SPX Guests
Ted Rall, Ruben Bolling, and Mat Wuerker will be guests at the Small Press Expo as part of the special event “Outside Looking In: Alternative Political Cartooning in 2008. Ted Rall is the president of the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists, and he is the author of Silk Road to Ruin: Is Central Asia the New Middle East and America Gone Wild. Ruben Bolling is the creator of the political cartoon strip Tom the Dancing Bug. Matt Wuerker is the cartoonist for Politico.com. All three will join previously announced guests Tom Tomorrow and Lloyd Dangle in panels and interviews which focus on political cartoons and the upcoming election. SPX will be held October 4th and 5th at the North Bethesda Marriott Convention Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
PW The Beat: Wall Street Blues; Chris Butcher
Over at The Beat, Heidi MacDonald’s up-to-the-minute comics industry blog, she collects links and comments on the current economic meltdown courtesy Tom Spurgeon and Scott McCloud;and comments on an interview by highly regarded comics artist Keven Huizenga. Heidi also provides a bunch of links to comments by retailer Chris Butcher (on attending PAX, the gamers' convention); retailer Brian Hibbs on the potty-mouth All-Star Batman recall and street dates for comics shops; and a review of novelist Jonathan Ames new graphic novel The Alcoholic.
New Archie Comics Logo
Archie Comics has unveiled a new logo which will be featured on all its comics, digests, and graphic novels. The new logo will appear on all publications which go on sale after September 15 starting with Veronica # 190 and Archie Digest #247. Also, the new trade dress for the Archie Digest Library Books will feature new logos for the titles, as well as logos to indicate which characters are featured in a specific book.
Locke & Key GN
Novelist Joe Hill’s first comic series, Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft, is being collected into a hardcover edition. The book, published by IDW, will be released in October 1. The series is illustrated by Gabriel Rodriguez. A new story arc of the series, Locke & Key: Head Game, will be released next year.
Stephen King’s “N” Online
Stephen King’s short story “N” has been made intro a series of 25 graphic video episodes which can be watched at nishere website. The series is drawn by Alex Maleev and colored by Jose Villarrubia. Marc Guggenheim, the co-creator of the TV series Eli Stone, adapted King’s story for this format. Also, an interview with Stephen King is available on MySpace.
Geoff Johns Writes DCU Online
Geoff Johns will write the story line for DC Universe Online, the multiplayer game currently under development by Sony Online Entertainment and DC Comics. Jim Lee is designing the game. Screenshots of the game are available at the Sony Online Entertainment website.
New MyCup o’ Joe
Joe Quesada, in the latest installment of MyCup o’Joe, discusses Robert Kirkland’s video blog about creator owned comics. Quesada offers his opinions on creator owned work versus work for hire.
Princess Ai Free on Crunchyroll
Crunchyroll, an online distributor of Asian media, is providing Tokyopop’s manga Princess Ai: Encounters for free. The entire manga will be available on the Crunchyroll website from September 16-30. Princess Ai is co-created by DJ Milky (aka Tokyopop CEO Stu Levy) and rocker/singer Courtney Love.
Skrulls, ESPN Play Ball
Tune in tonight on ESPN2 during the Minor League Baseball Championships to see an ad for Marvel’s bestselling crossover comic, Secret Invasion. The ad is part of the alien Skrull’s “Embrace Change” cause and will be shown several times starting at 8 p.m. EST. The whole promotional effort is part of a collaboration between Marvel Comics and Minor League Baseball and fans attending the game will receive a limited edition of Triple- A Baseball Heroes, a comic featuring Marvel’s most popular heroes and Tiple-A Baseball’s most popular mascots!
Shatner, Bluewater Ink Deal
Acclaimed Star Trek star William Shatner has signed an agreement with Washington-based comics publisher Bluewater Productions to produce 4 comics based on Shatner’s popular science-fiction prose novels. Bluewater will produce “William Shatner Presents” which will include Shatner’s The TekWar Chronicles, Quest for Tomorrow, Man O’War and a new title that Shatner will create exclusively for Bluewater.