Journalista for Dec. 13, 2010: Tokyo dream police

Posted by on December 13th, 2010 at 4:00 AM

 

 

“Yes, I was really shocked — I was astonished and responded ‘Really? Really? It’s come to that now already?’”

- Boys’-love cartoonist Shouko Takaku

 

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From Freddie Williams’ demonstration video.

 

Recently posted to our homepage:

  • Roland Kelts examines Peepo Choo cartoonist Felipe Smith’s career as a manga artist in Japan.

  • Here’s the first installment of a two-part video, in which DC Comics artist Freddie Williams demonstrates his digital-illustration process.

  • Rob Clough offers short takes on a number of funny minicomics.

  • More classic Playboy cartoons and illustrations, courtesy of Tom Crippen.

  • Over at The Hooded Utilitarian, Sean Michael Robinson discusses Mitsuru Adachi and the difficulties of selling sport genre manga, Alex Buchet continues his series on comics’ contribution to language, and Eric Berlatsky discusses comics, time, relativity and modernity.

And in the news…

 

Above the Fold

 

Life in interesting times

  • Early this morning, the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly’s general affairs committee voted to approve a revised bill, based upon earlier drafts that targeted comics, animation or videogames featuring characters under 18 years of age depicted in sexual situations, but has been greatly expanded to regulate the sale of works that “unjustifiably glorify or exaggerate” depictions of a wide variety of socially unapproved sexual activities. A vote will be held on the bill in the full Assembly on Wednesday, where Democratic Party of Japan legislators have already agreed to support its passage — with the addition of “a supplementary resolution [...] which requests the prudent application of the law.” (One wonders what Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara would have to say about that.) Meanwhile, Japan’s leading manga publishers have vowed to boycott next year’s Tokyo International Anime Fair in response.

    •  

    Screenshot from this Telegraph video, in which Lars Vilks discusses the bombing.

  • In Stockholm, Sweden, two bomb blasts exploded on Saturday afternoon. Two bystanders were injured, and a man suspected as being one of the bombers was killed in one of the explosions:

    Shortly before the blasts, Swedish news agency TT received a threatening letter referring to Sweden’s presence in Afghanistan and caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad drawn by [Lars Vilks,] a Swedish cartoonist. The letter included digital sound files with a recording in broken Swedish and in Arabic.

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  • The headline says it all: “Diamond Comic Distributors one of the 222 Obamacare exemption companies.”

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  • The lead in those Wonder Woman drinking glasses? A-OK with Uncle Sam, so long as it’s fanboys drinking from them, and not little kids. Translation: Die, fanboy, die.

 

 

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Graphic NYC

 

Profiles

 

  • Paul Gravett on Mustashrik

    “I think the real factor in regards to business in comics is what region of the world you are in and how original your voice as creator, storyteller, is. In my experience, especially in regards to the UK, the market is so small that I don’t really regard it as a successful business venture currently, and as a medium it can be hard to get your own idea published as everything is dictated by commerce. Whereas in France from what I can see/read/hear for example, the comics culture flourishes to the equal level of art, because it is art, and they understand that there.”

 

Also

 

Reviews

 

  • Tucker Stone on New Character Parade


    ©2010 Johnny Ryan.

    “The change could be Prison Pit, it could be Angry Youth # 14, but more likely, those are mere outgrowths of a more exciting development: he’s moved on. He’s written the best shit joke, his best rape gag, his funniest story about two kids who kill one another. What he’s doing now — toying with a formula he arguably perfected back in the early pages of Comics Book Holocaust — is exploring the tangential gags that made that last issue of Angry Youth such a revelation.”

 

Also

 

Commentary

 

  • Michel Fiffe on Kyle Baker

    “Kyle Baker used to draw with pencils and ink and white out and paper back in the 80s. According to his high school classmates, he used to ink Marvel Comics assignments on the NYC Subway trains. Baker would later describe this inking technique to The Comics Journal as ‘expressionistic.’ By the mid-90s, he started toying with computers and he hasn’t looked back since. Much to a few purists’ chagrin, he’s almost completely abandoned the old ways in order to make room for the new.”

 

Also

  • Kiel Phegley: Brenda Starr… the rest of the story
  • Noah Berlatsky: Odd superheroine out
  • Douglas Wolk: Ten comics we’re still waiting for
  • Bob Temuka: 18 observations after a long weekend spent largely in the comic shop and second-hand bookstores of Sydney, Australia
  • Chris Sims: How the fabricated A.V. Club review messed it up for the rest of us

 

Business and Craft

 

  • Josh Blair: Thoughts on Etsy

    “Etsy has been a strange cat for me. Sometime I forget that I even have comics for sale on there until I get an order. I’ve never been big into the Etsy community. I tried once and didn’t get much out of it. But I have done pretty well, in comparison to my other sales efforts.”

 

Comics and Art

 

  • Kate Beaton: New York sketches


    ©2010 Kate Beaton.

    A reminder, in case you’d forgotten, that Kate Beaton is a cartoon genius.

 

Also

 

Comics Culture

 

 

Also

 

 

Events Calendar

 

Today:

 

  • Dec. 13 (London, England): Posy Simmonds will talk comics at the Rag Factory on Heneage Street, from 6:30-9:30PM. Details here.

 

This Week:

 

  • Dec. 14 (Bethesda, MD): Richard Thompson will be signing books and meeting readers at Big Planet Comics on Fairmont Avenue, from 7-9PM. Details here.

  • Dec. 16 (London, England): Pat Mills and Jenny McDade discuss their years writing U.K. girls’ comics at the London Print Studio on Harrow Road, from 6:30-8:30PM. 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?)

 

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This entry was posted on Monday, December 13th, 2010 at 4:00 am and is filed under News.

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