News

HERO COMICS 2011 is a benefit comic for the Hero Initiative, the highly worthy charity which helps down and out creators get back on their feet. Editor Scott Dunbier has a special treat planned for the issue: a reunion of the SANDMAN #1 team of Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth and Mike Dringenberg for an all new story. However, Kieth has already started work on a 9-page "making of" story (above) that he calls "a little allegorical."

After things here yesterday got a little too real, I'd like to get back to just talking about cool and wonderful things. Like Jaume Plensa's new installation at Madison Square Park, entitled "Echo." The 44-foot high fiberglass resin sculpture depicts the head of a 9-year-old girl caught in a meditative state. Set among the fresh green of early Spring, it gladdens my heart every time I see it.

In the many many reports of layoff at Wizard over the years, there was one name which never came up: Mike Cotton. Cotton had been at Wizard for 11 years as one of their most essential writers/editors, and it was commonly said that when Cotton left the Wizard ship, it would be nothing but an empty hulk drifting the seas. Well that day has come -- or it did on last Friday, according to a press release that Cotton sent out to several outlets.

The LA TImes Book Prizes were announced on Friday and Adam Hines' DUNCAN THE WONDER DOG won the award for best Graphic Novel. The mind stretching tale of a world where animals are sentient, the book has already won wide acclaim and the Lynd Ward Prize for Graphic Fiction. Despite the acclaim from outside prizes, DUNCAN was blanked at the Eisner Award nominations -- well, different strokes.

Via The Source word that THE RISE OR ARSENAL by J.T. Krul, Geraldo Borges and Marlo Alquiza and GREEK STREET's Ajax storyline by Peter Milligan and Werther Dell’Edera, have won PRISM awards which recogonize the "accurate depiction of substance abuse and mental illness: prevention, treatment and recovery in film, television, interactive, music, DVD, and comic book entertainment."

I realize as I'm trying to assemble today's comic news that my mind wasn't really on it for some reason. Although 9/11/01 is the day that changed the world in sad and horrible ways, it was also a sad and horrible time for me, my friends, my family and my home. The sense of closure I feel today following the death of bin Laden is a powerful one, but it also brought back so many memories of that time.

A couple of updates on the dispersion of various Tokyopop books, print and digital.

The parade of free award-nominated online comics reading continues with Frank Stockton's "Hamburger for One" which was nominated for an Eisner in the "Best Short Story" category. It's the almost painful story of an awkward teen boy and his attempts to interact with his world. Read the whole thing in the link. The original story appeared in POPGUN #4.

Just when things looked all lovey dovey on the convention front, Kiel Phegley reports that Canadian convention organizer Hobby Star has filed a lawsuit against Reed Pop and Zuffa LLC, owner of the UFC over the use of the term "Fan Expo," which Hobby Star claims to have trademarked. Reed and the UFC, the hugely popular mixed martial arts organization, have been putting on a series of "UFC Fan Expo" events in conjunction with their fight shows. However, Hobby Star puts on the Fan Expo Canada every year, generally considered the third biggest comic-con-type show in North America. The suit probably only covers the Canadian use of the term Fan Expo, however:

It looks like bookstores are getting so eager for new product categories that they are actually going back to the periodical market. Barnes & Noble, the still-standing book chain, is adding comics racks to its product mix, apparently in advance of this summer's comic book movie heavy slate. Bleeding Cool has an internal memo on the matter:

If you've been wondering when we'll see this year's "White Paper" from Milton Griepp, with year-over-year statistics and trends, it will be presented at the ICv2 Comics, Media, and Digital Conference 2011 which will be held on the Wednesday before the San Diego Comic-Con. Griepp holds similar events at various shows around the calendar. Here's some PR; these one-day events are traditionally an information packed professional day.

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