Archive for July, 2005
Drawing is easy, comedy is hard
Chad Lambert told me a few months ago that comedy is harder to do in comic books than in almost any other medium.
This was at the last signing at Bookery Fantasy. Lambert’s spent a lot of time trying to make comix funny through his Possum at Large series, so I listened. Hopefully he’ll correct me if I’m misremembering what he said.
Comedy is harder in comics, according to Lambert, because it’s harder to get the timing right. There are tricks you can do, such as throwing in an extra panel of silence, but it’s still tricky. It’s difficult to show characters reacting in a funny way unless you’re a very good cartoonist. There’s no way to get a funny verbal inflection, the kind Matthew Perry uses to turn even the most basic statement into comedy gold.
On top of all this, I’d suggest that the stakes for a joke in a comic book are higher. Consider: A joke in a sitcom takes about 10 seconds. That’s about 0.75 percent of a 22-minute sitcom. A joke in a comic book takes up possibly a third of a page, or about 1.5 percent of a 22-page comic book.
The odds are even worse with an 8-pp minicomic, as I found out to my sorrow with the sidekick joke in Nightchild No. 3.
And in other news, I tried stand-up comedy the other day.
Evil e-mail
Tired of your boring ol’ gmail or hotmail account? Want an e-maill address with a cool/weird domain name? Check out Evilemail.com!
So what kinds of domains are we talking about? How about:
TonyGoins@Amish2000.com
DaraNaraghi@HelpMeJebus.com
MattKish@BettyWhiteIsHot.com
And they get progressively worse after that. 125 different domain names to choose from! Shock your friends and coworkers with dirty words!
Take a Look at This Show
From the Fantagraphics blog, Ivan Brunetti is curating a show of comic art at Columbia College in Chicago. Called THE CARTOONIST’S EYE ARTISTS USE THE COMICS MEDIUM TO TELL REAL STORIES: here is a partial lists of artists confirmed for the show:
Seth, Chris Ware, Robert Crumb, Dan Clowes, Art Spiegelman, Mark Beyer, Julie Doucet, Gary Panter, Jim Woodring, Karl Wirsum, Marc Bell, Peter Bagge, Sam Henderson, Mark Newgarden, Bob Sikoryak, James Kochalka, Kaz, Tony Millionaire, Lynda Barry, Ron Rege Jr., Richard Sala, Bill Griffith, Ben Katchor, Mat Brinkman, Wayne White, J. Bradley Johnson, John Porcellino, Richard McGuire, Charles Burns, Kim Deitch, Jason Lutes, James Sturm, Archer Prewitt, David Mazzucchelli, Adrian Tomine, Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez, Justin Green, Phoebe Gloeckner, Debbie Dreschler, Jeffey Brown, David Heatley, Lauren Weinstein, Michael Dougan, Carol Tyler, David Collier, Ivan Brunetti, Kevin Huizenga, Walt Holcombe, Charles Schulz, Ernie Bushmiller, Bud Fisher, Frank King, George Herriman, Winsor McCay, Otto Soglow, Virgil Partch (VIP), Basil Wolverton, Rory Hayes, Harvey Kurtzman, Gene Deitch, Sammy Harkham, Jonathan Bennett.
Sounds like it is worth the trip to Chicago. I haven’t been able to find the exact dates of the show yet though.
With apologies to Craig
Many more remixed Spider-man comic strips like this at Jay Pinkerton’s site.
Steven Grant looking for an artist
I meant to mention this to the group a while back, because I knew Steven was looking for a reliable artist for his Whisper graphic novel (the previous 4 artists having disappeared without a word,) but it seems like he beat me to the punch. As you can see in this post on the ComicBookResources forums, he’s actively and openly looking for artists:
“I’ve got six graphic novel projects that must get done, so I’m looking for professional quality comics artists able to work well in black and white (pencils & inks). Downside: there’s no upfront pay. Upside: they will be seen. Backend pay on a wing and a prayer, so it’s rolling the dice.Requirements:
They’re all modern day, down to earth “real world” type stories: crime, action, or espionage material. So:
* No superhero art
* No “manga” art (I know there’s not really a “manga” style but there’s a style an awful lot of Americans in particular have convinced themselves is “manga” style)
* No cartoony art
* At least semi-realistic is preferred, but stylized (Bill Sienkewicz, Alex Toth, Darwyn Cooke type styles, or any strongly identifiable and confidently rendered style) is just dandy
* Good anatomy rendering and composition skills a mustI realize most people capable of such are already working professionally, but worth a shot, right? Two scripts are ready to go, the others will be written one per month from August through November.
If interested, send samples (must be sequential art, preferably two sequential pages; no pinup shots or sketches) to malcolmcory@gmail.com. No more than three pages per person, preferably two pencilling samples and one inking sample. DO NOT email anything to any Comic Book Resources account.”
If you think you have what it takes, drop him a line. Of course it sucks that it’s basically work on spec, but hey, at least he’s an established writer with solid ties to a couple of publishers.
Comics Double Feature
The Onion’s AV Club is running interviews with both Brian K. Vaugh and Geoff Johns this week. The URL is usually http://www.onioavclub.com, but for some reason it’s coming up http://redesign.theonion.com/avclub/.
The interviewer really seems to know his stuff, and you’ll be a little lost if you don’t have a fair familiarity with DC and Marvel. I like that a fairly well-known publication like the Onion can treat comics as if everyone knows them.
Paul Chadwick interview
Over at his column on MoviePoopShoot.com, Marc Mason has a nifty little interview with Concrete creator Paul Chadwick. Paul talks about his early days at Marvel, drawing Dazzler, the formation of Dark Horse Comics, the origins of Concrete, his involvement with the Matrix Online game, and more.
Here’s a snippet, wherein he reflects back on the “Legend” imprint at Dark Horse that attempted to band together the likes of Frank Miller, Mike Mignola, and John Byrne:
“‘Legend’ was a bunch of guys who would starve to death before agreeing on what to order at a Chinese restaurant. But I can’t say it wasn’t successful. It got publicity and the books sold. CONCRETE never sold so well (though there was quite a boom on during that time, generally, so it’s impossible to tease out what caused good sales). ‘Legend’ died from bickering and neglect. We were lone eagles, trying to fly in a flock. Doesn’t work, not if you’re spread across the country. Things like that have to have geographic closeness, and a leader. We were a committee without a chairman.”
Advice for comic book reviewers
Over at The Book Standard, Jessa Crispin has some advice for “book reviewers, booksellers, editors, publishers and anybody who might have any sway over what people read about comic books…” Namely, follow some simple rules when reviewing comic books:
“1. “They’re not just for kids anymore” is not an original, interesting, clever or even remotely intelligent opening statement. You’re recycling a decades-old stereotype, akin to declaring “Novels: They’re not just for ladies of leisure anymore” in a review of a “real” book.4. Every single non-superhero-comic-book writer need not be compared to Art Spiegelman…
5. Now that the arty comics are seen as almost respectable, isn’t it time for the superhero comics to get a little mainstream love?…”
Nice little article. I wish more “mainstream” reviewers would take her advice to heart.
(via neilalien)
PvP calls out Wizard
As a follow up to my post below about WizardWorld trying to squeeze out older, established conventions, here’s a link to a funny PvP comic wherein Scott Kurtz takes a pot shot at the wonderful Wizard folks.
Support indie filmmaking (and poetry)
Come one, come all to a happy hour Aug. 11 at Gordon Biersch to benefit a locally-produced short film. We’re asking a $5 suggested donation, we will provide snacks, and Biersch will be running happy hour drink specials all the way.
The movie is in the final stages of editing and sound design, and the Aug. 11 event is to raise money to enter it into festivals. The 10 minute movie shows a young couple who meet in a coffee shop to try — one more time — to rekindle their love. Many of you saw early drafts of the script.
Time: 5-7 p.m.
Date: Thursday, Aug. 11
Place: Gordon Biersch, in the Arena District
Also, Flat City Press is holding a launch party for its new poetry anthology this Saturday, July 30. Cocktails at 7 p.m., reading at 8 p.m. It takes place at Alpha State, at the former Studio 16 space, 43 W 3rd Ave. in Victorian Village.
Your political/pop culture moment of the day
Courtesy of the always funny Jason Yungbluth at Deep Fried:
Pros call for boycott of new Wizard World con
Saw this over at the PvP site. Seems like Wizard has planned a new convention in Atlanta, and some folks aren’t happy about the date chosen. Here’s the official e-mail from Gaijin Studios
“Dear Pros:Sorry for the mass e-mail, but we just feel that this is too important not to try to mass some support for our friend.
Well, it seems that Wizard World Atlanta’s finally been made official, according to ICV2. This is great in theory, because Atlanta needs a good, large comics show.
The problem here is that they’ve chosen the exact same weekend as the long-running Heroes Con in Charlotte, NC. They’ve done this after being apprised of those dates months ago by Heroes organizer Shelton Drum, with an offer to support their new show in any way possible as long as they didn’t try to run him over. WWA coud’ve chosen a number of other dates, but they’ve decided instead to try to shut down Heroes, one of the friendliest, most family-oriented, and now longest-lived conventions in the country.
Our opinion is that they know exactly what they’re doing, and we think it’s unconscionable and overtly hostile. They have no reason to do this other than to try to crush the other guy. This is just low.
We’ve never done anything even close to organizing a protest or a boycott before, but it seems to us that Shelton and his crew are our people, and we owe them at least our public support in the face of abject greed. We’re all for Wizard in Atlanta, but not at the expense of Shelton’s bread and butter. So, we propose a very public show of support on the part of every Atlanta-area comics professional that we can get in contact with. So, if you agree, please forward this to as many professionals and retailers as you can in and around Atlanta. Hopefully, we can rally enough attention to get them to change their dates.
Thank you!
Best,
Cully Hamner
Brian Stelfreeze
Karl Story
Gaijin Studios”
Interesting. I wonder how this little protest will affect their coverage in Wizard magazine…
Comic Book Pet Peeves: Publisher Names
Hey publishers: enough already. I’m talking about the name game. Specifically, the whole “gotta pick a name that starts with the letter A so we’ll show up in the front of the indie section in Previews” game. Let’s look at some of the new(ew) publishers and their clever attempts to get listed in front of the catalog:
- About Comics
- Alias Entertainment
- APC
- Arcade
- Arcana Studio
- Astounding! Studios.
Now don’t get me wrong, I completely understand the reason for this. Previews is a massive catalog, and unless you’re one of the “big four”, you end up in the “ghetto” section, competing with hundreds of other small publishers for page space and retailer attention. Heck, the majority of retailers don’t even bother ordering books from “the back of the catalog.” So I suppose any trick to increase the chances of your books getting noticed is desirable. Some would even argue necessary. Heck, even a long-time publisher with name recognition such as Slave Labor Graphics has gone the “A” route, coming up with an imprint name (Amaze Ink/Slave Labor) solely for the purpose of getting their solicitations listed towards the front of the indie section.
But still, enough already. I’m tired of seeing every other new publisher pick a name that starts with the letter A. I mean, here are just some of the other ones you’ll find in Previews:
- AAA Pop Comics
- Abiogenesis Press
- Absence of Ink Press
- Abstract Studio
- Airship Entertainment
- AiT/Planetlar
- Alternative Comics
- Angry Dog Press
- Antarctic Press
- Anti-Ballistic Pixelations
- APC
- Arrow Comics
- Aspen
- Astonish Comics
- Atomeka Press
- Avatar
- Awesome Entertainment
Pretty soon, we’ll exhaust all the A words in the dictionary. What’s next? Amputee Entertainment? Asiago Cheese Press? Asshat Publications?
How about using one of the other 25 letters in the alphabet? You know, something cool…like Ferret Press.
Fantastic Four: A different movie from an alternate universe
Michael Chabon posted his unproduced pitch for a Fantastic Four movie on his Web site. I don’t know how well Chabon’s pitch would have worked as a movie, but he does seem to have put significant thought into the premise and tone. That’s what the movie needed — it was serviceable, but could have gone to the next level with a bit more thought.
“I don’t think the movie should be about how they got their powers. It’s a pretty goofy origin story.”