2010 February
Wizard World Nashville now exists
In theory, at least — as of the writing of this post, there’s nothing up about it on Wizard’s convention website yet. But Rich Johnston had the news even before Wizard’s official Twitter feed: “Garev [sic] Shamus has bought the ten year old Nashville Comic & Horror Festival and has renamed it Nashville Comic Con Wizard World Convention for later this year.”
This latest rebranding of a small local show with the Wizard/”Comic Con” name is part of a now-established pattern; interestingly, Johnston describes it as one in which “no money actually chang[es] hands,” but rather an existing con infrastructure is essentially bartered for Wizard’s name recognition. I hadn’t heard that before, but it may be the only way such rapid expansion makes sense for a company with fewer employees than it’s had since its very earliest years.
In other recent Con War news, Johnston reported last week that Wizard has now sandwiched Reed Exhibition’s New York Comic Con with nearby shows of its own the weekend before (New England Comic Con, Oct. 1-3), the weekend after (New Jersey Comic Con, Oct. 15-17), and of course the very same weekend in the very same city (Big Apple Comic Con, Oct. 7-10). Johnston sees this as an attempt to crowd NYCC out; piggybacking off the press of the larger and more established show could also be a motivation.
For their part, Reed continues its M.O. of adding guests, rather than shows: Recently announced additions to Chicago Comics & Entertainment Expo — a competitor of Wizard’s Chicago Comic Con that runs head-to-head against Wizard’s Anaheim Comic Con the same weekend — include Dan DiDio, Paul Levitz, Mark Bagley, Peter David, Mark Waid, Dash Shaw, Chip Kidd, Art Baltazar, Bob Layton, Jonathan Hickman, Peter Tomasi, James Robinson, Greg Pak, Jim Valentino and, in all likelihood, probably quite a few I’m missing. The presence of DiDio, Levitz and Geoff Johns seems to be a pretty clear vote of confidence from DC, by the by. Meanwhile, reports that the city of Anaheim is strongly trying to woo Comic-Con International away from San Diego indicate that Wizard’s show isn’t quite what the city is looking for.
- February 22, 2010 @ 08:17 AM by Sean T. Collins
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Comic-Con
Conventions | San Diego officials and business owners grow more anxious about losing Comic-Con International, whose contract with the city’s convention center expires in 2012, freeing the growing show to look elsewhere for a home. To keep Comic-Con in San Diego, the city’s three waterfront hotels have committed to providing for free about 300,000 square feet of meeting space from 2013 to 2015, while the Convention Center Corp. is proposing to increase the number of dedicated convention hotel rooms from 7,000 to 14,000.
Comic-Con’s organizers, who have been courted by cities such as Anaheim, Las Vegas and Los Angeles, are expected to make a decision about the show’s future within the next month. [The San Diego Union-Tribune]
Publishing | Dirk Deppey, Warren Ellis, Brian Hibbs, Graeme McMillan, Tom Richmond, Tom Spurgeon and Douglas Wolk offer thoughts on DC Entertainment’s new executive management team. [Comic Book Resources]
Publishing | John Jackson Miller crunches January’s direct-market sales figures and compares them to previous years. [The Comichron]
- February 22, 2010 @ 08:09 AM by Kevin Melrose
“Stan’s Back”? I didn’t know he was ever gone …
Stan's Back
Some sort of teaser campaign popped up over the weekend on sites like the Bendis Boards and The Savage Critics. They simply say “Stan’s Back” and link to a website with that URL and the same text. (Incidentally, if you try to look at the source code, you’ll find a hidden message: “You are not going to learn anything about this site from looking at the code!”).
From the signature, it’s obvious that these ads are referencing Stan Lee, but who exactly is he working with? Some random guesses:
- Maybe Stan’s heading back to Marvel to usher in the Heroic Age, some other project or to take some sort of bigger role. But the campaign doesn’t feel like something Marvel would do; they typically release teasers to comic news sites vs. taking out ads like this or setting up a separate URL like that.
- It could be something to do with Stan’s company POW! Entertainment, but it would be kind of odd for them to say he’s back when he’s never really left.
- And of course there’s the recently announced multimedia series he’s doing with Archie and A Squared Entertainment. But why do a teaser campaign now without mentioning the series itself, since it has already been announced?
- Oh, and there’s Ultimo, his book with Hiroyuki Takei for Viz. Again, it’s already announced, so why be cryptic?
- This may be a longshot, but the ads remind me a lot of BOOM!’s Mark Waid campaigns — the one where he was evil, and the one where he wasn’t. They’re popping up in similar places, with a similar look and feel. But he’s never had anything to do with BOOM!, I don’t think, so I don’t know why he’d be back.
Or it could be for something and someone I’m completely missing here. Thoughts?
- February 21, 2010 @ 03:40 PM by JK Parkin
What Are You Reading?
The Eternals
Welcome to What Are You Reading. Our guest this week is blogger Tim O’Neil, who can frequently be found offering insightful comics commentary on his blog, The Hurting. Today he’s using the comics on his reading table to go into an in-depth examination of Blackest Night vs. Seige, and why one works and the other doesn’t.
But I’m not doing a very good job explaining this. To see what I mean, and to find out what everyone else is reading, click on the link below.
- February 21, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Man to serve two years in prison for illegally recording The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight
A Missouri man was sentenced Friday to two years in federal prison for illegally recording The Dark Knight in a theater and selling the movie on DVD.
U.S. District Judge Fernando J. Gaitan also ordered the defendant, Robert Henderson of Grandview, Missouri, to pay $24,738. The prison sentence will be followed by three years probation.
Henderson pleaded guilty to criminal copyright infringement for using a digital camera to record The Dark Knight on July 18, 2008 — opening day for the Warner Bros. blockbuster. He was caught as part of an investigation by the Motion Picture Association of America.
“This is an appropriate sentence for a very serious crime, and we hope it will serve as a warning to would-be movie thieves that they will face severe consequences for engaging in these activities,” Mike Robinson, the MPAA’s senior vice president of content protection, said in a press release.
In December, the FBI arrested a New York man suspected of uploading an unfinished edit of X-Men Origins: Wolverine to a file-sharing website for the film’s release. Earlier this month 20th Century Fox filed six lawsuits against several dozen people the studio claims sold DVDs containing unfinished versions of the movie.
(via The Wrap)
- February 20, 2010 @ 02:02 PM by Kevin Melrose
The Fifth Color | Doom Over Wakanda
Yeah, it's the cover to #3, but it looks awesome!
Event books are made up of a variety of different ideas, marketing ploys and world-building plots, the semantics of which we could go on about for hours, but for right now, let’s look at three rather basic needs:
- A Major Villain: Sorry, Stilt-Man is not event book main operator. I’d say even Norman Osborn isn’t really Event Book Material either; in the Siege, this is really just Loki’s show with a lot of targets and threats under his puppet strings. The Red Skull, Doctor Doom, Magneto, people who only want the world, people who drink domination like fine wine on big gaudy thrones and are just clever enough to pose an incalculable threat.
- An Incalculable Threat: something on a scale so massive it should hurt our ears. Planets should be in danger, if not just our favorite one, Earth. All the dead that have ever died, rising up out of Hell to scourge the land, going back in time to ensure Hilter’s victory in World War II, alien invasion, this should effect everyone and their mother.
- Crossover Appeal: Teams and heroes from different titles banding together to fight a common enemy. It doesn’t matter how much the Hulk and Thing don’t get along, it’s the problem at hand that matters first and their solution should be a point of contention (or camaraderie) by the time this all is through.
See? Pretty simple stuff. Sure, there’s a lot more that goes into it but if you ensure these three basics of storytelling, fans will be more likely to stand up, take notice and, most important, check their wallets for the right amount of cash. You can tell us it’s going to be the Second Coming, but until the threat is unleashed by a class act villain that every mutant and their mother has to go handle, then we know who means business.
It’s this kind of blockbuster storytelling that makes me wonder where Doomwar #1 has been all my life. Don’t tell my husband, but I think it’s love at first issue.
SPOILERS: Yeah, we’re going to talk about Doomwar #1 here so please, give yourself the delicious joy that is Doctor Doom and go pick up the issue. For those of you who have, let’s read along!
- February 19, 2010 @ 09:06 PM by Carla Hoffman
DC, Jim Lee assure that his new role won’t reduce his creative output
Jim Lee
Although an article in The New York Times about DC Entertainment’s new executives implies Jim Lee’s promotion will mean less creative work from the popular artist, a company representative says that’s simply not the case.
The story states that new DC Comics co-publishers Lee and Dan DiDio “traded some of their creative duties for more managerial responsibility.” However, when contacted Friday evening by Robot 6, a DC spokesperson disagreed with the assertion and pointed to a post Lee made earlier in the day on the Wildstorm blog.
“For fans of my art –- fear not,” Lee wrote, “drawing comic books is actually a part of my new job description, and I actually plan on increasing the frequency of which you will be seeing my work. It’s important to me not only on a personal level that I continue with a hand in the actual creation of new comics but also for a broader mission.”
In 1992, Lee founded Wildstorm Productions, which he sold six years later to DC. Until his promotion this week he served as editorial director of the publishing imprint. Lee, 45, is also executive creative director of DC Universe Online, the upcoming massively multiplayer action game from Sony Online Entertainment.
- February 19, 2010 @ 07:19 PM by Kevin Melrose
Jim Lee: ‘Drawing comic books is actually a part of my new job description’
Jim Lee's variant cover for DV8 #1
DC’s new co-publisher follows up yesterday’s announcement with a personal post on the Wildstorm blog. Jim Lee assures fans of his art that he still plans to keep drawing.
“For fans of my art–fear not, drawing comic books is actually a part of my new job description, and I actually plan on increasing the frequency of which you will be seeing my work,” he said. “It’s important to me not only on a personal level that I continue with a hand in the actual creation of new comics but also for a broader mission.”
The post also includes his artwork for the variant cover to the first issue of the DV8 relaunch, which is due in April.
- February 19, 2010 @ 02:57 PM by JK Parkin
Comics cavalcade: Sexism, racial insensitivity and ugly americans
Every day, people post comics on the Internet. Three times a week, we try to link to the ones that catch our eyes.
Landed by Keiichi Koike
- February 19, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Straight for the art | Fast Company’s Disney/Marvel mash-ups
Steve Jobs as Iron Man
Kevin linked to this in Comics A.M. this morning already, but how can I resist a shot of Steve Jobs as Iron Man? Fast Company ranked Disney as one of their 50 most innovative companies, and a sidebar to the article includes this wonderfully weird slideshow that mashes together Disney executives, initiatives and properties with Marvel characters. Art is by Kirk Manley.
- February 19, 2010 @ 11:30 AM by JK Parkin
Wasn’t there a Seinfeld episode about this?
Not the cover to Batman & Robin #9
Naw, I guess if it’d been on Seinfeld it would have been about Superman. Anyway, Cameron Stewart says via Twitter that this is a “rejected cover sketch for Batman & Robin #9.” Somehow I think he’s kidding. All I know is that if I were young Damian Wayne I’d be pretty pissed at Dick Grayson’s insensitivity too.
- February 19, 2010 @ 10:41 AM by Sean T. Collins
Straight for the art | Kalesniko’s art blog
Mark Kalesniko (author of such fantastic and underrated books as Mail Order Bride and Why Did Pete Duel Kill Himself?) has a new art blog up where he’s posting some amazing watercolor pin-ups. (via)
- February 19, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Straight for the art | John Porcellino’s Batman & Robin
The Dynamic Duo by John Porcellino
From King-Cat to Dark Knight: Minicomics master John Porcellino tackles the Caped Crusader and the Boy Wonder for the Denver Comics Fest sketchbook. Click the link to check out the final version with colors from Noah Van Sciver. Then check out Noah’s take on his comrade-in-cartooning-Van-Sciverhood Ethan’s cover for The Flash: Rebirth #3 for the Covered blog. Gee, the Joe Chiappetta/Mark Chiarello collaboration of our dreams can’t be far away at this rate…
- February 19, 2010 @ 09:30 AM by Sean T. Collins
Jason Aaron in Virginia this weekend
Scalped, Wolverine, etc. writer Jason Aaron will be at Local Heroes in Norfolk, Va. tomorrow signing comics and talking to fans; if you’re in the area drop on by, not only to see Aaron, but also to check out the shop. Based on the pictures on its website, it looks like a very inviting, fun comic shop (that red couch and New Frontiers artwork gave me an Isotope Comics vibe, the very friendly San Francisco comic shop owned by James Sime).
No doubt Aaron will not only be signing comics, but I’m sure, if asked, will also offer advice on becoming a comics writer. Like he did recently on his blog, when he shared a lengthy post about his craft, talking about everything from how he outlines a comic to where he gets character names.
“I suck at coming up with character names,” he wrote. “I’ve reused lots of the same names, usually of people I know. When I was in college I would always flip through CD liner notes to find good names, but these days all my CDs are packed up in boxes in the basement. I try to keep a list where I jot down interesting names I encounter. The sheriff in SCALPED takes his name from a road sign I passed years ago in Ohio for the town of Wooster. I used to also keep a notebook for jotting down interesting bathroom graffiti, though I’m not sure anything useful ever came of that.”
- February 19, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Legal
Legal | In the wake of the sentencing last week of Christopher Handley, Justin Norrie contrasts obscenity laws in Japan with those in Australia, the United States and other countries: “In Japan [...] child pornography legislation introduced in 1999 applies only to photographic or live-action video content of real children, and not to manga, anime and video games. Russia and Japan are the only G8 countries where it is still legal for people to own pornographic images of children provided they do not intend to sell or distribute them.”
Handley, a 39-year-old manga collector from Iowa, was sentenced to six months in prison under the 2003 PROTECT Act for possessing “obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children and mailing obscene material.” Last month a 28-year-old Australian man had to register as a sex offender after pleading guilty to downloading “graphic cartoon porn images” featuring child characters from The Simpsons, The Powerpuff Girls and The Incredibles. [The Sydney Morning Herald]
- February 19, 2010 @ 08:45 AM by Kevin Melrose