Dear Alex Billington of FirstShowing.net writes to let us know that he’ll be covering San Diego’s multi media news via Twitter. Wasn’t it only a few weeks ago that we wrote this

2008: On a panel at San Diego, Heidi MacDonald says she really doesn’t like Scott McCloud and has just been being nice to his face all these years. Luckily, since there are 10,000 blogs, podcasts, video blogs and movies about the show, no one ever really notices.

Imagine everyone Twittering about San Diego.

IT WOULD BE JUST LIKE BEING THERE. Only you wouldn’t be waiting half an hour at the railroad tracks. But you also couldn’t eat a fish taco. So…it’s a trade-off.

UPDATE: Great here’s another Twitter-con: Marvel’s Agent M.

UPDATE UPDATE: Okay Rich Johnston is doing the one you really want to read. To participate:
Email yours to markandrich@gmail.com, text them to 0 (1144) 7801350982 or AOL IM to TwistRich

SLG have made their San Diego doing available for iPod:

You can keep track of all of SLG’s goings-on at Comic-Con International in San Diego on your iPod by downloading this MogoPop file — you will need the MogoPop Manager, but it’s free, and we checked it out and it’s virus- and spyware-free. (Though because the world is what it is, I must state that we in no way guarantee anything about this software.) The file has the complete booth signing schedule, SLG panel schedule and pictures of some of the SLG creators you will be able to meet at Comic-Con. It’s easy and you’ll look ultra-organized.

Someday everyone will be this smart.

BTW. we discovered that by drag ‘n’ dropping from a Word download of the programming schedule to iCal, we made our own SDCC SCHEDULE. It is sweet and it only took us an hour or so and a few cans of energy drink. We’re all about the energy drinks right now.

Slurpee weather here throughout the Northeast — or Squishee weather now, to be precise. We had a Blue Vanilla Squishee the other night and it was pretty foul, in all honesty.

Last night’s event with The Comic Book Club went very well, we thought — hosts Justin Tyler, Pete LePage, and Alex Zalben kept things moving along with brio and co-guest Timmy Williams from comedy troupe The Whitest Kids You Know supplied his own brand of drollery. It was an excellent production and we recommend it both to prospective guests and attendees alike.

Justin, Pete and Alex were also the hosts of Pulp Secret, probably the best of the internet comics video podcasts — or what we used to call tv shows for the computer, we guess. The show has morphed into The Stack, which features the trio doing their comics review thing and should be worth a look.

Who’s video-blogging Comic-con? Occasional Superheroine, Valerie D’orazio…that’s who. O’Prazio has teamed with New Rage Order, yet another pop culture website headed up by former Silver Bullet columnist Blair Marnell.

Valerie D’Orazio — known for her blog “Occasional Superheroine” — will provide multimedia coverage of the San Diego Comic Con International for the pop-culture website “New Rage Order” ( http://www.newrageorder.com ) on July 25-29.

“Hey, I’m new to this whole video thing but I really love comics so I’ll just be myself and have a good time,” D’Orazio said. “I’m really looking forward to working with “New Rage Order” on this project!”

Her experience as former editor for the comic book publishers DC and Valiant gives D’Orazio not only a unique perspective on the convention but access to the industry’s top talent. Confirmed interviews include such luminaries as Image Comics Publisher Erik Larsen, Paul Gulacy, Sean McKeever, Roy Thomas, Eric Powell, Greg Horn and Gene Colan.
“I’m very excited to have Valerie onboard,” New Rage Order editor-in-chief, Blair Marnell exclaimed. “She’s one of the best writers in the comic blogosphere and she exemplifies the kind of talented individual that we want to work with here at NRO. I can’t wait to see what she has in store for us in San Diego!”

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iFanboy will be blogging at Heroes Con, and they want you all to come:

For those of you in the Charlotte, NC - or greater southern United States - region, if you’re heading to HeroesCon 2007 this coming weekend (June 15-17), you’ll be pleased to hear that iFanboy will be attendance!

Not only will be attending the con, but for the first time ever, we’ll be recording the Pick of the Week Podcast live and you can come watch! Clickthrough for details

If you would like to attend the recording of the iFanboy Pick of the Week Podcast, here’s the info:
When?: June 15 - Doors open at 8 PM, the show starts at 8:30 PM
Where?: The Westin Charlotte - 2nd Floor - “Trade” Conference Room
(right across the street from the convention center)
How Much?: FREE!

So if you’re at the con and don’t have anything to do on Friday night, come on out and watch some podcasting history as we attempt to pull back the curtain on our show.

You know this BEA thing is getting so easy — we could run around and yap without having to run to programming all the time, because we knew that many of the programs will be podcost at the BookExpoCast site! You can see the whole list here but the ones of special interest are as follows:

# David Michaelis, author of Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography with host Mary Murphy
# Terry Moore, creator, Strangers in Paradise with host Charles Brownstein
# Kurt Hassler, co-publisher, Yen Press with host Calivin Reid, Sr.
# Laurell Hamilton, author wiht host Heidi Macdonald, Publishers Weekly/PW Comics Line

We’ll try to link as they’re uploaded.

feeling a xanax high give does

Today mobile payments ranging from mobile banking to mobile credit cards to mobile commerce are very widely used in Asia and Africa, and in selected European markets.

Although this looks like one of those simple new media tech acquisition announcements, we hear quite a few people were interested in the Bomb- xx system, and the examples we’ve seen of it at work have all been quite well done. At the very least, it’s more sign of the coming iPod/YouTube/cartoon alliance apocalypse. You can hear me now and believe me later.

MTV Networks Music Group, a unit of Viacom’s MTV Networks, today announced an exclusive deal with Gain Ltd, creators of the proprietary system Bomb- xx that develops extremely engaging audio-visual experiences, to develop new media versions of comic books, graphic novels and children’s books. Each experience will be customized across multiple media screens, including computers, portable video players, portable and console gaming devices, and mobile phones. Gain Ltd was co-founded by Jeff Shuter and Daniel Viney.

“Some of the best characters and stories come from comics and graphic novels, but until now distribution channels have been very limited,” said David Gale, Executive Vice President, New Media for MTV Networks. “Gain combines the original format of comic books, graphic novels and children’s books with the emotional excitement of a great movie that fans can see on-the-go or on-demand, but always in high-quality.”

MTV Networks Music Group’s vast array of television and digital platforms will allow for extensive distribution of Gain’s unique content, beginning with MTV. Various projects will bring together comic book publishers, creators and distributors to create and market existing and original content produced to maximize distribution and build a broader fan

base from the traditional niche market for comics and graphic novels. In addition

forthcoming projects will be distributed across other new media formats outside of the MTV Networks’ brands.

“Comic books historically have ignited people’s imagination and intuition to piece together and decode the story as it unfolds on each page,” said Daniel Viney, co-founder, producer and creator, Gain Enterprises. “Our mission has always been to curate new proprietary formats that enhance the user experience and spur even more intrigue in the story.”

“What’s unique to our product is that each experience is highly music- based with animation that is much like choreography to a dance,” added Jeff Shuter, co-founder, producer and creator, Gain Enterprises. “Every moment and beat is highly charged to keep fans engaged in the storyline. The goal is to transcend the conventional comic book experience and we are excited to work with MTV Networks to continue forming connections between the traditional comic book and new media worlds for the benefit of audiences everywhere.”

Gain founders, Viney and Shuter, made their mark with their Bomb- xx adaptations of comics for major movie studios, including Fox Atomic’s first film “Turistas” and the recent “28 Weeks Later,” as well as Lions Gate’s “Saw 2.” Gain also created original works for the Weinstein Company’s movies “Arthur and the Invisibles” and “The Protector,” and an adaptation of Marvel Comics’ “Ultimate Spiderman.”

Gain Enterprises was co-founded by Jeff Shuter and Daniel Viney with the mission to develop hybrid forms of content and entertainment for the new media space. Both Shuter and Viney serve as lead producers and creators.

automobile loan title

Today mobile payments ranging from mobile banking to mobile credit cards to mobile commerce are very widely used in Asia and Africa, and in selected European markets.

As part of the imminent cell phone/iPod revolution many large corporations are sinking money into creating comics that can easily be morphed into cartoons or movies, or hybrids of the same. The flipside is animating existing comics into something more flashy, and we’ve had several people showing us their special software on iPods lately. Looks like the race is on!

Among these hybrids, the recent Fox Atomic Comics 28 Days Trailer is one example. Now here’s something a lot more complicated: Jonas Moore. We were alerted to it via an email from TheOneRing’s Michael Regina:

Heya, it’s Mike Regina, I’m working on a brand new project and want to tell you about it. It is called ‘The Many Worlds of Jonas Moore’ and stars James Bond & Resident Evil star Colin Salmon as the title character.

What makes this project unique is the format in which it tells the story, it is a relatively new technique using CGI, live action & 2D animation in a comic book style setting. All elements are meshed together to tell a great story set in an alternative England, where gaming has become a way of life, where characters and games are so realistic they seem to take on a life of their own.

A bit of poking around reveals animated photos, drawings, special effects and even some CGI for what might charitably be called a mishmash. We haven’t had time to actually watch or read or whatever it is you do with the thing. The spots are co-sponsored by Triumph, hence the motorcycle-heavy content, but we’re fine with Colin Salmon on a bike, to be honest. There are also actual comics on the site, with art by Mick Trimble.

We found this interview/PR with creator Howard Webster, and a blizzard of new media buzzwords ushers in the project:

“Branded content and fan generated content is a vast, evolving beast with huge metrics emerging from the web. The business models that drove the revenue big media agencies and global advertising agencies is collapsing, The easy relationship between big media buyers and media agencies and the net and gross fees that earned them massive paydays is thankfully dying.

It was, in my opinion, a snug cartel based upon suspect metrics that didn’t actually take into account how people actually interact with media. All it favoured was a justification of the media spend on the part of the manager who sanctioned it and the fees. In an effort to reinvent themselves the global media agencies are trying to claim they are now somehow experts in the field of branded content; the new content digerati. They’re not. In branded content terms they are the embarrassing father drunk at a wedding trying to look hip on the dance floor dancing to sounds of the 80s. The global media agencies are simply trying to copy what teenagers and web-heads are already doing in their millions with content on the web and are attempting to charge brand directors huge sums of money to do it.

Translation: Ads must look more like content in the future.

However, this hybrid format is not being embraced like a cuddly kitten, at least not according to this article in Macworld which says that “visual novels” are already the rage in–where else?–Japan but face an uphill battle in the US:

Visual novels feature rich color graphics and soundtracks with some of Japan’s best-known voice actors speaking character dialogue. They aren’t as interactive as games, but they’re not totally passive like e-books or movies, either. Visual novels often provide users with decision-making capabilities that will affect the story’s outcome. The pacing is slower than a game or a movie, but offers a rewarding payoff for enthusiasts who like the unique experience.

When visual novels are prepared for American audiences, the original Japanese language track and all the original story is maintained, but a subtitle track may be included so English speakers can understand what’s going on, which may turn off some casual users who don’t want to have to read.

Sometimes visual novels are equated with “dating sims,” a genre of largely erotic interactive entertainment where the goal is to disrobe a woman or to have sex, but there’s a lot more to it than that. Hirameki, for example, markets products safe for teens and others. In 2006, the company began offering Mac-compatible titles as well, first with a gothic horror novel called “Animamundi: Dark Alchemist” and more recently with “Yo-Jin-Bo,” a story set in feudal Japan. Both titles leverage Adobe Flash to achieve cross-platform compatibility.

Will the “visual novel” format ever take off? Maybe when it gets its own Griffith or Kirby. In the meantime it has two factors going for its eventual adoption here in the US: 1) advertisers will keep sinking money into it and 2) as goes Japan, so goes America. It’s inevitable.

UPDATE: Joey Manley happens to have added a very long list of articles on webcomics and digital comics content right here. Great resource for anyone thinking about these things.

UPDATE 2: Now Tom Spurgeon has weighed in with a long post, but here’s the money quote for us anyway:

* I can’t for the life of me figure out why all the comics companies haven’t pursued this more aggressively. All comic books should be available in digital form by now. When the notoriously conservative newspaper strip business is years ahead of you, you’re moving too slow. My only guess is that media companies may be resistant to change by nature and it’s only when an undeniably effective application drives the business in a certain direction that businesses follow. It’s worth noting that what we have in comics right now isn’t a breaking through a wall driven by a super-great way of reading comics that is years ahead of what we thought possible, but a slow thinning of a membrane in areas like speed of downloads and screen size that make reading comics through existing applications increasingly pleasurable.

As of this writing (a mortifyingly late hour) our reading comics on computer poll stood thus:

I like it BETTER than paper! (724) 53.47%
Pixels or pulp — doesn’t matter to me as long as its Bendis! (72) 5.32%
Only in an emergency. (558) 41.21%

That was a BIG come from behind victory for paperless reading. As of 6 pm it was more like 74%– some 500 souls — preferred paper, but somewhere along the way, either 600 people came along who liked onscreen, or someone set up a poll-voting widget or whatever. The poll was completely unscientific, but you can make of it what you will.

We have a bunch of “new media/tech” blogs on our RSS feed, but we only get to read them once a week or so. We checked them out today to test the pundit zeitgiest. Dealing with snippets of fact like we do, sometimes it’s hard to put together a coherent big picture. we can only get a pointilistic view of the world sometimes. But all of it points SOMEWHERE.
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§ Local paper profiles cartooner:

Brian Ralph sits at a table in the sun outside Donna’s in Baltimore’s Charles Village and fidgets with his paper coffee cup.

The 33-year-old has messy hair, and wears a short sleeve shirt and blue jeans. His hand with the solid silver wedding ring rests on a yellow comic book with a frightened monkey on the cover.

“The thing I was really into was comics,” he says of his years in college.

§ Mobile phone manga downloads gaining popularity for shy fans, others:

For Japanese aficionados of this sort of stuff, there is a more convenient and discreet way to stock up on the latest stories without running to the bookstore: downloading them to a cell phone. That’s helped this type of manga reach beyond the female otome–or “maidens,” as they’re known–who are the genre’s die-hard fan base. “Women and girls in their teens, 20s, and 30s like BL for their portrayals of innocent love,” says Toshiki Fujii, a manager in the cell-phone content division at Nagoya-based Media Do. “But now those who might have been coy about walking into a shop can find what they’re looking for online.”

§ The Disney-Pixar stock scandal continues to have fall-out:

The Pixar stock options mess was more widespread than anyone knew … though the Mouse House now is doing its best to apply some significant Band-Aids. Company has acknowledged that many mid- and lower-level employees received backdated options at the toon company, not just execs. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Disney said it would issue newly priced options to those employees and pay as much as $34 million to those with backdated options in an effort to compensate those Pixar employees both for the discrepancy in the options price and for possible tax liabilities.

§ We didn’t listen to it ourselves, but we’re told by reliable source Ian Brill that The Sound of Young America: Podcast: Jordan, Jesse GO! Ep. 18: Misspent Youth contains a cue of interest to our readers at 28:49 when Bucky Sinister reads a poem about Batman.

The PULP SECRET REPORT is one of those internet/Tv show’s covering pop culture and the comics, but it’s actually pretty entertaining. Exec producer David P. Levin is spicing up the grew by giving away his comic book collection on the show:

A collector for over forty years, Levin is now the Executive Producer of THE PULP SECRET REPORT, available three times a week on Pulp Secret (http://pulpsecret.com), an online network devoted to comic book news and culture. To promote the show, Levin is giving away one comic book a week from his collection – which dates back to 1962.

The Pulp Secret Report is a comic newscast hosted by improv comics and writers Alex Zalben, Justin Tyler and Pete LePage, and includes news, interviews, and features about the world of comics. Fans can participate in the show by contributing their own videos, comments and email tips.

“This is a show that I’ve been waiting to see all my life,” said Levin. “I believe in it so much that I’m willing to put my money where my mouth is – or at least my comic collection – to get people to tune in.”

“I’m not going to simply give away recent comics – to really make this work, I’m going to give away comics that are really worth something to collectors,” Levin adds.

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Here’s a somewhat epochal story we’ve managed to miss until now: Downloadable animated New Yorker cartoons on iTunes.

Everyone knows that downloadable ‘toons to iPods and Wiis and cell phones and what not are the future, but even so it’s a little surprising to see the venerable New Yorker jumping into the fray. The toons are free, sponsored by advocacy site drugfree.org.

The New Yorker has partnered with RingTales, which “animated print comics for ad-supported syndication across all digital media” for the venture. RingTones has indeed animated the familiar figures of Barsotti, Shanahan and company. A trip to the main New Yorker page for the animations reveals a gallery of familiar images: bespectacled scientists, talking dogs, elephants, a kitty by the litter box — but then they begin to move and talk! A miracle!

New media thrives on quality content — and the podcast version is in the Top 20 of the iTunes podcast listing. Will it be enough to move the needle on a system of toon delivery that in its infancy?

You can read a bit more about it at paidcontent.org, and the complete PR from earlier last month is in the jump.

But before you go, here is the most famous New Yorker cartoon of them all.
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Well, crap, now they can squeeze a whole elephantman into a mobile phone! How do they do that? Oh it’s a COMIC BOOK by Richard Starkings and Moritat. In fact, interested parties might want to check out the Gocomics website and see what all they are distributing–the march of progress.

uclick has announced an exclusive agreement with comic book publisher Active Images to distribute its popular ELEPHANTMEN line of comic books on mobile phones.

The mobile product line will debut in early summer with comic books and wallpapers starring the series’ larger-than-life characters.

“Whether readers are aware of it or not, ELEPHANTMEN and HIP FLASK were designed from the ground up to be digital media friendly,” said writer/creator Richard Starkings. “Moritat and I are very happy to be working with uclick Mobile, and can’t wait to see our work on the small screen!”

ELEPHANTMEN is an ongoing monthly published by Image Comics. The series takes place in a not-too-distant dystopian future in which an insidious corporation known as MAPPO genetically manufactured intelligent hybrids of humans and animals as super soldiers to fight in a New World War. Decades after their liberation, the hybrids have been integrated into human society.

Starkings originally created the character Hip Flask, an anthropomorphic hippopotamus, to serve as the mascot for the Comicraft library of comic book fonts. The character was soon featured in his own comic book mini series, before jumping into Image Comics’s ELEPHANTMEN.

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Although the headline says Publisher to launch Japan’s first monthly online manga magazine is sounds a bit misleading, because the magazine is actually the first (orone of the first) for mobile phones:

Publisher Shinchosha will soon launch what it calls the country’s first digital subscription magazine, an online comic regularly transmitted to mobile phones, a news report said Wednesday.

“Com2″ will contain about 200 pages of cartoons and is geared toward cell phones so readers in tech-savvy, comic-book-crazy Japan can keep up with their favorites on the go.

The new service will be launched Friday. It will originally have cartoons in Japanese only, but Tokyo-based Shinchosha plans to add English and Chinese translations in the future, public broadcaster NHK said.

Subscription will cost 350 yen a month, and the format is also accessible through the Internet on personal computers.

As everyone knows, the Japanese are phone-crazy and this is a logical step in the evolution of the non-paper comics economy.

§ The AP is running a nice profile of the webcomics collective Act-i-vate:

Artists in the year-old, invitation-only collective upload a new comic or installment to their graphic novels each week, making the content on the daily anthology highly diverse. ACT-I-VATE members draw upon a host of influences including Japanese comic book artists, music, film, literature and their own psyches.

The elaborately rendered comics cover a broad swath of genres ranging from horror and post-punk, to cliffhanging romance and extreme adventure. The stories are irreverent and hysterical, a blend of the tragic and pathological. They range from dark (take Nikki Cook’s “Sack of Puppies,” which is about “pretty nasty evil things and mean little kids”) to surrealistic (there’s Pedro Camargo’s “Glam,” which chronicles a “grungy cyberpunk trash universe that’s almost like Candyland with little stuffed animals running around.”)

§ An elite gang of academics have justified their time spent with Gameboys by naming “The Ten Most Important Video Games” :

“Creating this list is an assertion that digital games have a cultural significance and a historical significance,” Mr. Lowood said in an interview. And if that is acknowledged, he said, “maybe we should do something about preserving them.”

Mr. Lowood and the four members of his committee — the game designers Warren Spector and Steve Meretzky; Matteo Bittanti, an academic researcher; and Christopher Grant, a game journalist — announced their list of the 10 most important video games of all time: Spacewar! (1962), Star Raiders (1979), Zork (1980), Tetris (1985), SimCity (1989), Super Mario Bros. 3 (1990), Civilization I/II (1991), Doom (1993), Warcraft series (beginning 1994) and Sensible World of Soccer (1994).

Click on the link to find out which game is “one of the most important art works of the 20th century”!

§ The New York Comic-Con site is putting up various Audio Podcasts of panels, including “Review and Outlook 2007 for Comics Publishing”. Virtual confab!

ComiPress looks at an article that tracks the decline of the Japanese manga market:

The report says that tankoubon sales have been decreasing for the past two years, and that manga magazine sales have been decreasing 11 years in a row. The decline of manga magazine sales was especially noticeable, which indicates that the readers are moving away from the magazine field.

Japan’s domestic manga market has been gradually decreasing for the past 10 years. In 1996, the scale of the market was estimated to be 584.7 billion yen. After 10 years, the market has decreased by almost 20%. Last year, the size of the market has dropped under a symbolical number - 500 billion yen. This news should draw attention to the gradual reduction of the manga market.

The reasons behind the decline of the manga market could be attributed to the decline in the young adult/teen population Japan, and the movement away from the printed-book culture. Especially with the declining sales of manga magazines, which indicates a change in social trend where the younger generation’s time is occupied by their cell phones.

Cell phones! Damn you! Since Japan is lightening years ahead of us in all this, these trends call for very, very careful examination by US comics makers. While American cell phones lag far behind the capabilities of mobiles in other countries — like Korea where downloading comics is second nature — we’ll undoubtedly catch up some day. It would be interesting to know what kind of inroads downloadable comics have made in Japan. If the kids can be persuaded to read, maybe we still have a chance. Otherwise…enjoy it while you can.

Pulp Secret is a little webcast about comics. It calls itself a “network” but that’s a little ambitious as of yet. However the first episode does cover some nice territory. We didn’t have time to actually watch it yet, but we plan to.

Premiere episode - 3/7/07: meet Justin, Pete and Alex (from Comic Book Club); DC’s DVD plans; Captain America #25; Frank Miller directs The Spirit; exclusive look at All Star Batman #5 by Jim Lee; Midtown Comics; Peter David, Jae Lee, Joe Quesada on Stephen King’s Dark Tower; PopCultureShock; David’s comic book giveaway!

Fans of the inimitable Shatner will enjoy this clip of him doing a voiceover recording and then putting a clueless producer in his place, as Robin Quivers and Howard Stern guffaw in glee. As Robin and Howard point out, Shatner is being a total dick, and yet he’s kind of within his rights as well.

[Link via Cartoon Brew]

UPDATE: Actually, we highly recommend reading the comments at Cartoon Brew linked above where various voiceover directors and other pros discuss whether Shatner was the one being very unprofessional.

The Sound of Young America interviews VENTURE BROTHERS creator Jackson Publick for this podcast. (Thanks to Ian Brill for the link.)

Speaking of The Venture Bros, this weekend on Saturday at 4:30 at the NYCC (that AGAIN?) there will be a Venture Bros. spotlight with Jackson Publick, Doc Hammer, James Urbaniak (Rusty Venture, etc.), Michael Sinterniklaas (Dean Venture), and Steven Rattazzi (Dr. Orpheus). Although the ladies and Brock will be missing, this should be the greatest collection of Venture voices yet assembled at a convention and we admit to having had a teeny tiny bit to do with getting it put together, and anticipate that it will have moments of drollery.

Speaking of podcasts, DC has done something certified cool and put up a podcast of Rick Vetch reading the words from his stream-on-consciousness graphic novel CAN’T GET NO. Download and read along!

A year or two ago, some noise was being made by Clickwheel, a UK venture which hoped to develop comics content directly for iPods, presumably in a downloadable form via iTunes. Everyone agreed it was a good idea, but at least over stateside, it never became much more than a rumbling. Now, the company has been acquired by Rebellion, the publisher of 2000AD, and England’s premier comics producer:

Clickwheel Ltd, the comics to iPod company, has been acquired by computer games super-developer, Rebellion, developer of such video games as Alien vs Predator and Rogue Trooper.

“Being already involved in the next gen video game market, we know well the pace of development in world of entertainment”, says Jason Kingsley, CEO of Rebellion/2000 AD. “With the acquisition of Clickwheel, we look forward to pushing the boundaries of innovation even further”.

“With user-generated content set to augment the mainstream, new media is becoming ever more key to success,” says Chris Kingsley, CTO of Rebellion/2000 AD. “Our acquisition of Clickwheel is a natural extension of our existing focus and we look forward to helping pioneer a new way of reading comics.”

Throughout its 15 years of developing video games, Rebellion has branched out into other media, most notably comics. In June 2000 Rebellion purchased the UK’s premier Sci-Fi Comic 2000 AD and its entire character portfolio consisting of characters including Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper, Strontium Dog, ABC Warriors as well as 700 other unique IP’s.

Founded in 2005, Clickwheel Ltd is an online media company that enables users to create a media channel for their comics or movies and broadcast them live on Clickwheel.net or, from the iTunes Music Store, via an RSS feed.

The acquisition will be accompanied by a site-wide relaunch of Clickwheel.net, which will include a full redesign, tools to streamline the user experience, easier previews of downloads, customizable creator profile pages, new types of content, ratings, forums, and other community features.

“This is very good news for Clickwheel and comics generally”, says Will Simons, Creative Director of Clickwheel. “2007 promises to be a very interesting year for digital media with more new products and services than most of us will know what to do with, so it’s very exciting to be re-launching at the beginning of it.

Along with acquisition, Clickwheel is pleased to announce some personnel changes. The development of the Clickwheel website site will be handled by Big Newt Software Studio Ltd., led by Dave Astels and Nancy Blenkhorn. Big Newt is a boutique web application development and hosting company with a strong focus on quality workmanship, delivery of business value, and open-source tools & technologies. Additionally, Tim Demeter has been promoted to editor and will oversee all creative content matters.
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It seems that “sexy” Comic Foundry founder Tim Leong has won the New York Comic-con’s Podcasting contest! Can you SAY…RINGER? I mean, come on! Tim already set YouTube ablaze in his famous “weeping wizard” outing. You can check out the winning entry at the above link, or see Tim try to explain himself here.

This may well be the funniest flyer we’ve ever seen:

ISR celebrates Valentine’s Day with a special celebration of love! Four comic creators, two married couples! Our guests Dave Roman & Raina Telgemeier and John Green & Marion Vitus join us to talk about love and comics! From how they met to getting hitched to what it’s like in a two comic creator household! Listen in and feel the love!

We will, right after we feel the laughs.

Continuing to roll-out their multi-media offerings, Comicmix has added podcasting to the mix:

Starting this week, ComicMix will produce three podcasts a week, airing on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Hosted by Mike Raub ), each will feature the latest news on comics, films, music, television, games and more. Tuesday’s episodes will contain the latest information on new media for the week, including the final word on what shipped in comics, DVDs and music. Thursdays are for reviews from a variety of opinionated columnists, including Gwen David, Dave Marsh and Tony Isabella. ) Saturdays include feature interviews with the movers and shakers of pop, including Batman scribe John Ostrander, Disney animator Kyle Baker and more.

Mike Gold, Editor-in-Chief of ComicMix, said, “We’re excited to bring state-of-the-art journalism to our state-of-the-art site. And,” he added, “This is only Stage Two. In three weeks, we have an even bigger surprise. You’ll never look at comics the same way again.”

ComicMix.com is the new site for readers who enjoy all types of fantastic media, from comic books television and movies to video games and more. Every day, visitors find news, facts, reviews, commentary, columns and a community environment that reaches across the globe, across decades and into the future.

Kevin Melrose has relaunched Comics, Covered as his catch-all blog:

Like the previous version, this one will focus on comic-book cover art and design. But here I’ll also post reviews and creator interviews, and write about all-ages and young-adult fiction, contemporary fantasy and whatever else piques my interest.

If you browse through the site you’ll find archived pieces that originally appeared at Blog@Newsarama, Comic Foundry and on the previous version of this blog. And shortly, the new content will begin to appear.

But, alas, no ceramic owls.

All we can say is…it’s about time!