Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates, Run Around | Tagged: my little pony, saga

Thursday Runaround – More Pony Comics, Less Hong Kong Comics

Published Thu, 20 Jun 2013 05:48:52 -0500

by Rich Johnston

Last updated Thu, 20 Jun 2013 05:48:58 -0500

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FOR PONIES AND BRONIES

IDW is to publish a new My Little Pony comic tying in with the upcoming movie, My Little Pony Equestria Girls.

Let's see if it can outsell X-Men again…

COMICSPOTTING

Irvine Welsh talks about a graphic novelisation of Filth, and thoughts about writing comics for the Big Two.

I can't spill much as yet, but it's being given the graphic-novel treatment, and we're aiming to have it out around the same time as the movie. This medium's interesting, and it offers something that the film or the novel can't offer. It's a halfway house between the two. Graphic novels are like storyboards for movies, which is why so many are successfully transferred to screen. We've got three artists tendering to do the book [Filth]. One of the guy's very detailed, evocative, weird and scary. I prefer this, as this is pure angst with a touch of obscurity that works for Filth and its main character, Bruce Robertson. Details will be out soon!

…

Doctor Strange, because I've always been a fan and he's the last of the great Marvels to me who hasn't been given the big-screen treatment, so there isn't that preconception apart from comic fans. Doctor Strange fans were always stranger, for want of a better word, and this unique breed in comic fandom always appealed more to me. He's got infinite possibilities and his personal life is weirder and darker than usual and there's a lot I can do with that. There's a lot … I'd love to do with that!

LINGUA FRANCA

ComiXology have announced signing up a rather large amount of French comic book publishers to their digital distribution app, including Aelement Comics, Akileos, Ankama, Éditions Ça et Là, Éditions Delcourt, Glénat Éditions, I Can Fly, Indeez Urban Éditions, Los Brignolès Éditions, Panini Comics, Sandawe, Soleil Productions, Wanga Comics and WEBellipses , 40% of the market and with 400 graphic novels online straight away. Though only a fraction of them will be made available in English-speaking countries due to licensing issues.

But in English ComiXology news, Becky Cloonan's Demeter has debuted on the service as part of the Submit platform for encouraging the distribution of digital works from small press creators. Cloonan's debut is one of the higher profile creators the service has attracted.

GOT COMICS?

Can a film make people love comics again? This is one Kickstarter which intends to show that it can.

Far from being exclusively about superheroes or just for kids, there are thousands upon thousands of comics out there for people of all ages and backgrounds. And not only that – we are now living in a new Golden Age: with an incredible variety of gorgeous images and rich stories in the comics world. But unfortunately, these works of art are most often tirelessly produced by unrecognized creators who hardly sell enough work to support themselves, if at all. We can't let our Picassos and Van Goughs fade into obscurity!

APOCALYPSE NOW-ISH

London's V&A museum offers a "walk-in graphic novel"

Drifting around the exhibition, between snippets of gnomic wall-text, intricate illustrations and elaborate room-sized props, visitors begin to piece together a post-apocalyptic world, as dreamed up by novelist Hari Kunzru. A master of crafting speculative scenarios that play on our current anxieties – classified, by those who insist on genres, as translit – Kunzru's vision is set several generations after the Magnetization, when all record of culture has been lost and the natural world is reclaiming the ruins of the old city

HONG KONG RIGHT OR WRONG?

Is the Hong Kong comics industry in trouble? Or could it save the artform?

Hong Kong Comics and Animation Federation director Alan Wan Siu-lun said the number of locally produced weekly comics had fallen from a peak of 50 in the mid-1990s to 20 today.

He said publications had had to drastically downsize to survive. Digital technologies had yet to revive the industry as no appropriate business model was available.

"The mode of production has changed from mass production to highly stylised individual creations. Comics were entertainment in the past, but today it's more about the appreciation of creative works," Wan said.