Comic Book Resources

Blackest Night vs. Siege: Place your bets!

Blackest Night #7

Siege #2

They say nice guys finish last, but when event comics will finish is anybody's guess. The demands of a high-profile series around which entire shared universes revolve can play havoc with scheduling. Naturally, editors and publishers love to maintain the artistic quality and consistency (and sales levels) provided by the big-name writer-artist teams that tend to lend such books a sense of "this is a big deal." On the other hand, they need to get books out on time so that other series whose storylines depend upon what happens in the event can proceed as planned -- and so that they don't end up alienating retailers and readers. But these same readers and retailers can end up just as irritated if they get the sense that the creators are being rushed, or if fill-in artists aren't up to snuff. It's a tough row to hoe.

With his front-row seat for a variety of events this decade, including Avengers Disassembled, House of M, Civil War, and Secret Invasion, Marvel Executive Editor Tom Brevoort knows this better than anyone. So it was with an obvious mix of boldness and trepidation that he made the following prediction on his Twitter account:

It's height of hubris time: I'm willing to bet that SIEGE will wrap up before BLACKEST NIGHT does.

Continue Reading »

Limited edition Usagi Yojimbo shirts arrive in L.A., San Francisco this weekend

Usagi Yojimbo T-shirt

Dark Horse Comics has teamed up with clothing label The Hundreds to release two limited edition T-shirts featuring new Usagi Yojimbo art from Stan Sakai. The shirts are limited to 200 of each design and will be released this Saturday at the Hundreds locations in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

In addition, Sakai will be at the Hundreds location in L.A. from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. to sign copies of Usagi. The first 25 people will receive a signed copy of the recently released Usagi Yojimbo graphic novel, Yokai.

“I am always excited to hear stories of the impact of Usagi on other creative individuals, especially those working outside of comics,” Sakai said in a press release. “I hope that this collaboration exposes a whole new group of people to Usagi, and comics in general. I'm grateful to have had the chance to work on this project with Bobby and everyone at The Hundreds.”

“Much of what I do today, as creative director for the Hundreds, stems from poring over Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo art as a youth,” said The Hundreds co-founder Bobby Kim. “To this day, it was one of the most influential comic books in my life, and so it was an honor to work with Stan on two exclusive pieces of art for The Hundreds. To any fan of The Hundreds, it is important to acknowledge and appreciate Usagi Yojimbo’s inspiration to the brand.” You can read more of this thoughts on Usagi on the Hundreds' blog.

More T-shirt images and a flyer for the events can be found after the jump ...

Continue Reading »

The Hero Initiative needs your Ed Hannigan art

The Hero Initiative is putting together an art exhibit featuring the work of Ed Hannigan, whose work was featured in and on comics like Green Arrow, The Defenders, Superman, Batman and Spectacular Spider-Man, among others. They're looking to borrow any original art for the exhibit from Dec. 15 through April 30; if you own any, contact Jim McLauchlin at jmclauch@aol.com.

Things to do: 'Political Cartooning in NYC' on Nov. 3

Bill Kartalopoulos emailed me to let everyone know about a panel he'll be moderating tomorrow, Nov. 3, at the The New York Center for Independent Publishing, 20 W. 44th St., New York.

The panel will discuss the history and current challenges facing political cartoonists in The Big Apple and features Eric Drooker, Tom Hart, Tim Kreider and Peter Kuper.The full press release is below the jump.

Continue Reading »

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

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Libraries | Two library employees in Nicholasville, Kentucky, were fired last month after they refused to allow an 11-year-old girl to check out The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which they dubbed pornographic. However, the policy of the Jessamine County Library states it's the responsibility of parents to decide what's appropriate for their child to read.

The fired employees, Beth Bovaire and Sharon Cook, stand behind their decision, asserting that the award-winning comic by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill contains lewd pictures that are inappropriate for children.

"If you give children pornography, a child, a 12 year old, can not understand and process the same way a 30 year old can," Cook told a local television news station. [WTVQ, WTVQ]

Tokyo International Manga Library

Libraries | A private university in Tokyo hopes to promote the serious study of manga by opening a library stocked with 2 million comics, anime drawings, video games and other artifacts. If everything goes as planned, the Tokyo International Manga Library would open on the campus of Meiji University in 2015. [AFP]

Publishing | Even after the closing last year of Virgin Comics, upbeat profiles of the Indian comics industry continue to appear regularly. But here Gaurav Jain, head of the Mumbai-based Illusion Interactive Animation, offers a more dismal assessment of the scene in India: "While competition has arrived, the local industry continues to live in its shell, churning out visually unappealing and terribly written local content with little or no film and television possibilities. One of the most widely read labels offers sanitized, vanilla retellings of Indian mythology and historical figures with visuals inspired from the works of Raja Ravi Verma. Derivative art work and bland writing, leads to visual fatigue." [The Wall Street Journal]

Continue Reading »

This Sunday, it's Wonder Woman Day

Wonder Woman Day IV

On Sunday DC Comics' Amazon princess will be celebrated in a pair of Wonder Woman Day all-ages events in Portland, Oregon, and Flemington, New Jersey, that will benefit domestic-violence prevention and intervention agencies in both states.

Portland Mayor Sam Adams has even officially declared Oct. 25 to be "Wonder Woman Day."

The Portland event, which will be held from noon to 6 p.m. at Excalibur Comics, 2444 SE Hawthorne Blvd., will benefit Raphael House of Portland, Bradley Angle and Portland Women's Crisis Line. Guests include Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez, Gail Simone, Aaron Lopresti, Ron Randall and Paul Gulacy.

The Fleminton event, which will be held from noon to 5 p.m. at Comic Fusion, 42 Main St., will benefit Safe in Hunterdon. Guests include Joe Sinnott, Chris Muller, Ken Haeser, Rob Kramer and Buzz Hasson.

Both events are free, and will feature silent auctions of work by such artists as Alex Ross, Adam Hughes, Gary Frank, Nicola Scott, Jeff Smith and many more.

For more information, visit the Wonder Woman Day IV website.

Will Dinski wins Isotope Award for Minicomics

Covered in Confusion

Will Dinski's Covered in Confusion took home the Isotope Award for Excellence in Minicomics last night. The award was presented during Isotope's annual APE Aftermath party. If you'd like to see the book, Dinski has a video of it up on his website, where you can also purchase it.

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

Iron Man #18

Creators | Tom Spurgeon has word from a former George Tuska spokesman that the longtime Iron Man artist has passed away. He was 93.

Tuska began his career in 1939 as an assistant on Scorchy Smith, and worked for the comic "packaging" studio owned by Will Eisner and Jerry Iger. He later drew for Fawcett and Quality, and then moved to Marvel in the 1960s, where he penciled such titles as Daredevil, Ghost Rider and The X-Men before beginning a decade-long run on Iron Man. Tuska left Marvel in the late 1970s for DC Comics and in 1978 helped launch a new Superman daily comic strip, on which he worked until 1993.

Tuska is survived by his wife of 61 years Dorothy, their three children and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. [The Comics Reporter, Tony Isabella]

Big Apple Comic Con

Conventions | As Big Apple Comic Con -- "the New York area's largest pop culture festival" -- opens, Variety and the Los Angeles Times spotlight the official launch today of GeekChicDaily, the new e-newsletter founded by Wizard Entertainment CEO Gareb Shamus, movie producer Peter Guber and digital entertainment entrepreneur Peter Levin.

Meanwhile, comics and TV writer Paul Cornell explains why he won't be attending the convention: "The guy who originally invited me was made redundant the day after he did so. Which doesn't fill one with confidence. But, sure enough, his boss was kind enough to honour the commitment. And there was some communication on that score. However, by the start of this week, I'd noticed that days were ticking by without any actual arrangements being made. So I finally said that if they'd already bought the air ticket, then of course I'd come, because I didn't want them to lose out financially because of me, but if they hadn't, then not to worry about it. Which resulted in... absolute silence. So when I say I'm not going to New York... well, that's my best guess as we speak."

Heidi MacDonald reported earlier this week that "several announced guests" hadn't received their travel arrangements, "and several others who were invited pulled out when such arrangements were not forthcoming." [Big Apple Comic Con]

Continue Reading »

Astonishing X-Men motion comic to get big (like, three stories big) premiere

Marvelfest

This morning's New York Post reveals some of the details for the Oct. 28 premiere of Marvel's Astonishing X-Men motion comic in New York City's Union Square Park.

The company will transform the former Virgin Megastore into a three-story outdoor screen to show the adaptation of the bestselling comic by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday.

Astonishing X-Men is Marvel's second motion comic. Spider-Woman, by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev, debuted in August.

The premiere will serve as the centerpiece for the first "Marvelfest" in Union Square Park, which will feature appearances by creators, a costume contest and giveaways. The event begins at 6 p.m.

APE '09 | Exhibit A, NBM, SLG and more

The Alternative Press Expo, or APE, is coming up this weekend at The Concourse in San Francisco. The show runs from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. Special guests include Jamaica Dyer, Phoebe Gloeckner, Dean Haspiel, Batton Lash, Lark Pien, Dash Shaw and Jeff Smith. I'll be there covering the show, while Matt Maxwell will have a table to sell copies of Strangeways.

And over the next couple days, I'll be posting what various companies and creators have planned for the show. If you'd like to be included, drop me the details on where you'll be, what you'll be selling and all that good stuff.

Exhibit A Press | Jackie Estrada dropped us a note about what Exhibit A Press (table 312) will have at the show, where special guest Batton Lash will be celebrating 30 years of Wolff & Byrd, Counselors of the Macabre.

"He’ll be signing the limited-edition Supernatural Law Tales from the Vault Anniversary Special as well as comics and trades," she writes. "We’ll also have Batton’s 'monster cameos,' one-of-a-kind hand-painted miniatures of everyone’s favorite monsters. Plus: new Graphitti Designs Supernatural Law T-shirt!"

More info at www.exhibitapress.com/pages/index.php

SLG Publishing | Jennifer de Guzman sent over an update on SLG's plans for the show. "Jamaica Dyer will be a special guest, so we will have plenty of copies of her new book Weird Fishes," she writes. "Jamaica will also be on the panel Personal Stories on Saturday at 5 p.m. with Dean Haspiel, Phoebe Glockner, and Dash Shaw. I'll be moderating her spotlight panel on Sunday at 12 p.m."

Things Undone

NBM | Ted Rall and Shane White will be at APE; Rall will have a few copies of The Year of Loving Dangerously, while White will sign copies of the recent release Things Undone (which is sitting on my dresser in my "to read" pile; I should read it before this weekend).

Top Shelf | Brett Warnock posts on his blog that Nate Powell, Grant Reynolds and Jeremy Tinder will be at their booth, along with himself and Leigh Walton. And as always, he'll be at the Isotope party Saturday night.

Creators | Scott Morse will be on hand doing commissions and selling the last few remaining copies he has of The Ancient Book of Sex and Science.

Manga | Deb Aoki rounds up what various manga publishers are doing at the show.

Bloomingdale's to offer DC Comics merchandise

Bloomingdale's Batman shirt

Bloomingdale's is teaming up with DC Comics to offer high-end clothing and accessories in its stores nationwide this holiday season. Bloomingdale’s will launch the line with a series of customer events on Oct. 14, including the one in San Francisco with James Robinson I mentioned last week.

Items they plan to carry include T-shirts, socks, scarves, tote bags, wallets, ties, cuff links and pocket squares. Per the press release, the DC Comics collection will range in price from $30 for a pair of Psycho Bunny socks to $225 for a JACK SPADE tote. The above Batman shirt retails for $62. That's more than I'd probably pay for a T-shirt, but I'm guessing I'm not the target audience here.

You can find more shirts here. And I've posted pics of some of the other items after the jump ...

Continue Reading »

Isotope Comics teams with James Robinson to take over Bloomingdale's

James Robinson at Bloomingdale's

James Sime and James Robinson -- I'm sure there's a "James Gang" joke to be made here -- are taking over Bloomingdale's in San Francisco next Wednesday.

The owner of Isotope Comics and the writer of Justice League, along with Details Magazine and Warner Bros., will host "an evening of cocktails, DJs, comics, and high fashion! The screen-used costume from Dark Knight as well as the movie costumes of Catwoman and Two-Face will be on display as well," Sime said.

You can find all the details here.

Straight for the art | The Last Match

by Matthew Thurber

Matthew Thurber, Jeffrey Brown, Shaun Tan, Nick Abadzis and many, many more contributed to an art exhibit called The Last Match. The exhibit features about 150 different matchbook-sized pieces of artwork by artists from 38 countries, according to the project's website.

Check out all the artwork on Flickr. Via

This weekend, it's the D23 Expo in Anaheim

D23 Expo

Disney's D23 Expo kicks off today at the Anaheim Convention Center. The four-day event brings together all the various aspects of the Disney company -- from theme parks to movies to TV to yes, even comics -- under one roof, for panels, screenings, autograph signings and of course the opportunity to buy some Disney stuff. The complete schedule can be found here.

As I first mentioned back in June, BOOM! Studios, which publishes licensed comics based on several Disney properties, will be there and will have two booths at the show. Mark Waid, BOOM!'s editor-in-chief and writer of The Incredibles comic, will be at BOOM!'s display booth in the Disney Consumer Products area (#2209-41) Friday from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Grace Randolph and Amy Mebberson, who also have worked on some of the titles, will be there throughout the day on Saturday and Sunday. BOOM! will also have a booth in the Collector's Forum area, #430, where they'll be selling many of their Disney titles.

Other guests at the show include Tim Burton, Robert Zemeckis, Nicholas Cage, Courteney Cox, John Lasseter and many more. Panels will focus on upcoming films like The Princess and the Frog, Tron: Legacy, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, among others. And no, there's no mention of anything Marvel-related, nor would I expect there to be considering the deal isn't final. Maybe next year, though.

My wife's a huge Disney fan -- this is kind of like her Comic-Con -- so we'll be there Friday through Sunday. I plan to post pictures on the CBR Live blog throughout the day, God and iPhone willing, and will likely blog about it when I get a chance. So check back this weekend for updates.

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

Donald Duck

Publishing | Egmont Publishing House has issued a warning to Danish readers that last week's issue of Donald Duck & Co. (Anders And & Co.) includes a fingerprinting set that contains a toxic iron-based powder. The publisher is recalling all unsold issues, and has advised parents to immediately throw out the fingerprinting set. [The Copenhagen Post]

Publishing | Tokyopop announced Wednesday in a webcast that seven series that were placed on hiatus last year during the company's restructuring will resume publication in mid-2010. The publisher also will add several new titles to its lineup. [About.com]

Publishing | First Second's Calista Brill offers her perspective on what an editor is and isn't. [Doodles and Dailies]

Webcomics | Sean Kleefeld critiques the Zuda Comics interface, and points to "a larger problem with using Flash to deliver web comics." [Kleefeld on Comics]

Continue Reading »