NBM recently announced the upcoming release of the second volume of Lewis Trondheim’s diary strips, Little Nothings: The Prisoner Syndrome, and has some nice samples up over at their site.

As part of an ongoing look at the big holiday movies coming out this year, The LA Times fixes its media eye on The Spirit and its cartoonist-turned-movie-director, Frank Miller:

“I adored Will Eisner and took a real ‘Don’t tread on me’ approach when I came to this movie. At the same time, I was willing to tread all over it. I knew Will always wanted to do something fresh and new, not some stodgy old thing that aspires to be revered. I don’t want anybody to bow to this movie. I want a ripping good yarn. It is not an antique.”

There’s lots more at the link, including quotes from star Samuel L. Jackson and Miller commenting on some of the early negative reactions from fans. The story also calls Miller “the most important comic-book artist of the last 25 years” which … well it’s just asking for someone to knock that statement down, isn’t it? Paging Mr. Chris Ware! Mr. Scott McCloud!

– The final Opus strip ran yesterday.

– Who would like to see some of John Romita Jr’s cover drafts? Now let’s not see the same hands.

– Why does Mort of Bazooka Joe fame constantly cover the lower half of his face? The Onion has the answer and it’s not pretty.

– Kick Ass’ protagonist and Chester Brown: Separated at birth?

– Alan David Doane talks to Ivan Brunetti, podcast-style, about the new Anthology of Graphic Fiction collection.

– Ladies and gentlemen, the top 10 immortal characters of pop fiction.

– Same Hat has some excerpts from their interview with author and manga translator Frederik Schodt, the full text of which will appear in their zine, Electric Ant.

– Charles Brubaker talks with Kevin McCormack, creator of the late-lamented strip Arnold.

– Eric Reynolds provides what will likely be the last 2008 SPX report.

– The Comics Comics blog is all love, flowers and rainbows now.

Things were all a-twitter in the Features Department where I work last Friday. Why? Because Gary Trudeau had decided to predict a victory for Barack Obama in Tuesday’s election:

Wednesday’s strip is set in Iraq and features military characters huddled around a television that proclaims “And it’s official — Barack Obama has won. . . .”

In an e-mail to The Times, Trudeau said newspapers should run the strip because “. . . polling data gives McCain a 3.7% chance of victory. There’s a greater risk that their presses will break down on election day. So I’ve been encouraging editors to choose hope over fear. And reminding them that if I’m wrong, it’ll be my face that’ll be covered with egg, not theirs.”

As a result, a number of daily newspapers that carry Trudeau’s strip had to quickly decide whether to run the strip or substitute it for reruns (from this past summer). And no, I’m not telling you what the Patriot-News decided. Go buy a copy of the paper.

Meanwhile, the John McCain camp responded by stating “We hope the strip proves to be as predictive as it is consistently lame.”

You can read more on the story here, here, here, here and here. Oh, and be sure to read this post by News & Record’s John Robinson, where he wonders what all the fuss is about anyway.

This week Vulture has a 13-page excerpt of David Hines fine horror comic, Strange Embrace, now available from Image.

David Heatley took time to respond to the recent Comics Comics critical roundtable of his new book, My Brain Is Hanging Upside-Down:

I used to do this a lot, but I no longer spend time wishing works of art were something they’re not. I don’t wish Stan Brakhage made commercial Hollywood films. Or that Kanye West would do something more stripped down, personal and emotionally revealing. I try to accept art for what it is and decide if it has anything of value to offer me. If I take a stance against it, especially if it’s accompanied by a righteous feeling of being sure of my opinion, I’ve found that I’m using someone’s work to further my own unhappiness, discontent and irritability and ultimately it has nothing to do with the artist on whom I’ve fixed my angry gaze.

I admire Heatley for attempting to rebut some of the criticisms hurled at him in a polite, respectable manner, though I think he comes off as just a wee bit defensive and passive-aggressive, though perhaps that’s inevitable given that people are attacking his baby.

Anyway, Tom Spurgeon, Frank Santoro and Noah Berlatsky take him to task on a few points in the comments section before it all gets ugly and the thread gets shut down, so be sure and read those as well.

Do you remember (assuming you collected the blasted things) that every He-Man and the Masters of the Universe action figure came with a little comic book? Well, this site has them all uploaded for your reading pleasure, albeit with an annoying watermark.

Anime News Network reported yesterday that six josei (or young women’s) manga magazines were flagged by the local government of the southwestern Japanese prefecture of Okayama as “harmful” due to their sexual content:

According to the local laws, the prefecture’s youth welfare office is required to regularly identify and list harmful publications — specifically, titles that should not be accessible to minors, due to sexual content and other reasons. Of the nine magazines on the October 7 list, six were ladies’ comics, or manga aimed at usually older female readers. The office indicated that these magazines were readily available to minors in convenience stores and bookstores and not separated from comic magazines aimed at young girls.

The magazines are: Jōkyū Renai Mint, Renai Bijin if, Renai Tengoku (Paradise), Zettai Renai Sweet, Special Aya and Renai Taiken.

You can’t make stuff like this up. Well, you could, but it wouldn’t have the same delightfully bizarre quality.

Anyway, The Australian is reporting that a Japanese man is currently engaging in a nationwide campaign to make it legal for humans to marry cartoon characters. No, seriously! He’s got a petition and everything! And the amazing thing is, people are actually signing it! Presumably without irony!

Taichi Takashita launched an online petition aiming for one million signatures to present to the government to establish a law on marriages with cartoon characters.

Within a week he has gathered more than 1,000 signatures through.

“I am no longer interested in three dimensions. I would even like to become a resident of the two-dimensional world,” he wrote.

“However, that seems impossible with present-day technology. Therefore, at the very least, would it be possible to legally authorize marriage with a two-dimensional character?”

The story notes that marriage is on the decline in Japan and many there find it difficult to find romantic partners, which may help explain the situation a bit, though it doesn’t make it any less goofy.

Of course, there’s every chance Takashita is pulling everyone’s leg, in which case I hope he doesn’t end up running into any of his more devout petition-signers.

If you’re the type of comics fan who occasionally likes to peruse the newsstand (and bless you if you do), it should be duly noted that this week’s issue of The New Yorker is their annual “Cartoon Issue,” with Steve Brodner talking about how he sees McCain and Obama everywhere; editorial cartoonist Mike Luckovich counting down the ways he’ll miss about Dubya; a cute two-page spread by Bruce McCall; a smattering of gag strips pertaining to current events; reviews of Tamara Drewe, Burma Chronicles and Bat-Manga!; spot illustrations by Joost Swarte and — for the piece de resistance — an awesome four-page strip by Robert, Aline and Sophie Crumb about their attending a Crumb family reunion in Minnesota. Hey, Drawn and Quarterly even took out an ad for this issue!

But if you can’t find a hard copy, the magazine’s Web site has a good bit of comics-related content as well, including Cartoon Editor Robert Mankoff answering readers’ questions; an audio file of McCall dissecting his cartoon; a video of Brodner drawing and satirizing the election; and an interview with Dilbert creator Scott Adams:

C.L.: Back to the new book, “Dilbert 2.0.”—What is included?

S.A.: It’s a big, beautiful, ten-pound coffee-table book with a few thousand of my favorite comics, including the ones too naughty to get published in newspapers. It also has stories about the trouble I got into for strips that did get published. I tell the story of how I went from cubicle to cartooning, which required lots of luck and the kindness of strangers. We also include a disc that has every “Dilbert” comic published in newspapers from 1989 until we went to production

Aaron Costain provides a number of eloquent, Edward Gorey-style reasons to avoid taking the bus.(hat tip: Drawn!)

The author of the acclaimed book Alan’s War shows you how he drew the blessed thing.

Related: Cory Doctrow reviews the book over at Boing Boing.

Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins, of Penny Arcade fame, have been making an online storybook based on the characters in the upcoming Prince of Persia game. (hat tip: The Ephemerist)

David Lasky makes a 24-hour comic about making a 24-hour comic. How meta!

David Heatley is visited by his younger selves in this gently self-mocking parody he did for Amazon.

– Artist Shepard Fairey, who designed the “Hope” Obama poster, tells Boing Boing he’s pleased as punch to have his work parodied by Mad Magazine: “I consider a high point in my career for pop culture recognition.”

– Laura Hudson talks to James Kochalka about the 10th anniversary of his diary strip, American Elf.

– Hudson also interviews librarian and comics advocate Karen Green, who has a column over at Comixology.

– Doug Wolk looks at Bill Willingham’s upcoming plans for Fables, which include a prose novel.

– Bookslut talks to Phoebe Gloeckner.

– I hadn’t heard about this — cartoonist Carol Lay has a book coming out entitled The Big Skinny, about her lifelong battle with her weight. Wendy Werris has more details.

– Geeknerd’s annual Halloween Costume Bingo is up.

– Frank Santoro takes a look at the new Bat-Manga! collection and declares it good.

– Kristy Valenti takes time to remember the 1986 graphic novel Greenberg the Vampire, one of Marvel’s early entries into the graphic novel market.

– Noah Berlatsky thinks superhero comics are at their best when they don’t take themselves too seriously.

– Everyone and their uncle seems to be talking about Inio Asano’s Solanin, now in stores courtesy of Viz.

The new Cartoon Network show Batman: The Brave and the Bold swaps the traditional noir tinge of such Batman cartoons like the original animated series and Batman Beyond (we’ll just forget about the recent “The Batman” OK?) in favor of a more sunny, pop art approach, and I for one couldn’t be happier about it.

Not that I have anything against the previous series — I think they’re great fun — but I’ve really had my fill of uber-serious Batman. I was talking to a fellow blogger the other day who told me he feels like he never needs to read another Green Lantern comic again. I sorta feel the same way about gloomy Batman, the Dark Knight movie notwithstanding.

Which is a roundabout way of me saying that if you prefer your Batman grim and gritty, you’re probably not going to like this cartoon. If, however, you like fun, action-packed cartoons that avoid camp while still managing to not take themselves too seriously, you’ll enjoyBatman: The Brave and the Bold. (more…)

In celebration of the ongoing, career-spanning exhibit of his work going on at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art in New York City, Kim Deitch will host a special “Cartoon Movie Night” at the Museum this Thursday at 7 p.m.

Deitch will show a number of rarely-seen animated cartoons from the 1920s and 30s during the event, and as a special Halloween treat, will also display for one night only selected specimens from his and his wife’s  extensive collection of antique toy cats. Anyone who’s read Alias the Cat (or, really, any of Deitch’s work) should be well aware of how large these types of early 20th-century American pop culture play into the artist’s work.

Then, on Thursday, Nov. 13, Deitch will return to the museum for an extensive Q&A session with exhibit curator Bill Kartalopoulos. During this event, Deitch will show examples of his recent work and also preview some of his upcoming projects.

Both events are free to the public. You can read the full press release after the jump. (more…)

WFMU posts a great strip by Jim Ryan that originally ran in their 1996 Catalog of Curiosities. (hat tip: The Ephemerist.)

Having explored the seamier (and steamier) side of the cartoon world with his book Clean Cartoonists’ Dirty Drawings, Craig Yoe is taking a decidedly different tack with his upcoming book The Great Anti-War Cartoons, to be published by Fantagraphics in Spring 2009. Featuring work by folks like Francisco Goya, Robert Crumb and Art Young, the book will present “the ultimate collection of anti-war cartoons.” Yoe has a small preview of the book up at the second link.