Comics Round-Up

[Apologies, as we seem to be having image problems this evening/morning...]

I’m up late without sleep, and I find myself saying good night over and over again:

• Good night, Frank Frazetta, who passed away earlier this week. A creative pioneer, a game-changer, the man took a turn doing everything, from newspaper comic strips to his iconic fantasy paintings. The weight and fullness of every image of his… he could make anything real enough to step right into.
• Good night, Viz Media Staffers. The major manga publisher laid off forty percent of its staff today, and while some commentators note that it may not be the death-throes that internet fandom suspects, it doesn’t look great, either: the manga and anime industries have been shrivelling at home in Japan, and the glut of imports that came with the manga boom reached critical mass quite some time ago, particularly with a growing proliferation of pirated material online. Viz publishes not only mega-popular titles like Naruto but also critically-acclaimed works by creators like Naoki Urasawa. The atmosphere that may have led to this was summed up succinctly by one cartoonist on Twitter: “Difference between comics and anime forums response to VIZ- one is about feeling bad about staff, the other is about not getting stuff”
• Good night, webcartoonist dignity: A recent iPhone/iPad app syndicating the feeds of many popular webcomics caused a major scuffle regarding intellectual property resulting in a Twitter-led manhunt by not only a number of major cartoonists, but their legions of fan-followers, with the app eventually retracted entirely. The webcomics community has dealt with, over the last few years, any number of legitimate grievances regarding shady apps and syndication websites offering the content without attribution, but this particular software bears little of the same markings, and the whole thing got out of hand very quickly, leaving none of the cartoonists looking like the good guys.
• Good night, comics journalism, and the supposed integrity thereof: Pat Lee, artist and former head of Dreamwave Comics, was recently treated to a puff piece regarding a new comics title with the laziest softball pitch towards the man’s litany of sins I’ve seen this side of [insert your partisan political reference of choice here, no need to get sidetracked]. Lee has, among other things, taken credit for the work of other artists without paying them and crashed and burned two separate comic companies, leaving tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid debts to various creators, in a business where many live check to check. This is not the first time popular comics news hub Newsarama has been guilty of this, not even with Lee in particular. Here’s a quick rundown of the rapsheet. Absolutely shameless, as this is following an extended “absence” out of country.

Even between four and five in the A.M., though, saying good night again and again, I have to say good morning to Journalista’s Dirk Deppey, who naturally is already up and has reported on all of these already.