Author: Elayne Riggs

What are journalists for non-comics-centric media writing about our passion?  Let’s take a look:

• Lots of not-quite-closeted comics geeks inhabit mainstream newsrooms, and the San Francisco Chronicle’s Peter Hartlaub is no exception, as he "comes out" during WonderCon weekend with a nice overview of how the comic industry and wider entertainment world have interacted of late.  Inside Bay Area’s Mike Antonucci also takes the opportunity of the con’s opening to cover the current state of the industry, about which he doesn’t seem terribly hopeful as he interviews Joe "Free Comic Book Day" Field, retailer / crusader Brian Hibbs and Brad Meltzer.
• WonderCon also captured the attention of OregonLive’s Steve Duin, who writes about the Mark Evanier/Gerard Jones panel on how comics history intersects with gangsters.  Seamy, seedy and worth a look!
• Meanwhile, the Washington Post’s David Segal isn’t yet over the New York Comic Con, as he reviews the deal between Deepak Chopra and Virgin Comics (Chopra was apparently recruited by his son Gotham, an editor at Virgin who has one of the best comic-related names I’ve seen in awhile).
• On a somewhat related note, Indiantelevision.com previews the Frames convention in Mumbai on March 26-28, featuring a look at "look at the process of moving From Comics to Animation. One of the old means of kid’s entertainment; comics is a powerful tool of story telling. Comics are very effective in imparting cultural and social values to kids besides being highly entertaining. Now animation is the modern way of story telling, which can serve as direct extension of comics."
• The Kids Love Comics Day reported here earlier is in full swing today in Harrisburg, notes PennLive’s Patriot News.
• Lastly, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch is surveying readers about comic strips, listing 14 of the comics they run that are "on the chopping block" and asking folks to rank them in order of preference.  Your turn to game the system in favor of, say, June Brigman’s work on Brenda Starr, not that I’d ever suggest such a thing.

At New York’s Museum of Modern Art, highbrow meets lowbrow once more – and, as usual, doesn’t get it.

“Comic Abstraction: Image-Breaking, Image-Making” is organized by Roxana Marcoci, curator of the department of photography, and features "nearly 30 works in drawing, painting, sculpture, video and installation made over the last 16 years by 13 artists who borrow one way or another from comic strips, cartoons and animation." 

That’s right, all the artists swipe from the comics format without once considering the point of comics — to tell stories.  Some of us believe everything that can be explored about the form was already done in Lichtenstein’s day, which is why some of us will never exhibit in the Museum of Modern Art.

The Ain’t It Cool News site has just come out with an  "AICN Comics" presentation of its third annual @$$ie Awards, featuring your host Crucifer (the @$$keeper?), above.  Categories include Best Single Moment/Single Issue, Best Cover Artist, Best Miniseries/Special/One-Shot, Best Comic Book Character, Best Artist/Art Team, Best Writer, Best Publisher, and Best Ongoing Comic Book Series.  Mercifully, only the intro is done in comic book form.