News

James Kuhoric has joined Avatar as Vice President of Publishing and Managing Editor. Kuhoric was formerly Director of Purchasing for Diamond and author of several comics including ARMY OF DARKNESS and BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. Avatar has traditionally run a very tight ship so hiring Kuhoric and another recent recruit, sales director Keith Davidsen, shows they are maybe ready to make a run for that contested #5 publisher spot?

Tony Lee has a fine write-up of the late Who icon here,

Editorial cartoonist Mike Keefe of the Denver Post has won this year's Pulizter Prize for cartooning. He won the 2011 John Fischetti Editorial Cartoon Competition earlier this year so he is on a roll. His home paper reacts here. A complete list of winners can be found here.

The Stumptown Awards were given out at the like-named festival on Saturday night, and we haven't checked twitter or Facebook for the evidence of hijinks but hopefully Beat reporter Jen Vaughn, who was on the scene, will have all the dish in her report. We do know the eremont was hosted by Bobby "Fatboy" Roberts and winner were chosen on a public ballot. Here is the very fine bunch of winners:

The Maisie Kukoc Award, presented to a mini-comic of merit as part of the Stumptown Festival, was given to Damian Jay for The Natural World #3-4

The comics publishing culling of 2011 claimed its most prominent victim as it was announced today that Tokyopop is shutting down its US operations, as of May 31. The German office will stay open to handle publishing rights and the film division will continue. Founded in 1997, Tokyopop and its founder Stu Levy were at the forefront of the manga revolution in the US, introducing such hits as SAILOR MOON, CHOBITS, and LOVE HINA to the US market in the "unflipped" format for the first time. Sales surged as the manga bookstore revolution took over in the early part of the last decade. An ambitious program of publishing original manga by creators from around the world -- many of them barely out of the teenaged readership years themselves -- proved controversial and ultimately saw only a handful of successful franchises but introduced a new generation of creators to the comics scene.

Although we wrote about this here, it was little noticed that NBM, publisher of fine Euro-comix and quirky originals, now has its own book distributor, IPG, a respected indie distributor located in Chicago. Just as with Fantagraphics and Norton, D&Q and FSG, this should be a good match of a dedicated GN line for a distributor that wants to diversify. PR below:

Although we wrote about this here, it was little noticed that NBM, publisher of fine Euro-comix and quirky originals, now has its own book distributor, IPG, a respected indie distributor located in Chicago. Just as with Fantagraphics and Norton, D&Q and FSG, this should be a good match of a dedicated GN line for a distributor that wants to diversify. PR below:

Over the past few years I've become very skeptical of all the talk about "saving comics" -- and I say that as someone who actually started a non-profit organization whose motto was "Here to save comics!" While this could be chalked up to my own ennui, I prefer to think of it as being practical.

CBR is reporting a round of layoffs at Dark Horse including editors Shawna Gore and Dave Land and sales assistant Max Sato. The Beat has learned that Tim Ervin, Gore's ex-husband, and another editor at Dark Horse, were also let go.

Over at The Source, DC is releasing more info on Retroactive, a series of retro one-shots by classic teams starting in July. No final art has been released yet -- the image of Superman below is just style guide art.

With comics periodical sales slogging along, many have said it's time to throw things against the wall and see what sticks -- Marvel is at least giving a nod towards this by announcing an event called VENGEANCE by Joe Casey and Nick Dragotta. Launching as a six-issue miniseries in July, VENGEANCE will take on the Marvel U's bad guys in a fresh fashion, introducing both revamped versions of younger evil-doers along with classic Marvel villains.

"We're going to the Sixth Dimension, Hitler's Germany, an insane nightclub, and a homeless shelter," Dragotta said—of the first eight pages.