Comics Convention

The 11th annual East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention celebrates the African American experience in comic books Friday and Saturday. The convention will offer an awards ceremony, film screenings, youth workshops, a parade, a comic-book marketplace, and other events at the African American Museum in Philadelphia and the Enterprise Center in West Philadelphia. Convention activities begin at 6:30 p.m. Friday at the museum, with a free reception and ceremonies for the Pioneer and Glyph comic awards.

Wizard World Philly and about 40,000 fans hit the city this weekend, local publisher Zenescope plays a prominent role in it and both the event and the company are a testament to this town's legendary fighting spirit. After last year's convention season, Wizard cited poor attendance and other problems when it canceled this year's shows in Los Angeles and Texas. Philly and Chicago made the cut. Jimmy Palmiotti ("Jonah Hex") and Amanda Conner ("Power Girl") are among those happy about that fact.

It has wizard in its name, but there's nothing to suggest a Harry Potter-esque focus on wands and cauldrons. It has a seminar on coloring comic books, but it starts with Monet's Woman With Parasol and a half-hour of still frames from Bambi . It has a family-friendly atmosphere, but there's a booth for an online porn site. The three-day Wizard World Philadelphia Comic-Con at the Convention Center, the 11th Wizard convention here, is at once everything a comic convention sounds like and at times nothing like it at all. It is one in a series of gatherings hosted by the comics magazine Wizard that pack convention centers in Chicago and New York.

The 5th Annual East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention takes place in Philadelphia this weekend, leaving many to ask only one question: What the heck is the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention? "Well, the convention is actually a spinoff of the Black Age of Comics Convention, which started about 10 years ago in Chicago," said ECBACC coordinator Maurice Waters. "Actually, I started out as a volunteer. The first year the convention occurred, I was at the Wizard Convention in Philly talking with a black comic book creator that was there and he told me that the actual convention was going on at Temple at the same time.

Prepare yourselves, Philly . . . Wizard World is back! The largest multimedia convention on the East Coast is in the City of Brotherly Love for a third straight year. In the middle of yet another sci-fi and superhero-dominated summer, it is expected to draw crowds of more than 20,000 over the weekend. "Wizard World Events are great because they draw the most enthusiastic fans - like the folks in Philadelphia," said "Tru Calling" star Eliza Dushku, best known for her role as rogue Slayer Faith on "Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

"What we can imagine, we can often create. What we can imagine ourselves as, we can often become. " So philosophizes Yumy Odom, founder of the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention, which is coming to Philadelphia this weekend for its sixth annual meeting. His words encapsulate the purpose of this annual confab of the African-American comic industry. Dwayne McDuffie, prolific comic writer and creator of the "Static Shock" animated series, will be the featured speaker at this year's convention.

This weekend, Wizard World at the Convention Center will draw out the sketchy underbelly of Philadelphia, and with it city natives Seth Green and Hugh Sterbakov. The dynamic duo have returned from Hollywood to their hometown to introduce a new comic, Freshmen, available in July from Top Cow comics. Freshmen's cocreators are a high-profile pair: Actor Green is providing the voice of Chris Griffin for Family Guy (both the revived Fox series and its coming movie) and a number of other voices for the Cartoon Network's Robot Chicken.

Comic-book artists and writers hope their super creative powers will attract families to the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention here this weekend. Focused on literacy, the convention will bring award-winning comic-book creators to the Free Library tonight and to the Crowne Plaza Hotel all day Saturday. The convention was conceived by a small group of visual storytellers, artists, and their fans, who began meeting 20 years ago in relative secret in Philadelphia. They had recognized one another's talents from a distance by admiring comic books.

The 10th annual East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention begins Friday evening with a free reception and awards ceremony at the African American Museum in Philadelphia. Events featuring publishers, comic artists, and artists who encourage youth literacy, creativity, and positive storytelling will continue Saturday at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. Friday's 6:30 p.m. reception will offer panel discussions and the annual Glyph Comics Awards ceremony. On Saturday, a Kids' Library Zone from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. will give children a chance to take cartoon and animation workshops with Mama Boyz comic-strip creator Jerry Craft among others.

COMIC BOOK readers are accustomed to captions that describe sudden shifts in time. But they've never seen a shift like "One Year Later," an ambitious narrative leap DC is taking with its entire universe of heroes and villains. "One Year Later" comes on the heels of "Infinite Crisis," a miniseries concluding in May that was DC's biggest event in two decades. It featured a battle between 1930s Superman and current Superman and the death of Superboy. "One Year Later" will tackle a lot of questions left in the wake of "Infinite Crisis": Why have Superman and Batman been missing in action?

The 11th annual East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention celebrates the African American experience in comic books Friday and Saturday. The convention will offer an awards ceremony, film screenings, youth workshops, a parade, a comic-book marketplace, and other events at the African American Museum in Philadelphia and the Enterprise Center in West Philadelphia. Convention activities begin at 6:30 p.m. Friday at the museum, with a free reception and ceremonies for the Pioneer and Glyph comic awards.

The 10th annual East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention begins Friday evening with a free reception and awards ceremony at the African American Museum in Philadelphia. Events featuring publishers, comic artists, and artists who encourage youth literacy, creativity, and positive storytelling will continue Saturday at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. Friday's 6:30 p.m. reception will offer panel discussions and the annual Glyph Comics Awards ceremony. On Saturday, a Kids' Library Zone from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. will give children a chance to take cartoon and animation workshops with Mama Boyz comic-strip creator Jerry Craft among others.

It has wizard in its name, but there's nothing to suggest a Harry Potter-esque focus on wands and cauldrons. It has a seminar on coloring comic books, but it starts with Monet's Woman With Parasol and a half-hour of still frames from Bambi . It has a family-friendly atmosphere, but there's a booth for an online porn site. The three-day Wizard World Philadelphia Comic-Con at the Convention Center, the 11th Wizard convention here, is at once everything a comic convention sounds like and at times nothing like it at all. It is one in a series of gatherings hosted by the comics magazine Wizard that pack convention centers in Chicago and New York.

Wizard World Philly and about 40,000 fans hit the city this weekend, local publisher Zenescope plays a prominent role in it and both the event and the company are a testament to this town's legendary fighting spirit. After last year's convention season, Wizard cited poor attendance and other problems when it canceled this year's shows in Los Angeles and Texas. Philly and Chicago made the cut. Jimmy Palmiotti ("Jonah Hex") and Amanda Conner ("Power Girl") are among those happy about that fact.

Comic-book artists and writers hope their super creative powers will attract families to the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention here this weekend. Focused on literacy, the convention will bring award-winning comic-book creators to the Free Library tonight and to the Crowne Plaza Hotel all day Saturday. The convention was conceived by a small group of visual storytellers, artists, and their fans, who began meeting 20 years ago in relative secret in Philadelphia. They had recognized one another's talents from a distance by admiring comic books.

"What we can imagine, we can often create. What we can imagine ourselves as, we can often become. " So philosophizes Yumy Odom, founder of the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention, which is coming to Philadelphia this weekend for its sixth annual meeting. His words encapsulate the purpose of this annual confab of the African-American comic industry. Dwayne McDuffie, prolific comic writer and creator of the "Static Shock" animated series, will be the featured speaker at this year's convention.

IT IS AN irony of the comics industry that fans and retailers routinely complain that there are too many books about Batman, Superman, Spider-Man and the X-Men, and that the superhero genre dominates to an unhealthy extent. Then, when presented with books starring different characters in different genres, those same fans and retailers almost always ignore them, choosing instead to buy, order and promote books about Batman, Superman, Spider-Man and the X-Men. Because of this, publishers are reluctant to launch series in different genres - like Westerns.

The 5th Annual East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention takes place in Philadelphia this weekend, leaving many to ask only one question: What the heck is the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention? "Well, the convention is actually a spinoff of the Black Age of Comics Convention, which started about 10 years ago in Chicago," said ECBACC coordinator Maurice Waters. "Actually, I started out as a volunteer. The first year the convention occurred, I was at the Wizard Convention in Philly talking with a black comic book creator that was there and he told me that the actual convention was going on at Temple at the same time.

He was as deadly as the Man With No Name and as smooth as James West, yet Lobo wasn't just another six-shooting hero. Author-artist Tony Tallarico's 1965 creation was much more than that. Lobo was the first African American character with his own comic book. Tallarico will be one of the honorees tonight during the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention reception dinner at the African American Museum in Philadelphia. The convention, Saturday at Anderson Hall on Temple University's main campus, brings together black artists, writers and fans to celebrate the craft, participate in workshops, and talk about the nature of the business.

COMIC BOOK readers are accustomed to captions that describe sudden shifts in time. But they've never seen a shift like "One Year Later," an ambitious narrative leap DC is taking with its entire universe of heroes and villains. "One Year Later" comes on the heels of "Infinite Crisis," a miniseries concluding in May that was DC's biggest event in two decades. It featured a battle between 1930s Superman and current Superman and the death of Superboy. "One Year Later" will tackle a lot of questions left in the wake of "Infinite Crisis": Why have Superman and Batman been missing in action?