Sunday, September 7
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Jason McNamara and Paige Braddock’s The Martian Confederacy is scheduled to hit stores today, and Jason sent us a few preview pages for folks who might want to “try before they buy.”
I spoke with Jason about the book a few months back; you can check that interview out here. Their official website for the book can be found here.
In its seventh week on the USA Today bestseller list, the Watchmen slipped six places to No. 20. But the collection ruled the BookScan graphic novel chart for the second month in a row.
Buoyed by excitement over the trailer for Zack Snyder’s movie adaptation, the collection of the 21-year-old miniseries leaped onto the USA Today chart just days after the teaser’s July 17 debut with The Dark Knight. The trade paperback peaked at No. 13 on Aug. 21. USA Today’s chart tracks all genres and formats of books sold in some 4,700 brick-and-mortar and online stores.
To meet increased demand, DC Comics has printed an additional 900,000 copies of the Alan Moore-Dave Gibbons collection. That means the book will have a print run of more than 1 million copies this year.
However, Watchmen isn’t the only comic to benefit from movie buzz. Last week Batman: The Dark Knight Returns debuted on the USA Today list at No. 107, some six weeks removed from the premiere of the Chris Nolan’s The Dark Knight, and two decades removed from the miniseries’ initial release. The collection of 1988’s The Killing Joke also enjoyed a one-week stay on the chart.
Those Batman books continued to perform well on BookScan’s August graphic novel list. The Killing Joke Special Edition hardcover was just behind Watchmen, at No. 2, followed by The Dark Knight Returns. A little further down was The Long Halloween (No. 8), Year One (No. 9), and Arkham Asylum (No. 13).
The site DonorsChoose.org allows teachers to ask for donations for various teaching-related projects, sort of like a Kiva for educators. “Mr. S.” in Texas is trying to raise funds to buy copies of Kingdom Come for his English as a Second Language students:
Reading is a key survival skill and a necessity that my students need to get ahead in within school and life. My students must develop good reading skills as a foundation of learning all of their school subjects. Countless research has shown that students that have a good understanding of reading and are able to read well do better in school. Research has also shown that in order to become a better reader kids must be given the opportunity to read. Unfortunately, my students can not afford to buy books and often times the books that are available for them in school is written “way over their heads.”
My goal is to put quality comic books, that are easy to read, but require high academic skills and rigor, into the hands of my students. Research has shown that while easier to read than “regular novels,” comic books actually require higher order thinking skills to understand. The same higher order thinking skills that are required in math and science. To this end I would like to provide my students with a class set of the graphic novel “Kingdom Come” and the “Kingdom Come-Author’s edition” to help my students become better readers.
He needs $546 for the books, and has already raised $150.
How many of you went to the comics shop at lunchtime only to realize — too late! — that the new books don’t hit the shelves until Thursday?
Pesky Labor Day.
But when you return tomorrow you should find another issue of Buffy Season 8 — complete with centaur-Dawn! — a new Love & Rockets series, the first volume of Takehiko Inoue’s popular Slam Dunk, and a things-will-never-be-the-same 75th issue of Fables.
Oh, and strangely enough, a pair of miniseries about missing or sunken submarines — one each from Marvel and BOOM!
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.
– Darth Vader vs. the Fantastic Four.
– All-Star Superman in 11 panels.
– Shaenon Garrity writes about pioneer Anne Cleveland.
– Du9 interviews Chester Brown, who really doesn’t get interviewed enough.
– Kim Thompson and Eddie Campbell on just how many good graphic novels there are out there anyway.
– Alaska now has a cartoonist laureate.
– Paste shares 20 things they learned at Dragon*Con.
Compiled by JK and Chris. But mostly Chris.
In its sixth week on USA Today’s bestseller list, the Watchmen trade paperback slips just one spot to No. 14 as the “trailer effect” continues to fuel interest in the 1986 miniseries.
Here’s the real surprise, though: Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, by Frank Miller, Klaus Janson and Lynn Varley, leaps onto the chart at No. 107.
I might’ve understood if the collection of the 1986 miniseries had appeared on the USA Today list last month, after the release of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight; the movie spurred increased sales of several Batman trade paperbacks.
But six weeks removed, this seems to come out of nowhere. We can’t even point to that Cher casting rumor as the cause, as the book chart is based on sales through Aug. 24.
USA Today’s list tracks all genres and formats of books sold in some 4,700 brick-and-mortar and online stores.
• Screenwriters Matt Manfredi and Phil Hay (Aeon Flux, The Tuxedo) will pen Columbia Pictures’ adaptation of Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s series The Boys. Columbia optioned the comic back in February. [The Hollywood Reporter]
• Just how dark can Warner Bros. go with the Superman movie reboot? Kevin Smith, Jeph Loeb, Mark Waid, Steven T. Seagle and Michael Golden weigh in. [Splash Page]
• Despite an announcement made yesterday by Herge Studios, Steven Spielberg’s representatives say he’s committed to directing the first film in the planned Tintin trilogy for DreamWorks. A spokesman for Herge Studios, which holds the rights to the property, had said Peter Jackson was moving into the director’s chair. [The Hollywood Reporter]
• Director Edgar Wright provides updates on Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and Ant-Man. [Wizard, via Cinematical]
• Although rumors had circulated that 20th Century Fox was scrapping the adaptation of Dragonball, the studio apparently is releasing a trailer on Oct. 17. [ComingSoon.net]
• Marvel’s Avengers movie could shoot at Toronto’s new state-of-the-art production facility Filmport. [Hollywood North]
If this week’s shipping list is any indication, we may have reached the Dog Days.
For those with extra cash in your pocket — hey, gas has dropped 15 cents a gallon, right? — Marvel is releasing the hardcover Daredevil By Brian Michael Bendis Omnibus for $100. If you’re looking for something a little less expensive, Wednesday also sees the premiere of the third volume of Runaways, by Terry Moore and Humberto Ramos.
DC says good-bye to Catwoman and hello to two more Final Crisis tie-ins: DC Universe: Last Will and Testament and Superman Beyond.
Elsewhere, Dark Horse collects Chris Onstad’s popular Achewood comic, Abrams spotlights Al Jaffee’s Tall Tales strips, and Image debuts Guerillas.
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.
Amazing Joy Buzzards/Aqua Leung writer Mark Andrew Smith dropped us a note about a contest the art site Satellite Soda is holding. The deadline for submissions is midnight Pacific Sept. 23:
To celebrate the second volume of Amazing Joy Buzzards titled “Monster Love” (Well, technically it is the third volume and all-new material) in November, Satellite Soda is having an Amazing Joy Buzzards art battle where the winner’s pin-up will be printed in the new volume of Amazing Joy Buzzards.
It’s going down here! Be sure to check in often and watch the battle as it unfolds!:
Halo and Sprocket, Vol. 2: Natural Creatures
Written and Illustrated by Kerry Callen
SLG; $8.95
First thought on receiving a review copy of the book in the mail: Uh oh. I haven’t read Volume 1 yet. I’d better see if I can get that one sent to me so I can review it first.
First thought on reading the letter that accompanied the book: Hmm. It’s been five years since Volume 1 came out. There are probably a lot of folks who haven’t read that one. Maybe I should just dive in and see how it reads to someone new.
First thought five pages into the book: Reads really well, actually.
On the back cover of the book, Randy Lander calls Halo and Sprocket “the perfect sitcom.” With all respect to Lander, I disagree; mostly because that description raises expectations that I don’t know if Halo and Sprocket is trying to meet. I tend to judge comedies on one thing only: how much they make me laugh. And while Halo and Sprocket is cute and charming and insightful, I didn’t find it uproarious or side-splitting. Nor do I think it was intended to be.
Maybe what Lander meant by “sitcom” (I haven’t read his full review) has more to do with the book’s format. It’s not a narrative with a plot; it’s a series of short stories about a young woman who lives with a robot and an angel. More Casper the Friendly Ghost format than Owly, if that distinction makes sense. The stories are all delightful and funny, so yes, “situational comedy” is definitely an appropriate label, but again, you won’t be struggling to breathe from laughing too hard. You’ll be smiling though. Widely.
Vulture has a preview of Guy Delisle’s upcoming graphic novel Burma Chronicles. The book will be available from Drawn and Quarterly in September.
With HarperCollins collecting all of Scott McCloud’s black-and-white Zot! comics into one gigantic 576-page phone book, the New York Daily News interviews the creator about his career in comics, Zot!, and his early ambitions to be a chess champion:
DN: What path did you take once you made your decision to become a comic creator?
SM: Well, I was actually a creature of obsession. Before comics, I’d spent three years just trying to be the youngest world chess champion. That didn’t work out. Before that I was really obsessed with a bunch of other things — politics for about a year microbiology before that, the space program — I had these obsessions and I was always drawing the whole time. It wasn’t until I discovered comics that I actually began to approach drawing as a possible career. Before that, it was just something that I did. My dad was an engineer and so I had this picture of science and technology and pursuits of the mind as being more impressive than artistic pursuits, which I saw a as kind of frivolous.
The Washington Post has a big feature by “lifelong Prose Guy” Bob Thompson on the realization that hey, comics are really growing in popularity these days. Investigating the matter further, he talks to Francoise Mouly and Adrian Tomine, and attends a lecture by Scott McCloud:
Now McCloud is taking audience questions, and here comes one that seems aimed in my direction.
What about those still-numerous naysayers, he is asked, who resist the idea that books filled with word balloons should be taken as seriously as pure prose? Isn’t there a way to educate those annoying old fogies — perhaps through some kind of “adult literacy campaign for comics”?
Sounds good to me. After all, isn’t education what I’m here for?
McCloud offers a different perspective. Some people will never get it, he says.
“And it’s okay. They’ll die.”
Thompson also teamed up with Mome artist Jonathan Bennet on a series of accompanying comic strips, (I like how Francoise Mouly looks like a Dick Tracy villain). If all that’s not enough, Doug Wolk does a review round-up of some recent titles (hat tip: Bill Kartalopoulos).
The World Science Fiction Society will add a Best Graphic Story category to the prestigious Hugo Awards, which honor science fiction and fantasy.
The new category will need to be ratified at next year’s Worldcon before it can take effect. However, organizers of the 2009 convention in Montréal have included Best Graphic Story as a temporary category. According to ICv2.com, “Any science fiction or fantasy story told in graphic form appearing for the first time in the previous calendar year” will be eligible.
Although this will be the first time the Hugos have had a category specifically for comics, in 1988 it honored Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen in the Other Forms category. And in 2000, Neil Gaiman and Yoshitaka Amano’s illustrated novella The Sandman: The Dream Hunters was nominated in the Best Related Book category for a work that “is either non-fiction or, if fictional, is noteworthy primarily for aspects other than the fictional text.”
On his blog, Derek Kirk Kim says that he’s completed The Eternal Smile, a book he’s been working on with American Born Chinese creator Gene Yang:
As I mentioned before, this book is my collaboration with Gene Yang. Gene writing, me illustrating. This project has consumed my life for the past year, leaving little room for anything else. (As I’m sure you’ve noticed from this vacant website.) I worked my ass off on this book and I think I can safely say it’s the best artwork I’ve ever done in a comic. Okay, that’s not saying much, but still. (That’s a full page panel from the book above.) But even better, the three stories that make up this book are some of the best pieces of fiction Gene has ever written, in my opinion. It was an honor to be drawing for Gene. Being that this book is Gene’s follow-up to his towering masterpiece, “American Born Chinese,” I’ll be even more honored to ride his coattails.
Kim says the book will be published by First Second next spring.
Just when it looked like the Watchmen “trailer effect” was subsiding, the collection of the 1986 miniseries jumped five spots to No. 13 on USA Today’s bestseller list — which may be the highest-ever position held by a graphic novel.
Two weeks ago the trade paperback reached No. 15 on the book chart, the same spot held in April 2007 by the 16th volume of Natsuki Takaya’s Fruits Basket. I can’t recall a comic performing better than that, but if anyone has a better memory for these things, please correct me.
USA Today’s chart tracks all genres and formats of books sold in some 4,700 brick-and-mortar and online stores.
Fueled by the release of the trailer for Zack Snyder’s adaptation, sales of the Alan Moore-Dave Gibbons collection have skyrocketed. To meet increased demand, DC Comics has printed an additional 900,000 copies of Watchmen since the teaser’s debut on July 17. That means the book will have a print run of more than 1 million copies this year.
Related: Andrew Steven Harris takes a look at the legal fight between Fox and Warner Bros. over the Watchmen adaptation, and provides my favorite headline of the week: “The world will look up and say, ’sue us.’ And I’ll look down and whisper, ‘okay’.”
– Joëlle Jones draws some X-Women.
– An entire blog devoted to Ronald Searle? I’m so there.
– Eric Bogosian to recite Art Spiegleman. There’s a pairing I never expected to see.
– PBS Newshour does a profile on Jeff Smith.
– Pantheon will publish Dash Shaw’s Bodyworld.
– Scatalogical Hulk joke alert!
– Ryan Kelly shares Northlanders character designs.
– Here’s a map in case you ever get lost in Springfield. Via.
– Vulture previews Burma Chronicles by Guy Delisle.
– Das Gamer wonders why the Halo comic is taking so long to complete.
– Larry Marder teases new Beanworld. Wohoo!
– Neil Kleid is doing a series of articles on the Dark Tower for Marvel.com. Here’s the first one.
– Bill Kahler and Mark Yturralde, the treasurer for Comic-Con International, are contestants on the Amazing Race this fall.
– The Hero Initiative has more Hulk covers up for auction. This week’s covers are by John McCrea, John Romita and Fred Hembeck, among others.
Compiled by JK and Chris.
– Wil Moss talks to the Apocalipstix team.
– Good news: IDW is going to alter the format of the Dick Tracy books in order to allow the Sunday pages to be printed at a larger size.
– Brigid Alverson talks to Templar, Arizona creator Charlie Trotman.
– The Daily Cross Hatch chats up Cory Doctorow.
– Frank Santoro on Kyle Baker’s How to Draw Stupid.
– Franklin Harris recounts the history of EC Comics for Reason.
– James Kochalka takes a stab at recreating a classic Fantastic Four page.
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