§ An appeals court has ruled against the estate of Joe Shuster in yet another of the endless legal battles over Superman and yet attorney Mark Toberoff vows it isn’t over. Maybe not, but the fat lady is warming up in the stands.

201401230303.jpg§ The NY Times chats with Indian cartoonist Vishwajyoti Ghosh about “This Side That Side: Restorying Partition,” an anthology of graphic narratives from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

§ There a big comics show coming to the British Library:

The exhibition’s curator, John Harris Dunning, told the Telegraph the display of seditious comics is intended in part to inspire the next generation to be “rebellions, troublesome and naughty”. Comics Unmasked: Art and Anarchy in the UK will display more than 200 comic books from 1825 to the modern day, including one 1970s work focusing on an obscenity trial.

§ Tim Hanley interviews Anne Elizabeth Moore about Wonder Woman.

§ Samantha Meier looks at anthologies of comics by women from Wimmen’s fo Womanthology in a historical context — it’s billed as an introduction so I hope there is more to come as this is a little studied area:

De Liz is right to link her project to the American feminist movement. Womanthology owes a huge debt to comics borne of nascent second-wave feminism and the burgeoning underground comix movement: It Ain’t Me Babe Comix (1969), the first American comic book created entirely by women, and Wimmen’s Comix (1972- 1993), a long-standing all-female underground comix anthology, which made a point of perpetually including new contributors. (It’s worth noting that Womanthology, It Ain’t Me Babe, and Wimmen’s Comix share an influential contributor –Trina Robbins.) Of these titles and others, sociologist Paul Lopes writes, “This first generation of female comic book rebels unquestionably laid the groundwork for future generations of women artists to intervene and attempt to transform the field of comic books.” Sound familiar?

§ Colleen Doran’s account of The Strange Case of Haven Publishing has been making the rounds, but no one does withering scorn like Colleen Doran.

§ Following up on the recent Alan Moore interview kerfuffle, Laura Sneddon has released a statement and Sequart’s Julian Darius has taken an evolving look at the matter.

§ Isabel Greenberg is interviewed on the Comics Alternative Podcast. Greenberg’s Encyclopedia of Early Earth is quite the debut novel and she deserves attention for it.

§ On a sad note, Colin Smith has shut down his old bloggeroo; hung up the old blogging pants. Hopefully we’ll still see some of his comics writing around though.

§ I forgot to link to Brian Hibb’s first report on opening a second store and this could easily be one of those novels about the guy who goes to some tropical island and builds a school so kids can learn to play the harmonica—it is an epic tale, told as only Brian Hibbs can tell it! (And if you need that for the movie blurb go right ahead.)

The former owner was burned out on comics, and he had hired several people to run the store for him, none of which, to my eyes, had any good handle on how or what to order for a modern comics store. The fundamentals of the business appeared to be solid enough — the store was long-running (nineteen years between various owners), had no debt that I would be assuming, serviced the south side of town in a pretty substantial way, and had a large subscription base. But because of the over-ordering and the general poor state the former employees had left the store in, the former owner was looking at needing to invest a whole lot of time and money to right the ship, and he was too burned out on comics to make that step. He was literally going to just close up the shop suddenly over a two week period. Within 20 minutes, we had an agreement in principle — we came up with a sum that he was happy with, and, in exchange, he’d keep the store running a few weeks longer than he wanted, while I secured the financing to make it happen. And in less than a month, on December 16th, I took over ownership and had a second store. It only took me twenty-four years!

§ Steve Englehart remembers the late Marshall Rogers on the latter’s birthday.

Think, for a moment, about the thing you most love to do. Now, if that’s the thing most people know about you, add that in. Got it? Now imagine that somebody won’t ever let you do it. That’s the problem Marshall Rogers faced at the end of his life.

§ And Janelle Asselin chats with animation and comics writerMairghread Scott.

11 COMMENTS

  1. Fascinating account from Brian Hibbs, on what he found at the new store. I wonder if he can leverage some of that astounding inventory in the upcoming FCBD as giveaways and ‘welcome back’ prizes. Best of luck

  2. That Telegraph article about the British Library exhibition made it sound a little dull. Learning elsewhere that it’s co-curated by Paul Gravett and to be designed by Dave McKean rather changes my feelings.
    Paul Gravetts Blog

  3. These clickbait headlines are brilliant. Courts should write like this – “The panel rules against the Kirby family – and the reason will shock you!”

    Or maybe they shouldn’t.

  4. If I lived in San Francisco, I’d be spending nights excavating that basement in exchange for trade!

    It sounds like a lot of work, but also a lot of fun, if only in the sheer challenge of making it work!

    Infinity #1… Free Comic Book Day? Halloween? Handouts at movie theaters?

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