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

Green Lantern Corps #41

Publishing | Buoyed by its Blackest Night miniseries and tie-in books, DC Comics claimed the first six slots on Diamond Comic Distributors' Top 300 list of books sold to the direct market in October.

It's a rare occurrence, to be sure, but just how rare? Charts-watcher John Jackson Miller contends we have to travel back more than 40 years, to a time well before the direct market, to find when DC last had the six best-selling comics (as sold to retailers). Yes, 1968. The closest DC came in the direct-market era, according to Miller, was in April 1993, when the publisher held the top five positions.

But back to October 2009, when DC also narrowed the market gap with Marvel to the closest margin in some time: The competitors were separated by just 2.43 percent in unit share, and 2.68 percent in dollar share. [Diamond Comic Distributors, The Comics Chronicles]

Retailing | Borders Group announced Thursday it will close about 200 of its Waldenbooks, Borders Express and Borders Outlet stores in January. The retail chain has been steadily closing mall-based stores in its Waldenbooks Specialty Retail division since 2001. About 130 mall stores will remain once the downsizing is complete. [Publishers Weekly]

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Fall of the Hulks Alpha preview

from Fall of the Hulks Alpha

Marvel sent over some pages from their upcoming Fall of the Hulks storyline, which kicks off with an "Alpha" issue in December. You can see additional pages from it here (where you can also see the ad/homage to the original Fall of the Mutants ad that ran in various Marvel comics back in the 1980s).

The book is written by Jeff Parker with pencils by Paul Pelletier. The story revolves around the Leader, Mad Thinker, Egghead, M.O.D.O.K., Red Ghost and Doctor Doom putting their heads together to create some sort of battle plan that leads into the World War Hulks event. More details on that can be found here.

Check out additional pages after the jump ...

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

Marvel

Business | Marvel Entertainment's third-quarter profits plunged 60 percent because of a steep decline in film revenue and licensing sales for the period. The publishing division declined 6 percent, or $2 million, compared to the third quarter of 2008, which the company attributes to a drop in custom publishing offset by an increase in book-market revenue. [Bloomberg, Marvel.com]

Publishing | The list of nominees for the Young Adult Library Services Association's annual Great Graphic Novels for Teens is, as usual, diverse, with titles ranging from R. Crumb's The Book of Genesis Illustrated and Jamaica Dyer's Weird Fishes to Naoki Urasawa's Pluto and Mark Millar and Tommy Lee Edwards' 1985.

The nominations, divided into categories for fiction and nonfiction, are led by Marvel with 15 titles, DC Comics and its imprints with 13, Viz Media with 12 (but for 18 volumes), Dark Horse with eight and Del Rey and Yen Press with six each.

The final selections, chosen by an 11-person committee, will be presented in mid-January at the American Library Association's Midwinter Meeting in Boston. [YALSA]

Publishing | Marvel has hired Bon Alimagno, editorial director of Harris Publications, as its editorial talent coordinator, replacing Chris Allo, who left the company in September. [Bleeding Cool]

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Straight for the (horror) art | Alex Sheikman's Strangeways illustration

Part of an illustration by Alex Sheikman

For his one-a-day sketch series on his blog, Robotika creator Alex Sheikman drew a terrific illustration based on Strangeways, the Western-horror series by Matt Maxwell and Luis Guragna. The second graphic novel in the series, The Thirsty, is being serialized online right here at Robot 6.

To see the full illustration, visit Sheikman's blog.

Straight for the art | Steve Seeley's "The Creature"

Now here's a different kind of comic book art: In this case, the comic books are the canvas. Behold artist Steve Seeley's "The Creature," a series of paintings created atop multiple copies of UFO Flying Saucers #5, a Gold Key/Whitman comic from February 1975. (You can see the originals here and here.) Each painting reinterprets the original image, swapping its robot-alien creature for everything from monkey-octopus hybrids to the Easter Bunny. We've included a few of our faves above to give you an idea of what Seeley's up to, but there are 29 paintings in all dating back to 2004, so be sure to visit the full gallery at Seeley's site.

(Via Ryan "Agent M" Penagos.)

First look (I think) at the cover for American Vampire #1

American Vampire #1

Since Vertigo's announcement late Sunday there's been a lot of coverage in the comics and mainstream press about American Vampire, the upcoming monthly series whose first arc is co-written by none other than Stephen King.

But while we've seen several pieces of concept art by Rafael Albuquerque, I believe this is our first look at his cover for Issue 1, which debuts in March 2010. The art accompanies a brief Q&A in USA Today with writer Scott Snyder, who discusses the comic's development, King's involvement, and what he likes about Albuquerque's art.

Straight for the art | J. Bone's Great Pumpkin-inspired cartoons

The Great Pumpkin, by J. Bone

The talented J. Bone uses the holiday classic It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown as the springboard for a couple of hilarious and, of course, well-drawn gags. (Warning: In the second cartoon, Charlie Brown employs off-color language!)

Poor, poor Linus ...

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

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Libraries | In the wake of the recent firings of two Kentucky library employees -- circulation desk attendants, not librarians -- who refused to allow an 11-year-old to check out a copy of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the crew of Good Comics for Kids discusses who should decide what children may read. [Good Comics for Kids]

Publishing | Simon Jones questions why Japanese publisher launched its long-anticipated U.S. division with a reprint of the first volume of Ghost in the Shell that's flipped and missing pages that Dark Horse had restored: "What’s your master plan, Kodansha? Why was it necessary to take this license away from Dark Horse, if you’re not doing a different treatment of the book? It couldn’t have been because you felt Dark Horse wasn’t promoting the property, because I haven’t seen any marketing efforts from you.  I can’t even find your URL in this book." [Icarus Publishing]

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Preview: Sullivan's Sluggers by Smith and Stokoe

Sullivan's Sluggers

Back in July we first heard word that Amazing Joy Buzzards writer Mark Andrew Smith was working with Wonton Soup creator James Stokoe on a project called Sullivan's Sluggers. Smith was kind enough to send us over some additional preview art, along with a description of the series:

Here's a first look at "Sullivan's Sluggers" that I'm working on with James Stokoe.

Sullivan’s Sluggers follows a team of ex-professional baseball players who play farm league teams for cash so that the farm leaguers can say that they’ve played against the pros. Our team of players are called the Dragons, and they are under the leadership of coach Casey Sullivan, who is a disgraced ex-player who spends most of his time in a drunken state trying to forget his past.

Sullivan’s Sluggers get an invitation to play a game in a Texas town called Malice against the Malice Gladiators. Upon arriving in the town, the team notices that the town seems to be stuck in the ‘50s, and something about it seems very off to them.

Unknown to the Dragons, the town of Malice has a curse on it from its shameful history. After the sun goes down during the 7th inning stretch, the other team and the townsfolk turn into monsters with an appetite for human flesh, and they start ripping into and feeding off the Dragons.

The Dragons find themselves battling their way out using all the baseball skills at their disposal, such as fastball pitches, fighting their way out with baseball bats, and communicating with secret signals, as the team rallies to survive until morning.

Sullivan’s will be completed by the end of 2009. The book will be in color at 150 pages.

Thanks for checking out Sullivan’s Sluggers and I hope you enjoyed the small preview.

Check out the rest of the preview after the jump ...

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Straight for the art | Mobile Organism Designed Only for Kicking

M.O.D.O.K. by Jim Rugg

Artist Jim Rugg shares this fun commission he recently did of the classic Marvel Comics villain M.O.D.O.K. taking on several masked luchadores. I'm not sure how effective that chair shot is going to be ...

Straight for the art | Silvestri & Portacio's Philippines flood relief jam piece

Witchblade by Marc Silvestri & Wetworks' Dane by Whilce Portacio

Sure, Image co-founders Marc Silvestri and Whilce Portacio have teamed up in the past—most recently for the Robert Kirkman-penned mega-crossover Image United—but this is their noblest joint effort yet. The pair is auctioning off the above jam piece, starring Portacio's Wetworks character Drew and Silvestri's flagship heroine Witchblade, to raise money for flood relief in the Philippines.

The Southeast Asian nation was recently hit hard by back-to-back typhoons Ketsana and Parma, and the number of casualties and people left homeless by flooding is grim. But as reported by Comic Book Resources, the burgeoning Filipino comics scene—which includes such world-famous artists as Leinil Francis Yu, Francis Manapul, Philip Tan, and Carlo Pagulayan, plus a thriving national industry--is rallying to help raise much-needed funds for the victims. The effort has been led by Gerry Alanguilan, Yu's frequent inker and a writer-artist in his own right, and the Silvestri/Portacio jam is just one of several items that will be made available through benefit auctions on Alanguilan's eBay page. Go and bid, then check out Alanguilan's blog for photos of the live relief auction he helped conduct this weekend at Manila's Komikon 2009, plus more info on what else you can do to help.

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

Dragon Ball

Manga | Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball has been officially removed from Wicomico County schools in Maryland following a committee review of the popular series. The announcement was made Thursday by Superintendent John Fredericksen, slightly more than a week after a parent's complaint about depictions of nudity and sexual situations in the first volume triggered the school board to pull the manga from library shelves.

The committee also is reviewing the all-ages Dragon Ball Z; Dragon Ball is rated for teens. Both titles are published in North America by Viz Media. The Wicomico County Public Library announced last week that it is conducting an "internal reconsideration" of Dragon Ball, pulling the series from circulation while it decides where the manga should be shelved.

And in a timely post, Jason Thompson, author of Manga: The Complete Guide, addresses the Dragon Ball dust-up and other issues for io9.com. [WBOC.com]

Publishing | Random House imprint David Fickling Books will publish three collections of comics from its canceled U.K. comics anthology The DFC. The books -- Mezolith by Adam Brockbank and Ben Haggarty; Good Dog, Bad Dog by Dave Shelton; and Spider Moon by Kate Brown -- will be released in March, April and May 2010. [Booktrade, via Forbidden Planet International]

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

Iron Man #18

Creators | Tom Spurgeon has word from a former George Tuska spokesman that the longtime Iron Man artist has passed away. He was 93.

Tuska began his career in 1939 as an assistant on Scorchy Smith, and worked for the comic "packaging" studio owned by Will Eisner and Jerry Iger. He later drew for Fawcett and Quality, and then moved to Marvel in the 1960s, where he penciled such titles as Daredevil, Ghost Rider and The X-Men before beginning a decade-long run on Iron Man. Tuska left Marvel in the late 1970s for DC Comics and in 1978 helped launch a new Superman daily comic strip, on which he worked until 1993.

Tuska is survived by his wife of 61 years Dorothy, their three children and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. [The Comics Reporter, Tony Isabella]

Big Apple Comic Con

Conventions | As Big Apple Comic Con -- "the New York area's largest pop culture festival" -- opens, Variety and the Los Angeles Times spotlight the official launch today of GeekChicDaily, the new e-newsletter founded by Wizard Entertainment CEO Gareb Shamus, movie producer Peter Guber and digital entertainment entrepreneur Peter Levin.

Meanwhile, comics and TV writer Paul Cornell explains why he won't be attending the convention: "The guy who originally invited me was made redundant the day after he did so. Which doesn't fill one with confidence. But, sure enough, his boss was kind enough to honour the commitment. And there was some communication on that score. However, by the start of this week, I'd noticed that days were ticking by without any actual arrangements being made. So I finally said that if they'd already bought the air ticket, then of course I'd come, because I didn't want them to lose out financially because of me, but if they hadn't, then not to worry about it. Which resulted in... absolute silence. So when I say I'm not going to New York... well, that's my best guess as we speak."

Heidi MacDonald reported earlier this week that "several announced guests" hadn't received their travel arrangements, "and several others who were invited pulled out when such arrangements were not forthcoming." [Big Apple Comic Con]

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

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Legal | Anime producer and distributor Funimation Entertainment issued a Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown notice to the webhost of AnimesFree demanding that the fansub site remove more than 1,000 infringing episodes of more than 40 series. The site's administrator complied, and then complained about the company enforcing its copyrights: "AnimesFree.com will continue just as STRONGLY as it has been these past three months. Meeting everyone new on the website was great and I don’t intend for it to stop anytime soon. So we’re not going to quit just because of a few dozen series. There’s two things that you can do when a bully pushes you down. You either stay down and cower, or you stand back up and fight until you can’t walk anymore. There are just some things that the ‘Anime’ corporate giants will never understand about how people rely on online Anime communities." The commenters on the post aren't particularly sympathetic to the administrator's plight. [AnimesFree, via Deb Aoki]

Rich Hafstead

Retailing | Heidi MacDonald reports that Rich Hafstead, partner in the Jim Hanley's Universe chain in New York City, passed away Oct. 9. He had been semi-retired since suffering a heart attack in 2006. [The Beat]

Retailing | A 10-year-old girl is in a coma after she was trapped Tuesday under shelves that collapsed in a bookstore in Sapporo, Japan. The girl's 14-year-old sister also was injured. The store, Daily Books, sells secondhand manga and video games. [The Japan Times, The Mainichi Daily News]

Legal | In light of recent legal moves by the heirs of Jerry Siegel and Jack Kirby, Christopher Murray and Paul Iannicelli consider the termination provisions of the 1976 Copyright Act. [ Mondaq]

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Straight for the art | Cliff Chiang's Baltimore sketches

Zatanna and Batman

One of the fun things about comic conventions is checking out all the sketches that artists drew and post on their blogs afterward -- such as Cliff Chiang, who posts not only this Batman and Zatanna sketch, but others featuring the Doom Patrol, Power Girl and more. Go check'em out.