Archie Comics

Digital | Archie Comics announced that its comics will be available on the recently announced Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet. [Archie Comics]

Awards | Stan Lee will receive the Producers Guild of America’s 2012 Vanguard Award recognizing achievement in new media and technology. “Stan Lee’s creative vision and imagination has produced some of the most beloved and visually stunning characters and adventures in history,” Producers Guild Awards co-chairs Paula Wagner and Michael Manheim said in a joint statement. “He not only has created content that will forever be in our culture but continues to make strides in the digital and new media realms, keeping the comic book industry fresh and exciting. Stan’s accomplishments truly encompass the spirit of the Vanguard Award and we are proud to honor him.” George Lucas and John Lasseter are among the award’s previous recipients. [press release]

Creators | Laura Hudson interviews cartoonist Susie Cagle about her teargassing and arrest during Occupy Oakland. [ComicsAlliance]

Heart #1

Creators | The Pitch profiles Heart artist Kevin Mellon. [The Pitch]

Creators | Eva Volin interviews Owly creator Andy Runton. [Good Comics for Kids]

Creators | Todd Battis of CTV News spotlights Kate Beaton ahead of a broadcast profile. [CTV News]

Creators | Cully Hamner chats briefly DC’s New 52, The Shade miniseries and the planned big-screen sequel to RED. [ComicBookMovie]

Creators | The Bowling Green State University student newspaper previews a campus appearance by alum Marc Sumerak. [The BG News]

Conventions | Kevin Czap and Chris Pitzer report on last weekend’s Minneapolis Indie Expo, or MIX. [MIX]

Commentary | Charles Hatfield is writing a new column for The Comics Journal, KinderComics, which will focus on “visual narratives aimed at and/or depicting children, most especially comics.” In the first installment, Hatfield looks at First Second’s Nursery Rhyme Comics. [The Comics Journal]

Asterix

Publishing | In the latest twist in a bitter, and prolonged, family feud, the daughter of Asterix co-creator Albert Uderzo is seeking to have her parents declared mentally incapable of running their affairs. Uderzo’s only child, Sylvie, accuses her parents’ advisers of “pillaging” and “destroying an entire family.” Albert Uderzo, 83, fired back by accusing his daughter and her husband of “legal harassment” stemming from his 2007 decision to remove them from senior positions in Editions Albert-Rene, the publishing company he founded in 1979, following the death of Asterix co-creator Rene Goscinny. The family quarrel erupted into the public eye in 2009, when Sylvie Uderzo criticized her father’s decision to sell his stake in the company to Hachette Livre and authorize the publisher to continue Asterix after his death. [The Independent]

WonderCon

Conventions | Marc Graser previews this weekend’s WonderCon in San Francisco, “a more intimate affair than Comic-Con” — it will attract about 39,500 people — that’s appealing more and more to film studios and television networks. “It’s not a regional show any longer,” says David Glanzer, director of marketing and public relations for Comic-Con International. “It’s a national show. We like to call it the comic industry’s biggest little secret. It’s intimate enough where people have a good time but attracts superstar guests.” [Variety]

Retailing | Calvin Reid Ada Price surveys a half-dozen comics retailers, who offer a perhaps surprisingly upbeat snapshot of the direct market. [Publishers Weekly]

Creators | By now you’ve probably seen something about Rob Granito, who for several years has traced other artist’s work — everyone from Ty Templeton to David Finch to Arthur Adams — and passed it off as his own on eBay and at conventions. In addition, his list of fake credits includes everything from Calvin & Hobbes to Batman to Iron Man 2. Following the death of Dwayne McDuffie last month, Granito even posted a Facebook message saying “he was a pleasure to work with,” despite never actually working with the well-respected creator.

Several sites have already hashed through the details: Bleeding Cool’s Rich Johnston has been on the story since last week, while Andy Khouri at ComicsAlliance has a thorough summary on the situation. Heidi MacDonald Kate Fitzsimons has an editorial up over at The Beat, while the site Legit-o-mite has a collection of exhibits that include not only pieces of artwork Granito is alleged to have copied, but also a news article that shows he appeared at a post office in Kiamesha, N.Y., in 2006 and signed DC Comics postage stamps he didn’t draw. Since the allegations came to light, Granito has reportedly been banned at several conventions, including DragonCon and Wizard World. [RobGranito.com]

Art Spiegelman

Creators | Art Spiegelman talks about the evolution of comics: “There was this generation that grew up reading comics, having been turned into social misfits by them, and they wanted to make comics for their peers. It was the first time you had comics by and for adults that weren’t just about making money. That movement planted the seeds for what we have today.” [Calgary Herald]

Creators | In a wide-ranging Q&A, Todd McFarlane discusses everything from toys to plans for another Spawn movie to his approach to comics: “Sometimes being different — not better, just different — can score you a lot of points for your career. So when I went off to do Batman, I put my interpretation down for that. People thought it was cool. There was lots of black and big giant capes. Then with Spider-Man I put these new webbings on him, and changed the way he swung and even the way the webs looked. I remember thinking, what if you shoot the webs toward camera and do all these kinds of clever shots? So I had to create the webs to feel like they were three-dimensional instead of the way they had been doing them for, literally, 30 years which was three lines and a bunch of Xs through it. It looked flat. Some of the management thought I was messing with Spider-Man because I didn’t think what they had done was [relevant] anymore. They wanted to know why I didn’t draw the classic Spider-Man? My answer was that John Romita Sr. had done that already. I’d be a fool to draw like that. So why don’t I draw a funky Spider-Man that no one has ever seen and just let the chips fall where they may? Luckily, people were looking for a refresh at that moment and they went ‘Oh!’” [My DVD Insider, via The Comics Reporter]

Comics | The secret origins of Charlton’s Thunder Bunny. [Big Shiny Robot]

Originally announced in 2007 at Comic-Con International, BOOM Kids! didn’t hit shelves until 2009 but did so with a bang with a stellar line-up of comics based on various Disney/Pixar properties including The Incredibles, The Muppet Show, Darkwing Duck and Mickey Mouse & Friends. Combining reprintings of foreign-produced comics and out-of-print classics with new works, BOOM Kids! made a real mark.

There’s no word on the exact shape of BOOM Kids! 2011 plans are, but one could easily picture an expansion of its Disney/Pixar line-up and perhaps some new original projects.

Greendale

Happy day-after-Free Comic Book Day to everyone, and welcome to another edition of What are you reading? Our guest this week is Rick Marshall, editor of MTV’s Splash Page blog. To see what Rick and the rest of the Robot 6 crew have been reading this week, read on …

*****

Tim O’Shea

Starman Omnibus

There’s an underlying current of disappointment when I read most of James Robinson’s writing these days (the recent Blackest Night Starman 81, being a noticeable exception). My disappointment was reinforced even more when rereading the early days of Starman, thanks to Starman Ominbus Volume 1.”Talking with David, ’95″ is just an amazing example of how well Tony Harris and James Robinson worked together. Robinson put it perfectly when he wrote in this volume’s intro: “In my time working month after month with Tony Harris, our personalities were never quite on the same page, yet our differences combined to make something far more interesting that either of us, at that time, could have done on our own. (Do you think I would have had one pirate reference, if Tony hadn’t been on board? His version of Grundy–thin, gentle Grundy–led to me revising/explaining Grundy’s various incarnations/personalities to the point that that’s become a part of DC lore. Grundy would have been a one-appearance villain if Tony hadn’t ‘gotten all creative on me’–but again to the betterment of the opus as a whole.)” Harris has gone on to other strong storytelling successes (for example, Ex Machina by Brian K. Vaughan and Harris), but if he can spare the time, Robinson might benefit by collaborating with Harris again.

Kudos to DC for running Mike Carlin’s editorial this month about the late Dick Giordano under his classic Meanwhile… banner. Read the piece, it’s a good one.

I don’t know if Roger Stern and Lee Weeks would be willing to become one of the regular Spidey writers in the rotating lineup the book sports, but it would be a delight if they were. I know there’s a retro vibe to their work, in a sense (Weeks even does the half Spidey face bit [when Pete's in civilian mode], a bit I always liked), but for my money Stern and Weeks are as contemporary as any of the other comics creators on the Spider-Man books. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that over the coming issues (starting in Spider-Man 634) Stan Lee will be doing a two-page multi-issue tale with artist Marcos Martin. Interesting choices that Spider-Man editors are making these days, choices that make an old fanboy like me happy.

I continue to enjoy Mark Waid’s Incorruptible series at BOOM!, but as much as I appreciate the company’s effort to deliver on time every month, this issue suffered due to the absence of regular series artist Jean Diaz. Guest artist Horacio Domingues, at one point, is called upon to do a pivotal scene reaction shot with Max, and Domingues gives us a virtual Shaggy/Scooby Doo Yoinks! campy facial expression (a scene that Diaz would have handled quite, quite differently and less cartoonishly). In other BOOM comics, Incredibles 8 shines the spotlight on Elastigirl and brings back a character that has not been seen (unless I’m mistaken) since the actual film. I appreciate an all ages book like Incredibles that tries to expand the continuity as this series has to date.

Sean T. Collins

The Arrival

I’m back, back in the reviewing groove! Over the past couple weeks I’ve finally started reading and reviewing comics en masse on my personal blog after a month or two “prose break.” (Seriously, everyone, go read George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels.) Here’s the first half-dozen comics I took a crack at:

The Arrival by Shaun Tan: Can we please mail a copy of this awe-some look at the immigrant experience to every single resident of Arizona?

Young Lions by Blaise Larmee: A Xeric-winning slice-of-lifer that’s a thing of beauty for the Tumblr generation.

Skim by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki: Subtle and gutsy teen angst for the young-adult market.

Keeping Two by Jordan Crane: A lush and painful look at loss from one of comics’ best draftsmen, now available as a webcomic.

Death Trap by Lane Milburn: Another Xeric winner–a mutant Texas Chain Saw homage, with some really powerful cartooning.

Tales Designed to Thrizzle #6 by Michael Kupperman: After five unimpeachably funny issues, a let-down!

JK Parkin

I picked up several free comics yesterday, but due to company coming into town I’ve only gotten to read one, Marvel’s Iron Man/Thor team-up to save the world from … the moon? Written by Matt Fraction and drawn by the incomparable duo of John Romita Jr. and Klaus Janson, the two Avengers team up to save the world from a series of natural disasters being caused by a group of “multibillionaires” using old Stark technology to terraform the moon into a place they can build expensive condos and eat caviar while the rest of the world dies off. I was pleased to see JR Jr.’s take on Thor and Iron Man again, and there were some nice disaster pages (some caused by the moon, some caused by Thor).

Also, Iron Man? Kind of a smug jerk in this story. “Hey Tony, one of your inventions is causing tidal waves and what have you across the globe.” “Oh, that old thing?”

Up next: more free comics, including the first issue of The Sixth Gun, the other Iron Man comic, War of the Supermen, Love & Capes #13 and something I’m forgetting …

Rick Marshall

The Losers

With Splash Page’s focus on the area in which comics overlap with other media, my reading habits have shifted a bit toward titles that have been optioned for big- or small-screen adaptation or have some connection to the mainstream media world by virtue of subject matter, author, or any number of other factors.

That being the case, I often find myself mentally assigning what I read into one of three categories: work-related reading, personal reading with work-related potential, and purely personal reading.

What can I say? I’m a sucker for multitasking, and compartmentalizing all of it helps me keep all of the competing narratives separate in my head.

Here’s what I’m currently reading:

Work-Related: I recently finished Greendale, Joshua Dysart and Cliff Chiang’s Vertigo graphic novel based on the Neil Young album. I’m a big fan of all three of the creative minds involved in this one, and though it fell a little short in the end, it was a really fun read. It reminded me a lot of a smaller, simpler version of Stephen King’s The Stand, and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It hits shelves in June.

I’ve also been catching up on The Losers and 100 Bullets, two series I was into early on but lost track of somewhere along their run. I sort of rediscovered the former series due to the movie hitting theaters this month, and the latter because it’s only a matter of time before it gets picked up somewhere. Brian Azzarello hinted to me in an interview last year that an option was likely at some point soon, so now’s as good a time as any to get caught up, right?

Personal/Work: Anyone who knows me is probably aware of my unhealthy obsession with all things Doctor Who. I’ve been devouring IDW’s Doctor Who comics as they hit shelves, especially during the drought between the last season and the current one. Tony Lee is doing an amazing job with the series, and it’s great to see what happens when you have someone writing a series like this who’s both a big fan and a supremely talented writer.

I’ve also been re-reading some of my favorite webcomics that were collected in print over the last year. In particular, Jon Rosenberg’s Goats collections feel like new material with all of the polish they received during the transition to paper. The publisher of the series, Del Rey, did a bang-up job freshening everything up and making the strips really jump off the page. Similarly, some of DC’s print collections of Zuda Comics have really impressed the heck out of me — especially High Moon and Bayou. To be honest, Zuda had never really been on my radar until I started reading some of the print collections of the series published there, but I’m glad that’s changed.

Finally, I just finished reading through all four books in Top Shelf’s “Swedish Invasion” line. All four are great reads, but Hey Princess and 120 Days of Simon were really good. The former felt like a Swedish version of a Jeffrey Brown or James Kochalka bio-comic, while the latter was an experience all its own. The author, Simon Gardenfors, is a popular Swedish rapper who travels around the country at the whim of fans who signed up on his website to feed him and let him crash with them. It’s a wild, wild story.

Personal: I usually read a novel as a counterpoint to all of the comics — a constant narrative that I can keep coming back to between issues and such. I’m currently about halfway through Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, but I’ve been reading a novel between each Wheel of Time chapter so I don’t overload on the sword-and-sorcery stuff. This time around, it’s Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy (I have them all collected in a single novel), a sci-fi classic I’d been meaning to read for ages but finally got around to recently. My copy of the book is a fairly old and was sitting on my bookshelf for years before I finally took the plunge. It’s a great reminder of why Asimov is such a big player in the sci-fi world, and given how much of today’s sci-fi is all shiny metal killer robots, it’s also a reminder of what can happen when science was just as important as the fiction. It’s a true classic, and I can’t recommend it enough.

So, there you have it! That’s what I’m reading these days — or trying to, at least.

Incredibles #3 HeroesCon variant

Godland artist Tom Scioli provided the above variant cover for BOOM!’s Incredibles #3, available only at this weekend’s HeroesCon. It’s a really nice piece, and, if this makes sense, has sort of an “indie” feel to it … which seems like the way to go for a variant cover for the show, considering HeroesCon plays host to Indie Island.

See BOOM!’s other variant covers and other plans for HeroesCon here.

Chip Mosher at Disneyland

Yesterday Mark Waid, editor-in-chief of BOOM! Studios, announced via a YouTube video that BOOM! would post full issues of their Hexed mini-series on MySpace the same day the book was released in stores, just like they did with the North Wind mini-series a year ago. As I was already talking to Chip Mosher, their sales and marketing guy, about several other things going on with BOOM! when the video was released, I was able to sneak in a few questions about the promotion as well.

My thanks to Chip for his time.

JK: Last year BOOM! put the complete North Wind mini-series up on MySpace Comic Books, with each issue going up on the day it hit retailers’ shelves. And now you’re doing it again with HEXED. Why did you choose HEXED, versus any of your other titles?

Chip: Right time. Right place. Right book.

Personally, I see Hexed as one of the books that is kicking off BOOM! 3.0. I consider Mark coming on board as E-i-C as BOOM! 2.0 — where he spearheaded the stabilizing of the line-up and built up editorial. I look at this next year as BOOM! 3.0 — where the promise of Mark Waid as E-i-C is realized in full. The team here at BOOM! is running on all cylinders. You’ll see a whole host of books coming out of BOOM! in the next year, shepherded by Mark and the editorial team, that will just rock your socks off.

Hexed, page 5

JK: Some retailers were unhappy with the North Wind promotion last year, saying they wished they had known you were releasing the book online the same day it would be in shops before they placed their orders. So what did you do differently this time around to communicate with retailers about the promotion?

Chip: Well, not only did Mark do the video announcement, but we did a separate announcement aimed directly at retailers to answer their concerns. The promotion as a whole came out of those concerns. We listened to the retailers and came up with a great promotion because of just that.

JK: And are you offering them any kind of incentive to encourage them to order more copies of the title?

Chip: We’re calling this the “5 for 500 Program” – because we sent five extra copies of Hexed #1 to the top 500 retailers. We made issue #1 completely returnable, and we are offering a 3 percent reorder incentive for all the books in the series. BOOM! is taking all the risk onto ourselves and shipping extra copies to retailers for them to sell at no risk to them, because that’s how confident we are in this book and in this promotion.

Hexed page 6

JK: Looking back, BOOM! took some hits over the North Wind promotion, but overall how did the book do?

Chip: Well, we sold out of issue #1. But more importantly, we sold 30 percent more copies of issue #4 than we did of issue #3. With a five issue mini-series, this just does not happen. As Mark states in the retailer video, the only way these numbers make sense is if people went to MySpace.com/comicbooks, read issue #3 online and then went out and bought number #4 in the stores. I know this didn’t add up to some, but you know, people buy DVDs of TV shows they see for free all the time, so it really shouldn’t come as too big a shock that giving something online for free spurs sales.

In the end, we had a lot more supporters than detractors on the North Wind promotion. And I think by doing the “5 for 500 Promotion” hand-in-hand with full returnability that we have really addressed most if not all of the concerns out there.

JK: I want to talk about some of BOOM!’s plans for the future, but first, let’s talk about where you’ve come from. The last couple of years have been pretty big for the company, with Mark Waid coming on board, the Disney/Pixar license deal, not to mention a pretty big increase in staff. Can you give us a little perspective on how BOOM! has grown since you joined?

Chip: When I came on board July of 2007, Ross Richie had done a brilliant job building the company. The original vision for BOOM! that he and Andrew Cosby had — that of doing high-concept genre books — had really taken off. And they had gotten to a point where they needed to staff up. Right after I was hired, we announced Mark Waid as E-i-C. From the point Mark came on board, the company has expanded slowly but surely, and most importantly, in editorial and under Mark’s editorial guidance. Right now, we have Matt Gagnon as managing editor, who is doing a terrific job and has spearheaded the Farscape line. Then there is Ian Brill, who is heading up the Warhammer books and several other projects. Last but not least, there is Paul Morrissey, who is heading up the Disney books, which include our Pixar and Muppets lines.

Hexed #1

Chip: Mark is one of the greatest writers comics has ever seen. The guy has so much range. Go back and read his original Flash run. Then read Kingdom Come. Then read Potter’s Field. This man knows how to write, and his level of quality, consistency and diversity over the last 10 plus years is astounding. Now that BOOM! 2.0 is coming to an end, and the company is running at a nice clip, it’s only right that we let Waid have some fun writing some new books for BOOM!

In March, he’s writing The Incredibles: Family Matters, which is just amazing. After that … well, I can’t say. All I can say is that it is going to shake the comics industry to its core.

7. When can we expect the core-shaking to commence, or at least when will it be announced?

Chip: Sooner than you think!

JK: What were some of the genres fans said they wanted to see Mark tackle?

Chip: Basically the fans came back with every genre you could think of. You know the success of BOOM! stems from us doing what other companies don’t. We do high-concept genre books that exist somewhere between the Big Two and the indie art comics scene. It’s a space that we just flat own. And I think that’s part of the genius of Ross and Andy’s original vision for BOOM! You know, why would you want to do an ongoing superhero comic and compete with the Big Two? They are experts at that. They do that every day. You’d be crazy to compete with that. Which is why what we do at BOOM! works so well. They don’t do what we do. We don’t do what they do.

JK: So let’s talk about some of those books … Farscape #1 came out on Christmas Eve, and you announced a second printing on Monday. So I’m guessing sales at the retailer level exceeded your expectations?

Chip: Yes, Santa came early this year! Okay, seriously… Farscape #1 has done great. And while it looks like the weather stopped some stores from getting their copies on time. But even with that hiccup, the reorder activity was so tremendous that we sold out and now are going to a second printing. We are all really happy about how well this book has performed for us.

JK: The reaction to these sorts of announcements always fascinates me. While the publisher obviously wants to play up the fact that the book sold out from the distributor — which is what we’re talking about in this case, correct? Not that the book can’t be found on any retailer shelf anywhere in America — you typically see comments about how the book probably had a low print run, someone didn’t anticipate demand, etc. As a sales and marketing guy, what’s your perspective? And beyond orders from retailers, what goes into the decision to overprint something?

Chip: When a sell-out happens at the distributor level, obviously we want to get the word out to the fans so they have a chance to get a copy. As a sales and marketing guy, I want everyone who wants a copy of the book to get a copy of the book. We had strong initial orders from retailers for this book and tried to meet the expected demand. But sometimes you can’t anticipate just how strong the fan reaction is going to be.

JK: What are the plans for Farscape after the initial mini-series?

Chip: We’re doing a follow-up called Farscape: Strange Detractors. Rockne S. O’Bannon is back writing with Keith R.A. DeCandido. On this series, we have newcomer Will Sliney on art. It’s looking great.

JK: Are you guys hearing feedback from Farscape fans? I remember fans of the show being pretty dedicated. Are retailers seeing a different set of customers coming in for the book?

Chip: The Farscape fans have really been driving the success of the Farscape #1 comic. We have really great relationships with the fan sites and have become close personal friends with a ton of the ‘Scapers out there. I suspect retailers are seeing a lot of new faces in their stores because of this book.

The Book of BOOM!

JK: Another area that’s been relatively successful for you guys, but may be under the radar of some comic fans, is the Warhammer franchise. Who is the average customer for these books? Has there been crossover with gaming fans? 

Chip: The Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 licensed comics have been a big success for us. Now that the Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning MMORPG is out, I think the general populace has a better understanding of the different Warhammer universes and the following they have. Comic fans love these books, and Warhammer fans seek them out. It’s an awesome sight to behold!

JK: What’s the Book of BOOM! in the online game?

Chip: We are doing a promotion with our new trade paperback, Warhammer: Crown of Destruction, that will have a scratch-off so you can get an online item in the Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning game. This item is aptly titled the Book of BOOM! which gives you the power to go… BOOM!

JK: Was that your idea, or something Electronic Arts asked to do?

Chip: It’s something that grew up organically with the relationship we have with them. BOOM! did the graphic novel pack in for the Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning MMORPG and counting those sales, we had a graphic novel that did as well as Watchmen last year.

JK: Any updates on the Disney stuff you guys are doing, both Muppets and Pixar?

Chip: In March, You’ll see the debut of all new Incredibles stories written by Mark Waid in The Incredibles: Family Matters. Did I say all new stories? Let me say that again: all-new Incredibles stories! By Mark friggin’ Waid. You can’t beat that.

And that’s not all, folks. We are coming out with Cars: The Rookie, which goes into the untold origin story of Lightning McQueen. Add to that, Roger Langridge doing The Muppet Show …. well, it’s going to be a great month for Disney/Pixar fans.

BOOM! ad from Previews

JK: You sent over some ads that ran in the latest Previews, featuring the first Disney and Pixar titles. So Mike Mignola and Michael Avon Oeming are doing covers for Incredibles? How did that come about?

Chip: Did Oeming knock that cover out of the park or what? It’s … just… incredible. (Couldn’t resist). Everyone is a big fan of Oeming’s work here at BOOM!, and we just contacted him out of the blue and viola, you get the best bunch of variant covers ever. Mike Mignola’s cover is actually a variant poster from the original release of The Incredibles movie. We just knew we had to use it for the variant cover.

JK: Who is working on the Cars title?

Chip: We have some great newcomers on this book, Alan J. Porter is writing with art by Albert Carreres. You’ll be seeing much more from them in the future. Fans of the film will l-o-v-e this book!

JK: Are you working with Disney to get them into the parks or their stores? And in general, what’s it been like to work with Disney?

Chip: Working with Disney is a dream come true for all of us at BOOM! And they have been great to work with on these books. While I can’t get into specifics about specific business deals, we are working on getting these titles out to as many places as possible.

BOOM! ad from Previews

JK: Something else in the latest Previews that jumped out at me was Caped, as I don’t remember hearing much about it before seeing it here. What is it?

Chip: I have a press release just about ready to go on that one. Basically, it’s an awesome superhero funny book in the vein of Hero Squared. Caped follows Jimmy Lohman, a superhero’s assistant. As the copy says, “Millions would kill for his job, he’s just not one of them.” It’s written by South Park‘s Josh Lobis and Darin Moiselle, and is just brilliant.

JK: As a smaller comics publisher with some pretty big-name franchises outside of the world of comics, what are some of the things you’re doing to bring in new fans? How do you turn a gamer who buys the Warhammer comic into someone who buys your other books, for example?

Chip: I want as many people reading comics as possible, and I think as an industry we are all guilty of preaching to the choir and not thinking outside the box in terms of promotion and developing content to bring in new readers. This is a particular passion of mine and of BOOM!’s in general.

I feel like our video game scratch-offs that we are doing with the Warhammer series and Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning MMORPG go a long way to helping in that cause. Managing Editor Matt Gagnon and I recently did a big presentation to Farscape fans at the recent Farscape Creation convention. We are always thinking about innovative ways to get the word out about comics. Just look at our Hexed promotion.

JK: If a first-time publisher came up to you and asked for advice on how to market and sell their comics, what are the, say, three key things you’d tell him or her to do?

Chip: I only have one piece of advice: Look at what everyone else is doing and do the opposite.