§ NICE ART!!!! The long brewing Jill Thompson graphic novel about a teenaged Diana is coming out next month and it looks amazing, der. Steve Morris asked Thompson some questions about the book:
So what motivates this version of Diana? Would you say she is selfish?
The question is: what happens when a beautiful, special, talented and unique baby shows up on an island filled with doting aunties and moms? They haven’t seen a baby in years and here comes this beautiful thing – so of course they’re just like “let’s spoil her and spoil her”! So she grows up being exceptional at everything she does, but she doesn’t have any humility. Whilst the other Amazons have the same strength and skill she does, they had to fight to get where they were. But she just showed up.
§ Just to wrap up the Chelsea Cain saga, she explained what happened on a blog post, and the bottom line is that she had better things to do than get trolled on Twitter. In a Facebook post she also stood up for Brian Bendis::
Just posted this on my personal FB page. Thought I’d post it here, too. Because it is important. Now I am going to hang up some more bats in my dining room.
I want to add an addendum here, about some collateral damage. Brian Michael Bendis has been getting attacked for being dismissive of a tweet I posted. His response has been completely misunderstood. I want you all to know that he is one of my dearest friends, a mentor, and someone who absolutely has my back. I thought his tweets were supportive and awesome. I went to bed thinking his tweets were supportive and awesome. Somehow, by the time I woke up, a whole other narrative had formed. We were friends, talking in the middle of the night, and we were talking like friends, in the sense that we know each other and we’ve had larger discussions that provide context for his remarks. He’s right, by the way, there are misogynistic twerps in all industries. Even politics. Brian is one of my favorite people. He is the reason I get to write comics. (How do you think I got a meeting at Marvell?) His series, ALIAS, is one of the comic books that brought me back to comic books as an adult. It is about Jessica Jones, a woman kicking ass. Please don’t rage at him. And please, if you see people giving him guff, let them know that their energy could be better spent. I would post this on Twitter, but …you know.
It’s important to read all of this – and it doesn’t take anything away from the toxic nature of Twitter trolling. Since I wrote about this, my mentions are a mess, and believe me, I have better things to do than read them as well. Events like this become a dumpster fire that everyone uses to heat up their own particular can of beans, but not everyone gets to eat them.
§ Aidan Koch went to the Lakes International Comics Festival and reports on it for Comics Workbook:
Coming from New York, I was immediately relieved and relaxed by the town. Its nestled amid rolling green hills speckled in little white sheep, loosely piled rock walls, and thin deciduous forests. The air was fresh and misty everyday with a slight ‘farmy’ smell, which may also translate to ‘sheep poop,’ but in the most pleasant way. Within our first hours I visited the town castle, a short walk from the Castle Green Hotel, and had a .35p energy drink in order make it to the inaugural dinner. I felt fabulous.
§ Whit Taylor makes a grand return to con reports with a piece on CXC for Comics Workbook. This is a thorough, balanced piece that covers the good and the need improvement; if only all con reports could be this good.
The events of the first two days, held on Ohio State University’s campus, included professional development for cartoonists, tours of the BICLM, programming for young students of color through Sol-Con (a convention celebrating black and brown creators), and a scholarly symposium organized by OSU professor and CXC organizer, Jared Gardner. The weekend “marketplace” at the newly renovated Columbus Metropolitan Library, served as a small convention with exhibitors and programming, including the Comics Workbook workshop sessions. I missed checking out Ron Wimberly’s CMA Thurber House Graphic Residency as well as seeing Raina Telgemeier speak (more on this later), but I do believe that I was able to get a nice snapshot of the show.
§ Also, Stephanie Tran went to APE! And had a great time. I must confess, I forgot APE even happened so it’s good to hear it went off well.
As someone who is still new to independent comics I had very little idea of what to expect. I guessed that APE would be a smaller, west coast version of the Small Press Expo, maybe the same size of the San Jose Heroes and Villains Fan Fest. APE, however, was its own beast (pun intended). It was held not in the San Jose Convention Center’s Exhibit Hall as I expected, but in its South Hall, a metal-framed structure that resembled more of a hanger than an actual hall. This turned out to be perfect for APE–unlike Heroes and Villains Fan Fest, APE spread out its exhibitors, leaving them with about a foot on each side instead of placing tables end-to-end. The setting was much more intimate and casual than Heroes and Villains, and, when coupled with the lack of a large crowd, encouraged dialogues and gave attendees the opportunity to mill around the booths and flip through a comic or look over the exhibitor’s art. According to veteran exhibitors and other attendees, the con has been getting smaller over the years (one person suggested that this was due to another independent comic fest in Berkeley though perhaps it has more to do with the SF Zine fest), but the size of APE was just right for my first time at an independent publishing expo.
§ Stan Lee has been out promoting this weekend’s LA Comics Con, formerly known as Stan Lee’s Comikaze, and he’s as charming as ever:
The pop culture show — formerly known as Comikaze — will be big, with 90,000 people expected to converge on the Los Angeles Convention Center between today and Sunday, according to convention center spokeswoman Alexa Michelle Diaz. Lee knows navigating L.A.’s notorious traffic may require “spidey sense”. “I hope that people won’t have trouble getting to our convention,” the 93-year-old Marvel legend said in his unmistakable, booming East Coast voice during a telephone interview this week. “I’m sure the streets will be blocked, like when the president comes in. It’ll be a big day. Are you going to be at the parade?” Stop panting, fanboys; we’re pretty sure he was kidding about a parade. But one thing the native New Yorker sounded totally sincere about was his affection for the city he moved to in 1981.
§ Uh uh. Mom wants ‘graphic’ book pulled from high school library – but it’s not one of the usual suspects!
An Issaquah mother said her son brought home a graphic novel from school that is pornographic. Shirley Lopez said her 14-year-old checked out the book from the Issaquah High School library. Lopez said the book “Mangaman” by Barry Lyga had sexual content she found inappropriate for her son who is a freshman.
as usual the challenge will be handled in the manner school use for such matters.
§ Steven Yuen showed up on Conan and the result was cute. But if that was too cute for you, check out Greg Nicotero’s gruesome makeup test instagrams:
The Jill Thompson graphic novel is already out. I have it. It’s neat.
§ DC’s future owner AT&T spies on taxpayers for taxpayer money @ http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/10/25/at-t-is-spying-on-americans-for-profit.html
– “The long brewing Jill Thompson graphic novel”
That sample seems to exemplify the new standard of Disney-Warner comics: 3 panels per story page (half the old standard), 20 cents per story page (twice the old standard). About threefold to fourfold more expensive for the story content.
In the real world, it’s getting common for mainstream comics to be 5 cents a page, and the same money gives you 2 OGNs (or mangas), with a lot more pages and story, usually self-contained or standalone.
$23 buys you 128 pages of WONDER WOMAN HC.
$23 buys you 300 pages of SECONDS HC, HONOR GIRL HC, DON’T GET EATEN BY ANYTHING HC, etc.
$23 buys you 500 pages of NIMONA, SISTERS, GHOSTS, EL DEAFO, etc.
(Many of them are 6×9″, but most are real books with opaque paper and sewn binding, not glued see-through pages.)
Interesting times!
If Heidi had checked her facts before writing her article Chelsea Cain and Brian Bendis wouldn’t have to deal with all of this unwanted attention.
Hopefully Heidi remembers this next time she’s tempted to light a dumpster fire.
Cost-per-(unit of entertainment) is virtually the worst metric one could ever use to discuss creative enterprises. Is BIG BANG THEORY “better” than GAME OF THRONES because new episodes of one is free, and the other is (at least) $15/mo?
Seeing FIDDLER ON THE ROOF on Broadway will cost you $55, but you can see it for under $10 at a revival movie theater and maybe something at or near free if you want to see a high school production — is the Broadway show then a rip-off?
If you’re going to compare page counts and cover prices, you also very much need to consider page rates, royalties, circulations, and specifics of printing costs to even be in the vague neighborhood of “fair comparison”
-B
Brian Hobbs says ‘If you’re going to compare page counts and cover prices, you also very much need to consider page rates, royalties, circulations, and specifics of printing costs to even be in the vague neighborhood of “fair comparison”’
There’s no way, lacking the data Hibbs notes, to make a determination of just how profitable a given floppy or trade is. Every bit of data is unknown from the payment to the writer to total costs of a run for wither DC or Marvel. Being embedded within giant media companies means nothing is really known about the finances.
Also worth noting is that DON’T GET EATEN BY ANYTHING HC has only a sole creative person involved unlike a DC or Marvel title which has a writer, an artist, inker and colorist. The latter may also be paying royalties to creators of given characters.
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