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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Stolen from the way-back machine of Venus In Furs’ Flickr account.

Technorati Tags: Matt Fraction

You must see high quality photo streams by

Kevin Church — above Bully!

And Seth Kushner in a new series he calls “Fandom.”

Some more: Marion Vitus with some great photos including the above that shows that the range of diversity in hair color on display from Women in Comics is greater than ever before!

Dave and Raina.

Finally, our favorite costume of the show, Yorick and Ampersand from Issue #2 of Y THE LAST MAN. Photo by Steve Bunche.

It was a busy day at the traditional ICv2 conference held before the NYCC. Milton Griepp kicked things off with his annual white paper. See today’s Publishers Weekly Daily for details. Then came a panel on “the battle for talent” where editors and agents talked about issues in acquiring and maintaining talent. Graphic Novels for “Tweens” were the focus of the next panel, with the buyer’s panel wrapping things up. The overall message? All systems go! However a few cautionary notes were sounded: there are a LOT of graphic novels and manga out there, and shelf space is full, both in stores and the homes of consumers. The question of “Where will manga readers go as they grow up?” was considered by a number of panelists but no one had a solid answer. A few pics from the show:

Calvin Reid leads a discussion with editors Mark Siegel, Betsy Mitchell, Ginee Seo, and agents Bob Mecoy, Judy Hansen and Merilee Heifetz.

Two views of the crowd.

Laura Hudson dressed to match the tasty Transcontinental blue martinis! Later in the day she was banned from all Virgin Comics events.

After this conference it was off to Coolture Spain for a special CBLDF reception for the publishing industry. Neil Gaiman and Paul Levitz were on hand to explain to the book publishing industry the importance of supporting the defense fund as more and more traditional publishers get into the graphic novel business. Representative from Harper Collins, Random House and other book houses attended along with cartooners Jess Smith, Paul Pope, Colleen Doran and Peter David.

(We don’t have IDs on all these photos because our memory is shot, alas.)

Chris Staros, Jeff Newelt and Mike Geszel.

Neil Gaiman, Paul Levitz and Charles Brownstein.

Unidentified, Troma’s Lloyd Kauffman and Gaiman. Yes, Neil has a black eye.

Staros, Paul Pope, Judy Hansen and unidentified.

We had to poop out on last night’s RASL party because..well..we’re only human. Missing out on the chance to hobnob with Jeff Smith, Frank Miller, Colleen Doran, Kazu Kabuishi, Larry Marder, Becky Cloonan, Nikki Cook, Dan Goldman, Josh Dysart, and 100 fans was painful but necessary. At any rate the party was a big success as these photos by Ryan Roman show:

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A few quick photos from last night’s event which was a packed hoot with all the folks from Act-i-vate, ComicSpace, the CBLDF and assorted out of towners from Oregon, England, Italy and maybe even the Bronx.

There was drinking but also drawing. You can see folks like Jeffrey Brown, Larry Marder, Paul Maybury and more slaving away.

The CBLDF’s Greg Thompson addresses the troops. Drama!

Alex Maleev, Jen and Greg Thompson and returned from world travels Ivan Brandon.

Tony Lee Dean Haspiel, and Neil Kleid.

The many drawings on hand! Ask at the CBLDF for those still available.

The party was great but many attendees spoke of the rigors of “the home show.” Not only must you deal with the upcoming con but regular stuff like taking out the garbage. It’s grueling.

WB released new stills from SPEED RACER, CLONE WARS and THE DARK KNIGHT on Friday. In this post, we share ones we like with you.

“Begun this clone tool has.”

Has tghis still been out for a while? We’ve lost track. =(

Me gusto mucho Racer X!

We ran across this picture of the late Dave Stevens and pal on our internet patrol and it was too cute not to share. One of our big regrets in life is not buying that Bulldog Cafe cookie jar when we had the chance.

Technorati Tags: Dave Stevens, puppy

Johanna Draper Carlson’s new apron.

Ben Templesmith’s new octopus.

Via Blog Flume: Alvin Buenaventura

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Courtesy of Steve Prue for teamrockstarimages.com here’s some photos from Monday’s CBLDF Member Appreciation Holiday Party. It was a star studded event, as the above photo shows, with everyone from Moby to Molly Crabapple in the house for festivities and some fundraising.

The action shifts to Berkeley on SATURDAY, where Comic Relief hosts a party for the Fund’s Bay Area members. The first 50 card carrying or new CBLDF members through the door will receive a special Fund gift bag. Plus, every CBLDF member coming to the party will get a 10% discount on purchases made during the party, with Comic Relief matching those purchases with a 10% donation to the Fund. Creators Erik Larsen, Derek McCulloch (signing free previews of Displaced Persons), Jimmie Robinson, Shepard Hendrix, and more to be announced will be sketching and signing autographs for Fund supporters. The Comic Relief Party will start at 6:00 PM and run until 9:00 PM

If you’re looking for last minute gifts, check out the CBLDF website which has signed books, prints and T-shirts .

Wednesday, December 19, the party moves to Los Angeles, CA at Golden Apple Comics , whereBrian K. Vaughn, MF Grimm, Christos Gage, Rob Schrab, Gerry Duggan, Rantz Hoseley, and Dan Panosian there., and more will be on hand to sign autographs and create sketches to benefit the CBLDF. The event will also boast door prizes, a special gift bag for the first 50 card carrying or new members, plus 10% off purchases made during the party by current or new CBLDF members, with Golden Apple matching those purchases with a 10% donation to the Fund! The Golden Apple party will begin at 6:00 PM and end at 9:00 PM.

Newly shorn Dan Goldman has his party pix here. More pics in the jump! PLUS even more pics at the new CBLDF MySpace page. Go friend ‘em up!

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This may have been a con too far for The Beat…we’re too tuckered to post anything, but we will run some photos by you, how does that sound? Although we apologize in advance because our camera settings were screwed up all weekend and all the pictures came out dark. Above: An overview of the hall.

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Okay we have NO idea what this Lindsay Lohan-meets-Superheroes photo shoot is for, but the pics are all over the blogtabs, and they are too good to pass up. Of couse, what with Spider-man’s marriage breaking up recently, there could be even more to this than meets the eye. Or perhaps the troubled starlet has found her knight in shining purple pants!
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Via Concedearte, these folks just got married! Don’t know who they are.

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Julia Wertz and Brian Ralph at the Fart Party opening at Atomic Books:

Jennifer de Guzman goes to Disneyland, surrounding by goats.

Brian Hibbs also went to Disneyland.

For halloween James Kochalka dressed as a monkey and kids dressed as robots. Monkey vs Robot.

Gary Groth interviews Schulz bio author David Michaelis at the Elliott Bay Book Co.,

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According to california los officers loan alamitos from Eurostat, the European Union’s in-house statistical office, Luxembourg had the highest california los officers loan alamitos penetration rate at 158 mobile subscriptions per 100 people (158%), closely followed by Lithuania and Italy.

Rounding up a bunch of photos or cartooners spotted about the globe, conquering all in their path.

Via Jeff Newelt, photos from the Paul Pope Diesel Party in Hollywood celebrating the release of PULPHOPE
and debuting new original PP screenprints on sale at Diesel’s Melrose location:

Pope, James Jean and David Silverman, director of THE SIMPSONS MOVIE.
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Last evening we attended the 2007 Quill Book Awards, a gala affair held at Jazz at LIncoln Center. The awards are co- sponsored by Publishers Weekly and present awards to books in 20 different categories. The results will be televised on NBC on the 27th.

We were there to see our pal Scott McCloud get his Quill for Best Graphic Novel, and it was presented by a puppet, which is sort of fitting, except that the puppet had already alienated the crowd by telling them they were old and ugly. Scott did shake the puppet’s hand, which raises all kinds of They Might Be Giants allusions. Anyway, it was a nice win for Scott, and congrats to him. Nora Roberts won for Book of the Year, for her romance/thriller ANGELS FALL. Earlier in the evening, we believe it was Tiki Barber who mentioned that 1 out of every 4 books sold is a romance. Go figure.

Anyway it was a fun evening of literacy and rubbing shoulders with poets and agents and Dan Rather. Stephen Colbert did the opening and started by announcing that “Gandalf is not gay.” Our bonus was getting to see the very tall and lovely Joan Allen, whom we adored for her role in the Bourne trilogy (actually only the last two movies) as well as her other fine work over the years. Actually the live show was stolen by Mary Higgins Clark, who just says everything very very funny. Put her up against the puppet and she would have slayed. The above photo is of the awards girl who had an incredible, floating sci-fi dress that Go Fug Yourself would have hated and you could only wear if you were built like an Doric column. A few more in the jump.

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30 Days of Night had its big Hollywood premiere on Tuesday night. IESB has lots of red carpet interviews, including Steve Niles, Ben Templesmith and Dark Horse’s Mike Richardson. (To be honest, we didn’t know that Dark Horse was involved until we saw the credits at a screening the other night.) Some nice celeb pics:

Niles and the lovely Sara Wilkinson.

Templesmith and his lovely wife Lorelei.

And of course, it’s not official unless Bai Ling is there!

This show has been super well Flickr’d and all, but here are ours! Above, C.F. talks with Dan Nadel.
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Day 1 of SPX dawned with what sounded like healthy line to get in. This year’s show is marked by a fabulous guest list — Matt Wagner, Kim Deitch, Gilbert Hernandez, Jeff Smith, Bill Griffith and Rutu Modan — and there was a pretty good crowd all day. Were they buying anything? That we still don’t know. No real real breakout buzz books yet, but people were talking about The Blot by Tom Neely, Jeff Lemire’s Ghost Stories and the Special Edition of Palestine.

Dean Mullaney, the editor of IDW’s Terry and the Pirates collections, was at the show, his first comics related event in 12 years.

Mostly, it was a night of catching up and chatting. That’s what SPX is all about.

A few pictures in the jump. Above, Rutu Modan giving her slideshow/spotlight.

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§ Colleen Doran digs up old photos from the 80s. Shown: Doran and Jack Kirby with Dave Sim nearby. 1996 photos here.

§ Do you remember San Diego 2007? It seems like only a couple of months ago, hard to believe it was actually FIVE YEARS! Anyway, MySpace is still digging some good stuff out of their archives, including this video interview with Rosario Dawson and Ed Brubaker:
MySpace @ ComicCon 2007 2: Rosario Dawson, Ed Brubaker, & more!

§ Leigh Walton becomes “The Fourth Man” at Top Shelf.

§ Marvel is having a costume contest! Details here.

§ What ever became of the EL MUERTE film? It was renamed THE DEAD ONE.

§ Director Kelly admits SOUTHLAND TALES graphic novels key to his vision

The film is broken into three chapters, IV, V and VI. The first three chapters came out as graphic novels after Cannes, and Kelly admits they were the key, even for himself, for getting a handle on what was happening to the characters on screen. “I couldn’t get to a place, emotionally, as an artist, where I really felt I could finish this movie properly until I had the books done,” he said. “I was a nervous wreck and I was depressed. I tried to do too much, and I failed. I felt I wasn’t going to fulfill this movie, how great I had it in my mind. But once I finished the books, a big monkey was lifted off my back. I could really figure out how to solve the puzzle of the film. When we went to Cannes I hadn’t finished with the books yet.”

§ “Fun” new blog! Your Webcomic is Bad and You Should Feel Bad.

Last week’s INFINITE CANVAS opening of webcomics art display at MoCCA continues to be one of the best covered comics events this side of a Cup O’ Joe panel, proving that these webcomics people are pretty web savvy. Dean has the photo parade:

Ryan Roman pix Links:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Tim Hamilton pix links:
Part 1
Part 2

Wizard’s Brian Warmouth interviews curator Jennifer Babcock:

“I pitched the idea back in March,” explained Babcock, a Los Angeles native who specializes in Egyptian artwork. Babcock, who publishes her own webcomic C’est la Vie, joined with MoCCA to plan and assemble the exhibit, titled “Infinite Canvas: The Art of Webcomics.”

Organizing the exhibit, which according to Babcock is the first museum exhibit of its kind and scale focusing specifically on webcomics, demanded a great deal more strategy and inventive presentation than most MoCCA floor shows. In addition to the original penciled and inked examples, Babcock needed to accommodate comics that are entirely digitally produced and stretch them out to sizes beyond what conventional printers are capable of handling.

Nikki Cook - shares photos from the PARADE WITH FIREWORKS party AND the INFINITE CANVAS opening at MoCCA> THe latter was a rip-roaring success, with many cool people including the Zuda Crew and other local webcomics luminaries. Scott McCloud was on hand and dropped by for a bit at the beginning and end — the middle was interrupted by a wild rush to rescue his beloved Cintiq from savage cannibals or something — we didn’t quite get the whole story.

Above: Elizabeth Genco and Nikki Cook.

UPDATE: The webcomics world reacts to the show, via Gary Tyrell at Fleen:

Last night, the Museum of Comics and Cartoon Art in New York City opened its latest exhibit, and for the first time webcomics made it into the world of culture and connoisseurs. I don’t get to too many museum exhibition openings, but I do know one thing — when the room is packed wall-to-wall and the air conditioning is insufficient to cool the air from all the people, it’s not because of the snacks or the booze. It’s because people want to see the pretty stuff on the walls. By that criterion alone, the opening of Infinite Canvas: The Art of Webcomics would have to be judged an enormous success.

Man, these pictures look like the greatest two days in comics history or something. Bummer we have to wait two years to go. Doug Wright Awards admin Brad McKay shares two photo sets.

And a few comments:
Hope Larson

Awesome, awesome, awesome. TCAF was by far the best time I’ve ever had at a con, and that’s sayin’ something.

Bryan Lee O’Malley
The Torontoist
Jim Zubkavich
SPECIAL BONUS! Cameron Stewart was kind enough to send us a few photos to show how bustling the place was. More in jump!

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