Although it was his call to arms against piracy that led to much discussion and hair tearing, in a new blog post, writer Steve Niles says that his views on piracy are beginning to change a bit, partly because of all the issues we brought up in this post, and most specifically partly because of the issues that came up in his twitversation with Neil Gaiman. Namely, that 20K downloads doesn’t necessarily mean 20K lost sales. Niles even looks back on his youth for a model:

I grew up in a music scene that lived and died by the cassette tape. We made tapes, swapped them, traded but never sold. And usually, first chance I got I’d buy the vinyl because I wanted to hold that fucker in my hands and I wanted to support these bands. 

So, maybe that will happen here. Maybe the sample and buy model will work.  Right now I know I’d rather appeal to the hearts and minds of people out there who want work like mine to continue. Since the rise of SOPA/PIPA I have become very wary of legislation attempting to control what we see and do on the internet, so for now I’m not going to worry about piracy so much and put my faith in the people instead.

Pollyanna? Or just a tired realist? It’s true that Black Flag etc. survived the cassette duping generation because means of reproduction were still primitive back in the caveman days of 1985. But now everything can be perfectly reproduced endlessly. And we “engage”, to use the social media term, differently with everything.

Still, Rich Burlew of ORDER OF THE STICK, must be feeling pretty good about the innate goodness of his audience. To the tune of $582,000 thus far. Some 7866 backers have pledged to ORDER OF THE STICK—that’s an average of just about $74 each. People will still support the creators they like—it just may not be the ones you expect.

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. Click for larger images.

Fradon is an icon to many, simply for being one of the few women creators of her era to forge a career in comics that lasted beyond a few years. As anyone who knows her and her work is aware, however, far from being a token or a novelty, she was just a hard-working freelancer. A very, very talented hard-working freelancer.

Long time fans of Metamorpho, Aquaman, Aqualad, Plastic Man, The Fantastic Four and Super Friends are quite familiar with the work of legendary artist, Ramona Fradon, but not until now will they know the whole story of Ramona’s incredible career in comics, as Dynamite Entertainment is pleased to announce the upcoming The Art of Ramona Fradon in stores on April 2012!

For the first time ever! The DEFINITIVE retrospective of Ramona Fradon’s career will be presented in The Art of Ramona Fradon. The Art of Ramona Fradon will be a hardcover book that highlights the magnificent career of the artistic legend, plus never-before-seen sketches.

Interviewed by legendary creator Howard Chaykin and featuring a forward by Walt Simonson, Fradon talks about her artistic career, accomplishments and creations from her early days at DC in the 1950’s to her later work on Marvel’s The Cat and Fantastic Four and DC’s Plastic Man, Freedom Fighters, Super Friends and more!

“I’ve never liked to see my work in print, but the way it’s presented in this book makes me feel proud,” says legendary artist Ramona Fradon. “The drawings are arranged so attractively on the pages that the not-so-good ones look good and the good ones look really good. It covers so much of my career that there are things I barely remember doing, starting with an unpublished story strip I practiced on before I got into comics. It’s nice to see I’ve improved since then.”

“In an era when 99.99 % of American comic books were produced by a male talent pool, and very few women worked in the field–mostly as writers, and mostly producing work of no particular interest or engagement,” says Howard Chaykin.  “The truest exception to this reality is Ramona Fradon, an original, not to say eccentric talent, whose approach to comics was so idiosyncratic as to make her stand out from her peers, men and women alike–and it should be noted that her work, as influential as it’s been over these many years, remains personal, individual and inimitable.”

“I have known Ramona and loved her work forever. I started with Aquaman in the 1950s when I was a kid,” says Walt Simonson. “Ramona’s art wasn’t like anybody else’s work back then.  Her design of the human figure, her slightly abstract and expressive faces, her crisp line, and her clear storytelling stamped her work with an individuality that was instantly recognizable.”

“It is an honor that we are able to present the life and art of Ramona Fradon in The Art of Ramona Fradon,” adds Dynamite Entertainment President and Publisher Nick Barrucci.  “Ramona Fradon’s work has touched many creators, and I personally am a huge fan of her art.  Ramona’s conversation with Howard Chaykin about her life’s-work makes this book a must-read for any Ramona Fradon fan and any fan of comics history!”

Ramona Fradon is an American comic book and comic strip artist.  Her career began in 1950, when it was even more unusual for women to illustrate superhero comics.  Fradon entered cartooning just after graduating from the Art Students’ League. Comic-book letterer George Ward, a friend of her husband (New Yorker cartoonist Dana Fradon), asked her for samples of her artwork to pitch for job openings. She landed her first assignment on the DC Comics feature Shining Knight. Her first regular assignment was illustrating an Adventure Comics backup feature starring Aquaman, for which she co-created the sidekick Aqualad.

Following her time with Aquaman, and taking a break to raise her daughter, Fradon returned to co-create Metamorpho, drawing four issues of the series. Her other work includes Super Friends, Freedom Fighters, Plastic Man,  a variety of mystery stories, and an issue of The Fantastic Four!

In 1980, Dale Messick retired from drawing the newspaper strip Brenda Starr, and Fradon became the artist for it, until her own retirement in 1995. Fradon was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006.

Join the conversation on Twitter with  #RamonaFradon and on Dynamite Entertainment’s twitter page at http://twitter.com/DynamiteComics

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.

The payout to Mr. Choe, the graffiti artist, could provide more money from his paintings than Sotheby’s attracted for its record-breaking $200.7 million auction in 2008 for work by Damien Hirst. In 2005, Mr. Choe was invited to paint murals on the walls of Facebook’s first offices in Palo Alto, Calif., by Sean Parker, then Facebook’s president. As pay, Mr. Parker offered Mr. Choe a choice between cash in the “thousands of dollars,” according to several people who know Mr. Choe, or stock then worth about the same. Mr. Choe, who has said that at the time that he thought the idea of Facebook was “ridiculous and pointless,” nevertheless chose the stock. Many “advisers” to the company at that time, which is how Mr. Choe would have been classified, would have received about 0.1 to 0.25 percent of the company, according to a former Facebook employee. That may sound like a paltry amount, but a stake that size is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, based on a market value of $100 billion. Mr. Choe’s payment is valued at roughly $200 million, according to a number of people who know Mr. Choe and Facebook executives.

Mr. Choe’s page on Facebook shows the life of a modern-day renegade artist. Among the images of his graffiti, there is a trail of images of him partying with scantily clad women and spending large amounts of money on alcohol. In recent weeks, Mr. Choe promoted photos of a $40,000 bottle of alcohol; a single shot, he boasted, costs $888.

Choe has a blog post up at his website with images and videos of the murals and the making of them. We’d advise anyone about to engage in wrist slitting over this story consider the obverse: not that someone got a huge payout for just one job, but that such a payout is POSSIBLE if the stars align.

Anyway, godspeed to Mr. Choe. May he not spend all his loot in one place.

Read it all here.

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:

This is a funny job. Webcomics are often cited as the future of comics and the internet and I don’t know what else, but the fact that no one has retired from them yet means that I, at least, rest a little uneasy in these shoes sometimes if only for the lack of having a dependable compass by which to steer the ship. I just want to make the best decisions I can, so that I will be around longer, making drawings and comics and writing and other things that I hope people will enjoy. I’m not sure what will work out with these opportunities that have come my way, and I guess I can’t really say much about them, but I think I’d be a fool if I didn’t give them a try. So I am going to! Whatever I can let you know, I will.

You would be a fool, indeed, Kate Beaton. While Rich Burlew’s $350,000 and counting Kickstarter campaign for Order of the Stick suggests that the crowdfunding option for the post popular webcomickers is a viable one, the retirement element makes a very good point. Stuff that Keogh account (or whatever they call it in Canada) while you can!

In the meantime, Beaton’s tumblr will be posting sketches, hilarious research materials, and more. Bookmark!

Sneak Preview Excerpt: Joann Sfar Draws from Memory from Citizen Film on Vimeo.

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.

The film follows Sfar living what almost everyone reading yesterday’s thread would consider an idyllic life: drawing at the local cafe in Paris, drawing at home, sketching non-stop, playing the banjo, and playing with his children and cats in between. In the film, he ruminates on his family history, art and storytelling in between excerpts from THE RABBI’S CAT and KLEZMER (both published in English, by Pantheon and First Second respectively). The film features no voice but Sfar’s and lyrically showcases his art and his sketching style. Director Ball took pains to show the comics, with many long lingering shots of Sfar’s loose but precisely observed art.

“Drawing real life is is to an illustrator as exercise is an athlete,” says the cartoonist at one point explaining that he can only sketch what is before him or tell historical stories based on an imagined past.

Sfar is, of course, one of the world’s great living cartoonists, and after producing more than 150 books in a comics-loving society, he’s what you might call a success. Although the Franco-comics scene is more widespread in its homeland than the corresponding scene is in the US, I don’t think any anxious cartoonists wouldn’t have been comforted by a viewing of the film. It is certainly a love letter to the cartoonist’s art—at one point nothing but the sound of Sfar’s pen nib scratching against his notebook fills the theater. Of course, they might also despair over matching Sfar’s incredible ability to bring life and passion to his drawings, but that comes with the territory.

After the screening, director Ball and producer Rabbi Valerie Joseph participated in a Q&A. Since the film was screened as part of Lincoln Center’s New York Jewish Film Festival, many of the questions concerned the Jewish aspects of the film. (I went to the afternoon screening, not the gala night showing.) One commenter had two questions: he wanted to know where to purchase some of the books, and he was also troubled by Sfar’s marriage to a non-Jew and calling his children half-Jewish when it was obvious that so much Jewish culture permeated his life and work. Ball and Rabbi Joseph didn’t really have an answer for that but I think I do: I had the honor of interviewing Sfar several years ago and he always speaks quite a bit about being half Sephardic and half Ashkenazy…I think cultures clashing and mingling interest him a great deal, and just because you’re half of something doesn’t mean you’re not devoted to it or part of it. That’s my take, anyway.

Sfar has gone on to some acclaim as a director—his live-action biopic of Serge Gainsbourg was a critical hit, and his own animated version of THE RABBI’S CAT opened last year to good reviews. The documentary briefly shows some voice sessions for the film. Sfar is definitely a 1%er where talent is concerned, but it’s also pretty clear from the documentary that cartooning is his muse for all times.

JOANN SFAR DRAWS FROM MEMORY will eventually air here in the US on PBS — I urge all interested comickers to watch it.

[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.

Brown is best known for his quiet autobiographical comics such as Clumsy, Unlikely and Small Moments, as well as his more humorous books like Incredible Change-bots, a take on the transformers. We caught up with him as he was getting ready for the film's Sundance premiere this Sunday on January 22nd.]

THE BEAT: It seems like any comic book related movie gets covered to death and yet for years you’ve been saying “Oh I have this movie coming out” but it’s been very under the radar.

JEFFREY BROWN: It’s not based on any comic, so I think that makes the difference.

THE BEAT: I know you have been doing a little press, but I’ll kick off with the question everyone will ask: How did you get to make a movie?

A: In 2006 I heard from Jordan Horowitz, who most recently produced The Kids Are All Right with Gilbert Films. He liked my books and wondered if I had any interest in doing film adaptation or thought about writing for film. Back in high school I had been interested in sketch and comedy and had vague film and TV aspirations, but I ended up drawing instead. So I thought this would be a nice opportunity. I came up with an idea loosely inspired by my situation with my then girlfriend now wife, taking some other cues from other people I knew and meshing things together. The basic story is two sisters, one who is breaking up with a guy and then dating someone new while the other sister is getting married and, not having second thoughts exactly, but questioning things.

We went back and forth writing that and eventually I put a treatment together, but the way I structure my comics doesn’t really translate to film. Additionally, I didn’t really have the experience or maybe even the motivation at the time, to figure out how to write a screenplay in terms of the formal requirements. Jordan put me together with Egan Reich who is a playwright and screenwriter. We developed it into a full story that would work for film

Jordan had met Joe Swanberg, a director here in Chicago and part of the Mumblecore movement. He’s actually a comics fan and knew my work. It seemed like of one those confluences that this could work. After Joe came on, we had had everything set, they’d cast the film and were scouting locations, and then everything all fell apart at the last minute.

THE BEAT: Just in that classic Hollywood way?

JB: Yeah, this person’s schedule is all of a sudden not lining up and this or that. I thought well, that was a nice experiment. Then this other director Mike Mohan found out that the screenplay was without a director. Mike is also a comics fan who specifically likes my work. He and his wife, as a wedding gift to each other, had each unbeknownst to each other, commissioned me to do a drawing.

THE BEAT: Ha! So you know all along and they didn’t?

JB: Mike emailed me first and I said yes. Then his wife emailed and I said oh my gosh. [MacDonald laughs] I thought, Can I do this, should I? Take both their money? Is that weird? Were they going to feel ripped off that they were getting the same thing? I just kept them different. They both wanted a comic and I directed him towards one that was the state of their relationship and hers was how they met.

THE BEAT: What did they do when they found out?

JB: I think they were both just speechless. There’s a photo of it her sister sent me — they are sitting there looking with their jaws dropping. [general laughter]

Anyway, when Mike approached Jordan — he had just had his first indie feature that premiered at Sundance. Egan and I thought let’s inject some new blood and get it going.

THE BEAT: How long did this all take?

JB: 2008 is when were originally filming. Mike came on board at the end of 2010. They started casting it mid-2011. By that point, after the first time, I decided not to get my hopes up to avoid disappointment. And then I get an email in May with “Okay this is the cast” and I’m looking at these people and go “Really?!??” It felt very different this time.

THE BEAT: I know some of the cast are indie faves, so it’s getting some excitement.

JB: It’s a strange experience to see thing you wrote and you have in your head how you would say them, or how your vision of this character would say them, and the actors have an entirely different takes. It adds a lot of depth to what was there.

I visited the set for a few days the week after Comic-Con and thought, yeah these are really good actors and it’s just that weird mind-bending thing where you think “But this is stuff that I wrote!”

THE BEAT: You did artwork for the movie also?

JB: Lizzy Caplan’s character in the film does little drawings from life and autobio comics, and artwork for her boyfriend’s band. So I did all the artwork that the band uses for t-shirts and tote bags they sell. I also filled up a small sketchbook that’s used as Lizzy’s book in the film. Some of those drawings I did as pencils so she’s inking them. And she has an art show so I did finished versions of the ones in the sketchbook. Also some will be in the opening credits.

THE BEAT: Now through this whole torturous Hollywood process, do you feel like it remained a Jeffrey Brown movie? Do you feel that it’s still something that you created even with all the extra hands?

JB: Yeah. The basic story is all mine and the characters all came from the same place. What I had in mind, the emotional beats of the story and the ideas that I wanted to get at about these two sisters in different places and getting frustrated with each other — one ending this really involved relationship and starting a new exciting relationship and all the drama that can come with that. All the things I was trying to get at with the original idea were there.

Mike said when he was writing his draft he just had my books stacked up next to him and whenever he hit a rough part, he would look through my books. I’m very fortunate that everyone who came on seemed to be on the same page.

THE BEAT: Your work is divided into two parts: your heavily autobiographical stuff and then more genre stuff like Big Head or Change-Bots. You haven’t done much that was fictional but not fantastic have you?

JB: No, not in comics and really not outside of comics. When I do fiction I don’t know if it’s easier or I’m more comfortable, but it tends to be more humorous ideas. I have fewer rules for myself. Part of the origin of the story is that how my relationship with my wife began is a story I wanted to tell in full detail in comics. But I didn’t feel like it was a story that would add enough or do things differently enough for me. To do it in film seemed like the easy way to get away from that.

THE BEAT: Is the character the sister is marrying based on you?

JB: Initially, but then what happened is all the character got mixed. My wife does have a sister and she’s a little older and hasn’t settled down. Whereas we have a five-year-old now. Just thinking about that contrast in terms of personality. The sister in the movie is a random mass of different aspects of people. Some of me gets transferred on to Lizzy Caplan’s character, aspects of my wife get transferred to the character that would be me. Everyone got mixed up in the end.

THE BEAT: Are you looking forward to going to Sundance and all that own wackiness? From what I hear, what Comic-Con is to nerds, Sundance is for indie films only with fun snow.

JB: I don’t know! I think having gone to Comic-Con as many years as I have, even if I don’t know exactly how crazy Sundance is going to be, I’m at least psychologically prepared. It’s going to be overwhelming but that’s the other advantage for me. It’s something that I can do as half-tourist whereas for Mike and Jordan, it’s a big huge business trip.

THE BEAT: Did anything surprise you about what worked as a movie?

JB: The biggest thing for me was things that I really wanted to be in there that were left out.

THE BEAT: Yeah, murder your darlings!

JB: And there are things that I really wanted still in there. It’s still something I could learn from again, knowing that with my comics, usually my autographical books are much more based on gut feelings and emotions. There’s only a little bit of intellectualizing in terms of how I order things or how I place things next to each other. With film it’s much more what’s going to make the movie work for an audience that’s going to sit there, a different experience in terms of how the audience participates in the story. The way my comics work I thought has always been more along the lines of poetry than anything narrative and [laughs] a collection of poetry doesn’t really translate to film.

I think if anything it gives me more confidence in approaching fiction later. I’m working on an autobiographical book now which is about fatherhood and religion and this is the last subject that I want to approach through autobiography. It’s a book that’s taking a lot longer, partly because the working process is much different because it’s in full color. And the subject matter is more difficult than other things I’ve dealt with.

THE BEAT: Why?

JB: Well, my father is a minister so for me it’s a very delicate ground to walk to deal with these feelings, and being an atheist but still wanting to respect my parents. Well — um, I want people to read it.

THE BEAT: I guess reading between the lines, it sounds like the relationships with your father and your son are ongoing, so it might be little bit of a tricky road to walk.

A: Yeah. I’m also doing a book about Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker as a four-year-old, which is the flip side of fatherhood…and of religion too, I guess. [general laughter] It’s much lighter, a collection of gag comics and one-page strips. It’s a mix of stereotypical father son things with being a new dad and some Star Warsy things. references.

THE BEAT: I imagine this must have “parody” stamped on the cover.

JB: It’s an official Lucasfilm release.

THE BEAT: Oh, so they got the official blessing? Congrats on that.

JB: Well, I grew up with Star Wars, it was just fun to do.

THE BEAT: You’ve been getting into animation, you did painting, you teach, so you already had some multi-media stuff going on. Is it hard to keep it all going?

JB: I hoped the Top Shelf book would be done by the end of October and here it is January and I’m only a little over halfway done. I may be having to readjust those expectations about how much work I can do. The other thing that’s hard is pushing back the projects that I’d really like to do for myself that aren’t as commercially viable. It’s trying to balance doing whatever I want but also make enough money from it so I don’t have to get a day job again.

THE BEAT: Which for every cartoonist is a struggle.

JB: My wife works fulltime so that helps. Our son is in preschool so I get a decent amount of time. And then I just sleep less. [laughs]

THE BEAT: You say the father and religion book might be the last autobio subject you look at for a long time?

JB: In terms of book length stories. For FCBD I’m going to sign at Quimby’s and I think I’m going to do a free mini comics for it and one of the stories is a shorter autobio story about my best friend in elementary school and how our friendship ended, which involved renting the Lord of the Rings animated movie.

I’m going to do more Change-bots—I have the basic plot for the third book. And I do want to try doing some fiction. I have this story that I’m not sure exactly what I want it to be. It could be a science fiction-y near future sf story. It could be a superhero thing but I’m not sure exactly sure what I want it to be yet. I also have this idea for a kids book about dinosaurs. I have my little notebook with 20 or 30 projects. I’ve always liked horror films so I have some ideas on that I might work on at some point.

THE BEAT: Here’s the other question everyone will ask, so I’ll ask it. Do you feel like you want to do more in movies?

JB: Yeah, I do, but one of the things that was great about this film was that I could be really involved but it didn’t take over my life. I don’t see myself as being a director or the sole writer, but I think it’s good place to collaborate for me. But I think drawing my comics is my first love.

Although once touted as one of the glorious success stories of comics on Kickstarter, the ASHES project has now crumbled, for the moment to…well, ashes.

It began promisingly enough as a sequel to writer Alex de Campi’s Eisner-nominated SMOKE. Although the project was clearly de Campi’s baby, after bringing on board artist Jimmy Broxton, the nom de plume of James Hodgkins (KNIGHT & SQUIRE), the project was put up on Kickstarter with some great looking art and proceeded to beat its goal by some $6000 for a total of $32,000. Its process of funding the project by allowing retailers to buy copies was hailed as a groundbreaking use of Kickstarter and a new DIY decade.

But now, it all looks like a mess. In events chronicled at length at Forbidden Planet and Comics Alliance, after creating 22 pages of art in finished and layout form for the successful campaign, Hodgkins was fired off the book, and posted about it on Facebook (posts since deleted.)

For her part, de Campi went on Kickstarter announcing that she would continue with a new artist. She promised backers that if anyone wanted to leave because of Hodgkins’ dismissal, she would refund their money; and if the new artist on the project wasn’t acceptable she would also refund the money.

If you only pledged for the book because of Jimmy, or if this announcement otherwise colours your desire for the book, please contact me to say so on [redacted] with your kickstarter backer name and I will refund your pledge immediately and in full.

Likewise, once I find a new artist, if his or her work is not a style you like, you may also contact me and be immediately refunded for your pledge.

Folks, I am so committed to making this book. I am so sorry for this drama, and I hope you will find it in your heart to bear with me for a little longer while I straighten this out. Please be aware that the money you have pledged is still YOUR money (none of it was ever going to me anyway, it was all for art and print/reward fulfilment) and I will be respectful of your wishes as to where it will go.

For there is the element of Kickstarter that really hasn’t been examined much: once you pledge, your money is gone. The creators can go off to Barbardos with your money to work on the book if they like. Followed by bad feedback, of course. Kickstarter operates on an eBay like element of trust. And the money isn’t easy to refund, as de Campi has since found out.

Since the split was announced, Broxton/Hodgkins has remained silent. However, he reached out to The Beat to offer his statement exclusively. We’ve asked some questions to clarify things. That statement is below. We’ll have our own thoughts — and a rebuttal by de Campi — in a future post. In the meantime, it’s just sad that what looked like a great comic has been tied up in an ugly wrangle.

BEAT: How did you find out you were fired off the book?

JAMES HODGKINS: On Saturday January 14th 2012, less than a month after it had been successfully funded, I was unexpectedly and unceremoniously told by email that I was to be replaced on the Ashes graphic novel project, a book I had been attached to for over 8 months, and one that had recently raised in excess of $32,000 — Kickstarter’s 7th most successful comics funding project ever as of this point, and an achievement that both Alex and myself were overjoyed with.

There is a lot of speculation and talk right now, about this mess, and it really is a mess, I’m incredibly sorry about the whole thing, and for me, it’s not just about the money, or lost earnings, or how Kickstarter works, this has come as a huge creative blow. I had committed to spend the next year drawing Ashes, the script is quite brilliant, Alex is an extremely talented writer, I very much wanted to be part of something that I thought was going to be special. I hope people can see that commitment from the work I have already produced for the series.

Ashes deserves to be made, it has the potential to be a great book, I’m gutted now that I won’t have the chance to be a part of that process.

BEAT: Alex has alluded to “irreconcilable differences.” What can you tell us about that?

JH: If this is true, then this is news to me, because as recently as January 12th 2012 (just two days prior to the sudden sacking) we enthusiastically discussed and outlined plans for the next wave of art to be produced for Ashes, a friendly and cordial conversation that in particular discussed details of how some of the $32,000 raised could be forwarded to me.

Alex has also said that she didn’t realise things were going so wrong at first, and it wasn’t until the pages started coming in that she became aware it just wasn’t working, I’m at a loss as to why she would think this, as nearly all of the pages she (or any one else) has seen were completed before the Kickstarter campaign even went live, so she must have thought they were OK, she certainly presented them to the world very enthusiastically, since then, I have produced 4 more pages of art, all were well received by Alex, and were included in the Kickstarter updates. There was a discussion about the double page spread featuring the boat and the rock, where I had chosen a different viewpoint/camera angle to the one outlined in the script, but as far as the finished art goes, that is the nearest we ever came to a “creative difference” and, it was settled weeks ago, very amicably.

I’ll not pretend that everything has been plain sailing; when two strong willed and creative individuals come together it can, on occasion be pretty fiery, yes there were tantrums, hissy fits, harsh words and the occasional bit of name calling — but we took it in our stride as I’m big enough and I’m old enough to take that sort of thing, and Alex is a big girl who can look after herself — and is nobody’s idea of a shrinking violet. The biggest difference of opinion revolved around who would have the final say, as in, who would be the “editor”, naturally I wanted to keep control of how the art looked (with the proviso that I did not of course alter the narrative flow or any details of the script). Alex had other ideas and suggested we consider using some of the funds raised to hire an editor, even a name was mentioned (a former, very well respected DC editor, a lady I have, incidentally worked for), I replied in a rather ill-tempered way to this suggestion, for which I later apologised, eventually Alex agreed with me, that the best way forward was for her to let me do my own thing with the visuals (provided of course, I did not change the script, or thrust of the narrative), really we are just talking about camera angles, viewpoints and the shape of the panels, that sort of thing and then, only very occasionally, if I felt strongly enough about it, and could demonstrate that from a storytelling point of view it was a good idea, more than 90% of the art I have produced has been exactly as Alex described/directed. As far as I’m concerned, this little spat (Alex called it that too) was also amicably settled weeks ago. We moved forward, getting on with the job at hand.
Up until the moment I was fired, I honestly had no reason to suspect things were going so wrong as far as Alex was concerned.

BEAT: Did you have a contract? How had you entered into the whole Kickstarter process?

JH: Yes, we have a contract, Alex has the signed executed originals, I own 45% of Ashes, as does Alex, the other 5% is owned by a fairly well known film/TV actor from Canada (a non-publicity clause in the contract prevents me from divulging the name, or at least I think it does) I think it important to note, that the contract was not finalized until Nov 20th, 2011, so, long after the campaign went live, and after I produced all the finished art and layout pages that exist, I can only assume Alex was more than happy with all the art at that time or she would not have signed it. Which again makes me wonder why she is so unhappy with my work now, as I have not produced any new pages since then, only sketches and test panels for Kickstarter, which have been seen by all who followed the campaign.

How we ended up at Kickstarter is an interesting story in itself. When I came on board (some 8 months ago) Alex was only talking to regular book and comics publishers, a crowd funding platform was never mentioned, or if it was, I honestly don’t recall. I do seem to remember Top Shelf, First Second and Dark Horse being in the frame, for reasons I’m unaware of, those talks were fruitless. Next thing I know, we are going with UK based Unbound, a publisher I had not even heard of. I was assured by Alex they were a good fit, although a crowd funding type of operation, she considered them very high-end, and much more focussed, as they only publish books.

Talks went well, I was even included on a conference call, with the editors here in London and Alex in the US where we talked about fees and costs etc. I have emails where I’m in discussion with Unbound about the printing of the book, confidential print quotes from third parties were forwarded to me for my opinion, things were that far advanced. It was, as far as I knew, a done deal, with only the fine details of the contracts to be finalised. Then, suddenly (and very much to my surprise) Alex told me we were going with Kickstarter, so I can only assume things went wrong with Unbound. Even though I was not consulted in any way (or even asked if I agreed) Kickstarter it was going to be. I trusted her judgement on this.

BEAT: According to Alex she has offered to pay you for the work you’ve already done?

JH: Yes, she has, but I declined the offer.

Initially I did ask Alex if she might be able to offer me some money, even if I didn’t deserve it (my exact words to her), because basically I’m broke.
There is extra money in the pot (as we exceeded our target by over $6,000) and Alex did promise that any additional funds would firstly go towards a ‘raise’ for me (as she freely admits on the Kickstarter home page, the $60 a page for pencils, inks, colours, letters, book design and pre press production is, well, significantly lower than industry standards) – a raise, as it happens that wasn’t likely to be forthcoming (at least not until well after the book was drawn and printed if at all) something I only realized right at the end of the campaign, when she informed me that $3k of the money raised would be used to complete the print version of Valentine, her other creator-owned project, one that had nothing to do with me whatsoever. It is scheduled to be published by Image comics later in the year — perhaps it could have had its own Kickstarter project.

Alex got back to me with an offer of a little over $1000 for all the work completed and compensation for lost future earnings. I replied quite angrily, that I considered the offer to be both unfair and insulting, I declined it.

After thinking about this in a calmer frame of mind I have decided that I do not want a penny of the $15,000 promised to me by Alex, not even as a severance payment. I’m now of the opinion that to take such a payment would be ethically wrong, as that money was originally donated by people who expected me to be working on the project, as I’m no longer involved, I do not deserve that money, despite the large amount of work I have produced, it would feel like I was betraying a trust, or taking advantage of the good will shown by all the backers, especially as many will want the book mainly for the brilliant story, and be happy to support it, whomever the artist.

However, there is more to this refusal, as to accept it means that I accept leaving the project, and here we have a slight legal snafu, specifically because of the aforementioned contract, raised between Alex, myself and the (unnamed here) actor for book and film rights, a contract that, created quietly and under Kickstarter’s radar, involved a one off payment of $6k to the ‘Seller’ for 5% of the rights, the other 95% being split equally between Alex and myself, I now seem to own a large percentage of a book I no longer work on.

Alex and I are jointly named as ‘Seller’ in the above document, and as such the contract states that 50%, $3k of this is legally mine — as well as having a percentage of after sales profits, I am no longer an employee, I am a partner, and this all becomes a whole lot more complicated, whether I want to leave, I was fired, or whatever.

I think it also worth mentioning that I was only made aware of this contract’s existence, after it was finalised and after the $6000 appeared as a secret pledge on Kickstarter (by secret I mean, a sudden $6k bump, with no corresponding rewards being taken to account for it), although named as a co-author of the work, it does not carry my signature, it was signed (quite legally) on my behalf by Alex.

BEAT: Do you have any thoughts on how this split affects Kickstarter overall?

JH: This sorry business has brought into question the efficacy of the Kickstarter model, with people saying that it is flawed in some way. I think it’s more a case of people being flawed — Kickstarter stands and falls on trust and integrity, there are no legal safeguards or protections in place to prevent fundraisers from lying, cheating, breaking promises, not delivering as advertised, or even sacking artists and replacing them once a campaign has successfully concluded.

I think we need to restore some of the faith in Kickstarter (that has inevitably been lost) as a viable creative/business model for supporting comic book projects of all persuasions.

Despite no legal requirement to do so, Alex has generously agreed to refund the money to all those who pledged but who no longer want a book that I will not be drawing, and also for any who have pledged but do not like the art of my replacement. I think she can can do much better than this, if she so desires.

I suggest the following option, so that all parties walk away from this, with their integrity intact, to repay and perhaps to rebuild the trust that those who have pledged have shown.

Declare the campaign to be null and void, and return all monies. Start again, (this includes of course, tearing up the existing and presumably worthless contract, and returning that money as well).

This will allow Alex a better chance to find her replacement artist (she currently has asked that people give her a week before submitting portfolios, this is cutting it fine if she wants to have made her choice by Valentine’s Day as she has indicated), have proper time to plan a new campaign (without this shadow of mistrust hanging over it) and raise money once more. Those that want the book, even though I will not be drawing it, can simply pledge again – those that don’t, well, they don’t have to pledge.

This seems by far, the fairest, most ethical and least complicated way to proceed, even if it does mean I walk away with nothing.

Alex has said that she will announce her plans on Valentine’s Day. Personally, I see no need to rush into this; the script for Ashes is superb, it will be a great book, and finding the right artist in less than a month for such a mammoth undertaking is not something that anyone need rush into (after all the entire project has been in gestation for 5 years, according to Alex), why set such a short and arbitrary deadline? People have waited 5 years for a sequel to Smoke, they can surely wait a little longer.

When six of today’s finest, funniest cartoonists created a studio together two years ago, 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.

The blog post linked above hilariously plays on the expectation that anytime a bunch of girls team up, the whole thing had to end in hair pulling and cat fights. After emailing a few of the members, an even more sordid truth emerged: the lease on the studio was up, and two members were moving and it just made sense to break up. All the cartoonists are, against all odds, still friends. “We’ll all go back to working from home or in cafes or at each other’s houses sometimes,” Wertz told The Beat.

Hanawalt concurred with the friendly break-up. “If we’re feeling like miserable hermits, we can always rent a new space and start Calzone Island.”

If the end of Pizza Island says anything about cartooning it’s that being thrifty by working at home seems to be the biggest trend of the year. It was cool while it lasted — let the legends begin.

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.

To get some idea of who the industry is looking to for leadership, we asked participants in our Year-End Survey to name a person of the year. Respondents were promised anonymity in their comments, but some chose to be quoted.

Last year, Robert Kirkman was an easy winner – the runaway success of The Walking Dead and his business acumen in both remaining the public face of the show, and putting his profits into things like his own Skybound Image imprint were hard to miss.

This year, votes were much more across the board. One person clearly got the most votes as a single person. However, an executive team had more votes overall when votes for both people were added up. So, we used our executive power to declare both a Person of the Year and a Team of the Year. So who moved the comics industry in 2011 and will continue to be heard in 2012? Read on.

Person of the Year – Kate Beaton

Webcartoonist, author, historian, performance artist—2011 was Kate Beaton’s oyster. With the publication of her collected comics in HARK! A VAGRANT! from D&Q (just last week named Book of the Year by PW’s critics, and included on Time’s Books of the Year list), Beaton’s popularity grew from its already impressive dimensions. She also launched a monthly comics/comedy cabaret with Michael Kupperman, and continued to be one of the smartest, savviest creators out there. One of our sharpest memories of 2011 was watching two readers sitting giggling for half an hour as they read their just-signed copy of HARK! A VAGRANT!.

In choosing Beaton, respondents were clearly impressed by her overall talent, and ability to retain her loyal audience:

– Web-comics superstar turned print bestseller. Funny, smart, young…the future.

– DC is the big story, but that’s more of a team effort. As removed as I was from comics this year, it seemed like the dominant persona was Kate Beaton. She was everywhere, and everything she did was awesome. She’s the one creator in comics who has truly universal appeal. Everyone knows her. Everyone loves her. And for good reason.

– KATE BEATONS!!!!! ALL THE KATE BEATONS!!… sorry, the all caps got me excited there.

– Kate Beaton pretty much took over the world, and she did so with grace and candor.

Reached for comment on her win, Beaton sent this statement:

“It’s been a really big year for me with the book coming out, and I’ve been overwhelmed by the tremendous support I’ve been given. Thank you so much.”

Team Of The Year: DC Entertainment Co-publishers Dan DiDio And Jim Lee

The acknowledgement of the huge impact DC’s co-publishers had on the comics industry this year can be filed under least surprising things ever. With the renumbering, relaunching and reimagining of the DC superhero universe as The New 52, DC dominated headlines and sales charts from June on, reversing Marvel’s long-time dominance in the direct sales market and boosting sales levels to levels long gone. While some respondents had mixed feelings about The New 52, all recognized the huge amount of hard work and daring it took to shake things up:

– Dan Didio. Whether you like him or loathe him, he made a commitment, stood by it and put his entire career behind it. The DCU’s change will be talked about for years. As one of the architects, and as the one constantly hammered for these things, I’m giving it to him.

– Dan Didio. I have no way of knowing whether what he did with the DC New 52 has any real staying power, but he and his team managed to blow a lot of the dust off the DC comics line and there are now some very good comics on the racks under that banner. I now buy twice as many DC monthlies than I used to. To get someone as jaded as me interested again is something of an achievement in itself. Yes it’s all a bit more conservative than I would have liked and the whole enterprise does seem a little unstable, but Didio put his neck on the line to do this and I think it has paid off.

– While I am not sure the new 52 is good for comics it is definitely one of the biggest things to happen and Didio is the man behind it.

– Dan DiDio. Dude held onto a seat that everyone thought he’d lose, and then oversaw a siege on Marvel’s market dominance without much to support it beyond press releases, frightened editors, and a neverending supply of desperate freelancer cannon fodder.

– Jim Lee. I worked for Jim in the early days of WildStorm and was always impressed by the way he could come up with ways to get readers excited about comics. DC’s relaunch this year was the boldest thing I’ve ever seen a publisher do. It sold lots more books for DC and got fans excited again about comics. IDW saw increased sales (pre-orders and re-orders) across the board at the end of 2011 and there’s no question that was a direct result of the DC relaunch. – Ted Adams

– Dan Didio & Jim Lee. The DC relaunch, though I think flawed in many ways execution-wise, was at least the kind of big thinking that comics should strive for.

– Jim Lee for not only co-publishing The New 52 while balancing a hundred other responsibilities for DC, including making his art deadlines— and he and his wife Carla added a new kid to the Lee team with the late December birth of their daughter River Charlotte!

Reached for comment, DiDio and Lee released the following statement:

“In 2011, we took a major risk because we felt that’s what the industry needed. It’s been so rewarding to see the response ­ both from the fans and from the industry pundits. Given Comic Beat¹s longtime standing in the industry, we’re honored by this recognition. But the story’s not over, and we’ve got another big year ahead of us.”

The rest of the DC team was also mentioned several times:

– Geoff Johns, who seems to keep finding new ways to make DC more successful, along with lots of help, of course.

– If I could, this is an award I’d give to the entire DC management team, since The New 52 revitalized mainstream comics (at least for the 4th quarter!) The One-Time Only Stunt of audaciously re-starting their entire line of comics, while fielding nothing but flack for the six months running up to the launch is something that gets at least a hearty pat on the back and “Keep it going!” for everyone on the DC team.

– Diane Nelson. She actually is engaging with the audience that exists and broadening to markets poorly supported in the past. The “DC Nation” push is what Marvel wishes “Marvel Zombies” were like nowadays.

Person Of The Year Honorable Mention: Dylan Williams

Running a very strong third in the voting, if the winner had been chosen on sheer emotion, the late Sparkplug publisher Dylan Williams would have won. He succumbed to cancer in September — just as the part of the comics industry he loved so much were gathered at SPX— and the outpouring of emotion hasn’t stopped since. It’s very clear from the heartfelt tributes that poured in that although Williams’ loss is painful, he left a legacy of love for the comics medium that will keep inspiring people for years to come:

– Hands down– Dylan Williams. His passing was unbelievably sad, but I think in certain ways it galvanized a certain…feeling among many of the artists I know, in a very positive way. There’s never going to be anyone like him again; hot shit writers/ artists/ publishers come and go, but some people make an impression much deeper than whatever’s going on at the moment. Dylan was like that, as a publisher and a human being. His impact will be felt (probably in very invisible, quiet ways) for…I don’t know– forever. It certainly will for me.

– Dylan Williams is the Person of the Year for 2011. There aren’t many people in the history of comics who are as important as Dylan to the development of the medium. Dylan’s no martyr, and losing him was brutal, but it really did get everyone mobilized on our side of the comics divide.

– Dylan Williams, who will be missed, but whose presence will continue to cause ripples through alternative comics in ways most of us won’t ever even realize.

The people who carried on Sparkplug after Williams’s death were also noted:

– For me it’s definitely Virginia Paine. She did all of the heavy lifting of keeping Sparkplug going when we were all emotional wrecks and dealing with too much this year.  I don’t know how she did it. She’s amazing. I’m so glad to have her as a partner and friend as we move towards the future of Sparkplug with Emily Nilsson.  Also – Virginia’s comics and zines are very quiet and beautiful just like her. Check out her personal work. — Tom Neely

Other Notables

The Digital Crew

After these three clear frontrunners, several industry figures still had widespread support. The digital side of things were recognized with a slew of votes for comiXology, David Steinberger and John D. Roberts:

– David Steinberger. Like Steve Geppi, but in a growing company. He’s established very strong position in the place everybody wants to be.

–David Steinberger and the rest of the comiXology team. It was a great year for digital, but a STUPENDOUS year for comiXology. They changed the game for good.

– This year ComiXology seemed to finally win the way in terms of mainstream comics “iTunes.” Their aggressive development of applications for a variety of platforms and their nearly all-encompassing list of affiliated publishers have made them a major player in the North American comics industry.

The late Steve Jobs was also mentioned several times for the way the iPad has revolutionized the way we read comics:

– Steve Jobs.   He affected everything we do and will continue to have an impact on the way we see digital comics for a long time.

– Steve Jobs. Comics continued to expand in digital form on the iPad, and it wouldn’t have been possible without Jobs.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was noted for his role in the tablet wars and publishing in general:

– Love him or hate him, the decisions he makes at Amazon (Kindle Fire, Price Check, heavy discounting, buying Book Depository, starting a publishing company…etc.) have far reaching consequences for everyone in the comic publishing business and needs to be reckoned with.

– Jeff Bezos. While everyone was questioning the future of bricks and mortar vs. digital for the distribution of comics, he swooped in with the Kindle Fire and cut a deal with DC Comics that made Amazon a potentially huge player in the world of comics, not just for the big two but for self-publishers.

The Women

2011 was the year gender issues really fired up the world of comics, whether with enthusiasm – as with the Womanthology book – or with angry blog postings. Accordingly, a few of the players in this arena got strong support.

Renae DeLiz

, who put together the huge Womanthology anthology and set a comics fundraising record on Kickstarter in the process.

– Renae DeLiz. I honestly think that her “little” idea with Womanthology, that went on to be such a huge Kickstarter success, has opened up some incredibly important dialog and is in fact making actual changes in the industry for the long haul.

– She took a germ of an idea from casual chit-chat on Twitter and ran with it, striking a nerve and awakening a dormant beast from a dissatisfied slumber, giving amateur and pro-women creators alike a chance to bring their voices together.  The success of the Womanthology Kickstarter campaign gave very real, tangible proof of support for women in comics, and interest in women’s voices and perspectives– not to mention the diversity of race, ethnicity, sexuality, and gender expression!  Such diversity as I believe is the key to the survival of the comics industry, and it was thanks to Renae De Liz that we got to see how much possibility lay down that path. — Alexa Dickman

Kyrax2

This fan who stood up at every New 52 panel at San Diego and stood her ground until her questions were answered was met with first anger and then, due to her resilience, actually prompted the first acknowledgement by management that an issue even existed, and got several votes.

– Kyrax2, who – in her Batgirl costume – confronted Dan Didio at the San Diego Comic-Con International and asked the questions some of us who are female superhero comics fans have at least thought about for decades.  The furor has died down considerably, but she made me think long and hard about why I like superhero comics, and what factors are causing problems for me and tainting my enjoyment.  I’m in a distinct minority here, but she did have an impact on some of us, for good or ill.

– Kyrax2. Agree or disagree with her methods, she brought the entire industry and the mainstream media’s attention to an issue that has too often been dismissed. (Suzette Chan)

The Contenders

Three other industry figures who received passionate support that should be noted:

Annie Koyama – this Canadian publisher would probably win any popularity contest you chose to run. The books she publishes are impeccable and her resilient, upbeat personality has made her one of the most loved figures in comics.

– We should be grateful to Annie Koyama, publisher of Koyama Press, who is behind some of the best new comics around and seems to really care about her cartoonists’ visions. She’s clearly enthusiastic and supportive without being blind to top level quality.

– Annie Koyama! She’s smart, generous, canny, and has the best taste in the industry. I don’t know whether to hug her or swear fealty to her.

Richard Thompson, another universally loved figure who this year turned in stellar work on his comic strip Cul de Sac while battling the effects of Parkinson’s Disease and topped it off by winning the Reuben Award.

– Between turning in another amazing year of his strip Cul de Sac, winning the Reuben Award, inspiring the ultra-elusive Bill Watterson to paint a portrait of his character Petey, and being very polite when I puked all over his favorite Mexican restaurant (I should not have gotten out of bed that morning), Richard Thompson deserves recognition for a hell of a year.

Finally, last year’s winner, Robert Kirkman, continues to impress many.

–Robert Kirkman is still winner and champion

– Robert Kirkman gets the tap again this year for the insane success of “Walking Dead,” dominating cable television, killing on the trade paperback sales charts, and selling briskly in digital form. He’s worked insanely hard, continues to think out of the box, and is living the dream.

Individual creators:

Kevin Eastman.

– People like the 3-headed monster at DC garnered more headlines (and rightfully so, their launch was hugely successful and impressive), but Kevin made an unexpected and enthusiastic return to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and spent endless hours not only working on the new series, working on the deluxe reprints, but just getting back out in everyone’s minds again and meeting the fans. This included his impressive art installation and gallery show (and wall mural) at Meltdown Comics in LA, all the while still running Heavy Metal magazine, developing properties for film, and working on new comic projects besides.

Dean Haspiel
–Dean has long been one of the crossover indie/mainstream mainstays. Having honed his chops assisting Simonson on Thor, Chaykin on American Flagg, and Sienkiewiscz on Elektra Assassin.  In 2006 he founded ACT-I-VATE.com and has been a fierce nurturer of up-and-coming talent and of putting your work online for folks to see. In 2011 he fired on all cylinders.

Scott Snyder

– Ah, that’s an obvious one, yes. SCOTT SNYDER. From a GREAT but low-key book like Iron Man: Noir to American Vampire, and BOOM! Swamp Thing AND Batman, to be universally considered one of the best, if not the best, new writers in the industry. Some people would say “scratch that NEW and leave it on BEST WRITER” and they would probably be right about that. — David Macho

Chester Brown
– Chester Brown is the person of the year.  Whether you liked the book or not, Chester Brown may be the one person in comics who truly has the courage of his convictions.  For two decades, he has consistently reinvented the medium without a shred of pretension or irony.  He is ONLY a cartoonist, he is not an illustrator, editor, writer or designer.  His commitment to the medium; belief in what the medium can do;  insistence to not rest on his laurels; his ability to be political without being patronizing or knee-jerk; is what separates him from other 80s-90s peers such as Frank Miller and Grant Morrison.  In a medium that prides itself on iconoclasm, Chester Brown is our one true iconoclast.

Shaenon K. Garrity
– She not only continued her great and underappreciated daily comic Skin Horse, but reprinted Narbonic, which wrapped more than five years ago, and earned nearly $30K to publish it through Kickstarter.  Not as much money as Womanthology took in, sure, but she’s got 100-something fewer creators working on her book.  I don’t know if it was the most under-reported story of the year, but it’s probably in the top ten.

Alan Moore
– What other comic creator had a hand in shaping the face of the Occupy Movement. And he didn’t get all uppity or egotist about it. (Take note, Frank Miller.)

Susie Cagle
– She’s making journalistic and editorial cartooning relevant again simply by showing up where important things are happening.

Mike Mignola.
– His return to art duties on Hellboy is something a lot of people have really be longing for.

Jeff Lemire
– It’s a tough choice this year, Geoff Johns had another good year; Scott Snyder was kicking major butt; but I’ll pick Jeff Lemire. Animal Man is one of the best books in the 52 line, Superboy is a solid book, Sweet Tooth continues to surprise, and his Essex County Trilogy became a sensation in Canada when it was featured on Canada Reads. – Mark Askwith

Jerzy Drozd.
No one is working harder to spread the gospel of comics 24 hours a day than Jerzy Drozd. He’s the co-organizer of the annual Kids Read Comics festival, host of the weekly Comics Are Great video podcast, curated Chelsea, Michigan’s first ever fine art gallery exhibit of comic pages, is a sequential art teacher, co-founder of Lean Into Art digital comics classes, and a tireless cheerleader for all the comics artists he comes into contact with. Jerzy traveled to over 20 libraries giving free comics workshops in 2011 alone, and enthusiastically shared his love of comics advocacy at the Ignite Ann Arbor and Ignite Great Lakes presentation series. He also managed to find time to produce several great mini-comics like Boulder and Fleet: Adventurers for Hire! And it sounds like he already has more lined up for next year!

– Brandon Graham for making us all excited about comics.

Dan Vado
– How he’s been able to keep SLG running for 25 years — at times seemingly by sheer force of will and often despite his own doubts — is pretty amazing.  It’s a sad reality that more often then not it’s never the guys who do something first who succeed, but it’s the guys who build on that foundation who break through to wider success. In this case it’s nice to see one of the indie originals, whose seen the highs and lows, still pushing the envelope.

– Box Brown for revitalizing “the floppy” with his Retrofit Comics.

Kevin Feige and the team at Marvel Studios.
– Betting all your chips on putting Thor, Captain America, and The Avengers all in line and playing off each other in continuity, and then delivering big box office success is a once-in-a-lifetime achievement. It was a huge risk — what if Thor had tanked? — that only in retrospect is so successful that it looks like a no-brainer.

Not all the picks were entirely laudatory:

Gareb Shamus

His downfall shows us that the greed and excess of the 90s that spilled over into the new century has finally come to a close. Wizard used to be one of the, if not the most powerful voice in comics. Now it no longer exists.

We don’t need any more guys like Shamus. The industry is full of kind, nice, hard working and earnest people. We need to encourage and discuss their efforts, not the schlocky antics of snake-oil salesmen and circus promoters.

Some of those who left us were also recognized:

– Joe Simon. A legend in comics who saw his co-creation on the big screen this year and then passed away and the impressive age of 98.

– Jerry Robinson, RIP. He generously shared not only his talent but his grace for 70+ years.

– Sad: Dwayne McDuffie

– Jack Kirby, for inspiring a boycott of Marvel/Disney products for their blatant disrespect to the legacy of the man to whom they owe everything, and reminding everyone who really is The King.

And finally, some abstract winners:

– Much like Time Magazine’s pick of “the protester”, my person of the year is the digital delivery system.  Perhaps I can aim this at the feet of companies like, Comixology. Jim Lee was the force behind The New 52 and Robert Kirkman was the drive behind The Walking Dead but both (and others) are making sure they are front and center on digital.  It’s not even an option. Digital has changed the industry in both subtle and remarkable ways and it has reached new audiences while retaining much of the old.

– People whom I know who have done selfless acts of unprompted, un-press-released kindnesses to help many creators in the industry, both individually and as a whole, without the need for public accolades, or really any care if anyone knows or not. I’d challenge us all, for the new year, to do one wonderful thing for someone else– something substantial– and do it anonymously, without the need for personal gain or garnishment. Those that do that, are the Person of the Year in my book, and we’ll never know really who they are.

And the last one…our own personal favorite:

– Any artist or writer who produces their work straight from the heart and not just for a paycheck.

Thanks to all for voting and congratulations to the winners.

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.

For instance, you don’t think of Jeff Smith, creator of the beloved BONE series, as being someone who has had ups and downs, but in an interview at Tom Spurgeon, he talks about the low times:

2001 was a bad year for me. We had a lot of money troubles. I got into these rows with Dave Sim and Linda Medley, and it was very demoralizing. I forgot how close we came to going out of business. We put a bunch of money into toys — toys were really big — in 1999 and 2000. We didn’t lose any money in the long run, but it tied up a whole bunch of money for a long time… I was slowing down my output right around that time, because I was getting into the heavy parts of the story and it was hard to write. Just a lot of factors came together. I forgot how tough that was. We had to let all our employees go. We had to leave our office. I completely forgot that there was a year when Vijaya and I and Kathleen — Kathleen Glosan, our production manager — the three of us were all in my one-room studio above the garage trying to survive. Eventually we did.

But being a survivor, and being adaptable, he made it through. Here’s his account of the recovery:

We just had to tighten our belts in the hopes we could ride it out, and eventually we did. We were smarter about things. We stopped doing the toys, obviously. That was silly. We were always thinking about ways to repackage the books. Eventually we pulled it together.

Eddie Campbell, a veteran of many of the same tidal shifts that Smith has dealt with, reads the above and
has his own memories of the time after Top Shelf’s distrbutor and printer both went bankrupt:

I was never operating on the same scale as Jeff, but in 2003 we had to turn my home studio into a bedroom. The intention was to build a shed next to the house for me to work in, or for somebody to sleep in, but that looked like being too expensive, so I moved my operation onto the far end of our dinner table, a big eight foot long polished oak object. For a year or so my life consisted of going from one end of the table to the other.

While it would be nice if we were all 1%ers with vacation homes in Tuscany, there’s also something to be said for not being a fat cat: at least you don’t have so far to fall when things do go bad.

Today marks the centennial of Charles Addams, born January 7, 1912.  In celebration, Google, in cooperation with the Tee & Charles Addams Foundation has created a Google doodle, seen above!

Addams was renowned for his macabre cartoons which appeared in the New Yorker, and for his iconic “Addams Family” pictured above.  Those characters, later “fleshed out” (so to speak) for television, also inspired a cartoon series (spun off from Scooby-Doo!), a variety show (pilot only), a television reboot, two movies (and possibly a third, animated feature from Tim Burton), a Broadway musical, video games, even a pinball machine!

Like many New Yorker cartoonists, he has numerous iconic cartoons.  Unlike most, a large majority of his work is silent, which requires the reader to puzzle out the punchline, which makes it that more memorable.  Perhaps that is why he had so many New Yorker covers:

He served as an inspiration to many, from the Wednesday goths who also read Edward Gorey, to Gahan Wilson who continued in his footsteps.  The allegorical and magical gags in his cartoons are the predecessors of gags found later in Gary Larson’s Far Side and Mark Tatulli’s Lio.  For today’s cartoonists, he’s an example of a creator who retained control of his work and profited handsomely via the various licensees.

"I think you know everybody."

"I'm sorry, sonny. We've run out of candy."

An interesting footnote:  Charles Addams illustrated Ray Bradbury’s Homecoming for Mademoiselle magazine.  A planned collaboration for a collection of stories about the Elliott family never materialized, but Addams’ illustration was used for the cover.  (It was later adapted by Steve Leialoha in the third volume of The Ray Bradbury Chronicles.)

If you’re in New York, head (ha!) over to the New York Public Library, where a rotating exhibition of his drawings is on display outside the third floor Men’s restroom.

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. But:

Despite its popularity, the pair have struggled to make money from Fredo and Pid’jin. Now Erhan has quit his dayjob to make a go of running the comic full time.

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:

TNW: How is the comic monetized at the moment?

TM: For the first years we believed we should concentrate on growing, and didn’t really try to make any money. We recently started selling merchandise through Neatorama and local Romanian sites. And it took us 6 years, but now we have banner ads on our site.

Although this sounds like slow going, the Romanian comics industry is in its formative stages, although the Cultural Embassy is behind it, and Romanian cartoonists have made a few appearances here at MoCCA and NYCC. Asked for advice in the interview, Muscalu suggests, “Don’t delay the monetization stage too much. One day opportunity will knock at your door faster than you can design ad banners.”

Evidently taking their own advice, Erhan and Muscalu have created a trailer for the strip, below. We wish them luck on that crucial “quitting your day job” moment.

Since everyone is always comparing the comics business to the music business in terms of retail erosion, how about 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.

A chart-topping single could once be counted on to drive big sales of full albums, which bring in greater royalties. But the “unbundling” of albums in the age of iTunes — the loss of album sales at $10 or $15 when consumers can buy a single song for about $1 — has contributed to a 58 percent reduction in album sales since 2000. Despite the success of “Forget You,” “The Lady Killer” has sold only about 450,000 copies in the United States.

“How much do you make on five million singles?” Mr. Mestel asked. “It’s not $5 million. Apple takes a piece of it, the record company takes a piece of it, the producer takes a piece of it, and then Cee Lo gets a piece of it as the artist.”

A recording contract for an act like Cee Lo would typically offer a net royalty of about 15 percent, according to several music executives. That means that for a $1.29 download from iTunes, after Apple takes its standard 30 percent fee, the artist would be paid 13 or 14 cents; for five million downloads, that amounts to about $650,000. As one of five writers of the song, Cee Lo would also make about $45,000 in publishing royalties on those downloads.

To supplement his income Cee Lo’s management company has set him up on many TV shows, including The Voice, on which he’s a judge. He’s also becoming a more Liberace-like entertainment figure with over-the-top performances like the above Grammy show Muppet-impression, co-starring Gwyneth Paltrow from the Grammys.

While the lessons for the comics biz aren’t necessarily directly applicable here — performance art not having as much bearing on a written art form — it does show how once you do get a breakthrough, widening your portfolio and working your ass off can yield the financial results that a simple ASCAP membership once did. Of course, it helps to have actual talent and charisma, as Cee Lo does.

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.

Freedom of expression in South Africa is currently under attack on multiple fronts. This cartoon refers to an earlier piece in which President Jacob Zuma and his allies prepare to rape Lady Justice. (In 2006, Zuma was charged and acquitted for rape.) He would later sue Zapiro for R7 million for the Lady Justice cartoon.

It’s an important reminder of the cartoonists on the political frontlines around the world who have a lot more at stake than just drawing fictional heroes — some of them are real heroes.