2009 May
Food or Comics | The cover-price edition
I’ve been folding much of the economics-related content into our daily “Comics A.M.” features, but recently there’s been a decent amount of discussion about cover prices, which I’ve rounded up here:
Red Sonja #0
• Writing for PW Comics Week, Chris Murphy looks at how DC Comics and Dynamite Entertainment have turned to discounted promotional issues to try to appeal to readers.
• Johanna Draper Carlson tries to figure out the thinking behind Tokyopop’s formula, which ranges from the new $10.99 price point for standard-format manga to $14.99 for yaoi titles.
• Carlson also notices that Viz Media has standardized prices for its Shonen Jump and Shojo Beat imprints. Previously, the Shonen Jump titles were $7.99 while the Shojo Beat books were $8.99. Beginning in the fall, titles from both imprints will be $9.99.
• In response to a reader’s question Absolute Death, writer Neil Gaiman admits he was surprised to see its $99.99 price tag, and explains some of the reasons behind it: “I’m a bit surprised — I’d been told that it was going to be retailing for about $75, which with an Amazon discount would put it solidly into the area you suggest. But I also know there are a bunch of extra expenses that have turned up on this book, including having to reletter the whole of Death: The High Cost of Living, which weren’t originally planned or budgeted for.”
- May 26, 2009 @ 10:15 AM by Kevin Melrose
Straight for the art | Hulk manga!
Hulk manga
And not just any Hulk manga, but Hulk manga written by Lone Wolf and Cub author Kazuo Koike, with Yoshihiro Morifuji handling the art. I’ll let David Brothers, who found this gem, explain a little bit:
From what I and my lovely assistants managed to figure out of the story, it stars Dr. Araki, survivor of Hiroshima. Both of his parents died in the blast, and he’s come to Nevada to work on the gamma bomb. General Ross, Major Talbot, and Igor retain their names, but Rick Jones has been turned into Ricky Tenda. He’s got a Japanese mom and an American dad. Betty Ross is now Mitsuko, though Dr. Araki calls her Mitchan.
Lots more art over at the link. Someone really needs to try to translate this.
- May 26, 2009 @ 09:37 AM by Chris Mautner
Able to leap small hybrids in a single bound!
Courtesy of dannychoo.com comes this Japanese television commercial for the Toyota Prius, featuring Superman and Perry White, who yells for ace reporter Clark Kent to “Get me a scoop!” Apparently in Metropolis, some sort of X-ray photo of the engine of the new Prius qualifies as a scoop. (How Superman’s X-ray vision was converted to a photograph will forever remain a mystery.)
What I found most interesting — okay, somewhat interesting — about the spot is that Toyota’s Man of Steel appears to be wearing a version of the costume from Superman Returns.
- May 26, 2009 @ 08:40 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Speed Bump
Awards | Speed Bump creator Dave Coverly received the National Cartoonists Society’s top honor, the Reuben Award For Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year, during a ceremony held Saturday evening in Los Angeles. Other winners included Mark Tatulli’s Lio for Newspaper Comic Strips, Michael Ramirez for Editorial Cartoons, and Cyril Pedrosa’s Three Shadows for Comic Books. Tom Richmond, who blogged about the entire weekend, has the complete list of winners. [National Cartoonists Society]
Legal | Manga scholar and blogger Matt Thorn reveals his correspondence with Christopher Handley’s attorney, who last summer sought Thorn’s expertise in the manga-obscenity case. Thorn also posts an email exchange from this weekend with Handley’s mother Beverly, who explains the circumstances of her son’s guilty plea and expresses her dissatisfaction with his legal counsel. [Matt Thorn]
Legal | Japanese publisher Futabasha has lost one intellectual-property case in China involving Yoshito Usui’s Crayon Shin-chan, and stands to lose a second. [Anime News Network]
Buffy, Vol. 4
Sales charts | At last, The New York Times Graphic Books Best Seller List gets a little interesting. Oh, Masashi Kishimoto’s Naruto still leads the manga category, and holds half the spots, but at least Watchmen and The Dark Tower: Treachery of been ousted from the No. 1 positions in the hardcover and paperback categories. In their place are Y: The Last Man — Deluxe Edition, Vol. 2, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8, Vol. 4, respectively. [ArtsBeat]
Pop culture | Belgium prepares for the opening next month of the Herge Museum, dedicated to the creator of Tintin. [Reuters, BBC News]
- May 26, 2009 @ 07:38 AM by Kevin Melrose
Talking Comics with Tim: Dustin Harbin
HeroesCon
HeroesCon is one of my favorite comic book conventions. This year the convention will be held from June 19-21 (Father’s Day Weekend), in Charlotte, N.C. With the date fast approaching I caught up with Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find’s Creative Director, Dustin Harbin, to find out what’s planned for this year. I have to agree with Harbin, who described “the straight up 100% comics vibe, without all the actors and movie stuff and all that” as being part of what makes the con appeal to folks like myself.
Tim O’Shea: A few years back, Wizard tried to create a con to compete with HeroesCon–but that’s far from what happened. Ultimately how much do you think the industry rally to support HeroesCon (as opposed to Wizard) helped bolster the reputation of HeroesCon?
Dustin Harbin: Ha ha, welllll we have made a point of not really making a big deal out of that whole kerfuffle. Just in terms of being classy, I guess. But to comment directly to the second part of your question, I think we had a pretty great reputation with most of our guests and exhibitors, and that whole thing just ended up advertising to the larger industry how well-liked we seem to be.
That’s maybe a distortion though–obviously I’m predisposed toward thinking that HeroesCon is very well-liked–but it was really the very public efforts of a lot of creators that really got people riled up. Cully Hamner and Tony Harris and some others immediately came out with pretty direct responses, and then a lot of pros that had never attended the show before threw their hats in the ring, like Greg Rucka and J. Michael Straczynski.
- May 25, 2009 @ 01:38 PM by Tim O'Shea
Strangeways: The Thirsty – Memorial Day
The story is taking a break today, this Memorial Day.
More than six hundred thousand dead. Four hundred thousand wounded. And that was just the regular military side (the Union lost more, by the by). Civilian losses remain uncounted, and the damage to our nation too several generations to heal. Depending on who you ask. There’s still some that discuss it as the “War of Northern Aggression.”
Either way, the costliest American war in lives, far and away. Take a moment to remember this bloody chapter in our shared history.
Photograph taken by Matthew Brady.
STRANGEWAYS will be back Wednesday.
- May 25, 2009 @ 12:00 PM by Matt Maxwell
Straight for the art: ‘Play’
From 'Play'
First Second offers a sample of what I think is an upcoming work by Leland Myrick and Lark Pien.
- May 25, 2009 @ 10:35 AM by Chris Mautner
Your French film/comics news for the day
One of Sfar's concept sketches
Cartoonist Joann Sfar (The Rabbi’s Cat, The Little Vampire) is apparently directing a film about the famed French singer Serge Gainsbourg, titled Je t’Aime Moi Non Plus:
The film … will be more of a fantasy than a biopic and will feature animated creatures, crafted by the “Pan’s Labyrinth” designers, which will symbolize the spirit and imagination of Gainsbourg.
The World of Kane has more details and some concept sketches. The movie will be released in January of next year. Sadly, one of the stars of the upcoming film, Lucy Gordon, who played Gainsbourg’s lover Jane Birkin in the film, was recently found dead of an apparent suicide.
- May 25, 2009 @ 09:45 AM by Chris Mautner
MSNBC dives in to Archie marriage hype
Even Rachel Maddow is not immune to the revelation that Archie will be married in an upcoming (and probably imaginary) story line as “comic book matrimonial correspondent” Kent Jones looks at the impending nuptials and tries to handicap the race between Betty and Veronica. (hat tip: Comics Worth Reading)
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
- May 25, 2009 @ 08:42 AM by Chris Mautner
Missed it: The Surrogates trailer
The trailer for the Surrogates, starring Bruce Willis, and based off of the graphic novel by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele, is now online in HD. Doesn’t look half-bad.
- May 25, 2009 @ 07:30 AM by Chris Mautner
Who Watches the Mr. Men?
Who Watches the Mr. Men?
Artist Steven Anderson’s Flickr account has a bunch of fun drawings of various comic characters drawn in the style of Roger Hargreaves’ Mr. Men and Little Miss series. Characters from Batman, Watchmen, X-Men and Fantastic Four get the treatment, and he even includes a Mr. Men riff on the Marvel Comics logo.
- May 25, 2009 @ 06:33 AM by JK Parkin
If the actual Green Lantern trailer looks half this good …
Not many fan-made movie trailers get the seal of approval from the actor “cast” in the starring role. However, Nathan Fillion gives two thumbs up to Jaron Pitts — “I LOVE THIS! This guy rocks!” — for his impressive Green Lantern trailer that borrows from nearly 30 movies, movie teasers and television shows (including Planet of the Apes, Star Trek and, of course, Firefly and Serenity).
Some of Pitts’ sources are glaring, but still … Plus, y’know, Nathan Fillion. How can you go wrong?
- May 25, 2009 @ 05:39 AM by Kevin Melrose
Six by 6 | Six questions with Robot 13 writer Thomas Hall
Robot 13 cover
Writer Thomas Hall and artist Daniel Bradford have worked together since 2003, and in a few short weeks they’ll publish a new title that really caught my eye when I received an email about it. Making its debut at the 2009 MoCCA Festival, which is presented every year by the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art in New York, is the first issue of Robot 13. It’s the story of an amnesiac robot who fights mythological creatures of destruction.
With a title like that, how could I not do an interview with Hall to find out more about Robot 13?
JK: Thanks for taking the time to chat with me. Can you give us a little bit of info on your background, like how you got into comics and when you decided you wanted to write them?
Tom: As far back as I can remember, I have always loved comics. Like a lot of kids, the first comics I ever had were given to me- some Archies, a few Legion of Superheroes books and a few Marvel books. One that I was obsessed with was an issue of the Incredible Hulk by John Buscema. I was three, and I stared at that thing all the time, and I don’t know to this day exactly why. My dad read it to me, and I asked him how he knew what everyone was saying. He explained word balloons to me, and being three and naive, I asked him where the words came from. When he told me that it was someone’s job to write comics, even at three it just blew my mind. From that point on, I wanted to be a writer of some kind.
- May 24, 2009 @ 03:00 PM by JK Parkin
What Are You Reading?
The Collected Doug Wright
Welcome to What Are You Reading. Our special guest this week is PictureBox publisher, Art Out of Time author and all-around top dog Dan Nadel.
Remember, we want to know what you’re reading as well, so feel free to share what comics you’ve been enjoying (or haven’t as the case may be) in the comments section.
And now, here what we’re reading …
- May 24, 2009 @ 02:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Strangeways: The Thirsty – Week of 5/18
This week in THE THIRSTY:
The townsfolk of Cedar Creek prepare for vampire invasion, which is a good thing, since the bloodsuckers are on main street right now!
Cowboys and vampires action after the jump!
- May 24, 2009 @ 01:00 PM by Matt Maxwell