Month: August 2017

Comics Lowdown: Artist OK with defacement of Zunar mural

Also: Moto Hagio returns to the Poe saga, Tini Howard and Gilbert Hernandez talk ‘Assassinistas,’ and Annie Koyama looks back at her first decade as a comics publisher

Someone has defaced a mural of the Malaysian cartoonist Zunar—but the artist who created the mural is OK with that. “I don’t see it as ruined but as a response, and it does not matter to me who is responding,” said Bibichun, the artist. “It’s in the public domain and it’s for members of the public to consume in their own way.” The mural depicted Zunar with his mouth covered by the flag of UMNO, the dominant political party of Malaysia (and therefore a frequent target of Zunar’s cartoon). Recently, an unknown man painted the flag black. “The piece was a response to the suppression of Zunar’s exhibition at the Penang Literary Festival last year,” said Bibichun. “I’m surprised it took Umno supporters such a long time to respond.” Zunar recently canceled a planned exhibit of his work out of concern that it, too, would be attacked.

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Smash Pages Q&A: Bernie Mireault on ‘XVI’

The creator of ‘The Jam’ talks about his career, current projects and new short story collection from About Comics.

The new book XVI from About Comics collects short comics from the acclaimed creator Bernie Mireault. He has never been the most well-known or best-selling comics creator, but over the past few decades he’s been a key figure in comics.

His miniseries Mackenzie Queen wears its influences on its sleeves, and those influences are Steve Ditko and Doctor Strange and Harvey Kurtzman, European comics and manga, back in the early 1980’s when that range of influences was not as common – or as easy to find – as it is today. Mireault went onto draw Grendel: The Devil Inside and colored many other stories in Matt Wagner’s Grendel series. Mireault then created The Jam, a different kind of superhero comic, which appeared before many other reinventions of the genre appeared.

Mireault spoke about the new collection of his black and white comics, what he’s working on now and more.

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Comics Lowdown: Mohammed Cartoons Conspirator Extradited

One more conspirator in the Lars Vilks case heads to court. Also: Comics about the news, Bruce Tinsley mollifies a fan, and the July BookScan numbers.

Ali Charaf Damache will be arraigned in Philadelphia on August 28 on conspiracy charges related to the attempt to kill a cartoonist who drew the Prophet Mohammed as a dog. Prosecutors allege that Damache conspired with two women (one of whom styled herself “Jihad Jane”) and a high school student to kill Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks. Although the group never carried out their plans, the co-conspirators have already been sentenced to prison terms. Damache, who is 52, was indicted in 2011 but only recently extradited from Algeria to the U.S.

Monstress #7 (Image Comics)

Hot Books: ICv2 has the BookScan graphic novels chart for July, and it’s definitely eclectic. The number one book is Everyone’s a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too: A Book, and no, those aren’t typos; check out the @jomnysun Twitter account for more. The next four books are like a modern graphic novels bingo card: Monstress, vol. 2; March, Book One; The Ancient Magus’s Bride, vol. 7; and Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying Up. Viz has eight titles on the top 20; Marvel has one (a Star Wars title) and DC has the perennial best-sellers Watchmen and The Killing Joke.

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David Petersen opens his vault in ‘The Plotmasters Project’ podcast

Petersen and his high school friends revisit the comics they made back in the day, starting with a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles homage called “Cats Trio.”

Here’s something fun — Mouse Guard creator David Petersen shares a “just for fun” project he developed with two friends in high school, Jesse Glenn and Mike Davis, called “Cats Trio,” Petersen and Glenn revisit the project on their podcast “The Plotmasters Project.”

“…it was a TMNT homage where three mutated/anthropomorphic cats befriend a similar raccoon as the group discover their shared origins, survive in abandoned places away from human eyes, and avoid being hunted by another of their kind,” Petersen wrote on his blog, adding, “I also want to state, that Jesse and I have no current plans to develop Cats Trio (or any of the subjects for our series) beyond these exercises.”

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Harvey Awards will return in 2018 at the New York Comic Con

Annual awards will skip 2017 as ReedPOP plans a reception honoring Harvey Kurtzman at this year’s show.

The Harvey Awards will find a new home next year at the New York Comic Con, the annual fall convention managed by ReedPop. According to Newsarama, NYCC will host a reception this year honoring the legacy of Harvey Kurtzman and the awards that were named after him, with a full awards ceremony planned for 2018.

“We are thrilled to host such an iconic award show during one of the biggest comic events of the year, New York Comic Con,” said Lance Fensterman, Global Head of ReedPOP. “We are even more excited to honor the life and work of the late great Harvey Kurtzman here in his hometown, while celebrating the industry’s best work.”

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Comics Lowdown: Wakanda fashion show, marketplace celebrates artisans and Black Panther

Plus: Roxane Gay thoughts on diversity, Jeff Smith, Cully Hamner, public-domain comics and more!

Excited for the increasing spotlight on Black Panther with the feature film coming out in 2018, retailer Fantom Comics in Washington, D.C. hosted a unique event known as Move or You Will Be Moved: A Black Panther Fashion Show over the weekend. The haute couture show included cosplay and Wakandan street fashion, and a marketplace of local black creators selling their jewelry, clothing and other Afrofuturist fashion accessories. Plus of course, Black Panther comics and paraphernalia.

“Where’s all the Black Panther merchandise? We’re less than a year out, and we don’t have any Happy Meal toys or anything we can just get on hand,” Sellars asked, introducing the concept to the crowd. “So with that came this idea of what about an Afro-futuristic showcase of what it means to be great? Of what it means to be in Wakanda.”

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Dwayne McDuffie’s widow files lawsuit over Milestone Media

Charlotte McDuffie files a lawsuit against Reginald Hudlin, Derek Dingle and Denys Cowan, claiming they’ve cut McDuffie’s estate out of the planned Milestone revival.

Charlotte McDuffie, widow of Dwayne McDuffie, has filed a lawsuit against Reginald Hudlin, Derek Dingle and Denys Cowan, claiming McDuffie’s estate has been excluded from plans for a planned Milestone Media revival.

The suit, filed in L.A. Superior Court on Monday, claims that after Dwayne McDuffie passed away in 2011, “two of his former business partners thereafter conspired with a third person to obstruct McDuffie’s widow from accessing financial information about the business, and then cut out McDuffie’s estate from Milestone Media’s revival.” You can read the complaint in full here or find it embedded below.

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‘Nightmare Before Christmas’ sequel is coming… to a comic shop near you

Tokyopop will release the sequel as single issue comics, full-colour tpbs and black & white “manga”

‘The Nightmare Before Christmas: Zero’s Journey’ (Tokyopop)

In a surprising announcement, Tokyopop has secured a deal with Disney to publish a sequel to the 1993 Tim Burton stop-motion animated classic The Nightmare Before Christmas in sequential art form. The beloved film has never had any official continuation until now.

Announced as a Hollywood Reporter exclusive,  The Nightmare Before Christmas: Zero’s Journey will be written by D.J. Milky aka Stu Levy (Princess Ai) with art from Studio DICE (Beauty and the Beast). The story will follow Jack Skellington’s loyal dog, Zero, as he gets lost in Christmas Town.

Slated for spring 2018, the comics will be available for the 25th anniversary year of The Nightmare Before Christmas. The series will be released first as standard, serialized comic issues, then will be republished as a full colour tpb as well as black and white manga “pocket book” format graphic novels.

Action figures come to life in Tom Scioli’s ‘Truth to Power’

The ‘Super Powers’ and ‘G.I. Joe vs. Transformers’ creator shares a toyline of his own creation.

After a bit of a break, American Barbarian and Transformers vs. G.I. Joe creator Tom Scioli has returned to his Tumblr ove rthe last week or so with some fun sequential art, including a page of Thor comics, something called War Dreamers and this one, Truth to Power.

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The dead of summer brings ‘Dead of Winter’ #1 from Oni Press [Preview]

New comic based on the tabletop game kicks off this week from Kyle Starks and Gabo.

As announced at C2E2 earlier this year, Kyle Starks and Gabo have teamed up for a new horror-comedy mini-series based on the board game Dead of Winter by Plaid Hat Games.

The first issue arrives this week, and publisher Oni Press has shared a preview:

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Comics Lowdown: Turkish political cartoonist Musa Kart freed from jail

Plus: Violent alt.right felon gets a comic, Zunar exhibit canceled, Box Brown and more.

Musa Kart Freed: Turkish political cartoonist Musa Kart was released from jail on a judge’s orders Friday, along with six other staffers from the Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet. Four others, including the editor in chief, remain behind bars, and the freed journalists are under judicial supervision pending the outcome of the trial. The journalists were arrested nine months ago on charges of aiding terrorist organizations; the arrests came shortly after a failed coup against the Turkish government and are widely regarded as an attempt to limit freedom of the press. Kart, who made an opening statement that drew laughter from the audience at times, faces up to 29 years in prison if convicted. The trial will resume on Sept. 11.

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