Friends of Lulu President Valerie D’Orazio said on her blog that the organization is currently compiling a list of women working behind the scenes in the comic industry:

A question bandied about the blogosphere a bit is, “are there enough women working within the comic book industry today?” Of course, “enough” is a pretty arbitrary sum. But you get the idea.

With all this in mind, Friends of Lulu turned to some of the biggest comic companies today to get an up-to-date and accurate list of the women on their payroll. We then broke down the jobs into some basic categories and made an alphabetical listing. (Just to be clear, this is a listing of non-comic creators working for publishers — editors, marketing people, etc.)

You can see the results here at the Friends of Lulu site.

This list is just part of our overall goal at Lulu to provide a number of useful resources relating to the topic of women in comics. We’re tackling the huge “women in comics” section next, which will provide an up-to-date list of all female comic creators.

Check out the list here. She added that they plan to make lists of female comics retailers and comics journalists/bloggers as well.

Gelf Magazine points out the similarities between a recent New Yorker comic and an old Far Side:

The artist of the more recent cartoon is Lee Lorenz, a 74-year-old former art editor of The New Yorker with several books of illustrations to his credit. Bob Mankoff, the magazine’s cartoon editor, tells Gelf that he is sure that Lorenz did not borrow inspiration from Gary Larson’s comic. “They are very similar,” he says, “but I can guarantee you that Lee Lorenz is not a guy who copies cartoons.”

Mankoff explains that the sheer volume of cartoons produced by artists means that there is often overlap of ideas. “Often in the same week different cartoonists will independently come up with identical ideas,” he says. “Other times cartoonists generate ideas that have been previously published in the magazine. This is not plagiarism; rather it is the result of very creative people developing many ideas from a few well-established, well-traveled cartoon settings.”

Gelf has both strips posted on their site; go see for yourself.

I haven’t seen a lot of discussion online about the comic book convention episode of Numb3rs that aired last Friday (esp. compared to the talk about the Simpsons comic store epsiode), so I thought I’d see if anyone was able to turn away from football or shopping long enough to check it out. What did you think?

If you missed it, CBS has the full episode up on their website. Click “Full Episode” at the top and select Numb3rs.

As I mentioned earlier this week, Kevin Melrose is out on vacation, leaving me to help Chris Mautner with this week’s Can’t Wait for Wednesday. Per the Diamond website, those of us in the United States won’t see new books until Thursday, Nov. 29 … so I guess technically this is a Can’t Wait for Thursday.

The week after Thanksgiving brings a couple of Christmas-themed stories, including Dark Horse’s It Ate Billy on Christmas storybook and Image’s Archibald Saves Christmas #1. Also on the new issue front are a new Fear Agent mini-series, Virgin’s Dan Dare and Dock Walloper series, Marvel Atlas #1 and Zombie Simon Garth #1, both from Marvel, SLG’s Gargoyles: Bad Guys spin-off and Wildstorm’s Gen13 Armageddon #1, which of course is a tie-in to the big event going on in their neck of the woods.

To see what other titles Chris Mautner and I think are worth mentioning, just keep reading. As always, let us know your choices in the comments below.

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Congratulations are due to Miriam Katin for garnering the 2008 Grand Prix de la Critique bande the French edition of her memoir We Are On Our Own. ActuaBD.com has the news (in French) as well as an interview with the author (also in French).

While I’m at it, belated congrats also to Sherman Alexie and Ellen Forney for winning a National Book Award for young people’s literature for Alexie’s novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Forney provided illustrations for the book.

So as Empire Online was slowly revealing a new picture of the Joker, joblo.com stole their thunder by posting the entire thing.

Also now up are more pictures from the Watchmen set and Indiana Jones 4.

Congratulations to Amy and James Kochalka on the birth of their second son, Oliver Jonco, who arrived into the world last Friday. (hat tip: Wayne Beamer)

Sometimes the end of something is only the beginning of the story. Take the end of the world, for instance …

If you’d like to take a look at what the end of the world might look like, then check out the IDW section of Previews this month for Therefore Repent! The graphic novel by writer Jim Munroe and artist Salgood Sam is set in Chicago after the Rapture, i.e. the Biblical event that finds the righteous floating up to Heaven, leaving the rest of humanity behind. It’s also a relationship story, as a couple contends not only with the end of the world, but also the end of their relationship.

I chatted over email with Salgood Sam about the book, religion and his real name, among other topics.

JK Parkin:: Let’s start off by talking about Therefore Repent! What’s it about?

Salgood Sam: THE END OF THE WORLD!

No, really. I’m serious.

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Let the Journey Into Mohawk Country author take you on a tour of his home/obsession.

Henry Sorensen over at The Metabunker talks to Salon and Houdini creator Nick Bertozzi:

SØRENSEN: The act of immersing oneself – to the extent of losing oneself – in a work of art is given a very literal treatment in The Salon. It is tempting to read the blue absinthe as a metaphorical vehicle for the almost mystical connection that ensues between the reader and any given work of art. Where did the idea of this magical potion stem from?

BERTOZZI: I’m smart enough to realize I’ve got a good metaphor on my hands with the blue absinthe, but I can’t claim to have thought it out beforehand. I liked the idea of entering into favorite paintings and fooling around inside, and the absinthe was a convenient vehicle to get characters there. As I first began to think about the story I considered setting it up so that only Gauguin was entering into the paintings using the absinthe and there would be some doubt on the other characters’ side that Gauguin was really entering into the paintings or that it was just hallucinations brought on by the absinthe rotting his brain.

On his website, Alex Hughes has been sharing “card-i-catures” — 52 caricatures of famous people done up as playing cards, such as Prince:

Risking the censure of the small purple one, week 46 is the turn of the Artist Formerly Known As The Artist Formerly Known as Prince, Prince, who this week started a campaign to rid the internet of any unauthorised images of himself, and anything else that vaguely refers to himself…

Go check’em out. Via The Forbidden Planet blog.

Via.

Another Gail Simone link for today … I think she’s taking over the world. Talking to the New York Times, the former hairdresser covers a lot of ground, from Wonder Woman to other creative pursuits to her college years:

At the University of Oregon, which she attended for two years in the early 1980s, her majors were creative writing and theater. She credits the theater studies with improving her craft. “You had to know your character inside and out, from the time they were born, even if you were only playing five minutes of their lives,” she said.

In 1999, during what she described as “a rough patch,” she was advised to try something creative. She went down a list: “I can’t draw. I can’t really sew. Well, I used to write.” This led her to create “Women in Refrigerators,” an online chronicle of the suffering experienced by female comic-book characters. The site (unheardtaunts.com/wir) garnered attention, which led to a modestly paid humor column on comicbookresources.com, a Web site that was read by many industry professionals. Still, she didn’t give up her day job.

“I was broke and starving and basically needed to figure out a way to make a living,” she said. “Hairdressing was still a creative type of career.” Growing up poor taught her to have a backup for artistic pursuits that would not earn her enough money.

I’m getting a real kick out of Straczynski’s writing on the Thor re-launch and I have to say Coipel’s pencils are simply marvelous. JMS has brought the magic back to Odin’s boy. I’m excited about where the book is headed. Still as much as I like what they’re doing, that ain’t my Thor.

My Norse God of Thunder was hurling his mystic uru hammer back in the seventies.

My habit started back in ’75, but I didn’t get my Thor groove on until 1978. I remember standing before the spin rack at the corner store, disgusted that I’d read everything displayed except for the Archies. And that Thor book.

I picked up Thor.

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Gail Simone, the folks at Project Rooftop, and Zeus Comics have announced the winners in the Wonder Woman Wardrobe War – a contest for fans to provide their creative spin on the Amazon’s costume. Seventy-nine entries were received, some of which can be seen over at the Project Rooftop site. Others will be available at the Zeus site later this week.

Of the contest, Simone said:

“Wow! I honestly had no idea the responses were going to be this amazing. I’m astounded not only by the designs and imagination, but quite a few of these are produced so beautifully that I’d love to see more work by these individual artists. Heck, some I would love to have on my wall, in fact! Great, great work. I had to ask the Zeus guys, ‘Hey, are these people all professionals already?” Just great stuff. Made my week.’”

For the old school gamer or alien obsessed …

Via

The Fog
Written by Scott Allie; Illustrated by Todd Herman
Dark Horse
$6.95

Back in the day, before DVDs or even VHS, comics adaptations of movies were pretty cool because they let you relive the movie over and over again. These days, they’re a pretty lame substitute for the real thing and I ignore them as best I can. Prequels, sequels, and whatnot are a whole other story though. I’m all for comics that add to the worlds we see in the movies. That’s the approach Dark Horse’s The Fog takes.

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The Comic-Con International folks have announced the judges for the 2008 Eisner Awards, a list that includes Bookazine’s John Davis, author/comic writer Paul Di Filippo, retailer Atom! Freeman (who wins the prize for best name), Entertainment Weekly’s Jeff Jensen and librarian Eva Volin.

Per the site, judges will meet in early April to select the nominees that will go on the Eisner Awards ballot. The nominees will then be voted on by professionals in the comic book industry, and the results will be announced on July 25, at Comic-Con International in San Diego.

Vaneta Rogers was at the Mid-Ohio-Con this past weekend; you can read her buzz report over on the main site, and check out some additional pictures she took below:

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Here it is the first work day after a four day weekend and I am finding the experience a bit jarring. I mean, there have been no deviled eggs today, no one has offered me pie, and there’s no possibility of a nap in my immediate future. Most of all, I’ve not been afforded the opportunity to read any of the giant stack of comics sitting on my nightstand.

I recently went to Wizard World Texas and picked up lots of comics. I love cons and warehouse sales for the chance to pick up titles at bargain bin prices that I might not otherwise read. The All New Atom is one of those titles.

I spent the weekend reading through, so far, the first eleven issues of ANA.

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