Ain't It Cool News comics maven Mark Miller is profiled at Cream City Comics, where he has some incredibly kind words about our efforts:

CCC: What is your favorite indie publisher?

MM: I really like First Second. Some of my favorite reads of the last year come from them. LAIKA, about Russia's space race involving canines, brings tears to my eyes every time I read it. I love AIT/Planet Lar. Larry Young's ASTRONAUTS IN TROUBLE is phenomenal. Is IDW Indie? I like that whether it is or not. Ben Templesmith is an art god.

and

CCC: Who is your favorite creator/writer/illustrator?

MM: I like Larry Young as a creator and a publisher. AIT/Planet Lar, like First Second, is a publishing company that is pushing the medium forward with strong stories. But I like a lot of mainstream writers too. Chuck Dixon, Pete Tomasi, Geoff Johns. I like Garth Ennis when he writes serious stuff (his PUNISHER is honestly some of the best comic book writing in the mainstream).

My man John Purlia is profiled at San Diego CityBeat: "Artists don't get any more organized than John Purlia."

Long-time readers of the Daily Update may remember his little gem from July 7, 2005:



Man, I dig John's eye.

Comics Should Be Good gives us the nod as Publisher of the Year: "So I’m going to go with AiT/Planet Lar, Larry and Mimi’s love child. It’s kind of a 'lifetime achievement award,' because they consistently put out fantastic comics, but this year we got The Black Diamond, which was a very solid mini-series (and came out relatively regularly!), The Homeless Channel, which I enjoyed but not as much as a bunch of people who really dug it, First Moon, an unusual take on werewolves, a re-issue of Giant Robot Warriors, which was awesome squared, and The Last Sane Cowboy and Other Stories. Plus, I keep hearing good things about Monster Attack Network, even though I never got it after I pre-ordered it through Previews. Weird. I’ll have to ask the retailer what happened to it. But that’s a story for another day! Not only do we get good stuff throughout the year from AiT, but Larry makes sure all his stuff is always in print, so if, for some reason you’ve been living in a Nepalese cave for a decade and haven’t gotten Scurvy Dogs yet (the only logical reason for you to have missed it), you can get it right now! Or, if you want to find out how Danielle Henderson survived an Alaskan fishery, you can! Or, if you want to read excellent (and humorous, given what he’s doing now) essays from Warren Ellis, you can! I don’t always like what AiT/Planet Lar puts out, but they consistently make sure there are quality books of many different genres out there for people who are bored with superheroes. And that’s a cool deal."

Greg also gives Daniel Merlin Goodbrey a tip o' the hat in the Best Original Graphic Novel category for LSC&OS, so that's a pretty cool deal as well.

The Homeless Channel makes Scott Cederlund's "Best of 2007" list over at Pop Syndicate.

+++++

...and in response to that dude over at the Blogarama boards who questioned why comics stud Jason McNamara would do a movie file to promote his book Continuity... I mean, besides the obvious... Why wouldn't he?... I offer in instead to evidence this little link wherein a book Charlie Adlard and I did seven years ago still gets people writing about it and spreading the good word. "It’s an alternate history, or just undiscovered history, of the true first man on the moon. The story centers around a group of reporters who stumble across a military base that houses a program to ensure America space superiority even at the expense of disobeying the president. A great read for folks who like the literary license of a 'behind the scenes' look at the Space Race showing what patriots on both sides of the Iron Curtain would do for their nations.

"Charlie Adlard, of The Walking Dead fame, handled pencils for the title and displayed his usual level of talent that its almost easy to take for granted. In such a short story though, this talent is of critical importance. Without his emotive faces and strong story telling it would have been easy to get lost in the shuffle. When characters see someone they recognize from earlier, I recognized them too. He was also able to capture the granduer of the early style of 1950's rocketry much like Darwyn Cooke did in The New Frontier. And when the tale moves into space Adlard sprinkles in some Kirby crackle for that old school cosmic comic feel.

"It’s easy to dismiss the modern astronaut when stories about diaper clad, gut toting, cross country manhunts are the only stories that make the news unless someone dies. But it’s good to know that Young and Adlard successfully capture an earlier spirit of those first pioneers of space when the stakes were impossibly high and America had the men for the job."

So, yeah. That's why you promote a book that's been out for a while. If you haven't read it yet, it's new to you.

Hey, Donley! How big?



My old college pal and super-retailer Pat Donley sent over this awesome rug for the AiT/Planet Lar World Headquarters' Apparatus Room.