Welcome back to News & Things! This week we’re back from Small Press Expo, have new Marvel Studios rumors, and our countdown to Halloween continues!
Read of the Week
Comics Alliance interviews Congressman John Lewis and Andrew Aydin about March, the autobiographical graphic novel about the Civil Rights Movement:
“Each time I pick up the book, or read something, or see a drawing, it convinces me more and more that this was the way to go. Comics, in a sense, the style, the images, it’s almost like music. They say music is a universal language, but when the eyes behold something, a figure, somebody moving; it’s real, and it cannot be denied. When you see or hear a word or a phrase here and there, it can be interpreted one way or the other, but when you see the actual drawing, it says more than anything else.”
News
2013 Ignatz Awards Spotlight Women
The 2013 Ignatz Awards at Small Press Expo were presented entirely by female cartoonists, who were all selected by host Liza Donnelly: “I decided to choose all cartoonists who are women. More and more of us are now in the business, unlike previous years, and I wanted to celebrate that fact by bringing attention to it.” Notably, all five “Outstanding Graphic Novel” nominees (including winner Today Is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life’s Ulli Lust) were also female creators.
Walking Dead Spin-Off Announced
AMC and Robert Kirkman are producing a companion series to the hit show The Walking Dead, due in 2015. Kirkman describes the series as a “blank page” independent of the comic book, and it will feature an entirely new cast of characters.
Marvel Studios Becoming ‘Inhuman’?
Stan Lee says that Marvel Studios will “probably” bring the Inhumans, the superbeings Lee co-created with Jack Kirby, to the big screen. (He also makes disappointing comments about the possibility of a female-driven Marvel film. Don’t be a buzzkill, Stan Lee!)
Agent Peggy Carter Coming Soon?
As for Marvel on the small screen, Agents of SHIELD has yet to premiere but there are rumors that a television show starring Agent Peggy Carter will follow. If true, the project is in very early stages, and it’s unknown if Hayley Atwell will return as Carter.
Anno Dracula: Appropriation of Characters
Timed with the release of his book Anno Dracula: Johnny Alucard, novelist Kim Newman discusses “borrowing” fictional characters and metafictional settings.
Commentary
The DC Comics Non-Guide to Responding to Controversy
At Robot 6, Corey Blake discusses the Harley Quinn #0 contest controversy and DC’s response:
“After two days of fans asking “WTF?”, the initial response was a series of tweets from Lee providing a condescending tutorial on the significance of context and sequence in comics — as if everyone who read that script suddenly could no longer understand how comics work. What he failed to acknowledge is that a script excerpt provided without context still delivers information, even if that information turns out to be incomplete. That’s pretty introductory-level communication theory stuff; Marshall McLuhan probably realized this at age 5.”
And Finally…
Set your Interocitors to NORMAL VIIIIIIEW and behold Franceso Francavilla’s new This Island Earth poster for Mondo:
