Robot 6
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
This morning’s roundup starts off with more than a few items from Comic-Con International.
The Last Airbender
SDCC ’09 | Del Rey Manga announced it will publish both a prequel and an adaptation of M. Night Shyamalan’s live-action film The Last Airbender, itself an adaptation of Nickelodeon’s popular animated series. Cartoonist Dave Roman, associate editor of the recently shuttered Nickelodeon Magazine, will write both. Nina Matsumoto will draw the prequel, while Joon Choi will illustrate the adaptation. The movie is set to debut in July 2010. [ICv2.com]
SDCC ’09 | Brigid Alverson lists the new manga licenses announced over the weekend, including CLAMP’s Kobato by Yen Press. David Welsh, meanwhile, looks at which titles seem most promising. [MangaBlog, MangaBlog, Precocious Curmudgeon]
SDCC ’09 | Here’s that e-newsletter by Mile High Comics’ Chuck Rozanski that’s been the topic of some online discussion: “With a reported waiting list of 300 media/consumer products companies lined up for booth space here at San Diego Comic-Con International, the convention feels absolutely no restraint as regards raising booth rent. What does exist is a totally uneven playing field, where mom-n-pop comics retailers, publishers, and creators are now being asked to pay the same cost per square-foot as the international corporate giants. That being the case, it should come as no surprise that we comics exhibitors are rapidly being priced out of our own house. I heard from several comics retailers who have been here at the convention for decades that they are either cutting back for 2010, or completely pulling out of the show.” [Mile High Comics]
SDCC ’09 | Deb Aoki and Douglas Wolk round up some of the highlights on the convention. [About.com, Rolling Stone]
Twitter fail whale
SDCC ’09 | Twitter use apparently fell short of expectations at Comic-Con. [Variety]
Passings | Photographer and cartoonist Francisco Hidalgo has passed away at age 80. [CBC News]
Publishing | Recent comments made by a Yen Press representative about the perceived harm of scanlations to manga sales sparks another round of debate on the subject. [Tiamat's Manga Reviews, Icarus Publishing]
Publishing | Chris Ryall, publisher and editor-in-chief of IDW Publishing, is briefly profiled. [Orange County Register]
Retailing | Edmonton’s Happy Harbor Comics, a nominee for the 2009 Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award, is spotlighted by a local newspaper. [Metro]
Superman: Secret Origin #1
Retailing | The Beguiling’s Christopher Butcher bravely live-blogs his monthly Previews order: “I know nerds are really angry at Geoff Johns remaking the Superman Universe into his own personal playground, but enh. It’s actually the best superhero-comics he’s written, the Action Comics and Legion stuff, and DC’s gonna reboot this stuff every 10 years from now on anyway, why not let Johns have a turn? So, just to clarify everything, DC is launching Superman: Secret Origin #1 with the Action Comics team of Johns and Gary Frank. The definitive 6 issue mini-series retelling Superman’s origin, now with creepy Christopher-Reeve looking kid-Superman. Seriously, the likeness stuff they’re doing there really weirds me out.” [Part 1, Part 2]
Comics | Rachelle Goguen unearths 1995′s Batman: Knight Gallery, an alarming testament to mid-’90s superhero-costume design. [Living Between Wednesdays]
- July 28, 2009 @ 07:02 AM by Kevin Melrose
2 Comments
Kelson
July 28, 2009 at 10:17 am
I hadn’t realized that they were just calling the film “The Last Airbender.” That should help clear up some of the confusion between it and James Cameron’s “Avatar.” For the past week I’ve been automatically placing the director’s name in front of the title to make it clear which Avatar I was talking about.
Regarding Twitter usage, I wonder why Variety thinks this is the first year it was available during the con. Twitter’s been around for a couple of years…it just hadn’t expanded into the mainstream consciousness at the time. Even if they’re talking about wifi access, we had that last year too. (That said, I did my part, to the point of being asked to “stop spamming Twitter” by one of my followers.)
SageShini
July 28, 2009 at 11:40 am
Yeah, I hear there was some kind of spat over the title, so now its just “The Last Airbender”. Kind of a shame. Granted, the movie can’t be all that good, but the initial property itself is better than most of Cameron’s movies, so I’m not sure how they lost it.
…I was, also, unaware people literally “live-blogged” solicitations. Uhm, alright, if it makes ya happy. I wonder the point of it, myself.