News

Talk about a lousy break: The van containing all of Avatar's merchandise from WonderCon that was going on to Emerald City Comicon was stolen from a comics shop parking lot:

Long-time Steve Roper and Mike Nomad artist Fran Matera has passed away at age 88. An ex-Marine, Matera specialized in realistic adventure comics in a long career that also included a run on Kerry Drake.

This is what we call a "hot drink" post in the biz*, as in, you must get a hot drink and a comfy chair before you dive in to the next link. Pádraig Ó Méalóid has done an amazing job of putting together a Gaiman/McFarlane/Marvelman timeline, which, although it only skims the details of the Marvelman deals of the '80s, does cover the 10-year legal battle between Gaiman and McFarlane as it pertains to Marvelman. It's a tale of (Tony) twists and turns. Of course the pre-history is also stunning:

This long PR piece based on a Wired article gives you lots of details but here's the logline: hyphenates Steve Niles,, Brett Gurewitz and Matt Pizzolo are starting a new venture called Black Mask Studios that will distribute comics via a hybrid print/digital model. Niles (creator) will be the creative director, filmmaker Pizzolo will be President, and Bad Religion guitarist Gurewitz will use his Epitaph Records as the engine for the venture.

March 23rd is the deadline for voting in The 2012 Eisner Hall of Fame Awards. There are 14 nominees; four will go in:

It's my mother's 75th birthday!

Ryan Matheson, the American who was arrested, detained, abused and charged with child pornography after a single image was found on his computer on the Canadian border, has had criminal charges dropped after making a plea bargain to plead guilty to a non-criminal procedural charge. It's a big victory for the CBLDF and civil rights. The CBR story above has more details:

Hey there, The Beat will officially be appearing on Saturday at WonderCon on this panel:

Congats to Matt Bors on becoming the first alt-comix type to win the2012 HERBLOCK PRIZE, and its $15,000 cash award.

The comics world lost one of its greatest visionaries with the passing this morning of the French artist Jean "Moebius" Giraud. One of the most influential artists of the last 40 years, Moebius died at his Paris home after a long illness at age 73.

"Speak of the Devil and he shall appear." On Wednesday, we were discussing how books were shipping on time, but there were a lot of fill-in artists. Now it's Friday and DC has announced two more "Guest Artists."

Following on what seems to have been a successful run with the Ultimate line, starting in June, Marvel will include a digital download code with ALL its books selling for $3.99. Marvel's moving ahead in this regard is interesting, since DC's John Rood has indicated that redemption of their combo packs has been "astonishingly low." In contrast David Gabriel says Marvel's program has been a big success.