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Mr. Vengeance Goes to Comic-con
In one of the most memorable scenes of Korean director Park Chan Wook’s movie Old Boy, his middle-aged protagonist wields a hammer and faces off with a gang of armed young thugs. Old Boy is a live-action feature length film adaptation of the manga by the same name. PW Comics Week met with the director at the recent San Diego Comic-con and discussed Old Boy, his other films and why it’s good for a creator to torture his characters.
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Panel Mania: The Year of Loving Dangerously
In the autobiographical The Year of Loving Dangerously, Ted Rall, kicked out of college, broke, jobless, shunned by his parents, and suicidal, avoids homelessness by drifting into the arms of numerous women. The Year of Loving Dangerously is written by Rall, a politacal cartoonist and commentator, and illustrated by Pablo Callejo; it will be released by NBM in December 2009.
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Reynolds and Fantagraphics Face the Future
Whenever comics industry observers get together to talk about the people who've made a difference in the business over the last decade, the name Eric Reynolds inevitably comes up. Recently promoted to Associate Publisher for the Seattle-based art comics publisher Fantagraphics he has overseen the company's successful navigation of the new opportunities for graphic novels in bookstores.
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Boom! Dreams Up Unique Android Retelling
Boom! Studios is heading into uncharted territory with their adaptation of Phillip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? The series, which editor Ian Brill has called a graphic translation, will mix comic art with Dick’s original text from the novel.
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August Comics Bestsellers
Jeff Kinney’s Wimpy Kid: Last Straw remains king of the list followed by Naruto vol. 45, newcomer Rachel Russell’s 'Wimpy' homage, Dork Diaries, Grant Morrison’s Final Crisis; Sherrilynn Kenyon’s Dark Hunter manga adaptation and Halo: Uprising.
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Jamie Rich Kills Again
Jamie S. Rich is well-known for his novels, both graphic and prose, about modern romances, including Cut My Hair, Love the Way You Love (with Marc Ellerby), and 12 Reasons Why I Love Her, drawn by Joëlle Jones. He and Jones have teamed up again for You Have Killed Me, a noir mystery that's a departure from his usual subject matter.
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New Site Offers Apps for Reading Comics on Phones
Software developers at Genus have created Findacomicapps.com, a website that provides a neutral platform for developers offering apps for reading comics on the iPhone and other mobile devices through the Apple App Store.
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Panel Mania: Cat Burglar Black
In Richard Sala's Cat Burglar Black, K., a teenage girl who was raised in an orphanage where she was trained as a thief, is sent to a boarding school for cat burglars on a mysterious aunt's recommondation. In this preview K. shows off her skills to her new classmates. Cat Burglar Black will be released by First Second on September 1st.
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Stitches: Peering into a Dark Past
A newcomer to the world of graphic novels, David Small has already captured the attention of the industry and readers. The Caldecott-winning artist is a veteran illustrator of children’s books. His first graphic novel, Stitches: A Memoir, was one of the hits of BEA, and has been making the rounds of the blogs leading up to its publication on September 8.
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Miyazaki Receives Triumphant Welcome in US
Hayao Miyazaki, who is known for his feature length animation movies such as Princess Mononoke, Porco Rosso, Howl’s Moving Castle, and his 2003 Academy Award winner, Spirited Away, visited California as part of the effort to welcome and promote his new movie, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea.It was also a chance for Americans to honor the revered director.
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To Japan and Back: Cirque du Freak Travels the World
Darren Shan's Cirque du Freak is a story with legs: originally an Irish young adult novel, it was licensed in Japan and proved so popular there that it was adapted into a manga with art by Takahiro Arai. It's the story of a boy who takes a flyer for a mysterious circus only to find it has a cast of ghoulish performers. Now U.S. graphic novel publisher Yen Press is translating the manga into English, with an initial print run of 65,000 copies for volume 1.
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Comics Briefly
70 Years of Marvel Comics; Quesada, Kidd, Mazzuccheli in Bryant Park; New Book from Howard Cruse; Radical, Random House in Distribution Pact; C2E2 Tickets On Sale; iPhone App Tops on iTunes; Twilight's Meyer in Female Force; Martinbrough Unveils Website; Fresh Ink Comic-con 09 Video; Murs Raps; Vanguard Animation, Vanguard Press Ink Deal; Viz Manga Free Online; This Week @ The Beat and This Week @ Good Comics for Kids
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Publishing Sales Flat at Marvel
Publishing revenue at Marvel Entertainment was flat in the second quarter, slipping from $31.8 million to $31.7 million. Operating income fell more noticeably, dropping 6.8%, to $10.9 million.
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Life in Comics: The Shape of the Industry
In March, the New York Times inaugurated its Graphic Books best seller list, just in time to acknowledge the runaway sales of Watchmen, as the trade paperback reaped the benefits of movie hype. ("Comics have finally joined the mainstream,” wrote George Gene Gustines in the NYT's Arts Beat Blog.)
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The Legendary Stan Lee Talks Manga and Ultimo
The legendary Stan Lee was on hand at Comic-con this year to promote Ultimo, a new manga series he is working on for Viz Media in collaboration with the noted manga-ka Hiroyuki Takei, creator of the bestselling manga series Shaman King. Originally conceived for the Japanese market, Ultimo the story of two mysterious and powerful mechanized figures—one good; the other evil—created by a mysterious scientist/shaman figure that looks suspiciously like Stan Lee himself.
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San Diego Media-Con: One Big Size Fits All
Originally founded as a kind of fan-fest and back-issues swap meet for comic book, science fiction fans and retailers, the just concluded San Diego Comic-Con has grown to become an international platform for popular culture, servicing the fans that love it as well as the artists and publishers that create and distribute it. But with the book industry openly questioning the usefulness of a strictly trade show like BEA, has the San Diego Comic-Con become a possible model for publishing/media conventions?
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Panel Mania: Stitches
In David Small's autobiography, Stitches, he depicts his childhood with his disfunctional family, as he struggles with a botched surgery that rendered him mute. In this 16 page preview, David escapes through his imagination and his art. Stitches will be released by W.W. Norton on September 8th.
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San Diego Comic-con 2009: Not Just for Grown-ups
The annual San Diego Comic-Con International ended July 26, leaving 125,000 attendees alternately dazzled and exhausted by the four-and-a-half day marathon of comics, movies, panels, signings and parties. More than ever, the show has become the biggest marketing platform of the year for film and TV as well as comics—including comics material aimed at children and teens.
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Bigger and Bigger Still—San Diego Comic-con Keeps Growing
The annual San Diego Comic-Con International ended July 26, leaving 125,000 attendees—the unofficial attendance figure of the sold-out convention—alternately dazzled and exhausted by the four-and-a-half day marathon of comics, movies, panels, signings and parties. More than ever, the show has become the biggest marketing platform of the year for film and TV as well as for comics.
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The Changing Face of Manga: Talking with Hideki Egami
Hideki Egami, editor-in-chief of the Japanese magazine Ikki, which specializes in manga aimed at an older more sophisticated adult readership, sat down with PW Comics Week for a micro-interview during the San Diego Comic-con to commemorate the launch of Viz Media’s English-language counterpart, SigIkki, an online magazine offeringe a different kind of contemporary manga to the U.S. market.