Congrats to ADDTF for one solid year of reading comics naked.

Also, welcome back ADD and In Sequence.

Did I miss anyone?

 
Random Acts of Comics

Sorry about the lack of updates. Real life got in the way in the form of homework and a back breaking ska show. I'm getting too old for such things. Time to play catch up.

Over on the Comics Journal message board there's a thread on a new comic magazine coming out called Comic Art Magazine. Get this. Articles on Frank King (of the wonderful Gasoline Alley), Noel Sickles (one of the biggest influences on my own work), a look at Dan Clowes studio, a cover by Seth and various other wonders. Their second issue preview sounds swell, too. Go! Look! Buy!

The Comics Journal message board will be the magazine's undoing, as another brilliant entry in the comics periodical biz has been announced. Remember my rants about MODOK? Well, it looks like the Mobile Organism Designed Only for Killing is finally getting his due. Ladies and Gentlemen, The Journal of MODOK Studies, Vol. 1. I'm hoping I can think of an article before deadline.

The Washington Post has a transcript of a Q & A with Jeanne Schulz, widow of Charles Schulz, my all-time favourite cartoonist. Courtesy, once again, of The Comics Journal Website. Especially interesting is this bit.

"What we are trying to do is put together a complete reprint of the 50 years of Peanuts comic strips. Some of them are lost, and we're trying to find out if we can find some images of those. This would be a very big undertaking and I see it in a book form, but it could be a DVD at some point."

Interesting discussion on the sound giant ants would make in comics going on at the Oddball Comics forum. OK, interesting to me, anyway.

I've grown very interested in the personalities, business and anecdotes behind the comic industry in recent years, almost to the point where I enjoy them more than I do the comics themselves. Here's a few stories of lost and unpublished treasures, from Overstreet via the WayBackMachine.

Alan Moore's Twilight.
John Byrne's The Last Galactus Story.
James Robinson's Firearm Annual.
Alan Moore's 1963 Annual.
Morrison and Millar's Marvel Tales: Apocalypse.
Morrison and Millar's Marvel Tales: End of the World.
Kurt Busiek's Marvels II.
Gerry Conway and Geroge Perez' JLA/Avengers.
Alan Moore's Nightjar.
Chuck Dixon's Captain America.
Rick Veitch's Swamp Thing.

If you want to read up on the important news of the day you can't do any better than going through the last week's worth of Journalista, especially the super-huge Fog Hollow Memorial Address, which, to put it too simply, looks at the speculator's market and how it might just bury the comic book industry. Of special interest to me was the section on the Distribution War, the reason I closed my own shop so early.

That about does me in. If I get the chance, in the near future I will post my rapidly fleeing thoughts on the Ben Katchor appearance at McGill University, Aquaman slash fiction, my recent shopping spree, Carlos Pacheco - Comics Critic, Ottawa and Montreal talents and why Charles Schulz is still the King.
posted by Steven at 2:44 AM

 
Sorry. Nothing to do with Comics.

Just over a year ago I went on a trip with my family to the casino. I spent all my loose change going crazy on the nickel slots. At one point my brother and I were in a gambling frenzy, and I started growling the words "ONE ARMED BANDIT! ONE ARMED BANDIT!" over and over again, very loudly. My mom started laughing so hard she was gasping for air. With tears of hilarity in her eyes, she pleaded with me to stop. I kept it up just to torture her, until I noticed that she was motioning to the machine on the other side of me. I looked over, and sure enough, there was a one armed man playing the slots and looking really pissed off.

James Coburn has passed away.


posted by Steven at 6:45 PM

 
Busy with homework. Time to state the obvious.

From the Gold Key issue of Comic Book Artist.

"The Dell/Western comic book line would prove to be the most successful throughout the 1950s, with titles meeting the axe of cancellation if they did not sell more than 600,000 copies.

The current Top 10 Comics and the number of copies sold to comic shops.

1 MASTERS O/T UNIVERSE #1 104,971
2 DAREDEVIL TARGET #1 (Of 4) 99,105
3 ULTIMATES #10 98,164
4 NEW X-MEN #134 97,023
5 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #47 95,883
6 BATMAN #609 95,065
7 ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #30 91,405
8 ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #31 91,082
9 ULTIMATE X-MEN #25 89,390
10 ULTIMATE X-MEN #24 89,038

posted by Steven at 12:20 PM