DC’s Midnight Madness events
DC has posted a list of events for the launch of the New 52, including Midnight Madness at Midtown Comics which will feature Jim Lee and Geoff Johns signings JLA #1. Sounds like quite the hootnanny.
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Have your CAKE in Chicago next June
While there have been occasional attempts at establishing a Chicago alt.comix show to equal those in Toronto, New York, Portland and so on, none of them have really gained significant purchase -- despite Chicago being one of the original stops** on the Spirits of Independence tour that launched the entire indie comics show experience. The Printers Row Lit Fair has served as a high-end event to spotlight some great cartoonists; and the recent Windy City Con was another attempt from a slightly more middle ground. CHicago has a great legacy of underground/alt/indie cartoonists, so it's a fertile territory to till. And now there's CAKE -- the Chicago Alternative Comics Expo, to be held next June 16-17 at Columbia College’s Ludington Building. The festival plans to feature over 100 exhibitors along with a two-day program of signings, panels, workshops and lectures.
Continue ReadingDC Comics Month-to-Month Sales: June 2011
by Marc-Oliver Frisch The countdown to DC's big relaunch continued in June with a whole lot of Flashpoint tie-in books -- few of which seem to have stood out in any way to retailers, if the sales figures are any indication. Given that the upcoming relaunch titles are drawing on the same pool of creators, characters and concepts, that's not ideal for DC. If it's asking too much of readers and retailers to pick and choose among 16 titles of a certain mold, putting out 52 of them at once seems ill-advised. Over at the publisher's Vertigo imprint, meanwhile, almost half the current ongoing series are about to end within the next year. There's still plenty of time for Vertigo to announce replacements, certainly. But in combination with the recent WildStorm shutdown and the re-absorption of a number of key Vertigo properties into the DC Universe line, there seems to be a lot less patience than there used to be at DC for material that's not expected to immediately do well in the direct market.
Continue Reading2011 Ignatz Awards nominees announced
The nominees for the 2011 Ignatz awards have just been announced. The nominees represent the best of indie comics and were selected by a five person panel consisting of Rina Ayuyang, Mike Dawson, Kris Dresen, Theo Ellsworth, and John Porcellino. Winners will be selected by attendees of the Small Press Expo and presented at the gala Ignatz Awards ceremony held on Saturday, September 10, 2011 at 9:00 PM with host Dustin Harbin. Multiple nominees include Edie Fake, Michael DeForge, Sammy Harkham and Carol Tyler.
Continue ReadingDynamite gets ever pulpier with The Spider
If yesterday's announcement of acquiring the Shadow license didn't tip you off, this will nail the case that Dynamite is going deep into the pulp catalog: they're adding The Spider to their comics line-up. The creative team includes writer David Liss, artist Colton Worley and cover artists Alex Ross and John Cassaday. The Spider is another popular pulp character in the masked millionaire playboy vein -- some have pointed to him as an inspiration for Bat-Man. Previous comics incarnations came to us from Eclipse and Moonstone.
Continue ReadingVictor Gorelick: The Last Man Standing of Comics
When Marvel's Ralph Macchio retired the other day, we made the claim that he was the last editor from the pre-direct sales market working in the business. A few people wrote in to correct us, however. There is one editor who has been around even longer, and is still going strong, Archie's own editor in chief, Victor Gorelick (pronounced Gor-EL-ick). Now 70, Gorelick has worked at Archie for 50 years in various roles. It's certainly an astonishing career that has seen incredible changes.
Continue ReadingKibbles ‘n’ Bits — 8/18/11
§ Brian Wood gives an exit interview for DC Comics -- he's leaving his exclusive to concentrate on other ventures, such as THE MASSIVE, as new project for Dark Horse with artist Kristian Donaldson. Along the way he shows that an entire career path is dwindling away:
Continue ReadingMarvel Month to Month Sales: June 2011
Yes, yes, I know. June? It's August. This column is horrendously late. The July sales are already out. So I'm going to focus on the big events this month and otherwise keep the commentary pretty brief. Then we'll be back on track, the sun will shine, and everything will be lovely. The big news in June is, of course, the death of a Spider-Man. (Don't worry, they've got a spare.) FEAR ITSELF continues to sprawl across the Marvel Universe line, and there's also the first issue of a new GHOST RIDER series. As normal, Marvel had the largest share of the North American direct market, leading DC by 43% to 33% in unit share and 39% to 28% in dollar terms.
Continue ReadingComics, comics shops and digital
Is the comics shop a typewriter or a ball point pen?
Continue ReadingShow Report: Rainy Sunday fails to dampen comics at PACC
by Brady Russell -- For the Philadelphia Alternative Comic-Con this past Sunday in The Rotunda, it rained. It rained like it wanted to wash the show away. Sometimes it was a hammering downpour. The kind of rain where, even if you got a lift there in a taxi, you'd still get soaked running from the curb to the door. Still, the rain wasn't all bad. Last year's PACC was scorching hot. I can't imagine what it must have been like to stay in that room for 7 hours in 2010. This year, it wasn't nearly so hot, but everyone came in the door saying they couldn't touch anything until they dried off.
Continue ReadingDynamite relaunches The Shadow
Introduced as a mysterious radio narrator by David Chrisman, William Sweets, and Harry Engman Charlot for Street and Smith Publications, The Shadow was fully developed and transformed into a pop culture icon by pulp writer Walter B. ... "Dynamite is working to launch the Shadow with some of the comic industries leading talent including John Cassaday, Alex Ross, Ryan Sook and Jae Lee, with more to be announced - creators who will bring justice to The Shadow.
Continue ReadingAttention Angelenos: you still have Powercon/ThunderCon
Anyone in the LA area who is bummed over the postponed Wizard World LA show scheduled for September 24-25 should be aware that Power-Con is still on for those dates. This small two-day fan show is focused on Thundercats, He-Man and She-Ra. It's a small show but sounds like a swell afternoon if you're into 80 animation. More info:
Continue ReadingWebcomic Watch: Una the Blade
It hasn't really started yet, but Una the Blade is a new webcomic about a single mom barbarian fighter by Steve LeCouilliard, Xeric-winning cartoonist of Much the Miller's Son. Kinda looks like Lone Sonja and Cub from the development art -- promising!
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