Comics

Only a year ago, Tom Bouden's gay-themed adpatation of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest was fighting rejection on Apple's mobile platforms, leading to cries of a double standard where sex and violence were concerned. But now LGBT publisher Northwest Press is claiming victory by having Teleny and Camille, Glamazonia: The Uncanny Super-Tranny, and Rainy Day Recess: The Complete Steven's Comics all approved by Apple. All are now available via the iBooks app.

Unless you have been living under a rock, you've seen Tom Spurgeon's essay on facing a life threatening illness, an illness which led to his unexpected blogging absence earlier this summer, and which still affects him, although he's recovering. Since looking death in the face usually prompts some inventory of life, Spurgeon does just that in an astonishing essay that covers his life and his life in comics, if there is a difference. That a man fighting for his life should spend that time thinking about the Green Lantern movie is both ridiculous and awesome -- Tom's thoughts on why we chose the comics life and why we stay there speak for me about 80% of the time. It's not that we have on choice, but rather why would we WANT to leave a field that is full of such honest, unpretentious work and creative, life-loving people?

Now this is a great way to spend your money! Cartoonist Jason Young has spent the last three years slowly commissioning an array of great indie artists to redraw FANTASTIC FOUR #9, the issue co-starring the Sub-Mariner. It's a Coober Skeeber/Strange Tales mash-up that proves the talents of all involved. Young writes:

Mostly the work of Tom Kenny (Spongebob), Andy Suriano (Clone Wars) and Stephen DeStefano (Venture Bros.), the PLASTIC MAN cartoon pilot was created in 2006 for Cartoon Network but didn't get picked up, alas. It seems to have been much inspired by Kyle Baker's take on the character. And it turns out that more is on the way!

In the new Axel-in-Charge feature at CBR, Axel Alonso announced that the most senior editor at any comics company anywhere is retiring:

So before anyone gets offended: No one is a bad person for using Kickstarter. It's a tool in our toolbox for these tough economic times, and it has genuinely helped a lot of creators get their work into print who otherwise might not have been able to do that. For groups working on a project together, even better! As a mechanism for fundraising or pre-sales, when the money's put in the right hands, we can all feel nice about it. Good for you if you've been able to make it work, I am genuinely happy for your success.

Back when the deeds of Kyrax2 were making the rounds, we'd tagged a post we never got around to spotlighting by author Diane Duane, who lists her bio as "30+ years in print, 50+ novels, assorted TV and movie work, the NYT Bestseller List a few times, blah blah blah. Also: the Young Wizards series, 1983-2010 and beyond"--the kind of long-lasting, multi-media resume that superior writers build up. In a post on her blog about DC's women troubles, Duane talked about being a comics reader and creator over the years:

This is from the Enquirer so salt and all that, but apparently Maddox Pitt-Jolie, adapted son of Angelina and Brad Pitt, is dying to be an action star, so they are grooming him to play the lead in the movie adaptation of Paul Pope's upcoming BATTLING BOY comic -- which PItt's production company has optioned.

Via this morning's teaser it turned out that November FF tease from Marvel was actually FF #600! Color me shocked! The lineup has been given as: However, Hickman earlier tweeted:

Heads up: For various reasons, one name has been left off the teasers for FF600. @mingdoyle is also going to be joining us. #stoked!

Doyle's name was on a recalled teaser image earlier, as we noted. Good to hear she's actually on board the book. But is that Human Torch flying merrily on the cover a ghostly echo of a departed friend? Or...is he still alive? Worra worra worra

Ashcan All-Stars is a new all-star sketch blog featuring Shawn Crystal, Christopher Mitten, Erik Jones, James Stokoe, Khary Randolph, Moritat, Nathan Fox, Robbi Rodriguez, Ryan Stegman, Sheldon Vella and Tyler Crook. Yikes! They are currently sketching Sin City character, such as Nathan Fox's Miho above. Much more fierce pulchritude in the link.

Anytime someone comes into a big sum of money, people will start asking what they're going to do with it, whether it's go to Disneyland or start a publishing company. So when WOMANTHOLOGY, the all-woman anthology started by artist Renae De Liz raised an unprecedented $109,000 on Kickstarter -- the biggest comics project ever and the 25th biggest project ever--it was inevitable that people would be asking a lot of questions. Especially since, as I learned myself, the contributors would not be paid. However, De Liz seems to have already answered most of the questions that have been raised.

programing has just been announced, and I'm doing two panels, both of which I'm super excited about, but as always the entire schedule, as curated by Bill Kartalopoulos, includes a ton of provocative, educational events. SPX will be held this year September 11-12, in Bethesda, MD.