Nice art: Lauren Weinstein’s What You’re Really Doing

0 Comments POSTED ON Feb 08 2012 AT 11:00 am BY The Beat

Lauren Weinstein offers helpful hints on how to interpret online profile pictures. More tips in the link.

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Art

The secret of comics revealed yet again

2 Comments POSTED ON Feb 08 2012 AT 10:00 am BY The Beat

Here's a perennial of comics lore that gets posted every once in a while. Chris Sims looks at Carson Van Osten's 'Comic Strip Artist's Kit' , a brief 8-page guide to solving the most common problems of comics prepared by Creative Services' Van Osten. The above two-panel spread will give a sampling of its exceedingly basic yet hard to follow advice. Yep. Don't be wooden, alright. Easy peazy! Entire life dreams have exploded over that little gem.

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Two new books from Koyama from Jesse Jacobs and Tin Can Forest

0 Comments POSTED ON Feb 08 2012 AT 9:00 am BY The Beat

They won't be out until TCAF in May, but here's the scoop on two Koyama Press debuts, Jesse Jacobs’s BY THIS SHALL YOU KNOW HIM and Tin Can Forest’s WAX CROSS.

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Mr. Muscles delivers a lesson for us all

1 Comment POSTED ON Feb 08 2012 AT 8:00 am BY The Beat

This is what Jerry Siegel did when he wasn't getting paid for co-creating Superman.

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HYPE ALERT: To do, NYC – Ben McCool at JHU

2 Comments POSTED ON Feb 08 2012 AT 7:50 am BY The Beat

Meet Ben McCool at JHU Wed, February 8! On Wednesday, February 8 beginning at 6:00 pm, JHU Welcomes Back writer Ben McCoool (Choker, Memoir), signing copies of the brand new trade paperback of his Image series Pigs! All EXCLUSIVELY at Jim Hanley's Universe in Manhattan, Where Fans and Creators Meet!

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Nice art: Who drew today’s Google Dickens doodle? Mike Dutton

0 Comments POSTED ON Feb 07 2012 AT 6:45 pm BY The Beat

You may have noticed Google's stylish doodle for the birthday of Charles Dickens today. But who drew it? an artist named Mike Dutton, who has previously worked on doodles for Richard Scarry, Mary Blair, the Royal Wedding, and the World Cup.

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Art

Even Garth Ennis is going to Kickstarter—for a kids’ book

0 Comments POSTED ON Feb 07 2012 AT 5:46 pm BY The Beat

If you didn't ever expect to see comics writing star Garth Ennis launching a Kickstarter program, you surely never expected to see him do it...for a kids' book. But that's exactly what is happening for a project calledERF, a sort of Finding Amoeba, featuring four lovable creatures plucked from the primordial ooze to find a better way of life:

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David Gabriel explains Marvel’s trade program

8 Comments POSTED ON Feb 07 2012 AT 4:41 pm BY The Beat

ICv2 has a wide ranging interview with Marvel's Sr VP of Sales, David Gabriel, and it covers just about every topic you could imagine, from digital coupon conversion to page counts to pricing. Go here for all that: Part 1 and Part 2. However since we've had a high degree of scrutiny on Marvel's trade program of late, here's what he had to say on that topic:

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Initial Reactions To “Real” January Sales Estimates – DC More Stable, Marvel’s Top Line Shrinks

7 Comments POSTED ON Feb 07 2012 AT 3:30 pm BY Todd Allen

The "real" January sales estimates are up. Looks like my guesstimates weren't all that far off, either. This time out, I'll be scrolling down the estimate list at Comics Chronicles. That's also where John Jackson Miller reminds us that January orders always suck, but that this January sucked considerably less than previous Januarys. He's got the overall orders only down 6.25% from December. A glass half-full, perhaps, but there is some comfort to be taken in that it looks like the top line at DC might be stablizing a little more.

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Batman’s dimebag found on the streets of Philadelphia

13 Comments POSTED ON Feb 07 2012 AT 2:00 pm BY The Beat

Has Bruce Wayne been making a little extra dosh on the side? This urban culture found on the sidewalk shows times are tough for everyone. [h/t Brady Russell.]

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Nerdist and ReedPop pact, plan White Space 2

2 Comments POSTED ON Feb 07 2012 AT 12:29 pm BY The Beat

Chris Hardwick's role as nerd frontman to the world continues unabated as he's just signed a deal to appear at more ReedPop events, including C2E2 and NYCC. The "Talking Dead" host will appear at several events at both shows, and Nerdist Industries will participate in another White Space B2B think tank event such as was held at the 2011 New York Comic-Con.

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The Art of Ramona Fradon announced from Dynamite

13 Comments POSTED ON Feb 07 2012 AT 11:30 am BY The Beat

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.

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New Amazing Spider-Man trailer is out and has everyone talking

15 Comments POSTED ON Feb 07 2012 AT 11:23 am BY The Beat

In just two minutes, this summer's Amazing Spider-Man has gone from an afterthought to the Batman/Avengers slugfest to a "Hey that looks great!' Even if it is one of those "I just saw the whole movie!" trailers, it certainly conveys all the elements of a successful superhero movie: a wise-cracking hero, a winsome love interest, a villain with a transatlantic accent and an authority figure determined to take our hero down—in this case Denis Leary as Gwen Stacy's policeman dad, George.

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East Coast animators paid less than West Coasters

6 Comments POSTED ON Feb 07 2012 AT 9:30 am BY The Beat

Of late we've been much focused on the economics of creating comics as a career, and the challenges of such an undertaking. Animation is often viewed as the "money spout" for comics types—more competition, more exposure more money. But an investigation by animation writer Amid Amidi reveals a disquieting story about East Coast animators getting paid much less than their West Coast analogs, even when employed by two branches of the same company, Titmouse Animation. In fact, in the NY office, animators are being paid $400 a week to work on Disney's Motorcity cartoon. In LA, a similar job for the same company pays a union-scale $1,055 a week.

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Help send WONDER WOMEN! to SXSW

3 Comments POSTED ON Feb 07 2012 AT 9:30 am BY The Beat

To the donation button, Batgirl: WONDER WOMEN! The Untold Story of American Superheroines is a documentary by Kristy Guevara-Flanagan and Kelcey Edwards that examines the evolution of Wonder Woman and other kick-ass heroines, with a look at "how popular representations of powerful women often reflect society’s anxieties about women’s liberation."

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