– Harry N. Abrams plans to publish Barry Deutsch’s acclaimed Webcomic Hereville in book form. Brigid Alverson has details.

– Steve Duin provides an update on S. Clay Wilson’s health. Short answer: “His condition has not improved significantly.”

– “There’s an exotica Americans find in my stories that’s lost on Israeli readers:” Nisha Gopalan interviews Israeli cartoonist Rutu Modan about her new book Jamilti.

– Colleen Doran is looking for a few good cartoonists to help her review data for the Graphic Artists Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines.

– Kai-Ming Cha has a great interview with editor Sean Michael Wilson about Top Shelf’s upcoming AX anthology. “We’re selecting it from the 10 year archive so we’re talking about some 20,000 pages. That’s a lot of stuff to choose from.”

– Peter Sanderson celebrates the 20th anniversary of Sandman with a look back.

– Sanderson also looks at the new Vertigo Encyclopedia.

– The Daily Cartoonist reports that editorial cartoonists Steve Greenberg and Lee Judge are being laid off from their respective newspapers.

– Things to do: David B and Igort will be at the Beguiling in Toronto this Saturday.

– Other things to do: Kim Deitch will be doing a Q&A event with Bill Kartalopoulos at MoCCA tomorrow night. From the pr: “In a unique and wide-ranging conversation, the two will discuss Deitch’s work and
career to date.  Deitch will preview images from his current works in progress and field questions from the audience.”

– Joe Sacco offers an insightful review of Guy Delisle’s Burma Chronicles.

The Daily Cross Hatch offers the first of a three-part interview with the Black Hole creator about that seminal book and also his contribution to the new animated film, Fear(s) of the Dark:

In its most elementary sense, sequential art can almost be seen as a storyboard for animation. It seems like a fairly logical step to make.

Well, it was funny—at this point, I feel secure about writing comics. I’ve been writing comics long enough. It’s not easy, but it’s a domain I understand and feel comfortable with. So, when I started out, I came up with a storyline and wrote that out and broke it down into storyboards. All of that felt comfortable and familiar. But the minute we moved onto the next step, I felt like I was in deep trouble, because there’s an absolutely different sense about how a story is told when it’s moving. This is a very different process, which I quickly found out. That’s what was interesting too, was that there was an understanding that myself and other artists involved hadn’t done animation before. We hadn’t directed before.

Pink Tentacle has an array of images of contemporary Japanese artists riffing on some classic Osamu Tezuka characters.

Our post last Friday on the controversy surrounding Chip Kidd’s Bat-Manga! and the question of whether or not manga-ka Jiro Kuwata should have gotten received a lot of attention over the weekend. I think the horse has been beaten pretty heavily into the ground by this point, but I thought a final run-down of who said what in response to Kidd’s statement might be in order.  Tom Spurgeon’s post was by far the most amusing response if you’re keeping score, but assuming you’re not, here’s a look at what the rest of the blogosphere had to say:

Laura Hudson:

I do understand Kidd’s argument and the distinction he’s making, but to me, the issue of how to classify the book has more to do with content than intent. As a reader, I didn’t experience Bat-Manga as a book of material about Batman in Japan; Kuwata wasn’t just example C in the context of a broader theme. His work is the book, the heart and meat and soul and sun of it, and everything else is just supplementary gravy. Maybe that wasn’t Kidd’s intention, but that’s how it turned out.

(more…)

Steve Duin at the Oregonian is reporting that S. Clay Wilson, one of the seminal underground cartoonists of the 1960s and a member of the Zap Comix crew, suffered a “severe brain injury” last weekend, though what caused the incident is unknown at this time:

[Lorraine] Chamberlain — Wilson’s partner of the last eight years (“though,” she added, “we’ve been flirting with each other for 40″) — said authorities in San Francisco originally believed that Wilson was mugged on his way home from a fairly heavy drinking binge. But Chamberlain now believes “it may be that he fell so many times” on the short walk home:

“That’s what we think now, that he fell several times and hit his head,” Chamberlain said. “He has a fractured orbital bone in his eye and he fractured his neck. He looks like he’s been kicked in the face and beaten up. But if he’d been beaten up, he would have been robbed. There’s no way to know. But he had way too much to drink.”

A cartoonist for whom, at least in his work, too much was never enough, Wilson’s comics constantly pushed the sex and violence envelope, usually depicting pirates or biker gangs (sometimes both) in epic orgies of blood and other body fluids. His work had a profound influence on Robert Crumb and the other cartoonists of his era, encouraging them to avoid censoring their work and unleash their id upon the page.

You can read a recent interview with Wilson over at The Comics Journal

Remember late last year, when Viz besieged book stores and comic shops with a blizzard of Naruto volumes (three a month)? Well, apparently that may be happening all over again. The Anime News Network is reporting that 11 volumes of the uber-popular shonen manga series by Masashi Kishimoto will be released in stores between February and April of 2009. That’s according to reports by both Amazon and Simon and Schuster (who is one of Viz’s book distributors):

Naruto volume 33 is scheduled to ship on December 23. However, the next four volumes (#34-37) are all listed for February 3. Volumes 38 to 41 will then follow on March 3. Volumes 42 to 44 will end the accelerated schedule on April 7. The next volume, #45, is slated for July 7. The Amazon online retailer also lists the same dates.

There was some suggestion last time around that the reason Viz was doing this was to a) catch up on the Japanese audiences and cut down on some of the scantillations; and b) speed through one of the drier parts of the lengthy epic. What’s the reasoning this time? Are they still that far behind Japanese readers? Was the initial Naruto Nation that popular? Apparently so.

Slow Wave author Jesse Reklaw talks about how people dream about their presidents for Powell’s Books.

– Over at his blog, Scott Saavedra notes that he is rather ill and could use financial help, either via donations or by purchasing his some of his art work. (hat tip: Tom Spurgeon)

– Bloggers Paul O’Brian and Alistair Kennedy have started a new podcast, titled House to Astonish. It’s going to be an every-other-week affair, and focus on comics news and reviews. The premiere episode looks at recent Batman books, Dark Horse’s Gigantic and other books.

– Chris Butcher has more to say on the Bat-Manga! controversy.

– Tom Spurgeon tells us what comics he’s reading online these days.

– David Baille emailed us to let us know what a busy beaver he is these days. He’s got his first ever story in 2000AD this week, animator David Hailwood has animated a couple of his Zombies Interviews strips, and, perhaps most significantly, he’s started a new Webcomic, the Belly Button Bubble Chronicles.

– The work of cartoonists Josh Neufeld and David Rees can currently be seen at the Brooklyn Public Library’s Central Library through January 10, 2009. From the press release: “Neufeld will show material from his true-life graphic novel A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, and Rees will exhibit a collection of his “Clip-Art Comics.” Neufeld will be showing original pages, oversized giclée prints, and an example of the creative process from script to final art.”

– The Windy City Times talks to Alison Bechdel about the release of the new Dykes to Watch Out For collection.

– A quick reminder: Quentin Blake is awesome.

– For your Monday enjoyment: Ten years of New Yorker covers.

While the release of the new Bat-Manga! book has largely met with strong publicity and good reviews, there’s been a bit of controversy recently, as some reviewers and bloggers have noted that manga-ka Jiro Kuwata, whose Batman stories make up the bulk of the book, is not credited on the cover or title page of the book. His name only appears on the inside flap initially, though Kidd does credit him in the introduction, includes a one-page interview with him and dedicates the book to him as well. Laura Hudson has a round-up of comments and offers her own thoughts on the matter:

even if we accept that Kidd et al. played a very important role in designing and presenting this book to an American audience, I’m not sure how that justifies the de facto usurping of authorship here, or the diminishment of the role played by the actual creator of these materials, without whom Kidd and friends would have had nothing to compile, edit, and claim as their own.

I had interviewed Kidd last week about the new book and decided to email him to see if he had anything to say about the controversy. Here is his response:

(more…)

Vulture has a 12-page excerpt of Caldecott-winner Don Wood’s newest all-ages graphic novel, about a pair of kids that “journey deep into the heart of a erupting volcano.”

Golden Age Comic Book Stories has got what you need to get ready for the weekend.

Palookaville cartoonist Seth illustrated five Election Day poems for the New York Times. You can find them here, here, here, here and here (hat tip: The Ephemerist).

Michael Fiffe tells a tale of bad next-door neighbors over at Smith.

I haven’t picked up a copy of it yet, but the collection of Tall Tales, a collection of a comic strips Mad magazine artist Al Jaffee did in the late 1950s-early 60s strikes me as one of the more intriguing collections of this year. Ger Apeldoorn must agree, as he’s posted a number of Jaffee’s color Sunday strips up on his blog.

Fortress of Fortitude posts a pre-code story by Will Eisner and David Berg. Yes, that David Berg.

From ASIFA. Because you can never have too much Fosdick.

The Education of Hopey Glass
by Jaime Hernandez
Fantagraphics Books, 128 pages, $19.99.

The Education of Hopey Glass is about two people entering middle age and realizing that the come-what-may method of stumbling through life simply won’t cut it any more. One character attempts to give herself a direction or at least a goal, though she still finds herself leaving hurt feelings and failed relationships in her wake. The other character is perhaps even less successful, hung up on a former love while finding himself getting involved with a woman who spells trouble regardless of which alphabet you use.

(more…)

– Van Jensen hangs out with Paul Pope to find out about the new reprint edition of Heavy Liquid, which Pope initiated when he discovered out of print copies selling on eBay for as much as $200: ” ‘That was disgusting to me,’ he said. ‘That was money those fans could’ve spent on other books.’ ”

– Kai-Ming Cha talks to Yen Press’ Kurt Hassler about the imprint’s absorption into Hachette’s Orbit imprint.

– Tom Richmond looks at how Mad Magazine has covered close elections in the past.

– Alan Gardner critiques the revamped Comics.com site.

– Erin Finnegan reports on the MangaNext show in Somerset, NJ.

– Apparently Famous Monsters of Filmland‘s Forrest J. Ackerman is not doing well.

– Doug Wolk reports on last weekend’s APE convention.

– Noah Berlatsky doesn’t care for S. Clay Wilson’s work.

– Jen de Guzman wonders why Slave Labor isn’t getting that many submissions anymore and decides to blame the Internet.

– Because you don’t have enough to read: Here’s Graphic Novel Reporter.

As if you needed a further reminder that the economy is in a slump, IcV2 is reporting that the country’s two largest book chains, Border’s and Barnes & Noble, expect a very tough holiday season and have cut their graphic novels buys for November and December by 30 to 60 percent:

Leonard Riggio, chairman of Barnes & Noble, said that the chain was “bracing for a terrible holiday season” in an internal memo to employees published by the Wall Street Journal. “Never in all the years I’ve been in business have I seen a worse outlook for the economy,” the memo said. “And never in all my years as a bookseller have I seen a retail climate as poor as the one we are in. Nothing even close.”

Riggio goes on to state that the company is well-positioned to survive the current economic climate, though Border’s which is facing greater debt problems, might not be as lucky.

Sure, you can dig out your DVDs of Great Pumpkin and A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, but what if you’re jonesing for some Peanuts on the bus ride to work? Well, the Schulz family and Warner Bros. Motion Comics has anticipated the problem and produced 20 new three-to-four minute cartoons featuring Snoopy, Charlie Brown and the rest of the gang, and made specifically for the Web, cell phones and iPods. The Associated Press has the details:

The videos are all new, made with Flash animation and new voices. Even though it’s new technology, attention has been paid to maintaining the integrity of the strip and its beloved animation specials.

“You’re not trying to change it,” said Jeannie Schulz, widow of the Peanuts creator. “You’re trying to keep it the same and freshen it.”

For a limited time, you can download two episodes for free, but only at iTunes. Otherwise, individual episodes will be priced at 99 cents each, or you can buy the full season for $7.99.

NPR, meanwhile, has an interview with the late Charles Schulz’s son Craig, where he talks about how they found the voices for the new animated shorts and the strip’s legacy. He also talks about how he can see his childhood reflected in the strip, in the way that his father drew certain backgrounds and objects that mimiced their own home, a fact I found more fascinating than anything else in the interview.