Culture

Just giving a little introductory hello and some insight into the mind of a postgrad comic enthusiast.

Dynamite has passed over an extended preview of their newest series, THE SPIDER, where a new modern-day masked hero ruthlessly seeks to uproot a destroyed Manhattan.

Alien invasions are nothing new, but when Neil Gaiman is attached, it's definitely something to keep an eye out for. Threadless and The CBLDF team up to offer a chance to cement yourself in T-shirt history by designing a shirt for THE DAY THE SAUCERS CAME.

We mentioned this in our official MoCCA report for Publishers Weekly, but if there is one must-read this week, it's The Cartoon Crier from The Center for Cartoon Studies. Distributed as a lovely free paper at MoCCA, you can now read it in Issu form at the link. But we must warn you. DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE NOT SAD. Because it will make you sad.

BY JEN VAUGHN - Fantagraphics Books isn't necessarily THE MAN of the comics world but since I've only ever self-published my own comics, MoCCA 2012 was my first two days on the job as a staff member of the independent comics publisher. There are more than a few differences between the two experiences. Read on!

A brief apology for posting this but the Star Trek nerd in me could NOT help myself. Many a weekend was spent in my youth attending the Star Trek conventions with my mom at the Plaza hotel in Las Vegas, the highlight of course was meeting Brent Spiner and Michael Dorn (Lieutenant Commanders Data and Worf).

For Australian Fashion Week, Romance Was Born designers Anna Plunkett and Luke Sales went all Jack Kirby with an "exuberant" mix of stripes and patterns.

Well, we had a swell (and swollen) time at this year's MoCCA Fest as usual. We'll be along with some observations and books we got presently, but for the full flava here's aphotoset assembled by Jeff Newelt covering the show as well as two events for Harvey Pekar's CLEVELAND Harvey Pekar's CLEVELAND. MoCCA photos are by Shahriar Shadab, Strand photos are by Winslow Porter.

Washington has stolen our buzzwords! And we won't take it lying down!

We're outta here.

Better late than never! Please at least scroll through this (very incomplete) listing of new books out at MoCCA and just look at the pictures if nothing els.e There are some pretty amazing books coming out that haven't gotten that much press, so I think it's wroth your while.

The Bonfire Agency came on the scene a year ago with some great ideas for giving all levels of the comics industry more information; this month they are spotlighting one of the best, FanPan, a consumer input panel of 500 pop culture users and influencers. It's free to join FanPan, but brands and products can then avail themselves of FanPan input to test how their products will be received by the highly vocal and internet-savvy early adopters.