Rolling Comic Books 2020 Visions

i'm not a big fan of eisner's graphic novel work (tho lord knows i've tried) but the spirit is right up there with donald duck and mister natural in my pantheon

Contract With God is okay bcz he was stretching to find something new (after decades of desk supervision), To The Heart Of The Storm has some personal feeling involved, otherwise it’s trash melodrama.

His late period is more interesting when serialised in the Spirit magazine, as there’s interesting contrasts between young-Eisner-when-he-was-good (and had good ghosts), businessman Eisner conducting interviews with various generations, and current Eisner trying to find a voice.

That's a shame if his reputation has decreased. I think his stuff is still very much worth seeking out.

I love all old funky 70s and early 80s Howard Chaykin. None of his character attempts (Ironwolf, Cody Starbuck, Monark Starstalker, Dominic Fortune, The Scorpion, etc.) really caught on but they all had a cool energy to them that really appealed to me as a kid.

Its too bad you could not license to put them all together in one book as that would be a cool compilation of a certain style.

Howard Chaykin was cool as fxxx the time I met him at the Chicago comic con as a teenager in the 80s. I think it was '87 they had a backroom for the artists row and it was like Howard Chaykin, Denys Cowan (sharing a table) and like two tables down was Harvey Pekar and Daniel Clowes. Someone like Chris Claremont was speaking and the gallery was really empty at the time, so we got to talk to all of those guys a bit. Good day.

I always liked Cookalein best of all Eisner's non-Spirit work.

Chaykin's visual style appeals to me but i have never been able to finish a single issue of anything he's written. My memory of his writing is that it feels like Frank Miller directed by Verhoeven. Can someone convince me to try American Flagg?

The first 12 issues of Flagg are good, and packed with enough still-timely cynicism and media commentary that it outweighs the typical Chaykin cocksmannery.

i'll give it a go sometime.
I've been exploring the Eisner nominees with mixed returns. Should i post my thoughts here or start a new thread?

Post thoughts here

R.I.P. Denny O’Neil.

I hadn't realized that a friend interviewed Denny O'Neill before a local comic convention. He accidentally misquoted him, saying that O'Neill's mom was in a nursing home and not an assisted living one, which O'Neill nicely corrected when he met him at the convention after the initial phone interview. I guess his mom lived in my city. My friend got to meet Denny's mom, who he brought to the convention, and she was also nice and seemed much younger than her age.

https://www.comic-con.org/awards/2020-eisner-awards-nominations

I find the Eisners to be VERY hit and miss as far as quality and scope goes but there are certainly worse year-past recaps of popular/semi-popular work in the field so hey, why not. I'll jump in by category.

By far the Best Short Story nominee this year is Emma Hunsinger's outstanding long-form public debut and coming of age story "How to Draw a Horse" from the New Yorker. If you haven't already, you should go read it right now at the link below. It's easily among the very best and most memorable short-form comic that I've seen in the past year.

https://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/how-to-draw-a-horse

Hunsinger has a longer project, Chunk, up for free on her website that I read just before posting here; it's remarkably accomplished, thoughtful student work and also more than worth a go. I'm excited to see what she does in the future.

Miriam Libicki's story for The Nib, "Who Gets Called an Unfit Mother" is beautifully executed and timely but, like much of the Nib's comic work, is less like comics and more of an illustrated essay. I will read her Fanta book "Toward a Hot Jew" sooner or later; she's clearly quite talented as an illustrator but I don't know if she's a solid storyteller or not.
https://thenib.com/who-gets-called-an-unfit-mother/

Mira Jacob's "The Menopause" is stiff and poorly rendered. She's gotten really hot as a literary crossover creator but I find her work awkward and the writing dull. Her themes are worth exploring but the scripting is cliched and lacks illumination. This is a pet peeve for me but I'm not seeing any intent in using the art of comics as anything but to prop up literal cut-out figures. Libicki is at least a solid illustrator, this is clip art unsuccessfully utilized.
https://believermag.com/the-menopause/

Matthew Inman's "You're Not Going to Believe What I'm About To Tell You" is of a piece with everything he puts on his abundantly popular and deadly dull webcomic site The Oatmeal: it reads like the unholy child of xkcd and Penny Arcade, the art is Reddit Casual and the tone is 'particularly quirky TED talk'. That clearly works for some people. It does not work for me.
https://theoatmeal.com/comics/believe

I still need to read Ebony Flowers' debut graphic novel collection which includes the nominated title story "Hot Comb" from Drawn and Quarterly. The concept is of interest and the art seems very Aline Kominsky-Crumbesque (which i can hang with) but i wish EVERYONE WHO MAKES COMICS would stop using cursive lettering; it makes my eyes cross. Nevertheless, the critical praise suggests this definitely merits an effort to find. Will report back.
https://drawnandquarterly.com/hot-comb
https://blacknerdproblems.com/hot-comb-review/

ty for all that ulysses!
"How to Draw a Horse" was indeed very excellent! I'll get through the others too. (Though I've already read "Who Gets Called an Unfit Mother" which was good, and I agree with your criticism there)

"Crunk" was great and totally worth reading!

When I read "The Menopause" I recognized the artwork from Mira Jacob, hate the clipart + photocomic style and it's hard to get to past for me. That said, the story is funny and I did like the goofs on Dale Carnegie (his book remains popular btw).

The Oatmeal article is... fine. Pretty much what you said, it's the TED talk method. I don't despise it because I get that they're going for a broad audience, the dumbing down is exactly why it exists.

Hopefully "Hot Comb" gets put up somewhere

Nothing to add (I also really liked Hunsinger and struggled to read the Jacob story) but thanks for pointing me towards How to Draw a Horse and Chunk, both so great

http://www.thenation.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/BLACK_LIVING_COVER_Sikoryak_CMYK-Nation-img.png
sikoryak coming through

Two sets of grooming / sleaze allegations over the last few days.

One is Aviva Artzy (and others) regarding Cameron Stewart

https://www.comicsbeat.com/cameron-stewart-sexual-misconduct-allegations/

And the other is Katie West (and others) regarding Warren Ellis

http://www.multiversitycomics.com/news/warren-ellis-allegations/

ugh

Super disappointed but not entirely surprised to hear that about Ellis.

Yeah, that's a good description of where I'm at.

Same here.

Ellis got exposed, chatlogs and cam-caps and all, 15 years ago, so I was very not surprised.

Ah, I'm not the only one that remembers that (and so not too surprised here either).

I never saw that and bringing it up now feels like an empty shrug to the women who either didn’t see it, or gave a man the benefit of a doubt that past behavior wouldn’t predict his actions in the future. Or that that behavior didn’t seem as bad as it could have been, not realizing how it’d affect them.

I’m always at least mildly surprised when someone’s vaguely seedy behavior indicates actual exploitative behavior, or when people don’t learn from publicly being outed, because I guess at heart I have this naivety that people will try to do better.

I saw that Chip Zdarsky mentioned Stewart on twitter in the context that he saw him dating younger women, although not the age difference indicated by grooming, when they shared a studio and felt bad about not seeing signs. But without community, including men who are willing to be open to calling things out, it’s difficult. If a woman in my field knew my colleague was abusive, am I approachable? Or did I know and was already protecting him?

Hadn't heard these accusations against Ellis until now, but even when he was a fan/just starting out as a writer he was a total arsehole in person/public.

bringing it up now feels like an empty shrug

absolutely not intended - given all of the openly known sexual abusers aggressively protected by DC and Dark Horse and DC and DC in the years since, I'm very saddened that he was apparently able to cruise right back along with the same grooming behaviour, except even more exploitative & no benefit-of-the-doubt re consensuality from his cult-of-personality message board, with the earlier revelations somehow not even making it into one of the whisper networks.

This is obviously not specific to this situation:

Guys: you know that dude who said something creepy about women to you once or twice, but seemed fine after that? That dude was testing you. Pushing your boundaries to see how you'd react, the same way they push the girls they prey on.

— Stacy King (@stacyking) June 17, 2020

Dave Sim has, to all intents and purposes, retired from comics. (What's that?, I hear you cry, We thought that had happened over a decade ago!)

http://momentofcerebus.blogspot.com/2020/06/breaking-strange-death-of-alex-raymond.html?m=1

Even the fanbase stuff - and I was/am still buying the Archive prints when they crowdfund as they're pretty fascinating historical documents - is making less than no money and Dave getting by on about $85CAD a week. His move to the puritanical life at the turn of the century might have made him better placed than most to eke out meagre income, but he's clearly sick of even trying any more.

The dude who's been drawing Dave's comics for him, unpaid, for several years is further into the blog expressing his frustration that Sim has been erecting completely arbitrary barriers to his own success for a long time, so that he can blame those as an excuse for not publishing, and continue his martyr complex. The post includes a link to a letter he wrote Sim over three years ago yelling at him about this.

Sim is absolutely the master of his own demise and I don't think anyone has any sympathy any more. Even the Archive series has been through three volunteers and they've only got to vol 8.

Old Cerberus books don't sell? I guess they've been out of the limelight for a while...

Also, they're not all in print at once, and when Dave spent many tens of thousands of dollars on remastering the art so they were better-looking than ever before, on cleaner paper, he just put them back out under the same covers (and I think under the same re-order codes?) as and when the previous editions were especially drastically out of print, rather than giving anyone a chance to promote them.

Yeah, they went back under exactly the same codes so if you wanted to actively trade up you couldn't.

My copies came from Dave via a pledge level on one of the Archive KSs before the Patreon days (and wrist issues) because it was the only way I could guarantee the new editions (and I think it was something trivial like $5CAD over trade price).

From Warren Ellis's newsletter (sorry for hueg)

Hello. Please forgive the lateness of my appearance. I have been speaking to people, and listening carefully, for a few days.

Recent statements have been made about me that need to be addressed.

I have never considered myself famous or powerful, to the point where I’ve made a lot of bad jokes about it for twenty-odd years. It had never really occurred to me that other people didn’t see it the same way—that I was not engaging as an equal when gifted with attention, but acting from a position of power and privilege. I did not take that into account in a number of my personal interactions and this was a mistake and I own it.

While I’ve made many bad choices in my past, and I’ve said a lot of wrong things, let me be clear, I have never consciously coerced, manipulated, or abused anyone, nor have I ever assaulted anybody. But I was ignorant of where I was operating from at a time I should have been clear and for that I accept 100% responsibility.

I hurt people deeply. I am ashamed for these mistakes and I am profoundly sorry. I will not speak against other people’s personal truths, and I will not expose them to the toxicity of the current discourse. I should have been more aware, more present, and more respectful of people’s feelings and for that I apologise.

I have had friendships and relationships end, sometimes in bitterness, often due to my own failings, and I continue to regret and apologise for the pain I have caused.

I have always tried to aid and support women in their lives and careers, but I have hurt many people that I had no intention of hurting. I am culpable. I take responsibility for my mistakes. I will do better and for that, I apologise.

I apologise to my friends and collaborators for having created this situation, and I hope they will be treated kindly. Mistakes and poor choices in my personal life are not on them, but only on me.

We have a responsibility to one another, every day. And I have, in my past, let too many people down. I hope to one day become worthy of the trust and kindness that was placed in me by colleagues and friends.

I will continue to listen, learn, and strive to be a better human being. I have sought to make amends with people, as I have been made aware of my transgressions, and will continue to do so. I have apologised, I apologise, and will continue to apologise and take total responsibility for my actions without equivocation.

I am going to be quiet now, to listen more than I speak, for other voices matter far more than my own right now.

I will be closing this newsletter. Thank you for your past support. Look after yourselves.

And a post from Doctor Nerdlove on it: https://www.doctornerdlove.com/on-finding-out-your-heroes-are-monsters-or-detoxifying-comic-culture/

Enjoyed the Kayfabe interview with Frederik Schodt. He talks about a lot of the things he's best known for but also tries to emphasize underestimated factors in keeping manga translations unflopped (powerful artists putting their foot down in particular),the International Manga Award and some more recent manga he has liked.
https://www.manga-award.mofa.go.jp/index_e.html
He said this award has helped a lot of careers, I do recognize a few of the winners (stuff that has been printed by american publishers) but some I can't find anything about.

Has anyone ever felt that some important franchise characters just never got interesting despite efforts to try and make them interesting ("Uuuuoooh god, they're so iconic so we have make them interesting and pretend they were always interesting"). I always felt that way about Dr Octopus and Lex Luthor.

Maybe it was Howard Chaykin wondering why anyone would want him to draw Emma Frost (he didn't know who she was until he was asked) got me thinking about this, but I was thinking about how some people, often women are subjected to interrogation about their fan credentials; but frequently the people who make comics don't read them much or know who a lot of the characters even are (this is probably more often artists than writers). A lot of artists who draw popular characters as a living gravitate towards characters that look cool but don't necessarily care about them beyond that, which cosplayers or someone who just buys a t-shirt or a toy gets criticized for.

My favorite example of this is John Buscema (who generally didn't like superheroes) resenting having to draw Aunt May, asking things like "who is this stupid old lady?"

How many Star Wars actors read all the novels?

"Aero was created for the Chinese market by the writer and artist team of Zhou Jiajun and Xu Ming and first appeared in the Chinese Marvel comic Aero (Chinese version) issue 1 (2018). Her first American debut was in War of the Realms: New Agents of Atlas issue 1 (2019). The original Chinese Aero comic would later be published or "reprinted" in the American Aero series."

Didn't know Marvel did original chinese comics. Is there any articles or databases of all the different countries who had their own official versions of DC and Marvel characters?

Something different: article about the studio of the most famous current Filipino comic artists. Not all of it is in english.
https://www.cnnphilippines.com/life/culture/2020/1/7/55-balete-studio.html

xp why would anyone read all the novels ffs

you write/draw a story, read all the works that are relevant to the story you're doing and let the corporate story group for your property figure out whether your shit is relevant and hitting the right notes

Even among big Star Wars fans I doubt many read much of the novels.

Ok, I just caught up with Snyder's Justice League, Year of the Villain - Hell Arisen, so I could be up to speed with Death Metal. These books contradict each other and it makes so little sense. Often they ignore each other - not to mention the Bendis/Superman-verse with Event Leviathan which was/is also happening at the same time? And the Batman/Superman title, which focuses on the Batman Who Laughs' infection plot, which is then stupidly resolved at the end of Hell Arisen. DC's editorial department has really gone to shit! (The Tom King run on Batman ignores virtually all of this as well, but I feel like this kinda thing has become standard procedure for Batman; see Batman Inc./New 52.)

Still, I do admit I like that Snyder is willing to goof it up with these ideas for the sake of fun - I mean, Jarro alone made his JL run much more enjoyable. And Death Metal looks like it's going to be more of the same silliness as Dark Nights, and I am down for that.

Realizing also that both Marvel and DC did that weird thing again where they came up with similar ideas around the same time (Justice League's Perpetua arc has a lot in common with Jason Aaron's ancient Avengers/Celestials storyline, though I'm further behind on that one, plus that one added vampires for some reason.)

https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/night-parade-of-one-hundred-demons

DC's editorial department has really gone to shit!

― Nhex, Sunday, June 28, 2020 9:00 AM

Isn't it better when they give up trying to coordinate all the storylines?

https://www.comics.org/issue/407300/cover/4/

Felipe Smith interview at Kayfabe isn't finished yet (there's a third part forthcoming) but there's some great stuff in there. I knew most stuff about the manga industry but the sheer extent of the stress, health concerns and constant meetings with editors is incredible; I didn't know original art wasn't a real commodity and that some people have such a better life in doujinshi that I wonder why most people wouldn't prefer to work in that (you can make a good and legal living off fanfiction comics; if you can do Ninja Turtle sex comics for a big audience then are DC and Marvel characters viable?)
He said one Doujin author more or less laughed off an offer from a big time publisher because why would you want horrible deadlines and an editor as co-writer? I can only guess the main incentive not to doujin is you probably wont get a multi-media hit.

Smith's editor was amused shaking his head at the violence in Peepo Choo and Smith says that this is the country that shocked the rest of the world with things like Fist Of The North Star and the editor replied that that level of violence is mostly from a bygone era in manga.

Maybe I should check if Berserk gradually decreases the violence.

I knew that Berserk removed a chapter from the collected edition because it was deemed too much of a spoiler but Piskor says something like 100 pages were removed from the collected version of Akira.

Huh? Why was that?

I think he just wanted to omit and re-do some stuff because it was important to him. Apparently changes are made fairly often if the author has time to make these changes.

And the doujinshi printing services sound like a dream. It's not difficult to get all different kinds of paper and binding.