2010 January
Twilight: The Graphic Novel to bow with 350,000-copy first printing [Updated]
Twilight: The Graphic Novel, Vol. 1
Yen Press will debut its graphic-novel adaptation of Twilight on March 16 with a staggering first printing of 350,000 copies.
That figure comes from Entertainment Weekly‘s Shelf Life blog, which offers a look at the cover and interior art, plus an excerpt from an interview with Twilight author Stephenie Meyer. (A 10 -page preview plus the full Q&A will run in the new edition of the magazine, which hits stands on Friday.)
Announced in July, Twilight: The Graphic Novel is adapted and illustrated by Korean artist Young Kim, with input from Meyer, whose series of young-adult novels has sold 53 million copies worldwide.
Yen Press, a subsidiary of Hachette Book Group USA, recently published adaptations of James Patterson’s Maximum Ride and Darren Shan’s Cirque du Freak, and in December announced plans to “re-imagine” Cecily von Ziegesar’s Gossip Girl novels.
Update: Brigid Alverson posts the official press release, which indicates Twilight: The Graphic Novel will be a $19.99 hardcover.
- January 20, 2010 @ 06:18 AM by Kevin Melrose
This week, barbarians are at the gate — and at your local comic shop
This week is all about the comeback, as we have several big returns making their way to your local comic shop this week. After a brief hiatus due to things like Captain America: Reborn, the regular Captain America monthly title is once again in shops — with Steve, Bucky, 1950s Cap AND the new Nomad. DC, meanwhile, has the return of two titles we haven’t seen in awhile, Starman and Phantom Stranger. And their Vertigo imprint sees the return of one of its favorite sons, Grant Morrison, who teams up with artist Sean Murphy to tell the tale of Joe the Barbarian.
In addition to Joe, there are several other first issues hitting this week, including another Supernatural miniseries from Wildstorm, Avengers vs. Agents of Atlas from Marvel, a new Solomon Kane mini from dark Horse and Merc from Zenescope. They’re joined by the last issue of Dark Horse’s Rapture miniseries, as well as new issues of RASL, Dark Avengers, Thunderbolts, Green Lantern Corps. and Incorruptible, among many others.
Trade waiters, meanwhile, can look for new collections of R.E.B.E.L.S., Justice League, Jack Staff and Captain America, just to name a few.
To see what Chris, Kevin and I are looking forward to, read on …
- January 19, 2010 @ 02:01 PM by JK Parkin
Unbound: A field trip to the ALA Midwinter
As you might expect, the American Library Association’s Midwinter Meeting is a fairly staid event, compared to, say, New York Comic-Con. The average age is older, the decibel level is lower, and there are no booth babes. The only high-profile guest was Al Gore, who as far as I know has never made a comic, and a lot of the exhibits on the floor are for things like new bookcase systems or databases of scholarly articles.
On the plus side, there was free coffee and pastries, free internet and… comics! Graphic novels, actually, because that’s what librarians like (the traditional 32-page comic book doesn’t hold up too well under the stress of repeated readings). Librarians have long been enthusiastic supporters of the ninth art, and this year they gave it a boost by giving two of their traditional book awards to graphic novels: David Small’s Stitches: A Memoir won an Alex Award (for adult books with strong teen appeal) and the Toon book Benny and Penny in The Big No-No won the Geisel Award (named after Dr. Seuss) for “the most distinguished American book for beginning readers published in English in the United States during the preceding year.” The good times will continue later this month when the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) presents their Great Graphic Novels for Teens list.
Given that a big-city librarian may buy hundreds of copies of a single title—in hardback—it’s not hard to see why publishers felt it was worth their while to make the trek to Boston for the midwinter meeting. Only two of the large independent publishers, Boom! Studios and Viz, came to this show, but this is actually a smaller event than the ALA Annual Conference, which takes place in June. But a number of other major publishers were there—Random House, Penguin, HarperCollins—and they all publish or distribute graphic novels, so there was lots to see if you knew how to look.
- January 19, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by Brigid Alverson
Robot reviews: Spin-offs aplenty
Army of Two #1
by Peter Milligan, Dexter Soy and Jose Marzan Jr.
IDW, $3.99.
I’ve read great Peter Milligan comics and I’ve read horrible Peter Milligan comics. This, however, falls in neither category. That’s because this could have been written by anybody. There’s nothing unique or interesting about it. It betrays none of Milligan’s stylistic quirks or themes, and the art by Soy and Marzan merely serves to underscore how thoroughly and depressingly inane this spin-off of a somewhat popular video game franchise is. I suppose there’s the off chance this is intended to be some sort of satire, but if so it misses the mark sharply, not to mention the fact that others (most notably Kyle Baker) have done that sort of thing better. No, there’s no nice way to say it: This is hackwork, pure and simple, from someone who is capable of much, much better, and the fact that it’s a tie-in product to a video game doesn’t really excuse its shabbiness.
More reviews after the jump …
- January 19, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Straight for the art | Annie’s L’il Orphans
Sample panels from 'Orphans
Courtesy of Ted Dawson comes this odd and strangely fascinating collection of art work for a comic strip proposal by Stan Drake (Juliet Jones) and Bill Yates (Professor Phumble) entitled Annie’s L’il Orphans. I’m assuming this never got past the proposal stage since I don’t think I’ve ever read or seen this strip before. It’s this peculiar amalgamation of good-girl pin-ups and goofy, cartoon kid art that reminds me of nothing so much as Frank Cho, who would later ride this combination all the way to Successland with Liberty Meadows. I guess Drake and Yates were just ahead of their time. (found via)
- January 19, 2010 @ 10:50 AM by Chris Mautner
Straight for the art | Walt Simonson covers Authority and WildCats
by Walt Simonson
Via Wildstorm’s The Bleed blog, Walt Simonson provides a “split cover” for The Authority #21 and WildCats #22.
- January 19, 2010 @ 10:10 AM by JK Parkin
Everyone’s A Critic: A round-up of comic book reviews and thinkpieces
xxxHolic
• Are we in danger of a Webcomics sensory overload? That’s the question Abhay Khosla asks in his own inimitable fashion. (Warning: this post is a bit of an image-heavy memory hog.)
• The Hooded Utilitarian folks are doing another roundtable discussion. This time it’s on Clamp’s xxxHolic series, with special guests Adam Stephanides and Katherine Dacey chiming in.
• The illustrious Marc Singer seems to have returned to blogging once again, with an essay on Scott McCloud’s Making Comics that originally ran in the International Journal of Comic Art.
• Dan Nadel looks at what made Alex Raymond special.
• My, what a big pocketbook you’ve got there Richie Rich!
• The AV Club does their monthly round-up of notable comics, including Daybreaker, Pim & Francie and The Talisman.
• Speaking of round-ups, let’s note that Tucker Stone’s Comics of the Weak feature is back and running full throttle.
• Shaenon Garrity gets all nostalgic for Wizard magazine’s hey day. OK, not really.
• Both Johanna Draper Carlson and David Welsh recommend All My Darling Daughters. Welsh also takes a look at the work of Natsume Ono over at CR.
• Finally, John Seven enjoyed the first volume of The Unwritten more than I did.
- January 19, 2010 @ 09:41 AM by Chris Mautner
‘Frienemies’: Tom Brevoort on the Marvel/DC rivalry
I’m starting to think we should make “What’s Tom Twittering Today?” one of our recurring features, like “Straight for the Art” or “Talking Comics with Tim.” Anyway, spurred by a comment from Amazing Spider-Man writer Dan Slott, Marvel Executive Editor Tom Brevoort took to his do-not-miss-it Twitter account to comment on the age-old competition between Marvel and DC — which, at least on Marvel’s end, seems to have heated up of late:
JLA/Avengers art by George Pérez
I am told by @DanSlott that I’m coming across as too mean and petty towards DC. Putting aside why Dan was Twittering rather than scripting[, it] seems like something I should address. First off, my affiliation should be clear, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like DC or it’s people. I know all of those characters just as forwards and backwards, and have edited more DC-related material than any other Marvel editor. And most DC editors have been pleasant. Dan Didio’s been nothing but nice whenever our paths have crossed. But by that same token, DC is the competition. Friendly, but not friends. Frienemies. The sports team rivalry between Marvel and DC is all part of the game, for readers as much as us. Everybody likes to cheer on their faves. It profits nobody for things to get too lovey-dovey with them. That’s dull for everyone. And, particularly when they start pulling plays from our playbook, we pride ourselves at being faster, sharper and smarter in [our] promo as well as in the books themselves. So, long story short, they stink and we’re great! And hey, it keeps us from talking about Dark Horse, Image or IDW …
(I’m pretty sure those last bits were said with tongue in cheek.)
So in short, Brevoort’s take seems to be of the “healthy rivalry” variety, something that’s not just good for the respective companies, but entertaining for their fans. Or, as he put it in response to a fan of both Marvel and DC who said he didn’t like to see the two companies being dicks to each other for no reason: “Never dicks just to be dicks. Always dicks with a point.”
This leaves me wondering a few things:
1) Which plays have DC swiped from Marvel’s playbook, in the eyes of the House of Ideas? ( 1.5) Do Houses have eyes?)
2) Will anyone from DC publicly sound off on the rivalry as well?
3) How does the trash-talk and gamesmanship play with the new corporate stewards of the two companies?
I know where I’ll be looking for the answers …
- January 19, 2010 @ 09:06 AM by Sean T. Collins
Shamus and Wizard expand into Atlanta
Atlanta Comic Con Wizard World Convention
More than four years after abandoning plans for an event in Georgia’s capital, Wizard Entertainment CEO Gareb Shamus has purchased Atlanta Comic Convention, a one-day show founded in 1994.
Renamed (deep breath) Atlanta Comic Con Wizard World Convention, it joins Shamus’ rapidly growing stable of eight events that includes Chicago Comic Con, Big Apple Comic Con and the recently announced Austin Comic Con. No date or venue have been announced for the Atlanta convention.
According to the press release, Atlanta Comic Convention founder Will Tillander will remain as a consultant for the show, which will expand from one day to three.
Wizard’s previous attempt at an Atlanta convention, announced in July 2005, triggered a backlash from retailers, creators and fans because its inaugural show was scheduled for the same weekend as Heroes Con in Charlotte, North Carolina. Shamus quickly dropped plans for a 2006 Atlanta show, but said Wizard would seek an event there the following year. None materialized.
- January 19, 2010 @ 08:29 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Comic-Con
Conventions | Friday passes for Comic-Con International appear to have sold out on Monday (although this morning the red bar on the convention website is back to 99 percent). That’s three months ahead of those for last year’s event, which were gone by mid-April. They join Saturday memberships, which sold out over the holidays, and four-day passes, which disappeared the first week of November. [Comic-Con]
Publishing | The Japanese Magazine Publishers Association reports that while the circulation of some manga magazines, such as Weekly Shonen Jump, increased slightly in 2009, others, like Weekly Shonen Magazine, dropped. [Anime News Network]
Publishing | Jason Overdorf takes a look at the changing Indian comics scene, focusing on a group of artists called the Pao Collective. [GlobalPost]
- January 19, 2010 @ 07:44 AM by Kevin Melrose
Talking Comics with Tim: Sean Murphy
Joe the Barbarian #1
For several months, there’s been a great amount of interest in Sean Murphy‘s work on Joe the Barbarian (the artist’s latest project/eight-issue miniseries with writer Grant Morrison, the first issue of which goes on sale this Wednesday, January 20). I was looking forward to meeting Murphy at the late October 2009 SCAD event (covered here). After talking about his craft with him (and seeing his work first hand), I am genuinely enthused to see the release of the first issue. I truly relish Murphy’s candor, as evidenced in this interview, and appreciate him giving me the opportunity to discuss Joe the Barbarian (as well as other topics).
Tim O’Shea: How did you come to be involved with Joe the Barbarian?
Sean Murphy: I’ve had a rough ride with DC for many years it seems. After Batman/Scarecrow: Year One I couldn’t get work there. My editor apparently pushed hard for me but the people in charge didn’t like my stuff and blacklisted me from the DCU. I’ve got a Teen Titans story that was never published because of how I reinvented Cyborg (shame on me for bringing him out of the 90s).
Then one day Karen Berger calls from Vertigo. She wanted me to work on this book they were doing with Neil Young called Greendale. Needing cash, I of course agreed. But there were a lot of delays for about a year. At one point I passed on Spider Man 1602 because I thought Greendale was almost ready. In the end Neil opted to go with another artist, so I started talking to Marvel about working there. When they offered me Dr. Strange, Karen countered with a Morrison book called Warcop. Soon they were both talking exclusives.
It was a rush. I remember thinking that I must have given the lord of comics a hand job in a past life or something.
- January 18, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by Tim O'Shea
Straight for the art blog | Comic Twart draws Zorro
by Mitch Breitweiser
Chris Samnee, Mike Hawthorne, Andy Kuhn, Mitch Breitweiser and several other artists have united to form Comic Twart, an art blog where every week the group will draw a different character. This week’s character, if you couldn’t guess, is Zorro.
- January 18, 2010 @ 01:30 PM by JK Parkin
Strangeways: The Thirsty – Page 109
Feels kinda out of place to be running such frivolity on MLK Day, but there you have it.
Art by Gervasio and Jok. Written by Matt Maxwell.
So, I guess they better get to that shed, huh? Wonder what’s in there. Maybe we get to find out on Wednesday.
- January 18, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by Matt Maxwell
Straight for the art | A look at Image United #3, in progress
From "Image United" #3
On Twitter, Rob Liefeld showed off in-progress panels from Image United #3, featuring art by Erik Larsen, Jim Valentino and himself.
He also posted a panel from Deadpool Corps #1, which will be released by Marvel in April.
- January 18, 2010 @ 12:30 PM by Kevin Melrose
Comics Cavalcade: Goofy, gorillas and naked ladies
Fast Forward by Vanessa Davis
- January 18, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by Chris Mautner