History

This is what we call a "hot drink" post in the biz*, as in, you must get a hot drink and a comfy chair before you dive in to the next link. Pádraig Ó Méalóid has done an amazing job of putting together a Gaiman/McFarlane/Marvelman timeline, which, although it only skims the details of the Marvelman deals of the '80s, does cover the 10-year legal battle between Gaiman and McFarlane as it pertains to Marvelman. It's a tale of (Tony) twists and turns. Of course the pre-history is also stunning:

Publisher Rizzoli has responded to complaints lodged here and at the Big Planet blog about production shortcomings in the new edition of Hugo Pratt's The Ballad of the Salt Sea.

March 23rd is the deadline for voting in The 2012 Eisner Hall of Fame Awards. There are 14 nominees; four will go in:

Painter/educator Jerry Moriarty was a seminal figure for the early days of RAW magazine, and a collection of his "Jack Survives" strips came out from Buenaventura a few years ago. He's just alerted us to his video channel on YouTube, which is mostly stories about his cat and videos of a family of pigeons...you know, sweet, everyday things that we should be reminded of more often. "I have only been at it for a month or two so it is not very professional and if I'm lucky it never will be," he writes.

Unauthorized: The Story of Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics is a 2005 documentary by director Ilko Davidov about one of the oddest characters in recent comics history, Todd Loren, the publisher of Revolutionary Comics, which published unauthorized comics bios of rockers like The Grateful Dead and Guns N' Roses. Loren was eventually sued by some of his subjects, but the California Supreme Court upheld his right to publish the somewhat schlocky comics.

Wow, February 1 is a banner day in comics history. It is also the day that Image Comics was created—20 years ago. Via Facebook co-founder Jim Valentino shared a photo of the founders and one pal on that fateful day, from left to right Erik Larsen, Hank Kanalz, Rob Liefeld, Todd McFarlane, Jim Lee, Marc Silvestri, and Jim Valentino. They'e all still in the game, all better off than they were 20 years ago. Collectively, they've changed the industry a time or two. It was also a day when people wore denim shirts. Ah, what a time...

This year's Eisner nominating panel has made their choices for automatic inclusion in the Hall of Fame: Rudolph Dirks, who pioneered the newspaper comic strip with The Katzenjammer Kids, and Harry Lucey, a long time Archie artist credited with co-creating the characters. In addition, the judges selected 14 more nominees for the general ballot, from which four will be selected for inclusion into the Hall of Fame: Bill Blackbeard, Howard Chaykin, Richard Corben, Carlos Ezquerra, Lee Falk, Bob Fujitani, Jesse Marsh, Tarpé Mills, Mort Meskin, Dennis O'Neil, Dan O'Neill, Katsuhiro Otomo, Trina Robbins, and Gilbert Shelton.

Even if you feel Big Barda does not speak for you, it's hard to dislike that sweet Bruce Timm cover.

Richard Alf, one of the co-founders of the San Diego Comic-Con and a busy comics dealer of the early 70s, has died of pancreatic cancer at age 59, it is being reported. While only a teenager, Alf provided financing and transportation for early con founders, as well as inspiring Shel Dorf with their shared love of comics.

Today, we keep seeing attempts to bring back limited versions of the newsstand comics rack.  2011's Barnes & Noble program being the most prominent to get a little press.  Interestingly, in recent weeks, both Jim Shooter and Chris Clarement have made comments about the demise of the newsstand system.  Coming from these two, the opinions are a bit more interesting as both were on the top of industry when things shifted over from the newsstand to Direct Market in the early-to-mid-80s.

Listen to Heidi MacDonald, The Beat herself, discuss 2011 in comics on a special year-end edition of More To Come, the PW Comics World podcast! As you may or may not know, Heidi has been one of the hosts of our bi-weekly comics news podcast for the past several months. In this episode, Heidi MacDonald and her co-hosts PW Comics World editor Calvin Reid and I discuss the biggest trends and events of the past year, including...

Ruminating on the year past, cartoonist/educator Steve Bissette considers the story of how creator owned comics can be sunk by just one stuck cog -- in this case a rather large cog named Alan Moore. Just to bring everyone up to speed, 1963 was a very early Image project re-imagining the origins of Marvel, written by Moore and illustrated by Steve Bissette, John Totleben, and Rick Veitch, with additional art by Dave Gibbons, Don Simpson, and Jim Valentino and published in 1993. The final issue was to have been illustrated by Jim Lee, but Lee took time off in the middle, Moore decided not to finished it and...blah blah blah. Time passes. And, Bissette and Moore have a bit of a falling out, as chronicled in a series of interviews, here and there. However, last year, a 1963 follow-up — Tales of the Uncanny - N-Man & Friends: A Naut Comics History Vol. 1 — was to be produced by Bissette and published by Image. Well, things didn't work out, as Bissette posts. In addition, there was to be a reprint of 1963. After months of negotiations, Moore "pulled the plug" — meaning 1963 will never be reprinted ever again.