It's Dogsbody time!
(The Comics Journal) This week, critic Daniel Holloway reviews minicomics by Adam Rosenblatt, Max Clotfelter, and Katie and Sean Äarburg. check it out!
Posted @ 3:05 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

Dragon*Con founder gets day in court over molestation charges
(Comics Events) Three years ago, the Journal reported that Ed Kramer, co-founder of the Atlanta, GA pop-culture convention Dragon*Con, had been arrested by police on suspicion of child molestation. After innumerable delays, it seems that he's finally about to go to trial. Atlanta newsweekly Creative Loafing has the details:

"Although Kramer's view has remained unchanged as several trial dates have come and gone, it now looks as if he'll finally get to see the inside of a courtroom this fall. His trial is scheduled for Nov. 3 and prosecutor Jim Miskell says there's no reason to believe that this latest appointment won't actually happen. A previous court date of Aug. 11 was pushed back by Miskell because of a family emergency.

"Aug. 25 marked the third anniversary of Kramer's arrest for allegedly molesting the two teenage sons of his girlfriend during sleepovers at his house in the summer of 2000.

"His trial has been scheduled and rescheduled numerous times since then while Kramer's already fragile health deteriorated. In early 2000, a Gwinnett judge allowed him to move from the county jail to his own home, where Kramer could receive treatment for various skin and bone ailments and undergo physical therapy for injuries sustained during a jail raid. He's remained at home ever since, where he's required to step in front of a video camera every few minutes to confirm he hasn't gone outside."

Kramer has been fighting the charges every step of the way, and has managed to get a seeming mountain of "evidence" -- such as storebought videotapes, a broadsword, a pistol, and copies of an independent horror film he wrote and produced -- thrown out of court. Dragon*Con has not been affected by Kramer's tribulations, and by all accounts went off last weekend without a hitch.

(Thanks to reader Joe Littrell, who sent me a link to this several days ago which got promptly got lost in the shuffle -- better late than never. Incidentally, last week's Creative Loafing actually had an entire section devoted to the comic-book medium. Here's an overview for the uninitiated, and features on Top Shelf co-publisher Chris Staros, comics illustrator Stephanie Gladden, and Marvel Comics writer Paul Jenkins; there's even a basic recommended reading list.)
Posted @ 3:05 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

In other news
(Potpourri) Before we close down for the weekend, here's one last look at the headlines and linkables the internet has served up in the last day or so:

• Reporters Without Borders is reporting that Algerian authorities are once again harrassing the staff of the independent newspaper Liberté, including its outspoken editorial cartoonist, Ali Dilem. To learn more about Dilem's struggles, here are ¡Journalista! entries on the man from January and May of this year.

• The Pulse is reporting that Crossgen's chief financial officer, Mike Beattie, has resigned his position with the company. Little information is available beyond that at the moment, so make of it what you will.

• ICv2 has word that Craig Thompson's new graphic novel Blankets has cracked the manga-dominated Bookscan top-50 list for graphic novels sold to bookstores, and estimates that it's probably in the top-10 for dollars generated. Congratulations to Mr. Thompson!

• Florida's Boca Raton News profiles Beetle Bailey creator Mort Walker on his 80th birthday, and also provides a status report on the building which once housed his International Museum of Cartoon Art -- remember, he can't build a new one until the cash is freed up from the current property.

• Stan Lee might be having trouble getting Marvel to honor its contractual obligations, but that doesn't mean that he isn't making money off of characters he co-created -- The Detroit News has a Bloomberg wire story which notes that Lee has signed a deal with Activision to help develop games based on Marvel's line of intellectual property.

• Canadian magazine Maisonneuve offers us this article on Chris Oliveros, founder and guiding force of art-comics publisher Drawn and Quarterly. (Link via weblogger Frank Smith.)

• Mark Evanier points to a profile in Citylink Magazine (temporary link) of Dick Kulpa, the former Weekly World News art director who's trying to ressurrect longtime Mad knockoff Cracked. Interesting sidenote: according to Daryl Cagle, Kulpa is the man responsible for creating the WWN's famous "Bat Boy" character.

• Toronto's Eye Weekly interviews comics researcher Blake Bell about the Golden Age of the medium.

• On a somewhat related note, Antony Johnston has further thoughts on why he believes we aren't in a Golden Age of comics in today's Ninth Art.

• Ohio retailer Steven Bates takes a considerably more adult view of competition from bookstores and retailer chains than that expressed in this earlier-linked rant from Tennessee retailer Mark Amoroso.

• Carl Barks: unsung conservative hero? The folks at National Review's weblog say "yes" in a three-part (part one, part two, part three) series of entries. (Thanks to Eve Tushnet for emailing me the links.)

• Reacting to an item to which I linked two days ago, writer Sarah Dyer points out that comics freelancers living in New York City can in fact get health insurance, thanks to a local media freelancer's organization.

• Finally, Sean Collins steps in to offer heartfelt praise of... the new Rob Liefeld comic book? What the hell?

With that, I'm done for another week. See you Monday, when we'll take it from the top one more time.
Posted @ 3:05 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

Slow news day
(Potpourri) There's not too much happening at the moment. The closest thing to news can be found at ICv2, which takes notice of a Los Angeles Times report (link unavailable) that an unnamed Lancaster, California retailer has shot and killed a thief during a 3 AM robbery attempt; the incident has been ruled a case of self-defense, and no charges are expected to be filed. This isn't quite breaking news -- the Comic Book Industry Alliance has been discussing the story on its message board for several days, now -- but this is the first linkable report of the incident I've found on the internet since the attack took place.

Elsewhere:

• ICv2 also features an obituary for former Kitchen Sink Press editor Dave Schreiner, who as we learned late last Friday has died of cancer at the age of 56.

• Daryl Cagle has a Garry Trudeau's response to the whole prostrate cancer/masturbation controversy surrounding this upcoming Sunday's Doonesbury strip (no permalink, alas, but it's currently at the top of the page).

• Web-cartoonist Jenn Manley Lee explains her comics creation process -- say, perhaps she could give Eric Broder some lessons on the subject.

• Over at Movie Poop Shoot, Chris Allen slams Gary Groth's "Death of Criticism" essay from the current issue of the Journal. Speaking of good online criticism, here's Max Leibman on the long-awaited new issue of Planetary.

Like I said, not a lot happening at the moment. Join us again tomorrow, and we'll see if the inertia continues.
Posted @ 2:25 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

Japanese manga obscenity trial causes controversy
(Comic Books) Those who think censorship battles like the Jesus Castillo affair are somehow limited to the state of Texas might want to take a look at a trial taking place in Japan right now: Motonori Kishi, president of Tokyo-based comics publishing house Shobunkan Co., is facing charges of selling obscene literature over his publication of the sexually-explicit "Misshitsu" ("Honey Room"). An editor and cartoonist also faced charges, but opted instead to pay a fine of ¥500,000. Not Kishi, though -- he's elected to stand and fight the accusations in court. The Japan Times has the story:

"Kishi's trial is the first major case in 20 years in Japan to focus on printed pornographic material.

"It is, moreover, the first time a comic book has been targeted under the penal code for containing obscene material.

"During the trial at the Tokyo District Court, Kishi's lawyers have summoned prominent scholars and critics to argue that Article 175 is unconstitutional.

"They said it violates Article 21 of the Constitution, which guarantees freedom of assembly and association as well as speech, press and all other forms of expression."

Kishi is mounting a vigorous defense against the charges laid against him, calling several university professors to testify in his defense. Even before the trial, however, the case has already had a chilling effect on comics distribution; defense lawyer Takashi Yamaguchi is indirectly quoted in the article as stating that several major bookstores in the area have closed their pornography sections following the indictment.
Posted @ 4:00 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

In other news
(Potpourri) A fair amount of news and linkable material has popped up in the past day, so let's get right to it:

• Newsarama is reporting that the auction for the remaining intellectual properties of defunct comics publisher Chaos Comics (sans Lady Death) will take place on October 1st in Phoenix Bankruptcy Court.

• The race to profit from the continued importation of Japanese culture into the United States sees a new entrant -- ICv2 brings word that Japanese toy company Takara has announced its intentions to purchase a 51.6% stake in America's Broccoli Co., which owns the Gamers chain of anime character stores, as well as a fledgling publishing company.

• Also at ICv2: a look at the preparations DC Comics is making to sell Neil Gaiman's new hardcover collection of Sandman short stories, Sandman: Endless Nights, in bookstores nationwide. Look, everyone, DC's actually promoting one of its books to the public!

• An update on a story from yesterday: Indian newspaper Mid-Day Mumbai is reporting that famed editorial cartoonist R.K. Laxman should be back home by the weekend after suffering a stroke. It also notes that while the stroke has reduced motor functions on the left side of Laxman's body, this still leaves his drawing arm fully functional, and thus he should still be able to continue cartooning if he so chooses.

• Internet gossip columnist Rich Johnston will be vacationing in South Africa for a few weeks, but he left behind one last Lying in the Gutters. This week's column offers several intriguing bits on the Continuing Crisis at Crossgen, as well as recent rumors that Ike Perlmutter was about to sell some of his stock -- which I continue to maintain was less of a story than everyone seems to think -- and more.

• Military website DefenseLINK offers up an appreciation of Bettle Bailey creator Mort Walker in honor of his 80th birthday.

• The latest episode of Fanboy Radio is now available for download in MP3 format for a limited time, and features back-to-back interviews with Wildstorm writer Micah Ian Wright and Blankets author Craig Thompson.

• USA Today offers a look at ace graphic designer (and comics afficianado) Chip Kidd following the release of a new book celebrating his work.

• Over at World Famous Comics, Bill Baker interviews Mark Ricketts about his comics collection, Whiskey Dickel, International Cowgirl.

• The debate over manga's place in the comics market continues! Sean Collins offers a long and cogent response to Forager's recent writings; meanwhile, informed conversations have begun in Forager's comments section for the two posts that set all this off.

• In his Comic Book Resources column, Steven Grant offers a tough-minded definition of the difference between fanboys and professionals.

• Movie Poop Shoot columnist Scott Tipton offers a beginner's primer on Walt Kelly's Pogo comic strip.

• Silver Bullet Comics has begun reviewing small-press and minicomics. Here's a look at Kevin Gleason's Just Another Name, Adam Suete's Aprendiz: Book One (also reviewed recently in our own Dogsbody), and two minis by David Goodman.

• Here's a page dedicated to Harvey Pekar's übernerd co-worker, Toby Radloff, which includes video clips of his filmwork, and even an interview. (Link courtesy of Frank Smith.)

• Metafilter points to several comprehensive cover galleries of comics magazines: here's every cover of Mad Magazine, Cracked, and Weirdo.

• So long as everyone else is linking to it, I will too -- The Onion (temporary link) has a nicely savage little parody of obsessive readers of filthy funnybooks "sequential-art erotica".

• This just in -- Tennessee comics retailer Mark Amoroso has noticed that they're selling those comics softcover thingies in bookstores, and gosh darn it, he doesn't like the concept one little bit!

Finally, Alan Donald's weekly column, The Panel, features a discussion on health-care plans in the comic-book industry, which includes this choice little tidbit from Crossgen public-relations maestro Bill Rosemann:

"That said, those who choose the work-for-hire lifestyle must balance the positives (setting your own hours, working out of your house, etc.) with the negatives (no set paycheck delivery, no health & dental insurance, etc.). Some creators are just fine with this and view this as an acceptable trade, while others wish there was an alternative. Until companies change the way they view and treat comic book creators -- or until creators band together and force companies to change -- independent contractors have a long wait until this business practice ends."

Hmmm... I wonder if this advice is applicable to any other topics of concern to work-for-hire freelancers... say... I dunno... unresponsive clients who give them the runaround when it's time to pay the bills, perhaps?
Posted @ 4:00 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

R.K. Laxman stable after stroke
(Editorial Cartoons) Rasipuram Krishnaswami Laxman, India's most revered editorial cartoonist, was rushed to a local hospital at 8 AM last Saturday after suffering a paralytic stroke. Indian news-site Keralanext has the story:

" 'My dad suffered a stroke on Saturday morning and is recovering,' Srinivas Laxman, who rushed here from Mumbai to be with his ailing father, told IANS from the hospital where the cartoonist was admitted.

"Laxman was rushed to Poona Hospital in downtown Pune city and is confined to ward number 471.

" 'His condition is not serious and he is able to talk and converse,' said Srinivas, a senior journalist with Mumbai-based Times of India."

The septuagenarian cartoonist retired some years back, but still contributes illustrations to The Times of India -- in the article, Laxman's son notes that his most recent cartoon had been drawn just days before enduring his stroke.
Posted @ 4:10 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

School textbook cartoons spark controversy in Switzerland
(Gag Cartoons) Cartoonist Thierry Barrigue has been providing cartoons for use in Swiss math textbooks for almost twenty years without complaint -- but this year, things are different. Schools in Geneva and Vaud have paid out some 420,000 Swiss francs (roughly $300,000) to reprint a mathematics textbook after complaints about the illustrations in this year's volumes. Switzerland's Neue Zürcher Zeitung spoke to a Bern seventh-grade student named Meher, who dismissed the cartoons as "just drawings":

"He was referring to one where a professor is angry with a pupil, who has put up a poster saying 'Wanted dead or alive -- maths teacher, $10,000'.

" 'These images are funny and are not going to make you kill your maths teacher,' he added.

"Fellow pupil Nicholas added: 'You cannot be influenced by such drawings. They might attract the eye but at the end of the day, it’s just a maths book.'

"However, Meher -- who is of Tunisian origin -- is perturbed by one particular illustration showing two white children asking a black child about his roots.

" 'I find that a bit racist,' he says."

Other districts have yet to follow Geneva and Vaud's lead; the article quoted Bern headmaster Michel Clémençon as not seeing what all the fuss is about.
Posted @ 4:10 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

In other news
(Potpourri) Here are more of today's headlines and links:

• SPX has released its programming schedule for this weekend's exposition. (Link via Egon.)

• Harry Knowles is reporting unconfirmed rumors that Bloom County star Opus the Penguin will be returning to the comics page in a Sunday-only strip, in addition to starring in a movie slated to begin production by the end of the year, which will be both written and directed by creator Berkeley Breathed. (Link courtesy of Comixpedia.)

• Daniel Robert Epstein interviews Matt Wagner for the gothporn website Suicide Girls.

• Rich Johnston interviews British cartoonist Bryan Talbot.

• United Arab Emirates' Gulf News offers a remeniscence of the late Palestinian cartoonist and pro-democracy activist Naji Al Ali.

• LinkMachineGo has some very interesting links about Alan Moore and Bill Sienkiewicz' never-completed series Big Numbers. I already linked to the page containing art from Big Numbers #3 back in March, but then there's this: a transcript of a meeting between Alan Moore and several British producers (part one, part two), exploring the possibility of a Big Numbers TV miniseries, during which Moore explains the plot for the rest of the series in some detail. If you've read the first two issues, this is probably as close as you'll ever come to reading the rest of the story.

• It's the beginning of the month, and that means it's time for a brand-new edition of fangirl webzine Sequential Tart. This month's goodies include an essay by cartoonist Jamaica Dyer explaining the joys and agonies of creating a comic book; a call by Rebecca Salek for the proper objectification of men in comics; Denise Sudell's interview with comics writer Tony Isabella, who explains why he won't work on corporate characters without their creators' permission; Adrienne Rappaport's interview with minicomics artist Raina Telgemeier; a roundtable discussion in which the Tarts pick the comics they'd like to see in school libraries; and much more.

• Last Saturday, one of the Two Blowhards posted an image of something I'd never previously imagined existed: a sculpture by Theodor Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss.

• James Lileks posted this 1950 Tender Family cartoon for Labor Day, an advertisement for a brand of hot dogs.

• The Miami Herald offers a shining review of Tom Spurgeon and Jordan Raphael's new Stan Lee biography -- okay, okay, last one of these for a while, I promise.

• I almost missed this Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article from last week, which celebrates the cartoons local boy Don Simpson created for Al Franken's new book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them. (Link courtesy of a very insistent Don Simpson.)

• For those who've never actually seen Harvey Pekar at work as a jazz critic and book reviewer, The Boston Phoenix is here to help. (Thanks to Egon for emailing me the link.)

• Kansas newspaper The Lawrence Journal World provides us with our generic "graphic novels in libraries" article for the week.

• I don't have time to respond to this at the moment, but Forager 23 offers a nice rebuttal to my rebuttal to his rebuttal to various arguments about manga sales in bookstores that have been floating around the Comics Blogosphere these past few weeks.

• Simply Comics' Babar dissents from the Team Comix consensus and offers a critical take on Harvey Pekar's American Splendor comics series.

• If you follow editorial cartoons, yesterday's edition of Daryl Cagle's weblog is worth your time, with an entry on The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's relationship with cartoons, an update from Malcolm Evans, and more.

Finally, a request to webloggers who use rateyourmusic.com for their comment sections: please stop. For weeks now, it has made your pages take three to four minutes to load, even on a high-speed connection. I almost didn't stick around long enough to find out that Bill Sherman has begun reviewing manga!
Posted @ 4:10 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

Protest against South Korean cartoonist turns into physical confrontation
(Editorial Cartoons) Last Saturday a South Korean political organization known as People's Power staged a demonstration in protest of a political cartoon by Shin Gyeong-mu, which ran in the Chosun Ilbo newspaper and depicted South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun as a drunk. The situation took an unexpected turn when a retired chairman of the army, navy and air force colonels league, Seo Jeong-gap, wandered by the demonstrators on his way to meet the paper's editor for lunch. A story in yesterday's Chosun Ilbo takes up the tale from there:

"According to police reports, at 12:15 p.m. Seo was rushed and then surrounded by about 50 demonstrators on the road next to the Koreana Hotel, including the actor Myeong Gye-nam, and then grabbed by the collar. Seo said later that he felt threatened when the protesters were coming at him and cursing, so he fired a blank shot into the air with his gas pistol.

" 'Someone forced the gas pistol out of my hand and my suit was torn and I sprained a finger on my right hand,' he said.

"A member of the civic group, Shim Hwa-seop, said, 'We saw Cho Gap-je passing and approached him to talk, but in the process, there was a little scuffle involving some pushing and shoving.'

"A police officer from the Namdaemun Police Department who was on the scene said, 'I saw Chairman Seo being grabbed by the collar by the members of the People's Power, and it will certainly be reported as an act of violence.' "

The Korean Political Cartoonists' Association later came out against the protest, stating that People's Power acted in a way that "threaten the diversity of the press and freedom of speech" and that "Their acts are that of totalitarianism and we are deeply suspicious as to whether there is anyone working behind the scenes." Such is the threat only a sprained finger could summon. Imagine the outrage if the Chairman had stubbed his toe!
Posted @ 3:20 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

In other news
(Potpourri) Gosh, the above isn't enough news for you? Very well, then -- here's what else reared its head over the weekend:

• This week's run of Doonesbury strips will be riffing on a new study which purports to suggest that masturbation may reduce the risk of prostate cancer in men. Do I really need to tell you that this has newspaper editors nervous? According to an article in North Carolina's Charlotte Observer, a survey found that 19 of the 34 responding newspaper editors were planning to reject the week's strips in favor of replacements provided by cartoonist Garry Trudeau's syndicate, while just twelve editors stated that they had actually decided to run them. Of course, Doonesbury's political and social nature has long been a source of concern for newspaper editors -- Marvin Lake, public editor for The Virginian Pilot (third item down), responds to a query by a reader convinced that the strip should be remanded to the editorial page by noting that newspapers are split on the issue of where to put it.

• Zacks investment analyst Steve Harmon claimed last Wednesday that Marvel Comics' stock had declined amid rumors that "a major shareholder may want to sell 5 million of his 26.7 million shares". Actually, the stock has been fluctuating at around the same level for several weeks now, and is currently trading at higher than the going rate when Harmon's report was issued.

• Blair Marnell, an infinitely better fit for Silver Bullet Comics' rumor column than the inane twit whose posts they had to erase last week, notes that Dark Horse is suddenly getting a heavy number of proposals since they announced an "open submissions" policy -- not just from amateurs looking to break into the field, but from established pros as well.

• The Vietnam News Agency is claiming that no less than five American publishers -- Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Dreamwave and Scholastic -- have signed on to publish a 37-volume series of comic books entitled Than dong dat Viet ("Young Prodigy of Vietnam") for distribution to American children, and that the first five volumes should see release by early November.

• Fredericksburg, Virginia newspaper The Free Lance-Star offers a profile on one of the smaller studios repackaging and publishing manga for American readers, Studio Ironcat.

• London's Financial Times sits down for a chat with the most powerful political cartoonist in France, Le Monde's Plantu.

• Canadian music site Exclaim! looks at Steven Wintle's character Jenny Everywhere, an open-source adventure heroine.

• Over at Comixpedia, you can find an interview with cartoonist Scott McCloud, who answers questions posed by the site's readers. Speak of the devil, you can also find the usual quotes from you-know-who in this Sydney Morning Herald primer on webcomics.

• The Pulse's Jennifer Contino (who's reported to be recovering nicely from her recent gall-bladder surgery), offers up an interview with indy comics writer Jai Sen.

• The Oregonian offers up a glowing review of Craig Thompson's new graphic novel Blankets.

• Over at Ninth Art, columnist Paul O'Brien weighs in on Crossgen's recent troubles.

• Courtesy of the Steven Grant message board, Shawn Fumo points to a massive listing of all the various manga anthologies published in Japan.

• Weblogger Bill Sherman weighs in with an appreciation of R. Crumb on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday.

• Forager 23 gives manga's shit a good kicking. I think our intrepid Forager gets it wrong in two places: first, there is in fact plenty of good, well-crafted manga being published, and has been from the beginning -- any culture that throws the likes of Osamu Tezuka and Katsuhiro Otomo to the top of the industry can't always be churning out crap. I'd go so far as to say that, to the contrary, the level of craftsmanship in the Japanese comics scene often surpasses what their Western counterparts have to offer (for proof of this phenomenon in effect between otherwise similar titles, compare Japanese porn comics to the homegrown version).

  Moreover, comics shops should begin stocking manga not because it'll somehow turn manga fans into hardcore Love and Rockets readers, but rather because comics shops will be able to take manga readers' money, and therefore not go out of business after their current customer base begins entering old-age homes. Well, that's my motivation for advocating that the Direct Market embrace manga softcovers, anyway.

• WittyWorld's news page gets its first update since mid-April, but you wouldn't know it by looking -- they've backdated all the stories they never posted up until now. How lame.

• Nobody did autobio comics before Harvey Pekar? What about Justin Green?

Finally, happy third anniversary to Alan David Doane's Comic Book Galaxy -- here's to many more.
Posted @ 3:20 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

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