Top Shelf told us they will be out in force this weekend with more cartoonists than they’ve ever brought along before. Safety in numbers.

Alex Robinson — Too Cool To Be Forgotten
Jeffrey Brown — Incredible Change-Bots
Matt Kindt — Super Spy
Andy Runton — Owly
Robert Venditti — The Surrogates
Liz Prince — Delayed Replays
Aaron Renier — Spiral-Bound

Technorati Tags: HeroesCon ‘08

Image confided their plans to us:

“HeroesCon is a darned fine funnybook show,” Image Comics Publisher Erik Larsen said. “In an age when outside media like movies and video games have taken over most conventions, Shelton Drumm and his dedicated team consistently keep Heroes focused on what matters most to those of us in the world of contemporary pictorial literature - a bona-fide COMIC BOOK convention that’s fun for the whole family!”

In addition to the overwhelming number of Image creators attending, Image will be spotlighted on a total of three panels including the State of the Industry Discussion, Friday at 1:30, featuring Image Comics Publisher Erik Larsen in room 207. Saturday brings Tori Amos’ COMIC BOOK TATTOO panel at 12:00PM and The Image Comics Show at 4:00 PM, both in room 217BCD. This Image Comics Show’s HeroesCon debut features Erik Larsen, THE WALKING DEAD’s Robert Kirkman, THE NIGHTLY NEWS’ Jonathan Hickman, PERHAPANAUTS’ creators Todd Dezago & Craig Rosseau and a number of announcements, including the first word on Whilce Portacio’s other big project.

Technorati Tags: HeroesCon ‘08

Are you ready for one more symposium? This one is open to the public and free with museum admission. It’s at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and covers even more aspects of the comic book’s influence on culture. Among those appearing: Alex Ross, Paul Levitz and Adi Granov. All programs are in The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium. More info here.

Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy

This all-day event of lectures and panel discussions brings together leading international scholars, critics, and designers to discuss the world of costumes and comics. Themes include the appropriation of the uniform, the adaptation of superhero costumes for the screen, the creation of modern mythologies, and the role of the superhero as metaphor in contemporary society.

LECTURES

10:00 am E Pluribus Unitard: Notes toward a Theory of Superhero Costuming. Peter Coogan, director, The Institute for Comics Studies

10:30 am Writers Panel: Danny Fingeroth, author, Disguised as Clark Kent: Jews, Comics, and the Creation of the Superhero; Richard Reynolds, author, Super Heroes: A Modern Mythology; and Paul Levitz, president and publisher, DC Comics

11:45 am The Boys in the Hoods: The Costumed Vigilante as Urban Dandy. Scott Bukatman, associate professor, Department of Art and Art History, Stanford University

2:00 am Costume Designers Panel: Geoff Klock, assistant professor, Borough of Manhattan Community College; Adi Granov and Phil Saunders, illustrators and concept designers, Iron Man; and Gordon Smith, costume designer, X-Men films.

3:00 am Artists Panel: Alex Ross, comics artist; John Cassaday, comics artitst; Stanford Carpenter, assistant professor, Visual and Critical Studies, School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

4:00 am The Gods of Greece, Rome, and Egypt Still Exist—Only Today They Wear Spandex and Capes! Michael Uslan, executive producer, The Dark Knight

[While we STILL try to get our shit together to post the last of our MoCCA photos and our Licensing show photos, we keep you amused with this report on another event last week. Above, the author and Malcolm MacDowell]

By Steve Bunche

I don’t know about you, but even though I’m a dyed-in-the-wool geek there are times when I dread the siren call of the comics/toy/art/sci-fi convention. Nonetheless I always attend (when it’s affordable) and more often than not I find myself aggravated by the crowds, the poor layout of the floor that doesn’t allow said crowds to move, and the promoter’s naked desire to make a buck at all costs, not giving a rat’s ass about the experience that the fans are shelling out their hard-earned cash for. Sadly, that’s been more or less par for the course with New York City cons, and having been a regular NYC con-goer since 1975 I think I’m entitled to grouse.

The sole exception to this sorry state of affairs is the Big Apple Convention, a regularly scheduled event held at Manhattan’s Penn Plaza Pavilion during the end of spring and the end of the fall, respectively, and even bears the endorsement of Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The Big Apple Con is the epitome of how a homegrown convention should be handled, providing the eager fan with just about collector’s item back issue, toy, t-shirt, or DVD they could want within easy reach, to say nothing of the opportunity to meet and greet with celebrities ranging from iconic A-listers to obscure pop culture personalities, all to be had for a shockingly affordable entrance fee.

This season’s con fell on the 7th and 8th of June, unfortunately the first sweltering days of a brutal heat wave, but the fans showed up despite the heat and entered an engaging nexus between their fantasies and the mundane reality of the New York weekend. The show’s first floor housed the admissions area - tickets could also be obtained online at www.bigapplecon.com - and a few tables offering movie memorabilia and assorted books, as well as the signing table and photo-op section for some of the celebs, chief among whom were A-listers Richard Dreyfuss (Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind) and my favorite actor of all time, Malcom freakin’ McDowell (A Clockwork Orange, Caligula, Heroes). If I may gush like the unrepentant fanboy that I am, I never thought I’d get to meet McDowell, much less chat with the guy and get my picture taken with him - by the excellent Froggy, who can be reached at froggy@froggysphotos.com - so I found myself bursting with geekish delight for the whole weekend.

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by James A. Owen

On May 28, in association with the Association of Booksellers for Children (ABC) and The Denis Kitchen Art Agency, the Storyopolis Gallery and Bookstore hosted an Evening With The Works Of Will Eisner. Original art going back five decades was hung on every wall in the building, beginning with THE SPIRIT (complete stories, in sequence) and continuing through to his later graphic novel work such as LAST DAY IN VIETNAM.

My first exposure to Will Eisner was in THE SMITHSONIAN BOOK OF COMIC BOOK COMICS in 1982 (I know the date because it was a Christmas present, and it’s written on the flyleaf) and we met at San Diego four years later. In person, he was a remarkable torrent of history and creativity and story - but other than the one Eisner original I own (which he drew for my STARCHILD #0 book) I’d never seen his art up close.

The roughs from CITY PEOPLE were paired with the finished pieces, and showed his amazing thinking process; the color art from THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG showed his versatility; but it was the SPIRIT pages that blew away everyone in attendance. To see jet-black ink on pages a decade and a half older than I am was thrilling and humbling in equal measures.

Among those attending were Jackie Estrada, Batton Lash, Tone Rodriguez, Stan Sakai, Bill Morrison, Larry Marder, and Paul Levitz. An All-Star panel consisting of Jackie, Denis Kitchen, Sergio Aragones, and Mark Evanier reminisced about Will and the effect he had on all of them personally and professionally.

It was the only BEA-related event I attended in LA, and it was absolutely worth the trip.

Storyopolis owner Matthew Abrabowitz and Events Director Blake Harris have hinted that another exhibition of the Eisner work may be upcoming in another venue, so an update may follow. Attached are photos from the event: Denis Kitchen; James Owen and Stan Sakai; the Panel; and some of the SPIRIT pages.

UPDATE: Here’s a review and photos of the Abel/Madden presentation at MoCCA, and a preview of tonight’s show.

More here.

Drawing Words and Writing Pictures is a course on comics creation, and class is in session as its two Brooklyn-based creators offer an interactive evening of presentation, sketching, and workshop instruction. Jessica Abel is the author of the short-fiction omnibus series Artbabe, the graphic novel La Perdida and a new slacker vampire comic, Life Sucks. Matt Madden is a comics creator and teacher at New York’s School of Visual Arts. He is the creator of the graphic novels Black Candy, Odds Off, and A Fine Mess, and of the comics theory book 99 Ways to Tell a Story. He is the co-editor (with Jessica Abel) of the Best American Comics series.

Just a quick round-up of this morning’s top MoCCA links — first of doubtless dozens and dozens. Our own blog post will have to wait until we’ve finished out official PWCW write-up.

§ The best event of the weekend, based on numerous reports was the Lynda Barry talk on Friday, which we’re totally bummed we missed. Please, somebody have taped this! Anne Bernstein did go and blogged about it for Frederator:

Going to see Lynda Barry is like going to see the Dalai Lama. (Actually, I’ve never gone to see the Dalai Lama, but I plan on doing so the next time he’s in town to see if he could possible be more inspiring than the personality-packed “Funk Queen of the Universe”.) Lynda was in NYC this weekend to promote What It Is, which is likely the world’s first collage how-to-write book. She was interviewed by Hillary Chute Friday Night at the NYU Post Bang all-day comics symposium, and had the audience in stitches the entire time—but in a deep way!

§ The other best event of the show was the Spiegelman/Panter talk, moderated by Bill K., which the wonderful Brian Heater did record. Rejoice!

I did, however, have the pleasure of sitting second row, center for the hour-long conversation between Spiegelman, Panter, and moderator Bill Kartalopolous. Over the course of the panel, they touched on topics ranging from fine art influences, to 9-11, to San Francisco acid trips. It was a loving reminder in this world of post-bang of a few of the minds who helped light the fuse.

And now some more recollections:

Technorati Tags: MOCCA 08

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News flash from MoCCA for today, Sunday’s show; MoCCA volunteers hope to have FANS for the 7th floor.

With temperatures in New York City soaring to nearly 100 degrees, everyone was glowing at the first day of the MoCCA Art Festival. The crowd was large and enthusiastic, standing in line for Lynda Barry, Adrian Tomine, Jason, Hope Larson, Bryan Lee O’Malley and other indie comics favorites. While the AC held out on the first floor, up on the 7th floor exhibitors including Meahaus, Vertigo and the Finnish comics delegation sweltered in brutal, oppressive heat.

How hot was it? Even normally cool and collected Tim Leong of Comic Foundry magazine looked sweaty.

As mentioned, for today’s show, fans are being brought in to help air circulation on the 7th floor.

We’ll have more coverage later. For right now, we’re frankly knackered from the sudden temperature change and the non-stop yapping and chatting. We will say that buzz books include Goddess of War, Skyscrapers of the Midwest, Too Cool to be Forgotten, director Michel Gondry’s mini, and the Star Wars mini Harvest is When I Need You The Most. With only 50 copies printed, this was a quick sell-out.

A few piccies in the jump:

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Okay we’re nerds, but we may just bring our copy of this. But even more important…FINALLY …GODDESS OF WAR!

PictureBox will be at the MoCCA comics festival this weekend at NYC’s Puck Building (At the corner of Lafayette and Houston). We will debut the following books and zines:

-Goddess of War by Lauren Weinstein

-Cold Heat Special 4 by Jim Rugg and Frank Santoro

-Core of Caligula by CF

-We Lost the War but Won the Battle by Michel Gondry

-Crazy Town by Paul Gondry

-Bicycle Fluids (not) by Matthew Thurber

-Faded Igloo by Jim Drain

-The Museum of Love and Mystery by Jim Woodring (a Presspop edition)

Michel Gondry, Paul Gondry, Gary Panter, Frank Santoro, Lauren Weinstein, CF and Matthew Thurber will all be in attendance.

The schedule is:

Saturday:

11-12: Frank Santoro and Lauren Weinstein
12-2: Michel Gondry, Paul Gondry and Lauren Weinstein
2-3: CF, Frank Santoro, Gary Panter
3-4: Gary Panter, CF, and Lauren Weinstein
3:45-4:55: Frank Santoro Lecture @ MoCCA!
4-5: CF, Michel Gondry, Paul Gondry
5-6: CF and Dan Nadel in Conversation @ MoCCA!
5-6: Lauren Weinstein, Michel Gondry, Paul Gondry

Sunday:

11-12: Frank Santoro & Lauren Weinstein
12-2: Michel Gondry, Paul Gondry, Lauren Weinstein
2-3: Frank Santoro, Matthew Thurber, Lauren Weinstein
3-5: Michel Gondry, Paul Gondry, Matthew Thurber

Technorati Tags: PictureBox

The annual MoCCA Art Festival is being held this weekend in New York at the historic Puck Building in lower Manhattan.

Alternative Comics has a number of exciting new books debuting at the show:

Sam Henderson will be debuting Magic Whistle #11: Body Armor For Your Dignity
Body Armor For Your Dignity

Karl Stevens will be promoting Whatever
Whatever

Scott Campbell will be selling art prints, mini-comics, t-shirts, and promoting the latest issue of Hickee
Hickee #4

Technorati Tags: puppy

Once again, The Daily Cross Hatch has a far more coherent MoCCA preview than we could manage at this point, but here’s some more who’s where with what:

Bryan Lee O’Malley with new postcards!
Hope Larson with $20 Chiggers deal! Check it out!

Dash Shaw with BodyWorld Cosplay (above)

Alex Robinson often paired with
Mike Dawson
Liz Baillie
Laura Hudson
David Heatley
Calico Comics
The Finns! (in Finnish)
Joey Weiser
Greg Ruth

Leigh Dragoon (Above) The cat isn’t actually going to be there, we don’t think.
Frank Santoro
Barry Deutsch
And more PR in the jump:

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Just in case you happen to be in NYC this weekend and MoCCA doesn’t cut it for ya, there’s also a big all day event taking place at the Kinokuniya Bookstore: a day of Manga/Anime fashion with a tea party, a movie screening, a reading and more.

The New York Anime Festival (NYAF) today announced it is partnering with Del Rey Manga, Samurai Beat Radio, and VIZ Pictures to hold the first Lolita and Maid Fashion Day at the largest Japanese bookstore in North America — New York City’s Kinokuniya Bookstore. Taking place Saturday, June 7 in celebration of International Lolita Day, Kinokuniya Bookstore located at 1073 Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan will present a day-long series of events showcasing the diverse world of cute, cool, elegant, and hip fashion in modern Japan, namely Japanese Lolita and Maid fashions.

“We’re proud to help create Lolita and Maid Fashion Day at Kinokuniya,” New York Anime Festival Show Manager Lance Fensterman said. “Lolita and Maid fashion have quickly become two of the most prolific ambassadors of anime, manga, and Japanese culture in America, and the New York Anime Festival couldn’t be happier bringing these fashions to New York City — the fashion capital of the world.”

Kinokuniya’s Lolita and Maid Fashion Day will include special all-day activities as well as a series of Lolita and Maid-themed speakers and presentations

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Well hellzapoppin this weekend in New York, as if MoCCA and a Maid Cafe tea party weren’t enough there’s also a Big Apple Con featuring Oscar® winner Richard Dreyfuss, Ice-T, and…Malcolm McDowell. Relive those Clockwork Orange memories! Cartoonists will also be featured, including Bernie Wrightson, Gene Ha, etc etc.

MIKE CARBONARO’S BIG APPLE COMIC BOOK, ART & TOY EXPO will kick off with the SUMMER SIZZLER at the PENN PLAZA PAVILION, SATURDAY & SUNDAY, JUNE 7th & 8th. There will be more than 300 dealers & exhibitors, showcasing comics, toys, action figures, original art, videos, autographs, trading cards, TV & movie memorabilia & more. It’s the place to buy, sell or trade your collectibles!

The Big Apple Convention is proud to be bringing Oscar winner RICHARD DREYFUSS (Jaws, Close encounters of the Third Kind, Sunday only) to New York, as well as MALCOLM McDOWELL (“Heroes,” A Clockwork Orange, Star Trek Generations), ICE- T (“Law & Order: SVU”) & his wife, model COCO, DOUG JONES (Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy), JASON MEWES (Clerks, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back), JOHNNY BRENNAN (Jerky Boys, “Family Guy”), CHASE MASTERSON (Star Trek: Voyager), YANCY BUTLER (“Witchblade”), BUTCH PATRICK (“Theu Munsters,” Saturday only), SOUPY SALES (Sunday only), KATHRYN LEIGH SCOTT (“Dark Shadows”), RANDY JONES (Original cowboy of the Village People) , JASMIN St. CLAIRE (“Metal’s Darkside”), MONIQUE DUPREE (American Gangster, Bachelor Party), Pro wrestling legends CAPTAIN LOU ALBANO, SANDMAN, & JOHNNY DIAMOND, three voice actors from “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” “YuGiOh!” “Speed Racer,” and other favorite shows and anime: WAYNE GRAYSON (Michaelangelo), PETE ZARUSTICA (Fugitoid), & DAVID ZEN MANSLEY (Bishop), and radio’s “BIG KEV.” There will also be a Friday the 13th, Part 2 reunion with WARRINGTON GILLETTE, JACK HARRIS, and LAUREN MARIE TAYLOR, and from Part 3, ANNIE GAYBIS.
Among the comic book veterans and hot new artists appearing are BERNIE WRIGHTSON, GENE HA, RICH BUCKLER, IRWIN HASEN, JOE GIELLA, GUY DORIAN, IAN DORIAN, IVAN BRANDON, ALEX MALEEV, ANDY MACDONALD, BILLY TUCCI, TOMMY CASTILLO, MARK TEXEIRA, and many more.

As if two days of concentrated comix goodness wasn’t enough, tomorrow 6/6 is a full day FREE event spotlighting some of thew most brilliant minds of the day: The Post Bang symposium. Celebrate D-Day in style!

If you always wanted to meet comics legend Lynda Barry, East Coasters are getting their chance this week!

LYNDA BARRY IN NYC & PHILLY THIS WEEK!
Don’t miss Lynda Barry at one of her events this week in NYC and Philadelphia! Each event will be totally different, don’t miss it!

PHIL Thurs, June 5th, 7 PM Free Library www. freelibrary. org
NYC Fri, June 6th, 8 PM NYU Cantor Center www. moccany. org
NYC Sat June 7th & Sun. 8th MoCCA Fest www. moccany. Org (signing only)

For more information visit:
http://www.drawnandquarterly.com/index.php

D+Q @ MoCCA! WITH BARRY, TOMINE & BELL!
Join Drawn & Quarterly at our favorite NYC convention, the MoCCA Arts Festival at the historic Puck Building this weekend! Signing at our table will be Lynda Barry, Adrian Tomine and Gabrielle Bell!

Saturday, June 7th
12:30-2:00- Gabrielle Bell
2:00-3:00- Adrian Tomine
2:30-4:30- Lynda Barry

Sunday, June 8th
12:30-2:00- Gabrielle Bell
2:30-4:30- Lynda Barry

Next week, Barry hits Chicago, while D&Q represents for the Printer Row Book Fest:

D+Q AT CHICAGO PRINTERS ROW BOOK FEST JUNE 7th & 8th!
Drawn & Quarterly will be making its first ever appearance at the Chicago Printers Row Festival this weekend with Chris Ware and Ivan Brunetti signing AND doing a panel with D+Q Editor-In-Chief Chris Oliveros; the panel will be moderated by Chicago Comics proprietor Eric Kirsammer!

Dearborn & Polk St.
1:00 PM PANEL: Heartland Stage, South Dearborn across from Page Break Park
2:00 PM: Signing immediately following panel at the D Q booth TENT LOCATION: KK3

LYNDA BARRY AT THE HIDEOUT FOR WHAT IT IS JUNE 12th, 5PM!
Oh yes, what could be better than seeing Lynda in person and drinking a beer with her and having your book signed! She will also being a short stage talk at 7 PM!
www.hideoutchicago.com http://chicagocomics.com/
1354 W Wabansia Ave

Wow we are so slammed by everything going on we haven’t even had time to assemble a MoCCA Party Poop guide, although there is plenty of it! So we’ll just steal from Daily Cross Hatch. Hit the link for your social guide:

We know it’s tough to find things to do in a quiet city like New York, especially if you happen to visiting from out of town for a week during the MoCCA Art Festival, but don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Consider your week planned out below—sure pretty much everything on here is somehow related to the festival itself, but give us a break, this is a comics blog, after all.

Own own schedule? Friday it’s Charles Brownstein’s 30th Birthday bash (email for details.)

Saturday, it’s the FRIENDS OF LULU Awards. Ladies — let’s strut our stuff and show how awesome and unstoppable we really are. Then we’ll be hitting the Indie Spinner Rack party:

If you’re ATTENDING MOCCA …..it’s on, and YOU ARE INVITED!

FREE DOOR PRIZES, DJ WACKY WACK, FREE LOVE & Perhaps Mr. Phil will take his shirt off!

Swing by the ISR booth to get your Raffle ticket NO CHARGE. FREE.

OFFICIAL IZZER MOCCA PARTY
Saturday June 7th
9pm START TIME….who knows how long.
BAR M-15! - mere blocks from MOCCA.
http://www.m1-5.com/

Okay here’s one of those oddball pop culture anthologies: Harvest Is When I Need You The Most:

Harvest Is When I Need You the Most, features the talent of 8 cartoonists paying homage to the original Star Wars trilogy.

The 36 page, full color book releases at MoCCA Art Fest 2008, and will available for online orders on June 14!

We don’t really need more Star Wars, but we love the cover!

Last year’s SUNDAYS anthology was one of the biggest hits of MoCCA, and they’re back:

Announcing the Sundays 2 anthology. By the folks that brought you last year’s Sundays anthology. With 60-plus B + W pages, measuring at 13” X 11” with silk-screened covers, Sundays 2 will surely delight readers of comics from all walks of life. The book will debut at the MoCCA Festival and will be available on the 7th floor in the skylight ballroom(Table # S-53). Sundays 2 will also be available at HeroesCon later in the month. With every purchase, buyers will get a free silk-screened bag to carry Sundays and other fine purchases at the shows.

Prism Comics, which promotes LGBT creators and their comics, will participate with a booth and creator signings at the MoCCA Art Festival, a two-day event being held June 7th and 8th, from 11:00am to 6:00pm each day, at the Puck Building in New York City. In conjunction with the festival, Jim Hanley’s Universe will host an LGBT comics signing event on Friday, June 6th, at 7:30.

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OOOOOKAY, begin the MoCCA news dump! Chris Mautner at Blog@ has a nice little run down and here’s SOME of what we found on the internets as far as previews go. IF we left you out shoot us an email and we’ll update.

Meathaus
Ben Rosen
Marek Bennett
Vanessa Satone
One Percent Press
Dave Roman
Lunchbox Funnies
Tom Neely
The Flight crew
Kean Soo

Jeffrey Rowland
with NEW POSTER (above.)
Raina Telgemeier
Josh Neufeld
Denis St. John
Marion Vitus
Lark Pien
David Malki
Cliff Face Comics
Daryl Ayo Brathwaite
John Green
Cat Garza
Jen Wang
Below the cut: more news and pre dumps!

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It was a long day for the Graphic Novel set yesterday here at the BEA. The day started out like gangbusters with the Graphic Novel Authors Breakfast, which we reported on yesterday, Then a full slate of panels rolled out. Unfortunately, we lost our notebook during the day in all the excitement, so we’ll have to rely on our shoddy memory for content.

The Young Cartoonists Buzz panel included Kazu Kibuishi, , Danica Novgorodoff, , Neil Babra and Lars Brown, with Gene Yang moderating and Jeff Smith kibitzing from the audience. They started out talking about how long they took to do a page, and it ranged from 3-10 hours. Kibuishi said it took him half and hour to ink a panel which drew amazement from Smith until Kibuishi explained that it was the coloring and modeling which takes up most of his time. Yang asked rhetorically why anyone would devote do much time to working on a 100 or 200 page graphic novel and the panelists responded with variations on the theme of how comics are a complete medium for storytelling.

We had to jump back and forth after that as there were several panels that overlapped. On the Hollywood and Comics panel, an audience member asked if there were opportunities for female-fronted comics book movies — the answer was that since ELEKTRA and CATWOMAN bombed, it’s a very very hard sell, which isn’t fair, but no one remembers Lara Croft. (We’d add AEON FLUX to the bomb list.) Both WANTED and WHITEOUT have major female characters,however. (To which we’d add, pray for WITCHBLADE.)

Other topics included Sex in Comics, various shelving and distribution issues, and building library collections. The Editors Buzz panel wrapped up the day with no less than 10 editors on stage telling Calvin Reid about their books — another sign of the strength of this category.

Truly, whereas at the very first BEA we attended back in ‘89 or so there was barely any comics presence beyond, perhaps, a lone and lonely Fantagraphics booth an NBM, at this show you couldn’t turn anywhere without seeing signs of graphic novels — Viz’s huge signage in the hall, IDW’s GI Joe banners, the New Yorker’s cartoon bags, invitations, catalogs… even the fact that so many comics flyers lay abandoned in the attendee shipping room was a sign that graphic novels are here to stay.

At 4 we dashed down to the Diamond cocktail party where most of the GN types gathered for a beer. The mood could only be described as upbeat. We ran into our old chum Mariah Huehner and Michelle Gomes from Virgin, as well as Nat Gertler, Bat and Jackie, Alan Payne and many people we’re forgetting. Ian Brill, newly installed at Boom! and Matt Maxwell showed up, and we decamped to Ventura Blvd for a Blogging Sushi Dinner. Unfortunately we were seated right next to Mary-Kate Olsen, which made it hard to gossip about FINAL CRISIS.

Overall most folks are saying this show is a lacking in news and excitement. For a show set in Hollywood there hasn’t been much foofaw, would could be a good thing. The show was briefly interrupted at lunch time by a food court strike, which also shut down Starbucks. Since the lines for Starbucks were at least 45 minutes long, you could have gotten a cup of coffee in the time it took for the strike to end.

Probably the biggest line of the day — other than Starbucks — was for Leonard Nimoy, who was signing his book of naked heavy women. William Shatner signed a few hours later so for those with some patience it was a perfect opportunity for a two-fer. Alec Baldwin was also seen running around. There were also many actual authors, including Jackie Collins who has a giant tour bus parked in the back of the hall. He gfot to met Brian Selnick of HUGO CABRET fame, and he mentioned that he was happy to be lumped in as part of graphic novel wave. At that point, anyone who wouldn’t be is just living in the past.

We were a little late to this morning’s Graphic Novels Breakfast, but got there in time to see Art Spiegelman deliver an entertaining slideshow on the history of graphic novels and his own history with the form. Jeff Smith moderated and Jeph Loeb and Mike Mignola contributed their own observations. As Spiegelman pointed out, it’s been a long journey from comic books being burned in the 50s to a breakfast for comic book authors at the book world’s biggest show. (The yearly author breakfasts are among the BEA’s marquis events.) Smith and Spiegelman pointed to two events in 2002 which really kicked off the GN Boom: the ALA meeting where Smith, Neil Gaiman, Colleen Doran and Spiegelman spoke and the great love affair between libraries and graphic novels was made clear to all; and the SPIDER-MAN movie.

Speaking of movies, when Smith talked about camera angles in his own work, Spiegelman got a bit testy, standing up for the sanctity of the humble comic as a medium in its own right.

A news item from the panel: Smith will be doing a book for Francoise Mouly’s Toon Books imprint.

Observation: lots of signage on the West Hall for IDW’s new GI Joe announcement.

There are no less than TWO tracks of graphic novel programming today, and we’ve skipped out of them to write this item. So back to the fray!

We’ve never experienced “buzz” so literally in re: graphic novels as at this year’s BEA in Los Angeles. Well be standing there stealing totes from a booth and we’ll overhear “And this is our new graphic novel…” from some earnest booth worker at a book publisher who never published GNs before. As opposed to the first BEA we covered for the Pulse back in 2002, where GNs were segregated to a few isolated booths, they are EVERYWHERE here…in Diamond Alley, at Random House, at FSG, at Perseus, at the giant DC booth, on posters, in panels….they are truly mainstream.

In news items, We chatted with Chris Oliveros who gave us galleys of new books from Rutu Modan, Marguerite Abouet and Clement Oubrerie, and Guy Delisle. He mentioned that the response to WHAT IT IS by Lynda Barry has been overwhelming with the book already sold out of its first printing and a second on its way.

NEWSY BITS: Dan Nadel dropped word that he’ll be debuting a new comic by director Michel Gondry at next week’s MoCCA before dashing off to catch a plane…at Last Gasp editor Colin Turner filled us in on some of the manga books they have coming out, including Tokyo Zombie as well as a new book by Junko Mizuno…at Quirk Books they were touting a new GN adaptation of THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON by F. Scott Fitzgerald, which is being adapted into a motion picture by David Fincher due out later this year.

Wait, back to the floor…more later…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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