Marvel Fest and Motion Comic Live
Marvel Comics has announced that their new Astonishing X-Menmotion comic will have a very special premiere: it will be projected 3 stories high on the side of a building in New York’s Union Square before a life audience. The event, called Marvel Fest, will take place on October 28th Based on a comic by Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly), the comic will thereafter be available as an iTunes download. The event will begin at 4 p.m. with a signing at nearby comic store Forbidden Planet starring famous Marvel creators including Neal Adams, Chris Claremont and Dan Slott. At 6 p.m., a Marvel street fair will open at 14th Street on Union Square, including a costume contest, sketches from Marvel creators, a life size Marvel comic cover for fans to pose with, and other events and giveaways throughout the evening. Costume contest contestants must be over 18 years of age, the grand prize will be an appearance in a Marvel comic and all contestants will receive a special edition Moon Knight comic, a limited edition Nick Fury action figure and month’s subscription to Marvel Digital Comics for taking part. At 7 p.m. there will be a free outdoor premiere showing of theAstonishing X-Menmotion comic projected on the wall of the nearby abandoned Virgin Records store. Details on Marvel Fest can be found here.
Archie Exhibit Opening at MoCCA
The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art’s new exhibit “The Art of Archie”, featuring original art, advertising and merchandise from the 65 year history of Archie Comics, will open on November 19 and run through February 28. The exhibit will kick off with an opening reception from 6-9 p.m. on November 19 at the museum, located at 594 Broadway, New York, NY, for a suggested donation of $5.
Marvel Comic Unveils New Digital Comics Reader 3.0
Marvel Comics, which has been running an online digital comics subscription service for several years, has just brought out a new edition of their reader program. The new program, version 3.0, has a revamped user interface, improved loading time and is automatically in Smart Panels mode, which shows the story one panel at a time, making it better suited for small screens such as netbooks and smart phones. Although Marvel charges a subscription fee to see their full library of comics, free full sample issues are available.
Digital Comics Subscription Service Comes To India
Bharti Airtel, one of India's leading cellphone service providers, has announced that they will be starting a digital comics subscription service through Airtel Live mobile entertainment. The company explained the move as part of the process of "mobile becoming the one-stop device for all entertainment needs", and the service will include over 300 comics from India and around the world including Popeye, Akbar Birbal and comics from Indian comics giant Amar Chitra Katha. Customers can subscribe by texting a code to a provided phone number. Earlier this month, rival telecom Tata DoCoMo revealed they would be offering a digital comics service in the form of a smartphone app, available only for a limited variety of smartphone models. More information is available online in this article on the Business Standardwebsite.
Stephen King Plans New Marvel Dark Tower Comic
Best-selling author Stephen King has announced that Marvel Comics will once again bring part of his famous Dark Tower series to the comic book format. Dark Tower: Gunslinger will be a new several volume story arc released as a set of limited series later to be collected into graphic novel form. The Dark Tower: Gunslinger arc will feature the same best-selling creative team of Peter David, Robin Furth and Richard Isanove and will explain why Roland Deschain was tracking the man in black through the Mohaine Desert.
Seth Video Interview
Indie comics creator Seth (George Sprott, 1894-1975)is the star of a new 12 minute video interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s program Q TV, available online on youtube. Link courtesy of the blog Robot 6.
Launch Party for Best American Comics 2009
PowerHouse Arena will be hosting a launch party for The Best American Comics 2009comics anthology on October 22, from 7-9 p.m., at 37 Main Street, Brooklyn, NY. Contributing creators appearing at the event will include Jillian Tamaki, Gary Panter, David Sandlin, Michael Kupperman, Gabrielle Bell and Ben Katchor among others. The event is open free to the public.
This Week @ The Beat
This week Heidi MacDonald’s blog The Beat, hosted by Publishers Weekly, had analysis of the August indie comics month-to-month sales, the news that Warren Ellis will notbe appearing at Toronto Comic-Con despite their use of his photo in their advertising, the new bookR. Crumb’s Book of Genesis, and collection of coverage on New York’s Big Apple Comic Con and San Francisco’s Alternate Press Expo as well as a roundup of the convention’s news and debuting books. Finally and most notably, there was a breaking news post on Big Apple Comic Con’s controversial decision to schedule next year’s New York City event on precisely the same days as the enormous New York Comic Con as well as a links round up and a wrap-up post on the subject.New York Comic Con is run by Reed Exhibitions, part of the company that owns Publishers Weekly.
This Week @ Good Comics For Kids
This week School Library Journal’sblog Good Comics for Kids has a review of Cat Burglar Black, an index of the July-September “All Ages Picks” reviews, the 10/14 listing of comics suitable for all ages and a Comics Reading Is Reading links roundup and a News and Reviews links roundup from Brigid Alverson.
