“You stay immersed in a system long enough and you forget that it isn’t the way to do things, it’s a way to do things.”

 

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Recently posted to our homepage:

• R.C. Harvey tours the history of comics criticism, contemplates the prospect of Dilbert on stage, and ponders recent editorial cartoons.

 

• Rob Clough reviews some minicomics, and then he reviews some more.

 

• Rich Kreiner reviews two minicomics by Desmond Reed.

 

• Tom Crippen offers the first installment of a three-part Mort Weisinger resource list.

 

• How to break into comics.

 

• GutterGeek‘s Jared Gardner offers a pictorial survey of this weekend’s 10th Festival of Cartoon Art in Columbus.

 

• Over at The Hooded Utilitarian, Andrei Molotiu talks about what we look at when we look at comics hanging on the wall, Noah Berlatsky talks about what he would and wouldn’t have included in the Best American Comics 2010, Caroline Small considers the work of critic Frank Kermode, and “Kinukitty” reviews the yaoi manga How to Seduce a Vampire.

A quick note: My computer’s primary hard drive crashed over the weekend, costing me about three weeks’ worth of data. If you have an event coming up and had e-mailed me recently to let me know about it for the calendar, please re-send the e-mail.

And in the news…

 

Above the Fold

 

Life in interesting times

• Comic-book illustrator and colorist Johnny Rench died last Saturday, at the age of 28.

 

• The Yano Research Institute has released a report on Japan’s “otaku marketplace,” which estimates that the dōjinshi or fan-made comics market will earn ¥66.2 billion ($815 million) in 2010, while the digital-comics market will earn ¥50 billion ($616 million). A reminder: The professional U.S. comics industry was recently estimated by ICv2‘s Milton Griepp to be worth $680 million in 2009 — and sales are down this year.

 


• Rejected rough notes for a Dr. Seuss book have been found.

 

• Anime News Network is reporting that former CMX Manga director Asako Suzuki has been hired by Tokyopop to act as manga line editor.

 

• “Philippine comic books have nurtured talent for international TV and animation blockbusters, but the once-mighty industry is fighting to survive as it comes up against the Internet and other new media,” reports Mynardo Macaraig.

  (Link via Kevin Melrose.)

 

• Titan Books senior acquisitions editor Steve Saffel, on the reported growth in digital-comics sales:

  We haven’t suddenly added 9% to the sales of books. As the sales of digital books are growing, they’re causing a related decrease in print sales. So the two numbers are both moving closer to the center. What’s really going to make the difference is when we begin to add readers.

 

• Tim O’Shea speaks with About Comics publisher Nat Gertler.

 

• Some time next decade, every town with a population of over 5000 people will have a Wizard World of their very own.

 

 

 

Profiles

 

• Ted Widmer on R. Crumb

  A long and detailed conversation with the underground-comix master. The interview is several months old — I seem to recall that a fragment of this interview was posted to the Paris Review website when the print edition was released. Anyway, this is the complete piece.

  (Thanks to Paul Slade for e-mailing me the link.)

 

Also

• Alex Dueben on Charles Burns
• Dale Lazarov on Christopher Lange
• Avoid the Future on Lucy Knisley

 

Reviews

 

• Matt Seneca on “Dear Logan”
  in Strange Tales II #1
  
  ©2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

  “‘Dear Logan’ would be a supremely notable story even in the least of artistic hands, because it finally takes the Wolverine character to his logical conclusion. The man who can live through any wound, the man who’s survived being burned alive, fragmented by bullets, ripped in half, blown up, stabbed, mauled, gassed, amputated, and reduced down to a single drop of blood only to rush back into the fray for more every time he heals finally gets his inner workings planed apart for all to see here. It’s the only interpretation of the character that makes any sense, and [Rafael] Grampa pulls no punches: the vaunted Wolverine is a desperate masochist, a violent man who’s not only learned to live with the pain but to draw his pleasure from it.”

 

Also

• Paul Rainey on Psychiatric Tales
• Sean T. Collins on Ghost of Hoppers
• Sean T. Collins on The Education of Hopey Glass
• Timothy Hodler on Neonomicon #1-2
• Larry Cruz on Walking the Lethe
• Tom Spurgeon on Thor the Mighty Avenger #1-4
• Tim O’Neil on Thor #616
• Christopher Allen on The Amazing Screw-On Head and Other Curious Objects
• Win Wiacek on Prison Pit Book Two
• Curt Purcell on Walking Dead Compendium
• David Welsh on Grand Guignol Orchestra Vol. 1
• Exquisite Things on Rebel Visions: The Underground Comix Revolution 1963-1975
• Tucker Stone on various titles

 

Commentary

 

• Paul Gravett on Indian comics

  “Something extraordinary is happening in 21st-century India. Many geopolitical experts seem convinced that this vast, complex nation is blossoming into one of the economic giants on the global stage, rivaling China. Recently, the eyes of the world, or at least of those interested in sport, have been focussed on the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi and its complications and bad press. Putting these aside, as well as the success and export of Bollywood movies, Indian cuisine, cricket and contemporary art, another field is newly ascendant here, that mix of industry, entertainment and culture that produces comics and graphic novels.”

 

Also

• Curt Purcell: How can text “show” us anything?
• Frank Santoro: Doin’ the Chester
• Evan Dorkin: No one likes Unus the Untouchable

 

Comics and Art

 

• Comicrazys: Basil Wolverton gallery
  

  Nothing chases the blues away like a big collection of Wolverton, and by curious coincidence, I just happened to need to wallow in a big collection of Wolverton over the past few days. Synchronicity rules!

 

Also

• What Things Do: Ron Regé Jr.’s Yeast Hoist #5
• Golden Age Comic Book Stories: Ernie Bushmiller’s Nancy and Fritzi Ritz
• Golden Age Comic Book Stories: Jack Burnley and co.’s Batman Sunday strips
• Diversions of the Groovy Kind: Walt Simonson’s Twilight Zone
• Diversions of the Groovy Kind: Gray Morrow’s Essays into the Supernatural
• Pappy: Dan Barry’s “Jail Break”
• Comics Alliance: Colleen Coover’s “Batman”
• Kevin Church: Chris Ware’s “Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy…”
• Harry Lee Green: Eulalie Banks’s Tom Thumb illustrations
• New York Magazine: Charles Burns annotates an X’ed Out page
• John McElwee: Ads that sold cartoons
     (Link via Jerry Beck.)

 

Comics Culture

 

• Daniella Orihuela-Gruber: APE 2010

  “What struck me the most was the small size of the con compared to Comic Con International, as well as the absence of the unrelated fluff that SDCC is inundated with these days. It struck me as the type of event Comic Con International had been when it was first started, although no one was at APE to buy the latest superhero caper from Marvel or DC. Instead, most attendees were interested in schmoozing with their favorite indie creators and buying what they had to offer. What I heard from past attendees, the dealer’s room was twice as big as it was last year, which I thought was impressive. “

 

• Your Not-Comics Link of the Day:

  Chinese netizens find humor in the Nobel Peace Prize given to political prisoner Liu Xiaobo.

 

Events Calendar

 

Today:

 

• Oct. 19 (Los Angeles, CA): Lynda Barry will be signing books and meeting readers at Skylight Books on Vermont Avenue, from 7:30-9:30PM. Details here.

 

This Week:

 

• Oct. 20 (Portland, OR): Lynda Barry will appear for a slideshow presentation, Q&A and signing at Reading Frenzy on Oak Street, beginning at 7PM. Details here
• Oct. 21 (New York City, NY): Denis Kitchen gives an artist’s talk at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art on Broadway, beginning at 7PM. Details here.
• Oct. 23 (Portland, OR): Vanessa Davis and Julia Wertz will appear for a slideshow presentation, Q&A and signing at Reading Frenzy on Oak Street, beginning at 7PM. 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?)