Comics

It was another busy weekend for comics around the globe, as the MoCCA Fest in NYC saw indie crowds gathering to buy the latest literary comics. Meanwhile in London, it was the inaugural Kapow! festival, organized by Mark Millar and his friends. From all accounts, although the show sold and had a capped attendance of only around 5000 people, it did achieve some of that "Movie-con magic":

WHEW we're done. Just wander around and find good stuff.

Some exciting debuts and signings and panels, including Galit Seliktar, Al Jaffee, Archie...and more.

This one gets its own post because it might just be the book of the show:

Better late than never, new stuff by Austin English, Chuck Forsman, Rina Piccolo, and dozens more!!!!

No one has really decided what the metrics for digital comics are -- real numbers are scarce, and most players keep it close to the vest. Back in December comiXology announced they had 1 million downloads of their comics apps, and now iVerse/IDW has hit the same milestone, with over 3 million digital IDW comics distributed.

One of Harvey Pekar's posthumous projects, CLEVELAND, will be published by a new publisher, ZIP, and distributed by Top Shelf. Drawn by Joseph Remnant, one of the Pekar Project artists (shown left and below), CLEVELAND is, as the title suggests, an ode to Pekar's muse, the city of Cleveland, with a history including the Indians, the great Cuyahoga fire and more.

ZIP is owned by Josh Frankel, author of several self-published comics, who is looking to get increasingly involved with the publishing end. Top Shelf will offer publishing and marketing support.

Hey Mocca Attendees -- to anyone who is hanging around New York for a day or two afterwards, here are some things you might want to check out. New York is a greenhouse of comics-y/arty events and there are several good ones going on right now.

Coming to this year's MoCCA-fest and wondering where to grab a quick lunch to eat in between selling your mini-comics? Look no further! Although considered drab by New York standards, the Rose Hill/Gramercy/Flatiron area surrounding the the Sixty-Ninth Regiment Armory, setting for MoCCA Fest, still offers a colorful array of authentic, delicious and affordable cuisine from around the world within a radius of only a couple of blocks. (It IS New York City, after all.) Bearing in mind the small budgets of most MoCCA attendees/indie cartoonists, we're going to highlight places where, for $10 or under, you can still get a decent meal -- some of them even prepared by Iron Chef level celebrities. At a few places, if $10 isn't enough for a meal it is still enough for some rare treat that will make your trip one to remember. For dinner you will want to grab some friends and a subway or cab and head to one of the great restaurants of the city, but your lunchtime is definitely covered right here.

After a year-long stint with Random House as their book distributor, Radical Publishing is back at Diamond, we are told by press release. The announcement is a bit of a no-brainer, considering that Radical was at last month's Diamond Retailer Summit.

Ted McKeever drawing Wolverine, Tomm Coker on Master of Kung Fu, Dr. Strange by Kieron Gillen and Frazier Irving? All in glorious black and white. Sign us up! While this sounds like some cool, beatnik Marvel anthology comic, Don McPherson explains it is really a little-noted or promoted Marvel project: two black and white comics magazines that were released last year to no fanfare, Marvel Super Special and Marvel Super Action. McPherson guesses that this is some kind of Disney-inspired inventory cleaning:

Dov Torbin and Asher Berman

are two Americans who happened to be in Egypt when the recent revolution broke out. The Revolution Will Be Televised is Torbin's comics account of two American travelers who, through clouds of tear gas, watch a country evolve and find themselves altered by the experience. It's launching today on ACT-I-VATE.