Mucho publishing news and notes hanging around out there:

§ Remember when we first reported on actor/musician Tyrese Gibson’s new-found love of comics? In a comment on the original post, we wrote,

What I would like to see is a video of Tyrese and Hellen Jo talking comics. Now THAT would be authentic.


We haven’t quite gotten that, but we did get the next best thing: Brian Hibbs and Tyrese Gibson. CAN Twitter and YouTube sell comics? We’re in the process of finding out.

§ SLG is not accepting new submissions until October, according to editor Jennifer de Guzman, whose reduced workload is part of the reason why.

§ Dave Eggers and the McSweeney’s crew haven’t given up on the newspaper and are working on a new model, which will contain many old features.

The vast majority of students we work with read newspapers and books, more so than I did at their age. And I don’t see that dropping off. If anything the lack of faith comes from people our age, where we just assume that it’s dead or dying. I think we’ve given up a little too soon. We [i.e., McSweeney’s] have been working every day on a prototype for a new newspaper, and a lot of what we’re doing is resurrecting old things, like things from the last century that newspapers used to do, in terms of really using the full luxury of the broadsheet newspaper, with full color and all that space.

I think newspapers shouldn’t try to compete directly with the Web, and should do what they can do better, which may be long-form journalism and using photos and art, and making connections with large-form graphics and really enhancing the tactile experience of paper. You know, including a full-color comic section, for example, which of course was standard in newspapers years ago, when you’d have a full broadsheet Winsor McCay comic. So we’ll have a big, full-color comic section, and we’re also trying to emphasize what younger readers are looking for, what directly appeals to them. It’s hard to find papers these days that really do anything to appeal to anyone under 18, and the paper used to do that all the time. I think there will always be — if not the same audience and not as wide an audience — a dedicated audience that can keep print journalism alive.

§ Remember The Huntress graphic novel whose mysterious ascension up the Amazon charts provoked an inquiry? It seems to have worked, as it has gone back to press for a second printing.

§ Darwyn Cooke’s awesome Hunter adaptation is out, but on some coasts it is delayed. Scott Dunbier explains why.
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§ CEREBUS is being translated into Italian.

§ Girlamatic, the female-focused webcomics site, is relaunching on July 31st. . Diana Cameron McQueen is the new editor. Here’s the new lineup:

Girlamatic Headliners
By the Wayside By Leigh Dragoon
Claviger by Ronnie Casson
Faery Underground by Jean Ciolek
Five Star by Laura Wilson
Galaxion by Tara Tallan
Gypsy! by John Peters
Hold My Life by Dale Ingram
Jeepers by Andre Richard
Jupiter by Lynn Lau
Kismet: Sun Cutter by Layla Lawlor
Knights of the Shroud by Matt Bayne
L’il Mell by Shaenon K. Garrity and others
Mad Sugar by Michelle Mauk
Outspoken! The Girlamatic Podcast!
Pressing Dawn by Rachael Moore and Marisa Delvaille
Raconteur by Karen Luk
Raggedyman by Tasha Lowe and Anthony Jon Hicks
Sevenplains by Tintin Pantoja
Shrub Monkeys by Kt Shy
Spades by Diana Cameron McQueen

1 COMMENT

  1. At first glance I read one item this way: “CEREBUS is being translated into Latin.” Which seems appropriate, somehow.

  2. Bravo on Dave Eggers. It’s about time someone other than me made sense.

    At the weekly newspaper where I work, we’ve seen things improve with a new general manager. He tumbled to the crazy idea that we should make the newspaper APPEALING to readers.

    This flies in the face of conventional wisdom — we had a managing editor last year who insisted, “This is how we’ve done newspapers since the nineteen-fifties.” Someone actually had the nerve to tell him, “That’s why this paper is slowly going out of business.”

  3. I’m taking my art magazine (which has a lot of comics in it, by the way) to Comic Con, because I have some interested parties who think it could do with wider distribution, IN PRINT. There is still a vast amount of people who want to read things in print. We just don’t hear about them on the computer, because they’re not using the computer like many of us do. Long live print.

    Go here to hear more of my thoughts (and other stuff) on the subject… http://www.wsradio.com/player/wsradio-player2.cfm/type/windows/show/Art-Rocks!/segment/25925.html