B&T Español Inks Marvel Pact
Book trade and library wholesaler Baker & Taylor has reached a deal with Marvel Comics and its Spanish language licensee to offer as many as 75 Spanish-language editions of Marvel superhero graphic novels in the U.S. market. Larry Bennett, v-p of Spanish-language markets for B&T Español, said the deal involves titles licensed from the Italian publishing house Panini. The deal includes trade paperbacks (priced at $16.95) and hardcovers ($24.95) and includes a cross section of titles featuring such Marvel heroes as Spider Man, Fantastic Four and Captain America. Bennett founded Public Square Books in 2004 to distribute Spanish language graphic novels to the U.S. market and PSB was acquired by B&T in June. Bennett joined the wholesaler at the same time, taking over the direction of B&T’s Spanish language division. Libraries tend to be the biggest market for Spanish-language graphic novels and Bennett said hardcover editions of the Marvel titles will start to be available in the fall. PSB was instrumental in distributing a wide range of Spanish-language editions of U.S. indie comics and licensed manga. Bennett said the B&T/Marvel deal “adds super heroes and rounds out the list of what B&T offers to the Spanish language graphic novel market.”
Andrew Steven Harris Joins IDW
Andrew Steven Harris has recently joined IDW Publishing as an editor and will oversee the Transformers and Star Trek comic book titles. Harris is a former Los Angeles Times editor and a founding writer for Wizard Magazine. Harris, also, worked as an editor for the Dungeons & Dragons game.
Phil Yeh’s Dinosaurs Fall Tour
Phil Yeh, creator of Dinosaurs Across America, will go on tour this fall. NBM, publisher of Dinosaurs Across America, released a full color, hardcover version of the book in August, which had been reprinted eight times in a black and white version. Yeh has been touring for twenty-five years with the group Cartoonists Across America that has painted over sixteen hundred murals. In his fall tour Phil Yeh will visit California, Maryland, Illinois, and Connecticut. More information about Phil Yeh and Cartoonists Across America can be found at their website. A list of the tour events can be found at PW The Beat.
Top Cow Launches Wanted Website
Top Cow has debuted a “mini-website” for their series Wanted, written by Mark Millar with art by JG Jones. A Wanted film is under production from Universal Studios and will be released in March 2008. The new Wanted website will feature news on the film and overviews of the original series, along with character profiles and previews.
Kim Deitch, Megan Kelso at Fantagraphics Store
Kim Deitch and Megan Kelso will be at the Fantagraphics Bookstore in Seattle on August 31st for a book signing and exhibition of some of their original artwork and prints. The event will be from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. The exhibition will remain up until September 19th. The Fantagraphics Bookstore and Gallery is located at 1201 S. Vale Street. Kim Deitch and Megan Kelso will also appear at the Bumbershoot Arts Festival in Seattle on September 2nd from 5:45 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. at the Leo K Theater. More information can be found at the Fantagraphics website.
New York Anime Festival Sponsors Contests
The first annual New York Anime Festival, taking place at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York City December 7-9, is inviting fans to participate in several anime centered contests with prizes from various sponsors. There will be two cosplay contests sponsored by Anime Insider, the Costume Contest and the Masquerade, which is a fashion show and talent contest. Del Ray Manga and TheOtaku.com are sponsoring an art contest which requires contestants to produce an original art work on the theme of “winter”; the winner will receive every manga Del Ray publishes for a year. Manga publisher Go! Comi and TheOtaku.com are sponsoring a “doujinshi” (fan comics) contest in which participants must create a comic based on Go! Comi’s Black Sun, Silver Moon; the winning comic will be published by Go!Comi. There will also be an Anime Music Video (AMV) contest. All the contests are now accepting entries. More information about the New York Anime Festival and the contests can be found at the event’s website.
Undead Gunslingers
Writers Shannon Eric Denton (Common Foe) and Jeff Mariotte (Desperadoes) and artist John Cboins launched a new supernatural Western series called Graveslinger this month. Executed killers come back to life and somebody’s got to put them back in their graves. The new periodical series is published by Image Comics.
Fantasy & Comics at DragonCon
DragonCon, a popular southern convention focused on fantasy and science fiction, will kickoff at the Hilton Atlanta Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia from August 31 until September 3. The multimedia show also attracts a big comics crowd and this year features appearances by such artists as Peter David, Ted Naifeh, Michael Avon Oeming and David Mack. For more information visit the DragonCon website.
