DC’s New 52 compilation crushes the competition
Our review copy of THE NEW 52, the $150, 1216-page collection of EVERY SINGLE NEW 52 #1 issue has arrived. Future uses: pressing flowers, anchoring papers during hurricane. This thing is HEAVY. And big. We've shown it here next to a cup of coffee for size reference. Meanwhile, James Robinson is on Twitter drumming up support for the non-New 52 SHADE which is selling badly and in danger of cancellation. Which, if it had been a New 52 book, would probably be selling as well as BATWING or OMAC.
Continue ReadingGraphic Classics announces AFRICAN AMERICAN CLASSICS edition
The Graphic Classics line of comics anthologies has been around for over a decade without getting much attention the comics world -- but in libraries, they love these thoughtfully produced collections of comics adaptations of single authors or themes. And here's a neat idea that comics haven't really covered before: early black authors such as Florence Lewis Bently, Charles Chestnutt, Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston. Editor Lance Tooks has rounded up a fine slate of cartoonists for the adaptations, including Kyle Baker, Afua Richardson, Christopher Priest and Trevor von Eeden.
Continue ReadingCover art to Charles Burns’ THE HIVE revealed?
X'ed OUT was one of 2010's best comics, a fantasmic, multi-leveled horror fantasy by the man who practically invented the category, Charles Burns. It was also an interesting experiment for publisher Pantheon, as it was at a slender 56 pages really only the first chapter in a story. The second part has been long in coming, but Entrecomics has posted what appears to be the cover to part two, THE HIVE. Dunno if it's the real thing or not, but hopefully the next part is coming in 2012.
Continue ReadingDC announces New 52 collection plans — UPDATED
Over on their blog, DC has announced the rollout for the New 52 collections. Instead of dumping 52 trades in one month, they will be staggered from May-November, with 7 or 8 books released a month. Justice League, Batman, Green Lantern, Detective, Batman & Robin, Batgirl, Batwoman, Batman: The Dark Knight, Aquaman, Green Lantern Corps, Green Lantern: New Guardians, Action, Superman and Flash are all getting hardcovers; the rest get TPBs. Missing from the list: Wonder Woman.
Continue ReadingConvention report: Dave Roman on Quai des Bulles
Imagine a cartoonist-centric comic convention, held in a city that is equal parts Kiki’s Delivery Service and the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and you get a small taste of what it’s like to attend Quai des Bulles. You would have to consume many delicious butter-filled pastries to get the full taste!
Continue ReadingComing Attractions: Fall 2011: Marvel
Continuing the review, I turn my attention to Marvel. They don't usually have a strong Holiday list, instead relying on licensed products to sell in bookstores. They even have a tendency to take what would be big ticket gift items like omnibus hardcovers and schedule them for January! No big gift books on the radar, so I wonder if anything will pop when people surf on Cyber Monday.
Continue ReadingComing Attractions, Fall 2011: Macmillan
Okay... continuing on with Fall previews, we move to one of the Big Six pubishers. No, not comics, the mainstream Big Six, the ones which dominate American and English bookselling. Macmillan is part of of the Holtzbrinck Group, and includes such marques as Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Henry Holt, St. Martin's, Tor, Scientific American, and, of particular interest to comics fans, First Second Books.
Continue ReadingDigital Update: When Amazon(s) Attack!
While Heidi and Torsten were off having fun at NYCC, the rest of us had to sadly experience all the comics-related mayhem vicariously. Nevertheless, on the digital comics front matters continue to develop in interesting ways, particularly in relation to online retailing behemoth, Amazon. The explosive Amazon-DC graphic novel exclusive agreement for the upcoming Kindle Fire tablet device remains a hot topic and shows no signs of fading from view, with even the New York Times jumping on the controversy.
Continue ReadingAbrams buys UK indie SelfMadeHero
UK publisher SelfMadeHero -- which has put out GNs by a European cast of all-stars such as David B as well as such things as Manga Shakespeare and Eye Classics— will be acquired by Abrams, with a US line coming in 2012.
Continue ReadingDynamite gets Amanda Hocking
Internet author sensation Amanda Hocking is coming to comics with a deal at Dynamite to publish her Hollowland books—a zombie-based fantasy— as GNs. Hocking self published her books as e-books with over a million books sold, and now a print deal at St. Martin's. She's also a comics fan, and will be involved in writing the books herself.
Continue ReadingVertigo to adapt Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy for GNs
People looking for a surefire way to print money, comics division, have often suggested a Harry Potter comic book. Since that ain't happening (JK Rowling just isn't interested), Vertigo has just landed the next best thing: a graphic novel adaptation of Stieg Larsson's best-selling Millennium Trilogy, with the comics version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo set to appear in 2012. Subsequent volumes will appear in 2013 and 2014.
Continue ReadingComing Attractions, Fall 2011: Abrams
Abrams publishes some of the most beautiful (and bestselling!) books about comics. Here are some of their forthcoming titles!
Continue ReadingHabibi’s Orientalism: Exploration or exploitation?
No one can deny that Craig Thompson'sHABIBI is a gorgeous work of linework and cartooning on a supreme level of beauty, much of it inspired by Arabic calligraphy. BUt it's equally true that Habibi is also a work that takes the tropes of Orientalism and uses them for the backbone of its story. Thompson has acknowledged as much in recent interviews, but says he used it as a fairy tale background, he way one would use cowboys and Indians. Orientalism is a set of stereotypes and attitudes cataloged by critic Edward Said, , defining it as "a manner of regularized (or Orientalized) writing, vision, and study, dominated by imperatives, perspectives, and ideological biases ostensibly suited to the Orient." Everything from The Arabian Nights to The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad to The English Patient is Orientalist in view -- a fairy tale world of efreets and harems and passionate desert nights.
Continue ReadingPeople are talking about Habibi
HABIBI is one of the most talked about graphic novels of the year -- here's a sampling of what people are saying.
Continue ReadingWatch: the trailer for METAMAUS by Art Spiegelman
In METAMAUS, Pulitzer Prize winner Art Spiegelman describes the making of the comics classic, the real life story behind it and more background material. The book, out on October 4, includes a DVD. Here's a trailer with more information on the making of the book.
Continue ReadingOur Sponsors
CLASSIFIEDS
RECENT COMMENTS