Tagged: comics

The Eagle (Awards Nomination Forms) Have Landed

  • News
  • February 20, 2008

Nominations for this year’s Eagle Awards are now open. The nomination site appears to be in beta right now, so it might be wise to leave off participating until they’ve got the bugs ironed out. However, it appears that anyone can participate.

The winners of this year’s Eagles will be announced at the Bristol Comics Expo in May.

The Eagle Awards are the comics industry’s longest established awards. Acknowledged as the pre-eminent international prizes, they have been featured on the covers of leading US and UK titles across the last 30 years.

Review: ‘Confessions of a Blabbermouth’

Mike Carey is a noted writer of both comics and prose – Lucifer, The X-Men, the “[[[Felix Castor]]]” novels – but, one might ask, what does he know about being a teenage girl? Probably not a lot…but he does have a secret weapon on his side: his daughter Louise is a teenage girl, and she’s the co-writer of this particular project.

Confessions of a Blabbermouth is the most recent publication of DC Comics’ Minx arm, which aims squarely at teenage and tween girls. (You remember: the audience that never, ever would read comics, so it was no use ever trying to get them interested – no, really, it’s just not worth it…until Sailor Moon ignited the manga boom and suddenly American comics companies were sitting on the sidelines watching those girls buy billions of dollars of Japanese comics? That audience.)

I’ve reviewed Minx comics twice before for ComicMix – Re-Gifters and Clubbing last August, and The Plain Janes and Good As Lilly in September. And the book that was most successful out of those four was Re-Gifters, written by one Mike Carey (without any assistance from anyone in the target audience), so I had high hopes for [[[Blabbermouth]]].

 

(more…)

Mike Richardson Announced as Stumptown Fest Guest of Honor

  • News
  • February 20, 2008

The Stumptown Comics Fest, an annual celebration of comics and cartooning art in Portland, Oregon, recently announced that it has chosen Dark Horse Comics founder and head-honch Mike Richardson to be its special Guest of Honor at this year’s event.

Festival organizers chose the accomplished (and extremely tall) Richardson for many reasons, some of which are detailed in the events official press release announcing Richardson’s selection:

Under his direction, Dark Horse has gone from a tiny startup during the black-and-white boom of the ‘80s to the biggest independent comics publisher in the nation, featuring such talents as Frank Miller, Mike Mignola, Neil Gaiman, and the late comics legend Will Eisner, and revolutionizing the industry’s approach to licensed properties through innovative Star Wars, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Conan, and Aliens/Predator stories.

The Fifth Annual fest will be held on April 26th-27th, 2008, at the Doubletree Hotel Lloyd Center in Portland. To find out more info on the Stumptown Comic Fest, a great event showcasing some exceptional art and artists, check out its official site. 

Top Cow and Myspace Comics Announce ‘Pilot Season’ Winners

  • News
  • February 20, 2008

velocitycyblade-6505422Recently, Top Cow Productions and MySpace Comic Books announced the winners of their Pilot Season contest, the first annual event which encouraged established comic book writers to create a pilot for a potential series using characters already well-known by comic fans. During the contest, five potential winners were submitted and the MySpace Comic Book community was told to "Take Control" and vote to determine which two charactes would get their own series in 2008.

The winning titles chosen by over four million voting fans were Velocity and Cyblade, two of the dynamic female characters from Marc Silvestri’s Cyberforce. Both new series are slated to debut in the fall of 2008, just in time for Cyberforce’s 17th anniversary.
 
The new Velocity series will be written by Joe Casey, whose previous credits include The Last Defenders and Youngblood, with art by an as-yet undetermined artist. When told of his new gig, Casey was, as you might expect, excited.
 
"I couldn’t believe the voting topped four million votes," said Casey. "Better than a New Hampshire primary! If only that many folks would buy the comics…! In any case, the Pilot issue was only the beginning of what we’re going to make sure is a wild ride when the new series hits in the fall."
 
The other winning series featuring the character Cyblade will be written by Joshua Hale Fialkov of Marvel Comics Presents and Punks The Comic Book and Rick Mays, writer of Kabuki and Gen 13. Flalkov was also very excited about his latest project and eager to get started.
 
"I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who voted for the book, and I’m positive they won’t be disappointed with where the series goes," said Fialkov. "It’s going to be balls-to-the-wall explodo, and I’m psyched to be along for the ride."
 
For more on the contest and the winning series, head on over to the Pilot Season official site.
 

ComicMix Radio Exclusive: Doctor Who Mini-Mates and Mattel’s Infinite Heroes!

 
Coverage of Toy Fair 2008 continues as ComicMix Radio becomes your ears to the event,  and unveils our exclusive report on a new line of Doctor Who Mini-Mates, as well as big news on Mattel’s new DC "Infinite Heroes" and classic action figure lines… plus…
 
• Our Tuesday rundown of new comics and DVDs
• A brand-new trivia question and another chance to grab an exclusive Graham Crackers Comics variant comic AND our very first winner revealed. 
 
First you Press The Button, and right after that e-mail us (podcast@comicmix.com) and you might be the next winner!
 

 

Inkwell Awards Celebrate Underappreciated Art of Inking

  • News
  • February 18, 2008

Of all the artificial divisions of labor that modern assembly-line comics have spawned, inking is probably the least understood and most maligned, containing elements of both specialized artistic crafting and production talent. Most laypeople and casual comics readers still regard inking as merely the latter, a form of "tracing" requiring little more than a steady hand and an eye towards deadlines. 

Long considered one of the "top three" storytelling skills, inking has been rendered (pun intended) such a relative afterthought that one major company no longer includes inkers in their Previews solicitations.

Long-time inking advocate Bob Almond is out to change all that.  Bob writes the regular "Inkblots" column for SKETCH Magazine, where the idea germinated, and he’s now set up a website with categories, voting instructions and other information about the awards.  It even has a pretty good definition of what inking is, for those who haven’t been exposed to the craft in all its complexity.

Voting is open to all, begins April 1 and runs through the end of May.  Bob suggests that interested participants check the credit boxes of their favorite comics, as well as the somewhat cumbersome Comic Book DB, for eligible names, and "Maybe one year we will be able to put a complete inker database together." I can certainly suggest a few nominees for anyone coming up short!

 

Rock and Roll and Comic Books and Our Future, by Mike Gold

  • News
  • February 18, 2008

 

There’s a website called Electronista that blames the precipitous drop in music sales on iTunes and the iPod, quoting NBC News’ Peter Alexander as saying “with 120 million iPods sold since 2001, digital downloads of individual songs are through the roof, soaring 500% in the last three years. In that same period, CD’s sales of declined dramatically, as listeners prefer hits over to entire albums.”
 
This type of sloppy reporting would have gotten me thrown out of Journalism school. I’m sure his numbers are right, but mp3s and mp3 players existed well before the iPod, and iTunes is not a bootlegging service: you pay for your music. Presumably, if the record companies aren’t ripping off the artists (which, ahem, has been known to happen), the artists are getting their fair share of the pie.
 
I know I’m going to get a ton of e-mails from Suits trying to redefine the argument in terms of bootlegging and that’s what is bringing music to its doom. To which I quote Sherman Potter: Horse hockey.
 
People always bootlegged music, ever since the inexpensive cassette recorder debuted in the late 1960s. You’d buy a record, you’d knock off a copy for your friends. People shared more in those days. This practice is so prevalent that some countries charge a bootlegging tax on blank media, the revenue from which going to a common fund for creators. It was no big deal then, and it’s no big deal today.

  (more…)

The ‘In’ Crowd, by Martha Thomases

  • News
  • February 16, 2008

 

It would be nice if, now that I’m in my mid-50s, I could stop worrying about whether or not I’m popular. Sensible people get over this in junior high, average people stop in high school, and only a few truly insecure carry it through to college. Grown-ups, who have jobs and responsibilities and hobbies, rarely let such thoughts cross their minds.
 
And then there’s me.
 
One of the most exciting things about this political year is the way outsiders have been welcomed, especially by Democrats. The leading contenders for the nomination are a black man and a woman, both of whom are decidedly wonky in their approach to politics. A Latino man ran a great campaign, and is assumed to be on the short list of possible vice-presidential candidates.
 
This is exciting, and for reasons far beyond the political (although, if this trend means the war will be over and people can stop getting blown up so frequently, and maybe in this country we can have health insurance, that would be great). 
 
Mostly, I can spend ignore these insecurities that have lingered for decades. When I can’t, I try to use my experience for good. By relating to outsiders, I find common cause with racial, ethnic and other minorities who are not always invited to society’s metaphorical proms. 
 

(more…)

Warren Ellis’ ‘FreakAngels’ Webcomic Launches

  • News
  • February 15, 2008

 

The first episode of FreakAngels, the free webcomic created by Warren "I am Internet Jesus" Ellis has finally gone online.

… And there was much rejoicing.

Announced at last year’s Comic-Con International in San Diego, FreakAngels is written by Ellis and illustrated by Paul Duffield. The webcomic is hosted by publisher Avatar Press, who will post a new episode each week on the FreakAngels website.

CBR spoke with Avatar founder William Christensen about FreakAngels and the unique online publishing plan unfolding around the series.

Though other publishers have offered content online, sometimes even new material, “FreakAngels” is perhaps unique in that its creators will be paid as they would if it were a standard, print comic. “After I spent a little time looking around, I realized there hasn’t been much in the way of a focused effort at providing streamlined, quality material,” Christensen said. “We’re not interested in setting up a huge site with a grab-bag of daily strips—Warren and Paul are going to make an amazing serial comic, and we’re going to make sure it’s being produced and displayed as well as anything you’d pick up on a shelf.”

Amen!

 

EZ Street: Mike Oeming and the Road Trip to Baltimore Con!

  • News
  • February 13, 2008

Did you ever wonder what it felt like to be an unknown exhibitor at a major comics convention?

Mark Wheatley and Robert Tinnell take you behind the scenes in today’s brand new episode of EZ Street.  Intrigue!  Backstabbing! Templar Mice vs. Smurfs!

 

linklogo2-9261054

 

Categories

Archives

Everything you need to make great comics!

comicmix-pro-300x69-2

Nucleus X

Bookshop Zaks