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Saturday, March 24, 2012
Fwd: Big Planet Comics Orbit Newsletter - March 22, 2012
Annapolis Comic-Con is This Weekend!
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| Third Eye Comics | 45 Old Solomons Island Rd | Suite 102 | Annapolis | MD | 21401 |
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Truitt on Spider-Man again
Something Sinister develops in 'Amazing Spider-Man' series
By Brian Truitt, USA TODAY March 20 2012
http://www.usatoday.com/life/comics/story/2012-03-20/Spider-Man-Ends-of-the-Earth-comic-book-story/53672198/1
By Brian Truitt, USA TODAY March 20 2012
http://www.usatoday.com/life/comics/story/2012-03-20/Spider-Man-Ends-of-the-Earth-comic-book-story/53672198/1
Big Planet on Corto Maltese continued
The comments in this Comics Journal blog relate mostly to Big Planet's compaints about the new Corto Maltese volume.
Guest cartoonists in this week's comic strips
Mo Willems is filling in for Richard Thompson in Cul de Sac.
Pittsburgh's Wayno has been doing the same for Hilary Price in Rhymes with Orange.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Game On! Comics: Avengers vs. X-Men Launch Party!
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| ChildTime Magic | 310 Dominion RD NE | Vienna | VA | 22180 |
Fantom Comics newsletter
From: Fantom Comics <FantomHQ@fantomcomics.com>
Date: Tue, Mar 20, 2012 at 7:52 PM
Subject: Subculture for the Cultured - Last Call for March 2012 Reservations
Date: Tue, Mar 20, 2012 at 7:52 PM
Subject: Subculture for the Cultured - Last Call for March 2012 Reservations
If you're having trouble viewing this email, you may see it online.
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Rizzoli responds to Big Planet's Corto Maltese complaints
Unfortunately nothing in her explains the rasterizing of the artwork, even if Pratt did approve the layout changes.
Date: Tue, Mar 20, 2012 at 6:17 PM
Subject: Fwd: Response to "Complaints about your edition of Corto Maltese: The Ballad of the Salt Sea"
Jessica Fuller, editor of Corto Maltese: The Ballad of the Salt Sea,
at Rizzoli, replied to our open letter and asked us to forward on the
following message.
She also pointed out that they have corrected their inaccurate sales
copy, that this is actually the first time that an English translation
from the original Italian has been published.
She hoped that we would post the information below so others might
also learn the back story without running the risk of perpetuating
mistaken or misconstrued assumptions about their efforts or their
company.
Jared Smith
Peter Casazza
Greg Bennett
Joel Pollack
--
Co-Owners
Big Planet Comics
Washington, DC
Bethesda, Maryland
College Park, Maryland
Vienna, Virginia
http://www.bigplanetcomics.com
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: 2012/3/20
Subject: Response to "Complaints about your edition of Corto Maltese:
The Ballad of the Salt Sea"
Rizzoli and our Universe imprint have a history of republishing
classic works that have long been out of print. Occasionally these
books need to be updated or reworked, such as with our M. Sasek This
Is… series where facts need to be changed, but we as a publisher always
strive to remain true to the artist's original work.
Recently, Rizzoli was thrilled to retain the rights to republish Hugo
Pratt's Corto Maltese: The Ballad of the Salt Sea. To ready this new
edition, Rizzoli worked closely with Patrizia Zanotti, Pratt's
longtime colorist and collaborator from 1978 until his death in 1995.
Zanotti is now executor of the Hugo Pratt estate.
Our edition of Corto Maltese: The Ballad of the Salt Sea contains only
changes that were made by Hugo Pratt himself or under the direction of
the Pratt estate.
Corto Maltese: The Ballad of the Salt Sea was originally printed in
the Italian comics magazine Sgt. Kirk, in 1967, and later in the
French magazine Pif gadget in the early 1970s. Hugo Pratt collected
the strips, had them colored, and published them in an oversized
volume in 1978. In 1985, the colors were revamped in collaboration
with Patrizia Zanotti. In 1994, Hugo Pratt reworked the size of the
strip to three rows of panels per page. This new, smaller, more
manageable graphic novel format was done to appeal to new Corto fans
in the Italian market.
Universe/Rizzoli took the changes that Pratt himself made in the 1994
edition and reprinted this reworked format. We made no changes to Hugo
Pratt's 1994 version.
There have been other English editions of Corto Maltese: The Ballad of
the Salt Sea, but the Pratt estate wanted a fresh translation from
Pratt's original Italian text. Harvill Press published an edition of
Ballad of the Salt Sea in the oversized format and in the original
black and white. The translation for that edition was made from a
French translation of the original Italian text. The NBM edition of
Ballad of the Salt Sea also contained a translation twice removed from
the original Italian.
We worked directly with Patrizia Zanotti and the Hugo Pratt estate on
this project. They were fully involved, and we had their support and
approval during every step of the process: from the much-improved
direct translation from the original Italian; to using art that came
from the Hugo Pratt estate via their European publisher; to reviewing
multiple rounds of color proofs.
Chris from the art/design collective Meathaus addresses his
involvement and contributions here:
http://meathaus.com/2012/03/08/corto-maltese-in-english/
We hope that this explains the process and choices behind this new
edition of Corto Maltese: The Ballad of the Salt Sea. If anything, we
are happy that there are Hugo Pratt fans still reading his work. We
hope to introduce his stories to an entirely new generation of readers
and, with our edition, hope they will enjoy Pratt's reworking of his
classic Corto story.
--
Subject: Fwd: Response to "Complaints about your edition of Corto Maltese: The Ballad of the Salt Sea"
Jessica Fuller, editor of Corto Maltese: The Ballad of the Salt Sea,
at Rizzoli, replied to our open letter and asked us to forward on the
following message.
She also pointed out that they have corrected their inaccurate sales
copy, that this is actually the first time that an English translation
from the original Italian has been published.
She hoped that we would post the information below so others might
also learn the back story without running the risk of perpetuating
mistaken or misconstrued assumptions about their efforts or their
company.
Jared Smith
Peter Casazza
Greg Bennett
Joel Pollack
--
Co-Owners
Big Planet Comics
Washington, DC
Bethesda, Maryland
College Park, Maryland
Vienna, Virginia
http://www.bigplanetcomics.com
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: 2012/3/20
Subject: Response to "Complaints about your edition of Corto Maltese:
The Ballad of the Salt Sea"
Rizzoli and our Universe imprint have a history of republishing
classic works that have long been out of print. Occasionally these
books need to be updated or reworked, such as with our M. Sasek This
Is… series where facts need to be changed, but we as a publisher always
strive to remain true to the artist's original work.
Recently, Rizzoli was thrilled to retain the rights to republish Hugo
Pratt's Corto Maltese: The Ballad of the Salt Sea. To ready this new
edition, Rizzoli worked closely with Patrizia Zanotti, Pratt's
longtime colorist and collaborator from 1978 until his death in 1995.
Zanotti is now executor of the Hugo Pratt estate.
Our edition of Corto Maltese: The Ballad of the Salt Sea contains only
changes that were made by Hugo Pratt himself or under the direction of
the Pratt estate.
Corto Maltese: The Ballad of the Salt Sea was originally printed in
the Italian comics magazine Sgt. Kirk, in 1967, and later in the
French magazine Pif gadget in the early 1970s. Hugo Pratt collected
the strips, had them colored, and published them in an oversized
volume in 1978. In 1985, the colors were revamped in collaboration
with Patrizia Zanotti. In 1994, Hugo Pratt reworked the size of the
strip to three rows of panels per page. This new, smaller, more
manageable graphic novel format was done to appeal to new Corto fans
in the Italian market.
Universe/Rizzoli took the changes that Pratt himself made in the 1994
edition and reprinted this reworked format. We made no changes to Hugo
Pratt's 1994 version.
There have been other English editions of Corto Maltese: The Ballad of
the Salt Sea, but the Pratt estate wanted a fresh translation from
Pratt's original Italian text. Harvill Press published an edition of
Ballad of the Salt Sea in the oversized format and in the original
black and white. The translation for that edition was made from a
French translation of the original Italian text. The NBM edition of
Ballad of the Salt Sea also contained a translation twice removed from
the original Italian.
We worked directly with Patrizia Zanotti and the Hugo Pratt estate on
this project. They were fully involved, and we had their support and
approval during every step of the process: from the much-improved
direct translation from the original Italian; to using art that came
from the Hugo Pratt estate via their European publisher; to reviewing
multiple rounds of color proofs.
Chris from the art/design collective Meathaus addresses his
involvement and contributions here:
http://meathaus.com/2012/03/08/corto-maltese-in-english/
We hope that this explains the process and choices behind this new
edition of Corto Maltese: The Ballad of the Salt Sea. If anything, we
are happy that there are Hugo Pratt fans still reading his work. We
hope to introduce his stories to an entirely new generation of readers
and, with our edition, hope they will enjoy Pratt's reworking of his
classic Corto story.
--
March 29: Early Comics and the Nature of the Child Lecture
Library of Congress
101 Independence Ave. SE
Washington DC 20540
March 6, 2012
Public contact: Martha Kennedy (202) 707-9115, mkenn@loc.gov
Swann Foundation Fellow Lara Saguisag to Discuss
How Early American Comic Strips Shed Light on the Nature of the Child
Swann Foundation Fellow Lara Saguisag, in a lecture at the Library of Congress, will examine how early 20th-century comic strips that featured child protagonists revealed the nature of the child during that era.
Saguisag will present "Sketching the 'Secret Tracts' of the Child's Mind: Theorizing Childhood in Early American Fantasy Strips, 1905-1914," at noon on Thursday, March 29, in Dining Room A on the sixth floor of the James Madison Building, 101 Independence Avenue S.E., Washington, D.C. The lecture is free and open to the public. No tickets are needed.
Saguisag will focus specifically on fantasy strips such as Winsor McCay's "Little Nemo in Slumberland" and Lyonel Feininger's "Wee Willie Winkie's World." These strips featured child characters who inhabited dream worlds and transformed their environments through their imaginations. According to Saguisag, central to these works is the idea that a child's perception and experience of the world was shaped by his/her proclivity for fantasy. This natural connection with fantasy, moreover, made the child a complex, sometimes inscrutable figure, one who was essentially different from an adult.
Comic strips that linked childhood and fantasy drew from and built on themes of late-19th and early-20th-century children's books such as Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," Robert Louis Stevenson's "A Child's Garden of Verses" and Frank L. Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz." Such literature portrayed and celebrated the child as a highly imaginative being who enters and sometimes creates fantasy worlds that an adult could not readily access.
According to Saguisag, during the same period, psychologists and practitioners associated with the Child Study Movement were also intrigued by what G. Stanley Hall termed the "secret tracts" of the child's mind. Many psychologists concluded that imaginative play and reverie were healthful childhood activities and advised parents to take an active role in cultivating the child's imagination. The intersection of children's literature and psychology encountered in early American "kid strips" helped perpetuate and naturalize the image of the imaginative child.
Born and raised in the Philippines, Saguisag completed an M.A. in Children's literature at Hollins University and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing at The New School. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Childhood Studies at Rutgers University-Camden, where she held a University Presidential Fellowship from 2007-2009.
This presentation is sponsored by the Caroline and Erwin Swann Foundation for Caricature and Cartoon of the Library of Congress and the Library's Prints & Photographs Division. The lecture is part of the foundation's continuing activities to support the study, interpretation, preservation and appreciation of original works of humorous and satiric art by graphic artists from around the world. The foundation strives to award one fellowship annually to assist scholarly research and writing projects in the field of caricature and cartoon. Applications for the 2013-2014 academic year are due Feb. 15, 2013. More information about the fellowship is available through the Swann Foundation's website: www.loc.gov/rr/print/swann/ or by e-mailing swann@loc.gov.
# # #
PR12-48
3/6/12
ISSN: 0731-3527
Big Planet goes public with disappointment over Corto Maltese continued
I've just finished an article on our website showing some examples of the problems we mentioned in our open letter.
http://www.bigplanetcomics.com/how-to-destroy-a-comics-classic
Jared Smith
http://www.bigplanetcomics.com/how-to-destroy-a-comics-classic
Jared Smith
Monday, March 19, 2012
Comic Riffs talks to Secret of Kells animator
ST. PATRICK'S DAY: Filmmaker illuminates the lure of 'Kells'
By Michael Cavna
Washington Post Comic Riffs blog March 17 2012
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/comic-riffs/post/st-patricks-day-filmmaker-illuminates-the-lure-of-kells/2012/03/17/gIQADBIxIS_blog.html#pagebreak
By Michael Cavna
Washington Post Comic Riffs blog March 17 2012
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/comic-riffs/post/st-patricks-day-filmmaker-illuminates-the-lure-of-kells/2012/03/17/gIQADBIxIS_blog.html#pagebreak
Truitt on pulp heroes, Mighty 7 and Red Hood
Stan Lee debuts 'Mighty 7' as part of his new comic brand
By Brian Truitt, USA TODAY March 19 2012
http://www.usatoday.com/life/comics/story/2012-03-19/Stan-Lee-Mighty-7-comic-book-series/53654486/1
'Outlaws' nation: Lobdell pens adventures of unlikely trio
By Brian Truitt, USA TODAY March 19 2012
http://www.usatoday.com/life/comics/story/2012-03-19/Red-Hood-and-the-Outlaws-comic-book-series/53649286/1
Old-time radio and comics heroes burst back onto the scene
By Brian Truitt, USA TODAY March 19 2012
http://www.usatoday.com/life/comics/story/2012-03-20/Radio-stars-and-pulp-heroes-return-to-pop-culture/53659158/1
By Brian Truitt, USA TODAY March 19 2012
http://www.usatoday.com/life/comics/story/2012-03-19/Stan-Lee-Mighty-7-comic-book-series/53654486/1
'Outlaws' nation: Lobdell pens adventures of unlikely trio
By Brian Truitt, USA TODAY March 19 2012
http://www.usatoday.com/life/comics/story/2012-03-19/Red-Hood-and-the-Outlaws-comic-book-series/53649286/1
Old-time radio and comics heroes burst back onto the scene
By Brian Truitt, USA TODAY March 19 2012
http://www.usatoday.com/life/comics/story/2012-03-20/Radio-stars-and-pulp-heroes-return-to-pop-culture/53659158/1
Big Planet goes public with disappointment over Corto Maltese
Oh, this is too bad. Corto Maltese is some great cartooning. I was planning on buying this new edition, even though I already have 2 versions of "Salt Sea."
From: Big Planet Comics Vienna
Open letter to Rizzoli Press complaining about their new edition of Corto Maltese
All of us at Big Planet Comics were pretty astounded by the low quality of the new Rizzoli edition of Corto Maltese: The Ballad of the Salt Sea, a book we had all been looking forward to. This is the open letter we sent to Rizzoli, complaining about their edition.
Jared Smith
Peter Casazza
Greg Bennett
Joel Pollack
--
Co-Owners
Big Planet Comics
Subject: Complaints about your edition of Corto Maltese: The Ballad of the Salt Sea
To Whom It May Concern,
This is an open letter we are writing to express our extreme
displeasure with the terrible edition of Corto Maltese: The Ballad of
the Salt Sea you have just released. We are the co-owners of Big
Planet Comics, a group of comic book stores in the Washington, DC
area. Hugo Pratt is one of our favorite artists and we have read,
collected and sold numerous works by him, including earlier editions
of The Ballad of the Salt Sea.
The art has been scanned at a low resolution, leading to pixelization
that obscures or erases the smoothness of the fine and precise art of
Hugo Pratt. In some cases, it seems to have been printed at an even
worse quality, the most egregious example being the middle panel on
page 136, where the thin lines denoting the rays of light look like
they were drawn with a skittering giant marker.
The reformatting of the panels of each page so that only about
two-thirds of each original page is on each page of your edition
jumbles the intention of Hugo Pratt, so that the flow of story from
panel to panel is interrupted or changed, and the natural break point,
or pause, at the end of each original page is now mixed haphazardly
through your layout.
Most offensively, the original panels of Hugo Pratt's art have been
resized, cut, and cropped to fit this amateurish new layout scheme, in
some cases removing over a third of each panel, or splitting a panel
into two new panels. Some panels appear to have been zoomed in,
resulting in further loss of quality and removing more of Hugo Pratt's art.
These terrible mutilations of Hugo Pratt's art are insulting enough,
but there are numerous panels where someone has taken upon themselves
the hubris to fill out the gaping holes in the modified panels by
adding to the art itself.
Also, your description of the book on your webpage at
http://www.rizzoliusa.com/book.php?isbn=9780789324986 incorrectly
claims this is the first time Ballad of the Salt Sea has been
available in English. In fact, it has been released in English at
least twice: once by The Harvill Press in 1996, and once by NBM
Publishing in 1997.
This book is the first encounter we have had with any division of your
publishing house. Your edition cannot claim in honesty to represent an
unadulterated replication of Hugo Pratt's work. Whoever approved such
a hatchet job on this classic piece of art should be ashamed of
themselves. We would appreciate an apology and explanation.
We, and many of the employees at our stores, were very excited to sell
Corto Maltese to our customers. We are disappointed we will not be
able to recommend that any customer buy your edition.
Disappointedly,
Jared Smith
Peter Casazza
Greg Bennett
Joel Pollack
--
Co-Owners
Big Planet Comics
Washington, DC
Bethesda, Maryland
College Park, Maryland
Vienna, Virginia
http://www.bigplanetcomics.com
Jared Smith
Peter Casazza
Greg Bennett
Joel Pollack
--
Co-Owners
Big Planet Comics
Subject: Complaints about your edition of Corto Maltese: The Ballad of the Salt Sea
To Whom It May Concern,
This is an open letter we are writing to express our extreme
displeasure with the terrible edition of Corto Maltese: The Ballad of
the Salt Sea you have just released. We are the co-owners of Big
Planet Comics, a group of comic book stores in the Washington, DC
area. Hugo Pratt is one of our favorite artists and we have read,
collected and sold numerous works by him, including earlier editions
of The Ballad of the Salt Sea.
The art has been scanned at a low resolution, leading to pixelization
that obscures or erases the smoothness of the fine and precise art of
Hugo Pratt. In some cases, it seems to have been printed at an even
worse quality, the most egregious example being the middle panel on
page 136, where the thin lines denoting the rays of light look like
they were drawn with a skittering giant marker.
The reformatting of the panels of each page so that only about
two-thirds of each original page is on each page of your edition
jumbles the intention of Hugo Pratt, so that the flow of story from
panel to panel is interrupted or changed, and the natural break point,
or pause, at the end of each original page is now mixed haphazardly
through your layout.
Most offensively, the original panels of Hugo Pratt's art have been
resized, cut, and cropped to fit this amateurish new layout scheme, in
some cases removing over a third of each panel, or splitting a panel
into two new panels. Some panels appear to have been zoomed in,
resulting in further loss of quality and removing more of Hugo Pratt's art.
These terrible mutilations of Hugo Pratt's art are insulting enough,
but there are numerous panels where someone has taken upon themselves
the hubris to fill out the gaping holes in the modified panels by
adding to the art itself.
Also, your description of the book on your webpage at
http://www.rizzoliusa.com/book.php?isbn=9780789324986 incorrectly
claims this is the first time Ballad of the Salt Sea has been
available in English. In fact, it has been released in English at
least twice: once by The Harvill Press in 1996, and once by NBM
Publishing in 1997.
This book is the first encounter we have had with any division of your
publishing house. Your edition cannot claim in honesty to represent an
unadulterated replication of Hugo Pratt's work. Whoever approved such
a hatchet job on this classic piece of art should be ashamed of
themselves. We would appreciate an apology and explanation.
We, and many of the employees at our stores, were very excited to sell
Corto Maltese to our customers. We are disappointed we will not be
able to recommend that any customer buy your edition.
Disappointedly,
Jared Smith
Peter Casazza
Greg Bennett
Joel Pollack
--
Co-Owners
Big Planet Comics
Washington, DC
Bethesda, Maryland
College Park, Maryland
Vienna, Virginia
http://www.bigplanetcomics.com
Cartoonists atypically in the local papers
Steve Brodner had a lovely piece on Newt Gingrich in yesterday's Post.
In today's Politico on p. 6, local cartoonist Kevin Rechin has an uncredited ad cartoon of "Current Restrictions on Credit Union Capital," with a drawing of people walking down the road to economic recovery while donkey and elephant push a boulder with the Restrictions title onto the road.
Also in today's Politico, Matt Wuerker has a drawing of Catherine the Great, illustrating a story about her.
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