Tag: History

Back in the days when comics media was on paper, there was the Comics Journal, the Comics Buyer's Guide, and Comics Interview. Edited by David Anthony Kraft, in the magazine's 150 issue run, just about anybody who was of note in the comics industry of the '80s and early '90s was interrogated. It's a treasure trove of historical material long unavailable (unless you happen to be rooting through The Beat's storage unit) but the revamped Comico is changing that with a POD reprint project that is available now for $34.95 -- the whole project will run 11 books, and each volume will be offered in a regular and deluxe edition, as well as paperback and hardcover.

A letter of early costume design notes is found. Found via Comics Alliance, where it is pointed out that artist H.G. Peter was 61 years old when tasked with designing this iconic character.

Should comics panels be written about or recorded for all to hear? This panel report from APE of Dan Nadel interviewing Daniel Clowes has been linked everywhere, probably because it's such a thorough write-up. There's lots of dish on other cartoonists, and anecdotes from the history of alt.comix:

A big coffee table book on the making of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK may not have pictures of Carrie Fisher's tooting up, but we like these photos best. After 30 years, everything becomes black and white.

Right Thing The Wrong Way: Included will be various works by the core artists involved in the development of Highwater Books (Brian Ralph, Megan Kelso, Ron Rege, Jordan Crane, Greg Cook, Jef Czekaj, Marc Bell,...

This has not upset fanboys at all. CBR's Kiel Phegley and Marvel e-i-c Joe Quesada engage in a massive, week-long tell-all on the subject of One More Day, and it's current retcon in One Moment in Time -- O.M.I.T. OMD, you may recall if you have been near a comic book website in the last three years, retconned the marriage of Peter Parker and Mary Jane out of existence because of a deal made with Mephisto. It was a hugely popular story element ridiculously controversial and fan complained loudly and continually for three years. AND NOW, O.M.I.T. has made that story never happen. So despite the memories people may have of the touching Shea Stadium Watson/Parker nuptials, that storyline is now as leveled and buried as Shea itself.

An investigative report by Frank Santoro.

With the announcement of the closure of WildStorm imprint at DC and the retiring of the WildStorm name, it isn't just another in a long list of comics imprints that have ended over the years. In its 18 year run WildStorm has been a vital part of several revolutions in commercial comics, and changed the game in many ways -- Rob Liefeld's post below gives a succinet run down of some of the highlights.

Founded by Jim Lee as one of the original six Image Studios (along with Marc Sillvestri's Top Cow, Todd McFarlane's McFarlane Productions, Rob Liefeld's Extreme Studios, Jim Valentino's ShadowLine and Erik Larsen's Highbrow Entertainment), WildStorm immediately established itself as one of the most commercial, with huge sellers like WildCATS and Gen 13. A series of developing fan favorite artists, including of course Lee himself, but also J. Scott Campbell, Joe Madureira and Humberto Ramos, kept popularity up, while the creator owned Homage imprint delivered such strong properties as Astro City and Leave it To Chance.

Although known first for their art, by the end of the decade, WildStorm was really becoming known for some of the most daring mainstream writing of the period, with genre-defining work by Warren Ellis and Mark Millar, strong adventure material by Jimmy Palmiotti and Ed Brubaker, as well as daring experiments like Automatic Kafka, a book by Joe Casey and Ashley Wood that people are still figuring out.

And then there was America's Best Comics, an new line of comics written by Alan Moore that would introduce the world to League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Tom Strong, Promethea and Top Ten, the superhero police procedural. And our favorite, Jack B. Quick, the boy inventor who solved science's greatest non problems.

Of course, there are dark parts to the legacy as well, all of which will be trotted out and discussed at length, we're sure. But for now, we asked creators and staff for some of their good memories, and this is what they came back with.

As SPX '10 thoughts still swirl in the indie community, Frank Santoro looks back and swirls about why mini-comics no longer feel fresh to him:

We kept meaning to link to this fascinating post by blogging/internet consultant Dan Blank about the disparate ways Disney and MGM treated their legacies, beginning with a harrowing account of the legendary MGM auction of 1970, an event equivalent to the burning of the Alexandrian library or the retreat from Leningrad in terms of movie memorabilia:

Oh snap! Curmudgeonly genius Alan Moore delivers one of his most vinegary interviews yet, taking to Adi Tantimadh at Bleeding Cool mostly about DC's abortive attempts to get Moore to give his blessing for those Watchmen sequels and spin-offs and what-nots. As Moore tells it, DC sent Dave "Watchmen" Gibbons to discuss the matter with Moore, which, to the shock of no one, upset Moore's feelings. Moore wonders why DC is even seeking his approval, speculating that perhaps there is some kind of legal reason for the move. (Moore doesn't seem to think that maybe they were just...trying not to hurt his feelings.) Anyway, Moore also wonders why they even need him anyway and delivers s bunch of sharp zings to today's comics creators:

Fantagraphics has just announced via PR the publication of a long-lost but much alluded to comic strip by William S. Burroughs and British artist Malcolm McNeill called Ah Pook Is Here. The strip ran...