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JOY’S THAT STING | C.S. Lewis

Oh doe not die, says Donne, for I shall hate
All women so. How false the sentance rings
Women? But in a life made desolate
It is the joys once shared that have the stings.

To take the old walks alone, or not at all,
To order one pint where I ordered two,
To think of, and then not to make, the small
Time-honoured joke (senseless to all but you);

To laugh (oh, one’ll laugh), to talk upon
Themes that we talked upon when you were there,
To make some poor pretence of goings on,
Be kind to one’s old friends, and seem to care,

While no one (O God) through the years will say
The simplest, common word in just your way.

The Spring 08 Issue of Nylon Guys has a great article:

“Comic Relief: Comics aren’t just made by a bunch of nerds. Here, meet five artists with some of the coolest jobs on the planet.“

They interview 5 artists including Alexander Maleev (Daredevil), Paul Pope (Batman:Year 100), Cliff Chiang (Green Arrow / Black Canary), Gabriel Ba (Umbrella Academy), & Ronald Wimberly (Sentences: The Life of MF Grimm). It’s a wide range of artists from all different genres. The article has a photo of each artist as well as a sample of their work. It’s a beautiful thing to see such varied, yet impressive artwork on display right next to each other.

This article, along with those we’ve already seen in other magazines from EW to GQ, verify what many of us already know: comics are cool.

It also helps show off the diversity of comics’ creators & readers: Maleev is Bulgarian, Pope is Caucasian-American, Chiang is Asian-American, Ba is Brazilian, & Wimberly is African-American.

Some highlights:

“In the old days, it was embarrasing to tell people you were a cartoonist because they would automatically assume you were a weirdo or a bum without a job. Now it can get you into nightclubs.” - Paul Pope

“I had a Batman T-shirt, Spiderman pajamas with the slipper feet, I played the hell out of every Marvel Comics-themed arcade game and I rushed home after school every day to watch the Batman series. The iconography hit me like Campbell’s soup cans must’ve hit a young Andy Warhol.” - Ronald Wimberly

“It’s like being in a giant nerdy candy store” - Cliff Chiang (on comic conventions)

Seen any other great articles about comics? COMMENT BELOW.

“I have lived such a wonderful life! I’ve lived enough for two people.” - Charlton Heston

Both will be missed.

Harry Knowles remembers the films behind the icon that is Heston.

The WonderCon 2008 Podcast Panel featured personalities from the podcasts “iFanboy”, “Around Comics”, “Comic Geek Speak”, and “I Read Comics” discussing the state of comics podcasting and comics in general.

One of the highlights was when the moderator asked the panelists what they thought were the most encouraging trends in comics today. Here are their answers, (along with my comments in italics):

1) “More Collected Editions.” Brian Deemer (Comic Geek Speak)

“Books in bookstores, because they reach a much huger audience than the comic book stores ever will. Original graphic novels, cheap trade paperbacks, all of that stuff is very, very, important. I think that’s the future of comics. I think the floppies’ days are numbered. It’s all going to be books in a bookstore.”

Ron Richards (iFanboy): “I love single issues, but we look at success by the number of comics sold on single issues in the top 300, but we don’t see any reporting on how many Amazon is selling or how many Barnes & Noble is selling or how many borders is selling and that’s going to be the real key.”

HP - If the floppies do disappear, this would be a major shift in the financial model of comic book companies… and it would shut down all the “mom & pop” comic book stores. It would make it harder on publishers because it would be more money up front to pay the creators for 144 pages instead of just 22.

And you would reduce two financial models into one - these companies make money twice from the same story - once from the floppies, then again from the collected editions. If this shifts, it’d be like television shows being released straight to DVD in entire seasons. You find that many readers buy the same story twice, much like television viewers will watch it on TV and then buy the DVD.

Most companies offer original graphic novels (OGNs) already, that is, they aren’t collected single comics, but a story meant to be printed all together… Except for (as far as I know) the big two (Marvel & DC). Some companies, like TokyoPop release only OGNs and their sales are through the roof.

I’m not sure this shift will ever take place, but it could be heading that way. I suppose it all depends on if the chain bookstores are ready to embrace the floppies. History has shown they aren’t. It’s a very small profit margin for a large amount of in-and-out inventory and floor space.

2. “The best trend in the past 5 years is the return to quality.” Ron Richards (iFanboy):

“You can put as much as you want out there, but if it’s crap, no one is going to buy it. You can have 17 “X” titles and if only one of them is worth reading, then the whole line is not worth anything. It’s got to be really good creators writing, drawing, & making good comics.”

HP - This, of course, is everything. There are some great comic books out there. And there is some crap out there. I wish that comic readers would be harsher with their purchases. Many readers will buy a book just because of the character or to have a complete set, even if the story sucks. This creates a model where publishers can put out any so-so story and readers will buy it. Money talks and if readers stop buying crappy books, then publishers will stop making them. I find that the more willing you are to explore smaller publishers, Top Shelf, Oni, Image, TokyoPop, the better stories you’ll find.

3. “Borders is doing the comic book store inside a store, folks, that’s the future.” Christopher Neseman (Around Comics)

“The Local Comic Book Store’s I love them, I go every week, but that business does not have a real bright future to it. It comes down to foot traffic. Plain and simple. The internet is cutting into that. Other entertainment forms is cutting into it. The bookstores are really looking like they will be the future of mass market sequential art. I firmly believe that’s where it’s going. And that’s a good thing.”

Ron Richards (iFanboy): “We all just lived through the music revolution of the late 90’s to early 00’s and it’s going to be the same thing. You’re going to see the mom & pop stores go under, unfortunately, which I hate because there’s stores like Isotope here in San Francisco, Meltdown in L.A., Rocketship in Brooklyn, that are just awesome stores , but as soon as the big boxes get involved you’re going to see the small stores go and you’ll see the internet cut in.”

HP - I’ve talked about this on numerous occasions and I completely agree. It is time that comics moved past the geeky little subculture it is and become a media in the forefront. The main reason I got into writing this blog is for this very reason. I want to see the comics I love be loved by millions. In order to break past that stereotypical subculture (whether it lives up to that stereotype or not) the industry needs to prominately settle itself where the majority of people already are - the chain bookstores.

4. “Digital Comics.” Ron Richards (iFanboy)

“I know the digital comics thing is a hot topic and we don’t know how that will play out but you can’t avoid that. The moment someone figures out how to read a cood comic on the iPhone, you’re going to watch it explode”

HP - This is a big “wait and see.” I personally can’t imagine reading comics on an iPhone, or Kindle or any device. But if the quality grows and the size, it may be a very natural transition. I’m excited about those that are experimenting with this. It will be fun to follow.

5. “There’s a lot more diversity in the comics you’re reading.” Josh Flannigan (iFanboy)

“Most comics are still superhero comics, but there’s stories about other things than super heroes. Y: The Last Man was a huge book, and having stories like that and having places like Vertigo and Oni and Image. They’re doing all sort of different things. I love that there are books that you can give to people or recommend to people that can challenge all the expectations of what it is. “Read this comic book.” “Well I don’t like superheroes.” This is a story, it moves you like any movie or any book you’ve ever read. I think that when you wanna talk about growing the whole base of everything like like putting them in bookstores and having collected editions, that’s really important.”

HP - This also plays a huge part in marketing comics to a larger audience. Comics need to be easy to find, easy to access, high quality, and of a diverse amount of genres. A lot of people still consider comics books Superhero-only. But this hasn’t be the case… well, ever. But that still sits at the forefront (in public opinion, and sales). But Josh is right, there are graphic novels out there that rival anything in movies, TV, or books. And more and more publishers & creators are embracing other genre’s, from romantic comedy, to horror, to drama, to action.

6. “I think in mainstream comics, the move to other media has been huge.” Lene Taylor (I Read Comics)

“Especially DC doing the direct to DVD stuff that they finally figured out that they should be making animated movies that aren’t shit.”

HP - This, of course, includes comic book movies on the big screen, not just with the big superhero movies (Spiderman, X-men, Batman) but also the smaller graphic novels being adapted well (V for Vendetta, 300, 30 Days of Night, Stardust, Sin City, A History of Violence) This could also be said of books that cross over into superhero territory & television shows like Heroes. I’m not sure how much these works bring in new readers, but I know with movies like Sin City & 300, where you can pick up the stories easily in collected editions, sales have sky-rocketed.

You can view the entire panel at iFanboy.com.

Jonathan Hickman is the writer of the boldly creative new comic books The Nightly News, Pax Romana, & Transhuman, all out through Image Comics. I believe he is doing a lot to “change the face” of comics by pushing people expectations of what a comic could be. His books merge heavy design, prose & screenwriting techniques, as well as exceptional traditional comic book storytelling.

He also writes a great column for iFanboy.com titled Concentric Circles. Here is some of his great writing advice from a recent column:

“I write stories that I want to read. If at any point in the ‘writing process’ I mentally check out of a story I throw it away and start over. Accept that it’s shit and move on.”

“Here are a couple of other tips that we in the hack writer cabal find useful:
1. Keep it simple.
2. Don’t telegraph. A good story doesn’t turn, it unfolds.
3. Always have a theme.
4. Action should explode – think of this like a Pixies song – soft, soft, loud.
5. When a character becomes interesting, kill them.”

“It also helps to not have an ego about yourself or your work. Remember, it’s just a single story that you drew from what you believe to be an endless well of ideas existing inside of you. Not everyone is going to like your story because it’s not for everyone. Create. Move on.”

You can read the rest of Jonathan’s column at iFanboy here: Concentric Circles

Or you can find out more about his books here: pronea.com

I recently ran across Brian K. Vaughan’s blog on his myspace page and found this fantastic nugget. This is probably the best, most concise advice I’ve ever read about writing comics. A few quotes:

“All that matters is quality.”

“WRITE MORE, DO OTHER STUFF LESS.”

“Every writer has 10,000 pages of shit in them, and the only way your writing is going to be any good at all is to work hard and hit 10,001.”

“Writing is like starting with six hours’ worth of hangover to enjoy a few minutes of feeling drunk.”

“Writer’s block is just another word for video games.”

“‘Go get published, because nothing will make you become a better writer faster than knowing that complete strangers are reading your horrible, horrible writing.’ - Neil Gaiman”

“No two people ever break into our medium in the same way. New WOLVERINE scribe Daniel Way got the attention of Dark Horse Comics editor Diana Schutz when he gave her a copy of a comic that he self-published with the help of a Xeric Grant (if you don’t know what that is, get Googling). BIRDS OF PREY writer Gail Simone wowed major companies with the hilarious online humor column she did at Comic Book Resources. And ULTIMATE HULK VS. WOLVERINE writer Damon Lindeloff hooked up with Marvel after he co-created LOST, one of the hottest television shows of the last ten years. Three drastically different paths to breaking into “the majors,” but all three writers have one thing in common: they were working their asses off while other wannabe creators were sitting at home, waiting for the phone to ring.”

“Stop making excuses and start making art.”

Read the rest of “BKV’s Advice on Writing Comics and Breaking In” here.

“Today is the tomorrow I was so worried about yesterday”

- Anthony Hopkins