san diego comic con
Final ‘Omaha the Cat Dancer’ collection due from NBM in July
Omaha the Cat Dancer, the decades-old erotic comic by artist Reed Waller and writer Kate Worley, will see its final storyline collected by NBM in July.
Waller teamed with Worley’s husband, Kings in Disguise writer James Vance, to finish the story from an outline that Worley completed before her death in 2004. The story was serialized previously in NBM’s Sizzle Magazine. “Helping Reed finish Kate’s story is one of the toughest jobs I’ve ever taken on, but she left us in very good shape,” Vance said in a press release. “The final act of Omaha will be dramatic, sexy, touching and satisfying.”
Note: There’s a Not-Safe-For-Work image after the jump.
Comic-Con badges go on sale today [Updated]
No doubt those of you who are planning to go to Comic-Con already know this and are probably hunkered down in front of your computer (or computers) with your browser (or browsers) already opened and ready to rock. (And maybe Twitter as well, as the excitement has already begun).
That’s because badges for the 2013 Comic-Con International in San Diego will go on sale to the general public at 9 a.m. Pacific today.
As I noted earlier this month, you have to have a Comic-Con Member ID to be able to be buy a badge. If you don’t have one, you won’t be buying badges today — the site is closed to new registrations and will not reopen until next week.
Also, if you purchased a four-day badge with Preview Night during pre-registration in August 2012, or if you are a professional or guest of professional who has registered for a Comic-Con 2013 professional badge, you are not eligible to participate in open online registration and can’t buy any badges today.
Watch for updates here as badges go on sale (and sell out).
2013 Comic-Con International badges go on sale Feb. 16
Badges for the 2013 Comic-Con International in San Diego will go on sale to the general public at 9 a.m. Pacific on Feb. 16. And they’ll probably sell out by, what, 9:10? 9:15? There’s no telling, so if you want one, plan ahead and move quickly.
Buying a badge requires a Comic-Con Member I.D., as CCI will email the registration link to folks with IDs two days before they go on sale. If you don’t already have a Member I.D., you’ll need to get one by Feb. 11, as the site will close to new registrations and changes on Feb. 12 and will not reopen before badge sales begin.
Also, if you purchased a four-day badge with Preview Night during pre-registration in August 2012, or if you are a professional or guest of professional who has registered for a Comic-Con 2013 professional badge, you are not eligible to participate in open online registration and can’t buy a badge on the 16th.
Prices for badges are:
Comics A.M. | Council OKs San Diego Convention Center expansion
Comic-Con International
Conventions | San Diego City Council has given final approval to the planned $520 million expansion of the San Diego Convention Center, viewed as necessary to keeping Comic-Con International in the city past 2015. The project still faces a legal challenge to a financing scheme involving a hotel-room surtax, as well as state regulatory approval, leading the city attorney to caution that the targeted 2017 completion date is just “a goal.” Whether Comic-Con organizers can be convinced to sign another three-year extension to their contract remains a big question. [NBC San Diego]
Conventions | Most of Heidi MacDonald’s article about New York Comic Con is behind a paywall at Publishers Weekly, but she pulls out some stats at The Beat: Ticket sales are up 190 percent over this time last year. As the capacity of the Javits Center is somewhere south of 110,000 people, this means the ReedPOP folks won’t sell any more tickets than last year, but they are selling out faster. Three-day and four-day passes are already gone, only Friday tickets remain, and ReedPOP vice president Lance Fensterman expects everything to be sold out by the time the show begins. [The Beat]
San Diego Comic-Con 2013 badges go on sale today for 2012 attendees [UPDATED]
The line for next year’s Comic-Con International in San Diego starts forming today. Preregistration for the 2013 convention starts at 8 a.m. Pacific today for those who attended the con this past July.
If you bought a four-day attendee or one-day attendee badge in 2012, you should have received an email with registration details for 2013–this doesn’t apply to press, pros and exhibitors (exhibitor information can be found here). Pricing for next year’s convention is available in this handy chart from the CCI site:
As noted in the con’s registration badge sale FAQ, you’ll need your Member ID account. You can buy passes for three other people besides yourself, as long as they also attended the con in 2012.
Open online registration will occur sometime in early 2013 for the general public. The 2013 SDCC will run July 18-21, with preview night on July 17.
SDCC ’12 | IDW, Hasbro announce My Little Pony comics
Building on the licensing agreement they already have with The Tranformers and G.I. Joe, it’s no surprise to learn that IDW Publishing will publish comics based on Hasbro’s My Little Pony toy line.
“My Little Pony is a highly successful brand and we’re incredibly excited to have the opportunity to extend the franchise through this collaboration with Hasbro,” IDW CEO and Publisher Ted Adams said in a press release. “We look forward to providing new stories for the fans and launching their favorite ponies into comic book form.”
The series will be based on characters from the animated program My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and will be written by Gronk creator Katie Cook with art by Andy Price.
“A MASSIVE kudos to Katie, as she suggested me for the art chores on the book,” Price said on his DeviantArt page. “We have great goodies planned, and for both of us this is a labor of love, as we are both Bronies
The series starts in November and will “stay true to its moral foundation, while providing themes and subject matter that older audiences can also appreciate,” according to the release. The series will feature covers by Jill Thompson, Stephanie Buscema and more.
SDCC ’12 | Drawn & Quarterly to publish DeForge’s Ant Colony
Canadian graphic novel publisher Drawn & Quarterly announced Thursday that it will publish Michael DeForge’s Ant Colony, which DeForge has been serializing on his website since last fall.
“Michael DeForge is one of those rare talents who emerge, out of the blue, with a fully formed and singularly unique vision,” said Chris Oliveros, D+Q’s acquiring editor and publisher. “When I look at his work I sometimes wonder how it was formed, and then I think I can see the influences of several disparate cartoonists over the years, from Mark Beyer through Marc Bell. But ultimately DeForge’s work can’t be pinned down so easily; his striking visual sensibility and peculiar sense of humor is entirely his own.”
For more information on the deal, check out this interview with DeForge by Tom Spurgeon.
SDCC ’12 | A roundup of news and announcements from Thursday
Sandman
Thursday may have started a bit slow in the news department, but it sure ended with a huge bang. Here’s a roundup of announcements that hit today from Comic-Con International in San Diego:
• Neil Gaiman announced via video that he will write a new Sandman miniseries that will detail what happened to Morpheus to allow him to be so easily captured in The Sandman #1. J.H. Williams III will provide the art. “It was a story that we discussed telling for Sandman‘s 20th anniversary,” Gaiman said, “but the time got away from us. And now, with Sandman‘s 25th anniversary year coming up, I’m delighted, and nervous, that that story is finally going to be told.” The series will be published by Vertigo sometime next year.
• Mark Waid, Shane Davis and Max Brooks will team to create Shadow Walk, a graphic novel coming out next year from Legendary Comics.
• Legendary will also publish the Majestic Files by J. Michael Straczynski, which will feature art by Geoff Shaw and Matt Banning.
• Terry Moore will write a Strangers in Paradise prose novel to coincide with the comic’s 20th anniversary next year. He also plans to do an all-ages comic after Rachel Rising finishes in 30-40 issues.
SDCC ’12 | Red She-Hulk takes over Hulk with issue #58
Red She-Hulk
The next big thing for the Red Hulk, apparently, is to hand his book over to his daughter. As announced at Marvel’s Next Big Thing panel at Comic-Con today, the Jeff Parker-written Hulk series will turn into Red She-Hulk with issue #58.
The name and character shift follows on the heals of another comic written by Parker that recently changed its name and cast, the comic formerly known as Thunderbolts and now known as Dark Avengers. Parker told MTV Geek that the new status quo “will grow out of some ideas we were exploring in Hulk.”
Parker added “She may be the first Hulk who isn’t just angry, but is righteously angry and chooses to AIM her anger. She doesn’t resent her human side, she still thinks of herself as the same person when she transforms, like her father. But her Hulk form has no inhibitions or worries that she might be doing the wrong thing. Red She-Hulk acts upon what she wants, usually as soon as the idea or emotion hits her.”
No word on what happens to the Red Hulk, beyond “his expertise is required in another place.”
SDCC ’12 | Yen Press to adapt James Patterson’s next novel
Zoo
James Patterson’s Zoo hasn’t even been released yet, but Yen Press already has a graphic novel adaptation of it in the works. Andy MacDonald revealed on his blog last night that he’s been working on it, and Yen Press is showing off promotional materials for it at its booth at Comic-Con International in San Diego. According to the description on Patterson’s website, Zoo is about:
All over the world, brutal attacks are crippling entire cities. Jackson Oz, a young biologist, watches the escalating events with an increasing sense of dread. When he witnesses a coordinated lion ambush in Africa, the enormity of the violence to come becomes terrifyingly clear.
With the help of ecologist Chloe Tousignant, Oz races to warn world leaders before it’s too late. The attacks are growing in ferocity, cunning, and planning, and soon there will be no place left for humans to hide. With wildly inventive imagination and white-knuckle suspense that rivals Stephen King at his very best, James Patterson’s ZOO is an epic, non-stop thrill-ride from “One of the best of the best.” (TIME)
Yen Press has published several graphic novel adaptations of Patterson’s books aimed at younger readers, including Maximum Ride and Daniel X, but I believe this is the first “adult” book of his the company will adapt. According to Amazon, it comes out in November, two months after the prose novel.
SDCC’ 12 | A roundup of pre-con con news
Comic-Con International in San Diego may officially open today (last night was Preview Night), but the news has been rolling in for awhile. So let’s take a look at what’s been announced thus far.
• Of course you can’t have Comic-Con without news about Comic-Con itself. CBR’s Kiel Phegley spoke with CCI’s David Glanzer about the show, while Ryan Ingram spoke with Scott Morse about the Tr!ckster satellite event. And it seems like every non-comics media outlet reports on the show in some form or fashion; here’s an article by The Christian Post about religion and the show, for example. And finally, Tuesday brought the tragic news that a con attendee camping out for today’s Twilight panel was killed in front of the convention center after being struck by a car.
• I’m not 100 percent sure if it qualifies as Comic-Con news, but since it was officially announced in the Entertainment Weekly Comic-Con issue, let’s just go with it. Marvel’s big news going into the Con is that they plan to relaunch several titles later this year as part of “Marvel NOW!” Their recently released solicitations reveal they plan to cancel nine titles in October, but of course you can expect many if not all of them to come back in some form or fashion as Marvel NOW! rolls out.
• Mike Mignola and Hellboy return this December in Hellboy in Hell, the first four-issue miniseries in a series of miniseries about the title character’s post-demise adventures.
SDCC ’12 | J. Michael Straczynski to relaunch ‘Joe’s Comics’ at Image Comics next spring
JMS
As a part of a “new media company” that will produce stories for movies, TV, digital series and more, J. Michael Straczynski will relaunch his “Joe’s Comics” imprint next spring at Image Comics.
As reported by Deadline, Straczynski will revive the imprint that Top Cow once published circa 2000-2004, which brought us Delicate Creatures, Midnight Nation and Rising Stars. The first four comics that will appear under the imprint include Falling Angel, Ten Grand, Guardians and Sidekick.
Joe’s Comics is one piece of Studio JMS, which has film and digital media projects in the works, including a film called The Flickering Light and a web series for MTV titled The Adventures Of Apocalypse Al. On the TV front, JMS has two projects in the works–Vlad Dracula for Starz and one called Epidemic.
“The center of the storm is what comes out of my keyboard,” he told Deadline. “It’s all about creating IP. For 20 years, I’ve had the remarkable good fortune to work successfully as a writer and producer in a wide variety of fields, from television to comics and movies. I’ve always dreamed of creating a mini-studio where I can put all of that work under one roof, telling stories that I want to tell and which can be spun up between various platforms: comics that can become TV shows, TV shows that can become movies, and movies that can become comics. With the tremendous recent success of films such as The Avengers, Thor and the Batman series of films, this feels like the best time to tackle that dream. Best of all, unlike many other start-up ventures, I’m not looking to get into these areas, I’m already working in them; now it’s just a matter of taking the next logical step: consolidation.”
SDCC ’12 | Jock’s The Dark Knight Rises con-exclusive poster
The Dark Knight Rises by Jock
Here’s one of the spoils of being lucky enough to land a ticket to Comic-Con this year–Mondo will sell this exclusive The Dark Knight Rises poster at their booth Thursday. Designed by Jock, it can only be purchases at booth #437, and to find out when excatly it’ll go on sale, you have to follow Mondo’s Twitter feed, @MondoNews.
The posters are limited in number to 375 and cost $50. No doubt they’ll be up on eBay sometime tomorrow for a lot more than that.
SDCC ’12 | Simpsons comics go digital with comiXology app
comiXology and Bongo Comics have announced plans to launch a Simpsons comics app during the Bongo panel Thursday at Comic-Con International in San Diego.
The app will launch with 20 Simpsons comics, while a free copy of Simpsons Comics #100 will also be available for a short time at comiXology.com. The comics available at launch are:
Bart Simpson #1, 72
Bartman # 1, 2
Lisa Comics #1
Radioactive Man #8, 100
Simpsons Comics #1, 40, 87, 109, 131, 149, 175, 191
Simpsons One-Shot Wonders: Bart Simpson’s Pal Milhouse #1
Simpsons One-Shot Wonders: Ralph Wiggum Comics #1
Simpsons Summer Shindig #1
Simpsons Super Spectacular #1, 15
SDCC ’12 | Frank Cho’s ‘Brandy in Space’ print
The cast of Frank Cho’s Liberty Meadows is ready for Comic-Con International in typical cheesecake fashion, as the crew sports the outfits of a certain popular science-fiction franchise from the 1960s.
“It was interesting to see all the details on the costumes and the props while studying the reference photos,” Cho wrote on his blog. “I couldn’t believe how simple and crude the captain’s chair was. I just cracked up looking at all the 1960’s beehive hair-dos on the female cast. Talk about walking down memory lane. Despite the shoe-string budget and the dated look, Star Trek still told great emotional and entertaining stories. And this print is my nod to that great classic show. Live Long and Prosper.”
Colored by Brandon Peterson, the print is limited to 250 copies and costs $20. It’s available at booth #4907, the Big Wow Art booth.
