Tag: NBM

GlobalComix adds several new publishers as they prepare to launch an app

BOOM!, Image, Archie and more will soon join the digital comics service.

The web-based digital comics platform GlobalComix has announced publishing agreements with several new publishers, including Image Comics, BOOM! Studios, Tokyopop and Archie Comics, as they prepare to launch their first mobile app.

“I have waited for this moment for years,” said Christopher Carter, CEO of GlobalComix. “Not only are we finally about to change the landscape of digital comics publishing entirely, but we are also fortunate enough to do it together with a vibrant community of creators from both popular web and indie comics; and also many of the most venerable and well respected publishers in the entire world [of comics]. We will be bringing more comics to even more readers, worldwide, and doing so in a fiscally accessible way. With this, we’re paving the way for a vibrant and thriving ecosystem in which creators and publishers can make a sustainable living, doing exactly what they love, and that is one of the major reasons for why we’re doing what we do.”

Continue reading “GlobalComix adds several new publishers as they prepare to launch an app”

Annie Goetzinger, RIP

A brief remembrance of French comics creator Annie Goetzinger, who died unexpectedly last week

French comics writer and artist Annie Goetzinger died unexpectedly on December 20, at the age of 66. Goetzinger had a 40-year career in French comics, but her work was relatively new to English-speaking audiences: NBM published Girl in Dior in 2015, following it up with Marie Antoinette, Phantom Queen, in 2016; her biography of the French novelist Colette, The Provocative Colette, is due out next August.

I was slightly ahead of the game: When I was at Angouleme in 2014, I asked Philippe Osterman of Dargaud to point out some French titles that would be popular with American audiences. He handed me a half-dozen graphic novels, and Girl in Dior was the one that caught my eye immediately. So when NBM brought Goetzinger to the MoCCA Fest in April 2015, I arranged to interview her.

Continue reading “Annie Goetzinger, RIP”

Smash Pages Q&A: Étienne Davodeau on ‘The Cross-Eyed Mutt’

The French creator discusses his latest graphic novel from NBM, a very serious comedy about a security guard at the Louvre.

Étienne Davodeau’s graphic novel The Cross-Eyed Mutt, recently published in a translated version from NBM, has a hilarious premise. Fabien is a security guard at the Louvre and when he meets his girlfriend’s family, they tell him that they have a painting from their ancestor. “Would our ancestor’s painting have a spot in the Louvre or is it an insignificant piece of crap?”

The book is the latest in a series of graphic novels published with the Louvre, and Davodeau uses the situation as a chance to tell a story that, like his Lulu Anew and The Initiates, manages to both poke fun at eccentrics and deeply honor unusual ways of looking at the world – sometimes simultaneously. It is a book that is profound and joyful and very funny about what we love about art and museums, about what we remember, how we see ourselves, and in the end, how we live our lives.

The Cross-Eyed Mutt is in short, a very serious comedy, and it is one of the year’s best books. Thanks to Terry Nantier and Stefan Blitz at NBM, I had a chance to speak with Davodeau about spending time in the Musée du Louvre, his own thoughts on art, and whether we might be able to get my great-uncle’s work into the museum.

Continue reading “Smash Pages Q&A: Étienne Davodeau on ‘The Cross-Eyed Mutt’”

Comics Lowdown: Original Crumb art sells for $717,000

Plus news and updates on NBM, ‘Saga,” Dan Parent and more.

Robert Crumb’s original art for the cover of the 1969 Fritz the Cat collection has set a new record price for a piece of original American comics art: The drawing sold for $717,000 at an auction run by Heritage Auctions; the next highest price for a piece of American comics art is the $657,250 that someone paid for the last page of Incredible Hulk #180, which features the first appearance of Wolverine. Internationally, Tintin art is still top of the heap; one set of drawings brought in $3.5 million, and two other original Tintin drawings have sold for over $1 million apiece.

Continue reading “Comics Lowdown: Original Crumb art sells for $717,000”

Comics’ coming-of-age party at TCAF this weekend

My, how we’ve grown! This year’s Toronto Comic Arts Festival, which takes place this weekend in the Toronto Reference Library, will include a number of significant anniversaries.

Continue reading “Comics’ coming-of-age party at TCAF this weekend”