Harris Comics — home of Vampirella — discusses the character’s return and new price point — FELL format — in an editorial by Bon Alimagno.

So we set a goal: break back into the Top 100 for the first time in years. But we knew what we were up against. Even armed with a stellar, game changing story by Phil Hester and art by future star Daniel Sampere, we faced an army of torch-bearing doubters and critics. We needed to do something radical, something that would break through the pollution of hype and nonsense that fills your daily intake of comics news and assorted mumbo-jumbo. So we put our money where our mouth is: we’re pricing every issue, yes, EVERY ISSUE, of this miniseries $1.99.

Whatever happened to Dick Hyacinth’s year-end survey survey?

Confirming a rumor that was going around this morning, a press release has confirmed that Wizard CEO Gareb Shamus has purchased the Toronto Comicon. Also known as the Paradise Comicon, the show is run by Peter Dixon of Paradise Comics, who will stay on, and while it has maintained an excellent reputation among guests (we were a guest there in ‘06 and it was tremendous fun), the show had run into some financial difficulties in recent times, with this year’s show canceled and no date for 2010 announced.

Toronto is also–uncharacteristically–the scene of one of the most heated con rivalries on the continent, with Aman Gupta’s Fan Expo Canada a much larger and, frankly, more Wizard-like show. Accusations of dirty tricks on both sides have flown for years, so any escalation would be pretty ugly.

As with other recent Wizard-related activities, the Toronto con has been purchased by Shamus and not Wizard itself. However, with this, the October Big Apple Con and the just announced FunFare magazine, Wizard is showing it’s not as moribund as a lot of folks had predicted. PR follows:

Gareb Shamus, CEO of New York based Wizard Entertainment, announces today that he has purchased the Toronto Comicon, a show that has been consistently awarded The Best International Comic Book Convention (non-USA) by ComicBookConventions.com, for the last 5 years.

“We’ve always had a strong following in Canada, so buying the Toronto Comicon is something that allows me to give back to our fans. These attendees are known to be serious collectors and comic industry followers,” said Shamus.  “I am thrilled to offer the guests, celebrities, artists, dealers and exhibitors to our Canadian audience for the very first time.”

Peter Dixon, owner of Paradise Conventions and former owner of the Toronto Comicon, will still be intimately involved in the show production, his friendly manner ensuring the continuation of the trademarked relaxed atmosphere of the show.

“Wizard brings greater industry recognition and star power to the show. I’m excited about having the fans get this bigger experience,” said Dixon.

The next show dates have not been set yet, but the newly managed Toronto Comicon is expected to debut in 2010.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today that there will now be TEN Best Picture nominees instead of only five. Certainly done for marketing reasons (more pictures with Oscar nominations, don’t you know?), the question to ask in these here parts is: How does this effect both “genre movies” and animated features?

Thoughts?

While Marvel and DC are apparently shipping enough comics to choke a rhino today, may we recommend the quality cartooning of Jill Thompson and the final book in the Magic Trixie trilogy? If there is a finer comic for sale this day, we’d be very, very, very surprised.

So why go to Wizard World Philadelphia, anyway? This year we went because in years past we’d had a great time there, and we had a few friends to see. Plus, from NYC, it’s a very cheap day trip. Our plan was also to see how the other half lived. The way things play out, we seem to spend a lot more time with indie cartoonists who create comics in a blissful state of creative empowerment. Wizard World Philly, despite the relatively small pro turnout, was a different world, where freelancers complained about being paid…perhaps because, unlike indie cartoonists…they expect to be PAID. It was also a world where staying in the good graces of your editor was your paramount job skill, and those who graduated to the sense of freedom engendered by being able to tell the person signing checks “No,” are in a rarefied stratus.

We were also — to be frank — curious to see just how things were going at a Wizard World show. Most of the talk concerning Wizard these days is who’s been laid off, and the ratio of past to present Wizard employees we saw was four or five to one.

Marvel and DC declined to exhibit — although Dan DiDio was there, as were some Marvel editors, and the usual Marvel and DC news panels. (There was a LOT of programming, on multiple tracks.) The big publisher void left Dynamic Forces, Avatar and Aspen as the only real publishers at the show, and certainly the first two, at least, have outputs that are varied and have consistent enough quality to stand up to the spotlight. (And we’re not saying Aspen sucks, just that they have a more narrow focus.)

Elsewhere, though, the biggest booth was for Tonner Dolls and some T-shirt companies. Half of the front of the show was set up for old wrestlers (including an alarmingly tobacco-colored Jerry Lawler and nerdlebrities like Kristanna Loken and Ted Raimi.) The old wrestlers seemed kind of sad until we realized that at least they were alive and mobile.

Which is sort of the way to view the whole Philly experience.

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Tom Spurgeon is still putting together a collective memory, but catches up with main man Dustin Harbin for a wrap-up:

HARBIN: I think last year we estimated our numbers at between 10,000 and 12,000 through the weekend. We don’t have the complete numbers back yet, and even then they’re never complete — there are the hundreds of pros and dealers and guests and press and all that to think about, and we give away a lot of passes throughout the year. Shelton thinks we were about even with last year, which was a pretty good year attendance-wise. It’s hard for me to estimate, as last year we were in an 80,000 square foot hall and this year moved to a 100,000 square foot hall. I thought Friday was down, but dealers seemed pleased with the traffic and if there was anyone who would complain about numbers it’s the dealers.

Elsewhere, Craig Fischer ignores a Klingon woman’s dire prophecy to have a fun show anyway. Liz Baillie had a little ennui:

Generally the show itself was pretty slow, and although I did not do as well as I normally do at shows, I did well enough that I would consider coming back next year (if I can convince even more of my friends to not drop out). I made the excellent choice of doing a series of 12 small superhero-themed watercolor and ink drawings to sell at Heroes for extra money, as well as choosing to charge $10 for sketches. This netted me about $85 extra that I wouldn’t have made otherwise, and definitely made a big chunk of a difference in the final tally, especially when comparing this year’s sales to last year’s.

But she perks things up when dressing as Alec Longstreth to surprise Jeff Smith (above.)
At any rate, it sounds like it wasn’t a barn burner or a game changer, and the economy may have had a little effect, but it was still a good show and e-comics were much on people’s minds, as the Van Jensen/Cheryl Harris report for PW Comics Week makes clear.

OKAY, one more…seems to be the topic of the day! Comics creator/journalist/digital guy Van Jensen has his own thoughts on Longbox. Jensen helped set up Top Shelf’s Kindle initiative so he knows the territory:
I’ve become quite involved with the digital distribution of comics in the past year, helping Top Shelf launch some of its books on the Amazon Kindle, sifting through the various iPhone third-party distributors and then moderating a panel on digital distribution at Heroes Con this past weekend.

This seems like a good point to look into the possible impacts on mainstream publishers of digital publishing, particularly as Rantz Hoseley’s Longbox project launches (read a very good summary of the project at iFanboy).

Many events today, tomorrow, forever

Wednesday, June 24

NEW YORK: It’s the Music and Pictures Show, starring:
Pretendo
The Walking Hellos
Gold Streets

with Carousel:
Gabrielle Bell (Cecil and Jordan)
Michael Kupperman (Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim)
R. Sikoryak (Masterpiece Comics)

June 24, 8 pm $8
Union Pool, 484 Union Ave (Metropolitan and Meeker), Brooklyn, NY

NEW YORK: Steve Dillon signs for the Hero Initiative at Jim Hanley’s

New York: Vertical Wednesday
Event: Vertical Vendesday #2
“Yanki-Doodle Dandy”
What: Club/Group Meeting
Host: Ed Chavez
Start Time:June 24 at 6:30pm
End Time: June 24 at 8:00pm
Where: Kinokuniya, 1073 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY
There will be drinks and snacks!

Over at Hogan’s Alley!, Daryl Cagle posts his photos from the Memorial Day mingling of the comic strip tribes known as Reuben Awards Weekend. Above, Bill (”FoxTrot”) Amend, left; Greg (”Luann”) Evans, center; and eventual Reuben winner Dave (”Speed Bump”) Coverly.

Nerd-culture cable channel G4 and Lucasfilms are teaming for the inevitable: a live showing of the Lucasfilms panel from San Diego. In addition, G4 will broadcast live from the show floor on Saturday, July 25th for three hours, starting at 4 pm ET/PT.

According to PR, It’s the the first-ever, exclusive television broadcast of a San Diego panel. The Star Wars Spectacular! will air Saturday July 25th at 2:00 pm ET/PT, with new footage, breaking news, surprise announcements, guest stars and so on.

Traditionally, details surrounding Lucasfilm’s primary panel presentation are closely guarded secrets, with only 6,500 lucky on-site fans allowed access to the wealth of coveted information from a galaxy far, far away. But this year, G4 – the network that delivers all of the latest and greatest news on comic books, games, technology and pop culture – is offering TV viewers the one-of-a-kind opportunity to share the excitement with an exclusive broadcast of the panel. G4’s Attack of the Show hosts Kevin Pereira and Olivia Munn will join Lucasfilm’s Steve Sansweet and a galaxy of guests from Star Wars: The Clone Wars and beyond – including supervising director Dave Filoni, and voice talent from the show – to provide an insider look at the Star Wars universe, with never-before-seen footage and a LIVE table read of an exclusive new Clone Wars script.

In addition, fans are invited to participate in the panel itself by submitting Clone Wars questions through a special G4 micro-site. Questions will be answered during the live presentation by Dave Filoni and other Clone Wars creatives!

2009’s Comic-Con International also marks another Lucasfilm milestone – the launch of the all-new Star Wars Stories Project. Fans of the Saga will have the unique opportunity to become a part of the Star Wars universe by contributing to Lucasfilm’s own historical archive. Soliciting movie memories and nostalgia, the Star Wars Stories Project invites fans to share their own tales of fandom through video testimonials. In addition to online submissions, fans will have the opportunity to record their stories at Lucasfilm’s pavilion on the Comic-Con floor.

Fans are invited to upload their fan stories at http://g4tv.com/comiccon

Ron Richards at iFanboy takes the most in-depth look yet at Longbox, new software that could become the iTunes for comics. Richards is enthusiastic overall but also points out potential pitfalls, such as getting content from the Big Four publishers. And of course, there is the brick and mortar element:

Now the emergence of a digital comics distribution system is surely to be seen as a threat to Diamond (the main distributor of comics) and local comic book stores. I don’t really have anything to say on that other than that they’re going to need to change or die. I don’t want to be in a world where the local comic store doesn’t exist, and I don’t think that will happen, but the direct market has been a problem (mainly due to Diamond) for years now and the future is inevitable. They’re going to have to evolve their business if they want to survive, it’s just that simple and could be a whole other article so I’ll stop for now.

See also the lengthy comments section, which seems to view the idea of downloadable comics quite positively.

While running around the Internet, we happened upon the news of the death of animator/cartoonist Jaime Diaz. The Argentininan born Diaz had a lengthy career in animation, working with Warner Bros., Hanna-Barbera, Cartoon Network, and Nickelodeon on everything from Dexter’s Lab to Fairly Odd Parents and everything in between.

During a decade-plus stint back in Argentina, Diaz opened an animation/comics studio, and I worked with many of his fine artists in my Disney days. Their work was always completely professional and occasionally inspired, and I always got a kick out of the faxes with Diaz’s big signature at the bottom. The Jaime Diaz Studio hired many local artists who were were good enough to work for Disney, but couldn’t find enough work in original Argentinian comics…yet another case where the American product has drowned out the local, as far as I could tell. Anyway, if you ever picked up a copy of Disney Adventures or a Disney comics in the early ’90s, you certainly saw the work of the Jaime Diaz Studio, and they also did a lot of animation work.

I recall Cosme Quartieri as being one of the finest artists there, and Walter Carzon, who later drew a bunch of Warner Bros comics, including ANIMANIACS. From reading the comments on his death I learned that Bill Diaz, Jaime’s son, passed away two years ago. I also worked with Bill on various projects over the years, and that’s sad to hear; it seems the older Diaz had never recovered from this loss.

After Disney Comics shut down and other kids’ comics died away in the mid ’90s, Diaz came back to the US to resume work in the animation field. Larry Huber has much more on his life and career, including Diaz’s own original creations. Cartoon Brew has more, as does Fred Seibert.

I never met Diaz, and I doubt that anyone reading this who didn’t work in animation this even knew his name, but they should have. Diaz is certainly exemplary of a level of talent and craft that touches and inspires those he worked with, and produced a body of work which entertains and charms generations. My condolences go out to his family.

IGN has a few pages of a BATMAN AND ROBIN #2 preview by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely. It’s hard to overstate how brilliant Quitely’s storytelling and characterization are on even this single page. Panel 1 — the “death from above” shot, perfectly executed, but the angle emphasizing Batman and Robin’s viewpoint — they’re not unleashed, not yet, they’re just floating into the scene. In panel two there are two amazing things happening. #1 is the crab-like outline of Dick Grayson/Batman’s cape…it’s engulfing him, obliterating him…he’s just a tiny head. The mantle of Batman is literally swallowing him. And then there’s Damian/Robin’s curious hunched posture…he just landed with a lot of momentum, but the ground has sucked all the energy out of him, leaving him literally skulking in. Damian’s flawed, difficult character is the heart and plot of this book, and Quitely encapsulates it all in this one drawing.

After those two epic panels, a third is almost too much, but once again, the masks and rituals of the Bat-man garb are transforming the two people inside them. Slit-eyed, dangerous…how can they even SEE?

Whew! We’re just gonna explode when we get the whole book, aren’t we?

This iPhone thing is really catching on. Today’s press release involves a free app for checking out the Eisner Award nominees. We totally just downloaded this app and it features excerpts from all the nominees…some of the art could be a little bigger but it’s a decent enough primer to learn about things you might not otherwise see. And did we mention it’s FREE?

Digital entertainment provider Uclick has announced the release of a new Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards app for iPhone and iPod Touch. The app celebrates the comics industry’s most prestigious awards by providing details on Will Eisner and the Eisner Awards, as well as the entire list of award categories in a tap-and-swipe menu, with information on each creator and title, and images from their nominated works.

“We are honored to work with the Eisner organization to bring the first ever Eisner app to the iPhone,” said Uclick CEO Douglas Edwards. “This app is an excellent way for fans and industry professionals to navigate the entire list of Eisner-nominated creators and works. It’s an interactive showcase that allows readers to familiarize themselves with the nominees for the industry’s most distinguished award.”

The Eisner Awards app is available now for free in the App Store and on iTunes.

The app will update with icons indicating the winners in each category shortly after the voting results are announced on Friday, July 24.

“There is a great deal of anticipation and excitement within the industry leading up to the announcement of the Eisner winners,” said Edwards, “and this app gives everyone the chance to be engaged and informed. The popularity of the iPhone allows us to bring even more attention to the comic industry and the awards that celebrate some of the very best work in comics.”

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Please Say Something - Full Length from David OReilly on Vimeo.

Three years ago we were going on and on about how much we loved this tiny bit of animation by someone named David OReilly, and now he’s won the Short Film prize at the Berlinale for the above film, called “Please Say Something.” It’s about “A troubled relationship between a Cat and Mouse set in the distant Future.” It’s also a pretty extraordinary piece of storytelling that is entirely fresh, heartbreaking, lyrica,l and disturbing all at once. It recalls Krazy Kat, Felix the Cat, Chris Ware, Jason, and a lot of other things. We haven’t loved a cartoon like this since the Quay Brothers.

You can see more cartoons (executed in vector animation) at the link. Like we said, totally fresh and modern, in an unexpected way .

Spotted via Graham Linehan.

Megan Fox is thinking about dressing as Slave Girl Leia at Comic-Con.

San Diego might explode.

If you ask us, there is not a person more deserving of an award than Larry Hama. Also, dig into the press release for a bold historical claim.

The organizers of the First Annual Asian American ComiCon (AACC), a celebration of the unique contemporary role and historical legacy of Asians and Asian Americans in the world of graphic fiction, have announced the presentation of the Henry Y. Kiyama Award to comics pioneer Larry Hama at the event, to be held on Saturday, July 11, 2009 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Museum of Chinese in America (215 Centre Street in New York).

“We want this annual award to recognize the contribution of Asian and Asian Americans to U.S. comic book culture,” says Jeff Yang, co-chair of the event and editor-in-chief of the graphic novel collection Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology. “No one better exemplifies that contribution than Henry Kiyama, whose career represented the convergence of two worlds and industries, and whose work pointed the way to the future of graphic storytelling.”

Kiyama published his breakthrough book The Four Immigrants in 1931. A poignant collection of cartoon stories about life as a Japanese student expatriate in early 20th century San Francisco, it explores the issues these early immigrants faced in a world whose language, culture and traditions were new, strange and confusing. Originally intended for newspaper serialization, Kiyama’s stories were never published in that form; instead, they were ultimately released as a single book-length collection. This publication format, along with the fact that the stories in Four Immigrants featured a group of semiautobiographical characters (based on Kiyama and his friends) who grew, evolved and contended with real historical issues and events, has led some to advocate that it be recognized as the first original graphic novel published in America (arriving a decade before Virginia Lee Burton’s Calico the Wonder Horse in 1941 and nearly two decades before Arnold Drake and Leslie Waller’s It Rhymes with Lust in 1950). Since 1999, Kiyama’s landmark book has been made available by Berkeley, CA–based Stone Bridge Press.

Tickets for the nonprofit Asian American ComiCon are $15 for students, $25 for adults (18 and older), and $75 for a special VIP Pass, entitling the bearer to priority reserved seating at all panels and workshops, a complimentary Asian American graphic novel, signed by its creators, and an original sketch from one of the artists participating in the event’s Artists Alley. Registration will be limited, and is available in advance through the following link: https://www.nycharities.org/event/event.asp?CE_ID=4187  Note: All passes may sell out before the day of the event.

Writer Shawna Benson has a Guide to San Diego in two parts that is quite sensible…as in this from Part One:

Pen and paper. Yes, I know — you have a smartphone, you can jot down notes or phone numbers or what have you on that…ah, but what if you run into Stan Lee in the hallway? I’m not a huge autograph hound, but you don’t want to lose out on an opportunity. Also, smartphones die or lose power. You might want to have paper to write phone numbers, information on panels, etc as a backup. Yes, I know this sounds silly, but don’t come crying to me when you are in the middle of the vast Exhibitor Hall, trying to remember where you saw the awesome T-shirt you wanted to buy. If you had written down the booth number or given yourself some direction back to said awesome T-shirt, you wouldn’t be crying when you can’t find it again. Trust me. I’ve been there.

However, reading this was a nice paradigm shift for us, because it is so written from the viewpoint of…the others. you know, the “new” people, the Normans…

Q & A Okay. I want you to hear me now and believe me later. Perhaps one of the most PAINFUL thing about these panels is when they open up questions to the audience. If you want people to like you, try to keep your questions short and sweet. We don’t need to hear your life story, how you got to the Con, your career aspirations, your costume details, etc. Yes we KNOW you love their work/their show/their writing, etc. Don’t waste time with the accolades. It gets annoying. Oh, and could you please make sure it is a QUESTION and not some general comment you just must make known to the other thousand(s) of people sitting in the room? Please, be interesting. Ask a good question. This is your one chance to ask your favorite comic writer/artist/actor/director/important person on a panel a burning question. Do you really want to be known as the guy/gal who asked them something stupid? And if you aren’t sure if your question is stupid…well, it probably is. Part of the reason people disparage fanboys is because of the Q & A. Seen the William Shatner SNL sketch? Yeah, learn it and love it. Try to be a good fanboy/girl. Okay, off my soapbox about that now.

Part Two has an even more surreal — for us, anyway — anecdote:

If all else fails, make your own party! You’d be amazed how many other people will join you to watch Torchwood in your hotel. (Just follow the rules of your hotel of course.) Also, I’ve been banging the drum to meet lots of people. You never know who you might meet and what they might be doing. Last year a friend of mine was hanging out in the hotel bar at the Hyatt (a popular evening hangout) chatting with someone he had met earlier in the day. As they were talking, friends of this new acquaintance joined them in the bar. Turned out they were a bunch of comic artists and writers! Not only did he get his own private time with people he had seen at Q&As earlier in the day, but he was able to get invited to a party with them! It can happen (usually when you aren’t looking for it, of course). The key is to be open to opportunties. Some events will fall in your lap. Others you’ll have to search for. The larger your network of contacts at the convention, the more likely you are to hear about some cool evening event.

There is so much that is charming about this story. First, is the idea that meeting comic book writers and artists at a comic-book convention is somehow…cool. Second is the demonstration, yet again, that comic book folks are the most accepting open creative types on earth. Hello, New-friend-we-just-met-five-minutes-ago, let’s go party with Joss Whedon! Third, Comic-Con is really where any amount of wacky shit can happen, and that’s why we love it.

Sometimes, from our ancient point of view — Comic-Con is for comics and cartoonists — we forget that our con is just one con inside a dozen other cons. We may never be able to see the show from the new perspective, but we can at least be a little more sympathetic. These people are not so different than you and I…it’s the Pale Green Pants Phenomena yet again!

Anyway, whoever Benson is — for such a sensible person, she should include a bio on her site! — her con guide is full of practical information for…whoever you are.

Last week, we noted that the Eisner Awards were moving to a new venue, and how here’s some PR from Jackie Estrada with more info and a picture…hm, where WILL we find that power outlet?

The ceremony for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards has a new home for 2009: The Indigo Room at the recently opened Hilton San Diego Bayfront. The Hilton Bayfront is just south of the San Diego Convention Center, the site of the ceremony for the last several years.

“The Indigo Room is perfect for the Awards,” said Jackie Estrada, the Eisner Awards administrator. “The décor offers both elegance and intimacy, and the audio-visual facilities are state-of-the-art.”

The ceremony will be held on Friday night July 24 of Comic-Con International. The doors will open for VIP seating at 7:30, and general seating will open at 8:15, with the festivities starting at 8:30. Bill Morrison, creative director at Bongo Comics, will again be master of ceremonies, and attendees can expect to see celebrity presenters from the worlds of comic books, graphic novels, TV, and films. Awards will be given out in 26 Eisner categories. In addition, Comic-Con’s own special awards will be presented: the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award, the Russ Manning Promising Newcomer Award, and the Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award.

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§ Do Anything, the new Warren Ellis column for Bleeding Cool, connects some dots:

Jack Kirby didn’t get to be an intellectual. That’s a label others stick on you. When Jack told Will Eisner, as recorded in Eisner’s book SHOP TALK, of the time in his career when he “began to intellectualise,” you can almost literally hear Eisner’s condescension come off the page. Art Spiegelman, struggling to say anything of import about Kirby in a conversation with Gary Groth, calls his work “dimwitted.”

When Jack Kirby’s army superiors, during his World War II service, discovered he was an artist, they put Private Kirby to drawing maps on scrap paper while in the field of combat. Will Eisner was illustrating manuals from his Pentagon posting as Chief Warrant Officer.

In 1997, Eisner tells an interviewer that when someone showed Kirby Eisner’s THE DREAMER, a book about the early comics industry and therefore depicting a young Jack Kirby, Kirby’s comment was “I didn’t think Will liked me that much.”

§ We neglected to mention that The Toronto Star has named Chester Brown’s LOUIS RIEL as one of the best books of “The Century So Far”.

§ Matt Thorn went to a party for Moto Hagio, one of the Forty Niners, and perhaps “the most important cartoonist in the history of shojo.”

§ Is Kiminori Wakasugi’s DETROIT METAL CITY the latest manga must-have? We think so, and so do David Welsh and Johanna Draper Carlson. Basically, it’s Spinal Tap/Metalocalypse in manga format. We hear both the anime and live action adaptations are aces, too.

§ Boston University is adding a Religion & Comics Collection courtesy of doctoral student A. David Lewis.

§ Dave Howlett’s Living Between Wednesdays column brings up some storytelling tropes like the “first page little head recap.” Maybe it’s our own mentally-challenged reasoning ability, but we LOVE the “first page little head recap.” What do the rest of you think?

§ We’re not that eager to go see TRANSFORMERS 2. A robot with a gold tooth, really?

§ Jill Thompson’s superpower, revealed.

§ Jeff Smith as Colleen Doran’s life coach:

But Jeff urged me to get A Distant Soil done as soon as possible. The challenge? Shave my head and keep it shaved until the book is finished.

Whew. I may have to come up with some other sacrifice. May I crop it boyishly short instead? Live with my natural color for awhile?

One of the Wizard-related announcements at WWPh was the debut of FunFare, a new magazine which is owned by Wizard publisher Gareb Shamus but published via Wizard. You can read the PR in the jump but it will be a kind of family service magazine, with product reviews and recommendations, especially toys. The concept spins out of the “Hot Dozen Toys” event that Wizard and ToyFare have been promoting for years. It’s also a bit reminiscent of Family Fun, a magazine published by Disney for a while back in the ’90s.

UPDATE: Several people have reminded me that this is an update of Toy Wishes, a similarly-themed but more limited in scope magazine.

AND PLUS, two more staffers have apparently left Wizard, including the managing editor of Toy Wishes.

While the magazine industry is still in shell shock, FunFare is certainly a decent idea for a launch. The debut issue will come out in conjunction with the October Big Apple Con.
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It looks like kids’ comics licenses are the new hot thing, as two new licenses were revealed yesterday: BOOM! Studios will be picking up the Disney Comics license formerly at Gemstone, and Archaia has just signed a pact with the Henson Company.

§ Disney first. As revealed by the online September previews, BOOM! will publish WALT DISNEY’S COMICS AND STORIES #699 by Riccardo Secchi and Stefano Turconi, and MICKEY MOUSE AND FRIENDS #297 by Stefano Ambrosio and Lorenzo Pastrovicchio. This is picking up the numbering right from where Gemstone left off. But it also looks like BOOM! will be marketing these books in a more kid-friendly format, like its successful launch of the Pixar books, THE IINCREDIBLES and CARS. Arthur de Wolf at the DCW website (a dedicated source for Disney comics news) gives this a bit of perspective:

It looks like Boom! is completely abandoning the collector’s concept and going a different route. The first new issue of Walt Disney’s Comics & Stories will have only 24 pages and will sell for $2.99, the same price and size as its Pixar titles. And that’s not all, it will have the first part of an Italian-produced multi-part series titled Ultraheroes. These three-tier stories (stories with three rows are usually used in smaller pocket-sized books, while full-sized comics have four rows) aren’t anything like the material that has been published in WDC&S in recent years. Ultraheroes is a series with a total of 240 pages, so it looks like this is going to be the new style of WDC&S for at least its first 10 issues.

Gemstone always published Disney Comics more for the extremely niche adult collectors market that’s more numerous in Northern Europe than here; a switch to a kid-friendly line could make for a larger potential audience.

§ The other news was Archaia picking up the Henson license, with such properties as FRAGGLE ROCK, THE DARK CRYSTAL, LABYRINTH, MIRRORMASK, and THE STORYTELLER. PW has more details. With Archaia recently refinanced and revitalized, this is their first significant licensing deal, and shows that they’re fitting right in with the model of the modern comics publisher.

Unanswered questions from THIS announcement: what about Toykopop’s license for manga-esque versions of things like LABYRINTH? According to a post by author Jake Forbes at Comics Worth Reading, the fourth volume of RETURN TO LABYRINTH is still coming out.

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Are we giving these folks too much publicity by posting these ongoing covers?

Or is it just fun for everyone?

Re our discussion yesterday of GHOSTBUSTERS 2, which The Beat found disappointing, punk rock band Art Brut frontman and comics fan Eddie Argos is apparently among those who watched GHOSTBUSTERS on Sunday, and had this to Tweet:

If you don’t like Ghostbusters 2, I don’t like you.

Unless your my girlfriend. In which case I’ll forgive you for falling asleep, drink your wine and (when its finished) carry you to bed.