Author: Andrew Wheeler

COMICS LINKS: Felt Typewriters

COMICS LINKS: Felt Typewriters

  • News
  • August 30, 2007

Today, our illustration is of a felt replica of an Underwood typewriter, simply because dogged persistence in the pursuit of idiosyncratic ends should always be celebrated. That is really impressive.

 

Comics Links

Comic Book Resources has a Bizarro talk with Geoff Johns.

CBR also chatted with ComicMix‘s own Mike Baron, whose character The Badger will be returning soon from IDW. ("Lawyers? I hate lawyers!")

Comics Reporter runs down the reactions to the news that Berkley Breathed’s strip Opus has been dropped from a number of papers for two Sundays for religious intolerance and making the wrong kind of jokes.

Newsarama has another article in their ongoing series about stuff they love, “I (heart) comics.” Has anyone told them that the heart icon doesn’t come through in feeds – and not always on their page as well – so it looks like they’re saying “I slash team books?” And do they understand the significance of slash?

Comics Reviews

The Book Nerd reviews Linda Medley’s graphic novel Castle Waiting.

The Tri-City News loves itself some Scott Pilgrim.

Blogcritics reviews The Poison Diaries by Jane, Duchess of Northumberland & Colin Stimpson.

SF/Fantasy Links

Here’s an official report on the Chengdu International SF/Fantasy Conference, and here’s Neil Gaiman’s personal report.

Ellen Kushner has arrived in Japan for Worldcon.

And so has Patrick Nielsen Hayden.

(Further links, I hope, as more people arrive in Japan and start posting.)

SF Diplomat circles back to the subject of Fantasy (which he still hates). You know, I could read one or two romance novels, loathe them, and then create a huge, unwieldy critical apparatus too, but…I have better things to do with my time. (He gets hammered in the comments quite comprehensively on similar grounds.)

John Joseph Adams’s upcoming anthology Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse has a website.

Niall Harrison of Torque Control has some notes from an evening with William Gibson.

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COMICS LINKS: Happy Birthday, Jack Kirby!

COMICS LINKS: Happy Birthday, Jack Kirby!

Comics Links

The New York Times notes what would have been Jack Kirby’s 90th birthday. (And, in honor of that, a random odd Kirby drawing is our illustration today – a stamp with a Kirby Silver Surfer.)

The Beat digs into Marvel’s sales figures for the month of July.

Blogcritics interviews Mike Carey about his first novel The Devil You Know.

Kaplan is publishing graphic novels with deliberately difficult words (including definitions), reports Bloomberg. I can’t fault the idea, but I suspect teenagers aren’t looking to learn vocabulary words from their pleasure reading.

Wizard interviews Mike Mignola about the Hellboy 2 movie.

Publishers Weekly talked to Kyle Baker about his new series Special Forces.

Comics Reporter covers the recent episode of Anthony Bourdain’s TV show No Reservations set in Cleveland, in which Harvey Pekar played a large part.

Panel and Pixel has a collection of stories about how not to break into comics.

San Francisco Bay Guardian talks to Kyle Baker.

Kevin Melrose at Newsarama lists what looks like everything coming out this week. (If you buy all of it, I bet Steve Geppi will come and personally thank you.)

Comics Reviews

Eddie Campbell reviews Clare Briggs’s Oh Skin-nay! The Days of Real Sport.

Wizard reviews Tangent Comics Volume One and The Complete Bite Club.

Blogcritics reviews Good As Lilly by Derek Kirk Kim and Jesse Hamm.

The Boston Globe reviews Gilbert Hernandez’s Human Diastrophism.

Augie De Blieck, Jr. of Comic Book Resources reviews two recent Fantastic Four comics, one of which he loved and one of which he didn’t.

Comic Book Bin reviews XXX Scumbag Party by Johnny Ryan.

Punked Noodle reviews Osamu Tezuka’s Ode to Kirihito.

Eye on Comics digs up a copy of X-Men #121 at a flea market.

At The Savage Critics, Graeme MacMillan reviews Batman #668 and others.

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COMICS LINKS: Completely Random

COMICS LINKS: Completely Random

  • News
  • August 28, 2007

Comics Links

Eddie Campbell tries to define what a graphic novel is. (Illustration of Campbell deep in thought by Campbell.)

The LA Times has an article about the webcomic A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge.

Publishers Weekly interviews Satoru Kannagi, writer of Only the Ring Finger Knows.

PW also reports on the massive Japanese convention Comiket.

Comic Book Galaxy interviews the always-sunny Harvey Pekar.

Comics Should Be Good takes their usual monthly look at Marvel’s December covers.

Newsarama talks with the creators of Punks: the Comic.

Comic Bloc interviews Mike Baron.

The CBC interviews For Better or Worse cartoonist Lynn Johnston.

Comics Reviews

Dana of Comics Fodder reviews this week’s Marvel comics.

Sequart’s Rob Clough reviews three volumes of Graphic Classics.

Sequential Tart reviews the new The Spirit comic.

Reviews from The Savage Critics:

 

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COMICS LINKS: Monday Again

COMICS LINKS: Monday Again

  • News
  • August 27, 2007

No links came with obvious top-of-the-post illustrations today, so, instead, let’s focus on the Monday-ness of today, and think demotivation.

Comics Links

Comic Book Resources looks at webcartoonists at Wizard World Chicago.

Wizard talks to Avatar Press artist Jacen Burroughs.

Comic Book Resources interviews Hugh Sterbakov, writer of Freshmen.

CBR also chats with artist Adrian Alphona, soon to take over Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane.

Comics Reporter interviews Comic-Con Director of Marketing and Public Relations David Glanzer.

Newsarama has the second half of an interview with Douglas Wolk, author of Reading Comics.

The New York Times’s Paper Cuts blog interviews cartoonist Dan Clowes.

Comics Reviews

The Joplin Independent reviews Modern Masters, Vol. 7: John Byrne.

Blogcritics reviews The Architect by Mike Baron and Andie Tong.

Comics Reporter reviews Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow.

Brian Cronin at Comics Should Be Good reviews Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #23.

Living Between Wednesdays reviews this weeks’ comics, starting with The Immortal Iron Fist #8.

Graeme McMillan of The Savage Critics reviews Battlestar Galactica: Season Zero #1.

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COMICS LINKS: Play Ball!

COMICS LINKS: Play Ball!

  • News
  • August 24, 2007

Comics Links

Newsarama has discovered the exisitence of Triple-A Baseball Heroes, in which Marvel superheroes apparently battle villainy in tandem with minor-league team mascots. (The cover is our illustration today.)

Comics Reviews

Ain’t It Cool News reviews a pile of recent comics, starting with the Booster Gold relaunch.

CHUD’s Thor’s Comic Column presents reviews of comics by several people, none of whom are actually named Thor.

Comic Book Resources’s Hannibal Tatu reviews a pile of this week’s comics.

Comics Reporter reviews Hurricane Season #1.

The Daily Cross Hatch reviews Fletcher Hanks’s I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets.

Comics Worth Reading reviews To Terra by Keiko Takemiya.

Chris’s Invincible Super-Blog covers this week’s comics.

Greg Burgas of Comics Should Be Good also reviews this week’s comics.

Comics Should Be Good’s Brian Cronin looks at the first issue of the second series of Mouse Guard.

SF/Fantasy Links

What is Star Wars were a musical? Let’s Blow This Thing! might just be the result. [via Extra Life]

Locus Online lists the new books that they saw in mid-August.

Jeff Somers’s new book The Electric Church now has its own website.

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COMICS LINKS: Definitely Not Kansas

COMICS LINKS: Definitely Not Kansas

  • News
  • August 23, 2007

Comics Links

Variety reports that Todd McFarlane’s toy-based re-imagining of The Wizard of Oz is being developed as a movie. (See all the toys here; everyone else went with Dorothy as the obvious illo, but I thought his vision of Toto was just as bad, but even weirder.)

Mark Evanier writes about Robert Kanigher and his Metal Men.

Nick Bertozzi has posted the proposal he and James Sturm put together in 2003 for a graphic novel adaptation of a screenplay called The Black Diamond Detective Agency. (The owners of the property ended up giving it to Eddie Campbell to turn into a GN, which came out earlier this year.)

Jayme Lynn Blaschke visits Metropolis, Illinois, and takes pictures of all of the Superman stuff there.

Comics Should Be Good casts their usual beady eye on DC’s November covers.

Occasional Superheroine believes everything is wrong with DC Comics, and explains their problems in great detail.

The Elmira Star-Gazette is happy to see the new comic based on a video game, Halo: Uprising.

Dick May or May Not Read Your Blog begins an odd, quixotic series on the career of Rob Liefeld with a long post about his work on Hawk & Dove.

 

Comics Reviews 

Wizard reviews Mike Allred’s Madman, Vol. 1 and Marvel’s X-23: Target X.

Comics Reporter reviews a mini-comic called Click by Sara Ryan.

Jog of The Savage Critics looks at Bill Jemas’s reign at Marvel, the “progressive” era, Igor Kordey, and, finally, the first eight issues of Soldier X.

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COMIC LINKS: Astro Boy Goes West!

COMIC LINKS: Astro Boy Goes West!

  • News
  • August 22, 2007

Comics Links

Toon Zone asks Philip Brophy to explain to them how wonderful Osamu Tezuka is, in connection with an exhibition of Tezuka’s work now in San Francisco.

The Beat has a whole load of Toronto Comic Arts Festival photos.

The International Herald Tribune looks at the recent increase in graphic novel publishing in the UK.

The Seattle Times takes a look at DC Comics’s new Minx line.

Scott Shaw! explains how, once upon a time, Archie met the Punisher. (It was the ‘90s – that kind of thing happened a lot.)

Comics Reviews

Comics Reporter reviews World War Hulk #3 and Booster Gold #1.

Boston Now reviews the graphic novel Re-Gifters by Mike Carey, Sonny Liew, and Marc Hempel.

SF/Fantasy Links

Paul McAuley explains why he writes short stories (and it’s certainly not the money).

Edward Champion is not happy – at great length – with Adam Gopnik’s recent profile of Philip K. Dick in the New Yorker.

Tor Books will be podcasting from Worldcon, with commentary from Tom Doherty and Patrick Nielsen Hayden.

John Klima lists some of the major SF/Fantasy short-fiction outlets (for ease in supporting them).

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Today’s Hot Comics Links

Today’s Hot Comics Links

  • News
  • August 21, 2007

Comics Links

Suspension of Disbelief (which I haven’t seen updated much lately, so I hope it’s back) looks at Spirit #5, and that old bad-plotting standby, beating a guy until he signs a contract/confession/whatever.

Think the San Diego Comic-Con is big? It’s only the third largest comics gathering in the world – and number one is Japan’s Comiket, held twice a year in Tokyo. This past weekend, about 550,000 people were there.

Forbidden Planet International reports on graphic novels at the recent Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Publishers Weekly reports on the recent land-rush business in movie rights for graphic novels.

Newsarama rounds up and comments on a bunch of stories about DC comics’s Zuda project.

Canada’s National Post reports on the Toronto Comic Arts Festival.

The Chicago Tribune talks to Douglas Wolk about whether comics are getting any respect.

The LA Times has noticed that some comics have been “slabbed” by CGC. Once again, the mainstream press runs about a decade behind events in the comics world…

Comics Reviews

Graeme McMillan of The Savage Critics admits that he’s a latecomer to Ultimate Spider-Man, but he likes #112.

Comics Reporter reviews an anthology comic from a few years back, Reactor Girl #6.

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Metal Men, Naruto, and Other Unfathomable Things

Metal Men, Naruto, and Other Unfathomable Things

  • News
  • August 20, 2007

Comics Links

Comic Book Resources looks back at the long, odd history of the Metal Men.

The Toronto Star reports on a Toronto Comic Arts Festival presentation on four wordless graphic novels from the early 20th century.

If you’re like me, and spent much of the weekend in the company of kids watching a Naruto marathon, you might also find this Paul Gravette lecture about Naruto to be useful in explaining what the heck it all is about.

Comics Should Be Good takes a look at all of Image Comics’s October covers.

Mike Sterling discovers that if you stare at a poster of Superman’s funeral long enough, the abyss also gazes into you.

Comics Reviews

Comics Reporter reviews Rian Hughes’s Yesterday’s Tomorrows.

The New York Times reviews Emily Flake’s These Things Ain’t Gonna Smoke Themselves and Jessica Bruder’s Burning Book.

Warren Peace Sings The Blues reviews Whiteout by Rucka and Lieber.

SF/Fantasy Links

Douglas Cohen responds to comments and criticisms of his drive to increase subscriptions for print SF/Fantasy magazines.

Irene Gallo of The Art Department showcases Jon Foster’s covers for Timothy Zahn’s “Dragonback” series.

The Hugo Awards now have a website of their own – just in time for this year’s awards, which will be announced at Nippon 2007 in less than two weeks.

The UK SF Book News Network lists all of the newly-published books that they’ve received in the last three weeks.

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Women Spotted at Comics Convention

Women Spotted at Comics Convention

  • News
  • August 18, 2007

Comics Links

Comic Book Resources investigates the existence of women – often attractive women, some of whom actually read comics – at comics conventions. Astonishing! (Illustration: one of those elusive “real women.”)

A long 1977 New York Times article about Harvey Kurtzman and Mad magazine has been posted by Mike Lynch. [via Mark Evanier, who had some comments on it]

The Times (of London) checks in with Cam Kennedy and lan Grant about their in-the-works graphic novel adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.

Mark Trail likes squirrels. [via the Comics Curmudgeon]

Kleefeld on Comics posts scans from the mid-70s Mighty Marvel Comics Strength and Fitness Book. [via everyone else blogging about comics, basically]

Comics Reviews

Bookgasm reviews the second trade paperback collecting the DC series 52.

Richard of Forbidden Planet International reviews The Other Side.

Eddie Campbell reviews Robert C. Harvey’s biography of Milton Caniff.

Dana of Comics Fodder reviews this week’s Marvel comics.

Greg Burgas of Comics Should Be Good does that one better – reviewing a pile of this week’s comics regardless of their publisher.

(more…)

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