#Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

genericpuff · 1 year

Text

I WANNA TALK ABOUT THE FUCKING EISNERS-

i've been finding lately that there are so many topics i still wanna talk about concerning LO and its development and they just don't happen because i get distracted or busy and my brain is like "ok we're just gonna pretend we've already talked about it even though we haven't" JFKDLSAJFDASKLFJSLKA

Let's talk about the Eisners and LO's recent 'win'.

I've already briefly mentioned in previous posts that LO has had a lot of its awards and accolades bought for it. This is especially true for both the NYT Bestseller label (seriously, none of those labels are ever earned, it's not some top 100 list that you compete on, it goes to whoever is willing to pay for it or whoever an editorial column wants to highlight) and, of course, the Eisner Award, which is not exactly an award judged by the industry's finest (the judges this year were made up of largely comic book shop owners and librarians).

But we're not here to talk about that. I wanna talk about what happened after LO won its second Eisner.

First off, the fact that it can be nominated at all when it doesn't even really fit the criteria for their submissions is sketchy at best:

see: "new, professionally produced long-form original comics work posted online in 2022." LO is not 'new'. Sure, it has new episodes, but I don't think that really follows the spirit of what they meant by 'new'. The Eisner doesn't seem like an award that should be granted to the same series twice, is my point, and that's one of the many complaints brought up in the absolute dressing down that LO got in its announcement post on the Webtoons Official IG page.

Of course, you can see for yourself right here.

But for the sake of fun, let's share some of the excerpts here.

(and yes I'm sharing a LOT of these because frankly I don't trust WT to not delete them in an attempt to hide all the shit that's being thrown at their precious "baby")

While names have been censored to protect the users involve, I will say one thing - this isn't some attempt from antiLO/ULO members to brigade the series' win, there are other comic creators in this discussion as well from the Canvas section who aren't pleased with seeing LO win another Eisner when there are multiple new series from this past year alone which deserve more attention than they're getting. Again, see for yourself if you click on the link above, the vast majority of comments on this post are expressing their disappointment and you can tell from how they've been sitting at the top while all the positive comments are being 'pushed' to the bottom - the like counts say it all.

All of this, paired with the fact that LO didn't win a SINGLE user-voted award during the Webtoonies, goes to show that the Webtoons audience is over LO. They're done with it. It's not relevant anymore, the only ones who still keep up with it are the stans and those holding on in the hopes that the story gets around to resolving the SA plotline and gets its TV show (which I've also mentioned has a real possibility of not happening, at least not now when it would count the most LMAO)

It still gets more likes than any other series on the platform (for now) but you can tell during its current hiatus that when LO is out of sight, it's out of people's minds - despite many of these episodes now being weeks old, their like counts aren't going up, no new readers are being pulled in. And the fact that a series with over 6 million subscribers can barely scratch 100k likes nowadays is... really something.

And that's on its free to read episodes, it's FP episodes - where views count the most because it's where LO makes its money and initial views - aren't even a fraction of what the free episodes often take well over a week to gain at this point.

Episode 252:

And the midseason finale, 253:

Compare it to Down to Earth which gets 70k likes on average on its free episodes (though its current new FP is sitting at the 1k mark), is LO still bringing in higher numbers than other series? Yes. But it's clearly falling to a point where it's going to be on par with every other comic on the platform in no time. I can't even imagine what it's going to be like after it comes back from this poorly-timed hiatus, when all of its official fan groups have also been shuttered preventing people from staying in touch within their own fandom.

Awards like the Webtoonies are, while largely just for street cred, still audience-based, and I really hope the fact that the people have spoken not once, but twice through their engagement with the platform - both through the comment section on LO's Eisner win and the votes in favor of other series in the Webtoonies - will be a major wake-up call to WT that they can't keep trying the same things over and over again expecting different results. They can't keep stuffing money into LO as if advertising or awards are the reason LO isn't pulling in the numbers it used to. They can't keep pretending that LO still has the merit and credibility that it once had 5 years ago.

It's like that comparison from Super Eyepatch Wolf talking about why you shouldn't take advice on how to be "successful" from Youtubers who got famous 5+ years ago:

"Say you decide you want to become a carpenter, and particularly, how to build a nice chair. Think about the kind of person you'd want to learn that skill from. Would it be from someone who has built nice chairs every day for 20 years? Or would it be the guy who built one nice chair five years ago out of a special kind of wood that doesn't exist anymore, who has no experience with the kind of wood available to you now?"

LO is a byproduct of a version of Webtoons that no longer exists. It was fortunate enough to join the Canvas section when the Canvas section was still only lightly populated, before WT started trying to sell the idea that anyone could become "rich" on their platform (an idea largely perpetuated by creators LIKE RACHEL who only became big because WT threw all of their money at them), before Greek myth comics became commonplace (again, something that's a consequence of Rachel/Lore Olympus) and before the romance genre became largely filled with problematic "dark" romances (again, see Lore Olympus).

Do you see the pattern of what I'm talking about here? A lot of what Webtoons became known for was a byproduct of Lore Olympus and series like it, because those series did phenomenally well, due to being in the right place at the right time, so WT went "hey, cool, this makes us lots of money! Let's do more of that!" Obviously this isn't to say that Lore Olympus is the root of all evil here OR that it didn't have its own merit back in the day, but if you make a series that blows every other series out of the water in stats, it's only natural for a company to want to pursue more series and story tropes like it in the hopes that it'll replicate exactly what comics like LO did, completely misunderstanding why LO did well in the first place. At the time, LO's art was unique for the platform, and it was tackling a story that was extremely popular on platforms like Tumblr so it naturally gained a crowd.

But that was five years ago. Since then, the WT audience climate has changed dramatically, as it always does every few years; and LO and WT haven't kept up. We went through a phase of BL, isekai, and now WT seems to be in an odd limbo because it's still clinging to a series from three whole lifetimes ago, especially now with so many of its other signature series either finally ending (True Beauty) or walking away from the platform entirely (Let's Play).

At this point, Lore Olympus is a chair that was nice five years ago, but has since started to fall apart - its paint is chipping, and its legs don't stand up so well anymore - and WT is still trying to sell it you as the exact same chair - with cheap new paint and a few bits and bobs attached to try and convince you that the chair is new - but it's long past its prime. This isn't to say that the chair itself doesn't deserve to exist, just that it shouldn't be given so much proprietary advertising and attention when there are so many other works on the platform that deserve to be uplifted and seen.

LO was good for its era, it was successful for a reason, but we're halfway through 2023 and it's painfully obvious that the comic and the platform's audience is ready to move on to new territories. Webtoons just needs to learn to let go.

#lore olympus critical #lo critical #antiloreolympus #anti lore olympus #essay post

184 notes · View notes

thewebcomicsreview · 1 year

Note

Thoughts on the "comicsbrokeme" hashtag on Twitter?

Working in comics sucks, especially working for a publisher. Lumberjanes, an Eisner Award nominated comic that's getting turned into an HBO series, paid their artists less than I pay Carlos for Saffron and Sage. And that's not me humblebragging, the rates are that fucking low. If you're getting into comics you're either working for terrible wages and terrible conditions for a publisher, or you're pouring your time and money into a fire pit. Or you're straight-up getting your comics stolen.

Personally, I don't have much "industry" insight. The only job I've had in comics was writing Legend of the Hare for Drowemos before he gave up on it, and I was lucky enough to be allowed to keep the IP when he gave up on it (mainly because it's worthless, but it's not worthless to me). No company in the world would hire me to write a spin-off comic and then let me keep the rights when it failed, and I owe Drowemos a lot for that son of a bitch getting me into this fucking deathtrap of a career.

I'm extremely lucky to have a decentish job that I can afford making comics as an expensive hobby instead of getting into Warhammer like all the other fat middle-aged white dudes I know, and I'm proud of the small amount of success I've achieved in actually having a comic I wrote published in a physical book on my shelf, but the amount I've spent on comic art over the years could easily have been a car, or a down payment on a house. And if "get a full-time job and then spend hundreds of dollars a month or spend 20 hours a week drawing it yourself on top of the full-time job in order to earn less than $50/mo. in patreon revenue" sounds like a pretty pathetic result, consider that I'm literally in the top 1% of comics creators. That's not even a joke. It's not just that comics won't make you rich, it won't even be worth the time you put in, at least not monetarily.

I am this fucking close to quitting, and I've been this fucking close to quitting for the last five years, but I want to finish Saffron and Sage so I'll probably do that and then, like, get into making visual novels or something where the art budget goes further. There's a reason so many webcomic artists jump ship to like children's books or animation. There's nothing out there, man. There's no living to be earned. You're making graffiti on the bathroom stalls in Chernobyl and if you're very very lucky there'll be a dozen people in the bathroom with you hooting and hollering at your dumb jokes. And if you want to survive in this business you have to be okay with there not being a business, with making art for its own sake and knowing that even breaking even will be a true miracle.

#ComicsBrokeMe #I'm trying to end this on a happy note #Pretty hard to do though

112 notes · View notes

thereasonsimbroke · 12 days

Text

John Cassaday, the esteemed comic book artist and co-creator of #Planetary, passed away at the age of 52 after being admitted to the ICU in New York.

His sister, Robin, has confirmed the news and asked for prayers. Cassaday was celebrated for his detailed and design-focused artwork, winning multiple Eisner Awards for his work on Astonishing X-Men, Planetary, and I Am Legion. He collaborated with top creators such as Warren Ellis throughout his career and significantly contributed to #Marvel, #DCComics, and the French comics market.

His passing is a significant loss to the comics industry and those who knew him.

#john cassaday #X-Men #comics #comic books #Marvel

3 notes · View notes

alexissara · 9 months

Text

THE Comics Of The Year 2023

I'm Alexis Sara, and if you don't know me then you should know I am an Eisner [among several other award] winning comics writer and I eventually kinda left behind comics because of a massive feeling of burn out and a lack of hope for the industry. However, I utterly adore the medium and I do enjoy comics still even if mostly in indie form or Manga. Manga of the year is a separate post since I just read more Manga and I wanted to talk about more comics overall so this section is all non manga stuff from Webcomics to graphic novels to single issue type deals, everything I read is up for consideration.

Extreme Venomverse #4 Necroko story

This story makes me even more mad than I am every day about the state of the public domain. Stan Lee is dead, he doesn't need Spider-man money but Marvel will for many many many more years hoard the amazing ideas made by so many other people that relate to spider-man and even when Spider-man enters the public domain Disney will sue people for using any part of spider-man that doesn't come from the debut time and is still with in their copyright. So an amazing character like Nercroko is stuck at the whims of some editor to see if the creators can bring her back, for how long they can bring her back, they get to decide how gay she is allowed to be, how violent, if the story fits their brand image and if a random event has her erased from the timeline or something to fuel a mans pain or something. Which is to say fuck Marvel comics, don't buy their stuff but I read this story and it's really fucking good, 12/10 it's not really worth buying Extreme Venomverse cuz the other stories are mid but as fuck but this little short story if you could find it at retail value for a single issue of Venomverse #4 pick it up for sure. It's a venom magical girl who is gay, just great, perfect, brilliant, inspirational.

IDW Sonic

You expect to see the sapphics from me and there here, for real, but I really enjoy this series in general. Whisper and Tangle are my main draw but I did enjoy Sonic video games a lot when I was younger so the characters, designs, etc are always something I just like seeing. The IDW comics bring a great consistent art style that makes the world of sonic feel very alive, stylish an cool. The new characters are all people I want to show up as playable in new sonic games and the story lines all feel like they would be exciting to see in a video game. These comics are really well done and while it could be more explicit in allowing it's original characters to be queer [I understand main game characters not being able to have romance to give the game devs space] it's still a good time.

Ladykillers

I love when the lesbians are on an adventure, when they are poly, when they are silly, and we got it all here. Ladykillers is a silly D&D inspired webcomic that has these cute little dumbasses go on quests and get into trouble. It starts pretty one shotty and eventually gets into a continuous narrative. If you loved Bauldr's Gate but wished it was just about like three homoerotic girls getting into silly trouble, this one is for you.

My Dragon Girlfriend

My Dragon Girlfriend every year is a top series for me. The release format of release makes each update a very small dose of a larger narrative but these little romances are all compelling and sweet and fun filled with silly little sapphics. While the newest couple added in is the one I am least compelled by I still enjoyed them. The art is really cute and sweet, the way emotion is portrayed is handled really well, Country really knows how to capture emotion within the medium and masters making good use out of all the little details.

Grand Slam Romance

I don't like sports but if lesbian magical girls played soft ball I would have to convert to being the number ones sports girly. The messy lesbian drama here is so good and the jokes are really great, when I grabbed this I kinda worried it be YA toned which typically doesn't sit well with me but luckily this is in fact adult fiction for adults that just has a strong sense of whimsy. It's a really great read and I hope a lot more people check it out because it's super good and even has a follow up book coming out.

SpellAstra

These lesbians have issues and I am so fucking here for it. We got a trio of queer witches casting spells, fighting monsters, etc who are all also teachers for a school of other witches. One of the party turns into a demon if her seal is broken which causes her to get all violent and feral, one has a magical artifact tied to a bigger play happening across the universes of the world and the final is holding secrets she doesn't want to share. From there their issues run into each other, they deal with new problems they cause, their love lives get complicated and we find out the truth of all the messy lesbian fun that is unleashed between them. The translation is sometimes a little wonky but if you can forgive a self published self translation to English for sometimes saying words a little wrong but still understandably then damn there just isn't really a story like SpellAstra I've read.

Mage & Demon Queen

After following this series for so many years it finally finished. This action comedy yuri series is fucking amazing from start to finish a fun time with some of the best jokes across all of comics for nerdy little sapphics like me. I do think near the end of the series we spend too much time with the men of the cast who simply were not the draw for me at all but they got a lot of panel time but outside of that small preference so much of this series is so perfect it's hard to even fault the parts that are a little less great.

Pink Sugar

What a fucking book, what a queer gift that this exists, that we live in a world where this is being released on webtoon [and a ton of other places] gives me hope for queer art and art in general. This story is lesbian in the deepest ways, with the diversity of lesbians that I want to see. Masc Non Binary Lesbians, bigger fem lesbians, trans lesbians, all falling in love with each other in these gloriously sweet ways. This series is truly queer in the most real sense. The presentation of the afterlife is innovative and fun. the comedy is great, the chemistry between all four of this polycule is great, the romantic moments are super sweet, the art's fantastic, the pacing is great and all of that lends to some really fucking heart breaking moments to as we get into the deep feelings of these dead women. This is one of the best stories being told right now and maybe ever. I love Pink Sugar, I beg of you to check it out. It's currently kickstarting a physical version if your reading this near release of this post then you should go back it. You can read it for free, if you like it, back it.

If you want to help me enjoy more art then consider checking out my Patreon or Ko-fi and giving me a little bit of cash so I can do more of this kind of writing but also like make lots of my own art, art is hard to make and costs money and like maintain my chronically ill and trans body also takes money so anything helps, thank you. If you want more details on any of these I do have reviews for many of the pieces of art above but you can also let me know you want more and maybe I'll write more.

16 notes · View notes

downthetubes · 1 year

Text

British creators among Eisner Awards 2023 winners

Our quick guide to the winners of this year's Eisner Awards, including links to most of the books or projects featured

View On WordPress

#Awards #downthetubes News #Eisner Awards #Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou #Sean Phillips #Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards #Zoe Thorogood

1 note · View note

ljaesch · 2 months

Text

My Picture Diary Manga Wins Eisner Award

Comic-Con International has announced the winners for the 2024 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards. Maki Fujiwara’s My Picture Diary (translated by Ryan Holmberg) won the award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia. The following manga were also nominated in the category: #DRCL midnight children (based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula) by Shin’ichi Sakamoto (translated by Caleb…

#manga #My Picture Diary Book #Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards

0 notes

dropintomanga · 1 year

Text

Thinking About the “Othering” of Japanese Media

For those who keep up with Japanese video games, you may have heard comments from a prominent Japanese video game producer about how a certain term labeling a video game genre felt discriminatory in his own eyes. A recent Polygon article about that term made me think about how the Western media has “othered” Japanese pop culture media for as long as I remembered.

The producer I’m talking about is Final Fantasy XIV and XVI producer, Naoki Yoshida (known as Yoshi-P to his fans). Back in February 2023 in an interview, Yoshi-P said that the term “JRPG” (short for “Japanese RPG”) was considered discriminatory to him and his peers in the Japanese video game industry. Polygon took a look at how Japanese RPGs and JRPGs became a thing in the late ‘90s (starting with Final Fantasy VII’s North American release in 1997) and how media outlets in the West never seemed to take them too seriously. Even worse, the outlets shoved Japanese developers into a sub-category they never asked to be a part of once Japanese RPG popularity started to wane in the mid-2000s’.

After reading the article, I actually thought about manga and its perception when I first started reading comics. When I first discovered what manga was back in 1995, I learned about Ghost in the Shell from an issue of Wizard Magazine (a North American-based magazine highly dedicated to Western comics). The first thing that came to mind when I read what Wizard wrote was that it had a cybersex scene and very adult in nature. My mind was somewhat blown since I was in 7th grade at the time. Now that I think about it, almost 30 years later, I wonder if Wizard was trying to say that Japanese creators were super-perverted compared to Western creators. I still remember a non-fan a friend of mine met at Otakon one year who asked “Isn’t anime sexual?” when inquiring bout anime.

With regards to manga, for most of its history in the overall comics world, it has been othered in the U.S. due to how successful it’s been in reaching out to “non-traditional” comics-reading audiences. Statements like “Oh, it’s just a fad!” and “Manga doesn’t have dedicated buyers (i.e. adults with disposable income) like Western comics does!” were thrown to discredit manga’s popularity. Christopher Butcher (of Mangasplaining/TCAF fame) talked about this in a 2015 article on his website, which still holds some truth today. Even though manga sales have peaked around the pre-vaccine COVID time period, they are steady today. New York Comic-Con in 2022 had a substantial anime/manga presence compared to years past. Anime and manga can’t be ignored any longer.

Yet I know that some things haven’t changed in industry recognition. I will use the Eisner Awards as an example. For those who don’t know, it’s a prestigious awards ceremony that happens around San Diego Comic-Con every year and honors the best in comics. However, their recognition of manga is spotty. There has been recent criticism towards the Eisner committee for recognizing only the “hot” manga creators (i.e. the ones with best-selling manga titles on book charts). The best example I can give is Junji Ito. A lot of his works are nominated despite there being better works worthy of recognition out there. There has been some criticism in the manga circle I’m in about how Eisner judges/representatives don’t seem to take the time to explore the greater breadth of what manga has to offer in its new golden age.

Of course, when awards ceremonies like the Academy Awards don’t really seem to care much about praising Japanese pop culture media, what hope is there, right?

Which brings me to a point that the Polygon article elaborates on the West’s insistence on particular views of Japan.

“It’s clear that the mainstream only courts a specific idea of Japan as being acceptable — often reinterpretations of feudal Japan, largely spanning from the 1500s to late 1800s, when the samurai were still part of Japanese society.“

I do notice that Japan is supposed to be this “quirky” and “weird” place with wild imagination. If somehow a Japanese title has themes common in Western media/culture, but lacks the exotic style Westerners prefer, it’s sometimes heavily ignored in the mainstream eye. I don’t know. What do you guys think?

Polygon does mention that we’re living in some really good times with regards to Japanese video games being popular again. Many fans, including myself, know that too well. I enjoyed gaming again due to the variety of Japanese-developed titles that came out since 2016 (the start of the Japanese video game industry revival). I see parallels in manga and anime reception too. All of Japanese pop culture media is celebrated overseas. Fans that consume all things Japanese are living through amazing times.

That doesn’t mean that it’s going to last forever. I do know at some point, Western media will find new ways to scrutinize Japanese media and our time in the spotlight will fade again. Some degree of othering will always happen due to human nature and I know that we can use that term for positive purposes. Manga is about how “others” that are different from the norm can become celebrated by the world. Reading this post about manga reminds me that comics of any kind can cover any topic imaginable and definitely be made for “other” people to read.

#othering #Japanese pop culture #manga #anime #video games #Japanese video games

27 notes · View notes

graphicpolicy · 2 months

Text

SDCC 2024: Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award Finalists Revealed

SDCC 2024: Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award Finalists Revealed #sdcc #sdcc2024

The nominees for the 2024 Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award have been announced. The recipient will be revealed on Friday, July 26 during the Eisner Awards Ceremony. The award acknowledges and highlights the important role comic retailers play in the industry. They’re a vital link in getting comics from the creators and publishers to the public. Congrats to all. This year’s nominees…

#awards #comic books #Comics #retailers #san diego comic-con #sdcc #spirit of comics retailer award

2 notes · View notes

mariacallous · 1 year

Text

On the surface, Comic-Con International 2023 looked like it did in years past. Throngs of fans, many in costume, crowded intersections beneath glossy advertisements for television shows dozens of stories high. Inside the convention center, people inched through the packed exhibition floor, lining up for exclusive merchandise and collectibles and work from their favorite artists. Across the convention’s many panel sites, experts discussed a wide range of pop culture and genre fiction topics. Some attendees played tabletop games; others met for anime-viewing sessions. Comic artists and publishers gathered for the Eisners, their industry’s most prestigious award.

But a trip into Hall H Saturday afternoon underscored the strangeness of this year’s convention, which fell two and a half months into the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike and just a week into the parallel strike from the film and television actors of the Screen Actors Guild—American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA). In an ordinary year, Hall H’s 6,100 seats would have been filled by people who’d literally waited all day (or night) to get inside, and networks and studios would have shown them exclusive footage accompanied by A-list talent onstage—a rare opportunity for fans and the entertainment industry to face each other directly. This year, you could simply walk into the partly empty Hall H; at the Star Trek presentation, entertainment journalist Scott Mantz stood alone at the dais, queuing up sizzle reels and calling out absent actors’ names for rounds of applause. In that room, it was glaringly obvious that this was a San Diego Comic-Con without Hollywood.

There have, of course, been many SDCCs without Hollywood—the “comic” in its name is a reminder of its origins as the Golden State Comic Book Convention, which a few hundred people first attended in 1970. Over the decades, the event’s scope steadily expanded, but the studios and big genre franchises only began to dominate the space in the past decade and a half. That dominance defined the convention’s role in the entertainment industry in turn: a place for trailer drops and major announcements, and for many industry-side people, a chance to see a physical embodiment of “fandom,” even if only a tiny slice of fan culture is represented there.

Some of Hollywood’s major players have been pulling back from SDCC since the height of the corporate saturation in the mid-2010s; Star Wars, for example, hasn’t had much of a presence in years, as Disney shifted fan-facing activity to its own events like Star Wars Celebration and D23. But this year, with the writers already striking and a SAG-AFTRA strike looming, many studios and networks began to cancel their scheduled programming; when the actors’ strike officially began and SAG-AFTRA forbade members from doing any promotional work, the SDCC schedule became a sea of cancellations. In advance of the convention, there was speculation that Hollywood’s withdrawal might mean a return to its roots—that perhaps comics could once again be the star of the show.

But even in absentia, Hollywood still hung over a good deal of the convention, which is as much an entertainment-industry event as a fan-oriented one. Many WGA and SAG-AFTRA members have spoken about this year’s strike motivations as “existential”: the feeling that this is a major inflection point, for the entertainment industry specifically and for workers broadly.

That feeling was palpable in San Diego, and not just from the actors and writers who attended in a non-promotional capacity. Since the strikes began, the studios have seemingly worked to pit fans against the people who make the things they love, framing delays as the fault of the striking writers, rather than unwillingness from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the studios, to give writers a deal they find fair. Online, this framing has been largely rejected by fans, and that spirit seemed to carry over to SDCC too. There was a sense that an unusual—and yes, for some, disappointing—Comic-Con was an absolutely necessary one, because the future of entertainment media on all sides of the equation was at stake.

On Friday morning, a group wearing familiar-looking black shirts set up shop at an intersection across from the convention center that is usually occupied by network-sponsored promoters or a particularly persistent group of protestors who shout at people that they’re going to hell. This morning’s group was made up of some of the more than 1,000 San Diego-based members of SAG-AFTRA, who, in lieu of joining the picket lines outside studios and the offices of streaming services in Los Angeles, were raising awareness about the strike outside a mostly actor-free Comic-Con.

“When I was a young man, we were celebrating the superheroes in comic books. Now, because of Hollywood, they’ve leapt off the page and onto the big screen,” says Lou Slocum, who has lived in San Diego since 1972 and became a member of SAG in 1995. “Normally they would be here and they would be celebrated. The closest we can get are the superheroes in cosplay right now.”

Slocum stresses the group’s support for Comic-Con and its attendees, and he makes it clear the SAG-AFTRA gathering isn’t a picket line and is not intended to impede anyone’s access to the convention. He expresses sympathy for anyone who might have been expecting to see their favorite actor or footage from their favorite show, but he hasn’t met with resistance from fans—on the contrary, he says, they’ve been greeted with a great deal of support from passers-by. “The people that I have met today have been all thumbs-up, V for victory, hugs,” he says. “We love it, and we’re very pleasantly surprised.”

While some panels and programming didn’t acknowledge the strike at all, plenty did—and some even focused on it. Slocum began his career in voice-over, which he says is like “the canary in the coal mine” right now, a sentiment stressed in a panel on the future of artificial intelligence in entertainment hosted by the National Association of Voice Actors. Panelists described the immediate threat to not just their livelihoods, but their own personal autonomy, as companies and fans alike use AI tools to manipulate their voices without their consent. (SAG-AFTRA national executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, who’d joined the panel, got a big laugh when he compared the situation to Ursula and Ariel in The Little Mermaid.)

The WGA shares different but equally pressing worries about AI, as well as broader concerns about the future of film and television writing. The strike served as an intermittent joke during a long-running television writers’ panel Saturday morning. “We really can’t talk about anything, because of the strike, so we’re going to keep these introductions going for an hour and a half,” moderator Mark A. Altman quipped halfway through the bios of the 11 panelists—but the vast majority of the conversation focused on how deeply concerned these established writers were about younger writers starting out in the industry.

“The whole point of the strike is we’re fighting for the future, and the future of our craft,” says C. J. Hoke, a writer who attended the panel and who became a member of the WGA last summer. “Seeing experienced showrunners talking about that and really rooting for the next generation is inspiring, and just encourages me to stay on the line with everyone.” Aside from the backing of members of her own profession, Hoke observed a wide range of solidarity at the con, which she characterized as a “swelling from the ground level.”

“It’s been wonderful seeing people on the floor with ‘We support the WGA’ signs and buttons and shirts,” she says. “I think everyone here really cares about the storytelling, and really supports the writers.”

Karina Montgomery was one con-goer with that sort of button—hers read “This Character Wouldn’t Exist Without WGA and SAG-AFTRA Labor,” which she wore over an impeccable cosplay of Helly R. from Severance. Montgomery, who also moderates the Severance fan Discord and contributes to the Severance wiki, began the week worrying about confusing messaging from SAG-AFTRA on fan activity, particularly over whether cosplay was considered scabbing. (The organization has since clarified that its guidance on cosplay was intended only for paid influencers, not ordinary fans.) “I was very happy to get to show up,” Montgomery says. “But I wanted to still show that I was supporting, so I designed this button.”

For many cosplayers, conventions like SDCC are about both creators and fellow fans. “The whole thing is connecting with people who love the shows and support the shows and want to be seen by the creators of the shows,” says Montgomery. “To be like, ‘Look, we see what you do, and we love it.’”

To her, solidarity for the strikes was more important than a desire to cosplay—but cosplay could be a sort of solidarity too. “I'm gonna love a show that I love regardless of whether it’s canceled,” Montgomery says. “But if, for example, it became a scab activity to cosplay, I would not. I want to support the people who make the show that I love—I’m a booster. If I’m supporting the AMPTP by dressing like this, I don’t want to dress like this.”

But many creators weren’t even at the con to see these shows of solidarity. Others felt the absence of fan-creator interactions acutely. It was veteran TV writer Javier Grillo-Marxuach’s 22nd Comic-Con, and one in which he would have, under normal circumstances, promoted his writing on the new season of The Witcher. (Full disclosure: Grillo-Marxuach is a friend of this writer.) “I would love to do that work for Netflix right now,” he says. “For a lot of us, those are the goodies. You write a show and you get to come here and meet the fans, and they’re excited, and maybe you show them the show, and they recognize who’s the person who wrote that show.”

Grillo-Marxuach described the “gaps where Hollywood should be”—for all the talk of the event potentially returning to its comics-first roots, he noted that the film and television industry has undeniably altered SDCC a great deal. And those missing pieces were noticeable.

Because it’s in those connections between the people who love stuff and the people who make the stuff they love that so much of SDCC rests, from the fans cheering for the biggest studio presentations in Hall H to the indie comic artist signing their work on the exhibition floor. The event is at its heart a consumerist one, and in attendees’ quests for material objects, that human connection is often diminished—the relationship is often boiled down to fan and corporation, with someone to do the selling in the middle.

In a normal year, SDCC puts live human faces on both sides of the fan-creator divide—and this year, those human faces helped contextualize the strike, giving nonstriking attendees a firsthand view on the struggles facing entertainment industry workers. Both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA have raised alarms about a future in which studio and streaming executives steadily whittle away the number of people making movies and television shows, using AI to permanently remove them from the equation. It’s not hard to imagine a world in which the fan-corporate relationship is the only one left in that chain.

Fans also understand that the writers’ and actors’ struggles are directly entwined with their own. “Genre fans tend to be very aware of the writers, very aware of what the talent does, and they’re also very aware of how much they have to pay to actually see the things they want to watch,” says Grillo-Marxuach. “That financial sting puts them in a similar place to the writers. And a lot of the time, they feel like they're getting nickel-and-dimed to death, too, on their viewing, and I think that creates a lot of solidarity with us.”

But many fans are also workers, and they can see how these strikes echo their own job concerns. SAG-AFTRA’s Slocum cites parallel labor movements brewing across the country, from fellow entertainment workers like animation artists and members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees to Starbucks baristas and UPS drivers. “I really feel we're at the beginning of a middle-class stand in this country,” he says. Grillo-Marxuach echoes those sentiments: “One of the reasons people are so sympathetic to us is that the problems of writers as labor mirror the problems of labor as labor right now.”

While the strikes seem likely to stretch on in the near term, it seems unlikely that next year’s Comic-Con will be much similar to this one. But the strikes that utterly altered this year’s event will certainly define its future—and the future of the entertainment industry on the whole. Many fans who were already invested in their favorite shows and films now care just as deeply about the labor conditions under which those shows and films were made. Their consciousness, Slocum says, has been given a raise.

18 notes · View notes

gorogues · 6 months

Text

Spoilers for comics in June!

These are from the official solicits for that month, which you can see in full at Adventures In Poor Taste.

THE FLASH #10 Written by SIMON SPURRIER Art and cover by RAMÓN PÉREZ Variant covers by OTTO SCHMIDT and MATT TAYLOR DC Pride variant cover by NICK ROBLES $3.99 US | 32 pages | Variant $4.99 US (card stock) ON SALE 6/25/24 As the Arc Angles bring the Crown of Thawnes into The Gallery, Wally West has to pull himself together to face some old Rogues. Amanda Waller’s Task Force raids Terrifictech, and brings some shocking backup to keep any speedsters in line!

Very curious if these "old Rogues" are different people than the ones we've been seeing (Evan or Folded Man or Grodd), or if the term has even been improperly capitalized and he's fighting Razer or Mazdan or somebody.

That variant cover gives me vibes of Lisa's ribbons or even Roscoe, but that's probably just wishful thinking.

There's nothing overt about Hartley in this year's Pride issue, but here's the solicit just in case. Maybe he'll appear in a pin-up.

DC PRIDE 2024 #1 Written by AL EWING, NGOZI UKAZU, NICOLE MAINES, PHIL JIMENEZ, and others Art by NGOZI UKAZU, CLAIRE ROE, O’NEILL JONES, and others Cover by KEVIN WADA Wraparound variant cover by DAVID TALASKI Variant cover by BABS TARR Foil variant cover by BABS TARR 1:25 variant cover by KEVIN WADA $9.99 US | 104 pages | One-shot | (all covers are card stock) ON SALE 5/28/24 DC’s Eisner and Ringo award-winning Pride anthology returns in the form of a universe-spanning travelogue like you’ve never seen! In its pages, Dreamer makes a first-time pilgrimage to her ancestral planet, Naltor! Poison Ivy and Janet from HR go spore-hunting on Portworld! Superman (Jon Kent) gets the boys together for a night out in A-Town, but things go sideways when The Ray vanishes into thin air! Steel (Natasha Irons) works up the courage to face Traci 13 at the Oblivion Bar’s Pride party for the first time since they broke up! Aquaman (Jackson Hyde) catches an unexpected ride to the Fourth World just in time for their annual Love Festival! All this and more in a volume celebrating how the LGBTQIA+ community is everywhere and belongs anywhere—even the very furthest reaches of the universe. Plus, this year’s anthology features a special preview of the upcoming YA OGN The Strange Case of Harleen and Harley, as well as an unmissable autobiographical story written by industry legend Phil Jimenez about the fantastical worlds that shaped him, brought to life by Giulio Macaione!

#the Flash #spoilers: comics #solicits

4 notes · View notes

ultrameganicolaokay · 1 year

Text

Dwellings #2 by Jay Stephens. Cover by Stephens. Variant cover by Dave Bardin. Out in October.

"72 pages of terror returns in another triple-sized, bi-monthly dose of the series that has the comic industry screaming: Dwellings! Emmy Award-winning, Eisner-Award-nominated cartoonist and animator Jay Stephens (Secret Saturdays, Jetcat Clubhouse) welcomes you back to Elwich - the small town where the secrets run deep, the quiet streets harbor murderous intent, and even the spirits are prone to fits of jealous rage! In this issue: Two must-read tales of supernatural psychosis and paranormal paranoia! First: Don't bite the hand that feeds you in "Quiet, Suki," especially if that hand is a talking puppet! Then: Investigative reporting meets infrasound in "Sound Mind," as the ghosts of the past come roaring forth."

#dwellings #oni press #jay stephens #dave bardin #variant cover #horror #comics

13 notes · View notes

sapphicomics · 6 months

Text

dc pride (2024)

DC’s Eisner and Ringo award-winning Pride comic book anthology returns for 2024 in the form of a universe-spanning travelogue like you’ve never seen! DC’s comics are as vast, varied, and fantastic as the incredible and weird locations found across the DC cosmos, and DC’s LGBTQIA+ characters are everywhere, belong anywhere, and can do anything they set their hearts and minds to. How they get there is as important as where they’re going, so join them as they explore the farthest edges of the DC Multiverse, together! DC’s 2024 Pride collection of books and comics will be available at your local comic book shop, bookstore, library, and beyond, taking DC’s characters across the far reaches of the Phantom Zone, the Fourth World, and beyond!

DC Pride 2024 #1, DC’s annual anthology containing all-new stories spotlighting LGBTQIA+ fan favorites, will publish on May 28. The 104-page Prestige format comic will feature a main cover by Kevin Wada, an open-to-order wraparound variant cover by David Talaski, foil and card stock variants by Babs Tarr, and Wada’s main cover offered as a 1:25 card stock variant.

Tarr In DC Pride 2024, DC will host an unmissable autobiographical story written by industry legend Phil Jimenez about the fantastical worlds that shaped him, brought to life by Giulio Macaione. This heartwarming story is a can’t-miss highlight, plus Dreamer makes a first-time pilgrimage to her ancestral planet, Naltor, in a story by Nicole Maines and Jordan Gibson; Poison Ivy and Janet from HR go spore-hunting on Portworld in a story by Gretchen Felker-Martin and Claire Roe; Superman (Jon Kent) gets Jay, Bunker, and the Ray together for a boys’ night out in A-Town in a story by Jarrett Williams and D.J. Kirkland; Steel (Natasha Irons) works up the courage to face Traci 13 at the Oblivion Bar’s Pride party for the first time since they broke up in a story by Jamila Rowser and ONeillJones; Aquaman (Jackson Hyde) catches an unexpected ride to the Fourth World just in time for their annual Love Festival in a story by Ngozi Ukazu; Circuit Breaker’s unstable powers fritz him into the Phantom Zone in a story by Calvin Kasulke and Len Gogou; plus a Blue Starman story written by Al Ewing and character pinups, in a volume celebrating how the LGBTQIA+ community is everywhere and belongs anywhere—even the farthest reaches of the known and unknown worlds!

As an additional DC Pride teaser, this year’s anthology features a special preview of DC’s upcoming YA OGN The Strange Case of Harleen and Harley by New York Times bestselling author of Wicked Lovely Melissa Marr, teamed up with celebrated artist Jenn St-Onge.

#p: dc comics #t: cover #c: dc pride 2024 #ch: kate kane #ch: nubia #ch: io #ch: pamela isley #ch: harleen quinzel #ch: natasha irons

2 notes · View notes