Conventions

Insight Editions is a non-fiction publisher who put out a lot of excellent reference books on a variety of nerdish topics and they'll be at NYCC this year with a bunch of debuting books—and a 30% off special. Their booth number is #1869 and here's the line-up and signings:

The BIG big manga news at New York Comic COn is the appearance of Takeshi Obata, creator of Bakuman, Death Note and All You Need is Kill, the manga adaptation of the recent film that had the wrong title. It's exciting that so many huge manga-ka are coming to America. To celebrate, Viz has a ton of exlcusives and special at the show so get your manga fix at their booth, with Princess Mononoke, Helly Kitty and Death Note.

Valiant is expanding its line with five new series in 2015 , some periodical format some prestige, some well known older Valiant properties and some that are less so. The new wave kicks off with The Valiant in December and continues with:

Yowsa, things are kicking off big time. Super Week events are already underway, but there are a ton of comics events happening that aren't part of Super Week. Starting tomorrow! If I left off your event just shoot me an email.

Well NYCC Stupor Week is here, with all the excitement and dread that it brings. A bunch of locals were pre-gaming on Saturday and the consensus was that no one was vaguely ready. As a local show, there's a big difference between NYCC and SDCC, the other domestic "Super con" in that when its in your own back yard it becomes part of your regular routine and not a thrilling trip to an exotic locale. You tend to put things off a lot more. But let's look at the big picture.

There's been a bunch of scuttlebutt going on around APE, the Alternative Press Expo now unfolding in San Francisco, and it is being announced today that CCI, which runs APE, the San Diego Comic-Con and WonderCon is returning ownership of the show to founder Dan Vado starting next year. Vado founded the show in his home base of San Jose in 1994 as part of the then-burgeoning scene of indie comics events that included the Small Press Expo in Bethesda and SPACE in Columbus. CCI took it over in 1995, eventually moving it to San Francisco. Vado has been mostly uninvolved with the show in recent years, while expanding SLG, his comics company, to a storefront and event space. And of course, CAFs have blown up everywhere, with TCAF, SPX, MoCCA, CAB, MeCAF, Thought Bubble, Short Run and many more showcasing the indie comics side of today's comics world. ape2013_guest_vadoThe Beat had a chance to speak briefly with Vado about taking the show back.