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Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

From "Troublemaker!"

Publishing | Publishers are wagering that Stephenie Meyer isn't the only prose author whose name can move massive amounts of graphic novels. We already knew that Yen Press is rolling out a staggering -- by North American comics market standards, anyway -- 350,000-copy first printing for Twilight: The Graphic Novel. But now George Gene Gustines reports that Dark Horse will print 100,000 copies of Troublemaker!: A Barnaby Adventure, a continuation of Janet Evanovich's series of Motor Mouth novels. The Evanovich deal was announced in May. [The New York Times]

Business | Imagi International, the computer-animation studio behind TMNT and Astro Boy, has shut down amid layoffs and mounting debt. Although the studio will ask a Hong Kong court to name liquidators, it plans to continue to develop film ideas and outsource the animation work to other countries. [ABC News]

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Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

DC Entertainment

Publishing | The filmmakers behind Spellbound, the Oscar-nominated documentary that followed competitors in the 1999 Scripps National Spelling Bee, plan to premiere an authorized documentary on the history of DC Comics at Comic-Con International. Mac Carter (The Strange Adventures of H.P. Lovecraft) is directing the project, with Spellbound's Sean Welch producing and Jeffrey Blitz executive producing.

"DC Comics contacted us and asked if we would do this," Welch told Collider. "Jeff and the director are comic book enthusiasts since they were kids and remain comic book enthusiasts. So yes, we have access to their archives, their material, their covers, their panels, the creatives and the executives in the DC world. [Collider]

Publishing | The weeklong standoff between Amazon and Macmillan over the price of digital books ended Friday evening, with the publisher's electronic and paper books quietly returning to the website of the retail giant. Details of the dispute's resolution have not been made public. [Bits]

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Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

DC Entertainment

Business | During a quarterly-earnings call on Tuesday, Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes revealed the company likely will announce plans "in a matter of weeks" regarding DC Entertainment. Bewkes appeared to be speaking specifically to the film slate, but perhaps we'll also learn who will replace Paul Levitz as publisher. [ComingSoon.net]

Webcomics | In the wake of a malware-distributing hack that briefly affected Karl Kerschl's The Abominable Charles Christopher website comes word of a possible a WordPress/ComicPress-targeting hack that could wreak havoc on the webcomics community. "It’s not clear yet how serious this is, but since ComicPress is pretty much the dominant ecosystem for self-hosted webcomics, it would have the potential to really abuse our community," writes Gary Tyrrell. [Fleen]

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Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

Comic-Con

Conventions | Friday passes for Comic-Con International appear to have sold out on Monday (although this morning the red bar on the convention website is back to 99 percent). That's three months ahead of those for last year's event, which were gone by mid-April. They join Saturday memberships, which sold out over the holidays, and four-day passes, which disappeared the first week of November. [Comic-Con]

Publishing | The Japanese Magazine Publishers Association reports that while the circulation of some manga magazines, such as Weekly Shonen Jump, increased slightly in 2009, others, like Weekly Shonen Magazine, dropped. [Anime News Network]

Publishing | Jason Overdorf takes a look at the changing Indian comics scene, focusing on a group of artists called the Pao Collective. [GlobalPost]

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Clowes' 'Wilson' to premiere at TCAF

Clowes' TCAF poster

The Toronto Comics Arts Festival announced a big feather in its convention cap last Friday when they revealed that Dan Clowes will be headlining this year's show. Even more impressive, Drawn and Quarterly will be debuting his new graphic novel, Wilson, easily one of the most anticipated comics of 2010, at the show. Clowes has also done a groovy poster for the show, which you can see above.

TCAF will unveil their official Web site, with, no doubt, more news about the show, on Tuesday. (via Tom Spurgeon, who announced that he will be attending the con with his mom, which is cool in a completely different way)

Saturday passes sell out for Comic-Con 2010

Bye-bye, Saturday passes

If you've put off nailing down plans for Comic-Con International, prepare to kick yourself: Saturday memberships are gone.

Single-day passes went on sale just three weeks ago.

For a quick, and jolting, comparison, Saturday passes for last year's convention didn't sell out until April 2009. It seems par for the course, though, considering that four-day memberships for 2010 sold out during the first week of November.

According to the color-coded bars on the Comic-Con website, Friday passes may not be long for this world; they're at 68 percent as of this morning. Last year they were gone by April 20.

Comic-Con International kicks off on July 21 in San Diego with a (sold-out) preview night, and runs through July 25.

(via Deb Aoki)

Straight for the art | Seth Kushner's cosplayer portraits

Green Lantern, by Seth Kushner

At Graphic NYC, photographer Seth Kushner showcases some of the portraits of cosplayers he's taken over the past couple of years at comic conventions.

"It's no secret that I'm a comics fan," Kushner writes. "If you're reading this, then odds are you are, too. I've been a fan since before I was able to read and have collected weekly for over twenty-six years. But, I have never worn a costume to a comic con. Just not my thing. To me, that is a different level of fandom, and one which I find fascinating."

Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

Painting by Frank Frazetta

Crime | A Pennsylvania newspaper delves into the family feud over the fortune of legendary artist Frank Frazetta that led to the arrest last week of son Alfonso (Frank Jr.) in the theft of $20 million worth of paintings from his father's museum in East Stroudsburg. Frank Jr.'s wife Lori claims he was only trying to protect the paintings from his brother and two sisters, whom she accused of attempting to take their father's fortune: "My husband, all he ever wanted to do was to take care of his family."

Frank Jr. was jailed under $500,000 bail on charges of burglary, criminal trespassing and theft. A preliminary hearing is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday.

The family dispute apparently began after the death in July of Frank Sr.'s wife Ellie, who had long run the business. The 81-year-old Frazetta, who suffers from dementia, lives in Florida with his daughters. [Pocono Record, Pocono Record]

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Straight for the art | Toronto Comics Art Festival posters

From Darwyn Cooke's poster for TCAF 2005

On his blog, retailer and Toronto Comics Art Festival organizer Christopher Butcher showcases the event's previous posters -- among the finest-looking posters you'll ever find for any comics-related function -- by Marc Bell, Darwyn Cooke, James Jean, Bryan Lee O'Malley  and Seth. (I have Cooke's from 2005 framed on my office wall.)

Con Wars, meet Star Wars: Reed/Lucasfilm force Chicago Comic Con rescheduling

That's no moon. That's a Celebration.

The running battle between rival convention promoters Reed Exhibitions and Gareb Shamus's Wizard Entertainment just saw a game-changer of Death Star proportions enter orbit: Reed has announced it's partnering with Lucasfilm to become the exclusive producer of the Star Wars Celebration conventions. The relationship officially begins with the announcement of Star Wars Celebration V, to be held in Orlando, Florida, on Aug. 12-15.

Of course, those are the same dates for which Shamus's Chicago Comic Con had been scheduled.

Until this morning, that is, when Shamus announced via press release that he is pushing the Chicago show back a week, to Aug. 19-22. In a statement that will no doubt raise some eyebrows given his past scheduling maneuvers, Shamus said:

We respect our 20 year relationship with LucasFilms [sic] and everything Star Wars has meant to the fan community. In deference to our attendees, guests and friends at Lucas, we are changing dates. We are all fans of the Star Wars films, and this slight change enables us to bring the type of presence the fans would expect at our annual Comic Con.

Shamus, apparently, has been doing some partnering-up of his own: According to this post at the message board for the horror magazine Rue Morgue, recent Wizard emails to potential exhibitors have touted coming partnerships with horror-con outfits Rock and Shock and Monster Mania. But can it compete with the firepower of a fully armed and operational alliance between Reed and Lucasfilm -- one that's apparently quite willing to take aim square at Shamus's own schedule?

Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

One Piece, Vol. 56

Publishing | Japanese publisher Shueisha will print 2.85 million copies of the 56th volume of Eiichiro Oda's popular pirate adventure One Piece, making it the largest-ever first printing for any manga. The previous volumes reportedly have sold a combined 176 million copies since the series debuted in 1997. The latest volume will be released on Dec. 4 in Japan. [Anime News Network]

Legal | Metro cartoonist Magdy el Shafee talks about his conviction in Egypt last week, with publisher Mohammed el Sharqawi, on charges of infringing "public decency," and the official banning of his graphic novel: "The political and business figures in this book, they are easily recognisable to the Egyptian public. ... These are very corrupt and disgusting people who rule Egypt, who are in the pockets of the regime, and it is the ordinary people who love Cairo who are suffering.'' [The Sydney Morning Herald]

Passings | More than 3,000 mourners attended the funeral in Tokyo for Crayon Shin-chan creator Yoshito Usui, who died in September while on a mountain hike. [My Sinchew]

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Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

Metro

Legal | Joseph Mayton and Marwa Rakha have more on an Egyptian court's official banning over the weekend of Metro -- considered that country's first adult graphic novel -- and the $900 fines handed down to author Magdy al Shafee and publisher Mohammed al Sharqawi for infringing public decency. "The novel deals with politically sensitive issues and what may have sparked government interest is the limited sexual content of the book," Mayton writes. "For many, it comes as no surprise that the government is using this as a scapegoat to keep the politics from reaching a wider audience." [Bikya Masr, Ground Report]

Comics | The A.V. Club's panel of reviewers assembles its list of the 25 best comics of the decade, including Achewood, All-Star Superman, Criminal and Tales Designed to Thrizzle. No manga, though. [The A.V. Club]

Comics | Tom Spurgeon, meanwhile, gathers some responses to his preliminary list of the best superhero comics of the decade. [The Comics Reporter]

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Ken Krueger, publisher and Comic-Con co-founder, passes away

Ken Krueger

Ken Krueger, co-founder and first chairperson of the event that became Comic-Con International, passed away Nov. 21.

Krueger, who attended the very first science-fiction convention in 1939 in New York City, was owner of Alert Books in Ocean Beach, California, when he met Shelton Dorf in early 1970. The two, with a group of teen-aged fans, organized first Golden State Comic Con, held Aug. 1-3, 1970, at the U.S. Grant Hotel. (Dorf passed away on Nov. 3.)

"Ken Krueger was as much responsible for the creation of the Comic-Con International as anyone else, alive or dead," Mark Evanier wrote. "... Perhaps his greatest contribution to the early cons in San Diego was that he was the Grown-Up. The majority of those on the original convention committee were kids in need of adult supervision ... someone with some experience in handling business matters. Most were too young to even sign the hotel contract so Shel Dorf and Ken did that. At the early cons, he was the go-to guy for any problem, any crisis, any decision. He didn't get or seek the attention for all he did but believe me: He did a lot."

Krueger also worked in distribution and publishing, releasing the first professional work of such comics creators as Dave Stevens, Jim Valentino and Scott Shaw, science-fiction author Greg Bear and Garbage Pail Kids painter John Pound.

"I and many of my friends owe him a lot," Shaw said in an email. "When Pacific Comics was a major comic distributor, Ken oversaw the operation of their warehouse. Ken was a down-to-Earth guy who never sought titles or fame, but added legitimacy to the formation of Comic-Con due to his experience in fandom and as a publisher and retailer."

Evanier shares a remembrance of Krueger here.

Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

Stuck in the Middle

Libraries | There is, of course, follow-up on the decision by the Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to remove the anthology Stuck in the Middle: Seventeen Comics from an Unpleasant Age from middle-school libraries. Local CBS affiliate KELO reports on the reactions of parents and highlights some of the better-known challenged and banned books.

As we noted yesterday, teachers will still have access to the 2007 collection of stories about life as a teen-ager (by such contributors as Gabrielle Bell, Daniel Clowes, Joe Matt and Dash Shaw). That's because, in the words of School Board President Kent Alberty, "There is value in the book. One of the subjects addressed is bullying, something the district is very interested in making sure is handled appropriately, and the book does address that." [KELOLAND.com]

Publishing | Japan's NHK television network reports that publishing giant Shueisha, a co-owner of Viz Media, plans to develop plans to sell manga via mobile phones in the United States beginning in spring 2010. [Anime News Network]

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Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

Wolverine: Old Man Logan

Publishing | Comic sales to the direct market fell 14 percent in October, versus the same month a year ago, resulting in the biggest decline since May. Sales of the Top 100 graphic novels plummeted 30 percent -- again due to the brisk sales of Watchmen last fall -- combining for an overall decline of 17 percent.

As we reported last week, DC Comics had the top six bestselling comics for the first time in four decades, with the fourth issue of its event miniseries Blackest Night coming in at No. 1 with an estimated 137,169 copies. Marvel's Wolverine: Old Man Logan hardcover collection topped the graphic novel chart with an estimated 7,347 copies.

The retailer-focused news and analysis site ICv2.com notes that Marvel's $3.99 titles continue to slip, with the third issues of Ultimate Comics Avengers and Ultimate Comics Spider-Man each shedding about 5,000 copies from the previous issue. Of course, they weren't the only ones to slide: 19 of the top 25 comics saw drop-offs in what the website describes as "a bearish month." [ICv2.com]

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