KIND OF SLAUGHTER. Really.

§ We didn’t get some of these, but you may like #3.

§ The audio of the recent Conversational Comics with Jessica Abel, Jason Little and Matthew Thurber is now online. The final one is this Saturday!

§ John Jackson Miller digs deeper into the question of what is Marvel Comics’ true birthday.

Comics back then were generally post-dated — like all magazines on newsstands, publishers didn’t want newsdealers pulling them off the shelves because they saw a cover date. Marvel was no different. But with Marvel #1, specifically, most copies actually have a black circle over the date, on the cover and inside, with November stamped on it. That suggests to me that they were probably really encroaching on the original October cover date — or, at least, they didn’t like the number of weeks left between the ship date and October.

§ Sean T. Collins’ series of interviews with the STRANGE TALES creators continues with Jason talking about Spider-Man.
Previously:
» Dash Shaw
» Johnny Ryan
» Junko Mizuno
» Nick Bertozzi
» Peter Bagge

§ Comics Comics has been on fire lately, and when we tell you there is a post entitled The Dark Vision of Carl Barks by Jeet Heer, you will race over, right? While Heer is correct in his textual analysis of Barks’ sometimes harsh stories of materialists, judging the man too much by interviews from the twilight of his life, after his wife had died and various business deals had gone sour, isn’t entirely fair.

§ Vanguard is…Vanguard? Apparently there are two Vanguards, and even after reading this press release, we have no idea which is which or even who put out the press release.

§ Laurel Maury reviews the GN version of Fahrenheit 451.

§ The Ten Best Superman villains.

§ Marc-Oliver Frisch has some thoughts on The Amazon Best-Seller List.

§ Graeme McMillan has some thoughts on WEDNESDAY COMICS.

§ Dan Nadel has some thoughts on THE HUNTER by Darwyn Cooke.. As many have noted, it’s by far the most negative review of a book that has sold well — it’s going into a second printing — and received glowing reviews elsewhere. We’re quoting the end of the review even though that isn’t really kosher:

I read The Hunter within a few weeks of reading Melvin Monster by John Stanley. Granted, this is a very odd comparison, but stay with me. The material in Melvin Monster was drawn around the same time as The Hunter was written, and Stanley’s verve and control are not unlike Stark’s. Stanley’s storytelling is clear but never didactic, his drawing has a palpable flourish to it, and his stories are consistently funny and surprising. What more do you want from a comic that has to play within certain genre rules? On a formal level seems to have done everything Cooke is trying to do, and with a light touch, too. Cooke wants to make classic, mid-century comics, but seems too rooted in the trappings of storyboards and animation short-hand to allow himself to pare down, simplify, and let the story tell itself.

To be fair, pretty much EVERYONE comes up short against Stanley in marrying economy and subtlety. While we may disagree with some of Nadel’s analysis, this is a real example of why most comics/graphic novels “reviews” are far, far removed from criticism at any practical level. The piece should be read by anyone who feigns to write reviews. Cooke is, by almost every definition, a top-level artist and storyteller, but looking at his work with more context and subtext serves a very important function.

§ Douglas Wolk is now handicapping the week’s comics at Comics Alliance, automatically making it one of the weekly comics previews you MUST read.

§ Frenchman Louis Leterrier, who directed the last HULK movie, explains why Captain America is not for him, even though he’d love to make an Avengers movie:

GB: Well do a bit of daydreaming; which characters would appeal to you most?

LL: Well frankly I’d love to do the Avengers. But there are so many great ones in the Marvel world. I would have loved to have done “Iron Man,” that is an amazing character. And it’s all because of Kevin – finding Jon [Favreau, the director] to do that movie, there were people that were surprised. They asked, “Why Jon?” And look at the result. I talked to Marvel about “Thor” at one point but I didn’t want to do Thor. It wasn’t something I read growing up, really, it wasn’t one of the books I loved. Now the new stuff, the [J. Michael] Straczynski stuff, that is great. But before you get to that you have to go back to the old stuff, the genesis and that’s not what I wanted to do. Captain America I love and that would be great but, c’mon, a Frenchman doing Captain America? They would burn my passport.

§ Is Hal Jordan confused about his feelings for Bruce Wayne? Signs point to yes.

§ Guess who this article is about! Ont.-raised comic-book creator on the verge of Hollywood stardom

§ J. Caleb Mozzocco goes through one of the worst things a comics lover can go through. Send him some good thoughts!

§ When you hear the words “Al Columbia” and “difficult”, your ears prick up, and writer Jon Adams has a frank and eye-opening account of their collaboration on THE LEGACY, an upcoming comic.

Two years ago we mentioned The Legacy, our upcoming project with Al Columbia. It’s been an upsetting and lengthy process, but one we’ve stuck with because we believe in the project. It’s a comic unlike any other, sure to redefine the art form. Just like the time Paul Pope destroyed comics so he could rebuild them, The Legacy is going to destroy comics, rebuild them, put a hat on them, then destroy them again, then bake them into a pie and eat it. Now you understand what this project means.

§ If you read Italian you might learn more about last week’s 1950 cartoonist/bathing beauty mash-up.

§ Ng Suat Tong has the best roundup of ASTERIOS POLYP links and interpretations yet, but as always, we encourage everyone to READ THE BOOK before reading the reader’s guides. It’s a novel that rewards multiple readings and the fresh approach for the first time will yield the best result.

§ At Mighty God King, Justin Zyduck suggests 21 Influential Mainstream Comics Writers (For Better or Worse), as a conversation starter. [Via Robot 6]

§ We’re pretty ignorant where DCU continuity is concerned, so we have no idea if this, by J. Caleb Mozzoccois as squicky as it sounds:

A thought has occurred to me since my original reaction to Hal Jordan sexing with half the Birds of Prey: How old is The Huntress supposed to be now? And how old is Hal Jordan supposed to be? (Hal should be in his early 40’s, if Green Arrow sired Green Arrow II and Black Lightning had Thunder and Lightning by the time they were being superheroes, but whatever). Because Huntress also slept with Dick “Nightwing” Grayson and Roy “Arsenal-at-the-time” Harper, and those guys were both just teenagers when Hal Jordan was already a full-grown man Green Lantern-ing about. So, there should be at least ten years between Hal and the grown-up teen sidekicks, if not closer to 20. So was Huntress robbing the cradle with Dick and Roy, or robbing the grave with Hal? (And is it made extra-gross by the uncle/nephew relationship Brad Meltzer was depicting between Hal and Roy during his Justice League of America run?)

§ Not comics: if you thought SD09 was bad, wait until you read Whitney Matheson’s Lollapalooza diary. Hint: a day of soaking rain was following by two days of 90 degree heat.

§ Bromance is dead at Marvel…and Chris Butcher explains why.

§ Laura Hudson catches up with Geoff Johns

CA: Do you think of them as zombies?

GJ: No, they’re not zombies. They’re Black Lanterns. They have intelligence; they have personality. There’s much more to them, as you’ll find out in the series. It’s taking the undead, like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” took vampires, and making something totally different with them. I didn’t want to do something like, oh it’s Ralph Dibny as a zombie going RAAAWR because it’s not scary. It’s not as scary as him coming in [as a Black Lantern] and talking to Barry Allen in issue #3, which is really creepy because of the way he relates to Barry Allen — they’re old, old friends. But that’s the horror of it. Same with Firestorm. The lighter the characters were, the scarier they are as Black Lanterns.

§ Celebrate the 40th anniversary of Woodstock with graphic novels, suggests Library Journal’s Martha Cornog.

Sex. Drugs. Rock ‘n’ roll. Equal rights for women, African Americans, and gay people. Sit-ins. The Vietnam War. The peace movement. Don’t trust anyone over 30. The Woodstock Music & Art Fair brought the 1960s to a crashing close in three days of mud, music, and mellowed-out mayhem. Woodstock lives on today in that so much of what went down as radical then is now far more culturally central: doubts about U.S. military involvements internationally and the freedom to enjoy diverse music as well as diverse forms of sexual expression.

The 16 graphic novels summarized below capture different facets of the era and the historic festival, which took place 40 years ago next week. Chances are, patrons of all ages are reminiscing, so put a display together pronto.

§ Convention Scene reports on the MAYHEM debut at Meltdown. Reports from other retailers around the country suggest that the issue wasn’t a sellout, however.

§ When was the last time we linked to Nad Shot? Whenever it was, it was too long ago.

§ Marvel has a whole month of interviews by Sean T. Collins with the creators in STRANGE TALES, so check back often. The series kicks off with Paul Pope:.

Marvel.com: He has a very devoted cult following, that’s for sure. You’re taking a humorous approach to him?

Paul Pope: Well, it’s a story that’s never been told: Lockjaw feeding time. My take on Lockjaw is that he isn’t a dog, he’s just the most inhuman of the Inhumans. He also happens to not have thumbs, so you wonder—how can this guy eat?

§ Neil Kleid is happy in his ghetto. and that’s okay.

§ A pair of pieces examining how Comic-Con may be the future for industry trade shows:

BEA/NYCC director Lance Fensterman and Calvin Reid.

§ Comics were the new literacy 20 years ago.

§ A think piece on the shared vision of Yoshihiro Tatsumi and Raymond Carver.

§ Elizabeth Rappe on Choking Out Originality:

In the last year and a half that I’ve covered comic-to-film properties, I’ve noticed a startling trend in this direction — and that’s the extreme outside looking in. There have been a lot of books snapped up that are simply genetic Hollywood blockbusters — rogue cops, amnesiac assassins, ex-CIA agents who know too much, the sort of roles that Bruce Willis and Sly Stallone types made again and again. In a culture that’s full of wonderful, envelope-pushing stories, it’s appalling to see the most generic books snapped up simply because someone is like “Oooh! It’s a comic book!” without noticing it’s just like a Renny Harlin movie.* What we’re looking at is a horrible, strangling relationship. Comics are purportedly killing Hollywood’s original stories, and Hollywood is, by extension, killing the originality of the comic industry. As Grant notes, “Given that comics’ current cultural legitimacy, such as it is, is tied to Hollywood’s tacit endorsement of comics as source material, limiting options and minimizing original ideas is the surest way our business has of killing that relationship, along with much of the inroads comics have made with the general public.”

We’re blogging a little feebly today….

§ Laura Hudson responds to Frank Santoro’s essay on the Direct Market:

The “death” of the Direct Market is similar to the way that languages die; it’s not the ultimate black screen, the permanent 404 of existence, but something more gradual and conceptual. The Direct Market is dead in the same way that Latin is dead, even though plenty of people of people still speak it. And as dramatic as “death” sounds, this is the kind of death that lingers, and it is something very anti-climactic indeed.

§ Tim O’Shea interviews the Great Carol Tyler

Tyler: Maus is such an important work. To be likened on some level to Maus: unbelievable. However, my answer comes more from a personal place.

When I first read the New York Times Review by Douglas Wolk, I was ready to bust out cryin’ with joy. You see, Art Spiegelman was one of the first official cartoonists I met. I was part of the fan team that helped with the first Raw promotions, hanging up fliers all over Manhattan. This was 1982 maybe? It felt so cool to be part of his inner circle and close to the early excitement he was feeling about Maus. I remember we were in a cab once on the way back from a Raw party and I was thinking how my Dad was over there, too, as part of the armed effort that eventually liberated his Dad. And his Mother. But I never believed that I could ever produce a work that would be mentioned in the same sentence.

§ Comics legend Neal Adams has signed with agency ICM to represent this and that and Bucky O’Hare. Details in the link.

§ Marc Tyler Nobleman, author of Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman looks at the number of books about Siegel and Shuster:

A friend asked me why I think the last few years have seen a surge in interest in Siegel and Shuster. Good question, and it also begs a more specific one: is this increased interest only within the comics community or also among the general public?

§ Bruce Lidl looks at Technology and the Future of the Comic Book

Why have comics lagged behind other entertainment industries in feeling the effects of new distribution technologies? Comics are strangely, sui generis, in the sense that they share many of the characteristics of the publishing industry, but in my opinion are quite different from books. Specifically, comics share many elements with art. Comics, no matter how low brow their history, are undeniably a visual medium with a very different experience than purely textual books.

(We have a few con reports from Bruce awaiting the energy to post, so they should be up in the next few days.)

§ If you thought my con report was Anna Karenina, Matt Maxwell’s is War and Peace.

§ Joseph Shahadi looks at sociological messages at the First Asian American Comic Con

§ Johanna wonders why Marvel isn’t selling more GNs on Amazon.

§ In India, one comics series goes far beyond being bagged and boarded:

What McLain repeatedly heard from ACK readers is that the comic books seemed to almost radiate a spiritual force. In many households, other comics were seen as a waste of time and discarded, but ACK was preserved carefully. Grandmothers covered them with those brown wrappers used to cover school textbooks to keep them clean. Nieces and nephews inherited bound volumes from uncles and aunts. Some even confessed to seeing the images of the gods and goddesses as pictured in the comics when they closed their eyes to worship.

Link via Bleeding Cool, and you should probably just read that whole post.

§ We missed the announcement of a Chris Ryall-penned Bat Boy comic, but we won’t miss it when it comes out!

§ NY Times writer Peggy Orenstein goes shopping for her young daughter:

Although I know little about the character, here was a stage I could get with. I trolled eBay for Supergirl lunch boxes, Spider-Woman action figures, even a Wonder Woman Barbie. Yes, superheroines have the proportions of Lady Gaga — more mammary than muscle — which is definitely unnerving, but I was willing to overlook that for now. Besides, I rationalized, who can blame a superheroine for wanting to be supercute?

§ Jeet Heer examines The Gender of Coloring

I’d like to see someone do a good gender analysis of why women went into coloring. I’m inclined to see this as something more than mere sexism or the creation of a pink-collar ghetto. One factor at work is that for much of the 20th century, women were more likely to be associated with the decorative arts than men; in commercial comics coloring is often seen as a decorative . I’m not a gender essentialist so I don’t think women have an innately better color sense than men. But for historical and cultural reasons, women in our culture are more likey than men to be raised with color sensitivity.

SAN DIEGO CLEAN-UP:
Looks like I’m not the only person who hadn’t finished her con report!

• Tripwire’s Joel Meadows begins his con report: One and Two, including the news that Diamond just isn’t going to carry the British comics magazine.

• Whitney Matheson recaps her meet-up.

• Val gets lots of quotes from folks about what happened

Buzz Dixon
The Small Press Area aisles were much wider this year and the seating area behind the tables was much roomier. I spoke to one small press publisher and overheard another, both of whom said the same thing: They saw little point in coming to SDCCI, spending money for a table, then working their tushies off all weekend to try to break even. This year they both opted to enjoy the show, network, and rely on the Internet for sales. Likewise, Artists’ Alley was smaller, and several of the larger booths/islands from previous years were downsized significantly (f’r instance, Tokyopop and Bud Plant seemed to be only half their previous size). I heard several retailers complain the crowd wasn’t spending like they used to; they seemed to place the blame on the economy and higher transportation/hotel prices this year, which meant many fans had a choice to either attend but not be able to buy stuff, or not attend and still not buy stuff.

§ Wondering about WILSON, the new Dan Clowes GN? Well, here’s a little more info from The New Yorker, courtesy of the D&Q blog.

§ We SWEAR only one more day of San Diego links, unless it’s pants-peeing awesome. But, if like us, you are just now getting back to consistent internet access and want a quick refresher, Chris Marshall at Collected Comics Library has a nice news recap:
Zero, One, Two, Three, Four

§ Sean T. Collins linkblogs so we don’t have to.

§ Fantagraphics’ Jason Miles had a crappy time:

As a Comic Book Salesman at this year’s Comic-Con it was impossible not to feel the crushing presence of the latest and greatest bullshit Hollywood and beyond had to offer and I’m not sure why. Why did this year feel any different from last year, or the year before? Maybe I’ve gone to one-too-many Comic-Cons thus forcing me into a downward spiral of delusion and dread? Or maybe the mainstream acceptance sought by the comics industry at large is really a Trojan Horse? Regardless the cause, there were far too many injustices committed at this year’s Comic-Con and yes I will be pressing charges in future Flog posts.

§ Rob Bricken at Topless Robot sums up this year’s edition of press complaints/whining:

• The worst part of the con was covering the con. Mostly because of free wireless at the San Diego Convention Center, which never loaded a single kilobyte for me. I don’t really blame the con for this; I mean, no one can really prepare for 200,000 nerds suddenly trying to use the same wireless system at once. But it did means every time I wanted to post, I had to truck 10 blocks back to my hotel, furiously write, run back to the con, see some stuff, then run back again. Ugh.
• The other part of the problem was the press pass, which was worthless. Wait, let me correct myself — it was worth a four-day pass, and not a penny more. It let press people into the con for free, but didn’t allow them to get into panels or events — the press had to wait in line like everyone else. I understand a lot of the “press” at the show were knuckleknobs with blogs with a few thousand readers, and they didn’t deserve more access than the regular fans. But I’d much rather there be some kind of criteria that the press needed to meet to get a pass, which would also allow them access to cover the panels — even if I was excluded. The fact that Wired couldn’t get in to see the Iron Man 2 panel still astounds me.

§ Chris Butcher sums up that fact that…only Comic-con can do what Comic-Con does?

Something like SDCC but just for the entertainment industry? It doesn’t exist. The movie studios, the video game producers, the TV Shows and toys and Bud Bundy and all that, they’re coming to the comic book show. SDCC has got all the power, because nothing else like that event exists anywhere (Gareb Shamus tried and clearly failed; Reed is travelling the same road Shamus took). Imagine if SDCC really did take the ideological position of “how does what you do help comics?” with their exhibitors, and charged them accordingly? What if they used ideology as the wedge to expand the show into the parks, into the stadium, into the giant parking lot that’s as big as half the convention centre? Here I Drew A Map. Imagine the best possible things happened! Wouldn’t that be great? Why not work towards the best?

§ People who really had a SWELL time:

Christopher Moonlight

Richard Starkings con PHOTOS.

And who cannot catch the infection of excitement from Cecil Castellucci with a post she calls:Gosh I love you Comic Con! IS the love of a good woman enough to save the show? Tune in next year.