§ Comics just got even more scholarly. The entire run of The Comics Journal —an unmatched treasure trove of comics history from the early ’80s on— will be available in digital, scanned form via Alexander Street Press as part of its Underground and Independent Comics online collection. More than 25,000 pages of interviews, commentary, theory and criticism from the 35-year run of the magazine will be available.
“Most back issues of The Comics Journal are sold out and unavailable,” says Comics Journal founder and Fantagraphics President Gary Groth. “This will allow academics, critics, and historians access to the magazine that’s covered the widest range of cartooning for the longest period of time. We believe Alexander Street Press’ project serves an important cultural function and we’re very pleased to be part of it.”
This is basically an expensive scholarly archive mostly available at universities—it’s available now at the Library of Congress, British Library, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Notre Dame and so on. In fact we had a peek at it while visiting Karen Green at Columbia once. Luckily we have every single issue ever of the Comics Journal stored away in our storage unit, so no need for this arcane electronic archive!
§ In all our Women in Comics talk recently, here’s a nice site covering the topic that rolled through our feed: Ms. Comix, which includes essays links and a nice batch of interviews with creators of several genders.
§ A nice list of the five most valuable pieces of comics artand more commentary on that topic by art expert/publisher Arnie Fenner.
§ The pirates are coming from inside your dorm!
Filesharing and cyberlocker sites accounted for less than a third of illegal music acquisition in 2011, according to a leaked report of an NPD study from the RIAA obtained by Torrentfreak.
Most filesharing is peer-to-peer, if by that you mean your buddy Rufus loaning you his Panda Bear CD or just shooting you the mp3 files in an email.
§ Paul Tobin remembers Mary Marvel as she was and charts the fall from innocence of the superheroine.
§ Another Fantagraphics link. Noah Van Sciver’s THE HYPO is one of the best GNs of the fall—a meticulously researched story about Abraham Lincoln’s lost years pre-presidency. Flog is excerpting representative panels, and van Sciver has lots more research material on his blog. This could be one of the sleeper books of the fall.
§ The wildly popular tech blog Kotaku offers tips on How To Get Into Comics for rank beginners. All the tips are pretty solid:
Ask friends for recommendations and loaners. Seriously. The people you know who read comics are REALLY into their comics. They are unfulfilled prophets and will happily lend you anything worth reading that they think will convert you to the tiny tribe of comics-readers.
Clip and save and give to your next conversion target.
Yayyyyyyy!
This is great news!
Boooooooo!
I can’t buy it; only libraries can.
Hmmm. Maybe I should designate my bookshelf as a non-profit “Maheras Comics Library.” Yeah, that just might work…
I’ve been enjoying the TCJ archives since last September courtesy of the San Jose Main Library (in conjunction with the San Jose State University Library).
Mark Clegg