Wall-E #0

BOOM! Studios' November solicitations came out today and feature the launch of several new ongoing series in their BOOM! Kids line.

In addition to the previously reported The Muppet Show ongoing launching, BOOM! will also publish ongoing series for Cars, Wall-E and Toy Story, all of which start with a "zero" issue in November.

Alan J. Porter will continue to work on the Cars property, and he'll also write Toy Story. They'll feature art by Albert Carreres and Brett Schoonover, respectively. Wall-E, meanwhile, will be written by J. Torres with art by Morgan Luthi.

Check out some unfinal covers after the jump ...

Cars #0

The Muppet Show #0

Toy Story #0

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

D23 Expo

Disney will host a convention of sorts in Anaheim this September called the D23 Expo-- a "four-day event that brings the entire world of Disney under one roof," according to a press release. That "entire world" will include BOOM! Studios, publishers of The Incredibles, The Muppet Show and several other licensed Disney/Pixar titles.

Per BOOM!'s Chip Mosher, the comics publisher will be on hand with "a line of show exclusives" they'll be revealing in the near future.

D23 is the name of Disney's fan community, which gives Disney fans access to the company through a website, a quarterly magazine and the D23 Expo. The event will also include previews of several upcoming Disney films, such as The Princess and the Frog, Rapunzel, Disney’s A Christmas Carol, Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, TRON, Toy Story 3, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. They also promise previews of ABC's fall season, an exhibition of props from past Disney movies and the chance to meet stars from the Disney Channel.

So maybe you'll have the chance to meet Mark Waid and Hannah Montana all in the same weekend. Stranger things have happened.

The Muppet Show

BOOM! Studios sent out a press release tonight saying both The Incredibles: Family Matters #1 and The Muppet Show Comic Book #1 have sold out from Diamond Comics. According to the release, "tremendous re-order activity just prior to both comics release ensured a sell out before either comic hit stands this Wednesday."

Second printings of both books should be available by the end of April.

"I've never seen anything like this. Sure, with the current economic climate, we are definitely printing more conservatively than years before, but even so, the velocity of late in the game re-order activity for these books have been totally out of this world," said Chip Mosher, BOOM!'s marketing and sales director, in the release. "Those re-orders ate up all the leftover stock at Diamond and then some. Not in our wildest dreams could we predict that we would effectively be sold out the day before these books hit the stands. Once we saw what was happening, we went into overdrive to get second prints of both books rolling into Diamond."

Earlier today BOOM! announced a newsstand distribution deal with Kable Distribution Services, while yesterday they launched a new website to promote their Disney/Pixar titles under the BOOM! Kids imprint.

The Muppet Show

Today sees the release of two of BOOM's kid-friendly titles coming out of their deal with Disney/Pixar -- The Incredibles: Family Matters #1 and The Muppet Show Comic Book #1. To help market the books to kids -- and to help save the children from their more adult-oriented titles -- BOOM! has launched a new website geared specifically to the younger set and their parents. Boom-kids.com features info on both titles, as well as their upcoming Cars comic. They're also offering subscriptions to all of these titles on the site.

"We love the sophisticated stories of the core BOOM! comics; it's what we built the company on," said BOOM! CEO Ross Richie in a press release. "But in the mass market and the direct market, where these books will be seen by children, the branding needs to align with other kids' content that we publish, from CARS to TOY STORY to MUPPETS to other BOOM! original works that we plan to release. The BOOM! Kids imprint allows us to help parents, keeping our message straightforward and branding the kids' stuff clearly, and signaling the older-skewing material as appropriate for those audiences."

So if you're looking for something to buy your kids, check out the new site, but if you're looking for less wholesome titles about zombies, shadowy government thinktanks and irredeemable villains, the regular old BOOM! site can help you out.

Cartoon Art Museum

Back in late January, I completed this email interview with Andrew Farago, curator of San Francisco's Cartoon Art Museum. Events on my end delayed it being run until this week. As detailed at the museum's site: "The Cartoon Art Museum is committed to fostering and promoting a greater appreciation of cartoon art.  This it achieves through collecting, cataloging, preserving and displaying the finest representations of original cartoon art as well as providing innovative educational programs designed to enrich the cultural life of our community." While I am pleased to run this interview, before launching into it, I want to offer my condolences to Farago and the museum staff on the February 26 death of Rod Gilchrist, the museum's executive director for the past 11 years. My thanks to Farago for his time.

Tim O'Shea: How long has the Museum had a Cartoonist-in-Residence program--and how did you land the latest person in residence, Mike Gray?

Andrew Farago: The Cartoonist-in-Residence program was started several years back as a joint effort between the Cartoon Art Museum, The Charles M. Schulz Museum and the Northern California chapter of the National Cartoonists Society. We wanted to take advantage of the fact that we’ve got such a wealth of cartoonists in our area and give the public a regular opportunity to interact with them (and vice versa).

The artists come to us in a variety of ways. Often, someone will contact me, or another staff or board member, about his upcoming book, or a new strip launching in a local publication, or a new piece of animation that they’ve created, and that person wants to work with us to promote it.

We’re able to set aside—on average, at any rate—about one weekend afternoon per month for visiting artists to visit the museum, hang out at our drawing table, and promote their work to our patrons and anyone who happens to stop by the museum that day.

Mike Gray contacted me after I’d sent a general call-out to my local artists’ e-mail list, soliciting artists to draw at the Cartoon Art Museum’s table at the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con. He had a fun time, and wrote back to me offering to put in an appearance at the museum to promote an upcoming animated short of his that was scheduled to appear on Nickelodeon in the fall of ’08, and we moved him into our next available slot.

It’s been a pretty fun mix of artists over the years, including syndicated strip cartoonists, free weekly cartoonists, graphic novelists, animators, painters, mini-comics creators, and even the occasional European cartoonist.

O'Shea: How did the The Second Annual Family Fun Day at Pixar Animation Studios go?

Farago: It was a very successful event, thanks to Pixar, our staff and volunteers, and our board of directors.

This was the second year for our “Family Fun Day” event, and the fifth for our “Evening at Pixar Animation Studios” event. The conceit of Family Fun Day is that it’s your first day of work as a Pixar animator, and you’re taking some Pixar University crash-courses to bring you up to speed. Kids from eight to 18 get to take two one-hour classes with professional animators, directors and story department personnel from Pixar on subjects including “how to draw” lessons focusing on popular Pixar characters and basic storytelling (taught by the incredibly talented and generous Ronnie Del Carmen).

The best part about that part of our annual fundraiser is that some of the students get to attend because their parents are treating them to a fun afternoon at a professional animation studio, but the majority of students who attend are kids from local schools whose tuition has been sponsored by generous individuals and Bay Area companies. The Cartoon Art Museum gets some additional funding, Pixar staffers get to do something that the kids will remember for the rest of their lives, and the kids, of course, get to have a really fun day out with their friends and families.

Our evening event is geared toward an older audience. Visitors get to visit Pixar, check out the in-house original art exhibitions featuring concept art and maquettes from Pixar’s most recent film, spend money at Pixar’s employees-only store, and attend an exclusive presentation by Pixar artists, story crew, directors, and animators in their state-of-the-art private movie theater.

We’ve had Andrew Stanton, Ralph Eggleston, Sharon Callahan, Mark Andrews, Angus MacLane and Jeremy Lasky, among others, giving special presentations on their own areas of expertise, and for the past two years, we’ve gotten sneak previews of the latest Pixar shorts a month or two before the general public has gotten to see them. The presentation is followed by a silent auction of limited and rare Pixar collectibles, prints and artwork, plus an opportunity for visitors to talk shop with the artists.

All of this goes back to a handful of people, and we’re really lucky to have them all on our side. Michael B. Johnson is a longtime Pixar staffer (his official title is Moving Pictures Group Lead at Pixar Animation Studios, and he’s got a doctorate in computer science from M.I.T.) and he’s been on the Cartoon Art Museum’s board of directors for the better part of the past decade. He developed the fundraiser idea with CAM’s Executive Director, Rod Gilchrist, and, most importantly, Michael was able to convince Pixar’s President, Ed Catmull, to grant us permission to hold our fundraiser at their Emeryville studios. It’s been one of our most popular and most successful fundraising events, and we’re really fortunate to have this relationship with a major animation studio (that happens to be just across the Bay from us).

O'Shea: How did the museum get involved in The Totoro Forest Project Exhibition--and do you think in addition to being of charitable benefit (never a bad thing) that it will bring greater name exposure to the museum to a number of people who may be concerned about the forest but otherwise would have no reason to know of the museum?

Farago: Pixar’s to thank for that one, too. In late 2007, we hosted an opening reception for The Art and Flair of Mary Blair, featuring artwork by the late, great Disney concept artist. The exhibition went over really well, and among the attendees at the reception were several Pixar artists, including director Pete Docter (a big Mary Blair fan, who actually loaned some of the artwork that we included in the exhibition) and artists Dice Tsutsumi, Enrico Casarosa and Ronnie Del Carmen.

The aforementioned Michael B. Johnson grabbed me at the reception and introduced me to Dice, Enrico and Ronnie, who told me about their concept for a fundraiser for the The Totoro No Furusato National Fund. The fund is a non-profit organization that supports Japan’s Sayama Forest, located near Tokyo, and that forest served as Hayao Miyazaki’s inspiration for his classic film My Neighbor Totoro.

They planned to contact nearly 200 of their animator and illustrator friends to commission original artwork inspired by Totoro, which would be auctioned off to raise money to buy a portion of the Sayama Forest, to protect it from developers. Following the auction, the Cartoon Art Museum would display all of the artwork for several months, which would help to keep the fund in the spotlight, and would also allow thousands of additional people to enjoy the artwork before it went into the hands of private collectors.

The Mary Blair exhibition was really great for us, since it allowed us to forge new connections with Disney, Pixar and Studio Ghibli, and raised our profile as a venue for original animation art, as well. We’ve got an original Miyazaki watercolor hanging in the museum right now, the 200 artists in the exhibition and the collectors who bought their artwork are aware of us now, and I’m working with Studio Ghibli to bring a Mary Blair exhibition to Tokyo in the summer of 2009, so sometimes things just work out great for everyone.

O'Shea: When did work begin on the Gene Colan tribute exhibition, which opened in mid-November (and ends on March 15)? Can you discuss some of the folks contributing pieces to the tribute, and has Colan himself been able to attend the exhibition?

Farago: Gene fell ill in the spring of 2008, and within a few weeks of the announcement of his illness, Glen David Gold (author of Carter Beats the Devil and many comics-related essays) called up our director and pitched a comprehensive Colan retrospective. Our director put Glen in touch with me, and I was 100% behind the idea. I’d worked with Gene and his wife Adrienne on several Cartoon Art Museum exhibitions over the past six years, and had met them at several conventions (and I’d even gotten to interview Gene at WonderCon the previous year), and Glen and I both wanted to put together the best exhibition possible as a tribute to Gene and his career. Our next available opening at that point was in November, so I penciled it in and we set to work.

In addition to being a great writer, Glen’s also got great taste in original comic book art, and has an amazing collection of Colan art. More importantly, though, he’s been part of the collecting scene for a while, and he knew where to find all of the best stuff, and how to talk people into letting us borrow it. We’ve got two pages from the only EC Comics story that Gene ever illustrated; one published and one unpublished Daredevil cover; the covers of Iron Man and Sub-Mariner #1, Iron Man #1 and Captain Marvel #1; the final three pages of the final issue of Tomb of Dracula; pages and covers from Howard the Duck, Doctor Strange and Detective Comics; plus some jaw-dropping “pencils-only” pages from the late 1990s onward, including an Escapist story that Glen David Gold wrote for Dark Horse and some recent commissioned pieces... It’s the most thorough solo exhibition that we’ve mounted for a single comic book artist.

We were very fortunate that Gene’s health was good enough for him to attend an opening reception that we hosted at the museum in early December. Lee Hester of Lee’s Comics and several exhibition lenders chipped in and helped pay for Gene and Adrienne to visit San Francisco for a week, and the reception was one of the highlights of my curatorial career.

First of all, we had a great turnout, and the audience was full of artists, art collectors, friends and fans of Gene’s. We managed a standing-room only audience for an artist who’s kept a fairly low profile for the past decade or so, and the whole audience was thrilled to spend an evening with Gene and Adrienne.

I got to serve as emcee, assisting Glen, who was battling laryngitis that evening. We had live testimonials from inkers Joe Rubinstein and Steve Leialoha, writer Steve Englehart, and former student-turned-professor (and comic book creator) Daniel Cooney; written testimonials from Dark Horse’s Mike Richardson and Diana Schutz, Eclipse’s Dean Mullaney, and DC’s Paul Levitz. We followed that up with Glen interviewing Gene, allowing him to share some great stories about his life and career, allowing us to hear some great stories about Gene’s formative years. After all of that, and this is one of many, many reasons that I’ll never say an unkind word about the guy, Stan Lee recorded a video testimonial that Gene—and the audience—absolutely loved.

After the testimonials, the founder of the Cartoon Art Museum, Malcolm Whyte, gave a brief speech, then presented Gene with the museum’s lifetime achievement award, The Sparky. The award is named after Charles Schulz, and is given in conjunction with the Schulz Museum to artists who embody the talent, innovation and humanity of Schulz. Only about a half-dozen of us knew in advance that Gene would be receiving the award, and he and Adrienne (and the audience) were completely floored. Heck, Glen and I knew it was coming, and we were floored.

Gene hung around for a full two hours after the presentation to sign autographs, meet with fans, and just enjoy the evening. He and Adrienne pulled me aside at some point and Gene told me that it was one of the greatest nights of his life, and moments like that make me feel like I’ve got one of the greatest jobs in the world.

O'Shea: How long have you been the curator of the museum and what attracted you to the position?

Farago: I moved to San Francisco in January 2000, and by the summer of that year, I was working as a temp and was increasingly unsure that there was a place for me on the west coast. In a last-ditch effort to justify living in one of the most expensive cities in the U.S., I decided that I’d try throwing myself into some volunteer work.

In one of those supremely lucky moments, I was at one of my not-fun-at-all temp jobs and checked out Craig’s List for volunteer opportunities. A listing for the Cartoon Art Museum caught my eye, and I interviewed with them the following weekend. I was interviewed by Hallie Brignall, the museum’s bookstore manager at the time, and she gave me a guided tour of the museum. There was a Peanuts 50th anniversary exhibition on display at the time, and seeing all of that Charles Schulz art at once was a revelation. I spent every weekend at CAM, and by the time the museum closed temporarily in the spring of 2001, I’d proven that I was really dedicated to the cause, and that I knew a fair amount about comic art, too.

(As an aside, I should mention that on my very first visit to the museum, at the end of my tour, Hallie took me into the administrative offices and introduced CAM’s current intern by saying, “This is Shaenon. She’s single.” I later found out that there had been some conversation about dating woes before I’d arrived, which explains that unusual introduction, but nonetheless, I ended up marrying Shaenon three-and-a-half years later.)

The museum was closed from early spring until late fall 2001, a victim of the dot-com boom. The landlord, noticing that random Internet startups were springing up left and right and raking in lots of money for not doing much of anything, decided to triple the museum’s rent. As a just-scraping-by non-profit, the only option was to close temporarily and hope that we could eventually find a better location and a more sympathetic landlord.

While the Cartoon Art Museum was closed, I spent a few months working at the U.C. Berkeley Art Museum, which, coupled with my art major background and my prior training at CAM, gave me the experience that I needed to get hired on as the museum’s Gallery Manager when we reopened in our current location in December 2001.

As Gallery Manager, my main duties were to install new exhibitions, keep the museum in decent shape for visitors and do some liaison work with the local artist community. Early on, though, I was helping with exhibitions. In the spring of 2002, I co-curated a large-scale Spider-Man exhibition, and I worked as a curatorial assistant on several other shows over the next few years. In 2003, I introduced an area called the Small Press Spotlight, a portion of the museum dedicated to highlighting works from self-publishers and people who weren’t working for the larger publishing houses.

When our staff curator, Jenny Robb, left San Francisco to pursue a career with the Ohio State University’s Cartoon Research Library, in the summer of 2004, I’d already curated a few large-scale exhibitions by myself, our director, Rod Gilchrist, asked if I’d mind filling in for Jenny, and I’ve been doing the job ever since.

I’ve been really fortunate to learn from some of the best people in the business at this job, which has made things a lot easier for me. Jenny initially studied under Lucy Caswell, head of the OSU Cartoon Research Library, and she was a great teacher. Rod had a really extensive gallery and non-profit background before he came to the museum, and because of his training, I’m one of the fastest matters, framers and hangers of cartoon art in the business. The museum’s founder, Malcolm Whyte, always makes time to talk shop and tell stories about classic comic books, comic strips, or spending time with the underground artists back in the 1960s. And our Assistant Director, Summerlea Kashar, is one of the unsung heroes of the museum, handling all of the financial aspects of CAM that keep us afloat and allow me to focus on things other than balancing the checkbook.

O'Shea: Part of the museum's mission or aim is "dedicated to the collection, preservation, study and exhibition of original cartoon art in all forms to benefit historians, cartoonists, journalists, artists, collectors and the general public.” What pieces stick out in your mind in terms of that you're glad to have preserved that piece of art?

Farago: Our permanent collection has a lot of really interesting pieces in it. We’ve never had an acquisitions budget, so everything that comes to us has been a donation from an artist or collector who believes in the cause and wants to see the appreciation and acceptance of cartoon art to continue to grow.

One of the highlights of the museum’s collection is 20-something original Peanuts strips, all donated by Charles Schulz in the 1980s and 1990s. He and his wife Jeannie were two of the earliest and most dedicated supporters of the museum, and Jeannie is still active in our fundraising efforts and programming to this day.

We’ve got William Hogarth prints dating back to the mid-1700s; several Krazy Kat Sundays by George Herriman, including one donated by Garry Trudeau of Doonesbury fame; a Thimble Theatre Sunday by E.C. Segar, including an alternate panel that was never published in newspapers; a pretty impressive array of animation artwork, including pieces by Eyvind Earle, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston; a Calvin and Hobbes sketch created exclusively by Bill Watterson for the Cartoon Art Museum’s collectors’ print series; and about 6,000 additional pieces from the 1700s to present.

One of my favorite pieces, in addition to the ones I just mentioned, isn’t especially remarkable, but it dates back to my “Golden Age” as a comics reader. It’s the Sal Buscema-illustrated cover from Avengers Annual #17, with a giant-sized, smiling High Evolutionary holding a globe that has the overpowered fill-in Avengers dangling from it helplessly. I read that comic over and over again that summer, when I was 12, and it’s pretty cool to be the caretaker of all of these pieces of cartoon history, and all of these pieces of other people’s childhoods.

O'Shea: Typically how many people visit the museum in a week or month, and what would you consider to be the most successful exhibit to date?

Farago: Attendance varies from season to season. We just had one of our big attendance spikes, which always occurs right around Christmas, when families are stuck with each other for two weeks straight (or up to six weeks, when you’re talking about families with college students), and they need to find a nice out-of-the-house activity that’s going to keep everyone occupied for an afternoon. We get a similar boost in the summer, generally for the same reason. I think that our attendance averages out to several hundred visitors a week, with our biggest turnouts happening on the weekends and at our opening receptions and other events.

Our most successful exhibition came pretty early in my tenure at the museum, and it featured Calvin and Hobbes Sunday strips from 1985-1995. That was in conjunction with the Ohio State University’s Cartoon Research Library, since they’ve got 95-99% of the world’s Calvin and Hobbes strips in their archives.

The Art and Flair of Mary Blair, The Totoro Forest Project, and Web-Slinging and Wall-Crawling: The Art of Spider-Man are probably the three most popular shows that I’ve had a hand in, but we’ve got a couple of movie tie-ins in the works for early 2009 (one is Coraline, the other should be announced very soon, if all goes well [sidenote from Tim: I'm unsure what Farago was referencing here, but the museum currently has a Watchmen exhibit running through mid-July) that might top those in terms of visitors and publicity. I’m pretty excited about our upcoming Stan Sakai/25 Years of Usagi Yojimbo retrospective that’s coming up, too.

O'Shea: Several years ago you co-edited a benefit book for the museum, Spark Generators II. Would you ever consider doing something like that again?

Farago: Definitely. I’ve literally got hundreds more artists in my address book now than I did when Jon “Bean” Hastings and I worked on Spark Generators, and I’m sure I could put together a really interesting lineup if we ever take a crack at Spark Generators III. My wife (Shaenon K. Garrity) and I are members of the National Cartoonists Society now, for one thing, so I’d probably target a lot more strip cartoonists, plus I’ve met a lot more comic book artists, animators, and web-cartoonists, both in the real world and through any number of social networking sites.

Actually, I’ve got an anthology project that I was hoping to get started on last year, but my increased workload at the museum prevented me from getting a jump on it, so I’ll go ahead and announce it here and encourage anyone who’s interested (and who’s read this far into the interview) to drop me a line.

My anthology idea is a comic-book tribute to Rory Root, who was one of the greatest friends/supporters/evangelists that the comics industry’s ever had. He was the proprietor of Comic Relief in Berkeley, and dozens, maybe hundreds, of California-based comic creators made their first sales through his shop. I’m hoping to get people to contribute some comics that talk about their personal experiences with Rory and Comic Relief, and to donate proceeds from whatever we manage to publish to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and the Cartoon Art Museum. Rory’s family liked the idea, and the project’s tentatively titled “Rory Stories.” I may try to get the ball rolling on that sometime in the spring.

O'Shea: I was intrigued to read at the museum website that folks could buy exclusive prints that are available at the museum or through phone orders. What kind of prints can people buy?

Farago: We’ve got a series of collectors’ prints featuring artwork done for the museum by some really great cartoonists, including Charles Schulz, Will Eisner, Patrick McDonnell, Gahan Wilson, Chuck Jones, and the aforementioned Bill Watterson. Our Calvin and Hobbes print, by the way, is one of the only pieces of official C&H merchandise that exists apart from the books. I’m still amazed that our board of directors pulled that one off.

We’ve also got some really nice, high-quality, full color giclee prints that we’re selling right now featuring Mary Blair’s artwork. There are a few more things that we’ve got in the works, too. Our bookstore was managed by an independent contractor through the end of 2008, but now it’s run by the museum, and it’s becoming a very cool little shop for cartoon and comic fans.

O'Shea: In what ways can people donate or otherwise support the museum (other than visiting)?

Farago: Let’s see if I can get something close to a complete list here...

We’ve got a “Causes” page on Facebook, and people can donate money online through that. We’ve also got a PayPal/Donate button on our website. That page also goes into greater detail on some of the things I’ll talk about next). Becoming a Cartoon Art Museum member (or signing a friend up for a membership) is another great way to show financial support, and you get free admission to the museum for a full year in exchange for your hard-earned money.

Artists are encouraged to donate original artwork to CAM’s permanent collection or to be auctioned off at our various fundraising events, and they can also contribute their time in the form of personal appearances, booksignings, or teaching and mentoring up-and-coming cartoonists and students.

We’ve got a very small full-time staff, so we’re always in need of volunteers and interns to help with events, administrative and curatorial projects, education and other programs.

And we can also use in-kind donations of things ranging from food and drink for events, computers and office equipment, printing...if you’ve got resources, we can probably find a way to use them.

O'Shea: Where would you like to see the museum grow or improve its outreach/ability to inform in the next three to five years?

Farago: We’ve made some amazing strides within the past three years, and if Obama manages to keep America in one piece during his first term, we’ve got some really ambitious goals that I’m sure we can reach. Within the past seven months, we’ve hired a full-time Education Director, Diane Shapiro Sommerfield, and a full-time Bookstore Manager, Heather Plunkett, and we’re expecting a lot of growth in those aspects of the museum over the next several years.

The education department used to consist of me and one of our volunteers, Brian Kolm, teaching Saturday afternoon classes a couple of times a month. Brian’s still teaching classes for us, but we’ve now got about a dozen different ongoing programs at the museum and at schools throughout the Bay Area, and there’s room for things to expand outward even more. Sadly, the arts are one of the first things on the chopping block at most schools, and many kids who’ll grow up to be great artists some day aren’t getting any formal training at their schools. Programs like ours offer a cost-effective way to make at least some degree of artistic expression available to students in districts that don’t necessarily have the funding for a full-time art teacher.

Our bookstore is coming along very nicely, and is a great venue for artists to sell their books, pick up new and out-of-print books, and enjoy the experience of buying books out of an actual brick-and-mortar shop. Bookstores are really, really hurting right now, and it seems like I hear about another decades-old bookstore going out of business every month. I encourage people to support their local bookstores whenever they can, since I’m worried that six months from now the only places to get books at all will be libraries and Amazon.com.

In a perfect world, some eccentric billionaire comics fan will read this interview, cut us a very large check, and I’ll have a whole building with several floors’ worth of exhibitions to plan and oversee. I’d like to think that we’re working toward that anyway, but a massive federal bailout of non-profit art museums would go a long way toward making that a reality.

O'Shea: Is there anything you'd like to let folks know about the museum that I neglected to ask you about?

Farago: Let’s see...I think we hit most of the highlights. The Cartoon Art Museum’s a great resource for artists, cartoon fans, art connoisseurs, families and just about everyone else; and we’re doing lots of great work with artists and the community, but we could use better funding. Those are the main two points I wanted to get across.

The one thing that I’m not sure that I got across was how much of a workload I’ve got at any one time. As of right now, for example, I’ve got four major exhibition changes happening at the museum within the next three weeks, I’m dealing with four off-site exhibitions (two directly for the museum, two indirectly), I’ve got two animation articles that I need to write by Tuesday, and two other freelance projects I’m trying to get started up within the next month or so. No matter what problems come up at work on any given day, boredom isn’t one of them.

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

• WonderCon's posted some additional autograph opportunities on their site related to the Wonder Woman DVD and a new FOX show called Sit Down, Shut Up. Henry Winkler, Will Arnett and Virginia Madsen, among others, will be on hand to meet fans and sign autographs.

• The Hero Initiative will host The Boys artist Darick Robertson at their booth, #913, for five signing sessions, as well as Uncanny X-Men writer Matt Fraction for a special signing on Friday:

FRIDAY, February 27, 2009 (Show hours: 12 – 7 p.m.)
12:30 – 2:30 p.m. Matt Fraction
2:30 – 4:30 p.m. Darick Robertson
4:30 – 5:30 p.m. Roy Thomas and Gary Friedrich
6:30 – 7 p.m. Darick Robertson

SATURDAY, February 28, 2009 (Show hours: 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.)
12:30 – 2:30 p.m. Darick Robertson
5:30 – 6:30 p.m. Darick Robertson

SUNDAY, March 1, 2009 (Show hours 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.)
2:30 – 4:30 p.m. Darick Robertson

Darick Robertson will also be appearing at The Comic Outpost booth (#1108) each day at the following times: Fri, Feb. 27, 5 – 6 p.m.; Sat, Feb. 28, 3:30 – 5 p.m.; and Sun, March 1, 12 – 1:30 p.m.

• Matt Maxwell, whose Strangeways: The Thirsty you can read here three times a week, has a table at the show:

Greetings, folks. Matt Maxwell from Highway 62 Press (home of Strangeways) here. Just a quick head's up to let you know that I'll be at booth 1240 in the halls at Wonder-Con, starting when the doors open and closing the sucker out all three nights (though I might duck out for lunch at the sushi place or Henry's Hunan nearby).

I'll have copies of MURDER MOON (the first Strangeways OGN) for sale. If you ask nicely, I might even let you read up to the end of chapter two of THE THIRSTY (currently serialized at http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/strangeways on MWF), which would put you a few weeks ahead of the rest of the world. You might even catch me working on book three, tentatively titled THE STITCHER.

In addition, I'll be doing short story sketches to order. Hey, if artists can do it, so can I. Freebies will be suitably brief unless your ideas are inspiring. Longer pieces, you can haggle over a price. This whole thing is kind of an experiment. Your participation can make it an utter success or an abject failure.

Okay, that was a little heavy. But really, trying to offer something a little new.

Hope to see you there!

• And finally, just like in New York, Disney/Pixar's going to show some footage from their upcoming film Up at the show:

We are proud to announce that the first 45 minutes of Disney•Pixar's 10th film, UP, will screen at WonderCon 2009. UP is a comedy adventure about 78-year-old balloon salesman Carl Fredricksen, who finally fulfills his lifelong dream of a great adventure when he ties thousands of balloons to his house and flies away to the wilds of South America. But he discovers all too late that his biggest nightmare has stowed away on the trip: an overly optimistic 9-year-old Wilderness Explorer named Russell. From the Academy Award-nominated director Pete Docter (Monsters, Inc.), Disney•Pixar's UP invites you on a hilarious journey into a lost world, with the least likely duo on Earth.

The screening will be introduced by director Pete Docter and producer Jonas Rivera on Saturday, February 28 at 7:30 PM at the Metreon Theatre (directly across from the Moscone Center at 101 4th St.). Please note seating is limited to the first 250 guests and interested attendees are recommended to arrive at the theatre early (no line-up prior to 5:30 PM). No cameras, phones, or recording devices will be allowed at the screening, and all must be checked at the door.

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

• Unfortunately, Final Crisis writer Grant Morrison has had to pull out of the con. In a statement, Morrison said, "As a result of family issues, I won't be able to make it to the New York Comic Con this week. My apologies to everyone, and particularly to the readers I won't get a chance to meet this time around due to circumstances beyond my control. See you next time."

NYCC's Lance Fensterman provides a little more detail at his blog, saying that "this is a really unfortunate situation with his mother that is far more important that NYCC."

• Disney/Pixar will show the first 50 minutes of their summer release, UP, at the show.

• Colleen Doran sent over an update of her plans for the show:

I’ll be in Artists Alley at table G10.

Basically, go inside the front door, go to the extreme right until you hit the wall, TURN LEFT keep walking. I’m in the right hand corner next to The Artists Choice display. Bad sale location, great for security.

My panels are:

Writers on Writing with Chris Claremont, Jimmy Palmiotti, Tom DeFalco
Friday 5:45-6:45 Room 1A18

Men are from Krypton, Women are from Paradise Island with Jimmy Palmiotti, Jamal Igle, Barb Kesel
Saturday 4:15-5:15 1 A17

Creator Resources
Sunday 12:30-1:30
Free Creator Resources list for 300 participants. Insurance, legal, online resources.

There will be a small snippet preview of the new GN I am drawing for Vertigo at the Vertigo panel, but I can’t recall when that is.

• Many other comics creators have posted their schedules, including: Greg Rucka, C.B. Cebulski, Alex Robinson, Colleen Coover, Jessica Abel and Matt Madden, Cliff Chiang, Sean McKeever, J.M. DeMatteis and David Petersen.

• Laura Hudson says that while the final issue of Comics Foundry comes out Feb. 18, they'll have a 16-page sampler at the show for $1.

• The Timony Twins, creators of the Zuda comic The Night Owls, sent over their schedule and something about secret codes in their comic this week. How cool is that?

Hey everybody! The New York Comic Con is next weekend. If anyone plans on attending and wants to know where they can find the Timony Twins, here is our schedule!

FRIDAY, We will be speaking at the Zuda Comics Panel from 3:30-4:30 in Room 1A06! Joining us at this panel will be the following fellow Zuda creators:
Johnny Zito (THE BLACK CHERRY BOMBSHELLS, writer)
Tony Trov (THE BLACK CHERRY BOMBSHELLS, writer)
Sacha Borisich (THE BLACK CHERRY BOMBSHELLS, artist)
John Dallaire (THE BLACK CHERRY BOMBSHELLS, colorist)
Dean Haspiel (STREET CODE, writer/artist)
David Gallaher (HIGH MOON, writer)
Steve Ellis (HIGH MOON, artist)
Daniel Govar (AZURE, writer/artist)
Caanan Grall (CELADORE, writer/artist)
Kevin Colden (I RULE THE NIGHT , writer/artist)
Gus Higuera (RE-EVOLUTION, writer)

Also on Friday, we will be at the DC booth signing stuff and doing free sketches from 4:30-5:30! It's a huge mega-booth for DC, you can't miss it, but just in case, it is booth #1641.

SATURDAY, Our DC signing is scheduled for 12:00-1:00!

SUNDAY, We're pulling a double shift, and you can find us at the DC booth from 3:00-5:00!

ALL WEEKEND!!! When we are not at the places described above, you can find us either wandering aimlessly through the con, OR you can look for us at our very own table, which isn't our very own technically, because there you can also find the creators of HIGH MOON, David Gallaher and Steve Ellis! Look for booth #2340!

DECODER WHEELS!!!

If you have a decoder wheel, bust it out on Tuesday! There will be a secret code word hidden in the comic! Anyone who approaches our booth or one of the Timony Twins in person and tells us the secret code word will get an EXCLUSIVE FREE GIFT, available to Night Owls Code Breakers ONLY!!!

If you do not have a code wheel or don't know where your code wheel is, please respond to this message and I will happily resend the file to you. Or, stop by our booth and pick up a laminated one for free (while supplies last!)

• Zero Friends will have a limited edition Watchmen print at their booth.

• Keith Chow, one of the editors of the upcoming anthology Secret Identities, sent over some information on the panels they're hosting:

SECRET IDENTITIES: ASIAN AMERICANS & SUPERHEROES (Saturday)

It seems as if Asians and Asian Americans have always been a significant part of comics. In fact, Detective Comics #1 featured the Fu Manchu-like villain Ching Lung on its historic cover. Like Ching Lung, however, Asians—and by extension, Asian Americans—have not always been positively portrayed in the four-color world of comics. Too often, Asians were reduced to the easy stereotypes of the "yellow peril," "mystical martial artist," "female seductress," or "comic relief."

Behind the scenes was a different story. Even though Asian American characters were not breaking through on the page, Asian American creators were shattering glass ceilings all over the industry. Pioneers such as Larry Hama, Stan Sakai, Ron Lim, and Jim Lee were making names for themselves as brilliant writers and artists. Today, some of the industry's biggest names are Greg Pak, Bernard Chang, Frank Cho, Cliff Chiang, Dustin Nguyen, and Jae Lee. And while there has been some progress in bringing viable Asian American characters into mainstream comics, there is still a dearth of compelling Asian American superheroes to inspire new generations of comics readers.

The editors of Secret Identities have set out to rectify that shortage. Pooling together some of the biggest names in comics, up-and-coming talent, and voices from film, literature, and television, Secret Identities' is the first-ever graphic novel collection of original stories exploring the universe of masked marvels and caped crusaders from the perspective of the nation's fastest-growing and most dynamic emerging community. This panel will discuss the origins of the project, explain the editors' and contributors' reasons for participating, and illustrate the need for a more diverse set of heroes.
THE MULTICULTURAL MASK (Sunday)
Over the past decade, publishers and creators have made an aggressive push to diversify the pages of the comic books—eliminating antiquated, stereotypical representations of race and sexuality, while adding characters whose backgrounds and identities are a truer, and certainly richer reflection of our social reality. In the process, some fan-favorite heroes have met with untimely ends and come back with new, different, and multicultural identities; others have become suddenly open about their sexual orientations.

The changes have been met with both loud applause and scathing criticism—but is radical integration of the comics really necessary? And if so, what's the best way to make comics look like America (and the world) while preserving cherished characters and already overstretched continuities? This panel would bring together creators who stand out as pioneers of the new Inclusiveness in comics to talk about what works, what doesn't, and why it matters—from both a cultural and economic perspective.

Moderator: Jeff Yang, co-editor of Secret Identities

• And finally, Molly Crabapple says, "I'll also be at New York Comic-Con, signing at the Comic News Insider Booth on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Signing times TBA. The Comic News Insider booth is in the Podcast Arena." She also has a piece on display in an exhibit called "All that Glitters Is Gold," at the McCaig Welles Gallery in Brooklyn. The exhibit opens Saturday night at 7 p.m.

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.