Friday, February 10
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Eisner-nominated cartoonist Jeff Lemire (Essex County) posts promotional art for his upcoming Vertigo graphic novel The Nobody, announced yesterday at New York Comic Con.
Loosely inspired by H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man, focuses on a stranger with a bandaged face who moves to an isolated fishing town.
Saturday at the New York Comic Con brought the people out in droves, and a lot of big panels — Venture Bros., Robot Chicken, Cup O’ Joe, just to name a few — in the late afternoon caused crowd control issues that caused staff to close down the entrance to the panels area. Newsarama’s Vaneta Rogers spoke to Sandy Bouchahine, a New York Comic Con staff member, about the overcrowding.
“We’re just letting people in in waves and shifts so we don’t surpass our capacity,” Bouchahine explained, adding that it had nothing to do with one particular panel, but was instead a problem of several very popular panels happening at the same time. “It was just a crowd control issue. There were just a lot of panels that everyone wanted to see. We’re just having loads of crowds that wanted to see things like the Venture Brothers.”
Ah, of course … if I were there, I’d be rushing to the Venture Bros. panel as well, where a teaser video for season three was shown. Someone in the crowd taped it, and you can watch it here until Cartoon Network’s lawyers find out about it.
Other teasers, previews and trailers were shown Saturday afternoon, for films like The Spirit, Incredible Hulk (which also included footage of Robert Downey Jr. guest-starring as Tony Stark) and an early release of the next Dark Knight trailer. Unfortunately that video hasn’t hit the web yet (or I haven’t found it yet, anyway) but I’m sure it will soon.
Besides the Hollywood stuff, two other stories popped up about companies looking for new graphic novels. First, Vertigo is looking to “acquire” some original graphic novels, and has two editors on the hunt. And bloggers Chris Butcher and Brigid Alverson reported Viz was also accepting submissions. Creators, get those pitches ready.
And finally, as the artwork below proves, Joe Quesada wasn’t kidding about Marvel Apes.
More coverage of New York Comic Con:
At the New York Comic Con, BOOM! Studios announced they’ll bring the SciFi Channel series Farscape back to comics. No creative team was announced, but the timing couldn’t be better, what with new webisodes being produced for SciFi.com.
The previous comic adaptation was done by Wildstorm back in 2002 when the show was still on the air, and, if I’m remembering right, was written by Marv Wolfman. The show ran for four seasons on the Sci Fi Channel, followed by a two-part mini-series that wrapped up some of the dangling plot threads. The show featured a great set of characters, some human, some produced by the geniuses at the Jim Henson Company … my favorite episodes are still the ones where John Crichton and his crew went back to Earth.
Read the complete press release after the jump …
MTV.com has The Spirit teaser trailer that debuted at the New York Comic Con today. It has a real Sin City vibe going for it…
Update: the trailer’s on YouTube as well:
Tokyopop will launch a full-color line of graphic novels in February 2009 showcasing creators from around the world.
For the Tokyopop Graphic Novels imprint, Tokyopop will license works from French publishers Delcourt and Soleil, and Chinese publisher Xiao Pan.
The line will lead off in February with Orange, by Chinese creator Benjamin, and Pixie, by French creators Mathieu Mariolle and Aurore. Those will be followed in March by Luuna, by French creators Didier Crisse and Nicolas Keramidas.
Publishers Weekly has more information from Tokyopop publisher Mike Kiley.
The press release, with title details, can be found after the break:
Publishers Weekly reports that Vertigo is positioning two editors to acquire original graphic novels in the DC Comics imprint’s push for new material.
Editors Jonathan Vankin and Joan Hilty will focus on graphic-novel acquisitions. Hilty will continue to handle some DC Universe titles.
Graphic novels will be the focus of today’s 3 p.m. “Vertigo Voices” panel, headed by Senior VP-Executive Editor Karen Berger and Group Editor Shelly Bond, where they’re expected to announce three new books: Second Lives, by cartoonist Peter Bagge; Luna Park by author Kevin Taylor and artist Daniel Zezelj; and The Nobody by cartoonist Jeff Lemire.
According to PW, Vertigo is opening the door to literary agents and creators to pitch a variety of material.
Action Figure Insider reports on the Mattel panel at the New York Comic Con today, which included a list of San Diego Comic Con exclusives and details on figures for their Justice League Unlimited, DC Universe Classics and DC Infinite Heroes.
Folks attending SDCC this summer can look forward to some fun exclusives — a JLU Giganta two-pack, featuring both 10” and 4” versions of the characters, and a DC Universe Classics figure of Lobo and his dog. “No bike,just the main man, his pooch, and some bitchin’ chains!” There will also be figures from The Dark Knight.
For details on new figures coming out from Mattel this year, go check out their report. Fans will be pleased. Or not.
Chris Butcher and Brigid Alverson report from New York Comic Con that Viz Media will begin accepting submissions for original graphic novels.
The word comes from Marc Weidenbaum, Viz’s vice president of magazines and editor-in-chief of Shonen Jump.
Brigid writes: “This is actually rather remarkable, since Viz is the American subsidiary of the Japanese publishers Shueisha and Shogakukan, but I guess it shows where the market is going.”
Expect more details later in the weekend.
Val over at Occasional Superheroine snapped a picture of a new promo poster of the women of the DC universe, which can also be found on Adam Hughes’ website. Johanna has commentary.
Who could’ve guessed that retailer Gordon Lee, comics legend Stan Lee, DC’s Wildstorm imprint and Virgin Comics would be the big newsmakers on the first day of New York Comic Con?
The big story, without a doubt, was the announcement Friday evening by Neil Gaiman that charges against Rome, Ga., retailer Gordon Lee have been dropped.
Lee’s legal battle stemmed from a Halloween 2004 giveaway during which one of his employees mistakenly handed a copy of the Alternative Comics #2 Free Comic Book Day sampler to a boy. The issue depicts a naked Pablo Picasso. After several false starts, the case finally went to court in October, only to end in mistrial during the prosecutor’s opening statement.
Gaiman said Friday the case has cost the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which represented Lee, more than $100,000.
But Gordon wasn’t the only Lee in the spotlight: Stan Lee (no relation) kicked off the convention in fine form Thursday night when he was presented with the inaugural New York Comics Legend award. The event, held at the Virgin Megastore in Times Square, drew countless creators and media-types, including Comic Foundry‘s Laura Hudson, who had an interesting encounter with the folks from Virgin Comics.
The Stan Lee juggernaut continued on Friday during the invitation-only event for Ultimo, his collaboration with Shaman King creator Hiroyuki Takei for Shueisha’s Jump SQ.II spin-off magazine. As expected, Viz Media’s “exciting news” is that Ultimo will be released in North America shortly.
But wait! The Man isn’t finished: He’ll oversee a line of superhero comics for Virgin Comics, which also announced that writer Grant Morrison and filmmaker Shekhar Kapur are collaborating on an animated series to be delivered via the Internet and mobile phone. The series, titled MBX, is a futuristic retelling of the Mahabharata epic poem.
DC’s Wildstorm imprint, meanwhile, continued efforts to rebrand itself — or, perhaps, simply brand – with the announcement of three license acquisitions: Prototype, Gears of War, and The X-Files. That last property is expected to be officially announced today. However, X-Files creator Chris Carter let the information slip last night.
More coverage of New York Comic Con:
The L.A. Times has the scoop on a deal that’ll be formally announced at the New York Comic Con — Virgin Comics is teaming with Stan Lee to create a line of superhero comics. The Times reports:
The new venture will have Lee as the editor overseeing a line of superhero comics that will launch next year with a tentpole title he is writing himself. That project — the title of which remains under wraps — will center on a superhero team that sounds similar to his classic work on the Avengers at Marvel. (Lee ended his exclusive relationship with Marvel in the 1990s but still has ties to the company and even has cameo roles in the upcoming Marvel films “Iron Man” and “The Incredible Hulk.”)
“It will be a team of 10 heroes and they will be dealing with personality conflicts, personal problems and chemistry within the team,” Lee said in an interview this week. “I’m going to get started working on it right away and I’m very excited about doing something that will be fresh and breaking new ground. I can’t give away the details or the names yet, but I have some exciting things in mind.”
It’s been a good week for Stan Lee; on Thursday he received the New York Comics Legend award, and on Wednesday, it was announced he was helping to launch a series of animated films. Virgin’s New York Comic Con experience hasn’t been too bad either; they announced Friday that Grant Morrison was creating an online animated series for them.
During this evening’s X-Files movie panel at New York Comic Con, creator Chris Carter let slip a piece of comic-book news: DC/Wildstorm has acquired the license to the popular sci-fi/conspiracy franchise.
IGN.com reports that Wildstorm had planned to make the official announcement tomorrow, presumably during the 6 p.m. “Wildstorm: Revelations Revealed” panel.
This is the third license DC Comics/Wildstorm has announced this week: Earlier today, the publisher revealed it will release a comic based on the Gears of War video game, while on Tuesday it announced a tie-in to the Prototype video game.
The X-Files: I Want To Believe is set to open on July 25.
AICN has the new teaser poster for Will Eisner’s The Spirit, set to be unveiled this weekend at New York Comic Con.
CHUD.com has the New York Comic Con-exclusive poster for Hellboy II: The Golden Army, by Drew Struzan. The limited-edition poster will only be available Saturday at the 2 p.m. Hellboy II panel.
The video game Gears of War has found a comic book home, again. BOOM! announced last year that they were bringing the game to comics, but now it appears that Wildstorm has the license. WRAL.com reports:
Asked if any other comics publishers bid for the Gears rights, an Epic spokeserson declined to answer. “Can’t comment on private negotiations,” she said.
Epic is developing a sequel to Gears. The game is scheduled for release in November for the Xbox 360 platform.
“Big guns and monsters — what a perfect comic book for WildStorm,” said WildStorm general Manager Hank Kanalz. “We have an opportunity to work closely with Epic to add to the canon of the Gears of War mythos, so you can imagine how excited we all are.
“Epic sets the bar very high, in graphics, story, and game play — and expect no less from our series, starting with our lead-in arc that fills in the gaps between the first game and the upcoming sequel,” he added.
Earlier this week, DC also announced they would produce a comic based on the video game Prototype. The sequel to the game will be previewed on Sunday at the New York Comic Con.
Graphic novel sales in the United States and Canada reached $375 million last year, an increase of 12 percent over 2006. That’s according to a report delivered Thursday at the ICv2 Graphic Novel Conference at New York Comic Con.
Single-issues sales were $330 million in 2007, up nearly 10 percent from the previous year.
According to the annual white paper, delivered by ICv2 CEO Milton Griepp, manga sales were up 5 percent to $210 million, the slowest-growth rate for manga since the website began tracking sales. The report cites a decline in sales in the direct market “due to a reduced emphasis on the category by comic stores,” and possible increased competition from American graphic novels.
Still, the number of manga titles released in 2007 climbed 25 percent to 1,513. American “genre” releases — that includes superhero, science fiction, fantasy and horror graphic novels — increased 31 percent in 2007 to 1,268.
Publishers Weekly further breaks it down, noting that “literary” comics rose 2 percent to 272, humor grew 24 percent to 83, while kids’ comics were, at 1 percent, virtually unchanged with 145.
In all, 3,391 graphic novels were released last year, up 22 percent from 2006.
Related: Tom Spurgeon has commentary from the conference
Devil’s Due sent out a press release earlier this week about Heroes star Milo Ventimiglia being on hand this weekend at the New York Comic Con to announce a new project. Tonight, Variety reports that the project is called Rest, a comic book miniseries featuring a character that looks like Ventimiglia:
The four issues in the series will revolve around the dangers of staying awake as a man is drawn into a conspiracy between a malevolent pharmaceutical company and the U.S. government.
The design of the main character will be inspired by Ventimiglia’s likeness.
Mark Powers, who penned the comicbook “Drafted” and edited “X-Men,” will write the issues based on a story by Mike O’Sullivan.
Ventimiglia is scheduled to not only be at the Devil’s Due panel on Saturday, but will also be signing autographs at their booth at various times throughout the show.
The New York Comic Con doesn’t open until 3 p.m. tomorrow, but the news has already started flowing. In a video interview with Newsarama (wait … what?) Dan DiDio announced that Mauro Cascioli, the artist on Trials of Shazam!, is the artist on the James Robinson-written Justice League series. And look, some art:
You can find more Countdown to NYCC videos with DiDio over on the Newsarama NYCC mini-site … which, incidentally, also has a blog feed of everything we’re posting about the con, which is pretty cool. We’re syndicated! Where’s my residual check?
This year’s convention has an impressive slate of programming devoted to comics for children and teens, from a panel on using comics in the classroom to anime screenings to a workshop on how to create superhero characters.
But that barely scratches the surface. The weekend is filled events for children, teens and parents. Here’s just a handful:
1. Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! It’s Kids Day, filled with cartooning workshops and classes for children and teens, competitions and Light Saber Training. Children 12 and under are admitted for free on Sunday.
2. All things Avatar (The Last Airbender): As an unapologetic fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender, I’m compelled to recommend the “Nickelodeon Presents — Avatar Comics” panel at 6 p.m. Friday, with storyboard artist Johane Matte (aka Rufftoon), comics editor Dave Roman, comics writer Alison Wilgus, and comics artist Amy Kim Ganter.
Then at 3 p.m. Saturday, “Into the Inferno: Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Last Airbender Finale.” (Yeah, that makes me a little sad, too.) Creators Bryan Konietzko and Mike DiMartino will provide sneak peeks at the remaining episodes, and debut the official trailer for the two-hour series finale.
