World Comics

News roundup and some personal notes on the rioting.

The Smurfs shocked everyone by tying the much hyped COWBOYS & ALIENS at the box office this weekend and we dig into Platinum's stock filings to see what's up at the company. Plus: Who is Ervin Rustemagic?

This year's Bronze medalistAbby Denson alerts us to the call for applications for the 5th Annual International Manga Awards, presented by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Douglas Wolk is blogging about Judge Dredd . The author of "Reading Comics," has presented us with several specialized comics blogs in the past -- like his amazing 52 Pickup analyzing all the metadata of DC's 52 -- but now he's wading right in to the world of the ultimate law, and one of Britain's most popular native characters:

We hadn't seen this formally announced anywhere but we might have missed it: ICAF, the annual meet-up for international comics scholars, will be hosted at CCS this year. The conference will be held September 29-October 1, and spotlight the American Bande Dessineé Society.

Ludovic Debeurme'sLUCILLE hits these shores this week, and it's a stunner. In France, this hefty (500+ page) graphic novel about two teenagers from troubled families coming of age together was a major literary event, crossing over even with non-comics readers, and Top Shelf's English version is very faithful to the original.

A collected edition of MALINKY ROBOT, Sonny Liew's charming series about two urchins in a city full of giant robots, is coming out in August, and here's the cover. Liew is the artist of MY FAITH IN FRANKIE, Marvel's SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, and many other fine comics; he also edited two volumes of the Eisner-nominated LIQUID CITY, the Singapore comics anthology.

If you were to guess where the first real world village of the lovable blue folk known as Smurfs would spring up, you probably would not say Abu Dhabi -- or maybe you would, as they seem to be one of the few countries with money to burn on a project like a Smurf Village.

A private commission Via

More great Canadian cartoonists were honored Saturday, with the presentation of this year's Joe Shuster Awards at the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo with...

Via Yesterday's Papers, aging goodness from Knockout.

Jean-Christophe Menu, a founding member and driving force behind the French art comic powerhouse L'Association, has left the organization following a series of shake-ups and disruptions, including a workers strike. Bart Beaty has the best analysis of what it mean for L'Asso, Menu and French comics in general.