Tag: Top News

In the past 12 months, Newsarama, The Outhouse, Comics Alliance, Multiversity and Broken Frontier have all had changes at the top, with various editors...

This news arrived via an email ad blast in my inbox, but it doesn't change the import of it: Raina Telgemeier's Smile has been on the New York Times bestseller list for three straight years, and she also recently achieved a rare top four sweep of the spots with Smile, Sisters, Drama and the reissued colorized Babysitter's Club.

Welp, the last hold-out has just joined the giant team. Dark Horse had long been missing from Comixology and other standlaone apps as they...

The roll-out of Marvel's fall "relaunch" following Secret Wars continues with news of a new Doctor Strange title top be written by Jason Aaron...

Prolific cover artist and painter Earl Norem has passed away at age 91 as reported on Facebook by family members including his daughter: As my...

Many people ask me, "Why don't you do a podcast?" and I reply, "I do!" It's called More to Come and it's produced by Publishers Weekly. This week, I chat with Matt Hawkins, president and coo of Top Cow. Matt is more than just an inimitable Facebook poster (if you've read his stories about standing in line at the grocery store, you know what I mean.) He's also an industry veteran who's seen the highest highs and the lowest lows, and in this talk he dishes on the early days of Image and much more.

We couldn't make it to HeroesCon this weekend, but it sounds like everyone else did -- our reporters on the floor say the show is packed and word on the streets is that tickets presale was up significantly. Guests include everyone from Stan Lee to Babs Tarr and the show blog has all the updates and exclusive goodies. Follow our @comicsbeatlive in Twitter for buzz from the floor and hot scoops, and @comicsbeat on Instagram for pictures. Our Davey Nieves has been slaying it with the E3 visuals but there's more to come as always. Kyle, Hannah and Harper are all at HeroesCon so if you see them say hi and give them some news!

Not only are these tiny Yotsuba&! figures from Kotobukiya adorable as the dickens, they got me thinking about the place of merchandising in a creator's business plan.

Two weeks out from Comic-Con (that's next week) is generally what we call "Hell Week" as all the details get locked down, programming goes out, meetings get set, dinners take shape and so on. But we're beginning to get a picture of what's new this year. And one thing that wont be new is selfie sticks on the con floor. The Con has updated its Tech rules to keep pace with the times, and selfie sticks, live streaming from panels, e-cigs and more are all prohibited:

Saskatoon Blitz is an anime/cosplay focused event that has been running for a few years with a good reputation, so this isn't a first year show meltdown, but they do seem to have had some real organizational problems this time out. Several exhibitors had problems with staff over tables in artists alley being first come, first served (what?) and then confusion over the show's hours led to a dispute that ended with an exhibitor being escorted from the show. And just to make it totally gross, on a private message board for the event, staffers started making horrible rape jokes about the exhibitor who complained. Not cool.

While there's been some shifting around and experimentation with other platforms for some publishers, it seem Marvel will makes theirs Comixology, at least where digital comcs are concerned. They've just announced a renewal of their agreement to sell Marvel digital comics, with an expansion to the Kindle platform for the first time:

Founded in 1997, TokyoPop was one of the most influential publishers of the Aughts, driving the manga boom in the US as the first publisher to print manga in its original right-to-left format, a move that helped cement its authenticity among young readers. Later on their "original English language manga" line developed an entire generation of young creators working in a manga style, including Becky Cloonan and Amy Reeder Hadley. But it all came to an end in 2011 when the company shut down except for the German office. Owner and founder Stuart Levy went on to make a documentary about the Tohoku earthquake, even amidst continuing controversy about the reversion of rights to creators However there have been flickers of life since then, with some new digital publishing, licensing OEL books like King City to Image, and a TokyoPop-branded newsletter that was part of Nerdist's adventures in that area. Since TokyoPop never went bankrupt, it's entirely possible that Levy can bring it back, as promised on the company's about page: