TCJ editorship changes hands, ¡Journalista! goes on temporary hiatus
(The Comics Journal) Milo George, managing editor of The Comics Journal, was fired yesterday evening by Gary Groth over -- this is as close as I'll come to terminology acceptable to both parties -- "professional and interpersonal differences with management." Yes, those are weasel words. I'd feel more comfortable going into further detail if I'd been closer to the fireworks that led to the final straw, but I wasn't. His replacement has already been selected: one Mr. Dirk Deppey.

Before I go any further: I consider Milo to be one of the best editors in the magazine's history. He brought an encyclopedic knowledge of comics to the table, as well as formidable editorial skills and a strong vision of how he wanted to see the Journal make its way into the 21st century. Filling his shoes is a daunting task, and it's going to take considerable effort on my part to come even close to pulling it off.

Nonetheless, that's exactly what I aim to do. To accomplish this task, I must reluctantly announce that ¡Journalista! will be going on a temporary hiatus while I assume the helm and ascertain just how I would go about simultaneously editing the magazine and producing a weekdaily weblog without either suffering a loss in quality. As things stand, I cannot imagine returning to the weblog for at least a month, and it wouldn't surprise me if it took longer. Given a choice between the two, there's no two ways around the fact that the magazine would have to come first -- but that's a decision I'm not prepared to make right now.

In the short term: the TCJ.com homepage will be updated next Wednesday to reflect the arrival of the The Comics Journal #258, which will feature an extended critical focus on the work of legendary cartoonist Steve Ditko as well as a panel discussion between Craig Thompson and Gilbert Hernandez. Also appearing Wednesday will be the latest installment of Daniel Holloway's online review column, Dogsbody. The Audio Archives will continue to be updated, but with repeats of previous installments. In the long term -- well, I'm working on that.

The above caveats aside, I do intend to restart the weblog just as soon as possible. I realize that expecting people to check the same dead page periodically is both cruel and unrealistic, so I'm starting a mailing list instead; if you'd like to be notified when this occurs, send an email to weblog@tcj.com with the words "notify me" as the subject header, and I'll add you to the list. Your email address will not be given to anyone else, and will be used for no other purpose than to let you know when you can start reading ¡Journalista! again. The list gets deleted after that.

Thanks to everyone who read this site over the past sixteen months, as well as those webloggers and internet columnists who've linked here in that time. I've enjoyed this gig tremendously, and don't give it up lightly. Really, I'll do my best to return. In the meantime...
Posted @ 4:40 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

In other news
(Potpourri) Let's take one final look at the news before putting this weblog to bed:

• ICv2 has posted its analysis of Diamond's just-released sales numbers for January. Interesting bits: while overalls sales dropped, "the drop in comic book sales was less than normal for January." the report also highlights a welcome increase in manga sales within the Direct Market, which hints that the comics shops might yet benefit from the newfound interest in Japanese comics among teenagers. Here are ICv2's estimated sales figures for the top 300 comic books and top 50 graphic novels.

• French publisher Soleil has signed a deal with Japanese publisher Kodansha to translate and produce a French-language edition of the girls' manga anthology Nakayoshi. Univers BD (Google translation) has the details. (Link via Fumetti.org.)

• A correction: according to The Minneapolis Star Tribune, the fifth and final Peanuts character to be cast in a variety of statues and scattered throughout downtown St. Paul, Minnesota will be "Snoopy on the doghouse with Woodstock," and not a solitary Woodstock as erroneously reported yesterday. I know, totally destroys whatever's left of my credibility, doesn't it?

• This link is for Eric Reynolds, because no one will object to my posting it now.

• IGN Filmforce features an extended conversation with the second most powerful person at Marvel Comics, Avi Arad, who goes into some considerable detail as to the difficulties of turning superheroes into licensable film properties. Arad also reiterates his firm desire to again produce comics for children. (Link via Graeme McMillan.)

• Over at Newsarama, meanwhile, Cliff Biggers interviews DC Comics' editorial vice-president Dan DiDio and sales & marketing vice-president Bob Wayne about the challenges the company faces in the 21st century, and how expanding its line of comics to cover a wider variety of genres can help meet them. Weblogger Kevin Melrose, of course, has a somewhat more cynical take on how the company handles its superhero line.

• Jonah Weiland interviews indy comics writer Damon Hurd for Comic Book Resources.

• Small-press comic book publisher and artist James Coon is profiled in Pennsylvania's Sayre Evening Times.

• Ninth Art's Andrew Wheeler is the latest victim of funnybook burnout, and ponders just what that might mean.

• Also at Ninth Art: John Parker examines Chris Ware's Quimby the Mouse.

• This just in: comic-book stories aren't real! Max Maxwell offers a fanboy reality check for Broken Frontier (temporary link).

• Daryl Cagle reprints the cartoon by Ann Telnaes, commenting on women's-rights issues around the world, which recently drew the artist heated responses and even a death threat via email. (Standard disclaimer: there are no permalinks. The item in question is currently the topmost item, dated "February 12, 2004.")

• In a brief, "first impressions" review, John Jakala liked Gilbert Hernandez' Palomar, but felt that the book began to lose its grounding over the course of 500 pages. Jakala promises more on the subject after a second reading.

• Shawn Fumo presents two examples of the Sharks/Jets-esque divide that marks the gulf between superhero and manga fans.

• Big Sunny David has now read two issues of the Mark Millar-written series Wanted, and it still hasn't convinced him that it's worth reading in its entirety. I just picked up the first issue of another "Millarverse" series, Chosen. I feel David's pain.

• Tim O'Neil has similar doubts about Milligan & Allred's X-Statix. (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 12th, titled "Back In The Saddle.")

• I'm linking to Mike Sterling for the hell of it -- definitely one of the better new comics bloggers to emerge so far this year.

• Okay, I admit it: it'll be nice to take a break from trying to pull so much as an ounce of real meaning from bland, uninformative articles about comics like this one from Baltimore's Jewish Times.

• Also, for those comics bloggers who haven't either figured it out for themselves or picked up on the multiple hints I've dropped over the past sixteen months, here's the not-so-secret of my link fu: Google News. The keywords are comic, comics, comix, cartoon, cartoons, cartooning, cartoonist, cartoonists, manga, "graphic novel" and "graphic novels" (those quotation marks are necessary -- without them, you'll simply get every page that has both words somewhere on the same page). Be sure to click "sort by date" on your first search-results page. Move fast enough through the pages and the search takes roughly half an hour. You knew about this already, right? No? Well, don't say I never gave you nothin'.

A quick parting shot: writing for ICv2, california comics retailer Michael Pandolfo admonishes the site to not lose track of the Direct Market as it covers the increasing presence of graphic novels (especially manga) in the booksellers market. I suppose I can sympathise with portions of his argument in theory, but Pandolfo loses me here:

"If you look at sales of graphic novels at the chain bookshops, the overall numbers may be impressive. But if you compare sales at a single chain store with sales at a dedicated comics shop, the chains don't come out looking so good. For example, during the time that you reported Walden selling 600 copies of Hellsing, we sold 10 copies at my store. With about 500 stores at Walden, that averages out to only about 1.2 copies per store for them.

"It's important to keep in mind that we at comic shops have trained sales staffs who intimately know and love the books and can answer customer questions with the knowledge and passion of the comic connoisseur. We stock entire lines of comics, including back issues and even out of print items that are rarely carried in the major book markets. In essence, we nurture a love and understanding of the art and craft of comics that often leads to sales in the major bookstores. Our role in the industry is often as champions and educators, and our customers are frequently the opinion leaders who lead their friends to make those bookstore purchases."

This logic is flawed in two places. First, it assumes that money from the Direct Market is somehow worth more than money from bookstores. This amounts to little more than wishful thinking; it's the growth rate, after all, that makes the booksellers market so attractive. Second, there's the matter of the last quoted sentence. With the Direct Market so overwhelmingly weighted towards superheroes, and manga the undisputed champion of bookstores, there would seem to be little evidence to suggest that the crossover effect suggested here actually exists. Indeed, given the variety of subjects found in manga, as well as the sudden re-emergence of a female readership, it seems more likely that the growth of a comics market in bookstores has occured in spite of the Direct Market, rather than because of it. To be sure, one could reasonably claim that most publishers would never have reached former without the latter, but that's an argument about publishers, not readers.

Okay, that's it. Until the weblog returns, I'll see you in newsprint.
Posted @ 4:40 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

Today's news
(Potpourri) Here's what happened in the last day or so:

• The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art has just signed a new lease on a location in New York City's SoHo district, a move that would more than double space available to MoCCA. The Pulse's Heidi MacDonald has further details.

• Comic Book Resources has the raw figures release by Diamond for its January sales to comics retailers. Assuming Batman -- the book to which the 100% ranking figure is usually pegged -- sold roughly the same number of issues this month as last, the sales rankings would seem to show a downward turn in sales. Given the seasonal nature of the Direct Market, however, this is unlikely to be indicative of any deeper trend, as comics sales usually slow down after the holidays.

• For the fifth (and, they say, final) time, St. Paul, Minnesota will be hosting a series of statues based upon a character from Charles Schulz' classic comic strip Peanuts. This time out, the statues will be variations on Snoopy's pal Woodstock. The St. Paul Pioneer Press has the story.

• Condolences to comics writer Grant Morrison on the death of his father, Walter, at the age of 79. (Thanks to Rick Bradford for pointing this out to me via email.)

• 6500 comic books detailing how to avoid disease from unsafe drinking water have been distributed to schoolchildren in the Punjab's Hoshiarpur district, according to a newsbrief in The Tribune of India.

• Silver Bullet Comics' Tim O'Shea interviews Charles Christensen, president of the queer comics-advocacy group Prism Comics. Over at "Underground" Online, meanwhile, Rich Watson speaks with Eliot Johnson and F.A. Harper of STEEL (Stop Trying to Eliminate Ethnic Legends), an advocacy group for comics readers of color. I'm tempted to simply say "black comics readers," but while their website focuses exclusively on African-American creators and comics characters, the language would seem to indicate some interest in a broader representation of ethnicity.

• Student online newspaper The Indiana Digital Student speaks with art-history professor Andrei Molotiu, who discusses the decline of comic books as a commercial and cultural force in America.

• Commenting on DC Comics' upcoming manga line, Newsarama's Matt Brady thinks the battle for shelf space is "going to get bloody."

• Broken Frontier's Shawn Hoke (temporary link) realizes how close he's come towards giving up on serialized comics pamphlets altogether, in favor of book collections.

• Ed Cunard of Comic World News describes his ideal comic-book store.

• Comixpedia's Dalton Wemble delivers a brutal but funny smackdown of gaming-themed webcomics.

• Dan Curtis Johnson reviews Dave Sim's breakout Cerebus graphic novel, High Society, for Artbomb.

• Alan David Doane prints an email from True Story, Swear to God creator Tom Beland, who disputes comments by Jason Marcy in a recent interview about Diamond Comics Distribution's treatment of independently-published comics.

• "While over at the Washington Post, Jessa Crispin reviews some graphic novels. It's fascinating, the feeling that we're slowly slipsliding into a brave new world in which we can take for granted the idea that Graphic Novels can get reviewed in real places without anyone having the need to wave and shout and point out that that's what they're doing. No whams or kerpows either. It seems like only yesterday that Journalista! was bemoaning the decision to put out a Sergeant Rock hardback as an act of supreme own-foot-shooting folly on DC's part, and now the book is beng positively reviewed alongside Palomar and The Fixer and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen II."
  
  - Neil Gaiman,
  writing in his weblog

• Bad blogger, no boob socks!

• I've developed a steadily increasing love of Japanese horror comics over the past couple of years, so I don't know which news I find more interesting: that the work of horror-manga godfather Hideshi Hino is finally being released in English, or the knowledge that Hideshi Hino toys are sold in Japan. (Both links courtesy of gmtPlus9.)

Finally, in her latest edition of her links round-up for The Pulse, Heidi MacDonald tosses out the following whopper:

"According to this grim report record stores are doing so badly they are clinging to life by broadening their product line to carry such things as comic books, which cannot be successfully downloaded from the Internet."

The more net-savvy reader will surely spot the obvious error in this sentence -- as did someone calling themselves "Relijah", in the comments:

"Uhm....was this sarcasm? I'm not sure if I read it right cause uhm, downloading comics, well, uhm... *whistles and walks away...."

Ms. MacDonald responded:

"Sure you can download comics, but making your own at home has not yet supplanted the pre-packaged, stapled versions. At least, not to my knowledge! If people are storing their hommade comics with backingboards and plastic bags, I'd be quite surprised."

Well, no, you store them on your hard-drive and save them off to CD-ROM.

It's been awhile since I've last looked in on the online piracy of comics, but frankly I'm not sure I have much to add. The most popular tool for such things remains BitTorrent, and it works in the same manner as I described it almost a year ago. I don't have BitTorrent currently installed on my computer, but I've got more than enough friends who do that I can keep up with such things through phone conversations; given that several of them have managed to keep themselves up-to-date on all their favorite titles despite never visiting a comics shop, I feel safe in asserting that comics file-trading is in fact quite widespread. Here's an example of what I mean.

That said, allow me to take a higher road than mere snark, and recommend to Ms. MacDonald that she acquaint herself with the subject by reading this Cinescape article by Tony Whitt, from last November. It covers the comic-book piracy pretty well. Most files are being posted in the .CB format these days -- weblogger John Munsch offers a basic explanation of what that means. (Last link courtesy of Comixpedia.)
Posted @ 3:55 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

Today's news
(Potpourri) How slow a news day is it? Put it this way: the big story for Editor and Publisher's syndication editor Dave Astor is an editorial-cartoon caption contest in Philadelphia starring Janet Jackson's breast. The comics blogosphere's running kind of slow at the moment as well. Still, I found a few items of interest, and even some genuine news:

• Canadian cartoonist James Simpkins, who created "the most recognizable Canadian cartoon character of the 20th century," Jasper the Bear, died on January 31st at the age of 93. The graphic-novelist Seth eulogises Mr. Simpkins for The National Post.

• Mort and Catherine Walker have signed a contract with the League for Education and Awareness of the Holocaust, who plan to open a learning center in the building which once housed the Walkers' International Museum of Cartoon Art, reports The South Florida Sun-Sentinel's Kathy Bushouse. The Walkers' museum, which had closed for financial reasons a few years back, has been in limbo due to the money invested in the Florida property; with said property firmly in other hands, that money would be freed up to allow the Walkers to contemplate reopening their museum elsewhere.

• Another entry into the Manga Gold Rush proceeds apace: "DC has already acquired the Domain name cmxmanga.com, although the Website is not up and running yet. Look for more coverage of DC's new venture here on ICv2.com." (Link to domain-registration information page courtesy of Anime News Network.)

• U.K. comics publisher DC Thomson is playing damage-control after complaints over an ad for a violent, titillating, wrestling-themed video game, which ran in a recent issue of children's comic The Beano. Scotland's Glasgow Daily Record has the details.

• Florida's Orlando Sentinel profiles Tom Beland, creator of the comics series True Story, Swear to God.

• Alan David Doane has five questions for autobiographical cartoonist Jason Marcy.

• J.W. Hastings offers his thoughts on Bill Watterson's Calvin & Hobbes.

• With Watchmen-blogging concluded, David Fiore turns his attention to Grant Morrison's extended fourth-wall implosion Animal Man. (One, two, three and counting.) Steven Berg and Dave Intermittent, meanwhile, are doing Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.

A final link: the current exhibition at California's J. Paul Getty Museum, entitled "Comic Art: The Paris Salon in Caricature," displays examples of the cartoons that 19th century magazines used to skewer the art scene. It ends on the 15th, but even if you don't get a chance to see it for yourself, there are representative samples from the show available for viewing at their website. (Link via Plep.)
Posted @ 3:05 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

Today's news
(Potpourri) It's kind of slow at the moment -- not that I'm complaining. I worked all through the weekend, and really don't mind not having to do a lot of writing. Here's what I found:

• Comic Book Resources' Rich Johnston observes that allegations have arisen from a number of English-language comics publishers in regard to bootlegging and non-payment on the part of Brazillian publisher Pandora. Both Avatar's William Christensen and Strangers in Paradise publisher Robyn Moore have mentioned possible legal action. For more on the subject, including numerous links, click the above link and scroll down to the third item, entitled "PANDORA'S BLOCKS."

• The Canada Customs and Revenue Agency is about to begin imposing penalties on people who donated comic books and trading cards to a charity event, then were encouraged to claim tax deductions at an absurdly inflated rate -- upwards of six times the value of the donated items, according to the agency. The Toronto Star reports.

• Silver Bullet Comics notes that the memorial for longtime DC Comics editor Julius Schwartz was held yesterday in Hempstead, New York. Newsarama, meanwhile, has DC Comics' official statement on Schwartz' death.

• Neil Gaiman has been confirmed as the keynote speaker for this year's Harvey Awards, which will be held at the MoCCA Art Festival on June 26th. Comic Book Resources has the press release. Incidentally, eligible voters have until Friday to get their ballots in for the nomination round.

• Writing for Comic World News, Rachel Gluckstern describes the recent disasters to befall the online presence of Texas radio program Fanboy Radio.

• With Phil Elliot and Paul Grist's trade paperback Absent Friends finally hitting the shelves this month, The Pulse's Jennifer Contino sat down with Elliot for a chat about the stories contained in the new book.

• At ICv2, Oregon anime retailer Charlie Platt uses Tower Records' recent move toward bankruptcy court to convince publishers and distributors to put more eggs in the "specialty retailers" basket. Alas, the publishers he's trying to influence (presumably Tokyopop, Viz and the like) have watched as the Direct Market has largely turned their backs upon the products they sell. My suggestion to Platt would be to gather up a list of retailers who do invest heavily in manga and anime, then band together and approach said publishers directly, bypassing the traditional comics-shop network altogether. Tell them, "yes, we know that those other guys have no interest in your business, but we do. Deal with us."

• Time.com's Andrew Arnold takes a look at the way manga have drawn young women back into reading comics.

• Over at Artbomb, Warren Ellis offers further thoughts on the subject of micropayments and online media. (Link via Comixpedia, because I missed this until they pointed it out.)

• While I've found the recent spate of Watchmen-blogging interesting, an entry by John of Commonplace Book pointed out a wrinkle of Moore and Gibbon's work that I'd never before noticed -- about how the shape of the bloodstain on the Comedian's smiley-face button keeps showing up throughout the book. (Link via Eve Tushnet.)

• Adam Stephanides looks at a Japanese cartoonist who definitely doesn't follow the "big eyes" style: Kamosawa Yuji. bonus points for the fact that his Tintin-esque character smoke, even the rabbit! That's hilarious. (Standard disclaimer: Stephanides' blog is on a newer Blogspot site, so the permalinks don't work. The item in question is currently the topmost item for February 9th, titled " THE MANGA CORNER: MR. XIE'S NIGHT WALK.")

• Mike Sterling returns to Mad Magazine, and reports on what he finds.

• Graeme McMillan is right: this is indeed the greatest fucking X-Men review ever.

• Boob socks! My little meme continues to spread...

• The San Francisco Chronicle introduces its readers to a new, local-content comic strip, Paul Madonna's All Over Coffee. Click here to see a few sample strips.

• Bill Barnes & Gene Ambaum's webcomic for library workers, Unshelved, looks at patrons who complain about graphic novels on the shelves. (Link via Tangognat.)

Finally, an apology to long-suffering readers who've had to wade through more than the usual misspellings, tortured sentence structures, rampant adverb abuse and the like these past couple of weeks. Like I said, I've been busy lately. Also, my continued apologies to those who've emailed me lately but have yet to receive a reply -- see above excuse.
Posted @ 4:35 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

Today's news
(Potpourri) Lots of news showed up over the weekend, so let's get right to it:

• Longtime DC Comics editor Julius Schwartz died early yesterday morning in a New York hospital at the age of 89. The Pulse's Jennifer Contino and weblogger Steven Wintle offers obituaries, as does writer Mark Evanier; in fact, Evanier's weblog has been rounding up memorials and anecdotes since the story first broke (see here, here, here and here).

• Also passed on: Norman Thelwell, veteran cartoonist for Britain's humor magazine Punch, who died at 80 years of age after a long illness. The Guardian's Matthew Taylor has the obituary.

• Mustapha Alaoui, editor of the Moroccan newspaper Al Usbue, will stand trial for defaming Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi in an editorial cartoon published by his paper, according to the Arabic news service Al Jazeera. As noted here two weeks ago, local police had mounted a criminal enquiry against Al Usbue after a formal complaint by Gaddafi.

• Writing for Michigan newspaper The Lansing State Journal, James McCurtis Jr. looks at the battle over that state's new censorship law. Note that McCurtis misdefines the law as dealing with a publication's cover -- actually, no such distinction is made. The law deal's with a given publication's contents, one of the reasons why the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has joined the fight.

• The video chain Suncoast has instructed its various outlets to pull the mature-readers manga Berserk and Steel Angel from store shelves, reports Anime News Network (very temporary link, currently ninth item down and dropping). You can follow the otaku as they discuss the story on this message board thread. (Both links via Franklin Harris.)

• Reuters' Ben Berkowitz details some of the intricacies of Marvel's new videogame deal with Electronic Arts. Bottom line: while in theory the deal could cause problems due to competing deals Marvel has made with other videogame publishers, reaction from said publishers would seem to indicate that they don't believe the results would be very profitable anyway, and therefore aren't too concerned. Investment analysts, however, are a tad more optimistic -- but only over the possibilities for long-term profits. They don't expect the deal to show results anytime this year. Marvel stock closed Friday at $31.58, a $1.18 increase over Thursday close, which halted a two-week slide in value.

• Variety.com weblogger Tom McLean notes, "Marvel also signed a deal with China Youth Press to get its comics translated and reprinted for that nation." He links to a Variety story which presumably provides more information, but since it sits behind a subscriber firewall, I'm linking to McLean instead.

• King Features has finally pulled the plug on legacy newspaper strip Flash Gordon, according to Dan Tyree of Tennessee newspaper The Tullahoma News. This is the only place I've been able to find the news -- can anyone confirm this? The cartoon's King Features homepage is still posting strips, but they're staggered by two weeks, which may or may not explain their continuing presence.

• Swiss Radio International's Roy Probert offers a report on his nation's largest comics festival, which just took place in Sierre.

• Last week Franklin Harris broached the notion of comics shops expanding outward to become "pop-culture stores." It might also happen from the other direction: according to The Washington Post (registration required), record stores faced with a loss of business in the Digital Age are countering by "diversifying into other product categories, stocking comic books, posters and clothing lines." The question may not be "will comics shops become pop-culture stores," but rather "will comics shops play a role in the rise of pop-culture stores." Food for thought.

• Anybody want a job with Diamond Comics Distributors?

• Writing for Switzerland's Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Bernard Léchot interviews recent Angoulême Grand Prix winner Zep.

• The Financial Times' Rebecca Rose talks books with British cartoonist Gerald Scarfe.

• Scotsman.com's Aidan Smith traveled recently to the home of famed Beano cartoonist Leo Baxendale for a chat about his characters' longrunning success.

• Writing for Newsarama, Daniel Robert Epstein has an interview with David Chelsea, whose graphic novel David Chelsea in Love was recently re-released by Reed Press.

• Now playing at Ninth Art: a conversation between NYC small-press cartoonists Neil Kleid, Mike Dawson, Chris Radtke, Brian Musikoff, Jenny Gonzalez, Cheese Hasselberger and Kevin Colden. The subject is "funny comics rule, sensitive autobio comics drool."

• Comic Book Resources' Jonah Weiland spoke with illustrator Kazu Kibuishi, who's currently assembling Flight, a comics anthology dedicated to capturing the flavor of such creators as Moebius and Hayao Miyazaki, and which features an all-star cast of small-press and web-cartoonists. I'm especially intrigued by how Kibuishi used an online message board to help him co-ordinate and art-direct the book.

• Silver Bullet Comics' Tim O'Shea interviews Jane Irwin, creator of the self-published fantasy series Vögelein.

• Silver Bullet Comics' O'Shea also spoke with Jane Smith Fisher, writer and publisher of the all-ages comics series WJHC: On the Air.

• The Houston Chronicle's Mary Vuong profiles Mark Heath, creator of the new, syndicated comic strip Spot the Frog.

• New Zealand news-site Stuff.co.nz looks in on Wellington comics retailers Rod Mills and Leo Hupert.

• Alan David Doane asks five questions of Anthony Williams, the artist of Mark Millar's oh-so-shocking funny-animal comics series The Unfunnies.

• Veteran illustrator, cartoonist and art teacher Darlene Douthit has found herself once again jumping into a new art movement, as the latest generation of young art students ask her to teach them to draw in the manga style. Penny Schwartz profiles Douthit for California's Press-Enterprise newspaper.

• Literary blogger Jessa Crispin reviews Joe Sacco's The Fixer, Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. II, Brian Azzarello and Joe Kubert's Sgt. Rock: Between Hell and a Hard Place, Dame Darcy's Meatcake Compilation and Gilbert Hernandez' Palomar: The Heartbreak Soup Stories for The Washington Post (registration required).

• Bill Sherman and Big Sunny David both weigh in on Jeffrey Brown's new minicomic, Be a Man. I'm in the position to be able to answer both when they speculate as to whether anyone who hadn't already read Brown's Clumsy would get anything out of it. That would be me, actually. Be a Man is the first thing by Brown that I've ever read -- I still haven't even read his contribution to Kramer's Ergot #4, for some reason -- and I thought the new minicomic was a hoot. What I want to know is, have I just ruined Clumsy for myself?

• Kevin Melrose summarizes a recent Publishers Weekly article on manga's incredible bookstore sales, which borrows heavily from ICv2's reportage on the subject, complete with quotes from the site's Milton Griepp.

• On the same tip: Shawn Fumo pours through the Shonen Jump media kit (Adobe PDF file) for demographics and sales information, and also responds to a recent weblog entry by California comics retailer Dan Shahin, about possible parallels between the Direct Market black-and-white bubble of the late 1980s and the manga boom today.

• Tony Collett explains why Tokyopop is releasing a cinemanga version of Osamu Tezuka's Astroboy.

• David Fiore wraps up Watchmen-blogging. Steven Berg, in turn, gathers up links to the entire crossblog discussion before adding his own two cents.

• Number of words it takes columnist Mary Voelz Chandler of Colorado's Rocky Mountain News to get to "KA-POW" when reviewing a gallery exhibition of comics art: 23.

• If a stack of Shonen Jump fell over in the woods, would Beau Smith hear it? Judging from his latest column for Silver Bullet Comics in which Smith laments that kids don't read comics and nothing will change that fact -- well, I'd have to say the answer was "no."

• It looks like Bob Callahan and Spain Rodriguez' new Dark Hotel comic is a continuing serial at L.A. Weekly. (Link via Rock Bradford.)

Finally, Silver Bullet Comics' Jason Brice usurps the site's rumor column this week, to protest a comment made by Marvel Comics' Joe Quesada in Brandon Thomas' latest column:

"Perhaps what's also turning me off so much about the net these days, is that almost everyone has a rumor site, it's yellow journalism all over the place. I've seen actual front page web news that was based on nothing but conjecture. What these reporters don't see is how this affects the creative community in comics. We now have to be careful whom we talk to and what we say, and it's crazy. Also a wedge has been driven through the community and sometimes into friendships because of this."

Roughly translated: "Why won't you just run our press releases and shut up?" So, should I refrain from commenting on Marvel because it might make Joe Quesada cry, then? Unlike Brice, I find the fact that Quesada's starting to hate the online comics press to be an inherently good thing. It means that he doesn't think he can control the messages being passed around, and when you think about how many news-sites exist just to fellate the publishers of their favorite funnybooks, this is a pretty heartening fact indeed. Hell, the comment to which Brice so objects isn't even my favorite part of the interview. No, that would be the top reason Quesada gives as to why cartoonists would want to stay with Marvel: "Creative freedom like no other work for hire company can offer." I defy you to read that line and no break out laughing.
Posted @ 5:45 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

All site contents are © 2002