DC Comics app

Digital comics | ICv2 estimates the total value of the digital comics market in 2011 as $25 million, triple the 2010 figure, and boldly predicts that digital will account for 10 percent of the entire comics market in 2012. Digital sales grew faster in the second half of the year, which ICv2 attributes to three factors: DC’s decision to release its New 52 comics digitally the same day as print, the industry-wide trend toward same-day print and digital releases, and the proliferation of different platforms on which to read digital comics. As for digital taking away from print, the publishing executives ICv2 has spoken to over the past few months don’t seem to think that is happening. [ICv2]

Retailing | Retailer and journalist Matt Price takes the temperature at the ComicsPRO Annual Members Meeting, which kicks off today in Dallas, noting that members remain interested in DC’s publishing plans, and report “very strong sales” for Image’s Fatale and Thief of Thieves. [Nerdage]

comiXology

Digital comics | ComiXology CEO David Steinberger talks about how comiXology got started (he was trying to figure out how to catalog his comic collection), his first comic book and what comic art he would most like to own. [Graphic Novel Reporter]

Comics | Heritage Auctions will sell 12 “ashcan” comic books created in the 1930s and ’40s for trademark purposes, including one of three Action Funnies known to exist. [Art Daily]

Creators | Japanese creator Takehiko Inoue has resumed work on his long-running series Vagabond, after taking a lengthy break, first for health reasons and then because he lost interest in it. He told fans he wouldn’t go back to work on the series, which is serialized in Kodansha’s Morning magazine, until he regained his enthusiasm for it. That seems to have happened, and the new chapter is being colored. Vagabond is published in North America by Viz Media. [Anime News Network]

Saucer Country #1

Creators | Paul Cornell discusses his upcoming Vertigo series Saucer Country, which combines his love of UFOs with politics: “I don’t like stories about stupid politicians, I like stories about politicians who show skill and daring, and by the end of the first arc, Arcadia’s used her political instincts to get her and her team out of an immediate danger, and on the way to being able to use the powers of a candidate to start investigating what happened to her.” [USA Today]

Creators | Amy Reeder talks about her new gig as the interior artist for Batwoman: “What I like about Kate is that she’s so subtle for a lead character … like she says very little and our job is to read behind the lines, which makes it impossible not to feel invested and empathetic towards her. She’s got a little of the edgy in her. She’s a nuanced balance between feminine and masculine, which is tough to pin down.” [DC Women Kicking Ass]

Creators | Yuko Shimizu, cover artist for Vertigo’s The Unwritten, discusses her process, influences and career. [Multiversity Comics]

Creators | Noelene Clark talks with artist I.N.J. Culbard about his upcoming Vertigo series The New Deadwardians, and adapting H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness. [Hero Complex]

Friends With Boys

Creators | Eva Volin chats with Faith Erin Hicks about her upcoming graphic novel Friends With Boys, fantasy, young-adult comics, and keeping motivated while struggling with the creation process: “I started doing online comics years and years ago, and even though comics are really hard to create, I fell in love with making them. With comics you have to learn how to draw everything really well. It’s not just drawing people, comics are backgrounds and props and cars and animals and learning to draw these things from all angles and in a style that is appealing and fresh. It’s a constant struggle to update and improve my skills. But even though it’s a struggle, it’s something I really love to do. A well made comic is my favourite thing in the world, and I want to someday be the person who makes that comic and gives a reader enjoyment.  It’s like that completely annoying saying: Nothing worth doing is easy to do. Besides, someone has to make comics about flying unicorns and puppies … (Disclaimer: I have not made this graphic novel yet and probably never will. Apologies to 11 year old me.)” [Good Comics for Kids]

Creators | Writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa guests on the comiXologist podcast to talk about his work on the graphic novel Fantastic Four: Season One, and other matters. [comiXology Blog]

Creators | Ryan North answers questions from the public about his upcoming Aventure Time comic. [The BOOM!Pen]

Creators | Katie Monnin interviews Star Wars comics writer John Jackson Miller. Fun fact: He has a master’s degree in Soviet studies. [Graphic Novel Reporter]

Neil Gaiman

Internet | Sandman co-creator Neil Gaiman joined with Trent Reznor, Aziz Ansari, OK Go and 14 other members of the creative community in signing an open letter to Congress against the PROTECT IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act. “We fear that the broad new enforcement powers provided under SOPA and PIPA could be easily abused against legitimate services like those upon which we depend. These bills would allow entire websites to be blocked without due process, causing collateral damage to the legitimate users of the same services – artists and creators like us who would be censored as a result,” the letter states.

Warren Ellis and Fantagraphics have also come out against the bill, while Peter David, who is against the bill in its current form, takes aim at those who “endorsed the piracy, supported the piracy, enabled the piracy, felt their own actions weren’t piracy, and now refuse to accept the consequences of their own actions.” ComicsAlliance has posted an editorial against the bill and rounded up webcomic reactions to the blackout. [NeilGaiman.com]

Alex de Campi

Creators | Artist Jimmy Broxton, a.k.a. James Hodgkins, shares his side of being asked to leave Ashes, the sequel to Alex de Campi’s Smoke that held a successful Kickstarter campaign last year. “… I’m incredibly sorry about the whole thing, and for me, it’s not just about the money, or lost earnings, or how Kickstarter works, this has come as a huge creative blow. I had committed to spend the next year drawing Ashes, the script is quite brilliant, Alex is an extremely talented writer, I very much wanted to be part of something that I thought was going to be special. I hope people can see that commitment from the work I have already produced for the series.” De Campi responds on Kickstarter, relating what she contends was a tumultuous collaboration process in which she “felt bullied” by Hodgkins. [The Beat, Kickstarter]

Retailing | Ryan Haupt argues that better comics shops are one solution to the problem of piracy, a notion that gets some pushback in comments. Regardless, he does make some good suggestions as to how comics shops can improve (some are obvious, yet widely ignored) and points out the problems with buying comics at bookstores. [iFanboy]

Retailing | ComicsPRO President Joe Field talks up the sixth annual meeting of the retailer trade and advocacy group, being held Feb. 9-11 in Dallas. [Flying Colors Comics]

DC Comics

Publishing | DC Comics Co-Publishers Dan DiDio and Jim Lee talk at length about the thinking behind the company’s line-wide relaunch. “I’ve been using the expression ‘death by a thousand cuts,’” DiDio says. “There are a lot of things that we could have been doing better across the line: We could have been writing better, we could have been drawing better, we could have been editing better, we could have been marketing better. By doing the relaunch it allowed us to examine every aspect of our business and look at it from a point of view of if we were building a business today, how would we build it? How would we create characters? What types of stories would we tell? How would the world feel? And we changed the interior look of our books and we changed the exterior of our books. And by introducing the same day digital aspect, it forced us to rethink our production process. We were faced with a lot of delays. And we were losing loyal fans who were coming week in and week out because the books weren’t there. And we had to make a new commitment to deliver our product on time. People said to me, ‘How’d you let things get so out of control?’ It’s like one day waking up and you’re 30 pounds overweight. You’re not exactly sure how you got 30 pounds overweight, but you know you didn’t eat 30 pounds of food the night before. It just happened.” [Fast Company]

Awards | Sarah Glidden’s How To Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less won a 2011 MEOC Middle East book award, presented last month at the Middle East Studies Association conference in Washington, D.C. [Middle East Outreach Council]

Tom Ziuko

Creators | The Hero Initiative offers an update from colorist Tom Ziuko, who was hospitalized earlier this year for acute kidney failure and other health conditions, and then returned to the hospital for emergency surgery about a month ago. “I can’t impress upon you enough how frightening it is to actually come up against a life-threatening medical situation (not to mention two times in less than a year), and not have the financial means to survive if you’re suddenly not able to earn a living. Like so many other freelancers out there, I live paycheck to paycheck, unable to afford health insurance. Without an organization like the Hero Initiative to lend me support in this time of dire need, I truly don’t know where I would be today,” Ziuko said. [The Hero Initiative]

Publishing | CNN asks the question “Are women and comics risky business?” as Christian Sager talks to former DC editor Janelle Asselin, blogger Jill Pantozzi, Womanthology organizer Renae De Liz and others about the number of women who work in comics, the portrayal of female characters and why comic companies don’t actively market books to women. “Think about it from the publisher’s point of view,” Asselin said. “Say you sell 90 percent of your comics to men between 18 and 35, and 10 percent of your comics to women in the same age group. Are you going to a) try to grow that 90 percent of your audience because you feel you already have the hook they want and you just need to get word out about it, or b) are you going to try to figure out what women want in their comics and do that to grow your line?” [CNN]

Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha

Publishing | ICv2 talks to Viz Media’s Senior Vice President Alvin Lu and Japanese Shonen Jump editor Hisashi Sasaki about the publisher’s decision to take the American version of Shonen Jump to digital — despite having a print circulation of 125,000, which is pretty good nowadays. [ICv2]

Retailing | Tony Barry and Jared Whittaker of Superfly Comics and Games in Yellow Spring, Ohio discuss why they didn’t exhibit at this past weekend’s Wizard World Mid-Ohio Con, as well as the interactions with convention organizers that eventually led them to file a Better Business Bureau complaint. [Panels on Pages, via The Beat]

Retailing | ComicsPRO, the trade association for direct-market retailers, will hold its 2012 annual meeting Feb. 9-11 at  the DoubleTree Hotel in Dallas. [ICv2]

Crime | Manga creator Moto Hagio reports that some drawings purporting to be hers that were sold in an online auction were in fact forgeries. [Anime News Network]

From All-Star Western #2

Creators | Co-writers Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray discuss their work on DC’s All-Star Western and how the attention around the New 52 has brought them new readers: “Some people just say automatically, ‘Well, I don’t like Westerns. I don’t like history,’” Palmiotti said. “And we have a lot of those same people coming up to us and saying, ‘I would have never read a Jonah Hex book but I gave this one a shot.’ We knew we had one chance to get the readers involved, and it looks like it turned out pretty well.” [USA Today]

Creators | Robot 6 contributor Matt Seneca chats with Gary Panter about his new book The Land Unknown, among many other topics. [The Comics Journal]

Comics | David Brothers takes issue with the marketing tactics used by comics publishers (DC and Marvel, for the most part), including blacked-out covers and holding back on details of stories or the creative team. He ends on an up note, though, with an example of marketing that works. [4thletter!]

Analysis | The Drifting Classroom: Formulaic horror story or expose of parent-child relations in postwar Japan? Noah Berlatsky lays out an argument for the latter as part of a roundtable on Kazuo Umezu’s story of schoolchildren whisked away into a threatening wasteland. [The Hooded Utilitarian]

Reviews | David Anderson declares Philip Gelatt and Tyler Cook’s Petrograd “the best way to learn history.” [Spandexless]

Visuals | J. L. Bell points out a particularly nice panel by George Perez from New Teen Titans: Games that features a fight in the Guggenheim Museum, which is a brilliant setting. The paintings are all wrong, though. [Oz and Ends]

Although ComicsPro’s Amanda Emmert didn’t elaborate as to how many retailers responded, the percentages reveal a lot. According to the survey, 63 percent of comics retailers who responded said that discounts for larger orders of a book are the most effective incentive for them. This outpaced other incentives by a 3:1 ratio, with returnability and free additional comics coming in at around 20 percent each. Of all responses, none said alternative covers were an effective means to stoke retailer’s purchase orders.

Emmert added at the end that smaller comic retailers might be more welcoming of free copies and returnable comics, while “larger retail accounts look more for deep discount offers, although the correlation was anecdotal.”

It’s worth a look for anyone working in the publishing — or creative — side of the comic industry, and even armchair comics quarterbacks like you and me.

Borders Group headquarters

Retailing | Borders Group began liquidation sales over the weekend at 200 stores, discounting items 20 percent to 40 percent. As Publishers Weekly and Blogcritics chart the 40-year rise and fall of the retailer, PW’s Jim Milliot looks at the effects the bookseller’s bankruptcy will have on the publishing industry: “The trickle-down impact will affect everyone from manufacturers to agents. Borders accounted for about 8% of overall industry sales, a higher percentage in some categories. A downsized Borders means publishers are likely to receive smaller orders and in turn place smaller first printings, resulting in less business for printers. The likelihood of lower print sales, one publisher said, means that books acquired one or two years ago when Borders was much bigger will have a more difficult time earning the advance back and that less shelf space could mean lower advances.” [Publishers Weekly]

Retailing | Tracey Taylor has details of retailer Jack Rems’ plans to resurrect Berkeley, Calif., institution Comic Relief as a new store called The Escapist — a nod to the Michael Chabon character — possibly at the same location. [Berkeleyside]

Retailing | Capitol Comics in Raleigh, North Carolina, is closing its Hillsborough Street location after 24 years. [WRAL, via Bleeding Cool]

ComicsPRO

Retailing | Tom Spurgeon offers some thoughts about ComicsPRO’s annual meeting, and runs the text of the keynote speech delivered by IDW Publishing CEO Ted Adams. [The Comics Reporter]

Retailing | Gareth Gaudin, co-owner of Legends Comics and Books in Victoria, British Columbia, is selling his entire collection of Spider-Man comics, valued at $250,000. [CTV News]

Broadway | Contrary to an earlier report, producers of the troubled musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark insist they aren’t bringing in a co-director to relieve Julie Taymor. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Conventions | The Times of India and the Hindustan Times report on the first Indian Comic Con, held over the weekend in New Delhi. [Indian Comic Con]

Creators | Gerry Smith profiles Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Dick Locher, who’s retiring from the Dick Tracy comic strip after 32 years. [Chicago Tribune]

Creators | The Wall Street Journal’s Michelle Kung chats briefly with brothers Gabriel Bá and and Fábio Moon about Daytripper. [Speakeasy]

Fandom | Pravin Palande spotlights 22-year-old Mumbai resident Aalok Joshi, who owns nearly 8,000 comics and graphic novels. [Forbes India]

Batman: Noel

The first news to emerge from the ComicsPRO annual meeting in Dallas is that Lee Bermejo, the critically acclaimed artist of Joker and Lex Luthor: Man of Steel, will write and draw a Batman graphic novel for DC Comics.

Titled Batman: Noel, the holiday-themed book will mark Bermejo’s comics-writing debut. It’s edited by Mark Chiarello, DC’s vice president of art direction & design.

“I’m totally excited by this project, and not only because Lee Bermejo is such an astounding artist,” Chiarello tells the DC Universe blog The Source. “Sure, the work he’s done in the past (Joker OGN, Wednesday Comics) has been pretty brilliant and I’d expect nothing less from Lee, but the added bonus of Batman: Noel being drawn and written by Lee is extra cool. In other words, I knew Lee could deliver the goods artistically, but I never knew he was also this great of a writer!”

No released date was mentioned.

The meeting of ComicsPRO — the Comics Professional Retail Organization — continues through Saturday.

One Piece, Vol. 61

Publishing | The 61st volume of Eiichiro Oda’s insanely popular pirate manga One Piece sold more than 2 million copies in its first three days of release, according to the Japanese market-survey firm Oricon. It’s the fastest-selling book in the Oricon chart’s nearly three-year history, breaking the previous record set by the 60th volume of One Piece, which sold more than 2 million copies in four days. [Anime News Network]

Retailing | Heidi MacDonald talks to Dave Bowen, Diamond’s director of digital distribution, about the newly announced deal with iVerse Media that will allow retailers to sell digital comics in their stores: “The retailer will login using their Diamond retailer login and be presented with the opportunity to create store-specific, item-specific codes in whatever quantities they need. Then we’ll use some approved cryptographically secure method to generate random codes for the retailer to use. And we’ll format those in a PDF which they can then print out. Likely what will happen is, it’ll print easily on Avery 30-up laser labels. So what you have is a sheet of Avery laser labels with a bunch of different books and codes on individual labels. In that case the retailer takes that material and secures it and then when someone wants Transformers #16 they simply ring the sale and give the label or sticker or cut-out to the consumer. [...] It’s really very simple. Then the consumer that has that code, which is live, they could literally step out of the line, pull out their iphone or ipad or whatever other device and redeem the code and begin reading the material.” Meanwhile, Todd Allen dissects what he describes as “a particularly silly digital download scheme.” [The Beat, Indignant Online]

ComicsPRO

Retailing | Matt Price sets the scene for ComicsPRO’s annual meeting, which begins today in Dallas, and reveals the exclusive cover for The Walking Dead #81 given to attendees. [Nerdage]

Legal | Hiroko Tabuchi looks at the tightening restrictions in Tokyo on the depictions of sexual acts involving minors in manga, anime and video games. [The New York Times]

Legal | Eriq Gardner delves into the recent dismissal of Stan Lee Media’s $1-billion lawsuit against Stan Lee and Marvel: “We’d say that the long saga involving Stan Lee Media may be finally over, except we probably said the exact same thing at least a half dozen times in the past few years.” [THR, Esq.]

Creators | Writer Jim McCann talks about Hawkeye: Blindspot, a four-issue miniseries debuting next week from Marvel. Warning: The article contains spoilers for the conclusion of Widowmaker. [USA Today]

Creators | EmiTown creator Emi Lenox is interviewed on the Hideous Energy podcast. [Hideous Energy]

Formic Wars: Burning Earth #1

Publishing | Citing “distribution concerns,” Marvel has canceled plans to allow members of the ComicsPRO retail trade organization to sell the first issue of author Orson Scott Card’s Formic Wars: Burning Earth on Feb. 15 rather than Feb. 16. Announced last Friday, the move was designed to take advantage of Diamond Comic Distributors’ new day-early delivery program, which allows direct-market stores to receive comics on Tuesday for sale on Wednesday. It’s what just this week enabled the early release of the heavily publicized Fantastic Four #587. According to Rich Johnston, complaints from DC Comics and other publishers over that promotion are what led to cancellation of the ComicsPRO incentive.

But publishers weren’t alone in protesting Tuesday releases: On the retail-oriented news and analysis site ICv2.com, store owners complained about “special treatment” for ComicsPRO members, and criticized Marvel for already authorizing day-early sales. “At this rate, by the end of the year, Tuesday will be new comics day,” wrote Ed Sherman of Rising Sun Creations. [Marvel]

Wizard

Conventions | Jason Wood breaks down the reverse merger that permitted the Gareb Shamus-led Wizard World Inc. to become a publicly traded company. [iFanboy]

Publishing | Heidi MacDonald follows up on the recently announced reorganization at Top Cow Productions, and reports that in addition to publicity manager Christine Dinh, the publisher has laid off director of sales and marketing Atom Freeman, editor/designer Phil Smith and some office staff. [The Beat]

Publishing | Rich Johnston attempts to get a better picture of the final years of the Comics Code Authority through tax filings for the Comics Magazine Association of America and comments from the trade group’s last executive director Holly Munter Koenig. [Bleeding Cool]

Panelfly's app on iPhone and iPad

Digital comics | Jessee Schedeen lays out recommendations for creating a better marketplace for digital comics: “Publishers – don’t turn your justified anger over lost sales into a vendetta against downloaders. Don’t follow the example of the R.I.A.A. and slam offenders with massive lawsuits that far exceed any conceivable monetary damages inflicted. It only engenders ill will among downloaders and legitimate consumers alike. Simply focus on providing the best and most comprehensive digital comics services possible, and buyers will come. It happened with the music industry, and it will eventually happen in this industry too.” [IGN.com]

Digital comics | ComiXology CEO David Steinberger offers an overview of his company and the state of digital comics. [TFAW.com]

Nightrunner

Creators | Writer David Hine addresses recent controversy over the introduction in Detective Comics of Nightrunner, a French Algerian Muslim recruited by Bruce Wayne to be the Batman of Paris: “I thought we had moved on from a time when a non-white Anglo-Saxon character might be seen as unusual. I realize this is part of an anti-Muslim sentiment in a tiny segment of the online community, as much as a racial thing. I get the impression that there are people who spend their time trawling the internet to find any mention of Islam that they can get outraged about. But it feels like a manufactured outrage and I don’t take it too seriously.” [Graphic Policy]

Retailing | Michael Hurt and Heath Pecorino have opened The Short Box in Staunton, Virginia, the city’s first comic store since the mid-1990s, when Gypsy Witch closed. [The News Leader]

Retailing | Pat Calanan, owner of Cave Comics in Newtown, Connecticut, is profiled on the store’s 21st anniversary. [Newtown Patch]

Crisis on Infinite Earths #12

Creators | Artist Alan Kupperberg shares word that colorist Tom Ziuko has been hospitalized as he fights acute kidney failure and other health conditions. “The good news is that the doctors seem to have finally stumbled on a series of treatments and therapies that have Tom seeing some light at the end of the tunnel,” Kupperberg said in a message to Daniel Best. “The bad news is that Tom, uninsured and unable to work since the beginning of December, is in a tough financial bind.” Kupperberg is accepting donations via his PayPal account — kupperberg@earthlink.net — and adds, “I will pass 100% (plus) along to Tom.”

Ziuko worked in DC Comics’ production department before going freelance, and colored comics like Crisis on Infinite Earths, Batman, Action Comics and History of the DC Universe, to name a few. Todd Klein remembers their time together at DC. [20th Century Danny Boy]

Creators | Artist Paolo Rivera suffered a broken cheekbone after intervening in a domestic dispute. “The good news is I’m all right and—most importantly—my vision is intact,” he wrote on his blog. “… I had surgery on Monday and have been taking it very, very easy since. All things considered, I was very lucky. My eye looks horrendous—the white of the eye is blood red—but I can still see (thank goodness) and should make a full recovery. I also have a pretty rad haircut right now due to surgery… it kinda looks like the one I had circa 1995.” [The Self-Absorbing Man]

Grant Morrison

Comic books | USA Today’s Brian Truitt puts the spotlight on Grant Morrison’s Batman Inc. and writer Nick Spencer. [USA Today]

Conventions | Comic-Con International has announced several more special guests for its show in San Diego this summer, including Ed Benes, Joëlle Jones, Cameron Stewart and many more. [Comic-Con International]

Blogosphere | Tom Spurgeon’s holiday interview series continued this past weekend, as he spoke with Wilson creator Daniel Clowes and someone near and dear to our hearts, our own Brigid Alverson. [The Comics Reporter]

Publishers | Brooks Barnes spotlights Radical Publishing and their film deals. [New York Times]

Organizations | ComicsPro has announced its 2011 nominees for its Industry Appreciation Award, which include Steve Geppi, Denis Kitchen, Stan Lee, Bill Schanes and Bob Wayne. They also announced nominees for their Memorial Award, which include Will Eisner, Jack Kirby, Julius Schwartz and Phil Seuling. [ComicsPro]

Mercury

Awards | The Cybils, the children’s and young adult bloggers’ literary awards, named their finalists for 2010. Their list includes two separate graphic novel categories — young adult and middle grade, and finalists include George O’Connor’s Athena, Jason Shiga’s Meanwhile and Hope Larson’s Mercury. [Cybils]

Awards | The “social cataloging” site Goodreads has posted the winners of the 2010 Goodreads Choice Awards, as voted on by their users. In the graphic novel category, Twilight: The Graphic Novel beat out volumes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Scott Pilgrim and The Walking Dead, among others, to win the graphic novel category. [Goodreads.com]

Fandom | Molly McIsaac counts down the best cosplayers pf 2010. [iFanboy]

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

Broadway | The Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark canceled both Wednesday performances to test new safety measures following the Monday-night fall that left a stuntman hospitalized with broken ribs and internal bleeding. The cancellation of the sold-out evening show was announced just three hours before showtime at the Foxwoods Theatre. Tonight’s performance is expected to go on as planned.

Producers and creators met privately on Tuesday with the entire company to address safety concerns about the $65-million musical, the most expensive and technically complex in Broadway history. Although accidents in theater productions aren’t uncommon, it’s unusual for there to be four injuries before a show has officially opened. MTV offers some context. [The New York Times, The Associated Press]

Eiichiro Oda

Creators | According to calculations by Weekly Bunshun magazine, One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda makes about $24 million a year. Nearly $15.5 million of that comes just from sales of the insanely popular pirate manga. Oda turns 36 years old on Jan. 1. [Anime News Network]

Publishing | Michael Kavanagh reports on declining profits at Scottish media company DC Thomson, publisher of The Beano and The Dandy. [Financial Times]

Retailing | Robert Wilonsky uses the announcement of ComicsPRO‘s February annual meeting in Dallas as a chance to take the temperature of direct-market retailers and the trade organization. [Dallas Observer]

Publishing | The mainstream media pick up on the Marvel’s decision to bump off a member of the Fantastic Four in the January issue. [CNN.com]

Paul Cornell

Digital piracy | Writer Paul Cornell wades into the often-heated piracy discussion: “I think, and have had many conversations to support this view, that a large majority of creators in all media loathe illegal downloading. But few of them are willing to say anything in public. Reasons range from a desire to be seen to be cutting edge, to a fear of alienating one’s audience, to fear of a denial of service attack on one’s website. I’ve been on a lot of panels where, asked that question, everyone answers an entirely different one, about how ‘e-books are the future’. I feel that the one thing we can do, as creators, to affect illegal downloaders is to make it clear that we withold our approval. You can’t be an enthusiastic and beloved fan of a great writer and at the same time steal their stuff.” [PaulCornell.com]

Blogosphere | Tom Spurgeon continues his series of holiday interviews with a discussion with critic, writer and artist Matt Seneca. [The Comics Reporter]

Best of the year | Douglas Wolk selects the 10 best comics of 2010. [Techland]

Superboy #1

Best of the year | Dave Ferraro names to the 10 best superhero comics of the year. [Comics and More]

Best of the year | January Magazine names Joshua Hale Fialkov and Noel Tuazon’s Tumor among the best crime fiction of 2010. [January Magazine]

Gift guides | Brian Truitt, John Geddes and David Colton choose “essential 2010 graphic novels for comics gift-giving.” [USA Today]

Music | There’s a Michigan punk band named Cain Marko, after Marvel’s Juggernaut. “Juggernaut is just kind of a great character with an interesting past and kind of a tortured soul,” guitarist Jeremy Verwys says. “He’s just going to run through walls, and that’s what we kind of feel like … be uncompromising.” [The Grand Rapids Press]

Uncanny X-Force #1

Publishing | No comic cracked the 100,000-copy mark in the direct market in October, with the top title, Marvel’s Uncanny X-Force #1, selling an estimated 96,500 copies. Diamond’s graphic novel chart was led by DC Comics’ Superman: Earth One hardcover, which sold more than 16,000 copies. Retail news and analysis site ICv2.com notes that was the best number for a graphic novel since new volumes of Scott Pilgrim and The Walking Dead shipped in July. The website also pursues John Jackson Miller’s recent analysis of comics that don’t make it into Diamond’s Top 300, concluding: “Sales below the Top 300 may be growing in importance, but when we look at a fairly long period (10 months) either they aren’t big enough in the aggregate to make much difference, or their sales are changing at about the same rate as the Top 300’s. If anything, looking at year to date numbers, sales on titles below the Top 300 are shrinking faster than sales in the Top 300, at least in periodical comics.”

Meanwhile, Miller sifts through data made available by Diamond to determine that comics sales are 69.6 percent of the total market. [ICv2.com, The Comichron]

Conventions | Wizard Entertainment has announced its acquisition of Central Canada Comic Con in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Johanna Draper Carlson also picks up on rumors that the company is adding Mid-Ohio-Con to its growing stable. [press release, Comics Worth Reading]

My Friend Dahmer

Legal | John Backderf, aka cartoonist Derf, was excused from jury duty after he mentioned that he was close friends in high school with serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. (Derf’s Eisner-nominated comic My Friend Dahmer is being reworked and expanded into a full-length graphic novel.) [Cleveland.com]

Organizations | Retailer organization ComicsPRO has appointed Amanda Emmert to the new position of executive director and reduced the size of its board. [ICv2.com]

Publishing | Deb Aoki talks with Hikaru Sasahara, president of Digital Manga Publishing, about the Digital Manga Guild, a new program that will utilize fan translators, editors and letterers for no upfront pay. [About.com]

Conventions | Gary Tyrrell begins his wrap-up of New England Webcomics Weekend. [Fleen]

Conventions | PJ Hruschak reports on last weekend’s Mid-Ohio-Con. [Gamer Tell]

Libraries | Karen Green looks at how academic libraries classify graphic novels. [Publishers Weekly]

Incognito: Bad Influences

Creators | Frequent collaborators Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips discuss their series Incognito. “My thought behind it was what would superhero comics be like if during the early ’30s or early ’40s when they were starting, they stuck to the pulp roots and never went back to aiming them at children?” Brubaker says. “Initially, comics were much more like the pulps and then they realized, ‘Oh, these are being read by 4-year-olds.’ Suddenly, Batman didn’t have a gun. The pulps were read by older kids and teenagers and adults, so there was that darker edge to it.” [USA Today]

Creators | Tom Spurgeon conducts a longish Q&A with Sarah Glidden, creator of How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less. [The Comics Reporter]

H Day

Creators | Whitney Matheson chats with Renee French about H Day and migraine headaches. [Pop Candy]

Creators | Brian Heater continues his four-part interview with Jaime Hernandez. [The Daily Cross Hatch]

Creators | Bryan Lee O’Malley talks briefly about the end of the Scott Pilgrim series, the movie, and what comes next: “I’m definitely going to do more comics, that’s always been my calling. So that’s the plan for at least the next few years. When you’re doing comics, they take so long that when I think about what I’m doing next it’s like, ‘Oh and then I’ll be 40.’ So that’s tough. When you really schedule out your life its kind of terrifying, but that’s what I do.” [Metro News]

Creators | Russell Leadbetter delivers a profile of Mark Millar in which we learn, among other things, that the writer’s favorite meal is pizza and chips, “washed down with Irn-Bru,” and his favorite director is Richard Donner. [Herald Scotland]

Creators | Jeff Lemire talks with a Superman fan site about his run on Superboy. [Superman Homepage]

Field with DC Co-Publisher Jim Lee

I’ve been writing about comics for over five years now, and one of the things I’ve learned is always know who the experts are on any given subject. Whenever I have an article that would benefit from the insight of a retailer, one of the first people I turn to is Joe Field.

Field is the owner/operator of Concord, California’s Flying Colors Comics & Other Cool Stuff. He’s the president of the comics retail organization ComicsPRO, founded Free Comic Book Day, worked as a marketing person for Stan Lee and also ran one of the biggest regional conventions, WonderCon, for several years. Over the years I’ve called and emailed him numerous times with a stray question or two, but never got a chance to sit down and pick his brain — until now.

Chris Arrant: First thing I want to ask you about is ComicsPRO. Not many people outside the retail side know about this — I bet even some publishers and journalists don’t. Inform me, Joe — what’s the next big event for ComicsPRO coming up?

Joe Field: We’re planning our next annual members’ meeting now and will be announcing details about that very soon. I can say that we’ll be meeting in February in the Dallas area and that even though it is our members’ meeting, we want all retailers, even non-member retailers, at the event, too (because we know that once they come to a meeting, it will spur them to join!). Everyone who attended our annual meeting in Memphis this year came away from it feeling it was one of the most business-intensive and productive meetings in the comics industry, so we’re working to build on that.

Savage Dragon #165, Flying Colors variant

We’re also searching for ways to increase our membership. We have great member benefits to offset the dues, and members will be more engaged in creating a better future for their business.

We’re planning our attendance and participation at the New York Comic Con and other industry events.

In addition, there are lots of things going on behind the scenes with ComicsPRO. Besides an active online forum in which retailers exchange ideas in a high-signal/low-noise environment, the ComicsPRO board of directors is engaged in discussions with other facets of the comics business to improve things for all storefront retailers.

Arrant: What you think about last month’s Diamond announcement about the Tuesday ship date for Wednesday on-sale?

Field: ComicsPRO has taken an active role in asking for “early release” for all retailers for the last several years because we know it will improve the professionalism of our business. All along, we had been asking for Tuesday release for Wednesday on-sale not knowing that Monday release for Tuesday on-sale would even be an option. I hope the move to “early release” in early 2011 will challenge retailers to take advantage of the opportunity to make our stores better each and every week. Less-frantic Wednesdays should be a very good thing for all the whole market.

Arrant: How do you see comic retailers adapting to the Internet age?

Field: As in any business, those who learn, and those who learn to adapt, are resilient enough to not only survive but to prosper. The last couple of years have been a challenge for anyone in any business, with a difficult overall economy causing most of the concerns. Given that this “Internet Age” is going on 15 years old now, it seems most comic retailers are adapting fairly well.

Arrant: Are mail-order/online retailers and digital-comics retailers eligible for ComicsPRO membership?

Flying Colors' All Ages section

Field: At this point ComicsPRO membership is open to storefront retailers only, although many of our members do have robust online presences. Our primary goal continues to be to grow the market for our members and then for storefront retailers in general.

Arrant: Later today I’m doing an interview with the CTO of comiXology, who in addition to digital comics has a set of retailer tools it’s working on. Can you tell us about the state of things when it comes to software for retailers, and if its enough or you’re still waiting for something?

Field: It looks like comiXology is on the right path in terms of the kinds of tools it is putting together to promote storefront retailers. I want to believe that digital comics will be a completely additive element to the overall comics market because that’ll be good for all retailers and participating publishers, as well.

Personally, I am looking forward to publishers creating short-form digital comics (maybe six to eight pages) that lead directly into exclusively print editions. I am also hoping the multi-player online games from DC and Marvel will have a rich interface that points players to retailers selling print editions to give the players more back-story on characters and environments in the online games.

Arrant: If you could teach a class on becoming a comics retailer in today’s market, what do you think are the key things people need to know?

Field: A few years ago, I seriously considered writing a book on this very topic. I backed off because the more I know, the more there is to know … and in the age of technology, I still have a lot to learn. A book would be obsolete before it was printed with the constant gyrations in the comics market. But here are a few keys to becoming a successful comic specialty retailer:

1. The Plan and the Power! (I know that’s the title of an old Fantastic Four comic, but that’s the passionate fan in me.) Comic retailers can be profitable, but for all except the most well-heeled, the first couple of years can be pretty lean. When you believe in what you’re doing and have a reasonable plan to get to the store that you’re envisioning — and you really wouldn’t want to professionally do anything else — that can overcome the lack of a meaty paycheck at least for a little while.

Interior of Flying Colors

2. Business Experience! It’s one thing to have passion, but when passion can be coupled with real-world business experience, particularly in small-business retail, you will be ahead of the game. Comics retail is a business, not a hobby.

3. Staying Engaged! It’s my experience that those retailers who are involved in the comics industry, like attending conventions and retailer trade events, and, yes, participate in ComicsPRO, have an advantage over those who wait for business to come to them.

4. Being a Good Listener! If Flying Colors was a store full of “Just What Joe Likes,” there’s no way we’d have made it for 22 years. By listening to others and being diligent about working to get every customer just what they want, we’re a much richer, deeper and more profitable operation.

5. Watching the Numbers! No, not the Lotto numbers!! Ordering comics is risky enough! There are key numbers to watch in this business, things like return on investment (ROI), sales per department and/or sales per square foot, profit and loss statements (and what it takes to make more profits than losses), sales histories and trends per category and per title, etc.

Arrant: What do you see as the biggest issues facing retailers in the next five years?

Joe gets his hair cut--- and never misses an opportunity to read a great comic!

Field: I’ve never been much of a fortune teller, but there is a suggestion I can make. With two publishers making up about 80 percent of the business right now — and both of them owned by mega-corporations — it’s wise for retailers to diversify. If a retailer can fully sell Marvel and DC comics so that demand is met in his/her store, and keep that percentage of business well below what the combined market share are for Marvel and DC, that will be a big plus to longer-term survival.

Also, with the media-saturated world we live in, retailers face the risk of being further marginalized. So a big issue facing us is how we will continue to be resilient, how we can reshape our businesses in the face of entertainment competition from all directions. Making our stores the hubs of social activity for fans and attractive to non-fans is a must.

Arrant: You’re also the founder of Free Comic Book Day. What do you think of what it’s become, and how can we improve on it?

Field: As Free Comic Book Day is heading into its 10th year, I’m humbled that there’s still such demand and enthusiasm and support for the event. FCBD has become a holiday of sorts as it is entrenched as the start of the summer comics season. The team at Diamond Comic Distributors really deserves kudos for the work they do to pull off FCBD so flawlessly each year. I think of the operations side of things — and that nearly 2.5 MILLION comics are pushed through the Diamond pipeline in just two weeks. That has to be a stress on the system, but Diamond’s VP of Operations Cindy Fournier and her team in the warehouses do it remarkably well.

Some improvements I’d like to see with FCBD are best left off-screen, but here are a few improvements I can mention:

1. Retailers should get more of a “sponsoring” credit since we do pay for the comics we give away for free.

2. More of the fence-sitting retailers that haven’t officially participated should finally spend the $50 it costs for minimal participation.

3. The retailers that only “participate” by giving away unsold comics should just knock it off and buy into the FCBD Special Edition comics. If you run out of those, sure, go ahead and give away unsold comics, but starting the day by giving away unsellable from 1994 doesn’t do you or your customers any good.

Flying Colors' FCBD event May 1, 2010.

An area that does need HUGE improvement is with the publishers’ schedules leading up to and following FCBD. With FCBD being the day in which nearly 500,000 people visit comic shops, it seems that publishers’ release schedules are balkanized toward FCBD. The comics’ market could use a much better-planned schedule of more even releases through the year, with the planned Big-Event releases debuting just before and just after Free Comic Book Day.

Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award

The comics retailer organization ComicsPro has posted the list of nominees for this year’s Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award, which includes comic shops in Florida, New Mexico, Texas, England and Israel, among other locations.

Established in 1993, the award is presented to “an individual retailer performing an outstanding job of supporting the comics art medium both in the community and within the industry at large.” Nominees are judged based on the following criteria:

• Support of a wide variety of innovative material: Providing opportunities for creators’ material to reach buyers; stocking a diverse inventory.
• Knowledge: Working to stay informed on retailing as well as on the comics field.
• Community activity: Promoting comics to the community; maintaining relationships with schools and libraries; keeping active in social, business, and arts community organizations.
• Quality of store image: Innovative display approaches; using store design creatively.
• Adherence to standard ethical business practices.

The winner will be announced during the Eisner Awards presentation on Friday at Comic-Con International in San Diego. The list of nominees can be found after the jump.

A Comic Shop
Aaron Hoaland & Jason Blanchard
Winter Park, FL

Acme Comics
Jermaine Exum & Mark Austin
Greensboro, NC

Astro-Zombies
Mike D’Elia
Albuquerque, NM

Atomic Comics
Mike Malve
Chandler, AZ

Challengers Comics and Conversions
Patrick Brower and W. Dal Bush
Chicago, IL

Comic Book Ink
John & Sarah Munn
Tacoma, WA

Comic Bug
Mike Wellman & Jun Goeku
Manhattan Beach, CA

The Comic Vault
Matthew Sardo
Chicago, IL

Comics & Vegetables
Yuval Sharon, Danny Amital
Tel-Aviv, Israel

The Dragon
Jennifer Stewart
Guelph, Ontario, Canada

Dragon’s Lair Comics & Fantasy
David Wheeler
Austin, TX

Green Brain Comics
Katie & Dan Merritt
Dearborn, MI

Lightning Comics
Tim Boal
Coeur d’Alene, ID

Not Just Comix
David Easter
Park Hills, MO

Packrat Comics
Jamie and Teresa Colegrove
Hillard, OH

R-Galaxy
Rick & Maritza Keefe
Tucson, AZ

Travelling Man
Nabil Homsi
Manchester, England, UK

Up Up & Away
Kendall Swafford
Cincinnati, OH

Vault of Midnight
Curtis Sullivan & Steve Fodale
Ann Arbor, MI

Warp 1 Comics and Games
Dave Bryenton & James Steer
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

ComicsPRO 2010 Industry Appreciation Award from BSIComics on Vimeo.

As Kevin mentioned a few days ago, the comics retailer organization ComicsPRO honored former DC Comics president and publisher Paul Levitz with the first ComicsPRO Industry Appreciation Award and Carol Kalish, former direct sales manager at Marvel, with the posthumous ComicsPRO Industry Appreciation Award. You can now watch the video of the award presentation above or on the ComicsPro website.

Asterix

Politics | Ah, comics, the language of diplomacy. During his visit this week to the White House, French President Nicolas Sarkozy gave President Obama an 18th-century document accrediting Benjamin Franklin as ambassador to France and, for his daughters, a collection of Asterix graphic novels. [AFP]

Publishing | Rebellion Publishing, publisher of U.K. comics anthology 2000AD, will begin releasing U.S. editions of new and classic titles in graphic-novel format beginning in June with The Judge Dredd Complete Case Files and The Complete D.R. and Quinch. [PW Comics Week]

Publishing | Two more profiles of Last Gasp Books as the independent publisher celebrates its 40th anniversary. [PW Comics Week, San Francisco Bay Guardian]

Newave!

Publishing | Brian Heater begins a two-part Q&A with Michael Dowers, editor of Fantagraphics Books’ Newave! The Underground Mini Comix of the 1980s collection. [The Daily Cross Hatch]

Publishing | Jim Gibbons, Dark Horse’s publicity coordinator, chats about his history with comics. [Graphic Novel Reporter]

Retailing | Retailer Kendall Swafford and writer Heidi MacDonald report on the annual meeting last week in Memphis, Tennessee, of ComicsPRO, the direct-market trade organization. At the meeting, comiXology announced the launch of Retailer Tools 2.0, which allows direct-market stores to offer the Previews catalog on their websites, host their own blogs and online communities, and improve retailer control over pull lists. [ICv2.com, PW Comics Week]

Creators | Charles Hatfield posts a gallery of covers by artist and editor Dick Giordano, who passed away on Saturday at age 77. Bob Greenberger, KC Carlson and Mark Evanier also post remembrances. [Thought Balloonists]

Grizzly Shark

Creators | Ryan Ottley (Invincible) and Jason Howard (The Astounding Wolf-Man) chat about their upcoming one-shot Sea Bear & Grizzly Shark: They Got Mixed Up! [Big Shiny Robot!]

Creators | Rob Liefeld and pastor Phil Hotsenpiller discuss Armageddon Now, their comic series about the End Times. [Christian Examiner]

Creators | The Comics Journal posts the first part of a 2005 panel discussion at the International Festival of Authors in Toronto featuring Charles Burns, Chip Kidd, Seth and Chris Ware. [TCJ.com]

Creators | Brian Heater wraps up his four-part interview with Graham Annable. [The Daily Cross Hatch]

Light Yagami, from "Death Note"

Manga | A 14-year-old middle-schooler in Owosso, Michigan, has been suspended indefinitely after a classmate found a Death Note-inspired note containing the names of two students and times, and turned it over to a teacher. In Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata’s Death Note, the hit manga turned anime and live-action movie franchise, a high school student sets out to rid the world of evil using a supernatural notebook that kills anyone whose name is written in it.

Although the incident with the Owosso student was turned over to police, who forwarded the case to the prosecutor’s office. Police and school officials say they don’t believe the teen intended to harm anyone, and that no one was in danger.

This is at least the sixth incident in the United States in the past few years in which a student was disciplined for possessing a “death note.” [Argus-Press, Anime News Network]

ComicsPRO

Retailing | At its annual meeting late last week in Memphis, Tennessee, the direct-market trade organization ComicsPRO presented former DC Comics President and Publisher Paul Levitz with its first Industry Appreciation Award. The late Carol Kalish, former direct sales manager at Marvel, was honored with a posthumous Industry Appreciation Award. Matt Price has a roundup of news from the meeting. [Nerdage]

Publishing | Meredith May shines the spotlight on Last Gasp founder Ron Turner as the underground-comics publisher and distributor marks 40 years in business. [San Francisco Chronicle]

Publishing | Archie Comics CEO Jon Goldwater talks about teaming with Stan Lee for Super Seven. [AICN Comics]

Creators | About 50 fans, family and friends of renowned fantasy artist Frank Frazetta gathered Friday near the Frank Frazetta Museum in Marshalls Creek, Pennsylvania, for a candlelight vigil in support of the artist and his son Frank Jr. The Frazetta family is embroiled in bitter feud marked by criminal charges and a lawsuit against Frank Jr., who’s charged in the December break-in at the museum and is accused by his siblings of selling and reproducing their father’s art without permission. [Pocono Record]

Anders Loves Maria

Creators | Cartoonist Rene Engström discusses her recently concluded webcomic Anders Loves Maria. [Sequential Tart]

Creators | Girls With Slingshots creator Danielle Corsetto is the subject of an audio interview from this year’s Emerald City ComiCon. [Stumptown Trade Review]

Creators | Alex Deuben chats with Taki Soma about Rapture, her Dark Horse collaboration with Michael Avon Oeming. [Suicide Girls]

Creators | Brian Heater continues his multi-part interview with Bill Ayers. [The Daily Cross Hatch]

Fandom | Chris McNamara profiles the Chicago Nerd Social Club, a collection of about 750 members that holds events around the city. [Chicago Tribune]

ComicsPRO

Retailing | The annual meeting of ComicsPRO, the direct-market trade organization, begins today in Memphis, Tennessee, with DC Comics-focused programming — we’ll likely see some announcements this afternoon — and continues through Saturday. Matt Price gauges the general mood among attendees concerning the economy, digital comics and the increasing reliance by publishers on “classified” solicitations whose details aren’t revealed until just before the final-order cutoff. [Nerdage]

Publishing | French publisher Les Humanoïdes Associés, which in recent years has had deals with DC Comics and Devil’s Due Publishing, plans to “formally reestablish itself” as a U.S. comic-book publisher — this time without a partner. The venture, called Humanoids Inc.,  is overseen by Publisher Fabrice Giger, Director Alex Donoghue, Editor-in-Chief Bob Silva and Senior Art Director Jerry Frissen. The first titles will be released in June. [Humanoids]

Creator-Con

Conventions | As Anaheim, Los Angeles and San Diego vie over who will lay claim to Comic-Con International after 2012, a group of artists is pushing for the establishment of a more “creator-friendly” Creator-Con. To that end, the artists have created a Facebook fan page as “a forum for the artists, writers, designers, self-publishers, retailers and fans that have become disillusioned and frustrated with what the flagship of comic conventions has become … The Creator Con idea was hatched a few years ago by a few exhibitor friends as a reaction to the popular media takeover of a convention that used to celebrate artists and creators. We were tired of being pushed further and further aside each year to make room for the bigger, louder and flashier attractions that had nothing to do with the convention’s humble beginnings.” As of this morning, the page has nearly 1,700 fans.

However, writer and industry historian Mark Evanier thinks the organizers’ efforts may be a bit misguided: “I’m not attacking those who complain about the con or want to start something else, even though I don’t quite understand what they want that’s doable and doesn’t already exist somewhere. I’m just suggesting it’s silly to bash the biggest con for being the biggest con or to fault it because people who are into comics these days are more into movies and video games and TV shows.” [Cartoon Brew, News From Me]

Awards | The deadline for voting for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Hall of Fame is March 31. [Eisner Awards]

Awards | Nominees have been announced for the annual Comics Buyer’s Guide Fan Awards. Voting is open through May 31. [CBGXtra.com]

Mouse Guard: Winter 1152

Publishing | Calvin Reid spotlights Archaia’s comics and graphic novel line, noting that David Petersen’s first Mouse Guard hardcover has sold more than 100,000 copies. [Publishers Weekly]

Publishing | Jeffrey Simpson considers the apprehension and head scratching surrounding digital distribution. [Georgia Straight]

Publishing | Steve Jones looks at the resurrection of the Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics biographies through a partnership between Revolutionary Comics and Bluewater Productions. [USA Today]

Creators | Writer Scott Snyder continues his promotional tour for Vertigo’s American Vampire. [The Huffington Post, Hero Complex]

Creators | Author Joe Hill, writer of the Locke & Key series from IDW Publishing, answers questions from newspaper readers. [Liverpool Daily Post]

From "The Guild"

Creators | Actress-writer Felicia Day discusses her web series-turned-Dark Horse miniseries The Guild. [USA Today]

Creators | Cartoonist Jim Woodring is profiled in his role as the artist in residence at the Burnell Street Arts Center in Homer, Alaska. [Homer News]

Creators | Jonathan Hickman chats about Fantastic Four, his new series S.H.I.E.L.D. and more. [The Weekly Crisis]

Creators | Robot 6 contributor Brigid Alverson talks with writer J. Torres about the new editions of Alison Dare. [Publishers Weekly]

Creators | Alex Dueben begins a two-part interview with Ho Che Anderson. [TCJ.com]

Creators | Garfield creator Jim Davis will be honored April 17 by his alma mater Ball State University with “An Extraordinary Evening with Jim Davis.” [The Star Press]

Blogosphere | Happy fifth anniversary to the 4thletter! crew. [4thletter!]

Comic-Con

The 2009 San Diego Comic-Con kicks off with preview night on Wednesday, July 22 and runs through Sunday, July 26. If you are a publisher, creator, retailer or any other kind of exhibitor who would like to let folks know about any special plans you have for the show (panels, signing schedules, exclusives, debuts, etc.) drop me an email and I’ll run it here.

Organizations | The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and Things From Another World have teamed up to create a set of limited edition cards by various comic creators that will be handed out by various publishers, the CBLDF and TFAW. The original artwork for the cards will be auctioned off at the con, with proceeds going to the fund. Contributors include Mike Mignola, Phil Hester, Eric Powell, Gabriel Bá, Fábio Moon, Steve Lieber and many more.

Panels | Although the official programming schedule hasn’t been released yet, a few companies have started sharing their panels via press releases and such. Thursday at the con brings a panel on Disney animator Walt Stanchfield, who is profiled in a new book called Drawn to Life: 20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes.

Also, FOX TV has released their schedule. They’ll have panels dedicated to the Simpsons, Family Guy, The Cleveland Show (a Family Guy spinoff), 24, Futurama and Bones. They’ll also have Joss Whedon and Eliza Dushku on hand to introduce a never before seen episode of Dollhouse. And they’ll have a panel dedicated to their new show Glee, where they’ll show another episode. You can watch the first one on Hulu; it is hilarious.

Interestingly enough, the release doesn’t mention Fringe, but there will be a panel with several members of the cast.

Violence & Piggybacks

Creators | Ryan Ottley will sell his sketchbook — Violence & Piggybacks — at the show.

Retailers | ComicsPRO, the comic retailer’s association, will host several panels aimed at retailers — as well as potential retailers — on the Friday of the con.

Scalping | Over at Bleeding Cool, Rich Johnston posts about scalpers selling San Diego passes for $400-600 on eBay.

False Hope | Laura Hudson fact checks the recent Penthouse article on how to hook up at comic conventions.

Eisners | I mentioned this in yesterday’s Slash Print, but just in case you missed it … Uclick, which has brought titles like Bone and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to the iPhone, announced that they’ve released an Eisner Award iPhone application, available now for free on iTunes. The application will update with icons indicating the winners in each category shortly after the voting results are announced on Friday, July 24.

Toys | Underground Toys has released images of their Dr. Who Comic-Con exclusive action figures.

Video games | Joystiq highlights all the video game companies who will be at the con.

The theme of this year’s meeting, which continues today, is “Rising to the Challenge.”

“If the economy weakens … we have to remain strong,” organization President Joe Field said. “While there are things we can’t control, we have to work on the things we can control.”

• At ICv2.com, Phil Foglio discusses the economics of moving Girl Genius online.

• Bookstore chain Books-A-Million announced its fourth-quarter sales fell 2.5 percent over the same period, to $164 million.

• Tribune Media Services filed a lawsuit Thursday asking a bankruptcy judge to declare that the company, and not actor Warren Beatty, owns the television and movie rights to comic strip detective Dick Tracy.

Parent corporation Tribune Co., which filed for federal bankruptcy protection in December, has been feuding with Beatty for years. The actor acquired the rights to the character in 1985, and made the Dick Tracy movie in 1990.

According to Tribune Co., Beatty was required to produce another movie or TV project in order to retain the rights. In a lawsuit filed back in November, Beatty claims he began work on a TV special, satisfying the terms of the agreement.

• Dick McVengeance offers tips on how to save money on manga and anime purchases.

• Matt Alt takes a look at the financial state of Japan’s anime industry.

• The global recession seems to have had little effect on the Tokyo International Anime Fair, which drew more than 100,000 people.

Wildstorm

As the annual meeting of ComicsPRO continues in Memphis, Tenn., DC Comics has announced a new creator-driven lineup from Wildstorm.

Matt Price reports the imprint will add miniseries from Aaron Williams and Fiona Staples, Dave Tischman and Philip Bond, David Lapham, and Jeff Mariotte. Sparse title details can be found at the link.

In addition to the news about Grant Morrison and Jim Lee’s Wildcats, Wildstorm’s Hank Kanalz announced that Morrison’s Authority will be finished by Keith Giffen and “a variety of artists,” and that Warren Ellis and John Cassaday’s Planetary #27 — the series finale — should ship sometime this year.