Culture

A spooky image from GHOST PROJEKT, the Oni Press book by Joe Harris and Steve Rolston. Colors by Dean Trippe.

It's taken a few days to recover from this year's New York Comic Con, and recovery has been slowed by the vast number of out-of-towners who have stayed on to hang out and make merry with New York friends. It is a real thrill to know your hometown show has become an attraction for colleagues around the world, and it definitely inspires one get gussied up and make everyone feel welcomed and well lubricated with social beverages. The time has given me a bit more perspective and enabled me to read and listen to more experiences from the show, and I have to say that when I pegged it as "a complete success" the other day, I was incorrect. NYCC '10 was a SUCCESS, no question, and from talking to comics exhibitors and New York-loving visitors you might conclude that it was a "complete" success as far as their goals went -- exposing their wares to as many potential customers as possible, and drinking as much free alcohol as possible, respectively. I would not gainsay that these are worthy goals, and their accomplishment is praiseworthy, but there were so many other logistical and conceptual problems with the show that its success is almost baffling.

UK painter/concept artist Greg Staples rolls out this portrait of the classic Boris Karloff Frankenstein.

A big coffee table book on the making of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK may not have pictures of Carrie Fisher's tooting up, but we like these photos best. After 30 years, everything becomes black and white.

Raina Telgemeier sent along the itinerary of her fall tour which begins a APE and ends at the Long Beach Comic-Con, with a barnstorming tour of the west in between -- plus the art fits right in with our holiday theme!

The price rollbacks at Marvel and DC represent, as far as we can tell -- paging John Jackson Miller! -- the first time prices on comics have been significantly cut. iFanboy has a solid analysis of the page count and format issues but the log line is that:

No, that’s not a reference to what I felt like the Sunday after fighting my way across last weekend's uber-crowded, nerd sweat fueled NYCC convention floor.  Of...

Although announced during last week's retailer breakfast, DC made Bob Wayne's promotion to SVP, Sales official with some PR. As Brian Hibbs put it:

Meanwhile, big congrats on Bob Wayne being named Senior VP of Sales at DC – Bob is the best friend the DM has, and I count this as a smart and solid move for the marketplace.

Rob Steen is another children's book illustrator/cartoonist. He's illustrated books with Ricky Gervais and just released a book called The Things in Ted's Head for iPhone.

While comics fans were celebrating comics and other delights at New York Comic Con, publishers and fans in Europe were congregating in Frankfurt, Germany,...

Kelly Thompson has part 2 of her Ladies Comics Project up and we repeat THIS SHOULD BE MANDATORY READING for comics publishers and creators. The idea of giving comics-friendly but not necessarily conversant readers various comics is a bracing alternative to the endless nitpicking of constant readers who sleep on mattresses stuffed with shredded copies of DEATHMATE. For instance, 37-year-old event planner DeAnne was disappointed the cool pop art cover looked nothing like the insides:

Children's book illustrator/cartoonist Rhode Montijo sent along some pages from his new book The Halloween Kid -- on his Web site, he's got some activity pages with things like mask cut-outs and mazes. Good stuff.