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§ For many years, Bill Mantlo has been a sad figure just out of view in the shadows of the comics industry. The prolific ’70s comic writer quit to get a law degree and was pursuing a career as a public defender when he was struck by a car and suffered irreversible brain damage, leaving him in a coma for years. Although he regained consciousness, it wasn’t until reading this story that we learned just how sad his story really is. The actual story is unavailable as we write this, but Robot 6 has a heart-rending synopsis.

§ Andy Ihnatko has a very detailed review of the Kindle Fire and finds that while it isn’t quite an iPad, it is quite handy for reading. He singles out comiXology’s app for praise:

Though ComiXology has come through for the Fire in a way that Conde Nast and other magazine publishers haven’t. The ComiXology app can display comics in either fullpage mode (which makes one nostalgic for those pulp Archie Comics digests at the supermarket checkout aisle) or in a “guided view” mode that moves a virtual “camera” around the page, following the story panel by panel. The system was originally created for phone screens, which completely failed to engage my excitement for digital comics, but on the Fire the system works well.

I can only hope that magazine publishers will follow ComiXology’s example, and provide the reader with an alternative to tedious manual zooming and scrolling.

§ The AP writes up this weekend’s epic MAD Magazine summit at SCAD:

“I have kids come to me at conventions saying, ‘My grandfather grew up with your work,”’ said Aragones, 74, whose recent features include ”A MAD Look at Lady Gaga.” “Older people think the older MADs were funnier. But not really. You grew up. Your sense of humour has changed.”


One also learns that given enough time, Jack Davis will be scandalized:

“I’m an old stodgy man and pretty conservative,” Davis said. “I like all the guys up there a lot, but I felt like it kind of got a little raunchy.”

1 COMMENT

  1. I do not own a Nook (I have a Samsung Epic 4G which works just as nicely, and it receives phone calls), but I do believe the Nook color/tablet does allow one to reformat newspapers and magazines for easier reading. I believe they call it “column view”. Ask your friendly neighborhood Nook salesperson for a demo.

  2. i had no idea about what happened to Bill Mantlo before i read the piece yesterday.

    this is the sort of thing that i usually depend on The Comic Journal to follow.

    and i don’t recall any meantion of this on Shooter’s various blog posts about the man.