Last year, blogger Dick Hyacinth presented the world with a time-consuming project — compiling the 2007 best comics of the year lists into a critical consensus — much in the manner of the Village Voice’s old Pazz and Jop critics poll. He started doing the same for 2008 but suddenly, right in the middle…he disappeared, full on Edwin Drood style.

Now, in the manner of Steven Spielberg’s reconstruction of Stanley Kubrick’s A.I., , Sandy Bilus has gathered together Hyacinth’s notes and compiled a Best Comics of 2008 Meta-List:

Methodology: I gave each critic 550 points. Critics who wrote unnumbered lists distributed their points evenly among the books on their lists, while critics with numbered lists distributed their points according to a formula created by Chad Nevett. I only counted lists that had five or more books; for numbered lists with more than 20 books, I only counted the top 20. I also only counted general “best of” lists, not lists limited to a certain genre or type of comic book.

We’ll direct you to the post for the entire list, but the #1 book won’t be a surprise, and the top 20 are a warm reminder that comics are fucking awesome these days.

[Right, the cover to the final book on the list.]

As we continuously hyped, we were on a panel at the Royal Flush Festival on Saturday about blogging, along with celebrity news blogger Michael K. and film bloggers Brandon Harris and Brandon Kim . The panel was moderated by legendary punk cartoonist John Hölmstrom, which was cool in itself. We are always happy to compare notes with other smart people in our line of work, and the novelty of being on a blogging panel that wasn’t a COMICS blogging panel was really cool. Also, despite the bitchy nature of D-Listed, Michael K. is really nice in person like most other full-time bloggers we know, works scary long hours.

Probably the most novel thing about the panel was that since it included a gay man, an Asian man and an African-American man, nobody asked us “WHAT’S IT LIKE TO BE A WOMAN BLOGGER?” or anything similar.

Finally, we were checking out Holmstrom’s blog — which he HAND LETTERS (above) — and read that he got sick for TWO weeks from eating a catfish taco at San Loco, one of our regular dietary choices. So…eaters beware!

This being the blogosphere and all, there was lots o’ reax yesterday to the announcement that the FTC will fine bloggers $11,000 if they “endorse” products they received for free. According to the FTC, an endorsement is the same thing as a review, which is nonsensical, but these are wonks we’re dealing with.

In theory, the practice is meant to discourage things like “mommy bloggers” who get literally thousands of dollars worth of products which they then plug. Also corporate blogging disguised as independent reporting and so on.

The whole thing seems murky and draconian to us, but you know, in theory review copies are also taxable income, so the bottom line is that journalists — who are raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars just for getting out of bed every day because their services are so much in demand — need to report all those perks. Amazon listings are also being looked at, so even that tiny pittance someone is making might be a problem of some kind.

Some reax: Johanna has the willpower not to title her post “TOLJA!”.

Chris Butcher

Non comics bloggers (apparently this is going to have a huge effect on Video Game blogs which are cesspools of graft and licentiousness.)
Ron Workman
Edward Champion

Caroline McCarthy, who reports that even Twitterers must make disclosure statements in 140-character tweets. Nor is Facebook exempt.

This doesn’t actually affect us at all because a) we don’t run many reviews of comics, anyway. (Mops and soda, yes, but we buy those.) and b) Since we’re hosted on the PW site, we’re presumed to be professional and ethical and all that. As we wrote long ago, we detest those “complimentary copy” disclosures, but apparently everyone is assumed to be an amateur now.

§ Gabrielle Bell has a blog in which she shares her mysterious, haunting comics. (Link via Claire Bennett)

§ Debbie Drechsler (DADDY’S GIRL) has a new site with her portfolio and a blog where she posts her nature sketches. Fantastic. (Link via Mike Baehr.)

§ Alan David Doane has organized a new blog called Trouble with Comics, which features Christopher Allen, Johnny Bacardi, Alan David Doane, d. emerson eddy, Mick Martin, Alex Ness, Marc Sobel, Matt Springer, Diana Tamblyn, and David Wynne. With a lineup like that, you will want to bookmark this now.

Brian Chippendale is blogging.

This Brian Chippendale.

But he’s blogging about…DAREDEVIL.

Matt Murdock was the second most important character in this mega-issue. Master Izo has shown us his legacy and we are happy he invited us in. finally, why not a drunken kung fu master to brighten the day with mixed up morality. Marvel should have introduced this off-kilter warrior 35 years ago. Frank Miller(in his saner years) gave us Stick, Murdock’s mentor, and now Stick has a mentor of his own and we are all the wiser. Izo, the many-hundred year old ex-leader of the Hand. It seems that writers since Miller have been unconfident to push FM’s additions to the DD mythos till now(other than Electra). Even Turk gave us a glimpse of humanity in this issue. Tis a sad day that Brubaker has given us his best story and packed his bags all in one. Like Immortal Iron Fist, the subtle grasp of character and history may plummet with his departure. Michael Lark, i fear what follows, your solid composure illustrated a sordid dark gritty New York. A textured city. A balanced graceful Daredevil. I have i think 450 of these 500 issues in my possession. small treasure. Daredevil, Man without Fear, must I fearlessly collect the last 50 or so floppy format comics, from that ugly section of history known as issues 300-380. those cheap days better be over. DD 500 is a prize.

[Via Dan Nadel]

Sometime in the night, the marvelous Gail Simone went on Twitter and spoke thusly: Do We Need Tabloid And Gossip Comics Journalism? which Rich Johnston picked up at the above link. Simone is no stranger to the message board, so the debate continues in the link and its very own Twitter topic.

Now, I haven’t read all of the forum replies at Bleeding Cool, but I did read Simone’s first response and she writes:

And when you ask him about it, he always points to two or three helpful stories he’s posted (like Josh Hoopes) then goes right back to the gossip. It’s weird how Rich can say anything he likes about a comics pro, but if someone dares raise the question, without malice, of whether or not this stuff is worthwhile, that is somehow being ‘butthurt’ or some other dumbass accusation.

Oh my god! Erik Larsen has a disagreement with Neil Gaiman! Really? Mark Waid had a disagreement with a friend…really? I wonder who cares, but even more, I wonder why anyone who can actually write would waste their time pimping that drivel. And Rich CAN write.

Rich is one part of a big dumb cycle of gossip, of fake ‘celebrity’ news, but it is far from the only such practitioner, he’s just the one most visible and the one most desperate to make himself part of the story. The same rules apply, guys. If you laugh at the idiots who read the Enquirer and follow Perez Hilton, but love petty comics gossip, you are in the glassest of glass houses. It’s the same exact useless crap.

As much as I ADORE Gail, I find this awfully thin-skinned and lacking in a sense of the bigger picture.

Can anyone REALLY equate what Rich writes to Perez Hilton? I MEAN, COME ON NOW. I could spend 10 minutes googling around to people’s public Facebook photo pages and find more personal gossip, embarrassing photos, and scuttlebutt than Rich has posted in an entire year.

Erik Larsen posted some trash talk about Gaiman ON A MESSAGE BOARD IN PUBLIC VIEW. People were emailing and IMing that link within a few minutes…is that really “gossip”?

It’s a far cry from paparazzi stalking people getting lattes at Starbucks and personal gossip about who’s banging the babysitter that “real” celebrities are subjected to. Since even people on reality shows are now considered celebrities, comics folks are just lucky they haven’t come in for any level of scrutiny.
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A special report by Zena Metal

Day Two of San Diego Comic-Con 2009 was a star-studded affair as dozens of Hollywood elites came down to pander their wares. A-list actors like Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, Cameron Diaz, Megan Fox, Josh Brolin, and Robert Downey Jr. were among the bigger names making appearances whilst promoting a variety of films, including SHERLOCK HOLMES, DISTRICT 9, THE BOX, JONAH HEX and THE BOOK OF ELI.

- Folks seemed to have embraced the trailer for the NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET reboot, which features WATCHMEN’s Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy Krueger.

- Other talent making the rounds on Twitpic include Felicia Day, Zoe Bell, Eliza Dushku, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Dominic Monaghan, Emily Deschanel, Kiefer Sutherland, and the ubiquitous Bruce Campbell. And sometimes, it just pays to be Eric Wareheim.

- The oddly titled HOT TUB TIME MACHINE, starring John Cusack, also debuted this red band trailer at SDCC.

- Daft Punk are scoring the forthcoming TRON movie and are considering touring to support the soundtrack.

- My girl crush on Diablo Cody continues. For video footage of her latest pixyish ‘do, check out this press clip for JENNIFER’S BODY.

- Peter Jackson got punked at the Entertainment Weekly panel. According to EW Pop Watch’s Marc Bernardin: “EW’s panel just got punked by a crazy thirsty guy who came on stage and drank Peter Jackson’s water. Security prevailed.” Anybody have video?

- Pop Culture Geeks have uploaded a great collection of photos from the Con, giving special attention to action figures. Meanwhile, Parka Blogs focuses in on cosplayers.

- The big talk of last night’s party scene was the free Gwar concert sponsored by Vice. According to Zuda Comics’ Andy Belanger, it was “arguably the greatest metal show of all time… Walked out covered head to toe in fake blood, gross!”

Wonder how it’ll compare to tomorrow night’s Robot Chicken Skate Party. Tonight’s entertainment: Daughtry. Really.

- One of the big revelations at today’s Dollhouse panel was that revered comic artist John Cassaday will be directing an episode of the show’s second season. For more Dollhouse dirt, check out this recap. Spoiler alerts abound for this one.

- Everyone was abuzz about The Mighty Boosh panel. Have you seen this exclusive T-shirt?

- On the media gearhead tip, I’m happy that the hashtag [#sdcc] has finally taken off… far more elegant than the “Comic-Con” that’s been trending.

OK, time to drown my sorrows in a tall boy of Sapporo.

*Photo courtesy of Jimmy Palmiotti (who else?)

A special report by Zena Metal

Day One of San Diego Comic-Con 2009 has come and gone, and though my heart feels a little bit heavier for not being a part of it, I’ve resigned myself to playing armchair critic in addition to my role as The Beat’s second-string reporter this weekend.

Just think of me as a pop-culture Watcher: I observe and compile knowledge, but I can’t actually cause any of the fun trouble I’ve been known to evoke in past years. Below are some dispatches from the Con that made me feel a little warm inside.

- Not surprisingly, Comic-Con is trending highly on Twitter. If you want to personalize your own well-rounded SDCC-related feed, I suggest you follow these fine folks: Comic News Insider’s Jimmy Aquino, the ever-witty Ben McCool, mistress of Adult Swim Liz Mackie, Geeks of Doom, and Entertainment Weekly’s well-scrubbed Michael Ausiello.

- Here are some giant display movie posters for the JONAH HEX film, featuring Josh Brolin and Megan Fox.

- Star Trek cologne. Really? I never even knew the stuff existed, but apparently Khan got his own exclusive scent this week. It’s called (what else?) “Khaaann!”

-  An exclusive 25-minute trailer of James Cameron’s AVATAR seems to have made quite a good impression; there’s been a lot of chatter from attendees thrilled to see him collaborating with Sigourney Weaver again.

- Johnny Depp crashed Tim Burton’s ALICE IN WONDERLAND panel. I wonder if anyone asked him about his next role as principle in the Carol Channing biopic. Here’s a wrap-up with photos.

- Adult Swim creators recount their most awkward Comic-Con moments.

- John Lithgow will guest star in season four of Dexter, portraying the Trinity Killer, widely heralded as “the most dangerous serial killer ever.” Lithgow is perfect for the part; seriously, the dude has creeped me out ever since that one Twilight Zone episode with the doll. Eek! For more on the Dexter panel, check out EW’s coverage.

- Big ups to Twilight’s Kristen Stewart for rocking what looks like a Minor Threat T-shirt. I must say, even at twice her age, the real Joan Jett is still foxier.

-  Nathan Fillion is threatening to “whip Comic-Con into a frenzy” if he gets 100,000 followers on Twitter by Saturday. We get the feeling he’ll try either way.

- Someone can easily win my love by picking up this Voltron exclusive for me. Truly, this sexy black Designer vinyl is one of the quickest ways to my heart. Incidentally, this is the primary-colored metal god’s 25th anniversary.

- Seems that overcrowding is already an issue, as this quote of the day exemplifies: “Comic-Con is so packed, one bonehead thought it wise to yell ‘I have diarrhea! I have diarrhea!’ to try and part the crowd. It didn’t work.” - EW Pop Watch via Twitter

And it was just Day One…

P.S.: Photo courtesy of Parka Blogs.

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

§ Shaenon K. Garrity looks at the sad status of the comic book message boards and the result is savagely insightful from top to bottom:

Once, Kyle Baker went on the DC message boards to promote his then-new run on Plastic Man. He was chased away under a hail of abuse and slurs in under 24 hours. Later, somebody posed as him under a fake username to further smear him. Populated by self-hating teenagers, woman-hating teenagers, and self-hating, woman-hating, forty-year-old teenagers, each a few IQ points short of the people who post comments on YouTube, the DC message boards are the most grotesque comic book message boards on the Internet, but only because Marvel doesn’t have its own boards anymore.

What was it exactly that killed the message board? Was is MySpace. Facebook or Twitter or Warren Ellis? We hear there are still some decent message boards around, but all small and private, but we aren’t invited to them and neither are you.

§ Paul Karasik compares storytelling technique of Giotto and Jack Kirby.

§ The Boston Globe sensibly asks What to do if your child has superpowers:

You may have heard that it could happen at any time. One moment your child might be playing with a toy truck and the next moment he or she is levitating a few feet above the ground. Or your baby might suddenly transform into an ice sculpture. Or - and I have heard this worry expressed by more than one parent - your child might become orange and rock-like, even though he was nowhere near any cosmic rays.

§ Sean T. Collins posts a list of indie comics type on Twitter, so, in the words of Tom Jones, “Follow, follow, follow, follow.”

Robot 6 has an interesting story about a battle of the twitter feeds between the San Diego Comic-Con’s official Twitter feed and one that purports to be a a convention employee with some inside dope called SD Comic Con Expert which is mostly just stuff from other websites. David Glanzer and the con aren’t happy.

Glanzer said this could lead to problems for the con, as the leaked information could effect their relationships with potential guests.

“There may be things that will come to pass, however, some of the information is just random thoughts that have been expressed at meetings for which no official dialogue has been established,” Glanzer said. “Confirming guests and events that we haven’t confirmed may actually have the opposite effect. To ‘leak’ info can jeopardize relationships we have with the individuals and companies who may have planned to attend the show.”

But those aren’t the ONLY two Comic-Con tweet feeds. There’s also sdcomiccon, a feed from Sign ON San Diego which promises Bio News, notes & witty commentary about San Diego Comic-Con International from SignOnSanDiego.com.

A quick search also found comiccon, FirstShowing.net’s SDCC feed and the more ambitious comiccon09, billed as 5 guys going to ComicCon 2009 San Diego,CA July 22 - July 26th 2009. I guess we’re suppsoed to follow along with their touching and heartwarming story? If so, they are already way behind the curve because everyone we know is already twittering about their diets, hotels, and preferred beverages. Get with it, 5 guys….the story is NOW.

Rich Johnston’s new Bleeding Cool site, sponsored in subdued fashion by Avatar, has debuted. Congrats to Rich! We’re quite jealous of their already lively forum, too!

It was a big day in comics media news, or at least a “mini-large” day. Rich Johnston announced that yesterday’s Lying in the Gutters would be the very last. LitG is, of couse, the long running “gossip” column that also functions as the last vestige of independent reporting for the comics media, with such news as publishers who are stiffing artists, the Fake Art Adams, swipe files, and lots of snarky gossip from behind the scenes at the Big Two. The final column included a lengthy dialog between Johnston and CBR honcho Jonah Weiland that explained some of the move, reminisced over olden days and alluded to a “big contributor” who would be coming, in an unrelated move, to CBR.

As if to prove the maxim, “where one falls, another shall rise,” on the very same day Valerie D’Orazio debuted her new “Comics-Op” column for Comixology:

Welcome to the first edition of Comics-Op, comics from a semi-insider perspective. What “semi-insider” means basically is that sometimes I’m just as shocked as you are with the latest comic book developments, and sometimes I just sit on big news with my mouth shut and a Kool-Aid smile on my face for months. My hope is that Comics-Op will be the mid-point between these two extremes, taking you along for the ride.

While the first column was a bit light on the gossip, who knows where it will go?

Meanwhile, via Twitter and the Whitechapel forum, Johnston revealed his new gig: a daily blog called Bleeding Cool, which will be hosted and funded by Avatar Press, publishing of Warren Ellis, Garth Ennis and so on.

Yesterday was the last Lying In The Gutters. But a good gossipmonger never dies. He just goes from a weekly column to a daily blogsite.

Bleeding Cool will feature everything you love and hate about Lying In The Gutters, but every day, reacting to topical news and featuring a host of columns, features, interviews, reviews, previews and…. let’s go with familiar names. Expect real innovation.

It’s funded by Avatar Press, who have promised a hands-off editorial process, but whom I’ll give an Avatar Plug Of The Week to to keep them happy.

Over on his blog, Ellis announced he would be contributing to the new blog.

So…a weekly column goes daily, a former daily blogger goes weekly, a proto blogger author comes back…and Avatar gets into the news business. All in a day.

As the countdown clock on BleedingCool reminds us, the new site will debut in four days…aka Monday,

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!”

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.

We meant to comment on this piece by Lucas Siegel from Blog@Newsarama for days, but never got around to it; the title was “My Opinion Is Right: Comics Press is Crippled Like No Other Industry” but despite that bold statement, the offending incident came from Marvel’s very active staff Twitter community

There has been a bit of an uproar on Twitter in the last 24 hours, primarily instigated by three big names at Marvel Comics complaining about tweets, posts on the microblogging social network, being reposted on websites such as this one, CBR, and many others. The contention by Tom Brevoort, Brian Michael Bendis, and Joe Quesada is that this shouldn’t be done without permission or even payment to the person who made the original 140 character or less post.

This was really a tempest in a teapot — Joe Q, in particular complaining about people reposting his Tweets — let alone PAYING to do it — was odd, since he’s one of the most media-savvy comics personalities out there. It seems that the agita — if it wasn’t all a big put-on — on Marvel’s part was over Twitter aggregations like this gathering up CB Cebulski’s advice on how to break into comics.

Setting aside the fact that apparently Cebulski actually GAVE permission for Blog@ to collect his thoughts, the main thing it made US wonder was…why on earth would ANYONE post any information of any real value on Twitter?

As our colleague Calvin Reid observed to us the other night, Twitter is like a 24-hour rolling cocktail party. There really isn’t enough time in the day to read EVERY Twitter in your feed, and why would anyone want to? CB went to the trouble of typing out some very sound information on breaking in to comics — and then it rolled on. Back to CB’s daily culinary adventures, Wil Wheaton’s making dinner for his kids, Themediaisdying posting about some magazine closing, Wossy making a TV show, and a thousand complaints about computer problems.

Has Twitter crested yet, please God? Well, Techcrunch reports the dual assault of Ashton Kutcher and Oprah has overrun the levees:

Twitter’s march towards world domination continues apace. This morning comScore released its global numbers for March, 2009. Worldwide visitors to Twitter.com increased 95 percent in the month of March from 9.8 million to 19.1 million, according to its estimates. This compares to 9.3 million visitors in the U.S. alone.

What really amuses us is the Internet’s supposed “march of progress”. Six or seven years ago, when blogging was just getting started, we remember countless web articles on how you needed to blog to extend and market your brand. Now we are reading countless blogs about how to use Twitter to extend and market your brand. What’s next? We predict some kind of rolling symbol site — like in the Matrix — where folks just type in little pictures to say how they’re feeling — the bad news is that everyone will need a Chinese computer keyboard to participate.

And what’s a “brand” anyway? Is it the same thing as, gasp, content?

The Twitter fad is notable in that everyone PREDICTS it’s a fad and not a new means of communication, even while they’re trying to make use of this new means of communication. What really worries us is that so much on the web is far less lasting than that moldy, uninteractive print. In its own way the closing of GeoCities is a massive loss of information. If you want to see the Web as it existed ten years ago just find any webpage hosted on GeoCities. And yet, these were mostly pages written by people who were driven by passion. They were also trailblazers of web info, scanning and writing and posting information that has since been disseminated in Wikipedia and the other pro sites that come up whenever you Google anything. They were the frigging pioneers!

Yahoo is closing it GeoCities site this year.

Yahoo bought GeoCities for more than $2.9 billion in dot-com-priced stock in 1999, when GeoCities had more than 1.1 million users. However, while the idea of having a personal presence on the Internet has caught on, GeoCities turned out to be a backwater, not the mainstream.

“We will be closing GeoCities later this year,” Yahoo said in a note on the site. “We’ll provide more details about closing GeoCities and how to save your site data this summer.”

For perspective, Harry McCracken does a “Where are they now” for the top 15 websites and brands of April, 1999 and it’s not pretty.

And now, it looks like the entire publishing world might go the way of GeoCities.
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Alex Segura is now blogging all the DCU news at a new DC blog, The Source:

Basically, The Source is your one-stop shop for all things DC Universe — news, previews, behind-the-scenes info and a direct pipeline to the creators and editors putting together your favorite DC Comics. Whether it’s a first look at an upcoming issue of FLASH: REBIRTH, a quick chat with BATMAN Group Editor Michael Marts, a preliminary sketch from our upcoming RAVAGER co-feature or a link to some of the great content happening elsewhere on the web discussing our stuff, you can find it all here on a regular basis. So, strap in, bookmark the page, post some comments and add the RSS feed. Most importantly, sit back and enjoy your regular dose of DC Universe news.

Before coming to DC, one of Segura’s claims to fame was as the creator of the Great Curve, a group blog which later evolved into Blog@ Newsarama and later still Robot 6, so he obviously has a blogging pedigree. Let’s all welcome him back to the fold!

Plus, this is going to make reading the DC News easier than ever, so we’re happy.

Via Mark Evanier’s blog, we learn that the great Maurice LaMarche has declared today “International Talk Like William Shatner Day.”

Enjoy, won’t you?