News

I was saddened to learn this morning that frequent Beat poster Lewis "Alan" Coil died of a heart attack on Friday. He was 55.

I never met Alan in real life, and certainly he had his disagreements with many people on the internet, but he was a constant presence here and at many other sites, and obviously passionate about comics and participating in the discussion. Alan was a ubiquitous internet presence in the tradition of the great letterhacks.

On Peter David's site, Alan's friend Paul Shiple wrote:

Daniel Best interviews Gene Colan as the legendary artist recuperates from a broken shoulder. ... I should be thinking more of retirement, I suppose, but I don’t even think about retiring. I need to draw, I love it, so why should I give it up. The link includes information about other ongoing efforts to supplement Colan's income via auctions and so on.

Things have been a little erratic around Stately Beat Manor this week, and although there's no way to write about this without sounding like a whiny ingrate, the Beat is just burnt out from some annoying ongoing problems. But now they look like they are getting partially solved so maybe happy faces are coming soon. But before I delve into tech-moaning, I wanted to grouse about something else. I have just been going through my emails and putting together some FCBD listings -- not comprehensive but if people bothered to promote their events, they should get some promotion. And I learned some things.

Following hours of Twitter-recorded labor, Matt Fraction and Kelly Sue DeConnick welcomed Tallulah Louise to the world this week, an event so momentous it...

Additional nominees in the 2010 Joe Shuster Awards have been announced in the Outstanding Canadian Publisher category,as well as the Finalists for the Harry...

Comic book fans, have you always wanted to represent our clan in the best possible light? Well here is your chance. A Major National...

Iconix, the world's second biggest licensing company, has acquired the licensing rights to E.W. Scripps (aka United Media's) comic strips, including Peanuts, Dilber, Get Fuzzy and many, many others, it was reported today. The price was $175 million. As we reported a few months ago, Scripps, had put its lucrative licensing business on the block, given the problems in their other segments, including the newspaper business. The deal will be a joint venture with the family of Charles Schulz continuing to get a share of the licensing income from a previous deal.

Aid The Beat and the Elite Beat Squad! We're trying to import the old posts from the Old Beat, so we can shut down...

David Mazzucchelli's stunning ASTERIOS POLYP won the prize for the best Graphic Novel in the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, which as the...

The Stumptown Comics Festival was held this weekend. Many folks attended the party where the awards were held, and even wrote extensive blog postings...

Oh yeah, speaking of the London Book Fair, this little news nugget was buried in Rachel Deahl's preview of the event for PW: Russia will...

Nominations for the Harvey Awards are closing this Friday. With all the nominating irregularities in recent years, I strongly advise getting together a...