Fans Jam San Diego Preview Night

by Calvin Reid, Douglas Wolk and Chris Arrant, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 7/20/2006

It looked very much like business as usual at the preview opening for the 37th Comic-con International San Diego, with large crowds of enthusiastic buyers looking for books and merchandise. SDCC Preview Night allows media and comics professionals to get a head start before the really big crowds come. Several publishers said the floor looked a bit like a Saturday—usually the day of heaviest attendance.

The San Diego Comic-con is a comics fan fest that attracts more than 100,000 fanatical consumers over four days, but each year it seems book collections are providing more of the news events. This year Hill & Wang publisher Tom LeBien, the man behind the comics adaptations of The 9/11 Commission Report, has signed Ernie Colon and Sid Jacobson, the artist and writer of the 9/11 comics adaptation, to do a second book to be called After 9/11: A Graphic History of the War on Terror, that will use news clippings and official releases to retell the story of the government's response to the attack beginning the day after 9/11. And the 9/11 graphic report continued to make news with the Times of London confriming they bought first serial rights in the U.K. to the work. They will serialize the entire first chapter the week before the book's pub date on Sept. 11.

LeBien also said there is interest in a film version of the 9/11 graphic adaptation coming from former Disney CEO Michael Eisner. The man who actually owns the movie rights, the president of Castlebridge Entertainment and former Harvey Comics CEO, Roger Burlage, will be on hand to talk about the possibility of a film at a panel on 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation scheduled for Friday.

LeBien also has signed Harvey Pekar (American Splendor) and Paul Buhle (Wobblies), to do a graphic nonfiction report of the history of the Students for a Democratic Society to be illustrated by artist Gary Dumm. He's even signed-up a graphic biography of J. Edgar Hoover by former DC Comics editor Andy Helfer (due out in 2008) and illustrated by the noted comics artist Rick Geary.

On the exhibition floor, Top Shelf brought a significant number of copies of Lost Girls, Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie's controversial erotic graphic novel, and the book was selling well, helped along by a rare signing appearance by Gebbie herself. Indie art-comics house Buenaventura Press was showing off Kramer's Ergo, the latest in a much acclaimed anthology of experimental comics created by younger artists. A few tables down from Buenaventura, art comics distributor Globol Hobo was selling Krayon's Ego, an awesomely mean anthology that parodies every hot alternative comics artist of the moment.

As usual the DC Comics booth was an absolute frenzy, filled to capacity with fans. Tokyopop announced a new partnership with Konami Digital Entertainment to produce a series of games for mobile devices based on Tokyopop properties. The series of games will start with Becky Cloonans's new original manga East Coast Rising.

And the show hasn't really even begun.