Really, it’s not the end of the world. We’re just taking some functions offline and turning comments off for a few hours while we do some necessary techincal upgrades. We should be up and running fine in the morning. See you all then.
Yes, we know it’s getting ugly out there. If Robot 6 has a daily roundup called Food Or Comics, and we’re covering stuff that they’re missing, it’s just outright brutal.
So what to do about it? Kristine Kathryn Rusch, award-winning author and editor, posted the following to an email list regarding the shutdown of Realms Of Fantasy:
If you’re really worried about the magazines, subscribe to them. If you already have a subscription, give a few gift subscriptions. If you can afford it, ask if the magazine has lifetime subscription rates and buy one. Or purchase a five year subscription.
In this economy, an upturn in subscriptions will help any magazine. If everyone on this list bought a subscription, either as a gift or for themselves, that would seriously help.
If you read the information on Realms, it’s pretty clear that the downturn in the fourth quarter hit Sovereign Media hard. Apparently, they rely heavily on newsstand sales. This is one area where the digests have already suffered, so their losses in the fourth quarter won’t be as severe as other companies. However, they’ll see a trickle downward of subscriptions as renewals don’t come in at the usual pace.
So they have time—provided that people continue to renew or subscribe anew.
Just a thought in all the gloom and doom.
That’s good advice in general. If you are in a position to do so, subscribe to your favorite comics. If your local store has a pull list or subscription list, take advantage of it– if they know they’ll have some set income coming in, that will help them budget.
If there are online comics or websites you like, drop some cash in the tip jar.
If you’re downloading comics, buy paper editions as well. It’ll be good practice when MinuteMan loses his job and stops buying and scanning the comic that you were reading.
Ghost World: the Special Edition
Graphic novel by Daniel Clowes; Screenplay by Daniel Clowes and Terry Zwigoff
Fantagraphics, October 2008, $39.99
Ten years after the first collection of [[[Ghost World]]] and seven after the movie version of the same story (and, not coincidentally, the screenplay book), Dan Clowes’s most famous and best-known story has gotten the big fat hardcover treatment – and I’m sure that the fact that his story of suburban ennui and aimlessness follows dozens of stories of spandex-clad punching bags into basically the same format and sales channel is an irony not lost on Clowes. (Though I should point out that this big fancy hardcover is not nearly as expensive and laded with gewgaws as most of those “absolute” and “essential” and “ultimate” books – all those books that name themselves, and lavish on themselves production designs, reminiscent of high end sex toys; shiny and sleek and oversized and, all too clichéd often, in jet-black. Clowes’s book has reasonable proportions, and a price quite reasonable for an art book of its size.)
This “Special Edition” collects the graphic novel [[[Ghost World]]], by Clowes, and the screenplay, by Clowes and Terry Zwigoff. It also adds in a forty-eight-page section of miscellany – box art from odd ancillary products, covers from old [[[Eightball]]] issues when Ghost World was being serialized, foreign covers, miscellaneous art related to the movie, and a few sketches and pages of original art. Up front is a new introduction by Clowes, and a two-page story that may, or may not, show a glimpse of Enid and Rebecca’s lives now. Those are pleasant, but the real core of Ghost World is the story, and this book gives both versions of it equal weight.
Here is today’s list of comic-related news items that might not generate a post of their own, but may be of interest…
* The last holdout in publishing has gotten nailed: Harper Collins announced that they’re offering early retirment packages to employees over age 55 and with at least five years experience. The offers went out this morning and the company would like to here back by February 3 from those who are interested in the buyout. Spokesperson Erin Crumb wouldn’t disclose how many positions HC is looking to cut, but a large number of packages are reported to have been prepared.
* And the shoes keep dropping: Realms of Fantasy magazine is shutting down. Thanks to SF Scope for the tip.
* And for that matter: Village Voice Media is suspending all of its syndicated cartoons, including the popular "This Modern World" By Tom Tomorrow (a.k.a. Dan Perkins). The affected cartoonists lose readers in (deep breath) Dallas, Ft. Lauderdale, Houston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Nashville, Orange County, Kansas City, Denver, Seattle, and New York. He’s covering it, along with the other cartoonists affected.
* On the bright side, Christopher Reeve’s dream is starting to come true: the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared the way for the first-ever human trial of a medical treatment derived from embryonic stem cells.
* And finally, a link to the shirt of the day, for all the Buffy The Vampire Slayer fans who are just a little bit tired of Twilight and their sparkly vampires. (Thanks, Teresa.)
Anything else? Consider this an open thread.
From Salon:
A Wall Street retiree wearing a red latex bodysuit and a black hood is strapped to a table…. Talking to Daniel Bergner in his new book, "The Other Side of Desire," the man compares his masochistic ecstasy to having onion skins stripped off his psyche.
"Is this a weird way to deal with life?" he asks Bergner at one point. "Consider the man who bought Mark McGwire’s seventieth home-run ball for three million dollars. Who’s weirder?"
Let’s see, who bought that home-run ball? Oh yeah… Todd McFarlane.
No doubt about it. Todd’s much weirder.
And this quote comes on the day when Neil Gaiman wins the Newbery. Hey, does Neil own Todd’s balls yet?
On Sunday, we wrote how inker Arne Starr had gone Hollywood, working on Grey’s Anatomy and Mad Men— except it turns out that with Hollywood gone comics crazy, he hasn’t put comics behind him. I’ll let Arne explain:
This all started when I found out from a friend who works on Grey’s Anatomy with me that Patrick Dempsey had gone to Marvel Studios to see about getting them to do Doctor Strange, with that certain synergistic connection of Dr. Strange starting out as a surgeon. So I did a piece of art that showed Patrick as the character. Since then, Kevin Feige of Marvel Studios has mentioned in an interview on MTV that we shouldn’t be surprised to see Dr. Strange on the 2012 movie slate.
At this time, I was also working on my other regular show, Mad Men, and brought this up to Jon Hamm, telling him I thought he’d be good as DC’s Hal Jordan/Green Lantern which was about to happen from Warner Bros.. When I brought Jon the preliminary pic (which is mostly the one here) he let me know he had run with it and actually had an appointment with the writer-director of Green Lantern [Greg Berlanti— GH] that week following the season’s wrap.
In the meantime, back on Grey’s, Kevin McKidd was introduced, and I had been a regular on his previous show Journeyman as well (though never playing the same thing twice) so we already knew each other. And it turned out he was already in the running for Thor… so I told him what I’d been doing and went forth and created TWO pictures (technically three) of him in character.
Sometimes, this is the way Hollywood works– somebody shows up at an audition in costume, or somebody has a piece of artwork attached that makes the project believable. And there’s a great bit of synergy going from Dr. McDreamy to Dr. Strange– heck, I could almost see that happening in Grey’s Anatomy continuity. I wonder if Ellen Pompeo would like to play Clea…
Arne was nice enough to provide all the drawings, they’re after the jump. (more…)
Here is today’s list of comic-related news items that might not generate a post of their own, but may be of interest…
* V for ABC: ABC has announced that they’ve picked up the pilot for a remake of "V". Oh, don’t pretend you don’t remember the series. If nothing else, we wrote about it back in October.
* Shooting on Spielberg’s Tintin has finally started. Although I have to ask– $100 million budgeted for a motion capture film? Good grief. I would have pegged it at about $80 million.
* Because 6.5 million people haven’t gotten their act together, the Senate OKs 4-month delay to digital TV changeover.
* Cripes, now they’re laying off folks at Publisher’s Weekly, including editor-in-chief Sara Nelson and about 7% of the staff. So far, Calvin Reid and Heidi Macdonald are unaffected directly.
* And finally, Gene Roddenberry and Majel Barrett Roddenbery’s ashes will be shot into space next year, together in infinite eternity… unless they were picked up by V’G’r.
Anything else? Consider this an open thread.
Many of you probably already know by now that Neil Gaiman picked up the 2009 Newbery Award for The Graveyard Book. If you’ve completely forgotten your unhappy childhood, I’ll remind you that the Newbery Medal is the most prestigious award given out in children’s publishing; all the books your parents’ friends gave you for your birthday and Christmas had the medal stamped on it.
But unless you’re connected to the children’s book world, you might not have paid attention to all the other awards the American Library Association handed out today. The Bachelder Award is given to the “most outstanding” book published in a foreign language. Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit by Nahoko Uehashi (published by, yes, Harry Potter’s American publisher, Arthur A. Levine) picked up the laurels this year. The award comes a week after the animated series based on the novel was yanked from the schedule at Cartoon Network.
This year marks the second year in a row that a novel translated from the Japanese has won the Bachelder; last year it was Miyuki Miyabe’s Brave Story, published by Viz, which had not previously been known for its non-media fiction.
Amy Goldschlager writes for FindingDulcinea.com.
Cartoon Marriage: Adventures in Love and Matrimony by The New Yorker’s Cartooning Couple
By Liza Donnelly and Michael Maslin
Random House, January 2009, $24.00
Donnelly and Maslin are both professional cartoonists – both regularly appearing in The New Yorker – and have been married for twenty years. [[[Cartoon Marriage]]] is their paired look at modern relationships, consisting of two hundred reprinted New Yorker cartoons – divided roughly right down the middle – and some new comics-format pages to explain and introduce each section.
(The two of them have collaborated on two previous books – [[[Call Me When You Reach Nirvana]]] and [[[Husbands and Wives]]] – the latter of which sounds very similar in scope and theme to this new one. But both of those are well over a decade old, so presumably they have a lot more marriage to reflect on now – as well as more cartoons to choose from.)
Watchmen toys at last! Just one of the five cool things in the comic shops this week, plus The Punisher headed to DVD, Hot exclusives headed to the New York ComicCon and why no one is headed to The Oscars this year.
PRESS THE BUTTON and you’ll Get The Point!
or RSS! 
Columns / Glenn Hauman / News
Stephen Colbert, we have your writer for “The Chronicles of Amber”!
January 20, 2023
The Law Is A Ass #460: Those “For Life” Sentences Are Nonsense
February 24, 2022
