§ So you forgot to do links for two weeks.
§ A Batmobile being driven by a fellow who dresses up as Robin was on its way to the Nickel City Con in Buffalo NY, when it blew a radiator hose, sending it into a guard rail when Robin couldn’t see, and necessitating a call to either Triple A or Alfred.
The event was reported on Facebook.
§ Liana Finck lists her 10 Favorite Cartoonists and it’s a good one with some classic picks and some fresh ones.
§ Rosie Knight and Nick Marino created a helpful visual aid to setting up a Twitter Block chain.
§ Nick Drnaso is a rising star in the art comics crowd, and his latest, Sabrina, is looking to be one of the year’s key books. And the campaign rolls out with a profile in the The Guardian:
Sabrina, which has already drawn extraordinary advance praise – Zadie Smith describes it as a masterpiece that combines all the political power of a polemic with the “delicacy of truly great art” – could not be more prescient if it tried. Its narrative touches with perfect ease on such contemporary matters as fake news, the isolation of the digital age, conspiracy theories and gun control (subjects that many traditional novelists seem determined to avoid). “Actually, though, I set it in the near future purely for boring, functional reasons,” says Drnaso, a winner of the new talent prize at this year’s Angoulême international comics festival, who lives in Chicago and is not yet 30. “I didn’t consider at all what that near future might look like.”
§ Saudi Arabia apparently has its first manga artist,
§ Abhay Khosla, a highly trenchant blogger, tried to find some comics on Comixology and found it difficult.
Maybe I’m not using the site right– but okay, okay, I go to that site, and I says to myself, I says, “say, what’s going on with those Image Comics?” And I click over there, and it just dumps out a list of every title they’ve ever published alphabetically…? Alphabetically– no creators, no loglines, nothing but titles??? Doesn’t Image have hits that it could be, like, shepherding me to? Does Image not control its storefront??? How am I supposed to know what I’m supposed to want? An alphabetical list feels like it assumes I know what I want, instead of trying to sell me anything. But why would I know what I want???
§ The Beastie Boys are putting out a massive memoir that will include a graphic novel among other things.
After it was confirmed earlier this year that the long-fabled Beastie Boys memoir would officially release in 2018, it now appears we have a release date set for October 30. According to the Beastie Boys webstore, the book will not only contain a whopping 592 pages, but also include never-before-seen photos, a graphic novel, a cookbook, original illustrations, maps, playlists, and editorials from guest contributors Wes Anderson, Spike Jonze and Amy Poehler amongst many other surprises.
No idea who got to draw this sweet gig, but I bet they enjoyed it!
§ In a shocking twist, a weighty tome about graphic novels published by Cambridge turned out to be stodgy;
The publication of The Cambridge Companion to the Graphic Novel threatens to be comics’ equivalent of skateboarding’s Olympics moment. Its editor, Stephen E Tabachnick, is a professor of English literature at the University of Memphis and the author of three previous books on the form. Here he invites “scholars looking for new material” into this “relatively unexplored field”, much in the manner of a Cuadrilla executive giving a pep talk to fracking engineers in Lancashire. The interrogation of any art form is a good thing, but only if it opens up the subject.
§ An old link, but for one brief, shining moment JOE FRIDAYS returned to Neswsarama, a chatty, casual talk with Marvel’s Joe Quesada, where he talked about the changes at Marvel including a new editor in chief.
Quesada: I describe it as simply business as usual. Change, creatively and editorially, is a constant in comics or any entertainment media, especially when you’re dealing with iconic properties that have been around for decades. That said, I’m incredibly excited to see what C.B.’s tenure brings as well as anxious to see what Jordan does with X-Men and Mark with Star Wars. And that young up-and-comer Brevoort is someone to definitely keep an eye on, I think that kid’s going places, but he really needs to shave that beard. Credit: Joe Quesada Let me also say that when I sat in the E-i-C chair I was fortunate enough to have a murderer’s row of editorial talent. That team made me look much better than I ever would have been without them and C.B. was an integral part of it. Now that he’s sitting in the chair I want to be there to support him and his success in the same way he was there for me.
Similar fireside chats with Axel Alonso and, briefly, DC’s editors, are a long ago memory, especially after the disastrous Gabriel/Alonso interviews a year ago.
CONNNNNNS:
https://twitter.com/mbugard/status/998259071466770432
§ The late, great Margot Kidder was to have been a guest at this weekend’s Motor City Con, and organizers paid tribute by setting up her table.
§ Here’s a story set at this weekend’s VanCAF
They’re here at the sixth Vancouver Comic Arts Festival. The volunteer-run festival will attract about 10,000 comic fans through the doors this weekend, all eager for a chance to meet their favorite artists and illustrators, or to discover new ones. Among the creators is Molly Muldoon. She’s here with her co-writers to unveil their recently-published graphic novel: Dead Weight. It’s a murder mystery set in the Oregon woods at a fat camp, she tells Xinhua. “It’s a young adult comedy murder mystery,” she says. “It just came out three weeks ago so we’re very excited about it.” Muldoon says this isn’t her first time at the event, but this is the first time she has a presentation table. “I’ve come before, just because it’s a really good environment,” she says, a short stack of her colorful novel sits on the table in front of her in the gym that feels steamy hot as hundreds of people wander from table to table.
https://twitter.com/damechocolat/status/998349838004649984
§ This weekend was also Wizard World Philly, and they had a big big nerdlebrity line-up. People are getting super creative with those photo ops!
MOOOOVIES:
§ Deadpool 2 overthrew Avengers Infinity War for #1 but came in a bit behind Deadpool 1. Still the #2 R-rated opening. Avengers: Infinity War just opened in China and is already the fourth biggest Western release ever there.
§ I do pity the folks who toil at movie sites who are tasked to write a story based on each and every sentence and Instagram post uttered by nerdlebrities and studio heads. But even so, this story about a photo of Zack Snyder on the set of Batman v Superman is curious. It was posted somewhere (no real link is given) by Larry Fong, Snyder’s regular cinematographer, and it is a reminder of how great Snyder’s movies look.
This shot perfectly illustrates Snyder’s ability to compose a near-perfect shot. Using those lights, Snyder was able to perfectly simulate the look of Batman’s headlights. Though that may not seem very difficult, getting that shot at night while moving the light across Henry Cavill’s Superman is no small feat. In fact, most directors aren’t this hands-on when it comes to lighting. The lighting for each frame, as well as the path of any present shadows, need to be considered when shooting. Snyder has received a lot of of criticism over the recent years for his narrative tendencies. However, it’s hard to deny that Snyder’s knack for composition and coherent action is unparalleled by others in his field.
Did this need to be a story on a news site? Not really, but I wish people would give Snyder more credit for how well his movies capture the larger than life side of superheroes. Fong is a big part of that, as well; he’s currently working on the Predator reboot.
§ Graeme McMillan wondered if the ‘Eternals’: Can It Fit Inside the Marvel Cinematic Universe? which is kinda moot because the Celestials have already been mentioned in the MCU. But he hit his wordcount.
Marvel Studios has lined up screenwriters for a big-screen version of The Eternals, Jack Kirby’s cosmic origin of the species comic book series from the 1970s. But will they find it any easier to fold the story of giant aliens manipulating humanity and checking up on their work into the Marvel Cinematic Universe than their comic book predecessors? Whether or not the original 19-issue series — created, written and drawn by Kirby in 1976 — took place in the same fictional universe as Spider-Man, the Avengers et al has been a bone of contention amongst fans for decades; despite the proud tradition for Marvel comics of the period, The Eternals shared almost no interaction with the Marvel Universe that fans were familiar with. This was intentional on Kirby’s part; the creator apparently wanted the series to stand alone, an idea that Marvel’s editorial division wasn’t fond of.
Saying someone, “Hit their wordcount,” struck me as a hilarious comment. May I borrow it for situations where it works?
Most impressively, he hit his wordcount without needing to copy-paste a 100 word boilerplate description of a movie he’s talking about at the end, packed with all the search terms the website is desperately hoping for Google to link to them for.
That shot of Superman is very memorable.
One of my pet peeves about JL is the lighter shade of blue to Superman’s costume that we are immediately presented with in that fan video. With, the light, bright blue, all the musculature to his suit has been tinted in a darker colour, and I find it horrible to look at. I know Cavill doesn’t have the bulk/mass from those first two movies in favour of something more lithe, but, yeah, I dislike the painted musculature; looks ridiculous. Funnily enough, only really object in this opening scene and not the rest of the movie.
Re Eternals, the obvious analogues to characters from Ancient Greek myth might have to be overcone/addressed in some way? Or not?
And why the name Sabrina to that new interesting book. Referencing the old classic movie or just a whimsical choice? I’m intrigued
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