Comics

Apple's app stores -- the middleman of all middlemen -- have been the target of a stampede of old media magazines, newspapers, books and comics as the vehicle for sales in the new digital era. But several recent moves make it clear that Apple isn't in this game as a helping hand for anyone. Or, to put it in a more neutral light, Apple is a PARTNER, not a platform. The uh-oh feeling started yesterday when it was revealed that Apple had rejected Sony's e-reader app. This app like the Kindle, Nook, and other "storefronts" sent buyers to a website where they could make purchases without incurring Apple's 30% fee.

The SPACE Prize, given to the best publications presented at the SPACE indie comics show held yearly in Columbus, OH., have just been announced, and they are:

Marketing Coordinator Aaron Colter tweeted and social networked yesterday that he and Dark Horse had parted ways. Colter was a whiz at Twitter and Facebook and all the other ways we talk today, and managed these fuctions for DH, but he also was, shall we say, irreverent -- not perhaps the best image for a respected publisher. At any rate, maybe posting stuff like the attached image was a tweet too far.

Tarpé Mills is a name well known to comics historians, not only as one of the best of the female cartoonists of the war years, but as the creator and artist of Miss Fury, one of the first successful superheroine characters, which ran for nearly a decade as a sunday newspaper strip. It was a lively blend of outre characters, adventure and naughtiness. This April Dean Mullaney's Library of American Comics is reprinting the best of the strips in a deluxe volume complete with an introduction by comics historian Trina Robbins. Mullaney provided a desception of the volume and this preview for our Anniversary week:

While we're spotlighting creators issues and outlooks here at Anniversary Week at The Beat, here's an oldie but a goodie: The (Sad) Saga of Black Lightning’s Creation by Daniel Best which presents documents and drawings from writer Tony Isabella and artist Trevor von Eeden, the team known to have created Black Lightning's first appearance. There's some dispute over how the two should be credited -- Isabella claims sole creative credit due to having come up with the character all on his own and described the costume and so on -- but von Eeden has drawings but...we'll we won't get into that here. von Eeden doesn't want the creator's credit--or the royalties that come with it -- but has his own opinions. But that's not what we're here to talk about today. As is well known, Isabella had the foresight to keep a piece of the character he had created independently of DC editorial -- a move he thinks backfired…

Long story short, Heritage Auctions is selling six Donald Duck paintings by the great Carl Backs, and the paintings will be displayed at the Heritage Auctions location at 445 Park Avenue (at 57th Street) through Monday, February 14th.

A couple of interviews out now clarify controversial comics news stories of the past and more recent past; both are a reminder that what you read on CBR or Newsarama is rarely the whole truth -- and that's it's not always our business to know the whole truth.

Continuing their five-year anniversary party, webcomic collective ACT-I-VATE announces another new strip, SUMFIN' SILLY by Xeric-winner Nathan Schreiber (POWER OUT). It's the self-proclaimed "silliest comic on the web."

From the Adhouse THB Comics From Mars Issue 2 special edition, now available in the UK only from FPI UK..

A news teaser campaign rolls out. Of course, the temptation to answer "a cult 1999 film starring Janeane Garofalo, Ben Stiller, Paul Reubens, Eddie Izzard, and William H. Macy and created by Bob Burden" is irresistible. If only...

Buffy held the top spot once again, while Joe Benitez’s Lady Mechanika was the biggest launch this month. Meanwhile Dark Horse launched new Star Wars, Hellboy, and Conan series, Avatar launched a new Lady Death series, and John Byrne’s Next Men returned from IDW.

To celebrate the birthday, a new anthology strip is launching on ACT-I-VATE. EVERYWHERE, by Chris Miskiewicz and Andrew Wendel , is set in a world where animals have suddenly appeared and are wreaking havoc. ... Episodes will run the first of every month featuring the talents of Rick Parker (Marvel, MTV’s Beavis & Butthead), Dennis Calero (X-Men), Nathan Schreiber (Power Out), Bobby Timony (Night Owls), Maurice Fontenot (Ghost Pimp), Thomas Baehr (The End is Here), Seth Kushner (Culture Pop/Graphic NYC), Rodney Ramos (Transmetropolitan/Green Lantern), Kate McElroy (Fables 100), Chris Sinderson (Next Door Neighbor/Twisted/Savage Dragon Funnies), Ashley Quigg, and more TBA.