2010 Glyph Award Winners
The winners of the 2010 annual Glyph Awards honoring black-themed comics have been announced at last weekend's East Coast Black Age of Comics Con. Unknown Soldier issues 13-14 by Josh Dysart and Pat Masioni won Story of the Year, The K Chronicles written and drawn by Keith Knight won Best Comic Strip, Alex Simmons won Best Author for his work on Archie & Friends, Jay Potts won Best Artist and the Rising Star award for World of Hurt and his character Isaiah Pastor won Best Male Character, Aya: The Secrets Come Out won Best Reprint Publication and Best Female Character for its protagonist Aya, and Luke Cage Noir won Best Cover and the Fan Award for Best Comic. The Glyph Awards are open to cartoonists of all backgrounds and honor comics material that explores the African American experience in the U.S. and the best black comics characters of the previous year.
Little Orphan Annie Cancelled
Continuously published since 1924, the comic strip Little Orphan Annie will cease publication on June 15. Syndicated though Tribune Media Services, the comic is currently published in only 20 papers nationwide, one of which is the strip's original home, the New York Daily News. More details are in this article.
Wallace and Gromit Comic Strip Debuts
Wallace and Gromit, the popular claymation character comedy team, has come to newspapers in Britain in comic strip form. Titan Comics has joined British newspaper The Sun and Aardman Animation, the creators of Wallace and Gromit for this project. Every week, the characters will take part in a new original storyline lasting six days. The first strip hit the newsstands this Monday.
Paul Levitz Comes to Midtown Comics
Paul Levitz, writer of Legion of Superheroes from 1974-1989 and former president and publisher of DC Comics, will come to Midtown Comics to sign Legion of Superheroes #1, his return to the title he is so closely linked with. The signing will take place on May 22 from 2-4 p.m. at Midtown Comics’ Times Square store, located at 200 West 40th Street, New York, NY.
Todd MacFarlane Visits Book Expo America
Todd MacFarlane, creator of Spawn and co-founder of Image Comics, will be making a rare public appearance at this year's Book Expo America. On May 26, MacFarlane will sign books at the shared Image Comics/Diamond Book Distributors booth, #4558, from 2-4 p.m. Complimentary copies of the trade paperback Haunt Vol. 1 will be available during the signing. The BEA takes place at New York City's Jacob Javits Convention Center from May 25-27.
This Week @ Good Comics For Kids
This week School Library Journal’s blog Good Comics for Kids had a review of Benny and Penny in The Toy Breaker, a link to the new Benny and Penny blog for early readers, and the 5/12 listing of comics suitable for all ages.
This Week @ The Beat
This week PWCW editor Heidi MacDonald’s blog The Beat covered the 2010 winners of the Glyph comics awards for X, the return of Jill Thompson’s Scary Godmother from Dark Horse Comics,the cancellation of Little Orphan Annie, the massive reorganization at manga and anime giant Viz in detail, the legacy of the late fantasy and comics artist Frank Frazetta, linked the new archives of her older blog entries, opened the question of whether or not DC Comics is killing off most of their non-white characters to readers and hosted the second installment in a series of Batman movie analysis from playwright and movie critic Todd Alcott – Batman: 1989 and a guest column by Yen Press’s Rich Johnson on how “The iPad Cometh.”