Boston Comic Con
Three webcomics I found in Artists Alley
John Y. at the Boots and Pup table
One of the reasons I go to comic cons is to wander the Artists Alley in search of good comics I never heard of before. I came back from Boston Comic Con with a big stack of postcards, print comics, and jotted notes, so the three comics here are just the beginning of the deluge.
Boots and Pup has been around for a while, but creator John Y. told me that he was moving to a six-day-a-week schedule this week. That’s a brave statement, because the comic has been on hiatus since 2007, but John tells me he has a two-month buffer already in place. The comic is colorful, simply drawn, and kid-friendly yet witty enough for older readers to appreciate.
At the Agreeable Comics table, Kevin Church was pushing Lydia, which is a spinoff of another webcomic, The Rack. “You can read it on its own,” he said, and indeed, I read the print comic on the way home from the con and found myself laughing out loud. It’s workplace humor with a wry twist, illustrated by Max Riffner in a nice, expressive yet simple style in black and white.
Finally, I stopped off at Jason Viola’s table to tell him how much I liked his comic Herman the Manatee, in which Herman, a manatee, bumps his head on a boat in every single episode. (In the second series, Herman does move on to other things.) Jason gave me a carefully crafted minicomic of another story, Who Is Amy Amoeba? (language NSFW), the story of an amoeba who can’t stop dividing, and suffers multiple identity crises because of it. It’s a very clever idea, well executed and simply drawn, and well worth a visit, as are all of Jason’s comics.
- May 5, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Comics A.M. | Minnesota GOP leader apologizes to Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman
Politics | Minnesota House Majority Leader Matt Dean has apologized for calling Neil Gaiman a “pencil-necked little weasel,” but contends the author and comics writer should return the $45,000 fee he received in May 2010 for speaking at the Stillwater, Minn., library (Gaiman donated the money, minus agents fees, to charity). Dean’s original remarks were made during a discussion of how the state’s tax-generated Legacy funds for the arts are spent. He was quoted as saying that Gaiman, “who I hate,” is a “pencil-necked little weasel who stole $45,000 from the state of Minnesota.”
Now, however, the Republican lawmaker has dialed back the rhetoric while standing by his underlying criticism. “My mom is staying with us right now,” he tells Minnesota Public Radio. My wife’s out of town, and she was very angry this morning and always taught me to not be a name caller. And I shouldn’t have done it, and I apologize.”
Gaiman, who responded to Dean’s initial comments early Wednesday on Twitter, has since expanded on his remarks on his website, writing in part, “I don’t like the idea that a politician is telling people that charging a market wage for their services is stealing.” [Minnesota Public Radio, Underwire]
Comics | A psychologist has been brought in to a Houston elementary school after a group of fourth-graders created a comic book allegedly depicting them holding a gun to the head of one of their classmates. [My Fox Houston]
- May 5, 2011 @ 06:55 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | Green Lantern light-up displays pose fire hazard
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]
- May 3, 2011 @ 06:55 AM by Kevin Melrose
Teenage Satan: It’s all in the family
Darwyn Cooke was one of the headliners at Boston Comic Con this weekend, but he wasn’t the only Cooke in the convention center. Wife Marsha and niece Candis dropped in on his panel to announce a project of their own: Teenage Satan, a digital comic they are creating along with artist Stephanie Buscema (granddaughter of John). The trailer above was animated by Darwyn Cooke, who worked in animation before turning his hand to comics.
The comic, which includes games and music, is a lighthearted, teen-friendly cartoon about an “emo sparkle Satan.” Teenage Satan is the son of Lucifer and his wife, Jezebel, and because this is hell, he is making his father’s life miserable—wait, that sounds like real life! Actually, we know it’s hell because he is making his father miserable by wanting to be good. Lucifer and Jezebel have been homeschooling their little devil, but when he hits ninth grade they decide to send him to high school. So with no prior experience with human interaction, Teenage Satan suddenly has to deal with all the travails of high school, including being bullied and having a crush on a girl who only has eyes for another.
Teenage Satan can be accessed as an app, via the website, or “through one of our distribution partners,” Marsha Cooke said, which presumably means a digital distributor such as comiXology, iVerse, or Graphicly. It will launch in September and will update daily with a mix of comics, games (such as 666 sudoku) and other content. Interestingly, the comic has an end date—December 22, 2012.
The inspiration for Teenage Satan came at Dragon Con, Marsha Cooke said: “We were walking through Dragon Con, and there were kids with their phones, and I was thinking, ‘I can’t believe they are playing Angry Birds with phones at a comic con.’”
- May 2, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
This weekend, it’s Boston Comic Con
Boston Comic Con isn’t one of your better-known cons, like SDCC or NYCC—heck, I live just north of Boston and I never heard of it until last year—but if you’re in the area, this year’s show looks like a pretty good bet, with guests like Darwyn Cooke, Frank Quitely, and Joe Kubert.
Right off the bat, BCC is better than 90 percent of comic cons because it is not in some sterile, isolated convention center. You know how you have to walk a mile from the Javits to get a reasonably priced sandwich? No problem here; the Hynes Convention Center is conveniently attached to a mall, and it’s located in the heart of the Back Bay, which is chock full of great little restaurants, funky boutiques, and bars with atmosphere. I used to live in the neighborhood, and it’s still one of my favorite places to go. When you’re at the Hynes, you know you’re in Boston.
Another nice thing about a small con is that conflicting panel times won’t drive you crazy; the panel schedule (warning: PDF) has only one strand, so if you want to see Stan Sakai, Darwyn Cooke, and Terry Moore speak, you don’t have to be in three places at once. Just stay in your seat.
And there will be interesting things to see and to buy! Sam Costello will be debuting the latest volume of his Split Lip horror comic, complete with a back cover blurb from me! Anthony del Col and Andy Belanger, two of the creators of Kill Shakespeare, will be there with an “exclusive digital promotion” as well as the news that they just got some financing to develop a film script based on the property. The Artists Alley lineup includes Thom Zahler (Love and Capes), Tak Toyoshima (Secret Asian Man) and a panoply of Boston-area talent. I just hope the show doesn’t get too successful, or they’ll move it to Boston’s own sterile, out-of-the-way convention center and it will lose much of its charm.
- April 28, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by Brigid Alverson
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
C2E2
Conventions | On the eve of the inaugural Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo, the Chicago Reader examines the escalating competition between convention owner Reed Exhibitions and longtime Chicago Comic Con organizer Wizard Entertainment: “It’s but one battleground in a war the two powers are waging across the country — an epic struggle that some observers see as a contest between the forces of good and, well, not so good.”
Writer Deanna Isaacs touches upon the rise of Wizard’s Rosemont event to the second-largest comics convention in North America, and its more recent decline. She quotes a couple of local retailers who have become “disenchanted” with the show. But Wizard CEO Gareb Shamus shrugs off the complaints: “Everybody’s going to tell you this or that. You’re talking about one person. We have 1,000 vendors at our show in Chicago, and they make a lot of money.”
The Daily Herald interviews C2E2 show-runner Lance Fensterman, who says he expects between 35,000 and 40,000 attendees this weekend. The Chicago Tribune, meanwhile, offers its own preview, with eight “must-see” convention events, and brief Q&As with Alex Ross and Jeff Smith. [C2E2]
- April 15, 2010 @ 07:18 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Blackest Night #8
Publishing | Helped by March’s five Wednesdays, sales of periodical comics jumped 20 percent last month, while graphic novels dropped 10 percent. Combined, sales were up 11 percent over March 2009.
The final issue of DC’s Blackest Night led Diamond’s Top 300, selling an estimated 135,000 copies, followed at No. 2 by Marvel’s Siege #3 with about 113,000. Retail news and analysis website ICv2.com notes that “publishers show no signs of being able to shake their addiction to the use of variant covers as their primary sales incentive,” as DC used 1-in-25 variants to increase sales of its Blackest Night and Rise and Fall tie-ins, while Marvel turned to 1-in-15 Deadpool variants to boost sales of its Siege books. Multiple covers also paid off for Dynamite Entertainment, whose Kevin’s Smith Green Hornet #1 landed on the chart at No. 20, with about 54,000 copies.
The graphic-novel chart was topped by Marvel/Icon’s Kick-Ass premiere hardcover, with about 7,200 copies, followed by the sixth volume of Dark Horse’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, with about 7,000. [ICv2.com]
- April 13, 2010 @ 07:41 AM by Kevin Melrose
This weekend, it’s Boston Comic Con
Boston Comic Con
The two-day Boston Comic Con kicks off at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Westin Boston Waterfront, 425 Summer St.
The impressive lineup of guests includes Sergio Aragones, Amber Benson, Kody Chamberlain, Ming Doyle, Jim Lee, Christopher Golden, Michael Golden, Jim Mahfood, Mike Mignola, Mike Norton, Eric Powell, Joe Quinones, Steve Rude, Bill Sienkiewicz, Jim Starlin, Cameron Stewart, Ben Templesmith, Scott Wegener, J.H. Williams III and Skottie Young.
The show continues Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $15 per day for adults; children under 10 are free with adult admission.
For directions and details about parking and transportation, visit the Boston Comic Con website.
- April 9, 2010 @ 11:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
Gareb Shamus buys New England Comic Con
Looks like the Con War has opened a new front: Wizard Entertainment CEO Gareb Shamus has purchased the New England Comic Con to add to his ever-growing slate of comics and pop-culture shows. According to a press release posted on the Wizard site, the Con’s previous owners, Larry Harrison and Jerry Tournasm of retailer Harrison’s Comics & Collectibles, will continue to work for the show.
The latest addition to a roster of Shamus/Wizard shows that includes Anaheim Comic Con, Toronto Comic Con, Big Apple Comic Con, and Wizard World Philadelphia, the Wizard World New England Comic Con, as it will apparently be called, is not to be confused with either the Boston Comic Con — whose guests for its April 10-11 show next year include Jim Lee, Mike Mignola, Eric Powell, and Bill Sienkiewicz at the top of a pretty impressive roster — nor the previous Wizard World Boston show, held once (in 2005) before being canceled. Whether Shamus’s latest attempt at a Boston event will engender the same sort of rivalry as his other cons have with such shows as Heroes Con, the Long Beach Comic Con, Fan Expo Canada, and Reed Exhibition’s New York Comic Con and C2E2 remains to be seen.
More, undoubtedly, as it develops.
- November 20, 2009 @ 03:01 PM by Sean T. Collins
This weekend, it’s Boston Comic Con
Weekly Dig
Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener’s Atomic Robo graces the cover of Boston’s Weekly Dig just in time for Boston Comic Con, which kicks off Saturday at the Back Bay Events Center.
In addition to Wegener, guests will include Louise Simonson, Walt Simonson, Tim Sale, Bill Sienkiewicz, Herb Trimpe, Geof Darrow, Cliff Chiang, David Mack, Khoi Pham, Mike McKone, Stephane Roux, Craig Rousseau, Eric Canete and Jim Calafiore.
- October 23, 2009 @ 10:20 AM by Kevin Melrose