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Comixace Two survival keys for #sdcc: 1) dl official Con app for a schedule and maps. 2) bring a poster tube! http://lockerz.com/s/122335498

Yesterday's ICv2 Conference on Comics, Media, and Digital kicked off Comic-Con with a look at the business side of things. Over at Publishers Weekly, Calvin Reid and I have a brief recap of some of the stats that Milton Griepp presented at his annual White Paper. Some quick hits: GN sales were up 3% so far in 2011 -- up more in bookstores, despite the Borders disaster, than in comics shops -- while periodical sales were down 8%. The peak of sales for comics and GNs was 2006-2007. Coincidentally that was also a peak year for manga sales, which has declined significantly yet again. But the rate of decline has stabilized.

None of this year's Russ Manning Award nominees created a bigger splash than Nate Simpson with the debut of his comic Non-Player. With it's gorgeous, fully imagined artwork it was the toast of the internet for a few weeks and sold out right away. LIke may recent Manning nominees, Simpson works in video game design -- not only artwork but character and story concepts; his resume includes Demigod, Space Siege, Supreme Commander 2, GoPets. the Starfleet Command series and dozens more.

Continuing our look at this year's Russ Manning Award nominees, we come to Paul Roman Martinez, aka Kopetkai. He's the creator of the dieselpunk webcomic The Adventures of the 19XX. According to his bio, he's a California-based graphic designer/web designer who works on his comics in his spare time. The 19xx combines his interests in art and history with a pretty nifty premise:

The Beat endorses the CBLDF -- the freedom you save may be your own. Clothe yourself, smell good, bid on some great art and then hang out at one of the best parties Comic-Con has to offer.

It's official....as everyone expected, Borders, the book chain that spearheaded the rise of graphic novel sin the good years, has failed to find a buyer and will be liquidated, perhaps as soon as this Friday.

Don McGregor is the writer of such Bronze Age classics as Black Panther and Killraven, and the first direct sales graphic novel, Sabre. Clifford Meth reports that family health emergencies have forced him to sell some of his art collection, including iconic pages from the above series:

Continuing our spotlight on this year's Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer awards, we come to David Marquez, artist on SYNDROME and DAYS MISSING Vol 2 for Archaia. London-born but living in Texas, Marquez was on track to become a high school teacher before deciding to pursue his love of art and applying for a job in the animation department on A SCANNER DARKLY. Since then he's worked on a a variety of indie comics projects.

Trolling the internet while on vacation, I was chilled down to the bone (impressive given the 100+ temperatures in Texas) to see on the announcement on the Center for Cartoon Studies website that the Xeric Award would be no more. Since 1992, Peter Laird of the amazeballs black and white comic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (self-published in 1984) has granted two awards a year to a cartoonist or project for its excellence.

Continuing our look at this year's Russ Manning Award Most Promising Newcomer nominees, we have Adam Hines, author of the extraordinary DUNCAN THE WONDER DOG, a meditation on consciousness that uses a dense, collage art technique and expressionist storytelling. It's set in a world where animals can talk, but any idea that this is going to be a cutesy anthropomorphic tale should go right out the window. Duncan has already won a Xeric Grant, the LA Times Book Prize for best graphic novel and the first Lynd Ward Prize, and it's nominated for the Harvey Award, making it one of the most honored graphic novels of recent years.

Each year the Russ Manning Award is presented to a new artist of merit. Past winners include Jeff Smith, Dave Stevens, Scott McCloud, and many other future Hall of Famers. We thought we'd take a look at this year's nominees and show off some nice art along the way. Up first: Janet K. Lee.

Former Marvel editor John Barber has been named to the Senior Editor position at IDW, taking over their Hasbro licenses. Barber worked at Marvel as an editor for six years, and has a background in webcomics, which should fit in well with IDW's strong digital presence. In addition, IDW named Tom Waltz as senior staff writer and Alonso Simon was named assistant editor.