X-DiaryManwha to Become American Film
Popular Korean comic-that is, manwha-series X-Diary is now on its way to becoming anAmerican live action feature film, its publisher Net Comics has announced. Set to begin filmingthis fall-winter season, the movie has Oscar-nominee Kalman Apple attached asdirector and writer Kevan Peterson on screenplay. X-Diary is the story of a musician and a cartoonist becomingfriends after they break up.
Comic BookLiteracy Premieres at C2E2
Comic BookLiteracy, an independently produced feature-length documentary emphasizingthe positive and educational aspects of comic books, will premiere at thisyear's Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo.The film features interviews with such comics personalities as Art Spiegelman,Gail Simone, Scott McCloud and Joe Quesada, and will screen at 1:45 p.m. onApril 18 at C2E2, followed by a question and answer session with thedocumentary's director, Todd Kent. C2E2 takes place from April 16 - 18 atChicago's McCormick Place convention center. C2E2 is owned by the sameparent company as Publishers Weekly.
Bahadur,India's First Superhero, Returns
Bahadur, arguably India's first comic book superhero,returns to the page after an absence of nearly twenty years. Intended as ahomegrown rival for The Phantom, Mandrakethe Magician and Tarzan - all ofwhom were huge there at the time - Bahadur primarily fought the bandits thatwere then a serious problem in rural India. Originally created by the writerartist team of Aabid Surti and Govind Brahmania, Bahadur ran from 1978-1990 when its publisher Indrajal Comicsclosed and returned the copyright to Surti. Now Surti, assisted by Brahmania'sson Pramod, will be bringing out Bahadurstories as an ongoing webcomic. More details are available herein an article from the Hindustan Times.Published in Hindi, English and Bengali, Bahadur had a backstory to rival anycaped crusader - he was the son of a dacoit who was adopted by the policemanwho killed his father and went on to become a vigilante.
Last Gasp 40th Anniversary Art Show
San Francisco-based underground publisher Last Gasp, home of such comics creators asR. Crumb and Justin Green is turning 40 and holding an art show to celebrate.On April 1, beginning at 6 p.m., Last Gasp will be hosting a party and art showat the 111 Minna Gallery locatedat 111 Minna Street, San Francisco. Guests must be 21 or over, admission isfree to the general public.
Chaykin's BlackKiss #1 Free Online
The first issue of Howard Chaykin's controversial adultcrime comic Black Kiss is now available freeonline through comics news site Bleeding Cool in celebration of the book'supcoming republication. Highly sexually explicit, when it came out in the1980's, the book was released packaged in plastic bags in the same manner asadult entertainment. While extremely charged, today the book is also regardedas an important work in the return of hardboiled crime to comics. Chaykin, whowas both writer and artist on the series, is a comics creator and televisionwriter best known for his work on AmericanFlagg. The book is soon to be republished by Dynamite in a hardcoveromnibus edition. More details and issue 1 are available here.
This Week @ Good Comics For Kids
This week SchoolLibrary Journal's blog Good Comics forKids had reviews of the graphic novel adaptations of "AStudy in Scarlet" and Fahrenheit451 as well as TheWimpy Kid Movie Diary, MaxFinder Collected Casebook Vol. 1 the 3/10listing of comics suitable for all ages, and a Mouseguard,Dreamland and Ben 10 themed links roundup as well as a TopPicks and New Archies themed roundup from Brigid Alverson.
This Week @ The Beat
This week at PWCW editor Heidi MacDonald's blog The Beat, she covered news from EmeraldCityComicCon, the Seattle-based con that will expand to athree day program next year and has announced JetCity - its new local artists spin-off con, the current creative team of PowerGirl leaving the comic, this year's nominees for Canada's DougWright comic awards, a slight drop in comicsand graphic novel sales this February, and extensive coverage of lastweek'saccidental Amazon comics discount / DiamondBookDistributorsdelistingand featured a guestarticle by Yen Press's Rich Johnson.
