Another positive review of “Hereville,” On “Broken Frontier”

This review came out the same day as the “Blog About Comics” review — but it does contain a minor spoiler, so don’t click over if you’re allergic to even small spoilers.

On Broken Frontier, Eric Lindberg writes:

Hereville also has a distinctly left-of-center approach to fantasy that I found appealing. Mirka’s stepmother Fruma challenges the view of dragons as an evil force, likening their man-eating tendencies to any other predator in nature. When confronted by a [slight spoiler deleted by Barry!] These are nice offbeat touches that contribute to the individualism of this comic and its voice.

The mixture of influences is not always a seamless transition however. The placement of fantasy elements in this setting makes it a bit difficult to pinpoint the rules of the world of Hereville. Electricity and alarm clocks co-exist with monsters out of European legend. Some characters speak of trolls as if they are commonplace, while others have never heard the term and consider them a goisch (gentile) concept of no concern. Do these people and creatures truly co-exist? Is it all in Mirka’s head? Presumably, future Hereville storyarcs will more firmly establish Mirka’s world and how it works.

Deutsch’s style of cartooning bridges the gap between old-fashioned and modern sensibilities. His elongated figures with their exaggerated puppet-like expressions brought to mind the work of E.C. Segar (creator of Popeye), adding a fun and loose sense of charm to the proceedings. The sepia tone coloring lends a timeless feel to the story while the panel layout and storytelling techniques are more contemporary. This combination is an appropriate choice for the subject manner, reflecting the mix of Old World and New in the characters’ culture.

There’s more — head over to B.F. to read the whole review.

My first reaction: Whoo-hooo, I got compared to E.C. Segar! The comparison flatters me more than I deserve, but I don’t care — because I love Segar! (I have a reproduction of a pre-Popeye “Thimble Theater” strip on my wall).

My squeeeee!!-ness aside, it was a good review — not because it was positive (although I’m of course happy for that), but because it went deeper than just thumbs up or down. Thanks, Eric.

“How Mirka Got Her Sword,” Page 22

Fruma has all sorts of odd knowledge.

I’m very happy with the colors in the first panel of this page. When I originally drew the panel, I did a ton of cross-hatching on Fruma’s right hand, and then I took 90% of it out when I colored.

“Hereville” Reviewed on “A Blog About Comics”

Getting a webcomic reviewed is more difficult than I would have imagined. I even made a preview website with the entire story, so reviewers could read the whole thing before making a judgement.

When I think about it, though, it makes sense that it’s hard: There are tens of thousands of webcomics out there, and precious few reviewers. I sent requests to a lot of reviewers asking them to consider critiquing “Hereville,” but until today, no dice. (I’m still hoping, though.)

Which brings me to some news: Deniselle of A Blog About Comics has posted a review of “Hereville” — the very first review of the complete “How Mirka Got Her Sword” story that’s ever been published. I’m feeling a bit gushy about that.

And it’s a positive review (phew!), fairly lengthy with some interesting analysis. Deniselle read a preview copy of the whole first story, so she’s read some stuff regular “Hereville” readers haven’t seen yet, but don’t worry, she was careful to avoid spoilers.

Mirka’s fixation with being a dragon-slayer is unexplained, which is interesting. It seems to arise from her personality, not be some fate cast upon her (Lord of the Rings style) nor a burden she has to come to terms with. She wants to be a dragon slayer because it’s who she is. Whether or not she’s meant to slay dragons is interestingly ambiguous.

Please head on over to Deniselle’s blog to read the whole thing. 🙂

Sketchblogging: Self-Portrait As Muppet

“How Mirka Got Her Sword,” page 21

“Hereville” Comic Book Convention Banner

This is a design for the banner that I’ll be hanging behind my table at Stumptown, where I’ll be premiering the dead-tree edition of Hereville. The banner is planned to be eight feet wide by three feet high (gulp). I’ll be hanging it from a mounting device I’m building myself out of PVC pipe. It feels more than a little embarrassing — there’s nothing in the world I hate more than selling myself — but I’ve decided I really want to go all-out on this.

So the first question is, what do folks think of the design? It’s really just a variation of the webpage header.

And my second question is, how high off the ground should I get this? The plan I downloaded is for an eight foot high display, so the banner would start at five feet off the ground and end eight feet off the ground. Is that high enough, or should be using a nine foot or ten foot plan instead?

Any advice would be appreciated.

UPDATE: Here’s version two:

“How Mirka Got Her Sword,” page 20

The gentleman on this page isn’t Mirka’s father, by the way; he’s her grandfather.

Mirka’s pop is traveling this week and so doing Shabbot with relatives. But he will be a character in the next “Hereville” story after this one.

I have a really hard time drawing manmade objects. The wine glass here, which I’m not terribly happy with, took me ages to draw. The candle was fun to draw, though.

Podcastle Premieres!

PodCastle is the world’s first fantasy audio magazine. Each week we bring you short stories across the spectrum of fantasy from leading authors and new discoveries. Like our sister podcasts, Escape Pod and Pseudopod, PodCastle is entirely free to listen and share.

(This is a paying market, so any fantasy writers reading this, take note.)

Podcastle is edited by fantasy writer Rachel Swirsky, who is one of my best friends, and whose help and input on “Hereville” has been utterly invaluable.

The premiere podcast features one of the biggest names in fantasy fiction, and a short story I was once obsessed with: “Come, Lady Death” by Peter. S. Beagle.

Court Awards Superman Co-Creator’s Estate Half The Copyright To The First Superman Story

Quoting Journalista:

Last Wednesday, U.S. district judge Stephen G. Larson issued a summary judgment in the lawsuit between DC Comics/Warner Brothers Entertainment and the estate of Superman co-creator Jerome “Jerry” Siegel, giving half of the copyright to the original Superman story published in the 1938 Action Comics #1 back to the Siegel estate and backdating said ownership to 1999, when the Siegels filed notice of termination. Jeff Trexler broke the news on Friday afternoon and posted a copy of Larson’s full 72-page ruling to his website; on Saturday, the New York Times and the Bloomberg wire service had both issued news stories covering the landmark ruling. Both Jeff Trexler and Brian Cronin have crafted FAQs answering basic questions, and Andy Khoury discusses the judgment with intellectual-property lawyer Brendan McFeely. The best reading on the subject is really Judge Larson’s summary judgment itself, however: It’s an entertaining and informative document that contains a full history of the creation of Superman, a summary of how the case has progressed to date and of course includes Larson’s erudite resolution of several important issues involved in the case. Oh yeah, and in the appendix, a color reproduction of the original Superman story itself. Hey kids! Comics!

The heirs of Joe Schuster, the other co-creator of Superman, could get ownership of the other half of the copyright by 2013.

More from Journalista:

I wish I could remember where I read it — I’m tempted to credit either Neal Adams or R. Fiore — but one of the most damning things I ever read about the Siegel and Shuster legacy was that it was a refutation of the American Dream. One of the defining principles of the United States, after all, has always been the notion that regardless of the circumstances from which you began in life, if you came up with the right idea or hit the right motherlode you would profit from it accordingly, and pass the wealth along to your family when you died. I don’t know if the “rags to riches” story was invented by an American, but it was almost certainly perfected by one.

The story of how Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster brought Superman to DC Comics, and how DC subsequently treated them, turns this notion on its head. $130 and a job — that’s what Siegel and Shuster got, and they only had the latter so long as they were willing to play ball.[…]

Abhay Khosla refers to all of this as “the original sin of comics,” and he’s quite correct to do so. Arguments that Siegel and Shuster “should have known better,” circulating on comments threads all weekend, should be met with derision by right-thinking people. (”But — but Bob Kane¹ knew better,” said the strawman standing conveniently nearby. So? Bob Kane’s father was a successful East Coast lawyer. Siegel and Shuster were average kids from Ohio. They didn’t know copyright law from diamond mining.)

There’s lots more good stuff at Journalista, so go read.

Unfortunately, the precedent set by this case — even if it’s not overturned — is, due to a technicality, not likely to be applicable to comic books other than Superman. And exactly what this will mean in the long run is still up in the air.

But, symbolically, this is a wonderful victory for creators’ rights.

1. Bob Kane co-created “Batman.” [↩]

Sketchblogging: Sad Faced Man and Spatula

The Sad-Faced Man is a character who has shown up in a lot of my doodles over the years, and appeared a few times in Pre-Structuralist Funnies.

I’ve also frequently doodled anthropomorphic spatulas and coffee cups. I have no idea why.