Announcements

Here's one of those announcements that looks super vague on paper but given the people involved, you know it will yield some results. ComiXology and Milton Griepp's ICv2 are teaming up to help develop tools for retailers. ICv2 is, of course, best known for its sales estimates and business news. Although the leader in the digital comics space, comiXology has also developed a number of services for retailers, including their "pull list" -- it's not hard to see how that might work with ICv2 to give us some kind of useful metrics. Griepp is on the board of comiXology.

Sadly, the death rattle of print is shivering its way towards the way we currently package and distribute our wares, and marketing is a publishing luxury of the past. The good news? There is a new dawn on the horizon where the author will become the provider, publisher and publicist. Don't let it daunt you. Continue to network, make strong allies, be aware, show up, and be gracious. The digital age was created by us, for us. If you can procrastinate one hour a day, you can certainly keep track of what's what. Train your eye and keep tabs and make something new.

With more and more shows curated, this may be your chance to get a table at a premier indie comics show. Get to it,...

Via PR: Get those comics in! The Stumptown Comics Fest, the largest creator-focused comics convention in the Pacific Northwest, is now accepting submissions of comic...

Brian Fies (Mom's Cancer, Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow?) writes that he's involved with an upcoming conference on comics and medicine that is looking for papers:

Girl-Wonder.org, the mostly superhero-focused organization for female readers and characters is looking for new board members.

All-ages licensed material dominates next year's Gold Sponsor Free Comic Book Day offerings on May 7th. Believe it or not, 2011 is the 10th anniversary of the unofficial comic book holiday, and this year the top level publishers are providing stories of such icons as Spider-Man and Betty and Veronica, along with newer favorites such as MOUSE GUARD and AVATAR THE LAST AIRBENDER.

Congrats to writer Brian Wood on the arrival of Ian McMurray Wood, born last Thursday, 9 lb., 4 oz.

DC Peter David will be writing episodes of the upcoming cartoon Young Justice, which is based on the comic of the same name that he wrote for an almost five year run.

Dark Horse Given that pretty much all of the Spartans died at the Battle of Thermopylae - which was sort of the point - people have been speculating for years about how Frank Miller would wring a sequel out of his hit Dark Horse graphic novel and movie 300. Today, at Comic-Con, the answer came out. The sequel, XERXES, will actually take place at exactly the same time on another battlefield of the same war.

Marvel For those who love GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (and who doesn't), Rocket Raccoon and Groot are getting their own four-issue miniseries this January entitled (wait for it)... ROCKET RACCOON & GROOT.

Dark Horse's much beloved anthology DARK HORSE PRESENTS returns in a brand new print incarnation in March 2011 with all new work from Carla Speed McNeil, Harlan Ellison, Howard Chaykin, and Mike Mignola, among others. Axe Cop, the off the wall webcomic about an axe-wielding cop, written by five year old Malachai Nicolle and illustrated by his adult brother Ethan Nicolle, is coming to Dark Horse in a collected edition this December. It will be followed by a three-part full-color miniseries in the spring of 2011.