Comics Briefly

Comics Review: 2/5/2010

A post apocalytic comedy and Stan Lee's Manga collaboration are reviewed this week.

Panel Mania: Foiled

Foiled is the first graphic novel by the young adult and children's writer, Jane Yolen. The art is by Mike Cavallaro. Aliera Carstairs is a talented fencer who dosen't fit in at school, but that changes when the handsome new boy, Avery Castle, arrives at school. Foiled will be published by First Second in April.

Diamond's Thresholds a Year Later

On January 16th, 2009, Diamond announced a policy change that would have a huge impact on the comics market: the threshold for orders on new products was bumped up from $1500 to $2500, and fewer items would be relisted after their initial offering. In the year since, the change has had far reaching effects.

Viz Signature and Manga for Grownups

Viz Media editorial manager Leyla Aker took some time to talk with PW Comics Week about the thinking behind the Signature line and Viz’s plans for SigIKKI, an online comics site that also targets older readers, as well as what is in the works for Viz Signature in 2010.

Funnies Business: Big Cross-Over Events and the Barrier Method

You ever notice how hard it is these days to pick up a single comic title from Marvel or DC? And by single a comic title, I mean picking up one series that isn’t crossing over with several other titles a couple times each year and only comes out once a month. If you want to avoid bulk purchases, this plague of crossovers amounts to a barrier to entry for readers.

Comics Briefly

Libraries, Graphic Novels and PW Comics Week

In this issue we’re teaming up with our colleagues at Library Journal and School Library Journal to launch Libraries and Graphic Novels, a new content category at PW Comics Week that will highlight news and information on comics and graphic novels specifically aimed at libraries.

Panel Mania: Ben 10: Alien Force

Ben 10: Alien Force, written by Peter David with art by Dan Hipp, is based on the Cartoon Network show. After an interstellar wreck is attacked by the Forever Knights, determined to steal alien technology, Ben is sent to a strange realm with a bounty hunter who is after him. Ben 10 will be released by Del Rey on February 23rd.

It’s Here! Comics Publishers Respond to Apple’s iPad

Last week Apple CEO Steven Jobs finally unveiled the iPad, Apple’s much anticipated multimedia computing and reading device, and there was much discussion among comics publishers and fans about what the device will mean for the future of digital comics.

Abrams to Publish Deluxe Simpsons Futurama Collection

If you happen to like the Simpsons and Futurama—and really, who doesn’t?—then you’re going to love Matt Groening’s, The Simpson Futurama Crossover Crisis, a deluxe slip-cased hardcover that collects two periodical mini-series originally published in 2002 and 2005 that will be released in April by Abrams' ComicsArt imprint. The book will have a first printing of 100,000 copies worldwide.

Kevin Smith Gets Dynamic with Green Hornet

Kevin Smith is best known as the director of such slacker classics as Clerks and Dogma, but he has been successfully moonlighting as a comics writer for years, working on such heroes as Green Arrow, Bat-Man and Daredevil. Now his two roles are coming together as he adapts his unproduced Green Hornet screenplay into a 10-issue mini series for Dynamite Entertainment, which debuts in March.

Teaching and Drawing: James Sturm Returns with Market Day

Like so many creative professionals, James Sturm wears more than one hat. Both a dedicated comics educator and a critically acclaimed cartoonist, Sturm is publishing a new work of fiction, Market Day, which will be released this spring by Drawn and Quarterly.

Life in Comics: Comics and Baby Talk

I have to admit that comics have not been occupying a lot of my brain space for the past couple of weeks. That is because my husband (and comics collaborator) Brian and I welcomed our first child, Mateo, into the world on January 15. Since then, most of my time and thoughts are occupied with taking care of Mateo and calculating when I can next sleep.

Comics Briefly

Wizard Comic Con Empire Grows, Takes Cincinnati; Scott Kurtz at the Charles M. Schulz Museum; Neil Gaiman at UCLA and UC Santa Barbara; Becky Cloonan and Brian Wood at Rocketship; Colin Upton Goes Webcomic; This Week @ Good Comics for Kids; and This Week @ The Beat

Comics Reviews: 2/1/2010

Panel Mania: Mesmo Delivery

Rafael Grampa's debut full-length graphic novel, Mesmo Delivery, follows ex-boxer Rufo, an Elvis impersonator, and a rowdy crew of drunks who get involved with the wrong delivery service. Mesmo Delivery is published by Dark Horse and will be released in March.

Fantagraphics to Release Special Edition of King Graphic Biography

Originally published in three volumes released between 1993 and 2003, King, Ho Che Anderson’s much acclaimed graphic biography of Martin Luther King, will be re-released in a special revised hardcover edition in February in conjunction with the beginning of Black History Month.

Boom! Studios to Launch New Imprint

Despite a tough economy that has forced other publishers to scale back, independent comics publisher Boom! Studios is upsizing its operations and launching Boom! Town, a new imprint that will focus on “literary comics” and selective reissues of out-of-print works in addition to merchandising deals. The new line has projects lined up with legendary comics publisher and now literary agent Denis Kitchen and with cartoonist Shannon Wheeler, creator of Too Much Coffee Man.

Discovering Manga with Frederik Schodt

Writer, translator and Japanese pop culture expert, Frederik Schodt was writing about manga and Osamu Tezuka when many of us were still watching the Flintstones. Schodt has written a number of books on Japan including Dreamland Japan, The Astroboy Essays, and the reference book on Japanese comics that has become somewhat of a bible, Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics.