Culture

Why isn't more Moebius in print in the US? That and other questions examined in today's installment.

As mentioned in a previous item, this week's Village Voice is the Cartoon Issue, and the centerpiece is a longish article called If Cartoons Are So Big, Why Don't They Pay?; it's one of several recent prominent articles -- like the recent Marvel profile in the em>NY Times -- that focus on the rather frugal level of profits one can expect from publishing comic books in America.

This week's Village Voice is the Cartoon issue, to tie in to MoCCA Fest, and regular Voice contributor Ward Sutton has done the cover. Sutton is known for his ability to mimic other art styles, but this time, we do believe he's topped himself -- esp. with Marlys Wonder Woman and Rusty Brown Bumstead. BUT...see next item.

More info here.

Art schools and apprenticeships find themselves more popular than ever, let's all tip our hats to inspiration artist Rudolph Töpffer's for his creation of boarding school for boys. While anyone can teach themselves and become successful on their own, a lot of the specialty schools allow access to equipment, connections, mentorship of working professionals and opportunities in a condensed amount of time that are priceless.

After an abscence of several years, Top Shelf is back at WonderCon, with Team BB Wolf -- Rich Koslowski and J.D. "Johnnie" Arnold -- and new releases, NIGHT ANIMALS by Brecht Evens and INCREDIBLE CHANGE-BOTS TWO by Jeffrey Brown.

Damn -- Google loves April Fool's jokes as only a bunch of borderline Asperger's tech nerds can (Moss, see under). For today, they've also replaced the dignified and beloved font Helvetica with the Rob Granito of fonts, Comic Sans, when you make a search for "Helvetica."

We don't have the energy for an April Fool's joke so this doozy from Comics Alliance will have to do.

It has become legend.

Comic fans care about the character or than a particular story. Be true to the characters and fans (in general) will be pleased.

[Chris Sotomayor is a successful and well known colorist for Marvel and other publishers. Recently he began a series of interviews he called "The Dirty Dozen" where he asks industry figures questions about their careers from a business standpoint. The themes are among those that we've recently been exploring here at The Beat as the career paths for cartoonists become more tangled -- here is more opportunity than ever, but the way to get there is not always clear. Although the interviews appear first at his site, Chris has graciously allowed The Beat to reprint them. Up this time, writer/artist Jimmy Palmiotti.]

As everyone has probably already heard (just scroll down the page), Rob Granito is a plagiarizing conman. He claimed to have done work for DC and Marvel, been the secret hand behind Brian Stelfreeze and, hilariously, to have worked on Calvin and Hobbes, and sold direct copies of other people's work with a few scribbles on top for hundreds of dollars. Not the usual pose tracing for a different use or character, but direct copies, with perhaps an arm moved slightly. And he did it for years. Artists known to have been plagiarized includes Jan Duursema, Tim Sale, Bruce Timm, Mark Bagley and Ivan Reis among others. As a response to this, the website Legit-o-mite.com has been started as a clearinghouse for evidence of direct plagiarism and fraud like this, on the part of Granito or any other artist.