Hey all!

I’m Dirk Manning.

Regular Newsarama readers will know me as a regular contributor to the site and the fellow in the dapper black hat who writes the ongoing advice/”how-to” column Write or Wrong. If you’ve somehow managed to avoid the first forty-six(!!!) installments of the column to date, click the link to check out the most recent edition from a few weeks ago. As always, it’s informative and entertaining. Honest!

Fans of horror and/or online comics might also know me as the guy responsible for NIGHTMARE WORLD, a series of stand-alone but carefully intertwined short stories that detail several people’s lives and loves (and, yes, occasionally deaths) before, during and after an Armageddon of very Lovecraftian proportions. Cthulhu appears often, if that helps to motivate you, and we were also recently picked-up by Shadowline as part of their webcomic family to boot. Huzzah for us!

Aside from all that, Matt Brady also saw fit to thrust me upon the gang of talented folks who will be bringing you the new Blog @ Newsarama. I dunno, apparently Troy Brownfield made him mad or lost a bet or something…

Whatever the reason, the end result is that I’ll now be popping-in here from time-to-time in addition to my regular Newsarama duties, posting comic and entertainment stuff that I think is interesting and worthy of sharing with you fine folks.

I’ll try to keep the obscure pulp/horror references to a minimum. No promises there, though.

– 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.

Bayou and High Moon, perhaps the two biggest successes from DC Comics’ Zuda webcomic initiative, will make the leap to print next year.

Wired.com reports that Bayou, Jeremy Love’s “Southern-fried odyssey” set in 1930s Mississippi, will debut in wide format in June. That will be followed in October by High Moon, David Gallaher and Steve Ellis’ werewolf Western.

If you’re a fan of comics with spines, this is a good week for you.

Image Comics brings out the first volume of the Ted McKeever Library and a new printing of Bill Sienkiewicz’s Stray Toasters, while Dark Horse collects the “Wolves at the Gate” storyline from Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight. Marvel returns to Civil War with a 512-page hardcover, and gives Hulk the premiere treatment.

DC Comics, meanwhile, releases the much anticipated collection of James Jean’s Fables covers titled, appropriately enough, Fables: Covers by James Jean.

On top of that, there’s another volume of CF’s Powr Mastrs, the beginning of Kevin Smith’s Batman: Cocophony, and a complete set of Kia Asamiya’s Junk.

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.

(more…)

Slow Wave author Jesse Reklaw talks about how people dream about their presidents for Powell’s Books.

– Over at his blog, Scott Saavedra notes that he is rather ill and could use financial help, either via donations or by purchasing his some of his art work. (hat tip: Tom Spurgeon)

– Bloggers Paul O’Brian and Alistair Kennedy have started a new podcast, titled House to Astonish. It’s going to be an every-other-week affair, and focus on comics news and reviews. The premiere episode looks at recent Batman books, Dark Horse’s Gigantic and other books.

– Chris Butcher has more to say on the Bat-Manga! controversy.

– Tom Spurgeon tells us what comics he’s reading online these days.

– David Baille emailed us to let us know what a busy beaver he is these days. He’s got his first ever story in 2000AD this week, animator David Hailwood has animated a couple of his Zombies Interviews strips, and, perhaps most significantly, he’s started a new Webcomic, the Belly Button Bubble Chronicles.

– The work of cartoonists Josh Neufeld and David Rees can currently be seen at the Brooklyn Public Library’s Central Library through January 10, 2009. From the press release: “Neufeld will show material from his true-life graphic novel A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, and Rees will exhibit a collection of his “Clip-Art Comics.” Neufeld will be showing original pages, oversized giclée prints, and an example of the creative process from script to final art.”

– The Windy City Times talks to Alison Bechdel about the release of the new Dykes to Watch Out For collection.

– A quick reminder: Quentin Blake is awesome.

– For your Monday enjoyment: Ten years of New Yorker covers.

Michael Fiffe tells a tale of bad next-door neighbors over at Smith.

Heidi MacDonald reports that news and commentary website ComicMix is scaling back, ending its editorial columns and leaving just online comics and pop-culture news.

Launched in February 2007, ComicMix was founded by former DC Comics editor Mike Gold, writer Glenn Hauman and Weblogs co-founder Brian Alvey. Eight months later, the site added webcomics.

In September, ComicMix announced it would offer print-on-demand collections of some those comics at Baltimore Comic-Con. However, Johanna Draper Carlson notes those volumes “didn’t come near to selling out at the one convention they were offered.”

In the comments section of his final column on Monday, Gold noted that, “the columns didn’t reach as big an audience as some of us had hoped for. Really, it’s that simple. We need to put our attention elsewhere.”

Other columnists included Denny O’Neil, Elayne Riggs, John Ostrander, Michael Davis, Martha Thomases, Michael H. Price, Ric Meyers.

Todd Allen, author of The Economics of Webcomics and a columnist for Comic Book Resources, questions the source of ComicMix’s revenue: “No ads, no merchandise, no collected edition. Those are standard revenue streams and without any of them (100 print copies in Baltimore doesn’t count), I cannot call ComicMix serious about monetizing their comics.”

Becky Cloonan announces that she’ll have a story up on the Dark Horse Presents MySpace site this November called “I See The Devil In My Sleep.” She says it’s an “eight page tale of lurid grimness, written and drawn by yours truly with colors by the gruesome Dave Stewart.” Can’t wait.

• Splash Page has a full eight-page story from BOOM!’s Zombie Tales book, written by Oscar nominated screenplay writer Kim Krizan with art by Jon Reed.

• Quote the Man: Nevermore.

• Seven plain old creepy movies.

• Letterer Todd Klein shares a creepy poem.

• Artist Evan Dorkin’s Milk & Cheese get into the spirit of the season. Kind of.

• Comics creator J. Bone shows how he crafted his Fly costume.

• P. Craig Russell and Tim Bradstreet are working on a comic adaptation of Clive Barker’s Age of Desire. Here’s a preview.

• And finally, via Jeff Smith, Graham Annable’s Joy to the Weird:

Seventy years ago tonight, Orson Welles’ now-legendary adaptation of The War of the Worlds was aired over the CBS radio network, triggering a panic nationwide as countless listeners believe the report of a Martian invasion to be real.

That’s the story, in any case. The reality, one media historian claims, was far less dramatic.

“Nobody died of fright or was killed in the panic, nor could any suicides be traced to the broadcast,” Michael J. Socolow writes in the latest issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education. “Hospital emergency-room visits did not spike, nor, surprisingly, did calls to the police outside of a select few jurisdictions. The streets were never flooded with a terrified citizenry. Ben Gross, the radio columnist of the New York Daily News, later remembered a ‘lack of turmoil in front of CBS’ that contrasted notably with the crowded, chaotic scene inside the building. Telephone lines in New York City and a few other cities were jammed, as the primitive infrastructure of the era couldn’t handle the load, but it appears that almost all the panic that evening was as ephemeral as the nationwide broadcast itself, and not nearly as widespread. That iconic image of the farmer with a gun, ready to shoot the aliens? It was staged for Life magazine.”

It’s an interesting article that examines how the legend took root and grew, thanks largely to the showmanship of Welles and the news media’s craving for a good story.

This being the 70th anniversary of the broadcast, it seems like a perfect time to read Ian Edginton and D’Israeli’s adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel on the Dark Horse website.

• I found this postmortem of Claremont, Calif.’s Comic Bookie, which closes on Friday after 18 years in business, interesting and a little sad. [Daily Bulletin]

• Irene Gallo talks with Freaks of the Heartland artist Greg Ruth about the planned movie adaptation, his early career, and his work process. [Tor.com]

• On a related note, Percy Carey chats with Freaks of the Heartland writer Steve Niles. [Complex.com]

• What could an Obama presidency mean for political cartoonists? [Gawker]

• Joseph Szadkowski profiles Silent Hill and Criminal Macabre artist Nick Stakal. [Washington Times]

• Amazon.com has a brief Q&A with writer Brian Azzarello about his new graphic novel Joker. Curiously, it’s a PDF file. [Amazon.com]

• John Klima spotlights the webcomics Templar, Arizona, FreakAngels and Jump Leads. [Tor.com]

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

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)

Variety reports that Paramount has optioned Agnes Quill: An Anthology of Mystery, a webcomic written by Dave Roman that was collected by SLG Publishing a couple of years ago.

According to the trade:

Thor Freudenthal (”Hotel for Dogs”) is attached to direct, and Evan Spiliotopoulos is writing the script.

Pic marks the first acquisition for Adam Goodman since transitioning from DreamWorks, where he shepherded “Hotel for Dogs.”

Graphic novel’s title character turns 16 and inherits from her grandfather an estate and an ability to see and communicate with the dead.

Actually that’s kind of a weak description; I prefer the one on SLG’s site:

Agnes Quill is the story of a teenage detective, the haunted city she lives in, the strange cases she solves, and the ghosts who help, hinder, or just plain annoy her. Set in Legerdemain a congested, fog-filled, cobblestone-paved Victorian city built around a cemetery the size of Central Park Agnes adventures include confrontations with trapped spirits, cursed souls, possessed relatives, disappearing pets, decapitated scientists, ambitious zombies, and a mess of other supernatural oddities. Written by Dave Roman, and featuring stories illustrated by Jason Ho, Jen Wang, Jeff Zornow, and Eisner nominee, Raina Telgemeier.

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 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.

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