The Internet is already abuzz with hype for the New York Comic Con starting today. If you want up-to-the-minute updates, check out Robot 6’s list of NYCC Twitter’s to follow. Choice recommendations indeed, but I would personally add TechGOnzo to the list, as well as Geeks of Doom and their YouTube video channel. Have fun!
Robot 6 is also reporting on the real star of this years show: Scott Pilgrim! Apparently the demand for the new volume is already far outpacing the supply despite it not being “officially” released yet (at least according to most bookstores). I just bought one local comic shop owner’s own copy out from under him, which is probably the last copy in the city. Can I live with the guilt? I think I can.
Discussion over Diamond’s recent raising of their pre-order limit has sparked again over at The Savage Critics and The Beat. Essentially the debate seems to come down to how Diamond chooses what to carry and their seemingly poor aesthetic. MacDonald brings up the appealing idea that maybe we won’t have a flood of crappy zombie books and such other useless comics clogging up the indie channels now, but Hibbs fears that, in the process, we may miss out the “next BONE,” or other such small press/self-published success stories. Is cleaning out the clutter worth potentially driving away the next Strangers in Paradise or, dare I say, Scott Pilgrim? I’m afraid we may be setting a standard that says, unless you’re able to get your foot in the door at a publisher at least as big as Image or Dark Horse or maybe IDW and Oni then you should just turn around and go home. Considering how badly comics needs new talent to keep things fresh – as the big guys keep eating up talent like Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction – I think that may be a poor standard to set.
In an interesting turn of events, ICv2 is reporting that graphic novel sales actually rose last year while manga sales contracted. Who would have thought? Of course, most of that GN growth is spurred on directly by The Dark Knight and Watchmen hype, but its still surprising to see western comics doing better than manga. Maybe the manga fad is finally dying down now that teenagers have something new to be crazy about?
The School Library Journal picked up a story on a “Graphic Novels in Education” conference held at Fordham Universtiy. The conference itself is interesting and the story led me to The Graphic Classroom – an interesting and worthwhile read on its own – but what really cought my attention was this:
Throughout the daylong event, there was much debate about what the graphic novel/comic book format should be called. Many said the term “graphica” was too closely linked to “erotica.”
First of all, this is only the second time I’ve ever heard the term “graphica” used, the first being in the debut of the Graphic Novel Reporter newsletter. When did that happen? Has the term gained traction and I just kind of missed it somehow? Either way, my kneejerk reaction was “wow, what a stupid made up word!” After thinking about it though, its really not bad, and its kind of for the very reason that some people don’t like it: it sounds like “erotica.” Not erotica specifically really, but that “a” sound that every proper name for an art form seems to have: cinemA, theAtre, literAture. Its the most sophisticated word I’ve heard used, at least phonetically, to describe comics, but it still can’t shake the unfortunately negative connotation of the word “graphic” in our language. So maybe its not perfect, but its not a bad attempt to solve the name problem that the medium has. Who knows? Maybe one day the gained prominance of “graphica” as a respectable art will change the connotation of its root.
Finally, blog@Newsarama is getting ready for one of the most anticipated (by me at the very least) comics of year: Neil Gaiman’s two-issue Batman story “Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?”
Gaiman, one of the handful of creators that one can easily trace the current graphic novel boom back to, returning to do any comics work of any kind is a pretty exciting prospect, for both the readers and the company publishing him, particularly since he’s become more and more a prose a writer and less and less of a comics writer over the past few years.
He’s also coming off a huge week personally, in which one of his latest prose works won the Newbery award—DC couldn’t have asked for a better time to release a new Gaiman project.
That he’s working on a perennially hot character (Batman), that he’s working with a fairly hot artist (Andy Kubert), that he’s following the work of another hot and critically acclaimed writer (Grant Morrison) and that his story is being positioned as a spiritual sequel to a classic superhero comic by the man who’s probably most widely recognized as the greatest living comics writer (Alan Moore)…well, like I said, this should be a pretty exciting comic book release.
In prepation for next week’s release of the first half of the story, the blog looks back at Gaiman’s previous work on Batman, including Batman’s minor role in Black Orchid and Gaiman’s contribution to Batman: Black and White. So, if you plan on picking up the issue – and you should – go do your homework! Its part of being a good comics reader.
- j.
