You’ll All Be Sorry
Cover by Scott Shaw!
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Now, About Comics is collecting many of these columns in print. The book was originally due in August, but it’s been rescheduled to January. I like the idea, but there are several problems with the execution:

The timeliness. As Gail indicates in her introduction, the comic industry was a very different place 10 years ago. The more you already know about what she’s referring to, the funnier the pieces are. Stand-alone classic humor for the ages this is not, but if you were part of the net around the year 2000, you’ll get a giggle out of the recognition and memories as she makes fun of fanfic wannabe writers, Alan Moore, Wizard magazine, Dave Sim, and the Batman and Robin movie.

The presentation. The columns are thrown in, one after another, with no indication of when they were originally published. Even better would have been notes by Gail putting the pieces in context and giving more insight into what motivated particular choices.

The format. It looks like a fanzine. It’s hard to tell where pieces start and end. When announcing the book’s delay, publisher Nat Gertler said

if you’ve seen other books of columns, you’ve seen that they tend to look like, well, flat piles of text, not necessarily the most appealing thing to the comics reader. To counter this, we gave each piece it’s own layout. We didn’t try to go hyper-slick, but the scripts look like scripts, the web pages look like web pages.

I would have rather have had the flat piles of text, especially if they had sufficient page margins. Many pages here run right off the page on the outside margin. The same thing happens internally, with text running into decorative page elements and text blocks crooked on the page. The idea of different layouts is good, but the execution is unprofessional. And all the various fonts and shaded boxes don’t make up for a near-complete lack of illustrations of any kind.

The best part of the book for me was the “Condensed Comic Classics”, many of which are new. Gail got her friends to write amusing summaries of the comics they work on. They’re funniest if you already know the titles, so you get the in-jokes.

In a case where most of the material is freely available online, a published edition should, in my opinion, add bonuses to entice the reader’s purchase. That might be an upscale, handsome binding (as when The Perry Bible Fellowship went to print); explanatory author notes (as Jen Sorensen did to freshen up her editorial cartoons); or new material you can’t get anywhere else. In this case, the book only aims for the latter, when the former two would have been much more appreciated by me. I can’t recommend the newsprint edition with sloppy layout we got.

Did you know that Adam Strange’s real name is Jean-Paul Valley? I didn’t — last time I checked that was actually the alter ego of Azrael, the would-be Batman. But it’s apparently now the real name of Adam Strange. Why? Because it says so on page 330 of the updated and expanded edition of The DC Comics Encyclopedia. (Oh, and to make this whole point just that much more ludicrous, Adam Strange’s real name is actually — Adam Strange!)

The DC Comics Encyclopedia
Updated and Expanded
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Of course, in a book this big, I’d expect a mistake or two, but sadly, there are many more. Here’s a few: The Key Storylines box for the Blue Beetle entry lists stories about Dr. Fate. Text in the Superman entry was slightly rewritten and duplicated within the entry. Commander Steel is misspelled as Steele. And a caption in the Elongated Man entry erroneously states that Sue Dibny was killed by Dr. Light (she wasn’t), in a mistake held over from the previous edition of the book. Plus, there are countless typos and text problems throughout.

I had really high hopes for this version of the Encyclopedia, being a big fan of the previous edition. My original intent, when reviewing this book, was to index, in detail, all of the changes and updates in this book from the previous edition, but as I got deeper and deeper into the book, the overwhelming number of text errors, missing text, proofreading errors, and the seemingly arbitrary decisions over what got updated or didn’t just simply overwhelmed — and ultimately — defeated me.

In general, it appears to me that great amounts of text for this volume were reset (whether needed or not), and following that, no one bothered to reformat the text with any level of consistency. It also appears that either no one proofread the new text in its final layout (lots of final lines of text have “dropped out”) or that the book was rushed to press without all of the changes. Also, I was working with a list of “errors” from the first edition of the Encyclopedia (admittedly mostly minor and/or having to do with inconsistencies in presenting information) and discovered that only a handful of the most egregious errors were fixed in this new edition.

This should have been a great book. There was a tremendous amount of effort put forward to update it. There are at least 50 new pages of material spread throughout the book, including at least 60 new entries. Most of the major characters have one or two pages added to their entries, and the Encyclopedia now includes new two-page entries for recent events like Infinite Crisis and 52. Well over a hundred individual entries were updated with a new sentence or two, albeit most of them to indicate character deaths in either Infinite Crisis or the Death of the New Gods event.

And, in something that I feel somewhat personally responsible for in the first place, a great effort was made to try to explain the various versions — at least three — of the Legion of Super-Heroes, but the attempt was doomed to failure without completely restructuring the book. As it is, some of the LSH members have multiple listings for different versions, some attempt to explain the different versions in a single entry, some there was no attempt to update at all, and in others, the text describes the latest “threeboot” version of the character, but uses artwork from one of the previous versions. At least they tried…

If I had to choose one word to describe the updated DC Encyclopedia, it would have to be inconsistent. Cat Man’s entry has updated artwork showing his new costume, but no mention of him being the leader of the new Secret Six (nor any mention of the SS at all). In Troia’s entry, her name has been changed to Troy, but the entry itself has not been updated to reflect changes to her in the last four years — most notably, her return from the dead!

There’s still a lot of good, solid information in the updated and expanded edition of The DC Comics Encyclopedia, but if you’re a major fan of DC Comics and know better, these inconsistencies will drive you nuts! And what good is an encyclopedia if you cannot trust its facts to be accurate? With a price tag of $40, I cannot wholeheartedly recommend it. (A complimentary copy for this review was provided by the publisher.)

Ever since I heard about the concept of Marvel Chronicle, I’ve been dying to see the book. I love books like this, packed with facts and trivia, and I think that every major comics company needs to have a publishing history/timeline like this. I’m not surprised Marvel got to it first.

Marvel Chronicle
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Obviously designed to be DK’s major comic-related book for the holiday season, Marvel Chronicle is a lavishly produced gift book, housed in its own illustrated box. The wraparound cover illustration by Jim Cheung has also been reproduced as two prints — one color and one B&W — that are slipcased inside the box. (Although I do have to nitpick a bit, as the prints greatly reduce the size — and the incredible detail — of the original.) The 352-page book is dynamically, but functionally, designed and the book itself features a clever die-cut cover — a giant “M”!

Unlike your typical coffee table book, Marvel Chronicle is densely packed with hours and hours of reading and hundreds of illustrations. Set up in a chronological month-by-month format, the book covers almost 70 years of Marvel history, from 1939’s Marvel Comics #1 and the first appearances of the Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner all the way up to this summer’s Secret Invasion #1.

Written by an all-star line-up of past and present Marvel editors and historians, the Chronicle takes each year of Marvel history and breaks it down in monthly bites, indicating the debuts of major Marvel heroes and villains, as well as the comings and goings of the major artist and writers handing the books. There’s also a handy little sidebar indicating each year’s “real world” events, including all the headlines in politics, sports, and pop culture trends in music and movies.

For me, the fun of these kinds of books is the ability to see the bigger picture of the ongoing history and visually put certain events in various books in their proper order. Or to discover interesting “key” months where some major unrelated elements of Marvel history were created at virtually the same time — as in January 1981, where both Elektra and “Days of Future Past” were introduced. Or that the return of both the X-Men and Howard the Duck occurred in May of 1975. Or that Gwen Stacy died in the very same month — June 1973 — that Mantis, the future Celestial Madonna appeared. (Hmmm…) May 1971 was a key month for the maturation of Marvel Comics as Savage Tales #1, the Comics Code-less Spider-Man drug storyline, and the Harlan Ellison plotted Avengers-Incredible Hulk crossover all began. The following month, the Kree-Skrull War began in Avengers, heralding comics’ first mega-event. Who knew?

Of special note is the chapter on Marvel in the 1950s, written by Tom Brevoort about a much-maligned but truly fascinating era of transition. Brevoort does a very creditable job finding many interesting facts of a period which has yet to be well documented by comics historians. This goes also for Peter Sanderson’s look at 1939-1949, a period slightly better known due to the incorporation of much of Marvel’s Golden Age Heroes and mythology into the current continuity, but Sanderson has dug deeper to explore Marvel’s entries into funny animals and comics for girls. Those of you who love the current Marvel U might be tempted to skip past these chapters. Don’t do it — there’s lots of fascinating stuff here!

The minor element of the book that I’m not so in love with are the many double-page spreads of artwork. There’s a montage of 50s splash pages and the occasional comparison of original art to the printed cover — both of which are great — but when it’s just a single cover or image, printed sideways, I feel that many of the art choices are not that inspiring. And I am so over the giant-blow-up of an actual comics page — especially when it’s badly out-of-register! I’m not exactly sure that She-Hulk is the best character to represent the artistic legacy of John Buscema (pg. 204-205), but I am loving the giant-size B&W wash artwork by Walter Simonson from The Rampaging Hulk (pg. 182-183)!

There are a couple of typos here and there — John Byrne did not team with Chris Claremont on X-Men #1 (in the introduction to 1979), it was actually #108 — but nothing too serious. And because it’s written by a bunch of Marvel guys, you’re not going to find a lot of critical discussion here. I found the earlier chapters a little more even-handed, while some of the later chapters are more “rah-rah” Marvel, but what do you expect from the house of Stan Lee?

There is much discussion about the creation of new titles or characters, but if you’re looking for solid information about when certain titles were canceled, you need to look elsewhere. There definitely aren’t any revelations about problems between Stan or Jack or Stan and Steve or why Kirby was treated so badly by Marvel in the 80s. It is, after all, a celebration of all things Marvel, and if you can accept that going in, you’ll have a fun ride!

By the way, if you can’t find Marvel Chronicle on the shelf in the graphic novel section of your local bookstore, snoop around the store a bit. DK has designed a special freestanding display stand for the book, with a sample copy that you can flip through in the store! (A complimentary copy for this review was provided by the publisher.)

Modern Masters Mike Ploog
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Please tell us a little about the book and your contributions.

Well, like the other Modern Masters volumes, it features a career-spanning interview with a comic artist. In this case, it’s Mike Ploog. The book was edited and designed by the creator of the series, Eric Nolen-Weathington. It’s got an introduction by J.M. DeMatteis, who worked with Mike on Abadazad and The Stardust Kid. And, of course, it’s published by TwoMorrows.

My main contribution was the interview itself. Before I even started writing questions, I did a ton of research. I read everything Mike had worked on that I could find. I had some of the comics myself, found some books at the local comic store or on eBay, and borrowed some from my pal, KC Carlson. I read a number of online interviews with Mike as well as magazine articles about his work. I also watched some of the movies he worked on.

The research stage took around three months. After that, I set up a first interview with Mike and we went from there. Since I’m a glutton for punishment, I transcribed the interview myself. I’ve been conducting interviews for around 14 years now, so you’d think I’d be pretty good at transcribing, but it still takes me a long time. The interview covers Mike’s early years in rural Minnesota to his move to L.A.; his time in the Marines to working with Will Eisner; his time at Marvel to his career in film to his recent return to comics with such books as Abadazad and The Spirit.

What was your goal with this volume of Modern Masters? Do you think you met it?

I never really thought about having a goal for the book, but when you put it that way, I did. I’ve been a fan of Mike’s work since I first saw it in an issue of Man-Thing I bought as a back issue when I was growing up. Later, seeing books like his Classic Illustrated version of Tom Sawyer and his adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus only made me appreciate his work more.

Stardust Kid by Mike Ploog

However, there isn’t that much information out there about him. If you Google someone like John Byrne, Tim Sale, or Jeff Smith, almost any “name” artist, you’ll find a number of interviews with them. With Mike, that’s not the case. Don’t get me wrong, he does do interviews, it’s just that he hasn’t done as many as some creators. He also spent most of the 80s and 90s working in film, and aside from lists of films he’s been involved with, there’s very little information about his film work. He’s worked on films such as The Dark Crystal, John Carpenter’s The Thing, and Little Shop of Horrors. He even worked on a Michael Jackson video!

My goal with this volume was to bring what I felt was some much warranted, and long overdue, attention to Mike and his work. I think I accomplished that. Hopefully, people will like what they see and read and want to go out and read some of the books he’s done over the years. How successful I was with that, only time will tell.

How was the subject selected?

Eric Nolen-Weathington and I were discussing doing another Modern Masters book together after we finished the Walter Simonson volume. He asked me if there was anyone I’d like to interview. I sent him a list of four or five names, one of them being Mike Ploog. He said he had been thinking about doing a volume on Mike, so we decided to pursue that. Eric spoke with Mike at the San Diego convention in, I believe, 2007, and Mike agreed to the interview. It was that simple.

For those who aren’t familiar with the name, why would they want to read about Mike Ploog?

Mike is probably best known for being the original artist on Marvel’s Werewolf by Night and Ghost Rider. He was kind of their “go to” guy for monster comics and he did some memorable work on Man-Thing, Monster of Frankenstein, and Planet of the Apes. If you like Marvel comics from the 70s, he has some great stories about his time there.

Mike has spent a number of years working in TV and film. He’s been involved with such projects as Superman II and Shrek. He has some wonderful behind-the-scenes stories about this part of his career that I think movie fans will really enjoy. As a Muppet fan, I was fascinated listening to him talk about working with Frank Oz.

A lot of Mike’s comic work has been in the horror and fantasy genre. I think the closest he came to a superhero comic was Ghost Rider. If you’re interested in more than just superhero comics, I think you’ll find something of interest here.

Finally, there’s the art itself. There are some amazing examples of Mike’s work in the book. There’s a color 2-page spread that is jaw-droppingly gorgeous. If you’re a fan of comic art, or art in general, I think you’ll love looking through this book.

In the interview, what did you find out that you didn’t know before?

Upcoming Perhapanauts cover by Mike Ploog

A lot. I think almost everything he said when we were talking about his film work was new to me. Something that really sticks in my mind, though, was his time working at PS Magazine. I think many comic fans have heard of that, but they may not know much more about it than Will Eisner created it. That pretty much described me going in. It’s a magazine for the military that helps explain maintenance of machinery and weapons in a way that people can understand. A lot of that was done in comic form. Mike tells some absolutely fascinating stories about working with Eisner and his other co-workers on PS. For me, it was really interesting learning about this part of comics history.

I want to add that Mike is a great storyteller, in both the art and yarn-spinning sense of the word, but it’s the latter of these that I want to mention. Interviewing Mike felt a lot like sitting down with an old friend, opening a couple beers, and shooting the breeze. I quickly learned that what made things memorable for him was the people he worked with. And he has some great stories to tell about them.

How did you start writing for TwoMorrows?

One day, I was talking with a friend, Wayne Markley, and mentioned a book that I thought someone should write. His response was, “Why don’t you write it?” I’ve been conducting interviews for Westfield Comics since 1994, but I’d never thought seriously about writing a book. Sure, it had crossed my mind, but more as a fantasy than a reality. Once Wayne said that, it burrowed into my brain and I started thinking, “Yeah! Why don’t I write it? I have plenty of experience conducting interviews. I could do this.”

I contacted John Morrow and pitched him the idea, and he was all for it. Unfortunately, that project ended up falling through due to circumstances beyond our control, but it planted the seed. I asked about working on Modern Masters, and John put me in touch with Eric. I pitched an idea or two to him and that eventually lead to interviewing Walter Simonson. Since then, I’ve also contributed articles to Back Issue, including the most recent issue, number 31, which is a Steve Gerber tribute.

Who would you most like to cover for a future Modern Masters?

That’s a tricky question because there are so many people I’d like to interview for the series. How about a top five instead? My top five at the moment, and in no particular order, would be Jim Starlin, Matt Wagner, Bill Sienkiewicz, Colleen Doran, and Rick Veitch. I don’t know if any of these will happen, but they’re all people whose work I admire and has had an impact on me. If you ask me tomorrow, that list may change.

How to Draw Stupid and
Other Essentials of Cartooning
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Many how-to manuals inadvertently reveal more about the writer and their philosophy of life than intended. This one puts that material front and center. It’s not really a book about drawing, but about being a cartoonist, with all that entails. And the advice itself is simple, beginning with the very basic. If you want to be a cartoonist, “do a cartoon”.

Baker wants people to do the work without fear. He simplifies, almost to the point of belittling his craft, but his principles are universal. Let the art do the work. Keep it simple. Be funny. Use reference. Think about your audience. Be distinctive. Some of it is unusual — like don’t have a backup plan — but all of it makes sense. The simplicity is deceiving, because to truly follow this advice takes a great deal of work and willpower. Some of the same material can be found in the introduction to Undercover Genie: The Irreverent Conjurings of an Illustrative Aladdin, but there it seems angrier. Here it’s presented with more mature wisdom.

His chapter on drawing is so bare-bones as to be comical. (Paraphrased: Men are angular, women are curvy, kids have big heads.) That doesn’t matter — an artist has heard it all before. Baker encourages thought about what it all means. He goes on to point out that the key to cartooning is exaggeration, and he encourages development of a unique style. What’s important, what causes viewers to be entertained, is the personality of characters.

His advice is old-fashioned, and that makes it counter-cultural these days, when artists are used to hearing about how important it is to wallow in their own specialness. My favorite piece of advice in the whole book is as follows: “Be interesting. Nobody cares about you. I doubt a comic book about the recent breakup of your romantic relationship would be very entertaining. You know who’s going to read that? Lonely people! You know what’s wrong with lonely people? No word of mouth!”

By insisting anyone can do what he does, the reader sees how special Baker’s work really is. (For examples, check out Why I Hate Saturn and The Cowboy Wally Show.) After reading, I now understand why even Baker’s illustrations look like animation storyboards: it’s all about the movement. If for no other reasons, this book is worth reading just to see his cartoons. And to share his life lessons, like how and why he failed art.

The short chapters stick to the basics, but I found myself thinking more about the nature of art, entertainment, and humor after reading than I have more detailed manuals that make bigger promises. This is really a pep talk under book covers, with the plus of cool cartoons. Everyone should read it. There’s a promotional video with the man himself at his web page.

See that line about Archie: Man of the Cloth? I wrote that. It’s an overview of the Christian comics featuring the character. Here’s the description of the magazine’s contents:

Hogan’s Alley features a long interview with Stephan Pastis, creator of the caustic, irreverent and very funny Pearls Before Swine comic strip. The issue also examines the fascinating history and the never-before-told story of Disney’s Song of the South, a cartoon/live-action hybrid so fraught with period sensibilities that Disney won’t allow it on the market. Stephan DeStefano, artist on the cult favorite comic book ‘Mazing Man and now the merchandising artist behind Popeye, gives an interview. Before the Marvel Age, Stan Lee and Archie’s Dan DeCarlo collaborated on a comic strip in the 1950s, My Friend Irma, and the issue presents their little-seen strip. The issue looks at a series of comic books in which Archie, Jughead and the Riverdale gang take a break from their usual antics to evangelize. Finally, go behind-the-scenes with of Little Lulu’s creator Marge Buell, a trailblazing female cartoonist/entrepreneur, and delve into the business side of her comics empire!

It can be ordered with code NOV08 4403 from comic shops for $6.95, or there are subscription offers available at the link.

Looking for something to read while waiting for the election returns to come in? Check out Veeps: Profiles in Insignificance. It’s published by Top Shelf, even though it’s not a comic; instead, it’s a collection of historical profiles. Written by Bill Kelter with illustrations by Wayne Shellabarger, it covers the whole run so far of American Vice-Presidents, or as they have it,

… a platoon of rogues, cowards, drunks, featherweights, doddering geriatrics, bigots, and atrocious spellers [sitting] one bullet, cerebral hemorrhage, or case of pneumonia away from the highest office in the land.

In addition to the 46 who have served so far, four notable near misses are included, such as Geraldine Ferraro (the first woman nominated to the position) and James Stockdale (Ross Perot’s running mate).

Kelter doesn’t have an easy task. As his introduction points out, he’s trying to cover a range of personalities from colorful men to dull functionaries, and the office of VP (until recently) veered sharply to the latter. It’s a great book for playing, “hey, did you know…” with those around you, unless they’re the kind to get annoyed by frequent interruptions. So little is known by most about these characters that it’s certainly an education. The crimes and violent incidents start early and extend almost to present day. The tradition of enlisting old fogies who could never get elected on their own also is a long one.

You can read a 12-page preview online. Tim O’Shea has interviewed the two about the bathroom floor that started the whole thing and many other revelations. There’s even a companion film, Road to Insignificance, coming next year, about the creators in the time of the election of the newest VP.

In his Forward, DC President and Publisher Paul Levitz states that there really isn’t a “DC Vault.” I, politely, beg to differ. While there may be no DC Vault like Scrooge McDuck’s legendary vault, or the original Fortress of Solitude with its vault-like door and giant key, there is a real DC Vault — and I worked there for about 8 years. It’s the DC office itself, currently in midtown Manhattan, filled with creative, intelligent, and good people and with its history largely on display in every hallway, every office, and even every elevator bank.

The DC Vault is the story of those offices, the people who worked in them, and the wondrous work they produced. As with any corporate history book, the main emphasis, though, is on the company itself.

The DC Vault
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Several of the artifacts reproduced in The DC Vault — a “museum-in-a-book” similar to the earlier Marvel version — are actually up on the walls in the offices. The evolution of the DC logo seen on the Afterword page was right around the corner from the “Starman Hallway,” a short corridor spotlighting all of the various DC characters that were named Sandman over the years (more than you’d think!). And the 6th floor elevator foyer was the home of a giant-size reproduction of the poster that was included in Graphitti Design’s deluxe version of the History of the DC Universe — a mind-blowing group shot of over 50 DC characters as drawn (and signed) by over 50 legendary artists. Or at least it was there when I was.

(Personally, I always managed to find a couple of extra minutes after leaving Production to wander by and stand slack-jawed at the display case of what seemed like hundreds of Mad Magazine tie-in products, just outside the office of Mad editors Nick Meglin and John Ficarra. It was like the mecca of stupidity and made me proud to be in the same building with it. The Mad offices also had a fully decorated Christmas tree in their lobby for 11 months out of the year — every month except December.)

Other artifacts were items I used every day, like DC’s unique letterhead and memo pads and the DC color chart, although to the outside world these were rare treasures, especially the color chart which was no longer needed after the sweeping changes made in production techniques thanks to computers beginning in the 90s. I still have a couple of my personal memo pads.

Other items are just plain cool: a working Junior Justice Society of America Decoder and a reprinted membership certificate from the early 40s, ashcans (“dummy” comics used to retain copyright protection for titles), rare promotional comics and postcards, cover sketches, reproductions of buttons (as stickers here), and one of DC’s legendary holiday cards. Of special note are some of the surviving memos and notes from the original Crisis on Infinite Earths project, one of which is Dick Giordano’s request to Jenette Kahn to kill Supergirl. It looks like one of those “Do you like me? Check Yes or No” notes that you’d send to your crush in junior high school. Another note, in editor Bob Greenberger’s handwriting, lists DC’s various pre-superheroic age characters, DC’s various dimensions, and — confusedly — what appears to be instructions for a Star Trek cover. (BG edited the Star Trek books for DC.)

But my favorite artifact here is the “Frequently Asked Questions” letter which was apparently sent out to everybody who asked a question of the Superman editors in the late 60 and early 70s. Back in those days, it seems that everybody who wrote a letter to DC got a “thank you” postcard, and several different sample postcards from various editors are reprinted in the book. The Superman FAQ is remarkably detailed (I’m guessing it was written by E. Nelson Bridwell, DC’s walking encyclopedia at-the-time), ranging from questions about the various forms of Kryptonite and what they do, what the letters DC mean in DC Comics (Detective Comics), the current roll call of the Legion of Super-Heroes, to “No, sorry, we do not stock back issues.” But at the bottom of page one (it’s a long letter!), this jumped out at me:

“Quite frequently we receive letters from readers who describe themselves as super-heroes desiring to join the Legion of Super-Heroes. There are far too many of these for us to use them all, but we will print the best in The Legion Outpost department in ADVENTURE COMICS…”

Wow! I never got a letter from somebody telling me about their superpower when I was editing the Legion! What were Legion fans smokin’ back in the 60s?

The text, by former staffer, writer, editor, and DC Junior Woodchuck Martin (Marty) Pasko is informative and breezy. He’s got almost 80 years of DC history to cover and not a lot of space — because there are a lot of excellent graphics — so the narrative moves pretty rapidly. Pasko shines in his recounting of DC’s earliest days with new anecdotes about many of the eccentric characters from the era, especially in DC’s dealings with William Marston (“Charles Moulton”), the creator of Wonder Woman, one of the more, ahhh, unique talents employed by DC. In his case, the text is accompanied with an excellent photo of Marston and his assistants subjecting an innocent moviegoer to Marston’s real world invention: the “lie-detector”. Almost certainly, this version of DC’s internal history is much more candid than other previous accounts, such as the Les Daniels history DC Comics: Sixty Years of the World’s Favorite Comic Book Heroes from 1995.

Superman creator Jerry Siegel’s name pops up frequently in the early history, as it should, since he was a frequent and prolific writer in those days. What I find unfortunate is that, just as frequently, the text mentions the lawsuits and other legal problems surrounding Siegel, which are now, sadly, a major part of his history with the company. Because of the ongoing situation, it’s hard to determine if the brief passage on the origins of Superboy is indeed actual fact or rather DC’s attempt at putting their version of the truth forward in a public setting. We may never know for sure, although the condescending way Siegel is frequently referred to as misremembering events suggests a certain slant.

Unlike that long-running dispute, other aspects of the company history will be new to readers. One of the more “vaulty” treats is the brief glance into both former Editorial Director/Executive Vice President Irwin Donenfeld’s sales charts and editor Julie Schwartz’s creator logbooks — both legendary documents in DC’s internal history. In Julie’s case, these records are invaluable in determining “who did what” on much of DC’s early stories, virtually all of which ran without credits until the late 60s. These logbooks have been one of the major sources of creator credits used for the DC Archives and other DC collections, as well as being frequently cited at the Grand Comics Database.

I was also happy that there was some mention of DC‘s public service strips, largely conceived by editor Jack Schiff. I know that today many of these strips are considered “corny” and looked upon with scorn by a lot of fans — and, yes, I agree that a lot of the 60s ones toward the end of their run are really off-the-wall — but as an only child whose parents were too wrapped up in their own problems for proper parenting, I found these strips very inspiring and valuable in helping me to find my way growing up. Somehow, I don’t think good citizenship is very high on the curriculum in schools these days. Back in the day, I was grateful that my comic books would occasionally nudge me in the right direction — as well as teaching me some cool fake-science!

The transition of publishers from Carmine Infantino to Jenette Kahn in the mid-70s is another subject covered with good detail in the narrative, but after that, the written history takes a slight back seat to increased graphics in the last third of the book. There’s a certain commercial sense that comes into play here as today’s readers are probably more likely to respond to seldom-seen pencil work by Frank Miller, Brian Bolland, and Bruce Timm, unreleased Watchman action figure prototypes, lots of rare Sandman-related art, and early and rare Alex Ross art. At this point, just when DC history gets complicated, the narrative has very little space to discuss all of DC’s various imprints (Vertigo, Wildstorm, Milestone, CMX, Zuda, and others) much less the more frequent movie and animation projects, various DC Direct projects, as well as the ups and downs and ever-changing tastes of life in the Direct Market. The last major core DCU events mentioned are the Death of Superman and Knightfall storylines, both of which are now 15 years old.

Or maybe they’re just saving all that for The DC Vault - The Annex! There’s certainly plenty more DC detail to discuss. And they’ve just scratched the surface of the depth of great DC ephemera that could be used in future volumes.

This book was a tough one for me to look at objectively, especially as I’ve been living and breathing and collecting DC stuff for most of my life. It was certainly difficult to judge how special some of the artifacts would be for the average person, considering how many of them I’ve already had access to. And I can’t help think of some opportunities missed. No mention of the wonderful Amazing World of DC Comics zine from the 70s and its own vault of little-seen material? And what of the interesting, and often unique, promotional material that has appeared since the advent of the Direct Market? Unfortunately, DC hasn’t had much luck with fan clubs since the silver age, but some interesting artifacts exist from their occasional attempts. And perhaps these don’t survive, but wouldn’t it be awesome to hear the voice of Julie Schwartz or Joe Orlando from the old DC Hotline coming from a sound chip or even a CD?

Personally, for me, the biggest vault bombshell was dropped by Paul Levitz in his introduction. I didn’t get to spend a lot of time in Paul’s office during my years at DC, and when I did, I was usually was being yelled at informed about an unfortunate problem (usually my fault). Paul’s office, at any given time, is a museum in itself. But to find out that the ashcan of Action Comics #1 was literally several feet away from where I was sitting — albeit unbeknownst to me and safely hidden away in a nearby closet — made me want to run up to DC, do something really stupid, and get summoned up to the principal’s office one last time, just to wonder exactly where it was.

And Paul says the DC Vault doesn’t exist. Hogwash! He’s the Head Curator!

(A complimentary copy was supplied by the publisher for this review.)

Please take a moment to consider the work of Al Jaffee, one of “the usual gang of idiots” from Mad Magazine. His most famous work, the Mad Fold-In, is incredibly inventive as well as being one of the most popular features of Mad. It’s also one of the longest-running, having appeared in almost every issue of Mad since its inception in 1964.

Tall Tales
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He’s the creator of Mad’s “Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions,” practically inventing “snark” as an everyday occurrence. And as a multiple choice opportunity — meaning more than one joke per panel.

Then there are Jaffee’s blueprints for new inventions, not as well-known as the first two, but still a popular Mad feature (at least in my brain). These were always seemingly ridiculous ideas for products or devices that didn’t exist — like a gun that would seal dog poo in frozen goo for easy disposal — but after reading Jaffee’s detailed cross-section descriptions of these remarkable devices and how they worked, you couldn’t help wanting to believe that they existed in real life. And some were actually developed, with Jaffee’s cartoon cited as the inspiration.

A sample strip showing vaguely Addamsesque characters

Q: What is the common element in all of the above features?

A: Jaffee broke the traditional format of comics and invented something different.

(Oh, and they’re all hysterically funny. Duh.)

So it should come as no surprise that when Jaffee decided to conquer syndicated comic strips, he changed the rules once again. His strip, which ran from 1957-1963 and was syndicated by the New York Herald Tribune Syndicate, was called Tall Tales. All comic strips at the time were square panels or ran horizontally. Tall Tales ran vertically.

According to Jaffee in the Preface to this book, readers cannot take in the entire area of a vertical area with a single glance. “As readers, we have a tendency to look at the strongest focal point first and then the secondary area. This dynamic allowed me to place the set-up for the joke in the first-glance area and pull the punchline with the second glance.”

And so Jaffee had invented a way to do a set-up, the actual gag, and occasionally a reaction - all in the same panel! Ingenious! Inconceivable! And also funny!

Tall Tales is a tall, 130-page hardcover collection of Jaffee’s very best Tall Tales strips from the first — and last — vertical strip in newspaper history. Collecting strips little-seen since their first publication over 40 years ago, Tall Tales is a fascinating snapshot of Jaffee’s charming work around the time of Trump, Humbug, and the debut of his work at Mad. The introduction is by Stephen Colbert, the man who presented to Jaffee a Fold-In birthday cake for the artist’s 85th birthday on an episode of The Colbert Report.

You can’t find a taller, skinnier collection of comics than this! (A complimentary copy for this review was provided by the publisher.)

Writing for Comics With Peter David
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David has an immensely varied resume that demonstrates how well he knows his stuff. In addition to comics, he’s written New York Times bestsellers, television shows, and movies. He’s not only written top-selling superheroes, including his well-known 12-year run on the Incredible Hulk, but creator-owned titles like Fallen Angel and Sachs & Violens. His long-running “But I Digress” column gave him experience with essays and explanatory non-fiction, too.

As a result, this is the most entertaining craft how-to book I’ve read. It’s conversational, with plenty of wisecracks (much like David’s fiction writing style). Illustrations feature familiar Marvel characters, clearly captioned. His points are illustrated with examples from actual comics, often ones he’s written. It’s a huge benefit to actually see the theory put into practice in stories I remember reading.

Chapters are broken down into shorter, labeled sections, so it’s easy to find and re-read particular topics of interest. The flow is natural, starting with ideas and concepts, and moving through character development, conflict and theme, plot and structure, to the details of scripting, including formats and ballooning. There are even exercises included, suggestions to try to put the advice into practice.

I find myself in great sympathy with his points, whether it’s how to combat writers’ block or how to make “message” stories more than one-sided screeds or even how to handle criticism. He gives advice on how to do things right and, when you need another option, how to paper over plot holes. I particularly like how he points out that a story is more than just a string of incidents; would that some current comic writers had the advantage of this book.

There is one caveat, that perhaps goes without saying: David focuses on the kinds of comics he writes, fantasy adventure titles with heroes and villains. The solo writer/artist may find other books more useful — although anyone will find something of value here — as may the writer of more subtle genres. Still, I am thrilled to see a comic writing book that actually analyzes story types and themes as well as covering how sound effects work.

This is an appealing, informative book that makes for a great read even if you’re just a fan of David’s work and want to see more inside his head.

For the next week, you can contribute to a proposed second volume. David wants to include a Q&A chapter, and he’s asking for questions from readers.

As if comic books and Mad Magazine weren’t enough to separate me from my childhood allowance, at some point Wacky Packages appeared out of nowhere to make sure that I never started saving for college.

Wacky Packages
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Some of the slickest, sickest, and nastiest parodies of consumer products ever seen — and therefore hysterically funny to the average 10-year-old brain — Wacky Packages became one of the biggest non-sports card successes in Topps’ history and in the process grew into a true American cult phenomenon. Now the likes of “Weakies: Breakfast of Chumps,” “Minute Lice,” “Hostage (filled with Mud) Cupcakes,” and “Cap’n Crud” cereal (Inside: Real Pirate!) have been lovingly (or hatefully, in Wacky-speak) collected into the coolest little 240-page hardcover book, specially designed for the world’s smallest coffee table!

Collecting the first seven “series” of Wackies from 1973-1974, one to a page, in a size more than twice that of the original stickers, this book also features an introduction by Art Spiegelman (Maus) in which he discusses — for the first time in decades — being part of the creative team that created the cards back in the mid-60s. A concept sketch by Spiegelman that accompanies the intro for “Sicrats: Cheese Flavored Cough Drops” features a cartoon mouse that could be distantly related to his much better-known mice. A well-researched afterword by Jay Lynch (Bijou Funnies and another key Wacky Packages creator) puts the lie to my theory about the Wackies being inspired by Mad Magazine (like everything that is good is) in a short, entertaining essay about the origins of product parody stretching back to the 1800s and the likes of P.T. Barnum. Yoiks!

One of the pre-sticker Wacky Ad series

Those who have been paying close attention will note that I indicated that Wacky Packages were created in the mid-60s (they first appeared in 1967), but that this book collected the first seven “series” of Wackies from 1973-1974. Yeah, I wondered about that seeming discrepancy, too, especially since I distinctly remember hoarding Wacky Packs in the 60s (pre-high school, for me). Further research led me to the very entertaining — and exquisitely detailed — Wacky Packages Web Page. Digging deep into my closet for a shoebox full of old cards, I discovered that I was (still) the proud owner of the two original pre-sticker series of Wacky Packages. And that these two pre-series were represented in the book — sort of.

The first (1967-1968) series of Wacky Packages, called the Die-Cut series because they were printed on cardstock cards and had to be punched out, consisted of 44 different cards. 30 of those cards were reprinted in 1973 and became Series 1 of the sticker series (and are reproduced in the book). The second original series (1969) of Wackies were a true anomaly called Wacky Ads. They were printed on 5 1/4” x 3 1/8” cards that featured a full-blown ad for the parody product, while the product itself was die-cut — like the original series — so it could be punched out.

There were a total of 36 cards in the Wacky Ads series, but 6 of the cards featured reprints from the first series, four to a card, leaving only 30 all-new Wackies. 25 of these became the basis of the 33-sticker Series 2 (the rest were all-new). However, in the transition from Wacky Ad cards to Wacky Packages stickers, only the product itself, not the whole ad, was used, and most of these were repainted versions based on the originals. (One product, Garbage Baby Food, was renamed Gurgle Baby Food.)

It’s also interesting to note that these two original series also were “stickers” of a sort. The cardstock backs were covered with a glue that you had to lick (ewww!) to activate. But due to the thickness of the card and the inadequate glue, they did not stick very well to anything — leading Topps to develop the the pressure stickers that we all came to love! And that became the bane of parents, school administrators and janitors the world over.

The geek in me would have preferred that this kind of historical information been included in the book, but given that the early release history of the Wackies is somewhat convoluted and obscure — I spent a couple of hours at the website soaking up this knowledge — I can see why it was left out of this great general interest pop culture picture book.

Rare Wacky Ad not reprinted in book

The care and detail put into this volume is just astounding. The book jacket is a mock-up of one of the original Wacky Packages packs, and made of a waxy-type paper to boot. I swear it smells like gum! (Although that may be my overactive imagination at work. For a great gum-gag, slip off the dust jacket and check out the front and back covers!) And don’t miss the two extra special features tucked away in the inside back cover — a reproduction of Spiegelman’s Wacky Pack Codex gagfinder (explained in his introduction) and four bonus Wacky stickers!

This last feature is cooler than cool as three of the four stickers are never before published “Lost Wackies” and the 4th (“Muller Low Life” beer) is from the original 1967 die-cut series and has never been reprinted. According to the Wacky Packages Web Page, the second printing of the book, now available, has a different set of four stickers. All of them are cigarette or alcohol related, and rare, as Topps no longer parodies these types of products. Two of these — “Schmutz” beer and “Alcohol Seltzer” — are also from the original die-cut series and are not otherwise included in the book itself. The second printing of the book can be determined by the “Introduction by Art Spiegelman” blurb on the front cover, as opposed to the “Interview with Art Spiegelman” blurb on the first printing.

Wacky Packages is a must-have for everybody who thinks about “Quacker Oats” and “Skimpy” while they’re shopping for oatmeal and peanut butter. You know who you are! (A complimentary copy was supplied by the publisher for this review.)

I still haven’t finished reading the whole thing — there’s a lot of interesting, varied content here — but I’m confident that this is still accurate: it’s the best comic magazine being published. After a rough start, issue #2 made some important improvements, and now the staff seems to have found its stride.

The design is confident and modern — too many magazines these days seem to miss out on some of the basics, like readability (Comics Now!) or approachability (the grey blocks of TwoMorrows’ publications are off-putting) — with content you won’t be embarrassed to be seen with (Wizard).

It truly covers the range of comics available today, too. When they tackle the people behind the material, like running a feature on “the cutest creator couples in comics”, it’s a fresh approach that doesn’t seem fawning or inappropriate.

In short, I’m looking forward to the next issue, and you should be too. There’s a good interview with the editors about what they’re trying to do.

It’s always dangerous to try to explain magic, since, in part, magic is mostly unexplainable. Or else it wouldn’t be magic.

The Vertigo “Universe” (if, in fact, such a thing actually exists) is covered with magic. Not only is a large part of it actually formed of magic, but the fact that it exists at all is quite magical indeed.

The Vertigo Encyclopedia
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Beginning in the late ‘80s, under the aegis of Karen Berger — an exceptional editor with unflinchable, as well as esoteric, instincts — the roots of Vertigo were formed in her dark little corner of the DC Universe where Swamp Thing and Sandman lived. Having previously worked with Alan Moore and Grant Morrison, Berger tapped into the second wave of the “British Invasion” (many of whom Berger discovered) and, combined with the then-new concept of creator-owned comics, launched Vertigo as a successful imprint for DC Comics in 1993.

Within a short amount of time, Vertigo settled into publishing three distinct types of comics:

• mostly stand-alone creator-owned series or graphic novels
• the “Vertigo-verse” centered around most (but not all) of DC’s mystery, horror or magic characters, and largely revolving around Swamp Thing, Sandman, and all of their spin-off titles and characters
• and new incarnations of classic DC concepts (Sandman Mystery Theatre, Shade, the Changing Man, Uncle Sam) that may or may not have anything to do with the original character.

While you might think that it’s mostly all scary stuff, Vertigo encompasses virtually all genres. Among its many titles, you’ll find war, romance, western, crime, SF, and stories of everyday living. And also a lot of sex and drugs and rock and roll…

This is why I was initially bemused when I saw a listing for book from DK (Dorling Kindersley Ltd.) called The Vertigo Encyclopedia. I already have a shelf full of DK books about comic books, mostly of the superhero type, so I automatically jumped to the conclusion that it would have facts and powers and statistics all screaming at once, accompanied by page after page of INYOURFACE graphics.

How wonderfully surprised to be mistaken!

The Vertigo Encyclopedia, written by Alex Irvine with important introductions by Neil Gaiman and Vertigo Executive Editor Karen Berger, is not exactly an encyclopedia of the type we normally think of. This book takes 80 or so of the top Vertigo projects and tells the story of each one individually, in features ranging from one page (American Splendor, Seaguy, My Faith in Frankie) to ten pages (Sandman, Fables, Hellblazer) depending on importance, impact, complexity, and number of characters.

Depending on its length, each entry might include a storyline overview, key characters, supporting or other characters, settings, and outstanding moments. Creation notes are also offered for some of the more notable series or ones with complex premises. In addition, each entry features a sidebar with a first issue cover reproduction, an overview of the publishing history (including pre-Vertigo information in some cases), background on the key creative talent, and — when applicable — a list of trade paperback collections. In some cases, where this list is long, it is broken out into its own section.

The book covers a wide range, including pre-Vertigo titles published as part of the DC Universe (Animal Man, Doom Patrol, Swamp Thing, and Sandman), books that became retroactively Vertigo (V for Vendetta, Skreemer, The Cowboy Wally Show, and other works by Kyle Baker), and series first published under other imprints, such as Helix (Transmetropolitan, Bloody Mary) or Paradox Press (a single entry covering A History of Violence). The Encyclopedia is also remarkably up-to-date, with entries for new series Air, Greatest Hits, Madame Xanadu, and House of Mystery.

The remaining Vertigo projects (over 120) are included in the Gazetteer, a collection of shorter features covering mostly miniseries and one-shots. Between this and the main section of the Encyclopedia, every Vertigo project to date is represented, with the exception of a handful of promotional or miscellaneous publications, all of which are mentioned in the introduction to the Gazetteer.

The Encyclopedia is not a critical overview of Vertigo (although it can be argued that the amount of material on any given project may be a subtle indicator of its importance). It is a Big Book of Vertigo Facts, and fairly essential for figuring out the differences between all the Sandman spin-off titles and Sandman Presents projects. The book is very nicely designed with lots of well-chosen and representative artwork. There’s a lot of text, but not an excessive amount, and it has an excellent flow and presentation, which makes for a enjoyable read. And, of course, there is a lot of black used in the design — it is Vertigo, after all.

My only serious complaint is that the Outstanding Moments section of the major articles occasionally gives away major plot turns and surprises of certain series — a problem always inherent in projects like this. But since one of the obvious goals of this book is to propel readers into other Vertigo titles, it’s a shame that so much is given away.

The Vertigo Encyclopedia is an excellent resource for anyone who wants to learn more about the depth and breath of the Vertigo line, as well as a celebration and classification of all of the wonderful projects that it encompasses. It’s the closest you’ll get to explaining magic. (A complimentary copy for this review was provided by the publisher.)

I’m afraid the news isn’t good. The parent company, ADV, isn’t responding to emails on the subject. If you paid by credit card, you might be able to do a chargeback for services not provided, but the time period for that has expired in many cases.

A commenter says:

Complaints w/Attorney General can be filed online: http://www.oag.state.tx.us/ under “Consumer Protection”. Before Houston BBB deleted most of its history for ADV Films a few days ago, the company had unacceptable rating with at least 10 recent unanswered complaints … BBB does still show address as 5750 Bintliff #210, Houston, 77036.

I suspect the Better Business Bureau won’t be of much help in this situation, since they can only provide assistance when the company wants to protect its reputation. ADV seems to have written all this off and walked away. There’s always the boycott option, but ADV wouldn’t be in this situation if people weren’t already not buying their products.

Former staff are still bitter about the company’s behavior.

The Darker Mask
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The Darker Mask: Heroes From the Shadows contains short stories about superheroes, but they’re not the usual comic types. The writers were selected from the fields of urban fantasy, science fiction, and crime, and the stories they tell feature others than the typical white male hero.

In this interview about their creative process, the editors refer to it as “ethnically diverse”, which is a good way to put it. Contributors include Walter Mosley, L. A. Banks, Naomi Hirahara, Lorenzo Carcaterra, Tananarive Due and Stephen Barnes, Mike Gonzales, Gar Anthony Haywood, Ann Nocenti, Jerry Rodriguez, Reed Farrell Coleman, Doselle Young, Mat Johnson, Peter Spiegelman, Alexandra Sokoloff, Christopher Chambers, Gary Phillips, Victor LaValle, and Wayne Wilson.

Aside from work by comic writers Ann Nocenti, Mat Johnson, and Doselle Young, fans may be interested in seeing the chapter illustrations by Sean Wang, Shawn Martinbrough, Jeff Fisher, and Brian Hurtt. Here’s a review, or read an excerpt.

Mechademia 2: Networks of Desire
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Unfortunately, the entries I sampled didn’t live up to the premise. I’d only read two of them when I remembered why I gave up reading academic works. I find them troublesome if you’re unfamiliar with the works under discussion, because you can’t easily evaluate the author’s positions or claims. If you are familiar with the work, then it’s frustrating to wade through the paragraphs of description, a poor substitution for showing examples of the work itself. Yet, due to ever-more-restrictive copyright laws (and possibly the costs of image reproduction compared to text), visual examples are few and far between. Plus, the tone is often dry, with flat statements following after each other separated only by footnote numbers.

The first section covers shojo with papers on The Rose of Versailles (which I would really like to read some day, instead of only reading about it), a museum exhibit called Shojo Manga, Ranma 1/2 fan fiction (is Ranma really shojo?), comparing The Stepford Wives to Kamikaze Girls (with absolutely no pictures, a terrible lack for an essay about doll-like appearances), and a yaoi story. This is a rather mixed bag, obviously.

The subjects strike me as either too much for the space of 12 pages or so or not really related to the topic. (I suspect, when it comes to assembling yearly journals like this, that many authors submit already written works that are loosely covered by the subject umbrella, and the editor has to select from what they have available.) Some start much too broadly, while others assume no familiarity with their topics and explain many basics to the reader (an unlikely assumption for the audience for this collection). Some seem just to want to write about a favorite anime or manga, with not much of an argument or position about it. This is not a flaw of this book, particularly, but of the expectations of academic writing and the conventions of the style.

My favorite piece was a short essay in the back by Trina Robbins about what a manga adapter does and why it’s a bad idea to get rid of them (a cost-cutting measure Viz has apparently taken in favor of one person who can both translate and rewrite). I’m very glad a series like this exists, but I can’t recommend it to a general audience. More popular journalism for me, please, with more pictures.

See more at the book’s website. Published annually, the next issue will focus on Limits of the Human and is due out in November. A complimentary copy for this review was provided by the publisher.

This oversized short story (the book is only 80 pages, with eight of them an appendix of referenced images) uses a science fiction premise to explore the past and future of comic strips. Roughly seventy years from now, the newspaper is dead and all entertainment is virtual. Frost is a cartoonist clinging to the past, still drawing with pen and ink, trying to teach his son Giles the craft.

It’s a quick read, with short chapters, fascinated with specifying the tools of the trade, as though the author really was trying to capture a slice of time for the future. Most of the text is a history lesson as Frost tries to inspire Giles to understand the magic of cartooning. There’s also a screed against the Orphan Works Act and every artist’s wish dream, a magic ink that draws itself beautifully if you think hard at it.

Overall, the various pieces never gel. It’s a mission statement more than a story, an incident more than a path of change. Read an excerpt at the book’s website.

Comic Artist’s Photo Reference:
Women and Girls
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And really, given the usual audience for “how to make comics” books, starting with pictures of women makes sense. The promotional material makes clear that they’re aiming at aspiring creators of action comics (promising “superhero poses”), and many of those are male, so they can use themselves as examples of the other half of humanity.

There are four different models in the book, to capture different ages: 16, 22, 26, and 34. Now, one might point out that this is not an extensive range, given a typical lifespan, but again, consider the audience. They’re likely looking for active, fit young women to act as heroines. Perhaps more of a detriment is that all of these women are roughly the same slender build. Those looking for models with bellies or large breasts need to go elsewhere, but at least those working from these images will give their women enough of a waist to contain internal organs. Certainly, this book is preferable to the current favorite source of photo reference: porn magazines.

As promised, the images are superhero/action-oriented: flying, running, jumping, fighting (with and without weapons and pretend power blasts), posing. There are pictures of different types of outfits (including capes), hair and makeup, expressions, and working with accessories, like gloves or boots. Also included are four art lessons that show sketching from these pictures, one each by Josh Howard, Terry Moore, J.G. Jones (who demonstrates how he created the book’s cover), and Jamal Igle (covering group cover design).

The CD, in addition to containing more than 600 alternate photos, also includes video clips, so the models can be viewed in motion. See sample pages at the author’s website. (A complimentary copy for this review was provided by the author.)

How to Make Webcomics
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The second big plus to this book is its format. It’s a very handsome, readable book. Flipping through, you’ll see an illustration or relevant sample comic on almost every page. Sidebar notes (and inspirational quotes) are clearly set apart with lines and a different font. The tone is conversational, which makes it very readable, as though you’re listening to a chat instead of hearing proclamations from on high.

The introduction clearly lays out the aims: not to teach you how to cartoon, but to tell you how to have a successful webcomic, one you might even make a living from. Creative topics are tackled — the early chapters cover motivation, character design, format, and writing, among other topics — but over half the book is about business decisions, such as promotion, publishing, website design, and making money. There’s an undercurrent of “and that’s why you don’t need a publisher or syndicate” that pops its head up every so often, which is interesting, since three of the four have current or past print newspaper experience. But the biggest message is that a successful webcomic cartoonist is both an artist and a businessperson. (And also insecure, based on Scott Kurtz’s chapters. I’m not reading that in; he keeps saying it, that artists must acknowlege and get past their insecurity.)

Each chapter is voiced by a different one of the four, as indicated by the opening illustration. When the different authors share notes, there are little head-shot drawings to show you which one is giving their perspective. Each of them also gets a two-page focus section in which the four analyze a couple of their strips.

In almost every chapter I read something valuable that I either hadn’t thought about before — for instance, with restricted text space, you should keep character names short — or knew but wish more people paid attention to — such as the vital importance of sticking to your update schedule. Someone aiming to do a frequent humor strip in traditional horizontal format will likely get the most out of this book, since that’s what most of the authors do, but that limited focus is only really noticable in the writing chapter, which only makes a token nod at any other kind of comic. Most of the rest of the advice can apply to any creator.

While there are topics I wish they’d included but didn’t, that’s not a reflection on the book, just different priorities. For example, I wish the character design chapter had included diversity of genders, skin tones, and heritage; instead, the only diversity mentioned was that of body type. I would have liked to have seen much more emphasis on the importance of RSS feeds, instead of just the two paragraphs of “here’s what they are”, because I think any major webcomic must offer them. (It’s the only way I read them.) Instead, one creator plugs the older technology of mailing lists. I do like that there are two separate chapters on conventions and audience interaction, both tricky topics for the modern comic creator. The con chapter advice is worth the price of the book all by itself.

Oddly, the promotion chapter doesn’t mention either press releases or getting reviews, both sources of free coverage; instead, dealing with critics is covered in the audience chapter. The author of this section, Dave Kellett, breaks them into four categories and says, “each one can be diffused or made impotent by kindness and politeness.” So the goal here is not to listen, but to deflect. And that’s reflected in his categories; not one covers someone pointing out a legitimate flaw or place for improvement in the work. In other words, he doesn’t think critics are ever right. (The categories are the person who’s mean without meaning to be and really loves the comic; nitpickers correcting “useless details”; the hater; and the troll. This section, by the way, was the first piece of the book I read — it’s where the copy I was browsing fell open when I first picked it up. Fate!)

The biggest flaw of the book is the proofreading. It’s a bit disconcerting to find two obvious typographical errors on page six, in one of the author introductions, or to see the word “webcomics” misspelled early on. It lacks the final coat of polish that would support the air of competence they’re trying to create. (I also hate seeing Web, Webcomics, and Webcartoonist capitalized almost everywhere they’re used — I find it old-school and pretentious — but that’s personal opinion.) It also would be nice if they didn’t assume that their readers all knew the details of their strips. During the chapter on character design, for example, Kurtz uses his cast as examples throughout without ever matching up names and images for those who don’t remember or know what they’re all called.

One last note that didn’t seem to fit anywhere else but struck me: One cartoonist feels that how one’s readers behave reflects the author’s personality, that if a creator complains about her readers being jerks or lazy or mean, that that’s whom they attracted by what they were putting out. An interesting observation, that.

The book’s website is halfpixel.com. The authors also do a weekly podcast.

Webcomics 2.0
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The title comes from blending the subject, webcomics, with current hype term Web 2.0 (used for interactive websites like YouTube). I don’t think it’s the best idea, in part because I’m not sure most webcomics can be accurately described that way, but more because it gives the impression that this book is either a sequel or a revised edition.

Since it’s being blurbed as by “insiders”, let’s look at the author credits for Steve Horton and Sam Romero. I knew of the former because he wrote the manga-styled Image miniseries Strongarm, but he’s also credited as “co-creator of the long-running webcomic Grounded Angel” and for running “a comics publishing company, Smashout Comics, which publishes digital comics through the Wowio e-book service.” Unfortunately, neither of those are ongoing at this time. Grounded Angel is described as “romance action manga” and seems to have concluded, while the Smashout titles I checked are no longer part of Wowio after the recent changes (an understandable choice).

As for Romero, he “is the creator of the popular webcomic Edge the Devilhunter, featured at Graphic Smash.” I plugged “Edge the Devilhunter” into Google, and the actual, updating site shows up as the fourth link. The first is an earlier mirror site that stopped updating in October 2007; the next two are reference sites. So I can understand why he needs to list the host site in the description. When you do visit the strip (NSFW), the first thing I saw (as of this writing) was a topless female with breasts as big as her head. The comic is apparently a manga-styled adventure; after that image, I didn’t stick around to find out the details. The Comixpedia description says

The webcomic itself is noteworthy not only for its extreme violence and sexual content, but its controversial left-wing political content and liberal use of racial epithets.

Back to the book. The presentation is very professional and easy to read, with large subject headings making it easy to find a particular section. There are 13 chapters plus a glossary for a total of 225 pages of content. However, the authors don’t start covering webcomic creation until the eighth chapter, 90 pages into the book. After a short introduction, there are chapters each on humo