Gareb Shamus

Gareb Shamus, divisive founder of the once-influential Wizard magazine, has resigned as president and chief executive officer of Wizard World Inc.

The publicly traded company announced the move in documents filed Thursday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. “The resignation is not the result of any disagreement with the company on any matter relating to the company’s operations, policies or practices,” Shamus wrote in his two-sentence letter of resignation.

Michael Mathews, the former CEO of interclick inc. who joined Wizard World in March as chairman, will oversee the day-to-day operations of the company until Shamus’ replacement can be found.

Shamus founded Wizard: The Guide to Comics in 1991, overseeing the rise of a magazine whose prosperity was inextricably tied to the speculator boom it helped fuel with its price guides, creator hot lists and enthusiastic coverage of new publishers like Image Comics and Valiant. By 1997, Wizard Entertainment had added Inquest Gamer and ToyFare magazines and extended its reach with the purchase of Chicago Comicon, later rebranded Wizard World Chicago, setting the company on its long, and occasionally rough, path to becoming a major organizer of regional conventions (earlier this year Wizard World briefly trumpeted 12 cities before slashing that number to eight).

However, the following decade wasn’t as kind to Wizard or the comics industry, with the magazine seeing its circulation dwindle to about 17,000 copies by December 2010. A month later, Shamus abruptly announced the closing of Wizard and ToyFare, the company’s last remaining magazines, and the subsequent launch of an online magazine, a move he later characterized as “the smartest business decision I’ve made in years.”

But about two weeks ago, the digital magazine that Shamus had boasted reached “millions of people” apparently disappeared from the Internet, just about the time that its founder launched a blog on the Wizard World site. Now that, too, is gone. His new Twitter account remains — although he hasn’t written an update since Nov. 28.

Wizard World hopes to have Shamus’ successor in place by Jan. 15.

Looks like Wizard Magazine/Wizard Entertainment/Wizard World founder Gareb Shamus is taking a more hands-on approach to the internet component of his comics-related empire. After years of communicating with his audience (or at least putting his signature on these communications) solely through press releases, editor’s letters, and the occasional confrontation over unrefunded subscriptions to the now-defunct Wizard magazine with a white Lando Calrissian cosplayer, Shamus has started a blog and opened a Twitter account. Meanwhile, Wizard Magazine’s much-ballyhooed digital incarnation — previously touted by Shamus as “the smartest business decision I’ve ever made” — appears to have disappeared from the Internet.

On Twitter, Shamus is following a dozen people, including Brian Michael Bendis, Jim Lee, Kevin Smith, and Whitney Cummings of the NBC comedy Whitney. So far his only tweet is a retweeted link to an interview with Siggy Flicker, matchmaker and star of VH1′s Why Am I Still Single? (Ironically, perhaps, that last bit reminds me of the weird fake Gareb Shamus twitter account that’s been following virtually all of us ex-Wizard employees for a couple of years now.)

On his blog, Shamus has posted interviews with creators Bill Sienkiewicz, David Mack, Marv Wolfman, Phil Jimenez, Greg Capullo, and Kevin Maguire, as well as his thoughts on chocolate chip cookies. That’s actually a pretty fun line-up.

But Wizard World, the digital magazine that replaced Wizard‘s print iteration after it and sister publication ToyFare were unceremoniously canceled? Nowhere to be found on its dedicated URL WizardWorldDigital.com. And on Wizard’s main site, currently billing itself as the place “Where Pop Fi Comes to Life,” Wizard World‘s death has gone unnoted as well. Perhaps White Lando can direct inquiries about this matter to @gareb.

Dwayne McDuffie

Creators | Eugene Son, a friend of late comics creator Dwayne McDuffie, announced plans to transform the writer’s website from “one that promoted his work to one that reflects his immense legacy.” The site’s blog will remain active, with plans to post old columns and scripts written by McDuffie, as well as tributes and stories from McDuffie’s friends. Earlier this week Son posted a 2002 essay he said was one of McDuffie’s most-read works, “Six Degrees of St. Elsewhere (aka The Grand Unification Theory).” [DwayneMcDuffie.com]

Publishing | Wizard has hired Kevin Kelly as managing editor of its “website, social media and digital content endeavors.” Kelly has previously worked for several entertainment websites, including io9, Moviefone, Cinematical and Joystiq, and was most recently senior features editor for G4tv.com. [press release]

Manga | Playback hosts a “Manga Moveable Feast” on Ken Akamatsu’s Love Hina, which returns to print from Kodansha Comics next week. [Playback:stl]

Conventions | Our own Brigid Alverson reports on the kids comics presence at this past weekend’s New York Comic Con. [Publishers Weekly]

New York Comic Con

Conventions | Alyssa Rosenberg gives her impressions of New York Comic Con: “… The other thing that stuck with me was the experience I’ve never had before, of being in a place essentially without a visible social hierarchy. Some of that is because this is a temporary community, and some of it’s because everyone there is pulling a Clark Kent, taking off their workaday clothes and putting on what makes them comfortable and most them, whether it’s Chuck Taylors or some really fantastic ladies-fit purple Mandalorian armor. But despite the fact that the audience ranged from black teenaged hipsters, to parents with their kids, to the standard, stereotypical white-dude comic fans, as well as up and down the age spectrum, it was essentially impossible to tell who had power among the attendees. Cosplayers? They get looked at, and praised, and have their pictures taken, but getting what you want out of an experience isn’t necessarily the same as having power in it. Consumers? To a certain extent, yes: you might have to wait in a lot of lines, and pay money, but the entire experience exists for your stimulation. But by the temporary nature of the situation, there’s no way to tell who’s cool, maybe because for once, for a couple of days, it just doesn’t matter.” [ThinkProgress]

Creators | Jeff Lemire chats briefly about his plans for DC’s Animal Man and Frankenstein, Agent of S.HA.D.E. [io9.com]

Creators | Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian discusses his passion for comics and working with artist Alex Ross on the band’s latest album cover, among other topics. [Denver Westword]

Commentary | Our own Matt Seneca looks at a recent collection of Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant comic. “A few pages into the fourth of Fantagraphics’ beautifully reprinted new editions of Hal Foster’s masterpiece and it’s difficult indeed to remember that this isn’t the greatest comic ever.” [The Comics Journal]

– Wizard World CEO, and self-described pioneer, Gareb Shamus, in an interview touching upon the legacy of Wizard magazine, criticism from former employees and more

Most of their posts focus in large part, or even in full, in praising the work and character of their co-workers. (There are exceptions, of course: Writing for Bleeding Cool, recently laid-off freelance price guide writer Mark Allen Haverty mostly praises the work and character of…Mark Allen Haverty.) And no one — not even writer Chris Ward, whose comments about the Shamus Brothers are among the most scathing you’re likely to see — has come forth with the full-on “here’s where all the bodies are buried” piece some folks are no doubt waiting for. Nevertheless, the picture that emerges when the remembrances of the Wizard diaspora are pieced together is a clear one: Wizard and its related publications employed a staff talented enough to land on their feet in positions across the length and breadth of the comics industry and pop culture at large; a staff whose bonds of mutual admiration and respect last to this day; a staff that has high hopes for the employees who were let go in this most recent spate of cutbacks (laid-off Research Editor Dan Reilly, an 18-year veteran of the company, and still-standing ToyFare editor Justin Aclin are repeatedly singled out for high marks); a staff that includes many who feel their potential and that of the publications for which they worked were consistently squandered by what they deem the erratic and unscrupulous management of the company. In a way, they indicate that while the death of Wizard is unfortunate, the death of the alternate-universe Wizard that might have emerged from a better marshaling of their talents may be the bigger loss.

Below you’ll find links to a comprehensive list of posts by former Wizard, ToyFare, Anime Insider, and WizardUniverse.com editors, writers, and contributors. It will be updated as more become available.

Alejandro Arbona (former Associate Editor, Wizard; Associate Editor, Marvel): “I’ll be 100% blunt in my opinion: Gareb & Stephen Shamus are dishonest, disreputable, ethically rudderless businessmen playing a shell game.” [Alejandro Arbona's Twitter]

Scott Beatty (former Editor, ToyFare; writer, Batgirl: Year One, Buck Rogers, DC’s Ultimate Guides, etc.): “Any mention of ToyFare should include Editor-in-Chief Pat McCallum, who was the comedic heart and guiding influence of the magazine.” [Points of Articulation]

Rob Bricken (former Editor, Anime Insider; Editor, Topless Robot): “For all the shit Wizard got, I don’t think my writing has been influenced by anything more — that nerdy subjects could be worth of news coverage, critical thought, and a shit-ton of humor. That you could take things like comics more seriously than regular people, but less seriously than insane fanboys. There was a time when Wizard did that before and better than anybody, and I hope people remember that. At least today.” [Topless Robot]

Rob Bricken, part two: “…I would like to call out the gutless shitweasels in charge of the company who had the unmitigated hubris and bastardry to issue a press release today, heralding both the announcement of “Wizard World” and that Wizard is now being publicly traded without ever mentioning the cancellation of either magazine, or the god-knows-how-many people they laid off. Not only it is callous and classless, telling people they should invest money in their company ON THE SAME DAY THEY CANCELED THEIR TWO MOST VISIBLE PRODUCTS… well, that sums up Wizard Entertainment more than anything.” [Topless Robot]

Mel Caylo (former Editorial Director, Wizard Entertainment; Marketing Manager, Archaia): “It really irks me that some people are celebrating the 
demise of Wizard, but that’s the Internet for you. It won’t take away 
all the good times I had and the good people I met at the company.” [Newsarama]

Mel Caylo, part two: “There definitely were a lot of disagreements between editorial and the managerial side of things.” [Meltdown Comics' Meltcast]

Sean T. Collins (former Managing Editor, Wizard; writer, Robot 6, Maxim, Destructor, etc.): “I met, oh, between a dozen and two dozen of the best people I’ve ever known, people with whom I’m close friends to this day. You’d recognize their names as they’re in positions of prominence across the industry and the popcultjourno biz at large; I don’t care about any of that so much as i care about the fact that they’re kind, generous, talented people I’m privileged to know and be associated with. And there’s nothing I can say about Wizard and its management more damning than telling you how poorly so many of those people were treated there, up through and including today.” [Attentiondeficitdisorderly]

TJ Dietsch (former Associate Editor, ToyFare/freelance writer, Wizard and ToyFare; freelance writer, Marvel.com, Maxim.com, etc.): “…I got the news and was floored. I had actually just started writing for Wizard again, though I don’t know whether the piece I finished will ever run or what the deal is. It was fun to write about comics again.” [United Monkee]

Eric Drumm (former freelance writer, ToyFare; freelance copywriter, DC): “ToyFare and the people i met there opened every door that has ever been opened to me.” [Eric Drumm's Twitter]

Ryan Dunlavey (former freelance illustrator and cartoonist, Wizard and ToyFare; artist, Action Philosophers and Comic Book Comics): “WIZARD: It was fun working there, the people were awesome and they all deserved better than what the owners gave them. THE END.” [Ryan Dunlavey's Twitter]

Poe Ghostal (former freelance writer, ToyFare; Editor, Points of Articulation): “The heyday of the action figure industry was around 1999-2004, so in some ways it’s impressive that ToyFare lasted as long as it did, and remained fairly successful for most of that time (as far as I know, anyway). But I also know that all those toy news websites, and even sites like PGPoA, were hammering in ToyFare‘s coffin nails. It’s not at all clear to me how Wizard’s new online venture will fare, and what role ToyFare, or toys in general, will have in it. Here’s hoping the best parts of ToyFare survive, not only in whatever the new website brings, but in the continued success of its many contributors.” [Points of Articulation]

Jim Gibbons (former Associate Editor, Wizard; Publicity Coordinator, Dark Horse): “Between the dire atmosphere Wizard had towards the end of my tenure and the unceremonious and impersonal way I was let go, there was a fair share of anger and bitterness at a company I was once proud to work for. Time heals all wounds and all that jazz—a rad new job certainly doesn’t hurt, either—but I kind of felt I was past really caring about Wizard. I’d had good times there as well as bad and the place and publication seemed firmly set in my past, only occasionally entering my present when my job in comics PR required. It’s for that reason I found the disparate emotions that washed over me this week regarding the news about Wizard to be so unexpected. ” [Enemy of Peanuts]

Doug Goldstein (former VP, Wizard Special Projects; co-Head Writer, Robot Chicken): “From what I’ve read online so far, there’s too much celebration of the downfall of the “upstairs” management, and not enough loving eulogies recalling the good times we had “downstairs” in editorial. It IS understandable though. As Wizard got really big and successful, people “upstairs” thought everyone should suck their assholes because their dicks were too good for ‘em. Maybe that plan works at Halliburton, but the world of comics is a small place where everyone knows each other, loves what they’re working on, and likes to keep it loose. So you can imagine management’s annoyance that their bungholes remained unsucked. Wizard began as a silly fun-time friend and ended as an adversarial bully.” [Doug Is Typing]

Mark Allen Haverty (former freelance Price Guide writer, Wizard; editor, CrucialTaunt.com): “What I find so amusing about the posts here and on other sites is that the same people that ridiculed Alan Moore for his absurd criticisms of comics today, only to admit that he does not read any, is that those criticizing also proudly proclaim that they stopped reading ages ago. If they actually had read, they would know how absurd so many of their criticisms were. There is of course the knocks about Wizard being filled with boob jokes and homophobic cracks, which I rarely if ever saw in my two years in the magazine, and certainly not from me – after all, I did say [I have a] ‘partner’ above, for those of you playing along at home.” [Bleeding Cool]

Rick Marshall (former Editor, WizardUniverse.com; Editor, MTV Splash Page): “Sadly, I remember a time when Wizard could’ve turned the corner & ensured their future, but chose to keep walking toward a cliff instead. My sympathies go out to the Wizard staffers I’m still friendly with. Some of them really are the best in the biz.” [Mind Pollution]

Jim McLauchlin (former Consulting Editor for Wizard; co-founder and member of the Board of Directors, Hero Initiative): “I just had lunch with Mark Waid a couple weeks ago, and I mentioned to him that as much as people like to sharpen sticks and point them at Wizard, they were the only organization left that was willing to fund things such as the Wally Wood feature I wrote a few months ago, which I thought was a very good and very vital piece. I don’t know that there’s anywhere left in comics media that’s actually willing to pay for stuff like that anymore.” [Newsarama]

Ben Morse (former Staff Writer, Wizard; Associate Editor, Marvel.com): “I had a lot of fun during my three years at Wizard and I daresay on our good days we put out some fine content. In that sense, I’m sad to see the magazine go. I certainly know plenty of people have axes to grind with Wizard as an entity and organization and most of them have pretty legitimate grievances. For me, though, my time there was positive and so are my memories.” [Newsarama]

Zach Oat (former Editor, ToyFare; Editor, Television Without Pity and Movies Without Pity): “The company regularly swelled to seating capacity in times of growth only to contract to its previous size after a year or two. I saw at least two or three purges in my time there, which meant a lot of my friends were let go, although many got out ahead of a purge — the purge of early 2008 was what prompted me to leave, since a lot of my best friends at the company were gone by that point.” [Buster of Chops]

Ryan Penagos (former Price Guide Editor, Wizard; Editor, Marvel.com/Twitter superstar Agent M): “I’ve been thinking about all this today. And I’ve been thinking all my friends who were (or are) at Wizard. We, to a man, have all had different experiences. Some good, some bad, some terrible. But I have this great band of brothers (hurr durr) who I shared this time with and will be friends with for life. I’ve been thinking about guys like Andy Serwin and Dan Reilly (two names who, I assure you, you’ll hear great things about from most of us sane post-Wizard folks) who deserve better from the way this shook out. I’ve been thinking about shitty management and bad decisions and missed opportunities and hope for a successful future because there are people who still depend on the Wiz.” [Agent M Loves Tacos]

Kiel Phegley (former Staff Writer, Wizard; News Editor, Comic Book Resources): “I’m having a much harder time getting worked up over this than some of my bros, but then again, I expected the magazine to get killed about a year and a half ago.” [The Cool Kids Table]

Alex Segura (former Associate Editor, Wizard; Executive Director of Publicity and Marketing, Archie): “If you’d told me while at Wizard that I was working with future Marvel, DC, Archie, Archaia, Maxim, Robot 6, WB, Mashable, CBR, Television Without Pity, Bluewater, Topless Robot, Robot Chicken, Cracked and Bleacher Report employees or contributors, I probably would have scoffed. So, while the print magazine may be gone, the spirit of Wizard at its best certainly continues.” [Newsarama]

Alex Segura, part two: “And yeah, I did a lot of cool stuff while at Wizard – got to interview Sarah Michelle Gellar, met a ton of awesome creators and celebs, traveled around the country and networked like crazy. But the moments I miss – the ones that still get me choked up in a happy, ‘Damn, those were good times’ way – are the little ones. Laughing over our lunch break. Hanging out after a long week. Those quiet seconds between conversations when you’re just sitting around and basking in the fact that you’re surrounded by people you care about. That’s what I’ll remember most, and I’m thankful for that.” [Alex Segura's Tumblr]

Steve Sunu (former Staff Writer, Wizard; freelance writer, Comic Book Resources): “Wizard helped me get to where I am today. Some of the most awesome people I’ve ever met came through Wizard. It’s sad to see the magazine go.” [Steve Sunu's Twitter]

Chris Ward (former Staff Writer, Wizard; writer, Political Power: Barack Obama): “…while it’s easy to go with the old ‘Wizard can’t copy edit’ jokes or ‘Wizard has just been shitty boob graphics’ jokes during this time, just remember to direct your ire straight to the top, instead of where good people are not being paid enough to copy edit AND come up with something other than boob jokes AND write Gareb’s masthead letter (he never wrote his own masthead. In other breaking news, Burt Reynolds wears a toupee). And, even then, you almost can’t get mad at the people straight at the top. Because it falls on deaf ears. Because it’s aiming for the slow kid in a dodge ball game. Because it’s like getting mad at yourself for touching the stove every time and finding out, ‘Shit! That’s HOT!’” [World of WardCrap]

Brian Warmoth (former Staff Writer, WizardUniverse.com; freelance writer, Comic Book Resources, MTV Splash Page, etc.): “Used to work right next to the InQuest guys. The debates that went on in there made me look forward to work every day.” [Brian Warmoth's Twitter]

Brett White (former News Editor, WizardUniverse.com; writer, Tales to Diminish): “Wizard’s continued refusal to change with the times has now completely bitten them in their foot which was just shot by the gun their ass was holding. As a former employee who ran one of their websites (Wizard World) I know they are still using a late ’90s Yahoo Business model site. I know they cannot update their site more than 3 times a day. I know that the updating process takes about an hour. I know that Wizard Magazine was irrelevant because every other internet news site was beating us at our own game. But was any money ever pushed towards an up to date website? No.” [Digsy Finally Has a Tumblr]

Brett White, part two: “What hurts the most about all of this, ALL of this, is that it didn’t have to happen. Wizard as a name, as a thing, it’s something that has always existed to me. I started collecting hardcore in 1993 and Wizard was there for it. And when you look at all the great people that have worked there, it really should have always been at the absolute top of its game. Wizard in 2011 should be as popular as Wired in print and CBR/Newsarama/Etc online.” [Digsy Finally Has a Tumblr]

Josh Wigler (former Assistant Editor, Wizard; Editor, MTV Movies Blog): “OK, comment: met some of the best people I know through Wizard. Wouldn’t be where I am today without it. I’m very grateful for those things.” [Josh Wigler's Twitter]

Anonymous (former Wizard employee, let go as part of the cancellation of the magazines): “Honestly, I know [Wizard's new plan] will fail. First off, there is no leadership. The people that are still on staff have no digital publishing experience or seem to want to be there. As more money goes into the conventions, the less the owners care about the magazine side. They plan on publicly trading and launching this app for free with no real advertising. I think anyone who does a little research before purchasing stock will find just how screwed that place is.” [iFanboy]

Collins, Marshall, Oat, and Ward on Wizard’s female staffers

Wizard #234

Wizard magazine has ceased publication after nearly 20 years, laying off its remaining staff and canceling freelance assignments. Its sibling publication ToyFare also has closed.

CEO Gareb Shamus followed a morning filled with reports of the magazines’ demise with a press release announcing the February launch of “an all-new digital magazine called Wizard World” that will target the same audience. Curiously the release, which you can read below, doesn’t mention Wizard magazine. Instead its focus is on the news that Wizard World Inc. is now a public company with Shamus as its president and CEO.

Wizard World has since confirmed the closings of Wizard and ToyFare: “Wizard Entertainment is ceasing publication of the print magazines Wizard and ToyFare. Wizard World, Inc. will begin production of the online publication ‘Wizard World’ beginning in February. We feel this will allow us to reach an even wider audience in a format that is increasingly popular and more readily accessible.”

Calls to the Wizard offices this morning office went unanswered. The Wizard bullpen blog Pie Monkey has been taken offline, with assurances from its Twitter feed to “Please stay tuned — there’s a good chance we’ll be up and operational in the next 24-48 hours.” The link to magazine subscriptions on the Wizard website is also dead.

Launched in 1991, Wizard was once a dominant, if controversial, force in the comics industry, with its price guides, Top 10 Writers and Artists lists and annual Wizard Fan Awards carrying significant weight. But in recent years the magazine’s star faded even as its scope expanded — it rebranded itself as “The Magazine of Comics, Entertainment and Pop Culture” — becoming known more for its staff firings than for its exclusive coverage. ToyFare debuted in 1997 as a companion publication devoted to toys and collectibles.

Related: Charts watcher John Jackson Miller chronicles the circulation decline of Wizard, from an estimated 100,000 copies in October 1998 — not the height of its popularity, but the last month it broke the 100,000-copy mark — to just about 17,000 copies in December 2010.

Developing …

GAREB SHAMUS UNDERTAKES PUBLIC COMPANY WIZARD WORLD, INC. AND LAUNCHES NEW ONLINE PUBLICATION ‘WIZARD WORLD’

New York, NY (January 24, 2011) – Gareb Shamus, recently appointed President and CEO of public company Wizard World, Inc. (“Wizard World”) (OTC: GOEE.PK), today announced that the Comic Con Tour, which consists of pop culture conference events that provide high visibility marketing opportunities to pop culture brands and companies in multiple venues throughout the year, is now being produced by public company Wizard World. The Wizard World Comic Con Tour intends to cover 12 cities in 2011, including major cities such as New York City, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Austin and New Orleans. The Tour will include sponsors ranging from major movie studios and TV networks to gaming and toy companies to content publishers.

In addition, Wizard World plans to launch in February 2011 an all-new digital magazine called ‘Wizard World’ that will appeal to pop-culture fans, the same audience to which Mr. Shamus has catered to, for over 20 years. Wizard World digital magazine will provide coverage of the world of comic books, toys and superheroes, and the personalities behind them.

“This is a very exciting day for Wizard World and the industries it serves,” said Shamus. “Having the Tour produced by a public company provides additional opportunities to expand and grow the Tour. The new digital magazine Wizard World will give consumers the content they want in a magazine format with which they are familiar, but distributed in a form that is always available at any time on any device. It is a natural evolution for us in this market.”

Wizard World Comic Con will begin its North American tour at New Orleans Comic Con held from January 29 to 30, 2011. The full event schedule can be found at www.wizardworld.com.

Uncanny X-Force #1

Publishing | No comic cracked the 100,000-copy mark in the direct market in October, with the top title, Marvel’s Uncanny X-Force #1, selling an estimated 96,500 copies. Diamond’s graphic novel chart was led by DC Comics’ Superman: Earth One hardcover, which sold more than 16,000 copies. Retail news and analysis site ICv2.com notes that was the best number for a graphic novel since new volumes of Scott Pilgrim and The Walking Dead shipped in July. The website also pursues John Jackson Miller’s recent analysis of comics that don’t make it into Diamond’s Top 300, concluding: “Sales below the Top 300 may be growing in importance, but when we look at a fairly long period (10 months) either they aren’t big enough in the aggregate to make much difference, or their sales are changing at about the same rate as the Top 300’s. If anything, looking at year to date numbers, sales on titles below the Top 300 are shrinking faster than sales in the Top 300, at least in periodical comics.”

Meanwhile, Miller sifts through data made available by Diamond to determine that comics sales are 69.6 percent of the total market. [ICv2.com, The Comichron]

Conventions | Wizard Entertainment has announced its acquisition of Central Canada Comic Con in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Johanna Draper Carlson also picks up on rumors that the company is adding Mid-Ohio-Con to its growing stable. [press release, Comics Worth Reading]

My Friend Dahmer

Legal | John Backderf, aka cartoonist Derf, was excused from jury duty after he mentioned that he was close friends in high school with serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. (Derf’s Eisner-nominated comic My Friend Dahmer is being reworked and expanded into a full-length graphic novel.) [Cleveland.com]

Organizations | Retailer organization ComicsPRO has appointed Amanda Emmert to the new position of executive director and reduced the size of its board. [ICv2.com]

Publishing | Deb Aoki talks with Hikaru Sasahara, president of Digital Manga Publishing, about the Digital Manga Guild, a new program that will utilize fan translators, editors and letterers for no upfront pay. [About.com]

Conventions | Gary Tyrrell begins his wrap-up of New England Webcomics Weekend. [Fleen]

Conventions | PJ Hruschak reports on last weekend’s Mid-Ohio-Con. [Gamer Tell]

Libraries | Karen Green looks at how academic libraries classify graphic novels. [Publishers Weekly]

Incognito: Bad Influences

Creators | Frequent collaborators Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips discuss their series Incognito. “My thought behind it was what would superhero comics be like if during the early ’30s or early ’40s when they were starting, they stuck to the pulp roots and never went back to aiming them at children?” Brubaker says. “Initially, comics were much more like the pulps and then they realized, ‘Oh, these are being read by 4-year-olds.’ Suddenly, Batman didn’t have a gun. The pulps were read by older kids and teenagers and adults, so there was that darker edge to it.” [USA Today]

Creators | Tom Spurgeon conducts a longish Q&A with Sarah Glidden, creator of How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less. [The Comics Reporter]

H Day

Creators | Whitney Matheson chats with Renee French about H Day and migraine headaches. [Pop Candy]

Creators | Brian Heater continues his four-part interview with Jaime Hernandez. [The Daily Cross Hatch]

Creators | Bryan Lee O’Malley talks briefly about the end of the Scott Pilgrim series, the movie, and what comes next: “I’m definitely going to do more comics, that’s always been my calling. So that’s the plan for at least the next few years. When you’re doing comics, they take so long that when I think about what I’m doing next it’s like, ‘Oh and then I’ll be 40.’ So that’s tough. When you really schedule out your life its kind of terrifying, but that’s what I do.” [Metro News]

Creators | Russell Leadbetter delivers a profile of Mark Millar in which we learn, among other things, that the writer’s favorite meal is pizza and chips, “washed down with Irn-Bru,” and his favorite director is Richard Donner. [Herald Scotland]

Creators | Jeff Lemire talks with a Superman fan site about his run on Superboy. [Superman Homepage]

One Piece, Vol. 6

Publishing | With the release today in Japan of the 60th volume of One Piece, 200 million copies of Eiichiro Oda’s hit comedy-adventure will have been published. What’s more, this volume’s 3.4 million copies will break the record set by the previous volume. As of late August, One Piece had sold 20 million copies in 2010 alone — four times that of Naruto, the second-highest selling manga. On a related note, a 35-year-old Japanese man was arrested for copyright violation for allegedly distributing four manga, including the 59th volume of One Piece, online. [Japanator, The Mainichi Daily News]

Crime | Six people accused in the July robbery of a 77-year-old New York comics collector who died of a heart attack hours later could be charged with murder if police can link the crime to his death. [Democrat and Chronicle]

Conventions | Wizard Entertainment CEO Gareb Shamus announced he has acquired the two-year-old NOLA Comic-Con, which will become part of the Jan. 29-30 Wizard World New Orleans Comic Con. [press release]

Retailing | Borders Group will shut down its 564,000-square-foot distribution center in La Vergne, Tenn., on Dec. 23, resulting in the elimination of 93 jobs. [Nashville Post, via ICv2.com]

Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 1

Publishing | The first volume of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim ended its four-month reign as the top graphic novel in bookstores, dethroned by the 49th volume of Masashi Kishimoto’s Naruto. Scott Pilgrim maintains a steely grip on the BookScan chart, though, claiming six of the Top 10 spots. [ICv2.com]

Conventions | Adam Lehrer previews Tuscon Comic-Con, being held Saturday at the Hotel Arizona. [The Arizona Daily Star]

Retailing | Mike Sagert, convention organizer and former owner of Dream Days in Syracuse, N.Y., is profiled in article that includes quotes from Kurt Busiek and Tom Peyer. [The Daily Orange]

Creators | Brian Heater kicks off a four-part interview with Jaime Hernandez. [The Daily Cross Hatch]

How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less

Creators | Douglas Wolk talks with Sarah Glidden, creator of How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less: “A lot of the cartoonists whose work I love tend to find interesting ways to represent their thoughts. I love how Gabrielle Bell blurs the line between “real life” and imagination. Sometimes you read her work and wonder whether this or that situation actually happened to her, or whether it was a dream or fantasy. But in the end, does it really matter? It was part of her experience of the world. Then there’s Kevin Huizenga, who uses form in comics to pick apart the way the mind works in a more universal way, how our thoughts fold back on themselves. Or what rumination would look like if you could diagram it. It’s not that I think my work is similar, but reading comics like that has shown me how perception can be something worth investigating with comics.” [Techland]

Creators | Marc Librescu continues his three-part conversation with Bizarro cartoonist Dan Piraro. [TCJ.com]

Creators | Mike Russell chats with Berkeley Breathed about Bloom County, the IDW collections, Charles Schulz, and reclusive Calvin & Hobbes creator Bill Watterson: “The boy has gone to ground. We exchanged a large number of letters many years ago, where he’d penned brilliant, hilarious, deeply cruel cartoons of me or Opus at both our expenses. But now? Only quiet. I’ve got a very solid report that he was seen working at a Six Flags doing caricatures for 5 bucks. I’m serious. They said he looked really happy, albeit completely insane. I put out a bowl of milk for him on the porch on warm summer nights.” [AICN.com]

Wolverine #1, the top seller in September

Publishing | John Jackson Miller delves into September’s grim direct-market sales figures and discovers a (relative) bright spot: Sales of lower-tier titles — those that don’t crack Diamond’s Top 300 — appear to be increasing, to record levels. “How do we know?” Miller writes. “Believe it or not, a record for high sales was actually set in September. The 300th place comic book, Boom’s Farscape #11, sold more copies to retailers in September than in any month since November 1996: 4,702 copies. That’s a record for the period following Marvel’s return to Diamond. This bellwether tells us about the shape of the market, and how prolific the major and middle-tier publishers are; when many of their titles are being released and reordered, higher-volume titles tend to push farther into the list.”

However, the higher you go on the list, the worse things look: “The average comic book in the Top 25 is selling more poorly in 2010 than in 2003. At the very top of the chart, 2010′s average top-sellers are about 25% off what the best-sellers of 2003 were doing.” [The Comichron]

Comic-Con International

Comic-Con | A last-minute reminder: Four-day and single-day passes for Comic-Con International go on sale today at 9 a.m. PT. [Comic-Con International]

Creators | AdHouse Books Publisher Chris Pitzer puts out the call to help cartoonist Joshua Cotter, whose apartment was damaged last week by fire. The publisher is donating all money from sales of Skyscrapers of the Midwest, Driven by Lemons and AdHouse Sticker Pack #2 over the next three weeks to Cotter. [AdHouse Books]

Conventions | Greg Mellen reports on this weekend’s Long Beach Comic Con. [Contra Costa Times]

Conventions | Wizard Entertainment will add Miami to its expanding convention stable, debuting with an event scheduled for Feb. 26-27 at the Miami Airport Convention Center. [press release]

Publishing | Viz Media announced in the December issue of Shonen Jump that it’s launching a digital manga supplement for magazine subscribers. Andre Paploo has the sparse details and speculation. [Kuriosity, via MangaBlog]

Publishing | Deb Aoki rounds up recent title acquisitions by Digital Manga Publishing. [About.com]

Publishing | DC Comics is hiring an editorial scheduling coordinator for the New York City office. [Comix411]

Jerry Robinson

Creators | Robot 6 contributor Chris Maunter interviews legendary artist Jerry Robinson who discusses, among other things, the creation and legacy of the Joker: “… Every great hero had a counterpart as a protagonist. That’s what I wanted to give [Batman]. At the time in the ’30s, he fought all these gangsters and embezzlers, bank robbers, occasionally there was a mad scientist. But mostly they were prohibition-era villains. That’s who Batman was fighting. There was no mind behind the opposition. Strangely enough there was a feeling at the time that a stronger villain would detract from the hero. Now from our standpoint, that’s not true. The great villains provided a platform for the hero. So what if he was stronger, the hero had to win in the end. On the other hand the heroes had to be heroic. Villains could be bastards and they’re always more interesting to write about. More provocative. I think that was part of it.” [TCJ.com]

Charlie Adlard, in zombie form

Creators | The Walking Dead artist Charlie Adlard is profiled by his local newspaper, and talks about the comic and playing a zombie in the AMC adaptation. [Shropshire Star]

Creators | Cartoonist Garry Trudeau is the subject of a brief article about the 40th anniversary of Doonesbury. [Vanity Fair]

Creators | Tom Horgen spotlights Death-Day, by Sam Hiti, describing the cartoonist as “like H.R. Giger with a softer brush stroke and a sense of humor.” [Star-Tribune]

Creators | Faith Erin Hicks answers questions about her work process. [Livejournal]

Creators | Stumptown Trade Review posts an audio interview with Drinking at the Movies cartoonist Julia Wertz. [Stumptown Trade Review]

Wizard Entertainment

Conventions | Wizard Entertainment has added New Orleans to its growing convention circuit, bringing the number of events to 15 in 14 cities. The inaugural New Orleans Comic Con will be held on Jan. 29-30, 2011, at the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. [press release]

Crime | Two Rochester, N.Y., men have been charged with burglary after they allegedly broke into the home of 70-year-old Homer Marciniak in July, beat him and stole his comic book collection. Marciniak died of a heart attack later that day. Authorities have determined his injuries were not life-threatening, and that his death was a result of a pre-existing condition. [WKBW.com]

Publishing | The Yano Research Institute’s survey of the “otaku marketplace” found that digital comics in Japan grew 29.8 percent in 2010 to $520 million. Dojinshi (self-published works) rose 4.7 percent to $815 million. [Anime News Network]

Publishing | Steve Saffel, senior acquisitions editor of Titan Books, cautions that recent reports of a 9-percent increase in digital book sales may not be telling the whole story: “We haven’t suddenly added 9% to the sales of books. As the sales of digital books are growing, they’re causing a related decrease in print sales. So the two numbers are both moving closer to the center. What’s really going to make the difference is when we begin to add readers.” [ICv2.com]

Grant Morrison

Creators | Grant Morrison discusses Batman Inc. and Pax Americana, his take on some of the Charlton superheroes who originally were to appear in Watchmen: “The idea was to take the Charlton characters and put them in a completely different and kind of take the ideas of Watchmen, these sort of architectural constructions, these formal ideas and apply them to a completely new story. It’s not a murder mystery; it’s a completely different kind of mystery that takes place today, in a world not of the Cold War, but of international terror and conspiracy, and involving a bunch of superheroes. What took were those really complex and crystalline story techniques and tried to create new versions of all those Alan Moore transitions, the little visual cues and thematic cues … and the thematic idea of a comic within a comic.” [Comics Alliance]

Fred Van Lente

Creators | Chuck O’Donnell profiles writer Fred Van Lente, focusing on his upcoming Marvel miniseries Chaos War: “We had to make this thing super-mega-huge. This is a disaster movie on a superhero scale. Supermen may not be all that impressed by meteors or earthquakes, but in the Chaos King we have a villain who is destroying the Dream Realm, the Underworld, the pantheons of the Norse, Greek, and all the other gods in Marvel U. The entire multiverse will be utterly destroyed, with the dead and dark Chaos King as the only thing left in creation. So the stakes are high, to say the least.” [YourNabe.com]

Creators | Dale Lazalov chats briefly with Capitol Hillbillies creator Christopher “Stu” Lange. [Bleeding Cool]

Comics | Joe Keatinge assembles a guide to other works by contributors to Marvel’s Strange Tales II #1. [Neon Monster]

Comics | USA Today’s Whitney Matheson has a preview of Joann Sfar’s adaptation of The Little Prince. [Pop Candy]

Fandom | Jim Dedman interviews attorney Mark S. Zaid, whose legal-themed comic book collection makes up part of the Yale Law Library exhibit “Superheroes in Court! Lawyers, Law and Comic Books.” [Abnormal Use]

Diamond Comic Distributors

Diamond Comic Distributors has notified retailers served by its Los Angeles warehouse that, “due to mechanical difficulties experienced in transit,” 31 items scheduled for release on Wednesday will be delayed until next week.

The comics are:

Marvel
The Amazing Spider-Man #638 (2nd printing variant)
Captain America in the 1940s Newspaper Strip #3
Dream Logic #2
The Essential Hulk, Vol. 6
The Heroic Age: Prince of Power #4
Namor: The First Mutant #1
Namor: The First Mutant #1 (Quesada sketch variant)
Namor: The First Mutant #1 (Quesada variant)
Punisher MAX: Happy Ending #1
Scarlet #1 (2nd printing-Maleev variant)
Shadowland: Moon Knight #1
Spider-Girl: The End #1
Thanos Imperative #2 (2nd printing-Sepulveda variant)

Avatar Press
Fevre Dream #5
Fevre Dream #5 (nightmare variant)
Fevre Dream #5 (wrap cover)
Gravel #20
Gravel #20 (wrap cover)
Wolfskin: Hundredth Dream #4
Wolfskin: Hundredth Dream #4 (3-copy incentive)
Wolfskin: Hundredth Dream #4 (Blood Thirst cover)
Wolfskin: Hundredth Dream #4 (painted cover)
Wolfskin: Hundredth Dream #4 (wrap cover)

BOOM! Studios
Codebreakers trade paperback

Dynamite Entertainment
Ani-Max One-Shot
Garth Ennis’ Battlefields #9
Bullet to the Head #3
Robocop #6

Wizard Entertainment
Wizard Magazine #230

Zenescope
Salem’s Daughter #5 (Cover A-Liefeld)
Salem’s Daughter #5 (Cover B-Seidman)

Big Apple Comic Con

Wizard Entertainment CEO Gareb Shamus has announced an additional New York City convention set for May 6-8, 2011, overlapping with Free Comic Book Day and the premiere of Marvel’s Thor.

Comic Con NYC — not to be confused with rival Reed Exhibitions’ New York Comic Con, certainly — will be held in the newly renovated Penn Plaza Pavilion, which will play host in October to Shamus’ Big Apple Comic Con.

“Response to last year’s Big Apple Comic Con and advance interest in the show this October has been so strong that we had to add the Spring event,” Shamus said in the announcement. “Everyone – the celebrities, the fans, the dealers, manufacturers, artists, and the entire community we deal with was begging us to bring a huge Spring event to New York. And now we have Wizard World Comic Con NYC.”

Rich Johnston suggests the date might be “ideal” to tempt Marvel back into the Wizard fold. However, it’s tough to imagine Marvel viewing as some sort of olive branch an event that stands to compete with Thor‘s opening weekend, at least regionally. What’s more, the studio doesn’t need Wizard World to market the movie — to its core audience, no less — particularly that late in the game.

What may be interesting to see is reaction from New York-area retailers regarding the possibility of the convention siphoning off Free Comic Book Day traffic. I don’t know, maybe some attendees will still wander over to Midtown Comics or Jim Hanley’s Universe to pick up free comics before heading back to the Penn Plaza Pavilion.

Wizard

“We’re not done with Philly per se, but we do seem to be done, at least for the moment, with the Wizard conventions.”

–Marvel Executive Editor Tom Brevoort, answering a Formspring question about Marvel’s third Wizard World Philadelphia no-show in a row by making Marvel’s severance from Wizard’s convention wing more-or-less official. (On its blog, Wizard reports that this year’s Philadelphia show “broke ever [sic] attendance record EVER!! The show was a HUGE success!”)

The battle of New York is over without so much as a shot fired.

On its convention website, Gareb Shamus’s Wizard Entertainment announced this morning that it is rescheduling its suite of Northeastern comic conventions, eliminating the head-to-head, same-town, same-dates match-up between its Big Apple Comic Con and Reed Exhibition’s New York Comic Con on October 7-10. Now, the Big Apple Comic Con will now be held on Oct. 1-3, the New England Comic Con on Oct. 15-17, and the New Jersey Comic Con on dates to be announced later. In addition, Big Apple has changed locations from Pier 94 to the Penn Plaza Pavilion, while the New England show will be hosted at Boston’s John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center. It’s unclear whether the New Jersey con’s date change will lead to a move from Edison’s New Jersey Convention & Exposition Center upon rescheduling.

Wizard made headlines, and drew a significant industry backlash, beginning late last year by making a series of aggressive scheduling moves against veteran convention promoter Reed and its slate of comic and pop-culture shows. Most notoriously, Wizard scheduled its Big Apple show the very same weekend as Reed’s New York Comic Con, October 7-10, and in 12th Avenue venue literally blocks away from NYCC’s Javits Center location. Later, Wizard scheduled its New Jersey con for the following weekend. Ever since, guest-list comparisons and official industry presences have weighed in mightily in Reed’s favor.

Wizard’s move is not without precedent: Shamus’s company earlier switched the dates for its Chicago Comic Con from Aug. 12-15 to Aug. 19-22 following Reed and Lucasfilm’s scheduling of Star Wars Celebration V for the original dates. But this move seems more likely an attempt to accommodate comics industry players who did not seem keen on shuttling back and forth between two competing shows in their New York City backyard.

Of course, the date-shuffling and venue-switching hardly represents a cessation of hostilities: Scheduling shows in Manhattan and Boston the weekends before and after Reed’s NYCC could be seen as an attempt to leech business away from more established show. But we’ve already had a same-weekend Reed/Wizard match-up a few weeks back, when Reed’s inaugural Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo more or less forced Wizard’s Anaheim Comic Con into obscurity despite underwhelming attendance (to which, it must be said, Reed admitted with refreshing candor). At this point, it’s tough to say whether there’s really any direct competition between Wizard’s nostalgia-tinged line-up of genre-TV stars and Reed’s much more comics-focused conventions. But whatever competition there is has just gotten much less direct.

C2E2

Conventions | On the eve of the inaugural Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo, the Chicago Reader examines the escalating competition between convention owner Reed Exhibitions and longtime Chicago Comic Con organizer Wizard Entertainment: “It’s but one battleground in a war the two powers are waging across the country — an epic struggle that some observers see as a contest between the forces of good and, well, not so good.”

Writer Deanna Isaacs touches upon the rise of Wizard’s Rosemont event to the second-largest comics convention in North America, and its more recent decline. She quotes a couple of local retailers who have become “disenchanted” with the show. But Wizard CEO Gareb Shamus shrugs off the complaints: “Everybody’s going to tell you this or that. You’re talking about one person. We have 1,000 vendors at our show in Chicago, and they make a lot of money.”

The Daily Herald interviews C2E2 show-runner Lance Fensterman, who says he expects between 35,000 and 40,000 attendees this weekend. The Chicago Tribune, meanwhile, offers its own preview, with eight “must-see” convention events, and brief Q&As with Alex Ross and Jeff Smith. [C2E2]

Mark Fiore cartoon

Digital comics | Mark Fiore, who earlier this week became the first editorial cartoonist to win the Pulitzer Prize exclusively for animated work, had his iPhone app rejected in December. Apple told Fiore that his NewsToons app, with its Flash-animated political satire, “contains content that ridicules public figures,” a violation of its iPhone Developer Program License Agreement.

As Laura McGann notes in her article, Fiore isn’t the first cartoonist to have difficulties with Apple: The Bobble Rep app, which uses caricatures by Tom Richmond, and Daryl Cagle both initially were rejected by Apple on the same grounds. [Nieman Journalism Labs, via Romenesko]

Digital comics | Brian Heater considers what Apple’s iPad could mean to independent comics. [The Daily Cross Hatch]

Publishing | Tom Spurgeon, Sean T. Collins and Alan David Doane comment on March’s comics-price milestone as, for the first time, more comics in Diamond’s Top 300 were priced at $3.99 than at $2.99. [The Comics Reporter, Attentiondeficitdisorderly, Trouble with Comics]

Conventions | Rob Clough and Frank Santoro file reports from the MoCCA Festival, while Graphic NYC and Indie Spinner Rack team up for audio, transcript and photos from the panel “The Art of the Superhero: When Singular Vision Meets Popular Mythology.” [MoCCA Festival]

Conventions | A writer with Suffolk University’s student newspaper offers a dreary assessment of last weekend’s Boston Comic Con. [The Suffolk Voice]

Kick-Ass #1

Creators | Keith Phipps chats briefly with Mark Millar about Kick-Ass, creating his own properties, and his “knack for writing troubled, sensitive teens”: “The funny thing, actually, is that it seems to have become a little thing, like the way Stephen King always writes about writers from Maine. I think it’s totally a lack of imagination on my part. When I stop and look back, I think, ‘Shit, I’ve just done the same thing each time.’ [Laughs.] People say ‘Write what you know.’ And I suppose at that age, I was a kid obsessed with comic books. I just wrote from the heart, I suppose, what things were like for me at that point. I mean, Kick-Ass in particular is massively autobiographical, right down to things like Dave’s mom dying at the same age my mom died. Same name, same reason, all this kind of stuff. I didn’t even plan it out like that, I just found it pouring out once I was starting to write it. So yeah, I suppose I have to think up some new themes for new work.” [The A.V. Club]

G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #156

Creators | Brian Truitt spotlights writer Larry Hama, who returns to the G.I. Joe franchise with a Free Comic Book Day issue and ongoing series from IDW Publishing: “It’s like coming home again. It’s comfortable and it’s like, hey, I know these guys. I don’t have to do tons of research and read tons of back issues.” [USA Today]

Creators | Grant Morrison launches an interview tour focusing on Batman and Robin and Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne. [Comics Alliance, io9.com, Splash Page]

Creators | Matthew Meylikhov posts a video interview with artist Cameron Stewart from last weekend’s Boston Comic Con. [Multiversity Comics]

Education | A spotlight on Stanford University’s English 190G, known as “The Graphic Novel Class.” [The Stanford Daily]

From the new WizardWorld.com

If you were to go to WizardWorld.com, the online home of Gareb Shamus’s publishing, retail and convention empire, you would see a jazzy new layout (albeit one still based on the old Yahoo SiteBuilder template) and a fancy new logo for both the company and its many conventions (the little superhero silhouette guy is gone). You’d see news and blog sub-sites dedicated solely to guest-list updates for the aforementioned cons. You’d also see a major, major, MAJOR SPOILER for the acclaimed Syfy series Battlestar Galactica, based on the appearance of certain actors from the show at Wizard’s Chicago Comic Con. Let the surfer beware.

Disney & Marvel

Business | Marvel CEO Isaac Perlmutter, who’s now worth about $1.6 billion thanks primarily to Disney’s purchase of the company, is among the 97 newcomers on Forbes magazine’s annual list of world billionaires. Perlmutter, who’s No. 616 out of 1,011 billionaires, netted nearly $900 million in cash from the deal and became Disney’s second-largest stockholder — behind fellow billionaire, and Apple co-founder, Steve Jobs (No. 136 on the list, with a worth of $5.5 billion). In September, the 67-year-old Perlmutter debuted at No. 230 on the magazine’s list of 400 richest Americans. [Money Control, The Hollywood Reporter]

Retailing | Barnes & Noble, the largest bookstore chain in the United States, reportedly has refused to carry the new graphic novel by Molly Crabapple and John Leavitt, labeling Scarlett Takes Manhattan as “too pornographic.” In a brief interview, Crabapple notes the book also has encountered problems with Diamond Comic Distributors, which initially listed Scarlett as “mature” before “plunking it into the much-worse-for-distribution ‘adult’ section.” [The Gloss]

Diamond Book Distributors

Retailing | Using “cocktail napkin-style math,” Todd Allen estimates that the Amazon.com pricing glitch over the weekend that led to frenzied orders of deeply discounted deluxe-hardcover comics collections could end up costing Diamond Book Distributors somewhere between $100,000 and $400,000. (The glitch seems to have later affected Barnes & Noble, too, but on a much smaller scale.) Allen’s calculations involve a lot of guesswork — how many books were ordered, how many orders were filled, etc. — so there’s no telling just how wild his “wild guess” is, and I doubt Diamond will tell us whether he’s in the ballpark.

As of this morning, customers are still unable to buy Diamond-distributed books directly from Amazon. Prices at Barnes & Noble appear to have returned to normal, but many Marvel Omnibus editions remain out of stock. [Indignant Online]

Wizard Entertainment

Business | April Wiggins, marketing manager of Wizard Entertainment, has left the company after nine months. She’s been replaced by Jerry Milani, international editor of BaseballDigest.com and a veteran in sports-media relations. [Bleeding Cool]

Publishing | Tokyopop is looking for interns to join the marketing team for a three-month national tour. [Tokyopop, via About.com]

Creators | Cartoonist Guy Delisle discusses his travelogues and his current work, about living for a year in Jerusalem: “I’m just a normal guy wandering around. I collect information and mix it with my impressions.” [Global Times]

Creators | The alternative weekly in Salt Lake City, Utah, interviews Top Cow artist Tyler Kirkham. [City Weekly]

Creators | Mike Perridge chats with Kevin Colden, creator of Fishtown and I Rule the Night. [mpd57]

Manga | Katherine Dacey provides some pointers for reviewers who are unfamiliar with manga yet are assigned to write about it. Or, “If You’re Going to Hate on Manga …” [The Manga Critic]

Eliza Dushku ad for Wizard World Toronto

She was the top-billed star of the Wizard World conventions in Toronto and Anaheim — and briefly the victim of a case of mistaken identity with Warren Ellis. But now Eliza Dushku, the Joss Whedon mainstay who starred in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dollhouse, has quietly been dropped from the guest lists of both shows.

Is this a victory for the shows’ Con War rivals, Fan Expo (the same city as Toronto) and Reed’s Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo (the same weekend as Anaheim), a sign that Wizard’s rapid convention-circuit expansion isn’t making it any easier to attract big-name talent, or just schedule churn?

This latest rebranding of a small local show with the Wizard/”Comic Con” name is part of a now-established pattern; interestingly, Johnston describes it as one in which “no money actually chang[es] hands,” but rather an existing con infrastructure is essentially bartered for Wizard’s name recognition. I hadn’t heard that before, but it may be the only way such rapid expansion makes sense for a company with fewer employees than it’s had since its very earliest years.

In other recent Con War news, Johnston reported last week that Wizard has now sandwiched Reed Exhibition’s New York Comic Con with nearby shows of its own the weekend before (New England Comic Con, Oct. 1-3), the weekend after (New Jersey Comic Con, Oct. 15-17), and of course the very same weekend in the very same city (Big Apple Comic Con, Oct. 7-10). Johnston sees this as an attempt to crowd NYCC out; piggybacking off the press of the larger and more established show could also be a motivation.

For their part, Reed continues its M.O. of adding guests, rather than shows: Recently announced additions to Chicago Comics & Entertainment Expo — a competitor of Wizard’s Chicago Comic Con that runs head-to-head against Wizard’s Anaheim Comic Con the same weekend — include Dan DiDio, Paul Levitz, Mark Bagley, Peter David, Mark Waid, Dash Shaw, Chip Kidd, Art Baltazar, Bob Layton, Jonathan Hickman, Peter Tomasi, James Robinson, Greg Pak, Jim Valentino and, in all likelihood, probably quite a few I’m missing. The presence of DiDio, Levitz and Geoff Johns seems to be a pretty clear vote of confidence from DC, by the by. Meanwhile, reports that the city of Anaheim is strongly trying to woo Comic-Con International away from San Diego indicate that Wizard’s show isn’t quite what the city is looking for.

In the now-traditional mode for Wizard’s aggressive convention-circuit expansion, former North Coast owner Roger Priebe will remain aboard as an advisor and consultant.

The new show’s venue and dates have yet to be announced, but depending on when Wizard’s Cleveland and Cincinnati conventions end up falling, we may see another front in the Con War develop, this time against the Columbus-based long-time regional player Mid-Ohio Con.