News

The nominations for the 2012 Academy Awards are in, and HUGO led the way with 11 noms, including best picture, director and screenplay. Based on Brian Selznick's illustrated children's novel, if you squint a bit, it qualifies as a "graphic novel" movie. The animated films list is a bit of a surprise: Steven Spielberg won't get to correct his Golden Globes gaffe of forgetting to thank Hergé in his acceptance -- the mocap extravaganza wasn't even nominated. Instead the indie releases A CAT IN PARIS and CHICO & RITA were selected. The former hasn't even opened here yet but looks cool.

Every January, librarians gather together to learn, network, discover, and, most important, RECOMMEND great books to read. Here are some of the award winning books which appeal to readers of graphic novels! Congrats to all!

Lost in the storms of outrage over every boob shot and inker change at various superheroes comics is the real underreported story of the last six months; the decline in graphic novel sales and the concurrent decline of manga. While the former is definitely partly caused by the latter and both are undoubtedly influenced by the bankruptcy of Borders, the full causes behind both have yet to be fully analyzed. The manga side of the equation is covered in depth however in a lengthy column by Jason Thompson at io9 called Why Manga Publishing Is Dying (And How It Could Get Better). Thompson is no stranger to the manga field, having authored the essential reference Manga: The Complete Guide and the manga King of RPGs for TokyoPop. So his analysis is well worth following:

In comics, were one privy to what goes on in the editorial suite, you could probably do "The Hour In Creative Differences," not "The Week." That said, there have been a couple cases of creative differences that have bubbled to the surface in the last week or so: the circumstances of how John Rozum came to leave Static Shock and the demise of The Infinite from Robert Kirkman and Rob Liefeld.

Superheroes have often stepped up to campaign for charities, but this morning's announcement of Warner's new WE CAN BE HEROES initiative has set the bar pretty high. A multi-pronged campaign spearheaded by DC Entertainment and WB has committed several million dollars to teaming with three charities to fight starvation in the Horn of Africa, where 13 million people are currently at risk due to drought and war. In addition to selling merchandise, DC Entertainment will match donations dollar for dollar up to $1 million.

Well now the circle is complete. Former DC online VP Ron Perazza has joined comiXology as Vice-President – General Manager of Publisher and Creator Services. At DC, Perazza was responsible for the ambitious Zuda imprint and behind many other forward-looking initiatives. Since leaving DC last year he's been a bit of a free agent, but presumably his non-compete is over, and comiXology is the perfect place for him and furthers their place as the driver of the digital comics era.

The 23rd Annual GLAAD Media Award Nominees are out, including five in the comics category which exemplify positive media portrayals of LGBT characters:

The Beat has now received Alex de Campi's rebuttal to James Hodgkin's statement on being fired from ASHES, the graphic novel project they got funded on Kickstarter for $32,000. I said I would have my comments, and they are sad ones. I'm an admirer of both creators involved here -- professionally and personally. But if there was ever a case of he said/she said this is it. "Creative differences" indeed. The whole thing reminds me (for the old timers out there) of D'arc Tangent, a long ago collaboration between Phil Foglio and Freff which dissolved into "creative differences," never to be seen again.

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."