The top comics-related news stories from July 12 to July 18, 2008: 1. New Yorker cover featuring radical versions of Senator and Mrs. Obama draws fire. 2. Popular CCI social location the Hyatt under fire for majority owner's public support of a measure that would threaten the status of gay marriages in California. 3. Frank Frazetta sues J. David Spurlock and Vanguard Winner Of The Week Marc Weidenbaum Loser Of The Week Doug Manchester Quote Of The Week Oh, and 'This transition from what basically was an R&D phase into a commercialization phase has required building out infrastructure and product development that has increased our operating expenses significantly over the last two years' is the language of a biopharmaceutical company that has a drug in late-stage trials but nothing on the market yet, not the language of a comic publisher." -- my friend Gil, on Platinum Studios this week's imagery comes from pioneering comic book house Hillman Publications

I'll be there on Friday moderating this panel: 2:00-3:00 The World of Graphic Novels--International is part of Comic-Con's name for a reason! Here's an impressive roster of worldwide talent who create graphic novels: Alex Robinson (US, Too Cool to be Forgotten), Nick Abadzis (UK, Laika) and Comic-Con special guests Rutu Modan (Israel, Exit Wounds), Eddie Campbell (Australia by way of Scotland, The Amazing Remarkable Monsieur Leotard), and Adrian Tomine (US, Shortcomings), along with our moderator, good ol' American Tom Spurgeon (comicsreporter.com) as they discuss graphic novels and why they make the world go 'round. Room 3

Five For Friday #128 -- Build A Dream Convention Panel Of Four Folks Alive or Dead and For the Fifth Response Ask A Question 1. Steve Ditko 2. Stan Lee 3. Jack Kirby 4. Martin Goodman 5. "Mr. Goodman, did you ever promise incentives or financial participation to any of the panelists on which your company later did not make good?" ***** This Subject Is Now Closed. Thanks To Those That Participated. ***** Five For Friday is a reader response feature. To play, send a response while it's still Friday. Play fair. Responses up Sunday morning. ***** Note: due to Comic-Con International, the next Five For Friday will be two weekends from now, not next weekend. ***** *****

Doing a routine look-over of my accounts I noticed I got socked with a deposit for a room rezzo I made and later canceled in full accordance with Travel Planners policy. Travel Planners is being really nice about it, and I'm no longer 22 so this doesn't bankrupt me, but the principle of the thing is annoying. I had to ask to speak to a supervisor to get past the "it should cycle back to you in a month" assurances, because, you know, you cancel a room weeks before a faulty deposit is secured you want that money back without them borrowing it for a month first. Update: I was able to take care of it. Basically, what happened is that the person at the hotel in question doing deposits did the deposits and only then went to work on the second sheet of paper, the cancellations, so she immediately refunded and by the time that comes through they'll have had my money extremely briefly. I guess the point is to be careful and double-check stuff like this.

I was going to write a long introduction to this piece and turn it into a standard newsbrief posting, but to be honest I think it's totally self-explanatory.

Platinum Studio's treatment of DJ Coffman, a one-time creative partner and very public defender of the California-based licensed property farm, moved into a new and potentially more depressing chapter when the company sent the creator a cease and desist letter for his use of URLs related to the property that tied him to the company. Not only that, but Coffman questions the company's claim of spending $24K on marketing his creation by wondering how exactly this was accomplished, reveals he bought ads out of pocket when they declined to, and suggests that their discussion of his situation in a recent interview may be exactly the reveal of confidential details they accused him of at an earlier time. Where do I sign up?

This article indicates that Dick Adair is among the employees targeted by the Honolulu Advertiser for its seven percent workforce contraction. What might be interesting about this specific instance -- beyond the fact that Adair seems to be the best-known of those targeted -- is that the paper doesn't seem to be in all that much trouble, and that these are cuts being made because of projections of revenue slowdowns investors see as a possibility in the near future.

The amount of needless agonizing and fussiness indulged in by members of the American comics industry and fan cultures when confronted with a potential ethical choice is always fun to watch, and this is doubly, perhaps triply true of the latest community brouhaha: the notion that comics industry scene-makers at the forthcoming San Diego Con might want to think about (gasp!) drinking someplace other than the bars owned by someone at this very moment openly supporting a specific political agenda with which they might strongly disagree. Poke around places like here and here and you see the usual dissembling and "not the boss of me" proclamations: let's do something "creative" instead of having to make the choice that seems to be presented to us, you're denying this person's right to free speech, I'll go but I won't like it/cooperate/buy as much as I might otherwise, our actions don't matter in the long run, you're hurting the people that are employed by this person, comics is a bunch of mob-minded lefties, for all you know the owners of the Westin could maintain a dungeon filled with nine-year-old sex slaves, and so on. As tends to be the case with comics folk post-1990 or so pressed to make some kind of simple decision that doesn't directly benefit them, the flailing about can be fairly awesome to behold. The issue as presented seems clear to me: whether or not to patronize a business when you learn the owner is supporting a stance on public policy that upsets people with whom you work and are thus asking you to consider another option. That seems like a clear decision to make with simple options in response: yes, no, I don't care. Even better, which bar to drink in is maybe the lowest set of stakes for a decision possible in this world. Easy, right? Apparently not. I'm baffled why it should take anything more than prominent people in the comics industry declaring they're uncomfortable with a business this year to make folks consider with seriousness and respect the courtesy of a bare-minimum effort to patronize another place until the situation shakes out. Instead, the response from many people seems to be finding ways to justify continued patronage as if this were a very, very precious thing. In fact, most of the rationalizing being done on behalf of continued patronage not only invests it with importance, it seems to presume one's decision to hang out and drink in a certain location comes as the fulfillment of an expectation for received business that no entity on earth should get to claim or have claimed on its behalf. The end result: no one simply disagrees. Rather, there seems to be a compulsion that one agree with the spirit of the objection being made and explain why they can't do anything about it. The problem is that the reasons floated to justify holding both positions don't make a lot of sense, or make much less sense than picking a side and seeing it through to conclusion. For instance, saying a decision to socialize elsewhere "only hurts the wait staff" is loopy. You're not withholding anything from those folks simply by walking past their place of business, not in the way you're asserting. You're simply patronizing another business with its own equally deserving-of-your-money wait staff whose majority-stakes owners have managed not to make a strident public stance that has your fellow industry members uncomfortable with going there. This bears underlining. There are people who need the money on the other side of every single decision to patronize or not patronize a business for every reason possible, from one based in an ethical choice or sympathy for another's position like this one to one based on simply liking the carpets more in one business over another. Why should the wait staff at the Hyatt not get your tip money because their boss supports a certain policy? Well, why should the wait staff at not-Hyatt not get your tip money because you drank at the Hyatt last year and the year before that? What did those not-Hyatt people ever do to you? Where are their champions? It's a made-up argument covered in a shoddy coat of freshman dorm hallway class politics. The person that argued that the Marriott's bar is too small to host enough people to be a suitable substitute may have sounded crass in comparison to the comics industry's freshly minted crew of Emma Goldmans, but that argument is at least driven by a standard that holds up to basic scrutiny. In the end it's not very surprising that people in comics make complicated a simple issue, because far too many people in comics faced with any issue at all shrug their shoulders, work like hell to come up with a wacky, left-field solution or to make cloudy the waters, and then end up doing what's most convenient for them or most flattering to their sense of self and place. Too many comics folk fight harder for the right to walk their own path than ever fight for anything that matters, if only to someone else. I expect the Hyatt's bars to be packed. Update: Since about a half-dozen have you have asked, the owner of the Hyatt does have a small ownership stake in the Marriott as well, a property he originally developed. The primary owners and operators, however, is the Host Hotels and Resorts group. As far as I know, nobody in the comics industry has expressed you extend your decision-making process to that property. Still, if you're looking to get at Doug Manchester in all his endeavors, his ownership stake may make a difference to you deciding to go there as well.

I'll be there on Friday moderating this panel: 2:00-3:00 The World of Graphic Novels--International is part of Comic-Con's name for a reason! Here's an impressive roster of worldwide talent who create graphic novels: Alex Robinson (US, Too Cool to be Forgotten), Nick Abadzis (UK, Laika) and Comic-Con special guests Rutu Modan (Israel, Exit Wounds), Eddie Campbell (Australia by way of Scotland, The Amazing Remarkable Monsieur Leotard), and Adrian Tomine (US, Shortcomings), along with our moderator, good ol' American Tom Spurgeon (comicsreporter.com) as they discuss graphic novels and why they make the world go 'round. Room 3

this is ancient, and there are better looking pieces of art on the site, but it made me laugh

* apparently, the real world is turning into a Rick Veitch Army@Love comic book. * a documentary is looking for an artist or artists trying to get work as an artist at the San Diego Con. I would have to say showing up with a camera crew would be an advantage to getting your stuff looked at. * a written article and video supplement about Mort Walker's massive collection of comics original art finally finding a home at Ohio State both answers and may raise some questions. While I think there are certainly laudatory if not heroic aspects to Walker's passion in gathering all of this material into one place and keeping it safe, there are elements of the museum's journey from conception to its final destination that I hadn't heard before and makes me wonder about certain aspects of its history. For instance, if the museum had received $5 million in corporate sponsorship, could it really have made a go in the reportedly lightly-visited Boca Raton space? Was NYC ever a serious option and do we know everything about why that fell through? When they say the material donated has to be cataloged by OSU, does that mean re-cataloged or that the material hasn't been cataloged yet? * not comics: did you know there was tabletop role-playing material based on the idea that HP Lovecraft went on to write superhero comics for Nedor? That has to be the nerdiest thing I've ever seen. Don't get me wrong, though: I swooned. * yes, comics: did you know that the author Audrey Niffenegger was doing a comic for the Guardian? * this seems quite reasonable: Dan Piraro talks about requests for use of his work, why he'll say yes to some and no to others and why you should always ask. * the retailer Brian Hibbs goes into significant detail about a forthcoming purge of material from the shelves of his store based on information gathered by a POS system he installed last year. * the writer and cartoonist Shaenon Garrity on Mother Jones' web site. * the prominent blogger and longtime industry veteran Heidi MacDonald asserts that the economic impact of Comic-Con International has been vastly under-reported by civic officials. I imagine that could be true, I don't know. On the hand I have no idea how this information is collected and it sounds like there could be oversights in what's counted. On the other hand, I know that my friends who go to CCI and to trade shows at the same facility drop a lot more money in the city when they're looking at medical equipment or marketing seminar DVDs instead of old issues of Marvel Two-In-One, and have even more money dropped on their behalf. CCI isn't a cheap experience but one of the major expenses (flying in) goes to an airline and one of the others (hotels) can be mitigated through roommates and staying only part of the show. I'll be there two of the four days this year and I doubt I'll spend $250 in San Diego itself, and that includes a room to myself and eating out twice in a restaurant because I'm old now. (No ballgame this time, though.) As might be expected, people seem to be seeing this as an issue of the city not loving convention-goers properly, which is leading to the usual calls that the show consider a move to Las Vegas, I guess because of its reputation for loving people. If you've ever been in the taxi line at McCarron and the registration line at CCI, I know the thought of doing them both in the same day just made you shudder. I prefer to keep my Vegas and my CCI separate, thank you, like chocolate cheesecake and Hendrick's Gin. Although it would be hilarious to experience one year just to see how many people tried to do without a hotel room of any kind and how many of my friends never quite made it to the exhibition hall. Also I would totally kill to shoot craps with Captain America. * I knew it. * finally, with what seems like an unusually high level of complaining going on about the direction and tenor of Comic-Con International underway despite its sold-out status a week before the 2008 show, I went looking for a white knight that might be speaking more positively of the show than expected. Here's alt-comics publisher Drawn & Quarterly with a resoundingly positive note about the forthcoming show and the convention's devotion to comics in general.

although to be fair, they don't say "dang my dingies" anymore, either. this is a throwaway Buz Sawyer panel