Comic Book Resources

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.

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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]

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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]

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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 ...

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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]

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ComicsLive | A guide to upcoming comic-related events

Welcome once again to ComicsLive, a guide to upcoming signings, conventions and other comic-related events. Information on submitting your event can be found at the bottom of this post.

Today

Cleveland | Claudio Sanchez of the band Coheed and Cambria and writer of Amory Wars and the upcoming Kill Audio will sign at Carol & John’s Comic Book Shop from 2 to 3 p.m.

Los Angeles | Nick Simmons will sign copies of Incarnate #1 at Golden Apple Comics from 1 to 3 p.m.

Ojai, Calif. | Opening reception for the Sergio Aragones art exhibit at the Ojai Valley Museum. This event is sold out, but the art exhibit runs through Oct. 4.

Orlando | The Mini MegaCon kicks off at 10 .m. and runs through Sunday. Guests include Darwyn Cooke, Jeff Parker, Chuck Dixon, Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner, Dick Giordano and many more.

Pittsfield, Mass. | The Storefront Artist Project hosts Todd Dezago from noon to 2 p.m. for a class on "Story Structure and the Language of Comics," followed by a signing at 3p.m. by Howard Cruse.

San Francisco | The San Francisco Zine Fest kicks off at 11 a.m. and runs through tomorrow at the County Fair Building.

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Isotope accepting submissions for best mini-comic

Isotope Award

James Sime, owner of Isotope Comics in San Francisco, has put out the call for submissions for the 2009 Isotope Award for Excellence in Mini-Comics. Submissions are due Oct. 1 and will be presented at Isotope's annual APE Aftermath bash on Oct. 17, in conjunction with the Alternative Press Expo.

"It's our seventh annual award, and I've got a feeling we're going to be especially lucky and help discover an amazing new talent this year," Sime said. "In 2009 one mini-comic creator's career will be forever changed, so fire up your xerox machines and get ready to submit your minis."

Judges for this year's competition include Sime, Top Shelf co-publisher (and usually the guest bartender at the Aftermath party) Brett Warnock, comics journalist/critic Tom Spurgeon, librarian and former Eisner judge Eva Volan, and comics writer/retailer/librarian Kirsten Baldock.

Entry to this competition is five copies of your mini-comic sent to Isotope's address -- 326 Fell St., San Francisco, CA 94102 -- before the Oct. 1 deadline. The winner will be contacted in advance and must be present at the Isotope at 9 P.M. on Saturday, Oct. 17 for the award presentation ceremony.

"I consider each year's winner of this award to be the Isotope's Miss America for the year and always love helping to get their work under the noses of the entire industry," Sime said. "Oh... and speaking of which, don't forget to place your pre-orders for two previous winners of this award, who both have new original graphic novels coming out this September, Danica Novgorodoff's Refresh, Refresh from First Second and Joshua Cotter's Driven By Lemons from AdHouse Books."

Other previous winners of the award include Rob Osborne, Daniel Merlin Goodbrey, Jonas Madden-Conner and Max Riffner.

Spider-Man cares about fuel efficiency

Spider-Man drives a Mini

The above photo was nicked from the Forbidden Planet blog, where they have other photos of a number of costumed folk enjoying the Edinburgh Festival Fringe’s annual Cavalcade.