McFarlane is giving things away, hosting signings, hiring people and god knows what all.

Will you be one of the multitudes attending the New York Comic-Con, Feb. 23-25 at the Jacob Javitz Center We invite you to stop by our booth - #771 - to chat with the clean and courteous McFarlane Toys employees, AND to take advantage of the overabundance of special goings-on we’ve got planned. Get a load of this!

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[DISCLAIMER: I am a freelance editor for Fox Atomic]

Fox Atomic announced today a series of initiatives centered around the upcoming 2nd annual New York Comic Con on February 23rd - 25th. The activities planned include the first detailed look into the Fox Atomic graphic novels for both “The Hills Have Eyes” and “28 Days Later” franchises; an opportunity to enter “The Hills Have Eyes 2″ “15 Gigs of Fear” contest; a chance to be part of the Machinima contest in the first ever fully-functional film studio in Second Life; a sneak peak at never before seen scenes from the upcoming film “The Hills Have Eyes 2″ (3/23); and a panel featuring the Master of Horror himself, Wes Craven. In addition, MySpace.com has named Fox Atomic’s booth their official “Meeting Place” for the duration of the convention.

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Besides their convention booth, Spanish inquisition artists Francis Portela (Black Panther) and Juan Santacruz (Marvel Adventures: The Avengers) will be signing today at Jim Hanleys.

Jim Hanley’s Universe, a New York City based comic store chain, is proud to announce its expanded particiaption at the New York Comic Con, which is back for its second annual event. As a result, the store will be holding a sale at both its booth and at its two locations in Manhatten and Staten Island. The Manhatten store will be hosting creator appearances as well.

Jim Hanley’s Universe will be in a new, bigger location than last year (Booth #671) and plans on using the space as a mini-store.

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It seems that “sexy” Comic Foundry founder Tim Leong has won the New York Comic-con’s Podcasting contest! Can you SAY…RINGER? I mean, come on! Tim already set YouTube ablaze in his famous “weeping wizard” outing. You can check out the winning entry at the above link, or see Tim try to explain himself here.

1500 loans

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This may well be the funniest flyer we’ve ever seen:

ISR celebrates Valentine’s Day with a special celebration of love! Four comic creators, two married couples! Our guests Dave Roman & Raina Telgemeier and John Green & Marion Vitus join us to talk about love and comics! From how they met to getting hitched to what it’s like in a two comic creator household! Listen in and feel the love!

We will, right after we feel the laughs.

Joel Ehrlich, a former exec at both Marvel and DC, has joined the International Fight League as Chief Marketing Officer and President of Sales. You’ll recall that the IFL is co-owned by Wizard’s Gareb Shamus.

The International Fight League (OTC.BB: IFLI), the world’s first team-based professional mixed martial arts league, announced today that Joel Ehrlich has been named to the newly-created position of Chief Marketing Officer and President of Sales. Ehrlich, one of the most well-known and respected brand builders in the industry for over 25 years, will begin the new full-time position immediately. He will oversee and coordinate all of the sales efforts as well as creating, identifying and implementing new strategic relationships with IFL partners.

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Yikes, we have about 500 New York Comic-con related links, and press releases, so we’re just going to get through it. We’ll be at the ICv2 Graphic Novel conference most of the day tomorrow, and at the show from then on, so it will be mostly live blogging and so on.

While we’re assured that last year’s Soylent Green like riots won’t be repeated, it has been a rocky run up to the show for many, at least behind the scenes. We’ve received several emails today alone from folks stating they can’t find the programming on the NYCC site. It is hidden a bit, but it’s there.

Unfortunately the run up to this show has left us with a lingering case of consumption, compounded by the Black Plague. Luckily the Dengue Fever cleared right up. So if we’re not our usual sparkling selves…well, we apologize in advance.

BTW, am I the only person to CAN’T STAND the redesign of the IMDb? When you need a Name and Title Page Redesign FAQ to answer all the questions about why things are centered instead of flush left and you get this kind of bafflegab:

Overall, the center section content has been indented to achieve greater visual impact when scrolling down the page, and the Cast Overview treatment is consistent with that goal.

you know no good is afoot. We never had any problem getting the VISUAL IMPACT of your pages before, pally! We just want to know who played the hot solider on the submarine in Goldfinger.

Much continuing comment around the web on the Bookscan 2006 Graphic Novel sales chart as revealed by Brian Hibbs. Dirk has a roundup of links. The Engine thread includes the link to this very interesting discussion of the Bookscan numbers. by people in regular old book publishing. The comments yield many interesting nuggets such as a list of who reports to Bookscan:

Here is a list of the major retailers who report to Bookscan:

B. Dalton
Barnes & Noble
Books-A-Million
Borders
Chapter 11 Books
Deseret Book Company
Follett Stores
Hastings
Tower Music and Books
Walden Books
Amazon.com
B&N.com
BooksAMillion.com
Borders.com
Buy.com
Costco
Fatbrain.com
K-Mart
Powells.com
Target

There are also close to 400 independents reporting in, inlcuding Powell’s, Tattered Cover, Elliot Bay, etc…

That is a pretty comprehensive list, folks. And the holes that exist only apply to a small sector of the titles published annually. You can try and nitpick it to death—you are book people, after all—but any list that compiles the cash register sales of the vendors cited above has enormous value.

While there is some argument, the consensus is that Bookscan is as accurate as we can get for right now.

John Jakala, meanwhile, has a different take, looking at some comments on the web from First Second’s Mark Siegel to explain what would seem the discrepancy:

Even after my initial shock wore off, this fact still continued to nag at me. After a while, I finally realized why: According to ICv2 interviews with First Second’s editorial director Mark Siegel, at least two books from First Second each had print runs over 20,000 copies. American Born Chinese, for example, had a combined print run over 25,000. As Siegel noted, the first printing was 16,000, which was before the book was nominated for a National Book Award. The second printing was for around 10,000 copies, and there was a planned (as of Dec. 4, 2006) third printing of unspecified size. This also doesn’t count copies of the more upscale, more expensive Collector’s Edition, which Siegel says is “usually a print run of about 2,000 for the diehards.” So even before a third printing, close to 30,000 copies of American Born Chinese were in print.

Continuing the run of publishers announcing more deluxe classic comic strip reprints, NBM has announced a reprint series called FOREVER NUTS, spotlighting the oddball early years of the American comic strip. Up first, just in time for its 100th birthday, Bud Fisher’s MUTT AND JEFF.

The year 2007 is the hundredth anniversary of Mutt & Jeff, one of the longest-lasting and most popular comic strips. It’s also the 30th anniversary of NBM Publishing and a perfect time to reprint the strip as the first of a planned new series of deluxe-format reprints, FOREVER NUTS: Classic Screwball Strips — The Early Years of Mutt & Jeff reveals that the pioneering strip was odder, crazier, and funnier than most modern readers would expect.

FOREVER NUTS is a new series of reprints concentrating on very early, very goofy strips — early classics that have aged surprisingly well, with off-the-wall humor that remains fresh to this day. Each volume will present a different strip from the early 20th century.

Mutt & Jeff began as A. Mutt (the A stood for Augustus), a cartoon about a harried husband who escaped his wife by gambling at the racetrack. The brainchild of cartoonist Bud Fisher first appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle’s sports page on November 15, 1907. The strip’s popularity skyrocketed after March 27, 1908, when Mutt met Jeff. A pint-sized insane asylum inmate, Jeff insisted that he was boxing champion James Jeffries. The combination of Mutt (who was always trying to get rich and always failing) with Jeff (gullible and willing to try anything) became a sensation.

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Wow! A new blog! Can you imagine it? Actually this one is indie-centric and called The Daily Cross Hatch and it states its aims thusly:

The Daily Cross Hatch was created with the intention of spotlighting the absurd amount of talent currently toiling away in the world of alternative comics, and bringing into focus some of those artists attempting to break into this largely thankless field. Our goal to provide information in the form of news stories, interviews, reviews, and features, in order to keep fans a bit more connected into the goings on of this sometimes enigmatic field. We’re also attempting to keep things relatively ‘underground.’ We love tights and taglines as much as the next blog staff, but let’s face it, if that’s what you’re really looking for, there are more than a few places around to appease your needs.

So far there are guest strips by Kochalka, and Jeffrey Brown and reviews of Johnny Ryan and Guy DeLisle…that kind of thing.

Brian Heater, Elizabeth Chou, Jeffrey Wilson and Chip Chick are behind the endeavor, and you will probably want to add it to you RSS feeds.

Variety has a mini NYCC special with a few pieces of interest. Tom McLean previews the con with an overall look at the convention biz::

Wizard’s Chicago event is the second largest in the business, drawing 58,000 attendees last summer, while its Philadelphia, Dallas and Los Angeles shows attracted 127,500 in 2006. Rob Felton, Wizard Entertainment VP for business development, says Wizard’s shows are part of “a continuous conversation” between its audience and its business partners, furthered by the company’s magazine and Web-based ventures.

Wizard shows have been criticized recently for repetitive programming focused almost exclusively on Marvel and DC. A 2005 Boston show was discontinued after one outing, and efforts to set up an Atlanta show have not materialized. Felton says the company has heard those criticisms and plans to address them in its upcoming shows.

WonderCon was taken over by the nonprofit management of the San Diego show in 2002 and moved from Oakland to San Francisco. The show drew 18,500 last year but faces a problem common to all shows: securing venue dates that don’t conflict with another such con.

“It’s really up to the convention center what days they make available to us,” says David Glanzer, spokesman for Comic-Con Intl. and WonderCon. “The most frustrating thing for us, especially in San Francisco, is we can’t block out dates as far in advance as we’d like to, and there’s a whole convention circuit out there that we have to be aware of.”

Next, Iain Blair reports on the men behind the CGI:

Freddy Krueger slashing his way through Elm Street, Gollum coveting his ring, Hellboy protecting mankind from all manner of demons, and the “Pan’s Labyrinth” Pale Man staring through the eyes in his palms: They’re among the most memorable movie characters of recent times, and yet, ironically, the actors who’ve portrayed them are virtually anonymous, except to the most rabid fans.

That’s because those actors — Robert Englund, Andy Serkis, Doug Jones and Ron Perlman, respectively — willingly submerge themselves in their characters, totally disappearing under layers of sophisticated prosthetics, often now augmented by complex combinations of digital effects, puppetry and electronics.

“The one place I get recognized is at comicbook geek-type conventions, where the fans have looked me up on Web sites and done their research,” laughs Jones, who happily admits to spending “the last 20 years under layers of makeup.” “At the local 7-Eleven, no one has a clue, and that’s nice, too.”

Finally, Steven Zeitchik looks at Fox Atomic’s strategy [DISCLOSURE: I am the editor of several Fox Atomic graphic novels.]:

The key, execs say, is not so much to hammer home the Fox Atomic name but to create entertainment and a mythology that exists independently of the films. This way, fans will stick around even when there isn’t a new release — and will also hopefully be there when there is one.

So the company created Fox Atomic Comics, a book-publishing line whose titles will be distributed to mainstream bookstores via News Corp. sister company HarperCollins.

Instead of just the usual roster of tie-ins, which are usually handled by an outside partner, the studio itself has hired creators in the manner of an A-list comics publisher.

WonderCon unfolds March 2-4 in San Francisco, but there will be plenty of Hollywood previews and stars on hand. Including DDGB. Sadly, we won’t be there, but we know our faithful spies will give us full reports.

WonderCon, Northern California¹s largest comic book and pop culture convention, has already released its stunning list of comics-related talent attending the three-day event. And now, in the tradition of its sister show, the San Diego Comic-Con, WonderCon releases its Hollywood guest list scheduled to appear March 2 through 4, 2007 at Moscone Center South, in San Francisco.

As with Comic-Con in San Diego, Hollywood¹s biggest movie and animation studios will bring specially prepared material for attendees of WonderCon. For the first time, major television networks and programs will also be featured in a special Sunday track of events.

Saturday¹s scheduled programs include a panel on Disney-Pixar¹s animated feature Ratatouille, featuring director Brad Bird (The Incredibles) and actor/comedian Patton Oswalt, as well as Warner Bros.¹ TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, for those in the know), featuring writer/director Kevin Munroe.

Hilary Swank is no stranger to Comic-Con, having appeared at the event twice, and this year she makes her inaugural appearance at WonderCon to help promote her new Warner Bros.¹ film, The Reaping. She will be joined by co-star Idris Elba.

The eagerly awaited adaptation of Frank Miller¹s graphic novel, 300, is well represented with a panel featuring director Zack Snyder along with an exclusive appearance by stars Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, and Rodrigo Santoro.

The next installment in the popular Resident Evil series of films will have cast members Oded Fehr (The Mummy) and Ali Larter (Heroes) talking about Resident Evil: Extinction. And Sony Pictures will feature a panel on the much anticipated film, Spider-Man 3.

Also on Saturday, DC Comics and WB Animation present a panel on their new DVD movies featuring some of DC¹s most popular stories. This event includes animation legend Bruce Timm and DC Vice-President¹s Dan DiDio and Gregory Noveck.

On Sunday, television will have a big presence at WonderCon this year as sponsor TV Guide presents: 2007 and Beyond. This panel features TV Guide¹s West Coast Bureau Chief, Craig Tomashoff with a look at the successful supernatural, sci-fi and fantasy series currently appearing on cable and network TV. Panel participants include Jeph Loeb (Co-Executive Producer, Heroes), Billy Campbell (The 4400), and Ira S. Behr (Executive Producer The 4400).

CBS/Paramount presents an exclusive, never-before-seen episode of the popular network series Jericho. Stars Skeet Ulrich and Ashley Scott will be on hand as will producers Jon Turteltaub, Stephen Chbosky and Carol Barbee.

Fox Television will have a special sneak preview of their new series Drive. Panelists include fan favorite Nathan Fillion, Kristin Lehman and producers Tim Minear, Ben Queen and Greg Yaitanes.

The weekend will also feature special presentations by kids¹ network giants Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon.

Continuing our look at who’s doing what at this weekend’s New York Comicon, The Comic Book Legal Defense will have many fundraising actvities:

This weekend the New York Comic Con opens at the Javits Center, and the CBLDF is proud to announce a broad variety of fundraisers where you can win original art, rare comics, toys, anime and much more by supporting the Fund!

First up is the CBLDF’s Official New York Comic Con Raffle, where you can win original art by Jeff Smith, anime from ADV and Funimation, a full set of Spawn 30 Action Figures signed by Todd McFarlane, a set of signed, exclusive Top Cow comics, a set of Marvel busts from Diamond Select, High Grade CGC Marvel Comics, DC RRP edition comics, including Sandman #50 signed by Neil Gaiman, and much, much more. Raffle tickets are available for a $1 donation to the Fund, winners must claim their prizes at the end of each convention day. The raffle will run throughout the show in the main lobby, and at the CBLDF booth, #102 in the main hall.

Then on Saturday, at 11:30 AM, it’s the CBLDF Live Art Jam & Auction. Jeff Smith, Amanda Conner, Rick Veitch, and special guests will be drawing your favorite characters and auctioning off the original art to benefit the Fund. The Fund will also be dipping into its auction archive to offer original art and rare signed comics from Frank Miller, Jim Lee, Brad Meltzer, and more!

Throughout the show, the Fund is also offering official New York Comic-Con CBLDF Sketch Cards, where your donation gets you an original sketch from participating CBLDF supporting artists. Sketch cards will be available for: Bernard Chang, Sanford Greene, Dale Eaglesham, Mike Lilly, John Paul Leon, Paulo Rivera, Todd Nauck, Mike Huddleston, Andy MacDonald, Jeremy Haun, Robbi Rodriguez, Khary Randolph, Gene Ha, Mike Oeming, and Craig Rousseau from the CBLDF booth. Some quantities of sketch cards are limited, so get yours early!

While you’re at the booth, be sure the check out the Fund’s great premiums including T-Shirts, signed comics & graphic novels, signed art prints, and much more with all the proceed supporting the CBLDF’s work to defend free speech for comics!

New York Comic Con opens to the public this Friday at 4:00 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City, and closes on Sunday. For more information visit www.newyorkcomiccon.com

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund was founded in 1986 as a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of First Amendment rights for members of the comics community. For additional information, donations, and other inquiries call 800-99-CBLDF or visit www.cbldf.org

Back in the 90s, Brit comics feature magazine TRIPWIRE was one of the better sources of comics features and news. Of course, the internet has made all paper-based journalism a dicey proposition, but editor Joel Meadows is brining TRIPWIRE back as a full-color annual. According to the PR:

Between 1992 and 2003 TRIPWIRE was the UK’s premiere comics features magazine, covering graphic storytelling and related fields in detail. Now TRIPWIRE is back, this time in full color book format, published annually each July to coincide with the San Diego Comic Con.

TRIPWIRE ANNUAL will reflect both industry and artform in the same incisive, intelligent and unique manner that the magazine did for over a decade.

The first annual has an impressive and diverse line-up: Guillermo Del Toro and Mike Mignola talk about Hellboy 2; Frank Miller discusses 300 - the movie, Sin City 2 and his unique interpretation of Will Eisner’s classic The Spirit on the screen in 2008; Jeph Loeb and Bryan Fuller spill the beans on The SciFi Channel’s hit superhero TV series Heroes; and, in the year that Homer and family reach the big screen, the annual will examine how The Simpsons have sustained their massive appeal for nearly two decades.

We pass a critical eye over events in the comics industry over the past year and offer some predictions for the next, Alan Moore discusses Lost Girls, and his new novel and we’ll be celebrating Judge Dredd’s 30th anniversary.

Graced with a brand new Hellboy cover by Duncan Fegredo, TRIPWIRE ANNUAL 2007 will be distributed to bookstores in and the direct market in the UK and US. Cover price £9.95/ $14.95 US, 128 pages full colour, shipping in August.

Former Fourth Rail critic Randy Lander reveals his new Secret Project:

I bought a comic book store.

More specifically, I bought the comic book store I’ve been co-managing for about six years now. Dave and I, the co-managers, had expressed to the owner a couple years back that if he was ever thinking about selling the store, we’d appreciate the right of first refusal. In November, he contacted me about buying it, I was interested and I’ve been putting together the deal ever since.

There has been much talk online lately about comic book stores in general, especially with Riot Comics closing down. But there are some pretty significant differences between me and Jason Richards, owner of RIOT, not to mention significant differences between Riot Comics and Dragon’s Lair Comics & Fantasy, which I’m buying.

Hopefully we’ll be able to track Randy’s adventures in retailing online.

Brian Hibbs has done the lord’s work yet again by getting hold of the year-end Bookscan report and leaking it so everyone can draw their own conclusions. You can read Brian’s analysis here, and see the precious, precious chart here.

I’m not going to go into a lot of analysis here at this time, except to note that it’s manga all the way, with only V FOR VENDETTA breaking NARUTO’s death grip on the top 10:
#1 NARUTO V9 101,457
#2 NARUTO V1 THE TESTS OF THE NIN 96,651
#3 NARUTO V10 95,859
#4 NARUTO V11 85,184
#5 V FOR VENDETTA 79,907
#6 NARUTO V2 79,071
#7 NARUTO V8 76,489
#8 NARUTO V4 70,366
#9 NARUTO V3 69,865
#10 NARUTO V7 68,207

What’s most interesting from where we stand is looking at the best sellers for individual companies. For instance, here’s DC:

V FOR VENDETTA 79,907
WATCHMEN 37,554
SUPERMAN BATMAN V1 18,796
MEGATOKYO V4 16,331
BATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS 15,689
KINGDOM COME 13,749
SUPERMAN BATMAN V2 SUPERGIRL 13,109
BATMAN THE LONG HALLOWEEN 11,591
SANDMAN V1 PRELUDES & NOCTURNE 11,540
INFINITE CRISIS 11,350

And Marvel

HALO GRAPHIC NOVEL 32,174
HOUSE OF M 17,365
ASTONISHING X MEN V2 DANGEROUS 15,328
NEW AVENGERS V1 BREAKOUT 13,874
X-MEN PHOENIX ENDSONG 13,062
MARVEL ZOMBIES 13,037
MARVEL 1602 12,112
ASTONISHING X-MEN V1 10,730
ULTIMATE X-MEN THE ULTIMATE C 9,960
ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN V14 9,940

DC’s top non-backlist seller is–shock of shocks — MEGATOKYO #4, a Ameri-manga book. Think about that for a while. Also, what is Jeph Loeb’s mysterious hold over the bestsellers list? Other non-backlist top sellers include SUPERMAN BATMAN Vol. 2 and the INFINITE CRISIS collection.

Marvel has a slightly larger contribution from non-backlist on their top 10 — HALO, MARVEL ZOMBIES. Even ASTONISHING X-MEN Vol. 2 and NEW AVENGERS Vol 1 are more recent books.

What has proven to be the most controversial aspect of Hibbs’ analysis is his declaration that art comics sell as badly in the bookstore market as they do in the direct sales market. He makes that statement after noting the lack of Fantagraphics, D&Q and First Second books in the Bookscan top 750. A not unreasonable assumption.

Dirk jumps in with a stinging defense:

The dubious: Over at The Engine, Hibbs goes on to make claims that his presented figures simply cannot support. “Conclusion: for the most part, ‘art comix’ sell just as bad in the general bookstore market, as they do in the DM.”

Don’t you believe it. Never mind that the portion of the bookstore market most likely to back non-genre works — independent bookstores — is the one most underrepresented by BookScan’s numbers. Likewise never mind the absence of Canada’s largest bookstore chain, Chapters (a significant market for Drawn & Quarterly, I’m led to believe), let alone the library market sum in toto. The real signifier that this claim is unsupportable comes from the simple fact that the bottom item on the list in question sold 4784 copies.

Tom has his own analysis:

I don’t believe as Dirk Deppey seems to that Hibbs is creating a total straw man when he seems to assume that some people out there doubt the effectiveness and importance of comics shops. No one on earth has time to track down individual statements and examples of rhetoric now three and four years old, but I remember for instance being in a room when a comics company owner was told by one such advocate that any extra effort at all working with the direct market was “a total waste of time.” You can’t tell me that sentiment didn’t exist. Still, I agree with Dirk I don’t think it’s a sentiment that anyone invested in actual decision-making at these companies takes seriously. It’s not a case that needs to be made. In addition, the only place where the idea existed that arts- and alternative-type comics do outstandingly well in bookstores exists is in the press statements of people hopeful that this would be the case for their comics as well and bad feature articles in the local paper. Just because they remember 1996 doesn’t mean alt-comics companies look at 2007 as anything other than a continuing struggle. So Hibbs is popping an already deflated balloon there.

I side with Tom here. There’s little evidence that indie bookstores sell graphic novels in vast quantities. A few may — like the Rand McNally Bookstore in NYC, or a few others — but I don’t think these sales would have been enough to boost MOOMIN to #20 on the list, or even #200. In fact most of the book sales gurus we talk too seem to think that indie bookstores are undiscovered country for GN sales, not a hallowed redoubt.

It’s also good to keep degree in mind. In the book world any sales over 5 figures is probably in the realm of the break even point, if the advance wasn’t too outrageous. Even modest sales of 5,000-8,000 can be considered strong for a small book publisher. And I am pretty confident that Houghton Mifflin was happy with the sales of BEST AMERICAN COMICS 2006.

The DM and the bookstores may have different sales patterns, but when you add them all up, you have numbers that Marvel and DC, I’m sure, are happy with. Of course, the trick is always to sell more. And the real question? Can American comics EVER compete with manga. The jury’s definitely out on that one.

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Flame on! Blazing past a review-free opening, GHOST RIDER raced to the #1 spot at the box office:

Sony’s Marvel comic adaptation “Ghost Rider” revved an estimated $44.5 million over the first three days of the extended President’s Day frame, easily taking No. 1 at the domestic B.O. and becoming the biggest opening of the year so far.

Studio was estimating Sunday morning that the pic could roll to $51 million over four days, which would make it the biggest President’s Day opening ever, surpassing Adam Sandler comedy “50 First Dates,” (which hit $45.1 million over four days in 2004).

The PG-13 “Ghost Rider” played 3,619 locations as the frame’s widest new release. Pic stars Nicolas Cage as supernatural cyclist Johnny Blaze, and numbers could conceivably spell a new franchise for the studio, though Sony brass wouldn’t comment on that possibility.

As reviews have trickled out, Rotten Tomatoes has the film rated at a mere 25% positive, but…well, it’s Ghost Rider, ya know.

Cheryl Lynn’s The Ormes Society page is up, with a forum and more.

ECBACC has announced the second annual Glyph Comics Awards, honoring the best in black comics and creators. The award will be presented at the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention (ECBACC) in Philadelphia.

Story of the Year
The American Way, John Ridley, Georges Jeanty & Karl Story
Bluesman Vol. 3, Rob Vollmar & Pablo Callejo
Day 8, Damian Duffy & John Jennings
Earthlight Vol. 1, Stuart Moore & Christopher Schons
Stagger Lee, Derek McCulloch & Shepherd Hendrix

Best Writer
Damian Duffy, Day 8
Derek McCulloch, Stagger Lee
Stuart Moore, Earthlight Vol. 1
John Ridley, The American Way
Rob Vollmar, Bluesman Vol. 3

Best Artist
Kyle Baker, The Bakers
Shepherd Hendrix, Stagger Lee
Jamal Igle, Firestorm
Georges Jeanty, The American Way
Christopher Schons, Earthlight Vol. 1

Best Male Character
Infidel, Astro City: Samaritan
Lem Taylor, Bluesman Vol. 3
Mr. Jenkins, Day 8
New American, The American Way
Stagger Lee, Stagger Lee

Best Female Character
Amo Tanzer, Lucifer’s Garden of Verses: Between the Devil and Miles Davis
Evelyn Prescott, Stagger Lee
Ororo, Storm
Sahara, Elephantmen
Thomasina Lindo, Welcome to Tranquility

Rising Star Award
Darryl Hughes & Monique MacNaughton, GAAK
Mark Page, Kana’s Island
Felipe Smith, MBQ
Spike, Templar, Arizona
Masheka Wood, What Masheka Did

Best Reprint Publication
Deogratias: A Tale of Rwanda, First Second
Krazy & Ignatz 1937-38, Fantagraphics
Nat Turner Encore Edition Vol. 1, Kyle Baker Publishing
Never Made to Last: Stories of Suburban Folklore, Ourobor Books
Tokyo Tribes Vol. 5, TokyoPop

Best Cover
52 Week 14, J.G. Jones
The American Way #2, Georges Jeanty, Karl Story & Randy Mayor
Firestorm #23, Brian Stelfreeze
Stagger Lee, Shepherd Hendrix
Storm #1, Mike Mayhew

Best Comic Strip
Candorville, Darrin Bell
The K Chronicles, Keith Knight
Templar, Arizona, Spike
(th)Ink, Keith Knight
Watch Your Head, Cory Thomas

Once again, fans will be able to vote for their favorite black comic in the poll for the Fan Award for Best Comic. This year’s nominees are:

Black Panther: The Bride, Reginald Hudlin, Scot Eaton & Klaus Janson
Crisis Aftermath: The Spectre, Will Pfeifer & Cliff Chiang
Firestorm #28-32, Stuart Moore, Jamal Igle & Keith Champagne
New Avengers #22, Brian Michael Bendis & Leinil Francis Yu
Storm, Eric Jerome Dickey, David Yardin & Lan Medina and Jay Leisten & Sean Parsons
write-in choice.

The poll will go up at the ECBACC website (www.ecbacc.com) for the month of March.

ECBACC 2007 will take place May 18-19 at Temple University’s Anderson Hall in Philadelphia. For more information about the GCAs, e-mail Rich Watson at cptsisko318@aol.com.

The nominess were chosen by the following judging panel:

- Rich Watson, GCA Committee Chair and writer for PopCultureShock.com
- Johanna Draper Carlson, founder of the review website ComicsWorthReading.com
- Pam Noles, professional writer and former Eisner Awards judge
- Calvin Reid, senior editor for Publishers Weekly and former Eisner Awards judge
- Hannibal Tabu, online comics reviewer and professional fiction writer

Bob Oksner, one of the true pillars of comics, died of pneumonia at age 90 yesterday. Mark Evanier has a full obit. Oksner created the comic strip MISS CAIRO JONES, but went on to a long career in comics drawing what could truly be called “funny books”: BOB HOPE, JERRY LEWIS, LEAVE IT TO BINKY, STANLEY AND HIS MONSTER and many many more. He also created ANGEL AND THE APE.

Sheldon Mayer, an editor at DC, had been a fan of Miss Cairo Jones and he invited Oksner to work for DC…an association that kept Bob occupied for the rest of his career. He started on The Black Canary and other strips featuring pretty ladies and soon segued to humor features, especially ones based on licensed properties. Oksner drew The Adventures of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis until that team split up, whereupon his assignment became The Adventures of Jerry Lewis. He also drew Sgt. Bilko, Doberman, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Pat Boone, The Adventures of Bob Hope and non-licensed humor titles like Leave it to Binky, Miss Beverly Hills, A Date With Judy and Stanley and His Monster. One of his more memorable stints was as artist/co-creator of the short-lived The Angel and the Ape in the late sixties. He received the National Cartoonists Society Award in its Comic Book Division for 1960 and 1961 won the Shazam Award in 1970 for Best Pencil Artist (Humor Division).

Well it is a holiday, but we are still suffering from the Black Plague, and instead of spending endless hours scouring the net for news, we spent the weekend watching the first season of LOST on dvd, so we can converse intelligently with our friends. Sacrifices must be made at times.

This webcomics gang will have a booth in Artists Alley:

Webcomics collective The Chemistry Set is please to announce that it will be displaying at the 2007 New York Comicon taking place at the Javits Center in New York City on February 23rd through February 25th at booth A239 in the Artist Alley.

The Chemistry Set members scheduled for attending New York ComicCon are: Neil Kleid and Kevin Colden of Todt Hill, Vito Delsante of Stuck, Steven Goldman of Styx Taxi, Elizabeth Genco of Scheherazade and Hyeondo Park of Come The Dawn. There will be copies of the group’s various print comic work, as well as review copies of the webcomics online. Stop by the booth for specific hours for each creator.

The Chemistry Set is thrilled to announce that there will also be a grand prize giveaway of a complete set of print comics work by all members of the collective – numbering over 35 single issues, graphic novels and even a Come The Dawn art print from Hyeondo Park. Entry details will be at our booth, and the winner will be announced after the convention at chemsetcomics.com.

“Stop by The Chemistry Set’s table at the New York Comic-Con and you could win a cornucopia of comics, minicomics and zines from every contributor on the site!” said Steven Goldman, writer of Styx Taxi, which appears each Thursday. “From urban fantasy to politics, from autobiography to bear suits, from art comics to crazy papers, you couldn’t get more entertainment without taking one of them home.”

Pennfarthing Press can be found at Booth 659 and here’s what they’re bringing to the show:
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What¹s next on the horizon for Penny-Farthing Press (PFP)? For the very first time, PFP takes a bite out of the Big Apple! Next week, PFP and company will take the city that never sleeps by storm with their inaugural attendance at this year¹s upcoming New York Comic Con. PFP is thrilled to be a part of the fastest growing convention on the East Coast. Along with con exclusives, PFP is excited to showcase three of their newest hardback and trade paperback compilations, as well as offering an ³advance preview² of its newly forthcoming series of comics and graphic novels, including a historical action-adventure story, created and penned by bestselling mystery and fantasy novelist, BARBARA HAMBLY.

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Get your spit curls ready. Oni is sponsoring a contest at New York Comic-Con:

Oni Press is happy to announce a fun event to correspond with Stephen Colbert’s signing at the upcoming New York Comic Con.

We (Oni Press) will be offering prizes for any attendees who come dressed as Stephen Colbert’s galaxy-hero-super-awesome-spectacular-ultra-spy, Tek Jansen.

We’ll have posters illustrated by the amazing John Cassaday and colored by the fantastic Laura Martin to give out.

Not only that, but we’ll be taking pictures and posting them all over the interwebs - well… at least our website.

That’s the Cassaday/Martin cover to STEPHEN COLBERT’S TEK JANSEN #1 above.