Diary of a Wimpy Kid Movie
Fox 2000 Pictures has acquired the rights to the first five Dairy of a Wimpy Kid books by Jeff Kinney, and Fox 2000 will adapt the book into a feature film, and perhaps a series of films. Nina Jacobson will be producing the first movie. More information can be found in a Variety article.
New PW Video Channel
PublishersWeekly.com will launch a new online video channel today, March 4, with complete video footage (including a 12 minute edited segment) of the “Think Future” breakfast discussion panel on comics held last year on Nov. 14. The Think Future graphic novel breakfast panel surveyed the new book market for comics and graphic novels and featured an all-star panel that consisted of John Cunningham, vp- marketing at DC Comics, Dan Frank, editorial director at Pantheon, Joe Quesada, editor-in-chief at Marvel Comics, Bill Schanes, v-p of purchasing at Diamond Comics Distributors, and Rich Johnson, co-publishing director of Yen Press. The panel was moderated by PW Comics Week co-editors Calvin Reid and Heidi MacDonald.
Nana Screenings; Blue Dragon Debut
Viz Pictures announced screenings of Nana in New York and Los Angeles. The movie is directed by Ootani Kentarou and based on the bestselling shojo manga by Ai Yazawa. Nana will be screened in Los Angeles March 21— 27 at the Imaginasian Center and in New York April 4 -10 at the Imaginasian Theater. A press screening will be held on March 5 at 2 p.m. in Los Angeles and on March 19 at 2 p.m. in New York. More information can be found at the Viz website. Also, Viz announced that the animated series Blue Dragon will debut on Cartoon Network this spring. Blue Dragon based on an Xbox 360 game developed by Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi with character designs by Akira Toriyama, creator of Dragon Ball. The anime was produced by Studio Pierrot, who also worked on Naruto and Bleach. More information can be found at the Viz website.
NYAnime Fest 2008 Dates
The 2008 New York Anime Festival will be held September 12-14 at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City. Last year's show was held in December, and the decision to move this year's show to September date was based on surveys and interviews with exhibitors, professionals and attendees. More information about NYAF can be found at the event's website.
Lapham’s Young Liars
David Lapham, creator of Stray Bullets, has a new series coming out from DC/ Vertigo, Young Liars. The first issue will be released on March 5, 2008. Young Liars follows, Sadie Dawkins, an heiress from Austin, who has a bullet longed in her brain and moves to New York. More information can be found at the DC Comics website.
Stumptown Comics Fest
After two months, exhibitor space for the Stumptown Comics Festival has sold out. Also, Gene Yang has been announced as a special guest at the festival. The Stumptown Comics Festival will be held April 26th and 27th at the Lloyd Center Doubletree in Portland, Oregon. Nominations for the Trophy Awards are now being accepted, and the awards ceremony will be held on April 26th at Cosmic Monkey Comics. More information about the Stumptown Comics Festival can be found at the events website.
Unterzakhn in The Forward
Leela Corman's Unterzakhn is being serialized in The Forward, a Jewish newspaper based in New York City. The comic began serialization on February 29. Unterzakhn revolves around immigrants in NYC's Lower East Side at the turn of the 20th Century. More information can be found at The Forward's website. Unterzakhn will be published in its entirety by Schocken/ Pantheon in 2010.
February Zuda Winner
Eddie Sharam and James Woodhead's Road is the winner of the February Zuda Comics Competition. Road can be viewed at the Zuda website.
Chris Claremont Podcast
Comics writer Chris Claremont talks about his work on the series New Exiles on a "Mighty Marvel Podcast." The podcast can be found at the Marvel website.
RabagliatiSigning
Michel Rabagliati, author of Paul Goes Fishing, will be giving a slideshow and signing books at the Toronto Public Library on March 5 at 5 PM. The event is free. The event will be held at the Toronto Public Library Lillian H. Smith Building in the downstairs auditorium; the library is located at 239 College Street. More information can be found at the Drawn & Quarterly website.
Signing at Midtown Comics
The Spanish artists Julian Lopez, Fernando Blanco, Cafu, M.A. Sepulveda will be signing books at Midtown comics in New York City on March 8 from 3 to 5 PM. This will be all four artists first signing in an American comic book store. More information can be found at the Midtown Comics website.
G4TV's Fresh Ink
On the latest online segment of G4TV's comics show Fresh Ink, G4TV comics guru Blair Butler reviews Lock and Key #1, Catwoman #76, Star Wars: Dark Times #9, Hack/Slash #9, and Ex Machina #36. This segment and past ones can be found at the G4TV website.
