Comic Book Resources

This weekend, it's Emerald City ComiCon

Emerald City ComiCon

Thousands of comics creators, celebrities and fans will descend on the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle on Saturday for the eighth annual Emerald City ComiCon.

The guest list is pretty impressive, with comic-book creators like Mike Allred, Laura Allred, Brian Azzarello, Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, Kurt Busiek, Jo Chen, Colleen Coover, Farel Dalrymple, Matt Fraction, Kieron Gillen, Brandon Graham, David Hahn, Phil Hester, Geoff Johns, Joe Kelly, Matt Kindt, Scott Kurtz, John Layman, Jeff Lemire, Corey Lewis, Steve Lieber, Rob Liefeld, Kevin Maguire, Alex Maleev, Sean Murphy, Ryan Ottley, Jeff Parker, Jason Pearson, Joe Quesada, Darick Robertson, James Robinson, Jim Rugg, Andy Runton, Tim Sale, Dave Stewart, Ben Templesmith, Jill Thompson, Jhonen Vasquez, Mark Waid, J.H. Williams III, G. Willow Wilson and -- well, it's a long list.

"Media guests" include the likes of Leonard Nimoy, Wil Wheaton, Stan Lee and Thomas Jane.

Doors are open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Siege probably isn't a bomb and Blackest Night probably isn't a phenom

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.

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Disney announces Destination D event, confirms date for next D23 Expo

Destination D: Disneyland '55

Disney officially announced today that its D23 Expo will be a biennial event, alternating years with Destination D, a smaller event exclusively for members of the D23 fan community.

News that the second D23 Expo won't be held until 2011 leaked out last week, but it wasn't known until today what, if anything, Disney had planned for this year.

The inaugural Destination D, with a theme of "Disneyland '55," will be held Sept. 24-25 in the Grand Ballroom of the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim. Presentations and screenings will center on the 55th anniversary of the theme park.

Disney also set Aug. 19-21, 2011, as the dates for the next D23 Expo, viewed as Comic-Con for Disney fans. Tickets go on sale Aug. 19, 2010. The debut event drew a reported 40,000 fans to Anaheim for presentations on Disney's film slates, appearances by stars like Johnny Depp and John Travolta, and displays by Disney divisions and licensees.

How many Wolverines is too many?

Paolo Rivera's homage to C.M. Coolidge, from "The Amazing Spider-Man" #590

Over the decades, the character may change -- The Punisher, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Deadpool -- but the question remains the same: Does a hero risk overexposure (and long-term damage) by appearing in too many titles?

Marvel Vice President-Executive Editor Tom Brevoort tackled that question this week after a reader asked for his "honest opinion" on the subject, and its possible relationship to the "waning sales" of Wolverine's titles.

"... This is one of those circumstances where art and commerce aren't always served to an equivalent degree," Brevoort wrote on his Marvel.com blog. "But my 'honest' opinion is that the only thing that really hurts characters over the long haul is bad stories. You point to waning sales on Wolverine, and yet all I see is a character who's still one of the driving forces of the marketplace. The reason Wolverine appears in so many titles is that people want to read about him. More people than want to read about Cyclops, or Iron Fist, or Millie the Model. The Direct Market is an extremely democratic entity -- if readers don't purchase a book, retailers won't order it and companies will stop making it. And the reverse is true as well -- if something sells and continues to sell well, we'll inevitably make more of it."

Will Brevoort and DiDio face off? U-Decide!

Siege #3 Deadpool Variant by J. Scott Campbell

Well, this oughta be to partisan DC and Marvel fans what a new Tim Burton movie is to people with Hot Topic gift cards. Outspoken Marvel Vice President-Executive Editor Tom Brevoort has asked fans to launch a write-in campaign to determine whether he'll hand a copy of the infamous Deadpool variant for Siege #3 -- the very book Marvel is offering to send retailers in exchange for copies of unsold Blackest Night "ring" tie-ins from DC -- to DC Co-Publisher Dan DiDio.

In a possible tip of the hat/tweak of the nose to the postcard-writing campaign DiDio launched to determine whether Wonder Woman would get a #600 anniversary issue, Brevoort says that if he gets 50 postcards telling him to give DiDio the variant, he will ... but if he first receives 50 postcards telling him not to, he won't. Brevoort later went even further, saying if he first gets 50 postcards telling him "to stop with all this stuff" -- presumably the chops-busting of DC that's become his trademark -- then that's what he'll do.

So what'll it be? To give, not to give, or to pipe down entirely? First to 50 wins!

Brevoort says the postcards (one per person, please) may be sent to his attention at Marvel, 417 Fifth Ave, New York, NY, 10016. Start licking those stamps!

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

Borders

Retailing | In what's been dubbed "Black Thursday," the financially troubled Borders Group announced last week that it's laying off 742 employees at its retail stores. Those follow the 136 layoffs, primarily from its corporate headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan, revealed last month. In the latest round of cuts, 679 are from Borders superstores, and 63 from Waldenbooks. Borders is the second-largest bookstore chain in the United States, after Barnves & Noble. [MLive.com, via The Big Money]

Publishing | North American manga and anime distributor Media Blasters began a round of cutbacks on Friday that will lead to layoffs or furloughs for 13 employees, primarily from the print and accounting departments. The New York City-based company reportedly had less than 50 employees for the cuts. [Anime News Network]

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

Anaheim Convention Center

Conventions | Using next month's Wizard World Anaheim Comic Con as a hook, Michael Volpe looks at how the city is becoming a "fan festival hub" as it attempts to add Comic-Con International to a convention schedule that includes BlizzCon and The D23 Expo.

“It’s something of an accident,” said Mindy Abel, senior vice president of convention sales for the Anaheim/Orange County Visitor and Convention Bureau. “Our focus is getting trade groups and corporate events that will bring out-of-town guests, but those same amenities are very attractive to public promoters and consumer events.”

According to the article, the Wizard convention is expected to attract 30,000 attendees -- "small potatoes compared to the San Diego event." [Orange County Business Journal]

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Disney's D23 Expo to return in 2011, not this year

D23 Expo

Following Disney's inaugural D23 Expo in September, many wondered what the next installment might look like now that Marvel is part of the House of Mouse. It turns out we'll have to wait another year to find out.

Geoff Boucher reports that Disney plans to stage the D23 Expo as a biennial event, which means the second convention won't be held until sometime in 2011.

"I'm not sure when this decision was made or how the expo was viewed in the new regime at Disney," Boucher writes on The Los Angeles Times' Hero Complex blog, "but I'll try to find out."

Last year's event, held in Anaheim, featured presentations on Disney's upcoming film slate and appearances by several stars, booths by BOOM! Studios and other licensees, displays for Disney divisions like ABC and Pixar, and more. As JK Parkin noted in his coverage for Robot 6, attendance for the first two days -- a Thursday and Friday -- was light, but picked up considerably on the weekend.

Incarnate creator Nick Simmons responds to plagiarism allegations

From Tite Kubo's "Bleach" (left) and Nick Simmons' "Incarnate"

Incarnate creator Nick Simmons has responded to widespread accusations that he plagiarized Bleach and other popular manga, saying that "certain similarities" were "simply meant as an homage to artists I respect."

Radical Publishing last week stopped production on the collection of Simmons' three-issue miniseries amid growing claims he had copied panel compositions, character designs, dialogue and plot elements from eight manga, including One Piece, Hellsing, Vampire Hunter D and Bleach.

In a statement issued by Simmons' representative and posted on Comics Worth Reading, the 21-year-old artist said: “Like most artists I am inspired by work I admire. There are certain similarities between some of my work and the work of others. This was simply meant as an homage to artists I respect, and I definitely want to apologize to any Manga fans or fellow Manga artists who feel I went too far. My inspirations reflect the fact that certain fundamental imagery is common to all Manga. This is the nature of the medium. I am a big fan of Bleach, as well as other Manga titles. And I am certainly sorry if anyone was offended or upset by what they perceive to be the similarity between my work and the work of artists that I admire and who inspire me.”

A representative for Radical Publishing verified the statement comes from Simmons, son of KISS frontman and reality-TV star Gene Simmons.

Incarnate debuted in August with heavy promotional support from Radical and A&E TV, the network that airs Gene Simmons' Family Jewels. The comic is showcased on the show's webpage and sold through its online store.

The plagiarism allegations emerged early last week, igniting discussions -- and art comparisons -- on countless blogs, message boards and fan sites, with a Facebook group going so far as to call for legal action against Simmons. However, when alerted to the accusations via Twitter, Bleach creator Tite Kubo seemed more amused than anything: "I'm more interested in the fact that Gene Simmons' son is a mangaka than whether he's plagiarizing me or not."

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

Superman

Legal | In what could be a prelude to a courtroom battle with the heirs of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel, Jeff Trexler reports that Warner Bros. has replaced its outside counsel with superstar attorney Daniel Petrocelli.

A partner in the Los Angeles law firm O'Melveny and Myers, Petrocelli is best known for representing Fred Goldman, father of murder victim Ronald Goldman, in a wrongful-death lawsuit against O.J. Simpson. Petrocelli also successfully defended The Walt Disney Co. in a lengthy battle over merchandising royalties from Winnie-the-Pooh.

The Siegel family, of course, has its own superstar attorney: intellectual-property lawyer Marc Toberoff, who also represents the children of Jack Kirby in their bid to reclaim their father's copyrights to characters he created for Marvel. [Blog@Newsarama]

Legal | A proposed amendment to Tokyo's regional laws designed to ban the sale of loli material to minors uses such vague and sweeping language that the effects could be far-reaching. [Sankaku Complex, Icarus Publishing]

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Detective Comics #27 sells for more than $1 million, sets new record

Detective Comics #27

A copy of Detective Comics #27, which marks the debut of Batman, sold at auction today for more than $1 million, barely breaking a record set just three days ago by Action Comics #1.

The Associated Press reports the Certified Guaranty Company-graded 8.0 issue, sold by Heritage Auction Galleries on behalf of an anonymous party, was purchased for $1,075,500. Earlier estimates had the May 1939 issue selling for $100,000. However, as CBGExtra notes, bids had already reached $400,000 by the time the auction opened.

Before this week, the record for the most expensive comic book was $317,000, set in 2009 by a copy of Action Comics #1.

Ten years ago today, NeilAlien invented comics blogging

A very happy 10th blogiversary to the illustrious NeilAlien! As noted by Tom Spurgeon, today marks an astonishing decade of comics blogging from the Internet's premier fan of Doctor Strange.

The pseudonymous NeilAlien is a ruthlessly efficient linkblogger, an unfailingly cogent and provocative thinkblogger in his all-too-rare longer posts, and a tireless advocate for not just the (former, alas) Sorcerer Supreme, but for all the comics he loves and all the comics bloggers, critics and journalists whose work he appreciates. He invented what we do long before the idea of blogging about comics -- hell, long before the idea of blogging -- was even a twinkle in most of our eyes. Hail the Alien!

PS: Definitely check out Spurge's salute to NeilAlien, a list of 21 things he likes about Doctor Strange.

Straight for the art | March MODOK Madness preparing for another go

MODOK

March winds bring ... MODOK! Yes, with March almost here, it means it's also almost time for March MODOK Madness! The MMM blog is about to unleash everyone's favorite giant-headed bad guy with a month of MODOK artwork. Head over there to check out last year's pieces, as well as to find out how you can contribute.

Legion fans want their plastic promotional flight rings

Legion of Super-Heroes #1

After the release of seven plastic promotional rings for Blackest Night and the announcement of three more for Brightest Day, some fans are hoping DC Comics will show the Legion of Super-Heroes a little love.

It seems only logical that a Legion flight ring should come next. After all, the Green Lantern Corps, the Flash Family and the teenagers from the future form a sprawling trinity of functional superhero jewelry. Plus, Legion of Super-Heroes is being relaunched with legendary series writer Paul Levitz at the helm.

But just in case DC needs a little convincing, fans have organized a grass-roots postcard campaign reminiscent of the one launched in September to return Wonder Woman to its original numbering. (Of course, that one originated with the publisher, not with readers.)

Blogger Sven Straatveit points out that DC already has a flight-ring mold -- a ring was released with DC Direct action figures of Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl -- so the company won't have to shell out money for design or sculpting. Sound reasoning, that.

So how about it, DC?

Radical halts Nick Simmons' Incarnate amid claims of plagiarism [Updated]

From Tite Kubo's "Bleach" (left) and Nick Simmons' "Incarnate"

Radical Publishing has stopped production of its comic Incarnate while it investigates growing accusations that creator Nick Simmons plagiarized Bleach and other popular manga series.

The allegations against Simmons, son of KISS frontman and reality-TV star Gene Simmons, emerged at the beginning of the week on the GameFAQ forum before gaining steam Wednesday on fan sites and LiveJournal. The latter link presents perhaps the best visual support for the Bleach claims.

The Wikipedia entry for Nick Simmons now includes a section detailing "Accusations of Plagiarism" that lists eight manga -- the insanely popular Hellsing, One Piece and Vampire Hunter D, among them -- and an amateur artist from DeviantART. There are assertions that, in addition to panel compositions, character designs and poses, Simmons lifted dialogue and "plot segments" from other works. A group calling for legal action against the 21-year-old Simmons has begun on Facebook, where some members have declared today "Bleach Protection Day."

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