comic books
Comics A.M. | Graphic novel sales actually stronger than they look?
Flex Mentallo: Man of Muscle Mystery Deluxe Edition
Retailing | The retail news and analysis site ICv2 contends sales of graphic novels in the direct market may be better than recent numbers indicate because of the way Diamond Comic Distributors reports those figures. While the distributor’s calculations are based on the wholesale value of shipments, ICv2 based its estimates on the retail value, and found graphic novel sales rose 24.4 percent in March, rather than declined 5.7 percent (versus a year ago), and climbed 27.7 percent in April, rather than just 12.6 percent: “The big differences between the wholesale and retail rates of change in recent months appear to be caused by big increases in the number of graphic novels liquidated through Diamond in March and April. So retail dollars were up, while wholesale dollars lagged. ” [ICv2]
Conventions | Audrey Gillan previews this weekend’s Kapow! in London by casting a spotlight on organizers Lucy and Sarah Unwin — they’re partnered with Mark Millar — and their efforts to create a female-inclusive comic convention. “We ourselves as women organising the show have been accused of misogyny because of the obviously male guest list, but there is just this lack of female creators and it’s the nature of the industry,” Lucy Unwin said. “There’s no point in taking it to heart because I don’t employ the creators. I would love there to be more women at the show in terms of guests.” [The Guardian]
- May 15, 2012 @ 06:55 AM by Brigid Alverson and JK Parkin
Cartoonist Christine Larsen debuts short story collection
In the serialized onslaught of stories appearing each week in your local comic shop and on your digital devices, the cozy yet potent power of short comics is often overlooked. But cartoonist Christine Larsen is pulling together stories she’s created for various anthologies into one place for her own short story collection, titled aptly enough, Short Stories. The collection will debut at Wizard World: Philadelphia at the end of this month, and the artist plans to then offer them online at her webstore.
Larsen is probably best known for the online comic Valentine she created with Alex de Campi, and she’s also contributed stories to Ape Entertainment’s Shrek and Kung Fu Panda series. Her work is a really inventive menagerie of styles that reminds me of an impressionistic Doug Wildey of Jonny Quest fame. I see her name pop up in anthologies, and I’m glad to see there will be a solid place to catch more of her work.
Larsen’s shared some preview pages of Short Stories on her website, which we’ve included below:
- May 14, 2012 @ 11:00 AM by Chris Arrant
Comics A.M. | Florida comic store raided, owner arrested
Spice
Crime | Michael Lewis, owner of Rocket Comics in Pensacola, Florida, is being held on a $11,000 bond after his store was raided by police for allegedly selling “Spice,” a synthetic form of cannabis. [WEAR ABC]
Publishing | The Economist’s Babbage blog takes a look at R. Stevens’ successful Kickstarter for his webcomic Diesel Sweeties, which raised $60,000, far overshooting his initial goal of $3,000. [The Economist]
Creators | Gary Groth previews his interview with renowned children’s author and illustrator Maurice Sendak, who passed away last week at age 83. The interview, conducted in October, is scheduled to appear in the next issue of The Comics Journal. [TCJ.com]
- May 14, 2012 @ 06:55 AM by Brigid Alverson and JK Parkin
What Are You Reading? with Ryan Ferrier
Hell Yeah #3
Happy Mother’s Day and welcome to another edition of What Are You Reading? Today our special guest is Ryan Ferrier, who I spoke to a couple of weeks ago about his comic Tiger Lawyer and recently kicked off an Indie GoGo project to fund the second issue.
To see what Ryan and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below.
- May 13, 2012 @ 01:00 PM by JK Parkin
The Fifth Color | Comic books can never die
What if this... was it?
I had a dream last night that comic books were dead. It wasn’t a bullet or a ray gun that killed them; it was just economics and a general shift of popular culture. The bottom dropped out of the New 52 and DC couldn’t regain lost readers. Marvel moved out to Los Angeles, and their publishing arm waned after relentless budget cuts and eventually dwindled down to nothing. Robert Kirkman had a huge lawsuit over rights and appropriations, and he left to go work on movies and television, taking a lot of young hopefuls with him. Popular titles got sold off like police auctions, and creators left comics for the greener and more lucrative pastures of other media. Less comics came out every week, leaving comic shops to stock up on action figures or Magic cards, eventually phasing out their back issue stock and relegating comics to a small corner of the store. Eventually, comics just disappeared entirely.
After the massive, colossal hit that is Marvel’s The Avengers, there’s a lot of buzz in the air about what comes next. What will be the next property to hit the big screen? Will it tie into the new movie continuity? Will Joss direct the next Avengers installment? Even on my way into the theater for the midnight showing of the Avengers movie, I had friends trying to tell me what the next “obvious” sequel was going to be. With as much success as Marvel Studios has seen this year and others, the doors are wide open for all sorts of properties to find fresh new life in a whole new medium. But none of this brave new frontier of pop culture seems to really involve the actual comics medium. So let’s talk about it.
- May 11, 2012 @ 04:55 PM by Carla Hoffman
First look at J.H. Williams’ cover for Batwoman #12
On his blog, J.H. Williams III unveils his stunning cover for August’s Batwoman #12, complete with the promise of an appearance by Wonder Woman, and walks us through his process.
“I felt it important for the image to work from a design idea properly, the logo had to become a part of the art directly, to play up the mirror effect as needed,” he writes, “so I embedded it into the final in a way that there is no other version. You’ll note I digitally did a mirror effect for Batwoman rather than draw that in by hand. I felt it best to handle it that way because of the Bloody Mary part is so bold. I think it would’ve been extremely problematic to have tried drawing Batwoman mixed with Blood Mary and then be able to have multiple effects in the final color. This allowed me to keep the style used for Bloody Mary independent from everything else. So the last digital additions, the use of a background setting, and the pop color of the inset stars and star panel against the surreal quality of the idea, helped to make this cover unique from previous Batwoman covers I’ve done. So that’s good, I’m always wanting the covers to do new things.”
All of Williams’ covers are beautiful, but with the one for Batwoman #12, he definitely raises the bar. Check out the full cover below, and visit Williams’ blog to see more of his process.
- May 11, 2012 @ 12:00 PM by Kevin Melrose
Quote of the day | Stan Lee on character ownership, creator rights
“I’ve never been one of these people who worries about [that]. I should have been. I’d be wealthy now, if I had been. I always felt the publisher was the guy investing all his money, and I was working for the publisher, and whatever I did belonged to him. That was the way it was. And I was always treated well, I got a good salary. I was not a businessman. Now, a guy like Bob Kane, who did Batman — the minute he did Batman, he said, ‘I wanna own it,’ and signed a contract with DC. So he became reasonably wealthy. He was the only one who was smart enough to do that. [...] I haven’t had reason to think about it that much. I think, if somebody creates something, and it becomes highly successful, whoever is reaping the rewards should let the person [who] created it share in it, certainly. But so much of it is — it goes beyond creating. A lot of people put something together, and nobody really knows who created it, they’re just working on it, y’know? But little by little, the artists and the writers now are a different breed than they were, and most of them, if they create anything new, they insist that they be part owners of it. Because they know what happened to Siegel and Shuster, and to me, and to people like that. I don’t think it’s a problem anymore. They make much more money than they used to make, when I was there. Proportionately. Everybody thought that I was the only one that was getting paid off, but I never received any royalties from the characters. I made a good living, because I was the editor, the art director, and the head writer. So I got a nice salary. That was all I got. I was a salaried guy. But it was a good salary. And I was happy.”
– Stan Lee, in a wonderful profile at Grantland, responding to a question about character ownership
- May 11, 2012 @ 08:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | Batman #1 fetches record $850,000 in private sale
Batman #1
Comics | A near-mint copy of 1940′s Batman #1, which marks the first appearances of the Joker and Catwoman, sold this week for $850,000 — a record for that issue — in a private transaction arranged by Heritage Auctions. The seller purchased the comic just two years ago for $315,000. [CNN]
Publishing | Cory Casoni is leaving his position as director of marketing for Oni Press for a position with NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc. as the head of marketing for ShiftyLook comics. Thomas Shimmin and Amber LaPraim, who joined Oni earlier this year, are taking joint positions as marketing coordinators. [press release]
Creators | Alison Bechdel discusses her family, her psyche, and the challenges of drawing a memoir that’s set in therapy sessions: “I watched all the episodes of “In Treatment” at one point, to see how they managed to make two people sitting in a room so very dramatic. And it was basically just good writing and good acting. So that gave me the hope that I could pull this story off without adding a car chase or an explosion. Though there is a kind of a car chase, now that I think of it, when a Sunbeam bread truck almost runs me off the road. My story also goes in and out of other texts — movies, psychoanalytic papers, children’s books — which creates some more overt visual excitement. And I use a dream to begin each chapter. I know you’re not supposed to write about your dreams, but the dreams have a dramatic sweep that everyday life doesn’t.” [The New York Times]
- May 11, 2012 @ 07:15 AM by Brigid Alverson and JK Parkin
Grumpy Old Fan | The man who made the Darknight Detective
We may never know what happened to that hapless thug's hat
All the recent talk of creator credits has reminded me of Bill Finger and Bob Kane. Throughout the character’s history, Kane has been listed officially as Batman’s sole creator, even though many comics fans, historians, and professionals recognize Finger’s indelible contributions. Kane’s singular credit comes from his own negotiations for the sale of Batman to what is now DC Comics, and it continues to this day. In fact, the most recent trailer for The Dark Knight Rises — which as usual flashes “Batman created by Bob Kane,” or something like it, in the brief glimpse of credits — reminded me that Kane had help.
Indeed, the circumstances of Batman’s creation, sale, and subsequent treatment may even comprise one of superhero comics’ great ironies. Batman is a tremendously elastic character, able to accommodate an incredible range of interpretations. Perhaps none of that would have been possible if Kane hadn’t sold the character … but he wouldn’t be the Batman we know today if Kane hadn’t listened to Bill Finger.
* * *
- May 10, 2012 @ 03:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
See Elvis at the Pearly Gates — at rest or in motion
As I mentioned in my roundup of Free Comic Book Day comics, the Graphic Elvis preview from Liquid Comics was one of the more striking selections of the day, in particular because of Stan Lee’s Elvis tribute comic, illustrated by Jeevan J. Kang, which shows The King reaching the Pearly Gates. It’s a slimmed-down, pre-Vegas version of Elvis, who humbly falls into line with everyone else, amazing them with his lack of pushiness. “I wouldn’t expect him to be treated just like us,” says one man, who obviously hasn’t read his Gospels. And Elvis is almost turned away, but — no, I won’t spoil it, because now you can read the whole Graphic Elvis FCBD comic on Issu.
- May 10, 2012 @ 08:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Comics A.M. | Remembering Maurice Sendak; IDW’s digital sales
Where the Wild Things Are?
Passings | The Comics Journal collects tributes to Maurice Sendak, the legendary children’s book author and illustrator who passed away Tuesday at age 83. Philip Nel, director of Kansas State University’s Program in Children’s Literature, also writes an obituary for the influential creator of Where the Wild Things Are. [TCJ.com]
Publishing | In an interview with the retail news and analysis site ICv2, IDW Publishing President and CEO Ted Adams says that while digital sales are at 10 percent of print sales, both are going up: “There’s just no question at this point that selling comics digitally is definitively not impacting [print] comic book sales. If anything you could make the argument that the success of digital is driving more print comic book sales. The correlation at this point is that increased digital has resulted in increased print. Whether or not that is a direct correlation, I don’t know how you would figure that out. I can say with no uncertainty that our increased digital revenue has come at a time when we’ve had increased comic book sales.” [ICv2]
- May 10, 2012 @ 06:55 AM by Brigid Alverson and JK Parkin
Nominees announced for 2012 Joe Shuster Awards
The nominees were announced today for the eighth annual Joe Shuster Awards, which recognize the achievements of Canadian comics creators. Jeff Lemire leads this year’s list, with nominations in four categories.
The awards are named in honor of Toronto-born artist Joe Shuster, co-creator of Superman. The winners will be presented Sept. 15 during a ceremony held in conjunction with Montreal Comic Con. The nominees are:
Artist/art team
• Chris Bachalo — Age of X: Alpha #1, Avengers #13, #15, Wolverine and the X-Men 1-3, X-Men 7-10 (Marvel Comics)
• Marc Delafontaine — Les Nombrils, Tome 5: Un Couple D’enfer (Delcourt)
• Stuart Immonen — Fear Itself #1-7, “Queen, King, Off-Suit“/X-Men: To Serve and Protect #4 (Marvel Comics), “Say You’re Dead“/Outlaw Territory, Vol. 2 (Image)
• Fred Jourdain — Le Dragon Bleu / The Blue Dragon (Éditions Alto/Ex Machina/House of Anansi Press)
• Jeff Lemire — Jonah Hex #69 (DC Comics), “A Coffin for Mrs. Bishell”/ Outlaw Territory, Vol. 2 (Image)
• Yanick Paquette and Nathan Fairbairn (with Michel Lacombe) — Swamp Thing #1-3, Batman Incorporated #3, #5 (DC Comics)
• Cameron Stewart — “Chapter 1: The School of Night“/Batman Incorporated: Leviathan Strikes! #1 (DC Comics), Suicide Girls #1-4 (IDW Publishing)
- May 9, 2012 @ 12:00 PM by Kevin Melrose
Introducing SpyGal, the first … pore-zapping action hero?
Marvel’s custom-publishing division has teamed with San Francisco-based Benefit Cosmetics to create SpyGal, billed as the “first-ever beauty-inspired comic book hero.” What does “beauty-inspired” mean? In this case, it’s that SpyGal, and her “wise-cracking, pore-zapping persona,” is based on Benefit’s POREfessional pore-minimizing primer.
Yeah, I don’t know what to do with that either, but it’s tough to pass up a SpyGal comic — “She’s smooth! She’s sexy! She’s your secret weapon against pores!” — by Phil Noto and James Asmus, available beginning this month at Benefit counters. Come on, it’s Phil Noto!
“SpyGal is a dynamic, nuanced hero for a new generation,” Marvel’s John Dokes said in a statement, “and combining that with the unparalleled storytelling of Marvel brings fans one of the most unique comics they’ll read all year.”
Check out the sneak peek, and full press release, below.
- May 9, 2012 @ 11:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Dark Horse offers FCBD titles as free digital downloads
If you missed out on Dark Horse’s Free Comic Book Day releases, the publisher is making all four stories available digitally through the end of the month — for free, naturally — via its Dark Horse Digital store and app for Android and iOS devices.
That’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer/The Guild, by Andrew Chambliss and Georges Jeanty, and Felicia Day and Jonathan Case, and Star Wars, by Zack Whedon and Davidé Fabbri, and Serenity, by Whedon and Fabio Moon. Dark Horse’s 2011 FCBD title, Baltimore/Criminal Macabre, is also still available.
- May 9, 2012 @ 09:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | The Avengers, comics and the evolution of storytelling
The Avengers #1
Comics | With the success of The Avengers film, Kendall Whitehouse discusses the narrative techniques comics have “explored and exploited,” including “multi-issue story arcs, crossovers, team-ups, reboots and multiple title tie-ins,” noting they not only help sell more comics but also have blazed the trail for complex stories: “The story has now become a world unto its own that allows the reader to explore whichever dimensions are of the greatest interest. Follow the events from the perspective of Iron Man or Thor. Or just peruse the core series and ignore the supplementary story elements. The series presents a nearly unbounded narrative universe for the reader to experience. It is easy to interpret this with a cynical eye as nothing more than a series of cheap marketing tactics designed to pump sales. And yet, when well executed, something larger emerges.” [Knowledge@Wharton Today]
Retailing | Saturday’s Free Comic Book Day also served as the grand opening for Aw Yeah Comics, a store in Skokie, Illinois, owned (as the name suggests) by Tiny Titans creators Art Baltazar and Franco Aureliani and retail veteran Marc Hammond. [Skokie Review, Time Out Chicago]
- May 8, 2012 @ 06:55 AM by Brigid Alverson and JK Parkin