Sick-leave week concludes
(Potpourri) Sick of hearing about my cold yet? Goodness knows the subject bores me to tears. Anyway, I'm getting better, and expect to be back to full strength next week.

The big buzz at the moment is still the Crossgen Massacree. As predicted yesterday, the rumors flew fast and furious, but by the end of the day various news-sites had generally cross-referenced their stories and settled on a consensus as to what happened. The Pulse claims vice-president of product development Tony Panaccio and chief operating officer Gina Villa as casualties, while Newsarama adds vice-president of special projects Brandon Peterson and cartoonist George Perez to the list. The two big surprises here are Perez, who's still a fan-favorite after all these years, and second-in-command Villa -- didn't she own a piece of the company, or am I mistaken, here?

My sources are now telling me (and The Pulse seems to confirm) that Crossgen did not secure additional financing, and that the layoffs and trimming of benefits are an attempt to make the company look more attractive to potential investors down the line. Beyond that, I'll leave the speculation to the various message boards and give the last word to Elayne Riggs, who has a more vested interest in the outcome than I do.

Elsewhere:

• Japanese publisher Kodansha is upgrading its online capabilities, in part to deal with the bandwidth needed for downloadable comics and e-books. Cable & Wireless IDC brags about landing the contract in a press release.

• Adding insult to unprofitability, screenwriter Larry Cohen and movie producer Martin Poll are suing Fox Studios over the film adaptation of Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, claiming that the idea for the film was actually ripped off from a script they were peddling around Hollywood a decade ago. Moore and O'Neill were not named in the suit. Forbes provides the story, but feel free to provide the punchline yourself.

• Daniel Robert Epstein interviews Gabrielle Bell for Newsarama.

• Stephen Weiner, the author of the books 100 Graphic Novels for Librarians and 101 Best Graphic Novels, is profiled by Massachusetts newspaper The Beacon Villager.

• The National Review's Radley Balko welcomes Opus the Penguin back to the comics page, and makes the case for Berkeley Breathed as a libertarian fellow-traveler.

• Over at Slate, Jaime Wolf compares the film version of Harvey Pekar's American Splendor to Woody Allen's classic film Annie Hall -- and concludes that Splendor more than holds its own. (Thanks to Jesse Baggs for the link.)

• The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's week-long series on comic-strip history enters the 1960s and 1970s, or as I like to call them, "The Crap Years".

• The Boston Globe interviews Rick Stromoski, creator of the syndicated strip Soup to Nutz. The proximity between this entry and the last one is a total coincidence, I swear.

• Egon links to the website of Chicago retailer Quimby's Bookstore, which has posted streaming RealAudio files culled from its various readings, including choice bits from John Porcellino, David Rees and Chip Kidd.

• Kevin of Talk Left expresses wonderment that the Direct Market still exists. (Link via Jim Henley, who also offers some further thoughts on comics retailing.)

• Speaking of links cribbed from Jim Henley, Nate of Polytropos went to the recent Baltimore Comic-Con and found himself completely fascinated watching Michael Kaluta drawing sketches for fans.

• Forager goes from analyzing Frédéric Boilet's "Nouvelle Manga Manifesto" (to which Shawn Fumo recently linked) to ranting about the lack of skill and artistry in the minicomics scene. He later apologizes for the rambling nature of the post, but it nonetheless warms my cold and shriveled heart to watch someone being mean to comics, so I won't argue. No, I'm not going to apologize for this paragraph's rambling nature. I'm sick, remember?

• Big Sunny David's been sick too, but he still managed to squeeze out a brief appreciation of Carlos Segura's brilliant covers for the Morrison/Weston series The Filth.

Finally, a correction: the review of Shonen Jump to which I linked yesterday was for the third issue and not, as I indicated, the latest. Really, I should've just taken the week off, you know? (Thanks to Bill Sherman for pointing this out.)
Posted @ 1:50 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

Sick-leave blogging continues
(Potpourri) Blah blah blah still home sick blah blah coughing and sneezing blah blah blah blah short entries in the meantime blah blah blah.

Over at The Pulse, Heidi MacDonald has the big news of the day: Crossgen has just issued a round of layoffs. Heidi estimates that as many as 20-25 jobs were cut, while my own source cites a general 25% figure (for all I know, they're the same estimate, and I'm still too sick to bother checking). Furthermore, the company has also switched its fulltime creative staff from salaries to page-rates, thus nullifying the principal reason many writers and artists went to work for the company in the first place. Naturally, Crossgen has no comment, although I expect the inevitable damage-control statements and rumormongering will be forthcoming shortly.

In other news:

• Newsarama provides a link to the homepage of former Heavy Metal artist and member of The Studio, Jeffrey Jones, who has fallen upon hard times.

• ICv2 conducted a stunningly vague interview with DC Comics publisher Paul Levitz (part one, part two), in which Levitz reveals that "enthusiasm" is up, bookstore sales have increased by an undisclosed amount (but manga is notheless kicking their asses), and Levitz is happy with title sell-outs (but provides no context whatsoever as to why this is a good thing). You'd think that if there was good news, he'd want to tell us about it, hmm?

• Editor and Publisher's Dave Astor examines the choices editors will have to make in order to fit Berkeley Breathed's half-page Opus strip in their Sunday comics sections.

• Military newspaper Stars and Stripes features an update on the work of Chris Tarbassian, whose Operation Comix Relief has now sent roughly 4000 comic books and counting to men and women serving overseas in the U.S. Armed Forces.

• Australia's Queensland Sunday Mail notes that cartoonist Rod Emmerson is still catching hell for taking the editorial cartooning slot formerly held by New Zealand's Malcolm Evans.

• The St. Louis Post-Dispatch spoke to Gary Panter and Charles Burns about their work, as both art-comics cartoonists arrive to open a gallery exhibition that highlights their works.

• The Chicago Sun-Times' Misha Davenport offers a short history of Jews in the comic-book industry, with an emphasis on industry veteran Joe Kubert, whose new graphic novel Yossel, April 29, 1943 debuts in a few weeks. (Thanks to Joe Littrell for emailing me the link.)

• The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's series on comic-strip history reaches the 1950s, when short, punchy humor strips finally overtook adventure strips to dominate the funny-pages once and for all.

• ICv2 reports that NBM is the latest publisher to throw their hats into the manga ring -- sort of -- by publishing Lea Hernandez' homegrown manga-influenced series Rumble Girls in the traditional format for $9.95.

• While reviewing the latest issue of Shonen Jump for Anime News Network, John Jakala notes that at 352 pages and still growing, the magazine will soon be bigger than Diamond's Previews catalog.

• Retailers to Japanese entertainment importers targeting the big chainstores: "Fuck you." Japanese entertainment importers to upset retailers: "Get over yourselves."

• Shawn Fumo provides both a link to and short analysis of Frédéric Boilet's 2001 "Nouvelle Manga Manifesto", which examines the difference between French and Japanese approaches to comics, and finds the French approach wanting in comparison.

• Elayne Riggs casts a harsh eye over the email recently sent out by Prophecy magazine to its contributors.

• Lore Sjöberg offers a great rant on micropayments and their utility. (Link via Boing Boing.)

• Jason Kimble uses a recent essay by Stuart Moore as a jumping-off point to examine the implementation of the "decompression" technique by which Marvel books have recently been padded out for the trade collection.

• In this week's Webcomics Round-Up, Frank Smith gives shoutouts to Jen Sorenson, Ben Catmull and more.

Finally, Alan David Doane has announced the end of his website, Comic Book Galaxy. This is a shame, of course -- Doane has always gone out of his way to promote books of good quality, and his weblog is a good daily stop. Here's wishing him luck on future endeavors, and hoping he doesn't drop out of the scene altogether.
Posted @ 12:45 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

Still on sick leave
(Potpourri) I think my cold's starting to die down, but it ain't there yet. Consequently, I'm conserving my strength and phoning it in again today. Here is the news:

• Tokyopop can't hire people fast enough, it seems; they're currently looking for an editor-in-chief, marketing director, cine-manga editor and manga editor. Either this company is growing faster than even I was expecting, or they've got turnover problems to beat the band.

• TechWeb features an in-depth look at the growing interest in e-books in Japan, spearheaded by the consortium backing the SigmaBook. The article pointedly references the possibilities for comics content using such a device, quoting a manga artist hopeful for the technology's potential to preserve work that might otherwise fall out of the public sphere.

• Let it not be said that Kuwait isn't totally cutting edge -- a local telecom service is spicing up its mobile phone service by allowing subscribers to download old Ziggy and Heathcliff comic strips onto their phone screens. Be still my beating heart. The United Arab Emirates' AMEinfo has the story.

• Daniel Robert Epstein offers up a brand-new interview with Love and Rockets cartoonist Jaime Hernandez, courtesy of goth-porn website Suicide Girls.

• The Associated Press picks up on the news that Neil Gaiman has returned to Sandman, which means it's everywhere now -- see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here for examples.

• The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's series on comic-strip history continues. Monday's installment follows the funnies through the Roaring Twenties, Tuesday finds comics dealing with the Great Depression, while today's installment chronicles how World War II shaped the American comic strip.

• Boy, if there was ever a news report eight months behind the curve, this is it. Did you know that Daredevil and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen were "box-office bonanzas"? A Gannett wire story found in Kentucky's Louisville Courier Journal schools you in that hip, now comic-book movie trend.

• Last Friday, John Byrne climbed onto his high horse and asked, "Who started the rumor that John Byrne books didn't sell?" Today, Steven Grant offers an answer (second item): "John Byrne did."

• Hi-Horse Comics co-creator Joan Reilly offers an indy-eye view of the recent Baltimore Comic-Con at The Pulse.

• Writing for Newsarama, Stuart Moore looks at "decompression" -- that is, the art of spreading panels out and using more room to tell a story in comics form.

• Weblogger Jim Henley gives us a survey of comics shops in the Washington DC area. I think I have more to say on a couple of points he raises, but I fear it'll have to wait until I'm feeling up to it.

Finally, thanks to Pam Noles for various links. If I'm feeling up to it, I'll try to begin full-length blogging tomorrow. No promises.
Posted @ 12:45 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

Calling in sick
(Potpourri) Your surly neighborhood ¡Journalista! began feeling under the weather early Sunday evening; by the time yesterday's entry was written, it had become a full-blown cold. I simply don't have the energy or the concentration to write very much, but here's a few stories and links to tide you over until I'm back on my feet again:

• In Zimbabwe, police are defying a High Court order to allow The Daily News to re-open, refusing to let staffers back into the building as well as holding onto the computers confiscated in their original raid of the premises. IFEX has the report; looks like editorial cartoonist Tony Namate won't be going to work just yet after all.

• Publishers Weekly's Douglas Wolk reports that attendence at the recent Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Maryland was down, but that Diamond Distributors' vice-president, Bill Schanes, reported sales in the Direct Market to be up this year.

• Three bronze statues depicting a variety of Peanuts characters have been installed in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota; a fourth is in the works. Twin Cities TV station KARE has the story.

• The Pulse's Heidi MacDonald has a round-up of the graphic-novel action at the "New York is Book Country" book fair, including photos of Adrian Tomine and Peter Kuper, and a very Beatles-esque Neil Gaiman adventure (who apparently sold more tickets to his signing than did Steve Martin).

• Author Ray Bradbury spoke to Newsarama's Matt Brady about his lifelong love affair with comics, and the upcoming collection of his short stories adapted to the medium.

• Egon points out the launch of Gary Panter's website, which will carry a weekly comic strip and, eventually, an online journal maintained by the artist.

• Sean Collins uses the recent interview that Chris Allen conducted with online comics critic Paul O'Brien as a launching point to discuss the state of online comics criticism.

Ugh, I feel awful. Hopefully something will survive the night and do this again tomorrow. If not, it was fun writing for you...
Posted @ 12:05 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

Slow news day
(Potpourri) A fair number of stories and links showed up over the weekend, but nothing particularly headline-worthy -- and there's no way in Hell I'm ranting any more about the Direct Market. (You're welcome.) Here's what I found:

• Reporters Without Borders calls upon the Algerian government to respect press freedoms, as that nation's 47 independent newspapers withhold the publication of today's editions in protest of the state's continuing crackdown against reporters, editors and editorial cartoonists (including unrepentent firebrand Ali Dilem).

• According to ICv2, ADV Manga's first softcover release, Full Metal Panic Vol. 1, debuted at #7 on Bookscan's graphic-novel sales chart for bookstores -- a healthy start for a newcomer to the market, which suggests there may be room on the shelves for titles other than those published by the Big Four of Tokyopop, Viz, Dark Horse and Comics One.

• Jay Morton, the animation writer who coined the phrase "faster than a speeding bullet" for the original Fleischer Superman cartoons, died on September 6th at the age of 92. The San Jose Mercury News has the story.

• Last Thursday I made a crack about the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists not updating their news page. Ask and ye shall receive: the site has now been updated with news reports on the last few months' worth of edittoon controversies. There's also a one-two punch on cartoons focusing on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict: an essay by historian R.C. Harvey that looks at the increased scrutiny cartoonists find themselves under when depicting Israeli symbols and politicians, and an editorial by Mike Miner which points out that while cartoonist Dick Locher got in trouble for a cartoon critical of Israel, he got a pass on a 'toon (pictured) which was far more savage towards Saudi Arabia -- depicted as a man so malevolent and rat-like that he has a tail. Finally, there's an interview with the AAEC's new president, gay conservative cartoonist Mike Ritter. "No one's from Arizona"? Fuckin' snowbird.

• Dan Hernandez posts to our message board (temporary link) to inform us that Prophecy Magazine, an ambitious attempt to publish a regular comics anthology magazine for the nesstand, had given up the ghost without printing a single issue.

• While I may not have anything to say about the Direct Market today, others do. For example, Babar at Simply Comics looks at the August Sales numbers, and gapes in wonder at the fact that sales actually went down, in spite of the record orders for the first issue of Gaiman and Kubert's 1602. His conclusion: that the money spent on 1602 was money that otherwise would've been spent on other books.

• Ait/PlanetLar publisher Larry Young explains the brutal truth behind self-publishing, for those who want to know such things. (Link via Simply Comics.)

• Publishers Weekly's Douglas Wolk examines the continuing financial turmoil at Crossgen Comics; there's little new information here, but it's a decent enough summary of the situation.

• Writing for Connecticut newspaper The New Haven Register, Randall Beach interviews legendary cartoonist Jules Feiffer about his new career as an author of children's books.

• The Neil Gaiman media juggernaut continues. This time out, New York City's Newsday carries an Associated Press report which sings the praises of the new Sandman collection.

• The Harvey Pekar media juggernaut continues. This time out, Australia's Daily Telegraph sings the praises of writer whose works inspired the American Splendor movie.

• Editorial cartoonist Paul Conrad and comics writer Max Allan Collins spoke to a group of University of Iowa graduates last Friday, and The Iowa City Press-Citizen was there.

• Over at Ninth Art, Marcos Castrillón offers a primer on Spanish cartoonist Carlos Giménez, whose autobiographical series Paracuellos documents his life growing up in an orphanage during the Franco regime.

• Also at Ninth Art: Antony Johnston, Andrew Wheeler and Alisdair Watson look at the way genre-comics writers market themselves to the public.

• Writing for The Vancouver Sun, Trevor Boddy sings the praises of Mr. Presents himself, Stan Lee. (Link courtesy of Mark Evanier.)

• Georgia's Atlanta Journal-Constitution begins a week-long series on the history of the comic strip. Saturday's entry details the early days of the 20th century and the comics page prior to World War I. (Thanks to Jeff "I have a blog but it's not about comics" Mason for posting this to our message board.)

• Anime News Network's Rebecca Bundy takes a look at why manga has generated so much appeal among younger, and especially female, readers.

• Having not read the final issue yet, I'm avoiding anything related to Morrison and Weston's The Filth; if you aren't, then Big Sunny David and Johnny Bacardi have all your Filth commentary needs taken care of.

• Despite the total lack of power in his Washington DC neighborhood, Jim Henley still manages to review Daniel Clowes' Eightball #22 and Carla Speed McNeil's Finder: King of Cats.

• Steven Wintle continues Archie-blogging. This time out: how Betty taught Archie to give hickeys!

• Sometimes, even Wolverine is sad.

• Mike Gagnon defends poor, poor Top Shelf from those bastards at The Comics Journal. Jason Marcy, meanwhile, is just plain sick of the whole Team Comix debate.

Speaking of which, I'd like to leave you with two final thoughts for the day. The first is from Sarah Dyer:

"[...] I saw somewhere, although I cannot remember where, someone questioning whether there was room for two 'art comic' shows on the East coast, and I wanted to just point out that the difference is that MoCCA is not an 'art' comic show, it's a comic art show, and there is a difference. There's an inclusiveness to MoCCA that SPX definitely does not have, and we know several people who don't feel welcome at SPX and will never get a table there that have gone to MoCCA and done fantastically. [...]"

The second is a Dean Haspiel quote from our message board, which I'm reprinting here mainly because I'd like to save it after the thread eventually gets deleted to make space:

"Until you toss a frisbee or share a hot dog w/a comic book maker, your comic book opinions are invalid."

Ain't it the truth, Dino... ain't it the truth. Go Team Comix!
Posted @ 2:25 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

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