Panel Mania: Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth

Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth is an examination of the life and ideas of the mathematician and philosopher, Bertrand Russell, which surveys both his increasingly messy personal life and the intellectual issues that motivated his groundbreaking work in mathematics and logic. Logicomix is written by Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos H. Papadimitriou, with art by Alecos Papadatos and Annie Di Donna, and will be released by Bloomsbury in October.

The Shows Go On with Lance Fensterman

Lance Fensterman is increasingly running an empire of his own. As v-p at Reed Exhibitions, not only is he the show runner for BookExpo America and the four-year-old New York Comic Con, but a growing portfolio of consumer shows, including the just-concluded video game show PAX (in partnership with founders Penny Arcade), the New York Anime Festival (to be held Sept. 25-27), and next April's C2E2 comics show in Chicago.

Tokyopop: Good News, Bad News

The past week was a mixed bag for manga publisher Tokyopop: They revealed they would no longer be doing business with the Japanese publisher Kodansha but also announced a handful of new licenses and put several stalled series back on schedule.

ADV Shuts Down; Assets, Staff Shift to New Companies

U.S. anime distributor and manga publisher AD Vision is no more. The company's assets (and an undetermined number of its employees) have been divided up among four separate companies: AEsir Holdings, SXion 23 (Section 23) Films, Valkyrie Media Partners, and Seraphim Studios. Section 23 will continue to service former ADV accounts.

September Comics Bestsellers

Jeff Kinney’s Wimpy Kid: Last Straw continues its long run at the top, followed by Viz’s Vampire Knight vol. 7, Naruto and Tokyopop’s Fruits Basket, Vol. 23. Neil Gaiman’s Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader is #5 and just below the Top Ten are Darwyn Cooke’s The Hunter, David Mazzucchelli’s Asterios Polyp and David Petersen’s Mouse Guard: Winter 1152.

Comics Briefly

Del Rey Hosts New York Anime Fest Party, ‘Action Philosophers’ Collected, Jaime Hernandez Book Signing in L.A., Spiegelman, Mouly Sign in New York City; Ben Katchor In Concert; and This Week @ Good Comics for Kids

Costumes and Comics at Dragon Con

Dragon Con, North America's largest fan-run pop culture convention, was held in downtown Atlanta over the Labor Day weekend. Now in its twenty-second year, Dragon Con is remarkable not merely for its size—the annual show generally attracts more than 30,000 fans—but for its remarkable variety.

Panel Mania: Beast

In Beast, the first solo graphic novel by Marian Churchland, Colette, a struggling young sculptor, is commissioned by the mysterious man to carve his portrait in marble. Over the course of the job, Colette discovers it is more sinister than it seemed. Beast, published by Image Comics, will be in stores on September 23rd.

Comics Briefly

Breaking Down Disney's Acquisition of Marvel

Can a mouse and a spider make lots of money together? We'll soon find out. The entertainment world was rocked Monday morning by the news that Disney plans to buy Marvel Entertainment for a cool $4 billion. Even the Kingpin would say that's a lot of dough.

Candlewick’s ‘Vermonia’—Multifaceted, Mythic Manga

Like the characters in its own story, Vermonia has a distinguished and almost mythic beginning. The manga series is the brainchild of a renowned editor and a manga professor and has a multifaceted existence in print and online. The series is being published in the U.S. by Candlewick Press (the initial printing is 25,000 copies); in the U.K. by Walker, and in Italy by Mondadori.

Why I Wrote 'Stitches'

As part of our on-going series, Why I Write, PW invited the award-winning illustrator David Small to comment on the incident that sparked the writing of Stitches, his graphic account of a harrowing childhood, which will be published by W. W. Norton in September.

Life in Comics: Competing with the Old Guard

In last month's column I parenthetically mentioned graphic novel publishing imprints that are a part of large traditional publishing companies. Several prominent publishers have established themselves with strong graphic novel showings in recent years.

Hackers are People Too: Ed Piskor's 'Wizzywig'

In an unusual creative effort that mixes fictional techniques with serious nonfiction research, cartoonist Ed Piskor has self-published the first two volumes of Wizzywig, a planned four-volume graphic novel that folds the history of the hacker community into a single fictional character named Kevin Phenicle in order to document the history and technological and social development of hacker and online culture.

Panel Mania: Ball Peen Hammer

In the dark, post apocalyptic world of Ball Peen Hammer in which plague has infected the city, Welton, infected himself, has locked himself in a basement to stay safe. In this preview, Welton opens the door of his refuge. Ball Peen Hammer is written by Adam Rapp, with art by George O’Conner, and will be released by First Second on September 29th.

Disney to Acquire Marvel Comics for $4 Billion

In a blockbuster deal that brings together two of the biggest brands in American film, animation and comic books, the Walt Disney Co. has agreed to acquire Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion in cash and stock.

‘The Pekar Project’ Webcomic Debuts on ‘SMITH’

After moving from the comics page to the big screen, acclaimed autobiographical comics creator Harvey Pekar has now made his way to the Internet with a new webcomic series called, The Pekar Project, to be published on SMITH, an online magazine featuring personal storytelling.

New Book Deals For Yang, Roman, Kibuishi, Knisley

First Second will publish new graphic works by Gene Yang, author of American Born Chinese, Teen Boat creator Dave Roman and a new work by Lucy Knisley, author of the French Milk. And Villard and Scholastic Books have signed on to publish additional volumes of Kazu Kibuishi’s Flight anthology and Amulet series respectively.

Digital Comics Get a New Platform with Sony PSP Deal

Last week, Sony announced they will be offering comic book content as digital downloads for the PSP portable gaming device, via the Playstation store. This confirms rumors of Sony seeking significant comics content for the device dating back to March 2009.

Confessions of an Immature Pervert: Erika Moen Overcomes Puritanism

Those who still think young women's diaries are full of blushing and crushes will be shocked by Erika Moen's online journal. DAR! A Super Girly Top Secret Comic Diary (found at www.darcomic.com) is a webcomic that can be raw, ribald, and revelatory.