2010 May
Japan: Playing it a bit too cool?
Astro Boy: So cool it's cold
Comics and the internet have been getting along pretty well in the U.S., as even a cursory glance at this blog will show, but in Japan, not so much.
In a piece for the Japanese newspaper Daily Yomiuri, cultural observer Roland Kelts laments the disconnect between American fans and Japanese publishers, who don’t seem to be aware of each other at all.
Quite a few industry producers and publishers still maintain Japanese-only Web presences, but that hardly matters. In either language, most of the industry’s online offerings are amateurish, hard to navigate, and worst of all, dull—just the opposite of their vaunted products.
The problem with this approach is that the Japanese market is shrinking and overseas customers are more important than ever before, yet no one is reaching out to them. The only company Kelts sees as actually “getting it” is Crunchyroll, which started as a pirate anime site and then went legit.
- May 18, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
The star of April’s sales charts: The Walking Dead
Image Firsts: The Walking Dead #1
The most interesting thing about April’s direct-market sales chart has nothing to do with DC’s Brightest Day — the zero issue was No. 1, naturally — or Marvel’s Siege tie-ins, but rather with a $1 reprint of a nearly seven-year-old black-and-white comic.
The Walking Dead #1, the debut entry in Image Comics’ “Image Firsts” campaign reprinting the first issues from 10 popular series, sold more than 59,000 copies, seizing the No. 15 spot on the April chart.
A one-dollar comic is difficult to pass by, particularly when $3.99 titles are becoming the norm. However, the performance of the reprint is a testament to the enduring — or is that growing? — popularity of the well-regarded zombie/survivalist series by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore and, later, Charlie Adlard. After all, as ICv2 notes, the material from the first issue has been available in trade paperback, through many reprints, dating back to May 2004.
What’s more, all 11 of The Walking Dead‘s trade paperbacks landed on April’s graphic novel chart, with the latest edition of the first volume, “Days Gone Bye,” selling more than 1,500 copies. The monthly series isn’t doing too shabby, either: Issue 71 charted at No. 81 with more than 24,500 copies.
And with Frank Darabont’s television adaptation debuting in October on AMC, those numbers are only likely to rise.
- May 18, 2010 @ 08:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Wizard waves Con War white flag, reschedules Big Apple, New England, New Jersey shows
The battle of New York is over without so much as a shot fired.
On its convention website, Gareb Shamus’s Wizard Entertainment announced this morning that it is rescheduling its suite of Northeastern comic conventions, eliminating the head-to-head, same-town, same-dates match-up between its Big Apple Comic Con and Reed Exhibition’s New York Comic Con on October 7-10. Now, the Big Apple Comic Con will now be held on Oct. 1-3, the New England Comic Con on Oct. 15-17, and the New Jersey Comic Con on dates to be announced later. In addition, Big Apple has changed locations from Pier 94 to the Penn Plaza Pavilion, while the New England show will be hosted at Boston’s John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center. It’s unclear whether the New Jersey con’s date change will lead to a move from Edison’s New Jersey Convention & Exposition Center upon rescheduling.
Wizard made headlines, and drew a significant industry backlash, beginning late last year by making a series of aggressive scheduling moves against veteran convention promoter Reed and its slate of comic and pop-culture shows. Most notoriously, Wizard scheduled its Big Apple show the very same weekend as Reed’s New York Comic Con, October 7-10, and in 12th Avenue venue literally blocks away from NYCC’s Javits Center location. Later, Wizard scheduled its New Jersey con for the following weekend. Ever since, guest-list comparisons and official industry presences have weighed in mightily in Reed’s favor.
- May 18, 2010 @ 07:28 AM by Sean T. Collins
Talking Comics with Tim: Kevin Colden
I Rule the Night
When this interview first began with Kevin Colden, his Zuda (Mature Content) project, I Rule the Night (ITRN), had been on hiatus for around 10 months. So the initial round of our email discussion focused on his non-IRTN projects, including his two upcoming IDW projects (Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper and Grimm’s Fairy Tales) as well as the recent Seth Kushner-directed music video that he was part of with his band, Heads Up Display (Colden is the band’s drummer). But fortunately (for fans of ITRN and for the sake of this interview) ITRN came out off of hiatus and hit the Internet metaphorical ground running. My thanks to Colden for two rounds of an interview.
Tim O’Shea: Was Zuda waiting for the big transition (dropping the monthly competition) until they brought back I Rule the Night (ITRN)? How agonizing has it been waiting for the news to drop?
Kevin Colden: We had originally planned to bring back I Rule the Night as the first mature readers series, but needed to wait until we got the mature filter in place. It was in the works for a long time, and got caught up in changes at DC that had nothing directly to do with Zuda per se. It just so happened that everything came together at the same time. I wouldn’t say the wait was agonizing for me so much as inconvenient for the readers. Time flies in my world, so I only noticed when I looked at the calendar. The bright side is that now there’s less of a wait to read it.
- May 17, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by Tim O'Shea
Attack of the super-atheists!
Over at Comics Alliance, ToyFare editor, Twisted ToyFare Theater head writer and Hero House author Justin Aclin is talking up his upcoming story for MySpace Dark Horse Presents, “S.H.O.O.T. First.” It’s a paranormal/superhero book in the vein of B.P.R.D., but with a twist: The titular team’s acronym stands for the Secular Humanist Occult Obliteration Taskforce, and their mission is to wipe out any and all supernatural entities in the name of atheism. Says Aclin:
S.H.O.O.T. are basically militant atheists, tasked with hunting down supernatural creatures, especially those of religious significance, that they don’t even believe in….every time you read a comic about someone fighting the supernatural, they’re really doing it on the supernatural’s own terms. If you’re fighting a vampire, you bring stakes and holy water – that kind of thing. I don’t think there’s ever been a team like “S.H.O.O.T.” that basically thinks it’s all bunk, and just goes after any threat with science and bullets, and scientific bullets.
- May 17, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by Sean T. Collins
How did the Red Hulk lift Thor’s hammer?
Stop! Hammer time!
Consider this the nerdiest public service announcement ever. If you’re like me, you were vaguely aware that at some point in Jeph Loeb’s ongoing Hulk run, its semi-eponymous star, the villainous and uber-powerful Red Hulk, grabbed Thor’s hammer Mjolnir and delivered Ye Olde Smacke-downe on the God of Thunder. You’re also vaguely aware that this is more or less a total no-no — no matter how physically strong Rulk is, only those who are “worthy” are even able to pick the hammer up. And there aren’t very many such people: According to Wikipedia, you’re basically talking half a dozen dudes, consisting solely of people who’ve wielded Thor’s power itself, people who’d be present at a Thor family reunion, and Captain frickin’ America.
- May 17, 2010 @ 12:30 PM by Sean T. Collins
If Predator’s a Star Sapphire, where’s all his skin?
Green Lantern #57
On Friday, DC released the “Brightest Day” solicitations for August, revealing the return of an old Green Lantern character. “BRIGHTEST DAY continues as what readers have been asking for finally arrives: a male Star Sapphire in the form of the Predator,” reads the solicitation text for Green Lantern #57. “But how is this entity unlike the others? And what does it want with Carol Ferris? Meanwhile, the White Lantern is defended by an unlikely hero …”
Debuting in 1984, I believe, the Predator was a manifestation of Carol Ferris/Star Sapphire’s subconscious. I’m not sure if those stories are still part of DC’s continuity, but that character looked like the one in the image above, at any rate (read more about him here).
Current Green Lantern readers, however, probably know the name “The Predator” as the sentient embodiment of love, the Star Sapphire’s equivalent of Parallax, the bug-looking creature that’s the embodiment of fear, or Ion, the giant fish/whale thing that’s the manifestation of willpower. Both have been known to take a host from time to time, as we saw when Kyle Rayner became Ion and, more notoriously, when Jordan was possessed by Parallax. Based on the solicitation text, I’m guessing the “unlike any others” part refers to the fact that the Predator is also the host of the love entity … kind of a mash-up, I’m guessing, of the two concepts.
- May 17, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
Panter Pix from PCC
Poster for Panter's lecture
At Thought Balloonists, Charles Hatfield reports in on Gary Panter’s talk at Pasadena Community College last March, as part of their Artist in Residence series, and the exhibit of Panter’s paintings and prints that accompanied it. This is an image-heavy post with lots of photos of Panter and others (Mike Dooley, Matt Groening, Jaime Hernandez, Brian Tucker). Good times!
- May 17, 2010 @ 11:30 AM by Brigid Alverson
Everyone’s a Critic | A roundup of comic book reviews and thinkpieces
Best American Comics... or are they?
Anthology: Matthew J. Brady plays the anthology game, going through The Best American Comics 2009 and picking off the ones that do and don’t belong. Good times.
Theology: Jeff Jackson provides a surprisingly touching eulogy for Kurt Wagner, explaining how he lived the ideals of religious faith. No, really. Also: Spoilers.
Psychology: Noah Berlatsky looks at the psychological underpinnings of Junji Ito’s Uzumaki:
Ito seems to be suggesting that all men secretly want to — that the only thing preventing constant man-on-snail coupling are a few thin taboos which will warp and dissolve like cardboard before the smallest liquid spray of desire. This is, of course, the fever-dream behind the most alarmist kinds of homophobia; the terror, not so much that gays are recruiting, as that, with just a little prompting, men will embrace any excuse to abandon heterosexuality, and with it humanity.
History: Ken Quattro posts a meticulously researched account of the life of E. C. Stoner, possibly the first black comics artist and maybe even the creator of the Planters Mr. Peanut logo. (Hat tip: Sean Kleefeld.)
History: Johanna Draper Carlson writes about Spire Christian Comics, a line of Christian comics that were released in the 1970s and featured the Archie characters, created by Archie artist Al Hartley.
- May 17, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Straight for the art | Paolo Rivera’s Amazing Spider-Man #641 cover
Amazing Spider-Man #641
Artist Paolo Rivera offers a first look at the last cover in Marvel’s big “One Moment in Time” event. The storyline, which Marvel says will answer many of the dangling questions left after the One More Day storyline, kicks off in Amazing Spider-Man #638.
- May 17, 2010 @ 10:30 AM by JK Parkin
Ten-minute Tokyopop: June edition
Every month, I get a nice package of manga from Tokyopop, containing copies of their new series and a handful of other recent releases. When I first started getting review copies, about three years ago, the contents often elicited something between a WTF? and a yawn. Since Tokyopop’s restructuring, painful as it was, the company has streamlined its releases and is putting out fewer but better books. Almost everything in the monthly package looks interesting now, and most of it looks nice, too—the production quality has improved since bad old days of coarse newsprint and crappy covers.
Anyway, I thought a quick rundown of the month’s titles would be informative, in terms of both the individual books and the company’s overall strategy. So let’s rip it open and see what’s inside!
Neko Ramen
Neko Ramen: This is a series of gag strips (4-koma) about a cat who runs a ramen store. That’s right, a cat who runs a ramen store. Taisho, the cat, is one of those over-the-top characters with more enthusiasm than skill, and Tanaka-san, his frequent customer, plays straight man for most of the humor. I’m not a big fan of 4-koma in general—the humor doesn’t always translate well—but I thought this one was pretty funny. The premise is just goofy enough to work, and there’s a lot of variety to the gags. The Tokyopop folks are pretty excited about this book—they have been teasing it for months, even passing out packages of ramen at NYAF—and they have set up a dedicated Neko Ramen website set up with free samples and all sorts of cuteness.
Alice in the Country of Hearts, vol. 3: This series gets a lot of good reviews, and the cover designs are very attractive, so I really wanted to read it, but for some reason it doesn’t hold me. The story starts with the classic Alice in Wonderland but turns all the characters into handsome young men, and I find the White Rabbit character incredibly irritating. Still, it’s an interesting idea and the art is nice, so I’ll probably take another run at it this month.
- May 17, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Mignola draws Batman #700 cover as DC celebrates its 75th anniversary
Batman #700 variant cover by Mike Mignola
Here’s a great way to celebrate your 700th issue … have Mike Mignola draw a variant cover based on a classic issue.
Above is Mignola’s cover for Batman #700, based on the cover to Detective Comics #168 by Lew Sayre Schwartz. DC’s Alex Segura says this is the first of many variant covers they’re doing this year by “some of the biggest names in the industry,” to celebrate DC’s 75th anniversary.
- May 17, 2010 @ 09:30 AM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Superman
Legal | Matthew Beloni takes a closer look at Warner Bros. effort to discredit attorney Marc Toberoff with a lawsuit accusing him of manipulating the Siegel and Shuster families and gaining a financial stake in the Superman copyright: “… An interesting issue here is the length to which Warners is willing to go to defend (or, in this case, recapture) intellectual property rights. A year after being blindsided by Fox in a rights dispute over Watchmen, the studio has clearly learned its lesson, filing one of the more tactically peculiar yet brazenly aggressive Hollywood lawsuits in recent years. It is clearly designed to discredit as much as disarm a lawyer who often seems to stand in its way.” [THR, Esq.]
Legal | David Welsh questions a tactic apparently being used in the fight against online manga piracy — complaining to AdSense clients that, by allowing their ads to appear on scanlation sites, they’re sponsoring “child porn”: “… This approach – demonizing the content in an effort to hinder its unethical purveyors – strikes me as counterproductive in the extreme. Instead of pushing Google to respect copyright and intellectual property and vet its advertisers, it pokes at Google’s worst and most reactionary impulses while fostering the kind of lurid suspicion that has always plagued manga to some degree.” [Manga Curmudgeon]
Conventions | Reports from the first ComiCONN, held Saturday in North Haven, Connecticut. [WTNH, CTNow]
- May 17, 2010 @ 09:10 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comic creator sues for $60 million over Heroes carnival storyline
From "Jazan Wild's Carnival of Souls"
Just a day before NBC announced the cancellation of Heroes, a comic creator sued the network and Tim Kring’s Tailwind Productions, claiming they ripped off the “carnival of lost souls and outcasts” used in the show’s fourth season.
In a lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles federal court, Jazan Wild (aka Jason Barnes) claims the traveling carnival that menaced the final season of the NBC drama is “virtually identical” to the one depicted in his 2005-2006 comic series Jazan Wild’s Carnival of Souls.
“The settings and the storylines are virtually the same,” the complaint states. “The main character in both stories leads a carnival of lost souls and outcasts. This dark character seeks to make his carnival more powerful by recruiting new members with special abilities. The appearance of some of the characters is also virtually identical to those in the plaintiff’s books. [...] Even the dialogue is similar. Indeed, some of the scenes in Heroes appear as if plaintiff’s books were used as storyboards by the defendants.”
- May 17, 2010 @ 07:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
What Are You Reading?
Scalped
With the school year ending and summer arriving faster than you know it, now’s the time to update your summer reading list — and there’s no better place to find some good stuff to read than right here in our weekly What Are You Reading? column. This week our guests are Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt, the creative team behind The Sixth Gun, published by Oni Press. You’ll be seeing a lot of Cullen and Brian over the next few weeks here at Robot 6, so here’s the perfect opportunity to find out what comics they’re into.
- May 16, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin