Comics Briefly: 11/23/2010

San Diego Comic Con Sales Crash Again, Angouleme Festival Announces Official Selections, Tokyo Once Again Tries to Ban Hentai, Hit Manga Creator Starts Legal Free Manga Site, Viz Brings Out Unedited Tenjho Tenge, Amy Reeder Batwoman Signing and Art Exhibition, This Week @ Good Comics For Kids, This Week @ The Beat

After Five Years BOOM! Still Makes Noise

What do Philip K. Dick, Stan Lee, Roger Langridge, Mark Waid and Darkwing Duck have in common? They're all publishing stars at BOOM! Studios, the LA-based comics publisher that has weathered the economic storms of the last five years to become a company that's consistently in the top seven publishers.

Comics Reviews: 11/22/10

Panel Mania: Strange Tales II

Marvel's Strange Tales series has collected a variety of indie comics artists' offering less-than-reverent interpretations of the superheroes of the Marvel Universe. The final issue of the second volume will be released on December 8. This exclusive preview of Strange Tales II #3 includes a page from Dean Haspiel's story, "The Left Hand of Boom," and two pages from Terry Moore’s Thor send-up, "How Mjolnir Got its Strap."

DBD's Liang Finds Graphic Novel Growth Abroad

Just back from a tour of International book fairs in Frankfurt and the Middle East, Kuo-Yu Liang, v-p, sales and marketing at Diamond Book Distributors, is upbeat about the graphic novel market at home and abroad. Despite a tough economy, overall declines in manga sales and the loss of Marvel Comics as a distribution client, Liang says DBD's business is up for the year and he’s even more excited about the growing popularity of graphic novels around the world.

Comixology Program Offers Free Access To App Development Tools

Comics resource site and digital developer Comixology has launched the Guided View Authoring Tools early adopters program, a new venture that will give independent artists and publishers free access to the development tools it uses to prepare comics for digital delivery through its Comixology app and digital retail channel.

Comics Briefly: 11/16/2010

J. M. Straczynski to Quit Monthlies, Write More Graphic Novels, Comics at the Miami Book Fair, Spider-Man Musical Unsafe?, Kirby Krackle Comics Band Signs With Marvel, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Creator to be Graphic Novel, This week @ Good Comics for Kids,and This Week @ The Beat

LOA Publishes Lynd Ward's Wordless Graphic Novels

The term "graphic novel" didn't exist when Lynd Ward started telling stories in pictures, back in the late 1920s, but to modern eyes, that's exactly what Ward's novels are. Now the Library of America has collected Ward's wordless graphic novels in a two-volume boxed set, Lynd Ward: Six Novels in Woodcuts, with an introduction by Art Spiegelman.

Humanoids Returns to the U.S. Graphic Novel Market

The French comics house Les Humanoides Associes has returned to the U.S. graphic novel market and launched Humanoids Inc., its U.S. office in Los Angeles, with plans to release up to two books a month in the U.S. in hardcover and trade paperback.

Paul Levitz Puts 75 Years of DC Comics In One Huge Book

Former President and Publisher of DC Comics, Paul Levitz has lived and breathed comics his entire adult life. A comics fan magazine that he co-wrote and published in high school, The Comic Reader, led to his first job with the mega-publisher that is DC. With DC celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, Levitz took on the incredible task of writing about its numerous characters, authors and artists and their impact on the world.

Panel Mania: The Story of Lee

In The Story of Lee, Lee, a young woman in Hong Kong meets Matt, a young British man, and they begin a relationship despite their cultural differences. In this preview, Lee’s father and a Chinese man also in love with her impede the burgeoning romance, as Lee and Matt struggle to overcome cultural obstacles to their physical relationship. The Story of Lee is written by Sean Michael Wilson, editor of AX: Alternative Manga from Top Shelf, one of PW's Best Books of 2010, and illustrated by Chie Kutsuwada. NBM will release The Story of Lee in December.

Comics Reviews: 11/15/10

Viz's 'Shonen Jump' Magazine Gets Facelift Online and Off

Consistent with its new digital initiative, Viz Media will introduce a new format for its print manga anthology, Shonen Jump, and the magazine will also expand its online presence, allowing subscriber access to up to 100 pages of manga previews on the Shonen Jump website.

Comics Briefly: 11/9/2010

San Diego Comic-Con Sales Back on 11/22, Marvel Come to Singapore, Batman Arena Show, Zombieland Writers Take On Cowboy Ninja Viking, Legendary Pictures Announces Comics Division, Neil Gaiman Short Film The Price on Kickstarter, Grand Opening of New Midtown Comics Location, This Week @ Good Comics For Kids, This Week @ The Beat

Buckley's Pricing Gambit at Marvel Pays Off

The price of comic books has been a hot button topic of late, with DC rolling back their prices to $2.99 on most of their books, while the majority of Marvel's books remain at $3.99. As overall sales continue to drop, it may be time to examine the effectiveness of Marvel's pricing policy.

The Best Graphic Novels of 2010

While we're limited to including only 10 graphic novels on Publishers Weekly's annual listing of the best books of the year, we think we've still managed to collect an impressive range of titles. From veteran cartoonists like Charles Burns, Jill Thompson and Chris Ware to such talented newcomers as Adam Hines and Sarah Glidden, our selection shows off the ever growing list of supremely talented authors working in fiction, serious nonfiction, manga and all-ages comics.

'Whaddaya Got?' Finding Graphic Novels in an Academic Library

Academic libraries are beginning to embrace graphic novels for their circulating collections. Unfortunately, because of inconsistencies in the Library of Congress classification model, locating graphic novels in an academic library collection can be challenging.

Panel Mania: Motel Art Improvement Service

Motel Art Improvement Service by Jason Little, the author of Shutterbug Follies, follows Bee, his heroine from the earlier book, as she embarks on a cross-country bicycle trip. On her journey she gets involved with an artist who "upgrades" the artwork in hotel rooms, which leads her to get mixed up in a drug deal going on at the hotel. Motel Art Improvement Service will be released by Dark Horse in December.

Adam Hines On Creating 'Duncan the Wonder Dog'

One of the most ambitious graphic novels we've encountered in recent years, Adam Hines' Duncan the Wonder Dog: Show One is a multi-volume fictional comics work set in an otherwise naturalistic world where animals can talk and debate the consequences of their treatment by humans.

Comics Reviews: 11/8/10