Bloggy-blogging

Consolation Prize: Nails

What happens when I spend 2 hours writing a new blog article before finding out it’s totally irrelevant and shouldn’t be posted?

You get a manicure lesson from James Taylor.

Trust me, we are all much better off.

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Diversity is the key

Marvel Comics announced details late last week of the launch of a new imprint that will focus on genres other than superheroes. Marvel’s CrossGen line will cross into genres not typically associated with the publisher of Spider-Man, Iron Man and Captain America.

Outside of their Marvel Illustrated line of comics adapting classic novels like the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Pride and Prejudice and Treasure Island, more modern adaptations of Stephen King’s Dark Tower and Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, and other sporadic attempts here and there, this is the first concerted effort to reach outside of their known superhero material since the publisher was releasing westerns and monster comics in the 1960s.

The CrossGen imprint is actually a resurrection of a publisher that failed and was purchased by Marvel’s new parent company Disney in 2004. CrossGen Entertainment came onto the comics scene with some daring moves. Instead of relying on freelancers, CrossGen relocated their talent to the company’s Florida compound and provided them with a salary, health insurance, 401k and other benefits largely alien to most creative types in the comics industry. They also were among the first to aggressively reprint their comics every 6 months or so in soft cover graphic novels (or “trade paperbacks”) targeted to book stores, now an industry standard. They were the first publisher to experiment with digital comics, with an online portal similar to Marvel’s Digital Comics Unlimited service. They also had a school and library outreach program with some of their material available in special lesson plan editions. Unfortunately CrossGen didn’t survive long enough to see these distribution channels mature to the point they have in the last 5 years and the company’s chutzpah ended up burying it.

Considering some of the trash talk thrown out by CrossGen’s president when the company was on the rise, it’s almost too ironic that its properties are now being published by Marvel. Still, the company put out some good looking books. They had a knack for attracting strong talent and putting out quality books that filled niche holes in the industry at the time. And now Marvel is using those properties to expand their line into new areas, a long overdue move that major competitor DC Comics knew to do back in the ’90s with the creation of the Vertigo imprint (even if it has typically limited itself to more mature readers content).

But with the struggling economy, is now the time to launch new initiatives? Marvel is keeping things modest with just two 4-issue series priced at $2.99 (versus their nearly standard $3.99 cover price). And they’re putting worthy talent in place to help garner interest. Mark Waid (Kingdom Come, The Flash) remains a hot writer, and is actually getting a second go at Ruse (pictured above), a Sherlockian mystery set in Victorian England. Mike Carey (Lucifer, The Unwritten) will write the more overhauled Sigil, a sci-fi war epic.

Initial response seems positive so far. CrossGen garnered an enthusiastic cult following in its day. (Disclaimer: I loved them.) And based on online responses so far, most seem eager to see these books return. Of course as we’ve seen, online enthusiasm doesn’t always translate into sustainable sales. But then sometimes it does.

When comics’ largest publisher launches an imprint that brings more diversity in their line of books, it can’t not be a good thing. Hopefully execution will match the good news. Hopefully retailers and readers will embrace the books. Time will tell.

The two new books are scheduled for a March 2011 release.

LA Comics distributor warehouse closes

Despite the bustling comics scene here in Los Angeles, it’s not all sunshine and ponies.

Diamond Comic Distributors, by far the biggest and most powerful international distributor of comic books and associated products delivering to comic book stores and specialty shops, is closing its Los Angeles distributor center/warehouse this March. How does this effect us readers? Probably not much, at least directly. That is, as long as your local shop can still get their shipment of new comics. And afford it.

The final shipment from the LA center will be the first week of January. After that, the southern California area (and beyond) will instead be serviced by a Diamond distribution center almost 2,000 miles east, in Olive Branch, Mississippi. In their notice to effected comic shops, Diamond stated, “based on our quality control monitoring of shortages, damages, and overages, the Olive Branch facility consistently scores on par with Los Angeles”. Given the errors and frustrations some local stores have had with Diamond, that’s probably not very comforting. According to Bleeding Cool, this brings the count of Diamond’s warehouse facilities to 4, down from 24 at one time.

The same week the Olive Branch center takes over, Diamond begins it’s new Day-Early Delivery program for all of its customers, where instead of comics arriving to stores Wednesday morning to go on sale that same day, comics will be delivered Tuesday with a street date of the following day. This should help pad out any delivery delays during the transition. However comic shops must pay a fee to be included in the program, which apparently pays for “secret shoppers” to make sure stores are obeying street date rules. So if they don’t pay in, stores will instead receive their boxes of comics early Wednesday morning for a same-day scramble to get comics sorted, counted, displayed and pulled for subscribers.

Another factor is that some stores opt to drive themselves to the distribution center and pick up their orders, instead of paying for UPS to drive comics to their store. With the LA distribution gone, will stores be forced to pay for deliveries? Diamond says no, for now. A pick-up location will be determined for those stores, at no additional charge. While that’s great, I can’t imagine that’s something they’ll keep doing forever. What’s the point of closing a distribution center if you still pay the rent on a pick-up location?

Comic stores often operate on a slim profit margin, especially smaller stores. With shrinking sales, will these new fees force some stores to rethink doing business?

And what of Diamond’s Los Angeles employees? If they’re willing to relocate to Mississippi, some may still have a job. According to ICv2: “Long-time Diamond Regional Manager James Nash will relocate from Los Angeles to Olive Branch. Other staff has been encouraged to apply for positions in Olive Branch after their tenure in Los Angeles ends at the end of March.”

LA Comics: In defense of the comiciness of LA

L.A. Comics #1 (1971)

New York gets all of the credit. Sure, the comic book industry was born there. Sure, the largest publishers are based there. Sure, hundreds of artists live in and around there. But that doesn’t mean Los Angeles is bupkis.

Not to start a pissing contest (because truthfully, LA would lose this one), but I don’t think LA gets trumpeted enough for its rich comics community. And thanks to a healthy creative spirit (and yes OK, the lure of Hollywood), it’s only getting stronger.

So join me now in a quick survey of

DC Comics is currently moving their now-defunct WildStorm and Zuda imprints to Burbank, and merging them into their new digital comics division. Marvel Studios, the Hollywood arm of Marvel Comics, calls Manhattan Beach their home. One of the largest North American publishers of manga, Tokyopop, has its main headquarters here in the Variety Building on Wilshire. Stan Lee lives here, where he runs POW! Entertainment. Also in town is Boom! Studios, who have partnered with Stan Lee on new comics, and are also publishing Disney comics. It’s definitely worth mentioning the great publisher Archaia Comics, home to Mouse Guard, Tumor, Return of the Dapper Men, and other critically acclaimed reads, which has an office in mid-Wilshire. Down in Gardena is Digital Manga Publishing, which has just released manga like Vampire Hunter D on the Nook (possibly the first to do so). Bongo Comics, publisher of Matt Groening’s Simpsons comics, is in Santa Monica. There’s also Marc Silvestri’s Top Cow Productions, publishers of Witchblade and The Darkness, and the late Michael Turner’s Aspen Comics, produces Fathom. And in West LA is Platinum Studios, they publish Cowboys & Aliens, soon to be a major Hollywood movie.

We’ve also got some fantastic comic book stores in every area of this sprawling city with a great variety of style and approach to retailing: Meltdown Comics on Sunset, Golden Apple on Melrose, The Secret Headquarters in Silver Lake, House of Secrets in Burbank, Hi De Ho in Santa Monica, Earth-2 in Sherman Oaks, The Comic Bug in Manhattan Beach and tons more!

LA is also the home to one of the most important non-profit organizations helping the comics industry today. The Hero Initiative raises money to give back to comic creators who have fallen on hard times. They have provided over $400,000 to comic creators in need.

Because of animation studios like Nickelodeon, there are tons of artists that cross over into comics in this town. There are countless artists, as well as artist studios like Latchkey Studios. And the Comic Art Professional Society (CAPS), a networking organization for creators that meets monthly in Burbank. Seriously, there are too many artists to list, so I’ll just point you to Tom Spurgeon’s massive list of Comics By Local Scene 2010. Scroll down to Los Angeles and be impressed (although I see at least one who no longer lives here, so don’t take it as the bible.)

The newspaper biz isn’t left out either. The Creators Syndicate is one of the largest independent distributors of comic strips, representing B.C., Andy Capp, Archie, Heathcliff, Rugrats, Liberty Meadows, and others.

LA is also pretty well represented in the comics journalism corner of the industry. Comic Book Resources, probably the #1 source for comics and comics-related news today, has their headquarters within spitting distance of Golden Apple. G4 has also been known to cover comics, like on “Fresh Ink Online” and “Attack of the Show”.

We can’t really be beat in the comic convention arena. A 3-hour drive south is all it takes for San Diego’s Comic-Con International. Even closer is the Wizard World Anaheim Comic Con. Even closer still is the new Long Beach Comic Con. And word recently broke of a promising new convention, the Comikaze Expo, scheduled for next November in the LA Convention Center.

And every week there are comics events going on all over the city.

So yeah. Not bad!

And I’m sure there’s plenty more that I’m missing. Please tell me about it in the comments or email me.

Gabby’s Good Luck Minute

Magic Meathands Original video #6!

Written, directed and edited by Nikki Turner, this video features our newest Meathand, Kathie Bostian. Kevin Callahan plays a sports guru that… well, I don’t want to ruin the ending. There’s also a little bit of me, Shane Boroomand, Mary Benedict, and Lily Gatica. Randy Turner handled the camera with some assist from non-Meathand Scott Hrebek (who also happens to be an ace guitar player).

My character is thinking, “Yup, this white thing is still on the wall. Looks like my job here is done.”

Archives:
Magic Meathands Original video #5: Gotcha
Magic Meathands Original video #4: ManCoaster
Magic Meathands Original video #3: Pants – A Nightmare
Magic Meathands Original video #2: Fun and Games
Magic Meathands Original video #1: Eddie the Enforcer

Copyrights and comics

As a preview to their upcoming Comic Book Comics #5 by Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey, Evil Twin Comics has posted a 6-page excerpt titled “The Grabbers”. It does an excellent job encapsulating and presenting copyright law and how it has effected the history of comic books. The piece focuses on Superman, so this is a great prequel to that BBC Superman documentary where we see Superman’s creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster a few years after the events depicted at the end of this comic.

The comic also covers the legal shenanigans involving Bob Kane (Batman co-creator), Bill Finger (Batman, Robin and Joker co-creator), Jerry Robinson (Robin and Joker co-creator), Joe Simon (Captain America co-creator), and Jack Kirby (co-creator of Captain America and half of the rest of the Marvel Comics superhero universe).

What’s amazing (and kind of sad) is that a lot of these legal battles are still being fought.

Gotcha

Magic Meathands Original video #5!

Written, directed and edited by Shane Boroomand, with Shane and myself as a pair of wannabe pranksters and Mary Benedict as Prof. Dorfman. Randy Turner on camera.

The car crossing in front was completely unplanned. So whoever that is driving by, great car acting!

Quick reminder: 2 live Magic Meathands shows this weekend!

Archives:
Magic Meathands Original video #4: ManCoaster
Magic Meathands Original video #3: Pants – A Nightmare
Magic Meathands Original video #2: Fun and Games
Magic Meathands Original video #1: Eddie the Enforcer

BBC doc: The Comic Strip Hero (1981)

In 1981, coinciding with the UK release of Superman II starring Christopher Reeve and Gene Hackman, the BBC television series Arena broadcast this great documentary about the origins of Superman and the comics industry in general.

Plenty of good stuff here:

  • great interviews with Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster
  • a look inside the early ’80s offices of DC Comics with then-president Sol Harrison
  • footage of Will Eisner teaching art students who debate whether superheroes are played out
  • a pre-Maus interview with Art Spiegelman (with a GIGANTIC mustache)
  • the wonderful Trina Robbins
  • a young and charming Christopher Reeve
  • Kirk Alyn, the first actor to portray the Man of Steel, telling stories of making the Superman movie serials
  • a sputtering Fredric Wertham insisting comic books are evil, linking Superman to Nazi Germany
  • some hilarious interviews with a sci-fi guy pointing out the lack of hard science in Superman (you think?) and what would need to happen for Clark Kent and Louis Lane to have a baby (!)
  • a little kid with every licensed Superman product imaginable
  • and a frightening final moment with preserved Superman birthday cake.

It’s important to note how much the comics industry has changed since then. This is before Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns, two superhero stories that injected new life into the genre. This was before the publication of Maus, which went on to win a Pulitzer Prize and burst open the preconceived limitations of the medium to a lot of mainstream observers. This is before comic books could be found in bookstores, before manga was introduced to US readers. Before Hollywood’s technology became affordable enough and halfway convincing enough to pull off the special effects depicted in comics. (This was almost 30 years ago?! How?!)

Click through to watch all 5 parts through the power of YouTube: (more…)

Double dose of holiday meat

The holidays are here! If you’re going to survive all the fruit cake, you best stock up on some laughter. Fortunately, the Magic Meathands have you covered with a show-packed finale to 2010!

This weekend, we’re performing twice! Get out your daily planners and make your notes. Here are the details:

And then just like that, the Meathands’ 2010 shows will be over! So don’t miss your chance to see us live in person. (Sheesh, I’m only just now getting used to writing the year on my checks.)

We’ll also post a few more videos, so keep your eyes peeled!

3 times the improvability

Tonight’s show at the Westside Comedy Theater is a special treat because it’s a unique opportunity to catch three different improv groups perform three different forms of improvised comedy. Each group has its own style and type of show, so for an audience, it’s a really cool night out. I always stay after our Magic Meathands set and watch the Waterbrains and Mission IMPROVable after us because I get to learn so much about their improv techniques and also get to laugh a lot.

So, come on out and catch our show! You’re guaranteed a unique theater experience filled with lots of laughter. Pretty great way to kick off the weekend, if you ask me.

In case you forgot, it’s tonight at 8 PM in Santa Monica. For only $10, you get 3 times the laughs! Click here for details.