More NonSense: SPX 2017 Edition

Go to: SPX

Heidi MacDonald on this year's SPX.

Rob Clough on this year's SPX.

Kat Overland on this year's Ignatz Awards.

Matthias Wivel on Jack Kirby’s late foray into autobiographical comics, Street Code.

Tom King and David Finch talk about their creative process when writing Batman.

Seth Simons on the current neglect of The New Yorker’s Cartoon Bank, which licensed cartoons for secondary use. Cartoon Bank was established by Editor Bob Mankoff in 1992, and bought by the New Yorker in 1997:

The Cartoon Bank was a windfall for cartoonists, who in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s witnessed the market for single-panel gag cartoons dwindle from a handful of publications to virtually only The New Yorker. “I remember one particular check early on, probably my second or third check from the Cartoon Bank, was close to $8,000,” said one longtime cartoonist who was involved in the Cartoon Bank’s earliest planning sessions, and who requested anonymity to speak candidly. “As time went on, the returns weren’t as great, but they were still good—they were still two or three thousand dollars a month.” Alex Gregory, a contributor since 1999, described similar numbers. “I would regularly get checks for one or two thousand dollars,” he said. Mankoff, who had a bird’s-eye view of the company’s financials, spoke of cartoonists receiving residual income to the tune of $30,000 to $40,000 annually. The 1998 Times report notes that one cartoonist, Peter Steiner, had by that point received more than $30,000 in royalties for a single cartoon. 

In 2008, Mankoff handed off leadership of the Cartoon Bank to Condé Nast, who, it quickly became apparent, planned to operate the business with a lighter touch. “I consulted with them for many years after I left, urging them to support this business and commit to this business,” Mankoff said. “For their own reasons they decided that they’re not supporting it. There aren’t really any employees left. And those people who used to do those things”—licensing, custom books, original art sales—“have been let go. The people there are absolutely well-meaning, but they have no real idea of what this business is, who the cartoonists are, how you might leverage and maximize it.” 

Over the following years, the well dried up. The cartoonist who described an $8,000 check he received early on said he now sees at most a few hundred a month. Gregory said the same, as did several other cartoonists who I spoke too.

Mimi Pond lists the top ten graphic memoirs.

Matt Furie takes legal action using the DMCA against various alt-right groups.

Steve Foxe explains why Marvel's latest initiative, Legacy, won't save the company from declining sales.

Chris Ware on writing characters who come from a different background from him.

Charles Pulliam-Moore points out that the X-Men and the Mutants are not an ideal analogy for race, something I've been saying for some time now.

David Lewis on Muslim representation in comics.

Hayao Miyazaki and his portrayal of the supernatural.

Kevin Smith profiled by Abraham Riesman. Smith's early films wedded the 90s slacker ethic with unapologetic geeky obsessiveness, foreshadowing our pop culture landscape. However, his particular brand of storytelling hasn't aged very well. But while Smith has fallen out of favour as a film auteur, he's successfully reinvented himself as an online presence.

The Big Bang Theory serves as a continual reminder that Hollywood is committed to perpetuating the geek stereotype. Unfortunately, this tends to highlight some of the more negative aspects of fandom to the television audience.

Anders Nilsen explains why senators should vote NO on "Graham-Cassidy, the latest Republican attempt to dismantle Obamacare and rob people of their health care."

Anyone who follows my work at all closely probably knows that I have published two books about a particular illness and death and its aftermath. In March of 2005 my girlfriend at the time, Cheryl Weaver, was diagnosed with cancer – Hodgkins Lymphoma. Despite an initially positive prognosis the disease failed to respond to treatment, and in November of that year the disease killed her. In my books I didn't delve too deeply into the details of our particular odyssey through the health care system, but one relevant fact is that Cheryl didn't have health insurance. For several months before her diagnosis she had been dealing with a variety of what felt like unrelated, inexplicable, minor health issues. She hadn't gone to see a doctor because, at the time we couldn't afford it. The simple fact is that had she had insurance she may well have had a chance. And her story is far from unique. Lack of health insurance literally kills people every single day in America. Wealth should not determine who gets care in this country any more than it should determine who has access to the justice system or the political process. It doesn't have to be this way.

Lynda Barry has an advice column.

Star Trek: The Next Generation premiered on September 28th, 1987. It bestowed upon our pop culture landscape the great Patrick Stewart, the finest actor to ever grace the hallowed franchise. He would immortalize "Make it so," "Tea Earl Grey," "Shut up Wesley," not to mention his patented "Picard Manoeuvre." TNG's first season was pretty rough. And by that I mean it was practically unwatchable. But even early TNG succeeded in expanding the franchise with ideas that would go on to become essential to its worldbuilding.

Inhumans sounds like a crappy show made 20 years ago.

RIP Len Wein (June 12, 1948 – September 10, 2017). The legendary comic book writer was the co-creator of popular characters such as Swamp Thing, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Storm, and Colossus. Bronze Age creators like Wein were among the first working professionals to rise from the ranks of organized fandom, and their work expressed sensibilities which placed them a lot closer to our modern fan-driven market.

TCJ posts an interview with Len from The Comics Journal #48, August 1979.

Sean T. Collins et al. lists the top ten film performances of the late Harry Dean Stanton (July 14, 1926 – September 15, 2017).

RIP Hugh Hefner (April 9, 1926 – September 27, 2017), founder of Playboy magazine, notorious for its glamour pinup pictorials. But at its height, Playboy also published notable cartoonists such as Jack Cole, Harvey Kurtzman, Will Elder, Jules Feiffer.

More NonSense: Jack Kirby Centennial

Image via The Beat

Jack Kirby, the King of American comics, would have been 100 years old this August 28. The Jack Kirby Museum has a number of events celebrating his centennial.

Kyle Pinion recommends 10 must-read single issues from the King.

Jeet Heer on the King.

Walt Simonsson talks about the influence of Kirby.

Comic-Con International has made its Kirby's 100 tribute book available for download.

Marvel has a Kirby tribute page.

Heidi MacDonald has a few images of Kirby.

Kabuki Nagata of the Japan Times reports that digital manga sales might have overtaken its paper counterparts. That's a huge portent from the world's largest comic book market.

Thanks to smartphones, many people have changed how they read manga, with a myriad of e-comics just a few taps away on their handsets without the need to carry print versions. 

The rise of digital manga is also changing the landscape of the traditionally closed manga businesses as well. Seeing growth potential, many firms, not only existing publishing houses that dominated the era of paper comics but also tech and overseas players, have jumped into the market with manga apps. 

In the meantime, people in the industry say the paper market is likely to keep shrinking and its future remains uncertain. Some are seriously concerned about the fate of manga magazines, which have long served as mediums to introduce new titles, as their role is being taken over by smartphones.

Congratulations to the 2017 Hugo Award Winners.

Asher Elbein acknowledges the work of colorists and letterers.

Geoff Johns, Holy F*&!

Mister Miracle #1

Story: Tom King
Art: Mitch Gerads
Letters: Clayton Cowles
Cover: Nick Derington

Mister Miracle/Scott Free created by Jack Kirby.

Jack Kirby’s Fourth World is a major milestone of the medium. But his densely packed cosmos told through an interconnected web of comic book titles has never been sustained in any meaningful way past the original vision of its creator. And if we ignore the occasional appearances of main antagonist Darkseid, and the Forever People, the Fourth World has largely receded from the New 52 DC Universe. In short, most new comic book readers are probably unfamiliar with its continuity. But in their attempt to revive the adventures of Darkseid’s wayward son Mister Miracle, Tom King and Mitch Gerads make no concessions for them. In fact they double down on the titular character’s tangled history with his evil father with a rather abstruse, nonlinear tale that updates him for a less heroic age. Gone is the swashbuckling hero of the 1970s who defied Darkseid’s totalitarianism with a string of impossible feats of escape. What we have instead is the weary veteran who acts like he can no longer stem the rising tide of evil. Sort of like the gloomy Luke Skywalker as seen in The Force Awakens, but only more depressing.

Just to impress how bad things have become, King quotes the introductory text from the original Mister Miracle #1, dated from April 1971:

Is he a master of spectacular trickery or is he something more? You will have to decide when you confront the strangest, most incredible superhero to appear in comics! You will see what he does! You will wonder how he does it! But always waiting in the wings are his two greatest enemies: the men who challenge him—and death himself!

That final part leads to the comic's opening scene: A two page spread of Scott Free bleeding out on a bathroom floor after he has slit his wrists, apparently in an attempt to commit suicide. He’s rushed to the hospital by his wife Big Barda. The rest of the story becomes more fragmented: Scott recuperates while experiencing flashbacks, visions, hallucinations. Or is he being manipulated by unseen forces? Is he actually still dying on that bathroom floor or a hospital ward?

Gerads is key to creating this sense of unreality. His lo-fi art is the antithesis of today’s slick, digital production values. Or more accurately, it’s just as slick as anything in mainstream comics. But crafted to appear more analog. Colors are washed out. Lines are blurry, as if the printing plates might have been improperly registered on the offset press. There are printing artifacts such as halftone and moiré patterns. Some of the pages looked taped together.

And there’s certainly nothing heroic about how the characters are drawn. Gerads’ down-to-earth representations make Scott and Barda look about as ordinary and vulnerable as anyone in reality. The couple spend most of the comic shuffling about in their cramped home. The only parts which betrays their otherworldly origins are visits from Highfather and Scott's sort-of brother Orion. That and the ever present threat of Darkseid. Almost every page is organized into the nine panel grid. Its primary effect here is to make the setting very claustrophobic. But with every grid, one panel is blacked out and populated with the words “Darkseid is.” As the comic reaches its end, more panels are randomly blacked out, until the story arrives at an entire black page occupied with nothing but those words.

This will probably resonate with many anxious Americans experiencing the creeping sense of authoritarian rule undoing years, even decades, of progress. Witnessing epressions of hate and intolerance becoming more common. Or even just the vague sense of existential dread permeating modern life. If things seem desperate enough, might death seem less like an enemy, but more a relief from suffering? What happens when your own mind becomes the trap? How do you punch away depression and paranoia? But King and Gerads do show two crucial scenes where Darkseid’s message is absent. It’s the readers’ and Mister Miracle’s lone slither of hope.

More NonSense: Fighting Facism

Captain America Comics (1941) #1

Katie Logan on the growing relevance of Kamala Khan.

Mark Peters on the 8 ways comic book legend Jack Kirby fought fascism.

i09 lists the top 13 performances of the late Bill Paxton (May 17, 1955 – February 25, 2017). I'm sure many are already yelling “Game over, man! Game over!”

Emily Yoshida explains that Laura from the movie Logan is the latest in a line of violent, mute, female protagonists extending back to Leeloo from The Fifth Element.

R.I.P. Jay Lynch (Born: January 7, 1945 - March 5, 2016)

James Kaplan lists 25 great comics from Image.

Beth Eldurkin, Angelica Jade Bastién, Stacia M. Fleegal, on the enduring appeal of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Ben Judkins on the spiritual connection between heroines Yim Wing Chun and Buffy.

Abraham Riesman on Image co-founder/Spawn creator Todd McFarlane.

Osvaldo Oyola on the pleasures of serial comics.

Abraham Riesman draws some lessons from the critical failure of the Iron Fist TV series.

Katharine Trendacosta argues for how an Asian American Danny Rand would have made for a better TV show.

Marissa Martinelli lists the 7 strategies for defending problematic TV shows/movies.

R.I.P.  underground comics legend Skip Williamson (August 19, 1944 - March 16, 2017).

R.I.P. Bernie Wrightson (October 27, 1948 – March 18, 2017).

More NonSense: Die 2016!

The Beat Staff list their best comics of 2016, Also the best films, and games.

Vox lists their best comics of 2016.

ComicsAlliance lists their best comics of 2016.

ComicsAlliance remembers the people in comics who died in 2016.

Sean T. Collins on the Fascism of The Walking Dead.

Remember that infamous American Sailor Moon adaptation? Rich Johnston does.

Tom Spurgeon and Michael Dean present an excerpt (Pt 1, 2) of We Told You So: Comics as Art. That Gary Groth, what a scamp.

Sean T. Collins lists The 50 Greatest Star Wars Moments. Did you know that Star Wars continuity is a complete mess like any other longstanding franchise? And its politics are pretty extreme, to say the least.

Rogue One introduced the Guardians of the Whills, recalling one of the more obscure pieces of Lucas lore. But even more interesting is that these characters were played by Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen. Apparently, Chirrut Imwe and Baze Malbus are the new Finn/Poe? Makes sense to me.

But the most unfortunate news of all was the death of Carrie Fisher (October 21, 1956 – December 27, 2016), followed a day later by her mother Debbie Reynolds (April 1, 1932 – December 28, 2016), which I covered here.

Mark Peters dredges up the old debate of Jack Kirby's possible influence on the Star Wars franchise.

Beethoven!

Elle Collins on the repercussions faced by creators working on corporate properties when they express dissenting opinions.

R.I.P. George Michael (25 June 1963 – 25 December 2016). This year has been kicking our ass.

Whitney Phillips and Ryan M. Milner blame Poe's Law for making 2016 such a terrible year.

More NonSense: Creation and Reproduction

Pádraig Ó Méalóid's interview with Alan Moore has unsurprisingly produced some backlash. Here's commentary by Marc Singer,  Marc-Oliver Frisch.

Julia Wertz on how her alcoholism informed her autobiographical webcomic The Fart Party.

Orion Martin racebends the X-Men, and links to one of my posts.

Chris Sims weighs in on the controversial legacy of Stan Lee.

Bully takes a look at the fantastical technology drawn by Jack Kirby.

Dave Girard on the rise and fall of QuarkXPress. Will Adobe make the same mistakes with InDesign?

Joe Mullin remembers the history of the Sony Betamax on the 30th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court case Sony Corp. v. Universal Studios, which dramatically expanded the right to fair use.

Webcomic: A Private Kirby Adventure

Go to: American Barbarian by Tom Scioli

Also:

Tributes to the King of Comics from Tom Spurgeon, Robert Steibel, Chris Sims, Kevin Melrose, Patrick Reed, Bully Says:

A detailed analysis of the Kirby ruling by Jeff Trexler

Kirby4Heroes Campaign and Hero Initiative

Other links by Kevin Melrose, Heidi McDonald

Happy 96th Birthday Jack Kirby.

Sketch: Jack Kirby

Comics Will Break Your Heart
(pencil & watercolour on 300gsm paper)
A5 (148 x 210mm, 5.7 x 8.3 inches)

Go to: Hicksville by Dylan Horrocks (via Trouble With Comics)

This sketch tells the story behind the quote that opens Hicksville. It was told to me by James Romberger, an artist and cartoonist whose amazing graphic novel Seven Miles a Second (written by activist and artist David Wojnarowicz) has just been reissued by Fantagraphics.

In the 1980s, Romberger met Kirby at a convention in New York. Kirby kindly looked at Romberger’s work and then gave him a piece of advice: “Kid, you’re one of the best. But put your work in galleries. Don’t do comics. Comics will break your heart.” - Dylan Horrocks

Kerry Callen animates Jack Kirby

Go to: May Contain Content by Kerry Callen to see these Fantastic Four panels in motion (via Mark Kardwell)

More NonSense: Zero Month

If you recall the bygone summer of 2011, you may remember that I was optimistic -- though cautiously so -- about DC's New 52. The new creative teams and continuity freedom allowed with the relaunch provided some hope that the turgid superhero universe inhabited by Superman, Blue Devil, Porcupine Pete, Geo-Force, and Batgirl would be reborn into something more vibrant. Creators could all all do their own powerful versions of these characters. We could have seen a line-wide effort that would match the continuity-free heights of "All-Star Superman" or "Batman: Year One," or if not that, then at least we would get a line-wide equivalent of the confident streamlining and rebranding that came with Geoff Johns's earlier-last-decade revamp of "Green Lantern." - Timothy Callahan

Really? In light of all of DC's multiple line-wide relaunches and where they eventually ended up? That's not just being cautiously optimistic. That's desperately hoping that an already overused top-bottom approach will still yield even greater rewards in individual creativity.

A year latter, and Timothy deems only three of the initial fifty two titles worth following. His assessment of Zero Month is just as sobering:

So there you have it. Nine good-to-really-good comics in a stack of 54. And only two that I would actually recommend to anyone who wasn't already heavily into the DC catalog. (emphasis mine)

Chris Sims doesn't find the attempted gang-rape in Sword of Sorcery #0 to be very well written, or appropriate to the the title:

The more I thought about it, though, the more infuriating it was, and a large part of it was that this was the last book where I expected it to crop up yet again. As goofy and fannish as it may seem, I feel like they suckered me into getting excited about it, presenting it as a genuine attempt to draw in new readers and experiment with genres that they hadn't tried for a while. Instead, it's just the same thing they always do. They have once again shown themselves to be the Lucy Van Pelt of rape comics, pulling that football away just as soon as you hand over four bucks for the privilege of trusting them not to.

Sword of Sorcery was the one title I was looking forward to reading  J. Caleb Mozzocco has his own reaction. Read the comments that follow.

David Brothers and J. Caleb Mozzocco rip into the sycophantic Laura Sneddon article on Grant Morrison.

Speaking of Morrison, Greg Rucka was set to write Wonder Woman: Earth One before he was kicked off the project to make room for the Scot. That was too much for him. And thus he became the latest in a line of high-profile creators to cut their ties with DC.

Geoff Johns is one of the architects of the New 52. Matthew Brady is here to tell you that his Green Lantern comics are pure garbage.

Nagraj Rules!

Ah, the Nineties. Remember the massive shoulder pads? And Stan Lee, what a shyster.

Hail to the King, Jack Kirby.

Heidi MacDonald on why DC and Marvel consistently fail to show much interest in reaching beyond their man-child targeted demographic.

James Cox Covers Jack Kirby

Go to: A Little Golden Blog and Visual Development 2.0 by Jamie Cox (via Kirby-Vision)

Giorgio Comolo draws Jack Kirby characters

Go to: Jack Kirby Museum, artwork © Giorgio Comolo

More NonSense: To Explore Strange New Worlds

USS Enterprise, image courtesy of Memory Alpha

Last week marked the 45th anniversary of the television premiere of Star Trek. I've loved this show since I first watched it on late night television reruns in the 80s. It still remains an enduring passion after all this time. Star Trek was escapist fantasy in the best sense; A constant reminder that there was a larger universe out there than I could ever imagine. And I continue to believe in the value of space exploration and scientific research. While I have come to recognize the limitations of the show itself, its progressive tone, utopian vision, and ethnically diverse cast continue to be a source of inspiration. Star Trek was the first television series to impress on me that science fiction could intelligently address contemporary socio-political issues. And while the formula it originally employed has become stale to downright embarrassing from overuse, Trek's influence can still be felt within the television industry, popular science fiction, and popular culture in general.

Other commentary: David Alan Doane, They Boldly Went, Ryan Paul, Charlie Jane Anders, Ty Templeton,

While it might be awhile before we have a better overall understanding of the influence of 9-11, it would be equally hard to deny that it has had an impact on popular fiction. The event certainly raises questions about the nature of evil, the uses and abuses and limits of power, human rights, and it has inspired new apocalyptic scenarios. I'm of the opinion that the superhero genre would have been popular even if 9-11 didn't happen, but Charlie Jane Anders lists the various ways in which the present glut of superhero movies refer to it. Annalee Newitz does the same with science fiction. Andrew O'Hehir notes how some of the most sucessful film franchises only obliquely refered to 9-11. Matt Zoller Seitz lists various works that were inluenced by 9-11, starting with In the Shadow of no Towers. Paul Gravett discusses two works by Joe Sacco and David B.

Manga Out Loud podcast with Rob McMonigal, Brigid Alverson, Alex Hoffman, & Lissa Pattillo, discussing digital manga.

Dustin Harbin on digital comics.

Rob Steibel on the origins of the "Kirby Crackle".

Chris Sims points out that at least some fans also hated the 1987 Batman reboot by Frank Miller.

It's become cliche to argue that superheroes are modern myth, except that they're owned by faceless corporations. Charlie Jane Anders presents a chart tracking this ownership.

Video: How do we know for sure that we live in three dimensions?

Video: Charles Schulz draws Charlie Brown

Dave Uzumeri explains what's changed within DC continuity with this week's crop of DC issue #1s.

Jess Nevins on the early history of the shared universe.

More Nonsense: Violence Against Creators (and Characters)

Syrian political cartoonist Ali Ferzat was abducted on Thursday by by a group of masked gunmen believed to be working for President Bashar al-Assad. He was beaten, his hands were broken, and then he was abandoned on the side of a road, his attackers saying that this was "just a warning." Ferzat is a critic of the present regime. His latest cartoon compares al-Assad to his Libyan counterpart, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

Tom Spurgeon has link roundup. He has his doubts over the authenticity of a self-portrait making the rounds on the Web. Given the severity of Ferzat's injuries, it would have been an impressive act of defiance. Needless to say, the countries that have come out in support of the "Arab Spring", and actively lent support to the rebellion that ousted Gaddafi, have condemned the attack.

Noah Berlatsky interviews Shaenon Garrity, Lillian Diaz-Przybyl, and J.R. Brown about the effect of the Borders liquidation on the manga industry.

Timothy Callahan has read the entirety of Cerebus.

Ah, Grant Morrrison. He plans to bring the sex back to Wonder Woman. I can certainly get behind that if he manages to execute it well. In a recent Rolling Stone interview, he criticizes everything from sexism in superhero comics, rape as an occurring phenomenon in Alan Moore stories, to Chris Ware's supposed "nihilism." While many praised Morrison's candidness, David Brothers isn't having any of it. He points out that Morrrison should look at his own work first, especially when making claims like "I managed to do thirty years in comics without any rape!". And he calls him out on his unwillingness to speak on behalf of creators' rights:

You know what Frank Miller did when he got a platform? He repped, and he repped hard. For Jack Kirby, for Bill Finger, for Steve Ditko, and for other creators who deserved to get their art back or to own their creations. For those who got screwed in the name of profit and cheap labor. Sin City letters pages are littered with shots fired at Marvel over how they treated Jack Kirby. The Big Fat Kill (#5, I think) was where I found out that Marvel screwed Kirby. He built a platform and then he used it for good. Is he perfect? Nah. Bill Finger’s name isn’t on DKSA, though it might have been shouted at as a street name or something. But he tried. He got an acknowledgement to Finger and Jerry Robinson into DKR. He didn’t hide behind mealy-mouthed corporate speak to justify two guys getting screwed so that he could write Action Comics with a clean conscience. Two guys who jumpstarted the genre that he loves so much, at that.

Dan Nadel and J. Caleb Mozzocco also chime in.

Speaking of Kirby, Tom Spurgeon and Paul Gravett celebrate his 94th birthday.

(As my small way of showing support for the Marvel boycott, I've suspended reviewing any new Kirby-related material coming from the company, for now.)

Kevin Melrose asks "Is Flashpoint DC’s deadliest (and bloodiest) event yet?" citing a post by Chris Eckert, which puts the death toll conservatively at 833 million. But it isn't that number that impresses (Crisis on Infinite Earths and The Infinity Gauntlet were statistically far worse), it's the outright sadism towards the characters that accumulate over the course of the event. His list of deaths is quite an eye opener for the variety of ways the characters meet their gruesome ends. This parade of gore and violence is so ludicrous it becomes tedious self-parody.

The Big Two's reliance of universe-wide events to hold on to their shrinking readership is kind of like the movie industry's reliance of expensive tentpole movies to hold on to movie theater patrons. Following the storylines through several ongoing titles is prohibitive and costly, as is the weekend movie goer being made to regularly watch effects-laden mega-blockbusters in 3D. As with the movie studios, there's a general willingness to blame this decline on anything else, rather than admit to the possibility that the audience is shrinking because the final product they release usually sucks. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, co-publisher Dan Didio acknowledges the 52 relaunch is related to falling sales:

"The truth is people are leaving anyway, they’re just doing it quietly, and we have been papering it over with increased prices,” DiDio said. “We didn’t want to wake up one day and find we had a bunch of $20 books that 10,000 people are buying."

 Von Allan's tracks the rise of comic book prices with the minimum wage, and his conclusions don't bare any good news for DC outside of a temporary spike in sales.

Speaking of crossovers, Jess Evins traces their literary and mythological roots.

James Sturm tells us how hard it is to get a cartoon into the New Yorker.

Ah Jim Shooter. According to him, Marvel almost published DC in 1984.

Derik Badman makes a webcomic of the sky with his digital camera.

Johnny Ryan plays Chester Brown in Paying For It

I babble on about the Hooded Utilitarian best of comics poll.

Other News:

Astrophysicists have made the most realistic depiction yet of spiral galaxy formation. Supercomputers are fun!

Linux, Linux, Linux!

Steve Jobs gives and takes way.

Fifty years ago, the Marvel Age began

...Under the shadow of Cold War thinking. That's what happens when beating the Commies takes precedence over pure science:

Go to: Bully Says: Comics Oughta Be Fun! for more FF goodness.

Eh, screw this. Marvel hasn't bestowed on Jack Kirby the respect he deserves. This puts a damper on celebrations of the whole "Marvel Age" thing. Better yet, let's not forget the true heroes of the Space Race, like cosmic-powered Laika:

Go to: Nick Abadzis and Big Planet Comics (via Andy Khouri)

That's an explorer I can get behind.

More NonSense: The Kirby Ruling and Dan DiDio

Marvel Entertainment won an important summary judgement against the family of the late Jack Kirby: Judge Colleen McMahon denied the family any claim to the copyrights for the characters or comics Kirby co-created when working at Marvel. Kiel Phegley and Andy Khouri report on the judgement. Rich Johnston  has a copy of the full ruling.

"At the outset, it is important to state what this motion is not about. Contrary to recent press accounts... this case is not about whether Jack Kirby or Stan Lee is the real 'creator' of Marvel characters, or whether Kirby (and other freelance artists who created culturally iconic comic book characters for Marvel and other publishers) were treated 'fairly' by companies that grew rich off the fruit of their labor. It is about whether Kirby's work qualifies as work-for-hire under the Copyright Act of 1909, as interpreted by the courts, notably the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. If it does, then Marvel owns the copyright in the Kirby Works, whether that is 'fair' or not. If it does not, then the Kirby Heirs have a statutory right to take back those copyrights, no matter the impact on recent corporate acquisition or on earnings from blockbuster movies made and yet to be made.

I conclude that there are no genuine issues of material fact, and that the Kirby Works were indeed works for hire within the meaning of the Copyright Act of 1909. Therefore the section 304(c) Termination Notices did not operate to convey any federally-protected copyrights in the Kirby Works or the Kirby Heirs. Marvel's motion for summary judgment is granted. The Kirby Heirs cross motion is denied."

Responses from Tom Spurgeon, Matthias Wivel, Jeff Trexler (via Heidi McDonald), Colleen Doran, Steve Bissette (via Tom Spurgeon and Rich Johnston), Michael Dean, Christopher Allen, followup by Matthias Wivel,

Kirby family lawyer Marc Toberoff, who also represents the Siegel family in their fight over the Superman copyrights with DC Entertainment, vows to appeal the decision.

The furor over Dan Didio's infamous answer to the question on DC's measly practice on the hiring of female creators for their relaunch only increased when a recording of it was put on the web. Tom Spurgeon commented "I'm not sure I thought this possible, but the full response somehow manages to be more ludicrous that its panel-report description." Heidi McDonald, who was in attendance, posted  "Is it SO HARD (emphasis hers) for Dan DiDio to say “We are trying to get more women involved...” The controversy prompted Laura Hudson to write a long response. Her conclusion:

"To answer Dan DiDio's question: There are many, many very talented women working in the industry who could infuse something very valuable into DC Comics, at a time when they probably need it the most. As a female fan, I desperately wish he would consider their aesthetics and contributions to the industry as viable options for the superhero books I want to read so badly but feel so chronically alienated by, something that honestly breaks my heart on a regular basis..."

DC took the unusual step to directly address fan concerns on their official blog, adopting a conciliatory attitude: "We Hear You." This seems to have placated some of the critics, according to JK Parkin, Laura Hudson, David Brothers.

A. Nathaniel Ommus on navel-gazing in comics.

Ryan Holmberg on Tatsumi Yoshihiro’s Black Rainbow.

RC Harvey: John Goldwater, the Comics Code Authority, and Archie.

Chris Mautner on Jack Cole.

More NonSense: Shameful Practices

Jack Kirby

Gary Groth's refutal of Jim Shooter's revisionist account of the infamous battle between Marvel Comics and Jack Kirby, over the ownership of his original art, is a reminder of how the troubled relationship between individual creator and company is still very much an unsettled issue. Just ask Joanne Siegel.

Matt Thorn posts on how TOKYOPOP negatively affected the quality of translations through driving down the wages of translators. His "reap as you sow" thesis also connects TP's treatment of it's OEL creators to the greed and shortsightedness that has plagued the comic book industry ever since the first publishers paid next to nothing for original content, while retaining all the rights: 

TokyoPop could have worked to nurture a mature customer base and remain relevant, but they were, in my opinion, similarly hobbled by greed and shortsightedness–greed and shortsightedness that tainted the entire North American manga publishing industry.

I'm sympathetic to the situation of underpaid employees, and even more sympathetic to creators being forced to give up their creator rights. Given how relatively little manga was being officially translated at the time, it's hard for me to confirm whether  TP's translations were any worse than previous efforts. And if anything, they read better than most fan subs. Almost any professional effort was bound to look better in comparison. So what do I know. Brigid Alverson, Kate Dacey and Daniella Orihuela-Gruber have reactions.

George Takei's petition against the rumored casting of the film adaptation of Akira might be jumping the gun a bit, although it's not a surprising reaction given Hollywood's history. That doesn't hinder those who feel that Caucasians are underrepresented enough on the big screen to protest Idris Elba playing Heimdall - Multiculturalism be damned.

Akira is an iconic Japanese work - set in Japan, filled with Japanese characters, dealing with issues that were pertinent to Japan in the Eightees. So I'm not expecting much after it passes the Hollywood studio treatment. I'm still laughing at Dragonball Evolution and Godzilla starring Matthew Broderick. It isn't so much the issue of casting (athough that can be symptomatic of it), as to the way the tampering involved in these adaptations tends to result in a race to the bottom. But I wouldn't mind being pleasantly surprised if the movie turns out to be any good.

Drawing Down The Moon

By Charles Vess, Susanna Clarke

As someone who enjoys the work of popular fantasy illustrator Charles Vess, I haven't followed his development as an artist all that closely. So a lot of the images compiled within the pages of this 200 page retrospective Drawing Down the Moon: The Art of Charles Vess were a pleasant surprise. If I had to sum up his oeuvre as presented in this book, it would be that Vess has been extremely succesful in pursuing projects that were suitable to his individual talents. For example, he's returned to William Shakespeare's ageless comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream several times throughout his career. That choice is emblematic of him - Vess seems particularly drawn to stories that deal with the intersection between the realms of the mundane and the magical.

One thing that I can relate to some degree are his various artistic influences. Vess cites comics legends such as Jack Kirby, George Herriman, Russ Manning, and Hal Foster. But he was also strongly informed by the work of classic fantasy illustrators from the late 19th and early 20th century such as Maxfield Parrish, Arthur Rackham, Richard Dadd, Alphonse Mucha, and Howard Pyle. Some of his early attempts at comic book storytelling are reproduced, and show that Vess had already learned to blend his comic and illustration influences. Vess exhibited many of the characteristics of his illustration heroes: The lithe figures, pastoral settings, the finely textured pen and ink cross hatching, and the harmonious color palette and subdued tones of his subtractive style of painting. Vess had all the necessary tools to become an accomplished artist. Those youthful efforts contained just the smallest hints of the command for multi-layered tableaux and the mastery of fanciful decorative elements found in his later, more mature work.

One big misstep, from the way he tells it, was enrolling at the department of painting and printmaking of Virginia Commonwealth University, where he graduated with a BFA. Whatever valuable technical skills he acquired came at the expense of disapproval from his peers. At the time the faculty was strongly influenced by the abstract expressionist movement - the antithesis to the narrative art dear to Vess. "I had to struggle for many years to regain that lost, individual sense of whimsical fantasy that those school years tried to squelch." I guess the pop art movement had not yet penetrated the walls of VCU's academia.

The Fairy Market

Another odd choice which is only briefly touched on were his attempts to work for Heavy Metal magazine. The publication's emphasis on sci-fi, combined with a preference for a brighter, more garish palette, buff figures, and a blood-and-guts approach more in line with Frank Frazetta than with Aubrey Beardsley (just to name two of Vess' early heroes) seemed like a poor fit. Unsurprisingly, one of the magazine's editors would describe his art as "too nice" for their purposes.

They Were Like Knights and Great Ladies out of Some Medieval Story Book

However, working in the comic book industry allowed Vess to eventually make his way back to the faerie idiom and narrative illustration, especially when he began collaborating with fan-favorite writer Neil Gaiman - a professional relationship that continues up to the present. His paintings for Gaiman's novel Stardust remains his most ambitious, and one of his most successful, bodies of work to date. Along with wider recognition came greater freedom to choose who to collaborate with and which stories were available to illustrate: whether it was the victorian-era J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan, modern emulators like Charles de Lint and Susanna Clarke, the darker horror-fantasies of George R.R. Martin, pro bono work for local community organizations, or his own self-publishing efforts through Green Man Press. While some of these projects are bound to come across better than others, depending on the reader's own tastes, there's a remarkable stylistic consistency to his art in this later period of his career that speaks to how carefully he's built his reputation as one the industry's foremost fantasy illustrators.

The Merry Dancer's Emporium

While I have my own quibbles with the book's design (I don't particularly care for the cover's color scheme and would have preferred the text to blend into the cover image), there's not much to complain about the content of the book. Susanna Clarke provides a fairly apt introduction. Apart from the reproductions of the finished artwork, there are samples of some of the underlying line art sprinkled throughout the book. Vess indulges the art geeks by concluding with an informative section on how he created the book's cover art. Overall, Drawing Down the Moon is as satisfying a retrospective as any found in today's market.

A Dream of Apples

Something Old Something Classic

I saw the new Iron Man motion picture recently, and I actually enjoyed it. Most of it had to do with the light touch applied to the plot. Most recent comic book film adaptations have tried to imbue their subject matter with a certain gravitas: The hero is encumbered by a tragic past, has some kind of identity crisis, or is on some kind of quest for revenge. Usually there's some tedious moralizing that accompanies the story. Not that this movie doesn't have a message, or that Tony Stark doesn't have a sense of purpose. Those are staples of the genre. It just doesn't dwell on those bits. There's this unavoidable geopolitical element arising from Stark's career as an arms dealer. And he goes through a conversion experience that leads him to try to rid the world of war, or at least try not to add to it. But incessantly hammering the anti-war message would only heighten the contradictions built into the story. It's about a guy who tries to end war by building the coolest weapon in his private workshop (It's great to be rich). Still the simplistic message has obvious resonance for Americans looking for easy answers. Just don't look at the film too closely.

Then there's the the anti-corporate populist stance presented. Obadiah Shane is the typical evil capitalist who puts the bottom-line before ethical considerations. He berates Tony for not giving his personal creation to Stark Enterprises so the company could profit from it. The irony of the message (no pun intended) comes from the fact that the Iron Man character is a corporate property owned by Marvel, but was the creation of individuals like Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Don Heck and Larry Lieber working in the 60s. They gave up the rights to their creation to the publisher, and Stan Lee gets to have cameos on all the films.

I also finished watching The early 90s Cutey Honey OVA. I haven't had much prior exposure to this particular Go Nagai creation. This is the Japanese equivalent of a project meant to attract older fanboys, only without the continuity-porn and shared universes that plague American superhero comics. I didn't have to watch the 70s anime or read the manga to see that the OVA was basically a homage to those earlier works. A popular argument in favor of the appeal of Japanese comics is that creator ownership has meant that serials eventually end. But if you're like Nagai, turning your creations into successful ongoing franchises is a perfectly sensible option. Cutey Honey is one of those long-lived properties that has never been successfully transplanted to the English-speaking world. It's a bit too classic for most younger western anime fans. From what I understand she is the original transforming superhero of manga. While transformation is used by some American characters (The original Captain Marvel to name the earliest precedent), transformation has become a staple in tokusatsu and magical girl stories. The transformations in Cutey Honey work on one level as empowering fantasies, and on another as voyeuristic entertainment. Every new form is supposed to imbue Honey with new abilities, and she clearly revels in every one of them. But like most superhero costume changes, they seem more aesthetic than functional. That's the fun part of the anime. No two transformation sequences are the same. They're drawn exquisitely with an obvious sexual component.

This is more about exploiting the character's retro charm than about storytelling. The plot is pretty weak. An arch villain is introduced in episode one, but is defeated halfway through the series. The rest of the OVA is composed of disconnected episodes that leave the narrative arc unresolved. Perhaps there were plans for future episodes that never came through. There's definitely a decline in animation quality towards the end. Whatever the case, it feels incomplete. But as someone who grew up watching late 70s anime, the sustained use of a generally light tone and the refusal to update a classic character, or inject adolescent angst and Freudian analysis is much appreciated.