Comics Media

A digital magazine about...digital comics? Why didn't anyone think of that before?

We don't know who came up with it, but it appears the heartbreak of crotchleg has been with us for a while and seems to be here to stay.

This isn't really a huge news item but it's nice to see the leading cultural blog Boing Boing add an official comics reviews column and for added good news, it's by Brian Heater, Daily Cross Hatch founder, so the reviews cover stuff like Katie Skelly, Joseph Remnant and Zak Sally. Monthly isn't frequent enough but its a start.

Here in the world of what is laughably called "pop culture journalism" we're all used to a certain breathless acceptance in talent interviews. Staying competitive means getting exclusives and getting exclusives means playing ball. Tough questions are rarely asked, and confrontation is the greatest sin of all. So when you read Watching Watchmen: A Classic Comic’s Classless Return at the Daily Beast, you have to either wince or gasp as things spin out of control.

We really don't link to our comics coverage over at PW Comics World as much as we should, so we are here to remedy that, especially when an issue as jammed as this month's comes out. Some highlights:

Created by designer Roberto Salvador. Open to submissions.

As many have noted, DC rolled out its brand spanking new website yesterday, with a whole new look, new logo and new commenting system. Among the many improvements, new sections for major characters, and subsections for videos, live social media updating and the like. (What, no Pinterest?) The site seems to be the work of the West Coast branding/web team, and although useful and streamlined, it does match the corporate vibe of a lot of DC rollouts of late.

Print isn't dead, it's just resting. As you may know CLiNT magazine is relaunching with a Volume 2.1 and a bunch of new strips, including the long-awaited "The Secret Service" by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons. A joint venture between media magnate Millar and Titan Books, CLiNT is based on the old-fashioned concept of a slick magazine that includes text AND comics. It's sort of a brash mash-up of a lads mad and Judge Dredd, and it's definitely had some ups and downs on English newsstands, but has found an audience in comics shops, both in the UK and the US.

On the "authority" scale, the idea of New Yorker cover editor Françoise Mouly launching a blog about New Yorker covers and art would rank....very high. And so Blown Covers, which she describes as a personal blog. Although it's unafiliated with the New Yorker, she's holding weekly themed New Yorker cover contests and is "always on the lookout for good ideas and great artists." So yeah, this is an audition.

James Kochalka has a new tumblr called KOCHALKALAND and it includes doodles and noodles in the Tumblr way, such as the above piece of art for an iPad sequel to Kochalka's video game Glorkian Warrior. The sequel is called Glorkbot’s Mini Adventure, for iPad and other platforms. The game is being developed by Kochalka and Pixeljam.

A group blog devoted to memories of the much missed publisher. Above, Jason T. Miles and Williams talk comics late into an SPX night while Tom Neely tries to sleep.

While we were tidying up, we chanced upon the old archives of Beat articles no longer on the Internet, including one linking to Edward Champion's Boilerplate for All Future Comics Articles. It's as true today as it was in 2006!