And what is a Blog for, if not Poaching News from Other Websites?

Weekly news-poaching:

Apparat 2: Can't say I'm surprised considering the first round didn't come off the way it was planned, with a staggered publishing schedule instead of all in the "fifth week". Ellis is being cryptic about it right now, but I expect it will be 5 new titles instead of continuations of the first batch. Would be nice if he kept some/all of the artists, though.

From the Comics Reporter : Gary Panter is selling 100.1 Drawings through his website, and only his website, a book of original art produced by his Custom Drawing method : they were based on a group of words given him through the website. The example on this ordering page is "conflict/harmony/same/vat". I'm gonna order this myself when I get up the money.

Sequential Tart : Jessica Abel's La Perdida will release the final issue this month, and I refrain from commenting on its tardiness. The Tarts have a nice interview with Abel here.

Comic book Resources : So there's gonna be a Scott Pilgrim movie. I don't get too excited about comics-to-film, because, y'know, I have the comic. I don't need a movie. It is not inherently better to make a film than a comic, and I don't feel that need to validate my hobby. Etc etc posturing etc. I am kind of tickled that Edgar Wright wants to do it, though, because I loved Shaun of the Dead and maybe it will lead to The Funny. So ok. And Brian Lee O'Malley could make a bucket of money, and that would be nice too.

Essay-link from Flipped: "Exploring the Manga Holdouts - What are they waiting for?" We were all saying the same thing about indie comics, what, ten years ago? David Welsh isn't having much more luck answering it now. Although manga is increasingly overcoming one of the main hurdles (shelf-space, thanks to the major booksellers, is becoming available) both manga and indie comics have the problem of no set entryway, right now, in the year 2005. Awhile ago we could point to Akira and Maus and we all had a common reference point. What would it be now? But I don't suppose manga publishers are the ones fretting over the lack of crossover between mainstream American comics and manga considering their sales figures...