The News Blog of Comics Culture
The final pieces of the DC relaunch are revealed over at Hero Complex, and #52 is revealed as the Grant Morrison/Rags Morales ACTION COMICS #1. A whole new backstory for Superman is teased — probably to be spelled out at tomorrow’s Jim Lee/Geoff Johns event for the LA Times. Dan DiDio also gives a new big picture statement.
Perhaps it’s only fitting that double identity has been a central issue in the never-ending battle over the Superman copyright. As longtime readers of my posts may recall, the relation between the original and contemporary versions of Superman has been central to the Siegel lawsuits from the beginning. To set the stage for the posts that follow, let’s take a quick review of how the multiple versions of Superman have played a role in the Siegel lawsuits.
The CCI folks have announced the 2011 nominees for Most Promising Newcomer, an art award that recognizes up and coming talent. Past winners include Dave Stevens, Jeff Smith, and David Petersen, so they have a pretty good track record. The nominees were selected by a committee and the winner (selected by past winners and Russ Manning assistants) will be announced July 22 during the Eisner award ceremony.
Diamond has released its first charts for May and FEAR ITSELF #2 led the periodicals — beating out FLASHPOINT #1 — while Garth Ennis’s CROSSED collection topped the GN charts. In the information supplied by Diamond, sales increases in non-comics products — trading cards, games, and collectibles — reflect their continued emphasis on growing those parts of the business.
Brian Hibbs expands on his last, somewhat alarming column, with a look at more of the realities he sees in light of the DC #1 relaunch.
Steve Niles, who has been very much in the forefront of the renewed emphasis on creator controlled comics, looks at what recent events mean:
Dan Clowes’ seminal THE DEATH RAY is getting a swanky new edition from D&Q this fall and there’s an amazing action figure to go along with it. Limited to 200, this will go fast so hurry! Before your sure-fire chance at indie cred slips away forever.
Graphicly, the digital comics distributor, announced a big redesign and some new features for its browser-based comics yesterday — including the ability to embed comics anywhere, a YouTube-like interface that Micah Baldwin discussed with Kiel Phegley:
For a movie about mutants, X-MEN FIRST CLASS has led to a lot of interesting discussion. Set in the ’60s — a time of great social change and timeless fashions — filmmakers Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman had more on their mind than just fighting.
In case you were wondering, there WILL be other DC books besides The 52 in our future. For instance, ,
frequent Grant Morrison collaborator Frazer Irving, tweeted:
Is the San Diego Comic-Con only 6 weeks away? Why, yes! And so the avalanche of exclusives and announcements is well underway. Here’s what Diamond is offering this year:
Exhibitor applications for this year’s Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival are now available; although the show is curated, all submissions will be reviewed, according to a letter from co-director Gabe Fowler. This year’s show will be held December 3rd at the Mt. Carmel Church in Williamsburg.
Toronto Comics Art Festival Director Chris Butcher has a big round-up, thank you post that reveals that this years events drew a total of 15,000 people to the various venues. He also reveals that next year’s show will be held May 5-6:
Elsewhere on the internets, Michael DeForge’s cartoonist diarywrapped up at the Comics Journal with Risographs and such.
Must Read #3: Scott Kurtz on the Reubens and evolving comics culture
This year’s Reuben awards weekend — the traditional yearly gathering of traditional comic strip cartoonists — saw some special guests from the webcomics world specially invited, like Kate Beaton, Randall Munroe, and Scott Kurtz. Kurtz has written up the weekend in an absolute must read on the changing of the guard from a world where creators live by the structured patronage of big media companies in exchange for exclusivity, to a much more fluid world where entrepreneurship is as important as content and living by your wits is literally the way to the big payoff.