Nickelodeon Magazine's Comics Awards Announced
Congratulations to Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid for winning two big awards this week! The young readers of Nickelodeon Magazine have had their say (17,000 of them, in fact) and voted for their favorite comics and manga series, and Diary won both Favorite Graphic Novel and Grossest Thing in Comics (for Cheese). The awards were just announced yesterday and will be featured prominently in the April issue of the magazine.
Kids Comic Con 2009 Takes New York on April 25th
This isn't just fun; it could be the best value you'll find in this tough economy. Kids Comic Con 2009 is free to everyone under 18. Everyone else just pays $5, still a bargain for what promises to be a day of learning in the name of comics. This is the third year for the event, which is being held on April 25 at Bronx Community College (181st St. and University Ave.). Besides workshops. panel discussions, and interactive activities, the convention will be attended by a number of publishers and creators.
-- John HoganMore Watchmen Material? It's Coming Tuesday
Despite being more than two and a half hours long, the Watchmen movie didn't manage to fit in everything from its original source material. With so much to work with, it's hard to imagine how the filmmakers could have done more to get everything in, but it's nice to know they tried. Evidence of that is coming on Tuesday, March 24, with the DVD release of Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter & Under the Hood.
Watchmen Opens at $55 Million...and Debate Rages On
Weekend movie reports are coming in and it looks as though Watchmen is estimated to have made $55.7 million this weekend. So is it a hit? Debates are raging about that just as wildly as they are over the merits of the movie. The film still has a ways to go to recoup its reported $150 million budget, but that shouldn't be too much trouble. Beyond that? That's anyone's guess, but when you're talking about Watchmen, nothing is certain.
-- John HoganThe Times, They Are A-Changin'...for the Better
Years ago, the New York Times, the newspaper of record and the purveyor of the most respected bestseller list in the publishing industry, struggled with how to recognize the tremendous sales records demonstrated by the Harry Potter books. They were outselling everything else, but they weren't represented on the traditional list. So, the list changed to include children's books. Now, the New York Times is adapting its list again...and it's for graphic novels and manga.
-- John HoganSwallow Me Whole Nominated for LA Times Prize
Congratulations to Nate Powell for earning a prestigious nomination for a Los Angeles Times book award. Nate's book Swallow Me Whole is one of five books to earn the distinction in the Young Adult Fiction category, and with the nomination, Nate joins an illustrious and select group: The last graphic novel to be nominated for a book award by the Times was Maus in 1992.
-- John Hogan
