For all you cats in the Portland, OR and Flemington, NJ areas, this is a great event for you to be checking out — Wonder Woman Day!

The event — which takes place on Sunday — will go to benefiting domestic violence centers (as this month is indeed National Domestic Abuse Month). Over the past three years, the event has raised over $69,000.

In Portland, Excalibur Comics will be hosting an event from noon to 6pm, with a silent art auction — with art from Adam Hughes, Alex Ross, Gary Frank, Nicola Scott, and Jamal Igle — as well as creators including Gail Simone, the Hernandez Brothers, Paul Gulacy, and Aaron Lopresti signing books. Proceeds for this event will benefit Raphael House of Portland, Bradley Angle and Portland Women’s Crisis Line.

“For over sixty years, Wonder Woman has been an iconic female symbol of peace, strength, equality, and honesty,” said Andy Mangels, curator of the online Wonder Woman Museum. “Her story has been told in the pages of comic books and books, and on television shows, and her visuals and ideals are known worldwide. For the Wonder Woman Day events, fans and the general public have an opportunity to celebrate the character and the people who create her adventures, and they have the opportunity to be heroic themselves!”

Meanwhile, in Flemington, Comic Fusion will be hosting an event from noon to 5pm. They too will have a silent auction, with sketches from Adam Hughes, Khoi Pham, Billy Tan, and Whilce Portacio, and guests in attendence include Joe Sinnott, Chris Muller, Ken Haeser, Rob Kramer, and Buz Husson. This event will go towards Safe in Hunterdon.

Because y’all can’t get your stuff in on time

New York:

Sunday, Sept 6:

The party begins at Bergen Street Comics from 2-6 where artists Paul Ciaravino, Zees, and writer Jef UK will be celebrating the release of the second issue of the Americans UK comic book with live art, signings and FREE BEER!  Free to the public!

Then Americans UK head around the corner to Southpaw to pump fists and shake hips at the Super Hero and Rockstars party organized by burrowsink.com ( http://burrowsink.com/Super-Heroes.html ), featuring a range of performances–from hip hop, to rock n’ roll, live painting to spoken word.  It’s a badass night, forrealz!  Doors open at 8 PM, show starts at 9 PM.  $10 cover.

Please visit www.americans-uk.com to listen to AM/UK’s full-length record Rocktronic,  download the “I, Ape-Man” EP for FREE, and check out FREE downloads of the AM/UK comic book!

Pittsburgh:

For Immediate Release (September 3, 2009) Stan Lee has graciously agreed to do a limited meet-and-greet with a few select fans at the Pittsburgh Comicon!

The event will take place at the Pittsburgh Comicon on SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12 at 9:15 AM! There are only SIX availabilities! Each of six winners will be escorted by duly authorized Hero Initiative personnel, where they’ll meet Stan the Man the con’s double-swanky VIP Green Room! You can get a picture with Stan, and you’ll also be able to get TWO Stan Lee autographs at this event on YOUR items of YOUR choice!

These six availabilities will be auctioned off by the Hero Initiative via eBay.com starting Thursday, September 3. Hero’s eBay page is located at http://qurls.com?iH020

Here’s the five Ws.
WHO: Stan Lee, co-creator of the Marvel Universe, and such beloved characters as Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, and even Fin Fang Foom!

WHAT: A meet-and-greet appearance with Stan. Only six people will be allowed in via this auction, and you can get two autographs as well, AND a picture with Stan!

WHY: Because Stan is a jolly good fella, and he believes in and supports The Hero Initiative!

WHERE: The appearance will take place in conjunction with the Pittsburgh Comicon. You must be present at the convention and report to the Hero Initiative booth if you’re a winner.

WHEN: SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12 at 9:15 AM

IF YOU WIN…
• Please come to the Hero Initiative booth at the Pittsburgh Comicon promptly at 9:00 AM. Enter through the Pittsburgh Comicon’s VIP entrance. Bring your PayPal receipt and photo ID to claim your berth. You will be escorted to the shindig by Hero Initiative!

Upcoming comics-related events. As always, send yours to newsaramaevents [at] gmail [dot] com. I’d love to have some events that aren’t in NYC or LA!

New York:

Brooklyn Book Festival, Brooklyn, NY.

“The ACT-I-VATE Renaissance”

Sunday, September 13
3:00pm – 4:00pm
There is a comic book renaissance happening in Gowanus, Brooklyn, and members from both DEEP6 and XOXOs Studios, featuring Dean Haspiel, Mike Cavallaro, Tim Hamilton, Joe Infurnari, Simon Fraser, Molly Crabapple, and Mike Dawson [among others], will discuss the genesis of ACT-I-VATE, the premier webcomix collective, and sneak-peek their upcoming print anthology, THE ACT-I-VATE PRIMER. Moderated by Jeff Newelt, who will also announce two new members to ACT-I-VATE.com

For more info on ACT-I-VATE, please visit: http://www.act-i-vate.com

California:

WHO: JAIME HERNANDEZ of LOVE & ROCKETS fame
WHAT: LOCAS II Book signing and discussion with writer Ben Schwartz
WHEN: Saturday, Sept. 12, 5PM
WHERE:

Skylight Books
1818 N. Vermont Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90027
Tel: 323.660.1175

I know I planned to do Events posts on Thursdays, but I just found out about this one today and as it’s a benefit for New Orleans, it is my responsibility as former New Orleanian to publicize it.

Josh Neufeld’s A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge was a fantastic webcomic and is now a fantastic graphic novel. Come celebrate its release in New York City at Idlewild Books–$5 cover charge will go to benefit Common Ground, one of the many grassroots organizations rebuilding New Orleans, and one of the better ones.

Party from 6 to 9. Here’s the details.

You can read more about A.D. here in my interview with Neufeld.

From the Small Press Expo site:

Outstanding Artist
Tim Hensley, Mome (Fantagraphics), Kramer’s Ergot #7 (Buenaventura)
Nate Powell, Swallow Me Whole (Top Shelf)
Richard Sala, Delphine (Fantagraphics/Coconino)
Josh Simmons, Mome (Fantagraphics)
Carol Tyler, You’ll Never Know, Book One: A Good and Decent Man (Fantagraphics)

Outstanding Anthology or Collection
Abandoned Cars, Tim Lane (Fantagraphics)
Against Pain, Ron Rege Jr. (Drawn & Quarterly)
Drawn & Quarterly Showcase Book 5, T. Edward Bak, Anneli Furmark, Amanda Vähämäki (Drawn & Quarterly)
Fuzz and Pluck: Splitsville by Ted Stearn (Fantagraphics)
Kramer’s Ergot 7, ed. Sammy Harkham (Buenaventura)

Outstanding Graphic Novel
Acme Novelty Library #19, Chris Ware (Drawn & Quarterly)
Disappearance Diary, Hideo Azuma (Fanfare/Potent Mon)
Drop-In, Dave Lapp (Conundrum)
Nicolas, Pascal Girard (Drawn & Quarterly)
You’ll Never Know, Book One: A Good and Decent Man, Carol Tyler (Fantagraphics)

Outstanding Story
“The Carnival,” Mome #14, Lilli Carre (Fantagraphics)
Disappearance Diary, Hideo Azuma (Fanfare/Potent Mon)
“Seeing Eye Dogs of Mars,” Acme Novelty Library #19, Chris Ware (Drawn & Quarterly)
“Untitled,” Drawn & Quarterly Showcase Book 5, Amanda Vähämäki (Drawn & Quarterly)
“Willy,” Papercutter #10, Damien Jay (Tugboat)

Promising New Talent
T. Edward Bak, Drawn & Quarterly Showcase Book 5 (Drawn & Quarterly)
Colleen Frakes, Woman King (self-published)
Hellen Jo, Jin & Jam #1 (Sparkplug), “Diamond Heights,” Papercutter #9 (Tugboat)
Ed Luce, Wuvable Oaf (self-published)
Amanda Vähämäki, Drawn & Quarterly Showcase Book 5 (Drawn & Quarterly)

Outstanding Series
Danny Dutch, David King (Sparkplug)
Delphine, Richard Sala (Fantagraphics/Coconino)
Interiorae, Gabriella Giandelli (Fantagraphics/Coconino)
Reich, Elijah Brubaker (Sparkplug)
Uptight, Jordan Crane (Fantagraphics)

Outstanding Comic
Danny Dutch #1, David King (Sparkplug)
Dead Ringer, Jason T. Miles (La Mano)
Interiorae #3, Gabriella Giandelli (Fantagraphics/Coconino)
Reich #6, Elijah Brubaker (Sparkplug)
Uptight #3, Jordan Crane (Fantagraphics)

Outstanding Mini-Comic
Claptrap #2, Onsmith
Just So You Know #1, Joey Alison Sayers
Stay Away From Other People, Lisa Hanawalt
Stewbrew, Kelly Froh & Max Clotfelter
Xoc, Matt Dembicki

Outstanding Online Comic
Bodyworld, Dash Shaw
Danny Dutch, David King
Thingpart, Joey Alison Sayers
Vanessa Davis’s comics for Tablet
Year of the Rat, Cayetano Garza

The awards are given out Saturday, September 26th during the Expo.

Hi everyone.

After yesterday’s post, where I promoted an event at my local comic shop, I got to thinking. I do love promoting local events and creators of whom I’m fans, but I feel bad because there’s an entire country out there that my little northeastern behind never gets to. So! A brilliant idea.

Eventually, we want to create a Newsarama Events calendar where you can promote your shop, your appearances, everything. For now, though, I’m going to take charge and do a weekly events post here at Blog@. I’m thinking Thursday is a good day to do them for the week coming up, since it’s the day after comics day and the day before the weekend officially starts (though I know a lot of you start partying on Thursdays…)

We have an email address set up just for this, so if you’ve got an event at your comic shop OR if you’re a comics creator making an appearance somewhere, you can email us at newsaramaevents [at] gmail [dot] com. Then I’ll aggregate and post them on Thursdays for everyone to peruse.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Please don’t abuse this address, everyone–I’ve got entirely too much junk mail on my other email addresses.

Thanks!

I am a sad, sad girl that I have a day job all the way in Manhattan and won’t be able to make it to this:

Seriously, I could write my own love letter to the Bouncing Souls. They were one of the bands I loved in high school and they never, ever grow old. Bands I love + comics? It’s pure WIN. Plus, Bergen Street Comics is a pretty rad little shop and deserves your love. So get thee to Brooklyn, people.

Regular readers here know I love Joelle Jones’ art. You’ll also probably know I love Joss Whedon. So Joelle Jones character sketches for Dr. Horrible comics? WIN.

You can get Phonogram vs. The Fans, the limited-edition Phonogram fanzine that I wrote about here, on Etsy for the low, low price of $5. You want this.

Gail Simone, good and pissed about the EA Games “booth babes” debacle.

Racialicious has a review from the first Asian American Comic Con.

Johanna Draper Carlson talks Girlamatic, which I’d somehow missed out on, so read what she has to say.

One of my favorite bloggers, Renegade Evolution, talks about girls and gaming: “Hey baby, why all the aggro?”

Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan have a cool Op-Ed in the New York Times about “why we need vampires.” Lately I’ve been doing a good bit of thinking about why vampire stories seem to appeal to a teen girl demographic in particular, so this fit right in.

And via BUST, Johnny Depp is set to play a vampire in yet another Tim Burton-helmed picture, Dark Shadows.

Stephenie Meyer, author of Twilight, is set to test the theory that fans are really just out for the hot boys at Comic-Con–she’s going to star in her own Female Force comic. (Can I mention yet again that the name “female force” creeps me out? Referring to women as “females” sounds so animalistic to me…)

Finally, on that note, an interview with Francesca Lia Block on her new vampire young adult novel, Pretty Dead. Since one of the things I’m interested in is why the vampire romance always seems to be older male vampire and young mortal girl (Angel/Buffy, Edward/Bella, etc.) I’m especially intrigued with Block’s book since it reverses that dynamic.

If you’ll excuse me, I think I’m off to watch Angel…

First off, this Saturday I’ll be headed for this:

If you’re in New York, you too should check it out.

You don’t have to be in NY to read NYC Graphic Novelists’ profile on A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge creator Josh Neufeld. And if you haven’t read A.D. yet, um, it’s free and on the Web. Read it.

Finally, for iGoogle users, you can now get a constantly-updated iGoogle theme with the best of Oni Press’s creators’ work. Currently, it includes the work of Chris Mitten (Wasteland), Chynna Clugston (Blue Monday), Chris Schweizer (The Crogan Adventures), Lars Brown (North World), & Brandon Graham (Multiple Warheads). You know you want it.

If you’re 21 and older, here’s your chance to hobnob with some pros:

Mark Waid, EiC of BOOM! Studios, is inviting all comic con attendees to celebrate the company’s fourth anniversary by hosting the BOOM! Studios Drink Up.

According to the BOOM! blog:

For those not in the know, a “Drink Up” is just like a “Meet Up” but with people drinking. This will be a gathering of friends and fans, so make plans to stop by see what’s happening!

The event needs no tickets or RSVPs, and will take place from 9pm until the wee hours of the morning at the Manchester Hyatt Grand Lobby Bar.

Peter Bagge, author of Everyone is Stupid Except for Me and Other Astute Observations, will be hitting the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery in Seattle this Saturday!

From 7-9pm, the Gallery will show off some original artwork by Bagge, as he signs his new book. Following the event, the party will move on to next door neighbor Jules Maes Saloon, featuring Bagge’s “power pop combo” Can You Imagine?

Joss Whedon might not be directing a new Buffy movie, but he will be directing the season 2 premiere of Dollhouse.
From Chicago Now:

Fox is pushing back the second season premiere of Joss Whedon’s “Dollhouse” by one week this fall. The premiere now will air at 8 p.m. Sept. 25, the network announced Wednesday.

It’ll probably be worth the wait: series creator Joss Whedon will write and direct the episode.

You know you’re thrilled.

Also, there will be a Dollhouse panel at San Diego Comic Con where attendees can see the episode, and attend a Q&A with Whedon and series star and co-producer Eliza Dushku.

It appears that your favorite superheroine, Wonder Woman, is running for Mayor of Washington, DC. And she’s running against quite a slate of opponents: Superman, Green Lantern, Batgirl, and Batwoman are in the mix.

OK, it’s obviously not actually true, so what gives? The New Organizing Institute runs a boot camp for political organizers, and part of their project is to run a virtual campaign for office. The bootcampers have had to design a site and a campaign for their superheroes, and there will be an actual election.

I’m with Wonder Woman–how can you resist this?

Dear fellow DC Residents and allied Truth Seekers:

I made a cornerstone decision over fifty years ago. I had just defeated the alien forces of the Imperium and joined with the Justice League as its sole female member when I was given the opportunity to leave planet earth and become a princess in another realm.

After having seen the worst form of war imaginable, I could not leave planet earth without knowing that I had done everything I could to fight for peace. So, unsurprisingly, I am still here.

I have dedicated my life to pursuing the self-evident truths of democracy through transparency, to equality and empowerment of the underserved and to peace and security. I have helped women maintain their uniqueness while also gaining more equal rights as men. I have worked towards keeping our country safe and secure through promoting a more peaceful world, and most importantly, I have sought to fight the cynicism and apathy that has taken hold of DC citizens and asked them to join me in being WONDERful.

While aliens pose no threat to earth at this moment, many other things do: inequality, crime and injustice, war and genocide, rat infestation. But, most of all, we are threatened by an ominous cynicism that could crush people’s belief in super heroes. If people stop believing in super heroes, they stop believing in their own ability to change the world. And then, won’t need aliens to come to earth. But, we can fight this cynicism with hope, change a little booze, a little rock n’ roll and a whole lot of action.

This is why I am formally announcing my candidacy for the Mayor of DC.

Together, we can make DC Wonderful. We can re-build lives in DC with a Lasso of Truth that will help free peple of their fears and bring them back into society, gain equality for women and other underserved communities and ensure create a more secure city through promoting peace.

Join me. Plus, I show leg.

Yours in truth,

Wonder Woman

Check it out–it seems like a fun way to teach people how to run a campaign. Voting will be 7am EDT to 6pm EDT on Friday, July 10th. You can even follow Wonder Woman on Twitter!

Now, once she’s mayor, can we send her down to Congress with that lasso?

It’s almost time to go buy comics, but in the meantime I bring you linkage from across the Internets on a variety of different things.

From Splash Page, Grant Morrison talks comics with Percy Carey, otherwise known as MF Grimm, the writer of Sentences.

Comics Worth Reading has a nice review of Patsy Walker: Hellcat that makes me want to read it.

Also from Splash Page, Evan Rachel Wood and Alan Cumming are confirmed as part of the cast of “Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark,” the upcoming Broadway musical directed by Julie Taymor. I don’t know about you, but between the casting, the subject matter, and the direction, this is shaping up to be a must-see for me.

Laura Hudson at Comics Alliance puts together the top 5 Michael Jackson moments in comics.

Laura Lee Gulledge answers some questions for The Big Feminist BUT.

While we at Newsarama are proud of our Best Shots feature, the Hero Initiative has created some best shots of a different kind…

That’s right. Shot glasses based on the Brian Azzarello series 100 Bullets.

These shot glasses can be yours if you purchase your tickets to the Hero Initiative’s 100 Bullets: Last Shot party on July 11th, at Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles.

This party will be to celebrate the 100th and final issue of the acclaimed crime series, which explores a shadowy organization and its offer of giving anyone 100 untraceable bullets to fix their lives.

While Iran is still wrapped in turmoil and the world watches more and more via the Internet, sometimes green Twitter avatars don’t seem like enough. It’s hard to figure out what you can do that might actually help.

Via Becky Cloonan, Marjane Satrapi has reached out to the comics community and asked that people sign a petition to the secretary general of the United Nations, asking for support for the Iranian people and an end to the violence.

Dear Friends

To all who beleive in freedom and dememocracy
Please sign this petition to United Nation to stop the violence, arrestations and torture in Iran.
The situation is really really bad.

Please forward it to whoever you know
Best and lots of love
Marjane Satrapi

The petition is here if you’re interested.

Following the success of the “Graven Images: Religion in Comic Books and Graphic Novels” academic conference, Boston University doctoral student, comics scholar and comic creator A. David Lewis has been granted a Library Acquisitions Award to create a new “Religion and Graphica” collection at the university.

The collection, which will contain works like MAUS, Persepolis, and Sandman (and one assumes, Preacher and Testament, two of my personal favorites), will be part of the School of Theology Library (OK, maybe Preacher won’t be appropriate).

According to the press release, this will be the first library collection devoted exclusively to the study of comics, and it comes in a religion department. This might seem odd, though I’ve had conversations before about the similarity of comics to religion, particularly superhero comics. They’re fables, archetypal stories that give us advice on how to live our lives, as well as part of a weekly routine–the Wednesday trip to the comic shop. Comics are reassuring, and fans often are very resistant to change in their books or their routine.

Of course, there are many brilliant graphic works that deal very directly with religion. Which ones would you suggest the library, which has already started purchasing, not miss?

Don’t worry, it’s not another variant cover, I swear!

John Hodgman, writer, voice actor and professional nerd, gave a great speech over the weekend at the 2009 Radio and TV Correspondents Dinner, in which he grills President Obama over Superman, Conan and Dune.

Whether or not you agree with the man’s politics, it’s a very funny look over the 100 Year War between Jocks and Nerds, and how we nerds have struck back from the icy planet of Hoth. (I won’t lie, though, Hodgman totally schooled me in Dune trivia — and I read that series cover to cover!)

[Via Entertainment Weekly]

Dear Internet,

I bought not one, but TWO superhero books this week. That’s right, two. One from DC and one from Marvel, all balanced-like. Streets of Gotham (which I really bought for the Manhunter backup) and the Gambit Origins book. I read ‘em, and I’m going to write about ‘em, but not right now. I’m too tired. Instead, I will give you linkage to pretty and interesting things. I promise to write about them soon, though.

In the meantime!

At Comics Worth Reading, the welcome news that Thom Zahler is giving away free comics to the first 75 women who visit his booth at Heroes Con this weekend.

Also there, Ed Sizemore reviews things he picked up at MoCCA, and they’re mostly books I didn’t already talk about. (I do think he’s crazy to not have liked The Unwritten, but I realize not everyone gets as geeked for metafiction as I do.)

Via The Hathor Legacy, a rant about “Strong Female Characters” that I can totally get behind. I also find this wording problematic because it implies that female characters are normally not strong, so strong must be pointed out when it does occur. But read her post. It’s better than what I said.

Shakesville has a good rundown of the sexism in the geek world lately. Seriously, people? It’s really not that hard to figure out that girls like all the same kinds of things that guys do.

This is just kind of a short, sublime post by, well, Neil Gaiman, who does short and sublime rather well.

Since I didn’t have a lot of money at MoCCA, I picked up a lot of cards and free things that people were giving out. To make up for not being able to buy things from all these people, I’m sharing them with you. They certainly deserve your attention.

Carissa Halston was kind of fabulous, and kind of fascinating, and she writes plays, books, and graphic novels.

Sara Antoinette Martin draws the kind of stuff I want tattooed on me: skulls and graphic girls and puppies. Her prints are only $35! Buy me one. (Or if you must, buy yourself one.)

Evan Palmer is from Lafayette, Louisiana. I love Louisiana. He is also doing some work with Peter Gross, which is how my favoritest comic artist ever, Ryan Kelly, got his start, so you know you’re going to hear great things from this guy.

Sho Murase’s art is completely, insanely gorgeous. I really wanted one of her mini art books, but I’m just too broke.

I got a couple of preview minicomics of a book called Squirrel Machine, due out from Fantagraphics in the fall. Seriously, how do you refuse something called Squirrel Machine? It looks macabre and fascinating, sort of like a Nick Cave song set to pictures.

Bagger43 was the name on the back of this postcard with a couple of girls and a dog on the front, looking like postapocalyptic street angels ready for a brawl. Not much of a bio on the site, but the art is stellar.

Uncle Envelope is a cool art project that will send you an piece of paper art once a month for twelve months. A bunch of different artists are involved, and they gave out a little activity book at MoCCA to tease people. I like art, I love media supported by subscription…it’s a win-win.

Finally, Becky Cloonan and Hwan Cho should need no introduction to readers of this blog, but even if you don’t know who they are, you should go forth and read about their upcoming webcomic, KGB.