Now’s your chance to gather up all those Mike Grell comics and get ’em signed! Mike informs us he’ll be very busy this spring, hitting the Emerald City Comicon in Seattle on March 31-April 1, the Pittsburgh Comicon in Monroeville, PA on April 27-29, and the Iowa Comic Book Club’s I-CON 2007 in the 4-H Building at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines on May 19. Who knew state fairs featured comic book clubs? We city-dwellers miss so much sometimes…
Neil Gaiman reports that Dreamhaven Books in Minneapolis, the place he considers his "home store" in terms of doing his local shopping there and signing lots of stuff for them to sell online, has had a break-in over the weekend.
Owner Greg Ketter says, "Damages will be costly but insurance should cover a lot of it. But after the lull in current business, this really will hurt. I don’t like charity but if you could encourage people to maybe buy an extra book off us soon, it may help. Three bookstores have closed in the Twin Cities in the past two months and I don’t want to make it four."
Those not in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area can visit their online store, where you’re likely to find lots of Gaiman-related items in among tons of sf, fantasy, horror and other related merchandise.
The first ComicMix podcast is now available for your listening pleasure!
A three-times weekly feature here at ComicMix, broadcaster Mike Raub has produced our initial 12 minute program featuring news, features and interviews. A new podcast will be available every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday — today’s podcast includes a look at new comics that are available at your friendly neighborhood comics shop, and this will be a feature of every Tuesday program. Thursday’s programs will feature reviews and Saturday’s will include full-length interviews.
Also featured in today’s podcast are salient mutterings from Peter David, The Beatles, and ComicMix’s editor-in-chief, and a nostalgic look at comics and popular culture that people were enjoying this week, back in 1963 and 1971. All this plus updates on Indiana Jones and The Flash.
We encourage you all to participate in our fun and games. Contact us with any questions or comments and when we’ve got our ComicMix message boards up and running, join Mike and the ComicMix crew in our online dialog!
Our weekly check on what mainstream news sources are saying about comics:
According to ComingSoon.net, Paul Ens (former director of StarWars.com and Lucas Online) and Scott Chitwood (co-founder of TheForce.net and SuperHeroHype.com contributor), announced today the launch of Red 5 Comics, a new comics publishing company set to introduce its first titles this fall. They aim to "produce cinematic-style stories that appeal to the same avid movie and comic fans who already frequent their websites.
The Red 5 line-up will be a combination of creator-owned and internally developed titles Individual comic issues will be sold in both traditional print form at comic shops and in downloadable electronic formats online." The press release is up at their site, and they’ve also put out a call for artists and other creative positions. May the Force be… nah, too easy.
Yes, we can tell it’s that time of year, because photos start showing up of you with your friendly neighborhood Spider-Yam.
Special thanks to Rebecca Badurina (she’s on the right) for providing photos and information.
I’m not the man I used to be. But comics aren’t what they once were, either.
Allow me to elaborate, on both myself and comics.
First, me. A looming godlike Presence — you can call him “Mr. Editor” — would like me to introduce myself. Well. I’ve gone past many of my Catholic boyhood shibboleths, but I’m still stuck with the one that insists that no Gentleman speaks favorably of himself — we’re supposed to be like medieval knights, only without all the skewering and clanking. Still, when a Looming godlike Presence commands… Okay, quick and dirty, I’ll tell you what I was.
Starting in 1965, when I took a job as Stan Lee’s assistant, I was in the comic book business. As a writer, I did hundreds of comics scripts, some of which got noticed. Also, I was an editor for 23 years, most recently of the Batman franchise, and, even more recently, a teacher of comic book writing, a job I still happily do. I’ve also written novels, non-fiction books, a few teleplays, a lot of short pieces, including stories, reviews and introductions. And columns — I’ve done those, too. And I’ve shot off my mouth in public quite a bit. That’s what I was. What I am, as these words are typed, is a semi-retired slug.
We cool, Mr. Presence?
Can a cult phenomenon be manufactured? In the case of Joss Whedon’s "Buffyverse," it helps to have a head start. The series has been off the air for almost three years, but it’s spawned legions of loyal fans salivating over, among other things, the Season 8 comic book debuting next month. And this coming Friday and Saturday, February 19-20, fans will gather at the IFC Center in NYC to celebrate the 26th birthday of their fictional heroine for two nights of trivia, games and a midnight showing of the Sing-A-Long episode of the TV show, led by IFC’s in-house live Buffy cast. Rumor has it tickets to the event go quickly, so can queuing up in costumes be far behind?
IESB reports that Gianni Nunnari will produce and Sylvain White will direct the next big-screen adaptation of a Frank Miller comic, Ronin. Nunnari, who owns the movie rights to the work and has a first look deal with Warner Bros., revealed this news at the press day for 300. (Via SuperHeroHype, Wilson Morales at blackfilm.com interviews White about his plans for the movie.)
This would seem to put pay to long-ago news of Darren Aronofsky co-writing and directing the film — except that, as Warren Ellis mentions, news that Nunnari would also be bringing Ellis’s and Chris Sprouse’s graphic novel Ocean to film is absolutely untrue. Says Ellis, "I imagine Mr. Nunnari was misheard, or misspoke and will correct himself shortly. No film company has ever attempted to purchase the media rights to Ocean, which are owned by Chris and myself."
Here is the full list of NYCC panels — seven pages printed out, which I needed to do in order to actually see the panel times because they didn’t show up against the black background on screen unless I first selected all the text. (This appears to have been fixed.)
To tell you the truth, I found more of interest on Friday than on the weekend days. Friday’s where they seem to be sticking all the "women and comics" panels. But why are they putting "Capturing Female Readers" opposite "Comics Bloggers" (Friday at 2:30 PM)? What are female comics bloggers supposed to do about that, huh? Considering that, I’d warrant, most new female comics fans are coming to the hobby via blogging, it’s just a weird counterprogramming move. "Mothers and Daughters: Female Graphic Novelists and the Family" (Friday at 6:30 PM) also sounds interesting, and it’s opposite Vertigo, which is not family friendly, and Stan Lee, who is not female, so that’s perhaps a good move.
Columns / Glenn Hauman / News
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