Comic Book Resources

Adam Prosser's Kirby-meets-Archie mash-up

The Archon by Adam Prosser

Johanna Draper Carlson points out that Adam Prosser has posted his 24-Hour Comics Day comic on the web. It's one part Kirby's New Gods, one part Archie Comics and all parts awesome -- heck, it's likely the coolest thing you'll see today.

Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

Akira, Vol. 1

Publishing | Kodansha confirms what virtually everyone has known for quite a while now: that the publisher -- Japan's largest -- is setting up shop in the United States, establishing an office in New York City. Kodansha USA Publishing will launch Kodansha Comics with Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira and Shirow Masamune's Ghost in the Shell, two titles that had been licensed in North America by Dark Horse. The company will focus on translating its sizable backlist, but views original publishing as one of its "eventual ambitions." David Welsh provides a little commentary. [Publishers Weekly]

Publishing | BOOM! Studios has signed a deal with Haven Distributors to distribute second printings of all of the publisher's monthly titles to direct-market retailers. [BOOM! Studios]

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Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

Wowio

Publishing | Wowio, the struggling digital publisher purchased last year by financially troubled Platinum Studios, was sold last month to a holding company formed by Platinum President and COO Brian Altounian. No information is provided about what effect the sale will have on debts owed by Wowio. [Flashback Universe, via Comics Worth Reading]

Publishing | DC Comics Publisher Paul Levitz discusses graphic novels, pricing, digital comics and an industry in transition: "You’re transitioning away from, for lack of a better term, the homespun period of the business. When you had a very small section of graphic novels in the comic shop it was very easy for the proprietor to bet on anything that happened to be in the catalog. It doesn’t matter whether I know anything about the writer, or the artist, you got a good little blurb. When you go to a world in which the large publishers are sending you out a galley version of the graphic novel six months in advance, and is announcing on the back cover the five-step marketing program that they’re doing for it, it’s a lot harder for the little guy who’s launching it from home to do it. Is there still room for a Cartoon Books to do Bone? Sure. But Bone succeeded because it was the combination of really brilliant creativity by Jeff, and a very well-run small business by Jeff and Vijaya." [ICv2.com]

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Comics on the PSP: 'There will be quite a few titles on the platform'

Star Trek on the PSP

Earlier this week Sony answered a question that Chris Mautner had asked earlier this year when they announced a new Digital Comics service that's coming to the PlayStation Portable in December.

They also announced partnerships with Marvel Comics and IDW, which means they'll offer everything from Spider-Man to Star Trek on the PSP. If I'm not mistaken, this is Marvel's first major foray into portable digital comics besides the Spider Woman motion comic that came out this week on iTunes and the N project they were involved in with Stephen King.

Sony is also working with iVerse Media, who have steadily been making deals with various companies and creators to bring their comics to the iPhone for the past nine months (and in fact, they just passed one million downloads for the iPhone and are expanding onto Google's Android platform as well).

While the press release from Sony highlighted iVerse bringing titles by Archie and Image, I checked in with them to see if there was a list yet of everything they'd be doing on the PSP.

"We'll have a more comprehensive list of everything that is coming to the PSP closer to the launch of the platform, but most of the titles and publishers we currently release on the iPhone will be available on the PSP," said Michael Murphey, CEO of iVerse Media. "There will be quite a few titles on the platform."

iVerse has published iPhone applications for comics from Archie, BOOM!, Ape Entertainment, IDW, Red 5 Comics, Dabel Brothers, Ardden Entertainment and Image Comics, among others. So it'll be interesting to see what makes the jump.

I personally don't have a PSP, and I don't know if this is enough to make me want to go buy one. I would, however, love it if this service was available on the PlayStation 3. Having a comic on a portable device for airports or planes is nice, but having a comic available on my flat screen would be even nicer.

Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

Wizard Entertainment

Publishing | Tom Spurgeon has word that Wizard Entertainment has laid off Benji DeJohn, who in February moved from the company's West Coast sales office to manage the Chicago and Philadelphia conventions. [The Comics Reporter]

Publishing | Archie Comics continues to garner mainstream-media attention for the marriage storyline that kicks off this week. In addition to the prominent segment on last night's Colbert Report, there's a fan-reaction article in today's New York Daily News, and an interview with Editor-in-Chief Victor Gorelick on The Washington Post's Comic Riffs blog. "Overall, it's been a very positive response," Gorelick tells Michael Cavna. "An overhwhelming response. There's also been a very large response [from people] being disappointed that he proposed." [Archie Comics]

Editorial cartoons | The Chicago Tribune has hired Scott Stantis (Prickly City) as staff editorial cartoonist, filling a position that's been vacant since the death of Jeff MacNelly in 2000. [Chicago Tribune]

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'There's a proposal out there that's tearing this country apart'

On last night's episode of The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert devoted a six-minute installment of "The Word" to Archie's proposal to Veronica, "the biggest news from the comics world since Dilbert lost his favorite mug and gunned down everyone in human resources."

Of course, it should come as little surprise that Colbert opposes the storyline.

"I can understand Archie wanting to have a wedding night after nearly seven decades of cold, poorly drawn showers," Colbert said, "but this is changing everything we hold dear in Riverdale, the town where nothing changes. For Christ's sake, Riverdale still has a travel agency!

Digital Comics coming to the PSP in December (updated)

Marvel Digital Comics

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe announced a new digital reader for their PlayStation Portable device today at gamescom in Cologne, Germany, which will allow PSP users to download comic books and other media to read on the device. The Digital Comics service will include titles from Marvel, Archie Comics and Image Comics.

Per a story posted on Marvel.com, "The digital reader for PSPTM will offer content from Marvel that includes Spider-Man, X-Men and the Fantastic Four (and so many others!) whilst other content will include graphic novels, comics from a variety of local publishers and the latest underground sensations. More and more titles will arrive on PlayStation Store with monthly content updates, offering a huge choice of quality titles at your fingertips, allowing you to take your favorite comic characters with you on the move."

The new reader and Digital Comics service will be available in December. Sony made a number of other announcements as well, which include a cheaper PlayStation 3 and a PlayStation Video store, so be sure to click on the first link to read all about them.

Update: After the jump you'll find the official press release from Sony for the Digital Comics initiative. It will include titles from Marvel and IDW, as well as material that iVerse has licensed, which includes Archie Comics and some Image titles like Proof.

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SDCC '09 | Day One

Comic-Con

After a bevy of announcements earlier in the week about movie deals and video-game adaptations, Comic-Con International officially kicked off Thursday with news of the hiring of an industry veteran, and three significant book acquisitions.

IDW Publishing revealed that Bob Schreck, a longtime senior group editor at DC Comics, will join the company as senior editor in October. He'll focus on developing new projects and new talent.

An editor at Comico and Dark Horse, Schreck co-founded Oni Press with Joe Nozemack in 1996. Three years later he joined DC Comics, where he oversaw the Batman line and, eventually, edited the All-Star titles and developed new projects for Vertigo. He was laid off in January during a wave of major cutbacks by Warner Bros.

Day One's major publishing news came from Scholastic, Drawn & Quarterly and Dark Horse.

Scholastic announced that Jeff Smith will release new Bone titles with co-writer Tom Sniegoski, beginning in summer 2010 with Bone: Tall Tales. The fall will see the expansion of the Bone world with the first book in the Quest for the Spark trilogy, overseen and illustrated by Smith and written by Sniegoski.

Drawn & Quarterly acquired the rights to Daniel Clowes' new graphic novel Wilson, the cartoonist’s first book not to be originally serialized in Eightball. The title, described as a "portrait of the modern egoist,” will debut in May 2010.

Dark Horse, meanwhile, rolled out an overview of its convention announcements, which include plans to release all three volumes of the popular European noir series Blacksad.

In other Thursday highlights:

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SDCC '09 | Thursday programming schedule released

Comic-Con

Comic-Con International has released the programming schedule for Thursday, July 23, as well as some special programming for preview night. You can check out the entire day's worth of activities right here for yourself. Here are some of the highlights ...

• During preview night on Wednesday, Warner Bross Television will show some of their pilots for upcoming TV series -- Human Target, Vampire Diaries and the remake of V.

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Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

Archie

Publishing | IDW Publishing is partnering with Archie Comics to reprint some of the earliest and most iconic Archie comic strips as part of the Library of American Comics imprint. The move was hinted at last week in the inclusion of an IDW executive on a list of participants in an Archie Comics panel at Comic-Con International.

The initial hardcover will collect original strips by publisher John Goldwater and artist Bob Montana. Additional Best Of volumes will showcase the work of such artists as Montana, Dan DeCarlo and Stan Goldberg. Craig Yoe also is set to edit a series of collections of the mid-'60s Archie superhero title Archie as Pureheart the Powerful and the offbeat Archie's Madhouse. [press release, ICv2.com]

Publishing | Calvin Reid checks in with Vertical Inc., which has had to shift gears in the wake of the economic downturn. [Publishers Weekly]

Batman #692

Creators | DC Comics has announced that Tony Daniel will take over as writer and artist of Batman for six issues beginning in October. Daniel previously wrote and drew the Batman: Battle for the Cowl miniseries. [The Source]

Creators | Writer Nick Spencer discusses Existence 2.0, his new miniseries from Image Comics. [Comics Waiting Room]

Conventions | Heidi MacDonald provides an overview of Comic-Con International for a mainstream audience. [Publishers Weekly]

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Unbound: Calling Riverdale on your iPhone

At first glance, most Archie comics look very much like they did when I was reading them, back in the days when you could still buy comics in drugstores. For a dime. (Yes, I’m that old.)

That may lead the casual observer to think that Archie comics are staid and old-fashioned and never change. Actually, the editors and creators do a lot of experimenting, both with characters (as with the Archie: Freshman Year comic) and with art (witness the New Look—in case you’re following along, Reggie is the latest character to go all realistic).

The Archie folks have also embraced digital media: They put a hefty preview of each issue up at the Archie News blog, for instance, and all the core characters have their own personal blogs. When Veronica announced her impending wedding, she got 184 comments. That’s pretty enviable for any publisher’s blog. (This backfired, as these things so often do, during the New Look controversy: Betty and Veronica used their blogs to complain bitterly about the redesign, and they even started rogue blogs off-site, which have since disappeared.)

Still, when Archie Comics inked a deal with iVerse to make Archie titles available on the iPhone and iPod Touch, I wondered exactly who they thought would be reading them. After all, how many seven-year-olds have iPhones? So I e-mailed some questions to Stephen Oswald, Associate Editor for Archie Comic Publications. His answers suggest that the Archie folks are jumping into this with both feet: They are already putting 7-9 issues a month onto the iPhone, with plans for that number to increase, and at least one title (one of the weaker sellers, from the looks of their ABC figures) will move away from print and become a download-only series.

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Seven Days | The week in comics

A look at the biggest, and most interesting, stories from the past week.

1. BOOM! Studios grab the license for Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse comics: The four-year-old publisher acquired the comic-book rights to the Disney characters previously held by the financially troubled Gemstone Publishing. Walt Disney's Comics and Stories and Mickey Mouse and Friends will join the BOOM! Kids imprint, already home to comics based on The Muppet Show and Disney/Pixar’s The Incredibles and Cars.

2. J. Michael Straczynski will leave Thor sooner rather than later: Writer J. Michael Straczynski confirmed reports that he'll end his award-winning run on Marvel's Thor with the September issue. An impending crossover that he first mentioned in May helped him to conclude it's time to leave.

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Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

Toronto Comicon

Conventions | The big news yesterday was the announcement that Wizard Entertainment CEO Gareb Shamus has purchased Toronto Comicon from Paradise Conventions. Former owner Peter Dixon will continue to be involved in the show, which skipped a 2009 event.

The announcement comes at a tumultuous time for Shamus and Wizard. Amid waves of firings, the closing of Anime Insider magazine and the cancellation of conventions in Dallas and Los Angeles, Shamus & Co. have rebranded WizardWorld Chicago, purchased New York City's Big Apple Con, and revealed plans for a new, or at least retooled, toy publication.

As Heidi MacDonald points out, Toronto Comicon comes with baggage of its own: Namely, a bitter feud with larger rival Fan Expo Canada.

Archie Comics

Publishing | Archie Comics has named Jon Goldwater, son of company founder John L. Goldwater, as its new chief executive officer. [Archie News]

Publishing | Death Row Records is set to return with, among other things, a line of comics. The label's assets were acquired earlier this year by Canadian development company WIDEawake. [Billboard]

Publishing | A New England gay newspaper talks with DC Comics Executive Editor Dan DiDio about Batwoman's starring turn in Detective Comics: "This is the first time since Detective #27 [in 1939] that somebody other than Batman has been the star," DiDio points out. "It shows a level of dedication from our standpoint, and level of belief in how strongly we feel about this character. We’re putting her in one of the most prestigious DC Comics."

On a related note, I really enjoyed Joe McCulloch's review of Detective Comics #854, focusing on the art and design of J.H. Williams III. [Bay Windows]

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Send Us Your Shelf Porn!

Welcome to another episode of Send Us Your Shelf Porn, where we take the photos you send us of your comic book collection and paste them here for everyone to gawk at. And no, we're not changing the name of this column. Sorry.

This week Carl Jansson, a former manager of Comic Universe in Fountain Valley, CA. Before we begin, however, I want to thank everyone who's sent in photos over the past week. The amount of interest I've received has truly been staggering, and I promise each and every one of you will get your day in the sun. So don't fret if you haven't heard back from me yet; you will, and soon. I promise.

And now let's join Carl on a tour of his home ...

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Unbound | Comics on the small screen

It may never replace print, but the iPod Touch is starting to emerge as a pretty good platform for comics, at least in the short term. It has several advantages over the Kindle—it has color, the graphics are nice and sharp, and a lot of people have iPods anyway for other reasons. For readers who value portability, it’s a handy alternative to carrying around a stack of books, and even purchased chapter by chapter, comics are generally cheaper in the iTunes store than in print form. A handful, such as Yoshitoshi ABe’s Pochiyama, are only available that way.

At the moment, most of the comics available for the iPod are print comics that have been adapted to the new format, which has its advantages and disadvantages. Overall, it’s a different type of reading experience, and with the right comic and good formatting, it can be as good as or even better than reading the print version.

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