200 million blogs

A tech analysis firm said currently there are 200 million abandoned blogs, and 2007 will peak with 100 million active blogs. No wonder my bloglines for comic blogs is overflowing!
But, there have been some blog shutdowns of late: Focused Totality. The Brill Building. Absorbascon for 1 month.

It's hard out there for a blogger.

Working hard on the final details for the March 24th MidJersey Comicon.
Midlantic staters come on out! Big guests like Michael Golden, Mike Oeming, Chuck Satterlee, and lots of great indie creators and dealers. The NYCC was fun, but if you want real face time and not to be pushed and prodded and overheated, small comicons are the real deal!

New York Comiccon panels------
It was interesting to see 'big name' comic bloggers, but I didn't get what I wanted out of the panel, which was to contrast the old with the newcomers.

Galleycat - covers publishing, many writers and aspiring writers read
themes- comic numbers attractive to mainstream publishers
fun snark/random bitching
curiosity of fans all along, now it's cool and legitimate to like comics

comics212 some people only know Neil Gaiman from his books, add more context for the rest of the non fandom world
Heidi The Beat- news and views from blogs to larger part of media

RSS feeds- expect them- comics212 finds that annoying not to see whole page of site "it's so pretty"

real people read your blog; Heidi: only say on blog what I would to their face. There was a discussion about that, whether you could be polite and review work and then meet the person.

Knowing a lot of people in the industry can be good, but also a disadvantage
Don't 'play to comments'
As time goes on, it's harder to be the same small community it was

Newsarama- Chris said the site is old looking and badly designed

MARVEL INITIATIVE- only saw the end of the Quesada led panel.
Moon Knight pro-registration comes knocking for MK
Oeming Omega Flight June 2007 has punches but characters you can enjoy, take jerk like US Agent and put him in Canada
SubMariner June 2007 Namor not in great place
Slott Great Lakes Initiative

I booed the dude who got up and said "it would have been sweet to kill off Aunt May" ; some others did; then someone yelled out to "kill Mary Jane too". Marvel boys can be such punks!

VERTIGO-
Came in for Q&A, missed the person who was taken out after yelling at Vaughan; he was sitting back behind the podium.
Not a question of quality with V titles
Sales on Vertigo titles, "long term strategy is for everyone in the room to have more children."Brand is growing a culture
I didn't agree with Azzarello who told all of us if we buy other comics we aren't "the ideal Vertigo customer". I buy for me, the library, and tell patrons- that's pretty ideal.
Diggle talked about Hellblazer
Someone asked if the Vertigo universe is in DC continuity and "Constantine does not live in any world with Superman in it".

DC Nation-
This panel is a total sideshow with Didio as the carnival barker.
Countdown - Paul Dini- $2.99 an issue for 52 issues (!)
Event of the year...starts May 9 after the last 52, on 5/2
Jimmie Olson must die - foolish not to tap Kingdom Come
Seduction of the Innocent - Mary Marvel has mentors, is at a crossroads, takes surprise turn
Ray Palmer- Atom
Villians Defiant- two contentious supervillians together
Crypto issue "put to sleep"
Manhunter saved- changed mind 2x
Captain Carrot
Flash not as directionless as it seems
Dini read All Star Batman? "when I was a kid"
McKeever writing more
Diversity in comics? "White folks hate it" "committed to diversity in DC line to reflect buyers"
Firestorm find a home
Mike Norton exclusive to DC

Stephen King - Dark Tower panel
Let JJ Abrams and Lindelof option the rights to Dark Tower for $19
painter Isanove got Quesada - Q asked about painting over Jae Lee's work instead of Q's- he said "well, when you are working with a better artist". I almost fell out of my seat!

Much beat street

After a long, good day at the New York Comiccon with Philly Girl, I am beat. My feet are tired, back and I have piles of comics, posters, and shirts all around the living room.
I have to share all the artists and writers I met or met again at the con when I'm coherent. We did get a ticket to the Stephen King The Dark Tower panel, and PhillyGirl met Nicholas (Xander from Buffy).
Yesterday I met Brian Wood at the Vertigo table, told him how much I liked DMZ, and Local, and Demo. Photo here!

First person fangirl

Just a few more days to the New York Comicon! The guest list continues to expand. I will try to share my experience there by taking some camphone pics and posting them to the blog, starting this Friday into Saturday. I'm going to be zonked out and have lots to share, pics and summary, afterwards but at least you can get a first person view while I mingle and swoon at the NYCC.

It has been so cold here, I've been watching a lot of Tivo (Gilmore, Veronica, Greys, D Housewives, Colbert, Daily, Lost) and DVDs. A coworker really wanted me to watch Kingdom of Heaven about the crusades, with a lot of Orlando Bloom LOTR-type fight scenes. I also watched The Meth Epidemic, a very interesting Frontline show about the rise of meth and the influence of the pharmaceutical industry.
I saw a post on a blog recently about Entertainment Weekly being a comic friend; recently there are articles on DMZ, comic sales, graphic novels, and this latest one on the Dark Tower series. Fingers crossed I get one of the 'golden tickets' into the King panel on Sat. I've been reading King novels since I was about 11; I'm a librarian; and a comic fan-- shouldn't I get extra points?

Z for zombie

The librarian's fiction suggestion[we call this readers advisory in the biz]: World War Z . by Max Brooks
It's the aftermath of the Zombie war, and this book reads like a documentary. There are clips from all over the world, with characters relaying their story of how they and their countries fared. It took me a good bit longer to read than I expected, and it wasn't just horror fluff. A commentary of social classes and military complexes. Zombies are a bit overdone at this point, but this is the author of the Zombie Survival Guide that I also own. I just found out he is Mel Brooks' son!

Now I'm reading Lisey's Story by Stephen King. Another famous son of a writer is Joe Hill (King). Just learned he wrote Fanboyz, a story in Spiderman Unlimited in 2005. I've never read his work, but am waiting for his book Heart-shaped Box (like the Nirvana song) at the library soon.