The Javits Convention Center has the worst wi-fi I have ever encountered. It’s gotten much much worse from last year, and I didn’t think that was possible. As a result, we’ve had no chance to blog from the floor or the panels. But rest assured, we’re collecting a lot of information, weird stories, and other fun things, and we’ll get them up as fast as we can.

In the meantime– hey, Captain Bananaman’s back! And as always, he knows what current trends in comics have appeal.

Does he look a little jaundiced to you?

Busy busy busy and expecting to be busier tomorrow today, but we had to get this piece of news up: G.I. Joe’s COBRA Commander has defected from Hasbro to Mattel! No word on what this does to the movie…

More later, as time and Javitz’s wifi permits.

The connection at Javitz is lousy as usual, but we’re making do. We’ve already been getting a LOT of juicy news, and will release it as soon as we’re allowed to.

The crowds have been pretty impressive… here’s the line for PRO sign in:

And this is the line waiting for badges at about 11:30:

That’s not counting the people who already had badges and were herded into the giant holding pens beneath the con floor:

Yes, that’s going all the way to the back wall and back.

Mood has been gerneally upbeat, despite general doom and gloom. Everybody here is actually looking forward to the future. Or at least when the next fun stuff starts happening. More reports as soon as we can.

IDW Publishing announced yesterday the forthcoming release of The Bloom County Library. Beginning in October 2009, each of the five volumes will collect nearly two years worth of daily and Sunday strips, in chronological order. This will be the very first time that many of these comic strips have been collected, and the first time in a beautifully designed, hardcover format. The books will be part of IDW’s gorwing Library of American Comics imprint, and designed by Eisner Award-winner Dean Mullaney.

"Fans have pestered me for years,” said Berkeley Breathed, “for this ultimate Bloom County collection in that polite, respectful badgering way that only fans can manage. Thank God I can now tell them something better than just ‘please remove your tent from my lawn.’ I can say, ‘It’s coming!"

Berkeley Breathed’s Bloom County is one of the most popular and critically acclaimed newspaper strips of modern times. Premiering on December 8th, 1980 — a month after the election of Ronald Reagan as President — the strip brought to the comics pages a unique amalgam of contemporary politics and fantasy, all told with hilarious humor and wit.

The beloved and quirky denizens of Bloom County include Opus, Steve Dallas, Bill the Cat, Milo Bloom, Michael Binkley, and Cutter John.  Breathed was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 1987 for his work on Bloom County. The strip was published in an astounding 1200 newspapers.

The phenomenon that was Bloom County spawned a merchandizing bonanza, as well as two spin-off strips, Outland and Opus. The first paperback collection of the strip, Loose Tails, sold over one million copies. Bloom County paperbacks cumulatively sold over six million copies. At the height of the strip’s popularity, Breathed walked away on August 6th, 1989.

IDW Publishing Special Projects Editor Scott Dunbier conceived the series. “I’m absolutely thrilled to be editing the Bloom County Library,” said Dunbier. “This is a series that I can’t wait to hold in my hands.”

The Bloom County Library will also contain a series of “Context Pages” sprinkled throughout the volumes. These pages will provide perspective for the reader, presenting a variety of real-life events and personalities that were contemporary at the time of original publication.