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Comics International: R.I.P.
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Reviews, Independent,
Numerous replaces reported it and then the founding editor confirmed it. The British comics magazine, Comics International, has ceased to be. I’ve read a lot of comic book magazines over the years, from The Comics Buyer’s Guide and The Comics Journal to Wizard and Hero Illustrated. My favorite of all of them was Comics International, which was founded by Dez Skinn and under his guidance ran for 200 issues.
Dez was no stranger to comics before CI – he worked on the magazines Doctor Who Weekly and House of Hammer and founded his own company, Quality Communications. From there he launched the acclaimed Warrior magazine which featured the revival of Marvelman/Miracleman as well as the original V For Vendetta. He started CI back in 1990.
Click to continue reading Comics International: R.I.P.
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| Dez Skinn
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Sneak Peek: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Posted by Robin Paulson Categories: Reviews, Independent,
When Tony Lee set out to adapt Seth Grahame-Smith’s imaginative retelling of Jane Austen’s classic, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, his goal was simple and nerdishly fantastic: “I got to 150 pages and noticed that we needed more zombie scenes.”
Artist Cliff Richards seemed to have had no problem with adding to the graphic novel’s zombie population, as he’s worked with other classic monsters on his 5-year stint with Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8.
The book, published by Del Rey, is in stores now. Check out more previews of the novel after the jump!
Click to continue reading Sneak Peek: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Read More | USA Today
Weekend Reading: Vertical, Fantastic Four, Cowboys & Aliens and Lost
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, DC Comics, Independent, Marvel Comics, Viz Media,
Happy holiday weekend for those of us in the US who love a long weekend, some grilled meat and a cold Pabst Blue Ribbon. And since there’s no football game, you can spend that extra time surfing the internet. Here are some links to fill the game-less void:
Vertical: Given the significant changes at manga publishers Viz (massive layoffs) and CMX (DC shuttered the division), it’s interesting to read about someone with a little different take on events. Rod Lott at Bookgasm has a chat with Ed Chavez at Vertical (publishers of Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack, among other things). “While I will always say there is plenty of grade-A material to license from Japan available, access to those properties has become quite limited over the last three to four years. I find it curious that this lack of competition has occurred during the recent decline of the U.S. manga market.”
Steve Perry: The death of the Thundercats and Timespirits writer is just about the saddest way for a comic book creator to go. Johnny Bacardi exchanged correspondence with him recently, but I don’t want to spoil his story, except to say that it’s one you’ll want to read.
Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Vertical, Fantastic Four, Cowboys & Aliens and Lost
I never got to read Gordo when it was syndicated - it never ran in any papers in my area when I was a kid. It was always a strip that I read about, instead of actually reading. That changed as I got older and got to read longer runs of of it. It deserves all the praise it gets for its gentle humor and its brilliant design. You can read comics on the iPhone all day long, but it’s one panel at a time. To appreciate the craftsmanship of a Gordo strip, you need to take in the whole thing. The guy was just great, and he deserved a much wider audience and he deserves to be read and experienced still today. With comics in this Golden Age period of archival reprint heaven - c’mon, even Gasoline Alley is getting collected - Gordo should be right there with everyone else. (I’m looking at you, Dean Mullaney)!
Continuing my series on cartooning and cartoonists, Gus wrote about himself and his work back in 1964. This is pulled from an oversized saddle-stitched magazine from Allied Publications with the creatively-challenged title These Top Cartoonists Tell How They Create America’s Favorite Comics. It featured an introduction by Beetle Bailey’s Mort Walker and was compiled by Allen Willette.
Here’s Gus on Gus and Gordo:
Click to continue reading Gus Arriola and Gordo
Paul Levitz: The Legion Of Super-Heroes #1
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, DC Comics,
When it was announced that Paul Levitz would be leaving his position as President and Publisher of DC Comics and transitioning to writing comic books again, I thought it was a little weird. Kind of like the CEO of General Motors leaving the executive suite because he really wanted to tighten bolts down on the assembly line.
At least DC appears to be making a big deal about Paul’s move by launching his return with the Legion of Super-Heroes #1, so he’s not taking over some book that’s already in decline. I’ve met Paul a bunch of times. We’ve chatted at con parties and had lunch and dinner together several times, especially when he was negotiating to buy Malibu Comics. I’ve even pitched him a couple of times in the past when he would visit the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank.
He has a lot of great industry facts and anecdotes in his head - we spent one lunch talking about paper trends and availability five years down the road (he kept track) as well as sales trends for comics during the various economic downturns over the industry’s history (he kept track). Since the guy was almost my boss, and he probably paid for some if not all of those meals, I have a pro-Levitz bias.
Click to continue reading Paul Levitz: The Legion Of Super-Heroes #1
Tim Burton has directed a ton of quirkily wonderful movies – from Beetlejuice and Batman to Edward Scissorhands and Alice In Wonderland. He’s won all kinds of awards and accolades and made Johnny Depp a star. But you know what he has that no other celebrity has so far? His own seaweed!
That’s right. There’s a new brand of Tim Burton seaweed, courtesy of Bridgette Clarkston, a University of New Brunswick researcher, up in Canada.
Clarkston, so obviously the smartest girl in school this year, discovered the previously unidentified species through DNA samples and named it Euthora timburtoni, citing the director Tim Burton as someone who inspires her. The underwater weed can currently be found in the water off British Columbia.
I think there’s still time to get her on a panel for San Diego and I think this could be the start of a whole new Hollywood trend. How about the James Cameron‘s 3-D krill? Michael Bay’s nudibranch? Dennis Dugan’s Clownfish? Someone should get their agent on the phone right now!
[Artwork: a cool Edward Scissorhands drawing by Tim Burton]
Read More | Euthora Timburtoni
Weekend Reading: Brian Wood, Joss Whedon, Groucho and Bob Fingerman
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Reviews,
The hits just keep on coming as the comics industry starts looking like someone’s old four-color punching bag. On the heels of the cutbacks at Viz Media, now comes word that DC has shuttered their CMX imprint. And now you’re wondering, is this all just manga-specific or is it an early warning system for a greater industry-wide problem that we don’t want to talk about because…hey! Look! The new comics are here!
But that’s a question for people smarter than me to think about. I’m busy looking forward to July 22, where I’ll be at the Marriott bar in San Diego navel-gazing into my second Pale Ale. Now let’s read some fun stuff…
Brian Wood’s DMZ, Matt Bird makes the case that Hollywood should seriously consider adapting it. “We get angry when the occupied become insurgents, but we also can’t help but wonder: ‘What would I do if the war came to my town?’ That big, fat question needs to be vented on screen.”
Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Brian Wood, Joss Whedon, Groucho and Bob Fingerman
Little Orphan Annie, the plucky little orphan girl, died today after an extended illness, just a few weeks shy of her 86th birthday. The official cause of death was listed as a broken heart after discovering that she’d been appearing in just 20 newspapers.
Afflicted by a disease that gave her blank eyeballs and kept her perpetually a little girl, Annie began her career in the self-titled comic strip as the ward of the infamous war profiteer Daddy Warbucks, a mouthpiece for conservative politics who launched frequent anti-union tirades. Because of her association with one of the world’s richest men, Annie was often the target of thieves, spies, and villains.
Click to continue reading Little Orphan Annie, Dead at 85
Read More | Little Orphan Annie
Quote of the Day: Chris Hemsworth on Thor Costume
Posted by Robin Paulson Categories: Interviews, Movies, Marvel Comics,
“I put the [costume] on and said ‘It’s not very comfortable, but it looks amazing, so it’s all good.’”
- Actor Chris Hemsworth on donning the superhero duds for Kenneth Branagh’s adaptation of Thor.
(Make sure to check out other notable quotes.)
Read More | Splash Page
Weekend Reading: Frazetta, Viz, Carl Barks and Facebook
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Marvel Comics,
You know it’s going to be a bad week when one of the most beloved fantasy artists passes away. He was absolutely one of my favorite artists and one of the first artists who, like Jack Kirby, could get me to buy pretty much anything with his name on it.
Tom Spurgeon has an excellent overview of the late artist’s career. “Frazetta’s art on the Warren Magazines Creepy, Eerie and eventually Vampirella combined some of the pulp tendencies for which he was soon to become very well known with a sense of classic horror. They remain some of the company’s most iconic pieces of art.”
Viz Media: I often post job listings here for Viz Media, the longtime manga publisher in San Francisco – longtime as in they’ve been doing it since it wasn’t quite so cool to do it. So I was saddened to hear that they let go more than 50 of their staffers. That’s, I think, the largest layoff of comics professionals that I can remember and certainly the largest in recent years. I hate to see that kind of thing happen, and I wish everyone the best as they figure out what to do next. Heidi MacDonald at Comics Beat recently posted this link from Dan Blank’s website; I’ve practically memorized it.
Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Frazetta, Viz, Carl Barks and Facebook
Read More | Comics Beat
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