Comic Book Resources

Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

Publishing | Writer Joshua Hale Fialkov explains the decision to syndicate his graphic novel Tumor on Amazon’s Kindle: “The Kindle represents a seamless method to purchase and read content. You buy the book, and it magically appears on your screen a second or two later. The playing field becomes quite a bit more even. People will still be drawn to bigger authors or titles, but, for the people who want to seek out your work, they actually can. The same can’t be said of most comic shops, or, for that matter, most bookstores. In effect, by removing the physical commodity, we’ve opened up the marketplace to endless options. It’s no longer a question of whether to stock Batman OR Tumor, because they’re both there, all the time, waiting to be downloaded. [The X-Change Files]

Publishing | In response to reader complaints, Tokyopop has upgraded the paper stock on its books. [About.com]

Publishing | Deb Aoki speaks at length with Hideki Egami, senior editor of Japan’s IKKI, about the manga magazine’s new North American counterpart, Viz Media’s SigIKKI.com: “We have a slogan for IKKI, something like ‘We are still at the dawn of the manga era.’ This kind of explains our philosophy. The spirit of this tagline is that the dawn is still approaching; meaning that if you assume that the history of manga will continue for 200 years or longer, we are still at the very beginning.” [About.com]

Publishing | Dundee, Scotland-based publisher D.C. Thomson, which produces The Beano and The Dandy, has purchased the social networking website Friends Reunited for £25 million ($42 million), just four years after ITV paid £170 million ($286 million) for it. [BBC News]

Licensing | Marvel Entertainment has partnered with clothing chain Old Navy for a back-to-school promotion that includes a limited-edition reprint of Amazing Fantasy #15 with the purchase of a Marvel Collectabilitee T-shirt. [press release]

Retailing | Not satisfied with simply targeting teens, through new in-store boutiques, the financially troubled Borders chain is adding toy and game sections to the children’s departments in its 500 stores nationwide. [ICv2.com]

Sales charts | Watchmen slips another rung, below Naruto and Fruits Basket, on Nielsen BookScan’s list of the top graphic novels sold in bookstores in July. [ICv2.com]

Creators | Brian Heater kicks off a three-part interview with Seth, who ponders the possibility of one of his creations being adapted as a movie: “I would totally just hand it over to the right people, if they were willing to pay me enough money. Because what I really don’t want to do is be involved in a project that uses up all of my time — time I need to put into my drawing. I love film, but I wouldn’t want to make a movie. Even if someone came along and asked me to direct a movie, I’d probably say, ‘no’ because I’m interested in doing comics. But I would take the money from a film adaptation, and put it back into making comics. If the movie stank, well, that’s life. The book exists.  And hopefully, because of the money made, another one exists as well.” [The Daily Cross Hatch]

Creators | Actor/singer/model Tyrese Gibson discusses the release this week of Tyrese Gibson’s Mayhem #1: “This is my baby. I put my name on the cover.  I left [this year's] Comic Con, I didn’t have my voice back for six days. I was screaming at the top of my lungs, trying to get all the attention to our booth.” [Daily News]

Creators | Marvel is launching a series of creator interviews in support of its Strange Tales MAX miniseries. First up is Sean Collins’ chat with Paul Pope. [Marvel.com]

Creators | Christopher Irving spotlights writer/inker Jimmy Palmiotti who talks about, among other things, Marvel Knights and DC Comics Executive Editor Dan DiDio: “Here’s the thing. If Dan was a ball player in the major leagues, his average would be really good. He tries things, and sometimes they do and don’t work, and that’s okay because he goes ‘Okay, that doesn’t work. I learned what I needed to learn, so now I’m going to try this.’ A lot of what he has introduced into the DCU is just amazing … people forget how dull the books were right before he got there. If anything, Dan can muster up real excitement …” [Graphic NYC]

Creators | Peter Brown wraps up a two-part Q&A with The Middleman creator Javier Grillo-Marxuach about the TV pitch-turned comics series-turned canceled TV show, and the release of the 13th episode in graphic-novel form. [iF Magazine]

Creators | J.T. Morand profiles Chet Spiewak, creator of the Vinny the Bug Man series of graphic novels. [Park Ridge Herald-Advocate]

Comics | Matt Ampersand dreams up a Marvel version of DC Comics’ Wednesday Comics miniseries. [The Weekly Crisis]