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March 18, 2010
If You Have A CCI Room Story To Tell, I'd Like To Hear It And Exploit It
Today was the first day of Comic-Con International hotel rooms being offered at a discount through the convention. This has in the last few years been a day filled with a super-tense, one- to four-hour staring contest with the Travel Planners Web Site as it bottlenecks, followed by much disappointment as the seemingly tiny allotment of rooms quickly dissipates. As such, it's come to represent the rapid growth of CCI and conventions in general, and a potential schism between older fans used to doing things a certain way and newer fans who want in on the fun. This year Travel Planners instituted a time-stamp system whereby people submitted 12 choices and then heard back from TP as to which one they secured with a request to confirm through one day's deposit.
I'm a long-time Comic-Con attendee that uses the system every year. I was shut out of the hotels on this day last year and spent like five hours to learn that I was shut out. This year I spent exactly four minutes on-line and went to watch a basketball game and when I got back I had my fourth choice. So for me, this worked out great. However, I honestly don't care where I stay. I can't imagine there were too many people psyched to get their 12th choice, but for me the only requirement is I stay in at least one new hotel every year to learn what they're like. So my needs are different.
What about you? Did you like the new system? I'm particularly interested if anyone had problems that weren't simply related to more people wanting hotel rooms than were available. Because that's not changing any time soon, and certainly wasn't going to change with a lottery-type system.
Oh, and by the way: maybe check your spam if you never got an e-mail? That's how my program scanned the incoming Travel Planners missive.
photo by Whit Spurgeon; he got his 10th choice
posted 6:30 pm PST | Permalink
Somebody Please Start Selling Prints Of This Beauty By Christmas
whoa, nice
posted 11:00 am PST | Permalink
IDW/DCD: IDW Becomes Premier
 IDW Publishing announced today via press release that it will become a premier publisher with Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. This would make IDW the first publisher to advance to that status with Diamond since the terms were implemented 14 years ago.
IDW recently broke into the top tier of comics publishers based on market share, a tier traditionally reserved for premier publishers. That achievement was a sign of the company's growing sales presence and indicates a generally positive partnership with Diamond -- also the company's book distributor through a separate arm of the company.
In addition to the status involved -- and don't discount the status involved: as I recall, not getting this status was a real blow to CrossGen once upon a time, although their candidacy was much less convincing than IDW's by a country mile -- IDW will move its listing to a reserved section at front of the catalog and will participate in the Final Order Cut-Off Program before the end of the year. Unlike Marvel and DC, IDW will retain a traditional buy/sell relationship with the distributor. I don't know if IDW will start designing its own catalog pages or if it was already doing so; a query to the publisher has as of this writing yet to be answered.
Although it's unclear just how great an advantage that premier publisher status brings almost 15 years since it was, indeed, a very big deal that helped shape today's market, it's difficult to deny that 1) IDW has achieved that status due to the original sales performance parameters in a much less fruitful economic climate, 2) any assistance in negotiating the Direct Sales Market is, one would imagine, more than welcome. So good for them.
posted 10:00 am PST | Permalink
Go, Look: Gordo Samples
posted 9:30 am PST | Permalink
Your Danish Cartoons Hangover Update
* Mickey Mouse plot co-conspirator Tahawwur Rana has been denied bail, even as co-conspirator David Coleman Headley is expected to change his plea to guilty today in a Chicago-area court. Rana and Headley were arrested on charges related to a plot to harm various Danish Cartoons Controversy principals, which expanded into an inquiry as to the men's involvement in advance scouting for the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.
* Colleen LaRose is expected to be arraigned this morning in a Philadelphia court for her various activities as "Jihad Jane," including work against the safety and well-being of Swedish artists Lars Vilks. Vilks made a cartoon drawing of a dog with Muhammad's head in the wake of the original Danish Cartoons Controversy. Two men were remanded in Irish court earlier this week for their roles in what looks like a loose international conspiracy against the artist. Apparently, like recent detainee David Coleman Headley, LaRose has been cooperating with authorities.
posted 9:00 am PST | Permalink
Go, Look: George Evans
posted 8:30 am PST | Permalink
Your 2010 Joe Shuster Nominees
 Several mighty armies of nominees were named yesterday in six categories for the 2010 version of the Joe Shuster Awards. Designed to "recognize the achievements of Canadian comics creators," the Shusters are in their six year. They are named after Superman's co-creator, who was born in Toronto. Winners will be named June 5 during Toronto Comicon weekend.
Additional rounds of nominees will come in the publisher and comics for kids categories, in addition to the Harry Kremer Award (which goes to retailer) and the Gene Day Award (for self-publishers). More information through that initial link.
*****
ARTIST
* Chris Bachalo -- Dark Reign: The Sinister Spider-Man #1-4, Dark Avengers Annual #1, New Avengers #51-52, Amazing Spider-Man Extra! #2 -- "Black & White" (Marvel)
* Darwyn Cooke -- Jonah Hex #50 (DC Comics), Madman Atomic Comics #14 -- "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Madman Movie" (Image Comics)
* Marc Delafontaine -- Les nombrils, Vol. 04: Duels de belles (Dupuis)
* Djief Bergeron -- Saint-Germain, Vol. 1: Le Comte des Lumières (Glénat)
* Dale Eaglesham -- Justice Society of America #26 (DC Comics), Amazing Spider-Man #591, Fantastic Four #570-572, Captain America #600 -- "The Persistence of Memorabilia," Amazing Spider-Man Extra! #3 -- "Nice Things," Origins of Siege #1 -- "Doctor Doom" (Marvel)
* Stuart Immonen -- Ultimate Spider-Man #130-133, New Avengers #55-60, Fantastic Four #569 (Marvel), The CBLDF Presents Liberty Comics #2 -- "Trampoline Hall" (Image Comics)
* Francis Manapul -- Adventure Comics #0-3, 5, Superman/Batman #60-61 (DC Comics)
* Cameron Stewart -- Seaguy: The Slaves of Mickey Eye #1-3 (DC/Vertigo), Uncanny X-Men First Class Giant-Size Special #1 -- Origin of Wolverine segment (Marvel), The CBLDF Presents Liberty Comics #2 -- "The Apocalipstix in Taboo Boogaloo" (Image Comics)
*****
CARTOONIST
* Darwyn Cooke -- Richard Stark's Parker: The Hunter (IDW)
* Jeff Lemire -- The Nobody, Sweet Tooth #1-4 (DC/Vertigo), Noir: A Crime Comics Anthology -- "The Old Silo" (Dark Horse), Awesome 2: Awesomer -- "The Horseless Rider" (Top Shelf)
* Bryan Lee O'Malley -- Scott Pilgrim Volume 5: Scott Pilgrim vs. the Universe (Oni Press)
* Philippe Girard -- Tuer Velasquez (Glénat Québec)
* Michel Rabagliati -- Paul, Vol. 06: Paul à Québec (La Pastèque)
* Simon Roy -- Jan's Atomic Heart (New Reliable Press)
* Seth -- George Sprott 1894-1975 (Drawn & Quarterly)
* Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas -- Red: A Haida Manga (Douglas & McIntyre)
*****
COLORIST
* Brad Anderson -- Aliens #1-2 (Cover), Aliens/Predator FCBD 2009, Star Wars: The Clone Wars #8 (Cover), Star Wars: Legacy #32-40, #43 (Dark Horse), Action Comics #873 (Cover), Superman: Secret Origin #1-3, Superman: World of New Krypton #1-6, Superman: World of New Krypton #7, 9-10 (Cover), Wonder Woman #28-35, 39 (DC Comics), Doctor Doom and the Masters of Evil #3 (Cover), Franklin Richards: April Fools, Franklin Richards: It's Dark Reigning Cats & Dogs, Franklin Richards: School's Out, Uncanny X-Men: First Class Giant-Size Special #1, Spider-Man & The Secret Wars #1 (Marvel Comics)
* Chris Chuckry -- Air #6-16, The Unwritten #1-8 (DC/Vertigo), G.I. Joe: Cobra #1-2 (IDW), Amazing Spider-Man #582, 591, 599-600, 606-607, Amazing Spider-Man #583, 595, 597-598 (Cover), Amazing Spider-Man: Extra! #3, Iron Man Vs Whiplash #2, Ms. Marvel #36-37 (Cover)
* Maryse Dubuc -- Les nombrils Volume 04: Deuls et belles (Dupuis)
* Nathan Fairbairn -- Amazing Spider-Man #605, Dark Reign: The List -- X-Men #1, Dark X-Men: The Confession #1 (Cover), Guardians of the Galaxy #16, 18-19, House of M: Masters of Evil #1, Marvel Mystery Comics 70th Anniversary Special #1, Nation X #1, Realm of Kings: Imperial Guard #1-2, Timestorm 2009-2099: Spider-Man, War of Kings: Warriors #2, Wolverine #72, Wolverine: Origins #32, Wolverine: Weapon X #6-8, X-Factor #39-50, 200 (Variant) (Cover), X-Factor #45, X-Men: Kingbreaker #2-4, X-Men Origins: Gambit #1 (Marvel Comics), Stephen Colbert's Tek Jansen #4-5 (Oni Press)
* Lovern Kindzierski -- The Sandman: The Dream Hunters #3-4 (DC/Vertigo), Angel #19, Doctor Who #1-2, G.I. Joe: Cobra #3-4, G.I. Joe: Cobra Special #1, GrimJack: The Manx Cat #1, Star Trek: Crew #3-5, Star Trek: Romulans: Schism #1-3 (IDW), What If? Daredevil vs. Elektra (Marvel Comics)
* Francois Lapierre -- Magasin général Volume 05: Montréal (Casterman)
* Dave McCaig -- Star Wars: Dark Times #13-14 (Dark Horse), Detective Comics #857-860, Wednesday Comics #1-12 (DC Comics), House of Mystery Halloween Annual #1, Northlanders #14-23 (DC/Vertigo), Mysterius: The Unfathomable #1-6 (DC/Wildstorm), Invincible #66-67 (Image Comics), Berserker #2-3, Broken Trinity: Angelus, The Darkness #75, Pilot Season: Murderer #1 (Image/Top Cow), Agents of Atlas #9 (Cover), Dark Reign: Fantastic Four #2-5 (Cover), Deadpool #900, Fantastic Four #571 (Cover), Ghost Rider #33-35, Marvel Comics #1 70th Anniversary Edition, Miss America Comics 70th Anniversary Special #1 (Cover), New Avengers #50, 55-60, Origins of Siege #1, Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk #3-6, Ultimatum: Fantastic Four Requiem #1 (Cover) (Marvel Comics), Resurrection #0 FCBD 2009 (Oni Press)
* Ronda Pattison -- Star Wars: The Clone Wars #4 (Cover), Star Wars: The Clone Wars FCBD 2009, Star Wars: The Clone Wars: The Wind Raiders of Taloraan, Star Wars: Purge -- Seconds to Die, Unbound Saga (Dark Horse), Angel vs. Frankenstein (IDW), Killer of Demons #1-3 (Image Comics), Dark Reign: Mister Negative #1-3, Human Torch Comics 70th Anniversary Special #1 (Marvel Comics), Atomic Robo and Friends FCBD 2009, Atomic Robo and the Shadow from Beyond Time #1-5, We Kill Monsters #1-5 (Red 5 Comics)
*****
WRITER
* Kelley Armstrong -- Angel #18-22 (IDW)
* Ian Boothby -- Futurama Comics #43-44, Simpsons Comics #150, Simpsons Super Spectacular #8 -- "The Sprint" (Bongo)
* Hervé Bouchard -- Harvey (La Pastèque)
* Maryse Dubuc -- Les nombrils Volume 04: Duels de belles (Dupuis)
* Kathryn Immonen -- Runaways #11-14, Patsy Walker: Hellcat #5 (Marvel Comics), The CBLDF Presents Liberty Comics #2 -- "Trampoline Hall" (Image Comics)
* Dean Motter -- The Spirit #29 (DC Comics)
* Ty Templeton -- Star Trek: Mission's End #1-5 (IDW)
* J. Torres -- Disney/Pixar's Wall-E #0-1 (Boom!), DC Holiday Special '09 #1 -- "Huntress in Naughty or Nice," Batman: The Brave and the Bold #5-8, #11 (DC Comics)
*****
COVER
* Kaare Andrews -- The Immortal Iron Fist #27 (Marvel Comics)
* Paul Bordeleau -- Faune, Volume 2: La maison du Faune (La Pastèque)
* Darwyn Cooke -- Jonah Hex #50 (DC Comics)
* Darwyn Cooke -- Richard Stark's Parker: The Hunter (IDW)
* Marc Delafontaine -- Les nombrils, Volume 04: Duels de belles (Dupuis)
* Dale Eaglesham -- Miss America Comics 70th Anniversary Special #1 (Marvel Comics)
* Dale Keown -- The Astounding Wolf-Man #16 Variant (Image Comics)
* Igor Kordey -- Unknown Soldier #5 (DC/Vertigo)
*****
WEBCOMICS
* Attila Adorjany -- Metaphysical Neuroma
* Kate Beaton -- Hark! A Vagrant
* Andy Belanger -- Bottle of Awesome and Raising Hell
* Rene Engstrom -- Anders Loves Maria
* Karl Kerschl -- The Abominable Charles Christopher
* Gisèle Lagacé and David Lumsdon -- Eerie Cuties and Ménage à 3
* Tara Tallan -- Galaxion
* Steve Wolfhard -- Cat Rackham
*****
*****
posted 8:00 am PST | Permalink
Go, Look: Middle Class Poverty Is...
posted 7:30 am PST | Permalink
Go, Look: Moonshift
posted 6:30 am PST | Permalink
Go, Look: The Corpse Springs Alive
posted 4:00 am PST | Permalink
Go, Look: Granny And Slowpoke
posted 4:00 am PST | Permalink
Go, Look: Sketches By Seymour
posted 4:00 am PST | Permalink
Go, Look: Kurt Schaffenberger Ruled
posted 4:00 am PST | Permalink
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* this is CCI's hotel reservation day, kicking off at 9 AM PT. They'll be doing it slightly differently this year, with the person submitting a list and then having to secure the counter-offer with a deposit within a few days. You can go here to get oriented; I thought they did a good job of unpacking it. As the #1 abuser of the non-deposit system over the last few years -- I think I had 17 rooms at the Kona Kai at one point -- I look forward to seeing how the new system works. And as someone who was totally shut out of last year's stampede, I figure I can't have a worse first day... or can I?
 * Sandy Bilus has started a series of posts on Louis Riel; it'd be nice if they were bookmarked "Louis Riel."
* the longtime writer-about-comics Johanna Draper Carlson, who takes what I'd call a consumer advocate's position with a lot of her writing on the business, looks at marketing to women.
* Brian Fies adds his thoughts to Kurt Busiek's recently active posting on breaking into comics. Brian and Kurt by themselves represent two entirely different ways of getting into comics despite the fact they're in (I think) the same advertising demographic.
* the book wasn't a favorite of mine, but I have to admit this board game promotional item for Foiled is a really cute idea.
* the cartoonist Bryan Lee O'Malley promises details about volume six in the Scott Pilgrim series this Friday.
* the longtime Chicago area retailer Joe Sarno has been hospitalized.
* I'll run the cover image in next week's "Bundled" rather than here, but you should scoot over to Drawn and Quarterly's web site to read the publishing news announcement for Lynda Barry's Picture This.
* Jeet Heer waxes rhapsodic about his favorite comics store, The Beguiling.
* not comics: this is great news.
* finally, here's another interview with Lance Fensterman, which as always makes me feel much less special. The interviewer asks about the Vs. Wizard stuff, which I think is a) mostly boring, and b) gives Wizard more credit that they're due, so I skipped them, but Fensterman's responses were kind of passive-aggressive and compelling and now I wish I had gone there.
posted 3:00 am PST | Permalink
Happy 42nd Birthday, Shea Anton Pensa!
posted 2:00 am PST | Permalink
Happy 55th Birthday, Bill Reinhold!
posted 2:00 am PST | Permalink
Quick hits
Craft
This Made Me Smile
Elijah Brubaker Sketches
Sean Phillips Sketches 01
Sean Phillips Sketches 02
Exhibits/Events
Go See PAD
ECCC In PW
Go See Guy Davis
History
Easy Being Green
Interviews/Profiles
CBR: Jim Valentino
CBR: Rafael Albuquerque
Not Comics
Hey, A Scott Pilgrim Movie Poster
Scott Kurtz Relocating To Seattle?
Steve Englehart's Point Man, Sequel Coming
Publishing
What's Coming Out
Reviews
Greg McElhatton: DMZ #51
Nina Stone: The Sword #22
Kevin Church: Bad Machinery
Rob Clough: Big Questions #13
Sean T. Collins: Weird Schmeird #2
RC Harvey: The Family Circus Vol. 1
Tim Callahan: American Vampire #1
Johanna Draper Carlson: Mysterius The Unfathomable
Well Versed In The Walls Of Worst
posted 12:00 am PST | Permalink
March 17, 2010
CR Review: Shitbeams On The Loose #2
Creators: Ron Rege Jr., Jason Overby, Dave Nuss, Andrew Smith, Hector Serna Jr., Brent Harada, Robyn Jordan, John Hankiewicz, Grant Reynolds, Ryo Kuramoto, Amane Yamamoto, Rusty Jordan, Luke Ramsey, Andy Rementer.
Publishing Information: Revival House, softcover, 64 pages, October 2009, $9
Ordering Numbers:
 On first flip-through, Shitbeams On The Loose #2 took me back to the heady days of 1997, when cartoonists you liked seemed to publish every other week in destined-to-be-lost, handsomely dressed anthologies like this one, when several such volumes a year came out that seemed dominated by fun-looking drawings over actual comics at a time you didn't 100 percent know how you felt about that, when the books in your to-read pile frequently didn't even have page numbers to help you figure out which cartoonist was which.
The good news is that this is a pretty good representative of that sub-form. Andy Rementer's cover is attractive in a way that doesn't quite communicate via jpeg, and he gets the issue's final pages for a brief slice-of-life cartoon with a curiously excitable core. There are pieces by Ron Rege Jr. and John Hankiewicz, artists that one would suppose have fans interested in every single thing they do. I liked best a short story by Grant Reynolds that combined grotesque imagery with these wonderful, single-page visions where the letters of some strident statement or another bleed right into the background. There's nothing here that I would follow into another comic and buy on its own, but there's certainly a lot of fun drawing throughout. I grew more fond of it just flipping it back open for this review. The bad news is I'm not sure where you can find it. Probably at the Stumptown Festival, maybe through one of the artists, likely at one of Portland's small-press cognizant stores. If you can unearth one, and this sounds like your kind of thing, and if you're not looking for anything transcendent in terms of overall artistic effect, Shitbeams can hold its own against anything similar that came out when Clinton was president.
posted 4:00 pm PST | Permalink
Bundled, Tossed, Untied And Stacked
By Tom Spurgeon
* the Amazon.com listings are starting to fill in through the 2010 holiday seasons, and some quick googling can reveal a cover or two -- mostly because of a combination of book distribution catalog requirements and artists active on-line. That's Ray Fenwick's initial shot at a cover for his December Fantagraphics release Mascots, which may or may not be what's actually used when the book comes out. He explains his thinking here.
* the artist Tom Richmond reports that MAD will be bumping up from quarterly production to bi-monthly production, an increase of 50 percent in terms of published pages in a year. He extols nearly all the conceivable virtues of the move in his post, actually.
 * Michel Fiffe is spearheading a run of indie/alt cartoonists taking on Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon character, which will run in the comic book of the same name starting in issue #160. All the press material and statements can be found here.
* a company I've never heard off is bringing back the Charmed property through comic book publication, I guess because there wasn't enough Charmed during its 33 seasons on the air. Although I'd buy it if Gilbert Hernandez were doing it.
* it's always fun when people have fangasms over properties in which you're too old to have participated on any level, and thus it was with the announcement that Boom! is doing a Darkwing Duck comic book.
* the series/property Hack/Slash is moving from Devil's Due to Image. It makes total sense for a book like that to make that move, I'd think -- it seems like an Image book already, the creators can control the publishing schedule to their liking, and they're unfettered on the Image end to make outside deals for the property if any come up.
* I somehow missed this the first time around, but busy Dean Haspiel is putting together a comics section for the new, twice-yearly literary journal Cousin Corinne's Reminder. The first issue features a collaboration by Dean Haspiel with Jonathan Lethem.
* if you follow mainstream comic books, you already knew this, but the team of Palmiotti, Gray and Conner is off of their Power Girl sort-of revamp. Conner moved first and the writing team followed. That title had a bit of traction with some fans, about as much as can be expected in this day and age, I'd guess.
* here's a couple of nice editorial cartooning gigs announced: Drew Litton will be supplying cartoons to ESPN; Rob Tornoe is back in Editor & Publisher after their closing scare and ownership change.
* just a bit more on the Matt Thorn-curated manga works at Fantagraphics, including expected print runs.
* finally, Stan Saki has a cover image (below) and a few details about the next Usagi collection at his chat board.
posted 11:00 am PST | Permalink
Go, Look: Happy Monday
posted 10:30 am PST | Permalink
Your Danish Cartoons Hangover Update
There's only major update today, but it's a huge one. It's been announced that David Coleman Headley is expected to plead guilty this week. Headley was one of two Chicago men arrested for conspiring to bring harm to Danish Cartoons Controversy stalwarts Flemming Rose, Kurt Westergaard and the newspaper Jyllands-Posten. While in custody, partly through Headley's cooperation, it became known that he did advance scouting on behalf of the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai. It makes sense given how much Headley has cooperated with authorities both here and from other countries that a plea deal might follow, and if it's made public as expected there may be some salient information as to how serious their efforts were against the DCC targets. The other Chicago man arrested, Tahawwur Rana, has been much more strident about proclaiming his innocence.
posted 10:00 am PST | Permalink
Go, Read: A Short Note On Hal Foster
posted 9:30 am PST | Permalink
Niqab Cartoon Draws Criticism; Aislin Turns Around, Does Another One
The much-lauded cartoonist Terry Mosher, who works as Aislin, made news this week for a cartoon from last Friday depicting jail bars and a lock through the slit in a niqab. The cartoon refers to the case of Naima Atef Amed, a new immigrant to Canada, who filed charges related to what she believed was discrimination against her during her participation in a French-language class in Montreal. Mosher was not openly confessional in terms of opposing the woman, he followed through this week with another niqab-related drawing, seen at right, above. I don't have the ability to find out the particulars and understand the context of the incident involved, although just mentioning it here will likely result in an accusatory letter, but I did think Mosher's matter-of-fact stand and the paper's willingness to support him worth noting.
posted 9:00 am PST | Permalink
Go, Read: Lengthy Gabrielle Bell Piece
posted 8:30 am PST | Permalink
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