NYC: Douglas Rushkoff signs at Barnes and Noble, Aster Place
Feb 28: Barnes and Noble, Astor Place. 7pm
Talking about Testament (volume 2) and Get Back in the Box (now in paperback).

Columbus, OH:
“A Conversation with Harvey Pekar”
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
7:00 pm
Mershon Auditorium
Free!
Booksigning immediately following the presentation

Harvey Pekar is the author of the long-running comic-book series American Splendor and the graphic novels The Quitter and Ego and Hubris: The Michael Malice Story . The absorbing tale of his life and work was the basis for the acclaimed 2003 film American Splendor, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance International Film Festival. Pekar appears in the film as himself and is also played by Oscar-nominated actor Paul Giamatti. Pekar will discuss his life’s work with Dr. Jared Gardner of The OSU Department of English at the Mershon Auditorium on February 28.

Los Angeles: Steve Niles and Bernie Wrightson sign at the Golden Apple right about…NOW.

While we don’t expect anyone to dive into the Legendary Rick Olney thread at CBR, Graeme has a mini round-up, but even BETTER, Olney himself has waded right into it, by YET AGAIN ANNOUNCING A CONVENTION (one of his most notorious maneuvers is cancelling cons at the last minute), and swearing he has a venue, although he hasn’t announced it yet. But he does so have a venue.

Anyway, this is the last public post on this matter by me. We do have a venue for the June 23rd & 24th Mighty MiniCon event. We hope you’ll bother to come check us out!

The next Mighty MiniCon is June 23rd & 24th in upstate New York. As stated, details will be released shortly here.

Any vendor previously discouraged or having any feelings of regret from 2004-2005 are encouraged and invited to contact me to resolve their concerns.

In closing, TightLip Entertainment welcomes any interest from certified vendors, potential guests, and any small press or indy publishing entity interested in our next event.

For some reason, Olney’s announcing a new Mighty Mini-Con has led to a bunch of people rushing to state that they AER NOT GOING TO BE AT IT, Markosia:

Markosia Entertainment today confirmed that as a company, they would not be attending June’s Mighty Mini Con, run by TightLip Entertainment.

“We’ve been told that we were mentioned as guests,” Tony Lee, Group Editor for Markosia said. “But the text going around the net currently is from last year and was asked to be taken down by Chuck Satterlee, our Director of Operations. We will not be at MMC.” The text has consequently been removed.

Markosia apologizes to their fans but stresses that they will be back in the US in 2007 at a variety of conventions across America.

“Individual creators may still attend the Mighty Mini Con or any other event, of course. However, Markosia will not have a presence, no matter what you have heard,” finished Lee.

For more information on what conventions Markosia will be attending, go to www.markosia.com.

And Tony Isabella, who has posted his warning all over the internets:

A message to all my friends and readers…

If you are approached by an individual named Rick Olney or a representative of this man, if you are approached by Olney or anyone else representing entities known as The Mighty Mini-Con, TightLip Entertainment, or ORCA, I strongly urge you to run in the other direction. You can find more details here:

http://www.unscrewedcomic.com/

Please, if you trust me, do not attempt to do business with Olney. In fact, please pass along this warning to any comics professionals, aspiring comics professionals, retailers, exhibitors, media guests, and fans you know.

Olney is not someone you want to do business with.

I’d hoped not to involve myself in this in such a public manner, but, with Olney again advertising a convention and claiming that he is still planning to publish comic books, the greater good demands I speak out.

Well we had this link all set to go about how the Bone game is being ported to the DS, but Wired reportsIT IS NOT TRUE.

UPDATE: Wired News followed up on this release with Telltale, who says that GamesIndustry has their facts mixed up, and Bone is not coming to DS. Xider will, however, release the formerly download-only game in a retail box in Europe.

[Link via Blog@Newsarama]

The Spectrum Awards, which are presented for the best in fantastic art in several categories, including comics, advertising and book covers, were judged this weekend, and some familiar names are in the winners circle. James Jean won Gold Medals in both Advertising and Editorial, and the Silver in Comics. Pictureed: the judges.

The jury for the fourteenth annual Spectrum competition convened in Kansas City, MO on the weekend February 23, 2007 to make their selections from over 5000 works of fantastic-themed art for this year’s book. A new category— Concept Art— was added this year. The jury has given special recognition for superior achievement to the following artists in each of eight categories. The artists receive a Spectrum Award sculpted by Joseph DeVito which rests on a base sculpted by Tom Banwell with either a gold or silver engraved plate bearing the recipient’s name. The jury consisted of Mark Chiarello [artist/editor & art director for DC Comics], Dan dos Santos [artist], Marc Gabbana [artist/concept artist Ice Blink Studio], Brandon Ragnar Johnson [artist/concept artist], Dawn Murin [art director for Dungeons & Dragons/Wizards of the Coast], and Adam Rex [artist]. Art works created by jurors or created under their direction were excluded from consideration for awards. All of the art selected by the judges will be included in Spectrum 14: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art to be published by Underwood Books of Nevada City, CA in October, 2007. Spectrum is distributed to the trade by Perseus, Ingram, Baker & Taylor, and Diamond Comic Distributors. The series’ editors are Cathy and Arnie Fenner. Please join us in applauding these exceptional talents!

ADVERTISING
Gold Award: JAMES JEAN (“Spacerace 2020”/ client: Nike / art director: Mark Thede)
Silver Award: DONATO GIANCOLA (“Vanguard: Saga of Heroes” / client: Sigil Games Online / art director: David Glibertson)

BOOK
Gold Award: JON FOSTER (cover to 9Tail Fox by Jon Courtenay Grimwood / client: Night Shade Books / art director: Jeremy Lassen)
Silver Award: SHAUN TAN (“The Giants” from The Arrival by Shaun Tan / client: Lothian Books, Melbourne/ art director: Shaun Tan)

COMICS
Gold Award: ADAM HUGHES (“Wanda—Lost” / client: Marvel Entertainment-Upper Deck / art director: Mark Irwin)
Silver Award: JAMES JEAN (FABLES: 1001 Nights of Snowfall cover / client: Vertigo/DC Comics / art director: Shelly Bond)

CONCEPT ART
Gold Award: DANIEL DOCIU (“Crescent City” / client: ArenaNet/Guildwars / art director: Daniel Dociu)
Silver Award: JONNY DUDDLE (“The Circus Freako” / client: Future Publishing Ltd.)

DIMENSIONAL
Gold Award: CAM DE LEON (“Not Tested On” / client: Happy Pencil / art director: Cam de Leon )
Silver Award: RICH KLINK (“Cinnamon”)

EDITORIAL
Gold Award: JAMES JEAN (“Crowdsourcing” / client: Wired Magazine / art director: Jeremy Lacroix)
Silver Award: JOAO RUAS (“Downtown” / client: Future Publishing Ltd. / art director: Rob Carney)

INSTITUTIONAL
Gold Award: WILLIAM BASSO (“October Shadows” / client: Creatures Features / art director: William Basso)
Silver Award: TODD LOCKWOOD (“War of Angels” / client: Bullseye Tattoos / art director: Rhyan Scorpio-Rhys)

UNPUBLISHED
Gold Award: JOAO RUAS (“Haunted #3”)
Silver Award: JOHNNY YANOK (“Postmort-mmmms”)

GRAND MASTER AWARD (presented by the Spectrum Advisory Board)
SYD MEAD
The Spectrum Grand Master Award is presented to a living artist for career excellence.

Ken Gale sends word that legendary comics writer Arnold Drake is in the hospital:

Arnold Drake is in Cabrini Hospital in New York City with what his daughter called “a touch of pneumonia.” He was found collapsed, but conscious on the floor of his apartment by a neighbor (thank you, Mr. Hennessy). He is still in intensive care as of today (February 28).

Arnold has been writing comics since the late ’40s. He’s written humor and adventure for all age groups from Batman to Jerry Lewis. He is the creator of Stanley and His Monster, Deadman, Doom Patrol and Beast Boy. He also wrote what is probably the first American graphic novel; “It Rhymes with Lust” was published in 1950 with art by Matt Baker and is due to be re-released by Dark Horse in a few weeks (March, 2007).

Send cards, letters and art to Arnold Drake, Cabrini Medical Center, 227 E. 19th St., New York, NY 10003.

Crowds, sunlight and stormtroopers. What more could you want to create that eaux-de-comic-con? More pictures in the jump.
(more…)

Fans of the inimitable Shatner will enjoy this clip of him doing a voiceover recording and then putting a clueless producer in his place, as Robin Quivers and Howard Stern guffaw in glee. As Robin and Howard point out, Shatner is being a total dick, and yet he’s kind of within his rights as well.

[Link via Cartoon Brew]

UPDATE: Actually, we highly recommend reading the comments at Cartoon Brew linked above where various voiceover directors and other pros discuss whether Shatner was the one being very unprofessional.

Tom has a huge link dump for the just completed second New York Comic-Con, and when we were down and out and too sick to go on we knew it would be okay because afterwards we could just read about what we missed online. Almost better than the real thing. Anyway, you are probably already linked-out but here are a few to grow on:

Alison Bechdel, whose name was misspelled throughout the hall, has had perhaps the most quoted reaction :

Man, the Comic Con was intense. I thought the Angoulême comics festival last month in France was overwhelming. But that was a spa in the desert compared to this shindig. Here. I tried to capture a brief moment for you in film. To get the full effect you should attach your computer to some industrial strength speakers and turn the volume up full blast. I was confused for a while. It wasn’t just comics. Every other person was dressed like an Imperial Storm Trooper, or Princess Leia. There were video games, World Wrestling Federation champions, the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. It was a hellish melange of popular culture at its most nerve-shattering.

cNet News has a very informative article on the show and the future of digital comics

It raised the question of whether the practice of collecting and reading comics stands a chance in an age in which the younger generation has so much else to choose from. The comic industry, after all, is a mature one–most of the NYC ComicCon attendees perusing the classic comic books and tie-in toys were clearly grown-ups. I stopped to speak with two thirty-something men who were ogling a display of Marvel superhero figurines and asked them which they were interested in. “The little ones,” one of them said. “We both have kids now.” But the majority of under-18s (under-25s, even) at ComicCon focused their attention elsewhere. “That generation is lost,” said Vincent Zurzolo, chief operating officer of New York-based comic retailer Metropolis Collectibles. “They like playing video games.”

The great Cheryl Lynn dsicusses Wizard:

Let’s talk about Wizard and how I was mildly impressed by them. Why? Because they were asking people to fill out a very detailed survey at the NYCC. Wizard knows they ain’t been doin’ right, folks. And it looks as if they are really trying to make an attempt to fix things. The only problem is that I don’t believe that the people working at Wizard have any idea how to go about fixing things. They simply know that things need to be fixed. The survey contained a great deal of questions about the usual topics (age, gender, race, class, hobbies, purchasing habits). It seems as if the company is actually trying to find out about all of the different types of people who read comics and what kind of magazine would interest those readers. That’s a huge step forward for a magazine that spent an exorbitant about of time catering to sexually repressed fanboys who abhor any type of change.

New blog ComicMix had much coverage, but seemed to take the most critical online stance like this from Mike Gold:

I’m glad to say the 2007 NYCC was better. Just that — better. Not good enough for the east coast, and not good enough for New York City, the roots of the American comic book medium. But better.

Reed booked twice as much space at the Javitz Center, but then they decided to have maybe four times the events. Stephen King, an anime festival, Stan Lee, all kinds of bells and whistles that would make for a great show if they only had the space.

ComicMix panel coverage is also biting

At the NYCC “DCU: A Better Tomorrow – Today” panel, DC Executive Editor Dan DiDio may have let the cat out of the bag. DiDio was asked if in the Countdown teaser image The Flash was Barry Allen and Red Robin was Jason Todd. DiDio got flustered before answering “yes.” This drew icy stares from the rest of the panel members and applause from the crowd. DiDio’s mic was taken away for the remainder of the panel. The final question for the panel was “Who would you like to kill during Countdown?” and Greg Rucka closed the panel by looking at DiDio and saying, “I’m looking at him.” A good time was had by all.

ComicSnob has the WORST time although this level of hate is a distinct minority.

Tim Leong was impressed with the Ameircan Anime Awards:

We wound up doing about 40 interviews, as well as covering the red carpet at the first-ever American Anime Awards. Now, I’ve been to the Eisners and I’ve been to Harveys when they were at MoCCA, but neither awards show came close to how well-produced the American Anime Awards were. The show opened with his hypnotic Japanese drum performance that was absolutely amazing. How was it different than the comics award shows? First off, it only lasted an about an hour, where the others seem Oscar-like in length. Second, this had very cool motion graphics and video clips for each nominee. I freely admit that anime is not really my forte, so what really amazed me about the whole event was how excited the fans got. They were screaming and cheering and going wild each time a nominee was announced. Gotta love that passion.

Finally, CHUD’s Devin Faraci has other things on his mind:

Hayden Panettiere’s ass stops me dead in my tracks. I’m on the phone, standing outside the Special Events Hall at the New York Comic Con Saturday night and this vision in blue shimmies by, the globes of her butt cheeks rolling back and forth together as she walks through the corridor, flanked by red-shirted Comic Con volunteer goons. They gave her the wrong superpower on Heroes, but whoever put her in that cheerleader outfit is a man after my own heart.

A few more regular Beat pals with things to say:
Chris Mautner
Whiteney Matheson:
MK Reed
James Urbaniak
Steve Bunche

The Daily Cross Hatch catches up with The Perry Bible Fellowship’s Nicholas Gurewitchm revealing its Maine origins and more:

I like to think that maybe, when those children go into the sewer, to find the Ninja Turtles, that the grotesque last frame representsbad decision making, or some bigger ideal. I’m often offended by material that is just perverse. If I see a cartoon that sexualizes Pinocchio, I’m always offended.

ICv2 has a succinct write-up on Marvel’s 4Q financials. Publishing was up, but not enough to offset big losses in licensing revenue.

Driven by strong sales for Civil War and increased penetration of the bookstore market, publishing revenues for Marvel Entertainment were up 22% vs. 2005 in the fourth quarter of 2006 and nearly 18% for the year. But the gains in publishing were not enough to offset a major drop in licensing sales, which plummeted from $81.7 million in Q4 2005 to $25.5 million in Q4 2006, and from $230.1 million for all of 2005 to $127.2 million for 2006. The $56.1 drop in licensing revenue for the fourth quarter reflected the fact that Marvel had received a $50 million license fee for the extension of its agreement with video gamemaker Activision in Q4 2005. International licensing revenues were up substantially but the joint licensing agreement with Sony for Spider-Man yielded a paltry $4.1 million in 2006 versus $24.7 million in 2005.

More in link.

Fantagraphics is launching a defense fund to help pay for Harlan Ellison’s lawsuit against them:

We want to emphasize that at the core of this dispute is freedom of expression. Depending upon how much time you have to look at and scrutinize the facts, you can click on the link above and then click on Update 2 to look through the court documents that support the two anecdotes over which Ellison is suing.

We have engaged in the first legal skirmish between October ‘06 and February ‘07, and our first motion to dismiss the suit has been denied by the court on technical grounds, without reaching the merits, so we are in it for the long haul. We have no doubt that when it goes to a jury trial, we will prevail; Ellison’s lawsuit against us is even more absurd than the original lawsuit Michael Fleischer filed against us and Ellison in 1980. Already, however, the suit has cost us in the mid-five figures, and a quality defense will require considerably more money than that.

You can help support Fantagraphics by donating or buying their books. Other suggestions in the link.

Okay, the cough is healing, the sore tendons loosening up, the brain matter is beginning to settle into a recognizable pattern…but we’re still behind schedule because the flesh is weak. So weak. So…a little light catch-up posting today, our big wrap-up tomorrow, and normalcy after that…we hope.

Variety reports screenwriters Kiernan and Michele Mulroney (MR. AND MRS> SMITH) have been hired to write a JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA script. But the team of WB superstars brings new problems!

In taking on the ambitious project, Warner faces several conundrums.

Warner Senior VP Dan Lin will oversee for the studio.

Now that the Batman and Superman film franchises have been revived, does the studio go after Christian Bale (“Batman Begins”) and Brandon Routh (“Superman Returns”) to star in a Justice League pic? Studio is also trying hard to bring Wonder Woman to the bigscreen.

To a large degree, casting will depend upon the story arc for the JLA feature and at what point in the superheroes’ lives the plot takes place.

More pacting and branding announced this weekend.

SCI FI Channel, the television network dedicated to fueling the imagination, is teaming up with Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Comics to create a forward-thinking, co-branded multimedia partnership called SCI FI/Virgin Comics. The announcement was made today by Dave Howe, SCI FI Executive Vice President and General Manager and Virgin Comics CEO & Publisher Sharad Devarajan at New York Comic Con, the season’s biggest pop culture and comic book event.

With five new comic book titles serving as a jumping off point, SCI FI/Virgin Comics will develop fresh properties that integrate the unique spirit and vitality of both brands. Delivering innovative, multi-platform projects, original concepts will be considered across all mediums from publishing, film and television to digital and gaming.

“SCI FI/Virgin Comics marks an important step in our strategy to extend the SCI FI brand into new cross-media platforms. We’re thrilled to be partnering with Virgin Comics to create exciting new titles, characters and stories that can live beyond the pages of the comic book,” added SCI FI’s Howe. “Virgin is the perfect brand to help us connect with the youth audience around the world.”

“Virgin Comics and I are delighted to collaborate with SCI FI and the rest of the NBC Universal family,” said Sir Richard Branson, “to create stories that will inspire a new generation of thinkers and dreamers throughout the world.”
“Virgin is one of the world’s most dynamic, forward-looking brands,” said Bonnie Hammer, President, USA Network and SCI FI Channel. “It’s a natural fit for SCI FI, where we’ve built our business on innovation and imagination.”

“With SCI FI we are changing the face of the comic book industry – seamlessly developing characters and stories for books, television, online and other media,” said Virgin Comics’ Devarajan. “Together we are creating stories as innovative as the ways consumers will get to experience them.”

Utilizing the global creative and synergistic resources that exist both at SCI FI Channel, part of NBC Universal, and Virgin Comics, the partnership will aim to attract some of the biggest names and talent from the worlds of comic books, television and movies. SCI FI and Virgin Comics will bring together a multimedia, creative editorial board with members representing comic books, television, movies, digital, gaming, licensing and merchandising. The first SCI FI/Virgin titles, distributed by Diamond Comics, can be expected to hit shelves later this year.

Via Archie pr:

Harlan Stone, a longtime radio actor best-known as “Jughead” on the Archie Andrews show, died Wednesday from complications of valve transplant surgery. He started out as a child model and went on to direct TV commercials. Hal wrote a book called “Aw…Relax, Archie! Re-laxx!” which chronicalled his life in entertainment. He was a frequent guest at the Friends of Old-Time Radio convention, up through last fall. We at Archie Comics send our deepest sympathy to his family at their time of loss.

Alive and more or less in one piece. We had a Black Plague relapse which prevented us from doing much at the con yesterday. We’ll have fuller comments later on, but the major log line is no big disasters, a few smaller ones, and everyone pretty much happy. Attendance guestimates we heard were somewhere in the 50K range, with 20,000 people on Saturday.

Reporting live from the press room at New York Comic-Con. The line this morning was long, but everyone seems to have gotten in. There are traffic jams near Marvel and DC as there would be at any convention, but osmosis has created a fairly consistent density of people throughout the rest of the hall. It’s crowded but not dangerously so. Basically, there is a LOT of crowd control going on — people aren’t being let in to the Special Events hall for the Seephen King panel without tickets, but one entire side of the room is empty. Apparently a lot of people tried to get in without standing in line this morning and were upset that they had to go back outside and wait, but we haven’t heard of any major disasters.

If you do not have a ticket DO NOT COME DOWN. We just asked a Reed red shirt person if they would be selling more tickets today and he said the word was still no.

Artists Aerie upstairs is VERY crowded. Mixed reports on how people are doing — popular artists doing better than non-popular. No surprise there.

But now, a new threat: the sun is out and is hitting the glass ceiling of the Javits center. Beginning to heat up a bit. People glowing. More later.

Not much time to blog this morning. Still at home, but just got a call from someone on the scene who says the line to get in stretches to 40th Street and the West Side Highway.

From yesterday, so far no disasters. People were lined up at 7 am to get in, and there was a line around the convention center by the time the doors opened to the public at 4, however from what we saw the line moved smoothly and without glitches. There were bins EVERYWHERE with badge holders and lanyards so that people who had pre-registered could simply grab a badge holder and walk in.

The trade-only part of the day was smooth and productive by all accounts. Due to our mutliple hat juggling we didn’t have time to really cover the show the way we usually do. One of the oddities of the floor plan is that Artists Alley is located in a separate location — the Gallery upstairs. We were a little worried that traffic would be low up there, but we heard from one artists that it was jammed from 4 on, to the point where they did have to stop the line from going in there.

No reports on sales yet.

We moderated the blogging panel with Chris Butcher, Ron Hogan and Johanna Draper Carlson. Tip: with Chris and Johanna on a panel, there will never be an awkward silence. There was a great blogger representation in the audience, including Elayne, Manga Blog’s Brigid, Brian from the excellent new blog The Daily Cross Hatch, and Blog@Newsarama’s Chris Mautner. Hopefully we will be able to get more blogging voices on the panel next year.

Later on, we moderated the “Mothers and Daughters” panel with Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Alison Bechdel and Miriam Katin. All three talked about various levels of maternal disapproval over their work; in Katin’s case, her mother is in her 80s and still worries about that kind of thing. Bechdel said that this was the first big comic book convention she had ever been to — after some 24 years of cartooning. Aline and Alison had apparently never met before so that was kind of cool.

A bunch of people took pictures after the panel — can someone email me one?

After the panel, we grabbed from dinner with Nisha from EW and Elissa and Janna from Diamond , then went over to the Stan Lee reception at MoCCA. We were too late to see what had to be the highlight — Stan walking around and reacting to the pieces in the show. He was reportedly greatly moved by some of them. The show itself is small but fascinating — there are pages of notes for a Dr. Strange story from Steve Ditko, and Kirby pages with the notes intact that show how Lee worked with both of them. For instance, on one FF page, Kirby’s note says that Doom should be angry at the Thing, but in the lettered story he’s raging against Reed Richards. There are other art pages, mementos, and artifacts like the poster from Lee’s 1972 appearance at Carnegie Hall (!). Co-curator Peter Sanderson has written extensive and informative notes for all the exhibits.

After that we were super exhausted, and grabbed a beer near home with a few peeps, before collapsing. There were a bunch of parties going on, but we haven’t had a chance to hit ANY of them other than the MoCCA one. Maybe tonight.

Although NYCC 07’s physical territory is really not all that big, with the amount of stuff going on, and the people involved it already has the same kind of overwhelming feeling that San Diego gets. We won’t be able to get the big picture until later.

PS: There is plenty of news being announced at the show of course. Check out Wizard, Newsarama and CBR for mainstream updates, and PW Comics Week’s daily mailers for book news.

You’ll notice Frank Miller hasn’t been making many of the 300 festivities around the world — that’s because he’s at home recuperating from serious hip and leg injuries, according to EW. Miller did talk to Steve Daly about the Spirit movie a little:
“I’ve written a first draft of the screenplay. I’m working on the second draft, and it’s shaping up really good. It’s taken a while to get over the initial jitters, but it always does.The main focus I have is to write and direct a Spirit that captures a lot of the flavor of [creator Will] Eisner… but that doesn’t feel like nostalgia at all. Spirit fans often develop a rather cloudy memory of it, and think of it as this happy-go-lucky strip.

New York Comic-con may well be the first convention in history to sell out before a single fan has been let in. The Saturday of the show is SOLD OUT, as in there are no more advance tickets available. We heard that tickets for Saturday were selling for $75 on eBay but haven’t seen the listings ourselves.

However, since you can walk up to even a sold out concert and get a ticket if the price is right, we know that some New Yorkers will be showing up on Saturday without a ticket anyway. Will they get in?

We asked NYCC organizer Greg Topalian this directly. He says that the capacity of the show is around 50K. Are they expecting that many people? He declined to give any prediction of attendance but said that like last year he was quietly optimistic. As for buying tickets on site Saturday, it will be up to the Fire Marshal. At noon, Saturday there is a POSSIBILITY that tickets will be released for sale IF the Fire Marshal says it is safe. IF.

So…should you line up? This is New York so people will line up no matter what. There are no guarantees that any tickets will be sold, and the line will be monitored closely. Anyone who was there last year knows that the state police who have jurisdiction at Javits won’t let any funny business go down. So…please, whatever you do, act sane, stay safe and just don’t be a jerk. If there’s any good karma for tickets to be had, that’s the only way to make it happen.