Comics Briefly
This story originally appeared in PW Comics Week on January 8, 2008 Sign up now!
-- Publishers Weekly, 1/8/2008 9:05:00 AM
Tokyopop, Verizon Ink Mobile Deal
Tokyopop has joined with mobile carrier Verizon in a deal that will offer a Tokyopop video channel to Verizon customers via Verizon Wireless’s V-Cast–enabled cell phones. The new deal was announced during the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas. The deal will provide a package of animated manga, anime clips and other Asian pop culture entertainment properties. The deal will provide 15 to 20 four to six-minute videos each week, including Tokyopop’s iManga animations—manga stories enhanced with animation. iManga content includes M. Alice LeGrow’s Bizenghast series and Tokyopop’s RaveMaster and PiNMen anime series will also be offered. For more information check out the Verizon Wireless or Tokyopop websites.
Glyph Award Submissions
The panel for the 2008 Glyph Comics Awards is now accepting submissions. The awards honor the best comics by, for or about people of color produced in the previous year. It is open to creators of any background. Any publisher or creator can submit black-themed comics for consideration for the awards. The material must have been released from January 1 to December 31, 2007. All submissions are due by January 20, 2008. The nominees for the 2008 awards will be announced on February 25th. The online poll for the fan award will open soon after the nominees are announced and the voting will remain open until the end of March. Fans can vote at the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention website. The award winners will be announced at the ECBACC in May. More information about the Glyph awards and submission requirements can be found at the award’s website.
NYCC ’08 Is Coming
The New York Comic Con has announced guests who will be appearing at the convention at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City on April 18-20, 2008. Recently announced guests include Mark Buckingham, Dale Eaglesham, Ron Garney, and Steve McNiven. Previously announced guests include Neal Adams, Kyle Baker, Amanda Conner, Dean Haspiel, Robert Napton, Jimmy Palmiotti, and Paola Rivera, along with the guests of honor Mike Mignola and Alex Ross. Also, NYCC announced artists who will be in Artists Alley: Matt “Batt” Banning, Buzz, Sean Chen, Aaron Lopresti, and Kevin Maguire. NYCC also announced the Disney Book Group will sponsor Kid’s Day, an all day program on Sunday of the convention which will focus on younger fans. NYCC has also partnered with Kids Comic Con 2008, and Kids Comic Con will announce the winner of their new awards program as part of Kids Day. Kids Comic Con 2008 will take place in the Bronx on March 29th. More information on NYCC can be found at the NYCC website.
New Zudacomics
DC Comics online comics site, Zudacomics.com, has posted 10 new web comics entries for the monthly online competition.
Undertown in Syndication
Universal Press Syndicate has picked up Undertown, Jim Pascoe and Jake Mylar’s original manga series published by Tokyopop. The manga series has also been picked up by the Scholastic Book Club, which will produce a new edition of the book at a lower price. Undertown is the story of a young boy who must travel to a fantasy world under his bed to find a cure for his father’s illness. For more information check out PW The Beat.
Viz Debuts Omnibus Imprint
Viz Media has announced it is starting a new imprint, VizBig Edition. The new imprint will release omnibus editions—large trade paperbacks collecting multiple volumes with new cover art—of top-selling The first title to be released under the VizBig imprint will be Nobuhiro Watsuki’s samurai series Rurouni Kenshin, which will be released later this month. Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z will be released in May, and Takehiko Inoue’s Vagabond will be released in the Fall of 2008.
Sturm Gets MacDowell Fellowship
Cartoonist James Strum, who is also the director of the Center For Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, Vt., has accepted a MacDowell Colony Fellowship. The MacDowell Colony is artist’s colony in New Hampshire at which artists of many disciplines work side by side for up to two months. More information about the MacDowell Colony can be found at the organizations website.
Online Streaming on Anime Network
Anime Network has announced a new broadband service to stream anime for free on the internet. The online programming will be ad supported. The programming lineup includes Rahxephon, Saiyuki, Ah! My Goddess: Flights of Fancy, and Kurau Phantom Memory. New episodes will be released every Thursday. Anime Network will also stream “First Look” episodes of anime months before the DVD release. The inaugural “First Look” program is the mecha series Gurren Lagann. More information about Anime Network and the shows which will be streamed can be found at the Anime Network website.
Lost Girls Out in UK and EU
Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie’s controversial erotic work Lost Girls was released in the United Kingdom and the European Union on January 1, 2008. The Guardian discusses the copyright issues that delayed the book’s publication in Britain.
Best Comics/Manga Lists
About.com's manga expert Deb Aoki has posted a list of the best continuing Manga series of 2007 on About.com. Aoki names a series in the categories of Shonen, Shojo, Seinen, Josei, All-Ages, OEL and Classic. Naruto was named the Best Continuing Manga. Aoki also posts a list of the best new Manga of 2008. Journalista's Dirk Deppey offers his personal choices for the 50 (or 52) best comics of 2007--from super heroes to manga to indie art comics--along with commentary on each. The list is published on the Comics Journal website. And Over at the Del Rey Manga Blog, Dallas Middaugh offers his own list of the best manga of 2007 and opines abiot about the PWCW list of Top Ten Manga for 2007.
NYT On ‘Comics in the Classroom’
The New York Times featured an editorial on The Comic Book Project, a public school project that which encourages students to make their own comics to help their reading and writing difficulties.
New Zenescope Series
Zenescope Entertainment, the publisher of Grimm Fairy Tales and Return to Wonderland, announced it will publish a fantasy/ adventure series 1001 Arabian Nights: The Adventures of Sinbad. The comic will be written by Dan Wickline, with cover art by Eric Basadula, Talent Caldwell, and Al Rio. The series will be released in May of 2008.
PW On David Hajdu
Book industry blogger Ron Horgan profiles author David Hajdu and his new book The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America (FSG) in this week's Publishers Weekly. The book looks at the comic book industry of the 1950s in the aftermath of Frederick Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent and a general paranoia about the effect of violence in comic books on teemagers.
