Comics212

The first issue of Shonen Jump in North America.

I like Viz a lot and so this totally pains me to say, but I’m actually pretty bummed about the move to digital-only on Shonen Jump [ref].

Yes, I absolutely think it is a good move to combat piracy. Yes, I think it will significantly improve the reading experience of thousands of die hard fans. I think it being successful will pave the way for other digital partnerships and initiatives at Viz, another good thing. There are a lot of up-sides to this move, and I don’t want to take away from them, but there’s a huge downside to this move that I haven’t seen discussed yet.

The move to digital pulls cheap, accessible comics off of the newsstands of huge parts of North America, where there might not otherwise be comics or manga. Shonen Jump sold in Walmart. It sold in corner stores, it sold (probably terribly but still) in comic stores, it sold to people without Very Expensive pieces of digital technology. It’s read by kids–and teens, and adults too–but it’s $5 and 300 pages of action, adventure, and even romance, and it has all sorts of articles, free Yu-Gi-Oh cards, and more, it is perfect for kids. I know kids read it, and I’m going to come right out and say that it is the single best way that the medium of comics reaches younger readers–100-200,000 copies of Shonen Jump available on magazine racks across North America.

Some kids don’t have credit cards or Apple digital devices or much more than $5 to spend on a comic, and Shonen Jump is how we as a medium get that $5.  $5 at Marvel buys you about 1.25 issues of Ultimate Spider-Man. It’ll get you 1.66 issues of Teen Titans over at DC. But at Viz $5 gets you 300 pages of new comics every month. There’s just nothing else like Shonen Jump.

The folks at Viz are smart and passionate people and they love manga, I have no doubt they’ve explored every angle and come to the conclusion that this is the best move on a number of levels. I’m not second-guessing them here. They published this anthology, aimed at kids and tweens and teens, this wonderful ambassador of manga and of comics, of visual storytelling, and they’ve done so for round-about 10 years now. That is a longer and more sustained commitment to comics outreach than Marvel or DC have managed, combined, since Crisis. Viz deserve a huge round of applause for that, and I hope those last few print issues of Shonen Jump will be appropriately celebratory for their fantastic accomplishment.

I just wish it didn’t have to end, because frankly, comics needs Shonen Jump in print every month.

- Christopher

Just want to give a quick shout-out to two excellent indy comics projects that got announced this weekend at NYCC, which may or may not get drowned out in the cacophony of announcements and discussions.

First up, Brian Wood rejoins with Kristian Donaldson (the team previously paired on Supermarket from IDW and DMZ from Vertigo) for THE MASSIVE, a new ongoing series from Dark Horse debuting in June. As the graphic says there’ll be a 3-part prequel running in Dark Horse Presents magazine starting in January. The news has been somewhat overshadowed by the announcement that Wood will be re-teaming with another frequent collaborator, Becky Cloonan, on a new Conan series all for DH. I’m all for that too, Becky told me a little about their plans for the character and they sound… Metal.

Next, it’s FATALE, the new collaboration between Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips (Criminal, Incognito), coming from Image Comics. CBR has an interview and 4-page preview of the work here, and I really think the mix of the teams’ noir stylings with near-Lovecraftian levels of horror has the potential to hit with contemporary comics audiences. Despite my best efforts the duo’s Incognito was always an easier sell than Criminal–I think the sorts of comics audiences likely to pick up monthly comics these days want a supernatural ‘hook’, and this is poised to deliver. The first issue of Fatale, currently scheduled to run at least 12 issues, will drop in January.

Speaking as someone who enjoyed the previous collaborations of both of these creative teams, and is always happy to see new monthly comic books on the stands? This was a great day for comics announcements.

EDIT: Whoops! Guess I shoulda kept reading my email. Look what was buried in there:

Here is the complete press release; there is almost no information in it other than “3 issues” and “2012″. But If I don’t post that here I will get a dozen people asking for more info.

GEOF DARROW’S SHAOLIN COWBOY RETURNS IN AN ALL-NEW THREE ISSUE SERIES FROM DARK HORSE!

NEW YORK, NY, OCTOBER 14– Five years after it’s initial run ended, Geof Darrow’s (Hard Boiled, Big Guy and Rusty) returns in 2012!
Originally published by Burlyman Entertainment, Shaolin Cowboy is a loaf of wry in a wonder bread world, a nicotine patch in a ten pack-a-day universe. He wonders as he wanders through a world where yesterday, today and tomorrow exist in a collage of carnage of his own making!

“Geof Darrow’s relationship with Dark Horse goes back to the early days of the company. I can’t tell you how excited I am to again be publishing his amazing work” said Dark Horse president, Mike Richardson. “Geof’s art literally stopped me in my tracks when I first met him more than two decades ago and his work is every bit as stunning today. Geof has influenced a generation of artists and I am proud and excited to have him back partnered with Dark Horse.”

Shaolin Cowboy returns with all-new stories in 2012!

That is very good news indeed! It’s a great book, and one that’s been absent for far too long. Hopefully an announcement of a collection of the first series will follow soon.

- Chris

Hey,

Air Canada, who I booked my flight to NYC with, was scheduled to have their flight attendants walk off the job 6 hours before my flight. Today we hear the strike may or may not be blocked by the Federal government, or they might be legislated back to work, or something.

Oh, and, the airport I fly out of? The security people are currently on a work-to-rule campaign which is slowing things down so much that Air Canada “is advising customers travelling from/to Toronto Pearson that some flights might be delayed or cancelled today.”

What I’m saying is, fuck Air Canada, fuck the stress of flying, and while I am sad to be missing my first NYCC, I’m not going to stand in what may or may not be an infinite line for a flight that may or may not be cancelled, and may or may not be staffed and therefore may or may not be cancelled again. Fuck all y’all and the horses you rode in on.

I’m staying home.

Have fun at the show guys and gals.

- Christopher
P.S. Yes, I should’ve flown Porter.

Students from Carlton University at the Manga Wall we donated from The Beguiling. Photo from here.

The time has really, really flown by. It’s already October 7th, and that means just 3 days left for the exhibit JAPAN/JAPON at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa (actually, in Gatineau, just across the river from Ottawa).

I spent a few years going back and forth with Alan Elder and Claire Champ from the Museum, and they were delightful, passionate people, interested in painting a broad and varied picture of Japanese culture, past and present. I was delighted to provide curatorial assistance to this project, and to work with The Beguiling to help provide this fantastic wall of manga, both showcasing contemporary Japanese culture and encouraging visitors to interact with it themselves.

It was just about a year ago that I was in Japan, scouting and sourcing some of the material–manga, anime cels, books, scripts, etc.–that would eventually make its way into the exhibition. It was such a great trip, and I have to say I learned a lot about the early days of manga through the dedicated acquisition of time-period specific works. I’ve been hit with a wave of nostalgia for that trip, now that I’m just a few weeks away from taking my next one.

Anyhow, if you’re in the area this weekend, I hope you’ll give one last look at the exhibition before it disappears. I’m also hoping that it proved popular enough to warrant touring, as there are a number of fantastic pieces of art and design history in that collection that should be seen by Japanophiles everywhere.

Thanks again to Alan, Claire, and everyone at the CMC of the opportunity.

- Chris

So here it is, broken-down, real simple like: The State of Digital Comics [Ref: David Brothers]

Consumers want graphic novels available on their digital devices for download. They don’t (generally) download novels a chapter at a time, so downloading a graphic novel an issue at a time (and for $0.99-$3.99 a go) is stupid. I can see that, I guess, and customers should vote with their wallets. They probably have been, digital sales numbers are reportedly quite low, despite near-ubiquitous availability.

Then there are the class-action lawsuits over the pricing of books, which I honestly cannot wrap my head around at all. How can a consumer legislate the price of a consumable? Particularly when we’re not talking basic-survival-goods-in-a-crisis scenario. [Ref: Graeme McMillan].

Does that mean Canadian book-buyers can launch a class-action lawsuit against Canadian distributors who tack-on 20% or more to the cost of a book even though our currencies are more-or-less at par? Because, frankly, I am down for that. Someone show me where to sign.

Really, the whole thing is kind of aggrivating from a business standpoint. I’m a firm believer in consumers voting with their wallets. If you don’t like paying $3.99 for a digital comic book because you feel there should be an inexpensive all-in-one graphic novel version, don’t, and tell them why. And if you don’t like how the material is presented, you’re mad at the company, whatever, then just don’t buy their product. Take a stand. Like Barnes & Noble did. [Ref: Publisher's Weekly]

For those of you that don’t click on links, here’s what PW has to say:

“In what looks like the first shots of a new tablet content war, Barnes & Noble has instructed its stores to stop selling and remove the physical copies of the 100 graphic novels DC Comics plans to sell [digital versions of] exclusively through the new Amazon Kindle Fire tablet. “ - Publisher’s Weekly

You dig? That’s the last remaining bookstore chain telling a publisher “If you’re not going to play fair with us, we are not going to work with you.” That is a very big deal, and I wonder how DC will respond to that.

As for me? Well I’m writing something longer about this for an outlet (to be named at a later date), but the long and the short of it is that I don’t have a horse in the race as a retailer. Comic book retailers have either been entirely excluded from digital comics downloads or treated to abhorrent terms in order to participate (looking at you and your incredibly shitty setup, Comixology), so these two corporations fighting it out over a format we don’t/won’t get access to is amusing, depressing, and ultimately out of my hands.

I will take a moment to remind you though that these books will remain on the shelves of thousands of comic book stores nation-wide, and across the world. Like The Beguiling, in Toronto, Canada, for example (plug). To find the comic book store nearest you, visit http://www.comicshoplocator.com/.

- Chris

Dear Ontario,

Today is voting day all across the Province, where we decide who will govern us for the next 4 years, give-or-take.

Now, I know it’s not an easy choice this year, what with the incumbent administration having allowed the horror of the G20 on their watch… The tax thing doesn’t bother me as much because the previous administration spent us into a horrorshow of a deficit, all through tax cuts for big business, and what were they gonna do? At least they were reasonably upfront about it.

I generally like the NDP, although I am not terribly inspired by them this election. Their politics–socially, economically–are generally the closest to my own, inasmuch as that matters to you reading. They are probably who I am going to vote for in my riding, which I believe is a reasonably close race between them and the Liberals.

(I don’t care for the Green platform.)

Which brings us to the Conservatives. If there was any chance that the conservatives might take my riding, and the next closest candidate was a Liberal one, you can be sure that my vote would go to that Liberal because Tim Hudak is, by his own account, a terrible human being. He has run an anti-immigrant, anti-gay, anti-trans, anti-intelligence campaign. He and those running under the banner of the Conservatives have campaigned on fear and outright lies (there will be no tax cuts, there will be no increase in services), and this is for me a rare case of not just disagreeing with someone’s politics, but actively hating the man himself for what he’s trying to do to the political discourse in Ontario. I mean, he called actual Canadian citizens “foreign workers” because of where they used to live. Look it up.

What I’m saying is, please go out and vote against the Conservatives this election. I don’t care who you vote for, but if there’s a chance that you can reduce the hold of an American-style conservative politician over the voting public of Ontario, then please, do it. For yourselves and for the rest of us that are trying to have a civilization over here while the Conservatives do their best to tear it down.

Sincerely,

- Christopher Butcher

I’m trying something a little different.

Over at my Flickr, I’ve just posted a walk through Nakano, one of the suburbs of Tokyo. It’s 2 or 3 stops west of Shinjuku, and in addition to being a lovely little area of town, it also houses Nakano Broadway Mall, home to nearly 10 different outlets of the used nerd good chain Mandarake, which I’ve talked about before. You can see my first visit to Nakano Broadway at http://comics212.net/2008/02/06/japan-2007-nakano-broadway-mall/, if you’re curious.

On our 2010 trip, our friend Jocelyne took us to a cute little vegan/vegetarian restaurant a 10 minute walk away from Nakano Broadway and from the JR station, and I decided to catalogue the walk with my new camera.

If you’d like to check it out–and there’s a tiny little bit of comics content in there too–please head over to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/comics212/sets/72157627680799795/.

Best,

- Chris

Mom: “Do you think this Starfire is a good hero?”

7 Year Old Girl: “Not really.”

“Do you think the Starfire from the Teen Titans cartoon is a good role model?”

*immediately* “Oh yes. She’s a great role model. She tells people they can be good friends and super powerful and fight for good.”

“Do you think the Starfire in the Teen Titans comic book is a good role model?”

“Yes, too. She’s still a good guy. Pretty, but she’s helping others all the time and saving people.”

“What about this new Starfire?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Why not?”

“Because she’s not doing anything.”

- Go read the whole brutal exchange at IO9

It’s like they took this comic by David Willis and made it real, and somehow sadder.

Look, since everyone is weighing in on this thing: Not every comic needs to be for every audience. Not every depiction of someone being slutty is a problem–even in superhero comics. I think it’d be lovely if the[second] biggest company in comics gave a damn about creating a diverse line of books that appealed to people other than straight white dudes, 24-40, which would make the occasional sexual inference and cheesecakiness less de rigeur. I would absolutely adore that–I’d sell more comics! There is an inherent weariness to this argument, to reaction to these books, and it creeps me out a little bit that a mom is putting a picture of her sleeping preteen daughter on the internet to make a larger social point about appropriateness of content. We’d all do better to engage the material we enjoy and discuss and promote it, or better still, create our own material to enjoy and ignore the rest of the shit entirely.

BUT ALL OF THAT SAID: DC Comics, Scott Lobdell, Cheesecake Artist #827, You Screwed The Pooch on this one. For all of our sakes own up to radically sexualizing a children’s character that is still in reruns for children today, admit it was a mistake, fix it. That’s it. “People did not like this new direction, we’re going a different way, we appreciate your passion.” Fix it.

Fix it.

- Christopher