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| Monday, November 23rd, 2009 | |
comicsreporter
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9:00p |
Flipped! David Welsh On Manga-Related Developments For Which He's Grateful
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CrBriefings/~3/kGb5Iz-NY9M/ 
By David P. Welsh
I enjoy any holiday centered almost entirely on eating, so I like Thanksgiving. I can't say that it makes me particularly contemplative in the intended way, and I'm relieved that there's no tradition in my family of going around the table and expressing individual gratitude before we can gorge. (A brother-in-law suggested we do that one year, and the results were sufficiently caustic that the experiment wasn't repeated.) Aversion to that kind of sentiment aside, there are a number of things going on in manga publishing for which I'm particularly grateful, so I'll make an exception and get in the non-caloric Thanksgiving spirit. Here are some manga-related developments for which I'm grateful:
 The imminent ascendance of Natsume Ono: Each year there seems to be a manga-ka who goes from virtually unpublished in translation to ubiquitous. Notable past examples include the marvelous Fumi Yoshinaga and the eccentric You Higuri. Ono, who doesn't even have a Wikipedia entry yet, seems to be on deck for this treatment, and I couldn't be more pleased at the prospect. Her first translated work has been The House of Five Leaves, serialized on Viz's SIGIKKI site, and it's low-key and enticing entertainment. It's about an out-of-work samurai who falls in with an eclectic group of professional kidnappers, and it combines delicate, incremental character development with intriguing moral ambiguity. It's also gorgeously fragile in terms of Ono's illustrations. Next up from Ono is not simple, a contemporary tale of fractured families and world travel. Ristorante Paradiso is on deck for March of 2010, followed in short order by its sequel, Gente. Comics can always use more talented, idiosyncratic creators, and Ono seems likely to be a welcome addition to that roster.
 Vertical's commitment to Osamu Tezuka's Black Jack: Classic manga, even comics by an undisputed master like Tezuka, don't always reap the commercial success they deserve. I'm not sure what the numbers are for Black Jack, but I am sure that there should always be some new-to-us material from Tezuka arriving on retail shelves. Beyond these comics' historical significance and the way they offered an abundant toolbox to all of the creators that followed, I've yet to read a comic by Tezuka that wasn't at least very, very entertaining. Unlike some of Tezuka's more ambitious works, Black Jack aims mostly to divert with over-the-top medical melodrama, and it consistently succeeds in that aim. Tezuka's prodigious skills as a cartoonist and his training as a physician fuse to create episodic entertainment that's tense, funny, creepy, inventive, and eminently readable. It's not a series that demands your attention, but it definitely rewards it.
Manga conversation on Twitter: One of the reasons I started writing a blog was because I enjoy engaging with other nerds about nerdy things. I still enjoy blogging, but I find that the immediate, 140-character gratification of Twitter is an excellent supplement to the (theoretically) more contemplative discourse of weblogs. Many publishers still seem to be figuring out what to do with their Twitter presences, and many of them haven't evolved beyond the intercom at the big-box store, announcing specials in the housewares department. Opinionated readers, on the other hand, have hit the ground running. To start, check the #mangamonday hashtag for recommendations and mini-reviews. For a good sampling of manga publishers and pundits chatting on Twitter, click here. For a more general list of comics personae, try this.
 The stabilization of Tokyopop: 2009 was not particularly kind to Tokyopop, what with the loss of many of its licenses to Kodansha, and 2008 didn't invite many scrapbook opportunities either, marked as it was by massive employee layoffs. But it's still here, it's still acquiring new licenses, and it's returned books like Mari Okazaki's exquisite office-lady drama Suppli to the schedule. Right up until the 2008 implosion, Tokyopop indulged in the kind of marketing hyperbole that all but guaranteed at least a certain degree of Schadenfreude when things inevitably went south, but the publisher's more subdued, direct communications of late seem to have muted that reaction. If the company seems chastened, it also seems more focused and professional.
 CMX's taste in shôjo: DC's manga imprint does a lot of things right, picking interesting titles from a variety of demographic categories. I think they deserve special mention for their choices in the sector of comics created for girls. This has been the case since the imprint's launch, and 2009 has reinforced the impression. One of my particular favorite recent offerings has been Natsune Kawase's two-volume The Lapis Lazuli Crown, which embodies a lot of the qualities I associate with CMX shôjo: gentle wit, easy charm, and attractiveness. It's about a young, inept sorceress who dedicates herself to improving her potentially significant magical skills and finds romance and purpose along the way. Kawase's pages are crisp and cute, and her characters are instantly likeable. It's not alone in CMX's slate of engaging 2009 arrivals. Due this week is the adorable-but-not-saccharine The Lizard Prince by Asuka Izumi. Darker and deeper is Ken Saito's The Name of the Flower, and it's earned a lot of critical admiration. And it should never be forgotten that CMX is doing almost all of the heavy lifting in terms of publishing classic comics for girls, continuing with Yasuko Aoike's From Eroica with Love and Kiyoko Ariyoshi's Swan.
 The reinforcement of the category of comics for grown-ups: Best-seller lists may be dominated by comics for younger audiences, but it's hard to imagine fans of sophisticated, challenging work feeling particularly deprived at the moment. From Yoshihiro Tatsumi's massive autobiography, A Drifting Life, to Daisuke Igarashi's exquisite Children of the Sea, to not one but two new series by Naoki Urasawa, to Junko Mizuno's mind-bending Little Fluffy Gigolo Pelu, it's been a year of extraordinary debuts. Factor in new volumes of ongoing series like Takehiko Inoue's Real, Yuki Urushibara's Mushishi, Hiroki Endo's Eden: It's an Endless World!, and others, and you can't help but see 2009 as a year of extraordinary abundance. You don't even have to pay for it if you don't want to, which brings me to my last cause for thankfulness.
More free stuff: Is Viz making an end-run around piracy sites with its online initiatives SIGIKKI, Shonen Sunday, and The Rumic World? Probably. Are these efforts a strategic loss leader to encourage readers to sample, and then buy? Certainly. Does it matter when there are so many good comics available to read for free with the support and compensation of their creators? Not one iota. I hope we see more legitimate online manga offerings in the coming year. It's like a magazine without the dead trees or distribution and production hassles.
*****
* bottom and top images from not simple and Children of the Sea; other covers according to their titles.
*****
David P. Welsh has loved comics since his parents first used Archie and Casper to sedate him during long trips in the family station wagon.
He's worked as a reporter and editor for daily and weekly newspapers, and later sold out for the glamorous world of public relations. Prior to relocating to The Comics Reporter, he wrote his Flipped column for Comic World News for just over three years. He's written articles on comics for print outlets and a variety of other web sites.
He lives in West Virginia, which he says has gotten a lot easier since the Starbucks and Barnes & Noble opened up.
You may e-mail David with questions or commentary You can write to this site about David's columns
Please bookmark his site, Precocious Curmudgeon.
*****
*****
***** |
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comicsreporter
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7:25p |
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comicsreporter
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7:20p |
Your Danish Cartoons Hangover Update
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CrBriefings/~3/Htw-x76UlFw/ * the Canadian news reporter Abbas Rana has come out in defense of his brother, Tahawwur Rana, one of the alleged Mickey Mouse Plot co-conspirators. I'm not sure there's all that much that's newsworthy in such a defense, although it's clear that Rana will be tried on a different track than David Coleman Headley and the family and friends of the Chicago-based travel agency owner have been forthright in their declarations of innocence. One thing I hadn't know is that Headley scouted the Jyllands-Posten newspaper where the Danish Muhammad Cartoons were published as a potential place for Rana's agency to place ads.
* no matter who's guilty and who's innocent, kudos to Abbas Rana's publisher for his public show of support to his not involved save by blood employee during what must be an awful time for that family.
* future US tourists hoping to go to Denmark may need to pass increased security scrutiny if not outright have some sort of purposeful visa. Blame in part goes to the Headley and Rana arrests. |
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comicsreporter
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7:15p |
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comicsreporter
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7:10p |
Your '10 Prix De La Critique Finalists
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CrBriefings/~3/Ml8Gf03VO44/ The Association des Critiques et journalistes de Bande Dessinée (ACBD) has named the five finalists for their big 2010 prize, the Grand Prix de la Critique. I don't know anything about these books, but I find it somewhat odd that a critics' prize would come down to work from big publishers like this -- although maybe there's stratification of which I'm unaware and these are all different. Anyway, the books selected are:
* Dieu en personne, Marc-Antoine Mathieu (Delcourt)
* Droit du sol, Charles Masson (Casterman)
* Il était une fois Vol. 3, Sylvain Vallée and Fabien Nury (Glénat)
* Notre mère la guerre, Vol. 1, Maël and Kris (Futuropolis)
* Rébétiko: la mauvaise herbe, David Prudhomme (Futuropolis)
The grand prize winner will be named in early December. |
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comicsreporter
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7:05p |
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comicsreporter
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7:00p |
Marvel Bigwigs Set To Make Out Like Bandits On Disney Acquisition Deal
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CrBriefings/~3/y7Tawxke21I/ The article is pretty much what's described in the headline there, an accounting of what some of Marvel's major players stand to make as the acquisition deal is consummated. I don't want to sound all 3 AM in the dormitory hallway about it, but I do think it's worth noting just where the money goes when a deal takes place, and that we might keep that in mind the next time someone rages about the arrogance of a creator wanting some $5K they're owed, or a family expresses sadness that the patriarch of their family negotiated himself out of a credit 50 years ago or any number of similar, depressing circumstances. The system works, sure, but for whom? |
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comicsreporter
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6:50p |
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comicsreporter
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6:45p |
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comicsreporter
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6:45p |
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fantagraphics
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9:50p |
Paging Doctor Reynolds
http://www.fantagraphics.com/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=Paging-Doctor-Reynolds.html&Itemid=113 
The second issue of hard-boiled detective comic STUMPTOWN opens with the female protagonist flirting with a physician. When Seattle-based illustrator Matthew Southworth needed a model, he turned to an unwitting Eric Reynolds. Southworth explains his choice of Reynolds as the inspiration for the fictional character: "I thought he should be handsome, patient, and friendly and for some reason, Eric Reynolds popped in my head. This despite the fact that we'd never met! Now that I know him a little, I realize he is indeed handsome, patient, and friendly, but he's not a doctor. No matter what he says. You have been warned." Matthew Southworth will be a guest at the fabulous 3rd Anniversary celebration of Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery on Saturday, December 12. He'll join an amazing group of artists including Peter Bagge, Jim Blanchard, Jacques Boyreau, Dame Darcy, Femke Hiemstra, Paul Hornschemeier, Scott Musgrove, Jay Ryan, Jim Woodring, and more. Watch this space for updates! |
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fantagraphics
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9:50p |
Press Release: FBI Announces new Stephen Dixon book
http://www.fantagraphics.com/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=Press-Release-FBI-Announces-new-Stephen-Dixon-book.html&Itemid=113 
FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS ANNOUNCES THE ACQUISITION OF STEPHEN DIXON'S WHAT IS ALL THIS?, A COLLECTION OF MODERN FICTION SEATTLE, WA, NOV. 20, 2009 --- Fantagraphics Books is proud to announce the acquisition of What Is All This?, a 900-page collection of previously uncollected short fiction by two-time National Book Award Nominee (1991, 1995) Stephen Dixon. The collection will be published in May, 2010 and mark the third entry in Fantagraphics burgeoning line of literary fiction, following Alexander Theroux's Laura Warholic (2007) and Monte Schulz's This Side of Jordan (2009). Along with Theroux, Dixon is the second National Book Award nominated-author to publish new fiction through Fantagraphics. "Stephen Dixon is one of the great secret masters - too secret. I return again and again to his stories for writerly inspiration, moral support and comic relief at moments of personal misery, and, several times, in a spirit of outright plagiaristic necessity: borrowing a jumpstart from a few lines of Dixon has been a real problem-solver in my own short fiction. Please read him, you." - Jonathan Lethem Dixon is one of the most acclaimed authors of short stories in the history of American letters. He has published previously through acclaimed independent literary presses like McSweeney's and Melville House, as well as corporate houses like Henry Holt. His work, characterized by mordant humor and a frank attention to human sexuality, has earned him a Guggenheim Fellowship, the American Academy Institute of Arts and Letters Prize for Fiction, the O. Henry Award, and the Pushcart Prize. Fantagraphics Books is proud to present his latest volume of short stories, a massive collection of vintage Dixon, eschewing the modernism and quasi-autobiography of his I-trilogy and instead treating readers to a pared-down, crystalline style more reminiscent of Hemingway. "Dixon is one of the few writers whose new work I will put everything aside to read, which is to say he is in the company of Alice Munro, Lorrie Moore, and Lydia Davis.... Put aside whatever you're reading, and read him." - J. Robert Lennon "This is our third book of prose fiction -after Alex Theroux's Laura Warholic and Monte Schulz's This Side of Jordan- and readers may notice that the common denominator among these books is that language itself serves as the animating literary force," says acquiring editor and Fantagraphics co-publisher Gary Groth. "Dixon's finely chiseled sentences cut to the quick of people's lives. None of these stories have been collected in any book; they have appeared in a wide variety of literary journals over almost 40 years and Dixon has entirely rewritten all of them. Dixon admirers will be cheered to learn that these stories comprise a wholly original work." Centrally concerning himself with the American condition, Dixon explores in What Is All This? obsessions of body image, the increasingly polarized political landscape, sex -in all its incarnations- and the gloriously pointless minutiae of modern life, from bus rides to tying shoelaces. Using the canvas of his native New York (with one significant exception that affords Dixon the opportunity to create a furiously political fable) he astutely captures the edgy madness that infects the city through the neuroses of his narrators with a style that owes as much to Neo-Reaist cinema as it does to modern literature. What Is All This? will be published in hardcover, designed by Fantagraphics award-winning Art Director Jacob Covey. "Stephen Dixon is one of the few writers who completely challenged, then changed how I think about writing and reading," says Covey. "He was the first writer I recognized as making Art that was as viscerally relevant as painting or music. Designing a book for someone who was so formative to me is one of the rarest and most intimidating opportunities I can imagine." "I have read a lot of Dixon's writing. If I didn't like his writing I would not have read so many things of his." - Tao Lin Stephen Dixon was born in 1936 in New York City. He graduated from the City College of New York in 1958 and is a former faculty member of Johns Hopkins University. In his early 20s, he worked as a journalist in radio, interviewing such monumental figures as John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and Nikita Khrushchev. His witty, keenly observed narratives and sharply hewn prose have appeared in every major market magazine from Harper's to Playboy and have earned him two National Book Award nominations -for his novels Frog and Interstate. He still hammers out his fiction on a vintage typewriter. Fantagraphics Books has been the world's leading publisher of comics and graphic novels since 1976, with titles by Robert Crumb, Charles M. Schulz, Joe Sacco, Daniel Clowes, Chris Ware and many others. In 2007, the company launched its prose division, beginning with novels by Alexander Theroux (Laura Warholic) and Jules Feiffer (a reissue of the noted artist's 1963 novel, Harry, the Rat with Women). 
Stephen Dixon |
clear_cut
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12:10p |
Ants!
What a weekend. I got shit on by a pigeon and we have an ant invasion in our apartment. This photo shows what occured when a mere morsel of Whiskey Cake wrapped in a napkin is left in a purse near a door. My whole bag was crawling with ants. I emptied it out and left the thing outside in the cold for 5 hours. They left, but now I'm seeing ants on the floor, here and there, everywhere I look. They must be starving, because we keep a pretty clean house. They are really desperate to be searching the bedroom and bathroom for crumbs. First fruit flies and now ants! Ugh! |
coppervale
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12:39p |
The 2009 Book Tour is OVER!
Save for the last signing event this Friday, at my hometown museum, the SHADOW DRAGONS book tour is done and done. I'm exhausted, and energized, and glad it's over and wishing I was still out there all at the same time. It's been a thrilling month. Spread over five states (Arizona, Texas, Tennessee, Michigan, and California) we managed to get in a huge launch party (Changing Hands), the Texas Book Festival, The Kalamazoo Teen Lit Conference, the Phoenix Faerie Festival, a second launch party (also at Changing Hands), ten school presentations, eight bookstore events, and thirty stock signings. And there were far more hits than misses. We sold lots of books, and more copies of Book One than I expected. Complete sets of all four books were also popular. Post-school visits, I'm hoping we see more sales across the board this week and up to the holidays. For now, I'm drawing the rest of Book Five; and getting out the book orders that came in while I was away (and thank you for your patience!), the bookplates, and the t-shirts. As always, I am extremely grateful for all of the support I've gotten from everyone at Simon & Schuster. From editorial to publicity to the sales teams, I have seen nothing but good work, and I have tried my best to reciprocate by giving every effort I can to promote the books. Their support has made my job easier to do. I'm also grateful to the booksellers, librarians, educators, and especially the fans for supporting me and my books in the way that you have. I would not be able to do this without you. Thank you all. |
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warrenelliscom
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4:35p |
T-Shirt Of The Week #005: HEALTH
http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=7999 TOTW is basically a joke that Ariana and I pull each week in our joint guise as the International Electrophonic Unit. Basically, we take some of the stupider things I’ve said on Twitter and elsewhere, often in a state of extreme alcoholic refreshment or severe sleep deprivation, and put them on a t-shirt. Ariana set up a Cafe Press store (because this is a joke and engaging with a serious maker of t-shirts would be less funny to us), and… well, once a week, here we are.
Through this website and this Cafe Press store, we’re going to release one t-shirt a week. It’ll go live on Monday… and it’ll die Sunday night — midnight UK time, more often than not. Each one lives for a week, and then it’s replaced by the next week’s shirt. Until I either run out of dumb ideas or Ariana’s brain explodes.
So, every Monday, I’ll post the new shirt here, and you can peer at it more at http://www.cafepress.com/electrophonic.
Anyway. I present to you T-Shirt Of The Week #005: HEALTH:
We also offer a couple of perennial items. Mostly because I wanted one of these for myself:
(And also a MAN COOK MEAT WITH FIRE "splatter-shield", because Ariana’s crazy)
Thank you for your kind attention.
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suxdonut
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11:16a |
being old rocks
or should i say, 'becoming the generation that is in charge rocks' im sooo looking forward to thanksgiving this year. cooking turkey at our house, friends stopping by, mom coming over, warmth and tons o food and friends and family and wait is this ME writing this? a few years ago so many societal expectations combined with lack of interest in day-to-day living made the holidays a gross icky ehhhh for me. the past couple years have been wonderful and cozy but so booze-fuelled its all a yummy haze. im really looking forward to my first fully-remembered year - here's to a lifetime of memories to come, happy and otherwise. |
drewweing
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2:00p |
Set to Sea p. 41
I tripped over a headphone cord that was plugged into our laptop yesterday, and the tip snapped off inside! I'm debating over whether or not I should risk trying to get it out with a toothpick and a bit of superglue. |
finkenstein
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12:58p |
BIG SECRETS
SO I have some big secrets I have been sitting on for a while, but I don't think I can sit on them anymore! I've known about this for a couple of weeks, but I didn't want to announce anything until it was final. People have been asking me for a long time if there will be a Chester comic to purchase soon. I've felt bad that I hadn't had the time to provide one but now I am pleased to announce... Top Shelf comics will be publishing Chester 5000 in 2010!!!
AND Top Shelf will also be publishing my time travel memoir, We Can Fix It!!!I'm so excited I can hardly contain my own bodily functions. I'm ridiculously happy because Top Shelf has always been my favorite publisher. In high school I read whatever semi indie thing I could find at the comic shop, but when I got to college my Professor Tom Hart's first book assignment to us was Craig Thompson's Goodbye Chunky Rice (published by Top Shelf). It was a book that blew my mind completely away, it changed forever the way I looked at comics and how I wanted to make comics and it remains the closest a book can get to my heart. I suppose it's kind of silly to dream of being published in the age of web comics, but it's something I have wanted since I first picked up a comic and somehow I couldn't let that dream die. There was a moment when I thought We Can Fix It would just be a self published book that I didn't know how to sell and didn't have a venue to sell it from. I'm so happy it's going to have a home among some of my favorite authors and artists. It's been a really rough couple of years for me where nothing seemed to go right. I made an entire comic book for a band, worked myself to the bone and even got talented artist friends to contribute pin-ups, only to find out when it was done that they had no idea how to publish it and I would have to do all the work submitting it to publishers and trying to negotiate, all WITHOUT ANY PAYMENT WHATSOEVER. The book still hasn't been printed and I haven't been payed. I've also got a ridiculously demanding and frustrating day job that requires long ours and lots of hair pulling. All this stuff just made me feel like I couldn't hack it and I was failing at making comics my real job. So this influx of good news all of a sudden has sort of held me in shock. I've had a hard time talking about this with people because it's one of the best things that's ever happened to me and I don't know how to express that without feeling like I am bragging or a douche. Maybe I'm just so used to complaining! Anyway, if you want to check it out the books are listed in Top Shelf's 2010 publishing schedule! EXCITE BIKE!!! http://www.topshelfcomix.com/news.php?type=5 |
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fantagraphics
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5:48p |
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fantagraphics
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5:48p |
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warren_ellis
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9:35a |
T-Shirt Of The Week #005: HEALTH
TOTW is basically a joke that Ariana and I pull each week in our joint guise as the International Electrophonic Unit. Basically, we take some of the stupider things I’ve said on Twitter and elsewhere, often in a state of extreme alcoholic refreshment or severe sleep deprivation, and put them on a t-shirt. Ariana set up a Cafe Press store (because this is a joke and engaging with a serious maker of t-shirts would be less funny to us), and… well, once a week, here we are.
Through this website and this Cafe Press store, we’re going to release one t-shirt a week. It’ll go live on Monday… and it’ll die Sunday night — midnight UK time, more often than not. Each one lives for a week, and then it’s replaced by the next week’s shirt. Until I either run out of dumb ideas or Ariana’s brain explodes.
So, every Monday, I’ll post the new shirt here, and you can peer at it more at http://www.cafepress.com/electrophonic.
Anyway. I present to you T-Shirt Of The Week #005: HEALTH:
We also offer a couple of perennial items. Mostly because I wanted one of these for myself:
(And also a MAN COOK MEAT WITH FIRE "splatter-shield", because Ariana’s crazy)
Thank you for your kind attention.
(Automatically crossposted from warrenellis.com. Feel free to comment here or at my internet church at Whitechapel. If anything in this post looks weird, it's because LJ is run on steampipes and rubber bands -- please click through to the main site.) |
naomiii
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4:11p |
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bertozzi
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9:42a |
STUFFED! Cover Sketches Part 1
I thought you might like to see the process of creating a cover for STUFFED!
Here’s my favorite of the rejected sketches:
Read a preview here. And pick up a copy here, holidays are nearly upon us, nu?
Originally published at Nick Bertozzi. You can comment here or there. |
skullyflower
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8:05a |
Some Goodie Goods
Hey everyone! I have some new goodies for you in my shop:  I'll be posting more stuff as the month progresses. I'll have more sketchbook stuff soon too. Current Mood:  drained |
johnnyryan
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5:59a |
NEW CHARACTER PARADE 4: PREORDER
 New Character Parade #4 is a limited edition comic recently self-published by Johnny. NCP collects all 24 strips Johnny has drawn featuring ALL NEW characters (including Night Taffy, Black Pampers, Mork from Orklahoma, The Gravy Streakers and many more) into one gorgeous package, wrapped up in a display-worthy three-color letterpress print cover produced by Buenaventura Press. Only 300 copies were produced and we have limited quantities available. Each copy is signed and numbered. Several colorways of the cover were printed, the pic above is just one sample of what you might receive. Please note that Johnny's last few self-published books sold out extremely fast; also these are not available in stores. This is a pre-order, item will ship in mid-December. Only $10. To buy click the image above for the link. |
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