In a nice bit of reporting, The Fourth Rail learned that Diamond Comics has placed a warning about the possible allocation of Marvel's upcoming FANTASTIC FOUR #60, a nine-cent comic book that marks the debut of the book's new creative team. What this means is that someone informed Diamond that Marvel is capping the orders of FF#60, and that orders may be allocated between stores if the combined orders go over the cap.
Why is this a story? Well, the nine cent pricing on FF#60 is a shot at DC, who released last year's BATMAN: THE TEN CENT ADVENTURE for a mere ten cents, as an advertisement for the Batman line. Bill & Joe made a big deal about it in "the press" as well, talking about how easy it was to sell a book at ten cents. Of course, showing that they're capping the orders on the book reveals a limited commitment to the project, in contrast to DC's promise to keep the book in stock and available as long as there was demand for it.
Selling over 600,000 copies of THE TEN CENT ADVENTURE, it seems DC is slightly more willing to put it's money where it's mouth is. It'll be interesting to see Marvel's response.
The Dallas Observer is running a very well done interview with Grant Morrison at the moment, and it's worth checking out. It's balanced, it deals with sensational subject matter without sensationalizing it, it's only barely offensive to people who read comics. Nice work, really.
I wonder why it's only journalists outside of comics that can write comics interviews as well-researched and informative as this one...? Unless of course, someone would like to prove me wrong...
Last week, Entertainment Weekly magazine ran a review of Peter Bagge's THE MEGALOMANICAL SPIDER-MAN!, a very cute piss-take of the wall-crawler, timed to co-incide with the movie and all of the hoopla surrounding the character. It came out in April, the review was a week or two back, and this morning, CNN.COM picked up the review and ran it on the front page.
"This perfectly timed parody retells the origin of Spider-Man, just like the movie -- except that here, Spidey fights supervillains while thinking such heretical thoughts as ''Didn't I 'defeat' this lunatic last week? What a revolving door our justice system has become!'' " - Ken Tucker, Entertainment Weekly
What's interesting to note, of course, is that THE MEGALOMANICAL SPIDER-MAN! has been out of print -- since two weeks before it shipped. Once comic specialty shop retailers sold out of their initial orders? That's it, done, finito. So considering it's been 8 weeks since the book came out, and it's still receiving some really good press, it would make sense for Marvel to reprint it, right?
"Newsarama.com provided Marvel Comics with news stories that were written and ran in the time period covered by the book."
This is the caveat that runs at the end of the story, italicized, and sandwiched in between the preview images and the beginning of the user feedback. This is the justification for running marvel advertisements for free at Newsarama, dressed up as a news.
Never mind the fact that it would have been exceedingly easy to work this into the actual story. Never mind the fact that it's poor journalistic form not to do so. Let's just never pay the site any mind at all, really.
Unfortunately, like a car crash, I will continue to look at it. I can't tear my eyes away. All I can do is point out the truly bad shit passing for journalism, and bring you the material that's worth reading. One day, maybe the other 'reporters' out there will figure out which is which for themselves.
I was doing some of my preperatory work for the upcoming PREVIEWS REVIEW, and I was struck at how many really great books were coming out that weren't going to get much notice. Why? Because they're in the back of the PREVIEWS catalogue, a 500+ page tome that people have gotten progressively less enthusiastic about flipping through, as of late. I think it's a damn shame that, with the volume of great and important work being published right now that isn't from MARVEL, DC, IMAGE, or DARK HORSE, that it's those companies and those titles that get the lion's share of the attention.
So, as a bit of a heads up, here's a list of most of the books that James and I are going to mention in the upcoming Previews Review, that don't have any affiliation with "The Big Four". There're a lot of books here, and I'd ask you to give a few of them a shot.
A FINE LINE PRESS
SEVEN PEACHES: THE FIRST SEVEN DESERT PEACH EPISODES
by Donna Barr. SC, 7x10, 244pg, b&w $19.95
AAA POP COMICS
THE ATOMICS DELUXE LIMITED EDITION VOLUME 1 HC
by Mike Allred; colored by Laura Allred. HC, 7x10, 376pg, FC $99.95
Slave Labor
DORK #10
by Evan Dorkin. b&w, 24pg $2.95
SPARKS: AN URBAN FAIRY TALE GN
by Lawrence Marvit. SC, 440pg, b&w $35.95
ARCHANGEL STUDIOS
THE RED STAR ANNUAL #1: RUN, MAKITA, RUN
by Christian Gossett & Bradley Kayl; colors by Snakebite. FC, 40pg $3.50
THE RED STAR: NOKGORKA VOLUME 2 TP
by Christian Gossett, Bradley Kayl, & Snakebite. SC, 9x12, 172pg, FC
$24.95
by Boothby, Lloyd, & Morrison. FC, 32pg (1 of 2) $2.50
COMICSONE
HEAVEN SWORD & DRAGON SABRE #1
by Wing Shing Ma. SC, 7x10, 120pg, FC $13.95
WEAPONS OF THE GODS #1
by Tony Wong. SC, 120pg, FC $13.95
CURTIS COMIC INC.
BLOODY SCHOOL VOLUME 1 #1
by Seonmo Yang & Kyongwon Yoo. b&w, 32pg $2.95
SLASHER VOLUME 1 #1
by Jinwoo Lee & Chulhee Lee. b&w, 32pg $2.95
CYBEROSIA PUBLISHING
DEAD.LINE SPIRITUS SANCTI VOLUME 1 GN
by Zoltan G�czi & Csaba Olajos. SC, 112pg, FC $15.95
DOUBLEDAY BOOKS
SHUTTERBUG FOLLIES HC
by Jason Little. HC, 9x6, 208pg, FC $24.95
IN THE DRINK SC
by Kate Christiansen & Emily Ryan Lerner. SC, 5x8, 208pg, b&w $15.95
NARCISSA SC
by Lance Tooks. SC, 10x8, 208pg, b&w $15.95
DRAGON CANDY PRODUCTIONS
SEVEN CITIES OF ELHAZZ #1
by Andrew Strawder. b&w, 32pg $3.00
DRAWN & QUARTERLY
PAUL HAS A SUMMER JOB GN
by Michel Rabagliati. SC, 7x10, 160pg, b&w $16.95
EDDIE CAMPBELL COMICS
BACCHUS COLLECTED VOLUME 7/8: EYEBALL KID DOUBLE BILL TP
by Eddie Campbell with Pete Mullins. SC, 7x10, 160pg, b&w $16.95
FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS
COLONEL JEFFREY PUMPERNICKEL LP OR CD WITH COMIC
by Adrian Tomine. Featuring all-new music by guided by Voices, Stephen Malkmus,
Ann Magnuson, Quasi, The Minus 5, Sentridoh, Mary Timony, and more. Album artwork
by Jim Woodring, Peter Bagge, Kim Deitch, Joe Sacco, and Adrian Tomine! LP&
CD $15.00
WHITE FLOWER DAY GN
by Steven Weissman. SC, 7x7, 112pg, b&w $14.95
HARDCOURT BRACE & COMPANY
BLOOD SONG: A SILENT BALLAD GN
by Eric Drooker. SC, 6x9, 304pg, FC $20.00
ONI PRESS
JASON & THE ARGOBOTS #1
by J. Torres & Mike Norton. b&w, 32pg (1 of 4) $2.95
OUTCROSS, INC.
OUTCROSS MAGAZINE #1
Magazine, 96pg, PC $4.95
SECESSION
SHE DRAWS COMICS GN
by Trina Robbins & Various
SPARKPLUG COMICS
FLEEP #1
by Jason Shiga SC, 5x8, 44pg, b&w $5.00
TOKYOPOP
RAVE VOLUME 1 GN
by Hiro Mashima. SC, 5x7, 176pg, b&w $9.99
TOP SHELF PRODUCTIONS
THREE FINGERS GN
by Rich Koslowski. SC, 9x11, 144pg, b&w $14.95
LAND OF O #1
by Michael Slack. b&w, 32pg $3.95
TWOMORROWS PUBLISHING
I HAVE TO LIVE WITH THIS GUY! TP
SC, 8x11, 192pg, b&w $19.95
UNIVERSITY PRESS OF MISSISSIPPI
THE LANGUAGE OF COMICS: WORD AND IMAGE TP
edited by Robin Varnum & Christina T. Gibbons (1-57806-414-7) TP, 6x9,
256pg, b&w $18.00
AFTER HOURS
PARTS: THE SITCOMIC #1. by Buddy Scalera & Nick Diaz. b&w, 24pg
$2.95
ANTARTIC
PPV #1. by Tom Root & Jerzy Drozd. b&w, 32pg (1 of 3) $2.95
DREAMWAVE
FATE OF THE BLADE #1 by Chris Sarracini, Job Yamen, &DreamWave Colors
b&w, 32pg $2.95
HUMANOIDS PUBLISHING
THE BOUNCER VOLUME 1: DIAMOND FOR THE BEYOND HC. by Alexandro Jodorowsky
& Francois Boucq. HC, 8x11, 56pg, FC $15.95
MOONSTONE BOOKS
KOLCHAK THE NIGHT STALKER: THE GET OF BELIAL GN. by Joe Gentile &
Art Nichols. SC, 7x10, 48pg, FC $6.95
ONI
CUT MY HAIR ILLUSTRATED NOVEL. by Rich, Watson, Morse, Winick, French,
& Clugston-Major; cover by Allred. SC, 6x9, 236pg, b&w $15.95
Just some quick potshots at the latest Marvel Press Conference
" [Bill] Jemas began the press conference with the statement, �Read my lips, we will not raise prices�, a statement made in response to yesterday�s announcement by DC that they�ve raised prices on some titles." Of course, it doesn't mention that the press conference was conducted entirely by telephone. I don't know what the funnier interpretation of this statement is; The fact that's it's reference to former President George Bush Senior's "READ MY LIPS, NO NEW TAXES" speech, which was immediately followed by him raising taxes, Or the fact that no one could actually "Read his lips" because they couldn't see him, which makes for a delightful commentary on Bill & Joe's fairly subjective efforts at telling the truth.
"...Although I am really curious to see if he's going to offer a competition to DC now that they've raised the prices on two of his books, Young Justice and Supergirl.� said Joe Quesada. Ya see, DC raised the prices of a number of books this week, including Peter David's. Yet David has been mum. Strange eh? Quesada followed up with " I'm just curious if Peter David was consulted on the price increases of his two books. I wonder if he's going to challenge Paul Levitz now?". My guess? No, that's not how things are done at DC, although I'm surprised that those two books are still around at all, to tell you the truth... They're practically unreadable. Of course, that's just my opinion. :)
As you probably know, I usually do the PREVIEWS REVIEW every month at PopImage. Just as a bit of a heads-up, the full text of previews has been put online courtesy of Ryan Rempel, and you can find it here: http://www.greatescapeonline.com/comics/previews/2002/june.txt.
Alvin Lu of Viz Communications/Pulp Magazine announced today on the Warren Ellis Forum that Junko Mizuno would be attending the San Diego Comic Convention, as part of a short tour of California for her new Full Colour Graphic Novel CINDERALLA. To support and celebrate the tour, Pulp Magazine has produced a special sub-site dedicated to Mizuno's work, at http://www.pulp-mag.com/junko/.
I really enjoy Mizuno's twisted, creepy, adorable work. Her Cinderalla graphic novel is going to be top notch. Check out my latest PREVIEWS REVIEW where James Lucas Jones and I talked about Pulp and CINDERALLA, and make sure to visit the sub-site at Pulp.
Newsarama is running an decent enough interview with Brad Metzler, the writer charged with the task of following Kevin Smith on GREEN ARROW. What with DC's upcoming cancellations and relaunches in August/September, I had originally pegged Green Arrow as headed for the scrap heap. I mean, Smith was going to take over Brave and the Bold, which is just a Batman/Green Arrow book anyway, and DC was cutting titles... But we all know how that worked. Smith is exclusive to Marvel, no B&B for two years, and DC might just lose their flagship title...
So I gotta say, I feel pretty good about Metzler taking over the book. In reading the interview, he is, quite sincerely, a big fanboy. He grew up eating, sleeping, and breathing comic books. He learned to be a bestselling and respected writer because of them too. He's an unashamed, unabashed fan of the medium, and the superhero sub-genre, and normally that's the kind of thing that sets my teeth on edge (scroll down two or three stories to the SPIDER-FAN).
But he's a smart guy. Really, read what he says, and in between talking about carrying around a Green Lantern Power Battery, and having his comics delivered, he comes off as schooled and intelligent and... proud. It's as if he took all the right things from comics, the pacing, the idea that you can have huge ideas, the myth, the fun, he took all of it and left the self-obsessed-nerd-room-of-spider-man-merchandise-bullshit behind and became a popular fiction writer, who doesn't hide his references or associations.
I honestly have to say I respect him a great deal, from what he's said in this interview. Though I normally wouldn't spend my own money on it, he's got me on board for his first few issues of Green Arrow. I think he has the chops to pull it off.
I'm sure it's not really that funny, but two eployees of Kodansha Corp. (the largest manga publisher in Japan), including the deputy editor-in-chief of Shonen Magazine were arrested for pot posession. That is to say, posession of one gram of pot.
"Kodansha officials said they were shocked by the arrests and hoped that the allegations against the employees proved to be unfounded."
Apperantly posession is a fairly serious crime in Japan, and it's looking like these folks could go away for a long time. What's so funny is that this is really nothing compared to the drugs for comics scandal that rocked #### in it's early days, or the wild cocaine parties that #### and #### used to throw...
Yeah, like I'll tell you. Do you really think I want to open myself up to a libel suit? :)
"And Burkey didn't stop with collecting everything Spider-Man, he collected Romita himself."
Fuck. Fuuuuuuck.
I mean, I think we can all agree that Mike Sangiacomo is a pretty terrible columnist, but this is a new... high? Low? I don't even know anymore. Human interest story with an inhuman interest, just in time to defeat any good press the movie is getting with a little glimpse at excessive fanboy dementia -- and it sounds like he thinks he's doing this guy a favour.
I wonder if Quesada will put out a press release about Sangiacomo 'pissing in the punch' with this one...?
Just a brief note. The archives are now online, and there's now a direct link to the site's forum up top and after every message. Come introduce yourself, if you're reading.
...and on a personal note, I wish Rich Johnson's Rumour column was updated. I got a jones for some rumours, espescially after what Millar posted today.
In a spectacular move of validating pretty much everything I've thought or said about the complete bugfuckery of THE AUTHORITY over the past 12 issues (two years? three?), Millar posted the following screed to the X-Fan Message Boards (posted May 15th, at 10:29AM, near the bottom of the page).
Hey,
Got a serious deadline today so I'll be quick...
Basically, I chose to attack Wildstorm/ DC because I have some insider-knowledge of the company and I have been seriously undermined by the machinations of the corporation. I'm not alone in this and this was evident by the number of people who jumped ship last year when Bill and Joe seized control of Marvel and raised the good flag.
Authority is a perfect example. The book was brilliant, but was stuck around number eighty or ninety in the sales chart (which made no sense given that it was the best book on the market). Quitely and I took over with issue 13 and sales stayed the same. We did an international promotional stunt with Apollo and the Midnighter and sales jumped over five months to make the book not only Wildstorm's biggest seller, but DC's THIRD biggest. Our last issue together outsold Superman and Batman and was only beaten into third place by JLA and Kevin's Green Arrow. We picked up a bundle of awards, got nominated for a dozen more and were named as Wizard's book of the year.
But they still f*cked us.
At a time when the industry was dying on its feet, this was defying all the odds and actually rising up the charts. But they still f*cked us. The reason was simple; DC is a corporation and they didn't like a character who looked like Batman having a relationship with a guy who looked a bit like Superman. They also disliked the attitude, the violence and sometimes the language, but this was always a smaller concern. Wildstorm did, however, like the sales. They liked the sales so much that they spun the book out into two ongoing series and had a whole gaggle of special projects planned. But DC were making things VERY uncomfortable for them and an eighteen month assassination took place.
First off, they let Marvel steal Quitely. Frank would have stayed for an extra few bucks a page, but they said they wouldn't pay him a cent. I don't think this was planned, but it was very, very stupid. The time needed for a new artist to start from scratch would mean that the issue would be delayed a few months. Art Adams, brilliant that he is, is famously meticulous and very, very slow. This meant the book would be delayed for TEN months. Between parts one and two of my final story, they then sandwiched a four part series and then, to make matters worse, they started chopping into my scripts (and Art's art) making the book as vanilla as possible. They liked the sales, but they didn't like the reasons the book had so much heat. Could this be any MORE of a corporation?
Add this to the fact that I received two personally abusive messages from the New York office (too obscene to be printed here) and had people at Wildstorm and DC briefing against me in private to Rich (Johnston) and other people at a time when everyone thought I had cancer last year, I think I have every reason to feel slighted and to lash out at what I think are a bunch of people making very bad decisions and slighting the people who have a tendency to sell a lot of comics. The final insult, I discovered last month, was when they held back the solicitation for the next Authority trade until I handed in the final dialogue for issue 29 because, and I quote, "we knew he wouldn't hand it in if he saw that we were splitting us his last two story arcs over two collections."
Again, I can only wonder at the logic of annoying a creator who's writing two of the top 5 books at the moment, someone who sold a great deal of comics for them recently and someone who (let's face it) didn't bugger off. I stuck around and finished my commitment, despite everything they did to me.
Yeah, Marvel was a piece of sh!t for a long time and the creators were treated badly in a great many cases, but I didn't blame Bill Clinton for the Nixon administration. Bill and Joe have done a lot of good things since they took over Marvel. They killed the pay-freeze for creators, they NEVER interfere with the scripts, they treat the artists like artists and, no matter how much of an ass you think Jemas is, he and Joe have pulled that company from the red into the black and Marvel have 21 of the top 25 books. This isn't just sales, this is also critical acclaim so they must be doing SOMETHING right.
Meanwhile, I wouldn't rule out working for DC ever again. John Byrne says that every five years and it always comes back to bite him on the ass. What I WOULD rule out is working for many of the personalities who made a lot of stupid decisions in the last eighteen months. But I don't think they'll be there by the time my Marvel contract expires anyway.
Cheers,
MM
PS So much for being quick.
--
That pretty much says it all, doesn't it? Wonder if any of the 'news' sites will pick up, or follow up on this?
I'm not really that much of a pessimist after all.
I've been away most of the week, but I wanted to point to a few snippets of good/positive things happening in the industry that you may have missed.
- Oni Press released the cover artwork for the newest edition of the ONI PRESS COLOUR SPECIAL 2002 book, due this July. Crafted by Mike Allred, it's quite nice, and you can see it above.
- Crossgen's COMICS ON THE WEB initiative is apperantly doing gangbusters. Although they aren't talking hard numbers (which is surprising because they're usually quick to brag about their successes...) it seems like they're doing very well on the subscriber front, with something like %6 of their click-throughs being turned into paid subscribers. COMICS ON THE WEB is a great step forward for the company, and I couldn't be happier for them. Newsarama interviews Tony Panaccio: http://www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=12&t=000176
- There's a very positive article up at the Washington Post about comics being used as teaching aides in the classroom. The Post's coverage of comics as a medium is incredibly uneven, varying between the incredibly sloppy and the sloberingly positive. They did a good job on this one though, and it's a link to send to your parents...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29900-2002May16.html
- Joe Quesada (Marvel's EIC), re-wrote Marvel's submission guidelines, taking equal time to demand more of prospective creators (in his own cheeky way) and to tweak the noses of their competitors, who aren't taking submissions at all. You can read the guidelines here: http://www.marvel.com/about/submissions_guide/submissions.htm
- Conversely, Dark Horse Comics (some of the affor-mentioned folks who don't accept submissions at all) are holding a talent search contest. STRIP SEARCH should be a good opportunity for those of you with budding talent but without the will to self-publish to get a foot in the door of the industry. http://www.darkhorse.com/community/stripsearch/index.html
- The newest PREVIEWS REVIEW is online. That's where James Lucas Jones and I sift through the drek in Previews, bringing you the Diamonds (get it?). Anyway, it's a good month for comics. Go check it out: http://www.popimage.com/upfront/previewsjuly2002/
- Finally, my book came out this week. Actually, it's not so much MY book as it is an anthology of comics related interviews, columns, features, and reviews that I edited together and designed. It's called POPIMAGE VOLUME ONE, and it's a collection of the best material from the first year of PopImage.com. It's $15 and it's published by Cyberosia Publishing and it's available in finer comic stores everywhere. Visit http://www.popimage.com/book (which will be updated shortly) for more information.
Matt Fraction is a cool guy. He's putting together some really interesting columns over at CBR, and he's running MK12, which is basically a creative powerhouse involved in design and media development. Cool shit. But you wouldn't know it from his recent interview at Newsarama.
In possibly the sloppiest piece of journalism I've seen from the site ever, they fuck up this interview, and they fuck it up hard. I don't know if Matt Brady, the person who (ostensibly) conducted the interview either wasn't trying or simply forgot to read it before he put it up, but it was riddled with errors, it was redundant, and lacked the background needed to properly explain the issues discussed. Because I'm particularly annoyed that he fucked up because I like Fraction, I will count the ways. Be thankful, I usually just relegate Sangiacomo's reporting to "trash" and am done with it.
Introduction: "Along with comics, Fraction is the co-founder of MK12, a design studio in Kansas City, Missouri." Actually, that doesn't really describe all of what MK12 does at all. Normally, this isn't such a big deal except:
"NRAMA: You�ve got MK12, and potentially, the world of film and television available to you, " two questions later, the interviewer mentions this. Well, since you never set up why Matt has 'the world of film and television available' to him, this makes little sense to anyone not intimately familiar with him, doesn't it? Sloppy.
But skipping back to the first question: "NRAMA: In most of your writings about comics, you come across as slightly cynical about the mainstream, lending one to think that you got into comics somewhere in your teens, and don�t have an attachment to them as something cherished from your past. Spill � when did you find comics?" Sloppy and transperant. The interviewer obviously knows when and how he got into comics, it's evident in the way he phrased the question. So instead of asking him the obvious and more important question, which is 'How does this introduction to the medium affect your work today?' or even 'Would you say this is an accurate assesement of your introduction to comics?', we get the time-honoured, 'I'm-not-actually-trying-question', How Did You Get Into Comics?
Let us not forget this inspired bit of laziness: "NRAMA: So far, you�ve had Rex Mantooth in Funk-O-Tron�s Double Shot, a segment of the Night Radio anthology from Avatar, along with Last of the Independents from Ait/PlanetLar. What else is in the works?" and then, again at the end of the interview; "NRAMA: Fair enough. Once Last of the Independents is wrapped, what�s next?". You already asked him that. And he answered. At length. Fraction, being the sharp guy he is called him on it with "Well, like I said, there�s ...", which is nice.
Oh, and here's what prompted me to write this screed. Normally, I would've let this go. I mean, it's all pretty shite, but it's not terribly surprising -- this is the standard of too much internet 'journalism'. However, this question (which I just mentioned)... "NRAMA: So far, you�ve had Rex Mantooth in Funk-O-Tron�s Double Shot, a segment of the Night Radio anthology from Avatar, along with Last of the Independents from Ait/PlanetLar. What else is in the works?" HAD? What the hell does "HAD" mean in that context? What, he fucked Rex Mantooth doggy-style on the kitchen table? What? Lazy. Not to mention that one project is currently for sale and the other two haven't been solicited yet, so that the past tense is inappropriate as a group descriptor. It just looks and reads wrong. Even a cursory read-through would've picked it up, I know it stuck out like a sore thumb the first time I read through it...
Bah. You know, someone like Fraction, someone doing good work and just starting out in the industry finds this kind of coverage a hell of a lot more beneficial than DC or Marvel find the endless parotting of their 'News', and yet there's a clear lack of effort shown on this piece... Really disappointing. This is why the 'majority' doesn't expect anything out of online journalism.
Last Week I mentioned that Marvel was cutting all of their solicitation information down to just title, issue number, and creative team. "Industry Pundits" assumed that this might be an attempt to be less responsible for the material they solicit, so that they could change storylines and whatnot without the readers ever knowing. Also, if there's no solicitation information, then there can't be wrong solicitation information, which might be a cause for the book to be made returnable. Until it was pointed out, of course, that Marvel wasn't accepting returns at all, in violation of their Terms Of Sale contract with retailers.
Yesterday, Brian Hibbs of Comic Experience in California filed a class action lawsuit against Marvel for breach of contract. The article is very long and many people cannot read, so to sum it up: Marvel set terms of sale stating that books arriving in stores more than 30 days after they were solicited to, or books with creative changes would be made returnable (returned to marvel for a refund). Probably the most 'media' quote in the piece is Brian Hibbs himself saying "When I was a child I read a lot of comics, and one moral lesson always stuck with me, a lesson given by Marvel's own Spider-Man: With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility. Marvel holds all of the power in this business relationship. Where is their responsibility?"
The class action is for over $50 Million US, if I'm reading the report correctly..
Of course, yesterday was also the celebratory day for the comic industry's twin successes, the SPIDER-MAN movie setting all sorts of records, and Free Comic Book Day. So the Quesada and Jemas show responded to the claim by saying that Brian Hibbs was just a terrible person for ruining everyone's fun. No, seriously. I mean, realistically, they're not going to debate any of the merits of the case, because it would put them at a legal disadvantage to do so. Although I'm surprised no one has directly asked the Marvel guys their reasoning for not living up to their ToS. Anyhow, Quesada's answer was faintly ridiculous, and he's capable of so much more than that. Sort of sad.
The response to the story has been interesting as well. Mark Millar deigned to post on the Newsarama message boards, and he tackled the thought of what this will mean to the freelance community.
"Put it this way; DC's books ship on time almost every week. Likewise Crossgen's. Do you know how many of them I read? Can you see how many of those books are in the Top 25 at the moment? Creatively, there are some people who can be both good and on time (Azz, Bendis and JR JR spring to mind immediately), but sometimes getting a page right means we ordinary human beings need that extra couple of days. Like I said, it's something we're all trying to address, but the experiment is working so far and the idea of some bread-head shareholder saying he wants our work compromised because we're on a deadline is the most depressing news comics could have when we're just picking ourselves up again."
Which of course is entirely irrelevant. Marvel's job as a publisher is to publish work on time. A creator's job is to create. There are people at companies who's job it is to facilitate the creating of books on time. If the company is some sort of idylic creator's fairy land, then they shouldn't sign contracts at all... In fact, they should just wait until the books are done, then put them out right? Well, of course not... Marvel needs to put the books regularly because they need to make money, and just putting out original graphic novels or trade paperbacks would probably bankrupt them... Business concerns are not only important when they're Marvel's, you know...
Anyway, the whole thing is a bit of a mess, but quite honestly, Marvel should be living up to their Terms of Service. It's disgraceful that they had to be brought to court to make this an issue, but maybe comics is stepping up into the big leagues where people take each other to court all the time, instead of fighting battles accross fanzine message boards...
Best comment on the situation? To praphrase, "If Marvel doesn't feel beholden to honor contracts with retailers, what's to stop them from refusing to honor contracts with freelancers?" Not that THAT sort of thing ever happens...
LURID.com has released a preview of P. Craig Russell's artwork for the upcoming MURDER MYSTERIES hardcover from Dark Horse. Adapted from an excellent short story by Neil Gaiman, the six page preview is beautiful and sure to entice you into picking it up.
I love Steve Lieber. In that platonic way (though once upon a time... but some memories are too painful) that I have for artists. I've known Steve Lieber since I was 17 whereas he's known me since I was 18 or 19), making my car trips down to the Motor City Comic Convention every spring. Lieber will, for that, always be a 'local artist' to me, even though I don't think he lived in Michigan, and I've always lived in Ontario, Canada... I've lost the point.
Anyway, Steve Lieber is incredibly funny, but he's also a dour fuck. Oh, and he's incredibly talented, has a talented wife, and looks sexy in glasses to boot. "He is vast, he contains multitudes." He also attends a great many comic conventions, and his convention journals are essential reading for me. His most recent, on the Pittsburgh Comicon, has gone online. Do yourself a favour and check it out. Tell him I sent you. Tell him, I'm sorry, and that if he'd just come back it'd all be alright.
But, there's time for that later. For now, I just want to talk about Saturday. I went for a nice walk around toronto for 6 hours. Stopped in a 3 comic stores for FCBD, to see how things were going. Took 450 pictures of Toronto too, and I'm working them into a managable little diary-format that I'll link when it's done.
FCBD response was varied, and interesting. Torontonians have an embarassment of riches when it comes to comic book stores. We're spoiled. The Silver Snail on Queen St. West is huge and bright and open and well-stocked and was packed-packed-PACKED on Saturday. It's situated in the trendy part of town, which ensures it excellent walk-by and walk-in. See pictures to the left/right. I talked with random-employee, and he expounded on the day a little. His opinion was that it was a good idea, and it helped, but it wasn't super-important for him. They had been building sales and acclaim with a media campaign, Spider-Man tie-in stuff, a major TRANSFORMERS signing two weeks previous... It all culminated in Saturday being remarkably busy. Random-Employee said that it was a good promotion though, and that they'd definitely participate again.
Onward we walked. We arrived at my favorite store in the city, The Beguiling. Their stock is probably the most diverse of any comic store I've ever seen, and that's saying something. They're throwing a lecture to benefit Little Sisters (more on that later), and they've managed to attract Dan Clowes, Adrian Tomine, Chris Ware, Chip Kidd, Seth, Chester Brown, and bunches and bunches more people for it. I mean, who could ask for more, right? Anyway, they also participated in Free Comic Book Day. They actually made up a funny sign too, which I thought was good. At any rate, the owner said that they also had a phenominal day, but didn't necessarily attribute it to FCBD either. Not much of their clientelle overlapped with the majority of the free books being handed out, though they did do an impressive ammount of walk in traffic (again, he attributed it more to their location right by Honest Ed's on Bloor, rather than people seeking out the store for FCBD). Even so, he had a great deal of optimism for the promotion, and handed out quite a few books.
There was another store we went into, but I don't want to talk about it. Let your imaginations run wild.
At any rate, it was a very productive and interesting day. I managed to get copies of the STRAY BULLETS/MATRIX flip book, JUSTICE LEAGUE ADVENTURES, and that craptacular STAR WARS pamphlet.
How do I feel about Free Comic Book Day? It needs work, true, but I think almost everyone involved would call it a rousing success. I thank it's creator Joe Field for putting it together, and I thank the stores that participated correctly. We did something good this weekend. We did quite a few good things, really...
Just a reminder to anyone reading this, today is Free Comic Book Day, so head out to your local comic store and pick one up. Bring friends, go shopping. Comics are worth reading.
The staff of the Washington Post has a special perverse love for comic books. I see more comic-related news articles coming out of the Post than I do out of any other single newspaper. It's a shame though that so many of them are negative, and so many more are just ill-informed trash. Luckily, today we've got one that's neither of those, one that's simply realistic -- which might be the most damning article of all.
"But just try to find Spider-Man comic books," says Sharon Waxman, in her article Spidey toys, yes. Spider comics, no. "Newsstands don't carry comics. Supermarkets and drugstores don't have them on those vast magazine display cases." continues Waxman, and she carries that message right through the article. She lays bare the inadequacies of the Direct Market in clear, concise language and examples that any reader of the post can understand. Brutal in her efficiency, no proponent of the direct market is left unscathed. Bill Jemas comes off looking like a sad old man, no trace of his bombast and energy. The much-despised Avi Arad comes off clueless, his "Today you need a stick to get kids to sit down and read. Kids look at reading as part of homework." sadly ignorant of the fact that children's reading has been on a dramatic upswing over the past few years, in no small part thanks to the success of Harry Potter (which of course, the writer mentions with exacting precision).
Even, unfortunately, Free Comic Book Day gets skewered. "On Saturday, the day after "Spider-Man" opens, comic book stores across the country will offer free editions of ... Ultimate Spider-Man. The promotion is designed to introduce or re-introduce readers to comic books. ... For this stunt, Marvel printed an extra 750,000 comic books -- for the entire country. (Reality check: There are 30 million boys between the ages of 5 and 19 in the United States, and they're all going to see this film.)" Ouch. Still, even with my cynicism, I'd still be a happy man if I could grow my readership by 750,000 people (and just click on the link to the right to buy my book, all 750,000 of you).
So, all the 'reality' aside for a moment, this article obviously isn't a proclamation of death for the direct market. There was no doom saying, just a very plain statement of fact. And it's bound to upset people, how can it not? Our industry is one of shameless hucksterism, of compulsive spin control ("Hey! We sold out of our book! No, we won't tell you how many copies we printed. So what if we printed to order?"), of glasses so rosy that they make the dangers standing in front of us all but invisible. There are so few times that, reading any sort of press release or quote-unquote 'news item' that I even get the slightest inkling that the true nature of the announcement is being hinted at (Fuck you, I am not Paranoid). That's sort of why I started this site as well. Truth, with a capital "T". Well, that and action.
So, do we simply let this article aggravate us, do we close ranks and run to the soft, sticky embrace of Marvel comics? Marvel Comics who insults it's retailers, insults the intelligence of it's fans? Do we nay-say the 'bad lady' away and apply another coat of polish to our glasses until we can't see what she's trying to say? Or do we let some of the first 'truth' that we've received motivate us into asking the hard questions, like who, exactly, the direct market is really helping? Like the veracity of the old axiom "A healthy Marvel means a healthy industry"? Do we get angry and sulk or do we get angry and do something?
Wanna know who the worst journalist in comics is? Michael Sangiacomo. Week in and week out from his serialized column in the "Clevland Plain Dealer", Michael misses the fucking point. This week, Michael, without any sort of introduction or context at all, started giving away Dark Horse Comics 'scoops', which is piss-poor at the best of times. What's particularly infuriating is that FREE COMIC BOOK DAY could have used the hype and national push a fuck of a lot more than Dark Horse's Star Wars tie in books. http://www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=14&t=000070
Not a hell of a lot of faith in the Image brand these days, and I have to say it's strange that no one is talking about why. Case in point, Brian Michael Bendis, David Mack, and Michael Avon Oeming have developed their own sub-imprint/brand for all of their Image projects. I wonder if a new brand would've kept Team Red Star on board? Or Dreamwave? Or... oh, but that would be telling. http://www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=13&t=001062
Karen Berger, DC Vice President and Vertigo Exec Editor gave a long, detailed, and somewhat inconsistant interview this week at Newsarama. It was a fascinating insight into the working of the company, although there were numerous spots you could tell she was holding back on her answers. I bet she'd be fun to talk to off the record and over a few drinks. At any rate, I thought it was strange that she lamented the dearth of female voices in comics when she's in the prime position to hire such people (Vertigo currently has no female writers, and only one female artist in their stable). Anyway, it's worth reading. http://www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=12&t=000164
John Layman quit as Editor at Wildstorm for unspecified reasons (he actually says he wants to spend more time with his cat). Rich Johnson speculates on the reasons, but you've got to be an idiot to believe that he left the company just because he decided he no longer wanted a job. "Really! I didn't leave for any reason at all!". Ah well. Layman, you're a weird guy, but I wish you the best. http://www.silverbulletcomicbooks.com/rage/index1.htm
Finally, CBR put up a really great, semi-pornographic preview of Oni Press' POUNDED #2 by Brian Wood and Steve Rolston. It's got preview pages, a short description, and previews of several of the songs on the POUNDED soundtrack to boot! Good job to the CBR fellows. http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=1143
Just this morning over at the Warren Ellis Forum, a poster recounted his own personal attempt at getting the larger populace to read and enjoy comic books. I have to say, it was one of the better attempts, and most successful outcomes, I've ever seen.
Those who have picked up the most recent issue of Wizard might want to give a second glance at the letters page.
I've been trying to turn non-comics readers in comics readers for years, but I never would have suspected that I'd have a chance to do so by going off to fight in a war.
I'm a Navy Journalist who works in the Public Affairs Office of USS Theodore Roosevelt, one of the ships that recently spent several months in the Arabian Sea in support of Operation: Enduring Freedom.
While we were deployed overseas, a coworker and I contacted as many of the major comic book publishers as we could, and asked them if they would be so kind as to send us a few free comic books, for ourselves and our shipmates.
The respense we got was incredible, as just about everyone, from CrossGen and Dark Horse to Image and Marvel, pitched in to send us some of their stuff.
Even Wizard itself got into the act, not only by contributing some comic books of their own, but also by joining with CrossGen in raising funds for the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society, which helps out a lot of Sailors in need.
So, in recognition of these fine deeds, I sent off a letter to Wizard, thanking them and the rest of the comic book industry for showing their true colors to those of us who were serving so far away from home, during a time when we needed such support the most.
Whether you agree with Operation: Enduring Freedom or not, I have to say that forcing graphic literature on an all-but-capitve audience is a pretty damned good idea. So, kudos to Mr. K. Boxleitner for getting the ball rolling, and another set of kudos to all the companies that participated and donated comics. This is exactly what comics needs more of.
I hope that if anyone else has done similar promotional efforts, that they'll step forward and be counted.
Christopher
Butcher: Is 29 years old and lives in Toronto Canada. In addition to the manager of
world-famous comic book store The Beguiling, he is a freelance writer
and comics production artist and the co-founder of the Toronto Comic Arts Festival. He can be contacted at chris at beguiling dot
com , though chances are it will get caught in the spam filter. You're better
off posting in the comments field.
Comics Blogs
I Read & Like: Bags & Boards: Tom McLean's media-focused comics blog. The Beat: Heidi MacDonald, dishing and digging up dirt (now at PW). Beaucoup Kevin: Kevin talks about all of the comic books. Big Sexy Arune: Comic journalist Arune Singh's blog. Brill Building: Ian Brill's blog. The Comics Reporter: Tom Spurgeon's all-in-one website featuring newsblogging, interviews, reviews, and more. A great site. Comics Worth Reading: Johanna Draper-Carlson reviews and recaps with a unique eye for comics. Completely Futile: Excellent commentary on manga. The Cultural Gutter: Toronto blog about video games, comics, and all manner of low-culture. Drawn.ca: Lots of Canadian Illustrators and artists linkblogging the best art of the internet. Neat. Egon: Grand-daddy of art-comix coverage. Forbidden Planet Blog: Brit Comic Retailer Forbidden Planet. Galleycat: About publishing, including comics. Gumpop:
Sophie Yanow runs a very cool blog about comics, that I enjoy reading. Jog The Blog: Like the similarly singley-named Cher, Jog contributes something precious and unique to the world. Johnny Bacardi: Comics coverage, and the promise of alcohol. Journalista!: Dirk Deppey sacrifices martyrs his social life for comics. Bless. Kelly Sue's Pro Blog: Kelly ends up re-writing manga I love. Also, she has a personal blog. Kochalkaholic: Alan David Doane's living tribute to cartoonist James Kochalka. Love Manga: Exceptionally thorough manga blog. The Low Road: My buddies Ed and John talk about comics and stuff. Manga Blog: Accurately named! Considered manga commentary. MangaCast: More manga than you can shake a stick at. Mystifying Oracle: Jeff Parker's very cool blog. NeilAlien Has been blogging longer than I have. Blog @ Newsarama Graeme and Kevin Melrose live here now. Panels and Pixels: Dude, it's comics and video games all in one. I find this excellent. Peiratikos: Rose and Steven's unique, contrary views on comics. Polite Dissent: Unique comics criticism and examination, through the eyes of an MD. Precocious Curmedgeon: Manga, North American Comics, and the industry. A fabulous read. Postmodern Barney: Dorian blogs about comics, homosexuals. Progressive Ruin: Mike Sterling's chronicle of funny superhero nonsense and working in a comic store. Read About Comics: Greg McElhatton's new reviews website. Riot! Blog: Blog for a new indy-friendly comic book store. Rocketship Comics: Blog for an indy-friendly Brooklyn-based comic book store. Royal Academy of Illustration and Design Blog: A fabulously talented studio of comics and illustration peeps. Savage Critics: From sunny California... Splash Panel: Comics reviews and discussion from a talented artist. Sporadic Sequential: Huzzah! It's John Jakala blogging again! When Will the Hurting
Stop: Tim O'Neil, man of action. When Fangirls Attack: A big 'ole round-up of women's issues as they relate to comics. Yet Another Comics Blog: Even with its strange preoccupation with superhero books, I still find myself enjoying this one.
Comics Artists and Friends: Radiomaru: Bryan Lee O'Malley, creator of Scott Pilgrim and etc. HopeLarson.com: Hope Larson, creator of Salamander Dream and Gray Horses. KeanerDotNet: Kean Soo, creator of Jellaby. The Rey: Corey Lewis, creator of Sharknife and etc. Gobukan: J. Bone's G-Rated Illustration Blog. Bone's Men: J. Bone's much naughtier Illustration Blog. Vera's Sketchblog: My friend Vera's awesome sketch blog. Salgood Sam: Sketch blog and work diary. Ink Skratch: Eric Kim, artist of Love as a Foreign Language. lowbright.com: Derek Kirk Kim's site, with lots of great comics. Bolt City: Kazu Kibuishi, creator of Copper and Amulet. NeilComics.com:
Neil B.'s site, with lots of great comics. Matt Forsythe, words and pictures. Mike Weiringo's Sketch Blog: Self-explaintory. FSC Wasteland: Singapore cartoonist FSC, artist on all kinds of things I like. Local: Frequently-updated blog for Oni Press' LOCAL. StreetAngelComics: Jim Rugg's web presence, dedicated to his first great comic. Atomic Toy: The online home of Andy Helms, soon the be known for his awesome graphic novel FEARLESS GRIGGS.
Online Comics: Young
Bottoms in Love: Great gay webcomix archive. Achewood: My favourite webcomic. Penny Arcade: Thrice-weekly comic strip about video game culture. Diesel Sweeties: Pixel-based hipster soap opera, with death robots. Dinosaur Comics! OMGWTF! In a just world, Ryan North would rule us all. Comic Strip: Chip Zdarsky's print/online comic for the National Post. Secret Friend Society: Online comics including Jellaby, Salamander Dream, and more! A Softer World Comics made of photos. Also, check out OverQualified by the same author, which are humourously deranged cover letters for resumes. House of Sugar: Rebecca Kraatz' daily online comic strip. Makeshift Miracle Complete online graphic novel, available via Bitpass. Moresukine Updated weekly from Tokyo, experience Japan through the wonder of comics. Perry Bible Fellowship Very funny short comic strips, very well drawn too. Click on the man with the hat to get to the archives. Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles Awesome/creepy weekly comic strip. Superslackers Toronto's Steve Manale presents humourous superheroes for children of all ages. The tonic to 'Infinite Crisis'. ButternutSquash Ramon and Rob do an autobiographical comic that people think is farace. It is not. They're just like that. Jay's Days You will not be able to tear yourself away. Serializer.net: Awesome online alternative pay-comics site, worth your support with money. ModernTales.com:
The original, filled to the brim with great comics. PVP: I generally enjoy PVP, but Scott Kurtz is a pretty horrible person.
For more, click
the Resources tab up top.
Non-Comics Blogs: Andrew's Blog: Andrew talks about entertaining things. Andrew's Other Blog: Andrew talks about serious things. David&Kiko.com: My friends in Japan, with a blog. Dahlberg Central: Gus Dahlberg and his adorable family. Booklust: Toronto Illustrator commenting on books and illustration. Interesting stuff. The Torontoist: The Torontoist is a Toronto-culture blog, covering some of the more interesting goings on in the city (and doing it well). Sort of like a freebie-weekly paper, but it pays less and comes out more. Blog T.O.: Another great Toronto-centric blog.
Retired: All Ages: Scott Robins's blog about comics for young readers. A Bear In The City: Gay-comics linkblog, semi-retired. GutterNinja:
Steve Pheley's awesomely-named blog, full of snark.
For corrections or additions to this page, please contact me at cro2 at
212 dot net. All sites linked on this page are the copyright of their
respective owners, and no malice was intended in linking from this page.
Weblog courtesy of Blogger. Hosting
courtesy of 212.net. Comments courtesy
of Haloscan. Christopher Butcher appears courtesy of his parents, and
The Beguiling.
SEXY DEMON BABY INVASION
Newsarama is running an decent enough interview with Brad Metzler, the writer charged with the task of following Kevin Smith on GREEN ARROW. What with DC's upcoming cancellations and relaunches in August/September, I had originally pegged Green Arrow as headed for the scrap heap. I mean, Smith was going to take over Brave and the Bold, which is just a Batman/Green Arrow book anyway, and DC was cutting titles... But we all know how that worked. Smith is exclusive to Marvel, no B&B for two years, and DC might just lose their flagship title...
I love Steve Lieber. In that platonic way (though once upon a time... but some memories are too painful) that I have for artists. I've known Steve Lieber since I was 17 whereas he's known me since I was 18 or 19), making my car trips down to the Motor City Comic Convention every spring. Lieber will, for that, always be a 'local artist' to me, even though I don't think he lived in Michigan, and I've always lived in Ontario, Canada... I've lost the point.
This was a pretty damned big weekend for comics. We had the
FCBD response was varied, and interesting. Torontonians have an embarassment of riches when it comes to comic book stores. We're spoiled. The
Random-Employee said that it was a good promotion though, and that they'd definitely participate again.
Not much of their clientelle overlapped with the majority of the free books being handed out, though they did do an impressive ammount of walk in traffic (again, he attributed it more to their location right by Honest Ed's on Bloor, rather than people seeking out the store for FCBD). Even so, he had a great deal of optimism for the promotion, and handed out quite a few books.
