This looks to be originating with Coliseum of Comics, a comic shop in Kissimmee, FL. Digging around their website a bit, here's an information flyer from their February 25th newsletter talking a bit about the idea behind this event.
You can find a list of participating stores, publishers and creators here.
** Always reblog Moebius, especially if it's Moebius telling you how to be like Moebius. I think this coverage of Moebius's thoughts has made the rounds a few times in the past couple of years but it's always a good reminder of a bit of the thinking that made that man a genius.
** Jeremy Bastian is putting out new Cursed Pirate Girl this year and that's a very good thing. I wrote a bit about the first volume of Cursed Pirate Girl at Newsarama a few years ago:
Beginning with his art, resembling more Victorian-era cartoons and engravings than what’s usually seen in a comic book, Bastian fills the page with ornate details and lavish drawings, creating a new and unseen environment in comics. His artwork, bursting with almost ridiculous details and little touches, invites you to accept this comic as something different, something that you need to immerse yourself in and not question. The story is about the Curse Pirate Girl taking a journey to new places to find her father and Bastian’s art pulls you into that journey into the unknown.(Yes, I'm linking to my past self.) Bastian's artwork was just beautiful and it's been far too long since we've seen any new comics from him.
** We don't usually cover comic book movie news here at Panel Patter but I was intrigued by news of Michel Rabagliati's Paul A Quebec getting adapted into a movie. Rabagliati's autobiographical comics have a real heart to them. Paul A Quebec was released in English a couple of years ago by Conundrum Press and was renamed Song of Roland. In 2012, I wrote a bit about this comic, saying:
Rabagliati finds honesty in his stories. There are plenty of truly bad ways to take a story about a death from cancer and make it some melodramatic piece about the meaningless or arbitrariness of life but Rabagliati never falls into that hole. Instead, THE SONG OF ROLAND is as much about life, Paul and Lucie’s life and Roland’s life, as it is about death. In fact, it’s probably more about life and how we accept the dying of those who mean a lot to us. Even Rabagliati’s diversion into his escapades into buying a computer that can get online (this story takes place circa 2002 or so) ends up showing us how much there is to our daily life that we may not really consider.I'm very curious to see how his comics translate into movies. If nothing else, go and by the books that Drawn and Quarterly and Conundrum Press have published. They're fantastic.
** The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is publishing a quarterly magazine, The Defender. I've already signed up for their quarterly subscription.
This is a really interesting move as there is quite a lack of printed comic magazines right now. Other than TwoMorrow's books, it's hard to find anything in print that really talks about comics. I'm just old enough that I still like print enough that this has me very excited.
And this is a great way to support CBLDF and get something in return.
** In a related note, Gilbert Hernandez's Palomar may have been pulled from a New Mexico high school library because it's accused of being "child pornography." There may be a discussion about how appropriate it is for a school library but Hernandez's Palomar stories are hardly pornographic. If anything, even with some of the wildly large chest sizes of key characters, his portrayal of children and adults in those stories is startlingly honest. Sex exists in his stories but it's never about the sex there; it's more about how sex interacts with the human condition. Of course, remembering what I was like in high school in the early days of Love and Rockets, I'll admit that Gilbert and Jaime's stories looked far more inviting to me on a more guttural and hormonal level when I wasn't prepared to be able to read those stories on anything more than a surface level.
** The week that was for the Pattering Paneleers:
- Rob K. reviewed The Treasury of Mini Comics Volume 2.
- Monday saw the gang review a number of recent European releases, including Blacksad, Pippi Won't Grow Up, Run Like Crazy, Run Like Hell, Miss Don't Touch Me and Vapor.
- On Tuesday, Emilia started to get excited for this weekend's STAPLE! show in Austin, TX.
- Wednesday is new comic day and James looked at Descender #1 and Blackcross #1.
- Thursday was Bendis Backlist day as Brianne dug into Bendis and Alex Maleev's Scarlet.
