Valiant
Comics A.M. | Comic artist’s claims against songwriter can proceed
Legal
Legal | A federal judge has dismissed two claims by comics creator Jason Barnes, aka Jazan Wild, against songwriter Andreas Carlsson but will two others to move forward in a lawsuit over a graphic novel biography. The two signed a deal in 2007 for Dandy: Welcome to a Dandyworld, with Carlsson allegedly retaining the copyrights and Barnes receiving pay plus a percentage of book sales and a cut from any merchandising and movie deals. Carlsson filed suit three years later after Barnes posted Dandyworld online, a move the artist answered with a countersuit claiming, among other things, copyright infringement, bad faith and breach of contract because the songwriter published a bestselling novel in Sweden “inspired by a graphic novel created by Andreas Carlsson and Jazan Wild.” Barnes, who claims he never received residuals from the sales of the novel, asked a federal judge to determine copyright ownership. U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder refused to enter summary judgment about Barnes’ copyright, saying ownership will rest on whether he was an independent contractor of Carlsson’s employee, and dismissed the artists’ claims of negligent representation and fraudulent inducement. However, Carlsson will have to face accusations of breach of contract and bad faith.
If the name Jason Barnes, or Jazan Wild, seems familiar, it’s because two years ago he sued NBC and producer Tim Kring for $60 million, claiming elements from the third season of Heroes were stolen from his 2005-2006 comic series Jazan Wild’s Carnival of Souls. [Courthouse News Service]
Comics A.M. | Are You My Mother?, The Walking Dead top indie bookstore chart
The Walking Dead, Vol. 1
Sales charts | The American Booksellers Association has released its list of the top-selling graphic novels in indie bookstores for the eight weeks ending May 27. At first glance, it looks like it’s mostly literary graphic novels (Habibi, Are You My Mother?) with a healthy sprinkling of The Walking Dead. [Bookselling This Week, via The Beat]
Creators | Grant Morrison discusses the second issue of Batman Incorporated, which features Batman’s lover and Robin’s mom, Talia al Ghul. [USA Today]
Comics history | Could comics history have been radically different if Jerry Siegel had a different last name? Larry Tye, the author of the new Superman a biography, talks to Fresh Air about the origins of the Man of Steel and how he changed over the years: “The editors in New York over time started to exercise their editorial control. They saw this as both a character and a business. They would go down to the level of dictating just what his forelocks looked like. They could be too curly. His arms should be shorter and less ‘ape-like.’ And Joe should get rid of his hero’s ‘nice fat bottom.’ His editor told him that he worried that that made Superman look too ‘la-dee-dah.’ And they were really concerned about the image of the character.” [NPR]
Chain Reactions | Harbinger #1
Harbinger #1
The new Valiant Entertainment (or Valiant 2.0, Valiant Reborn or whatever you want to call it) returned to comics last month with the well-reviewed X-O Manowar #1. This past week their rebirth continued with the release of Harbinger #1 by Joshua Dysart, Khari Evans and Ian Hannin. How does it stack up? Here are few opinions from around the web …
Benjamin Bailey, IGN: “In the 90s, Valiant was king, and Harbinger was the title that earned them their crown. It was the book at the heart of the Valiant universe; the book that all the collectors gobbled up and sold for inflated prices. Harbinger was also, in a lot of ways, the book that all the other publishers would steal from for years to come. Now, it’s 2012 and we have a brand new Harbinger #1. If you are new to the Valiant Universe, there is plenty to enjoy in this issue, even if feels like something you have read before.”
Kelly Thompson, Comic Book Resources: “There’s a lot of great character work here, strong dialogue and a lot of plot, but the most exciting thing to me as a fan of superhero books is how Dysart handles Peter Stanchek’s power. Peter is some version of a telepath and unlike so many books out there, this fact is not just swept under the rug. It’s dealt with quite realistically and in good detail so that we can see what a mixed bag the power is. In fact, Stanchek’s first real act in this book is to steal drugs from a pharmacy and then mind wipe the clerk — but he needs the drugs to quiet the incessant inescapable voices in his head, so it’s hard to blame him. So often in comics that bit just gets glazed over — ‘Oh, you have to learn to control it’ — cut instantly to it being controlled. This is far more interesting.”
Food or Comics? | Creator Owned Hero Sammiches
Welcome to Food or Comics?, where every week we talk about what comics we’d buy at our local comic shop based on certain spending limits — $15 and $30 — as well as what we’d get if we had extra money or a gift card to spend on a splurge item.
Check out Diamond’s release list or ComicList, and tell us what you’re getting in our comments field.
DMZ, Volume 12: The Five Nations of New York
Graeme McMillan
Here’s the thing: I really can’t decide if I want to spend part of my $15 this week on Before Watchmen: Minutemen #1 (DC, $3.99). On the one hand, it’s a new Darwyn Cooke comic, and on almost every other occasion, I’d be all over that. But on the other … It’s Before Watchmen. And I don’t even mean that in the “I have moral qualms about DC’s ‘ownership’ and use of the characters” sense — although I do — but in the “I didn’t actually LIKE Watchmen that much, so why should I be interested in a prequel?” sense. Let’s table that one, then, and wait and see what happens in the store. Instead, I’ll grab Earth 2 #2 (DC, $2.99), the new Simon Spurrier book Extermination #1 (BOOM!, $1) and the weirdly-coming-out-a-month-before-the-movie Amazing Spider-Man Movie Adaptation #1 (Marvel, $2.99), if only because it’s been years since I’ve read a comic book adaptation of a movie and I want to support Marvel’s odd apparently-spoiling-itself plan.
If I had $30, I’d put Spidey back on the shelf and grab the final DMZ collection (Vol. 12: The Five Nations of New York, DC $14.99). I’ve been following the collections of Brian Wood’s series for awhile, and have been patiently awaiting this one since the series wrapped in single issues awhile back. Don’t spoil it for me, please.
Splurge-wise, I’d likely pick up the GI Joe, Vol. 2: Cobra Command, Part 1 TP (IDW, $17.99). The movie may have been put back, but I don’t care; IDW’s Joe comics are my brand of military machismo, and I dropped off the single issues in favor of collections as soon as this crossover started. Time to get caught back up and try not to think about poor Channing Tatum.
Food or Comics? | Spiritwurst
Welcome to Food or Comics?, where every week we talk about what comics we’d buy at our local comic shop based on certain spending limits — $15 and $30 — as well as what we’d get if we had extra money or a gift card to spend on a splurge item.
Check out Diamond’s release list or ComicList, and tell us what you’re getting in our comments field.
Spirit World
Graeme McMillan
Well done, DC: For the second time, I’m suckered in by your wave of new launches. This week, if I had $15, I’d drop a chunk of that on Dial H #1, Earth-2 #1 and Worlds’ Finest #1 (All DC, Dial H and Worlds’ Finest both $2.99, Earth-2 $3.99). What can I say? I really love the DC Multiverse as a concept, and I’m curious to see what the new Dial H is like.
If I had $30, I’d add some more new launches in there: Jim McCann and Rodin Esquejo’s Mind The Gap looks like a lot of fun (Image, $2.99), as does the first issue of New Mutants/Journey Into Mystery crossover Exiled #1 (Marvel, $2.99). On the recommendation of many, I’m also going to grab The Spider #1 (Dynamite, $3.99) to try out David Liss’ writing; I had a lot of people say good things about his Black Panther, so I’m looking forward to this new book.
Should I feel the urge to splurge, DC have again won the day: Spirit World HC (DC, $39.99)? Genre stories by Jack Kirby from my favorite period of his work that I’ve never seen before, including some that have never been reprinted before? Seriously, there’s no way I couldn’t want this book.
Valiant Entertainment unveils new logo and trade dress
Valiant Entertainment continues the march toward its relaunch of four classic Valiant comics later this summer with the release today of its new logo and trade dress, designed by graphic designer (and former 2000AD artist) Rian Hughes.
At their panel last week at Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo, Valiant staffers and writer Robert Venditti discussed how they’re going to update X-O Manowar, Harbinger, Bloodshot and Archer & Armstrong — all of which originally ran in the 1990s — for modern audiences. The logo redesign is of a piece with that, keeping the traditional Valiant look (and the compass that was part of the original logo) and giving it a more modern look.
“The Valiant characters have a strong fanbase and heritage, and so the new logos are fresh and modern as befits a forward-looking publisher while still paying tribute to the originals, just as has been done with the characters themselves,” Hughes said in the press release.
Valiant also released the cover and variant covers of the first release, X-O Manowar, with the new trade dress:
C2E2 2012 | Friday Photodiary
Welcome to C2E2
One of the things a lot of pros like about C2E2 is the late start on Friday. It doesn’t open to the public until 1:00 pm, so creators can sleep in and recover from their trips if they want. Or, if they want to go early to set up or just walk around and visit with each other, they can do that too. It’s also helpful for press jerks taking lots of pictures. Lots. Of pictures.
British Royal Mail features comics characters on stamps
Britain’s Royal Mail is releasing a set of 10 stamps today featuring a diverse group of comics characters from British comics. They’re available to those outside the U.K. as well and feature internationally famous characters like Judge Dredd and Dan Dare in addition to less-known folks like Roy Race and The Four Marys. There’s also a Dennis the Menace in the set (he’s the one appearing in front of the Beano comic), but don’t confuse him with the U.S. character created by Hank Ketcham. Though both characters debuted within a week of each other in March 1951, they’re different boys.
To see the full gallery of stamps, visit the BBC website.
Evan Dorkin asks, ‘What are the box office bombs of comics?’
Acclaim's sequel to Kevin Costner's "Waterworld"
In the wake of the lackluster performance of Disney’s John Carter movie at the box office earlier this month, cartoonist Evan Dorkin uses that sometimes-comic character to look back on his home medium and ask what would be the comics equivalent. Phrasing it as only he can, Dorkin asks in a blog post, “What are the ‘Holy shit, we spent a lot of money and published this comic book and no one bit’ titles out there?”
While Dorkin notes that comics makes only a small percentage of what the movie industry makes every year, he does stress that most comics have trouble breaking even. His question is which ones had an exorbitant budget that the publisher didn’t recoup in the slightest.
In the long and engaging post, Dorkin describes superhero comics akin to B-movies, saying, “There’s a built-in audience and the publishers generally know what they’re gonna get when they put something out. And by and large, they don’t fork over a ton of dough to the creators or spend a wad on pre-production figuring out what they’re doing.”
Another point I’d add to Dorkin’s question that makes finding an answer even more difficult is how secretive comic publishers are about their budgets and sales figures compared to to movie studios. While publishers are quick to shoot off press releases about comics “selling out,” no major publishing house releases figures the way movie box office figures are put on display every week. Because the general public and even the journalists covering the industry don’t have accurate figures about the money spent and the money earned on a comic, only the publishers know–and they’re not telling. But that’s an entirely separate discussion.
In the comments section, some of Dorkin’s readers chime in with potential examples like the 90s Valiant/Image crossover Deathmate, DC’s War Of The Gods crossover and certain publishers as a whole like Crossgen and Tekno. What do you think?
Comics A.M. | Heavy rains damage comics at Pittsburgh’s ToonSeum
ToonSeum
Comics | Heavy rains and a leaky roof led to the loss of between $20,000 and $25,000 worth of comics and books that Pittsburgh’s ToonSeum was storing temporarily in a warehouse. “I guess the best way to put it, the warehouse was where we kept things that did not individually have high value, but put together [were] worth a large amount,” said Executive director Joe Wos, who believes that most of the material can be replaced eventually. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]
Publishing | The digital comics distributor comiXology has hired Marc Goldberg as its chief technology officer. Goldberg formerly served as CTO for the Viacom-owned “multiplatform premium entertainment channel” EPIX. [comiXology Blog]
The Middle Ground #91 | Second time around
The unexpected thing about catching up on the output of the original Valiant line wasn’t that it made me more optimistic and enthusiastic about the upcoming relaunch of X-O Manowar and the entire Valiant Universe; part of me had been expecting that reaction based on the pedigree of those involved with the relaunch, if nothing else. What was a surprise, though, was that reading early issues of books like X-O and Harbinger made me think about the benefits of revivals and characters outlasting their original creators. Continue Reading »
The Middle Ground #90 | On the unreliability of memory and Wikipedia
One of the interesting things about the fact that Marvel and DC dominate comic book history – with a parallel stream for “alternative comics,” which is so vague as to include Robert Crumb, Chris Ware, Dan Clowes, Eddie Campbell and Marjane Satrapi, depending on who’s doing the defining at the time – is that everything else seems up for grabs. This past week, I found myself relying on the internet to find out about some of the 1990s publishers that have since gone the way of the fondly-remembered dodo, and the malleability of certain areas of history was brought home very, very clearly indeed.
The Middle Ground #86 | X-O Manosnob
I was never a Valiant reader; they came around when I was in one of my then-periodic outs with comics as a medium and an industry, which were generally down to either distaste for what was happening to once favorite characters (Hal Jordan had gone insane?) or a depressing lack of money that’d restrict my purchases to whatever Grant Morrison was writing and little else. But even if I’d been paying more attention, I’m not sure that I would’ve jumped in with both feet and hoped for the best. Continue Reading »
Jim Shooter shoots from the hip on his new blog
Photo of Shooter by Seth Kushner
Ask someone in comics what they think about Jim Shooter, and you’re bound to get very strong, and very different, opinions. Sometimes, in fact, from the same person. The self-described “writer. editor. large mammal.” has been innovative on several fronts, not only in founding Valiant, Defiant and Broadway, but also in serving as editor-in-chief of Marvel during the pivotal early ’80s, and even breaking into comics at the tender age of 13. And now he’s started telling stories about his time in the industry.
On the newly launched JimShooter.com, the respected creator has begun talking at length about his experiences and acquaintances in comics — from Stan Lee to Mort Weisinger and more. Of particular interest to me has been a post about regrets he has in the industry, as well as describing that he pitched to DC’s Legion of Super-Heroes back then because he thought that team’s stories in Adventure Comics were the worst comics on shelves.
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Tintin in the Congo
Legal | A Belgian court will rule next week whether Herge’s 1931 collection Tintin in the Congo will be banned because of its depictions of native Africans. The decision, originally expected today, following a nearly three-year-old effort by Bienvenu Mbutu Mondondo, a Congolese man living in Belgium, to have the book removed from the country’s bookstores, or at least sold with warning labels as it is in Britain. [Guardian, Mail Online]
Libraries | Robot 6 contributor Brigid Alverson reports on a C2E2 panel devoted to helping librarians deal with public challenges to graphic novels. On a related note, she also talks to Jeff Smith about a Minnesota mother’s attempt to have Bone removed from libraries in her school district. [Publishers Weekly]