This year’s Friends of Lulu Award voting process has been opened to the general public, and we urge everyone to vote. The deadline is May 7th, next Monday and we’ll try to profile a few potential nominees in the next few days.

In an effort to reach out to and recognize an even greater sphere of women creators, Friends of Lulu has decided for the first time ever to open the nominations and voting of our Lulu Awards to non-members! In order to accommodate our new voters, the deadline for nominations has been extended through May 7th, 2007!

In case you’re new to Friends of Lulu, our annual Lulu Awards bring honor and recognition to the most inspiring and noteworthy women in the comic book industry, as well as the efforts, achievements, and works that reflect Friends of Lulu’s goals. It’s up to you, Lulu members, to make the nominations and to vote for this year’s shining stars!
Nominations for the Awards are made by and voted on by current members of Friends of Lulu. The Lulu Awards are handed out during our evening awards ceremony at Comic-Con International in San Diego each year. (It’s always a blast!)

Start thinking about who you want to nominate for this year’s awards.The Women Cartoonists Hall of Fame nominees must have published work, whether self-published, company-published, or web-published. An individual cannot win more than once.
Past winners include: Roberta Gregory, Naughty Bits, Artistic Licentiousness - 2006; Rumiko Takahashi - 2005; Lynda Barry - 2004; Wendy Pini - 2003; Lynn Johnston - 2002; Trina Robbins, Hilda Terry (tie) – 2001; Marge Henderson Buell - 2000; Ramona Fradon - 1999; Dale Messick - 1998; Marie Severin - 1997.

The Women of Distinction award is designed to recognize those women who have made considerable contributions to the comics industry in non-creator roles like publishing, editing, reporting or retailing. Past winners include: Diana Schutz, Editor, Dark Horse - 2006; Heidi MacDonald - 2005; Maggie Thompson - 2004

The Lulu of the Year Award honors the creator(s), book or other project whose work best exemplifies Friends of Lulu’s mission.
Past winners include: SCHOLASTIC/GRAPHIX, Publisher: Babysitters Club, Queen Bee, Breaking Up - 2006; Shaenon Garrity, Girlamatic.com, Modern Tales; Flight Anthology (tie) - 2005; www.Girlamatic. com, Lea Hernandez, Editor - 2004; Free Comic Book Day, Joe Field, Organizer - 2003; Sequential Tart, Marcia Allass, Editor - 2002; Go Girl!, Trina Robbins and Anne Timmons - 2001; From Girls to Grrlz: A History of Women’s Comics from Teens to Zines, Trina Robbins - 2000; Scary Godmother, Jill Thompson - 1999; Action Girl, Sarah Dyer, Editor - 1998; The Great Women Superheroes, Trina Robbins - 1997.

The Kim Yale Award nominees must have published work, whether self-published, company-published, or web-published. Nominees must be nominated for this category within three years of their first published work. An individual may not be nominated more than twice, and cannot win more than once. The award is named for comics writer Kim Yale, a founding Lulu member who passed away in 1997.
Past winners include: Leigh Dragoon, By the Wayside - 2006; Vera Brosgol (Flight, Hopeless Savages B-Sides) - 2005; Lark Pien (Long Tail Kitty) - 2004, Raina Telgemeier (Take-Out Comics) - 2003; Ashley-Jane Nicholaus (Haven) & Gisèle Legacé (Cool Cat Studio) (tie) - 2002; Anne Timmons (GoGirl!) - 2001; Rachel Hartman (Amy Unbounded) - 2000; Devin Grayson (writer, Catwoman, Black Widow) - 1999; Carla Speed McNeil (Finder) - 1998; Jessica Abel (Artbabe) - 1997.

So here’s the deal. We need you to nominate the people you think should receive the awards this year. Review the nominee requirements, think about who stands out in your mind for each award.

Then go to our online nomination form (http://www.friends-lulu.org/awards06nomform.php) to submit your nominations.
If you don’t have internet access you can send in your nominations via snail mail to:
Lulu Award Nomination 2007
83 Russell St
Suite 3R
Brooklyn, NY 11222
Nominations are due MAY 7, 2007.

Nominate whomever you wish, up to THREE per category, as long as they fit the requirements. If you are able, please include additional information (i.e. publisher, date of publication) about each individual, so we can verify the nomination quicker and easier.

We couldn’t do it without you, so if you are interested in sponsoring the Lulu Awards, please contact the board (board [AT] friends-lulu [DOT] org) for more info.

Vinnie Colletta is a legendary name in comic book circles — legendary because he could be one of the worst inkers in the biz, but kept getting work becuase he was fast and reliable and had some powerful friends — including one time Marvel E-I-C- Jm Shooter. When Shooter left Marvel, Colletta found his employment opportunities considerably lessened, which leads to the letter reproduced at 20th Century Danny Boy:

You are the droppings of the creative world. You were destined to float the cesspool till urine logged and finally sink to the bottom with the rest of the shit but along came Jim Shooter who rolled up his sleeves and rescued you.

He gave you a title, respectability, power and even a credit card that you used and abused. He made you the highest payed Editors in the history of the business. He protected you against all that would tamper with your rights, your power and your pocketbook.

He backed you against all Prima Donna free lancers no matter how big. his pockets were always open to you. No cry of help was too small for him to turn his back on.

As heard in the “Brass: section of the company. “He never asked for anything for himself.always for his men.”

The roof over your head, the clothes on your back, the car you drive and the trinkets you buy for your blind wives and girlfriends you owe to the Pittsburgh kid.

The link contains much more on Colletta and the-then politics of Marvel in the early 80s, including a transcript of a conversation that was probably private, but what the heck after 25 years the Freedom of Information act applies.

The blog link in question also links to Christopher Priest’s thoughts on his more or less contemporaneous time at Marvel editing the Spider-man line, a time which was not a happy one for him. Priest doesn’t like pullquotes, but it’s worth reading as well.

We’d all like to be heroes of our own stories, and it’s hard to tell the story of when you were a chimp.

We found this press release to be of some interest: more info on Marvel’s new line of “Classic Comics.” including The Last of the Mohicans, Treasure Island and The Man in the Iron Mask. Marvel has been beefing up their bookstore offering with stuff like pacting with Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Larell K. Hamilton and George R. R. Martin, but this initiative is clearly aimed at the book market as well. The books will be released initially as 6-issue pamphlet mini-series. (Click for larger images of the covers, above.)

Because you demanded it! Retailers and fans have demanded that Marvel bring some of the most timeless, enduring novels to life in comic book form and we’re happy to oblige with Marvel Illustrated, the House of Idea’s new line featuring the best of classic literature as adapted by industry legend Roy Thomas & a slew of talented artists. Over the summer, fans of all ages will be able to thrill to such tales as The Last Of The Mohicans, Treasure Island, Man In The Iron Mask and more, as Marvel provides the most in depth graphic literature adaptations of these stories to date. Adapted in six full length issues, each limited series re-telling of these renowned tales will stay true to the source material while presenting each story in our unique mighty Marvel style.

Beginning with May’s Marvel Illustrated: The Last Of The Mohicans, featuring the lush art of Marvel newcomer Steve Kurth and Denis Medri, James Fennimore Cooper’s 1826 novel is considered by many to be one of the great American novels. Exploring one of the most crucial periods in United States history, The Last Of The Mohicans explores the tensions between British colonists and the dwindling Native American population, all in the wild wilderness of the “New World.” Each issue will also feature special backup tales about series protagonist Hawkeye, an American who remains the mold for the definition of the word “hero.”

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§ The LA Times looks at the rising sales for novels based on manga. Already a huge category in Japan, the novels are catching on the US as well.

The practice of adapting stories from manga and animation to prose has been growing in Japan. As Roland Kelts, the author of “Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the U.S.,” put it, “What’s happening in Japan is that the shift from novelists to manga writers has gone backwards. Now you have established manga writers writing novels and publishing imprints capitalizing on this trend.”

§ the Detroit Free Press profiles Erin D. Russell who recently won the 2006 Charles M. Schulz Award for college cartooning, which comes with a $10,000 grant. Russell’s strip JADED JOY ran for two years in her college paper.

“When I was in high school, I worked for my high school paper, and I asked if they were interested in me drawing and they said yes. I did editorial cartoons. That’s how I started my career.”

She has studied art, cartooning, anime, metalsmithing and Japanese art, and toyed with the idea of becoming a video game designer because she loves gaming. Her current favorite is “Super Smash Bros.”

§ Literacy News looks at Phil Yeh’s latest literary tour , which will bring him to the BEA from June 1-3.

At this year’s BookExpoAmerica, booth #101, the two cartoonists Phil Yeh and Phil Ortiz will debut the 14th issue of Yeh’s Winged Tiger magazine which also features brand-new character creations from Ortiz, and an interview with Academy Award winning animator John Canemaker about Winsor McCay, the genius behind Little Nemo in Slumberland. The magazine is filled with new cartoon features and articles about their global tour. Phil Yeh, Phil Ortiz, and Alex Niño were invited as special guests for for the 3rd annual China Cartoon and Animation Festival in Hangzhou, China, held April 28 through May 4, 2007 and have great plans to expand their work throughout Asia in the coming years.

We missed this story last week about complaints in a New Zealand library over shelving CHOBITS (as identified by Dirk) in the kids section, but it appears things are being worked out with a plan to relocate the teen and graphic novel sections to a different art of the Wanganui library where children won’t have easy access to the materials:

Last week library borrower and part-time teacher Julie Gordon told the Wanganui Chronicle of her concerns that young people could access graphic containing sexually graphic material at the library.

Over the last two years Mrs Gordon had submitted four of the library’s novels to the Office of Film and Literature Classification.

Three of these had received R13 ratings and one had been rated R16.

In a report to the WDC Ms Patrick said she had made a request to the Davis library to relocate its teenage area and the graphic novel collection to an place which was clearly separated from the children’s area in order to “eliminate” future confusion.

In her recommendation to council she said that councillors should agree that the matter would be resolved once the teen area and graphic novels were moved.

§ The first images of Robert Downey as Tony Stark were released last week and according to director Jon Favreau, the oft-troubled star fits the role to a T:

“We didn’t want to just go with a safe choice,” Favreau says from the set of the film, due in theaters May 2, 2008. “The best and worst moments of Robert’s life have been in the public eye. He had to find an inner balance to overcome obstacles that went far beyond his career. That’s Tony Stark. Robert brings a depth that goes beyond a comic-book character who is having trouble in high school, or can’t get the girl. Plus, he’s simply one of the best actors around.”

§ Elsewhere, Downey, who has been hitting the gym five days a week, displays the now-requisite for actors comic book cred:

Downey knows a thing or two about comics. He prefers Marvel to D.C. comics. He liked Iron Man, “but mainly through his appearance with Avengers.” His favorite early heroes, he says, were the relatively obscure Sgt. Rock and Sgt. Fury.

§ It’s SPIDER-MAN week in NYC, and gossip-site TMZ shows Spidey is no flash in the pan! Star Tobey Maguire’s Spidey sense and camera-slapping reflexes are sharp as ever — Electro beware!

§ WHITEOUT is one of the 700 or so comic book movies currently in production and producer Joel Silver had a few things to say:

“I thought 300 would be successful, but I didn’t think it was going to be that big,” Silver says. “I think 2007 is going to be a very healthy time for action pictures, horror movies, genre movies.”

Whiteout stars Kate Beckinsale as Carrie Stetko, “a federal marshall in Antarctica, which is an area composed of scientists and blue collar workers, and that’s it. They never really had any crime there and now there’s murder. And then winter kicks in.

“We shot the out of door stuff on Lake Manitoba, 40 below. Believe me, we didn’t need fake snow out there. They built a set on the shore and we had to land out planes on that frozen lake. You could see the curvature of the earth on that lake, it was such a frozen expanse.”

§ However, the recent shooting at Virginia Tech may have cooled Hollywood’s ardor for extreme youth violence, including a proposed BATTLE ROYALE film based on the violent Japanese video game:

Mr. Lee said that the killings have seriously shaken the prospects for his “Battle Royale,” based on a Japanese video game in which ninth graders imprisoned on an island are forced to kill one another. (Lionsgate’s “The Condemned,” with a similar island face-off premise involving adults, opened this weekend to $4 million.) New Line Cinema has been working since last year for film rights to the game but has yet to sign a deal, according to Mr. Lee.

But he said that he was glad the movie had not started production before the Blacksburg killings. “We would have been slaughtered by the press,” he said.

Asked if he would still be willing to proceed with a “Battle Royale” movie, Mr. Lee said yes, though “we might be a little more sensitive to some of the issues.” A spokeswoman for New Line said she had “no news” about progress on the rights deal.

The LA Times catches up with Frank Miller in a lengthy profile by Geoff Boucher. It seems since the 300 premiere, Miller has been out in Hollywood doing the rounds:

Miller, who is 50, was given a hero’s welcome at the premiere of “300″ in early March and arrived at the glitzy after-party to find movie stars eager to shake his hand. He lingered in town to talk to actors (including one notable “Sin City” star) about key roles in “The Spirit” and found that the hotel bar was a great place to write the screenplay. He’s been soaking in the L.A. scene and taking meetings, among them a giddy visit to the office of Richard Donner, director of the 1978 “Superman” as well as the “Lethal Weapon” films, where Miller tried to soak in some lessons about directing. Donner, though, came from a moviemaking era when Hollywood took an amused and parental approach to comics fare, and while Miller reveres the veteran filmmaker, he also said he will be making movies that are as wild and fire-breathing as the modern graphic novel.

This interview touches on Miller’s changing relationship with Hollywood, upcoming directing turn on THE SPIRIT, controversial political views, and the looming HOLY TERROR, BATMAN, which might be making DC execs squeamish.

The book is still not out, and in the industry there is the general sense that the project has stalled a bit. At the W, though, Miller said about 120 pages of his Batman tale have been drawn and inked and he’s starting in on the “final 50 or so.” He said he plans to finish it even though he senses squeamishness by executives at DC Comics and its parent, Warner Bros. Entertainment, in sending a franchise character on a blood-quest after terrorists. The topic is clearly an uncomfortable one for him, and he gave the impression that the title, the distribution deal and the nature of the project are in flux.

It’s been a while since we checked in on The One True Bruce, but with his cameo in this week’s SPIDER-MAN 3 looming, we thought it was time for an update. The above photo was stolen wholesale from The Bruce Campbell Blog, a very useful resource that we should have been checking far more often. That links us to an interview at IESB.net that includes much talk of MY NAME IS BRUCE, Spidey, and Bruce’s upcoming return to TV via the USA Network series BURN NOTICE, in which Bruce plays the SIDEKICK in an ex-CIA led team of do-gooders. Sidekick??? What the– but it seems Bruce has it all in hand, of course.

IESB: Do sidekicks get more of that chance to be that weird and off beat character?

BC: Absolutely, sidekicks don’t have to bring the medicine back to little Billy. Sidekicks can make horrible mistakes and screw up and go get drunk and whatever they normally do.

The interview has much on the usual topics: Evil Dead 4, Bubba Ho-Tep 2, and a possible NY NAME IS BRUCE 2. (In case you missed it, in this Dark Horse produced film, Campbell plays Bruce Campbell, as actor recruited to save a town from some kind of undead horror.)
MEAnWHILE, MY NAME IS BRUCE writer Mark Verheiden has MORE on MNIS at his blog and it’s shocking news:

* The Bruce Campbell epic MY NAME IS BRUCE will be screened during the Cannes film festival (no, not in competition!) as we continue to plot for a theatrical release.

Cannes! USA! Spider-man! Sounds like Bruce has plenty to keep him busy.

A young artist imagines a manga-ized version of Scooby, but not quite the one you’re thinking of.

Maybe the time has come for this?

[Thanks to Hector for the link]

[TEKKON KINKREET made news both as the adaptation of a respected manga, AND the first Japanese anime film to be written and directed by Americans. It’s currently on a very limited release in the US. Guest reviewer IVAN BRANDON (NYC Mech, 24seven) sent us this review.]

I’ve always said that there are artists out there whose work should probably never be adapted. In most of Vonnegut’s work, for example, the joy of the experience depends largely on his voice.

In the comic book world, if you asked me to make a list of works I’d think were inadaptable in that sense, I’d put Taiyo Matsumoto’s TEKKON KINKURITO (Black and White, in the American printing) high up in the rankings. The world Matsumoto creates in TK is so specific and odd… the subtlety and nuance of his characters is unlike the work of any other creator I’ve read in comics or film. (To me, it’s the holy grail of kid characterization, murderous violence aside.)

That said, the preview footage I’d seen was intriguing, and the other night I went to see the US debut of Japanese STUDIO 4°C’s hand-animated adaptation, called TEKKON KINKREET, and written and directed by first time American film-makers Michael Arias and Anthony Weintraub, respectively.

And to whatever degree the task might be difficult, they take a hell of a crack at it.

The art style is its own animal, but as faithful a recreation of Matsumoto’s art as I think one could want, beyond him drawing every piece himself. Like the book, the visual POV is all over the place, capturing the scope and depth of an enormous and intricate environment from ground and air. The characters retain Matsumoto’s unique visual flair, completely unlike the preconceptions I’ve heard of what manga or anime “look like”, blending European and American influences into something completely new.

The real test, though, for any fan of the source work, is how the characters express themselves beyond their visual construction. This is the area I was most dubious about, and the area in which I was most surprised. There’s no telling what Matsumoto’s characters sound like in his own head… and as in any adaptation, no film’s interpretation will match the version a reader builds while reading it. But 10 minutes in, watching TEKKON KINKREET, I was stunned by how close it was getting to mine.

The movie’s arc is different than the comic version as the demands on Matsumoto in a weekly serial are completely unlike the demands of a 2-hour film. Where the book moves quickly throughout, there are spots the movie drags ever so, although visually there’s never a dull moment. And while the film hold a lot of the comic’s strengths, so too does it hold it’s weaknesses, and while both are enormously entertaining, neither’s a flawless creation.

But all in all the experience of watching the film is spectacular… the world is both bombastic and intimate, the characters nearly as strange and amazing as the first time I encountered them.

I’ve always said that there are artists out there whose work should probably never be adapted. Sometimes I’m happily wrong.

The Tate Britain, currently has a show up on William Hogarth, who is widely claimed by us comical types to have been one of the earliest cartoonists (and one of the greatest ever.) Reader Rob Cave writes to say that the Tate’s magazine has a cover story on comics and their antecedents, which is up at their website. The article is by John Carlin co- curator of the Masters of American Comics show , so if you didn’t like the show or the catalog you may have the same problems with the article, but it does include some tasty Doré prints and some excellent historical context for the earliest roots of comics.

Illustrator Nath Fox is interviewed at Pulp Secret and his work on DMZ #18 for Vertigo is discussed. We’ve been fans of Fox’s visceral illos for some time and it’s great to see him dipping a toe into comics. Attached, page from DNZ and a self-portrait.

Comics Comics #2, the most excellent alt.comix zine by Dan Nadel and T. Hodler is now sold out…but you can download it from their blog:

So if you missed out on getting your own copy (and unfortunately, this one really does work best in its oversize paper form), you can now finally enjoy:

Peter Bagge on Spider-Man!

An interview with PShaw! (He has posted a nice color variation of this issue’s cover on his own site, by the way.)

Part one of a far-too-long essay on Steve Gerber’s cult ’70s Marvel comics (Howard the Duck, Omega the Unknown, etc.)! (By the way, don’t forget to read the article’s accidentally excised footnotes.)

Kevin Nowlan on color separations!

Dan on Dave Sim’s Collected Letters 2004!

And….MORE.

Download it here.

Boing Boing presents its Get Illuminated Podcast episode 8: Comic Art Magazine which interviews publisher Alvin Buenaventura and editor Todd Hignite on the subject of their magazine Comic Art.

Alvin also publishes other books of and about comics — check out the line-up at Buenaventura Press. Hignite is the author of a terrific book called In the Studio, in which he visits well-know cartoonists and interviews them about their process and inspirations.

Beat Street Irregular Maclaine Diemer sends us some links to cool blogs including the illustrators collarborative Sugar Frosted Goodness which includes this Roadside Attraction map by Linzie Hunter and much comics related content.

Maclaine also tipped us off to the Mr Toast site, which includes archives of cereal box concept artwork and so on. They’re GGRRRRRRRReat!

We’re proud to introduce a new feature to our ULTIMATE FIGHTER recaps: expert commentary from Rafael Kayanan. Rafael is a cartoonist of long standing, (check out his work on Conan #39 written by Kurt Busiek, now in stores and his art blog here.) but he is also a technical expert and fight coordinator for movies, with extensive knowledge of fighting techniques, both hand to hand and with edged weapons. He also watches TUF and we’re honored to have him offering his commentary as his schedule allows.

So…on to the fighting!
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Just got a galley of this manga reference guide by Jason Thompson and it instantly vaulted to our must-own, must-have list. It’s an alphabetical listing of over 900 manga titles published in the US, with bibliographical info, commentary and ratings. Plus sidebars on various genres and topics AND guides to yaoi and adult titles, a glossary and much more. YOWEE! Writing about manga in America just got easier!*

*Actually the book doesn’t go on sale until July, but we couldn’t contain our excitement.cherry busting pornporn coed cherryporn lane star cherryporn popped cherrycherry porncherry porn rose starchery jul pornocoed porn cheryy Map

A common topic amongst comics pundits is how Marvel and DC flood racks with tie-ins and sequels and prequels and so on. Well, it seems Viz is taking a page from that playbook, but this time with the #1 comic around the world, the mighty, unstoppable Naruto. Viz will be releasing THREE new Naruto books a month from September to December. The move allows the American releases to catch up to the Japanese schedule. The move will be accompanied by a significant marketing campaign.

More from the PR:

The new publishing schedule will carry the series up to Volume 27, after which there is a significant break in the story arc: Two and a half years pass, and we find Naruto taller, older, and wiser. To support NARUTO NATION, VIZ Media’s SHONEN JUMP magazine will continue to serialize the NARUTO series, will provide in-depth background information for fans about the developments in the accelerated manga, and will begin to feature the new adventures of the older Naruto beginning in the January 2008 issue (estimated in stores December 4, 2007).

The specific manga release schedule is as follows:

September 2007: NARUTO Vols. 16-18
October 2007: NARUTO Vols. 19-21
November 2007: NARUTO Vols. 22-24
December 2007: NARUTO Vols. 25-27

Complementing the increased manga momentum, VIZ Media will expand the catalog of other related NARUTO offerings with a variety of releases this fall and winter. September will see the release of the NARUTO ANIME PROFILES: Hiden Shippu Emaki, and the launch of the full-color Ani-Manga series that will depict the storyline of NARUTO THE MOVIE: NINJA CLASH IN THE LAND OF SNOW, which is also set for a special theatrical engagement this summer. In October VIZ Media will publish a gorgeous UZUMAKI: ART OF NARUTO edition that will be a must-have for any collector and also NARUTO MISSION: PROTECT THE WATERFALL VILLAGE!, the latest addition to the collection of NARUTO novels under the VIZ Fiction imprint. A fourth edition of the NARUTO COLLECTOR magazine will be released this fall, focusing on the manga and on the release of the first NARUTO game for the Xbox 360.

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Wired Magazine has the incredible comics tie-in story of the week one that defies an any link summary. But we’ll try. It seems that back in 1979 when Iran took personnel at the American embassy hostage, six of them escaped to hide out in Tehran. The CIA launched an effort to rescue them and decided the perfect cover would be…location scouting for a sci-fi epic based on a Roger Zelazny book with concept art by…Jack Kirby.

All they needed now was a film — and Chambers had the perfect script. Months before, he had received a call from a would-be producer named Barry Geller. Geller had purchased the rights to Roger Zelazny’s science fiction novel, Lord of Light, written his own treatment, raised a few million dollars in starting capital from wealthy investors, and hired Jack Kirby, the famous comic book artist who cocreated X-Men, to do concept drawings. Along the way, Geller imagined a Colorado theme park based on Kirby’s set designs that would be called Science Fiction Land; it would include a 300-foot-tall Ferris wheel, voice-operated mag-lev cars, a “planetary control room” staffed by robots, and a heated dome almost twice as tall as the Empire State Building. Geller had announced his grand plan in November at a press conference attended by Jack Kirby, former football star and prospective cast member Rosey Grier, and several people dressed like visitors from the future. Shortly thereafter, Geller’s second-in-command was arrested for embezzling production funds, and the Lord of Light film project evaporated.

Stranger than fiction indeed. The illo above is from Wired’s storyboard style coverage and is by Tim Burgard.

Speaking of magazine and blogs and whatnot, everyone has linked to this piece n cartoonist Daryl Cagle’s weblog wher ehe lays out the challenges facing old media (print, newwspapers) very succinctly, Short version: there is no magic solution.

Newspapers continue to pin their hopes on their Web sites in the belief that their brands carry goodwill into a new medium, when in fact, newspaper brands have little value on the Web. The three most popular news sites on the Web-Yahoo News, CNN and MSNBC.com-dominate the audience, with other news sites trailing far behind. The reason why is simple, each is attached to a huge audience (Yahoo, AOL and MSN.com) which feeds readers into these sites.

My own cartoon site is associated with MSNBC.com, which gets its traffic from MSN.com, which gets most of its traffic from the famous MSN.com home page, the default home page for PC buyers using the Internet Explorer browser, who don’t bother to change their home page. Yahoo and Google channel their huge search engine audiences into their news sites. The trick to finding a big audience on the Web is to bring your site to the audience, not to expect the audience to find your site.

We hear this blogging thing is BIG, and so has New York Magazine, apparently. We also hear COMICS are big, and so has NY mag. They’ve launched Vulture an entertainment blog that covers everything the urbane New Yorker would be interested in, like Alec Baldwin* and the death of Jack Valenti. Dan Kois, who covers comics for Slate mag, is involved with Vulture and he tells is that they will be featuring comics coverage right along side the other stuff. Writes Dan:

One thing I’m very proud about is our daily comics excerpt. Each week we choose one creator and highlight their work every day. This week it’s Sarah Mensinga, from FLIGHT 4; next week it’ll be something else new and exciting.

Nice. This kind of unapologetic, unforced integration of comics coverage into mainstream media is the kind of “Milk Board” promo that people have been wishing for for years.

You can see the Comics Page here.
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Wow, we’ve already received a few emails telling us a LOT is going on! Holy hand grenade, true believer, there’s a MIGHTY MARVEL SUMMIT going on this week! And there are spies there who are giving us super deep cover intel at the Marvel Blog! Does Ike know about this? Heads will roll!

3:00
Wait…wasn’t my last post at 10:45??
Yes. Yes, it was. What’s gong on in the last four hours?

There was a business-y presentation. I’ll say, we’re rockin’ and rollin’ right now.

Then the good folks at Hasbro showed some awesomely cool toys and got in everybody’s head. Look for some sweet toys in the coming months.

That brought us right into lunch–meat and potatoes! Yum.

At about 12:30, I veered off from the main group and took part in some very cool stuff with Quesada, Brubaker, Pak, Slott, JMS and Loeb. Can’t really talk about it right now, but you’ll be seeing some of that stuff very soon.

3:20
Back to some of the super big stuff and character questions.

I stepped back into the meeting room for a bit and caught the last leg of everyone voting on something. A character’s fate, dangling on the precipice of a few votes. I think it’ll work out, though.

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It seems that David Goyer, the man with a finger in many a comic book movie pie, has been signed to direct the upcoming MAGNETO movie:

After the first three “X-Men” films grossed more than $1 billion worldwide, Fox and Marvel hatched the spinoff program. “Magneto” will be the second such movie to go into production. First up is “Wolverine,” a David Benioff-scripted film that will star Hugh Jackman as the steel-clawed mutant; Fox and Marvel will set a director shortly on that pic.

Goyer will develop a “Magneto” script that was written by Sheldon Turner.

Ian McKellen will be involved but since the story is a flashback, he won’t be involved that much, which is a shame, because we would watch a movie of Ian McKellen as Magneto just sitting in a tree reading the phone book. Not many others would, though. The film will deal with Magneto’s Holocaust-era origins.

§ Bestselling author Jodi Picoult’s run on Wonder Woman continues to get press, including this piece at CNN.com:

“My kids looked at me and they were like, ‘Mom, you totally have to write ‘Wonder Woman!’ ” she told USA Today. (Gallery: Wonder Woman and Picoult)

So Picoult rearranged elements of her hectic work schedule and dove into research. (She admits to not being much of a “Wonder Woman” fan growing up — “X-Men” was more her speed.) Looking back on the character’s six decades in comics, Picoult found the story focused more on Wonder Woman’s exploits as a superhero and less on the life of her alter ego, Diana Prince.

That angle baffled her. Diana Prince is a far more interesting character, she says, and offers plenty to work with.

§ DC Group Editor Peter Tomasi has left his day job and gone exclusive with DC to pursue his writing career. Always highly regarded as both a writer and editor, Tomasi has sold a screenplay and has many comics projects in the hopper:

“It’s titled Black Adam: The Dark Age and it picks up right where 52 left off and leads into the start of Countdown. It’s being drawn by Doug Mahnke, inked by Christian Alamy and edited by Mike Siglain. The pages that have come in are pretty damn spectacular! It follows Adam in Kahndaq and around the rest of the globe as he searches for the magical word he lost in 52.”

And after that? Where will Tomasi show up next at DC?

“Honestly, I’m interested in everything here. There’s a great stable of characters at DC that I would love to write. I’ve edited quite a wide variety of books in my tenure here, so I’m looking forward to casting my net pretty wide and tackling established characters along with developing new properties. No reason to limit myself at this juncture when so many doors are open.

§ Also over at Newsarama, Kazu Kibuishi announces a “Flight light” for kids. FLIGHT EXPLORER will be out from Ballantine in Spring 2008 and will include strips like “Jellaby” by Kean Soo, “Missile Mouse” by Jake Parker, “Zita the Spacegirl” by Ben Hatke, Steve Hamaker’s “Fish N Chips”, Johane Matte’s cat story, Phil Craven’s “N” and an unpublished “Copper”story.

Newsarama: So, at what point did the idea for Flight Explorer come into the picture?

Kazu Kibuishi: I had been hearing a lot of librarians and booksellers talk about how much they wanted good comics for younger readers, and I saw how there was so little of it out there with the exception of Jeff Smith’s Bone. Flight always contained a high percentage of material that would be perfect for young readers, but the more mature content often steered parents and librarians away from sharing the books with kids. A few of the Flight artists are also parents, and I could often feel their desire to be a part of a book that was more appropriate for their children, and the voices in their own stories reflected that. On top of this, I could feel that for some of the artists, the kid-friendly material was starting to impinge on their desire to tread more into the older kids’ fare, and the last thing I wanted was for artists to feel that they had to write for younger audiences and not for themselves. I mean, really, I think that it’s just when you have kids, your kids become that self that you write for.

When Flight 4 came together, we ended up with more material than we expected and all of it was of the highest caliber work we’ve seen so far. We overshot the expected page count by 80 pages. People often told us that we should just hold extra material back for the next volume, but knowing that we’ll have even more material on top of that when the deadline for the next one comes around (as well as the fact that the artists would like to be included in the most current volume), I decided I needed to come up with a different solution. And since I still didn’t feel we were ready to raise the frequency of publication, I decided it would be a good idea to create a new kids’ version of Flight.

§ Ah exhibit on African-American contributions to comics at Jackson State U in Mississippi shows that Comic books have become hot again thanks to the successes of NBC’s ‘Heroes,’ the Spider-Man films and the revived Superman and Batman franchises.:

The exhibition ‘Other Heroes: African-American comics, creators, characters and archetypes’ focuses on topics such as the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Hurricane Katrina and racial stereotypes.

‘The show really wants to focus on racial representations through that particular medium,’ said John Jennings, co-curator of the exhibit, which runs through the end of June at the historically black university. He curated the exhibit with comic book partner Damien Duffy. Jennings said he is talking to other universities about having the exhibit tour.

Some images have been taken out of the comic setting, enlarged and mounted on gallery walls in the university’s art building. More than 50 artists contributed to the exhibit including some selections by Denys Cowan, artist for ‘Hardware,’ which depicts a man who turns high-tech vigilante to stop his employer, who has links to organized crime and drugs.

‘I think people are going to be surprised at the mastery of the storytelling,’ said Jennings, who describes the works as anti-mainstream and trying to break misconceptions.

Did you know they were cartooning classmates? Neither did we. Wonder what they talked about — if they ever did.

There was a handful of artists and we had a really big comics page for a college paper because it’s the second biggest college in the country and they have a great paper. Berke Breathed came out of there. He graduated from UT, and everyone wanted to be the next Berke Breathed. I wanted to be like Berkeley because his comic Bloom County was still running in our local paper, but syndicated. They would run it because he was a former student there. So that was our inspiration, but what a lot of people don’t know, the first four or five books that Chris put out, those were all the things that he’d done in college. That was his college work and it was so great. He would come in with these huge boards and he made all of us better artists because we had to be on the same page and he was just head and shoulders above all of us. Right around the time my art was getting a little better actually, I did [the movie “El] Mariachi” and got into moviemaking. His stuff was amazing. When I saw his first few books, it was like, “Yeah. That’s good.” He was already doing world-class work in college.