Comics Creator Shaun Tan Wins Oscar

Comics creator Shaun Tan won the 2011 Oscar for Best Animated Short for his film The Lost Thing, based on his graphic novel of the same title. Tan's book The Arrival won the Angouleme Comics Festival award for best comic in 2008. More details are available at his site, ShaunTan.net.

Tributes to Late Comics Creator Dwayne McDuffie

Pioneering comics creator and editor Dwayn McDuffie, founder of Milestone Comics and creator of the popular comic and children's cartoon Static Shock among many others, died on February 21. Tributes to him have poured in from every corner of the comics internet. PW Comics Week's own Heidi MacDonald collected a number of important tributes and shared her own thoughts here.

Anant Pai, Father of Indian Comics, Dies

Anant Pai, founder of Indian comics publisher Amar Chitra Katha and widely hailed as the “Father of Indian comics”, died this week at the age of 81. Selling over 100 million copies worldwide in the last 43 years, Amar Chitra Katha was India's first homegrown comics giant. The publisher focused mainly on tales from India's history and mythology. Known popularly as “Uncle Pai” by generations of comics fans, Pai was originally scheduled to receive a lifetime achievement award at the recent inaugural India Comic-Con, but was unable to attend due to medical problems. More details are available from The Times of India, The Hindu and The Mumbai Mirror.

International Manga Awards

Japan's 2011 International Manga Awards for achievements in manga world-wide were awarded this week. Top honors went to Chinese manga creator Xiao Bai. More details are available here.


Rival Spider-Man Parody Musical Comes to NYC

The Spidey Project, a new musical parodying Spider-Man but not Julie Taymor's recent and troubled production, is coming to New York City. Created by Jon Roufaeal and Justin Moran in concert with the People's Improv Theate, the work was inspired by the challenge of creating a fully-functional Spider-Man musical in just one month on a tiny budget, as opposed to the years and millions Taymor, Bono and The Edge have spent on Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark. More The show will be entirely free and is currently scheduled to run for one night only – March 14. More details are available on their site.

Spider-Man Top Chef Comic

Marvel has announced that they are releasing a free digital comic that is a cooking-themed tale starring Spider-Man and Eli Kirshtein from the cooking reality show Top Chef. The comic was the brainchild of by Senior Vice-Presiden and cooking afficianado C.B. Cebulski, written by Marc Bernardin and illustrated by Mike Henderson. Spider-Man: A Meal to Die For is available free on Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited and the Marvel Comics app. A preview is available here.


Powers Pilot Picked up by FX

Powers, the Eisner-winning superhero cop drama by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming, has been picked up for a television pilot episode by FX. The cable network FX is best known for such gritty dramas as The Shield and Rescue Me, a formula which the also-gritty Powers fits well.

Van Lente and Dunlavey Talk Comics History Live

Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey, creators of Comic Book Comics, a series of humorous comics about the history of comic books, will be appearing live at Midtown Comics Fulton street tomorrow, 3/2. Together, they will give a talk on comic book history and sign Comic Book Comics #5, their new “All Lawsuit” issue. The event is free and takes place from 6:30-7:30 at 64 Fulton Street, New York, NY. More details are available at the Midtown Comics website.

Oni Press Mix Tape

Comics publisher Oni Press has announced that they are releasing an exclusive free digital mix tape in partner ship with DJ Adam WarRock. The mix tape showcases his musical intepretations of such popular Oni comics as Queen and Country, Scott Pilgrim and Hopeless Savages. The compilation also contains dialogue tracks from such comics creators as Greg Rucka and Jen Van Meter. More details are available here.


This Week @ Good Comics For Kids

This week School Library Journal’s blog Good Comics for Kids had a review ofthe Panda Man graphic novel hybrids, what the Good Comics For Kids reviewers are reading this week, the 2/23 listing of comics suitable for all ages, and a Kaboom, Hereville and Jughead-themed links roundup.

This Week @ The Beat

This week at PWCW editor Heidi MacDonald’s blog The Beat, she covered Universal U-Click syndicating United Media's newspaper comic strips – a move she compared to DC outsourcing publishing to Marvel, four winner being chosen for this year's Eisner Awards Hall of Fame, and listed the guest list for the upcoming MoCCA art festival,