Manga mania is waning in America and that is not making TokyoPop happy. The Comics Journal reports that founder and CEO Stuart Levy launched a cross-country tour to promote the Japanese art form. Despite the setbacks, Levy remains as madcap passionate as humanly possible about his struggling business. Instead of griping behind corporate walls, he […]
The Press Democrat has an excellent report on Craig Schulz, Charles Schulz’ son and his work as president and CEO of Creative Associates – the company that manages licensing for the Peanuts characters. Earlier this year, Craig Schulz found himself in the national news again, when the Schulz family made a $175 million deal with […]
Our good friend Howard Tayler received a nice write-up in the local paper regarding his 10 year milestone of producing his Shlock Mercenary webcomic. When you ask Howard Tayler what launched him on a journey that now spans 10 years and uncounted strange new worlds, the answer sounds so simple. “I think the first thing […]
I was a senior in college in 1972, at about the height of the back-to-the-land movement. My wife and I had no firm idea of what we were going to do after I graduated, but we subscribed to the “Mother Earth News,” which has since gone Yuppie but was a lot more hippie then, and […]
Player vs. Player creator Scott Kurtz will return as this year’s Harvey Awards dinner emcee and Mark Waid will be the keynote speaker. The Harvey Awards is held during the Baltimore Comic Con which is scheduled for August 28th. Over the past 25 years, Mark has been involved in every aspect of comics publishing, from […]
Announced earlier today: Radical Publishing is proud to announce that Disney has acquired the film adaptation of OBLIVION, based on Radical Publishing?s illustrated novel created by Tron: Legacy director, Joseph Kosinski, written by Rex Mundi creator, Arvid Nelson, and with illustrations by Andrée Wallin. OBLIVION will be directed by Joseph Kosinki and will be produced […]
Back in June, I reported that a 3D version of Beauty and the Beast was being slated for a 2011 release. Hollywood Reporter now reports that the rework has been pushed back until 2012 or later. Converting pics to 3D costs $15 million or so per movie and theatrical prospects are limited for any re-release. […]
Proving that Hollywood will make just about anything into a movie we have news that the “Babar” is being adapted for a feature film. According to Animated News, The Twilight Saga producers have acquired the rights to the character with the intent of making a live action/CG version.
The Centre for Independent Journalism is throwing its support behind a legal challenge to book banning by the Malaysian government. Back in June, the Deputy Minister of Home Affairs signed an order banning two satirical books by cartoonist Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque (AKA “Zunar”) under the Printing Presses and Publications Act which prohibits material that is […]
A traveling exhibit of Dave Coverly’s work is opening in Wisconsin Rapids, WI. The exhibit is entitled “Speed Bump: The Comic World of Dave Coverly” and runs through September. Dave will also attend a public presentation in September for a book signing and to meet the public.
Paul Sabourin, co-comedian in the musical comedy duo Paul and Storm, has started substituting New Yorker cartoon captions with recent Kanye West Twitter tweets – often with very funny results. urlesque.com interviewed Paul in the motives and inspiration between the mashups. The pretentious explanation: Kanye’s tweets are more or less raw id (unfiltered, portraying base […]
Tony Murphy, creator of It’s All About You, has made good on his fund raising promise to publish Coffee Talk – a weekly comic-strip broadsheet to be distributed through coffee shops. Tony raised $5,776 through Kickstarter to fund the endeavor. The first issue is now being distributed in Brooklyn, NY.
Creators of family cartoons always have the question of whether to let characters grow or freeze them at a particular age. Lynn Johnston famously aged her “For Better or For Worse” characters in real time. Charles Schulz let the “Peanuts” gang hit a certain age and freeze, so that Linus and Schroeder began as babies, […]
The Comics Journal delves into recent news stories regarding a manga translator being arrested in Sweden for possession of manga depicting undressed children (the images posted on TCJ’s site depict a child taking a bath). In Sweden, all images ? be it photos, movies, animations or drawings ? depicting what one can understand to be […]