Is there anyone who doesn’t like post-apocalyptic fiction?

Looking back at the past decade in comics, there haven’t been a surplus of successful ongoing comics series. In fact we can think of only a handful. Of that handful, perhaps the two most durable and entertaining are THE WALKING DEAD and Y: THE LAST MAN. (Yes, Y was a maxiseries, but it ran more or less monthly for a long time and its collections continue to sell at an astonishing pace.) What do both these books share? Why, survival in a post-apocalyptic landscape of gruesome clarity, of course. It’s an old yarn, but one that clearly resonates with readers, as they came back month after month for both series — and THE WALKING DEAD has become Image’s cash cow.

To the comics bookshelf of ruined worlds, we can now add another, highly unusual entrant, one which, we think, amplifies and examines the whole genre. In Bob Fingerman’s FROM THE ASHES, we see the personal story of two people — based on Fingerman himself and his wife, Michele — as they traverse the landscape of a ruined New York City. It’s savage, it’s narcissistic, it’s scary and it’s also very, very human. You may have seen a similar situation before, but trust me, you’ve never seen it like this. If Woody Allen and George Romero teamed up, you might get something like FROM THE ASHES…

FROM THE ASHES #1 (of six) debuts May 13th from IDW. You can read Fingerman’s blog on the series here, with background info and even more on the joys of destroying the world.
(more…)

Comics professionals, don’t forget to vote!

The long running political comics anthology magazine, WORLD WAR 3, celebrates its latest issue at MoCCA tonight. Deets:

Thursday, April 30, 2009 7-9PM
With all this talk about a picture being worth a thousand words and so much chatter in the news, but little being said, we’ve decided to make the next World War 3 illustrated our first wordless comics issue. This will make it more international, beyond language barriers–sort of a tower of a Babel (minus the babble.)

COVER BY ERIC DROOKER

EDITED BY PETER KUPER AND KEVIN PYLE

Featuring multi-media presentation of art by:
PETER KUPER
MAC McGILL
SETH TOBOCMAN
PAULA HEWITT AMRAM
SABRINA JONES
ERIC DROOKER
KEVIN PYLE
CHUCK SPERRY
REBECCA MIGDAL
and many others
with an animated film by Onur Tukel
live music by
Eric Blitz, Steve Wishnia, Andy Laties, Breeze and others

at
Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art
594 Broadway, Suite 401 (Between Houston and Prince st.)

A key piece of Manga/Anime history slides into the sunset, as ICv2 reports that Central Park Media has filed Chapter 7. Many will remember CPM as one of the trailblazers of the anime (Patlabor, Uetna, Grave of the Fireflies) and manga fields, with manga titles like Record of Lodoss War and Slayers, as well as being an early adapter of the boys love genre with the Be Beautiful imprint. Things began to go bad in one of the early manga slumps, however, and after the manga/anime supporting retailer Musicland went bankrupt in 2006. There was talk of a comeback, but it never really made much of an impact and now the company has filed the bankruptcy of no return. (Chapter 11 and 13 bankruptcies allow for reorganization, but Chapter 7 means the company is completely disbanded.)

According to ICv2, CPM reports assets of $126,282 vs. secured liabilities of $908,173 and unsecured liabilities of $277,531. It’s a sad end for a company that did much to promote the rise of Japanese entertainment in the US.

It’s yet another evening of cartoon slide shows & other projected pictures presented by a “glittering array of artists, performers, graphic novelists, & other characters” and curated by R. Sikoryak.

Featuring: Brian Dewan, Dean Haspiel, Tim Kreider, Josh Neufeld, Jim Torok, Kriota Willberg, R.S. and more!

Thursday, Apr 30, 2009
8:00 PM (door opens at 7:30 pm)

at the NEW
Dixon Place
161 Chrystie Street
New York, NY 10002

Tickets:
$15 (general)
$12 (students/seniors w/ valid id) or TDF

John Jackson Miller has a pretty fascinating analysis of the Top 300’s long tail — complete with charts! (How does he DO it?) With March 2009 presenting, for the first time in a long time, the top selling comic coming in at under 100K, he makes comparisons to March 2003 and March 2006. The main finding is in the lower 150, where, as many have noted, the average sales ranking is up. But it’s mostly because Marvel and DC publish so many more titles now:

So what’s going on? The arc of 2003 slope has been flattened — with sales from the top of the list and the upper midlist pushing down toward the lower portion, and making sales on the whole list more evenly distributed. There’s a simple reason: Look again at the table for March 2003. The 200s are populated by familiar names like Archie and Antarctic, but also smaller publishers like Gutsoon and Aerosol. Marvel is pretty much not to be found there: it had 57 entries in the Top 300, and only 1 item in the 201st-300th place range. In March 2009, it had 99 entries on the list — and 22 in the bottom third of the chart. Marvel, DC, Image, Dark Horse, and CrossGen (the top five) combined for 215 slots in March 2003; 237 in March 2009 (with IDW in place of CrossGen).

Dollars are up in general, however, he notes.

§ While we’ve covered several book publishers who won’t be at BEA, several have alerted us to the fact that there will still be plenty of graphic novels at the upcoming BookExpo America. Diamond will be there in force with their pavilion of publishers and an array of events. Also, Eric Reynolds writes to tell us that Fantagraphics will be at the show with Dash Shaw, Monte Schulz, Michael Kupperman, and Kim Deitch, and a fancy new booth.

Comings and goings:

§ Lisa Coppola has left Viz. As Senior Vice President, Coppola was often the public face of the company, speaking at industry panels and frequently quoted in stories about manga, and certainly was a key player in helping the company rise to the top of the graphic novel heap in America. It is unknown what her next position will be.

§ Marvel has upped Alan Fine to executive VP of Marvel Entertainment. Fine was previously executive VP and chief marketing officer of Marvel Characters.

§ DC has hired Jeff Boison as Executive Director of Publishing Operations. Boison was most recently director of sales for the Random House Audio Publishing Group. (Before people get all het up, this is, according to the job description, a business position, not one that directly oversees editorial content.)

Up until now, Hugh Jackman has been able to keep his love of musical theater and his love of slicing people with his claws separate, but don’t think those of us who share those twin loves haven’t fantasized about WOLVERINE: THE MUSICAL. Now, Erik Beck from Indy Mogul and Mark Douglas, from Barely Political, have made our dreams come true..sort of. If the SPIDER-MAN musical takes off, this one could really work, we think.

Technorati Tags: Wolverine Week

HOORAY~!

A Faraday Episode.

Your running diary of tonight’s episode after the jump.

(more…)

Dan Nadel writes to tell us of a new art site, the PictureBox Gallery, that should repay more than a few visits.

We are pleased to announce our new online venture, PictureBox Gallery (www.pictureboxgallery.org). On this specially curated site you’ll be able to view and purchase artwork from artists associated with venerable ol’ PictureBox, including Ben Jones, Yuichi Yokoyama, Peter Lloyd, CF and Charlie White III. In the coming weeks Gary Panter, Bob Zoell, and Lauren Weinstein will also be making work available. So subscribe to our RSS feed and watch for updates.

Highlights of the current selection include Charlie White’s classic “Roller Ball” illustration, Ben Jones’ “Decoration Paintings” for home decor aesthetes on a budget, and Peter Lloyd’s pimp-tastic original art for records by The Jefferson Starship and Ronnie Laws, not to mention a killer Jack Kirby original.

So, go forth and enjoy. And remember, PictureBox is not just on your shelf: We’re on your side!

Selections from the site accompanying this blog post: Outdoor (19) by Yuichi Yokoyama (TRAVEL), above, and the cover to Gentle Giant’s 1972 album Octopus by Charles White III, below.

Broken Frontier, the long-running “some news and reviews” site, has officially relaunched with some new ideas for content. You can read the PR below, but the site is a nice looking aggregation of the usual news, some previews, and reviews. Site head honcho Frederik Hautain and the rest of the crew have been at this a long time, through some real ups and downs, so it will be nice to see them up and running again.

Premier comic book website Broken Frontier is proud to unveil its new look and features. Broken Frontier is going back to its roots, while at the same time making the big bold leap into web 2.0. In addition to its own blog, Broken Frontier will launch several production blogs where readers get inside information on the development of a selected number of comics projects, straight from the creative team’s mouth. And of course, the regular wave of articles, interviews, columns and reviews will keep on coming.  The most innovative feature in this regard is Post Your News Now!, a unique and user-friendly tool that allows all of BF’s registered members to post news, rumors and scoops directly to the front page. “I think this will be a great feature for smaller companies and self-publishers to put their projects in the spotlight,” adds Broken Frontier Editor, Frederik Hautain. “But at the same time, it’s a great opportunity for our members to grab their chance and do some comics reporting of their own.

In October of 2002, the site launched with the baseline ‘Where Fans Come First!’. In those days, before the existence of blogs and ready-made websites, Broken Frontier gave its readers an opportunity to submit their own articles, making it possible for the average comics fan to contribute to comics criticism.  Now, a little over 6 years later, Broken Frontier is making its community as much of a focal point as its comics coverage. “BF has made a name for itself by way of the diversity of our coverage,” Hautain explained. “While we’ll continue to explore every corner of the comics universe, the new BF was built with the clear intention of putting the community back at the heart of the site.”

  Looking beyond the new design and improved site technology, the biggest improvements have been made on the community end. Previously limited to nothing but a forum, the community is now keyed on on-site reader interaction by placing each individual member at the center of its site experience.   Hautain commented, “I hope everyone will get a good vibe when they visit the new and improved Broken Frontier. Everyone on our staff is psyched now that we’ve started the engine of our new rocket ship. Full speed ahead!”

Tonight, a very cool event takes place at The Boiler in Williamsburg, NY:

THE GREATEST FILMS YOU NEVER SAW with DEWANATRON

An evening of vintage silent 16mm entertainment curated by Mark Newgarden Comedies, Cartoons, Vaudeville acts, Scientific curiosities, Erotic dances, Strange people’s home movies, Something for everybody–even YOU! Live musical accompaniment by Dewanatron (Leon Dewan and Brian Dewan) and “honored guest instrumentalists,” David Scher, among others.

We attended a similar event a few years ago and it was an unforgettable evening of strangeness and mirth. Newgarden’s collection of film ephemera is world famous, and Dewanatron is almost like a living. breathing Raymond Scott. It’s like YouTube is happening right in front of you. Tear yourself away from Twitter and experience LIFE. Although, I will probably Twtter about it while it’s in progress. The show begins at 9 pm.

The Boiler is located at 191 North 14th St. in Brooklyn.

Also tonight: Chris Claremont and Matthew K. Manning discuss Wolverine with Peter Sanderson at MoCCA.

Jim Milliot and Rachel Deahl have more on this year’s scaled-down BookExpo America:

The exhibit floor at this year’s BookExpo America will look different from the hall at the 2008 BEA in Los Angeles and even from 2007, when the event was last held at New York’s Javits Center. That is not necessarily a bad thing, according to the show’s general manager, Lance Fensterman. “It will be a more concentrated show,” Fensterman said. “Maybe that’s more appropriate for how it should be.”

We checked in with some publishers to clarify their attendance, following our earlier report on several big graphic novel publishers dropping out. It’s confirmed that DC won’t be at the show, nor will D&Q. However, fellow MacMillan imprint First Second will be there, with several of their authors, including the Adventures in Cartooning crew, Adam Rapp, George O’Connor and Danica Novgorodof.

Papercutz, the kid-friendly imprint of NBM which MacMillan distributes, will also exhibit.

All of this is much more a reflection of the book business and not the comics business. Like many other formerly-huge trade confabs, BEA is having to reconsider its business model — and just how much business gets done in a world where everyone gets basic information online. According to the PW piece, publishers are scaling back on galleys and printed catalogs, which is sad, but that at least means fewer backbreaking bags of books being lugged around.

Still, the chance to meet beloved authors is still exciting to the buyers, librarians, and other assorted print lovers who attend BEA. There’s no replacing face-to-face for some things.

Following up on what we touched on yesterday, Shaun Manning has much more on the revived Archaia Studios Press at CBR, interviewing Mark Smylie, PJ Bickett and Stephen Christy.

“Kunoichi stepped in late last year and since then PJ and I have been working on our publishing schedule for 2009,” Mark Smylie told CBR News. “As we move forward into 2009, we’re finishing up the ‘Mouse Guard: Winter 1152′ series, which we’ll be collecting it in July; we’ll be finishing up ‘The Killer,’ ‘Okko,’ ‘Secret History,’ and a number of the French titles we’ve been doing in the last year. And we’re continuing with a number of series including ‘Killing Pickman’ and ‘Titanium Rain,’ and ‘Miranda Mercury.’”

Smylie said that Archaia will release hardcover collections of “Awakening,” “The Engineer,” “Some New Kind of Slaughter,” and “Primordia,” even though some of these will not have finished their runs in the single-issue format. “Some New Kind of Slaughter” creators mpMann and A. David Lewis recently released the third and fourth issues of the Diluvian mythology series for free on the internet, but the upcoming Archaia hardcover will be the first time the entire story is available in print.

A few books won’t be back from the hiatus — Jennie Breeden’s THE DEVIL’S PANTIES and Sean Wang’s RUNNERS are both going back to self-publishing. Other individual comics series are going to larger, higher-priced formats to get through Diamond’s new benchmarks.

Hurry, children, hurry. Only a few Thursday and Sunday tickets are left. We thought it would be sold out in April, but it looks like there will be slots available through May. Going for a single day may not be such a bad idea if you’re looking to get a taste of the big show.

As a reminder, professional registration ends May 5; press registration ends June 8.

§ We were cleaning out our email and came across this news bit from last week: San Diego Center Breaks Records.

The San Diego Convention Center announced record-breaking numbers for the 2008 fiscal year, which ended June 30. According to its Fiscal Year 2008 Annual Report, the convention center generated an economic impact of $1.8 billion, up 15.4 percent from $1.56 billion in fiscal year 2007, and $32 million in tax revenues for the city, up 27 percent from $25.2 million a year earlier.

And what were the shows that contributed to this record breaking year?

Some of the highest revenue- and attendance-generating events held at the SDCC in the last fiscal year were the Society of Neuroscience’s annual meeting, Neuroscience, Nov. 3-7, 2007, which generated $133 million in economic impact and had 32,000 attendees; Siggraph Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Technologies, Aug. 7-9, 2007, $99.9 million in economic impact and 24,043 attendees; and Biotechnology Industry Organization Intl. Convention, June 17-20, $84.8 million in economic impact and 20,408 attendees.

Other notable shows included the Winter Fancy Food Show, Jan. 13-15, 2008, with an economic impact of $66.5 million and 16,000 attendees; Comic Con Intl., July 26-29, 2007, $41.6 million and 125,000 attendees; and Global Pet Expo, Feb. 14-16, 2008, $41.4 million and 9,963 attendees.

We’ll say one thing, those neuroscientists really know how to live it up!

§ Today’s option: THE FORGOTTEN has been picked up by producers John Wells and Don Murphy. The comic book, by Evan Young and Jareth Grealish, was self-published and concerns a man who gets forgotten five minutes after he does or says anything.

While it gives him great power and leeway as far as investigations and problem-solving, it leaves him incredibly alone. When the son of a long-lost friend is charged wrongly with murder, he uses his powers to get to the bottom of a conspiracy.

§ The management/production agency Circle of Confusion has hired Stephen Emery as exec VP of features, says Variety. We mention that here because the piece reveals a bunch of comical type properties in development that we’ve either never heard of or haven’t heard much about lately, including David Lapham’s SILVERFISH, with Joel Schumacher attached to direct; CRYPTOZOO, based on a screenplay by Joe Gazzam, from the graphic novel of the same name; THE PSYCHO, based on the DC graphic novel; and SHAOLIN COWBOY, an animated feature written and directed by Geof Darrow. Now THAT would be interesting!

§ In case you have somehow managed to miss it, Terrence Howard is still very, very upset that he won’t be in any more Iron Man movies:

“It was a very, very bad choice,” fumed Howard, who played Iron Man’s Army buddy Lt. Col. James “Rhodey” Rhodes in the first film, to Parade magazine about Marvel Studios’ decision to reboot the part with Don Cheadle in the role. “You don’t make $800 million and then try and shake everyone down. That’s not nice,” he said to MTV News, exaggerating the film’s worldwide box-office gross by a mere $200 million. “It was the surprise of a lifetime,” he told NPR. “There was no explanation. The contract just…up and vanished.”

That quote comes from a larger piece by Rachel Abramowitz looking at the pros and cons of keeping actors in the same roles for all the sequels and spin-offs that make up Hollywood’s daily output these days.

But don’t cry too much for Howard; he’s consoling himself with dreams of playing Black Lightning: ““I don’t think he’s really been explored.”

The Beat and Future Mr. Beat were guests on “Comic News Insider: Episode 194″.

The Beat’s own Heidi MacDonald joins us in studio along with up and coming writer Ben McCool for a lengthy and Twitteriffic show! After a tasty BBQ and many drinks, the gang sallies forth to record a show. Uh-oh. 4 chatty folks on beer and wine! Hang on! News includes Free Comic Book Day, Wolverine Nike’s and easter eggs, Sin City 2, Predators reboot, Twitter wars, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, get a part in Smallville and more! We get into a heated discussion about Twitter and the advantages/disadvantages of it all.

We definitely had a blast doing this show. Jimmy and Joe put on an entertaining, informative show and always know how to treat their guests well. We also taped another show on a different topic that I’ll plug when it goes live. Please take a listen!

<---People---->
§ Evan Dorkin passes on the ways of his tribe to his child, Emily via WALT AND SKEEZIX:

Anyway, as I posted recently, some cheap copies popped up on Amazon, and we purchased one for the framing project. Our plan hasn’t quite worked out, however, as Emily has started reading the second copy, and has sort of adopted it. Not that I’m complaining. Seeing her pore over the book kills me. She’s been quoting some of the dialogue (”Well I’ll be jiggered”, being the line that cracks me up the most) and really enjoys reading the strips, especially the ones where Skeezix is a toddler. Emily has up until now had a strict policy of not enjoying comics that “have people in them” — she’s been reading Disney books (mostly Donald Duck), some old Disney film adaptations (mostly Dumbo), Molly and Emmett comics from Ladybug magazine (Molly is a girl but Emmett is a cat), Polo (two new volumes out soon), Johnny Boo (ghosts and a monster) and Pixie and Dixie and Mr. Jinks comics in an old Whitman collection. She has been reading Julie and Grampa: Shark Hunters, actually, which has human protagonists, but there are a lot of talking animals in that as well. And there are monsters and creatures in Magic Trixie and Scary Godmother, which she’s nuts about. But Dennis the Menace was out, as were several other comics “with people in them”. But so far, the Walt and Skeezix Sunday strips have passed muster, perhaps because of the many dream sequences and strips based on Halloween and Christmas and whatnot. Who knows, I’m not going to press her on it, we let her enjoy what she likes and don’t shove anything down her throat if she’s not interested. For some reason she won’t read Hideshi Hino comics. Don’t ask me.

§ At CBR, George Khoury interviews Spanish art great Miguelanxo Prado:

Some of your short stories and books contain a certain voyeuristic quality to them. Are you someone who likes to observe the actions and movements of others? Are there always parts of your works that are based on such experiences?

Inevitably. There’s an attractive aspect to art, that it is the interior universe of the creator. But, most of the time, for me that sole element seems insufficient. The other aspect that makes me feel attracted to the work of an artist is their personal form of seeing and interpreting the world, sentiments, society, human beings… the universe, to that extent. And that interpretation has to bear fruit, inescapably, to observations and reflection.

I’d say “yes,” that all my comics works are based, to a greater or lesser degree, on experiences.

§ This disturbingly detailed report on the DC softball team’s upcoming season lists Nel Yomtov among the league’s leading sluggers. Isn’t this the same Nelson Yomtov who has been around for like…forever? Did he secretly steal some of that Super Serum when he was at Marvel?

§ Scott McCloud examines highly experimental webcomics:

I sometimes joke that my early experiments in webcomics put me in comics’ “lunatic fringe” but it’s nice to know that there are artists like Sutu out there that make my scribblings look tame by comparison. He tells me he may release a graphic novel follow-up including the first chapters on DVD, so I guess all the walls between print and web are tumbling down if a strange beast like Nawlz can cross the line.

§ Headline of the day: Mr. T and Will Wright fight Nazis

<---Places---->
§ Some Philadelphia fans aren’t happy with the planned activities for Wizard World Philadelphia and they are planning a protest, in accordance with the democratic principles of this great nation:

“We are a group of fans that are staging a funeral for what is known as Wizard World Philadelphia,” he said over email. “The majority of us have been going for most of the years the con has been open. It has gotten to the point where convention coordinators who once asked us for feedback and what we would enjoy at WWP have been let go and new ones just don’t care. It is like the captain going down with the ship. Now with the new acquisition of Big Apple Con and it being in New York, we are to believe they wouldn’t want to use the time or the resources to stage two cons merely two hours apart.”

<---Things---->

§ CARTOON FLOPHOUSE is a prolific new blog by cartoonist Michael Aushenker that looks back and forth at all manner of off the beaten path cartoonists. A recent subject: Frank Robbins, who drew comics from the Silver Age on.

That’s because Frank Robbins has always been a polarizing figure in the annals of Marvel. People flat out either loved his style or despised it, and the proof is all over the letters pages of THE INVADERS, THE HUMAN FLY, GHOST RIDER, LUKE CAGE, CAPTAIN AMERICA and other titles he ran stints on. Given the two camps, I belonged to the former. I loved his anatomically incorrect, funky-posed superheroes and his Flash-paced action, the best combo being the two Franks: Robbins inked by Springer. Robbins was no prim and perfect Neal Adams, photo-realistically rendered and almost static at times…his work was high-octane, breakneck-speed fun and trashy, in the best, B-comic sense. You didn’t stick a Robbins comic in a mylar and mount it on your wall, you rolled it up in your back pocket and took it with you wherever you went. Yes, Frank Robbins had soul.

(Confession, we never could stand Robbins art as a kid; but we didn’t much like Kirby then either so obviously we were jerks. )

§ Paul DiFilippo reviews a few GNs at B&N.com.

§ Some fellow has started The Definitive Guide to the History of the Comic Book Industry as an editable Google Doc…anyone can edit. Go have fun!

§ Kristy Valenti and Shakespeare investigate The Seven Stages of the Comics Critic. We’re at the hazy and rambling stage ourselves.

A bunch of movie sites are posting today that a viral teaser poster for THE SURROGATES has been released (more, see Splash Page.) While the fellow in the ad does look a bit like Bruce Willis, who stars in the film, we’re told by Chris Staros and others that it is actually one of the fake ads for the story’s Virtual Self Inc (VSI) Corporation which ran on the back of the singles of the series, published by Top Shelf.

Has Disney re-released the comics ad as a teaser poster? Or did some scamp send this out to see who would bite?

Well, the source of Comic Foundry senior editor Laura Hudson’s Twitter glee over blogging has been revealed: AOL has relaunched its Comics Alliance blog and Hudson is the blogger on the bubble. RSS feed added — check!

Welcome to my world, girl! My #1 blogging tip is to remember to stand up and walk around the room at least once every day.

Do we link to just about every piece of art Paul Pope posts? Well, maybe, but when it looks as good as this page of STRANGE ADVENTURES art for WEDNESDAY COMICS, how can anyone resist?

Here is the first of the 12 episodes of STRANGE ADVENTURES (starring Adam Strange) which will appear in Wednesday Comics, with coloring by Jose Villarrubia, who collaborated with me on Batman:Year 100. Jose is using only the fabled 144 colors available to newspaper printers circa 1940.

The Flog Blog at Fantagraphics previews one of this summer’s must-haves: Everybody Is Stupid Except for Me by Peter Bagge, which reprints his various comics for Reason and other places. The site has a slideshow, ordering info, and a ton of other extras, like a screensaver. And here’s a link to a 12-page preview.

So what’s the deal at Archaia Press? The company foundered about a year ago as it sought new investors, and was rumored to be purchased by Devil’s Due at one point, but it ended up being acquired by former DD partner PJ Bickett, whose current title is President. Founder Mark Smylie is in place as Publisher. There was a lot of confusion at the time, but obviously, Archaia is back and putting out books, and even hiring people. We mentioned that Mel Caylo had come on board as Marketing Manager, and that means we should see a lot more news coming out, including another hire, Stephen Christy, who is joining the publisher as Director of Development. Christy was formerly at Devil’s Due, where he negotiated deals, such as the Humanoids license. More info in the PR:

In his role as Archaia’s Director of Development, Christy will be responsible for acquiring new comic book properties, overseeing the reverse engineering of previous “made for” scripts, strengthening partnerships within the entertainment sector, and ensuring that Archaia remains true to its reputation of providing the highest caliber of content. Previously, Christy headed IP Development for Devil’s Due Publishing and successfully oversaw the negotiations of nine development deals with major Hollywood production companies over a 14-month period. Prior to Devil’s Due, Christy worked at both Marvel Comics and DC Comics in various aspects of the business.

“We are pleased that Stephen will be joining the Archaia family,” commented Mark Smylie, Publisher and founder of Archaia. “His keen eye for quality content and his outstanding relationships with top-flight creators are the hallmark of what we have built with the Archaia brand. We couldn’t have asked for a better person to run our development slate.”

(more…)

Everyone is talking about this career-spanning interview with writer/BOOM! EIC Mark Waid at AICN. In a comics media drowning in promotional interviews, the long, in-depth interview is a thing of the past (or a TwoMorrows publication) but this one pulls out the stops, and Waid spells out his version of some of the most colorful comics incidents of the past decade, like…Crossgen:

[Mark Alessi’s] idea of creative guidance was to; quite literally, scream until he was red in the face that there wasn’t enough detail on the page and that he wanted to see every single blade of grass, Goddamnit! He’d punish guys who drew perfectly well without his help by focusing on some detail or another on one of 22 pages–some face that somehow wasn’t exactly what he saw in his head, whatever the hell that was–by berating them at the top of his lungs and then sending them home for the day, “and don’t come back until you can draw it right!” That, people, is art directing at its finest. Despite his inappropriate behavior, which was deservedly notorious, there were some damn good Crossgen books put out–but I swear to you, none of them were issued by Crossgen so much as escaped FROM Crossgen.

And…the Jemas Years at Marvel:

(more…)

Are you counting down to the theatrical release of X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE? Or at least to a few hours of shirtless Hugh Jackman? Well, so is everyone else. We’ll try to survey some of the best stuff around the web. Living Between Wednesdays has an excellent overview of the flood of Wolvie products out there, including alarming things like cologne, pictures belts, a product with the slogan “Let’s slice some CAKE!” and so on. And the claws just haven’t successfully been visualized yet, have they?

A rubber band with nails on it?! What the hell is that thing? But it’s hard to fault this product because that kid on the package RULES.

Carlton Hargro at Creative Loafing has absolutely the best guide to Wolvie’s best comics we read:

The big problem with Wolverine comics is that they usually don’t focus on the things that make the guy cool. Just like he was portrayed in the X-Men movies, Wolverine is the super-powered self-styled “best there is at what he does” — and what he does is slice people up with a set of razor sharp claws that pop out of his hands. He’s a tough, ruthless, mysterious loner with metal bones (seriously) and mixes the best aspects of Han Solo, James Dean and Hannibal Lecter (minus the propensity to eat flesh). But, unfortunately, most of the comics that star Wolvie focus on the fact that, as seen in those previously mentioned X-Men films, the character has no memory of his past; consequently most books show him trying to uncover his lost history. And, for a hero who’s been in print since 1974, that search for identity can get kind of boring and hampered with decades of confusing people, places and things. Bottom line: As a lover and collector of comics, I didn’t want anyone getting their hands on crappy products. And to help alleviate that potential problem, I felt it was my duty to direct folks to Wolverine’s “greatest hits” — the comics that even the most casual fans of the rough-and-tumble super guy would understand and enjoy.

For people who want the personal touch, this WEDNESDAY, there will be a Wolverine event at MoCCA with Chris Claremont and Matthew K. Manning, moderated by Peter Sanderson.

Wednesday, April 29th, 7pm
Admission: $ 5 | Free for MoCCA Members

In anticipation of the May 1 theatrical release of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, join us as Chris Claremont, best known for his work on Marvel Comic’s X-Men series, leads a discussion with Matthew K. Manning, author of DK Publishing’s newly-released Wolverine: Inside the World of the Living Weapon, a comprehensive guide to the savage world of the X-Men’s most popular Super Hero.