Tag: Top News

With sales of more than a million copies and the number of confirmed variant covers at 89, Marvel's first Star Wars #1 in nearly 40...

This is really sad. In a letter to customers, Ben and A.J. Trujillo, the owners of Star Clipepr COMis in Stalous, have announced the store is closing, with a liquidation sale beginning on Saturday. Opened in 1988, and going through three ownership changes, Star Clipper was always in front of retailing trends, and the Trujillos had definitely built up a great relationship with their community—as evidenced by the outpouring of support on their FB page—carrying a wide selection of comics for adults and kids, with a strong emphasis on female customers. Recent signings include Neal Adams, Cullen Bunn, Chris Samnee, Michael DeForge, Kate Leth, Tim Lane, Jeff Weigel, so you can see how eclectic their domain was. As

As mentioned earlier, I've been on a deadline and haven't had time to jump all over breaking industry news, but that worked out just fine in the case of the disappearing Marvel Swimsuit Issue update. It seems artists Kris Anka and Kevin Wada posted some images of what would be a NEW Marvel Swimsuit issue, updating the strangest comic of the 90s with a much needed new look at lycra and tencel. The initial pin-ups of some lissome lads were tasty, but the women had not even been drawn when the project had been KILLED. KILLED DEAD, taking with it the hopes and dreams of a thirsty nation.

§ Jack Katz, 87, creator of the oddball self published space fantasy epic The First Kingdom, and Golden Age artist, is indiegogoing a new project, called, encouragingly, Beyond the Beyond. It will run to some 800 pages, but he's good for it. The tale is streamlined from an riginal 1000+ outline, but his agent told him he might not have time to finish it. Not much is revealed of the story, and the art shown is tiny, but...it is certain to be wild.

I've been slaving away on an outside project ever since the holidays wrapped, and I've had very limited time to write anything too substantial here. Luckily the new kids have been keeping things going reading comics, posting news and generally running wild in the place. So thank Brandon, Alex, Kyle, Hannah and Dave! The project is wrapping up and I'll be back in the saddle I hope. The new features like reviews and entertainment news won't be going away but I hope to get back to the regular Beat recipe which has been altered a bit of late.

Say what you will about Dan DiDio: in his time as DC's first executive editor then co-publisher, he's remade a lot of what made the company tick, starting with Identity Crisis, the controversial but best selling mini series that kicked off what we at Stately beat Manor call The Crisis Era. (Infinite Crisis and the misleadingly named Final Crisis would follow). As DC's spring move to the west coast closes the cover on more than 75 years of comics history, DiDio is revisiting his own 13 years at DC on his FB page, as so many do as the new year starts and the cold wind howls outside...so step inside with us for some cocoa and Dan DiDio's fireside chat:

In an announcement on the Emerald City Comicon site, it's been announced that the show is joining the ReedPOP family of conventions. As announced, this is not s straight out acquisition, as the ECCC team will continue running the Seattle-based show, and also work on existing Reed shows, presumably including C2E2, New York Comic-Con, PAX and so on.

IDW Entertainment, the production arm of the company, has signed with the WME talent agency for representation. WME will represent all film and television projects for IDW, which was formerly repped by Circle of Confusion. THR has a bit more on the deal:

The long awaited second collection of Kate Beaton's madly popular Hark! A Vagrant comic is finally on its way, and it's called Step Aside, Pops, a phrase we'll all be saying a lot come September. Tom Devlin acquired the book for Drawn & Quarterly. “Kate’s wit is sharper than ever in Step Aside, Pops,” said Devlin in a statement. “She’s found the perfect way to explore her love of history, while effortlessly deflating the pompous, self-righteous figures of authority we were taught to respect in school. Her restlessness has made her drawings even funnier."

Well, this is a shock. The script by James Gunn and Nicole Perlman for Guardians of the Galaxy has been nominated for the very...

Well, bam, 2015 is off to a rousing start, with news breaking this morning that San Diego's IDW has acquired Atlanta/PDX's Top Shelf, with Top Shelf's Chris Staros to remain as Editor in Chief, while partner Brett Warnock retires from comics to run a food and nature blog. Top Shelf will remain as a separate line at IDW, while Leigh Walton, Chris Ross and Zac Boone will all stay on at the new imprint.

Robyn Chapman's excellent The Tiny Report blog is the Publishers Weekly for micro presses and each year she does a publishing survey with information on sales and distrbution. The new one is ready to be taken