“I am unable to understand how a man of honor could take a newspaper in his hands without a shudder of disgust.” - BAUDELAIRE

“If one wishes to know the real power of the press, one should pay attention, not to what it says, but to the way in which it is listened to. There are times when its very heat is a symptom of weakness and prophesies its end. Its clamors and its fears often speak in the same voice. It only cries so loud because its audience is becoming deaf.” - TOCQUEVILLE

“My business is to teach my aspirations to confirm themselves to fact, not to try and make facts harmonize with my aspirations.” - T. H. HUXLEY

- Christopher, from The Viking Book of Aphorisms, by W. H. Auden and Louis Kronenberger, Viking Press, 1962.

I’ve been invited to dismiss, point by point, the… let’s be kind and say “unsupported” notions in Heidi MacDonald’s essay yesterday. It’s quite tempting to do so, but to what end? You don’t get to write something like that and then play the “I was just trying to encourage debate!” card. Quite honestly, I don’t find that the arguments that Heidi has set forth are worth debating, or really, that they’re arguments at all. Further, I feel like even engaging it gives it an unwarranted weight, and I’m sorry for two posts on the subjects in as many days.

Essentialy, I feel like this commenter at The Beat got it:

“The vagueness of Heidi’s argument (more like a collection of complaints) demonstrates the lack of intellectual rigor and attention to detail that so much comics “criticism” trades upon - particularly, but unfortunately not only, in an online forum such as this one. Only through generalizing conflations such as those employed by Heidi can one reduce an entire art form to polarizing binary categories, which then sinks the whole discourse to the dumb level of attacking and defending.

“Sweeping, provocative opinions need to be supported by analysis of detail in order to avoid coming off as mere gut reaction or the whims of taste.”

- Stephen Hirsch
http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2007/10/12/can-anyone-here-tell-a-story/#comment-458874

I can’t see saying much else about the situation as it currently stands. I just don’t think there’s anything worthwhile there, despite, as Tom mentioned, the ‘broad emotional appeal’ of the piece. It sounds a lot like my cartoonist friends bitching after a few pints at the bar, and I tend to hold that to a slightly different intellectual standard than criticism or debate. Usually I just order them another drink, secure in the knowledge that they’ll feel better in the morning.

- Christopher

Hey there. I wrote a review of the Chris Ware-edited Best American Comics 2007 book this week, and I think it came out pretty well. In it, I was trying to walk a very fine line between respecting the vision and accomplishments of the people involved in that work, and looking at the larger North American publishing industry to see if, really, the book was indicative of what is on store shelves and what’s “good”. Over at Publisher’s Weekly, Heidi has decided to obliterate that very fine line with a shotgun, and gives us one of the worst pieces of writing I’ve ever seen her put up on the blog. I understand her sentiments, but not only do I not agree with them I also think that she uses a series of outright untruths to bolster her arguments, which are muddy at best. 50% of the comics in The Best American Comics 2007 are not as good as a work published 10 years ago? Thanks for that, that’s very relevant.

My friend Cameron Stewart pops up in the comments section (first post!) to agree with Heidi straight-away, and although I was reading Heidi’s post with a growing sense of horror at the outlandishness of her statements (Really, Heidi? None of the literati are creating lasting characters or fiction? Then what the hell was Wimbledon Green? Which is excerpted in BAC2007 by the way…), seeing Cameron’s response (as well as that of Jennifer De Guzman at Slave Labor Graphics a little further down) puts the whole thing into perspective for me; no one likes to feel unappreciated, particularly not in what they believe to be a systematic way. But this whole post is symptomatic of the absolute worst, stupid, old-school “small-pond” mentality as anything I’ve seen on the internet in years. The complete narrative ouevre of Seth and Chester Brown has nothing to do with the critical, fan, or sales response to Johnny The Homicidal Maniac or The Other Side. If someone else’s artistic output is the recipient of critical or commercial success or acclaim, that is not a shot at anyone else’s work (except in the case where it is a direct and obvious shot at someone else’s work). You don’t like Houghton Mifflin, Anne Elizabeth Moore, and Chris’ Ware’s take on the best comics of 2006? Hey, neither did I, but at least I didn’t decide to blame a mysterious cabal of shadowy autobiographists/Art Spiegelman for it.

Heidi makes a passionate argument, and if the trackbacks in her comments section are any indication, there’s a hell of a lot of agreement about it already (and more in the wings). But passionate arguments aren’t necessarily intelligent ones either, and if I sat down and disarmed every single fallacy in this post I’d look like the world’s biggest asshole. Sadly, that role falls to poor Tom Spurgeon in the comments section, doomed to be the voice of reason which sets him firmly against more-or-less every other commenter.

What a train-wreck.

- Christopher

I haven’t written a lot about comics journalism as of late, and that’s primarily because I haven’t been reading much of it. That’s not a veiled slam or anything (although I do love my veiled slams), between San Diego and… say… late this week, I just didn’t have the time to devote to keeping up with the myriad of interviews, profiles, and other articles that make up the majority of online comics coverage. But last night I was able to get caught up on my feed-reader and I actually feel pretty good the level of discourse right now. When I was last following along in a meaningful way, it was all about the AFRAID OF COCK thing and the discussion surrounding that was a little disappointing. While it seems like any comment about a mainstream comics company (or Fantagraphics, now that I think about it) is met with this wierd binary love/hate thing, in general there are a lot of smart people in the middle ground talking up the good work and being appropriately critical of the bad. Yay, for comics.

My previous bugaboo about ‘online comics journalism’ was… well, I can be more general about it, but quite honestly, it was Matt Brady and Mike Doran at Newsarama defending a lack of teeth in their reporting as not wanting to lose access and get “blacklisted” at Marvel and DC–especially as they defended their actions by stating that it was all ‘entertainment reporting’ anyway and it didn’t have to be serious. Doran went on to work for Marvel, so, yeah… but I will give props to Brady’s recent Newsarama output, particularly his ongoing investigations into the Shuster/Siegel Superboy copyright case. It’s been good reading. I also like the seeming hands-off distance between what’s going on at Blog@Newsarama and the main site… I feel that, quite honestly, the Blog@ staff provide a nice counterpoint in their occasional commentary to the uncritical creator- and project-profiles that the main site is famous for. So despite my history of picking on (and at) the Newsarama guys, I just wanted to point out that the following isn’t about them (I’m actually reading two articles by them over in another window).

Over at The Comics Reporter, Spurgeon had a quote in his weekly round-up the piqued my interest:

Quote Of The Week
“…The threat of a caricature by Drew Friedman, the Thomas Nast of our time, should be enough to bring these vain creatures to heel.” — Ron Rosenbaum, on how to wean magazines away from the celebrity profile and their attendant demands.

That links to an article at Slate magazine about celebrity journalism that’s… really good. Because I eat, sleep, and breathe comics, I couldn’t help but think about comics journalism when reading this excellent article about magazine’s obsessions with “access” to famous people. Like I said above, it’s not just about one website, but there’s this utter and total fear of pissing off the PR guys by calling a Judd Winnick on their brutal treatment of women in an actual interview because you might not get in on the conference call for Richard Donner and Geoff Johns (as a completely made-up example). The idea of ‘approved’ outlets, ‘approved’ journalists, ‘approved’ questions, an ‘approved’ tone. It’s all in comics, it’s everywhere, and it’s really disheartening.

“For one thing, it won’t be just an isolated incident. It will send a signal to politicians that magazine editors are whores for access who can be rolled at will. And then there’s the intangible cost: the cost of such behavior to whatever respect is left for the magazine industry from a public that increasingly thinks the mainstream media are in the pocket of the powerful.

“It’s time for magazine editors to fight this censorship-by-access. Because it’s really self-censorship: the false belief that one can’t run a probing story just because one is denied the anodyne “exclusive” quotes and the super-special “exclusive” photo of the powerful subject reclining on his or her patio. “

- Ron Rosenbaum, Slate Magazine.

I feel complicit a lot of the time too. I’d been meaning to point out that The Darwyn Cooke interview in The Comics Journal this month is one of the worst I’ve ever read in the magazine. I’m friends with Darwyn though and I didn’t (and don’t…) want to start a thing, but the length of time spent talking about animated adaptations of Darwyn’s work (and Bruce Timm…) is totally out of whack, given the career Cooke has had, for starters. I mean when the subject of the interview calls the interviewer a fanboy because he won’t stop asking about Batman? In The Comics Journal!? Yikes. But I like Darwyn Cooke and I know several people at The Journal, and despite the failure of the interview and how much it annoyed me, it’s easier not to rock the boat. Particularly if I don’t wanna have a conversation about it next time I see Darwyn, or maybe want to write for The Comics Journal at some point in the future (note: I don’t, really). And it’s easier to keep your mouth shut about things like this if you just don’t have time to post (eight posts in three weeks! only 3 of substance!).

(I’m not talking about ‘bias’ either, although that skirts around the edges. You’re not going to catch me talking shit about Scott Pilgrim, primarily because I love it, but also because Mal’s a friend of mine. But I’m also buddies with I’d say 2-300 people in the comics industry, and I can assure you not all of their relative projects are off limits.)

Moreover, it’s about this understanding that when you engage a work or a body of work, whether the ‘work’ is the contracts of DC Comics’s big new initiative or the utter despair of just being Angelina Jolie, that the way in which you engage it can have serious consequences on your relationships and your paycheck. Is it worth being persistant, accurate, and uncompromising about reversion rights to Captain America if you don’t get invited to the Marvel ‘party’ at Wizard World? Is it worth being persistant, accurate, and uncompromising about the fate of a fictional character’s marital status when it means you won’t be able to ask questions about those reversion rights down the road?

Darwyn Cooke’s got a thick enough skin that I didn’t ever really need to worry about pissing him off, but the same can’t be said for many creators, editors, and espescially PR folk who treat legitimate criticism or scrutiny as though the critic or journalist is coming at them with a crowbar. While I don’t feel things are as bad as they have been, I do feel like the article at Slate is a good reminder of a Journalistic Ideal, as well as being a call-to-arms for how to approach the ‘celebrity profiles’ the litter comics journalism, particularly when the ‘celebrities’ in question have real power over the industry in which I have chosen to make my fortune. Such as it is.

If you’ve got another 15 minutes to spare after reading all of this, I strongly reccommend heading over to Slate and checking the article out: http://www.slate.com/id/2175248.

- Chris
P.s.: The accompanying article about The Celebrity Profile, linked at the end, is quite good too.

The good folks at Viz have provided me with the details of their forthcoming release of TEKKON KINKREET: BLACK & WHITE ALL IN ONE EDITION, the all new edition of Taiyo Matsumoto’s fantastic manga. Previously released in English under the Pulp banner as BLACK & WHITE, the three-volume series was a little-seen gem from one of Japan’s most talented and innovative manga-ka. Now, in conjunction with the forthcoming animated adaptation of the story from Sony Pictures, Viz are re-releasing the entire series in one mammoth volume, in a format that even surpasses the Japanese edition of this book.

The book will be a softcover with dustjacket, similar in to Viz’s release of Matsumoto’s (unfinished) series NO.5. The above image is the front cover of the dustjacket featuring one of the series’ young protagonists, Black. The back cover (which I can’t show you, sorry!) will feature the other protagonist, White. Purists may note that this image is not the same as the Japanese cover for this edition, but fret not! Underneath the dust-jacket, the physical book will have a close approximation of the Japanese cover, shown here.

What else is in store for this edition, that will make it an absolutely essential purchase, even for people who bought it the first time? Here are the official stats on the collection:

Official title: TEKKONKINKREET: Black & White
Price: $29.95
Release date: September
Official Movie Site: http://www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/tekkonkinkreet/index.html
Size: 7 1/8″ x 10 1/8″, the same size as the recent re-release of Nausicaa
Orientation: Western Style, L-to-R

Bonus Material:
- Poster Insert, Measuring 7 1/8″ x 20 1/4″, in full colour
- Approximately 12 full colour manga pages. In colour for the first time in North America, and even the Japanese All-in-One edition did not feature these pages in colour!
- Foreword Q&A with TEKKON KINKREET movie director Michael Arias and screenwriter Anthony Weintraub.

This is just-about the best presentation of this material that I can think of, and the material itself is among my favourite manga ever (if not my favourite stuff). I’ve posted about Matsumoto and BLACK & WHITE before, and this September you’re going to to get your opportunity to pick it up for yourself and find out what all the fuss is about. Make sure you do!

The TEKKON KINKREET: ALL IN ONE EDITION is in Previews NOW! (the Booster Gold Cover, not the Black Canary Wedding Cover). Reserve a copy with your local comic book store owner before this Tuesday when their orders are due! Unless you shop at The Beguiling, because we’re ordering like 150 of these.

- Christopher

Sexy girl as rotting corpse: Did you ever see the movie about the blood diamonds? This is what you’re really paying for when you buy any Marvel comic.

So just to reitterate: Children’s character from book for children (the kid/teen girl-oriented Mary Jane #1) used as sex symbol? Check. Sex symbol met with incredible violence, still portrayed as sexy? Check. Deliberately done to provoke fan reaction? Check.

Congratulations! Up until yesterday I was kind of excited about World War Hulk, and was going to recommend it to my customers? Today: Not so much. I feel kind of… gross.. about recommending any Marvel titles at this point.

- Christopher
Edit: Just for those not as well-versed as me in the comics, this is the cover to the fifth printing of the Marvel Zombies HC, released today by Marvel, art by Arthur Suydam. It’s a take on a cover to a children’s series featuring Mary Jane from the Spider-Man books, in high school, at about 15 I think? The original art was by Takeshi Miyazawa and you can find it here.

We’ve done 3 or 4 events with Canada’s own Svetlana Chmakova at The Beguiling, and she’s always been a wonderful and gracious guest. In advance of Anime North, Canada’s largest manga and anime convention, The Toronto Star just did a profile of Svetlana and her work, including Dramacon for Tokyopop, Adventures of CG for CosmoGirl Magazine.

I… think… the print version of The Star actually has a comic strip by Svet in it, though I’m not sure? I’ll check when I’m at the store later today. But yeah, it’s a nice little profile and I’m glad Svet is one of the new creators really making a go of the OEL manga thing. Though I don’t talk about it as much due to drama my fears regarding the Tokyopop contracts are still there, and I’m really happy when it looks like a creator within that system is succeeding and branching out beyond it.

More at: http://www.thestar.com/article/211329

- Chris

Everyone loves sales lists! According to Canadian Book Industry periodical Quill & Quire and the graphic novel sales tracking agency Booknet, these are the top 20 frontlist comics and graphic novels sold for the two weeks ending March 11th. This is based on titles first published in August 2006 or later.

This isn’t a regular feature at Quill & Quire, and this information is actually locked behind a subscriber wall. But I figured industry watchers might appreciate a look-see as to what’s selling in Canada.

As to what’s selling? The answer is manga, and most of the titles that you might expect. I remember this list being a lot more Tokyopop-heavy the last time I checked, so it looks like Viz’ Canadian Distributors Simon & Shuster have made significant inroads into the Canadian market over the last 12 months, armed with strong properties like Naruto, Bleach, Death Note, and Full Metal Alchemist.

This reporting is based on Canada’s BookNet Canada Reporting Service, which tracks “over 600 retail locations”. Graphic novels, as a category, are considerably less developed in Canada than in the U.S., and I’d say that the Direct Market here would probably makes a considerably larger impression on the sales charts than the DM in the U.S. would. Of course, most direct market stores here are ordering the totallity of their graphic novels through Diamond as specialty booksellers, so… Anyway, here’s the list:

1. Negima! Volume 13, Ken Akamatsu
(Random House, $13.95 pa, 9780345495051)

2. Tsubasa Volume 12, Clamp
(Random House, $13.95 pa, 9780345485328)

3. Best of Pokemon Adventures: Red, Hidenori Kusaka
(Viz Media/Simon & Schuster Canada, $9.99 pa, 9781424509280)
They got the ISBN wrong, it’s actually 978-1-4215-0928-0

4. Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto
(Viz Media/Simon & Schuster Canada, $9.99 pa 9784421509280)
This ISBN doesn’t exist at all. I’m guessing this is Volume 12, but I have no idea.

5. Fullmetal Alchemist Volume 11, Hiromu Arakawa
(Viz Media/Simon & Schuster Canada, $11.71 pa, 9781421508382)

6. Bleach Volume 17, Tite Kubo
(Viz Media/Simon & Schuster Canada, $9.32 pa, 9781421510415)

7. Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories Volume 2, Shiro Amano
(TOKYOPOP/HarperCollins Canada, $12.50 pa, 9781598166385)

8. Best of Pokemon Adventures: Yellow, Hidenori Kusaka
(Viz Media/Simon & Schuster Canada, $10.99 pa, 9781421509297)

9. Death Note Volume 9, Tsugumi Ohba
(Viz Media/Simon & Schuster Canada, $9.36 pa, 9781421506302)

10. Vampire Knight Volume 1, Matsuri Hino
(Viz Media/Simon & Schuster Canada, $10.54 pa, 9781421508221)

11. Justice Volume 1, Alex Ross
(DC Comics/H.B. Fenn and Company, $26.99 cl, 9781401209698)

12. Fruits Basket Volume 15, Natsuki Takaya
(TOKYOPOP/HarperCollins Canada, $12.99 pa, 9781598160239)

13. The Marvel Encyclopedia, Tom De Falco
(Dorling Kindersley/Tourmaline Editions, $50 cl, 9780756623586)

14. Death Note Volume 8, Tsugumi Ohba
(Viz Media/Simon & Schuster Canada, $9.99 pa, 9781421506296)

15. Scrum Bums: A Get Fuzzy Collection, Darby Conley
(Andrews McMeel Publishing/Canadian Manda Group, $13.95 pa, 9780740750014)

16. Naruto Volume 11, Masashi Kishimoto
(Viz Media/Simon & Schuster Canada, $10.99 pa, 9781421502410)

17. Death Note Volume 7, Tsugumi Ohba
(Viz Media/Simon & Schuster Canada, $10.99 cl, 9781421506289)

18. Absolute Boyfriend Volume 3, Yuu Watase
(Viz Media/Simon & Schuster Canada, $10.54 pa, 9781421510033)

19. Infinite Crisis HC, Geoff Johns
(DC Comics/H.B. Fenn and Company, $33.99 cl, 9781401209599)

20. Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories Vol. 1, Amano Shiro
(TOKYOPOP/HarperCollins Canada, $12.99 pa, 9781598166378)

(Note: I have added additional information on titles and volume numbers where available.) 

–

For more information on this sort of thing, visit http://www.quillandquire.com/ and the Quill & Quire Blog at http://www.quillandquire.com/blog/. Their prices are really reasonable if you’d like to sign up for this sort of info.

- Christopher

If you head to Rich Johnston’s column at Comic Book Resources (I’ll spare the link for now), you’ll see a story on a new Captain Marvel Animated Series, entitled SHAZAM! He even has a leaked piece of promo art (shown right)!

“With the successful release of “300″ and the upcoming release of “TMNT” later this month, there is no doubt that Warner Bros. is enthused about comic book adaptations -just not DC’s for 2007.
“So how about next year?
“This is an image from the upcoming Captain Marvel cartoon for WB.”
- Rich Johnston, Comic Book Resources

Except of course, for the fact that it isn’t. It’s actually an illustration my buddy Jim Zubkavich put up on his Live Journal last week, with his signature photoshopped out and a logo dropped on. What does buddy Jim have to say about this?

“Some crazy fanboy Photoshopped out my sig and made up a mock promo pic as if it was a real WB animation piece! That’s hilarious. I’m flattered and confused at the same time. The rumor is marked as ‘green’, meaning it’s apparently been confirmed. So strange.”
- Jim Zubkavich

Yeah, a ‘green’ rumour that’s totally untrue, that is strange isn’t it? I bet that’s the first time THAT’S ever happened. Oh that Rich.

Jim Zubkavich, in addition to being one of the dudes in charge of Udon (his official title is “whip cracker”), also just collected his webcomic The Makeshift Miracle into a very handsome graphic novel available in better stores everywhere. Or, you know, at The Beguiling too. Actually, if you’ve got nothing better to do this evening, Jim’s Blog is full of great stuff to read, including “The Most Unprofessional Letter Ever Sent To A Publisher” and “The Worst Things I’ve Ever Seen In Art Portfolios”, both of which are awesome and I’ve been meaning to link to for a little while now…

Now I’m gonna go run and get a screen capture before they change the story, it’s just too good.

- Christopher

References: The Makeshift Miracle

It’s the front and back covers to Comics Festival 2007, FEB070041. Left by Darwyn Cooke, Right by Bryan Lee O’Malley. Look for it in the finest comic stores on Saturday, May 5th.

- Christopher