Welcome back to The Rundown, our daily breakdown on comic news stories we missed from the previous day. Have a link to share? Email our team at rundown@multiversitycomics.com.
– When you think about the biggest male alternative American cartoonists of the last, say, 30 years, you really can’t consider whatever list you come up with as complete without listing Dan Clowes. Chris Ware, Charles Burns, Los Bros Hernandez, Adrian Tomine…there are a lot of names to check off, but one of them has to be Clowes. And you’re going to be hearing that name a lot in 2016, as the cartoonist will release his next and longest graphic novel “Patience” in March. In support of said Clowesian science-fiction work, Fantagraphics has put together a 12-stop book tour for the entire release month so the author can take his product directly to the people who’ve been so patient waiting for it. Check out the full list at the link, as well as the neat tour poster Fantagraphics cooked up for the event.
– It looks like 2000 AD will be allowed to participate in the next Free Comic Book Day despite being mysteriously dropped from the lineup by the FCBD committee a few weeks ago. No word has been given as to why they were dropped or what changed to have them reinstated, but the British publisher will be bringing the originally announced lineup in its Silver level offering in May. We will, of course, be covering that release in detail as part of our weekly Multiver-City One column when it comes out.
– Kim O’Connor (via Zainab Ahktar’s Eisner-nominated Comics & Cola blog) takes issue with a recent NYT article praising publisher Drawn & Quarterly for its continued support of women cartoonists; specifically the claim that their catalog is almost an even split between women & men creators. Turns out, not so much. (And yes, I did add the qualifier ‘male’ to the first item on today’s list after realizing not a single female creator came to my mind as having the same level of mainstream recognition for a similar career length as the men. I know I need to fill in that blind spot in my comics knowledge, but as O’Connor points out, it’s not all my fault.)
– DC Comics’ (then called National Periodicals’) 1945 Christmas party. As Heidi MacDonald points out in her article, there’s no way to look at that B&W photo of partygoers from that era and NOT expect to see Jack Nicholson staring back at you with creepy, not-quite-human smile on his face…
– Although not here in time to use for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, if you feel compelled to sneak a little alcohol into the theater to spike your blue milk for Episode VIII, this lightsaber-hilt flask will probably help you avoid any Imperial theater staff entanglements.
