Kibbles ‘n’ Bits 7/24/15: Michael Carbonaro comes to ConTV

This is a random week’s worth. Gotta remember that daily thing.

§ Who Won Comic-Con? Christian Hoffer thinks he has the answer.

§ WizardWorld’s on demand streaming service ConTV has been running for a while and they just announced a new show starring Michael Carbonaro, a colorful figure well known in the NYC comics community as a dealer and the show runner for the Big Apple cons. If anyone was made for reality TV, it’s Carbo.

The show features the enthusiastic Carbonaro as he highlights some of the more unique and interesting collections he’s come across, such as one man’s Doctor Strange collection, classic Joe Palooka, Flintstone playsets, and others. Fans can also play along at home by using social media to tell what they would pay for the items that Carbonaro buys in the show.

The highlight of the show is the host himself. An enterprising and successful entrepreneur, Carbonaro began buying and selling comics at age 10. At age 13, Carbonaro set up at his very first comic convention. From 1981 to 1997, he ran his own very successful comic book store, Continental Comics, in Queens, N.Y. In 1996, Carbonaro began the very first Big Apple Convention at St. Paul the Apostle church in Manhattan; 12 years later it was the most successful privately-owned comic convention in New York City. “Carbo” is currently working as a buyer for Dave & Adam’s Cardworld (also seen at many Wizard World shows) and doing what he loves—buying comic and pop culture collections from around the world.

§ This is ooooold, but with all the hubbub about Noelle Stevenson, I forgot to mention that her NEXT big project is a new YA graphic novel series called 4 Wizards for HarperCollins (publishers of the collected Nimona) written by Stevenson and TV scribe Todd Casey, illustrated by Stevenson. It’s about, what else, four oddball wizards who must get along to save the world. Art via Comics Alliance.

§ The AV Club celebrated · Comics Week with a slew—a slew I tell you!— of features. I’ll just link to Zainab Akhtar interviewing the wonderful Kris Mukai as an example. Art by Mukai above.

§ For once, Sktchd has a very NONcontroversial piece Rankingthe Ten Best Image Comics, Spoiler: Saga is NOT #1!

§ This blog post excerpted some typically insightful Warren Ellis writing advice—“Read Comics. All comics. And then cut them open…” —from his newsletter so I did not have to.

§ Writer Ales Kot was spotlighted at Vulture, talking about the need for more diversity:

Much of the comics industry is also nearly devoid of transgender creators and creators of color. This, I know for sure, is by no means just an accident. It is a symptom of centuries of institutionalized racism and bigotry. On a fictional character level, the situation is improving. On encouraging and hiring transgender creators and creators of color, we have to make big steps forward, and do so immediately. The industry can improve by listening to criticism and marginalized voices, and by opening up spaces for nonwhite creators and transgender creators. The industry can improve by ceasing to be a gigantic circle-jerk where people pat themselves on the back for every halfhearted attempt at creating anything other than superheroes. The industry can improve if and when all the individuals who make the industry educate themselves and start following a code of conduct focused not only on monetary gain but also on a strong ethical stance. Mainly, all of this goes to the men in the industry, and especially all the white heterosexual men.

§ Jillian Tamaki blogged a random series of photos from her tour this year, and if you ever wanted to see the Tamaki cousins standing front of a Marvel booth, now you can.