November 24, 2008 Johanna Books About Comics Leave a comment

How to Draw Stupid and Other Essentials of Cartooning

Kyle Baker’s How to Draw Stupid and Other Essentials of Cartooning is, as you might gather from the title, not your typical instruction book. 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 […]

November 22, 2008 Johanna Comic Book Films 2 comments

Spirit Promotion Continues

Thanksgiving weekend is the traditional opening of the blockbuster Christmas movie season, which means not only new films but new trailers and more promotion. The Spirit, for example, which opens on Christmas Day, has released a new poster, shown here, as well as a couple of videos. There’s a mashup video combining elements of the trailers from The Spirit, Punisher: War Zone (due December 5), and Transporter 3 (out on Wednesday). Pretty cool, with neat music. You’ll probably want to […]

November 21, 2008 Johanna NBM / Papercutz 7 comments

The Lindbergh Child

The Lindbergh Child kicks off a new series for author/artist Rick Geary. Previously, he’d released nine volumes of A Treasury of Victorian Murder; now, this book moves into a more recent era, starting “A Treasury of XXth Century Murder”. (The odd spelling of Twentieth is apparently intentional.) Based on this first case, “America’s Hero and the Crime of the Century”, these stories will feel more familiar to the modern reader. Once Charles Lindbergh flew solo across the Atlantic Ocean, he […]

November 17, 2008 Johanna IDW / Top Shelf One comment

Owly: Tiny Tales

Owly: Tiny Tales is the perfect starting point for someone interested in trying this series of charming fables. The volume collects Andy Runton’s various short stories featuring the characters, so it’s perfect for browsing or dipping into. Four of the tales — “Splashin’ Around”, “Breakin’ the Ice”, “Helping Hands”, and “In a Fix!” — were previously published as giveaway comics for Free Comic Book Day. Others appeared in convention programs or anthology collections or minicomics. Because of the various sources, […]

November 17, 2008 Johanna DCU Original Animation 3 comments

Wonder Woman Animated Movie Date Announced

The Wonder Woman animated movie will be released on March 3, 2009, from Warner Home Video. The single-disc, 75-minute movie will be available on DVD for $19.98, rated PG-13. The two-disc Special Edition ($29.98) and the Blu-ray version ($34.99) will have over three hours of additional special features, including (from the press release): Wonder Woman: A Subversive Dream — We examine why Wonder Woman is important in the grand scheme of the DC Super Heroes and how her raw strength and […]

November 16, 2008 Johanna Toon Books 2 comments

Toon Books Wave 2: Mo & Jo, Jack and the Box, Stinky

I covered the first wave of Toon Books earlier this year. Now, the second wave of books are out, and here’s what I thought. As before, they’re each $12.95 US for 32-40 pages, hardcover, aimed at grades K-2. Mo and Jo Fighting Together Forever written by Jay Lynch; art by Dean Haspiel Hilarious! Mona and Joey are squabbling siblings. Through an elegantly quick turn of events, they wind up with a super-suit that they split in half, because they sure […]

November 10, 2008 Johanna Comic News Leave a comment

2008 Isotope Award Contenders

This year’s winner of the Isotope Award For Excellence in Mini-Comics was Jonas Madden-Conner’s Ochre Ellipse. As I did last year, I thought I’d draw some attention to other worthwhile nominees. But first, some thoughts on … The Process How do you judge, from 88 minicomic submissions, just one to be recognized for excellence? I had no idea how to begin, with only two days to make a decision, so I dove in. On first reading, I made a simple […]

November 10, 2008 Johanna Comic News Leave a comment

Archie’s Message: We Stay the Same

Every month, Archie sends out its solicits. They usually try to come up with some theme to highlight some of the books. What is it for this month? The comfortable status quo. Here’s the press release, clearly targeting the older reader: Archie Comics have always inspired a sense of nostalgia in their readers. That’s because the company has always strived to keep the stories faithful to the fads and fashions of each decade in which they were published. It’s also […]

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