The year of the symposium roars on with the ICv2 Graphic Novel Conference which takes place the day before the New York Comic-Con. A bunch of new panelists have been announced:

ICv2 has announced the addition of six renowned panelists to complete its roster for the third annual ICv2 Graphic Novel Conference at New York Comic Con next week. The new panelists include literary agent Merrilee Heifetz, whose clients include Neil Gaiman and Laurell K. Hamilton; Ron Hill, chief buyer for Jim Hanley’s Universe; editor and creator Kazu Kibuishi (Flight, Flight Explorer, Amulet); Jim Salicrup, editor-in-chief of the very successful Papercutz graphic novel line; Ginee Seo, VP and Editorial Director of Ginee Seo Books; and Brandon Waters, graphic novel buyer for Books-a-Million.

“These panelists complete a great roster with some of the best minds in the graphic novel business,” ICv2 President Milton Griepp said. “With this kind of group, we’re anticipating an excellent exchange of ideas on the key issues in this rapidly changing category.”

The “ICv2 Graphic Novel Conference: Breaking Out” will be held on Thursday afternoon, April 17th at the Javits Center in New York City. The panels will take place between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m., with a cocktail reception sponsored by Transcontinental Printing to follow. In addition to Transcontinental, Viz Media LLC and Publishers Weekly are sponsoring the Conference.

This conference is always a real eye opener, and attendance is recommended…get your tickets here.

Legendary animator Ralph Bakshi is one of those few creator who really deserve the “legendary” before his name. Besides just directing the first x-rated cartoon movie (FRITZ THE CAT), he pioneered animation as an adult medium with movies like COONSKIN, HEAVY TRAFFIC and the fantasies WIZARDS and the first LORD OF THE RINGS adaptation. Sadly, he gave up movies after the controversial COOL WORLD. Black Book has a new and meaty interview with Bakshi that fills in some of the picture:

BB: How do you think Fritz the Cat would have turned out if the studio heads at Warner Bros. had gotten their way?

RB: There’s a picture called The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat, the sequel to my movie. If you want to see how Fritz would have turned out, look at that. It would have been this cat that, once in a while, said something hip, and then falls in love with some girl and chases her all over town. [Laughs.] You should have seen their faces in the screening room when I first screened a bit of Fritz. I’ll remember their faces until I die. One of them left the room. Holy hell, you should have seen his face. “Shut up, Frank! This is not the movie you’re allowed to make!” And I said, Bullshit, I just made it.

Bakshi will also be making three upcoming appearances in New York, including NYCC 08 in conjunction with a new book on his work:

Ralph Bakshi will be appearing in person in New York City at the following events! Also you will find the co-authors of Unfiltered: The Complete Ralph Bakshi Jon M. Gibson and Chris McDonnell and copies of the book at each event.

Thursday, April 17th:
Animazing Gallery Exhibition and Book signing.
6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
416 Broome Street
New York, NY 10013
RSVP at their site.

Friday, April 18th
New York Comic Con Panel Talk & Book Signing
Jacob K. Javits Convention Center
IGN Theater
6:30 PM - 7:30 PM
655 West 34th Street
New York, NY 10001
Presented by MoCCA.

Saturday, April 19th
Anthology Film Archives Author Q&A, Book Signing & Film Screenings
7:00 PM Heavy Traffic
9:00 PM Coonskin (on a restored 35mm print)
32 2nd Avenue
New York, NY 10003
Tickets $8 at the door, good for one or both features.

It’s up.

Legendary Stan Lee will be given the first New York Comics Legend award at this year’s New York Comic-Con. Lee will be presented with the award at a VIP reception at the Virgin Megastore. You can read all the PR in the jump, but it’s a nice touch that the award, the first of an annual tradition, will only be presented to individuals who have made a contribution to civic life in New York and lived in New York for a significant number of years. By that criterion, it will be only 150 years before The Beat gets one!

(more…)

Tons o’ guests have been recently announced for this year’s New York Comic-Con, including Gail Simone, Orson Scott Card and now =…the Venture Bros. crew of Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer will be on hand. REMINDER: ONLY THREE MONTHS TO GO! Season 3 debuts this June. It’s been a long lonely year (!) without the Ventures, and we’ve had to make do with beautiful concept art on Stephen De Stefano’s blog to keep us going. WE haven’t been running much NYCC PR, but these creator bios are a welcome reminder of why we can’t wait to go adventuring with Team Venture once again!

ABOUT JACKSON PUBLICK:
Jackson Publick III was born in 1971. The only son of Jackson Publick, Jr., author of the popular Rusty Venture series of boys’ adventure novels, he forsook his literary birthright to pursue comic books and a degree in the liberal arts. He was successful at neither, and after a period of sky country hoboing and soul-searching, he decided to put his limited skill-set to use in the Creative Warfare department of the Marine Corps; Psi-Ops division. His most notable achievements during his short tenure were designs for something called “The Mindcopter,” and a squadron of giant, flying metal lions which, when reconfigured and joined together via electrical current, formed a giant, flying metal man. Neither project was ever put into production and, upon learning that he had plagiarized the latter, the Marine Corps discharged Publick summarily, but honorably. It was to be the most important day ever. Drawing on the powers and influence of his amazing Bilderberg Group superpals, he then made up The Venture Bros.

ABOUT DOC HAMMER:
Doc Hammer was born in 1626 in Hamar, Norway under the name Erik VonHamer. Being the son of a humble cobbler, not much was expected of the young man other than to cobble, and to not complain about all the cobbling. But Doc was destined for greater things. “Greater things” being not cobbling. At seventeen, with nothing more than really well made shoes and a dream, he made his way to Antwerp to study oil painting under the great Rubens. Within a year the two were at odds. Rubens spoke (infrequently) of Doc as “that creepy skinny kid,” and Doc spoke of Rubens’s work as “kinda unattractive if you really look at it.” By 1648, Doc had relocated to Leiden, where he found his master in Rembrandt. It was there, in his 23rd year, that Doc met “She Who Was To Deliver The Kiss Of Eternal Youth.” After a spicy courtship, “She Who Was To Deliver The Kiss Of Eternal Youth” and Doc were married. By 1650, Doc had grown weary of immortality and committed an unsuccessful suicide by burying his never-corpse in the basement of a Dutch cottage. In 1870, Doc again resurfaced. Using the name Vilhelm Hammershoi, Doc resumed his painting career with mild success. After thanking his bride for “the immortality thing” and nicely reminding her that he had “heard every one of her stories like a billion times,” “She Who Was To Deliver The Kiss Of Eternal Youth” and Doc split up in 1916. Again, Doc literally went underground ’til the 1920’s, when Doc (now using the name Armond Hammer) resurfaced and made a whole mess of money selling overpriced meds to the Russians. Sick of all the baking soda jokes, Doc faked his death yet again. Biding his time ’til the MC Hammer thing had blown over, Doc again resurfaced as “Doc Hammer.” Today, Doc still paints in oils and writes, voices, and does other menial tasks for The Venture Bros. (A show you can watch on cable TV, were you to have cable TV.)

Speaking of NYCC, ICv2 has just announced the line-up for their annual pre-show conference. You can see the whole thing at the link but the panels are as follows:

1:00 p.m. ICv2 White Paper — Inside a Growing Category

1:45 p.m. The Battle for Talent

3:00 p.m. Graphic Novels and Tweens

4:00 p.m. Buyers Panel — Graphic Novels, the Next Three Years

Panelists include Dan Buckley, James Killen, Betsy Mitchell, Bill Schanes, and many more you can read about in the link. It’s certain to be just as essential as it was the first two years.

Newsarama and the New York Comic-Con announced a partnership yesterday. A couple of people read this as an “exclusive”, but apparently it isn’t. Other websites and even bloggers can still report on panels and make videos and whatnot. What’s interesting is that until we read the PR we had no idea that Newsarama was “the leading authority for expert commentary and analysis of the global comic book industry.” News and interviews, sure, but “analysis”? That isn’t the first thing we would have thought.

Speaking of Newsarama, it’s been interesting to speculate on the effects of the Imaginova purchase. We hear that ad rates have gone up quite a bit, and it is definitely a shock to see ads for waterless toilets and telescopes on a comics site. But otherwise, everyone seems to be sitting down and catching up just like before.

Technorati Tags: News sites