Project Superpowers #0-#3
By Alex Ross, Jim Krueger, Doug Kaluba, Stephen Sadowski, Carlos Paul, Andy Smith, and Various
#0: $1.00, #1-3: $2.99 each, FCBD: Free
Published by Dynamite Entertainment

Two series’ launched recently with very, very similar premises: Forgotten heroes from the Golden Age of comics, roughly World War II, are taken out of commission for 60-odd years, re-emerging into the present day with times having radically changed around them. One of those series, The Twelve by J. Michael Straczynski and Chris Weston and published by Marvel Comics, has been surprisingly good. I look forward to each issue and the progress that these forgotten heroes are making in the post-Civil War Marvel Universe, and no one is more surprised about that than I. But with a full 30 days between installments of The Twelve I figured I’d give the other series a go, see if I could find something to fill my “old-timey-men out of place and out of time, with seeeeeeeeeeecrets” jones.

So, that was pretty much a mistake. Despite very, very similar starting points, the two series could not be more different than one another. Whereas The Twelve is a gritty and intriguing mystery/drama slowly being revealed to the reader, Project Superpowers is a pretty straight-forward superhero beat’em-up by Alex Ross and Jim Krueger, the creative team behind Earth X. Actually, if you’ve read the Alex Ross vehicles Earth X and especially Kingdom Come, you’ll be on incredibly familiar ground here as all of the standard Alex Ross tropes are here: Repentant old-man narrator, guide from the spirit world, classic heroes appalled by the sorry state of the modern world and its heroes, and more iconic characters standing around posing than you can shake a stick at… Which isn’t to say that Project Superpowers is particularly bad either as a comic or as an example of the contemporary superhero genre, it’s just not what I was looking for.

So on its own merits then, how does the series hold up? I’m not as ‘into’ the big superhero mythology stories as most, but I still found enough to enjoy in the series to keep reading through. The series itself isn’t drawn or painted by Ross, but instead by a fella named Carlos Paul, who has a cartoonish vibe to his pencils, sort of half-way between one of the contemporary anatomist pencilers like Steve Sadowski or Doug Braithwaite, and someone like Norm Breyfogle. The art is always at least functional, with the characters clearly blocked out and the story easy to read, and occasionally there’ll be a nice level of polish on the illustrations as well. Granted, it’s still got a bit of that garish contemporary superhero colouring to it–something that Ross seems to have largely eschewed in his own work lately–but it’s got more of a painterly vibe than most contemporary comics work which created a great deal more visual interest than most books on the rack. It’s still going to be a bit of a shock-to-the-system for readers picking up an “Alex Ross Book” and getting not Alex Ross art inside, but the work is much more Brent (Astro City) Anderson than contemporary-meh-DC-penciler, which will soften the blow.

As for the story? I’ll be honest, it’s a step above most contemporary superhero comics, but that’s quite clearly me damning this with faint praise. Alex Ross is a poor writer, and I’m not quite sure what Jim Krueger’s contributions have been, but I really remember liking some of his earlier work… The biggest problem Project Superpowers faces is that ‘clarity’ seems to be a four-letter-word, with the writers mistaking confusion for drama. There are lots of short scenes dropped in without explanation, lots of cuts back and forth in space (and occasionally time), blind prophet characters shouting about the end of days, ghosts shouting about spectral duty, superheroes just shouting at one another, and so far it’s added up to not-very-much. The narrative through, the story of a golden age hero named “The Fighting Yank” hoping to atone for past sins, is easily the best part of the book, and the scenes moving that story forward have been enjoyable. The rest of it, with random heroes getting little introduction alternately screaming or “being mysterious”? I could do without that. I feel like Ross and Krueger are relying a little too heavily on their past writing styles here… It’s one thing to have The Spectre, Captain Marvel, or any number of popular iconic characters shouting at one another or uttering mysterious nonsense that might eventually pay off in the story; the reader is already invested in those characters thanks to years and years of familiarity–it’s the very definition of a fanboy-oriented event comic. But when the reader has no idea who any of these characters are? When you haven’t sufficiently invested them with any humanity (other than: blanket tragedy, ‘mystery’, and screaming) it’s really hard to give a shit and I don’t. By contrast, The Twelve has done a great job of the ’slow reveal’, with plenty of characters populating the book that you want to spend time with or, if not, at least want to figure out how their stories will end. But there I go comparing Project Superpowers to something else again. I guess what I mean to say is, in Project Superpowers I’m curious to see where the plot is going but so far I don’t care if anyone introduced in the series makes it to the last page, you know? And since the whole vibe of the book seems to be about re-introducing these golden age characters to the modern world (and aren’t they all nifty!?) that’s kinda-sorta a problem. I guess when you’re Alex Ross you don’t need an editor to point out huge flaws in your storytelling…which would explain why no editor is listed in the credits page. Guys: give these new characters you’re introducing something to do, or leave them out of the story until you figure out what they’re for.

So, to sum up: I’ll probably wait another few issues and then catch up with the story again. Anyone who’s liked Ross’s last few outings in big bold superheroes will probably really enjoy this one and should check out that $1 issue #0 (28 pages for a buck!) at the very least: It’s a big, bold superhero story that is very close to all of the work you already love.

But The Twelve will be one of those books that I read first thing in the morning, standing at the rack on the day of release, wondering if Dynamic Man and Captain Wonder are gonna hook up.

- Christopher
P.S.: Skip the FCBD story, it’s poorly drawn and nothing happens in it, and it jumps past the end of the current story arc, which is vaguely stupid when you’re trying to write a mystery…

Image: Cover painting used for Project Superpowers #0a and #0b, by Alex Ross.

We’re confirmed: The 2009 Toronto Comic Arts Festival will be held Saturday May 9th and Sunday May 10th, in Toronto, Canada. Our new digs? The Toronto Reference Library, a huge and beautiful modernist building, able to accommodate all of our growing Festival needs.

Mark your calendars now, book off some time, and get ready for the best TCAF yet.

For more info, e-mail me at 2009@torontocomics.com.
- Christopher

Although he was under no obligation to do so, Tom Spurgeon didn’t post the full text of my response to the news that Fantagraphics has signed an exclusive deal with Diamond… It’s a little more balanced and nuanced then what ended up in the CR piece, in my always-humble opinion, so I figured I’d post it here.

We really wish that Fantagraphics had consulted us as their retail partners before they made this move, because we would have said “Good God No, Don’t Do It.” We’re very sympathetic to the general indifference of the Direct Market to good comics, including those that Fantagraphics publishes, and we understand the reasons they made their decision. Speaking from our point of view though, we like the opportunity to deal directly with Fantagraphics, because if Fanta has a book in print, then they will have it in stock. That is not the case with Diamond. Even on the largest publishers that have moved their Direct Market business exclusive with Diamond, publishers like Viz and Tokyopop, our fill rates on in-print books are less than adequate. We hope that Fanta knows what they’re in for on that front.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but as The Beguiling we’re fortunate enough talk to reps from a large number of publishers, great and small, and many of them really aren’t happy with their exclusivity deals with Diamond. No one will go on the record about it of course, because regardless of exclusivity or not they’re still going to be working with Diamond going forward and being openly critical of Diamond is not the best way to get good service from them. So, no one talks about how things are not going the way they had hoped, and everyone re-ups for another few years hoping things will change because hey, everyone else is doing it. Worse still, we’re worried about the sort of “chilling effect” that goes on whenever a publisher signs an exclusivity deal. Fantagraphics better than anyone (thanks to reportage in The Comics Journal) knows the havoc that exclusivity agreements caused direct market retailers, particularly with regards to Image and Dark Horse deciding on Diamond after DC had made their deal. Has the consolidation of the direct market to, effectively, Diamond Comics Distributors, shown a noted increase in stores, sales, or market strength over the past 10 years? Particularly for any company that isn’t Marvel or DC? Not at all, and yet the consolidation continues, leading many publishers to believe that there’s no other way to do business and succeed (or at least stay afloat) in the market.

Honestly, we order the majority of our Fantagraphics product through Diamond, all of our frontlist and the occasional backlist. But when it comes time to do actual store restocks on perennials like Ghost World and the works of Dan Clowes, Love & Rockets, the Ignatz Books, Mome, that order goes to Fantagraphics because of a solid discount, and because if the book is in print, the publisher will have it in stock. Right now Diamond doesn’t seem to have Ghost World in stock, which is perhaps just an unfortunate coincidence. But the first time that we try to order something from Diamond and can’t, and that backorder takes weeks or months (don’t laugh, it happens all the time), and that book would have been available to us direct from Fanta? That’s a lost sale for Fantagraphics and for us, and truly unfortunate.

Hopefully Diamond will keep all of these books in stock under this new deal. Hopefully with thousands of new book-format comics coming out every year, Fanta titles now solely available through Diamond won’t get lost in the shuffle. We know that the good folks working at Fantagraphics will be responsive to our needs as their customers just as they always have been; we just hope that history proves us all wrong and that Diamond is responsive to theirs.

We wish them the best of luck.

- Christopher Butcher, Manager, The Beguiling

–

That’s the entirety of what I sent Tom yesterday afternoon, and I’ve been thinking on it since then. In my head, my vision of the comics industry is one where comics are available if not everywhere, than at least everywhere you’d otherwise find printed material. The key to that, in my mind, is more access, and not less. I’m not unaware of economies of scale, of how much cheaper and easier it is to deal with two major distributors than dozens of smaller ones. I just honestly don’t see any smaller store that stocks Fanta/Eros stuff going through the hassle of opening a Diamond account and trying to meet monthly order minimums in order to get something better than a 35% discount when they do a backlist order. I hope there are other options, grandfather clauses, whatever, that keep Fanta’s reach as broad as it ever was. I really do wish them the best.

- Chris

2.  I’m 2000 messages behind on my feed reader (it’s been a busy few weeks). I’m debating just clicking “mark all as read” and pretending that tomorrow really is a new day.

3. It’s Mother’s Day today, I hope everyone remembers to call their mom. Or, you know, your local equivalent.

4. If I ever decide to do something outside of retail, I’d really like to take two or three months, raise some venture capital, and put together a really good comics news site and blog. Something with a solid design, with some good content guidelines, and recruit some really top-notch staff to run it. That’s not to say that there aren’t excellent efforts on the web right now, I’m 2000 messages behind on my feed reader after all. But I look at what’s available and I see big gaps in the comics discourse, and I think that’d be fun to try and address. Basically:

i) there’s a lot of stuff that ends up as a lazy-ish blog post that with a little time and effort would be a fantastic fully-fledged article, and it happens all over the blogosphere
ii) the people with the most funding are doing the least interesting work, and from talking to (for example) Spurgeon, if he was making twice as much money from CR he would spend twice as long on it, and we’d get ‘blogosphere-rocking articles’ like his thoughts on the NYCC twice as often, which seems like easy math
iii) there’s no incentive to do real news either monetarily or really from a fan perspective, and I’d like to create both the financial recompense and the fan interest and I don’t think it’d take too much money to do so…
iv) most people running corporate sites seem to have awful taste in comic books, or their coverage is dictated by who’s advertising. either way, it’s unfortunate at best.
v) I will say that it was smart of CBR to pick up Greg McElhatton in their relaunch. too few sites do reviews at all (let alone competent ones), and he’s a catch.
vi) most comics sites are ugly and poorly designed, and my imaginary one would not be.
vii) I’d like to create something that I wouldn’t run, that could be firmly established and well-thought-out and made air-tight, and then just let go. hell, i’d like to make 2 or 3 and have them compete, only getting stronger and smarter, designed to take advantage of the emerging graphic novel industry (and keep it honest)
viii) because then I’d get the industry I want.

5. I really miss Japan. I just spent an hour going through my photos to give suggestions to a friend on his upcoming trip there…
- Chris

- Chris

Hey everybody! I just posted The Beguiling’s Free Comic Book Day wrap-up at: http://www.beguiling.com/2008/05/free-comic-book-day-2008-wrap-up.html.

We had a good year this year despite some pretty awful weather, and though I don’t have exact figures I’d say that we had at least 600 people through both events over the course of the day, and a lot (at least 200 of them) were under 14. Mission: Accomplished.

Because my site gets way more traffic than The Beguiling’s site, I did want to take the opportunity to send you to visit the online homes of all of our participating artists at this year’s FCBD events. They were really stars, drawing and sketching all day (many of them without any breaks) and sending you to check out their work is the least I can do.

Michael Cho (Transmission-X, Max Finder): http://www.transmission-x.com/ , http://chodrawings.blogspot.com/
Willow Dawson (Violet Miranda): http://www.willowdawson.com/
J. Korim (Neozoic): http://www.jkorim.ca/main.htm
Jessie Lam (Neozoic): http://axl99.net/
Steve Manale (Superslackers, You Crack Me Up): http://www.superslackers.com/
Nick Mandaag (Artist): no website!
Tyrone McCarthy (Corduroy High): http://www.corduroyhigh.com/
Alana McCarthy (Illustrator): http://www.alanaland.com/
Brian McLachlan (Princess Planet): http://www.theprincessplanet.com/, http://www.transmission-x.com/
Tara Tallan (Galaxion): http://www.girlamatic.com/comics/galaxion.php
Jeremy Tankard (Grumpy Bird, Me Hungry): http://www.jeremytankard.com/
Chip Zdarsky (Monster Cops): http://chipzdarsky.livejournal.com/

Hope you all had a great Free Comic Book Day!

- Christopher
(Photo: Jeremy Tankard talks about his very first home-made comics to a group of rapt youngsters and their parents at Free Comics For Kids Day)

Alternative comics blog The Daily Crosshatch was on hand to interview the pair about their work and creative partnership, and it’s a very good and worthwhile interview, and you should head over and check it out:

http://thedailycrosshatch.com/2008/03/11/interview-charles-berberian-and-philippe-dupuy-pt-1/
http://thedailycrosshatch.com/2008/03/24/interview-charles-berberian-and-philippe-dupuy-pt-2/
http://thedailycrosshatch.com/2008/04/07/interview-charles-berberian-and-philippe-dupuy-pt-3/
http://thedailycrosshatch.com/2008/04/28/interview-philippe-dupuy-and-charles-berberian-pt-4-of-4/

As you’ve noticed it’s been broken up into four parts here (that seem to have been dribbled out 2-3 weeks apart), which is both annoying and entirely unnecessary in my humble opinion, but there you are. I usually hesitate from commenting on interface design issues as I feel my own site could be substantially improved on that point, but despite the quality of the work here I just have to bitch: If I weren’t so absolutely interested in the content, the formatting would have driven me from the site. None of the interview segments leads to the next so far as I could tell, making it difficult to continue reading when you get to the end of each part. It seems designed more to discourage you from continuing to read what these fine gentlemen have to say. Also, each segment was far too short and where each segment rested felt like an artificial break. Further, and though not entirely relevant to my problems with the formatting of this specific interview, the front page for The Daily Crosshatch is constructed in a “preview mode” kind of way, where you get about a paragraph before having to “click to continue reading.”

There’s no doubt that the fine content of The Daily Crosshatch is both of high-quality and sorely needed in the larger world of the online comics discourse. I just hope that the proprietors of this fine site find a way to present the material in a more appealing way (and as long as I’m bitching, more art!).

- Christopher

So, welcome new readers from the CBC. If you wanna check the archives, click “Japan” in the categories section for some pretty amazing pics from my recent comics-oriented trip to Japan, click “comics retailing” for the ins and outs of selling comics for a living, or just keep scrolling back through the archives and enjoy.

Alright, I’m off to set up for Free Comic Book Day. See you soon!

- Christopher

Hope to see you there!

More at: http://www.beguiling.com/2008/04/reminder-free-comics-for-kids-day-this.html

More at http://www.beguiling.com

- Chris

I don’t think you understand what I’m willing to do for the comics.

Anyway, if you, like me, are awake and staring at the Internet, you can track me down at:

http://www.cbc.ca/listen/index.html#

Quebec City at around NOW.

Victoria, BC at around 7:50am

Edmonton, AB at around 8:00am

–

7:20am: Okay, I just finished the Quebec City interview, I think that was my favourite so far. I forgot to mention that they’ve been following my segment with Toronto band Moxy Fruvous’ version of the “Spider-Man” cartoon theme, which is kind of hilarious. Maybe it’s only funny because I’m on like 4 hours sleep.

I just realized I’ve given Frank Miller about 5 grand worth of free advertising in the last few hours. Well, him and Marjane Satrapi, so that kind of balances out.

–

7:58am: It turns out that the Victoria interview was pre-recorded. It’s going to be airing at 6:15am local time, or 9:15 eastern time.

I’m on hold with them right now for the interview in Edmonton, but the news is on. I imagine I’ll be on air real soon in Edmonton.

–

8:07am: Just finished the last interview, and it was pre-recorded so I’ll actually get to listen to it! Alright! Here’s hoping I didn’t “um, uh” too much. I think it’ll be on in the next half hour.
–

8:10am: I just remembered, I never linked to my interview on NPR from last week on the New York Comic Con. I was on NPR’s Bryant Park Project and it was a pretty good time and interview. You can check it out at:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89803224

–

8:23am: I am listening to me.

–

8:30am: Fifth time’s the charm. I rocked that one pretty good.

–

8:31am: I’m trying to decide if I want to stay up until 9:15am and listen to myself in Victoria, BC, or go home and sleep for a few more hours before I have to come back to work at 11am. I’ll probably stay up, but I think I owe myself a coffee and a muffin, at the very least, so I’m gonna run out and do that and try and get back for 9:15am…

Oh, and since I won’t be updating for about 30 minutes, check out that Moxy Fruvous Spider-Man theme song at Youtube to pass some time:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=YUbxcfjG-7s

–

8:57am: …and I’m back. 15 minutes until I’m on again. It doesn’t look like any of these shows are archived anywhere, so I figure I’ll go over my key talking points for those of you stumbling on this in my archives, months and years later, wondering what the hell I’m talking about with all of this:

• Iron Man, the movie, opens in theatres today. Traditionally superhero movies have had little-to-no effect on comic sales of related comics.
• We have seen really good sales on graphic novels with a ’singular creative vision’ that have been adapted into films. Frank Miller’s 300 and Sin City, V For Vendetta, and even Persepolis all benefited (and continue to do so!) from film adaptations.
• I think this is because fans of the Iron Man, Spider-Man, Batman, or X-Men movies are fans of those characters, and the movies scratch that itch. It’s also because there are hundreds of product tie-ins for these characters, so if you really like IRON MAN chances are you’ll like the IRON MAN action figures, cartoons, bedsheets, etc. as much as or more than an Iron Man comic.
• That’s not to say that we don’t hope for new readers or sales. It just hasn’t traditionally been the case.

  also, having just listened to me on the radio again, additional points I made:

• We are trying to push the diversity of the medium.
• The Beguiling is set up more like a bookstore than a ‘traditional’ comic book store.
• Kids like Manga, everyone else likes all kinds of comics.
• The average superhero comic fan is a dude 18-34 or older.
• It’s a fantastic time to be interested in the medium.
• Free Comic Book Day is a positive thing, and you should go and get free comic books.

9:20am: Listening to myself again, this one might have been my best interview of the day. I wonder what all of these local shops think of some guy from Toronto talking about their free comic book day events. Maybe that’s why the rest of the country hates Toronto? Anyway. That was a good interview. YEAH. COMICS.

Which isn’t to say that I am not still a comics-hating misanthropist talking shit about your beloved childhood memories. I totally am. But, yeah. Three hours of interviews talking up the best aspects of the comics industry and steering away from questions like [paraphrasing] ‘Do nerds hate it when movies don’t get the details right in superhero movies?’ That’s a productive morning.

Now, to plan for our Free Comic Book Day events.

Thanks for reading,

- Christopher

I’m pretty up on the manga, I do my best to research the market, talk to fans, all that stuff. I’m spectacular at doing this within my field (comics retailers) but still at least pretty decent when compared to the legions of die-hard manga fans that populate the interwebs. But I totally need a hand with this, because the upcoming Anime North convention in Toronto at the end of the month? It manages at least one big surprise every time.

We do a massive set-up for this show, 18 tables in an island, something like 180 feet of frontage the way we set it all up. We try and bring every manga you can think of, because a lot of fans save up for months to come to AN and pick up the manga they love, that they’ve only read about on the internet (or in scaaaaaaaaaaaans) and they want to own it and love it and squee all over it. And we want to have it for them.

Every year we get blindsided by one major title, and it always pisses me RIGHT OFF.

2005: “Do you have Chrono Crusade?” Sure, we had like maybe 3-5 copies of each volume. That lasted about half way through the first day, and then the next 22 hours of convention were “I heard you guys have Chrono Crusade!? PLEASE! I NEEEEEED IT!” and I’m all “oh noes.”

2006: “I NEED OURAN HIGH SCHOOL HOST CLUB! O! M! G!” and I’m like are you kidding? We sell like 2 copies of that at the store. But yeah, getting asked 20 or 25 times a day for that book for 3 days? I can guarantee you we totally stock deep on that one now. It did us no good at the show, however.

2007: “Vampire Knight Vampire Knight Vampire Knight Vampire Knight” and I didn’t even know what that was. Seriously. Either like 1, or maaaaaaaaaybe 2 volumes had come out, and I figured it was some ultra-rare Infinity Studios title or something. No, Shoujo Beat again, we were barely selling it at the store, and it was the book we got the most requests for (of course, we ended up selling like a case of each volume of Death Note and Naruto at that show, we didn’t do too badly…)

So the 2008 Anime North show is coming up May 23-25, and I think I’ve done my homework this time and I’m trying to stock up on fan-fav series, but I’m sure that we’re forgetting something.

Soooo, if you’re going to Anime North, or if you just want to promote your favourite manga series (and it looks like I’m a little weaker at predicting the Shoujo/Crossover-appeal series than the Shonen) then I’d love to hear from you in the comments. I’m totally aware that this is asking you to do my work as a retailer for me, and I apologize for that, but I’m asking because I want to satisfy as many customers at the show as possible. Hopefully that counts for something!

Thanks in advance,

- Christopher

And to other retailers or small business-people operating without insurance (or the benefit of living somewhere with good government-sponsored health care), strongly consider your group insurance options through trade organizations. Many comics retailers qualify under booksellers-association guidelines to join those groups and get a decent discounted plan, and there’s always comics retailer organization COMICSPRO, which I believe offers access to a discounted group health insurance plan as well (for U.S. Retailers). Check them out at http://www.comicspro.org/.

- Christopher

Why is this a reason for worry?

APR084108 FRUITS BASKET GN VOL 20 (OF 22)

I hope they’ve got something awe-inspiring up their sleeves debuting in the next 8 months. Like, “Final Fantasy 7: The Manga” level awesome.
- Christopher

“As Josh notes, there are smaller cons that cater to indie comics - SPX, APE, MoCCa, etc. — cons largely by and for activists, who’ve decided to make that niche their bread and butter. But any con that hits a certain size has to start looking at their bottom line at all times, and, as in most arenas, what brings in the most money gets the most attention. That’s just how it is, and expecting the New York con to change it is looking in the wrong direction.” - Steven Grant

I’m just gonna flat-out disagree with this. It’s certainly much harder to have a creative and curatorial vision for a comics show, to believe in what you’re doing and keep it running when there are external monetary pressures, etc., but it’s nowhere near impossible, and while the bottom line is important, it’s by no means where the eye needs to be kept “at all times”. Far from it. Look east for inspiration, my good fellows, to the mighty shows of Europe. America may “not have culture” but there are art galleries and museums in areas other than New York and California, and all it takes is some smart event planners that know how to make a spectacle and get folks out.

I understand that Mr. Grant has a long-accumulated wealth of knowledge acquired over many years of con-going, but if I sincerely thought that “indie comics” (a phrase that means absolutely nothing, btw.) had an inherently limited audience of converts, I’d probably drop everything tomorrow and just go work in banking or something. Instead, “indie comics” actually encompasses everything that’s not WFH corporate comics, a huge field that now includes everyone from D&Q, Oni, Fanta, Top Shelf, and even Image, all the way to Random House, Simon & Shuster, and First Second.

Comics are literature, comics are entertainment, comics are excellent. The limit to the audience for comics is people who respond to art or the written word. Believing otherwise is narrow-thinking and self-defeating. We should be bigger, brighter, and bolder from now on, but in celebration of the medium, not the “culture”.

- Christopher
Quick edit for spelling.

First and foremost, Weidenbaum’s new title at Viz is “Editor-in-Chief, Magazines. Vice President, Original Publishing” which kind of makes sense, as the two manga magazines are where more-or-less all of the original content is being generated at Viz right now. The recent cover-art/interview/short comic by Bryan Lee O’Malley on Shoujo Beat sort of brought this fact to everyone’s attention, though Viz has done original content in the past, including a Pokemon comic strip for newspapers a few years ago. But the original publishing aspect of Marc’s title will likely become very important to the comics industry in the next few years.

According to Marc, it’s all about television.

Marc Weidenbaum: “We’re in a golden age of television right now,” specifically referring to the critically and commercially successful serialized entertainment offered up by HBO, BBC, Showtime, and even some of the networks. Marc feels that there are all of these wonderfully episodic shows that build up a serial storyline with amazing cliffhangers that you can’t miss. And he doesn’t seem inclined to cow-towing to any particular ’style’ or genre of story either, with a crime drama being just as interesting and well produced as a comedy or historical epic… Editorializing a bit here, it’s no mystery that Brian K. Vaughan (for example) was picked up for LOST–his work on Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina, and even Runaways is built on the gripping last-page reveal, and his work is structured in an incredibly compelling way. If I’m reading Marc correctly, he sees this not so much as a model, but as inspiration for a new line of comics work: One that has broad appeal, strong construction, and the benefit of a talented and trained editorial staff.

That last part is particularly intriguing to me, because while producing licensed material does have Viz editors sharing some of the same duties as their original-content producing counterparts in the rest of the North American comics industry–scheduling, proofing, working with creative talent–the Japanese editorial system, the one that Marc referenced a couple of times, is quite different and even more involved than anything you’ll find in North America… In a bit of a coincidence I picked up a new manga by Fanfare/Ponent-Mon at the New York Comic Con just before I was talking to Marc, called Disappearance Diary by Hideo Azuma. It’s about this manga-ka that goes nuts from stress and becomes a bum living in the mountains. In it, the protagonists manga editors are variously portrayed as abrasive, mean, and egomaniacs who threaten and taunt him, draw over his artwork to change it to their liking, and ignore or encourage any number of truly life-destroying behaviours on the part of Azuma-san… as long as the work comes in on time. It’s a comedy. And autobiography to boot.

But Marc’s a smart guy with–believe it or not!–creator interests at heart. He seemed to be talking about a sort of a hybrid system, where he and other editors at Viz had worked closely with Editors within the Japanese comics production system to learn from them, and have brought this system back to North America to put their own spin on it. This also tied in nicely to the fact that Viz’s big guest-of-honour the NYCC weekend wasn’t a manga-ka, but rather an editor, (one Mr. Asano who edits Bleach and Shaman King amongst other top-of-the-charts releases). Marc has a lot of respect for editing and editors in general, and the idea of working with a creator to produce the most successful and strongest possible work. It’s the kind of idea that I can feel myself bristling at, as I type it out now, but hearing it come out of Marc’s mouth I totally believed it… I do have to say that will not be the sort of editorial guidance that every creator is looking for, particularly not in an industry where the idea of editorial mandate from DC and Marvel has become so reviled that it seems every other comics publisher’s editorial guidelines are a hands-off reaction against them.

I was having a hard time getting an idea of this ‘line’ at this point in our conversation, what it might look like, and I couldn’t tell if it was going to be akin to Tokyopop’s “hire’m all and let the market sort’em out” original content strategy, or something a little different. So I asked him flat out–name five books published in the last few years that you could see as part of this line. His response? “None.” Really, not one book? “Not really, I don’t see a lot of the work fitting our ideas. Maybe elements of Scott Pilgrim come closest to it, or Ed Brubaker’s Scene of the Crime or Sleeper. Stuff that’s really good, solid concept-stuff but with a twist to it, a hook.” I believe I mentioned that Scene of the Crime and Sleeper sold fairly poorly at the time, but I don’t remember what, if any, response came of it.

Said I: “I’ve talked to a number of creators working in the ogn or straight-to-collection format, and many of them have very similar concerns about the system of creating a graphic novel with little-or-no input for a year, and releasing these graphic novels to sometimes little or no feedback, and then going back to the drawing board. The idea of shorter serialization has been floated as a possible remedy…” Marc responded that things were still up in the air regarding format, but had heard and shared many of the same concerns. We talked a little bit more about various successes and failures but Marc was reluctant to name names, which I can appreciate…

“You know,” I said. “As soon as I post this you’re going to get flooded with submissions. Horrible people sending you their ideas for a sequel to Dragonball Z, all that shit.”

He knew it, but made it pretty clear he had no interest in submissions right now. “Maybe in a few years we’ll open it up to submissions,” said Marc. “But right now I just want to see already completed work. What you’ve done, what you’re capable of.” So if you’re sitting on the world’s best manuscript for a 3400 part serial about a new level of Super-Saiyan, can it. At least for a little while. But I do have to say that Marc seemed quite genuine about wanting to see published work and specifically mentioned webcomics, mini-comics and self-pub’d work as well as professionally published material…

It’s at this point in the conversation that my friend writer Ray Fawkes (Apocaplipstix, coming this summer from Oni Press) walked by the little concrete benches where we were seated and came and said hello. Ray has 4 projects in development with four different publishers at the moment, is incredibly talented, and above-all sounded like the exact sort of person who would be doing books that would fit with Marc’s idea for the Viz Original Content Line. I introduced them and mentioned something to this effect, and sure enough there was a warm exchange of business cards and a plan to talk further about an exchange of work… So if Marc wasn’t being genuine when he said he would happily look at published work, he was at least putting on a good face in front of my friend ;).

Sidebar: It’s worth noting that at the big Viz Panel the next day, this exact situation came up. Here, I’ll quote from “A Geek By Any Other Name”:

“Someone just asked about whether they’d be accepting any original series, and they answered that they weren’t really looking for anything, which is a little counter to what Brigid and other bloggers heard yesterday.”

I think that’s a pretty clever answer, actually, because Marc made that quite clear to me as well: They aren’t looking for anything in particular. They’re looking for talented people who’ve done great work–at this point in the game–and are probably looking to develop something with them as opposed to just accepting or rejecting a pitch. An important bit of semantics!

Now, you have to understand, all the while I’m having this conversation with Marc… I’m feeling pretty good about all of this actually, but this nagging phrase wouldn’t stop repeating itself in the back of my mind: “THE TOKYOPOP DEAL”. I fucking hate The Tokyopop deal, flat out. It’s awful and abusive of young creators, and while I haven’t gotten up and shouted I TOLD YOU SO at anyone two years later, the number of disenfranchised and angry Tokyopop creators has more-or-less done the work for me. I’m not particularly happy about being right of course; it is, at best, a pyrrhic victory.
“Marc,” I said. “Who owns it?” I was honestly not anticipating the response.

“The creators do. It’s going to be a standard book-industry type contract, although even there we’re doing a bit of tweaking. I believe in that, and we wanted a fair deal.”

Huh, how about that. We discussed it a little further, mentioning things like other-media adaptation rights and all that, and while we really only talked in generalities, it all sounded really reasonable. Maybe even… good. Marc relayed an anecdote about visiting a comics class at SVA the previous week, I think either he mentioned either Tom Hart or Matt Madden or Jessica Abel were teaching, and he was talking about this very line. The instructor sort of built up this menacing tone and said “And now we’ve got a hard question for you, Marc! WHO OWNS THE WORK!?” which I have to admit that’s kind of amazing, that ownership and contract discussions are a part of comics instruction now. But Marc said “oh, the creators.” and just sort of deflated the instructor’s bubble (it was funny, not dickish, at least when Marc told it). You have no idea how heartening it was to hear this, the idea that copyright (amongst many other rights) would reside with the creators of the work. Of course, no contract is perfect and each one is different and be sure to get a lawyer to read things over before you sign them, etc., but just hearing an affirmative and positive reaction to creator ownership coming from the spokesperson for a massive international corporation? Even one with Marc’s long history of publishing and working with comics creators (google him)? It’s fantastic.

Our conversation sort of drifted from that point as it seemed that I’d wrapped up everything I had to ask, and started mulling over my opinions of the prospects of this line. I can’t help but feel that the possibilities of a company as well-invested and an editor as well-intentioned as Viz and Marc both are could seriously shake up comics production, where the money becomes in line in both frequency and scale as Marvel and DC; where they could develop a very creatively supportive but still professional environment; where serialization and the possibility of easy access to the Japanese market (and work produced in a Japanese-fashion) could attract a whole new generation of manga-inspired creators.

Moreso than Vertigo’s announcement at the show that they were actively scouting out “original graphic novels” and, to my mind, trying to directly take projects away from Oni Press, Slave Labor, and Top Shelf, this feels like something that just isn’t being done in the industry right now, but when laid out as Marc Weidenbaum did for me, makes it seem essential… Possibly even as important to original comics content creation as manga was to the bookstores. It doesn’t take a genius to see that serialized original content with a strong narrative hook and enticing cliffhangers are part-and-parcel of the manga experience… perhaps with Weidenbaum’s affection for top-notch (and often very mature) television shows and evocations of Brubaker’s crime fiction, this line of books could be that mythical ’stepping stone to adulthood’ that everyone wonders about for the aging manga demographic.

Or not. It’s pretty easy to look at what I’ve written here and see it as corporate-controlled comics, with nothing to offer the comics auteur. I can’t speak for Marc on this point but I do see validity to that point of view. There’s a reason that someone like Seth designs his books right down to hand-lettering the indicia and choosing the colour of the foil-stamping on the hardcover, you know? I don’t see that as what this line is about, and quite frankly there are lots of places to publish that sort of material that do it very well (Drawn & Quarterly, Fantagraphics, Pantheon, First Second, etc.). But a vision of the comics industry where compelling commercial comics don’t mean superheroes, half-assed movie pitches, or the occasional fluke from the majors (and let’s not forget that Y: The Last Man’s commissioning editor was fired by Vertigo shortly after its launch…!)? At the very least, you can put me on that mailing list.

Anyhow, those are my impressions of the conversation I had with Viz’s new Vice President of Original Publishing. All of which are subject to the haze of memory and just having come off of a panel where I sat 15 feet from Stan Lee for an hour. Following our chat I walked Marc to a cab and resisted the urge to invite myself to his dinner with important people from Japan, which showed some tact on my part (though obviously less-so now that I blogged it). I ended up having a great dinner anyway (thank you, Dave & Raina), and didn’t see Marc for the rest of the weekend. Just goes to show you that it’s important to make time when you can, at these sorts of shows.

Thanks again for being so generous with your time Marc! I hope your inbox is not immediately flooded.

- Christopher

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
‘Super-Creator’ Comes to USA
French embassy hosts Christophe Blain; critics compare him to Vonnegut & Daumier
“Christophe Blain is one of those super-creators in France that very few English-speaking people have heard of.” — Read About Comics

“[Blain’s] styles of figuration and lighting marry Daumier and Munch.” — Booklist

“Like Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut.” — School Library Journal

Blain is the writer and artist behind Isaac the Pirate, the best-selling graphic-novel series about an artist who accidentally turns buccaneer and falls through a series of hilarious adventures. The book won the prestigious Angoulême International Comics festival’s highest award. Blain has also written and drawn graphic novels such as the critically lauded The Speed Abater and contributed to Lewis Trondheim and Joann Sfar’s popular Dungeon books. The French embassy’s Cultural Services Department is bringing Blain to the United States as part of its French Authors on Tour program (www.frenchculture.org/spip.php?article50&tout=ok). NBM, the publisher of Dungeon, Speed Abater, and Isaac the Pirate in the United States, is delighted to work with the Embassy on Blain’s tour.

At this writing, Blain is scheduled for the following events (and more may be added soon).

Saturday, April 26, 7 p.m.
Secret Headquarters
3817 West Sunset Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90026
323-666-2228
www.thesecretheadquarters.com
Sunday, April 27
12 noon: Booth 318 (Hi De Ho Comics)
2 p.m.: Booth 732 (French Cultural Services)
4 p.m.: Royce Hall, Room 306 (lecture followed by wine reception)
Los Angeles Times Festival of Books
UCLA
405 Hilgard Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90095
213-237-6552 or 800-728-4638 x72665
www.latimes.com/extras/festivalofbooks
www.hidehocomics.com

Monday, April 28, 7 p.m.
Book Soup
8818 Sunset Boulevard
West Hollywood, CA 90069
310-659-3110 or 800-764-BOOK
www.booksoup.com

Thursday, May 1, 6 p.m.
Floating World Comics
20 Northwest 5th Avenue
Portland, OR 97209
503-241-0227
www.floatingworldcomics.com

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- Christopher

I’d originally planned to do like a whole big… thing… today, sort of a tour through some of my favourite things, but it didn’t work out. Up until I started writing this I was a bit disappointed about that, but I’ve just realized that the reason I haven’t had time to put this stuff together is because I’ve been so busy actually doing all of the stuff I used to talk about. The events, the promotion of worthwhile comics and graphic novels, developing new formats and new outlets and all of that. I’m super, super proud of everything I’ve accomplished over the last few years, and while I may still completely fuck it up every once in a while, things are going better than ever. Thanks to everyone for reading and linking and what-not over the years, and for all the kind words I continue to receive.

Here’s to six more…

- Christopher

I scheduled my trip to have an extra day in NYC, because I don’t really get a lot of fun time when I’m here, it’s mostly just con-con-con and then back on a flight. So I’ve got brunch with friends in a little bit, and then we’re going to do some shopping in SoHo… I picked up a bunch of great Taiyo Matsumoto shirts at UniQlo and now everyone wants one. Go grab me a Prada catalogue…

Alright, gotta get ready. Check you with a con wrap-up when I get some down-time.

- Chris

I am still in New York, and the nice folks at NPR’s The Bryant Park Project morning show have asked me on to their show to talk about the con, my experiences, and etc. I’ll be on sometime around 8am tomorrow morning, and I’m looking forward to it. If you can’t make it up that early in the evening, it looks like the show is archived on their website.

Meanwhile! I contributed a little sidebar piece to New York gay mag Next Magazine’s most-recent issue about comics, just in time for the convention. I found a copy while I was here and they blew it up onto a full page with art and everything, which is fab. It’s a quick-and-dirty little piece called 6 Essential Gay Graphic Novels.

So it’s been a pretty good weekend :)

- Chris

Kazu Kibuishi signs the movie contract for his graphic novel Amulet. The movie has been optioned by Will Smith’s production company. Kazu is pretty excited to meet him. :)

There’s 3 announcements in this picture, if you look carefully. The big one is the exceptionally good news that Stephen Robson of Fanfare/Ponent Mon has signed the contract to do the English-language adaptation of Jiro Taniguchi’s masterful graphic novel series “Faraway Neighborhood” (transliteration, it could be translated a number of ways). This is, from people in the know, the Taniguchi book. In the background you can see poster promoting two new works, including Disappearance Diary by Hideo Azuma and My Mommy, by Jean Regnaud and Emile Bravo. This is great news, more on this later.

Asano-san and Mr. Lee talk about cross-continental collaboration, in advance of the new Shonen Jump series Ultimo!

Having a great time, wish you were here.

- Chris