Top Shelf

If you've never had the pleasure of attending a comic book convention, you should strongly consider it in the very near future, if for no other reason than to have the opportunity to catch a rare glimpse of your favorite cartoonist at work sketching something spontaneously that you'll never see published anywhere...

Yo. It's Labor Day weekend and I am recovering from a barbecue at which I drank too much and Seacord unlocked half the songs on my copy of GUITAR HERO ENCORE: ROCKS THE '80s! But more importantly, the weekend means it's time for the End of the Week Explosion, in which the Amazing Seacord answers the tough questions...

Picking up where yesterday's post left off, this is a look at ten books being published in October 2007 that you might otherwise miss. From art school girls to gun-toting library police, there's a little something for everyone to enjoy here ...

To wrap up what I began yesterday with my geeky State of the Industry post, here's a few tidbits from the blogger's notebook you may not find elsewhere... 1. My fellow Alliance blogger and pal Greg McElhatton recently spilled the beans about Jeff Smith's indy follow-up to Bone, Rasl ...

I've seen the spontaneous combustion that comes when comics geeks have that rare chance meet their all-time fav writer/artist. You've probably practiced the moment in a mirror a thousand times, and knew it by heart. That is, until the opportunity arose to actually say it ...

One of the great pleasures of Comic-Con is the chance to see old friends, make new friends, and spend time together talking comics over drinks late into the night. Last night found your intrepid correspondents catching up with our pals from the Top Shelf family, including publishers/staffers Brett Warnock, Chris Staros, Leigh Walton, and star creators Eddie Campbell and Jose Villarrubia... Read Mo

Imagine my surprise leafing through Saturday's edition of the Wall Street Journal to discover a short feature lauding the work of a trio of 2007 Eisner Award nominees in their Pursuits section. Sounds like no big deal, until you dig deeper into the details ...

Day one of the sixth annual Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art festival (MoCCA) in NYC was great fun, with a significantly increased amount of exhibitor space than I recall from past years -- including a swank "skylight" room on the 7th floor of the Puck building...

Alison Bechdel's award-winning and fantastic graphic memoir, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, hit the trade paperback circuit earlier this month and is prominently displayed next to prose bestsellers on the 3 for 2 front table of a Borders near you ...

If you're making the pilgrimage to New York to attend this weekend's Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA) Art Festival at the Puck Building (the Comics Alliance will be hanging around, taking names), I envy you as you'll be exposed to some of the best and most interesting cartoonists working in the alternative realm, like my friend, special guest and newest, coolest Dad, Jeffrey Brown ... Read