“I can extol the virtues of back issues and comics history until I’m blue in the face, but the truth is that comics is growing beyond its own familiar borders. It’s so fractured now that we don’t have to all be conversant in all the current releases and hot topics or ancient history.”

 

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Recently posted to our homepage:

• Nathan Wilson presents the first installment of a three-part interview with writer and former DC Comics publisher Paul Levitz.
• International comics: Bart Croonenborghs talks comics and schlock with Belgian cartoonist Serge Buyse.
• Rob Clough reviews Karl Stevens’ recent book, The Lodger.
• Tom Crippen reconsiders Alison Bechdel’s Essential Dykes to Watch Out For, and reproduces art from a 1969 issue of Playboy.
• Over at The Hooded Utilitarian, Erica Friedman talks about Hana no Asuka-gumi and how fashion makes literature, while Noah Berlatsky reviews the greatest superhero movie ever made.

And in the news…

 

Above the Fold

 

Life in interesting times

• “Year-to-date sale of comics and graphic novels through Diamond Comic Distributors are off sharply when compared with sales during the first 11 months of 2009,” reports ICv2. For a more optimistic take, here’s a second opinion from John Jackson Miller.

 

• Daryl Cagle notes that three full-time positions for editorial cartoonists have been eliminated in the space of a month.



 

• The Christie’s auction house have withdrawn a 1903 H.M. Bateman drawing of a Jewish stereotype from the market, fearing that the work might violate U.K. hate-crime laws.

  (Right: the caricature in question.)

 

• In Virginia, “a Shirlington dog groomer filed a federal lawsuit Thursday accusing the Arlington County zoning board of violating her freedom of speech by ordering her to alter whimsical cartoon mural of dogs, bones and paw prints on the back wall of her business.”

 

• The job transitions continue at DC Entertainment: Amit Desai has been named executive vice president for franchise management, while publicity manager Alex Segura has decided to leave.

 

• Johanna Draper Carlson notes that there are a helluva lot of licensed works in this year’s crop of Free Comic Book Day offerings.

 

 

 

Profiles

 

• Mark Medley on Charles Burns

  “I was not a happy-go-lucky kid. […] Punk music came around right about the right time for me to fully embrace it.”

 

Also

• Monica Hesse on Maira Kalman
• Andrea Queirolo on Joe Matt
     (Scroll down for English translation.)
• Justin Farrar on Ron Regé Jr.
• Allan Holtz on Emma M. Gordon

 

Reviews

 

• Karen Green on 300
  
  Panel detail ©1998, 1999 Frank Miller Inc.

  “So, given the problematic nature of the story Miller was telling, what was left to discuss? A critical analysis of why Miller might tell the story the way he does, of course! Not to mention, a discussion of the visual elements, which were all the more notable to me fresh from my Mississippi discussion of the building blocks of panel and page.”

 

Also

• John Seven on How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less
• Matthew Brady on Pang, the Wandering Shaolin Monk Vol. 1
• Nina Stone on Dracula: The Company of Monsters #4
• Andrew Wheeler on Grandville Mon Amour
• Andrew Wheeler on Luna Park
• Andrew Wheeler on B.P.R.D.: King of Fear
• Khursten Santos on Sundome
• Don MacPherson on The Adventures of Unemployed Man
• Richard Bruton on Scary Go Round: Ghosts
• Douglas Wolk and David Allen Jones on various titles

 

Commentary

 

• Andrew Kunka: Will Eisner and the “graphic novel”

  “It is now fairly common knowledge that Eisner neither invented the term itself nor the form that we call a ‘graphic novel,’ but it is fair to say that he popularized the term when he later used it to promote the book upon publication from Baronet Books in 1978, and, for better or worse, the term has stuck.”

 

Also

• Rich Johnston: Woman of Marvel
• Sankaku Complex (one, two): Top mangaka you’d never guess were women

 

Comics and Art

 

• Online anthology: Comical Animal
  
  From “Nine Lives,” by and ©2010 Piotr Nowacki, Mikolaj Tkacz and Norbert Rybarczyk.

  “Jim Medway’s big plan — a bi-monthly online publication for comic, cartoon and kids books afficianados. It’ll be taking shape over the coming months and hopefully years, hopefully attracting zillions of delighted subscribers and top-notch contributors.”

  (Link via Richard Bruton.)

 

Also

• Comicrazys: The art and comics of José Luis Moro
• Retrospace: Will Eisner and Co.’s P*S Magazine
     (Link via Steven Thompson.)
• Ger Apeldoorn: Frank Giacoia’s “Sinister Jack-in-the-Box”
• Stupid Comics: “Lincoln Lives Again!”
• Steve Bennett: Jeep Comics
• Jeffrey Brown: My ex
     (Thanks to José de Leon for e-mailing me the link.)
• Box Brown: But I don’t want to die…
• Achewood: Therapeutic men’s retreat
• Jason: Dead Mickey
     (English translations at bottom of post.)
• Grant Snider: How to ace the interview
• Sam Henderson: More Evergreen Review cartoons
• Mike Lynch: More Saturday Evening Post cartoons
• Nigel Parkinson (one, two): Two by Leo Baxendale
• Allan Holtz: More early George Herriman cartoons

 

Multimedia

 

• Hero Complex: Mike Mignola
  

  “We sat down with him in [his] Redondo Beach studio to talk about Hellboy’s origins, Jack Kirby, Hollywood, Gotham by Gaslight, artist anxiety and one profoundly strange night in Prague.”

 

Comics Culture

 

• Comic-Con International: Judges named for 2011 Eisner Awards

  Find out who they are at the link.

 

Also

• Society of Illustrators: Asaf Hanuka wins Gold Medal
     (Thanks to Erik Melander for e-mailing me the link.)
• Brian Heater: Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival 2010
• Jim Woodring: The penholder in black

 

• Your Not-Comics Link of the Day:

  The Retrospace podcast is where the 1970s punch you in the face, again and again and again…

 

Events Calendar

 

This Week:

 

• Dec. 7 (New York City, NY): An opening reception for a show celebrating the new book Graphic Radicals: 30 Years of World War 3 Illustrated takes place at the Exit Art Gallery on Tenth Avenue, from 7-9PM. Details here.
• Dec. 8 (Manhattan Beach, CA): Meet the gang behind the new Gumby’s Gang comic at the Comic Bug on Manhattan Beach Boulevard, beginning at 7PM. 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?)