Newsarama Sold Again

Apparently, Imaginova, Inc, the company that bought Newsarama about 2 years ago, has now sold the site to another company - Editor's note

From Business Wire:

TopTenREVIEWS Acquires Technology and Entertainment Web Sites Space.com, LiveScience.com and Newsarama.com

OGDEN, Utah--(BUSINESS WIRE)--TopTenREVIEWS today announced it has acquired the Consumer Media Division of Imaginova Inc., a privately held company based in New York City. Included in the acquisition are Space.com, LiveScience.com and Newsarama.com. As part of the ongoing expansion, TopTenREVIEWS has established the TechMediaNetwork to incorporate these properties.

TopTenREVIEWS, the 4th largest technology news site according to September 2009 U.S. comScore Media Metrix data, joins Space.com, LiveScience.com and Newsarama.com as TechMediaNetwork properties, a network encompassing technology, science and entertainment. Combined, 12.2 million people visit TechMediaNetwork sites each month.

“This acquisition expands TopTenREVIEWS' coverage as a trusted technology adviser and strengthens the company as a source of technology news,” said TopTenREVIEWS founder and CEO Jerry Ropelato. “We see strong potential for growth in traffic and revenue as a result of the synergy between the sites.”

TopTenREVIEWS is a privately held technology review Web site covering software, Web services, consumer electronics and entertainment, offering millions of reviews in more than 350 categories. With Space.com, LiveScience.com and Newsarama.com, TopTenREVIEWS expands its coverage to include news and information about technology, science and comic genre entertainment, in addition to content about purchasing the best technology and entertainment products. TopTenREVIEWS will expand its coverage of consumer reviews to include products and services related to the new properties.

“Creating TechMediaNetwork is a natural progression in our company’s goal to create a more comprehensive network of technology and entertainment news, information and purchasing advice,” said Stan Bassett, president of TopTenREVIEWS. “Our new tech network broadens our ability to educate people on a wider range of topics – from astronomy to health to computer security.”

The sites, each brand leaders in their markets, will remain fundamentally the same. The science properties syndicate original content to the following news portals: Yahoo!, MSNBC, AOL, USA Today and FoxNews.com. TopTenREVIEWS will also continue the relationships Imaginova had with the scientific community, including the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), while expanding its technology and entertainment coverage.

Space enthusiasts visit Space.com for compelling content about space science, astronomy and exploration news. Launched in 1999, Space.com has enjoyed the past management participation of several key space-related public figures.
LiveScience.com is the leading source for groundbreaking developments in health, the environment and technology. It is the 2007 winner of the Online Journalism Award for Specialty Journalism among large Web sites, by the Online News Association (ONA). Known for its ability to convert often complex concepts into simple explanations, LiveScience attracts millions of visitors each month.

Newsarama.com provides comprehensive coverage and commentary of comics and genre-related entertainment. It won the 2008 Eisner Award for Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism. Entertainment Weekly included Newsarama in its list of "100 Greatest Websites," and the American Library Association lists it as a research resource in the field of comics.

Founded in 2003, TopTenREVIEWS.com provides consumers with side-by-side product and pricing comparisons to help them research, shop and purchase technology and entertainment products and services. To fuel growth, TopTenREVIEWS received a Series A investment from venture capital firms Highway 12 Ventures and Village Ventures in June 2008. The investment in TopTenREVIEWS built on the success of the initially self-funded company's vision to change the way consumers shop for technology and entertainment products and services by providing helpful, accurate and unbiased reviews and resources.

To learn more about TechMediaNetwork, visit http://www.techmedianetwork.com/.
For more information about TopTenREVIEWS, visit: www.toptenreviews.com/about-us.html.
For more information on LiveScience, visit: http://www.livescience.com/; Space.com, http://www.space.com/; and Newsarama, http://www.newsarama.com/.

TopTenREVIEWS is a trademark of TopTenREVIEWS Inc. All other names are used for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners. [END]

Bluewater to Publish "Nanny and Hank"

Press release from Bluewater Productions:

BLUEWATER GETS A TASTE FOR BINGO AND BLOOD WITH “NANNY AND HANK”...OY GEVALT!

Nanny and Hank believed they would be spending their golden years enjoying the grandkids and playing mahjong and canasta at their seniors-only condo complex in Ft. Lauderdale. The 70 year old couple never thought they would be spending eternity as vampires in Bluewater Productions’ upcoming original limited series comic.

The light hearted horror series, “Nanny and Hank” follows the misadventures of a pair of curmudgeonly septuagenarians as they deal with planning a family vacation while quenching their thirst for blood.

“Call it a love letter to my grandparents. The main characters are based on my own grandparents, and it was a riot trying to insert some of the funny old family stories into a vampiric context,” said Bluewater president and series creator Darren Davis. “And yes, there names really were Nanny and Hank!”

Slated for a Spring 2010 release, this mini-series pairs writer Mark L. Miller , Ain’t It Cool News and Vincent Price Presents writer) with artist Steve Babb.
According to Miller, Nanny and Hank is a vampire story unlike any vampire story you've read before. As a rabid fan of the genre, I went out of my way to break away from some of the overused aspects of this type of literature, giving the story not only copious amounts of blood and action, but a strong heart that makes you laugh with and care about these characters.

“As a kid I remember finding my grandmothers false teeth in a cup of water. It freaked me out then, so you can imagine the kind of fun we had adapting that into the story,” Davis mused. “And don’t get me started on their dog Buttons.” [END]

Al Columbia at Fantagraphics Bookstore 11/7

Press release from Fantagraphics Books:

Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery celebrates Al Columbia’s astonishing new graphic novel PIM & FRANCIE on Saturday, November 7.

Al Columbia is widely regarded among his peers as one of the most accomplished and influential artists working in comics today. On the occasion of the publication of PIM & FRANCIE, his most ambitious work to date, Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery is hosting a rare public appearance by the cartoonist on Saturday, November 7 from 6:00 to 8:00 PM.

PIM & FRANCIE represents a breathtaking vision of contemporary American art. Collecting over a decade’s worth of artifacts, excavations, comic strips, animation stills, storybook covers, and much more, this broken jigsaw puzzle of a book tells the story of title characters Pim and Francie, a pair of childlike imps whose irresponsible antics get them into horrific, fantastic trouble. Their loosely defined relationship only contributes to the existential fear that lingers underneath the various perils they are subjected to. Columbia’s brilliant, fairytale-like backdrops hint at further layers of reality lurking under every gingerbread house or behind every sunny afternoon. Never have such colorful, imaginative vistas instilled such an atmosphere of dread, and with such a wicked sense of humor.

Columbia’s work has been previously published by Fantagraphics Books in two issues of Biologic Show, as well as anthologies Zero Zero, Blab!, and most recently MOME. He currently resides in Connecticut.

The reception will feature an exhibition of recent work by Al Columbia from the collection of Scott Eder. Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery is located at 1201 S. Vale Street at the corner of Airport Way S. in the heart of Seattle’s historic Georgetown arts community. Please join us on Saturday, November 7 to welcome this exceptional artist to Seattle.

Listing Information:
AL COLUMBIA: PIM & FRANCIE
Art exhibition and book signing
Saturday, November 7, 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Exhibition continues through December 9, 2009
Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery
1201 S. Vale Street (at Airport Way S.) Seattle, WA
206.658.0110 www.fantagraphics.com
Open daily 11:30 to 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM [END]

Free Disney App at App Store

From Business Wire:

Free Disney App Now Available on App Store

New App Brings Popular Disney Characters, Video, Music and Games to iPhone and iPod touch; Offers Innovative ‘Click2Life’ Feature and Syncs with Other Disney Apps

NORTH HOLLYWOOD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Disney.com today announced it has launched an app for iPhone and iPod touch on the App Store. The Disney App features an array of high quality Disney content including areas dedicated to Characters, Music, Video and Games. Content in the app will be updated regularly, providing kids and families with instant access to the latest Disney news and entertainment.

The new Disney App will also offer innovative features including “Click2Life” which allows iPhone users to take pictures of images from the online version of Disney.com with their device that will then come to life within the app and turn into an animated image. Additionally, the Disney App will automatically discover other Disney apps and games available through the App Store, organizing all Disney-branded content within one destination on each device so users can easily access their favorite games and entertainment content.

Key content features within the new Disney App include:

Disney at your fingertips – instant access to the latest Disney news and entertainment.
Characters – interact with hundreds of Disney’s most popular characters through customizable photo frames and audio greetings that can be customized by users.
Music – listen to Radio Disney live, play “Name that Song,” watch music videos and purchase the latest Disney music from the iTunes Store.
Videos – watch new featured and original videos each week including Disney.com’s “Backstage Pass” and “Spotlight” segments.
Games and My Disney Apps – download and manage free and paid Disney games and other apps.

“While this app provides seamless access to all things Disney, delivering unmatched entertainment and information directly to mobile devices, we’re not simply recreating Disney.com on your iPhone or iPod touch,” stated Jason Davis, vice president, Disney.com. “Features like ‘Click2Life’ utilize iPhone’s revolutionary functionality to create exciting new ways to interact with Disney characters and content.”

The Disney.com App is available for free from the App Store on iPhone and iPod touch or at iTunes.com/WaltDisney along with an extensive line-up of other free and paid Disney Apps.

Already an online and mobile Web powerhouse, Disney.com reaches nearly 31 million unique visitors per month, ranking as the No. 1 Community-Family & Parenting site. Among mobile Web sites, Disney.com ranks as the No. 1 entertainment mobile site. Disney also has an expanding line-up of paid apps currently available in the App Store including Toy Story Mania!, Disney Fairies Fly, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Breakspin, among many others.

About Disney Online
Disney Online (http://www.disney.com/ or text MOBILE to DISNEY*), a unit of Disney Interactive Media Group, produces the No. 1 ranked community-family and parenting destination on the World Wide Web. Launched in 1996, Disney.com is the online and now mobile web gateway to all of the company's Disney-branded entertainment initiatives, providing comprehensive access to, and information about Disney movies, travel, television, games, music, shopping and live events.

In addition, Disney Online develops and publishes a range of online products and services including Pirates of the Caribbean Online, Disney's Toontown Online, Disney Fairies Pixie Hollow and Disney Club Penguin.

Sources:
Traffic: comScore Media Metrix September 2009
Mobile: m:metrics August 2009 and internal tracking *Msg. and data rates may apply.

If you’re under 18, get your parents’ permission first. [END]

Jump on Rosario+Vampire

I finished reading Rosario+Vampire, Vol. 10

I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin. This is a good jumping on point for new readers.

Lovely Complex at 15

I finished reading Love Com, Vol. 15 (Love*Com)

I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin.

Fantagraphics Books to Publish New Golden Age Collections

Press release from Fantagraphics Books:

FANTAGRAPHICS & EDITOR GREG SADOWSKI PARTNER ON SEVEN NEW BOOK COLLECTIONS OF CLASSIC COMIC BOOK MATERIAL

Fantagraphics Books is proud to announce that it has struck a deal with comics historian and editor Greg Sadowski to produce seven new collections of classic comic book material for the Seattle publisher. Sadowski is a Harvey and Eisner Award-nominated editor who has previously overseen the publication of the acclaimed collections SUPERMEN: THE FIRST WAVE OF COMIC BOOK HEROES 1936-1941, as well as B. KRIGSTEIN and B. KRIGSTEIN COMICS. He is a former staff editor and designer for Fantagraphics Books and currently works freelance from his home on San Juan Island in Washington State’s Puget Sound.

"Greg has written one of the landmark cartoonist biographies (and only the first half yet!) with B. Krigstein, and the collections of comics from the '40s and '50s that he's edited for us — B. Krigstein Comics and Supermen!, to date— have been meticulously assembled, with an eye toward selection, flow, and accompanying historical text. We're pleased that he's got such an ambitious agenda ahead,” says Fantagraphics Publisher Gary Groth, who acquired the books.

The books will be released one per season, beginning with FOUR COLOR FEAR: FORGOTTEN HORROR COMICS OF THE 1950s in June 2010 and produced in collaboration with comics historian John Benson (SQUA TRONT). The second book, due in Fall 2010, will be a collection of legendary artist Alex Toth’s work for Standard Comics in the 1950s. The remaining five books will be release in subsequent seasons, with exact schedules to be announced. The full list of books follows below.

FOUR COLOR FEAR: Forgotten Horror Comics of the 1950s

RELEASE DATE: June 2010

This full-color 304-page edition collects the finest horror comics of the pre-code era (1950-54). EC is the company that most fans associate with horror, but to the average reader there remain unseen a tremendous volume of genuinely disturbing, compulsive, and imaginative stories from publishers such as Ajax-Farrell, Atlas, Charlton, Fawcett, Quality, Standard and many more. Four Color Fear collects the best, and includes 40 full-sized covers. Featured are comic book legends such as Jack Cole, Steve Ditko, George Evans, Frank Frazetta, Alex Toth, Al Williamson, Basil Wolverton, Wally Wood, L.B.Cole, Matt Fox and many others. “In these types of compilations, I try to provide a service to the reader who has neither the time, inclination, nor bank account to purchase and sift through hundreds of golden age comic books to glean off that precious 10% - the most distinctive and worthwhile examples from a particular genre,” says Sadowski.

SETTING THE STANDARD: Alex Toth at Standard Comics 1952-54

RELEASE DATE: Fall 2010

“It's hard to overstate the influence of Alex Toth on the art of comic books,” says Sadowski. “Toth was from that first generation who grew up reading comic books, and he came to the medium armed with enough discipline, talent, and sheer love and respect for the medium to create a technique free of condescension, artifice, or shortcuts. His work at Standard first established him as the ‘comic book artist's artist.’” Learning his craft at Eastern and DC, Alex Toth arrived at Standard Comics in late 1951 with a fully formed, graphically impeccable technique perfectly suited to the comic book medium – honest, uncompromising, and free of condescension and artifice. Includes a biographical sketch and an essay on Toth’s approach to comic book storytelling, based heavily on his interviews and written correspondence.

THE ROAD TO PLASTIC MAN: The Golden Age Comics of Jack Cole 1937-41

RELEASE DATE: t.b.a.

“From his earliest days in comics, Jack Cole was one intense artist / writer. It just took him a few years to fully incorporate humor into his work, so this book tracks his artistic evolution leading up to Plastic Man,” says Sadowski. Jack Cole’s irreverent yet artistically first-rate approach to comic book art was a refreshing departure for a young industry that tended to take itself a bit too seriously. His work influenced many of his contemporaries, most notably Will Eisner, whose Spirit gradually assumed Cole’s intoxicating mixture of fun and high drama. The book begins with early “big foot” work for Centaur’s Funny Pages, then gives way to raucous adventure and crime stories before honing in on the nefarious Claw, the boy inventor Dickie Dean, and proto-superheroes the Comet, Daredevil, and Silver Streak.

AWAY FROM HOME: EC Artists at Other Companies

RELEASE DATE: t.b.a.

The key ingredient in what made EC the most celebrated comic book company of all time was its remarkable stable of artists: Reed Crandall, Jack Davis, George Evans, Will Elder, Al Feldstein, Jack Kamen, Bernard Krigstein, Harvey Kurtzman, Graham Ingels, Joe Orlando, John Severin, Basil Wolverton, Wallace Wood, and Al Williamson, as well as that of part-timers Frank Frazetta, Roy G. Krenkel, Alex Toth, and Angelo Torres. “This book collects the best non-EC art by the EC stable of artists, in other words, the cream of the 1950s crop. A lot of these guys were pals and they often collaborated, so there will be a healthy sampling of these fraternal efforts,” says Sadowski.

CREEPING DEATH FROM NEPTUNE: Basil Wolverton’s Sci-Fi and Horror Comics 1938-55

RELEASE DATE: t.b.a.

“Many of Wolverton's comics have been reprinted in a number of formats, but for years I've been waiting for a full-color compilation of his serious golden age work. Finally I decided to do it myself. Like the Cole book, this one is a no-brainer,” says Sadowski. Given the media coverage of his recent retrospective at New York’s Barbara Gladstone Gallery, it’s high time for a full-color anthology of Basil Wolverton’s serious comic book work. This edition covers all bases, from his early features, Space Patrol and Meteor Martin, into Spacehawk (“Lone Wolf of the Void”), and ending with the skewed master’s gloriously repugnant horror comics.

THE COMIC BOOK FRANKENSTEIN: The Monster According to Dick Briefer

RELEASE DATE: t.b.a.

“Dick Briefer had been involved in comic books since its earliest days. He was one of the first to work at Will Eisner and Jerry Iger's comic book studio in the mid-1930s. Like Eisner, Cole, and Wolverton, Briefer was responsible for the complete package: writing, layouts, pencils and inks, and often the lettering. He did his best work on FRANKENSTEIN, and this compilation should restore his status as one of the form's major pioneers,” says Sadowski. Briefer’s Frankenstein made its debut in 1940 in Prize Comics. He continually ramped up the monster’s humorous aspect, which in turn increased its popularity, and Frankenstein was rewarded with its own title in 1945. Then, with the horror craze in full swing in 1951, Briefer responded by reverting the character back to its frightening origins. This book will travel through Briefer’s complete Frankenstein series and shed light on one of comic books’ most gifted creators. [END]