Heidi MacDonald | ComicMix

New York’s Forbidden Planet moving to bigger space

News
July 10, 2012

Long rumored to be moving (perhaps due to the giant FOR RENT sign on the building), Forbidden Planet, one of NYC’s longest-running comics shops, is moving a few doors down the street to larger digs, according to manager Jeff Ayers. The new location, 832 Broadway (between 13th and 12th Streets), provides 3400 sq. feet of space for comics, toys and games, and it’s the largest of the three spaces the store has held on that same block over the years.

“This expansion has been necessary for some time now, and will allow us to provide our customers with even more product selection and depth, while streamlining the store’s layout to one convenient floor,” said Ayers in a statement.

The new store opens Tuesday, July 24th 2012 in a “soft launch,” but there will be a bigger launch party later. The olde shoppe closes on Sunday, July 22nd.

The olde shoppe had a nice corner location but definitely was a bit cramped and narrow…we’ll look forward to checking out the new space.

The new building:

Lobo co-creator Roger Slifer in critical condition after hit-and-run

News
June 26, 2012

Veteran comics writer Roger Slifer is fighting for his life after being struck by a hit-and-run driver in Santa Monica, CA. it’s being reported on Twitter and elsewhere. Best known as the co-creator of Lobo, Slifer, 57, has worked as an editor and writer in the comics, animation and video game industries. According to reports, Slifer was struck by a white sedan at Fifth Street and Colorado Avenue early Saturday morning and taken to Ronald Regan UCLA Medical Center, where he remains in critical condition with a serious brain injury.

Friend Flint Dille has been updating the situation:

Okay, here’s what I know. We had originally thought of keeping this quiet, because Roger is a fairly private guy, but as word is out and time might be of the essence if we’re going to find the hit-and-run driver, I’ll post what I know.

Roger is in Ronald Reagan Hospital at UCLA (I have not been in to see him, but his friends Will and Barry have). He is in intensive care. The nurse on duty could only tell me that he was in critical condition with a brain injury. Will and Barry said that he was unresponsive, but was heavily medicated since they had to do some brain surgery. I think the truth is that nobody knows what will happen. Prayers would be a good thing.

On the criminal front, it would be a very good thing to find the driver, not only for reasons of justice, but also insurance. We have no idea what Roger Slifer’s insurance situation is, but we suspect that it would be extremely helpful for medical bills.

The problem at the moment is that the Santa Monica Police do not seem to be making as much progress as they should. Some phone calls might be helpful. I’ll put everything I know in the next entry.

Dille’s report continues in the above link. A search is currently underway for the hit-and-run vehicle. Although there are security cameras it’s not known if they captured the license plate or not. The flyer below has been put up:

Slifer’s situation is eerily and horribly reminiscent of his contemporary Bill Mantlo, who has never recovered from a similar accident.

Hopefully Slifer will have a full recovery and the driver who nearly killed him will be found.

Meet the new Wizard World chairman, Mike Mathews

News
December 16, 2011

Wizard World without Gareb Shamus. The entire idea would have seemed ridiculous until just a few days ago when an SEC filing revealed that Shamus, the owner and founder of the company, had been removed as CEO. It was startling news which left everyone wondering what would become of the Wizard brand—once mighty in both media coverage and entertainment shows.

Answers are beginning to emerge. In an interview with The Beat, Wizard’s executive chairman Mike Mathews revealed that a new era has already begun at Wizard World, which will include outreach to the entire industry in a move to repair damaged relationships with both other industry players and fans.

In one of the most notorious examples of the bad blood which the old Wizard had given rise to, subscribers to the print magazine had not been given any make-up subscriptions for issues paid for but never mailed. However, according to Mathews, a letter is being sent out to old subscribers offering them a $100 credit towards Wizard shows.

CBLDF argues to keep “Stuck In The Middle” on Maine school library shelves

News
December 14, 2011

Stuck in the Middle, the Ariel Schrag edited look at middle school comedy and shame, isn’t a G-rated romp through age 13, but given its subject matter, how could it be. Instead it’s an awful painful look at the most painful ages of all, told by 17 cartoonists including Schrag, Daniel Clowes, Joe Matt and more.

It is potentially a little too rough for the Buckfield Junior-Senior High School Library in Dixfield, ME where one parent objected to the book being available, prompting a review by the school board:

Meanwhile, school board members were directed to read the pages in question, as well as the school district’s policy on challenging books.to read the pages in question, as well as the school district’s policy on challenging books.

The pages in question will remain confidential until the hearing, Ward said.

He said a committee that includes the school principal, the librarian, a classroom teacher and a community member have met to make a recommendation on whether the book should remain in the school’s library.

The board will decide whether to retain or remove the book at a January meeting.

Is Gareb Shamus Really Gone From Wizard World?

News
December 6, 2011

A terse SEC filing on Friday has led to headlines all over comics: Gareb Shamus has resigned as CEO, President and Director of Wizard World, Inc., the convention-running entity of the Wizard empire. Seeing as how Shamus is the owner and founder of the company it came as a shock. But what does it really mean? Has Shamus really been ousted from his own company — or is it just a filing to reflect some internal resource shuffling?

The latest iteration of the shrinking of the Wizard brand began about a year ago when Shamus announced that the magazine would return as a downloadable PDF. As we noted at the time, Shamus seemed almost eerily focused on this new outing, promising an audience of millions and the ability to break new comics. “We can make things cool,” he told us at the time, a perhaps distant echo of Wizard’s one time ability to actually make any new Image artist cool in their early 90s, pre-internet heyday.

The PDF continued to come out at irregular intervals, and with a declining posse of warm bodies to actually produce it, as long time staffers Mike Cotton and Justin Aclin gradually faded into the forest, leaving a skeleton staff of Shamus, brother Stephen and convention runner Peter Katz, along with new hire Kevin Kelly, who came on board as managing editor a few months ago.

Just recently, however, a couple of very strange things happened — both so quickly that we never even had a chance to write about them….

Gareb Shamus Resigns From Wizard World (comicmix.com)
Gareb Shamus Accused Of Trying To Get Artist Fired From Their Day Job (bleedingcool.com)

Independent Comics Month-to-Month Sales: October 2011

News
December 4, 2011

Buffy continues in the top spot, while a double-shipping Walking Dead takes second and third places. Turtles creeps back up to fourth, and Star Trek/ Legion of Superheroes gets off to a very promising start. Further down, Orchid benefits from a rock star contributor, Garth Ennis & John Byrne launch new titles and a remarkable success story finishes off the month.

This month everyone wants to know how DC’s New 52 has affected the sales of everyone else’s books. It’s a little too early to tell, the re-charting DC books have pushed a lot of indies off the charts, but while the indie publishers have a lot less titles charting this month, their market and dollar share have only dropped a little, suggesting that sales are up overall. The next three months will show the effects far more clearly.

Only 87 indie books charted this month, down from last month’s high of 127 and again the number 87 book sold around the same as the number 87 book last month. The bottom book sold 5,167 compared to last month’s 3,341. In total those books sold approximately 921,878, well down on last month’s 1,053,116. That said, last month the average sales were 8,292 per book, this month it’s 10,596.

IDW offers graphic novels on Barnes & Noble Nook

News
December 2, 2011

DC isn’t the only publisher betting big on the new generation of tablets — IDW has made more than 30 of their GNs available for the NOOK, including Darwyn Cooke’s Parker adaptations, and works by Joe Hill, Max Brooks, Anne Rice, and Eric Shanower. Unlike DC’s exclusive with Amazon, this doesn’t seem to have pissed off any retail partners…yet.

Continuing to lead the charge of digital comics, IDW Publishing proudly debuted a collection of graphic novels for the new Barnes & Noble NOOK Tablet, the company’s fastest and lightest tablet with the best in HD entertainment. IDW’s initial NOOK entrée features over thirty complete graphic novels, including award-winning books and works by bestselling authors.

“We’re excited to partner with Barnes & Noble to bring IDW graphic novels line to NOOK,” stated Jeff Webber, IDW’s director of ePublishing.

IDW Graphic Novels Debut on Kobo Vox eReader (graphicpolicy.com)
Barnes & Noble Pulls Watchmen, Sandman And 100 DC Graphic Novels From Their Shelves Over Amazon Kindle Fire Deal (bleedingcool.com)
Barnes & Noble Misses Expectations, Though Digital Sales Increase (paidcontent.org)

Marvel updates iPhone reader app to 3.0

News
December 2, 2011

Marvel has updated its iOS app with a bunch of new features — however, the App store tells me that you will have to restore all your purchases after the upgrade. The new features sound worth it, however. What could go wrong?

To entice you, Marvel is running a big sale on stuff like SCHISM, ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN, and other recent releases. That’s a nice way to get people up to speed with the current goings-on for future print or digital purchases.

Author: Heidi MacDonald