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There's some kind of poetic irony to this interview- Watterson's first in 15 years- appearing just days after the death of Salinger. 
Doesn't that cover art look like a fine design for a new Spider-Man animated series? You know, something that could pull in the male viewers that have long eluded Disney? That's what I thought. But then I have a lot of crazy ideas.Marvel is proud to announce a bold new beginning for the critically acclaimed Marvel Adventures line with SPIDER-MAN #1 and SUPER HEROES #1! Perfect for readers of all ages, these two all-new series are the perfect jumping on point for readers new and old with oversized debut issues, packed with a full length all-new stories and bonus back up stories, just like the comics from when you were a kid! Subsequent issues will be regular sized and priced at $2.99, perfect for everyone’s summer reading!
Viacom is shutting down NICK MAGAZINE this week and will lay off about 30 staffers.
...like other magazines, Nickelodeon has suffered from the double whammy of more of its audience going to the Internet (darn those early adapters) and a prolonged advertising slump. Although the cable network remains dominant, the value the magazine provided as a marketing tool for it had faded over the last few years.
Cosmic Debris Etc. has sued two children's book authors, claiming its "Emily the Strange" character does not infringe on Marjorie Sharmat's and Marc Simont's "Nate the Great" copyrights... Cosmic Debris asks that the defendants be restrained from recovering damages regarding Emily, and that they be prohibited from claiming that Emily infringes on their work.
Nick Smith of the Pasadena Public Library writes in to offer some advice to his fellow librarians regarding building graphic novel areas in their libraries: For those of you who need ammunition in getting your administration to let you create separate graphic novel areas, I have recently received some startling circulation statistics.After a long struggle, our library got separate graphic novel labels and shelving areas for adult, YA, JRHI and Juvenile graphic novels. I have started gathering circulation statistics covering what happens, now that these areas are separate and visible.
Among other things, the increase in the circulation of the Juvenile graphic novels is astounding. From July 1 of 2008 through March 31 of 2009, the average copy of our juvenile graphic novels circulated 16 times! By comparison, the average juvenile novel circulated 3 times. That's more than a fivefold increase, which is a LOT more than I expected. For the Junior High collection, the average graphic novel circulated 6 times, compared to 3 for the comparable text novels. For the YA collection, the circulation of graphic novels is also about double that of the comparable novels. What made this interesting is that until recently, our YA novels included a lot of graphic novels that hadn't been re-cataloged. THOSE started flying off the shelves once they were moved to the Graphic Novel shelves.
Proving that they still love promoting bullshit comic book gimmicks, the mainstream media has picked up the story about Archie Andrews getting married. The Archie news blog reported that they will celebrate ARCHIE #600 by running an imaginary story that takes place five years after high school graduation. The story hit the bigger comic sites before making it to the national news. When I tweeted about it earlier this week I thought the most interesting aspect was that it's being written by Dark Knight producer Michael Uslan. But for all the normals and squares at MSNBC the big question is- who will Archie finally choose? The obvious choice is Jughead, but my money's on Reggie. That intense rivalry they shared was nothing more than misdirected sexual tension.
Bluewater Productions proved our national nightmare was still ongoing when it announced their next wretched Political Power comic book- PUPPY POWER: BO OBAMA. Yes, the story of the White House dog. This one is geared toward kids. Unlike previous issues focusing on Sarah Palin and Michelle Obama which were geared toward morons who eat up worthless "collectible" garbage.
And the biggest WTF item of the week was the announcement that Fantagraphics will publish a brand new kids comic called RIP, M.D. Now, even though they specialize in artsy, cutting edge adult fare, Fantagraphics is no stranger to kids material. Granted all of their kid friendly stuff is by cartoonists who have been dead for 50 years, but still. You see, the mind boggling part of this news is that RIP, M.D. is actually a tie-in for an animated series. This is your basic commercial franchise start-up. Crazy shit for a publishing company built on a counter culture ethos. Next you'll be telling me that MAD MAGAZINE accepts advertising.
JELLABY: MONSTER IN THE CITY is the second book in Kean Soo's fun series about a girl and her monster-dragon-thingy friend. This is a fun and funny book that hasn't gotten enough play as far as I'm concerned. Check out a preview and other Jellaby stories HERE.
The one you probably have heard of is G-MAN: LEARNING TO FLY #1 by Chris Giarrusso. It's a compilation of his superhero comedy shorts that's worth checking out. And it's digest sized, which is the best format for this kind of light material.In partnership with VIZ Media and its “VIZ Signature” line of graphic novels, IKKI is bringing the works of some of its top creators to the English-language audience via a groundbreaking online monthly manga magazine.The first series featured in this launch is CHILDREN OF THE SEA by Daisuke Igarashi. Each month, new chapters will be offered online in their entirety, for free. After the completion of the online serialization of the first volume, CHILDREN OF THE SEA volume one will become available as a VIZ Signature graphic novel.
I checked out the CHILDREN OF THE SEA preview and it looks like an impressive young adult comic. See for yourself HERE.
Remember Doug Wright? His cartoons ran in Canadian newspaper magazines for 35 years and a generation or two of Canadians grew up with his main character, a rambunctious little Canadian boy-cousin of Charlie Brown.
Nipper, as he was called, was born in print a year and a half before Charlie Brown and two years before Dennis the Menace. Charles Schulz and Hank Ketcham, Charlie Brown and Dennis’s respective creators, are enshrined in the pantheon of great cartoonists. Wright, on the other hand, though heralded as “Canada’s best known cartoonist” during his lifetime, has been all but forgotten.
More’s the pity because the creator of Nipper and Doug Wright’s Family was a great cartoonist, says Seth, the author of Palooka-Ville, Clyde Fans and the forthcoming George Sprott. As if it takes one to know one, Seth is a great cartoonist himself. The two facts, that the work of Wright, who died in 1983 at age 65, is great and nearly forgotten, are what spurred Seth on to bring him back into the foreground and set our cultural memory straight.
Danger! Intrigue! Stupidity! Classic Antonio Prohias SPY VS. SPY collections on the way!So, what happens to Diamond if Marvel and DC go away? If Diamond lost that much business within, say, a twelve month timeframe, they'd either have to close shop entirely or dramatically alter their operations with tons of layoffs and warehouse closures and whatnot. You can't lose over 90% of your business and continue operating as normal. There'd be lots of chaos and confusion within and around Diamond, in which case Haven (distributors) would be ideally situated to step up to the plate and help all the worried comic retailers who don't know whether or not Diamond even got the order they placed, much less will be able to fulfill it.
- The new Star Trek is getting good reviews from the geeks and the normals. That's quite a feat. IDW has it's own tie-in prequel comic. But more importantly, they're also releasing a brand new Star Trek 2 adaptation. What? Star Trek 1&3 had comic adaptations, but Wrath of Khan didn't? 27 years later IDW brings Kirk's perm to comics!
You may be wondering, "How can I best celebrate this festive day?" You might consider:
Finding a cartoonist near you and mowing his lawn, at least the front lawn (especially the hard part with the hill).
While you're at it trim his shrubs, so the mailman can find his front door again.
Does his house need vacuuming? Well, what are you waiting for?
Who left all these dishes in the sink?
The cats; somebody feed the cats.
You could take him to lunch at the Mexican place down the street, where they're having some no doubt cartoonist-related celebration.
For God's sake laugh at his cartoons. If they appear in a newspaper, buy extra copies (or multiple subscriptions, even) and laugh at them too.
- What can DC do to make me look forward to its upcoming WEDNESDAY COMICS anymore than I already am? How about a preview of some beautiful METAL MEN pencils by the legendary Jose Luiz Garcia-Lopez?
The panel opened for questions, and a fan asked about future Disney titles. Mosher responded that in addition to THE INCREDIBLES ongoing series, BOOM! Studios will release MUPPET ROBIN HOOD, MUPPET PEG-LEG, CARS, TOY STORY and MONSTERS INC. Waid noted that writing THE INCREDIBLES has been "the joy of a lifetime" and the next arc features Jack-Jack getting an alien cold which results in a city-wide outbreak of super powers.
When asked what can be done to get more kids into reading comics, Waid responded that it's a matter of accessibility, getting comics into newsstands, drugstores, and convenience stores. Mosher also noted that making the material available digitally contributes to overall accessibility. He added that BOOM! Studios has a half-dozen graphic novels available for free online, and eventually will be digitally distributing comics on the iPhone and Google Android devices.
BOOM! is the most exciting place in comics right now, which sounds like bullshit PR jazzhands, but that's how I see it. We're being pursued by every agency and studio in town and have allied with Fox and Sony and Disney and many others on a wide array of projects--and it's always a great fit because they let us do what we do. Our partners let us produce comic books, not thinly disguised movie pitches in comics form. Everyone in this town who's dealt with us knows I hold a very hard line editorially; you can, as some have, come in with a story idea that is tailor-made for movies or TV, but if it doesn't make a good comic book first and foremost--if it's not visual, if it's not kinetic, if it doesn't take advantage of the medium, and so forth--then we pass, even if it means Andy, Ross and I leave money on the table as a point of integrity.
Plus, we're covering all distribution bases, which few companies are. We're at the vanguard of digital distribution, having been the first to release new issues through stores and on MySpace Comics simultaneously. We just cut a newsstand distribution deal to make sure the Pixar stuff gets into the hands of kids, which is gargantuan. We have a very strong bookstore deal for our trade paperbacks and collected volumes. We've just launched a cub imprint called BOOM! Kids especially for that material, and I cannot believe the hunger for THE INCREDIBLES and THE MUPPET SHOW comics--the first issues sold about 75% more than I would in my wildest dreams ever have projected, and that's the kind of development that gives heat to everything we do.
"Unlike other cons, this is totally geared towards kids and family," Simmons told CBR News. "Some people think I mean ‘Kiddies and Family.' Kids, to me, means anybody under the age of 21. We have teens here, we have tweens - we had a young girl named Jessica who came in 2007 and was just a participant having a good time." Simmons went on to explain that Jessica Weiss, age 12, returned for the second show in 2008, not only as a participant, but as an exhibitor. "Her father [contacted me] in January of 2008 just before our other con saying Jessica did her own comic and she wanted to rent a table and sell it. He asked if that would be all right," Simmons explained. "What better place for a kid to sell her own comics than a kids' comic-con? She was here last year and she's back this year with a different issue." The 12-year-old Weiss is the creator and publisher of the comic "Geezerville," and was on hand all day selling copies of her three issues.
Not only is she an accomplished writer and artist, she's a fan of comics as well. "Right now my favorite is LITTLE LULU," said Weiss. "Even now it makes sense even though it's out of date."
The type of enthusiasm and creativity exhibited by Weiss is exactly the atmosphere that Simmons is promoting with Kids' Comic Con. "Some of my friends' careers were actually determined by their comic book passions," he said. "Some of them went into science because they wanted to be Reed Richards. That field spoke to them because of their enthusiasm for those characters."
ARCHIE & FRIENDS #131 "Zero to Rock Hero Part Two":
The video game battle of the bands from the previous issue rages on... but now the event is broadcast on TV! Last issue, The Archies and Josie and the Pussycats challenged one another to the hottest new videogame, Legendary Rock Heroes! Now their competition is a reality show sensation, complete with all the trappings. Can the rockers stay true to their creative roots, or will instant success turn them into an assembly line of pre-fab pop?
I'm absolutely fascinated by the Archie Comics line. I read them as a kid and I still own a larger number of Archie digests than any healthy adult should own (the number a healthy adult owns, by the way, is zero). Today they continue to sell a dozen different titles and digests each month, mostly through newsstand outlets. I've got to set up an interview with Victor Gorelick and find out how they do it. How do you sell a monthly SONIC THE HEDGEHOG comic book (200 issues and counting)in this day and age?!
A few months ago the usual gang of idiots at MAD magazine took a hit. MAD was reduced to a quarterly publishing schedule and the brand new MAD KIDS was taken behind the woodshed and shot twice in the head. It's kind of a modern miracle that MAD still exists at all, especially as a magazine. After The Onion made the move to the WWW. it took MAD's place as the nexus of cultural satire. But MAD magazine still serves an important purpose - keeping comics on the newsstands. There are precious few comic magazines left in the world.
- Happy 50th anniversary to SPIDER-MAN ADVENTURES! Dig it - A kid friendly series of self-contained stories has made it to fifty issues and lead the way for an entire line of similar titles. Congratulations, Wall Crawler. Now go get yourself something to eat. Yeesh.
Here's a rundown of the nominees for this year's Eisner awards. Half of the kid-specific choices look worthy enough. Following those I've cherry picked the kids stuff from some other catagories. You can see the complete list of nominees HERE.
Best Continuing Series:
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