Scream Awards: June Foray wins Comic-Con Icon Award
Scream Awards were presented to comics people; and the comics people rejoiced.
NYCC Announcements: Vertigo Goes Simultaneous Print/Digital Release – Or – Get Used To It
Over on the Vertigo blog, we find an announcement that Vertigo's titles are starting to be released simultaneously in both print and digital ("day and date" is an insipid phrase; let's all stop using it).
NYCC Announcements: Yen Press Adapts NYT YA Bestsellers
Yen Press has announced two manga style adaptations of bestselling YA novels: Sherrilyn Kenyon's Chronicles of Nick and Cassandra Clare's The Infernal Devices trilogy. HyeKyung Baek...
NYCC Announcements: Sesame Street Comics?
This is a little premature, but we might be looking at Sesame Street comics in the not-too-distant future. APE Entertainment, which does have some...
NYCC Announcements: Viz Takes Shonen Jump Digital, Syncs Closer to Japanese Original
This is interesting. Viz is migrating Shonen Jump to a digital edition that's only 2 weeks removed from the Japanese original. (And you can...
Ann Nocenti on Green Arrow – OR – Did a Publisher Just Listen to...
DC announced yesterday that Ann Nocenti will be taking over the writing chores on Green Arrow, as of issue #7. JT Krul was previously...
DC sells 5 million comics, decides to lay them end to end
DC sold a lot of comics — so many that they actually sent out a press release about it; even Diane Nelson, previously silent on the relaunch, now thinks it was a great idea. Selling five million comics in 6 weeks is indeed a sizable number; however what augurs the best for the comics industry is that sales across the board were up. Marvel had its best September in a while, as did Image. We're not talking a return to 1993 -- as some retailers thinks -- but more like a return to 2003. Which is still great.
It's fairly obvious that customers were waiting for something exciting to happen in order to go back into stores; these disenchanted readers -- Dan DiDio's much loved "lapsed readers" -- have now discovered that comics are still fun. But will they stay that way?
Books-a-Million joins DC book removal over Kindle deal
PW reports that Books-a-Million, the OTHER book chain remaining, has also ordered DC's top 100 GNs removed from their shelves in retaliation for DC's signing a digital four-month exclusive with Amazon.
Jury finds Michael George guilty once more
The 20-year legal saga of Michael George reached another conclusion when he was
found guilty again in the murder of his wife.
Mosher joins comiXology as VP of Marketing, PR, and Business Development
Following his stint at BOOM! Studios, Chip Mosher has joined comiXology as VP of Marketing, PR and Business Development, where he'll run the digital distributor's West Coat office. Mosher was in on BOOM!'s early experiments in digital comics, so he'll doubtless bring much of that experience to comiXology, as well as his formidable talking abilities. It's a strong move for both parties.
As if you hadn't figured out that digital comics are here to stay, they are now hiring real people for real jobs for, presumably, real salaries.
Schulz Library needs volunteers tomorrow
Here's an update on the status of the CCS Schulz Library, which was endangered by flood waters but saved by a plucky and heartwarming band of volunteers who risked danger and dampness to rescue every single book from the library. Although the books are high and dry, the building they were housed in is in questionable shape, and the books are extremely jumbled from the sudden move. In order to get things organized for the new class, arriving in scant days, a call has gone out for some help:
DiDio and Lee: “Future cloudy, ask again later.”
Yesterday, ICv2 ran a three-part interview with DC co-publishers Dan DiDio and JIm Lee which is, if not the most substantial comics business site run interview with the duo ever then the most comprehensive since the reboot. Brigid runs down all the high points but in case anyone missed it, here's Part 1, Part 2 andPart 3. It covers everything from the obvious "Why ARE you doing this?" -- to questions on mass market, digital, and so on. The net effect, as seen in mainstream interviews of late, is that things weren't working -- the price decrease didn't bring in enough new readers, stories were flat and piracy is hurting. But there are some familiar themes as well. Asked about The Way Forward, they respond:













