DC Comics Launches After Watchmen Promotion
DC Comics announced plans to launch After Watchmen, a comprehensive marketing campaign intended to highlight and support a wide range of its superhero, science-fiction and adventure titles in the wake of the opening of the Watchmen movie. The campaign is intended to take advantage of the enormous media attention and consumer interest in Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s Watchmen graphic novel and bring attention to a broad range of genres and comics titles on the DC list.

The After Watchmen program will initially focus on a list of about 20 book collections—from other works by Alan Moore to such works as Bill Willingham’s Fables to Brian K. Vaughan’s Y The Last Man—likely to appeal to new fans as well as to established comics fans looking for something new. The program will include the launch of, AfterWatchmen.com, a new Web site set to launch on March 11 (the site will feature an expanded list of 50 titles) and a 32-page After Watchmen, Whats Next? booklet which will highlight the list of After Watchmen titles. Among the 20 titles on the initial After Watchmen list are Brad Meltzer’s Identity Crisis, Garth Ennis’s Preacher, Brian Azzarello’s Joker; Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta and Neil Gaiman’s Sandman. The program will also include co-op advertising programs, e-mail newsletters, new groups on Facebook and MySpace and national consumer advertising.

Japanese Spidey on Marvel.com
The Japanese Spider-Man television series from the 1970's, featuring the character Takuya Yamashida as Spider-Man instead of Peter Parker, is now available in free online streaming on Marvel.com. Yamashida is a daring motorcycle racer with Spider-Man's powers who faces off against the evil Iron Cross Army. He also got a giant robot at the same time he received his spider abilities. The first episode is online, and a new episode will be added every Thursday.

Death Note Film Event
Death Note: L, Change the World, the live action film based upon the popular manga and anime series Death Note, will be coming to hundreds of theaters across the United States for a two day limited run. April 29 screenings will play the original version with English subtitles, and the April 30 screenings will run the English dub of the film featuring the original American voice actors of the animated series. The movie revisits L, the detective who gave his life to stop the phantom serial killer Kira, as he tries to solve one last case in his remaining 23 days of life. The event screenings are put on by Fathom Events, the same company that puts on theater screenings of performances by the Metropolitan Opera and such celebrity theater events as Ben Stein's Beer Wars. Advance tickets are available to Shonen Jump e-subscribers on March 20, and the general public on March 23. Further details on the special two day Death Note: L, Change the World screenings are available at www.fathomevents.com and are subject to change.

Inoue Wins Manga Prize
Takehiko Inoue, creator of the classic basketball drama manga Slam Dunk , the samurai manga Vagabond and the more recent sports / disability drama manga Real, has been awarded the very first Art Encouragement Shinjin Prize for Manga by Japan's Agency of Cultural affairs. The award is one of the annual Minister of Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology's Art Encouragement Prizes, and this year is the first that "media arts", including manga, are eligible for prizes. Slam Dunk also won the prestigious Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize for manga in 2002 and was voted the most popular manga of all time in a Japanese government poll.

Anime Day at Kinokuniya
March 15 will be Anime Day at Kinokuniya Bookstore in New York City, the largest Japanese bookstore in the United States. In a celebration sponsored by the New York Anime Festival, Del Rey Manga, The Japan Society, Samurai Beat Radio and Yen Press, among others, the bookstore will be hosting a day of giveaways, raffles, music and other special events. A full schedule of the day's events is available on MediumAtLarge.net, the official blog of the New York Anime Festival. Kinokuniya New York is located at 1073 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York. Events begin at 11 a.m. and continue throughout the day.

IDW Offers Obama Sequel
IDW, the comic company that published the popular Barak Obama and John McCain Presidential Material biography comics during the 2008 presidential campaign, has announced a two part sequel series entitled simply Barak Obama. The first comic, scheduled to come out in June, will cover the time from his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention to the inauguration and the second will cover his first hundred days in office. The series will feature the same team as the original comic - writer Jeff Mariotte, artist Tom Morgan, and cover artist J. Scott Campbell. IDW also publishes the hit horror comic30 Days of Night and media tie-in comics for such properties as Star Trek and G.I. Joe.

Hillary Comic 2nd Printing
Female Force: Hillary Clinton, the biography comic inspired by the 2008 presidential election, has sold out and gone into a second printing. Part of Bluewater Productions' Female Force line of biographical comics about prominent women in politics, the comic has been featured on CNN, Fox News and in USA Today. Next in the series is Female Force: Michelle Obama, which will hit the stores in April 2009, and is still available for pre-order. Bluewater Productions is a comic publisher known for such comics as Ray Harryhausen Presents and The Legend of Isisas well as their dedication to environmentally friendly printing.

Charity Auction For Moore Book
TwoMorrows Publishing is auctioning off a special signed leather bound limited edition of their new book The Extraordinary Works of Alan Moore: Indispensible Editionsigned by Alan Moore himself. It is a collection of autobiographical reflections from legendary comic creator Alan Moore, creator of the groundbreaking graphic novels V for Vendetta and Watchmen. All proceeds benefit The Hero Initiative, a non-profit set up to help comic creators in need.The signed copy is currently up for auction on Ebay from now through 9:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, March 12.

AOTS Watchmen Spoof
A partially-pixelated parody of Watchmen's blue superhuman Doctor Manhattan appeared on a recent episode of G4's Attack of the Show. "Pants are meaningless to a being who can manipulate matter," states the faux-Manhattan before going on to ponder the vastness of space and disturb the hosts of the show. The clip is currently available online on G4's website and is possibly inappropriate for workplace viewing.

Physicist on Watchmen
Dr. James Kakalios, the University of Minnesota physics professor who wrote the bookThe Physics of Superheroes, speaks to the Star Tribune of Minneapolis about Watchmen and his experiences as a science consultant on the set of the hit superhero movie.

Two Comics Exhibits
Comic Art Indigene, a touring exhibit of drawings, comics and sculpture, opened on March 6 at The National Museum of the American Indian. The exhibit covers comics and superhero art by and about Native Americans and features such items as Eva Mirabal's World War II comic strip about G.I. Gertie and art of Ryan Huna Smith's Frybread Man. The show runs through May 31 at The National Museum of the American Indian, located on the National Mall at Fourth Street and Independence Avenue, Washington D.C. Admission is free. More information is available from the Washington Post.

Drawing on Tradition: The Book of Esther is an exhibit at the Jewish Museum of Maryland showcasing the art of J.T. Waldman's graphic novel Megillat Esther which retells the biblical story of Esther and came out in 2005 from the Jewish Publication Society. The exhibit runs through July 26, and admission is free for members, $8 for adults and $5 for students. The Jewish Museum of Maryland is located at 15 Lloyd Street, Baltimore, MD. More information is available from the Baltimore Sun.

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