Thank you, Kevin Melrose. Is this a new milestone for comic book movies?

§ In Japan, a woman has been arrested for killing her husband. But it was only a MMORPG character that died, and the charge is computer hacking:

A 43 year old woman in Japan has been arrested on suspicion of hacking. She is suspected of ‘mudering’ an avatar of her virtual husband after they apparently divorced in the extremely popular MMORPG Maple Story. The woman allegedly used the login information taken from the virtual ex-husband, a 33 year old officer worker, when they were happily virtually married. If convicted she faces a jail term of 5 years or a fine of $5,000.

§ Meanwhile, in Brooklyn, a high school librarian’s pride over a manga Shakespeare adaptation illustrated by his daughter went too far, when he promoted the book in an unseemly manner: giving away copies for free and slipping a mention into the newsletter he edited.

On Monday, the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board announced it had settled a case it had brought against Mr. Grandt for promoting his daughter’s work. He agreed to pay a $500 fine and admit in a three-page stipulation that he had violated the city ethics code.

Mr. Grandt, who said he was an unwitting villain, was disappointed the board did not see things his way.

“There are so many things going on they could investigate,” he said in an interview, “and they had nothing better to do than allege that my daughter would have gotten 20 cents in royalties if someone bought the book. But nobody did. I gave out free copies. I was just so proud of my daughter for writing it.”

Indeed, if the diligence applied by the Brooklyn library system were applied to, say, the rest of the government, imagine the world we’d live in.

Flog unveils Humbug!, a collection of the short lived but legendary humor magazine, created by Harvey Kurtzman.

Just in case we didn’t make it clear enough, you should check out Kevin Cannon’s BLOTCHMEN, his 24 Hour Comic.

§ Mark Evanier notes the passing of Tom Fagan, whose championship of the Rutland, Vermont Halloween Parade made it an icon of superhero culture. The parade began nearly 50 years ago, and dressing as various be-longjohned Avengers became a colorful tradition that was big news in ’70s comics culture. Vermont Public Radio has more:

Fagan was crazy about comic books and he worked them into the parade, often dressing up as Batman. He was friends with many comic book writers and he encouraged them to come to Rutland, dress up in costume and appear with him in the parade.

In the 1970s, Rutland’s Halloween parade achieved a degree of fame when it was used as the setting of a number of superhero comic books, published by both DC and Marvel.

Tom Fagan was himself featured as a character in a number of these stories, usually depicted as an acquaintance of the lead character.

§ Colleen has more old photos. Hairstyle alert!

§ The Sardinian Connection reprints a 2006 essay by Mike Carey on WATCHMEN:

But I said metaphor, not allegory. Watchmen isn’t the sort of book that opens with a key, and turns out to have been talking about one particular thing all along, under the light disguises of fantasy. It resonates on every level, from the psychological to the mythic by way of the political. It has meanings but no morals. It refuses consolation both to the new frontiersman Rorschach and the utopian dreamer Ozymandias.

Perhaps that’s why it’s aged so well. It’s a trite truth that nothing dates faster than the topical, and nothing is more topical than the timeless. By cutting itself loose from any real world context, and yet at the same time tying itself so precisely to an era that could have/couldn’t have/could have happened, Watchmen has the best of both worlds: the acerbic accuracy of social commentary, and the endless, effortless now of fairy stories and myth cycles.

§ Reporter Dave Astor was one of those laid off in a wave of layoffs at various Nielsen magazines, including Editor & Publisher. At E&P, Astor probably broke more news stories about syndicated cartoons and cartoonists than any other source, and his loss is real for us bloggers and anyone who cares about cartooning. Hopefully there’s still a place for actual journalists in this day and age and he’ll land somewhere fitting. We wish him the best.

THE TOTE BAG!

Fashion maven Diane von Furstenberg recently launched a line of Wonder Woman-inspired fashions and accessories at her signature Manhattan store. DC Comics Prez. Paul Levitz was among those in attendance at that kick-off party and gave his impressions of the event on Newsarama’s blog, along with revealing that DC brand manager Cheryl Rubin helped spearhead the project.

The DVF holiday fashion line also includes a matching comic book written by Furstenberg and illustrated by avant-garde artist Konstantin Kakanias. Called BE THE WONDER WOMAN YOU CAN BE, the $25 tabloid-size book features some classic Wondy material, along with the stories of modern three woman, Diva, Viva, & Fifa (DVF, get it?), who become empowered after seeing Wonder Woman in their own reflections. Or something. Topless Robot has a few scans and plenty of snark.

(Above: Actress Lindsay Price at the launch of DVF’s Wonder Woman launch, from DVF’s website.)

All sales of the comic, and the line’s complementary Wonder Woman T-shirt and tote bag benefit Vital Voices, a woman’s rights organization, which is pretty nifty.

Related: The New York Observer wonders if superhero fashion is here to stay; BagSnob.com finds it all quite inspiring.

Posted by Aaron Humphrey, humble intern.

Variety laments the continuing outrage of the Academy snubbing performances in superhero-esque films. but maybe this year the pain will end.

Oscar’s biases are nothing new. Unfortunately, they’re increasingly out of step with the reality that some of the finest acting in American movies — and, for that matter, some of the most artful filmmaking — can be found in the realms of what might be uncharitably described as “fanboy cinema.” In a year that saw a surfeit of memorable performances in superhero pictures — Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart and Gary Oldman in “The Dark Knight,” Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow in “Iron Man,” Charlize Theron in “Hancock” — it may be time for the Academy to start taking this work as seriously as the actors and filmmakers have.

Credit for this phenomenon must go in part to the recent infusion of indie directing talent into the studio ranks. From their earliest projects, helmers such as Christopher Nolan, Sam Raimi, Bryan Singer, Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro demonstrated formidable filmmaking chops and a sometimes down-and-dirty enthusiasm for B-movie thrills — qualities they’ve maintained even as their ambitions, reputations and production budgets have soared.

Personally, we would like to see a nomination for Stan Lee for his lifetime body of work in such roles as Hot Dog Guy, Milwaukee Man Drinking From Bottle, Willie Lumpkin, and his devastating turn as Old Man at Crossing in DAREDEVIL.

§ Yes, there will be an UMBRELLA ACADEMY movie; writer Gerard Way will collaborate on the score…maybe with somene like RJ-D2…kick-ass!

“We just had our first meeting at Universal, and it went great. The hardest thing was finding the right building and the right gate. Nah, the meeting was great, really, really great. The book was optioned before [International Comic-Con in] San Diego, and now it’s been green-lighted. Now we’re talking screenwriters and directors, obviously. There’s no director attached yet.”

§ MAYBE there will be a RUNAWAYS movie:

MTV News recently spoke with Marvel Studios’ President Kevin Feige about “Runaways” — and discovered that, not only was Feige one of the project’s biggest supporters, a film based on the teen superteam’s adventures was high on the list of Marvel’s post-”Avengers” movie plans. In fact, he expects to see a finished script by early 2009.

§ Unlikely: 1602 movie.

§ Seth Rogen is excited about Stephen Chow contributions to GREEN HORNET script. Translation: a bunch of colorful misfits will prove to have fantastic, redemptive powers.

§ Sad: Kirk/Sulu wedding row. Kirk says he was not invited and Sulu is nuts; Sulu says the Shat was invited and never got back to anyone. Fact: Peter David WAS invited.

Piffle story of the day which allows the mind to wander. Stan Lee thinks David and Victoria (Posh) Beckham would be good for a TV show or something:

“There are so many ways to do it,” Lee says. “We could make them a crime fighting team where the soccer is just a facade. Or we could make them spies or we could make it a comedy where one of them wants to be an adventurer?”

Sounds interesting, right?

Here’s how it would work.

“He’s a very attractive, personable guy and she’s a very attractive, interesting looking girl. I haven’t met the Beckhams yet but I think we could do a great show.”

Seriously who could not look at photos of this kind and not be inspired to cast the duo as crime fighters?

This superstar couple exudes the kind of dark, moody drama that would make a superduper comic book!

Seriously, we can see the rogues gallery now: “The Red Card” and “Botoxin.” Or a miniseries called “The Case of the Missing Trousers.” “Secret Crisis: The Offsides Rule Explained.” That sort of thing.

Illustrator Stephanie Buscema gifts us with this delightful piece!

Andy B sends along an image from his web comic RAISING HELL, which he describes as  “I Love Lucy meets George Romero. I’m starting season two on Halloween night and that will go for another year and a half. Season one has about 66 strips and is a plot-driven story as opposed to a gag strip.”

§ Steven Grant looks at the 20 most important comics ever published, chronologically:

1) FAMOUS FUNNIES #1 (Eastern Color, 1934)

Max Gaines’ brainchild, the one that started it all, collecting reprints of popular comic strips in magazine form, monthly edition. (A one-shot collection, apparently to test the waters, had been issued the previous year.) It was so successful, even in the depths of the Depression, that it instantly spawned dozens of imitators vying for comic strip reprint rights, thus launching both the comic book industry and the legend that comics do well in times of economic downturn.

§ ICv2 looks at declining media revenues in the current credit catastrophe:

Media companies have been as subject to the difficult financial conditions as other companies in recent weeks, with stock prices reflecting declining confidence in their prospects and in some cases heading for a possible change of ownership. Perhaps the most apocalyptic description of the coming destruction has come from the UK. “We are standing at the brink of what will be two years of carnage for western media,” Emily Bell, the digital director at UK’s Guardian, said at a conference in the UK last week, as reported in the Guardian. “In the UK five nationals could go out of business and we could be left with no UK owned broadcaster outside of the BBC. We are facing complete market failure in local papers and regional radio. This is systematic collapse not just a cyclical downturn.”

Blogs getting webcomics? That’s crazy talk! But it seems that THE THIRSTY, the sequel to the horror Western STRANGEWAYS will be serialized at the Newsarama blog. PR below;

Matthew Maxwell, creator and author of the Western-horror graphic novel STRANGEWAYS, today announced the serialization of the sequel, THE THIRSTY, at Blog @ Newsarama. The series will debut on Monday, Oct. 27, with new pages posted every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

“I’m very pleased to enjoy this opportunity,” Maxwell said recently. “I talked to quite a few potential partners before deciding to serialize THE THIRSTY on Blog @ Newsarama,” Maxwell said. “It isn’t a typical webcomic, as it wasn’t written with online publication in mind. So, I sought a different kind of partnership. Working with a comics news and commentary site as opposed to one known for syndicating webcomics seemed an intriguing and beneficial arrangement.  It’s my hope that many more readers who’ve never followed STRANGEWAYS will be introduced to the series now.”

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Via PR from Hachette: Yen Press, the manga imprint led by Kurt Hassler and Rich Johnson, will be folded into a new publishing division, Orbit, which will include Yen and the existing SF line, Orbit. In addition, Yen co-founder Rich Johnson will be leaving the division at the end of the month.

Hachette Book Group is to create a new publishing division, comprising two new imprints it launched last year: Orbit, its Science Fiction and Fantasy imprint; and Yen Press, its Manga and Graphic Novel imprint. The new division will take the Orbit name, and will strategically strengthen HBG’s presence in these increasingly vital segments of the book buying market.

Tim Holman, who relocated from London to New York in 2006 to help set up Orbit, has been appointed VP and Publisher of the new division, reporting to CEO and Chairman David Young. Reporting to Tim Holman will be Kurt Hassler, Publishing Director of Yen Press. Kurt will be assuming responsibilities previously shared with co-Publishing Director Rich Johnson, who will be leaving the company at the end of October. Alex Lencicki has been appointed Marketing and Publicity Director for the new division.

David Young commented: “This new publishing division gives us the perfect platform for building our business in two genres that have significant potential for future growth. Tim has grown Orbit to be the market-leading imprint in the UK, and his publishing experience is perfectly suited to the opportunities presented by both Orbit and Yen Press in the US market. We are of course sorry that Rich Johnson will be leaving the company, however as the Yen business has evolved it has become clear that a single Publishing Director for the imprint is most appropriate. The establishment of this new division reflects not only our belief that it makes publishing sense for Orbit and Yen Press to be more closely connected within the company, but also our commitment to the genres in which they publish.”

Tim Holman commented: “Orbit and Yen Press will continue to develop independently. However, as a single division, we’ll be able to combine our efforts in a number of key areas to great effect. Both Orbit and Yen Press are publishing in genres that can no longer be considered marginal. It is almost impossible to imagine popular culture today without them. Our challenge is to embrace this change, to be creative and forward-thinking, and to engage with the new audiences that we know are out there. I believe that we have the right publishing vision and the right publishing team, and I’m greatly looking forward to working with Kurt, Alex, and colleagues throughout the company to make the new Orbit division a great success.”

You can now download the first issue of BONE for your iPhone via uClick. Just 99¢. Now we have both the first issue of WATCHMEN (via motion comics) and BONE on our phones.

BTW, we’ve always loved that first panel of BONE #1 — such an iconic beginning.

Technorati Tags: Jeff Smith

An iconic scene, but isn’t the comedian lost in the BG a little?

We’ll be blunt. It’s a bad day here at SBM. We were banned from any further karaoke at last night’s going away party for Laura “Comic Foundry” Hudson, after an admittedly troubling choice of songs — perhaps “Cool” from WEST SIDE STORY is a good song for potential fight scenes, but not karaoke — and there’s too much work to be done. Tom and Dirk have both experimented with new formats this week, and ours is to barely post at all.

Adult Swim and Ubisoft are spotlighting the emerging African hip hop scene for some reason, but you can find out why by downloading a free MP3 album called African Swim. The release ties in with Ubisoft’s release of Far Cry® 2, a video game set in Afrca. The album features South African artists including Jozi, Gumshev, and Maggz face to face.

CORRECTION: The PSU collection is NOT, as the headline for this post originally claimed, “The Country’s First University Comic Book Archive,” but one of many great academic comic book libraries, as PSU Librarian Helen Spalding explained in our interview with her. In a rush out of the office, The Beat’s humble intern neglected to change the headline, which has resulted in many varieties of confusion. Apologies all around.

In an partnership formally unveiled last week, Dark Horse Comics‘ entire catalogue is now being shelved at Portland State University. Available for check-out from the PSU library’s general circulating collection will be one copy of everything Dark Horse has ever published: comic book, graphic novel, manga, hardcover and foreign edition, you name it. A second copy of each will be stored in the library’s special collection.

While it’s become increasingly common for libraries to stock graphic novels, the PSU arrangement goes far beyond that in a number of ways. They’re not just shelving books with a spine, but also the floppy “pamphlet” comic books, which have long been archived only in fans’ long-boxes and retailers’ back issue bins. At Portland State, each issue will be given an acid-proof cover and a call number, as well as an extensive catalog listing that will include credits for everyone involved, including letterer and colorist.

The library’s Dark Horse collection will include everything they’ve produced, from books in 24 different languages to Aliens stickers and Hellboy lunch-boxes. The Beat spoke with Portland State University Librarian Helen Spalding, who explained that even a Buffy marquee statue can be useful to academics. “The key rings, action figures, mugs and tee-shirts are all rich research material for examining marketing, gender roles, and many other topics,” she said.

The idea for the collection was sparked a few years back when Spalding saw DHC Publisher and PSU alumnus Mike Richardson speak at a university luncheon. “They’re an important Portland institution, and the University is really engaged with the community and the alumni,” Spalding said, “so it just made a lot of sense that we work together on this important collection to our mutual benefit.

“It’s so important to Mike Richardson that people get to read this stuff just like any other literature that we’re allowed to check out, so he’s provided a copy for us to check out, which is great.”

The library has already shelved 3,000 of an expected 6,000 volumes in their Dark Horse collection, which will continue to grow as the publisher releases new material. This positions PSU as a leading academic archive of comics in North America, and Spalding hopes it will attract other collections as well. Although they likely won’t be seeking the complete corpus of any other publisher, she said that the confluence of independent publishers in Portland make them a good place to start.

Related: The Oregonian interviews Richardson; Portland Monthly looks at the collection; PSU’s alumni mag says “Pow! Zowie! Comics in the Library”.

Posted by Aaron Humphrey

Dan Vado comments on the death of Mark Buck, recently killed in a motorcycle accident. Buck was Vado’s collaborator on SAMURAI PENGUIN, an entry in the ’80s “black and white boom.” Buck went on to have a successful career as a model maker for ILM, working on all three recent Star Wars movies and TRANSFORMERS.

This is a sad week for me here in the office as yesterday I found out about the death of one of my friends and first collaborator Mark Buck. Those of you out there who have followed SLG since the beginning will know Mark Buck as the illustrator of our first comic book Samurai Penguin. Before he drew those comics Mark worked for me at A World of Fantasy, the comic book store I owned, and helped me countless other projects for the few years he worked for me.

I first met Mark when he wandered into my comics shop when he was 16 years old and I hired him to work for me shortly after. He was the first non-family person I had ever hired, but after a time he quickly felt like one of the family. He was a good kid who worked hard and who always seemed to be laughing at me. That was a thing about Mark, he always seemed to be able to laugh at things even when he was ranting about someone or something or another.

(Above: Buck and Vado.)

The comics-loving NY Times takes it to a new level, with a story on the wild success of the as-yet untranslated manga THE DROPS OF THE GODS, which is credited with sending certain wine sales in East Asia soaring.

Since coming out of nowhere four years ago, this 20-something Japanese would-be sommelier has quickly become the most influential voice in Asia’s wine markets.

In Tokyo, wine sellers monitor his weekly pronouncements before adjusting their stocks accordingly. In newer markets like Taiwan and urban China, his recommendations are turning the newly affluent into wine converts. And in Seoul, South Koreans now hold forth on “terroir” and how a bottle “marries” with a particular dish without blinking.

Never mind that Shizuku is a comic-book figure, the hero of a manga series, “The Drops of the Gods,” created and written by a middle-aged Japanese sister-and-brother team. Asian readers who have never heard of Robert M. Parker Jr. scrutinize the comic hero’s every sip, learning about wine in words and images that may seem strange to traditionalists.

There’s a big slide show of the manga as well.

Via PR:

The time has come again to nominate the best and brightest for the Lulu Board of Directors! We need our members to nominate dedicated people to keep up the good work, changes and new adventures for Friends of Lulu that has been the hallmark of 2008.

Nominating and voting individuals to the National Board is one of the privileges enjoyed by members of Friends of Lulu; if you are a member please visit our online nomination page at http://www.friends-lulu.org/basicNomForm.php and submit your nominations!

Comics professionals and members are welcome to run for the board; self-nominations are also accepted and encouraged! We are looking for a few dedicated souls to volunteer their time and energy for a year as we go about bringing women and comics together. Being part of the national board can be very rewarding, enjoyable, and you will make a huge difference in the FoL organization.

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§ Eddie Campbell is back with one of the secrets of comics, known only to true initiates:

Due to the overwhelming thumbs up in response to my post telling you kids how to dress properly, I am now offering ‘Comicbook morality in one easy lesson.’ What you gotta do, right, is if you have a character and you want to send the reader a signal that we are not to take this person’s actions as morally positive, you first must show him eating badly. Here is Rorschach with a can of cold beans

§ Van Jensen isn’t going to the store every week any more:

What’s finally happened for me, I realized, is that I’ve moved past monthly comic book issues. All the negatives are well known, so I won’t bother to recite them. Simply put, I’m not buying another long box to shove away in the closet. I buy books to read them, not collect them. And so I’ll buy them in the form they’ll be read more than once.

Aside: What with fellow PWCW contributor Laura Hudson also easing up on the superhero throttle, we’re beginning to think it’s something we said.

§ This is gonna be good! A new Comics Comics Cage Match, this time on one of the most polarizing cartoonists of our times, David Heatley.
Frank Santoro with an uppercut:

And that’s sort of what Heatley does by inserting “Shout Outs” to his homies within the narrative itself.There are larger panels within the dense page design of the story that include a drawing of a figure, of a real Black person like his childhood friend Winton, with dedications like, “Dude, you were the coolest, stoney-eyed artist around!” To me, these come off as really demeaning.

There are also large sidebars and whole pages of handwritten text that are “Record Reviews” of Black music that David loves. It’s the “voice” Heatley uses to describe getting, say, a Jungle Brothers tape that makes me just shake my head. All that “Yo wassup” white-boy lingo that he spits? Give me a fucking break. Just read it, look at in the store. I don’t have the patience to describe it.

Dan Nadel calls for a time out:

One question worth asking is: How does one judge such a work: Is it reasonable for David to expect moral outrage like Frank’s? Does such a story, and the obvious implications for one’s moral well-being, elicit a like-minded response, as it did from Frank? Is that fair? I mean, David isn’t offering a prescription for how to live — just describing his own journey. But it’s the tone and content, I guess, that Frank is reacting against. Just some stray thoughts here. Tim?

§ Finally PopImage columnist Ed Mathews has moved to SF to get married and he needs people’s help:

I need your help. I need you to keep the American dream alive, not for me, but for others. When we started running YOUNG BOTTOMS IN LOVE many years ago, the thought of a daily gay romance comic seemed out of reach. Tim Fish, editor and cartoonist, proved me wrong with an amazing group of talented cartoonists and writers who stepped up to the plate and hit a home run. The logical next step in gay romance is a committed relationship. The ultimate expression of that in legal terms is state-sanctioned marriage. Extending the benefits of marriage and the protections of divorce are essential and assumed in heterosexual circles.

Did you know that the Washington Post now has a Comic Book Blog written by Michael Cavna? Neither did we. But anyway, this blog gets its first “scoop” with news that Black Panther is going the death, rebirth, sex change route:

Marvel Comics tells us that come 2009, the Black Panther will have a new look. As an “exclusive” to Comic Riffs, they say, Marvel honcho Joe Quesada and Black Panther writer Reginald Hudlin trumpet that there’s a bigger surprise yet:

Black Panther will now be a woman warrior.

A first-look illustration of next year’s pioneering Black Panther. (Marvel)Enlarge Comic

Marvel will relaunch the “BP” title in February, but we’ve got the first look at the new Black Panther right here.

So who’s the woman who will wear the costume? Neither Hudlin nor Quesada would divulge the identity, but judging by their comments, the future of T’Challa — the current Black Panther — is quite bleak.

Wow, Storm must be crying! Comments from Quesada and Hudlin in the link.

This remembrance of outsider artist Charles Crumb, who committed suicide in 1994, and was the brother of the cartoonist, has been linked everywhere.

The first saint: Charles Crumb, of Zwigoff’s great documentary. He never moved out. In the end, he barely left his room. He read; piles of books everywhere. He hadn’t read Hegel and Kant, he says in the film, but he might do. Meanwhile he’s rereading books he read twenty years ago. He is around fifty years old; he has a year before his suicide. Gentle and withdrawn, bullies tormented him at school. Hutch - that was the name of one of them. That was his name. Hutch and his cronies. Hutch would beat him in the school hall until he fell to the ground. There he was, Hutch, the cronies and everyone looking at him on the ground.

Above: a still from TREASURE ISLAND — Charles’s great love in life was Bobby Driscoll, who played Jim Hawkins.