• As we all anxiously await the opportunity to talk with Dave Sim at the Comics Journal boards on January 30 (today!), this post sums up his recent projects.

• Pascal Blanchet's White Rapids is reviewed at the McGill Daily.

• Tom Spurgeon discusses the year-end numbers posted at Comics Chronicles. According to numbers released by Diamond Distributors, the Direct Market had its best year since 1995. This means that Diamond had sales of $429 million through all merchandise wholesaled to comic book shops in the U.S. and Canada.

• In related news: The Beat publishes Diamond's 2007 Top 100 Graphic Novels list and the Top Publishers by percent of Direct Market share of 2007.

• Just for fun, the Dumbest Space Gods in science fiction. Jack Kirby lands at #3.

• Madeline Ashby reports on the transculturelle academic workshop on manga and anime, held this past weekend in Montreal. She also discusses Montreal and Scott Pilgrim.

• Thanks to the BDQuebec forums for this link: Craig Yoe presents an early cartoon from Canadian cartoonist Raoul Barre.

Labels: bestsellers, comics retailers, floppies, graphic novels, manga, publishing, reviews