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§ A piece of Tintin art by Hergé has set yet another record at an auction held by Artcurial. An inked page from Explorers on the Moon sold for €1.55 million, about $1.64 million.

To be fair it is a pretty sweet page.

“It’s simply fantastic! It‘s an exceptional price for an exceptional piece,” said Artcurial’s comics expert Eric Leroy.

He described the “Explorers on the Moon” as “a key moment in the history of comic book art … it has become legendary for many lovers and collectors of comic strips.

”It is one of the most important from Herge’s postwar period, on the same level as ‘Tintin in Tibet’ and ‘The Castafiore Emerald,'” he added.


It is not the only piece of original Tintin art to sell for a pretty penny — and not even the only one that sold that day, as another drawing from Explorers on the Moon sold at Christies the same day for €602,500.

Previous expensive piece of Tintin art include the cover to Tintin in America, which sold for €1.3 million, a double page spread used as endpapers that sold for €2.65 million two years ago and the original cover design for The Shooting Star which sold for €2.5 million.

In other words, if you have a scrap of Tintin art sitting around the house. it is a good time to cash in.

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§ Cartoonist Sasha Mardou looks at Daniel Clowe’s treatment of women in his comics, a portrayal often thought to be problematic, but Mardou uses lot of panels to give a well rounded critique.

‘A different type of lonely, naïve urban misfit-girl’. I knew this girl! I knew many of her English, 1990s counterparts. This was real to me. And ‘they saved’ his life! Who knew we were that significant? We sure weren’t feeling appreciated at the time. But I digress. Here’s a sentiment we hear repeated over and over in Clowes’s fiction. The women save, rescue and redeem the men. And just the idea of them will do it!

§ Keiler Roberts’ award winning comics are simple and powerful and never turn to self pity. Here’s an excellent interview with her.

KR: I was trying to create a picture of life from my point of view. Painting has so many layers of interpretation based on its history and contemporary art. It’s pretty inaccessible to most people. You have to be trained to “read” a painting. I always felt the need to explain what I was doing but resented having to say anything at all about it. I don’t feel like I have to explain my comics. People understand them, and if they don’t like them it’s probably because their tastes are just too different from mine. I don’t feel the need to defend anything. The physical accessibility is also extremely important to me. I want everyone who wants them to have my comics. If they can’t afford a book, they can read a lot of it online for free, or go to a library.

§ Megan Purdy went to cons and mostly had a good time.

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§ The estate of Theodore Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss is suing ComixMix over a parody called “Oh The Places You’ll Boldly Go!” which is written by David Gerrold and drawn by Ty Templeton. It’s as you might guess, a mash-up of Seuss and Star Trek and seems to pass the parody test pretty clearly but I guess this is why you don’t see too many Dr, Seuss parodies. The project was initially kickstarted.

§ Excitement in Vicksburg!

Over the next eight months, Superman, Spiderman and a number of other superheroes will fly into the Warren County-Vicksburg Public Library. The library is getting a collection of 300 graphic novels through a competitive grant from the Library Services and Technology Act. Getting the grant was pivotal in jumpstarting the collection, and library director Katrina Stokes said over time the library will continue to add more graphic novels to the shelves. “We’re getting about 300 to start and then going forward we can add a few more with our general acquisitions practice every year,” Stokes said.




§ Here’s a lengthy article on fatal accidents on film sets, including oen or two with a superhero connection. The settlements and fines in such cases are startlingly low.

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