C2E2

Conventions | Early estimates place attendance three-day attendance at Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo at 34,000, up from 27,500 at last year’s inaugural event. “Last year was disappointing,” said Eric Thornton, manager of Chicago Comics. “But now you definitely see this starting to take hold.” [Chicago Tribune]

Retailing | Borders Group has announced it will close an additional 28 stores, bringing the total to 228. The bookseller, which filed for bankruptcy protection on Feb. 16, had used the possibility of as many as 75 closings as leverage to negotiate lease concessions. This latest wave will bring the chain’s remaining store total to about 400. [Media Decoder]

Publishers | Chicago-based publisher Archaia, which expects sales of $11 million this year, has raised capital from a group of investors with local connections. [Crain's Chicago Business, via ICv2.com]

Chris Onstad

Creators | Chris Onstad discusses burnout and Achewood‘s hiatus: “Whenever I cracked my knuckles and attempted to start a fresh strip with an idea that had popped into my head that day, I’d get halfway through it and realize I’d already done that particular gag, say, six years ago. Frustrating. Had I run through everything that my finite brain knew to talk about? Couldn’t be … I’d boasted in earlier times that a good writer could write his way out of anything. What a cocksure young man I was. Maybe it’s time to recharge.” [Achewood Premium Updates, via The Webcomic Overlook]

Creators | Several creators, including Garth Ennis, Matt Fraction, Gene Ha and Jill Thompson, talk about the first comic book they really loved. [The A.V. Club Chicago]

Joe Sacco

Creators | Vit Wagner briefly profiles Joe Sacco: “The term ‘graphic novels’ is a way of making adults feel like they’re not buying a comic book. I call them comic books. And I call myself a cartoonist, who is working in the field of journalism.” [Toronto Star]

Creators | Ted Naifeh chats about Courtney Crumrin Tales, Polly and the Pirates and his other upcoming projects. [Sequential Tart]

Creators | Mike Rhode talks with David Malki, whose Wondermark appears on Washington City Paper‘s newly reborn comics page: “The future of comics will be a single giant Garfield panel that everyone can type their own name into, and it will follow them around their house reading the newspaper to them while they eat breakfast, and read the sports scores to them in the car. Later, at work, it will follow us everywhere, even into meetings, and project itself looming onto the wall of the bathroom stall, reading random articles from Wikipedia out loud. It will be inescapable.” [Washington City Paper]

Isotope's "FailFrog" button

Comic-Con | Badges for Comic-Con International sold out Saturday during a marathon online-registration session that taxed the servers of convention sales partner TicketLeap and frustrated ticket buyers. Four-day passes were gone by about 2 p.m. PT; the event sold out by 6 p.m. (Additional passes may become available as cancellations are processed.) As we noted earlier, San Francisco comics retailer Isotope is memorializing Saturday’s experience with a “San Diego Comic Con 2011 Registration Disaster Commemorative Fail Frog button,” featuring a modified version of the TicketLeap logo that frustrated users saw every time they refreshed their web browser.

On the TicketLeap company blog, CEO Chris Stanchak acknowledged that “our platform experienced capacity issues for a 4 hour period” on Saturday: “While we knew the event was going to put significant demand on our system, we did not expect the traffic we received. [...] The traffic we received yesterday was several orders of magnitude higher than our high end estimate. Due to the heavy strain on the system, users for all events across our system received ‘Over Capacity’ errors. This prevented ticket buyers from buying tickets and it prevented event organizers from managing their events.” Tom Spurgeon offers commentary. [Comic-Con International]

Rep. John Lewis (D-GA)

Publishing | Georgia Congressman John Lewis, a leader in the American civil-rights movement, will co-author the autobiographical graphic novel March for Top Shelf Productions: “A meditation in the modern age on the distance traveled, both as a nation and as a people, since the days of Jim Crow and segregation, March tells the first hand account of John Lewis’ lifelong struggle for civil and human rights.” It’s tentatively set for release in 2012. [press release]

Business | AOL Inc. struck a deal Sunday to by The Huffington Post for $315 million as part of an ongoing effort transform the former Internet service giant into a “new American media company.” Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post, will become president and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group, which will integrate both company’s content, including the AOL-owned comic-book blog Comics Alliance. [Advertising Age, The Hollywood Reporter]

Crime | Dan Herbeck updates the investigation of the case of Homer Marciniak, a 77-year-old man from Medina, N.Y., who died in of a heart attack on July 5, several hours after he was beaten by burglars who broke into his home to steal his comic-book collection. Rochester businessman Rico Vendetti was charged with hiring the alleged burglars, including 17-year-old Juan C. Javier — both deny any involvement — but community members want prosecutors to pursue homicide charges. [The Buffalo News]

Alan Moore

Creators | Nicole Le Marie reports on the “read-in” led by Alan Moore to protest the planned closing of the St. James Library in his hometown of Northampton. [Northampton Chronicle]

Creators | Cartoonist Faith Erin Hicks discusses her busy schedule, including an upcoming third graphic novel for First Second, collaboration, her webcomic The Adventures of Superhero Girl, and more. [Sequential Tart]

Creators | Grace Bello interviews bestselling author, television host and comics writer Brad Meltzer. [Bookslut]

Comic strips | An editor at the Yuma Sun asks readers if, 11 years after the death of cartoonist Charles Schulz and the final new installment of Peanuts, it’s time for the newspaper to let go of the comic strip. [Yuma Sun]

DC Comics

Three top executives are leaving DC Entertainment as part of the company’s massive restructuring, according to multiple reports: Senior Vice President & Creative Director Richard Bruning, Senior Vice President-Marketing and Sales Steve Rotterdam, and Senior Vice President-Brand Management Cheryl Rubin.

The news was first reported on Friday in a since-removed post at The Beat, and then on Sunday by Bleeding Cool before being confirmed this morning by Deadline. It’s unclear whether the executives were laid off or turned down relocation offers.

The three departures follow that of Senior Vice President-Creative Affairs Gregory Noveck in August. In addition, longtime DC employee Patrick Caldon, who was promoted in February to executive vice president-finance and administration — part of the five-person executive team — reportedly will retire. That may explain why his name has been absent from the latest press releases.

Announced on Sept. 21, the reorganization leaves DC’s comics-publishing division in New York City while moving the company’s administrative/business and digital and multimedia operations — including, presumably, the WildStorm offices now based in La Jolla, Calif. — to a Warner Bros.-managed property in Burbank, Calif. As many as 80 of DC’s estimated 250 employees are expected to be fired or relocated.

Bruning, who as part of his wide-ranging duties oversaw the recently closed Zuda imprint, joined DC in 1985 as art director, and was responsible for the original design of the landmark titles Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns and the logo and branding of the Vertigo imprint. He left the company in 1990 to form his own design and corporate-communications firm, but returned in 1996. Bruning is married to Karen Berger, executive editor of Vertigo.

A relatively new hire, Rotterdam was chief creative officer of Eastwest Marketing Group before joining DC in 2007. He oversaw the publisher’s direct and book-trade sales divisions, advertising sales and custom publishing.

Rubin had been with DC since 1987, beginning as licensing sales manager. As head of brand management, she supervised the creative and merchandising activities of the DC Comics and MAD Magazine libraries, and served as a liaison to Warner Bros. Consumer Products. Rubin also oversaw DC Direct, the company’s collectibles division.

In other restructuring news, DC Entertainment is advertising for two new senior positions: a New York-based manager-international sales, and a Burbank-based senior vice president-publicity.

DC Entertainment

As many as 80 employees will be fired or relocated in the restructuring of DC Entertainment that will see part of the company’s operations move from New York City to Burbank, Calif., according to a notice filed Wednesday with the New York State Department of Labor and reported by Bloomberg.

That amounts to nearly a third of DC’s estimated 250 employees. The filing doesn’t specify how many of those positions will be firings, and how many will be moved cross-country. The Los Angeles Times reported earlier this week that about 20 percent of the company’s staff “will lose their jobs as part of the shift,” a statement challenged by DC.

A Warner Bros. spokesman wouldn’t comment to Bloomberg on the specifics of the layoffs.

Announced on Tuesday, the reorganization leaves DC’s comics-publishing division in New York City while relocating the company’s administrative and digital and multimedia operations — including, presumably, the WildStorm offices now based in La Jolla, Calif. — to a Warner Bros.-managed property in Burbank. It was subsequently revealed that the WildStorm and Zuda imprints will close as part of the shakeup.

The labor department filing states that layoffs will begin on Dec. 27, and continue through Aug. 27, 2011, presumably the date when the move is expected to be complete.

DC executives are in the process of meeting individually with staff members to discuss their positions. “… There’s a spectrum of things that are happening for various employees – there are promotions, there are offers of relocation and unfortunately there are some layoffs to come,” DC Entertainment President Diane Nelson told Comic Book Resources on Tuesday. “Until that’s all sorted and people have had time to consider their individual opportunities and we confirm all that, which will take us a few weeks, we aren’t going to be able to discuss specifics.”

Piracy

Legal | A bill introduced this week in the U.S. Senate would allow the Justice Department to seek court orders against piracy websites located anywhere in the world. The bipartisan legislation, called the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act, would permit the government to seek an injunction ordering a U.S. domain registrar or registry to stop resolving an infringing site’s domain names. That means a visitor attempting to access a targeted piracy site would instead get an error message. Domains outside of U.S. control could be blocked by Internet service providers upon a court order. [Threat Level, ICv2.com]

Business | Time Warner has extended the contract of Warner Bros. Chairman and CEO Barry Meyer through December 2013 as part of a management restructuring that sees WB President and COO Alan Horn shifting from his current position into a consultancy role in six months. And in a move that may look vaguely familiar to watchers of DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. executives Jeff Robinov, Bruce Rosenblum and Kevin Tsujihara will share as part of a new Office of the President that will report directly to Meyer beginning in April. DC Entertainment President Diane Nelson reports to Robinov, currently president of Warner Bros. Picture Group; it’s unknown whether that will change in the new structure. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Isaac Perlmutter (from 1985)

Business | Marvel CEO Isaac Perlmutter, who’s worth an estimated $1.65 billion thanks primarily to Disney’s purchase of the company, clocks in at No. 250 on Forbes magazine’s list of 400 Richest Americans. [Forbes.com]

Business | On the flipside, sort of, Stan Lee rates a spot on a list of the 10 worst celebrity business owners. [WalletPop]

Publishing | Benjamin Simpson and Jason Wood offer analysis on this week’s DC Entertainment announcements, specifically focusing on the strengthening of the DC “brand,” and why the Vertigo imprint survived while WildStorm was shuttered. [iFanboy]

Editorial cartoons | Award-winning editorial cartoonist Ed Gamble has been laid off in a round of cutbacks at The Florida Times-Union. [Jacksonville.com]

Blockbuster

Retailing | This isn’t exactly comics-related, but video-rental giant Blockbuster has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Retailing | Flavorwire breaks down the 10 greatest comic stores in the United States. [Flavorwire]

Creators | Douglas Wolk briefly interviews artist Dustin Nguyen. [Techland]

Creators | Matthew Meylikhov talks to writer Kieron Gillen about his plans for Marvel’s Uncanny X-Men. [Multiversity Comics]

The Sports Illustrated Building -- Marvel's new home

While many await an announcement expected later today about the possible relocation of DC Comics to Los Angeles, the New York Observer reports that Marvel Entertainment is moving — from 417 Fifth Ave. to 135 W. 50th St.

The publisher will lease 60,000 square feet for nine years in the Sports Illustrated Building, allowing it to consolidate its offices onto one floor. Marvel is expected to take occupancy on Oct. 1.

The Warner Bros. mural (photo by Jonah Weiland)

DC Comics will begin to play a larger role at Warner Bros., a move marked by an organizational announcement next week, Heat Vision reports.

That will be followed in about a month by the unveiling of a spread sheet laying out how various DC superheroes will be introduced to consumers, Warner Bros. CEO Barry Meyer told attendees of the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Media, Communications & Entertainment Conference.

The news comes more than a year after a restructuring that saw the creation of DC Entertainment, “a new company founded to fully realize the power and value of the DC Comics brand and characters across all media and platforms,” headed by President Diane Nelson.

Meyer, who’s been chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. since 1999, said the studio had been looking after DC in a “custodial way,” but that it’s now time to become “much more entrepreneurial.” The decision is fueled, in no small part, by the end of the Harry Potter franchise next summer.

There’s little — okay, no — indication what the nature of next week’s “organizational announcement” will be, but we can probably expect plenty online speculation between now and then about the frequently rumored move of DC Comics from New York City to Los Angeles.

The Thing

Publishing | Marvel reportedly has issued a round of Digital Millennium Copyright Act notices to Google in an effort targeting Blogger sites that serve as clearinghouses for links to pirated comics. (Blogger was purchased by Google in 2003.) One such blog, Comics Invasion, already has been shut down. [Bleeding Cool]

Passings | Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Paul Conrad passed away Saturday of natural causes. He was 86.  The winner of three Pulitzers, an achievement matched by just two other cartoonists in the post-World War II era, Conrad worked for the Los Angeles Times for nearly 30 years, and earned a place on President Nixon’s infamous “enemies list.” [Los Angeles Times, Comic Riffs]

DC Comics

Publishing | David Brothers considers the state of DC Comics: “DC is clearly trying to turn a corner and move away from their past in one way or another, and Diane Nelson seems to be encouraging that, judging by how DiDio describes her ‘Why not?’ philosophy. We’re still in the middle of the transition to a New DC, and while there are several new developments, we aren’t quite at the point where we can point what their new direction will be.” [Comics Alliance]

Publishing | David Wolkin crafts a timeline of Joe Quesada’s decade as editor-in-chief of Marvel. [Comics Alliance]

Crime | A suspected burglar, 28-year-old Robert Summers, was shot and killed early Wednesday in a confrontation with the owner of a Lancaster, California, store that’s been identified as Bases, Cards and Games. [Los Angeles Daily News, Bleeding Cool]

Crime | Adjeel J. Bartley, 21, was charged over the weekend with burglary, criminal mischief and giving false information to police after he allegedly broke in to The Comic Book Store in Glassboro, New Jersey. [Gloucester County Times]

Crime | Marc Rowland, 36, was convicted last week of burglary and resisting law enforcement in the attempted break-in at Castle Comics and Cards in Lafayette, Indiana, in June 2009. Rowland was wearing a black ninja outfit, and tossed away a vest containing carbon dioxide cylinders, throwing stars and a walkie-talkie as he attempted to escape police. [WLFI.com]

Dragon*Con

Conventions | Ann Hoevel and Barbara Vey report on Dragon*Con, which was held over the weekend in Atlanta. [CNN.com, Publishers Weekly]

Retailing | Profiles of Rock Bottom Comics in Columbia, Missouri, A&M Comics in Miami, and Astro-Zombies in Albuquerque, New Mexico. [MOVE Magazine, Miami New Times, Daily Lobo]

Creators | Legendary cartoonist Mort Walker, 86, talks about the 60th anniversary of his comic strip Beetle Bailey: “I don’t know how I’d be retired. I wake up every day with another idea.” [The Associated Press]

Spider-Man: Fever

Creators | Mark Kardwell interviews Brendan McCarthy about his Spider-Man: Fever miniseries — the collected edition hits shelves this week — which could just lead to another Marvel project: “… Another story has started to take shape, probably just starring Dr. Strange and Clea … I’m interested in different forms of magic and enchantment, not just that dark Aleister Crowley angle … Hollywood, for example, is certainly a place of magic: Enchantment by the manipulation of projected light. The name ‘Hollywood’ has a deeper esoteric meaning too. The wood of the Holly tree was used by Druids to make wands. I think Dr. Strange should get involved with The Light-masters of Hollywood. There’s some great online articles by Jay Weidner on the esoteric symbols concealed in corporate Hollywood movies.” [Bad Librarianship]

Creators | Johanna Draper Carlson talks to Colleen Doran about the business of freelancing and self-publishing. [Comics Worth Reading]

Creators | Posy Simmonds discusses the film adaptation of her comic Tamara Drewe. [The Scotsman]

Creators | Julianne Mattera spotlights John Ostrander, who held a writing workshop in Durand, Michigan. [The Argus-Press]

Creators | Writer Stuart C. Paul chats about his new Wildstorm series Ides of Blood. [Fangoria]

Viz Media

Publishers | Viz Senior Vice President and General Manager Alvin Lu discusses the state of the company after the layoffs that occurred in May, as well as the overall manga market. “We continue to get great support from our retail partners. They do see that these very popular series continue to do well. They are getting up there in the 40s and 50s of the volume count, and there is the challenge of bringing in newer readers, to catch them up. I was looking though a calendar from several years ago when we were looking at Bleach Vol. 5 or something. That is a conversation we’ve been having with the bookstores, and they’re being very responsive on how to work with us, to continue to drive the category. They’ve been very supportive of helping us launch new series as well. So it’s a balancing act of getting the space to launch new series while nurturing the more mature series that continue to enjoy a loyal readership.” [ICv2]

Events | Brian Heater from the Daily Cross Hatch and Sarah Morean from Blog Chicka Blog Blog have declared Aug. 28 “International Read Comics in Public” Day. They’ve started a blog that features, as you might guess, people reading comics in public. [Daily Cross Hatch]

Wednesday Comics

Publishing | Ada Price talks to DC Comics art director and Wednesday Comics editor Mark Chiarello about the project, asking if there’s any word about a sequel. “There’s some talk about it. I think the only reason to do it would be to do it as good, if not better than the first series, and that’s going to be difficult,” Chiarello said. [Publishers Weekly]

Publishing | A profile of Richelle Mead, author of the Vampire Academy series of books, reveals that a graphic novel version is due in August 2011. [Kansascity.com]

Conventions | Gregory Schmidt talks to companies like Mattel and Warner Bros. about how they market to girls at Comic-Con International. [New York Times]

Digital comics | Todd Allen talks to Robert Jacobi, an example of a “lapsed comics reader that the iPad apps were supposed to connect with.” [Publishers Weekly]

Steve Englehart

Creators | Writer Steve Englehart continues to share stories from his early days as a comics writer in a new column for Tor.com. “Many people today are amazed at this. ‘They gave you an established icon like Captain America and said do whatever you want?’ Yes, they did. And when I did make the book sell and did meet my deadlines, they gave me The Hulk and The Avengers and a whole lot more. I’ve talked about how writing periodicals teaches you to write. I should add that complete freedom lets you explore anything that seems like a good idea without once looking over my shoulder or second-guessing myself. So when I wrote comics, I lived in the moment, letting my stories tell me what to write about, riffing off the zeitgeist month by month.” [Tor.com]

Creators | Jesse Blaze Snyder talks about his family, reality TV and his comic book writing. [The Beat]

Creators | Robot 6 contributor Brigid Alverson talks to Rob Worley about creating the all-ages comic Scratch9. [Publishers Weekly]

Creators | Douglas Wolk interviews Scott Snyder about his upcoming run on Detective Comics. [Techland]

Comics | David Brothers offers a detailed analysis of previous Top Cow Pilot Season winner Genius by Marc Bernardin, Adam Freeman and Afua Richardson: “Richardson’s approach to violence is both matter-of-fact and highly stylized. Richardson’s freeze frames of violence aren’t sensational or overly gory, but her just-shy-of-realistic art makes ‘Genius’ look almost like a really high quality animated movie. While the big bangs are what push the plot forward, Richardson renders lower key moments just as well. Destiny’s way of thinking is presented in an inventive visual shorthand that is instantly understandable and worthy of poring over. [ComicsAlliance]

Comics | Jeffery Klaehn names the greatest comic-book super-teams. [Pop]

Comic-Con International

With Comic-Con International kicking off in a few hours, the media circus is in full swing. Here are a few links to read while you’re waiting for the doors to open:

• The Washington Post’s Comic Riffs talks to Stan Lee, Dan DiDio and Sergio Aragones, among others, about whether or not the con should move to another city. “Vegas, please. I’m advocating for all the hookers. All those fanboys would be like manna dropping from heaven. Honestly, some of those folks in the Storm Trooper suits REALLY need a little action. Now that I’ve said that, I should mention that I’ll be appearing for my Comic Con speech in a storm troopers costume. I take it back,” said Bloom County creator Berkeley Breathed.

• USA Today spotlights video games, TV shows and movies that will be featured at the con this year, while the Wall Street Journal has their own list. Which ones will kill? The Hollywood Reporter might have some thoughts.

Heat Vision, meanwhile, talks to several screenwriters about adapting comics into movies.

• A popular topic with the media is costumes at Comic-Con; this one, about a Nazi memorabilia booth that’ll be set up at the show, is a bit more serious than you’d expect.

• Sign-on San Diego looks at how the locals are making money during “San Diego’s annual Super Bowl.”

“This piece of business (from Comic-Con) is worth about $1.5 million to us through a combination of rooms, food and beverage and sponsorship vehicles like the building wrap,” said a gleeful Donovan Henson, area director of sales and marketing for Hiltons of San Diego. “A weekend in the summertime is going to be busy in San Diego, but with 125,000 people in San Diego exposed to our hotel who may come back, there’s real value to that.”

• SanDiego.com highlights several happy hours fans can hit after the show.

• And finally, the L.A Times blog Brand X Daily spotlights efforts by Rose & Isabel creator Ted Mathot and other creators to establish a new convention called Creator-Con.

“We found ourselves more and more frustrated with the direction [Comic-Con] was taking,” Mathot said. “It appeared to us that a dramatic shift was taking place, a move away from individual artists, creators, and comics… There are a number of folks that have decided to bow out this year.” They are still in the early stages of planning so there are no details yet on when and where the new convention will take place.

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

Marvel reportedly has granted its fifth rights extension to the producers of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, the much-delayed Broadway musical.

According to Variety, the big-budget production appears to be moving full steam toward an opening in November or December … a mere eight months or so behind schedule: A flying workshop was held last week in Las Vegas, green-screen footage is being filmed this week in New York City, and construction continues on the 1,700-seat Hilton Theatre — all sure signs the $52-million production is back on track.

That’s certainly a good thing for the Julie Taymor-directed show, as the trade paper points to indications that Marvel is getting antsy: “It’s said Marvel has periodically asked for proof of the project’s progress, with some adding that the recent fifth extension would likely be the last.”

Word trickled out last week that Next to Normal star Jennifer Damiano has been cast as Mary Jane Watson, replacing Evan Rachel Wood, who left the production in March. Spider-Man producers haven’t confirmed Damiano’s casting or commented on widely circulating reports that Patrick Page (The Lion King) will play Green Goblin, stepping in for Alan Cumming, who bailed in April. At this point, the only cast member known for certain is 26-year-old relative newcomer Reeve Carney, who’ll star in the title role.

Featuring a score by U2′s Bono and the Edge with a book by Taymor and Glen Berger, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark is expected to be the most expensive musical in Broadway history.

The Beano Annual 2009

Publishing | D.C. Thomson & Co., publisher of long-running comics like The Beano and The Dandy, is closing a printing plant in Dundee, Scotland, eliminating up to 350 jobs. The facility is used to print magazines and books. The company, which also owns The Evening Telegraph and Sunday Post newspapers, employs more than 2,000 people. [BBC News]

Publishing | Lori Henderson returns to the question of what led to the failure of the CMX manga imprint: “Its parent company, DC didn’t do anything to market that line. Putting a solicitation in Previews is not marketing. DC claimed they would bridge the manga and comic store gap, yet did nothing to help retailers or promote the books to bloggers, bookstores or librarians, their three strongest advocates. You can’t buy or recommend books you don’t know about. While there were other factors that contributed to its ultimate end, the mishandling of the imprint in its first year, and then being completely ignored for the rest was the main factor in its lack of sales.” [Manga Xanadu]

Retailing | Retailer Frank Mangiaracina argues that early delivery of comics to the direct market won’t work: “Here in Kansas City, from roughly 1993 to 1999, all shops enjoyed Tuesday delivery for Wednesday on sale. Most shops started selling the books on Tuesday regardless. A ‘secret shopper’ service like Diamond is proposing is unlikely to work as unscrupulous retailers would simply just sell to people they know (i.e. subscribers).” [ICv2.com]

Slam Dunk, Vol. 5

Creators | The Japan Basketball Association will honor Slam Dunk creator Takehiko Inoue with a special commendation for his contribution to the growing popularity of the sport in Japan, and for the establishment of the Slam Dunk Scholarship for high-school athletes. [Anime News Network]

Creators | Douglas Wolk chats briefly with Jason Aaron. [Techland]

Creators | Kate Beaton talks about humor, self-publishing, making a living from comics and being a celebrity: “Well, most of the time, I work at an office or in my house, and people don’t know who I am. The only time they know who I am is at comic shows. And that can get a little overwhelming. TCAF was intense, but they’re all like that. You’d like to have the time to talk to all the people that come to you, but you can’t. I’m not used to the crowds of people, and so I get overwhelmed, and lose it a bit toward the end. Not it a bad way, but it’s too much attention, too many drawings. And then you feel kind of like a jerk because, you know, people have come to see you, and you’re just like, ‘I’ve got to go outside or something, I need a break’.” [Torontoist]

Creators | Writer Neil Kleid is profiled by his local newspaper. [NorthJersey.com]

The New Teen Titans #1

Creators | Matt Price marks the birthday of George Perez by counting down his Top 10 comic-book runs, from The New Teen Titans to The Infinity Gauntlet. [Nerdage]

Crime | Two people stole the life-size fiberglass-and-foam statue of Spider-Man from outside The Time Capsule comics store in Seekonk, Massachusetts. One suspect reportedly distracted the store manager on May 30 while the other unhooked the bungee cord that attached Spider-Man to the shop’s sign. The statue, which is worth between $300 and $400, has been replaced by with one of Freddy Krueger. [The Sun Chronicle]

Comics | Dean Blumberg examines ecological issues in Alan Moore and Steve Bissette’s first arc of Saga of the Swamp Thing: Part 1, Part 2. [PopMatters]

Comics | Matthew Brady discovers 10 things he didn’t know about Wonder Woman. [Warren Peace Sings the Blues]

Comics | T.J. Dietsch looks at the “12 Coolest Personfications of Death,” including Jack Kirby’s Death Racer, Judge Death and, of course, Death of the Endless. [Topless Robot]

Stephen Perry

Crime | Florida authorities are trying to determine whether human remains discovered Wednesday in Pasco County are those of Stephen Perry, the 56-year-old ThunderCats writer who’s been missing for more than three weeks and presumed murdered. Zephyrhills police are still awaiting the results of DNA testing on the severed arm found in a trash bin on May 16 near Perry’s abandoned van.

Tampa Tribune reporter Howard Altman, who’s been covering the Perry case from the beginning, notes police revealed the latest discovery on the same day that Warner Bros. Animation announced it is producing a new version of ThunderCats. [The Tampa Tribune]

Anaheim Convention Center

Conventions | A coalition of Anaheim business and community leaders has launched a website to counter a local labor union’s recent efforts to “intimidate” Comic-Con International organizers to discourage them from moving the event to the city. Unite Here Local 11, which represents about 2,100 workers at Disneyland resort hotels, is embroiled in a bitter two-year dispute over a contract proposal that could increase healthcare costs for some employees. Union representatives dressed as Marvel superheroes delivered a letter last month to the Comic-Con offices warning that a move to Anaheim could jeopardize the success of the convention.

A letter on the Anaheim coalition’s website, signed by the city’s mayor and more than two dozen others, states the individuals were “shocked and deeply disappointed” by the union’s actions. “As a community, we have respected Local 11’s right to protest,” the letter reads. “However, when their actions adversely impact the livelihood of workers, sustainability of local businesses and funding for city services, we must speak out.” [The San Diego Union-Tribune, Los Angeles Times]

NewsToons

Digital comics | Wired.com’s Ryan Singel isn’t buying Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ “bit of revisionist history” concerning the iPhone store’s rejection of cartoonist Mark Fiore’s NewsToons app: “… Jobs says the real story is that in the interval between the rejection and Fiore’s award, Apple had changed its policy because it realized that blocking Fiore was dumb. But despite that supposed change, the company never contacted Fiore and asked him to try again.” [Epicenter]

Business | The purchase of Peanuts and United Media Licensing by Iconix Brand Group and the heirs of Charles M. Schulz became official on Thursday. [press release]

Creators | John Martz chats with Graham Annable about The Book of Grickle, animation, process and more. [Drawn!]

Barney & Clyde

Creators | Michael Cavna interviews writer Gene Weingarten, whose syndicated comic strip Barney & Clyde (with co-writer Dan Weingarten and artist David Clark) debuts Monday from The Washington Post Writers Group. [Comic Riffs]

Creators | Taylor Maurand profiles cartoonist Kristen Caven, creator of the recently released memoir Perfectly Revolting: My ‘Glamorous’ Cartooning Career. [San Jose Mercury News]

Comics | Frank Santoro points to the $1 reprint of Jonah Hex #1 as an example of “how photo-referencing has taken all the fun, gesture and action out of comics.” [Comics Comics]

Comics | Ethan Kaye counts down “The 10 Most Ridiculous Comic Book Nazis.” I protest the inclusion of the indisputably awesome War Wheel from Blackhawk. [Topless Robot]

Pop culture | It turns out that Patrick Boivin, the guy behind that Iron Baby parody video, started out as a horror-comic artist. [Guelph Mercury]

Mark Fiore's NewsToons

Digital comics | Michael Cavna reports that Apple CEO Steve Jobs essentially accused cartoonist Mark Fiore of lying about the rejection of his iPhone app, telling attendees at a tech conference the Pulitzer Prize winner “never resubmitted” NewsToons after the company’s initial brush-off. “We’re doing the best we can, we’re fixing mistakes,” Jobs is quoted as saying. “But what happens is — people lie. And then they run to the press and tell people about this oppression, and they get their 15 minutes of fame. We don’t run to the press and say ‘this guy is a son of a bitch liar!’ — we don’t do that.”

Fiore seems baffled, telling Cavna: “My NewsToons app was, in fact, rejected. … The reason I never resubmitted the app was because I wasn’t about to make the changes Apple sought and remove any ‘content that ridicules public figures.’ Ridiculing public figures is what I do and is an essential part of journalism.” Tom Spurgeon offers some commentary, pointing out how strange Jobs’ accusations are. [Comic Riffs]

Legal | The Democratic Party of Japan, which holds 54 of the 127 seats in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly, and several smaller groups are threatening on June 14 to vote down a bill to tighten restrictions on the sexual depictions of minors in comics, animation and video games. Gov. Shintaro Ishihara said Tokyo could come up with a new bill if the current one is defeated. [The Japan Times]

WOWIO

Business | WOWIO, the long-struggling ebook publisher, announced it has raised $1.7 million in private financing and acquired WEvolt.com, an online community for creators to share and promote their work. The new financing follows a $1-million seed round completed in October. [press release]

Business | GeekChicDaily, the pop culture e-newsletter co-founded in October by Wizard CEO Gareb Shamus, has received an investment in “the mid-six figures” from former AOL Time Warner executive Bob Pittman and his partner Andrew Russell. They’ll join GeekChicDaily’s advisory board. [Variety]

Sales charts | The fourth volume of Kanoko Sakurakoji’s Blackbird, from Viz Media, topped BookScan’s list of adult graphic novels sold in bookstores in May. Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.’s Kick-Ass hardcover was No. 2, while Daniel Clowes’ Wilson debuted at No. 15. Manga accounted for 15 of the Top 20 spots. [ICv2.com]

Events | Host registration is open for the seventh annual 24-Hour Comics Day, set for Oct. 2. [ComicsPRO]

Creators | The University of Cincinnati student newspaper spotlights cartoonist, and adjunct professor, Carol Tyler. [The News Record]

Mark Chiarello

Creators | DC Comics Art Director Mark Chiarello talks about Wednesday Comics and the possibility of a follow-up: “It did very well financially and creatively.  I …  I sort of …  It was so labor intensive to put the project together that I’m having a ‘Nam flashback just thinking about it.  But I think the machine is built now so it would be easier to do a sequel. [...] I think the real key is that we’d only do it if it could be as good or better than the original series.” [Big Shiny Robot]

Creators | Jeff Lemire discusses his Vertigo series Sweet Tooth and his upcoming stint as writer of DC’s relaunched Superboy title. [AICN]

Creators | Raina Telgemeier talks about her autobiographical webcomic-turned-graphic novel Smile and Del Rey’s cancellation of the second volume of X-Men: Misfits: “It’s licensed and it was work-for-hire, so we got paid to do the work. And that’s how any work-for-hire job is: you can hope that the books will come out, but if they don’t, you kind of just have to shrug your shoulders and hope for the best next time.” [Playback:stl]

Chew #1

Creators | Benjamin Bailey briefly interviews Chew artist Rob Guillory. [Earth 616]

Creators | Von Allan chats about his graphic novels the road to god knows … and Stargazer. [Seattlest]

Comics | Ben Morse looks at the history of Robin the Boy Wonder: “I think the turnover rate of Robin as well as the aging of the mantle’s former holders all ties back to this idea of the original fan service character and how creators have been quite diligent in evolving him as the audience has grown, changed, regressed and done it all over again.” [The Cool Kids Table]

Neil Gaiman

Legal | Neil Gaiman and Todd McFarlane will return to court next month after more than seven years to hash out how much Gaiman is owed for his copyright interests in Medieval Spawn, Angela and Count Nicholas Cogliostro. Gaiman wants to learn how much money was generated by three other characters he claims are derivative of those he co-created with McFarlane: Dark Ages Spawn, Domina and Tiffany.

McFarlane asked for another trial on the issue, but on Tuesday U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb ruled that Gaiman has a plausible claim, and ordered an evidentiary hearing to be held on June 14. [Wisconsin State Journal]

Conventions | As the bidding war for Comic-Con International continues, convention organizers have asked San Diego hotels to sign contracts guaranteeing room rates for the next five years. A decision on whether the four-day event will remain in the city after 2012 was expected weeks ago, but Comic-Con spokesman David Glanzer said that’s been delayed because the competing cities — Anaheim, Los Angeles and San Diego — continue to amend their offers. He now expects a decision within the next month. [The San Diego Union-Tribune]

Disney Publishing Worldwide

Publishing | Disney Publishing Worldwide is now managing the global children’s licensed book publishing business formerly overseen by Marvel. [Publishers Weekly]

Publishing | Dave Carter wonders what the closing of the CMX manga imprint might tell us about the future of DC Comics. I follow most of his line of thinking — DC wants to publish properties it can exploit in other media — but he loses me with his prediction the “days are probably numbered” for creator-owned works at the company. It seems unlikely that DC would cut off its primary source for new properties and, in the process, push creators to the company’s competitors. [Yet Another Comics Blog]

Graphic.ly

Publishing | Andrew McDonald profiles Graphic.ly CEO Micah Baldwin: “I don’t even think we’re close to the ‘p’ of profitability yet. Depending on what happens over the next 12 months, I wouldn’t be surprised if we were not profitable for the next 18 months. We’re in serious build mode. I won’t give you [revenue] figures; mostly because I just don’t know them, and they’re small. We’ve been out for a month. We’re a little bit ahead of plans, which is good. We’re getting more users and more purchases than we expected early on, which I think is great.” [StrategyEye]

Legal | The attorney for Michael George, the retailer and convention organizer awaiting a new trial in the 17-year-old murder of his first wife, said “it looks hopeful” that his client’s family will be able to raise the money for bail. George, who has been incarcerated for the better part of 30 months, reportedly is confined to a wheelchair and unable to walk without assistance. [Daily American]

Conventions | Matthew Sheppard reports from last weekend’s Bristol International Comic & Small Press Expo. [Den of Geek]

Creators | Daniel Clowes discusses his new graphic novel Wilson: “I find malcontents to be amusing. I have a lot of friends who are cranky complainers, and I guess I have a high tolerance for that.” [The Oakland Tribune]

Moving Pictures

Creators | David Howard interviews Kathryn and Stuart Immonen about their collaboration Moving Pictures. “We’ve been asked a lot about the difference between Moving Pictures as a webcomic and as a book and really, we never considered it to be the former,” Kathryn Immonen says. “It was a comic on the web and I think that’s a different beast. We serialized it weekly and put it online simply as a way to impose a deadline that would ensure that it got done.  The script itself, if you can call it that because it really was composed almost solely of dialogue, was completed quite some time ago. So by the time we got around to turning it into a comic, it was kind of a new and unfamiliar work for both of us.” [Torontoist]

Creators | Ryan K. Lindsay chats with Ivan Brandon about Viking. [The Weekly Crisis]

Patrick the Wolf Boy

Creators | Art Baltazar talks about kids’ comics: “I wanna do kids books forever. That’s what I am. I’m a cartoonist and I wanna draw cartoons and comic books. I’m not a guy who’s drawing this to write Final Crisis one day or something. I wanna do this. If I can’t create something or write cartoons, I’ll go nuts. I gotta draw every day at home, even if I’m on the couch or whatever I’m doin’. I just gotta do it man. I live so I can draw stuff … and see movies.” [Mania]

Comics | Ten of the most politically charged comics, from Air Pirates Funnies to Y: The Last Man. [Geekosystem]

Border

Retailing | The struggling Borders Group has raised $25 million from the sale last week of 11.1 million shares of new stock to Bennett S. LeBow, a financier and corporate raider best known for his investments in the tobacco industry. LeBow, who’s now the bookseller’s largest shareholder, also was named chairman, replacing Richard McGuire. [Detroit Free Press, ICv2.com]

Creators | Rich Johnston uncovers the sad family troubles behind Gene Colan’s recent injury, his missing artwork and confusing state of business affairs. Clifford Meth, Colan’s friend and business associate, seems to confirm Johnston’s take on events. [Bleeding Cool]

Passings | Tom Spurgeon pens a more extensive obituary for comics creator and animator Howard Post who, as we noted yesterday, passed away last week. [The Comics Reporter]

Publishing | Simon Jones offers additional commentary on the state of the North American manga market: “I am somewhat worried by more calls for adult manga in response to this bust cycle, however (ironic, I know). It’s not that I wouldn’t like to see more varieties of mature manga being published in the states, but I just don’t see any evidence the lack thereof was the cause behind the layoff at Viz or the various publisher closures, nor would adult manga have inoculated them from these industry contractions (I would also say that manga piracy is several orders of magnitude greater than comic piracy. Would Marvel allow any of the dozens of major aggregator scan sites that manga contends with to operate unmolested?).” [Icarus Publishing]

The Abominable Charles Christopher

Awards | Suvudu continues its “Eisner Award Shakedown” with a look at the nominees for Best Digital Comic. [Suvudu.com]

Creators | Kai-Ming Cha talks to Boys of Summer artist Hiroki Otsuka. [Publishers Weekly]

Creators | Mouse Guard creator David Petersen interviews Cursed Pirate Girl creator Jeremy Bastian, who’s working on Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard. [David Petersen's Blog]

Manga | Mania contributors name 20 must-have titles from DC’s recently shuttered CMX imprint. [Mania]

Reeve Carney

Director Julie Taymor has acknowledged what virtually everyone else already knew: that the $52-million Spider-Man musical will have to be a Lion King-sized hit to eventually turn a profit.

“Yes, financially, of course it does, but I’m aware of that, that’s my responsibility as an artist,” Taymor told The New York Times this week. “I’m not doing this for a small audience; I’m doing it for a world audience.”

As it stands, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark will have to sell out New York City’s 1,700-seat Hilton Theatre for every show for four years just to break even. With weekly production costs of more than $1 million — hundreds of thousands of dollars more than elaborate shows like Mary Poppins and West Side Story — Spider-Man likely will be the most expensive musical in Broadway history.

The production finally is set to open in November after months of delays that led to the departures of co-stars Evan Rachel Ward (Mary Jane) and Alan Cumming (Green Goblin). Relative newcomer Reeve Carney remains as Peter Parker/Spider-Man.

Taymor was honored on Tuesday with a lifetime achievement award at the New Dramatists benefit luncheon, where Carney performed an anthem from Spider-Man written by Bono and the Edge called “The Boy Falls From the Sky.” The Wall Street Journal notes that the song, which “carried U2′s familiar anguished wail,” includes such lyrics as “You can fly too high and get too close to the sun/See how a boy falls from the sky.”

Love & Rockets

Digital | Sean Kleefeld points out the launch of Underground and Independent Comics, Comix, and Graphic Novels, “the first ever scholarly, primary source database focusing on adult comic books and graphic novels,” the site’s home page says.

The site currently hosts 24,000 pages of comics and a small number of The Comics Journal issues — all with the permission of the copyright holders — with plans to eventually expand to 100,000 pages of materials. The site’s advisers and partners include Fantagraphics’ Gary Groth and Kitchen Sink Press’ Denis Kitchen. Access to the site is available for one-time purchase of perpetual access or as an annual subscription. [Underground and Independent Comics]

Publishing | Robot 6 contributor Brigid Alverson rounds up reactions from the manga community on the recent layoffs by Viz Media. [Publishers Weekly]

Publishing | John Jackson Miller crunches direct-market sales estimates for April, comparing them with previous years. [The Comichron]

Newspapers | Steve Tippie, Tribune Media Service’s vice president of licensing, talks about the cancellation of the 86-year-old Little Orphan Annie comic strip. [Comic Riffs]

Digital | Zippy creator Bill Griffith and Soup to Nutz creator Rick Stromoski discuss the possibilities the iPad and similar devices might have for comic strips. [Hartford Courant]

Frank Miller

Creators | Comics creator Frank Miller talks at length about the “peculiar craft” of drawing a comic book. “Novice comic book artists often try to imitate film, moving the characters ever-so-slowly, breaking a single action into endless, nearly identical images, each image changed from the last only incrementally, inch by tedious inch. That approach usually belly-flops, only reminding the reader that he’s looking at static images, showing everybody, in no uncertain terms, that movies move, and comics don’t. Novice comic book writers, on the other hand, simply pile on the words, robbing the form of its energy and vitality, often unintentionally insulting the reader by cluttering the drawing with descriptions of the drawing, making either the pictures or the words irrelevant, and boring the reader to distraction. Still, you gotta find a way to slow the reader down without boring him, or, worst of all, confusing him. A confusing comic book hits the trash can or recycling bin faster than junk mail.” [Frank Miller Ink]

Creators | Naif Al-Mutawa talks about the success of his comic series The 99 and attending the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship in Washington, D.C. [Palestine Note]

Creators | Peter Hartlaub profiles Daniel Clowes upon the release of his latest book Wilson. [SFGate]

Creators | Jeff Yang talks to Belle Yang about her new graphic novel, Forget Sorrow: An Ancestral Tale. [SFGate]

Creators | If it’s Wednesday, it must be time for artist Paolo Rivera’s Wacky Reference Wednesday. Today he shares how he created the cover to Amazing Spider-man #641.

Fandom | Harry McCracken explores the origins of the word “fanboy” in a post that references everything from a fanzine created by cartoonist Jay Lynch and Glenn Bray to a character on the gone-but-not-forgotten cartoon Freakazoid. [Technologizer]

Organizations | Terri Heard talks to Reading With Pictures founder Josh Elder about the organization’s goals and the upcoming Reading With Pictures Anthology, which features “comics and education-themed stories.” [Publishers Weekly]

Blogosphere | Rich Watson, who has blogged about race and comics for many years, has announced he’s stepping away from blogging. “I don’t feel as enthusiastic about it as I used to, for a number of reasons. Comics have become too expensive – $3.99 for 22 pages of a piece of a story is not a bargain. In Marvel and DC’s case, their superhero books rely far too much on continuity minutiae and excessive violence. And recent trends have made it clear they’re not interested in paying little more than lip service to the idea of multiculturalism. Yes, there’s still good stuff out there, and I’ve done my best to write about them, but after ten years… I need a break.” Watson says he’ll continue to administer the Glyph Awards and plans to focus on making his own comics. [Glyphs]

Humor | Chris Sims presents “The Periodic Table Of Super-Powers.” [ComicsAlliance]

Crime | A 42-year-old California man was arrested at the Canadian border for trying to bring a weapons cache into the country that “included batarang-type throwing knives, Chinese throwing stars, and sets of 12-inch knives embedded on gloves like the prosthetic blades of comic-book character Wolverine.” [The Vancouver Sun]

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

When, and if, the troubled Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark finally opens, many predict it will go down as the biggest flop in Broadway history. However, the New York Post’s Michael Riedel reports producers have big plans for the $52-million production, including a national tour.

It won’t be just any national tour, though: Riedel’s source says it will target 10,000-seat sports arenas. However, Broadway observers doubt director Julie Taymor’s Spider-Man will even be able to fill New York City’s 1,700-seat Hilton Theatre consistently. And it will have to do just that — sell out every performance — for four to five years just to break even.

But the production has a long way to go before it gets to that point. Originally set to open in March, “cash-flow obstacles” triggered delays that eventually led to the loss of co-stars Evan Rachel Ward (Mary Jane) and Alan Cumming (Green Goblin). Relative newcomer Reeve Carney remains as Peter Parker/Spider-Man — “I guess he’s the only original cast member with nothing better to do,” Riedel writes — with Patrick Page (Taymor’s The Lion King) reportedly being offered the role of Green Goblin.

Now it looks as if Spider-Man will start rehearsals this summer, begin previews in October and open in November. Of course, we’ve been down that road before.

Featuring a score by Bono and the Edge, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark could be the most expensive musical in Broadway history, with weekly production costs of more than $1 million — hundreds of thousands of dollars more than elaborate shows like Mary Poppins and West Side Story.

One Piece, Vol. 27

Publishing | Viz Media has confirmed that its public relations and design departments were among those affected by Tuesday’s layoffs. In a brief statement released yesterday, the company assured fans that, “We have no plans at this time for drastic measures such as product cancellations or business line closures. Your favorite series are not going away.”

Melinda Beasi, Simon Jones, Kai-Ming Cha and Lissa Pattillo provide more commentary. [Viz Media]

Legal | As a Belgian court decides whether to ban Tintin in the Congo because of racist content, Roger Bongos and Sebastian Rodriguez argue that Hergé’s book shouldn’t be censored but rather read and analyzed within the context of the era in which it was created. “You cannot deny however that the book is very discriminatory of black people,” Bongos writes. “Hergé wasn’t a racist person himself: he simply reflected the image the Western world had of the Congo and of Africa during those years, as well as the colonial aspirations of Belgians. In this sense, the book is kind of Proust’s ‘madeleine episode’ for us: it helps us remember our colonial history.” The court is expected to issue its ruling on May 31. [France 24]

CBLDF

Politics | The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund looks at the track record of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan on the First Amendment. [CBLDF]

Webcomics | I missed this as it was unfolding on Monday, but a software developer named Dale Zak released the Web Comics application through the iTunes App Store that picks up RSS feeds of webcomics. Many creators reacted quickly and angrily, leading Zak to change the app’s price from $1.99 to free before finally removing it altogether. Lauren Davis and Gary Tyrrell provide analysis. [Storming the Tower, Fleen]

Awards | The Asahi Shimbun profiles the winners of the 14th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize. [Asahi.com]

Conventions | Cartoonist Evan Dorkin posts “a disjointed report” about last weekend’s Toronto Comics Art Festival. [Livejournal]

Retailing | Jeremy Shvetz spotlights The Phoenix comics store in Scarsdale, New York. [Scarsdale Patch]

DMZ #53

Creators | Brian Wood talks about his Vertigo series DMZ, New York City and becoming a New Yorker: “I can’t remember at which point I considered myself a New Yorker, officially. Maybe after I graduated college? One of Matty’s defining characteristics is his endless struggle to ‘belong,’ and typically he is struggling too long and too hard and that’s where the mistakes come in. He earned the respect of the locals pretty early in the series, but he clearly doesn’t feel like he has. Maybe the true New Yorkers are the ones who don’t talk about it, who just get on with life and aren’t always trying to prove it to you.” [Gothamist]

Comics | David Colton briefly spotlights IDW Publishing’s upcoming True Blood miniseries. [USA Today]