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Comics Briefly: 1/26/2010
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Panel Mania: Afrodisiac
Brian Maruca and Jim Rugg's Afrodisac is a collection of short stories focusing on the character Afrodisiac, a mysterious black man endowed with super powers who also happens to be irresistable to woman and even aliens. The stories combine the tongue-in-cheek style of 1970s blaxploitation movies and comics. This preview includes selections from several stories. Afrodisiac is published by AdHouse Books.
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Comics Reviews: 1/25/2010
Northlanders, Zombie Tales and Wizzywig Volumes 3 are reviewed this week.
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First Second’s Mark Siegel Launches New Web Comic Serial
First Second editorial director Mark Siegel, a critically lauded cartoonist, children's book illustrator and designer in his own right, is launching an original web comic, Sailor Twain or the Mermaid in the Hudson, that will begin serializing January 28 at SailorTwain.com with new material posted three days a week.
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The Big Graphic Novels of 2010
The year 2010 promises to deliver a wide variety of exciting new graphic works with new graphic novels coming from such artists as Dan Clowes, Charles Burns, and Dash Shaw on the literary comics side, as well as the continued and growing presence of work from prose writers looking to try their skills in the comics medium.
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New Business, New Books for Top Shelf in 2010
Indie publisher Top Shelf has started the year out with some new partners. Long run by the two-man brain trust of Chris Staros and Brett Warnock, the publisher has added two partners, new media entrepreneur John S. Johnson, and independent film producer Anthony Bregman who together will own 33% of the company.
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Found In Translation: ‘Berry Dynamite’ and ‘Golgo 13’
This is the first Found In Translation column, a new feature focused on finding the best Japanese manga we in the West may not be reading just yet.
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Comics Reviews: 1/18/2010
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Comics Briefly
Heroes 4 Haiti: Comic Creators Organize Disaster Relief; Archie Inks Deal with Random House; New DC Weekly Comic Aimed at Gamers; Perez and Wolfman Together Again; Children's Charity Teaches Comic Creation; This Week @ Good Comics for Kids and This Week @ The Beat
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Vertical Acquires New Tezuka License
Vertical, Inc., an independent publisher of Japanese science fiction, crime fiction, and manga, will publish Ayako, a newly licensed work created by the late, acclaimed manga-ka Osamu Tezuka, in October.
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Panel Mania: Popgun Vol. 4
"Hamburgers for One," by Frank Stockton is a 24-page story taken from the latest volume in Image Comics’s ongoing Popgun series, an anthology of full-color comics. Popgun Vol. 4 also features work by Jock, Jeffrey Brown, Erik Larsen, and the cover is by Ben Templesmith. The anthology will go on sale on February 24.
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A Shelf of One's Own: Shelving Graphic Novels in Bookstores
As graphic novels of all kinds make their way into the general bookstore market, issues of shelving and categorization have become more important. And with more literary works like Stitches, Fun Home and Asterios Polyp in the general bookstore marketplace—serious works of nonfiction/memoir and literary fiction—the question of just where a graphic book should be shelved has become a trickier proposition.
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Out of Body Experience: Dash Shaw’s ‘Body World’
For those who followed BodyWorld as it appeared on Dash Shaw’s website from 2007 to 2009, it will come as no surprise that the book version, to be released by Pantheon in April, is out of this world. To those who haven’t read Shaw’s work since Bottomless Bellybutton, it just might blow your mind.
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Disney Mum on Marvel Integration
New Year’s Eve 2009 saw the House of Ideas become the House of Mouse as Marvel’s stockholders approved the $4.3 billion purchase of Marvel Entertainment by Disney. Under terms of the agreement, Marvel shareholders received a total of $30 a share in cash plus approximately 0.7452 Disney shares for each Marvel share they owned.
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Asterios Polyp Wins Fourth Annual PWCW Critic's Poll
Once again, a graphic novel exemplifying comics' ability to uniquely treat the themes of literary fiction has topped PW Comics Week's annual critics poll. David Mazzucchelli's long-awaited Asterios Polyp got the most votes, with six.
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2009: The year in Manga
2009 was not a good year. In fact, many people are calling it the worst year ever. But in 2009, manga finished out one of its best years yet. More sophisticated content founds its way to American readers—and by way of the Internet, no less.
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Abrams Collects Woody Allen Comic Strip
Woody Allen may be most famous as an actor and director, but he also had an eight-year run as the star of his own syndicated newspaper comic strip, Inside Woody Allen, that ran from 1976 to 1984.
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Children's Comics Reviews: 1/4/2010
Hope Larson's Mercury, Jake Parker's new Missile Mouse and a new offering from Toon Books highlight this month's graphic novels for younger readers.
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Comics Reviews: 12/21/2009
Starred reveiws of books from Justin Green, Gahan Wilson and Larry Marder plus a new manga by
Jun Mochizuk and a new Hellblazer original graphic novel. -

New Books from Old: Turning Classics into Comics
Graphic novel adaptations of classic and contemporary prose works have surged in the past few years as more publishers explore ways to create book-length comics that can be used to encourage literacy and can also function as legitimate works of art in their own right. The earliest comic adaptations of classic prose works were Classics Illustrated, started in 1941 by Albert Kanter.



