September 18th, 2007 - Where did my Related Recap go? As of today, we're ceasing posting stories here abandoning the blog format. Given the recent redesign of the front page [details] of our site, from this point forward we're moving to an individual page-per-post format for future Recaps. What do we mean? Instead of a long page of stories (as you have here), you'll find today's update located here.

Each Related Recap will appear on the front page under Latest Information. At the bottom of each Recap, we'll provide a link to the previous post so you'll still be able to walk back through the page's history maintaining cosistency. Breaking it up just fits better with the new design.

September 17th, 2007 - Sure you've heard of Wizard Magazine, Alter Ego, The Comics Journal, Previews and the Comic Buyers Guide, but have you heard of Comic Foundry (pictured right)? It's a new comic trade which debuted in late August 2007 and enjoyed a solid kickoff party on August 29th at The Irish Rogue in New York.

The kickoff was attended by guests from DC Comics, Men's Health Magazine, In Style Magazine, TV Guide, Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, T: The New York Times Style Magazine, Complex Magazine, Midtown Comics, CondeNast, XXL Magazine, iStyle Magazine, Wizard Magazine, Publisher's Weekly, DNR News, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and many others. The event was also well represented by writers, artists, editors, readers and bloggers all of which came out to enjoy the event.

I have yet to lay hands on the issue, but there has been a fair amount of praise ringing across the blogs. Their painting the issue as a fresh voice commenting on comics. How fresh a voice? Letting their mission statement do the talking...

"Comic Foundry strives to be the magazine the comic world deserves. It checks fandom at the door and instead brings a respect for the industry and the readers. With diverse coverage that spans all genres and mediums, we aim to bring our readers unique stories, presented in a unique way. We have an ear to the underground and a finger on the pulse of the mainstream, and provide opportunities for both. Comic Foundry combines analysis with the aspiring and molds wit with wisdom. In short, it's your comic magazine."

I plan to give it a try and will return with word of our take on this new comic publication. You can learn more about the magazine by visting www.comicfoundry.com.

September 16th, 2007 - We're pleased to show the great badge art for this year's Small Press Expo [link]. It was designed by David Heatley and will be put to use Friday and Saturday, October 12th and 13th at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center in North Bethesda, Maryland.

At the Small Press Expo over 3,000 attendees and exhibitors, along with dozens of printers, distributors, retailers, and other industry professionals mingle in a unique format where the event only sells exhibitor space to independent publishers and not to retailers. It's all about small press here and remains a solid stop if you are interest in "what's next" or just a fan of outstanding comics.

David Heatley [link], the creator of this year's badges, is probably best known for his independent comic Deadpan. It's a comic filled with dreams, portraits and autobiographical diary creativity. His comics and drawings have appeared on the cover of The New Yorker, and in The New York Times, The Best American Comics 2006, An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, McSweeney's, Kramer's Ergot, Nickelodeon Magazine among others.

Today, we honor his badge work...

September 15th, 2007 - Through the years, there are comics and then there are comic institutions. Many such institutions (Bone, Cerebus, Strangers in Paradise, Sandman, Preacher) are gone. Some (Concrete, Hellboy, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Hellblazer) continue. Sergio Aragones Groo safely falls into the realm of utterly enjoyable comic institution in our book. This title is fun, has always been fun and remains a true "funny book" which I seek out whenever it hits the stands.

It's not all that often that we encourage you to run out and buy a book, but I feel safe directing you to do just that when it comes to the recently released (just this week!) 25th anniversary special of Groo from Dark Horse. Clocking in at a full 56 pages for $5.95, this is easily the title I was most looking forward to in this week's Wednesday haul.

In this anniversary issue, Aragones and Mark Evanier share a new story, The Plague, serve up The Groo Alphabet (kind of a Who's Who for the world of Groo), share details on why the world has a Groo to pick on, crack open some urban myths surrounding the character and look at Groo as a boy. A great presentation, cover to cover.

In honor of the anniversary (offering up heaps of thanks to Dark Horse for sharing the imagery), here are four preview pages to enjoy...

What's up next for Groo and crew? Sergio Aragones and Mark Evanier return next month with the all new Groo: Hell on Earth mini and they're set to take on the Spirit at DC. You bet we'll be taking a look at both those titles!

September 14th, 2007 - We'd like to take a moment today and welcome you to the strikingly new look of Comic Related! Come on in, feel free to take a look around and make yourself at home. You're among friends here!

Want to compare the difference? Here's what the site looked like yesterday [link] and here's what it looks like today [link]. We're pretty proud of the sudden and dramatic change!

What happened? It's pretty simple. Wednesday evening, we took a good hard look at the site and decided we no longer liked the face page. It felt dated and a bit confusing for the casual user. Over the 36 hours that followed, we threw out all our old ideas, tore the page apart and rebuilt it from the group up. The complete history of our site still exists and no content was harmed along the way. It's site evolution with you the user in mind.

What else has changed? We're anticipating some significant changes to our News page [link], but the other sections of the site should remain fairly undisturbed. One big change you will notice... From this point forward, news stories will be added as they break rather than once a day. Additionally, our news coverage is coming in line with the pace of our commentary moving to a standard seven day a week rather than the previous Monday through Friday update schedule. In the end, it's more news hosted locally more often!

Evolution in action!
This is just the first of many targeted improvements [details]
you'll see during year four of Comic Related.

September 13th, 2007 - Our new Related Recap feature returns for round #3. Each week, we're summing up what we consider not-to-be-missed comic blog reading (or in some cases just plain fun links) from across the web. Our goal is to tie together a solid taste of interesting rumblings you may have missed...

The Return of Barcodes: Diamond Summit Marks Industry in Transition [link] is a story worth reading from Publisher's Weekly.

Comic Shops Matter: The Comics Reporter does a solid job explaining [link] why comic shops still matter, or at least why they should.

Conan's hidden message? Thanks to Dana over at the Ferret Press/PANEL Weblog, we can point you to a very cool bit of secret text hidden [link] in Conan the Barbarian #8 as drawn by Barry Windsor-Smith back in the day.

Jim Shooter on utterly unreadable comics: Earlier this week, the Comics Report pointed out a few interesting comments by Jim Shooter [link] where he explains that "far too many comics are utterly unreadable".

Ultra-rare Action Comics #1 still out there: The Action Comics #1 used in the Victor Fox copyright infringement case of 1939 still exists. Get all the details [link] at Scoop!

Making comics better: Over within in CBR's Comics Should Be Good column, Brian Cronin quotes Jesse Hamm [link] as he describes 8 things he'd like to see more of in comics.

Watkiss Sandman paintings: Blog@Newsarama has pointed us [link] to the blog of John Watkiss who is auctioning a series of Sandman paintings he created for a presentation that Neil Gaiman gave some years ago.

Less than compelling covers: Dave's Long Box serves up a fun mix of covers [link] that serve to underwhelm even the most ardent fan.

Minicomics in Second Life: Yes, minicomics are starting to turn up in the virtual world of Second Life [link]. It appears the modern outlets for content exposure know no end.

Bookgasm on DC Cover Girls: The Bookgasm blog takes an interesting look [link] at Louise Simonson's new coffee table book DC Comics Covergirls

Scott McCloud scores a Quill: Scott's Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels took home a Quill Award this week [link]. Congratulations are well deserved here.

For the ultimate Batman fan: Okay, fan has a bit of double meaning here. Check out the new Batwing Ceiling Fan [link] as depicted by the Kung Fu Rodeo blog. While we're at it, don't miss the Superman coat hanger [link] as you bounce around the Rodeo.

What a great blog: I don't even have a story to point out here. Simply visit Dail B for Blog [link] and you'll understand why I'm pointing to it. What a great, great presentation! Just wow!

Check out previous updates!

September 12th, 2007 - We're looking for a few talented individuals currently creating comics (amateur or pro) who've always wanted a forum dedicated to their work but didn't want the hassle of setting it up or paying for it.

We have plenty of space and would love to welcome
you to our growing Comic Related family!

We offer a comfortable home, steady viewer traffic and we'll even personally monitor the forum to keep it spam-free. We plan to open this new creator focused section within the next couple weeks and we would love to have you make this area your home. Just drop us an e-mail with some detail about your title (writers, artists, editors, small press companies... all are welcome) and we'll see if we can't help increase exposure to your work.

By the way, this is a FREE offer. We benefit from having you here with us and you benefit from added exposure for your work. We'll handle all the heavy lifting leaving you with a new spot to show off your creativity. We're just an e-mail away!

September 11th, 2007 - As we mentioned earlier this week [link], big changes are in the works for the X-titles which just might spell the end of the X-Men as we know them. Coming out of the Messiah Complex storyline, the X-Men will stand forever altered by a series of events which still remain shrouded in mystery and the subject of some very tight lipped Marvel writers and editors.

At the Baltimore Comic-Con, fans were treated to the first images of the upcoming X-Force relaunch. The new series is set to debut in February of 2008 and will feature a team of four... Wolverine, X-23, Warpath and Wolfsbane. The scaled down roster promises a darker, more menacing tone and the black and gray costumes herald that change. Clayton Crain will be handling art for the new series and his style is evident in these images (click an image for the full size version). So far, no writer has been named.

September 10th, 2007 - Saturday evening, the 2007 Harvey Awards [link] were presented in conjunction with the Baltimore Comic-Con. These awards for excellence in the North American comic industry have been a hallmark of success since 1988. Here are this year's results...

BEST WRITER: Ed Brubaker, DAREDEVIL, Marvel Comics
BEST ARTIST: Frank Quitely, ALL-STAR SUPERMAN, DC Comics
BEST CARTOONIST: Jaime Hernandez, LOVE & ROCKETS, Fantagraphics
BEST LETTERER: Stan Sakai, USAGI YOJIMBO, Dark Horse Comics
BEST INKER: Danny Miki, ETERNALS, Marvel Comics
BEST COLORIST: Lark Pien, AMERICAN BORN CHINESE, First Second
BEST COVER ARTIST: James Jean, FABLES, DC/Vertigo
BEST NEW TALENT: Brian Fies, MOM'S CANCER, Abrams
BEST NEW SERIES: THE SPIRIT, DC Comics
BEST CONTINUING OR LIMITED SERIES: DAREDEVIL, Marvel Comics
BEST SYNDICATED STRIP: THE K CHRONICLES, Keith Knight, United Comics / Salon.com
BEST ANTHOLOGY: FLIGHT, VOL. 3, Ballantine Books
BEST GRAPHIC ALBUM - PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED: ABSOLUTE NEW FRONTIER, DC
BEST SINGLE ISSUE OR STORY: CIVIL WAR # 1, Marvel Comics
BEST AMERICAN EDITION OF FOREIGN MATERIAL: ABANDON THE OLD IN TOKYO, Yoshihiro Tatsumi, Drawn and Quarterly (Tie) / MOOMIN, Tove Jansson, Drawn and Quarterly (Tie)
BEST ONLINE COMICS WORK: PERRY BIBLE FELLOWSHIP [link], Nicholas Gurewitch
SPECIAL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN PRESENTATION: LOST GIRLS, Top Shelf
BEST GRAPHIC ALBUM - ORIGINAL: PRIDE OF BAGHDAD, Brian K. Vaughn & Nino Henrichon, DC/Vertigo
BEST DOMESTIC REPRINT PROJECT: COMPLETE PEANUTS, Fantagraphics
SPECIAL AWARD FOR HUMOR IN COMICS: Bryan Lee O'Malley, SCOTT PILGRIM & THE INFINITE SADNESS, Oni Press
BEST BIOGRAPHICAL, HISTORICAL, OR JOURNALISTIC PRESENTATION: ART OUT OF TIME: UNKNOWN COMIC VISIONARIES 1900-1969, Abrams

HERO INITIATIVE AWARD: Joe Kubert

We offer our congratulations to this outstanding 2007 class of winners.

September 9th, 2007 - During a recent Chicago convention [link], Marvel's own Joe Quesada explained that the X-Men would soon stop being a family and begin the transformation into an army. It looks like that transformation has officially begun. We received an update direct from Marvel containing the image presented below and three simple words... "No More... X-men". That's a bold statement. With that message came a date; September 10th, 2007. We'll see what the future holds (and September 10th) holds for the mighty mutant masses...

September 8th, 2007 - Yesterday, Warner Brothers unveiled a bombshell of an announcement when they released word of T-Works. Here's the full press release with our thoughts at the end...

Warner Brothers Announces T-Works

 

In spring 2008, Warner Bros. Entertainment will launch T-Works, a brand-new broad-appeal immersive animation experience which, for the first time ever, brings together all of the key characters from the Studio’s core animated properties in an expansive, rich online environment. The project was unveiled today by Barry Meyer, Chairman & CEO, and Alan Horn, President & COO, Warner Bros.

T-Works is a cross-divisional and companywide initiative designed to take the Studio’s wealth of animated characters beyond the media where they have an extremely rich history (television, film, home video, consumer products) and make them accessible to fans in a fully immersive and customizable online world. T-Works, which will be ad supported, also marks the first time that all the key characters from Warner Bros. Entertainment’s unmatched family of animated icons, including Warner Bros. Animation, Looney Tunes, Hanna-Barbera and DC Comics are brought together in a single site and tied to a user rewards system.

The site offers unparalleled levels of interaction for the broadest appeal, from watching originally produced and classic library episodes online and playing games to customizing characters and exploring virtual worlds. T-Works also embraces an open philosophy, giving fans tools for self-expression and personalization in order to “brand” their digital lives anywhere on the Web. The grab-and-go capability enables fans to incorporate a custom avatar into their lives, whether it’s on T-Works or utilized in the participant’s digital world (MySpace, Facebook, etc.). Fans will be able to forge a deeper relationship with the characters than they have ever been able to in the past.

Warner Bros. Animation is in development with Studio 2.0, the original programming digital production arm of the Warner Bros. Television Group, on two projects: an untitled “Batman” shortform series and an untitled project based on “The Wizard of Oz,” both of which will debut exclusively on T-Works. More details on these projects will be announced in the near future.

“Warner Bros.’ iconic animated characters represent a very key part of the company’s film and television histories—so it’s fitting that they serve as the initial entry point into this online universe,” said Meyer. “In addition to being a great entertainment destination for fans, T-Works will also serve as a great marketing platform for all the Studio’s businesses, helping us to reach audiences in a space and in a manner that’s all about Warner Bros.”

“While the focus of T-Works is our amazing collection of animated superstars, this online destination represents much more than that,” said Horn. “T-Works presents us with a great environment and thus a great platform to highlight many of our current projects, from feature films to made-for-videos, consumer products, comic books and more.”

“T-Works fits perfectly with our overall digital strategy of creating original content online, as well as developing compelling consumer destinations,” said Bruce Rosenblum, President, Warner Bros. Television Group. “T-Works will not only provide a great collaborative opportunity for projects that bridge a number of divisions at the company, but it will also be an invaluable resource in developing and incubating properties that may transcend their online roots and live in other media.”

“T-Works will offer original entertainment content, social interaction and an intimacy with our beloved and iconic characters like never before in an environment that’s safe and appropriate for all ages,” said Lisa Judson, President, Warner Bros. Animation. “People have literally grown up with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, the Flintstones and Scooby-Doo, and we’re building an innovative, creative, cutting-edge home where people of all ages can interact and play with our characters in a compelling entertainment environment.”

“The animated versions of the DC heroes have been viewer favorites for years,” said Paul Levitz, President and Publisher, DC Comics. “T-Works will give our fans new ways to connect with our characters. The DCHeroZone should be a great new destination for our fans.”

The T-Works experience features:

• Immersive virtual worlds where users interact with each other and assume a cartoon identity based on existing characters--they can play, chat and create a personal cartoon home complete with furniture, art, pets and more from Warner Bros. Entertainment’s animation asset library

• Video channel featuring hundreds of hours of classic Warner Bros. Animation product as well as contemporary programs including “Looney Tunes,” “The Flintstones” and “Batman Beyond” and original made-for-broadband animated short-form series

• A personalization channel to serve all aspects of fans’ digital lives from customizing social networking profiles, portable widgets, desktop applications and more

• A games channel with over 125 games featuring never-before-seen character match-ups

• Video Mash-Up Maker where users can create and share their own cartoon remixes

• Sitewide reward system that gives points for all activity that the user does both within the virtual worlds and throughout the site--points can be redeemed for online assets as well as offline rewards

• Destination for younger users and their parents to spend time together with age-appropriate activities based on family-friendly favorites such as “Baby Looney Tunes,” “Krypto the Super Dog” and many more

Personal security, with a particular focus on the youngest site participants, is central to T-Works’ technologies, with monitors, filters, parental notification and controls and special components built in to assure safety for all users.

With the inclusion of DCHeroZone and a promised new Batman project, this announcement is clearly one which would appeal to just about any DC Comics. The press release sounds as if the project will be kid focused and kid friendly which is great for expanding the future reader base for DC Comics, but I wonder how strong an appeal it will have for the slightly older and primary readership of DC titles? It certainly can't hurt.

Having complete access to the vast library of Warner Brothers cartoons is an amazing option for fans. Me? I'm looking forward to seeing the Scoobie Doobies, the Yogi Yahooeys, and the Really Rottens go up against each other once again for a 2008 version of the classic All Star Laff-A-Lympics. Who couldn't love that show? Sometimes the villains actually won!

I look forward to having the option of to be able to roll out of be on a Saturday morning, stagger over to my laptop, grab some cereal (Captain Crunch of course) and tune in to the history of Warner Brothers animation. For me, all the extras promised are simply icing on the cake. It sounds like a great "coming soon" destination spot and I'm looking forward to loosing a few hours checking it all out.

In parting, after reading this announcement, I'm quickly curious as to how this will change or tie into the existing DC Comics website? Here's hoping for an expansion of that existing web destination.

.

September 7th, 2007 - Are you an amature artist looking to make it big in the industry? Comic Book Idol makes no promises but first year winner Patrick Scherberger was soon chosen to pencil Marvel Adventures Spider-Man by Joe Quesada. Its second winner, Carlos Rodriguez, went on to a pencil ShadowHawk, his first regular monthly assignment working with Jim Valentino.

What is Comic Book Idol? According to the official site [link], Comic Book Idol is an amateur art competition sponsored by Comic Book Resources (CBR) and participating advertisers. It’s a five (5) week, five (5) round contest in which contestants will be asked to complete an art assignment each week by a deadline. A panel of comic book professionals comment on the artists’ work in each round. Fans determine which contestants move on to subsequent rounds by voting in a weekly poll. And all of this action takes place in the Comic Book Idol Forum [link].

Winners take home a fully paid trip to the 2008 New York Comicon, face time with J. Torres, assignments from Oni Press and IDW and an assignment from current Marvel talent headhunter C.B. Cebulski.

If you're an amature creator, it sounds like a great opportunity. If you not a creator, you can still vote and check out all the small press fun!

September 6th, 2007 - In a suprising move, DC Comics has announced that it has penned a new distribuion deal with Random House. After roughly 20 years working with Time Warner/Hachette, Publishers Weekly is reporting [link] that DC is moving to Randon House for its bookstore distribution. From the article...

In a deal that could mark a new phase in mainstream acceptance of graphic novels, DC Comics is switching its book trade distribution to Random House Publisher Services after more than 20 years using Warner Books/Hachette for bookstore distribution. The switch will take place in spring 2008. DC will continue to use Diamond Comics Distributors to distribute to the comics shop market. The change teams one of the largest publishers of comics and graphic novels in the world with the book industry’s largest and most far-reaching distribution service. 

 

Paul Levitz (pictured right), president and publisher of DC Comics, said the decision to change its distribution after so many years with Warner Books was spurred by Hachette’s purchase of the Time Warner Book Group and the end of its longtime distribution agreement with Warner. “We’ve had a very positive experience with Time Warner/Hachette, but the sale gave us an opportunity to explore the marketplace. The graphic novel business has changed to an astounding degree over the last 20 years and we decided to look at the market and see what the distribution market is like now and what it might look like in the future."

 

Jeff Abraham, president of RHPS, said “We’re thrilled with this new relationship. Most of my staff and sales force have been fans of DC Comics long before we ever thought they’d be a partner.” 

 

Asked to characterize the terms of the deal, Levitz said it was difficult “because it’s not apples to apples. We’ve never had a sales force of any size in the book trade. We’ve always done sales ourselves using a very small sales team.” Levitz said that he was not worried that DC Comics titles might be lost in the giant Random House distribution operation. “We’re used to being in a big environment,” he said.

 

September 3rd, 2007 - Our new Related Recap feature returns for round #2. We're summing up what we consider not-to-be-missed comic blog reading (or in some cases just plain fun links) from across the web. Our goal here is to tie together a solid taste of interesting rumblings you may have missed...

Stan Lee does Robot Chicken! Drop what you are doing, visit this site [link] and check out Stan Lee's recent appearance on Cartoon Network's Robot Chicken. Funny, funny stuff.

Diamond skips Harbinger: Last week Diamond Comic Distributors decided to not carry Harbinger: The Beginning Hardcover published by Valiant Entertainment due to a trademark dispute. ICv2 [link] has all the details. Newsarama takes a deeper look at the Valiant vs. Valiant debate [link] as well.

Diamond to pull penalty: Lying in the Gutters is reporting that Diamond may soon announce either a reduction or elimination of their reorder penalty for non-Premier publishers. Look for the subtitle "Diamond Geezers?" in their recent update [link] for all the details.

DC's Essential Graphic Novels: Recently DC Comics summed up what it considered the 30 Essential Graphic Novels [link]. There are some very strong stories captured here.

The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier only in US: Due to cited international copyright concerns, Alan Moore and Kevin 'O'Neill's work will be limited to the US this time out. Newsarama has the details [link]. Comic Book Resources also offers up a look at both covers for the #1 here [link].

Kirkman and Faerber: Comic Pants has a solid interviews [link] with Robert Kirkman (Invincible, The Walking Dead, Astounding Wolf-Man and Marvel Zombies) and Jay Faerber (Noble Causes and Dynamo 5).

Digital saving the Industry? Gary Reed's blog discusses the topics of "How to Save the Comics Industry" and “Is Digital Going to Kill the Comic Stores?". He raises some very interesting points with his update [link].

Manga anyone? Comics212 by Christopher Butcher serves up an interesting discussion [link] of the current state of Manga titles availability.

JLA cuts an album: The Just Imagine blog [link] shares a classic '60s album cover featuring the Justice League of America. Vintage swag with some fun cover art!

MAGIC Apparel Show: Kung-Fu Rodeo [link] took in the MAGIC apparel show in Las Vegas and returned with Dark Knight tie-in's, Halo stuff and more.

Dark Knight goes boom: While we're talking Dark Knight, Bags and Boards (still one of my favorite website names) has a great look at some demolition coverage [link] tied to the filming of the next Batman movie.

DC's Paul Levitz: IVc2 scores twice this week as the present the state of the comics market as summed up by DC President and Publisher Paul Levitz [link]. Solid interview!

Batmobile on a budget: We leave you this week with a bit of fun thanks to Blog@Newsarama [link]. Times are tough!

Check out previous update!

September 3rd, 2007 - A couple weeks back we reviewed Shadowgirls #1 [link]. That review goes a long way toward sharing all the details on this series but, summing it up, we really liked this story. The comic looks great on the web and utterly amazing in print. This is one of three new comics we left Wizard World Chicago honestly excited to have discovered and we feel fairly certain this title will make our "Best Indy of 2007" top 20 list when we count down our favorites in December.

This series has shown real promise and we're pleased to report that the creative team has begun unveiling issue #2 on-line! They started with a cover unveil yesterday [link] and jumped right into the action today [link]. To read Shadowgirls, you simply visit their site [link] and dig in as they're posting a page a day unleashing one sharp looking new tale that will keep you coming back for more.

The team took a few days off between issues sharing some great poster art, their Shadowbabies strip and some slick wallpapers. It was a nice fill while they prepared the rollout of the new issue. If you missed it, be sure to walk back a few days (either through the arrow at the top of each page or by clicking around the calendar). We're betting the August 30th wallpaper [link] is already turning up on comic fan's desktops. Not to be missed fun!

September 2nd, 2007 - Did you know that artist Jim Lee is a pretty active blogger? If you didn't, you should tune in to his Gelatometti blog [link] were he posts art, industry stuff and a little bit of anything that hits him as interesting. How active is the blog? 17 posts in August! Interesting reading.

Gelatometti, in case you are wondering, is a portmanteau or new word which was created from a combination of gelato (Italian for ice cream) and fumetti (Italian for comics). Check Jim's FAQ [link] for how that all relates.

We're calling attention to Lee's site today as he's pointed the way for a colorist to submit work for a position at DC Comics [link]. DC Comics is looking for a Colorist III for the Wildstorm Production department. The position will utilize computer programs (Adobe Photoshop) to color comic book pages daily. Additional duties will include laying flats when other work is not available or as instructed, printing color proofs as required, attending colorist meetings as needed, referencing other color separation houses’ work and techniques to enhance skills and performing other related duties as assigned.

Quoting the site (the reference to posting a link should be done on Jim's page [link]), "If you really want to get our attention, you can also color the picture above and post a link below. (Full-size scan also uploaded to deviantART.) It doesn't guarantee a position, but it'll be seen by all the right eyes."

September 1st, 2007 - Today we're celebrating the three year anniversary of our humble home on the web, www.comicrelated.com. Our site debuted back on September 1, 2004. Today, we thought we'd take a quick time out and share some of our achievements and plans for the future.

Looking at the numbers...

We've witnessed a real growth in readership over the last year. At the end of August 2006, we had 302,506 hits and 35,043 user sessions for that month [stats]. During the last 365 days, that's grown to our current August 2007 count of 503,952 hits and a record setting (for us anyway) 76,420 user sessions. That's almost a 66% growth in hits and we more than doubled our readership over the last year. Welcome to all our new friends. We think you'll like what you see.

Content flows fast during year three...

New in Yr 3: Media Center: Joining the site in February of 2007, our Media Center [link] has become one of the anchor points of Comic Related. When it comes to comic movies, television shows and animated features, we have you covered! We're constantly adding new pages that track individual projects whether they be confirmed or just at the point of rumors. Through those pages we serve up news stories, casting decisions, production schedules, the latest official word and any video we can find tied to the show. Since it's debut, we've launched individual pages tracking 65 different features! We're adding content those pages almost daily and new pages are added all the time.

New in Yr 3: Media Center (Video and Audio): On this same page, you can also get a weekly look at both the best in comic book viral video [link] and comic podcasts [link]. Adding on average 35 to 75 podcast each week, the podcast area alone is quickly becoming one of the undisputed best spots on the net to see what's come out in the world of comic podcasting.

New in Yr 3: Daily Commentary: Starting in June of this year, our commentary (aka the Related Recap) page [link] officially went daily. 365 days a year, come rain, shine, snow or hail you'll find us here posting original content covering the world of comics and comic culture.

New in Yr 3: Conventions: This year we made a real effort to begin ramping up our convention coverage testing the waters with Comic-Con and culminating in our Wizard World Chicago coverage [link]. We still have Mid-Ohio-Con to go in 2007 and we have plans to attend up to five major shows in 2008 including San Diego, New York, Chicago, Columbus and Baltimore. Believe us when we say we're just getting warmed up when it comes to live event coverage.

New in Yr 3: On Sale: Debuting in July of this year, our On Sale page [link] marked our first steps into the world of e-commerce. We opened the doors with just a few books, but plan to flow much more of our 70-long-box-strong anchor collection onto the site in year 4! This is one area of the site marked for tremendous growth in the months ahead.

Strong in Yr 3: Links: I think we host one of the best links pages [link] in the business. We add 10 to 30 links every week, we feature one select site graphically each month and we validate by hand every link on the page quarterly. Currently, our page features 1,550 links. Heck, we even track the page's history for easy reference [link].

Strong in Yr 3: News: We continued our long running tradition of posting press releases, story pointers and original content through our news page [link] every Monday through Friday. Focusing not just on the primary publishers, we feel we share a solid cross section of the best of the best in comic news and features with each update. This isn't a news aggregator. We manually sift through the web and select what we think are to best stories to share each day.

Strong in Yr 3: Weekly Features: Started in February and September of 2006 respectively, our Hot Shot of the Week [link] and Quote of the Week [link] pages continue to churn out solid highlights from around the world of comics.

Strong in Yr 3: Everything Else: Don't forget we also post regular, detailed reviews [link] featuring solid graphic and text previews from each issue covered. Our cover galleries [link] look back on some amazing comic history. Last but not least, our forums [link] currently boast over 1,020 registered members. Across the board, we think we have a lot to offer any comic fan.

Looking to the future...

The future is very bright. Here are a few hints at things to come in year four:

Contributing writers offering new voices and new content to the site

Creator interviews and significantly increased review frequency

The debut of our first Related Recap podcast

Video and Audio live from the convention floor

Heavy expansion of our On Sale area

An evolution in the use of our Forums

Gallery growth featuring the work of up and coming artists

Streamlining and improving the architecture and usability of the site

In parting...

We're really excited about the future of this website. We've grown from a small start to a site that's updated multiple times a day, 365 days a year. We may not be at the front of the pack just yet, but give us another year or two and you'll find us taking the lead. We invite you to be geek chic... Be one of the cool kids... Bookmark our site and check back every day. One day soon, you'll be able to say "I was reading Comic Related way back when it started and look what it's become today."

Continue back to previous August 2007