The News Blog of Comics Culture
As usual I’m the very last out of the gate with my TCAF wrap-up (although I was early with my newsier report). But like many I feel compelled to write a memoir about it because it was so generally awesome. Last year’s TCAF — my first—was among the top five comics-related experiences of my life, and maybe partly because I hyped it so much, more people I knew made the first time trek this year. TCAF ’13 wasn’t quite as glorious as TCAF ’12, but it was still fairly glorious.
It was nice to finish up a busy and exhausting year of cons (11 or 12) with one of the strong local shows that has been a hallmark of current comics/nerd culture. The NC Comicon was put together by the guys behind Ultimate Comics, a popular shop in Durham, NC.
Tweet [As comics continue to grow they continue to attract not just new creators and readers, but new people behind the scenes who are bringing in much needed fresh ideas. I met Jessi Reid at this years San Diego Comic-Con where she had just taken over marketing for Top Cow. Soon after she moved on [...]
TweetBy Steve Morris Avengers Assemble, Captain Marvel, and Pretty Deadly not enough for her, writer Kelly Sue DeConnick has taken on a new project, at the request of a young writer she met, called Winter. As described way better on DeConnick’s blog (which you should read before continuing with this piece), Winter first approached the [...]
It’s a sign of the length of the Comic-Con Recovery Process that even though I thought I could wrap this all up on Tuesday, it’s taken me another four days and many many packets of Vietnamese Instant Coffee (Cà Phê Hòa Tan) to have the energy to write my thoughts. If you don’t want to read them you can listen to much the same thing in the PW Comics World More to Come podcast. While I’m pretty sure everyone has purged the week of July 11-15th from their mind entirely —and I just about have forgotten it all myself—for the sake of completeness, here’s what I thought and observed and smelled and saw and heard:
It’s windup day here. All the glittering art displays and carnivals are being taken down; everyone has gone home but the poor cast of Fringe, who were left behind to cover the retreat. And the comicos are also joining the caravan to the north and east.
We’ll have a lot more to say in the days to come but today is a crucial day for the future of comics at Comic-Con. Most everyone we talked to among the comics publishers and artists told us this has been a slow show for sales. People who were sold out by Saturday at HeroesCon are sitting on stacks of books. We don’t doubt that some people are doing well, but whereas in past years SDCC was definitely the biggest sales show of the year—justifying the enormous costs of attending — if booth sales slow, the exodus of comics talent may continue.
by Jimmy Aquino, Comic News Insider, Special to The Beat
I sat down with old pal and amazing artist Francesco Francavilla on Sunday at HeroesCon. Always a great interview, Francesco and I talked about his recent work on Batman, upcoming Captain America/Black Widow mini-series, The Black Beetle, cover work, Comic Twart, What Not, and his genuine love for cartooning. You can check out other great interviews I got at HeroesCon over at the Comic News Insider (my podcast) site!
Whoosh! HeroesCon just raced on by! We arrived late on Thursday, hit BarCon and the rest was just WHOOSH! So much fun, we barely had time to type about it at all. That isn’t to say there weren’t some snafus—all on our own part—but they came and went so quickly.
In the run-up to San Diego 2012, Marvel have released two teasers for an upcoming story called ‘War’
Not much to report — bar con was packed and buzzing last night. We got to hang out and talk about storytelling with old Beat pal Jaime Hernandez — surely a convention year highlight.
It’s pretty incredible that this show has been running for 30 years! We’re hoping to sit down with owner Shelton Drum at some point and get his thoughts on that. This year’s convention booklet has a picture from the very first show — with a bunch of bearded guys including Wolfman and Miek Zeck — who are both back.
This weekend it’s the 30th annual HeroesCon in Charlotte, NC. Wow 30 years! Not too many shows have that kind of heritage, but Shelton Drum’s show has now settled down into the so-much-fun I-can’t-wait-to-see-everyone good time con experience. We’ll be quite busy with THREE panels as follows:
§ Is Achewood coming back from the long hiatus of the soul? Gary Tyrell looks at the evidence.
CCI: SD is changing how they are selling their badges for next year’s show: instead of selling passes to the 2012 edition inside the convention center, sales are being moved to the Manchester Grand Hyatt, where pre-registration will be available Thursday through Sunday from 8 am to 11 am.
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