Shorter ¡Journalista! 7
(Potpourri) One more of these and I'm out the door. Awa-a-a-ay we go:

• Today's required reading comes to us courtesy of Newsarama, where San Fransisco retailer Brian Hibbs responds to Nick Barrucci's decidedly optimistic call for industry-wide renewal with one splash of cold water after another. This isn't to say that Hibbs is a pessimist, but he offers several correctives to Barrucci's more outlandish statements, dismissing the whole advertising gimmick in favor of a two-pronged approach: starting an industry fund to assist new retailers in setting up shop, and educating more existing retailers in how to run a successful shop. It's smart advice from someone who knows what he's talking about.

• Newsarama also jumps in with Direct Market sales estimates for the month of June. Placing the sales of Batman #616 at 164,956 copies, Matt Brady estimates that thirteen titles actually managed to sell over 70,000 copies last month. Before we go congratulating ourselves on improved sales, however, remember that these numbers are in fact estimates; last time around ICv2 came out with more conservative figures that put the top-selling comic book moving a full 10,000 fewer copies than Brady's numbers. I'm not necessarily siding with either view -- doing so would be pointless without first knowing each site's respective methodology in arriving at their respective estimates -- but merely pointing out that we are dealing with informed guesses, here.

• Over a month after the fact, editorial cartoonist Dick Locher's still getting slapped around over his Sharon cartoon. (Link courtesy of Romenesko.)

• Here Comes Everybody, Part I: Indiana's Fort Wayne News Sentinel has an AP report (first item) noting that Fleer Trading Cards has just licensed the comic-book rights to the Transformers toyline. Comics based on 1980s childhood nostalgia? Oooh, there's an underdeveloped market...

  Update 10:15 AM: A reader points out that this deal actually involves trading cards, not comics. The perils of writing a weblog at 2 AM, I swear.

• Here Comes Everybody, Part II: Rolling Stone makes brief mention (second item) of musician Rob Zombie's plans to begin producing his own horror comics this Halloween. Boy, he really is this decade's Glenn Danzig, isn't he?

• The Times of India spotlights Dr Annamma Kumar's attempts to use a new line of comic books as teaching aids in Indian schools.

• Comic Book Resources features an interview with cartoonist Tyler Page, whose Stylish Vittles: I Met a Girl has been nominated for an Eisner for Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition.

• I missed this yesterday, but fortunately Egon was on the case: The St. Louis Post-Dispatch spoke with Todd Hignite, editor of the marvelous archival comics magazine Comic Art.

• Daniel Robert Epstein interviews Gary Spencer Millidge about Alan Moore: Portrait of an Extraordinary Gentleman, the book he co-edited with Italy's "Smoky Man".

• Let it not be said that Movie Poop Shoot doesn't have a point of view. Related: the ombudsman for California's Sacramento Bee defends Aaron McGruder from readers whose opinion of the cartoonist runs parallel to Movie Poop Shoot's news editor. (Last link also via Romenesko.)

• Just how doomed was the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen film adaptation? This doomed. (Registration required; thanks to Monitor Duty for the link.)

• Courtesy of The Baltimore Sun comes this week's "comics are literature now" article.

• Weblogger Matthew Baldwin uses Moore & O'Neill's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen to explain the value of the public domian. (Link via Bookslut's Jessa Crispin.)

• Faced with a sudden increase in webhosting costs, Comic Book Galaxy's Alan David Doane is raising money to stay afloat. If you've enjoyed the writings available on the site, consider stopping by and tossing a couple'a bucks his way.

• You know, I'd forgotten how much I missed Scott McCloud's Morning Improv until it resumed again.

• I'm linking to this Golden Age Cover Gallery primarily for this notorious cover, which is actually a recreation by Al Feldstein, commissioned by the site operator, Ben. Well, if you're going to have a classic comics artist rework just one comic-book cover as a painting... (Link via Scrubbles.)

As noted previously, ¡Journalista! will be taking a week off while I attend the San Diego Comic-Con, and will return next Tuesday with regular blogging. If you're going too, I hope to see you there!
Posted @ 4:00 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

Shorter ¡Journalista! 6
(Potpourri) Hahaha! Yes, we're still in abbreviated posting -- I've got my internet connection back, but now have to engage in some extended preparations for my trip to San Diego, which leaves me just as short on time as always. Here is the news:

• The Los Angeles Times (registration required) is reporting that strip-cartoonist Aaron McGruder has inked a deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment to develop a TV series and feature film based on The Boondocks.

• MetaFilter recently linked to a particularly rancorous creator dispute: softcore cartoonist and illustrator Armando Huerta is claiming that fellow titty-peddler Ricky Carralero has been passing Huerta's art off as his own, allegedly going so far as to white out Huerta's signature and replace it with his own. Mudfight, anyone?

• Newsarama has Diamond's June sales figures for the Direct Market. The usual caveats apply: until someone susses out the exact sales for one of the top titles, these numbers are of questionable use at best.

• Chaos Comics' bankruptcy, online comics bootlegging, Bill Jemas in Hollywood -- yes, it's this week's Lying in the Gutters!

• The St. Louis Post-Dispatch takes a look at that city's thriving minicomics scene, in a knowledgable and well-written article.

• Canada's Toronto Star, meanwhile, examines the growing presence of graphic novels in bookstores.

• Booksense offers up a short interview with Drawn and Quarterly publisher Chris Oliveros. (Link via Egon.)

• The Washington Post (registration required) held a reader chat last Friday with the paper's own Sunday cartoonist, Richard Thompson.

• Four Color Hell features its first interview, with self-publisher Douglas Paszkiewicz.

• TIME.com's Andrew Arnold takes a look at Craig Thompson's eagerly-awaited new graphic novel, Blankets.

• Mark Evanier offers tips for those going to San Diego.

• Frank Smith on why Jim Davis makes Image look good.

• Sean T. Collins on manga and the future of comics.

Finally -- this isn't comics-related, precisely, but if you're curious as to how comics creators might survive shrinking markets and voracious publishers, you might want to take a look at this Denver Post article, which details the increasing trend among musicians towards ditching their labels (and consequently their shitty contracts) and using the internet to publish and promote themselves directly to their fans. There might just be something here that could apply to comics. Let's take a brief pause while Chris Onstad and Scott Kurtz mutter, "Gee, you think?" (Link via ArtsJournal.)
Posted @ 2:00 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

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