Author: Elayne Riggs

Super Librarian is coming!

Lots of comic shops are gearing up for May 5’s Free Comic Book Day, but NJ is doing them one better — the New Jersey State Library system is sponsoring Super Librarian Free Comic Book Day statewide on May 5.

NJSL and INFOLINK (the Eastern New Jersey Regional Library Cooperative) are working with youth service librarians to conduct a statewide public awareness campaign, which includes the release of the Super Librarian comic book on FCBD. (This teaser video celebrates super librarians in NJ and elsewhere.)  Local libraries will also have teens plan events highlighting how their libraries are meeting the needs of young adults in their communities and distribute free copies of the comic in Spanish and English versions.  FCBD will also kick off a YouTube comic contest, where teens can create a video or draw a comic about why they love their library, with one lucky entrant winning an mp3 player.

The librarians’ organization says, "We will be working with Diamond Comics to promote the entire event statewide and will be creating press pieces designed to give greater visibility to how our NJ libraries are meeting the needs of teens," and it looks as though this venture is already paying off.  For instance, the Courier News reports on how the Comic Cafe store in Warren will be supplying free comic books for the Bernardsville Public Library to give away on FCBD.  Let us know if you see any other local articles.  As for us, we’ll probably be in Rockland County for FCBD, but no reason we can’t drive over the border and check out some comic stores — and libraries — there!

Down to Earth catch-up

Down to Earth catch-up

Happy Earth Day!  Hope you’re all recycling your comics at your nearest libraries, hospitals, etc.  And speaking of recycling, here are our regular columns from this past week:

I’m going to listen to Mellifluous Mike Raub‘s latest podcasts at my Mom’s house here in the wilds of the Jersey shore area:

Mom may be reading the Sunday paper today but I’ll take Earth-friendly pixels any time; save me them trees!

Spidey site live

Spidey site live

The Spider-Man Week in NYC site has gone live!  Sony’s site features an interactive map, countdown clock, events listing, links and pretty much all the bells and whistles you’d expect.  Spider-Man Week officially begins on Monday, April 30.

And yes, there’s a link to Free Comic Book Day.  Looks like this is one year where it absolutely paid off to link FCBD to a comic book movie opening!

The Super-Duper Friends to the rescue!

The Super-Duper Friends to the rescue!

Sometimes you just have to have faith that something fun will turn up by day’s end.  Found this one yesterday making the blog-rounds:

Yes, it’s got a political point of view.  So does breathing, nowadays.

Persepolis film bows at Cannes

Persepolis film bows at Cannes

The lineup for the 2007 Cannes Film Festival has been unveiled, and Marjane Satrapi’s much-anticipated Persepolis, based on her graphic novel, will be among the films competing.  Here’s a shot of Satrapi, who currently lives in France, from last year’s festival, flanked by actress Chiara Mastroianni and "Persepolis" co-writer/director Vincent Paronnaud:

Also selected were Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof and Michael Moore’s new documentary Sicko.  Separate films, we’re certain.  The festival will take place from May 16 through 27.

Counting down on MySpace

DC Comics has just announced it’s partnered with the comic books section of MySpace to preview the first two issues of its much-anticipated Countdown series, which has reverse numbering because we aren’t confused enough.

The first 10 pages of Countdown #51 will be up on MySpace/comicbooks on May 4, followed on May 11 by the last 12 pages of that issue and the the first 12 pages of issue #50. The final ten pages of Countdown #50 will be on the site on May 18.

Why the sudden interest in the site? Well, DC’s also launching its own DC Nation MySpace page on May 2, so that could have something to do with it.

While it’s always good to see major corporations paying attention to the netroots, let’s hope smaller efforts aren’t completely usurped by the bigger fish.

Eisner nominees announced

Eisner nominees announced

The Oscar race of the comics industry is underway, as the 2007 Eisner nominees (for work that came out in 2006) have been announced .

Thank goodness Heidi MacDonald (from Barcelona, yet!) has all the nominees listed, so we don’t have to.

Going APE with Attitude

Going APE with Attitude

The indie comics’ Left Coast division will have its chance to shine again this weekend, as the Alternative Press Expo (a.k.a. APE, run by the good folks from the San Diego Comic-Con) gets underway at the Concourse Exhibition Center in San Francisco ("…my favorite city, where the women are strong and the men are pretty!" and yes, I bought the t-shirt) on April 21 and 22. 

Cartoonists with Attitude will be there in full force!  All nine CWA members will attend.  This is a great chance to meet some of the best political cartoonists working today. This might be your last chance to meet Ted Rall before he gets hauled away to Gitmo.

No word on whether they’ll all be camping out on SF local Keith Knight’s floor.

Handel-ing the Pulitzer

Handel-ing the Pulitzer

The 2007 Pulitzer Prizes have been awarded and, along with everyone else in comics-land, ComicMix would like to congratulate Walt Handelsman on his award for Editorial Cartooning.  Handelsman plies his trade for Newsday, one of the better NYC-area newspapers and the one I used to read back when I was a subway commuter.

The other finalists in this area also nominated as finalists in this category were Nick Anderson of The Houston Chronicle for his pungent cartoons on an array of issues, and for his bold use of animation, and Mike Thompson of the Detroit Free Press for his compelling cartoons that rely on rich detail and deft caricature to make their point and for using animation to widen his impact."

Marvel movie madness

Marvel movie madness

 

Marvel Entertainment has announced a new sweepstakes, the winner of which will win a walk-on role in an upcoming Marvel Studios movie.  Usually these things are only reserved for folks like Stan Lee and Joe Quesada, so it’s nice to see regular ol’ folks given the chance at unpaid, uncredited extra work.

Sweepstakes entries are here. If you don’t win the Grand Prize, there are also three First Prizes (that never sounded right to me, shouldn’t First Prizes be the top ones rather than Grand Prizes?) where you could win a collected edition of Marvel comics and 15 Second Prizes for a 12 issue sub to one of their books.

The sweepstakes began on Tuesday and runs through August 10, so it’s not like you have to rush. Only one entry per person.