Tag: Top News

The other day, Tom Spurgeon linked to a Facebook post by cartoonist T Edward Bak in which he frets about the "money vs art vs oh god what the hell am I doing" feeling that many in the indie world are having, and which we've written about many times. In response I was about to go link to a fantastic FB post by Derf Backderf in which he talks about being a cancer survivor and what he's done since—delivered the great book My Friend Dahmer, continued to cartoon, enjoyed life with his family, travelled the world. It was a wonderful life affirming post that puts a lot of things into perspective. But....it was gone.

The whole Humble Bundle move to selling comics and e-books worked very well, Calvin Reid reports:

While comics seem to be holding their own as an industry, with revenue generally up, there are a few folks on shaky ground, and 2014 saw a few casualties. One of them is Great Beast, the indie uUK graphic novel publisher run by cartoonists Adam Cadwell and Mark Ellerby. The imprint was sort of run as an "Image" like model, with Great Beast generally handling distribution for an emerging generation of UK cartoonists including , Robert M Ball, Dan Berry, Adam Cadwell, Warwick Johnson-Cadwell, Dan Cox, John Cei Douglas, Marc Ellerby, Isabel Greenberg, John Riordan and Rachael Smith. The reason for the shut down? Too much success basically. Ellerby had left running the publisher earlier in the year and Cadwell did not have the time to keep things going:

There were few dry eyes across America as Stephen Colbert wrapped up his nine year run on The Colbert Report—and staying in character, instead of breaking the wall and getting sentimental, he went gonzo fantasy, defeating Grimmy, his long time nemesis, or Death himself, and gaining immortality. Immortality has perks, such as assembling a zeitgeist all-stat lineup of pals from Bryan Cranston to George Lucas to Cyndi Lauper and James Franco who came out to sing the closing song from Dr Strangelove, "We'll Meet Again. " Although it was hard to spot all the celebs in the chorus, among them was two-time guests, Marvel CCO Joe Quesada:

PW's annual Graphic Novel critics poll, which I oversee, is out. This One Summer was the winner, which is hard to argue with. There's also a list of books of the year selected by the graphic novel reviewers. It's a small group, but they usually get it right. I thought it would be fun to look up past winners. The very first one isn't online, but it's a pretty strong list overall, and clicking the links will immediately take you back to whatever people were talking about in comics that year:

§ Veteran Batman artist and nice guy Norm Breyfogle has suffered a stroke, as reported by his ex-wife. He's expected to make a full recovery but send good thoughts.

In case you missed it, Sony Pictures has been forced to cancel the theatrical release of The Interview after hackers have released a catastrophic trove of private emails and scripts, and threatened to bomb theaters showing the film—and theater owners began saying they wouldn't carry it. The film follows a pair of bumbling journalists sent to North Korea to assassinate Kim Jong Un, and apparently, Supreme Leader did not like this plot line. The repercussions of this Hollywood disaster will be felt for years to come, but one piece of collateral damage was a planned adaptation of Pyongyang, Guy DeLisle's graphic novel about his two months spent in the North Korean capital working on an animation project. New Regency has pulled the plug on the project which was to have starred Steve Carrell and be directed by Gore Verbinski from a Steve Conrad script. However the log line for the movie bears little resemblance to the book that I read:

Some rambling thoughts on various aspects of making comics and making money. I alluded earlier to the sudden announcement that Nonplayer #2 by Nate Simpson was finished and would be presumably be coming out later this year. Simpson has written a much longer piece complete with a FAQ confirming that the issue will be in the May solicitations from Image; he's contacted Image about reprinting issue #1 but no response yet, and Warners—which had optioned the comic—has let their rights lapse, so it's there for the taking. And then he gets to why it took 3 1/2 years to draw the comic. It's a long answer but I'll lift a graph:

Photographer/comics writer Seth Kushner has been very ill and battling for his life after he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia in the spring. A failed bone marrow transplant a few months ago left him with very few options but....well, just go read this. That's all I have to say. And keep thinking good thoughts. Also, also, he has a GoFundMe which I'm sure is still taking donations.

Soon 2014 will be a memory and 2015 will be an itinerary from Travelocity. And WonderCon Anaheim—to be held April 3-5 in Anahaim has...

§ A white, straight man named Grant Morrison said something that wasn't stupid. I think. Q: I love that the first issue of “The...

Illustrated version of real torture techniques used by REAL CIA operatives drawn in an old school Basil Wolverton style for added punch.