http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/briefings/ en tomspurgeon@yahoo.com Copyright 2008 2008-10-07T18:00:00-08:00 http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/index/final_siegel_case_schedule_imminent/ If I reading this correctly, and I'm probably not, the judge in the case of the Siegel family versus DC Comics over elements of Superman ownership held a hearing yesterday to set a final schedule for that case's dispensation. Of greater interest is Trexler's description of how additional historical evidence drove recent activity in the case. Daily Blog

If I reading this correctly, and I'm probably not, the judge in the case of the Siegel family versus DC Comics over elements of Superman ownership held a hearing yesterday to set a final schedule for that case's dispensation. Of greater interest is Trexler's description of how additional historical evidence drove recent activity in the case.]]> 2008-10-07T15:25:00-08:00 http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/index/one_dozen_thoughts_about_spx_2008/ By Sean T. Collins Special To The Comics Reporter 1) Maybe it's because unlike last year I did SPX in one day -- carpooling down from New York on Friday night, arriving after midnight, sleeping for a few hours, doing the show on Saturday, returning to New York that night -- but Chris Mautner appears to agree: This show felt like a whirlwind. Maybe I got used to the epic length of a day at San Diego and found an 11 AM-7 PM time frame for the SPX floor constricting, I don't know. 2) Or maybe it was because the show was hella crowded. We arrived at the venue maybe ten minutes after 11 and the joint was already jumping -- one of my friends peeked in and literally did a double take. The retailers and creators I spoke with all seemed pretty thrilled with the crowds and the sales (not always directly correlated phenomena). Now that I think of it, people seemed very happy in general. I was warmly greeted by cartoonists and publishers who are really way too cool to warmly greet me, and all the friends and fellow writers-on-comics I bumped into seemed absolutely delighted. 3) So maybe the overload came from the sheer volume of appealing new comics available and the feeling that one really ought to check all of them out. By way of a for instance, there were not one, not two, not three, but four new Kevin Huizenga comics debuting at the show! That is like a year's worth of Kevin Huizenga in one day! It took Dan Nadel so long to show me all the new things at PictureBox it was almost like he was kidding; the new Powr Mastrs and Cold Heat Special were just the tip of the iceberg. Plus this was a lot of people's first chance to pick up previously available books like Boy's Club #2 or Cryptic Wit, which I'm told sold out in a couple hours. It was a little dizzying. 4) Since it was dizzying, I was kind of happy to only be there for one day. My fellow road-trippers actually conked out around 6:30 PM, spending the last half hour of the show in the lobby recuperating, in fact. Of course, the one-day stricture may have contributed to our stress level in the first place -- this was a show that took a long time simply to circumnavigate during your initial walk-through, much less shop, interact, browse, eat, attend panels and so on. But I certainly enjoyed a good night's sleep in my own bed after I made it home, and obviously that's how a lot of people do this show. 5) In an entire convention report consisting solely of anecdotal observations this will be the most anecdotal of the lot, but I gathered that more people were setting and sticking to budgets than usual. Normally my convention shopping sees a few book-format works sprinkled in among the floppies and minis, but this year I was very strict about not buying anything I could order on Amazon once I got home. I felt a little bad not directly shopping from companies like Drawn & Quarterly or PictureBox in that regard, but times are tough all over, I suppose, and I didn't hold back on the aforementioned pamphlet-format comics, so there was that. 6) Well-advertised guests Ben Katchor and Joost Swarte were essentially impossible to find on the show floor Saturday. I don't know if Swarte ever made it there, and Katchor just walked around and browsed; I remember seeing one of them listed on the CBLDF's signing schedule after the fact but I don't remember hearing that that was going to be their primary mode of interaction with the attendees. Swarte even had a table he was supposed to sit at, but I think I spent more time there chatting with Lilli Carre as she relentlessly undersold her sketch in my Bowie sketchbook than Swarte did. It is totally these individuals' prerogative to do the show however they want -- what am I gonna do, begrudge the creator of Julius Knipl and the guy who invented the term "clear line"? -- but it was a little frustrating for people who wanted them for their David Bowie sketchbooks admirers of their work. 7) I went to two panels, Comics Criticism and Kramers Ergot 7. In both cases the size of the panels (four people plus host and seven people plus host respectively) made back-and-forth difficult and ate up a lot of time. Bill Kartalopolous puts hella more thought into his panels than your average mid-level Big Two editor at a Wizard World show does -- he's also the master of using follow-ups to stick with fruitful lines of discussion -- but I could stand for things to be a little more free-wheeling, particularly given that this generation of art-comics creators and aficionados is not exactly known for their outsize personalities. 8) One way to accomplish this might be to give Gary Groth a solo panel and be done with it. Even though he's actually quite circumspect and doesn't eat up any more time or energy in the Comics Criticism panels than anyone else, his outlook and experience are just so far removed from those of, say, Joe McCulloch that including him in group panels like this just gets that "one of these things is not like the others" songs stuck in my head. He says a lot of things that need to be unpacked in ways they can't in a group panel without dominating the discussion: If we shouldn't judge a work "on its own terms" because that leads to relativism, how do we account for differences in genre or form? Can we really generalize what it means for a publisher or a comic to have "corporate values," or is that simply being used interchangeably with "shitty"? Is there any point bemoaning the lack of a big-famous critic writing about comics and culture for a general audience in a publication with the words New and York somewhere in the title when everything in the world is narrowcasted nowadays? Gary himself admitted he hardly does criticism anymore; he's an odd fit now, not to mention a major historical figure, and I'd rather see him solo. 9) That being said, that's two more panels than I've ever been to at MoCCA, and I've gone to MoCCA every year since its inception. These were things I wanted to hear talked about and I left happy to have done so. 10) Speaking of which, holy moses, Kramers Ergot 7. Preorder it now. Go ahead, I'll wait. Back? Okay, it's just really really lovely looking stuff -- the Kevin Huizenga page is a knockout, and even cartoonists I'm not necessarily crazy about appear to have done the best work of their careers for it. And as Chris Mautner pointed out, I'm sure David Heatley and Johnny Ryan ought to have a lot to discuss. That being said I totally understand that the book may be outside the price range of some people, or the line-up may not be a must-buy for them, and those people shouldn't buy it. 11) I said it once before but it bears repeating: SPX has a good-looking crowd. I think the cartoonists are even getting better-looking. As my friend Rickey Purdin put it as we left on Saturday, "There's gonna be a lot of indie-comics sex mistakes being made in that hotel tonight." Remember kids, it's only very rarely a mistake while it's happening! Point is, if you are a single person who is interested in alternative comics, this thing is like eHarmony.com without that creepy Dr. Neil Clark Warren guy. 12) I didn't stay for Sunday so correct me if I'm wrong, but the Saturday kickoff at least appeared to indicate that the move to a two-weekend-day show, instead of the Friday/Saturday split that kept holy the Sabbath so that we could collectively ponder the glory of Dean Haspiel with his shirt off at a pig roast ten years ago, was a big success. Good! SPX is a great show with a strong identity that people really enjoy. I know I do. ***** Sean T. Collins has written for a variety of comics publications, including this one. He has also written comics, including this one. His on-line headquarters can be found here. ***** ***** Daily Blog By Sean T. Collins
Special To The Comics Reporter

1) Maybe it's because unlike last year I did SPX in one day -- carpooling down from New York on Friday night, arriving after midnight, sleeping for a few hours, doing the show on Saturday, returning to New York that night -- but Chris Mautner appears to agree: This show felt like a whirlwind. Maybe I got used to the epic length of a day at San Diego and found an 11 AM-7 PM time frame for the SPX floor constricting, I don't know.

2) Or maybe it was because the show was hella crowded. We arrived at the venue maybe ten minutes after 11 and the joint was already jumping -- one of my friends peeked in and literally did a double take. The retailers and creators I spoke with all seemed pretty thrilled with the crowds and the sales (not always directly correlated phenomena). Now that I think of it, people seemed very happy in general. I was warmly greeted by cartoonists and publishers who are really way too cool to warmly greet me, and all the friends and fellow writers-on-comics I bumped into seemed absolutely delighted.

3) So maybe the overload came from the sheer volume of appealing new comics available and the feeling that one really ought to check all of them out. By way of a for instance, there were not one, not two, not three, but four new Kevin Huizenga comics debuting at the show! That is like a year's worth of Kevin Huizenga in one day! It took Dan Nadel so long to show me all the new things at PictureBox it was almost like he was kidding; the new Powr Mastrs and Cold Heat Special were just the tip of the iceberg. Plus this was a lot of people's first chance to pick up previously available books like Boy's Club #2 or Cryptic Wit, which I'm told sold out in a couple hours. It was a little dizzying.

4) Since it was dizzying, I was kind of happy to only be there for one day. My fellow road-trippers actually conked out around 6:30 PM, spending the last half hour of the show in the lobby recuperating, in fact. Of course, the one-day stricture may have contributed to our stress level in the first place -- this was a show that took a long time simply to circumnavigate during your initial walk-through, much less shop, interact, browse, eat, attend panels and so on. But I certainly enjoyed a good night's sleep in my own bed after I made it home, and obviously that's how a lot of people do this show.

5) In an entire convention report consisting solely of anecdotal observations this will be the most anecdotal of the lot, but I gathered that more people were setting and sticking to budgets than usual. Normally my convention shopping sees a few book-format works sprinkled in among the floppies and minis, but this year I was very strict about not buying anything I could order on Amazon once I got home. I felt a little bad not directly shopping from companies like Drawn & Quarterly or PictureBox in that regard, but times are tough all over, I suppose, and I didn't hold back on the aforementioned pamphlet-format comics, so there was that.

6) Well-advertised guests Ben Katchor and Joost Swarte were essentially impossible to find on the show floor Saturday. I don't know if Swarte ever made it there, and Katchor just walked around and browsed; I remember seeing one of them listed on the CBLDF's signing schedule after the fact but I don't remember hearing that that was going to be their primary mode of interaction with the attendees. Swarte even had a table he was supposed to sit at, but I think I spent more time there chatting with Lilli Carre as she relentlessly undersold her sketch in my Bowie sketchbook than Swarte did. It is totally these individuals' prerogative to do the show however they want -- what am I gonna do, begrudge the creator of Julius Knipl and the guy who invented the term "clear line"? -- but it was a little frustrating for people who wanted them for their David Bowie sketchbooks admirers of their work.

7) I went to two panels, Comics Criticism and Kramers Ergot 7. In both cases the size of the panels (four people plus host and seven people plus host respectively) made back-and-forth difficult and ate up a lot of time. Bill Kartalopolous puts hella more thought into his panels than your average mid-level Big Two editor at a Wizard World show does -- he's also the master of using follow-ups to stick with fruitful lines of discussion -- but I could stand for things to be a little more free-wheeling, particularly given that this generation of art-comics creators and aficionados is not exactly known for their outsize personalities.

8) One way to accomplish this might be to give Gary Groth a solo panel and be done with it. Even though he's actually quite circumspect and doesn't eat up any more time or energy in the Comics Criticism panels than anyone else, his outlook and experience are just so far removed from those of, say, Joe McCulloch that including him in group panels like this just gets that "one of these things is not like the others" songs stuck in my head. He says a lot of things that need to be unpacked in ways they can't in a group panel without dominating the discussion: If we shouldn't judge a work "on its own terms" because that leads to relativism, how do we account for differences in genre or form? Can we really generalize what it means for a publisher or a comic to have "corporate values," or is that simply being used interchangeably with "shitty"? Is there any point bemoaning the lack of a big-famous critic writing about comics and culture for a general audience in a publication with the words New and York somewhere in the title when everything in the world is narrowcasted nowadays? Gary himself admitted he hardly does criticism anymore; he's an odd fit now, not to mention a major historical figure, and I'd rather see him solo.

9) That being said, that's two more panels than I've ever been to at MoCCA, and I've gone to MoCCA every year since its inception. These were things I wanted to hear talked about and I left happy to have done so.

10) Speaking of which, holy moses, Kramers Ergot 7. Preorder it now. Go ahead, I'll wait. Back? Okay, it's just really really lovely looking stuff -- the Kevin Huizenga page is a knockout, and even cartoonists I'm not necessarily crazy about appear to have done the best work of their careers for it. And as Chris Mautner pointed out, I'm sure David Heatley and Johnny Ryan ought to have a lot to discuss. That being said I totally understand that the book may be outside the price range of some people, or the line-up may not be a must-buy for them, and those people shouldn't buy it.

11) I said it once before but it bears repeating: SPX has a good-looking crowd. I think the cartoonists are even getting better-looking. As my friend Rickey Purdin put it as we left on Saturday, "There's gonna be a lot of indie-comics sex mistakes being made in that hotel tonight." Remember kids, it's only very rarely a mistake while it's happening! Point is, if you are a single person who is interested in alternative comics, this thing is like eHarmony.com without that creepy Dr. Neil Clark Warren guy.

12) I didn't stay for Sunday so correct me if I'm wrong, but the Saturday kickoff at least appeared to indicate that the move to a two-weekend-day show, instead of the Friday/Saturday split that kept holy the Sabbath so that we could collectively ponder the glory of Dean Haspiel with his shirt off at a pig roast ten years ago, was a big success. Good! SPX is a great show with a strong identity that people really enjoy. I know I do.

*****

Sean T. Collins has written for a variety of comics publications, including this one. He has also written comics, including this one. His on-line headquarters can be found here.

*****
*****]]> 2008-10-07T15:15:00-08:00 http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/index/yes_i_know_about_windy_city_comicon/ I'm a bit behind on my letter-posting, but one thing I wanted to say as to a few letters I've received: not only am I totally aware of Windy City Comicon, I've written about it on this site, and if I still lived in Chicago I'd be first in line if not helping with programming. What I was talking about when I suggested that as Emperor of Comics I'd put a not-Wizard comics convention into the city wasn't this kind of show, although -- although -- and please read this part, too, I'm really excited about WCC and I hope someday it is the kind of show I'm talking about if that's what it wants to become. Basically, what I was saying I'd do as make-believe emperor is make someone like Reed Exhibitions put on a giant comics show in McCormick Place, maybe on an October weekend, called The Chicago Comic-Con. Or, if you prefer, that Windy City Comicon does such gobsmacking business the first year every big company thinks about exhibiting there in 2009 and every big creator thinks about going and they have that show. Whatever. The point is, I think Chicago is best served by and overdue for a giant, jewel-of-industry show of the kind that Wizard World Chicago is clearly not becoming at this point, so when I'm playing make-believe emperor that's what I'm suggesting. I'm equally baffled that Chicago's never had a show like WCC before, just as I'm amazed that LA's never been able to sustain a small press show or that Las Vegas has never been able to support more than a retailers gathering. I'd be thrilled if by 2012 WCC became just such a show, but I didn't feel it necessary to take the time out to root for WCC just as I didn't take the time in my suggestions for trimming the Eisners to point out how already tight the Ignatzes are. Different essays, though; maybe your essay. Again, that doesn't mean I hate smaller shows in general or this show in particular or don't believe they have the capacity to turn into a bigger show if that's what they want or that I'm not properly supporting people or whatever semantic/pseudo-ideological argument people sometimes bring to bear, so please nobody start. In fact, even though my point was what it was, I'm much more excited about the Windy City Comiccon because it exists in the real world, and I urge all of you Chicagoans to check it out. Daily Blog Windy City Comicon, I've written about it on this site, and if I still lived in Chicago I'd be first in line if not helping with programming.

What I was talking about when I suggested that as Emperor of Comics I'd put a not-Wizard comics convention into the city wasn't this kind of show, although -- although -- and please read this part, too, I'm really excited about WCC and I hope someday it is the kind of show I'm talking about if that's what it wants to become.

Basically, what I was saying I'd do as make-believe emperor is make someone like Reed Exhibitions put on a giant comics show in McCormick Place, maybe on an October weekend, called The Chicago Comic-Con. Or, if you prefer, that Windy City Comicon does such gobsmacking business the first year every big company thinks about exhibiting there in 2009 and every big creator thinks about going and they have that show. Whatever.

The point is, I think Chicago is best served by and overdue for a giant, jewel-of-industry show of the kind that Wizard World Chicago is clearly not becoming at this point, so when I'm playing make-believe emperor that's what I'm suggesting. I'm equally baffled that Chicago's never had a show like WCC before, just as I'm amazed that LA's never been able to sustain a small press show or that Las Vegas has never been able to support more than a retailers gathering. I'd be thrilled if by 2012 WCC became just such a show, but I didn't feel it necessary to take the time out to root for WCC just as I didn't take the time in my suggestions for trimming the Eisners to point out how already tight the Ignatzes are. Different essays, though; maybe your essay.

Again, that doesn't mean I hate smaller shows in general or this show in particular or don't believe they have the capacity to turn into a bigger show if that's what they want or that I'm not properly supporting people or whatever semantic/pseudo-ideological argument people sometimes bring to bear, so please nobody start. In fact, even though my point was what it was, I'm much more excited about the Windy City Comiccon because it exists in the real world, and I urge all of you Chicagoans to check it out.]]> 2008-10-07T15:07:01-08:00 http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/index/go_read_bill_leak_unpacks_a_cartoon_about_photographer_bill_henson/ I like the way Bill Leak explains his motivations for this cartoon about photographer Bill Henson's method for recruiting models, although I freely admit that it touches on like 18 billion molten-lava hot issues with which I might find perfect disagreement. I think I like most of all that it's a considerable artist talking about an arts issue in a way that doesn't necessarily dumb it down for the audience, turn it into a strident point, or use it to drive a joke rather than the other way around. I don't see many cartoons like this one from American cartoonists. Daily Blog

I like the way Bill Leak explains his motivations for this cartoon about photographer Bill Henson's method for recruiting models, although I freely admit that it touches on like 18 billion molten-lava hot issues with which I might find perfect disagreement. I think I like most of all that it's a considerable artist talking about an arts issue in a way that doesn't necessarily dumb it down for the audience, turn it into a strident point, or use it to drive a joke rather than the other way around. I don't see many cartoons like this one from American cartoonists.]]> 2008-10-07T15:05:00-08:00 http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/index/go_read_gary_tyrrell_on_ben_gordons_critique_of_a_webcomics_profit_model/ If you're as fascinated as I am by the increasingly common knowledge that some webcomics creators appear to be making very, very comfortable middle-class livings right now from profits generated by a strip or activity fostered by that strip, you'll probably greatly enjoy Gary Tyrrell digging into one critique of a profit model that's been presented. I think in general we don't have enough samples that last for a long enough period of time to be creating models and we're still in the "holy crap, look at that guy's number" stage. Daily Blog Gary Tyrrell digging into one critique of a profit model that's been presented. I think in general we don't have enough samples that last for a long enough period of time to be creating models and we're still in the "holy crap, look at that guy's number" stage.]]> 2008-10-07T15:03:00-08:00 http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/index/collective_memory_spx_2008/ Links to stories, eyewitness accounts and resources concerning Small Press Expo, held October 4-5 at the Marriott Bethesda North Hotel & Conference Center in Rockville, Maryland. This entry will continue to be updated for as long as people ***** Institutional Convention Physical Location Host City Audio, Photos, Video 34th Street Freeze Out AdHouse Alec Longstreth vs. a Boxing Game Alex Robinson Sketching anngav Bamn blue Bryan Lee O'Malley Sketching curiouslee Dustin Harbin elemenopae Frank Reynoso Art Ignatzes: James Kochalka Presents On-Line Comics Ignatzes: Steve Lieber Presents Outstanding Artist Ignatzes: Matthew Burrier Presents Promising New Talent Mike Lynch mways Plastic Farm spxignatz suebanks sugarfreak Team 8 Press TimWitt yebot Blog Entries Action Athena AdHouse Atomic Books Bamn Ben Towle Bramble Vine Comics Blog Chris Mautner Christian Lambs Comicsgirl Comicsgirl 02 Daily Cross Hatch Dancing About Architecture DCist Dustin Harbin endcallgame Hooray for Mollywood! I Love Rob Liefeld Jamie Baldwin Jason Michelitch Jason Michelitch 02 Jog John Kovaleski LogicalExplosion lostchaos Mike Lynch Mousy Babe Running Out Of Ink Satisfactory Comics The Beat 01 The Beat 02 The Beat 03 The Beat 04 The Cool Kids Table The Geek Prospectus There Were Ten Tigers Xerahanadu You Are Here Zak Forsman zpuppetmaster Miscellaneous ArtsDC Forum TCJ Messageboard 01 TCJ Messageboard 02 News Stories and Columns ComixTalk This Site Your 2008 Ignatz Award Winners ***** ***** ***** Daily Blog

Links to stories, eyewitness accounts and resources concerning Small Press Expo, held October 4-5 at the Marriott Bethesda North Hotel & Conference Center in Rockville, Maryland.

This entry will continue to be updated for as long as people

*****

Institutional
Convention
Physical Location
Host City

Audio, Photos, Video
34th Street Freeze Out

AdHouse
Alec Longstreth vs. a Boxing Game
Alex Robinson Sketching
anngav

Bamn
blue
Bryan Lee O'Malley Sketching

curiouslee

Dustin Harbin

elemenopae

Frank Reynoso Art

Ignatzes: James Kochalka Presents On-Line Comics
Ignatzes: Steve Lieber Presents Outstanding Artist
Ignatzes: Matthew Burrier Presents Promising New Talent

Mike Lynch
mways

Plastic Farm

spxignatz
suebanks
sugarfreak

Team 8 Press
TimWitt

yebot

Blog Entries
Action Athena
AdHouse
Atomic Books

Bamn
Ben Towle
Bramble Vine Comics Blog

Chris Mautner
Christian Lambs
Comicsgirl
Comicsgirl 02

Daily Cross Hatch
Dancing About Architecture
DCist
Dustin Harbin

endcallgame

Hooray for Mollywood!

I Love Rob Liefeld

Jamie Baldwin
Jason Michelitch
Jason Michelitch 02
Jog
John Kovaleski

LogicalExplosion
lostchaos

Mike Lynch
Mousy Babe

Running Out Of Ink

Satisfactory Comics

The Beat 01
The Beat 02
The Beat 03
The Beat 04
The Cool Kids Table
The Geek Prospectus
There Were Ten Tigers

Xerahanadu

You Are Here

Zak Forsman
zpuppetmaster

Miscellaneous
ArtsDC Forum
TCJ Messageboard 01
TCJ Messageboard 02

News Stories and Columns
ComixTalk

This Site
Your 2008 Ignatz Award Winners

*****



*****
*****]]> 2008-10-07T15:00:01-08:00 http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/index/if_i_were_in_philly_id_go_to_this100708/ Daily Blog ]]> 2008-10-07T14:50:01-08:00 http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/index/if_i_were_in_philly_id_go_to_this100708alixo/ Daily Blog ]]> 2008-10-07T14:50:00-08:00 http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/index/if_i_were_in_austin_id_go_to_this100708spiegaustin/ Daily Blog ]]> 2008-10-07T14:50:00-08:00 http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/index/go_look_hugo_pratt_watercolors/ I forget who sent me this link Daily Blog

I forget who sent me this link]]> 2008-10-07T14:46:00-08:00