2010 August
Blackest Night, Scott Pilgrim continue their chart conquests
Blackest Night hardcover
DC Comics’ Blackest Night and Oni Press’ Scott Pilgrim continue their domination, claiming a combined 11 spots on July’s BookScan chart and 12 spots on this week’s New York Times graphic books bestseller list. The books were so formidable that just six manga cracked BookScan’s Top 20.
Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour, the sixth and final volume of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s graphic novel series, topped both the BookScan and New York Times paperback lists. In fact, O’Malley’s books took the top six spots on the latter chart.
Blackest Night titles filled out six of the 10 slots on the Times’ hardcover graphic books list, led by Rise of the Black Lanterns at No. 2.
Dark Horse’s Troublemaker, by Janet Evanovich, Alex Evanovich and Joelle Jones, continued its strong performance, leading the Times’ hardcover list for the second week while debuting at No. 2 on the BookScan chart.
- August 6, 2010 @ 08:18 AM by Kevin Melrose
Grumpy Old Fan | The value of bad comics
Batman #8
Last week I talked about rediscovering the ‘70s series Secret Society of Super-Villains. As you might have guessed, this was made possible largely by the Internet. Without it, I would have had to scour back-issue boxes at regional comics shops and/or at the occasional convention. After all, that’s what I grew up doing.
Regardless of where or how I bought those back issues, the fact remains that I bought them pretty much sight-unseen. Oh sure, I remembered random scenes from isolated issues, but basically my yen for SSoSV grew out of two things: its concept and its reputation. I knew what it aimed to be, and I figured if Gerry Conway wrote most of it, it couldn’t be all bad.*
What’s more (at the risk of being obvious) I had to track down these back issues because a collected version of Secret Society of Super-Villains is apparently still trapped in royalty-payment limbo. Not that I am especially bitter about that, mind you; because clearly I don’t mind reading the individual issues and they weren’t that hard to find.
- August 5, 2010 @ 04:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
Gabrielle Bell goes digital
The best webcomics site on the Internet has once again expanded its altcomix all-star roster: Gabrielle Bell’s strip “Manifestation” — about her doomed (and entirely fictional) comics adaptation of Valerie “I Shot Andy Warhol” Solanas’s SCUM Manifesto — is now available for your free reading pleasure at cartoonist and designer Jordan Crane’s online comics clearinghouse What Things Do. In addition to Bell and Crane, the site boasts comics by Sammy Harkham, Jaime Hernandez, Kevin Huizenga, Ted May, John Porcellino, Ron Regé Jr., Steve Weissman, and Dan Zettwoch, as well as mid-century illustrator Abner Dean. Click on over and kill an hour or two.
- August 5, 2010 @ 03:00 PM by Sean T. Collins
Good Lord, it’s James Stokoe’s Galactus
Galactus by James Stokoe
“If you do warmup inks every day, you will eventually draw 4 square feet of GALACTUS!” tweeted Orc Stain writer/artist James Stokoe today, linking to the above picture of the Devourer of Worlds as proof. (Click to see it at full, mind-boggling size.) Jiminy Christmas — if that’s what he does while warming up, what does he do when he really gets going?
- August 5, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by Sean T. Collins
Iron Man pounds the crap out of Red Hulk in Hulk #25
Hulk #25
As Marvel finally confirmed in San Diego, Hulk #25 is the first issue by the new creative team of writer Jeff Parker and artist Gabriel Hardman. Above is the cover by Ed McGuinness, which I think was previously released with a blacked-out Hulk. Now you can see Iron Man beat on Thunderbolt Ross’s alter ego in all its glory.
More art and a press release about the new creative team from Marvel after the jump …
- August 5, 2010 @ 01:15 PM by JK Parkin
Ben Caldwell posts more of his manga Wonder Woman pitch
by Ben Caldwell
Remember Ben Caldwell’s manga Wonder Woman pitch from last month? A couple of days ago he posted the entire pitch, including story descriptions (with some redacted parts), notes on format and additional artwork … including a character design for Bruce Wayne. Go have a look.
- August 5, 2010 @ 11:30 AM by JK Parkin
Quote of the day | Mark Millar, on something ‘huge’
Mark Millar
“Remember that big news I had earlier in the week? I think it’s going live later today … Stay tuned. This is huge. Remember I did that movie with Angelina Jolie? That sales-busting Civil War thing? That Kick-Ass flick? That Marvel relaunch with the Ultimate line? That news-stand magazine I’m launching to revamp the UK comic-book scene? Well, this is bigger than ALL of those things. I’ve never been involved with something as big as this.”
– the occasionally hyperbolic writer Mark Millar, teasing a project
that’s expected to be announced “hopefully by sundown” today
- August 5, 2010 @ 10:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
New Shazam! cartoon anchors DC Showcase Original Shorts Collection
Black Adam
Warner Home Video announced today that they plan to release a DVD collecting the animated shorts that have appeared on their other DC Universe Original Animated Movie DVDs thus far. The DVD, titled DC Showcase Original Shorts Collection, will include a new short starring Superman, Shazam! and Black Adam.
The collection, which will include the Spectre short from Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, Jonah Hex from Batman: Under the Red Hood and Green Arrow from the upcoming Superman/Batman: Apocalypse DVD, comes out Nov. 9.
Another preview image and the complete press release can be found after the jump.
- August 5, 2010 @ 09:30 AM by JK Parkin
ICv2 lists top comics properties, defends floppies
The retailer site ICv2 has some handy charts of the most valuable properties for the second quarter of 2010. These make for interesting reading as they include all channels — comics shops, bookstores, and online sales. Kick-Ass tops their list of the Top 15 Superhero Properties, while Scott Pilgrim and R. Crumb’s Book of Genesis are the two biggest “Fiction & Reality Titles” — strange bedfellows indeed, and of dubious “reality.” This list includes the older American Born Chinese and Fun Home, which shows that a good graphic novel can hold its value. They also post lists of the top manga, kids and tweens, genre, and comic strip properties. All make interesting reading and may raise some eyebrows — Dick Tracy makes the comic strips list, for instance, and who knew Papercutz was doing so well with those Geronimo Stilton graphic novels?
They also looked at the numbers for the first half of 2010 and came to an interesting conclusion: Periodical comics are doing better than graphic novels. In comics shops, sales of graphic novels showed a double-digit drop every month except February, and in bookstores (where the numbers are harder to calculate) they seem to be down as well. Twilight: The Graphic Novel is the best-seller, but ICv2 notes grimly that
The other bestselling movie-driven graphic novel in the first half of 2010, Marvel’s Kick-Ass Hardcover posted sales that were less than 10% of what Watchmen achieved during the same period in 2009.
Projected bright spots include The Walking Dead, Janet Evanovich’s Troublemaker (80,000 pre-ordered), and IDW’s two James Patterson graphic novels.
- August 5, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Warner Bros. unveils title for Batman: Arkham Asylum sequel
Batman: Arkham City
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment this morning announced Batman: Arkham City as the title for the follow-up to its bestselling video game Batman: Arkham Asylum.
For those who have been following along, the title doesn’t come as much of a surprise, as ArkhamCity.com and BatmanArkhamCity.com topped a list of Batman-related domain names purchased in recent months by Warner Bros.
Developed by Rocksteady Studios, the London-based studio behind 2009′s Arkham Asylum, Arkham City will be available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows PC next fall. (Warner Bros. acquired a majority stake in the developer in February.)
According to Warner Bros., the game will send players into Arkham City, the new maximum-security home for all of Gotham’s “thugs, gangsters and insane criminal masterminds.” Arkham City “introduces a brand-new story that draws together a new all-star cast of classic characters and murderous villains from the Batman universe, as well as a vast range of new and enhanced gameplay features to deliver the ultimate experience as the Dark Knight.”
Officially announced in December, the sequel is reported to feature such villains as Two-Face, Mr. Freeze, Talia al Ghul, the Riddler and the Joker, the latter voiced for a final time by Mark Hamill.
Batman: Arkham Asylum debuted in August 2009, and sold 2 million copies in its first three weeks of release.
- August 5, 2010 @ 06:36 AM by Kevin Melrose
Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs | Warlord of Io vs. Science Fiction
Warlord of Io
I have a confession to make. It’s nothing I’m proud of, but I’ve learned to live with it. I don’t like Sci-Fi.
Sure I love Star Wars and Star Trek and Guardians of the Galaxy and I especially love James Turner’s Warlord of Io, which is the inspiration for this post, but I can’t get through an Isaac Asimov anthology to save my life. Not even when all the stories are about robots. I like a lot of Warren Ellis’ creator-owned stuff, but the only one I truly love is Anna Mercury.
When I first discovered this, I was a bit disappointed in myself. I’d grown up thinking of myself as a Sci-Fi fan. I loved John Carter of Mars. Killraven was one of my favorite Marvel characters. I didn’t realize that there was anything wrong with me just because no amount of Jack Kirby could get me interested in 2001: A Space Odyssey. (I was nine; I expect I’d have a different reaction today, but that would be all Kirby’s doing and none of the concept’s.)
Of course, it’s the hardcore Sci-Fi fans who are telling me that I don’t like their genre. Star Wars isn’t real science fiction. It’s fantasy. There’s no actual science to it. It’s just Lord of the Rings with spaceships and blasters instead of dragons and magic wands. But you know what? I’m okay with that now. Let the hardcore Sci-Fi folks have their label. I’ve found another one I like better anyway.
What it is and what’s the difference after the break.
- August 4, 2010 @ 04:16 PM by Michael May
New collage teases upcoming DC project
Over on the Source blog, DC senior editor Ian Sattler teases “a project that is coming to your local comic shop very soon.” The image, seen above, features a variety of DC characters by a few different artists.
“This is one of those great books that make us all stand around the editor’s office going ‘wow,” he says. “Can you guess what it is? Check this space next week for the full rundown. Trust me — you’re gonna want to see more of this.”
In the comments section, some folks are speculating that it’s a follow-up to Wednesday Comics — something I can get behind. I could also get behind a return of the “Bizarro” books from a few years back or Solo. What do you think?
- August 4, 2010 @ 03:38 PM by JK Parkin
Send Us Your Shelf Porn!
Welcome once again to Send Us Your Shelf Porn! Today’s pictures come from Josh Latta, who collects classic cartoon and comic strip characters.
We can always use more shelf porn, so if you’d like to show off your collection, drop me a line.
And now let’s hear from Josh …
- August 4, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by JK Parkin
Interview: J. Torres updates Jinx
The original Jinx gang, as visualized by Fernando Ruiz
One of the more intriguing pieces of news to come out of Comic-Con was that the Archie folks are bringing back the venerable cute-kid comic Li’l Jinx, but with an older Jinx and a fresh new look. Even better, the comic is being written by J. Torres (Alison Dare, Lola: A Ghost Story). The series will go direct to digital in four 22-page issues and then see print as a trade paperback.
Not only did J. take time to talk to me about the new comic, but the Archie folks provided some exclusive character sketches of the new, more grown-up versions of Jinx and her friends. Hit the jump for comics and conversation.
- August 4, 2010 @ 12:30 PM by Brigid Alverson
Quote of the Day | Warren Ellis, on how comics should be put together
Warren Ellis
“This was really a nothing post, except it kind of illustrates how boringly most comics are put together. It should really be a sort of Paul Schraderesque ‘well, we did a pile of cocaine the size of Sally Field, and then it turned out it was actually just Sally Field covered in cocaine, so we all did her, even Robert Towne’s dog, and then we ramraided a store and stole twelve typewriters, and then Peter Boyle beat us all unconscious and shoved peyote down our throats, and when we came to he was gone and there was just the typewriters and a loaded gun, so we menaced all the typewriters with the gun until one of them shat out the script we wanted, and somehow three weeks had gone by, and John Milius came by with a surfboard and a harpoon gun and said “let’s find us an artist” and…’”
–Writer Warren Ellis, after announcing he has a new project in the works for Marvel
- August 4, 2010 @ 11:29 AM by JK Parkin