Cousin Corinne’s Reminder #2: Dean Haspiel & Tim Hamilton

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Independent,

USA Today reports on a new literary magazine that's straight out of Brooklyn.

It's Cousin Corinne's Reminder. Now why should you care?

Because it's got a full color comics section packed with contributions from Tim Hamilton, Joan Reilly, Michele Fiffe, Dean Haspiel and Jen Ferguson. My pal Tim calls Cousin Corinne's Reminder a "cool new lit mag," and who am I to argue as the second issue hits the stands.

According to the editors, "Cousin Corinne's Reminder is bi-annual journal published by BookCourt, which features writing, comix, photography, and art."

If you're in the Brooklyn area on Wednesday, January 26 from 7-10pm, drop in at Bookcourt (163 Court St.) for the official launch party for the second issue.

There will be an opening performance by George Emilio Sanchez. Readings by Priscilla Becker, Todd Colby, Stanley Crouch, Catherine Lacey, and Adam Wilson.

Click to continue reading Cousin Corinne’s Reminder #2: Dean Haspiel & Tim Hamilton

British Comics: Punch For Sale

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials,

Punch, the venerable British humor magazine known for its many cartoons and contributions from a who’s who of British humor, including my favorite P.G. Wodehouse, is up for sale and can be yours.

Punch began in 1841 and made it all the way to 1992 before it was suspended. (Charles Dickens was once an editor there.) The magazine got a new owner in 1996 and finally went out for good in 2002.

In college I spent many hours in the library reading bound volumes of the magazine from the 1950s-1980s and thought it was time well-spent.

Of course, it’s not the actual magazine that’s up for sale, and you don’t get access to the original publication’s archives.

Nope, you get none of that for your loot. But there’s a clever fellow out there who goes around re-trademarking brand names that have expired, and one of those trademarks was for Punch.

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Comic Book Jobs: Viz Media Interns

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Viz Media,

Interning is a great way to pick up some business skills while you’re in school and get some college credit. Interning at a publishing company is a great way to figure out if you have any interest in getting involved in the business that helps you clutter up your bookshelves with books and your iPads with downloads.

Acclaimed manga publisher and anime company Viz Media, in San Francisco, is taking applications for their 2011 Spring Intern program and there’s no time like the present to get those applications in.

Viz has part-time internships available in a variety of departments including: Animation Production; Consumer Marketing; Consumer Products & Approvals; Design Intern; Editorial; Information Technology; Magazines; Publishing Licensing; Sales & Retail Development; and Web Production.

But those positions won't last for long, so brush up the resume with all your Starbucks and McDonald's experience and get it over there.

Good luck, internship seekers!

[Artwork: Naruto, from Viz Media]

Read More | Viz Media

Comic Book Jobs: Who’s Hiring? Disney

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials,

The vast Disney Empire makes more than just movies and TV shows. They also have a huge presence in book publishing.

Their publishing arm in White Plains, NY, just a train ride away from Manhattan, is looking for a full-time publicist. And how is this comic book related in any way?

A couple of worthwhile reasons. One, “Disney Publishing Worldwide develops original, award-winning content (both Disney and non-Disney branded), including Disney books, magazines and comic books.” And, two, as publicist you’ll help with “publicity strategies and plans, along with execution of media relations plans and author tours and appearances.”

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Comics International: R.I.P.

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Reviews, Independent,

Numerous replaces reported it and then the founding editor confirmed it. The British comics magazine, Comics International, has ceased to be. I’ve read a lot of comic book magazines over the years, from The Comics Buyer’s Guide and The Comics Journal to Wizard and Hero Illustrated. My favorite of all of them was Comics International, which was founded by Dez Skinn and under his guidance ran for 200 issues.

Dez was no stranger to comics before CI – he worked on the magazines Doctor Who Weekly and House of Hammer and founded his own company, Quality Communications. From there he launched the acclaimed Warrior magazine which featured the revival of Marvelman/Miracleman as well as the original V For Vendetta. He started CI back in 1990.

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Read More | Dez Skinn

MAD Magazine And Cartoon Network

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, DC Comics,

What, me hurry? Here’s how quickly things can turn around. Last year, DC Comics reduced the frequency of MAD Magazine, the perennial humor magazine for snarky kids of all ages, from monthly to quarterly. They cited all the usual reasons.

Most bloggers jumped to the idea that DC had done little to actually brand MAD beyond a couple of spin-off magazines. There was no movie (except for a long-forgotten Animal House wannabe called Up The Academy which licensed only the MAD name, and that was 30 years ago), no animated series, no TV show (except for MADtv, which just licensed the name), and little to no merchandise. Oh, and only the most perfunctory of websites.

Jump ahead a year. There’s a change of management at DC. MAD’s frequency is pushed forward so that it’s now going to be bi-monthly.

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Read More | A.V. Club

VIDEO: Alan Moore Rocks Out With Retro Spankees

Posted by Robin Paulson Categories: DC Comics, Independent,

Even though he has a musical history, it’s quite easy to forget with all of the memorable novels and comic books Alan Moore has written. Well, now we’ve got a video to help us not forget!

At a launch party for his latest fanzine, Dodgem Logic, Moore jumped on stage with a band featured on the CD accompanying the magazine, the Retro Spankees. Moore was quick with his literary style in the intro to one of the songs: “This next number, it’s about caring… about people. It’s about caring about people so that you want to… protect them. It’s about caring about people so that you want to protect them by unleashing a storm of malefic evil presences from the pit of Hell against anybody who is distressing you. This is to everybody—it’s called ‘Jonny Fortunate.’”

Check out another performance after the break!

Click to continue reading VIDEO: Alan Moore Rocks Out With Retro Spankees

Read More | Bleeding Cool