MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A special signed edition of the “Berserker” comic will be distributed to comic-book retailers who sign up to support the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund through Diamond Comics.  The promotion was announced by Top Cow Publisher Filip Sablik at the ComicsPRO annual meeting of direct-market retailers.

The issue will be signed by Milo Ventimiglia (”Heroes”) and the creative team.  Ventimiglia brought the project to Top Cow;  the team creating “Berserker” is made up of writer Rick Loverd (”Friday Night Lights”), artist Jeremy Haun (”The Leading Man”) and cover artist Dale Keown (”PITT”).

The preview issue of “Berserker” is available now; the first issue is set to ship in June.  Sablik said the violent series should appeal to fans of “Wanted.”   In the story, the two lead characters discover they have incredible strength when they become filled with rage.

– Matt Price

Embedded below is a “Berserker” promo video, which debuted at New York Comicon.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Comic Book Legal Defense Fund executive director announced changes to the board of directors for the Fund while speaking at the ComicsPRO annual meeting.

Chris Staros of Top Shelf is stepping down as president of the board to focus more time on his publishing company, Brownstein said. Larry Marder, creator of Beanworld,” will join the board. Chris Powell of Lone Star Comics was named the new president of the CBLDF board.

Powell, also a member of the board of ComicsPRO, spoke to the assembled retailers.

“We value everybody in this room as one of the groups we’re here to protect,” Powell said. “The Fund is vital, because we don’t just protect you; we protect your customers and we protect your suppliers.”

Powell spoke to ways retailers could continue to support the fund: through memberships that are solicited through Diamond Comics Distributors; through eBay auctions that designate some funds to the CBLDF through MissionFish; through a donation jar on the counter; or through signings and events benefiting the Fund.

“Besides monetarily, one of the things you can do … is to help us continue to get the mission out,” Powell said.

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund was founded in 1986 as a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of First Amendment rights for members of the comics community.

– Matt Price

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Image Comics will release a second “Liberty Comics” to benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, announced Joe Keatinge, the public relations and marketing coordinator for Image.

The first “Liberty Comics” raised more than $30,000 for the fund.

The second “Liberty Comics” is planned for October.

In addition, Keatinge announced a series of variant covers that will be tied to some of Image’s biggest releases.   These covers, which will cost $1 more than the standard cover, will raise money for the CBLDF.

– Matt Price

From the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund: 

Jeff Smith’s ComicsPRO Auction Raises $4,650 for Comic Book Legal Defense Fund!

Concord CA-based Flying Colors to Host Jeff Smith Appearance

Flying Colors Comics & Other Cool Stuff of Concord, CA will host Jeff Smith, creator of the best-selling BONE and RASL series, in his only North American book store appearance of 2008 & 2009 on Saturday December 6.

The exclusive appearance was bid on as part of a fundraising auction available only to members of ComicsPRO, the trade association for comic book specialty retailers. The winning bid amount of $4650.00 will be donated in its entirety to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

“I’ve known Jeff Smith and both admired and been an enthusiastic retailer of his work for more than 15 years, but this will be the first time his legions of fans will be able to come meet him at Flying Colors Comics,” said Field. “Knowing Jeff has also admired the work ComicsPRO does on behalf of all comics specialty retailers coupled with the splash this makes for the CBLDF makes this even more special.”

The auction idea was conceived at the 2008 ComicsPRO Annual Meeting, of which Cartoon Books, publisher of BONE and RASL, was a sponsor. After praising the effort of comics specialty retailers in selling out the initial 20,000 print run of RASL #1, Smith offered to make his only comic book shop appearance this year a benefit for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund via the ComicsPRO auction.

“I owe everything to the comic shop owners who continue to believe in Cartoon Books and my work. The membership of ComicsPRO are among the best of the best,” said Jeff Smith. “Any retailer dedicated to selling comics in the specialty market needs to seriously consider joining ComicsPRO, as well as support the important work of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. I’m also excited to finally do an event at Joe Field’s Flying Colors Comics.”

“The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is moved by the generosity of Joe Field and all the other ComicsPRO members who bid on this unprecedented auction,” said Charles Brownstein, executive director of CBLDF. “We’re also grateful to Jeff Smith, Vijaya Iyer, and the team at Cartoon Books for going above and beyond to support the Fund and the membership of ComicsPRO. This effort will go a long way towards helping us perform our important work in this season as we support the defense of Iowa collector Christopher Handley.”

Jeff Smith is the award-winning creator of the beloved BONE series, originally published by Cartoon Books and now being published in color by Scholastic Books. Time magazine selected BONE as one of the 10 greatest graphic novels of all time. Cartoon Books will publish the first collection of Smith’s new sci-fi series RASL, titled “The Drift,” this winter. Recently for DC Comics, he wrote and drew SHAZAM! Monster Society of Evil.

Joe Field of Flying Colors Comics & Other Cool Stuff of Concord, CA is a proud recipient of the Will Eisner “Spirit of Comics” Award for Retailing Excellence, a “Hall-of-Fame” award recognized internationally among comic book professionals. He is also President of ComicsPRO and the founder of Free Comic Book Day, the comic industry’s only concerted outreach event.

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund was founded in 1986 as a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of First Amendment rights for members of the comics community. They have defended dozens of Free Expression cases in courts across the United States, and led important education initiatives promoting comics literacy and free expression. For additional information, donations, and other inquiries call 800-99-CBLDF or visit http://www.cbldf.org or http://www.myspace.com/cbldf.

ComicsPRO is the only retailer trade and advocacy group for comic book specialty retailers, providing group benefits and an industry voice for its constantly growing membership. Information and applications for membership are available at http://ComicsPRO.org. For further inquiries, please contact ComicsPRO’s Communications Coordinator Amanda Emmert at info@comicspro.org.

Rare Tori Amos Items Benefit CBLDF on eBay This Halloween!

Starting this Friday, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is auctioning off several rare and one of a kind Tori Amos collectibles from the personal collection of Comic Book Tattoo editor Rantz Hoseley!

Items up for bid include signed tour programs from the Under the Pink and Boys for Pele tours and Comic Book Tattoo posters signed by Tori Amos, Rantz Hoseley, and the creative team behind the book. Most excitingly, we are offering Rantz Hoseley’s signed, sealed, and numbered file copy of the sold out,limited edition slipcased hardcover of Comic Book Tattoo–signed by Tori herself!

The auctions will go live at 12pm EST on Friday, October 31st!  To bid on these items, please go to: http://www.cbldf.org/ebay

All proceeds will benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund!

By Matthew Price

Assistant Features Editor

WORD BALLOONS
LAS VEGAS — Comics publishers gathered at the 2008 ComicsPRO annual meeting to share information about upcoming plans with comic-book retailers.DC Comics’ vice president of sales Bob Wayne talked about DC’s upcoming crossover “Final Crisis,” and the prelude to the series, “DC Universe Zero.”“DC Universe Zero” is a 50-cent comic set for May release that is written by Geoff Johns and Grant Morrison, with art by George Perez, Tony Daniel and J.G. Jones.“When you finish reading ‘DC Universe Zero,’ you’re going to say, ‘Wow, I really wish I had ordered more copies of this,’”
Wayne said. “It does set up some of the things that appear in ‘Final Crisis,’”
Wayne said.“Final Crisis” is a seven-issue miniseries, with issue No. 1 set for a May release.
Wayne said “Final Crisis” is “Grant Morrison telling stories the way Grant does.”“It starts with Anthro and goes to Kamandi. From the first boy on earth to the last boy on earth, and everything in between,”
Wayne said.In addition,
Wayne announced a sequel to “Plain Janes,” the best-selling title in their “Minx” line of young adult graphic novels for girls.
“Plain Janes: Janes in Love,” from Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg, is shipping in September.“The comic shop market has surpassed all of our expectations at DC on how many copies you would be able to sell of these titles,”
Wayne said.
Wayne talked about DC’s newest weekly comic book, “Trinity,” following in the footsteps of “52” and “Countdown.” The lead story of the book each week will be written by Kurt Busiek and drawn by Mark Bagley.“Mark Bagley has shown he’s a guy who has consistently been able to produce a high number of pages,”
Wayne said, “and we feel very comfortable that Mark can continue to do this on this particular project.”
The first issue of “Trinity” is 40 pages for $2.99. Back-up stories for “Trinity” will be written by Busiek and Fabian Nicieza, with rotating artists.
ComicsPRO is the largest organization of comic-book retailers in the world, with more than 100 members. Other representatives at the conference included Marvel Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Cartoon Books, Top Cow, the Hero Initiative, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and Graphitti Designs.

More notes from the ComicsPRO conference:

* Top Cow outlined plans for their “Witchblade” property, including keeping the creative team of writer Ron Marz and artist Stjepan Sejic on the book for 34 issues.
“This creative team is going to be on the book until issue 150,” Top Cow’s Filip Sablik said. “We’ve heard that you want consistent shipping, you want a creative team you can rely on, you want a book that can turn and make money for you month in and month out. We’re going to do that for you with ‘Witchblade.’”

* The nonprofit organization, the Hero Initiative, which helps comic-book creators in need, will collect the “Stan’s Soapbox” columns from Marvel Comics as a fund-raiser.

* The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is planning a retailer resource guide, to help comic-book retailers to be aware of good retailing and legal practices.

* In May, “Stupid Stupid Rat Tales” and “Rose” will come back into print from Cartoon Books.

“Comics are now front and center,” Brownstein said.  Once, a marginalized part of culture, now “we are the culture.”

If it were not for the efforts of comic book retailers, comics might have joined vaudeville and radio dramas as near-extinct forms of entertainment, Brownstein said.  

But with increased exposure comes increased scrutiny, and that’s where the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund comes in, Brownstein said.  The CBLDF works to defend the first-amendment rights of comic book creators and retailers. 

Through a recent promotion with Diamond Comic Distributors, allowing stores to sign up via a Diamond ordering line item, the Fund signed up more than 200 store members and raised more than $29,000 dollars.

In the near future, the Fund plans to send out a retailer resource guide, helping retailers to be aware of good retailing and legal practices.

Brownstein also announced that ComicsPRO would be involved in promoting an upcoming auction to benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.  Smith will make his only in-store signing in 2008 available in an upcoming auction to benefit the CBLDF. 

– Matt Price

Part of my daily work seems to be typing up stories featuring charities in need. This isn’t a knock on charities — they do good work — but this time of year it seems everybody is asking and most of us only have so much to give.

So it was with trepidation that I opened up my letter from the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund today, knowing full well they were likely to solicit a donation from me.

The thing is, I’m writing a check. Why? Because these people do something I believe in — fight for retailers (like Matt) and creators and guys like me who just like to read comics.

No, it doesn’t seem like Spider-Man is getting in a lot of legal trouble outside the comics page (damn you, Jonah!), but independent creators and store owners are often persecuted for creating and selling works some deem “too adult” or “too controversial” for comics.

Now isn’t that a back-handed compliment? They’re trying to protect us from big, bad thoughts because, as comic book readers, we must be too dumb to think for ourselves.

Frankly I’m insulted. A book can be free speech. A painting can be free speech. But if you put art and words together, suddenly there’s no free speech? Thank goodness for the CBLDF.

So here’s another plea for money in a season already full of them — if you have $10 or $25 or $1,000 to spare, think about going to www.CBLDF.org and clicking on the donations link.

If comic fans band together behind them, we can be sure they’ll fight for us when it counts.

– Greg Elwell