It’s a big catch-up, catch-all post of interesting things we missed while we were away. In no particular order:
Super-tastic retro-futuro art gallery of random Russian and Euro promo art:
This is the start of a new series, collection of the most inspiring & hard-to-find retro-futuristic graphics. We will try to stay away from the well-known American pulp & book cover illustrations and instead will focus on the artwork from rather unlikely sources: Soviet & Eastern Bloc “popular tech & science” magazines, German, Italian, British fantastic illustrations and promotional literature – all from the Golden Age of Retro-Future (from 1930s to 1970s).
§ Wildstorm Studios welcomes new member Livio Ramondelli, who, despite the name, hails from NoCal.
§ Webcomicker John Campbell presents what some have hailed as the greatest post ever on the internets.
§ So long, Gegory Zura! Happy trails — you were always great to work with. Welcome Jason T. Miles — you will forge a new legend!
§ The WSJ looks at the stagnating comics page by talking to many of the key players:
In fact, this isn’t exactly a bull market for the comics pages. In palmier times, when cities could comfortably support two or even three dailies, reps from the syndicate services would typically offer their wares to the largest newspaper. No sale, no problem. Surely the rag across the street would sign on the dotted line. “And if certain strips changed hands in a competitive market it would make a difference in your readership,” noted John Smyntek, syndicate editor at the Detroit Free Press. But in a one-paper town — and these days, most towns are one-paper towns — “there’s no compelling reason for an editor to buy a new strip immediately,” said Lisa Klem Wilson, general manager of United Media Syndication.
§ Anders Nilsen describes a recent skateboarding accident. Click on link for bloody picture.
This is me soon after a fall I took while skateboarding recently. I bashed in two of my front teeth pretty good. As luck would have it there happened to be an oral surgeon at the park with his son who was kind enough to take a look and pull my teeth back into place for me on the spot. Below is a picture of me about to land the same trick a couple of years ago.
§ At CBGExtra, Brent Frankenhoff has a rather amusing look at the Dabel Brothers’ history of untimely shipping.
§ Interesting Peanuts slideshow at Slate.
§ It’s not just Renee Montoya! The actual Dark Knight film has a big viral campaign going on right how as well. Catch up here.
§ Hank Azaria says George Takei is “creepy.”
Does the Wall Street Journal discuss how syndicates have successfully offered digital content by subscription? How local papers sometimes offer a wider selection online than they do in the newspaper? How some papers buy a strip but do not publish it so that other area papers won’t print it? Why comicstrip pages do not carry advertising?
What is most interesting is that creator owned comicbooks rarely are shown on creator websites, but creator owned comicstrips have at least a link to a syndicate if not strips directly on the site.
Of course, this is all part of the bigger rift between comicbooks and comicstrips. Strips are more successful commercially, and that may be because of their distribution.