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Saturday, January 31, 2004
local boy done good: brent white, my co-conspirator on killing demons, has a new dystopian sci-fi book coming out from image comics very soon. i know brent's been busting his ass on this -- he's truly among the best people i've had the opportunity to meet and work with in comics. image has posted five-page previews of both issue #1 and issue #2 on their website:
 
check it out and tell your local retailer about it if it looks like your thing.
posted by peter! 8:44 PM EST permalink
egon: excellent blog i've been following for awhile.
posted by peter! 8:34 PM EST permalink
in georgia, there is hope: alternative comics publisher jeff mason popped in to tell us about FLUKE, a festival for underground and independent comics, that he'll be attending as a feature guest alongside "magic whistle" creator sam henderson. the festival is held in athens, georgia, on jan 31st, and there's a whole bunch of details in this article right here.
posted by peter! 8:27 PM EST permalink
just when you thought there couldn't be anything stupider then yesterday's last post: apparently, the toy company mattel is looking to kill the he-man licenses in the united states because -- get this -- the people buying the comics and toys aren't kids at all; they're middle-aged fanboy collectors living in their parents basements. this has prompted absurd "save he-man" pleas such as this one. quote:
"Masters of the Universe is a brand that has a very large and very passionate following," says Val Staples, writer of the Masters of the Universe comic and administrative contact for He-Man.org. "As a fellow fan, I can say without a doubt that the huge Masters fan base has been dreaming about this kind of relaunch for over a decade."
wet dreaming no doubt. unfortunately, this is but a microcosm of the problem that infects the entire comics direct market, which is essentially one big candy store for hebephreniacs.
posted by peter! 8:20 PM EST permalink
Friday, January 30, 2004
SUPER HERO HAPPY HOUR CHANGES NAME
Dan Taylor, creator of the critically acclaimed Super Hero Happy Hour comic, published by GeekPunk has announced that the name of his series has had to change, due to Marvel and DC co-owning the term “Super Hero.” It’s just Hero Happy Hour from here on out.
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Word on the street is that Marvel and DC are busy trying to acquire joint ownership on the words "bookstore" and "manga."
posted by Matt 1:23 PM EST permalink
brainpowered #34: monetising the fringe by warren ellis
"So. Microcasting. Taste tribes. What's next?
"I know a lot of people who give away their material free, in the hope that the people who like it will buy it as a data object, like a CD. This can work very well, of course -- if you've got a CD burner, if you have a record deal, if you have a publisher, whatever. Selling bits -- an mp3, a PDF, a Flash file, a GIF sequence -- is something different.
"There's a crucial hesitation point in using a credit card on the web. It's not one-click, it's real money, suggests a significant purchase and can be a real pain in the arse to set up, even with middlemen like CCBill. This is why Nicholas Negroponte spent the 90s banging on about micropayments, and why Scott McCloud took up his banner..."
(more)
posted by peter! 10:22 AM EST permalink
die, spammers, die: looks like someone's been spoofing our email addresses all week, as well as half the people in comics. this has happened a few times before and it takes a couple of days to die down. sorry about that. bloody bastards.
posted by peter! 1:30 AM EST permalink
can't remember if i blogged this earlier: my brain's pretty much shit right now, but the first volume of mike kunkel's all ages series, herobear and the kid, has been selected to the young adult library services association's sponsored list. congrats, guys.
posted by peter! 1:26 AM EST permalink
please kill my inner geek: in the sixties, gold key published a series of comics based on the original star trek show. i remember getting my hands on a couple of them in the late seventies at a flea market (do they still exist?) and can only recall one thing about them: the artists on the early issues were foreign (i believe) and were working off of publicity stills -- they had never seen the show. so all kinds of weird inconsistencies appeared, including crewmen using guns instead of phasers, etc. i also remember something about kirk participating in gladitorial games (or was that the show?) anyway, checker books is reprinting all sixty issues as a series of trades, with the first volume coming out this may. shoot me.
posted by peter! 1:16 AM EST permalink
cool: joseph nassise, the bram stoker award nominated writer and president of the horror writer's association, likes my book. he also reviews comic writer caitlin kiernan's latest prose novel, low red moon, in the same piece. (i have no shame and i love it.)
posted by peter! 1:10 AM EST permalink
banging your head against a wall until it bleeds: neil cohn attempts to decipher the problem we like to call The Comic Industry right here. i met neil in berkeley once and read through his book -- he's an interesting cat. god bless him.
posted by peter! 12:59 AM EST permalink
a.p.e: the alternative press expo is being held in cloudy 'ol s.f. on feb 21st and 22nd. kelly sue and myself hope to be on hand in some capacity -- still working stuff out. more info right here.
posted by peter! 12:56 AM EST permalink
Thursday, January 29, 2004
The Philly Inquirer is negotiating with syndicates to get its comics content free for six months.
Which might be the start of an ugly trend.
posted by Matt 4:43 PM EST permalink
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
The "rights issues" behind collecting Howard Chaykin's AMERICAN FLAGG!-- namely Chaykin and his publisher's rights to make a shitload of cash-- have been cleared up: "Dynamic Forces is giving all comic fans a special gift this year – a definitive collection of Howard Chaykin’s America Flagg, long out of print, and never before fully-collected!"
By "fully-collected," Dynamic Forces means the first six issues, by the way.
posted by Matt 1:26 PM EST permalink
Tuesday, January 27, 2004
Wai Wai says what you're all thinking anyway:
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"...Ryoko Ozawa points out that while manga can be considered a form of culture, it's still merely a subculture that has a long way to go before it attains the level of true culture.
'Besides,' she adds, 'Americans are shocked to see grown men reading comics in trains, especially ones that are choke full of violence and sex. It's not something Americans can understand.'
No kidding. An American expatriate comments, 'What really shocked me about coming to Japan was that there were adults openly reading comic books in trains. There aren't any adults in America who do that. Of course there are comic books in the States but they're either for children, or considered trash.'"
posted by Matt 2:00 AM EST permalink
400 blows: "Eisner/Miller brings to comics a tradition that stretches back to Hitchcock/Truffaut." i just got back from l.a. and i feel like i haven't left.
posted by peter! 1:04 AM EST permalink
Monday, January 26, 2004
DARK HORSE RELEASES EISNER/MILLER IN APRIL
Press Release
Are there any creators who have more greatly affected their chosen medium than Will Eisner and Frank Miller? Comics readers are now invited to read along as two of its greatest contributors—legendary innovator and godfather of sequential art, Will Eisner, and the modern master of cinematic comics storytelling, Frank Miller—discuss one-on-one, in an intimate interview format, the ins-and-outs of this compelling and often controversial art form.
Eisner and Miller seem perfectly coupled in such a dialogue, as editor Charles Brownstein explains: “They share a relentless passion for formal innovation and have equally keen understandings of the business mechanisms that drive the field. This conversation reveals the aesthetic passions and formal theories that are at the foundation of their bodies of work. It also portrays two opinionated views of comics history and two informed perspectives on how to make it in comics.”
Brownstein also believes this is a project whose time has come. “The book also opens up a new door in comics criticism. In film, it's not uncommon for acclaimed directors to publish a discussion about their form and field, but in comics such documents are rare. Eisner/Miller brings to comics a tradition that stretches back to Hitchcock/Truffaut. Walking in, it was our hope that presenting a serious conversation between these masters of the form would open comics criticism up in a meaningful way.”
“Eisner/Miller is a surprisingly contentious exchange,” Brownstein continues. “While there is unquestionable respect between these two men, they have very heated exchanges about the history of the business, censorship, and their approaches to their jobs. Within this discussion we get a sense of what drives them both and of the forces that have driven the field since its inception.”
Brownstein believes that Eisner/Miller will enlighten comics historians, critics, fans, and creators. “The book lends insight to the climate of the comics business during Will's career and how that climate carried over into the present day through Frank's career. It sheds light on what goes into making masterful comics. It also reveals the real joys of cartooning and the intellectual depth that these men bring to every graphic novel they draw.”
The Eisner/Miller trade paperback is available April 28 with a retail price of $19.95
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Car-waxing PR aside, part of me wants to take cheap shots and the other wants this to be as good as it could be.
posted by Matt 10:33 PM EST permalink
Matt Brady checks in with Jeff Parker, he of INTERMAN fame, while Jen Contino, making a welcomed and serious go at presenting interviews that don't feel like email q&a sessions, talks to Antony Johnston about JULIUS, his book with Brett Weldele, coming soon from Oni Press.
posted by Matt 12:38 PM EST permalink
From ¡Journalista!: Walllace Wood's 22 Panels That Always Work and now, Ivan Brunetti's.
posted by Matt 11:06 AM EST permalink
Begging the question:
Is it possible that the owner knows your work from the internet and just thinks you're a giftless tool?
posted by Matt 11:02 AM EST permalink
Sunday, January 25, 2004
new review: the princess mermaid by junko mizuno
"So, anyway, you're probably here for something about the PRINCESS MERMAID, the last of Junko Mizuno's deviant fairy tales. Fair enough. Think The Little Mermaid, but imagine Ariel and her sisters as naked, cannibal mermaids preying off the flesh of evil fishermen who hunt them to harvest their eyeballs as sushi..."
posted by peter! 12:54 PM EST permalink
while my guitar gently weeps: next month, see's the release of dodge's bullets, a new graphic novella from writer jay faerber that represents his first major foray into detective fiction. jay's updated his website with more details, preview pages, script sample and this cover image by tony harris:
posted by peter! 11:23 AM EST permalink
fantagraphics may 04: fantagraphics has announced their may releases, including "freedom fries", a collection of political cartoons from steve brodner; "the kid firechief", the latest graphic novel from humorist steven weissman; and "the lizard of oz", a parody by mark bode that promises to build upon the work of his father, the late vaughn bode. here's the covers to the three graphic novels:
 
on the serial side of the house, they're also offering blood orange #1 -- a new alt-comix anthology; meat cake #13 by dame darcy; la perdida #4 by jessica abel; luba's comics and stories #4 by gilbert hernandez; the stuff of dreams #2 by kim deitch; and the comics journal #261
tune into fantagraphics.com for more info.
(it's also a busy month for their eros line, which includes hot moms #3 by rebecca, menage a trois #5 by molly kiely, the spanish conquest #2 by lanegro, casual sex #4 by le bute, spunky knight extreme #1 by youhei kozou, the tijuana bibles #5 edited by michael dowers; the sex-philes #3 by benkyo tamaoki; and megamanga #12 featuring silky whip extreme. whew!)
posted by peter! 3:22 AM EST permalink
the filty monkey. it plans: warren ellis has released more details about stealth tribes, his upcoming graphic novel set to debut in late 2004 from vertigo comics:
"People are obtaining things called 'cloud drives' online. When they arrive -- a stack of six glassy ovals in a rack -- you plug them into your computer's USB port and then search for 'index of /zt3' via stealthtribes.com. Download a piece of music. Save it to z:// -- your cloud drive. See the gas within the first oval darken as the file moves into it and unzips into the molecular storm. The file doesn't just hold music. It holds information. Take out the oval. Attach the spout to it. Run your lighter's flame under the oval -- heat activates the information -- and inhale. Smoke music. And the information encoded within it is carried into your brain, plugging in to the places it needs to be. Feel the data inside the music rearranging things. You're downloading special talents. All over America -- all over the world -- small knots of friends gather in rented apartments, bedrooms and basements, hitting the chat rooms and the message boards, learning how to find what's stealthy, learning the tricks, and changing. Staying in is the new going out. And who can blame them? Who'd want to be on these streets?"
posted by peter! 2:55 AM EST permalink
archives:
11/30/2003 - 12/06/2003
12/07/2003 - 12/13/2003
12/14/2003 - 12/20/2003
12/21/2003 - 12/27/2003
12/28/2003 - 01/03/2004
01/04/2004 - 01/10/2004
01/11/2004 - 01/17/2004
01/18/2004 - 01/24/2004
01/25/2004 - 01/31/2004
02/01/2004 - 02/07/2004
02/08/2004 - 02/14/2004
02/15/2004 - 02/21/2004
02/22/2004 - 02/28/2004
02/29/2004 - 03/06/2004
03/07/2004 - 03/13/2004
03/14/2004 - 03/20/2004
03/21/2004 - 03/27/2004
03/28/2004 - 04/03/2004
04/04/2004 - 04/10/2004
04/11/2004 - 04/17/2004
04/18/2004 - 04/24/2004
04/25/2004 - 05/01/2004
05/02/2004 - 05/08/2004
05/09/2004 - 05/15/2004
05/16/2004 - 05/22/2004
05/23/2004 - 05/29/2004
05/30/2004 - 06/05/2004
06/06/2004 - 06/12/2004
06/13/2004 - 06/19/2004
06/20/2004 - 06/26/2004
06/27/2004 - 07/03/2004
07/04/2004 - 07/10/2004
07/11/2004 - 07/17/2004
07/18/2004 - 07/24/2004
07/25/2004 - 07/31/2004
08/01/2004 - 08/07/2004
08/08/2004 - 08/14/2004
08/15/2004 - 08/21/2004
08/22/2004 - 08/28/2004
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