The online programming for this year’s Cartoon Crossroads Columbus — another entry on the long list of “events I wanted to go to this year before pandemic” — starts tomorrow, October 1, and there are some great options available. The show schedule is here for your browsing pleasure, but a few things I want to highlight are: “Financial Wellness for Artists” and “Your Art Is a Business”, two financial-focused webinars (registration required) that help guides artists in dealing with the […]

I’m a long-time fan of the Perhapanauts series by Todd Dezago and Craig Rousseau. It’s a creepy, fun adventure series about monster hunters that are themselves supernatural/mythical creatures. A psychic, a ghost, a sasquatch, a mystery man, and a partially evolved Chupacabra make up a team working for the organization BEDLAM. I like this book so much I have occasionally helped at Todd and Craig’s table pitching it to passers-by. Just to be clear on my enthusiasm (and appreciation for […]

I’m jealous of Andrew. He has a bound copy of Atari Force. He had it made, of course, since the collection never appeared, and those were two separate runs anyway — the solicit was for the mini video game pack-in comics, while Andrew has the later 20-issue run collected. Anyway, fun post on memories of the series by Gerry Conway, José Luis García-López, and others, as well as how the binding was done. One of my fondest possessions is a […]

Sorry, I’m so jaded sometimes… I want to see Milestone return. This comic company, published by DC but independently run, brought necessary diversity to superhero comics from their launch in 1993 until they stopped publishing comics in 1997. Their launch titles — Hardware, Icon, Static, and Blood Syndicate — starred mostly Black characters and were written and illustrated by Black creators and other people of color. They are probably best remembered these days for a successful, award-winning cartoon series, Static […]

Tomorrow, as part of the Small Press Expo’s virtual programming — I only realized today that I would have been there this weekend in any other year — there’s a panel that I’m glad to see. Jeff Trexler, the new interim Executive Director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF), will be conducting a panel on “Comics and Contracts” at 11 Eastern on Sunday, September 13. As with the other panels, it can be viewed at the Small Press […]

It’s rare enough any established comic publisher is willing to look at portfolios these days, let alone for writers! That work is harder to judge quickly, and it’s seen as easier to be a writer than an artist, so more fans tend to give it a go, which means a smaller percentage of good stuff to find. With a stated aim “to assist aspiring comic book creators and discover new voices for future projects”, Valiant is offering portfolio reviews for […]

Do you know what a MAP policy is? A “minimum advertised price” policy requires retailers to avoid advertising a price lower than the producer dictates. They can sell the product for whatever they want, but they can’t tell people about it. Trying to control sale prices can lead to antitrust complaints, but MAP policies are legal because they are seen as trying to protect brand value. Online shopping has led to price erosion, and brick-and-mortar retailers complain they can’t compete […]