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Time once again for the “Lost” running diary after the jump. Spoilers ahoy, you are forewarned. A brief mention
about the clip show before the premiere. Michael Emerson could probably spend the rest of his career doing voice-overs. So very great.

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Raina Telgemeier’s dental drama is about to drop, and it now has a trailer.

At a now-bookmarked site called Comic-Convention Memories, the author is posting some photos found in the late Shel Dorf’s collection highlighting: a) just how much fun the old San Diego really was; b) how majestic ’70s fashions really were.

Just a wee sampling:

Carmine Infantino, June Foray, and Dorf.

The caption says: From the left, Ken Krueger, Richard Butner, Barry Alfonso (kneeling), Greg Weir,Steve Stockbarger, Michelle Smith (in back), Dawn Greil, Rita Terrell, Chuck Graham (in back), ?, and Bill Lund.

Here you see people who appear to be actually lounging by the pool of the El Cortez. Jack Kirby is visible, and Neal Adams is at the center of the hubbub.

Finally, that day we’ve been waiting for all year. The season premiere of Lost. I mean, Groundhog Day. Click to see the rest of that rodent-filled cartoon by the great creator of Cul de Sac, Richard Thompson.

As for Lost, yes, the recap/discussion thread will return tomorrow for this last season of nerdville’s favorite television program.

posted by Mark Coale

Del Rey’s Dallas Middaugh writes to let us know he’s teaching a class at NYU this Saturday entitled ‘Publishing the Graphic Novel’ The class is shy a few attendees so check out the NYU link or the info below and sign up for what sounds like a very informative event:

As to the class itself, what I try to do is give a primer on the graphic novel business. I’ve been reading comics for decades, and working the biz for the past ten years. I start with breaking down how comics are perceived and read, touch a bit on the history of the medium, and then jump right into the business of making, selling and distributing graphic novels.

I’m a year wiser and thanks to the great feedback from my last class, this is going to be a lot of fun. I hope to see you there!

The syllabus follows after the jump.

Center for Publishing
School of Continuing and Professional Studies
New York University
Spring 2010

Course Title: Publishing the Graphic Novel
Course #: X59.9193
Term: February 6 – February 27 (no class February 20)
Day and Time: Saturdays, 10:00am – 3:00pm
Instructor: Dallas Middaugh, Associate Publisher for Del Rey Manga
Contact info: dmiddaugh@randomhouse.com (email)
Location:
_________________________________________________________________

Course Description
The growth and popularity of graphic novels have been explosive in recent years, as readers and publishing houses discover the excitement and possibilities of this category. This weekend intensive focuses on all types of graphic novels including manga, superheroes, memoir, and literary; and the elements of successful creation, sales, and marketing strategies. Students explore what works for adult and adolescent audiences and what makes effective art and editorial content. In addition, students examine how to introduce graphic novels into the mainstream, through online and other innovative channels, as well as a self-publishing venture.

The roll-out for the Bendis/Romita Jr. AVENGERS continues, with Spider-Woman!

AVATAR, to no one’s surprise, snagged nine Oscar nominations this morning, tied with THE HURT LOCKER for most. The two films are the leading contenders and sets up an exciting “Battle of the Exes” between directors James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow, who were once married.

Pixar’s UP became only the second animated feature ever to be nominated for Best Picture (BEAUTY AND THE BEAST got the nod in 1991) but it comes in the year of the “Expanded Best Picture” nods — the Academy decided to have 10 Best Pictures nominees instead of the usual 5, leading to things like UP and DISTRICT 9 getting kudos they would never have received in the old system–not that UP didn’t richly deserve the honor.

The Best Animated feature nominees include CORALINE, FANTASTIC MR. FOX, THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG, UP, and a surprise — THE SECRET OF KELLS, an Irish-Belgian animated film with the voices of Brendan Gleeson and Mick Lally that won’t be out in the US until spring.

Complete list of noms in the jump, including a shameful nomination for TRANSFORMERS:
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After reading all the things that AVATAR is supposed to have ripped off, you’re sure to wonder if there is a SHRED of originality in the movie — that is, aside from the brand new way of shooting movies that took years to develop.

While the usual suspects — POCAHONTAS, DANCES WITH WOLVES, FERNGULLY — have been well annotated, Rich Johnston digs up yet another old comic that featured bluish flying peoples.

And Heavy.com continues its investigation of Avatargate in which the all-time money maker movie is based on an obscure 2000 A.D. strip.
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§ Matthias Wivvel has his wrapup of Angoulême 2010 including an appreciation of Baru:

In this context, it seems auspicious that the Grand Prix winner (for his life’s work) is Baru (aka. Hervé Baruléa, b. 1947), in that he is one of the great proponents of a working class and immigrant perspective in Francophone comics. Best know to American readers for the gorgeous but comparatively minor Road to America (1995-97, Drawn and Quarterly ed. 2002), his first major work, Quéquette Blues (1984-1986) pretty much established the blueprint for his work — a gripping tale of youthful enthusiasm and rebelliousness set in a working class suburb. It remains an energetically humanist portrayal of youth with a strong socio-political undercurrent. The masterpiece is L’Autoroute du soleil (1996), first serialized in the early 90s in the Japanese weekly Morning, which adapts the expansive storytelling techniques and page count of manga to tell a road story of two young working class men on the run from a neo-Nazi group. It is simultaneously a portrait of post-industrial France and a moving coming-of-age-story. Of late, Baru has tended toward self-repetition to diminishing returns, but he is still a major voice in Francophone comics, presenting an important, rarely-seen point of view.

§ Geek-o-system has several of their geek-oriented Power Grid rankings, including Top 30 Geeky Writers, which includes many of the folks you’d think it would include.

§ USA Today blogger Whitney Matheson went to the SNL-powered fundraiser for the stage version of Phoebe Gloeckner’s The Diary of a Teenage Girl

Marielle Heller is adapting Gloeckner’s 2002 book as a play. It follows a teen girl in ’70s San Francisco who, among other things, has a sexual relationship with her mother’s boyfriend. It’s a pretty intense story but worth reading and beautifully drawn. (You can preview several pages on Amazon.)

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Or so says a new Marvel teaser campaign. First poster above. So Cap has got a gun for good now? So it goes.

EDIT: You know I forgot to mention that the book is written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by John Romita Jr.

Wow, the iPad announcement really didn’t solve everything! In fact the battle lines over who gets what with ebooks and i-that may just be beginning if this weekend’s skirmish between Amazon and Macmillan is any indication. Johanna Draper Carlson has the back and forth — basically, Macmillan — publisher of such graphic novel imprints as First Second, Hill & Wang and Seven Seas — demanded its ebooks be priced at $14.99 as opposed to $9.99. And Amazon said no way, Jose, and pulled ALL Macmillan books from Amazon.com over the weekend. While literary fires raged, yesterday, Sunday, Amazon gave in and said they would carry Macmillan ebooks for Kindle at the suggested price.

It’s all part of a larger pricing battle — while in general, it’s hard not to be sympathetic with the book publishing’s desire to survive, charging for the cost of a nice trade paperback for a few bits and bytes is kinda ridiculous. The NY Times writes:

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With Salinger gone, you would have thought that Calvin and Hobbes cartoonist Bill Watterson was ready to assume the mantle of the literary world’s most dedicated recluse, but he’s gone and ruined everything by giving his first interview in 20 years to the Cleveland Plain Dealer. You’ll want to promptly click over to the whole thing, but here’s the nut graph:

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Continuing his march to the sea, grading and slabbing everything in his path, Gareb Shamus has added a stop on his pop culture tour in Cincinnati, Ohio with the Cincinnati Comic Con Wizard World Convention. PR in the jump, but the Shamus/Wizard brand acquired the existing Cincinnati Comic & Anime Show which ran once, last year, with an expected attendance of 1000 and 50 dealers. Here’s a report.

The Wizard North American tour comprises 10 different shows and the schedule stands as follows:
Wizard World Comic Con Tour:
March 26-28, 2010, Toronto Comic Con, Direct Energy Centre
April 16-18, 2010, Anaheim Comic Con, Anaheim Convention Center
June 11-13, 2010, Philadelphia Comic Con, Philadelphia Convention Center
August 19-22, 2010, Chicago Comic Con, Donald E. Stephens (Rosemont) Convention Center
October 7-10, 2010, Big Apple Comic Con, Pier 94
October 15-17, 2010, New Jersey Comic Con, New Jersey Convention and Expo Center
November 12-14, 2010, Austin Comic Con, Austin Convention Center
Atlanta Comic Con, TBD
Cincinnati Comic Con, TBD
New England Comic Con, TBD

With three cons to be scheduled, the obvious openings are May and July — what show gets to go against mighty San Diego? Word on the grapevine is that Shamus hopes to run a show a month, and he’s well on his way to that goal.
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The Angoulême comics festival wrapped up over the weekend, with the Grand Prix being presented to Baru, a well-respected French cartoonist whose genre-spanning career is the kind of thing the French do way better than us.

The Comics Reporter has the rest of the prize winners here. Winners include Riad Sattouf and Joe Daly, but please go check out the entire list before we spoil it for you.

More from the fest:
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Manga-ka Keiko Tobe has passed away at age 52. Tobe is known for her award-winning WITH THE LIGHT (published in the US by Yen Press), the sensitive story of a couple raising an autistic child. She stopped work on the title because of her illness a year ago, and her death leaves it unfinished.

Vancouver-based mini-comic/underground cartoonist Colin Upton is taking to the web on his LJ page. Here, he grapples with This Modern Life.

A new poster for THE LOSERS was recently released, and it’s a striking recreation of artist Jock’s iconic poster and covers for the comic. With a lineup of comic book movie veterans, including Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana, Chris Evans, Idris Elba, Columbus Short, Holt McCallany, Oscar Jaenada, Jason Patric, and Peter Macdissi, the film opens April 9. A new trailer has also been released:

Geoff Boucher at the LA Times, has an interview with director Sylvain White:

At least one nerdlebrity is picking Wizard World over the Hall of Fame. On his blog, former wrestler “The Honky Tonk Man’ explained why he would rather be in Toronto for The Toronto Comic-Con than get inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. His reasons are sensible — he wanted to honor the prior booking, and the WWE has an onerous “no compete” clause that meant he wouldn’t be able to make money at personal appearances for several months:

“HTM declined the WWE offer to be inducted into the HOF class of 2010. There were multiple reasons why HTM decided against this induction. Negotiations started Friday Jan. 22 and carried over till Wed. Jan. 27 at which time HTM informed WWE that he would not be interested in this years induction into their HOF.

One of the main reasons was a conflict in the schedule. HTM is booked for the Wizard World Comic Con in Toronto for the same date WWE wanted. HTM felt he should stand by his Wizard booking since they had put out publicity on his appearance to be there. Also the Wizard booking has been on his books since early December. WWE had more than enough time to get their date locked in with HTM.

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Wow, based on last night’s Grammy Award telecast, the music biz has found a new look, and it’s Black Lantern all the way! Most performers dressed in dark, or gunmetal, with lots of metallics — hell even Dave Matthews looked like he stepped out of a SAW movie, which is a sure sign of the apocalypse. In keeping with the SF vibe, production numbers are huge and elaborate. It’s not enough to just write and sing the songs any more, you have to be an acrobat…

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