§ Joel Meadows has pictures from the STUDIO SPACE signing featuring Brian Bolland, Dave Gibbons and Sean Phillips at Forbidden Planet in London.

I had horrible images of two people turning up for the signing but the queue was pretty decent and they had about 60 people get stuff signed and buy copies of the book.

§ Karen Green examines Army@Love:

Veitch’s writing captures the coal-black humor of war, just as Herr did thirty years earlier (Flabbergast lobs a grenade at a sniper: “He’s toast!” “..and jelly, too,” observes Switzer, as the impact shatters the body), and he and inker Gary Erskine don’t miss a single opportunity to illustrate the consumerization of war, from the stylized LG logo on the street signs, to the “Rayguntheon” logo on the defense secretary’s plane, to the Automated Combat Support System that operates using a phone tree (”Please answer yes or no to the following menu options”)—Ike’s military-industrial complex taken to the ultimate level.

§ Johanna runs down some Comic Cancellations including ANT, GODFATHER and NEXUS.

§ Actually, speaking of NEXUS,back on May 1 on Steve Rude’s MySpace page, Jaynelle Rude wrote:

We have decided to once again cancel both Nexus 101 and 102. The decision came after a month long virus that put Steve out of commission for nearly 5 weeks. Followed by a reaction to a medication that made his hands shake so badly he was unable to draw. The book is nearly finished — only 6 pages left, but we decided it was better to pull the orders and wait until Nexus 101 and 102 were completely finished to solicit them again. When we do we’ll be able to send ashcans ahead to all the retailers, market a specific release date, and finally get on the track we should have been on all along. We’ve also come to credit terms with our new printer which will allow us to save thousands of dollars over our past credit terms.

We anticipate finishing up Nexus 101 in May and 102 in July. We would solicit August for a September/October release.

§ What is the world coming to when local news feature comics artists?

§ Neil Gaiman posts some sweet Harry Clarke art.

Here are your 2008 FoL awards winners, as announced last night at MoCCA at a ceremny MC’d by Emily Flake:

Kim Yale Award:
Martina Fugazzotto (senior designer, gURL.com);

Woman of Distinction:
Shelly Bond (group editor, Vertigo; editor, MINX line);

Women Cartoonists Hall of Fame:
Nell Brinkley (early 20th century cartoonist);

Lulu of the Year:
Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis)

Volunteer of the Year
Lee Binswanger

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:

Read the rest of this entry »

2008 Lulu Awards! Taking place 8:30 - 10:00 p.m. at the Musuem of Comic and Cartoon Art (594 Broadway Suite 401, between Prince and Houston)
More here

Chris Staros tells us who will be at the Top Shelf booth:

Alex Robinson — with the debut of his (amazing) new graphic novel: TOO COOL TO BE FORGOTTEN
Liz Prince — with her new book DELAYED REPLAYS
Andy Runton (Owly)
Robert Venditti (The Surrogates)
Jeff Lemire (Essex County/Tales from the Farm & Ghost Stories)
Matt Kindt (Super Spy)
Aaron Renier — Spiral-Bound

And also JOHNNY BOO (BOOK 1) will debut there, even though James Kochalka can’t be there this year.

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:

Read the rest of this entry »

§ Wizard interviews Norwegian comics great Jason who usually speaks in only short bursts, but they get a few paragraphs here and there:

You have some other fantastic strip work that appears in Meow Baby, that also has recurring motifs. What’s your philosophy behind gag strips?
JASON: No philosophy, really. I wanted to do strips that mostly had visual puns, some poetic quality hopefully.

There are a lot of pop culture references in your work, like “Aliens,” “Terminator” and even some superhero stuff. Tell me about where that comes from? Are you still into that kind of stuff?
JASON: It comes from watching too much film and TV, I guess. I thought it was funny to put pop culture icons—like Darth Vader—into an everyday situation like waiting for the bus. But it’s something I’ve moved away from. I still pick up influences from novels and movies, but they’re now a more integrated part of the story.

BTW, we heard from Fantagraphics sales manager Jason Miles that “Jason is blowing up!” The New York Times strip helped, of course, but apparently his books have been catching on like mad. They plan several omnibus reprints of some of his earlier work later this year.

§ Vanessa Bertozzi interviews Jessica Abel at Etsy:

And while this week may seem especially busy, I have a feeling this is pretty much her pace of life. Jessica is living the dream of many would-be fulltime cartoonists. She’s figured out a way to make a living from her art while also supplementing it with related editing and teaching (I think she’s got a project in the works adapting comics to movies, too…).

§ ComicMix is tinkering with it’s webcomics interface:

Last Friday, with no fanfare, we released the first major upgrade to our ComicMix online comic book reader since we launched our free online comics last October. We have done small upgrades every month or two — like adding the ability to link straight to a specific page, remembering what zoom level you like and remembering that you always want two-page spreads. But this upgrade was significant.

§ Finally, Douglas Wolk is annotating Final Crisis. Thank god, because we still haven’t figured out who died in this issue.

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

Read the rest of this entry »

Publisher Mike Kiley sent out this letter to Tokyopop creators yesterday:

Hey, everybody (all TOKYOPOP Manga Creators) –

As many of you have no doubt heard by now, we have announced some changes at TOKYOPOP this week.

We understand that this announcement may have created some uncertainty for you and we wanted to reach out as soon as possible to reassure you. While there will be some changes in our publishing program, we can tell you that if you are working on a project for us, keep making great manga, stick to your schedules, and turn in your work so we can get you paid!

We are in the midst of transitioning your manga projects to new editors. If you have a project in some current stage of development with us, then your editor will be in touch with you to discuss the specifics of your project by the end of next week.

Thanks for your understanding as we morph into the next evolution of TOKYOPOP!

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.

Yesterday’s Journalista had some harsh words for my analysis of Marvel’s bookstore sales, especially my mention of Marvel having several entries in the PW graphic novel bestseller list:

Most of that paragraph is at least debatable, but that last sentence has two crossed fingers behind its back. What you need to remember is that the Publishers Weekly bestseller list is a combination of estimated figures from both the bookseller and comics-shop markets. Marvel and (to a lesser extent) DC own the latter, and thus can rack up huge sales numbers thanks to their continued ownership of the Wednesday Crowd. The former is another matter, and the notion that “three items on PW’s list” is proof of Marvel’s success in bookstores is far less believable. The proof? Scroll up a bit to the ICv2 link. You know, the Bookscan list? Note that three Western-published books did make the list… and that none of them were from Marvel. Marvel’s three books almost certainly made the PW list due to their sales in comics shops. So why is this relevant to a bookstore-oriented discussion? Answer: It isn’t.

Well, sure except that Marvel HAS had success in bookstores: with Stephen King and Laurell K. Hamilton, of course, but also Marvel Zombies, Civil War, Captain America, Planet Hulk and many others. The rest of Dirk’s rant is just flat out wrong. Marvel IS going after the bookstore market with their best-selling author series, with Omega the Unknown by Jonathan Lethem, with the Marvel Illustrated line and yes even superheroes. I’m sure no one wants to see Dirk and I go into our usual snipery so let’s just say he has his ideas about what constitutes success and I have mine.

This is, however, as good a place as any to talk about what I discovered was a pretty significant aspect of the graphic novel boom at BEA: comics shops, yes, lowly, smelly comics shops.
Read the rest of this entry »

By Paul O’Brien

The event season is upon us again, and Marvel hit the ground running with the first issue of SECRET INVASION. There aren’t too many tie-in issues in this first month, but the crossover still gets off to an impressive start. If you’ve been waiting for event fatigue to set in - well, it looks like you’re going to be waiting for a little while longer.

April also saw the debut issue of YOUNG X-MEN, the final title to be launched on the back of the X-books’ recent “Messiah Complex” crossover. Otherwise, though, Marvel had gave SECRET INVASION #1 a pretty clear run. To be quite honest, once you start heading further down the chart, it’s not a particularly eventful month.

As usual, Marvel dominated the direct market, beating DC by a whopping 44% to 30% in unit share, and 40% to 27% in dollar share. Of course, that partly reflects the fact that FINAL CRISIS hadn’t started yet - and, to be fair, the unit share would probably have been a lot closer if DC UNIVERSE #0 had been eligible for the charts.

Thanks as always to Milton Griepp and ICV2 for permission to use their figures for these calculations.

1.  SECRET INVASION
04/08  Secret Invasion #1 of 8 - 250,263

An excellent start for the latest big event book. The first month sales for CIVIL WAR #1, back in May 2006, were 260,804, so we’re very much in the same league here. Last year’s WORLD WAR HULK, in contrast, debuted with only 178,408. So from the look of it, this is a winner. And when the tie-in books really start to roll, Marvel should have another sales juggernaut on their hands.

2.  NEW AVENGERS
04/03  Avengers #66     -  58,312
04/04  Avengers #81     -  54,987
04/05  New Avengers #5  - 162,412
04/06  New Avengers #18 - 121,550
=====
04/07  New Avengers #29 - 125,378  (  +4.9%)
05/07  New Avengers #30 - 126,425  (  +0.8%)
06/07  New Avengers #31 - 172,684  ( +36.6%)
07/07  New Avengers #32 - 122,991  ( -28.8%)
08/07  New Avengers #33 - 117,906  (  -4.1%)
09/07  New Avengers #34 - 112,815  (  -4.3%)
10/07  New Avengers #35 - 111,481  (  -1.2%)
11/07  New Avengers #36 - 107,715  (  -3.4%)
12/07  New Avengers #37 - 105,545  (  -2.0%)
01/08  —
02/08  New Avengers #38 - 104,140  (  -1.3%)
03/08  New Avengers #39 - 103,046  (  -1.1%)
04/08  New Avengers #40 - 110,470  (  +7.2%)
                           6 mnth  (  -0.9%)
                           1 year  ( -13.5%)
                           2 year  (  -9.1%)
                           3 year  ( -32.0%)
                           4 year  (
+100.9%)
                           5 year  ( +89.4%)

This is a Secret Invasion tie-in, and at first glance the climb might seem a bit low. After all, issue #31 was promoted as the first major issue of the storyline, and it sold 172K. But that was a lynchpin issue, and this is simply a tie-in. We saw something similar in 2006, when NEW AVENGERS had much smaller gains from its CIVIL WAR tie-ins than other books - presumably because it was selling so well to start with.

Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

On Sunday, June 8, Pantheon editor-in-chief and recent Time Magazine 100 Finalist, will be providing a sneak preview of Bat-Manga! Visit Chip’s official site to find out more about Chip’s presentation. Then, read this recent New York Magazine profile on Chip

You may already know David Heatley from his work in the New Yorker If not, you’re in for a treat: On Sunday, June 8 David will be at this year’s MoCCA festival talking about My Brain is Hanging Upside Down which will hit bookstores this fall. Check out David’s post about designing the book jacket for an early taste, and then click here for more information about David’s talk.

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!

Read the rest of this entry »