Blood and Thunder

• The only important item to note here is that shortly after the Journal went to press, Drawn & Quarterly made it official, announcing that they were abandoning their old bookstore distributor, Chronicle Books, in favor of a new distribution agreement with noted publisher Farrar Straus & Giroux.

Newswatch: Collective Inaction

• The news story which kicked off the Journal's investigations into comic-book--related professional associations, At Last the Industry Gets the Trade Association It Always Wanted - But Is It the Real Thing? (The Comics Journal #261) has been posted online in its entirety.

  Neither the Comic Magazine Association of America, nor its subsidiary the Comics Code Authority, maintain a public presence on the Internet, but here's a very short history of the Comics Code Authority, and here's the actual Comics Code, as originally adopted. In 2001, the Code suffered its most significant blow when Marvel Comics dropped it in favor of an in-house ratings system -- here's the Journal's news report, from June of that year.

  In an interview from Graphic Story Magazine #15 (Summer 1973), writer Harry Harrison briefly discussed the first attempt at a comics creators' union:

  "At one point when comics were going good we formed an organization called SOCBI -- Society of Comic Book Illustrators. Bernard Krigstein, who helped organize it, was our first president. Gil Kane came to the meetings. I was treasurer as I remember, we were trying to get bylaws for payment and such, but many of the bigger artists wouldn't join. We were a guild and we thought it would do some good for comics. Then, once four out of five comics folded, the organization also folded. We had some good meetings. I think it was the first time comic book artists got together for something like this"

  As for subsequent attempts: The Academy of Comic Book Arts was primarily known more for its Academy of Comic Book Arts Awards than anything else -- here's a list of recipients. We were unable to find much in the way of reference to the abortive Comic Book Creators Guild, though there is an organization currently calling itself the Filipino Comic Book Creators Guild. At least someone's getting some mileage from the name. The Self-Publisher's Online Resource Center lists a mailing address for the Comic Book Professionals Association, the only evidence of the organization's existence that we were able to find online. Online information was likewise less than forthcoming on Comic Artists, Retailers and Publishers (CARP), save for founder William Grant, Jr.'s bio page, which includes a brief mention of CARP. That's more than we can say for the abortive "Committee to Explore an Industry Organization" -- No information could be found online to prove that this group ever existed. Finally, there's the latest contender, the International Comic Arts Association

Newswatch: Carmine Infantino Sues DC

• The Newsday article which first broke the story is now behind a paid subscriber firewall. Coverage can be found online at ICv2.com and The Pulse. Newsarama has the latest update, although there isn't much in the way of further news to report at this point.

Newswatch: Big Book of Wild Women

• Several artists from the series have posted their strips from the book online, including Gregory Benton and Salgood Sam (art only: page one, page two, page three). Before the book had been axed, cartoonist Mary Fleener interviewed the book's editor, Susan Barrows (A.K.A. Susie the Floozie), for TCJ #237, which can be read in its entirety at this link.

Newswatch: Kate Worley Succumbs to Cancer

• Reed Waller discussed Worley's death on his weblog. An online obituary can be found at Newsarama.

Newswatch: The Journal Datebook

• Next issue, TCJ.com will begin links coverage of the Datebook, provided we aren't still as intimidated by the prospect of chasing down that many links as we currently are.

Commentary: Fun! Fun! Fun!

• Those interested in attending next year's Anime Expo in Anaheim, CA can learn more at the event's website. Those more interested in watching Western comics fans wonder at whether or not there will be a "manga bust" forthcoming should check out this Comicon.com messageboard thread. Those readers who'd like to see more comics-related commentary from Steven Grant, take note: He also maintains a weekly column at Comic Book Resources.

Commentary: ¡Journalista!

• The Write News archives carries Marvel Comics' initial announcement of the hiring of Bill Jemas as President of Publishing & New Media, while Marvel's website has archived the announcement of his promotion to the position of Chief Operating Officer. Bill Jemas explained his sales philosophy in some detail at the online webzine X-Fan, and offered the rationale for his "Bad Girls For Fanboys" initiative in this Sequential Tart interview.

  Asked about the numerous grammatical errors in his debut column of commentary, Managing Editor Dirk Deppey merely muttered, "Please kill me," and offered feeble promises that next issue's column would feature actual proofreading. Readers of his former weblog ¡Journalista!, of course, will be more than used to what they found in the first one.

Commentary: Obsolete

• The American media has been looking into the superhero movie as a phenomenon from the beginning. Back in 2001, The Guardian's Danny Leigh was already on the spandex-movie beat. More recently, MSNBC contributor Larry Terenzi examined how superhero films got to be worth watching; Marvel Studios Chairman and CEO Avi Arad discussed Spider-Man 2 and other films on Marvel's plate with the Seattle Times' Mark Rahner; and the Baltimore Sun's Chris Kaltenbach looks at the villains in superhero movies, in an essay reprinted by the Arizona Republic. Finally, Franklin Harris recently looked at the superhero movies planned for 2004.

Commentary: Fighting Words

• Yes, they really said that. Martin Rowson's acidic review of McSweeney's #13 can be found at The Independent's website; John Podhoretz took a swipe at comics while reviewing Spider-Man II for National Review, prompting Jonah Goldberg to rise to their defense on the Review's weblog, The Corner; John Byrne issued a call to arms for his fans to wage war on spandex -- the term itself, not the goofy-ass costumes -- on this message board thread; and Grant Morrison wondered out loud why people were still assuming that today's kids could be induced to like Silver Age superheroes in an interview on Comixfan.com. We don't have convenient online links for the other quotes, so you'll just have to trust us, won't you?

Review: Blooming Books, by Raymond Briggs

• While Mr. Briggs does not maintain a Web presence as such, Toonhound.com hosts Gentleman Briggs, a Raymond Briggs fansite complete with biography. The BBC's biography for Briggs, however, is a tad more authoritative. Random House, which owns publishing imprint Jonathan Cape, maintains a page for Blooming Books here.

Review: Bernet, by Manuel Auad

• Here's Lambiek's bio-page for Jordi Bernet. Auad Publishing maintain's several pages in support of the book, including Will Eisner's introduction and a page of sample art.

Review: Isolation and Illusion, by P. Craig Russell

• Russell's official website can be found at Lurid.com. There's also a decent fansite devoted to the artist found here. Dark Horse maintains this page for the book.

Review: Blankets, by Craig Thompson

• Craig Thompson's homepage is a nice, Flash-enhanced place to browse a few minutes away. Top Shelf Productions maintains a page for Blankets here.

Review: Usagi Yojimbo Book 17, by Stan Sakai

• Here's Stan Sakai's homepage, while here's the Dark Horse page in support of the book.

Review: The Norm Magazine, by Michael Jantze

• Oh, come on. It's published by TheNorm.com -- do we really need to help you with the link?

Bullet: Leviathan, by Jens Harder

• Here's the book's homepage at NBM Publishing, and here's a review of the book by Time.com's Andrew Arnold, if you're looking for a second opinion.

Bullet: Seadogs, by Lisa Wheeler and Mark Siegel

• Simon & Schuster, which owns the Atheneum imprint, maintains a page for the book here.

Bullet: Demo #3, by Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan

• Webpages for everybody! Brian Wood has a page, Becky Cloonan has a page, and the AiT/Planet Lar page for Demo is here.

Bullet: Smax #3, by Alan Moore and Zander Cannon

• Alan Moore is famed as an Internet recluse, but the Alan Moore Fan Site is your source of news for all things Moore-ish. Rick Veitch also maintains a web presence for Moore over at Comicon.com. Zander Cannon is far less of a Luddite; his homepage is here. we'd link to the homepage for the Smax miniseries, or even America's Best Comics, but whoever designed the DC Comics website is a clueless jackass and unable to define complex terms like "useability." We gave up looking after a few minutes.

Bullet: Planet of the Capes, by Larry Young and Brandon McKinney

• If artist Brandon McKinney has a presence on the Web, it's buried in a sea of pages for some football player with the same name. Here's a Brandon McKinney fansite, however. Larry Young is AiT/Planet Lar, and maintains a page supporting the book here.

Bullet: Along the Canadian, by Joel Rivers

• The homepage for Along the Canadian and Obion Comics is AlongTheCanadian.com, oddly enough.

Feature: Will Elder

• Go to WillElder.net for all your Will Elder needs. Okay, almost all: Click here to read an excerpt from Elder's interview in The Comics Journal #255, and here to read Lambiek's profile of the artist. (While we're here, let's throw in a plug for longtime Journal writer Bill Sherman, who very kindly provided us with this issue's review of the Elder book.)

Feature: Alex Toth

• TothFans.com is the official Alex Toth website, and a fine site it is. Curious about Lev Gleason, the guy who published the Toth comics in this issue? This link-filled webpage is as a good place as any to explore the publisher's legacy.

Feature: Steve Brodner

• There's plenty to look at over at SteveBrodner.com, the artist's online home. The PBS program Frontline sat in with Brodner as he drew Bill Clinton during the 1996 election, and posted a transcript at their site.

  (Before we move on: Yes, the copyright captions for the bottom three illustrations on the first page of the Steve Brodner Gallery are inexplicably labeled "©2003 Will Eisner." It's because our Managing Editor placed the credits at the last minute, and is something of a jackass. All apologies to both Brodner and Eisner.)

Column: Comicopia

• Wonder Woman Online hosts a page devoted to William Moulton Marston, plus a 1942 Family Circle article on the man. Hey, while you've got a browser open, why not take a virtual stroll on over to RCHarvey.com?

Column: Minimalism

• The artists and publishers reviewed this issue who maintain webpages include Ferret Press, Highwater Books, Peter S. Conrad, Sparkplug Comic Books, J. Todd Dockery, Mark Burrier, Gary Ellis, Megan Whitmarsh, Josh Divine, Sara Varon and Giles O'Dell. (We tried the link for the "Garlic" page that Spurge listed, but it wouldn't work for us. Maybe the server was simply down for a while -- try it yourself.)

Column: Time Out of Joint

• We're afraid our heads will explode if we visit KennethSmith.com -- do you dare?

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