Overall, while the organization of the convention was much improved compared to last year's, many of the exhibitors had mixed feelings about the event. "It hasn't evolved," DMP publisher Hikaru Sasahara said, pointing to the lack of involvement from the Hollywood despite studio interest in manga and anime like Speed Racer and Astro Boy. "Nothing much has changed [from last year]," he added. But Carl Horn of Dark Horse appreciated the maintained focus on anime and manga. "It's still about this culture."

Dark Horse head of publicity Jeremy Atkins wondered if having the show in downtown L.A. hurt attendance. "L.A. is a big city," he said. "A place like Long Beach and Anaheim is more contained." Atkins did add that sales at the show were "amazing" and that the fans were enthusiastic. "We're curious about exploring Otakon, too." he said.

This irresistible graphic novel by longtime Guardian cartoonist Simmonds is roughly based on Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd and uses it to depict the English upper-middle class having tawdry midlife crises. Beth, the wife of renowned author Nicholas Hardiman, runs an idyllic writer's retreat where she's parlayed her skill at caring for her husband into caring for other writers. She and her literary charges barely notice the locals who, jammed on council estates, look on with envy. Enter young Tamara Drewe, a newspaper columnist famed for her post–plastic surgery beauty. With Ben, her rock-star boyfriend, and her citified ways, she knocks Beth's little group on its head and gets stalked by two local girls. After Ben leaves Tamara, she decides the already adulterous Nicholas would be a nice lay on the rebound, only he falls in love with her. The art captures British frumpiness so well it's scary; middle-age spread hulks through this book like sad weight, but it's less skilled with beauty; Tamara's looks don't sway the reader the way they sway the characters in the book. But the view on how feminism has failed in moneyed Britain is priceless. A wonderful and slightly evil book. (Oct.)

Jason Shiga loves puzzles, and he makes no secret of it in his comics, which often involve logic games, narrative mazes and choose-your-own-adventure themes. The Oakland, Calif., native, who holds a degree in mathematics from the UC Berkeley, has earned numerous awards for his unconventional cartooning, including a 1999 Xeric grant for Double Happiness, a 2004 Ignatz award for the comic strip Fleep and a 2007 Ignatz nomination for Bookhunter, a library crime procedural based on the real-life theft of a rare book

• North Wind Vol. 1 (Boom!)
• Batman and Son (DC)
• New York Four (DC/Minx)
• American Virgin Vol. 4 Around The World (DC/Vertigo)
• Gentleman Jim HC (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Bone Vol. 8 Treasure Hunters (Graphix)
• Runaways Dead Ends Kids (Marvel)
• Criminal Vol. 3. The Dead and the Dying (Marvel/Icon)
• Yakitate!! Japan Vol. 12 (Viz)

• Paradise Comics Toronto Comicon 2008
• Dr. Horrible Preview on Myspace
• Japan Expo 2008 Awards
• Lucky Release Party
• 2008 Courage in Editorial Cartooning Award
• Comic-Con International Film Festival Schedule