- In this week's Quick Hits column, James K. wrote about iZombie, Bree R. reviewed UFOlogy V2, and Rob M. looked back on 2005's Capote in Kansas.
- Rob M. explored the Jim Henson-focused book Humble Bundle that's currently running.
- Rob M. dug into Greg Sadowski's book about Basil Wolverton.
- The busy bee this week, Rob M. also looked at the anthology High Water.
- Mark D. reviewed the first book of the webcomic Wart.
- Guy T. interviewed Rachel Dukes about Frankie Comics #4.
- Rob M. continued the week with a look at King: Jungle Jim #1-4.
- James K. reviewed the series We Can Never Go Home Again.
** At Medium, Whit Taylor has a comic up with her initial thoughts about Rachel Dolezal.
** Rob Kirby has a preview of the anthology What's Your Sign, Girl?, including a page from his story in that book.
** It was a great week for interviews with great cartoonists.
- Rolling Stone talks to Alison Bechdel.
- Comics Tavern has 10 Questions with Joe Matt.
- BluesGR gets Gary Panter to answer some questions.
- Newsarama talks to Kieron Dwyer about his return to comics.
** To keep the themed bullet points going, it was also a week to discuss comics and money.
- Big Planet Comics explains how to make money on mini comics.
- New site SKTCHD surveyed 186 comic creators to find out what everyday life for them is like. It covers a wide range of topics from their gender/identified gender, their income, their experience with publishers and how they work- digitally or traditionally?
- The Beat jumped on this piece and tried to parse out what a lot of this information meant, including the fact that almost half of the respondents made less than $12,000 a year from their comic work and that almost 60% said that they don't make enough from comics for it to be their sole occupation.
- In a separate but related piece, Kieron Gillen responds to an online think piece that speculates that The Wicked + The Divine may be in trouble. Or it may not be. I'm not too sure what point the piece he's responding to is trying to make. Gillian's response talks a lot about the realities of the current Image model.
- And like they always do, The Beat used Gillen's piece as a jumping off point to take a look at Images sales to try to determine what success there actually looks like.
- With all of that going on, Comics Alliance looks at a recent Publisher's Weekly survey that shows that the number of women buying comics continues to grow for a second straight year.
** Lettering Legend Todd Klein writes about a recent visit he had with fellow Lettering Legend John Workman, including this wonderful story about how Workman got his first job at DC Comics.
John also recounted how his being hired by DC Comics in 1975 was due to his mumbling, a funny tale. John and his friend and fellow artist Bob Smith came to New York in 1975 looking to get work in comics. Larry Hama got them in the door at Marvel, and they managed to get an appointment with Gerry Conway, then an editor at DC. They had already met a few folks who worked at DC, and while they were in the reception area waiting, Bob Rozakis, one of those people, came by and asked who they were there to see. John mumbled “Conway,” and Bob replied, “Oh, he’s not busy, I’ll take you in.” As Workman and Smith followed Rozakis down the hall, John realized they were going PAST Conway’s office and a few minutes later, they were being introduced to Carmine Infantino, then the DC publisher, and an artistic hero of both visitors. John’s mumble had been heard as “Carmine...”** Matt Wagner reminisces about the time that he was asked to finish a Harvey Kurtzman adaptation of a Ray Bradbury comic over at CBR.
Harvey Kurtzman's rough layouts |
Matt Wagner's finished comic panels |
** The San Diego Comicon announces some new rules and regulations for the modern age, including the prohibition of drones on the premises. This is what we've come to as a society- we have to tell you when you can and can't use drones. I never thought I'd live this long.