Indie Comics End Year on a High Note with the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival

News Indie Comics End Year on a High Note With Brooklyn Fest The year's strong slate of independent comics arts festivals ended with Saturday's Brooklyn Comics and Graphic festival, held at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church in Williamsburg and at satellite events around Brooklyn. While the show is free to attend and doesn't keep any kind of attendance numbers, it was clear that from the opening at 11 a.m. the show was packed, with tables thronged by people eager to buy limited edition comics and prints. more Yumcha Studios: Beyond E-comics When the digital comic Dim Sum Warriors launched as an iPad app earlier this year, married co-creators Yen Yen Woo and Colin Goh (cofounders of Yumcha Studios, an independent content developer) entered another phase of their multimedia journey. Yumcha offers a range of inventive storytelling and educational content that includes Dim Sum Warriors, a bilingual digital comic using Chinese snacks to teach language; TalkingCock.com, a popular satirical Web site in Singapore; and even feature films, all supported by a digitally driven business model that draws on its founders' bilingual and international background. more DC Adds Nook, Kindle and iBookstore for Digital Comics DC Comics has just made their periodical comics available in digital form on the Kindle Store, iBookstore and Nook Store, becoming the first major comics publisher to make their weekly releases available on every major digital platform. more Best Books 2012: Comics Check out PW's Best Books of the Year, including Chris Ware's Building Stories, and Best Comics of the Year with works by Chris Ware, Mary & Bryan Talbot, Derf Backderf, Alison Bechdel and Ed Piskor, and two comics that made the Best Children's Fiction list. More Graphic Novels as Gifts 2012: Comics Real and Surreal From Chris Ware's virtuoso Building Stories to Scott Snyder's New 52 Batman: Court of Owls, this year's look at comics and graphic novels for gifts offers something to please everyone on your list. more Two New Sketchbooks Cover Comics Worldwide Two recent sketchbooks showcase comics-related artists in fairly spectacular fashion. more PW Announces Webcast on How Comics are Evolving in the Digital World PW looks at how digital is shaping the future of comics in the latest PW webcast. On November 16 join Publishers Weekly Senior News Editor Calvin Reid as he hosts a panel of industry experts from Ingram, Graphic Universe, Viz Media and Papercutz to explore the future of comics and graphic novels. more Today's Job Columbia University is seeking an Assistant Professor of Writing-Poetry. Maybe it's you! For more about this and other jobs, visit PW JobZone. Disney Lucasfilm Purchase Leaves Comics Licenses in Doubt While Tuesday's blockbuster $4.05 billion sale of LucasFilm to Disney may have answered some questions for the film franchise—yes, there will be Episodes VII through IX—it left the Star Wars publishing licenses in doubt, in particular Dark Horse's comics program. more ICV2: Digital, Comics Sales Up for 2012; Manga Down Comics sales have held steady in the first half of 2012, led by periodicals and digital, while graphic novels are still recovering from the Borders implosion but should be up by the end of the year. These were among the industry trends covered at the ICv2 Comics and Digital conference held ahead of New York Comic-Con. more The Bipolar Cartoonist: Ellen Forney's 'Marbles' Ellen Forney's brave new graphic memoir Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me (Gotham Books, Nov.) looks at bipolar disorder through the prism of her own troubled past: her manic sprees, debilitating depression, and strained relationships. more Diamond Expands Publisher Programs Amidst a generally jaunty mood over continued strong sales, Diamond Comics Distributors held its retailer appreciation breakfast and announced an expansion of several retailer programs as New York Comic-Con kicked off last week. more Harvey Pekar Gets Statue Plus Image on Cleveland Library Card In a big weekend for the family of the late Harvey Pekar, acclaimed autobiographical comics writer and favorite son of the city of Cleveland, the city's public library erected a statue in his honor and also issued limited edition library cards with his likeness. The statue, a Kickstarter-funded project organized by his widow Joyce Brabner, was unveiled at the Cleveland Heights Branch of the Cleveland Public Library and the new library card depicts Pekar entering the CPL's main branch. more Graphic Novels, Digital Comics Go Global At the Frankfurt Book Fair From the stands of Diamond Book Distributors, DC Comics, Abrams and Dark Horse in Hall 8, where American firms exhibit, to featured exhibitors like Comixology and New Zealand cartoonists Dylan Horrocks, Colin Wilson and Roger Langridge—honored as part of the show's focus on New Zealand publishing—comics publishers and related firms are visible and active throughout the Frankfurt Book Fair, buying and selling rights, meeting with international partners and showing off their artists. more Viz To Publish 'Neon Genesis Evangelion' Worldwide November 2 The 13th volume of Yoshiyuki Sadamoto's bestselling manga Neon Genesis Evangelion will be published simultaneously worldwide on November 2, not just in Japan and North America but also in France, Germany, Italy, Korea, China, and the U.S. This international manga laydown is the first of its kind, said Leyla Aker, v-p of publishing for Viz Media, which will publish the U.S. edition both digitally and in print on the same day. more Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival Launches With New Publisher, Transit Concerns A booming year for independent comics and graphic art books winds up on Saturday with the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival, to be held at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church in Williamsburg, NY. Organizers hope lingering transit problems due to Hurricane Sandy will not dampen turnout. more Disney Goes Digital App First with Some Comics When the Pixar film Brave came out in June, there was a comics adaption. It wasn't a print comic and, while Disney did keep the Brave comic in-house, it wasn't handled by Marvel Comics. Instead, Disney Worldwide Publishing released the Brave Interactive Comic app at Apple's App Store and has just released a Wreck-It-Ralph prequel comic. more New York Comic Con Draws 116,000 Fans Pop culture fans jammed the aisles of the Javits Center for all four days of the New York Comic Con, held this past weekend. Attendance was estimated as 116,000 by show runner and ReedPop v-p Lance Fensterman, making it the second largest comics and pop culture show in North America. With badges already sold out—and scalpers selling them on the street for several hundred dollars—the lucky ones who got in were greeted with an all-you-can-eat buffet of comics news, favorite artists, Lego sculptures, cosplay parades and TV personalities. more Déjà Vu at New York Comic Con with Archie, Disney, Nancy Drew Kids love familiar things, and there were plenty of familiar faces at New York Comic Con: Archie continues to revive older properties such as Sabrina, Disney was selling both Rick Riordan's prose books and graphic novels, and Papercutz premiered its latest Nancy Drew graphic novel. There was plenty of digital innovation, including plans by iVerse to team with Brodart to market its digital comics service to libraries. more Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: The Comic: Denise Mina It should come as no surprise that award-winning crime novelist Denise Mina was selected by DC to adapt Stieg Larsson's blockbuster The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo as a graphic novel, even though when she first received a call from DC (to write a Hellblazer arc), it was a complete shock. more More To Come: The PW Comics World Podcast More To Come 36: Hurricane Sandy vs Comics In this week's podcast the More to Come Crew - Heidi "The Beat" MacDonald, Calvin Reid and Kate Fitzsimons - discuss the effect of Hurricane Sandy on comics, PW's Best Comics 2012, preview the Brooklyn Comics & Graphics Festival and Calvin presents Frankfurt interviews with Dylan Horrocks and Sebastien Oehler of Reprodukt on PWCW's More to Come. More More To Come 35: New York Comic Con and Frankfurt Book Fair 2012 In this week's podcast the More to Come Crew - Heidi "The Beat" MacDonald, Calvin Reid and Kate Fitzsimons - discuss this year's Frankfurt Book Fair, New York Comic Con and ICV2 conference, with first hand Frankfurt reporting from Calvin and interviews from NYCC and much more on PWCW's More to Come. More More To Come 34: SPX and Brooklyn Book Festival In this week's podcast the More to Come Crew - Heidi "The Beat" MacDonald, Calvin Reid and Kate Fitzsimons - discuss the bountiful comics element at the 2012 Brooklyn Book Festival and the 2012 Small Press Expo, the Ignatz Awards and much more on PWCW's More to Come. More Reviews True Swamp: Choose Your Poison Jon Lewis. Uncivilized (uncivilizedbooks.com), $19.95 (208p) ISBN 978-0-98468-142-6 This 20th anniversary edition compiles the first story arc from the early days of Lewis's indie comic and teems with foul-mouthed slimy creatures and dense emotional philosophy. Lenny the Frog is the focus of this swamp tale, an amphibian with a constant inner dialogue of self-doubt, brought on by his interaction with other swamp life. more Spaceman, Deluxe Edition Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso. DC/Vertigo, $24.99 (224p) ISBN 978-1-4012-3552-9 In the slums of a flooded urban wasteland, a little girl goes missing and ends up in the hands of Orson, a kindhearted but simple-minded outcast eking out a living by salvaging old machine parts. Recurring flashbacks reveal that Orson was one of a handful of Cro-Magnon men created by an abandoned government space program for the purpose of off-world labor. more Barack Hussein Obama Steven Weissman. Fantagraphics, $22.99 (112p) ISBN 978-1-60699-623-2 It's not a simple matter to define exactly what this book is. On the one hand, the latest from Weissman (Yikes) seems little more than a series of grotesque caricatures featuring the Obamas, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and a predictable cast of supporting characters. However, the grotesqueness gives way at times to the surreal and, indeed, bizarre, as in an extended sequence in which Obama turns into giant bird, carries off his daughters to a desert island, and promptly metamorphoses into an egg. more Graphic Preview Panel Mania: Fables: Werewolves of the Heartland In Fables: Werewolves of the Heartland, Bigby Wolf takes center stage. Bigby is on a journey through the American Heartland in search of a new location for Fabletown, when he stumbles across a small town named Story Town, which is populated by werewolves. While the inhabitants seem to know Bigby and revere him, they have also captured and caged him. Fables: Werewolves of the Heartland is written by Bill Willingham and will be released by Vertigo on November 14. more Panel Mania: Heart of Thomas At a boys' boarding school in Germany, fourteen year-old Thomas Werner falls to his death from a pedestrian overpass after sending a brief love letter to his schoolmate. This classmate, Juli, is haunted by his death for the rest of this complex and heart-rending book, especially when a new student arrives who looks just like Thomas. The Heart of Thomas is by the classic Shoujo artist, Moto Hagio, the creator of Drunken Dreams, previously published by Fantagraphics. Fantagraphics will release The Heart of Thomas in December. It has been translated by the manga scholar Matt Thorn. more Panel Mania: Kevin Keller: Welcome to Riverdale Kevin Keller, the new kid in Riverdale and groundbreaking gay character in Archie Comics, has become increasingly well-known and popular around school, even being elected class president. In this second collection of Kevin Keller stories, it's a year of new beginnings with his first summer job and his first date. The script is by Dan Parent and the art is by Dan Parent and Rich Koslowski. Kevin Keller: Welcome to Riverdale is currently on sale from Archie Comics. more Panel Mania: A Wrinkle in Time Hope Larson, the creator of Salamander Dreams and Gray Horses, has adapted the classic young adult novel A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle into a graphic novel. It was released by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux in October. more Photo Mania: Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival 2012 Organized by a trio of art comics entrepreneurs—PictureBox publisher Dan Nadel, Desert Island owner Gabe Fowler and comics expert Bill Kartalopoulos—the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival has grown into one of the best small press comics festivals in the country. PW Comics World was on hand all day at the show and we've captured pictures of many of the artists, publishers and great books on hand this year. more Photo Mania: New York Comic Con 2012 New York Comic Con is done but not forgotten. We spent the weekend capturing images of many of the creators and publishers as well as the tens of thousands of fans that jammed the Jacob Javits Center over the weekend. more	Comics Events Upcoming Comics Events 11/14 Garth Ennis Signs "The Boys" Final Issue in Chicago, IL 11/27 Ellen Forney "Marbles" Discussion & Signing in San Francisco, CA 12/1 "My Little Pony" Comic Release Party with Katie Cook & Andy Price in Anaheim, CA more On Sale Calendar Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe (Marvel) Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel (Amulet) Fairest Vol. 1 (DC) Fear Agent Library Vol. 1 (Dark Horse) "50 Girls 50" and Other Stories by Al Williamson (Fantagraphics) The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (DC) Haganai: I Don't Have Many Friends Vol.1 (Seven Seas) Interview with the Vampire: Claudia's Story (Yen Press) Scene of the Crime (Image) Walt Disney's Donald Duck: A Christmas For Shacktown (Fantagraphics)

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