Disney

This is not comics, barely animation, but it does involve The Beat's favorite handbag designer, Hayden-Harnett, which has a deal with Disney to make limited edition handbags and accessories.

§ Have you ever wondered what it would be like to read an interview with a publishing executive talking about his digital plans WITHOUT worrying about direct sales retailers taking his every word as a call to arms? Well, take a gander at ICv2's talk with Disney's Dario Di Zanni:

Although Disney's acquisition of Marvel's character library was seen as a genius move to shore up their boy-skewing movie franchises, there was one wistful little fly in the ointment: Marvel had already assigned rights to most of their iconic super hero franchises to other studios. Undeterred, Disney has just regained a few of the crown jewels: Disney has just acquired marketing and distribution rights to THE AVENGERS and and IRON MAN 3, which will be released May 13, 2013. Disney paid Paramount $115 million for the distribution rights and this will serve as a minimum guarantee against distribution fees.

Kind of lost in the scrum at New York Comic Con, even Disney was getting in on the digital comics bandwagon. At the ICv2 Comics and Digital conference, Dario Di Zanni had some pretty confidant things to say about the future of ebooks. Disney has been doing Digital Books for a while -- a subscription service for kids to read kids books on the web. With their growing comics publishing ventures -- not to mention the team-up with Marvel -- a close eye should be paid on what Disney is planning, and it sounds pretty ambitious:

How they developed the Epic Mickey game and why Oswald the Rabbit is so important.

With BOOM!'s DARKWING DUCK comics doing well for the '90s nostalgia crowd, was it only a matter of time before they brought back RESCUE RANGERS, as well? Absolutely. Imagining chipmunk terrorists Chip and Dale as bold adventurers, with the addition of rodent heroes Monterey Jack, Gadget and Zipper the Housefly, the Rescue Rangers were another staple of the Disney Afternoon and a favorite of furry fans everywhere. Ian Brill is back as writer, with Leonel Castellani as artist.

While folks like Mark Millar, Mike Mignola, and Robert Kirkman have been deservedly marked by the success of their creations in Hollywood, one hard-working...

The road to comic book Valhalla is lined with companies that have tried to do "celebrity comics" as a means of switching to the fast lane of movie money and licensing gold. Tekno, Virgin, CrossGen. There is hardly a company that does not have some kind of celebrity "vanity project" comic out there made mostly to show to producers as a bible for a film. And all of this is despite the fact that not a single movie has yet been made from a comic book that was published just to be turned into a movie. COWBOYS & ALIENS, which is certainly an A-list project with Jon Favreau, Daniel Craig, and Harrison Ford aboard is set to be the first comic of its genre to ever actually get turned into a big movie. But this is the first time it has ever happened and it took 10 years. And despite this, there are still no other Platinum, Tokyopop, Radical, or Liquid movies. No one can go to Netflix and order the MAYHEM movie or OCD movie or GAMEKEEPER movie.

Via the Village Voice

If you were wondering when Marvel would start working with Disney on more Disney-themed comics, the answer is now, as a two-issue TRON follow-up...

Probably the biggest "classic comics" announcement at SD10 was a new series of reprints of Floyd Gottfredson's Mickey Mouse comic strip. Disney is partnering...

Marvel At the Saturday Cup o' Joe panel, Marvel teased fans with the hint that they would be doing something to do with Crossgen in 2011. After Crossgen entered bankruptcy, Disney bought up its creative properties. Now that Disney owns and operates Marvel Comics, it is seems natural for them to take advantage of the fact.