§ Nice Art: A page from Suehiro Marou’s The Laughing Vampire, reviewed here by Sarah Horrocks. Marou is a Japanese manga artist known for his extremely disturbing books, like Panorama Island and Mr. Arashi’s Amazing Freak Show, which depict erotic horror in a very precise style. Why Marou? Keep reading.
§ Saladin Ahmed, writer of Marvel’s Black Bolt and the upcoming Abbott, from Boom! was looking as a box of corn pops and discovered something weird.
hey @KelloggsUS why is literally the only brown corn pop on the whole cereal box the janitor? this is teaching kids racism. pic.twitter.com/Nh7M7IFawW
— Saladin Ahmed (@saladinahmed) October 24, 2017
Why indeed.
Kelloggs, manufacturer of Corn Pops quickly replied.
Kellogg is committed to diversity & inclusion. We did not intend to offend – we apologize. The artwork is updated & will be in stores soon.
— Kellogg's (@KelloggsUS) October 24, 2017
USA Today has more of the story.
In a statement to USA TODAY, spokesperson Kris Charles said Kellogg respects all people and is committed to diversity.
“We take feedback very seriously, and it was never our intention to offend anyone,” he said in a statement. “We apologize sincerely.”
He confirmed that the package artwork has been updated and will begin to appear on store shelves.
Of course, this didn’t stop Ahmed from being assailed in his mentions.
more slurs and threats than usual in my mentions right now. I’d appreciate folks reporting tweets along these lines. I can’t read any more.
— Saladin Ahmed (@saladinahmed) October 25, 2017
I think the original Corn Pops box was pretty stupid. Not as stupid as the Dove ad that has a black woman using soap and turning white. But this is why it’s good to have diverse teams, because they spot things from different perspectives.
§ And now back to Suehiro Marou. US artist Jeanette Hayes has been caught tracing Marou’s work to use in her own art. She’s stolen from other artists, including Shintaro Kago, shown above. It’s rare to see a theft this blatant – Hayes has been written up in the NY Times and other places, and claims to own the internet. Roy Lichtenstein only…worse somehow. At least Lichtenstein made a few little changes. Hayes just traces. And gets paid for it. And it’s not like Marou is an unknown – he’s not exactly a household name but his works have ben appearing in English for decades, and he’s a true original. The same cannot be said of Ms. Hayes.
§ Chuck Rozanski, owner of Mile High Comics, posted the above inspiring story, one worth repeating.
§ TMZ has NOTHING on real estate reporting. It seems that Chris Ware and his wife Marnie have purchased a new house. Well not new exactly; it was built in 1894, which if you know Ware’s work at all, is right in his architectural sweet spot. Indeed, the home would seem to be a dream house for Ware and his family. In the reporting, we learn so much more though, including the address. The house has six bedrooms and sold for $1.14 million. ROYALTIES, kids. A wonderful thing. The report reads like he committed a crime though.
[The house was purchased] in June using Chris Ware’s first name, Franklin, according to the Cook County Recorder. Last month he appeared before a Riverside village commission using the name Chris Ware. The Wares could not be reached via their listed home phone number. Their real estate agent, David Cihla of Cihla Realty, did not respond to a request for comment.
It is also Riverside’s “best house.”
With a shingle-and-beam exterior, five porches, some enclosed, original leaded glass windows and other original features, she said, “it’s like a museum.” The original owner of the house was John F. Palmer, who in 1892 patented a pneumatic tube for bicycle tires. The architect, Joseph Lyman Silsbee, was a mentor of Frank Lloyd Wright and other noted Chicago architects, and the designer of the moving sidewalk that debuted at the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893.
Anyway there’s more! Chicago public real estate records! Investigate all you want.
§ A Philadelphia paper investigates how ReedPOP’s upcoming Keystone Con fits into the local con landscape.
§ Brian Cronin’s pal Brad Reed investigated Marvel Comics Cost-Per-Story-Page Over the Years and there are charts and graphs! The graphs show that the cost per page is higher now than it has ever been. It also reminded me that at a bleak time in the Beat’s youth, comics shrank to 17 pages of story per issue. The cost was only a quarter but that’s like a dollar in 2017! A rip-off by any standard.
§ Thor Ragnarok is getting pretty great reviews, and people love Tessa Thompson and especially the director, Taika Waititi. Thus it’s time for an article entitled: Is the Marvel Cinematic Universe on the point of collapse?
Waititi’s film is fun and fast-paced. But it’s already less fresh than Thor: The Dark World (2013) or the two films which really began Marvel Studios’ bonanza, Jon Favreau’s Iron Man (2008) and Joss Whedon’s The Avengers (2012). The former ran on Robert Downey Jr.’s jittery riffs on his post-addiction persona, routines we’ve now been hearing for nearly a decade; Whedon ingeniously expressed his love for the Avengers, made anarchic sparks fly from Tom Hiddleston’s Loki, and powered it all with a humane vision.
Frankly, I don’t think “humane vision” is the first thing anyone thinks of when they think of The Avengers. The MCU will collapse someday…but that day is not yet.
§ If you want to read some COMICS that tie in to all these movies, this article has some pretty good reading lists.
A Carroll Gardens cartoonist known for creating world-shaking heroes will take his action to a smaller stage this month, with an existential drama about an angel of death opening at the Brick Theater in Williamsburg on Oct. 28. Artist-turned-playwright Dean Haspiel says that his show “Harakiri Kane (Die! Die, Again)” explores more interpersonal issues than the epic battles he has depicted in comics like “Batman Adventures” or “The Red Hook.” “One way I describe comics is there’s an unlimited budget with a blank piece of paper and you can draw anything you want,” he said. “But in theater it’s live, and it involves a collection of people basically interpreting your words — there’s a lot more talking going on in theater, but in comics there’s a lot more action.”
§ This article suggests that Diana Mekhled Alabbadi isThe Arab world’s first Manga author, illustrator – not quite sure that’s true (I remember some Muslim kids creating manga back in the Aughts) but it’s good to recognize she’s been doing her strip, “Gray is…” since 2010.
>> The cost was only a quarter but that’s like a dollar in 2017! A rip-off by any standard. >>
Heck, 17 pages for a buck would be a real bargain today…
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