Everyone s trying to make everything too complicated with special animation on the balloons, animated page turning features, etc. If someone wants to see animated content, there s a hell of a lot more places to go online for that. People who are downloading comics just want to read a comic, not be distracted by something that makes the reading experience more complicated.
looks at Jillian Tamaki s new collection of comics and illustrations, Gilded Lilies. And in the news
The judges for next year s Eisner Awards . Briefly: columnists for Bookslut and USA Today, an indy-comics writer, a librarian specializing in comics for young people and a retailer who doesn t masturbate to his collection of Wolverine funnybooks. It s too soon to tell, but it s entirely possible that next year s list of nominees won t be an embarrassment to the medium and wouldn t that be a surprising change of pace?
After years of sneering at Tokyopop s world manga initiative and lauding their own, Japanese-produced manga, Viz Comics quietly lists its first comic by a Western artist on . (Link via .) One day I will give in and write a review completely in stolen quotes from forums. Then you will all understand the awesome horror that is fandumb. likes the yuri-themed Strawberry Panic, even if she isn t too impressed with its many boosters. (Link via .
)
This is totally off the subject, but it seems like I ve been concentrating fairly heavily on women s issues in this blog lately, so I thought I d throw a sop to all my long-suffering straight male readers. Okay, and whatever dyke contingent I have. (Hello, my kickass dyke readers! ) Anyway, is getting into the holiday spirit by offering his readers the 25 Days of Bishoujo, with a picture of a pretty real or drawn girl posted every day. Also, on the off chance you were wondering: Yes, is a totally kawaii babe. Finally, TCJ assistant editor Kristy Valenti saw my confusion yesterday over the doujinshi about girls in Bashamichi Restaurant uniforms, and sent along this .
And there you are. (Right: a girl in a Bashamichi uniform.)
Early adopters take note: is a new service that sells downloadable comics in DRM-free CBR and PDF formats, for roughly a buck a pop. Publishers IDW and Devil s Due are already offering comics for sale through this website (Devil s Due s Josh Blaylock is behind this new initiative). While there aren t enough publishers jumping into the pool yet to create the momentum needed to turn this into a real threat to more 20th-century business models, the same was true of music in the late 1990s, when sites like MP3.com and eMusic were experimenting in similar fashion.
With iTunes now a serious player in the music industry, it doesn t take a particularly farsighted observer to draw the parallels. And the lack of players in this game is quickly changing; online e-book retailer has a small with Moonstone Comics as its star attraction, and I m told that another independent comics publisher is about to start a dedicated digital-comics website in the next few weeks as well.
Like fellow e-comic pioneer s initiative, Pullbox is aggressively pushing its DRM-free status, as Blaylock notes in an insightful interview for .As I noted way , the battle for open formats will ultimately determine the shape of the digital comics market, so it s nice to see that several new entrants to said market understand the lessons that representatives of the music and movie industries still refuse to acknowledge. We live in interesting whether you choose to see this as an opportunity or a Chinese curse is up to you.
Related: refuses to believe the hype.In a blog comment thread, doesn t see the big deal with DC Comics use of the word minx for a line of comics aimed at teenage girls. takes issue with this: It s a term for a loose woman, or a girl who sleeps around a lot. I don t often say this, but I m with Riggs on this one. I might see the point Gjovaag s trying to make if I d actually heard a live human being use the word minx within the last fifteen years but I haven t, and I strongly suspect that the resulting books will be the first time their target audience ever encounters it. Some of the kids I grew up with wore torn clothing, listened to bands like Minor Threat and called themselves punks. Quick: What did the term punk originally mean?
(Hint: It s the same thing as a pogue. ) I don t get this controversy at all. It s as though DC had decided to call the line 23 Skidoo, only to have outraged bystanders complain that everyone knows the phrase to be used by men who consort with flappers and smoke tea in the Cotton Club bathroom.
Who fucking cares?
Ever wanted to see a little girl grab Dave Sim s nose with a pair of pliers? ! (Link via .)
Your link of the day: More cartoony goodness, this time from . Your link of the day okay, I m officially done with the Minx and Occasional Superheroine memes. Instead, I give you (also, a good parody of that godawful banner ad that s been running on The Pulse lately).
Dec. 7 (Pittsburgh, PA): Scott McCloud s never-ending tour sets down at Carnegie Mellon University s McConomy Auditorium, where he ll be lecturing from 4:30-6:30PM. .
Dec. 7 (New York City, NY): Architectural historian Timothy Samuelson joins cartoonist Chris Ware for a discussion on how Chicago contributed to, and essentially codified, what is thought of as the modern comic strip. It all starts at the Jewish Museum at 6:30PM; tickets are $15. .
Dec. 7 (San Francisco, CA): Five queer cartoonists Jaime Cortez, Justin Hall, Andy Hartzell, Nick Leonard and Steve MacIsaac will be reading from and signing copies of The Book of Boy Trouble, an anthology collecting highlights from the noted indy comics series. It all happens at Magnet in S.F.
s Castro district, beginning at 7PM. .
Dec. 7 (Chicago, IL): Gabrielle Bell, Kevin Huizenga and Anders Nilsen will be talking comics and signing books at Quimby s this evening, beginning at 7PM. .
Dec. 7 (New York City, NY): R. Sikoryak s latest Carousel cartoon slideshow will take place at Dixon Place; in addition to Sikoryak, participating artists include Leela Corman, Robbie Busch, Julie Klausner, Todd Alcott and others. Doors open at 7:30PM, and the show begins at 8PM.
Tickets are $12. or from the .
Dec. 8 (Pittsburgh, PA): The never-ending Scott McCloud traveling roadshow sets down at Carnagie Mellon University, where the Making Comics author will give his presentation at the McConomy Auditorium at 4:30 PM. .
Dec. 8 (Los Angeles, CA): The Secret headquarters on Sunset Boulevard will host a reception for a new display of work by Steven Weissman from 8-10PM. A few ; the Secret Headquarters website .
Dec. 9 (North Bay, Ontario): For Better or For Worse creator Lynn Johnston will be meeting fans and signing books at Coles North Bay from 1-3PM. . (Thanks to Christopher Butcher for noting that North Bay is not Toronto.
Don t ask.)
Dec.
News RSS