** It's Sunday when this this is going up but this feature here is usually a Friday thing. Let's just say it's been that kind of week.
** The Panels that were Pattered this week:
- Mark D. looked at Death Sigil #7.
- Guy T. interviewed Yeti Press's Eric Roesner.
- In a Quick Hits column, Bree R. reviewed Descender #1 and James K. caught up with Halcyon Volume 1.
- Rob M. dug into Joel Christian Gill's Strange Fruit: Uncelebrated Narratives from Black History.
- Rob M. also read and reviewed the anthology Inaction Comics 1 Productivity.
- Scott C. tried The Valiant.
- Bree R. explored Springheeled Jack.
- At his own website, Mark D. also covered Ultimate End #1, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 10 #15, Uncanny X-Men #34, Spider-Woman #7, Ninjak #3, Nova #31 and Giant-Size Little Marvel: AVX #1.
- At Comics Bulletin, James Kaplan contributed 140 character reviews of Batman #41, Captain Marvel and the Carol Corps #1, Nameless #4, Saga #29, Starve #1 and Ultimate End #2.
** It's not comics but I really appreciated Nick Allen's piece on Ebert.com called Entertaining the -ISMs. Everything that he's talking about isn't just related to movie criticism but we see this in all kinds of writing about entertainment, including comics.
Disregarding ideas like sexism & feminism in a film is a bastardization of the biological truth that human beings watch the same thing differently—a concept that makes movies worth watching, and talking about. (If we all started seeing the same movies in the exact same way, that would be a nightmare, and I would personally bomb the polar ice caps so that global warming could just finish us off already.) However, some viewers are able to see films differently by looking past elements within them (such as sexism & feminism), and can more readily accept the images of these that may or may not be in “Jurassic World” as the sum of entertainment. Anyone can dive into a film as deep as they may like, but it is very counterproductive to reject the -isms, or the different ideas within them. To do so is a privilege. Some viewers go into a movie with the same standards of simple entertainment, but their experience is compromised by the very -isms within the film. They do not always have the same luxury to be detached from the images within their entertainment.It's a good piece to read if you're at all interested in the discussions about the current climate of mass entertainment.
** The Wrap has an interview with Mike Richardson about Dark Horse's approach to their movie business. It's easy to forget that other comic companies are involved in making movies even if their approach, materials and success are vastly different than Marvel or DC's. In fact, as the article points out, Dark Horse has been in the movie business since 1992.
Does a comic’s adaptability to film or TV influence what kinds of books you publish now?
Well there’s two ways to look at it: The first is, our bottom line is we’re looking for good comics. And we do enough, see enough pitches and create enough new material that some of the projects we do that are great comics lend themselves very easily to translation into film.
At the same time, through the entertainment office, you know [SVP of production Keith Goldberg] hears and they come up with ideas that might make great comics and also great films. It’s always about the idea and who the characters are. And we do have to say we’re doing it more now than we’ve done it in the past, but we have several series that started as ideas that were then translated into comics and then into television. One of the recent things that went that route is a project called “Dark Matter,” which we’re doing on Syfy Channel. Joe Mallozzi and Paul Mullie, that was an idea they talked to Keith about as far as bringing it as a comic first, and, of course, we have a graphic novel out on the market now.
** Publishing news of the week may be that Kramers Ergot 9 is going to be something that we'll all be able to hold and cherish by next spring! Brigid Aversion at CBR has a bit more coverage about this. The talent listed on the Amazon page is a home run; Kim Deitch, Sammy Harkham, Kevin Huizenga, Renee French and Michael Deforge.
** Also from Brigid at CBR is the news of a college student and her family that want prominent comics removed from her school's courses. The student talked to a local newspaper and said:
“It was shocking,” Shultz said. “I didn’t expect to open the book and see that graphic material within. I expected Batman and Robin, not pornography.”I'm a bit surprised to see someone looking to get an associate's degree in English so eager to see books banned from the curriculum. It looks like very narrow minded action for someone seeking a degree in an art-based field.
The course was listed as a core course for Shultz, who is seeking an associate’s degree in English. She is also seeking an associate’s degree in American Sign Language.
The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has more information about these events up at their site.
** The site Street Carnage has a feature up called The Best Cartoonists in the World. It's a list that you can pick apart like any other list (for instance, that list seems very - but not exclusively- male and North American) but it's far more intriguing to think about how they categorize the cartoonists:
Each cartoonist has a P or a D next to his or her name. The P stands for Picasso and means they put the imagery over the idea. The D stands for Duchamp and means they put the idea before the art.I don't know if I understand why Peter Bagge is a Picasso while Joe Matt is a Duchamp. I also don't know if it matters.
