Comics Briefly 9/29/09

Photo Mania: NY Anime Festival and Small Press Expo

It was a crowded weekend for comics, as the New York Anime Festival and Small Press Expo took place concurrently. PWCW's photographers were there to catch both scenes.

Tokyopop, Harper Team To Release ‘Shutter Island’ Graphic Novel

Graphic novel publisher Tokyopop is working in conjunction with HarperCollins to release a comics adaptation of bestselling novelist Dennis Lehane’s psychological thriller Shutter Island in January 2010 in time for the February release of a new Martin Scorsese film based on the novel.

Toon Treasury: Open Sesame

With The Toon Treasury of Classic Children’s Comics, published this month by Abrams, Art Spiegelman and his wife, Françoise Mouly, are bringing comics classics to kids of a new generation. “Comic books were considered the most disposable ephemera, yet clearly those who grew up with them cherished them,” Spiegelman says. “It seems like some of the most important literature for children in the middle of the 20th century is in these comic books.”

An Anime Canon for All

In June, the Penguin Group released The Rough Guide to Anime by Simon Richmond. The book establishes a canon of 50 must-see films and TV anime series, as well as reviews of 150 notable titles, and a brief history of anime.

Conspiracy, Comics and a ‘Red Herring’

Written by David Tischman and drawn by Philip Bond, Wildstorm’s new six-issue mini-series, Red Herring, concentrates on an intriguing and complex tale of conspiracy, betrayal and murder.

Comics Briefly

Capstone to Add Kids' Nonfiction Graphic Novel Line

Capstone Press, a nonfiction imprint of Capstone Publishers, plans to add a new line of kids' nonfiction graphic novels to its fast growing comics and graphic novel publishing program. This fall the house is launching Graphic Expeditions, a nonfiction line of graphic novels that will debut with six titles that aim to introduce young readers to social studies, history and world cultures. The new line will feature the archaeologist Dr. Isabel “Izzy” Soto...

Panel Mania: Refresh, Refresh

In Refresh, Refresh three teenage boys come to age in a small Oregon town where all the men, including their fathers, are away fighting in Iraq. While waiting for their fathers—and hitting the refresh button on their email—the boys fight, drink and discover that the world is not as simple as they thought. Refresh, Refresh by Danica Novgorodoff will be released by First Second in October.

DC Comics Reorganizes as DC Entertainment

The winds of change once again blew over the comics industry last week, as Warner Bros. announced a major restructuring and executive changes at DC Comics. The home of Superman and Batman will become part of a larger division called DC Entertainment, to be run by WB branding veteran Diane Nelson.

Ed Brubaker: Crime, Superheroes and Comic Book History

Comics writer Ed Brubaker's body of work stretches beyond the superhero genre and into gritty crime dramas and dark espionage tales. This November, two of his series, Criminal and Incognito, will ship new book collections—a debut trade paperback for Incognito and an oversized hardcover omnibus for Criminal, which will feature a new story arc called "The Sinners."

R. Sikoryak’s Comics Masterpiece

R. Sikoryak's dead-on recreations of historical cartooning styles—utilized to adapt canonical Western literature—were immediately striking as witty, smart, and intensely well-crafted manifestations of the postmodern impulse within the comics form.

Jewish Life and Comics in ‘The Big Kahn’

Superheroes, action comics and horror stories—comics writer Neil Kleid does it all. But in an unusual twist, two of Kleid’s recent books, have pointed their story-telling lens at Jewish life and history. Brownsville, which came out in 2006, is set in 1930’s Brooklyn in the world of the Jewish mob, and his newest book, The Big Kahn, is a family drama that takes place in a contemporary Orthodox Jewish community

Comics Briefly

Reed Combines NYCC, NYAF at Javits Center; Stitches Online Video; SPX Programming Listing ; A Day for the Bookstores; Seven Seas Manga For Kindle; Archie, Veronica Wed; Old Characters Return; Full House Comes To Netcomics; and Picture Box; Top Shelf Offer Book Sales;

Panel Mania: Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth

Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth is an examination of the life and ideas of the mathematician and philosopher, Bertrand Russell, which surveys both his increasingly messy personal life and the intellectual issues that motivated his groundbreaking work in mathematics and logic. Logicomix is written by Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos H. Papadimitriou, with art by Alecos Papadatos and Annie Di Donna, and will be released by Bloomsbury in October.

The Shows Go On with Lance Fensterman

Lance Fensterman is increasingly running an empire of his own. As v-p at Reed Exhibitions, not only is he the show runner for BookExpo America and the four-year-old New York Comic Con, but a growing portfolio of consumer shows, including the just-concluded video game show PAX (in partnership with founders Penny Arcade), the New York Anime Festival (to be held Sept. 25-27), and next April's C2E2 comics show in Chicago.

Tokyopop: Good News, Bad News

The past week was a mixed bag for manga publisher Tokyopop: They revealed they would no longer be doing business with the Japanese publisher Kodansha but also announced a handful of new licenses and put several stalled series back on schedule.

ADV Shuts Down; Assets, Staff Shift to New Companies

U.S. anime distributor and manga publisher AD Vision is no more. The company's assets (and an undetermined number of its employees) have been divided up among four separate companies: AEsir Holdings, SXion 23 (Section 23) Films, Valkyrie Media Partners, and Seraphim Studios. Section 23 will continue to service former ADV accounts.

September Comics Bestsellers

Jeff Kinney’s Wimpy Kid: Last Straw continues its long run at the top, followed by Viz’s Vampire Knight vol. 7, Naruto and Tokyopop’s Fruits Basket, Vol. 23. Neil Gaiman’s Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader is #5 and just below the Top Ten are Darwyn Cooke’s The Hunter, David Mazzucchelli’s Asterios Polyp and David Petersen’s Mouse Guard: Winter 1152.

Comics Briefly

Del Rey Hosts New York Anime Fest Party, ‘Action Philosophers’ Collected, Jaime Hernandez Book Signing in L.A., Spiegelman, Mouly Sign in New York City; Ben Katchor In Concert; and This Week @ Good Comics for Kids