Category: Events

Guibert named Grand Prix winner as Angouleme Festival opens

Robert Kirkman, Catherine Meurisse and Chris Ware also recognized as the festival kicks off.

The Angoulême international comics festival (a.k.a. FIBD Angoulême) opened yesterday with the announcement that French writer Emmanuel Guibert had been awarded this year’s Grand Prix. Guibert is a frequent collaborator of Joann Sfar; the two worked together on The Professor’s Daughter and the Sardine in Space series, and he is also the writer of The Photographer, Alan’s War, and the children’s series Ariol (this last is published in English by Papercutz, while all the others are published here by First Second).

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‘Usagi,’ ‘Lumberjanes,’ ‘Stranger Things’ and more round out silver Free Comic Book Day titles

Free Comic Book Day 2020 will feature almost 50 titles on May 2.

With its “gold sponsors” announced earlier in the week, the Free Comic Book Day committee announced the rest of the 2020 line-up yesterday, bringing the total to 47 free comics.

“Every year, our goal is to bring fans the very best Free Comic Book Day experience,” said Joe Field, originator of FCBD, and owner of Flying Colors Comics in Concord, California, in a press statement. “The caliber, strength and depth of this year’s comic book titles is really something to be thrilled about! With such a wide variety of stories in 2020 FCBD titles, every long-time fan and every new shop visitor curious about comics is going to find something exciting. Comic book specialty retailers all over the world are excited to treat everyone to an incredible day of fun, discovery, and learning about comic books and comic book shops.”

The silver titles include additional comics from several of the gold sponsors, including a new Usagi Yojimbo comic by Stan Sakai and a Stranger Things/Minecraft flipbook from Dark Horse. There are also selections featuring Donald Duck, Naruto, Owly, Lumberjanes, Little Lulu and Artists, Writers & Artisans, the new comics company headed up by Bill Jemas and Axel Alonso.

Check out the full list below.

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Vin Diesel, Tom Scioli, Jeffrey Brown and more highlight Free Comic Book Day 2020 offerings

Diamond announces the first round of titles coming to comic shops May 2.

Diamond Comics Distributors has announced the 12 Gold Sponsor comics that will be making their way into comic shops on May 2 for Free Comic Book Day 2020.

The selections, which were chosen by a committee of more than 20 comics retailers, include some fun choices, promoting new projects by Tom Scioli, Jeffrey Brown, Robert Kirkman and Chris Samnee, Neil Gaiman and more. Oh, and Vin Diesel!

“The quality of titles from publisher applicants made for some tough choices this year,” said Ashton Greenwood, Free Comic Book Day spokesperson. “It’s a solid indicator that Free Comic Book Day truly is the ideal event to showcase the best titles you can find in comic book shops. We can’t wait to once again share the FCBD experience with fans and everyone who loves comic books.”

Here’s the rundown of what to expect, and you cna look for the Silver Sponsor titles later this week.

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Check out holiday shopping deals from comiXology, Fantagraphics and more

Get Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals on comics, merchandise and more.

Black Friday is here, bringing opportunities for comic fans to find that perfect gift or just a good deal. Here’s a rundown of some comic-related things to check out today, over the weekend and on Cyber Monday. I’ll add others as I see them, so be sure to check back.

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Pop glass artists’ merchandise stolen prior to SDCC

Reward offered for the recovery of Bling Squared’s sculpted creations

The adorable glass sculpture house Bling Squared traveled over 2,200 km from Canada to table at their third San Diego Comic-Con, but in a heartbreaking moment, their entire booth display and one of their cases containing half their inventory were stolen.

On their Instagram account, founders Neacol and Stanley Miler made a public appeal for the return of their lost merchandise.

Screengrab from @blingsquaredcuteglass on Instagram
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‘Blade Runner 2019’ debuts at Comic-Con this week [Preview]

The new comic by Michael Green, Mike Johnson and Andres Guinaldo will receive a variant in San Diego as it hits comic shops nationwide on Wednesday.

Titan Comics will debut its adaptation of the classic science fiction movie movie Blade Runner this week, both in comic shops and at Comic-Con International in San Diego.

Written by Michael Green and Mike Johnson, and drawn by Andres Guinaldo, Blade Runner 2019 will “tell original, in-canon stories set in the Blade Runner universe.” Check out a preview below.

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Celebrate the legacy of Rick Grimes with these SDCC exclusives

Skybound will offer a new shirt, print set and CGC Signature editions of ‘The Walking Dead’ #192.

The Walking Dead came to an end last week, giving readers a glimpse at what the future holds for the survivors and celebrating the legacy of Rick Grimes. Skybound will continue that celebration with several exclusives they’ll be selling at their booth next week during Comic Con International in San Diego.

Take a look at them below …

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New ‘Locke & Key’ story to debut in San Diego

‘Locke & Key: Nailed It!’ gets a convention exclusive preview at next month’s Comic-Con International.

Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriquez’s Locke & Key came out as a series of miniseries between 2008 and 2013, wrapping up with the Omega and Alpha issues that brought the story to a close. Or so it would seem …

Both IDW Publishing and Rodriquez have teased this month plans to reopen the doors to the Keyhouse, and now a list of exclusives being offered by IDW at Comic-Con International next month reveals a new comic: Locke & Key: Nailed It!

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‘High Comedic Value’: A bit of truth in every drawing

In the brand-new ‘Alley Cats’ feature, Suzette Chan spotlights webcomics artist Husein.

Welcome to Alley Cats, a new feature by Suzette Chan that focuses on one of our favorite parts of any convention — Artists Alley. Chan spoke to some of the many talented craftspeople and artists at the the 2019 Calgary Expo in late April. This is one in a series of six.

Husein has been drawing a comic per week for the last five years, and has been doing comic conventions for almost as long. This year, he added a new element to his booth: the craft of drawing people as pop culture icons–badly!

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Graphic Medicine Conference: Whit Taylor’s keynote and a lightning round of cartoonists

Susan Merrill Squier, Ian Williams, Morgan Sea, Rachel Lindsay and more presented at the second day of the Graphic Medicine Conference in Vermont.

The big news of the Graphic Medicine Conference came Friday evening, at Susan Merrill Squier’s keynote address: Graphic Medicine is going to seek 501(c)(3) status, making it officially a nonprofit organization. When co-director Ian Williams told me this the next day, I thanked him -— up until now, I haven’t ever been sure what noun to use to describe Graphic Medicine. Is it a movement? A community? Now it will be a nonprofit organization, although there are still many details to be hammered out.

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Not Safe for Con explores the darker side of comics and fandom

Comics, cosplay, and burlesque comes together for a ‘nerd culture festival’ with an adult twist.

Today is Not Safe For Con, also known as NSFCon, a festival that brings together comics with 18+ nerd culture. The festival’s purpose is to create a space that allows for the greatest freedom of expression that still remains within legal limits. The festival boasts a comfortable and safe atmosphere for vendors and creators of more adult-themed comics and artwork, mixed with workshops, live music and burlesque.

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Dispatches from the Graphic Medicine Conference: Day 1

Brigid Alverson reports from the scene of the 2018 Graphic Medicine Conference in Vermont, which is focused on graphic novels that describe the experience of illness and of being a patient.

I’m up in White River Junction, Vermont, home of the Center for Cartoon Studies and, for this weekend only, the Graphic Medicine Conference. Actually, the conference has two venues—it starts at CCS and moves to the Dartmouth medical school on Saturday.

Stephen Bissette giving the opening address at the Graphic Medicine Conference

The term “graphic medicine” may conjure up an image of a comic about healthy eating or the wonderful world of the circulatory system, but graphic medicine in this case has a more literary bent. It’s part of the field called medical humanities and focuses not on educational comics but on graphic novels that describe the experience of illness and of being a patient, embracing titles as disparate as Jennifer Hayden’s The Story Of My Tits, Ellen Forney’s Marbles and Roz Chast’s Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? (I wrote a short primer on the topic for School Library Journal recently.)

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