Jacquelene Cohen, director of publicity & promotions for Fantagraphics Books, emailed me the following:

Shia LaBeouf's new short film, HowardCantour.com, is a complete rip off of Daniel Clowes's comic "Justin M. Damiano." Every-word from the 4 page comic created by Clowes in 2006 is used in the script for LaBeouf's directional debut. Clowes never authorized the use of his comic for HowardCantour.com. He had no knowledge that he had been plagiarized until today when the film was posted on Vimeo.

Comic Book Alliance has more:

The film, which was posted online earlier today but has since been removed, shares several similarities with Clowes’ short story, with lines that are lifted directly from the comic. Yet in an interview with the website Short of the Week, LaBeouf, who has been accused of plagiarism in the past, claims to have come up with the concept for the film organically, having been inspired by negative reviews he received for his lackluster comics work, as well as the films he has reportedly appeared in.

Cartoonist Farel Dalrymple is our guest in this episode of "Tell Me Something I Don't Know." His comics career began as part of the Meathaus gang, a loose collective of artists from the School of Visual Arts around the end of the 20th century--Brandon Graham and James Jean know the secret handshake. His work includes Pop Gun War, illustrating Jonathan Letham's Omega the Unknown, the webcomic It Will All Hurt on SG12, and the newly released Delusional from Adhouse Books. He has been nominated for Eisner Awards, received a Xeric Grant, and earned a Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators.

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Interested in sponsoring one of Boing Boing's podcasts? Visit Podlexing! Read the rest

Premiering on PBS next Tuesday, Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle is a three-part series about the history of comic book heroes and their impact on culture. There's also a hardcover companion book, titled Superheroes!: Capes, Cowls, and the Creation of Comic Book Culture, featuring full color art and interviews with Stan Lee, Michael Chabon, Grant Morrison, Adam West, and dozens of other icons and insiders. In the above clip from the PBS documentary, Stan Lee talks about the science of superheroes. Read the rest

Earl Norem, age 88, painted this stunning cover for the upcoming issue of Classics Obliterated. See more of Norem's work here.

June 2013 Mars Attacks

(Via Duane Swierczynski) Read the rest

Boing Boing has a new podcast! It's called Tell Me Something I Don't Know, and it's an interview podcast featuring artists, writers, filmmakers, and other creative people discussing their work, ideas, and the reality/business side of how they do what they do.

It's produced and hosted by three talented cartoonists and illustrators:

Jim Rugg, a Pittsburgh-based comic book artist, graphic designer, zinemaker, and writer best known for Afrodisiac, The Plain Janes, and Street Angel.

Jasen Lex is a designer and illustrator from Pittsburgh. He is currently working on a graphic novel called Washington Unbound. All of his art and comics can be found at jasenlex.com.

Ed Piskor is the cartoonist who drew the comic, Wizzywig, and draws the Brain Rot/ Hip Hop Family Tree comic strip at this very site, soon to be collected by Fantagraphics Books.

In episode #1, Jim, Jasen, and Ed interview Gary Groth, the founder/publisher of The Comics Journal and Fantagraphics Books. His influence on the state of the contemporary American comics industry and on the art-form itself is difficult to overstate. As a publisher, Fantagraphics' list of works include such celebrated comics as Charles Shultz' Peanuts, George Herriman's Krazy Kat, the Complete Crumb Comics, the Hernandez Bros.' Love and Rockets, Dan Clowes' Eightball (including Ghost World and the original appearance of Ice Haven), Chris Ware's early Acme Novelty Library (including Jimmy Corrigan's original serialization), Charles Burns' Black Hole series, and literally dozens of other significant comics from the last 35 years. Read the rest

Last month I asked my friends to write about books they loved (you can read all the essays here). This month, I invited them to write about their favorite graphic novels, and they selected some excellent titles. I hope you enjoy them! (Read all the Great Graphic Novel essays here.) -- Mark

Promethea, by Alan Moore (and others)

Alan Moore is a literary titan whose medium happens to be comic books: deal with it. The fact is, Moore is positively Joycean in the way he packs layers of meaning into words and, unlike Joyce—or Pynchon, or Wallace—he has the whole playground of image to play with as well.

The substantial success Moore attained with his scripts for Watchmen, From Hell, V for Vendetta, and other titles—and the substantial disappointments he suffered as those graphic masterpieces were translated to the screen—both allowed him and drove him to focus on more insular, idiosyncratic work… one can almost hear him muttering, ‘make a movie of this you effing bastards,’ as he completed his pornographic masterwork Lost Girls, or the swirl of Cabala, sex magick, metaphysics, and superhero mythology comprising the work I extol here, Promethea. Read the rest