The News Blog of Comics Culture
Tweet Last year, on Black Friday, my 27-year-old nephew Parker and myself attempted a Grand Tour of visit comics retailer in the Omaha metropolitan area. We didn’t succeed, but we visited most, and found lots of great comics, many on sale, and we even discovered a brand new store, Legend Comics, open just a few [...]
Tweet Everyone knows about Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It’s covered to death by the media, analyzed relentlessly by Wall Street, and now rivals Thanksgiving Thursday for displays of excess, gluttony, and questionable individual behavior. Myself, having worked retail from 1994 to 2008 (and now behind the scenes), I’m much more interested in what I call [...]
TweetThursday, I got to be seven years old again. When I woke up, my parents were watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. My mother was busy preparing dessert for the dinner at a friend’s home, so I got out a limited edition box of Pumpkin Pie Pop Tarts (on clearance at the grocery store) and [...]
TweetI’ll be posting a list of gift books in the next few days, so I’m doing some research over on Books.com, sorting graphic novels by price, highest to lowest. That’s when I discovered the following…
TweetWell, the year is winding down, and with it comes the annual “Best Of” lists from various websites and media. Publishers Weekly led the charge, issuing an actual graphic novel listing within their greater big list, with Chris Ware’s Unbuilding making the overall “Best Books” listing. Yesterday, the Washington Post released their list, and it [...]
Tweet While The Beatrix is down South for a a comics convention, I’m back home in Omaha, Nebraska, spending Turkey Week with family and friends. (Nine days of vacation, three vacation days used.) Of course, most of us are anticipating turkey this Thursday (or whatever you prefer to consume in Thanksgiving), and many are also [...]
TweetAs we wait for the returns to trickle in, and for the long national indigestion to finally end, we here at Stately Beat Manor provide you with the finest in Election Night coverage.
TweetSo I like to paw through the back issue bins at conventions, judging books by their cover, buying cheap ($1-3) copies of old comics! Usually it’s something from the Silver or Bronze Age, usually published by DC Comics. (Marvel’s covers never seem to grab me…they might be well-designed, but there’s no “hook”. Of course, it [...]
TweetWhile ensconced at The Beat Annex located in mainland New York City for what will be a nine-day weekend, I had to use my wits to keep from going stir-crazy from cabin fever. Yet fevers can be inspirational, and when I heard that the New York City Marathon was canceled yesterday, inspiration struck! I had [...]
TweetAlthough hampered by the lack of electricity at their offices, Publishers Weekly has managed to release their Best Books lists for 2012.
TweetA few weeks ago, Cartoon Brew publicized the new Blu-Ray release of Mad Monster Party, a rare Rankin-Bass motion picture. (I did intend to publicize the events, but then NYCC happened.) Among most pop-culture fans, Rankin-Bass is known for Christmas specials, which air every year, generating nostalgic bliss as we watch misfit toys and meteorological [...]
TweetWell, the fifteenth New York Comic Con just concluded ten days of pop cultural programming in Manhattan. While ReedPOP does not release exact data points, initial estimates set the attendance at the Javits Convention Center at 480,000 with 335,000 unique visitors. (In a move to encourage the greatest number of attendees, RP limited the availability [...]
TweetLast weekend, The Frankfurt Book Fair showcased two German comics awards: The Deutscher Cartoon Preis (German Cartoon Prize), awarded since 2006 Sondermann Publikumspreis (Sondermann audience award), awarded since 2004 The German Cartoon Prize has two divisions: newcomer (Aufsteiger), and published (Buch). The newcomer award was presented to Stefan Wirkus, an entertainer, cartoonist, caricaturist, and emcee. [...]
TweetSo there are numerous comics fans wandering the Frankfurt Book Fair. There are lots of manga fans, perhaps more than would be found at an American comic con, as European fandom was never as superhero-centric as that in the United States. So why not add some cosplay to the fun? With the growing popularity of [...]
Tweet(Die Pflichtlektüre translates to “required reading” in German. Most of the following links are auf Deutsch, so either use a translation program (Google Chrome does it automatically), or find a friend to help you.) In English: The Goethe Institute has a great website for German comics! (Also includes links to various sites and publishers.) [Anyone [...]
Living in the Marvel Universe: Real Life Intrudes Upon Imagination
TweetAs a kid, it’s easy to disconnect from reality. Your database of experience is low, so you don’t have the visceral experience or memory to question what appears on television, at the local theater, or on the pages of a book. (Of course, you still cry thinking about Dan and Ann, even though Third Grade [...]