People are rallying once again, this time to aid retailer David Pirkola who was shot and seriously injured in a robbery attempt. Pirkola has no insurance, and the comics world is giving to help:

4/29 UPDATE
An amazing day yesterday, as last night we crossed over the $2000 mark in donations. Thank you to everyone who donated and please keep getting the word out and keep the donations coming in. We’ve been hitting the email and the phones and we’re putting together some amazing things to come. Think your favorite creators and your favorite publishers….think charity auctions…think awesome signed comics and comics related stuff – and it will all go to help Dave and his recovery. Stay tuned for more details!

We are like, so utterly super swamped today that we can only leave you with the golden oldie from Pilipino Komiks, early cover art from Coching, the Jack Kirby of the Phillipines.

Everyone has IRON MAN fever! The film, opening Friday, has gotten fab reviews from everyone but the New Yorker, and Robert Downey Jr’s performance is being hailed as one of his best ever, and a new benchmark for a superhero movie.

However there have been a few glitches along the way. Tireless Jeff Trexler alerts us to a legal spat over a screening. It seems the blog TechCrunch set up an early screening viaa source unknown, which Marvel Studios objected to.

Whoever decided to authorize an early screening without looping in Marvel, the company that made the movie, was not thinking. The 2005 distribution agreement between Marvel and Paramount provides, in article 10, that “Marvel shall be meaningfully consulted on the release pattern and distribution pattern” of the film; Article 7 also requires Marvel to be consulted for all commercial co-promotions and tie-ins. That the screening was apparently arranged through Paramount’s group sales department will probably have behind-the-scenes ramifications; this incident does give the impression that Paramount is something of a loose cannon, with few if any internal controls at the local level.

Meanwhile Marvel is colluding with EW to reveal a new version of Venom and fill in future Spider-Man storylines.

There comes a time when even a storied supervillain needs a do-over, and that moment has arrived for Spider-Man arch-nemesis Venom. Well, sorta. The extraterrestrial symbiote — which most famously glommed onto embittered Spider-friend Eddie Brock — is classically depicted as a onyx-colored, cuspated shape-shifter. But Marvel decided the dude needed to lighten up, so they created an additional symbiote as a visual foil to their old standby: Here’s your first glimpse at the new, angelically hued…Anti-Venom.

Truly the day that the comics industry gets both the NY Daily News and EW to reveal their superhero spoilers shows there are no boundaries anymore. NO BOUNDARIES.

Illo above by John Romita Jr. who, come to think of it, still nails that classic superhero look in a way an old timer like The Beat finds very pleasant.

Big comics story in today’s NY Daily News whose very url spoils something huge. SERIOUSLY DO NOT CLICK IF YOU HAVE NOT READ DC UNIVERSE #0.

Val has more to say in another URL spoiler.

Also, I find it interesting that the direct market is depending on the spoilers not to be spoiled in order to maximize sales, yet the company putting out the comic is purposely working with the major media to spoil the story on the morning of the book coming out. Just a thought.

We find it interesting that he name of the comic the article supports is found halfway through; hopefully civilians will get the message and run to the shops to find out WHICH long-dead hero is being resurrected.

“That’s the point of comics – they don’t have to die, because they’re fictional creations,” said Grant Morrison, one of the writers behind the comeback.

UPDATE: If you are immune to spoilers, the Occasional Superheroine comment section complaining about spoilers is also pretty interesting.

This old Donald Duck one-pager has been making the rounds lately. Or should we say, this Donald Goddamn Duck one pager. He shows them how it’s done.

To our untrained eye it appears to have been drawn by Jack Hannah. Can anyone correct our woeful ignorance?

§ Tom Spurgeon interviews Charles Brownstein about the Gordon Lee win and other matters.

Shortly after the calendar passed they contacted Paul Cadle and said they’d be willing to drop the case if Gordon wrote a letter of apology. Gordon was willing to do that from the start, and frankly, we’ve been saying all along that this case should have been solved with an apology and not a prosecution, so we didn’t object. Gordon submitted his apology letter and we waited for Patterson to drop the case. Weeks went by without response and it was making everyone a bit edgy. So, last week the Begners sent a letter to Patterson requesting that she honor her end of this agreement, and dismiss the case before we had to go to court to seek relief. On Friday she had a conversation with Alan Begner and finally did authorize the charges to be dismissed.

§ FishbowlLA on this weekend’s LA Times Book Fest graphic novel panel.

§ Video of Dave Eggers, Chip Kidd and Milton Glaser talking book design.

§ Peter Sanderson takes on NYCC with one of his exhaustive con reports.

Back in the 1980s I used to take pride in the fact that I wasn’t officially sent to the San Diego Con by an employer, since this meant I was free to go to any panels I wanted to, or even to leave the Con at will and head out to the beach or to the zoo. Trips and hotel stays in San Diego also seemed less expensive then, and there was no need to reserve a hotel room months in advance; now I don’t go unless one of my publishers helps pick up the tab.

Being committed to appearing on panels has its downside. If I had not been moderating two panels back to back on Friday evening at this year’s New York Con, I could have attended a reading by Neil Gaiman, a panel appearance by animation legend Ralph Bakshi. or all of the X-Files movie presentation by the show’s creator Chris Carter–all of which were being held at the same time. On the other hand, I really enjoyed listening to the stories that the comics veterans told on my panels, and wouldn’t want to have missed them. I also discovered that organizing and leading a good panel discussion, like arranging a noteworthy party, is like a work of art. Like a theatrical performance, it’s an ephemeral experience, witnessed only by those present, that leaves not a trace behind unless someone wrote a report about it. But a good panel discussion, among a group of people who may only interact this way on this one specific occasion, can be memorable. I take more pride in my active role in bringing such an experience about than I would in my freedom to passively watch other people’s panels.

Note to Quick Stop Entertainment: you gotta get rid of those Gremlins! It only takes a run through Text Wrangler!

Five of them!
(more…)

The Beat’s temporary slowdown on blogging is not, as might be expected, because of the arrival of Grand Theft Auto IV, which will probably be the biggest grosser of the year, movie, book or game. However it must be said that the complete cultural victory by the geek/nerd/video game set is now assured. Admit it, did you ever in a kajillion years think you would see a glowing front-page review of a FREAKING VIDEO GAME in the New York Times?

Published by Rockstar Games, Grand Theft Auto IV is a violent, intelligent, profane, endearing, obnoxious, sly, richly textured and thoroughly compelling work of cultural satire disguised as fun. It calls to mind a rollicking R-rated version of Mad magazine featuring Dave Chappelle and Quentin Tarantino, and sets a new standard for what is possible in interactive arts. It is by far the best game of the series, which made its debut in 1997 and has since sold more than 70 million copies. Grand Theft Auto IV will retail for $60.

Niko Bellic is the player-controlled protagonist this time, and he is one of the most fully realized characters video games have yet produced. A veteran of the Balkan wars and a former human trafficker in the Adriatic, he arrives in Liberty City’s rendition of Brighton Beach at the start of the game to move in with his affable if naïve cousin Roman. Niko expects to find fortune and, just maybe, track down someone who betrayed him long ago. Over the course of the story line he discovers that revenge is not always what one expects.

It’s like those old timers who believed that attending a show by Eva Tanguay at the Odeon was the apotheosis of cultural delight and refused to go over to the new Victrola are now standing in line for the new model.

As previously reported, we still haven’t found the blogging software of our dreams. However, Scribefire recently went to 2.0 and it’s sooooo close! More options, better interface, the blockquote tag finally closes. However, they added tabs and instead of adding newly blogged matter to the old tab, it now defaults to a new tab, defeating the entire purpose of being able to just hit “Blog to Scribefire” and save a page to a master entry. Sigh. So near yet so far.

Also, we’re busy as hell here with Secret Project #1 and Secret Project #2. We’re going to try to keep an eye on the big stuff, but we just can’t sweat the small stuff right now.

Technorati Tags: fascinating software

The big news coming out of Stumpown this weekend is that Larry Marder’s resurgent Beanworld comics will be published by Dark Horse:

Steve Duin of the Oregonian did a nice write up of today’s panel–including the announcement above and includes the following summary:”Dark Horse plans to republish the first 21 issues of Tales of the Beanworld, possibly in deluxe hardcover editions, then deliver Marder’s new adventures sometime in early 2009. Diana Schutz will edit.”

I’m really very excited to be affiliated with Dark Horse. I’ve admired Mike Richardson and his crew from across the playing field for two decades and have always had the greatest admiration for the entire Dark Horse team.

Today I gave the first solo Beanworld panel presentation in over 15 years. It covered a lot of ground, and I’m almost certainly going to be giving it again at SD08. Also revealed was the name of the up-coming NEW graphic novel: “Remember HERE when you are THERE.”

More: Steve Duin in the Oregonian and an interview with Marder at CBR.

§ Hope Larson has a new website up for her more adult art: Personal Ho. (left)

§ We totally forgot that the Pittsburgh Comicon was held this weekend, but it is now apparently dubbed “Murder con.” Someone wrote about it to the Comics Reporter and from the sound of it, it was pretty desolate.

§ Laura Hudson suggests that the comics industry’s press relations in general could use a review:

Before I really get into this, it’s important to keep in mind here that approaching a publisher as a member of the press who wants to give them coverage or reviews is very different from poking around for stories and quotes that don’t necessarily point towards a positive angle on their product. Unsurprisingly, the latter is going to get fewer welcoming responses.

To a certain degree, that’s just how it works, and I don’t see anything particularly insidious in it. I would add, though, that because the comics press is less established (or respected) than press is in certain other fields, I think a lot of people in the industry are not as accustomed to the poking and prodding Tom describes, and consequently can get touchier in the course of journalistic inquiries. But really, I don’t see this as the primary problem. While it may not be optimal, I’m not surprised by this unresponsiveness to certain lines of inquiry.

What I don’t understand–what really blows my mind is that some companies can be just as unresponsive and unhelpful to people who want to give their books positive coverage, review them, or generally make them more visible. That’s what really resonated with me about Tom’s post, because I’ve seen it happen more than a few times and it never ceases to amaze me with its pointlessness.

§ Mark Evanier went to the LA Times Book fest.

§ Shaenon on The Boys of Shojo Manga :

The Tortured Genius
The heroine’s parents approve of this one. He’s a high-IQ achiever on the fast track to Tokyo University, and is often a Wealthy Playboy to boot. But his heart is as tiny as his brain is huge. An arrogant smartass, he delights in making the heroine feel stupid and insignificant. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to date her, of course; his strategy is to belittle, manipulate, and intellectually bulldoze her into falling in love with him. And it works, especially once the heroine realizes that he’s hurting inside and Just Needs Someone To Love Him. Extremely common in the works of Miki Aihara.
Signature Romantic Gestures: Intellectually abusing the heroine; emotionally abusing the heroine; physically abusing the heroine; helping her study.
In Real Life He’d Be: Exactly the same, but in his forties.

§ Catch-up 1: Indie Jones blogs the ICv2 conference.

§ Catch-up 2: Jeff Trexler on “How Siegel and Shuster created our world”:

This tension between past and present is equally evident in the Siegel case. On the one hand, for many within the comics community the ruling was a symbolic victory in the struggle for creators rights, vindicating not just Siegel and Shuster, but legions of comic book artists and writers whose genius was exploited by corporate greed.

Yet much to the surprise of longtime industry watchers, the judgment also provoked a strong negative response. Some critics focused on the fact that the winner was not Siegel himself but his heirs, who were said to have gained an unearned windfall. Other observers went a step further, questioning the wisdom of a law that voids otherwise valid contracts, and accusing the Siegels themselves of exploiting Superman for their own financial gain.

§ Jim Steranko copies himself

§ When we saw the headline “Comic Genius” in our RSS feed, we wondered “Who could it be this time???”

Surprise! It’s artist John Cassaday:

These days, Cassaday finds himself in the enviable position of being able to pick and choose which assignments he takes. “I’ve got specific goals in mind and don’t want to deviate just for a few bucks if I’m not interested,” he says. “The story must come first.” Though he won’t reveal what he makes, his page rate—the amount an artist charges per page drawn—is among the highest in the business. Given that an elite illustrator can command up to $1,000 a page for a 22-page comic book and that most popular titles are monthlies, a top talent like Cassaday can comfortably clear six figures annually. And that’s not counting potential back-end royalties for merchandise, trade paperbacks, and spin-offs, which are negotiated separately.

How cool are American cartoonists? So cool that they are publishing them in Japan!

Felipe Smith (MBQ) will have a monthly series starting in Morning 2 next month. (The ads for it are reproduced above, courtesy of Ed Chavez who writes:

His manga is going to be on the cover of the June 21 issue of Morning 2 magazine (extremely rare for a debut) that will be followed by 6 color pages and around 40 pages in his first chapter.

this is incredibly rare for an American cartoonist, and shows that the cultural trade deficit is going down just a tad. Brigid has a bit more and a link to a great Myspace blog by Smith.
MEANWHILE, Chris Butcher has the scoop on Viz’s move to publish original graphic novels, via a chat with editor Marc Weidenbaum…and for those of you readying your submission, here’s some info:

[He] made it pretty clear he had no interest in submissions right now. “Maybe in a few years we’ll open it up to submissions,” said Marc. “But right now I just want to see already completed work. What you’ve done, what you’re capable of.” So if you’re sitting on the world’s best manuscript for a 3400 part serial about a new level of Super-Saiyan, can it. At least for a little while. But I do have to say that Marc seemed quite genuine about wanting to see published work and specifically mentioned webcomics, mini-comics and self-pub’d work as well as professionally published material…

This interesting AP article looks at the move to grab the low-hanging fruit of giving the cash-rich Middle East their own amusement parks, and the cultural difficulties therein.

Politically sensitive characters such as Captain America could be left at home. Prayer rooms will join the list of accommodations, and menus will likely feature falafel and humus alongside pizza and hot dogs.

The piece looks specifically at the efforts by DC and Marvel to get their characters in these parks:

Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner Bros. home entertainment group, is convinced that Superman, Batman and other DC Comics characters licensed by Warner will be readily accepted by those who visit the park from the Middle East, Europe, Africa and Asia.

Even the bare-shouldered Wonder Woman shouldn’t raise too many eyebrows “unless we depicted her as a Muslim woman,” said Tsujihara, who is spearheading the Warner theme park in Abu Dhabi.

Even so, “we probably wouldn’t have her running around in costume around the park,” he said.

With plans to help build a $1 billion theme park in Abu Dhabi by 2011, Marvel Entertainment Inc. is downplaying Captain America, a World War II creation draped in the American flag, in favor of attractions based on popular characters such as Spider-Man, Fantastic Four and X-Men — none of whom carry the same political baggage.

“One of the things that’s nice about our characters is they’re either about individuals helping people or they’re about teams of people of different types, like mutants, that band together and solve problems,” Marvel chairman David Maisel said.

Technorati Tags: Amusement parks

David Pirkola, owner of Apparitions Comics and Books in Kentwood, MI wasshot in a a robbery on Friday evening . Pirkola is in critical but stable condition. According to the police, a man entered the store abut 7 pm, demanded money, shot Pirkola and fled.

The police are still investigating the crime, and anyone with information is urged to contact them.

Ifanboy has set up a fundraising drive to raise money to help with keeping the store open. The Bendis board has also rallied.

UPDATE: More on efforts to help Pirkola:

“This isn’t something you do to get rich,” said Peter Ryan, who is one of the partners in the Kentwood store as well as another store in Lansing.

He said most comic book store owners are fans who turned their love of the medium into a business, but one that operates with tight margins. It is a job that rarely comes with perks like comprehensive health plans, so an Internet site has been set up to collect money to be used for health costs and also to help Pirkola keep the store open.

On comic book-related Web sites, word of the robbery has been passed nationwide. Ronald Richards, of San Francisco, offered to use his comic book Web site as a host site for the account set up for Pirkola.

Sounds like Stumptown was totally teh awesome, and we wish we could have been there. Tom Spurgeon:

Portland is also the home to dozens of cartoonists, a good sign for a city as comics folk can live practically anywhere and are drawn like flies when a comfortable and cosmopolitan city reaches that tipping point where it’s discussed on chatboards and in the blogs of early adopters. What’s interesting about Portland’s assumption of the Comics Town USA title is that it does so without offering a gigantic number of hometown opportunities the way New York, LA or even Kansas City might. There is a small set of newspaper illustration gigs and a few proud local comic book companies where one might assume proximity could be helpful in gaining their attention, but for the most part the comics outfits here in town think nationally/internationally and just live here like everyone else. Comics thrives in the Rose City because Portland fits comics people, and because the large number of working artists has given them a voice and provided their city with another identity in a time when those kinds of things are still important.

§ Rachel Edidin:

Phew–that was a lot of con. Today was more intense at the table, and I hardly had any time to wander. Now, I am entirely braindead, so again, just a handful of notes before I crash. Proper write-up and forum thread tomorrow.

§ Erik Henriksen of The Portland Mercury:

It’s been great watching the fest grow over the years, and I feel like this year, Stumptown has really hit its stride—just from the brief time I spent there today, the vibe was friendly, attendance was good, booths were plentiful, the comics were promising, and the two panels I jumped back and forth between—trying to listen to both at the same time, with, eh, mostly successful results—were a lot of fun.

§ Elijah J. Brubaker:

I got to Trade some books with folks and a little money changed hands. I got some of the new Papercutters from Greg and all the Ivy books that Sarah O has out so far but the really cool part of these kinds of shows is getting books from all the newer people. I mean, I’m still pretty new at this I suppose but I got a bunch of stuff from folks that have just put out books for the first time and that is so great it hurts. With books like Ivy or Papercutter I get to read great stuff from people with real chops but there’s something really enticing to me about seeing raw energy poured out onto the page by someone who doesn’t quite know what they’re doing yet. I’m not saying I enjoy reading a lot of stuff like that but there is a real palpable charm to people that are so excited about the possibilities of the form and the way they just let loose onto a page. I don’t know if I’m making any sense here but rest assured when I get a little sleep I’ll be writing reviews of some of this stuff.

Doubtless more reports will filter in over the next few days. In the meantime here are some Flickr sets. The above photo taken from greyaenigma.

The Friends of Lulu Blog reports that nominations for the 2008 Friends of Lulu Awards are open and ANYONE can nominate:

Lulu Awards: Nominations are open!

You don’t have to be a member to nominate!
You don’t have to be female to nominate!
Heck, you don’t even have to like us to nominate!
But you do need to know of a female comic creator that you want
to see recognized for her hard work in this industry.

You’ll find the form here. Go and ANyone got suggestions for the various categories? I would nominate Rutu Modan and Marjane Satrapi for Lulu of the Year, for instance.

This has been going around in email and blogs, and we’re not really going to get into it too much, but apparently this dude started something at a SF con where men who wanted to grab women’s boobs could do it if the women were wearing a button that said it was okay. If a woman had a button that said “No, it’s not okay” you’re not supposed to grab her boobs, which is gentlemanly. He ended his call for creating an “Open Source Boob Project” that would carry the practice far and wide with the words “Touch the magic, my friends. Touch the magic.”
Our first thought is that we wish boobs really were magic so we could magically change the kitty litter. Our second is that SF cons have this whole “sex positive” thing going on and a lot of people go to them to meet up with other people and some times get it on with other people who like to wear cat ears or whatever. But maybe that is not supposed to be carried over to other areas of life. Val, as usual, put it in some perspective:

I think if people want to have adult-themed comic book or sci-fi conventions where this sort of behavior is agreed-to upon before people even buy the ticket, that’s fine. If there is such a driving need among some people to have sexual situations at a con, to fully “liberate oneself,” great — create a separate con for that. Then “consenting adults” can purchase a few fanzines, cop a feel, and call it a day.

Val also links to theOpen Source Swift Kick to the Balls Project.

Related: We found this link in our trackbacks and we can’t read Italian but it seems to be on the same topic and we stole the above illo from it.

If we could muster up the energy we’d be at Stumptown for sure. The guest list is stellar from Nicholas Gurewitch to Brian Bendis (who lest we forget was once an indie cartoonist for Image), and stops inbetween for Derek Kirk Kim, Gene Yang, Larry Marder, Craig Thompson, Tara McPherson, and the peerless Jason Shiga.

And now Portland, OR is now officially COMICS TOWN. The Mercury reports:

There
has been a distinct cultural shift in the last decade, as graphic
novels have gained a wide readership, superhero comics have been mined
for both academic and “literary” material (see: Douglas Wolk, Jonathan
Lethem, Michael Chabon), and girls weaned on Japanese entertainments
like Pokémon have gravitated en masse to manga. Put another way: Even
my mom has read Persepolis. Anyone who still has hang-ups about buying
comics need only set foot in the casually welcoming Cosmic Monkey
Comics or North Portland’s sleek Bridge City Comics to dispel all
lingering stereotypes about the Comic Book Guy. So by now everyone in
Portland knows that, to quote one of the most clichéd newspaper
headlines ever, “comics aren’t just for kids anymore.” (Kapow!) You may
not know, however, that local publishers Top Shelf, Oni Press, and Dark
Horse have all had a hand in this shift. With April’s designation as
Comics Month, as Oni Publisher Joe Nozemack puts it, “Finally, the city
is paying attention.”

PLUS: Dylan Meconis and Bill Mudron (with help from Erika Moen) show why Stumptown is cool in COMICS:

Since we have to stay at home and recuperate, send us any and all links, okay?

Variety liked it:

Finally, someone’s found a sure-fire way to make money with a modern Middle East war movie: Just send a Marvel superhero into the fray to kick some insurgent butt. The powerhouse comicbook-inspired actioner “Iron Man” isn’t principally about this fantasy, but it won’t hurt at least American audiences’ enjoyment of this expansively entertaining special effects extravaganza. Having an actor as supercharged as Robert Downey Jr. at the center of such a tech-oriented enterprise reps a huge plus, and Paramount should reap big B.O. rewards by getting out ahead of the summer tentpole pack with such a classy refitting of an overworked format.

It’s refreshing, for a start, that the character suddenly endowed with superpowers isn’t a dweeby teen, but rather a pushing-middle-age genius who is himself entirely responsible for the advanced means he acquires to combat his adversaries; even more than the latest incarnation of Batman, he’s a self-made superman. And while we’ve seen plenty of masks and gravity-resistant heroes before, the outfit sported by the main man here, which looks as though it was made by a top ski boot manufacturer, is striking and capable of great things.