Starting in September, you will be able to purchase DKNY jackets, hoodies and tees emblazoned with the art of Paul Pope in the 2089 line. We sincerely hope that these will be in sizes that people larger than Paul Pope can wear.

DKNY Jeans announces today a new collection co-designed by famed graphic novelist Paul Pope called 2089. The line fuses the world of comics and fashion by creating a cohesive narrative which emerges through prints and graphics on clothing to create a truly unique application of this art form.

The scene is New York City, circa 2089, 100 years from the date of DKNY’s creation. The story, like much of Pope’s influential work, sets a futuristic love story against the collision of nature and industry. The prints are updated camouflage, and the graphics on tees, jackets and hoodies melds sci-fi with the prehistoric.

DKNY Jeans president Kevin Monogue says, “Working with an exciting artist like Paul on something so unique to the market keeps DKNY Jeans connected to our consumer’s interests and also allows us to offer him innovative products and ideas. Identifying two mediums that have similar aesthetics and developing ways to meld them is part of the DNA of the DKNY Jeans brand. We are really excited about 2089.”

Paul Pope is equally enthused, “I see this line as a way of stealing Pop back from Warhol. We’ve seen comics endlessly pillaged in the high art world and adapted to film, for better or worse. We’ve seen comics images quoted in fashion and copied in street art. Comics has a cultural currency all its own. But this is maybe the first time an actual cartoonist has been given the chance to launch his own brand, to build it from concept on up, to do it within the bounds of an established label such as DKNY Jeans. “

The 15 piece collection is comprised of jackets, hoodies, pants and tee shirts, which tell different segments of the story. The graphics on the pieces vary from all over prints to one statement piece, to a new take on camouflage. The line retails from $32 for tees, to $145 for a military jacket. They will be sold in Department stores across the country beginning September 2008.

The Web Cartoonists’ Choice Awards were announced yesterday and you should just go to the link becayse it has links to all he nominated comics, and they deserve a click-through if you’ve never checked them out. Girl Genius by Phil and Kaja Foglio won many awards, including “Outstanding Comic.” Lackadaisy by Tracy J. Butler won several awards as well.

Because we get bored, and because The Beat can never be good enough, don’t say we never turn to YOU our harshest critics and dearest supporters. What do you want to see more of? What do you want to see less of? Don’t say typos, because we all hate those and we’re working on it.

The reality is, here at Stately Beat Manor we’re being increasingly called on to help with behind the scenes matters everywhere. Yes, The Beat is an much-indemand consultant for many organization and events: Monkeys for Burundi, for instance, and the 119th Annual Cheese Carving contest over in Bird-in-Hand, PA. As we’re called on more and more, we must use our precious precious minutes to their utmost.

In all honesty, there is just too much going on to keep track of any more! Whereas once we could hit the major news in manga, webcomics, indies, publishing, movies, superheroes and Bruce Campbell with some sense of comprehensiveness, now there is so much going on on a daily basis it makes everyone’s head spin. We still try to hit the high points, but people’s interpretations of the same will vary widely. Should we fine tune, or just continue to spray buckshot like Dick Cheney at a duck hunting tourney? Oh noes! Head spinning again!

by Paul O’Brien

Yes, I know it’s March. But as you may know, the original version of the January charts was way, way off - so crazily haywire that we looked through them and decided not to bother. But then Diamond recalculated, and this version actually makes sense. So here we go.

Marvel had two major projects for January - the new HULK series, and the relaunch of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN as a thrice-monthly title. Elsewhere, “Messiah Complex” continues in the X-books, the Young Avengers are back, and there’s somebody new in the Captain America costume.

Once again, Marvel comfortably beat DC in terms of their share of the direct market. In units, it’s 44% to 31% - in dollars, 41% to 29%. Bit of a thumping, really.

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

1.  HULK
01/08  Hulk #1 - 134,002

Officially, this is a whole new HULK series. However, at the same time, Marvel insist that the previous INCREDIBLE HULK series has been permanently reassigned to Hercules. So actually, this is a continuation of INCREDIBLE HULK, and Marvel have taken the odd decision to launch a new monthly Hercules title through the back door. We’ll see how that worked out later on.

INCREDIBLE HULK peaked at 120K during the “World War Hulk” crossover, so this is a good start for the new creative team of Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness. Bear in mind that until the last year or so, INCREDIBLE HULK consistently sold below 50,000, so Marvel’s focus on the character has really paid dividends.
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kettering memorial sloan

Lithium-Ion batteries are sometimes used, as they are lighter and do not have loan donald money trump grant or depression that nickel metal-hydride batteries do.

Jeff Smith’s BONE has been picked up for development by Dan Lin, who is also working on the JUSTICE LEAGUE movie. This paragraph should tell you all you need to know:

Deal is a mid-six-figure option against seven figures for purchase. Property, described as Bugs Bunny meets “The Lord of the Rings,” likely will be developed as a CG toon for a broad family aud, but could turn into a live-action pic, depending on the director it eventually attracts.

Interestingly, BONE was long in development back in the ’90s as a big animated feature at Nickelodeon until Smith pulled the plug because of the changes the studio wanted to make. Since then Smith has been adamant about not wanting to try another film unless he felt it could be true to the book. Has that time come? Interestingly, in the 10 or so years since Bone was last at a studio, the importance of sticking to the spirit of the original as a way to make a successful film has been proven over and over again, from SPIDER-MAN to 300. WATCHMEN aside, it would be hard to make a comic book movie with the creator (especially one as engaged as Smith) sitting on the sidelines.

Another narrative-defining profile, this time Paul Pope’s many media forays are profiled in the Wall Street Journal, with an emphasis on his work in the fashion world for Diesel and DKNY:

Though he’s working with some of DKNY Jeans’ top people, Mr. Pope has never before designed clothes. His 12-year-old nephew jokes that Mr. Pope is a superhero “because I always wear the same thing,” Mr. Pope says. At his favorite Italian bar downtown, he admits that Diesel gave him lots of free clothing. “I don’t even know how much this costs,” he says, pointing at his jacket.

We expect the following paragraph to be the most quoted:

He’s a striking contrast to the image of the awkward, unhip comic artist epitomized by Robert Crumb and Harvey Pekar. One of his former editors remembers meeting a young Mr. Pope at a comic conference 10 years ago with a torn T-shirt and a bare midriff. His first major graphic novel “Heavy Liquid” featured a fictional buyer’s guide with price breakdowns for the items that the characters sported. “I don’t think I made the clothes expensive enough,” says Mr. Pope, chuckling.

There’s also a video, which, if we aren’t complete idiots, is embedded above.

SNAKED, a mini series by Clifford Meth and Rufus Dayglo, published by IDW, is the latest comic to get an option, with producer Richard Saperstein (1408, Rob Zombie’s Halloween, The Mist, John Q, The Punisher, Frequency, and Se7en) developing the property. Ted Adams and Meth will exec produce, and Meth will pen the screenplay.

Based on an original story by Mr. Meth, whom Barnes & Noble calls “one of dark fiction’s best kept secrets,” SNAKED is a horror-noir that follows the personal and political exploits of a government employee with supernatural, snake-like abilities. First illustrated by Dave Cockrum (co-creator of X -Men), SNAKED has featured cover art by Ashley Wood and illustrations by Rufus Dayglo.

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This profile of Marvel Studios in the LA Times will probably frame the narrative for a long time:

Feige’s boss and friend, David Maisel, chairman of Marvel Studios, is pleased to be standing on the deck of a ship that can go in deep water. “We’re the first since DreamWorks started 14 years ago that can greenlight its own $100 million movies. It doesn’t happen very often.” True, though Marvel is not a studio in the most traditional sense (it has fewer than three dozen employees, no lot, and it will turn to Paramount Pictures as its primary distribution pipeline.)

While Marvel’s movie making set-up is indeed a startling and bold one for a comic book company, it also ran into some trouble due to the writer’s strike. Their initial funding called for five movies in five years, but a dry 2009 could set back the schedule a bit. There’s also the matter of whether all the good characters are taken:

It’s fair to wonder if Marvel already rented out its best properties to others. That view is supported by the fact that the studio’s second film will be a do-over of sorts — Ang Lee’s dour “Hulk” was released by Universal in 2003 and didn’t energize audiences or critics (its second week U.S. box office plummeted 70%). The studio has also announced Edgar Wright (”Shaun of the Dead”) will direct “Ant-Man,” a character that dates to 1962 but has gnat-sized name recognition with the public.

For a company that still nickel and dimes such standard marketing procedures for publishing as going to conventions and sending out review copies, starting a movie studio seems like an odd gamble, but realistically, the payout on a movie is a lot more than selling a few pamphlets. And when you look at the track record of Marvel’s movies — everything except ELEKTRA has been very profitable when DVDs and foreign box office are taken into account — maybe they can put Ant-Man and Deathlok on the map. IRON MAN’s buzz is all good, so maybe the gamble could pay-off.

This Tuesday, 3/11 we’ll once again be guests on The Comic Book Club, the weekly talk show about comics. This time we’ll be part of a “State of the Industry Summit” along with Kiel Phegley, John DiBello and Brian Heater. Brian’s announcement of the gig is actually way funnier than anything we could write, but it is always good fun to gchat with Alex, Justin and Pete, and you should some down if you’re in the nabe, or even if you’re somewhat nearby, say on the Eastern Seaboard.

The show starts at 8 and takes place at The Peoples Improv Theater, 154 West 29th Street. Admission is only $5. Cheep!

We’re a little bit recovered from the week’s dizzying array of New York-cenetered events. Wednesday was Philippe Dupuy and Charles Berberian at Housing Works, moderated by Matt Madden. You can read Madden’s report here. Also recap by Kiel Phegley. We arrived a little latish (but still well before 7:00) and the place was already PACKED. The woman from Worlds Without Borders said it was the biggest crowd they had had for ANY of their events and a producer from NPR was there talking to people–graphic novels are hot!

We already linked to Isaac Cates excellent write up. It was a charming and discursive evening — the focus was not on craft question but more Dupuy and Berberian’s feelings about their work and their working process. We snapped a few photos but weren’t very close to the action. Above you can see (l-r) Madden, Dupuy and Berberian, with the NPR guy in the foreground. Here’s one more.

The crowd was a who’s who of the comics scene. Nick Bertozzi had brought his class from SVA. We ran into our former intern, Cindy Arias, who is much missed, as the ongoing lack of an events calendar here proves. Baby Aldara Madden was on hand. We also saw David Mazzucchelli whose Asterios Polyp will surely be one of the most talked-about graphic novels of 2008. However, Mazzucchelli will not be the one doing the talking, as its been announced that he will be doing no press for the book. Other luminaries spotted: Bob Sikoryak, a bunch of folks from Act-i-vate and Studio Deep Six, PWCW’s Ada Price, Jessica Abel and lots lots lots more. There were even people we didn’t know, new or returning recruits to the Dupuy/Berberian army, hopefully.

THURSDAY, we were off to the Friar’s Club for a “bookwarming” for Drew Friedman’s More Old Jewish Comedians. . Brian Heater already has a fabulous write-up with great photos from the event.

The Friar’s Club, in case you don’t know, is a private club for comedians and old timey Catskill schtickmeisters. The Friars Club Roasts are show business legends, with everyone from Sammy Davis Jr. to Milton Berle to Roger Grimsby having been the targets over the years. Okay Roger Grimsby was a local New York newscaster not a comedian, but the Friars Club is as old New York as you can get, a monument to the days when business was conducted over a cigar and whiskey and not Facebook and Twitter.

Given our love of timeless comedy and Rat Pack-era glamour, we were thrilled to be invited to this shindig. As is our wont, we arrived a bit late, and festivities were already under way, just in time to hear Mickey Freeman finishing up the joke with the punchline “Just enough to win!” This was followed by the joke with the punchline “Doctor, am I getting stronger?” Freeman also mentioned someone who was “so eager to join the Friar’s Club that he had prostrate surgery.”

The Beat was majorly overcome to be in the same room with Jerry Stiller, Larry Storch and…JOE FRANKLIN. “JF!” as fans of the Uncle Floyd Show will recall. Others in attendance, ubiquitous Bob Sikoryak and wife choreographer Kriota Wilberg, Gilbert Gottfried, Len Cariou (The original Sweeney Todd), Kaz, the Royal Flush magazine crew, and Michael Kupperman. We chided Kupperman on the non-appearance of a new issue of Tales Designed to Thrizzle, but he explained he has been busy finishing up an animation project which we aren’t allowed to talk about but it sounds great. We also heard that the next issue of MAD magazine is going to be an ALL-MONKEY issue, so that will be of some interest to our regular readers.

Our camera was kiboshed for the night by low batteries, but we snapped one or two. We can also add that the pigs in blankets at the Friars Club were, for some reason, the best we ever tasted.

Stiller and Friedman

Charles Brownstein, Brian Heater and Nikki Cook converse beneath the Friar logo. Mark Newgarden in the BG.

Note: Friedman and Larry Gelbart will be appearing at Skylight Books in LA on March 29th.

FRIDAY NIGHT it was pouring rain, but we still managed to make it out to Brooklyn to Rocketship for the Leah Hayes party. We hadn’t been there since the still-ongoing remodeling; although the store is a bit narrower it has been redone in a very pleasing way, and the left over show-store slat walls are mostly gone, too. On hand, the usual gang including Brian Heater, Jah Furry, Dash Shaw, who is newly relocated back in New York and Julia Wertz, Above, Hayes poses in the well-stocked store. Our camera still not working, so no more pictures.

As a reminder, we’re always looking for pictures of comics related events. SEND US YOUR LINKS!

Could there BE a cooler comics event?:

You’re all invited to join a stellar group of accomplished cartoonists in the “Friends of the Nib Comics Jam” at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery this Saturday, March 8 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM. Celebrated cartoonist and visual artist Jim Woodring will preside over the activities, which will include a guest appearance by New York underground comix legend Kim Deitch. Aspiring cartoonists of all ages are encouraged to participate in this lively session, which will include a rare screening of Deitch’s 1960 short film “Dial M for Monster.”

Juliet’s romantic history is not to the only Shakespeare connection in this week’s episode. More after the jump.
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We’re happy to report that the Jess Fink vs Hot Topic brouhaha has been ended with a satisfying and righteous conclusion:

“I would like to first and foremost, appologize for this situation. It is very important to us to support artists and their ventures and it just makes my stomach turn when something like this happens. We in NO way would have written this artwork if we had known it was someone else’s design. We work with many vendors that sell us “generic” artwork and we put our faith in those vendors to not sell us stolen or immulated artwork.”

On top of this she offered that they would like to buy some of my designs.

Also from what she said I have a feeling no one is going to be buying anything from “NewBreedGirl” for a long time.

I don’t know if I will in fact do the designs for Hot Topic or not yet, but all I really wanted in the first place was for the shirt to not be sold and so I think I am satisfied with how this all turned out, and that I didn’t have to take it to court.

I hope this isn’t an anti-climactic ending for anyone, I am not going to blow up Hot Topic with a rocket gun or brake any one’s neck bones, but I think I am happy with it.

In yet another happy turn of events, Rachel Nabors has had a very successful fundraising to finance the extensive dental work she needs:

It’s official. We’ve raised at least $5,000 toward my jaw surgery! Let’s see, that either covers the braces or half of the surgery (provided it doesn’t involve widening the roof of my mouth). Last I checked tonight, we were at $5,588.04 USD. I still need to use part of that for shirts, but we’re over five grand! Wooooo!!! Check out that bar graph!

IDW has hired a new editor named Denton J. Tipton to assist Chris Ryall. We also expect he will fill the void left by the departure of Ryder Windham from the editorial ranks long ago, and no, we can’t explain that joke either.

Denton J. Tipton, a journalist and former comics retailer, is the new Editor at IDW Publishing. He will be assisting IDW’s Publisher/Editor-In-Chief Chris Ryall with a variety of editing tasks, including overseeing the Transformers line of books and other projects yet to be announced.

Denton Tipton spent the past seven years in the field of journalism, most recently as an editor at the San Diego Union-Tribune. A longtime comics connoisseur, Denton has seen the industry from many sides, having been a fan, retailer, writer, and now an editor.

“It seems that my entire life has been leading up to this moment,” says Tipton. “My years in comics, as both a hobby and a business, and my career in journalism, have given me the insight and professional tools needed to be a successful comic book editor.

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Once in a while we have to just state the obvious…The Beat is beat. We’re tuckered, knackered, all in…however you like to put it. We’re only human and something has to give. And that something is staying up all night to write this, like we usually do. So…we’re regrouping, recouping and drinking fluids.

We will have our reports on the Dupuy and Berberian and Drew Friedman events up later (with photos) but in the meantime you can read about the former here at Satisfactory Comics and the later here, in an excellent post by Brian Heater which really needs little amplification.

In the meantime…WHEN ARE THEY GOING TO ANNOUNCE THE 3G IPHONE SO WE CAN GET ONE? WHEN WHEN WHEN???

We think you will want to read this Kare Kare comic by Andrew Drilon at The Chemistry Set. Let’s just say it updates the “Incredible Journey” story for cryptozoologists.

The Macomb Daily continues its in-depth coverage of the Michael George trail. The latest testimony came from Theresa Danieluk, a friend of accused killer George who claims that after the death of his wife, he made advances to her and also made disparaging remarks about his dead wife, calling her “unattractive” and “heavy.”

“You look very, very very pretty today. Thanks for coming in. Sincerely, Michael,” says the note penned on Comic World stationery, which included the store telephone number. Danieluk read the note in court under questioning by assistant Macomb prosecutor Steven Kaplan.

Danieluk, who said she was engaged at the time to the man who is now her husband, said she never called him. But he called her, making comments such as, “I saw you today, you looked pretty today,” while talking to her and leaving recorded messages, she said.

In other testimony, long time friends of George reported that he had turned down their offer of posting a reward for finding the killer.

In a promo for their new ICv2 Guide #52: Graphic Novels ICv2 offers a few stats:

…the number of graphic novels released in the North American market in 2007 was 3,314, a 19% increase over the 2,785 volumes published in 2006. All indications are that the tsunami of graphic novels will only increase in 2008, further fueling the competition for shelf space in bookstores and comic shops that one longtime graphic novel publisher described to ICv2 as ‘brutal.” The number of releases is so high that one direct market retailer admitted that he ordered all but the very top tier of manga titles “like periodicals to sell out quickly, rather than like graphic novels that we intend to keep in stock.”

Are there too many graphic novels? Not enough? Just right? What do you think, Goldilocks?

Haven’t you always wanted a Marvel application for Facebook? Oh, of course you have! Marvel is getting deeper and deeper into this risky internet thing. It’s crazy!

What are you supposed to do with these things, anyway? Apparently our abandoned zombie mogul gets attacked scores of times a day. We just don’t have time to place WoW or Facebook, sadly. Anyway here’s Marvel’s exciting announcement:

On the heels of Marvel Entertainment opening its comic book vault to the masses in November with the launch of its online subscription service Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited, today Marvel announced the launch of its first digital comics application on Facebook Platform, Facebook is the sixth most trafficked website in the United States. Marvel’s first official Facebook application immerses fans in the world of Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited, the home of the greatest collection of Marvel Comics ever assembled online. This new application page will serve as a hub to the Marvel Universe on Facebook.

With the new Digital Comics application, fans can peruse the entire Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited collection—currently numbering more than 3000 comics, read synopses of many of the titles, pick favorites and share thoughts about the books with all of their Facebook friends.

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§ Johanna looks at Voices of Love, a “passionate” josei titles from Luv Luv Press, an imprint of Aurora Publishing

This volume contains five love stories that don’t shy away from nudity and sex scenes. (That explains the Mature 18+ rating.) When I first read them, I thought, “This is just what I’ve been looking for: yaoi, only girl/boy.” Then I realized just what that said about how my brain has been warped by manga expectations. These stories are yaoi-like in that the boys are slender and attractive, but they’re more like Harlequin romance novels in their wish fulfillment of finding rescuing love.

Related: an overview of the josei (manga for older women) market.

§ Beth Davies-Stofka interviews Craig Yoeon his Clean Cartoonists’ Dirty Drawings book :

Well, these nudes were certainly a fun rebellious release for the ink-slingers but, sure, many cartoonists got involved in other “after hours” subjects. For instance Chuck Jones (who’s in the book), visited my home when he did art for my book The Art of Barbie. He was surprised and delighted that I pulled out old copies of a square dancing magazine that he did wonderful illustrations for. He and his first wife were really into square dancing and I’m sure he did the illustrations more for love than money. Though isn’t dancing a vertical expression of a horizontal desire?

§ ‘Doonesbury’ is taking a 12-week break :

“It has been 16 years since Garry Trudeau took an extended leave from ‘Doonesbury,’” said Universal President Lee Salem in a statement. “He has requested another break — well-deserved in my mind — to work on other projects, travel, and regenerate a few creative cells.”

§ This story on Buffy’s new bedmate from an irish gossip rag has the title no one else dared use.

§ Marvel Studios has named former Sony Pictures executive Geoffrey Ammer as president of worldwide marketing.

§ Roling Stone liked the Brub’s Captain America

§ Veteran Wizard watchers will find a line or two amusing in this profile of ROBOT CHICKEN creators Seth Green and Matthew Senreich

“It’s all the jokes you talk about with your friends,” Senreich confirms. “We have a group of people with the same sensibility who sit around the table talking about what we think is funny.” They have a team of 80, scripting, sculpting and minutely manipulating, filming and adapting 120 new toys a week for the rigorous demands of stop-motion animation. After 62 12-minute episodes, they’re preparing to write season four. “It’s light-hearted,” says Green, “but every joke is made with love. There is a degree of reverence (for the characters). There’s never anything mean-spirited, it’s just sort of silly. I think that’s our success: not being mean.”

Is that what it’s like to be an old timer?

“Cured the Black Plague? Why, I remember when I was a kid, we’d pass stacks of bloated, blackened corpses every day…and we LOVED it! Kids today just don’t understand.”

“These so-called horseless carriages are a plague and a nuisance! In my day we enjoyed quiet streets festooned with road apples, not the blare and clatter of these dreadful machines! These kids today just don’t understand!”

“This Philco with a picture tube may be the latest gadget, but I will never give up the imaginative pleasures of my radio dramas!”

And so on. Well now comes yet another body blow to our memories and a kick in the face to one of the great designers of the last century. Via the Re-Imagineering blog comes word that “It’s a Small World,” designed by the great Mary Blair, is to be “updated.”

Unfortunately W.D.I. has taken ill advantage of the downtime by staking out areas throughout the attraction to place a selection of smiling Disney characters to spice up the proceedings. Imagine a grinning Stitch in Hawaii, a demure Belle in Paris, a Peter Pan in London.

And in one of the most egregious and downright disgusting decisions in Disney theme park history, the gorgeous New Guinea rainforest scene, replete with some of Mary Blair’s most whimsical character creations (a crocodile with an umbrella, colorful birds hatching from eggs) and her drummer children with Tiki Masks on the opposite shore will be replaced with a Hooray for U.S.A sequence.

Hooray for the USA, indeed. On our last trip to Disneyland last July we had the chance to go on “Small World” and were, as always, struck by the unstaunchable mid-century stereotypes that viewed the rest of the world through timeless cliches. England must be a guard at Buckingham Palace, “Arabia”, a kid on a magic carpet, and so on.

But damn it, it’s Mary Blair! This isn’t the first time one of her classic works has been tossed aside. In 1998, some beautiful tiles she designed were simply covered over.

In The Art and Flair of Mary Blair, John Canemaker wrote,

The Tomorrowland murals were not truly permanent: both “disappeared” when they were covered over by renovations in 1987 and 1998. “Mary Blair’s murals were not damaged or painted on,” [longtime Imagineering executive] Marty Sklar notes, “but the decision was made for cost reasons to leave them in place—hidden treasures at Disneyland!”

Other accounts are less optimistic. At least one person owns a chunk of the south mural. And if cost was such an issue, how much care was taken to protect the Mary Blair murals when subsequent murals were installed?

You may think “It’s a Small World” is a joke, but to those who are fans of Blair’s amazing color design and whimsy, this is a sad sad day indeed. PLUS, as the above link points out, the ride was about LEAVING the US, not saying “Hooray” for it.

First Pirates of the Caribbean, now this. Pretty soon it will be Sleeping Beauty’s Magic Condominium.

More at the ASIFA Animation archive, where we first spotted this sad news.

It takes a lot to get us to blog at 1 am, but this just hit the web. Zack Snyder has the first look at the Watchmen from the movie version.

Ay caramba!

UPDATE: Why does Ozymandias’s exo-skeleton have nipples? SUSPICIOUS.

We’re told that Stephen King will be on NPR’s TALK OF THE NATION on Wednesday March 12th from 2:30pm to 3:00pm EST live to promote the launch of DARK TOWER II: THE LONG ROAD HOME comics series (which will be a hardcover release in November 2008) from Marvel. The book came out last night in a midnight launch at many stores nationwide.

Fresh off their Gran Prix win at Angouleme, the legendary duo of Dupuy and Berberian come to America. Related: a preview of Dupuy’s Haunted at Vulture. Also, Matt Madden previews tonight’s event.
Words Without Borders and Housing Works Presents
Tales from the Global Village, Part 3:
Straight out of Angoulême
Dupuy & Berberian

Wednesday, March 5th
Housing Works Bookstore Cafe
126 Crosby Street, Soho
7:00PM

Philippe Dupuy and Charles Berberian have been collaborating for twenty-five years, with their most successful comic series, “Monsieur Jean,” selling over 120,000 copies in France. The anthology of their work, Get a Life, won an Angoulême Alph-Art Award, one of the most coveted awards in the comic genre. Their work has appeared in The New Yorker and in drawn & quarterly and Dark Horse Presents. Phillipe Dupuy was born in Paris and Charles Berberian was born in Iraq. After having spent his childhood in Baghdad and later Beirut, Lebanon, Berberian settled as a teenager in Paris where both he and Dupuy continue to live and work. Drawn and Quarterly has translated and published much of their work, including most recently Philippe Dupuy’s Haunted.

Matt Madden, moderator (NYC, 1968) has been doing comics for over 10 years now. He is the author of Black Candy and Odds Off (Highwater Books.) In 1996 Madden began writing reviews for The Comics Journal and other publications, which he continues to do, if infrequently. He is a founding member of the American chapter of the formalist comics group, Oubapo. Madden lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife, Jessica Abel. He works in illustration and comics coloring and also teaches comics at the School of Visual Arts. He is currently working on several new projects, including a comics adaptation of Raymond Queneau’s Exercises in Style; and the new periodical series collecting new work, A Fine Mess, published by Alternative Comics