Journalista - the news weblog of The Comics Journal

Dec. 4, 2009: Is it a recession thing?

Dirk Deppey — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 13:59:08 +0000

“Like, I love Scott Pilgrim as much as the next guy who plays Rock Band stoned on Saturday afternoons, but why would you recommend a mass market in media res installment of a rad series… as a Christmas Gift? i.e. Shouldn’t you wait till the omnibus or deluxe edition or movie version replete with Michael Cera’s pedophantic face plastered all over the cover comes out before you offer it as a gift? OR, wouldn’t you recommend all volumes in print? Is it a recession thing?”

- Anne Ishii

Recently smuggled out of our undersea base:

R. Fiore considers Brooke McEldowney’s 9 Chickweed Lane
R.C. Harvey ponders how comic strips blend word and image for the purpose of comedy.
Anne Ishii heps us to the work of avant-garde Japanese cartoonist Ayako Okubo.
Marc Sobel presents the fourth installment of his five-part examination of Gilbert Hernandez’s Birdland
Kent Worcester reviews The Beats: A Graphic History

Above the Fold

Life in interesting times
- Former Harrison Daily Times cartoonist Bob Drebelbis died on November 16, at the age of 94.
- Best served cold: Hours after Lucasfilms and Reed Exhibitions announced that the Star Wars Celebration convention would take place on August 12-15, 2010 — the same date as the Gareb Shamus-owned Chicago Comic Con, oddly enough — Wizard announced that the latter convention would be rescheduled for the following weekend. Burn!
- Tom Spurgeon catches word that the Angoulême Comics Festival may be changing the structure of the prizes that it hands out… again.
- A Cleveland, Ohio African-American newspaper is mired in controversy after depicting a local politician as Aunt Jemima in a cartoon.
  
  In unrelated news, the Age of Newspapers officially ended on Wednesday.
- In Kentucky, the Jessamine County Public Library will be moving its copy of Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier to the adult section. The Jessamine County Library, you’ll recall, made headlines when it fired two librarians who attempted to thwart a request for the book by an eleven-year-old girl.
- Sweden’s Stockholm District Court has denied a plea from Hollywood movie studios to shut down a torrent-tracking site that the studios claim “is a re-branded copy of one previously operated by The Pirate Bay.”
  
  (Link via Kevin Melrose.)
- Dynamite Entertainment has purchased the rights to Dabel Brothers Productions’ roster of properties.
- The romance publisher Harlequin is the latest to post comics online to their website.
- Plastic Logic is signing up a host of participating magazines in advance of the launch of their QUE Reader device sometime next year.
- Sean T. Collins speaks with Dark Horse publicity coordinator Jim Gibbons.
- Old-school indy cartoonist Rich Tommaso abandons print for the Web.

——— ¡Journalista! continues after this commercial message. ———

Profiles

Olivia Snaije on Joe Sacco

The Footnotes in Gaza author talks about his new book.

Gavin Sheehan on David Mack

In conversation with the creator of Kabuki.

(Above: detail from the cover of Mack’s Kabuki: The Alchemy.)

Elliott Serrano on Ted Rall

A Q&A with the editorial cartoonist.

Jeffery Klaehn on Norm Breyfogle

The veteran Batman cartoonist discusses his career.

Reviews

Abhay Khosla on Dark Reign: The List: X-Men #1

“The obvious conclusion to draw from Dark Reign: The List: X-Men #1 is that at the close of 2009, a woman with an appetite for sex is apparently the very definition of fear and horror for Marvel comic creators and their audience.”

Greg McElhatton on Luna Park

“I thought I’d sussed out the book by the halfway point, knew how I felt about it overall. And then, not once but twice, the book pulled the rug out from under me. And with each instance, my opinion of Luna Park rather radically changed.”

(Above: panel detail from the book, possibly ©2009 Kevin Baker, Danijel Zezelj and/or DC Comics.)

Andrew Edwards on Grandville

“The universe [Bryan] Talbot creates is visually stunning and intellectually engaging.”

Also

Matthew Brady on Essex County
Katherine Dacey on The Return of King Doug
Alex Carr on Sulk Vol. 3
Hooded Utilitarian on Crossdress Paradise
Douglas Wolk on the best graphic novels of 2009
Chris Sims on various titles
J. Caleb Mozzocco on various titles

Comics and Art

Leif Peng: Henry C. Pitz

Congratulations to Peng on his new position as a professor at Mohawk College!

(Above: illustration from the December 1956 issue of Collier’s Magazine, nicked from Peng’s Henry C. Pitts Flickr page.)

Online portfolio: Rebecca Solow

Lovely fantasy-themed art.

(Above: :The Witch of Willowby Wood,” ©2009 Rebecca Solow.)

Illustration blog: Travisty’s Beard

A collaborative effort by artists and animators from the PDI/DreamWorks studio.

(Above: illustration ©2009 Lindsey Olivares. Link via Jerry Beck.)

Also

Illustration blog: Ade Salmon
(Link via Curt Purcell.)
Roger Langridge: “How Now, Brown Clown?”
Ger Apeldoorn: Plunk
Diversions of the Groovy Kind: C.C. Beck’s Captain Marvel
Thom Buchanan: Howie Post’s Dropouts
Pictures For Sad Children: “I can feel each musician…”
Brian Hughes: “The Reaching Hand”
Ten-Cent Dreams (one, two, three, four and five): The Perils of Nyoka
Golden Age Comic Book Stories: Spy Smasher #6
Gold Key Comics: Two from Ripley’s Believe It or Not!
The Horror of It All: “The Devil’s Disciple”
Pappy: Fantomah after Fletcher Hanks
Ten-Cent Dreams: More 3D jungle-girl comics
Chuck Wells: More jungle-girl comics
A Journey Round My Skull: Japanese baseball cards

Multimedia

Comics-related podcasts
- Panel Borders‘ Alex Fitch speaks with Logicomix writer Apostolos Doxiadis (33.5MB).
- This week on Inkstuds, Robin McConnell welcomes Far Arden creator Kevin Cannon as guest (52.2MB).
- Another week, another episode of Mike Dawson and Alex Robinson’s Ink Panthers Show, fortified with your minimum daily requirement of Dustin Harbin (38.6MB).
All podcasts are available in downloadable MP3 audiofile format.

Events Calendar

Today:

December 4 (White River Junction, VT): An opening reception for “Bears and Blisters: An Exhibition of Colleen Frakes and Ken Dahl” takes place at the Center For Cartoon Studies on Main Street, beginning at 7PM. Details here.

This weekend:

December 5 (New York City, NY): The Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival takes place at Our Lady of Consolation Church on Metropolitan Avenue in Brooklyn, from 11AM-7PM. Guests include R.O. Blechman, Charles Burns, Gabrielle Bell, Kim Deitch, Gary Panter, Ben Katchor, Lauren Weinstein, Adrian Tomine and many others. Details here.

December 5 (London, England): Alan Martin and Rufus Dayglo will be signing books and meeting readers at the Forbidden Planet Megastore on Shaftesbury Avenue, from 1-2PM. Details here.

December 5 (Stevenage, England): Writer Paul Cornell makes an appearance at Limited Edition Comix on Market Place, beginning at 1PM. Details here.

December 5 (Salt Lake City, UT): David Mack will participate in a variety of events at the main branch of the Salt Lake City Public Library on East 400 South, beginning at 2PM. Details here.

December 5 (Washington DC): Politico cartoonist Matt Wuerker will discuss his work at the Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue, beginning at 2:30PM. Details here.

December 5 (Berkeley, CA): American Born Chinese author Gene Yang will discuss his work at Eastwind Books on University Avenue, beginning at 3PM. Details here.

December 5 (Portland, OR): A release party for C. Allbritton Taylor’s One Model Nation takes place at Floating World Comics on Fifth Avenue, from 6-9PM. Details here.

December 6 (San Pablo City, Philippines): The San Pablo Comics Festival takes place at the Lion’s Den Clubhouse. Details here.

December 6 (Silver Spring, MD): The documentary Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist will be screened at the AFI Silver Theatre on Colesville Road, beginning at 12:15PM. Admission is $10. Details here.

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

Dec. 3, 2009: White nerdy guys

Dirk Deppey — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 15:18:24 +0000

“Something that benefited me as a woman who read superhero comics is that I never thought of most fans as just like me. I knew from the start that my tastes were different and so I was always a proponent of the ideas that 1) more diversity would be good and 2) having different tastes from mine was ok. But a lot of these guys running stores never had to face that, because the fandom they knew mostly was white nerdy guys like them.”

- Johanna Draper Carlson

Recent communiques from the secret clubhouse:

Marc Sobel presents the third installment of his five-part examination of Gilbert Hernandez’s Birdland.
Kent Worcester asks, “Whatever happened to Phil Evans?”
Shaenon Garrity reviews Jason Shiga’s Empire Park, and ponders the comics that she can’t seem to pack.
Rob Clough begins a series of looks at anthologies by Center for Cartoon Studies students and alumni with a review of Werewolf!
Chris Lanier reviews The Wolverton Bible.
Noah Berlatsky reviews Johnny Ryan’s Prison Pit Vol. 1.
Anne Ishii covers the Crayon Shin-chan waterfront.
The one you’ve been waiting for: Kenneth Smith begins blogging.

Above the Fold

[Top Story] Life in interesting times
- Marvel Entertainment and the Walt Disney Company have announced that their merger will officially take place on December 31.
- Roll this headline around in your head for a moment: Tokyopop CEO considers using fan translators.
- ICv2 has BookScan’s estimated top-ten bestselling adult graphic novels in the bookstore trade for November. Top of the list: R. Crumb’s Book of Genesis Illustrated. Meanwhile, the glorious output of Japanese industry captured three-quarters of the list.
- Marc-Oliver Frisch presents his month-to-month comparisons for publisher sales to Direct Market retailers, now updated for October. J. Caleb Mozzocco offers a bit of commentary on the numbers.
- Mike Rhode is betting that the Washington Times‘ comics section isn’t coming back.

——— ¡Journalista! continues after this commercial message. ———

Profiles

Chris Mautner on R. Sikoryak

The comics chameleon is interviewed.

(Above: Ziggy meets Voltaire in this sequence from Masterpiece Comics, ©2009 R. Sikoryak.)

Adam Miller on Ryan North

A chat with the cartoonist behind Dinosaur Comics.

(Above: sequence from the strip, &copt;2009 Ryan North.)

Esther Keller on Nadja Spiegelman

The writer of Zig & Wikki in Something Ate My Homework discusses her children’s-comic debut.

(Link via Heidi MacDonald.)

Also

City on a Hill Press on Von Allen
Geek to Me on Ismael Alejandro Moreno
Casual Optimist on Jacob Covey
(Link via Eric Reynolds.)

Reviews

Johanna Draper Carlson on The Color of Earth, Water and Heaven

“Some may find the floral symbolism in this series overwhelming or too precious, but to a receptive mind, it’s refreshing in its quiet reflection. It’s still rare to see such a detailed exploration of women of different generations.”

Jeremy Briggs on Lucky Luke: The Oklahoma Land Rush

“This is a quick, easy, fun read for adults which is eminently suitable for young readers and with Christmas coming up it could well be worth considering as a present for younger sons and nephews since, if they like this one, there are plenty more titles for them to collect.”

(Above: panel from the book, ©2009 Morris, Goscinny and/or Dupuis.)

Tom Spurgeon on The Talisman #1

“The result is an okay, workman-like, reasonably readable comic book that bored the crap out of me.”

Also

Richard Bruton on Badger: Then and Now
Michael Lorah on Dignifying Comics: Stories About Women Scientists
John Shore on The Book of Genesis Illustrated
Sean T. Collins on Image United #1
David Welsh on Stumptown #1
Andrew Wheeler on various titles
Douglas Wolk on various titles

Commentary

John Adcock: John Stanley’s footprints

“John Stanley used certain themes and plots over and over.”

Laura Hudson: Better than boobs

It’s true: Hope Larson really is better than boobs.

Jason B. Jones: Why you should read comics aloud to your kids

“My six-year-old likes for me to read comics aloud to himâ€“especially if he’s talked his mother into buying one that’s slightly too old for him. That way, if I silently edit the language, he knows exactly what the inappropriate parts are — which, of course, he promptly commits to memory!”

Business & Craft

Steven Grant: Narrative in comics, continued

The discussion continues with a look at Will Eisner’s work on The Spirit.

Vom Marlowe: The art and craft of xkcd

“See, I think there’s a lot to be said for simplicity and humor and just plain getting the point across. The art needs to serve the point of the communication.”

(Above: sequence from the strip, ©2009 Randall Munroe.)

Comics and Art

Gabriel Corbera: John Stanley’s Little King?

Was the renowned children’s-comics writer behind this comic-book take on Otto Soglow’s character?

Homepage: Badaboum Twist

“Comics in English, drawn by a French-speaking guy married to an American citizen.”

(Above: sequence from the a recent strip, ©2009 David Libens. Link via James Sturm.)

Scott McCloud: “The Lost Cat”

“Here’s one from the vaults. A one-page comic I did in 2004 for the short-lived Prophecy Magazine. Since very few people saw it at the time, I figured I’d share it here.”

(Above: sequence from the strip, ©2009 Scott McCloud.)

Also

Sam Henderson (one, two, three and four): Blast #2
Joakim Gunnarsson: Carl Barks gag panels
Harry Lee Green: French gag panels
Kate Beaton: Sexy Tudors
A Journey Round My Skull: Anya Triestram
Doug Gray (one, two): Dan Gordon’s Superkatt
Gold Key Comics: Russ Manning’s Magnus: Robot Fighter
Diversions of the Groovy Kind: Gray Morrow’s Black Hood
Thom Buchanan (one, two, three, four and five): “The Prophecy”
Nedor-a-Day: “Never Whack a WAC”
Ger Apeldoorn: More Lone Spaceman
Ten-Cent Dreams: 3D jungle-girl comics
Pappy: More jungle-girl comics
Chuck Wells: More jungle-girl comics
Golden Age Comic Book Stories: Jim Steranko miscellany

Multimedia

Jay Tomio: In Search of Steve Ditko

I’ve linked to this once before, but I seem to recall it being yanked offline shortly thereafter. Anyway, here it is again: Jonathan Ross and Neil Gaiman’s documentary trek to meet the reclusive Spider-Man co-creator.

(Above: screenshot from the video.)

Douglas Wolk: Kant explained

The Critique of Aesthetic Judgement illuminated… through comics!

(Above: screenshot from the video. Link via the Inkwell Bookstore Blog.)

Comics Culture

Anime News Network: Japan Media Arts Festival Awards winners

Makoto Yukimura’s Vinland Saga took the grand prize. Full list of winners at the link.

[Your not-comics link of the day]
Too Much Joy lead singer Tim Quirk takes us through his royalty statement from Warner Brothers, to explain why it’s essentially nonsense.

(Link via Noel Murray.)

[Your Scans_Daily link of the day]
A Marvel moment, courtesy of Colleen Coover.

(Above: sequence from an unidentified issue of X-Men First Class, ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.)

Events Calendar

Today:

December 3 (Seattle, WA): An opening reception for “Friends of the Nib,” showcasing the work of local cartoonists, takes place at theHoward House on Second Avenue, from 6-8PM. Details here.

December 3 (New York City, NY): Ted Rall will be reading from and signing his new book at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art on Broadway, beginning at 7PM. Details here.

This week:

December 5 (New York City, NY): The Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival takes place at Our Lady of Consolation Church on Metropolitan Avenue in Brooklyn, from 11AM-7PM. Guests include R.O. Blechman, Charles Burns, Gabrielle Bell, Kim Deitch, Gary Panter, Ben Katchor, Lauren Weinstein, Adrian Tomine and many others. Details here.

December 5 (London, England): Alan Martin and Rufus Dayglo will be signing books and meeting readers at the Forbidden Planet Megastore on Shaftesbury Avenue, from 1-2PM. Details here.

December 5 (Stevenage, England): Writer Paul Cornell makes an appearance at Limited Edition Comix on Market Place, beginning at 1PM. Details here.

December 5 (Salt Lake City, UT): David Mack will participate in a variety of events at the main branch of the Salt Lake City Public Library on East 400 South, beginning at 2PM. Details here.

December 5 (Washington DC): Politico cartoonist Matt Wuerker will discuss his work at the Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue, beginning at 2:30PM. Details here.

December 5 (Berkeley, CA): American Born Chinese author Gene Yang will discuss his work at Eastwind Books on University Avenue, beginning at 3PM. Details here.

December 5 (Portland, OR): A release party for C. Allbritton Taylor’s One Model Nation takes place at Floating World Comics on Fifth Avenue, from 6-9PM. Details here.

December 6 (San Pablo City, Philippines): The San Pablo Comics Festival takes place at the Lion’s Den Clubhouse. Details here.

December 6 (Silver Spring, MD): The documentary Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist will be screened at the AFI Silver Theatre on Colesville Road, beginning at 12:15PM. Admission is $10. Details here.

Dec. 2, 2009: Really great right now

Dirk Deppey — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:14:20 +0000

“I truly believe in comics for children, and middle-grades, and young adults, and teens, and I spend a lot of time with that material. I know it’s not really fair as an arguing tactic to ask people to just accept on faith that I know what I’m talking about and things are ACTUALLY really great right now when it comes to comics for kids, but they are, and I hope they will.”

- Christopher Butcher

Recently posted to Test Station Beta:

R.C. Harvey explains why “Brooke McEldowney’s 9 Chickweed Lane is one of the best comic strips now appearing in the nation’s newspaper funnies.”
Marc Sobel presents the second installment of his close reading of Gilbert Hernandez’s Birdland, and reviews the latest book from Jason, Low Moon.
Gavin Lees reviews Martin Conaghan’s Burke and Hare.
R. Fiore puts life in Metropolis into perspective.
Rich Kreiner introduces himself.

Above the Fold

[Top Story] Life in interesting times
- Tahawwur Rana, a Canadian citizen who was arrested in Chicago last month by the FBI, has denied charges that he was planning to murder editor Flemming Rose and cartoonist Kurt Westergaard over the Killer Danish Muhammed cartoons. Allison Jones has the latest developments in the story.
- Akhbar Al Youm, a Moroccan newsdaily “closed by the authorities after publishing a cartoon deemed offensive to the royal family is to reopen under a different name next week, its director said on Tuesday.”
- Paul O’Brien presents his month-to-month comparisons for Marvel sales to Direct Market retailers, now updated for October.
- Xaviar Xerexes looks back at a few past predictions for webcomics.
- I’ve gotta say, that’s one low fucking bar. Set expectations for vaguely competent, Mr. Sulu! Today we’re going for multiple genres!

——— ¡Journalista! continues after this commercial message. ———

Profiles

Sasha Watson on Ted Rall

The editorial cartoonist and writer of The Year of Loving Dangerously discusses his new book.

Brian Heater on Al Columbia

First installment of a four-part conversation with the Pim & Francie creator.

(Above: image from Pim & Francie: The Golden Bear Days, ©2009 Al Columbia.)

Jeffrey Renaud on Darwyn Cooke

The cartoonist behind DC: The New Frontier discusses upcoming work.

Also

Keith Chow on Jerry Ma
Mike Lynch on Tony Murphy
Xaviar Xerexes on David LaMason
Scott Nickel on Dan Reynolds

Reviews

Andrew Wheeler on three by Eisner

“The three books below were brought back into print this year by W.W. Norton as part of their large and growing Will Eisner Library; they’re packaged handsomely and would fit well on the shelf along with other books in that series. But these three titles also show some of Eisner’s most glaring faults and problems, particularly the biggest issue: his unbreakable addiction to the most obvious strains of melodrama.”

Robert Stanley Martin on Rip Kirby Vol. 1: 1946-1948

“The key appeal of Rip Kirby is, of course, the storytelling and art. [Alex] Raymond’s handling of character nuance in particular is first-rate. He had evolved into a master of figure drawing and portraiture while working on Flash Gordon, and he took those skills into new areas.”

Lori Henderson on 20th Century Boys vol. 1-5

“A mystery is about pitting your wits against the author, not fighting to just read the story in the first place. This really pulled me out of the trance their first three volumes had cast on me. I became less engaged with the characters that I had really started to like. It was a big let down.”

(Above: sequence from the second volume, ©2000 Naoki Urasawa/Studio Nuts.)

Also

Tom Spurgeon on The Troublemakers
Noah Berlatsky on The Big Skinny
Mindless Ones on Phonogram: The Singles Club #5
Chris Mautner on various titles
Andrew Wheeler on various titles

Commentary

Liesl Bradner on Early Japanese superheroes

Before Superman and Batman, costumed adventurers thrived in Japanese paper theater.

Kristy Valenti: (Gold) standards

A comparison between two books on comics librarianship.

Business & Craft

Michael Cavna: The Salahi Sketch

The challenge: create a political cartoon from concept to execution in 60 minutes.

Comics and Art

A Journey Round My Skull: Jonathan Zawada

Images from the Australian artist’s zine, Big Mouth.

(Above: illustration ©2009 Jonathan Zawada.)

The Horror of It All: “Up Pops the Devil!”

While Karswell calls it a “less than flattering” debut for Mister Lucifer, I really like the layouts for this little chiller.

(Above: sequence from Spook Comics #1, ©1946 Baily Publishing Co.)

Also

Golden Age Comic Book Stories: A Jack Kirby portfolio
Ten-Cent Dreams: “It Happened One Spring”
Chuck Wells: Matt Baker jungle-girl comic
Ger Apeldoorn: More of Al Jaffee’s Tall Tales
Jeffrey Meyer: Art from an anonymous rocket book

Multimedia

Ustream.tc: Four creative professionals, one cup

Dylan Meconis, Erika Moen, Katie Lane and Bill Mudron “talk shop about comics and freelancing and shit” in this streaming-video podcast.

(Above: screenshot from the video. Link via Gary Tyrrell.)

Comics Culture

Press release: 2010 Eisner Awards call for submissions

Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines.

Business Insight Malaysia: Comics festival in the Philippines

“John Lent, author of The First One Hundred Years of Philippine Komiks and Cartoons, expatriate Filipino cartoonists Edd Aragon and Dengcoy Miel, who have brought honor to our country with their works for the Sydney Morning Herald and Singapore Straits Times, respectively, were the guests of honor at the festival’s opening. Mimbi Eloriaga, Barry Jose, Lito Yonzon, and Jun Aquino joined them.”

Gail Callahan, Jen Vaughn and Lan Pitts: Back to school

Kids in Vermont and New York get the chance to learn how to make comics with top-flight cartooning talent.

[Your not-comics link of the day]
For a limited time, you can watch the Peewee’s Playhouse Christmas Special at Peewee Herman’s website.

(Above: screenshot from the video. Link via MetaFilter.)

[Your Scans_Daily link of the day]
Several sequences from Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner’s political thriller, Red.

(Above: sequence from the comic, ©2003 Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner.)

Events Calendar

Today:

December 2 (Princeton, NJ): Jules Feiffer will speak at the Stewart Film Theater on Nassau Street, beginning at 4:30PM. Details here.

December 2 (New York City, NY): Vertical’s Ed Chavez will discuss some of the intracacies of licencing manga at the Kinokuniya Book Store on the Avenue of the Americas, beginning at 6:30PM. Details here.

This week:

December 3 (New York City, NY): Ted Rall will be reading from and signing his new book at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art on Broadway, beginning at 7PM. Details here.

December 5 (New York City, NY): The Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival takes place at Our Lady of Consolation Church on Metropolitan Avenue in Brooklyn, from 11AM-7PM. Guests include R.O. Blechman, Charles Burns, Gabrielle Bell, Kim Deitch, Gary Panter, Ben Katchor, Lauren Weinstein, Adrian Tomine and many others. Details here.

December 5 (London, England): Alan Martin and Rufus Dayglo will be signing books and meeting readers at the Forbidden Planet Megastore on Shaftesbury Avenue, from 1-2PM. Details here.

December 5 (Stevenage, England): Writer Paul Cornell makes an appearance at Limited Edition Comix on Market Place, beginning at 1PM. Details here.

December 5 (Salt Lake City, UT): David Mack will participate in a variety of events at the main branch of the Salt Lake City Public Library on East 400 South, beginning at 2PM. Details here.

December 5 (Washington DC): Politico cartoonist Matt Wuerker will discuss his work at the Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue, beginning at 2:30PM. Details here.

December 5 (Berkeley, CA): American Born Chinese author Gene Yang will discuss his work at Eastwind Books on University Avenue, beginning at 3PM. Details here.

December 6 (San Pablo City, Philippines): The San Pablo Comics Festival takes place at the Lion’s Den Clubhouse. Details here.

December 6 (Silver Spring, MD): The documentary Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist will be screened at the AFI Silver Theatre on Colesville Road, beginning at 12:15PM. Admission is $10. Details here.

Dec. 1, 2009: It’s alive

Dirk Deppey — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:55:34 +0000

“The only thing paywalls or other direct monetization can do for newspapers or any other topical content is make it irrelevant to the world of the internet age.”

- Eric Burns-White

The beta site for the new TCJ.com is now online, and already boasts new contributions from Donald Phelps, Bob Levin, Anne Ishii, Noah Berlatsky, Marc Sobel and Gavin Lees. Oh, and look: We have an Audio Archive again. Berkeley Breathed, Gil Kane, Walt Kelly, Robert Crumb, special guest appearances by Stan Lee and Rube Goldberg — and more to follow in the coming weeks!

This is also the perfect opportunity for another layout change here at ¡Journalista. I’ve been wanting to do this for a while: Ditch the genre classifications and organize the links by category rather than genre. Put all the interviews together with the other interviews, reviews with reviews, that sort of thing. Sorting comics by genre simply makes less sense in the 21st century, as American comics finally push past the “superheroes/everything else” dichotomy and embrace a wider multiplicity of storytelling forms. I’ve increasingly found myself baffled by where to put links, and that means it’s time to drop the attempt altogether.

Above the Fold

[Top Story] Life in interesting times
- Former St. Petersburg Times cartoonist Don Addis died of lung cancer on Saturday, at the age of 74.
- “Thousands of manga fans flocked to the funeral Monday of Japanese cartoonist Yoshito Usui, whose cheeky schoolboy character Shin-chan [pictured at right] delighted millions.”
- Thai cartoonist Jakraphan Huaypetch has won the International Manga Award contest, given by Japan’s Foreign Ministry for works by foreign cartoonists.
- Egyptian graphic novelist Magdy El Shafee discusses the state-enforced ban on his debut book.
  
  (Link via Kevin Melrose.)
- Japan continues cracking down on file-sharers.
- Kindle rules, Nook drools.
- SLG publisher Dan Vado will launch a new comics festival in San Jose, California — the same place where he helped launch the Alternative Press Expo, before it moved to San Francisco.
- Sun cartoonist beats tax man — again!
- Sean T. Collins compares Dan DiDio and Joe Quesada’s attitudes on the subject of “event fatigue.”
- Michael Cavna asks, “How soon till a newspaper dumps all its comics?”
- Chris Butcher liveblogs the November edition of Diamond Previews: one, two.

[Consumer news] New this week
Link: Matthew Brady

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

——— ¡Journalista! continues after this commercial message. ———

Profiles

Nicole Santa Cruz on Barbara Mendes

How the former underground-comix artist became a religious painter.

Wynter Holden on John Layman

Joining the writer of the oddball crime series Chew for an in-store signing.

Also

Richard Ecke on Scott Hilburn
Tim O’Shea on Gary Phillips

Reviews

Jenny Williams on Looking for Calvin and Hobbes

“Nevin Martell, the author of the book, knew that Bill Watterson is an elusive character. Many other journalists had tried to score an interview in recent years, but all had failed. Nevin tried anyway, while still respecting the cartoonistâ€™s privacy. This book is what resulted.”

David Welsh on Swallowing the Earth

“But is anyone outside the narrow population of prodigies great at something the first time they try it? Tezuka wasn’t, and Swallowing the Earth proves it.”

(Above: sequence from the book, ©2009 Tezuka Productions.)

Tom Spurgeon on Pim & Francie: The Golden Bear Days

“Any single upsetting image is a rosette on a much more ambitious and awesome-to-behold cake. Al Columbia has progressed to the point where he can haunt my nightmares for three days as an aside.”

Nina Stone on Dark Wolverine #80

“The story had moments of suspense, and although I could follow it, there was still a part of my brain that was desperately struggling to remember who was who and what they were associated with. And then it all went to hell. I got totally distracted by that baby’s head!”

Also

Sean T. Collins on High Moon Vol. 1
Richard Bruton on Burke & Hare
Richard Cook on Image United #1
Greg McElhatton on Hellblazer #261

Commentary

Matt Thorn: On translation

“Thereâ€™s no diplomatic way to say this, so Iâ€™ll be blunt. The vast majority of my kouhai, my juniors in the field of manga translation, have no sense of rhythm, no sense of meter, no sense of what makes a line worth reading, and no sense of how to write a line worth reading.”

(Link via Simon Jones, who offers commentary.)

Michael Maslin: Thurber’s unbaked cookies

“Unlike those other giants of the field, Thurber took a lot of heat for his art; his drawing style appeared less finished than the work of his peers. It looked as if it was done in a hurry. Shadows and shading weren’t part of his cartoon world, nor was there a dutiful representation of human anatomy. Thurber’s people had limbs that flowed in graceful lines from shoulder to hand without the hint of an elbow, and from hip to foot without suggestion of a knee. His people’s eyes were accomplished with a dot and a slash, similar to the style a child uses when he or she first learns to draw.”

(Above: drawing for James Thurber and Elliott Nugent’s 1940 romantic comedy, The Male Animal. Link via Mike Lynch.)

Joe McCulloch: Japan, hide your women!

“Today, everybody knows something deeper about manga, if only that manga is a deeper something. It’s big and present; it might not show on every Best of Decade list from every visible North American media outlet, but you can bet your ass a disclaimer will be provided upon request begging off coverage for lack of familiarity, because manga will not simply be ignored. You see manga everywhere in a way you don’t with other professional print comics, like Fort Thunder-inspired bookshelf collections or superhero pamphlets for kids.”

Business & Craft

Comicrazys: Famous Artists Cartoon Course on lettering

The reproduction of the renowned correspondence course continues.

(Above: page detail from the lesson, ©1956, 1965 Famous Artists Cartoon Course, Inc.)

Comics and Art

Christopher Irving and Seth Kushner: Harvet Pekar on The Pekar Project

An interview with the American Splendor creator, rendered in fumetti.

(Above: sequence from the strip, ©2009 Christopher Irving and Seth Kushner.)

Hogan’s Alley: The Christmas-card art of Arnold Roth

“This year it’s our privilege to present a treasure trove of Christmas cards from the archives of the legendary Arnold Roth. Each of his cards is a masterpiece of design, composition and humor, and we talked to Roth about the process he uses to create them and what the holiday means to him.”

(Above: cartoon ©1969 Arnold Roth. Link via John Martz.)

Also

John Adcock: More cartoonists’ autographs
Christopher Butcher: A Bryan Lee O’Malley strip
Ger Apeldoorn: More Mr. Mum
Allan Holtz: Alexander
Big Blog of Kids’ Comics: “The Mighty Mites”
Gold Key Comics: “The Belt”
Pappy: More jungle-girl comics 1
Pappy: More jungle-girl comics 2

Multimedia

Euronews: Francois Schuiten

What everybody wants to know right now: What are the Cities of the Fantastic creator’s thoughts on the European Union and the Lisbon Treaty?

Wim Lockefeer: Happy 50th birthday, Peyo!

“In 1978, Pierre Culliford, born in 1928 as the son of an expatriate Brit and better known as Peyo, celebrated his 50th birthday. To honour that occasion, Yvan Delporte, the legendary editor of Spirou Magazine (and subject of a new, wonderful book by Christelle and Bertrand Pissavy-Yvernault), brought together some of Peyo’s colleagues and created a very zany home movie.”

(Above: screenshot from the video, which is available as a 9.6MB downloadable MP4 file.)

Comics Culture

Press release: Glyph Awards submissions accepted

“Any comics publisher — small, large, corporate, independent, self-published — as well as online comic creators and cartoonists for newspapers and other periodicals, are invited to submit black-themed material released from January 1 – December 31, 2009 for consideration for award recognition.”

[Your not-comics link of the day]
Awful library books.

(Link via Neatorama.)

[Your Scans_Daily link of the day]
Dieter & Michel Plessix’s Neêkibo.

(Above: sequence from the book, copyright information unknown.)

Events Calendar

Today:

December 1 (Stockholm, Sweden): Lina Neidestam signs her debut book Zelda at Staffars Serier on the Bellamansgatan, beginning at 5PM. Details here.

This week:

December 2 (Princeton, NJ): Jules Feiffer will speak at the Stewart Film Theater on Nassau Street, beginning at 4:30PM. Details here.

December 3 (New York City, NY): Ted Rall will be reading from and signing his new book at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art on Broadway, beginning at 7PM. Details here.

December 5 (New York City, NY): The Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival takes place at Our Lady of Consolation Church on Metropolitan Avenue in Brooklyn, from 11AM-7PM. Guests include R.O. Blechman, Charles Burns, Gabrielle Bell, Kim Deitch, Gary Panter, Ben Katchor, Lauren Weinstein, Adrian Tomine and many others. Details here.

December 5 (London, England): Alan Martin and Rufus Dayglo will be signing books and meeting readers at the Forbidden Planet Megastore on Shaftesbury Avenue, from 1-2PM. Details here.

December 5 (Washington DC): Politico cartoonist Matt Wuerker will discuss his work at the Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue, beginning at 2:30PM. Details here.

December 5 (Berkeley, CA): American Born Chinese author Gene Yang will discuss his work at Eastwind Books on University Avenue, beginning at 3PM. Details here.

December 6 (San Pablo City, Philippines): The San Pablo Comics Festival takes place at the Lion’s Den Clubhouse. Details here.

December 6 (Silver Spring, MD): The documentary Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist will be screened at the AFI Silver Theatre on Colesville Road, beginning at 12:15PM. Admission is $10. Details here.

Nov. 30, 2009: Because you love it

Dirk Deppey — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:55:00 +0000

“You do something because you love it, and you do it with everything you’ve got. And then you die. What you leave behind doesn’t matter. How much money you make doesn’t matter. What people think of you doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is how you spend every fucking day of your life, how you feel about yourself — and not in the narcissistic, egotistical way. It doesn’t matter how I’m remembered, because I’ll remember everything myself.”

- Ralph Bakshi
(link via Sherm Cohen)

“In the new Cometbus, there’s an interview with [John] Holmstrom. And he tells the most fascinating story which I had never heard before. Apparently, Holmstrom wanted to take a cartooning class but SVA didn’t offer any. So he and some other angry students went to the president of the school and complained. The president told them to put a list together of the cartoonists they’d want to teach at SVA. So they put together a dream list which had Eisner and Kurtzman at the top. And the administration hired them!”

- Frank Santoro

Today: Slow news day.

Tomorrow: Big changes.

Above the Fold

[Top Story] Life in interesting times
- Factoid for the day: The 56th volume of Eiichiro Oda’s adventure series One Piece will make its debut on Japanese bookshelves with a first-edition print run of 2.85 million copies.
- “There aren’t enough comics being published for kids” — Buddy Saunders argues pro, Tom Spurgeon argues con.

[Consumer News] The end of civilization
Link: Mike Sterling

Sterling finds the most dubious items from the latest Diamond catalog, so you don’t have to.

——— ¡Journalista! continues after this commercial message. ———

Literary Comics

[Profile] Dash Shaw
Link: Chris Mautner

The Bottomless Belly Button cartoonist discusses his work.

[Profile] Eddie Campbell
Link: Valerio Coppola and Alfredo Goffredi

The English-language version of this Q&A with the Alec author can be found halfway down the page.

(Link via Richard Bruton.)

[Profile] Jerry Moriarty
Link: Brian Heater

The conclusion of Heater’s four-part conversation with the artist behind Jack Survives.

Related: Paul Gravett offers a short look at Moriarty’s work.

[Review] All and Sundry
Link: Sandy Bilus

“[Paul Hornschemeier] certainly is a talented artist, and his stories are both thoughtful and have a good sense of humor. Unfortunately, I can’t recommend this book.”

[Multimedia] Crumb on video
Link: Jerry Beck, Richard Cowdry

One’s an old look at Crumb, Ralph Bakshi and Fritz the Cat, while the other finds Aline joining him for a talk in Prague.

Related: Jeet Heer finds a Crumb cameo in the new E.L. Doctorow novel.

(Above: screenshot from the second video.)

Pop Comics

[Review] Lenore Vol. 2 #1
Link: Greg McElhatton

“[Roman] Dirge still follows the old pattern that I remembered in the past; Lenore moves through life in a slightly oblivious fashion, runs into an unexpected (and most likely deadly) obstacle, and ends up defeating it without really trying.”

[Review] Various titles
Link: Tucker Stone, J. Caleb Mozzocco and Brian Hibbs

You’ll be pleased to learn that I have no time for lame wordplay today.

[Commentary] Today’s Wonder Woman post
Link: Noah Berlatsky

Can Wonder Woman be a Superdick?

[Comics] “The Beatles Story”
Link: Diversions of the Groovy Kind

Fifteen years after the fad began, Marvel finally had writer David Anthony Kraft and artists George Perez and Klaus Janson help them cash in.

(Above: from Marvel Super Special #3, ©1978 Marvel Characters, Inc.)

[Comics] “Harem Shackles”
Link: Pappy

Nothin’ exploitive goin’ on here at all. Nope.

(Above: sequence from Sheena, Queen of the Jungle #3, ©1943 Fiction House.)

[Comics] “How I Conquered a Terrible Plague”
Link: The Horror of It All

Had enough of Dick Briefer’s Frankenstein, yet? Me neither. Here’s one from the character’s humorous period.

(Above: sequence from Frankenstein #5, ©1946 Prize Comics.)

Manga

[Review] What a Wonderful World! Vol. 1-2
Link: Johanna Draper Carlson

“Like Solanin, the characters here are urban young adults unsure of their direction or place in life. Unlike that longer work, I found them annoying here when I didn’t before. Maybe it was because the shorter lengths meant less time to get to know them as people, so they become more defined by their traits, which are mostly ‘aimless’ or ‘depressed’. Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference.”

[Review] Nightschool: The Weirn Books Vol. 2
Link: Ed Sizemore

“Volume two of [Svetlana Chmakova's] Nightschool is more focused and character-driven than volume one. Thankfully, with all the major world-building out of the way, the story’s pace has slowed.”

Comic Strips

[Profile] Stephanie McMillan
Link: Scott Nickel

Twenty questions for the creator of the alt-weekly strip Minimum Security.

[Comics] The Lone Spaceman
Link: Ger Apeldoorn

A sequence from Warren Tufts’ short-lived 1955 humor strip.

Editorial Cartoons

[Scene] All your awards belong to us
Link: Association of American Editorial Cartoonists

A round-up of coming deadlines for cartoon-award submissions.

[Comics] Early Herriman cartoons
Link: Allan Holtz

Another week, another sampler of early work by the Krazy Kat creator.

Digital Comics

[Profile] Chris Hastings
Link: Paul Maniaci

The Dr. McNinja creator discusses his career:

I started to see that other people were making money from webcomics by selling T-shirts and advertising and I thought maybe I should look into that method. I figured out how to adapt my comic from a long comic to serialization and figured out how that would affect the storytelling. I needed to figure out what type of update schedule I had to keep to keep people engaged. What size the comic page should be so it still works in a book when I am all done with it.

[Review] Chester 5000 XYV
Link: Sean T. Collins

“A steampunk porn webcomic: By god, is this the most Internet-y thing the Internet has ever produced? Regardless, it’s certainly an advertisement for the potential of the web as a publishing mechanism for comics. You can do page after page after page of a cheerful, even sentimental comic drawn in a friendly, loose-fit Craig Thompson-y style (lots of dot-eyes and pointy noses and rapturous swirls) about a woman getting fucked by a robot with a mustache, and Diamond minimums be damned. I stumbled across this by following a link trail from Kate Beaton’s place, which seems somehow appropriate — good luck getting your gag-comic series about historical figures off the ground without a David Finch variant cover, too”

(Above: page from the series, ©2009 Jess Fink.)

Small Press/Minicomics

[Review] Various titles
Link: Rob Clough

Quick takes on a number of titles.

[Comics] “Free Irish Comic Book Day”
Link: Liam Geraghty and Philip Barrett

A look back at the recent event.

(Above: panel ©2009 Liam Geraghty and Philip Barrett. Link via John Robbins.)

Cartooning

[Craft] Roy Crane’s Craftint solution
Link: Bhob Stewart

Above and beyond the conceptual execution of the idea, this is just such a good image…

(Above: Nothing. Go click the link and take a look!)

[Comics] Bill Ward’s College Laughs
Link: Harry Lee Green

Of course, by “College Laughs” they mean “horny fratboy laughs.”

(Above: gag panel ©1963 Major Magazines, Inc.)

[Art] American paintings, drawings and sculpture
Link: Sotheby’s

Charley Parker points out:

Sotheby’s is a long established auction house through which some of the world’s most expensive (and notorious) art purchases have been transacted. Prior to their sales they post on their site previews of the items to be auctioned, in high enough resolution for potential buyers to take a look, and even bid online if inclined.

For those of us who can’t shell out a few million for the odd masterpiece here and there, the site is still a treasure trove of relatively high resolution images of terrific art.

(Above: Thomas Pollack Anshutz’s “Woman Writing at a Table.”)

[Art] The Spirit Coloring Book
Link: Golden Age Comic Book Stories

Black-and-white versions of some of Will Eisner’s classic splash pages.

(Above: ©1974 Will Eisner.)

[Commentary] How narrative affects comics
Link: Steven Grant

“Narrative is how a story becomes an experience.”

Comics Culture

[Scene] Holiday shopping guide
Link: Tom Spurgeon

I usually don’t link to these sort of things, but this one’s a great read.

[Your not-comics link of the day]
All Google’s logos.

Events Calendar

This week:

December 2 (Princeton, NJ): Jules Feiffer will speak at the Stewart Film Theater on Nassau Street, beginning at 4:30PM. Details here.

December 3 (New York City, NY): Ted Rall will be reading from and signing his new book at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art on Broadway, beginning at 7PM. Details here.

December 5 (New York City, NY): The Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival takes place at Our Lady of Consolation Church on Metropolitan Avenue in Brooklyn, from 11AM-7PM. Guests include R.O. Blechman, Charles Burns, Gabrielle Bell, Kim Deitch, Gary Panter, Ben Katchor, Lauren Weinstein, Adrian Tomine and many others. Details here.

December 5 (London, England): Alan Martin and Rufus Dayglo will be signing books and meeting readers at the Forbidden Planet Megastore on Shaftesbury Avenue, from 1-2PM. Details here.

December 5 (Washington DC): Politico cartoonist Matt Wuerker will discuss his work at the Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue, beginning at 2:30 PM. Details here.

December 6 (San Pablo City, Philippines): The San Pablo Comics Festival takes place at the Lion’s Den Clubhouse. Details here.

December 6 (Silver Spring, MD): The documentary Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist will be screened at the AFI Silver Theatre on Colesville Road, beginning at 12:15PM. Admission is $10. Details here.