News

Artist Jimmy Broxton/James Hodgkins has broken his silence about the ASHES split.

When six of today's finest, funniest cartoonists created a studio together it was news; that all of them were women somehow made it a "thing". Thus it is with some sadness but a sense of inevitability that the disbanding of the Pizza Island studio has been noted on its blog. Gathering together Kate Beaton, Sarah Glidden, Domitille Collardey, Julia Wertz, Lisa Hanawalt, Meredith Gran and most recently Deana Sobel, this kind of talent put in one room would have been noteworthy under any circumstances.

The Society of Illustrators, an august institution long devoted to the now-vanishing artform of magazine illustration, has in recent years presented medals in the Sequential category for comics-type stuff. this year's winners include a gold medal for GB Tran's VIETNAMERICA and a silver medal for Brian Rea's Modern Love, a series of illustrations for a NY Times column column on romance.

After announcing a book for Free Comic Book Day and a lot of teasing, the relaunched Valiant has announced it's first title. X-O Manowar is launching on May 2nd. That's actually the Wednesday BEFORE Free Comic Book Day. X-O's high concept is, roughly stated, Conan in Iron Man's suit. Essentially, a Visigoth warrior/barbarian is abducted by aliens and ends up with the aliens' most advanced weapon in the universe suit of armor. It's also been a popular concept a couple times around, particularly during the first Valiant run. Between the two previous Valiant launches, here's a quick partial list of creators who've worked on X-O: Jim Shooter, Steve Englehart, Barry Windsor-Smith, Bob Layton, Bart Sears, Jackson Guice, Mark Waid, Dwayne McDuffie and Scot Eaton. Which is to say, "no pressure."

Over on her blog, former SLG Publishing editor-in-chief Jennifer de Guzman reveals she has left SLG. She's joining Image Comics as marketing & PR coordinator.

Last year the Beat inaugurated the Person of the Year award. In an industry where changing the status quo isn't always greeted with joy, this is our way of recognizing the people who either move the needle and shake things up or exemplify a level of excellence that others can aspire to. This year, votes were much more across the board. One person clearly got the most votes as a single person. However, a different executive team had more votes overall when both parts were added up. So, we used our executive power to declare both a Person of the Year and a Team of the Year. Who moved the comics industry in 2011 and will continue to be heard in 2012? Read on.

THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN triumphed in the Best Animated Feature category at the Golden Globes last night -- a surprising loss for Pixar, but then their entry this year, CARS 2, wasn't really in the same league as their other recent masterpieces. Director Steven Spielberg seemed happy to win -- but not as emotional as when he teared up during a montage of scenes from his own film WAR HORSE -- but he kind of blew it for the comics folk by not mentioning Hergé. Perhaps if TINTIN is so lucky as to be nominated and win an Academy Award, Spielberg will remember to thank the little people.

The rumor that's been making the rounds is true: Garth Ennis is the writer when Dynamite launches their ongoing revival of the classic pulp franchise, The Shadow. Joining him as the artist is Aaron Campbell, who's been doing Green Hornet: Year One and Dark Shadows for Dynamite.

By Todd Allen DC has just announced Carlos D'Anda as the fill-in artist for Justice League #8.  They describe D'Anda as a "fan favorite," but...

You can't accuse Rob Liefeld of shying away from work. While his old Extreme characters are getting relaunched over at Image, Rob's just been announced as taking over no less than three titles at DC.

Although some websites prefer not to use sources, it is our policy at The Beat to link away. Thus we can confirm that it is indeed true that Warners has applied for trademark registry on a new logo, as you can see above. The trademark is in black and white so that any color can be applied. "Color is not claimed as a feature of the mark. The mark consists of the letter "D" flipping back to reveal the letter "C" and DC ENTERTAINMENT." To be honest, when we first thought this, we suspected it was a new logo for DC shoes. But no. As others have commented, this "peel back" logo makes the much-mocked swish — introduced in 2005 — look like the Milton Glaser-designed original in terms of readability.

The end of 2011 was a time of turmoil for the brand known as Wizard. Founder Gareb Shamus was forced out by his own board, and the new board committed to mending fences and resurrecting the media end of the brand to go along with the successful convention business. Now the company's annual report has just been posted and sadly for snoopers, the financials only go up to the end of 2010. However there is lots of other interesting reading, including the difficulty of running a web-based media enterprise -- it's not making any money, which will surprise no one -- and the convention business -- only Chicago and Philadelphia are profitable with the other events losing money.