Holy Shi*T! The World’s Weirdest Comic Books
by Paul Gravett and Peter Stanbury
St. Martin’s Press
$12.85.

This is the comic book fan’s equivalent of the novelty gift book, the kind of slender tome you see lying by the cashier counter or near the coffee line at your local big-box corporate book store. If you have a family member who knows about your comics hobby, there’s a good chance (assuming you celebrate the holiday of course) you might get this as a Christmas present (”I saw the title and immediately thought of you.”) (more…)

Man, no one did rique humor better than Arno. He made the smuttiest joke look classy.

HBO has approved production of a pilot for A Game of Thrones, a drama based on George R.R. Martin’s best-selling fantasy epic A Song of Ice and Fire.

“It’s just the pilot so far,” Martin writes on his blog. “They’ll need to see that before they decide whether to proceed with a full season’s episodes. So let’s all hope the pilot will kick serious ass. …  It should. David Benioff and Dan Weiss did a terrific job with the script. And yes, all of you can relax, it’s very faithful. Dan and David will be the executive producers for the pilot and (we hope) the eventual series.”

The cable network acquired the rights to the property nearly two years ago. Plans are for each novel in the planned seven-book cycle to provide a season’s worth of episodes. A Game of Thrones is the title of the first book, which was published in 1996.

The Hollywood Reporter notes that if Thrones receives an episodic order, it would represent the rarerest of TV genres: the full-fledged fantasy series. They’re just too expensive.

Set primarily on a sprawling continent called Westeros, A Song of Ice and Fire centers on a dynastic civil war for the Iron Throne, the threat of creatures from the north known as the Others, and the journey of the exiled daughter of the rightful king.

The fifth book in the series, A Dance with Dragons, is tentatively set for release in April.

Or rather, he illustrated one. Gallery Ghost, from Birdcage Press, and written by Anna Nilsen, offers a decidedly supernatural take through the halls of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

The idea is that at night in the museum, all the ghosts of dead painters like Paul Gauguin and Lyonel Feininger (hey, he did comics too!) come out and put details from their own work into other people’s paintings, a Rousseau cow inserted in van Ostade’s “The Cottage Dooryard” for example.

The reader’s job is to help intern and art student Sarah out and figure out who added to whose painting and which one added the most (just for clarification’s sake, Sala only illustrated the opening and closing pages, plus the portraits of the painters — he didn’t attempt to replicate Mary Cassatt or anything). To help you in your quest, the book comes with its own magnifying glass. How cool is that?

Sala’s art is much softer and friendlier than longtime fans of his work may be used to, but they’ll still want to track it down, if for no other reason than to his rendition of a ghostly Gustav Klmit, something I’m sure readers of Delphine have long wanted to see.

– 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.

A too-brief article in the San Diego Union-Tribune suggests that, with the election of Democrat Barack Obama, we may be due for another wave of vampire fiction. Specifically, movies and TV series.

The writer, Peter Rowe, points to True Blood, Twilight and Let the Right One In as harbingers of “a new cycle of vampire films and television shows,” and finds a handful of experts to prop up a theory that a Republican administration provides a breeding ground for zombie flicks, while a Democratic White House spawns bloodsucker movies.

Or maybe they’re simply socio-political indicators: Annalee Newitz of io9.com points to the uptick in zombie movies that coincided with the election of President George W. Bush in 2000. Rowe continues along that line with a laundry list of zombie films released in the Reagan and Bush eras, and vampire movies released during the Carter and Clinton administrations.

What’s the correlation? The assembled experts theorize vampires are less-threatening monsters that signal “hopefulness,” while zombies may represent fears of “a revolt of the poor and disenfranchised.” (Those don’t sit well with the article’s pitchfork-wielding commenters, some of whom still may be smarting from last week’s election.)

While there’s obviously a connection between political climate and horror fiction, Rowe’s argument is a little unconvincing.

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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:

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Stan Lee does what he does best — promotes his latest book, this one a collection of his old Marvel Soapbox columns, in the video below. The book benefits the Hero Initiative.

• Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons talks about catching Alan Moore’s typos, the miniseries’ colors, the movie adaptation, and audience reaction to seeing a naked Dr. Manhattan on the big screen: “He’s somebody who, by the force of his will, has reconstructed his body, so you’re not looking really at a naked man; you’re looking at a model of a naked man. I know that’s a rather fine distinction.” [Vulture]

• Cairo and Air writer G. Willow Wilson discusses those titles, superheroes, the Standard Attrition message board and group blog, and guerilla marketing. [Heavy Ink]

• The Dresden Files author Jim Butcher chats about bringing wizard-for-hire Harry Dresden to comics. [Sci Fi Wire]

• Best-selling author Stephenie Meyer rattles off some of the inspirations for her insanely popular Twilight vampire epic. Who would’ve guessed X-Men cartoons and and the Iron Man movie would be on the list alongside Jane Eyre and Anne of Green Gables? [EW.com]

• Ned Beauman celebrates Garth Ennis’ reinvention of Marvel’s Punisher. [Guardian]

• FEARnet profiles Devil’s Due Publishing, focusing on the company’s horror titles. [FEARnet]

Michael Crichton, the prolific techno-thriller author of Jurassic Park, Timeline, Sphere and The Andromeda Strain, died Tuesday after a private battle against cancer, according to a statement released by his family and posted on his website. He was 66.

Crichton’s first novel, Odds On, was published under the pen name John Lange in 1966. He published several books under other aliases, including Jeffrey Hudson and, ironically, Michael Douglas (the actor Michael Douglas later starred in the movie adaptation of Disclosure). The Andromeda Strain, his first book published under his real name, came out in 1971, followed by The Terminal Man, The Great Train Robbery and Eaters of the Dead.

In 1990, Juarassic Park captured the hearts and imaginations of dinosaur and action fans worldwide; in 1993, he co-wrote the screenplay for the film, which would go on to make about $900 million worldwide. It currently ranks as the 11th highest-grossing film of all time worldwide. Many of his other novels, including Disclosure, Congo and Rising Sun, were also made into films.

Crichton also created and executive produced the NBC television show ER, whcih is currently in its last season.

“Through his books, Michael Crichton served as an inspiration to students of all ages, challenged scientists in many fields, and illuminated the mysteries of the world in a way we could all understand,” said the statement from his family.

Ah, Election Day, when a citizenry whose collective brain has been scrambled by 24-hour news channels and poll-tracking websites finally stumbles, zombie-like, into the voting booth.

What’s that have to do with this week’s comics shipping list? Nothing, really. But as “Can’t Wait for Wednesday” is a couple of hours late, I’m pointing to the election as an excuse.

If you’re not as election-obsessed as I am, your attention may be turned to what titles are hitting comics shops tomorrow.

From DC Comics, we’ll see the final volumes of New Teen Titans Archives and The Absolute Sandman, as well as Final Crisis: Resist and the first issue of The Sandman: The Dream Hunters adaptation. Marvel rolls out the Daredevil & Captain America: Dead on Arrival and Wolverine: Chop Shop one-shots, and the first issue of the big Ultimatum event. Dark Horse, meanwhile, collects Dean Motter’s Mister X sci-fi saga.

Elsewhere, IDW Publishing releases Kevin Colden’s Xeric-winning Fishtown, Macmillan publishes the autobiographical Alan’s War, and … Chris Mautner recommends porn. Really.

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

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The Fog Mound, Book 1: The Travels of Thelonious
Written by Susan Schade; Illustrated by Jon Buller
Aladdin Paperbacks; $8.99

The first thing you notice about The Fog Mound is that it’s an interesting mix of chapter book and graphic novel. Chapters alternate between being told first with illustrated text and next with comics. I’m halfway through the second volume now and I’m still not sure why they chose to do it that way, but I like it for a couple of reasons.

First, it breaks up the visual monotony that comes with any 200-plus-page book. Maybe it’s just me, but unless the story is the greatest thing I’ve ever read, I always find myself counting how many pages I’ve got left when I’m reading longer material. There’s just something about seeing page after page of text or comics panels that makes my eyes glaze over. I also set my DVD display to show me how much time I’ve got left when I’m watching movies, so like I said, maybe it’s me.

I didn’t have that problem with Thelonious though. Each chapter felt new and interesting because it was a different format from the one I’d just read.

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To close out the day, here are 13 fun & frightening links — some comic related, some not — to enjoy …

• Splash Page has a preview of Dark Horse Comics’ upcoming Creepy archive.

• Great Caesar’s Post has been running horror posts for the past couple of weeks, including Iron Man pumpkins and Hellboy stories.

• The Beat has the complete “Teratoid Cystoma” from Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack Volume 1 as a Halloween treat.

• Bruce Springsteen has a free song about the Jersey Devil up on his site for Halloween.

• World record zombie walk.

• Check out one of the special features from the upcoming Hellboy II DVD release.

• Marvel.com talks to various creators about terrifying moments in comics.

• Character Design looks at various characters from Nightmare Before Christmas.

• Neil Gaiman shows the one-sheet poster for the upcoming adaptation of his book Coraline.

• They Crawl By Night!

• Freddy Krueger, registered offender.

• I’ve had this nightmare before.

• And finally, Halloween is a good time to check out Necessary Monsters if you haven’t yet.

Happy Halloween!

A mother in Halsey, Ore., has filed paperwork to have Andy Riley’s popular The Book of Bunny Suicides removed from the Central Linn High School library.

But Taffey Anderson, whose 13-year-old son borrowed the book from the library, refuses to return it so a school district committee can review her complaint. Instead, she reportedly plans to burn the graphic novel.

“I understand her feeling very strongly about her rights, values and responsibility as a parent,” Principal Julie Knoedler told The Oregonian. “But I’m disappointed that she is forcing us to buy another copy before we can review the book.”

Published in 2003, the darkly humorous book is a mix of single-image gags and multi-panel strips depicting, as the title suggests, cute little bunnies committing suicide in imaginative ways.

“I saw poor bunnies going through meat grinders; people, like, throwing them in there and they’re getting shot out,” Anderson told the Albany Democrat-Herald. “People in Nazi helmets, and there’s a bunny, and they’re shooting him.”

In her complaint to the school district, she wrote, “This book has absolutely no curriculum value to anybody.”

Anderson pledges not to return the book. And if the library were to replace it, “I’ll have somebody else check it out and keep that one. I’m just disgusted by the whole ordeal.”

I am, too. Just not about the book.

(Via Examiner.com)

Update: As a reader points out in the comments, Bunny Crisis appears to be over, at least mostly. According to an item posted Tuesday on American Libraries, Anderson has returned the book and, after numerous negative articles, has softened her stance.

She nows says she’d be satisfied if The Book of Bunny Suicides is kept behind the circulation desk and restricted to high-school students. The Central Linn High School Library serves both high-school and junior-high students.

I’ve written enough about Halloween-appropriate books over the past couple of weeks, so I won’t highlight titles like Bernie Wrightson’s Frankenstein, or Screamland, or Cthulhu Tales #7, or Hellboy: The Chapel of Moloch.

Instead, I’ll focus on a Batman manga twofer: the collection of Yoshinori Natsume’s Batman: Death Mask, and the much-anticipated Bat-Manga! The Secret History of Batman in Japan.

If Batman, or manga, isn’t your cup of tea, there’s Final Crisis: Rage of the Red Lanterns, which further lays the groundwork for DC’s next big events. For those in a more political mood, there’s American Presidents and more biographies of John McCain and Barack Obama.

Or, while we’re on the subject of biographies, there’s always Bill Schelly’s Man of Rock: A Biography of Joe Kubert.

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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• The webcomic Bellen! by Box Brown has been dressing up as other webcomics for Halloween. The first week included homages to Pictures for Sad Children, Octopus Pie, Cat and Girl, Diesel Sweeties and American Elf (above).

• A Thomas Weisel Partners analyst upped Marvel’s rating to “overweight,” saying the company’s unexpectedly strong performances have been undervalued.

While Marvel’s stock is doing about as well as any other company’s stock right now, the analyst said the sell-off “discounts its strong movie performance this summer and an improved film distribution deal.” He also said that Marvel Chairman David Maisel has said there will be no disruptions to the company’s 2010 film slate as a result of the crisis in the credit markets.

• Colleen Doran provides a list of agents currently accepting graphic novel submissions.

• A Space Ghost episode is turned into a puppet show. Brilliant.

• Not comics: Rest in peace, Tony Hillerman.

• Hey, look: a free David Heatley comic strip. Via Bully.

• BuddyTV’s John Kubicek chats with Cassidy Freeman, who plays the female Lex Luthor replacement on Smallville.

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.

• Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki’s Skim has been shortlisted for the Canada Council for the Arts’s 2008 Governor General’s Literary Awards in the Children’s Literature-Text category. [Xtra]

• An Italian prosecutor claims that a vampire manga — which one, I don’t know — inspired Raffaele Sollecito to kill Meredith Kercher in 2007. The defense calls the theory “stupid.” Curiously, earlier this year British tabloids tried to link the bloody murder to Akira. [BBC News]

• Designer and author Chip Kidd talks briefly about Bat-manga! The Secret History of Batman in Japan: “”It was a labour-of-love project, an act of graphic-novel reclamation, if you want to call it that.” [National Post]

• Suzan Colón of The Advocate is encouraged by the promise of two non-heterosexual characters in James Robinson’s new Justice League series: Batwoman and the alien Starman. She also rattles off a list of “seven of the most memorable queer heroes.” [Advocate.com]

• If you’re thinking about starting a blog, don’t. Paul Boutin says the Age of the Solo Blogger is over: “Scroll down Technorati’s list of the top 100 blogs and you’ll find personal sites have been shoved aside by professional ones. Most are essentially online magazines: The Huffington Post. Engadget. TreeHugger. A stand-alone commentator can’t keep up with a team of pro writers cranking out up to 30 posts a day.” [Wired]

A librarian in Brooklyn, N.Y., has been fined $500 for promoting his daughter’s graphic-novel adaptation of Macbeth in a newsletter he distributes at a local high school.

According to The New York Times, Robert Grandt listed Shakespeare’s Macbeth: The Manga Edition, which his daughter Eve Grandt co-created for John Wiley & Sons, as “Best New Book” under the heading “Grandt’s Picks.” He also displayed copies on a library table at Brooklyn Technical High School with a sign that read, “Best Book Ever Written.” The book was given for free to those interested.

On Monday the city’s Conflict of Interests board announced that it had settled its case against Robert Grandt, who agreed to pay a $500 fine and admit he had violated the city ethics code by promoting his daughter’s work.

Needless to say, Grandt isn’t pleased by the decision. “It’s unbelievable,” he told The Times.

– I Live Here, the new book from Mia Kirshner, which features comics by Joe Sacco and Phoebe Gloeckner, has its own blog now.

– I rather like this feature over at The Washington Post, where readers get to vote on a four editorial cartoons, picking which one delivered the sharpest satire.

– Over at the Comics Reporter, Tom Spurgeon interviews French Milk author Lucy Kinsley.

– I really enjoyed this highly amusing take on Galactus by Phil McAndrew

– Eddie Campbell uses the new Joker graphic novel as a jumping off point to talk about why comic book artists can’t seem to draw clothes properly:

Note that the Joker’s coat folds right over left in the universal manner of women’s coats instead of that of menswear, left over right. I apologise for picking on this artist, but I see the same problem all over the place. It can happen because the artist is looking in a mirror, but the overwhelming reason in the last twenty years is that comic book artists generally speaking, though there are a few fashion plates to give exception to the rule, are the worst dressed people in the world who mostly get around in t-shirts and draw people in leotards.

– John Jakala notes that his daughter’s day care has banned all superhero-related material from the premises, and wonders whether how harmful they may actually be to young children.

– David Bowie sketches!

– Here are some one-sentence comic synopses. (synopsises?)