The Art of Ramona Fradon announced from Dynamite
Well, here is a very worthy subject for an art book: Ramona Fradon, legendary Silver Age artist. Co-creator of Metamorpho and one of the defining artists on Aquaman, Fradon's career covers everything from Super Friends to Brenda Starr. Now she's the subject of a comprehensive art book from Dynamite that includes an interview conducted by Howard Chaykin. As you can see from the sample pages, it's a treasure trove of archival material.
Continue ReadingNew funding strategy for comickers: borrow money from David Choe, the $200 million artist
David Choe, the eccentric and talented graffiti artist/painter who once flamed out as the artist on an X-Men spin-off, is now set to make about $200 million from the Facebook stock offering. It seems that back in the day Choe painted murals for Facebook's Palo Alto offices...and instead of taking a lump sum he asked for stock. As you may have heard, Facebook went public yesterday, and was quickly valued at $5 billion or so, making Choe's little decision one of the savviest moves ever by an art-type. “Always double down on 11. Always," Choe advises in a recent art book.
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Kate Beaton announces she’s taking some time off from her webcomics
Given that she was the Person of the Year for 2011, and enjoyed a bestseller with her Hark! A Vagrant collection, it's no surprise that Kate Beaton has been getting lots of offers lately, ranging from children's books to television work. Thus it will also come as no surprise that she's going to be spending less time on her webcomics to work on some of these opportunities:
Continue ReadingNew Joann Sfar documentary will make you feel better about being a cartoonist
Soon after posting yesterday's fret fest over the state of the cartoonist, we had to hurry off to the world premiere of JOANN SFAR: DRAWING FROM LIFE, a documentary by Sam Ball about the French comics superstar. A mellow, thoughtful 46 minute film, it captures Sfar a few years ago when THE RABBI'S CAT was on its way to selling 600,000 copies in France and his work was being published here in the US by First Second...but BEFORE he became more renowned in his homeland for directing.
Continue ReadingSAVE THE DATE for Jeffrey Brown’s Sundance movie debut
In a world where every comics-to-movie project gets endlessly covered, SAVE THE DATE has pretty much flown under the radar -- but then it's an indie movie created by an indie cartoonist and not based specifically on a comics property. The film, based on ideas from indie cartoonist stalwart Jeffrey Brown, follows two sisters -- one about to get married, the other just broken up with her boyfriend, and how they approach love and commitment. Directed by Mike Mohan ("One Too Many Mornings") from a script by Mohan, Jeffrey Brown and Egan Reich, the movie debuts this weekend at Sundance and has already gotten some buzz behind it. It stars Lizzy Caplan (True Blood, 127 Hours), as the single sister (who happens to be a cartoonist), Alison Brie (Mad Men, Scream 4) as the sister about to get married, Martin Starr (Mad Love, Adventureland) and Geoffrey Arend.
Continue ReadingEXCLUSIVE: Jimmy Broxton talks about the Ashes split
Artist Jimmy Broxton/James Hodgkins has broken his silence about the ASHES split.
Continue ReadingPizza Island disbands; ex-members engage in all-out friendliness
When six of today's finest, funniest cartoonists created a studio together it was news; that all of them were women somehow made it a "thing". Thus it is with some sadness but a sense of inevitability that the disbanding of the Pizza Island studio has been noted on its blog. Gathering together Kate Beaton, Sarah Glidden, Domitille Collardey, Julia Wertz, Lisa Hanawalt, Meredith Gran and most recently Deana Sobel, this kind of talent put in one room would have been noteworthy under any circumstances.
Continue ReadingAnnouncing the Comics Industry People of the Year: Kate Beaton and Dan DiDio/Jim Lee
Last year the Beat inaugurated the Person of the Year award. In an industry where changing the status quo isn't always greeted with joy, this is our way of recognizing the people who either move the needle and shake things up or exemplify a level of excellence that others can aspire to. This year, votes were much more across the board. One person clearly got the most votes as a single person. However, a different executive team had more votes overall when both parts were added up. So, we used our executive power to declare both a Person of the Year and a Team of the Year. Who moved the comics industry in 2011 and will continue to be heard in 2012? Read on.
Continue ReadingCartoonists: professional belt tighteners
Comics are a business that is relatively insulated from the ups and downs of the economy: things are ALWAYS marginal. While there's no doubt but that the global recession has impacted the comics industry — especially with customers dealing with price increases — quite frankly, there wasn't a lot to cut back. There's a good living to be made in comics, and many people do, but no one is buying a yacht — or not very many anyway. And maybe comics are a survival industry because it seems like everyone is just one or two issues away from square one.
Continue ReadingHappy Birthday, Charles Addams!
Today marks Charles Addams' 100th birthday, so we, along with Google, celebrate this influential cartoonist!
Continue ReadingThe Freelance Life: Making it in webcomics in Romania
The Romanian webcomic Fredo and Pid'jin, has been a big success for its creators Eugen Erhan and Tudor Muscalu, this piece at Next Web tells us, if by success you mean lots of links on Reddit and Digg. What emerges is the story of two guy with a dream and a webcomic about two evil pigeons out to conquer the world. Things looked low, but then a guy who works on the Simpsons came and told them they were on the right track, energizing them to carry on. But...questions remain:
Continue ReadingThe Freelance Life: What Cee Lo can teach cartoonists
Since everyone is always comparing the comics business to the music business in terms of retail erosion, howabout looking at a music success story? The New York Times has a profile of musician Cee Lo Green explaining how, despite the economic decimation in the music industry, he's been able to make some $20 million this year by rigorously branding himself and expanding his activities to including numerous TV hosting gigs, merchandising and Vegas. Along the way some interesting iTunes numbers are dropped. Although "F&^% You," Cee Lo's anthemic yet catchy song of moving on was downloaded some 5.3 million times in the US, that doesn't mean he made $5 million from it.
Continue ReadingMust Read: PEN profiles Zapiro
South African cartoonist Zapiro is famous for his sharply observant cartooning and also for standing up to constant and onerous political pressures because of his observations. Most famously he was sued by the Prime Minister of South Africa for defamation—but as this profile at PEN.org shows, he's always been at the center of controversy reserved for those who tell the truth.
Continue ReadingCartoonists sound off on sex problems
Grace Bello has taken the bold step of going to cartoonists and asking them for sex advice -- and posting the results on Nerve. The results may shock you. Not really, but we had to say that, just because "cartoonists" and "sex" were long considered a bad match --unless you were one of those swinging '60s Don Draper cartoonists in the NCS, of course. Anyway, back to the present day. Rick Altergott on the pecking order:
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