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When it was first announced that comicon and the new york anime festival were merging and becoming one event, I have to admit I had my reservations. Reed exhibitions, the company that organizes each event, clearly has a host of good reasons to combined both. New York Anime Fest is mostly just a dealer's room with some panels tacked on (not nearly the variety of entertainment that other cons offer), so it would mesh well with a larger event. Comicon doesn't have as obvious of a gain, but it could be argued that US comics are losing younger audiences to anime and manga, so some cross-pollination might be good there. Whatever the reasons, there were a lot of worries that the cons would be diminished slightly by the merge.

And they were right, more or less. Anime events were fairly under-represented in this con. The anime area was literally tucked away in the corner of the convention. It wasn't as much of a merger as it was a co-existing. This was clearest when walking from one section to the other, where the average age of the persons around you would drop by 15 or 20 years. So yes, from an anime

The online graphic novel distributor Netcomics.com announced on Wednesday that it will remove "all series from Aurora Publishing, including those under Deux Press and Luv Luv Press imprints," after midnight PDT on April 14. The listed phone numbers of Aurora Publishing, Inc., the American arm of Ohzora Publishing Co., are no longer in service in Torrance, California.

Event organisers at Reed Exhibitions have comfirmed that New York Comic Con and New York Anime Festival will share the same date and location next year. The events, which will take place at the Jacob K. Javits Center in Midtown Manhattan on October 8-10, 2010, will feature separate guests and programming schedules, but share a common show floor and one ticket price. This means fans who purchase a ticket will have access to both events.

The 2010 announcement comes two weeks before the event returns to the Javits Center for a third time on September 25-27.

In its four years of existence, New York Comic Con has been mostly held in February, although it moved to April last year. Lance Fensterman, Vice President of the Reed Exhibitions Pop Culture Group, explained that the date move will better accommodate Reed's other major North American pop culture event, Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo. "We are launching the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo (C2E2) in April 2010, and we have moved NYCC to a permanent October date, thus providing a spring and fall balance to these two key events which will remain in place as we move forward. Rather than create a

MILWAUKIE, OR – AUGUST 27, 2009 -- In a partnership that will echo through the cosmos, Lucasfilm, THQ Wireless, and Dark Horse Comics will release Star Wars™ comics to the iPhone mobile platform for the first time ever!

The selection of Star Wars: The Clone Wars Vol. 1 – Shipyards of Doom, Star Wars: Empire Vol. 1 – Betrayal and Star Wars: Legacy Vol. 1 – Broken represents three of the most important time periods in the history of the Star Wars galaxy. The three collections will span the time between the Clone Wars era, the Classic era and the distant future.

Star Wars: Empire Vol. 1 – Betrayal is set just weeks before the events of the original film, Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, and follows a faction of disgruntled Imperial Officers attempting to overthrow Emperor Palpatine. But the plot is complicated by the emergence of the bounty hunter Boba Fett and by the loyalty of Darth Vader to his dark master. Betrayal will be released in four chapters, written by Scott Allie and drawn by Brian Horton.

Star Wars: Legacy Vol. 1 – Broken takes place more than a century after the events of Star Wars:

Despite Japanese publisher's case vs. Korean studio, Director Spielberg and actor Will Smith are still moving forward with Dreamworks' plans to remake Park Can-Wook's manga-based Oldboy film. The lawsuit is between the film's Korean studio, Show East, and the manga's Japanese publisher, Futabasha and is over the Hollywood remake rights.

Reuters reports that Show East and it's production partner Big Egg (who comes up with these names?) have both shut down. CEO of Show East, Kim Dong-Ju, has reportedly "disappeared" and Big Egg's former staffers are also unreachable. A spokesperson for Futabasha acknowledged that the publisher cannot confirm if Show East is bankrupt or how that status will affect the lawsuit.

If you're like me and you buy your manga in comic shops you may have to look elsewhere for most of Yen Press's July releases, or ask the store to order them from someone other than Diamond Comics Distributors. Apparently Diamond Comics has cancelled a number of the manga and manhwa solicited in the May Previews.

Brigid of Manga Blog emailed Kurt Hassler and he had this to say:

So far as the Yen titles on this list are concerned, these are not publisher cancelations. These are Previews cancelations which simply means that Diamond for whatever reason has opted not to make these titles available through their service. The books are all still very much being published, and retailers have the option of ordering them directly through Hachette Book Group or through any number of other wholesalers like Ingram or Baker & Taylor.

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