The week of Comic-Con just got even MORE momentous with "The Course of the Force" which ties the Olympic torch relay, lightsabers and Comic-con up in one totally nerdtastic bundle.
Continue ReadingMeet Ben McCool at JHU Wed, February 8! On Wednesday, February 8 beginning at 6:00 pm, JHU Welcomes Back writer Ben McCoool (Choker, Memoir), signing copies of the brand new trade paperback of his Image series Pigs! All EXCLUSIVELY at Jim Hanley's Universe in Manhattan, Where Fans and Creators Meet!
Continue ReadingChris Hardwick's role as nerd frontman to the world continues unabated as he's just signed a deal to appear at more ReedPop events, including C2E2 and NYCC. The "Talking Dead" host will appear at several events at both shows, and Nerdist Industries will participate in another White Space B2B think tank event such as was held at the 2011 New York Comic-Con.
Continue ReadingThe Small Press Expo has made its 2012 guest list official with the announcement that comics masters Dan Clowes and Chris Ware will both be special guests. Start lining up now. This year's SPX will be held September 15-16 in North Bethesda, MD.
Continue ReadingDespite its single publisher focus, the just announced Image Expo (Feb. 24-26, Oakland, CA) schedule is pretty wide ranging, with workshops (with Todd McFarlane and Jonathan Hickman, among others) announcements and comics to TV.
Continue ReadingThe recently concluded Angoulême comics festival is the most respected comics event in the world, but also one a bit remote from the daily comics grind of the average American reader. Two con reports will bring you up to speed in a hurry. Before we link, one note: I wrote earlier that crowds were reported as smaller this year, but the overwhelming evidence is that the festival was packed, as usual, with official attendance given as 215,000.
Continue ReadingThe first ever Image Expo is shaping up for the end of next month with the addition of Ed Brubaker, whose FATALE recently launched and has sold out. This is really looking like a zeitgeisty kind of show -- Image is scooping up formerly exclusive mainstream writers like a rescue boat in the North Sea, and the lineup of guests includes many with passionate followings.
Continue ReadingLast week's Angoulême festival extravaganza wrapped up with the presentation of the Grand Prix to Jean-Claude Denis, whose career goes back to the '70s but is perhaps best known in France for Luc Leroi. The Grand Prix is presented for a lifetime body of work—Denis is perhaps less well-known than some other winners, at least in the US. He was presented with the award by last year's winner, Art Spiegelman, as shown in the above video.
Continue ReadingHere's what I discovered at the recent American Library Association Mid-Winter conference in Dallas, Texas! Librarians are rocking the graphic novels!
Continue ReadingEvery January, librarians gather together to learn, network, discover, and, most important, RECOMMEND great books to read. Here are some of the award winning books which appeal to readers of graphic novels! Congrats to all!
Continue ReadingThe 2012 Toronto Comic Arts Festival has just unveiled it's first guests and it's as eclectic lineup of stellar creators from around the world, including Alison Bechdel, Jeff Smith Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon, Guy Delisle, Kate Beaton, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Jason, and others from around the world. The festival also unveiled its to die for poster, by Bá and Moon. Held May 5-6 in Toronto, this free comics festival is shaping up to be one of the shows of the year. Although considered part of the"indie" circuit, TCAF's guest line-up, as in past years, spotlights creators from all levels of the medium. Webcomics, kids comics and cartoonists from 15 nations will be mingling in what many creators consider the best show of the year.
Continue ReadingAs former Comic-Con attendees noted on Monday, a whole new system for getting badges is being implemented—even for people who are already in the system for having a badge. Affecting pros, press and volunteers, the new system requires you to create your own Member ID and password, type in a really tough captcha and confirm and then then....wait for the next step. The system is sufficiently difficult that they made a 2+ minute video showing you how to do it.
Continue ReadingThe Maine Comics and Art Festival -- which will be held Sunday, May 20th in Portland, ME -- has announced its first two guests: Kate Beaton and Kazu Kibuishi. This is a nice show in a nice venue that has a strongly family-oriented focus. We're not aware of too many shows that have so much kid-friendly material front and center and it's good to hear the show is still going strong with a marquee guest like Beaton.
Continue ReadingWe may have just thrown out the bones of the Christmas Tree, but it's not too early to go a'conning again. It's the return of the church con this weekend in NYC as Big City Dare2Draw, a homegrown organization that puts on life drawing classes for every level of artist, is putting on a show at a midtown church. The guest list is led by Neal Adams, and we expect he'll fit right into any pulpit they find for him. More info here. And here's a video of Dean Haspiel talking about the show.
Continue ReadingAlthough we think San Diego is the biggest and the craziest comics event on earth, all dedicated conologists know that Japan's Comiket is actually the biggest. Held twice a year, the Winter edition just wrapped up and over 500,000 people attended the three-day festival. The incredible thing about Comiket is that it is an amateur press show: the fans are there to buy doujinshi -- fanzines based on popular manga by "amateur" creators. We know Japan is full of amazing wonders and enigmas, but the huge popularity of fanfic is definitely among them.
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