Comic Book Resources

To do: Saturday's Haunted signing in Brandon, Florida

"Haunted" signing

Xeric grant-winning cartoonist Joshua Smeaton will mark the release of his graphic novel Haunted with a signing from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday at Read More Comics in Brandon, Florida.

Haunted is a full-color collection of Smeaton's webcomic about a group of middle-school friends who want nothing more than to sneak into a high-school Halloween party at an abandoned mansion. But once they get there, they discover they're not the only uninvited guests. (I interviewed Smeaton about Haunted in November.)

My copy arrived in the mail today, and it looks great: digest-sized, beautifully colored and with a half-dozen pages of extras. If I were near Brandon on Saturday, rather than almost 800 miles away, I'd definitely stop by the signing.

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Shi Long Pang

Awards | The Xeric Foundation, the nonprofit corporation established in 1992 by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Peter Laird, has announced the recipients of the fall/winter grants: Sarah Becan, The Complete and Original Ouija Interviews; Sixta C., Soldiers of God; Ben Costa, Shi Long Pang, The Wandering Shaolin Monk; Blaise Larmee, Young Lions; Lane Milburn, Death Trap; Stefan Salinas, Within the Rat; and Nathan Schreiber, Power Out.

The Xeric grants assist creators with the costs of self-publishing. [The Xeric Foundation]

Retailing | Ron Marshall has resigned after just a year as chief executive of the financially troubled Borders Group. Michael J. Edwards, who joined the book chain in September as chief merchandising officer, has been appointed as interim chief executive. [The New York Times]

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Robot 6 Q&A | Joshua Smeaton talks Haunted

Haunted

A recipient of a 2009 Xeric Foundation grant, cartoonist Joshua Smeaton wasted little time in moving his comic Haunted from the Web, where the story has unfolded for the past two years, and into print.

Beautifully illustrated and colored, Haunted centers on a group of middle-school friends who want nothing more than to sneak into a high-school Halloween party being thrown at an abandoned mansion. But once they get there, they soon discover that they're not the only uninvited guests. (Smeaton has described it as "like Goonies in a haunted house.")

Smeaton, who lives outside of Tampa, Florida, took some time over the weekend to talk about the graphic novel, which is listed in November's Previews (order code: NOV090896).

I believe I only became aware of Haunted back in July, when you received a Xeric Foundation grant. When did you begin working on it, and how long has it appeared online?

I originally wrote Haunted as a screenplay with the idea in the back of my head that I would eventually draw it as a comic. That was around 2003/2004. I started putting Haunted online in July 2007.

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