Archive for June, 2010
Wow, we had quite the turnout this week! Katie chose Cassidy, the Irish vampire from Garth Ennis’ classic Preacher series.
Andy Bennett:
Tony Goins:
Steve Black:
Ross Hardy:
Matt Kish:
Katie Swarz:
Craig Bogart:
Dara Naraghi:
Brent Bowman:
Next week’s charcter is The Shaper of Worlds, as picked by Matt Kish. See you then, same bat time, same bat channel.
I have very fond memories of Alien Legion, a gritty space opera/action-adventure series from marvel’s Epic imprint. Sort of the Green Lantern Corps, but without the power rings and with a lot more, shall we say “dishonorable” members.
Anyway, it looks like a new Alien Legion series is coming our way, courtesy of Dark Horse! In this brief blog entry about the return of the Solar, Magnus, and Turok comics (to be written by Jim Shooter), DH editor Chris Warner drops this tidbit:
“Been a strange year or so, full-circlewise. When I broke into comics about a thousand years ago, my first editor was Carl Potts at Marvel Comics, and my first job was drawing Alien Legion, which Carl created. I’m now Carl’s editor, editing omnibus collections of the series, including the very same Legion stuff I drew, and I’m Carl’s editor on an upcoming new Alien Legion series.”
I for one am looking forward to the return of the Legion.
Great news; the writer who gave us a Spider-Man villain calling an escort agency for a “sexual banana split” (a blond, brunette, and a redhead) and offered a flashback showing Norman Osborn boning Gwen Stacy is turning his attention to a modern spin on Wonder Woman. Here’s how it starts, according to the New York Times:
In the reimagining of her story, Wonder Woman, instead of growing up on Paradise Island with her mother, Queen Hippolyta, and her Amazon sisters, is smuggled out as a baby when unknown forces destroy her home and slaughter its inhabitants.
Finally, a comic hero driven by revenge rather than a sense of idealism. About f*cking time.
The article mostly dwells on the new Jim Lee-designed costume for the character. Er, I guess it’s not actually a costume, though… According to J.M. Straczynski:
Mr. Straczynski… said in an e-mail message that he wanted to address “the wardrobe issue” as soon as he took the job.
…The new look — with an understated “W” insignia, a midnight blue jacket and a flinty fusion of black tights and boots — is darker than the famed swimsuit-style outfit, and aims to be contemporary, functional and, as Tim Gunn of “Project Runway” might say, less costumey.
Ultimately, he (Jim Lee) wanted her to look strong “without screaming, ‘I’m a superhero.’ ”
Exhibit #317 in my case that superhero comic books are being made by people who have a self-loathing contempt for the conventions of the medium.
And this being a DC comic, I’m sure there’s a rape scene in there somewhere.
So when DC comics announced their new digital comics service, the inclusion of the news that they pay royalties to their creators on all the digital comics set off a PR war with Marvel. “We were first” “No we were first” blah blah blah.
However, the main distinction here seems to be that while Marvel pays “incentives” on their digital comics, DC actually pays “royalties”. That’s a big difference, since royalties are a percentage paid on all sales, while incentives are only paid when sales reach certain thresholds (25K copies, 50K copies, etc.) Not only that, but it seems that DC also pays royalties on all foreign-language reprints in perpetuity, while Marvel only does so for a few years. From the industry professionals chiming in on the comments section of The Beat story, it sure seems like DC treats its freelancers a lot better. Here’s a sampling of comments:
Charles Vess:
“Royalties. Yes, they are the name of the game for any freelancer. I’m still receiving (on a quarterly basis) payments for work I did for DC (Sandman, Books of Magic, etc.) as far back as 20 years ago. On the Marvel side of the coin they stopped paying any royalties on my Spider-Man graphic novel (Spirits of the Earth) about 3/4s of the way through the print run. Earlier, when I confronted them on their selling publishing rights to LOTS of my creator owned & © pages of my art overseas (from Epic Illustrated), with actual copies in hand, they said, and I quote, “We gave it away.” I wonder which company I might want to work for if I were to do another GN?”
Brian Wood:
“My foreign royalties on my Vertigo books (a combined 30+ volumes) is a significant part of my yearly income. It’s one of those common sense sorts of things – paying creators for ALL sales, not just sales in one language – that every publisher should be doing.”
Christine Valada (Len Wein’s wife):
“Marvel has reproduced works in various electronic formats for years, and I can assure you that my husband hasn’t seen a goddamned dime for any such use of Giant-sized X-men #1 or anything else he ever created for Marvel. Meanwhile, royalties from DC for a relatively minor character got us through the worst of our past 15 months of hell. Until Marvel takes the steps that DC has to compensate the creators who made the company great, all it is doing is blowing smoke. Anyone who thinks Marvel is the better place to work is just deluding themselves.”
Yikes.
I also remember reading an interview with Chuck Dixon many years ago where he said that he gets royalties from the use of the Batman villain Bane (which he co-created) and it’s (to paraphrase) a nice chunk of change.
Some newspaper cartoonists have pulled together a pretty slick site fresh with studio shots, bios and what not for their fans. (I always love peeking into people’s studios) You can login and set up your own custom page.
(above is Funky Winkerbean creator Tom Batiuk’s studio)
My joke for the weekend was that I won Comfest bingo right off the bat, by running into my ex-fiancee’s brother. Ah, the magic of Comfest.
But it got me thinking: I went to my first SPACE with my ex-fiancee’s cousin. This was about 1999 or 2000. Panel formed right around that time. I don’t think any of you ever met her, but I know the group had at least one meeting at her and my house.
I imagined she and I would be buried next to each other, so I had no idea Panel would outlast that relationship.
Loves come and go, heartbreaks fade, new loves come, and then babies.
But only Panel endures.
Dean Haspiel has a new art book coming out from IDW: GRAPHIC NYC presents Dean Haspiel: the Early Years. Be glad I didn’t post the promotional pic. For the curious, that can be seen here. Free preview over at Act-I-Vate.
Just announced, the new date / location for Craftin’ Outlaws is October 16th from 10am-5pm at the South Campus Gateway complex (around the film center). With application ($10) and booth fee ($55), it comes to $65 again. Applications are due by July 27th and the app fee is non-refundable. Notifications will happen after August 1st. The venue sounds like a much better parking situation than last year. Which I think held back the crowd some.
In all the chaos of getting ready for Comfest, I forgot to mention that that the second issue of my Witch & Wizard: Battle for Shadowland is available at your local comic book store this week:
“The iron fist of the New Order has declared all magic banned from society, and sibling teenagers Whit & Wisty Allgood are on the run and using their magical powers to attempt to gain control of an inter-dimensional nowhere called Shadowland. But while Wisty faces a horde of Lost Ones—soulless creatures hungry for the warmth of the living—in Shadowland, her brother Whit finds himself in the N.O.’s stronghold, face-to-face with an even greater evil: The One Who Is The One! Continuing this brand-new story that takes place in the world from best-selling author James Pattersons’ hit novel.”
I had a blast writing some fun double-page action scenes, and artist Victor Santos absolutely rocked them (with colors by Jamie Grant):
You can read a preview of the first 5 pages here.
Hastings, a southwestern chain store, has opted to go all in on comics. 126 stores will now have a robust comics section with everything you would expect. They mostly service areas like my hometown. Where the nearest shop is a half hour to an hour away. (Nearest shop to Ohio is in Tennessee). The change came about as cd sales almost sunk the shop. That’s the scary bit. If it works out, they’ll be the biggest chain in the DM.
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I’m still puzzled as to why Marvel and DC have both launched digital download initiatives but the price point is still almost the same as a regular comic. Shaping up to be a windfall for small press and indie publishers, who’d price there’s at a tempting $0.99 a download. It comes off like a token gesture to the comic shops. I guess I should be happy they’re doing it at all.
It’s time once again for Comfest and once again Panel will be boothing there. The festival runs from this Friday till Sunday. There will be a rotating mix of most of the Panel gang in the booth. If I’m not mistaken, I’ve drawn on the Comfest map (below) approximately where they always put us. Which is usually within earshot of the ‘I Wish You Jazz’ stage. Once again it’s looking like another sweltering outing with a chance of rain. There’s always rain. Good times had by all. I made sure to take Monday off. Last year I was beat by Sunday night. Bring the sweaty mobs and their money.
Remember, ironic hipster-chief’s are 2 points in Comfest bingo. Ex-girlfriends are 5 points. Pet pythons are 10.
(wait, that sounds vaguely disturbing…)
So, since we’ve been talking about David Mamet recently, here’s an odd one for you: Brian Michael Bendis interviews his idol David Mamet on Comic Book Resources. Apparently Mamet just came out with a superhero satire/homage graphic novel that he wrote and drew, called The Trials of Roderick Spode: ‘The Human Ant’.
It’s a weird interview, light on substance, and sprinkled with weird sayings like this:
“You know, I wrote another book that might be analogous to this book. It’s a graphic novel without pictures…”
By the way, there’s a link at the bottom of the interview to a short 5-minute movie Mamet made for the FunnyOrDie.com site called “June Crenshaw: Sex Kitten To The Supreme Court,” starring Kristen Bell and Ed O’Neil.