September
8 Catching Up, Part 2

You may have noticed the reviews that went up last week were a little dated. That's because they were prepared in advance and put up while I was on vacation. That means that there's some interesting things that happened during that time that deserve a mention:

One of the better books to come out of CrossGen prior to its implosion into bankruptcy was Abadazad, by J.M. DeMatteis and Mike Ploog. The creators, who published it under the company's Code 6 arrangement, have filed papers to reclaim the rights to the series, according to Newsarama. The report states that the creators are asking for their contract to be rejected by the court because CrossGen defaulted by not publishing all the material the document calls for. A hearing is set for Sept. 26.

DC is giving Fallen Angel a push by giving away a free reprint edition of the first issue. The series, by scribe Peter David and artist David Lopez, has earned plenty of critical acclaim but has struggled to find readers.

Marvel announced it was going with Diamond Comics Distributors as its supplier to the book trade, replacing CDS, effective Oct. 1. This email came from Andrew Lis, our publicity contact in the House of Ideas, who announced Tuesday he was leaving his job at Marvel. And Heidi MacDonald over at The Beat reports that Marvel will be moving into new Manhattan offices not too far from their current headquarters.

A New York Times article (it's now archived, so you have to pay for it) profiles Disney consumer products chief Andrew P. Mooney and states the company has sold 650,000 copies since June of its "W.I.T.C.H." book, which features a prose novel and a comics insert.

Tokyopop has promoted company co-founder Mike Kiley to the position of VP and editor in chief.

The eighth annual Ignatz Awards nominees have been announced. The awards will be presented at the 10th annual Small Press Expo, which will be held Oct. 1-3 in Bethesda, Md.

Police in Toronto shut down a booth that sold replica weapons at the recent Canadian National Comic Book Expo, arresting six booth operators for selling prohibited weapons. The company, SwordStaff.com, had attended the convention the previous five years.