2011 January
Comics A.M. | Comic sales in December, Nick Lowe promoted
Batman: The Dark Knight
Publishing | Diamond’s December numbers for sales in comics shops are out, and the picture is grim. Diamond reports that it sold 89,985 copies of the top selling single-issue comic, Batman: The Dark Knight #1—the lowest number for the month’s top seller since ICv2 started tracking the numbers in 2001. In its more detailed dollar analysis, Diamond sees comics sales down and graphic novel sales up for a slight overall increase, both in December and in the last quarter of 2010 as a whole. [ICv2]
Publishing | Marvel Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada announced that Nick Lowe has been promoted to senior editor. Lowe edits Uncanny X-Men, Generation Hope and New Mutants, among other titles. [Comic Book Resources]
Publishing | Douglas Wolk boils down the 2010 comics sales data into some easily digested bullet points, for the benefit of those who don’t like to spend all day squinting at sales charts. [Techland]
Pop culture | Apparently inspired by Tiger Mask, a character from a manga popular in the 1960s, people in Japan have been quietly dropping off gifts for children in orphanages and other institutions. [Inquirer.net]
Digital comics | Johanna Draper Carlson tries out the comiXology app for the Android OS and is somewhat underwhelmed. [Comics Worth Reading]
- January 11, 2011 @ 08:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Top Shelf rolls out 2011 books
LOEG goes to Carnaby Street
Mark your calendar and start saving your pennies: Top Shelf has announced its entire 2011 lineup, in chronological order, and it’s going to be quite a year. In addition to a varied line of adult graphic novels, the indy publisher is greatly expanding its children’s line and inaugurating a “Kids Club” website just for those books. Some highlights:
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Vol III): Century #2 – 1969, by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill: The latest chapter of Moore’s epic moves to 1960s London, the epicenter of psychedelic cool. Due out in July.
Any Empire, by Nate Powell: Powell won an Eisner Award two years ago for Swallow Me Whole, and now he’s back with another book about the secrets of childhood, this one focusing on violence in suburbia. Also due out in July.
Incredible Change-Bots Two, by Jeffrey Brown: The catalog text describes this as “a nostalgic tribute not only to Saturday morning cartoons but also to Jeffrey Brown’s Incredible Change-Bots One,” which is as good a reason as any for fans of the first book to pick up the second. Watch for it in March.
Gingerbread Girl, by Colleen Coover and Paul Tobin (who we interviewed last summer about it): This sounds like a pileup of wackiness, with multiple narrators following a young woman, trying to see if her mad-scientist father used part of her brain to make her a sister. Due out in May.
Okie Dokie Donuts (Story 1): Open for Business, by Chris “Elio” Eliopoulos: Trouble in the donut shop! Chris Eliopoulos is an animator for the children’s television show Yo Gabba Gabba, and you can see his webcomic The Bravest Nino at the Top Shelf site. Due out in June.
And, for those who can’t get enough alternative manga, another volume of AX! There’s a lot more in their catalog, so go, read, and plan!
- January 11, 2011 @ 07:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Daniel Clowes and Jaime Hernandez on their peers
In the year spanning Fall 2009 and Fall 2010, the Grand Old Men and Women of Comics unleashed what strikes me as an all but unprecedented onslaught of major graphic novels. Joe Sacco and Footnotes in Gaza. Robert Crumb and The Book of Genesis Illustrated. Gilbert Hernandez and High Soft Lisp. Daniel Clowes and Wilson. Jim Woodring and Weathercraft. Kim Deitch and The Search for Smilin’ Ed. Chris Ware and The ACME Novelty Library #20: Lint. Lynda Barry and Picture This. Charles Burns and X’d Out. Joyce Farmer and Special Exits. Seth and Palookaville #20. Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez and Love and Rockets: New Stories #3. Stretching from the underground comix era of the mid-to-late ’60s all the way through the great alternative-comics wave that first crested in the early ’90s, the O.G.s arrived en masse to show the whippersnappers how it’s done.
Unsurprisingly, the creators themselves seem aware of this, too. In the interviews with Daniel Clowes and Jaime Hernandez that closed out his excellent annual Holiday Interview Series, Tom Spurgeon got the two comics legends to talk a bit about their peers. In addition to talking about how the cancellation by their creators of Los Bros Hernandez’ Love and Rockets Vol. 1 and Peter Bagge’s Neat Stuff and Hate spurred him to continue his own Eightball series beyond the point where it was a practical mode of delivery for his comics, Clowes addressed the recent wave of major comics from his generation very specifically:
- January 10, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by Sean T. Collins
Quote of the day | 2010′s bestsellers and half-full glasses
“Fun fact! NINE of the TOP TEN graphic novels in 2010 were creator-owned books! Walking Dead, Kick-Ass and Scott Pilgrim among them.”
–Savage Dragon cartoonist Erik Larsen, speaking the truth. Of course, the flip side of this is that NINE of the TOP TEN graphic novels in 2010 had major Hollywood properties to thank for much of their notoriety, Walking Dead, Kick-Ass, and Scott Pilgrim among them. (The tenth was a Superman book that got over with mass audiences largely on the strength of a fortuitous press comparison to Twilight.) I don’t mean to short-change the success of Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, Charlie Adlard, Mark Millar, John Romita Jr., and Bryan Lee O’Malley, but proponents of creator ownership and creators’ rights probably ought not break out the MISSION ACCOMPLISHED banner just yet.
- January 10, 2011 @ 02:00 PM by Sean T. Collins
Take an Infinite Vacation with Spencer and Ward this Wednesday
Infinite Vacation teaser
This week sees Nick Spencer and Christian Ward’s Infinite Vacation debut, and Image Comics sent over a couple of teasers for the new limited series. Billed as a sci-fi love story, the book stars Mark, who lives in a world where alternate realities are up for sale, and buying and trading your way through unlimited variations of yourself is as commonplace as checking your email or updating your status. But then Mark’s other selves start dying …
You can check out the second one after the jump.
- January 10, 2011 @ 01:31 PM by JK Parkin
Ovi Nedelcu’s Illustrated Bible
Animation and sometimes comic artist Ovi Nedelcu has updated his blog with new pages from his long-gestating project The Bible Storybook. While Nedelcu spends most of his time in animation these days, comics fans might know him from his story in Flight Vol. 4 and his short-lived series Pigtale. This project looks to be quite different from R. Crumb’s recent adaptation on the Bible, and enjoyable in a very different way.
Here’s the first two pages:
You can see more over at a dedicated blog Ovi set up for the project.
- January 10, 2011 @ 01:00 PM by Chris Arrant
Ian and Kieth reteam for Demon miniseries
The Demon by Sam Kieth
Anthrax rhythm guitarist Scott Ian and The Maxx creator Sam Kieth, who worked together previously on Lobo: Highway to Hell, are teaming up again for a miniseries starring Etrigan the Demon. Although DC made it official today, Ian actually announced he was writing the series on Twitter last month.
“I’ve been a fan of Etrigan since I was kid buying comics off of the racks,” Ian told DC’s The Source blog. “Jack Kirby created him for Hell’s sake and now I get to spew Hellfire like it’s never been spewed before. And I get to blow up Las Vegas. It’s going to be a real vulgar display of power (pun intended).”
The longtime comics fan goes on tour with his new band, The Damned Things, on Jan. 19. The new miniseries is due sometime later this year.
- January 10, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
Ted Naifeh joins Batman Beyond?
Last week saw the release of the new ongoing Batman Beyond series by Adam Beechen & Ryan Benjamin, and today comes a well-sourced rumor that noted independent artist Ted Naifeh (Courtney Crumrin) might be joining the book. Over on his blog this morning, Naifeh posts seven sketches of characters from Batman Beyond and an open-ended, almost rhetorical question, asking if the title needed a fill-in artist.
Back in September, Robot 6′s own Kevin Melrose made the case for getting DC to put Naifeh on a Batbook — and this might be the first signs of DC listening. In 2010 Naifeh openly lobbied for a job at DC with a series of stellar sketches of DC characters, and in May he did a back-up in Teen Titans.
Anyway, enough speculation — Here’s one of the images; click on it to jump to Naifeh’s blog to see all seven.
- January 10, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by Chris Arrant
Literal New Yorker cartoon captions
In the vein of literal videos, Garfield Minus Garfield, and Christ, What an Asshole comes The Monkeys You Ordered, a blog that takes the dry, clever, and/or inscrutable punchlines of New Yorker cartoons and makes them straightforward, and therefore somehow much more hilarious. Which stands to reason, when you think about it: Aren’t talking animals in bars, explosions in board rooms, pirates on analysts’ couches and so on weird enough as it is?
(Via Tom Ewing)
- January 10, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by Sean T. Collins
Comics A.M. | Tom Ziuko hospitalized, Paolo Rivera’s surgery
Crisis on Infinite Earths #12
Creators | Artist Alan Kupperberg shares word that colorist Tom Ziuko has been hospitalized as he fights acute kidney failure and other health conditions. “The good news is that the doctors seem to have finally stumbled on a series of treatments and therapies that have Tom seeing some light at the end of the tunnel,” Kupperberg said in a message to Daniel Best. “The bad news is that Tom, uninsured and unable to work since the beginning of December, is in a tough financial bind.” Kupperberg is accepting donations via his PayPal account — kupperberg@earthlink.net — and adds, “I will pass 100% (plus) along to Tom.”
Ziuko worked in DC Comics’ production department before going freelance, and colored comics like Crisis on Infinite Earths, Batman, Action Comics and History of the DC Universe, to name a few. Todd Klein remembers their time together at DC. [20th Century Danny Boy]
Creators | Artist Paolo Rivera suffered a broken cheekbone after intervening in a domestic dispute. “The good news is I’m all right and—most importantly—my vision is intact,” he wrote on his blog. “… I had surgery on Monday and have been taking it very, very easy since. All things considered, I was very lucky. My eye looks horrendous—the white of the eye is blood red—but I can still see (thank goodness) and should make a full recovery. I also have a pretty rad haircut right now due to surgery… it kinda looks like the one I had circa 1995.” [The Self-Absorbing Man]
- January 10, 2011 @ 09:37 AM by JK Parkin
Tuesday is the new Wednesday — for comic retailers, at least
This week marks the beginning of an improvement in the way comics primary distributor, Diamond, distributes its comics to its customers — direct market retailers, aka ‘comic stores’. Up until this week, comics were delivered to comic stores on the intended day of release: basically, the sooner you could get them out of the shipping boxes and onto shelves, you could start selling. Now, retailers have the option to get their books a day early, as a way of easing the brutal turnaround time expected for Wednesday on-sale dates. As part of this early-bird shipping though is an iron-clad agreement for the stores not to sell their comics early in an attempt to outflank competitors. Diamond will levy fines to those they discover do so.
As with the first week of any new initiative, expect some mistakes along the way — late shipments, retailers discreetly breaking the Wednesday on-sale date, pirated copies (or news from) major events leaking its way online a day early. But if Diamond and comic retailers can make it work, it will get them in line with what other major retailers have been doing for years and allow them a more organized stocking over a Tuesday afternoon & Wednesday morning rather than a tremendously rushed Wednesday.
- January 10, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by Chris Arrant
Unacceptable: Online retailer draws reactions over Giffords comments
Arizona Daily Star cartoonist David Fitzsimmons' response to the Giffords shooting
On Saturday morning, a gunman shot Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords while she was meeting with constituents outside a Safeway store in Tucson, Arizona, and then apparently kept on shooting, leaving six people (including a nine-year-old girl) dead and Rep. Giffords in critical condition.
While the rest of the world was wishing Gifford well, mourning the dead, and denouncing the vitriol that encourages such violence, Travis Corcoran, the president of online comics retailer Heavy Ink, put up a post on his personal blog titled “1 down, 534 to go.” Corcoran was, of course, referring to the 535 members of Congress.
It is absolutely, absolutely unacceptable to shoot “indiscriminately”.
Target only politicians and their staff, and leave regular citizens alone.
The post drew swift reaction after Rich Johnston picked it up at Bleeding Cool, along with the first round of outrage on Twitter. While some of Corcoran’s longtime readers gave him high fives in the comments of his blog posts, the rest of the world wasn’t so sanguine, and Morning Glories creator Nick Spencer specifically asked that Heavy Ink stop carrying his work, saying, “I respect your right to an opinion, but am not personally comfortable doing business with someone who advocates violence against people they disagree with.” Gail Simone Tweeted, “@tjic, you have my pity. May you grow a soul someday, because you desperately are in need of one.”
- January 10, 2011 @ 07:19 AM by Brigid Alverson
What Are You Reading?
King City #6
Hello and welcome to another week of What Are You Reading?, where we talk about what comics and other stuff we’ve been reading lately. This week our special guest is Robin McConnell of Inkstuds fame, who will be guest blogging with us as well. Robin has a new book out that collects 30 of his interviews with folks like Jeff Lemire, Joe Sacco, Kate Beaton, Jaime Hernandez and many more; you can find more details on it over on his website.
To see what Robin and teh rest of the Robot 6 crew are reading, click below.
- January 9, 2011 @ 02:14 PM by JK Parkin
Six by 6 | The six most criminally ignored books of 2010
Captain Easy Vol. 1
It happens every year. Amidst all the hullaballoo of the big-name releases and show-stopping events and sleeper hits there are those titles that, for whatever reason, fail to generate any reviews, discussion or sales (or in some cases all three) whatsoever. 2010 was no exception. In fact, the wealth of stellar material that was released this year made it seem like there were an extraordinary number of great comics that garnered not even a peep from the blogosphere and press.
After the jump are six books that I think got nowhere near the amount of attention they deserved. There are lots more that I could include if I had the time. And I’m sure there are books that you read that you don’t think got enough praise as well. Be sure to let me know what they are in the comments section.
- January 7, 2011 @ 04:00 PM by Chris Mautner
‘We Are All Lost’
We Are All Lost
The folks at Top Cow sent over a teaser, above, for a new series debuting in April. Beyond that, they didn’t offer any additional details, so I guess we’ll have to wait and see what they have in store.
- January 7, 2011 @ 02:30 PM by JK Parkin