News

Well, if you wondered if tensions were going to deescalate between former collaborators and childhood friends Tony Moore and Robert Kirkman after Moore filed a suit to collect what he alleges are his fair share of the profits from the Walking Dead comics and TV show, the answer is "HELL NO." Moore has actually filed a SECOND suit claiming that he should be named joint author of THE WALKING DEAD, BATTLE POPE, BRIT, DEAD PLANET and MY NAME IS ABRAHAM. (The latter two are comics as yet unpublished but developed by the two when they were friends.)

Cartoonist Susie Cagle and Cartoon Movement are at it again with "Down in Smoke" a report on the pot wars of Oakland. All of Cartoon Movements comics are thoughtful piece of original journalism—but it's also on the cutting edge of comics technology, with charts, timelines, animation and in this case, an "audio comic' that includes embedded interviews with the people in the comics. Impressive.

Over the weekend, we were hanging out with the local cartooning scene, and the locals were buzzing about last week’s surprise news that The Museum of Comics and Cartoon Art was transferring all of its holdings and activities to the Society of Illustrators, a more venerable New York institution that spotlights already–recognized greats like Leyendecker and Rockwell. While there was much speculation, a MoCCA insider told us that they would not be involved with the new entity, as it had been transferred in total to SoI. What we're looking at is an entirely new operation, in effect. If the transfer has removed New York City's only dedicated comics exhibit space and social center, the new home is definitely a landmark in its own right. The Society of Illustrators itself goes back over a hundred years, and has seen all the greats from Gibson to Rockwell to Peak to Crumb come through its doors—doors of a midtown building which was once a carriage house for legendary kazillionaire J. P. Morgan. The differing paths of the comics and illustration worlds is perhaps shown by the operating budgets of both institutions—SoI's is $1.3 million; MoCCA's was $300,000.

In an interesting move, it looks like Marvel might extend 20th Century's 'Daredevil' contract... on the condition that Fox return certain Fantastic Four characters back to them.

Pop culture business news site ICv2 has announced the ICv2 Conference on Comics and Digital II to be held in conjunction with this year's New York Comic-Con. It will be held on WEDNESDAY, October 10th,1:00 to 5:00 p.m. -- in previous years it was held on the Thursday prior to the Con but NYCC is essentially a 4 day show now. As in previous years, The Beat is a sponsor of this event. Here's the line-up of panels, with speakers to be announce. All of them sound extremely interesting.

There's been some concern over Marvel's sales in the last six months or so. "But AVX is frickin' huge," you say. And it is. But that might be masking Marvel's inability to sell comics that aren't part of a crossover/Event. Marvel's Next event is the pseudo-relaunch of Marvel NOW! and nobody's quite sure what to make of that just yet. Last week, Brian Hibbs penned a column expressing concerns about Marvel NOW!'s viability and the poor general state of Marvel's and non-Event top list and mid-list. I think it's time to compare some of the numbers on this.

This super sweet story about artist Karl Kesel and his wife adopting a baby and then selling his Silver Age comics collection to pay for medical bills is a great way to end the week. The Kesels had been assigned a drug affected baby and this meant their child was born with a methadone addiction and has to be hospitalized for six weeks:

A couple of new surveys reveal some interesting book buying trends. In the bad news category, weekly sales are down 32% from 2011but that's mostly due to last summer's Borders sell off, Publishers Weekly reports.

Lobo-co-creator, Roger Slifer. Slifer, who was struck by a hit-and-run white sedan in Santa Monica, Calif., on June 23, remains hospitalized and faces a very long recovery. As of last Friday, he was moved to Barlow Respiratory Hospital, a facility that specializes in respiratory issues. Slifer still cannot breathe on his own, but it is hoped that in 3-6 weeks he'll be able to do that, and can start rehab in 3-6 months. Slifer's cousin, Emma, has further updates on his medical condition on Facebook.

Yet another good-looking new creator-owned imprint is coming, this time from Ivan Brandon.