Phoenix Comicon

Geeks unite Jan. 25-27 at Phoenix Comicon, a convention bringing together comics collectors, actors, comic book artists, anime voice actors and authors. Convention director Matt Solberg said 'comicon' is a catchall term to the comic book community. This year's comicon features a zombie beauty pageant, Jedi light saber training for kids, a fashion show of Japan's extreme street wear, an art auction, a costume contest and anime dodge ball. Attendees also can meet their favorite authors, actors and artists, participate in how-to sessions with professors from Collins College and the Art Institute of Phoenix, sit in on question-and-answer panels and compete in gaming and art tournaments.
The favorite attractions vary among fans, Solberg said, but generally, meeting the film and TV stars of programs such as Star Wars and Star Trek is the most popular. It's really about "being able to hang out with friends and others who share similar interests," he said.
The first comicon Solberg put together was in June 2002. It was a one-day event that lasted about six hours, a far cry from the three-day event held now. Last year, 3,200 comics enthusiasts showed up for the convention.
Lou Ferrigno of TV's Incredible Hulk will meet with fans and talk about the upcoming Hulk movie, in which he makes an appearance. "Greeting the fans is something I really enjoy doing," he said. "The fans helped make me who I am today." Ferrigno, 56, has been active in conventions for years and will attend one in Arizona for the first time. He's been to the state before but only for a short time. "I'm looking forward to coming to the show, spending time in Phoenix and meeting my fans," he said.
For more of the original article, as well as convention information and prices, click here.

Spider-Man And Mary Jane Call It Quits

I've only been on vacation one week, in Hollywood no less, and celebrities have been having babies, a predicted favorite football team of mine lost, and divorces are always in the headlines, but Spider-Man splitting with Mary Jane? I did not see this one coming, and I am not sure how to react to it, but this article from FOXNews helps clarify some details.
Joe Quesada, editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics, believes it is time to shake things up in the life of Peter Parker, the nerdy New Yorker who upon being bitten by a radioactive spider attained the ability to transform himself into a web-spinning world savior. And it was easier to do that, he said, if Parker wasn't married.
Still, as the writer and artist who created the story that transformed Spider-Man into Single-Man earlier this month, Quesada has made himself about as popular with some of his readers as the villainous Green Goblin. "When we first did it, the reaction was, 'How could you do this? This is a terrible thing to do," he recalled. "But with the first issue of 'Brand New Day' [in which Spider-Man returns to single life], our letters very quickly changed to people saying, 'This is fantastic. This is the Spider-Man we remembered. We didn't know what we'd been missing."
To briefly recap Spider-Man's trials and tribulations, his beloved Aunt May was recently wounded by an assassin. To save her life he and Mary Jane struck a deal with the devil-like Mephisto in which she would be restored to good health if they allowed Mephisto to erase every memory of their time as a married couple.
Reaction from the critics was swift.
"Considering I have been reading Spider-Man for exactly 20 years now, and that seems to be the amount of time Joe Q. has decided to rip from Spider-Man continuity, can I simply return all of my Spider-Man comics for a full refund?" asked one of the more polite postings on Marvel's Internet message boards. "It's heresy for some people," laughed Dave Pifer, who runs the Secret Headquarters comic book store in Los Angeles. Others, however, have been more quick to adapt. "The ones who are new to superheroes like Spider-Man, they're excited about it," Pifer said. "They feel like they're starting at the beginning." One message poster even joked that the beautiful Mary Jane, who remains in the Spider-Man cast, is free now to pursue Brad Pitt.
But what of the man who created Spider-Man? What does he think? "I think it's a very creative idea. It should stimulate a lot of interest in the characters and the books, and I'm eager to see what happens next," said Stan Lee, who wasn't involved in the current story.
It was Lee who married Spider-Man and Mary Jane in a mock ceremony at New York's Shea Stadium in 1987.
"Amazing that they're not even middle-aged yet," Lee quipped.
So how do our comics collectors feel? You tell us!

New 'Supernatural' Comic Book Series

According to this article from buddytv.com, Supernatural: Rising Son is a six-issue miniseries that will tell another story about the young Sam and Dean Winchester, much to the enjoyment of comic collectors of the Supernatural: Origins comic books published by WildStorm last year. The first issue is set to hit stores on April 23 and will pick up a few years after Origins, following a 7-year-old Sam and 11-year-old Dean as they travel with their father, John.
“Whereas the first series was more about John and his becoming a hunter, this one's much more of a dysfunctional family story,” explains writer Peter Johnson, who's also a co-executive producer on the TV show. “We're really going to explore the differences between Sam and Dean in this one,” Johnson continues. “Dean is becoming aware of what his dad's up to and we'll see him training and hunting a little bit, while John will start to key in on something different about Sam.” The bad news about the series is that show creator Eric Kripke, who had a lot of input on Origins, couldn't have any involvement due to the writers' strike. While the strike doesn't preclude people from writing comic books, Kripke bowed out due to the thin line between writing for a TV series and writing a comic based on a TV series.
Despite that, Johnson promises that the Rising Son story will fit in nicely with the show, and even feature some familiar faces such as Bobby, a fellow demon hunter. He also says that readers should expect “freakier monsters,” including “some badass female villains and a big bad villain that may have something to do with the TV show.”
For those who missed Origins in its single issue format, a trade paperback collecting the entire series will be published in April. Johnson also mentions that he made an editorial change in the collected edition regarding the Winchester's signature Chevy Impala. In the original comic the Impala was something John found on the road, but due to the protests of fans it will now be something that was in the Winchester family prior to the beginning of the comic series.
There's already talk of a third miniseries being planned that would bring the story right up to the pilot of the television series. Even with Supernatural being sidelined due to the writers' strike, fans of the Winchester boys should have plenty of demon slaying fun to indulge in for months to come.

Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull Comic Adaptation

Adapting comic books to the big screen is nothing new for the comic industry. When looking at Wikipedia, one can see the recent surge in comics-to-silver screen popularity among comic collectors and movie mavens alike. Marvel has had Blade, X-Men, Spiderman, and Ghost Rider adapted just to name a few. DC's list includes fan favorites Batman Begins, Superman Returns, and V for Vendetta. But in the following case, the reverse has happened. According to the January 2008 issue of The Comic Shop's Catalog, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is set to release a 96 page comic adaptation on May 22.
According to the excerpt “the intrepid Doctor Henry Jones Jr. is back in his biggest adventure yet! This time, the world-renowned archaeologist finds himself caught in a series of events that all point to a discovery unlike any other. But will his rivals in pursuit of this priceless treasure seize his quarry right from under his nose? Not if he, and a few unexpected companions, have anything to say about it! The thrill and the humor, the action and the romance, the hat and the whip—everything you love about Indy is here! This is a tale sure to please longtime fans as well as foster a whole generation of new ones!” Sounds like an interesting read to Indy fans. Be sure to add it to your collection when you pick it up!

Headlocked: Work of Art

Since its release on October 31, Headlocked: Work of Art has garnered near unanimous praise from both the wrestling and the comic book world. The book was hailed as "one of the year's best comics" in a 5 star review from Silver Bullet Comics and as "a non-condescending and realistic view of the world of rasslin’" from the Encyclopedia of Wrestling Comics.
Kingston's myspace page features pictures and quotes from a variety of wrestlers endorsing the book including Samoa Joe, Greg Valentine, Shawn Daivari, Chris Hero, Justin Credible, Dawn Marie, Blue Meanie, and Sara Del Rey. Based on the initial response, a new mini-series has been greenlit by publisher AAM/Markosia and is currently in production.
So while the book has been very well received it has become very difficult to find on the shelves. If you are a comics collector, and missed out on the initial offering of Headlocked: Work of Art for whatever reason, it is still possible to obtain a first printing of the book.
With a bright future and a low initial print run, Headlocked:Work of Art seems primed to become a collector's item. Kingston already has some big surprises lined up for the next series so he advises people to get their re-orders in for Headlocked: Work of Art before they're all gone.
If you have this book, add it into your iTaggit collection and let us know what you think about it! For more of Michael Kingston's article, click here.

Graphic Novels Gaining On Traditional Comic Books

Most of the business at comic book stores isn't in comic books anymore. According to pop culture trend tracker ICv2, graphic novels have begun to outsell comic books. Graphic novels are essentially comic books on steroids, with longer, more complex, darker stories. The term can also include putting together a long story arc initially published in half a dozen regular comic book issues, but purists tend to refer to those as trade paperbacks.

Statistics aren't available yet for 2007, but 330 million graphic novels were sold in North America in 2006--a 12 percent increase. That wasn't bad news for comic book publishers like DC and Marvel. There was an even bigger jump in sales of traditional monthly periodical comic books like "Batman" and "Spider-Man." They were up 15 percent to 310 million in 2006. And comic book publishers like DC are doing quite well with graphic novels. Where they once appealed almost exclusively to teenage boys, they now sell to people of all ages, male and female.

In Spotsylvania County, Mike Porter, comics collector and owner of the new Little Fish Comics & Collectibles store at Cosner's Corner, isn't just trying to ring up sales when he insists that graphic novels like "Watchmen," "Kingdom Come" and "V for Vendetta" qualify as legitimate literature.

Porter is a true believer. In 1995, he was a teacher's aide lecturing on Alan Moore's "V for Vendetta" as part of a science-fiction literature course at Guelph University in Ontario, Canada. He says students and their parents would come to him and ask if there was additional literature they could read to help with the course. You know, Mr. Porter, "real" literature. "Real" books. Not comic books. No, Porter would say, the best examples of the graphic novel form are real literature. "It's definitely literature," he says standing in his store surrounded by Batman, Spider-Man and Superman comics and action figures. "It stands up to any distopian literature."

George Orwell's "1984" is an example of distopian literature. Distopian protagonists, such as Winston Smith in "1984" and the character V in "V for Vendetta," challenge negative aspects of their societies, putting themselves at risk in the process.
An argument can be made that anything that gets people--especially young people--to read in today's TV and video game culture is good. For the rest of Michael Zitz' Free-Lance Star article, click here.

UN Joins Forces With Marvel Comics

Any comics collector might find this an interesting idea for modern times. In a move reminiscent of story-lines developed during the second world war, the UN is joining forces with Marvel Comics, creators of Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk, to create a comic book showing the international body working with superheroes to solve bloody conflicts and rid the world of disease. The comic, initially to be distributed free to US schoolchildren, will be set in a war-torn fictional country and feature superheroes such as Spider-Man working with UN agencies such as Unicef and the “blue hats”, the UN peace-keepers. Camilla Schippa, chief of office at the UN Office for Partnerships, told the Financial Times the script was being written now and the final storyline was due to be approved in February. The cartoonists are working for free. After publication in the US, the UN hopes to translate the comics into French and other languages and distribute them elsewhere, Ms Schippa said. Although the UN did not come up with the initiative, the measure could help revive the body’s troubled image in the US, where relations have been strained.
The latest UN initiative is not the first time US comics have been used for political purposes. During the second world war, superheroes were shown taking on Germany’s Nazi regime. Marvel’s Captain America, together with other characters such as Superman, were shown beating up Adolf Hitler.
The UN’s goals are somewhat different: according to its website, it hopes the comics will teach children the value of international co-operation and sensitize them to the problems faced in other parts of the world. Click here to read the rest of the original article.

SPLASTK - First Web Syndicated Comic Book Fueled Video Network

Platinum Studios, Inc., an entertainment company that controls an independent library of comic book characters from all over the world, and Comflix Studios, Inc., a Los Angeles and New York based multi-media company, have created "Splastk," the first web syndicated on-demand video network featuring free comic book-inspired animated content powered by the Splastk player and anchored by http://www.Splastk.com.
"Adding a dynamic element to the static print comic is the specialty of Comflix Studios," said Platinum Studios President, Brian Altounian. The partnership supplies targeted premium content while enhancing the overall experience for the comics collector looking to find something new. The customized Java-based player, compatible with any web browser, will host original material as well as aggregate content from multiple sources to deliver video simultaneously to a growing network of pop culture sites. Splastk animated videos are free to site users and are sponsored by brief, pre-roll targeted advertisements.
The network is currently anchored by a number of sites centered around the web-comics community including http://www.DrunkDuck.com, http://www.comflix.net, http://www.comics2film.com, http://www.topwebcomics.com, http://www.keentoons.com, and http://www.smackjeeves.com. The wide range of titles and themes in the Platinum Studios Comics library are coupled with the production capabilities of Comflix. Current available video titles on the Splastk player include Dracula vs. King Arthur and The Last Sin of Mark Grimm from Comflix Studios, as well as Dylan Dog and Sidekicks from Platinum Studios. Upcoming planned productions include adaptations of Platinum's Hero By Night series and Cowboys & Aliens. For more information, click here for the original press release in it's entirety.