You’ve all seen it, right?

Okay spoilers after the jump.

(more…)

The 2008 Friends of Lulu Award Nominations have just been announced. (Above image by Hope Larson.)

Kim Yale Award:
MARTINA FUGAZZOTTO (senior designer, gURL.com)
KIKI JONES (gURL Comix artist)
JULIA WERTZ (The Fart Party)

Woman of Distinction:
SHELLY BOND (group editor, Vertigo; editor, MINX line);
CINDY FOURNIER (VP Operations, Diamond Comic Distributors);
JANNA MORISHIMA (director, Diamond Kids Group)

Women Cartoonists Hall of Fame:
NELL BRINKLEY (early 20th century cartoonist);
MARTY LINKS (Bobby Sox/Emmy Lou);
TARPE MILLS (Miss Fury);
LOUISE SIMONSON (X-Factor; Superman: The Man of Steel)

Lulu of the Year:
AUDRA FURUICHI (Nemu-Nemu);
gURL Comix (www.gURL.com);
STEPHANIE MCMILLAN (Minimum Security);
RUTU MODAN (Exit Wounds);
MARJANE SATRAPI (Persepolis)

PR follows:

It’s time for a true FoL first. Every year, Friends of Lulu, the national, non-profit organization, which has brought more women and girls into comic books for close to 15 years, recognizes several women who have made notable contributions in the ever-expanding comics industry. As yet another extremely successful year for women in comics continues, FoL is proud to keep the momentum going by bringing the Lulu Awards, usually presented in a West Coast event, to New York City for the first time. The 2008 Friends of Lulu award nominees have been selected by the comic-reading public, and the voting period for the award winners has begun.

This year’s well-deserved trophies will be presented at the exciting Lulu Awards event on Saturday, June 7, 2008 at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA) in Manhattan, at 594 Broadway, Suite 401 (between Houston and Prince Streets). This event starts at 8:30 p.m. and takes place during the annual, highly popular MoCCA Art Festival (the weekend of June 7 and 8; for more information, please go to www.moccany.org). Refreshments will be served, and the night’s M.C. will be the lively illustrator Emily Flake. The suggested donation for admission to this sure-to-be-enjoyable event is $8, and admission is free for Friends of Lulu and MoCCA members. FoL kindly requests that attendees RSVP by purchasing tickets for the event beforehand, at our site, www.friends-lulu.org. A number of tickets will also be available at the door.

Those people interested in voting for their favorite nominees simply need to visit the Friends of Lulu Website at www.friends-lulu.org/awardsVote.php by Tuesday, May 27; the voting period closes at the end of that day. Only current Friends of Lulu members can vote, and information about how to join the organization is at the main site, www.friends-lulu.org.

Alan Gardner reports that Mad’s Al Jaffee gas this year’s Reuben Award for the Outstanding Cartoonist of the year. Congrats!

A judge has refused to overturn the conviction of Michael George this morning. The defense had attempted to get the jury’s guilty conviction vacated due to a lack of evidence, but the judge sided with the jury, George faces life in prison without parole after being convicted of the 19 year old murder of his wife, Barbara.

Newsarama adds up the costs of this year’s big crossover events and finds they do not come cheaply. For SECRET INVASION, after toting up all the tie-ins and spin-offs and whatnot, comes to this conclusion:

November Subtotal: $6.98 The Whole Shebang: $316.98, or just about airfare from Chicago to San Diego and back for Comic-Con ($359)
Total Book Count for this event (to date): 85 official, and 18 unofficial tie-ins, for a total of 103 Secret Invasion tie-in issues.

For FINAL CRISIS, it’s much the same:

he Price So Far: $115.14, or about 29 gallons of gas (based on the current national average)

Total Final Crisis book count (to date): 30.

Or, if you’re one of those people who are looking at both, and we know you’re out there, together, both will set you back $432.12 for 133 books from now through the end of the year.

And that’s WITHOUT all the tie-ins that they haven’t announced because they haven’t thought of the them yet.
Valerie weighs in:

This just doesn’t work. Readers can’t be forced to follow this many books to understand the story. I’m not saying this because I think huge events like this are wrong from a personal standpoint. But from a business standpoint — this publishing model only really benefits from the hardcore readers who were buying all the books anyway. Any new reader is going to view their checklist and freak the f**k out and say “this is way too much of an investment for me.”

While it certainly isn’t new-reader friendly to begin with, for the faithful, surely they already have a bit of money set aside for comics every month, so this is all budgeted for. Of course, rising prices for gas and food may impact that budget as the year goes on.

Or, as we’ve always said, if folks at comics companies were forced to buy their comics for a little while instead of getting them all for free, they would have a different feel for the economics of it all.

The Hollywood Reporter reports that a movie based on RUNAWAYS may be coming:

Brian K. Vaughan, who co-created the series with artist Adrian Alphona, is writing the adaptation, for which Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige will act as producer. Vaughan is also a co-producer and writer on ABC’s “Lost.”

As opposed to other Marvel characters getting the silver screen treatment, such as the Hulk and Spider-Man — who have been around since the 1960s and are pop-culture fixtures — the heroes in “Runaways” are relatively new, with the comic series launching in 2002.

Yes, that’s exactly right. Bringing RUNAWAYS to the screen would be a huge boost for Vaughan, as well as Marvel’s ability to adapt newer characters to marketable status.

Lance Fensterman is a very busy guy. He’s the showrunner for not just New York Comic-Con, but also the new York Anime Fest AND the BEA (Book Expo America), the annual schmoozefest for everything book related. This year’s BEA is being held next week in LA, where they buy more books per year than in New York, or so we’re often told by Angelenos. Anyway WE WILL BE THERE, and we’ve already heard from a few peeps who want to get together and our dance card is filling fast, so call, email or text of you wanna hang, or know where to do it. We’re staying at the downtown hotel with the spinning bar, so you know where we’ll be.

Wait…where were we? Oh yeah, Lance Fensterman. Anyway, the BEA is a celebrity/author fest with the biggest names in the business — it’s wall to wall superstar authors. The author signings list has been posted, and Lance has the details:

How big is the autographing program at BEA going to be this year? Consider these names are just a handful of the authors that will be appearing on just one day of the three day program.

Neil Gaiman, Jacquelyn Mitchard, Brooke Shields, Jon Scieszka, Robert F Kennedy Jr. , Judy Blume, George Hamilton, Garth Stein, Anita Shreve, Seth Kantner, Brad Meltzer, Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson, Cory Doctorow, Kate DiCamillo, Sherman Alexie, Laura Numeroff, Eoin Colfer, Paul Feig, Berkeley Breathed, Brian Selznick, Dennis Lehane, R.L. Stine, Scott McCloud, Jeff Smith, Gary Hart…

The official numbers on autographing: 926 signings (auto area and in booth) plus another 100+ in booth that came in after the print deadline (I’ll try and get those online soon).

It’s kind of scary to see how many of Our Kind have infiltrated that list.

- The Autographing line-up is here, and with its LA proximity, everyone from Ernest Borgnine to Brooke Shields will be signing. Maybe we’re just old or jaded or whatever but there was almost no one on the list that made us go…WHO-AHHH! We gotta meet that person. Have we really met everyone we ever wanted to meet? Is that it?

Well there was one name: Sean Stewart, the lead writer on THE BEAST, the AI interactive game that was one of the greatest icons of the early interactive media, and one that all ARGs (alternate reality games) have been chasing ever since. So there you have it; we still want to meet Sean Stewart someday.

The long national nightmare is almost over in our household!

Almost.

We’ve been so busy we forgot entirely about Fleet Week.

Some really nice news for a change:

Artist Gene Colan has been one of comics’ favorites for a staggering seven decades. Now, as Gene is suffering illness, some of the characters Gene worked on are coming to save the day.

The Hero Initiative in conjunction with Marvel Comics is launching a series of Gene Colan-themed products, starting with a limited edition print of Gene’s cover art to Invincible Iron Man #1, available at Wizard World Philadelphia, May 30-June 1. Only 200 prints will be available at the show at a cost of $25 each. Net proceeds from sales of these prints by The Hero Initiative will benefit Gene Colan. Another 50 prints will be available at a later date, with plans to have them autographed by both Gene Colan and Stan Lee.

Also at Wizard World Philadelphia, guest writers and artists at the Marvel Comics booth will be signing and sketching two large poster-sized boards, which Hero will auction benefiting Gene at a later date.

And that’s just the start. Wizard World Chicago, June 26-29, will see the release of a second print featuring the cover art to Daredevil #47, the legendary “Brother, Take My Hand” story by Stan Lee and Gene Colan. A third print will be available later in the year, along with other products.

For August, a Gene Colan Tomb of Dracula poster will be available for order via Marvel Previews with proceeds routed to Gene; and in September, a special book reprinting some of Gene’s greatest stories will be made available. In addition to these items, The Hero Initiative will take additional steps to help Gene in his convalescence.

“Gene Colan,” said Roy Thomas, longtime Marvel Comics writer and Hero Initiative Board member, “is one of the most amazingly talented comic book artists in the history of the field. When I was scripting one of his stories, there was no one-not even Neal Adams or John Buscema-whose pencils could make me feel more strongly as if I were looking into a real world. He combines often-photographic realism with dynamism worth of a Kirby…and that makes him unique.”

“Speaking as an artist, in addition to his awe-inspiring renditions of classic comic book heroes, ‘Gentleman’ Gene Colan has been a tremendous inspiration to those of us who have drawn Daredevil,” said Marvel Editor in Chief Joe Quesada. “I’m happy to say that Marvel is working along with The Hero Initiative to help one of the industry’s greats and a member of the Marvel family. Our hearts and thoughts go out to Gene and his family during this tough time, and we hope the rest of this great community can do what they can to help support one its founding members.”

The Year of the Symposium continues with a one-day FREE seminar put together by the New York Institute for the Humanities featuring Lynda Barry, Art Spiegelman, Gary Panter, David Hajdu and Hope Larson among others. Jeez, twist our arm some more, will ya? It takes place in NYC the day before MoCCA, so everyone get ready for an EXTRA DAY intelligent discussion of a vibrant medium. You can see all the relevant info here but here are a few details:

An all-day symposium on the growing cultural significance of comics.

with

* LYNDA BARRY * DAVID HAJDU * HOPE LARSON *
* GARY PANTER * MO WILLEMS * ART SPIEGELMAN *
and many other luminaries from the comics world.

Friday, June 6, 2008, 11 am – 9:30 pm
Cantor Film Center at NYU, 36 East 8th Street (at University Place)
Free and open to the public.

Over the past few years comics have escaped from the shtetl and entered the salon. A “big bang” has exploded the assumption that the medium is inherently immature, and comics have hurtled into the worlds of book publishing (as literature for adults and children), contemporary art, literary criticism, and even musical theatre.

This all-day program—free and open to the public—will spotlight major creators of and commentators on comics, highlighting key trends and debates facing comics in this new, “post-bang” environment.

The program will be organized around a series of panel discussions on different aspects of contemporary comics, followed by two sets of conversations with some of the most innovative creators in the comics field.

(more…)

News quickly rocketed around last evening that Kiel Phegley has been dismissed from his position at Wizard Magazine. Phegley has been co-writing the Indie Jones column for Wizard.com and spearheaded much of their convention coverage, and was a familiar face on the circuit so it comes as a bit of a surprise. However, with massive personnel changes taking place at the company, and their offices put on the market in an “exploratory move” you can only come to one conclusion — printing magazines just isn’t as lucrative as it used to be.

The Beat wishes Phegley well in his future endeavors — given his very obvious skills, we’re sure he’ll be snatched up soon.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull should just be called Indiana Matlock. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It was a lot of fun and very enjoyable. We liked the fake, Frazetta-esque backgrounds during the “Jungle Chase” sequence. We also liked Harrison Ford just fine, and loved Cate Blanchett’s villain. We did not like the space aliens. [Spoiler] Nor did we like the CGI orgy in the third act, but what ya gonna do now–you can’t make a movie like you made Raiders any more.

Also, why was Shia LeBeouf’s crotch constantly being endangered?

The bottom line? Nothing well EVER top the first 15 minutes of Raiders. That boulder was REAL.

Charles Burns has a new art book coming out from French publisher “United Dead Artists”entitled PERMAGEL. It will be 32 pages in a huge 30×40 cm format, printed in double black impression on Rives paper. Stephane Blanquet is the editor.
More information and images.

Golden Age Comic Book Stories reprints some of the mind-bending work of John R. Neil illustrating the sixth book of the Oz series, Emerald City of OZ. Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13 and Chapter 14.

If you love this work as much as we do, you know that it is great not just because of it’s pen and ink virtuosity, or its stunning imagination and in-depth characterizations…

…but because it was as disturbing and sad as hell.

Technorati Tags: Oz

PRINT Magazine dissects a classic lurid cover theme. We esp. like this yaoi version!

Via Boing Boing.

In our report on the Met Fashion Institute’s superhero fashion show, we erroneously wrote that the 12-foot high statues of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman would be on display for a while. Alas, they were only there for the one day, so we count ourselves very fortunate to have seen them at all. However this does beg the question of what will now be done with the statues? According to Paul Levitz DC is “trying to find a good home for them.” The statues are probably too big and fragile to transport so an appearance at San Diego might not be feasible..but it would be cool.

Speaking of eh Met fashion show, Peter Sanderson has a 5000-word essay on the opening, plus 2000 more words on Iron Man and what not.

There are a number of costumes in the exhibition that explicitly work variations on Superman’s “S” emblem. But the majority of the clothes in this show do not demonstrate direct influence from the comics. Rather, the “Superheroes” exhibition shows comic book artists and fashion designers following parallel paths in working along various themes. Hence, the section called “The Aerodynamic Body” compares the sleek uniform of the Silver Age Flash, suitable to a man who runs at super-speed, with bodysuits from Nike and Speedo intended for athletes. “The Patriotic Body” segment deals with American flag motifs in the uniforms of Captain America and Wonder Woman as well as costumes from the House of Dior. The Maguire Spider-Man costumes appear alongside fashions utilizing webbing motifs designed by Giorgio Armani, John Galliano, Jean Paul Gaultier, Thierry Mugler and others. (Armani even pointed out in an interview that he was not thinking of Spider-Man when he designed the costume in the show.)

Since you couldn’t make the press preview, reading Peter’s column is pretty much like being there.

§ Comic Relief, which will continue under long-time manager Todd Martinez, has a “Memories” page up to remember founder Rory Root.

§ Tom has a fantastic obituary up with many more memorials from comics luminaries whose lives Rory touched.

One of Root’s most important endeavors was to cultivate relationships with and facilitate sales to libraries and other, similar, secondary markets for comics, doing so as soon as the early 1990s. When by the late 1990s and early into the 2000s this started to became a major market for comics sellers, Root dispensed informal advice and made appearances at professional gatherings to speak on these sorts of possibilities for the comics market. He exhibited at some of these shows in partnership with Diamond and then later on his own. Root’s advice wasn’t just a boon to comics shops that might forge such relationships but also provided librarians and other groups with a valuable service by letting them know what was out there for purchase so that they might enhance their offerings and attract readers. He was a featured speaker at the 2003 Book Expo America’s comics programming track.

§ And Beau Smith has also posted his memories:

Rory was unselfish with his knowledge of not only comics, but more importantly his knowledge of people. Rory never forgot what it was like to be that person looking for something entertaining to read. He could relate to the child, the teenager, the college student, the collector and the adult seeking to regain a small piece of their childhood. Rory may have forgotten that he had worn the same shirt a couple of days in a row, but he never forgot the mug in his hand and a friend. With Rory Root, you always had a friend, not only in comics, but in life as well.

§ Douglas Wolk, bless him, is using the brains the good lord gave him for a new Final Crisis Annotations blog. It’s in-depth.

Title: It’s worth unpacking this a little. DC is, of course, the publisher of this comic and the corporate owner of its intellectual property; DC stands for DETECTIVE COMICS, one of the first series it published, beginning in 1937. The “DC Universe”–DCU for short–is the shared setting for most of the superhero comics DC publishes, a setting that extends beyond Earth to the entirety of existence. (In fact, the DC Universe is a “multiverse,” a set of parallel universes–52 of them at the moment.) And “zero” implies that this story happens “before the beginning” of the forthcoming FINAL CRISIS story. “Zero” also has two other connotations in the context of the DCU. One is that this issue was originally more or less intended to be the final issue of COUNTDOWN, a.k.a. COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS, a weekly series that began with issue 51 and counted down to issue 1–instead of its original plan of ending with issue 0. (Despite its title, COUNTDOWN actually appears to have had few direct ties to FINAL CRISIS; where they’re relevant, they’ll be described here.) The other is an allusion to ZERO HOUR, a 1994 five-issue miniseries about the destruction and re-creation of the DCU; the month after it ended, all DCU titles published issues numbered 0.

§ If all convention reports were as incisive and wide-ranging as presents Kristy Valenti’s piece on the Emerald City Comicon we’d live in a better world.

This is especially admirable considering that, by swapping the Qwest Field Event Center for the Convention Center as this year’s venue, ECCC had more space to play with. This was a definite boon in terms of panels (at the Qwest Field Event Center, panels were held in an open, second level directly over the exhibitors, which was distracting and made it difficult to hear) and overall comfort. Post-show, con organizer Jim Demonakos enthused that, in regards to the venue, there were “no real cons, which is nice and one of the reasons we made the move, we wanted to make sure that we had all the space we needed to do all the cool stuff we wanted to accomplish at the show and that, in the end, was what we were able to do. I’m very happy with the new venue.”

§ Beaucoup Kevin presents The Many Freakouts of Dave Cockrum’s X-Men: A Retrospective

A Mark Bagley illo of Bizarro graces the cover of this weeks Sports Illustrated for a story about “Bizarro Baseball”. CBR interviews Bagley while DC sends out an official press release in the jump.

Bagley, who called the sports weekly, “the Newsweek of sports magazines,” said he is well aware of the “Sports Illustrated” jinx and believes in its Mister Mxyzptlk-like magic.

“It is bad luck to deny a jinx, so yes, I believe,” said Bagley.

The jinx is the long-standing and well-documented belief by sports fans and beat writers that once an athlete or team appears on the cover of “Sports Illustrated,” bad luck — be it loss, injury or embarrassment — will quickly follow.

Technorati Tags: Sports

(more…)

Fourteen workers were injured Monday when a gas explosion ripped through the Hilton San Diego Bay Front hotel which is under construction behind the San Diego Convention Center.

A mechanical failure or gas likely triggered an explosion that rocked a waterfront hotel under construction, damaging four floors and injuring 14 workers, five critically, a fire official said.

The blast occurred around 2 p.m. Monday, ripping off part of the Hilton hotel’s facade and sending debris flying. More than 400 construction workers were at the site at the time, Mayor Jerry Sanders said.

Bruce Ragland, who runs an entry gate at the Petco Park baseball stadium about 200 yards from the hotel, said he was looking right at the building when the explosion blew through two sides and set off a shockwave.

“It was just like watching a Bruce Willis movie, like you know, `Die Hard,’” Ragland said.

The explosion came as a blow to those hoping to get a hotel room for the 2009 con:

The 30-story Hilton San Diego Bayfront hotel was scheduled to open in December, according to Hilton’s Web site. It will have 1,190 rooms and more than 165,000 square feet of meeting space. Karima Zaki, Hilton Hotels Corp.’s vice president for new development for the San Diego hotel, said she didn’t know if the hotel would open on schedule.

The cause of the blast still isn’t known, but it is with grave concern thatThe Beat must point the finger at the only likely suspect: TERRORISTS. What better way to destroy America’s will and love of freedom than attacking their only hope of getting a close hotel room for next year’s show? The hotel, long under construction, has been a shining dream of convention housing ever since it was announced, several years ago. We will not let the terrorists dim that dream, however, and will continue to hit refresh on our browser until we get a nice bayview room.

In all seriousness, best wishes for the workers who were severely burned in the accident.

Archaia Studios Press had a big hit with Mouse Guard, and critical acclaim with The Lone and Level Sands and founder Mark Smylie’s Artesia, and recently announced a ton of new titles. But like many small presses, they’ve also had some problems getting books out on a timely basis, and now they’ve announced a restructuring and the departure of co-publisher Aki Liao for “personal reasons.”

It’s been a busy couple of years here at Archaia Studios Press as the company has produced a growing catalog of award-winning and critically acclaimed comic books and graphic novels. But ASP has also run into a few growing pains along the way—as does any new publishing company—and today must announce that it must take a moment to restructure following the decision of Aki Liao, ASP’s co-publisher, to step back from an ongoing role at the company for personal reasons.

“Mark and I started ASP Comics as a hobby business in classic ‘two-guys-in-a-garage’ fashion, and that hobby business has grown well beyond its initial size and scope. In fact, well beyond my expectations,” said Aki Liao. “Along the way, we’ve built up a line of comic books and graphic novels of the highest quality. It’s been an amazing ride, and I enjoyed meeting a lot of wonderful people along the way, especially the talented group of creators that I’ve had the good fortune to work with. It is with a sad heart that I depart as I’m no longer able to give the company the kind of commitment it requires and wish everyone at ASP the best for the future.”

Ken Light, an investment banker at the DAK Group specializing in small to mid-size company divestitures, sales, and acquisitions, will be assisting ASP in the search for an outside investor or strategic partner to acquire Aki’s stake in the company.

As part of the reorganization, the company will also take the opportunity to address internally the publishing delays that have plagued it of late to ensure a smooth schedule that satisfies not only its own standards but also that of its creators and the expectations of fans and retailers.

“Our growth in the last year has clearly strained our workflow capacity,” said ASP co-publisher Mark Smylie. “Lateness has historically been a problem with many creator-driven and creator-owned titles, but our own workflow issues have exacerbated the situation. We are as frustrated with our struggle to get books out on time as, I’m sure, are our readers, and we want to make sure we come out of the reorganization with a better workflow and solicitation process model. So while there will be some further delays in the release of recently solicited titles as we restructure, we also want to make sure we emerge in the next few months from our reorganization with a release schedule that we can hit on a regular basis, as guaranteed as possible. We can only ask that our many supporters, retailers and fans alike, be patient with us during this time.”

All ASP titles are available worldwide at finer comic book shops, bookstores, amazon.com, the ASP Store at Indie Press Revolution (www.indiepressrevolution.com) and electronically at DriveThruComics.com. ARTESIA is now available at WOWIO.com, with other ASP titles to follow.

Where’s the blogosphere? What happened to everyone? Is it just the warm weather? We know *we* have problems, but what’s everyone else story.

Maybe it’s time for a poll:

What are the best message boards about comics? We used to hang out on Delphi, The V, and The Engine but now we hardly ever stop by anywhere, even such worthy places as Panel and Pixel. Where does everyone else hang out?

Comics has lost one its great souls in Rory Root. The man seemed timeless and immortal, despite all his health issues, and also ageless, but many people are reporting he was 50. The web is filled with outpourings of grief testifying to his endless supply of generosity, wisdom and support. Words like “trust” and “help” keep coming up, from customers from cartoonists, from friends. You did trust Rory because he did help. In an often fractious business he was always level-headed and far seeing.

His store, Comic Relief, was a model of the future, long ahead of its time. I remember visiting it for the first time back in the early 90s and Rory showing off, with justified pride, the handsome fixtures and the track lighting which made it not just an android’s dungeon but an attractive shop where people felt comfortable and enlightened shopping. He supported graphic novels long before everyone else figured out the were the future of the business, and knew his stock like no one else. Whenever I was writing a story about any business aspect of comics, Rory was on my short list of people to call, and our conversations were always full of information, humor and wisdom.

A few years ago Rory and I were both staying at the US Grant for San Diego and we shared a few cab rides home. He praised the hotel’s bunch and we agreed to meet on the Monday after the con for breakfast. In my brain dead state I couldn’t have imagined more pleasant company, or a better friend to share a meal with. I also remember him saving me a copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which I was happy to purchase from him during the show.

Everyone will have tons of Rory stories, but he was such a fixture everywhere — standing outside with his hat, and the stainless steel coffee mug seemingly grafted to his hand, always with good advice for those who wished to follow it. Like another retailer sadly taken too soon, Bill Liebowitz, Rory exemplified the comics retailer who made a difference. People pick on retailers as a group, but men like Bill and Rory showed how important and vital this end of the business is. That they were so boundlessly generous with their time and knowledge was their real gift and legacy.

I want to quote some of the things being said about Rory because everyone needs to know how one person can make a difference:
(more…)