Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 01132013

(Image of a John Romita drawn Marvel Presents cover stolen from The Comics Reporter.)

Here are some things I found interesting in the world of minicomics, comic books, graphic novels, small press, self publishing, zines, webcomics, cartoons, digital comics, other, etc. during the week ending 01132013:

"Warner Communications bought National Periodicals about six years ago, and all of the lawsuits between Siegel and Shuster and National predated us by about 20 years. However, putting legalities aside, the simple fact remains that Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel created a very popular comics character, they may have created a whole comics industry by doing so, and Warner or National has a moral obligation to take care of two destitute creators of what became an industry."  -Former Warner executive Jay Emmett as reported by Steve Gerber in 1975.

• The Siegel family, heirs of Superman's co-creator Jerry Siegel, lost a major court battle to Time Warner.  At least since 2008, Time Warner has used the ongoing legal battle as an excuse to not give Superman's creators much of anything.  I'm trying to look on the bright side and say, well at least, this should expedite Time Warner paying what they owed before that 2008 ruling.  It is honestly over my head.  I just want Time Warner to do the right thing.  Not the legal thing.  The right thing.  Tom Spurgeon has some thoughts here.  Jeff Trexler explains it all here. 
• The Beat linked to this fascinating article which includes the late Steve Gerber's article on National/DC/Warner's sordid history of treatment of Superman's creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. 
• Looking at artists work areas never gets old.  Especially when the photo set includes Jack Kirby's desk. 
• Speaking of Kirby, and we always will, here are some unpublished Devil Dinosaur pages with the added bonus of taking a look at what it might have looked like if Stan Lee had put some words on those pages Kirby wrote and drew. 
• Are you a hot young artist/writer ready to take over the world as a freelancer?  Well, don't read this article by John Ostrander.  I had the honor of giving Ostrander a ride to the airport once.  Such a nice and selfless guy sitting there listening to my nonsense.  Of course, he may very well have been afraid for his life since I was focused more on asking him questions than I was on the Atlanta traffic.  But, forget how nice Ostrander is.  Ostrander is good.  Ostrander's comics are very good.  Forget Grimjack and all of his DC and Marvel work and just his work on Star Wars alone will eclipse most writers' careers.  Do you think you are a better writer than John Ostrander?  You are wrong.  Do you think you are smarter, more talented, or that you will play the game better than Ostrander?  You are wrong.  Does Shannon Smith own action figures of characters you created?  You are not better than John Ostrander so that article should be a wake up call.  Comics is hard y'all. 
• Jim Shooter reconsidered at the Hooded Utilitarian.  1978 to 1987.  Dang, I gave that guy a lot of my lunch money. 

• I posted file under other's (you know, me) "best of" comics list... for 2011.
• Josh Latta interviewed at 9 Sense. (At around the 50 minute mark.)
• Congratulations to Eleanor Davis on winning a medal from The Society of Illustrators.  I'm going to assume that the winner was selected while the society sat around a table that looked just like this. 
• Oh and here is another good comic Davis recently posted on her tumblr. 
• I liked this Matt Seneca moving gif comic thing. 
• Hey!  Everybody!  Richard Sala drew the Doom Patrol!
• The UK version of the Marvel Star Wars comics series was apparently an amazing weekly sci-fi fantasy anthology thing including Guardians of the Galaxy and other junk.  I think I need to have those. 

• The Comics Reporter continued the holiday interview series this week.  I particularly enjoyed this interview with Mark Waid.  It got me thinking about the 90s.  Without looking through wikepedia or my long boxes, when I think of the 90s, there were really only four writers of super hero comics where you bought the comic for the writer; Grant Morrison, James Robinson, Kurt Buseik and Mark Waid.  Maybe Matt Wagner too but I never thought of his stuff as super hero comics. (Even when it clearly was.)
• Bully went down in the vault to dig up some historical records explaining the details of The Beast's time travel plan in today's All-New X-Men. 
• CBR has a good interview with Jon Lewis about True Swamp, the 90s and other things I like. 
• Goodbye Comics Buyers Guide.  Sad times. 
• There is a new Gabby Schulz comic up.  I'm beginning to suspect that Schulz may not be happy about a few things. 
• Patrick Dean also has some new comics up. 
• People.  El Generico has signed with the WWE.  Now, if you don't care about wrestling then this news will mean nothing to you.  But, I don't care who you are.  Do yourself a favor and witness the No Hands Space Flying Tigersault!

• So, at some point this week a popular TV show (aren't they all, they're on TV right?)  that I don't care about did a thing making fun of a situation that does not actually exist.  I'm not linking to it.
• Some comics I've never read are burning in hell. 
• I'm listening to Robert Newsome's talking and music podcast as I type this.  So far, mostly black/death/whatever-they-call-it metal this go round... but wait, then there's a Morrisey song.  Teh intronets is like a box of chocolates. 
• Speaking of Robert Newsome, I got my copy of The Atomic Elbow Issue No. 4 in the mail this week and it is great.  For you comic book types there is an interview with Jill Thompson, an article by Chris Sims and there are comics in it.  Comics fans like comics right? 
• And speaking of wrestling, back in The Atomic Elbow Issue No. 3 I had an article in there about the time I went to meet Jimmy "The Boogie Woogie Man" Valiant and see some wrestling.  I have now posted that article, along with some photos, on my personal blog-a-thing. 
• In other news about me, the new season of Justified started this week.  I was pretty happy about that.  I can see some Boyd Crowder fan art in my future.  Oh, and also, on Thursday night, my dad got me an Italian sub sandwich from this place called Giovanni's in Saint Paul, VA.  It was real good. 

THE BEST SINGLE NEW PRINT COMIC I READ THIS WEEK

(Image stolen from Marvel.)
...was a digital comic I read on Comixology.  Maybe I need to re-think the title of this feature.  I went to my LCS (local comic shop that is actually a video game store) on Wednesday thinking I would buy Superior Spider-Man because, ya know, I had asked them to get me a copy and because it's kind of a big deal but, nope, they did not have any copies.  So  then I cried and flopped around in the parking lot like that fish at the end of that Faith No More video.  Later, I was at home reading teh intronet because my life is a joke and I saw Rob from Panel Patter talking on the twitter about how he was reading Superior Spider-Man on Comixology.  Therefore, I had no choice but to go read it on Comixology myself.  How could I not?!?  Self control?  Pfftt!
And... SPOILERS it was very good.  I really like this Ryan Stegman guy.  His action scenes are equal parts Greg Capullo and Joe Kubert which is fine by me.  And the talking scenes, especially the dinner scene with MJ, are pure Howard Chaykin.  I mean, look at Mary Jane's dress.  The only place women dress like that is in a Howard Chaykin comic book.  And all things being equal, I would honestly prefer if most comics artists were just lifting from Chaykin all the time.  Slott's writing is near perfect for a Spider-Man comic.  Doc Ock as Spider-Man is just as funny as I thought it would be.  The comic is kinda PG-13.  A few more drops of blood and one more boob shot than I would prefer in a comic I'd like to be able share with my kid.  But, we can't have it all can we?  You can't have the joy of Howard Chaykin dresses and the joy of sharing a comic with your child.  The big reveal at the end is exactly what I thought it would be and I think it will be straight up neat-o to see how it plays out.  

• And finally...you all loved to cheer for your superheroes.

Oh, and one more last thing!  Did you know you can leave comments on these posts here at file under other?  It's true!  And, I'll probably respond.  Twitter and facebook killed the message boards but that's no reason why you can't argue with me, praise me or leave me recipes.  It's your intronet.  Have fun!

And that's just a taste of some of the interesting things going out there in the wonderful world of comics and things. I can't keep up with it all but I do keep up with a lot of it on twitter and I try to re-tweet the good stuff. You should probably follow me there. If you did something to make comics better this week then high-five!

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

p.s. Say you want a leader but you can't seem to make up your mind. I think you'd better close it and let me guide you to my twitter feed.

p.p.s. Let's pretend we went to high school together on facebook.

p.p.p.s. Google + is another place you can read the same thing I posted here.

p.p.p.p.s. I'll tumblr for ya.