Comics212

It’s wonderful. I’m at a conference for teachers and librarians that I sort of crashed… Why is every singly conference I go to nicer and better-appointed than comics shows? It’s a little depressing. Note to pubs: Splurge on some carpet, your feet (and mine) will thank you for it.

- Christopher

The following comics and graphic novels are scheduled to ship to The Beguiling Books & Art in Toronto, Canada this week. Not all books make it to all retailers at the same time, but if you see something on the list below and not in your local store, it’s probably at least worth asking about.

The big book this week is Angel: After The Fall, the comics-format sequel to the cancelled ‘Angel’ television show, a spin-off of the popular ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’. Originally it was going to be titled “Angel Season Six” but… I dunno, someone somewhere is a jerk. Anyway, this one is also written by original creator Joss Whedon and answers a pretty major cliffhanger for a lot of fans, so I expect sales will be quite brisk. Will they be Buffy #1 brisk? I don’t see it happening myself, but that Joss Whedon does seem to have the magic touch, lately. Speaking of which, it looks like retailers who ordered Buffy #1 are getting a Limited Edition “Thank You” Buffy Hard Cover this week. Can you say “instant, expensive collectible”. I’m sure you can…

Also of note in the floppies are new issues of Powers and Walking Dead, showing that those books might just eventually get back on schedule yet. The new Hawaiian Dick ongoing series launches, written by B. Clay Moore and featuring the lovely art of Canadian (and good buddy) Scott Chantler. I’ve had a chance to read the first issue and it’s really good, I hope everyone out there will give it a shot this time out.

Finally, my friends at UDON are releasing STREET FIGHTER: BONUS STAGE, a collection of all of the back-up stories from the first two volumes of Street Fighter comics. Whether you’re a fan or not, they assembled a pretty stellar array of mainstream and international comics artists, including Joe Mad, J. Scott Campbell, Adam Warren, and I think all of Corey Lewis’ ‘Cheap Shots’ comics are in there too. Very cool. Apparently I get a thank-you in the book because I sorta came up with the idea for it, which is nice of the guys. I’m just happy to have all the work.

Full shipping list is after the jump:

Keep reading…

It seems like only yesterday that I picked my favourite comics of 2006, and a month and a half before the end of the year various media outlets are already making their “Best of 2007″ lists. Yikes. Today I managed to trip over Amazon.com’s Best of the Year list, and they picked the Dark Tower adaptation as the best graphic novel of the year. I mean, yikes. So much for your literary comics conspiracy. The rest of the includes titles like the Joss Whedon Buffy collection, Tomine’s Shortcomings, and a bevvy of strip collections for Perry Bible Fellowship, Peanuts, The Complete Mad: Don Martin, and Pearls Before Swine. I have to say that I’m kind of surprised to see Bryan Talbot’s excellent Alice in Sunderland on there, but I’m glad it is. On the other hand? Nothing there from DC Comics or any of their imprints, which I find a little surprising given the diversity of DC’s output and their deep pockets…
Meanwhile, as part of the new Publisher’s Weekly Comics Week, the PWCW staff releases their picks for best of the year and, much like their 2006 list, it’s a balanced, considered thing that speaks more to playing nice with every genre and outlet and less about a passionate collection of The Best Of 2007. Here’s the list:

Adrian Tomine’s Shortcomings, Bryan Talbot’s Alice in Sunderland, Rutu Modan’s Exit Wounds, Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s All-Star Superman, Jason’s I Killed Adolf Hitler, Nick Abadzis’s Laika, Nick Bertozzi’s The Salon, Marguerite Abouet and Clement Oubrerie’s Aya, Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim Gets it Together, Taiyo Matsumoto’s Tekkonkinkreet: Black and White, Osamu Tezuka’s MW, and Eiji Otsuka and Sho-u Tajima’s MPD-Psycho Vol. 1.

Surprisingly, they didn’t think Dark Tower was the best of the year, I wonder how that works?

Anyway, I really just posted this to remind myself to get my ass in gear and start reading more of this year’s comics and graphic novels. Of the 12 books on PW’s list, I’ve read 9, which is a pretty good average, but if I’ve only read 3/4 of that best of list, who knows how few of the actual best comics of 2007 I’ve read? Who knows how many more are still to come?! I need a vacation where all I do is read comics… not for fun, but for completeness.

- Christopher

Hey people! I’m gonna be in New York from this Saturday through Tuesday. Who wants to hang out? Comment or drop me an e-mail.

(Real post soon.)

- Christopher

Well hello, and welcome to my home.

If you’re just joining me here following the Platinum Studios article in The New York Times Magazine, I’m glad you made your way over. Comics212 is a blog dedicated to covering the medium and industry of comics, with a focus on creator rights and ownership and writing to an audience that might not be that familiar with the medium. Sometimes. Sometimes we’re completely impenetrable.

I’ve been “blogging” here Since 2002, and writing columns for the previous iteration of the site (a dot com boom-era portal called 212.net) since 1997. I’ve been working in the industry as a retailer since 1994 at the tender age of 16, and I’m currently the manager of The Beguiling Books & Art in Toronto, which is easily one of the best comic book stores in the world. Along the way I’ve also picked up some creative credits including colouring, lettering, designing comics and even writing one. I’ve also done freelance writing for various and diverse outlets including ICv2.com and Xtra Magazine in Toronto. Oh, and I get invited to conferences to speak about comics too.

So, yeah, that’s pretty much it. Welcome to the site! If you want to start reading somewhere good, I recommend clicking “Japan” in the right navigation bar there. I just got back from a trip there and took about 3000 photos and I spend a lot of time discussing the culture of comics there, versus in North America, and even if that’s not your thing the pictures are great.

- Christopher

The following comics and graphic novels (and things) are scheduled to ship to The Beguiling Books & Art in Toronto, Canada. All items may not arrive at all retailers at the same time, but if you see an item you want listed below, it’s probably at least worth asking about.

Speaking of which, Diamond is not filling our LOEG order, as anticipated. Will we have copies Wednesday? Who can say. :)

Chris’s Highlights:

JUN070172 ALL STAR SUPERMAN #9 2.99
That’s pretty awesome. Even though it’s a June code, I wasn’t expecting another All Star Superman for a long time. That last storyline with Bizarro was fantastic, and I can’t wait to see how Morrison and Quitely wrap the whole thing up over the next four issues.

AUG073995 ASIAN BEAT GN (MR) 9.99
“A negligent mother, an affair, a broken family, domestic abuse, and drugs are among the subjects in these Goth short stories that revolve around the lives of teenagers with complicated problems.” - This sounds pretty great in a car-crash sort of way. The title just makes it so much better/worse as well.

MAY073664 COURTNEY CRUMRIN AND THE FIRE THIEFS TALE 5.95
Yay! As much as I appreciate Ted Naifeh as a diverse and multi-talented creator (with bills to pay), I kind of wish someone would drop a pile of money on him to just come up with new Courtney Crumrin stories for the next four or five years. Build up a nice library of fantastic, spooky material for kids (that adults enjoy too!).

AUG073984 FRUITS BASKET VOL 18 GN (OF 22) 9.99
I feel kind of bad that I stopped reading this after the second volume. It’s so popular I feel like I should at least know what’s going on, and reading it through Wiki feels like cheating.

AUG073419 GARTH ENNIS CHRONICLES OF WORMWOOD HC (MR) 27.99
Was this any good? It sold really well for us but I never really read any of it.

APR073696 PALESTINE HC 29.95
One of the weird things about working at a comic store, or having worked at a comic store for 13 years now, is that you’re always kind of surprised by what you DON’T own, rather than what you do. I’ve read Palestine at least twice, met Mr. Sacco a few times, and have hand-sold at least a couple hundred of these books. But I went to go and grab it from my bookshelf the other day and it turns out I don’t have it. I’ll be remedying that this week with this HC, which looks absolutely gorgeous, is stuffed to the gills with new material, and is really an essential for any bookshelf, being one of the first long-form journalistic works in the comics medium.

JUN073779 SCOTT PILGRIM VOL 4 SCOTT PILGRIM GETS IT TOGETHER 11.95
I turned down the Advance Reader Copy, I haven’t read any of the reviews or interviews, and except for a 4 or 5 page sequence that I actually performed live one day (that was a lot of fun) I have no idea what to expect, more or less, with this one. I can’t wait. :)

AUG072225 WORLD WAR HULK #5 (OF 5) WWH 3.99
I can’t get over how good this series is, when so much of what Marvel publishes these days is so terrible. Here’s hoping that they don’t cop-out on the ending.

SEP073317 ZOMBIES CALLING GN 9.95
Canadian Faith Erin Hicks releases her first original graphic novel this week, and sure, it’s about zombies, but there are actually lots of good zombie books coming out right now, even if you’re not one of those hardcore WWZ-types. I like Faith Hicks’ work a lot, she’s been doing this great webcomic called ICE online for (I think…) a few years now, and she’s been around ‘the scene’ longer still. I read a preview of this one somewhere and the dialogue, humour, pacing, and especially the art are all really excellent. If you get a chance, give this one a look because I think it’s going to be something of a sleeper hit, and I’m sure that the author and the publisher (Slave Labor Graphics) would rather it was an out-and-out spectacular hit, you know what I’m saying? Anyway, if you’re a Scott Pilgrim type looking for something else to pick-up this week, this is my pick for you.

…

Alright, like I said, League is also shipping this week, but only to U.S. Stores. I hope that as customers outside of the U.S. that you won’t be pissed off at your local comic book guy or gal, the situation really is out of their hands. If Scott Dunbier, arguably the most beloved guy at Wildstorm, lost his job over defending this one and trying to get it into the U.K. and Canada, then believe me, there’s nothing that the poor schmuck behind the counter at your local shop can do. Just try and be happy and understanding, make the world a better place, etc.

And with that, the full shipping list is behind the cut:

Keep reading…

I didn’t write about the Zuda launch because I was (and am) still very sick, but it’s also been analyzed to the Nth degree already, I didn’t have much to add.

Today though, I found out that the first Zuda creator to be pissed-off and disillusioned came to light… at the launch party. Yeah, that’s right. Apparently J. Longo, creator of ‘This American Strife’ had his strip edited, and then had a page omitted, without his being told by the ‘higher-ups’ at the company. He found out when he noticed his comics playing on the TV screens at the launch party. From an entry by Mr. Longo entitled “non disclosure diss-agreement“:

“Now, in Zudas tiniest defense, when I orginally pitched the J & Jesus screens for ‘This American Strife,’ I was told to modify certain things to make it kosher enough to have it public. However, I changed these ‘questionables‘ and re-drew every panel in accordance to their requests. But to have weeks go by and then release ‘This American Strife’ with such a crucial, non-disclosed edit is lame.” - J. Longo, Creator of This American Strife for Zuda.com

How long did it take for the other shoe to drop? 24 hours. At least it took most of the Tokyopop crew a full year to become disillusioned with their terrible contracts.

Edit: J. Longo has responded to this article in my comments section, and over at his blog. I encourage you to check it out.
- Christopher

Thanks to my friend, comics creator Eric Kim, I’ve just been provided with some photos of this fall’s The Word On The Street, the outdoor literary festival in downtown Toronto that attracts hundreds of thousands of attendees. This year was particularly notable for having a full day’s compliment of comics and graphic novel programming. I’d like to thank Eric Kim for providing us with some photographic evidence of the event, and I encourage you to all check out his website at http://www.inkskratch.com/!

I was the co-host of the graphic novel programming for the day.

Scott Chantler (Northwest Passage), Zach Worton, and Jeff Lemire (Essex County) on the Great Canadian Graphic Novels panel.

The audience sits with rapt attention.

Following the panel, Scott Chantler signs copies of Northwest Passage for fans.

The lovely ladies of the graphic novel sales table.

Cartoonists getting the most out of the green room. It’s (from l to r) Jim Zubkavich (Makeshift Miracle), Derek Haliday (who really oughtta have been working, I think!), Tyrone McCarthy (Courduroy High), Ryan North (Dinosaur Comics), and Kean Soo (Jellaby).

Look who the boys ran into in the green room! It’s Canadian Environmental Legend David Suzuki, and a flustered Eric Kim!

Meanwhile, back at the street festival the Scholastic booth was busy the whole day long…

On stage for the “promoting yourself using the internet” panel it’s Ryan North, Nadine Lessio (designer of comics212.net amongst other spots), John Martz (Drawn.ca), and Jim Zubkavich. Everyone looks a little incredulous at something Ryan North is saying.

Chip Zdarsky and Jim Zubkavich have a chat after a very long day.

The audience was pretty impressive the whole-day through, and the feedback was generally very positive. Here’s hoping to many more successful WOTS events!

- Christopher
(All photos Copyright Eric Kim, except for the one with him in it, I’m not sure who took that one.)