There have been so many shocks and surprises and the internet just can’t be broken anymore. It’s become tougher, like when you tear a phone book into pieces and eventually it just won’t rip anymore. How do you tell who’s who and what’s what in this new world out there? Don’t worry. I’m here to comfort and guide. Welcome to the world outside B@N. Welcome to Meanwhile….

How did you like that old Meanwhile last week? I think JK did a pretty damn good job of filling in for me too. Well, in honor of that post we’re going old school this week. No interview, no big stories, no graphics. Just links. Enjoy.

p.s. The interviews will be back soon for those that enjoyed them.

So, where to start? How about Civil War? I’ve been told we aren’t supposed to talk about it anymore and I guess by now you’ve heard about that whole Captain America (learn all about the real Cap at Two Guys Buying Comics) controversy in the latest issue of Frontline. The problem with not talking about Civil War is that you can’t talk about Marvel’s current output without mentioning it. As you can see in Pillock’s (Apparently, no longer just Plok) post claiming a new nickname for Marvel’s current regime (damn that’s a long read). Anyway, I prefer Chris Sims’ way of dealing with the whole Captain America problem. There are plenty of old comics that I bet you haven’t read if you aren’t enjoying a publishers current output.

Speaking of Sims and good comics. Occasionally he takes a break from the punching and kicking and posts a Relatively Serious Comics Review. This time it’s for the, apparently good, The Professor’s Daughter from First Second.

Over the past year, First Second has quickly become one of the premier graphic novel publishing houses in the industry, and I’m not just saying that because they’re nice enough to send me free comics to review, either. They are, after all, the same people who brought you Gene Yang’s Printz Award-winning American Born Chinese (the first comic ever to be nominated for a National Book Award) and Eddie Campbell’s truly phenomenal Fate of the Artist, so it really shouldn’t come as a surprise that they publish some very, very good comics.

The Beat highlights the problems at NYCC ‘07…

THE OTHER PROBLEM THIS YEAR WAS COMMUNICATION AND THE WEBSITE: Reed really needs to improve the website. A single page where you could see all the panels, like every other convention does would be a good start. There were a lot of minor, annoying snafus this year: Several panels were canceled because none of the panelists showed up because they never knew they were on panels. AA exhibitors were given pro badges instead of exhibitor badges which meant they couldn’t get to their booths. The system for who gets a pro badge needs to be rethought. Etc etc etc. These were all relatively minor problems given the size of the venture, but they need to be addressed for next time.

Whew, This takes a while to run through everything. Lets take a break and look at some nice illustrations.

Here’s Eric’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Idea. He’s the guy with the Star Wars Steampunk drawings that are all over the web.

Well crap. First Scipio folds up his blog, now we’re losing Mark Fossen too? His TGIF feature really made my Fridays. At least Jim Roeg is back. Yep, he’s back with a nice post about a little bit of everyday magic at a Bookfair in 1983. I love posts that remind me what being a comic fan is all about.

Mike Sterling works his evil blog magic and comes up with Mike’s Comic Shop…OF EEEEEEEEVIL. It’s like one of those Twilight Zone episodes where the main character wakes up and finds his nightmare is all too real.

Yeesh. Dave Sim has a blog and he brought the crazy with him. Thanks for pointing this out Lisa. Was the John Byrne forum not good enough?

One of the grandaddy of bloggers NeilAlien, posts about the business side of comics from Graphic Novels outselling the pamphlet format to Marvel’s R&D publishing machine.

It looks like a lot of retailers are getting tired of paying for Free Comic Book Day. Johanna has the story.

Personally, I’m all for comic diversity, but I think 34 silver-level titles are too many. It’s hard to be familiar enough with them all before the day to be comfortable in knowing the appropriate audience for them, and it becomes a physical problem of stocking and managing the handouts. If a book is from a little-known publisher, especially a publisher who doesn’t put much else out during the year, and it’s high-priced per issue, then what’s the point in giving away issues? Better to put the money into more copies of a more recognizable book that’s easier to convert into future sales.

Dave’s Long Box continues “Relevant Comic Week” by looking into Thunderbolts #111. He lets slip his next “theme week”.

Because really, the book is basically a Marvel version of Suicide Squad, isn’t it? And I loves me the Suicide Squad, as I will explain in excruciating and obsessive detail during the upcoming SUICIDE SQUAD WEEK!

Now, more pretty pictures. Ken Steacy has a flickr page.

I really wish Graphic Language would come back. Go flood the blog with comments so they start posting again.

I didn’t even notice that James Jean had a “cameo” in The Departed.

Here’s a cool meme courtesy of Mercury Studio. Name five comic stories that hit hard again and again.

And I guess that’s it for this week. I hope you had some fun and found something new and interesting to read among the links. If you want more links you can catch me over at my redesigned blog. I’m back doing the link thing over there again after a pretty long hiatus. See ya next time!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 6th, 2007 at 11:00 am and is filed under Meanwhile.... You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.