Category: News

Marvel Comics, then Timely Comics, first opened its doors for business on August 11th, 1939, making it a septuagenarian as of today.

To celebrate, Marvel’s sponsoring parties at over 500 specialty retailers nationwide, all starting at 9pm local time tonight. As part of the festivities, they’ll have early copies of Brubaker and Epting’s The Marvels Project for sale.

If that’s not enough, seven Barnes and Noble stores across the country will also be having parties, with Marvel creators and special guests galore. My local Barnes and Noble here in New York City is promising signings and Q&A with Joe Quesada, Klaus Janson, Chris Claremont, Greg Pak, and Fred Van Lente, with special guests Iron Man and Spider-Man.

If this kind of thing floats your boat, face front, True Believer, check this link for full details!

Last night, the annual Hugo awards, given for excellence in the field of science fiction and fantasy and voted on by the fans, were presented at Anticipation in Montreal, Canada. I could bore you with the history of the awards, notable past winners (and losers), famous acceptance speeches, and so on and so forth. But you know all that (And if you don’t, their website is pretty informative).

What you’re waiting for are the winners, and here they are, straight from the horse’s mouth:

• Best Novel: The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins; Bloomsbury UK)
• Best Novella: “The Erdmann Nexus”, Nancy Kress (Asimov’s Oct/Nov 2008)
• Best Novelette: “Shoggoths in Bloom”, Elizabeth Bear (Asimov’s Mar 2008)
• Best Short Story: “Exhalation”, Ted Chiang (Eclipse Two)
• Best Graphic Story: Girl Genius, Volume 8: Agatha Heterodyne and the Chapel of Bones, Written by Kaja & Phil Foglio, art by Phil Foglio, colors by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment)
• Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form: WALL-E
  Andrew Stanton & Pete Docter, story; Andrew Stanton & Jim
  Reardon, screenplay; Andrew Stanton, director (Pixar/Walt Disney)
• Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form: Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, Joss Whedon, & Zack Whedon, & Jed Whedon, & Maurissa Tancharoen, writers; Joss Whedon, director (Mutant Enemy)

More awards after the jump. A very hearty congratulations to all the winners! (more…)

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Artist Cliff Chiang (Green Arrow/Black Canary, Doctor Thirteen: Architecture and Morality) has an amazing comics-themed tribute to the late John Hughes up at his blog.

Seriously, just go look at it full sized.

It’s appropriate, with a comics convention in Chicago this weekend. Reports are coming from ComicMix staff there of a parade in downtown Chicago with pallbearers singing “Twist and Shout”…