“Comics’ relationship to their own history often feels like a marriage where one partner’s potential is being really held back in order to protect or build up the ego of the other partner. And I like comics better than I like comics history, so I say ‘girlfriend, leave!’ Comics > cartooning.”

 

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Recently posted to our homepage:

• Rich Kreiner reviews Jason’s Low Moon.
• R. Fiore presents his latest aphorism.
• Over at The Hooded Utilitarian, Jason Overby talks about what’s been gained and lost as comics have gained a wider cultural place.

And in the news…

 

Above the Fold

 

Life in interesting times

• “Borders third quarter results, released just after the market closed Thursday afternoon, provided little sign that the company is turning around as total revenue fell 17.6%, to $470.9 million and comparable store sales dropped 12.6%.”

 


• Another legacy strip finally leaves the funny pages, decades too late to do the comic-strip form any good.

 

• Mark Waid is leaving his position as chief creative officer at Boom! Studios.

 

• “BookScan, the A.C. Nielsen service that tracks book sales using point-of-purchase information in thousands of bookstores — plus online sales from Amazon — has now made its sales data available through Amazon.”

 

• Matthew Murray presents his month-to-month estimates for sales of selected genre-based indy titles to Direct Market retailers, now updated for October.

 

• Andrew Girdwood interviews retailer Joe Gordon, of London’s Forbidden Planet.

 

 

 

Profiles

 

• Ezra Winton on Joe Sacco

  “Whenever I went to some place, I thought, these people aren’t going to talk to a cartoonist. I mean, what politician or general is going to say, ‘Oh, a cartoonist? Yes, let him in and I’ll give him my time.’ So, almost by default you end up in cafes and bars and places like that where you’re mixing with people more than you are with those in charge, the ones who call the shots.”

 

Also

• Jo Colvin on Cliff Sterrett
• Laura Hudson on Nicholas Gurewitch
• Mike Rhode on Richard Thompson

 

Reviews

 

• Sean Kleefeld on Francis Sharp in the Grip of the Uncanny
  
  ©2010 Brittney Sabo and Anna Bratton.

  “At some level, the book has a Wizard of Oz/Alice in Wonderland notion running through it. Young kid who doesn’t care for his/her home life falls into a magical realm, and learns to appreciate how great home really is. What strikes me as somewhat different here, though, is that, while Francis is surprised and apprehensive about this new world, it bears a number of similarities to his old world.”

 

Also

• Tom Spurgeon on The Great Treasury of Christmas Comic Book Stories
• J. Caleb Mozzocco on Flesh and Bone
• Matthew Brady on A Drunken Dream and Other Stories
• Johanna Draper Carlson on The Fart Party Vol. 2
• Andrew Wheeler on Denys Wortman’s New York
• Jason Thompson on Battle Angel Alita
• David Charles Bitterbaum on various superhero comics

 

Commentary

 

• Stephen R. Bissette on Gary Arlington

  “I met Gary Arlington during that first trip in November, 1978, a trip which began with the headlines about the Guyana suicide ‘massacre’ hitting front page newspapers visible everywhere in the city, and ended with Tom driving us to the airport as a high-speed car chase was happening downtown (as we could hear on Tom’s car radio): Mayor George Moscone and city supervisor Harvey Milk had just been assassinated, and their assassin—recently retired city supervisor Dan White—was being pursued by police.

  “Like I said, a memorable trip.”

 

Also

• Timothy Hodler: The most amazing review of the year
     (Also: The A.V. Club apologizes.)
• Rod McKie: Best of the year

 

Business and Craft

 

• Tom Richmond: The dangers of accepting PayPal or credit cards

  “[...] what happens if the very payment the client makes to you isn’t a ‘real’ payment until up to 2 months after it’s made? What if that money the customer paid for those goods that went into the cash register had a fishing line tied to it, and later on the customer had merely to yank on the line and the money was gone?”

 

Comics and Art

 

• Harry Lee Green (one, two): The All-American Art of Cartooning
  

  Lengthy excerpts from a World War II-era book published by Higgins Ink.

 

Also

• Ger Apeldoorn (one, two): Ray Bailey’s Bruce Gentry
• Grantbridge Street: Burne Hogarth’s Tarzan of the Apes
• Grantbridge Street: Sergio Aragonés’ Louder Than Words
• Grantbridge Street: Kurtzman and Elder’s “Mole!”
• Grantbridge Street: Alex Niño’s “Break Even”
• Grantbridge Street: Joe Orlando’s “The Sisters”
• Grantbridge Street: Eric Bradbury’s “The House of Dolmann”
• Grantbridge Street: Leo Baxendale’s “Sweeny Toddler”
• Comicrazys: Harvey Eisenberg’s “Hick and Slick”
• Joe Decie: The fabulous find
• James Kochalka: Tour of wonders
• Dylan Horrocks: Beautiful lies
• Katie Green: Self-publishing tips
     (Link via Joe Gordon.)
• Diesel Sweeties: Decide you’re immortal. Problem solved.
• Allan Holtz: Little Sister

 

Multimedia

 

• Comics-related podcasts
  • NPR’s Neal Conan speaks with Neil Gaiman about editing Best American Comics 2010 and his love of the medium (13.9MB).
  • “Amherst College alum Bill Amend and Darby Conley were brought together to discuss their work in cartooning.” (34.1MB)
  • Panel Borders‘ Alex Fitch presents interviews with Howard Hardiman and Bryan Talbot (31.2MB).
  • Chris Cilla is the featured guest on this week’s episode of Inkstuds (43.5MB).
  • Deep Discussions presents a conversation with former Caliber Comics publisher Gary Reed (158.4MB).
  • Commentary and criticism: Manga Out Loud offers a roundtable discussion on NAME’s One Piece (71.3MB); Fourcast brings the superhero conversation (43.1MB); and here’s the latest episodes of Wait, What? (one [42.4MB], two [66.7MB]).

  All podcasts are in available in downloadable MP3 audiofile format.

 

Events Calendar

 

This Weekend:

 

• Dec. 11-12 (Austin, TX): Hang out with your favorite online cartoonists during Webcomics Rampage at Dragon’s Lair Comics & Fantasy on Burnet Road. Details here.
• Dec. 11 (Berkeley, CA): Indy cartoonists reading sword-and-sorcery stories? See it at Comic Relief on Shattuck Avenue, beginning at 6PM. Details here.
• Dec. 11 (Seattle, WA): It’s a festival of art and comics at the fourth-anniversary celebration at the Fantagraphics Bookstore on Vale Street, from 6-9PM. Details here.

 

Want to see your comics-related event listed here? Email a link to dirk@tcj.com and let me know. Please include an online link to which I can send people for more information. No sales-only events, please — it’s nice that you’ve marked things down at your store or website, but I won’t be listing it here. (Note: Under no circumstances will I link to a Facebook page. Seriously, what idiot “advertises” their event solely on a website that requires registration to see the advertisement?)