comics are mainstream

2006-07-28T17:55:00.000-03:00

These Comic-Con people, they have their ear to the ground. They are tastemakers," said actor-writer Marlon Wayans, who will be on hand to promote not only the Wayans' new animated series "Thugaboo" but also a comic book series he is writing. "The connotation of 'geek' has changed. 'Geek' now means cool."

The San Diego Comic Con (july 20-23) was intensely coveraged by the mainstream media, as in this Hollywood Reporter piece. Although centered around comic books, the Con has expanded into maybe the biggest pop culture event in the US.

2006-07-28T17:51:00.000-03:00

AfterEllen, a site with "news, reviews and commentary on lesbian bisexual women and the media", profiles the new lesbian Batgirl from DC Comics.

2006-07-28T17:38:00.001-03:00

Dallas-Fort Worth's Quick congratulates locals Scott Kurtz and Zeus Comics for their Eisner awards.

2006-07-28T17:38:00.000-03:00

Wired also interviews Scott McCloud about his new book, Making Comics.

2006-07-28T17:36:00.000-03:00

Wired checked the Comics Art Conference at San Diego and talks about the academic views of comics there presented.

2006-07-28T17:25:00.000-03:00

The Philadelphia Daily News reviews the new DC comic book Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters.

2006-07-28T17:24:00.000-03:00

Will Moss reviews a bunch of new comics at The Nashville City Paper.

2006-07-28T17:21:00.000-03:00

Actor Robin Williams, answering to about his possible casting as Joker in the next Batman movie, talks about his love for comic books at Movies Online.

It’s interesting now that they’re kind of realizing with all the adult comic books — graphic novels, for those who are trying to upscale themselves. "Is it a comic book?" "No, it’s a graphic novel." "Is that porn?" "No, it’s adult entertainment. With accessories."

2006-07-28T17:15:00.000-03:00

The Evansville Courier & Press profiles Joshua Elder, author of the graphic novel Mail Order Ninja and most unlucky man on Earth.

2006-07-28T17:14:00.000-03:00

Gerard Way, frontman for the My Chemical Romance band, writes and draws a graphic novel, reports New Musical Express.

2006-07-28T17:06:00.000-03:00

"The local library has become the latest conquest of the comic book at a time when museums are exhibiting comic art and cartoonists are winning prestigious literary prizes", says The Daytone Beach News Journal.

2006-07-28T17:05:00.000-03:00

The success of manga at libraries - again at The Orlando Sentinel.

2006-07-20T16:26:00.000-03:00

Comic book superheroes star aside top models in the latest Mouth2Mouth magazine.

2006-07-20T16:25:00.000-03:00

We have a super superhero problem. Men in tights have infected too many aspects of American culture, not simply comic books, but Pulitzer Prize-winning novels, pop art, the HBO series "Entourage," and virtually every movie every summer.

So argues Karen Heller at the Philadelphia Enquirer. But throughout the articles, she just complains about too many superhero movies.

2006-07-20T15:54:00.000-03:00

Van Jensen, at the Arkansas Democractic Gazette reviews Can't Get No, Kings in Disguise and the Graphic Classics collection.

2006-07-20T15:45:00.000-03:00

"It’s not so much a kid thing." Maryland's Gazette finds out the big news about comics.

2006-07-20T15:44:00.000-03:00

The Independent profiles The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation.

2006-07-20T15:42:00.000-03:00

"OfficeMax, one of America's largest office supply distributors, announced that a special edition Marvel comic book titled Brain Drain, which honors middle school teachers as Super Heroes, is now available for free at OfficeMax's approximately 870 superstores across the country..." - Yahoo Finance

2006-07-20T15:41:00.000-03:00

"Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are among 10 Super Heroes created by DC Comics who will be immortalized on postage as part of the "DC Super Heroes" commemorative postage stamps..." - Yahoo Finance

2006-07-20T15:40:00.000-03:00

The Sacramento Bee reviews the Halo Graphic Novel.

2006-07-20T15:39:00.000-03:00

"Urban Ministries, Inc., the largest independent African American media firm and a leader in non-denominational urban Christian media content, has announced the September launch of The Guardian Line, four separate comic book series..." - ICV2.

2006-07-20T15:36:00.000-03:00

Superheroes are the stars of the new marketing campaign of the Magazine Publishers of America, reports The New York Times.

2006-07-20T15:31:00.000-03:00

"These Comic-Con people, they have their ear to the ground. They are tastemakers (...) The connotation of 'geek' has changed. 'Geek' now means cool."

The Hollywood Reporter reports on how the annual San Diego Comics Convention became less about comics, and more of a marketing opportunity to geek-oriented TV and movie productions.

The LA Times goes for the same angle. It also devotes a blog to the Con, and gives some tips on Con-behaving.

2006-07-20T15:29:00.000-03:00

The Onion A.V. Club reviews Rick Veitch's Can't Get No.

2006-07-20T15:27:00.000-03:00

Douglas Wolk at Salon reviews a bunch of new graphic novels, including Brian Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness and Gilbert Hernandez' Sloth.

2006-07-20T15:20:00.000-03:00

HarperCollins Publishers and Fox Atomic Announce Graphic Novel Publishing Imprint

2006-07-20T15:17:00.000-03:00

The Financial Express profiles Virgin Comics and its intent to broadcast Indian popular culture worldwide through comic books and animation.

2006-07-20T15:14:00.000-03:00

"Teens' librarian knows what's popular" (manga, it is), says the Houston Chronicle.

2006-07-20T15:11:00.000-03:00

Richard Gehr reviews Rick Veitch's Can't Get No and Ellen Forney's I Love Led Zeppelin at Newsday.

2006-07-20T15:07:00.000-03:00

Alan Grant and Cam Kennedy are adapting Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Kidnapped into a comic book for the One Book One Edinburgh campaign, reports The Sunday Herald.

"If Stevenson had been alive now I like to think he would have been writing Batman stories because he had exactly the right kind of mind for it", says Grant.

2006-07-20T15:05:00.000-03:00

One of The Scotsman's talks about A Scanner Darkly ("the latest example of graphic images flowing into the cultural mainstream as a way to tell grown-up stories") and reviews Tintin and the Secret of Literature.

2006-07-20T14:59:00.000-03:00

The Richmond Times-Dispatch profiles the Virginia Commonwealth University collection of comic books.

2006-07-18T20:24:00.000-03:00

The Edmonton Journal discovers webcomics.

2006-07-18T20:20:00.000-03:00

Star Gazette notices Virgin Comics.

2006-07-18T20:17:00.000-03:00

Suicide Girls talks to graphic novelist Jessica Abel about her last work, La Perdida, and to comedian Brian Pohsen about his first comic book, The Last Christmas.

2006-07-18T20:15:00.000-03:00

The Toledro Free Press is excited with the Marvel Western line of comics.

2006-07-18T20:10:00.000-03:00

The Altoona Mirror talks to Jay Hosler about his plans of creating educational comic books for Biology classed, with funds from the National Research Foundation.

2006-07-18T20:08:00.000-03:00

Rememberign the 1893 World Fair, the Chicago Sun-Times interviews Chris Ware, who sets one poignant scene of his Jimmy Corrigan: the Smartest Kid on Earth graphic novel in the Fair.

2006-07-18T19:53:00.000-03:00

Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Joe Queasada will appear in Comedy Central's The Colbert Report this Thursady, 7/27, according to Wizard Universe.

2006-07-18T19:48:00.000-03:00

The Washington Post pays attention to "The Gordon Lee Case", a comics related trial currently going on. Gordon Lee, from Georgia, while giving away more than 2,000 comics during a fair, allegedly gave to a minor a comic that had a brief nude scene. Giving a minor something with the slightest hint of sexuality is a felony in the state.

2006-07-14T12:06:00.000-03:00

"Comics Aren’t Just For Kids Anymore! ...Now they’re also for adults with childlike mentalities and adolescent male power fantasies... misunderstood urban intellectuals... and movie producers looking for ‘fresh’ ideas and readymade storyboards!"

Westender talks about underground comic books.

2006-07-14T11:54:00.000-03:00

The M Modern Gallery, at Palm Springs, has opened an exibition of painting based on the Batman TV series, some of them by Adam West, the actor who played Batman in TV - Los Angeles Times.

2006-07-14T11:52:00.000-03:00

Salt Lake City Weekly profiles local author Derek Hunter, from Pirate Club comics.

2006-07-14T11:48:00.000-03:00

People Magazine finds out actress Rosario Dawson is releasing her own co-written and starred comic book, OCT: Occult Crimes Taskforce.

2006-07-14T11:46:00.000-03:00

The US Postal Service is releasing a limited series of stamps based on DC Comics superhero characters, announced last year. The Gazette interviews PS and DC representatives about the release.

2006-07-14T11:43:00.000-03:00

"Back then, no one knew about it [graphic novels] and it was really hard to find," said the Hamilton 17-year-old, who borrowed most of them from friends. "Now, it's like everyone knows about it. Everyone owns some or has some or has read some. It's exploded, basically."

The Boston Globe reports on the boom of graphic novels teen readership in libraries.

2006-07-14T11:30:00.000-03:00

Novel Graphic, a graphic novel line from Farrar, Straus & Giroux' division Hill and Wang, announces its second line-up of non-fiction graphic novels at ICV2. Joining the adaptation of The 9/11 Report and the biographies of Ronald Reagan and Malcolm X, which will be released this year, there will be bios of J. Edgar Hoover, and illustrated histories of the Students for a Democratic Society group, of the Beats and of the Vietnam War, as well as a comics version Introduction to Genetics.

Harvey Pekar is involved as a writer in two of the projects. Pekar, of American Splendor fame, seems to be the go-to guy for every mainstream American publisher who doesn't know anything about comics and wants to join the booming graphic novels market.

2006-07-14T11:25:00.000-03:00

The Denver Post review of A Scanner Darkly (the movie) says it "is a graphic novel on screen". "Graphic novel" seems to be the cool/must-use-often (and oftly misused) term of the season.

2006-07-13T00:40:00.000-03:00

Elements from the Green Lantern comic book are used by political comentator Matthew Iglesias as a metaphor for USA's foreign policy, at TPM Cafe.

2006-07-13T00:14:00.000-03:00

OnMilwaukee interviews comics editor Denis Kitchen, who helmed the publication of underground comics throught the 70s and 80s and nowadays takes care of Will Eisner's legacy.

2006-07-13T00:12:00.000-03:00

The Australian introduces its readers to the strange world of comic book collecting, and the six-figure prices rare comic books reach in the US. The article also makes an introduction to comic book history.

2006-07-13T00:05:00.000-03:00

The Record explains comics to who has just watched the comics-based movies.

2006-07-13T00:01:00.000-03:00

Hillary Chute, at The Village Voice, profiles-while-reviews Alison Bechdel and Fun Home in a lengthy article.

2006-07-12T23:51:00.000-03:00

About to host the infamous Who Wants to Be a Superhero? reality show, Stan Lee reminisces about his history with Marvel Comics to The Mercury News.

This week

2006-07-12T23:36:00.000-03:00

High-profile comic book and comics-related releases of the week.

The superhero comics event of 1996 gets a luxuous oversized and slipcased new edition. It's a ragnarok-style story for DC superheroes - Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and so on - painted by Alex Ross.

French authors Ted Benoit and Fraçois Ayroles adapt a never-filmed Raymond Chandler screenplay.

Jerry Robinson updates his 1970s book about comics strips, leaving the original material and adding his remarks on Calvin & Hobbes, Dilbert and all the rest.

2006-07-12T08:56:00.000-03:00

U.S. Starcom, Inc. will sell, in their stores, the Spanish language graphic novels of Public Square Books, as the two companies signed a joint venture this week - Primezone.

2006-07-12T08:53:00.000-03:00

Mazda showcases its new car, the RX-8, through a comic book, developed by marketing agency Spacedog and the established imprint Top Cow, at Image Comics - Yahoo News.

2006-07-12T08:51:00.000-03:00

The Miami Herald reviews Derek McCulloch and Shepherd Hendrix' Stagger Lee and Matt Fraction and Steven Sanders' Five Fists of Science.

2006-07-12T08:44:00.000-03:00

The Book Standard analyzes the cross-media strategy - with DVDs, games, movie productions - some manga publishers have to take to promote their comics.

2006-07-10T17:08:00.000-03:00

Columbus Alive profiles local comics penciller Keron Grant.

2006-07-10T17:04:00.000-03:00

"There is a quiet revolution going on in America, one that most people haven’t even noticed: Manga are changing the comics industry and readers as well, creating a new model for storytelling and for doing business", says the lenghty article by Brigid Alverson at North Shore.

2006-07-10T17:01:00.000-03:00

The New York Daily News educates non-fanboys on comics essential reading.

2006-07-10T16:56:00.000-03:00

The Independent reports that movie director Guy Ritchie (Snatch, Revolver) will write comic books for Virgin Comics.

2006-07-10T16:55:00.000-03:00

Mr. Skin.com, a website devoted to cataloguing every nudity scene in movies, interviews Daniel Clowes about, well, nudity and Art School Confidential.

2006-07-10T16:51:00.000-03:00

Tony Millionaire (Sock Monkey, Maakies) is interviewed by Suicide Girls about his new work, Billy Hazelnuts.

2006-07-10T16:46:00.000-03:00

The Baltimore Sun reproduces Joel Rose's review of A Scanner Darkly and Playback published in the LA Times some days ago.

2006-07-10T16:43:00.000-03:00

Entertainment Weekly reviews the A Scanner Darkly GN, Raymond Chandler's Playback and Southland Tales: Two Roads Diverge - the latter being a prequel to the upcoming Richard Kelly movie.

2006-07-07T16:56:00.000-03:00

The Lone and Level Sands, a graphic novel about the Jewish Exodus from Egypt from an Egyptian perspective, has received a self-publishing award and is getting good praise in the US. The Allston-Brighton profiles creator A. David Lewis.

2006-07-07T16:40:00.000-03:00

Scholastic announces some high-profile creators who will be contributing to its graphic novel line, Graphix, at ICV2.

2006-07-07T16:38:00.000-03:00

The Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary has added the word "manga" ("a Japanese comic book or graphic novel") to this year's edition, informs the Associated Press (at Boston.com).

2006-07-07T16:32:00.000-03:00

Best-seller author Neil Strauss will release a graphic novel, drawn by Bernard Chang, titled How to Make Money Like a Porn Star, according to Publisher's Weekly. Strauss co-wrote How to Make Love Like a Porn Star with Jenna Jameson.

2006-07-07T16:30:00.000-03:00

The Oregonian profiles Dark Horse Comics at its 25 years of business.

2006-07-07T16:27:00.000-03:00

Kevin Garcia, at The Brownsville Herald goes further in the "gay superheroes" thread, reminding that there are already a lot of homossexual characters in comics.

2006-07-07T16:23:00.000-03:00

The New York Times reports briefly on novelist Jodi Picoult taking over the Wonder Woman title.

2006-07-07T16:18:00.000-03:00

Superheroes sacked French restaurants (Washington Post) and Captain America was taken into custody (Syracuse.com).

2006-07-07T16:10:00.000-03:00

Stone Arch Books, entering the graphic novel business this year, announces the release of 24 new educational-oriented GNs in August, according to ICV2.

2006-07-07T16:07:00.000-03:00

The Ottawa Citizen follows the Lost Girls vs. GOSH thread, which probably will be forgotten by the end of this month, when the graphic novel is released.

Or not.

2006-07-06T22:18:00.000-03:00

Joseph Dionisio, at Newsday.com, relates the use of animated graphics in movies like A Scanner Darkly and advertising to the rise of graphic novels.

2006-07-06T22:10:00.000-03:00

The present state of the graphic novel/comic-book genre is reminiscent of the music scene of the late 1960s. Back then, anybody with long hair who could play an instrument was signed to a record label. Out of that improvisational chaos came some of the most timeless music of the era, much of it selling better in reissued formats today than work by contemporary artists. Of course, some of the worst, most self-indulgent crap was also released, but it was so far outweighed by the good that nobody even remembers it. Likewise, the graphic novel genre is exploding with new voices and visions, still stretching its muscles, still widening its tent to give anybody with a pencil and a unique spin a chance to create something worthwhile.

So compares Alan Bisbort, at the Hartford Advocate, before reviewing Rob Vollmar and Pablo G. Callejo's Bluesman, Philippe Dupuy and Charles Berberian's Mr. Jean comics and Harvey Pekar's The Quitter.

2006-07-05T20:53:00.000-03:00

One week and US$ 100,000,000 later, Superman Returns generated a lot of good articles on the Superman mythos at newspapers and magazines. I try, as a ground rule, to not cover comics-based movies news here, but there have been some good pieces about the man of steel - not only the movie one, nor the comic book one, but as a pop culture icon.

The Chronicle Herald remembered Super co-creator Joe Shuster's Canadian roots. The Scotsman talked to Mark Millar, Neil Gaiman, Mike Dougherty (the three of which have written Super stories) and Rich Johnston (a comics journalist) about the need of a superhero in times like these ("Making his onscreen re-appearance at a time of disastrous occupation in Iraq, of international outcry over Guantanamo Bay, and a US administration widely criticised for its stance, or lack of it, over global warming, what price the American Way?"). The Sweet Science, a boxing news website, went for the interesting story of the creation of the 1976 comic book Superman vs. Muhammad Ali. Both Charleston's The Post and Courier and The Independent delved into Super's history as a pop icon, while Troy Patterson, at Slate Magazine, preferred to talk about Lois Lane. Paul Levitz, president of DC Comics, was interviewed at Radiff about Super and the state of superhero comics, while Mark Millar asked "can Superman save America?" at The Sunday Herald, drawing some parallels between Superman mythos and the US political history.

2006-07-05T20:07:00.000-03:00

The Buffalo News apparently is a little late is its reading of The New York Times: it makes the "diversity in comics" topic ressurface, using the same examples of the NYT piece from one month ago.

2006-07-05T20:04:00.000-03:00

"We are trying to make the idea of a comic book store a little more sexy", says the owner of Mondo Atomica, another new comic shop (are they making a big return?) in yet another "Comics Shop 101" piece, at the Clayton News Daily.

2006-07-05T20:02:00.000-03:00

"Matt Bacon, a 16-year-old council member and Lodi High student, said he enjoys graphic novels, a kind of extended comic book, featuring superheroes such as Batman, Superman and the X-Men."

An extremely poor description of graphic novels in an article about teen reading at public libraries this summer, at Lodi News Sentinel.

2006-07-05T19:57:00.000-03:00

Bookslut devotes a nice article to new graphic novels coming from DC/Vertigo, which includes interviews with editor Karen Berger and authors Brian K. Vaughan, Rick Veitch and Gilbert Hernandez. There's also a review of Veitch's Can't Get No.

2006-07-05T19:46:00.000-03:00

Philadelphia Daily News goes swiflty over Wonder Woman's 65 years in comic books.

This week

2006-07-05T17:31:00.001-03:00

High-profile comic book and comics-related releases of the week.

Epileptic is considered to be one of the last masterpiece of Franco-Belgian comics. Originally titled L'Ascension du Haut Mal, it's the autobiographic epic of L'Association founder David Beauchard. Pantheon is releasing a paperback version of the series, which has already had a hardback version and a previous publication in he US, in two volumes, by Fantagraphics.

Canadian author Bryan Lee O'Malley has been making the rounds with his Scott Pilgrim series of graphic novels. Oni Press wisely decided to reoffer his first GN, about a road-trippin' girl looking for her soul.

The rotoscoped frames of Richard Linklater's film A Scanner Darkly - in US theaters this Friday - are rearranged as graphic novel, with added dialogue and captions by American Splendor's Harvey Pekar. Pantheon Books.

Tom McCarthy argues that Hergé's Tintin comics hold the same themes and ambitions of classic literature, and is the first academic voice to affirm that comic books are not literature - with apparently nice arguments. Granta Books (UK).

Gilbert Hernandez' (half of Love & Rockets) books always defy any definition, because of its Lynchean atmosphere. This new graphic novel, from DC/Vertigo, seems to be about a guy who wakes up after a year of sleep and finds himself "out of step with the rest of the world".

2006-07-05T01:33:00.000-03:00

"The increasing penetration of graphic novel material into school and public libraries continues across all categories, with the broad range of graphic novel material and how to categorize it and provide it for age-appropriate users the biggest problems faced by librarians."

Reporting from the American Library Association Annual Conference in New Orleans, ICV2 sees a nice future for comics as educational tools.

2006-07-05T01:26:00.000-03:00

Another "Comics Shop 101" piece at the Connecticut Post.

2006-07-05T01:20:00.000-03:00

The Montgomery Advertiser talks about the third Marvel New Avengers comic distributed freely to U.S. military, including the ones serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. The comic has a print run of over 1 million copies.

2006-07-05T01:07:00.000-03:00

PBS will air Anders Østergaard documentary Tintin and I, about the life of Tintin's creator Hergé, starting July 11. So they put up an excellent feature site about it, and interviewed proeminent American comics artists (Jessica Abel, Daniel Clowes, Phoebe Glockner, Jason Lutes, Seth, Chris Ware) about the influence of Tintin and Hergé in their work and "cartooning" in general.

2006-07-05T01:00:00.000-03:00

"As a result of the new orthodoxy that 'comics are for adults', publishers are beginning to realise that they can sell back to us the children's comics we bought in our youth - as long as they do it with postmodern irony", says Roger Sabin (author of Comics, Comix and Graphic Novels: a history of comic art) to introduce his reviews of a lot of new graphic novels and comics-related publications at The Guardian.

2006-07-05T00:57:00.000-03:00

The Missoulian reports on a visit of comics artist Jim Lee and some of his Wildstorm studio crew to Missoula, Montana.

2006-07-04T14:01:00.000-03:00

"Bechdel is promoting her latest book, a memoir called Fun Home that looks like a graphic novel -- but is non-fiction all the way." What??

Isthmus' The Daily Page reviews Fun Home and talks to Alison Bechdel.

2006-07-04T13:50:00.000-03:00

June's Traveller magazine carried a "graphic novella" in which journalist Tom Downey reports his travel to Barcelona as a detective/comic book story, drawn by Neil Gower. World Hum talks to Downey.

2006-07-04T13:45:00.000-03:00

Novelist Jodi Picoult will write DC Comics' series Wonder Woman, according to The Pulse. Picoult's last novel, released this March, has a graphic novel insert as part of the story.

"In all the time I've been alive, I've only seen the New York Times Book Review add one section for Critical Analysis, and that was for Graphic Novels", says the author, who has more than 10 published books.

2006-07-03T08:53:00.000-03:00

The Pasadena Star-News talks to local comics artists Kazu Kibuishi and Amy Kim Ganter about Flight Vol. 3.

2006-07-02T16:14:00.000-03:00

The Village Voice reviews DC's Infinite Crisis and talks about fan's heated reactions to the series.

2006-07-02T16:06:00.000-03:00

"DC feels very Windows. Marvel feels very Mac", goes the clever piece by Hank Stuever at The Washington Post. It is a bit difficult - albeit an obligatory topic every time two fans meet - to differentiate superhero comics publishers Marvel and DC, but Stuever draws some good comparisons.

2006-07-02T15:53:00.000-03:00

Comics authors Alison Bechdel (Fun Home, highest-praised GN of the year, so far) and Craig Thompson (Blankets, highest-praised GN of 2003) have a looooooong talk at Powells.com.

2006-07-02T15:35:00.000-03:00

The Independent reports on the situation between Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie's Lost Girls and the Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH). Moore and Gebbie's (porno)graphic novel depicts Wendy, from Peter Pan, - among other children lit characters - in erotic fantasies. GOSH, which (disputedly) holds the rights to everything Peter Pan-related in the UK, says the publisher (Top Shelf Comix) needs their permission to release the GN in the country, and they certainly won't approve their characters in erotic situations.