UPDATE: Cosmic Comics ISN’T closing
After 18 years in business, New York's Cosmic Comics is closing on Dec. 31st. A longtime fixture of the New York comics scene due to its location in the bustling Flatiron district and the former location of Marvel Comics, sales have been going down. The owner blames rising comics prices according to those who have spoken with him:
Continue ReadingCartoon Movement launches
Cartoonist Matt Bors, who recently went to Afghanistan undercover, writes to tell us about Cartoon Movement, a new site devoted to editorial comics from a worldwide cadre of cartoonists. In his letter he notes that "Unlike other websites, we pay our contributors and and are working to make this a sustainable enterprise." He'll be covering his Afghanistan trip for the site. Above cartoon by Israel's Shlomo Cohen. PR below.
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San Diego Pass-o-ween: David Glanzer on selling tickets
While the annual internet meltdown for getting a hotel room at the Comic-Con International in San Diego is now an annual tradition, it still came as a surprise to many this year that just selling passes to the mega-entertainment/comics event got too big for a server to manage. On November 1, tickets went on sale for the first time, and the con's website couldn't handle the number of requests. On November 22, a second attempt with a new, professional event seller was made, but the demand melted their servers to slag, too. With the expeditioneers set up at base camp, and looking anxiously at the snows about to come, San Diego is about to make another attempt to scale Everest. The con is trying a test tomorrow at 8 am PST with a two tiered system – Logging onto the site of Ticketleap – a ticketing company Ticketmaster alternative specially set up to handle huge web demand – will get you registered. Once the horde of hits is managed, an email from Epic Registration – which was handling ticket sales in the last attempt -- will allow you to buy two tickets. It’s a crazy solution for a crazy situation. We talked to David Glanzer, the CCI Director of Marketing & PR to find out what’s happening and how the con is growing this time.
Continue ReadingVideo: Walking Dead Zombie death orgy
Share this link on Facebook!Tweet Speaking of The Golden Globe nominated The Walking Dead, here’s a video mash-up of all the zombie deaths from the first six episodes. Let’s call in Dexter for some blood splatter analysis.
Continue ReadingRED and The Walking Dead get Golden Globe nominations
The Golden Globes nominations were announced this morning, and comics turned up in two categories. RED, based on the Warren Ellis/Cully Hamner comic, was tagged in the Picture, Musical or Comedy category and The Walking Dead got a nom for Best Series, Drama.
Continue ReadingThe Beat UN-gift list: Plant your butt where Frank Miller planted his
The CBLDF is auctioning off a very interesting item: Frank Miller's Drawing Chair, SIGNED.
Continue ReadingThe Beat UN-gift list: Spider-Man musical DVD
For you stage door johnnies who are really into either Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark, U2 or Lesley Stahl, CBS is selling advd of their Spider-Man musical segment from 11/28. BUT!
Continue ReadingConvention economics from a different viewpoint
Over the years we've published links to many an analysis of convention sales -- what works, what doesn't, what is the real economics. But here's an interesting take from Tony DiGerolamo, writer of JERSEY DEVIL and several issues of BART SIMPSON for Bongo, and a webcomic called SUPER FRAT, among other things. His blog runs on The Webcomic Factory, a joint effort by DiGerolamo and Christian Beranek that publishes various webcomics. I couldn't find DiGeralamo's other writing credits easily on the site, but we hope it's fair to say he's one of those small publishers you see in various artist's alley who have small press genre books -- the kind of stuff that doesn't get as much attention as mainstream or art comics -- sometimes justifiably, sometimes not.
Continue ReadingComic-Con schedules test to sell tickets again
After two attempts at putting four-day passes on sale, Comic-Con International: San Diego is giving it another shot, this time with a Registration Test which will roll out tomorrow. They'll attempt to sell 1000 badges via TWO different companies, in a process so complicated we couldn't summarize if we tried:
Continue ReadingWhat I was doing in 1997
Once I was paid to review websites. In a magazine. And look what was cutting edge in 1997 in the pages of CMJ Monthly.
Continue ReadingWhen love turns violent: Watch Boo Boo kill Yogi
Back in August we noted that the upcoming Yogi Bear movie appeared to be horror film about deviant sex, based on the perverted poster. When we finally saw the trailer in theaters, we suggested in jest that shooting the filmmakers was the only way to stop this abomination. It turns out someone had a similar idea. Except it was instead to show Booboo shooting Yogi to get a measly $5000 in blood money reward.
Continue ReadingMarvel Month-to-Month Sales: October 2010
Share this link on Facebook!Tweet by Paul O’Brien The big event on Marvel’s publishing schedule for October was the relaunch of X-FORCE, which restarts from issue #1 and celebrates by taking an adjective. It’s also a big month at the Icon imprint, with the first issues of two Mark Millar titles, KICK-ASS 2 and SUPERIOR, plus the [...]
Continue ReadingPrepare to be skeeved: Dolls of the Cons
Jody Culkin is an artist, photographer, and teacher. Thanks to being married to PW comics maven Calvin Reid, she's also a veteran of many comics and book shows. Camera in hand, she has chronicled the activities and faces of the past seven or eight years of comic cons -- her work can often be found in PW Comics Week. But she also has a hobby.
Continue ReadingComics invade Singapore with international band of scalawags
The Singapore Toy, Games & Comic Convention was held this weekend in Singapore (where it's now Tuesday), and the excitement for comics seems to have taken hold in this emerging comics nation. The show is notable in that is was purchased by ReedPOP, owner of such domestic fests as New York Comic-Con and C2E2. The guest list was a merry band of international scoundrels, including Phil Yeh, Phil Ortiz, C.B. Cebulski, Matt Fraction, Gail Simone, and Ivan Brandon from the US, Salvador Larroca from Spain, David Lloyd from the UK, Guiseppe Camuncoli from Italy, and, as the wise-cracking gentle giant , Croatia's Esad Ribic. If you were going to cast a comic book convention movie where people have to fight aliens or fend off a killer or fly off to an asteroid to something, you could not have a better bunch. We can just picture the scenes where Fraction must dismantle the alien's guidance system, or Yeh offers to let them read an issue of The Winger Tiger in our mind's eye.
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