2010 April
I would be all over a Fear Agent video game that looked like this
At Vimeo, Adam Trosper posts impressive video for a student-made game he supervised based on Fear Agent, the comic series by Rick Remender and Tony Moore. (Moore approves, describing the video as “short but awesome.”)
(Thanks, Stephen)
- April 14, 2010 @ 03:28 PM by Kevin Melrose
And your Secret Avengers line-up is …
The roster of the Secret Avengers has been clouded in mystery ever since Marvel started their marketing campaign around the Heroic Age Avengers titles, and it wasn’t until the last week or so that they started to reveal who some of those blacked-out images really were. Well, now the cat is fully out of the bag …
Secret Avengers
We already knew that Moon Knight, Valkyrie, War Machine and Beast had been tapped for the team, and now we know that Nova and Steve Rogers (in a Captain America-fied SHIELD outfit) are also on board.
The new series by Ed Brubaker and Mike Deodato is due in May. Should be fun. I have to wonder what this means for Nova’s solo title, though …
- April 14, 2010 @ 02:30 PM by JK Parkin
Send us your Shelf Porn!
This week we have a special guest contributor to Shelf Porn — comics writer Jesse Blaze Snider. Snider will be at C2E2 this weekend in Chicago, signing copies of Toy Story and other comics at the BOOM! Studios booth, so be sure to drop by and tell him how cool his shelf porn looks.
If you’d like to contribute to Shelf Porn, just send a write-up and pictures to jkparkin@yahoo.com.
And now let’s turn it over to Jesse …
- April 14, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by JK Parkin
Straight for the art | Delirium and Desire, by Jill Thompson
Delirium and Desire watercolor commissions, by Jill Thompson
This afternoon on Twitter, the multi-talented Jill Thompson posted these gorgeous watercolor commissions of The Sandman‘s Delirium and Desire, as well as the X-Men‘s Kitty Pryde. Thompson, whose Beasts of Burden: Animal Rites hardcover collection will be released in June, is a featured guest this weekend at the inaugural C2E2.
- April 14, 2010 @ 01:30 PM by Kevin Melrose
Marvel merchandise now available in the Disney Store
Marvel merch at the Disney Store
My wife received the above email from The Disney Store today, promoting the fact that you can now buy Marvel merchandise at the Disney Store website. I assume this means it is on the way to the brick-and-mortar Disney Stores as well, if it isn’t already being rolled out.
They’re carrying a full line of clothing for kids and adults, toys, bedspreads and even a few comics … that come packaged with action figures. I think most, if not all, of the merchandise has been available through other venues, but how long before they start carrying a few exclusive items?
- April 14, 2010 @ 12:46 PM by JK Parkin
A roundup of weekend conventions that aren’t C2E2
FLUKE 2010
While the inaugural C2E2 is getting the lion’s share of the attention, it certainly won’t be the only comics convention going on this weekend:
• The Anaheim Convention Center, one of the venues vying for Comic-Con International, will play host to the first Wizard World Anaheim Comic-Con Friday through Sunday.
Comics guests include Simon Bisley, Tim Bradstreet, J.M. DeMatteis, Glenn Fabry, Ale Garza, Phil Jimenez, Drew Johnson, Stan Lee, Rob Liefeld, Mike Mayhew, Arthur Suydam and Bernie Wrightson. Media guests include LeVar Burton, Yvonne Craig, Michael Dorn, Richard Hatch, Kato Kaelin, Juliet Landau, Lee Meriwether, Julie Newmar, Nichelle Nichols, William Shatner, Helen Slater, Brent Spiner, Lindsay Wagner, Billy Dee Williams and the kid who played Young Ben Linus on Lost. Doors open at 3 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. Saturday and Sunday.
• Denver ComicFest kicks off at 5 p.m. Friday at the Hilton Garden Inn Tech Center in Denver, Colorado, and continues through Sunday. Guests include Dan Brereton, Amy Reeder Hadley, Zach Howard, Jon Boy Meyers, John Porcellino, Whilce Portacio, Fiona Staples, Matt Sturges and Noah Van Sciver.
• The ninth FLUKE mini-comics festival will be held from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday at Ciné, 234 W. Hancock Ave., Athens, Georgia. Flagpole has a preview of the event, which will feature such cartoonists as David Mack, Eleanor Davis and Devlin Thompson.
- April 14, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by Kevin Melrose
Straight for the art | Objet d’Afro contest winners
AdHouse Books has announced the winners of their “Objet d’Afro“/Afrodisiac art contest. At the top of this post you’ll see the contribution by “King Daddy” winner Marcussparcus; you can also check out the second and third place winners, “Cigarette Pimp” Katie Skelly and “Poppa-stoppa” Mike Shea.
Bonus: Don’t miss you chance to get a limited edition Afrodisiac T-shirt from ToonSeum.
- April 14, 2010 @ 11:30 AM by JK Parkin
Everyone’s A Critic | A round-up of comic book reviews and thinkpieces
Priest, one of Kate's manhwa picks
Recommendations: Kate Dacey lists ten manhwa (Korean comics) you shouldn’t miss, and it’s an amazingly diverse list, encompassing romances, mythology, and stories as diverse as Priest, Shaman Warrior, and Run, Bong-gu, Run!
Informed snark: Chris Allen and Alan David Doane go after the Eisner nominations at Trouble with Comics.
Clobbering: When Tom Spurgeon hates a comic, he really hates it. In this case, it’s Rhubarb, the Millionaire Cat:
The cascade of pages may feel like punishment, but it’s a punishment doled out by a very fair person who is going to not let you out of the corner until the second that minute hand hits twelve. I’m not sure anyone would do a comic this bad for this many pages now.
And that’s one if its charms. Bonus points to Tom for being familiar with the writer, H. Allen Smith, and his timeless tome Low Man on a Totem Pole (which I own and love).
Commentary: Christopher Butcher liveblogs as he reads this month’s Previews (part 1, part 2).
Creators: Dash Shaw explains Bodyworld, more or less, to io9′s Cyriaque Lamar.
Review: “One almost gets the sense that everyone involved knew that this was a minor work, but a story still worth telling”: Rob Clough reviews Gene Luen Yang’s Prime Baby.
- April 14, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Straight for the art | Michael Cho’s Kick-Ass cover for The Village Voice
From Michael Cho's "Kick-Ass" illustration for The Village Voice
Cartoonist Michael Cho took on the film adaptation of Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.’s Kick-Ass for the cover of the Village Voice Spring Arts Guide 2010. “I don’t really know much about the movie,” Cho writes, “but it was fun to draw an action scene for a magazine cover.”
See the full cover and a related spot illustration on Cho’s blog or at The Village Voice website.
(via Super Punch)
- April 14, 2010 @ 10:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
C2E2 | Sea Bear & Grizzly Shark, BOOM!, smells like Witchblade and more
C2E2
C2E2, the new Chicago convention brought to you by the makers of the New York Comic Con, will hold its inaugural convention this weekend at the Lakeside Center at McCormick Place. If you’re exhibiting at the show, debuting a new comic or just have some exciting plans for attendees you’d like to share, drop me an email and I’ll run it in one of the many round-ups we’ll be doing between now and Friday.
Also, I probably wouldn’t get anything good for Boss’s Day this year if I don’t mention that Robot 6′s own Brigid Alverson will be on a panel Friday night, titled “Old Media, New Media, Comics Media.” It’s moderated by Heidi MacDonald of the Beat and features several other comics media/blogging folks. So go say hi to Brigid at 7:45 p.m.
Michael May will also be at the show, and both he and Brigid should have some reports to file from it over the weekend. So be sure to check back for those if you aren’t in Chicago yourself. And if you are attending the show, here’s some stuff to check out …
*****
Artist Ryan Ottley will have some cool stickers at the show to promote the upcoming Sea Bear & Grizzly Shark: They Got Mixed Up! one-shot he’s doing with Jason Howard. Choose your side:
- April 14, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by JK Parkin
Miller time: A roundup of Frank Miller items
The Hard Goodbye
Although his Twitter and blog haven’t been updated since March, that doesn’t mean Frank Miller has been idle or forgotten. Witness, a few Miller-related items from the past few days …
- ComicsAlliance reports that Miller was at the MoCCA Festival this past weekend, where he confirmed that he is no longer working on Holy Terror, Batman! So I guess we won’t get to a Batman/Al-Qaeda showdown, at least not one drawn by Miller.
- David Brothers, Chad Nevett, Tim Callahan and Tim O’Neil have teamed up for a series of blog posts called “Booze, Broads, & Bullets,” where they are collectively writing about Miller’s body of work. Nevett, for instance, is hitting the Sin City books, while Brothers has hit stuff like Ronin and Man Without Fear. Check out the entire index over at the 4thletter!
- And speaking of Sin City, Miller tweeted in January about new covers he was doing for the Sin City line of books, and now they’ve popped up officially in the latest Dark Horse solicits.
- April 14, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Akira, Vol. 1
Publishing | When Japan’s largest publisher, Kodansha, set up shop in the United States last fall, many expected a major shake-up in the North American manga market. But so far, Kodansha USA Publishing and Kodansha Comics have been awfully quiet, re-releasing only the first volumes of Akira and Ghost in the Shell. So Gia Manry goes to the source, the general manager of Kodansha USA, and learns … not a whole lot, actually. Except that the manga giant plans to create a website. [Anime Vice]
Publishing | Comics publishers are generally tight-lipped when it comes to sales figures — unless, of course, those numbers are really, really impressive. That’s the case with the hardcover collection for Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.’s Kick-Ass, which Marvel reports has shipped nearly 100,000 copies since its release on Feb. 17. Almost 40 percent of those has gone to the direct market. [press release]
- April 14, 2010 @ 08:04 AM by Kevin Melrose
Did March officially usher in the Four-Dollar Era?
X-Men: Second Coming #1
The direct market reached a milestone in March, one that will make a lot of comics readers very unhappy. For the first time, more comics in Diamond’s Top 300 were priced at $3.99 than at $2.99.
That’s according to chart-watcher John Jackson Miller, who provides the breakdown: 130 titles priced at $3.99, 124 at $2.99, and only 16 at “the intermediary step” of $3.50, which seems destined to disappear altogether.
It’s a slim margin, to be certain and, in Miller’s words, “mainly a psychological barrier,” as the average price still comes out to $3.55. But it’s a sure sign that the $4 comic soon will be the norm, with or without additional content or “co-features.”
Every month around this time, the retail news and analysis site ICv2.com posts its sales estimates for comics sold to the direct market, and virtually every month there’s a new round of complaints from readers about the increasing number of $3.99 titles. Yet, despite all the (virtual) gnashing of teeth and rending of clothes, the $3.99 books keep on selling. Of the Top 25 comics in March, 14 were priced at $3.99; of the Top 50, 27 were at the higher price.
Now, a lot of those titles were event comics, or tie-ins to event comics, or special one-shots, or miniseries, or — well, you get the picture. So I’ll agree with Miller that it’s possible the “common price” of comics could slide back to $2.99 once some of these crossovers and miniseries and so on wrap up. After all, DC’s next “events,” Brightest Day and War of the Supermen are priced at $2.99. However, most of Marvel’s “Heroic Age” launches and relaunches appear to be $3.99 books.
So, what does it all mean? Most likely, it’s a hearty welcome to the Four-Dollar Era. But don’t get too comfortable: The Five-Dollar Era will be along before you know it.
- April 13, 2010 @ 01:35 PM by Kevin Melrose
C2E2 | Funrama debuts, I Rule the Night print, tats, Dark Horse and more
C2E2, the new Chicago convention brought to you by the makers of the New York Comic Con, will hold its inaugural convention this weekend at the Lakeside Center at McCormick Place. Our buddy Kiel spoke with Lance Fensterman of Reed Exhibitions about the show yesterday, if you’re curious about Reed’s plans for it.
If you’re exhibiting at the show, debuting a new comic or just have some exciting plans for attendees you’d like to share, drop me an email and I’ll run it in one of the many round-ups we’ll be doing between now and Friday.
And if you are attending the show, here’s some stuff to add to your agenda/buy list …
*****
Artist Ryan Kelly will debut his self-published book Funrama at the show. He’ll be in Artist Alley at booth K-9. You can also purchase it online for a couple dollars more.
- April 13, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by JK Parkin
Straight for the art | Fonografiks’ classic comics cover concepts
Daredevil: Born Again cover concept by Fonografiks
Is there an officially sanctioned “wolf-whistle” emoticon? Because I would very much like to use it while linking you to some killer retro-paperback-flavored comics cover designs by Popgun designer/letterer Fonografiks (aka Steven Finch). In addition to the Daredevil: Born Again redux shown above, Fonografiks has also tackled Watchmen, Incredible Hulk, and Fantastic Four in suitably iconic style.
(via Kirby-Vision)
- April 13, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by Sean T. Collins