Where Bakuman differs from the usual stories we hear about aspiring comic creators is in its use of a team — a writer and artist who are separate people — and its emphasis on the virtue of editors. The insight into how the Japanese manga industry works is the book’s strongest virtue, in my opinion. It’s a key reminder that there’s no one right way to make comics.

New Year’s Eve

There are lots of likable actors involved, but I would have enjoyed this more if I was more of a Jon Bon Jovi fan, since he plays a rock star everyone’s crazy about, except for his ex (Katherine Heigl — and she really is the brand marker for this kind of movie, isn’t she?).

The plots are sitcom-ish: An overprotective single mother (Sarah Jessica Parker) can’t cope with her daughter (Abigail Breslin) growing up. A pair of opposites (Ashton Kutcher, as a comic book artist, and Lea Michele, as a singer) get trapped in an elevator. The woman running the ball drop (Hilary Swank) is afraid of heights. An expectant couple (Seth Meyers, Jessica Biel) wants to be the first to have the New Year’s baby. A woman (Michelle Pfeiffer) who just quit her job is trying to complete her bucket list with the help of a courier (Zac Efron). They all play out as you’d expect, with few surprises.

Now, a few days after seeing it, I don’t remember much of it at all — yet I know a couple of people who want to borrow my DVD, just to check it out. It’s comfort viewing, where we all know exactly what we’re going to get.

The special features include a commentary with director Garry Marshall, which I didn’t listen to, and a gag reel, half of which has already been included in the bloopers shown during the credits. The Blu-ray edition has all the extras, with three short promotional featurettes with cast and crew plus deleted and extended scenes with Marshall’s commentary. I bought the DVD because I didn’t really want more of this film.

I really liked the first issue of this new color series, and I was curious to see where Ted Naifeh would go in Courtney Crumrin #2. He took us in a direction I didn’t expect, by flashing back to many of the same events of issue #1, but this time showing them from the perspective of Holly, the new girl. (Note, even, that the covers are something of a reversal to each other in positions and facings.)

You might fear this would seem repetitive, but it’s not. Instead, it deepens both the new personality and the world she and Courtney inhabit. Instead of simply being a new antagonist for the title character, Holly now has her own motivations and desires. Some of her actions, cast as villainy in the first issue, are more understandable and even relatable.

It also supports what I’ve seen as the theme of this series, the idea that perception matters. What seems wrong or bad might not be when you understand more about the choices behind the decisions or when you take the perspective of someone unlike you. It’s an argument for tolerance, basically. Even monsters can be understandable, and people on opposite “sides” may have a lot in common.

Specifically, we see just how much Holly is like Courtney — only a younger Courtney. Holly needs to learn some of the same lessons, and Courtney simply saying, “Don’t do that” isn’t enough teaching. We also get to meet more of the kids Courtney took revenge on in the past. We may have been rooting for what she did, especially if we read previous stories, but we weren’t previously encouraged to think about what their lives would be like now and whether the punishment was commensurate. It’s a fascinating new take on a long-running setup that provides food for thought for new and old readers alike.

Gina Biggs, whom I’ve talked to in the past about her series Red String, has launched a Kickstarter project to publish her fairy tale comic Erstwhile.

The project has well exceeded the original goal with, at the time of writing, 23 days left to go. The main release will be a 136-page color hardcover collecting five lesser-known fairy tales. (One of which, “The Farmer’s Clever Daughter”, I previously reviewed when it was a stand-alone comic.) Another $2,000 in pledges, and two more short stories will be added to the book.

The stories are illustrated by Biggs, Louisa Roy, and Elle Skinner, and they’re told in the grimmer, more original versions. A $20 pledge will get you your own print copy in September. Higher amounts offer original art or extra comics. Or you can just read the webcomics.

Josh Neufeld, who’s been creating non-fiction comics for forever — I reviewed his travel collection A Few Perfect Hours back in 2006 — has been deservedly recognized with a journalism fellowship. He’s the first recipient of this award and only the second comics journalist to receive an American journalism fellowship of any kind.

Neufeld has been offered a 2012–2013 Knight-Wallace Fellowship in journalism at the University of Michigan, a program that, as he describes it, “gives mid-career journalists a chance to pursue customized sabbatical studies for a full academic year. The program includes twice-weekly seminars, as well as training in narrative writing, multi-platform journalism, and entrepreneurial enterprise. Fellows also make two extended international tours to Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, and Istanbul.”

Neufeld will be researching Bahrain’s Pearl Revolution, a subject he’s already written about briefly, with the aim of creating a long-form graphic novel. Neufeld most recently created A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge and has illustrated The Influencing Machine: Brooke Gladstone on the Media and Titans of Finance: True Tales of Money & Business.

But there’s more to life than money. Tom Spurgeon reminds us that the film wouldn’t exist without the contributions of many creators. His recognition of the men behind the movie provides short profiles of the comic artists and writers who came up with these characters and their team combinations.

The Bryan Hitch-drawn Ultimates served as inspiration for the movie version of the Avengers.

Tom Spurgeon also checked in with two charities benefiting from fan giving in connection with the film. The Hero Initiative has taken in almost $3000, while the Jack Kirby Museum received $1300 last week.

Meanwhile, in KC’s latest Westfield column, he praises the film for getting the blend of humor and action right. KC also looks back at some other superhero movies that weren’t quite so successful, descending instead into silly.

Urban Nomad

I enjoy Alisa Harris‘ Cooking Up Comics, so I was eager to try her minicomic series Urban Nomad.

The comics contain short pieces, moments from her life as an art student in New York City, with emphasis on the urban environment. I like the balance between the dream of being a creator in the most exciting place in the country and the reality of the struggles to survive there. Some of the incidents are widely universal — such as working in a bookstore or the depression of a cubicle job — while others are particular to the region, as when dealing with a persistent subway masher or a particularly agressive pet cat or a mice infestation. They’re not all bad — I liked the reminder of how diverse international grocery stores could be. She also talks about forming a domestic partnership and even includes a short piece on how she got into comics.

Harris’ art really appeals to me. It’s got a clean line and a great sense of movement. I wasn’t surprised to find out that she’d been an animator, since she has the flow breakdown skills that comes from that kind of work. The only suggestion I have for improvement is to include the story titles on the pages themselves. Her works flow into each other, and sometimes I only recognized the distinctions based on the table of contents.

What’s Normal Anyway?

Morgan Boecher’s webcomic What’s Normal Anyway? tackles being a trans male with jokes and observation. He’s got a good sense of humor about a very tricky subject, but the comic also works to increase awareness of what it might be like to be in such a situation. There are all kinds of little notes that can only be expressed by someone who’s been there and knows. Funny and educational, which makes for a neat discovery.

This minicomic contains the strips from the beginning through August 1, 2011, which covers Boecher’s last year of college in Florida. I don’t see a Store link on Boecher’s site, so I don’t know if he’s offering it online yet. I hope to see a sequel volume at next year’s show; in the meantime, the strip updates every Monday.

(Update: I’ve been informed that a store section should be added to the website this summer.)

As the Crow Flies

This first chapter of Melanie Gillman’s new story, about a queer black teen girl who finds herself in an all-white Christian summer camp. It’s being serialized online, but the print version has a few more pages than are up on the website so far.

This is another case where I can’t find a link to buy the minicomic online; maybe the author considers it unnecessary, or maybe the convention show and online audiences are considered different enough there’s no point in offering the same things to them, or maybe the print version exists only to have something to sell in order to make back table fees. Either way, it’s a trend I’m just noticing, and I need to talk to more creators about it. Then again, perhaps artists just don’t want to manage a mail order business.

Anyway, Gillman’s colored pencils are gorgeous and beautifully textured, while the story subject fascinates me. Charlie, our protagonist, is distinctly an outsider, and the idea of an all-girl backpacking trip is a good one to draw her differences into sharp focus while demonstrating achievement. It’s terrific to see such a female-centered story presented in such normal fashion. I want to be part of this group of characters.

I admire Gillman for taking on the question of religion as well. Many creators aren’t willing to cover it, or treat it in flat, two-dimensional ways, but that’s not the case here so far. It’s a motivating force in so many people’s lives that I welcome seeing it in comic stories.

Rockall

Rockall is an Irish island in this dialect-driven folktale by Amelia Onorato. Tommy is newly arrived to work a croft, but the widow and son of the former farmer are still living there. She’s said to be a selkie, searching for her seal skin so she can return to the sea, her home.

What we have is a charming story about the nature of small towns and outsiders. It’s plainly told, which is just what it needs, conveyed in a style that suits its characters, hardy island folk. Onorato has a good sense of black. The woman’s long black hair and dress pick her out among the panels, and other items of clothing ground the characters on the pages.

At first, I thought Tommy was going to be the typical naive youngster setting out for life on his own, but he’s got more intelligence and know-how than I gave him credit for. The series runs as a webcomic as well. It’s a wonderful story, and I look forward to seeing how it plays out.

Happy Punks

John Seven and Jana Christy, who once upon a time back in the day brought us the Very Vicky comic, are dipping toes back into the medium with this little book of Happy Punks teaching us how to barter.

It’s brightly colored, as though a children’s book for aspiring anarchists, with a cut-paper assembly look. The story is simple, as one character trades silly objects in order to get the guitar string he needs, but reassuring and pleasant, a reminder that there are more ways to get through life than selfishly.

There will be more Happy Punks coming out later this year and next, apparently, and I’ll be happy to see them. It’s being exposed to this kind of alternate world view that expands minds and keeps us young.

So Many Moons

Billage, based on his website, loves the ocean, and that feel of time spent at the shore comes through in this experiential portrait of a summer day. Pages are made up of fragments of observation and moment, scattered. I think the activity shown is called kiteboarding, but it’s not explained so much as shared. It requires some work from the reader to puzzle it out if they’re not already familiar with the activity, but once immersed, it seems fun.

I wrote about this project when it launched, but for new readers, Smut Peddler is a female-friendly porn comic anthology that will pay bonuses to the contributing creators based on eventual funding level — the more the project makes, the more the artists make. Additionally, all the stories in its over 350 pages were fully or partially created by women.

Participants include Jess Fink (Chester 5000XYV), the now Eisner Award-winning Carla Speed McNeil (Finder), EK Weaver (The less than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal), Harvey Award nominee Steve Horton (“Amala’s Blade” for Dark Horse Presents), Erika Moen (DAR!, Bucko), and many, many more! Everyone’s been paid for their work, but more money raised means more bonuses for the artists.

Since the Kickstarter launched, the project has added new pledge levels, with original art packages (pages by Amanda Lafrenais or Kel McDonald) added at $35,000 and original commissions by EK Weaver (sold out), Blue Delliquanti, Rennie Kingsley, and Carla Speed McNeil (sold out) added when it passed $40,000. At $45,000, which was reached last night, an Erika Moen book package was added, but it has since sold out as well. There’s still one special-edition limited messenger bag available, as well as three chances to be drawn on the book’s back cover. There’s also a 10-copy discount package for retailers.

You can still contribute at the Smut Peddler project page. It’s $15 for a PDF copy of the book, or $30 for a paperback. Comics Alliance has interviewed driving force Spike Trotman about her goals for the project, and Spike has herself posted advice on using Kickstarter successfully.

Dark Shadows is certainly a Tim Burton movie. It’s very deliberately paced, with more emphasis placed on the setting and props than on keeping incidents happening at a rapid clip.

It’s as though a joke became a movie. “A ghost, a witch, and a vampire walk into a soap opera…” I also felt as though I’d seen all the funny bits in the trailer, which led me to be believe it was more of a comedy than it was. My attention dragged, and I wanted to see more events that I didn’t already expect. Although I’d never seen the source show before, things seemed to play out as I could have predicted. I was looking for something that was as entertaining on its own, but this is more of a nostalgic period piece.

I most enjoyed watching the set and the costumes, since much of the film was about evoking the time period. If you enjoy “remember when people dressed that way?” and “listened to that” and had lava lamps, you seem to be in the same frame of mind as Burton and Johnny Depp.

I’ve already seen a brittle Michelle Pfeiffer in Hairspray and doomed lovers and tragic curses in everything supernatural. I would have enjoyed the movie more without the witch (Eva Green), but I suspect she’s too important to the original. At least everyone commits to their roles. Depp, in particular, is elegant and frightening and remote.

Random note: The little boy, David, played by Gulliver McGrath, looks like a baby Benedict Cumberbatch.

Young Miss Holmes Casebook 1-2

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I ordered Young Miss Holmes blind. I was hoping for a mystery manga series, since there aren’t as many of those as I’d like to read, but any time a series is promoted based on its young female lead, there is the potential for all kinds of ookiness. Thankfully, Lady Christie Hope is a charming young person with a prodigious intellect. She’s the daughter of Holmes’ sister, but her parents have left her in England while they reside in India.

She’s fascinated by her uncle’s cases, puzzling out how he makes his deductions and sometimes beating him to the punch through her own devices. She humanizes him, too, as someone who can otherwise seem chilly and remote. I particularly like it when she comes up with key information through considering the more social aspects, since that’s something she has to know better than he does. He is invited into a case by the police, for instance, but she enters the scene with a call to pay her respects after a death, as the local aristocracy is supposed to, or by serving as an appropriate companion for the daughter of the family. She can check out a young victim by cooing over a baby, while Holmes and Watson take a more formal investigation path.

Christie’s supporting cast is entertaining as well. She is sometimes accompanied by a giant hound named Nelson, sized suitably enough for her to ride him if need be. Her two housemaids, Nora and Annmarie, are opposite personalities. Annmarie is concerned with propriety, both for her charge and her fellow maid. Nora, on the other hand, is only learning to read, but she’s very street smart and skilled with a whip. Together, they fit the various sides of Lady Christie as well as serving as bodyguards. Christie also has quite the observant governess, a Grace Dunbar who admires her intelligence while teaching her softer skills.

There’s a good sense of the appropriate time period, although it’s not drawn with slavish detail. Instead, there’s a mood created of the kind of Victorian world we dream about when we read the original Sherlock Holmes stories, all gentry and estates and London streets. The dialogue flavor given to Christie supports that as well, with a formal but not unfriendly tone. I like the attention to manners and dress that gives this series its historical flavor. It’s amusing when, for example, Holmes is discussing the possibility of a woman having an affair, and Watson is turning colors at the thought of a young lady hearing about such things.

This double-sized volume, a terrific value, contains the cases of the Mazarin Stone (a missing diamond), Thor Bridge (a family murder), the Red-Headed League (theft and swindles), and the Adventure of the Dancing Men (code-breaking). I’m glad they bound up more than just the introductory book, since the series takes a little while to settle into its groove, but by the end of this volume, it’s clicking well.

Also included is “The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire”, which has been transformed into a crossover with Dance in the Vampire Bund. While the Holmes case involves a fake monster, Christie encounters a real one, as she hangs out briefly with Mina Tepes. The vampire princess and Lady Christie have a certain similarity of temperament, while Sekiko, a stocky vampire maid, provides comic relief in this, the longest story in the book. (Which I guess justifies promoting the appearance with a belly band wrapper.) There’s also a four-page epilogue drawn by Vampire Bund creator Nozomu Tamaki.

Young Miss Holmes makes me want to pull out the originals and reread them, which is my way of complimenting this volume. The stories shed new light on the classic tales, and I’d like to read more.

“Comfortable” comes from the premise. A group of British retirees can no longer afford to live in their homeland, so they all wind up in India at the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel for the Elderly and Beautiful. It’s not quite as well-appointed as the brochure makes it look, and we know going in that the group will come together through shared struggle and adjustment to the ways of this new land.

Young manager Sonny (played by the dynamic Dev Patel) is struggling to make it the residence of his dreams, so he can please his overbearing mother (Lillete Dubey) and marry the girl he loves (Tena Desae) instead of the one picked for him. This is the same storyline I have seen in every Indian-related movie I’ve ever watched, but Sonny’s optimism is wonderful and inspiring.

“Well-done” comes from the cast. Judi Dench plays a recent widow who didn’t realize how in debt they were until after her husband had passed. Bill Nighy and Penelope Wilton (who also played married in Shaun of the Dead) are a couple whose retirement fund went to their daughter’s internet business, which didn’t take off as planned. Tom Wilkinson is a former judge who doesn’t have money worries; instead, he has a secret past in India and his own reasons to return. The two others, Ronald Pickup and Celia Imrie, have similar roles as randy old people not willing to give up on love or sex.

Maggie Smith plays the most intriguing character. She needs a new hip, which she can get more quickly and cheaply overseas. She also happens to be virulently racist. Many people have grandparents like this, people who want to return to a time where everyone around them looked like them, instead of the more diverse world we have now. Her bigotry is a mask for her discomfort at feeling left out of today’s world. She spent her life in service, giving up her own chance at a family in favor of helping another that then cast her aside when she was no longer useful. Smith does a good job handling a difficult role, and her character is the most three-dimensional as a result.

Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, and Bill Nighy in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

“Thought-provoking” are the points the film raises about the place of the elderly in Western society. It’s clear that there’s no role left for these people just because they hit a certain number of years. They’re discards, but even though society doesn’t want them, they still have desires, even if it’s simply not being ready to be done yet. It’s rare to see so much age on screen, with characters that are more than simple comic relief.

There’s a certain amount of “I did everything I was supposed to, why am I struggling in my golden years?” It’s a tough question, and one we’re going to see more and more of, as pensions disappear and individuals are made responsible for their own retirements. The safety net is gone. Yet the movie is quietly humorous about the situations, keeping a positive thought. I particularly liked Dench’s clever solution and her willingness to try new things, plus that she becomes a blogger. She even goes relatively native in dress, as shown in the picture above. I was reminded how new experiences and new worlds keep us young.

The country is described by one character as an “assault on the senses… a riot of noise and color”, and seeing the life there is another enjoyable part of the film, particularly with the unique historical relationship between England and India.

An early statement made by Patel’s character sums up the underlying optimism. He says, “Everything will be all right in the end, so if it is not all right, it is not yet the end.” There’s always more to life. There’s also a built-in audience for this film, if they find it. If you’re lucky enough to still have your parents, take them. I bet they’ll enjoy it.

I’m also hoping to get a chance to catch up on some manga series I’m behind on, since Viz is bringing out new volumes of The Story of Saiunkoku (Volume 7, $9.99) and Ai Ore (Volume 5, $9.99).

Those interested in comic media mentions might find the timing of the new printing of The Pro (Image Comics, $7.99) coincidentally beneficial. In last week’s Entertainment Weekly, the cover story was a roundtable interview with the stars of The Avengers. The only comic prominently plugged was The Pro, as Samuel L. Jackson recommended this story of a superpowered hooker.

Here are two capsule reviews of other titles due out in comic shops tomorrow. (Publishers provided review copies.)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9 #9

script by Andrew Chambliss & Scott Allie
pencils by Cliff Richards
inks by Andy Owens
Dark Horse, $2.99

I was trying to tell a friend how and why I was enjoying reading this series, and describing events so far made it sound very goofy, but it’s in keeping with the best days of the source TV show. The combination of ridiculous science fiction/fantasy expectations with pointed and powerful emotional reactions is what made Buffy so much fun to watch and so involving to follow. Here, there’s a Buffybot, geekboy Andrew, and Spike with his spaceship full of talking bugs all chasing after a kidnapped member of the Scooby gang who’s suffering amnesia.

Aside from the “what happens next?” and “how do they get out of *this* one?” impulses, there’s also an intriguing theme of Slayer jealousy, with one of the others determined to take her revenge on Buffy for doing it wrong. How like this series, to cast typical human reactions in such over-the-top terms, making them all the more dramatic and yet keeping the feelings relatable.

The art does a nice job of balancing likenesses with story flow. The characters look like they “should” while not resembling photographs too often; they have a good sense of movement. Plus, you know, monsters and fighting.

This is the kind of story I like to see in comics, one that brings an identity crisis to attention in larger-than-life fashion with imaginative elements.

Trio #1

by John Byrne
IDW Publishing, $3.99

I guess you really can make superheroes out of anything, as the three here are called Rock, Paper, and Scissors. (Scissors’ blades for hands strike me as immensely impractical, but they’re only temporary.) Byrne’s oddly flat cover shows the three and their powers, which are demonstrated in more detail in the big fight scene that opens the issue.

I found the captions overwritten, but fans will likely find this a welcome throwback to the classic comics where they first became “Byrne victims”. That’s the audience this is aimed at, after all. In the same tradition, some of the dialogue tells us what we’re looking at, just in case we needed the help. It’s a shame that the computerized coloring used on Rock (he’s got a texture insert to look like stone) is out of keeping with that mood and approach; I found it visually distracting.

One of the heroes is in danger, but we know so little about them in this first issue that it’s hard to care much. We’re told, not shown, the impact of several moments meant to raise emotions in the reader. I instead found the incidents flat, much like the cover. But I’m not the audience for this one.

It nicely contrasts what kids may want and the many options available to comic readers today with the traditional comic market. About the only thing in the strip that’s not typical of attitudes is that the pudgy guy is the one looking for new products while the academic-looking older bearded guy is the one standing up for the way things usually work out. But if we didn’t love comics so much, we wouldn’t kid them this way.

Good going, Dark Horse. As they did last year, they’re releasing their Free Comic Book Day issues digitally.

If you’re curious to read the Star Wars, Serenity, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or The Guild stories — I liked the Buffy/Guild issue — then you can get them from Dark Horse Digital. These are free downloads available through the end of May.

I hope John will forgive me for excerpting so much of his post in this following paragraph, but he makes some compelling points:

I’m assuming Marvel made these changes because they were uncomfortable with the idea of young kids coming to FCBD and walking out with copies of a comic where a super-heroine is stripped naked; thrown down on a cold, hard floor; and interrogated by two creepy male super-villains. Which makes you wonder why the scene was written as it was in the first place: What exactly is gained by removing the heroine’s costume (other than creepy fan-service)?

Or if you argue that the nudity is integral to the scene as originally written (because of course bad guys would strip-search any hero they capture to make sure they don’t have any tracking devices or other gadgets embedded in their costumes — happens all the time whenever the Wizard captures the Human Torch, for example), then perhaps this particular comic wasn’t the best for Marvel to pick for FCBD. Why not something that would be appropriate for all ages, such as an issue of the old Marvel Adventures: The Avengers series, or a brand-new story from the just-launched The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes cartoon tie-in?

John also suggests one possible fix for the problem that makes his point well.

Today, Marvel Entertainment, one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies, announced it will exclusively distribute single-issue English-language digital comics worldwide with comiXology, the largest digital comics platform.

I think it’s fair now to call comiXology the new Diamond, since it’s locked up Marvel and DC digital issues. While some publishers — Top Shelf and Archie come immediately to mind — follow a strategy of making their publications available on any and every platform, more seem interested in not dealing with the diversity of formats. (Unless they’re Dark Horse, who’s rolled their own strategy and seems to be doing quite well with it.) Handing those details off to a specialized partner makes sense. I had previously noted that some publishers were backing away from exclusivity, but now I think that digital distributors that aren’t comiXology have tough times ahead. Graphicly already saw the light and left the business.

The press release continued:

“As the industry leader, Marvel is committed to growing the comics market through digital innovation, and bolstering our existing partnership with comiXology continues that,” explained Peter Phillips, SVP & General Manager, Marvel Digital Media.

Marvel fans will enjoy continued access to single-issue digital comics via the Marvel apps available for Apple iOS and Android, as well as the new web-based Marvel Comics Shop, all powered by comiXology. Marvel comics can also be found on the comiXology platform available on Apple iOS, Android, Kindle Fire, and comixology.com. In addition, starting today, Marvel’s digital comics will be available through comiXology’s Digital Storefronts for brick-and-mortar retailers.

Note that this means that retailers participating in Diamond’s official digital comic platform will not be able to offer Marvel any time soon.

• Highest-grossing domestic debut of all time (beating out the previous winner, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2)
• Fastest movie to reach $200 million domestically
• Friday’s $80.5 million is the second highest single day take of all time
• Saturday’s box office of $69.7 million is the highest Saturday take of all time; it also set a record for biggest Sunday
• Biggest opening weekend of all time in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, Central America, Bolivia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Philippines

Audience members really liked the movie, giving it an A+ CinemaScore. ICv2 points out that 40% of the audience was women, which “means that the movie was seen by a very large number of females.” The film cost $220 million, the most expensive Marvel Studios movie so far. I found this final line of the press release particularly telling:

Marvel’s The Avengers is the first Marvel Studios film to be marketed and distributed by The Walt Disney Studios.

Are they saying “we know how to do it best”? Or is this a way to make marketing feel better after they took some of the blame for the failure of John Carter?

Sleaze Castle Etcetera

What an exciting discovery! AAM Markosia is bringing out a reprint of one of my favorite indy comic series from the late 1990s. Sleaze Castle Etcetera: The inComplete Final Cut ($49.99, MAY12 0787, due July) is almost 500 pages, reprinting the four director’s cut volumes and Petra Etcetera by Dave McKinnon, Adrian Kermode, and Terry Wiley. It’s an oddly intriguing combination of slice-of-university-life comics starring Jo, a pop culture student, and science fiction with her friend Panda, who’s royalty from another universe. I loved this series, and I have fond hopes that this giant reprint means the slight possibility of more comics sometime in the future. Forbidden Planet has more details and sample art, showing how fun this series could be.

Also coming back into print is the first volume of Mark Oakley’s Thieves & Kings, this time in hardcover from Archaia ($24.95, MAY12 0840, due September). This fantasy story will fit right in with that publisher’s line.

Harker: The Book of Solomon

Looks like Harker, the British mystery comic I reviewed a couple of years ago, is getting a collected edition from Titan Books ($19.95, MAY12 1287, due July). The Book of Solomon reprints the first four issues.

I’ve already talked about the Scott Pilgrim color hardcover (Oni, $24.99, MAY12 1234, due August 8) and Muppets #1 (Marvel, $2.99, MAY12 0704, due July 4).

Snarky Comments

There is not a single female-led comic issue coming from Archie Comics this month. The only series they still have appear to be Archie, Jughead, and Kevin Keller.

We’re starting to see sentences in the DC section of Previews that should never be appearing, of the form “the new 52 debut of (old character name)”. If this reboot was truly an excuse to tell new stories, then we shouldn’t be seeing such reintroductions. That kind of promo only makes sense to old readers — but they’re the ones still reading the Previews catalog, I guess.

It could be worse — we could be seeing more use of old DC trademarks as new character names, as is happening in Batgirl, with the introduction of the villain Knightfall.

Then again, if new character names are along the lines of Bleez, Atrocitus, and Abysmus, all Red Lanterns, maybe it’s better to stick with the old classics.

When did it become a thing to call collections of entire runs of short-lived series “Volume 1″, as they’re doing with Hawk & Dove? Why does a book sufficient in itself need a volume number?

If IDW is promoting “creator-owned favorites”, then I’d think it would make more sense to actually list the creators’ names, instead of just the title, format, price, and ISBN (which doesn’t make sense in the comic market anyway). Image did the same thing, only without the ISBN. Either way, if your sales pitch is “creator-owned”, then name the creators!

It seems that the academic publishers have discovered the Previews audience, as there are a number of similar-sounding collections of critical essays in the Books section, most at $40 or more for 200+-page volumes. And I bet most don’t have many pictures at all.

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to make it to Velocity Comics, since they’re located two blocks from where the President of the United States was speaking, so the major roads in that area were closed. I’m told they’re having a sale today to make up for it, so locals may want to visit them to share the love.

I was able to find most everything I was looking for, with these exceptions. Although I already have a copy, I didn’t see the Archaia giveaway hardcover anywhere. The one shop I knew well enough to ask had given them away quickly, with all of them gone before I got there. I’m not sure the other two ordered any or put them out, or they may also have given them away first. I also didn’t see any copies of the Valiant relaunch sampler or Oni’s Bad Medicine launch. The Top Shelf Kids Club book, meanwhile, is coming via mail order.

Now that I’ve had a chance to read the comics, I was a bit disappointed by the number that are simply teasers or promote works not yet available. The DC Superman Family Adventures, for example, was five pages introducing a character, Superman, that everyone is already familiar with. I guess they figure that might not be true of the youngest readers, but to me, it felt like a waste. Especially since I’d already seen the promo used in the other DC Nation kids’ books.

I know, I’m not the target audience, but I’m beginning to be more sympathetic to those who denigrate FCBD material as lame advertisements. I suspect publishers don’t want to pump any more money into the event than they have to, but a full story gives a better taste than a segment or worse, a pinup ad page. (Yes, I’m disappointed that the promised Archie preview of the New Crusaders in the Mega Man comic turned out to be just that.) But when Capstone, for example, makes a big deal out of a “free!!” copy of two stories that end “find out what happens next in this book coming in August”, that’s a bit frustrating.

That’s a side effect of the flipbook structure that so many publishers used this year. The stories are short, and we know that shorter stories are harder to make satisfying. That’s especially disappointing for readers who aren’t interested in both properties.

Then there are the time frames involved between now and the release of the works being promoted. Yen Press’ Infernal Devices ships in October. Image 20 had introductions to stories that won’t be available until September, August, and July. The Drawn & Quarterly Moomin story continues in a book out in September.

Wow, I’m being more negative than I expected. Let me sum up this way: the appeal of FCBD to me was the event, traveling with friends and visiting the shops. The books are, in a way, secondary. I know too much about them already. (As pointed out to me by one unfriendly store worker who didn’t seem to like that I was asking for stuff beyond the DC/Marvel/big brand titles.)

That said, here’s what I enjoyed most from my reading (beyond what I’ve already talked about):

* I don’t get Adventure Time, but Lucy Knisley’s story in the Boom! sampler was cute, about trying to fix a load of laundry colored by a red sock.

* Evan Dorkin and Sarah Dyer contribute a piece featuring Super Robot Martian Girl fighting a robot recycler to Oni’s Yo Gabba Gabba! comic.

* The Carl Barks Donald Duck stories from Fantagraphics were, of course, funny and terrificly cartooned.

* Papercutz’s Smurfs/Tinker Bell book contained some one-page Dance Class stories. They really brought back memories of childhood ballet lessons. I’d read more of these, and I think the books have a built-in audience, if the potential readers know about them and can find them.

* The Fantagraphics Barnaby and Mr. O’Malley pulls the “to be continued” trick, but what was here was greatly entertaining, with Crockett Johnson’s little boy, his cigar-chomping Fairy Godmother, and a ghost named Gus who sleeps in a laundry basket investigating a local haunted house, which turns out to be related to coffee smugglers. (It was wartime, and coffee was apparently restricted.)

Oh, and I did buy a comic — a copy of the CrossGen Sampler, signed. It was in a dollar box, and it made me giggle, so I bought it as a momento of when the publisher was just starting out. The signatures include Barbara Kesel, Ron Marz, Brandon Peterson, and more I can’t make out.

Also, the day ended wonderfully, as I had a fabulous time seeing the Avengers movie. What a great note to end on! It was entertaining, a real thrill-ride, and I particularly appreciated how much humor there was, even in the fight scenes. I don’t care for one of Joss Whedon’s recurring tricks that cropped up here, but I was surprised how much I liked Mark Ruffalo’s portrayal of the Hulk. Although I didn’t care for The Incredible Hulk, with Ruffalo in the role, I’d enjoy seeing a new Hulk movie. I also like Alan Sepinwall’s idea (warning: spoilers at that post) of wanting to see “Marvel Team-Up”-style films.

I’d like to read comics with this group of characters, but as tends to happen after seeing a Marvel movie, there doesn’t seem to be a comic book available with this approach to this group of characters. I guess print just can’t capture the appeal of Robert Downey Jr.’s sarcastic Tony Stark or Chris Evans’ upstanding Captain America or Chris Hemsworth’s attractive Thor.

In the latest episode, “Ripple of Hope“, her assistant Leo (Baron Vaughn) has a friend Ashley (Laci J. Mailey) who created “XX Chromo”, a “girl superhero” whose first issue “sold 36,000 copies in a week”. Unfortunately, Ashley did it work for hire and got paid $700. Leo brings his friend to the law firm to help her get the rights he thinks she deserves.

Her character name is Ashley Woods, which I guess means the show writers didn’t know of the existing comic artist Ashley Wood. The prop was mocked up as a comic book, but we think it was meant to be a graphic novel, since Leo refers to it that way later, and the sales numbers would be more impressive that way. The publisher is Wonderbomb Media, hee hee.

I was impressed to see that creator rights are now a mainstream enough issue to feature on a TV show like this one. (It’s only the B story, though — the main plot involves a hunger strike at a women’s prison.) They cite how the Superman creators signed away all their rights but later “got some of them back”, using that as a foundation for their legal research.

The case turns on the idea that if you sign away your termination rights, which is not legal to do, that can void the contract. Leo also brings up the definition of work for hire as “a contribution to a collective work” “specially ordered or commissioned”. Since, in this case, the woman created the comic and brought it to the publisher, it fails those first two tests. They offer to settle by giving her 10% of any comic featuring her character in future.

The tagline of the comic is “What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?” There’s also comment about how comics get movie deals. Strangely, there’s no mention of an artist in all this. They note several times that Ashley wrote the comic, but they don’t say whether she drew it or someone else did. Since she’s shown with colorfully streaked hair and punky clothes, they may be implying she’s the artist through the visuals.