Comics

The date was December 9th, 2011 when cartoonist and Center for Cartoon Studies professor Alec Longstreth shaved off his beard and shaggy do. A promise to himself in 2008, he decided to chart his progress through pictures of his hair and beard growth that would undoubtedly remind him daily of his commitment. Living in a small town with a beard as his shadow, Longstreth went from industrious Fellow of the school to an instructor of both summer workshops and graduate classes to the Acting Director (while James Sturm takes a much-needed sabbatical) . Even after all the excitement, he is still growing and evolving, deciding to learn watercolor on the side. Venture on to read more about the amazing cartoonist Alec Longstreth.

Read it and weep! Go have yourself a good cry (probably at a Disney movie). In the tradition of occasionally free newsprint tabloid comics like the one-shot Caboose and quarterly Smoke Signal, a collaborative comic will be available this weekend at MoCCA! Official press release below:

You have to be a certain age and have grown up in NYC to really get this, but Drew Friedman and brother Josh Alan Friedman have created an online magazine all about the single comic strip "The Joe Franklin Story." The strip appears in the new edition of ANY SIMILARITY TO PERSONS LIVING OR DEAD, Friedman's seminal collection of strips about the eerie twilight world of syndicated TV before cable, a world of goniffs and mensches and dames, where Ethel Merman and Ernest Borgnine were married and Rondo Hattan roamed the woods outside.

Legendary Filipino creator Tony DeZuniga recently had a severe stroke, and he is currently in critical condition. And his family does not have health insurance—yeah, this stuff happens in the Philippines, too. HIs wife Tina wrote of the details in the link below.

This weekend at the LA Times Book Festival, Dan DiDio and Jim Lee appeared on a panel, moderated by Geoff Boucher and in a press roundtable beforehand, to talk about BEFORE WATCHMEN. The Beat's own Shannon O'Leary has a nice, succinct report on their comments here at PW, and from what we understand, she asked some of the tough questions of the pair. So for those of you wondering when the eager "Will the Comedian be raping many people?" fan questions at events like C2E2 would stop, the DC brass have been faced with actual questions.

Published by Retrofit Comics. Can't wait.

Last week, BuzzFeed, the hugely popular "viral" media site, went on a photo tour of DC's offices, including a slideshow that we now can't find that included shots of publicity VP David Hyde's office. Which was ironic, since early last week it was announced Hyde was leaving DC. Well apparently, while on that tour someone held open the ultra-secret notebook of Watchmen art, which was handcuffed to Bob Wayne's wrist at the retailer summit week before last.

The LA Times handed out its book prizes at the LA Times Festival of Books this weekend, and the winner in the Graphic Novel category was Carla Speed McNeil for FINDER: VOICE. The other nominees were:

What's better than getting free candy on Halloween? Free comics! I offer some crazy ideas for retailers and lovers of comics, using Halloween as the inciting incident to tell a great story about marketing comics!

As expected, today's firing of Disney Studio head Rich Ross has Tinsel Town buzzing, and a picture of a Mouse House in disarray is emerging. Marvel Studio head Kevin Feige has been named several times as a potential replacement, but Nikki Finke's must-read analysis also confirms what we wrote about last year: legendary skinflint Ike Perlmutter is very much in the mix at Disney, and his personal dislike of Ross certainly didn't help matters. (Ross was also on the outs with Pixar's John Lasseter, according to Finke.) But even Disney chairman Bob Iger is feeling the Ike pinch:

Unsurprisingly, after his public statement on not working with DC over their ethical practices towards creators yesterday, it turns out Chris Roberson's arc on FAIREST, the FABLES spin-off, will not get written.

Rich Ross, the head of Disney Studios since October 2009, has just been removed from his post. We can't hope to know what it means—although lots of theories will be floated very soon—but flops like MARS NEEDS MOMS and JOHN CARTER are probably part of it. "Mars killed Rich Ross." Even the impending mega-colossal worldwide superhit AVENGERS didn't help Ross.