Tag: Top News

Dylan Horrocks, the godfather of New Zealand cartooning, talks about the contemporary scene and the art exhibit he recently curated.

by LTZ -- There was some unpleasantness in Boston this week -- you might have heard. Friday afternoon, mere hours before the FBI and police captured suspected Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Hynes Convention Center sent word down: Boston Comic Con was off. It was an everyone-loses situation: the con organizers are almost certainly out a lot of money for nothing, the guests are out potential income (especially those who were taking a weekend off from steady gigs), the fans are out their con experience, the cosplayers are out their costume contest, and the retailers were out a big source of revenue. This was such an eleventh-hour move by the Hynes that the retailers had their merch packed up and ready to go, just waiting for the all-clear to start hauling it into the convention center.

Chickens came home to roost in March. With no gimmick-bloated #1 issues, strong crossovers or annuals of high-performing titles driving sales of the company's periodical line, with the Before Watchmen project fading out on a whimper, and despite a deluge of high-selling issues tying in with a recent character death, estimated sales of the average new DC Universe comic book fell to 31,000, the lowest level since the big "New 52" relaunch of September 2011.

In a chilling reminder of the obstacles free speech still faces around the world, Egyptian political cartoonist Magdy El Shafee was arrested on Friday, and despite many reports that he was freed, the latest news is that he is still being held. El Shafee is a contributor to World War 3 Illustrated, and they reported on his arrest:

It seems Disney has wimped out from using the famous "Demon in a Bottle" storyline in Iron Man 3. A few scenes in Iron Man 2 suggested that Tony Stark's partying was a little out of control, but the hero can't take a fall this time out.

The winners of the 2013 LA Times Book Prizes have been announced and : Sammy Harkham's Everything Together: Collected Stories (PictureBox) won, beating out Alison Bechdel, Leela Corman Spaim Rodriguez and even Chris Ware.

Mark Waid and Dean Haspiel are joining Archie's Red Circle superhero line with THE FOX, a new series. Waid has been tearing things up of late with his Thrillbent comics and Daredevil for Marvel, while Haspiel has been spearheading his Trip City website and various projects, so this chould be right up both their alleys.

Although Kickstarter becomes a bigger and bigger element in the comics publishing world, and 5 and 6-figure funding levels are common, that doesn't mean...

Warning: watching this video is likely to cause your blood pressure to rise.

In an announcement on the Sparkplug Books website, Emily Nillson has announced that she and Tom Neely are turning the running of the imprint...

Hotels, badges...can there be yet another San Diego Comic-Con-related lottery? Why yes. Parking. Ace Parking offers pre-sale parking at the convention center for $12...

In a note to his fellow retailers giving them Diamond codes for this year's Eisner nominees, Brian Hibbs made a rather interesting discovery: Diamond has only 59% of the 101 individual SKUs in stock.  Meanwhile, Baker & Taylor, the world's biggest book distributor, has 83% of them in stock.