Comics A.M. | Ali Ferzat named one of Time's Most Influential People

Comics A.M. | Ali Ferzat named one of Time's Most Influential People

Matt Wuerker's cartoon in support of Ali Ferzat

Creators | Ali Ferzat, the Syrian cartoonist who was abducted and beaten last year because of his criticisms of the government, was named one of Time magazine's '100 Most Influential People in the World.' 'Tyrants often don't get the jokes, but their people do,' Pulitzer Prize-winning Politico cartoonist Matt Wuerker writes in his tribute to Ferzat. 'So when the iron fist comes down, it often comes down on cartoonists.' [Time]

Publishing | In one of its wide-ranging interviews with comics publishers, the retail news and analysis site ICv2 talks with Dark Horse CEO Mike Richardson about the state of the market, the loss of Borders, his company's 2011 layoffs, webcomics, and some early missteps with its digital program: 'Quite honestly we've run into a few issues because the programs that we've done haven't worked as well as we wished. We created some exclusive material and got less participation than we had hoped for. [...] We gave codes out to retail stores to drive customers into their stores. They could pick up the exclusive content by going to their participating comic shop. Evidently we didn't do a good enough job getting the word out, so we're retooling that.' [ICv2.com]

Boston Comic Con

Conventions | Between 6,000 and 12,000 people are expected to turn out this weekend for the fifth annual Boston Comic Con. [Boston Herald]

Conventions | The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette previews this weekend's Pittsburgh Comicon. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]

Conventions | And last but not least, Fan Expo Vancouver debuts Friday from Hobby Star Marketing, the company behind Toronto Comicon. [Straight]

Creators | Hark! A Vagrant cartoonist Kate Beaton is interviewed by her hometown newspaper: 'You make something because you want to make it. First of all, there are no editors or anybody telling you what to do and you end up making something that's more like a labour of love. And if you are lucky enough, like me, and people kind of latch on to it, it's a surprise for sure. But not wholly, because you have ambition, too. You work hard at something and want to make it so that people like it.' [Cape Breton Post]

Creators | J.M. DeMatteis shares a Daredevil movie treatment he wrote in the 1990s. [J.M. DeMatteis's Creation Point]

Silly Kingdom

Comics | Matthew Brady looks at some of the comics and creators he discovered at last weekend's Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo. [Warren Peace Sings the Blues]

Commentary | Following his write-up on Before Watchmen we linked to Wednesday, David Brothers pens another piece titled 'The Ethical Rot Behind Before Watchmen and The Avenger,' detailing why he's no longer buying Marvel and DC comics. 'I'm too conscious of the wrongdoings of both companies to be able to support them and not feel complicit and terrible in their exploitative and unjust practices.' [ComicsAlliance]

Graphic novels | Bryan and Mary Talbot, who recently collaborated on Dotter of Her Father's Eyes, list their 10 favorite graphic novel memoirs. [The Guardian]

Comics | Matt Wilson runs down a list of 10 Marvel supervillains who became heroes. [Topless Robot]

• April 19, 2012 @ 07:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
• Tagged: Ali Ferzat, Before Watchmen, Boston Comic Con, Bryan Talbot, C2E2, cartoonists, Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo, comic conventions, comic retailers, comics a.m., comics industry, Daredevil, Dark Horse Comics, DC Comics, digital comics, direct market, editorial cartoons, Fan Expo Vancouver, graphic novels, j.m. dematteis, Kate Beaton, Marvel, Mary Talbot, Mike Richardson, Mike Wuerker, movies, Pittsburgh Comicon, The Avengers, watchmen, webcomics