Random Comics News Story Round-Up

* this site received a smattering of notes objecting to an anonymous professional's take on last weekend's Pittsburgh con. That professional punted on the ExpoMart being closed, and I regret running it without a more exacting double-check. Turns out they are closing part of it: they're closing one end to build a sporting goods store. However, the con is still scheduled to take place in the part it traditionally uses next year. In fact, that they're scheduled to make a go of it next year is news in and of itself. A couple of people closer to the show objected to the "Murder Con" designation -- while it's not something I'd use in casual reference, the fact is that's what some people have been calling the show, and the con's perceived link to Michael George has a significant role in how it's going to be received, so I don't mind its use there.

* I updated this site's review of Hope Larson's Chiggers to represent the fact that she did actually hand-letter the final product.

* the cartoonist Jason Lutes is blogging now.

* I believe if you download the PDF for Arthur, you'll see the new Buenaventura Press-edited comics section.

* the prominent comics blogger and retailer Chris Butcher talks to Marc Weidenbaum about Viz's original graphic novels effort in a fact-stuffed article of the old-fashioned streamline the quotes in variety. It's probably the must-read of the day. Related, sort of: Matt Fraction and Abhay Khosla discuss the creative landscape in terms of independent publishers and whether or not they deserve that appellation if they take the same battery of rights that the bigger companies do.

* random travel note near completion of a trip one: man, Portland has a really nice-looking airport for an airport of that size. The unique group of vendors is what makes it, but it's nice in other ways as well. LaGuardia, however, remains a shithole. Random travel note near completion of a trip two: a guy behind the desk offering to unlock his manager's office to let me fax something isn't a business center.

* the cartoonist Shannon Wheeler would like you to know that he was not at Stumptown to wear a hat and provide humorous fodder for this site's con report, he was there to publicize his book Postage Stamp Funnies.

* the writer Peter Sanderson has for years written crazy-long San Diego reports which were always fun to read because they were drenched in detail about such things as taking a ferry to the show or who Sanderson engaged in conversation. This pathetically-formatted article (even I don't usually forget the simple smart quotes cut and replace) takes the same approach to the recent New York Comic-Con, with I think mixed results. Still, it's worth reading if you're interested in convention culture or reaction to the 2008 New York show specifically. On the one hand, Sanderson really embodies a kind of New York-native enthusiasm for the show that's been awesome to behold; on the other hand, his approach here isn't specific enough to give his arguments as to NYCC's awesomeness a lot of weight, and you sort of have to figure out what standards he's applying in order to figure them out.
 
posted 7:30 am PST | Permalink
 

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