One more hype filled post, as Collen Doran and Stuart Moore will be signing THE NIGHTMARE FACTORY tonight at the McNally bookstore in Soho as part of their “Literary Halloween party.” Come down dressed as your favorite literary character, meaning cosplay IS allowed.

6:00 - 7:30 Party
Join us for McNally Robinson’s first-ever Halloween party!
* Literary Costume Contest: dress as your favorite character, author, or literary idea
* Silent projections from horror comic anthology Nightmare Factory (HarperCollins/Fox Atomic) and signings by contributors: artist Colleen Doran and author Stuart Moore
* Refreshments (drinks, candy, and snacks)
* 6:30 Ouija board session to contact local (dead) authors, including Edgar Allan Poe, by Mitchell Horowitz, author of Occult America (forthcoming from Bantam)
* Ghost Puppet Party for kids in the children’s section, with stories, crafts, and activities hosted by resident storyteller Yvonne Brooks
* book signings by all authors

7:30 - 8:30 Readings
* Brenda Coultas, author of The Marvelous Bones of Time (Coffee House), poetry replete with ghost stories and haunted house tales
* Jonathan Maberry, author of Ghost Road Blues (Penguin/Kensington), about a haunted small town which won the Bram Stoker Award for best first horror novel
* Todd Robinson, short story writer and editor of Thuglit
* Jonathan Santlofer, artist and author of Anatomy of Fear: A Novel of Visual Suspense (HarperCollins), about an uncanny forensic sketch artist
* Kimberly Warner-Cohen, author of Sex, Blood, and Rock’n’Roll (Ig Publishing), a novel of a murderous dominatrix in the East Village


8:30ish Wrap up
* Costume Contest Awards, with prizes including books, audiobooks, t-shirts, and more courtesy of publishers HarperCollins, Penguin, and Random House

11 webcomics are up at Zuda. We’ll have more on this tomorrow but for now go and read!

Ben Samuels’ Classic Golden Age Comic Book Cover Gallery is an excellent resource for old comic book covers, with informative commentary. Browsing the horror gallery sounds like a fine way to kill time until the trick or treaters show up tonight.

BTW the moral of the story shown above? “Don’t eat radium!” A point to ponder…

Have you seen this?:

I just received this email from Carol Tyler: . “Please spread the word: Justin had a sketchbook stolen - it was about half full, containing rough sketches and writings. He was giving a demonstration at the college where I teach [in Cincinnati] and someone walked off with it. It went missing on October 17. I’ve notified the authorities. I want those who buy and collect comic art to know about it being stolen property. Keep our eyes on ebay.”

If anyone has any information regarding this, please contact fbicomix@fantagraphics.com.

They’re trying ONE MORE TIME to get the Gordon Lee case to trial. You may recall this was supposed to go to trial last summer, but was delayed due to a broken air conditioner, then postponed because of a sick judge. Will the Curse of the Trial strike again????

On November 5, after three years of criminal charges, legal proceedings, and seemingly countless delays, Comic Book Legal Defense Fund defendant Gordon Lee will finally have his day in court.

Lee’s trial comes after three years of legal action arising from the Halloween 2004 distribution of Alternative Comics #2, a Free Comic Book Day sampler which featured an excerpt from the critically acclaimed graphic novel The Salon that depicted Pablo Picasso in the nude, and was allegedly handed to a minor. The CBLDF has spent over $80,000 on Lee’s defense since taking the case in early 2005, and expects costs to reach six figures by the end of the trial.

Mr. Lee will stand trial for two misdemeanor counts of distributing harmful to minors material, and faces penalties of up to a year and prison and $1,000 in fines for each count if convicted.

“Everyone at the Fund is glad to finally take this case to trial,” says CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein. “For three years Gordon has had to live with the tormenting reality of this case hanging over his head, and to suffer criminal accusations, a complete change of facts by the prosecution midstream, and numerous delays when it looked like the end was near. All for something that shouldn’t have been prosecuted in the first place. We look forward to taking this case to trial, and because of the donations of the CBLDF’s supporters, are confident that we have the best team possible to prove Gordon’s innocence.”

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Was there ever a greater record than CHILLING THRILLING SOUNDS OF THE HAUNTED HOUSE? If you are like The Beat, every Halloween was an excuse to listen to this record over and over again, and use its liner sleeve with “Party Hints” as either an evocation of the ideal Halloween party, or the blueprint for the same. If you google around you can probably find an MP3 online. Or you can read more about this record — based on concepts for Disney’s Haunted Mansion ride–at HauntedMansion.com, or here.

The narration for this album was by actress Laura Olsher. “You are a bold and courageous person, afraid of nothing. High on a hill top near your home, there stands a dilapidated mansion. Some say the place is haunted, but YOU don’t believe in such myths.” As a kid, our favorite part was the terrified scream that was used as the punchline for nearly every disastrous adventure on the record.

The whole record is an example of Disney Imagineering at its finest, and until our last breath, it will always sound like Halloween to us.

The Arflovers Blog has a regular Wacky Wonder Woman Wednesday feature, and this is a special Halloween Edition. It’s very Wonder Woman, very Wacky, and very very Wednesday.

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Winners of the fall cartooning grants have been announced:

The creators receiving grants are as follows:
Colleen Frakes – Tragic Relief
Geoff Grogan – Look Out! Monsters
Corinne Mucha – My Alaskan Summer
Lars Martinson – Tonoharu: Part One
Jaime Portillo – Gabriel

The Xeric Foundation has announced its most recent grant recipients. A total of $26,548 was awarded for five comic book projects. The Foundation has awarded in excess of $1,885,000 to comic book creators and nonprofit organizations since its first grant cycle in September 1992.

Established by Peter Laird, co-creator of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Northampton, MA based foundation offers financial assistance to self-publishing comic book creators in the US and Canada and to qualified charitable and nonprofit organizations in western Massachusetts.

DATES HAVE CHANGED! The next deadline and review dates for comic book grants are March 31, 2008 and May 1, 2008, respectively. The charitable organization grants are decided annually in March and announced separately.

Yes this is hype, but Justin, Pete and Alex put on a very entertaining show with great guests from both COMIC worlds, and Booth Boy is always there to save the day. Remember to get $5 off with coupon.

COMIC BOOK CLUB NIGHTMARE FACTORY SPECIAL

Hosted by Justin Tyler, Pete LePage, and Alex Zalben

Tuesday, October 30 @ 9:30 PM

Featuring: Stuart Moore (The Escapist) Joe Harris (Darkness Falls) Michael Gaydos (Alias) & Colleen D0ran (Sandman)

Tickets: $10 tickets in advance / $15 tickets day of show $5 off with the promo code CBCCMX

Online: ComixNY.com Phone: 212-524-2500

COMIX NY 353 West 14th St. Just East of 9th Ave.

Check out our website: http://www.popcultureshock.com/cbclub

Check us out on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/comicbookclub3

The show is sponsored in part by Midtown Comics (www.midtowncomics.com)!

Tom unearths the wonderful news that a Scorchy Smith collection is underway as announced by Dean Mullaney on a mailing list:

On the subject of future projects, since we’ve already sent the solicitation info to our book distributor, I can announce that in June 2008, I will release an oversized, 11″ x 11″ hardcover: SCORCHY SMITH AND THE ART OF NOEL SICKLES through IDW. It will contain the complete Sickles Scorchy for the first time ever, plus about 60 pages of Sickles’s magazine and other illustrations.

SCORCHY SMITH was a popular aviator comic strip of the day, and Sickles was a studio mate of Caniff’s whose “chiaroscuro” style was hugely influential on artists of the period.

Flog notes that Gary Panter’s JIMBO’S INFERNO has won an American Book Award, presented each year by the Before Columbus Foundation for books of merit.

The American Book Awards were created to provide recognition for outstanding literary achievement from the entire spectrum of America’s diverse literary community. The purpose of the awards is to recognize literary excellence without limitations or restrictions.

This is the second Fantagraphics book to garner an ABA — Joe Sacco’s Palestine was a recipient in 1996, and the award at that time very much helped solidfy Palestine’s place in the pantheon of great graphic novels. Here’s hoping Panter’s has a similar affect, I can’t think of a more deserving artist.

Broken Frontier began life as a volunteer collective of writers about comics that for a while was an excellent collection of columnists. A while ago, it was purchased by Platinum Studios, about a year ago, seemingly part of Platinum’s expansion into the webcomic game with Drunk Duck, etc. But now, EIC Frederik Hautain announces that the site is a free agent once again:

On July 13, Platinum Studios informed me that effective immediately, the company was terminating its involvement in this website (‘involvement’ not being the proper term to use, though, since Platinum fully owned BF at the time).

On the bright side, their termination of the deal had absolutely nothing to do with the site’s performance, or the creative talents of the people responsible for its content.

Although I won’t go into any details, I can say that as of this month, the site is completely, for 100%, in my hands again. BF is back where it was this time last year: a budding, independent online resource for coverage of all things comics-related… in whatever shape, size or medium.

Our passion, drive and excitement haven’t changed, on the contrary. This week even marks our 5th anniversary, by itself ample proof that we’ve become a destination countless of people enjoy, whether they’re ardent comics fans, casual readers or industry professionals.

A little girl and peak oil are the subjects of a new webcomic by Claudia Dávila, which joins the webcomics collective Transmission-X every Monday. Given the topic, it sounds very very scary, but given the art, it looks very very cute, and yet with charts and graphs. Dávila has previously illustrated several children’s books.

Toronto collective Transmission-X is pleased to add “Luz: Girl of the Knowing” by Claudia Dávila to its daily schedule of free webcomics. Luz (pronounced “loose” but meaning “light” in Spanish) is a city girl on a mission to gather “the Knowing”: knowledge and experience about sustainable survival for humans, specifically in urban centers. She knows a big change is coming as she hears on the news and sees in headlines that petroleum is becoming expensive and scarce, and the climate is noticeably getting more erratic. Although surprised that no one seems very concerned, she doesn’t wait for somebody else to take the lead. She tries to figure out what her community will need when energy runs out as city-wide blackouts get more frequent, learning from her mother, grandma, neighbours and friends. With her handy notebook at the ready, Luz begins her list of skills to learn (like first aid, how to grow and preserve food, collect rainwater, make a woodstove from an oil drum…) and begins to gather vital “knowing” from her neighbourhood.

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Producer Joel Silver confirms what we all know: the Wonder Woman is on hold.

Joel Silver, who was producing the now-stalled Wonder Woman movie, told reporters that the project has been placed on the back burner in light of another impending superhero film. “They’re going to make the Justice League movie, and we’re kind of pausing on Wonder Woman now,” Silver said in a news conference while promoting Fred Claus. “Let them go ahead and do that picture [first].

But which tall, willowy starlet will play WW in that movie? The contest of champions is fierce enough for its own reality TV show.

Some say it will be model Megan Gale (below.)

She replaces last week’s favorite, blond Aussie actress Teresa Palmer.

But Mary Elizabeth Winstead is still out there stumping for the role.

WHO will win? We don’t know, but you can catch the real wonder Woman, Lynda Carter, this week at Feinsteins, performing “an array of jazz classics and standards with a six-piece ensemble, includes “Put the Blame on Mame,” “Blues In the Night” and “As Time Goes By,””

Retailer/con organizer Michael George pled not guilty to the murder of his wife 17 years ago, local papers are reporting. George’s lawyer intends to pursue an “aggressive defense.”

Marlinga said he believes prosecutors have a weak circumstantial case and because of that on Monday filed a motion to release George on a “reasonable bond” with a tether confining him to his mother’s house in Hazel Park. He is currently being held without bond.

“This is a cold case not solved for 17 years, and we don’t believe it is solved today,” Marlinga told Judge Biernat.

But assistant Macomb prosecutor Steven Kaplan, head of the cold case unit, countered outside the courtroom Monday that more evidence will be presented at trial.

The server seems to have eaten several posts in the night…that never happened before. And of course they were the ones that took the longest to put together. Rassem frassem.

Go behind the scenes with a new roman a clef from Stephen L. Stern and K. Thor Jensen. A six page preview is in the link. We like the sound of the next two installments: The Briitsh Invasion and It Happened at Comic-Con. Yes, it did.

Majestic Comics is the Biggest Comic-Book Publisher You’ve Never Heard Of—Until Now

If you thought you knew every significant comic-book publisher, from the indies to the Big Two—think again.

Majestic Comics, headquartered in midtown Manhattan, has been churning out major sellers like Captain Adventure, Mak the Slayer and Majestic Legion for decades.

If you’ve never heard of them, the secret history of Majestic Comics can now be revealed: writer Stephen L. Stern and artist K. Thor Jensen have opened the doors to the Big Apple’s most high-profile fictional comic-book company.

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Chapel Hill Comics has put online a bunch of 24 Hour Comics from their event, including work by Nora Tramm, 9 year old Kevin M. Collins (above), Onur Tukel and Saul Zimet. Wild and unhinged! See what happens in the 23rd hour!

Dan Goldman also has his 24 Hour comic online,“Before You Were Here.”

Another indie comics fest is gaining traction, this time in Washington DC, and they want more people to join the party:

Last January we packed 40 D.C.-area creators of comix, fashions, arts, and jewelry, a belly dancer, an improv troupe, and four bands into a spacious bar and called it the Washington DC Counter Culture Festival II. We were mentioned in the Washington Post twice, Daily Candy, Wonkette, DCist, and countless blogs and message boards. We estimated an attendance of over four-hundred people throughout the day and they all enjoyed the wares and the entertainment.

Now we’re coming back with some new bands, new acts, and a mission to send Arlington’s favorite neighborhood bar out with a bang. We are formally extending the invitation to new artists and local retailers to join in the festivities.

The Washington DC Counter Culture Festival III, brought to you by the DC Conspiracy. January 19th from 4PM – 2AM (times may change). The weekend before Dr. Dremo’s closes its doors forever in order to make way for a mid-rise condominium complex. Whether you know it as Bardo’s or Dr. Dremo’s you know what it represents – one of Arlington’s oldest and most celebrated independent bars. We just want to send it off with a bang.

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Empire has the first pics from WANTED. That’s villain Mr. X. Angelina pic in link.

§ My cunning plan is working.

§ Murakami Gala– now that sounds fun! And Kanye was there!

§ Halloween stirs imagination in costume-loving Japan — the mind boggles.

A Halloween street party? “Ah, no, this is cos-play,” says 20-year-old Saori, referring to costume role-play, or the Japanese past-time of dressing up as their favourite animation movie character. “Halloween is different,” Saori says, giggling as she tugs at her hooded cape with cat ears. The cult around fancy dress, and Japan’s love of quirky festivals and eccentric trends in general, may go towards explaining why Halloween has turned from an obscure foreign celebration into a popular cultural event here.

§ Live action AKIRA film now possible?

§ CNet looks at Zuda:

Letting readers vote on the next comic get a year-long publishing contract is unique in the world of webcomics. Perazza and Dave McCullough, Zuda Comics’ tech guru, said that although they’re aiming for a wide range of genres, they’re not interested in presenting mismatched competitions. ‘’We’ll have filters and registration to screen stuff for mature readers. We wouldn’t match up a Sandmanesque series with a Scooby-Dooesque series,'’ said McCullough, pointing out that the audiences for Neil Gaiman’s hit graphic novel and the mystery-solving cartoon pooch shouldn’t be mixed.

§ Nerd-themed dating Web sites, etc mean life may be less lonely.

§ The Boston Globe paints a picture of 24 Hour Comic Day:

The artists sketched in near silence. The group was a curious collection of the college-aged, the middle-aged, graduates and drop-outs, the professional and the counterculture, with one clear thing in common: They were working against the clock.

§ Monkey nanny!

ComicsPRO, the comics retailer lobbying group, has instituted an antitrust compliance policy to ensure there will be no collusion:

In a move to allay concerns over any potential retailer collusion, Comics Professional Retail Organization (ComicsPRO), the trade organization for comic book retailers, with the help of legal counsel, has incorporated an antitrust compliance policy into its by-laws outlining the parameters within which independent retailers can confidently deal with each other.

ComicsPRO board member Ben Trujillo of Star Clipper Comics in St Louis went on to explain, “We have adopted a clear policy for managing the relationship between a group of competitors in a way that conforms with the highest legal standards in the areas of antitrust and non-competitive behavior.”

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