Pencil Fight 8

Working at Copacetic Comics today in Pittsburgh. Bill has an impressive selection of mini-comics and zines from the last 20 years or so on sale. What's amazing to me is how many of these folks are no longer making work. I mean, it takes so much effort *just* to draw a comic book - let alone publish it - and then push it along so that it finds it's way to this store. Some of the folks in the small press section are still making work - some very successfully - but most are not doing any work at all anymore. The ratio must be about 100 to 1. It's kind of depressing. What's more depressing is the other day this woman came in who works for a big newspaper in town. "I'm doing a story on so and so who does the mini-comic called such and such", she said "and I want to talk to people who have read it." She explained to me that this person was a friend of hers and that she wanted to write about this friend's work for the paper. A big local newspaper. I told her that no one has bought that particular small press endeavor. Zero sales. She seemed surprised. I said "do you know who Shia LaBeouf is? Young Indiana Jones? Well, he makes comic books and they don't sell either. Just saying."

Pencil Fight 7

My current favorite "forward thinking" cartoonists. This list is by no means complete - just thinking out loud.

Connor Willumsen

Joe Kessler

Warren Craghead

Angie Wang

Jocelyn Gravot

Michael Olivo

Dash Shaw

Andrew White

Bill Boichel

Derik Badman

Oliver East

Simon Moreton

Blaise Larmee

Jason Overby

Aidan Koch

Julie DelPorte

Yokoyama

DeForge

CF

Negron

Lala Albert

Pencil Fight 6

Tired of rebel origin stories - the beats - the hippies - hollywood in early 70s - punk rock in america in early 80s - comic books aren't for kids anymore mid 80s - small press revolution in comics in 90s - fort thunder/kramers paradigm shift in 00s - let's stop celebrating the same touchdown over and over again - "we were young and now we're old"  - Tell me a new story - 

Pencil Fight 5

Narrative Collapse
The bits and pieces era

Lisa Hanawalt new book
Michael Deforge collection
Jim Rugg Supermag
CF Mere, Sediment

More and more "bits and pieces" books. Is it because of twitter and reduced attention spans, both in the readers and in the creators? Is era of 300 page single story graphic novel sort of over? Was that Blankets era just an attempt to gain respect for comics? Ten years after Blankets it seems like the opposite - everyone doing less long form works and instead doing "bits and pieces" books.

Pencil Fight 4

Read this essay first and then come back http://comixcube.com/2013/06/17/i-cant-fold-i-need-gold-i-reup-i-reload-product-must-be-sold-to-you/

In the comments Dan Morris wrote this:
"This bring me to my next point, I think a lot of that has to do with lack of a wall between critics and cartoonists in this scene. Now granted there is a lot of great writing writing on comics right now. I can’t deny that. To me though, there’s a lot of suspect writing on comics because of the close relationships between critics, publishers, and cartoonists. I don’t think that its healthy when the major voice of comics criticism owned by one of the two biggest publishers in alt/art comics and whose editor in chief is a publisher for a smaller art/alt comics boutique. Ultimately, publishers are going to put out the work that they most believe in deserves publishing and eventually that work will have to stand on its own. Yet having the publisher put out the reviews of this work doesn’t say “We’re trying to be an honest critical voice here”. It says promotional piece to me. Same with when critics are friends with cartoonists and vice versa. That’s seems even more even more incestuous to me. How are critics supposed to provide honest and through analysis of material when they’re buddies with the person making it? No one wants to speak poorly of friends so how is an art form supposed to grow when there is glowing praise coming from every direction?"
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I agree with this. However, I have been thinking recently that I'm most interested in writing about the FORM of comics by specifically writing about my friends who make comics precisely because through knowing them and knowing their intentions and through what we talk about I might be able to provide insights that the casual reader or even interested fan may not pick up on. So, for me, it is less about "speaking poorly" about friends who are cartoonists and more about speaking enthusiastically and from a sincere place in an attempt to further discussion of the FORM.

(I left this as a comment on the original blogpost - just posting it here for myself)

Pencil Fight 3

List to give to friends who don't read comics - stand alone works only - were not serialized first

Lint 

Asterios Polyp
Fun Home

City of Glass

Wilson

Travel

Troublemakers

Marble Season

Storeyville (of course I'm gonna recommend myself)

New School

Bottomless Bellybutton

The Whale

The Blonde Woman (was serialized online - but was composed as a complete work)

Watchmen, Maus, Love and Rockets, Jimmy Corrigan, Dark Knight Returns, Batman Year One, Kings in Disguise, From Hell, It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken, Ed The Happy Clown, David Boring, Like a Velvet Glove, Glorianna - most well known classics of North American comics were serialized or appeared as single issues in a continuing series. This makes it hard for the new reader to jump in if there are recurring characters - like Love and Rockets. I also think serialization changes the work - the planned story breaks - the issue breaks - the work is different if it is released all at once. I think it's very tough to come up with a list of "stand alone" comics to recommend to new readers. 

Pencil Fight 2

Another hang up I have about starting my column again is how comic books are seen in the mainstream press. The revolving door of "comics aren't for kids anymore" articles and such. This time it is more about Marvel's movies. What's my hang up about it? Just how to sidestep the issue like Chun in Remo Williams dodging bullets. I mean, I don't have to write about mainstream comics. Maybe it was judging the Eisners this year. I just never want to participate in a convo about mainstream comics ever again in my lifetime. Luckily, Beto shows me how it's done.

Gilbert Hernandez recently answered a question for a "mainstream" interview that made me think of this revolving door - it's not good or bad - it just is how "alternative"comics makers have to deal with questions about comics in general in 2013. 

Interviewer: What's your take on mainstream comics now? Is there generally more diversity of characters and how they are portrayed?

Hernandez: Well, there can be - but I'm not interested because it ends up being more dazzling superhroics and stuff and I'm not interested in that, I've outgrown it. I mean, I'll go see Iron Man 3 or something just like everybody else but I'm not really interested in what's going on in mainstream comics - with just the storytelling, their concerns in the story just aren't interesting to me. I'm more a, y'know -

Interviewer: Are they interesting to kids? Comics are now an adult niche market - a fact noted in the afterword in your book - that stands in contrast to ten year old Huey in this book, in your book Marble Season. Comics are a common language for him and the kids in his neighborhood - we get this, I'm a little younger [than you] but I remember the same thing - that's the way it was with you and your friends growing up. What is your take on that? Do you think comics are still meaningful for kids today?

Hernandez: Hardly. Except for the characters that are [associated] with them - like I said before - video games, cartoons, y'know, the movies, y'know, I think for kids they're more interested in Captain America in the movies or in the cartoons than reading a Captain America comic book. That's what it seems like to me. My daughter, she's 12, and she has absolutely no interest to read comic books except for a few indy comics, some manga and she likes to go see the superhero movies with me, y'know, but she has no interest at all in comic books.

Here is the interview - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0l3CHXk5CCY - it happens around the 14 minute mark. taken from cbc's Q - http://www.cbc.ca/q/