As part of Blog@’s look at webcomics, may I direct your attention to Voids? Written and drawn by Shayna Marchese, Voids follows twentysomething Sara at the moment her life begins to tailspin into a very odd direction. Within the space of a week, she finds herself without any of the steady, constant things she’d moored herself to… and in scrambling to pick up the pieces, she finds herself surrounded by new people, with old connections and grudges. As Sara gets to know the situation better, it slowly unfolds before the readers’ eyes as well. Shayna Marchese tells us a little more:

Without giving too much away, what is Voids about?

SM: It’s really like most stories: It’s about friendship, relationships, not knowing what you’re doing with your life. The main character is sort of drifting along; she has no real job, no real home, no very strong ties to anyone. The characters are all in some way lost and look to different things try and feel less so. Frances needs to be in a relationship, Andrew drinks, Nika goes through men in order to feel in charge of something. The story is meandering in a way that hopefully will let readers “know” the characters by the end.

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If you like what’s you’ve read so far totally check out more super cute comics at:www.sosuperduper.com!

Hey all!  Blog@ begins serializing So Super Duper today!

So Super Duper by Brian Andersen: An Intro by J. Caleb Mozzocco

If you’ve been reading superhero comics for very long, chances are you’ve read some pretty gay stuff. But I’m pretty confident you’ve never read anything quite as gay as So Super Duper, writer/artist Brian Andersen’s ongoing adventures of Psyche, the least useful member of the premier super-team The Amazin’naughts.

Psyche’s an empath, which gives him the ability to read the emotions of others, allowing him to helpfully point to, say, a giant monster in the process of destroying the city and say, “Hey, that giant monster is totally evil!”

Psyche prances and he minces about; he squees and he squeals. His wrists are limp, his boots are light. He eschews a superhero cape in favor of a scarf. In short, he’s the most flaming superhero since Johnny Storm.

But is he actually gay? Like, a homosexual gay? Like, guy who likes guys instead of gals gay? He certainly fits all the stereotypes, and his co-workers all seem to think he is, but both he and his best gal pal, who secretly longs for him, are completely oblivious.

While that may be the central conflict of Andersen’s story, “conflict” seems like a pretty strong word for such a light book. Anderson approaches his storytelling like something between a comic strip and a sitcom, devoting time equally to Psyche’s conflicts with the frosty queen bee of the team, his relationship with his totally platonic best friend, his struggle to prove his worth to all the heroes with more combat-ready powers than super-empathy and the conflict between people’s expectations of what is gay and what is straight and what the reality of gayness and straightness is, all told in little character sketches that vacillate melodramatic soap opera and character-based comedy. Oh, and there’s superheroes and supervillains punching each other and blasting each other with superpowers, because this is a superhero comic.

But hey, you’ll see all that for yourself soon enough, as Blog@ begins serialization of Anderson’s So Super Duper. I’m just here to let you know that you’re in for a fun ride with an especially effervescent character unlike any other superhero you’ve ever met.

Now go say “HIEeeeeeeee!” to Psyche; I’m sure he’ll be like so totally excited to meet you…

This is the only thing that would make me want to see The Sound of Music again:

Julie Andrews vs. Nazi Vampires! Somebody get Michael Bay on the phone and tell him to stop working on that new A Nightmare on Elm Street remake and get to work on this film right away.

For more awesome pieces of art like this, go check out Jim Rugg’s website and livejournal, where the Street Angel artist regularly posts new works.

Hello All!

Holly Golightly here…or Holly G! I like both… Miss Holly is okay too. Troy has so generously extended an invitation to blog here at Newsarama!

How groovy is that?

Well just so ya know - I’m VP/creator at Jim Balent’s (my hubby) BroadSword Comics… I’ve done pencils, inks, colours and more for other companies, and still do - but most happiest workin’ just for us!

I thought I’d share what’s comin’ out of our studio this year.

Tarot, Witch of the Black Rose, will turn 9 years old on March 2009! So of course we celebrate with a limited edition Photo Cover.

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Radical Publishing has announced a bevy of talent that will be at their table during the New York Comic Con.

The first-time attendee has said that its roster of sequential artists — including the legendary Jim Steranko (NICK FURY: AGENT OF SHIELD), Arthur Suydam (MARVEL ZOMBIES), Steve Niles (30 DAYS OF NIGHT), David Hine (SPAWN), Rick Remender (PUNISHER: WAR JOURNAL), Steve Pugh (ANIMAL MAN), and Sam Sarkar (Beverly Hills 90210) — will be signing work throughout the Feb. 6-8th event.

In addition, Radical’s Dream Team will be hosting a panel at 5:15-6:15pm Saturday, in which they will discuss their newest titles. Following the panel, there will be a special drawing where winners will receive a signed poster from one of the creators.

“This is a really exciting time for the company right now,” said Barry Levine, Radical Publishing’s President and Publisher, in a press release . “We have a great lineup of new titles involving our guests to introduce at the show, along with a very special surprise announcement to be made at our panel. This is a great opportunity for fans to meet us, to see our complete library of titles and what we have in store for 2009.”

Among Radical’s lineup is Steranko’s Hercules: Knives of Kush, Suydam’s Cholly and Flytrap: Hush City, Hine’s FZVA: Federal Zombie and Vampire Agency, Niles’ City of Dust: A Philip Khrome Story, Remender’s The Last Days of American Crime, Sarkar’s Caliber: First Cannon of Justice, and Pugh and Warren Ellis’ Hotwire: Requiem for the Dead.

By Filip Sablik, Publisher of Top Cow Productions, Inc.

I love ice cream. It’s one of my many vices and I’m cool with that. Chocolate and vanilla are old standbys because they pair well with just about anything. Pie? Good. Cake? Good. Cookies? Good. Bananas, nuts, and candy? Good. A nice filet mignon? Probably not, but I’d be willing to try it.

As much as those two flavors are standbys and consistently the most popular flavors in surveys, I do love to experiment with different flavors. Hit me with some Peanut Butter Cup, Mint Chocolate Chip, Cookies & Cream, Rocky Road, or any number of more unique combinations and I’m a happy man. What does this have to do with comics?

In the last couple of weeks, I’ve seen a bunch of “Best” lists online for top picks of comics and graphic novels for 2008 and couldn’t help but notice how heavily dominated they are by Big Two books. When I scan the list of top-selling books from Diamond each month on ICv2, I can’t help but notice the lack of what I would call independent titles.  In the top 25 comics last month, there was only one non-Marvel, non-DC title – Buffy, The Vampire Slayer – an excellent read, but a licensed property with its roots in television. In the top 50, only two others – Angel (same boat as Buffy) and The Umbrella Academy. The Umbrella Academy gives me a little bit of hope, because it’s a fantastic, unique comic that doesn’t rely on a pre-established licensed property, but that’s only one out of 50! The top 100 looks a bit better, but only slightly so with the addition of The Walking Dead, Spawn, Conan the Cimmerian (licensed again) and Black Terror from Dynamite Entertainment.

Then reading John Mayo’s monthly report of sales through Diamond, I came across this chilling statement – “the total units sold for the top 300 comics was down by an estimated 1,763,925 units from October 2008 and down 1,185,793 from November 2007.” As John explains, the reason for this significant sales hit is because a number of high-profile titles from Marvel and DC Comics did not ship in those two months.

Back to my ice cream analogy so we can bring this blog entry full circle. Marvel and DC are our vanilla and chocolate. I say “our” because they’re mine as well, I love the characters and the stories these companies produce. But the pure domination of the market concerns me both as a fan of independent and original comics and as a publisher of the same said comics. It bugs me when I see a second or third-tier superhero character outselling a unique, critically acclaimed title like The Goon, Mouse Guard, Firebreather or Pax Romana.

Using November as an example again, Marvel had almost 43% of the total units sold to comic shops and DC had 35%. The percentages by which vanilla and chocolate are favorite flavors? According to the International Ice Cream Association, 29% prefer vanilla and less than 9% prefer chocolate. Independent comic publishers fight over 22% of the market, while other ice cream flavors compete for 62% of your taste buds. I think the latter makes for a much richer market place overall.

What do you think?

Take care,

Filip Sablik
Publisher Guy

Filip Sablik is the Publisher of Top Cow Productions, Inc. He’s been in the business for eight years and just officially entered his thirties. Occasionally, he does a bit of writing and drawing. He loves comics.

Top Cow Productions, Inc. was founded by Marc Silvestri, co-founder of Image Comics. Top Cow currently publishes its line of comic books in 21 languages in over 55 different countries. The company has launched 20 franchises (18 original and two licensed) in the industry’s Top 10, seven at #1, a feat accomplished by no other publisher in the last two decades.

CBG Comics has announced that it will print Trina Robbins’ indie series “California Girls” as a trade paperback.

The eight-issue black-and-white series, originally printed in the 1980s, starred an all-female cast and spotlighted the adventures of twins Max and Mo.

This collection not only includes the original issues, but will include paper dolls, reader-submitted fashions, as well as artistic work by the late Barb Rausch.

CBG plans on releasing the trade at the San Francisco Wonder Con on Feb. 27-Mar. 1 at Trina Robbins’ table, the Prism Comics table, as well as on their main web site at sosuperduper.com.

CBG Comics prints titles including So Super Duper, Reignbow & Dee-Va, and Unabashedly Billie.

Apparently some enterprising student filmmakers decided to shoot a story from Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan’s DEMO. The results wound up on YouTube, and are kind of hilarious.

For those of you who haven’t read DEMO (get to it!), it’s a series of done-in-one short stories about young people. Many of the stories revolved around a superpower, but this particular one did not. It’s just the story of a young couple breaking up.

Watching comics get translated to film is always interesting and spawns nitpicking,  but this one made me think in particular about the pacing and timing of comics. The story on the page reads slowly, calmly, unfolding like the wreckage of a failed relationship before your eyes, with Becky Cloonan’s stark black and white drawings keeping it simple yet capturing each bit of emotion. And like most writers that started off as artists, Brian Wood knows how to get out of Cloonan’s way and let her draw.

Yet this version seems so rushed, and reads the characters differently than I did. Still, it’s fun to watch.

iPhones — the Final Frontier.

It’s been an interesting few years for comics, with the digitial revolution being mined by Marvel (with its exclusive online content, as well as the DVD archives of many of its comics) and DC (with its Zuda web comic contest). Even web sites with previews like Newsarama have done their part in changing the field of comics through the World Wide Web with four to eight-page previews (which, when you consider most issues are 22 pages, that’s a lot).

But what about the iPhone?

Smartphones are becoming far more than just cellular devices — they’re making the move to becoming mobile computers. So how will comics adapt?

Slowly but surely, comics are hitting the iPhone. It was announced today by Appstore that publisher IDW is issuing reprints for the iPhone of Peter David’s Star Trek series. The first of the five issues will be a rerelease of issue #13, the story known as “Return of the Worthy.” Trekmovie reports that after this run is completed, IDW will move on with other properties such as “Best of the Borg” and “Best of Deep Space 9.”

But the real kicker?

They only cost 99 cents each.

IDW is far from the only comic taking this route. Jeff Smith, long known as a guy ahead of the curve, has already released the first issue of Bone on the iPhone in October — also for 99 cents. And perhaps its no surprise that that app made Apple’s Pick of the Week.

With prices rising from many of the big companies, one question seems to be obvious: will this be a new method of distribution for comics retailers? If they can successfully work out the iPhone’s bugs — and those of you who have worked on just about any high-memory application can relate to the freezing and weird shutdowns that occassionally occur — maybe. With Apple’s stringent policies for the App Store, it’s the first technology that both promotes commerce and deters piracy… at least for now.

While I know I am particularly attached to the paper-and-staple format, if the economy keeps declining and the culture continues to move on-the-go, maybe your ubiquitous iPhone will start to become your ubiquitous comic book reader.

I’m a Jewish comic-loving woman myself, so when my email inbox turned up “Graphic Confessions of Jewish Women,” from the Forward, I was intrigued. This article hit home in more than one way for me.

Michael Kaminer talks to several young, Jewish women who are creating autobiographical comics described as “raw and revealing.” Like Jewish comedians, these women couple self-awareness with a lack of shame and a willingness to discuss anything. But unlike current comedy darling Sarah Silverman, they appear to actually be willing to examine their own hearts and minds with microscopic vision.

More precisely, says Paul Buhle, author of “Jews and American Comics,” “there’s a Jewish self-identification in these artists’ sense of humor, their unashamed discussion of personal lives, their dealings with angst and unhappiness through a pop-culture art form.” Like Robbins, Buhle connects artists like Davis, Schrag, and Gross to the 1970s underground, “when extremely talented young women did comics about themselves and their lives in ways more frank, shocking, and vulgar than any artist could have been outside of Tijuana bibles.”

I’ve been accused of being a bit too much for most people myself. I’m familiar with the need to spill onto the page, with that feeling that it doesn’t matter what I have to say as long as I say it. The Facebook generation is particularly used to confessional stories, as the article points out.

Still, not just any story will draw an audience, and even more so when it comes to comics. Along with a willingness to bare your soul, you’ve got to have an eye for the visuals to tell a good graphic story, and it appears that these women have that as well.

Monica Gallagher, writer/artist behind Gods and Undergrads and many other self-published comics, has a webcomic strip that I’m loving.

Bonnie N. Collide is a roller derby girl, and the strip is based on her day-to-day life. And so, enjoy.

When the going gets tough, do the tough get going? Or do they stay and fight to the bitter end?

Kevin Huizenga examines both in his new graphic novel Fight or Run, published by Buenaventura Press. The Pulse took an in-depth look at the book:

“I wanted to make up something with a stable structure and rules that I could just draw as an exercise, without having to think about it too much. There are a lot of strips like this–like Little Sammy Sneeze. Threats are indeed an ageless subject. There’s not a real subject though in the strips–it’s just a game…as they say. That means other people can play too, if they want, or not, c’est la vie.”

According to previews, the minimalist book was similar to “prehistoric cave art or the arcade classic Mortal Kombat.” Huizenga said he received a grant from the French government to inspect several cave paintings, which helped influence his work. You can read the rest of the interview here.

Fangoria has a great review up on its “Everyone’s a Critic” page for Trailer Park of Terror.

The movie, based on the Imperium Comics series, is about six young people trapped in isolation after their bus crashes. They are found by Norma, who offers to board them at the Trucker’s Triangle, but things take a turn for the worse when it is revealed she has a bevy of undead brethren.

Here’s a highlight of the review:

“This is buckets of blood (unrated version) and trailer trash zombies (in addition to various others, you get an Asian masseuse and “the meat lady”, who’s actually pretty scary) fun! It’s based on a great premise and I really enjoyed the story of how this Bermuda Triangle of a trailer park came to be.”

You can read the rest of the review here.

[Via Fangoria.]

Clearing out my review pile, here’s a look at some relatively (and I do mean relatively) new books for the tween-age set.

Knights of the Lunch Table: The Dodgeball Chronicles
by Frank Cammuso
Scholastic, $9.99.

The idea of grafting the King Arthur mythos onto a modern-day “boy makes good and new school” tale (a la Diary of a Wimpy Kid) seemed a bit forced to me at first, but Cammuso (Otto’s Orange Day, Max Hamm) does a good job creating an engaging, funny story that thankfully doesn’t force its metaphor the way say Tokyopop’s Avalon High series does. (more…)

Over at the Comic Geek Speak forums, retailer James Sime highlights an independent book that he recently took note of, APE’s Super Human Resources, thanks to their marketing efforts:

I got this in the mail today. 7 days before my orders are placed. These guys really nailed the world’s best timing with this one (I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten these kind of things too late for initial orders, huge waste of money!). The package was addressed to my shop, with a big fat “ATTN: James Sime” on the front of it. That’s nice, I like to know they give a crap who is going to be spending his hard earned American dollars on their book. And although I won’t use this poster, other retailers probably will, and I definitely appreciate the money and effort that went into the package.

Sime goes over other things they did right at the link above.

24Seven, Volume 1

Written and/or Illustrated by Jose Luis Ágreda, Jeff Amano, Paul Azaceta, Gabriel Bá, Hilary Barta, Frank Beaton, Nate Bellegarde, Ivan Brandon, Ryan Brown, Chris Brunner, Eric Canete, Benito Cereno, Becky Cloonan, Dave Crosland, Farel Dalrymple, Jonathan L. Davis, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Rami Efal, Matt Fraction, John G, Rob G, Brandon Graham, Miles Gunter, Phil Hester, Mike Huddleston, Adam Hughes, Rian Hughes, Frazer Irving, Paul Lau, Jasen Lex, Sonny Liew, Vasilis Lolos, Andy MacDonald, Jim Mahfood, Alex Maleev, Paul Maybury, Fábio Moon, Tony Moore, Melissa Oeming, Mike Oeming, Dan Panosian, Leland Purvis, Rick Remender, Esad Ribic, John Ney Rieber, Eduardo Risso, Jim Rugg, Neal Shaffer, Lakota Sioux, Mark Andrew Smith, James Stokoe, Rick Spears, Ben Templesmith, Frank Teran, and Danijel Zezelj.

Edited by Ivan Brandon
Image Comics; $24.99

This was a hard review to write. Not because I’m conflicted about the material (though I am), but because I was so completely off in my expectations for the book and it’s taken some work to align myself with what it really is.

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– Tom Spurgeon interviews James Kochalka.

– The Chicago Tribune talks to the guy who models as Superman for Alex Ross.

– S. Clay Wilson is now out of the ICU.

– Tintin made Herge “sick” according to recently discovered letters.

– I enjoyed this LA Times piece on the legal battles surrounding the Watchmen film.

– Buy a copy of Stan’s Soapbox and get it signed by John Romita Sr.

– If you can read Polish, here’s an interview with Milo Manara where he talks about his X-Men project he’s working on with Chris Claremont.

– Finally, here’s Watchmen, the Condensed Version.

I’ve read enough bad or lackluster anthologies over the years to know it’s not something you can just slap together. It takes real editorial vision and guidance to put together a solid collection of work, whether you’re talking about new material or older reprints.

Which is my roundabout way of saying just how impressed I am with Ivan Brunetti’s two Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons and True Stories. I had already known Brunetti was a first-rate cartoonist (Schizo, Misery Loves Comedy), but these books, taken together, show him to have a considerable sensitivity and thoughtfulness towards the medium, not just in his choices, but in their arrangement and layout.

While the first volume provided a strong art-comics overview for the uninitiated, the sequel casts a somewhat wider, though no less fascinating net. I was pleased, for example, to discover there were a few artists new to me, while the stories I was familiar came with a slightly new perspective due to their juxtoposition with other works.

I talked to Brunetti recently over the phone about the new collections, the challenges of putting together these anthologies in general, and the chance that we’ll see a new issue of Schizo in 2009 (sadly, probably not likely).

Q: What made you decide to do a second volume?

A: Besides insanity? At the time I put together the first book, my list of stuff I wanted to put in there got so huge I had 800 pages at one point. Actually the first book was supposed to be no more than 300 pages but I convinced Yale to let me do 400. And at some point I was thinking “500 pages would be good.” (more…)

– Alison Bechdel and Harvey Pekar, together at last.

– Steve Duin has some good news about underground cartoonist S. Clay Wilson, who has been in ICU for the past several days.

– Ada Price talks to Dave Gibbons about his new book, Watching the Watchmen.

– Looks like it’s official: Naruto Nation 2009 is totally a go.

– Sam Thielman looks at the significance of Alan Moore’s run on Swamp Thing in light of the new super-fancy collection coming out soon.

– Over at Stars and Stripes, Gary Trudeau answers some of his critics.

– Van Jensen talks to Mike Allred about the revamped Red Rocket collection.

– Here’s my idea of a fun time: Dan Nadel, Gary Panter and CF sitting around, talking about art and comics.

– Did you know About Comics is 10 years old this year? I didn’t. Chris Murphy has a recollection.

– Sandy Bilus is giving away a copy of Alan’s War over at his blog.

– Oscar Pedro Musibay looks at the Comics Galaxy event that was held at last weekend’s Miami Book Fair.

– Frank Santoro considers the new Popeye collection.