2005 in comics

Events

January

• January 14: French cartoonist Piem is named Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres.
• January 20: Dutch cartoonist wins his first for Best Political Cartoon. During the same ceremony Joep Bertrams receives his first Inktspotprijs too
• January 31: John R. Norton begins the George comic strip.

  April

• April 13:
• *DC Comics announces the discontinuation of its Humanoids and 2000 AD titles.
• *Powerade and DC Comics show the first of four new online comics starring LeBron James as superhero "King James". Written by Ron Perazza with art by Rick Leonardi.
• April 20: DC Comics launches the new DC Direct website.
• April 26: Artist Ed Benes extends his exclusive agreement with DC Comics for an additional three years.
• April 28:
• *Marvel Enterprises and Paramount Pictures announce an agreement under which Paramount will distribute up to ten films over an eight-year period to be produced by Marvel.
• *Marvel Enterprises announces settlement of all pending litigation with Stan Lee over claims for participation in profits from various sources.
• *Marvel Comics announces the creation of a custom comic book written by Brian Michael Bendis and featuring superheroes such as Spider-Man, Captain America and the Fantastic Four in a military-themed storyline. More than one million copies of the "Salute Our Troops" comic book were to be distributed to the troops and their families in May.

  May

• May 1: At Clickburg, The Netherlands, the first Clickies are awarded, awards for webcomics. The awards will continue up until 2010.
• May 5: Artist George Pérez signs a 5-year exclusive agreement with DC Comics.
• May 19: Artist J. G. Jones signs a 2-year exclusive contract with DC Comics.
• May 31: Artist Bart Sears signs a 2-year exclusive agreement with DC Comics.

  June

• June 6: Artists Adam Kubert and Andy Kubert sign 3-year exclusive agreements with DC Comics.
• June 11: Harvey Awards winners announced.
• June 21: Belgian comic artist Marc Sleen is declared a honorary citizen of Brussels.
• June 22: The first comic to carry the Boom! Studios logo, Zombie Tales #1, is published
• June 28: Artist Justiniano signs a 2-year exclusive contract with DC Comics.

  July

• July 12: Writer Bill Willingham renews his exclusive contract with DC Comics for an additional two years.
• July 13:
• *DC Online launches a new website for kids featuring Johnny DC.
• *DC Comics' DC Direct announces the new Looney Tunes Golden Collection action figure series. The sculptures would be officially unveiled later in the week at San Diego Comic-Con.
• July 15: Eisner Awards ceremony is held at San Diego Comic-Con.
• July 19:
• *Joe Quesada extends his contract agreement with Marvel Comics, and in addition to his current role as Editor-in-Chief, he will take on the added role as the Chief Creative Officer, Publishing.
• July 26:
• * Writer Mark Waid signs a 2-year exclusive agreement with DC Comics.
• * Turkish cartoonist Oğuz Aral receives a statue in Istanbul.

  August

• August 2: Artist Tony Daniel signs a 2-year exclusive agreement with DC Comics.
• August 8: In the Danish magazine Jumbobo, The legacy, by Andreas Phil and Mårdøn Smet; debut of the gentleman thief Fantomius.The character, already often mentioned in the Paperinik stories but never appeared until then, has later had a more fortunate version by the Italian Author Marco Gervasio.
• August 30:
• * A square in San Telmo, Buenos Aires, is named after Mafalda.
• * August 30: The webcomic Crying Macho Man by Jose Cabrera goes live.

  September

• September 6:
• *The New York Times is to carry a comic strip by Chris Ware within its pages.
• *Marvel has changed its corporate name to Marvel Entertainment, Inc and is to produce its own movies based upon comics characters such as Captain America, Nick Fury and the Avengers
• September 8: Contributors have been announced for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund's annual SPX anthology. Scott Morse and Jordan Crane are amongst the forty creators
• September 12: Doonesbury is dropped and then promptly reinstated by The Guardian
• September 13:
• *The Ignatz Awards nominees are announced, with Gilbert Hernandez receiving three nominations
• *Dynamic Forces acquire license to print comics based on the Highlander films and television series
• September 19: Joe Ferrara is elected to the Board of Directors of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund
• September 20: Marvel Comics announce Neil Gaiman's next project as being related to The Eternals
• September 21:
• *Art Spiegelman's next project, Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@?*!, is to be serialised in the Virginia Quarterly Review, commencing in the Fall 2005 issue
• September 22: Bill Watterson answers fifteen selected questions from fans around the world to publicise the upcoming release of The Complete Calvin and Hobbes
• September 23:
• * The two-day Small Press Expo opens with Harvey Pekar as special guest.
• September 25: The 2005 Ignatz Awards are announced at the Small Press Expo. Amongst the winners were David B, voted the Outstanding Artist and Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return, voted Outstanding Graphic Novel

  October

• October 1: Lea Hernandez steps down as editor of Girlamatic.com, to be replaced by Lisa Jonté
• October 3: Jay Stephens launches his own blog Cute Creeps From Pop Culture
• October 4: The Complete Calvin and Hobbes is released
• October 5: Matt Madden is interviewed by Bookslut
• October 8: Art Spiegelman is one of 196 inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• October 10:
• *Dark Horse licenses the rights to reprint a number of manga titles, including Juon
• *Peter Schjeldahl of The New Yorker analyses graphic novels
• October 11: Marvel 1602 wins the inaugural graphic novel Quill Award
• October 13: The tenth annual International Comic Arts Festival begins in Washington, D.C.
• October 14:
• *Lynd Ward is profiled by In These Times
• *The Oberlin Review profiles Marjane Satrapi
• *Maus and Beyond, an exhibition looking at comic book and graphic novel portrayals of the Shoah, opens at the Centennial College, Toronto. It runs until November 30
• October 16: Bob Andelman, biographer of Will Eisner, picks 10 graphic novels for a beginner to start with
• October 17:
• *Charles Burns is interviewed by The Book Standard
• *The Melvin Gelman Library of George Washington University is to add 300 graphic novels to its collection
• *The New York Times profile Little Nemo in Slumberland: So Many Splendid Sundays!, a collection of Little Nemo strips publishing them as originally printed
• *Hunt Emerson has adapted John Ruskin's Unto This Last into comics format, retitling the work How To Be Rich. Two-thirds of the 15,000 print run will be distributed to secondary schools in the United Kingdom
• October 18:
• *Dale Eaglesham signs a two-year exclusive contract with DC Comics
• *Watchmen is named as one of Time magazine's top 100 English language novels published since 1923
• *Carla Speed McNeil launches the online serialisation Carla Speed McNeil of Finder. McNeil has suspended the publication of the work in comic book format, although serials will still be collected and published as graphic novels
• October 20: Dave Sim and Al Nickerson place a DC Comics contract, as annotated by Sim, on the web. See also: Creator's Bill of Rights
• October 22–23: During the Stripdagen in Houten, The Netherlands, Jan Steeman wins the Stripschapprijs. The website Stripster receives the P. Hans Frankfurtherprijs and, and Jan van der Voo receive the Bulletje en Boonestaakschaal.
• October 23: Joe Sacco is profiled by The Oregonian
• October 24:
• *Roger Stern is interviewed by Newsarama
• October 26: Stephen King is to launch a comic book series with Marvel Comics based upon his Dark Tower series
• October 27:
• *The latest Xeric grants are announced
• *Image Comics launches a new website
• *Thomas N. Thornton, CEO of Andrews McMeel Publishing, responds to perceived criticisms of the company's new Calvin and Hobbes collection
• *Todd McFarlane is to be guest of honor at February 2006's inaugural New York Comic-Con
• October 31:
• *Carly Berwick laments the lack of great female comic book artists
• *The Guardian profiles Chris Ware

  November

• November 2:
• *Scott Morse announces he is to launch his own imprint, Red Window. He has established a distribution deal for his imprint with AdHouse Books
• November 3: Mark Millar announces he is to take a six-month sabbatical from comics for health reasons
• November 4:
• *The Harvey Awards have ended their ties with New York's Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art and are now to be presented at the Baltimore Comic-Con, with the 19th awards to be presented on Saturday, September 9, 2006
• *Don Bluth donates over a million pieces of artwork to the Savannah College of Art and Design. The donation consists of animation cels, preliminary sketches and associated drawings
• *Alan Moore is interviewed in The Independent
• November 6: It is reported that Thomas Haden Church is to play Sandman in the Spider-Man 3 movie
• November 7:
• *Slate present a slide show essay on Calvin and Hobbes
• *Newspapers in the United States are reported to be considering carrying manga strips from January 2006. The two strips reportedly up for inclusion are Van Von Hunter and Peach Fuzz
• November 8: Alan Moore is profiled by Publishers Weekly
• November 9:
• *Marvel releases its third quarter financial statement
• *IDT Entertainment announce an animated Hellboy project
• November 10: Paramount has optioned the movie rights to Charles Burns' recently completed graphic novel, Black Hole
• November 11:
• *Arnold Drake is interviewed by newsarama
• *Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Ramirez discusses the Los Angeles Times decision to let him go
• *David Simpson is fired by Tulsa World amid allegations of plagiarism
• November 12: The Los Angeles Times profiles selected artists featured in the "Masters of American Comics" exhibition, which opens at Los Angeles' Hammer Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art on November 20
• November 14: Chris Morgan, is hired to draft a script for Universal's adaptation of DC Comics The Psycho, by James Hudnall and Dan Brereton
• November 15: Daniel Acuña signs an exclusive contract with DC Comics
• November 16:
• *Kevin "KAL" Kallaugher, editorial cartoonist of The Baltimore Sun, has been offered a buyout along with other members of the paper's staff
• *Harvey Pekar takes his American Splendor series to Vertigo, with a mini-series slated for 2006 with Dean Haspiel handling some of the art chores
• November 17:
• *Steve Lafler moves to self publishing his next works
• *Doug Harvey writes of 10 Comics That Shook The World in LA Weekly
• November 18: The trailer for Superman Returns is released
• November 19: Nominees for the second Grand Prix RTL de la BD are announced
• November 20:
• *The New York Times reviews Absolute Watchmen, an expanded collection of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' comic book series of the 1980s
• *It is reported that Posy Simmonds and Raymond Briggs are to be featured on the cover of the 2006 edition of the Royal Society of Literature's annual magazine, having been made fellows of the society earlier this year
• November 21:
• *Time magazine has archived its articles related to comics'
• November 22: The United Kingdom's Press Gazette names its 40 most influential journalists, and includes three cartoonists, Gerald Scarfe, Carl Giles, and Matt Pritchett
• November 23:
• *Duncan Fegredo is to provide art for the 2006 Hellboy miniseries, Darkness Calls
• *Marvel Comics allows fans to vote on writer Chris Claremont's next project via its website
• *Marvel also launch the podcasting of company press conferences via its website
• November 27: Claypool Comics asks for consumer help to ensure Diamond Comics Distributors continue to carry their products
• November 28:
• *The Association des Critiques de Bande Dessinee announces the fifteen works it is considering for its Prix de la Critique. Joe Kubert's Yossel: 19 Avril 1943 is amongst those in the running for the award, won in 2004 by the French edition of Blankets by Craig Thompson
• *Malaysian cartoonist Lat is awarded a Special Jury Award at the 2004 Malaysian Press Institute -Petronas Journalism Awards
• *Archie Comics and The Veronicas settle their dispute over the rights to the name The Veronicas
• *The New York Times explores the use the two biggest American comic book publishers have made of the epic storyline in their releases this year
• *RK Laxman's Brushing Up the Years: A Cartoonist's History of India 1947-2004 is published
• November 29:
• *Christian Lax wins the second Grand Prix RTL de la BD
• *According to reports, the Cartoon Network will not be commissioning a sixth series of the animated Teen Titans series
• November 30, 2005':
• *Slate magazine re-evaluate Watchmen in the wake of the release of the Absolute Watchmen'' edition