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Comics A.M. | Borders gets more time for sale; Bud Plant to retire
Borders
Retailing | A federal bankruptcy judge has granted Borders Group permission to loosen the terms of its $505-million bankruptcy loan, giving the bookseller more time to line up a buyer and avoid the immediate liquidation of 40 more outlets. The book chain, which has closed 237 of its 642 stores, will file a proposal on July 1 to sell itself at a court-approved auction to a guaranteed buyer — most likely, the Los Angeles-based Gores Group. The private-equity firm has a plan that would save about 250 of the remaining Borders locations by transforming them into “more appealing destinations” similar to the Apple Store chain. [Bloomberg]
Retailing | Bud Plant, one of the initial direct-market distributors who, at one time, operated the largest chain of comic stores in the United States, has announced his retirement. In a letter to his mailing list, Plant said he is looking to find a buyer for Bud’s Art Books, his mail-order/online retail business. [The Comics Reporter]
Retailing | Jetpack Comics in Rochester, New Hampshire, has put out the call for area residents to participate in a photo shoot for retailer-specific variant cover for The Amazing Spider-Man #666: “This is not the first time Rochester has appeared on the cover of a comic book — the organizations also organized a photo shoot of Main Street that was featured on the cover of a Godzilla comic, with the city about to be crushed by the creature. [...] According to Jetpack Comics owner Ralph DiBernardo, after seeing how well the Godzilla comic sold, Marvel Comics wanted to capitalize on that success and suggested the city be featured again.” [Foster's Daily Democrat]
- June 23, 2011 @ 06:55 AM by Kevin Melrose
DC relaunch scorecard: DCnU or DC No?
Green Lantern #1, by Dave Johnson
Although it seems like DC’s big relaunch announcement came out an eternity ago, it actually took the publisher less than two weeks to roll out the 52 titles and their creative teams for the big relaunch/reboot/overhaul coming in September. Now that the cats are out of their respective bags, I thought I’d see where various creators and characters will land after the reboot.
So I went back through DC’s August solicitations to see who was writing or drawing what, and tried to map everyone to their post-relaunch project — if they had one. However, looking at DC’s August solicitations, there seem to be several fill-in issues, so where appropriate I tried to map the most recent ongoing creative teams to their new projects (for instance, I consider Gail Simone and Jesus Saiz the regular creative team for Birds of Prey, even if they aren’t doing the last two issues before September hits). Keep in mind that I just went through the ongoing series and skipped over all the miniseries … of which there are a lot, what with Flashpoint winding up in August.
It’s also worth noting that although several creators didn’t appear in the “big 52″ announcements, that doesn’t mean their tenure with DC is necessarily over — some, like Frazer Irving, have said they have future projects that haven’t been announced. So I tried to note where creators have talked publicly about their post-relaunch plans with DC (or lack thereof, as the case may be). The same could probably be said for some of DC’s characters as well. Or, as Gail Simone said on Twitter: “Again, September is NOT THE END. There’s still plans for characters that we haven’t seen yet.”
So let’s get to it ….
- June 12, 2011 @ 04:14 AM by JK Parkin
Grumpy Old Fan | Surprise me: DC Comics Solicitations for August 2011
Featuring the classic Blizzard vs. Polar Bear battle!
One tagline for the big alien-invasion movie Independence Day cautioned, “Don’t make plans for August.” Well, perhaps the biggest news coming out of DC’s August solicitations is the pervasive sense of foreboding they have about September. Rich Johnston maintains that a whole crop of new No. 1 issues is on tap for the fall, but there are no “FINAL ISSUE!” blurbs to be found on any of the current ongoing series.
While that doesn’t rule out a line-wide relaunch, the solicits also seem to say that readers won’t have to worry about a line-wide reboot. As noted in this space a couple of weeks back, the degree of change will probably be different for different titles. Nevertheless, now that we have a better idea of how August will look, let’s see what it says about September….
- May 19, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
What Are You Reading?
Gingerbread Girl
Hello and welcome to another edition of What Are You Reading? Our special guest today is Emily Stackhouse, creator of the award-winning minicomic Brazilianoir and her latest, Miner’s Mutiny.
To see what Emily and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below.
- May 1, 2011 @ 01:00 PM by JK Parkin
Grumpy Old Fan | Life, liberty and the pursuit of DC Comics Solicitations for July 2011
Doc Savage, still not cancelled
For most of us, it’s getting to be the middle of April. Everything is blooming and getting greener. Our thoughts turn to familiar rites of spring like baseball, taxes, and that new Green Lantern preview.
On Earth-Solicits, of course, it’s July. The greenery is withering in the heat, the tax refund is spent, and half the Reds are sick thanks to being downwind from the Proctor & Gamble plant. Nevertheless, the residents of Earth-Solicits are just bursting at the seams, excited to tell you all that’s been happening in their world …
… but they can’t tell you everything, because then you’d have no reason to visit.
This sort of fan dance is especially pronounced in the current crop of solicitations. When something like a third of DC’s superhero line is taken up with titles like War of the Green Lanterns: Aftermath, Brightest Day Aftermath, and especially the cottage industry which is Flashpoint — titles which jump off from endings readers have yet to see, and/or which go deeper into books yet to begin — it’s hard to get excited, because right now it’s all hype for hype’s sake.
Thankfully, that’s not all there is to the July solicitations, so let’s cruise on….
- April 14, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
Grumpy Old Fan | Into the hundred-issue woods
Green Lantern vol. 2 #100
News of The Flash’s cancellation has led to speculation that the title, whenever it returns, will pick up its original numbering. Considering that Wonder Woman was renumbered last year to reflect the accumulation of all its various incarnations, and Adventure Comics resumed its original numbering as well, Flash might not be the last title DC renumbers.
Today I’ll look at Flash and several other DC titles which could get this treatment in the next several years.
* * *
First, though, let’s consider Wonder Woman. Last year, the 45th issue of WW Vol. 3 was dubbed issue #600, thereby implicitly treating the current series and its predecessor as direct continuations of the original 1942 series. The math was pretty straightforward: Vol. 1 went to issue #329, and vol. 2 went to #226, so that left the 600th issue to vol. 3′s 45th. (329+226+45 = 600.) Volume 2 did have two irregularly-numbered issues, #0 (part of 1994′s “Zero Month,” which the rest of us called August), and #1,000,000 (for DC One Million, naturally).
- March 31, 2011 @ 04:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
Grumpy Old Fan | Going on about ongoing series, Part 3
Jonah Hex, stability's poster boy?
The first two parts of this little exploration looked at DC’s attempts to launch ongoing series in the ‘80s and ‘90s, when line-wide events became regular occurrences in the superhero line. However, as those surveys made abundantly clear, said events didn’t seem to relate much either to concurrently-launched ongoing series or to the relative success of said series.
Instead, the number of new ongoing series debuting in a particular calendar year looks somewhat cyclical. There were five new ongoings in 1985 (the year of Crisis On Infinite Earths), up to 14 in 1988 and 17 in 1992, then easing down to 15 in 1994, 13 in 1996, and 10 in 1997. In 1998 and 2000, DC launched only four new ongoing series; in 1999, six; and in 2001, seven. At the risk of exciting you too quickly with more numbers, a later year will have sixteen.
For now, though, we pick up in 2002, at the beginning of a quieter time.
* * *
Continue Reading »
- March 24, 2011 @ 04:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
Dialing in to David Aja
I have something to admit.
Marvel’s The Immortal Iron Fist series was one of my favorite books in recent memory. Although the title has long since fallen by the wayside, those original issues — especially the first twelve — show an amazing dynamic. From seeing the first major Marvel work for Matt Fraction (co-writing with Ed Brubaker), it also hoisted the work of artist David Aja to the mainstream. But after his run ended with the series’ 16th issue in August 2008, we’ve only seen glimpses of Aja’s work across the Marvel line — most notably the recent tour de force in Secret Avengers #5.
But with the release of this month’s solicits, a single image hints to more from the artist — and it’s not a Marvel book. Buried in DC’s May solicits is a cover Aja has done as a variant for Green Arrow #12. This could be important because for the last six years Aja’s only done work for Marvel, and this stray arrow could be a sign that Aja is branching out. In the comments to a post on his blog asking if the artist was working for DC, Aja replied back saying “Well, at least for that cover I did.”
Over on Marvel Senior Vice President of Publishing Tom Brevoort’s Formspring, Brevoort stated that Aja is working on “a Wolverine one-shot he’s been working on for some time” and just finished the covers for 5 Ronin.
Whether he’s DC-bound, staying at Marvel or, who knows, signing an exclusive with Archie, the only thing I’m hoping for is more work by this dynamic storyteller.
- February 16, 2011 @ 01:30 PM by Chris Arrant
Grumpy Old Fan | Spring brings a shorter Day: DC Comics Solicitations for April 2011
Superman/Batman Annual #5
Because they went live around the same time as last week’s column, I’ve had the better part of a week to consider the April DC solicitations. I’d like to tell you I dug deep into the language and the numbers, forsaking all regular human needs in order to unlock the secrets of DC’s superhero springtime, but we all know that didn’t happen. I blame the football.
Onward!
THE BIWEEKLIES
There could be a couple of reasons to cut two issues from the runs of Brightest Day and Justice League: Generation Lost. Twenty-four issues may be easier to collect, logistically speaking, than twenty-six. DC may also want to wrap up these storylines in advance of Free Comic Book Day (May 7 is the Saturday after the month’s first Wednesday), when I presume the big Flashpoint push will begin. The solicit for Flash #12 seems to indicate that Flashpoint starts in May.
- January 27, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
Grumpy Old Fan | Wait ‘til next year
Rise Of Arsenal #4
Last week, being full of Christmas cheer made me look back on DC’s 2010 a little more fondly than I might have otherwise.
While I take none of that back — goodwill is never truly wasted — this week isn’t Christmas, and I’m remembering some of the more awkward moments from the year about to pass. After all, 2010 had its share of shock-value deaths and ill-advised changes in direction, and today I want to talk about the biggest ones.
* * *
Probably DC’s most reviled comics of 2010 were the JLA miniseries Cry For Justice and its followup, Rise Of Arsenal. Admittedly, it’s hard for me to talk about Rise because I didn’t read the series itself, just the Justice League issue which tied into it. However, the Internet covered the miniseries’ excesses so thoroughly I feel like I’ve already read it — or at least gotten the experience of reading it.
- December 30, 2010 @ 01:45 PM by Tom Bondurant
Kirby, Ditko omnibus collections coming from DC next summer?
Green Arrow
Here’s another nice catch by blogger Corey Blake, who spotted the Trouble collection on Amazon last month — Blake points out listings for upcoming omnibus collections from DC featuring the works of Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko.
Unfortunately there’s little information on either collection. The description on the Jack Kirby one, due at the end of July, focuses on his Green Arrow work: “In 1957, following the dissolution of his partnership with Joe Simon, Jack Kirby returned to DC Comics. Among his new assignments was the Green Arrow feature that ran simultaneously in ADVENTURE COMICS and WORLD’S FINEST COMICS, pitting the Emerald Archer and his sidekick, Speedy, against a plethora of foes.”
The Ditko one, meanwhile, doesn’t have a description, but the cover artwork (which likely isn’t final) features Shade, the Changing Man … so it’s probably a safe guess that it’ll contain Ditko’s eight-issue Shade series from the 1970s.
- December 3, 2010 @ 12:21 PM by JK Parkin
Because we all wanted to see Batman swing an axe: a review of Superman/Batman: Apocalypse
Superman/Batman: Apocalypse
Superman/Batman: Apocalypse isn’t a travesty, the way the previous Superman/Batman animated film, Public Enemies, was. It wasn’t an affront to my sensibilities or a 80-minute cringe-fest. But it’s not a particularly good film either, and bears a multitude of sins on its shoulders, including clunky exposition, poor to downright confusing characterization, inane dialogue and some surprisingly sloppy animation.
- October 1, 2010 @ 02:30 PM by Chris Mautner
Summer Glau to voice Supergirl in Superman/Batman: Apocalypse
Superman/Batman #8
If you needed more proof that the DC Comics animated DVDs are, in fact, continuing, TV Guide reports that a sequel to last year’s Superman/Batman: Public Enemies will come out on Sept. 28.
And just as that first film was based on the first arc of the Superman/Batman comic, this one adapts the second arc of the Jeph Loeb-written comic, which reintroduced Kara Zor-El, AKA Supergirl, to the DC Universe. Superman/Batman: Apocalypse will again star Tim Daly and Kevin Conroy as Superman and Batman, and Firefly/Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles actress Summer Glau as Supergirl.
The movie follows Batman: Under the Red Hood, which comes out at the end of July.
Update: And not even 30 minutes after posting this, Warner Home Video sends out a press release on the animated film, which adds Ed Asner and Andre Braugher to the voice cast. You can read it after the jump.
- June 29, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by JK Parkin
Tonight’s Fringe to feature Red Lantern/Red Arrow cover
Remember this from yesterday?
DC Comics posted it to their Source blog without any explanation, and I speculated that maybe it was one of those 75th anniversary variant covers they’ve been featuring. But why all the secrecy?
Turns out it isn’t. Alex Segura explains on the Source that it’s actually an Easter Egg that’ll appear on the TV show Fringe tonight:
If you’re a fan of the show FRINGE on FOX, you know that part two of the show’s season finale airs tonight. And, as if you needed more reason to tune in (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX, we’ve got a few.
See, in tonight’s episode both universes are put at great risk as Walter (John Noble) and Olivia (Anna Tory) visit the “other side.” But what are some of the cool Easter egg-style things one would see on the “other side”? Well, stuff like that RED LANTERN/RED ARROW cover, for starters.
So tune in tonight, look out for more covers like the one above and come back to The Source tomorrow morning for a look at all the covers shown in the episode.
I don’t watch Fringe, so I have no idea what he’s talking about, but I’m gonna assume the “other side” is some sort of alternate version of reality where up is down, black is white and, um, green is red.
- May 20, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by JK Parkin
DC unveils another 75th-anniversary variant cover, maybe?
This week DC Comics has been unveiling some of the variant covers they’re doing in honor of their 75th anniversary. Each cover promises to be a “classic” cover redrawn by a “big name” artist, with the first two this week being Batman #700 by Mike Mignola and Superman #700 by Eduardo Risso.
Today DC’s The Source blog posted the above cover, a remade — and re-colored — version of the cover to Green Lantern/Green Arrow #76 (you can see the original after the jump), which was part of Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams’ classic run on the book.
Unfortunately, they don’t list any additional information about the book, so while logic may dictate that it’s another in the variant cover series, I guess it could be something else. Any idea who the artist is?
- May 19, 2010 @ 10:38 AM by JK Parkin