As the licensing machine revs up for the May 4 premiere of The Avengers, fragrance company JADS International — the company behind such brands as Sulu Pour Homme, Slave Leia Perfume and Shirtless Kirk Cologne — has rolled out scents inspired by Captain America, Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk, Thor, Nick Fury and even Loki. Sorry, Hawkeye, you’re out of luck.

The Avengers Cologne Set boasts “four unique fragrances”: PATRIOT, Mark VII, SMASH! and Worthy; you can probably piece together which name goes with which hero. Loki, meanwhile, gets Mischief Cologne (“Made to Rule”), and Fury has Initiative Cologne (“Activate the Initiative”).

Check out the details below, or on the JADS website.

PATRIOT Cologne
A cologne that pays homage to the confident, stand-up-to-bullies, hard working average Joe in every man. PATRIOT Cologne is both reserved and sexy; like a symbol on a shield or a moniker on a motorcycle helmet. Fresh notes of green lime and white pepper are the first to hit with dry oak wood, sandalwood and tequila accords finishing the adventure. Perfect for any time or place, PATRIOT Cologne puts the Novus Mundus in your strong, sensuous hands for you to embrace and discover.

PATRIOT Cologne
Your Attack Plan.

Mark VII Cologne
A resolutely sophisticated cologne forged from the sea, the sun, the earth, and a touch of devil-may-care whimsy. Transparent, aromatic, and modern in nature, Mark VII combines mandarin, neroli, nasturtium and jasmine layered with light patchouli to create a contemporary expression of “I don’t play well with others” confidence; leaving you always ready for whatever a genius, billionaire, playboy-philanthropist might encounter along the way.

Mark VII Cologne
Armor Up.

SMASH! Cologne
Very unusual and rare materials have been brought together to create a woody aquatic cologne evoking both a serene sense of timeless freedom and a single-minded, unbridled passion for life. Yuzu, bergamot and tarragon create clean, clear top notes along with unexpected accords of water lily and nutmeg. SMASH! then carries an intense woody drydown enriched with Indian sandalwood, vetiver, musk and sharp cedar. Complimentary to a full range of emotions, it wears well no matter where—at work, the lab or an evening out on the town.

SMASH!
Be Angry.

Worthy Cologne
This woody citrus cologne is a unique, meaningful combination of bergamot, frozen ginger and wheatgrass blended with a hint of fresh natural grapefruit and layered deeply with aromatic cypress. Basenotes are possessed with sensual, seductive tones of dark amber and cedarwood, protecting and enhancing a deep, dry masculine (dare we say almost God-like?) musk.

Worthy Cologne
Possess the Power.

Infinity Formula Cologne
Colonel Nicholas “Nick” Fury. Paratrooper, Ranger, Weapons and Demolitions Expert, Aircraft Specialist and Pilot, Green Beret. Veteran of every US War and Military Conflict since WWII. Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. “The single most powerful, most important organization on the planet Earth.” And the only human strong enough to bring together a group of remarkable people who would fight the battles no one else could.

Infinity Formula Cologne.
Face danger with something dangerous. Activate the Initiative.

Mischief Cologne
Possessed of Superhuman strength, Genius-level intelligence, Mystical powers, Telepathy, Flight, Clairvoyance, Therianthropy, and Teleportation … who could blame you for becoming the greatest trickster of them all? So wear your crown of baleful maleficence with pride; let mirth and mayhem stand ready at your side, anticipating your every command. Test their mettle knowing you have nothing to fear; you are Mischief and you were made to rule.

(via ComicBookMovie)

Aside from that, it was painless. There was one more click to download the PDF of the coupon, and I was good to go.

The offer came with some peculiar caveats. It was only good in the United States, and only for comics purchased through Marvel’s iOS apps — Android and Chrome users need not apply. I don’t really get the reasons for those restrictions, but perhaps there are some levers that have to be pulled behind the scenes that only work under those conditions.

What is Marvel up to here? The press release seems to go both ways, with one Marvel executive saying this is a great way to get people to sample the publisher’s digital wares, and another pointing to it as a way to benefit comics stores. The Marvel app requires a separate login and password from the standard comiXology app, even though they are built on the same platform, so maybe they are trying to get people to go through that extra step to join up with the branded app. Or maybe they are trying to get their digital-only customers to sample the joys of comics shops. Either way, they will be getting me into a shop I don’t usually visit, and I’ll come out ahead on the deal, so I guess it’s a win for all of us.

Toyota has teamed with Marvel for “The Incredible Drive,” a four-part stop-motion animated adventure promoting the car manufacturer’s Yaris model. Created by the crew behind “Marvel Super Heroes: What The–?!” — Ben Morse, Jesse Falcon, Alex Kropinak and others — the first short features a Yaris-driving Bruce Banner forced into therapy with Doctor Strange, who suggests all he needs for his anger-control issues is a road trip. With him.

Yes, the guy who transforms into a 7 1/2-foot-tall monster drives a subcompact car — but, hey, it’s no weirder than him rooming with the Red Hulk or seeking mental-health advice from a magic-wielding neurosurgeon (apparently Doc Samson isn’t covered by Banner’s HMO). Strange’s Monarch-esque voice is a little much, but it’s definitely worth sitting through for the Marvel Universe-themed destination billboards and the late addition to the unlikely road-trip crew.

(via Autoblog)

Earlier this summer Sam Humphries and Steven Sanders teamed up on a self-published one-shot called Our Love Is Real. Available digitally and at a handful of shops, the book sold out of its print run in a day, with a second printing selling out within a week. And earlier this month we learned that the little science fiction comic that could was picked up by Image Comics, who will publish it in November.

But just because the book’s been picked up by a larger publisher doesn’t mean that Humphries is taking a break from getting it into people’s hands. I spoke with him about the comic’s success and a fancy new pre-order app he’s developed that’ll help connect fans with retailers who can sell them a copy.

JK: Congrats on the Image deal– how did you come to work with them?

Sam: Once Our Love Is Real came out, it made a lot of sense for both sides. They wanted to be a part of the book, and we reached a point where we couldn’t go much further via self-publishing.

JK: Working with Image obviously brings wider distribution through Diamond, with the potential to reach a lot more shops than you could on your own. What are you doing to make it easy for people to request the book from their retailer?

Sam: There’s is an experiment I’m pretty excited about — we’ve developed a pre-order app for Our Love Is Real, which can be found online at: http://bit.ly/OLIRpreorder. Pre-order online, and pick up at a comic store near you.

It’s one link where anyone who is curious about Our Love Is Real can pre-order the comic online, immediately and easily. They can either pick it up at a comic store in their area, or have it delivered via mail order. If they choose delivery, we send them to our mail order partners at Things From Another World, who can ship the book anywhere around the globe.

If they choose to pick it up from a comic book store, they enter their information, and choose from a menu of over 75 retailers in the U.S., Canada, and the UK who are ready and waiting to order the comic. When they hit send, that pre-order is emailed directly to the retailer, and a reminder email is sent to the reader.

The system of pre-ordering in the direct market has a lot of benefits, but it is murder when it comes to marketing. It is such a buzz kill. No one wants to do it. It’s a convoluted, counter-intuitive process — not just for new or casual readers, but for the Wednesday crowd, too.

Trying to explain the multi-step pre-order process, trying to motivate people to actually go do it — so much hinges on these important pre-order numbers, yet there’s so many points of failure. It’s an uphill climb for the reader who just wants to order an interesting comic like any other piece of entertainment in their lives.

So we’re trying to improve the experience with the pre-order app. Make it easier for readers to act on their excitement. Make it easier for them to connect with a comic book store in their area. Make it easier to drive sales directly to retailers. And make it easier for us to market the damn thing. One link, two minutes, and you’ve pre-ordered the book. Done. We’ve gone from a process that gives everyone a headache to something you can fit in a tweet.

Will anyone use it? We’ll see…

JK: When you use the pre-order app, you can either put in the email address of a local shop, or you can pick from a pre-determined list of “over 75 retailers.” How did you assemble this menu of comic book stores?

Sam: The old-fashioned way — reaching out store by store, via phone calls and emails, and asking them if they wanted to participate. Some I found by reputation, some by recommendation, and a lot through the ComicsPRO Find a Store service. I paid attention to everyone’s Facebook statuses to see where they shop. A handful of retailers I knew, but most were cold calls.

It’s impossible to put together a list of retailers that covers everyone, all of the time — but if you focus on major markets, you can do a decent job of covering most of the people, a lot of the time.

Sometimes direct market retailers are painted as reluctant to embrace change, but this is a new idea and the response was almost entirely positive. We only got one straight-up “no thank you.” Over 75 great stores and we’re adding more every day.

JK: You’ve kind of got a cool little success story here, in that you went out and self-published a book, ended up doing multiple printings and eventually landed at Image with it. Before ending up at Image, though, how successful was the book, both in terms of print sales and digital sales?

Sam: Between the three printings there were 900 copies total. We sold 800, plus or minus a handful. (The rest were given away, damaged, kidnapped by ghosts, etc.)

That’s extremely successful — by our standards. By Marvel and DC’s standards, it’s not even a grape at a food fight. But the great thing about self-publishing is you can play by your own rules and aim for your own targets.

Digital sales have been strong as well, as might be expected for a book that was available in nine retail locations.

JK: What kinds of things did you do to get the word out about the book? And what was the hook (or even hooks) that you think really helped drive interest?

Sam: It’s pretty provocative comic, which makes it easy to write about in an interesting way, and interesting to read and talk about. The speculators jumped on the collectable nature of the book, and the resulting one-day sell out added a lot of buzz online and in stores. Ultimately, you gotta back up your hype, and thankfully the book was well-received, and not dismissed as a joke, as it easily could have been. I think those three “hooks” worked together to generate a lot of attention for a pervy little indie comic.

None of this really went “according to plan” — you can’t really engineer it that way. All you can do is define your goals, steal some creative strategies, and work your ass off. Stack the deck in your favor and hope it works out for the best.

Our Love Is Real

JK: You went through multiple covers on each printing. What cover are you planning to use for the Image release?

Sam: We’re going back to the OG first print cover with the zoosexual and his lover — but now with the Image “I.” I think the mineralsexual cover is my personal favorite of Steven’s renderings, but the dog cover is certainly the funniest.

JK: Is a sequel in the works yet? What else are you working on?

Sam: A sequel…wouldn’t that be something? If pre-orders are strong enough, who knows? So (you knew this was coming) pre-order online now with the Our Love Is Real pre-order app! http://bit.ly/OLIRpreorder

I’m also working on a new book for release in December that I’m keeping under wraps for now. There aren’t any dogs in it.

In fact, the Night Shade Books site already shows the print version as “sold out,” but that turns out to be a good thing, as Phil found out when he asked:

Everybody thinks this book is going to do well, so everybody “ordered heavy”, so they’ll have a lot of books ready to meet demand. Great. Now there’s performance anxiety. And the publisher is still sold out, but they fully expect that they will have to reprint. The question is when. Thus they are now waiting to see how quickly the shops and wholesalers “sell through’ on the books they have in stock.

There are also two e-book editions, and this is where it gets a bit sticky. The Kindle version is $7.99, but you can also buy a DRM-free e-book edition from Webscription for $6. Obviously these sales won’t count in the Amazon rankings, though, so fans might want to consider whether it’s worth spending an extra two bucks to help give the Foglios that boost. If it helps, today is Kaja’s birthday as well, and if you’re in Seattle, you can wish her well in person, as the Foglios will be doing a book signing at Ravenna Third Place Books.

DC Comics

Publishing | DC Comics will roll out a marketing campaign next month in support of its new $2.99 price initiative. The campaign, apparently revealed in a communique to retailers, will include online banners, ads in January issues of Comics Buyer’s Guide, Comic Shop News and Wizard, in-book ads, and in-store posters, shelf talkers and cards. [Crimson Monkey]

Libraries | The Will and Ann Eisner Family Foundation has pledged $250,000 over five years to the new Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum facility, part of the Sullivant Hall renovation at The Ohio State University. [The Daily Cartoonist]

Broadway | The father of Christopher Tierney, the 31-year-old aerialist who fell a week ago during a performance of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, offers a full account of his son’s injuries: a hairline fracture in his skull, a broken scapula, a broken bone close to his elbow, four broken ribs, a bruised lung and three fractured vertebrae. Timothy Tierney said his son underwent back surgery on Wednesday, and took his first steps on Friday with the aid of a brace and walker. Doctors are “cautiously optimistic” that Christopher Tierney will eventually resume his performing career. [Arts Beat]

Captain America #602

Politics | Salon includes last February’s Captain America-tea party controversy in its rundown of “the year in trumped-up pseudo-scandals.” [Salon.com]

Best of the year | Dave Ferraro selects the 10 best manga of 2010. [Comics and More]

Best of the year | Lore Sjöberg names the best new webcomics of 2010, from Axe Cop to Bad Machinery to Scenes From a Multiverse. [Underwire]

Best of the year | Chantaal and Dee at Girls Read Comics Too choose the best comics of the year, divided into categories. [Girls Read Comics Too]

Retailing | Kris Turner briefly spotlights Comic Relief in Flint, Mich. [The Flint Journal]

Brenda Starr

Comic strips | R.C. Harvey begins a two-part essay on Brenda Starr, which ends its 70-year run on Sunday. [TCJ.com]

Creators | Steve Niles talks about his collaborations with horror legend Bernie Wrightson: “Every Friday night Bernie and I have a Scrabble night at my house with his wife Liz and my girlfriend Monica. Really, these books came out of those nights with us talking plot points between Scrabble turns and pizza and beer. If we laughed, it went in the book. I know this sounds a little to simple, but the friendship plays so much into the collaboration now it’s almost too fun to call work.” [Hero Complex]

Creators | Robert Kirkman chats briefly about the success of The Walking Dead television series, and his plans for 2011. [The Courier-Journal]

Gerard Way

Creators | My Chemical Romance frontman and comics writer Gerard Way talks about his favorite music, comics, prose and more. [The New York Times]

Comics | Douglas Wolk recounts what he’s grateful for in comics: “The general shift toward the rights of individual creators is a very good long-term sign. The most talked-about comics-inspired projects in other media this year were Kick-Ass, Scott Pilgrim and The Walking Dead–all of which are properties owned by the particular people who created them. That’s a huge change.” [Techland]

Comics | Ben Morse assembles a Jewish Justice League. [The Cool Kids Table]

Tintin

Legal | A Belgian court has postponed until next week a hearing in the months-long trial over whether to ban Tintin in the Congo because of its racist portrayals of native Africans. The legal battle was launched three years ago by Bienvenu Mbutu Mondondo, a Congolese man living in Belgium, who wants the book removed from the country’s bookstores, or at least sold with warning labels as it is in Britain. An anti-racism group joined Mondondo in seeking the ban. Wednesday’s scheduled hearing was postponed after one of the plaintiffs withdrew from the case; however, the article doesn’t say which one. [Expatica]

Legal | Cartoonist Rich Koslowski discovers that winning a copyright-infringement lawsuit against a company that used his artwork without permission didn’t end the matter. More than a year later, Ontario-based Geeks Galore Computer Center still hasn’t complied with the judge’s order, and continues to use Koslowski’s art in signage and advertising. [Eye on Comics]

Publishing | Andy Runton’s new full-color hardcover Owly & Wormy: Friends All Aflutter! will be released in March by Simon & Schuster, under a license from Top Shelf. [Top Shelf, via The Beat]

Marvel

Publishing | Jason Woods picks apart Marvel’s new “Architects” initiative promoting the contributions of such creators as Jason Aaron, Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction and Jonathan Hickman: “Don’t think for a second people in the industry don’t already know the score. Do you think other writers needed an official announcement from on high that Bendis was a big dog? Or that Brubaker (who has won a boatload of Eisners in recent years) is a key cog in the wheel? People in the industry understand who is who. And if they’re being honest with themselves, they know where they sit in the pantheon. But that doesn’t mean they like being formally reminded of it by their employer.” [iFanboy]

Retailing | Lincoln, Nebraska, retailer Comic World will close on Dec. 23 after 18 years in business. [Lincoln Journal Star]

Creators | Roger Stern is profiled in advance of his appearance on Sunday at the Indianapolis Comic Book and Toy Convention. [Indianapolis Star]

Comics | Kenton Smith recommends a handful of graphic novels as holiday gifts. [SEE]

“When we picked a release date, we tried to aim for a day far from other major book releases,” the authors explain on their blog. In that, they failed spectacularly: A number of potential best-sellers came out that day, including Keith Richards’s autobiography, a new Barefoot Contessa cookbook, and Glenn Beck’s latest book, Broke.

Nonetheless, the power of the internet is such that Machine of Death took the No. 1 spot on Amazon for that day.

While Keith Richards and the Barefoot Contessa seem to have taken this news with equanimity, it sent Beck into a spluttering, incoherent rage, and he went into a long rant on the air about the culture of death and Bill Ayers envying Keith Richards for snorting his father’s ashes, and not knowing what Brown Sugar refers to, and the general disrespect of “the left” for daring to buy other books on the day his book came out. (There’s a transcript and a link to the audio here.)

And as any public figure with half a brain can tell you, the effect has been exactly the opposite of what Beck intended. Rather than apologizing and buying two copies of his book, people have been laughing and pointing and, in some cases, buying extra copies of Machine of Death just to spite Glenn Beck. (Hey, it’s only ten bucks on Amazon.)

The story has also gotten lots of press in a number of august venues, including The Atlantic Wire, but the best one of all is the Australian Broadcasting Corporation piece that includes North and Malki’s tortured Super Bowl analogy. It is also getting plenty of play on Twitter.

It’s worth noting that the creators shopped the book around to a number of different agents, some of whom loved it, but all of whom concluded that it was basically unmarketable. That has all changed since Oct. 26, but David Malki posted today that they won’t be entertaining those offers.

We also realized that we had an opportunity here to gain a level. We could have struck a deal with a publisher, potentially even a lucrative one, that would have been nice in the short term and could probably have led to interesting places. But we have larger goals than just signing a book deal, and we realized we could play the long game here, not just for our benefit — but for the benefit of our friends and colleagues in webcomics as well.

And so in the last few days, using resources offered to us that previously would have been absolutely inconceivable, we have laid the groundwork for a complex but amazing publishing/distribution structure that, in the future, should hopefully allow us to get not just Machine of Death, but also all TopatoCo-published and TopatoCo-partnered books into regular bookstore/retail channels, both in the U.S. and abroad. Ryan, Matt and I are harnessing this amazing rising flood-tide to lift all the boats we can find, all the ropes we managed to grab hold of when the waters hit.

These are some smart guys, so that actually might work. They are also preparing a Kindle version of the book (which they will offer for free to anyone who has bought the paper edition), and they plan to release a PDF version for free, under a Creative Commons license, on Nov. 2.

Marvel

It’s officially a trend: In the ICv2 Digital Comics Conference today, Marvel VP David Gabriel handed a couple of scoops to the crowd. Here’s the biggest: “Because of what digital comics are doing, we will be able to lower prices in January.”

He didn’t elaborate, but could that mean the hated $3.99 price point is a thing of the past?

Gabriel led up to this with some comments about how their digital comics are doing. “Just this week, we passed 2 million downloads,” he said. That doesn’t match the sales of a store like Midtown Comics, but the lines are drawing closer for some titles.

“Yesterday we released the Ultimate Thor book,” he said. “By tomorrow, we will have outsold what our top retailers have sold. There is an audience for that.” The digital sales have given the print edition a boost, he believes.

Update: Kiel Phegley has more information on the price change at Marvel over on the CBR home page. Gabriel confirmed that new books launching in January 2011 will not debut at $3.99. So it isn’t an across-the-board price reduction/page count reduction, like we saw from DC earlier today.

Actually, if I were running this campaign, that’s the last thing I would want. I would ask them to redesign the original to include Wonder Woman, rather than giving the girls their own logo. But then, if I start thinking about it real hard I’ll start worrying about other causes like pay equity or health care and education for girls in developing countries, and I just get all distracted.

Viz Media

Publishers | Viz Senior Vice President and General Manager Alvin Lu discusses the state of the company after the layoffs that occurred in May, as well as the overall manga market. “We continue to get great support from our retail partners. They do see that these very popular series continue to do well. They are getting up there in the 40s and 50s of the volume count, and there is the challenge of bringing in newer readers, to catch them up. I was looking though a calendar from several years ago when we were looking at Bleach Vol. 5 or something. That is a conversation we’ve been having with the bookstores, and they’re being very responsive on how to work with us, to continue to drive the category. They’ve been very supportive of helping us launch new series as well. So it’s a balancing act of getting the space to launch new series while nurturing the more mature series that continue to enjoy a loyal readership.” [ICv2]

Events | Brian Heater from the Daily Cross Hatch and Sarah Morean from Blog Chicka Blog Blog have declared Aug. 28 “International Read Comics in Public” Day. They’ve started a blog that features, as you might guess, people reading comics in public. [Daily Cross Hatch]

Wednesday Comics

Publishing | Ada Price talks to DC Comics art director and Wednesday Comics editor Mark Chiarello about the project, asking if there’s any word about a sequel. “There’s some talk about it. I think the only reason to do it would be to do it as good, if not better than the first series, and that’s going to be difficult,” Chiarello said. [Publishers Weekly]

Publishing | A profile of Richelle Mead, author of the Vampire Academy series of books, reveals that a graphic novel version is due in August 2011. [Kansascity.com]

Conventions | Gregory Schmidt talks to companies like Mattel and Warner Bros. about how they market to girls at Comic-Con International. [New York Times]

Digital comics | Todd Allen talks to Robert Jacobi, an example of a “lapsed comics reader that the iPad apps were supposed to connect with.” [Publishers Weekly]

Steve Englehart

Creators | Writer Steve Englehart continues to share stories from his early days as a comics writer in a new column for Tor.com. “Many people today are amazed at this. ‘They gave you an established icon like Captain America and said do whatever you want?’ Yes, they did. And when I did make the book sell and did meet my deadlines, they gave me The Hulk and The Avengers and a whole lot more. I’ve talked about how writing periodicals teaches you to write. I should add that complete freedom lets you explore anything that seems like a good idea without once looking over my shoulder or second-guessing myself. So when I wrote comics, I lived in the moment, letting my stories tell me what to write about, riffing off the zeitgeist month by month.” [Tor.com]

Creators | Jesse Blaze Snyder talks about his family, reality TV and his comic book writing. [The Beat]

Creators | Robot 6 contributor Brigid Alverson talks to Rob Worley about creating the all-ages comic Scratch9. [Publishers Weekly]

Creators | Douglas Wolk interviews Scott Snyder about his upcoming run on Detective Comics. [Techland]

Comics | David Brothers offers a detailed analysis of previous Top Cow Pilot Season winner Genius by Marc Bernardin, Adam Freeman and Afua Richardson: “Richardson’s approach to violence is both matter-of-fact and highly stylized. Richardson’s freeze frames of violence aren’t sensational or overly gory, but her just-shy-of-realistic art makes ‘Genius’ look almost like a really high quality animated movie. While the big bangs are what push the plot forward, Richardson renders lower key moments just as well. Destiny’s way of thinking is presented in an inventive visual shorthand that is instantly understandable and worthy of poring over. [ComicsAlliance]

Comics | Jeffery Klaehn names the greatest comic-book super-teams. [Pop]

Girl Genius, Vol. 9

Phil and Kaja Foglio are best known among fans as the creators of the long-running (and award-winning) webcomic Girl Genius, and among comics insiders for being among the first to make the web-to-print thing work. They started out with a periodical comic, then moved it to the web, and eventually gave up on floppies and went straight to trades, boosting their sales by giving away the comic for free. (You can read all about it here.)

But apparently, that was just the beginning. Today the Foglios announced a series of deals that will bring Girl Genius into a variety of new formats:

• Night Shade Books will publish a series of Girl Genius prose novels;
• Brilliance Audio will adapt these novels into audiobooks;
• Tor will launch their graphic novel line with a color omnibus edition of the first three Girl Genius graphic novels; and
• Girl Genius will be serialized in the Danish magazine Comic Party.

As if that weren’t enough, the Foglios are busy working on their next two self-published volumes and negotiating other Girl Genius licenses. iPad and Facebook games, as well as a re-issue of the card game, are in the works.

Full details after the cut.

Today Studio Foglio, LLC, creators of the award-winning webcomic, Girl Genius, announced a series of publishing and merchandising deals that will help introduce Girl Genius to the world at large.

In a world ruled by Mad Science, Girl Genius follows the adventures of Agatha Heterodyne, the recently revealed heiress to a powerful family of mad scientists, whose very existence threatens the peace and stability of an alternate steampunk Europe. The creators, Kaja and Phil Foglio, have been publishing the series online and in print, to a discerning audience of steampunk cognoscenti ever since 2001. In 2009, the series was the first graphic novel to win the prestigious Hugo Award, awarded by the World science Fiction Society, for Best Graphic Story.

Studio Foglio is proud to announce that that the Girl Genius is breaking out in 2011 when three publishers will be launching the series in three separate formats. First, Night Shade Books will publish the first-ever prose version of the Girl Genius series. Their publication of Agatha H. and the Beetleburg Clank, the first volume in the Girl Genius Trilogy, in Spring 2011, will be followed by subsequent volumes in 2012 and 2013. This, though, is only the beginning: Simultaneously, industry leader Brilliance Audio will be releasing audio adaptations of each of these novels.

In Fall 2011, TOR Books will launch their new graphic novel line with the republication of the first three Girl Genius graphic novels as a color omnibus edition even as Studio Foglio is publishing volumes 10 and 11, completing the first great arc of the Girl Genius saga.

And Girl Genius is no longer confined to the English language and the United States, Alpha Entertainment of Copenhagen, Denmark will begin publication of a serial version of Girl Genius, in Danish, in their new magazine, Comic Party in spring 2011. In addition, various Girl Genius game licenses are expected to be released in 2011. Along with a re-issue of the critically acclaimed Girl Genius ‘The Works’ card game by Seattle based Bucephalus Games, iPhone and Facebooks games are in development.

Jones Soda's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" bottles

Thirsty Comic-Con attendees and die-hard Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans take note: Beginning today, a Jones Soda truck will be driving around the San Diego Convention Center and the Gaslamp Quarter dispensing collector’s edition bottles sporting Season Eight art by Georges Jeanty and such themed flavors as “Dawn’s a Centaur Root Beer,” “Giles’s Grape Potion” and “Willow’s Green Apple Witch’s Brew.” There are six in all.

If you miss the truck, or aren’t in San Diego this week, don’t worry: You’ll apparently be able to order the Buffy line from the Jones Soda website beginning later today.

(via UGO, FEARnet)

Crunchyroll

Business | Japanese e-book publisher Bitway has invested $750,000 in Crunchyroll, the San Francisco-based website that streams anime and live-action Asian movies. A major distributor of electronic books, including manga, in Japan, Bitway hopes to work with Crunchyroll to develop a comics-distribution platform overseas, with an emphasis on the United States and Canada.

Crunchyroll launched in 2006 as a for-profit site, and featured among its content illegally hosted user-uploaded fansubs and bootleg anime. But in 2009, following a $4 million investment from venture-capital firm Venrock, Crunchyroll began offering only licensed content. The website reportedly attracts 6 million unique visitors a month. [Anime News Network]

Dark Horse

Publishing | A preview in USA Today of Troublemaker, the Dark Horse graphic novel written by bestselling author Janet Evanovich and daughter Alex, kicks off “a groundbreaking multi-platform” promotional initiative involving the publisher, the newspaper and electronics giant Toshiba.

Despite reading two press releases about “DH: HD” (“Dark Horse: High-Def”), I’m a still a little unclear about what the marketing effort involves. Toshiba’s announcement states the program “includes extensive Toshiba presence” in Dark Horse comics, which presumably means product placements. The publisher’s press release underscores a showcase in USA Today, in print and online, for its comics — similar to what the newspaper and DC Comics did with Wednesday Comics — and teases that in October it “will roll out a series of all-new stories created exclusively for the program.” [USA Today]

Awards | Raina Telgemeier’s graphic memoir Smile has been named as an honor book in the prestigious Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards, which recognize excellence in children’s and young-adult literature. “This is the first time a graphic novel has made it onto the list,” Telgemeier wrote, “and I’m extremely humbled to share the short list with such an amazing group of talented authors.” [press release]

From "Neil Young's Greendale"

Publishing | The New York Times and Wired.com spotlight Vertigo’s release this week of Neil Young’s Greendale, Joshua Dysart and Cliff Chiang’s adaptation of the singer-songwriter’s 2003 concept album. [Vertigo]

Creators | Jeffery Klaehn surveys a handful of Fantastic Four writers: John Byrne, Steve Englehart, Mark Millar, Mark Waid and Marv Wolfman. “Before the FF, comic-book super-heroes were stiff and wooden and had problems like ‘How do I enlarge the bottle city of Kandor?’, which no reader on Earth can relate to,” Waid said. “The FF made the adventure-comics world safe for emotion.” [Pop]

Creators | Snow Wildsmith interviews Chris Schweizer, touching upon his background, his influences and his Crogan Adventures series. [Good Comics for Kids]

Creators | Nicolla Scott is briefly profiled by her local newspaper. [Sydney Central]

Creators | Eric M. Esquivel chats with Brandon Graham. [Bleeding Cool]

Comic strips | A souvenir edition of Roy of the Rovers is being released this week in honor of the World Cup. [Daily Mail]

The "Foiled" board game

Forget trailers or Twitter accounts for fictional characters or MySpace pages. The next great trend in comics promotion just may be board games. Okay, maybe not. But you have to admit, this board game for Jane Yolen and Mike Cavallaro’s new graphic novel Foiled is pretty neat. (Michael May reviewed Foiled for Robot 6 earlier this week.)

On the First Second Books blog, Marketing Coordinator Gina Gagliano writes that the game has been described at the imprint’s offices as “Candy Land, but evil.” (For a truly evil children’s board game, see Uncle Wiggily. Terrifying.)

Gagliano notes that the game, which is based on the plot of Foiled, has been sent to booksellers “far and wide.” There’s even talk that Bergen Street Comics in Brooklyn may organize a game-playing session as part of its Free Comic Book Day activities. However, you don’t have to wait: You can download a printable version of the game from the Macmillan website.

Hellboy: Seed of Destruction

Digital Comics | Dark Horse announced via press release that both Umbrella Academy and Hellboy: Seed of Destruction are available through the iTunes Store, with subsequent issues available soon. Seed of Destruction is available as four issues at $0.99 each, or as a bundle of all four issues for $3.99. The first issue of Apocalypse Suite is available for free, with issues #2–#6 only $0.99 each, or a bundle of all six issues for $4.99.

Digital Comics | Disney Comics Worldwide shares more details on Disney’s DigiComics initiative. They’ll eventually be rolled out worldwide, starting in December in English-speaking countries and Italy. They’ll be available for the iPhone, iPod and Sony PSP, and eventually Disney hopes to expand to other platforms like Nokia phones and the Wii. The stories will initially come from “the huge archive that The Walt Disney Company Italy has built up in the last 50 years.”

Motion Comics | All five episodes of the Spider Woman, Agent of S.W.O.R.D. motion comic are now available for free viewing on Hulu. Because it is “intended for mature audiences,” you’ll have to register and verify your age.

Webcomics | At Comic Space, Joey Manley offers some advice to webcomics creators on promoting their comics outside of traditional comic audiences.

“In print, comics are their own category of thing. People think you have to be a special kind of person to read and enjoy them. They’re either intimidated by comics, or superior to comics, or both. Not always. Yeah. But often,” he writes. “On the web, comics are just one more fun thing to look at. It’s all part of ‘the web,’ and people don’t get their guard up so quickly. They go from blog to animated cartoon to webcomic to photo-sharing site to social network and back to blog again, without paying attention to the differences between these things. It’s just one big mush of fun. They don’t feel like they have to be ‘comics fans’ to read a webcomic.

This is just one of several interesting posts over the last few days; read his blog to check them all out. (via Paperless Comics)

Webcomics | Brad Guigar at Webcomics.com has posted many of the funny things Scott Kurtz said while emceeing the Harvey Awards. And a lot of them are pretty funny.

Digital Comics | In November you’ll be able to read Robert Crumb on your iPhone.

Digital Comics | Alex De Campi kicks off a column at Bleeding Cool by talking about her upcoming digital comic Valentine.

Webcomics | Michel Fiffe’s Zegas has kicked off over at ACT-I-VATE.

From "The Lightning Strika," by Jae Lee

Sports-apparel giant Adidas has produced three promotional comics illustrated Jae Lee, JG Jones and Ryan Benjamin that spotlight soccer stars Emmanuel Adebayor, Steven Gerrard and Ricardo Kaka, respectively.

The comics are available online for viewing or download on the company’s website, and will be released in print in Adidas markets worldwide. There are also plans to offer the titles for free through e-publishing sites and as an iPhone application.

Admittedly, the image itself is cute.

The shirt itself doesn’t harm anything by existing. I don’t object to it any more than I’d object to seeing a T-shirt featuring Jenny Sparks, the Engineer, and Swift that says “I love to see women in Authority.” It’s a cute idea. I do have serious problems with it being alone in that article. Well, not alone. It’s on display with some heart pendants featuring Spider-man/Gwen Stacy and Spider-Man/Green Goblin (which I predict will be a surprisingly good seller) and lip gloss tubes featuring unrecognizable characters kissing. And that begs the question… Where are the female superheroes in this superhero merchandise aimed at female people?

There’s just no good reason to launch a women’s superhero clothing line with a sleepshirt professing attraction to four male characters. “Marvel has no recognizable female characters” does not work as an excuse. The company’s Silver Age formula was teams with at least one girl. Where’s the X-Apparel with its variety of well-known female characters? How about the Fantastic Four? A simple image of a blue baby doll shirt with a big 4 logo in the center sends a pretty clear Sue Storm message. Hell, how about an Avengers T-shirt with some fricking female Avengers on it?

Of course, the real problem is that Marvel has no recognizable solo female characters. They have no merchandizing equivalent to Wonder Woman or Supergirl, and this is their own damned fault. Wonder Woman didn’t spring fully formed from the Golden Age into the hearts of little girls in the 60s. The only reason she’s known to the country at large is because she had a TV show and was in Superfriends. Because someone a few decades went “Yeah, we can go mainstream with this” and they took the leap. It paid off, and now DC has a feminine cash-cow no matter how few women pick up the actual comic books.

No one at Marvel really pushed solo female adventurers like Ms. Marvel or She-Hulk or Black Widow during the live action shows of the 70s or the animated shows of the 90s or even the live action movies of today. All summer long we read articles asking “Where are the female superheroes?” and what does Marvel announce for women in future films after making bank on the up-til-then unknown Iron Man? There’s a woman named Natasha in the Iron Man sequel.

They don’t have the guts to put out a female James Bond without attaching her to a major male lead. What hope does the poor Wasp have?

Honestly, I wish I could be commending Marvel for this. Even though I’m disgusted that they had to do cootie testing to see if they’d offend their “core audience” with marketing towards women, I’m glad they want to market towards women finally. But I’m underwhelmed. (And I’m not alone.) This offering of groupie-style apparel, little heart pendants and flavored lip gloss is weak, and unless behind it lies a treasure trove of Ms. Marvel tank tops, Valkyrie sundresses, and Black Widow lipstick Marvel is in trouble here. This is just asking girls to attach themselves to the heroes as a love interest. Even Disney doesn’t make that mistake. See, it’s not the pink and sparkles that appeals to girls with the princess and fairies lines. It’s being the hero of the story that appeals there. It’s the one who looks like you taking center stage. The one you could be.

For this to really take, Marvel needs a superhero brand for women. They need a brand women identify with and want to emulate. The sort of logo that women get tattoos of so they can feel powerful as women. They need their own equivalent to Wonder Woman, and they’ve got plenty of characters in the stable with the potential without having to try a cheap knockoff. They just need to pick one and put her out there competently enough.

After Watchmen, What Next?

This morning DC Comics launched the website for its  “After Watchmen, What Next?” initiative designed to lead new readers to other comics.

Although the initial announcement last month mentioned just six DC titles — Identity Crisis #1, Planetary #1, Preacher #1, Saga of the Swamp Thing #1 and Transmetropolitan #1 — the website spotlights some 50 graphic novels and collections divided into categories such as “Books That Redefine Modern Super Heroes,” “More Books By Alan Moore” and “Books That Push The Boundaries of Science Fiction.”

Titles include All-Star Superman, DC: The New Frontier, We3, DMZ, Astro City, The Sandman, Ex Machina, Fables, Batman: Year One, 100 Bullets and Y: The Last Man.

According to Publishers Weekly, the DC program initially will focus on a fewer number of books — about 20. In addition to the website, the initiative will include co-op advertising, email newsletters, online banner advertising, and new groups on Facebook and MySpace.

Super Human Resources #1

Editor’s Note: I started talking to Ken Marcus, whose Super Human Resources comic comes out from Ape Entertainment next month, some time ago about doing a quick Q&A for the blog. But after doing a quick Google search, I realized I was way behind the curve. So instead, he agreed to write up a guest column. Playing off of a post I did last year, he offered to share some of the things he’s learned about marketing his indy comic over the last few months.

And if you aren’t interested in this topic, we’ve got you covered as well — Marcus also sent over some preview pages from the first issue.

by Ken Marcus

Hey, peeps. My name is Ken Marcus. I’m the creator of the new mini-series Super Human Resources from Ape Entertainment. #1 is due in comic stores at the beginning of March.

Why am I talking to you? Um, besides shamelessly whoring my own book out? I’ve learned a few things about marketing my indy comic along the way, and I thought it would be helpful to share them with those thinking about publishing their own book. Particularly in light of the new Diamond sales thresholds.

Am I an expert? Hardly. Our sales numbers are not exactly lighting the world on fire. But they were pretty good for an indy from a first-time creator. In…I don’t know…the worst economic climate ever to launch a comic. I’m also an associate creative director at one of the top ad agencies in the country. So I know just enough about marketing to be dangerous. So I wanted to share what we learned. Starting with this little pick-me-up:

People do not care about you. Not readers, not retailers, not the press and maybe not even your publisher. No one gives two turds about your book except for you. (The publisher thing isn’t really true, but regardless, this NEEDS to be your working mindset.) So making other people give two turds about your idea rests solely on your shoulders. That’s another way to say “marketing.”

Super Human Resources, pg. 8

If you build it, they will ignore it. Look, there are too many baseball diamonds in too many fields in that Previews catalog. And most of them look better than yours. Too many people think they can send their files off to the printer and book their table in San Diego. Nope. You’ve created your book. Now comes the hard part.

You’re getting great press when your comic comes out. AKA, you’re ‘effed. This is the No. 1 thing I don’t get. Creators doing all their interviews and previews the month their comic is out. Indy comics are all about pre-ordering. Getting people to ask their LCS for your comic the month it’s in Previews. This is the already-on-life-support lifeblood of indy comics. You have a few weeks before your issue #1 hits Previews and through the rest of that month. That is your sweet spot for pushing all your press and PR.

Think of it like a movie opening. If you don’t hit that first issue hard in the pre-ordering phase, the rest of your series is finished. Cooked. Sure, some comics build buzz over time and reorders can grow. That’s all fine and dandy. But it’s not a marketing plan.

Super Human Resources, pg. 9

It takes money to make…er, lose money. Chance are, you are not going to make money on your first comic. God knows I won’t. You still gotta pay to play. Ads cost money. Banners cost money. Getting your book in front of retailers costs money. So budget for an extra comic. Have a four issue mini? Then budget for a fifth. And use that extra dough for marketing. Plan ahead of time, and it’s less painful. Slightly less painful.

Retailers are not the enemies of indy comics. They are the enemies of crappy indy comics they can’t sell. Everything you do should be viewed through the lens of “How can I make it easier for retailers to sell my book?” This even starts at a conceptual level.

The Big Idea isn’t necessary. But it sure helps. A town in Alaska that stays dark for 30 days is descended upon by vampires. Five illegitmate children each inherit one of their father’s super powers. A reformed villain lives in the Witness Relocation Program. Each of these comics have what we in advertising call The Big Idea. You hear the sentence, and you want to hear more. Not every great comic has one of these. But man, does it ever help. It should be front and center of everything you do. This kinda thing also helps retailers when they’re hand-selling in stores. For us, it was “Welcome to the HR department of the world’s greatest super team.” People get the idea right away.

It’s not your job to build demand for your book. It’s your job to demonstrate to retailers you’re building demand for your book. A tactical difference. Retailers are your primary customers. For every fan that pre-orders your book, hopefully retailers will order a few more. Don’t be afraid to share all your great reviews and interviews with retailers on forums like CBIA (Comic Book Industry Alliance). They don’t care about them and won’t read them. But again, you need to be out there demonstrating to them you are working your ass off to help them sell your book. They do care about that.

Super Human Resources, pg. 13

For retailers to order your book, they need to see it first. Unless your name is Ed Brubaker. You need to send them a hard copy of your comic. At least, a preview. (Wait. Even Ed Brubaker does this. And he’s friggin’ Ed Brubaker.) Things that help them sell your book like postcards, posters, buttons and bookmarks don’t hurt either. We had got a great response with ours:

http://blog.newsarama.com/2008/11/26/standing-out-in-a-crowd/

Retailers get tons of pdf’s and get tons of links. They don’t have time to look at them. And most of them suck anyway. But a hard copy they’ll look at. The thing is, retailers pretty much know instantly what they can sell and what they can’t. These guys have exceptional bullshit detectors. That brings me to my next point:

Be ready. This is the hard part. Your preview better be good. You can have a great marketing hook and exceptional support. But chances are, retailers will know in the first few pages whether your book is sellable. Nothing can kill an idea faster than putting it out half-baked.

Get new faces into their stores. Sure, you need to sell to existing comic book fans. That’s a given. But if you can demonstrate that you’re trying to get new folks into stores, retailers will thank you for it. We posted on plenty of “The Office” forums and “Office Space” fan sites. Heck, I actually did interviews with human resources sites! I can’t tell you how many HR managers emailed me asking how they can get their copy of Super Human Resources. Of course, I sent them to the Comic Book Store Locator.

Super Human Resources, pg. 14

People want to help you. They really do. Most reporters, bloggers and podcasters want to support a great indy comic. They want to be one of the first to “discover” the next big thing. And often, scoop their competitors in the comics press. Use this to your advantage. Find reviewers and writers you like. Send them a preview of your book directly. Don’t go through the site editors. They get tons of crap. You want a writer to feel like they discovered you and take ownership of your little comic that could.

Advertise in Previews. Yeah, it sucks. It costs a boat-load. But there is no better way to get in front of retailers. Let’s never speak of this again.

Press releases are a waste of time. I never even wrote one. This is comics, not the pharmaceutical business. When you engage with online site or retailers on CBIA, try to be more fun and have a hook. Most people just ignore press releases from first timers. You would too. They’re horrendous. Remember, often this is the first time you’re engaging with folks. Zig when everyone zags. It’s that simple, and it’s that hard.

Forums. The best free advertising there is. There are so many great forums out there. Including on this very site. You should be posting early and often. Post page previews, character sketches, finished art, trailers, whatever. But don’t just post marketing. Stay and chat. Heck, it’s fun. Often on these sites, you can add linkable artwork in your signature. Think of these as free banners. People will become interested with your title if you have interesting things to say about comics in general. So don’t be an a-hole.

Super Human Resources, pg. 14

Banners don’t work. I recommend them highly. Click-throughs on banners are increasingly low. But for relatively little money, you can appear like a much bigger player than you are. I found banners on a handful of comic sites to be relatively inexpensive. And they contributed to the impression that “we were everywhere” for not that much money.

More people listen to podcasts than you’d think. I can’t tell you how many people told me they heard of Super Human Resources on a podcast. Get on as many as you can. Most podcasters are super-supportive of the indy press and creators. Again, they usually want to help you and are looking for something new to discuss.

Never stop marketing. There is always more you can be doing. More forums to post on, more interviews to do, more podcasts to get on. It never ends. This is your fundamental job as a creator. Creating is only half of making comics. The easy half.

While we’re on the subject, ask your retailer to order Super Human Resources from Ape Entertainment. In Previews right now.

“Super Human Resources will touch you… in a good way, and you will know hilarity. This book is @%#$$-funny.”
Joe Kelly (Amazing Spider-Man, Action Comics, Deadpool, I Kill Giants.)

DEC083752 Issue One
JAN093975 Issue Two
FEB094040 Issue Three
MAR094064 Issue Four

http://www.superhumanresourcescomic.com