Culture

Soon after posting yesterday's fret fest over the state of the cartoonist, we had to hurry off to the world premiere of JOANN SFAR: DRAWING FROM LIFE, a documentary by Sam Ball about the French comics superstar. A mellow, thoughtful 46 minute film, it captures Sfar a few years ago when THE RABBI'S CAT was on its way to selling 600,000 copies in France and his work was being published here in the US by First Second...but BEFORE he became more renowned in his homeland for directing.

The influential Young Adult Library Services Association has just released its list of Great Graphic Novels for Teens for 2012, comprising 56 titles that "meet the criteria of both good quality literature and appealing reading for teens." The last ranges from Mangaman to Troop 142 toEvolution: The Story of Life on Earth. There's also a Top Ten list as follows:

One of the questions you ask when you hear about a new Shadow comic is "what kind of take are they doing?" Another is "how serious will it be?" And then there's "how faithful is it to the source material?" As it happens, I've had a chance to read the script for The Shadow #1. I can't speak to Aaron Campbell's art -- I haven't seen that yet. I can, however, tell you what the tone and the take are going to be.

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.

In a world where every comics-to-movie project gets endlessly covered, SAVE THE DATE has pretty much flown under the radar -- but then it's an indie movie created by an indie cartoonist and not based specifically on a comics property. The film, based on ideas from indie cartoonist stalwart Jeffrey Brown, follows two sisters -- one about to get married, the other just broken up with her boyfriend, and how they approach love and commitment. Directed by Mike Mohan ("One Too Many Mornings") from a script by Mohan, Jeffrey Brown and Egan Reich, the movie debuts this weekend at Sundance and has already gotten some buzz behind it. It stars Lizzy Caplan (True Blood, 127 Hours), as the single sister (who happens to be a cartoonist), Alison Brie (Mad Men, Scream 4) as the sister about to get married, Martin Starr (Mad Love, Adventureland) and Geoffrey Arend.

How do you buy your comics?  I'm not really concerned about magazine format vs. book format. Do you you pre-order them?  Do you buy off the rack?  Do you buy by mail order?  Do you buy digitally? Here's a survey.  Pick whichever option is the primary way you buy your comics:

A Fox News report on how sexy, violent comics are corrupting our youth is ruffling some feather today. The piece originally aired on Fox's Washington DC outlet and found reporter Sherri Ly tut tutting over RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #1 and CATWOMAN #1 as if they just came out and were still on sale. JESUS, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN FOR THE LAST FIVE MONTHS?

Artist Sean G. Murphy (Joe the Barbarian) has posted a piece on his DA page called 5 Year Plan -- it's about planning for the future -- something very few young cartoonists seems to have the courage to do. I recently told a talented young cartoonist "Keep doing what you love until someone pays you for it" -- which is pretty basic "follow your bliss" advice. Murphy's is a little more practical:

Artist Jimmy Broxton/James Hodgkins has broken his silence about the ASHES split.

When six of today's finest, funniest cartoonists created a studio together it was news; that all of them were women somehow made it a "thing". Thus it is with some sadness but a sense of inevitability that the disbanding of the Pizza Island studio has been noted on its blog. Gathering together Kate Beaton, Sarah Glidden, Domitille Collardey, Julia Wertz, Lisa Hanawalt, Meredith Gran and most recently Deana Sobel, this kind of talent put in one room would have been noteworthy under any circumstances.

The past year has seen an unusually large number of Sherlock Holmes adaptations, both in comics and on the screen, but not all Holmeses are created equal. Last night, British viewers got to see the last episode of Season 2 of the BBC's wildly popular starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, and Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows starring Robert Downey Junior and Jude Law is still doing well in theaters a month after it opened. So if you're in a Holmesian mood and wondering what to read next, here's run down on the Holmes adaptations which have come out or had new installments in the past year. Varying from inspiredly odd to unreadably awful, don't go to the comic store without reading this first!

Last year the Beat inaugurated the Person of the Year award. In an industry where changing the status quo isn't always greeted with joy, this is our way of recognizing the people who either move the needle and shake things up or exemplify a level of excellence that others can aspire to. This year, votes were much more across the board. One person clearly got the most votes as a single person. However, a different executive team had more votes overall when both parts were added up. So, we used our executive power to declare both a Person of the Year and a Team of the Year. Who moved the comics industry in 2011 and will continue to be heard in 2012? Read on.