Laura Park has been one of the most admired cartoonists around for a few years. Her output has been mostly confined to minis and an issue of SUPERIOR SHOWCASE. But following her Ignatz win for “Best Artist,” one had to wonder, which lucky publisher was going to glom on to her? It seems she’s joined the Fantagraphics list, as she’ll be appearing in an upcoming issue of MOME.

§ We told you Domingos Isabelinho‘s blog was gonna be deep:

There are, at least, four cultural fields that can help to expand comics as an art form: Medieval (or older art) painting and book illustration; the wordless engraving cycle; Modern and Post-Modern painting; Concrete and Visual Poetry. None of these fields are linked to comics on the gentiles’ heads. For a variety of reasons they all have problems to be accepted by the comics milieu as well. Let’s briefly examine some of these objections.


§ Bill Griffith is interviewed at CBR:

“Zippy”is a vehicle for you to do pretty much anything. Some good examples are the autobiographical strips you’ve done, which are very different from the typical strip. Was it always your intention to make “Zippy” a vehicle for anything you wanted? I’ve always thought that an essential quality of Zippy’s character is his unpredictability. He can talk or think about anything and isn’t constrained by “reality” or even time. That makes for a lot of flexibility in what I can deal with in any given strip or storyline. I like to experiment with the strip structurally as well as with subject matter. For instance, I recently introduced two new characters from a kind of “parallel universe” to Zippy’s, Fletcher and Tanya. They look like pinheads, but are drawn in a minimalistic style and speak entirely with text clipped and pasted from old magazine advertising. Likewise the autobiographical series I did about my father some years ago. I just launched into it and hoped readers would come along. Sometimes I need a break from doing “just” “Zippy” and my regular cast of characters. I enjoy surprising readers—and myself. It keeps things from stagnating.


§ Also at CBR, John Mayo’s monthly sales analysis:

While this could be seen as a sign of the strength and longevity of “Watchmen,” what it really demonstrates is a major marketing success for DC. In a brilliant move, DC set up a consignment program for “Watchmen” and offered it to retailers for free provided they return any unsold copies in salable condition between December 1 and December 30, 2008. By doing this, DC is taking on the risk and making it as financially viable as possible for retailers to have as many copies of “Watchmen” as they want over the coming months. DC was under no obligation to do so, particularly for as well known a product as “Watchmen.”

1 COMMENT

  1. Re: Watchmen consignment

    This is the second wave of the consignment. DC did it initially when the Watchmen trailer premiered.

    DC is also helping comics shops by offering a special Diamond variant edition, with archival art from Dave Gibbons on the cover.

    And while Watchmen is no longer the bestselling graphic novel on BN.com, it is still way above where it was a year ago. Hardcover edition goes on sale in November.