SLG Publishing

This has been a dispiriting, painful week, and if you're like me then you'll have turned to the world of comics to offer you a spark of imagination, excitement, and investment. We're all dealing with the last few days in our own way, and at ComicsAlliance we're determined to continue generating the brightest and loudest spark of investment with the medium that's possible. So here we continue on with Weekender, unabated, delivering you a look at new comics, new podcasts, independent comics news, festivals and awards from around the world. This will continue to be a place where we give attention to the comics that deserve it --- and feature a range of different comics voices rising up to hopefully take over and make the next few years their own.

GloomCookie, created by writer Serena Valentino and artist Ted Naifeh, featured a villain who was the evil queen of the goth club scene, so when Disney Press introduced a series of middle grade novels about their animated feature films’ villains, who better than Valentino to tell the tale of Snow White's Wicked Queen in Fairest of All? That book was followed in 2014 by The Beast Within, about the cursed prince from Beauty And The Beast, and 2016 will see the publication of Poor Unfortunate Soul, about the sea witch Ursula from The Little Mermaid. We spoke to Valentino about the ways and wiles of villainous characters.

It's very easy to dismiss Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer without ever reading a single page. That's part of the trouble for the creator of a high concept book: If it's something that can be boiled down to three words, it's easy for readers to think they've got everything they need to know...

Gaming: Stan Lee continues to swing in the latest image promoting his Amazon preorder exclusive playability in the upcoming The Amazing Spider-Man game. Publishers: SLG Publishing has applied for a Chase Bank and LivingSocial's Mission: Small Business program grant, which, if obtained, would supply the company with $250,000 if received...

It seems like we're hearing a lot lately from writers and artists about the grim financial realities of working full-time in the comic book industry. No doubt made worse by the global economic crisis, some problems include DMZ and Northlanders creator Brian Wood's report that his income dropped by 30-40% in 2010; Batgirl and Fairest cover artist Adam Hughes' claim that drawing full comics is actua

We've heard time and again how hard it is to be an independent comic book publisher, but never have we heard of trials and tribulations so harrowing as those of SLG Publishing. The San Jose, California-based publisher of such eccentric titles as Ross Campbell's Shadoweyes, Roman Dirge's Lenore, Evan Dorkin's Milk & Cheese, Van Jensen and Dusty Higgins' Pinocchio: Vampire Hunter and Jhonen Vasq

Despite a propensity to brood, the best vampire slayers live (and sometimes die) by the words of the Beatles and get by with a little help from their friends. Buffy had the Scooby Gang, Blade had the Nightstalkers and Van Jensen and Dusty Higgins' vampire-slaying version of Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio has six new wooden pals from The Great Puppet Theater. SLG began teasing the colorful cast of this

"Pinocchio Vampire Slayer" writer Van Jensen went into HeroesCon with two secrets last weekend. 1) The full title of he and Dusty Higgin's upcoming sequel to last autumn's wooden puppet thriller and 2) An image teasing said title's supporting cast...

Many of comics' youngest mutants have avoided adversity by joining a community and finding a place to call home. Xavier's gifted youngsters joined an elite battle squad on a school campus and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles trained in the sewers...

Has public domain access to Frank L. Baum's original "Wizard of Oz" stories and characters watered down the entire mythos? In 40 years will fans even recognize the lore? Writer Tommy Kovac and artist Andy Hirsch intend to explore that question comic book style when "Royal Historian of Oz" #1 arrives in shops this June...