Comic Book Resources

A picture's worth a thousand words ...

Superhero Changing Station

Posterchild at Blade Diary has photos of a conveniently labeled superhero changing station in New York ... (Thanks David!)

Spider-Man's walk of shame

While The L.A. Times' Mel Melcon snaps some shots of Spider-Man's big arrest in Hollywood ... J. Jonah must be really proud right now.

These Googlers are crazy!

Google's Asterix doodle

Google today celebrates the 50th anniversary of Asterix with a nice spotlight -- otherwise known as a Google Doodle, I guess -- on its homepage in a reported 40 countries.

René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo's diminutive warrior, who debuted in the French magazine Pilote on this day in 1959, has appeared in 34 volumes that have sold more than 352 million copies worldwide.

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

American Booksellers Association

Retailing | The American Booksellers Association has asked the Department of Justice to investigate the online price war being waged by Wal-Mart, Amazon and Target. The trade group says that by selling advance-order hardcovers at deep discounts the three retail giants are engaging in "illegal predatory pricing" and making it impossible for smaller stores to compete.

Ron Catapano of Ron's Comic World in Mount Holly, New Jersey, asserts that direct-market retailers face a similar scenario: "I hope the comic publishers are paying attention. When the Watchmen movie came out and Amazon was selling the Watchmen trade paperback for less than I could get the book from Diamond Comic Distributors (including shipping cost), I complained and nobody cared. For most discounters, these books are not a significant part of their business, they are just something to make a few extra dollars on." [ICv2.com]

ChuChu

Publishing | Japanese publishing giant Shogakukan plans to close three of its magazines, including the shojo manga monthly ChuChu. The magazine debuted in December 2005 with a print run of 180,000, but more recently sales have hovered around 50,000 copies. [Anime News Network]

Libraries | The New Jersey State Library has awarded $3,000 grants to 14 libraries to help them establish and expand graphic-novel collections. The State Library also conducted workshops about developing collections, and furnished librarians with "a core graphic novel bibliography" to help them with their purchases. [NJ.com]

Continue Reading »

'Can you imagine spider-powers and infallibility?'

Spider-Pope!

On last night's episode of The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert spied a spider crawling on the face of Pope Benedict XVI and posed a hypothetical scenario that would make Stan Lee proud: "... Given all the toxic waste and loose nuclear radiation all over Eastern Europe, if that spider bit the pope we might soon have ... Spider-Pope!"

"He could shoot holy water from his wrists," Colbert continued. "Trap atheists in his web, and every time someone used birth control his popey-sense would tingle!"

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

Marvel

Legal | New York City-based law firm Levi & Korsinsky on Friday filed a class-action lawsuit challenging Disney's $4-billion purchase of Marvel Entertainment. Like the earlier lawsuit filed by Marvel shareholder Christine Vlatos, this one claims the proposed transaction undervalues Marvel's stock. [press release]

Business | DC Entertainment President Diane Nelson continues her interview tour, assuring retailer-oriented website ICv2.com "we’re going to be looking for a real publisher" to succeed Paul Levitz as head of DC Comics: "This is not about replacing someone with a cyborg unit that will answer to me. We want a publishing expert."

At MTV's movie-focused Splash Page, Nelson highlights DC's Vertigo imprint as "an area of great interest" that "could potentially offer amazing stories for our future television video game, digital and consumer products businesses." [ICV2.com, Splash Page]

Continue Reading »

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

Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Vol. 1

Digital comics | By ICv2's tally, the number of mobile comics has nearly doubled in the past 60 days, jumping from 105 to 207. [ICv2.com]

Digital comics | AdHouse Books and Dark Horse Comics have announced new mobile comics. Dark Horse's first releases, available via iPhone, will be three Star Wars collections: Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Vol. 1 – Shipyards of Doom, Star Wars: Empire, Vol. 1 – Betrayal, and Star Wars: Legacy, Vol. 1 – Broken. Meanwhile, beginning today AdHouse will offer a preview of Vito Delsante and Rachel Freire's FCHS through the Comics by comiXology application. The print edition is set for release in November. [press release, press release]

Conventions | The Toronto Sun and The London Free Press preview Fan Expo Canada, which kicks off today. [Fan Expo Canada]

Conventions | Vanessa McCray previews Cherry Capital Con, which will be held Saturday and Sunday in Traverse City, Michigan. Guests include Tommy Lee Edwards, Jason Howard and Daniel Way. [Traverse City Record-Eagle]

Continue Reading »

The Walking Dead: Survivalist fiction, or a sign of things to come?

The Walking Dead, Book Four

Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard may have gotten things right with The Walking Dead: When the zombie apocalypse comes, it will mean the end of civilization.

Hey, I'm just repeating what researchers in Canada have found. In short, unless the undead are dealt with "quickly and aggressively," we'll all be doomed -- or else forced to rely on our own Rick Grimes to save our sorry butts.

BBC News reports that a study by researchers from the University of Ottawa and Carleton University posed a simple, and amusingly fanboy-ish, question: If there were to be a battle between zombies and the living, who would win?

For the answer, scientists used "biological assumptions based on popular zombie movies" -- and the classic slow-moving zombie model. But even with the lumbering variety, the answer is pretty grim.

"It's imperative that zombies are dealt with quickly or else ... we are all in a great deal of trouble," the scientists conclude.

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

Comiket 76

Conventions | Think Comic-Con International is crowded? Comiket 76, last weekend's installment of Tokyo's twice-yearly comics fair, drew a reported 560,000 attendees -- 10,000 more than last summer's event. Comiket is held for three days in August and December at Tokyo's Big Sight convention center. [Sankuka Complex, Anime News Network]

Publishing | Sales of comics in the direct market increased in July for the second month in a row -- up 3 percent from July 2008 -- while the Top 100 graphic novels dropped 11 percent for the same period.

Marvel and DC's summer events led the comics chart, with Captain America: Reborn #1 selling an estimated 193,142 copies, followed by Blackest Night #1 with 177,105. The 13th, and final, volume of 100 Bullets topped the graphic novels list with 8,700 copies. [ICv2.com]

Continue Reading »

Charlie Brown, Smurfette and Popeye use Woolite, apparently

Woolite ad, by Euro RSCG Puerto Rico

Ads of the World showcases an interesting print campaign for Woolite by Euro RSCG Puerto Rico. "For Everyday Colors" uses images of the somewhat iconic outfits of Smurfette, Popeye and Charlie Brown to sell three of the brand's laundry products.

The use of black-and-white art in the Popeye ad clever, as it's promoting a detergent designed for dark clothes. However, the Smurfette piece falls short because without the Smurf village in the background, we'd be hard-pressed to identify the owner of the items on the line.

(via Super Punch)

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

Gene Colan

Creators | Legendary artist Gene Colan, who was recently hospitalized with pneumonia and other health issues, is expected to be sent home today. Colan, 82, will receive daily visits by a nurse for the next month. [Clifford Meth]

Events | Deb Aoki and Robert Selna cover the Saturday opening of the New People J-Pop complex in San Francisco's Japantown. The vision of Viz Media founder Seiji Horibuchi, the $15-million center is designed to serve as a hub for Japanese comics, animation, music, fashion and film. [New People]

Awards | Girl Genius creators Kaja and Phil Foglio deliver their Hugo Awards acceptance speech in comics form. Girl Genius, Vol. 8, was named Best Graphic Story at Worldcon. [Girl Genius Online]

Continue Reading »

Is the big-budget Spider-Man musical no more?

The Amazing Spider-Man #50

The $45-million Spider-Man musical may be in bigger trouble than everyone thought.

Reports circulated last week that work on Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark had been put on hold while producers tried to overcome "cash-flow obstacles." Despite those problems, a spokesperson maintained that the show would begin previews on Feb. 25, and open sometime in March.

But today the New York Post's Michael Riedel reports, with some glee, that Spider-Man's actors "have been released from their contracts, with no incentive (i.e., money) to hang around waiting for the production to get back on track."

He also writes that ticket agents are scrambling to get deposit refunds for clients who booked early previews.

The musical, directed by Julie Taymor (The Lion King) and featuring music and lyrics by Bono and The Edge, has yet to announce who will play the lead role. Evan Rachel Wood and Alan Cumming are set to play Mary Jane Watson and Green Goblin.

Riedel places the blame for the troubles on "the inexperience of its producers," and a gargantuan budget that reportedly would require the 1,700-seat theater to sell out every show for five years for the production just to break even.

Each one of us is an archer, and a speedster, and an acrobat ...

Cliff Chiang's "Breakfast Club" homage

Artist Cliff Chiang marks the passing of filmmaker John Hughes with a wonderful homage to The Breakfast Club movie poster featuring the original Teen Titans lineup.

You may recall that in 2007 artist Jason Pearson paid tribute to the movies of Hughes with his covers for The Loners, the Marvel miniseries by C.B. Cebulski and Karl Moline. Johanna Draper Carlson showcased the covers, and the original posters, here and here.

Has the Spider-Man musical hit a wall?

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

Rumors are circulating that Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark has run into a financial snag that could threaten the production schedule of the big-budget Broadway musical.

Variety reports that preparation work for the show stopped this week, apparently due to "cash-flow obstacles" that producers -- Marvel Entertainment and Sony Pictures, among them -- are moving to resolve.

A spokesperson told the trade paper that production remains on track for the show to begin previews on Feb. 25 and open sometime in March.

The musical, directed by Julie Taymor (The Lion King) and featuring music and lyrics by Bono and The Edge, so far stars Evan Rachel Wood as Mary Jane Watson and Alan Cumming as Green Goblin.

Although the role of Peter Parker has yet to be cast, we already know that once he dons the Spider-Man costume, he won't sing.

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

Twilight

Conventions | Retailer Christopher Butcher, organizer of the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, surveys the comics-convention landscape and wonders where the comics are. He also comments on the Twilight "controversy" at Comic-Con International: "... The 10,000 Twilight fans at the con really were a problem for the show, but a lot of the reasons that got floated came from a sexist, xenophobic, bullshit fanboy place. I actually feel bad even writing this, but truly, legitimately, 6,000 people at the show just for Twilight means 6,000 people that weren’t spending money at the show means 6,000 people that might’ve wanted to go that had an interest in dropping a few bucks at the various vendors? Shut out." [Comics212]

Publishing | Where have all the great comic-book hucksters gone? [Comiks Debris]

Continue Reading »

SDCC '09 | Quote of the day

Lev Grossman

"Spend any time at all at Comic-Con and it's hard not to go all Hunter Thompson. There's just so many damn people. Nerd culture has gorged and gorged, and then bloated, then collapsed under the weight of its own flesh. The excess flesh has turned septic and begun to necrotize, and that is the stench in the air in San Diego. This isn't nerd Woodstock, it's nerd Altamont."

-- author Lev Grossman, writing from Day One of the convention