Comics

Guest post by T Campbell. Can the soul of Western civilization be found in a pair of red briefs? Was our first great superhero at his strongest, his noblest, his superest, before modern interpretations stripped him of his underwear? Is there a connection? A generation ago, when those red briefs were an inseparable part of Superman’s design, he was the most familiar superhero by a wide margin, leading the field in film adaptations,[1] headlining cartoon shows,[2] and even winning over famous media critics who were fiction writers in their own right. Even now, if you believe superheroes have anything to say to American culture or the human experience, you sort of have to start with him, because he’s the prototype. Umberto Eco called him “the representative of all his similars” [3] and Harlan Ellison described him as one of “only five fictional creations known to every man, woman, and child on the planet.”[4] Born in the early hours of a visual, easily reproduced medium, he was popular enough to codify most of what being a superhero meant. The Oxford English Dictionary even mentions him by name in its definition of “superhero”:

Long running—since 2004—and very popular webcomic Girls with Slingshots will be drawing to a close in the next few months, as announced in the...

By: Alexander Jones We just reported on a huge Boxing Day sale across Comixology, but there is one $9.99 collection to rule them all (aside...

Got some Christmas loot you're itching to spend? Various comics publishers and digital vendors have just what you need in the form of some tempting sales, including digital graphic novel app Sequential, Image and Submit sales at Comixology and a massive Star Wars megabundle that gives you digital editions of EVERY Dark Horse Star Wars comic.

Another neo classic comic for the hols as Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca's  homeless crimefighting skateboarder, Street Angel, teams with Santa on a brief...

Every year cartoonist Kate Beaton returns to her parents house in the maritimes for the holidays, and the series of hilarious and touching comics...

As you might have read here earlier in the week, Humble Bundle's well into 7 figures worth of revenue for 2014.  Right now we're...

By: Alexander Jones Valiant comics are continuing to mix up their line with a couple of brave new experimental decisions, but this one might be...

By David Nieves The holiday isn't quite over yet but Dark Horse Comics is already getting set to take our Christmas money. Today the publisher...

By: Alexander Jones He's out of the tiara and in our television subscription services, he's LUKE CAGE! Mike Colter has just been announced to co-star in A.K.A....

Whitney Taylor continues to be my favorite investigative comics journalist—well, maybe investigative is too strong a word, but if "talking to a lot of people and painting a picture" is the criterion, Whit is it, as her report on Comic Arts Brooklyn shows. This was a strong show but one that experienced an unexpected glitch: a lot of people thought it was a two day show and didn't come to the exhibits on Saturday. This resulted in a smaller crowd and, for some, lower sales. On the day there was a lot of anxiety—it's like basing your business plan on Christmas sales and then there's a big blizzard the day of the big sale—but everyone seems to have survived intact. And yet, is a financial model this precarious one that is "sustainable"? I predict sustainable will be THE word of 2015, as a the last few days of posts here have been exploring. Taylor talks about the model with many publishers and creators and key behind the scenes people like publishing rep Tony Shenton, and while everyone is optimistic, there is no real consensus on whether things are working, improving or just providing a false illusion of hope:

Do I really need to say any more? After more than a year, a new issue of Love and Rockets: New Stories is coming out in a few weeks. While everyone else is popping the champagne, I'll celebrate by running the nine page preview of new work by the incomparable Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez.