2013 Doug Wright Award judges announced

image06.jpg

TweetJudges for the 2013 Doug Wright Awards for Canadian Cartooning have been announced, a group comprising cartoonists and other artists from Montreal. Nominees were announced the other day, but these five will make final selections for “The Nipper” and the other honors. Awards winners will be announced May 11th during TCAF. Julie Delporte Born in [...]

Kibbles ‘n’ Bits, 4/10/13: More on MoCCA

MoCCA-2013-2.jpg

Tweet § A few little MoCCA wrap-up thoughts and posts: I particularly like this post from Alexandra Beguez because her table with Estrella Vega & Alden Viguilla has more beautiful things on it than I may have ever seen on one table at MoCCA before. § Juan Kafka also has some nice photos. My, but [...]

Can creators really get their books back from Tokyopop?

201304051550.jpg

Tweet We’ve been covering the sometimes glorious, sometimes ignominious history of Tokyopop for as long as there has been a Beat. Although its biggest legacy is as a manga innovator, its most notorious is the string of unfinished OEL—”original English Language”—series it left behind. An ambitious publishing program that put out dozens of new books [...]

DCU and Vertigo collection schedule: Deluxe Invisibles, DMZ, DC One MIllion and Planetary Omnibuses, etc.

beat-default

DC has released its graphic novel schedule into February 2014, and it’s a huge list of 147 books. The whole list is below, with Vertigo first and then the DCU.

National Cartoonists Society announces Reuben nominees

National Cartoonists Society

While the three nominees for THE Reuben, the top award of the year from the National Cartoonists Society, have been announced —and they are Brian Crane, Rick Kirkman and Stephan Pastis, the NCS has just announced the nominees in the divisional races. Many familiar names in many catgories, and the new spliut wbcomics division—one for long form and one for short form—makes is debut.

Kick-Watcher: Interview with Vera Greentea on PAPA

KickstarterCoverPapa

Tweet Writer/publisher Vera Greentea is shooting for her fifth successful Kickstarter comic book campaign. Since 2010 she has raised $22,601 and this time she’s trying to hit her $10,000 goal to fund her latest anthology, PAPA.

Kibbles ‘n’ Bits, 3/25/13: Echoes of WildStorm

8658820.87.jpg

Tweet§ J. Caleb Mozzocco looks at the remains of WildStorm in the New 52 with a focus on Stormwatch, and he has some sharp words for the overall art style: What I found most interesting in this portion of the book is how many artists were involved with these designs: Hamner (Jenny, Adam, Apollo, Midnighter, [...]

Interview: Bob Fingerman on remaking Minimum Wage and making a career

FRONT-COVER-JACKET.jpg

Bob Fingerman talks about the new definitive version of Minimum Wage, surviving as a cartoonist, why people like the apocalypse and more in a wide ranging interview.

Siegel Superman case ends (almost)

Superman 79

TweetAs expected, the district court has ruled that the 2001 settlement agreement between DC and the Siegels is binding and did indeed transfer the Superman copyright to DC. But what about Superboy?

2013 Doug Wright Award Nominees Announced; Chartier is Giant of the North

DWA2013Poster_Large.jpg

The Doug Wright Awards for Canadian Cartooning have just announced their 2013 finalists. Presented in three categories, the awards recognize the best in Canadian comics, with a uniquely local flavor.

Jodi Picoult’s a Marvel Zombie

Jodi Picoult

This weekend I attended the fifth annual Tucson Festival of Books. TFOB is a among the top five book festivals in the nation. This year has attracted a lot of famous authors, including, Jodi Picoult.

Justice League of America tops February sales

Nemo-Heart-of-Ice.jpg

Tweet Marvel topped both units and dollars in February, while DC reclaimed the top comics spot with Justice League of America #1 by Johns and Frank. The big news this month was IDW’s surge for their first time over 7% market share– it’s amazing how far you can go riding on a little pony. They [...]

Another Robin is dead, and here’s what they’re saying

BATMAN #18

Well, the task of being Batman’s sidekick has claimed another life. Young Damian Wayne, the fruit of Batman’s own loins, with killed in a battle with his clone brother in Batman, Incorporated #8. And not in a quick one panel zap, the way we used to do comic book deaths, but in a multi panel pummeling. Since Damian was a little brat for most of his 10 years, some people weren’t that sad. But others were. The reactions have been many and varied. First and most poignantly the entire Batfamily is mourning on next month’s somber covers, as revealed at Buzzfeed.

And there was much talk in the mediasphere as well, although without cool Greg Capullo covers. One thing’s for sure…Damian wasn’t the first Robin to die…and I’m guessing he won’t be the last.

Podcast alert: More To Come

201302261414.jpg

People often ask me “Why don’t you do a podcast?”

I answer “I do.”

Poisoned Chalice Part 3: Marvelman Falls

truebrit

TweetPoisoned Chalice Part 3: Marvelman Falls [Previous chapters: Introduction, 1: Prehistory, 2: Marvelman Rises] The actual work on the Marvelman titles was done by various artists, and Mick Anglo goes into quite a bit of detail about them and their different styles in Nostalgia: Spotlight on the Fifties. The outstanding Marvelman artist amongst all of [...]

Kick-Watcher: Not-for-profit inspirational Batman documentary

poster art

Brett Culp kick-starts his Batman inspired not-for-profit documentary, Legends of the Knight. Culp that features interviews from everyone’s favorite industry Bat-fans, and powerful everyday people that use their enthusiasm to be active in their communities and overcome extreme hardship.