Archive for October, 2004
Indy Magazine
I added Jeff Mason’s online quarterly, Indy Magazine, to the link list on the left. Jeff’s the publisher of Alternative Comics. Highlights from the current issue:
- “Ephemera vs. the Apocalypse” by Art Spiegelman
- Political cartoonist Tim Kreider interviews Jules Feiffer
- A special op/ed comics section reprints four pages of election season comics by Joe Sacco and two pages by Art Spiegelman
- Marc Singer’s analysis of comics drawn by Petter Bagge (“Hate”) for Reason, a libertarian magazine
- Bill Kartalopoulos’s essay on the depiction of groups and types in comics by Spiegelman, Sacco, Marjane Satrapi and others
- Jeremey Dennis’s photo-journal from the GRRR! 3 comics festival in Pancevo, Serbia a gallery of narrative paintings by Jerry Moriarty.
- Reviewed books include “The Bush Junta,” “Chris Ware,” and “Mail Order Bride”
Small Press Swapmeet
Got a press release from the folks over at Modern Tales, “the leading online comics site”. They’ve launched a new site called Small Press Swapmeet which is an “online marketplace for independent comics, minicomics, graphic novels, and related merchandise is open to any cartoonist or small press publisher with items for sale who wishes to reach Modern Tales’ large online audience.”
Here’s the price structure, direct from their website:
“This fee is currently $2.95/month or $19.95/year, for the ability to post an unlimited number of listings, which will be advertised and cross-promoted on every site in the Modern Tales family. The price will go up to $4.95/month or $49.95/year for any sellers who sign up after November 25, 2004 (one month from the launch of SmallPressSwapmeet.com), but sellers who sign up now will never have to pay more than the charter amount, as long as their Seller Accounts remain active.”
I think I’ll sign up and give it a shot. $20 isn’t bad for a whole year.
Christian Comics
Couple of religiously themed projects I ran across…
First, Mike (Madman, X-Statics) Allred is doing an adaptation of The Book of Mormon. The first volume is 64 pages, full color, and is called The Golden Plates: The Sword of Lathan and the Tree of Life. He’s self-publishing it through his own AAA Pop Comics. Allred says:
“This my testimony. The Book Of Mormon is a true and inspired record. I know this to be as real and true as the keyboard with which I type these words. Every human being can and must discover that truth for themselves.”
The other is from a smaller indy publisher, Head Press. It’s called Eye Witness: A Fictional Tale of Absolute Truth, and according to creator Robert James Luedke:
“This 96 page, full color, work of Christian Fiction will break new ground in the U.S. comic book market, as it will cross over traditional boundaries between comics stores and bookstores and churches. This story of mystery and intrigue has a fully illustrated presentation of the Passion story of Jesus at its core that will appeal to not only those who love Christian Fiction, but anyone who likes a good mystery, and ever wondered…why did Jesus have to die that way?“
There’s a local newspaper article about this one here. What I find oddly amusing about the article, though, is this paragraph where the writer tries to shed some light on the popularity of graphic novels:
“There’s no question that young people do read graphic novels; local mainstream bookstores have considerable space devoted to such series as “The Punisher” and “Sin City.” Also, numerous recent movies — “The Crow,” “The Punisher,” “Hellboy” and “Road To Perdition” among them — were adapted from graphic novels.”
So…he’s doing a story on a Christian graphic novel and the only other examples of the form he can think of are Sin City, The Punisher, and Hellboy?!? Nice.
Trick or Treat
So last night was trick or treat night in my neighborhood, and per a custom I started last year, I handed out free comic books along with candy. I only get about a dozen or so kids where I am, but they all seemed very excited to receive comics. I’m not sure if it’s the novelty factor, or the fact that they’re getting something in addition to candy, but regardless. They seemed happy, which made me happy.
Of course the trick is to hand out only kid-friendly comics, which as we all know isn’t exactly easy. But I had some of the “Johnny DC” books, plus the Free Comic Book Day editions of Teen Titans and Marvel Age books. The Teen Titans seemed to be the biggest hit, and the most recognition factor, especially from the girls.
Your political (and coincidentally, comic book) moment of the day
Atomic Basement Comics is offering Tex! George Bush and the Fine Art of Character Assassination. According to their website:
“Written by Joshua (Swamp Thing, Violent Messiahs) Dysart with art by Brad (Catwoman, True Adult Fantasy) Rader , Tex! tears apart the last four years of the Bush Administration with a smile. The perfect gift for your Bush supporter friends! Tex! contains a five page appendix of irrefutable information. Read. Enjoy. Learn.”
There’s also an interview with Dysart over at Newsarama. Here’s the part I found interesting (in a laughable kind of way):
“Dysart said that he approached Avatar Press, but they were unwilling to publish something which could be seen as extremely polarizing.”
Ok, so let me get this straight. Avatar has no problems publishing porn comics (in conjunction with Vivid Entertainment). They have no problems publishing crap-ass T&A comics with multiple variant covers, including ridiculously overpriced $75 “leather” editions. They aren’t afraid to publish books from Warren Ellis which graphically depict men with vaginas giving birth to killer lizards. They have no problem giving us a book featuring “funny animal” characters getting abortions. But oh no! A book about the Bush administration would be “extremely polarizing”!
Right.
Anyway, my dislike of Avatar aside, here’s a bit more about the Tex! comic:
“[it]comes with a free CD, and, perhaps even more surprising, contains a five-page appendix in the back, providing facts to back up the satire in the front.”
Obviously, this is the kind of book that isn’t going to change any minds about the election. Much like Michael Moore’s movie, it’s just going to “preach to the choir”. However, I think it’ll be a fun little book to have in one’s collection, if only as an artifact of the most divided, polarized election in recent US history.
Peter Bagge name drops Columbus and The Wex
Bagge does a regular comic strip for the Reason website. In the latest one, he rails against the “eye-roll-inducing self-indulgence that has dominated the fine arts world since the 1960s”. Check out this quote:
“As a former NYC resident, art school dropout, and practitioner of what used to be the least respected art form of all (comic books), my feelings towards the contemporary fine art world have always been a mix of bemusement, resentment, and contempt.”
No one escapes his venom, from brain-dead NEA supporters to corporate weasels. But on the last page he mentions the funky tea and coffee set exhibit that was showing at the Wexner center at the same time as the weak SPLAT! BOOM! POW! exhibit.
“To be fair, I do come across some amazing exhibits from time to time, like the collection of tea sets designed by various architects I saw at the Wexner Center in Columbus, OH…”
(link courtesy of I Am Not the Beastmaster)
Totally non-comics related: glue
Wanna know what’s the best glue for attaching leather to plastic? How about ceramic to vinyl? Try www.thistothat.com. “Because people have a need to glue things to other things.”
F***ing piece of S*** Blogger
Sorry, just needed to vent a bit about. Seems like every other post I try to make gets eaten up by their buggy piece of crap software. Argh! I swear, if I had a lot of free time I’d look into porting this whole blog to a different (i.e functioning!) blog publishing platform.
Get your poll on
No, not another one of those political polls. Over at his message board, Steven Grant asks “Who is the best Brit comics writer?” The results as of right now, with 59 votes cast:
Alan Moore 64.41%
Neil Gaiman 11.86%
Grant Morrison 8.47%
Warren Ellis 6.78%
Pete Milligan 5.08%
Mark Millar 3.39%
Andy Diggle 0%
Alan Grant 0%
Pat Mills 0%
Jaime Delano 0%
Ferret Press art book contest winners
I received 12 entries. It was a tough call, but 3 were picked for inclusion in the Little Art Book: Hybrid art book. See them here.
Let’s talk about comic book cover designs again
Warren Ellis weighed in on the topic earlier. Now, John Fellows has a nice essay over at Ninth Art about the same subject.
“If you look at any given GLOBAL FREQUENCY issue, it’s a little harder to tell what’s going on inside. This is what I call Bradstreet Syndrome. While viewed individually, each cover that Tim Bradstreet has produced for HELLBLAZER and PUNISHER has been glorious, but viewed together, they’re all pretty much identical.”
Persepolis 2.1
Over at Bookslut, they have a very cool comic retelling of Matjane (Persepolis) Satrapi’s signing at “Women and Children First” in Andersonville.
The Flash on Smallville
“…here’s a reasonably comprehensive list of comic book shout-outs in the most recent episode of Smallville…”
(link courtesy of Progressive Ruin)
And you thought black & white indy comics had it rough…
Brian Hibbs offers another insightful look into the process by which he orders new comics from the Previews catalog. A must read for all self-publishers, and those interested in the business side of comics. There are books from the big name publishers that get a measly 2-3 copy order from him, and this is from a forward-thinking retailer with an indy friendly store! Yikes.
“Batman/Danger Girl is $5, and it is not J. Scott Campbell. Leinil Yu is a good artist, but I think I’ll go on the lower side of Batman 48 pagers and go with 12 copies. We did pretty poorly on “Viva Las Danger”, the last DG comic. Also, there’s a 50/50 variant here. This is an impact on the low/conservative order. If it had been a choice, I would have ordered 16 Campbell covers. That’s more commercial, to me.The Incredibles #2 is a movie adaptation. These usually do really lousy, and it’s not done in CG, but in regular pen and ink, so I put down a token 1 copy.
Mighty Man #1 reprints a backup from Savage Dragon (which sells 4 copies) for… ulp? $8? Are you high? 1 copy ordered.”