“Why do superheroes dominate the online conversation the way they do? Last week saw the release of Jim Woodring’s Weathercraft and Tim Hensley’s Wally Gropius, two gorgeous and weird books that truly make use of the stuff of comics and contain the kind of material you can mentally gnaw on for days on end, but I guarantee you that no matter which comics blogs you read, you read more about Paul Levitz’s return to the Legion of Superheroes. And chances are good that if you’ve read about Daniel Clowes’s Wilson, what you read prominently featured that page where the character makes fun of The Dark Knight. What gives?”

 

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Recently posted to our homepage:

• Kristian Williams‘ examination of visual representations of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray continues.

 

• Rob Clough reviews Lewis Trondheim, Joann Sfar, Kerascoet and Obion’s Dungeon Twilight Vol. 3: The New Centurions.

 

• Rich Kreiner reviews Marek Bennett’s Breakfast at Mimi’s Vol. 1.

 

• As always, R.C. Harvey covers the funny pages.

 

• Over at The Hooded Utilitarian, Vom Marlowe reviews The Brave and the Bold #33, prompting Noah Berlatsky to puzzle over a page from the comic.

 

• Incidentally: There’s been an uptick lately in short posts that I often skip over because they really have nothing to do with comics — like Kristy Valenti on her favorite “comic stripper” of the 1980s, or Tom Crippen‘s political snark, stuff like that. I point this out to remind you that even if you’re just picking and choosing links from this page, every once in a while you should try hitting the homepage anyway, for there are Easter Eggs waiting to be discovered. Just sayin’.

And in the news…

 

Above the Fold

 

Life in interesting times

• “Activist investor Bennett S. LeBow became the largest shareholder of Borders Group on Friday with his purchase through BSL Capital of 11.1 million shares for $25 million. He also became the Ann Arbor-based bookseller’s chairman, replacing Richard (Mick) McGuire.”

 


Detail from Tom Yeates’ cover to the fifth issue of Timespirits.
• Drew Harwell offers a heartbreaking summary of the known facts in the case of missing (and presumed dead) Timespirits writer/creator Steve Perry. For further informed commentary, we turn to David Allen Jones and Nat Gertler.

 

• Rich Johnston breaks the silence and reveals the missing information in all those conflicting stories about veteran cartoonist Gene Colan’s tribulations in recent months.

 

• Alan Gardner offers a good round-up on a few stories that I’d missed concerning fallout from the recent Everybody Draw Muhammed Day.

 

• Matt Blind and Simon Jones offer further commentary on the recent difficulties experienced by U.S. manga publishers.

 

Today’s Format Wars^TM report

• “E-book sales from the 13 publishers that report results to the Association of American Publishers’ monthly sales program rose nearly 252% in the first quarter of 2010, to $91 million, the association reported this morning.”

 

• According to Stephen Windwalker, “Of the 75,345 net new titles added to the U.S. Kindle catalog since May 7, nearly 80% (59,638) are priced between $5 and $9.98, inclusive, which is clearly the new salesworthy price range not only for backlist titles but for the vast majority of titles that are otherwise available in paperback.”

 

• Digital photo-frame manufacturer Pandigital has partnered with Barnes & Noble to produce a $200 color e-reader.

 


Panel from the boys’-love title Zesty, which was rejected by Apple without explanation despite having been edited for content before submission.
• Charles Christensen notes that Apple has developed a disturbing history of rejecting independent and gay-themed comic books for its iPhone and iPad stores, despite often stronger content being approved in such titles as Wanted and Kick-Ass:

  “Here’s the thing,” said [Stephen] Lindsay. “Jesus Hates Zombies doesn’t involve any sex whatsoever. None. It has violence and swearing, but that’s because it’s a mature readers horror comedy. But the violence isn’t even intense. And being a black and white comic, there’s zero red blood, which means any gore is dramatically cut down.”

  Rejection of comics from distribution by Apple is less like being banned from Wal-Mart and more like being rejected from Diamond’s PREVIEWS catalog. Even if other outlets exist, Apple has the single largest digital media distribution system for portable devices today. While there are numerous “stores” through which to purchase comics for an iPhone or iPad, if Apple doesn’t like your book, you’re blocked from all of them.

  “Jesus Hates Zombies is one of the top downloaded comics on the Android market, through Robot Comics,” says Lindsay. “and I’m sure it would do just as well, if not better, through iPhone and iPad Apps.”

 

 

 

Reviews

 

• Andrew Wheeler on Where Bold Stars Go to Die

  “Where Bold Stars Go to Die is a bold story itself, diving headlong into the thorny questions of representation and the male gaze and taking what would be a very politically incorrect stance on them on this side of the Pacific.”

 

• Kelly Thompson on Girl Comics #2
  
  From Faith Erin Hicks’ contribution to the comic, ©2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

  “[...] I’m enjoying Girl Comics despite the title, and I hope you’ll (that’s you Marvel) keep many of these talented ladies on for interesting and forward thinking future projects once this one is over. The only way that Girl Comics can really fail at this point, as far as I’m concerned, is if you send all these ladies packing when this special project ends.”

 

Also

• Matthew Brady on Young Lions
• Martin Steenton on Solipsistic Pop #2
• Johanna Draper Carlson on Flower in a Storm Vol. 1
• J. Caleb Mozzocco on Superman #693-697
• Bill Sherman on Isle of Forbidden Love
• Deb Aoki on Kobato Vol. 1-2
• Greg McElhatton on Kingyo Used Books Vol. 1
• Oliver Ho on MW
• Eric Rupe on To Terra
• “Jones” on various titles

 

Commentary

 

• Jeet Heer: A Seth notebook

  Observations on the art and style of one of Canada’s foremost cartoonists.

 

Also

• Ken Parille: Frozen Morisi
• Dan Nadel: Pat Boyette and Children of Doom

 

Comics and Art

 

• Ger Apeldoorn: Howard Post comics
  
  From Nursery Rhymes #2.

  A generous collection of work by the late children’s-comics creator.

 

• Gene Yang: Why I won’t be watching the Last Airbender movie
  
  ©2010 Gene Luen Yang.

  Now the joke is over, smell the smoke from all around…

 

Also

• A Journey Round My Skull: Emanuel Schongut book covers
• A Journey Round My Skull: John Buckland Wright’s Poe illustrations
• Thom Buchanan: The Adventures of Peter Wheat #1
• Pappy: Two from Ghost Comics
• Diversions of the Groovy Kind: Two by J.M. DeMatteis and Tom Sutton
• Comicrazys: Two by Sheldon Mayer
• The Horrors of It All: “Ashes to Ashes!” times two
• James Hindle: Little wolves
     (Link via Matt Forsythe.)
• Dave Kiersh: Underwater…
• Allan Holtz: Dumbell Dan
• Sam Henderson: Little Lambs
• Golden Age Comic Book Stories: Jim Steranko fanzine and convention art
• Patrick Macias: Go Nagai novel art
• Tom Neely: Conan the Barbarian
• Christopher Bird: Meanwhile, at The Sentry’s funeral…

 

Multimedia

 

• Blip.tv: Center for Cartoon Studies 2010 commencement ceremony

  With speeches by Evan Dorkin and Jen Vaughn — and someone plays a bagpipe!

 

Comics Culture

 

• Matthew Badham: Bristol Comics Expo 2010

  A report from the recent gathering in England.

 

• Your Not-Comics Link of the Day:

  Just so you know: The British Royal Navy “does not maintain any form of central repository of information purely devoted to sea monsters.”

 

Events Calendar

 

Today:

 

• May 25 (Brighton, England): Dan Clowes and Chris Ware will discuss their work and sign books at the Brighton Dome on Church Street, beginning at 8PM. Details here.

 

This Week:

 

• May 27-30 (Phoenix, AZ): The Phoenix Comicon takes place at the Phoenix Convention Center. Details here.
• May 27 (Berkeley, CA): Renee French, Trevor Alixopulos, Rina Ayuyang, Ben Catmull, Josh Frankel, Lark Pien and Joey Sayers will offer multimedia readings of their work at Pegasus Books on Shattuck Avenue, beginning at 7:30PM. Details here.
• May 27 (Los Angeles, CA): Ben Schwartz, Sammy Harkham, R. Fiore, Joe Matt and possibly Brian Doherty will discuss the art of comics criticism at Skylight Books on Vermont Avenue, from 7:30-9:30PM. Details here.
• May 28-29 (Northampton, England): The University of Northampton will hold an international academic conference devoted to the work of Alan Moore, who will be in attendance along with Melinda Gebbie. Details here.
• May 29-30 (London, England): The London Movie-Comic-Media Expo takes place at Excel London on the Royal Victoria Dock. Details here.
• May 29-June 13 (Beja, Portugal): The Sixth International Festival of Beja — shit, all the nouns are on their Facebook page, and I refuse to link to that site. Details here.
• May 29 (London, England): The London Zine Symposium will be held at the Rag Factory on Heneage Street, from noon-6PM. Details here.
• May 29 (San Francisco, CA): Amy Martin serves as cartoonist-in-residence at the Cartoon Art Museum on Mission Street, from 1-3PM. Details here.
• May 30 (Los Angeles, CA): Join Jaime Hernandez, Johnny Ryan, Lawrence Hubbard, Dan Nadel, Sharon Rudahl, John Thompson and Barbara Mendes for an evening of funnybook fun at the Silent Movie Theatre on Fairfax Avenue, beginning at 5PM. Admission is ten bucks. 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.