Conan's Greatest Adventure

McSweeney's to Publish Children's Books by Matt Furie and Lisa Hanawalt

McSweeney's, one of the best publishers around, has started a children's book imprint called McMullens, and two of the first books will be by comic book creators Matt Furie (Boy's Club) and Lisa Hanawalt (I Want You).  This is neat.

Furie's book is called The Night Riders, and is described as this: "a nocturnal frog and mouse awake at midnight, share a salad of lettuce and bugs and strike out on an epic dirtbike adventure toward the sunrise. As the friends make their way from forest to bat cave to ghost town to ocean to shore and beyond, new friends are discovered, a huge crab is narrowly avoided, and a whole world is revealed."

Hanawalt is illustrating Benny's Brigade, which is written by Arthur Bradford and described as this: "Sisters Elsie and Theo are at recess one day when they see a nut wiggling on the ground. When they gently crack the shell, out pops Benny—the world's smallest, chattiest, and most gentlemanly walrus. When Benny tells the girls that he misses his home in the sea, they build him a milk-carton boat, and send Benny sailing, along with an adventurous band of three slugs. Together, Benny's Brigade (as they call themselves) begin an adventure to a truck-sized island paradise, avoiding the salt water as much as they can. Slugs don't like salt."

You can subscribe to all of the McMullens books here, or pre-order these two books from Amazon: The Night Riders (coming May 2012) and Benny's Brigade (coming June 2012).

Sean Witzke interviews Brandon Graham

Sean's a very smart guy, and Brandon is one of my favorite comic book makers, so I totally dug this interview.  I particularly enjoyed the "comics creator melee mode" section, since one of the best parts of Brandon's own blog is his writing about other people's art.  Go here to read the interview.

Defiant, Marvel, and the Plasm Lawsuit

Jim Shooter, former head of Marvel and Valiant, also started a comics company called Defiant Comics back in the 90s.  I liked a couple of their comics (they only made a few before going out of business), including their initial ongoing series, called "Warriors of Plasm."  David Lapham drew it.

I remember hearing at the time that the book was initially going to be called just "Plasm," but that they changed it because of a lawsuit with Marvel.  Shooter has discussed this lawsuit briefly since then:

We also, when we first started out, were sued by Marvel Comics. When we announced Plasm, they claimed they had a character that that infringed upon. What they actually had was a name registered in the U.K. trademark with intent to use. They ended up suing us. We ended up fighting that out in court. It cost us over $300,000 in court. We won, hands down. The judge scolded them at the them [sic], because he knew they were just using it as a business weapon. Trying to use the court to squelch a competitor.

Especially since, to them, I was a dangerous competitor. The last time I had started a company, I had taken a chunk out of their market share. They lost and lost big. But when you're a small company and somebody bleeds $300,000 out of you -- also 120 hours of my time, a similar amount of time for Winston [Fowlkes] who was the publisher.

-Jim Shooter, former editor-in-chief of Defiant Comics, October 2000

A spurious trademark infringement lawsuit against us by Marvel helped speed our demise. They lost, but it cost us over $300,000 to defend ourselves. Bleeding that much money out of a small start-up is lethal. Their true mission was accomplished.

-Jim Shooter, June 2011

Here's my own comment on this situation:  Jim Shooter should not blame Marvel for killing Defiant; he should blame his own lawyers.  Any lawyer who allows a case to go to trial where, even if he or she wins, the litigation costs would run the client out of business is not a good lawyer, no matter how skilled he or she is at arguing in court.

April 3, 2011 Updates to the "Best Comics of 2010" Lists

I'm collecting all of the online "Best Comics of 2010" lists so that I can later aggregate them into a single meta-list.  Here is the final group of lists that I will use for the meta-list:

6'7" and Green
About.com (manga readers' choice awards)
AltDaily
BookGerms  
Comic Book Resources: Comics Should Be Good! (Greg Burgas)
Comic Book Therapy
Comic Panelist 
Comics - On The Ration
Exquisite Things
Extra Sequential (podcast)
Going to New Mexico
GraphiContent  
Inside Pulse: Comics Nexus
Inside Pulse: Comics Nexus (Aaron Glazer) 
Lordrexfear
Motion Pictures Comics (part one | part two)
Novels Blogs
Playback:stl 
Poopsheet Foundation (best mini-comics and small press titles)
Septagon Studios Comic Blog
Sequential Tart
Sidebar (podcast)
Sparkplug Comic Books
The Long and Shortbox Of It!
Three Trees Studios  
Warren Peace Sings the Blues 

The complete list of "Best Comics of 2010" lists is here: http://iloverobliefeld.blogspot.com/2010/12/best-comics-of-2010-lists.html

January 22, 2011 Updates to the "Best Comics of 2010" Lists

I'm collecting all of the online "Best Comics of 2010" lists so that I can later aggregate them into a single meta-list.  Every time I update the master list, I've been posting all of the new lists in an update post.  Now that the season for lists is winding down, I think this will be the last update post for a while.  Here are the new additions:

13 Minutes
A Comic Book Blog
Big Red Robot
Brian Evinou
Buffalog
Carve Your Name Comics
Comic Book Bin
Comic Book Jesus: Extra Sequential (podcast) 
Creative Loafing 
Death to the Universe 
DHarbin!
Graphic Universe
IGN Blog 
Inkstuds (critics picks) (podcast)
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: The Hero Sandwich  
Meltcast (part 1 | part 2) (podcast)
Meltcast: Aaron Brewer
Meltcast: Sam Humphries
Meltcast: Caleb Monroe
Meltcast: Chris Rosa
Piki Geek
Project Coe
Secret Identity (podcast)
The Awesomenomicon (part 1 | part 2)
The Comics Reporter (list of lists)
The Economist: More Intelligent Life (Dan Nadel)
The Nerdiest Kids 
Trosper and Ignatz Meet Gentle Giant
Truest Word Ever Spoke
USA Today: PopMatters (best ongoing comics) 
X-Ray Spex (best comic book)
X-Ray Spex (best graphic novels)
X-Ray Spex (best books about comics)
 
The complete list of "Best Comics of 2010" lists is here: http://iloverobliefeld.blogspot.com/2010/12/best-comics-of-2010-lists.html

January 12, 2011 Updates to the "Best Comics of 2010" Lists

I'm collecting all of the online "Best Comics of 2010" lists so that I can later aggregate them into a single meta-list.  Every Wednesday I add all of the new lists, and here are this week's additions:

4thletter!
American Library Association (best comics for teens)
Ambrosia (best comics published in the United States)
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Collected Comics Library (best collected editions)
Comic Book Resources: Robot 6 (most criminally ignored comics)
Comic Book Resources: Robot 6 (creator survey)
Comics from Mars
Electric Ant Zine: Ryan Sands
Fangoria (best horror comics)
Forbidden Planet International: Richard 
Forbidden Planet International: Wim
Hypergeek (best original graphic novels)
iFanboy (best new comics)
iFanboy (best single issues)
iFanboy (best collected editions)
iFanboy (best new non-superhero comic book series)
Inkstuds (podcast)
King Trash: Michael DeForge
Maybe Blogging Will Help: John Porcellino
Nerdage (best comic book series)
Paul Gravett
Politics and Prose  
Seen All Over
The Cultural Gutter  
Wolkin's House of Chicken and Waffles (and Comics!)

The complete list of "Best Comics of 2010" lists is here: http://iloverobliefeld.blogspot.com/2010/12/best-comics-of-2010-lists.html

January 5, 2011 Updates to the "Best Comics of 2010" Lists

I'm collecting all of the online "Best Comics of 2010" lists so that I can later aggregate them into a single meta-list.  Every Wednesday I add all of the new lists, and here are this week's additions:

About.com  (critics' choices for best manga)
Anime Diet (best manga)
Articulate Nerd 
Attentiondeficitdisorderly
Awesomed By Comics (podcast)
Beaucoup Kevin
Berkeley Place 
Candy or Medicine (best mini-comics)
Comic Attack: Bento Bako Weekly (best manga)
Comic Book Resources
Comic Book Resources: Comics Should Be Good!
Comic Book Resources: Robot 6 
ComicsAlliance 
Comics-and-More 
Comics Worth Reading
Entertainment Weekly: Shelf Life
Fearing Americans 
Fourcast! (podcast)
Geekscape
House to Astonish (podcast)
iFanboy (podcast)
Las Vegas Weekly
Learning How To Swim  
Madinkbeard (best print comics)
Madinkbeard (best webcomics)
Manga Bookshelf (best manga)
Manga Out Loud (best manga) (podcast)
Manga Widget (best manga)
Meltcast (podcast)
Multiversity Comics 
National Public Radio: Monkey See
Nerdage
New Westminster Public Library
Panel Patter (part 1 | part 2)
PING! 
Publishers Weekly (critics' poll)
Publishers Weekly (best manga)
read/RANT! 
Thirteen Minutes
Topless Robot 
Unwinnable
Wait, What? (part 1 | part 2) (podcast)
Wednesday's Haul

The complete list of "Best Comics of 2010" is here: http://iloverobliefeld.blogspot.com/2010/12/best-comics-of-2010-lists.html

December 29, 2010 Updates to the "Best Comics of 2010" Lists

I'm collecting all of the online "Best Comics of 2010" lists so that I can later aggregate them into a single meta-list.  Here are this week's additions to the lists:

Alternate Cover 
Ashcan Press 
Comics-and-More (best manga)
Comics-and-More (best superhero comics)
Comikaze
ComiXology: This Ship is Totally Sinking 
Dork Forty
G4tv.com
Geekadelphia 
Girls Read Comics Too 
Joshua Malbin 
Manga Worth Reading (best manga)
Manga Xanadu (best manga)
Memories Fade 
MTV Geek 
Multiversity Comics (best issue)
Multiversity Comics (best mini-series)
Multiversity Comics (best new series)
Multiversity Comics (best ongoing series)
Ninthart 
Suicide Girls Blog 
Techland 
Tederick Tumbles 
The Alternative Chronicle 
The Comic Book Times 
The Institute of Idle Time 
The SF Site: Nexus Graphica (part one) (part two)
Wired.com: Alt Text (best new webcomics)
Wordnerdy 

The complete list of "Best Comics of 2010" is here: http://iloverobliefeld.blogspot.com/2010/12/best-comics-of-2010-lists.html

December 22, 2010 Updates to the "Best Comics of 2010" Lists

I'm collecting all of the online "Best Comics of 2010" lists so that I can later aggregate them into a single meta-list.  Here are this week's additions to the lists:

Austin American-Statesman
Comic Book Resources: When Words Collide  
ComicsAlliance
Flavorwire
Forbidden Planet
Four Colours & The Truth (best mini-series)
Four Colours & The Truth (best ongoing comic series)
Four Colours & The Truth (best original graphic novels)
Good Comics for Kids (best comics for kids)
IGN
MTV Splashpage  
Multiversity Comics (most overlooked title)
Popdose
Techland (best graphic novels)
The Daily Cross Hatch  
The Weekly Crisis  
Village Voice

The complete list of "Best Comics of 2010" is here: http://iloverobliefeld.blogspot.com/2010/12/best-comics-of-2010-lists.html