Borders

As expected, the bankrupt Borders Group will be liquidated after it failed to find a last-minute suitor to save the 40-year-old bookseller, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The company announced this afternoon that it will ask a federal judge on Thursday to approve the previously announced sale to liquidators led by Hilco Merchant Resources and Gordon Brothers Group. Liquidation of Borders’ 399 remaining stores could begin by Friday, leading to the loss of about 10,700 jobs. What was the second-largest book chain in the United States will no longer exist by the end of September.

“Following the best efforts of all parties, we are saddened by this development,” Borders Group President Mike Edwards said in a statement. “We were all working hard towards a different outcome, but the headwinds we have been facing for quite some time, including the rapidly changing book industry, eReader revolution, and turbulent economy, have brought us to where we are now.”

Liquidation comes five months after Borders filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection following unsuccessful attempts by the foundering chain to convince publishers and distributors to convert late payments into loans as part of an improbable reorganization plan. Late payments led some distributors, including Diamond Book Distributors, to stop shipping to the company. As Borders closed stores it continued to hemorrhage money — $132 million in April alone — and executives — 47 in the two months following the bankruptcy filing — while industry watchers started the death clock.

Early this month Najafi Cos., a private-equity firm that owns the Book of the Month Club, emerged as a potential buyer, submitting a proposal that included $215.1 million for nearly all of the bookseller’s assets, and the assumption of about $220 million in liabilities. However, creditors objected to the plan last week, setting Borders on a course for liquidation. Edwards held out hope for a last-minute suitor by Sunday’s bidding deadline — there were reports this morning of interest from Books-A-Million — but none materialized.

Borders

Retailing | A Sunday deadline passed without additional bidders for the bankrupt Borders Group, leaving a group of liquidators as the only suitor for the second-largest bookstore chain in the United States. However, The Wall Street Journal reports that the bookseller will likely entertain offers right up until Tuesday’s scheduled bankruptcy auction. The newspaper contends Borders was in negotiations late Sunday with Books-A-Million in hopes of striking a deal that  would save what remains of the company, which once operated more than 1,000 locations. [The Wall Street Journal]

Conventions | Comic-Con International has released information on prices for the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con. Adult four-day passes will no longer be discounted compared to the prices of single-day badges; an adult four-day pass without the option to attend Preview Night will cost $150, while buying individual adult tickets for each day would cost $143. Adult four-day tickets with Preview Night will cost $175. Per the CCI website, “We hope that this change will encourage people to purchase only the days they will actually be attending, leaving additional badges for others who want to attend Comic-Con.”

Attendees at this week’s San Diego-Comic-Con can purchase 2012 tickets at the Douglas Pavilion at the Manchester Grand Hyatt; a 2011 badge will be required to purchase them. [The Beat, CCI]

Conventions | Upcoming Action Comics writer Grant Morrison shares thoughts on the San Diego Comic-Con, “a place where the boundary between fantasy and reality happily surrenders to the carnival spirit and anything can happen.” [Hero Complex]

Shel Dorf Awards

Awards | The second Shel Dorf Awards, which will be presented at Detroit Fanfare in September, have opened up voting to fans and expanded the number of categories. [Comics Worth Reading]

Creators | Megatokyo creator Fred Gallagher sits down in front of the camera for a video interview at Anime Expo, where he was one of the guests of honor. [Anime Diet]

Creators | Lynn Johnston talks about For Better or For Worse in a video of her presentation at the Charles Schulz Museum earlier this year. [The Daily Cartoonist]

Digital | Eric Burns explains, in detail, why DC is doing it wrong with their digital strategy, including the new 52. (tl;dr: As a series gets older, trades, discounts, and ultimately the secondhand market make it possible to read the story in print at a fraction of the price of the single issues in digital form. The obvious solution: Bundle them and discount them.) [Websnark]

Webcomics | Shaenon Garrity presents a short history of webcomics, from FetusX to Girls with Slingshots. [The Comics Journal]

Review | Paul Karasik reviews Joyce Farmer’s Special Exits. [The Comics Journal]

Teen Titans, by Bill Walko

Webcomics | Following a piece by ComicsAlliance on why Marvel and DC should be making superhero webcomics, Lauren Davis asks several webcomics creators what they would pitch to the two mainstream companies if given the chance. [Gamma Squad]

Newspaper comics | Creators Jim Scancarelli (Gasoline Alley), Marcus Hamilton (Dennis the Menace), Alex Saviuk (Spider-Man) and Joe Staton (Dick Tracy) discuss the challenges of taking over a legacy newspaper strip in this audio recording from a panel at HeroesCon. [The Daily Cartoonist]

History | Ken Quattro reads the FBI files on the investigation of publisher Lev Gleason (Daredevil, Crime Does Not Pay) as a suspected Communist. There’s more background in this story from The Comics Journal that ran last year. [The Comics Detective]

Movies | Sean Kleefeld recounts his experience on a casting call for extras for the upcoming Avengers movie. [Kleefeld on Comics]

Borders

Retailing | Borders Group, the second-largest bookstore chain in the United States, could be liquidated as early as next week if no other suitors step forward by Sunday evening, the deadline established by a federal bankruptcy court. A judge on Thursday approved the company’s motion to auction itself off after a proposal from private-equity firm Najafi Cos. fell apart over the objections of creditors. Borders, which once operated more than 1,000 stores, now has 399 locations and nearly 11,000 employees, including 400 at its Ann Arbor, Michigan, headquarters. [The Associated Press, The Detroit News]

Awards | The Young Adult Library Services Association has announced the 2012 “Great Graphic Novels for Teens” nominations, a list that includes Takio by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming, Thor: The Mighty Avenger by Roger Langridge and Chris Samnee, Axe Cop by Ethan and Malachai Nicolle, How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less by Sarah Glidden and many more. The final list will be announced in January at the American Library Association’s Midwinter Meeting. [American Library Association]

World's Finest Deluxe, by Steve Rude

Creators | Steve Rude talks about his desire to work for DC again and why he won’t work for Marvel: “I specifically sought out DC, for two reasons. One, they would pay a subsistent page rate, and Two; they seemed like the friendliest of the two big companies. Regarding my feelings about Marvel, whose thinking seems even more corporate and elitist than DC, the beginnings of the dark, reality- based ethic which I find so unpleasant these days, seems mostly due to them and the start of the Quesada regime. Though I’ve had two recent offers to work on Marvel projects, they were politely declined.” [Pop Gun Chaos]

Creators | Bryan Lee O’Malley chats with Kentaro Takekuma and Koji Aihara, the creators of Even a Monkey Can Draw Manga, which inspired O’Malley’s work on Scott Pilgrim. [ComicsAlliance]

Creators | Laika creator Nick Abadzis discusses a series of webcomics he created for Big Planet Comics that give alternate endings for his 2007 graphic novel. [Tor.com]

Sidekicks

Creators | Sidekicks creator Dan Santat is selling copies of his new book through his website … and in turn buying the copies he’s selling from a local independent bookstore, Mrs. Nelson’s Toy & Book Shop. [Publishers Weekly]

Creators | The Guardian asked six comic creators to talk about their “favourite peer” — so Peter Kuper talks about Robert Crumb, Bryan Talbot talks about Joe Sacco and more. [Guardian]

Digital comics | eBook Newser profiles comiXology CEO David Steinberger. [eBook Newser]

Reviews | Don MacPherson looks at the first issue of Jonathan Hickman and Nick Pitarra’s new Image series, Red Wing. [Eye on Comics]

Reviews | Our own Sean T. Collins reviews the dark-humor anthology Black Eye that was deemed too hot for Canada by customs officials last May. [The Comics Journal]

Reviews | Jeff Jackson discusses popular misconceptions about the Book of Revelation and how it figures into the X-Men on his way to reviewing The Apocalypse Plan, by Rafael Nieves and Dan Dougherty. [Comic Attack]

Analysis | Karen Green discusses Kate Beaton’s “voice” in Hark! A Vagrant. [comiXology]

Borders

What only two weeks ago looked like a promising proposal to save the bankrupt Borders Group suddenly fell apart Wednesday, likely leaving the remains of the nation’s second-largest bookstore chain to be picked over by liquidators.

Phoenix-based private equity firm Najafi Cos., which owns the Book of the Month Club and Columbia House, submitted a $215 million bid for the bookseller on July 1, but The Associated Press reports that creditors objected, saying nothing would prevent the company from liquidating the retailer immediately after taking possession.

The publisher-led creditor committee insists that a bid from liquidators Hilco Merchant Resources and Gordon Brothers is stronger, and would amount to between between $252 million and $284 million in cash. In a court filing, the creditors said they hoped Najafi would increase its bid, which included the assumption of $220 million in liabilities. However, Najafi is standing firm.

Although another bidder could step in before Sunday’s bidding deadline, The Wall Street Journal’s contends Borders “looks to be headed to the scrap heap.”

In a statement sent Wednesday to the bookseller’s nearly 11,000 employees, Borders President Mike Edwards said that he remains hopeful another offer will emerge. “In the meantime, as the process moves forward, we will continue to conduct business as usual,” he wrote. “Our stores remain open, and Borders.com is fulfilling orders as usual. It’s important that we all stay focused recognizing that media speculation will no doubt continue.”

Flashpoint #3

Comics | Flashpoint editor Eddie Berganza talks to USA Today about the midpoint of DC’s big summer event series and how it might tie into the September relaunch: “They’re starting to figure out where these 52 are coming from, and it’s staring them right in the face with Flashpoint. A lot of the concepts, a lot of the ideas, they’re cropping up within the pages. You have a book called Frankenstein in the Flashpoint world, and guess what, we’re doing Frankenstein, Agent of SHADE. You’ll see a couple of other background players start showing up that become more important as we go into September.” [USA Today]

Retailing | Borders Group warned investors on Tuesday against buying any more of the company’s stock as it soon could be worthless. If a federal bankruptcy court approves the $215-million opening bid submitted last week, the bookseller would become a subsidiary of the privately held Direct Brands, owner of the Book of the Month Club and Columbia House, meaning stock will no longer be traded. [The Detroit News]

Passings | Manga writer Shinji Wada, who teamed up with You Higuro on the lighthearted romance/caper/parody Crown, has died. [Anime News Network]

Teen Angels and New Mutants

Creators | Saga of the Swamp Thing artist Steve Bissette talks about his new book, Teen Angels and New Mutants, a 400-page “history of the ways entertainment has exploited teenagers, both fictional and actual, and partly a critical analysis of the early ’90s comics series Brat Pack.” [Shelf Life]

Creators | Tom Neely, who was interviewed just yesterday by Robot 6, talks more about his “painted novel” The Wolf. Secret Headquarters in Los Angeles will host a launch party for the book on Thursday Friday. [LA Weekly]

Creators | Whilce Portacio, Francis Manapul and several other Filipino comic book creators answer questions about their work and provide updates on their latest projects. [Philippine Daily Inquirer]

Creators | Jillian Tamaki gives an in-depth interview about her career, Skim and her job as an art instructor, among other topics. [The Comics Journal]

Digital | Paperkeg describes a social encounter with a comics retailer who made some recommendations, just the sort of thing that happens all the time in local comics shops—except that this time it was all digital. [Paperkeg]

Borders

The bankrupt Borders Group, the second-largest bookstore chain in the United States, announced it has received an official bid from the owner of the Book of the Month Club and Columbia House.

The Detroit News reports that the opening offer from Direct Brands, a portfolio company of the Phoenix-based private equity firm Najafi Cos., entails a $215.1 million purchase of nearly all of the bookseller’s assets and the assumption of about $220 million in liabilities.

Borders had set today as a deadline to name a stalking horse bidder, an initial bidder to make the first offer in a bankruptcy auction. The preliminary agreement establishes Najafi’s bid as the starting point; however, another company could step in with a larger offer during the auction process. Any deal will have to be approved by a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge.

The Los Angeles-based Gores Group has been considered by may observers to be the stalking horse bidder. The company had floated a $250-million offer that would have saved about 250 of Borders’ remaining 416 outlets by transforming them into “more appealing destinations” akin to the Apple Store chain. It’s not clear how many locations Najafi would keep open.

Borders submitted an alternate proposal to the court last night that would require the liquidation by Hilco and Gordon Brothers of all of the bookseller’s assets if a sale isn’t complete by the end of the auction. According to AnnArbor.com, a liquidation would mean the loss of about 11,000 jobs.

Borders

Retailing | A federal bankruptcy judge has granted Borders Group permission to loosen the terms of its $505-million bankruptcy loan, giving the bookseller more time to line up a buyer and avoid the immediate liquidation of 40 more outlets. The book chain, which has closed 237 of its 642 stores, will file a proposal on July 1 to sell itself at a court-approved auction to a guaranteed buyer — most likely, the Los Angeles-based Gores Group. The private-equity firm has a plan that would save about 250 of the remaining Borders locations by transforming them into “more appealing destinations” similar to the Apple Store chain. [Bloomberg]

Retailing | Bud Plant, one of the initial direct-market distributors who, at one time, operated the largest chain of comic stores in the United States, has announced his retirement. In a letter to his mailing list, Plant said he is looking to find a buyer for Bud’s Art Books, his mail-order/online retail business. [The Comics Reporter]

Retailing | Jetpack Comics in Rochester, New Hampshire, has put out the call for area residents to participate in a photo shoot for retailer-specific variant cover for The Amazing Spider-Man #666: “This is not the first time Rochester has appeared on the cover of a comic book — the organizations also organized a photo shoot of Main Street that was featured on the cover of a Godzilla comic, with the city about to be crushed by the creature. [...] According to Jetpack Comics owner Ralph DiBernardo, after seeing how well the Godzilla comic sold, Marvel Comics wanted to capitalize on that success and suggested the city be featured again.” [Foster's Daily Democrat]

Albuquerque Comic Expo

Conventions | The Albuquerque Comic Expo kicks off Friday at the Albuquerque Convention Center in New Mexico. Comics guests include Stan Lee, Ethan Van Sciver, Arthur Suydam, Michael Golden, Bernie Wrightson, Ale Garza, Gene Ha, Len Wein, James O’Barr, Whilce Portacio, Mitch Breitweiser, Tony Harris, Jill Thompson, Steven Grant and Ryan Cody. [Alibi, Albuquerque Comic Expo]

Creators | Christopher Irving concludes his profile of veteran writer Chris Claremont, covering his 1982 Wolverine miniseries with Frank Miller, his departure from, and return to, X-Men, Jean Grey and the never-ending cycle of death and resurrection, and the evolution of the characters he’s so closely associated with: ““I love Joss Whedon’s writing. It’s just that when he’s writing my characters, it’s hard, especially when he’s writing my characters that I can’t write because he’s writing them. But, by the same token, that phrase in itself points out the dichotomy of the media, because they’re not my characters, and they never were. It’s foolish to bond with them, even though in most cases one can’t help it, because the company doesn’t give a fuck. They may like you personally as a creator, and respect you tremendously as a contributor to the cannon, but in the structural reality of publishing, they go with the guy that works here and now. They go with the concept that works here and now.” [Graphic NYC]

Creators | The Anchorage Press profiles Alaska natives Brandon Seifert and Lukas Ketner, creators of Witch Doctor. [Anchorage Press]

Creators | Writer James Patrick is spotlighted by a local newspaper for his three-issue run on Green Arrow. [The Marietta Times]

Gary Groth in action

…so I’m not even going to try. Instead I’m just going to link you to Alex Dueben’s thusly titled interview with Fantagraphics Co-Publisher and The Comics Journal Editor Gary Groth over on the CBR mothership, in which the trailblazing alternative-comics publisher and critic tackles a wide variety of the biz’s big topics. Here are a few choice nuggets:

On Fantagraphics shifting to digital:

To one degree or another, all of our books can be read on a screen.

We’re cognizant of that and we’re certainly moving in that direction. I think what the future is going to hold is that books are going to be on multiple platforms, in digital and in print. I don’t think one is going to necessarily overshadow the other. They can be available in various formats. We’ve been literally working on the digital formats for the last year, just working out all the bugs and talking to the various platforms. I’m sure by this time next year, a lot of our books, if not the majority of them, are going to be available digitally.

On the Borders bankruptcy and its affect on graphic novel sales:

I don’t think it’s affected us. I think whenever something happens like when Borders closes, something comes and fills that gap, even if that something is only Amazon. Borders didn’t affect us at all, because Borders didn’t buy many of our books. As you probably know, the book buyer at Borders was apparently obsessed with manga and bought almost exclusively manga. Of course it would have been nice to have been sold in Borders for all those years, but we weren’t. Trying to be sold in Borders was like beating our heads against a brick wall, so when they went under, we didn’t suffer at all. Barnes and Noble is still strong. We’re strong with independents. There are a number of chain stores in the South that we sell pretty well to, like Books-A-Million. Amazon is either the first or second largest seller of our books.

On whether he has any advice for DC regarding their line-wide relaunch:

[Laughs] I don’t think I do. Good fucking luck.

I’m not even sure what that’s supposed to accomplish. It seems like a pitiful attempt to con more people into buying the same old shit. I probably shouldn’t be so cynical. I’m sure that some brilliant talent could breathe some life into this stuff. Like I said, I’m not one to talk. I haven’t read this stuff, but it just seems so completely uninteresting to me, and in a way, it’s idiomatically alien to me. We get a box of comics from DC every so often and I’ll look through it. Stylistically, the work kind of repels me. It’s too frenetic and manga-influenced. I’m way too old for that stuff. I wish I could be a more cogent commentator on that stuff, but then I’d have to devote time to actually looking at it.

On why Disney is publishing its complete Floyd Gottfredson/Mickey Mouse and Carl Barks/Donald Duck/Uncle Scrooge comics through Fantagraphics instead of its subsidiary, Marvel:

I haven’t the slightest idea. It was never brought up. I’ve literally never asked them, “Why would you want us to publish them rather than Marvel,” so anything I give you would be an inference. When I was negotiating with them, to tell you the truth, I hadn’t even thought about it.

There’s much more where that came from, including discussions of the death of the alternative comic book, the Kirby and Siegel/Shuster lawsuits, Disney’s role in extending copyright, the Fantagraphics brick-and-mortar store, the Golden Age of Reprints, the relaunch of The Comics Journal, and the great undiscovered cartoonists. Read the whole thing.

Apple Store Fifth Avenue, New York City

One of the two private-equity firms negotiating to buy the bankrupt Borders Group reportedly hopes to save more than half of the remaining stores by taking a page from Steve Jobs’ playbook.

In a profile of rival moguls Jahm Najafi and Alec Gores, The Wall Street Journal contends a plan by the Los Angeles-based Gores Group would save about 250 of the 416 Borders outlets — most of them superstores — by transforming them into “more appealing destinations” similar to the Apple Store chain.

According to the newspaper, the 58-year-old Gores is in talks with more than a dozen companies, including Hewlett-Packard, to showcase their products in the revamped Borders stores. In exchange, Borders would offer discounts to customers downloading books from Hewlett-Packard’s e-readers in the stores. Gores, who would pay somewhere around $250 million for the bookseller’s outlets and other assets, including the website and customer list, would also “emphasize developing a more robust online business for Borders.”

Borders, the second-largest book chain in the United States, is expected to announce a bidder by July 1.

Borders

Retailing | Bankrupt bookseller Borders Group said in court papers filed Friday that it will name a stalking-horse bidder by July 1, with an eye toward completing the sale of all of its assets by the end of July. The Detroit News spotlights the two private-equity firms that have placed bids to buy at least a majority of the book chain’s 416 remaining stores: Phoenix-based Najafi Cos., which owns the Book of the Month Club, Columbia House and BMG; and Los Angeles-based Gores Group — the likely stalking-horse bidder — whose investments include Alliance Entertainment and Westwood One. [Reuters, The Detroit News]

Legal | Peanutweeter, a blog that combined frames from Charles Schulz’s Peanuts strips with real, out-of-context tweets, has been taken down by Tumblr as the result of a Digital Millennium Copyright Act complaint from Iconix Brand Group, which acquired a majority stake in the Peanuts assets last year. One blogger, however, argues the blog should be considered fair use. [RIPeanutweeter, Boing Boing]

Retailing | David Ranii looks at how some North Carolina comic stores are weathering the recession. [The Charlotte Observer]

Geoff Johns

Creators | The Detroit Free Press profiles native son Geoff Johns. [Detroit Free Press]

Creators | Heath McCoy profiles artist, and Calgary native, Fiona Staples ahead of her Joe Shuster Awards win: “So many (artists) get disappointed, because they really wanted to work at Marvel or draw Batman or that sort of thing, and that only happens for a fraction of them. It’s not the most practical goal … You sort of get tunnel vision fixating on these things … My goals are just set in terms of the level I want my art to be at.” [Calgary Herald]

Comics | BBC News Scotland spotlights Spirit of Hope comic produced by the U.K. nonprofit group Comic Book Alliance to benefit earthquake victims in Japan and New Zealand. [BBC News]

Comics | Roger W. Rautio Jr. of Canton, Ohio New York, hopes to establish a permanent Comic Book Hall of Fame. He just needs money and a location. [Watertown Daily Times]

Broadway | Julie Taymor, who was fired in March as director of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, is alarmed that the producers consulted focus groups for their overhaul of the $70-million musical: “Shakespeare would have been appalled. Forget about it. It would be impossible to have these works come out because there’s always something that people don’t like.” [The New York Times]

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

Broadway | As of last night’s preview performance, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark is officially “frozen,” meaning there will be no more script rewrites, new lyrics or altered choreography before the $70-million musical opens on Tuesday. In fact, the producers are confident enough to invite critics to attend previews over the next three nights, with their reviews to be published after the opening. “The show, in my opinion, is bulletproof at this point,” Reeve Carney, who stars as Peter Parker, told The New York Times. “I mean, as bulletproof as anything can be. And we want to do right by the people who stood by us, to help this show be seen for what it is.”

However, it’s not all good news for opening night. The New York Post reports that producers hoped  the Empire State Building would be lit in red and blue on Tuesday, but the landmark’s owners would do it only if a change were made to the show: specifically, that the climactic battle between Spider-Man and Green Goblin be moved from the Chrysler Building to … the Empire State Building. [The New York Times]

Retailing | Najafi Cos., a Los Angeles-based private equity firm, is reportedly interested in buying at least half of the 405 bookstores operated by the bankrupt Borders Group. [Bloomberg]

Retailing | Don MacPherson talks with Canadian retailers about how a full-on strike by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers would affect their business. [Eye on Comics]

Justice League #1

Publishing | Chris Sims traces the history of DC Comics reboots while Glen Weldon tries to sort out the important aspects of the publisher’s September relaunch: “The salient reason that more people aren’t reading about mainstream superheroes, of course, is not because they are unaware of their existence, or confused by backstory — it’s that they don’t happen to be particularly interested in mainstream superheroes.” [ComicsAlliance, NPR]

Publishing | Patrick Rosenkranz profiles Dark Horse Senior Editor Diana Schutz. [The Comics Journal]

Creators | Scott Snyder chats about writing Swamp Thing as part of DC Comics’ upcoming line-wide relaunch: ““I would never ever take on this series lightly. [Alan] Moore’s Swamp Thing is a masterpiece and I would only take the series on if I had a take that honored everything that came before — keeping it part of the character’s past, not erasing anything — and moved forward in a way I thought was compelling, different, and central to the core of the character.” [Comic Riffs]

Creators | Chris Sprouse discusses his work on Tom Strong and the Robots of Doom. [Omnivoracious]

Creators | Beau Smith talks about Wynnona Earp, his run on DC’s Guy Gardner, digital comics and more. [GeekDad]

Comics | T.J. Dietsch counts down the 10 coolest comic-book watering holes. [Topless Robot]

Borders

Retailing | Borders Group, the second-largest book chain in the United States, reported a loss of $132.3 million in April, its second full month in bankruptcy. That figure follows on the $52.6 million loss reported in February and March as the bookseller sought Chapter 11 protection and began liquidating 226 locations. [Detroit Free Press]

Publishing | Ira Rubenstein, executive vice president of Marvel’s Global Digital Media Group, has left the company to become executive vice president of digital marketing for 20th Century Fox. He begins the new job in Los Angeles on Monday. Rubenstein joined Marvel in 2008 after 12 years at Sony, and oversaw the launch of the publisher’s digital subscription service. His departure comes less than two weeks after news surfaced that Ron Perazza is resigning as DC Entertainment’s vice president of online. [Variety]

Publishing | Ada Price surveys the graphic novel exhibitors at this year’s BookExpo America, which opens today in New York City. [Publishers Weekly]

Publishing | Publishers Group West will be the book market distributor for Archaia Entertainment beginning June 20. [press release]

Phoenix Comicon

Conventions | Brad Hamilton and Benjamin Leatherman preview Phoenix Comicon, which kicks off Thursday at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona. [Modern Times, Phoenix New Times]

Conventions | Jason Baxter wraps up Saturday’s 10th annual Olympia Comics Festival. [Weekly Volcano]

Creators | Roger Langridge discusses his work on Marvel’s Thor: The Mighty Avenger and BOOM! Studios’ The Muppet Show. “It’s not like I have a lot of affection for the original material,” he says of Thor. “Being allowed to play with those toys wasn’t really the attraction for me. I was interested in being given a superhero concept to play with and seeing if I could push myself to do that. I wanted to see if I had it in me to make something that works within those parameters.” [The New Zealand Herald]

Creators | Gail Simone chats briefly about superhero comics, Women in Refrigerators, Twitter, and considering a relocation to Asheville, North Carolina. [Mountain Xpress]

Comics | Fans weigh in on the cycle of death and resurrection in superhero comics: “”It’s daytime drama for guys. It’s accepted that death isn’t permanent.” [The Capital]

Fear Itself #1

Publishing | Marvel’s Fear Itself #1 topped Diamond Comic Distributors’ April charts with an estimated 128,595 copies, the highest monthly sales for a comic since X-Men #1 surpassed 140,000 copies nine months ago. Retail news and analysis site ICv2 sees the strong debut of that crossover and the performance of DC’s Flashpoint prequels as signs “that this summer’s big events may be able to reverse the downward sales trend in the first quarter of 2011.”

DC’s Fables, Vol. 15: Rose Red led the graphic novel category with about 11,600 copies, followed distantly by Dynamite’s The Boys, Vol. 8: Highland Laddie. [ICv2.com]

Retailing | The bankrupt Borders Group reportedly has been unable to find a buyer for its entire business, which could signal the end of the second-largest book chain in the United States. The company filed for bankruptcy protection in February, and is closing about one-third of its locations. [Detroit Free Press]

Publishing | IDW Publishing Senior Editor Andy Schmidt, who oversaw such licensed titles as G.I. Joe and The Transformers, is leaving the company to work for Hasbro. Schmidt, who was previously an associate editor at Marvel, came to IDW in 2008. [Bleeding Cool]

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

Broadway | The three-week hiatus for Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark did little to affect the musical’s box-office appeal: The $70 million production grossed $809,941 last week in just five preview performances. [The New York Times]

Conventions | Stacey Whittle wraps up last weekend’s Bristol International Comic & Small Press Expo. [SFX]

Creators | Erik Larsen looks toward the double-sized 175th issue of Savage Dragon, which he hesitates to call a “milestone”: “You tend to look toward the big round numbers — 100, 200. Passing up Kirby’s run on Fantastic Four was kind of the milestone for me when I got to 103. It was like, ‘OK, now we’re going!’” [USA Today]

Creators | Brian Heater wraps up a four-part interview with Peter Bagge. [The Daily Cross Hatch]

Creators | Joe Casey discusses his six-issue Marvel miniseries Vengeance, which doesn’t tie in to the publisher’s big Fear Itself crossover: “I begged them to let us suck off the teat of the latest Marvel Monstrosity Event, but to no avail. I figured it’d help us sell at least two copies of this thing. … But since that ship has sailed, we’re just pressing onward with the usual, incredibly low expectations.” [MTV Geek]

Comics | Luke Plunkett looks back at DC’s Atari Force comics. [Kotaku]

Comics | “Why Aquaman is the best damn superhero in comic history.” [io9.com]

Green Lantern Animated Light Up Display

Retailing | DC Comics has advised retailers to immediately unplug the $150 Green Lantern Animated Light Up Display after one of the signs caused a small electrical fire Saturday at Rick’s Comic City in Nashville. Other retailers have reported the smell of burning plastic coming from the displays. The publisher will notify stores in the next few days how it will rectify the problem.[ICv2.com]

Retailing | Borders Group lost more than $50 million in February and March as it sought bankruptcy protection and began liquidating 226 stores, a new court filing shows. [The Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly]

Publishing | Mike Searle, former editor of Wizard Entertainment’s defunct InQuest Gamer magazine, reportedly will replace Mike Cotton at Wizard World Digital. Cotton, who had been co-chief pop culture editor, left the company on Friday. [Bleeding Cool]

Conventions | Forces of Geek rounds up news from last weekend’s Boston Comic Con. [Forces of Geek]

Gladstone's School for World Conquerors #1

Creators | Brian Truitt interviews write Mark Andrew Smith about his new Image Comics series Gladstone’s School for World Conquerors. [USA Today]

Creators | Chester Brown discusses Paying For It, his new memoir about hiring prostitutes: “I had a couple of different titles. One I was considering, but not that seriously, was The Sex Life of John Brown. But probably more seriously I was thinking of I Pay For Sex—much more direct or blunt. And for them [his publishers at Drawn & Quarterly], that was too blunt, too direct. Darn, I wish I could remember the title they suggested that I really hated. I think they actually suggested In Defence of Prostitution, which just is so boring.”  [Macleans]

Creators | The National Post’s literary blog kicks off its series of mini-profiles of creators attending this weekend’s Toronto Comic Arts Festival: Canaan, Ben Towle, Mike White, Phil Rynda, Kayla Marie Hillier, Eric Skillman and Sean Ford. [The Afterword]

Creators | Zach Weiner, creator of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, talks about collecting his popular webcomic in printed form. [Forbes]

Creators | Mike Rhode spotlights cartoonist Katie Omberg. [Washington City Paper]

Borders Rewards

Retailing | Borders Group says it’s determined that fewer than 150 customer names and emails were “obtained” by outsiders when a website published a searchable database of information associated with the retailer’s Borders Rewards loyalty program. The site, apparently set up by the marketing firm that helped the bookseller design and implement the program, was shut down over the weekend after Borders learned of its existence. A spokeswoman said the company is continuing its investigation. Borders Rewards has more than 41 million members. [AnnArbor.com]

Retailing | Amazon’s first-quarter profits tumbled 33 percent, even as revenue rose 38 percent, due largely to the costs of expanding its warehouse and data centers. [The New York Times]

Conventions | For the first time, organizers of the American Library Association’s Annual Conference & Exhibition will make space available for an artists alley — for free. This year’s conference, which will draw about 19,000 librarians, is held June 23-28 in New Orleans. [American Library Association, via The Beat]

Archie Comics in Spanish

Publishing | Archie Comics announced it will offer some of its titles for digital download in Spanish. Up next: French and Hindi. “In India, they all have mobile devices,” said Co-Chief Executive said Jon Goldwater. “It’s going to be crazy.” [The Associated Press, The New York Times]

Publishing | Matt Parkinson, Dark Horse’s online marketing manager, discusses the development of the publisher’s digital app. [Publishers Weekly]

Publishing | David Brothers spotlights First Second Books’ webcomics imprint To Be Continued … [Publishers Weekly]

Organizations | The family of the late Charles M. Schulz will match any donations, dollar for dollar up to $30,000, made to the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco through Sept. 15. [San Francisco Examiner]

Retailing | Terry Gant, owner of Third Coast Comics in Chicago, is profiled by Loyola University’s student newspaper. [The Loyola Phoenix]

Retailing | Columnist Daniel Patrick Sheehan pays a visit to The Portal Comics and Gaming in Bethlehem, Pa. [The Morning Call]

Comics | Forge: The worst X-Man ever? [The Cool Kids Table]

Bill Blackbeard

Passings | Writer, editor and historian Bill Blackbeard, widely credited with saving the American comic strip from the ash heap of history, passed away on March 10 at a nursing home in Watsonville, Calif. He was 84. A lifelong collector of comic strips, Blackbeard founded the San Francisco Academy of Comic Art in 1968, filling the garage and basement with thousands of bound volumes of old newspapers let go by libraries when they converted their archives to microfilm. His collection grew by the 1990s to 350,000 Sunday strips and 2.5 million dailies, which eventually made their way to Ohio State University’s Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum. Blackbeard wrote, edited or contributed to more than 200 books on cartoons and comic strips, including The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics, 100 Years of Comic Strips and Fantagraphics’ Krazy & Ignatz series.

Numerous obituaries and reminisces have appeared since yesterday, most notably from R.C. Harvey, Tom Spurgeon, Jeet Heer, Dylan Williams, ICv2.com, and Dan Nadel, who collected a handful of tributes. [The Comics Journal]

Borders

Retailing | The bankrupt Borders Group, the second-largest book chain in the United States, is investigating whether any of its customers’ personal data was exposed on a website that purportedly contained information about its loyalty program. The website, which has been taken offline, reportedly published a searchable database of information associated with Borders Rewards, which has more than 41 million members. The site was apparently set up by the marketing firm that helped the bookseller design and implement the program. [AnnArbor.com]

Retailing | Judith Rosen surveys independent bookstores in New York, and finds things are better than one might expect. [Publishers Weekly]

Creators | Danny Graydon talks with Fables writer Bill Willingham about the origins of the Vertigo series, collaborating with Mark Buckingham, the forthcoming original graphic novel Werewolves of the Heartland, and the title’s enduring appeal: “It’s a story in which you can understand what we’re trying to do in a single line – characters you know from fairy tales in a modern setting – so it’s available and open to people who wouldn’t be inclined to pick up a brand new series. The other thing is that we have been blessed with a fanatical and evangelical readership. They put these things in the hands of their non-comic book reading father or mother or girlfriend and what have you and say ‘This is why I love comics’ and a lot of people get attracted to the series that way. [Danny Graydon, via Forbidden Planet International]

Creators | Paul Morton interviews Shaun Tan. [The Millions]

Crime | A man was wounded Sunday in Columbus, Ohio, after a shotgun being used as a prop in an amateur Spider-Man movie fired, striking him in the leg. No charges were filed. [WBNS-10TV]

Borders

Retailing | A judge on Friday approved a proposal to pay Borders Group executives up to $6.6 million in bonuses as the bookseller reorganizes under federal bankruptcy protection. The company had originally requested $8.3 million — that figure met with objections from the U.S. bankruptcy trustee — in a bid to retain key corporate personnel. Since Borders filed for bankruptcy on Feb. 16, 47 executives and director-level employees have left, leaving only 15 people in senior management positions.

The approved plan comes with conditions, tying some bonuses to the company’s ability to pay creditors and save $10 million over the next two years in leases on the remaining stores or in non-personnel cost reductions. [Businessweek, AnnArbor.com]

Publishing | Dark Horse CEO Mike Richardson talks more about the publisher’s recent layoffs, saying that some reports of the cutbacks were overblown: “We have 150 employees. We let seven people go across three different divisions. What is that 4%, 5%? Our staff was just getting too large. The real reason for the layoffs is that we get worried about the cost of doing business. We’re sitting there looking at the rising health insurance costs, the changes in the cost of doing business. We thought we were going to get some relief in the form of cover prices moving to $3.99, but I guess the market’s made a really strong statement on that price. Meanwhile we’re getting squeezed on paper and printing costs at the same time — and creators certainly don’t want to take any less money.” [ICv2.com]

Gene Colan

Creators | Clifford Meth reports that legendary artist Gene Colan is hospitalized again, awaiting surgery. “Despite his legendary optimism, Gene’s situation is tenuous,” he writes. “His family hopes he can undergo a procedure early this week that may alleviate his pain. Regardless, it’s unlikely that my pal will be drawing for anyone anytime soon.” To help generate “what might become much-needed funds,” Meth is coordinating an auction of the last of Colan’s artwork. Details are available at the link. [The Invincible Gene Colan Blog]

Creators | Shaun Tan is the subject of an extensive profile in The New York Times Magazine. [The New York Times]

Creators | Noelene Clark spotlights cartoonist Karl Stevens, whose graphic novel The Lodger is nominated for a Los Angeles Times Book Prize. [Hero Complex]

Creators | Adrian Tomine discusses Scenes from an Impending Marriage, living in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and why he doesn’t use Facebook or Twitter: “I know I’m in the minority here, but in my mind, it would make more sense to be asking other 36-year-olds, ‘Why ARE you on Facebook and Twitter?’ Especially now that I’m married and I have a kid, it just never occurs to me to spend my precious spare time trying to interact with complete strangers over the Internet. Besides, I’d have the most boring ‘tweets’ of all time: ‘I just gave Nora lunch. I’m sitting at my drawing table.  I just changed Nora’s diaper. I’m sitting at my drawing table.’” [Park Slope Patch]

Pearls Before Swine

Creators | Brett Johnson profiles Pearls Before Swine creator Stephan Pastis. [Ventura County Star]

Creators | John Layman chats about his hit Image Comics series Chew. [Fangoria]

Retailing | Rich Johnston reports on rumblings that Barnes & Noble plans to expand its comic book offerings. [Bleeding Cool]

Retailing | Brad Wilson, owner of Allstar Comics & Games in El Paso, Texas, marks 25 years in business. [El Paso Times]

Retailing | Reed Tucker asks a selection of New York City comic stores for reading recommendations to accompany the summer’s superhero movies. [New York Post]

Conventions | Kara Patterson reports on Harmony Con 2011, a mini comic-book fair held Saturday at Harmony Cafe in Appleton, Wisc. [Appleton Post-Crescent]

Amazon Kindle

E-books | Amazon announced it will allow Kindle users to read e-books from more than 11,000 libraries, marking a reversal of the company’s policy. Previously library users who borrowed e-books could read them on Barnes & Noble’s Nook, the Sony Reader and other devices, but not the Kindle. “We’re excited that millions of Kindle customers will be able to borrow Kindle books from their local libraries,” Jay Marine, Amazon’s director of Kindle, said in a statement. The Kindle Library Lending will debut later this year. [The New York Times, press release]

Publishing | Several DC Comics staff members laid off as part of the sweeping corporate restructuring — among them, editors Mike Carlin and Pornsak Pichetshote — have been hired by DC Entertainment’s newly formed Burbank-based Creative Affairs division, which operates alongside Creative Services. [Bleeding Cool]

Legal | Japanese police have arrested a 25-year-old man suspected of using Share file-sharing software to upload about 28,000 manga and anime files without the copyright holders’ permission. [Anime News Network]

Tokyopop

Publishing | Sam Humphries and J. Caleb Mozzocco join in the reflection on the closing of Tokyopop’s U.S. publishing operations. [Comics Alliance, Every Day Is Like Wednesday]

Publishing | IDW Publishing is auctioning all 83 variants of Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters #1, with the proceeds going to AmeriCares to benefit the victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. [IDW Publishing]

Retailing | Borders Group, which is closing 226 superstores, is paying a dozen consultants more than $500 an hour to guide the company through the bankruptcy process. [AnnArbor.com]

Retailing | Kevin Czap tours Cleveland’s comic stores. [Comix Cube]

Far Arden

Creators | Far Arden creator Kevin Cannon has been dubbed the best cartoonist in Minneapolis. [City Pages, via Top Shelf]

Creators | Matt Fraction talks about the new Mighty Thor series: “Is he a superhero, is he a god? Is it a little g or a big G and what does that mean? Is my god better than your god, and does Jesus live somewhere? It’s also fun to refer to big Gs and then cut to Galactus.” [USA Today]

Creators | Jonathan Valelly spotlights Chester Brown and the official book launch for Paying For It. [Xtra]

Creators | Cowboys & Aliens co-writer Andrew Foley discusses the upcoming movie adaptation. [Edmonton Sun]

Borders

Retailing | The bankrupt Borders Group agreed to revise its $7.8 million retention bonus plan by tying potential payments for top executives to the company’s ability to pay unsecured creditors. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn told the bookseller on Thursday it must make further changes to the proposal, and negotiate with the U.S. trustee, before he would approve it.

The struggling bookseller says that 47 executives and director-level employees have quit since the company declared bankruptcy on Feb. 16 — two dozen just this month — leaving only 15 people in senior management positions. The book chain had sought to pay $6.6 million to 15 executives, including $1.7 million to CEO Michael Edwards, and $1.2 million to 25 director-level managers in a bid to retain key personnel.

Under the new terms, agreed upon by Borders and the creditors before Thursday’s hearing, the top five executives would receive $4.9 million at most if they recover $95 million to unsecured creditors under a sale or restructuring by Aug. 15. They could get $1.8 million in $73 million is returned. [The Detroit News, Bloomberg]

Tokyopop

Publishing | Deb Aoki, Becky Cloonan, Katherine Dacey, Heidi MacDonald, Jason Thompson and Jason Yadao offer thoughts on Friday’s news that Tokyopop is closing its North American publishing operations. [Tokyopop]

Broadway | The final preview performance of director Julie Taymor’s version of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark was, fittingly enough, marked by a (minor) technical glitch: Peter Parker (Reeve Carney) and Mary Jane (Jennifer Damiano) were left dangling momentarily before their scene started. The troubled $70-million musical now shuts down for three weeks while an expanded creative team, led by new director Philip William McKinley, make sweeping changes. Its new opening date — the sixth announced — is June 14. [Showbiz411]

Retailing | Brian Heater takes a tour of Philadelphia’s comic stores. [The Daily Cross Hatch]

Scott Adams

Creators | Dilbert creator Scott Adams has confessed to sockpuppetry after MetaFilter users accused him of maintaining a false identity online to attack critics and point out his own “certified genius I.Q.” [Gawker]

Creators | Kurt Anthony Krug uses the upcoming release of the Captain America and Thor movies as a hook for a brief profile of veteran writer William Messner-Loebs. [Brighton Patch]

Creators | David Brothers spotlights some recent work by Tonci Zonjic, “a master of cinematic comics.” [Comics Alliance]

Webcomics | Desmond Wilder recommends 10 webcomics “you need to read before you die.” You’ve probably already read them. [The Bottom Line]

Borders

Retailing | A bankruptcy judge is expected to hear arguments today from the bankrupt Borders Group, which is seeking to pay $8.3 million in bonuses in a bid to retain key corporate personnel. The struggling bookseller says that 47 executives and director-level employees have quit since the company declared bankruptcy on Feb. 16 — two dozen just this month — leaving only 15 people in senior management positions. In a court filing last week, U.S. bankruptcy trustee Tracy Hope Davis objected to the bonus proposal, characterizing it as “a disguised retention plan for insiders, which also provides for discriminatory bonuses for non-insiders.” [The Detroit News]

Publishing | Todd Allen looks at sales estimates for the first issues in Marvel’s “Point One” initiative, which featured self-contained stories designed to serve as a jumping-on point for new or lapsed readers: “With the sole exception of Hulk, retailers ordered less copies of the ‘jump on’ issue, than the regular series.  If you figure people picking up the title would also pick up the ‘.1′ introductory issue, this is a flaming disaster and there aren’t going to be a lot of these comics finding their way into the hands of new readers.  It smack of very low buy-in from the retail community.” [Indignant Online]

Conventions | Heidi MacDonald wraps up last weekend’s MoCCA Festival. [Publishers Weekly]

Comic-Con | The deadline for contributions to the 2011 Comic-Con Souvenir Book is April 29. [Comic-Con]

Retailing | Michael Waddell spotlights Memphis, Tenn.-area retailers Comics and Collectibles and Comic Cellar Cards, Comics & Games. [Memphis Daily News]

Daniel Clowes

Creators | Robot 6 contributor Sean T. Collins talks at length with Daniel Clowes about his new book Mister Wonderful. [The Comics Journal]

Creators | This Q&A with Lynda Barry covers a fascinating range of topics, from nervousness and figure skating to brain function and how art works. [The Boston Phoenix]

Creators | Mike Carey discusses his Vertigo series The Unwritten. [The Associated Press]

Creators | Jeffrey Brown chats about The Incredible Change-Bots, and the possibility of more installments: “I think there will be a third and possibly final book, although I don’t want to rule anything out. I still haven’t done any kind of parody or tribute to my other favorite toy growing up which is G.I. Joe. I had a bunch of ideas for a G.I. Joe parody and as I was finishing the second book and then doing some of the drawings and things for the compilation of odds and ends. I realized that I could very easily fold the G.I. Joe parody into the third Change Bots book. So it won’t be too specifically G.I. Joe, but there will be a third book where the Change Bots are now living on Earth and fighting with each other and humans as well. I haven’t quite figured out all the details yet. It would be down the road a couple of years before I get to that.” [Topless Robot]

Creators | Jesse Schedeen looks at the essential comics of Stuart Immonen. [IGN.com]

Creators | Eva Volin interviews Alexis Fajardo at WonderCon. [Good Comics for Kids]

Comics | Ben Morse compares and contrasts Marvel’s Thunderbolts and DC’s Suicide Squad. [The Cool Kids Table]