The News Blog of Comics Culture
Tweet The acclaimed Portland-based Study Group 12 anthology is starting up a web comic portal for several of their contributors, with regular series & one-shots included, in addition to regular blog posts like this one on Craig Thompson’s Habibi process.) From their blog: We’ll be uploading new comics every weekday at noon EST, with the [...]
A snapshot of graphic novels bestsellers from BarnesAndNoble.com, taken at 3 PM, Monday, January 15, 2012.
Last year the Beat inaugurated the Person of the Year award. In an industry where changing the status quo isn’t always greeted with joy, this is our way of recognizing the people who either move the needle and shake things up or exemplify a level of excellence that others can aspire to.
This year, votes were much more across the board. One person clearly got the most votes as a single person. However, a different executive team had more votes overall when both parts were added up. So, we used our executive power to declare both a Person of the Year and a Team of the Year. Who moved the comics industry in 2011 and will continue to be heard in 2012? Read on.
The actual Jim Cheung cover to AVENGERS vs. X-MEN #1, this April’s big cross-fight event, has just been revealed.
THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN triumphed in the Best Animated Feature category at the Golden Globes last night — a surprising loss for Pixar, but then their entry this year, CARS 2, wasn’t really in the same league as their other recent masterpieces. Director Steven Spielberg seemed happy to win — but not as emotional as when he teared up during a montage of scenes from his own film WAR HORSE — but he kind of blew it for the comics folk by not mentioning Hergé. Perhaps if TINTIN is so lucky as to be nominated and win an Academy Award, Spielberg will remember to thank the little people.
AMC has released a teaser poster for the midseason return of The Walking Dead on February 12 with Sheriff Rick Grimes taking aim. After the rather Shane-centric first half of the season, will we see Rick getting back in the saddle?
Unsurprisingly, AMC has also announced a longer season 3 — 16 episodes as opposed to 12. The season will be split in two, and writers Nichole Beattie (Rubicon, John from Cincinnati) and Sang Kim (Crash, Hawthorne) are joining the staff.
The rumor that’s been making the rounds is true: Garth Ennis is the writer when Dynamite launches their ongoing revival of the classic pulp franchise, The Shadow. Joining him as the artist is Aaron Campbell, who’s been doing Green Hornet: Year One and Dark Shadows for Dynamite.
Probably the most universally admired comic strip running right now is going on hiatus for a few weeks: via his blog, Richard Thompson announced a hiatus while he receives treatment for his Parkinson’s Disease.
In the spirit of the holiday, here are some pages from AFRICAN-AMERICAN CLASSICS, an anthology of stories and poem by early African-American writers, famed and obscure, into comics by a similarly talented range of cartoonists. A few sample pages:
The March of Coming Attractions continues, like a North Korean state funeral! This installment: Dark Horse! IDW! Image!
Sherlock Holmes: A Comic Comparison
The past year has seen an unusually large number of Sherlock Holmes adaptations, both in comics and on the screen, but not all Holmeses are created equal. Last night, British viewers got to see the last episode of Season 2 of the BBC’s wildly popular starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, and Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows starring Robert Downey Junior and Jude Law is still doing well in theaters a month after it opened. So if you’re in a Holmesian mood and wondering what to read next, here’s run down on the Holmes adaptations which have come out or had new installments in the past year. Varying from inspiredly odd to unreadably awful, don’t go to the comic store without reading this first!