Grant Morrison at NYCC
Perennial fan favorite comics writer Grant Morrison will be a guest of honor at the 2009 New York Comic Con. He will be taking part in panels and signings at the event, which runs from February 6-9 at New York's Javits Center. Known for his groundbreaking work on The Invisibles and his current run on DC's Final Crisis, among many others, Morrison is widely acknowledged as one of the top writers in the field. He is also the author of the big screen adaptation of his animal cyborg epic We3, currently in production in Hollywood.

Stan Goldberg at MoCCA
Longtime Harvey Comics and Archie artist Stan Goldberg will be speaking at MoCCA, the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art in New York City, on January 8 running from 7 p.m. into the night. Goldberg will be appearing in connection with the ongoing exhibit “From Richie Rich to Wendy the Witch: The Art of Harvey Comics”, which will be running at MoCCA through March 15, 2009. Goldberg is the primary artist on the Archie Comics flagship title Archie, and worked on Sabrina The Teenage Witch, DC's Captain Carrot, and Archie Meets the Punisher among many others in a comics career spanning six decades. The talk is part of MoCCA's ongoing Cartoonist Roundtable series and will be held at the museum at 594 Broadway Suite 401, New York, NY. Admission is free to MoCCA members, $5 to the general public.

Preview of 08: Campaign Diary
Three Rivers Press is offering readers a free 20-page preview of 08: A Graphic Diary of The Campaign Trail, a documentary-in-comics of the 2008 presidential campaign by New Republic senior editor Michael Crowley and artist Dan Goldman (coauthor of Shooting War) and his publisher

Best of the Best of 2008 lists
As the "Best Of" list season draws to a close, we offer a listing notable lists. Comic Book Resources kicked off the new year with a truly massive list of the Best 100 Comics of 2008 polled from their entire staff of contributors. CBR's Comics Should be Good column took the democratic impulse one step further and invited readers to vote for The Best Manga of 2008. Gaming/comics/geek culture site IGN selected a single favorite title and several runners up in such Oscarsesque categories as "Best Arc", "Best Villain" and "Best Ongoing Series" for their Best of 2008 Comics Awards. Wondering what to recommend to the student in your life? School Library Journal's Good Comics For Kids blog has obliged with the Best Graphic Novels of 2008 for the grade school set. National Public Radio was surprisingly enthusiastic about graphic novels this year providing both Best Graphic Novels of 2008 and Best Superhero Graphic Novels of 2008 lists courtesy of regular graphic novel reviewer Laurel Maury.

Renowned British comics critic Paul Gravett has posted lists of his most favored comics and books about comics from 2008. The comics opinion site comiXology recruited their proud perennial pessimist Tucker Stone from the column This Ship is Totally Sinking to talk about what comics he liked for a change, for The Best Comicsof 2008.With entries from everything from cooking manga to shonen to yaoi—not to mention the ubiquitous Black Jack—Popcultureshock provides Our Favorite Manga of 2008. Alternative comics blog The Daily Cross Hatch went straight to the source for their Best Damn Comics of 2008 Chosen By the Artists list. Including creators like Shaenon Garrity and Dan Goldman, it reads as much like a Who's Who of indie comics as it does a reading list. Points for sheer chutzpah go to Kyle Baker, who listed all of his own books, and said he only included Joe Kubert's Tor because he ran out of eligible books of his own.

KA-BAAM!! Superheroes on Stage
Huge Theater will be staging KA-BAAM!!, an interactive superhero event, at the Bryant Lake Bowl in Minneapolis. Running Thursdays from January 8 - February 5, improv actors will enact the superheroic suggestions of audience members, from villains to secret identities to the adventures themselves. Meanwhile, comics artist Christopher Jones of The Batman Strikes and Justice League Adventures will illustrate the ongoing antics. The show starts at 7 p.m. January 8-29, and 10 p.m. on February 10, and will be appearing at the Bryant Lake Bowl, 810 West Lake Street, Minneapolis, MN.

Kevin Smith's LA Comic Store Closing
The Los Angeles location of director and comic writer Kevin Smith's comic store, Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash, will be closing as of January 11, 2009. Although successful in New Jersey, the Los Angeles store has had a troubled history, closing its Westwood location in 2007 only to be reopened inside the Laser Blazer dvd store on Pico Boulevard. Laser Blazer will remain open, and the Secret Stash section will be replaced by a Blue Ray dvd department. Laser Blazer and the Secret Stash is located at 10587 West Pico Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA.

The Beat’s Year End Survey
Over at The Beat, Heidi MacDonald collects reflections on 2008 and predictions for 2009 from a long list of comics artists, writers and professionals in Part I and Part II.