To ensure our emails reach your inbox, add PWComicsWeek@email.publishersweekly.com to your address book. Click here to learn how.

July 28, 2009

• DNL eBooks - turning laptops into ebook readers
• DNL eBooks launches DNL MAC Reader

News

• Bigger and Bigger Still—San Diego Comic-con Keeps Growing
  The annual San Diego Comic-Con International ended July 26, leaving 125,000 attendees—the unofficial attendance figure of the long sold-out convention—alternately dazzled and exhausted by the four and a half day marathon of comics, movies, panels, signings and parties. More than ever, the show has become the biggest marketing platform of the year for film and TV as well as for comics.
  more » » » 
• Manga Keeps Growing in a Tough Economy
  “If this is the valley,” Scott McCloud said at a discussion during the 40th annual San Diego Comic-Con International this past weekend, “then we’re doing pretty good.” McCloud was referring to the dip in the economy which was not reflected in the business climate of this year’s event. While some the publishers and vendors on the manga-side of the graphic novel business scaled down their booths or did not attend, others put on a strong show.
  more » » » 
• Library of American Comics Grows at IDW
  Dean Mullaney’s Library of American Comics imprint is growing, published by IDW, with new series reprinting the comics strips Blondie, Secret Agent X-9 and King Aroo joining a powerhouse lineup that already includes Dick Tracy and Little Orphan Annie.
  more » » » 
• Furry Water Flows at Dark Horse
  Rising art star Rafael Grampá is bringing two comics to Dark Horse, with a new six-issue mini-series, Furry Water, and a new edition of Mesmo Delivery, his first solo book.  Furry Water is written with Daniel Pellizzari, a known SF author in their native Brazil. They describe the series as a saga of adventure and family honor set in a world where most of the population has been killed by “Furry Water,” a deadly rain.
  more » » » 
• Why Are Two Canadians Out to Kill Shakespeare?
  If you’re a fan of Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen or Bill Willingham’s Fables, there’s a good chance you’ll be hooked on Kill Shakespeare, a new comics series coming from IDW next year and easily one of the more exciting new projects bouncing around this year’s Comic-con International.
  more » » » 

Q&A

• Talking with Ultimo's Hiroyuki Takei
  Last year, Viz Media announced Ultimo, their first ever manga collaboration between an American creator, the legendary Marvel creator Stan Lee, and a Japanese creator, Hiroyuki Takei. Takei is the creator of the shonen manga, Shaman King, a series totaling with 32 volumes and a 64-episode anime adaptation. Takei appeared at this past weekend’s San Diego Comic-Con to promote the American release of Ultimo where PW Comics Week sat down and spoke with him.
  more » » » 
• The Changing Face of Manga: Talking with Hideki Egami
  Hideki Egami, editor-in-chief of the Japanese magazine Ikki, which specializes in manga aimed at an older more sophisticated adult readership, sat down with PW Comics Week for a micro-interview during the San Diego Comic-con to commemorate the launch of Viz Media’s English-language counterpart, SigIkki, an online magazine offering a different kind of contemporary manga to the U.S. market.
  more » » » 

Reviews

• Stuffed!
  GLENN EICHLER AND NICK BERTOZZI. Roaring Brook/First Second, $17.99 (124p) ISBN 978-1-59643-308-3
  The first graphic novel written by The Colbert Report's Eichler is a light comedy about racism, with a hint of retooled movie proposal about it. It concerns a pair of half-brothers—square family man Tim Johnston and a spaced-out, trepanned loose cannon who calls himself "Free"—whose inheritance of their father's "museum of curiosities" includes the preserved, stuffed body of an African man in a loincloth and bone necklace, holding the remnants of a spear. Naturally, they want to get rid of the "Warrior," as Tim prefers to call him—but getting rid of human remains turns out not to be as easy as driving them to a museum. Naturally, all kinds of uncomfortable associations about race and history burble up. Naturally, hijinks ensue.
  more » » » 
• A Treasury of XXth Century Murder: Famous Players: The Mysterious Death of William Desmond Taylor
  RICK GEARY. NBM/ComicsLit (www.nbmpub.com), $15.95 (80p) ISBN 978-1-56163-555-9
  The 10th in Geary's ongoing, multi–Eisner-nominated historical murder series, Famous Players tells the story of one of the first major Hollywood scandals. Silent film actor/director William Desmond Taylor was killed in his home in February 1922, not long after popular actor Fatty Arbuckle was also accused of murder. Geary presents the facts of the case in a series of historical chapters, offering up bungled investigative tactics, dead-end leads and a colorful cast of characters, all for the reader to analyze. His quirky b&w ink drawings are full of expression, recalling the melodrama of silent films and giving life to such characters as actresses Mary Miles Minter and Mabel Normand and other early film business insiders.
  more » » » 
• Beanworld, Book 2: A Gift Comes!
  LARRY MARDER. Dark Horse, $19.95 (320p) ISBN 978-1-59582-299-4
  Originally published between 1988 and 1993, Marder's adorably mad Tales of Beanworld are collected under the title "A Gift Comes!" but could have just as easily been called "Awww!" Marder introduces a new element to his tightly constructed clockwork universe, the aptly named Cuties. Small, round bundles of peapodlike sweetness, the Cuties live in the Pod'l'pool, where they must be constantly fed and watched by the stick-limbed adult Beans. Frequently this entails the world's designated hero, the impetuous Mr. Spook, leading raids on the Hoi-Polloi people to capture the Cutie-sustaining substance Chow. It's an exciting, packed volume, featuring heroic escapades with Mr. Spook, choreographed musical numbers and otherworldly adventures involving the cross-dimensional Goofy Service Jerks (not to be confused with the Goofy Surveillance Jerks).
  more » » » 

Photo Mania

• Photo Mania
  The 40th annual San Diego Comic-con International was a bombastic, oversized, pop cultural revival meeting, exhorting the gospel of contemporary comics, movies and TV. PWCW photographers roamed the San Diego Convention Center to bring back pictures of some of the people and events of the show.
  
  Comics artists (l. to r.) John Cassaday and Paul Pope (the DJ for part of the evening) along with Smith mag comics editor Jeff Newelt at the Onyx Club jam Sat. night at the San Diego Comic-con. Photo by C. Reid.
  more » » » 

On-Sale Calendar

Comics Briefly

more » » » 

You are receiving this email because you have requested either a newsletter or a magazine from Reed Business Information.

Unsubscribe from this eNewsletter | Manage Your eNewsletters | Privacy policy

If this eNewsletter was forwarded to you, please go to our eNewsletter subscription page to sign up for your own copy.

Begin or renew your Publishers Weekly magazine subscription

---

PW Comics Week
Editors: Calvin Reid and Heidi MacDonald
Contributing Editors: Douglas Wolk, Kai-Ming Cha and Laura Hudson
Panel Mania editor: Ada Price

Send editorial questions about this enewsletter to: pwcomicsweek@reedbusiness.com
Send advertising questions about this enewsletter to: cbryerman@reedbusiness.com

For additional assistance, contact us by email or at the address below:
Publishers Weekly, Customer Service, 8878 Barrons Blvd, Highlands Ranch, CO 80129-2345 USA.

© Copyright 2009, Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.