News

The mostly triumphal (photos to come) Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival was marred for one indie comics stalwart when AdHouse publisher Chris Pitzer's car was broken into and several art items stolen. The complete list is in the link -- as Pitzer notes, it's kind of unlikely that that thief was much interested in the art, but there is a reward for its return.

Alan Moore will contribute a prose essay to the Occupy Comics project currently running on Kickstarter. He joins David Lloyd on the roster of the project which will record the Occupy Movement in comics -- their V FOR VENDETTA comic has been an inspiration for the protesters with the Guy Fawkes mask from the comics showing up around the globe.

A terse SEC filing on Friday has led to headlines all over comics: Gareb Shamus has resigned as CEO, President and Director of Wizard World, Inc., the convention-running entity of the Wizard empire. Seeing as how Shamus is the owner and founder of the company it came as a shock. But what does it really mean? Has Shamus really been ousted from his own company -- or is it just a filing to reflect some internal resource shuffling?

As of last Thursday, Gareb Shamus is no longer president/CEO of Wizard World, Inc. Being publicly traded, notice of this change had to be filed with the SEC. This includes the company's report:

Once again there are six judges this year: Brigid Alverson, Calum Johnston, Jesse Karp, Larry Marder, Ben Saunders, and Mary Sturhann. Congrats to all these fine judges -- you will get to read lots of comics!

Via PR. Congrats to Alex! He gets to wear a shiny deputy badge now.

Bon Alimagno is leaving Marvel to take a job with software company The Apollo Group. At Marvel Alimagno worked closely with Senior Vice President, Business Affairs & Talent Management David Bogart on freelancer scheduling and handling. He was formerly the editor at Harris Comics, overseeing the adventures of Vampirella.

Janna Morishima, formerly of Scholastic and Diamond, has just joined Papercutz as Marketing Director. At Diamond Morishima helped spearhead the then-nascent market for kids graphic novels, so working with the Papercutz lineup of such things as The Smurfs and Lego is a natural move for her.

For West Coasters and late risers! Very incomplete, so add yours in the comments.

Hope you all had a great holiday weekend and plenty of turkey and stuffins. We spent the whole holiday mucking out our shelf porn -- organizing shelves, tossing pamphlets, setting aside some books for storage some for donation, a few for eBay. And some for Beat giveaways! Check back every day this week at 5 pm EST for some really swell classic GNs which we're giving away to lucky readers! A few other notes of business:

Lauren Weinstein has posted an update from Tom Hart and Leela Corman, who tragically lost their young daughter last week:

Tom and Leela asked me to thank everyone from the bottom of their hearts. “We feel every word, every thought, every intention, and please tell them that their help has enabled us to pay for our families – who don’t have much money – to fly here rapidly to be with us. And that it has helped us with all of the costs of this horrible experience. We are beyond grateful and we owe you many lifetimes of kindness and service. We hope that you will never experience anything remotely close, but please know that whatever help you need, we are with you too.”

Although the whole situation is unbearably sad, we should all be thankful that our community has been able to help these two good people at this time. The fund is still open for donations here.

According to anew mailer, artist Steve Rude has been instructed by his lawyer not to talk about his case. However "He does want me to pass along his deepest gratitude. He really loves reading any mail that comes his way and words of encouragement to be strong." You'll recall that on the night of Halloween, Rude was arrested and charged with assault and violating a court order in a dispute with a neighbor. In happier news, the full color Rude 2012 Sketchbook is now available for presale. This weekend it's on sale for $20. Regular price of $25 goes into effect on Monday. All purchases get am exclusive presale print.