This morning’s rumor cited here and here is that the Comics Comics team in some fashion will be taking over The Comics Journal, which would be awesome, would certainly fit the criteria for an important March 1 announcement, and would make perfect sense of the publication’s dumping of affiliate blogs The Panelists, Journalista and Hooded Utilitarian. I have no idea what this would mean if anything for longtime editors Mike Dean and Kristy Valenti (I assume Gary Groth would be safe under any scenario), and I doubt we’re going to hear much more of anything until an official announcement. I can tell you that I’m remaining right here, status unchanged, although hopefully doing an increasingly better job in whatever role a changed landscape might provide.

Evidence of an impending change include TCJ dumping three of its affiliated blogs Hooded Utilitarian, The Panelists and earlier this year ¡Journalista!. The former two have moved their blogs to their own servers and will continue on independently. See HoodedUtilitarian.com and Panelists.org.

From the press release:

Pittman recently began publishing his all-ages science fiction graphic novel “Red’s Planet” online. Dell’Aringa and Ogden were immediately taken by his wonderful style and smart writing. Emails were exchanged and Pittman eventually provided artwork for Dell’Aringa’s first book “Out of Orbit.”

Dell’Aringa and Ogden soon realized that Pittman was a perfect fit for Wishtales.

“I brought it up to Steve early in the week and it just seemed like a no-brainer for us. Eddie is not only a wonderful artist, but a wonderful person, too. We share a lot of the same ideas about art and about all-ages material. It’s a natural fit. We’re just ecstatic Eddie felt the same way,” said Dell’Aringa.

…

“I couldn’t be more excited to be a part of Wishtales. Tom Dell’Aringa and Steve Ogden are two of my favorite storytellers. Having the opportunity to work with them and bring strong all-ages content to life through Wishtales is a dream come true,” said Pittman.

Also worth mentioning is Wishtales will be exhibiting at the Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo in April.

» The Ranan Lurie Political Cartoon Award Competition for 2009 is due November 12, 2009.

Comic books

» Joe Staton and his wife, children’s author Hilarie Staton, collaborated on Amy Goes Gluten Free a book on dealing with Celiac Disease.

Comic strips

» Brian Anderson, creator of Dog Eat Doug, gives us a peek at a new comic he’s working on.

Graphic Novels

» Sequential Tart interviews Brian Fies, the author and artist of Mom’s Cancer a new novel Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow?.

Interviews

» Michael Cavna interviews seven of the 10 cartoonist on their return trip back from their NCS/USO Middle East trip.

Media

» Newsarama is sold to TopTenReviews.

As for why Fantagraphics made this move, the fundamental reason is likely to be found in what they describe as the declining fortunes of the DM side of their overall business and what they as a small company with limited resources is able to invest in that side of their business in order to give it the best chance running smoothly and perhaps enabling it to grow. While that department at the comics publisher saw a slight boost in cost-efficiency moving from Greg Zura to Jason Miles — at least one would assume this, given Zura’s long-time tenure at the company — the new deal frees Miles from physically taking retailer orders and accounting for them in favor of the salesmanship and support aspects of his position. Designing their own catalog section has to have some appeal given the nature of their books compared to most of what’s available in the DM and the relative skill of their design staff as currently constituted Both should aid Miles in his attempts to drive retailers to the company’s books.