2011 July
SDCC ’11 | Marvel’s Spider-Man, X-Men comics to go same-day digital
The Amazing Spider-Man #666
By the end of the year, Marvel’s major Spider-Man and X-Men titles will be available in digital form the same day print copies are released in stores ICv2.com reports.
The announcement was made Thursday at Comic-Con International at the “Marvel Digital: What’s Next Panel,” where Senior Vice President of Publishing David Gabriel revealed the process will begin next week with The Amazing Spider-Man #666 and the “Spider-Island” storyline that follows. (The news and analysis site notes that, interestingly, ASM #666 boasts the retailer-specific “Comic Shop Variant” covers.)
The same-day digital roll-out will continue with the X-Men books in October and November, beginning with the launch of the newly split Wolverine & the X-Men and Uncanny X-Men. Gabriel reportedly indicated that Marvel would move to same-day digital release with other titles when there’s a convenient jumping-on point for readers, such as a new storyline or a No. 1 issue.
- July 22, 2011 @ 05:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
SDCC ’11 | Square Enix: First volume is on us
Square Enix is a Japanese publisher of manga and video games. It licenses print manga (including such high-profile titles as Fullmetal Alchemist and Black Butler) to Viz Media and Yen Press, and last year launched an online manga site that carries both those titles and 13 others. However, several reviewers (myself included) found the price of $5.99 per volume (in a streaming-only, no download format) to be a bit on the high side.
From now through Aug. 10, however, Square Enix is offering the first volume of any of its 15 series for free to readers who “Like” the company’s Facebook page or get a special URL at SDCC.
There are a lot of caveats to this: The offer is open to residents of North America only (“Regional eligibility will be determined by MindMax® geolocation services,” says the press release, which sounds a little ominous). You’re also going to have sign up for a Square Enix account and download its proprietary reader. The press release seems to say you have to have a Windows computer to use the reader, but I managed to make it work on my Mac.
Obviously, the Square Enix folks are trying to get people to sign on with their sites. Their registration process is pretty cumbersome; I signed up a few weeks ago and I counted five separate registration processes, including creating two passwords, before I could buy a book in their store and read it on my computer. Offering a free volume may make readers a bit more patient with the process, though. I’m curious to hear what other people think, so if you take them up on the offer, feel free to drop back here and comment on how you liked it.
- July 21, 2011 @ 09:30 PM by Brigid Alverson
SDCC ’11 | Photos from the floor
Ah, Comic-Con … there’s nothing like fighting through the crowds, and there’s nothing like finding a quiet corner somewhere to post all the pictures you’ve taken …
Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello is all over the show today, promoting the shiny new book he’s writing at Dark Horse called Orchid. He said at a panel today that Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance is a friend of his and is the one who introduced him to his new “Dark Horse family.”
After taking this picture, I was almost run over by WWE’s Triple H. Only at Comic-Con can you bounce between a Nightwatchmen and The Game …
- July 21, 2011 @ 07:00 PM by JK Parkin
SDCC ’11 | T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents returns in November
T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents by Frank Quitely
Here’s some great news from San Diego Comic-Con — T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents are returning in November with a new six-issue series by writer Nick Spencer, artist Wes Craig and “special guest artists” like DC’s first run did. Flashpoint artist Andy Kubert will provide the covers.
“It’s the little book that could! Nothing seems to stop this thing,” Nick Spencer told The Source. “I’m very grateful to DC for allowing us to continue telling this story that everyone involved has become so passionate about. This is really what we’ve been building towards since the very first issue– everything comes to a head here, and the twists and turns only get crazier as we delve deeper into it. To get to see this story through is enormously fulfilling from a creative perspective, and I’m excited and hopeful that with the collected edition on its way and the first arc already available digitally, we’ll have an opportunity to introduce a legion of new readers to these fantastic characters and the rich history of T.H.U.N.D.E.R.”
“We were thrilled with the response the first volume of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents got, so we wanted to do a new #1 so people who’ve been curious about the title would have a clean place to jump on board,” series editor Wil Moss said. “Nick Spencer has a crazy level of passion for this title, and he’s come up with a truly great story for this miniseries — underground warlords, deaths, rebirths, betrayals — trust me, you won’t want to miss it! And to have the incredibly versatile and talented Wes Craig on board as the main interior artist, with Andy freakin’ Kubert on board for covers? Not to mention the surprise guest artists who’ll be contributing to #2-5? You’ve no doubt already reworked your comics budget so you can pick up all 52 new books we’re launching in September — what’s one more?”
The first issue comes out Nov. 16, the same day as the trade paperback collection of the first T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents run.
- July 21, 2011 @ 06:00 PM by JK Parkin
SDCC ’11 | Ben Templesmith’s art for The Darkest Hour
From Ben Templesmith's cover art for "The Darkest Hour"
Even as Summit Entertainment was touting the Timur Bekmambetov-produced The Darkest Hour this afternoon in Hall H, io9.com was unveiling Ben Templesmith’s cover for a comic/art book inspired by the alien-invasion film.
Set to be released later this year by Oni Press, the book features art from 13 creators — Brian Churilla, Tom Fowler, Nathan Fox, Jeremy Haun and Brian Hurtt among them — who were inspired by the action-thriller, which follows five young people stranded in Moscow, fighting to survive in the wake of a devastating alien attack.
A limited-edition poster of the cover is available at Templesmith’s booth (#4500) at Comic-Con International. See the full image after the break. The Darkest Hour, which stars Emile Hirsch, Olivia Thirlby, Rachael Taylor, Joel Kinnaman and Max Minghella, opens on Dec. 23.
- July 21, 2011 @ 05:00 PM by Kevin Melrose
Robot 6 Q&A | Cruz and Bermingham on Udon’s RandomVeus
RandomVeus
Back in May Udon Entertainment announced they were launching a line of original graphic novels, starting with a book called RandomVeus. Created by Jeffrey Cruz and co-writer Leonard Bermingham, the book features a bouffant-sporting hero and a team of couriers as they “deliver mysterious packages to every corner of the wild world known as the RandomVeus! Octopus ninjas, jazz-playing demons, buxom lady-pirates, cyborg gorillas, samurai mushrooms, and one giant furry squid monster are all on tap in this zaniest of zany adventures!”
The book debuts this week in San Diego and can be found at the Udon booth, #5037. I spoke with Cruz and Bermingham about it, their backgrounds and more.
JK: Tell me a little bit about yourselves. Where do you live and how did you meet?
Leonard: OK. I have been a comic fan since I was eight since a got into comics through the awesome X-Men and Spider-Man cartoons. Been a fan ever since. I found I really got into writing when I was in university where I met Jeff. I went and did a Masters of Creative Media to try and sharpen my writing. That’s my origin story I guess.
Jeff: Well I’m from Melbourne, Australia. I enjoy my sequential art reading, which consist primarily of European and Asian books (there are American comics also) heh. Although drawing pretty much takes up a majority of my life (love it) and I’m not sure I’d want it any other way.
- July 21, 2011 @ 04:00 PM by JK Parkin
Grumpy Old Fan | New 52, Month Two: DC solicits for October 2011
Don Newton and Dick Giordano provide a classic Batman cover
Sometimes it’s been hard for me to process the New 52 as anything but an amorphous mass of, well, Newness. In this respect, DC’s October solicitations are helping to define that mass, with details like the five-year timeframe and Superman’s work boots.
Still, despite the promise of widespread change — and the somewhat-irrational implication that those who aren’t curious now will be left behind later — it’s been fairly easy for me almost to ignore the solicits, and just buy the books when they come out. After all, presumably DC is after new (or returning) readers who don’t follow the solicits and aren’t attuned to the spoilers.
Besides, the October solicits also include some attractive reprints; so let’s get right to it, shall we?
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Continue Reading »
- July 21, 2011 @ 02:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
SDCC ’11 | Brian Ralph, D&Q reach Daybreak
Daybreak
For the last few years, when not busy with his day job teaching sequential art at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), Brian Ralph has been busy working on his latest graphic novel, Daybreak. The book is a slight departure of sorts for Ralph — best known for his early work as part of the highly influential Fort Thunder collective and for books like Cave-In — in that it delves into the horror genre. Yes, it’s another zombie book, but it’s a zombie book with a unique twist, with everything viewed from the perspective of an unnamed survivor (i.e. the reader), as he explores a foreboding landscape and finds a potential friend amidst all the devastation.
Daybreak makes it debut at Comic-Con this year, and Ralph will be on a panel at 5 p.m. (Pacific time) 14today with Anders Nilsen and Jeff Smith on the subject of “Epic Literary Adventures” (in Room 9).
I talked with Ralph over email about the panel, the new book, and the adventures of teaching comics to college students.
Daybreak is a horror story told from a unique, first-person perspective. Which came first for you, the desire to do a horror tale or the unique way of telling it?
I don’t play video games, but I felt there was something exciting about how a person could be immersed in the world of a video game. With comics the reader isn’t an active participant in the storytelling. I wanted to make a comic that, in it’s own way, achieve some feeling of participation and immersion. I was looking for interactivity of some kind.
I had not seen a “first-person shooter” style of comic before. It turned out to be very exciting approach to storytelling. I was constantly trying to figure out new ways for the reader to feel like they were interacting with the characters and become characters in the story as well. I made some decisions along the way; to never show the reader’s “character” such as in a mirror. I didn’t want the reader to talk with a word balloon. I felt those things would break the illusion. It was tricky to work with those constraints, but such a fun challenge.
- July 21, 2011 @ 01:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Robot 6 Q&A | Rick Geary discusses his Treasury of Murder series
Rick Geary is in San Diego right now, debuting the latest volume in his Treasury of XXth Century Murder series, The Lives of Sacco and Vanzetti. He took a moment on the way to talk to us about the story, his attraction to murders, and the challenges of writing about the past—and he told us what his next book will be.
Robot 6: Why are you so interested in murder, and how has it held your interest through so many books?
Rick Geary: I’ve been a “fan” of crime, both fiction and non-fiction, since the early 1970s. I lived in Wichita, Kansas, and a friend of mine, a former cop, gave me a copy of the complete police file on an unsolved murder in Wichita from the 1960s. It fascinated me, and I used it as the subject of my first published comic story in 1977. Since then, the exploration of the dark side of human behavior has been a continuing obsession.
Robot 6:Would you ever do a book about a modern murder story, or do you prefer to stick to stories set in the past?
Rick: I prefer dealing with cases from the past, because with them the urgency and emotionalism have dissipated, and I’m able to get the proper ironic distance in my treatment. That said, I’d love someday to do the OJ Simpson case or JonBenet Ramsey or even Casey Anthony.
- July 21, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by Brigid Alverson
SDCC ’11 | Tim Bradstreet’s Walking Dead poster
From Tim Bradstreet's "Walking Dead" poster
IGN.com has the first look at the limited-edition poster created by Tim Bradstreet to promote the second season of AMC’s The Walking Dead. Bradstreet and Executive Producer Frank Darabont will be on hand Friday at the show’s Comic-Con International booth (#3721) to sign the convention-exclusive posters. See the full image after the break.
The Walking Dead panel will be held at 11:15 a.m. Friday in Ballroom 20. The 13-episode second season of the series, based on the acclaimed horror comic by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard, debuts in October.
- July 21, 2011 @ 11:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
Quote of the day | Grant Morrison on Siegel, Shuster and Superman
Action Comics #1 by Grant Morrison and Rags Morales
[CBR:] From Siegel and Shuster through later chapters on Kirby or Jim Starlin, you cover a lot of the creative life of the people behind comics and how one informs the other, and you make some particular observations about Siegel and Shuster’s desires as artists as well as professionals. There’s so much chatter over the lawsuits over Superman and what not, but for you, did you feel like the characters transcend some of those debates on their own terms, or is that creative personality something that informs how our whole industry works even to today?
[Grant Morrison:] Well, to me it’s never been honestly what’s interesting about this stuff. I think the stories outlast all of those complications. You look at the people who created those characters, and they’re all dead. But the characters will still be around in 50 years probably – at least the best of them will. So I try not to concern myself with that. These are deals made in times before I was even born. I can say from experience that young creative people tend to sell rights to things because they want to get noticed. They want to sell their work and to be commercial. Then when they grow up and get a bit smarter, they suddenly realize it maybe wasn’t so good and that the adults have it real nice. [Laughs] But still, it’s kind of the world. I wouldn’t want to comment on that because it was something I wasn’t around for. I can’t tell why they decided to do what they did. Obviously Bob Kane came in at the same age and got a very different deal and profited hugely from Batman’s success. So who knows? They were boys of the same age, but maybe some of them were more keen to sell the rights than others. It all just takes a different business head.
– All-Star Superman and Action Comics writer Grant Morrison takes a hands-off approach to the conflict over the rights to Superman between Warner Bros. and the heirs of the character’s creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, in conversation with CBR’s Kiel Phegley. Well, sorta hands-off: First he says he’d prefer not to comment because he wasn’t there, but then he points out that Bob Kane secured a much better deal for himself (though not for Bill Finger) at around the same time.
Interestingly, even as the costume changes and potential origin tweaks of the upcoming Superman reboot leave industry observers wondering if they’re a form of insurance should WB and DC lose the Siegel/Shuster legal battle, Morrison has repeatedly gone on record saying that his new Action Comics #1 is directly inspired by Siegel & Shuster’s original, from Superman’s more limited power set to his emergence as something of a street-level social crusader to the constant sense of forward motion the young writer and artist brought to the Man of Steel’s first adventure — an adventure Morrison close-reads to insightful effect in his new book Supergods. If Morrison could once again talk to Superman about himself, what might he say about all this?
- July 21, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by Sean T. Collins
SDCC ’11 | Top Shelf goes digital
Top Shelf announced yesterday that it is going digital, starting out by making over 70 of its graphic novels available via the Comics+ app, which is powered by iVerse. Prices range from 99 cents to $9.99 for an assortment of graphic novels, including Andy Runton’s Owly, James Kochalka’s Johnny Boo, Jeff Lemire’s Essex County, and Nate Powell’s Swallow Me Whole.
This announcement raised all sorts of questions in our minds, and fortunately, Chris Ross, Top Shelf’s director of digital publishing, was here to explain it all to us. Read on for lots more info, including the answer to the burning question “Will we ever see Lost Girls on digital?” as well as whether they will do same-day print and digital releases.
Robot 6: Why did you choose to go with iVerse over the other distributors?
Chris Ross: Actually, our initial offering is with iVerse, but we’re planning on using many distributors over the next few months. They were the first to approach us, so they’re the first one out the gate.
Robot 6: Did you consider doing your own Top Shelf app? If so, why did you decide against it?
Chris: We have and we will. We’ll be creating two apps in 2011—a company branded app and a kid’s club app.
Robot 6: Have you considered other modes of digital such as Kindle, Nook, or direct download?
- July 21, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
SDCC ’11 | Guy Delisle, D&Q travel to Jerusalem
No sooner does The Comics Reporter’s Tom Spurgeon return from hiatus (welcome back, Tom!) than he breaks news of an exciting, and potentially controversial, new comic from Drawn & Quarterly: Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City, the latest in cartoonist Guy Delisle’s series of graphic memoirs-slash-travelogues. Why controversial, you ask? Because Delisle’s travelogues have all chronicled everyday life under infamously repressive regimes — North Korea in Pyongyang, China in Shenzhen, and “Myanmar” in Burma Chronicles. I have a feeling that many people won’t feel super comfortable with Israel keeping that sort of company. On the other hand, the book takes place in part during the three-week Gaza War that resulted in a 1100-plus-to-13 Palestinian-to-Israeli death ratio, so perhaps even Israel supporters could concede that the war-is-hell harshness of this conflict is in keeping with Delisle’s past efforts.
The book is due in Spring 2012, with an initial first printing of 30,000 copies. Click the link for more details, including what publisher and editor-in-chief Chris Oliveros has to say about the project.
- July 21, 2011 @ 09:30 AM by Sean T. Collins
SDCC ’11 | Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer: Of Wood and Blood coming summer 2012
Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer: Of Wood and Blood
Van Jensen and Dusty Higgins will wrap up their epic Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer trilogy with the final volume next summer — Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer: Of Wood and Blood. Jensen debuted the cover and title in San Diego this week, and sent over a description of the book:
Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer: Of Wood and Blood, the final graphic novel in the trilogy, will be released in summer 2012 from SLG Publishing. The book picks up after the cliffhanger ending to Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer and the Great Puppet Theater as a human Pinocchio and his decimated band of slayers struggle onward in their fight against vampires. Weighing in at about 250 pages, Of Wood and Blood will mark an epic conclusion in the former puppet’s battles against the bloodsuckers.
You can find Van at the SLG Publishing booth this week.
- July 21, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by JK Parkin
SDCC ’11 | The Early Show spotlights Marvel’s Axel Alonso
Using Comic-Con International and the opening of Captain America: The First Avenger has hooks, CBS’s The Early Show this morning profiled Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso.
“Our fans are hardcore,” he tells correspondent Jeff Glor. “They’re very opinionated. They let you know when they don’t like something. At the end of the day you have to hit them with the right story, you have to back up your event and just stand on your own two feet. [...] In comic books, it’s all about story. People don’t come to a Spider-Man comic book to see Spider-Man punch the Green Goblin — they go to see the journey that brought him there.”
- July 21, 2011 @ 08:30 AM by Kevin Melrose