Conventions

Whoops a LOT to do tonight! Fire up your Über! These are ALL tonight. A Faintly Lit Light- Group Show at 4:00pm - 7:00pm

Right now! HOT...

Exhibitors at Comic Arts Brooklyn this weekend were kind enough to send me listings of their books—as usual there is something for everyone. I received so many listing I'm dividing this into two parts. Many thanks to the creators who took the time to send me news of their work. It looks to be a very exciting show.  Enjoy!

San Diego Workforce Partnership, a local employment consultant, has released some stats on the con's impact on local employment, concluding that convention center staffers are paid $320,000 for working during the con, which requires 100% of the staff where other cons only need 80-90%. This information was highlighted in some PR released by CCI, which I'll quote below, but Con scholars will probably want to read the original report. Among other figures, SDWP estimates for $178 million in economic impact for the 2014 show. I believe this is the highest estimate I've yet heard for his metric.

At the summer Image Expo one of the most notable announcements was Tooth and Claw by Kurt Busiek and Ben Dewey. Not only did it mark the return of Busiek with a new comic for the first time in years, but Dewey's art looked amazing. The story involves high fantasy, with animal protagonists and Game of Thrones level intrigue. The first issue is on sale today in a bargain format: just $2.99 for 40 pages of story. As you can see from the preview pagesk, this is one spectacular comic. One of the best things comics do is world-building and this looks to be a strong examples of that by Busiek and Dewey.

Image Expo, the "Apple announcements" of comics is returning for a fourth outing in January on January 8th, once again at the Yerba Buena the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. The creator line-up includes Brian K. Vaughan (SAGA, Y: The Last Man), Todd McFarlane (SPAWN), Scott Snyder (WYTCHES, Batman), Emi Lenox (EMITOWN), Jeff Lemire (Green Arrow, Trillium), and Marjorie Liu(Astonishing X-Men) but SPECIAL GUESTS are promised. It would not be a stretch to guess that the above named creators will be announcing new projects from Image.

Independent Sources is a local to NYC show that spotlights ethnic and local news. Hosted by Zyphus Lebrun, it's put together by CUNY (City University of New York ) and runs on their cable station. Last week's episode, covers various aspects of diversity in comics, with thoughtful interviews with Marvel's Sana Amanat, Image's David Brothers, Morgan Dubin from Abrams Comic Arts, Jonathan Gray, Assistant Professor of English, John Jay College, artist Dexter Vines and yours truly. Aside from my having to terrifyingly reënect walking into a comic shop, it's a sprightly look at the basic issues of diversity and the widening audience for comics. There's also a nice segment on a cosplayer who designed a Rita Repulsa costume and others for curvier women.

Last year our good pals at The Devastator magazine made news with an anonymous survey of convention exhibitors that showed average sales of $1300 at the shows surveyed, the differences between indie and comics shows and more. Well, as you MAY have NOTICED, there has been quite a bit of talk of late about exhibiting at conventions, profits and how it is changing. I thought it might be interesting to revisit this survey and after contacting Amanda Meadows at the Devastator, The Beat is proud to be co-sponsoring this year's survey. This survey covers sales at shows this year and general trends in staffing tabling and money making. It's intended for anyone who exhibits at Cafs or Cons, artists, small presses or crafters.

By David Nieves 2014 has been quite a year for Aspen Comics, following their 10th anniversary in '13, the house that Michael Turner built made...

Anticipating demand for next week's CAB programming, featuring Al Jaffee, Charles Burns, Art Spiegelman, Roz Chast and more, the show is making FREE tickets available in advance via Eventbrite . You can just go there now and sign up for the panels you want.

The last New York show of the year is on its way with Comic Arts Brooklyn taking place November 8-9th and this year the festival will be associated with several art shows and exhibits which all pretty top notch, including a very rare appearance by Julie Doucet, an Al Jaffee art show, a repurposed animation cel show and an exhibit of work by the Finnish collective Kutikuti. All FREE! Here's all the dates and times:

Comica is going on in the UK right now, a month long celebration of comics and graphic novels with a ton of event and art exhibits which you can see in the link. and here's another one; S.M.A.S.H. a series of three panels discussing various aspects of the art form. It sounds great—if we were in London on November 15th this is where we'd be. Info:

by Edie Nugent The main stage spectacles of NYCC saw panels filled with celebrity actors and moderators alike, whipping thousands of screaming audience members into...