Links: Borders patrol

As expected, Borders filed for bankruptcy today. The New York Times reports the chain owes its suppliers nearly $180 million. As part of its restructuring effort, the company will close 192 of its 600+ locations around the country. (For a full list of store closings, click here.)

What does that mean for comics consumers? Kevin Melrose of Robot 6 notes that Borders owed Diamond Book Distributors $3.9 million, a debt that prompted Diamond to stop shipping new comics to Borders in January 2011. Borders’ precarious financial position has potentially devastating consequence for manga publishers, too; as Comics Alliance‘s Andy Khouri noted last month, Borders and its sister chain Waldenbooks once accounted for 40% of all manga sales in the US.

Marvel and Disney have just announced a new project: DISNEY•PIXAR PRESENTS, a monthly, all-ages magazine that will feature a mixture of comics and games based on such hit Pixar films as Cars. Look for the first issue in May.

After disastrous reviews in The New York Times, Bloomberg News, and The Hollywood Reporter, the creative team behind Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark has hired comics writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa to revise the musical’s much-criticized book.

In honor of Black History Month, David Brothers has been profiling African and African-American comics creators, among them writer Marguerite Abouet (Aya, Aya of Yop City, Aya: The Secrets Come Out).

Sam Kusek is hosting this month’s Manga Movable Feast. On the menu: Kenji Nakazawa’s autobiographical series Barefoot Gen, which recounts Nakazawa’s experiences as a hibakusha, or Hiroshima survivor. For readers new to this manga classic, Kusek provides a helpful overview of the series’ publication history.

Reviews

David Welsh on vols. 1-2 of Barefoot Gen (The Manga Curmudgeon)
Greg McElhatton on vol. 1 of The Batman Annuals (Read About Comics)
Lori Henderson on vols. 1-2 of Beauty Pop (Manga Xanadu)
Rob McMonigal on vol. 10 of Emma (Panel Patter)
Julie Opipari on Gabby & Gator (Yen Press)
Chris Wilson on Hope: A Story of Change in Obama’s America (The Graphic Classroom)
Kristin Bomba on vol. 4 of Library Wars and vol. 2 of The Story of Saiunkoku (Comic Attack!)
Rob McMonigal on The Muppet Show Comic Book: On the Road (Panel Patter)

Filed under: News