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11th Annual Rumour Awards: Scoop Of The Year

Okay, this is always a bit of a back-patting exercise. But damn it, no one else is going to do it are they?

These are the best of the stories that didn't come from press releases, from publisher-arranged interviews or from official embargoes. They were ripped, still bleeding form the raw belly of the comics industry.

There was the very existence of Watchmen 2, mocked at the beginning but later directly confirmed by Alan Moore.

There were all those pre-San Diego announcements, from Uncanny X-Force, Ultimate Thor, Sarah Pichelli joining Ultimate Spider-Man, the end of Brand New Day on Amazing Spider-Man and Dan Slott taking over the book as a fortnightly title, Carnage and the sad closing of Storm Lion Studios.

There was the stream of Vertigo cancellations – Air, Unknown Soldier, Madame Xanadu and Greek Street – and news about the changes in contractual arrangements at Vertigo, and on other creator-owned comics at the wider company.

There was the revelation that CLiNT magazine... existed. Yeah, that caused all sorts of problems. Revealing the existence, indeed just typing the title, of the Simon Pegg graphic novel was a whole lot less painful.

On a personal level, there was the revelation that Jimmie Broxton, artist on Knight & Squire was actually inker James Hodgkins creating a new identity for himself. That Mark Bagley was coming back to Marvel imminently. That Kurt Busiek could be so honest about comics – in private at least. That Neal Adams was going to work on Wolverine for Marvel. That JMS was quitting monthly comics to go the graphic novel route. What had happened to Gene Colan – and his money. And last year we announced Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie's engagement, this year we did the same for Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer.

On a higher industry level, there was looking at Hastings as they moved into national comics selling, creating the largest comics chain in the direct market.

And the very first coverage of Diamond's plans to start a digital distribution service, their plans to move to a universal Tuesday delivery date for US stores – and UK stores to boot.

But probably my scoop was running DC's letter to freelancers over digital payments, and then Marvel's letter to freelancers over digital comics – a week before most of those freelancers had even received it.

As scoops go, that's generally the definition.

11th Annual Rumour Awards: Scoop Of The Year


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Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
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