Ceci n’est pas Tintin
Share this link on Facebook!TweetWhile some comic companies may be shutting down websites that post their comics illegally, Moulinsart, the company which owns the rights to Hergé’s work, is busy suing people that use excerpts from Tintin adventures in scholarly work, launching personal attacks on journalists, and losing millions of euros a year. The Financial Times [...]
Continue ReadingKibbles ‘n’ Bits — 5/10/10
§ If you're wondering wondering what happened to the Pepper-kisses-Iron Man's-helmet scene from the IRON MAN 2 trailer that was nowhere to be found in the movie, Gavok's Iron Man 2: The Deleted Scenes has a lot of answers by comparing the novelization of the movie (based on an early version of the screenplay) to the finished version: The most obvious removal is the scene of Pepper kissing Tony’s helmet and throwing it out the aircraft as he tells her, “You complete me!” ...Maybe it’s just me, but I can’t help but think that the combination of that scene would have led to a big wave of racial awkwardness if left unchanged. ...In a comic book store, if you're focusing primarily on periodical comics, and that's still a significant portion of everybody's business, every single week you're getting somewhere between 60 and 100 comics that aren't interchangeable the way chocolate ice cream is with another ice cream. ...A few images from the Conan set in Bulgaria have leaked out , and apparently ancient CImmeria has been dressed to look like Camden, New Jersey. § A New Zealand newspaper takes umbrage at the way J.
Continue ReadingAlcott’s Analysis: Batman: The Movie (1966)
No cinematic character has inspired a greater qualitative spectrum of screenplays than Batman. Starting with 1966’s TV-show spinoff Batman: The Movie and culminating in 2008’s The Dark Knight, Batman has been treated to screenplays ranging from campy to demented, from bizarre to brilliant, from really-quite-bad to quite-staggeringly-good. For THE BEAT, I’m going to analyze each screenplay’s approach to the character of Batman and his world and, hopefully, show the evolution of popular culture’s ever-shifting attitude toward what is, arguably, not only the most popular character not just in comics history but one of the most popular in American culture.
Continue ReadingTCAF Dreaming!
Share this link on Facebook!Tweet Well, as you all undoubtedly know, the Toronto Comic Arts Festival is ginning up right this minute in BEAUTIFUL Toronto, the show of the year for art, literary, and indie comics, and those of us who aren’t going are quietly crying and drinking a bottle of Château Cheval Blanc down at [...]
Continue ReadingPR: Manning Award submissions open
Share this link on Facebook!TweetVia PR, the submission process for the Russ Manning award has now opened. The award, presneted annually during the Eisner ceremony, recognizes talented new artists; past winners include Steve Rude, Dave Stevens, David Petersen and Eleanor Davis. Comic-Con, the nation’s largest comic book and popular arts convention, announces that submissions are [...]
Continue ReadingGaiman talk doesn’t come cheap
How much does it cost to bring Neil Gaiman to your library these days? According to this piece, about $45,000. The Stillwater, MN library paid that much Gaiman to come and kick off their Club Book author appearance series. The fee covered a four hour appearance, but still caused some local grousing, since it was a third of the entire budget for the nine-author series.
Continue ReadingThe Fiffe Files: Juan Bobillo Interview
Share this link on Facebook!Tweet I wouldn’t mind it if Juan Bobillo’s art was in every high profile mainstream comic book, as well as their countless spin-offs and one-shots and graphic novels and… and… well, you get the idea. I like his comics. Bobillo’s work displays a remarkable level of craft while never becoming a slave [...]
Continue ReadingNews ‘n’ kibbles — 5/6/10
Share this link on Facebook!Tweet§ Johanna Draper Carlson rounds up reactions to the end of the Zuda competition model, and some speculation as to how the system may have been gamed. We haven’t really noted this news, but in tandem with that announcement, Zuda also announced the return of Kevin Colden’s I RULE THE NIGHT, [...]
Continue ReadingAre superhero movies creatively bankrupt?
That's more or less what Matt Zoller Seitz is saying in this widely-quoted Salon piece : The comic book film has become a gravy train to nowhere. The genre cranks up directors' box office averages and keeps offbeat actors fully employed for years at a stretch by dutifully replicating (with precious few exceptions) the least interesting, least exciting elements of its source material; spicing up otherwise rote superhero vs. supervillain storylines with "complications" and "revisions" (scare quotes intentional) that the filmmakers, for reasons of fiduciary duty, cannot properly investigate; and delivering amusing characterizations, dense stories or stunning visuals while typically failing to combine those aspects into a satisfying whole. As Iron Man 2 is poised to become the biggest opening ever, it's worth revisiting the genre and pointing out that as movies -- like movies with themes and acting and set pieces that aren't fights and so on -- the genre has gotten as formulaic as the wifebeaters all of Marvel's heroes wear. We'd slap Seitz on the wrist for conflating "comic book" with "superhero" in the above quote -- and while we can't argue that SUPERMAN RETURNS and Ang Lee's HULK were the most daring attempts at a larger meaning, they still weren't all that...successful.
Continue ReadingKnight Life celebrates second year
Cartoonist Keith Knight reminds us that not only has his syndicated comic strip Knight LIfe lasted two years, it has a book collection coming out, The Knight Life . In a press release Knight joked at his relief the strip had lasted this long: “The bottom fell out of the economy just as my strip launched. And I became a first-time father one month later…I figured if I can make it through these first coupla years, I can make it though anything. The 200-page collection hits in June and includes strips that never made it to print due to "risqué" content.
Continue Readingxkcd’s revealing color survey
At the blog for the insanely popular webcomic XCKD, Randall Munroe directly confronts issues of gender, fashion and whether a color can be construed as "dusty" Here are the color names most disproportionately popular among women: 1. ... Kind of an incense-bomb-set-off-in-a-Bed-Bath-&-Beyond vibe. ... Here are the color names most disproportionately popular among men: 1.
Continue ReadingPublishers band together to shut down pirate site
Via Colleen Doran comes word that htmlcomics.com has been shut down by the FBI. The site was a very popular online library of unauthorized comics scans, with hundreds of thousands of issues available at the click of a mouse:
Continue ReadingPersonnel moves: Barton, Martinez, Cabardo, etc., etc., etc.
Share this link on Facebook!TweetLots and lots of personnel announcements over the last few days. ¶ Image has hired Todd Martinez as their new Sales & Licensing Coordinator. For 14 years, Martinez was manager of the pioneering Bay area comics shop Comics Relief. According to the PR: As manager, he worked extensively with other retailers, book market [...]
Continue ReadingToday’s con news roundup: LA comes on strong, exhibitor badges prohibitive
Wow, Ultimate Con-Wars is heating up with this interview with LA Inc SVP Senior Vice President Michael Krouse and avp of Media Relations & Communications Carol Martinez. Krouse is the driving force behind LA's bid for the San Diego Comic-Con -- an ongoing wooing that Krouse has been pressing for years. And in this interview he lays it all on the line, baby, he''ll work.
Continue ReadingIndie Month-to-Month Sales: March 2010
By Matthew Murray Dynamite grabs the top indie comic spot this month with the first issue of their adaptation of Kevin Smith’s Green Hornet script. However, issue 2 sees a fairly large drop, and people seem unsure if the market can support the five Green Hornet titles Dynamite plans on launching. Elsewhere on the chart Green Hornet Year One written by Matt Wagner is the second biggest indie launch of the month, The Guild and Terminator are Dark Horse’s newest launches, and Zenescope shipped a lot of books. IDW had a 3.61% market share, and 4.02% dollar share, Dark Horse had 3.33% market share and 4.76% dollar share (gotta love those trade paperback sales), Dynamite had 3.08% market share and 3.40% dollar share, and Image had 3.01% market share and 3.22% dollar share. I’ve listed every indie title in the top 225, every Dark Horse, Image, and IDW title in the top 300, and a selection of other titles.Thanks to icv2.com and Milton Griepp for permission to use these numbers, which can be found here.
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