Earlier this year, I reported on Wizard World’s financial status, where they made more money but were running at a loss. Now they’ve released their financial statements for the second quarter of 2014, where the headline is “Company Exceeds 2013 Revenue in First Half of 2014”. I guess their expanded slate of shows strategy is working, bringing in more money. Q2 2014 contained four comic cons, which brought in $7,110,940 (compared to only $2,901,416 in the second quarter of 2013). […]

I am not a lawyer, although I did take an intellectual property course once (in today’s world, where everyone ends up violating those laws, it seemed useful), so these are just some observations from an uninterested party. Here’s some background. The short version is that the San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) has sued the organizers of the Salt Lake Comic Con for federal trademark infringement. The folks behind Salt Lake then found it necessary to send out a press release saying […]

In conjunction with the Oregon Office of Emergency Management, Dark Horse Comics has put out a free short digital comic to teach earthquake preparedness to teenagers. Without Warning! is written by Althea Rizzo and Jeremy Barlow and illustrated by David Hahn. The idea is that the comic format will be more interesting to kids than other types of educational material. Now, it’s still a public interest comic. You won’t find great character insights or a compelling plot here. Instead, it […]

Sometimes, fans worry about media versions of their favorite comics, because they’re concerned that changes they don’t like will be made to draw more interest. However, a new series coming from Marvel tied into the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV show sounds like it’s making all the right moves to draw a wide audience. S.H.I.E.L.D. #1 launches in December. It’s written by Mark Waid, who does classic superheroes in fresh fashion, with new and unique ideas. Of course, it’s going to […]

Papercutz, an all-ages graphic novel line, has announced their first original graphic novel. The Lunch Witch is due out March 17, 2015. Previous Papercutz publications have been licensed properties (Lego Ninjago) or translated comics (such as Dance Class and Geronimo Stilton), much like their sister company NBM handles, or reprints (Classics Illustrated). Says publisher Terry Nantier, “We’ve published original graphic novels for adults for almost 40 years at NBM. And ever since we started Papercutz, I’ve wanted to create quality […]

The Salt Lake Comic Con, to be held in Utah in early September, is taking advantage of everyone’s focus this weekend on the San Diego Comic-Con to get attention by complaining about the bigger show picking on them. They claim to have received a cease-and-desist letter stating that their use of “Comic Con” violates the San Diego show’s trademark. I’m expressing this skeptically because the Salt Lake Comic Con got another round of press three months ago by claiming that […]

It will have been 10 years next year since Scholastic started the Graphix comic imprint to publish graphic novels for kids and teens. To celebrate, they have announced a new edition of Bone: Out From Boneville, the first volume in the immensely popular fantasy series by Jeff Smith. That book launched the imprint in February 2005 with its color edition. Bone: Out From Boneville, The Tribute Edition will be published on February 24, 2015, with two new content items: “a […]