Red Sonja #0

• Writing for PW Comics Week, Chris Murphy looks at how DC Comics and Dynamite Entertainment have turned to discounted promotional issues to try to appeal to readers.

• Johanna Draper Carlson tries to figure out the thinking behind Tokyopop's formula, which ranges from the new $10.99 price point for standard-format manga to $14.99 for yaoi titles.

• Carlson also notices that Viz Media has standardized prices for its Shonen Jump and Shojo Beat imprints. Previously, the Shonen Jump titles were $7.99 while the Shojo Beat books were $8.99. Beginning in the fall, titles from both imprints will be $9.99.

• In response to a reader's question Absolute Death, writer Neil Gaiman admits he was surprised to see its $99.99 price tag, and explains some of the reasons behind it: "I'm a bit surprised -- I'd been told that it was going to be retailing for about $75, which with an Amazon discount would put it solidly into the area you suggest. But I also know there are a bunch of extra expenses that have turned up on this book, including having to reletter the whole of Death: The High Cost of Living, which weren't originally planned or budgeted for."

Flinch

• Wolfgang Bylsma, managing director of Australia-based Gestalt Publishing, emailed this morning to say that Diamond Comic Distributors canceled the anthology Flinch without notifying the publisher. He received the news from a retailer.

"I received an email from a retailer in Montreal asking why we were going ahead with the book launch when Diamond had canceled the distribution," Bylsma writes. "Local (Australian) retailers then confirmed for me that Diamond had informed them the title was canceled."

The 120-page Flinch features work by Shaun Tan (who illustrated the cover), Justin Randall, Terry Dowling, Ray Fawkes, Tom Taylor, Colin Wilson and others.

Update: Bylsma writes to say that retailers received an automated notification from the distributor, and that his Diamond representative apologized for the publisher not being directly informed of the cancellation.

"I hold no grudge against the rep who initially fought with us to get the book listed in the first place," Bylsma says. "It is the system and policies in place that appear deeply flawed. Ultimately it is Diamond as a company that are diminishing their own capacity to remain relevant in a shifting landscape, and if we can enable more people to become aware of the drawbacks of their new policies then all the better. I can appreciate that their business model needs to remain profitable, but having essentially cornered the market and then closing out diversity is no way to bolster the industry, and it must surely be evident that a weakened industry would only serve to damage their own longevity and ongoing profitability."

He notes that orders for the anthology would have Diamond's previous minimum level "quite comfortably." However, it "fell short of the new hurdle."

Bylsma is in talks with Haven Distributors to make Flinch available to retailers. Consumers will be able to purchase the book through Amazon. com and the Gestalt website.

• Cartoonist Ted Rall announced he's been laid off by United Media, where he had worked since 2006 as editor of acquisitions and development. During his time at the syndicate, he signed R Stevens, Keith Knight, Tak Toyoshima and Signe Wilkinson. (via The Daily Cartoonist)

• Steve Breen, who won this year's Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning, dedicates his award to his colleagues who have lost their jobs recently. "There've been so many," he tells Michael Cavna.

• Cartoonist Patrick O'Connor, who was laid off in January from the Los Angeles Daily News, is now providing illustrations for the op-ed page of the Los Angeles Times. (via The Daily Cartoonist)

• Chuck Rozanski, owner of Mile High Comics, responds at length to recent accusations on Examiner.com that the Colorado retail chain has "lost touch with comic fans."

Fox Atomic

• Variety reports that 20th Century Fox is closing Fox Atomic, the division created in 2007 to produce comedy and genre films.

The studio hasn't confirmed the move. However, the story is being reported independently by Nikki Finke. (Update: The Hollywood Reporter has word that about six production employees will be let go.)

The label, founded by Peter Rice, generated such movies as Turistas, 28 Weeks Later and the Hills Have Eyes 2. It also included a publishing arm called Fox Atomic Comics.

At WonderCon in February, BOOM! Studios announced a publishing deal with Fox Atomic for a line of comics set to kick off in June with another 28 Days Later series. It's unclear at this point how, or if, the shuttering of Fox Atomic would affect that agreement.

BOOM! declined to comment.

• Canned Dogs has translations of creator Satou Shuuhou's blog posts about the financial aspects of the manga industry, including a breakdown of his pay and expenses, the state of the Japanese market, and the treatment of authors and their assistants. Last week he announced he'll make his comics available online, for a small fee, a month after they appear in print.

• Warner Bros. and Marvel came in third and fourth on License! Global magazine's list of the 100 biggest licensing companies in 2008, behind perennial top dog Disney. Warner Bros. held steady at $6 billion from 2006 to 2008 while Marvel grew from $4.8 billion in 2006 to $5.5 billion in 2007 and $5.7 billion last year.

• Comics retailer Up Up & Away! in Cincinnati apparently is doing well, despite the dismal economy. "We're not just surviving, we're thriving," owner Kendall Swafford tells The Cincinnati Enquirer.

• Judge Parker, cut from The Washington Post's comics page in a recent round of belt-tightening, has won a reprieve thanks to the "intensity of feeling" among complaining readers.

Dark Avengers #3

• ICv2.com reports that direct-market sales of periodicals were down 7 percent in March when, for the first time since the site began tracking figures in March 2001, no comic sold more than 100,000 copies. The top comic, Marvel's Dark Avengers #3, sold an estimated 95,546 copies.

Aided by Watchmen sales, graphic novels rebounded from a February decline to post a 6 percent gain last month. The Alan Moore-Dave Gibbons collection was again the top graphic novel in March, selling an estimated 32,132 in comic shops.

Overall sales of comics and graphic novels dipped 5 percent for the first quarter of 2009 (compared to the first quarter of 2008), which ICv2 suggests isn't bad for a period described as "the worst retail environment in memory."

Top 300 Graphic Novels for March 2009
Top 300 Comic Books for March 2009

• Bookstore sales plunged 10.8 percent in February, to $1.02 billion.

• Image Comics has joined Diamond Comic Distributors' Final Order Cutoff program,which will allow retailers to adjust comic orders up to 20 days before the release date.

The program begins April 20 for titles shipping on May 13.

• Terry Moore announced he won't be publishing the Strangers in Paradise Omnibus this year because of financial concerns: "With the economy affecting all my business partners—shops and distributor—it’s just not the right time for an expensive collection, no matter how cool. Pick your moments, as they say. And although I have the book near completion, now is not a good time for my partners to try and commit to a $150 book. I’ll have to wait."

• Brett White, who until last week had been the news editor for Wizard's website, comments on his termination and the state of the company: "I was let go, which fills me with all sorts of emotion ... and a lot of free time. I got tons of great memories, lots of cool sketches and made some amazing friends. I've met some of the most genuine, honest, caring and talented people ever. And ... I spent a year watching them get harassed, fired, let go, belittled, annoyed, infuriated, etc. I will miss all of them, but I won't miss seeing them emotionally destroyed on a daily basis and I won't miss being one of them getting destroyed." (via Dirk Deppey)

• Richmond BizSense looks at how Richmond, Virginia, Brett Carreras retailer warehouses his inventory sales at his shop, online and at conventions.

• Michael Cavna examines which strips hold up -- in terms of legibility -- under the strain of the incredibly shinking comics page.

IDW Publishing

• ICv2.com takes note of IDW Publishing's rise in March to the No. 4 publisher in the direct market in terms of dollars and No. 3 in terms of units.

• Dark Horse has followed up on last fall's announcement of its participation in Diamond's "Final Order Cutoff" program beginning April 20.

The publisher's FOC dates will allow retailers to adjust orders on comics up to 20 days before their release, and on graphic novels up to about three months before.

"We are pleased to announce this move to the FOC,” Dark Horse President Mike Richardson said in a press release. “As every comics retailer knows, times are tough. It is important that Dark Horse not only support them with great product, but with our best efforts to make their ordering decisions as easy as possible. This system will help every retailer who orders Dark Horse product and should lead to better business for all of us."

• Retailer Christopher Butcher has more thoughts on the problems with The New York Times' Graphic Book Best Seller List.

• The Chicago Tribune looks at how the recession is driving people to sell their collections -- toys, records, comics, etc. -- for very little money. Shane Wallace of Graham Crackers Comics in Lincoln Park undoubtedly crushes the hopes of several collectors when he says, "We usually offer 5 to 10 cents an issue" for comics from the 1980s and '90s.

• Casey Seiler of the Times-Union in Albany, New York, discovered at Albany Comic-Con that his big box of comics was worth just $80.

The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born

• I wondered on Friday what was awry with The New York Times' weekly Graphic Books Best Seller List that could allow a two-year-old hardcover collection to rocket to the top one week and then completely disappear the next.

A few commenters suggested that Marvel offered remaindered copies of The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born at a deep discount to comic shops, accounting for the one-week spike (or glitch). Retailer Christopher Butcher essentially agreed with the explanation, and spelled out a few of the details. However, he went on to describe the Times' bestseller list as "broken" because it appears to treat direct-market orders (from Diamond Comic Distributors) the same as bookstore sales: "... Two largely incongruous sales systems are being merged – pretty badly it looks like – to generate a list that has books with little long-term sales spiking on release and never appearing again, and heavily prone to being thrown entirely out of whack by promotions, sales, discounting, and …  hell, just giving stuff away for free!"

• Starlog, the 33-year-old monthly magazine that covers science fiction and fantasy film and television, has announced it's ending as a print publication with April's Issue 374 -- at least for now. The website will continue.

The announcement refers only to a "temporary cessation" of the print magazine: "It is also at this time that we announce the temporary cessation of the current run of STARLOG as a print magazine. After 33 years, and considering the present state of the economy, we feel its time for a major revamp and will be temporarily discontinuing publication while the model and redesign of the magazine are contemplated and executed."

Mark Evanier points out that "temporary cessation" in the magazine industry typically means, "Cancelled, probably forever."

"I can't think of too many publications that ever left the newsstands and returned, at least under the same ownership," he writes.

• Mouse Guard creator David Petersen wonders how many comics readers actually pre-order titles rather than rely upon whatever is on the shelves at the local shop: "I bring this all up, not to complain or offer a solution, but to take notice that there are books being offered that are in danger of falling below Diamond's minimum that you readers may not even know about because they shop based on what their LCS ordered. I'm not suggesting that every comic buyer buy an issue of Previews or for shop owners to change their policies, I just saw a massive disconnect between creators/publishers who are marketing to readers who may not even know how or know the option is there to order books."

Prime Minister Taro Aso

• Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, an avowed otaku, is calling upon manga, anime, fashion and video games to help pull his country out of a recession. His new economic-stimulus package, unveiled Thursday, includes a provision for raising exports from the "content" sector to 18 percent from the current two percent. [The Independent, The Japan Times]

• Quebecor, the Montreal-based printing and communications company, announced it has reached "an agreement in principle" with its major creditors on a reorganization plan that will allow it to emerge from bankruptcy protection. [Publishers Weekly]

• Matt Blind considers the changing landscape as the industry moves away from "floppies" and toward books: "The current Local Comic Shop sells dust, nostalgia, and good will. And the occasional graphic novel. And the same 5 recurring titles to the same dozen people every Wednesday. 30 (40?) years ago the very idea of a ‘comics-only shop’ would have thrilled the fan base and set tongues wagging at all the local junior high schools; now, the comic shop is a caricature (or ultimate expression) of what it used to be and the jr. high kids are clogging the manga aisles at the bookstore next to the mall. ... Quick Check: If the kids aren’t trying to steal your merchandise then your long-term business is in trouble." [Rocket Bomber]

• Reader complaints move The Chronicle in Geneva, Illinois, to actually increase the size of its comics. [The Chronicle, via The Daily Cartoonist]

• Twilight haters take note: One in seven books sold in the first quarter of the year -- a whopping 16 percent of all book sales -- was written by Stephenie Meyer. Dark times, indeed. Dark ... yet sparkly. [USA Today, via GalleyCat]

The Mysterious Death of William Desmond Taylor

• Despite an earlier erroneous report elsewhere, Diamond Comic Distributors will carry Rick Geary's A Treasury of XXth Century Murder: Famous Players: The Mysterious Death of William Desmond Taylor, available in June from NBM Publishing. However, previous volumes of Geary's won't be available through Previews.

• Fantagraphics has struck a deal to distribute Esther Pearl Watson's Unlovable in 10 Urban Outfitters locations.

• Todd Allen continues his "direct-market apocalypse" scenario with a look at how graphic novels would fare.

• Percy Carey has some sharp words for comics publishers: "I thought about all of the comic book publishers who would rather go out of business than make some money. I’m not one to disrespect a few who decide to remain micropreneurs, but it feels like 90% of comic book publishers are afraid to allow their companies to grow, and refuse to think outside of their industry."

• The Daily Planet apparently is doing okay, even as its real-world counterparts go under. "Clark is on sabbatical," says DC Comics Executive Editor Dan DiDio. "Lois is picking up the slack we're happy to say. More importantly, as of right now, they're making a very good transition into the online business. But they still feel that newspapers are very healthy following Final Crisis. After Final Crisis, it showed that newsprint is still an essential form of communication."

Comic-Con memberships

• I'm not sure when it happened, but when I wasn't looking Saturday passes sold out for Comic-Con International. Four-day passes went the way of the dodo in mid-March; Friday passes are at 60 percent.

• Calvin Reid talks with Asylum Press Publisher Frank Forte about his efforts to sell Fearless Dawn #1 directly to retailers after failing to meet Diamond Comic Distributors' order minimum: "Some stores love the 60% discount and are willing to deal direct. But to be effective in self-distribution you have to be tenacious. You are dealing with a lot of walls. Stores don't want to deal with an extra invoice for 10 copies of a $2.95 comic."

• The Bookseller reports that U.K. comics anthology The DFC, which mailed its final issue last week, could return in some form next year -- thanks, in large part, to the growing sales of graphic novels.

• John Jackson Miller provides a brief overview of the "Dawn of the Diamond-Exclusive Era" of comics in the mid-1990s.

• Bookslut profiles Gabe Fowler of the year-old Desert Island in Brooklyn, N.Y., dwelling a bit on the economy: "I basically opened at the worst possible time, at the beginning of the so-called recession, so if I can survive now that's probably a good sign."

• Sean Kleefeld considers how to market comics in the 21st century.

• Alexander Hoffman offers tips on expanding your manga collection in lean economic times. (via Dirk Deppey)

Sgt. Frog, Vol. 17

• Heidi MacDonald reports that Rob Simpson, a senior editor in charge of Dark Horse's prose line, has been laid off.

• John Jakala notices that Tokyopop has raised its standard cover price from $9.99 to $10.99: "I'm assuming the price increase won't be accompanied by any additions to the manga volumes, like better paper stock or color inserts. It would be interesting if Tokyopop followed a page from DC's recent playbook and offset the price increase with backup features. Like DC, Tokyopop could use the price increase as an opportunity to publish fan favorites that don't sell well enough to justify individual publication. It'd be especially interesting if Tokyopop used such backups to complete the many OEL series stuck in publishing limbo."

• Hundreds of specialty shops unite for a day to promote a once-popular hobby now kept afloat by a dwindling audience of die-hard collectors: vinyl records. April 18 is Record Store Day.

• This article points out the distinction between comic-book collectors and comic-book investors. The "news," I suppose, is that there still are investors.

• Todd Allen looks at how web/digital comics make money.

• Amazon.com customers are boycotting digital books that cost more than $9.99.