§ Comics are heating up across the nation!

In Elmira, NY! The Elks Club will be majorly involved.

It’s taken four months of intense planning, but what is being touted as the biggest comic book convention the Southern Tier has ever seen is happening Saturday in Elmira. Some of the bigger names in the comic book industry, with artist Mark Silvestri of California serving as the guest of honor, will be on hand displaying and signing their works, holding panel discussions and networking with fans of the medium. In addition to the nationally known comic book artists, several local artists — some published and some independent — will also take part in the event.



In East Hanover, NJ, with a classic headline: Boom! Ka-Pow! Yikes! New Jersey Comic Book Expo Sunday

One can’t help but think of an entire room full of Comic Buy Guys, all saying “Best. Convention. Ever.” Or if the Comic Book Expo Sunday, Oct. 28, at the Ramada Inn on Route 10 in East Hanover does not live up to expectations: “Worst. Convention. Ever.” But let’s be optimistic. Plus everyone who attends won’t be a comic book guy. Plenty of people love comics from the more innocent to the more adult versions.

§ Mark Evanier attended the old-timey San Diego Comic Fest, which attempted to resurrect the vibe of olden San Diego Cons. Evanier obliged by working by the pool.

This is the final day of the San Diego Comic Fest, a small (deliberately) convention that aimed to capture some of the lost spirit that existed at San Diego Cons of the seventies. In that goal, it has been most successful. Everyone seems to have had a good time, mostly talking about The Good Old Days. There has been very little commerce. No one is hyping a new movie or videogame, and one can “do” the entire Dealers Room in thirty minutes or less. If you didn’t want old toys or books from the seventies, you could probably buy the place out for under a grand. I’ve been working on a script here by the pool. I’ll post this, hit a men’s room, sit for a “spotlight” interview at 12:30 and then probably hit the asphalt. I’ve had a good time here seeing friends and recalling another time and place but it’s almost time to return to Today. That is typed with mixed emotions which I’ll try to explain once I’ve gotten home and figured them out for myself. See you later.


Did anyone else attend? Talk in the comments!

§ Bookmark! A useful roundup of Where to Sell your Digital Graphic Novels and Comics Online including parameters for Graphicly, comiXology, and other digital vendors:

Graphic Novel and Comic book artists are always looking for viable ways to sell their digital issues online. Many big companies like Amazon do not directly take user submissions and many people struggle with finding a solid company to formulate a relationship with. Self-Publishing is often the best way for young artists to get their official start, but its hard to know what company might be best for you. The purpose of this feature article is to give you a sense of the best distribution channel for your comics.

-3.jpg
§ A nice write-up of the “Getting Graphic with Girls” panel I was supposed to moderate, but they didn’t need me at all. Bonus, the above photo of Laura Lee Gulledge, Colleen AF Venable, Cecil Castellucci and Lucy Knisley doing the Catwoman pose.


A new Hobbit TV spot. Is this first movie going to get any further than the Trollshaws?

§ Rick Kirkman & Jerry Scott, creators of the Baby Blues comic strip, have started a blog, with a lot about babies. Via Daily Cartoonist

Warren Ellis explains why Google+ and Facebook aren’t all that useful any more:

Google+ is apparently a success, according to many tech reporters.  Anecdotal evidence suggests that most people are using G+ to post inside Circles.  Some 11,000 people have added me to G+ circles – but, apparently, none of the ones they post to.  Of the 150+ people I had in circles, precisely three of them posted content I could see.  When I posted content, only a thin fraction of those 11000 people could see it, because at some point I got tuned out by the system.  G+ is therefore useless to me, and I just nuked my circles.

Facebook Pages allow some 16% of the people who clicked Like on a Page to see the posts from that Page.  Regardless of whether or not those people specifically requested those posts in their News Feed.  If a Page owner wants to access the eyeballs of more of the people who clicked Like on a Page because they wanted to see that Page’s posts, that Page owner has to pay to Promote those posts.  I would currently have to pay USD $10 to ensure that all the people who Liked the official Warren Ellis Page on Facebook actually saw one single post.   Facebook Pages are therefore useless to me.

§ A useful list of Fall 2012’s Biggest Graphic Novels and there are a LOT of them.

§ Sean T. Collins read 67 monthly comics in a compressed period and enjoyed many of them.

§ Good news! Young folks still go to libraries!

Some 80% of Americans ages 16-29 have read a book in the past year, and 6 in 10 say they have used their local public library, but library attitudes among that age group are somewhat in flux, according to survey report released today by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, with younger readers reporting that they are reading more in an “era of digital content,” and increasingly on their mobile devices, suggesting “opportunities of further engagement with libraries” later in life.