On the DC blog, the Source, co-publishers Jim Lee and Dan Didio, along with editor-in-chief Bob Harras and Batman editor Mike Marts offer tribute to Jerry Robinson, who died last night. Marts seems most appropriate to quote:

Jerry Robinson was an innovator, a pioneer in storytelling. His artwork was always astonishing, but his contributions to the Dark Knight mythology go far beyond art.

I remember watching Robinson on a panel at San Diego a few years ago; even though he was in his late eighties, he seemed as engaged and interested in what was happening in comics as creators half his age. It still kind of blows my mind that he co-created a manga series in 1999, to be honest. Comics need more Jerry Robinsons; he’ll be missed.

Brian Wood addresses the controversy over Dark Horse digital pricing:

Over the last few days Dark Horse was compelled to clarify what their digital plan was, in terms of pricing, correcting the perception that their comics would be sold digitally at $1.99, much less than the print versions.  I have access to the CBIA, a retailers forum, and the pushback was intense, and included overt threats of drastically lowered orders and even total boycotts of the line.  Did I mention everyone is bleeding?  I get the frustration… No sane creator, or publisher, wants to see comic shops hurt.  We all have emotional connections to them, to the idea of them, and we count owners and employees as personal friends.  We aren’t looking for digital to steal customers away from shops, but rather to be an additive thing, to be an additional source of income.  To simply switch a current print consumer to a digital consumer does not solve any problems!  It benefits no one at all.  It will not save us.

He mentions the idea that digital pricing is being kept artificially high out of fear of upsetting print retailers, saying that “the price that fair-minded readers WANT to buy digital comics at is starkly different from what’s they are currently set at,” which I think is entirely true.

I’m saddened by the idea – not put forward by Wood, I hasten to add, but by others online – that Dark Horse changed an initial plan to sell digitally at $1.99 in response to retailer upset; at the time of the official (misunderstood) announcement, I was excited to see what seemed to be Dark Horse following Archie’s lead in terms of day-and-date pricing and move into what feels like a somewhat delayed but ultimately inevitable future. Maybe one day…

Want to ask The Sixth Gun (and Marvel’s Fear Itself: The Fearless) writer Cullen Bunn something? Rush over to Reddit.com, where he’s doing an Ask Me Anything session – He started a day early, sneaky so-and-so, but he’s still answering questions as I type. Go and learn about his writing method, why you should be reading The Fearless and what he really thought of Fear Itself.

(Also, if you’re not reading The Sixth Gun, you really should; it’s kind of great. End of free plug.)

What does Fables creator Bill Willingham think of the similarities between his series and the ABC show Once Upon A Time? Well, he interviewed himself over at CBR to explain:

Is “Once Upon a Time” (which we should now refer to as “Once” for brevity) a rip off of “Fables?”

My best guess, based upon the scanty evidence, is probably not.

Is “Once” influenced and at least in part inspired by “Fables?”

Despite superficial similarities, “Fables” creator Bill Willingham firmly believes any similarities “Once Upon A Time” has to his comic is simply a result of working form the same source material

My best guess, based upon the same scanty evidence is, yes, it probably is, but perhaps not on more than a “this is the type of thing that’s in the air these days” level.

He goes on to elaborate on the crossover between the concepts for the show and the series, and their similarities, before explaining that what he’s trying to do is “a call to arms — or more accurately, a call to disarm”:

As grateful as I am to discover so many loyal “Fables” readers, willing to man the barricades, to help protect a story they love; as much as it moves me to realize I’ve been part in creating something that clearly moves you, affecting your lives in ways only a good story, well-told can, I think it’s time to lay off. Perhaps it’s time to quit rising up in public venues to accuse these folks of Grand Theft “Fables,” even if you still think it’s so.

I’m quite enjoying Once Upon A Time, in part because I just enjoy seeing Jennifer Morrison’s attempt at being a badass private eye/bounty hunter on a weekly basis; I also love Fables, so I’m glad to see Willingham being so calm about similiarities between the two.

Over at design website Core77, Dave Seliger lists what he thinks are the Seven Graphic Novels Every Designer Should Know:

When you’re at the next design firm holiday party and your co-workers are rambling on about the “complex psychological profiles” of the characters in Watchmen, you can speak up about the hottest graphic novel you just read (as recommended by the Core77 clogger team).

The choices are interesting – Akira, 100% by Paul Pope and the original two-color run of Casanova are all in there – but, of course, what sticks out for me are the books that didn’t make the list: No King City? No Parker? Of course, this kind of list exists for people to ask “But what about [Book X]?”, but it does make me wonder what books I’d put on this kind of list, and why (I mean, there has to be some Kirby on there, right? And something from Brendan McCarthy…). Hmm…  What graphic novels/comics do you think deserve to be on any designers’ must-see list?

I suppose when I was writing V for Vendetta I would in my secret heart of hearts have thought: wouldn’t it be great if these ideas actually made an impact? So when you start to see that idle fantasy intrude on the regular world… It’s peculiar. It feels like a character I created 30 years ago has somehow escaped the realm of fiction.

That’s Alan Moore, talking to the Guardian newspaper about the Occupy and Anonymous movements using the mask from V for Vendetta as ways of identifying themselves (while, obviously, obscuring themselves at the same time). Moore’s co-creator on V, David Lloyd, has spoken about the use of the mask he created before, including pointing out that Anonymous seems to have missed the point of the character in the original book, as opposed to the movie adaptation:

I guess they’re forming a union and wanting a unifying image, which in one sense is against the true concept of V from the book, where he stands for individualism. But the image in the movie of the mass protest of ‘Vs’ was one of a unified front of resistance against tyranny, so I can understand how that could promote the concept of one group with one collective face. And, of course, the more stylish an image is the more attractive and impressive it is for anyone wanting a brand.

Potential read-of-the-day: Mark Millar explaining why he’s against simultaneous day-and-date print and digital releases for comics:

I really think day and date release is a disastrous idea and makes no economic sense at all to comics as a business. It’s potentially ruinous for comic stores, and in the long term it’s not going to do publishers any favors either. I see the attraction on a very superficial level. They think they’re cutting out the middle men and all the guys taking a piece of their gross, but there’s an equivalent number of hidden costs in digital too, and it’s short term thinking to obliterate the life-blood of the medium.

There’s a lot, lot more in the piece itself, which I highly recommend checking out.

I can see where Millar’s coming from, but I think he’s wrong in a number of places; if nothing else, I think the experience of DC’s New 52 launch has pushed back significantly against the idea of simultaneous print/digital releases as “potentially ruinous” for comic stores, considering print sales rose dramatically across the line (in the short-term, at least. Long-term, of course, it remains to be seen what’ll happen), and I think he’s ignoring a sizable new audience by writing off digital as a tertiary market akin to movies playing on television years after release – Haven’t both Marvel and DC indicated that digital audiences seem to be in addition to, and not replacing, the direct market readership in their experience?

That said, I kind of love his commentary about the importance of good direct market retailers:

Retailers are as big a part of comics now as the characters or the creators. They’re not just an outlet. These are carefully crafted communities and owned and staffed by people with a genuine passion for what they’re doing in a way that the ‘Amazon Also Recommends’ box isn’t quite going to match.

Seriously, go read the piece. Agree or disagree with him, I think this might be the kind of thing we need more of to have a real conversation about where digital fits in with the current comic industry, and where it should fit in going forwards.

It’s admittedly a bit dry, but Craig Fischer’s post at the Comics Journal about Jack Kirby’s control of the reader’s focus in his art is well worth picking through:

Another way to indicate peripheral elements is through thickness of line. In the following panel from the second page of Fantastic Four #60 (March 1967), the figures dominate the foreground, especially Ben Grimm, whose outline is inked with thick holding lines, whose skin is dotted with spot blacks, and whose body is moving left-to-right in a dynamic diagonal… As we look away from the characters, however, and allow our eyes to roam around the panel, we can see that the machinery on the far wall is inked with a much thinner line than the contours that surround the characters in the foreground. The formula is intuitive: the foreground is drawn in thick, eye-catching lines and the background in unobtrusive thinner ones, to create the illusion of receding depth. And the artist has the option to ditch backgrounds altogether if s/he wants the reader’s interest to focus exclusively on the characters.

It’s a post that draws attention to Kirby’s still-unparalleled skill in the composition of comics, but also the contributions made by inkers and colorists; these days, I think that colorists shoulder a lot more responsibility for keeping different planes of depth distinct for the reader, for better or worse. Looking at black and white artwork from a number of modern day mainstream artists, there’s been a move away from thickness of line to differentiate that in linework alone – Look at uncolored art from Marc Silvestri or Jim Lee, for example; the amount of detail/cross-hatching “confuses” the eye when it comes to the important of lineweight, I think. Reading this post, I wondered to what extent Kirby’s legacy has been… reduced isn’t the right word, exactly, but selectively chosen, perhaps. Masters like Kirby, or Alex Toth, had skills that went beyond surface style, but I’m not sure how many of those skills have been studied or even noticed by a lot of artists working in superhero comics today.

(Of course, then there are artists like Chris Samnee, Marcos Martin and Javier Pulido, who have shown themselves to know exactly what made Kirby, Toth et al such masters, so it’s not a basic “Hey, these young kids don’t know nothin‘!” scenario…)

Time to add another couple of bookmarks, art lovers. Not only has Dave Johnson set up a blog where he discusses what works and what doesn’t work about today’s comic book covers – Be warned, gentle readers, he has opinions (but be reassured, aesthetes, they’re pretty spot-on) – he’s also part of another new blog, What Not, which seems to be a group blog where various creators post recent artwork. The members of said group? That would be Johnson, Amanda Conner, Andrew Robinson, Becky Cloonan, Cliff Chiang, Dan Panosian, Duncan Fergredo, Eric Canete, Francesco Francavilla, Jock, Mark Chiarello, Mike Oeming, Phil Noto, Sean Phillips and Bill Sienkiewicz. I think we can just go ahead and agree that this will be one absolutely stunning-looking blog, right…?

Update, 1:45 p.m. eastern: Brilliant is not just a five-issue miniseries, writer Brian Michael Bendis has said on Twitter.

“BRILLIANT is NOT a 5 issue min. the first story isn’t even a five issue story. not sure why that is there,” Bendis wrote. More on this as it develops. — Albert Ching

Original story: For those wondering how next year’s Avengers Assemble series by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley was going to affect their creator-owned series Brilliant, well, it’s not a typo in the February solicits: Marvel announced late last week that Brilliant was now a 5-issue mini-series.

Brilliant has had a particularly troubled history; announced in March this year as a bi-monthly “maxiseries” (“This is a long miniseries so I guess the technical term is maxiseries. But it’s really something in between,” explained Bendis at the time) to launch in July, the series was bumped to an August launch in the last week of July because of a switch from pencils-only to a traditional pencil-and-ink look. The launch then slipped again to the end of September, with the bi-monthly schedule apparently impacted by Bendis and Bagley’s other commitments, as #2 now isn’t expected until December 21st. #3 and 4 were originally solicited for November and January releases, and the current schedule sees #3 released a week after #2 (December 28th), and then the book getting back on track with #4, apparently headed for a January 11th in-store date. #5 is scheduled to appear a month later, finishing the book’s run.

Avengers Assemble is scheduled for a March 2012 launch.

Alan Moore on comics being viewed as a male industry:

When I do signings occasionally, and get to meet some of the audience, I’ve noticed that there are a lot more women in the queues, which is perhaps a mark of the general female uptake of comics. It’s not such a boys’ field as it used to be. But also it seems that a lot of people don’t seem to be coming from a comics background. [When I created The Ballad of Halo Jones for 2000AD,] there wasn’t a single – I mean, I was annoyed – there wasn’t a single girls’ comic in Britain. I thought, well if you do more stories that are aimed at women, you’ll get more women reading the comics. It would seem fairly simple and straightforward, but there was a lot of resistance [to the idea].

Is this where I use that whole “plus ça change” phrase…? (Also, Is Halo Jones still in print? If so, you should really read it, if you haven’t already.)

There is so, so much goodness in this Mark Waid interview with Tucker Stone, but let’s quote this part, shall we?

I’ve been carrying this banner for a long time: how to craft a first issue that makes people want to come back rather than feel like they’re punished for not coming back because they only got a little bit of a story, or because you’re not giving them the basics of storytelling. That stuff just makes me insane. I think some of the best work I’ve ever done has been first issue stuff–the Fantastic Four launch I did with ‘Ringo, or the Legion #1 I did with Barry Kitson. Whether you like the stories or not, the craftsmanship is something I’m proud of. Here is a story. Here’s what the characters want, what they’re interested in, what they’re after and what’s in their way, and what they have to overcome in interesting, visual ways that you can only do in comic books. How hard is that, for christsakes?

And yet I feel like a voice in the wilderness when I say that. Again, this is why I’m heartened by the response to Daredevil #1. It really feels like I’ve been doing these kinds of first issues for a long time. Clean slates, where I’m giving you what you need. And people got it! I feel like one of those guys who tops the charts with a number one single, and then you find out he’s been around for ten years and you just never knew. That’s heartening, that feeling that my personal taste and the market’s taste have finally lined up for a brief second.

Earlier in the interview, Waid and Stone make some comments along the lines of wishing that Daredevil was getting more attention in general, to which I wholeheartedly concur. People, if you like superhero comics and you’ve not sampled the new Daredevil series yet, you are missing out to a degree you can’t even imagine. It’s just great comics. End of free plug. Now go read the rest of the interview, because it’s filled with good stuff.

It’s a case of good news/bad news for fans who’d been hoping to see Brian Michael Bendis’ and Mike Oeming’s Powers debut on FX this fall. Let’s start with the bad: It’s not been picked up to series. The good? It’s not dead, either; FX has opted to “retool” the show, with reshoots being scheduled for the pilot, before making any further decisions about its future, according to Deadline Hollywood. On Twitter, Bendis was quick to explain why this was a good thing:

network spending more $$ on powers is good. they did the same to the sons of anarchy pilot. fx sees pilots diff then reg networks. a lot of pilots go through this. but they aren’t based on anything so you never hear about it. the network convos this week have been great.

However, the retooling/reshoots – which is more about tone and clarity than redefining the series, according to Bendis – doesn’t mean that FX has quietly given the show a green light; Outlaw Country, another pilot in contention for the same slot as Powers, had gone through the same process of retooling and reshoots before being officially dumped by the channel yesterday. Short version? Stay tuned – but don’t hold your breath just yet.

How best to cut down on harrassment and bad behavior at comic book conventions? Peter David is wondering whether we need a convention bill of rights:

I think it would be an interesting idea to produce a list of simple, basic rights that everyone attending conventions–both pros and fans–should expect. I mean, you’d think that they would be common sense; things that people would just know. On the other hand, the 10 Commandments were pretty common sense too, when you think about it, so I figure if it’s good enough for God…

On his list, basics like “Treat others as you would want to be treated,” rules about signatures and just how many you can expect in one go, and a request not to fall asleep in the front rows of panels (Seriously, people: If you’re that tired, you should probably leave the convention and go and find a bed somewhere, if only for comfort’s sake). But there is something about the idea of a list of basic convention rights, isn’t there? All I’d want to be in there would be something about ensuring relatively reasonably priced food available somewhere for morons like myself who always forget to have a good enough breakfast that morning, but can’t bring myself to buy a microwaved burger for $9…

Flickr photo by Parka.

In a great blog post, Uncanny X-Men writer Kieron Gillen considers just how to make comics featuring long-running characters accessible to new and old readers:

I’ve noticed a few people who said they felt absolutely lost. Which interested me, obviously, because it implies I made a right pigs ear somewhere… Thankfully, most of these people seemed to say what sort of things they felt weren’t explained, which is where I started getting really interested. They were all questions on a similar array of topics. I’ll choose one example, because it seemed to be the first one on a lot of people’s lists, and in many ways most characteristic of the reservations…“Why are the X-men in San Francisco?”

And I’m genuinely thrown.

I would have never have thought of explaining this. I wouldn’t have thought of explaining that any more than “Why is Spider-man in New York?” if I were starting Spider-man or “Why are they in Westchester?” if I was doing Jason’s job or even “Why are they living on Tracey Island?” if I were writing Thunderbirds.

The Uncanny X-men are a superhero team. They live on an Island off San Francisco. It’s just who they are.

Of course, I can see the reason why it’s thrown the people. It’s they know the X-men live in a mansion in Westchester. That they’re not living in Westchester is the problem. It’s not about giving the information to read the story that’s there. It’s about correcting pre-existing assumptions. In other words, it’s not a problem about being accessible to new readers – because a genuinely new reader would accept the fact the X-men live on Utopia in the same way that they except that Bilbo lives in the Shire – but rather a problem with the readers being old readers. They feel lost not because of the story on the page, but the gap between the old story in their heads and the story on the page, and wanting to know what connects the two.

Much more at the link, but it’s a really interesting question. How much do writers have to explain before you feel like you know enough?

Here’s Axel Alonso talking to CBR last week, about the upcoming Age of Apocalypse series spinning out of Uncanny X-Force:

[I]t can’t be dismissed as an alternate reality story because it has its roots in “Uncanny X-Force”; events in this story could very well cause a ripple effect in the Marvel Universe in the future.

This kind of thinking, of course, has its roots in the idea that only books that “count” will appeal to fans, and an alternate reality story is exactly the kind of thing that doesn’t “count.” In fact, it’s something that’s even been designed to not “count” in terms of the bigger continuity, because it takes place in a different reality altogether. But at the same time, isn’t the point of setting something in an alternate reality to ensure that it can be – if not “dismissed,” then at least set aside and considered separate from the mainline reality with all of its attendant continuity?

The idea of creating a book in an alternate reality but then hinting that it really might be about the mainline reality as well feels somewhat self-defeating, and the very definition of “aiming to please two audiences, but just ending up disappointing everyone.” Here’s hoping that Alonso’s tease ends up to be empty.

I’ll admit, Frank Miller’s Occupy Wall Street tirade didn’t make me think much beyond “Well, I guess he really has become that cranky old reactionary that people have been stereotyping him as for years,” but the resulting uproar has me wondering where everyone’s line is for the old “I try not to let my opinion of the artist affect my opinion of the work” dichotomy.

I’ve seen a lot of people offering up variations on “Well, if that’s what Frank thinks, I can’t support his work anymore!” – which begs the question, “Did you somehow miss Holy Terror?” – but I’ll admit, there was nothing in the rant that made me think that his work was any lesser, especially his earlier work. There’re many, many creators who I feel like I wouldn’t like in person whose work I enjoy, and the reverse is also true: There are many creators whose work I don’t enjoy at all, whose interviews and the like I eagerly seek out because I enjoy their personalities. But the two are separate in my head, for some reason, and even if someone whose work I like says something exceptionally offensive, I’d still consider buying their next book if I liked their work. But am I a freak for that? Where is your line for cutting off creators – and what would make you reconsider that ban afterwards?

I’ll admit it; I am entirely biased in favor of Chris Claremont’s X-Men run. It’s the comic that made me a collector, the first comic I got obsessive about and, for that matter, the first comic I ended up dropping in frustration back when they were stuck in Australia and Havok was being an ass. No wonder, then, that I’m so excited about the prospect of a documentary about the run, from the same people behind the Warren Ellis: Captured Ghosts and Grant Morrison: Talking with Gods movies:

Comics in Focus: Chris Claremont’s X-Men will take an in-depth look at Claremont’s monumental run. It will explore the behind-the-scenes origins of notable characters like Wolverine, Storm, and Phoenix, as well as the challenges of creating art within a corporate system. The film will include new interviews with many of the biggest players involved, including Claremont, Louise Simonson, Ann Nocenti, Art Adams, and Jim Shooter. Particularly notable is a roundtable interview featuring Claremont, Simonson, and Nocenti, together for the first time in 10 years. The film will also include new interviews with contemporary artists inspired by Claremont’s work, including Matt Fraction, Jason Aaron, and Chris Bachalo.

The movie is currently looking for funding on Kickstarter. Personally, I’m hoping some eccentric millionaire comes forward and funds the whole thing, and then demands it be turned into a lengthier TV series…

Over at Millarworld, Tony Harris is sharing the original inkwash and finished painting for an upcoming cover to DC’s The Shade miniseries:

Click through for the finished painting. Spoilers: It’s lovely. (more…)

We may never get an official confirmation that Marvel has dropped their regular superhero books to 20 pages, but unofficial confirmation comes via Matt Fraction, who has given two interviews promoting next month’s Defenders book in the last week where he talks about the publisher dropping its page count, with quotes like this:

And industry-wide, everyone’s going down two pages. I learned to write comics in 16 pages, so 22 pages always felt pornographic. Going down to 20 is much more comfortable [for me], but it’s changing everything in a real way. And there are people that realize it, and people who don’t — who say, “it’s just two pages.” That’s 10% of a book. By the time you get to the end of six issues, that’s a whole other issue you’ve lost. I think you’re going to see people rising and falling on this. It’s a very different world, a different format, a different time signature.

The question is, with pagecounts officially falling, I wonder if we’ll see more Marvel books at a $2.99 price point as a consequence?