Comic Book Resources

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

Wolverine: Old Man Logan

Publishing | Comic sales to the direct market fell 14 percent in October, versus the same month a year ago, resulting in the biggest decline since May. Sales of the Top 100 graphic novels plummeted 30 percent -- again due to the brisk sales of Watchmen last fall -- combining for an overall decline of 17 percent.

As we reported last week, DC Comics had the top six bestselling comics for the first time in four decades, with the fourth issue of its event miniseries Blackest Night coming in at No. 1 with an estimated 137,169 copies. Marvel's Wolverine: Old Man Logan hardcover collection topped the graphic novel chart with an estimated 7,347 copies.

The retailer-focused news and analysis site ICv2.com notes that Marvel's $3.99 titles continue to slip, with the third issues of Ultimate Comics Avengers and Ultimate Comics Spider-Man each shedding about 5,000 copies from the previous issue. Of course, they weren't the only ones to slide: 19 of the top 25 comics saw drop-offs in what the website describes as "a bearish month." [ICv2.com]

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

American Booksellers Association

Retailing | The American Booksellers Association has asked the Department of Justice to investigate the online price war being waged by Wal-Mart, Amazon and Target. The trade group says that by selling advance-order hardcovers at deep discounts the three retail giants are engaging in "illegal predatory pricing" and making it impossible for smaller stores to compete.

Ron Catapano of Ron's Comic World in Mount Holly, New Jersey, asserts that direct-market retailers face a similar scenario: "I hope the comic publishers are paying attention. When the Watchmen movie came out and Amazon was selling the Watchmen trade paperback for less than I could get the book from Diamond Comic Distributors (including shipping cost), I complained and nobody cared. For most discounters, these books are not a significant part of their business, they are just something to make a few extra dollars on." [ICv2.com]

ChuChu

Publishing | Japanese publishing giant Shogakukan plans to close three of its magazines, including the shojo manga monthly ChuChu. The magazine debuted in December 2005 with a print run of 180,000, but more recently sales have hovered around 50,000 copies. [Anime News Network]

Libraries | The New Jersey State Library has awarded $3,000 grants to 14 libraries to help them establish and expand graphic-novel collections. The State Library also conducted workshops about developing collections, and furnished librarians with "a core graphic novel bibliography" to help them with their purchases. [NJ.com]

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

Dragon Ball

Manga | Wicomico County schools in Maryland removed all copies of Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball from library shelves Wednesday after the mother of a fourth-grader complained about the nudity and sexual situations depicted in the first volume of the hit series. The manga, which sports an "All Ages" a T+ rating, is published in North America by Viz Media.

A committee of administrators and "people from outside the school system" will review books, but the schools superintendent will make the final decision on the fate of the series. At a Tuesday meeting of the County Council, one councilman distributed photocopies of scenes from Dragon Ball, describing some of the illustrations as "disgusting." [The Daily Times, The Daily Times]

Legal | An amended agreement between Google and the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers is expected to be filed by Friday to address concerns raised by the Google Book Search settlement. DC Comics is among the parties that object to the terms of the original deal, designed to resolve a 2005 lawsuit accusing the Internet giant of infringing on copyrights by digitizing out-of-print books without permission. [Publishers Weekly]

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You call it Diamond's 'skip week,' but they declare it Indy Comic Book Week

Indy Comic Book Week

A group of creators hopes to take advantage of Diamond's "skip week" -- the fifth week of December, when the distributor won't be shipping books -- by declaring it Indy Comic Book Week.

Describing it as "not only an event, but also a call to action," organizers hope to utilize Dec. 30 to promote independent comics to retailers.

"What some would call a sad week without our favorite mainstream titles, we are calling an opportunity," the website states. "This vacancy allows independent and small press comic book creators to claim this week as their own. We challenge writers and artists to self publish new material for this week, and offer it to their local stores. We ask for retailers to take this as an opportunity to showcase local independent talent on the new release shelves. We encourage fans to break from their buying habits and try something new."

The site provides details on how creators and retailers can participate -- five stores have signed on so far -- and offers resource and links for printing and promoting comics. There's also a production blog.

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

Disney and Marvel

Retailing | Could Disney's planned $4-billion purchase of Marvel signal the return comic books to the mass market? "I see the Marvel acquisition by Disney helping to expand the genre of comic books and remove it from the dusty basement of the world," says direct-market retailer Creswell. "I do see Disney stepping in and offering retailers outside of the direct comic book market incentives for selling Marvel products," Creswell said. [Reuters]

Publishing | Long-struggling e-book site Wowio reportedly has informed publishers that payments for the second quarter of 2008 will be made by Nov. 15. Wowio, which was purchased last year by Platinum Studios, was sold in July to a holding company formed by Platinum President and COO Brian Altounian. [Bleeding Cool]

Long Beach Comic Con

Conventions | The inaugural Long Beach Comic Con kicks off today at the Long Beach Convention Center in California. Guests include Berkeley Breathed, Stan Lee, Tim Bradstreet, J. Scott Campbell, Amanda Conner, Geoff Johns, Dave Johnson, Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld, Scott Lobdell, Dustin Nguyen, Darick Robertson and Mark Waid. The Long Beach Post and Gazettes Town-News have previews. [Long Beach Comic Con]

Events | 24-Hour Comics Day will be held Saturday at locations around the world. [24-Hour Comics Day]

Conventions | Heidi MacDonald posts her Small Press Expo round-up/wrap-up/photo parade. [The Beat]

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

Blackest Night #2

Publishing | Direct-market comics sales grew in August for the third consecutive month, thanks to price increases. According to ICv2.com estimates, piece sales actually declined 1 percent from August 2008. Sales of the Top 100 graphic novels fell 16 percent, largely due to the performance of Watchmen, whose numbers sky-rocketed around this time last year.

Events and crossovers again dominated the top of the comics chart, led by DC's Blackest Night #2 with about 146,000 copies -- slipping just 18 percent from the miniseries' debut. Marvel's relaunched Ultimate Comics imprint premiered fairly strong, with Ultimate Comics Avengers #1 charting at No. 5 (95,000), followed by Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1 at No. 11 (86,000).

The 10th volume of Image Comics' The Walking Dead led the graphic-novel chart with more than 15,000 copies, followed by Vertigo's Fables, Vol. 12, with more than 12,000. [ICv2.com]

Business | Tom Spurgeon presents his lengthy, and well-worth-reading, thoughts on Disney's proposed purchase of Marvel and the restructuring of Warner Bros./DC Entertainment, how we process and report those two major industry events, and even who might be offered the job of publisher of DC Comics. Rich Johnston, meanwhile, lays out odds on that last part. [The Comics Reporter, Bleeding Cool]

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

All-American Mickey

Business | Ted Anthony takes an interesting approach to the proposed purchase of Marvel by Disney, viewing the merger as a wedding of "two of the dominant sets of myths that inform modern America."

"It's almost as if, decades ago, they made these decisions about America," says historian John Baick. "And one decided that America stops in the 1950s and the other decides that America plunges into a dark, chaotic future." [The Associated Press]

Business | Disney reportedly is in talks with Indian publisher Vimanika Comics to develop some of its characters, based on Hindu mythology, to television and film. [Times Online]

Business | Matt Maxwell wonders whether the Warner Bros./DC Entertainment restructuring could lead the company to buy Diamond Comic Distributors before its option runs out in 2011. [Comics Waiting Room]

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Not everybody is sad to see Paul Levitz go

Paul Levitz

If you were under the impression virtually everyone is sorry to see Paul Levitz step down as president and publisher of DC Comics, that's only because Dirk Deppey was busy sharpening his stake.

"It should have happened long ago, of course, but better late than never," Deppey writes this morning on Journalista! "While he’s managed to rack up a few genuine and admirable accomplishments during his time with DC Comics (not least being his early support for Phil Seuling and the Direct Market), one has to ask: How many initiatives has Levitz botched over the years? From the serial alienation of the company’s most profitable writer, Alan Moore, to the unholy debacle that was Minx — one of the many, many publishing lines created under his oversight that were badly conceived, badly executed, badly managed and badly promoted from start to finish — Levitz has in recent years presided over what can only be described as one of the most embarrassing periods in DC Comics’ corporate history."

And Deppey's only getting started. From there he spends another half-dozen paragraphs pointing out several decisions by, or under, Levitz that he believes damaged DC and the comics industry (including the publisher's exclusive deal with Diamond Comic Distributors).

Even if you don't share Deppey's views, his post is still worth reading as an alternate perspective on Levitz's tenure.

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

Marvel

Legal | A Marvel Entertainment shareholder last week sued to block Disney's announced $4-billion purchase of the company. Christine Vlatos claims Marvel's board of directors failed to conduct an appropriate sales process, and that the proposed transaction "does not appear to adequately value Marvel’s shares." However, one expert says plaintiffs rarely win this kind of lawsuit. Meanwhile, Shareholders Foundation Inc. is trolling for Marvel investors to become party to a class-action lawsuit.

In  related news, papers filed Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission reveal the agreement with Disney includes a hefty termination fee: Although Marvel has agreed not to pursue other offers, if it were to stop the merger to pursue a "superior deal," it would have to pay Disney $140 million. [Bloomberg]

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It's a big week for space adventure and Ultimate Comics, ultimately

As the title indicates, two themes emerge from the comics arriving this week: space opera and Marvel's Ultimate Ultimate Comics line. That is, if you can consider a publishing imprint a "theme."

Space opera is delivered in the form of DC Comics' relaunched Adventure Comics (co-starring Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes), the second issue of Blackest Night (with two tie-ins), Starstruck #1, Star Trek: Nero and the Universal War One -- Revelations hardcover.

As for the Ultimate line: Wednesday sees the debut issues of the relaunched Ultimate Comics Avengers and Ultimate Comics Spider-Man, plus hardcover collections of Ultimate Fantastic Four and Ultimate X-Men.

Beyond that? How about the much-discussed The Big Kahn? Or, if the stars, and Diamond, align, The Marvels Project #1? Maybe? Fingers crossed?

To see what other releases have Chris Mautner, JK Parkin and me talking, just keep reading. And, as always, let us know your picks in the comments below.

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Transportation glitch leads to delay of some comics to West Coast stores

Diamond Comic Distributors

Retailers who receive their comics from Diamond's Los Angeles distribution center found themselves short as many as 16 titles this week.

An email to store owners attributes the problem to "transportation delays," and gives Aug. 12 as the new ship date.

The books range from Marvel's Agents of Atlas #9 and Dynamite Entertainment's The Boys #33 to DC Comics' Final Crisis Aftermath: Run! #4 and Image Comics' Pax Romana trade paperback. However, Marvel takes the brunt of the blow, with 12 of the 16 affected titles.

In the email, Diamond assures retailers that, "Additional extras for many of these products will be available for a longer period of time to allow for any damage and shortage replacements of these late arrivals."

The full list of delayed titles can be found after the break:

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This week, there's pulpy goodness, Golden-Age zaniness -- and Comic-Con

For thousands of people, tomorrow is Comic-Con Day 0, or Preview Night. But for the rest of us, it's still just New Comics Day.

Okay, not "just" -- that makes it sound as if it's somehow second best; it's certainly not. This is a really good week for comics, the crime genre in particular.

The list is led by Darwyn Cooke's much-anticipated, and already highly praised, adaptation of Donald Westlake's Parker: The Hunter. That's followed by the fourth volume of Naoki Urasawa's Pluto, Jamie S. Rich and Joelle Jones' You Have Killed Me, and the $1 100 Bullets #1 Vertigo Crime Sampler.

If crime or mystery isn't your thing, there's plenty more to recommend, from the Golden-Age weirdness of Fletcher Hanks in You Shall Die By Your Own Evil Creation to the Golden-Age reimagining of Project Superpowers: Chapter Two to the modern-day superheroics in the milestone Amazing Spider-Man #600.

Somewhere in between you'll find the return of Roman Dirge's Lenore, the long-awaited finale of Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds and an adaptation of Fahrenheit 451.

To see what other titles Chris Mautner, JK Parkin and I think are worth a second look, just keep reading. And, as always, let us know your picks in the comments below.

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Jenny Christopher joins BOOM! as sales director

Jenny Christopher

BOOM! Studios formally announced today that Jenny Christopher, a former purchasing brand manager with Diamond Comic Distributors, has joined the company as sales director. Chip Mosher, who was filling the role of sales and marketing director, will focus on marketing (and writing press releases like the one after the jump).

This follows the announcement from earlier this week where BOOM! announced they'd be working with Simon & Schuster and HarperCollinsCanada for mass market distribution. Christopher will oversee those relationships, as well as their newsstand distribution deal with Kable.

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This week, androids dream of resurrected superheroes

We may be skidding headlong toward Comic-Con, but publishers aren't holding back on their releases.

This week sees the debut of DC's much anticipated summer event Blackest Night, hefty collections of Preacher, Dan Dare, Captain Britain and IDW's first decade, plus the debuts of the Doctor Who monthly, The Last Resort and the adaptation of Phillip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

On top of that, we get a few relaunches in the form of Peter David's Fallen Angel, Alex Sheikman's Robotika and the horror anthology Creepy.

Whew. How's anyone supposed to have money left for San Diego?

To see what titles Chris Mautner, JK Parkin and I think deserve a second look, just keep reading. And, as always, be sure to leave your picks on the comments below.

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