2011 Hugo Awards Nominations For Graphic Stories

The nominees for the prestigious Hugo Awards for Science Fiction have been announced, including their Best Graphic Story category, awarded to graphic novels. The 2011 nominees are DC's The Unwritten Vol. 2: Inside Man and Fables Vol. 13: Witches, independent comics Grandville Mon Amour, Girl Genius, Volume 10: Agatha Heterodyne and the Guardian Muse and Schlock Mercenary: Massively Parallel. The Hugos are presented annually at the World Science Fiction Convention. The popular Girl Genius series by Phil and Kaja Foglio has won the Hugo for Best Graphic Story for the past two years running, which have been the only two Graphic Story Hugos ever awarded.


Dark Horse CEO Speaks to ICv2 About Layoffs

Dark Horse Comics, known for such works as Hellboy and Usagi Yojimbo as well as Star Wars and Buffy comics, laid off seven members of their staff last week. Now ICv2 has spoken with Dark Horse CEO Mike Richardson for his side of the story in this interview. Richardson dismissed rumors of financial problems and said that the staff “was just getting too large.”


Archie Comics Available Digitally in Spanish

Archie Comics has announced that beginning this week, they will be releasing Spanish-language editions of many of their popular comics online through their site www.ArchieDigital.com. They also plan to offer translations in French and Hindi at some point in the future. 20 translated issues are currently available, with more to come.

Comixology & Stan Lee Create Digital Comics Japan Benefit Anthology

Digital comics giant Comixology and publisher Red Giant Entertainment have teamed to create an all-star benefit comics anthology entitled Japan Needs Heroes. Including work from such comics and webcomics creators as comics legend Stan Lee, Peter David, Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti, T. Campbell, Christian Scott Sava and many more. Printing for the print edition was funded entirely by a Kickstarter appeal, allowing the proceeds from the comic to go 100% to the Japan Society's relief effort. A digital edition of the comic will be available for a donation of at least $5 to the charity. More details are available here.

Barnes & Noble Launches Digital Comics App for Nook

National book chain Barnes & Noble has announced that comics apps created in partnership with digital comics company Graphic.ly is now available for B&N's ereader, the Nook Color. It is also rumored that Barnes & Noble will get a larger comics and graphic novel presence in stores across the country this June.

Afrodisiac Free Online

The Eisner-nominated comic by Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca is now available to read free online on the AdHouse website from now until the end of Eisner voting. Afrodisiac has sold out of its original print run, and the new printing won't be available until this fall, prompting the publishers to make the book available in full online here.

Spider-Man Musical to be Satirized on Law & Order: CI

The troubled Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark, created by director Julie Taymor, and rock star composers Bono and The Edge will be the subject of the Law and Order franchise's trademark “ripped from the headlines” treatment in an upcoming episode about a fictional stunt-flying musical called Icarus. As well as the injuries that have marked this production, the fictionalized version will include a performer who actually dies during a flying stunt as well as a secretly bisexual rock star composer named “Arno” who is cheating on his wife with a male colleague.

Comic Books Live Reading in NYC

Acclaimed comics creators Kate Beaton, Nick Bertozzi and R. Sikoryak among others will be reading some of their comics live at Cooper Union in New York City in a multi-media celebration of comics entitled “Get Super Lit”. Presented as part of PEN's performance series, the event takes place on April 30 at 12 p.m. Tickets are available online for $15 general admission and $10 for PEN members and students with I.D. The Cooper Union is located at 41 Cooper Square, New York, NY. More details are available here.

This Week @ Good Comics For Kids

This week School Library Journal’s blog Good Comics for Kids covered manga for kids, an interview with Wendy and Richard Pini, the 4/20 listing of comics suitable for all ages, reviewed Mummy Mayhem and Babymouse: Cupcake Tycoon and had Fraggles, Superheroes and Teenagers and Kevin Keller and Zombie Librarians link posts.

This Week @ The Beat

This week at PWCW editor Heidi MacDonald’s blog The Beat, she covered the ICv2's comics and digital media conference at SDCC 2011 , the most important things you need to know in comics today parts 1 and 2, comics creator Shaun Tan getting profiled in the Times, and Stumptown,