If you happen to be in the vicinity of East Lansing, Michigan, the week after next, it would be worth your while to check out the 2012 Michigan State University Comics Forum. Panel coordinator Ben Chabala (himself the creator of The Art of War) sent along some info, including the news that Jessica Abel (Life Sucks, Drawing Words and Writing Pictures) will deliver the keynote address on Friday, Feb. 3. Abel will also be gracing Artists Alley on Saturday, along with Jeremy Bastian (Cursed Pirate Girl), Ryan Claytor, Jay Jacot (creator of this year’s poster), Ryan Stegman and a host of budding and experienced comics creators. Forums and panel discussions will also take place on Saturday.

Persepolis

Legal | The trial resumed today, if only briefly, in Tunis for the president of a Tunisian television network accused of “insulting sacred values” when he aired the adaptation of Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis. Tensions were so high in the courtroom that proceedings were postponed until April. The Oct. 7 broadcast resulted in an attempted arson attack on the network’s offices and the arrest of some 50 protesters. Nessma TV President Nebil Karoui, who apologized in October, is charged with “insulting sacred values, offending decent morals and causing public unrest” because of the outrage triggered by a scene in Persepolis showing God, which is prohibited by Islam. [AFP]

Organizations | Stumptown Comics, the organization that puts on the Stumptown Comics Fest every year in Portland, Oregon, has added three new members to its board: Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Executive Director Charles Brownstein, Boilerplate co-author Anina Bennett and editor Shawna Gore. [Stumptown Comics]

Awards | The First Fictions literary festival and the publisher Myriad Editions announced the winner of its First Graphic Novel competition: Gareth Brookes, whose graphic novel The Black Project will be published next year by Myriad Editions. Blogger Richard Bruton notes that the shortlist of seven graphic novels was so strong that one judge, Bryan Talbot (Alice in Sunderland) felt they were all “worthy of publication.” [Forbidden Planet]

The Massive

Creators | Brian Wood talks about his upcoming Dark Horse series The Massive. [Biff Bam Pop!]

Creators | Shane Houghton and Matt Whitlock discuss their work on BOOM! Studios’ Peanuts comic book. [Biff Bam Pop!]

Creators | In an interview tied to the upcoming release of the George Lucas film Red Tails, Boondocks creator Aaron McGruder (who worked on the film) reflects on his life in comics and the end of Boondocks: “My issues were totally about: one, I just burnt out on the strip and the deadlines were brutal. Two, I didn’t feel like there was much of a future in print. I thought I needed to quit because I saw the newspapers slowly going away. I didn’t want to be caught off guard. I felt more comfortable being a screenwriter, and as I learned how to become a producer, it seemed like a more natural fit for me than cartooning.” [Comics Alliance]

Goliath

Creators | Tom Spurgeon talks to Scottish writer and artist Tom Gauld, whose Goliath, which retells the Biblical story of David and Goliath, is due out from Drawn & Quarterly in a few weeks. Gauld’s work is not well known in the U.S., but he deserves to be; it’s worth clicking over just to see the art. [The Comics Reporter]

Creators | Writer and editor Shaenon Garrity makes her list of the best cartoonists of her generation, by which she means cartoonists born in the 1970s. That’s a fairly broad range and includes Craig Thompson, Gene Yang, and Chris Onstad, among others. [comiXology]

Creators | Michael Cavna interviews CW Cooke, the writer of the Steve Jobs bio-comic — the Bluewater one, not The Zen of Steve Jobs — about the challenges of writing about such an iconic and polarizing figure. [Comic Riffs]

Criticism | Sexism in Tiny Titans? It’s different from the type you find in adult comics, but J.L. Bell notices that the girls do a lot of babysitting—and the boys do almost none. [Oz and Ends]

Retailing | Darrin Williams, owner of Comic Envy in Asheville, North Carolina, answers questions about comics, why he became a retailer and his approach to Free Comic Book Day: “It’s a program that started about 10 years ago, and each year it has been the biggest day of the year for me. Ostensibly, it is designed to promote comics in general and get new readers in. All the publishers put out ‘free’ books, but it still costs the shops. I try to go pretty deep, but I run out of books. I think it’s successful, and I try to do stuff above and beyond. I’m working on a puppet show and lining up a kid-friendly band. I want it to be an event.” [Asheville Citizen-Times]

Friends With Boys

Comics | Faith Erin Hicks discusses the role of “acting” in comics: “I remember when I was drawing the final episode of my old webcomic, Demonology 101 (the 5th episode). That episode ended up being something like 100 pages more than all the other episodes, because that was when I started to explore the idea of acting in comics. I wanted to spend time on characters’ emotional reactions and inner thoughts in the comics, so everything ended up being much more decompressed. I had to give space to the characters, so they could react to a cruel/funny/sad comment by another character, or silently work through their inner struggles. That episode was the first time I connected drawing comics with the idea of myself as a director: the characters were my actors and I was directing them in a performance. And it was up to me to make sure that their performance supported the story to the best of my ability.” [Friends With Boys]

Comics | The Mindless Ones annotate the gigantic last issue of the pre-New 52 Batman Incorporated. [The Mindless Ones]

Creators | Gary Mann posts an appeal for help for colorist Tom Ziuko, who is facing serious health problems with no insurance and limited financial resources. [20th Century Danny Boy]

Commentary | David Brothers recommends Giannis Milonogiannis’ Old City Blues, which is now available on comiXology. [ComicsAlliance]

Events | Floating World Comics in Portland, Oregon, will host artwork from Emi Lenox and Natalie Nourigat beginning Feb. 2. [Floating World Comics]

Joann Sfar Draws From Memory, director Sam Ball’s documentary portrait of the French comics artist and filmmaker (Dungeon, The Rabbi’s Cat, Little Vampire) will receive its world-premiere screening at 8:30 p.m. Jan. 25 at the Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater in New York City.

The film follows Sfar to his favorite neighborhood spots and muses about his artistic process and the influence of his Algerian and Eastern European heritage. Tickets are still available for the screening, which also includes the U.S. premiere of The Silent Historian and a Q&A with Ball and executive producer Valerie Joseph.

If buying an entire comic shop on eBay is out of your price range, this might be more your speed: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman is auctioning off his art studio, with some of the proceeds going to benefit the Hero Initiative.

Technically it’s not his whole studio, as that’s attached to his house, but it is all of the contents contained therein. That includes his drawing table and chair, 600 DVDs, original art, action figures, rare T-shirts and a whole bunch more. Check out the video up top to see him give a tour of the studio. Eastman will also make an appearance at Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles on Jan. 4 to count down the end of the auction.

Right now the bidding is at just over $4,000, with eight days still to go.

Actors Ernie Hudson, Barry Bostwick, Eddy Jemison and others will read from The Frankincense Monster and Other Haunted Christmas Stories, a children’s book by Justice and Earth X writer Jim Krueger, on Sunday as part of benefit for the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles’ Holidays From the Heart program.

Organized by Krueger and producer John Bucher, “Oh Haunted Night” is the first of what they hope will be an annual Hollywood event “that provides the power of story in the midst of a magical season while bringing hope and joy to children who are in need.”

The 8 p.m. performance, held at the Acme Comedy Theater in Los Angeles, will be paired with a silent auction. Tickets can be purchased through the Acme website or at the door.

Gallery Nucleus showcases Graham Annable’s lovely and melancholy watercolor contributions to “The Lovers, the Dreamers and Me,” an upcoming tribute art exhibition to the late visionary Jim Henson.

“Clearly Kermit, Ms. Piggy, and Gonzo don’t know what to make of their beginnings,” the post on the gallery’s blog states, “but what we can decipher from this is Graham’s bold wit for introducing us to an unusual scenario we never expected the Muppets would run into.”

The exhibition opens Dec. 10 with a reception at Gallery Nucleus in Alhambra, California, and continues through Jan. 2.

(via Super Punch)

Comics by comiXology

Digital | Comics by ComiXology has topped Apple’s charts as the top-grossing iPad application for the last six Wednesdays. ComiXology cited the launch of DC’s New 52 initiative, as well as many other comic companies moving to a same-day digital release schedule, as reasons for its success. “When have comic books, not comic book movies, not comic book merchandise, but the actual comic books been #1 in anything, much less high tech?” comiXology CEO David Steinberger said in a statement. “Being the number one grossing iPad application six Wednesdays in a row isn’t just a huge milestone for comiXology, but a huge milestone for comics as a medium … and we could not be prouder.” [press release]

Creators | An auction for the naming rights to a character in Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons’ The Secret Service raised $5,100 for St. Bartholomew’s Primary School, where Millar attended. The money will be used to pay for field trips for the school’s students. “I’m a former pupil at St. Bartholomew’s and have so many great memories of the place,” Millar said. “I know there’s not a lot of money in local government at the moment and I was sad to hear that the annual school trip for the children had been cancelled. By establishing this fund, I hope to have a pot the head-teacher can dip into every Christmas and take the entire school to a pantomime every year.” [Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser]

Brian Azzarello (by Seth Kushner)

Creators | Christopher Irving profiles Wonder Woman and Spaceman writer Brian Azzarello. [NYC Graphic]

Creators | Werewolves of Montpellier creator Jason discusses his career and influences, including Tintin creator Herge: “I borrowed his albums at the library as a kid. I started drawing my own cartoons. And I think you can have a much worse teacher than Hergé. It’s not really the clear line that is the most important thing, even if that is part of what I like with him, it’s more the very clear storytelling that you find in his books. On page three you’re hooked. I think you can read his books in a foreign language, in Russian, and still understand the story and enjoy it. I don’t re-read the books that often, but I often take them out, my favourite albums like The Broken Ear and The Shooting Star, and just look at the drawings.” [The Casual Optimist]

Manga | Deb Aoki interviews the editors of Viz Media’s new yaoi manga line SuBLime, which will offer boys-love stories in both print and download-to-own digital form—with many digital offerings being available worldwide. [About.com]

Manga | Shaenon Garrity turns her sights on the classic, criminally overlooked series Basara: “Almost alone among long-running manga, Basara reads not like a serial, but like a single 28-volume graphic novel.” [Anime News Network]

Digital | Mashable profiles Graphicly founder Micah Baldwin, who also started the “Follow Friday (#FF)” meme on Twitter. [Mashable]

Kobo Vox

Digital | While it’s not getting as much attention as the Amazon Kindle Fire, the Kobo Vox color e-reader shows some good potential as a comics reader, and it comes pre-loaded with an Archie comic. [The Beat]

Review | Greg McElhatton reviews Jim Ottaviani and Leland Myrick’s graphic biography of physicist, raconteur, and “major horndog” Richard Feynman: “Reading Feynman did what few other books about scientists have done for me; it made me think, ‘I wish I’d met this guy.’” [Read About Comics]

Accessories | The New York Times takes its readers inside the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Company, where the trendy New York superhero can buy particle guns, thunder inducers, grappling hooks and, of course, capes. [The New York Times]

Events | Isotope Comics in San Francisco will host Lark Pien, Thien Pham, Alex Puvilland, Jordan Mechner and Mark Siegel this Saturday for a Halloween-themed party. [Isotope Comics]

Conferences | Peggy Burns recounts, with many photos, her trip to the University of Iowa for the Comics, Creativity, and Culture Conference. Guests included Jeet Heer, James Sturm, Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez, and a host of other comics luminaries. [Drawn and Quarterly]

Women of Wonder Day

Returning this year “with a new name and an expanded mission,” the event formerly known as Wonder Woman Day is now Women of Wonder Day. This year the event will expand to a third location on Oct. 30 as a part of its mission to raise money for domestic violence programs.

The three events will occur at the following shops, where you can bid on art, meet creators and more:

• Excalibur Books in Portland, Ore. with special guests Joelle Jones, Kelly Sue DeConnick and more.
• Comic Fusion in Flemington, N.J. with Jamal Igle, J.K. Woodward and more.
• Heroes and Fantasies in San Antonio, Texas with Benn Dunn and more.

In addition, there’s an online component, and you can bid on artwork and other items on eBay — including the chance to appear in a Brian Michael Bendis comic book.

You can find the complete press release after the jump.

*****

Women Of Wonder Day 2011
October 30, 2011
www.WomenOfWonderDay.com

Returning for a SIXTH year with a new name and an expanded mission!
Images of the World’s Most Iconic Heroines Will Help Benefit Domestic Violence Prevention-Intervention Agencies in Oregon, New Jersey, and Texas!

Portland, Oregon, October 14, 2010 — In October 2006-2010, five annual Wonder Woman Day events raised over $110,000 for Domestic Violence programs in Portland, Oregon and Flemington, NJ. The five-year combination of auctions of over 1,100 original art pieces, plus collectibles, autograph signings, and photo opportunities garnered spectacular turnouts and four Portland Mayoral Proclamations!

This year, the event will take on a new name and an expanded mission! On October 30, 2011, the new Women of Wonder Day — again as a part of National Domestic Violence Awareness Month — will take place, returning to Excalibur Books in Portland, Oregon, and Comic Fusion in Flemington, New Jersey, as well as at Heroes and Fantasies in San Antonio, Texas!

This year’s contributions for auction include not only artwork featuring heroines from the world of comics — Wonder Woman, She-Hulk, Storm, Michonne from Walking Dead, Leetah from ElfQuest — but also from the world of media as well, including Lisbeth Salander, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Hermione Granger, and others! Plus, TV series such as Glee, Nikita, Big Bang Theory, Castle, and others have donated special items as well! And the all-ages events will include artists and writers signing autographs at each event, as well as costumed characters with whom you can take photos! And in Portland, white-hot writer Brian Michael Bendis is auctioning off a role in one of his upcoming comics!

Some key points:
• The website for Women of Wonder Day is WomenOfWonderDay.com
• Over 250 pieces of original artwork and collectibles will be auctioned between the three Women of Wonder Day events. All art is posted to view at the event and at WomenOfWonderDay.com
• Portland’s Mayor, Sam Adams, has officially declared October 30th to be “Women of Wonder Day ” in the City of Roses.
• Previous Wonder Woman Day events have raised a grand total of more than $110,000 to benefit survivors of domestic violence and their children. 100% of all proceeds went to the charities.
• October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
• Producing the annual event for the sixth year is best-selling author and DVD documentary director Andy Mangels, who is also the curator of the online Wonder Woman Museum, and one of the world’s top experts on super-heroines.

Details about the three events follow:

Excalibur Comics, 2444 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland, Oregon
Sunday, October 30, 2011 – noon-6pm, FREE
An ALL AGES celebration and benefit for domestic violence prevention-intervention agencies! Proceeds of the event will benefit Bradley Angle, one of Portland’s leading domestic violence agencies. The free all-ages event will include local and national artists signing comics and special edition prints, as well as a silent auction of original art and collectibles. There will be costumed super-heroes, pirates, and science fiction characters on-site, raffles and prizes, and more.

Andy Mangels is chairing the Portland event, with Debbie Fagnant and Bradley Angle’s Rebecca Norman. “Women of Wonder Day is so special to our agency,” says Norman. “For the last six years, it’s not only been a key part of how we fund our domestic violence programs, but it’s also become a day that brings a different kind of energy and excitement into the work we do. Women of Wonder Day helps us reach out to an audience that might not know our services are available or might have wanted to get involved with charity work but never knew how. And the new format of the event just increases the potential to spread awareness–it means we’re going to be able to celebrate even more heroines, and involve even more fans!”

“In 2010 alone, more than 40 Oregonians lost their lives due to domestic violence, which brings the number of victims since the downturn of the economy to over 100. During Domestic Violence Awareness Month and on Women of Wonder Day, we remember that countless men, women, and children continue to live in unsafe situations and fighting for survival–and we celebrate everyone’s potential to be a hero. How can you be a hero? Tell a friend or family member who you believe might be experiencing domestic violence that they deserve to be safe and help them find resources like Bradley Angle; bid on one of the amazing pieces of original comic book art that we’re auctioning off on EBay and at Excalibur Comics during Women of Wonder Day; and bring your family to the event and talk to your kids about what healthy relationships look like. You can be a hero, too!”

Titled “Shannon Wheeler’s One-One-One-One: One-Man Show of One-Hundred-and-One One-Panel Comics, “this exhibit at Portland’s Center for the Performing Arts opens Thursday, and continues through Dec. 1.The life of a New Yorker cartoonist is arduous; for every accepted strip there are countless ones that end up rejected. The latter are often more intriguing than those that made the cut, for the joke inside as well as the imagined reasons why the editor passed on them.

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

Broadway | Reeve Carney, who plays Peter Parker and Spider-Man in Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, has extended his contract with the musical through May. Carney’s original contract was set to expire in November. “I can’t imagine a more wonderful, harder-working company than my mates on Broadway, and I look forward to being with them until shooting begins, and again as soon as we’ve wrapped,” he said. [Wall Street Journal]

Creators | The works of cartoonists Frode Överli, Lise Myhre, Christopher Nielsen and Jason are being featured on postage stamps in Norway, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the first comic book to be published in the country, The Katzenjammer Kids. [cats without dogs]

Creators | Firebreather creator and former Wonder Woman writer Phil Hester is profiled in conjunction with a visit to Limited Edition Comics and Collectibles in Cedar Falls, Iowa. [WCF Courier.com]

Creators | Jamaica Dyer discusses her webcomic Weird Fishes, her inspirations and her imaginary friends. [Innsmouth Free Press]

Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 9: Freefall #1

Creators | The Vampire Diaries writer Andrew Chambliss discusses his work on the new Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine comic, where he’s enjoying writing the character Spike: “So far, Spike lands at the top of my list of favorite characters to write. I think that’s for several reasons. One, he’s British and it’s just plain old fun to write with those cadences and syntax. Two, he’s a bad boy, which I am decidedly not, so it’s fun to step out of my persona and into his. And three, he and Buffy have been through so much together that there’s so much rich emotional history to draw from when I’m sitting down to write a Spike scene. I was a big fan of Buffy and Spike’s journey together in the later seasons of Buffy so it’s fun to be able to call back to some of those storylines.” [Hero Complex]

Creators | Robot 6 contributor Sean T. Collins interviews up-and-coming comics artist L. Nichols. [The Comics Journal]

Comics | io9 recounts how “Star Wars saved the comic book industry” back in the 1970s. [io9]

Manga | Kristy Valenti has eight reasons why you should read — or re-read — Moyoco Anno’s manga Flowers and Bees, a subversive take on the beauty industry featuring a teenage boy’s quest for bodily perfection. [comiXology]

My Faith in Frankie

Comics | Shaenon Garrity, who loves to rehabilitate forgotten comics, lists her five favorite Vertigo comics that you probably don’t even know exist. [comiXology]

Digital | Alex Zalben argues that same-day digital comics “must be released at 12:01 a.m. ET online.” Which would mean digital comics would come out in most of the United States on Tuesdays. [MTV Geek]

Design | Daniel BT describes panel and layout glitches that drive him crazy, such as a line that interrupts a panel and looks like a border — even though it’s not. [Sunday Comics Debt]

Exhibits | Michael Cavna looks at some of the artwork on display at the Library of Congress exhibit Timely and Timeless, which features artwork from comic strips, magazines, graphic novels and more. [Comic Riffs]

Robert Crumb

Creators | Robert Crumb pens a letter to The Sydney Morning Herald, explaining why he pulled out of the Graphic 2011 festival: “I was quite alarmed when I read the article in the Sunday Telegraph. I showed it to my wife, Aline, who said, ‘That’s it, you’re not going.’ She got a very bad feeling from the article. She feared I might be attacked physically by some angry, outraged person who simply saw red at the mention of child molesters. She remarked she’d never seen any article about me as nasty as this one.” Sunday Telegraph staff writer Claire Harvey, meanwhile, responds to Crumb’s comments and criticisms lobbed at the newspaper: “Crumb seems to be living in fear of the reaction he once sought to provoke. It seems a sad place for any artist to be.” [The Sydney Morning Herald]

Passings | Kim Thompson eulogizes Argentina cartoonist Francisco Solano López, who passed away on Friday. [The Comics Journal]

Conventions | Reporting from this weekend’s Wizard World Chicago, the Chicago Tribune talks to former comic shop owner Gary Colabuono, who displayed rare ashcan editions of comics from the 1930s and 1940s featuring Superman, Superwoman, Superboy and Supergirl at the show. Blogger Matthew J. Brady has pictures of the ashcans, as well as a report from the show. [Chicago Tribune]

Comics | The Portland Press Herald profiles Renae de Liz, who’s coordinating the Womanthology charity anthology. Dan Nadel, meanwhile, calls the project “the most expensive comics anthology I’ve ever heard of.” [Portland Press Herald]

Creators | Brian Truitt talks to Michael Coulthard, a.k.a. Shaky Kane, about the November re-release of his “graphic road movie,” Monster Truck, by Image Comics. [USA Today]

Watchmen

Comics | NPR revealed the results from their Top 100 Science-Fiction and Fantasy survey, which saw 60,000 people vote. Watchmen and Sandman made the list, coming in at No. 15 and No. 29 respectively, while several of Neil Gaiman’s prose books also made the list. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien topped the list. [NPR]

Comics | John Parker looks back at Peter David’s long run on The Incredible Hulk. [ComicsAlliance]

Creators | Paul Gravett posts an appreciation of Marjane Satrapi, whose first book, Persepolis, was inspired in part by Art Spiegelman’s Maus: “I realised that comics is not a genre, it is just a way of telling a story where I could feel exactly what was going on. Drawing is much closer to a human being than a photo, because you create the world in your own image, it’s very personal, it’s an international language. Before humans started talking, first they started drawing.”. [Paul Gravett]

Manga | Manga bloggers are celebrating Fumi Yoshinaga in this month’s Manga Moveable Feast, a sort of bloggers’ round robin, and David Welsh kicks things off with a review of a yaoi manga that avoids most of the pitfalls of the genre, Yoshnaga’s Ichigenme: The First Course Is Civil Law. [The Manga Curmudgeon]

Publishing | Bikya Masr profiles Marwan Imam and Division Publishing, “the Middle East’s first true comic book publisher.” [Bikya Masr]

Reviews | J.L. Bell reviews Supermen!: The First Wave of Comic Book Heroes, 1936-1941, which takes a look at the dead branches on the evolutionary tree of comics, superheroes who for one reason or another didn’t make it. [Oz and Ends]

Analysis | Daniel BT looks at cases where artists have reused the same scene in different panels, not cut-and-pasted but completely redrawn. [Sunday Comics Debt]

Events | Montpelier, Vermont’s City Hall will host a 24-Hour Comics Day event Oct. 1. [Times Argus]

Conventions | Perhaps as a result of the March earthquake, attendance at this year’s summer Comic Market (Comiket) was down by 20,000 compared to last year. [Anime News Network]

Fandom | “Whoever knows fear burns at the touch of …  hey, get off my lawn!” [Eye on Comics]

Justice League

Publishers | DC Comics have released details on the midnight release of Flashpoint #5 and Justice League #1 on Aug. 31. The publisher is offering a free over-ship of Flashpoint #5 for retailers who order 125 percent of their order for Flashpoint #1, and the publisher has noted that that these are the only two DC titles shipping that week that can be sold at midnight. The promotion is only available to U.S. and Canadian accounts; due to the Aug. 29 bank holiday, the midnight sale option will not be available to UK retailers. [ICv2]

Legal | Michael Dean looks at the recent ruling by New York federal judge Colleen McMahon that the family of Jack Kirby has no claim to the copyrights of the characters he co-created for Marvel. Dean notes, “Some legal observers were expecting Marvel to be the second major comics-publisher domino to fall when Toberoff filed on behalf of the Kirbys, but there is a key difference between Kirby’s comics work and Siegel’s: It was well established that Superman already existed as a full-blown character concept before Siegel and Joe Shuster pitched him to DC, whereas Kirby, who died in 1994, did most if not all of his Marvel work on assignment from the publisher. In the case of work for hire, the Copyright Act defines the instigating employer/publisher as the Author of the work.” [The Comics Journal]

Howard the Duck

Creators | Former Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter recounts his first meeting with writer Steve Gerber, which involved a “low key” argument about mature content in mainstream comics. In a second post, he talks about working with Gerber later as his editor. [Jim Shooter, Part 1, Part 2]

Creators | In a video interview with Wired, Grant Morrison says publishers need to “let the artists go crazy, let the writers go crazy” and get back to big ideas in order to address declining print sales. [Underwire]

Webcomics | The entrepreneurial side of webcomics is the focus of this Boston Globe story featuring five Massachusetts artists who are making it on their own, without newspaper syndication. [The Boston Globe]

Creators | Khursten Santos takes a long, fond look at manga creator Iou Kuroda. Only one of Kuroda’s works, Sexy Voice and Robo, has been translated into English and that’s out of print. As you will see from this article, that’s a shame. [Otaku Champloo]

Conventions | Michael Bonesteel previews the upcoming Wizard World Chicago show that runs Aug. 11-14, stating that comics are “still holding their own amid the hoopla and Hollywoodization of the event.” He talks to two comic artists who will attend, Don Kramer and Ivan Brunetti. [Chicago Sun-Times]

Conventions | Erin Finnegan posts the audio of her Unusual Manga Genres podcast from Otakon; she has a slide show to go with it, too. [Ninja Consultant Podcast]

Conventions | Physics Today reporter Charles Day shares what he found when he attended the San Diego Comic-Con with the intent to “hunt for physics in and around the conference hall.” [Physics Today]

Appreciation | Ben Morse sings the praises of 1602: Fantastick Four, a comic he dubs “underrated.” [The Cool Kids' Table]

Reviews | Robert Colvile looks at Grant Morrison’s new book Supergods. [Telegraph]

Reviews | Aaron Zenz and his 11-year-old daughter Gracie review Fantagraphics’ The Complete Peanuts collections. “My goal is to read all of the Peanuts comics ever made. That’s my dream,” Gracie said. [Bookie Woogie, via 4thletter!]

Craft | Fluffy creator Simone Lia explains how to draw bunnies. [The Guardian]

Isotope Comics in San Francisco will welcome Supergods and Action Comics writer Grant Morrison to their shop on Saturday, not only for a signing during the day, but also for one of their famous evening happy hours.

Both events will require advance tickets, which include a copy of his new book Supergods. The evening event also includes a Grant Morrison Supergods Commemorative Lowball with artwork by Cameron Stewart and Sonia Harris from Comics Should Be Good.

You can find all the details on Isotope’s site, and check out the lowball artwork after the jump.

*****

The Infinite

To help Beach Ball Comics celebrate their 25th anniversary, the shop will host The Infinite creators Robert Kirkman and Rob Liefeld on Wednesday. The duo will sign copies of the first issue with an exclusive cover created specifically for the Anaheim, Calif. retailer.

This is one of five covers that together form the image up top; Beach Ball’s special cover features the character in the middle, Bowen. Three additional retailers will each have one of the other covers, while the last one will be available on the Skybound website.

You can find more details on the event and the covers in the press release after the jump.

*****

IMAGE LEGENDS ROB LIEFELD AND ROBERT KIRKMAN SIGNING AN EXCLUSIVE COVER AT AN EXCLUSIVE EVENT EXCLUSIVELY

Anaheim, CA: Two comic book legends are teaming up for the first time in this summer’s The Infinite published by Kirkman’s new Image Comics imprint Skybound, and Anaheim, California legend Beach Ball Comics has brought them together to celebrate! Kicking off their 25th Anniversary festivities, Beach Ball has a very special exclusive cover making its debut at this event on Wednesday August 3rd.

“We’re always looking for ways to bring the excitement of comics to our fans. So, when this historic creator coupling was announced, we knew we had to do something to have them both at Beach Ball,” says Beach Ball Comics and CornerStoreComics proprietor Thomas Gaul. “We can’t wait to take our exclusive cover out of the box on Wednesday and see the fan reaction, to both the book and the legendary creators behind it.”

Among the covers released to comics shops on Wednesday, the Beach Ball Comics Variant stands out from the crowd. It features main character Bowen, and serves as the centerpiece of a five-cover spread by series artist Liefeld. The remaining four covers will be available from three of the top comics sellers in the country, with the final piece available from the Skybound website.

Beach Ball Comics can be found at 3024 West Ball Road (at the corner of Beach Blvd) in Anaheim, California. The line for this exclusive signing begins when the store opens at 11am. Rob and Robert are scheduled to begin signing sharply at 4pm. Supplies of this cover are limited, so fans are encouraged to get there early.

Beach Ball Comics was founded in the summer of 1986, making it the oldest surviving comic shop in Orange County. The current owners took over in late 2008 and set about reinvigorating both the shop and the comics business in Anaheim, garnering “Best of” awards from the OC Weekly and MyFoxLA within the first two years, as well as an Eisner Spirit of Retailing Award nomination.

Firebreather artist Andy Kuhn sent over a peek at “RAWK!,” his new $25 limited edition print that’ll be available exclusively at the Tr!ckster store. If you’re attending Comic-Con in San Diego next week, be sure to drop by Tr!ckster, the free event that will take place at the San Diego Wine and Culinary Center, to check out everything they have for sale, have a drink (with a cool glass!) and hang out with artists.

BOOM! Drink Up

BOOM! sent out an invitation today to their annual San Diego “drink up” event on Thursday, July 21, which they bill as “the only party at Comic-Con where everybody is invited.” The event starts at 9 p.m. at the Hilton Bayfront Odysea Bar on Park Blvd.

“Come help celebrate another year of BOOM!’s explosive growth with Ross Richie, Matt Gagnon, Chip Mosher, Wes Harris, Lance Kreiter, along with the rest of the BOOM! Crew and various BOOM! creators in attendance. Help us celebrate with a night of relaxed fun. Mix and mingle with fans and pros! This is an open invitation event. No RSVP needed. No tickets required. No lines to get in!”

Immonen has become an artist’s artist in recent years, providing aesthetically pleasing art that fits within the mainstream super-hero comics mold without sacrificing artistic flourishes and pure draftsman-like skill. From Legion of Super-Heroes to Superman to Nextwave, New Avengers and now Fear Itself he’s seen, and done it all… twice, probably.

Immonen will be on-hand tonight for an opening event from 7-9 p.m. Chicago time. They’ll also have an exclusive 11″ x 17 ” limited edition print that would look great at Robot 6 HQ (just sayin’).

If there’s a new definition for “epic,” true believers, it’s gotta be “Marvel Monstergeddon.” Marvel has teamed up with Feld Motor Sports for Marvel Monstergeddon: Super Hero Smash Up, a stadium show at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego featuring monster trucks customized to look like Marvel characters (and apparently the X-Men riding motorcycles). The event kicks off July 14.

According to Marvel.com, the show will include “a suspenseful storyline, amazing motorsports stunts and the loudest, most destructive monster truck battles between heroes and villains with the fate of the entire world at stake!” You can see some of the concept art, including sketches of trucks featuring Daredevil, Silver Surfer and Magneto, on their Facebook page. Attendees to this year’s San Diego Comic-Con can stop by Culy Warehouse at 335 6th Avenue on Wednesday, July 20 through Sunday, July 24 for a five-day preview of what’s to come in 2012, including an unveiling of “one of the most exciting 10,000 pound Marvel heroes created for Marvel Monstergeddon!”

After the jump you’ll find a video featuring Stan Lee promoting the event, and if you buy your tickets from Ticketmaster, you can get a copy of Captain America #1 with a variant cover signed by Stan Lee.

Last month Scott Morse, Ted Mathot and many others announced Tr!ckster, a creator-focused event that will take place July 21-24 in San Diego. The event will feature an art gallery, retail space for participating creators and a series of symposia — “rigorous workshop events for focused creative individuals to add new ways of thinking to your work ethic.”

Creators like Skottie Young, Steve Niles, Mike Mignola, Jill Thompson, Mike Allred and many more will take about such topics as character design and development, art technique, visual storytelling and the creative process. They’ll run two a day July 21-24. While admission to Tr!ckster is free, you’ll need tickets to get into the symposia, which go on sale Monday. And since the event is at a wine bar, wine will be served during the sessions.

You can find a list of all the symposia after the jump, and come Monday you’ll be able to buy tickets on their website.

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SYMPOSIUM 1:
Thursday, 7/21/11, 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM
SKOTTIESCOTT: LIVE
Featuring storytellers SKOTTIE YOUNG and SCOTT MORSE
Character design and development is paramount to keeping readers involved in a visual story. Join Eisner Award winners SKOTTIE YOUNG and SCOTT MORSE, creators of the run-away hit daily blog SkottieScott.com as they tackle, dissect, analyze, and own a new way of thinking about shape, line, texture, and gesture. Every picture SHOULD tell a story, and many drawings and paintings will be created on the spot in a dynamic, intimate, involved environment with active audience participation.

PERFECT FOR: artists and aspiring artists in all fields; anyone looking to explore new media and technique/method; writers curious as to how character design can help generate story

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SYMPOSIUM 2:
Thursday, 7/21/11, 3:30PM to 5:30 PM
THE JUMP FROM PAGE TO SCREEN
Featuring creators MIKE MIGNOLA, DOUG TENNAPEL, CHRIS RYALL, and more TBA
Comics and film are separate mediums and we at TR!CKSTER openly accept and celebrate them as such. We create our comics with the intent to tell incredible, unique stories in a visual medium we enjoy. Often times, of course, these properties can grow into a new kind of life on screen, but is the integrity of the creator or the intent of the original story sacrificed for the cinematic experience? Join a unique, honest, no-holds-barred discussion of the realities of selling your work to the film community, how “development” works for creators of comics, and how to protect and promote your work, and yourself, as your intellectual property crosses media.

PERFECT FOR: writers and storytellers considering the migration of their work to other media

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SYMPOSIUM 3:
Friday, 7/22/11, 1:00PM to 3:00 PM
INVISIBLE INK: THE UNDERSTRUCTURE OF STORY with BRIAN McDONALD
Learn the secrets of Dickens, Steinbeck and Billy Wilder in this popular class taught by award-winning writer/director/producer Brian McDonald. This workshop is to the storyteller what an anatomy class is to the illustrator. You will learn how to construct a story from the ground up by examining classic films and stories. Like a mechanic listening for the knocks in an engine, you will learn how to look for clues that tell you where your own stories are misfiring. In addition, you will learn how to listen to and interpret the critique you get regarding your stories. Most people critique subjectively, not objectively, and you will learn to know the difference. You will begin to see stories in a way that most people are unfamiliar with and you will become a better storyteller because of it.

Topics covered include: The concept of ‘invisible ink’; What is story structure?; The seven steps to a better story; What is three-act structure?; The importance of the ‘set-up’; How to spot the armature or central idea of a story.

PERFECT FOR: writers and storytellers of all types, in film, prose, comics, and beyond, looking to hone their writing skills through intense discussion and analysis with a top working storyteller.
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“Writing stories is hard. They are stubborn by nature. No matter how many times you master one, the next story is obligated to conceal its faults with an entirely new disguise. Your only recourse is to keep writing, while concurrently increasing your understanding of this deceivingly simple, yet highly complex, organism we call story. Brian McDonald’s insightful book does just that. Somehow, Brian has found yet another fresh and objective way to analyze how great stories function, and emboldens you to face the challenge of scaling whatever story mountain looms before you. If I manage to reach the summit of my next story it will be in no small part due to having read ‘Invisible Ink’.”
– Andrew Stanton (co-writerToy Story 1 & 2, A Bug’s Life, Monster’s Inc.,and Finding Nemo)

“Invisible Ink is a powerful tool for anyone who wants to become a better screenwriter. With elegance and precision, Brian McDonald uses his deep understanding of story and character to pass on essential truths about dramatic writing. Ignore him at your peril.”
-Jim Taylor (Academy Award-winning screenwriter of Sideways and Election)

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SYMPOSIUM 4:
Friday, 7/22/11, 3:30PM to 5:30 PM
THE ART WORKSHOP
Featuring artists JILL THOMPSON, JIM MAHFOOD, and more TBA
Whether you work in single panel illustration, poster design, web design, or sequential storytelling, you more than likely juggle the concept of developing a “style” versus creating immortal visual art that communicates readily with an audience. Technique, theory, method, and madness will all be on display in an intimate workshop environment. Explore paint application and aesthetic, discuss ink and inking implements, and watch as original art is produced on the spot in a variety of styles and media.

PERFECT FOR: artists and aspiring artists in all fields; anyone looking to explore new media and technique/method

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SYMPOSIUM 5:
Saturday, 7/23/11, 1:00PM to 3:00 PM
BUILDING A CREATOR-OWNED CREATIVE TEAM
Featuring storytellers MIKE ALLRED, LARRY MARDER, GREG RUCKA, JAMIE S. RICH, and more TBA
Writing a story is hard enough, but finding the visual pairing to help express the story to its fullest can be pivotal in crafting your work. The right combination of exposition and dialogue with the perfect set of sequential images make for excellent, memorable storytelling in comics and children’s books. Join in with acclaimed writers and the artists they’ve worked with as they explore how the creative team, and the creative process, come to fruition.

PERFECT FOR: writers and artists hoping to make comics as a team.

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SYMPOSIUM 6:
Saturday, 7/23/11, 3:30PM to 5:30 PM
VISUAL STORYTELLING IN COMICS AND FILM
Featuring film and comics storytellers TED MATHOT, DEREK THOMPSON, JAMES BAKER, and more TBA
The comics and film mediums share much in common but are drastically different animals. Are comics ready-made storyboards? Do the dynamic visual languages of each share the same vocabulary? Join an intimate, creator-driven discussion workshop where both visual mediums are explored and dissected by an array of today’s top visual storytellers in the art of comics and story boarding.

PERFECT FOR: writers and storytellers working in comics hoping to also work in film, and vice-versa.

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SYMPOSIUM 7:
Sunday, 7/24/11, 1:00PM to 3:00 PM
WORLD-BUILDING and the IMMACULATE REALITY
Featuring film and comics storytellers TED MATHOT, DEREK THOMPSON, and more TBA
Fiction is a limitless landscape, ripe for painting with the varied colors of the imagination. Fiction is the realm of the impossible made possible. To do this effectively, writers, artists and storytellers present themselves with questions requiring unique answers. Not only must they know the lives and environments and politics of their central players, they must know what lurks behind the curtain, what lies beyond the horizon, and what awaits just off-screen. Even the most fantastical and surreal worlds must still be grounded in a reality that the audience can start from, can find footing on, and can then move from the familiar safety of…into the new worlds of story. This workshop will also dive into creating the worlds of character interaction: how player dynamics must be constructed effectively. In this, we’ll analyze the roles of archetypes including the “trickster” and how they effect the stories of their worlds.

PERFECT FOR: writers and storytellers of all types, in film, prose, comics, and beyond, looking to hone their writing skills through intense discussion and analysis with top working storytellers.

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SYMPOSIUM 8:
Sunday, 7/24/11, 3:30PM to 5:30 PM
BUILDING A SHORT STORY: CRIME AND TERROR: LIVE
Featuring STEVE NILES and SCOTT MORSE
The daunting task of creating a short story can boggle the mind of any creator. Finding a productive, inspired rhythm in a creative team is paramount to the economy and productivity of a comics project. Creators are inherently self-starters, but where and how you begin your creative process has plagued even the greatest minds. Where do you begin with an idea? At what point do you put it to paper? How do you begin to design the visual aesthetics of a story? What inspires not only the idea, but the urge to create? Join award-winning storytellers STEVE NILES and SCOTT MORSE as they create, from scratch and before an intimate, live audience, an original short story from start to finish, ready to deliver to a printer. Key shortcuts and secrets of page design, plot development, character, staging, dialogue, lettering, and more will be featured in real time as a 6 to 8 page story is executed for their new hardcover series CRIME AND TERROR.

PERFECT FOR: writers and storytellers producing comics, and those hoping to.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by Andrew Degraff

Even superheroes have to do their laundry, and no one understands the power of Febreze quite like the sewer-dwelling Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Artist Andrew Degraff created the piece for “Shell-Shock – A TMNT Art Show and Tribute,” which opens today at Brave New Worlds in Philadelphia.