Category: News

Mazel tov! Reprinting the SFScope announcement:

Award-winning science fiction writer (and SF Scope contributor)
Michael A. Burstein and wife Nomi Burstein welcomed two twin children,
their first, to their family today.

The twins are fraternal, and both are girls. The first baby was born at 9:20AM, weighed 5 pounds 8 ounces, and is 17″ long. The second baby was born at 9:21AM,
weighed 5 pounds 3 ounces, and is 19″ long. The twins were delivered by
C-section at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston. The attending
physician was Dr. Rafik Mansour. The delivery was originally scheduled
for this Thursday, but was moved up for medical reasons.

As befits a science-fiction couple, the Bursteins are banking the babies’ cord blood for the blood’s stem cells.

Per Modern Orthodox Jewish custom, the babies will not be named
until the parents attend a Torah service at their synagogue,
Kadimah-Toras Moshe in Brighton, which is currently planned for
Saturday 25 July.

Mother and babies are recovering in the hospital.

Congratulations, Bursteins!

UPDATE: Now with pictures!

And yes, that’s a copy of Sci-Fi Baby Names: 500 Out-of-This-World Baby Names from Anakin to Zardoz
.

Not much to say about this one, folks, except that Viper Comics, of Middleman fame, is holding a talent search. What’s different about this one, you ask? Well, in addition to looking for artists, as most of these talent searches  do, they’re going to take writers off the street. What are they looking for in writing samples? Man, you’re just full of good questions today. From the horse’s mouth:

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p class=”bodyBold”>In order to have your writing accepted it must:

• be a self-contain story that runs no more than 5 (FIVE) comic-pages.
• be about an existing character in the comic book world.
• be presented in something resembling a professional comic book script.
• make sure you include ALL your contact information on your submission.

If you’re at San Diego Comic Con, they’ll accept samples and portfolios there. If you can’t make it out, they’ll accept a digital copy up until the convention ends, Sunday, July 27th at 5pm Pacific.
So what’re you writers and artists looking for? Get going!

A semi-deep thought re: San Diego: I can’t be the first person to make this observation, but if they keep spending more and more time promoting movies and TV shows, regardless of whether they have anything to do with comics or not, we’re going to have to start calling it the San Diego Comic Cannes.

Lord knows it’s how everybody else seems to be treating it, including this week’s Entertainment Weekly. The coverage is promoting it like the major film festival it is, only without all of those French people.

We’re even going to have our own geek version of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Sure, Angelina has Lara Croft and might be there pitching Salt, and Brad Pitt has Inglorious Basterds coming out next month, but they’re nothing compared to the new power couple of Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool and Green Lantern) and Scarlett Johansson (as the deadly Black Widow, which is a cue to run that picture.)

From Quirk Books, the people who brought you Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, comes a new tale of romance, heartbreak, and tentacled mayhem.

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters
expands the original text of Jane Austen’s beloved novel with all-new scenes of giant lobsters, rampaging octopi, two-headed sea serpents, swashbuckling pirates, and other seaworthy creatures… and this time, there’s a trailer.

From the press release:

As our story opens, the Dashwood sisters are evicted from their childhood home and sent to live on a mysterious island full of savage creatures and dark secrets. While sensible Elinor falls in love with Edward Ferrars, her romantic sister Marianne is courted by both the handsome Willoughby and the hideous man-monster Colonel Brandon. Can the Dashwood sisters triumph over meddlesome matriarchs and unscrupulous rogues to find true love? Or will they fall prey to the tentacles that are forever snapping at their heels?

This masterful portrait of Regency England blends Jane Austen’s biting social commentary with ultraviolent depictions of biting sea monsters. It’s survival of the fittest… and only the swiftest swimmers will find true love!

Featuring fifteen black-and-white illustrations and including A Reader’s Discussion Guide for book club and student use, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters is sure to delight Austen fans as well as seafaring adventurers.

JANE AUSTEN is coauthor of the New York Times best seller Pride and
Prejudice and Zombies, which has been translated into 17 languages and
optioned to become a major motion picture. She died in 1817 and is
buried in Winchester Cathedral. Ms. Austen is not available for media.

BEN H. WINTERS is a writer who lives in Brooklyn with all the other
writers. He has written musicals for children and adults, all sorts of
magazine and newspaper articles, and some books. Mr. Winters is
available for media.

It will be available on September 15, 2009– yes, that’s the same day that Dan Brown’s new book ships. Think there will be crossover?

And what’s this about Austen not being available for media? I want to interview the Zombie Jane Austen! …mmmmm… tea and braaaains…

Yes, a manga version of the monster hit is coming. Entertainment Weekly has the scoop: Yen Press will be publishing Twilight in graphic-novel form,
publication date still to be determined. Though Korean artist Young Kim
is creating the art, Stephenie Meyer herself is deeply immersed in the project,
reviewing every panel.

More illustrations will be in the EW issue hitting the stands this Friday.

What does this mean for comics? Well, it’s probably going to be the best selling comic book of whatever year it comes out. By far. Remember, one of every seven books sold in America in the first quarter this year was Twilight or a sequel.

To counteract the rah-rah of San Diego Comic-Con’s impending arrival, here’s a chunk of depressing news for comic companies looking to reach the teen market: Bloomberg reports on a new study from a 15 year old intern at Morgan Stanley says that teens think printed media, such as newspapers and comics, are “irrelevant”.

And if you think going to the movies will save comic companies, the news ain’t all great there either: teenagers go to the movies “quite
often” although it’s “not about the film, but the experience
and getting together with friends.” Young people will often
choose the film once they arrive at the movie theater.

“Teenagers are consuming more media, but in entirely
different ways and are almost certainly not prepared to pay for
it,” Morgan Stanley analysts Edward Hill-Wood, Patrick
Wellington and Julien Rossi said in a note.

What else?

Teenagers don’t twitter; they
resent intrusive advertising on billboards, television and the
Internet and they are willing to chase content and music across
platforms and devices such as mobile phones and Apple Inc.’s
IPod. They do not listen to the radio, preferring music Websites
that stream music for free and allow them to choose their songs.
They are “very reluctant” to pay for music and 80 percent
download it illegally. Most have never bought a CD.

And now you know why comics sales are heading up on the iPhone. Hear that? It’s the sound of the comics business model changing…

Note: this is an intern from Eurpoe, so his experience is somewhat different from the US market– but I’ll bet good money it’s not that different.