First drafts of fiction including micro, fanfic and NaNoWriMo.
[UPDATED: 9:55 pm] PW Daily has a sobering article about several independent bookstores shutting their doors thanks to increased expenses and competition, and I can't help but think about how it parallels the current state of the comic book industry, both on the publishing and retailing side, and how it could potentially affect graphic novel sales, one of the few growth categories in publishing right now. In New York City, after 34 years serving Manhattan's Upper West Side, the independent mystery bookstore Murder Ink will close on December 31. Owner Jay Pearsall also announced that the attached bookstore, Ivy's Books…
Reading is fundamental. Don't waste your time reading bad comics out of habit! My weekly, semi-informed look at select comic books being released Wednesday, 12/20/06 follows. The full shipping is list available at ComicList. [NOTE: Not all of these titles will actually arrive in all stores. If your LCBS offers a pre-ordering service, be sure to take advantage of it. If not, find another one; or try Khepri.com or MidtownComics.com] PICK OF THE WEEK Walk In #1APE ENTERTAINMENT Black Coat Call To Arms TPB, $12.95 I met Ben Lichius back in 2005 at Wizard World Philadelphia, where he'd gotten himself…
I'm surprised no readers of Newsarama have commented on Grant Morrison's interview posted today. This may be part of a prearranged public slugfest, but Grant Morrison does make some interesting points.Guy will testify that I'm no fan of Morrison, but so far I like his take on Batman. And after reading the complete interview, I think I'm hooked for the run.NRAMA: But still, looking at the larger cultural subtext you're writing this in, what makes a grim Batman not appropriate for the world we live in now? Miller's working on a Batman vs. Al Qaeda story, and it's hard to…
When the question of diversity comes up in comics, it's always interesting to watch the likes of Joe Quesada, Dan DiDio, et al stumble over themselves to not put their foots in their mouths as they cautiously dance around the subject. The New York Times has an interesting article today about Sesame Street's newest female muppet, Abby Cadabby, that has some direct relevance to the comics industry.A Girly-Girl Joins the 'Sesame' BoysLIZ NEALON, executive vice president and creative director of Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit organization behind "Sesame Street," wasn't sure exactly what she wanted in a new Muppet for the…
It's pretty hard to bring a story from one medium to another. I love the new Galactica so hard. There's been virtually no secondary products to go along with it. This lack of capitalism makes the inner child cry. No joke. I want more than one novelization, more than a soundtrack, more than an okay video game... I want my world to be enveloped by Galactica. I want "Property of Battlestar Galactica Athletics" t-shirts. I want helmets. I want commemorative statuettes of Starbuck. I want replicas of Roslin's declarations.So you can imagine how gleeful I was about the comic. OMG!…
Regardless of what you think of superhero comics in general, there's no denying that over the years some of the greatest fictional characters ever created were birthed within the DC and Marvel Universes. Recently, a list of the Top 50 Marvel and DC characters were put forth by Andrew Wheeler and The Great Curve, respectively, so I thought I'd weigh in with my own less ambitious, but arguably more difficult, Top 5 list from each company.My choices are totally subjective, of course, and in some cases reflect the potential of a character as opposed to its actual history. (In some…
[Edited for clarity on 5/30/06] Funny that this article in the NY Times has been referenced by others for its apparent spoiler re: Batwoman (she's not Renee Montoya, which is all I care about) instead of its main point, the increasing diversity at the Big Two. Funny strange, not funny ha-ha, of course. Straight (and Not) Out of the Comics By GEORGE GENE GUSTINES But this year will be a banner one for diversity in the $500 million comic book business. At DC Comics, an effort is under way to introduce heroes who are not cut from the usual straight…
