Writing

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tTjZkumwnk?feature=player_detailpage&w=640&h=360] Remember that Harvey Pekar Memorial Statue that was Kickstarted and planned to be installed in the Cleveland Public Library? Well, i's going to be dedicated in just a few weeks, on October 14th. In...

Frank Doyle—a prolific writer for Archie—and Steve Skeates, a busy comics writers of the '70s, have won the Finger Award, which honors two writers, one living, one deceased, whose contributions to the comics medium have been underappreciated. Two great choices. The awards will be presented during this year's Eisner Awards.

While laid up with medical issues that preclude him doing serious writing, Kurt Busiek has set up a Formspring account, and, as you could extrapolate from reading his calm, well-reasoned* answers here at The Beat, there's lots of info:

Chris Claremont reveals what might have been in X-Factor #1. Read on to discover Alan Moore's involvement!

Bestselling fantasy author Diana Gabaldon, creator of the Outlander series, had a comics bestseller last year with her book THE EXILE, and in an interview at EW, she explains her earlier career writing Disney Comics:

Although battered and bruised by a wave of opprobrium over his work on the New 52, writer Scott Lobdell hasn't given up, and he's facing the music -- or questions from the internet, as the case may be. After a lengthy layoff from high-profile comics assignments, Lobdell's work on RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS and TEEN TITANS has met with a....mixed reaction. Or as he reportedly asked Gail Simone, "Why didn't you TELL me?" In an interview with Comicvine he does cover some of the more controversial aspects of his recent work like...Starfire, the amnesiac sex addict.

This afternoon, Bill Willingham tweeted some typically frank thoughts about working on superhero comics -- in recent years, he wrote JSA for DC, and before that Shadowpact, a group book featuring several of DC's more supernatural characters...and Detective Chimp. And as many have said before him, working with recent brands of editorial direction tended to mitigate against spontaneity:

What writer has made the biggest contribution to the many universes of DC? Now that question can be answered, at least in terms of volume. Jason Kirk has been playing with the Grand Comic Database and come up with a list of the top 100 DC Comics by page count. You'll need to go to the full link, but here's the top 20 for arguments sake and some of Kirk's talking points:

As the business is changing, creators are getting creative about the business and finding new revenue streams. One such venture is Crazy 8 Press. Six noted SF writers—Peter David, Michael Jan Friedman, Robert Greenberger, Glenn Hauman, Aaron Rosenberg, and Howard Weinstein—are banding together to start their own online publishing cooperative and sell direct to readers. Books will be offered on a bimonthly basis to start, with greater frequency to come. Interested readers can sign up for the newsletter at the above link.

Bob Haney and Del Connell are the writers selected to received this year's Finger Award. The Finger Award is presented each year to writers, one living, one dead, who for whatever reason, have not received the recognition they should have for their creative efforts. It's named for Bill Finger, who created much of the Batman mythos we see today while Bob Kane got the credit.

In case you were wondering, Aaron, author of SCALPED, WOLVERINE and PUNISHER MAX, sports a beard as fearsome as his talent.

"On a November day in 1957 I found myself standing in front of Miss Grosier’s first grade class in Hillcrest Elementary School in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, trying to think of a really good word. She had us play this game in which each kid had to offer up a word to the class, and for every classmate who couldn’t spell your word, you got a point--provided, of course, that you could spell the word. Whoever got the most points received the coveted gold star."