WonderCon
Comics A.M. | Charges dropped against Susie Cagle in Occupy arrest
Susie Cagle
Legal | Cartoonist Susie Cagle, who was arrested last month while covering Occupy Oakland, says she has been cleared of all charges by the Oakland Police Department. The Society of Professional Journalists sent a letter to the Oakland police condemning the arrest, which ultimately assisted in getting the charges dropped. The letter called out the department’s crowd management policy, which says, “Even after a dispersal order has been given, clearly identified media shall be permitted to carry out their professional duties in any area where arrests are being made, unless their presence would unduly interfere with the enforcement action.” [Fishbowl LA]
Conventions | San Diego City Council approved a plan to have San Diego hotels pay for a $520 million convention center expansion. The plan moves to a second hearing in January and requires a vote of two-thirds of the hotels that cast ballots for approval. [NBC San Diego]
- December 9, 2011 @ 06:55 AM by JK Parkin
Advance registration opens for WonderCon 2012
WonderCon
Advance registration has opened for WonderCon 2012, which will be held March 16-18 at the Anaheim Convention Center while the event’s traditional venue, San Francisco’s Moscone Center, undergoes renovations.
Three-day adult badges cost $40 in advance ($50 onsite), while junior/senior badges go for $20 ($25 onsite). One-day passes for Friday or Saturday are $20 for adults ($25 onsite), and $10 for juniors/seniors ($13 onsite); Sunday badges are $10 in advance for adults ($15 onsite), and $5 for juniors/seniors ($7 onsite). Badges can be purchased on the convention website.
Special guests for WonderCon 2012 include Sergio Aragonés, Mark Evanier, Matt Fraction, Michael Golden, Mike Mignola, Steve Niles, Eric Powell, Bob Schreck, Fiona Staples and J. Michael Straczynski.
- December 2, 2011 @ 07:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Location, date for WonderCon 2012 still uncertain
WonderCon
Despite a report that WonderCon will be held next year in Anaheim, Calif., because of renovations to San Francisco’s Moscone Center, event organizers say no final decisions have been made.
David Glanzer, director of marketing and public relations for Comic-Con International, tells The Comics Reporter that while the organization is considering the Anaheim Convention Center as one of the possible locations for 2012, it’s possible that WonderCon could remain at the Moscone Center, its home since 2003.
He explained that although organizers were initially told there would be no dates available next year because of the construction, that recently changed. Now, with Comic-Con over, officials will turn their attention to the dates and facilities included in the new proposal.
- July 27, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by Kevin Melrose
Your video of the day | Paul Levitz speaks at Google
While in the Bay Area a few weeks ago for WonderCon, Paul Levitz, former DC president and publisher and current Legion of Super-Heroes writer, headed down the peninsula to speak at Google’s offices in Mountain View as a part of their Authors@Google speaker series. It’s a lengthy video, but well worth the time to check it out.
(Hat tip: Tom Galloway)
- April 22, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | Borders seeks bonus approval; Marvel’s ‘Point One’ sales
Borders
Retailing | A bankruptcy judge is expected to hear arguments today from the bankrupt Borders Group, which is seeking to pay $8.3 million in bonuses in a bid to retain key corporate personnel. The struggling bookseller says that 47 executives and director-level employees have quit since the company declared bankruptcy on Feb. 16 — two dozen just this month — leaving only 15 people in senior management positions. In a court filing last week, U.S. bankruptcy trustee Tracy Hope Davis objected to the bonus proposal, characterizing it as “a disguised retention plan for insiders, which also provides for discriminatory bonuses for non-insiders.” [The Detroit News]
Publishing | Todd Allen looks at sales estimates for the first issues in Marvel’s “Point One” initiative, which featured self-contained stories designed to serve as a jumping-on point for new or lapsed readers: “With the sole exception of Hulk, retailers ordered less copies of the ‘jump on’ issue, than the regular series. If you figure people picking up the title would also pick up the ‘.1′ introductory issue, this is a flaming disaster and there aren’t going to be a lot of these comics finding their way into the hands of new readers. It smack of very low buy-in from the retail community.” [Indignant Online]
- April 14, 2011 @ 07:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
WonderCon | SHIELD wants you!
TOP SECRET
You would think that a captive audience inside the Moscone Center this WonderCon would be the prime location for a recruiting booth. Instead, SHIELD set up on a corner across the street, inviting passersby to enlist in the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division.
Attended to by a few ‘plain’ agents in suits, there were a couple tactical officers helping people through the paperwork needed to apply for SHIELD; the officers were friendly and incredibly well informed on the showpiece of the enlistment booth: a 2012 Acura TL. This car is part of Honda’s luxury line and hearkens back to the early heavy-duty look of the mid-size sedan. The 2012 Acura TL is based priced at around $35,000 but SHIELD applicants got an exclusive look at the SHIELD Tactical Package, highlighted by SHIELD decals, flashing lights and a roof-mounted sonic cannon, a.k.a. the Hulkbuster. The EX-5000 is one of many features Stark Technologies, Inc. outfitted for SHIELD vehicles, along with enviro-clone projected holograms, 9 Speed HYPER-Shift Transmission and a self-detonating recon clone. As this Tactical Package was for SHIELD agents ranking 1.5 in clearance, the vehicle was outfitted with bulletproof, hyper-traction tires rather than any sort of repulsor tech probably given to higher ranking agents.
- April 8, 2011 @ 02:30 PM by Carla Hoffman
WonderCon | My wrap-up report from last weekend’s con
Cyclops and Jean Grey
It’s been almost a week since WonderCon, so I figured if I was going to talk about it, I should talk about it soon before it’s old news. So, some brief thoughts on the big show …
–As many have said, the floor was busier this year compared to past years, especially on Saturday. Friday was better, but I can still remember a time when Friday meant easily moving through the exhibit hall and browsing booths without too many people surrounding you. Not so much this year. It seemed like there were more exhibitors, or at least more space was given to exhibitors, and the comic booths at the front of the hall seemed to be packed every time I went by. The line to buy the special Uncanny X-Men/San Francisco Giants variant cover at the Marvel booth was an intimidating thing on Friday, looping around the booth. I never even made it inside the DC booth because of the crowds. And any booth that had a signing going on — Image, IDW, Oni, BOOM! — brought lines. Hopefully all that traffic turned into decent sales for everyone on the floor. I know at least one comic company I spoke to was really happy with their sales on Saturday.
–I didn’t buy a lot at this show — my two purchases were the above-mentioned Giants/X-Men comic, and a copy of Pascal Girard’s Reunion from the Drawn and Quarterly table. Of course, I didn’t really spend a lot of time on the floor anyway … I was only there Friday and Saturday, and spent my time either covering panels, being on panels or writing about panels.
- April 8, 2011 @ 01:00 PM by JK Parkin
Marvel teases something called ‘Vengeance’
Vengeance!
As David Brothers noted in his report from the “Welcome to the X-Men” panel at WonderCon this weekend, Marvel is starting to tease something called “Vengeance.”
And although he didn’t share any details on exactly what the project is, Marvel’s Agent M did post the images on his blog this week — above we have some sort of rendition of Nighthawk, and after the jump you can find someone who looks like a teenage In-Betweener.
- April 6, 2011 @ 04:06 PM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | Dynamite CEO on industry; why doesn’t cartooning pay?
Green Hornet
Publishing | Dynamite Entertainment CEO Nick Barrucci talks frankly about the state of the marketplace, digital comics, and his company’s plans. He also acknowledges some missteps: “Green Hornet was a license we paid a lot of attention to last year, probably too much attention. Going back to what we were talking about earlier, putting out too much product, we put out too much Green Hornet product. Part of it is that we wanted to get trade paperback collections out in time for the movie, and we did that, we succeeded. We built up our market share and we generated more revenue for us and the retailers. I’m going off on a tangent here, so I apologize, but we took that money and reinvested into projects like Vampirella, like Warlord of Mars, like the upcoming Kirby: Genesis. But we overdid it, and that we realize, which is why you don’t see us doing four Vampirella titles and four Warlord of Mars titles.” [ICv2.com]
Creators | For its annual Comics Issue, the Village Voice takes a fascinating, lengthy and very depressing look at the often-grim financial reality faced by cartoonists — an environment to which, it turns out, the Village Voice contributed. “I’m not sure how much you’ll be allowed to write about this,” says Dan Perkins (Tom Tomorrow), “but of course the Village Voice Media chain is one of the major culprits in this —their decision to ‘suspend’ cartoons [in 15 papers in 2009] dealt a serious blow to the struggling subgenre of alt-weekly cartoons.” It’s noted parenthetically that Tom Tomorrow will return to the paper “within a few months,” and that “many of the artists in this issue aren’t getting paid, but have contributed work for the exposure.” [Village Voice]
- April 6, 2011 @ 07:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
The Middle Ground #48: Why Smaller Publishers Won Wondercon
Much to my discontent, I wasn’t at Wondercon this past weekend – The first one I’ve missed in years, but apparently moving to another state makes attending these things more difficult… Who knew? – and so I was just playing along at home, checking headlines, announcements and tweeted commentary like everyone else. But the longer I did that, the more I started to wonder: Have the smaller companies taken over all conventions that aren’t NYCC, SDCC and C2E2? Continue Reading »
- April 5, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by Graeme McMillan
Comics A.M. | WonderCon attendance likely surpasses 39,000
WonderCon
Conventions | Although final figures aren’t yet available, WonderCon organizers confirm attendance likely surpassed the 39,000 fans who came to last year’s convention. [Publishers Weekly]
Publishing | On his always-interesting new blog, Jim Shooter reminisces about the genesis of Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars: “We went through a number of ideas for names for the toy line and series. Mattel’s focus group tests indicated that kids reacted positively to the words ‘wars’ and ‘secret.’ Okay.” [Jim Shooter]
Publishing | Longtime print broker Chikara Entertainment, which also offered book packaging and consulting services, has closed. [ICv2.com]
Retailing | Sarah Cohen provides a snapshot of South Florida comic stores struggling amid a weak economy and a changing marketplace. Some retailers have changed their strategies by diversifying their merchandise, holding events and reaching out to customers via the Internet. Others, however, prefer to do business the way they always have. “Making events and using social networking is pushy,” says Jorge Perez, owner of A&M Comics and Books in Miami. “It might help business, but then you would be on the computer all day doing stuff like that.” A&M, the oldest comic store in Florida one of the oldest in the nation, has seen business drop by about 40 percent since 2008. [Miami Herald]
- April 5, 2011 @ 06:53 AM by Kevin Melrose
DC Comics unveils decade-specific logos for Retro-Active
"Retro-Active" 1980s logo
Following DC Comics’ announcement at WonderCon of its Retro-Active one-shots bringing together writers and artists from the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, the publisher has unveiled the decade-specific logos for the three series.
Debuting in July, each issue of Retro-Active will feature 26 pages of new content plus 20 pages classic stories reprinted from that era, spotlighting such characters as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash and the Justice League of America.
Although DC has yet to announce all of the artists involved, the writers include Dennis O’Neil, Cary Bates, Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, William Messner-Loebs, Mike W. Barr, Louise Simonson (with Jon Bogdanove on ’90s Superman), and Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis (with Kevin Maguire on ’90s Justice League).
“The way [DC Comics] put it was, look at your run back when you were doing Justice League International, find a moment there and tell an untold story,” Giffen told Comic Book Resources. “It’s one last blow-out. It’s one last hoorah for the characters.”
Check out the other two Retro-Active logos below.
- April 4, 2011 @ 06:49 AM by Kevin Melrose
WonderCon | Carla Hoffman is the new Batgirl
Robot 6′s Carla Hoffman sports this season’s hottest Bat fashion at WonderCon this weekend. I believe she bought it off Etsy, right Carla?
- April 2, 2011 @ 04:24 PM by JK Parkin
WonderCon | IDW to publish … Thor?
Thor #337
I promise this isn’t my last-minute attempt at an April Fool’s joke. IDW announced today that they will publish Walter Simonson’s The Mighty Thor: Artist’s Edition, the first in a series of Artist’s Editions featuring comics form Marvel.
The oversized hardcover collection will include Thor #337-340, Simonson’s classic arc that saw the debut of Beta Ray Bill, as well as Thor #360-363, which saw Thor battle Hela and the death of the Executioner. The book will debut at the San Diego Comic Con this July.
“I can’t tell you how thrilling it is to be able to do a book like this,” said IDW Special Projects Editor Scott Dunbier. “Each page is shot from Walter Simonson’s original art and printed same size—really just too cool. Thanks to Marvel Entertainment for being so enthusiastic about this project from the start!”
You can find the entire press release after the jump.
- April 1, 2011 @ 10:34 PM by JK Parkin
WC11 | Ivan Reis and Joe Prado to draw Aquaman
Brightest Day #20, by Ivan Reis
The newly announced Aquaman series will re-team Geoff Johns with Brightest Day artists Ivan Reis and Joe Prado, the writer revealed today at WonderCon 2011 in San Francisco.
“I don’t think you can get much better in comics,” Johns said during the DC Nation panel. “Everything the do elevates the characters they work on, and we hope to do the same for Aquaman.”
Announced last weekend during MegaCon, the new Aquaman will mark the seventh series for the 70-year-old character. Although he was left dead with the cancellation of Sword of Atlantis in 2007, the sea king was resurrected during Blackest Night before going on to play a central role in the current Brightest Day series.
Johns has insisted that Aquaman is one of DC Comics’ A-list characters, telling Comic Book Resources in December that, “He’s got to be showcased like that, and he’s got to kick ass like Green Lantern or Batman or the entire Justice League.”
Aquaman #1 is expected to debut later this year.
- April 1, 2011 @ 03:14 PM by Kevin Melrose