§ In the biz we call this “Hell Week” because you have to get everything done for con in JUST ONE WEEK. Emails at 1 am. Emails at 6 am. Corrections. Schedules. Powerpoints. 15 minutes of hold music. Caffeine, and lots of it. And, the ritual posting of the “San Diego Horror” gif from The Shining. But it will all be over soon! Here’s a big Kibble dump that covers the whole month!
§ Nice art! “Cantina Smackdown” by Tomer Hanuka. I just never get tired of looking at Tomer’s art. Via.
§ David Harper did one of his deep dives for The Ringer on The Complicated Future of Spider-Man, which came out BEFORE Spider-Man Homecoming made north of $100 mil. Still lots of good info in the piece.
§ And Jill Pantozzi declared at HeatVision: ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ Is a Relief From the Marvel Universe’s Movie Baggage:
Marvel Studios has been building their cinematic universe framework for many years now and it’s expected to hit a fever pitch when Avengers: Infinity War hits in 2018. What officially started in 2008 with a mechanical man has grown to include gods, space adventures and magic, as well as more down-to-Earth (literally and figuratively) television tales. As much as I love canon and longform storytelling, Spider-Man: Homecoming made it feel like I was playing hooky from school. And I loved it.
§ An interview with Jen Lee, whose new book Vacancy is out recently.
§ Kickstarter is running a summer promotion called Kickstarter Gold that brings back some successful crowdfunders – sort of like all- star Survivor You can check out just the comics section and it includes projects by all stars Amy Chu, Hope Nicholson, Beehive Books and a few others.
§ I *KNOW* you’ve seen What football will look like in the future by SB Nation’s Jon Bois, and while it isn’t exactly a comic, it is visual storytelling to the max. It reminds me of The Beast and that’s saying a lot.
§ This Comics Reporter post on 80s comics brought back many memories, some unbidden.
§ You’ve read a kajillion stories about the March Trilogy, but never anything like this profile of John Lewis and Andrew Aydin.
§ Dear Glen Weldon at NPR is doing a big comics section for the summer, and it includes this piece Cartoonists Tell Us: What Do Comics Mean To You? that has many touching observations. Also a Summer Reader Poll 2017 that hasn’t been released as I write this but I will link to it double fast when it comes out.
The package also includes Nothing Was Ever The Same: 10 Comics That Changed The Game and Glen nails it, as far as the orthodox history of comics is concerned; these are definitely the 10 comics that changed everything.
§ I missed this VERY KEY AND IMPORTANT profile of Emma Allen, the new cartoon editor at The New Yorker. Sounds like she’s quite modern and knows viral:
Ms. Allen has a sprawling set of responsibilities: She also edits the daily cartoons for The New Yorker online; works on video and radio humor pieces for the magazine; runs its humor Twitter account; and for three years has edited Daily Shouts, comic essays that have become one of the most popular features on the site. (According to the magazine, in the past three months, traffic to those essays is up 60 percent from last year.)
Her ability to find new voices for Daily Shouts is what first drew the attention of The New Yorker’s editor, David Remnick. “She was bringing in people and things that I hadn’t heard before, and sometimes you need to reinvigorate parts of the magazine,” he said by phone, adding, “We need to have a deeper exploration of the web, as far as cartooning.”
§ Cartoonist Sloane Leong write a heartfelt tribute to Meredith Gran’s Octopus Pie which just wrapped up its run. It was by any account, a key comic that deserves much tribute:
Going back to the comic again after I turned 21 and started reading the newest updates, just to see how it looked because I was still ‘turned off’ by it, I realized: Octopus Pie is sincere as hell. That formalist stranglehold on the tone of the comic, the clarity of the characters’ voices and states of mind, the complex but still centered exploration of each of these characters’ trials and obstacles and love lives, they were all lucid, focused. Meredith was sharing a meditation, a reflection in real time, and delivered it unclouded by any extraneous detail that would water down the experience or make it narratively cleaner or more comfortable. It was pared down to the essentials, took brief meandering breaks and comedic breathers when needed, exactly how good writing should be.
§ At WWAC, Ray Sonne writes about a three panel webcomic about a dog and a ball tat has racked up nearly 300,000 shares.
And here is that comic, by Tmblr user cupcakelogic. Sometimes the old ways are best.
§ Comic-Con is rolling out all over the place on the rest of the site (it will all be over very soon!) but here’s Tony B Kim of Crazy 4 Comic Con with this year’s flag planting statement:Comic-Con has changed and it sucks… however, it’s really about Chuck Rozanski pulling out of the con, and Kim says it’s because he didn’t change with the times:
Honestly, when I read this letter and the related articles, I was just disappointed in Chuck and Mile High Comics. The philosophy of clutching onto the past has rarely bode well for business owners since the dawn of time. Culture and taste is not the enemy, but it’s one’s inability to adapt, innovate and influence that leads to death (anyone remember Blockbusters?). Complaining about how things used to be is a galactic waste of time. The next generation needs veterans to lead and inspire them- not show them how dinosaurs die. 44 years is a pretty solid run. How about instead of going down kicking and screaming, you throw a big farewell party at Comic-Con saying goodbye to fans. How about being remembered for 40+ years of great memories instead of a final year of disappointment. Again, dinosaurs don’t die with dignity but instead cause as much collateral damage as possible.
There’s a lot to be said for both sides of this – selling back issues works fine at other shows, and that it doesn’t work so well at Comic-Con any more is a telling fact; but Kim is right in saying that you gotta go with the flow sometimes. No take. Only throw.
§ Some guy on the internet made an insanely detailed timeline of what happened when in the MCU, and damn, Kevin Feige, you are good. I’ll give you that. That he could make 10 years of movies with an overarching storyline that are the most successful film franchise of all times is enough to put him on the Walk of Fame.
§ BTW, here’s a link about how Robert Downey Jr. wore a $115,000 Urwerk watch while playing Tony Stork in Homecoming just because…he’s RDJ dammit. It is a beautiful watch.
§ Since we’re into the movie news section, it looks like the Wasp is being seen at D23 this week:
https://twitter.com/Stephen_Stanton/status/884796147218370561
This will be Marvel’s FIRST EVER superhero movie with a woman in the title! Also, I saw Ant-Man, but don’t remember anything about it.
§ No matter what comes after this headline, it’s good: Chicago Architecture Foundation releases graphic novel on urban planning
As part of its 50th-anniversary celebrations, the CAF published No Small Plans and modeled it after Wacker’s Manual, a 1911 textbook on Daniel Burnham’s 1909 Plan for Chicago. Wacker’s Manual was required reading for eighth graders in Chicago Public Schools for at least three decades and it aimed to engage children with Burnham’s grand, ‘City Beautiful’ vision for Chicago. No Small Plans, by Gabrielle Lyon and in partnership with Eyes of the Cat Illustration, has the same goal and will be taught in the city’s public school starting this year. It’s a reimagined Wacker’s Manual, in a 21st-century medium, to help young Chicagoans envision and build a city that they want now, and in the future.
§ Finally I never congratulated Sasha Velour for WINNING RuPaul’s Drag Race! While Sasha has made her mark as a drag performer, historian and theorist of drag culture and not as a cartoonist, she IS the most successful cartoon type ever on a reality show. And here’s the NPR profile to prove it:
Season 9 ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Winner Sasha Velour Cut From A Different Fabric : NPR
