sequential minded: tales of a comic book fiend

will the WGA start protecting comic book writers

2011-11-02T18:28:00.001-04:00

Over at ladies creating comics Alexa Dickman has posted a letter she sent to the WGA (both their east and west branches) asking for the WGA (writer guild of America) to protect the writes of comic book writers. For those who may not know the WGA is the union for writers that are working in TV and Film.

No word yet if the WGA has responding to her request but it is an interesting ideal and as she points out the industires are becoming more and more connected.

I just saw a commercial for DC comic relaunch and this is my response

2011-09-04T12:31:00.002-04:00

The other night or giving the time early yesterday morning I was watching the comic continuum show, a local show (I guess it’s local) that talks about things related to comics, movies, video games etc. Ok every so often they talk about comics but the main focus is movies (usually the kind based on comic but always the stuff nerds want to see)

Anyway while watching this show I saw the commercial for DC comics and my first reaction was “cool I think this is one of the commercial DC is putting out to promote their reboot, I had a feeling that I would see this ad on this show.” But after watching the ad the feeling of “hey cool” quickly turned to the feeling of being under whelmed.

First I don’t really think giving slight motion’s to pretty static images of DC’s character is really that appealing. Now I realize comics don’t leaned themselves to commercials that well. I mean they are just still pictures with words. Movies and TV shows you can just show some clips, a video game a bit of game play, ect. What are going to do with a comic book show a few pages? Well I think that would have been a better ideal then bouncing a picture of Wonder Woman and Batman around.

But the truth is that is not why I think this commercial wasn’t good. The problem I had was that I only knew what the commercial was about because I’ve read all the stuff online about this relaunching. But if I was someone that didn’t read comics I would be wonder what do they mean about “DC the new 52.” The ad gave no information. A person watching the commercial wouldn’t know that DC is somewhat rebooting it self and that this would be a good time to start reading comics because they are starting everything over from the start. Giving that DC says they want to bring in new readers those are some of the things they need to do. DC’s marketing people needed to make sure those ads told people that this is a good time to start reading comics because they can get on at the ground floor.

The sad thing is that some of the ads done by local comics shops that ran on the show where much better and DC is a part of a giant media company.

Maybe it would have been better to just have some people dressed up as DC characters telling people that they have a brand new comic series coming out and issue one is on sale now.

What I did find interesting (in an inside baseball short of way) is that ad ends with saying you can get DC comics at a certain comic shop. I wonder how much money that shop put in to co-sponsor that ad, I wonder how much DC did and I’m guessing that the reason DC joining with local shops is not only to save money but are giving that local shop the power of where to place the ads in their local areas. I also wonder if only one shop in an area can run these commercials or can anyone do it.

DC lack of women creators and a simple solution to how they can fix it.

2011-08-08T12:24:00.001-04:00

Recently DC comics has been getting a lot of negative news due to the lack of women writing comics for DC post relaunch. The number will drop to just a hand full of women writers to just two. That’s a sad fact indeed but due to the low number of women that where writing for the main DCU before this the fact that they will only have two or less woman writing for them isn’t too surprising. A sad fact but not surprising because the comic book pro has been largely White dudes.

The comic industry has long been in need of increasing it’s diversity both in the characters they show and the creators they hire (as well as editors, marketing staff etc., etc.) and that is one of the things that DC has said they will be doing with this reboot. I don’t know the break down of the ethnicities of the people that well be writing for DC after this reboot but in terms of gender diversity they are taking a step back instead of ahead. Even though the people running DC realize they need to increase their diversity more they are still a little slow in doing so (at least behind the scenes,) But this isn’t where DC really dropped the ball on this issue.
Where DC really dropped the ball was at Comic-con, where at a panel a woman dress as Batgirl along with her kid dressed as Spoiler asked a panel made up of Dan Didio, Jim Lee and Grant Morrison about the fact that their was only one woman writing for them after their relaunch. Instead of responding to the woman professionally, the panel was dismissive of her point and mockingly rude toward her. Dan Didio told her they only picked the best scripts. Which maybe true but is one of those things that still doesn’t sound good when you think of the issue at hand, since it could be taken that their where no good women writers for them to publish. Responses like that reflected negatively on DC.

But here’s the thing after this story broke out the internerd there started to be a few reports that DC actually did talk to at least a few women comic pros to work on some relaunched titles. Some of them had other jobs at the time, other pitches just didn’t get picked. If DC just said “we actually did contact take a number of women writers, but we where able to come to any deals in time for the relaunch.” Then this thing may have played out a lot differently.

But sadly they didn’t and so what DC needs to do now is some good PR spinning. The first thing they need to do is issue an apology and then a dress the issue at. DC comics needs more diversity in their writing staff. At the very least DC should take a page out of Marvel’s book and release an anthology comic featuring all women creators (and maybe characters,) a new Sensational comics title would be fine if they want to use an old comic book title. While they are at it DC could have a few other anthology books as training ground for new and up coming writers and artist.

The Tribute to Dwayne McDuffy Comic-Con didn't want you to see

2011-07-13T12:30:00.002-04:00

Over on the Dwayne McDuffie Forum Matt Wayne (writer and former editor at Milestone comics) posted a tribute he wrote about Dwayne McDuffie for Comic-con but comic-con turned around and didn't want to print it.

I miss Dwayne every day. It’s still inconceivable that he isn’t around to appreciate the world with me.

When my son gets another baby tooth, or I see a new episode of Doctor Who, I still have the urge to call him. Given the chance, I’ll talk about my late friend for hours at a time. I find myself making lists of McDuffie facts—not wanting to forget any more than I already have. And one of the things I’ve thought about most while mourning him was his long struggle for recognition from the comics industry.

Dwayne loved comics, both the superhero and non-superhero varieties, long before he made them for a living, and he continued to love them till the end. Our last conversation was about the Masterpiece Comics collection I’d given him for his birthday, which includes a pastiche of his beloved Little Lulu.

That said, I don’t know that the comics business loved him back.

Here’s a trivia question for you: Aside from the titles he published himself, what was Dwayne’s first monthly comics writing assignment? Believe it or not, that was Justice League of America in 2007. “But what about Deathlok,” you ask? Sorry, that was co-written with the redoubtable Greg Wright. “Fantastic Four?” Nope, it wasn’t open-ended. Dwayne knew that was a finite assignment when he took it. “X-O Manowar?” “Firestorm?” Same deal.

The majors never appreciated Dwayne’s writing enough to grant him a steady job of it. Not until there had been a Static cartoon, and the Justice League cartoon. And Beyond! And Fantastic Four. And Milestone, of course. By the time he landed that regular monthly, Dwayne was already in the history books of two media.

Now, naming no names, think of how many not-so-good writers you’ve seen blunder from one long-term monthly comic assignment to another. (And sure, who qualifies as a hack is subjective. You and I might not be thinking of the same names.) Each of those writers got more of a shot than Dwayne did.

We all know how good he was. And again, what Dwayne made of such opportunity as he did get is now a matter of history. He always counted a great number of People Who Oughtta Know among his fans, including Comic-Con International, the ones who give out Inkpot Awards.

Still, there’s no question in my mind that, given the finite length of Dwayne’s career, he would have been better off both financially and creatively to have never worked in comics at all, and gone straight into animation instead.

But that’s not how love works, is it?

Matt Wayne

Very heart felt and truthful. I'm surprised Comic-Con didn't print this.

I guess they wanted something that was all sweat and rosy but the truth is Dwayne McDuffy was a talented writer that when leaving wasn't always treated fairly by the comic book industry.

Of course similar things can be said by a lot of people working or trying to work in the comic book industry. A truth many people already know so why Comic-Con didn't want to touch that is something I'm puzzled about.

my view on the DC reboot

2011-06-30T18:29:00.004-04:00

Well I know everyone knows that DC is relaunching the DCU.

some people hate the ideal and some people just wonder why DC is doing it?

I actually liked the ideal when I first saw the news, I thought it was ballsy for DC to start everything over new and fresh but the news started to leak that's not a full reboot but just a relaunch with some changes and my interest went down a bit.

I was hoping for a golden age to silver age type reboot of new character that happen to have the names and powers of older characters not a zero hour reboot.

Then DC released what some of the new titles will be and their creative them, which brought mixed feelings. There where a few books and creative teams that I think sound great but then there are a number characters getting titles but with writers I'm meh about.

while some nerd are so upset they are strking comic-con I still have a wait and see view on all this.

Superman making radio news for denouncing American citizenship

2011-04-28T14:51:00.003-04:00

As I was listening to Thom Hartmann talked about the current issue of Action comics #900 where Superman gives up being an American due to him being tired of people thinking all his actions are due to him acting as an American agent.

Hartmann made a joke about the fact that Superman wasn't born in America and so why haven't the brithers gone after him like they do Obama.

I'm sure in other circles this will really piss them off. In fact I noticed some post about people at Fox News being upset.

So superman is now fight for more then just the American way and is going global. is this Anti-american or DC trying to reach a global market by not connection one of their lead characters to any country at all?

Out Of This World: Early Black Comic Book Heroes: Butterfly (II)

2011-04-06T20:19:00.000-04:00

Out Of This World: Early Black Comic Book Heroes: Butterfly (II): "Tucked away in the interior of Skywald's Hell-Rider 2 (Oct 1971) is an 11-page complete story that is the second and last appearance of The ..."

we will miss you Dwayne McDuffie

2011-02-23T14:37:00.002-05:00

It was 4 something in the morning when I was watching world news now and read the news crawl running at the bottom of the screen that said "comic and tv writer Dwayne McDuffie died at age 49"

I gasped and just stood there for a few minutes with my jaw dropped to the ground.

For those who don't know the man's work he was a comic book and tv show writer, he was a founder of the comic book company Milestone and created many of their flag ship characters including Static.

I never had the chance to meet him in person but have online. He was one of my role models in the comic book industry. He was filled with great wisdom and insight about comics and minorities in comics.

we have lost a great voice and an even greater person.

Racism and comic fandom

2010-12-24T19:49:00.003-05:00

awhile ago I notice a lot of comic sites talking or at least asking about if there racism in comic book fandom. These talks seemed to have steamed about something Mark Waid (comic writer and editor of Boom) said about fans not reading comics with Black leads.

Well I'd like to put an end to this question about is there racism amoung comic book fans and I would say yes. All one has to do is look many of the comic book forums or blog comments when the subject is say a minority character(s) join a team or a person of color takes the role of a character that before was white.

Yes we will always be fans who say they hate the new verison of characters and want the one they grew-up reading back but in the case legacy characters passing on there title to nonwhite characters talk of dislike isn't just about wanting the old back, it about the race of the new character and often that's stated in negative light.

having a minority on the team usually doesn't bring up as much negative chatter if we are just talking about a token team memember here or there but I remember when McDuffie was righting Justice League and the team had more then a token Black member and on DC's message board there where a number of post about fans that where up set that he was making the team "Black"

Now I don't think these people make up the majority of comic book fans but there is no denying that they are there. The question is how big of a minority this group is. Do they look like a bigger group because they are very vocal or is what we see what we get.

Now back to Mark Waid saying people don't read comics with Black leads I don't think that problem is just do to racist comic fans but fans who may not pick up a book with a minority lead not due to negative veiws of minorities but passing the book by because the assume that the book isn't aimed at them or they wouldn't be able to relate to the characters because they are of a different background then them

I would say comic fans tend to stick with what they know and not try new things a lot but Mark Waid didn't seem to say BOOM had any trouble selling other books (besides license books most would be new stuff)so I don't think that needs to be stated.

Bob Harras new Editor in Chief at DC comics

2010-09-27T16:46:00.003-04:00

Bob Harras has just been named the new EIC for DC comics. Which will put him in charge of not only the DCU, but Mag magazine and Vertigo.

Bob Harras formerly was EIC at Marvel from 1995 to 2000 and was editor at DC's soon to be closed Wildstrom line and DC's collections editor.

hmmm looks like we can get ready for superman's clone saga.

So long Wildstorm and thinks for all the wildcats and more DC news

2010-09-21T17:58:00.003-04:00

DCE has closed up shop on the Wildstorm line and ZUDA. The main Wildstorm line will more likely return under the DC banner, The licensed titles definitely will. It is unknown yet what the future of the creative own books Wildstorm publishes will be.

There has been a rumor that DC will be moving to the west coast and shut down their New York offices because they want DC closer to WB as they start to make more proprieties in other media related to DC comics. Will that rumor is only partly true, DC is not shutting down it New York office but DC is opening a new office in California to work on DCE stuff in other media.

The Burbank office will also house DC digit comics department and that is where many of Wildstorm's editors will land.

Heroes or Monsters

2010-09-09T18:56:00.002-04:00

So my brother's wife bought a few old posters with Marvel super heroes on them for their kid. You know a mix of Marvel characters together in your standard action pose looking as they are running into battle.

Tbe problem my 3 year old nephew thinks they are monsters. Which leaves his mother feeling a bit bad that she got posters that he seems a little bit scared of and wondering why is she able to find underwear for him where the same characters are happy but posters where they are looking all angry.

I guess that's the problem marketing the same characters to different age groups. The poster she got was aimed at older comic fans (and by older we talking pre-teens and up) while she's looking for something aimed at young kids.

I guess I should look for some marvel super-hero squad and tiny titans (do they make any?) posters for JR.

I also learn that spider-man is perfect for licensing products because you don't have to worry about small things like having him smile or gritting his teeth may turn off a fan base (or scare them in this case)

Nerds get thuggish: Stabbing at Comic-Con

2010-07-25T14:37:00.003-04:00

Well here's a story I didn't really expect to write about. At San Diego's Comic-Con a man stabbed another man in the eye with a pen.

It happened in Hall C, the room normally held for big events because it's the larger room in the con, just before Universal pictures panel for films like Cowboys & Alien and Paul.

It seems the indecent may have been over squatting, a practice where fans wait in the room during one event to make sure they get a good (or just a) seat for another panel.

Static in 2011

2010-07-19T15:46:00.002-04:00

Over the weekend DC comics released the news that there will be a new Static series coming out next year.

Great news if you are a fan of the 90's series like I was.

Hopefully we will see the Milestone characters used more. I know many Milestone fans that wonder why after DC got the right to use the milestone characters aren't they being used more. In the 2 years since the Milestone character became part of the DCU we've only had Static in teen titans, the use of a few Milestone characters in Justice League when Dwayne Mcduffie (co-founder of Milestone) was writing the title and the Milestone for ever mini series. Not a lot when you compare it to the fact that around that same time DC was also using Archie comics' Red Circle characters and gave number of those characters their own one-shot specials and comic series.

Things are spinning for Sonic the Hedgehog

2010-07-09T16:03:00.002-04:00

First the voice of Sonic (also known as Steve Urkel) has been report on hitting his girl friend in her breast and now the Sonic world is turned upside down again with the news that Ken Penders won a copyright lawsuit that gives him the rights for the characters he made during his run of Sonic The hedgehog comics.

Ken Penders say's that

As a result, I am now officially recognized by the U.S. Government as the owner of every single SONIC and KNUCKLES story I ever created

What does this mean?

That means anyone seeking to use my characters, concepts and stories that were published in the pages of SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, various SONIC 48-page specials, various issues of SONIC SUPER SPECIALS, the PRINCESS SALLY mini-series, the SONIC'S FRIENDLY NEMESIS KNUCKLES mini-series, KNUCKLES THE DARK LEGION and the KNUCKLES THE ECHIDNA series, must first contact me for permission and to make arrangements for the use of this material.

This ruling also means that Archie wont be able to use Ken Penders characters anymore or reprint stories with his character unless they contact him first.

Which I think will be a hit for Archie since Sonic is a good selling title for the company and they sell a reprints of their stories in different formats (tbp, digest etc) The reprint point is probably the bigger issue since Archie still has rights to Sonic and a lot of the character created by sega and I guess some others and maybe can just reboot the series if they can't come to an agreement with Penders on the use of the characters.

The thing about this story is that I'm happy for Penders for getting the rights to his character but I'm surprised Archie didn't negotiate something with him before it got to a point where Penders felt that he needed to go to court.

Wonder Woman's new look

2010-07-01T14:38:00.002-04:00

I'm sure by now you have seen the news that Jim Lee has designed a new look for Wonder Woman.

And you have surely read a lot of comic book fans complain about the look.

I have to say I like the new look.

everyone has different taste so I understand that not everyone is going to like the look but reading the comments on DC's blog I think some fans are just going a little hyperbolic in their stating there dislike of Wonder Woman's new custom. I mean I read a guy who said that he vomited when he say the look and others saying they will no longer read Wonder Woman because of it (hmmm makes one wonder why they where reading the book, if they are now stopping because the character is now fully clothed)

My Aqualad is Black!

2010-06-11T18:16:00.002-04:00

It seems like there is a new Aqualad in town and he happens to be Black.

I guess it is a bright day after all.

though I fear the way things have been at DC for a while how long will it be before he is either killed or maimed.

E.C Stoner first Black comic book artist.

2010-04-05T17:09:00.002-04:00

I ran across this interesting blog post talking about the life and career of E.C Stoner the first African American artist to work in comics.

His first comic book work was drawing in Detective comics issue 1. A bit before the cape crusader showed up.

Not only was he the first Black artist in comics he's also credit for co-creating Mr. Peanut.

Super Team up Kyle Baker & Shaq

2010-03-31T16:49:00.004-04:00

Cartoonist Kyle Baker is partnering up with the man of steel himself...no the other man of steel...eh the one that played Steel in the movie...that's right basketball player Shaquille O'Neil.

ok Kyle Baker and Shaq are starting a studio that will produce books, cartoons, games and more. These things wont just be based on Baker's work but others as well.

I think comic book pros need to meet more Black people

2010-03-22T14:44:00.003-04:00

So Marvel is introducing a new Hulk in their Ultimate line of comics and the new Hulk happens to be Black.

Here he is

Which reminds me of when Marvel put out the Cage mini series under their Max line.

and I have to wonder

Have to wonder was the last time people working in the comic book industry seen a Black person was in a rap video in 1989?

Cry for Justice, Weep for DC and it's fans

2010-03-05T15:54:00.002-05:00

The last issue of the Justice League mini-series Cry for Justice came out yesterday.

Now that the series is done I would like to ask the question "Is there anyone that actually liked this comic?"

Since the series begin I don't remember hearing or reading anyone say that this was a good series. Instead everyone seems to be talking about how bad the comic was and the last issue has giving people even more stuff for everyone to hate.

The thing is that even thought it seems everyone hates Cry for Justice the mini series has been selling pretty well. I haven't seen the sales for issue 7 yet but here is the sales figures for the first 6 issues (thanks to the beat)

24 - JUSTICE LEAGUE: CRY FOR JUSTICE
07/2009: Cry for Justice #1 of 6 -- 68,317 [72,719]
08/2009: Cry for Justice #2 of 6 -- 54,553 (-20.2%) [58,829]
09/2009: Cry for Justice #3 of 7 -- 54,726 (+ 0.3%)
10/2009: Cry for Justice #4 of 7 -- 54,386 (- 0.6%)
11/2009: Cry for Justice #5 of 7 -- 52,400 (- 3.7%)
12/2009: --
01/2010: Cry for Justice #6 of 7 -- 49,193 (- 6.1%)
----------------
6 months: -28.0%

Yet sales have been going down on the book but the title was still the 24th top selling comic book in January.

It's because of this even though I would like DC and Marvel to come up with better comics I realize they wont. Because as much as people say they don't like the series many comic fans are still buying it.

Plenty of people seem to be feed up with the grim and gritty story telling that has returned to comics but with less charm then it had in the 90's. But as a business DC smart to keep going with this type of story because all the shock seems to get people talking about the book and more importantly keep on buying or at least more fans pick this up then say an issue of Booster Gold, Power Girl or Guardians of the Galaxy or even better yet all the indie comics being made by people. Instead of buying books like Cry for Justice maybe by something better.

New Heads of DC

2010-02-18T16:34:00.001-05:00

There have been some changes in DC Entertainment's executive board today.

Jim Lee is no co-publisher of DC along with Dan DiDio. Geoff Johns is now the DC comics' Chief Creative Officer. John Rood is now the EVP of Marketing and Business development and Patrick Caldon is the Finance and Administration EVP.

I'm sure most comic book fans will be focused on the fact that Geoff Johns is now the creative force of DC and Jim Lee is co-publisher. And even thought I do find that part very interesting what peaks my interest in this change is John Rood.

Why? It seems that comics could always do a better job at marketing themselves (or at least to those who aren't already comic book fans) and looking at the companies Rood's has either worked for (Disney/ABC family, Warner) or worked with while he worked at a marketing firm (Miller, McDonald's and Burger King)it seems DC may have someone who knows how to market to the general public. Now lets see how well Rood can market DC comics.

Don't be scarred check out The Assignment

2010-01-28T14:40:00.002-05:00

If you are looking for a horror comic I'd like to suggest the webcomic The Assignment written by Justin Jordan and art by Anthony Peruzzo

The comic is about a hitman who's mark just doesn't seem to stay dead.

The Assignment 01 | R&R Publications

Yes Virgina kids really do read comics

2009-12-29T18:24:00.002-05:00

I meant to post this earlier but didn't get a chance too due to the holidays.

I few days before Christmas I was trying to get some Christmas shopping done when I ran into my brother's wife and her two youngest brothers (they are around the age of 12)

at the store I noticed they had pretty big stand of comics (mostly Marvel) and I notice one of my brother's little brother in laws checking out the comics.

It made me think of all the talk about the fact that kids aren't reading comics we have all heard over the years and yet there you have it a kid reading comics.

eh, it was just a little something I found interesting.

Alan Moore's got the Blues

2009-12-10T19:39:00.002-05:00

Alan Moore signing at the release party for his new magazine

Get down Alan.

Indy Comic Book Week

2009-10-25T19:00:00.002-04:00

I've been meaning to post about this for a while but for one reason or another I haven't had the chance to yet.

There currently is small movement to make the week of December 30 indy comics week.

The reason that week is picked is because Diamond the major distributor for comic books wont be shopping that week even though that been a pretty good week for some retailers, but Diamond says that during that time it's harder to get things shipped to some time zones during this time.

So the people behind Indy Comic book week thought this was a great time to push indy comics. They have called out for comic book creators to have something new to sell on that that and are also trying to get retailers to stock the indy books as that weeks new comics.

The ideal is that most of the time when you go into a comic book store the new comics section is usually mostly comics from the bigger comic book companies (Marvel and DC mainly) and this well provided at least on day of the year where when someone walks into a comic book store they will see a wall of titles from small publishers.

I think it's a great ideal, I personally would like to have something out for the event but the way things are going I probably wont have it done in time.

Giving that it's nearly the end of October, I'm sorry I didn't give creators who may run across this post more time, but you can create something (or already have something in the works) and get it printed in a quick in time, I say go for it. Though if any retailers see this there is still plenty of time to join in.

I wish these guys the best of luck. If you want more info check out their blog and site

oh here is a post form there blog with some promo videos for this event

Viacom buys rights to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

2009-10-22T17:19:00.003-04:00

Peter Laird talk's a bit about why he sold the rights to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on his blog.

Peter Laird basically says that selling the rights to the Turtles was always something he and Kevin Eastman had on the table since the TMNT height of fame if they ever ran into a deal they thought was good enough. But the real biggie, is that Laird states that he feels that he has been doing the Turtles for to long and wants to move on.

Creatively I can understand the last part, though part of me wonders couldn't he move on to do other things and still keep the rights to the turtles. That way if whatever he does after TMNT doesn't really hit or he feels a little bit of nostalgia he can always go back to the Turles.

But hey at a $60 million buyout I guess Peter Laird doesn't really have to worry about commercial success with whatever his next project will be.

With this deal Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will now be part of the Nickelodeon brand (which is owned by Viacom)

As an 80's kid I was a big Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan. Not only was I fan of the cartoon as a kid but TMNT was my gateway into Black & White indy comics. I think it's that later point that makes me a little mix on this news, TMNT has been one of the big success stories of indy comics and it's a little sad to see that the brand is no longer owned by the creators but it's also nice to see that someone's ideal can pay off so well for them.

Marvel's The Siege promo

2009-10-13T15:31:00.002-04:00

Here a video of a preview Marvel comics showed retailers at the Diamond retailer summit of there next big cross over event

More Slippery Rock vs Keith Knight's KKK Chronicles

2009-09-30T13:27:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I talked about the protest going on at Slippery Rock University over a K Chronicles strip.

Here is a video of news coverage on this incident.

I'm still surprised that a whole campus of college kids didn't get the point.

But it was mentioned in the video that there where a number of cases of racist at the school and because of that I wonder if problem isn't the kids not getting satire but the fact that everyone was still on edge for whatever happened at their school.

I can understand that happening. In fact I remember having a protest when I was in college, no over anything as stupid as this one. But the event that happened before we protest really had nothing to do with why we protest...it was more of the straw the broke the camels back scenario.

But in any case the kids should take off the nooses, someone may not get the satire and call you racist too.

K Chronicles...you know the K doesn't stand for Klan, right

2009-09-29T16:26:00.004-04:00

Students at slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania are in an up roar about a comic strip that appeared in their school newspaper.

The protest is being lead by students in that school's chapter of the NAACP and the student group Black Action Society who are up set because of a panel in the strip which main character (an African-American) hanging form a noose.

Now I'm all for students fighting against racism but in this case. Here's the strip so you can see what I mean.

(you can click the image if you want to be taken to a bigger more readable version)

context is everything...yes the strip has a black hanging in a noose...But if one reads the words to the strip instead of just looking at the pictures (it's something one most do when reading a comic) it is clear that the strip is speaking out against the current racism we face in this day in age. Namely the racism that can be found in many of the protesters against Obama and the fact that when Black people point out racism we get blamed for playing the race card.

maybe the reason the students at Slipper Rock missed the message is because they aren't used to people tackling serious issues with humor or maybe it because humor is subjective or because satire is a form of humor many people don't get or they are victims of the dumbing down of America.

I think it should be pointed out that the cartoonist of the strip, Keith Knight is Black and the main character of K chronicles (and the guy being lynched in the first panel of the above strip) and you can get more info on him and the strips he does at his site, Kchronicles.com. He talks about this event in his blog section.

Happy National Comic Book Day

2009-09-25T19:37:00.003-04:00

I was just made aware that today is National Comic Book day.

at least that what it says on holidayinsights.com

I would think that the comic book industry would really jump on this holiday the same way they have a big push for free comic book day. But the day has gone one with out much notice. though I am sure there is some comic book store out there taking advantage of this holiday, to push more comics or at least I hope there is.

though thinking about it for a second maybe this day would be better off if it was celebrated every 4th Wednesday of September instead of a set date because Wednesday's the day of the week new comics come in...though I guess it also smart not to have a day like this on the day that would already be your your heavy volume day and having something like this on what would a slower day may makes some sense.

a new president has been named but who will be DC entertainment new publisher?

2009-09-16T22:29:00.003-04:00

I didn't really think about it when the news was released but Diane Nelson was only named to be President for DC Entertainment but Paul Levitz was President & Publisher of DC. so who's going to be the new publisher?

odds are we will here the answer in a few weeks but until then lets speculate.

Nelson has praised the vertigo line so who knows maybe it will be Karen Berger or Shelly Bond if not either of them someone else that works in the Vertigo line.

Part of me wants it to be Bill Jemas just to see a large number of comic book fans head explode. I know a lot of fans didn't like him when he was publisher of Marvel but Marvel did put out some good comics during that time period and he turned marvel profitable after a period when they where going into the dumps.

but honestly I have a feeling they will pull someone that has publishing in magazine industry, like someone that worked in Time for kids. but that just a hunch that has no barrings in fact (like nothing any of the other guess in this post)

DC Entertainment

2009-09-09T16:17:00.004-04:00

Last week Marvel made news with the fact that Disney has bought them.

This week DC is making news today by the fact that not only Warner Brothers is spinning DC comics off into it's own company called DC Entertainment. This company will of course focus on making comics but will work with other parts of Time Warner to make other media products based on DC's Characters. Y'know movies, video games, TV shows and stuff like that.

But the other big news is that DC Entertainment will be headed by a new president then Paul Levitz (who's been the head of DC since 2002.) The president of DC Entertainment will be Diane Nelson.

Diane Nelson is an executive at Time Warner Brand Management department where she handled the such brands as Harry Potter and she headed Warner's direct to dvd line Warner Premiere.

Paul Levitz will go back to what he did before he joined the business side of DC write for them. Paul Levitz will now be the writer of Adventure Comics writing the Legion of Superheroes (a group he was a writer of from 1974 to 1989)

Well I guess this means we will be seeing more movies, games, and shows based on DC characters in the future and with new leadership I am sure there will be some change in DC's comics.

Spider-Man and Mickey Mouse setting in a tree...M...E...R...G....E...R

2009-08-31T12:45:00.002-04:00

It has just been released today that The Walt Disney Company has bought The Marvel Entertainment Company (Marvel Comics)

I was shocked when I first read the news.

But I think I can see some reason for the corporate take over.

Marvel has had a lot of success recently with their movies and the company does like to bring up the fact that they have loads of characters (5,000) which I am sure looks good to Disney since it this would be more sources of revenue for Disney which has seen a bit of a down turn recently (bad economy equals less people coming to their theme parks)

And on Marvel's end it makes since they would want to be bought by one of the worlds largest entertainment companies. Disney has master licensing and has many outlets they can put Marvel characters...or the current owners of Marvel just wanted to cash out.

Also oddly enough I guess this balances out the fact that Warner Bros owns DC comics

But know I wonder how will this effect both companies.

Will Disney change the way Marvel does business or impose creative control on the types of things Marvel can do?

Will Marvel now publish comics based on Disney characters?

I could also see DC using Marvel as a brand aimed at Teens. the way Disney is seen as a brand aimed at kids and family focused media and has the brand Miramax for movies that are aimed at adults and ESPN for sports fans.

Looking back at Warlock and the Infinity Watch

2009-08-21T15:11:00.005-04:00

a while back I reread all my cloak and dagger comics and talked about them here. I realize this is something I may do time to time because comics are getting pricey and it's much cheaper to go back and reread things I haven't read in a long time. This time I reread Warlock and the Infinity Watch and much of the comics that tied into the book.

One of the first things I thought rereading this series was that I couldn't believe that I forgot how good it was. The title started out as Jim Starlin doing a Keith Giffen era of the Justice League type book since it's a team of oddballs stuck together in a team and their personalities clash for comic effect. Though the humorous tone only lasted in for the first half of the series or so.

also now that I look at it both teams where formed due to events in company wide big event cross overs, JLI form Legend and Warlock and the Infinity Watch from the Infinity Gauntlet.

The problem with Warlock and the Infinity Watch was that the titled was tied into the Infinity whatever series, so not only did you need to read the Infinity Gauntlet to understand why the team was formed (or at least read wiki page for the mini series) for the first 2 years of the title you would have to read extra miniseries (and each event added an extra title you needed to read) to understand whats going on.

At least that was the problem when the series just game out, but rereading it with when you have all of the books it's easy to spot another problem this series faced around the time of the Infinity Crusade cross over and the Thor/Strange/Warlock & crew cross over that followed it...the quality in the art slipped.

It's understandable that with deadlines from time to time an the art of an issue wont be as good as it should be since the artist rushed to get the book out on time. But at the time the book was rotating between to artist Angel Medina and Tom Grinberg.

I think in Grinberg's case he may have been trying a new style that was similar to the styles of the founders of image comics since that look was popular at the time.

the art picked backup when Pat Oliffe became the series artist at issue 29.

during the last year or so of the title Jim Starlin left the title to do a creator owned book at Malibu comics and John Arcudi took over as writer. John Arcudi run of the book was good but my only complainant was that he didn't seem to get the character Thanos right and reduced the character into your typical villain wanting revenge.

After reading the series one thing I can say is that I wouldn't mind seeing the character Maxam used again.

BE WARNED DOWN BELOW BE SPOILERS

don't read if you want to find out the secret of Maxam by reading the comic and not some guy's blog post

ok here it is.

the character wasn't really developed much but a Black guy form the future sent to the past to stop the guy that will grow up to destroy worlds is an interesting base to start form. More so when it's revealed that the guy he must stop is currently a superhero.

though I realize that there may not be much demand for the character. For most of his run he had no memory of who he was and so the character was pretty much a blank slate (thought that worked fine for Wolverine) and I am sure many fans didn't like the character when it was revealed that he was sent to kill Adam Warlock. But I think the last part is what makes him interesting since it basically asked the question if you could go back in time and kill baby Hitler would you.

and that's where the character Maxam is at, sure as Adam Warlock he didn't do anything wrong and was in fact a good person...but Maxam lived through (or after I'm not sure) the horrors that he will cause later in life.

Top 6 gimmick covers that should have been done during the 90's

2009-08-04T15:01:00.003-04:00

Recently it seems like gimmick covers are making a comeback.

With marvel recently coming out with foilogram (foil + hologram) covers on the first issue of their relaunched ultimate comics and the fact that Marvel's VP of sales says "This is the 90's
done right" I started to to think about gimmick covers on comics that came out when I was a kid and decided to list the top things I was surprise that actually never where used in gimmick covers.

this is my top list in no real order

6. Metal Letters for the comic's tittle.

why? During the 90's I notice a bit of clothing (usually Hats some t-shirts) that used metal (or something that looked metallic) was used for lettering. Now I'm not talking about metallic ink, which where actually used during the 90's gimmick boom, but actual metal letters pasted onto the comic.

5. tie dye comic book covers
well since we are talking about fashion form the 90's tie dye did make a come back around that time. It also has a bounces since tie dye was big in the 60's and 70's which works great since there is a segment of fans that always won't to back to the types of stories (or just the characters) that where around then.

4. motion cover
you remember getting cards usually in cracker jack or cereal boxes that when you moved the card side to side slightly the picture on the card would change.

I was always surprised that no one thought of using this for a comic book cover.

3. video game cover
OK, I don't mean video game on the level you would get on your xbox 360 or even SNES (or even NES) I was thinking over the type of game tiger direct made or nintendo's watch games.

2. scratch and sniff covers.
Scratch and Sniff stickers where big when I was a little kid growing up in the 80's. So the technically was there in the 90's to make scratch and sniff comic covers and at a reasonable price (unlike my video game cover ideal)

1. Spinners!!!
Your comic is staying still but the wheels keep spinning. Hey it works for cars!!!

Now giving there where so many gimmick covers on the comics that came out during the 90's I wouldn't be surprised if one or more of those ideals where actually used by some small company trying to get us gimmick crazed kids to buy their comic. if you know of any comic that used any of these ideals feel free to point them out to me.

Director Angela Robinson to write DC's the Web

2009-06-16T20:07:00.002-04:00

Angela Robinson, who directed Herbie: Fully loaded, shows for the L-word and directed and write D.E.B.S (both the short film and it's feature length movie) has been announced to write the new comic series The Web (featuring the character form Archie's Red Circle comics) the first issue will come out in September.

The book will also have a back up series featuring the hangman being written by John Rozum (former writer of Milestone's Xombie)

Dwayne McDuffie fired off of JLA for telling fans the truth

2009-05-29T13:17:00.003-04:00

It seems that writer Dwayne McDuffie has recently been let go from writing Justice League of America because he gave a little to much information about some of the things that go behind the scenes in the comic book biz.

almost a month after lying in the gutter collected a number of comments Mr. McDuffie posted on DC comics own message boards over a 2 year period when he talked about things like the stories he had to change because of editors, or the character he wanted was being used in another book etc.

it's a shame that DC decided to do this. He didn't say anything negative about DC comics or the editors he worked with, his comments where basically things like I had to cut this story short because we need the book to tie into a big event cross-over or I couldn't use this or that character because he or she or it was being used by someone else and so they where off limits.

The odd thing is that these comments where posted on DC's message board and so one would think that if they had a problem with him telling to much someone would have seen his post over the last 2 years and could have told him keep it down if they didn't want this type of info out.

I think JLA editors made a stupid decision to fire a talented writer for a dumb reason.

But on his board Dwayne is taking this all well he stats he has lots of work, with a number of other projects such as the TV show Ben 10 and a new Milestone project.

his says he is only sad that he doesn't get to finish is plans which included a JLA centered big event next year and his storyline with Black Canary.

I'm distressed by where I left Black Canary, as my intention was to use the current subplot to strengthen her character and relationships with the new membership

he was also sad over the fact that they finally gave him a regular artist for him to work with instead of the revolving door of artist he had one his run.

Grant Morrison documentary

2009-05-22T18:49:00.002-04:00

it seems that there is going to be a documentary done on comic book writer Grant Morrison coming out next year. You can see a trailer for the film below

Looking back @ Cloak & Dagger

2009-04-29T14:46:00.003-04:00

it's interesting when as an adult you go and look at something you liked as a kid.

I did this recently when I reread the issues I have of cloak and dagger (minus there stunt in strange tales) and man was I shock at all the stuff I didn't really pick up on as a kid.

for those who don't know Cloak & Dagger are Marvel Comic book characters that where two teenage runaways who get kidnapped and have a drug tested on them that ends up giving them superpowers.

Cloak is a guy wearing a cloak, he is basically a door way to a dark diminison where those who enter it are force to confront their greatest fears and/or the worst thing they have ever done and he can also teleport

Dagger shoots out daggers of light that basically make people feel shame and she can also heal people.

Cloak happens to be an African-American guy and Dagger a white girl.

the first thing I notice rereading these comics is that even thought the character are both around the same age (teenagers) Cloak is drawn to look much older (he looks like a guy in his 40's or 50's instead of being 16 or 17) which makes it look creepy that he is hanging out with a 16 year old even though the characters are the same age.

Next looking at there origin story, both kids are runaway who ended up in new york at same time and place, when Cloak first sees Dagger his first thought is that he should rob her because she looks rich (which she was) this only changed when someone else mugs her and he decides to rescue her.

and the racial uncomfort doesn't stop there. the title is full of saying things like dagger being pure of white light of good and cloak being said to be an evil force. basically white is good and black is bad, which doesn't come of well giving the race of the two characters.

as a kid I think I over looked all this because Dark characters are cool, and that was what Cloak came off as.

another thing as I pointed out Dagger's power is to make people feel shame (or to be correct over powered by it) in the book it is written that she is attacking people with goodness and that the bad people she attacks just can't handle it. But as I said the only thing that happens in the book is that those character feel guilt over what they did, but from the issues I read it doesn't look like anyone started to become a good person because they where hit by Dagger's daggers. So really even thought the book tries to play these characters powers as being connected to good and evil, it's really about fear and guilt.

Obama fights in an alien war and becames a barbarian,

2009-03-31T14:52:00.002-04:00

we've already seen the president make guest appearances in Spider-Man, Savage Dragon and Youngblood comics as well as a few biography comics.

now Devil Due comics is getting into the game as they announced that they will release two comics starring the president of the united states.

Drafted: 100 days ties into the companies Drafted series in which earth is in a war with an alien race. in this one shot we will fallow the adventures of Obama...who because this story takes place in an alternate reality, isn't the president and he is also mute.

the other comic is Barack the Barbarian. Which kinda of takes the president and cast him in a Conan type figure. In this story Barack must save America which as been over taken by "overpaid despots of the time". Unlike the Drafted one shot this series is planned to be an ongoing comic book series.

my first reaction is that this is all going to far...but I have to be honest I may check out the Barack the Barbarian comic

R.I.P Scans Daily

2009-02-28T19:01:00.002-05:00

the livejournal group Scans Daily has been shout down due to them breaking livejournal's TOS

for those who don't know scans daily posted scans of comics books for the last 6 or so years. but they had a rule that someone couldn't post the entire comic (I think the rule was no more then half an issue can be posted on the site)

it seem like one of the property owners didn't like it and reported them for copyright violation. which is something that is in the companies right to do.

But giving that they had a rule not to post a full comic, their post where really survived as previews for comics. I know I have bought comics that I would have ignored because I read some parts of the comic on scans daily and I am sure their are others just like me. Now that they are gone that will be one less way for me to find some new comics that I may like.

though I guess on the flip side of the coin it also allowed me to know what comics not to pick up because they where crap

some people in the comic iindustry think the kindle and similar tech will spell doom for comics

2009-02-21T15:59:00.002-05:00

on Ad Age, their is a video featuring DC comics VP of advertising, John Cunningham saying that because comic book fans are early adopters of tech their market will be hit with a large number of their fan base going to things like the kindle or other ebook readers to get their comics.

It's clear by listening to him that he is both fearful of the ideal of losing their market...but honestly if the comic book publishers keep up with the new mediums they can SELL their comics they really shouldn't be worried.

That right instead of thinking this is doom for DC comics and other publishers I think this is time (past time really) that more publishers put out versions of their comics for things like the kindle. it's a new market that will lead to new sells as well as keep current sells study (every month the comic book market loose more and more fans, this can be a way to stop the lose or shrink it)

and if itunes is an example people will pay for content online

Diamond NOT the end for the indy comic publishers

2009-01-28T15:19:00.004-05:00

with the news of Diamond raising the amount of money comics need to make to be listed in their catalog, there has been a lot of talk about this being the death of the indy comic.

the reasoning behind the panic is because Diamond is the largest comic book distributor and pretty much every comic shop orders from them (mainly because they have exclusive distribution deals with Marvel and DC)

But even thought Diamond is the biggest game in town, doesn't mean their are other distributors out there with large reaches into the comic book market.

One distributor that has a bigger reach into the comic book market then people realize is Haven Distributors. Their catalog reaches 2300 comic book retailers.

Where as
going by information ICv2, diamond has an active customer base of 4300

Which makes Haven nearly half the size of Diamond in terms of the retailers that order form them. Not bad, giving that with the news of diamond changing their terms, in most likelihood Haven's numbers will grow.

and giving that a lot of comic shops only stick with Marvel and DC, the stores that order with Haven are the types of stores that have a good (or at least decent) amount of Indy comics. So even though you may not get your comic in diamond, by being in Haven you're more likely to be seen by the types of stores that will order your title(s)

Diamond makes policy changes that will have huge effect on smaller comic book publishers

2009-01-25T17:29:00.002-05:00

Diamond has just raised it's threshold for minimum orders on the products they carry from $1500 to $2500 in whole sale orders.

This of course will effect many small publishers since they wont be able to meet the sales now need to keep their product in the diamond catalog.

it will also effect publishers who get by selling low volumes of reprinted stuff every month.

Diamond is also getting rid of the print version of their catalog for porn comic (and going to an online version)

not sure how much that's going to effect the industry because I didn't know they had this type of catalog.

it also seems that diamond is cutting the amount of time they give retailers to reorder periodicals (such as comics and magazines) to 60 days.

Obama gets the 90's superhero vote!!!

2008-08-19T06:31:00.000-04:00

Dark Knight made Robert Downey Jr feel dumb

2008-08-18T14:32:00.000-04:00

in a recent interview for moviehole.net, star of the Iron Man movie, Robert Downey Jr stated that he felt the Batman movie the Dark Knight was to fast and intellectual.

He then cursed DC comics.

I'm happy that giving the box office numbers not to many people share Downey's dislike of the latest Batman film.

But I think it's funny that we get a Batman movie that is closer to the comic then say the 60's TV show and people (who normal see comics as being dumb kids fair) think the film is to smart (or in most cases violent)

why teens/young adult like manga over american comics

2008-08-06T16:49:00.000-04:00

it's not news to people who know comics that comics (at least American) sells to teens has been lagging for sometime.

while Manga has gone through a big explosion among teenagers (of course that peak may or may not have been reached yet)

there has been much talk about why that is among both comic pros and comic fans.

wanting to find a good answer, over the weekend I did a very unscientific poll to find the answer.

last Sunday I posted a question on yahoo answers to find out what do teens and young adults find appealing in manga/anime that they don't find in American comics.

I got a 6 responses back

3 young ladies said they like manga because it is more diverse then american comics which they feel are just super hero titles.

2 people out of that 3 think manga's art is better.

one person says that he like manga because it is more violent and risque

and one guy who thanks american comics are over used and doesn't like all the different universe versions of characters (like the ultimate marvel line) He also doesn't like the fact that you have to follow more then one title to get the story. He also stated that he feels american comics have to much talking and not enough action.

and one guy who made fun of everyone else who answered.

I put the question up for voting (if you haven't used Y!A people pick the best answer to a question). right now the guy who mocks everyone is in the lead which jacked up what I was hoping for since I really wanted to find which of those response people agreed with the most.

yes we who read comics know it is more then just superheroes but giving that half of the respondents didn't know that I think that shows a big problem comics have and that is getting the public to know comics are more then just men in tights.

DC gets a new Milestone

2008-07-27T18:46:00.000-04:00

the character from the Milestone comic book company will now be part of the DC universe.

I'm a bit mixed on this news.

one part of me is jumping up and down because I loved (ok still love) the comics that Milestone made in the 90s.

But I am a sad because I'm a little nervous that way heroes of color get treated in comics sooner or later a crappy writer will get their hands on a milestone character and jack them up.

and on the business end I wondering does this mean the guys who owned milestone sold their characters to dc? Does this mean one of the first Black comic book companies is no longer black owned.

Dark knight

2008-07-21T17:58:00.000-04:00

saw the last batman movie yesterday and I have to say it has been the best batman movies I've seen in a long time (though I didn't watch batman begins because I was still to scared after watching the batman movies before it)

Ledger was great as the Joker. For a guy who says he didn't read many comics as a kid he really did pulled off the madness of the joker seen in the comics.

and this movie did something that I think the Joel Schumacher failed to do (and suffered greatly for it) and those was to take time and actually develop the villain characters.

the Joker doesn't need any real back story (and luckly they didn't give him a reason for being)

but it was a good thing that the movie made harvey dent a real character.

folks at Stan Lee Media try to make theirs marvel...er I mean make marvel theirs

2008-07-11T16:34:00.000-04:00

James Nesfield and other shareholders of Stan Lee Media (but not Stan Lee himself) are suing Marvel saying that they hold a financial interest in the characters Stan Lee created for Marvel.

Motley fools point out that this may all be due to a miss understanding when Lee said that when is contracted with Marvel was cancelled in 98 (when Marvel when bankrupt) he could do whatever he want.

More likely it he meant that he could now work for other companies outside of Marvel.

But he people behind the lawsuit seemed to think that the ownership when back to Stan.

Of course even if that was true, there is a big difference about the rights of the characters going back to Stan Lee and them going to a company he started, but no longer is in charge of.

DC big event season change

2008-07-06T21:14:00.000-04:00

A few days ago I talked about the fact that DC’s Final Crisis wasn’t doing as well in the sells as most people expected it to and how much more Marvel’s Secret Invasion sold.

And the I released that for the most part Marvel always out sales DC and with the big events that is also usually the same. The last time DC had a book at the number one spot was when it released Infinite Crisis.

The reason it was the number one title when it was released was the one-two punch of being a big even mini series and the fact that Marvel didn’t have a big event at the same time.

If DC is going to keep doing big events maybe they should rethink the ideal of having it in the summer but instead pick another time of year to do so when Marvel is not release their big event.

Truth be told I am not sure why the big events still usually happen in the summer. Sure I understood why they used to be in the summer. It was the time period of highest sales due to kids being home from school. But giving that today most of the comic readers are adults and spending is pretty steady throughout the year I don’t see why the big two still focus their events to come out during the summer.

Do them in the spring or fall instead.

But back to DC. The reason I say they should think about going off season is because they usually don’t come out on top when they try to go toe-to-toe with Marvel. By putting out a big event series when Marvel isn’t you nearly insured that you will get the top spot in the sales charts.

And when Marvel switches it’s game plan to have it’s event to come out whatever new season you did last you can just switch and put out your events at yet another time of year.

DC sales crisis

2008-06-28T21:40:00.000-04:00

well Marvel's big cross over event has sold a lot more copies then DC cross over event

people on the net are giving there reasons.

Secert Invasion had more multiple covers
Count Down sucked and so everyone is scared to pick up Final Crisis
There is a large anti Morrison fanbase (who are these sick people?)

put looking at the over all sales chart I notice that Marvel in general seems to be more popular then DC. the majority of the top 20 comics are from marvel...actually most of the top 50 books seem to be from marvel.

I think a big factor might actually be that their are more Marvel fans in this current comic book market then DC fans. So with both companies having big cross events at the same time you can expected marvel to have higher sells because marvel in general has more fans.

I think that is the base of the problem (though I would be suprised if some of the things I listed had some effects on sales)

OK the Manga market is over flooded…so what’s next?

2008-06-28T19:36:00.000-04:00

Ok recently Tokyo Pop had to make cuts in its line of manga and their staff.

The reason is a combination of the economy doing badly and also the fact that Tokyo Pop flooded the market with it’s manga and manga like products, such as the American made manga and comics from other Asian countries.

The bad economy couldn’t be helped but the later is something that happens in the comic book industry time after time. When a market gets big everyone jumps into and floods the market. Even though Tokyo Pop was an early adopter into the American manga market they did extend their line widely because of the success of manga as other people where also trying to cash in the manga craze (such as DC’s CMX line) and it seems like they might be the first to take a hit.

Now I don’t think this is the end of the market for manga titles in America, in fact far from it. I just think right now is a time for a correction.

Looking back similar things have happened time and time again in the comic industry. In the 80’s there was a boom of black and white comics. After the success of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the market was flooded with B & W comics and after a while that market crashed. Now Black and White comics didn’t go away, they are still a mainstay, they are just not as big a force as they where.

And then in the 90’s the market was flooded with a bunch of new comic book companies, most of which where super hero lines. Even though most of these companies are now gone, super heroes are still around and there are still even some that are being done by people outside of the big 2.

Which makes me wonder since manga looks like it’s cooling off and is no longer the hot new thing everyone wants to jump on and now just a format/genre like any other, I wonder what will be the next thing everyone wants to jump on and over flood the market.

There might be some time before we can tell. Those type of books may or may not already be on the market.

Right now it could be anything. Horror comics, Furries, Slice of life, or prawn porn.

Marvel and DC please take a break from crossovers

2008-06-16T12:32:00.000-04:00

Recently it seems that the big two have been running endless crossovers back to back.

I have to be honest I feel a bit burned out about them, actually to be honest I’ve been pretty much burned out on crossovers for nearly a decade and that was when the big two only had big company wide crossover events once a year.

But now they seem to be having crossovers back to back with out a break. Screw back to back DC has just finished a year long crossover event and that was just to kick off another crossover event.

But it doesn’t even end there.

Marvel and DC not only have endless crossovers they also have lots of spin off specials and mini-series to tie into them.

I know they do them because they make money. The crossovers are usually at the top of the sells chart and they can give a boost to the titles in the crossover. BUT CAN THEY GIVE IT A REST!!!

I’m not saying they should never do a crossover but please give us a break.

DC and Marvel can you gives us 5 years with out a crossover. Hell if that’s to long how about a year or two.

Just let the creative teams us this time to tell good stories and allow them to do so organically.

Take all the time and money you guys use on the crossovers and use them to do other things. Example all the resource the company uses to hype their crossover event can be used to hype their normal titles.

The time used on plotting their next crossover and how it will effect the their other books could be used in coming up with new ideals for comics. Maybe think of things that will reach new audiences or at the least give the fans sometime good to read.

I know, I know it’s just a pipe dream but sometimes I wonder if sooner or later enough fans will be like me and just get tired of all of these crossovers.

Already I know of many people who don’t read the crossovers (or at least stop buying them in the middle of the their runs because they didn’t like them)

Many of the countdown crossover titles didn’t sell that well.

And even because people are spending so much money on the crossovers, some fans have cut back on their other titles.

Dixon speaks

2008-06-16T12:27:00.000-04:00

and it doesn't look like he is setting the blame on his leaving DC on Morrison...sorry conspiracy theorist on scansdaily

Chuck Dixon leaves DC...

2008-06-12T19:38:00.000-04:00

Chuck Dixon is no longer writing for DC.

I haven't seen anything that gives a reason why but on scandaily a lot of people want to blame Morrison and his Batman RIP story.

Some think Dixon left DC because Batman's RIP is effecting his book.

of course currently Morrison has had his worked effect by a number of cross overs that DC has running right now.

If the reason Dixon left DC is because of his stories being effected I think the issue lays more with the editors then his fellow writers.

and with all the errors caused by editors keeping writers out of the loop, I think we will need yet a neither crisis mini-series to "fix" everything.

stalwrat cover

2008-06-12T13:16:00.000-04:00

a while back I found some comics I did when I was a kid (I think I did these while I was in Jr. High) and thought I will post bits of them up from time to time.

now I have to warn you that these comics are crappy, they look like they were done by a kid...mainly because they where done by a kid.

which is why I am going to name the tags for these comics crappy comics I did as a kid.

because these are just comics I did as a kid I don't really feel like digitaly inking them so I am only going to post pencil drawings (though I will try to see if I can easily make them a dark enought to read)

to start off I'll post the cover for my anthology comic that I created for my younger self called stalwrat:

more to come sooner or later

Why the comic book industry is like the American car industry

2008-06-05T11:33:00.000-04:00

I think a large part of this has to do with the fact that I am from Michigan but for a long time I have notice a few big similarities between the American auto industry and the American comic book industry.

I know it might sound crazy at first but let look at it.

They were both invented in America and become popular world wide, to start off with but that is not what I see that makes them similar.

No the similarities are see are much oblique, because I was not around for there heydays but instead long sense they have passed by.

And that’s where I see their similarities, they both are doing poorly for similar reasons.

Both cars and comics have a problem with adopting to what the people want and in doing have lost lots of market share.

The American car industry likes to make big cars. When I was a kid in the 80’s they where slow to realize the market for power cars was going down, which lead the room for smaller Japanese cars to come into the American market.

They then where slow to realize the demand for small eco-friendly cars and focus mainly on SUVs and again paid the price when people started to by Japanese cars.

For the comic industry the big car is the superhero book. Many retailers and publisher focused so much on the superhero book that they let other genre all but die out.

For years the comic book has been losing readers and in the past decade the Japanese have came in and grab much of the market that the American comic book industry could have been reaching out to.

Luckily both industries have been trying to make changes. The American car industry has been focusing on smaller greener cars and there many comic book publishers that print non-cape books.

The sad thing is one wonders if they can ever get their new heydays or not.

I hope they will but like I said I’m a comic book nerd in Michigan and having both industries back at the top would be a great thing for me.

Why did genre diversity die off?

2008-06-02T11:57:00.000-04:00

I ran across an old overstreet price guide the other day and flipping through it’s kind of interesting to note just how diverse comics where (at least in terms of genres being published) back in the 40’s-50’s.

Even looking at the big two (or the companies that would become the big two) and a large part of there out put wasn’t superheroes but other genres such as romance, westerns, horror, sci-fi, funny animals or comedies.

I can’t help but wonder what happen to these books. Why did the industry turn their back on so many different types of comics.

I know horror was thrown a big blow in the anit-comic wave of the 50’s lead by the likes of Fredric Wertham and his book Seduction of the Innocent.

And westerns fell out of favor in pop culture.

But I wonder why the large publishers turned way from romance, funny animals and comedy tittles and I guess to some lesser extent sci-fi comics.

These still remain popular genres in every other from of media, why not comics.

All I know is that some say when comic started to get sold primarily in comic shops and not on the new stands these genres started to die off because many of the comic owners where superhero fans and that is what they order.

And of course many of the people working at the big publishers where fans of superheroes and maybe not so much the other types of comics.

Which makes since but giving the size of the market that was around for those old comics it hard to believe that even though the gatekeepers the time didn’t care for anything other then superheroes, that they should have withered away like they did.

Giving that there where at least as many fans of romance comics as superhero titles, I’m surprised that there wasn’t just as many romance fanboys and girls to start romance center comic shops in the early start of the comic shop market.

Same goes with the funny animals and humor.

silly logic: not ording low selling comics will mean stores will sell more

2008-05-29T17:36:00.000-04:00

in a recent ICv2's Confessions of a Comic Book Guy column, Steve Bennett is asking retailers to stop ordering comics from the big 2 that sell less then 15,000 copies.

His reasoning is that he thinks that this might help increase sells on other titles and he doesn't understand why DC and Marvel put these books out.

Let me break it down for you steve

The reason Marvel and DC keep putting out new titles is because they think they can sell. These characters either have fans or the company thought they might be able to create something new and build a fanbase for it.

this is a good thing.

Now as we can see a lot of things don't sell as well as they would hope. But people still buy the books maybe not as many people reading x-men or JSA but they have there readers.

as long as book has enough readers it should still be printed, now once it doesn't make a profit...then I say kill that sucker.

Now the ideal of stores not ordering these low selling titles will help increase sells of other books is something I am having a hard time following.

there might be a slim chance of the fan on these low selling books will simply buy another book if the book they like is no longer published but really that is not 100%.

The fan might already be reading some of the big selling titles and not pick up a new title to replace the one he was reading or that low selling book might be the only comic this fan buys and once that is gone he has no reason for returning to the store.

so canning the book could lead to a retailer making less sales not more.

and as you stated retailers now what they are doing, the reason these title sell so low is because the retailers knows that there isn't much demand for them but they are sure they can sell a few copies of the book.

Rory Roth: we will miss you

2008-05-20T08:44:00.000-04:00

I am sadden that my first offical post has to be about bad news but Rory Roth has passed away.

for those who didn't know Rory Root was the owner of THE comic book store Comic Relief. he was a ground breaker in comic book retail and a very nice guy.

I've never meet the man in real life but he did post on some forums I go to but even though I only kinda of knew him I am still saddened by the news of his death.

the last part of the link trilogy will I do a prequel?

2008-05-20T08:43:00.001-04:00

maybe? but for right now lets see how much space I can fell here first

this is the space in between the panels

2008-05-20T08:41:00.000-04:00

this is the space in between the panels

links

2008-05-20T08:40:00.000-04:00

I'm just setting a few pages a side for links