Blackest Friday

ComiXology has a bunch of digital comics for 99 cents today. DC Comics is holding a Blackest Friday sale, allowing you to buy each issue of the Blackest Night crossover for 99 cents each. Marvel has Jonathan Hickman’s Fantastic Four issues on sale for 99 cents, while IDW has their Star Trek comics on sale.

Dark Horse is running a pretty amazing digital comics sale for Black Friday only: A megabundle of all the single-issue Star Wars comics available in their digital comics store, over 130 issues altogether, for $100. That’s 3,274 pages of Star Wars comics, in case you’re counting, and it’s $166 less than you would pay if you bought them all separately.

They have also figured out how to run a doorbuster special digitally: On Cyber Monday (Nov. 28), the first 500 customers through their checkout will get a 50% discount. There’s a $20 minimum, and the deal runs for 24 hours beginning at midnight PST on Nov. 28; you’ll also need a coupon code, which is provided at the link.

Khepri Comics is putting comics on sale and helping to save the cheetahs, with different sales all weekend and into Cyber Monday:

Fri 25 Nov – Black Friday – Please Enjoy 40% OFF HARDCOVERS with coupon CHEETAH40FRI
Sat 26 Nov – Small Biz Saturday – Enjoy 50% OFF SELF-PUBLISHED with coupon CHEETAH50SAT
Sun 27 Nov – Adjectiveless Sunday – Enjoy 40% OFF CREATOR-OWNED with coupon CHEETAH40SUN
Mon 28 Nov – Cyber Monday – Please Enjoy 40% OFF EVERYTHING with coupon CHEETAH40MON

Midtown Comics has comics, graphic novels and statues on sale.

Things from Another World has steep discounts going right now for selected items, plus $10, $5 and $1 doorbusters.

Chuck BB is holding a Black Metal Black Friday Super Brutal Blind Art Sale, where you can buy pages from Black Metal and get a sketch for $50.

Top Cow will have stuff in their online store discounted all weekend …

…as will Aspen Comics.

Jeff Smith’s Boneville site is holding a signature sale through mid-December, where every book ordered will be signed by Smith.

Fantagraphics minicomics

Don’t forget about Fantagraphics special mini-comics offer through their online store.

Mimoco has all their designer flash drives for 25 percent off, which include drives based on Batman, Green Lantern, Star Wars and more.

Threadless is holding a $10 T-shirt sale this weekend, so you can get those cool robot shirts by Ethan Nicolle, Becky Cloonan, JR Goldberg and Jhonen Vasquez for cheap.

MattyCollector has a ton of action figures on sale, including some of their past San Diego Comic Con exclusives and several Justice League Unlimited packs. Plus, the Rockers!

For more deals and bargains, check out the lists at The Beat and ComicsAlliance. And if you’ve seen any that I’ve missed, please post them in our comments section. Happy shopping!

Kirby King of Comics

Hello and welcome to What Are You Reading? Our special guest today is Ryan Cody, creator of Icarus and illustrator of Villains and Jesus Christ: In the Name of the Gun. You’ll be seeing more of Icarus around these parts starting very soon …

To see what Ryan and the Robot 6 crew have been reading lately, click below.

*****

Brigid Alverson

Strangers in Paradise

I bought a copy of Strangers in Paradise from author Terry Moore himself at C2E2, and it helped make the trip back go more quickly. This is a classic book that came out during my long hiatus from comics, and I’m glad to have finally discovered it. Just in the first few chapters Moore quickly sketches out a set of characters—Katchoo, Francine, and David—and sets the story barreling out of the gate at full speed. I love their personalities, his deft hand with dialogue, and the twists and turns of his stories, and I’m definitely signing on for the whole series.

I also read an advance copy of, One Soul, by Ray Fawkes, which is due out from Oni Press in May. Fawkes splits each page into a nine-panel grid and tells 18 stories in parallel on each two-page spread. His characters are widely separated in time and space and never actually meet, but they have a lot in common, and parts of their lives echo each other. I read it once, but I know I will have to read it a few more times, partly because it’s hard to keep 18 characters straight and partly because I know I’m going to see more in each re-reading; there are many patterns and subtleties that are only starting to emerge.

Carla Hoffman

New Mutants #23

I read New Mutants #23 this week and suddenly, everything makes sense. Having already read the start of this ‘new perspective’ side event (Age of X: Alpha and X-Men: Legacy #245) back when they were released, I wasn’t expecting much from chapter four of this storyline. At first glance and being thrown into the action as it were, the characters just seemed like pale Age of Apocalypse shadows and the idea of a full scale war between mutants and humans was something I know I had read before. There was nothing to stick to as far as where this whole thing would be going. But there is a new an interesting piece of the plot that shows up in New Mutants #23 that reminds me that no one would or should get away with printing the same old story, no matter how cool the character designs are. I’d tell you more but that would ruin the discovery of it on your own, which is always part of the battle. Mike Carey is giving nothing to you directly, but through deduction, you’re actually working right alongside Magneto and Rogue to find out what’s really going on.

So fellow X-Fans, take note: if you read the first part of Age of X and compared it to something you have already read or didn’t find anything interesting in the infinite war between mutants and humans, give it another chance. Read New Mutants #23 as see if the twist doesn’t make you think a little more kindly on those earlier issues. If it does, go back and read them (that’s X-Men: Legacy #245, New Mutants #22 then X-Men: Legacy #246; don’t worry there’s a list in the back) because I know you’ll catch things the second time around. Things that really do make this a story I don’t believe we’ve seen before, despite some familiar window dressing and the ever-so fashionable lens of nostalgia. I’m already starting to re-think my ideas of a ‘never-ending battle between mutant and man’ and what that really means…

Michael May

Colonia

I finished the first volume of Jeff Nicholson’s Colonia, but I don’t think I’ll be going back for the second. In his introduction, Nicholson compares what he’s trying to do with Bone, and I can see the similarities. As a concept, it works wonderfully: an innocent boy and a couple of companions enter a world filled with strange people and creatures, but instead of Bone‘s medieval-fantasy setting, Colonia‘s locale in based on the early days of New World colonization and piracy. That’s a milieu I enjoy more than the Middle Ages, so it should have worked.

Unfortunately, though his story is interesting, Nicholson isn’t as proficient as Jeff Smith at creating humor in his art. The dialog is funny enough, but the visual timing’s all off and Nicholson lacks Smith’s gift for expressive faces and slapstick. That also makes the characters rather flat, so while I really wanted Colonia to work, I kept thinking that I should be reading Bone instead, pirates or no pirates.

Tim O’Shea

Yo Gabba Gabba

I am kicking myself for neglecting to mention a release from last week, the 128-page Yo Gabba Gabba Comic Book Time anthology. Imagine a book with a range of talent including, Michael Allred, Philip Bond, J. Bone, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Evan Dorkin, Sarah Dyer, Chris Eliopoulos, Matthew Loux, J. Torres (who also co-edits the book with James Lucas Jones), and Dean Trippe (among many, many others). For whatever reason, I’ve never seen the Yo Gabba Gabba show, but despite my ignorance I immediately fell in love with this book. Why? Because Jamie S. Rich (who wrote the first story in this anthology) provides a story resolution that partially involves The Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” Seeing an Allred-drawn character singing Rolling Stones lyrics is the kind of left field moments I love in a story.

My tastes don’t lean toward horror or supernatural, but one has to take notice when BOOM publishes the first issue of a new Hellraiser series, written by Clive Barker. And there’s a back-up tale written by Larry Wachowski. I am a lousy judge of horror, but I speculate that the folks who enjoyed Hellraiser under Barker’s vision will really enjoy this book. Even though not a fan of the genre, I will admit I was impressed with the linework on the main title from Leonardo Manco.

Graeme’s post that praised BOOM! Studios’ Dracula: The Company of Monsters reminded me that I had allowed the comic to drop off my radar. That’s despite the fact I am a huge Kurt Busiek fan (see the aforementioned aversion to horror). But this week, prompted by Graeme, I read the series’ first volume (collecting issues 1-4) –a story created by Busiek and written by Daryl Gregory–and will likely try to track down the more recent issues. This modern day take on Dracula has him terrorizing board rooms–and gives us odd scenes of the vampire acclimating after his resurrection and reading the New York Times.

There’s no doubt that Marvel is flooding the market with Thor and Captain America one-shots, due to the upcoming theatrical releases. But Kieron Gillen actually pulls back the mask (real and metaphorical) on Batroc the Leaper–indulging in some interesting character exploration. I am hard pressed to recall another writer examining the fiscal and logistical challenges to the life of a villain. Added bonus: the 1967 battle between Batroc and Cap, by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby from Tales of Suspense #85. It includes two great moments: Stan Lee having Cap mocking Batroc: “How’s this for some fancy stuff weeth zee hands” (as he punched the villain) and Lee shutting up and allowing Kirby to do a fight scene for one page (nine panels) with no dialogue.

Tom Bondurant

Green Lantern #64

Following Blackest Night, I had thought Green Lantern was in a bit of a rut, gazing into the Rainbow Lanterns’ collective navel without having much of a direction. However, I was pretty impressed with the first two parts of “War of the Green Lanterns” in GL #64 (written by Geoff Johns, penciled by Doug Mahnke, inked by Christian Alamy et al.) and Green Lantern Corps #58 (written by Tony Bedard, penciled by Tyler Kirkham, inked by Batt with Rob Hunter). GL #64 pulls together the past year’s plot threads into a neat little bundle of revenge, tied together with the longstanding notion that the Guardians’ omniscience doesn’t always make them right. What’s more, Krona’s plan involves the return of some “classic” Green Lantern mythology; and as ominous as those developments were, it was good to see Johns returning to them. Bedard and Kirkham come at the same events from a different perspective in GLC #58, but they too end up with our heroes facing overwhelming odds. “War of the Green Lanterns” could actually be that proverbial storyline which changes everything, but it’s setting up those changes nicely so far.

Having just spent some time with the ’70s Batman Family stories which reintroduced Kathy “Batwoman” Kane, I was delighted to see her return in Batman Incorporated #4 (written by Grant Morrison, drawn by Chris Burnham). The issue worked well as an interlude in Batman’s Argentinian adventure, but it may have worked even better as yet another giddy deconstruction/celebration of Goofy Sci-Fi Batman. Robin’s dialogue about “even the dog wear[ing] a mask … makes it all dumb instead of special[,] like it doesn’t matter anymore” is probably the most pointed criticism of the (for lack of a better term) “anti-goofy” reader. Still, once again Morrison has given meaning and resonance to a dusty corner of Batman lore, even echoing the great Alan Brennert’s treatment of an aging, wistful Batwoman in the classic “Interlude on Earth-Two” (Brave and the Bold #182, January 1982), while continuing to advance the “United Colors of Batman” theme he’s been working for the past five years. Just a really great issue all around, and I haven’t even mentioned Burnham’s wonderful work.

Ryan Cody

Sadly, for someone who claims to be a writer himself, I do not read as much as I should, and what I do read is mostly comics. One book I just finished was Kirby: King of Comics by Mark Evanier. I found a used copy at Hastings for $8 and thought there was no way to go wrong there. It’s basically a beautifully illustrated biography of Jack’s life in comics. It touches a little on his youth, mostly in how that affected his later ideas of the stories he wanted to tell, and goes through his long career. There was nothing scandalous or really mind-blowing about it, but it was a quick read and gave a good impression of the greatest comic creator ever. It also has some beautiful artwork in it including some variant designs for Marvel’s Norse Gods that are amazing.

The Hilliker Curse: My Pursuit of Women

Another recent book I read, and in part had read to me, was The Hilliker Curse: My Pursuit of Women by James Ellroy. It’s a biography that has the single focus of Ellroy trying to explain and come to terms with his relationship with women, and how those relationships reflect back to him being 10 and his mother being murdered. It has a snappy pace and is hilarious more often than not. Biographies are probably my favorite types of books when I do sit down to read, it’s often that the truth can be as entertaining as fiction if you care enough about the subject.

The artist side of me mostly follows other artists when it comes time to read comics. No matter how good the story is, if the art is boring to me, I can’t get through it. I really enjoy the B.P.R.D. and Hellboy books, Guy Davis did some fantastic work on those and Arcudi and Mignola have created a great universe for the characters. I try to follow Powers as much as I can, again I think the setting and relationships coupled with insanely talented art make for good reading. Last but not least, I just finished reading The Winter Men by Brett Lewis and John Paul Leon. That was fantastic, from plot, to script, to art, one of the best books I have read in a very long time. It had everything I love; crime, amazing powers, corruption, bad language and even a tiny bit of nudity. I highly recommend it.

Jonah Hex, stability's poster boy?

The first two parts of this little exploration looked at DC’s attempts to launch ongoing series in the ‘80s and ‘90s, when line-wide events became regular occurrences in the superhero line. However, as those surveys made abundantly clear, said events didn’t seem to relate much either to concurrently-launched ongoing series or to the relative success of said series.

Instead, the number of new ongoing series debuting in a particular calendar year looks somewhat cyclical. There were five new ongoings in 1985 (the year of Crisis On Infinite Earths), up to 14 in 1988 and 17 in 1992, then easing down to 15 in 1994, 13 in 1996, and 10 in 1997. In 1998 and 2000, DC launched only four new ongoing series; in 1999, six; and in 2001, seven. At the risk of exciting you too quickly with more numbers, a later year will have sixteen.

For now, though, we pick up in 2002, at the beginning of a quieter time.

* * *

PHASE VII: THE “UNEVENTFUL” YEARS

DC launched six new series in 2002, among them the creator-driven Power Company (written by Kurt Busiek; 25 total issues), and Lab Rats (from John Byrne; 8 issues). Aquaman got another revival (57 issues), as did Hawkman (66 issues). Coincidentally, both ended up being relaunched in the wake of Infinite Crisis.

2002′s other new ongoings were the luchadore adventure Big Daddy Danger (9 issues) and the cop-centric Gotham Central (40 issues). I suspect Big Daddy Danger was just too quirky for DC’s main audience, and GC’s fate was also eventually tied to Infinite Crisis.

Most of the straight-up superhero books had some kind of lead-in from, or similar tie to, an existing title. Power Company was previewed in an issue of JLA, and introduced its various characters through a series of seven one-shots whereby they interacted one-on-one with DC stalwarts. The one-shots all appeared in January 2002, paving the way for February’s actual issue #1. Meanwhile, Aquaman and Hawkman each spun out of storylines in JLA (“The Obsidian Age”) and JSA (“The Return Of Hawkman”). They also were associated closely with particular professionals, namely Rick Veitch on Aquaman and Geoff Johns, James Robinson, and Rags Morales on Hawkman.

In 2003, one miniseries took care of two relaunches. The summer’s Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day repurposed those series into new Teen Titans and Outsiders books. TT is still chugging along today, at 93 issues and counting; while Outsiders lasted 50 issues before being relaunched (which itself has been cancelled)..

2003 had two revivals: “Dial ‘H’ For Hero,” this time titled simply HERO (22 issues); and Kyle Baker’s Plastic Man (20 issues). Actually, it’s not fair to call Baker’s Plastic Man a revival — more like a unique marriage of professional and subject. Other new superhero titles were the SHIELD-ish Human Defense Corps (6 issues) and Keith Giffen’s Reign of the Zodiac (8 issues). Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning’s video-game-oriented iCandy was not a DCU book, and lasted six issues.  Finally, from what I can tell, the Peter Bagge-written Sweatshop was an ongoing series under the DC bullet, but it too lasted only six issues.

2004 was kind of a strange year for DC in terms of new ongoing series, in part because the new books came from a variety of sources. In February, the “DC Focus” line kicked off with Hard Time (12 issues; written by Steve Gerber), followed by Kinetic (8 issues), Fraction (6 issues), and Touch (6 issues). These non-DCU series featured superpowered people in real-world settings, such as Hard Time’s prison. Hard Time was the line’s longest-lived series, getting a seven-issue sequel (subtitled Season Two) in 2006.  DC also published a fantasy/horror book called Toe Tags Featuring George A. Romero. It ran six issues, and like Sweatshop it looks like a miniseries; but (like Sweatshop) I don’t see anything on the cover indicating it was a miniseries.

Back in the superhero line, new ongoings were mostly revivals and/or reboots: Richard Dragon (12 issues), John Byrne’s “starting over” Doom Patrol (18 issues), the Jason Rusch Firestorm (35 issues), and the Kate Spencer Manhunter (38 issues). Grant Morrison returned to the Justice League to launch JLA Classified (54 issues) with a three-issue arc which (incidentally) also led into “Seven Soldiers.” However, the year’s biggest relaunch/reboot was Green Lantern: Rebirth, followed by Mark Waid and Barry Kitson’s Legion of Super-Heroes (50 issues).

Otherwise, new superhero ongoings included Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti’s Monolith (12 issues; currently the subject of a collect-this-now! campaign); and Bloodhound (10 issues), whose crossover with the new Firestorm apparently didn’t help its sales.

Astute readers will notice I’ve avoided talking about Identity Crisis as 2004′s Big Event. This is because at the time, it wasn’t promoted like the traditional line-wide event. What crossovers it had were more in the nature of tangentially-related storylines in books like Flash, Firestorm, and Manhunter. Instead, Identity Crisis was touted as a standalone mystery from novelist Brad Meltzer.

Today, though, we know differently….

PHASE VIII: THE CRISIS CYCLE

2005: Infinite Crisis. The most recent round of line-wide event mania began in earnest with March’s DC Countdown special, which also served as a bridge between Identity Crisis and the miniseries ahead. Accordingly, while DC spent much of 2005 on Infinite Crisis and its predecessors, it still found time to launch a handful of ongoing series. Green Lantern (63+ issues), Supergirl (60+ issues), and Jonah Hex (64+ issues) are still going strong, although JSA Classified (39 issues) and the aforementioned Hard Time: Season Two (7 issues) have since folded.

Now, all of those five series are “unoriginal,” in the sense that each is either a relaunch, spinoff, sequel, or some combination thereof. However, of the five, Jonah Hex’s success is most remarkable to me. Not only had it been a while since Jonah’s last title (1999′s Vertigo miniseries Shadows West), Jonah’s new book wasn’t spun out of anything in the main DC line. Yes, I know it’d be hard to craft an Infinite Crisis lead-in around DC’s Old West characters; but hey, the original Crisis had an Old West sequence. I’m just saying, if DC wanted to do it, it could’ve.

2006: 52. Anyway, we skip ahead to the spring of 2006, when the events of Infinite Crisis #5 had rewritten history in minor but noticeable ways, thereby allowing DC to jump all its books ahead “One Year Later.” Again, this process focused on the existing books, but DC did launch the new Blue Beetle (36 issues) during the initial “OYL” push.

Of course, running alongside much of “OYL” was the year-long weekly series 52, which charted a year in the life of DC-Earth without Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, or the Justice League. This allowed the publisher to focus on some of its lesser-known characters, while still building up to the big titles’ inevitable relaunches.

Indeed, as the year went on, DC got more productive. Three of the four miniseries which led into Infinite Crisis also spawned ongoing series: The OMAC Project begat Checkmate (31 issues), Day Of Vengeance begat Shadowpact (25 issues), and Villains United begat … another six-issue Secret Six miniseries. 2005 had had a Green Lantern Corps miniseries, so 2006 saw its ongoing sequel (57+ issues). Over the summer, the Brave New World special hyped various miniseries spinning out of Infinite Crisis but it also led into the new Atom series (25 issues), starring Ryan Choi as Ray Palmer’s successor. As for those relaunches, only the new Flash: Fastest Man Alive (13 issues) suffered an early end. Still around today are Wonder Woman (51+ issues), Justice League of America (55+ issues), and Justice Society of America (49+ issues).

Taking their cue from the JLA and JSA anthologies, Batman Confidential (54 issues) and Superman Confidential (14 issues) debuted at the end of 2006, along with the new Spirit series from Darwyn Cooke. Finally, a new Warlord series (10 issues) debuted early in 2006 from writer Bruce Jones and artist Bart Sears, but it was received poorly and exited quickly.

2007: Countdown. By the time 52 ended in the spring of 2007, DC was well into a constant-crossover groove. Countdown was supposed to knit the superhero books together into a coherent whole, while at the same time preparing the readership for 2008′s Big Event. As such, it didn’t leave much room to spin off its own ongoing series.

Regardless, spinning out of 52 were Booster Gold (42+ issues) and Infinity, Inc. (12 issues). 2001′s Green Arrow series was relaunched as Green Arrow/Black Canary (32 issues), The Flash returned (with Volume 2 (1987)’s numbering, so not really a “new” ongoing), and Outsiders gave way to Batman and the Outsiders (39 issues). 2007′s only other new series was Simon Dark, about a Gotham-based monster/vigilante, which lasted 18 issues even without an overt Batman connection.

2008: Final Crisis. Only three ongoing series debuted in 2008: Titans (32+ issues), Secret Six (30+ issues), and Vigilante (12 issues). Vigilante was another relaunch of Marv Wolfman’s ‘80s antihero, Secret Six was the ongoing continuation of Gail Simone’s antisocial band, and Titans was another attempt at recapturing the New Teen Titans’ glory days.

That’s about it for the new series of 2008, unless you want to count a Hawkman Special which upended the character’s history and ended up going nowhere; or, more concretely, the Final Crisis: Legion Of Three Worlds miniseries, which paved the way for the new-original Legion to resume the spotlight. Titans has since been retooled and Vigilante is gone, but at least Secret Six is still around.

PHASE IX: POST-CRISIS, AGAIN

2009: Blackest Night. This year was much busier, although not because of its Big Event miniseries. Blackest Night was an adjunct to the Green Lantern books, not really a breeding ground for new ongoing series. Instead, 2009′s sixteen new books came from all over.

Most fertile was the Batman line, adding Batman And Robin (20+ issues), Batman: Streets Of Gotham (21 issues), Gotham City Sirens (20+ issues), Red Robin (20+ issues), Batgirl (18+ issues), and Azrael (18 issues). Almost a generation later, DC tried again with the ex-Archie superheroes, but The Web and The Shield lasted ten issues each. Justice Socialites Magog (12 issues) and Power Girl (21+ issues) each got their own series, and a big chunk of the team spun off into JSA All-Stars (15+ issues). REBELS (25+ issues), Doom Patrol (22 issues), and Warlord (16 issues) returned, and Adventure Comics got a new no. 1 before resuming its old numbering (20+ issues). Finally, The Mighty (12 issues) debuted to some critical acclaim, but it was outside the main DC Universe and didn’t last long.

Indeed, almost sixteen months later, over half of the Class of ‘09 has been cancelled, with the survivors being Bat-titles, Power Girl, and the we-just-renumbered-it-why-would-we-axe-it Adventure.

2010: Brightest Day. Actually, I take back some of my characterization of Blackest Night. If you don’t count GL: Emerald Warriors (7+ issues) — and I’m not sure I do — it didn’t expressly launch any new series in 2010; but it did lead into many series’ relaunches. The Flash (12 issues), Green Arrow (9+ issues), and Birds Of Prey (9+ issues) all fly the BD banner, thanks to characters revived at the end of BN. The Legion got its own title again (10+ issues), as did the Freedom Fighters (8 issues), and the Batman line expanded further with David Finch’s Batman: The Dark Knight (2+ issues) and Grant Morrison’s new Batman Incorporated (4+ issues). The long-promised Batwoman title got a zero issue in November, but it’s since been delayed until the fall of this year. Otherwise, 2010 saw the debut of “First Wave” titles Doc Savage (11+ issues) and The Spirit (11+ issues), both of which have yet to be officially cancelled.

* * *

And that brings us to 2011, with its most excellent newbies Batman Beyond and Xombi, probably some familiar relaunches for the cast of Brightest Day, and the promise of more Batwoman in the fall.

Unfortunately, I think this exercise has, for me, reinforced the conservative leanings of both DC and its superhero-comic readers. The more familiar a series, the longer it can expect to run. Here are DC’s ongoing main-line series launched since 1985 and lasting at least fifty issues:

1. Hellblazer (277)*
2. Flash (1987) (249)
3. Superman (1986) (228)
3. Wonder Woman (1986) (228)
5. Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight (214)
6. Robin (186)
7. Green Lantern (1990) (183)
8. Nightwing (154)
9. Green Arrow (1988) (139)
10. Superman: The Man Of Steel (136)
11. Birds Of Prey (1999) (127)
12. JLA (126)
13. Legion of Super-Heroes (1989) (125)
14. Justice League/JL International/JL America (114)
15. Superboy (1994) (102)
16. Azrael (101)
17. Batman: Shadow of the Bat (96)
17. Catwoman (1993) (96)
19. Teen Titans (2003) (93)*
20. Impulse (90)
21. Animal Man (89)*
21. Doom Patrol (1987) (89)*
23. JSA (87)
24. Legionnaires (83)
24. Starman (1994) (83)
25. Catwoman (2002) (82)
26. Superman/Batman (82)*
26. Supergirl (1996) (81)
29. Aquaman (1994) (77)
30. Sandman (75)
30. Green Arrow (2001) (75)
32. Batman: Gotham Knights (74)
33. Batgirl (2000) (73)
34. LEGION (70)
34. Shade The Changing Man (70)*
36. Justice League Europe/JL International (68)
37. Lobo (66)
37. Suicide Squad (66)
37. Hawkman/Hawkgirl (2002) (66)
40. Green Lantern (2005) (64)
40. Jonah Hex (2005) (64)
42. Supergirl (2005) (62)
43. Deathstroke The Terminator/D. The Hunted (61)
43. Hitman (61)
45. The Spectre (1992) (62)
46. The Demon (1990) (59)
46. Captain Atom (59)
48. Green Lantern Corps (58)
49. Aquaman/A.: Sword of Atlantis (57)
50. Young Justice (56)
51. Justice League of America (2006) (55)
52. Steel (1994) (53)
53. Batman Confidential (54)
53. JLA Classified (54)
55. Wonder Woman (2006) (53)
56. Secret Origins (50)
56. Outsiders (2003) (50)
56. The Titans (1999) (50)
56. Legion of Super-Heroes/Supergirl and the LSH (50)

[Current series are in bold; * = moved to Vertigo]

Not counting Hellblazer, only eight of those 59 are still being published. The oldest, somewhat ironically, is Teen Titans: as of next week, 93 issues and counting. Moreover, only Jonah Hex stands out among the high-profile superhero books.

To be sure, books like Green Arrow, Aquaman, and Doom Patrol are perennial favorites. Green Arrow’s three ongoing series have produced some 214 issues, more than enough to establish the character pretty firmly in DC’s lineup. Likewise, the two Catwoman series produced almost 200 total issues; and all the Doom Patrols together would also stack pretty high.

However, starting with a new No. 1 isn’t just an all-clear signal for potential customers. It’s also a bow tied on the old series. When DC wanted to start a new Superman series in 1986, to show the world that John Byrne and his collaborators were rebuilding from the ground up, it used the first volume’s final issue for a pretty final-sounding storyline. Part 1 of “Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow?” appeared in Superman #423, and a few months later, Marv Wolfman and Jerry Ordway inaugurated a new era in The Adventures Of Superman #424. In fact, when Adventures reclaimed its old name in 2006, the final issue of Superman Volume 2 was an Infinite Crisis-related sendoff.

Accordingly, recapturing those numbers restores a certain stability, if not permanence, to the book in question. It’s more than bragging rights, because as we’ve seen, anybody can slap a big number on a single issue to overinflate its significance. Those numbers gain their power from the history supporting them. I’d argue that’s why it’s valuable to see what DC has chosen to support over the years, and (conversely) what the publisher has decided it can tweak. In that respect, I’m impressed that Teen Titans and Jonah Hex have survived somewhat intact. Barring any sudden makeovers, I suspect DC will let its younger books grow and develop without the threat of cancellation and relaunch. That’s what happened in 1986 after the first Crisis, and I think a similar cycle is playing out here.

Paradoxically, though, buying what’s familiar might not go so far if the consumer thinks that a “venerable” Green Arrow or Aquaman won’t need his particular purchase to survive. If a big number intimidates a potential reader, a series of periodic relaunches with new No. 1s seems like a practical compromise.

Nevertheless, the more a feature is relaunched, the less relevant those relaunches become. More importantly, the more DC has to promote the next Flash #1, the less it has to devote to (let’s just say) hyping a new Icon series. If DC would put some of its series on hiatus, as opposed to cancelling one volume so a new one can begin a few months later, it would acknowledge the reality of cancellation-proof series and let more attention linger on the stragglers. Who knows — given time, maybe some of them could become cancellation-proof too.

Dear Jack Black: you can be Green Lantern only if you are Arkiss Chummuck. Or G'Nort.

With the Green Lantern movie coming out in the middle of the month, June looms big for DC’s superhero line. Since writer/executive Geoff Johns has become so identified with GL, you’d expect it would be a big month for him too — and indeed, between GL-related items and the Flashpoint event, Johns’ influence is felt all around the June solicitations.

Away we go –!

* * *

MORE LIKE “CASHPOINT,” AMIRITE?

Sometimes I think Flashpoint should completely interrupt DC’s superhero line for three to five months. After all, if all of DC history is changed (again), but the ongoing books can still tell current, normal-timeline stories, aren’t readers just waiting for the reset button to be pushed? Still, whatever suspense might be gained from such a setup is probably outweighed by the aggravation it would cause; not just to readers who’d have to wait out those months, but to DC’s professionals themselves, who’d either have to arrange things logistically to avoid disruptions, or risk leaving an ongoing arc hanging. In any case, obviously none of the regular DC books are going on a break to accommodate and/or reflect Flashpoint — except for The Flash, which is eminently appropriate.

That does put Flashpoint in a slightly different light. Instead of, say, a Superman reader trying to decide whether to fill that gap with Flashpoint: Project Superman, you could see the whole Flashpoint experience as a massive expansion of the (heretofore-virtually-nonexistent) “Flash franchise.” Put another way: in May the Flash reader will buy Flash #13 and will be, shall we say, strongly encouraged to try out Flashpoint #1 (and maybe Booster Gold #44). Now, in June, that reader doesn’t have to buy Flash #14 (which, presumably, won’t be out for a few months) — but he’s still strongly encouraged to pickup FP #2, plus up to twenty ancillary titles (sixteen first issues of 3-issue miniseries and four one-shots). Seems like a lot to expect out of a Flash fan, or even a Geoff Johns fan.

Nevertheless, because it’s all world-building, and no one knows how much demand there’ll be for something like Flashpoint: The Outsider, DC is apparently gambling that retailers will err on the side of extravagance when ordering the Flashpoint tie-ins. After all, if the key to restoring the timeline comes out of, say, Deadman and the Flying Graysons #2, surely no one would want to be caught without that issue. I hadn’t planned on getting all, or even most, of the Flashpoint tie-ins, and I don’t expect anything to be “essential” beyond the core miniseries — maybe the World Of Flashpoint miniseries, the Citizen Cold and Kid Flash tie-ins, and/or Booster Gold — but at this point, it’s hard to be sure.

Anyway, here is your weekly Flashpoint rundown for June. All books are $2.99 each except Flashpoint proper, which is 40 pages for $3.99.

6/1: FP #2 ($3.99), Batman – Knight of Vengeance #1, Secret Seven #1, Abin Sur #1, World of Flashpoint #1

6/8: Booster Gold #45, Emperor Aquaman #1, Deathstroke and the Curse of the Ravager #1, Frankenstein and the Creatures of the Unknown #1, Citizen Cold #1

6/15: Wonder Woman and the Furies #1, Deadman and the Flying Graysons #1, Legion of Doom #1, Grodd of War #1

6/22: Lois Lane and the Resistance #1, Outsider #1, Kid Flash Lost #1, Reverse Flash #1

6/29: Project Superman #1, Hal Jordan #1, Green Arrow Industries #1, Canterbury Cricket #1

Again, that’s at least four $2.99 issues per week for June’s five Wednesdays; or 22 issues totaling $66.78 retail.  Good thing DC has provided those Blackest Night paperbacks this month for comparison.

Oh, and I think the Sterling Gates-written Kid Flash miniseries is a sign that the long-promised Kid Flash series will happen after Flashpoint ends.

THEY’RE GONNA PUT ME IN THE MOVIES

At first I thought the “changes-EVERYTHING!” conclusion of “War of the Green Lanterns” was another predictably-out-of-touch move. Really, though, it’s not like moviegoers have any incentive to read Green Lantern (or Captain America, or Thor, or X-Men) right after they leave the theaters. Besides, there’s no way the GL books can be new-reader-friendly by June — not unless the movie also introduces John, Kyle, and Guy, gives them power rings, and sets them off on their own adventures. It’s enough, I suppose, that the Blackest Night paperbacks (discussed in more detail below) will hit bookshelves in July.

Likewise, I was ready to bemoan the unfortunate timing of DC Direct’s GL-related swag (coming in November) until I remembered all those movie-related tchotchkes solicited in months past.  Besides, it will be out for the holidays.

As for the comics themselves, it looks like one of my predictions may not pan out (shocker!), since the cover of GL Corps #61 still has John in green, not red. Kyle’s shattered mask is ominous not because I think he’ll be killed off — the solicit itself says otherwise — but because it suggests bad things for him generally. Whether it’s my own cynicism, Kyle’s history with girlfriends, or DC’s track record overall, that in turn makes me think Soranik Natu is in trouble, and that would be a lazy reversion to form. Now, I say that not having read any of “WOTGL,” because of course hardly any of it has actually been published, and I could be completely wrong. Here’s hoping.

SEQUELS, SPINOFFS, AND REPRIEVES

So I have been thinking about the end of Brightest Day would probably facilitate new series (or, at the very least, miniseries) for characters like the Hawks, Aquaman, possibly Firestorm, and maybe even the Martian Manhunter. The last issue of BD will be out around the same time as the July solicits, just over a month from now (April 20). Therefore, in order to avoid spoiling the end of BD — and specifically, which of the twelve characters makes it out of the miniseries — any new series would have to wait until then to be solicited. They might even have to wait until October, after Flashpoint has ended … which would also be after this miniseries has ended. In that context, the new Brightest Day Aftermath miniseries looks like DC’s attempt at bridging that gap. One might even call it a “hype gap,” as if DC were worried that no one would be talking about Aquaman, the Hawks, or Firestorm between the end of BD and the start of whatever comes next.

As for “whatever comes next,” my guess is that both Aquaman and Firestorm will get new series in the near term. Geoff Johns has talked about writing Aquaman outside of BD, and the vintage-Firestorm paperback solicited for July suggests it’s laying a foundation for a future ongoing.

Not that I am complaining, but now we have two sequels to Road to Perdition. The new installment, Return To Perdition, is drawn by Max Allan Collins’ longtime collaborator Terry Beatty, so it may be something that Collins wanted to tell and turned to Beatty as a matter of course. Furthermore, Return looks like an outright sequel, as opposed to 2003-04′s On the Road miniseries, which took place in and around the original story. That OGN came out in 1998, was made into a movie (starring Tom Hanks and directed by Sam Mendes) in 2002, and these stories have followed. I liked Road to Perdition pretty well, but I haven’t read the On the Road stories, so I don’t know if Return is for me.

American Vampire becomes a franchise itself in June, with Scott Snyder and Sean Murphy producing the Survival of the Fittest miniseries. Since the main book hasn’t quite gotten to the World War II timeframe referenced in these solicits, I’m not sure why SOTF couldn’t have been told there; but with Snyder and Murphy writing and drawing, I’d read it wherever it appeared.

Seeing no final-issue notations on their solicits, it looks like First Wave titles Doc Savage and The Spirit have another month to go. It is a little unfortunate that the Spirit’s Valentine’s Day issue will come out in June, though.

REGULAR FARE

Supergirl gets yet another creative team in June, following the evidently-short but actually-promising tenure of James Peaty and Bernard Chang. I’m not familiar with Kelly Sue DeConnick’s work, not having gone that deep into Marvel territory; but she comes well-recommended. I do like Chriscross, so overall it looks good for now. The whole “going undercover in college” thing does seem like an Aaron Spelling action-show plot, though.

Absent any more delays, it looks like Wonder Woman’s alt-reality arc will end in June. It still will have overlapped with Flashpoint’s alternate reality for two months. I would say that both Wonder Woman’s and Flash’s altered timelines were butting against the unaltered DC universe, but I keep forgetting that Wonder Woman’s altered timeline is the main DC universe.

It brings up another issue about Wonder Woman’s history, namely that it’s already been changed radically by the events of Infinite Crisis. “Now” it’s a fuzzy reconciliation of the 1986 reboot (when Diana came to Patriarch’s World between Crisis On Infinite Earths and Legends) and her place in pre-COIE Earth-1 history (when she left Themyscira closer to the start of the Silver Age and was a founding Justice Leaguer). As it happens, the Flash provides a touchstone for the post-Infinite Crisis change. “Originally” — that is, in 1986 — Diana never met Barry Allen, having left Themyscira after he died. “Now,” with at least part of her Earth-1 history restored, she was his teammate and colleague for several years. (In fact, I think Steve Englehart had them at odds during his Justice League tenure.) Needless to say, this is not something I expect either Flashpoint or Wonder Woman to address, but it’d be nice.

COLLECTIONS

I’m pretty impressed that DC has timed the Blackest Night paperbacks to be available at the height of Movie Hal’s popularity. The event’s popularity among regular DC readers was obvious, but my own anecdotal evidence (i.e., my few “irregular” superhero-comics-reading friends) suggests that it might have some larger appeal. A more affordable format can only help in this regard, even if the seven paperbacks would retail cumulatively for $140.00.

If Showcase Presents The Trial of the Flash is the first in a series of big-arc black-and-white collections, I’ll be even more impressed. The phone-book format is well-suited to these kinds of targeted reprints, and I’m sure we can all think of other extended storylines which could get similar treatment. (The original story of the Flying Todds, and how Bruce Wayne adopted their inevitably-orphaned son, comes to mind.) Longtime readers may have a rather morbid interest in the “Trial of the Flash,” since it was seen (at least at the time) as contributing significantly to Flash vol. 1′s cancellation — and, consequently, to Barry’s death in Crisis On Infinite Earths. From what I understand, it was not the best representation of Cary Bates’ long tenure as Flash writer … but that may have to wait until another set of reprints reaches the early ‘70s.

Speaking of Flash, I’m not sure whether to be surprised or frustrated that the Firestorm vol. 1 paperback includes the first few installments of ‘Stormy’s backup series therein. Figuring that DC would never reprint these — because that’s not been its practice until now — I spent longer than I care to remember collecting those issues. Nevertheless, this paperback doesn’t reprint all of the Flash backups, so I’ll have something to read until volume 2 comes out.

That reminds me — another good candidate for a special Showcase Presents would be John Ostrander and Joe Brozowski/J.J. Birch’s extended arc on Firestorm, when they gave Professor Stein cancer, put the Russian Mikhail Arkadin into the matrix, and ended up turning Firestorm into one of the Earth’s elemental protectors. It ran from January 1987′s Firestorm #55 (Ostrander’s first issue) through May 1989′s #85 and included Firestorm Annual #5 — about 750 pages of comics, so it might not all fit; but a suspenseful, compelling storyline nonetheless.

Back to the regularly-scheduled reprints. Another series which I thought mired in royalty disputes, and therefore collected in single issues, was Secret Society Of Super-Villains. I’ll definitely get this hardcover, since it not only reprints all of the original series (including the Special), but also the rarities from Cancelled Comics Cavalcade and Amazing World Of DC Comics, and the wrapping-up arc from Justice League which — in a stunning bit of synergy — ended up providing the background for Identity Crisis. All of that aside, though, once it got past the hit-or-miss first few issues, SSoSV was a pretty decent little series.

DC didn’t have any trouble reprinting New Teen Titans, so naturally I have all the Archives and all the paperbacks supplementing my original Wolfman/Pérez issues and keeping them safe in their mylar. Now comes the first New Teen Titans Omnibus, $75.00 for what is basically Archives Vols. 1 and 2, probably with more to follow. Honestly, I know NTT is one of DC’s most fondly-remembered series, and I can understand reprinting it in such a handsome format; but it is kinda out of the reach of the curious reader who (no!) might not want to take such a deep financial plunge. What I’m saying is, you couldn’t do paperback New Teen Titans Chronicles instead?

I am curious about the Legion of Super-Heroes: The Curse hardcover, mostly because I thought “The Curse” referred to the aftermath of the Great Darkness Saga, not its own 500-plus-page storyline. Still haven’t gotten that new GDS hardcover, so maybe that will encourage me to give The Curse a look.

Finally, even with Steve Ditko’s enduring popularity, I wouldn’t have expected a Ditko Omnibus series. Putting Shade, the Changing Man on the cover is a good way to get a superhero guy like me interested in it, because I remember those house ads from my childhood but could never find Shade on the newsstand at the local Kroger. Ditko did a lot of eclectic work at DC in the ‘70s and ‘80s — not just the horror and sci-fi anthologies, but fill-ins on Legion of Super-Heroes and other superhero books — so I’m eager to see what future volumes reprint.

* * *

Well, that’s what jumped out at me this month. What looks good to you?

Teasers.

From last summer’s “I Am An Avenger” campaign rolling out the “Heroic Age” era members of the flagship team to DC’s recent Flashpoint teasers with simply a logo and some text. Image Comics has even taken part in this trend, with not-so-subtle jabs at it in the parody “I am A Guardian” with characters like Gary Popper, and the month-long string of teasers hyping the upcoming Butcher Baker series.

They’ve become a well-worn tool in every comic publisher’s marketing toolkit — and with good reason. A well-crafted teaser sparks the minds of the comic-buying public’s imagination, much in the same way as a good cliffhanger at the end of an issue would. And better yet, they don’t really have to spend anything to circulate these promos; comic websites large and small, including ours, snap them up and readers seem to follow suit. You could call them advertisements, but “advertisement” means a paid announcement, and these are more like flyers solicited through the comics sites.

But why are they so popular? We asked the experts — the people that are using them — to find out.

“Teaser images are such a popular marketing tactic with us because it’s a fun way for us to show fans what might be coming up and inspire them to speculate, hypothesize and sometimes even rake us over the coals regarding what they think is coming up,” says Mike Pascuillo, senior vice president of brand planning & communications at Marvel. ” It seems people love spoilers, so this is a way to show part of our hand and get people excited without truly revealing the whole truth.”

Although neither DC Comics nor Image Comics accepted an invitation to comment on this topic, veteran publicist Alex Segura, who is currently Archie’s executive director of publicity & marketing, had a lot to say.

“Teaser images are definitely a tool for comic book PR and marketing, and have worked well for years. You also see them across media, in TV, movies, video games, etc. But like previews, cover reveals and creative changes, they’ve become a part of the comic book promo rotation, whereas maybe 3-4 years ago, they were novel,” said Segura, who previously worked as a publicist for DC. “Which isn’t to say they’re not useful — they worked for Blackest Night, Marvel’s Avengers relaunch and beyond. We’ve used them recently at Archie, most recently with our ‘Justin Beaver’ and American Idol/Simon Cowell images. I think two factors are key – timing and content. If the teaser is just a logo or stylized text, it’d better say something that gets people talking. Fans are smart, and they want to think about the teaser beyond just the title of the book. They also want to be left wondering what’s coming up after the teaser.

“As a publisher, you want to ask yourself — does this get people excited? Will it piss off more people than it motivates to talk about the book? Is there a payoff or are we teasing something that doesn’t merit this level of promotion? All of that has to go into your decision,” Segura explains. “But by and large, teaser images are a great primer and basically help remind fans that something big (hopefully) is coming their way soon. In that regard, they work most of the time.”

In a recent interview with Heidi MacDonald at the Beat, Joe Casey was asked about the marathon teaser campaign Image released in November 2010 for his upcoming title Butcher Baker. As is Casey’s tendency to speak frank and openly (which is catnip to interviewers), he was pretty frank on the idea of teasers and his expectations of results from the month-long campaign.

“Jeezus, I have no idea how you could measure it. Who knows if it’ll move the needle at all? But that’s not really the point. If anyone paid any attention at all – be it positive or negative – then I guess it was as effective as I could’ve hoped it would be,” Casey explains. “I’ve said this before; I looked at this teaser campaign more as some kind of weird performance art than anything else. Any actual awareness or promotion that comes out of it is a bonus.”

Grant Morrison, Geoff Johns (via Bleeding Cool)

“The 26 best-selling DC single issues were all written or co-written by either Geoff Johns or Grant Morrison.”

–Techland’s Douglas Wolk makes a startling observation about Diamond’s 2010 sales charts. I mean, I knew Johns and Morrison were DC’s two bestselling authors by a long shot, and since I enjoy their work a great deal I’m pretty happy about that, but that level of dominance is really stunning to me. Moreover, Wolk goes on to note that “The best-selling DC single issue that was neither a Batman comic nor a tie-in to Blackest Night/Brightest Day was Superman #700, at position #109.” In other words, DC’s dominant writers have made the properties on which they work — predominantly Batman and Green Lantern — DC’s dominant franchises as well. Even superstar writer J. Michael Straczynski’s much-ballyhooed Superman debut failed to gain much traction relative to the Johns/Morrison juggernaut.

I think it’s safe to assume that Johns is being pulled in more and more directions by his Chief Creative Officer duties — the same position, keep in mind, that Joe Quesada recently relinquished his Editor-in-Chief gig to focus on over at Marvel. Meanwhile, Morrison is a writer whose work meets with frequent delays at the best of times, and who has a full slate of creator-owned work and various media projects (Hollywood screenplays and adaptations, the indie flick Sinatoro, My Chemical Romance videos, etc). Finally, there’s no way to tell how the Green Lantern movie will affect fan interest in the franchise. That’s a lot of eggs to have in relatively few baskets.

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.

Then earlier this month, Marvel flipped the script, offering a rare Deadpool variant of the upcoming Wolverine #1 relaunch in exchange for every 50 covers they receive from Marvel event tie-ins, specifically books from the X-Men: Second Coming and Siege events.

How’s that working out? Let’s find out, courtesy of the Twitter account of Vice President-Executive Editor Tom Brevoort:

An update on our current Marvel book-swap. With one week to go till cut-off, we’ve gotten less than 15% as many books as we did ring-books. In other words, for every 3 Marvel books returned, we’d previously gotten 20 ring-books. Could be that people wanted the SIEGE variant more.

… or, as one could infer, it could be that the Siege and Second Coming tie-ins eligible for this trade genuinely sold through to readers better than the Blackest Night tie-in “ring books” did, so retailers have fewer unwanted leftovers to unload. But far be it for Tom Brevoort to tweak the competition!

King City #9

Happy Comic-Con week, and welcome to What Are You Reading? This week our special guest contributors are Jim Demonakos and Kyle Stevens from the Seattle nerd rock band Kirby Krackle. The band, whose newest video features Wolverine, is currently in Florida for Nerdapalooza, and will be in San Diego later this week at booth #1803. So stop by and say hi if you’re going.

See what the boys from Kirby Krackle, as well as the rest of the Robot 6 crew, have been reading lately after the jump …

Chris Mautner

Blackest Night: Black Lantern Corps Vol. 1

Having gotten through Blackest Night the other week, I spent some time with Blackest Night: Black Lantern Corps Vol. 1 and 2. These are the books that collect the various non-GL tie-ins, like Black Lantern: Wonder Woman, Black Lantern: Teen Titans, etc. It’s about as up and down in quality as you can imagine, most of it being rather bad. The Teen Titans and Wonder Woman sequences struck me as being particularly noxious due to poor storytelling. The only one that really worked for me was the Flash tie-in; I suspect that’s because Geoff Johns was the writer in that instance and therefore had the best affinity to the material. For the most part, this felt like a long run of placeholder comics, warming the bench until the next chapter in the main saga, which, I suppose, is the case for just about all tie-in comics in these multi-part crossover stories these days. Though I seem to recall Zero Hour had a lot less baby-killing.

Tom Bondurant

There won’t be a lot of specifics from me this week. If this feature were called “What Are You Planning To Read?” I would be a lot better at it. This is because I am planning to read the 15 issues of Secret Society of Super-Villains — if there’s no Showcase Presents, I might as well buy the back issues — as well as the last volume of Diana Prince: Wonder Woman. Comics I have enjoyed in the past seven days include the four issues (so far) of American Vampire and Superman #701 (to which, of course, I devoted Thursday’s GOF). I am also re-reading the five Scott Pilgrim books and regretting once again coming to that particular series so late.

Gorilla Man #1

I was very disappointed that Atlas has been canceled yet again, especially since this week’s Gorilla Man #1 was so good. I don’t think Jeff Parker has written a bad issue of anything Atlas-related, and if there were any way I could pay him directly every month to tell me stories about these characters, I would.

Otherwise it was a pretty good week for the superheroes: I liked Batman #701, the first issue of the Astro City: Silver Agent two-parter, the double-shot of JLI with Booster Gold and Generation Lost, and X-Files/30 Days Of Night #1. I thought Girl Comics #3 was fairly well-done, but I didn’t recognize either of the characters featured in the last two stories.

Finally, I have to say that the Watchmen Ultimate Edition DVD set is an impressive package. It’s about as thick as two or three Scott Pilgrim books, and it has 5 discs: one for the extended (‘Black Freighter”-ized) version of the movie, one for the regular version, one for special features, and two for the motion comic. I had mixed feelings about the movie when I saw it in the theater, so I’m driven mostly by curiosity here….

Michael May

Captain Long Ears

I don’t think it’s spoiling anything to say that Diana Thung’s Captain Long Ears is not a rip-roaring adventure about a rabbit-hatted space ninja and his bowler-wearing gorilla pal. I mean, it’s not marketed that way or anything and even the cover is much more sweetly playful than aggressively awesome. But even so, I wasn’t prepared for how dark the story actually was. There’s no twist ending or anything; you figure out very quickly that Captain Long Ears is actually a young boy named Michael who has an active imagination, that Jam the ape is actually a stuffed toy, and that the Captain Big Nose they’re searching for is actually Michael’s missing father. The mystery is in what actually happened to Big Nose (though that’s not hard to guess either) and – more importantly – whether or not Michael will survive the search. There may not be actual monsters and pirates to threaten him, but Michael is sick to the point of being feverish and he’s been missing from home for almost a day. I worried about him in a way I never would’ve worried about a space ninja with an ape sidekick. It’s a powerful book, but reading it was an emotionally wrenching experience.

The Aviary reminded me a bit of Lost. Crazy, non-linear storytelling, but everything comes together in the end to not quite make sense. At least it had a gin-swigging robot, a talking dog, and some genuinely deep observations about love and loneliness.

from pood #1, by Sara Edward-Corbett

Sean T. Collins

A couple of anthologies and the coolest Swedish import this side of Ikea were what I read this week. Click the links for reviews!

pood #1, edited by Geoff Grogan, Kevin Mutch, and Alex Rader: I really dig the format and production values in this Wednesday Comics-sized newsprint alternative-comics anthology, but I’m lukewarm on the content overall.

The Troll King, by Kolbeinn Karlsson: I was hugely impressed by this ballsy (in more ways than one) and beautiful monster-comic parable from Top Shelf’s Swedish Invasion.

Mome Vols. 17-19, edited by Eric Reynolds and Gary Groth: Fanta’s venerable anthology series turns a corner with three issues’ worth of darker, stronger material.

Brigid Alverson

You'll Never Know Book One: A Good and Decent Man

I picked up Carol Tyler’s You’ll Never Know, Book One: A Good and Decent Man from the library on the strength of recommendations I have seen for it all over the web, and it didn’t disappoint me, although I feel it could have been better edited. Tyler has a nice diary style that seems intimate and friendly but is also quite sophisticated. The book is ostensibly about Tyler’s father, and how he experienced the trauma of war and was left with deep psychological scars, but the book ends before the climax, the terrible thing that left him scarred for life. At the same time, a lot of the book is about Tyler—her curiosity about her father’s experiences, her attempts to cope after her husband leaves her, her relationship with her teenage daughter. In the end, I felt the book was too much about her trying to get her father to talk and not enough about what happened to him. Still, that criticism aside, I really enjoyed the book. There aren’t too many comics about middle-aged women, and it was nice to read about something other than youthful rebellion and angst for a change.

Two Cents Plain is another memoir by a contemporary of Tyler’s, and it touches on the war in a different way. Martin Lemelman’s parents were Jews who lived through the Holocaust and met in a resettlement camp after the war. They moved to New York and eventually settled in the Brownsville area of Brooklyn, where they ran a candy store. Memoirs of growing up Jewish in New York used to be so numerous that they were practically a genre of their own, but mostly they were heartwarming and glossed over the bad stuff. Lemelman tells his story matter-of-factly, sparing no detail—his father’s drinking, his mother’s attempts to shield him from the evil eye, the cramped quarters they lived in behind the store, and eventually, the animosity that sprang up between them and their new neighbors, as the neighborhood changed and mutual acceptance turned into violence. Lemelman breaks the book into a series of vignettes, and his realistic style, peppered with photos of real documents and knickknacks from the store, brings this bygone era to life.

Kirby Krackle’s Jim Demonakos

B.P.R.D.

B.P.R.D.

Having been a fan of Hellboy for what seems like forever (I actually bought it when it first came out in… (wait while I check the always accurate Wikipedia), yes, confirmed as forever, 1994!), it’s been really great that more and more of Mike Mignola’s universe is being explored in the pages of B.P.R.D.

The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense’s history spans all the way back to 1944. The B.P.R.D. comics are cleverly presented and easily digestible in basically a monthly miniseries format, anything from one-shots to six issue arcs. In fact, there have now been more B.P.R.D. comics than Hellboy comics! What’s great is that, with Mignola at the helm co-writing most everything along with John Acrudi, the B.P.R.D. has created a massive story that both intertwines with Hellboy’s own story, but also lives on its own with fantastic stories and an array of characters who I’ve come to know and care about. Not to mention the fabulous art by Guy Davis, who has illustrated a majority of the stories.

I’ll also add that it’s been cool the last couple years that B.P.R.D. has explored the past history of the organization with it’s 1946 and 1947 miniseries’ (and soon to come, 1948), adding weight to the entire Hellboy mythos and enhancing the current comics at the same time! Great stuff!

King City

I love this book and I’m pretty thrilled it’s been coming out regularly from Image Comics lately, saving it from limbo. I first discovered this book as part of TokyoPop’s line of Original English Language graphic novels and was totally taken by it from the get-go. Sadly, there was only ever one volume and then TokyoPop folded its OEL business. Thankfully, there was an agreement made with Image Comics who started re-publishing King City as a monthly book, starting with all the material from the OEL and then transitioning to all-new material!

Enough history, back to the book. It was like Brandon Graham (the creator/writer/artist) took a bit of all the things I love like girls, monsters, hip hop, video games, comics (both US and foreign), food, aliens, anime and so much more and put them in a blender to make King City just for me. Everything about it screamed ‘awesome,’ from the main character Joe’s use of a cat as his main weapon (he gives the cat shots to make it do what he needs it to do) to brain thieves, sexy girls, secret organizations, weird puns and so much more.

The book really grips you from the get-go and has an overwhelming sense of ‘cool’ to it. Graham’s art is also very open, no extraneous lines, I wouldn’t insult it by calling it simple, but it’s very graphic and the double page spreads are filled with a ton of hidden gems.

I could go on and on, it’s a top-of-the-pile book for me and I highly recommend it! Also, check out Graham’s blog — it’s perpetually entertaining and full of cool art, what more do you want?

Kirby Krackle’s Kyle Stevens

The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead #17

When I was asked to contribute what books I’m reading, the first answer popped into my head, as it always does, was The Walking Dead.

It’s a book I’ve exposed many a new comic reader to and still years later, a series I must instantly read in the car after buying my books every Wednesday. Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard have done a beyond amazing job at taking the reader on a journey (next week #75 hits the stands) though the darkest and most tantalizing of human paranoia; what happens when life as you know it stops and you’re forced to pull your will to survive from a depth you never knew existed?

The black & white tone of a comic has never looked better in my opinion as it does in TWD, and month after month I find I care more and more about the characters that, as we’ve seen, can be wiped out without any time for regret. And really how can you when roamers could pop out of the bushes at any time? I can’t wait to see what the years ahead hold for this book, and you’d be hard pressed to find anyone more excited than me about the upcoming TWD TV series.

Our song “Zombie Apocalypse” was a direct tribute to our love for TWD, and should be a must read for any fan of comics in general. I only wish I had the luxury of discovering it again for a long rainy day of trade reading. If you’ve been holding out, do yourself a favor and do the same. Lucky bastards…

PunisherMax

It feels just like yesterday when I had to hide my Punisher War Journal books from my parents behind the dresser in the room I shared with my sister, and despite what my KK bandmate Jim will tell you… that wasn’t last week. I grew up on Frank Castle and his special brand of crazy, and like you all, have loved his recent runs with Ennis and Way behind the writers helm.

Recently though, I’ve been made a revived believer of vigilante justice thanks to the new run by Jason Aaron and Steve Dillon. Dillon’s thin-line style and amazing facial expressions on paper have always been something special to the world of The Punisher, but has bloomed into something completely different thanks to Aaron’s take on the origin of The Kingpin and especially Bullseye. He’s made the character somebody who is actually scary again (cringing at the thought of Colin Farrell with the forehead scar), and taken us into the mind of the the killer.

The scene in issue #8 where he “joins” a family like Castle’s to “live like Frank lives, and think like Frank thinks” is truly disturbing right up until the meet their predictable if not necessary end. I can’t wait to see where this book goes and how it keeps up the already high bar of pace and creativity I feel it’s reached to all of our benefit. For those looking to fall in love with justice again…check out PunisherMax.

“What is October’s RETURN OF THE BLACK LANTERNS?” asks DC’s The Source blog, and frankly, your guess is as good as ours. All we’ve got to go on is the accompanying David Finch image, featuring undead Black Lantern versions of Aquaman, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Martian Manhunter, Firestorm, and Deadman — six of the twelve characters who were granted full-fledged resurrections by the White Light at the end of Blackest Night and who are currently the protagonists of Brightest Day. Halloween’s as good an excuse as any to let their black light shine again…

Revolver by Matt Kindt

Happy Sunday and Happy Fourth of July, as we once again delve into what the Robot 6 crew are reading this week. Joining us as our special guest this week is Jeff Lemire, creator of Sweet Tooth, The Nobody, The Essex County Trilogy and Lost Dogs, and the writer of the Atom strip in Adventure Comics and the upcoming Superboy series.

To see what Jeff and the Robot 6 crew are reading, click below …

*****

Chris Mautner

Blackest Night

DC sent me a copy of the new hardcover collection of Blackest Night, so I finally got to see what all the fuss was about. Honestly, the best I can give it is a shrug of the shoulders and mere “eh.” It’s neither so awful to merit my scorn, nor good enough for me to endorse or recommend on any level.

The basic concept is sound. Killer even. Utilizing the basic “superheroes versus zombies” angle gives you the opportunity to offer a commentary on the nature of the industry to recycle and reuse their properties until they become bereft of all vitality and charm. On another level, you can examine what death actually means in a world where people with god-like powers can not only survive horrendous disasters but come back from the dead seemingly at will. What meaning or power would death hold in such a place? At the very least, you should be able to pen an entertaining, slam-bang horrorish thriller.

Sadly, Geoff Johns and company do none of the above. It’s just one gigantic set piece after another that never really gels into a collective whole. Part of the problem for me is that I really don’t care much for Ivan Reis and company’s art. To me it’s emblematic of the worst of that post-Image, post 90s style, all over-rendered musculature, gritted teeth and PhotoShop tricks. Their habit to constantly provide one enormous, densely packed splash page sequence after another really annoyed me as well. I understand that kind of momentism is what the kids crave these days (“Oh boy, here’s where all the DC heroes come to kick some zombie ass! Look, there’s Starfire in the far right corner! I wish I could buy a poster-sized version of this!”), but it severely interrupts the story’s flow and really doesn’t make for very good comics. It’s as though Reis is more concerned with making things look cool than with making things look good.

I didn’t have any trouble following the story, despite all the hardcore DCU references, nor was I put off by the “superhero decadence” scenes like Firestorm’s girlfriend turning into a pillar of salt — it’s part horror story. That stuff comes with the territory. And I did like how Johns opted to use second and third bananas like Mera and Atom to help save the day. There was something charming about that. Ultimately what really, truly bugged me was Johns constant need to remind us — in captions and dialogue — just how awesome all these second stringers were. Every other sentence uttered by the cast seems to be a love letter to Flash or Green Lantern. Did Johns forget about the “show don’t tell” rule? I felt was like I was constantly being elbowed in the ribs by Johns and Reis while trying to read as they shouted at the top of their lungs, “This is awesome isn’t it? Isn’t this awesome? This is so awesome!” No guys, it really wasn’t.

Tim O’Shea

Not to go borderline jingoistic on the Fourth of July (particularly for our international readers) but my favorite reads of this week involved Steve Rogers.

When I was a kid in the 1970s/1980s, Marvel captured my interest with the multiple super teams, The Champions, The Defenders and, of course, The Avengers. Ed Brubaker’s approach on the Secret Avengers (issue 2 came out this week) reminds me of the 1970s teams, with heroes you normally would not imagine teaming-up: Moon Knight with Valkyrie, for one example, or Beast and Sharon Carter. And I’m really happy to see how effectively Brubaker is utilizing Carter, after her using her too often (not always) as a plot device or prop during his Cap run.

Meanwhile in Captain America 607, it’s interesting to see how the Bucky and Steve Rogers dynamics are shaking out–as shown in this issue. Aw hell, who am I kidding–Steve Rogers is going around in one of Nick Fury/SHIELD’s flying cars! It’s panels like that which make me love comics.

Saving the best for last, Karl Kesel is writer, penciler and inker on Captain America: The 1940′s Newspaper Strip–originally developed for Marvel.com’s Digital Comics Unlimited Service. This is the first of three issues in a limited series. In an afterword of the first issue, Kesel wrote: “I’ve often wished I had been born 50 years earlier so I could have written and drawn an adventure strip, and I finally got my chance. I have to say: it’s the hardest, most satisfying job I’ve ever worked on. And I could do it for the rest of my life.” Good news, Kesel, I would read them as long as you were producing Cap tales.

Tom Bondurant

Well, you know already that I liked Wonder Woman #600 pretty well. Subsequently — and thanks to Amazon.com, ha ha — I read the first collection of Diana’s “Mod” period. These stories come from Denny O’Neil and Mike Sekowsky, with Dick Giordano’s inks distinguishing them from, say, Sekowsky’s JLA work. Basically they read like the comics equivalent of a late-’60s spy knockoff. Not nearly as bad as “The Girl From UNCLE,” but more like O’Neil and Sekowsky wanted to do Emma Peel and couldn’t decide how “serious” it should be. In fact, towards the end of the book Diana has already returned to Paradise Island to fight gods and monsters alongside her Amazon sisters — never mind that when the Amazons left our plane of reality a few issues earlier, they made it sound like they were never coming back. The rest of the book is similarly uneven, almost to the extent that it doesn’t connect at all to the familiar status quo. Still, I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the experiment, mostly to see how far afield it got.

Unknown Soldier #21

Both Madame Xanadu and Unknown Soldier had fine standalone issues this week; and both with guest artists, too (Marley Zarcone on MX, Rick Veitch on US). It’s already too late for Unknown Soldier, but perhaps it will do well enough in trades to warrant the occasional special issue or OGN. Madame Xanadu, however, has definite crossover appeal, especially with main-line superhero readers like myself who enjoy the occasional Phantom Stranger or Martian Manhunter guest-shot. The latest issue doesn’t have anything like that, but it’s still an excellent little fantasy/horror tale set in the early days of the Civil Rights movement. I really wish DC would promote the heck out of Madame Xanadu — it’s consistently among the best books in the publisher’s lineup.

Meanwhile, Action Comics #890 probably doesn’t need much more promotion, but if future issues are as good as this one, it too deserves to be one of the publisher’s top sellers. New writer Paul Cornell and returning artist Pete Woods bring us the continuing adventures of Lex Luthor, now busy trying to unlock the secrets of Oan-type power rings. By no means has Lex been driven to do good by his involvement in Blackest Night — instead, he’s in full-on megalomaniac mode, and that’s what makes the book so enticing. In a way, Lex’s quest for this particular knowledge makes him a good reader-identification character, because what semi-serious DC fan hasn’t wondered how the rings really work? (Notwithstanding Ganthet’s DIY sequence in Green Lantern Corps, that is.)

As far as phone-book collections go, I’m working my way through Brave and the Bold Batman Team-Ups Vol. 2 and Essential Captain America Vol. 4. Finally, while buying some short boxes (better for the aging back) at the comics shop today, I picked up the Muppet Show: Treasure Of Peg-Leg Wilson collection, and can’t wait to read it.

Sean T. Collins

Two anthologies and a lackluster manga for me this week. Click the links for reviews…

not simple by Natsume Ono: Ludicrous melodrama and coincidence mar this manga about a broken family.

Shitbeams on the Loose #2: Fun if not light-the-world-on-fire material from the altcomix edge.

Closed Caption Comics #8: A thrillingly dark and dirty anthology by the CCC collective.

Jeff Lemire

Atari Force #1

1. Atari Force: Gerry Conway and Jose Luis Garcia Lopez: Amazing art and some really fun Sci-fi concepts. This is a really overlooked gem from the 80′s that still holds up to other great team books of the day like The New Teen Titans and The Legion of Superheroes. I wish DC still owned the rights so I could pitch a revamp!

2. Tumor: Joshua Hale Fialkov and Noel Tuazon: A really great graphic novel in both concept and design and in it’s execution. Tuazon’s washy, loose art is a perfect fit for protagonist Frank Armstrong’s increasingly diluted state of mind. He has a brain tumor, but he has to finish on each case before he goes…great read!

3. Revolver: Matt Kindt: Matt’s debut Vertigo GN is awesome. His art has never looked better and the post-apocalyptic concept of a man caught between two world’s (literally) is perfectly explored with Matt’s trademark sense of cleverness, great characterization and amazing art. Also features the coolest page numbers EVER.

Blackest Night by Ivan Reis and Herogasm by Darick Robertson

Green Lantern and Garth Ennis are responsible for very different comics; bloggers Tom Spurgeon and Tim O’Neil are two very different writers. Yet in recent days, both have posted about how they’ve reached their limit with comics about/by the aforementioned individuals — for very different reasons. And they’ve written some thought-provoking things about that tipping point where you decide “You know what? This comic isn’t for me anymore” in the process.

First up is Spurgeon, who in linking to Charles Hatfield’s negative review of Geoff Johns’s Green Lantern-starring opus Blackest Night said he hasn’t even read the series yet, simply because he has no interest in ever reading a comic about Green Lantern again. Says Spurgeon:

I firmly believe I’ve read my lifetime’s allotment of Green Lantern stories the same way I’ve seen my lifetime’s allotment of Becker and sat through more than enough South Pacific and never again should have to listen to anything by Bon Jovi.

I’ve heard Spurge talk about other superhero characters in similar terms before. If I’m reading him correctly, it’s not that he read anything particularly noxious or stupid or off-putting, any more than he had a traumatic Becker experience — it’s just that he feels he reached the point where he’s gotten whatever there is he’s going to get out of the Green Lantern character and concept and feels no need to go back to the well for diminishing returns.

Tim O’Neil, on the other hand, hasn’t simply had his fill of Garth Ennis comics — he’s recently read one that filled him with such loathing for the writer’s approach that it’s made him question his enjoyment of nearly every Ennis book he’s ever read. The comic in question is Herogasm, the sequence that did the trick (which is reprinted at the link) involves a talkative prostitute who spills her life story only to have it thrown back in her face when the man with whom she’s chatting threatens to murder her, and O’Neil’s take on it is this:

I don’t know if I can put my finger on exactly why this one scene was the tipping point for me, all I can say is that as soon as I finished this comic I felt a strong urge to never read another Ennis comic again. It seemed gratuitous – more than merely, say, a villain being villainous to prove his villainy, it seemed like just one more example of really horrible people saying really horrible things to each other, humiliating other people for no reason other than to allow us, the paying audience, to watch the fireworks….His comics just seem mean to me now, and its the kind of petty, unjustified meanness that makes me want to rethink my engagement with all his work, not just the rapidly diminishing returns of his last few years.

So you ask why I don’t like Ennis? Ultimately, I’m not really looking for an engagement or critical discussion: I no longer believe his work merits serious thought. If you add up everything he’s done since around 2000 it doesn’t add up to one tiny fraction of the worth of his 90s work. It’s grotesque and hysterical and frankly repulsive.

It’s not a question of having read his lifetime allotment of Ennis’s mordant superhero parodies, it’s a question of having become so disgusted with them that what once seemed like strengths have become weaknesses in his eyes.

Whether through an outraged falling-out like O’Neil’s or a simple realization that we’re kinda tired of something like Spurgeon’s, we’ve probably all permanently dropped a comic, a character, or a creator we once got something out of. My question for you is, What was it, and what did it? Did you outgrow a superhero you once loved? Did you see an ugly side to a writer you once admired? Or on the flipside, did you read a story so good about a particular character or topic that you feel a definitive statement has been made and you need read no further? Hit the comments and let us know!

Brightest Day

Let me be clear right from the start: I don’t think that Dan DiDio, Geoff Johns, and assorted other DC functionaries had this week in mind whenever they decided to kick off a cycle of crossover-driven carnage which Blackest Night brought to a close. I don’t think they said to each other, back during George W. Bush’s first term, “we want a miniseries starring the Hawks, Aquaman and Mera, Captain Boomerang, Firestorm, and Black Adam Jr. We’ll bring Deadman back to life, and he’ll tie it all together. Oh, and we’ll bring Barry Allen back and launch his new book the same day.”

It’s a neat thought, though, isn’t it? Barry was the avatar of the Silver Age, and his new #1 drops the same week as the first issue of the you’d-think-it-would-be-peppy Brightest Day. They’re both written by DC’s new Chief Creative Officer, Geoff Johns (BD is co-written by Peter J. Tomasi). Heck, DC should’ve gone for broke and called April 14, 2010 the start of the Brightest Age. Some loose ends notwithstanding, I think we are done for a while with the annual Event That Changes Everything — and before I bury the lede too deeply, I’m not entirely sold on BD, but I liked Flash #1 a lot.

(SPOILERS FOLLOW for both books…)

* * *

Anyway. If this truly is the Brightest Age of DC Comics, I expect the publisher to be back in the business of telling stories, not massaging setups. Re-reading Infinite Crisis over the weekend makes me think this may actually be the case. Separated from its feeder series, Infinite Crisis is a frenzy of posturing and mechanics. I was amazed at how many elements it tried to pull together, and its character arcs had to compete with all the fighting, destruction, and changes of scenery. Comparing Infinite Crisis to the relatively compact Blackest Night sure shows how much Johns has grown as a writer — for one thing, it makes Blackest Night look downright subtle.

Nevertheless, like Blackest Night, one of Infinite Crisis’ priorities was to invite readers into a deeper exploration of the larger DC superhero line — or, in simpler terms, to get them to buy more DC comics. Infinite Crisis did this in two ways: first, by jumping all its regular titles ahead by one year; and second, by filling in that year with the weekly series 52. As I understood it, the idea was to disorient everyone, old hands and new readers alike, with a changed status quo that would take 52 weeks to explain. That worked well enough for 52, and not so much for the “One Year Later” books. Accordingly, Blackest Night’s follow-up, Brightest Day, makes things simpler: a dozen (mostly) familiar DC perennials each start from the same just-been-brought-back-to-life point.

Brightest Day #0 also reminded me a lot of 52 in that both had their loosely-connected characters trying to find their places in a subtly-changed world. Brightest Day doesn’t share 52’s devotion to structure, and most of its characters were Justice Leaguers, so it’s not as eclectic or as entry-level as 52 was. Instead, picking up practically from the last page of Blackest Night, and exploring some of its lingering plot points, BD aims to tell us why these twelve characters were brought back — and also, probably, will ask indirectly which of the twelve deserves a solo series.

Thankfully, also like 52, BD appears to be a story first and a marketing tool second. Because it’s still early, it’s hard to say how good of a story BD will be. Issue #0 was devoted to introductions and orientations, with the Barry Allen Flash, the Ray Palmer Atom, and a handful of Green Lanterns helping the former Deadman bring any new readers up to speed. As such, there were only hints of actual plots: Jade and Aquaman are reminded of their Black Lantern iterations, Max Lord attempts large-scale mind control, someone’s stolen Hawkman and Hawkgirl’s original bodies, and J’Onn J’Onzz and Osiris have plans for their homelands.

That means Brightest Day #0 is a mélange of character thumbnails so familiar they caused my mind to drift off on tangents surely unintended by the writers. For example, why is Captain Boomerang in the maximum-security Iron Heights prison if he’s just been brought back to life? Are there laws in the DC universe which reinstate any unserved portion of your sentence if you are lucky enough to be so revived? Shouldn’t Ron Raymond be older and/or more mature? And was it just a bit too clever to have that baby bird die so vividly right on the first page?

Some of BD’s problems also lie with its penciller, Fernando Pasarin. His work is mostly clear and easy to follow, but early on it is a bit confusing. An establishing shot of Aquaman and Mera’s lighthouse calls undue attention to the damage atop it, as opposed to orienting the reader to the appropriate indoor scene. A few pages later, a flashback image in the middle of a place-to-place transition almost makes it appear that Hawkman and Hawkgirl have themselves relocated to the Andes, when really the sequence intercuts between the Hawks in Louisiana and the Andean expedition.

Brightest Day #0 does get some things right. I think Johns and Tomasi have a decent handle on Aquaman and Mera, both clinging to each other as they try to make sense of their Blackest Night experiences. I liked the J’Onn J’Onzz sequence, although I did expect him to raise a giant clockwork mechanism out of the Martian desert. I am looking forward to some continuity-diving, both with the Hawks’ connection to the Star Sapphires and the source of Osiris’ powers. And after complaining last week that Hawk was too obscure, I thought he and Dove got a fine reintroduction this issue.

Finally, at the risk of going too obscure myself, I’ll compare Brightest Day #0 to the old Super-Team Family title. Once upon a time, it featured a storyline involving the Atom enlisting the help of various Justice Leaguers and other DC heroes as he chased his imperiled wife across the universe. It was a story which could easily have worked in the context of Justice League of America, but arguably it was too personal for a team-oriented title. Brightest Day has the potential to be more than either Blackest Night’s coda or a trial run for a new Hawkman or Aquaman series. I don’t think it will be the foundation upon which the Brightest Age is built, but it might not be too bad.

* * *

Flash: Secret Files and Origins

I am, however, considerably more optimistic about Johns’ and artist Francis Manapul’s tenure on The Flash vol. 3.* Much of this is due to Manapul’s work. He portrays super-speed very effectively, depicting Barry’s traditional afterimages clearly and directing the reader’s eye to each one skillfully, and otherwise using blurs, speed lines, and “lightning trails” to suggest super-fast motion. Even Manapul’s sketchy style suggests something so fast it doesn’t seem quite finished — but combined with Brian Buccellato’s colors … oh my goodness this is a great-looking comic book. (Manapul also throws a little artsy-panel layout, which makes me smile just thinking about it.) On Flash: Rebirth, Ethan Van Sciver drew Barry and company with such power that you could sense the Speed Force propelling them forward, but Manapul goes more for grace and the moments between eyeblinks.

And oh, right, Geoff Johns … well, he’s good here too. In the first few pages (previewed all over the place) he and Manapul set up the techno-deco Central City, introduce Barry’s wife Iris, and drop us in the middle of a high-speed car chase with the Trickster. Before the issue is over we’ve gotten a look at Barry’s job, at his relationship with Iris, at the infamous Rogues’ Gallery, and at his latest case — and that last looks like a real doozy, very much in the spirit of Barry’s original adventures.

Johns keeps Barry humble, of course, without much of the ego which drives Hal Jordan over in Green Lantern; but a bit of hero-worship still slips through. That sequence must depend on it being Take Your Child To Work Day,** because otherwise I can’t figure how else the Flash could have been in the right place to leave a youngster so starstruck.

I also have a nitpicky problem with Iris Allen’s age. I like that she and Barry both still look to be fairly youthful (late 30s, probably), but up to this point she’s been portrayed as older, at least in her 40s. Next to Wally she should look like his aunt, and next to Bart she should look like his grandmother — not Aunt-May-old, but not unreasonably young, either. Like I said, just a nitpick.

Flash #1 closes with the familiar preview page, only this time it’s two pages advertising 2011′s “Flashpoint” event, drawn by Andy Kubert and Paul Neary. I know I just spent the top of this post claiming that (to paraphrase Bill Clinton) the Era Of Big Events Was Over, and goodness knows it could morph into a Blackest Night-level thing in a year, but for now I imagine it’ll be a “Sinestro Corps”-style regular-series arc. Looks pretty good, though … probably set on Earth-3.

None of that dampens my enthusiasm for Flash #1. Back when Rebirth began I thought Johns would follow it with a series of self-contained storylines, like he did with Green Lantern, and that sure looks like what he’s doing. Most important, though, is the tone of freewheeling adventure which is key to any Flash series. Between Rebirth and Blackest Night, Barry has been a big player in the DC universe over the past year, but Johns doesn’t bog down Flash #1 with gratuitous references. He certainly could have — after all, it wouldn’t have been unreasonable to think that his readers would have read those other miniseries. Instead, he hits the character’s highlights: devoted wife, tech-y police job, and most importantly, runs real fast. This was an excellent first issue, and DC should keep it in mind for whatever comes after Brightest Day.

++++++++++++

* [To me, Vol. 1 combined Jay Garrick’s Flash Comics #s 1-104 and Barry Allen’s The Flash #105-350; Vol. 2 was Wally West’s Flash #s 1-247; and Bart Allen’s series was properly called The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive.]

** [The kid wears a “visitor” tag, which I didn’t notice upon first reading.]

Blackest Night #8

Blackest Night, written by Geoff Johns and pencilled by Ivan Reis, is the culmination of at least five years’ worth of Green Lantern storylines, not to mention elements from DC’s recent Big Events. It sets up several more storylines, both in the GL books and throughout DC’s superhero titles. It also lays out a new way to look at the very nature of life in the DC universe.

These are all elements of what I’ve called “process” stories: vehicles for taking characters from one basic setup to another, many times without much more depth than that. Process is a big part of Blackest Night — these rings work together thusly, these beings power the rings like so, etc. I haven’t had much use for process stories. Indeed, if BN were merely a process story, it would be an eminently appropriate way to cap DC’s perpetual-crossover period. One more cog in the four-color Rube Goldberg device.

Thankfully, Blackest Night aims higher — and that ambition saves it from the tedium of pure process. BN isn’t perfect by any means: it’s a gruesome spectacle of ripped-out hearts and (literal) emotional manipulation, Geoff Johns’ dialogue can be clunky, and Ivan Reis’ pencils are sometimes overwhelming. Ultimately, though, the miniseries is an engaging diversion with its own point of view, and I ended up liking it well enough.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

4

3

2

1

Blackest Night postulates that all of life is a rebellion against nothingness. If I had paid more attention in my humanities classes (or, probably, if I’d read more of Action Philosophers!), I could tell you more about that particular worldview. For our purposes, it’s enough to frame the conceit of an “emotional spectrum” whose most well-known aspect is the green energy of willpower. Like the Green Lantern rings themselves, BN’s premise is as simple or as complicated as it needs to be. The core Green Lantern concept is pure wish-fulfillment: you, plus the most powerful piece of jewelry in the known universe. No spending your personal fortune over years of training, no happy accidents involving chemicals and/or radiation, no being born into a fantastic civilization. Instead, the ring just falls out of the sky and picks its successor.

Similarly, Blackest Night is sometimes simple, sometimes not. Its plot isn’t terribly sophisticated, mostly involving the use of various combinations of emo-spectrum energy to dispatch the Black Lanterns. I would say it’s like a videogame, but I have a feeling that videogames are more complex these days. That’s not necessarily a criticism, either: Blackest Night appealed to me on a visceral level, inviting “audience participation” (of a sort) and/or armchair quarterbacking. Because BN was fairly easy to follow, and its premise wasn’t that hard to grasp, I’d say that helped endear it to readers. At least, that’s a big part of what I take away from all those Lantern Corps T-shirts and ring giveaways.

Consequently, readers may have been challenged more by BN’s esoteric, continuity-intensive aspects. I want to say that most of these (including a Krona reference, a Pariah cameo, and the surprise return of Driq, the original zombie GL) were sequestered in Green Lantern, whose readers might presumably have been more dedicated, and thus more hip to such things. However, BN proper spends a decent amount of space on Firestorm, Damage, and especially Mera, none of whom are arguably as familiar to casual fans as the Atom or J’Onn J’Onzz. As if that weren’t enough, the all-important four-page spread — a great, well-executed reveal, even if we all saw it coming — includes such luminaries as Osiris and the first Captain Boomerang. There is such a thing as too much foreshadowing, and I’m sure no one wanted to spoil the revivals which weren’t completely obvious, but still: a little more context couldn’t have hurt.

To be sure, I’m probably imagining more wet-behind-the-ears DC readers than are actually out there. Boomerang’s death was a big part of Identity Crisis (as was Sue Dibny’s at the hand of fellow JLA spouse and future Black Lantern Jean Loring), and Osiris’ death likewise figured prominently in 52. If you’d been following DC’s events over the years, you’d probably at least heard about those characters, and you might well have gotten some closure from their return.

(That said, Osiris may be A-list next to Hank “Hawk” Hall, who died as the time-themed villain Extant in the pages of one of Johns’ early JSA issues, over ten years ago — several years after Hank was shoved into being Monarch, another time-traveling villain. I wonder if the casual DC event-follower remembers all of that.)

Of course, DC wants you to be more excited than mere closure, since BN leads into Brightest Day and its affiliated titles. In that regard, BN does provide context for the future adventures of its featured characters, but it doesn’t feel unfinished. Once the heroes figure out how to destroy the Black Lanterns, the cathartic moments follow one another quickly (and often violently): John Stewart and Xanshi, the Atom and Jean, Kyle Rayner and the infamous refrigerator. I said before that BN was full of process, but I’m not sure that DC’s other events devoted quite as much to this sort of fanservice. Bringing characters back from the dead is one thing, but addressing character flaws which go back over twenty years is something else.

Earlier too I mentioned that Blackest Night has a very visceral appeal; and I would say more specifically that it is set up to keep both its characters and its readers reacting. The carnage in other big-event comics took place over days or even weeks, but BN pretty much lives up to its name, going from dusk to dawn in Coast City and elsewhere. There’s no time for the heroes to strategize, so the fact that the two big plot twists — “cross the streams” to destroy the Black Lanterns, and dogpile on Black Hand to take out Nekron — are gift-wrapped for the good guys. We never really find out why Dove is so effective and Alan Scott isn’t (although we might in Brightest Day), nor do we learn how one becomes a White Lantern (including why Boston Brand gets to keep his white ring). Again, it would work well as a multiplayer videogame, where all you have to do is fly around and shoot at whatever your differently-colored buddy is shooting.

For that reason I recommend reading the concurrent issues of Green Lantern alongside BN proper, because they offer more spectacle and a little more insight into Sinestro, Star Sapphire, and even Atrocitus. Sinestro reclaims leadership of his Corps from Mongul in GL #46, the stories of Xanshi and Driq are told in #49, and the big Spectre-vs.-Parallax fight (a callback to Green Lantern: Rebirth) happens in #s 50-51. Doug Mahnke’s pencils are also a good complement to Ivan Reis’s. The eight issues of Blackest Night hold together reasonably well, but the miniseries works much better with its parent title.

Readers looking for more insight into the characters might also be well-advised to check out the various ancillary miniseries like BN: Wonder Woman, BN: Flash, or Tales of the Corps — because all the mayhem in BN proper doesn’t leave much room for characterization. It’s almost like the characters are too busy reacting to react in unique ways. If I didn’t already read these books, I wouldn’t have much sense of GL, the Flash, or the Atom as characters, beyond what they tell each other about themselves. In fairness, the characters tend to be defined by their emotional affiliation; so when Hal makes his big “we chose to live!” speech at the end, it is very much in the mold of the willful James T. Kirk-type into which he’s developed. Since the white light of life has intruded on the dark matter personified by Nekron, I suppose the various Lantern Corps each reflect that spirit of assertiveness-slash-rebellion in their own ways — but Hal is our hero, so he gets to lead the charge. (His spirit of rebellion is probably more egalitarian than Sinestro’s, although the GL issues do show Sinestro in a halfway sympathetic light.)

Blackest Night’s biggest asset has to be penciller Ivan Reis, who I lauded back when issue #1 came out.  By and large he organizes the story well, although he has a little trouble keeping up with the super-speedsters and his crowd scenes don’t invite one’s eyes to linger upon them. He does quite well with figures and expressions, especially his lithe, wide-eyed Barry Allen. His Black Lanterns are suitably scary, even in those crowd scenes where their masses can overwhelm one’s gaze. The early issues’ moments of horror are also balanced nicely by issue #8′s understated reunions — and yes, I was moved not only by Aquaman and Mera, but also by Carter and Shiera (she was a pleasant surprise). What with all the Black Lanterns, the energy beams, and the morbid nighttime settings, I’m sure much of Blackest Night is meant to have a wearying sameness, but Reis and his inkers did a good job keeping things moving.

It’s not really fair to say that Blackest Night works best for those who bring the most to it, because that takes a lot of the storytelling burden off the people who are telling the story. Indeed, I’d say Geoff Johns was burdened significantly by his own reputation, both in the buildup to BN and in its execution. BN had been hyped since before the first issue of Final Crisis, and it had to satisfy those DC fans unsatisfied by 2008′s big event. However, with its promise of violent death, BN also risked alienating readers who might have gotten tired of DC going constantly for shock value. Thus, giving the Black Lanterns the ol’ rip-your-heart-out-and-show-it-to-you bit as their signature move was, on one level, pretty bold. (Granted, it might also have been pretty easy. I don’t know how many DC fans really get into such things.)

In the end I think most of us knew generally where Blackest Night was headed, but I for one didn’t expect it to speak so directly to the readers. I see Douglas Wolk’s point about BN being “profoundly reactionary,” but I don’t see DC going as far as he does. Outside of the characters killed in Blackest Night itself, DC didn’t 86 any of these folks just so it could bring them back here. It killed J’Onn and Aquaman and Captain Boomerang and Osiris and most of the rest for reasons arising out of their particular stories. Those reasons may have ranged from simple shock value to setting up a successor, but for the most part they had nothing to do with Blackest Night. Therefore, I doubt seriously that DC wants us to forget how or why Max Lord or Professor Zoom died. To do otherwise would make their deaths meaningless, and if there is one thing which DC appears not to want, it’s accusations of meaningless, capricious death. (It’s sure had enough of those in the past few years.) Put more bluntly, DC saw value in killing those characters, and now it sees value in bringing them back.

From that perspective, BN isn’t erasing the publisher’s mistakes as much as it’s creating new opportunities. (DC isn’t reviving all the martyrs, either — at least not yet — so Ted Kord won’t be reclaiming the Blue Beetle name anytime soon, and Ralph and Sue Dibny are still ghost detectives.) Blackest Night has also revealed a whole new Earth-centered aspect of DC cosmology, expanding Geoff Johns’ earnest conception of multicolored avatars across the range of human experience. Sure, much of it is setup for Brightest Day, Green Lantern, and the rest, but so far it comes across unobtrusively. On its face Blackest Night is a process story painted in lurid, emotional strokes — a zombie story made marginally more lively by Lantern Corps trappings. There’s no hard sell of the next big thing …

… because the next step is for those hypothetical new readers to explore DC’s superhero line on their own. Teases aside, Blackest Night #8 really did give me the sense that a page of DC history had been turned, and that readers were free to walk away if they wanted. Considering DC’s recent practices (especially relying on Final Crisis anticipation and 52 goodwill to sell Countdown), that’s a tremendous step in the right direction. Rather than selling plot twists or continuity tweaks, DC sold Geoff Johns, and apparently trusts readers to follow him into Blackest Day. That’s a pretty good strategy, I think: not only does it let him conclude Blackest Night satisfactorily, it lets him evangelize for DC’s superheroes, which clearly he loves, loves doing.  That love comes through pretty clearly in Blackest Night, and if you don’t run screaming from Johns’ emo-spectrum theories and differently-colored avatars, BN gives you a lot to ponder.  That sense of something deeper, something yet to be revealed, is what I think makes BN more than mere process; and the fact that Johns knows how much to dole out makes BN a tighter story.  The Gospel According To Geoff will no doubt be a vast, intricate work when it is fully realized, and it doesn’t need to be thrust upon an unsuspecting reader all at once.

Overall, then, I’d say Blackest Night was pretty successful. It used traditionally B- and C-list characters as headliners, it allowed readers to get in on the ground floor for a number of reintroductions, and it told a reasonably complete story. BN probably won’t be remembered for its piercing philosophical insights, and I’m not so sure the ideas behind the various Lantern Corps will become cornerstones of DC’s cosmology — but for once I think a Big DC Event has left the superhero line in a good place.

*****

So if you’ve read the last chapter in DC’s mega-popular Blackest Night crossover, you know that 12 once-dead characters are back again, thanks to the white light. And if you’ve been following the upcoming solicitations for titles like The Flash, Birds of Prey and Titans, you know that they’ve all been billed as “Brightest Day” titles without a lot of explanation as to what that means. I mean, sure, these titles all seem to have gotten makeovers or relaunches, but a more common thread connects all of them, which writer Geoff Johns revealed on DC’s the Source blog yesterday.

“Twelve heroes and villains were resurrected by the white light. Some will call it a miracle and others a sign of the apocalypse, and though the exact reasons for their rebirths is a mystery, it won’t be for long. They’re back ­ for a reason,” Johns said. “Although they all have their own journeys ahead, they are connected by something and their exact mission will unfold throughout BRIGHTEST DAY. But while the truth behind their return and their ultimate destination lies within the BRIGHTEST DAY series itself and GREEN LANTERN, there are other books where you can follow these recently returned heroes to find out what life has in store for them and what they have in store for life.”

Brightest Day

The 12 characters are Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Firestorm, Maxwell Lord, Captain Boomerang, Jade, the Reverse-Flash, Hawk, Osiris and Deadman. Click on over to the Source blog to see where else each of them can be found besides the Brightest Day series.

Darkness and light: Final Crisis hardcover by J.G. Jones; Blackest Night #8 variant by Doug Mahnke

Yesterday the eighth and final issue of Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis’s hit event comic Blackest Night came out, and DC has been celebrating its successful conclusion (how about that fold-out spread, huh???) in grand fashion. On Tuesday, DC’s official blog, The Source, hosted an open thread for fans to share their favorite Blackest Night moments and memories. Source blogger and PR guru Alex Segura posted a heartfelt encomium to the series, its spinoffs, and its creators once it wrapped on Wednesday. Today, editor Eddie Berganza contributed a eulogy of his own.

All well-deserved, as far as I’m concerned: Blackest Night clearly worked for its intended audience, myself included. A hook everyone could understand, a huge (and fun!) expansion of the Green Lantern mythos that convincingly roped in characters from the Flash to Lex Luthor to Hawk and Dove, rock-solid art from Ivan Reis, perhaps the most t-shirt-friendly concept in comics history…I had a hoot with this book and its parallel Green Lantern tie-ins as well, and judging from the uniformly positive fan feedback in the comments for Segura’s tribute, I’m far from alone.

But those same comments raise an interesting question: Do you recall seeing this kind of effusive praise and PR from the company when its last event comic, Final Crisis wrapped?

In a way, it’s an apples-to-oranges comparison: The Source didn’t exist when Final Crisis #7 came out in January 2009, so there really wasn’t an official channel for the company to utilize. Then there are the differences, quantitative and qualitative, between the series themselves. On a numbers level, though Final Crisis was DC’s biggest title at the time, it didn’t put up Blackest Night sales. Nor did its mostly indirect tie-ins thrive the way BN‘s more clearly linked spin-offs did. And even Final Crisis‘s biggest fans — you’ll find none bigger than me, by the way — admit that it’s an acquired taste, containing some of writer Grant Morrison’s most challenging and experimental superhero-comics work. Of course, for the book’s detractors — and again, check the comments for that Blackest Night tribute for more than a few — you can substitute “challenging” for “confusing” and “experimental” for “incoherent.”

All that being said, I think there’s still an observable difference in how the series were handled by the publisher. The clearest example is the way then-VP – Executive Editor Dan DiDio poked fun at Final Crisis during the 2009 New York Comic Con, DC’s first convention appearance after the series wrapped. Moreover, his promotion of the series in its waning weeks, during his last couple of Newsarama interviews prior to the final issue’s release, was minimal at best. And of course there was no Brightest Day-style linewide plan designed to capitalize on story threads from FC once it concluded — the closest DC came was the Final Crisis Aftermath minis, which launched months later. Linkrot makes searching the archives for the weekly DC Nation column that far back difficult, but a look at the January 2009 installments, including the DC Nation for the week Final Crisis #7 came out, reveals nary a mention of the book; indeed, the image in the January 28th, 2009 column is a teaser for…Blackest Night.

Again, you can chalk this up to many things — heck, I’d imagine some fans who thought Final Crisis wasn’t as good as Blackest Night would praise DC’s relative quiet about FC‘s conclusion as just a lack of BS. But as a person who enjoyed both events and a big fan of both their architects, Morrison and Johns, I just wanna see both series get the props they deserve.

Red Lanterns by Ryan Kelly

Artist Ryan Kelly shares four sketches he’s selling on his blog, featuring various Lanterns of various colors. He plans to use the money for travel expenses and to print a personal project he’s working on called Funrama.

Siege #2

Marvel’s Siege #2 sold 108,429 copies in February, according to ICv2.com’s latest sales estimates. Remarkably, that’s only 55 copies fewer than the first issue sold in January.

This means one of two things: Either this is the most amazingly rock-solid issue-to-issue performance of an event comic ever or, more likely, as chartwatcher Marc-Oliver Frisch points out, Diamond knocked 20 percent of Siege #1′s sales off its January chart to account for returnability. Either way, it seems the earlier hue and cry that Siege is some kind of flop need to be significantly dialed down.

Look, I have no idea what Marvel’s internal sales expectations for Siege were or are. I know that the “seven years in the making” hype creates the sense that this was supposed to be the blockbuster to end all blockbusters, and thus sales comfortably beneath those of a late-run Blackest Night issue give the impression of failure. But at the same time, Siege is way shorter than any of the other events Marvel has done in recent years, suggesting the company and creators had a different view of its structure and goal than, say, Secret Invasion. They also started promoting its follow-up, the line-wide “Heroic Age,” more or less concurrently with Siege itself, and in a way that pretty much assured readers of the outcome of the series — in other words, Siege has been treated as much as a means to the end of “The Heroic Age” as an end in itself. All in all, it comes across as a very different beast than Blackest Night does across town.

Meanwhile, Siege isn’t the only title with some mysterious sales-chart goings-on going on. Blackest Night #7′s 130,613 copies appears at first glance to represent an amazing 30-percent increase over Issue 6′s first-month sales of 100,651, and that’s pretty much how ICv2 reported it. But keep in mind Issue 6 was first sold during Diamond’s “skip week” between Christmas and New Year’s, meaning it actually shipped the week before it went on sale; retailers who failed to sign an embargo agreement received their copies the first week of January instead, and thus 35,344 copies’ worth of sales ended up showing up on the January charts rather than the December charts. Thus, Issue 7′s performance represents a drop of around 5,000 copies, not an increase of 30,000. Blackest Night is still the hottest thing in monthly comics these days by a long shot, but it’s not adding a third of its readership with its penultimate issue, any more than it lost a third of its readership in December.

Two caveats are necessary here. The first is that in evaluating the two series’ relative performance, I’m not making any qualitative judgments, pro or con, about their writing, their art, their core ideas, the way they stem from and lead into other storylines, and so on. Introduce that many variables into the equation and you’re talking about something very different than the simple notion of whether these books are performing to their publishers’ expectations. (For what it’s worth, I’ve got shelves full of books by both Brian Michael Bendis and Geoff Johns, and read a roughly equal number of comics from both publishers, and know and like and have collegial working relationships with tons of folks at both companies. I’m Switzerland, baby.)

The second caveat — as is probably evident from the way tens of thousands of sales for both books have mysterious disappeared and reappeared from the charts at one time or another — is that the sales charts for comics are astonishingly opaque. I’m not Marc-Oliver Frisch or Paul O’Brien or John Jackson Miller or Milton Griepp, so I’m probably about to get some of this wrong. But as far as I know, we’re really looking at sales from the publishers to the retailers, not the retailers to the customers, first of all. And we’re extrapolating specific sales from that weird Diamond index system, not actually being told by Diamond how many copies sold. And we’re only looking at the direct market, not all the other sales avenues available to publishers. And there are tons of hinky variables, like that skip week or returnability, that can skew the numbers in a way that isn’t always immediately apparent or disclosed. And you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a creator who will tell you just how wrong these estimated sales numbers that everyone bats around each month really are. And ultimately this kind of situation is much better for determining overall sales trends (given that all the built-in errors are, at least, probably consistent over time), not confidently calculating the month-to-month fates of individual titles. In short, in the absence of rock-solid, specific, total sales numbers backed up by a transparent methodology and provided by either Diamond or the publishers themselves, there’s a degree to which we’re all the blind men feeling the elephant. It’s just that in this case, the Siege elephant feels healthier than some doomsayers believed.

Blackest Night #7

Publishing | The penultimate issue of DC Comics’ Blackest Night miniseries led a weak February in the direct market, which saw comic-book sales slip 3 percent from the same month a year ago. Sales of graphic novels, on the other hand, actually rose 1 percent — the category’s first increase since March 2009 — which the retail news and analysis website ICv2.com notes is “somewhat remarkable given that over 12,000 copies of Watchmen were sold in February 2009, over 10 times the number sold in February of 2010.”

Blackest Night #7 sold more than 130,000 copies, followed at No. 2 by Marvel’s Siege #2, with about 108,400. They were the only titles to break 100,000 in February. ICv2 notes that sales of Blackest Night increased some 30 percent from the previous issue’s first month while those of Siege were virtually unchanged. That seems like an impressive performance for both titles.

The 13th volume of Vertigo’s Fables topped the graphic-novel chart with sales just shy of 12,000, followed by the Kick-Ass Premiere Hardcover with just over 9,000. [ICv2.com]

Wandering Son, Vol. 1

Publishing | Deb Aoki speaks with Gary Groth, president and co-publisher of Fantagraphics Books, about the company’s newly announced manga line. [About.com]

Publishing | Mark Siegel, editorial director of First Second Books, talks briefly about the publishing imprint’s moves into webcomics with his Sailor Twain, or, the Mermaid in the Hudson, Amir and Khalil’s Zahra’s Paradise, and Derek Kirk Kim’s Tune. [ICv2.com]

Publishing | Sarah Morean talks with cartoonist Box Brown about his experience with Kickstarter, the social-networking fundraiser site. [The Daily Cross Hatch]

Publishing | U.K. publisher Titan Books is searching for a senior acquisitions editor for “illustrated books in the art, comics reference and related categories, plus graphic novels.” [The Bookseller]

San Diego Convention Center

Conventions | Jennifer de Guzman, editor-in-chief of SLG Publishing, considers the “sometimes touchy” relationship between San Diego and Comic-Con International. [PW Comics Week]

Conventions | Rick Klaw reports on the comics-related elements of last weekend’s STAPLE! Independent Media Expo in Austin. [San Antonio Current]

Creators | Bob Minzesheimer profiles legendary cartoonist Jules Feiffer, who discusses his new memoir Backing Into Forward. [USA Today]

Creators | Writer Fred Van Lente (The Incredible Hercules, Marvel Zombies 5) has signed an exclusive agreement with Marvel. [Comics Alliance]

Red Robin #13

Creators | Fabian Nicieza will be the new regular writer of DC’s Red Robin beginning with June’s Issue 13. [The Source]

Creators | Caroline Small wraps up a two-part interview with cartoonist Nina Paley. [The Hooded Utilitarian]

Creators | Ryan K. Lindsay interviews Justin Greenwood, artist of the Oni Press series Resurrection. [The Weekly Crisis]

Creators | John Geddes spotlights Mark Rahner and Robert Horton, creators of the Western-horror series Rotten from Moonstone Books. [USA Today]

*****

Blackest Night #8