Category: News

NYCC – Panel reviews

  • News
  • February 25, 2007

During the most crowded day of a comics convention (or even on the other days), it’s never a bad idea to take in some panels.  The best conventions offer a wide variety of programs in comfortable and intimate settings that you just can’t duplicate at a booth or exhibition hall.  They represent just about any interest and subculture related to comics and other "geek-centric" entertainment, and create a participatory and egalitarian feel among panelists and attendees.

This NYCC saw a diversity of topics to please everyone from moviegoers to Japanophiles to old-school aficionados to the creators of tomorrow.  One of the best things about it was the implicit acknowledgement that about as many women as men were expected to take in the programming.  At least four panels so far have dealt with women in comics (real women storytellers as opposed to fictional women characters), and yet other panels having nothing to do with that topic featured female panelists as a matter of routine.  This is the very type of situation advocacy groups like Friends of Lulu hoped to work toward for so many years, and it’s a real privilege to see it come to fruition.

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Here’s a photo from a Friday panel.  Some thoughts on it and a couple other panels attended so far: (more…)

Courting justice with editorial cartoons

  • News
  • February 25, 2007

960-1386709Mikhaela Reid is working on what she calls an "alternate reality cartoon" series for Lambda Legal (a national organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and those with HIV through impact litigation, education and public policy work) imagining what life might be like in a world where courts did not uphold Constitutional law.  Life Without Fair Courts is also running in The Advocate magazine, which is sponsoring the series along with Prism Comics, a nonprofit organization that supports LGBT comics, creators, and readers.

The educational endeavor also features a nationwide contest to find the best representation of what the artists’ own lives would look like without fair courts. Prizes include exposure in The Advocate and donated shopping sprees from Diamond Comics Distributors. Contest judges include Reid, Joan Hilty, Phil Jimenez and George Stoll (The Advocate’s Art Director) for The Advocate. Submissions to the contest will be accepted through March 15.

Let’s hope all entries remain in the realm of fiction!

NYCC – Minx for teens

  • News
  • February 25, 2007

plainjanescover-1882898At the first-ever panel for DC’s Minx line, editor Shelly Bond (described by Marketing Director Gayley Carillo as "the mastermind" behind the imprint) talked about the inception of her quest to bring interesting modern stories to a whole new demographic.

About 3-4 years ago, Bond was in a bookstore and noticed a number of teenaged girls crowding around the manga section. That’s when she became determined to seek out creators from all different areas to write and draw "edgy, evocative and fearless" stories that would appeal specifically to today’s teen readers.

Part of that appeal, Minx hopes, will be inherent in the surface form of the imprint, like the trade dress and price point.  Each book will be 176 pages, with color covers and interiors done in black and white and greytones.  Each will feature a free preview of another book in the line.  And each will cost under $10.  

(more…)

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Performance art comics?

  • News
  • February 25, 2007

metronome-9364260Metronome  is described as "a 64-page graphic novel by Véronique Tanaka: a ‘silent,’ erotically-charged visual poem, an experimental non-linear story using a palette of iconic ligne clair images. Symbolism, visual puns and trompe l’oeil conspire in a visual mantra that could be described as ‘existential manga’ if it wasn’t for the fact that there is a very human and elegantly-structured tale providing a solid foundation to the cutting-edge storytelling." 

The graphic novel will be published next year by NBM, but it’s available to view as a 17-minute animated (actually, still-shots) movie on this site if you fork over the equivalent of about four bucks.  I confess I didn’t last more than a minute and a half, two minutes tops.  Not only did I see no storytelling, but it seemed to have all the earmarks of a pretentious performance art piece worthy of the likes of a young Yoko Ono. 

If Grapefruit were a graphic novel-imagined-as-an-animated movie, it might look something like this.  Only without the grapefruit, and with a lava lamp, a fly, a piano, and a metronome, among other things.

The Return of… Bananaman!

  • News
  • February 24, 2007

bananarider-7747783Hoping to capitalize on the latest superhero movies, we now present to you… Banana Rider!

Coming from the fiery depths, this banana flambé is here to protect fruit from going bad. Oh, and he’s also here for licensing. Never forget licensing.

We’re happy to see such strong work ethic from this individual — clearly he’s looking to avoid going back on the Dole.

Stevie Wonder, DC Countdown, Todd McFarlane…

Grammy award-winning Stevie Wonder is interviewed, DC’s weekly Countdown is discussed, and Tony Twist gets five million bucks from Todd McFarlane… all this and more (again) on our latest podcast from Mike Raub. Just press play:

(more…)

NYCC — Manga library

  • News
  • February 24, 2007

mangalibrary-9823741In one of the smarter moves I’ve seen at this con, the people behind the AnimeNext convention have set aside a conference room at the Javitz center with shelves filled with manga that you can check out and read quietly in the room, in a nice quiet oasis from the hub-bub on the main floors. Absolutely brilliant, and the latest exhibit in why manga is kicking the tailfeathers of American comics.

Is Barry Allen back?

  • News
  • February 24, 2007

At the NYCC “DCU: A Better Tomorrow – Today” panel, DC Executive Editor Dan DiDio may have let the cat out of the bag.

DiDio was asked if in the Countdown teaser image The Flash was Barry Allen and Red Robin was Jason Todd. DiDio got flustered before answering “yes.”

This drew icy stares from the rest of the panel members and applause from the crowd. DiDio’s mic was taken away for the remainder of the panel. The final question for the panel was “Who would you like to kill during Countdown?” and Greg Rucka closed the panel by looking at DiDio and saying, “I’m looking at him.”

A good time was had by all.

NYCC — The Stan and Jeff shows

  • News
  • February 24, 2007

The marquee event on Friday night was “Stan Lee: An American Icon,” an event that did not go off without a couple of hitches.

There was a total lack of security at the event. When Lee arrived he came in through the crowd and took the stage. As anticipated the room exploded in flashbulbs when Lee took the stage. People started working their way to the front to get a clearer shot and soon there was a crowd five or six people deep around the stage. There was no one from the convention security there to disperse this crowd and it took five minutes for volunteers to arrive and disperse the crowd. Lee was totally unprotected.

(more…)

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NYCC: Popcycle-Con Continues

  • News
  • February 24, 2007

While half of the 10001 zip code waits out in the cold, here’s what it’s doing to panel attendance inside the convention:

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This was the scene at the Slayer Tales with Xander, Kendra, and Drusilla panel as of 10:45 AM, 45 minutes into the panel. If I was Nicholas Brendon, Juliet Landau, Bianca Lawson, Diamond Select (the sponsors of this panel) or Dark Horse Comics, who are publishing the new Buffy The Vampire Slayer comic, I’d be ticked.

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