Category: News

Chicon 7 Announces At-Con Membership and Day Admission Rates

  • News
  • July 10, 2012

Chicon 7, the 70th World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon), has set the attending membership rates that will apply from August 1 onwards for both online and at-the-door sales, and determined its Day Admission rates.

The following attending membership rate changes for Chicon 7 will go into effect on August 1, 2012:* The Adult Attending membership rate will increase from $215 to $230* Converting a Supporting membership to an Attending membership will be $180

As part of the convention’s policy to encourage families and children to attend Chicon 7 the following attending membership rates for Children (0-16 years old) and Young Adults (17-21) will remain unchanged:* Children (0-16 years old) at $75* Young Adults (17-21 years old) at $100.

The Family Rate (2 adults plus 2 or more dependent children) will increase from $540 to $560.

Day Admissions can be purchased online via the Chicon 7 website from August 1, 2012, or in person at the door. Day Admissions are priced according to the day being purchased and the age of the purchaser. (Quoted figures are for Thursday 30 / Friday 31 August / Saturday 1 / Sunday 2 / Monday 3 September respectively).Adult: $50 / $70 / $70 / $70 / $40Young Adult: $30 / $40 / $40 / $40 / $20Child: $20 / $30 / $30 / $30 / $15

Chicon 7 memberships are available for immediate purchase at various conventions, at www.chicon.org, and by postal mail. Full information on all registration and payment options, along with the current rates which are good through July 31, 2012, are available at www.chicon.org/membership.php.

‘Buck Rogers’ returns with Howard Chaykin

  • News
  • July 10, 2012

Howard Chaykin will revive Buck Rogers. The veteran cartoonist has been announced as writer and artist on a new Hermes Press comic book series.

Best known for its reprints – including some of the legendary pulp hero – the publisher has promised an “all new take” on the character by the American Flagg! creator.

“When [Hermes publisher Dan Herman] casually asked me whether I had any interest in reviving Buck Rogers, my reaction was first physical – genuine goose bumps – followed by complete delight at the thought of paying back a concept that was so utterly seminal in my thinking about our medium and our field,” said Chaykin.

The science fiction hero first appeared in Armageddon 2419 AD in the pages of the August 1928 issue of Amazing Stories, written by Philip Francis Nowlan.

The comic will be unveiled at the “Buck Rogers, Past, Present and Future” panel at 6pm on Friday, July 13 at San Diego Comic-Con International.

MoCCA closes their Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art

  • News
  • July 10, 2012

mocca_logo-4525362The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA) announced yesterday via a press release that they will be closing its physical location effective immediately.

The SoHo museum, currently at 594 Broadway, New York City’s only cultural institution dedicated specifically to celebrating the comics medium, recently celebrated its tenth anniversary.  While the physical space is closing, plans are afoot to continue MoCCA in a new incarnation.  An announcement of MoCCA’s future arrangements will be forthcoming by the end of July.

Current memberships will be honored at the new venue, as will table renewals for MoCCA Fest 2013.

MoCCA’s website has been scrubbed of all previously upcoming events.

New York’s Forbidden Planet moving to bigger space

  • News
  • July 10, 2012

nycs-forbidden-planet-comics-store-moving-to-bigger-space-2492316

Long rumored to be moving (perhaps due to the giant FOR RENT sign on the building), Forbidden Planet, one of NYC’s longest-running comics shops, is moving a few doors down the street to larger digs, according to manager Jeff Ayers. The new location, 832 Broadway (between 13th and 12th Streets), provides 3400 sq. feet of space for comics, toys and games, and it’s the largest of the three spaces the store has held on that same block over the years.

“This expansion has been necessary for some time now, and will allow us to provide our customers with even more product selection and depth, while streamlining the store’s layout to one convenient floor,” said Ayers in a statement.

The new store opens Tuesday, July 24th 2012 in a “soft launch,” but there will be a bigger launch party later. The olde shoppe closes on Sunday, July 22nd.

The olde shoppe had a nice corner location but definitely was a bit cramped and narrow…we’ll look forward to checking out the new space.

The new building:
201207061711-7363073

Locus Awards for 2012

locus-5591989I think I have too many RSS feeds in my reader; I keep getting behind and then leaving things unread to deal with “later” — but then there’s too much new stuff I haven’t even looked at, which pushes “later” much further than I’d like.

That’s all prologue to the fact that these awards came out some time ago, and, if I’m going to blog about them at all, I should do it more quickly. Nevertheless, here’s what’s happened recently in award-land:

Locus Awards for 2012Locus magazine, the newspaper of the skiffy field, has polled its frighteningly well-read readers yet again, and these are their choices for the best of the year past:

  • Science Fiction Novel: [[[Embassytown]]], China Miéville (Del Rey; Macmillan)
  • Fantasy Novel: [[[A Dance with Dragons]]], George R.R. Martin (Bantam; Harper Voyager UK)
  • First Novel: [[[The Night Circus]]], Erin Morgenstern (Doubleday)
  • Young Adult Book: [[[The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making]]], Catherynne M. Valente (Feiwel and Friends)
  • Novella: Silently and Very Fast, Catherynne M. Valente (WSFA; Clarkesworld)
  • Novelette: “White Lines on a Green Field”, Catherynne M. Valente (Subterranean Fall ’11)
  • Short Story: “The Case of Death and Honey”, Neil Gaiman (A Study in Sherlock)
  • Anthology: The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-eighth Annual Collection, Gardner Dozois, ed. (St. Martin’s Griffin)
  • Collection: The Bible Repairman and Other Stories, Tim Powers (Tachyon)
  • Non-fiction: [[[Evaporating Genres: Essays on Fantastic Literature]]], Gary K. Wolfe (Wesleyan)
  • Art Books: [[[Spectrum 18: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art]]], Cathy Fenner & Arnie Fenner (Underwood)
  • Artist: Shaun Tan
  • Editor: Ellen Datlow
  • Magazine: Asimov’s
  • Publisher: Tor

Congratulations to all of the winners, and especially to Catherynne M. Valente, for a very impressive three wins in one year.

SDCC: CBLDF’s Comic-Con Welcome Party!

sdcc-cbldfs-comic-con-welcome-party-9487935Kick off Comic-Con with the greatest stars in comics to celebrate 20 Years of Image Comics and the power of free expression at the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund’s Comic-Con Welcome Party! Starting at 8:00 PM on Thursday, July 12 at the Westgate Hotel, the CBLDF Comic-Con Welcome Party is jam-packed with amazing people and cool stuff! This party is sponsored by Image Comics, TFAW.Com, Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, & Threadless!


Experience Creativity with Image Comics greats including: Ales Kot, Amanda Conner, Ben McCool, Ben Templesmith, Brandon Seifert, Charles Soule, Chris Giarrusso, Cory Walker, Dan Brereton, Darick Robertson, Deborah Vankin, Dexter Weeks, Dirk Manning, Edwin Huang,Eric Shanower, Eric Stephenson, Erik Larsen, Gerry Duggan, Glen Brunswick, Jim Mahfood, Jim McCann, Jim Valentino, Jim Zub, Jimmy Palmiotti, Joe Keatinge, John Layman, Joshua Hale Fialkov, Joshua Williamson, Kody Chamberlain, Kurtis Wiebe, Mark Poulton,Matt Hawkins, Michael Moreci, Moritat, Nate Bellegarde, Nathan Edmondson, Phil Noto, Richard Starkings, Ron Marz, S. Steven Struble, Scott Tuft, Sina Grace, Steve Seeley, and many more!

revival-cover-low-res-195x300-1364256Get The Exclusive Goods: Free gift bag, featuring a CBLDF party exclusive edition of Revival #1 by Tim Seeley & Mike Norton from Image Comics, and other special thank yous from CBLDF supporters including Valiant and Threadless!

See The World Premiere of “The Day The Saucers Came:” Be the first to see the latest Comics-On Tees from Threadless featuring Neil Gaiman’s “The Day The Saucers Came,” featuring artwork by John Cassaday, Brandon Graham & Ben Templesmith at a special fashion show! Get your tees straight from the source at the party!

Smell Awesome At The Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab Trading Post: BPAL will make their only Comic-Con appearance at the party, setting up a one-night only display of fragrances, including the world premiere of new fragrances based on Neil Gaiman’s Coraline!

Check Out The Amazing Items In CBLDF’s Comic-Con Auction, sponsored by TFAW.Com & Valiant Comics: Check out all the amazing original art up for grabs at Saturday’s CBLDF Comic-Con Auction live!

Come support Free Speech and experience the best of Comic-Con at the CBLDF Comic-Con Welcome Party Thursday at the Westgate Hotel, 1055 Second Avenue, San Diego, CA 92101 from 8 PM to 11 PM! This party is FREE for CBLDF Members. Non-Members, suggested $10 – $20 donation at the door, please.

ABOUT IMAGE COMICS
Image Comics is a comic book and graphic novel publisher founded in 1992 by a collective of best-selling artists. Image has since gone on to become one of the largest comics publishers in the United States. Image currently has five partners: Robert Kirkman, Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri and Jim Valentino. It consists of five major houses: Todd McFarlane Productions, Top Cow Productions, Shadowline, Skybound and Image Central. Image publishes comics and graphic novels in nearly every genre, sub-genre, and style imaginable. It offers science fiction, romance, horror, crime fiction, historical fiction, humor and more by the finest artists and writers working in the medium today. For more information, visit www.imagecomics.com.

ABOUT THREADLESS
We’re awesome people from all over the world who make mind-blowing art. Our process starts when a great idea is born in an artist’s mind. (That could be you, that could even be your grannie!) The artist submits their idea to our site, where our community of 1.5 million debates, discusses, and votes on that idea. If the idea gets a really good score, we make it into a tee, tote, hoody, or tube sock. (That last one isn’t true… yet.) Then, as long as folks keep buying that product, we keep rewarding that artist with loadsa money, prizes, and exposure. So people who buy from us support great artists and their great ideas. Neat, huh? Join us at Threadless.com. Threadless ~ Make Great Together.

ABOUT THINGS FROM ANOTHER WORLD
Founded in 1979, Things From Another World is the premier retailer of comics, toys, collectibles, and pop-culture geek goodness, both in Portland, Oregon and online at http://www.TFAW.com.

ABOUT BLACK PHOENIX ALCHEMY LAB
We specialize in formulating body and household blends with a dark, romantic Gothic tone. Our scents run the aesthetic gamut of magickal, pagan and mythological blends, Renaissance, Medieval and Victorian formulas, and horror / Gothic-themed scents. By utilizing our knowledge of homeopathy and aromatherapy, the conceptual theories of hermetic alchemy, and the aesthetic artistry of perfumery, we have mastered the art of encapsulating allegorical ideas into singular olfactory experiences. We are the first of our kind, and have over fifteen years of practical experience in the field. Our expertise shows.

We pride ourselves on the artistry of our products, and our skill in their creation. All of our products are hand-blended here in our laboratory. Integrity and dedication is vitally important to us, and we do our best to provide the best possible product and slavishly good service to all our clients.

ABOUT THE COMIC BOOK LEGAL DEFENSE FUND
Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is a non-profit organization dedicated to the protection of the First Amendment rights of the comics art form and its community of retailers, creators, publishers, librarians, and readers. The CBLDF provides legal referrals, representation, advice, assistance, and education in furtherance of these goals.

Comics sales for first half of 2012 18% ahead of last year

The Diamond Comic Distributors sales report for the middle of the comics year always hits right before Comic Con International: San Diego, which itself is about the future of the business; we see where we’ve been right before we see where we’re going. Last year, the industry arrived in San Diego with the first half of 2011 off 8% versus the year before; this year, orders by Direct Market comics shops in North America are up more than 18% year-to-date. It’s quite the turnaround. Retailers have already ordered more material through June — nearly $223 million in retail dollars— than they did in last year through July.

Marvel’s Avengers Vs. X-Men #6 led the charts, with four DC Before Watchmen debut issues landing in fifth through eight place. Click to see the preliminary top sellers for June. June 2011 was a five-week month versus four shipping weeks for June 2012, and the beats were a little smaller than we’ve seen — but periodical units and dollars were still up double-digits. All the comics in the Top 10 were priced at $3.99.

On the trade paperback side, the release of Walking Dead Vol. 16: A Larger World both topped the charts. There was a slight year-to-year drop in graphic novel units, but not dollars — suggesting that maybe with the DC hardcovers and a new Walking Dead release priced higher than some of the earlier backlist releases, the average price for each graphic novel ordered increased some.

thewalkingdeadvolume16-4197495Retailers appear to have ordered $40.5 million in comic books and trade paperbacks from Diamond in the month, a sum that brings the second quarter orders to more than $20 million higher than the same three-month period last year. For the year to date, all Direct Market sales are more than $34 million ahead of the first half of 2011.

But the comparison observers may be more interested in isn’t between the first six months of this year and the first six months of 2011 — but rather, with the last six months, which included the DC reboot. Direct Market orders were $224.92 million from July 2011 to December 2011 — so even with the reboot titles reaching double-digit issue numbers, the market is down less than 1% from that blockbuster six-month period. The reasons are several: Marvel has Avengers Vs. X-Men on the playing field, and graphic novels are rebounding with the DC hardcovers and Walking Dead. But the fact we can compare at all is significant, because the second half of the year has outperformed the previous first half every year for the last 10 years — and by an average of 10%.

Peter David is “Pulling Up Stakes”

peter-david-is-pulling-up-stakes-4152439Fans don’t always realize how much of what they get to read on the marketplace gets out there despite publisher preconceptions.  History is filled with any number of books, ranging from A Wrinkle in Time to Confederacy of Dunces to Harry Potter, that hit the market and left in their wake a host of rejections from various editors because the stories didn’t fit in with what they were looking for.

Pulling Up Stakes first made its presence known at various conventions when I first started working on it.  I’d read sample chapters and enthused audiences begged to know when it was going to be done so that they could find out what happened next.

Yet when the book was circulated to editors, the reason for their passing on it were impressive, to say the least.

Pulling Up Stakes tells the skewed tale of Vincent Hammond, a twenty-something vampire stalker, who lives with his domineering mother in a small community of hunters tracing their lineage back to the French Revolution.  Vince, however, has a rather singular problem:  he’s a vampire.  And if his mother finds out, she’ll kill him.  Literally.  So he doesn’t dare come out of the coffin, so to speak and keeping his secret becomes further complicated when…

Well, we’ll get to that at a future date.

Little did I, or the fans who have loved the readings up to that point, know that that Pulling Up Stakes violated too many rules of the genre.  Editors who rejected it, however, didn’t hesitate to explain the problems.

First, if you have a vampire story, you have to have a female protagonist.

Second, men can’t write vampire stories.  That’s solely the arena of women writers.  Bram Stoker, Joss Whedon…you can suck it.

Third, humor doesn’t sell.  So apparently you’ve doomed yourself when your vampiric narrator says things like, “Sparklepires?  Come on.  Real vampires considered the Twilight books to be such a loose flow of unmitigated crap that they were typically referred to as ‘Vampirrhea.’”

So apparently by writing a humorous vampire story with a male protagonist, I managed to hit the trifecta of hopelessness.  No publisher would touch it.

And as you, dear reader, work on prying your slack jaw off the floor, consider how nice it would be to send a message to the publishers that maybe, just maybe, thinking outside the box now and then might be a nice idea, by letting everyone know that Pulling Up Stakes is going to be making its debut at Crazy 8 Press in just a few weeks.  Because you can’t keep a good undead man down.

Is Jim Starlin gearing up for a lawsuit over Thanos?

Jim Starlin has offered proof that he created Thanos, leading to speculation that he may launch a lawsuit against Marvel Comics.

The writer and artist has posted an early concept drawing of the Mad Titan from before he began working at the publisher, reports The Beat.

Interest in the character is growing following his cameo in The Avengers movie, the speculation of an upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy film and the announcement of a Thanos: Son of Titan miniseries from Joe Keatinge and Richard Elson.

“This is probably one of the first concept drawings of Thanos I ever did, long before I started working at Marvel,” Starlin wrote on his Facebook page. “Jack Kirby’s Metron is clearly the more dominant influence in this character’s look. Not Darkseid.”

“Both D and T started off much smaller than they eventually became. This was one of the drawings I had in my portfolio when I was hired by Marvel. It was later inked by Rich Buckler.”

Marvel is reportedly struggling to find records relating to the period in the mid-’70s when Thanos debuted in its comics.

“This is the second film that had something I created for Marvel in it – the Infinity Gauntlet in Thor being the other – and both films I had to pay for my own ticket to see them,” Starlin previously said.

“Financial compensation to the creators of these characters doesn’t appear to be part of the equation.”

AIRSHIP 27 ENTERS THE REALM OF LICENSED WORK WITH ‘CAPTAIN ACTION’ PULP NOVEL DEBUT!

CAPTAIN ACTION – PULP HERO!
Airship 27 Productions, one of the premier publishers in the New Pulp movement, and Captain Action Enterprises, licensors of the popular Captain Action toy line, have joined forces to produce the first ever Captain Action pulp novel, “Riddle of the Glowing Men,” by Jim Beard.  The book debuts this Aug. at Pulp Fest in Columbus, Ohio.
“We are tremendously excited to be working with Joe Ahearn and Ed Catto of Captain Action Enterprises,” said Airship 27 Productions’ Managing Editor, Ron Fortier.  “This is the first time we’ve ever put together a title based on a highly popular and successful license.”
Captain Action is based on the action figure created in 1966 by Stan Weston for Ideal Toys. He came equipped with a wardrobe of costumes allowing him to become many different heroes such as Batman, The Lone Ranger, the Green Hornet and many more. In 1967, Captain Action proved so popular that the line was expanded to include a sidekick, Action Boy and a blue skinned alien foe with bug eyes, the nefarious Dr. Evil.  The following year, DC Comics licensed the character from Ideal and published five issues of Captain Action featuring industry luminaries such as Jim Shooter, Wally Wood and Gil Kane.

Since 2005, Captain Action Enterprises, has been producing an array of exciting new collectibles, including statues, toys, comics, trading cards, and apparel.  Still, the one remaining venue the enduring hero had yet to conquer was that of a prose novel.  Enter veteran writer Jim Beard, a life-long fan of the character.  “Jim approached us late last year with this idea for a Captain Action pulp novel,” recalls Catto. “We were immediately intrigued by the possibilities and began seriously exploring the idea.”
It was Beard who then brought Ahearn and Catto to Airship 27 Productions.  “At the time I’d just finished my first book for Airship 27,” Beard elaborates.  “Impressed with their industry leading quality and professionalism, I knew they were the right people to usher Captain Action into the fast-paced world of pulpdom.”

The challenge of doing a licensed property appealed to Fortier and his partner and Art Director, Rob Davis and they signed on.  Their first goal was to assemble the finest art team possible. This was achieved by recruiting the talented cover painter, Nick Runge.  Runge’s work on such IDW titles as Angel & Terminator –Salvation has spotlighted him as being one of the finest new artists in the graphic field today.  Davis himself took on the task of doing the nine interior illustrations while also designing the entire package.

“Riddle of the Glowing Men,” is set in the sixties where secret agent, Miles Drake, aka, Captain Action, is attacked at A.C.T.I.O.N. headquarters by several assassins whose green skin glows as if radiated.  In the process of learning the identity of these killers and the reason behind their attack, Captain Action teams with a beautiful female Russian agent and their quest leads them to a hidden civilization under the frozen wasteland of Siberia. “Jim Beard has written a terrific, authentic Captain Action adventure,” applauds Fortier. “It perfectly captures the break-neck speed and thrills of the early pulps only with today’s modern sensibilities. This book is sure to appeal to both Captain Action fans and new pulp enthusiasts alike.”
Joe Ahearn and Ed Catto will be hosting a Captain Action panel at this year’s San Diego Comic Con with further details about other exciting plans for the classic hero.  Artist Nick Runge will also be present at his table in Artist Alley.  Fortier, Davis and Beard will be in attendance at Pulp Fest and will announce the book’s actual publication date.

About Captain Action Enterprises

As Retropreneurs, Captain Action Enterprises, LLC specializes in taking old properties and rejuvenating them for a new generation. Captain Action now appears in an on-going comic book series, lithographs, statues, action figures, T-shirts, model kits and an iPhone app. Additional properties include Lady Action, the Zeroids and Savage Beauty. For additional information, contact ed.catto@bonfireagency.com.


About Airship 27 Productions

Begun in 2004 to produce new novels and anthologies featuring classic, public domain pulp heroes of the 30s and 40s, Airship 27 Productions was one of the major factors behind the pulp renaissance which evolved into the New Pulp Movement.  Today they have over fifty titles in their ever expanding catalog, sell both hard copy and digital versions of their books and will soon be launching audio books of their titles. They can be found at airship27hangar.com



Categories

Archives

Everything you need to make great comics!

comicmix-pro-300x69-2

Nucleus X

Bookshop Zaks