Culture

Yes, the Beat RSS feed has been hacked. Technicians are on it as we speak.

With the announcement of the closure of WildStorm imprint at DC and the retiring of the WildStorm name, it isn't just another in a long list of comics imprints that have ended over the years. In its 18 year run WildStorm has been a vital part of several revolutions in commercial comics, and changed the game in many ways -- Rob Liefeld's post below gives a succinet run down of some of the highlights.

Founded by Jim Lee as one of the original six Image Studios (along with Marc Sillvestri's Top Cow, Todd McFarlane's McFarlane Productions, Rob Liefeld's Extreme Studios, Jim Valentino's ShadowLine and Erik Larsen's Highbrow Entertainment), WildStorm immediately established itself as one of the most commercial, with huge sellers like WildCATS and Gen 13. A series of developing fan favorite artists, including of course Lee himself, but also J. Scott Campbell, Joe Madureira and Humberto Ramos, kept popularity up, while the creator owned Homage imprint delivered such strong properties as Astro City and Leave it To Chance.

Although known first for their art, by the end of the decade, WildStorm was really becoming known for some of the most daring mainstream writing of the period, with genre-defining work by Warren Ellis and Mark Millar, strong adventure material by Jimmy Palmiotti and Ed Brubaker, as well as daring experiments like Automatic Kafka, a book by Joe Casey and Ashley Wood that people are still figuring out.

And then there was America's Best Comics, an new line of comics written by Alan Moore that would introduce the world to League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Tom Strong, Promethea and Top Ten, the superhero police procedural. And our favorite, Jack B. Quick, the boy inventor who solved science's greatest non problems.

Of course, there are dark parts to the legacy as well, all of which will be trotted out and discussed at length, we're sure. But for now, we asked creators and staff for some of their good memories, and this is what they came back with.

And speaking of the '80s -- and Rob Clough! -- he's conducting a career-spanning interview with Steve Lafler over at The Comics Journal. Springing from the underground sensibility of the '70s, Lafler was a fixture of the alt comix of the 80s and beyond with his iconic characters Dog Boy and Benb. From the intro:

As SPX '10 thoughts still swirl in the indie community, Frank Santoro looks back and swirls about why mini-comics no longer feel fresh to him:

little elephant from sabahnur on etsy There have been some rumblings on the internets dismissing complaints about how low sales were at SPX this year. Sales complaints are not a minor problem -- these are Troubled Economic Times, and this year, even the bigger publishers at SPX showed signs of cutting back. The show was missing more than a few of the usual faces, and statistically, at least some of them had to have been economic casualties. I love going to SPX, and I have no complaints about how it's organized, but I've questioned whether it's even feasible for SPX's attendees to support the number of creators in attendance. So I thought I’d do some math regarding SPX tables in the interest of seeing just how the money in the room spreads around.

All this horror put us in mind to answer the question several of you have emailed: Yes, we will be doing 31 Days of Halloween this year! Send us Halloween-themed art or a link and we'll share it with the world, or at least with people who read The Beat. Send it to heidi dot macdonald at gmail dot com, and try to put the word Halloween in the subject somewhere so it's easier to find. Thanks in advance.

Over at Techland, Douglas Wolk pinpoints 14 different kinds of comic books that we could do with less of, using the hideous sight of a crying Dr Doom as the symbol. Samples:

Apparently they are rioting in Canada over the fact that a man was nominated for the Kim Yale award. If by rioting, you mean writing some articles for the internet. Von Allan , the man in question nominated for the previously all-female Kim Yale Award for Most Talented Newcomer, was interviewed by the CBC and this gave rise to a couple of pieces, noting what a groundbreaker he was being nominated for an award traditionally given to women cartoonists:

With the Green Lantern movie underway for delivery in 2011, the emerald warrior is getting all kinds of promotions to make sure that by the time Ryan Reynolds has been on 100 junkets, everyone will know who Green Lantern is. And to that end, he's already being licensed out the wazoo. For instance, the Asbury Park Press tells us that Green Lantern is getting his own roller coaster at the Great Adventures in New Jersey. The ride -- 15 stories of 63 mph mayhem -- will open to coincide with the movie.

Over on her blog, Valerie D'Orazio announces that as of January she will no longer be running Friends of Lulu, the organization formed to promote women in comics. Instead she'll be putting her efforts toward a new organization called "Comics are for Everyone."

Can an old-fashioned comic book company that lasted about a year in the newsstand era find happiness in the modern world of licensing and Hollywood exploitation? That's what Stan Lee's cousin (by marriage) is counting on, with the relaunch of Atlas Comics. Atlas/Seaboard was founded by Martin Goodman, founder of the original Marvel/Atlas/Timely. After selling Marvel to the distributor Cadence, Goodman got back into the publishing game in 1974 with Atlas Comics, a short-lived but innovative outfit that offered art returns, profit sharing, and other ahead-of-their-times perks. However, it didn't last long -- by 1975, it was dead.

Vanessa Davis and her delightful Make Me a Woman are coming to several towns near you in the coming months: