According to one survey, almost 1 in 4 Japanese men between 30-34 is a virgin:

“There are 11 percent of people who gave an invalid answer to the survey and I bet you the vast majority of them would be virgins. And though there is also 65 percent who said they have had sex, that also includes the guys whose only experience is a single session at the brothel and nothing since, so there are a lot of virtual virgins in amongst them, too,” Watanabe says.

The Japan Cherry Boy Association currently boasts of 517 members whose ages range from their teens to their 40s. Many join the association in the hopes that women will visit its website and try to pick them up. Some members, albeit only a few, actually succeed in “graduating” from the club by successfully experiencing sex.

Some have found comfort in works of fiction:

Conservative virgins argue that they’ve had enough of real women and would prefer two-dimensional types such as those found in manga and anime, who are also not going to lead them to the pain of rejection.

We’ve been poking around lately trying to figure out if things like NYMPHET are normal fun for the whole family or outlets for more dysfunctional aspects of Japanese society; answering such a question is far beyond the scope of one little blog. However we have heard repeated mentions of a Japanese “sex crisis” as in many young women and men not having any. We also are reminded that lots of shojo(girls) comics are actually read by young men. (And girls read shonen.) Anyway, we dont’ have any answers…just throwing that out there.

[Found via Simon at Icarus]

At long last, Lea Hernandez resumes the web version of RUMBLE GIRLS with RUNAWAY LIGHTNING OHMRY. Yay!

Lee Hester posts a history of his comics shop complete with photos of authentic 80s clothing and computers:

You always hear a lot about overnight successes. I was an overnight failure. My first day, my “Grand Opening” I made $150 in sales. After that it was an average of around $20 a day for quite a while. Nobody knew about my store. Eventually I was making an average of $100 a day. Meanwhile, my competition, Comics and Comix in downtown Palo Alto was averaging 1,000 a day. Ten times better than me! Most people in Palo Alto knew about Comics and Comix, but they didn’t know about me. I tried to make up for my competition’s vastly superior store and reputation by working on winning over each person that came through the door. Eventually that policy paid off, and I began to break even, but there were some very lean times initially.

Dean Trippe and “Butterfly” do Mocca

Sam Raimi indulges in another one of his Silver Age fantasies as he imagines making Spidey IV with the Sinister Six as the villains:

Ultimately, if Sony considers the price tag too high for another Raimi/Maguire/Dunst collaboration, then the negotiations would turn to keeping Raimi onboard as a producer only. “I would still hope that Sony would offer it to me [to direct] first,” he said. “But that is not my place to say; it would be more about if Sony decided not to go with me. If not, it would be really up to them to come to a solution [for me to still be involved as a producer].”

Either way, if this tangled web does still involve the filmmaker, Raimi has been busy brainstorming about the villains he’d like to get into the next flick. “I would love to see Electro, Vulture, maybe the Sinister Six as a team,” he said.

Over at the Motley Fool, analyst Rick Munarriz frets about Marvel’s move to producing its own movies:

I hate to pick on Marvel (NYSE: MVL), but the disappointing box-office receipts for both Spider-Man 3 and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer have to be troubling for a company that’s about to start rolling out its own action flicks. Disappointing? You think I’m insane, right? After all, Spider-Man 3 smashed the all-time opening weekend record for a theatrical release. The F4 sequel wasn’t as highly anticipated, yet it managed to narrowly beat its predecessor in ticket sales during its first weekend at the multiplex.

Munarriz goes on to argue that the swift box-office declines of these films spelled disappointment, and thinks superheros aren’t as reliable as they used to be. Surely, Marvel’s production path is fraught with peril, but IRON MAN looks pretty solid with a competent director (Favreau) and A-list cast. EVERYTHING drops off at the box office now, as the opening weekend sweepstakes and flood of sequels make it an all-or-nothing race to Monday morning. Still, America’s, nay the world’s love affair with the panties and capes bunch is sure to wax and wane. Marvel could get caught in some freakish mix of circumstances and lose the movie rights to ANT-MAN forever. A lot will happen between now and 2010.

The Image title UMBRA by Steven Murphy and Mike Hawthorne will soon be available on cell phones:

uclick, a leader in mobile entertainment, has announced an agreement that will bring the critically-acclaimed comic book series Umbra, by Stephen Murphy and Mike Hawthorne, to mobile phones throughout North America, UK, Australia and South Africa.

The first weekly installment of Umbra will launch in June through uclick’s GoComics Mobile Comic Reader, available on all major carriers, including Sprint, Verizon and Cingular.

[Murphy Quote] “I’m very excited to be able to offer Umbra to an expanded global audience through uclick,” said series creator/writer Murphy. “This story, with its imperfect heroine, exotic locales and blurred division between dream and reality – not to mention Mike’s brilliant artwork – really resonated with fans in print, and it’s been fascinating to see it make a smooth transition to mobile.

“Mobile fans will read it in weekly installments, which I feel actually adds a level of tension to the already-intense storyline. I think they are definitely going to enjoy the ride.”

Originally published as a three-issue mini-series by Image Comics, Umbra is a mystery set in Iceland during the year 1999. The story’s protagonist is a young, self-medicating police forensic scientist named Askja Thorasdottir whose first big case involves the discovery of a strange skeleton hidden in a glacial cave. Umbra joins a GoComics mobile line that boasts several popular titles from a wide range of genres, including the sci-fi fantasy hit Godland, the webcomic- turned-comic-book PvP, the Manga and anime horror epic Guilstein, martial arts adventures starring the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and many more.

“One of our goals with the GoComics Mobile Comic Reader is to offer comic book fans a mobile experience that reflects the diversity of the comics medium,” said uclick Manager of Product Development Harold Sipe, “and Umbra certainly does that. It’s a finely-crafted detective story with dramatic artwork that plays out beautifully on the mobile screen.”

For more information on uclick’s GoComics mobile line, visit www.gocomics.com/ comicbooks or text “COMIC” to 26642 on your mobile phone.

Old Disney Rejection Letter via Boing Boing.

UPDATE: to those who thought this was not a form letter — nope, it was SOP.

A few slow news days have become a slow news week. Aside from a few bursts of convention related news, things have slowed to an August like torpor. Is it just the summer buzz of activities? Is everyone too busy working on their graphic novel? Or too busy working on their blogs, message boards and MySpace profiles? Whatever it is, not much comics news out there. That is good, maybe, because we have two big bags of MoCCA loot, and the Charles Schulz and Milton Caniff biographies to read.

I did notice that a new album by our beloved Luke Vibert is coming out in the UK anyway in a few weeks: Chicago,Detroit,Redruth. This album is notable in that it’s by Luke Vibert and not one of his countless alter egos like Wagon Christ, Plug, Kerrier District, Amen Andrews, etc etc.

As prolific as he is, Vibert is usually pegged as acid, or drum ‘n’ bass, which is accurate to a point. I’d call him electro stock music. Stock or catalog music is that stuff written by various talented composers that goes into the catalogs of various stock music houses to be licensed out for industrial films, or cartoons or whatever. The soundtrack of REN & STIMPY was mostly stock music. To show we’re not just making this up, Vibert himself assembled two compilations of stock music, Nuggets and Further Nuggets by people like Johnny Hawksworth and Roger Roger, who wrote background music for thigns like the original Spider-man cartoon and THE PRISONER. Beloved of obscure music collectors, this stuff is the salon music of its day, well crafted, and somehow blandly evocative but just pleasant to listen to with some kind of ironic commercial detachment. It’s not bad like muzack, but rather a pleasant diversion.

That’s what most of Vibert’s music is — a few ideas mixed up for a few moments, a catchy drumline, a few chords slashed out on an organ, in the foreground some kind of theme. None of it is very complex (although in fairness some of the Wagon Christ stuff digs a little deeper.) Unlike his fellow Cornish tweaker Richard James (aka Aphex Twin) Vibert stays away from the true dark side. Maybe that’s why he’s such a cult figure — he’s hardly a household name even in Dj circles. He’s a modern day Raymond Scott.

But so what. I like him.

Expert editor Stuart Moore is back in the chair at Virgin:

Virgin Comics and the SCI FI Channel announced today that Stuart Moore has been appointed Editor on the first titles from the new imprint.

The new ‘SCI FI / Virgin Comics’ venture was announced earlier this year, with a stated goal of utilizing the global creative and synergistic resources that exist both at SCI FI Channel, part of NBC Universal, and Virgin Comics to create new stories for comic books, television, movies, digital, gaming, licensing and merchandising.

“This was an impossible opportunity to turn down. Virgin and SCI FI are two of the most vital entertainment companies around, and we’re all excited about crafting the best possible speculative fiction projects for the 21st century,” commented Stuart Moore. “For my part, Virgin’s been great about working out a deal that lets me exercise my editing muscles again, without interfering with my writing projects at various other companies. It’s a win-win situation for everyone.”

“Stuart is not only one of the greatest editors, but also one of the greatest people in this industry,” said Virgin Comics CEO & Publisher, Sharad Devarajan. “His wealth of experience is only matched by his wonderful reputation for guiding numerous creators to reach new heights in their work.”

Moore is an award-winning editor with a prolific career in the industry. At DC Comics, Stuart was a founding editor of the Vertigo imprint, where he won the Will Eisner award for Best Editor 1996 and the Don Thompson Award for Favorite Editor 1999. From late 2000 through mid-2002 Stuart edited the bestselling Marvel Knights comics line.

“We’re thrilled to have a seasoned comic book veteran like Stuart involved in the development of these new properties which are being created from the ground up for multi-media application,” added Adam Stotsky, SRVP Marketing for the SCI FI Channel.

“Simply put: Stuart Moore rocks. Ask any writer or publisher he’s worked with (and we did) and you hear nothing but the best things said. With Stuart aboard, I feel confident we’re going to deliver on our bold prediction to re-imagine sci-fi,” added Gotham Chopra, Virgin Comics Chief Creative Officer.

The first SCI FI/Virgin comic titles are expected to hit shelves later this year and the imprint is currently reviewing story pitches from numerous comic book and television writers.

by Paul O’Brien

Have you been suffering from withdrawal symptoms ever since CIVIL WAR ended? Well, good news, because WORLD WAR HULK kicked off in May, leading into another few months of crossovers. On top of that, the Spider-Man books are still running “Back in Black” stories, while the “Initiative” banners continue to sprawl across Marvel’s line.

It was a quiet month for new titles, though, with one new ongoing series in the shape of MARVEL ADVENTURES IRON MAN. There were also three new miniseries – SILVER SURFER: REQUIEM, SPIDER-MAN: FAIRY TALES and the first Marvel Illustrated series, LAST OF THE MOHICANS.

But a shortage of big new titles doesn’t prevent Marvel from dominating the direct market once again – perhaps because, for once, almost all Marvel’s books shipped. The biggest title to miss shipping was SENSATIONAL SPIDER-MAN, which nobody will lose any sleep over. With all their big sellers hitting the shelves, Marvel slaughtered DC, with a margin of 47% to 31% in unit share, and 43% to 28% in dollar share.

Thanks as always to Milton Griepp and ICV2 for permission to use their figures for these calculations.

1.  FALLEN SON: DEATH OF CAPTAIN AMERICA
04/07        Wolverine - 162,106
04/07         Avengers - 146,655  ( -9.5%)
05/07  Captain America - 170,027  (+15.9%)

The death of Captain America continues to rack up the sales, and Marvel’s decision to load this title with big name artists seems to have been justified. The “Wolverine” issue picks up re-orders of 4,815, while “Avengers” gets another 5,873. As usual, both of those figures have been included in the number above.

May’s issue was billed as featuring “Captain America.” It actually has Hawkeye in the costume, and he hands it back at the end. But interest in the storyline, and apparently the belief that this might be a major issue, sees a big increase – unusually for the third issue of a miniseries, this is the highest selling issue to date.

The Spider-Man and Iron Man issues, by David Finch and John Cassaday, were also solicited for May, but didn’t come out.

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Giant Robot NY has a swell online gallery of images from their recent Free Ice Cream show, including R. Kikuo Johnson, Alison Cole, Anders Nilsen and Jeffrey Brown. But sharp-eyed John Jakala notices that Johnson has posted pages from his “Marvel Indie Anthology” story starring the Thing, The Puppet Master and Alicia Masters (above.)

No coincidence, Eddie Campbell just wrote about his experiences writing and drawing Batman for DC:

Then I made things complicated. I said that nothing would make me happier than to draw this myself. They said they didn’t allow a situation where a creator would both write and draw the same book unless he was ‘incorporated’. I mentioned this to Whitey, whom you may remember is a chartered accountant, so that’s exactly his field. He said, “It’s not as complicated as you think. A company’s just a box of documents you can keep under your bed.” And it doesn’t cost too much either, well compared to the amounts I’ve been bandying about here of late. Now, companies are usually named and indexed by having two unassociated words hinged together (well, this is the campbellian explanation), so he finds a combination that he figures will embarrass me, runs the checks to confirm it’s not already in use, and next thing you know I’m director of a company named ‘Antelope Pineapple Pty. Ltd’, just so I can get to draw Batman.

Which points out a curious thing. Although we enjoyed DC’s two BIZARRO anthologies, the rather clumsy “team-up” approach was a bit odd considering that 80% of the contributors are cartoonists who write and draw their own tales. However, as Campbell alludes to, DC has very firm guidelines against creators writing and drawing stories involving DC characters unless the creators are incorporated. The reason is a very narrow reading of certain copyright laws, which always struck as a sad because all the greatest creators in comics are cartoonists, after all. But luckily Howard Chaykin, Kyle Baker and Darwyn Cooke, to name a few, are incorporated and can do their thing.

Evidently, at Marvel they have no such worries. We are definitely looking forward to this issue of Coober Skeeber!

§ Over at his MySpace blog, director Jon Favreau reports on the completion of photography for Iron Man:

Principal photography ended with a huge bang as we filmed the final scenes of Iron Man in Caesar’s Palace. As many of you already know, gambling is a casino’s top priority. A production can not interfere with their cash cow. As a result, movies must shoot during the dead hours, no matter if it’s Swingers or Rain Man. We were given a window of midnight to one the next afternoon to do all of our work. Part of our strategy to prepare for these ungodly hours was to stay up as late as possible the night before and sleep as late as possible. I did half the plan. The wrong half. I stayed out until 7AM and then woke up four hours later. After motoring through the delerium of a sleepless shooting marathon, I am proud to report that we have handily completed our movie on time and on budget. What a great way to end.

Above is a cast photo: Terence Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert Downey Jr. and Jeff Bridges.

§ Paramount has optioned FOUNDATION by John Rozum and Kody Chamberlain, which is published by BOOM Studios:

Andrew Cosby and Ross Richie, founders and owners of Boom, are producing the adaptation for Par. Boom publishes comicbooks and graphic novels.

“Foundation,” a five-issue miniseries created by Kody Chamberlain, revolves around efforts to stop the unpublished prophecies of Nostradamus from coming to pass.

Boom title is the third to which Cosby and Richie have sold the film rights; rights to “Talent” and “Tag” went to Universal. Boom was launched 18 months ago.

Cosby also co-created the series “Eureka” on the Sci Fi Channel.

Is Boom winning the comics-are-cheap-IP derby in Hollywood?

§ Meanwhile, Rogue Pictures is prepping LOST SQUAD, based on Chris Kirby’s comic for Devil’s Due.

Rogue Pictures’ “Lost Squad” has found its writer and director in Stephen St. Leger and James Mather.

The Irish duo, best known for directing commercials as the team of Saint and Mather, will tackle the bigscreen adaptation of Chris Kirby’s comicbook, published by Devil’s Due.

Project revolves around the adventures of a ragtag unit of Allied soldiers who fight Hitler’s occult agents and other supernatural threats during World War II.

Idea is to overstylize the action in the vein of Warner’s recent graphic novel-based hit “300.”

Danial Alter and josh Blaylock also have production credits of various types.

§ The Darkness Video Game is out for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3

Set in the dark and seedy underbelly of New York City and the ethereal realm of The Darkness, players assume the role of mafia hitman Jackie Estacado, heir to “The Darkness,” an ancient power that awakens within him on his 21st birthday.

Jackie must use traditional weapons as well as learn to command his terrible new powers to seek revenge on his own crime family. The Darkness is based on the best-selling comic book series of the same name, published by Top Cow Productions and created by Marc Silvestri, Garth Ennis, and David Wohl. “The Darkness” comic book launched in 1996 and is currently published in 19 different languages around the world.

A lot of stuff to catch up on. So just the quick hits:

§ John Jakala looks at manga that don’t hold up over multiple volumes:

Death Note – Man, I loved the early volumes of this series, with the mental mind games between the main characters. They were pure crack in comic book form. And unlike many others, I didn’t mind it when certain changes happened about midway through. But even I grew weary of the Endless! Exposition! in the last few books. It’s like they decided just to cut and paste writer Tsugumi Ohba’s overly wordy script directly atop Takeshi Obata’s artwork. (To his credit, Obata did manage to make the talky scenes as dynamic as humanly possible, with lots of dramatic angles and lighting.)

Made it to: All the way to the bitter end, volume 12.

§ Marc-Oliver Frisch has a new blog

§ Whitney Reynolds makes many friends with a list of overrated webcomics.

While I’m making people mad, I’ll just go ahead and get it over with. Ahem. User Friendly has, despite publishing for over ten years, failed to ever improve its art or create a joke that might be funny to someone who doesn’t know intimate details about Linus Torvalds. MegaTokyo is what happens when a pathetic American anime fanboy wants to live out his fantasies of having a bunch of identically-drawn manga females fawn over him, and without even managing to stick to a regular update schedule. And Sluggy Freelance was better in the 90’s, when you didn’t have to slog through ten years of continuity and alternate universe and rabbits to figure out what the heck is going on.

§ Jim Hill looks at what he perceives as pre-spin for lowered box office returns for RATATOUILLE. Frankly we wouldn’t be surprised.

§ San Diego has put up its Independent film festival schedule.

Artist Tara McPherson has designed a limited edition Hellboy for Dark Horse :
We began our Qee line with the classic 2.5 inch Hellboy Qee. Next up, the much-coveted large size 8″ Qee. Hellboy and Qee fans can rejoice and unite in toy heaven!

We asked Mike Mignola to pick an artist to design an 8″ Hellboy variant and he chose one of our favorite people: the talented Miss Tara McPherson! Tara was happy to comply, and has designed a magnificent Hellboy, turning it into a unique creation all her own! This piece is limited to 450, worldwide, so place your orders now!

Tonight Bookslut Presents:

June Reading:
Wednesday, June 27 8:00pm
Stop Smiling Storefront
1371 N. Milwaukee Avenue

Paul Hornschemeier
The Holy Consumption

Nick Bertozzi
Official website

Author Austin Grossman
Read an excerpt from Soon I Will Be Invincible cover

Thai officials have cancelled a screening of Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis after complaints from the Iranian Embassy:

The Bangkok International Film Festival has dropped the Cannes prize-winning animated movie “Persepolis” which had been skedded as new-look Thai fest’s opening movie. Tuesday move followed a request from the Iranian Embassy in Bangkok.

“We have had a request from the ambassador to reconsider the screening of ‘Persepolis,’ and since this could be a matter of international relations, we decided not to show the film,” Chattan Kunjara Na Ayutthaya of Tourism Authority of Thailand, said.

“It is a good movie in artistic terms, but we have to consider other issues that might arise here.”

“Persepolis” was originally slated to be the fest’s opening film on July 19. With the cancellation, the festival still has no opening film with only three weeks left.

Hey kids, a little cross over special. Due to a technical glitch this week’s issue of PW Comics Week had to go out this morning. You will not want to miss it, however, as it contains:

* Douglas Wolk’s MoCCA report
* An interview with Rick Spears and Rob G talking about Repo and the effect of the AMS bankruptcy on Gigantic Graphic Novels.
* The return of Gon from CMX
* Mike Allred on Madman plans
* The second part of an in-depth interview with the Go! Comi crew
* The first part of an Eddie Campbell interview
* A MoCCA Photo Parade

About 7600 blog posts, Flickr streams and actual news stories later, it’s kind of obvious that MoCCA 2007 was the Italian Renaissance of Indie comics or something. A Golden Era. Camelot. You name it. Memories are suffused in a silvery haze of comics, waffles and scones.

It was pretty wonderful, anchored by the Top Shelf 10th Anniversary Party, an everyone-was-there bash of good feeling that lasted even when the AC broke down, turning the sidewalk into yet another happy chatter land.

While the high isn’t likely to wear off soon–indeed, we’ve filed it away as one of our happiest weekends in recent memory–a few facts have to be faced even in the middle of this baskable afterglow. First is the questionnaire that was circulating among exhibitors on Sunday. The tenor of the questions seemed to be “Should MoCCA move out of the Puck Building?” To which almost everyone has said “NOOOOOOOOOO!!!” We’ll get back to that, but Memo at the TCJ board has a dissenting view, claiming that table prices are squeezing out the little guys:

There is SO much to look at, and so many hungry, talented people selling worthwhile, home-made art, that MoCCA, for the attendees, is simply overwhelming. People are forced to put up their blinders as soon as they walk in, zeroing right in on the indy stars and big publisher tables, sticking to the tried-and-true… even though the tried-and-true can now be found on amazon or at any decent bookstore. I’m not bitchin’- that’s just the reality, but it makes the festival a more expensive waste of time for the rest of us. “Success” becomes “I made enough this weekend to pay for my table- never mind the costs of making the actual comics.” That’s too bad, because what I’ve loved about MoCCA since the beginning was the small press feel, the way big names (relative to our little world) were intersperced with nobodies, everyone peddling their work… being able to talk to attendees, even if they didn’t buy much (or anything), rather than watch them whiz by you, hoping to avoid eye contact. Fostering a community, getting your work seen, if not bought, and basically shooting the shit… this was MoCCA. I don’t make my comics because I think I’m going to be rich; for me, a spot at MoCCA was simply the best way I knew to advertise myself and connect with the audience directly- one of the only opportunities in the comics world to do so.

Memo feels that there’s now a haves and have nots gentrification of MoCCA is driving out the little guys with high table prices. And indeed, the Puck Building is not cheap, and it’s hard foer the show to expand. This year’s big change was adding exhibitors to the 7th floor — which worked out okay — and moving panels to the MoCCA space itself — which did not. From what we heard the space was too small and awkward and out of the way to really fit crowds.

But cost be damned, the white light and hardwood floors of the Puck Building are what MADE the show when Kristin Seibecker first founded it five years ago. It is classy and it makes the things in it classy. The TCJ thread is worth reading in its entirety because he sets out the differences between the “giants” of the Indies like FBI and D&Q and the lone cartoonists with their mini comics.

The perception of good rooms and bad rooms is also there, but as someone pointed out, SPX had now moved, at long last, to the “ONE BIG ROOM” model. This advance was much longed for by little people who thought that just being in the same room as the big guys would increase their sales and visibility.

Alas, even in a world as egalitarian as indie comics, where almost everyone wants the kids to do alright, the reality is that not everything is created equal. A few years ago Kevin Huizenga was just another mini comics guy, and now he’s a “star,” whatever that means. Heck, until a year ago no one knew who Alison Bechdel was. We have a giant stack of comics people gave us, but it includes few of the “buzz” books everyone was blogging about, and everyone time we open one we see a cute story by someone whose name we feel compelled to file away. But it takes a while to become a Paul Pope or Adrian Tomine, let alone a Kim Deitch. Maybe you have to pay your dues by sitting there behind a table wishing someone would stop by. Maybe being more selective and having to pay your dues is part of the process.

The “lower rungs” of the indie comics scene are increasingly crowded, and we don’t mean the term as a put down, just a way of saying people who haven’t established themselves yet. We’ve seen so many talented people come out of SVA and MCAD and Savannah in just the last few years — and now the CCS grads are making their own mark. Maybe an even MORE grassroots show is needed, the kind of thing someone puts on in their basement or rec room, like SVA’s Fresh Meat show only a bit larger. It’s a point to ponder.

In the end we’d give this advice to MoCCA: Keep the 7th floor exhibits, but use the back room on the 1st floor, or part of it, for panels. The room can be divided, and no exhibitors really like being back there anyway. The net effect would be fewer tables, but many more could be fit in the spacious upstairs. We seem to recall that panels were once held in that very room but crowd noise was too loud and it was too light for slideshows. We’d guess that crowd noise could be kept down, and A/V presentations could be moved to another site for even a nighttime presentation. MoCCA needs to branch out and become even more of a cultural event. For a certain segment of the population, it already is, but things like the recent Tintin multi media night, and slideshows by Bechdel, Gabrielle Bell and others could anchor a very entertaining evening event.

A couple of posts sum it up. Baboon Books was thrilled just to have one person say they were looking for their comics. While the new kids over at Sundays Anthology are beaming themselves to death over the success of their handsome anthology. Not everyone in all these anthologies are going to have long, significant careers, but they are contributing to the moment, and the moment is good.

UPDATE: here’s another Sunday’s contributor link. So. Cute.

ANOTHER UPDATE: IN the TCJ thread, Bill Roundy posts costs for the Big Three Indie Shows:

Just as a data point:
MoCCA half-table: $200 full table: $325
SPX half-table: $175 full table: $350
APE half-table: $140 full table: $240

[Photo above taken from Raina Telgemeier's blog.]

Rafael Kayanan has bowed in with his comments on Saturday’s Ultimate Dighter live finale, which was all fights all the time. You will find his commentary under the cut, as well as a few notes from The Beat.

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