A Couple of (many comic book store) Notes of Historical Interest

A Couple of Notes of Historical Interest
* The cartoonist Russ Maheras lets the database-impaired among us know how to find the World War II service records of cartoonists and comics folk in a thread at The Comics Journal’s message board. That war and the service it required of many founding industry members plays such a huge role in the history of the comics art form in the 20th Century that it’s great to have a way to access some of that information.

* Through comics proto-blogger NeilAlien comes a brief discussion of a specific-focus historical book on the collapse of the distribution opportunities for Martin Goodman’s comic book publishing company in early 1957 that created the primordial stew from which modern Marvel Comics would later emerge. I could have sworn the book, Tales of the Implosion by Thomas Lammers, has been out for a couple of years, but I still haven’t read it, so it’s like a brand new book for me, at least.

Archaia Studios Still Positive on SFBC
Recent word that the venerable Science Fiction Book Club might be on its last legs after its dedicated employees were let go got me thinking, particularly after reading smart, knowledgeable people suggest the club will be folded into the more generalist Doubleday book club: would this have any effect on any of the more recent comics-related deals, particularly that with David Petersen’s Mouse Guard: Fall 1152? Could they be left holding a printing bill? Apparently not: Brian Petkash responded to my inquiry as follows:
“My understanding is that, while our liaison is leaving SFBC, SFBC will continue under the stewardship of another Doubleday Entertainment editor… So, no, we’re not left holding the bag on a print bill or anything. We’re still comfortable with our relationship with SFBC.”
Petkash notes that the title is featured prominently in the most recent issue of the book club’s magazine.

Happy 55th Birthday, Mike W. Barr!

Those Times When Publishing Isn’t Easy
Two different articles on publishers negotiating material that could be seen by segments of their perceived potential audience as inappropriate material popped up in the last 24 hours. Retailer Chris Butcher writes about his doubts on whether or not to publish J. Bone’s “Jett Vector” story in the Free Comic Book Day offering Comic Festival for which he’s the driving force. He ended up putting the matter into the hands of Diamond, and their review of the material, and there were no complaints. He apparently has some regrets about having gone this way. The comics business news and analysis site ICv2.com reports that Seven Seas has decided not to publish Kaworu Watashiya’s Kodomo no Jikan (which would have gone by the title Nymphet), a comedy about a student making sexual advances upon a teacher, despite previously announced plans and the publisher’s recent insistence they have every right to do so.

I don’t know that there’s anything much to be found that’s compelling in the key mechanism of either story, although the nature of the material is going to drive some interest. Given the regrettable, lingering confusion surrounding Free Comic Book Day in terms of what kind of material is desirable or that retailers are likely to make best use of, and the current ambiguous legal landscape in some states, I would imagine being rigorous about questioning your material is a smart, conscientious thing. And deciding not to publish something because the material might be funny in another culture and not your own, or in this case, might be funny in another culture and might seen as super creepy and entirely too reminiscent of recent news stories of teachers raping their students in your own making for a lot of cross people regarding your decision to publish it, well, I kind of understand how a publishing company might say no thanks to that, too. There’s no compulsory element to Free Speech issues as I understand them, let alone one that obviates the legitimacy of other concerns. Unless I’m missing something, these articles seem most noteworthy not for the decisions involved but for their transparency.

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