Barry Deutsch notes that HarperCollins is now offering the first 100 pages of our recent 576 page Zot! Collection for free online. This is a good thing.

There was a time, not that long ago, when publishers were reluctant to offer any significant amount of published work online for free. Clearly though, it can help spread the word about good stories and art. Check out the comments from yesterday’s post regarding Carol Tyler’s 10-page preview for a demonstration. 

I remember when Understanding Comics was first published in 1993 and Kitchen Sink sent me to a trade show to promote it. We’d sent out mailings, we’d taken out ads, but the best promotion for the book we ever did was simply handing out a thousand copies to retailers.

Covers sell comics. Ads sell comics. But nothing sells comics better than the comics themselves.

Fantagraphics is offering a 10-Page PDF excerpt and slideshow of Carol Tyler’s first full-length graphic novel You’ll Never Know Book 1: A Good and Decent Man. Tyler’s short comics include some true classics, so this book is generating a lot of well-earned anticipation.

Found via Spurge in the middle of one of those depressing “women in comics” arguments which always seem to bury the headline of the remarkable flood of great new comics by women in favor of rehashed 20th Century grudge-matches and signpost tugs-of-war.

Whatever your opinion of the history of women in comics, there’s enough comics in this woman to last a lifetime.

Back from Barcelona with just a few minutes before I return to drawing, but wanted to reiterate my thanks for a great visit to my gracious hosts and all the cool artists and writers I hung out with.

Despite seven hours of signing, we never ran out of fans until the very end which was really cool (though my lines move slower in Europe for various reasons). Didn’t run out of reporters either — good news for my excellent Spanish publisher Astiberri.

Will look forward to heading back to Spain in August with Ivy this time. Watching the mesmerizing John Adams on the airplane, I really felt for John and Abigail as Mr. A went to Europe alone, then years later with Abigail. Got a bit teary-eyed, though that was probably the extra oxygen as usual.

[Photo from Sunday night’s postcard-perfect sunset]

Ah, Translation Software…

Quick follow-up to an earlier thread: Dan Goldman checks in to let us know that the audio from March’s SXSW panel on mobile webcomics is finally online here.

Settling in here in Barcelona today. Enjoyed chatting with Mark Waid on the flight over, and seeing/meeting other pros at our pre-show meals, including Mike Mignola, Jeffrey Brown, Todd Nauck, C.B. Cebulski, and one of my earliest important influences as a comics fan, Mr. Jim Starlin.

Also took in the Museum (getting inspired by certain sculptures regarding a certain graphic novel) and saw some cool graffiti. Dinner in 15 minutes, then sleep and more of the city tomorrow, though I suspect I’ll mostly be looking at name badges and screens.

I’m flying out of LAX this morning to Barcelona’s 27th Annual Comic Convention.

If you plan to attend, here’s a rough schedule:

FRIDAY

Signing at the FICOMIC booth, 4:30-5:45 pm.

Conference for Teachers, Conference Hall, 6:30-7:45 pm.

SATURDAY

Signing at the FICOMIC booth, 12:30-1:45 pm.

Lecture, Conference Hall, 5:45-7:15 pm.

Signing at the Astiberri booth, 7:30-9:00 pm.

SUNDAY

Signing at the Astiberri booth, 12:30-2:00 pm.

Signing at the Astiberri booth, 6:00-7:30 pm.

Check at both the Astiberri and FICOMIC booths for updates in case there are changes.

As usual, updates to the blog may be spotty while I’m abroad, but things should be back to normal by Tuesday morning (he says optimistically).

Sondheim nerds can now commence to asking “Where Ya Goin’?” I’ll respond appropriately.

Beaver and Steve creator James Turner offers his take on the creative process and yeah, sometimes that’s just how it is. 

[Thanks to Dirk Deppey at Journalista for the link (crediting Xaviar Xerexes).]

Neil Cohn sends news of a Korean neuroscience study testing the iconic identification theory from Understanding Comics Chapter Two. (Does everyone get emails like this or is it just me?). Peculiar but interesting reading.

Meanwhile, a bit closer to my old stomping grounds in Medford, Massachusetts, Neil himself has been hard at work with theories, essays, and studies of his own for some time, all of which can be found at his extensive site. He’s even posted a reaction to the Korean study here.

Been enjoying a relatively new band called The Mummers, especially the songs “March of the Dawn” and “Lorca and the Orange Tree,” though it’s a guilty pleasure since they’re pretty much just pushing my musical buttons over and over. The lead singer, Raissa Khan-Panni, sounds maybe a bit too Björk-y on some tracks, but she has a great voice nonetheless and the arrangements are huge and rich and irresistible (to me, at least). Good speakers recommended for those wonderful bass notes.

Maybe I’m imagining things, but I think there’s something going on inside of a bunch of the songs I’ve been listening to lately with female lead vocalists. The arrangements behind them are getting increasingly robust and deep, while the voices up front are becoming more elfin and/or breathy, and maybe because of the syncopation, there’s less a sense of back-up than of counterpoint, which sets up a pretty dramatic masculine/feminine interplay (or Butch/Femme if you prefer) that’s practically NSFW. The Bird and the Bee‘s incredible song “Man” is the purest example I’ve found, but I hear traces of it in The Ting Tings, Jem, Bat for Lashes (“Horse and I”), Bitter:Sweet (“The Mating Game”), and Anya Marina (“Miss Halfway”).

I remember feeling like I was hearing something new the first time I heard The Cardigans’ “Lovefool” Maybe it was this.

Thanks to kbeilz for recommending The Mummers after hearing I was enjoying Jesca Hoop‘s “Seed of Wonder.” Feel free to recommend some of your favorites, similar or not.

I promise, back to comics on Monday. I just really, really love music.

Salgood Sam pointed me (via Twitter) to Manmachine by Martin Hekker, which uses a simple Flash-based side-scrolling thingey that doubles the cursor speed for fairly seamless navigation once its all loaded  (“programming by Mike Angstadt” so I assume this was Mike’s doing).

[Correction!: The audio is Flash-based, but the scroll-thingey is Javascript-based. Thanks to Andrew in the comments section for the heads-up. (Way to ruin a good pun, Universe).]