2010 January
Back on track, Spider-Man musical set to open this fall
Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark
Although the Spider-Man film franchise has hit a snag, it looks like the wall-crawler’s $52-million musical may at last be back on track — if still behind schedule.
The New York Post reports that Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, the most expensive show in Broadway history, is set to open this fall, months past its original date of March.
The ambitious musical, directed by The Lion King‘s Julie Taymor and scored by Bono and the Edge, was derailed in August by “cash-flow obstacles” that led producers to halt production while they sought more money for a budget that had ballooned from $35 million. In November, Bono’s longtime business partner Michael Cohl was brought onboard to put the show back on track.
According to the Post’s Michael Riedel, Disney is providing “a chunk” of the financing.
Spider-Man will cost about $1 million a week to produce — hundreds of thousands of dollars more than elaborate shows like Mary Poppins and West Side Story — and require the 1,700-seat Hilton Theatre to sell out for every show for four years just to break even.
Relative newcomer Reeve Carney has been cast in the lead, while Evan Rachel Wood and Alan Cumming will play Mary Jane and Green Goblin.
- January 12, 2010 @ 08:15 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Blackest Night #6
Publishing | DC Comics’ Blackest Night #6 was the top-selling periodical in an anemic December in which direct-market stores were hampered by a week in which Diamond Comic Distributors didn’t ship new titles. The latest issue of the bestselling event miniseries barely broke 100,000 copies, down from 144,000 for Issue 5. The top-selling graphic novel, the eighth volume of Wildstorm’s Ex Machina, moved an estimated 5,000 copies.
Retailer-oriented news and analysis site ICv2.com reports that single-issue sales in comic shops slipped 11 percent, while graphic novels and trade paperbacks fell 22 percent. Periodicals were off just 2 percent for the year, but graphic novels were down 15 percent; the overall decline in the direct market was 5 percent for 2009.
Blackest Night and its tie-ins allowed DC to take six of the Top 10 periodical spots for December; Marvel planted its flag with Captain America: Reborn and the Avengers franchise.
As usual, the graphic-novel chart provided more genre and publisher variety, with titles ranging from Star Wars: The Clone Wars to Bleach to Irredeemable cracking the Top 10. [ICv2.com, The Comichron]
- January 12, 2010 @ 07:39 AM by Kevin Melrose
Watchmen, Amazing Spider-Man #583 top direct-market titles of 2009
Watchmen
The Amazing Spider-Man #583 — that’s the President Obama issue, with its five printings — and Watchmen lead Diamond’s lists of the top-selling comic books and graphic novels in 2009.
Shocking, right? Okay, we already knew that The Amazing Spider-Man was the most-ordered comic of the entire decade in the direct market. And is doesn’t take a dedicated charts watcher to guess how the rest of the Top 10 shakes out: DC Comics’ bestselling Blackest Night miniseries grabs five spots (Nos. 2 and 5-8), Marvel’s summer event Captain America: Reborn #1 at No. 3, Batman and Robin #1 at No. 4, the Captain America #600 at No. 9 and Dark Avengers #1 at No. 10.
Yes, DC had six of the Top 10 titles last year — and 19 of the Top 25. That’s due almost entirely to the performances of Green Lantern, Blackest Night and Batman and Robin.
To find publishers other than Marvel and DC, you’ll have to scroll way down the Top 500: Dark Horse’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer #21 appears at No. 152 with 11 more issues — including two one-shots — charting lower. Image debuts at No. 351 with Haunt #1, followed at No. 463 by Image United #1.
The graphic-novel list offers more variety, with a Top 10 populated by The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century — 1910 at No. 2, the ninth, tenth and first volumes of The Walking Dead at Nos. 3-5, Secret Invasion at No. 6, the Batman R.I.P. hardcover at No. 7, the 12th volume of Fables at No. 8, Stephen King’s The Stand: Captain Trips hardcover at No. 9 and the 1st volume of Fables at No. 10.
It’s probably worth noting that the first manga title, the 45th volume of Naruto, doesn’t appear on the comic-store list until No. 100.
- January 12, 2010 @ 05:47 AM by Kevin Melrose
Talking Comics with Tim: Dan Vado
San Jose Comics Festival
The comic book industry is populated with a vast array of good people–and Dan Vado, head of SLG Publishing is one of them. When I heard about this Saturday’s San Jose Comics Festival (January 16 from 12 to 5 PM–for the reasonable price of FREE), I sought out Vado for an email interview. We also discussed the SLG Radio podcast (my current favorite comics podcast at present) for a bit.
Tim O’Shea: In discussing the festival recently with CBR’s Kiel Phegley you described how successful the San Jose area in terms of festivals, noting that with a past event SLG “managed to get over 1,500 people to come out to downtown San Jose on a Wednesday night”. What is it about San Jose that makes it tend to so strongly support festivals/gatherings of this type?
Dan Vado: The snide answer is that there really isn’t much going on here, but that would not be the truth. There actually is a lot going on, but not enough that covers the middle ground of people who have slightly older kids to teens and the older music and bar scene. The 1,500 number was in reference to a zombie crawl we sponsored. While we put it together as a pub crawl, the sheer number of people with families that came out was astounding.
- January 11, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by Tim O'Shea
Your other video of the day: Neil Gaiman’s Statuesque
It’s not comics, but I thought I’d share it anyway. The above is Statuesque, a short film written and directed by Neil Gaiman for the Sky1 drama series 10 minute Tales, starring Bill Nighy and Amanda Palmer. (via)
- January 11, 2010 @ 01:30 PM by Chris Mautner
Strangeways: The Thirsty – Page 107
If’n you forgot where we left off before the holidays, here’s the last page. Collins and company are trapped under a water tower in Drytown, sunlight fading to storm clouds and vampires up and looking for a taste.
And here’s today’s page.
Art by Gervasio and Jok. Written by Matt Maxwell
A new page is up Wednesday.
Trying to figure out when my one-year anniversary over here at Robot 6 is. Bet it’s coming up pretty soon. Can ya believe it?
- January 11, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by Matt Maxwell
Comics Cavalcade: Atom bombs and Sheldon Mayer
- January 11, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Thin wallets, fat bookshelves: NBM’s early 2010 line-up
Dungeon Twilight Vol. 3
During the next month or two, we’ll be looking at various indie and small press publishers’ plans for the coming year. Today we’re taking a quick look at NBM. Based on material found on the company’s Web site, as well as some catalog pages they sent me, I’ve managed to come up with a quick rundown of their line-up for the first six months of the year. FYI: The dates are based off of the Web site, and not the catalog, which are off by a few months due to trade shipping dates (translation: comic stores get it first).
- January 11, 2010 @ 11:30 AM by Chris Mautner
Marvel stock removed from New York Stock Exchange today
Marvel Enterprises stock certificate (Is it a collector's item?)
Today, less than two weeks after shareholders approved the company’s $4.3-billion acquisition by Disney, Marvel’s stock was removed from the New York Stock Exchange. Yes, the “MVL” ticker symbol is no more.
Marvel made its initial stock offering under billionaire investor Ronald Perelman in 1991, just five years before the company went bankrupt.
In the Disney acquisition, Marvel shareholders received $30 in cash and approximately 0.745 in Disney stock for every Marvel share they own.
- January 11, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Justice League to get new members under Brightest Day banner
Justice League of America #44
Over on the Source blog, DC revealed another title falling under the Brightest Day banner — Justice League of America, starting with issue 44. Beyond the cover and the fact that some new members are joining, Executive Editor Dan DiDio had little else to reveal.
“Justice League of America will also feature the banner, starting with April’s #44, but the characters that will be joining the team are still very much under wraps,” DiDio said. “Sorry, I’m usually not this secretive in the afternoon. Hope you understand.”
Issue 44 also looks like it’ll feature an appearance by members of the JSA and JSA All-Stars.
- January 11, 2010 @ 10:16 AM by JK Parkin
Your video of the day: Chris Samnee inks Swamp Thing
With a Pentel brush yet. (via)
- January 11, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Titans to receive Brightest Day makeover
Deathstroke
DC continues to roll out announcements related to their upcoming Brightest Day event. Joining the Flash under the banner is Titans, which is getting a new creative team and new roster.
We already know that writer Eric Wallace and artist Fabrizio Fiorentino, who worked on the miniseries Final Crisis Aftermath: Ink, will take over the book. Before that, though, the duo will work on a one-shot called Titans: Villains for Hire Special.
“We loved the work the two of them did on INK, so we’re excited to see them build a new team of Titans, under the leadership of none other than Deathstroke, the Terminator,” Executive Editor Dan DiDio said. “Who the members are and how they affect the original Titans is a major part of the DCU’s story for 2010.”
DiDio also revealed that Chesire and the Tattooed Man will be on the team’s roster.
More soon …
- January 11, 2010 @ 09:43 AM by JK Parkin
Please transform my house into Moomin Valley
"Moomin"-inspired children's play room, by Maria Yasko
This is the most wonderful thing I’ve seen in … well, a few days: Andres Vazquez points to the portfolio of Russian interior and industrial designer Maria Yasko, who created amazing rooms for a “family entertainment center” inspired by Tove Jansson’s Moomin books.
I’m not sure what the “family entertainment center” is, exactly, but above is the children’s play room. After the break, you can see the cafeteria. For more images, and the Jansson illustrations that inspired them, check out Yasko’s portfolio.
- January 11, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
DC announces Brightest Day: The Flash
The Flash #1 by Francis Manapul
Looks like it’s gonna be one of those days: Hot on the heels of this morning’s announcement of Brightest Day, DC Comics Executive Editor Dan DiDio has taken to The Source blog again to announce Brightest Day: The Flash. It’s the opening story arc to the new Barry Allen-starring Flash ongoing by the previously announced team of Geoff Johns and Francis Manapul (that’s the cover to Issue 1 above).
As you might have guessed, it’s just one of several books that will be use the Brightest Day banner throughout May and June, as Brightest Day isn’t just one series, but a line-wide event. Stay tuned for more, I’m sure…
- January 11, 2010 @ 08:26 AM by Sean T. Collins
Read Dan Hipp’s Gyakushu! online for free
Just what it says, folks: as we mentioned last week, Volumes One and Two of the Amazing Joy Buzzards artist’s epic fantasy of vengeance Gyakushu! are now available to read in their entirety at Hipp’s new dedicated site, The Thief Is Dead. There’s also an extensive preview of Volume Three, coming soon from Tokyopop. Click away and start scrolling — just be warned that there will be blood…
- January 11, 2010 @ 08:01 AM by Sean T. Collins