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Erin Polgreen's iPad-based magazine of comics journalism, Symbolia, gets previewed as part of Christopher Borelli's look at the rise of non fiction comics journalism. Polgreen was in town a while ago and showed us some samples of the project -- not only was the lineup of creators impressive, but Polgreen has the smarts and focus to make Symbolia a must-read.

Surprise! It's Shia LaBeouf and his girlfriend Karolyn Pho, who handles the business side of LaBeouf's Campaign Book comics publishing company. LaBeouf is making a Lars Von Trier film called Nymphomaniac which may require him to film actual sex acts, which is a step up from the torture and blinding and other miseries which actors in von trier films must often endure. Whatever happens, we're sure Shia will make a comic about it.

Here's a new one for the comics-related crime blotter: A Utah teen has been arrested and charged with aggravated assault after he used replica Wolverine claws to attack a friend. No one knows why Kristofer Ryan Huff, 19, set into his 20-year-old roommate with the claws....and also a knife. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that the victim was dating Huff's mother, who was also injured in the attack.

As we reported a few days ago, Ingram/Lightning Source has announced an incredibly cheap level of color print-on-demand, and Todd Allen has seen the samples:

It's nearly a year later, and retailer Brian Hibbs is first out of the gate with an analysis of the New 52, a year later and he says it was good. An attached chart shows all the books up significantly for the year, and more importantly, as Bob Wayne promised at Comic-Con last year, the New 52 actually enlarged the pie with some new readers:

The FINAL deadline for Harvey voting is TONIGHT. You can vote online, or mail or fax in in your paper ballot.

The Newbery Award is the gold standard for children's books; it's awarded to one book each year (along with a handufl of Honor books) and signifies the level of excellence that such past winners as A Wrinkle in Time, Sarah, Plain and Tall and The Graveyard Book imply.

[On Monday, US District judge Otis Wright cancelled a hearing on the case of the Joe Shuster estate's claim for his half of the copyright to Superman. This led many observers to think a decision was near. The Beat's legal expert, Jeff Trexler explains it's just not that simple.]

As you may know, the metro Manila area has been hit by severe flooding of late, due to monsoon season, and hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced as a result. Local bookstore Fullybooked is organizing a fundraiser for the flood victims.

§ You may note that the front page of The Beat looks different. I tinkered with the template in order to alleviate some of the strain on the database, so hopefully there won't be any more crashes before we move to our new, updated look and server (which is coming, promise). In the course of doing this, I crashed the database worse than it ever had been before to the point where even after rebooting the server the errant process would immediately lock it up again.

The nominees for this year's Ignatz Awards, to be presented Saturday, September 15th at the Small Press Expo, have been announced. As usual, it's an eclectic mix spotlighting some outstanding work from off the beaten path—Inés Estrada— and some from mainstream publishers—My Friend Dahmer.

Although it really wasn't logical to think that Joe Kubert would live forever, I think we can all be forgiven for thinking it might just happen. So his death yesterday at age 85 comes as a real blow. With one of the longest, most productive careers in American comics, he was a pillar of such energy and strength that as dynamic as his art was, the man himself seemed to surpass it.