Because a Crisis On Infinite Earths homage would have been too predictable

At first I wasn’t especially excited about too much in DC’s February solicitations. However, the more I looked around, the more optimistic I became. Six months into the New 52, some connections are starting to gel, and their interactions (well, as far as what you can glean from the ad copy) seem more organic. As always, there were a few pleasant surprises in the collected editions, and some details from which to spin hopeful speculation.

But enough with the purple prose — let’s hit the books!

TO UNLIMITED AND BEYOND

The gee-whizziest news of the February solicitations has to be the digital-first format of Batman Beyond Unlimited. I have not been the quickest to adapt to digitally-conveyed comics, mostly because my personal technology level hasn’t caught up. However, I do read a number of webcomics, as well as newspaper strips online, and if the price were right, I’d gladly sample BBU’s features on my computer before picking up the print version. Having Dustin Nguyen and (yay!) Norm Breyfogle involved doesn’t hurt either.

FAMILY AFFAIRS

I like the Legion pretty well, but surely I am not the only one who gets hives reading about the “suspiciously different versions” coming soon to Action Comics. Weren’t we past that…?

Nevertheless, there is a nice sense of connectivity in February’s Super-family titles. Although I am not tired of Springsteen Supes by any means, the thought of Krypto-Armor Superman trying to save his younger self from the Anti-Superman Army (again, with the Legions’ help) is a pleasingly retro idea, even if it does echo that one issue of All Star Superman. Likewise, Supergirl showing up in Superman and Superboy, and the Maid of Might having to cope with the effects of blue-sun radiation, all help bring our favorite Kryptonians together. In particular, I thought this week’s Supergirl used Superman effectively to explain not only his mission, but her relationship to it.

Similarly, February’s issues of Voodoo, Stormwatch, and Grifter will try to (re-)establish a little WildStorm corner of DC’s superhero line — which then, I presume, can reach out to more recognizably-DC books like Suicide Squad. I’m actually reading Stormwatch and Grifter, and I liked Sami Basri’s work on Voodoo, but I’m still not sure this will get me to pick up the latter regularly. The first issue didn’t do much for me, and subsequent solicits haven’t changed that.

THE DEEP BENCH

Bleeding Cool had a good rundown of creative-team changes in the February solicitations, so I will note only a few of them. I’ll miss Aaron Lopresti and Matt Ryan on Justice League International, but I’m eager to see Nicola Scott and Trevor Scott finishing George Pérez’s Superman breakdowns, and Chris Sprouse and Karl Story should be good as always on Legion of Super-Heroes. Also, it’s not really a creative-team shift, but February’s Batwoman #6 marks the debut of Amy Reeder and Richard Friend in the rotation as regular art team; and Sam Kieth draws a sequence in THUNDER Agents #4.

CALLBACKS

Under different circumstances, I’d hope that the invitation to “[l]earn the origins of Central and Keystone City” in The Flash #6 would be a reference to “Flash Of Two Worlds.” However, with (apparently) no superheroic Golden Age in the New-52′s history, there would be no Golden Age Flash to reintroduce. Otherwise, I’m not sure the Flash especially needs a “character-in-its-own-right” setting like Gotham or Metropolis. Central City is nice, I’m sure, but as long as its topography is conducive to super-speed action, it doesn’t have to do much more.

Almost a year ago, posting about The Atlantis Chronicles, I wondered if Geoff Johns’ Aquaman work would compel DC to reprint Peter David and Esteban Maroto’s excellent 1990 miniseries. Since the solicit for Aquaman #6 now links the continent’s sinking to Mera’s past, I am less confident about such a reprint.

The mention of Pozhar, in the solicit for Firestorm #6, gives me hope that DC will reprint much of John Ostrander’s late-‘80s run on the book’s predecessor. Ostrander introduced Pozhar (and other assorted Soviet-era characters), but they then faded into deep obscurity. It’d be nice to have a Showcase Presents John Ostrander’s Russian Firestorm to get re-acquainted.

I’m not so sure the giant bat of All-Star Western #6 is the same giant bat which figured so prominently in Bruce Wayne’s return to the Bat-books last year. Jonah Hex isn’t a pushover, but I doubt he could permanently put down a nigh-immortal critter created by Darkseid. Still, I suppose this is why we have All-Star Western and not a relaunched Jonah Hex — to give Jonah the flexibility to wrassle with fantastic monsters.

CHECKING IN

While I have not read any issues of Captain Atom past the first, I remain a bit curious about its place in the New 52. Accordingly, I’m guessing — based on nothing concrete beyond the solicitation — that the “strangely similar” threat and the “ending you’ll never see coming” have something to do with his counterpart(s) across DC’s Multiverse.

I have also not returned to Deathstroke after issue #1, but it looks like the solicit for #6 will touch on Slade’s ex-wife and late son, whose stories were told in the pages of the Wolfman/Pérez Teen Titans. Adeline should be pretty much the same: an Army officer assigned to shepherd young Slade through his training, the two fell in love, even without watching the Captain America movie. However, it’ll be instructive to see how the inevitable revisions to Grant’s Ravager origin affect Slade’s motivations. Grant first appeared in November 1980′s New Teen Titans #1, as a selfish creep whose life was ruined (collaterally, of course) by the embryonic team’s fight with Gordanian slavers. Accordingly, in #2, when Deathstroke turned down The HIVE’s contract to kill the Titans, the HIVE turned to Grant. They made him a super-soldier, but at the cost of his remaining youth: he literally burned himself out trying to kill the Titans. Raven gave him a final moment of peace by showing him the illusion that he’d succeeded, but Deathstroke swore vengeance upon the Titans for his son’s death, and accepted the contract the Ravager didn’t complete. Thus, without a Teen Titans to destroy, I’m wondering how the new origin will play out.

POTPOURRI

Did I miss something a year ago? Wasn’t DC Universe Online Legends just an extra-long miniseries? The solicits for February’s issues make it sound like things are about to wrap up, but there’s no indication the series is about to end. I haven’t been reading it, so I have no feelings one way or the other. Still, if it’s an ongoing, it’s kind of nice to think that DC has another “classic-style” title. Ironic, too, that the classic style may be limited to tie-in books like DCUOL, Batman: B&B, and Young Justice.

Not to be unreasonably pedantic about the solicit for Green Arrow #6, but if the touch of “monstrous half-man” Midas “can melt anything,” wouldn’t that necessarily include Green Arrow?

Last month I had a chance to get a little ahead on my posting, so I speculated about the possible fates of Krypto and Wally West before realizing I had to write about the January solicits. That post got bumped back a week, but just about the time it went live there were big stories about both. And that might have been okay, but two weeks ago I mused about a Challengers of the Unknown revival, and here they are in February’s DC Universe Presents #6. Time to buy a lottery ticket, I guess — although I feel more like Gardner Fox dreaming of Earth-Two….

READ ‘EM UNDER A BLUE MOON

I almost forgot to mention the handful of DC titles shipping on one of the rarest direct-market events, the February Fifth Week.  This quirk of the retail calendar can only happen on February 29, and with the New-52′s strict four-week schedule it won’t spill over into week 5.  Thus, 2/29/12 will offer a more eclectic lineup:  DC Universe Online Legends #24, Batman:  Odyssey vol. 2 #5, Batman Beyond Unlimited #1, The Shade #5, THUNDER Agents #4, Legion:  Secret Origin #5, Tiny Titans #49, Looney Tunes #205, Gears Of War #22, Uncharted #4, Spaceman #4, Scalped #56, and Unwritten #34.5.

COLLECTIONS

Probably a lot more people have read Batman: Son of the Demon since it was reissued recently, but I think this is the first time in a long time that its follow-ups have been reprinted. I liked SOTD well enough, although it wears its ‘80s influences proudly. Bride of the Demon doesn’t stand out as much, probably because it doesn’t have the hook of Batman and Talia’s child, and otherwise it’s another Bond-influenced Rā’s al Ghūl story. However, Birth of the Demon focuses squarely on the Demon’s Head, telling his origin in detail. Plus, the present-day framing sequence is pretty rough on Batman, and it’s all depicted in spectacular fashion by Norm Breyfogle. Therefore, I endorse the Bride of the Demon omnibus collection. Like a wise man once said, two out of three ain’t bad.

Speaking of spectacular depictions, the Legends of the Dark Knight hardcover series is turning into something routinely recommendable. April’s Jim Aparo volume seems like an especially good value, reprinting twenty-two issues of early-‘70s The Brave and the Bold in full color for $50.00. If DC sticks with the Aparo series and finishes out B&B (which ended with #200), it’d probably only take another couple of volumes, and you’d be left with a very nice run of team-ups.

I have to admit, I was surprised that the second New Teen Titans Omnibus got as far as “The Judas Contract.” (I thought that would come in Volume 3.)  However, as I keep saying, it’s best to read the Wolfman/Pérez run as a cohesive whole, not a series of discrete arcs. You can’t really appreciate the four issues of “Judas Contract” without the rest as context, blah blah blah, you’ve heard this before. Anyway, for just $75.00 retail, here’s your chance. I do hope DC has a Volume 3 waiting, because that would take us through Wonder Girl’s wedding in #50 and Raven’s transfiguration in the second series’ #5.

Glad to see another Flash Archives on the horizon, mostly because it helps justify my buying the previous five. However, it also includes “Doorway to the Unknown” from issue #148 (November 1968), a spooky little tale (atypical for the series) reprinted a couple of times, which I remember fondly from one of the big 1970s “Best of DC” tabloids.

Finally, this month’s surprise reprint is Black Orchid, a 3-issue Prestige Format miniseries from (as the solicit says) the pre-Sandman Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean. According to his contemporaneous Amazing Heroes interview, at the time Black Orchid was a character so obscure that when he pitched the miniseries to editor Karen Berger, she thought he was saying “Blackhawk Kid.” Batman and Lex Luthor appear briefly, but McKean’s art is the real draw (as it were), taking readers from gloomy, monochromatic streets to the lush, colorful rainforest. This miniseries led to an ongoing series, and (I think) to the character even appearing in Ostrander’s Suicide Squad. She’s popped up here and there recently, so it’s not like there has been a great clamor for her return, and this may just be DC’s latest attempt to squeeze more money from Neil Gaiman fans. Regardless, it’s not a bad try.

* * *

Well, that’s what jumped out at me this month. What looks good to you?

And, when you think about DC Comics these days, chances are you’re thinking of Jim Lee’s versions of the characters.

Beyond his current role as the company’s co-publisher, Lee’s become the company’s defining artist (ironically, perhaps, without actually working on a regular comic book series for quite some time). He’s the guy who draws the public face of the company’s stars.

Click on dccomics.com, and you’ll see Lee’s Justice League as the banner. Click to the company’s The Source blog, and you’ll see a Lee-drawn Trinity as the banner. Lee designed all of the characters for the publisher’s DC Universe Online video game. Lee redesigned much of the DC Universe for their upcoming relaunch (and quite radically so compared to the more modest DCUO designs). It was Lee who drew the company’s Google doodle a while back, and a great deal of DC-branded merchandise, from tennis shoes and to action figures, features Lee versions of the characters.

The pervasiveness of his visual influence extends to many of the artists chosen to work on the characters’ comic books, and the style in which they’re depicted—DC is too big a publisher to really have a house style, but there’s a loose majority style in which Lee’s influence is rather apparent.

So with visions of a high-collared Justice League dancing in my head as they usually do (Confession: I think about the Justice League the way some people you might encounter on a big-city street think about the CIA and mind control), I was at my local library the other day and noticed a big, huge, atlas-sized tome sitting on a cart, awaiting to be filed back where it belonged.

The cover featured a dramatically-lit Trinity, an outcropping of rock hiding their feet, standing above giant gold letters reading “ICONS” and “Jim Lee.” Picking it up—with an “Oof!” and the thought, I really need to start working out again—I saw that it was actually Icons: The DC Comics and Wildstorm art of Jim Lee.

Naturally I brought it home to pore over, thinking it might be some sort of Rosetta Stone to how Lee went from the guy who made Jeph Loeb’s totally random “Hush” story arc into something readable to becoming the guy who will define DC Comics for a generation (if the relaunch works out as they seem to hope it will, otherwise he might become known as the guy who made DC’s superheroes look silly for a few years in the 20-teens).

If nothing else, the book was about the size and weight of the Rosetta Stone.

I should note that this is not the Jim Lee book I would most want to read. The introduction gives a brief overview of his career, which I found fascinating enough to want to read more about it (Did you know he was studying to become a doctor, which might explain why his sense of anatomy is so much better than some of his early nineties superstar peers? Did you know he only gave himself one year to break into the comics industry, before returning to medicine? That’s crazy, but he did it!). And throughout there are quotes on various subjects from him regarding his technique and his thoughts on characters to be sort of tantalizing to process junkies, but it’s mostly just a tease of information here or there.

This, then, isn’t a work-focused biography of Jim Lee, nor a process-oriented survey of his work, nor an critical or aesthetic assessment of his work and influence between the time he founded WildStorm and the random, mostly non-comics work he did for DC after All-Star Batman and Robin, The Boy Wonder went on its hiatus. Icons came out in 2010, and thus doesn’t cover some of Lee’s work that is just now becoming apparent (His work on the relaunch, the fact that he’ll be drawing Justice League hopefully monthly-ish).

Now, while I’d prefer to read those sorts of books about Lee—books I imagine will come at some point—it’s not really fair to criticize a book for not being what I’d prefer it to be, is it?

Icons is a big (9.5-by-12 inches!), fat (296 pages!) collection of Lee’s covers, sketches, pin-ups, panels from his comics work and other, lesser-seen images. It’s a coffee table book devoted to a pretty big chunk of the artist’s career, and one that makes an extremely convincing case for why Lee is currently superhero comics’ most popular artist, and the fact that he deserves much of that popularity on the basis of how talented he is.

Appreciation of art—any art—is subjective, of course, but I don’t think the same can be said of the recognition of the quality of art, and seeing some of Lee’s work from the aughts re-presented out of context, and at such a huge size, and often in different states of completion, certainly drives home the fact that, love or hate certain aspects of his style and aesthetic direction, that Jim Lee cat sure can draw.

Rather than moving chronologically, the book is divided into chapters based on characters, which has the unfortunate side effect of putting most of Lee’s good stuff at the front of the book (his work on the big DC heroes), before it dwindles off into shorter and shorter sections featuring his WildStorm creations like WildCATS, Gen 13 and others I had forgotten even existed(Deathblow, DV8, Divine Right).

The effect, then, is that the book begins with Lee’s best work (his most recent) and going backwards to his earlier nineties stuff, when his skills weren’t as sharp as they are now, all of his characters tended to look alike, and he was working from designs that were springing out of his own early nineties imagination, rather than ones that were refined by decades of the greatest superhero comics artists.

Luckily, it ends with a nice a gallery of his Vertigo covers and pin-ups (and man is it weird seeing Lee’s Spider Jerusalem, Death of the Endless and DMZ) and then a gallery of random images from throughout the entire span of his career covered here. The book, then, does end on a high note. Oh, and then there’s a ten-page Legion of Superheroes story Lee drew exclusively for Icons, a story in which Lee and Paul Levitz appear as characters.

Fans of Lee’s should like this, skeptics might find themselves converted, or at least look at his work in a new light—myself, I was not a fan of his work until more recently, and appreciated the way in which the book allowed me to see Lee improving by comparing pieces from one period to another in the book.

As for what it says about the future of Lee and the DCU he’s become such a central part of, it was a reminder that costume design is not Lee’s strongest suit—there’s a brief section on his redesign of Kyle Rayner’s Green Lantern costume (the one with the ribbing and dog-collar, which lasted from 2002 to 2006), and sketches showing attempts at redesigning Batman and Robin for All-Star, although all of these were eventually abandoned in favor of fairly standard costumes for both (Batman getting a big, blocky, Sprang-y Bat-symbol to differentiate him from Lee’s “Hush” era Batman).

The costume design in the Wildstorm section strikes me as something of an aesthetic nightmare, although it’s difficult to judge the effectiveness of the design with the audience from a remove. Certainly many of those characters wore those costumes for a long time, without changing them, or changing them only slightly, so a significant chunk of readers must have been able to look at this

without getting dizzy and thinking they never wanted to look at another superhero comic. I can’t say the same.

I don’t know if it’s simply the demands of the format of this book or if it’s telling that the vast majority of it comes from covers and other such single-image work, rather than panels from inside comics, or sequences from comics.

Lee eventually got quite good at expressions and drawing emotions in his characters, but the panels chosen are almost all splash-pages, with the rare exception of a sixteen-panel grid page from  ASBaRtBW #2, in which Batman and Dick Grayson talk in the cockpit of the Batmoblie.Even stripped of words, you get a sense of the conversation, and the intensity of the emotional content.

After spending a few hours looking at Lee’s last few decades full of work, and thinking about where he excels and where he doesn’t, I’m actually more excited to read Justice League #1 later this month than I was before. I  still think all of the costumes look worse than they did before the redesign, and I still think Lee versions of the standard costumes would have been an even bigger draw to readers, but I’m intensely curious about how Lee and writer Geoff Johns will work together.

I think Lee’s best storytelling work was on All-Star Batman, and on that particular project  he was working with a writer who also happens to be one of the best and most influential writer/artists to draw superhero comics (Frank Miller). Johns’ scripting tends to play to the bad habits of artists—a lot of splash pages (too many for a 20-page book, if you ask me), pages with only three-to-five panels, climaxes that turn on sudden, unexpected appearances.

I hope Johns manages to bring out the best in Lee, or at least allow him to continue to grow as a storyteller as well as an illustrator, although the fact that Johns is “just” a comics writer, rather than being Frank freaking Miller, makes me have my doubts.

But either way, after this retrospective look, I’m curious to see what Lee can draw in 2011 and beyond. He’s become the face of the DC superhero line, and in the coming months he’ll have the opportunity to prove whether or not he can be a much more vital organ, perhaps even its heart.

[Okay, maybe we have -- but when fearless leader JK Parkin suggested that DC blogger Tom Bondurant and retailer/Marvel blogger Carla Hoffman could do a back-and-forth about it, we were happy to oblige. The following was conducted via email from June 17 through June 22.]

* * *
[When we left off yesterday, the question was whether long-established characters or relative newcomers were easier to sell.]

Carla: I know DC has said there will be new characters, but how do you think that’s going to go? Will these be the next Booster Gold or the latest Chase? (P.S.: I sort of remembered that last name so I just looked that up and I was right! There was a character called Chase! I started selling comics when Chase was on the stands!)

Now, as for what I’m going to emphasize to customers as they look up and shout “Save us!”… and I’m going to have to whisper “no” on this one, Tom. The whole point of this re-something is to let a new reader pick up a book with a fresh start and a feeling of confidence that they are beginning at the beginning. Now, if someone wanted to read a Superman issue before, well… where did one begin? That’s where your LCS should factor in; clerks should be there to help people find the book they’re looking for. Most times, one of us at Metro will have read something that a customer is looking for. In this way, we can ask what they like in general (‘What movies do you like?’, etc.) and then direct from there. Does this make sense?

So if you’re going to start out with a entire line of fresh new books, well. I’ll turn off the light on my way out. There’s almost nothing I can emphasize outside of conjecture and gist. There’s no taste to make. New Coke– I mean, New Clark shouldn’t taste like Old Clark, that’s the point of this exercise. Long-time fans are going to come in looking for old friends and new fans are going to have to fend for themselves. I can say that “Oh, man, I loved Generation X back at Marvel, so maybe Lobdell is going to do great on the Teen Titans,” but I just can’t know until I see it.

I’m making a long list of all these titles for customers to use as a checklist so they don’t miss out on all the hot #1 action and it’s been a hard decision on whether or not to have pictures by the titles, creative teams, and descriptions. If you’re unfamiliar with comics, the picture is probably the best selling point, because that’s what the cover is there for: to judge the book.

Tom: Well, you’re not entirely starting clean with the Green Lantern and Batman books, but you probably don’t have much trouble selling those anyway….

I have wondered how a relaunch consisting entirely of B- and C-listers, and a mix of new characters, would be received. Again, DC isn’t going to stop publishing Superman, Batman, etc., so why not build up to their return? I know what you’re saying about letting the next generation take over, but I think that’s just too much of a break with the past. Likewise, I’m eager to see what DC does in terms of new characters, but at this point I think they need to establish a certain “footprint” in the marketplace — see if it’ll handle 52 ongoing series first, and then decide whether there’s room for anything new.

It’s funny, because DC is actually doing some things with this relaunch that I’ve wanted them to do for a while, like increasing their diversity of genre (even if it’s all superhero-flavored), focusing on ongoing series, and (hopefully) getting its schedule in order. However, in all the talk of the relaunch, I haven’t managed to ask, “where are the humor books?” Not necessarily “superhero humor” like Giffen & DeMatteis, but something whose primary purpose is to be funny, like you’d see from Evan Dorkin, Ty Templeton, or Roger Langridge. I don’t have a question there, I just had to get that off my chest.

In any event, I’m sure we’re all going to be hearing more than we ever thought possible about each one of these 52 books over the next two-and-a-half months, so I hope you guys have enough info to help your customers make informed choices. Right now, though, what looks good to you, and what looks like you’ll have a hard time moving?

Carla: Batwing. I know, that’s mean, give it a chance, I’m sure he’s awesome in Batman Inc. but man. I have no idea who to sell this book to. Has there really been a clamor to see a Batman in Africa? Again, who knows, it could be the break out hit of the fall, but based on design and concept I can’t say. Already I’m talking to a lot of regular customers who will be stalwart and follow their favorite heroes into the unknown; no one has completely cancelled their pull and declared they’ll never read comics again after the announcement. Everyone who’s still smarting from hearing the changes will hopefully be healing nicely by the time the comics actually arrive on the shelves, so I don’t know if we’ll be ordering that differently from the norm.

Other than that, there’s just so many books. I think everyone will pick up at least one of everything they’re offering, like when you fill up your plate with just like a tablespoon of the full buffet? The real question is Great Scott, what are we going to do with ordering #2? When they ask for those orders, #1 won’t be out yet, it’s just the nature of the business. I get the chills just thinking about it and I don’t even do the ordering for the store, yikes.

I hear you on the funny books. No offense, but DC takes themselves a little too seriously sometimes.

Speaking of which, I don’t know if you saw but I read a selection of Midnighter issues a few What Are You Readings ago because they are awesome and I really do like the character. I have had a sort of love/hate/adoration relationship with the Authority and have come to treasure that Damn the Man/We are the Man look at superheroes provided under Warren Ellis and others. I especially enjoy the Midnighter because he’s something we’ll never see (or I thought we’d never see) in your reglar superhero genre: a Batman with a strong and consistent personal relationship. Yes, he’s badass and can kill you a dozen different ways and wears black and is angry, but an essential characteristic is that he’s in love with another man. The Wildstorm universe could mix it up some in an HBO kind of way when it wanted because that’s what it was there to do. And then I saw the Martian Manhunter standing on the cover to Stormwatch #1 and I was like whaaaaaaa?

Vertigo is not for superheroes anymore and DC doesn’t have a MAX imprint like Marvel, so how do you think DC is going to handle having Wildstorm characters next mixed in with the regular gang?

Tom: Honestly, I think the WildStorm characters will fit into this particular DC universe pretty well; and yes, I know the implications of that statement.

In fact, the WS books may predict how well a truly new character might do. This is mean to say, but no one seems to have bought the last WS relaunch, so they might as well be new characters. I liked the Ellis/Hitch Authority well enough, and I bought all two of the Morrison/Lee issues, but by and large I haven’t been jazzed enough about those characters (even Midnighter) to pick up the book regularly.

That’s a great point about ordering #2 when #1 won’t be out yet. Isn’t there a returnability policy for the first few issues of each title?

As for Batwing, you’re the retailer; but I guess I’d base my orders on some percentage of Batman Incorporated. Just substitute Judd Winick for Grant Morrison and a regular Bat-counterpart for Bruce Wayne and assorted guest stars. Simple, right? *

* * *

*[Note:  Tom knows full well it is not that simple.]

The Authority

“Shortly before the decision was made known that DC was closing the Wildstorm imprint, I was asked to pitch a line-wide ‘new direction’ for Wildstorm… not a reboot, but just what would come next after the World’s End thing. A year’s worth of stories for three titles. I was so into it, and now the pitch sits in the vault with all the rest of its friends.”

–DMZ, Northlanders and DV8 writer Brian Wood, revealing what might have been if DC Comics hadn’t closed down its WildStorm imprint. Based on the three ongoing series that WildStorm was publishing before they were shuttered, the series Wood references are most likely The Authority, WildCATS and Gen13.

I guess the silver lining here is that DC does still own the characters, so there’s always a chance that we’ll see Authority and the rest again … and who better to revive them than the guy who revived DV8?

From "Pushing Daisies" #1

Almost immediately after ABC announced the cancellation of Pushing Daisies in November 2008, creator Bryan Fuller began talking about resurrecting the quirky comedy as a comic book. Over the next two and a half years since, he’s occasionally offered updates about the fate of the pie-maker who can bring things back to life, saying just last fall that the first issue “will hopefully be out in early 2011.”

Well, it’s early 2011, and there’s no first issue. But Fuller has offered, or rather tweeted, the next-best thing: a preview of the first page. He doesn’t indicate who the artist is, though.

There’s also no word yet as to when we’ll see the first issue, as Pushing Daisies had been destined for DC Comics’ recently closed WildStorm imprint.

Fuller has described the comic as a 12-issue series that ties up loose ends left by the show’s untimely demise as the characters deal with a flash flood that empties bodies from a nearby cemetery.

Check out the full page after the break.

From "Pushing Daisies" #1

(via The Atlantic)

Savage Sword of Conan Vol. 1

Welcome to another round of What Are You Reading, where we all sit around the virtual coffeehouse and talk about the books we’re currently enjoying (or not as the case may be). Our guest this week is Wilfred Santiago, author of the soon to be released biography of Roberto Clemente, 21. Look for an interview with me and Santiago about his new book in the coming weeks. In the meantime, click on the link below to see what he and my fellow Robot 6ers are reading this week.

Turok #1

Michael May: Somehow Turok: Son of Stone #1 (the recent Dark Horse version) slipped down in my To Read pile and I just found it again. It boasts 48 pages on the front cover, but of course 10 of those are ads and another 16 are the reprint of the original Turok story from 1954. That still leaves 22 pages of original Turok story though and the whole package was only $3.50, so who’s complaining? Those 22 pages are packed with action as Turok and Andar not only meet, but run a tense, grueling race against pursuing Aztec warriors. And it’s fun to compare the modern version with the original and see what Jim Shooter has changed and what he’s kept the same.

In 1954, Turok and Andar are already hunting companions, but are in desperate need of water. An enormous, swirling colony of bats reveals a cave that Turok hopes has water in it, so they explore and discover an underground “land of the lost.” It’s no less tense than being chased by Aztecs, but not quite as thrilling. In 2010, a strange, possibly supernatural storm replaces the bat colony and appears to be responsible for sending both Turok’s group and the Aztecs back in time. What caused the storm is a mystery that I hope to see solved one day; almost as much as I want to read the resolution to the frying-pan-to-fire cliffhanger at the end of the issue. I’ll be looking forward to the collected edition.

Continuing to dig deeper into the To Read pile, I found a four-page mini-comic by Sigrid Ellis and Erika Moen (Bucko) called Plants vs. Zombies: Bedtime. The only thing I love more than the splash page of gourds, melons, flowers, and cattails defending a family from a zombie horde is that the Bedtime sub-title suggests the possibility of more like it. Also, there’s a great first page of a little boy’s room with toys scattered around (including a Millenium Falcon) and a poster on the wall for Jeff Parker and Steve Lieber’s Underground.

I also completed the first volume of Daisuke Igarashi’s Children of the Sea, mostly on the recommendations of Chris Mautner and Brigid. Like Chris, I feel a deep Miyazaki vibe, though I wouldn’t have been able to recognize it as that before re-reading his review. What I felt was the book’s ability to pull me into its world and make me feel like I was part of this seaside community and witnessing the strangeness there for myself. There’s one scene when the main character is floating in the ocean and looking down into the water below and you can actually feel how deep and endless the water is. It’s frightening and exhilarating at the same time. Just a wonderful book and I can’t wait to dig into volume two.

What else? I’m a big fan of James Baker’s Rocket Rabbit, so while I’m waiting for the collected edition of that, I’m enjoying some of his mini-comics work like Sephilina the Nauti Girl. From her tentacle-like hair, I thought at first that she might be a mermaid-like character, but in actuality she’s an alien in a charming and funny space pulp story. She’s a Squoid, a race of aliens so hideous that just looking at one puts intelligent beings into a coma. Fortunately for Sephilina, the Squoids are also shape-changers, so she’s able to transform into a cute space girl. Unfortunately, everyone knows what she is and avoids her like death in case she accidentally reverts to her true form. It’s a fun concept and Baker’s cartooning makes it pay off.

Justice League: Generation Lost #21

Tom Bondurant: Not that I am a great prognosticator, but I had a feeling that Justice League: Generation Lost #21 (written by Judd Winick, drawn by Aaron Lopresti) would turn out like it did. That feeling only grew stronger the deeper I went into the issue. You all know by now how much I’ve enjoyed JL:GL, and I thought this issue did a particularly good job of using character moments in conjunction with advancing the plot, and even building a little suspense.

I’ve also enjoyed Zatanna (written by Paul Dini), but issue #11 (drawn by Cliff Chiang) might be my favorite issue so far. Zatanna takes an especially bitter enemy back to the ol’ homestead in hopes of restoring him to his human form — an ineffectual human form, to be sure — but things don’t exactly go as planned, resulting in one of the creepiest cliffhangers I’ve seen in a while. In this regard Chang really sells the story, giving Zatanna’s ancestral home the appropriate airs of grandeur and mystery, making the magical battles exciting and unpredictable, and wrapping everything up with a sequence whose apparent banality makes it all the more horrifying. Can’t wait for issue #12.

Finally … well, last week I mentioned the Gen13 paperback, which reprints the introductory miniseries by Brandon Choi, Jim Lee, and J. Scott Campbell. I did not expect to have such a strong reaction to this book. I don’t have anything against the creators, and I’ve liked other things they’ve done. Regardless, I remember buying Gen13 out of curiosity lo, those many years ago, and it will be a long, long time before I take this book off the shelf again. Put simply, it hasn’t aged well. Campbell’s work isn’t as off-putting in its exaggerations as, say, Rob Liefeld’s, but it still takes some getting used to. The script reads like a laundry-list of teen-superhero tropes run through a military-conspiracy blender and distilled until only the most potent sugars remain. This book was garish, obvious, and overly familiar. I could practically feel the creators elbowing me in the ribs, daring me not to like it. Sorry, fellas — I’m sure Gen13 got better, and I know you all did – but I come from a land of well-made liquor; and this turned to vinegar long ago.

Empire State

Brigid Alverson: Jason Shiga’s Empire State is sweet, funny, and depressing all at once. It’s a sort-of love story that reminded me very much of what it was like to be in my 20s, and why I’m glad I’m not any more. It’s the story of a cigarette-smoking, wisecracking girl who moves to New York and a quiet, stay-at-home guy who follows her there. It doesn’t end up being the romance of the century, but there’s a lot to enjoy about this book, both Shiga’s sly humor and his dead-on portrayal of difficult emotional moments. His cartoony style helps keep the reader from getting too emotionally involved‹his characters are all rounded and slouching, and I wouldn’t have guessed that the male lead was Asian if it one of the characters hadn’t mentioned it. On the other hand, Shiga includes lots of details and gives his characters quirks and interests, which makes for a rich reading experience.

Page by Paige, by Laura Lee Gulledge is a YA graphic novel that walks a very fine line between preachy and surrealistic. It’s the story of a self-conscious, introverted high-school girl who has just moved from Virginia to New York. She confides her feelings to her sketchbook, and sometimes her internal monologue sounds like something out of a self-help book. What redeems it, though, are her surrealistic drawings of Paige’s states of mind‹a crowd reduced to bundles of paper dolls, a landscape scattered with banana peels, her family’s faces replaced by framed pictures. She has an uncanny knack for drawing what teenagers think. I do think the book would be better in color, though. Gulledge works in black and white with lots of toning and grays that get a bit lost on the page; color, even limited color, would really bring this book to life.

Captain America: The Korvac Saga #4

Tim O’Shea: Man, I was sad to recently read that Zatanna’s numbers continue to drop in sales. Plenty of books are dropping in numbers, but in my opinion Zatanna’s stories have improved over the months. Honestly I dropped the book a few months back, but because I like Paul Dini’s writing typically, I was willing to give it another go. And with this current arc featuring the art of Cliff Chiang, I’m over-the-moon happy with the book. Zatanna 10 ended with a plot twist that ensured me I’ll be back for issue 11. If you are not currently reading Zatanna, I’d loved to learn the reasons why not.

Ben McCool’s Captain America: The Korvac Saga overall was a tad uneven for my taste. That being said, with issue 4, McCool sets up a scenario where Cap has to make a choice that I would have never considered constructing in a Cap story. While I cannot recommend the miniseries to folks if it comes out in TPB, I do hope to see more writing for McCool down the road. I also hope artist Craig Rousseau gets more high profile work at Marvel in the near to long term.

Superboy 5: Jeff Lemire has surprised me by making Lori Luthor one of the most interesting cast members in Superboy. I expect she’ll eventually become the book’s villain, but for now I enjoy her presence in the book.

Hawkeye-Blindspot 2 (of 4): I never tire of Jim McCann’s encyclopedia-scale knowledge of Hawkeye history. And he jams this issue full of Hawkeye’s history, with Nick Dragotta & Brad Simpson delivering absolutely stellar flashback scenes.

Cinderella-Fables are Forever 2 (of 6): Artist Shawn McManus is known for drawing great monsters, but dang if his female characters are not equally exquisite. I doubt writer Chris Roberson and McManus would want the grind (and pressure) of an ongoing monthly, but damn if I would not read it. Roberson’s use of flashback (in this issue alone he takes us to 1943, 1983 and 1984 [in addition to present day action]) is another factor that pulls me into this miniseries. I never tire of this female Fable equivalent to James Bond.

Oishinbo

Wilfred Santiago: On my nightstand…

The complete TORPEDO volume one.
Good reprint by IDW. Not for everyone. Torpedo is a mean, slimy, nasty asshole. He is not too smart, he knows he is not and he has no scruples. In real life you don’t want to be near someone like Torpedo. If you don’t mind reading about this type of character then get this book now. In glorious black & white, Bernet has an amazing range with his brush and his synergy with Sanchez Abuli’s script is seamless, simply one of the best writer/artist teams. Alex Toth is an all-time favorite of mine and he did a couple of stories in this volume, but Bernet owns this series. You can smell the pee on the streets.

Dark Horse reprint- THE SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN volume 1
John Buscema’s* pencils are amazing. You could read one of his stories without word balloons and still get it. Simply put, his characters act. Interesting, the different but excellent interpretation of such strong line work through the inks of individual artist like Alfredo Alcala and Pablo Marco. This is so much more enjoyable if you block the narrator’s captions. No offense to who is ultimately responsible (Roy Thomas or Robert E. Howard?). Sometimes superfluous with redundant mood and scene descriptions, things that are clearly already rendered in the great art featured. Good stuff. (For more Buscema magic, check kids, Wolverine #1 – #16 (Vol.1)!)

MAD ABOUT THE MOVIES Mad Books
A collection of Mad Magazine movie parodies. I read these growing up; Mad was a staple of my reading diet ’till my late teens. Mort Drucker is an unequaled master at what he does, and the main reason for looking at this book. And don’t forget the deceiving simplicity of Sergio Aragones!

MY DEAREST FRIEND Letters of Abigail & John Adams Belknap Harvard
A fascinating book of correspondence between John Adams and his wife Abigail through the years. Revealing accounts of their relationship as intellectual equals, which it was at odds with the times. As its backdrop, a new nation is being built. Loving and sometimes heartbreaking. Great supplement if you enjoyed the HBO mini-series, John Adams.

OISHINBO: The Joy of Rice VIZ Media
Like food? Like manga? This is for you. Very rich, funny, engaging, serious at times. Delicious book all around.

The Flash vol. 1 #227

What could be worse than a slide show about a stamp collection? Probably a blog post about a comic-book collection….

Among other things, the Vast Bondurant Comic-Book Library now includes over 11,000 single issues spread over 23 long boxes and 15 short boxes. My goal — which seems to recede in the distance the more I consider this project — is to separate all of the newer issues and shorter-run series from the old warhorses like Detective Comics and Fantastic Four. That means bringing the Gotham Centrals and Hourmans out of those big boxes with all the Green Lanterns and Incredible Hulks, into smaller boxes which won’t strain my aging vertebrae.

That scintillating introduction should tell you just how thrilling the past couple of days have been for me (not least because the project is far from over). This is the paper equivalent of defragmenting a hard drive, and it is not the most engaging of topics. Nevertheless, the process has forced me to examine how I use this library. After all, books are for reading, not for taking up space — and the way we read comic books, especially superhero comics, is changing dramatically.

Now, for various reasons (including, ironically enough, lack of suitable shelf space) I am not in a position to start converting these individual issues into a collection of paperbacks and hardcovers. Besides, much of my collection hasn’t been reprinted. More importantly, though, I feel like if I have these issues already, I should enjoy them as they are, albeit with a minimum of hassle.

I started with some administrative work. For almost twenty years, I have been keeping electronic records on my comics — first as a simple list, then as a spreadsheet. It’s just the basics: title, number, cover date, and brief credits. Mostly this is a straightforward exercise, and I don’t have to spend a lot of time on each issue. However, changes in trade dress have made this part of the process a bit more complicated. The DC superhero books have been pretty consistent in putting all that information right on the cover. By and large, Vertigo and WildStorm are similar; but Vertigo’s cover data tend to be in smaller type, and if the cover layout varies from issue to issue, the data can be harder to find. The Unwritten is especially tricky in this respect, because its cover data are often in white type against a busy, multicolored background.

Other publishers are less concerned with putting this data on their front covers. For Beasts Of Burden, Dark Horse put the cover date in the fine-print indicia on the inside front cover of each issue. Boom! did the same for The Muppet Show. Dynamite’s Galactica 1980 (don’t judge me!) had no cover dates at all that I could find.

When it comes to cover data, though, Marvel is the most frustrating. Like Dark Horse, cover dates are in the indicia, but the indicia aren’t always in the same place. With Fantastic Four, they tended to be on an opening credits page. Atlas had them on a next-issue page at the back of the issue. Failing that, however, they were placed at the bottom of an ad appearing randomly in the issue. One Marvel miniseries, Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting’s The Marvels Project, even played with the issue number itself, by using a variant layout with the number on the back cover.

You may already be muttering who cares about cover dates, anyway? As a remnant of newsstand distribution, originally designed to tell retailers when to take books off the shelves, they do seem increasingly irrelevant. However, it is an item on my spreadsheet which I feel obliged to fill. At the risk of being obvious, the cover date also fixes the issue in time, not just chronologically but in relation to other titles. In short, the cover date marks, say, Warlord #12 as part of DC’s May 2010 lineup; and future comics fans will be able to tell easily what kinds of stories DC was interested in telling ‘way back then. I’ll stop short of saying that the cover date gives a single issue a certain amount of dignity, but its role is more than merely vestigal.

Accordingly, it seems to me that the less prominent these cover data are, the more likely it is that the publisher is looking to collect these books. After all, issue numbers and cover dates are irrelevant when all of a story’s installments are bound together. I can’t really argue with that, because we read these books for the stories, and not so much for some metatextual analysis of the particular publishing month. Still, the way those stories are collected influences the way they are told; and if the individual issue is downplayed, maybe I as a reader am better off waiting for the collection.

That, in turn, would be a hard habit for me to form, because I am used to making my own collection out of those individual issues. The second part of this week’s great organizational undertaking involves sorting the issues into runs and bagging them. Most of the time this too is pretty straightforward — all the Wonder Womans go together, all the Brightest Days, etc. However, as you might expect, crossovers like “New Krypton” and Blackest Night gum up the works.

Actually, neither of those examples were particularly bad, because “New Krypton” revived the old triangle-number system to put its mega-story in order; and I treated the Blackest Night miniseries basically as extra issues of Green Lantern. What’s going to be a little hinky, at least for ease-of-reading purposes, are things like those old issues of The Flash from the ‘70s and ‘80s. See, over the years I have been collecting those old Flashes primarily for their backup stories — first “Green Lantern” in the early ‘70s, and then “Firestorm” in the early ‘80s. In both cases, the backups continued from the characters’ cancelled ongoing series; and in both cases, the backups led to revivals of those ongoing series. Otherwise I didn’t really read The Flash that regularly. Therefore, do I put some issues of Flash in with the Green Lanterns, and some with the Firestorms? This was getting into the heart of Cary Bates’ run as Flash writer — what if I want to buy more Flash back issues for the headliner? Will I end up eventually picking out those individual issues from the larger Flash file, just to read eight to ten pages at a time?

This is where DC’s publishing program can really help. A couple of weeks ago I was sorry to see that those old “Green Lantern” backups might not be collected in an upcoming Showcase Presents GL volume. Separating those GL stories from the Flash main feature just makes sense, and would literally make them more accessible.

Of course, I look forward to the day when we readers can make our own collected editions from the ground up, through an ala carte, print-on-demand system. Imagine being able not only to download just those GL or Firestorm backups, but also to order a print edition — in effect, making one’s own trade paperback like you would make an iPod playlist. If issues and/or individual stories thus become the “singles” of tomorrow, such a marketplace could also encourage their standalone importance, along the way encouraging experimentation with different story lengths. It may be years away, or it may be decades, but I think it could be the future of superhero comics.

Until then, I’ll continue to maintain my own voluminous collection. I’m looking forward to revisiting those Firestorm backups, maybe some Thriller or Young Heroes In Love, and any number of issues I’ve probably forgotten I have.

Adrienne Roy

Passings | Prolific colorist Adrienne Roy, who was a fixture of DC Comics for more than two decades, passed away on Dec. 14 following a year-long battle with cancer. She was 57. Although Roy’s work appeared in countless DC titles, from Green Lantern and Superman to Warlord and Wonder Woman, she’s best known for her extensive runs on Batman, Detective Comics and The New Teen Titans. Mark Evanier notes that “Her long tenure on Batman (more than 600 issues of various comics featuring the character) meant that her credit appeared on more tales of the Caped Crusader than anyone else except for Bob Kane.” CBGExtra posts an obituary written by her husband Anthony Tollin. [News from ME]

Publishing | Rich Johnston reports on rumored contract changes at DC Comics that would affect all new creator-owned titles in the DC Universe and Vertigo imprints. [Bleeding Cool]

Publishing | Storm Lion, the Singapore-based multimedia studio behind the 2008 Radical Publishing miniseries Freedom Formula, has closed on the heels the summer layoff of 30 employees in Singapore and Los Angeles. The closing leaves a planned movie adaptation, to be produced by Bryan Singer, “in limbo.” [The Straits Times]

Josh Blaylock

Publishing | Josh Blaylock, founder of Devil’s Due Publishing, frets that sudden cover-price cuts by DC and Marvel will lead to a “direct market massacre” in February: “Even in the best of times the holiday spending craze is over, everyone has spent their post-X-mas, January gift money, and the lull begins, and this will likely be one of the flattest X-Mas seasons in memory. This year, as our currency buys less and less essentials (I’m talking food and clothing, not your essential weekly publications), February is already poised to be tougher than ever, but it’s also running parallel with the forced 25% drop in sales from the majority of DC and Marvel titles. It’s an open wound plus salt.” [JoshBlaylock.com, via The Beat]

Retailing | Frances Dinkelspiel follows up on last week’s report about the imminent closing of legendary Berkeley, Calif., store Comic Relief. The article mentions that two employees have been laid off, but that the family of founder Rory Root is apparently talking to a potential buyer. Rich Johnston and Heidi MacDonald have commentary. [Berkeleyside]

Retailing | Drew Sullivan, owner of Ash Avenue Comics and Books in Tempe, Ariz., said his store had an exceptional November, thanks in large part to brisk sales of The Walking Dead, triggered by the popularity of the AMC television adaptation: “That comic book is one of our biggest sellers right now. We can’t keep it stocked. [...] It’s basically introducing new customers to the world of comics.” [East Valley Tribune]

Publishing | Robot 6 contributor Brigid Alverson considers the pitfalls of comics age ratings. [Graphic Novel Reporter]

Sleeper: Season One

Publishing | Tom Spurgeon pens a eulogy for WildStorm, complete with a list of favorite titles. [The Comics Reporter]

Conventions | Jayson Peters previews Amazing Arizona Comic Convention, which will hold is debut event Jan. 8-9 at the Mesa Convention Center in Mesa, Ariz. Guests will include Robert Kirkman, Rob Liefeld, Jeph Loeb, Joe Benitez, John Layman, Ryan Ottley, Cory Walker, and cast members from The Walking Dead. [East Valley Tribune]

Creators | Dean Haspiel posts his comic-strip tribute to Harvey Pekar that appears in the year-end issue of Entertainment Weekly. [LiveJournal]

Creators | Amy Mebberson talks about kids’ comics and BOOM! Studios’ Muppet Show titles. [TFAW.com]

Best of the year | David Allen Jones compiles his favorite comics of 2010, including Scalped, The Sixth Gun and Empowered. [Popdose]

Best of the year | Larry Cruz looks at the “Webcomic Moments of 2010.” [The Webcomic Overlook]

One Piece, Vol. 6

Publishing | The 60th volume of Eiichiro Oda’s popular pirate manga One Piece sold more than 2 million copies in its first four days of release. It’s the first book to move more than 2 million copies in its first week of sales since the Japanese market survey company Oricon began reporting its charts in 2008. As we reported last week, this volume’s 3.4 million-copy first printing set a record, and propelled the series past the 200 million-copy mark. [Anime News Network]

Editorial cartoons | Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Matt Davies has been laid off by the Gannett-owned Journal News in White Plains, N.Y. [Comic Riffs]

Publishing | Abrams has made three comics-related promotions: Susan Van Metre to senior vice president and publisher, overseeing all comic arts books as well as Abrams Books for Young Readers and Amulet Books; Charles Kochman to editorial director of Abrams ComicArts; and Chad W. Beckerman to creative director, overseeing design for all comic arts books as well as Abrams Books for Young Readers and Amulet Books. [Abrams]

Astro City

Publishing | Writer Kurt Busiek reveals that his long-running series Astro City, which had been published by the recently closed WildStorm imprint, will continue under the DC Comics banner. [Newsarama]

Publishing | Simona Stanzani talks about translating manga into Italian and English. [The Mainichi Daily News]

Conventions | The Smith College student newspaper reports on New England Webcomics Weekend. [The Smith College Sophian]

Publishing | Deb Aoki talks to Senior Editor Joel Enos about the January relaunch of Viz Media’s Shonen Jump Magazine. [About.com]

Creators | The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund pays tribute to Neil Gaiman on the writer’s 50th birthday. [CBLDF]

R. Crumb

Creators | Deborah Vankin chats with a “less angry” R. Crumb: “All I read anymore is investigative journalism. You name it. Scandalous political stuff, the pharmaceutical industry, all that crap. I’m fascinated by that stuff.” [Hero Complex]

Creators | Jim Shooter talks briefly about his lengthy career and the future of comics ahead of his appearance Sunday at the Pittsburgh Comic & Collectibles Show: “Someone told me recently that I’m the longest-tenured (though not the oldest!) active comic book writer, with 46 years of service. I think I keep getting gigs because I out-work, out-care and out-try the younger, gifted people for whom writing is easy, apparently. Someone also told me that I’m 59. Not inside my head, I’m not.” [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]

Creators | Cameron Stewart and Karl Kerschl discuss their upcoming Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood miniseries, created for video-game publisher Ubisoft. “It’s quite an astonish­ingly rare job, where it’s a big commercial product by a big corporation, yet it feels to us very much like a personal creation,” Stweart says. “We figured we’d have to work around very strict rules with a brand as big as this, but it turned out to be the opposite. We had a whole lot of creative freedom.” [Montreal Mirror]

Creators | Sweets creator Kody Chamberlain is asked general questions by a reporter from his local newspaper, who notes “there is even a Wikipedia page about him.” [The Daily Advertiser]

The Witchlands

Here’s one I’ve personally been waiting for … writer Kurt Busiek previews his The Witchlands project over on his blog, offering a look at the cover by Zachary Baldus and some of the interior art by Conner Willumsen.

The project was first announced in San Diego in 2009 at the WildStorm panel and was originally titled Kurt Busiek’s American Gothic. With WildStorm going away, he told Heidi at The Beat that it will likely be coming from somewhere else within DC.

Be sure to click on over to his blog to see Willumsen’s interior art.

Nook Color

Digital publishing | As expected, Barnes & Noble on Tuesday unveiled its Nook Color e-book reader, priced at $249. The 7-inch LCD touch tablet runs on the Android 2.1 operating system, and offers web browsing, audio and video playback, and basic games (CNET notes that Barnes & Noble is pushing the device as a “reader’s tablet”). The device ships on Nov. 19. [CNET, Salon, paidContent]

Internet | PayPal has announced its much-anticipated micropayments system, with Facebook and a number of other websites lining up behind it. PayPal describes the new product, available later this year, as an “in-context, frictionless payment solution that lets consumers pay for digital goods and content in as little as two clicks, without ever having to leave a publisher’s game, news, music, video or media site.” Scott McCloud is quick out of the gate with reaction: “This is so close, in almost every respect, to what we were asking for over a decade ago, it’s almost eerie. They’re even using the same language to describe it.” [TechCrunch]

Underground #1

Digital piracy | A pair of interviews about the unexpected sales spike following the bootleg posting of Underground on 4chan: Comic Book Resource’s Jonah Weiland talks with co-creators Jeff Parker and Steve Lieber, while Techdirt’s Mike Masnick chats with Lieber and studio mate Erika Moen. [Underground]

History | The one-time studio in Meredith, New Hampshire, of Archie creator Bob Montana is scheduled to be torn down to make way for retail space and professional offices. [The Citizen]

Comic strips | Cartoonist Garry Trudeau marks the 40th anniversary of Doonesbury with an interview tour that includes Slate, NPR and The Guardian. His remarks about the future of the medium sparked a brief controversy in webcomics circles that was quickly calmed by PvP creator Scott Kurtz. [Doonesbury]

Comics | Shaenon K. Garrity kicks off discussion with a perhaps-controversial list of “Ten Things to Know About the Future of Comics” — “Monthly comic books are dead,” “Superheroes are not comic-book characters” — which leads to a response about the future of webcomics from Larry Cruz. [comiXology, The Webcomic Overlook]

Digital comics | Shannon O’Leary provides a broad overview of the digital arena, tied to New York Comic Con and the ICv2 Comics and Digital Conference. [Publishers Weekly]

Retailing | Bozeman, Montana, store Rook’s Comics and Games is spotlighted as it re-opens in a new, 5,300-square-foot location. [Bozeman Daily Chronicle]

Jim Lee art from "Icons"

Creators | Jim Lee talks about his career and the new hardcover retrospective Icons: The DC Comics and Wildstorm Art of Jim Lee. [Splash Page, Publishers Weekly]

Creators | Aaron Sagers interviews The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman and The Zombie Survival Guide author Max Brooks. [Kentucky.com]

Creators | Nightmare World writer Dirk Manning is profiled by his local newspaper. [Toledo Blade]

Comics | Douglas Wolk takes a look at the history of vampire and Frankenstein comics. [Techland]

Jonny Rench

Passings | Colorist Jonny Rench, who worked on such DC Comics and WildStorm titles as The Authority, Gen13, Human Target and Ratchet & Clank, has passed away from a heart attack. He was 28. “He was an incredibly talented artist,” the WildStorm Twitter account states, “and also an amazing, kind, joyful man.” [Twitter]

Publishing | Fantagraphics Co-Publisher Kim Thompson reveals what was believed to be a sketchbook of early versions of several years’ worth of George Herriman’s Krazy Kat strips “is almost certainly the work of a very intense (perhaps contemporary with Herriman?) fan who diligently, even maniacally, copied each new strip into his sketchbook over a period of three years.” The publisher had planned to release the sketchbook but now, of course, won’t. Refunds will be issued on pre-orders. [FLOG!]

Publishing | Mynardo Macaraig looks at the decline of Philippine comics, which once dominated the country’s publishing industry but now struggle to find an audience. [Agence France-Presse]

Tokyopop

Publishing | Asako Suzuki, former director of manga for DC Comics’ defunct CMX imprint, has joined Tokyopop as its manga line editor. [Anime News Network]

Publishing | The U.S. Navy is releasing The Docs, a 200-page graphic novel designed to help hospital corpsmen deal with the stress and realities of deployment. “Graphic novels are very, very popular with this age group,” said Heidi Kraft, a Naval Health Research Center clinical psychologist and former lieutenant commander. “The idea was to give Navy corpsmen a training tool, whether they are a junior corpsman or senior master chief who has gone multiple times, at any level to think about what they face in combat.” [Navy Times]

Conventions | Adam Daniels reports on Saturday’s FallCon, which drew about 5,000 people to the Minnesota State Fairgrounds in St. Paul. [Minnesota Daily]

Creators | Writer Scott Snyder chats briefly about American Vampire and his upcoming run with artist Jock on Detective Comics. [The New York Times]

Legal | Canadian officials seized illicit goods worth more than $2.3 billion at the border last year, including five comic books classified as child pornography. [The Chatham Daily News]

Hank Kanalz

Hank Kanalz, former vice president and general manager of WildStorm Productions, has been promoted to senior vice president-digital of DC Comics. He’ll oversee the new DC Digital Comics division, based in Burbank, Calif.

The news was announced this morning by DC Comics Co-Publisher Jim Lee during the DC Nation Town Hall Panel at New York Comic Con.

The WildStorm imprint was closed last month as part of a restructuring of DC Entertainment that leaves the comics-publishing division in New York City while moving the company’s administrative and digital and multimedia functions to Burbank. Lee confirmed this morning that most of the WildStorm operations will be moved from La Jolla, Calif., to DC Digital Comics.

Kanalz joined WildStorm in 2004 from Warner Bros. Consumer Products, where he served as director of worldwide theme parks. Before that he was a line editor at Malibu Comics, and the writer of such titles as Ex-Mutants and Ultraforce.

Update: Comics Alliance reports that Kanalz also will oversee DC’s kids comics.

Update 2: DC has issued an official press release, which you can read after the break.

Hank Kanalz has been named Senior Vice President, Digital of DC Entertainment, it was announced today at New York ComicCon by Jim Lee, DC Comics Co-Publisher and John Rood, DC Entertainment EVP of Sales & Marketing. In this newly created position, Kanalz will develop and oversee the execution of the annual digital publishing schedule, coordinating all digital comic content across DC Universe, Vertigo, and MAD. He will also oversee digital special projects and business development such as custom publishing and e-commerce.” Kanalz will be based in Burbank and report to Lee and Rood, and will work closely with the Warner Bros. Digital Distribution group, which supports the Company’s digital initiatives.

“Hank has been integral to the launch of our digital comics initiative, and was an essential part of WildStorm for the past six years,” said Jim Lee, Co-Publisher, DC Comics. “I’m eager to have him working alongside me to blaze new trails in digital publishing and bring our comics to more readers beyond print.”

Previous to his new role, Hank Kanalz served as Vice President and General Manager of WildStorm, where he oversaw day-to-day operations including editorial, production, coloring and administration, as well as edited several comic titles, including World of Warcraft and Fringe. Kanalz was a key figure in building WildStorm’s strong crossmedia relationships, which led to adaptations of popular film, television and gaming properties to the comics medium.

Before coming to DC Comics in 2004, Kanalz was Director of Worldwide Theme Parks for Warner Bros. Consumer Products, where he oversaw the company’s relationship with theme park licensees such as Six Flags and Universal Studios, as well as other destination entertainment businesses. He was a key liaison between DC Comics and Warner Bros. Consumer Products for several years.

Kanalz has also written comic books, including The Flash and Green Lantern for DC.

Gen13 by Jamie McKelvie

Jamie McKelvie posted it on his Flickr page. No word if this is his final pass, or he’ll ink and color it.

Atlas 5

Any interview in which I can ask a question that prompts Jeff Parker to damn me is a good interview in my estimation (read on to find the “damn” moment, it’s a fun-loving damn). We initially conducted this interview before last week’s announced demise of Wildstorm, but I gave him a chance to adjust his response when discussing the likelihood of a second Mysterius miniseries. I’m sad to see Parker’s series Atlas come to an end this week with the release of Atlas 5. It’s not often that a writer gets to end a series on his own terms, and yet that’s what happened for Parker with Atlas. While the Atlas series takes its final lap, last week marked the start of Parker and artist Gabriel Hardman on the Hulk monthly (and I loved their first issue [25]).  While this interview does not cover all of Parker’s Marvel work, we definitely work in a discussion of his Thunderbolts work.

Tim O’Shea: You ended the ATLAS series on your own terms. When you wrote the final scene of the last issue was it upsetting, or was it fine, as you realize you can always find ways to work aspects of these characters into future Marvel books?

Jeff Parker: No, I was actually pretty happy as I wrote it, because I felt this was one of the most “Atlasy” of all the stories. It did its own thing and was exciting and defied expectations, which is what that book should do. I can probably have them pop up in other things, but I really prefer them in their own corner of the Marvel Universe.

O’Shea: In Thunderbolts, you really threw me by naming former US Agent/John Walker as the warden and making him (gasp, for once) an interesting character. Did you seek him out for the Thunderbolts cast, or was he part of the deal when you took the assignment?

Parker: It looked like he wasn’t ‘needed’ anywhere else at the end of Dark Reign, it just made a lot of sense to me. I asked if I could A: maim him horribly and B: make him the warden. I like the idea that he was ready to get back to work after such a catastrophic personal event (losing almost half his body, for those who don’t read it). Even though really, it was probably way to soon. But he certainly asserted himself during the prison blackout, didn’t he?

O’Shea: At Baltimore Comic-Con, you acknowledged you were going to be changing the cast up a bit in a few issues. I’m not gonna try to beg who will be joining, but I am curious if other than Luke will there be other constants to the cast?

Parker: Yes, but I can’t say and rob the surprise factor, you know that! Damn Tim.

O’Shea: What is the backbone to the Thunderbolts to you, what is it that made you want to write a series that has been through many incarnations over the years?

Parker: I’ve been getting into writing unlikable characters lately. Characters who you don’t identify with -or DO you?- but still want to watch do what they do. Bill Rosemann kind of primed me for it by asking me to do The Hood mini before that, and I really enjoyed it.

O’Shea: The Raft is a fairly large writer’s playground, but you’ve made it an even larger landscape by incorporating Pym space management technology? What’s been the most fun you’ve had to date playing with the Pym technology?

Parker: The most fun comes up in 150, when Ghost figures out how to screw with it! It’s a double-sized issue too.

O’Shea: I’m still having a hard time grasping how Thunderbolt Ross went from trying to end the threat of the Hulk because he’s a monster, to becoming a monster himself. What is your take on how things came to this point and how does it shape how you write the character?

Parker: I see as standing too close to the flame and getting burned. Eventually he became the thing he hated, and now he’s starting to see what it was like on that side of the coin. There’s no way around the idea that part of what fueled Ross’ Ahab-like obsession with Hulk was that it was power he couldn’t have. And now he does- so what does he do from this point on?

O’Shea: Judging by this preview, Hulk artist Gabriel Hardman likes drawing monsters. Will you give him a chance to draw more monsters, or are you going to capitalize on Hartman’s other artistic affinities in the series?

Parker: In the first arc, Gabriel will give you monsters beyond your wildest dreams! We start getting into the subtle stuff Hardman can do in the next arc, the first is very much pure confrontation.

O’Shea: As Iron Man and Red Hulk meet, does Stark know who Red Hulk actually is, or is that a character dynamic you don’t have time or space (plot-wise) to capitalize upon?

Parker: No. The only one outside the main Hulk players, your Bruces and Betties and Ricks and such, who knows Red Hulk is Ross is Steve Rogers. And he’s keeping it to himself, he doesn’t want to see Ross pursued for court martial any more than Ross does. Ross had his funeral with honors, his Army-Airforce career is over, and now he has to find new purpose. It’s really the crossroads that many military lifers find themselves at upon retirement.

O’Shea: What kind of supporting cast do you plan to nurture in Hulk?

Parker: At first, a very small and familiar one. Bruce Banner is almost the entire supporting cast! We expand in the next storyline though.

O’Shea: I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how much the word of mouth on the Mysterius TPB seems to grow (I read and enjoyed the series when it first came out). Latest example? Evan Dorkin: “Really enjoyed Mysterius The Unfathomable by Jeff Parker and Tom Fowler … It reminded me a great deal of Steve Gerber’s work, and I mean that as a compliment — fun genre stuff with pulp overtones, social satire, well-delineated oddball characters, solid plotting, and — holy shit — an actual story.” First off, Dorkin’s not the type of fellow who throws out compliments very often, so how gratifying was that? Secondly, what are the odds there’ll be another Mysterius mini?

Parker: That was very gratifying for exactly the reason you say- Evan is a tough audience. And I’m a fan of his, so I really appreciated that.

Boy, that [odds for another Mysterius mini] could go anywhere now! [Because of the demise of the series publisher, Wildstorm] Tom and I are certainly ready to go, we know the next story. Pray to whatever Seussian Demon you think will work.

Sleeper #1

After 18 years, former Image studio and current DC Comics imprint WildStorm is shutting down this December. And as many have noted already, the house that Jim built has produced many awesome, memorable and even game-changing (to steal a phrase from Rob Liefeld) works in the last two decades.

Here are six of them that we found to be particularly awesome; let us know what we missed in the comments section.

1. Sleeper: There have been many comics that mash up superheroes with down-and-dirty genres like crime and espionage over the past decade; this may just be the best. The high concept is a gripping one: Super-spy Holden Carver is so deep undercover in an international super-criminal organization that when his one contact is placed in a coma, literally no one knows he’s secretly on the side of the angels. Carver’s predicament, the way he plays and gets played by both sides, his growing unwillingness or inability to draw the ethical lines needed to save his soul, if not his life–such is the stuff of a great crime drama. Superstar in the making Ed Brubaker brings all his talents and obsessions to the table here: his knack for crafting morally compromised characters while neither romanticizing their misdeeds nor softening them up, his recurring theme of how the secrets and sins of our pasts never truly leave us, his belief that damaged people seek out other damaged people to repair that damage, his eye for and ability to work with strong visual stylists. In this case that meant Sean Phillips, never better in his ability to believably root spectacular action and super-powers in a naturalist-noir milieu. All of this in a WildC.A.T.s spinoff, proving just how wild WildStorm was once willing to go.

Even its relatively short run redounds to its benefit: The complete story of Holden Carver is yours to own inexpensively, read easily, and ponder at your leisure. (Sean T. Collins)

2. Astro City: For 15 years, and despite all manner of extracurricular difficulties, Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson, Will Blyberg, Alex Sinclair, and Alex Ross (not to mention the good folks at Comicraft) have produced one of the greatest odes to superheroes ever committed to paper. On its face, Astro City may look like a mash-up of the DC and Marvel universes – a place where the truly-super Samaritan can rub elbows with the fantastic First Family – but like the decades of superhero stories it evokes, it’s not quite that simple. See, everyone in Astro City has a tale to tell, whether it involves horror or crime, romance or even funny animals. It’s Exhibit A for folks who believe that superheroes can be used to relate all kinds of stories. Sure, there are the requisite number of cosmic calamities, villainous capers, and existential threats to civilization, but they’re not really the point. Whether they’re about teenage sidekicks, time-lost crusaders, or a man robbed of love by a literal twist of fate, the best Astro City stories make those very personal connections in a way that makes the reader feel like part of the place’s history. You come to Astro City for the pastiche, but you stay for the people. (Tom Bondurant)

The Authority

3. & 4. Planetary/Authority: All right, I’m going to cheat here a little bit and talk about two titles at once. And while the Authority certainly had life afterward, especially when Mark Millar and Frank Quitely got their hands on them, for the purpose of this exercise I’m going to be talking about the first 12 issues, by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch. Spinning out of his work on Stormwatch, Ellis and Hitch assembled a team of ultra-powerful, bad ass heroes, The Authority, who promised to make the world a better place by any means necessary. Around the same time, Ellis and artist John Cassaday created Planetary,which focused on three super-powered individuals aimed at discovering the secret history of the WildStorm universe — a history shaped by everyone from Sherlock Holmes, the Lone Ranger and Count Dracula to an evil version of the Fantastic Four.

Both of these books debuted in 1999, right before the turn of the century, a time of anxiety and uncertainty in the world at large. The comic industry itself had survived the 1990s, the speculation fallout and, let’s face it … it really just needed someone to light a fire, someone who was willing to push storytelling forward into the new century. Both of these comics did that; while Planetary did it by challenging the notions of the past and everything we know about fictional characters, Authority did it by defining “widescreen” comics, with bold plots and concepts, and a grand visual style. They changed a lot of notions people had about comics and set a high bar for the medium in this century. (JK Parkin)

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

5. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Anyone could have had the idea for League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. It’s such a simple concept: The Justice League of America for Victorian literature. But it wasn’t just anyone, it was Alan Moore. That meant that it included not just main characters like Mina Murray and Captain Nemo, but also cameo and guest appearances by John Carter of Mars, Fu Manchu, and obscure folk like Inspector Donovan and Miss Coote. It wasn’t just a nineteenth century JLA, it was a bona fide and thorough exploration of the Wold Newton Universe. It was also the flagship for an entire imprint-within-an-imprint at WildStorm. Though relations were still unpleasant between DC and Alan Moore, WildStorm was able to serve as a buffer for a while and America’s Best Comics lived up to its name, publishing such awesomeness as Tom Strong, Top 10, and Promethea. (Michael May)

6. Ex Machina: I still remember the day I bought this at the local comic shop. One of the employees and I, both being fans of Brian K. Vaughan’s Y: The Last Man, had been eagerly awaiting it for months. He handed me my weekly stash, which had Ex Machina on top, and said, “Wait until you read the last page.” Vaughan and artist Tony Harris went where I never expected them to on that last page, just as they did in every subsequent issue. Was this a superhero title? Sometimes I forgot, because it was the characters, politics and philosophical/moral debates that were featured in every issue that really connected me to the work. Although I lament the end of the title and the imprint that spawned it, it is somewhat fitting that it’s one of the last exclamation marks WildStorm will leave in the comics world. (JK Parkin)

DC Entertainment

As many as 80 employees will be fired or relocated in the restructuring of DC Entertainment that will see part of the company’s operations move from New York City to Burbank, Calif., according to a notice filed Wednesday with the New York State Department of Labor and reported by Bloomberg.

That amounts to nearly a third of DC’s estimated 250 employees. The filing doesn’t specify how many of those positions will be firings, and how many will be moved cross-country. The Los Angeles Times reported earlier this week that about 20 percent of the company’s staff “will lose their jobs as part of the shift,” a statement challenged by DC.

A Warner Bros. spokesman wouldn’t comment to Bloomberg on the specifics of the layoffs.

Announced on Tuesday, the reorganization leaves DC’s comics-publishing division in New York City while relocating the company’s administrative and digital and multimedia operations — including, presumably, the WildStorm offices now based in La Jolla, Calif. — to a Warner Bros.-managed property in Burbank. It was subsequently revealed that the WildStorm and Zuda imprints will close as part of the shakeup.

The labor department filing states that layoffs will begin on Dec. 27, and continue through Aug. 27, 2011, presumably the date when the move is expected to be complete.

DC executives are in the process of meeting individually with staff members to discuss their positions. “… There’s a spectrum of things that are happening for various employees – there are promotions, there are offers of relocation and unfortunately there are some layoffs to come,” DC Entertainment President Diane Nelson told Comic Book Resources on Tuesday. “Until that’s all sorted and people have had time to consider their individual opportunities and we confirm all that, which will take us a few weeks, we aren’t going to be able to discuss specifics.”

Planetary #21

This week brings the end of an era, as DC Entertainment announced that the WildStorm imprint is shutting down in December. That, of course, has brought a lot of commentary and remembrances around the web.

• Both Newsarama and The Beat have round-ups of reactions from creators and former WildStorm employees. As Heidi notes in her intro, “…it isn’t just another in a long list of comics imprints that have ended over the years. It’s the end of a comics company that made history for 18 years as a vital part of several revolutions in commercial comics.” She received a comment from Rob Liefeld that really drives home how game-changing WildStorm was, noting how several prominent creators got their start under WildStorm, and how WildStorm published some of the biggest comics works of the past two decades.
• My favorite piece on WildStorm is probably Andy Khouri’s essay on ComicsAlliance, where he talks about the generation of comic fans who have grown up with WildStorm (and Fairchild’s breasts). “… the history of WildStorm tracks well with that of many turn-of-the-century babies like myself, whose unconditional affection for the comics medium (and, in some cases, employment in the comics industry) can be traced back to WildStorm founder Jim Lee’s pied piper act, where the most influential comic book artist of the 1990s lured a generation away from the safe, altruistic heroes of our childhoods and into much darker, much sexier and much more violent comic book worlds where we roamed free before he finally led us back to water,” he wrote.
• Over at Techland, meanwhile, Robot 6 contributor Graeme McMillan takes a closer look at WildStorm’s rebranding and relaunches over the last ten years, many of which didn’t work too well, from Eye of the Storm to Worldstorm to World’s End.
• And David Brothers wonders “What did Wildstorm do that DC couldn’t do just as well?”
• Rich Johnston has a piece up on how the purchase of WildStorm by DC Comics was initially reported.
• And finally, Kurt Busiek has posted a bit of an update on Astro City, noting that his contacts at the imprint have been in meetings ever since the announcement occurred, so he hasn’t had a chance to talk to them about Astro City, the Arrowsmith novel or Witchlands, his upcoming creator-owned series. “I won’t speculate on what the upshot will be, but I wouldn’t worry about it,” he writes on his blog. “Astro City is a profitable series, and DC isn’t going to be in a hurry for it to go away. [And frankly, even if they were, in the last few days I think I've heard from almost every American comics publisher whose staff isn't tied up in meetings, letting me know that if it should possibly happen that DC and Astro City part ways, there are safe landing spots.]“

Elijah Snow and Batman

Most months, this is that special week where I take a look at DC’s latest batch of solicitations. This month, though, the solicitations themselves take a back seat to the larger DC Entertainment news — and, specifically, to the end of the WildStorm imprint.

I know I am not the first to point out WildStorm’s slow death. For a while now it has been a disparate mix of superheroes, videogame tie-ins, and other licensed adaptations. As such, it’s been hard for WildStorm to establish (or re-establish) its own identity, even in terms of that diversity. Ironically, the imprint built much of its reputation on creator-driven titles, like The Authority and Gen13, which have now been incorporated into the greater DC Multiverse. They may have new life down the road, but if DC’s treatment of the Milestone and Red Circle characters is any indication, the quality of that life may well leave something to be desired.

Of course, many of WildStorm’s books will continue under the DC bullet, presumably to build up the DC brand in general. On one level I’m happy to see this kind of assimilation, because it instantly — albeit superficially — makes the DC line more diverse. I’ve argued for a while that it needs to be more than superheroes; but even The Authority and Astro City are sufficiently different from the DCU titles.

I have my doubts about that diversity creating new superhero readers, though. Longtime readers may remember that I got back into comic books through DC’s Star Trek. I started reading the Trek comic in the fall of 1984, just before Crisis On Infinite Earths came out, so the timing was good, to say the least. Nevertheless, I wouldn’t count on today’s readers making a similar transition from, say, Gears Of War to Freedom Fighters. If it’s not happening now, it probably won’t happen under a new masthead.

Besides, DC’s focus is increasingly on its most recognizable characters. It may be a coincidence, but for December, DC has solicited more Batman-related titles (21) than all of WildStorm’s ongoing series and miniseries (14). While some of those Bat-books are Annuals and miniseries which won’t be back in January, the December solicits definitely reinforce the perception that DC is taking very few risks. Again, this is why I like even the “involuntary diversification” which comes from putting something like Victorian Undead II under the DC bullet — because it forces the publisher to think about something other than superheroes.

The flip side of that, naturally, is the notion that DC will refuse to publish the next Victorian Undead because it won’t be able to evaluate such a book by WildStorm’s less demanding sales standards. After all, there are plenty of reasons why DC publishes so many Batman books. Maybe I’m wrong; and maybe this is the start of a singular, more genuinely-diverse line of DC comic books. I hope it is … but I’m still skeptical.

* * *

And not to pick unfairly on the Batman line, but I did want to talk a little more about those twenty-one books solicited for December. They include

– 5 ongoing in-continuity Batman titles (Detective Comics, Batman, Batman And Robin, Batman Inc., and The Dark Knight);

– 5 ongoing in-continuity “Bat-partner” titles (Red Robin, Gotham City Sirens, Streets Of Gotham, Azrael, and Batgirl);

– 2 ongoing anthologies (Batman Confidential and Superman/Batman);

– 2 tangentially-related team books (Birds Of Prey and Outsiders);

– 3 issues of Batman miniseries (Odyssey and the two issues of Orphans);

– 1 issue of a Bat-related miniseries (Knight & Squire);

– 2 Annuals (Detective Comics and Batman); and

– 1 Special (the Batman 80-Page Giant 2010).

As mentioned above, this is something of an unusual month even for the Bat-books. The numbers are inflated artificially by the Annuals, the 80-Page Giant, and the two issues of Orphans. However, they’ve also been goosed somewhat by the relatively-recent addition (in November) of B. Inc. and Dark Knight. Furthermore, despite being wrong about the imminent cancellation of the post-“Battle For The Cowl” titles, I continue to believe that we are in the midst of an artificially-inflated Bat-bubble. Out of all the ongoing titles listed above, only Batman and Detective Comics have any kind of long-term staying power. Batman And Robin and Batman Inc. both represent the “Grant Morrison Era of Batman,” although by November Morrison will have transferred his flag from B&R to Inc. Likewise, last year SOG and GCS allowed Paul Dini to continue story threads he’d begun in Detective Comics, which itself had become Batwoman’s new home.

Dini’s gone from GCS, though, and Batwoman has left ’Tec for her own series. Dini’s “Heart Of Hush” arc in SOG will be over in a few months as well; and its end could be a natural place to conclude that series. Streets was #86 on the July sales charts, having sold just under 25,000 copies to retailers; while Sirens was #81, with just over 25K of sales. Both of them look like powerhouses next to Batman Confidential, which at #129 sold some 14,000 copies of its July issue to retailers. With all that in mind, I am still more bullish on Confidential, because I can see more of an ongoing demand for a Batman anthology than I can for two titles each specializing in relatively obscure members of the Bat-cast. (And yes, I know Catwoman isn’t exactly “obscure.”) Obviously, if DC is happy with the numbers for Streets and Sirens, I wouldn’t expect either of them to be cancelled. At the same time, though, neither title strikes me as particularly ambitious. (I still read Streets, but I dropped Sirens a while back.) Streets is decent enough, just as Dini and Dustin Nguyen’s Detective was pretty decent; and Sirens at its best was like a twisted Birds Of Prey. However, Gotham Central was a more distinctive look at the Bat-mythology, and BOP and Catwoman were (and are) better-received than Sirens has been.

Put another way, whenever I see a glut of Bat-books, I always wonder whether the readership might be better-served with fewer titles. If Odyssey had been a Batman Confidential arc, it would have boosted that book’s sales, and it might have gotten some new readers to stick around afterwards. Such an argument doesn’t make financial sense for DC, though. The publisher has no incentive to serialize Neal Adams’ work in the existing Confidential when it can make a bigger splash with a standalone Odyssey — and still profit from readers who buy both books.

The December solicits also demonstrate why DC would rather launch a new Grant Morrison Bat-title than have the writer return to Batman. J. Michael Straczynski’s Superman storyline has already needed one fill-in issue, and Morrison himself has been late on both Batman and Batman and Robin. Clearly DC would prefer to publish high-profile, long-running titles like Batman and Superman consistently every month, rather than risk any more delays; so it gets a fill-in for Superman and lets Batman and Robin run late. More titles also gives DC more flexibility to tell … well, more Batman stories, apparently.

In the end, though, all those Batman books (and the five Superman titles, five Green Lantern titles, three Titans titles, and three Legion titles) can make a local comics shop’s shelves look awfully homogenized. Similarly, the December solicitations give the impression (fairly or not) that DC would rather have one big plate of superheroes than a more balanced diet of genres. I don’t know how long DC can sustain all these Bat-titles, especially since both Batman and Robin and Batman Inc. appear to have lifespans dictated by fairly specific concepts (namely, Dick and Damian and “the franchise”), but surely the Bat-line will have to be pruned back in the next year or two. By then I wonder if DC will have learned anything productive from WildStorm’s decline, or if it will have simply redirected its energies in more familiar ways.

Becky Cloonan draws The Grifter

The members of the Deep6 and Hypothetical Island studios have taken to doing a warm-up sketch on a given topic every morning and posting their sketches here. Yesterday, the group decided to pay homage to Wildstorm after the announcement of its demise by sketching a favorite character. Above is Becky Cloonan’s drawing of The Grifter; other contributions include Joe Infurnari’s Tom Strong, Simon Fraser’s Jenny Sparks, George O’Connor’s Planetary trio, Reilly Brown’s Fairchild, and Tim Hamilton’s Ex Machina drawing.