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

Weekly Astro Boy Magazine

Publishing | Tezuka Productions and D-Arc Inc. has launched Weekly Astro Boy Magazine, a service that delivers manga by Osamu Tezuka to iPhones and iPods in the United States. Announced last month, it's the first English-language manga service for mobile devices.

If I'm reading the site correctly, the premier "edition" of Weekly Astro Boy Magazine offers the first volume of Astro Boy for free. Subsequent volumes of that title, and other Tezuka classics like Phoenix, Dororo, Black Jack and Buddha, cost 99 cents each, and are available in weekly installments. [Weekly Astro Boy Magazine]

Education | Ryan Sohmer and Lar deSouza, creators of the webcomic Least I Could Do, have established The Rayne Summers Webcomic Scholarship at The Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont. Named for the protagonist of their nearly seven-year-old comic, the scholarship will cover tuition for one student each year who is working toward a career in webcomics. [Least I Could Do, via The Daily Cartoonist]

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SDCC '09 | Another round of pictures

Iron Men

Here are a few more pictures I took at the San Diego Comic-Con last week, many of which appeared on the CBR Live blog already, but I thought I'd group them all together over here. The picture above shows the four sets of Iron Man armor (Iron Men?) from the Marvel booth this year.

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Liveblogging the Eisners!

Eisner Awards

And we're up! I had some technical difficulties with the wireless in the Eisners very lovely new venue at the new Hilton Bayfront Hotel, but it seems to be working for now.

In any event, here's who has won so far ... these first two were presented by comedian Patton Oswalt:

Best Publication for Kids: Tiny Titans, by Art Baltazar and Franco (DC)

Best Publication for Teens/Tweens: Coraline, by Neil Gaiman, adapted by P. Craig Russell (HarperCollins Children’s Books)

While Eisner winner Neil Gaiman presented these three ...

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

San Diego Convention Center

Conventions | San Diego and its convention center are fending off suitors for Comic-Con International, which generates some $16 million in direct spending for the city. Helen Kaiao Chang reports on some of the behind-the-scenes wrangling to keep the convention away from Los Angeles and Las Vegas, even as "the homegrown event ... [busts] at the seams" of the San Diego venue.

"We’re working hard to keep them in San Diego," says one convention center official. "The economic impact to San Diego is profound." [San Diego News Network]

Publishing | After round after round of firings, Wizard has announced two promotions and a new hire. Longtime staff member Mike Cotton has been promoted from managing editor to editor while Andy Serwin has moved from assistant managing editor to features editor.

The magazine also has hired Casey Seijas as managing editor. Seijas previously worked at Wizard as a writer and editor before moving on to Vertigo, where he edited Hellblazer and assisted on numerous other titles. He left the DC Comics imprint in summer 2008 to co-edit MTV's new Splash Page blog, but was let go a few months later in a round of Viacom layoffs. He stayed on as a free-lance writer. [Wizard]

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SDCC '09 | NBM, Disney and more

The 2009 San Diego Comic-Con kicks off in two weeks. 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.

Registered Weapon

Webcomics | Gardner Linn, one of the creators behind Registered Weapon, sent word that the first print collection of "the webcomic about a crime-fighting robot who used to be a cash register" will premiere at San Diego, "guerrilla style."

"Booths will soon be an outmoded concept in the every-man-for-himself comics industry of the future (just like paper and paying for things), so writers Gardner Linn and Chris Thorn will be hitting the show guerrilla-style, passing out copies to anybody who wants one (and even more people who don't)," he writes. "And keep coming back to http://registered-weapon.com for more info as the con approaches, and new comics four times a week."

BTW, I really dig this webcomic; go check it out if you're looking for off-the-wall laughs.

Comics | NBM has released their booth signing schedule, which includes appearances by Lewis Trondheim, Neil Kleid, Rick Geary and more. Kleid's new book, The Big Kahn, will debut at the show.

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Slash Print | Following the digital evolution

Longbox

Digital Comics | Rantz Hoseley posted some additional information and answered questions on the Longbox digital comics in the comments section of the iFanboy article Kevin linked to yesterday.

Those updates include:

• Although only BOOM! and Top Cow have been announced so far, Hoseley said seven publishers have signed on for the launch, and the other five will be announced in the next few weeks leading up to the San Diego Comic Con.
• The software will include a "Manga Mode" that flips the left-to-right reading order. That's pretty damn clever.
• The software will also allow for "age-restricted sub-accounts," so your kids can read the Muppets but can't get to your Black Kiss comics.
• Hoseley says that "while we certainly welcome DC and Marvel's participation, the entire system was designed to have a business model that would be successful and profitable for all involved if they chose not to participate."

There's more at the link, so click over and read. This gets more interesting by the day ...

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Nominees announced for 2009 Manning Award

Stinky

The nominees were announced this morning for the Russ Manning Promising Newcomer Award, which has been presented at Comic-Con since 1982.

Named for the late Russ Manning, who created Magnus, Robot Fighter and illustrated such comic strips as Star Wars and Tarzan, the award is presented to an artist "who, early in his or her career, shows a superior knowledge and ability in the art of creating comics."

This year's nominees are:

• Gregory Baldwin, writer/artist of Path (published by com.x Ltd)
• Eleanor Davis, writer/artist of Stinky (published by RAW Junior/Toon Books)
• Leigh Kellogg, artist of Wayfarer's Moon (Single Edge Studios)
• Lukas Ketner, artist of Witchdoctor (self-published)
• Christian Slade, artist of Korgi (published by Top Shelf)

The winner will be announced July 24 during the Eisner Awards ceremony at Comic-Con International.

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

Catwoman, by Tony Daniel

Awards | These are shaping up to be the most-discussed Eisner Award nominations in a while, with much of the conversation centering on whether the judges "ignored" manga. Judge Andrew Wheeler wades into the debate as Brigid Alverson offers a defense of this year's committee: "I think the true fault lies in the voters, who are not as well read as the committee and vote accordingly, and that comes back to what the Eisners are. People do tend to prefer one type of comics over another, and the Eisners speak to a more traditional crowd."

Meanwhile, Timothy Callahan and Chad Nevett delve into the nominations. [Eisner Awards]

Creators | Less than a month after he deleted his blog "for good," artist Tony Daniel is back online: "I got po'd and pulled the blog down. But now I'm back and ready for more punishment." [Tony Daniel]

Publishing | With the (somewhat controversial) announcement last week of Marvel Divas, David Brothers wonders what happened to Models, Inc., the all-ages miniseries by Paul Tobin and Vicenc Villagrassa that was scheduled to debut in February. [4thletter!]

Publishing | Project Manager Jim Zubkavich discusses the UDON Kids line of manga: "The manga market is growing up and we're going to see a generational shift in those readers. Manga readers are getting older and they're having kids or have nieces and nephews or younger brothers and sisters who are interested by the style and storytelling in manga. Having age-appropriate manga content for that age group and being able to introduce new readers to comics and manga has business potential but is also something we feel strongly about as fans of manga and anime as a whole." [Good Comics For Kids]

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

The Hunter

Awards | Deb Aoki lists some manga the Eisner Awards judges might have overlooked. Meanwhile, Noah Berlatsky and David Welsh ponder the relationship between manga and the awards. [About.com, The Hooded Utilitarian, Precocious Curmudgeon]

Webcomics | Theater Hopper has been removed from Google's index because of malicious code placed on the site by hackers. Creator Tom Brazelton has removed the code, and is trying to convince Google to reinstate his webcomic. [Comixtalk]

Webcomics | Matthew Braga covers the "Talking Webcomics" panel in Toronto. The discussion, sponsored by The Beguiling and the North York Central Library, featured such creators as Kate Beaton and Ryan North. [blogTO]

Publishing | In a review of Hannah Berry's Britten and Brülightly, Sarah Weinman considers the intersection of the comics medium and the crime genre: "It's not difficult to see why comics and crime suit each other well: brutal death invites a visceral response, and murder in pictures only amplifies that reaction further." [The Los Angeles Times]

Publishing | John Seavey has a few words for Marvel about its numbering system. [Fraggmented]

Conventions | Alex Carr files a report, with photos, from last weekend's Emerald City ComiCon. [Omnivoracious]

Creators | Artist Cameron Stewart answers 13 questions about his comics work. [Mindless Ones]

Creators | Creators Rob Guillory and John Layman have launched a blog in support of their new Image Comics series Chew. [Chew]

Comics | The top five character resurrections. [Examiner.com]

The good, the bad and the Eisner reactions

2009 Eisner Awards

The comics Internet has, of course, been humming since the nominees were announced yesterday for the 2009 Eisner Awards.

There's the usual armchair-quarterbacking questioning how X was nominated but not Y, and suggestions of elitism or bias (the phrase "hoitie-toitie" has been spotted). But the consensus, I think, is that it's a fairly well-rounded list -- even if some favorites didn't receive nods this year.

"holy crap, so many nice eisner nods," Viking writer Ivan Brandon posted yesterday on Twitter.

Brian Michael Bendis jokingly responded: "to be fair there are some blindingly terrible ones as well."

Don MacPherson has some thoughts on the nominations, most notably the inclusion of finite series All-Star Superman in the Best Limited Series category, and the relaunched Invincible Iron Man in Best New Series.

Brigid Alverson, meanwhile, notes that "Manga is pretty sparse among this year’s nominations, and weirdly, none of the titles in the Best Publications for Teens/Tweens is manga."

Evan Dorkin has a nice mix of congratulations and critique, but reserves the best for the subsequent comments thread.

In response to a question about the comics industry naming awards for creators while those creators were still alive, Dorkin writes:

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

Stan Lee Media

Legal | A judge ruled Monday that Michael George, the retailer and convention organizer convicted last year in the 1990 killing of his first wife, will remain in jail while he awaits a new trial. [Detroit Free Press]

Legal | Yet another lawsuit was filed Friday against Stan Lee on behalf of the shareholders of Stan Lee Media. The suit accuses the creator of illegally transferring the copyrights of two characters to POW Entertainment. [press release]

Crime | A 24-year-old man shot and killed himself at 12:15 a.m. Monday during a screening of Watchmen in Eugene, Ore. [KVAL]

Legal | The trial continues in Singapore for a married couple accused of distributing anti-Muslim tracts from cartoonist Jack Chick. According to the latest testimony, Dorothy Chan Hien Leng has sent out some 20,000 publications in the past seven years. She and husband Ong Kian Cheong are charged with distributing seditious and objectionable publications. [The Straits Times]

Awards | Eisner Awards judge (and cartoonist) Ben Towle comments posts his thoughts about the submissions: "Is there some sort of favoritism/politics going on at the big comics publishers? Being an 'indie guy' I have no knowledge of the politics of what goes on a big 'mainstream' comics publishers,  but I was really surprised that a few of them didn’t send copies of everything they’d put out in the previous year. I can’t imagine that this is a financial concern -- it seems more like a deliberate snub to those folks they didn’t send books from. There were at least two people who’d done great work (I thought, anyway) for a couple of mainstream publishers in 2008 who I really wanted to champion, but without their company’s having sent their books along for the judges to read, there really wasn’t much I could do. To be fair, though, it’s probably better to submit a select few items than to submit everything, regardless of quality." [Ben Towle]

Creators | Gabriel Ba acknowledges the April Fool's joke he and brother Fabio Moon pulled last week, but pledges that Casanova will return: "Just the way you all do, we love Casanova. I can speak for Matt, Fábio and myself when I say we are doing all we can to bring Casanova back the best way it deserves to come back. ... And I can tell you this: It WILL come back." [Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba]