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IDW Hires Webber as Star Trek: Countdown Online Sales Impress

IDW, April's third largest comics publisher, according to Diamond figures, has hired Jeff Webber to the new position of director of e publishing. Webber was formerly vp of product development at uClick, following stints at Hallmark and Shockwave. At IDW he'll help explore the growing opportunities for comics to be sold via various electronic formats.

It's an area where IDW foresees significant growth, says IDW publisher and owner Ted Adams. "We're looking at ebooks: iTunes applications, direct-to-desktop downloads similar to what Marvel is doing, and the Kindle," says Adams. "But within those ebook formats, what we're focusing on now is iTunes apps." IDW books have previously been sold on iTunes via deals with both uclick and iVerse, but in the future IDW will sell their comics as apps directly via iTunes.

IDW's focus on iTunes results from their e-publishing strategy over the last year. "I've quietly been testing all kinds of formats and opportunities with a variety of partners," Adams explains. "Any time anybody has approached me with a deal, I've done a deal with that person." As a result, Adams has been able to see what works and what doesn't, and now iTunes has proven itself as a legitimate way to sell comics.

The Swedish SPX Spotlights Growing Scene

Sweden's state-sponsored Small Press Expo brought out 5000 fans to sample the works of this growing scene.

May Comics Bestsellers

Jeff Kinney's Last Straw holds steady at #1; followed by Naruto at #2-4 and Fruits Basket at #5. Marvel's hardcover adaptation of Stephen King's The Stand: Captain Trips is at #12.

PEN World Fest Shows Off Comics Artists

Cheeky novelist Jonathan Ames moderated a panel of international comics stars discussing their craft.
more on comics
Dark Horse's Fall release, Noir: An Anthology of Crime Comics, contains short stories in the crime and mystery genres by a wide mix of comics luminaries. Here, we excerpt stories by Paul Grist, Jeff Lemire and Dean Motter.
Click above for the full preview.
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Life in Comics: Free Comic Book Day in the Boutiki

Last year, the publisher I work for, SLG Publishing, joined Drawn and Quarterly and Fantagraphics in opening a retail store and gallery. Since opening, the SLG Boutiki (as the store is called) has hosted gallery parties every month on downtown San Jose's First Friday Art Walk, comics workshops, and, this past Saturday, Free Comic Book Day.

Wondermark, Vol. 2: Clever Tricks to Stave Off Death
DAVID MALKI. Dark Horse, $14.95 (96p) ISBN 978-1-59582-329-8

Malki’s nationally syndicated Wondermark comic strips are a form of resuscitated art in which 19th-century woodcuts and engravings get repurposed into 21st-century humor with snarky dialogue. Popularized most by their appearances in the Onion, whose high- and lowbrow satirical mixture is a perfect fit for Malki’s sensibility, this is the second mordant but must-have Wondermark collection from Dark Horse. A typical Malki gag rises out of the World of Tomorrow–esque frisson of his staid premodern images of stiff men (frequently mustached and wearing waistcoats while lounging in drawing rooms) or women (parasols and cherubic expressions being their norm) exchanging dialogue more appropriate for a MySpace chatroom than Dickensian fiction. Malki’s humor often has a surrealistic bent reminiscent of Terry Gilliam, given some extra steel by a near-constant obsession with death and disease, with particular attention in a hilarious end-of-book “Malady Matrix.” A little of Malki goes a long way, but it’s a rare page that doesn’t merit at least a chuckle. (May)
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"[Free Comic Book Day] has gone past comic book stores and become more of a cultural event. It's really exciting that it has transcended its original capitalistic purpose. It's become about comics as a culture and an art form and a medium."

—Nate Powell, author of Swallow Me Whole, speaking at an Indiana Library on Free Comic Book Day. From the Journal & Courier online

May 2009
  • Fantastic Four: True Story (Marvel)
  • Genghis Khan: To the Ends of Earth and Sea Vol. 1 (CMX)
  • George Sprott (D&Q)
  • Gravel Vol. 1: Bloody Liars (Avatar)
  • Hayate X Blade Vol. 3 (Seven Seas)
  • History of West Wing (Yen Press)
  • League of Extraordinary Gentlemen III: Century 1910 Vol. 1 (Top Shelf)
  • Nabari No Ou Vol. 1 (Yen Press)
  • Seaweed Vol 1.: A Cure For Mildew (Salty Sugar)
  • Wonderland (Disney)

  • Sheila Keenan Joins Abrams ComicArts
  • Starstruck Reprinted with New Material
  • Michelle Obama Comic Sells Out
  • New Takahashi Manga Free Online
  • A Weekend with Yoshihiro Tatsumi
  • This Week @ Good Comics for Kids
  • SLJ Book Club Comic
  • Marvel Streams 90’s X-Men
  • Cartoon Network Manga from Del Rey
  • Halo Uprising Collected
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