Last spring at Stumptown Comics Fest Jeff Parker of Marvel Comicswondered whether weekly print comics would continue in the future. He theorized that monthlies will eventually be entirely online, and the only tangible printings will be TPBs or anthologies. While I haven't seen mainstream comics changing to weekly web versions, I notice that two of the notable Graphic Novels from 2009 are exactly this: web comics compiled and printed by larger publishers.
Goats: Infinite Typewriters by Jonathan Rosenberg is a nicely bound paperback printing of a couple hundred of the webcomics. It's the first in a trilogy, followed by The Corndog Imperative and The Showcase Showdown. While it's a collection of strips, they fit nicely together to tell ongoing stories of the origin of Diablo the Satanic chicken, his Machiavellian offspring Oliver, and other various humans, aliens and semi-intelligent animals. The plots usually involve God, Satan, Robert Goulet and some (cartoon) violence and (real) swearing. I'd have to say there was a laugh in every comic, which is a lot better record than anything printed in the newspapers today. My 12-year-old son, however, told me that Goats is not appropriate for younger kids, and while he meant his younger brother, I'd say that any adult should read it before giving Goats to a kid younger than 17.
Bayou follows a young African-American girl in 1930’s segregated Mississippi, who sets off on an adventure in a fantastical South to save her father, who is wrongly accused of a crime.
The crime is suspected kidnapping of Lee's young white friend Lily, and we see from Lee's point of view that the girl was eaten by a fantastical monster called Cotton-eye Joe.
Bayou has many great qualities. First, there's the art, which translates well to both the web and the page. The drawing are simple, without being cartoony -- unless it's called for by the story. The colors are well used to support the characters emotions and settings.
Then, there's the story itself. Love deals with the events frankly, whether it's looking for a dead boy in the swamp, killing a chicken for dinner, or two friends enjoying time together in a field. He weaves in the issues of racism and poverty without being preachy. The characters feel authentic.
And finally, the best part of Bayou is seeing the story from Lee's point of view. We don't know for sure whether the monsters of Bayou and Cotton-eye Joe are real or not, but they're real to her. When she sees sprites under the swampwater she can't believe her eyes, but because it's coming from this young girl it helps us believe them all the more.
Bayou is the first Zudawebcomic to make it to print and DC plans to release more print versions of original Zuda webcomics later this year.
In fifth grade I discovered the Finn Family Moomintroll books. By Finnish author Tove Jansson, these books tell odd stories about human-sized hippo-like characters who experience magic and nature in a world slightly like ours. Or, maybe more like Finland of the 30s and 40s. From the happy-go-lucky episodes of the "Finn Family Moomintroll," to the alluring private adventures Moomin experiences in the "Moominland Midwinter," to the surreal and almost frightening epic of the "Comet in Moominland," I was enraptured by the stories. I must have re-read each book at least three times, spending hours one summer in the hammock, while immersed in the frigid tale of the squirrel with the bushy tale who froze to death (or not!?). I couldn't get enough of the characters, and I was amazed both by how many people I met had never heard of the Moomintrolls, and also whenever I found an artifact from the world of Tove Jansson.
So, imagine my surprise when I was at Powell's books a couple years ago and saw "Moomin Book One: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip." I bought it for my kids (yeah, sure) but read it myself. How could these comics have never crossed my path until published by Drawn & Quarterly Press in 2006? According two the description on Powell's website:
"Tove Jansson is revered around the world as one of the foremost children's authors of the twentieth century for her illustrated chapter books regarding the magical worlds of her creation, the Moomins. The Moomins saw life in many forms but debuted to its biggest audience ever on the pages of the world's largest newspaper, the London Evening News, in 1954. The strip was syndicated in newspapers around the world with millions of readers in forty countries. Moomin Book One is the first volume of Drawn & Quarterly's publishing plan to reprint the entire strip drawn by Jansson before she handed over the reins to her brother Lars in 1960. This is the first time the strip will be published in any form in North America and will deservedly place Jansson among the international cartooning greats of the last century."
The strips have a funny revisionist quality, sort of like the Superman stories in the Sunday comics in the 40's. The characters and the drawings are the same, but the situations are different from the "real world," and the strips don't attempt to achieve a storyline like the novels. Instead they follow the antics of the Moomins as they deal with situations like a new maid, or how they react to living in a hotel on the Riviera (apparently the Moomins have been doing all right for themselves!). But, both people who are well-versed with the Finn Family Moomintrolls, and new readers will like the stories, although the comics are really only a gateway to the best stuff: the books.
When I bought the book I only saw "The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip." When I finished reading the strips I closed the book and gazed at the cover for a moment before I realized it also said: "Book One." How many more strips are there? Well, the people at Drawn & Quarterly are releasing "Book Four" in June 2009, and I hope there are many more. Click here to see a preview of "The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip Book Four." (Oh, and click here for a preview of another Tove Jansson book, "The Book About Moomin, Mymble and Little My.")
Comics on Comics, hosted by Juan-Manuel Rocha, manages to consistently gather together extremely informed panels and never, with the exception of Comic-Con or Wizard World, have I heard such geeky language centered around the medium. All of this with a set of three comedians. I love it.
I remember the first time I ever saw a Tintin comic. I was probably in first or second grade, and my grandmother had given me a subscription to Humpty Dumpty Magazine (with a tagline of "for little children"). Amidst the easy reader stories and sometimes confusing poetry and projects I spotted a crisply-drawn story of a young reporter and his white dog treking through the mountains of Tibet. I couldn't keep my eyes off the pages, but unfortunately the story was serialized and I would have to wait another month for the next installment. I remember gathering the
Humpty Dumpties as they showed up in the mail, wrapped in paper like a brown paper bag, and flipping through the pages looking for the distinctive comic strip. I don't think I ever finished the story of Tintin in Tibet in Humpty Dumpty because the subscription ran out, and my grandmother switched us to National Wildlife. The photos were nice, but no Tintin, dang it! So I kept the short stack under my bed and would re-read the Tintin storyline as he learned about stupahs (pass on the right!), searched for his friend Tchang, and had close calls with the Abominable Snowman.
Somehow my mom learned that I liked Tintin, and she bought me a hardcover copy of The Red Sea Sharks, which I still have today. That was published by Methuen, a British publisher, and had the price in pounds and pence, so I guess that in the early 70's Tintin was still fairly rare.
Over time I got more of the stories and continued to devour them, reserving a special place on my bookshelf for the oversize volumes. Later I visited France and picked up copies of "Le Secret de la Licorne" (The Secret of the Unicorn) and "Le Tresor de Rackham le Rouge" (Red Rackham's Treasure) and read the stories in the original language, which was when I discovered Thompson and Thomson weren't their real names, but rather Dupond and Dupont (Likewise, Snowy's French name is Milou, and Professor Calculus is Tournesol, which means Sunflower in French).
But my crowning Tintin discovery was a volume I found in a Virgin Megastore in Marseille on another trip to France. Everyone knew that in the US there had been 21 Tintin stories released, but in France they had also published Tintin Au Congo (Tintin in the Congo) which depicted the natives of the Congo, a French territory, in a racist and demeaning way. But this volume I found contained something more rare than that.
It was called Tintin en Noir et Blanc, and it contained all nine of the original Tintin stories drawn by Hergé for Le Petit Vingtième, a weekly comic insert found in the Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle ("The Twentieth Century") in the 1930's. The stories are
Les Adventures De Tintin Reporter Du "Petit Vingtieme" Au Pays Des Soviets
(Tintin, Reporter for the Petit Vingtieme among the Soviets)
The comics are in black and white and in a small 4"x5" format but they are in hardcover, and exactly as drawn by Hergé the first time he told the Tintin stories.
I hear you exclaim: "The first time?" Yes, it's a wonderful discovery. When Hergé (Georges Remi, Hergé is the French pronunciation of his initials reversed: RG) first drew for the Petit Vingtieme he was only 22, and he would have to draw a two page comic each week. The first ten pages of Tintin Au Pays Des Soviets is pretty rough, pretty soon he was drawing and writing Tintin consistently, and the boy reporter took on the features that most of the world would recognize: his slightly bulbous nose, his trench coat, the occasional pratfalls, and of course the distinctive cowlick. Hergé continued to draw Tintin in the newspaper supplement until the Germans invaded Belgium in World War II. After the war Europe was in chaos, and Hergé also had personal and professional troubles, but he eventually got himself back to work and his popularity was enough to create a workshop where the books were re-drawn and colorized...all except "Au Pays Des Soviets."
So, when I found a copy of Tintin Among the Soviets I was really excited. This was like the Holy Grail of Tintin comics (at least, of the ones I could afford), so I purchased it for 400 Francs -- about $60! -- which was a lot for an unemployed backpacker traveling Europe, and hauled it around in my pack for a month or so until I shipped it home to Portland, Oregon at another considerable expense.
For years I'd pull out the books and read them, but when I tried to get my kids interested in Tintin I also wanted to show them the original books. They were nonplussed, and I couldn't figure out why until I realized that my kids couldn't read French. So, I read the books to them, or read them myself, and then put them away.
Then, this year, I got another surprise. I was at the library and saw a full-size printing of the black and white Tintin in the Land of the Soviets. Apparently it was finally translated and printed in English (but in England) in 1999. The copy I had was published in the US in 2007.
As a Tintin story the book is pretty linear. Tintin goes to Russia to report on "foreign affairs." Hergé doesn't have a subtle view of the Soviets, and it shows in the story. The Soviet government is worried that a reporter will tell a slanted story about their country...which is that the rulers are living high on the hog while the people are starving. To stop him from reporting, Tintin is shot at, jailed, tortured, and bombed, but he always pulls through and makes monkeys out of the Soviets. Eventually he catches a plane and a train home to Brussels and the readers of the Petit Vingtiems are waiting at the station to give him a heroic homecoming.
It's a fun read, but it's more interesting to see how Tintin started out, and how strongly Hergé's political views influenced his stories -- at least at the beginning of his career.
Here are two pretty good sites for Tintin information: The Cult of Tintin at Tintinologist, and apparently Steven Spielberg is working on a Tintin movie to be released in 2011.
Here are some pocket reviews of the comics I picked up at Stumptown Comics Fest 2009.
Onion Head Monster: Attacks by Paul Friedrich ($10, b&w, at onionheadmonster.com).
Onion Head Monster should be syndicated in the daily comics. Stylistically rendered in black and white, each page has action and a laugh, which is more than most people ask of Dagwood, Ziggy and Mutts.
This volume tells the story of Onion Head Monster's vacation in Ant City, his path of destruction, and the happy resolution. It also includes a reprinting of an unauthorized parody "Onion Head Monster Gin Drinker," which has to be read to be understood.
PolyNothing by Joshua Kemble ($2, b&w, at www.joshuakemble.com)
I spoke to Josh while he was at his booth. He had a couple other interesting books, but with so many comics to choose from, I was targeting items $5 and under.
I chose PolyNothing for $2, which is the beginning of a semi-autobiographical story about losing his father to cancer and "confronting the ghosts of one's past."
The way he renders the "ghosts" is really cool, and the sparse dialog gives impact to the story.
Neon Girl #1 by Dennis Pacheco ($3, b&w, at www.pigeonholepress.net)
Neon Girl has no hidden agenda, except perhaps the color of Atom Girl's underwear. Oh, wait... that's clearly shown on the cover.
This comic revels in a slam-bang, no holds barred cat fight between Neon Girl and a jealous Atom Girl who suspects the other of stealing her boyfriend Red-eye.
Pacheco does a great job of both capturing and spoofing super hero women in action. The art is clean and exciting (heh).
Emily & the Intergalactic Lemonade Stand by Ian Smith and Tyson Smith ($12.95, color, at www.slavelabor.com)
Lemonade Stand is a nicely-printed slick book marketed toward kids or adults who watch the Nickelodeon channel. It portrays a love triangle between Emily, who loves her robot Juicer and wants to buy a pony, a boy named Jace, who also loves robots, but cares nothing for ponies, and Daisy who wants to steal Juicer so she can have Jace's affections.
I had some problems with the story in that they didn't explain how Emily got Juicer, but maybe that was in an earlier volume. Overall, the art is really great, and the story was entertaining enough.
Maintenance #2 written by Jim Massey, art by Robbi Rodriguez ($9.95, b&w, at www.onipress.com)
At Stumptown 2008 I purchased a copy of Maintenance #1, and both my son and I ate it up. So, when I spotted the Oni Press table this year, I knew I had to get the next volume.
Part "Red Dwarf," and part "Men in Black," Massey & Rodriguez document the troubles and antics of Doug and Manny, two maintenance men who work in a super secret evil scientist facility called Terromax.
The art has the occasional hint of Wally Wood at EC comics.
Zeek ..the Martian Geek Full Color Special by Brian Cattapan ($5, color, at cattapancomics.com)
I asked the artist how he published the full color special of Zeek...the Martian and he admitted he ran it off on a color printer, which must have been expensive!
Zeek was sent to Earth to find women, but is now just trying to have a good time. There were some laffs, and the art was amusing, if not polished.
I picked up some Free! strips by Nick DeAngelo (Free! leochicken.deviantart.com).
Free is always a good price!
Herman the Manatee Volume 1 by Jason Vialo ($3? b&w, at www.manateepower.com)
This small volume has a series of strips about Herman, a manatee who has been hit by speedboats 257 times. The art was nice, although the jokes were a little repetitive.
You already know what FCBD is right? No? Well, Free Comic Book Day is pretty much what it sounds like: a dream come true. You head out to a comic book store, and if they're participating then they'll have some free (yes! totally free) comics that have the FCBD logo on them. If you want the full details, click here for the FAQ.
There's no catch, except it's a gimmick staged by comic book publishers and distributors to get people hooked on reading comics. So, if you're already hooked on comics you're in!
On the second day of the Stumptown Comics fest I went to two exciting panels, both featuring Dark Horse Comics editor Diana Shutz. I considered the talks exciting because they both dealt with bringing some realism into the comics industry. The first was “Teaching Comics,” and it focused on learning the nuts and bolts of making comics, while the second was “Editing for Comics,” and it explained the role of the editor in large or small productions.
The “Teaching Comics” panel was hosted by Diana, Robyn Chapman from the Center for Cartoon Studies, as well as Alec Longstreth and Jesse Wrecklaw. They talked about ways to teach a class when asked “can you talk to my class about comics?” Shutz handed out her course description for a class she teaches at PCC called "Art 217: Undertanding Comics Art". Reklaw also handed out a sample sheet from his course “Making Comics Art” that described and showed types of shots (medium, close-up, long shot, establishing shot..), emanata (the iconic lines you see coming out of people in comics, eg: speed lines, emotions, motion), and a set of example facial expressions. They also gave out some secrets if you want to teach comics: keep an open mind about doodling in class, urge your students to tell their own stories, and always finish your workshops with a publication. As Diana Shutz said, comics are “a space to use your imagination.” Visit teachingcomics.org for more ideas on teaching comics to students of all ages.
If the “Teaching” panel inspired anyone to go out and make a comic, they may have missed the “Editing for Comics” panel, which brought everyone back down to reality. The talk featured Diana Shutz, former DC editor Bob Schreck, and was hosted by Jeff Parker, a writer from Marvel.
Ms. Shutz likened editors at Dark Horse to project managers: they stay on the story from inspiration to publication. She said she’s always editing for quality, and mentioned that she’d recently scrapped a the first print run of Larry Marder’s Beanworld reprint because, after 20 years out of print, and with a meticulous restoration job on the original scans, the printer had done a poor job on the printing.
Mr. Schreck mentioned some of the other tasks he’d had to do while editing for DC. One time he was having problems with an artist getting the pages in on time, and he ended up calling the artists mother to get the 8 pages of black and white drawings that were holding up production. He also talked about when Comico went under. DC had partnered with Comico, and they had original art from some creators. Schreck had to tell people they were out of a job, but he said he worked hard to retrieve their original art for the artists.
A couple secrets may have been given away in this seminar, too. Jeff Parker wondered if monthly comics will go away in the next couple of years due to costs. He theorized that they monthlies will eventually be entirely online, and the only tangible printings will be TPBs or anthologies. And Shutz told the ultimate secret: how to get into comics. She said: don’t write up a typed manuscript, or an outline. Instead, make an actual comic. If you can’t draw, partner with someone who can, it will show the editors that you can work with people. She gave a brief summary of her assistant Brendan who took her class, started a comic review website, and worked to create some comics. Now he’s working at Dark Horse.
Stumptown Comics Fest isn't a comic book show. At a comic book show it's all about filling out a collection, and trying to pick up a reasonably cheap copy of the new issue of Dark Avengers, or whatever's hot at the moment (remember Danger Girl?). And Stumptown isn't a comic convention either. A convention is where the fans get the chance to show their adoration to the creator in person, rather than just with their dollars.
No, the Stumptown Comics Fest is more like a chance for creators to talk amongst themselves, while sharing their creative experience with the fans. It's a place where anyone who has the guts can put their own comic on display and see how's it's received by people on a face-to-face perspective. The front of the program describes the Fest as "Workshops, Creators, Awards, Contests and hundreds of other things that astound the imagination!"
I spent two days at the Fest ($10 for a weekend pass), with my kids tagging along. The headliner for the show was Bone creator Jeff Smith, which was a magnet for munchkins of all sorts. The organizers even put together a sheet detailing which talks and comics were appropriate for which ages (although they unfortunately didn't include it in the program so I didn't find it until late Sunday). So, here are my notes from the talks I attended.
The first talk I attended was the "Spotlight on Jeff Smith", moderated by the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund's Charles Brownstein. Smith has a new comic he's working on called RASL, about a guy who discovers how to slide between parallel universes and uses this to become an inter dimensional art thief. Of course the audience was there to hear about Bone, especially the younger members. Bone is Smith's 12-year magnum opus. He created, scripted and drew 55 issues (1350 pages!) of the story of Fone Bone and his cousins as they accompany a girl named Thorn on an epic quest and eventually save the world.
Smith said that he didn't draw Bone as a kid's book, but he was surprised after binding the 55 issues into a single paperback and self publishing it, it became the single most requested book at libraries by younger readers. The book is so thick that when Smith made a special hard-cover edition, the only publisher that could handle it was one that dealt with bible bindings. Scholastic heard how popular Bone was and acquired the rights to re-release Bone, publishing it in multiple countries. Smith says that in Angouleme, France, or in Mumbai, India, his comic readers are the same throughout the world. He added that thanks to Scholastic there's enough weight behind the book to have a faithful movie adaptation.
He spoke how the three cousins, Fone Bone, Phoney Bone, and Smiley Bone are archetypes also found in other stories: Harpo, Chico and Groucho; Jerry, George and Kramer; and also Mickey, Donald and Goofy. He also answered a question from my son on the tone of the book: why it started out light and then got much darker in the second half. Smith explained that he wanted to hook the reader into the story, and as Thorn matured, she had to confront darker and more "real" problems. When Smith started to write Bone he already had the plot for all 55 issues outlined on paper. Check out boneville.com for more info.
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