Top Cow
More on the Image/Top Cow consolidation and Image’s marketing role
In January, Image Comics announced that it had reached an agreement with the largest studio under its umbrella, Top Cow, to assume the duties of marketing, production and sales. In this consolidation the central Image office took over the responsibilities of production, marketing and sales; editor Phil Smith, Sales/Marketing Director Atom! Freeman, and Publicity Manager Christine Dinh were all let go.
At the same time, the central Image office –- called aptly enough “Image Central” –- announced a change in its own marketing department, with 10-month hire Betsy Gomez heading out and Image Administrative Assistant Sarah deLaine taking the role of public relations and marketing coordinator. Although the initial reaction to this story has been minimal, further talk around the virtual water cooler among journalists, professionals and industry watchers see two things revealed in this – the downsizing of Top Cow’s office in order to maximize profits, but secondarily – and maybe more importantly – is the state of publicity and marketing for the third-largest comics publisher in America. As a journalist covering comics for Robot 6 and other outlets, I’m without a doubt more acutely aware of any changes in the publicity desk; they’re the point-of-contact for journalists big and small, from Comic Book Resources to USA Today. But I’m also aware from my own background working as a publicist and marketing professional outside the comics industry.
- February 9, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by Chris Arrant
Talking Comics with Tim | Joshua Hale Fialkov
Echoes
Echoes co-creators Joshua Hale Fialkov and Rahsan Ekedal‘s first printing of the opening issue for the five-issue Minotaur Press/Top Cow miniseries sold out. So when I found out that Robot 6 was fortunate enough to get to re-run the first issue in one-page installments starting today, I wasted no time in contacting Fialkov for an email interview. Here’s the basic premise of the miniseries: “Brian Cohn was learning to deal with the Schizophrenia inherited from his father. Supportive wife, new baby on the way, drugs to control the voices. But when on his father’s deathbed, he learns that he also inherited the trophies of his father’s career as a serial killer. Will his madness send him further down into the crawlspace of his father’s mind?” My thanks to Fialkov for the interview–and be sure to read Echoes right here at Robot 6.
Tim O’Shea: Minotaur Press was revived partially to publish this series, how flattering is it to be part of the imprint’s return?
Joshua Hale Fialkov: It’s pretty cool. I’ve been looking for places to do what I do for a long time, and I’ve always gotten the impression that there weren’t a lot of options. For Top Cow to more or less reopen a place that’s focused very specifically on the type of books that I do, that virtually no other publisher does, is just an amazing opportunity.
- February 7, 2011 @ 04:00 PM by Tim O'Shea
Get a daily dose of Top Cow’s Echoes right here on Robot 6
Echoes #1
If you’re a fan of horror comics or just good comics in general, then you’ll like this. Courtesy of our friends at Top Cow, starting today we will serialize the first issue of Echoes by writer Joshua Hale Fialkov and artist Rahsan Ekedal. In addition, each page will include creator commentary from Fialkov.
You can check it out at http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/echoescomic. The cover and first page with commentary on both are up now, with new pages arriving every day.
And of course, if you decide you’d prefer to read it in print, a second printing of Echoes #1, as well as Echoes #2, can be found in stores now. The third issue arrives Feb. 23. For more information, visit http://www.echoesthecomic.com or follow on Twitter @echoescomic. We’ll have an interview with Fialkov a little later this afternoon, and you can check out the official press release after the jump.
- February 7, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by JK Parkin
‘We Are All Lost’
We Are All Lost
The folks at Top Cow sent over a teaser, above, for a new series debuting in April. Beyond that, they didn’t offer any additional details, so I guess we’ll have to wait and see what they have in store.
- January 7, 2011 @ 02:30 PM by JK Parkin
What Are You Reading?
Deadpool Team-Up #886
Hello and welcome to a special “birthday bash” edition of our weekly “What Are You Reading” feature, where the Robot 6 crew talks about what books we’ve read recently. Usually we invite a special guest to share what they’ve been reading, but since today isn’t just an ordinary day for us, we thought we’d invite a whole bunch of special guests to help us out — our friends and colleagues from Comic Book Resources, Spinoff and Comics Should Be Good!
To see what everyone has been reading, click below …
- January 2, 2011 @ 05:00 PM by JK Parkin
Food or Comics? | This week’s comics on a budget
Welcome once again to Food or Comics?, where every week we talk about what comics we’d buy based on certain spending limits — $15, $30 to spend and if we had extra money to spend on what we call the “Splurge” item. Check out Diamond’s release list for this week if you’d like to play along in our comments section.
Emitown
Graeme McMillan
It’s a weird week for new releases, with everyone but Marvel taking it easy and pulling back on massive hauls in order to give our wallets a nice holiday break (unless you’re a Marvel completest, in which case, yowza. Look out). That said, if I had $15, I’d put it towards the special 200th issue of What If? ($4.99), the first issue of event tie-in Chaos War: X-Men ($3.99) because I’m curious how Chris Claremont and Louise Simonson handle Marvel’s version of Blackest Night, and the second issue of Scott Snyder and Jock’s Detective Comics run (#872, $3.99), because I was really happily surprised by how much I enjoyed the first.
If I had $30, I’d put Chaos War and What If? back on the shelf, and get Emitown ($24.99) instead. I’ve heard really great things about this print collection of Emi Lenox’s autobio webcomic, and I like the idea of seeing 2011 in by discovering a new cartoonist to love.
Splurging, I’d go back to Marvel, with the brand new Ka-Zar collection by Mark Waid and Andy Kubert ($19.99). I missed out on this series back in the 1990s, but as a fan of both fish-out-of-water stories and Mark Waid stories, something tells me that this might be right up my street.
- December 28, 2010 @ 03:44 PM by Michael May
What Are You Reading?
Uncanny X-Force #1
Welcome to What Are You Reading?, our weekly look at what the Robot 6 crew has been enjoying on the comics front. Today our special guest is our friend Ron Richards, one of the co-founders of the popular comics website iFanboy.com. To see what Ron and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below.
- December 12, 2010 @ 01:14 PM by JK Parkin
Top Cow holiday specials join forces to form one super-mega special
Top Cow Holiday Special
Last week Jingle Belle creator Paul Dini said on Twitter that the previously solicited Jingle Belle special for this year was canceled, but the content would be combined with the Top Cow Holiday Special.
“Low preorders necessitated the Jing titles to be combined into the Top Cow special,” he later told an inquiring fan. “Ironically preorders shot up after that.”
According to Top Cow, the two former single issues, along with a lot of other material, will now be one graphic novel.
“Jingle Belle and the Top Cow Holiday Special (both single issues) were combined this year and will appear as the Top Cow Holiday Special OGN,” said Top Cow’s Christine Dinh. “It’ll be a flip book of both new issues.”
The graphic novel will arrive in stores Dec. 22, just in time for Christmas. Dinh said the 96-page OGN will retail at $12.99 and will include the content from The Top Cow Holiday Special #1, Jingle Belle: Grounded #1, the previously released Jingle Belle: Santa Claus vs Frankenstein, a 4-page preview of Marc Silvestri’s new project September Mourning and additional bonus material. You can check out a preview of some of the Jingle Belle artwork here.
- December 7, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by JK Parkin
Whilce Portacio to illustrate second Artifacts story arc
Artifacts #5
Top Cow has tapped Whilce Portacio to draw the second arc of their 13-issue event series Artifacts. The creator of Wetworks will follow Michael Broussard, the artist on the first four issues.
The 13-issue series, which will be drawn by four different art teams, weaves together storylines from several Top Cow books, including Witchblade, The Darkness and Angelus. The story revolves around 13 mystical artifacts that, when brought together, would bring about mankind’s destruction. A mysterious figure aims to do just that.
“This arc was specially set up for me,” he told USA Today. “I like doing tech stuff, but I also like doing dark and moody. In this case, that moodiness revolves around supernatural stuff and that’s right up my alley. This was a chance for me to artistically examine technology versus spirituality.”
Another artist will take over the book with issue nine, and “a special guest artist” will draw the last issue. The series is written by Ron Marz.
- September 24, 2010 @ 11:31 AM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Kevin is out sick today, so I’m filling in on Comics A.M. … apologies for the lateness.
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]
- August 11, 2010 @ 10:26 AM by JK Parkin
Food or Comics? | This week’s comics on a budget
Bone: Tall Tales
Welcome once again to Food or Comics?, where every week we talk about what comics we’d buy based on certain spending limits — $15, $30 to spend and if we had extra money to spend on what we call the “Splurge” item.
So join Brigid Alverson, Chris Mautner and me as we run down what we’d buy this week, and check out Diamond’s release list to play along in our comments section.
Chris Mautner
If I had $15:
This one’s easy, as Wednesday sees the arrival of Jeff Smith’s latest Bone-related project, Tall Tales ($10.99 paperback, $22.99 hardcover — I’m obviously going for the paperback here). My daughter has become obsessed with Bone — to the point where she’s started making her own Bone-related comics (complete with theme music) — and is eager to pick up the latest volume, even if it does mostly collect material she and I have read before (namely the Stupid, Stupid Rat Tails series). I’ll probably pick it up on the sly this week and give it to her for for her birthday next month.
- August 10, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by JK Parkin
SDCC ’10 | Highlights of Saturday’s comics programming
Comic-Con International
Like clockwork, Comic-Con organizers have released the schedule for the third day of the convention, Saturday, July 24.
Below you’ll find highlights of the comics-related programming, ranging from movie panels for Warner Bros.’ Green Lantern and Marvel’s Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger to Joe Quesada’s traditional “Cup O’ Joe” and “Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 6: Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour vs. The Fans.”
The full programming schedule for Saturday can be found here.
10 to 11 a.m. Spotlight on Carla Speed McNeil — Comic-Con special guest Carla Speed McNeil is best known for her creator-owned title Finder. A few years back, Carla took new stories of Finder to the Internet, and the result was an Eisner Award for best webcomic of 2008 and a new series of reprints from Dark Horse. Carla talks about her work and what’s next in this Spotlight panel. Room 3
10 to 11 a.m. The Black Panel 2010 — This year’s Black Panel will be one for the ages. The focus will be on empowerment, education, real-world networking, and finally but never last, fun. The panelists include entertainment attorney Darrel Miller, novelist Nnedi Okorafor, artist Denys Cowan and writer/producer/director Reggie Hudlin, with moderator Michael Davis. Once they answer life’s burning questions, they’ll chill with a salute and Q&A from the audience with actor/writer/director Bill Duke. As always, surprise guests who will rock your world. Room 5AB
10 to 11 a.m. Marvel Comics Writers Unite! — The third in Comic-Con’s series of “Year of the Writer/Comics Writers Unite!” panels focuses on Marvel Comics and includes Comic-Con special guests Brian Michael Bendis (Avengers, New Avengers, Ultimate Spider-Man), Matt Fraction (Invincible Iron Man, Thor) and Chris Claremont (X-Men Forever, X-Women) in a discussion with writer Mark Waid (Amazing Spider-Man, Irredeemable). Room 6DE
- July 10, 2010 @ 03:18 PM by Kevin Melrose
C2E2 | CBLDF, Beanworld and more
C2E2, the new Chicago convention brought to you by the makers of the New York Comic Con, kicks off tomorrow at the Lakeside Center at McCormick Place. In fact, announcements have already started rolling out in conjunction with the convention.
Here are a few more items of note if you’re attending the show. Check back to CBR and Robot 6 all weekend for news, announcements and reports from the show.
*****
Beanworld creator Larry Marder has an offer for fans who bring either of the recent Beanworld collections from Dark Horse up to him to sign:
He’ll also be trading your homemade Beanworld sketches for his homemade Beanworld sketches.
- April 15, 2010 @ 10:27 AM by JK Parkin
Talking Comics with Tim: Joshua Hale Fialkov
Tumor
This interview with Joshua Hale Fialkov (creator of the acclaimed Elk’s Run from a few years ago and current noir work at Archaia, Tumor [which reunites Fialkov with his Elk's Run artist Noel Tuazon]) took an interesting route before finally getting here. The initial interview started as a suggestion from Johanna Draper Carlson back in October 2008 (thanks, Johanna) and was intended for my pop culture blog, Talking with Tim. Fialkov was more than game to do the interview and we completed the initial interview in late 2008, right around the time I signed on to contribute my comics interviews to Robot 6. So, savvy, yet disorganized guy that I am, I set the interview aside–and promptly misplaced it. When news of Fialkov’s Tumor (available here for Kindle and here for free for those of without Kindles) started making the rounds, I realized my mistake and tracked the emails down. I contacted Fialkov (offering my sincere apologies) and he was kind enough to entertain new questions about Tumor. So please note, after the initial Tumor discussion, the interview moves on to the initial 2008 interview, which while it is understandably dated in some aspects, much of it is still quite engaging and relevant. My thanks to Fialkov for his understanding and for his time both in 2008 and 2009.
Tim O’Shea: How pleased have you been with Tumor’s Kindle sales? How much has the story’s word-of-mouth been boosted thanks to the website?
Joshua Hale Fialkov: Well, just using our placement in the ranks on Amazon, the fact that a Kindle only comic book can get up to be the 8th most ordered graphic novel on all of Amazon, including print, is pretty damn amazing. I think there’s a lot of reasons that we’re up there, including that we’re giving the first chapter away for free, but, still, that says to me that there’s an audience for comics on the device, and it’s one that in some ways may soon rival the audience for print comics. At least, for those readers who use Amazon to get their fix. My whole career has been built on a lot of goodwill, and from the support of friends and fans with big mouths and wide audiences, and, frankly, in a niche business like comics, that’s really how the whole thing works. What I hope to do is go the extra mile to really reward my readers, first with what I hope is excellent content, but secondly by giving them access to the stuff over on the website, including behind the scenes material, and special features that not only enhance their enjoyment of the book, but hopefully show them a side of the process they haven’t considered. To that end, there’s a healthy amount of traffic who make it over to the site every time we release an issue, so, I know that in some respects, it’s working.
- September 7, 2009 @ 10:30 AM by Tim O'Shea
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Conan
Publishing | Paradox Entertainment, which owns the rights to the Robert E. Howard library and is rebooting the Conan the Barbarian movie franchise, has signed a deal with Dark Horse to publish comics based on its slate of films. Dark Horse has been publishing Conan titles since 2003, and last year released miniseries based on Howard creations Solomon Kane and Kull. [Variety]
Publishing | Jeff Katz’s new entertainment company American Original has brought together a group of top-name comedians to write a comic-book series called Comedy Death Ray. Those already signed on include David Cross, Zach Galifianakis, Janeane Garofalo, B.J. Novak, Bob Odenkirk, Patton Oswalt, Paul Scheer and Sarah Silverman. Each comedian will write on issue of the anthology series, which will be released through American Original’s deal with Top Cow Productions. [Variety]
Publishing | Eric Reynolds, Fantagraphics Books’ longtime director of publicity, quietly has been promoted to associate publisher. [The Comics Reporter]
- July 27, 2009 @ 07:32 AM by Kevin Melrose