DC's Paul Levitz and Guinness’ Craig Glenday

Longest Running Sitcom and Longest Running Animated TV Series - With over 443 episodes, The Simpsons is the longest running sitcom (by episode count) and longest running animated series. During its 20th season (2008-09), The Simpsons finally overtook the 435 episodes of former record holder The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952-66).

Best-selling Comic (single edition) - Spider-Man No.1, first published in August 1990, is the Best-selling Comic (single edition). With an initial print run of 2.35 million, the record-breaking edition was sold with a variety of differently colored covers and several reprints were ordered to keep up with high public demand.

Longest Continuosly Published Comic Book - The longest running comic book is Detective Comics, which has been printed continuously by DC Comics in the USA since Issue #1 in March 1937. The comic introduced the character of Batman in Issue #27 in May 1939.

Most Successful Sci-fi TV Show - Doctor Who, the longest running sci-fi television show, is now the Most Successful Sci-fi Show on Television. Based on the length of the show's run and international sales data, the series about the adventures of the iconic Time Lord was presented with the new record at Comic-Con 2009 International.

Most Digital Effects in a TV Series - Farscape employed about 25 computer artists to create between 40 and 50 effects shot per episode. The effects team had just seven days to work on each episode, at a rate of 22 episodes per year.

Largest Gathering of Zombies - The record largest gathering of zombies was achieved by 3,894 participants in the 'Red White and Dead Zombie Party' in association with Night Zero on July 3, 2009 in Seattle, Washington. Ryan Reiter, Artistic Director for Freemont Outdoor Cinema Events.

Picture via The Source

Check out their full schedule after the jump.

COMIC-CON '09 BOOM! STUDIOS EXCLUSIVES:

* KILL AUDIO PREVIEW BOOK - $5
* KILL AUDIO VINYL TOY "Monotone Variant" $40
* FARSCAPE Vol. 1 Limited Edition HC "Scorpius Edition" - $50
* THE MUPPET SHOW COMIC BOOK HC, Limited to 250 - $50
* THE INCREDIBLES: FAMILY MATTERS HC, Limited to 250 - $50
* CARS: THE ROOKIE HC, Limited to 250 - $50
* THE INCREDIBLES: FAMILY MATTERS #1 C,D Holofoils - $20
* IRREDEEMABLE #4 Cassaday Sketch Variant - $10

Kill Audio preview book

SCHEDULED SIGNINGS AND PANELS:

Wednesday, July 22 - Preview Night
6:00 - 9:00 - Roger Langridge, Keith R.A. DeCandido and Michael Alan Nelson signing all day
6:00 - 7:00 - Exclusive Disney Pixar Hardcover signing w/ Langridge, Waid, Porter
7:00 - 8:00 - Mark Waid Signing

Thursday, July 23
9:30 - 7:00 - Roger Langridge, Keith R.A. DeCandido and Michael Alan Nelson signing all day
11:00 - 12:00 - Exclusive Disney Pixar Hardcover signing w/ Langridge, Waid, Porter
12:00 - 1:00 - Mark Waid Signing
12:30 - 1:30 - Indie Comics Marketing 101 Panel with Chip Mosher ROOM 4
1:30 - 2:30 - Spotlight on Jerry Robinson Moderated by Waid ROOM 4
3:30 - 4:30 - Digital Comics Now! Panel with Chip Mosher ROOM 4
4:00-5:00 - Spotlight on Gail Simone Moderated by Waid ROOM 5B
6:00 - 7:00 - Mark Waid Signing
9:00 - ?:?? - BOOM! Drink Up hosted by Mark Waid at the Manchester Hyatt Grand Lobby Bar

Friday, July 24
9:30 - 7:00 – Roger Langridge, Keith R.A. DeCandido and Michael Alan Nelson signing all day
10:15 - 11:15 - Farscape 10th Anniversary Panel ROOM 6BCF
11:00 - 12:00 - Exclusive Disney Pixar Hardcover signing w/ Langridge, Waid, Porter
1:00 - 2:00 - BOOM! Studios Panel ROOM 32AB
2:00 - 3:00 - Mark Waid Signing
2:00 - 3:00 - Farscape’s Rockne S. O’Bannon Signing
3:00 - 4:00 - Eureka’s Andrew Cosby and Ed Quinn Signing
4:00 - 5:00 - Claudio Sanchez Signing
5:00 - 6:00 - Mark Waid Signing

Saturday, July 25
9:30 - 7:00 - Roger Langridge, Keith R.A. DeCandido and Michael Alan Nelson signing all day
10:00 - 11:00 - Exclusive Disney Pixar Hardcover signing w/ Langridge, Waid, Porter
11:30 - 12:30 - Spotlight on Sheldon Moldoff Moderated by Waid ROOM 10
1:00 - 2:00 - Mark Waid Signing
2:30 - 3:30 - BOOM! Farscape Comics Panel ROOM 10
3:45 - 4:45 - Farscape’s Rockne S. O’Bannon Signing
4:00 - 5:00 - Claudio Sanchez Signing
5:00 - 6:00 - Mark Waid Signing

Sunday, July 26
9:30 - 5:00 - Roger Langridge, Keith R.A. DeCandido and Michael Alan Nelson signing all day
10:00-11:00 - BOOM! The Muppet Show Panel w/ Roger Langridge ROOM 32AB
11:30 - 12:30 - Exclusive Disney Pixar Hardcover signing w/ Langridge, Waid, Porter
2:00 - 3:00 - Mark Waid Signing
2:00 - 3:00 - Art of Pixar's Cars w/ Alan Porter ROOM 5AB

Comic-Con

The programming schedules for Saturday and Sunday have been released.

What was once the most insane day at the con is now the most pleasant one to spend on the dealer room floor, for the most part ... with every single day being a sellout, the crowds never let up, but last year there were so many huge media panels on Saturday that you could actually walk across the movie section of the dealer room floor and get a decent look around. So bring on those pilot premieres and Q&A's, Hall H ....

Here are some of the Saturday highlights:

• Comic-wise, you've got publisher panels for Wildstorm, SLG Publishing, Dark Horse, IDW's Angel panel, Marvel's Dark Reign event, BOOM!'s Farscape books, Aspen, Del Rey Manga and Del Rey Comics, Archaia, American Original and DC's Blackest Night event, among others. Gerard Way will be announcing his next project, while Terry Moore will talk about Echo.
• Marvel and DC also have panels for their big upcoming video game releases, Marvel Ultimate Alliances 2 and the DCU MMORG.
• There are lots of TV panels on Saturday, for old con stalwarts like Lost, Heroes, Chuck, Spongebob SquarePants, The Simpsons, Family Guy, Ben 10, Venture Bros. and Futurama as well as new shows like Eastwick, The Cleveland Show, Glee, Warehouse 13, Human Target, The Vampire Diaries, V and Marvel's The Super Hero Squad Show.
• Movie wise, look for panels on Iron Man 2, Zombieland (which has a great trailer here), 2012, Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day and Emo Boy.
• Saturday's spotlight panels, which get up close and personal with the con's special guests, include Ray Bradbury, Lewis Trondheim, Hope Larson, Francis Manapul, Gary Gianni, James Jean, Dennis Kitchen, Doug Moench, J. Michael Straczynski and Seth.
• Saturday night brings The San Diego Comic-Con International Masquerade, which should be on every comic fan's bucket list. There's also a screening and panel of the Watchmen movie director's cut.

Sunday, meanwhile, is Kid's Day, and after my quick glance through the programming, it's probably the most kid-friendly day at the con since I've been attending. Let's have a look:

• As I said, Sunday is loaded with kid stuff, including numerous comics and graphic novel panels, the Spectacular Spider-Man animated series panel, a couple of Nickelodeon panels and a Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins DVD panel.
• On the comics front, Dan DiDio will host his usual and always delightful Sunday Conversations panel. There's also the annual Jack Kirby tribute panel, a CMX panel, a Making Webcomics panel, a Women of Marvel panel and a Q&A with Bryan Talbot.
• Television wise, there are panels for Supernatural, Ghost Whisperer, American Dad and Smallville.
• It looks like there are only three spotlight panels on Sunday: Bill Willingham, Stan Sakai and David Petersen.

In case you missed them, you can check out my rundowns of Thursday and Friday.

Exclusives | Artist Daniel m. Davis, who does a webcomic called Monster Commute, will have an exclusive print at the show.

"Limited to an edition of 150 pieces, this print depicts the heroes and villains of this steampunk comic," Davis said over email. "Available only at the Steam Crow booth #4207, it measures 12 x 18 inches, and is printed on satin matte paper. A similar exclusive print sold out in about an hour at the 2009 Emerald City Comicon."

Signed and numbered by the artist, the print will sell for $20.

Movies | A documentary called Dig Comics will make its debut at the con as part of their international film fest. It'll be shown on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. in room 26AB.

Associate producer Corey Blake dropped us a note about the film, which will be expanded into a longer version:

Based on its strength, Edward James Olmos’ company Olmos Productions has agreed to produce a long-form full-length Dig Comics. Olmos believes that as a medium, comic books not only increase literacy but also serves as an inspirational learning tool for both students and teachers. Dig Comics would be an instrumental project in getting the word out.

An Adama endorsement is pretty high praise indeed. Check out the trailer on YouTube.

Television | It's the 10th anniversary of the TV show Farscape, and they've got some plans for San Diego that include a panel that will feature creator Rockne O'Bannon, stars Ben Browder and Claudia Black, and producer Brian Henson. They'll be there to promote the Farscape complete series megaset that comes out in November.

Exclusives | Mimobot, which creates designer USB flash drives featuring characters from the Star Wars films (among others), will have an exclusive Luke Skywalker-as-Vader drive -- "revealing Luke as he imagined himself in the famous Dagobah scene of Empire Strikes Back."

Animation | The animated Green Lantern: First Flight movie, which arrives on DVD July 28, will have its debut at the con on Thursday at 8 p.m. in ballroom 20. It'll be followed by a panel on Friday, whose attendees will be announced next week.

Animation | I keep forgetting to link to this one ... The Venture Bros. crew will again have a panel at Comic-Con.

Farscape

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the cult hit Farscape, and while the TV show may be over, the comic continues. In fact, BOOM! Studios announced today that the first issue of their first Farscape mini-series has gone into a third printing.

"We were blown away by the reaction to the first printing of FARSCAPE #1," said Editor-in-Chief Mark Waid in a press release. "So when we went to a second print, we were pretty darn happy. We cannot believe that we have sold completely out of all of that now!"

The third printing is due in stores April 8. In addition, in celebration of the anniversary, the Henson Company is selling a limited edition T-shirt. It's only available today, so be sure to order it before midnight if you want one.

Update #1: The Henson Company has extended T-shirt sales through Sunday.

Update #2: BOOM! sent out another press release today announcing a third printing of issue #2 of Farscape.

From now until the show kicks off, I'll be posting round-ups of what various publishers, creators, retailers, etc. have planned for the show. If you'd like your booth schedule, special event or other information included, drop me an email.

General information: Programming | Registration | Special guests | Autographs

Wonder Woman

• The Wonder Woman animated DVD, which comes out March 3, will receive "a West Coast big screen premiere" at the show, per a press release from Time Warner.

The 6 p.m. screening will be followed by a panel discussion featuring filmmakers and voice cast, including Bruce Timm and Academy Award nominee Virginia Madsen. Filmmakers will also screen the world premiere of the first footage of Green Lantern: First Flight, the next DC Universe animated DVD.

• BOOM! Studios will sell another limited holofoil edition of Farscape #1 at the show, this one featuring Aeryn Sun on the cover. The book is limited to 500 copies and looks like this:

• Per the official autograph page on the WonderCon site, Star Wars alums Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher will be on hand signing autographs at the show.

General information: Ticket info | Panels | Autographs | 2009 ICv2 Graphic Novel Conference | Blog

• The NYCC blog Medium at Large has more details on the Joss Whedon/Dollhouse preview panel, set for Sunday at 12:45 p.m. ET, which is currently being advertised on the CBR home page. They've also announced they'll be showing the next Futurama movie, Into the Wild Green Yonder.

• Love and Capes creator Thom Zahler is bringing Valentines to the show:

Love and Capes

I will be at NYCC next weekend with tons of Love and Capes stuff. I'll have new Valentines featuring Mark and Abby. Kind of like Ralph Wiggum's "I Choo-Choo-Choose You" one. I'll be selling the complete run of LNC, the trade, sketchbooks, t-shirts and pins. And I'll be doing commissions all weekend, too! If you come by the booth, too, you may see a glimpse of the new promotion I'll be doing for Mark and Abby's upcoming wedding.

If people aren't going to be able to attend, they can still go to my site and print out the LNC Valentine and give it to their Special Someone. While there, they can enter the Love and Capes Valentine's Day contest. You can win some books, a set of matching t-shirts, and even some chocolate. That contest ends February 2nd, so time is running out. (But that way you'll get the goodies before Valentine's Day.)

For more info, visit www.loveandcapes.com or http://www.loveandcapes.com/love-and-capes-valentine.html for the contest info.

• And Atomic Robo co-creator Scott Wegener will be at the ComicArtHouse.com table:

I will be setting up camp with ComicArtHouse.com at table 2402. I will be there all three days from 1-4pm.

Unfortunately (for me) NYCC is about a month too early this year. My new Image book (Killer of Demons) and the Robo Vol.2 TPB won't be out until March. But I will have tons of prints, sketchbooks, comics, and original art (priced to move) with me. And of course, I will be doing sketches and signing stuff. Everything but original sketches will be available all day long because the good folks at ComicArtHouse are peddling my ware for me this year, and manning the booth from open-to-closing.

Kozmo and reRun

• Artist Dustin Nguyen is offering free head sketches to anyone who buys his Kozmo and reRun print from the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund booth in New York:

Pick one up there ( i THINK they'll run about 20 bucks, i coudl be wrong, i'll update when i find out), bring it to my artist alley booth and get your free head sketch from me. you know, dustin.

your money goes to a good cause (CBLDF instead of to me, which i woudl use for liquor later on in the night) and you get a free drawing, come on- cant be bad right?

Via Super Punch

• Terry Moore details his plans on his blog:

FYI: The next big thing is the New York Comic Con in two weeks, Feb 6-8. I will be there, next to the ginormous booth of Graphitti Designs. I will be signing, I will be sketching, and I will bring my best original art for all the traveling european fans who come to New York because it is the most convenient U.S. show. I think I’m doing only one panel, but it is unique. I have agreed to conduct a teaching seminar sponsored by the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund on how to draw expressions and body language. I plan to spill all my trade secrets in exchange for hot racing tips and Dr Peppers. I don’t know the day or time yet and I don’t see it posted anywhere. I’ll post more as it develops.

• And finally, it's like the 1990s all over again ... BOOM! will have a holofoil cover version of Farscape #1 at the show:

Farscape #1 Holofoil Cover

My thanks to Betty for taking the time to write up her thoughts ... and, again, for recommending the television show in the first place.

*****

by Betty Ragan

Farscape #1

Fans of Farscape have been waiting since 2004's Peacekeeper Wars miniseries for an official continuation of the series in any medium, and many ended up having to wait even longer than expected after bad weather kept many U.S. comic stores from receiving the first issue of BOOM! Studios' new Farscape comic on time. But now the wait is over, the comic is here, and I am pleased to report that, for this Scaper, at least, the result does not disappoint!

Visually, it's attractive in a way that captures the design and feel of the show pretty well; the shipboard "sets," in particular, were familiar enough to make me feel instantly nostalgic. I will say that to my admittedly un-artistic eye some of the characters match the look of their TV counterparts better than others, but all of them were obviously rendered by someone paying genuine attention to the source material.

The same is also most certainly true of the characters. The dialog is so absolutely spot-on that I could effortlessly "hear" everyone's voices in my mind, and more than once I found myself thinking "Oh, that is so them!" about one person or another. And precisely because the characters all feel so right, the comic manages to capture the show's unique sensibilities perfectly, especially its wacky, pop-culture-savvy, largely character-based sense of humor. I was actually glad to be reading this in private, because I laughed out loud several times in the course of the story.

The overall effect is very much that of watching a new episode after a long, Scape-less drought, not least because it is very firmly placed in the show's continuity, taking up essentially where the miniseries left off. It also works in a fun reference or two to earlier episodes, in ways that should not, I think, be confusing for more casual fans. In fact, there's enough back story provided here that I suspect the story should be reasonably accessible even to those who've never watched the show, although that exposition is presented in ways that, as a huge fan, myself, I found pleasing rather than dull.

Really, the only way in which it's not satisfyingly like watching a new episode of Farscape is that it is in fact much more like watching the beginning of an episode. As soon as the story really gets going, unsurprisingly, the installment is over. But, oh, well. We Scapers have become very, very good at waiting for the "to be continued."

Chip Mosher at Disneyland

Yesterday Mark Waid, editor-in-chief of BOOM! Studios, announced via a YouTube video that BOOM! would post full issues of their Hexed mini-series on MySpace the same day the book was released in stores, just like they did with the North Wind mini-series a year ago. As I was already talking to Chip Mosher, their sales and marketing guy, about several other things going on with BOOM! when the video was released, I was able to sneak in a few questions about the promotion as well.

My thanks to Chip for his time.

JK: Last year BOOM! put the complete North Wind mini-series up on MySpace Comic Books, with each issue going up on the day it hit retailers' shelves. And now you're doing it again with HEXED. Why did you choose HEXED, versus any of your other titles?

Chip: Right time. Right place. Right book.

Personally, I see Hexed as one of the books that is kicking off BOOM! 3.0. I consider Mark coming on board as E-i-C as BOOM! 2.0 -- where he spearheaded the stabilizing of the line-up and built up editorial. I look at this next year as BOOM! 3.0 -- where the promise of Mark Waid as E-i-C is realized in full. The team here at BOOM! is running on all cylinders. You'll see a whole host of books coming out of BOOM! in the next year, shepherded by Mark and the editorial team, that will just rock your socks off.

Hexed, page 5

JK: Some retailers were unhappy with the North Wind promotion last year, saying they wished they had known you were releasing the book online the same day it would be in shops before they placed their orders. So what did you do differently this time around to communicate with retailers about the promotion?

Chip: Well, not only did Mark do the video announcement, but we did a separate announcement aimed directly at retailers to answer their concerns. The promotion as a whole came out of those concerns. We listened to the retailers and came up with a great promotion because of just that.

JK: And are you offering them any kind of incentive to encourage them to order more copies of the title?

Chip: We're calling this the "5 for 500 Program" - because we sent five extra copies of Hexed #1 to the top 500 retailers. We made issue #1 completely returnable, and we are offering a 3 percent reorder incentive for all the books in the series. BOOM! is taking all the risk onto ourselves and shipping extra copies to retailers for them to sell at no risk to them, because that's how confident we are in this book and in this promotion.

Hexed page 6

JK: Looking back, BOOM! took some hits over the North Wind promotion, but overall how did the book do?

Chip: Well, we sold out of issue #1. But more importantly, we sold 30 percent more copies of issue #4 than we did of issue #3. With a five issue mini-series, this just does not happen. As Mark states in the retailer video, the only way these numbers make sense is if people went to MySpace.com/comicbooks, read issue #3 online and then went out and bought number #4 in the stores. I know this didn't add up to some, but you know, people buy DVDs of TV shows they see for free all the time, so it really shouldn't come as too big a shock that giving something online for free spurs sales.

In the end, we had a lot more supporters than detractors on the North Wind promotion. And I think by doing the "5 for 500 Promotion" hand-in-hand with full returnability that we have really addressed most if not all of the concerns out there.

JK: I want to talk about some of BOOM!'s plans for the future, but first, let's talk about where you've come from. The last couple of years have been pretty big for the company, with Mark Waid coming on board, the Disney/Pixar license deal, not to mention a pretty big increase in staff. Can you give us a little perspective on how BOOM! has grown since you joined?

Chip: When I came on board July of 2007, Ross Richie had done a brilliant job building the company. The original vision for BOOM! that he and Andrew Cosby had -- that of doing high-concept genre books -- had really taken off. And they had gotten to a point where they needed to staff up. Right after I was hired, we announced Mark Waid as E-i-C. From the point Mark came on board, the company has expanded slowly but surely, and most importantly, in editorial and under Mark's editorial guidance. Right now, we have Matt Gagnon as managing editor, who is doing a terrific job and has spearheaded the Farscape line. Then there is Ian Brill, who is heading up the Warhammer books and several other projects. Last but not least, there is Paul Morrissey, who is heading up the Disney books, which include our Pixar and Muppets lines.

Hexed #1

Chip: Mark is one of the greatest writers comics has ever seen. The guy has so much range. Go back and read his original Flash run. Then read Kingdom Come. Then read Potter’s Field. This man knows how to write, and his level of quality, consistency and diversity over the last 10 plus years is astounding. Now that BOOM! 2.0 is coming to an end, and the company is running at a nice clip, it's only right that we let Waid have some fun writing some new books for BOOM!

In March, he's writing The Incredibles: Family Matters, which is just amazing. After that ... well, I can't say. All I can say is that it is going to shake the comics industry to its core.

7. When can we expect the core-shaking to commence, or at least when will it be announced?

Chip: Sooner than you think!

JK: What were some of the genres fans said they wanted to see Mark tackle?

Chip: Basically the fans came back with every genre you could think of. You know the success of BOOM! stems from us doing what other companies don't. We do high-concept genre books that exist somewhere between the Big Two and the indie art comics scene. It's a space that we just flat own. And I think that's part of the genius of Ross and Andy's original vision for BOOM! You know, why would you want to do an ongoing superhero comic and compete with the Big Two? They are experts at that. They do that every day. You'd be crazy to compete with that. Which is why what we do at BOOM! works so well. They don't do what we do. We don't do what they do.

JK: So let's talk about some of those books ... Farscape #1 came out on Christmas Eve, and you announced a second printing on Monday. So I'm guessing sales at the retailer level exceeded your expectations?

Chip: Yes, Santa came early this year! Okay, seriously... Farscape #1 has done great. And while it looks like the weather stopped some stores from getting their copies on time. But even with that hiccup, the reorder activity was so tremendous that we sold out and now are going to a second printing. We are all really happy about how well this book has performed for us.

JK: The reaction to these sorts of announcements always fascinates me. While the publisher obviously wants to play up the fact that the book sold out from the distributor -- which is what we're talking about in this case, correct? Not that the book can't be found on any retailer shelf anywhere in America -- you typically see comments about how the book probably had a low print run, someone didn't anticipate demand, etc. As a sales and marketing guy, what's your perspective? And beyond orders from retailers, what goes into the decision to overprint something?

Chip: When a sell-out happens at the distributor level, obviously we want to get the word out to the fans so they have a chance to get a copy. As a sales and marketing guy, I want everyone who wants a copy of the book to get a copy of the book. We had strong initial orders from retailers for this book and tried to meet the expected demand. But sometimes you can't anticipate just how strong the fan reaction is going to be.

JK: What are the plans for Farscape after the initial mini-series?

Chip: We're doing a follow-up called Farscape: Strange Detractors. Rockne S. O'Bannon is back writing with Keith R.A. DeCandido. On this series, we have newcomer Will Sliney on art. It's looking great.

JK: Are you guys hearing feedback from Farscape fans? I remember fans of the show being pretty dedicated. Are retailers seeing a different set of customers coming in for the book?

Chip: The Farscape fans have really been driving the success of the Farscape #1 comic. We have really great relationships with the fan sites and have become close personal friends with a ton of the 'Scapers out there. I suspect retailers are seeing a lot of new faces in their stores because of this book.

The Book of BOOM!

JK: Another area that's been relatively successful for you guys, but may be under the radar of some comic fans, is the Warhammer franchise. Who is the average customer for these books? Has there been crossover with gaming fans? 

Chip: The Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 licensed comics have been a big success for us. Now that the Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning MMORPG is out, I think the general populace has a better understanding of the different Warhammer universes and the following they have. Comic fans love these books, and Warhammer fans seek them out. It's an awesome sight to behold!

JK: What's the Book of BOOM! in the online game?

Chip: We are doing a promotion with our new trade paperback, Warhammer: Crown of Destruction, that will have a scratch-off so you can get an online item in the Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning game. This item is aptly titled the Book of BOOM! which gives you the power to go... BOOM!

JK: Was that your idea, or something Electronic Arts asked to do?

Chip: It's something that grew up organically with the relationship we have with them. BOOM! did the graphic novel pack in for the Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning MMORPG and counting those sales, we had a graphic novel that did as well as Watchmen last year.

JK: Any updates on the Disney stuff you guys are doing, both Muppets and Pixar?

Chip: In March, You'll see the debut of all new Incredibles stories written by Mark Waid in The Incredibles: Family Matters. Did I say all new stories? Let me say that again: all-new Incredibles stories! By Mark friggin' Waid. You can't beat that.

And that's not all, folks. We are coming out with Cars: The Rookie, which goes into the untold origin story of Lightning McQueen. Add to that, Roger Langridge doing The Muppet Show .... well, it's going to be a great month for Disney/Pixar fans.

BOOM! ad from Previews

JK: You sent over some ads that ran in the latest Previews, featuring the first Disney and Pixar titles. So Mike Mignola and Michael Avon Oeming are doing covers for Incredibles? How did that come about?

Chip: Did Oeming knock that cover out of the park or what? It's ... just... incredible. (Couldn't resist). Everyone is a big fan of Oeming's work here at BOOM!, and we just contacted him out of the blue and viola, you get the best bunch of variant covers ever. Mike Mignola's cover is actually a variant poster from the original release of The Incredibles movie. We just knew we had to use it for the variant cover.

JK: Who is working on the Cars title?

Chip: We have some great newcomers on this book, Alan J. Porter is writing with art by Albert Carreres. You'll be seeing much more from them in the future. Fans of the film will l-o-v-e this book!

JK: Are you working with Disney to get them into the parks or their stores? And in general, what's it been like to work with Disney?

Chip: Working with Disney is a dream come true for all of us at BOOM! And they have been great to work with on these books. While I can't get into specifics about specific business deals, we are working on getting these titles out to as many places as possible.

BOOM! ad from Previews

JK: Something else in the latest Previews that jumped out at me was Caped, as I don't remember hearing much about it before seeing it here. What is it?

Chip: I have a press release just about ready to go on that one. Basically, it's an awesome superhero funny book in the vein of Hero Squared. Caped follows Jimmy Lohman, a superhero's assistant. As the copy says, "Millions would kill for his job, he's just not one of them." It's written by South Park's Josh Lobis and Darin Moiselle, and is just brilliant.

JK: As a smaller comics publisher with some pretty big-name franchises outside of the world of comics, what are some of the things you're doing to bring in new fans? How do you turn a gamer who buys the Warhammer comic into someone who buys your other books, for example?

Chip: I want as many people reading comics as possible, and I think as an industry we are all guilty of preaching to the choir and not thinking outside the box in terms of promotion and developing content to bring in new readers. This is a particular passion of mine and of BOOM!'s in general.

I feel like our video game scratch-offs that we are doing with the Warhammer series and Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning MMORPG go a long way to helping in that cause. Managing Editor Matt Gagnon and I recently did a big presentation to Farscape fans at the recent Farscape Creation convention. We are always thinking about innovative ways to get the word out about comics. Just look at our Hexed promotion.

JK: If a first-time publisher came up to you and asked for advice on how to market and sell their comics, what are the, say, three key things you'd tell him or her to do?

Chip: I only have one piece of advice: Look at what everyone else is doing and do the opposite.