NBM Publishing Garfield Cartoon Adaptation

Respected comics publisher NBM's children's line Papercutz has secured the rights to publish a comic based on the animated Cartoon Network show Garfield based on the newspaper comicstrip of the same name.

90's Comic Xombi Returns In New Comics

The comic book Xombi, which originally came out from comics publisher Milestone back in the 90's is coming back in an all-new series this February from DC. The comic follows the supernatural adventures of David Kim, a medical researcher injected with experimental nanomachines which heal him and keep him alive no matter how gruesomely he is injured. Original writer and creator John Rozum will be writing the book. More details are available here.

Thief Strikes NYCC

The recent New York Comic Con was struck by a pair of high-ticket comic thieves, one of whom got away with over $11,000 worth of rare comics. The booth of Texas-based comics dealers Worldwide Comics was struck by a thief operating in broad daylight on the open convention floor. Co-owner Matt Nelson spotted the criminal as he was attempting to lift several antique Western comics worth hundreds of dollars each, confronted the man, and found that he had also stolen Action Comics #11, a rare comic worth approximately $4,000. Despite an attempt at escape, the thief was caught by Javits Center security and arrested. Unfortunately, his accomplice escaped with an even bigger haul including Whiz Comics #1, the first appearance of Captain Marvel. More details are available from the New York Post here.

Comics Aid Fight Against TB in South Africa

Health non-profit The South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative (SATVI), in an attempt to reassure and inform potential vaccine trial participants, has produced a 12-page comic book from the perspective of a young mother explaining why she allowed her baby to receive the experimental vaccine. Entitled Carina's Choice, the comic is available in English, Africaans and Xhosa. Although often regarded as a thing of the past in the US, tuberculosis continues to trouble Africa and new and more effective vaccines are needed. The SATVI says the book will help promote informed consent for the ongoing clinical trials, and about 10,000 of the free comic books are already in print. More details are available in this article from Modern Ghana.

Britain's Dandy Comic Mag Returns

Britain's longest running comics publication, Dandy, is returning to its roots. Currently a primarily pop-culture focused bi-weekly magazine rebranded as Dandy X-Treme in 2007, the magazine is adding more original comics content and returning to its original format as a weekly anthology comic book entitled simply Dandy. The new old incarnation of the magazine will premeiere on October 27 with issue #3509 at the new, lower price of £1.50. More details are available here, from Bleeding Cool.

SVA Ink Plots

New York City's School of Visual Arts is currently hosting “Ink Plots”, an exhibit exploring and celebrating the school's history with comics, which has been a constant since the school opened in the early 20th century. Comics legend Will Eisner taught at the school, among many others. The show runs until November 6. More details are available on this Publishers Weekly blog post from PWCW's own Calvin Reid.

Michener Museum Comic Exhibit

The prestigious Bucks County-based Michener Art Museum is hosting an exhibit of high-profile comics art entitled “LitGraphic: The World of the Graphic Novel” now through January 30. A touring exhibition organized by the Norman Rockwell Museum, the exhibit features over 200 original works from Will Eisner, Dave Sim, Milt Gross and many others. The Michener Art Museum is located at 138 South Pine Street, Doylestown, PA and admission ranges from $10 for adults to $5 for children 6-18.

This Week @ Good Comics For Kids

This week School Library Journal’s blog Good Comics for Kids had a links roundup on Smurfs, the Pharaoh, and Arabic manga, New York Comic Con, the 10/19 roundup of good comics for kids, interviews with Terry Moore and Raina Tegenmeier.

This Week @ The Beat

This week PWCW editor Heidi MacDonald’s blog The Beat covered the expansion of the Wizard World Tour to New Orleans, the acquisition of distribution and marketing rights to the Avengers movie and Iron Man 3 by Disney, the death of respected comics colorist Jonny Rench at 28, con reports from the Pittsburgh Indy Comics Expo and the British International Comics Show otherwise known as the Birmingham Comics Expo as well as a last few pieces on New York Comic Con, Neil Gaiman on editing a comics anthology, official audio from the recent ICv2 digital comics summit, the Inkwell awards for comic inking and the comic book awards at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the burning question of whether or not a price cut can save comics, and Warren Ellis on Red.