§ Mike Lynch reminds everyone that submissions are open for the 2007 National Cartoonists Society Division Awards.

§Tom Spurgeon asks:

If, as nearly two-decade old conventional wisdom would have us believe, the vast majority of art comics that move through the Direct Market are sold through a small percentage of diverse, elite stores (such as Comic Relief, The Beguiling, Chicago Comics), and if, as a general look at the retailing landscape suggests, there are more of these kind of diverse, elite stores than ever before (such Comix Revolution, Secret Headquarters, Rocketship), why do art comics sales suck worse than they used to?

We’re not sure we entirely agree with that — art comics periodical sales are way down but more than offset by the rise in book sales through both channels — but a variety of people answer it from all walks of comics.

§ Jeff Vandermeer at Bookslut presents his Best Graphic Novels of 2007, and it’s sort of an alternative list that includes books with “a significant fantastical or surreal element.”:

This really isn’t an arbitrary decision, though — it’s a reflection of the fact that 2007 was a very strong year for fantasy in graphic novels. Much of the autobiographical or more realistic material I read seemed to rehash themes and approaches I’d seen done better before.

The list includes THE NIGHTMARE FACTORY gn that we worked on so we can only say, thanks!

§ Joel Meadows posted his photos of the Alan Moore signing at GOSH!

§ ICv2 interviews Lance Fensterman the show runner for New York Comic-Con, who seems to be a very, very enthusiastic guy.

Right now we’re talking about floor space. It’s pretty early to be looking at the attendee numbers, because we’re just starting to register. In terms of fans, we’re at triple the number we had at the same point last year (in reference to the show). If we’re roughly 12 weeks out from the Con, at the same point last year, we’ve got triple the number of fans registered to come to the show, which is great. I couldn’t ask for more. And we’re really just starting to ramp up our marketing efforts, and talk about all the guests and artists we have coming.