Thursday, June 25

Event: “Please Release Me”–Book Release Party and Reading
Location: Modern Times Bookstore, 888 Valencia Street, San Francisco
Date: Thursday, June 25, 2009
Time: 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.

Celebrate the release of two sizzlin’ new comics at Modern Times Bookstore in San Francisco’s Mission district: PS Comics by Minty Lewis and Just So You Know by Joey Alison Sayers. PS Comics (Secret Acres) collects Minty’s work from the past five years and prominently features terriers and talking fruit who are just trying to get ahead in life. Just So You Know is Joey’s self-published autobiographical comic about coming out as transgender and transitioning to living as a woman. The artists will be reading and projecting selections from their new works as well as signing books. Special guest cartoonists Tessa Brunton (In the Tall Grass), Ryan Germick (Consumer Comics), Hellen Jo (Jin & Jam) and Calvin Wong (Ramble On!) will also have multimedia presentations. Complimentary beverages.

Friday, June 26

Dearborn, MI
What: Slideshow with James Danky
Where: Green Brain Comics, 13210 Michigan Avenue in East Downtown Dearborn.
For more information call 313-582-9444 or check www.greenbrain.biz
When: 5-7 pm.

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Via PR, we may be seeing a more “rock ‘n’ roll” Archie soon.

Jon Goldwater CEO of Archie Comics: The Archie Comics line of comic books is one of the most successful, longest running lines in the history of the comic industry. As the son of Archie Comics founder John L. Goldwater he looks forward to expanding the role of his family’s company, Archie Comics Publications, in prominence in the comic book medium as well as other media. Jon Goldwater began his career 20 years ago as the partner to the Japanese concert promoter, Zak Concerts. On Zak Concerts’ behalf, Jon Goldwater negotiated concert major tours of Japan include the “Super Rock Festival” and many others. He is the former President and CEO of AFA Music Group, Ltd., the Executive Producer of the film, “Return of Superfly”, He has served as President and CEO of Crash Management Inc.

Using his vast experience in the entertainment industry he plans on focusing his attention on a variety of family entertainment projects from his family business, suitable for your family. Jon Goldwater plans on bringing the kids from Riverdale to a larger multi-media audience. He is also looking ahead to developing new projects focusing on not just Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jugehead and Reggie, but other long standing Archie Properties such as Katy Keene, Lil Jinx, the Red Circle Heroes, Sabrina, Josie & the Pussycats, Cosmo The Merry Martian, Pat The Brat, Wilbur Wilkins, Bingo Wilkins, Suzie and Ginger Snapp. just to name a few.

Jon Goldwater purchased an ownership interest in the company with the intent of making Archie Comic entertainment powerhouse. In his first few days as CEO he has already started negotiations on projects that will be announced shortly, including a big budget Archie feature film, a new Archie animated project, a Katy Keene television program and a major music deal for the Archies. Every effort will me made to bring all the Archie Comics properties to the forefront of the entertainment industry.

From Heroes Con.

THE MAXX was a strange but compelling comic by Sam Kieth that came from Image back in the ’90s. It was about a homeless man who became a superhero in a place called The Outback, which might just be imaginary. He’s helped in this by a social worker named Julie Winters, and the comic was very, very odd. Then MTV made a cartoon out of THE MAXX which was just as odd and just as good. (Jesus, remember when cable TV took chances?????) Anyway, now MTV.com is streaming the series, and from what we’re hearing, they hold up pretty well. Since it isn’t on DVD, we recommend you go take a look.

’90s NOSTALGIA!

Collider reports that at a presser for the new WATCHMEN Director’s Cut Blu-Ray, director Zack Snyder said the Director’s Cut of WATCHMEN would be screened in four cities in one theater each, the weekend before Comic-Con. The cities are Los Angeles, Dallas, Minneapolis, and New York and you know what?

WE ARE GOING.

We said it.

WE LIKED WATCHMEN.

Harris Comics — home of Vampirella — discusses the character’s return and new price point — FELL format — in an editorial by Bon Alimagno.

So we set a goal: break back into the Top 100 for the first time in years. But we knew what we were up against. Even armed with a stellar, game changing story by Phil Hester and art by future star Daniel Sampere, we faced an army of torch-bearing doubters and critics. We needed to do something radical, something that would break through the pollution of hype and nonsense that fills your daily intake of comics news and assorted mumbo-jumbo. So we put our money where our mouth is: we’re pricing every issue, yes, EVERY ISSUE, of this miniseries $1.99.

Whatever happened to Dick Hyacinth’s year-end survey survey?

Confirming a rumor that was going around this morning, a press release has confirmed that Wizard CEO Gareb Shamus has purchased the Toronto Comicon. Also known as the Paradise Comicon, the show is run by Peter Dixon of Paradise Comics, who will stay on, and while it has maintained an excellent reputation among guests (we were a guest there in ‘06 and it was tremendous fun), the show had run into some financial difficulties in recent times, with this year’s show canceled and no date for 2010 announced.

Toronto is also–uncharacteristically–the scene of one of the most heated con rivalries on the continent, with Aman Gupta’s Fan Expo Canada a much larger and, frankly, more Wizard-like show. Accusations of dirty tricks on both sides have flown for years, so any escalation would be pretty ugly.

As with other recent Wizard-related activities, the Toronto con has been purchased by Shamus and not Wizard itself. However, with this, the October Big Apple Con and the just announced FunFare magazine, Wizard is showing it’s not as moribund as a lot of folks had predicted. PR follows:

Gareb Shamus, CEO of New York based Wizard Entertainment, announces today that he has purchased the Toronto Comicon, a show that has been consistently awarded The Best International Comic Book Convention (non-USA) by ComicBookConventions.com, for the last 5 years.

“We’ve always had a strong following in Canada, so buying the Toronto Comicon is something that allows me to give back to our fans. These attendees are known to be serious collectors and comic industry followers,” said Shamus.  “I am thrilled to offer the guests, celebrities, artists, dealers and exhibitors to our Canadian audience for the very first time.”

Peter Dixon, owner of Paradise Conventions and former owner of the Toronto Comicon, will still be intimately involved in the show production, his friendly manner ensuring the continuation of the trademarked relaxed atmosphere of the show.

“Wizard brings greater industry recognition and star power to the show. I’m excited about having the fans get this bigger experience,” said Dixon.

The next show dates have not been set yet, but the newly managed Toronto Comicon is expected to debut in 2010.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today that there will now be TEN Best Picture nominees instead of only five. Certainly done for marketing reasons (more pictures with Oscar nominations, don’t you know?), the question to ask in these here parts is: How does this effect both “genre movies” and animated features?

Thoughts?

While Marvel and DC are apparently shipping enough comics to choke a rhino today, may we recommend the quality cartooning of Jill Thompson and the final book in the Magic Trixie trilogy? If there is a finer comic for sale this day, we’d be very, very, very surprised.

So why go to Wizard World Philadelphia, anyway? This year we went because in years past we’d had a great time there, and we had a few friends to see. Plus, from NYC, it’s a very cheap day trip. Our plan was also to see how the other half lived. The way things play out, we seem to spend a lot more time with indie cartoonists who create comics in a blissful state of creative empowerment. Wizard World Philly, despite the relatively small pro turnout, was a different world, where freelancers complained about being paid…perhaps because, unlike indie cartoonists…they expect to be PAID. It was also a world where staying in the good graces of your editor was your paramount job skill, and those who graduated to the sense of freedom engendered by being able to tell the person signing checks “No,” are in a rarefied stratus.

We were also — to be frank — curious to see just how things were going at a Wizard World show. Most of the talk concerning Wizard these days is who’s been laid off, and the ratio of past to present Wizard employees we saw was four or five to one.

Marvel and DC declined to exhibit — although Dan DiDio was there, as were some Marvel editors, and the usual Marvel and DC news panels. (There was a LOT of programming, on multiple tracks.) The big publisher void left Dynamic Forces, Avatar and Aspen as the only real publishers at the show, and certainly the first two, at least, have outputs that are varied and have consistent enough quality to stand up to the spotlight. (And we’re not saying Aspen sucks, just that they have a more narrow focus.)

Elsewhere, though, the biggest booth was for Tonner Dolls and some T-shirt companies. Half of the front of the show was set up for old wrestlers (including an alarmingly tobacco-colored Jerry Lawler and nerdlebrities like Kristanna Loken and Ted Raimi.) The old wrestlers seemed kind of sad until we realized that at least they were alive and mobile.

Which is sort of the way to view the whole Philly experience.

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Tom Spurgeon is still putting together a collective memory, but catches up with main man Dustin Harbin for a wrap-up:

HARBIN: I think last year we estimated our numbers at between 10,000 and 12,000 through the weekend. We don’t have the complete numbers back yet, and even then they’re never complete — there are the hundreds of pros and dealers and guests and press and all that to think about, and we give away a lot of passes throughout the year. Shelton thinks we were about even with last year, which was a pretty good year attendance-wise. It’s hard for me to estimate, as last year we were in an 80,000 square foot hall and this year moved to a 100,000 square foot hall. I thought Friday was down, but dealers seemed pleased with the traffic and if there was anyone who would complain about numbers it’s the dealers.

Elsewhere, Craig Fischer ignores a Klingon woman’s dire prophecy to have a fun show anyway. Liz Baillie had a little ennui:

Generally the show itself was pretty slow, and although I did not do as well as I normally do at shows, I did well enough that I would consider coming back next year (if I can convince even more of my friends to not drop out). I made the excellent choice of doing a series of 12 small superhero-themed watercolor and ink drawings to sell at Heroes for extra money, as well as choosing to charge $10 for sketches. This netted me about $85 extra that I wouldn’t have made otherwise, and definitely made a big chunk of a difference in the final tally, especially when comparing this year’s sales to last year’s.

But she perks things up when dressing as Alec Longstreth to surprise Jeff Smith (above.)
At any rate, it sounds like it wasn’t a barn burner or a game changer, and the economy may have had a little effect, but it was still a good show and e-comics were much on people’s minds, as the Van Jensen/Cheryl Harris report for PW Comics Week makes clear.

OKAY, one more…seems to be the topic of the day! Comics creator/journalist/digital guy Van Jensen has his own thoughts on Longbox. Jensen helped set up Top Shelf’s Kindle initiative so he knows the territory:
I’ve become quite involved with the digital distribution of comics in the past year, helping Top Shelf launch some of its books on the Amazon Kindle, sifting through the various iPhone third-party distributors and then moderating a panel on digital distribution at Heroes Con this past weekend.

This seems like a good point to look into the possible impacts on mainstream publishers of digital publishing, particularly as Rantz Hoseley’s Longbox project launches (read a very good summary of the project at iFanboy).

Many events today, tomorrow, forever

Wednesday, June 24

NEW YORK: It’s the Music and Pictures Show, starring:
Pretendo
The Walking Hellos
Gold Streets

with Carousel:
Gabrielle Bell (Cecil and Jordan)
Michael Kupperman (Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim)
R. Sikoryak (Masterpiece Comics)

June 24, 8 pm $8
Union Pool, 484 Union Ave (Metropolitan and Meeker), Brooklyn, NY

NEW YORK: Steve Dillon signs for the Hero Initiative at Jim Hanley’s

New York: Vertical Wednesday
Event: Vertical Vendesday #2
“Yanki-Doodle Dandy”
What: Club/Group Meeting
Host: Ed Chavez
Start Time:June 24 at 6:30pm
End Time: June 24 at 8:00pm
Where: Kinokuniya, 1073 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY
There will be drinks and snacks!

Over at Hogan’s Alley!, Daryl Cagle posts his photos from the Memorial Day mingling of the comic strip tribes known as Reuben Awards Weekend. Above, Bill (“FoxTrot”) Amend, left; Greg (“Luann”) Evans, center; and eventual Reuben winner Dave (“Speed Bump”) Coverly.

Nerd-culture cable channel G4 and Lucasfilms are teaming for the inevitable: a live showing of the Lucasfilms panel from San Diego. In addition, G4 will broadcast live from the show floor on Saturday, July 25th for three hours, starting at 4 pm ET/PT.

According to PR, It’s the the first-ever, exclusive television broadcast of a San Diego panel. The Star Wars Spectacular! will air Saturday July 25th at 2:00 pm ET/PT, with new footage, breaking news, surprise announcements, guest stars and so on.

Traditionally, details surrounding Lucasfilm’s primary panel presentation are closely guarded secrets, with only 6,500 lucky on-site fans allowed access to the wealth of coveted information from a galaxy far, far away. But this year, G4 – the network that delivers all of the latest and greatest news on comic books, games, technology and pop culture – is offering TV viewers the one-of-a-kind opportunity to share the excitement with an exclusive broadcast of the panel. G4’s Attack of the Show hosts Kevin Pereira and Olivia Munn will join Lucasfilm’s Steve Sansweet and a galaxy of guests from Star Wars: The Clone Wars and beyond – including supervising director Dave Filoni, and voice talent from the show – to provide an insider look at the Star Wars universe, with never-before-seen footage and a LIVE table read of an exclusive new Clone Wars script.

In addition, fans are invited to participate in the panel itself by submitting Clone Wars questions through a special G4 micro-site. Questions will be answered during the live presentation by Dave Filoni and other Clone Wars creatives!

2009’s Comic-Con International also marks another Lucasfilm milestone – the launch of the all-new Star Wars Stories Project. Fans of the Saga will have the unique opportunity to become a part of the Star Wars universe by contributing to Lucasfilm’s own historical archive. Soliciting movie memories and nostalgia, the Star Wars Stories Project invites fans to share their own tales of fandom through video testimonials. In addition to online submissions, fans will have the opportunity to record their stories at Lucasfilm’s pavilion on the Comic-Con floor.

Fans are invited to upload their fan stories at http://g4tv.com/comiccon

Ron Richards at iFanboy takes the most in-depth look yet at Longbox, new software that could become the iTunes for comics. Richards is enthusiastic overall but also points out potential pitfalls, such as getting content from the Big Four publishers. And of course, there is the brick and mortar element:

Now the emergence of a digital comics distribution system is surely to be seen as a threat to Diamond (the main distributor of comics) and local comic book stores. I don’t really have anything to say on that other than that they’re going to need to change or die. I don’t want to be in a world where the local comic store doesn’t exist, and I don’t think that will happen, but the direct market has been a problem (mainly due to Diamond) for years now and the future is inevitable. They’re going to have to evolve their business if they want to survive, it’s just that simple and could be a whole other article so I’ll stop for now.

See also the lengthy comments section, which seems to view the idea of downloadable comics quite positively.

While running around the Internet, we happened upon the news of the death of animator/cartoonist Jaime Diaz. The Argentininan born Diaz had a lengthy career in animation, working with Warner Bros., Hanna-Barbera, Cartoon Network, and Nickelodeon on everything from Dexter’s Lab to Fairly Odd Parents and everything in between.

During a decade-plus stint back in Argentina, Diaz opened an animation/comics studio, and I worked with many of his fine artists in my Disney days. Their work was always completely professional and occasionally inspired, and I always got a kick out of the faxes with Diaz’s big signature at the bottom. The Jaime Diaz Studio hired many local artists who were were good enough to work for Disney, but couldn’t find enough work in original Argentinian comics…yet another case where the American product has drowned out the local, as far as I could tell. Anyway, if you ever picked up a copy of Disney Adventures or a Disney comics in the early ’90s, you certainly saw the work of the Jaime Diaz Studio, and they also did a lot of animation work.

I recall Cosme Quartieri as being one of the finest artists there, and Walter Carzon, who later drew a bunch of Warner Bros comics, including ANIMANIACS. From reading the comments on his death I learned that Bill Diaz, Jaime’s son, passed away two years ago. I also worked with Bill on various projects over the years, and that’s sad to hear; it seems the older Diaz had never recovered from this loss.

After Disney Comics shut down and other kids’ comics died away in the mid ’90s, Diaz came back to the US to resume work in the animation field. Larry Huber has much more on his life and career, including Diaz’s own original creations. Cartoon Brew has more, as does Fred Seibert.

I never met Diaz, and I doubt that anyone reading this who didn’t work in animation this even knew his name, but they should have. Diaz is certainly exemplary of a level of talent and craft that touches and inspires those he worked with, and produced a body of work which entertains and charms generations. My condolences go out to his family.

IGN has a few pages of a BATMAN AND ROBIN #2 preview by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely. It’s hard to overstate how brilliant Quitely’s storytelling and characterization are on even this single page. Panel 1 — the “death from above” shot, perfectly executed, but the angle emphasizing Batman and Robin’s viewpoint — they’re not unleashed, not yet, they’re just floating into the scene. In panel two there are two amazing things happening. #1 is the crab-like outline of Dick Grayson/Batman’s cape…it’s engulfing him, obliterating him…he’s just a tiny head. The mantle of Batman is literally swallowing him. And then there’s Damian/Robin’s curious hunched posture…he just landed with a lot of momentum, but the ground has sucked all the energy out of him, leaving him literally skulking in. Damian’s flawed, difficult character is the heart and plot of this book, and Quitely encapsulates it all in this one drawing.

After those two epic panels, a third is almost too much, but once again, the masks and rituals of the Bat-man garb are transforming the two people inside them. Slit-eyed, dangerous…how can they even SEE?

Whew! We’re just gonna explode when we get the whole book, aren’t we?

This iPhone thing is really catching on. Today’s press release involves a free app for checking out the Eisner Award nominees. We totally just downloaded this app and it features excerpts from all the nominees…some of the art could be a little bigger but it’s a decent enough primer to learn about things you might not otherwise see. And did we mention it’s FREE?

Digital entertainment provider Uclick has announced the release of a new Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards app for iPhone and iPod Touch. The app celebrates the comics industry’s most prestigious awards by providing details on Will Eisner and the Eisner Awards, as well as the entire list of award categories in a tap-and-swipe menu, with information on each creator and title, and images from their nominated works.

“We are honored to work with the Eisner organization to bring the first ever Eisner app to the iPhone,” said Uclick CEO Douglas Edwards. “This app is an excellent way for fans and industry professionals to navigate the entire list of Eisner-nominated creators and works. It’s an interactive showcase that allows readers to familiarize themselves with the nominees for the industry’s most distinguished award.”

The Eisner Awards app is available now for free in the App Store and on iTunes.

The app will update with icons indicating the winners in each category shortly after the voting results are announced on Friday, July 24.

“There is a great deal of anticipation and excitement within the industry leading up to the announcement of the Eisner winners,” said Edwards, “and this app gives everyone the chance to be engaged and informed. The popularity of the iPhone allows us to bring even more attention to the comic industry and the awards that celebrate some of the very best work in comics.”

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