Today's news
(Potpourri) Let's take one last spin around the internet and see what's happening, before shutting down for the weekend:

• It's official at last: Dark Horse Comics is buying Toren Smith's manga translation company, Studio Proteus.

• Tower Records, one of the first mainstream pop-culture retail chains to carry graphic novels, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, reports ICv2. The company's current plan does not currently involve major layoffs or store closings.

• Marvel's lame attempts to convince everyone that they're Pixar's secret buddies don't appear to be working very well, do they? Maybe they'll have better luck with this year's version of Marvel vs. Capcom. Why do I get the feeling that the post-Jemas regime will eventually be renowned for its allergy to words like "innovation" and "originality?"

• Given the Osamu Tezuka original, I'm having a great deal of difficulty fathoming the reason for this thing's existence.

• Harvey Awards executive committee member Nellie Kurtzman discusses the move to MoCCA, the future of the Harveys, and growing up with a cool cartoonist father with The Pulse's Jennifer Contino.

• Athens, Georgia alt-weekly Flagpole features Robert Newsome's interview with very funny cartoonist Sam Henderson.

• I know what you've been thinking, these past few months: "Isn't Sean Collins the only person in North America who hasn't interviewed Craig Thompson yet?" Well, here you go. All kidding aside, it's an intelligent, in-depth conversation, and fun to read even if you've already devoured all the other Thompson interviews conducted this past year. It occurs to me that someone should hire Collins to do this for a living...

• Sara Nelson of The New York Observer (temporary link) details why many book publishers are reluctant to embrace the bookstore sales-tracking service Bookscan, and also confirms yet again that the numbers don't provide a full picture of the marketplace. (Link via Jessa Crispin.)

• Comic Book Resources' James Sime explains how to get your graphic novel in the hands of librarians -- and up for consideration in the Young Adult Library Services Association's Best Books for Young Adults.

• Also at Comic Book Resources: Erick Hogan offers a brief history of how African-American superheroes have been presented to the reading public over the decades.

• This is the news item where I say "boobie!" Slate.com's editorial cartoon editor, Daryl Cagle, has posted a collection of cartoons devoted to that most substantive of political topics, Janet Jackson's right breast. Even more amusingly, he's posted a sampling of the email said collection has generated to his weblog. Boobie! (Standard disclaimer: there are no permalinks to Cagle's weblog. The item in question is currently the topmost item, dated "February 5, 2004.")

• Christopher Skokna, a writer for Baltimore alt-weekly City Paper, reviews the local stop of the traveling gallery show "Comics on the Verge," which provides a whirlwind tour of the cutting edge of the medium. (Link via Artbomb.)

• Writing for ICv2, California retailer Sara Gray states her belief that it's the job of comics-store owners to be familiar with the products they sell.

• Alasdair Watson explains the drawbacks under which the X-Men line of comics labor due to slavish adherence to the story models established by Chris Claremont, over at Ninth Art.

• Also at Ninth Art, Ben Wooller examines Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean's graphic novel, Mr. Punch.

• Broken Frontier's Matt Maxwell (temporary link) offers a sensible defense of superheroes: that they're cheesy, fun entertainment. Bonus points are awarded for successfully avoiding the word "archtype."

• David Fiore wraps up his critique of Moore & Gibbons' 'Watchmen', and also responds to comments from Sean Collins on other comics-related matters.

• I missed a minor nuance of what Tim Broderick was talking about yesterday, but it wouldn't have changed my response. I repeat: the booksellers' market is not the Direct Market. First, comics are a small part of the overall makeup of total product on offer, which means that publishers don't have the means to "flood" the market the way Marvel or DC can in comics shops. We're talking what, three percent of the booksellers' pie? Second, major bookstores have always been careful to track sales across the entire network of chain outlets, so there was never going to be more than a token number of copies of relatively obscure indy books shelved to begin with. Consequently, the Barnes & Nobles of the marketplace are turning out to be a secondary market for indy publishers -- the real action is taking place in independent shops and smaller, more targeted chains. This isn't really a surprise, and I'm not sure this isn't how it would've panned out regardless of Tokyopop's existence; in any case, there are enough of such stores to ensure a steady market presence for people who don't publish manga. Like I said, the booksellers' market is not the Direct Market. Finally, "secondary market" doesn't translate to "unattainable market" if you can develop sufficient buzz on a given book. There was never a serious likelihood that books like The Doofus Omnibus or Clumsy were ever going to get Chobits-level shelfspace, but that doesn't mean the jig is up by any stretch of the imagination.

• Best of luck to Comixpedia, which has again been suffering from the schizo-server blues.

While I've been taking his name in vain so often today: Sean Collins offers a defense of NeilAlien in our little spat over the future of the Direct Market. There's a minor amount of disconnect going on, here. I understand that Neil's prescription for non-superhero comics is to seek markets elsewhere; I simply don't understand how that intersects with the fate of a superhero-only Direct Market, or otherwise refutes my criticism. My concern here isn't for those other markets, but with comics shops.

By contrast, Franklin Harris gets the point I was making, and offers an actual counter-argument: that comics shops should lose the "comics only" focus and turn into more general pop-culture shops. It's a good idea -- and one that ICv2's been pushing for some time now -- but to a certain extent founders on the same economic disincentives. For the most part, comics retailing has a scarily low profit margin, which discourages investment in new product lines unless a native audience already exists within a given shop's existing customer base. This tends to act as a vicious circle unless the product line in question already appeals to said base. The elephant in this particular room is manga: it already has an audience of eager enthusiasts and a broad enough overlap with the existing market to seem like a natural fit, yet still faces a high level of resistance from Direct Market consumers who resent its intrusion as an alien presence. It isn't exactly what the present customer base wants, and therefore has so far managed to get little more than a couple of toes into the funnybook marketplace -- an actual foot in the door still seems a ways off. This is not a good sign.

I'm not saying Harris' suggestion is without merit; it's probably the closest anyone's come to a realistic means of untangling the Gordian Knot in question without simply cutting it in half. I'm simply pointing out that it's an uphill climb. It can conceivably be managed with enough persistence. Speaking of which: in response to an item from Wednesday's entries, California retailer Daniel Shahin writes:

"I thought your analysis of the ICV2 numbers was interesting, but there are some caveats to the high numbers. First and foremost, those numbers refer to sell-in rather than sell-through. Since the number of Manga titles offered has more than tripled in the last year, 100% growth or more is not surprising. Now the question is will sell-through be in line with the explosion of solicitations. I talk a bit about this in my latest weblog entry.

"There's no question in my mind that Manga is here to stay, at least in my store. The problem has been that some publishers are publishing anything and everything and the higher quality titles are getting crowded out by the pap. I think that after we see some massive waves of returns from the book trade we'll see the number of releases shrink a bit and hopefully continue a slower, steady rise in sales.

"My store is a little different than most comic shops as I have a lot of kids buying comics from me. While some of them do enjoy Manga exclusively, most of them read a pretty good mix of material, from Calvin and Hobbes to Usagi Yojimbo and a pretty good percentage of superhero books like the new Teen Titans series and Superman/Batman. While there's no question that a lot of kids are into Manga, I find that usually translates into them being into other kinds of comics too. Cartoons and movies about superheroes have really helped raise awareness of the mainstream characters and I've seen real sales growth in all categories among youngsters. Good news for the industry, I think..."

I'm delighted to hear that a broad range of comics is doing well for you, Daniel; I'd feel more secure about celebrating the good news if there were more shops following your example, but then my job is to be the cynic in discussions like this. In any case, I think I'll leave this latest incarnation of The Neverending Debate at that, before we start scaring the kids.

Let's conclude with a quick correction from yesterday. Fantagraphics co-owner Kim Thompson emails to remind me that while My Favorite Conflict of Interest distributed his English translation of the David B. book Epileptic Part One to the American market, Fantagraphics did not in fact publish it; that task was performed by the French publisher L'Association. So noted, and I'll see y'all back here on Monday.
Posted @ 6:15 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

Today's news
(Potpourri) Slow news day? Try no news day. I've got a fair amount of links for you, but the industry itself has been amazingly quiet -- which means that five minutes after I post this, something wacky's gonna happen, I just know it. Here's what I found:

• Simply Comics' Babar reminds me that the 2004 Comic Book Legal Defense Fund membership drive is now underway. Yes, this is a hint.

• Alan David Doane asks AiT/Planetlar publisher Larry Young five questions. Second link, and we've already moved on to the interviews -- told you nothing happened today.

• Towards the bottom of the first page of Richard Johnston's latest Waiting For Tommy column, former New X-Men artist Ethan Van Sciver provides an interesting look at Marvel editorial practices, in a "driving by a car crash" sort of way.

• Variety.com comics weblogger Tom McLean speaks with Rick Spears and Rob G, creators of the self-published comic book Teenagers From Mars.

• Movie Poop Shoot's Chris Allen interviews genre writer/editor Tony Isabella, and continues his Publishers' Report Card for 2003.

• British newspaper The East Grinstead Observer profiles local small-press cartoonist Garen Ewing, creator of the comic-book series The Rainbow Orchid.

• Over at Silver Bullet Comics, Clifford Meth continues his campaign to shame Marvel into doing right by Dave Cockrum. I remain dubious; Marvel can't even be shamed into doing right by Stan Lee, for crying out loud. I should also note that in recounting the sad story of Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Meth mangles a few of the facts. Fortunately, Mark Evanier is onhand to offer corrections.

• Newsarama begins a new manga review column, courtesy of Troy Brownfield. Stay for the comments section below, where an opening volley of "Ewww, manga sucks!" gets repulsed by a smarter variety of comics fan.

• Here's a couple of links from our old pal Rick Bradford. University of Georgia student newspaper The Red and Black offers a round-up of the growing small-press festival known as FLUKE 2004. Cartoonist Ben T. Steckler has a report on the festival as well. (Standard disclaimer: that last link is to a newer Blogspot site, so the permalinks don't work. The item in question is currently the topmost item for February 2nd, titled "Athens, GA: Outside In.")

• Writing for Toronto's Eye Weekly, Guy Leshinski tries to parse what the hell we're talking about when we refer to "graphic novels." (Thanks to Jeff Mason for emailing me the link.)

• Your conflict-of-interest link of the day: Shawn Hoke reviews the David Greenberger-edited collection of Duplex Planet comic strips, No More Shaves, for Broken Frontiers (temporary link).

• Your other conflict-of-interest post of the day: in case you missed the news, Fantagraphics will not in fact be publishing the second volume of David B.'s graphic novel Epileptic. Instead, Pantheon Books will be releasing a collection that combines both volumes under a single cover. (Incidentally, if I write about books my employer isn't publishing, is it still a conflict of interest?) Anyway, Tim O'Neil has heard the howls of outrage, but can't figure out how any of this is bad news. (Another disclaimer: that last link blah blah blah Blogspot site, blah blah permalinks don't work, blah blah blah blah February 4th, blah blah "TEMPEST IN A TEAPOT.")

• Legomancer's Dave continues the "Why not just superheroes?" meme begun by John Jakala and Ed Cunard (follow-up). I touched on this subject a bit in an interview mentioned below, but my full thoughts on the subject can be found here. (Link via NeilAlien.)

• Tim Broderick (Blogspot, no links, February 4th) thinks that recent news of manga's growth only proves his point that bookstore shelves are lost to independent publishers. I maintain that the bookstore market is not the Direct Market -- it's much bigger and more diverse, for one thing -- and there thus doesn't need to be a crossover effect between manga and Western comics for the latter to make a place for themselves in bookstores. Eventually, one of us will be proven right, one way or the other.

• Speaking of manga: Adam Stephanides (Blogspot, no links, February 4th) reviews a Japanese anthology of cartoonists interpreting various fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm.

• Monitor Duty's Christopher Arndt responds to a new Alex Ross interview in The Onion by lamenting the way that pinko-bastard painter's "most notorious work," Uncle Sam, gets so much attention. As a conservative myself, I'm a tad bewildered by this attitude. What exactly is so "notorious" about this graphic novel? Shay's Rebellion wasn't a betrayal of the newly-articulated American dream? The American march to the West Coast didn't result in a mountain of dead Native Americans? Politicians aren't corrupt? Arndt seems to base some of his criticism on the fact that the graphic novel in question was inspired in part by Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, but I'm not sure why this is relevant -- I hate to be the guy who breaks it to Arndt, but that a socialist believes something is insufficient evidence that it's untrue. A critical examination of American history is not by definition left or right, but rather closer to or further from the truth, depending on the work under discussion. Arndt may well have reason to dislike Uncle Sam, but if you're going to claim that a given work's politics are flawed, you should at least have the decency to say why you think this to be the case.

• It occurs to me that I'm going to keep linking to David Fiore's ongoing analysis of Watchmen until he gets bored and finds another subject -- he's just that good. Today's topic: how the mask ate Rorschach.

• Last week's L.A. Weekly featured a one-page strip containing the welcome return of Bob Callahan & Spain Rodriguez' Dark Hotel. Here's hoping we see more. (Link via Egon.)

Finally, let's consider two contrasting quotes. Here's the first:

"[...] Neilalien just doesn't see the value in questions like Cunard's (not being snarky here either) -- it sounds like an attempt to grok why hyper-fans of stamp collecting don't collect coins too. If one wants a larger readership for Baraka and Black Magic in Morocco, challenging the superhero enjoyer to check it out (just by default because they are already familiar with the medium, its language, the layout of the shop, etc.?) doesn't seem like the answer. Markets for non-superhero comics need to be rebuilt from outside the happy and fully-serviced superhero comic market."

- Neilalien, January 28th

Note carefully that last sentence; there'll be a test or something, I'm sure. Here's the second quote, a response to comments about the above excerpt that I made in my interview for Alan David Doane's weblog:

"In the entry Journalista linked to in the interview, Neilalien suggested to Ed Cunard (it wasn't that personal, let's say it was suggested to the comic snob in general) that bullying superhero enjoyers to buy something else (who are under no desire nor obligation to buy anything else besides superheroes until they die off) would not be as effective for improving the fortunes of alt/art/indy/smallpress comic books as outreach and marketing for these books to people outside of the superhero reading population. Simple enough. But Journalista equates that with (a) 'expounding upon the theory that comics shops are for superheroes, while bookstores are for everything else', and (b) 'asking creators, publishers, distributors and retailers to accept [the dwindling direct market as the superhero-reading population ages and dies off] as a good thing'.

"So the question is how the fuck does this weblog's post actually say those things, or even lead to them.

"And who would be moronic enough to think (b) anyway? Geez Louise, give this website a little more credit. Journalista essentially says that Neilalien wants retailers to fail, or that this website nurtures attitudes that puts time limits on shops, that Neilalien wants you to 'accept as a good thing' that a retailer or creator could no longer feed his/her family. Wrong and disgusting, at best."

- Neilalien, February 4th

There is a bit more to Neil's defense -- he seems to equate my stated disinterest in the superhero genre with some sort of attack on superhero fans, if my reading of his first point is correct. I'm not entirely sure it is correct, but it's the closest I can come to making heads or tails of Neil's point. In any case, it misrepresents my stated remarks every bit as much as Neil claims I misrepresented his.

Neil also errs in stating that "Journalista essentially says that Neilalien wants retailers to fail," and that I have therefore somehow insulted him. Again, this is a misrepresentation. I said that the attitude represented in the first quote would eventually lead to the downfall of the Direct Market, but I don't think Neil holds it becuase he wants to see retailers on the unemployment line. I just don't think he'd thought things through when he wrote the statement quoted above.

Beyond that, I'm not sure what else to say. I believe that the "happy and fully-serviced superhero comic market," which to the best of my (admittedly limited) ability to estimate is roughly 70-80% of the Direct Market, is headed for a slow but steady decline, for reasons enumerated in the disputed interview. I believe Neilalien, as the most experienced and (I suspect) popular of the superhero webloggers, is open to criticism and attempts at refutation when he champions this market against intrusion by people who question its ability to survive solely upon a closed, non-replenishing readership. I believe this can be done without insult or rancor, and I believe I have in fact done so. Certainly, Neil has certainly never had a problem criticising my arguments in the past, which I should hasten to add is all to the good. Indeed, he's even been up for the occasional bout of name-calling when it suited his purposes, which in turn I should hasten to add is of no real concern to me -- I'm certainly not above such behavior myself, after all. That said, I believe that nothing I've said recently has involved anything which a reasonable adult would consider "much to Neilalien's insult." I believe Neilalien is taking this shit way too personally.
Posted @ 5:40 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

Today's news
(Potpourri) We're apparently going manga today, as the biggest headlines were made in that portion of the funnybook universe. Here's what I found:

• ICv2 has just released the annual market report issue of its Retailers Guide to Anime/Manga, and the results are nothing short of astonishing: according to the publication, sales of manga volumes in 2003 reached "an estimated market size of around $100 million at retail." This is somewhere between 75% to 100% growth in just one year. To put it all in perspective, last year the same source estimated the entire graphic-novel market as being worth that same $100 million in 2002. Still think manga's a fad, kids?

• The Asia Pacific Media Network reports that Matsushita's Sigma Book, a hand-held, electronic reading device with the ability to go far longer between recharges than previous attempts, could hit Japanese store shelves sometime this month. Manga will be an important component in its marketing strategy.

• Hiring news: Hidemi Fukuhara, a former Merrill Lynch executive, has joined the manga publisher Viz as vice-president and chief financial officer. Newsarama has the press release.

• Here's the closest I found to non-manga news today: Marvel vice chairman Peter Cuneo spent yesterday at an investment forum in Philadelphia, trying to stand as close to computer-animation studio Pixar as humanly possible and telling people they were twins, no, really they were. The Hollywood Reporter only has a teaser paragraph available to non-subscribers, but it's really all you need to read. (Link from Cartoon Research via Steven Wintle.)

• I'm more embarrassed than a shy Mormon at a penis-twirling seminar by how busy I've been lately, and how it's affected my news-gathering. What brought me to this conclusion? The fact that I need Graeme McMillan to give me news found on the message board for which in theory I serve as administrator. Specifically, Peter Bagge will be drawing a "Bat Boy" comic strip for Weekly World News, starting in the March 2nd issue.

• Osaka weblog gmtPlus9 links to two interviews with Neil Swaab, the cartoonist behind Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles -- one from Sex and Guts, the other from Rash.

• Elsewhere in Japan, Yomiuri Shimbun staff writer Shin Usami profiles Thai cartoonist Eakasit Thairaat, winner of the 25th Yomiuri International Cartoon Contest.

• Wisconsin newspaper The Waukesha Freeman checks in with Craig & Lisa Lopacinski, owners of Neptune Comics, which just opened three weeks ago.

• Back at ICv2, retailers David Bigas and Buddy Saunders weigh in with further thoughts on the age-appropriate labeling of comic books.

• In his Newsarama column, Stuart Moore offers eight scenes from different comics to demonstrate the power and versatility of comics. I agree with most of the scenes with which I'm familiar. I don't think "High Society" is the moment from Cerebus I'd pick -- the Judge's verdict at the end of Church and State packs much more of a wallop -- but let's set that aside. The moment that impresses me is Chris Ware's cover to Blab! #8, his analysis for which is absolutely dead-on. No, the cover has never been reprinted that I'm aware of, and yes, it's a damned shame. (Disclaimer: I've long believed that every time a company shill starts singing the praises of his or her employer's product, you should just imagine turds falling from said shill's mouth. My employer, Fantagraphics Books, was the publisher of Blab! beginning with issue #8.)

• Tim O'Neil takes exception to comments I made in my interview yesterday on Alan David Doane's weblog: he thinks I'm entirely too optimistic about the Direct Market. (Standard disclaimer: it's a newer Blogspot site, so the permalinks don't work. The item in question is currently the topmost item for February 3rd, titled "Essential Reading.")

• More one-on-one Bruce/Dick action, courtesy of Mike Sterling.

Finally, folks: we need to get serious, here. It's just a nipple. There's absolutely no need for all this hysterical overreaction, you know? (Standard disclaimer: it's another Blogspot site, so once again the permalinks don't work. The item in question is currently the topmost item for February 3rd.)
Posted @ 1:05 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

Today's news
(Potpourri) I'm running a tad later than usual, so let's get right to it:

• Stanley Franklin, who drew a daily comics panel for U.K. tabloid The Sun, died yesterday after a short illness at the age of 74. Franklin, who worked under the name "Stan," drew cartoons for the paper for over two decades. The above link contains a collection of the artist's work, as well as an obituary.

• In what retailers and publishers alike will surely consider welcome news, Diamond Distributors has announced that it will be assigning permanent identification codes to each product it sells to retailers (eliminating the Star System by which it used to track books deemed perennials), and will henceforth allow retailers to learn the availability of a given product online. The Star System might have made sense ten years ago, but as the comic-book industry increasingly shifts its focus to book collections and graphic novels, the system has grown increasingly obsolete. Frankly, the move is more than a little overdue. ICv2 has the further details.

• Writing for Britain's Financial Times, Jo Johnson reports on the increasing bite that manga is taking out of the bandes dessinées pie. Citing a French publishing trade-magazine, the report states that last year manga accounted for "almost a third of the 1,860 new comic books published in France," a nation where comics make up an estimated 10% of the booksellers' market. Indeed, Johnson claims that some French stores now stock only manga, ignoring locally produced comics altogether.

• The Native American Times' Sam Lewin profiles cartoonist Mark L. Mindt, a member of the Spirit Lake Nation and creator of the Sioux superhero Koda the Warrior.

• Heading back to ICv2 for a moment: Canadian comics retailer Tim Simms agrees with prior arguments that titles should come with age-appropriate labels as an aid to both retailers and parents.

• Bruce Baugh argues that in developing and codifying its own genre conventions and schema, superhero comics have lost the manic, madcap energy they once had. (Link via Sean Collins, because I almost missed this.)

• Speaking of links I missed: Todd VerBeek explains how both DC and Marvel came to share the trademark for the term "superhero." (Link via Kevin Melrose.)

• Shawn Fumo looks at some of the benefits of digital paper, and how it could affect comics.

• Sarah Dyer, still on the gay-guy manga case, comes up with a good selection of links that help finally answer her questions.

• This one's been making the rounds in the greater blogosphere, and justly so: book editor Teresa Nielsen Hayden explains the methodology of reading through "the slush file," the pile of unsolicited manuscripts from aspiring authors, as she reads through a website devoted to rejection letters. Having waded through the Fantagraphics slush pile on several occasions, I can definitely see where she's coming from. Despite the difference in chosen media, if you're currently sending comics to publishers for consideration, you might actually profit from reading this. (Link courtesy of several, but I found it at Boing Boing first.)

• I'm not alone after all! Jason Kimble also has problems with Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' critically acclaimed spys-and-superheroes series Sleeper, albeit for different reasons than I do.

• David Fiore continues his look at Watchmen. It's pretty solid writing all around. The only point with which I'd take issue (and it's a minor one) is the notion that the plot of the story has no innate appeal -- an assertion that Fiore justifies by quoting just the final chapter's revelations. In fact, it's precisely the plot that propels Watchmen forward and holds the reader's interest long enough to get to the story points Fiore finds so dismissible. Mind you, I find them eminently dismissible, too (Alan Moore has long had a problem with endings), but to view the entire story, specifically the murder mystery that propels the various characters onward, exclusively from those final pages is to ignore the first eleven-twelfths of an intricate and absorbing tale.

• While we're on the subject, Mike Sterling describes studying Watchmen along with a non-comics reading English class at the University of California Santa Barbara, some years back.

• Alan David Doane interviews some weblogger asshole from The Comics Journal.

Finally, congratulations to James Kochalka, who just inked a record deal with Ryko. Rock out with your cock out, dude!
Posted @ 5:30 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

Today's news
(Potpourri) All apologies for Friday's outage; as noted below, the broadband feed from my service provider conked out late Thursday evening, leaving me unable to update the weblog. Also, it's time for one of my periodic apologies for not answering my email. Between work and this page, I simply don't have a spare moment for anything lately.

In case you missed it, the Audio Archives have been updated for February. It's a repeat, but of one of our most requested MP3 excerpts: Gil Kane's 1969 interview with Pogo creator Walt Kelly. Hopefully we'll be back to new entries next month, when I should actually have the time to edit them.

Here's what happened in comics and cartoons over the weekend:

• Editor & Publisher's Dave Astor reports that Pennsylvania newspaper The Philadelphia Inquirer, apparently feeling excessively influential these days, has asked several features syndicates to provide their daily comic strips free of charge for at least the next six months. No, seriously. One syndicate, King Features, is already on record as having told the paper to go screw.

• According to the news agency Reuters, Marvel Comics has sued Sony Corporation's film division yet again -- this time over allegations that Sony used "deceptive accounting practices" to cheat the comics publisher turned licensing company out of merchandising royalties owed from the film Men in Black. ICv2 recounts the legal history between the two companies. It's worth asking again: what kind of accounting practices prompted Stan Lee to sue Marvel? Isn't it possible that The House That Jack Built is getting hoisted by its own petard, here?

• In Canada, American Color Graphics, the printer responsible for many of North America's Sunday comics sections, is closing the close the flexographic printing department of its Ontario plant and laying off roughly 95 of its 250 employees, citing decreasing demand and a strong Canadian dollar as reasons for the move. New York's Buffalo News has the story. The printing company has actually been experiencing financial difficulties for some time now; here's a ¡Journalista! entry from June of last year with further details.

• French comics news-site BDzoom (Google translation) offers some statistics from this year's festival in Angoulême. The festival drew some 210,000 attendees, with 950 comics creators from 35 nations making the scene. The press was also well-represented, with 880 reporters covering the festivities -- 250 of them from one of 26 nations other than France. (Link via Fumetti.org's Gianfranco Goria.)

• Journalist and gossip columnist Rich Johnston offers a yellow-lit rumor that CrossGen may soon be about to receive a $10 million "infusion."

• Rick Weiss of The Washington Post (registration required) provides a follow-up on Philips Electronics' plans to market a digital reader using E Ink technology.

• The New York Times (registration also required) offers a little background as to why IDT telecom magnate Howard Jonas recently bought a 5% interest in Archie Comics Entertainment.

• The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has been holding an eBay auction to raise money for their various endeavors. All of the auctions close tomorrow evening, so make a bid while you can. Don't see anything you like? You can always support the Fund by becoming a member.

• The National Association for Women in Communications has honored political cartoonist Mike Konopacki for co-organizing a 2002 traveling exhibit of cartoons, "U.S. Patriot Art: Cartooning and Free Speech in War Time." Konopacki's newspaper, Wisconsin's Capital Times, takes a moment to celebrate its prize artist.

• North Country Public Radio's Brian Mann pays a visit to the studio of 1950s Harvey Comics artist Sid Couchey. To hear the seven-minute report in streaming RealAudio, click here.

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution political cartoonist Mike Luckovich describes his strategies in caricaturing the 2004 American presidential nominees.

• Here's a transcript of a recent online chat with Bunny Hoest, co-creator of the daily comics panel The Lockhorns, courtesy of The Washington Post (registration still required, in case you'd lost track).

• Daniel Robert Epstein speaks with Craig Thompson for the gothporn site Suicide Girls.

• Newsarama's Chris Arrant interviews Rick Smith, whose travelogue Baraka & Black Magic in Morocco sees release in March from the company single-handedly keeping me from referring to alternative comics as "alternative comics," Alternative Comics.

• California's San Jose Mercury News profiles local comics-shop owner Daniel Shahin.

• Iowa newspaper The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, meanwhile, shines a spotlight on comics retailer Mike Blanchard, who works with local schoolteachers to get comic books in the hands of children.

• Comixpedia celebrates its second birthday with... navel-gazing! I kid, of course. Here are interviews with publisher Xaviar Xerxes and editor-in-chief François John Cormier.

• Writing for U.K. newspaper The Telegraph's sports pages, Robert Philip celebrates the most popular of late writer/editor Derek Birnage's creations: football comics hero Roy Race.

• Bill Broadway, staff writer for The Washington Post (registration et cetera), takes a look at the world of religious comic-book publishing.

• Collector Times' Jamie Coville (temporary link) sifts through arguments over the trend towards comics trade paperbacks.

• Canadian music portal Exclaim examines the ups and downs of the Wonder Woman comic book over the years. Interesting highlight: the way the article essentially pegs the title's decline to cartoonist John Byrne.

• High-school journalist Rachel Stark provides a basic primer on manga for The Sacramento Bee.

• Amira El-Noshokaty celebrates the return of Mickey Mouse comics to Egyptian newsstands for the weekly newsmagazine Al-Ahram.

• At ICv2, Arkansas retailer Michael Tierney makes what I'd consider a sensible call for age-appropriate labels on superhero comic books, in light of the recent furor over DC's Outsiders #8 and other recent, boundary-pushing titles.

• The new issue of Sequential Tart is online, with highlights including interviews with cartoonist Leland Purvis, Street Angel co-creators Jim Rugg & Brian Maruca, and Michigan retailer Daniel Merritt, plus an examination of Molly Kiely's career in comics, a look at romantic comedy in manga, and much more.

• Sex and psychedelic potatoes: Audrey Ference examines the eroticism of Alan Moore's Saga of the Swampt Thing for Ninth Art.

• Also at Ninth Art: Paul O'Brien critiques the first few months of the post-Jemas Marvel, declaring the results to be decidedly mixed.

• It's the first Monday of the month, which means it's time for Movie Poop Shoot's regular look at comic-book fans paying wa-a-ay too much for their funnybooks on eBay, CGC Hall of Shame.

• The weblog of editorial cartoonist Daryl Cagle offers two guest editorials. The first (dated "January 31, 2004") comes courtesy of New Jersey cartoonist Jimmy Margulies, who offers his advice for aspiring editorial cartoonists. The second is from New Zealand freelance illustrator Chris Slane (dated "January 29, 2004;" scroll down), who provides a funny take on the difference between what editors say and what they actually mean.

• Jeffery Stevenson describes seeing the social whirlpool that he once experienced among kids around a comics spinner rack recreated by today's teenagers... hovering around the manga kiosk at a bookstore. (Link via Kevin Melrose.)

• John Jakala ponders the question, "Why not just superheroes?" Dave Intermittent, meanwhile, blames the artcomics snobs.

• Sarah Dyer chases after the elusive, realistic gay-guy relationship in comics (with a short update here).

• It's Evan Dorkin versus Dynamic Forces in a cage-match you won't want to miss!

• Jessa Crispin explains that Comic Book Resources could really use an editor. I'd comment, but as longtime readers of this weblog are doubtlessly aware, my head would quickly explode from the hypocrisy.

• Manga-blogging: Bill Sherman on girls' manga Kodocha, Pam Korda on the fifth volume of Fake, Adam Stephanides wonders of Chikuro Youchien is the Japanese Nancy, and John Pierce lists a couple of message-board recommendation threads.

• David Fiore jumps the Watchmen-blogging train.

• I'm not particularly interested in Catwoman comics one way or the other, but I'm delighted to see my "boob socks" meme finally starting to take off.

• Nothing says "please think about my genitals" quite like a Marvel superheroine, don't you think?

• Here's further proof that there's absolutely no truth to all those old "Batman and Robin" rumors... (Thanks to Libby for pointing this website out to me.)

Finally, posting to our message board, Tony Millionaire offers pharmacological advice for the working cartoonist:

"10 Budweisers and one Vicodin, not 2.

"Drink slowly."

Words to live by.
Posted @ 5:10 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

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