News

§ January 6th is the Christian feast known as Epiphany, also the 12th Day of Christmas, so the holidays are over AND you get to wish people a great Epiphany. It never gets old. Above painting by Abraham Bloemaert.

Here's part four or our annual comics status report, with contributions from publishers, cartoonist, writers and execs. As usual, lots of news tidbits and previews in the upcoming projects here, Previous parts: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Be back here tomorrow for the big wind-up!

Yep it's more picks and prognostications, with a few tasty previews thrown in. Ted McKeever, cartoonist 2014 Projects: THE SUPERANNUATED MAN  A new Golden Age...

Here's the second part of our annual look at what's happened and what happening next for comics. Thanks to everyone for all the time...

This is a thing that actually happened. When I first saw it popping up on my feeds I thought it was some kind of photo shop jobbie, but no. Shia LaBeouf, the embattled plagiarist/actor, hired a plane to skywrite "I am sorry Daniel Clowes" over the pellucid skies of Los Angeles.

Jim Starlin wrote and drew Marvel's very first original graphic novel back in 1982, The Death of Captain Marvel, and he's at it again,...

Yep it's the return of an annual Beat tradition that goes back nearly a decade, as comic folk from every level of the industry -- creators, reporters, retailers, publshers—talk about the issues of the year past and look at the issues of the year to come. There are always a lot of thoughtful answers in this survey, but this year a LOT of very important and thought-provoking topics are looked at from crowdfunding to harassment. And as always, there are previews and news scattered in the 2014 projects. So settle in and enjoy—there is so much more to come.

The Japanese government is taking matters into its own hands by spending 15.5 billion yen ($14.7 million) to launch its own TV network with an eye to foreign distribution.

Power is back where I've gone for Christmas, but the internet may be out for days. So no blogging until things are back to...

Thanks for all the great emails yesterday, people. They are much appreciated. § MUST READ: More on Neil Cohn's experiments in how comics are...

LaBeouf-Gate—in which an A-list young actor continues to dig himself deeper and deeper after cluelessly ripping off a Daniel Clowes comic as the basis for a short films because SQUIRREL!—has been developing on several fronts.

Sparkplug Books has has some changes in the last few years, following the death of founder Dylan Williams, but under new publisher Virginia Paine, it's stayed in the game. In an email, Paine shared some plans for 2014...and also the news that times are tough at the indie, with Paine being forced to stop paying herself.