Culture

If you were around comics in New York in 2008, you know that that was the Year of the Symposium, with Post Bang, SPLAT, and probably something else that wasn't named after a sound effect. Since that epic year, when comics were discussed and analyzed by panels of every type, there have been a few scattered symposia, but nothing that big. Until the announcement of Comic New York: A Symposium, to be held Saturday and Sunday March 24-25 at Columbia University.

Many, many things happened; many were blogged.

By Todd Allen Here's the drill: Diamond has released the top 100 titles and relative rankings for graphic novels for February 2012.  Since Walking Dead is...

Here's the drill: Diamond has released the top 100 titles and relative rankings for the monthly comics for February 2012. Since Walking Dead is usually a fairly consistently selling title, I'm going to plug last month's Walking Dead numbers (both Comichron and ICV2 had January's Walking Dead estimated at 31,596) into Diamond's rankings. That should get us relatively close to the formal estimates that should be out soon. If Walking Dead had a good month, the numbers should be higher. If Walking Dead had a bad month, the numbers will be lower. History suggests this will be within +/- 5%, if not +/- 1%, praise to Great Kirkman.

Another split decision for supremacy in February, as DC swept the top ten comics, led by JUSTICE LEAGUE, for the second month in a row. However Marvel was the top publisher in both units and dollars; their win was more substantial in the dollar category, meaning the $3.99 price point is making an impact. Overall, it was a good month, however, with comics up 10.84% and graphic novel sales up 11.45% over January's sales for an overall increase in the print categories of 11.03% over the previous month. Compared to February 2011, the month's sales were up 22.26% for comics and 15.65% for graphic novels for an overall increase of 20.11% as compared to the previous year. Pretty good numbers all around.

Joss Whedon shares his feelings about Mark Ruffalo as The Hulk, news on upcoming graphic novel adaptations from Archaia and Oni, another round of spoilers from the final two episodes of The Walking Dead and more!

Recent interviews with a bunch of notable cartoonists reveals a treasure trove of advice on life and career.

Today is the International Women's Day in Women's History Month. I was working on a big old post on all sorts of recent gender related topics but...it will have to wait. Instead, I'll shore my little Pinterest board I have called "Women in Comics."

Created by designer Roberto Salvador. Open to submissions.

As many have noted, DC rolled out its brand spanking new website yesterday, with a whole new look, new logo and new commenting system. Among the many improvements, new sections for major characters, and subsections for videos, live social media updating and the like. (What, no Pinterest?) The site seems to be the work of the West Coast branding/web team, and although useful and streamlined, it does match the corporate vibe of a lot of DC rollouts of late.

Mocking the comfy tropes of The Family Circus is a joke that never gets old. Or as Stephen Colbert put it last night, "We're getting all relaxed and average."

According to this posting on the Source, DC collections are adding LoC information and will be added to the library's holdings. The Library of Congress has a few other comics connections of late, including an SPX collection, so the place of comics in the nation's greatest library is clearly growing.