Posted in: Comics, Run Around | Tagged: Comics, morrie turner

Tuesday Runaround – Wee Pals Pass On

Published Tue, 28 Jan 2014 05:26:33 -0600

Last updated Tue, 28 Jan 2014 05:27:32 -0600

Comics Alliance eulogises Morrie Turner, the first black nationally syndicated cartoonist in the US.

In the early 1960s, Turner began questioning why there were no minority characters in cartoons. At the suggestion of Charles Schulz — whom he called his mentor — and comedian and social activist Dick Gregory, Turner went on to create Wee Pals. Launching at a time when convincing a newspaper to run a strip featuring minority characters was extremely difficult, Wee Pals initially only appeared in five publications. Three years later, following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., the strip would receive more widespread recognition. Three months after King's death, Wee Pals was appearing in over 100 newspapers nationwide.

DO NOT TALK ABOUT MATT FRACTION

Fight Club's Chuck Palinuk has been getting some hands on help from Matt Fraction for his Fight Club sequel comic book.

The graphic novel "script" for the Fight Club sequel has gone off to the writer Matt Fraction and to an unnamed publisher for review. Matt writes his own series, called "Sex Criminals" and does very well. He's been my go-to advisor about format and other considerations of graphic scripts. I'll be choosing an illustrator based on their response to the script. The sequel will consist of seven issues, totally more than 210 pages. Fingers crossed.

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S NOT PRINT

ComiXology updates on iOS to give readers a Wish List… and a more buttery experience.

The new much-requested feature in question is Wish List support. Now, you can create and build your list of ComiXology offerings you wish to acquire (or just be reminded of later) by tapping the new Wish List button in a title's info page. You can then access your Wish List in the Purchases section.

The latest update to Comics also adds support for Manga Fixed Format, which is a right-to-left full-page reading experience dedicated to digital manga. Note that this format is available for certain manga titles only.

Finally, the new version of Comics includes improvements to Guided View stability on iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display. "Things are looking buttery," ComiXology notes. "Digital butter."

SCOTLAND THE BRAVEHEART

Nothing like memories of wars past to rouse the general public into… buying comics.

On Dangerous Ground: Bannockburn 1314 was commissioned by the National Trust for Scotland to mark the 700th anniversary of the battle this year and goes on sale in March.

Readers of the work see Bruce stand his ground, wait until Bohun is almost upon him and then stand up in his stirrups to bring his battle-axe crashing down on de Bohun's head, splitting his helmet and his skull in two, sending shockwaves through the English ranks.

ALL THE COMIC IS A STAGE

Here's one way to create a motion comic book, in Cleveland at least. You take a comic and put it on the stage...

Comics come to life as the performers take artwork from their original graphic novel, "The Intergalactic Nemesis" Live-Action Graphic Novel, Book One: Target Earth" and remove the word balloons.

The art is projected panel-by-panel on a huge screen while three actors voice the characters. A sound effects technician, called a Foley artist, creates hundreds of noises to enhance the show while a keyboardist performs the score

JMS TELLS YOU NOTHING ABOUT HIS NEW COMIC

Comic Vine asked Joe Michael Straczynski what readers needed to know ahead of reading his new comic book The Adventures Of Apocalypse Al with Sid Kotian from Image, he told them,

''Absolutely nothing, and that's part of the fun of it. There's no prior knowledge required, it's just four issues, so readers don't need to worry about signing on for a year-long run…the last two issues come out in April, so there's no long waiting for issues. Allison Carter is a private investigator whose main beat is preventing the end of the world. To that end, she is constantly engaged in a one-woman war against the dark and sometimes ridiculously stupid forces out to try and destroy humankind.''

A NOVEL WOLVERINE

You know how we said last year that 2014's September's Wolverine #12 would be a big media-heavy gamechanging issue? Well, yesterday, CBR asked Paul Cornell about it and he called it,