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Review: ‘How to Love’ from Actus Comics

  • Uncategorized
  • May 28, 2008

love-5731282

How to Love
By Batia Kolton, David Polonsky, Mira Friedmann, Itzik Rennert, Rutu Modan, and Yirmi Pinkus; translated by Ishai Mishory
Actus/distributed by Top Shelf, August 2008, $29.95

Actus is an Israeli comics collective that publishes one joint project annually; their members are the six contributors to this book. This book was published in Israel by Actus, but is being distributed on this side of the Atlantic by Top Shelf Comics. (And was translated by Ishai Mishory, implying that there was a prior edition in Hebrew.) It’s officially publishing in August, but I can’t find it on any of the US online booksellers, and I got my copy several months ago – so it’s anyone’s guess when it will show up in your local comics shop (if ever). Top Shelf is selling it directly, so there’s at least that way to get it.

[[[How to Love]]] has six stories, one by each of the contributors, each about twenty pages long. (The subtitle calls them “graphic novellas,” which stretches a bit too far for my taste – is there anything wrong with short stories?)

It opens with Batia Kolton’s “Summer Story,” in which pre-teen Dorit watches her nameless older neighbor kissing a boyfriend on the street, then has the neighbor accompany her family on a trip to the beach. It’s a very slice-of-life story; Dorit is clearly learning about relationships through the neighbor, but the story doesn’t get inside her head; we see everything from outside, so we don’t know what Dorit thinks about any of it. The art is a clean-line style, very reminiscent of Actus’s most famous member, Rutu Modan.

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Roundup: Reuben Awards, Lulu Awards, Canadian Awards, Erlangen Festival

Apparently, everyone decided to give out awards and/or nominations in the past week, as my email is filled with messages about the various winners and nominees. Here’s a quick rundown of what was awarded, who won it (or in some cases, was nominated for it) and where to find a more comprehensive report on the whole affair:

The Beat has a roundup of the 2008 Reuben Award winners, including the least surprising recipient of them all, legendary MAD Magazine cartoonist Al Jaffee (pictured here). Here are a few others:

COMIC BOOKS: Shaun Tan, (The Arrival)

NEWSPAPER STRIPS: Jim Meddick, (Monty)

MILTON CANIFF LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT: Sandra Boynton

Tom Spurgeon provides some additional context for the Reuben Awards over at The Comics Reporter, including the following note:

I do know that the Reuben and the NCS division awards have a reputation for 1) rewarding creators that have been around a while or that are seen as having properly paid their dues maybe more than first-time nominees or those early in their careers, and 2) rewarding creators in non-popular categories according to their better-known work. To be honest, I couldn’t tell you if those two characterizations are deserved or not.

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ComicMix Six: Biggest Tease in Comics (Male)

[EDITOR’S NOTE: In previous editions of ComicMix Six, our contributors have given you their lists of comics’ top political campaigns, the best and worst movies based on comics, and even a few reasons why a Skrull invasion isn’t anything to worry about.

This week, ComicMix Media Goddess Martha Thomases ranks some of comics’ most desirable — but unattainable — men, and the reasons why they always remain just out of reach. -RM]

Some of us yearn for a man’s touch. Sometimes, that man refuses. The very beauty that drew us to him now taunts us.

Here are the worst offenders, in no particular order, for my ComicMix Six list of The Biggest Tease in Comics (Male):

6. MORPHEUS: The Sandman only comes to you when you’re already asleep. This limits how much fun you can have, and more important, how much fun you can remember.

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Touchstones, by Elayne Riggs

Has anybody here seen my old friend Bobby
Can you tell me where he’s gone
I thought I saw him walkin’ up over the hill
With Abraham, Martin and John.

Well, last time I did an actual comic book review, and as expected it received almost no comments. So I don’t want to hear from anyone about how this column isn’t about comics!

I could probably make it about comics. After all, I’m going to be discussing the ’60s, which were about many things. Many people my age cut their fanboy and fangirl teeth on Marvel comics of the ’60s. (Me, I didn’t start reading until the mid-’80s or so, even though my late best friend Bill Marcinko tried pretty hard to get me interested in the Marvels of the late ’70s.) But, despite my trepidation about the kind of Google ads this column will attract, today I want to write about something else that happened in the ’60s, and about the persistence of memory.

Last week on the campaign trail, in an interview given to South Dakota’s Argus Leader, a frustrated Hillary Clinton reiterated her response to the "why won’t that bitch just quit?" crowd of media pundits that she’d initially articulated in a Time magazine interview back in March. Her original words: "I think people have short memories. Primary contests used to last a lot longer. We all remember the great tragedy of Bobby Kennedy being assassinated in June in L.A. My husband didn’t wrap up the nomination in 1992 until June. Having a primary contest go through June is nothing particularly unusual."

This time around the phrasing was only slightly different: "My husband didn’t wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June. We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. You know I just don’t understand it," the "it" in question being the pundits’ incessant and unprecedented calls for a leading candidate to step aside (as if the media were orchestrating the process rather than the voters of each state). In March, nobody seemed to notice; this time, with the anti-Clinton hysteria ratcheted up as high as it’s been since the Whitewater nonsense, suddenly all sorts of folks were up in arms. (more…)

New ‘Watchmen’ Film Image Released – Meet the Minutemen!

Aint It Cool News posted a new image from the big-screen adaptation of Watchmen today, and its a pretty impressive one.

The image features a 1940s-style photograph of "The Minutemen," the precursor to the superteam that came to be known as The Watchmen.

From AICN:

Who are the Minutemen? Well in WATCHMEN – it was the first TEAM of superheroes that formed in 1939 and pulled a BEATLES in 1949. In the pic below you’ll see the classic SILK SPECTRE and NITE OWL… you’ll see CAPTAIN METROPOLIS, MOTHMAN, SILHOUETTE, COMEDIAN, DOLLAR BILL and with the noose… HOODED JUSTICE.

I love this photo… just look at those costumes, the hairstyles and makeup. Isn’t that classic? It’s that attention to detail that I think bodes very well for this project. Cuz with WATCHMEN, the devil’s in the details.

 I’ve posted a full-size version of the image after the jump, but head over to AICN for the full story. (more…)

tobias-7610515

‘Arrested Development’ Characters Sketchbook

tobias-7610515Hidden within his massive, mind-numbingly comprehensive roundup of information about the looming San Diego Comic-Con International convention (which I intend to spotlight in at least one other post here on ComicMix), Tom Spurgeon of The Comics Reporter included a link to something semi-related to CCI but very interesting to me — and possibly quite a few other readers.

Shown here is one of a dozen sketches Zack Smith commissioned from comic book artists at the 2004 Wizard World Chicago convention. The sketches depict characters from the over-far-too-soon television series Arrested Development, which also happens to be one of my favorite series of the last 5-10 years.

You can get the full scoop on the series and information about its potential return over at the Arrested Development page on Wikipedia, but before you do, be sure to take a peek at James Kochalka’s sketch of Tobias (pictured here and played by David Cross in the series), as well as 11 other sketches of Arrested Development characters by artists such as Jill Thompson, Jeffrey Brown, Jim Rugg and other notable creators.

… Heck, even the foul-mouthed puppet, Franklin, has a sketch.

Happy Birthday: Mark Wheatley

Born in 1954, Mark Wheatley has made a career of creating clever and innovative comic books. He is probably  best known for his 1984 First Comics series Mars, the 1994 Vertigo mini-series Breathtaker, and his Insight Studios series Radical Dreamer and Frankenstein Mobster, but his list of titles extends far beyond that impressive handful.

Wheatley founded Insight in 1978 as an illustration and photography source, but in 1980 Marc Hempel joined him and they expanded the studio to include comic books and comic book production work.

Wheatley has won numerous awards, including the Inkpot, the Speakeasy, the Gem, and the Mucker. In 2008 he was a guest lecturer at the Library of Congress. Wheatley currently runs Insight and writes and illustrates the series EZ Street for ComicMix.

ComicMix Radio: Grab Your Wallets, Kids – We’ve Got Comics!

While you’re back to daily grind today, take solace in the fact that, in 48 hours, your local comic shop will be filled with a pile of surprises — including many of the titles we’ve been waiting on! We cover them all,  plus:

— Indy conquers the box office – big!

— A second Watchmen movie set for 2009

— Battlestar Galactica sees ratings glory!

It’s a four-day week anyway – so kill a little time and  press the button!

 

 

And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via badgeitunes61x15dark-4515150 or RSS!

Worst Album Covers by Comic Book Artists

Over at LA Weekly’s geek culture blog, Topless Robot, they’ve put together a list of the worst album covers designed by artists from the comics industry.

Among the examples on their list is Canadian hip-hop group Swollen Members’ 2003 album Heavy, featuring a cover by Todd McFarlane.

McFarlane has at least one respectable album-cover credit: the five-times platinum Follow the Leader by Korn. (Oh, c’mon, don’t act like you didn’t own it, or at least headbang to “Freak on a Leash.”) That was in 1998, and five years later the Spawn creator/lawsuit magnet/frivolous spender agreed to pencil a cover for a—wait for it—Canadian hip-hop group that dubbed themselves the Swollen Members. From what we REAL North Americans can tell, these guys’ only notoriety comes from this album cover and an appearance in National Lampoon’s Going the Distance, whatever the hell that is. Heavy just reinforces what a great idea it was for McFarlane to quit drawing.

According to Spawn.com, McFarlane also directed one of the group’s videos, too. I feel obligated to mention, however, that the Swollen Members’ Wikipedia page actually makes them seem like a decent band… as far as Canadian music goes.

Head over to Topless Robot for the full list.

(Oh, and just kidding about the "as far as Canadian music" thing, folks… I promise.)

Netflix Adds Wealth of Comics Films and TV to Online Selection

incrediblehulk-7088548As part of its plan to take over the movie-watching world (or so I hear), Netflix has been increasing the numbers of movies and TV series offered online over its Watch Instantly system.

I had a bit of free time over the weekend to parse the offerings for fellow comic nerds/Netflix members to come up with a watch list (one note: you have to have Internet Explorer to use their viewer).

Not all are comics-related.

  • The Incredible Hulk (with Lou Ferrigno), multiple seasons
  • Quantum Leap, multiple seasons
  • Battlestar Gallactica, the original series
  • The Tick, complete live-action TV series
  • Hellboy Animated: Sword of Storms and Blood & Iron
  • Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker
  • Superman: The Movie and Superman III
  • G-Men From Hell
  • Doctor Who, multiple series and seasons

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