“What’s curious to me is that business shut off like a light pretty much the minute the media announced that were ‘officially’ in a recession. I mean, just snap, people stopped shopping. It isn’t that the people coming in aren’t still spending as they usually do — because they are — it’s that the casual walk-by traffic went entirely poof. I can stand out in front of the store for minutes at a time right now and not see any people walking down the street at all. Even taking the bus home from work, typically I’m used to having to stand on my way home because the bus is so crowded. Not for the last two weeks. Plenty of seats.”

- California retailer Brian Hibbs

 

“I read 140 graphic novels this year, and that’s not counting webcomics, floppies or re-reads. Not all of them were new, and not all of them were good, but enough of them were both new and good that I can be pretty cheerful about The State Of Comics. The market’s fucked, to be sure, but when has the English-language comics market not been fucked, one way or another? It’s the talent that matters, and boy howdy is there a shedload or twelve of talent out there.”

- Katherine Farmar

 

Above the Fold

 

• [Top Story] Carla Hoffman update
  Link: J.K. Parkin

  The retailer and her husband Lance, who both suffered horrible burns in the recent California wildfires, are now both awake and receiving visitors at the hospital. Parkin presents a recounting of the awful day’s events from Hoffman’s husband, and notes that fundraising efforts to help pay for the couples undoubtedly daunting medical bills are still ongoing.

 

• [Publishing] Françoise Mouly
  Link: Richard Bruton

  A quick chat with the Toon Books publisher.

 

• [Publishing] Manga: Where next?
  Link: Christopher Butcher

  A smart, informed look at the current market for Japanese comics, and what publishers might want to think about as they plan strategies for the coming year.

 

• [Publishing] The problem with pamphlets
  Link: Bon Alimagno

  The Harris Comics editorial director discusses the growing economic disincentives behind serializing comics in comic-book form before going to book versions.

 

• [Retailing] Kevin Smith’s L.A. comics store to close
  Link: Peter Sciretta

  The West-Coast outlet of Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash had been staggering for some time, having closed the original location in favor of a move inside of a DVD store. Now that store is closing, and with it Smith’s shop as well.

 

• [Retailing] Needles and Pens
  Link: Brian Heater

  A profile of the San Francisco minis-and-zines outlet.

 

• [Consumer news] New this week
  Link: Joe McCulloch and Matthew Brady

  A look at the best-sounding books scheduled to hit the comics shops tomorrow.

 

Literary Comics

 

• [Profile] Ivan Brunetti
  Link: Tim O’Shea

  The cartoonist and teacher discusses the second volume in his Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, and True Stories series.

 


• [Profile] Matthew Forsythe
  Link: Michael Lorah

  The Ojingogo creator talks shop.

  (Above: image from the book, ©2009 Matthew Forsythe.)

 

• [Profile] Bob Fingerman
  Link: Brian Heater (one, two)

  The first two installments of a three-part interview with the author of Beg the Question.

 

• [Review] Why I Killed Peter
  Link: Joe McCulloch

  McCulloch calls Oliver Ka and Alfred’s autobiographical tale of childhood sexual abuse “the first good bookshelf comic of 2009.”

 

• [Review] Kramers Ergot 7
  Link: Dave Ferraro

  An artist-by-artist look at the most talked-about anthology of 2008.

 

• [Review] The Venice Chronicles
  Link: Jeff VanderMeer

  VanderMeer describes Enrico Casarosa’s travelogue as “a little gem of a book that should be on everyone’s list to buy for themselves and for friends.”

 


• [Review] Essex County Vol. 3: The Country Nurse
  Link: Jillian Steinhauer

  The final book in Jeff Lemire’s Essex County trilogy earns Steinhauer’s admiration.

  (Above: sequence from the book, ©2008 Jeff Lemire.)

 

• [Review] Skim
  Link: Matthew Brady

  Mariko and Jillian Tamaki’s bittersweet tale of adolescent longing is “less of a conventional plot and more of a character piece, examining the tumultuous teenage years and how we react to them.”

 

• [Review] Acme Novelty Library #19
  Link: Sean T. Collins

  Over the holiday break, Collins posted two of the best comics analyses that I’ve seen from him in some time. Here’s the first: “In essence, these circular pictograms — and now that I think about it, Ware’s unique, complex, trademark panel layout and sequencing, the very stuff of his comics — have no inherent meaning; we determine their meaning through context and assign it to them. But that means that if we falter or get it wrong or simply say ‘fuck it,’ it’s all quite literally meaningless, as devoid of worth and value as the bogus maps and video communications are to the story’s Martian colonists — or as human life is to murderers, or as existence itself is to those who’ve given up trying to make it mean something.”

 

• [Review] Breakdowns
  Link: Sean T. Collins

  And here’s the second: “It’s as though today’s post-Maus, post-Pulitzer, post-New Yorker, post-9/11 Spiegelman can see that the early, seminal works of an artist of his stature deserve a high-end forum for public consumption, yet can’t quite bring himself to provide it without appending at least as many pages again of ‘wait — I can explain!’”

 

• [Review] French Milk
  Link: Andrew Wheeler

  Wheeler has criticisms, but nonetheless found this to be a promising first book from a young author.

 

• [Review] The Lagoon
  Link: Arthur Smid

  Lilli Carre’s book “dances on the surface and has a depth that one must put on a diver’s size thinking cap to plummet.”

 


• [Review] Goddess of War Vol. 1
  Link: Charles Hatfield

  Praise for Lauren Weinstein’s tale of war, sex and godhood.

  (Above: Now that’s what I call a goddess of war. Detail from the book, ©2007 Lauren Weinstein.)

 

• [Review] Freddie & Me
  Link: Johanna Draper Carlson

  “I was left with the questions no autobiographical cartoonist wants to hear: what’s so special about your life? why should I bother reading about it?”

 

• [Review] My Brain is Hanging Upside Down
  Link: Katherine Farmar

  A rave review for David Heatley’s collection of autobiographical short stories.

 

• [Review] Time Management for Anarchists
  Link: Paul O’Brien

  Yes, Jim Munroe and Marc Ngui really did produce a comic with that title, and yes, that really is what it’s about.

 

• [Review] Various titles
  Link: Chris Mautner, Kristopher Collins

  Round-ups of a variety of comics.

  (Second link via J. Caleb Mozzocco.)

 

• [Commentary] Best of 2008
  Link: Joe McCulloch, Rob Clough and J. Caleb Mozzocco

  Further takes on what grabbed critics last year.

 

Pop Comics

 

• [Profile] Raina Telgemeier
  Link: Zack Smith

  The cartoonist behind the popular Baby-Sitters Club series of graphic novels talks about her work.

 


• [Review] Incognito #1
  Link: Marc-Oliver Frisch, Nina Stone

  Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ new superhero series doesn’t grab Frisch, but Stone liked it.

  (Above: panel from the comic, ©2009 Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips.)

 

• [Review] Captain America #43-44
  Link: Greg McElhatton

  Ed Brubaker, Luke Ross and Fabio Laguna’s story arc is “less of a comic that exists in a world with superheroes but rather as our world with additional technology tacked on, be it creating super-soldiers or high-tech weapons far beyond anything we could imagine.”

 

• [Review] Various titles
  Link: Joe McCulloch, Marc-Oliver Frisch, Douglas Wolk, Tim O’Neil and Paul O’Brien (one, two and three)

  For a market supposedly facing bad economic times, they sure do shovel a lot of these things out there, don’t they?

 

• [Commentary] Panel of the year
  Link: Craig Fischer

  Fischer wrings an entertaining essay out of a single panel from Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely and Jamie Grant’s All-Star Superman. Wow.

 


• [Comics] “The Deadly Blunder”
  Link: Pappy

  A sci-fi romp by Charles Biro and Norman Maurer.

  (Above: No, that wasn’t the blunder. Sequence from Boy #81, ©1953 Lev Gleason.)

 

Manga

 

• [Review] Red Colored Elegy
  Link: Matthew Brady

  A number of critics loved Seiichi Hayashi’s seminal ode to young-adult relationships and French New-Wave cinema; Brady isn’t one of them.

 

• [Commentary] Best new manga of 2008
  Link: Deb Aoki, Dave Ferraro

  No statuettes or award ceremonies, alas, but you can pretend otherwise if you want.

 

• [Commentary] Ten promising books for 2009
  Link: David Welsh

  Keep an eye out for these.

 

• [Commentary] How manga ruined superhero comics for me
  Link: John Jakala

  Not even Brubaker and Fraction’s Immortal Iron Fist can stand the comparison.

 

Comic Strips

 

• [Profile] Tim Rickard
  Link: Michael Cavna

  A conversation with the creator of Brewster Rockit.

  (Right: panel from a recent installment of the strip, ©2009 Tribune Media Services, Inc.)

 

• [Review] Essential Dykes to Watch Out For
  Link: Tom Crippen

  In which the critic’s opinion of a strip is substantially revised by reading a bunch of it at once.

 


• [Review] Little Nemo in Slumberland
  Link: Jody MacGregor

  An introduction to Winsor McCay’s most famous work.

  (Above: panel from a 1906 strip.)

 

Editorial Cartoons

 

• [Commentary] Drawing in difficult times
  Link: Brigid Grauman

  How do you approach your craft when you’re treading on the financial pain of your readers? Grauman speaks to a number of cartoonists to learn the answer.

 


• [Comics] George Herriman cartoons
  Link: Alan Holtz (one, two and three)

  More 1907 editorial drawings from the creator of Krazy Kat.

  (Above: detail from one of the cartoons — see the whole thing at the second link.)

 


• [Multimedia] Zapiro on the Zuma lawsuit
  Link: YouTube

  Another interview with the South African cartoonist, this time discussing the lawsuit filed against him by ANC leader Jacob Zuma.

  (Above: screenshot from the video. Link via Mike Lynch, who also has video of Zapiro calling a radio talk show in an attempt to speak directly to Zuma.)

 

Digital Comics

 

• [Commentary] newsprint vs. pixels
  Link: Gary Tyrrell

  Given how mindnumbingly awful the newspaper comics page has become in the last three decades, in both production and artistic execution, this really is one of those arguments where the outcome is never in doubt to anyone without a vested stake in the subject.

 

• [Oddity] How many webcomics do you know…
  Link: press release

  …that offer a $10,000 scholarship? Not really “comics,” I know, but still. Whoah.

 

Small Press/Minicomics

 

• [Review] Solipsist’s Doodles
  Link: Derik Badman

  “Overby’s work is an engaging variation on the autobiographical comic,” says Badman.

 

• [Commentary] Best of 2008
  Link: Shawn Hoke

  Comics by Jason Overby, Katie Skelly, James McShane and others make the cut.

 

Cartooning

 

• [Analysis] The year in cartooning
  Link: Allan Holtz

  Mostly covering newspaper comics, with the occasional detour into other subjects.

 


• [Profile] Will Elder
  Link: David Hajdu

  A look back at the life of the Mad Magazine pioneer, Little Annie Fanny co-creator and (arguably) funniest cartoonist of the 20th century.

  (Above: sequence from Elder’s story “Ganefs!” from Mad #1, ©1952 E.C. Publications, Inc.)

 

• [Craft] Hierarchy in page design
  Link: John Kricfalusi

  The fan-favorite animator explains how design enhances the construction of images, using a two-page spread from a Little Golden Book as his example.

 


• [Craft] The drawing process
  Link: Rivkah Greulich

  The Steady Beat author walks you through one of her drawings.

  (Above: example from the link, ©2008 Rivkah Greulich.)

 


• [Craft] Making word balloons with Photoshop
  Link: Barry T. Smith

  A practical demonstration, in streaming video

  (Above: screenshot from the video.)

 

• [Craft] Color flatting your comic
  Link: Tony Piro

  Piro recommends a photoshop plug-in that he says makes the process of filling line work with flat colors much easier.

 


• [Comics] Twelve things…
  Link: Mike Lynch

  …that Lynch was told in 2008 that he doesn’t need to hear in 2009.

  (Above: sequence from the strip, ©2009 Mike Lynch.)

 


• [Comics] Three by Dorkin
  Link: Evan Dorkin

  These “Big Fun” strips first appeared in the Dose anthology.

  (Above: excerpt from one of the strips, ©2007 Evan Dorkin.)

 


• [Art] Richard Thompson illustrates Dave Barry
  Link: Blogspot

  Drawings for Barry’s recent year-in-review column.

  (Above: You are getting slee-eepy… Illustration ©2008 Richard Thompson.)

 

• [Commentary] Advice for aspiring cartoonists
  Link: Mike Lynch, Brian Fies

  Take it from people who know.

 

The Comics Press

 

• [Profile] Dave Astor
  Link: Tim O’Shea

  A conversation with the highly regarded former Editor & Publisher reporter.

 

Comics Culture

 

• [Review] You’ll All Be Sorry
  Link: Johanna Draper Carlson

  Amateurish design earns this collection of Gail Simone’s satirical industry columns a knock from Carlson.

 


• [Your Drawn! link of the day]
  Oh hey, James Jean’s in the process of posting a bunch of new art to his website. How about that?

  (Above: “Secret,” ©2005 James Jean.)

 

• [Your not-comics link of the day]
  Whatever happened to MC 900 Ft. Jesus?

 


• [Your Scans_Daily link of the day]
  Love is blind.

  (Above: splash panel from Wedding Bells #19, art possibly by Matt Baker; ©1956 Quality Comics.)

 

Events Calendar

 

This Week:

• January 7 (New York City, NY): Detective Jermain author Misako Rocks! will be signing books and meeting readers at Brooklyn’s Barnes & Noble on Court Street, beginning at 5PM. Details here.
• January 9-11 (Sacramento, CA): SacAnime, a celebration of J-culture, takes place at the Scottish Rite Center on H Street. Cartoonist Ben Roman is among the featured guests. Details here.
• January 10 (Santa Rosa, CA): Small-press cartoonist Briana Miller will be artist-in-residence at the Charles M. Schulz Museum on Hardies Lane, from 1-3PM. Details here.
• January 10 (Kenilworth, NJ): Girls With Slingshots creator Danielle Corsetto makes an appearance at WildPig Comics II on Michigan Avenue, from 1-7PM. Details here.
• January 11 (San Francisco, CA): A benefit for ailing underground-comix legend S. Clay Wilson will be held at the Hemlock Tavern on Polk, beginning at 6PM. Details here.

 

Next Week:

• January 17 (San Francisco, CA): An opening reception for the new “One. Hundred. Beasts!” exhibit takes place at Giant Robot SF on Shrader Street, time to be announced. Details here.

 

Want to see your comics-related event listed here? Email a link to dirk@tcj.com and let me know. Please include an online link to which I can send people for more information. No sales-only events, please — it’s nice that you’ve marked things down at your store or website, but I won’t be listing it here.

 

“Considering the price increases and the absurd number of titles on the market, especially from Marvel, one can only conclude that the comic market is in rough shape.”

- New York retailer Andy Battaglia

 

“Nobody wanted editors to live in a bubble without knowing about P&L statements, but waking up to commercial reality happened too quickly, and terms emerged that made veteran editors cringe: Don’t take a chance on an unproven concept, they were told. Wait until other editors lose their shirts risking The Next New Thing. Then acquire something safe — i.e., the exact duplicate, but cheaper. With our marketing muscle, we’ll elbow the competition out of the running.”

- Pat Holt,
explaining how book publishing got so timid
(link via Jessa Crispin)

 

Settle back; this may take a while.

 

Above the Fold

 

• [Top Story] Obituaries

  We had several professionals leave us over the holidays, including:

  • Australian sports cartoonist William Ellis Green passed away on December 29 at the age of 85, reports the Herald Sun, the paper where he spent his 40-year career. Popularly known by the initials WEG, Green’s yearly ASL football posters were a cherished Austalian institution, and raised great sums of money for the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne.
  • Veteran illustrator Edd Cartier died on Christmas Day in his Ramsey, New Jersey home. He was 94 years old. Known primarily as a pulp illustrator who worked for legendary SF editor John Campbell — as well as his classic drawings for The Shadow — Cartier also drew for King Features and Harvey Comics. Robert Greenberger has the story.
  • Paul Hooker, co-founder of the comics shop The Collector’s Corner in Grand Rapids, Michigan, died on December 26 while scuba-diving in Belize. He was 55. Partner Kirby Tardy offers a short memorial.

  (Right: One of William Ellis Green’s cartoon football posters.)

 

• [Top Story] Lolicon obscenity conviction upheld
  Link: Associated Press

  On December 18, three judges for the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the conviction of Dwight Whorley, who was convicted in 2005 of “using a public computer for jobseekers at the Virginia Employment Commission to receive 20 Japanese cartoons, called anime, illustrating young girls being forced to have sex with men.” Whorley was prosecuted under the PROTECT Act, which was signed into law after an earlier ban on drawn images featuring underage characters was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The defense tried to argue that the conviction should be overturned because no real minors were involved in the disputed images — but as the AP notes, that didn’t wash with the judges:

  Judge Paul V. Niemeyer noted in the majority opinion that the statute under which Whorley was convicted, the PROTECT Act of 2003, clearly states that “it is not a required element of any offense under this section that the minor depicted actually exists.”

  Before you shed too many tears for Whorley, be advised that he also carries several convictions for actual, photographic kiddie porn; from the sound of things, he doesn’t seem to be the sort of person you’d want living in the neighborhood. Still, does the latest news mean that all creative content alluding to underage sexuality is illegal? Not at all. As Jeff Trexler argues, while the seeming youth of the characters drawn in the disputed cartoons may have encouraged prosecutors to file charges, the real issue isn’t “child pornography,” but obscenity:

  The Whorley court’s reasoning on the constitutionality of prohibiting images not based on real children is a model of judicial efficiency. The opinion notes that Whorley’s lawyers rely on the Supreme Court case invalidating the earlier statute, then adds that the current statute “prohibits visual depictions of minors only when they are obscene.” Inasmuch as the Supreme Court stated that “obscenity in any form is not protected by the First Amendment,” the challenge to the constitutionality of current law is “without merit.”

  I won’t attempt to further summarize Trexler’s essay, which really should be read in full by those interested in the case. Further commentary can be found at Slashdot.

  (Right: Mugshot of Dwight Whorley.)

 

• [Top Story] Reiji Matsumoto loses defamation suit, ¥2.2 million
  Link: Yomiuri Shimbun

  The cartoonist behind the Galaxy Express 999 series was forced to eat a little crow — and open his wallet good and wide — after a Tokyo District Court concluded that he’d defamed musician Noriyuki Makihara. Matsumoto had claimed that the musician had used phrases from his comics in the pop music that Makihara wrote for the group Chemistry.

  (Note: Headline altered for clarification.)

 

• [Top Story] Mark Millar in recovery
  Link: Toby Mcdonald

  Best wishes to the Civil War writer, who was hospitalized over the holidays due to a health emergency triggered by the medication he takes for Crohn’s disease, dropping fifteen pounds in the process. He’s reportedly doing much better now, stating “I’m feeling a little stronger but I need to take January off for a full recovery.”

 

• [Top Story] Diamond cuts back on Previews relists
  Link: Rick Veitch

  Veitch speaks:

  In the solicitation package I just received from Diamond Distribution, suppliers are being notified that due to economic conditions Diamond will be much more selective in which items they will offer in PREVIEWS and that they are cutting back on items being “Offered Again.” Since most publishers, large and small, depend on these relists of backlist items, this will be a hard pill to swallow for many.

  Given that the market is slowly transitioning from a pamphlet-based to a book-based economy, this would seem to be cause for serious concern, but just how worried should publishers be? Two responses in a collection of comments at Tom Spurgeon’s site would seem to frame the issue:

  • SLG Publishing founder Dan Vado stated that he had not (as of December 20) received similar notification, which would (as Vado notes) seem to indicate that Diamond is going after the smallest publishers first.
  • North Carolina retailer Dustin Harbin reminds us that “as far as I know the ‘O/A’ thing is just a relisting in the print catalog, with a new item code. The way that Diamond runs its databases, the original item code remains in effect.” This is to say, items produced by most publishers can still in theory be reordered from Diamond so long as they’re in stock — the new rules will simply mean that such items may be less likely to get another slot in the Previews catalog, which isn’t the same thing as being unavailable for re-order. Which is not to say that smaller publishers won’t be affected by the new policy, of course — as Veitch asserts, many publishers do indeed depend upon relistings to move copies of books after the initial listing, and as Vado states, “Books which are ordered through offered agains are not subject to the reorder fee.” See also Dan Urazandi’s comments (linked below) for further problems with the present re-ordering system.

  Marvel, DC, Image and Dark Horse needn’t worry about any of this, of course, due to the pre-existing deals they have with Diamond.

 

• [Top Story] U.S. retail sales drop
  Link: Wall Street Journal

  You’ve probably already heard, but on the off chance that you haven’t: Holiday sales sucked, and the less necessary the goods being sold, the worse the sales. Excluding automobiles and gasoline, last month saw a 2.5% decline in November and a 4% decline in December. Online sales, it should be noted, dropped by only 2% during the two-month period.

  (Link via Megan McArdle.)

 

• [Top Story] Newspaper Armageddon Watch

  Bringing the pain:

  • Canadian newspaper chain Sun Media has cut its workforce, and editorial cartoonist Thomas Boldt was among the casualties, according to Alan Gardner.
  • F.N. D’Alessio looks at the troubled future for Chicago’s newspapers.
  • Real Clear Politics notes a recent Pew Research Center study, which states that for the first time, more people claim to get their news from the Internet than from newspapers. Television still eclipses both categories.
  • While things look grim for the larger outlets, smaller community newspapers are another matter. David Carr looks at Monmouth County, New Jersey’s TriCity News, which ended 2008 with a nice increase in profits. Publisher Dan Jacobson’s secret: Don’t put your newspaper online. Community papers frequently deal in local news that nobody else is providing, and thus don’t have to worry about its readers being able to find the same information elsewhere. For now.
  • Finally, media consultant Jeff Jarvis rounds up the bad news for 2008, before noting that papers did in fact manage to increase the circulation and profitability of their online presences last year.

 

• [Publishing] First Second folded into Macmillan children’s-publishing division
  Link: Publishers Weekly

  As part of a general restructuring, First Second’s parent imprint, Roaring Brook Press, has been folded into a new all-encompassing children’s-book division, to be called the Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group. In an open letter, First Second editorial director Mark Siegel stated, “from what I’ve gathered so far, it’s all very good for First Second and may well add to our marketing and publicity muscle.”

  The Macmillan press release announcing the move can be found at the Seigel link.

 

• [Publishing] Kodansha ends licensing agreement with Tokyopop Germany
  Link: Simon Jones

  Jones offers commentary on a thread found at a German manga forum, which states that Kodansha has without explanation refused to renew contracts for all manga licensed by the European Tokyopop division, including Beck, School Rumble, Hell Girl and Cromartie High School. Christopher Butcher also offers commentary, including speculation that this may bode ill for Tokyopop’s North American licenses as they come up for renewal.

 

• [Publishing] 2009 manga releases projected to drop
  Link: ICv2

  The industry news site states that manga publishers are expected to cut back the number of book releases by some 10% in the coming year, due to the recession-induced slowdown in the bookstore trade.

 

• [Publishing] A look at L’Association
  Link: Patrick Bérubé

  The pioneering French art-comics publisher is discussed.

 

• [Retailing] Third Planet Comics & Games closes
  Link: Muhammed El-Hasan

  Citing recession difficulties, the Torrance, California shop has closed after thirteen years in business.

 

• [Retailing] State of the Direct Market
  Link: Dan Urazandi, Kathy Bottarini and Buddy Saunders

  Three retailers, disturbed by the current situation, take turns discussing what they think is wrong with the current market.

 

Literary Comics

 

• [Profile] Derf
  Link: Kirk Chritton

  The cartoonist behind Punk Rock and Trailer Parks discusses his career.

 

• [Profile] Lucy Knisley
  Link: John Hogan

  The French Milk author discusses her work.

 

• [Profile] Matt Furie
  Link: John Zuarino

  A short Q&A with the creator of the cult-favorite “burnout fart humor” series, Boy’s Club.

 


• [Review] Larry Marder’s Beanworld Holiday Special
  Link: Joe McCulloch

  Screw the recession — Beanworld is back, and all is once again right with the universe. What more do you need to know?

  (Above: sequence from the comic, ©2008 Larry Marder.)

 

• [Review] Four by Huizenga
  Link: Rob Clough

  A look at The Factoids of Life, Or Else #5, Fight or Run: Shadow of the Chopper and New Construction #2.

 

• [Review] No Enemy But Peace
  Link: Don MacPherson

  Richard C. Meyer’s memoir of the Iraq War, illustrated by Martin Montiel Luna, gets a mixed review from MacPherson.

 

• [Review] Nicolas
  Link: Alan David Doane

  Doane was impressed with Pascal Girard’s tale of learning to accept his younger brother’s untimely death.

 

• [Review] Paris
  Link: Johanna Draper Carlson

  Andi Watson and Simon Ganes’ slight, mildly confusing Sapphic romance gets a mixed review from Carlson.

 

• [Review] Various titles
  Link: A.V. Club

  Quick takes on work by Jason Lutes, Carol Lay, Spain Rodriguez, John Pham and others.

 

• [Commentary] Best of 2008
  Link: Derik Badman, Steve Higgins, Michael Lorah, Marc Sobel and the Daily Cross Hatch

  ‘Tis the season… for best-of lists.

 


• [Comics] “Crispy Christmas”
  Link: Vanessa Davis

  A glimpse at the complications inherent in family gatherings.

  (Above: detail from the comic, ©2008 Vanessa Davis. Link via Tom Devlin.)

 


• [Comics] “G.G. Fudd”
  Link: Johnny Ryan

  If you understand this strip, then it’s entirely possible that you’re an Aging Hipster Douchebag. Hey, don’t get all upset — I linked to it, didn’t I?

  (Above: sequence from the strip, ©2008 Johnny Ryan.)

 

Pop Comics

 

• [Profile] Neil Gaiman
  Link: Pádraig Ó Méalóid and Geoff Boucher

  The Sandman creator talks comics. Here’s something I didn’t know, from the Méalóid interview:

  Currently Todd McFarlane is suing me, claiming he owns all of Miracleman, and I am going, “You are mad, because as far as I can tell right now, neither of us owns anything of Miracleman, it is actually still owned completely by Mick Anglo, who is still alive, and who has asserted his copyright on it, and everything that Dez Skinn said back in Warrior days was apparently a lie, and this thing is Mick’s, so I don’t really see why, why are you suing me now, Todd?”

  Todd McFarlane’s suing Neil Gaiman? What, he hasn’t learned his lesson from the previous court cases that he’s lost?

 

• [Profile] Dave Gibbons
  Link: Jennifer Contino

  The Watchmen artist discusses his new book commemorating the classic graphic novel.

 

• [Profile] Dale Lazarov
  Link: Charles Christensen

  The writer behind such homoerotic comics as Sticky and Manly talks about his work.

 

• [Profile] Craig Yoe on Boody Rogers
  Link: Zack Smith

  The editor of the forthcoming collection Boody! discusses the idiosyncratic work of the cult-favorite cartoonist.

 

• [Review] Madman Atomic Comics #12
  Link: Joe McCulloch

  “Strangely fun” are the keywords for Michael and Laura Allred’s latest issue of the series.

 


• [Review] Omega the Unknown
  Link: Matthew Brady

  Praise for Jonathan Lethem, Karl Rusnak, Farel Dalrymple, Paul Hornschemeier and Gary Panter’s revisionist take on the cult-favorite Steve Gerber/Mary Skrenes/Jim Mooney series.

  (Above: Not a good way to discover that your mom’s secretly a robot. Sequence from the book, ©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.)

 

• [Review] Batman: The Black Glove
  Link: Alan David Doane

  Sub-par filler material put Doane off this collection of Grant Morrison and J.H. Williams’ recent story arc.

 

• [Review] Zombies Calling
  Link: Johanna Draper Carlson

  An appreciation of Faith Erin Hicks’ debut book.

 

• [Review] The Best of The Spirit
  Link: Sean T. Collins

  Collins calls Will Eisner’s groundbreaking crime comic “a virtual symphony of dudes getting socked in the head.”

  Related: Charles Moss examines the artist’s life, while David Ulin looks at Eisner’s career and conclude that while The Spirit was influential, his slice-of-life stories were where it was really at.

 

• [Review] Batman: The Killing Joke
  Link: Robert Stanley Martin

  Martin has many of the same reservations about the book as do creators Alan Moore and Brian Bolland.

 

• [Review] Various titles
  Link: Tucker Stone (one, two), Tim O’Neil and Kevin Church

  An unlimited supply…

 

• [Commentary] Best of 2008
  Link: Russ Burlingame, Robot 6 and Comic Book Resources (100-81, 80-61, 60-41, 40-21 and 20-1)

  Genre-dominated lists of comics that impressed people last year.

 

• [Commentary] Improving “mainstream” comics in 2009
  Link: Tucker Stone

  A few helpful suggestions.

 

• [Commentary] Critical approaches to superhero crossover events
  Link: Sean T. Collins

  Good essay, but the real meat is in the comments thread, where Tucker Stone, Tom Spurgeon, Tim O’Neil, Jon Hastings, Kiel Phegley, Matthew Perpetua, Marc-Oliver Frisch and others debate the subject.

  (Thanks to Dick Hyacinth for pointing out the comments thread, which I’d missed.)

 


• [Commentary] Marvel’s house of gore
  Link: John Jakala

  Three recent examples of Superhero Decadence.

  (Above: Do I really need to tell you that Jeph Loeb wrote this? Ultimate Blob eats Ultimate Wasp’s entrails in this page detail from Ultimatum #2, ©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.)

 


• [Comics] “From All Our Darkrooms…”
  Link: Brian Hughes

  Another early, Twilight Zone-ish Steve Ditko story, because you can’t have too many early, Twilight Zone-ish Steve Ditko stories.

  (Above: sequence from Out of This World #4, ©1957 Charlton Comics.)

 

Manga

 

• [Profile] Josh Elder
  Link: Lindsay Muscato

  The writer behind Mail Order Ninja talks comics.

 

• [Scene] Comiket 75 round-up
  Link: ComiPress

  The worlds largest comics-related gathering took place in Tokyo over the holidays — read all about it.

 

• [Review] The Edu-Manga series
  Link: Kristy Valenti

  Valenti looks at three biographies in Japanese comics form — starring Anne Frank, Helen Keller and Albert Einstein, respectively — and discusses why they’re so mediocre.

 


• [Review] Solanin
  Link: Alan David Doane

  An examination of Inio Asano’s debut graphic novel, which examines the lives of a group of college students as they reluctantly enter adulthood.

  (Above: sequence from the book, ©2006 Inio Asano/Shogakukan Inc.)

 

• [Review] Bat-Manga!
  Link: Jonathan Switzer and John Mitchell

  Praise for this collection of Jiro Kuwata’s Batman comics from the 1960s.

 

• [Review] Monster
  Link: Christopher Butcher

  Butcher read Naoki Urasawa’s eighteen-volume thriller in one weekend, and was impressed… until he read the ending.

 

• [Review] Genshiken Official Book
  Link: Ed Sizemore

  Less than complimentary words for this fan book celebrating Kio Shimoku’s comedic otaku soap opera.

 

• [Commentary] Ten major manga trends for 2009
  Link: Deb Aoki

  Aoki makes her predictions for the year ahead.

 


• [Comics] Katsuishi Kabashima’s Shôchan no Bôken
  Link: New York Public Library

  The library hosts a gallery of reproductions from a book collecting Kabashima’s pre-WWII newspaper strip.

  (Above: panel from the strip. Link via Dadanoias.)

 

Comic Strips

 

• [Scene] Popeye enters public domain in Europe
  Link: Adam Sherwin

  70 years have passed since creator Elsie Segar’s death, and under EU law that makes his most treasured creation copyright-free. As always, trademarks are another matter…

 

• [Review] Dilbert 2.0
  Link: Wesley Mead

  Scott Adams’ popular office-humor strip gets the deluxe-hardcover treatment.

 

• [Snark] The five-point Nancy exercise plan
  Link: Mike Sterling

  Let’s get physical!

 


• [Oddity] Far Side re-enactments
  Link: Flickr

  A collaborative effort to recreate Gary Larson’s popular strip in photographs.

  (Above: one of the contributions from “Texasaurus3k.” Link via David Pescovitz.)

 

Editorial Cartoons

 

• [Profile] Zapiro
  Link: BBC World Service

  The take-no-prisoners South African cartoonist discusses his work, in a conversation available in streaming audio at the link.

 

Digital Comics

 

• [Review] Penny Arcade
  Link: David Kushner

  The National Public Radio commentator discusses Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik’s megapopular strip; hear it in streaming audio at the link.

 

• [Commentary] Best of 2008
  Link: Derik Badman

  Badman presents a list of his favorites for the year.

 


• [Commentary] A prediction for 2009

  By the end of 2009, Kate Beaton and Randall Munroe will each have publishing deals. I should stress that I have no insider knowledge of any offers being put together; rather, after the successes that publishers like Dark Horse have had with other A-list online cartoonists as Nicholas Gurewitch and Chris Onstad, it just seems like fait accompli, you know?

  (Above: sequence from a recent installment of xkcd, ©2008 Randall Munroe.)

 

• [Commentary] Paul Levitz is wrong
  Link: Stephen Gerding

  “People are not waiting for webcomics to become limited animation cartoons.” Shhhh! Nobody tell Mark Waid.

 


• [Multimedia] Chris Onstad
  Link: YouTube

  The Achewood creator spoke at Google’s New York facilities back in November, and thanks to the magic of streaming video, you are there! Bonus link: The xkcd parody of the strip is briefly discussed, which I’d never heard of before seeing the interview, so there’s that.

  (Above: screenshot from the video. Link via Matt Forsythe.)

 

• [Snark] Is xkcd shitty today?
  Link: Website

  I happen to like the comic a great deal, but it’s still funny.

  (My apologies to whomever first posted this link, as I stupidly forgot to make note of it.)

 

Small Press/Minicomics

 

• [Profile] Noah Van Sciver
  Link: Anthony Davies

  The small-press cartoonist and Journal contributor discusses his work.

 

• [Review] Various titles
  Link: Kristy Valenti

  Short looks at comics by Tom Neely, Kevin Huizenga, Tom Gauld and others.

 

Cartooning

 

• [Profile] Gerard Whyman
  Link: Matt Thomas

  The Punch/Private Eye cartoonist discusses his work.

 


• [Profile] Scott McCloud
  Link: John Hogan

  An interview with the author of Understanding Comics.

  (Above: panel from the just-mentioned book, ©1993 Scott McCloud.)

 

• [Profile] Gahan Wilson
  Link: Shaenon Garrity

  Garrity tells a few Wilson anecdotes and discusses her favorite Nuts story.

 

• [Craft] Anders Zorn’s palette
  Link: Donald Pittenger

  “Note the palette Zorn is holding in this self-portrait. It seems to have only four colors, whereas most artists’ palettes have a dozen or more placed around the edges. As best I can tell, those colors are white, yellow ochre, cadmium red light and black. Four colors: that’s all — and this set is often referred to as the Zorn Palette.”

 


• [Art] Tatsuro Kiuchi
  Link: portfolio

  A generous helping of Kiuchi’s imaginative, deceptively simple art can be found at the link.

  (Above: “Starting Over,” an illustration for Japan’s Weekly Post, ©2008 Tatsuro Kiuchi.)

 


• [Art] Helen Jacobs’ Wonderland
  Link: Osamu Nomura

  The only problems with this sampler of Jacobs’ 1935 art for Lewis Carroll’s classic book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland are that there aren’t enough of them and they aren’t big enough. Fortunately, more of her wonderful linework can be seen (at mildly larger size) at art dealer Chris Beetles’ website.

 


• [Art] Fred Steffen’s Childcraft illustrations
  Link: Jeffrey Meyer

  A gallery of Steffen’s drawings for the longrunning “How and Why Library” of children’s books.

 


• [Art] Lynd Ward’s Beowulf
  Link: Flickr

  A selection of the esteemed woodcut artist’s 1939 illustrations for the classic folk narrative.

  (Link via Heidi MacDonald.)

 


• [Art] Wehman Brothers joke-book covers
  Link: Billy Mavreas (one, two, three, four and five)

  A collection of cartoon art from the turn of the 20th century.

 

• [Commentary] 2008 discoveries
  Link: Noah Berlatsky

  Rather creating than a traditional “best of 2008″ list, Berlatsky instead discusses the comics and art that he discovered last year, covering everything from Jeff Parker’s all-ages Marvel comics to the sketches of Japanese master Hokusai.

 

• [Oddity] James Thurber vs. Ernest Hemingway
  Link: Susie Bright

  Not comics, exactly, but how could you resist a reading of cartoonist/humorist James Thurber’s 1927 parody “A Visit from Saint Nicholas in the Ernest Hemingway Manner”?

 

The Comics Press

 

• [Profile] Comics Reporter holiday interviews

  It was that time of year again, as Tom Spurgeon spoke with a dozen creators, critics and industry professionals. The full list:

  • Kim Thompson
  • Jeet Heer
  • Tucker Stone
  • Sean T. Collins
  • Dan Nadel
  • Eddie Campbell
  • Kurt Busiek
  • Matt Forsythe
  • Batton Lash
  • Abhay Khosla
  • Karl Stevens
  • Matt Fraction

  Related: Bill Randall reacts to Abhay Khosla’s distinctions between writer and artist in comics. Be sure to scroll down to comments, where Khosla, Randall and others debate the topic.

 

• [Scene] The original Blog@Newsarama crew returns
  Link: Robot 6

  … to Comic Book Resources, anyway. It’s like the original Saturday Night Live cast had defected to ABC, just in time to show up that one-season SNL replacement cast that nobody remembers these days.

 

Comics Culture

 

• [Commentary] Women in the comics industry, part seven zillion
  Link: Heidi MacDonald (one, two)

  Best summarized by two quotes. From the first link, Heidi Mac:

  Maybe I’m just cranky at the end of the year, but any idea that women in comics in the mainstream have progressed over the last few years is wrong.

  And from the second, Drawn & Quarterly’s Peggy Burns:

  What’s wrong in the year 2008 is to state that one can only be a noted industry figure if they work for Vertigo or Dark Horse and the titles that Shelly [Bond], Karen [Berger], and Diana [Schutz] edit are “mainstream” and the comics that Françoise [Mouly] edits are “not mainstream” especially in age when Persepolis is the bestselling original graphic novel of the decade.

 


• [Oddity] Comic-strip ads in comic books
  Link: James Lileks

  Yeah, there’s a Marvel Hostess strip in there, but I found this one noteworthy because I’d never seen most of the other ads before.

  (Above: RC Cola — it helps you capture Nazi spies! Excerpt from one of the ads at the link, source unknown.)

 


• [Multimedia] Comics in Canada
  Link: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

  Have I linked to this before? I’m not sure — it’s a generous collection of television and radio clips featuring a who’s-who of Canadian cartoonists and industry professionals, including Lynn Johnston, Doug Wright, Chester Brown, Seth, Dave Sim, Todd MacFarlane and many others, plus features on various aspects of comics history North Of The Border.

  (Above: screenshot from a 1970 interview with pioneering retailer George Henderson, owner of Memory Lane Books — billed as “Canada’s first comic-book store.” Link via Mark Frauenfelder.)

 

• [Snark] Somewhere in Northampton…
  Link: Jeff Jensen

  …Alan Moore is laughing.

 

• [Snark] “I don’t think there’s anything I can add to that announcement.”
  Link: Johanna Draper Carlson

 

• [Oddity] A Jim Woodring pinball machine?
  Link: Woodring Monitor

  It’d be like sleeping with the gold medalist in the Olympics of Awesome.

 

• [Your Drawn! link of the day]
  A reminder: Animator and Auschwitz survivor Dina Babbitt would like her paintings back.

 

• [Your not-comics link of the day]
  “As Messrs. Lewis and Ford show, the circuit from euphoria to catastrophe is not confined to the housing market and over-leveraged hedge funds. It applies, with ghastly pertinence, to that carnival of pretense and grotesquerie, the world of contemporary art.”

  (Link via Arts & Letters Daily.)

 


• [Your Scans_Daily link of the day]
  A tale from Will Eisner’s The Spirit, in which Ellen Dolan becomes a beat cop. Please note that Frank Miller was not involved in the creation of this comic.

  (Above: Another socially enlightened crime drama, courtesy of and ©1943 Will Eisner.)

 

Events Calendar

 

This Week:

• January 9-11 (Sacramento, CA): SacAnime, a celebration of J-culture, takes place at the Scottish Rite Center on H Street. Cartoonist Ben Roman is among the featured guests. Details here.
• January 10 (Santa Rosa, CA): Small-press cartoonist Briana Miller will be artist-in-residence at the Charles M. Schulz Museum on Hardies Lane, from 1-3PM. Details here.
• January 11 (San Francisco, CA): A benefit for ailing underground-comix legend S. Clay Wilson will be held at the Hemlock Tavern on Polk, beginning at 6PM. Details here.

 

Next Week:

• January 17 (San Francisco, CA): An opening reception for the new “One. Hundred. Beasts!” exhibit takes place at Giant Robot SF on Shrader Street, time to be announced. Details here.

 

Want to see your comics-related event listed here? Email a link to dirk@tcj.com and let me know. Please include an online link to which I can send people for more information. No sales-only events, please — it’s nice that you’ve marked things down at your store or website, but I won’t be listing it here.