• The rest of the story:
Christine Valada has been posting updates on the fire at the house of Valada and Len Wein, and the posts correct a lot of news and other reports.
Mark Evanier reports that a campaign will be organized to help Wein rebuild his comics collection:
To all those who’ve asked: We’re preparing our little campaign to help our pal Len Wein, who lost much of what he owns in a fire one week ago. In a day or three, I’ll be opening a web page to try and collect copies of Len’s work for him…extra copies you may have of comics he wrote. A lot of you have already written with generous offers and they’re appreciated. The page will tell you how to follow through on those offers.
[Links via Robot 6]
• Review:
§ Tucker Stone reviews (just about) every comic written by Brian Azzarello that wasn’t an issue of 100 BULLETS. This was a mind-boggling piece of work, and definitely deserves some kind of prize or testimonial.
• Interviews:
§ Curt Purcell interviews Josh SimmonsBUST Magazine interviews Nikki Cook.
§ Tim O’Shea yaks with Tony Bedard.
§ Kiel Phegley interviews Stuart Moore at Marvel.com, so it’s heavily promotional but is better than it has to be.
§ The Daily Cross Hatch gabs with Molly Crabapple, part 2 of 3:
Even in terms of the aesthetics themselves, there’s a form of torture involved in the Victorian period
That’s what I think is so fascinating about it. Women’s bodies in the Victorian era and many other eras that I’m interested in, didn’t really look like bodies anymore. They looked like drawings. They didn’t have legs, their waists were cinched in with steel, they had horse hair on their heads, and velvet patches on their cheeks to hide their pimples. It was kind of crazy. They were like living drawings.
§ Johanna Draper Carlson chats with Mike Pellerito, an editor at Archie Comics, specifically about the YOUNG SALEM mini that is replacing Sabrina for a bit.
Q: Why keep the Sabrina title if you’re going to change the premise, the creators, the main character, the art style… It seems the only thing continuing is the numbering! Wouldn’t it make more sense just to put out a Young Salem title?
A: We changed the premise and the art style when Tania took over Sabrina and gave it a manga influence and kept the numbering. It never seemed to be an issue. Archie has done what a lot of critics have said all comics should do by staying on the newsstand and not giving up on the mass market. The costs of doing business on the newsstand are monstrous and not always the best environment for a new title. If we came out with a new series for 4 issues on the newsstand, the costs are, as mentioned, enormous, and the direct market doesn’t have that same fanatical approach to our books. At least the good comic stores know what’s up, but not enough stores. Doing Young Salem this way gives us the mass-market reach of the newsstand and helps us target the comic stores too.
• Issues:
§ Vaneta Rogers asks publishers about rising cover prices on periodical comics.
§ AM New York posts a long article on AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #591 with MASSIVE SPOILERS. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
§ Everyone has linked to this incredible picture of Howard Chaykin’s muttonchop sideburns circa 1972. The picture is from Mike Kaluta’s Facebook page — presumably Kaluta gave permission for the reposting. We’ve seen some mind-boggling historical photos on pals’ Facebook pages, but it doesn’t seem quite kosher to repost them. Of course, right-click is always your friend.
§ Brian Heater reports on Easter Sunday at The KGB Bar:
The small second floor bar was packed yet again, another not so subtle reminder that the event has, for better and worse, long since outgrown its home in amongst the warm soviet knickknacks. Hopefully next year will see a change of venue—as terrific a bar as the KGB admittedly is, it’s hard to imagine shoving any more comics fans into the space. That said, there is something oddly romantic in the idea of fighting with an indie cartoonist over the last available seat behind the whirring projector.
• Brief movie bits, all from Splash Page:
§ Michel Gondry’s fighting technique is unstoppable.
§ Zack Snyder is alive and well.
§ The world has been denied excessively workmanlike, middlebrow versions of the Spider-Man and Batman franchises.
Yikes, I was remiss and didn’t ask permission to Tumbl that Chaykin pic. Didn’t really think about it! I get carried away sometimes. I’ll try to redress that ASAP.
Tucker Stone’s Azzarello piece is amazing, and not just because I agree with him on just about everything (although I haven’t read all of the superhero stuff).
I thought the same thing after reading Howard was offered both jobs. I think we got lucky.
Just a heads-up: I contacted Mr. Kaluta today, and he said he was fine with the reposting. Whew!