Indy Comic Book Week

I've been meaning to post about this for a while but for one reason or another I haven't had the chance to yet.

There currently is small movement to make the week of December 30 indy comics week.

The reason that week is picked is because Diamond the major distributor for comic books wont be shopping that week even though that been a pretty good week for some retailers, but Diamond says that during that time it's harder to get things shipped to some time zones during this time.

So the people behind Indy Comic book week thought this was a great time to push indy comics. They have called out for comic book creators to have something new to sell on that that and are also trying to get retailers to stock the indy books as that weeks new comics.

The ideal is that most of the time when you go into a comic book store the new comics section is usually mostly comics from the bigger comic book companies (Marvel and DC mainly) and this well provided at least on day of the year where when someone walks into a comic book store they will see a wall of titles from small publishers.

I think it's a great ideal, I personally would like to have something out for the event but the way things are going I probably wont have it done in time.

Giving that it's nearly the end of October, I'm sorry I didn't give creators who may run across this post more time, but you can create something (or already have something in the works) and get it printed in a quick in time, I say go for it. Though if any retailers see this there is still plenty of time to join in.

I wish these guys the best of luck. If you want more info check out their blog and site


oh here is a post form there blog with some promo videos for this event

Viacom buys rights to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Peter Laird talk's a bit about why he sold the rights to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on his blog.

Peter Laird basically says that selling the rights to the Turtles was always something he and Kevin Eastman had on the table since the TMNT height of fame if they ever ran into a deal they thought was good enough. But the real biggie, is that Laird states that he feels that he has been doing the Turtles for to long and wants to move on.

Creatively I can understand the last part, though part of me wonders couldn't he move on to do other things and still keep the rights to the turtles. That way if whatever he does after TMNT doesn't really hit or he feels a little bit of nostalgia he can always go back to the Turles.

But hey at a $60 million buyout I guess Peter Laird doesn't really have to worry about commercial success with whatever his next project will be.

With this deal Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will now be part of the Nickelodeon brand (which is owned by Viacom)

As an 80's kid I was a big Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan. Not only was I fan of the cartoon as a kid but TMNT was my gateway into Black & White indy comics. I think it's that later point that makes me a little mix on this news, TMNT has been one of the big success stories of indy comics and it's a little sad to see that the brand is no longer owned by the creators but it's also nice to see that someone's ideal can pay off so well for them.

Marvel's The Siege promo

Here a video of a preview Marvel comics showed retailers at the Diamond retailer summit of there next big cross over event

More Slippery Rock vs Keith Knight's KKK Chronicles

Yesterday I talked about the protest going on at Slippery Rock University over a K Chronicles strip.

Here is a video of news coverage on this incident.

I'm still surprised that a whole campus of college kids didn't get the point.

But it was mentioned in the video that there where a number of cases of racist at the school and because of that I wonder if problem isn't the kids not getting satire but the fact that everyone was still on edge for whatever happened at their school.

I can understand that happening. In fact I remember having a protest when I was in college, no over anything as stupid as this one. But the event that happened before we protest really had nothing to do with why we protest...it was more of the straw the broke the camels back scenario.

But in any case the kids should take off the nooses, someone may not get the satire and call you racist too.

K Chronicles...you know the K doesn't stand for Klan, right

Students at slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania are in an up roar about a comic strip that appeared in their school newspaper.

The protest is being lead by students in that school's chapter of the NAACP and the student group Black Action Society who are up set because of a panel in the strip which main character (an African-American) hanging form a noose.

Now I'm all for students fighting against racism but in this case. Here's the strip so you can see what I mean.


(you can click the image if you want to be taken to a bigger more readable version)

context is everything...yes the strip has a black hanging in a noose...But if one reads the words to the strip instead of just looking at the pictures (it's something one most do when reading a comic) it is clear that the strip is speaking out against the current racism we face in this day in age. Namely the racism that can be found in many of the protesters against Obama and the fact that when Black people point out racism we get blamed for playing the race card.

maybe the reason the students at Slipper Rock missed the message is because they aren't used to people tackling serious issues with humor or maybe it because humor is subjective or because satire is a form of humor many people don't get or they are victims of the dumbing down of America.

I think it should be pointed out that the cartoonist of the strip, Keith Knight is Black and the main character of K chronicles (and the guy being lynched in the first panel of the above strip) and you can get more info on him and the strips he does at his site, Kchronicles.com. He talks about this event in his blog section.

Happy National Comic Book Day

I was just made aware that today is National Comic Book day.

at least that what it says on holidayinsights.com

I would think that the comic book industry would really jump on this holiday the same way they have a big push for free comic book day. But the day has gone one with out much notice. though I am sure there is some comic book store out there taking advantage of this holiday, to push more comics or at least I hope there is.

though thinking about it for a second maybe this day would be better off if it was celebrated every 4th Wednesday of September instead of a set date because Wednesday's the day of the week new comics come in...though I guess it also smart not to have a day like this on the day that would already be your your heavy volume day and having something like this on what would a slower day may makes some sense.

a new president has been named but who will be DC entertainment new publisher?

I didn't really think about it when the news was released but Diane Nelson was only named to be President for DC Entertainment but Paul Levitz was President & Publisher of DC. so who's going to be the new publisher?

odds are we will here the answer in a few weeks but until then lets speculate.

Nelson has praised the vertigo line so who knows maybe it will be Karen Berger or Shelly Bond if not either of them someone else that works in the Vertigo line.

Part of me wants it to be Bill Jemas just to see a large number of comic book fans head explode. I know a lot of fans didn't like him when he was publisher of Marvel but Marvel did put out some good comics during that time period and he turned marvel profitable after a period when they where going into the dumps.

but honestly I have a feeling they will pull someone that has publishing in magazine industry, like someone that worked in Time for kids. but that just a hunch that has no barrings in fact (like nothing any of the other guess in this post)