2010 October
Robot reviews: Acme Novelty Library Vol 20
Acme Novelty Library #20 by Chris Ware
Acme Novelty Library Vol. 20
by Chris Ware
Drawn & Quarterly, 72 pages $23.95
(Note: I shall endeavor to be as spoiler-free as possible, but obviously if you’re the sort who would rather dive into a book like this knowing as little as possible then you may not want to click on that “continue reading” link.)
Acme Novelty Library #20 is about an asshole. The book’s main character, one Jordan W. Lint, is a bully, a coward, an adulterer, a drunkard, is frequently callous and cruel to friends and family, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. In some regards he is an outright monster.
And yet, Ware manages to make us not only care, rather deeply, about this unlikeable figure but also sympathize and, to a surprising degree, understand his plight. Without condoning or excusing his behavior, Ware manages to offer a portrait that is nuanced enough to make us reflect upon our own foibles and fears. If that’s not the mark of a great artist, I’m not sure what is.
- October 8, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by Chris Mautner
NYCC ’10 | Nick Spencer and Bernard Chang to take on Supergirl
Art from Supergirl #57, by Bernard Chang
Nick Spencer and Bernard Chang will become the creative team on Supergirl with January’s Issue 60, replacing Sterling Gates and Jamal Igle, DC Comics announced this morning at New York Comic Con.
Perhaps best known for creator-owned work like Existence 3.0 and Morning Glories, Spencer has made a name for himself at DC with T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents and the Jimmy Olsen co-feature in Action Comics. Chang most recently worked on Wonder Woman, Superman and on this month’s Supergirl #57.
“How do you follow a character-defining run like Sterling and Jamal had on Supergirl?” Assistant Editor Wil Moss tells DC’s The Source. “Beats me – that’s Nick and Bernard’s problem! But if anyone can do it, it’s these two guys. Get ready for a deadly new version of an old threat (one with ties to Geoff Johns and Francis Manapul’s run on Adventure Comics), and a laundry list of guest stars – the promo piece doesn’t even show half of ‘em! So while Supergirl the character has never been in more trouble, rest assured that Supergirl the title has never been stronger!”
- October 8, 2010 @ 11:57 AM by Kevin Melrose
NYCC ’10 | Stan Lee working on sci-fi Romeo and Juliet graphic novel
Romeo and Juliet: The War
The busiest man in comics keeps getting busier, as Stan Lee’s POW! Entertainment and 1821 Pictures are teaming up for three new graphic novels.
Per Deadline Hollywood, Lee and Terry Douglas will write the first one, Romeo and Juliet: The War, which sets William Shakespeare’s famous lovers in a futuristic setting. Skan Srisuwan will provide the art, and the book is due out in the spring.
Here’s the description of the project provided by Deadline: “Two groups of superhuman soldiers turn the Empire of Verona into the most powerful territory on earth. The Montagues (powerful cyborgs made of artificial DNA) team with the Capulets (genetically enhanced humans with super speed and agility) to destroy all threats to Verona. When they succeed, they turn on one another in a race for total dominance. In this volatile backdrop, a young Monague boy and Capulet girl fall in love and plan to marry in secret.”
Bleeding Cool reported last month that 1821 Pictures is getting into the comics game with Stan Lee, in addition to working on a documentary called Stan Lee: True Believer. The production company previously worked on The Invention Of Lying, The Box and Swing Vote.
The news of Lee’s newest project follows closely on the heels of his other newly announced project, that he’s creating superheroes for the National Hockey League.
Update: You can find more information in the official press release.
- October 8, 2010 @ 10:14 AM by JK Parkin
Pirate pugs and David Bowie invade Mike Norton’s 24-Hour Comic
For 24-Hour Comic Day this year, artist Mike Norton visited Challengers Comics + Conversation and created a sequel to the one he did last year. This year’s comic features the return of Baxter, the pug who caught the curse of the pirate and is forced to hobble around on a peg leg. It also features David Bowie, a bunch of goblins and a lot of swear words, so it may not be safe for work.
You can read the entire comic here.
- October 8, 2010 @ 09:30 AM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Dark Horse
Publishing | Dark Horse is expected to announce today at New York Comic Con that it will price its digital comics at $1.49 per issue, 50 cents below the industry average. [ICv2.com]
Publishing | Although Marvel’s pricing announcement received the most attention, it certainly wasn’t the only news to come out of ICv2’s Conference on Comics and Digital, held Thursday at New York Comic Con. ICv2 Publisher Milton Griepp delivered a white paper indicating that sales were down 12 percent overall, with graphic novels down 20 percent and comics up just 1 percent; manga saw a 20-percent drop. Sales of digital comics, meanwhile, have increased to $6 million to $8 million in the U.S., more than 10 times ICv2′s estimate for 2009. [ICv2.com, The Beat, Comics Alliance]
- October 8, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
NYCC ’10 | Organizers close on-site ticket sales for Saturday
New York Comic Con
Just hours before New York Comic Con kicks off, organizers have announced that on-site and online ticket sales have been closed for Saturday and weekend passes. Friday and Sunday tickets are still available.
Attendees who already have a Saturday or weekend pass will be able to get in. Both are available from NYCC retailers while supplies last (a list of retailers will be posted in the Crystal Palace inside the main lobby of the Jacob K. Javits Center).
According to the official NYCC blog, organizers will reassess the availability of the passes on Saturday at noon EST.
- October 8, 2010 @ 08:33 AM by Kevin Melrose
Bob Wayne promoted to senior VP at DC; sales to stay in New York
Bob Wayne
Bob Wayne, DC Comics’ vice president of sales and marketing, has been promoted to senior vice president of sales as part of the company’s restructuring.
The announcement was made this morning at the Diamond Retailer Breakfast at New York Comic Con, Bleeding Cool reports. It was also revealed that DC’s sales department will remain in New York City rather than move to Burbank, Calif., like most of the publisher’s other business and administrative operations.
Wayne, former owner of the Fantastic Worlds store chain in Texas, joined DC in 1987, and has been vice president of sales since 2006. It was revealed over the weekend that Wayne’s current supervisor, Senior Vice President-Marketing and Sales Steve Rotterdam, is leaving DC as part of the shakeup.
- October 8, 2010 @ 08:06 AM by Kevin Melrose
NYCC ’10 | The Walking Dead to become a trilogy of novels
The Walking Dead, Book Six
The Walking Dead, the acclaimed horror series by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard, will move from comics to television to prose.
Deadline reports that Thomas Dunne Books, a division of St. Martin’s Press, will publish a trilogy of original novels set in The Walking Dead “universe,” beginning in 2011. Kirkman will conceptualize and outline the books, which will then be developed by horror novelist Jay Bonansinga (Perfect Victim, Shattered).
The novels will mark the second time the world of The Walking Dead has appeared in prose: Kirkman contributed a short story, “Together, Alone,” to the zombie-fiction anthology The Living Dead 2, published last month.
AMC’s adaptation of The Walking Dead debuts on Oct. 31. Issue 78 of the Image Comics series, which Deadline says has sold about 3 million copies worldwide, is due in stores next week.
- October 8, 2010 @ 05:38 AM by Kevin Melrose
Grumpy Old Fan | TV superheroes, David E. Kelley, and the new “Wonder Woman”
Wonder Woman #288
I’ve read Wonder Woman regularly since the George Pérez days, and I watched the first few years of “Ally McBeal,” so naturally I feel somewhat qualified* to talk about David E. Kelley heading up a Wonder Woman TV series. The history of live-action small-screen superhero adaptations is a spotty one, characterized for the most part by budgetary issues and a general failure to embrace the source material fully. Also, at its worst “Ally McBeal” could be rather grating, so I’m a little … let’s say uncertain about Mr. Kelley’s handle on the Amazing Amazon.
That last probably isn’t entirely fair to Mr. Kelley, who (from what I have heard) has a range beyond quirky, flighty professionals with odd romantic histories. I have friends who really enjoyed “The Practice” (including sequels and spinoffs), “Picket Fences,” and Kelley’s time on “L.A. Law.” Still, given the apparent need to make Wonder Woman interesting — beyond being a diplomat, warrior, and princess sent by the gods of a lost civilization to teach peace to Patriarch’s World, that is — my first thought is that of course Mr. Kelley’s Diana will be quirky, flighty, and unlucky in love.
- October 7, 2010 @ 04:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
Mignolaverse in January: Texas goes to Hell and the vampire apocalypse
This January sees the debut of two new titles set in the “Mignolaverse” over at Dark Horse Comics. The new year will bring B.P.R.D.: Hell on Earth – Gods and Hellboy: The Sleeping and the Dead. Our friends at Dark Horse were kind enough to share the covers — two for each first issue — with us in advance.
The new B.P.R.D. series continues the “Hell on Earth” series of stories that started with the “New World” mini. “As Texas goes to Hell, a group of homeless outcasts—led by a young woman who appears to have second sight—evade volcanic eruptions, mass hysteria, and man-eating monsters,” says the solicitation info for the new series.” When the B.P.R.D. take notice of this, the results turn out to be deadly.”
Meanwhile, the two-issue Hellboy mini features big red learning more about the “coming vampire apocalypse,” as well as artwork by Scott Hampton (Simon Dark, Sandman Presents: Lucifer, The Books of Magic).
Check out all four covers after the jump …
- October 7, 2010 @ 03:30 PM by JK Parkin
Read Hellen Jo’s Jin & Jam #1 online
Well, this is an unexpected delight: Jin & Jam #1, Hellen Jo’s auspicious 2008 Sparkplug debut, is now available online in its entirety at Jordan Crane’s indispensable webcomics portal What Things Do. Part Maggie & Hopey, part Tekkon Kinkreet, it’s the story of two teenage troublemakers and, well, the trouble they make, drawn with a really memorably rubbery and kinetic line by Jo.
Incidentally, you’ve all put What Things Do in your RSS readers, right? With a lineup of creators that includes Jo, Crane, Gabrielle Bell, Abner Dean, Sammy Harkham, Jaime Hernandez, Kevin Huizenga, Ted May, John Porcellino, Ron Regé Jr., Steve Weissman, and Dan Zettwoch, how could you not?
- October 7, 2010 @ 02:45 PM by Sean T. Collins
Marvel to lower prices in January on new titles [Updated]
Marvel
It’s officially a trend: In the ICv2 Digital Comics Conference today, Marvel VP David Gabriel handed a couple of scoops to the crowd. Here’s the biggest: “Because of what digital comics are doing, we will be able to lower prices in January.”
He didn’t elaborate, but could that mean the hated $3.99 price point is a thing of the past?
Gabriel led up to this with some comments about how their digital comics are doing. “Just this week, we passed 2 million downloads,” he said. That doesn’t match the sales of a store like Midtown Comics, but the lines are drawing closer for some titles.
“Yesterday we released the Ultimate Thor book,” he said. “By tomorrow, we will have outsold what our top retailers have sold. There is an audience for that.” The digital sales have given the print edition a boost, he believes.
Update: Kiel Phegley has more information on the price change at Marvel over on the CBR home page. Gabriel confirmed that new books launching in January 2011 will not debut at $3.99. So it isn’t an across-the-board price reduction/page count reduction, like we saw from DC earlier today.
- October 7, 2010 @ 02:07 PM by Brigid Alverson
NYCC ’10 | X-Men: Destiny video game trailer debuts
As we noted earlier today, there’s a new X-Men video game in the works at Activision called X-Men: Destiny that’s being written by Mike Carey. And as promised, IGN now has a short teaser trailer up for the game.
It doesn’t reveal much of anything, really, about the game, but does feature Wolverine, Pyro, Cyclops, Magneto and more. Or their silhouettes, anyway. Take a look above.
- October 7, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by JK Parkin
DC Comics to lower cover prices for ongoing titles, drop co-features
DC Comics
DC Comics will lower the price of all of its standard-length ongoing titles from $3.99 to $2.99 beginning in January, the publisher announced this afternoon.
The move to the lower price will mean a decrease in story pages — from 22 pages to 20 in a standard 32-page comic — as well as the loss of co-features in eight titles, including Action Comics, Adventure Comics and Detective Comics.
“As co-publishers, we listened to our fans and to our partners in the retail community who told us that a $3.99 price point for 32 pages was too expensive,” Co-Publisher Dan DiDio said in the press release. “Fans were becoming increasingly reluctant to sample new titles and long term fans were beginning to abandon titles and characters that they’d collected for years. We needed a progressive pricing strategy that supports our existing business model and, more importantly, allows this creative industry to thrive for years to come. With the exceptions of oversized comic books, like annuals and specials, we are committed to a $2.99 price point.”
The following standard-length ongoing series and licensed titled, previously price at $3.99, will move to $2.99 for 32 pages (20 pages of story): American Vampire; Batman: The Dark Knight; Batman Incorporated; Gears of War; God of War; Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors; JSA All-Stars; Kane & Lynch; and Ratchet & Clank.
These comics, previously priced at $3.99 for 30 pages of story, will lose their co-features and shift their price to $2.99 for 20 pages of story: Action Comics; Adventure Comics; Batman: Streets of Gotham; Detective Comics;
Doc Savage; Justice League of America; Legion of Super-Heroes; and The Spirit.
Batman: Europa #1, First Wave #6, DCU: Legacies #9, Weird Worlds #1 and World of Warcraft: Curse of the Worgen will remain at $3.99 for 40 pages/30 pages of story. Hellblazer #275, an oversized anniversary issue, will be priced at $4.99 for 48 pages/38 pages of story.
- October 7, 2010 @ 01:27 PM by Kevin Melrose
Project: Rooftop’s JLA Invitational wraps up with the Atom
JLA Invitational
Earlier this year the fine folks at Project: Rooftop asked a host of artists to redesign the Justice League — everyone from Ross Campbell to Ming Doyle to Paul Maybury (and many more) contributed new designs for Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and the rest. Today they revealed the last piece of art — the Atom by Jon Morris — along with the final piece of the entire group, standing revealed in their new duds. Click on over to see close-ups of each design.
- October 7, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by JK Parkin