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Kickstarter, the website that allows creative types to raise money by direct appeal to a community of supporters, has been helping all sorts of folks get their dream comics out there -- from reprints of obscure old comics, to webcomic collections. Most projects we've seen are fairly modest. But some are much bigger in scope. Tony Harris has just turned to Kickstarter for his new project ROUNDEYE: For Love. That would be Starman/Ex Machina, five-time Eisner nominee Tony Harris.

On Friday, Alex Segura announced he was leaving DC Comics as Publicity Manager, and strongly hinted he'd be staying in comics. Today, it's been announced that he'll be joining Archie Comics as Executive Director of Publicity and Marketing. Segura previously freelanced as a Publicity Coordinator for Archie prior to working at Wizard and DC. Archie has recently revitalized their publishing program under the leadership of co-CEO Jon Goldwater, with news grabbing events such as showing Archie's marriage, and adding an openly gay character to Riverdale's cast of characters. They've also updated their product list with such things as an Archie Magazine and digital comics.

The judges for the 2011 Eisner Awards have been announced. They are Comic-Con board of Directors member Ned Cato, Jr., librarian/curator Karen Green, writer/editor Andrew Helfer, publishing executive (and BEAT contributor) Rich Johnson and retailer Chris Powell. The five will convene in late March to deliberate on the nominations, and the awards will be presented at next year's San Diego Comic-Con.

Clark, we are not in Metropolis anymore. In the continuing evolution of DC Entertainment into a pillar of the Warner Brothers library, Amit Desai...

Diamond has released their November basic data dump, and no sales rebound sight, with overall sales down 8.28 percent from a year ago and down 6.64 percent from November. However, graphic novel sales surged 14.84 percent since last year, driven by sales of THE WALKING DEAD trade collections. John Jackson Miller already has his preliminary analysis up. Diamond has recently started releasing much more information on comparative sales -- I'm told this is because the partial figures they were releasing were giving rise to inaccurate projections by such folks as Miller. We have a lot more data to go on on how the market changes from year over year; let's be judicious in how we analyze it. Overall, the comics market is down 5.66 percent YTD in dollars and -4.18 percent in units from 2009. While that isn't a great number, considering the economy, it could be worse.

This story has it all, but it's all horrible. 57-year-old Kenneth McClure, owner of Legends Comics & Cards in St Louis, MO was found shot dead in a field yesterday. However, that's just the centerpiece of a circle of lurid crime that is TRU ready. McClure had recently been charged with the statutory rape of a 13 year old girl (which took place in the shop, where he lived in the basement), and had held police in a stand-off at the store when they came to arrest him -- holding a gun to his head for three hours.

Popular Publicity Manager Alex Segura Jr. has announced today is his last day at DC Comics.

More PR as DC continues to restructure. Longtime employees Alison Gill and Nick Napolitano have been promoted to SVP, Manufacturing & Operations and VP, Manufacturing Administration, respectively. More recent hire Jeff Boison has been promoted to VP, Publishing Operations. Gill is an industry veteran whose promotion reflects her in-depth knowledge of all things concerned printing and production.
Much of the job duties mentioned for the trio includes working with the new bi-coastal set-up of the company.

Girl-Wonder.org, the mostly superhero-focused organization for female readers and characters is looking for new board members.

Continuing DC's rollout of promotions and restructuring, Mark Chiarello, the mastermind behind WEDNESDAY COMICS and many other much-admired projects over the years such as BATMAN: BLACK AND WHITE, has been promoted to VP Art Direction & Design. Chiarello had been overseeing most of DC's art-related output for some time, and the appointment consolidates functions which had been under several positions that were eliminated in the restructuring.

Via the Source, DC Editor-in-chief Bob Harras has announced the new structure of the DCU, with long time editor Eddie Berganza getting promoted from group editor to Executive Editor. Group Editors Matt Idelson and Mike Marts will oversee the Superman and Batman groups, respectively, while Ian Sattler has been promoted to Director--Editorial, Special Projects & Archival Editions. The post doesn't go into details of what that will cover, but since Harras left running the recently downsized reprint department, it sounds like Sattler will be taking that over. The editorial team is rounded out by Vertigo's Karen Berger and MAD's John Ficarra-- it isn't clear if they are reporting to Harras or not, nut in any event they will be working closely.

All-ages licensed material dominates next year's Gold Sponsor Free Comic Book Day offerings on May 7th. Believe it or not, 2011 is the 10th anniversary of the unofficial comic book holiday, and this year the top level publishers are providing stories of such icons as Spider-Man and Betty and Veronica, along with newer favorites such as MOUSE GUARD and AVATAR THE LAST AIRBENDER.