Comics

Yep, it's that time of year again! And we already have so many awesome contributions we may have to to do more than one picture a day just to keep up. But please keep the links and art coming. We kick off this year's festivities with Andrea Tsurumi's 13 Witches project. According to her website, Tsurumi is an illustrator/cartoonist who is part of the Tapir Tooth comics collective, and creator of the webcomic TERKA.

You know Disney and WB have comic book companies, and Fox and Paramount have dabbled with their own comics in the past, but what about Universal? They're putting out at least one comics-y type thing, even if it's coming out from their Universal Studios branch as part of Halloween hoopla. Vampyre: Castle of the Undead (Blood Secrets of the Iron Guard), is not only the longest title ever but also the first graphic novella to be based on a Halloween theme park maze, we're told. Patrick Ian Moore is listed as artist.

Speaking of Cartoonists Doing Things: Steve Murray -- the birth name of the cartoonist better known worldwide as Chip Zdarsky -- has launched a campaign for mayor of Toronto, ON:

Okay, so far today we know senior citizens are reading comics, millennials are using wifi to have human contact...but WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN????? Well according to a Scholastic study, they are reading things on handheld devices We'll just jump ahead to the nut graph:

Not Comics, but it does shed some light on behavior. While we're rounding up some scientific jargon, GigaOM reports that millennials need Wi-Fi the way previous generations needed fresh air and vitamin C. (Millennials are here defined as 17-29 year-olds.)

Jeff Kinney's best-selling Wimpy Kid is about to get another honor reserved for only the greatest of kids entertainment legends -- this year's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade will include a Greg Heffley balloon. This honor is reserved for only the greatest icons of cartooning, including Bart Simpson, Garfield, Snoopy, and of course Spider-Man.

"I'm incredibly excited that Diary of a Wimpy Kid has been chosen to be a part of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade," said Jeff Kinney. "When I think of all of the iconic characters that have flown in years past, I feel humbled and honored that my character will be a part of the Parade's history."

With 37 million copies of his first six books already sold, the next Wimpy Kid book, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth goes on sale on November 9th and a second WImpy Kid movie is due in March, 2011. To celebrate the dawn of the Wimpy balloon, publisher Abrams has just started a contest for one winner and three friends to come to New York for the parade. While debating whether Diary of a Wimpy Kid constitutes being a comic book character or not -- the books are mostly prose but include comics interstitials, and creator Kinney considers himself a cartoonist -- we say just embrace success and enjoy the sight of the helium giant floating down Broadway.

Jennifer Tong has put the contents of her limited edition book online for all to enjoy. Only 75 copies have been made. There seems to be a whole sub-genre of indie comics about mystical forest creatures, usually told as a fairy tale, many by women. Salamander Dream by Hope Larson. Black Lagoon by Lilli Carre. Much of the work of Anders Nilsen. Flesh and Bone by Julia Gfrörer.

It's called Insane White People.

And speaking of the small press, Canadian Koyama Press is making a name as a real force on the scene with a series of high-quality books. They're having a launch for two more next week in Toronto:

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2010, 7pm – 10pm