Fanboy Rampage!!!

The CBR boards react to the Erik Larsen column that everyone's already talked about by this point:

"While the message is a good one it's highly hilarious coming from Larsen. I haven't read Savage Dragon in a good long time, but I did read fifty issues or so. And every single character was based on a previously existing character. So you've got a guy whose success is based on 're-imagining' the Marvel and DC stables trying to raise the flag of risk-taking and creative imagination."

"Well, clapclapclap for Erik. He managed to take something other creators have been saying for decades and boil it down to the online equivalent of a Muntzian taunt, thereby ensuring that everyone online will be linking to it and arguing over it. Like I said, clapclapclap. But it's just so lame. Warren Ellis said it better almost 10 years ago and even his version of the message got irritating and increasingly petulant over time. 'Sucking on the corporate tit'? Are you kidding me?"

"Personally, I think he's full of it. I mean, yeah he decides what Image prints and doesn't print, but that doesn't mean that he's God's gift to the comic industry. Who is he to judge tons of other creators who are just trying to make a living in the field that they love?"

"What are you, dense? Are you retarded or something? He's the goddamned Erik Larsen."

Kurt Busiek pops in, to win:

"It seems you're assuming Erik was saying, 'Never do anything you didn't create' rather than 'Don't only do stuff you didn't create.' Remember, the opening salvo was 'Is that ALL you got?' not 'How can you do ANY of that?' And Lee and Kirby (the examples he started out with) worked on characters they didn't create as well as characters they did. Me, I've done a ton of work on characters and concepts I didn't create. I've also done a lot of stuff I did. Call me nutty, but I don't think that Erik's saying that anyone who worked on books like DOOM PATROL, PUNISHER and AMAZING SPIDER-MAN without being their creators is a bad guy. He's exhorting people not to be satisfied doing nothing but that."

But enough with logic! Back to people overreacting!

"I call bullshit on Erik Larsen... [B]y the time Mignola did Hellboy he was already a known commodity for things like Hulk, Batman and Alpha Flight. Before Toddles did Bat-Ghost-Spider-Rider-Man, he was already a 'superstar artist' because of his work on Hulk, Spider-Man, Batman and Infinity Inc. Before Frank Miller did Sin City, he made his bones doing Batman, Spider-Man and Daredevil. Doing work-for-hire ALLOWED these guys the latitude to do their own think... just like drawing Spider-Man allowed for other people to do Savage Dragon. Pull your head in."

"Maybe the modern day equivalents of those creators need to branch out on their own now and see if they can shake things up outside the big 2. Because the point of all this is to 'make comics better' (to borrow a phrase from Larry Young) and if those guys can make bank for themselves and their publishers without servicing Batman and Wolverine, well, that's just good for the industry. Trust me, there's always a buyer for X-Men, but that's not usually the case for non-mainstream product. Look at Warren Ellis and 'Fell' #1-- he sold 25,000 copies. Now, with the state the comics industry is that is an excellent number, but that's just the tip of the ice berg when compared to Marvel's top sellers. But what if we got Warren Ellis and five of those top guys to do a big time indy comic? That would be good for everyone."

"He was obviously trying to channel Warren Ellis. And failing miserably."

(Cheers, Alistair.)

Carla Speed McNeil talks about moving Finder online:

"I do have all the work of setting up the site and getting it beta-tested, and it's been suggested that my site is a model of restrained good taste and needs to be tarted up a bit. I am actually quite lame with computers, so this consists of turning the whole mess over to friends of mine, who must be plied with food to work. It's like sitting in an operating theater's waiting room. Once the site is up, I'm assuming that I won't have to worry about making major changes anymore, but that's probably just laziness."

Another studio leaves Alias:

"Monkey Pharmacy Productions, creator/producer of the comic books Elsinore and Monkey in a Wagon vs. Lemur on a Big Wheel (with co-creator Chris Moreno), are pleased to announce that they have regained the rights to both of these properties. Both comic book series will be continued with new publishers and further announcements will be made in the near future. There has been an increasing amount of speculation about what was happening with these two books, especially since the announcement that Runemaster was leaving Alias. In mid-September, Mike Bullock and I gave legal notice that both our studios were leaving Alias. We are now able to announce that we have decided to take our properties elsewhere. Leaving Alias is by no means a setback for Monkey Pharmacy. We feel we now have the opportunity to produce the best work possible and be free from the series of unfortunate events that has plagued Alias and our titles right from the beginning."

When Newsarama asked for clarification on the situation, a familiar response was given:

"When asked for further clarification on the split, [Monke Phrarmacy founder Ken] Lillie-Paetz declined to comment, adding that his legal counsel had advised him not to speak further of the matter publicly."

Liam Sharp needs help.

Okay, now that the obvious jokes are out the way, let's look at what he's asking of Millarworld:

"It seems to me that Mark has a great board here for reaching a good broad section of the industry, and not just the fans and pros, but retailers too. Infact I can't think of another board that is quite such a broad church - but then I don't get out into cyberspace nearly enough... So bearing this in mind, I wondered if anybody could clear up some things that have been niggling me when it comes to publicity and targetting people. Clearly Event Horizon is a beautiful product, and it's doing very nicely in a niche indi way, BUT - why is it, for example, that some shops ordered, and sold, 40 copies of the book, while the majority didn't get any at all? What is it that makes shops fearful of investing in a new product even given that it contains completely original material from tried and tested creators?

"From a retailer POV, what could a publisher like Mam Tor do to reach them? What do retailers want from little guys like us? Another thing I've noticed is that phoning shops directly gets an incredibly varied response - from enthusiasm and pleasure that you bothered to call, to off-handedness verging on downright hostility! And also, probably lastly, is it possible to get people to try new genres? Will a capes and tights reader try Heavy Metal magazine? And if so, how do you do that? I know I made that change in my teens, but there wasn't such a big market for mature comics in those days, nor the quality of product available now.
In an industry saturated in hero comics, competing endlessly with itself, we're doing something pretty unique, and absolutely beautiful. But does it actually belong in the comic market? By posting stuff on Newsarama, CBR, here, or any comic site, will I actually be getting anywhere near what my target audience might be?"

Indie publisher Dan Lundie responds:

"Millarworld is a dry well for us indie publishers. It's just not the audience we all hoped it would be when we signed up. I've gotten pretty much the full audience I can from here for my stuff, and I doubt I'll be getting more for a little while. People that come here have already found what comics they like, and they want to talk about them. You've been in the industry a while and have a built-up audience, so chances are there'll be surfers on here at times who'll be glad to see your posts, but for indie publishers without the audience built up yet, MW sadly does not wield very good results... Your very best bet as I can figure it (aside from pimping or advertising on music boards and sites) is to relate your company to DC and Marvel. There's DC and Marvel fans on this board who fear your product because it's counter-culture and obscene and probably tells them to have free sex and take drugs, all the naughty things the bible protects us from. Help those people relate to your product. How can it be fun for them to read your book? How can they get invovled if they're coming from a position of nervous distrust of the unknown? Shorten that gap and show them the bits they'll be able to relate to. Let them know where you stand in regards to the bigger companies."

Millarworld mods, obviously, take offence and decide to take a shot at The Engine:

"I disagree here, there are plenty of people on MW willing to try new stuff. It's not easy to find a place thathas pros, indie creators, super-hero fans, indie fans, manga fans, retailers, you name it, all together in one place, and i believe it's one of the advantages of MW."

"The [Millarworld] audience determines what gets talked about and pimping the same thing repeatedly without much new (I'm trying to be really diplomatic about how some indie creators post here) does not lead to results, because you didn't deliver beforehand... You should also look at the fact that here you are talking to a mainstream audience so sell it to them rather than expect them to come and look for it. We're not an elitist pros only board - and we have more than comic readers coming through our doors."

Lundie again:

"I've chatted to other indie publishers who've been regulars on this board and we've all found it really difficult to gain any kind of interest for our stuff here outside of an initial group of posters who take an interest early on. I think it all comes down to word of mouth versus advertising. When I do a thread advertising my work, many people seem to skip it because it's one guy selling himself, no matter who that guy is. No one really likes a self-marketer these days. When a fan of a comic talks about the books he/she loves, however, people are a lot more open to that. They'll take notice of someone posting a 'hey, anyone reading Scott Pilgrim?' thread but they seem to back off from anyone posting a 'my new book's out, please support it!' style thread... Don't get me wrong, I'm not in any way bad-mouthing MW. I got my initial audience largely from this place, and I'm very grateful to it... It's just been my personal experience, and seemingly the experience of a few other indie publishers/companies I've talked to, that this board doesn't yield as many results as we'd like for our particular works. I think it's the wrong type of audience. People posting here know what they're into usually before they sign up on the board, and though there's times when they'll check out new books they've never heard of before, there is a general feeling going around that when you market your own work and you're not an established pro beforehand, it's pretty much spamming a board."

James Meeley considers comics formats:

"The classic comic book format might not ever reach the heights of its 'glory days' again, but that doesn't make it worthless. I often remind people who claim trades are so superior that the reason they can get the collected trade cheaper than all the comics it collects is due to folks who support the original comic format. By getting some money from that format, the companies are basically making the trades reprint material, which is much cheaper to produce than all-new material. So, they can charge less per issue-worth of material and make the trade a "better value" and still make a nice profit. I see no reason why that can't remain the case, so long as the format is bringing in money."

Oni releases a 13 page preview of Scott Pilgrim & The Infinite Sadness. Oddly, Newsarama only runs 12 pages of it. CBR has all 13.

Marvel go military again:

"Following up on their first comic released in May, Marvel will again create a custom comic for the US Military, this time featuring the New Avengers and other characters. The story, entitled 'Pot of Gold' features a team of heroes facing down 'The Disruptor,' a cyborg who’s angling to steal the Army and Air Force Exchange Service’s annual Morale, Welfare and Recreation dividend. The comic, available exclusively at AAFES facilities, is due in United States AAFES stores in early October, and overseas facilities in November."

Keith Giffen clears up a commonly-held misconception:

"DC and I have had our rocky periods. It's like a long, dreadful marriage. But the whole 'Keith must be pissed off because they're killing off his characters'... there's nothing there. The rumormongering got out of hand. Sue's death [in 'Identity Crisis'] started the whole firestorm. Look, any criticism I level at any other writer or artist boils down to, 'That's not the way I would have done it.' That's what all criticism boils down to, really. When I read 'Identity Crisis' I thought it was a pretty good read. When I saw Sue's death I thought to myself, 'OK, that's not the way I would have done it.' I'm not egotistical enough to think that the characters JMD and I handled back then would be hermetically sealed and put on a shelf with a note saying, 'Not to be used until Keith & Mark come back to reclaim them.' There was no anger. I wasn't pissed at DC and DC wasn't pissed at me. Period. I understood what they were doing and I agreed with a lot of it. Still do. Dan Didio and I got a kick out of the whole thing. We did this goof in 'Wizard' wherein we played around with it. One thing we try to do is keep the lines of communications open so there're no misunderstandings between us. Sometimes, if people hammer away at something long enough, the principals might think, 'Wow, maybe he is pissed off.' I can remember calling Dan and saying, 'I'm not pissed! I'm not pissed!' ...While I really appreciate the affection the fans have for these characters JMD and I thoroughly soiled back then, I have to be really careful that I don't become a cause. That's never a good thing. It's kind of oddly flattering to think that our JLI characters remain valid enough to act as the foundations for current DCU events. We had impact. Very cool. I'm not thrilled with death as an event, but that just brings me back to, 'That's not how I would have done it'. Again, I know where DC is heading and I think it's a worthwhile destination. I certainly wouldn't be doing '52' if I didn't agree with what's going down and want to be a part of it."

Dynamite Entertainment's J. Allen talks about why his company's books are late, and why that's a bad thing:

"It's jarring. It's horrible... Fans and retailers need to feel that we're both putting out quality and shipping on time. Our goal is to get there. We are trying. If we keep working at it, hopefully we'll succeed more than we'll fail. I'm sure we'll have a hiccup here and there, but hopefully we won't stumble as we have on being on time. We feel the quality of the final product has, so far, always exceed both our, and the fans expectations – even with the lateness... [T]here are no clauses [in our contracts to license properties for books] for lateness, but a different and important clause is the length of the contract. The license runs for only so long, and then you need to renew. Right now, we will be in to our first year on [Battlestar Galactica] by the time we put out our first issue. That means we paid money, and had no product come out, but it's something that we have to live with. The flip side would be to solicit product, and not put it out on time, and trying to catch up. That would be worse for retailers and fans. We have made that mistake."

Neil Kleid, Josh Fialkov and Ed Cunard discuss writer's block. Or, at least, they would, if any of them believed in it. Mr. Kleid?:

"Writer’s Block, in my opinion, is a myth. There’s absolutely no such thing. Sure, a writer can get stuck on a story and spend hours trying to find his or her way down the trail, but eventually, that writer is going to hit the clearing if he or she tries enough paths. Lazy writers use the Block as a way out — a tool that allows them to avoid putting in long hours expending brain muscle, time and energy figuring out what the next word or scene is going to be. It’s the out that lets them walk away and watch television or go get pizza with their friends, letting the thread of the tale slip further through their fingers to the point that they’re uninterested in sitting down at the computer to try and break it with a sledge hammer."

Robert Kirkman thinks about online fan arguments says "Can't we all just get along?":

"The thing about it is, I think we should all get along like a house on fire. That's the way it should be. We all read comics. We all like them. That's why we're here. We've already got more common ground than anyone we'd meet at a dinner party or some other place where you meet new people (I don't leave the house much). It only makes sense that we would all get along based solely on the common ground we all share. I mean, we've all read 'Watchmen' at least once, right?"

Mike Miller talks about Alias, and the Runemaster split:

"Gimoles performed very poorly, to the point where even if we weren't funding it, we would be taking a loss on just printing it, so we have to chalk that up to a bad decision to publish... [T]he situation was that we were willing to produce the book at break even, or even at a minor loss, in order to reach the trade and to complete the series. But we were not willing to lake a loss in the amount of their funding on a monthly basis--that's just bad business. And the order numbers being low - fewer than half that of Lions Tigers and Bears, we couldn't even count on the success of the trade. We proposed to Runemaster that we would be willing to take the loss through issue #2, but that we would not be willing to fund after that. We left it to Runemaster to decide if they would be willing or even able, to get the third and fourth issues done without funding before we could decide whether or not to go to print on issue #2, even though we offered to pay for issue #2 either way. This is primarily because we did not want to put out half of a story. A single 75 cent issue is bad enough, but we intrinsically believe it is unfair to retailers and consumers to put out half of a series and then quit... We were waiting for an answer from Runemaster for several weeks when we got a letter from Mr. Bullock's lawyer saying he was canceling the contract."

As to the accusation that Alias was in material breach of contract:

"[I]t's a false allegation. In the best case scenario, Mr. Bullock is simply mistaken about what he thinks constitutes a breach of contract. Unfortunately we couldn't discuss with him exactly why he thought there was a breach of contract because he brought in his lawyer and told us we could no longer communicate directly with him."

Entirely pointless, but amusing - Pop songs as interpreted by the Mighty Thor:

"Dost Thou Not Wish Thine Maiden-friend Were a Freak Like Me?
Dost thou not?
Dost thou not?"

"Since thou hast departed
I mayest breathe once anon
I go onward hence, yea verily
Thanks to thee, now I hast my desire
Since thou hast departed"

"Did'st thou write the book of love
Dost thou have faith i' Odin above
If the fables tell thee so?
Now dost thou believe in good minstrels?
Can music save thy mortal soul?
And can thou teach me how to dance quite slow?"

"Mine Milkshake brings all the young lads to the yard
and they are known to say
tis better than yours
yea verily tis better than yours
I can educate ye on it
but I'd have to maketh thy pay"

"Yon renowned fellow, let us kick it
Ho, everyone, cease, I prithee listen
Thor hath returned with a new invention
Something taketh hold of me most tight
Floweth like a harpoon day and night
Shall it ever end? I doth not know
Conjure the darkness and I shall glow
To great measure, mine voice is as a vandal
Brighten mine surroundings and snuff a life as though 'twere a candle
Yon mystic dance doth boom like a storm in motion
I bring death upon thee as like a black potion
Lethal, when I doth serenade thee
For any lesser tune wouldst be a travesty
Art thy affections roused, are dost thou flee?
Thou shouldst aim well, lest I forsake thee
If there be any ill, I shalt resolve it
Look thee upon mine hook while mine DJ revolves it"

(Thanks, Ed.)

In the middle of her SPX round-up, Heidi returns to an ongoing discussion:

"Another conversation I had -- and a much larger issue -- is what ever did become of the New Mainstream? As I wrote a little while ago in my comments on the Engine, while art comix have flourished as media darlings, and superheroes cotinue to rule the direct roost, the New Mainstream still fails to gain traction. Both the Superhero World and the Indie World look down on manga and the New Mainstream. By this, I mean the comics in what could be called mainstream genres -- humor, adventure, mystery, fantasy... From the big houses (I realize the irony in the term) like Fantagraphics, Top Shelf and D&Q to even smaller presses like Buenaventura, AdHouse and Alternative and the new Typocrat, the emphasis at SPX and MOCCA is on art for art's sake. Even though many of us find that vastly entertaining, it's not the same thing as entertainment for entertainment's sake."

Exchange of the day from the Byrne Board:

"And they say Mr.Byrne hates the fans... ...or those future fans. Ok i'm setting here in my room, and my little nephew of four years, comes running in with a scholastic book, that is about batman, now the first thing that cacthes my eye is the cover. It looks alot like a Mr.Byrne's drawing of the dark knight, and on closer look yep it has Mr.Byrne's credited for the pretty pictures. I would post a pic but my little nephew just grabed it from my hands and ran out of my room. Tried to find it on the net but scholastic doesnt even have it on their site."

"How did this prove that John Byrne doesn't hate his fans?"

"That's my point he dosent."

The thread gets more fun when other people try and make sense of what the story has to do with John Byrne hating (or not) "the fans":

"[T]he keyword was future fans. The point is he doesn't ignore the kids, like some do.."

"I actually see what he's saying now, he's talking about JB watching out for the future generation of comic lovers, which is always a good thing."

"A) JB drew Batman book for Kids [...] B) JB doesn't hate his fans. Chain of Reasoning: From #A : JB believes it appropriate to do comic book related material for children. Postulate #1 Children who read comic book related material may become fans. Postulate #2 If you hate something you do not work to increase it. Conclusion #B. An analogous argument would be: Writer X writes book for children about Clowns in which clowns are cool. Other things being equal that is a piece of supportive (though non-conclusive) evidence that he doesn't disapprove of children and adults liking the circus."

So now you know.

The Bendis Board wonders "So... what's wrong with New Avengers?":

"I dunno. I think this book and Young Avengers are more of what superhero comics could use. The sort of fun, sweeping tales that attracted many of us to big team comics when we were kids. I just don't get the hostility. And, you know, it's no secret I didn't enjoy Disassembled and Bendis himself yelled at me for my opinion about the whole Hawkeye thing, it's not like I'm just saying this shit to kiss ass. I just don't get it..."

"I don't think there's anything wrong with it, personally. A lot of people denouce it as a Justice League rip-off, what with all the A-List characters, but I think it does a lot for the book. He balances those out with B-List characters [Spider-Woman, Cage], which makes for fun reads. I think the Sentry storyline was fantabulous, and can't wait to see where Ronin goes. What's wrong with New Avengers? Nothing, I think."

"It's just haters hating. People are always going to pick on the popular book, movie, show, etc. in order to show how indy they are, even if their constant criticism shows they read or watch every issue/episode."

"[What's wrong with New Avengers is] That it makes all other comics look and read like shit next to it."

"The people who hate the book really don't understand the history of the Avengers. 1963- Lee & Kirby decide to put their most popular characters in one book. 1965 (and I've made this point, before I read What The?)- The founding members are replaced with the newest member (the sole character to survive the Golden Age) & 3 b-grade villains. 1966- Spider-Man's invited into the Avengers & really wants to join. All of these stories were written by Stan Lee, who I'd say has the right to make these decisions. 2004- Oh yea. Stan Lee writes a letter praising New Avengers."

Beau Smith takes bad writing to task:

"Sit and read some Doctor Doom dialogue sometime. It’s a scream. Here’s the thing, Doctor Doom has always been a character that talks like a mad scientist/Bad British actor. He kinda wrote the book on it as a supreme comic book bad guy. It’s like he’s supposed to be the cliché of all bad guys. Bad dialogue has been the burden of all comic book bad guys for years. They fall into two categories: The first one is the brainy madman like Doctor Doom where lines like: 'I shall crush you like the meaningless insect you are!' and 'You and your kind will all bear the shackles of submission when I rule the world!' These lines are facts. I looked em’ up in issues of The Fantastic Four. The second category of bad guy dialogue goes to thug/bruiser bad guys that all talk like they have a moron I.Q. or are out of an old Bowery Boys movie. They say stuff like: 'I’m gonna kill you!' and who can forget 'Now I’m really gonna kill you!' ...I’ve heard all the lame excuses from my peers in the writing world. They tell me that sometimes when you write three or four monthly books like they do that you don’t have the time to check every bit of dialogue. Others say that it’s the way the characters have always been written. I was stunned when one of my peers looked me in the face and told me that yeah, he did it. It was an easy way out and he didn’t care. It was the only truthful, manly answer out of the bunch. It was the wrong answer but unlike his written dialogue it had honesty to it."

Iron Man has a new writer, TV's Daniel Knauf, and he's writing a story that may split the internet in half:

"The exhilarating storyline will feature a string of high-visibility assassinations, prompting an intense investigation by Tony Stark (Iron Man’s alter ego), as the killer appears to be employing the armor and weapons of Iron Man. Stark is shocked and horrified by the truth he uncovers, as a far deeper game of death and deceit is being played – with Stark himself as one of the pawns!"

Tony Stark discovering that the technology he created is being used for nefarious ends? What a shocking new development that hasn't been the basis for multiple Iron Man stories over the last, what, twenty-at-least years.

Matt Fraction and Joe Casey gaze upon their works, ye mighty, and despair. Except, you know, without that despairing part:

"I can see what I was looking at, what I was thinking about, what I was reacting to or trying to understand in my life when I look back at my stuff, sure. I can see threads of creative interest that predate almost anything. Last year, after meeting a designer and writer named Marc English, I pushed myself through doing a kind of shamanism on my creative life and found, remembered, or discovered all kinds of links and motifs I didn't know existed. Bathed in the waters of Lake Minatonka, as it were. I don't think I can fairly examine my meager comics output to date with any degree of accuracy, since there's at least half as much written and never released for whatever reasons that it moots my personal perspective on context. I've worked long and hard on shit that's just never gonna see the light of day, but served a fairly profound purpose in my creative life, you know? Knowing that stuff exists skews how I see what's been printed."

Also at Publishers Weekly, Heidi MacDonald looks at message board culture:

"It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken—or a good message board, at least where comics are concerned. This is an industry and a fan community that's wired to max, happily dependent on all manner of message boards, blogs and web forums to spread the comics news and chit chat. Most of the most quotable message boards out there—the ones that are the most popular and break the most news—seem to be centered around notable creators in the comics world."

She runs through the most high-traffic message boards with one glaring exception *coughNewsaramacough*.

Publisher Weekly previews novelist Walter Mosley's Maximum Fantastic Four gig:

"Mosley hit on the idea of 'visually deconstructing' FF#1 and took his notion to Marvel chairman Avi Arad, who gave him the go ahead. Book designer Paul Sahre was brought in the design the book, adding gatefolds and a book jacket that unfolds into a poster witha photo reproduction of every page in the original comic. Comics historian and former Kirby assistant Mark Evanier puts this whole effort in context in an essay that looks at business and editorial side of Marvel Comics in the early 1960s... Maximum FF offers up each of Kirby’s panels as a carefully rendered graphic composition—reminiscent of the early comic book panel paintings of Roy Lichtenstein—but with Stan Lee’s narrative intact."

Paul O'Brien looks at Marvel's sales for August. The kids get scared.

Millarworld:

"Those numbers are depressing."

"I am a huge marvel fanboy, but I have to agree that these numbers are sad. Most of the books are trending downward."

"Maybe it's me... But is the market overall EVER going to grow past the approx. 100K/issue level? Does DC's art suck overall? Does Marvel's writing suck overall? Why hasn't there been a marketing breakthrough in light of successful movies? Don't we talk about this about once a month? Like right after the sales figures come out?"

"[T]he main problem is technology and marketing. Technology is what the 'kids' want and comics aren't marketed enough to mainstream audiences. Also if anyone argues manga is a success I want someone to explain that one to me. Manga isn't successful if all it does is sit on the shelves in bookstores while kids read it and put it back on the shelf. If I'm wrong someone please let me know where I'm wrong."

"Whatever your feelings on the subject -- DC Comics has had a great year. They've successfully hooked a lot of people into their books the last 12 months, both new (GL, Countdown minis) and old (JSA, Flash). Most comics fans' budgets are finite - we pick and choose, drop and add. If more people are buying DC books --- then more Marvel books are going to be dropped - or they don't get added. You'd love for Marvel's books to be at least stable while DC rose this past year -- but that's just not the case. (and obviously, you'd love to attract new fans -- but that's a whole other topic previously discussed ad nauseum.) What concerns me MORE than these sales presented here is what seems to be Marvel's RESPONSE to DC's challenge. And that response seems to be to FLOOD THE MARKET with as many titles as possible."

The Bendis Board:

"All the X-titles are dropping get new writers [...] People don't seem to be that interested in the new UFF team, same sales as before [...] There's no need for Supreme Power to go under Max, the sales are great, but then a new 1 always brings new readers [...] 1602:New world sold really low [...] all the mini series sell really low [...] the market seems dead"

"I wonder why UXM and USM are losing so many readers?"

"My theory on the Ultimate books. It's not 'new and exciting' any more. When it debuted five years ago it was a whole new universe where anything could happen, so people wanted to check it out. Now, it seems to be following a little too closely to the regular Marvel U. . No big differences. Not bad, just not different enough. Plus they introduce, like, 5 new people with each storyline. The well will soon run dry"

Carla Speed McNeal offers up explanations at The Engine for Finder's move to web-only single issues:

"Okay... what the hell am I thinking? It's odd timing, I admit, but ask Batton Lash-- I've been toying with this idea for a while. Bat's going web too-- already has, I believe. I had my head down over my drafting table finishing the issue I brought to SPX and didn't even know I'd been held up once again as a Fine Example of a book that would get the boot from Diamond now that they've got their new ceiling nailed up. I didn't get the boot. The issues have been taking care of themselve for quite a while now, but their sales are stagnant. For me their main purpose has been advertising. Well, if they're advertising, they're not doing the job anymore. The best they've been able to do for the last few years is supply a substantial giveaway at cons. That does hook enough new readers to make conventions profitable through selling TPBs and art, but it does nothing for sales on the issues themselves.

"I plan to print an annual of some sort in the future to replace this giveaway. It'll have a sizeable chunk of story and a few toys in it, but most of the content will be on the site. When will it be set up? October. No, I don't know exactly, I have to make my programmers a shit-ton of paella and keep them liberally supplied with various poisons. They say it won't be much work. I've heard this before, so I'll just sit in the corner and chew hides. The first chapter is scanned and set and ready to go, that's FIVE CRAZY WOMEN, part one."

Newsarama fans get upset at Mark Waid for his comments that, currently, the DC superheroes are dicks and that the fans are sick of it:

"Now.. I'm sorry.. but what makes Waid think that he knows what we want? As far as I can tell, these gritty, dark stories have raised sales high above where they were before Identity Crisis.. Thanks but no thanks, Mark. I do just fine thinking for myself."

"Ask not what Mark Waid can do for you but what you can do to help Mark Waid bring comics back to 1966"

"way to go mark.......want to set DC back and have them be 5 miles back of marvel like the last 20 something years"

"I'm as sick of this 'everybody do the Meltzer' phase as anybody, but--BUT--it sells. I may not like it, but those are some big numbers. Memo to Waid and DC: This current dark period has alienated or driven off the readers who agree with Waid. When you switch to 'sockamagee!' after IC, you'll be alienating and driving off the people you attracted with the dark stuff. Unless this is all a complex market research experiment to determine which group of readers is larger, it's all pretty farking pointless. If this 'worst day in the DCU' stuff is meant to be the fertilizer from which greater things grow, then congratulations on totally stealing from Avengers Disassembled and taking 4 times as long to do it."

Screw Eminem! Screw Wanted! Mark Millar has another movie coming out:

"I just got back from the Mark Millar signing at Midtown Comics. I overheard him talking to one of the other fanboys there about his book Chosen. Apparently a couple days ago a deal was signed, Chosen will be made into a movie with the director of the new Exorcism of Emily Rose movie attached [NOTE: Scott Derrickson]. Millar said part of his agreement was that he was going to write the movie as well. Not sure if these means the first draft or whatever, but thought I'd pass it to you before it breaks elsewhere."

Apparently forgetting what happened the last time he wrote something vaguely controversial, Paul O'Brien takes on the mainstream:

"Manga, they say, is the new mainstream. I disagree. Not with the word 'mainstream', but with the word 'the'. It's a new mainstream. An additional one... Back in the dark, dark days before the manga boom, some indie purists used to argue that indie comics were actually more mainstream than superhero comics, because superheroes with a marginal genre, while indie books did drama, and comedy, and horror, and so forth, all of which were far more mainstream. It's a cute argument, but entirely wrong. The argument goes awry by trying to ignore the medium altogether and simply judging the claim to the mainstream solely by reference to genre. A story that might be thoroughly mainstream if told as a novel or a TV show is immediately banished to the cultural wasteland when told as a comic. That's just the way it is. Even if you take the view that these comics would have mass appeal, if only the audience knew about them, that still doesn't make them mainstream in any meaningful sense. It just means they have breakthrough potential and might be mainstream at some indeterminate point in the future, which isn't the same thing at all."

Mark Evanier puts a current rumor doing the rounds to rest:

"In the last week, I've received a number of e-mails asking if I have any inside info on a rumor that the Comic-Con International is soon to relocate from its native San Diego. Yes, I have inside info. It ain't true... The convention is well-run and if it was forced to move, I'm sure they'd figure something out. But it may never come to that and it certainly won't in the foreseeable future. So ignore the rumors. The con is staying in the 619 area code for now. Even if that means some of us have to park in 714."

Warren Ellis's latest Bad Signal breaks* what seems like an interesting story:

"Here's a little bomblet: on the same weekend she got an Ignatz award for FINDER, Carla Speed McNeil announced that the print serial incarnation of FINDER will cease with #38. After that, FINDER chapters will appear exclusively on the web before being pushed to trade paperback. FINDER has long been infamous as the best comics series from America that no-one actually buys. I know that whenever I've pointed people to the free issues already available at http://www.lightspeedpress.com, Speed's sold trade paperbacks.

"With sales of the serial perennially in the low thousands, her profit margin must have been negligible at best. The money, as is so often true, is in the trades. Putting FINDER on the web won't earn her money on the singles, but, with bandwidth down to affordable costs now, it won't cost her as much as printing a few thousand copies of the singles, either. Theoretically, with FINDER now available to more people in its serialised form, the TPB sales should go up. Obviously, it's a hell of a gamble."

Ellis also mentions that he's hoping to follow up on this with Speed at The Engine at some point. Meanwhile, Bad Signal can, of course, be subscribed to here.

* - Okay, so apparently Heidi broke the story first**, which is what I get for not looking at The Beat (or Comics Reporter, for that matter) before I posted this. Sorry, Heidi.

** - And now Kevin Melrose is telling me that Jim Henley was actually first.

The Bendis Board isn't happy with the X-Men books:

"Aside from astonishing............. xbooks just make no sense to me, maybe i am looking for something deeper or maybe they are too deep but they dont have the feel of the xbooks of the late 80s early 90s, hell even the late 90s. Claremont's stuff has just been uninteresting, who cares about dinosaur people. The new storyline just doesnt make sense to me in this house of m world. Maybe i am looking for too much i dont know. Reading the latest issue of x-men, the crossover with black panther is alittle better but not by much, i love the art but is that hte only reason why i am buying this book? am i going to have to drop these two books i have had solid runs on for 15 years?? If someone who is pro xcomics could explain in better detail the significance and point out the good storytelling in Golgitha, foxxy, the savage land storyline, and the current house of m stuff i would appreciate it because i am at my witts end."

"I stopped buying everything except astonishing. If the sales drop, they will replace milligan and give claremont a new title to do his magic on."

"Yeah, I dropped all X-books that weren't Astonishing as well. I think they need another Reload or Relaunch or whatever to get the gears moving for the X books again. The problem with Claremont is that he over explains everything in his writing. I remember him saying that he wrote every issue as if it was someone's first issue. In practically every story, characters are introducing themselves and their powers, and in every single issue it just doesn't work."

"Reload was a good idea, in theory but it suffered because they didn't do anything too drastic. They kept Claremont and originally (shudder...) Austen, and they didn't bring anything different to the books. They just kept going with what they were already doing. Milligan seemed like a great idea, his X-Force/X-Statics stuff was out there and ground breaking but didn't translate into the actual super-hero genre. What needs to be done with the X-titles is they should get rid of Claremont and Milligan (No disrespect to them but Milligan just isn't working and Claremont should be put out to pasture, his writing is just not what makes for interesting comics anymore.), Turn Uncanny X-Men into Astonishing X-Men permanantly, and find somebody to do something new and fresh to the other X-Men title. I think the problem is that Marvel wants to utilize all these characters in X-Men, but really have no story to tell with them. I mean does Wolverine really have to be in all 3 X-titles (Not including New Avengers and his solo book)? I really think its time for the house of X to thin out the herd a bit. Get rid of characters like Gambit, Rogue, Iceman, Havok, and a bunch of others, I mean don't kill them, but get them out of the x-books and maybe bring them back when a writer has a story to tell with them."

"i've said it before and i'll say it again--the biggest problem with the x-books isn't with the writers--it's the editorial and corporate departments. too many times i've heard of creators trying to take the x-books in new directions, but that scares the suits upstairs and then editorial hands down mandates that hamper any sort of major change for the line. i thought morrison's run was refreshing, as it seemed to be mostly free of that crap. but now, it looks like it's back to the days of no risk taking."

Cartoon Network - helping manga take over the world, apparently:

"Viz's Naruto manga dominated the BookScan report for the week ending September 18th. Just eight days after the premier of the Naruto anime on the Cartoon Network all seven volumes of the Naruto manga were in the top 20 with four titles in the top 10. What's the evidence that exposure on the Cartoon Network created new fans for the series? The first volume of the Naruto series came in second selling more copies than the most recent Naruto release (Vol. 7)... Manga was more dominant than ever on this bookstore graphic novel sales report taking 48 out of the top 50 spots. The highest-ranking non-manga title on the list was Marvel's Ultimates 2 Vol. 1, which came in at number 33. The only other non-manga title in the top 50 was Frank Miller's Sin City Vol. 1 at number 43."

Gail Simone, y'big tease:

"Okay, all I can say is, after the One Year Later jump, ALL BETS ARE OFF. Some REALLY fun and new stuff is coming up...I can't wait for you guys to see. But, and let's say this is purely speculative-- if there were to be a new Bop team, completely new, no returning members-- Who would you like to see in the group?"

If there is an all-new Birds of Prey post-Crisis, I'd like a Gail-written Black Canary ongoing, please.

Following the split from Alias, Runemaster's Lions, Tigers and Bears resurfaces at its original publisher. Mike Bullock rubs it in:

"There really is no way around it, Lions, Tigers and Bears was always destined to be an Image book... Jack and I are just thrilled that we’ve been given the chance to keep it that way."

Jack Lawrence, series artist, offers another hint of why Image may be better than Alias:

"Professionalism, honesty, and bloody good books. That's all you need, isn't it? And Image has all that in spades."

Simon Gane discusses his and Andi Watson's new series, Paris:

"It's a love story set in 1950's Paris (later in the series, England and New York)... Juliet, a down to earth American art student meets Deborah, an upper class English girl, and they have more in common than they at first realize. They're both restricted by the roles society and family have mapped out for them, and their paths towards freedom echo the changes in art, technology, personal and political views of the time. The supporting cast is strong and often funny. There's nerdy Gerard, Juliet's bitter and infatuated friend, Paulette, the scantily-clad and animated beatnik to name but two, all given their unique voices thanks to Andi's truly strong dialogue. At face value it's a fun book, partly inspired by old movies of the era, and intentionally with that same mix of drama, humor and glamor, but there are all sorts of twists and turns as the story unfolds. The genesis is that when Andi asked me what I'd enjoy drawing, this is what I suggested, heaven help me."

Chris Crisis/Boring Change talks to Matt Fraction about the Pixies:

"The Pixies don't remind me of being in 9th grade or of anything else. There are no... it's not like listening to the past. There's no 'remember when' for me like with, well, like with Nirvana, who irrevocably and inescapably summon up the early 90s for me, every time I hear them."

For those of you who still need to hear the Pixies, there's also a contest to win Matt Fraction's very own Pixies mixtape. Go. Enter.

In a series of short columns at ICv2, retailers (and an English lecturer) discuss the content of superhero books:

"Why should a burgeoning, vital, and originally innovative art form (like comics and / or graphic novels) have to cater to the 'lowest common denominator' mentality of 'simplicity over substance?' At what point does such a stance prove self-defeating? ...Human beings (and in many cases, heroes) do face dilemmas that don't have a resolution. This doesn't make our dealing with such situations any less relevant or meaningful. Resolution isn't always a necessary component of stories, is it? Why must all forms of popular art require tidy formulas and inert generalities? Why keep comics in such a limited province, when we could have it in the public sphere outside the local multiplexes--in schools, in libraries, in out of the way places? ...If the books don't appeal to a portion of the comics market, specifically because they are 'too dark,' is that not the fault of an un-educated mass of people who don't read well or can't get beyond their own prejudices? Optimism is fine (and necessary), but at what cost do we prostitute ourselves, the comics as a medium of literature and art, and our capacity as reasoned creatures in order to revert to an unnecessary, forced, perhaps dying model of simplicity and fun?"

"That a market exists for comics that are negative, depressing, and tend to another kind of lowest common denominator can't be denied. It's a small market, though, one that is defined almost in its entirety by themes based on violent death... We are left with a slick but too often empty product, one that impresses too few, and one that operates under another kind of immaturity that, ironically, renders the old kids' comics genuinely mature when contrasted with what passes for 'mature' today."

"At the end of the day... retailers who feel the public is truly being ill-served by the current crop of comics reflective of the real-world socio-political landscape have a number of options open to them: stop selling those comics they object to... create some comics that fill the need they see going unfilled, or put their money where their mouth is and fund a company to publish some comics by talented, popular creators of the kind they insist 'the public wants.' Given the fate of the last company to bet the bank on such books, Dreamwave, I urge caution. But if they do act on their convictions, I'll be right there to order those books and let the market prove me wrong."

"Here's the bottom line: We limit the untapped potential of super-hero comic book sales when dark and depressing become the dominant flavors in current titles. Sure, there's definitely room for darker content, but it becomes nothing more than style over substance if there isn't some representation of the more noble ideals of altruism and heroism. I believe it's important to show there really is a difference between right vs. wrong and good vs. evil."

Should superhero characters age? Erik Larsen considers:

"If you just want the characters to start aging now for you-- don't you think that you're being just a little selfish? You're denying the next generation of readers what you have-- young, vital, iconic superheroes. Why would you do that to your son or daughter or grandkids? Do you want them reading crappy comics? There is something nice about keeping iconic characters as icons. Peter Parker as a young man with problems is the icon-not Peter Parker the troubled grandfather of sixteen... When you start noticing the seams, maybe it's time to move on to something else. Or, perhaps, you can learn to accept the reality that these books aren't reality, get over it, and enjoy the books for what they are."

With three weeks to go until Infinite Crisis - which hopefully will ship on time, now that DC are doing weekly countdowns - the Geoff Johns board tries to work out just what Infinite Crisis is:

"And why do I get the feeling we still have no idea what IC is really about yet? All the clues, hints, distractions over the summer...what are they paving the way for?"

"ooh, you know, you're right. and isn't it nice not to know exactly what's going on? I hope they manage to keep things under wraps a bit - no giving IC #1 to stores the week before, as happened with Identiy Crisis. I also suspect (though could be wrong) that many of the recent solicits are witholding key pieces of info. This month's batch seemed surprisingly light on Crisis related stuff - and as someone pointed out there's not even a mention of Power Girl despite her being cover featured last month. hmm, curiouser and curiouser!"

"Infinite Crisis is about the return of the concept of 'multiverse' to the DC universe. We've seen snippets of it leak through the cracks, like in the Degaton plotline in JSA, the Crime Syndicate in JLA, and pretty much anything Superman / Batman. Now we're coming to that particular plot apex. Thing is, we'll have to see what becomes of it. I doubt it'll be the big ridiculous event of Crisis on Infinite Earths, where if you didn't follow all instances of a character you were quite confused when it hit. I suspect it'll be a transition comic as well as an event, to introduce the multiverse concept and give some examples of what that means, such as very different versions of our familiar characters. That is, at least, the narrative background. Thematically, Infinite Crisis seems to be about the fundamentals; what it takes to be a hero in an age of metahumans and wanton disregard for life and livelihood."

"Actually, I think this week's Green Lantern Corp: Recharge supplied the biggest clue..... When Kilowog mentioned that the Guardians had said the universe was about to change."

"Basically I see Infinite crisis as a springboard to a new DC. Same heroes, but different people under the mask and all. Basically there is too much back story on alot of characters to make them viable to the general public, and with the movie thing so big these days that's really where the money is, so the companies are going to try and get there. Basically we'll see a new Blue beetle, probably a new Aquaman or Wonder Woman, maybe even a new Captain Marvel (Freddy). Also alot of the B-listers are probably gonna die to clear room for new characters. Just my theory at least..."

"If the Crisis is really infinite, hasn't it already begun? Near as I can tell, reality has been rebooted six times this week."

Neil Gaiman talks about Mirrormask and geekdom at Newsarama:

"Loving comics in England just meant that you were really weird; it didn't mean that you were the comic store guy. Here were these comics coming in from England like disease germs and fighting people who were susceptible. We were those people who were susceptible to that but we also loved theater and books and novels and avant-garde poetry and weird stuff so it didn't seem like something else in the mix in a cultural thing. Suddenly coming out to America and meeting people that were involved in comics I realized they were involved in comics because they had never done or seen anything else and so it never occurred to them to do anything else."

Tom Spurgeon announces the third AdHouse Project anthology:

"AdHouse Books will announce at today's Small Press Expo the third of its well-regarded anthologies. Project: Romantic will join Project: Telstar and Project: Superior upon its debut in the Summer of 2006."

The line-up of creators involved includes Hope Larson, Chip Kidd and Josh Cotter, to name some of my favorites, and it's a romance anthology. I'm very sold. Go see the beautiful cover on Tom's site.

Alias's Mike Miller responds to the Runemaster Press Release announcing breach of contract:

"We at Alias are saddened to see this happen. Our relationship with Runemaster was positive overall, and we regret losing them as a client and a partner. The simple fact of the matter is that both series took a major loss. Gimoles sales were so low that we had no choice but to cancel funding on the project. We gave Runemaster the option of finishing out the series without advanced funding, and were awaiting their response when we read this PR on Newsarama.

"There was no material breach of contract.

"Obviously we hope for the best for Runemaster and its partners, and good luck to whatever publisher decided to pick them up."

Talking about his House of M follow-up, Generation M, Paul Jenkins makes an interesting comment:

"As I’m looking at it, about 4% of the world’s population has mutant abilities, or at least latent mutancy, so we’ve got a lot of characters to play with and explore."

Either (a) Jenkins doesn't know about the rumored "shocking conclusion" of House of M, (b) Jenkins knows but makes this comment as disinformation, or (c) that rumored "shocking conclusion" isn't true...

When indies tiff:

"Runemaster Studios, Inc. has announced that it is severing ties with Alias Enterprises, effective immediately. Runemaster's partnership with Alias produced the sold-out mini-series Lions, Tigers and Bears, published through Image comics, as well as the debut issue of The Gimoles. The trade paperback collection of Lions, Tigers and Bears, also produced in partnership with Alias, sold out of its initial printing... According to Bullock, Runemaster is terminating the licensing agreements for Lions, Tigers and Bears and The Gimoles for cause, due to material breaches committed by Alias. 'It's unfortunate the situation has come to this,' Bullock said. 'We’ve exhausted every avenue of reconciling our differences with Alias and securing what is owed to us. This is a last resort, but we've been left with no other option.'"

(Thanks, Kevin.)

Damn Diamond and their policies, says the Bendis Board:

"Looks like Diamond still won't carry School: A Ghost Story [...] That makes number 2 in the 'Diamond Comics Distribution rejection letter' pile. Same reasons, too - bad art and all that jazz. Anybody wanna make bets on how many rejections it will take before Diamond finally starts carrying this book? My money's on #6. Hopefully by that time, they'll have new brand managers who don't hate the art as much."

"1) Isn't art subjective? 2) I know Marvel (and maybe DC) have had some pretty crappy artists on some of their major titles - why didn't they reject them? You may have a case here . . ."

"Jesus, I've seen some piss-poor art in Previews. They must use the dartboard method of selection."

"They're dumb. Pure and simple. Diamond seems like they're run by irate stupid poo-throwing monkeys have the time."

"thats fuckin bs man........ive seen your art and its certainly isnt bad just different.....fuck diamond up their stupid asses! but dont let this get you down....keep on keepin on"

"If you tell them you're just the artist, and the story was by Neil Gaiman, they'll change their tune. They are the ones who are the ball lickers!"

For those who want to judge the art for themselves, there's a preview of the book here...

Chris Ware... the victim of self-censorship? The Comics Journal message board investigates!:

"On page 68 of THE ANNUAL REPORT TO SHAREHOLDERS, where many of the ads from ACME NOVELTY LIBRARY # 10 are reprinted, there's a little fake ad for 'The Plate Lifter,' which shows a cartoon of a man using a wire device to make a plate jump in front of a woman. The woman says, 'Oh my, it's alive!' and the man replies 'Hey baby, never mind that...how about you and me...y'know?' I don't have ACME #10 in front of me--and never will again, since I loaned it to a fair-weather friend--but I remember the wording of the man's reply very differently. In the version of 'The Plate Lifter' in ACME #10, the man says something like, 'Never mind that baby...how about you suck my dick?' So I wonder: why the change? It's not censorship--much of the rest of the SHAREHOLDERS book is considerably rawer than 'suck my dick.' The ad for 'Comic Celluloid Buttons' reprinted from ACME #10, for instance, still includes rib-ticklers like 'My father raped me' and 'My father used to tell me I was a worthless piece of shit.' My theory is that Ware perhaps did TWO versions of the 'Plate Lifter' ad, one for ACME #10 and one slightly-cleaned up version for publication elsewhere (does Ware's comic for NEW CITY run his fake ads?). Maybe it's this cleaned-up version that made it into SHAREHOLDERS for some reason. Now that I've taken my obsession with Ware's comics to a frightening new high, I'll shut up."

"I just noticed the 'suck my dick' change today. Also, there is a change in one of the Rusty Brown strips-- he no longer wonders how long it takes to actually 'fuck' someone, instead substituting the word 'lay.'
The book is great, but these cleaned-up versions aren't as funny to me. It makes sense that he would have 'clean' versions perhaps for the weekly, if that's the reason, but I'm surprised that the pamphlet versions aren't considered the definitive text compared to the weekly strip. Of course, I still have my original ACMEs and I'll never get rid of them. I'm glad that all this material is available to people now that those issues are out of print, and I like having all this new material in such a gorgeous hardcover format. But I don't like seeing those altered versions, they definitely aren't an improvement for me-- the shocking vulgarity of the 'Plate Lifter' ad was so unexpected when I first read it, I still remember laughing out loud at it. I don't know that I would have laughed at the cleaned-up version....."

"Yah, I checked... It says suck my dick, which is so much more funnier."

Top Cow reaches out:

"Top Cow, the #1 comic book publisher in sales per title over the last 13 years, will exclusively offer free comics books online through a new deal with America Online's RED service for teens. AOL RED members will be able to view the full 22 page issue of Witchblade #1 and starting every Wednesday, Top Cow will release a new comic exclusively online... After running several issues of Witchblade, Top Cow will introduce other tittles such as The Darkness (which has a film deal at Dimension and a video game developed by Starbreeze, published by Majesco and due out in mid 2006), The Magdalena, Aphrodite IX, Wanted, and Proximity Effect, to new a few."

Today's good news comes from a quote from Mark Waid:

"The good new is, and I guarantee you this, when we’re on the other side of the CRISIS, those days [of dark super-heroes] are GONE. Just gone. We’re sick to death of heroes who are not heroes, we’re sick to death of darkness. Not that there’s no room, not that Batman should act like Adam West, but that won’t be the overall feeling. After all this stuff, after everything shakes down, we’re done with heroes being dicks. No more we screwed each other and now we must pay the consequences. No, we’re super-heroes and that’s what we do. Batman’s broken. Through no ONE person’s fault, but he’s a dick now. And we’ve been told we can fix that."

Newsarama have leaked (possibly incomplete - They seem short to me, for some reason) Marvel solicits for December. Of note:

* Pascal Ferry gets started on his Marvel duties in earnest, doing the art for Ultimate X-Men/Ultimate Fantastic Four (a new miniseries written by Mike Carey) and Young Avengers Special #1. Yes, that's right; Young Avengers gets a special issue, with art by Ferry, Gene Ha, Jae Lee, Michael Gaydos, Bill Sienkiewicz and Neal Adams. Bet you didn't see that coming.

* Also surprising: Dwayne McDuffie writes a Fantastic Four special ("It’s a day of celebration and reflection in Latveria, but deep within the confines of the Latverian Embassy to America, Victor Von Doom and Reed Richards engage in a subtle battle of wits, with all of Manhattan as the playing field. What are the stakes? And can Mister Fantastic triumph when all of the moves have been made in advance?") and Andy Diggle writes a Punisher Holiday one shot.

* From the solicit for Spider-Man/Black Cat #4: "The wait is over! Finally! No, really."

* Marvel Spotlight relaunches, but it's not what you might expect: "Welcome to the All-New, All-Different MARVEL SPOTLIGHT, showcasing that other great commodity of Marvel Comics: its creators! SPOTLIGHT will bring loyal readers closer to Marvel’s top talents, starting this month with the Eisner Award-winning pair of writer Sean McKeever (GRAVITY, SENTINEL) and artist John Cassaday (ASTONISHING X-MEN). Marvel junkies can expect in-depth extras and timely features – including sketches, character designs and script materials! Probing interviews and engaging commentary! An all-out exploration of what makes these creative types tick – everything you ever wanted to know, and a lot of stuff you didn’t know you wanted to know! NO ads, NO reprints!"

* Not a rumor! Not a bad idea! Okay, it might be! But Marvel Zombies turns out to be a real book: "Torn from the pages of Ultimate Fantastic Four! On an Earth shockingly similar to the Marvel Universe’s, an alien virus has mutated all of the world’s greatest super heroes into flesh-eating monsters! It took them only hours to destroy life as we know it—but what happens when they run out of humans to eat?!? Follow their search for more food—and witness the arrival of the Silver Surfer!"

* Whoever writes the solicits for Amazing Fantasy needs to learn to spell "poll": "The fans have spoken in Marvel’s second online pole for which character will get revamped in AMFAN. Friends and foes alike, may we introduce to you Death’s Head 3.0!"

* Dan Slott's GLA returns for the holidays: "Marvel’s own Milwaukee-based Misfits are back—in their very own, double sized X-mas special! Sure, they survived the GLA mini-series, but can Squirrel Girl, Mr. Immortal, and pals survive... the HOLIDAYS?!? 6 all-new features of mockery, morbidity, and merriment-- including the return of Grasshopper, Deathurge... and the Yuletide tyranny of Dr. Tannenbaum?!"

* There's another What If "event", but for some reason, I can't even get vaguely excited about it...

Joe Quesada gets his day in the sun:

"Reed Exhibitions has announced that Joe Quesada, Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Comics will be a New York Comic-Con Guest of Honor, and will lead an all-star contingent of Marvel creators who will all be present at the inaugural New York Comic-Con, which will be held at the Jacob K. Javits Center from February 24th to February 26th, 2006. The show will be open to the trade only on February 24th and to the general public on February 25th and 26th."

Somewhere, Wizard is pissed.

Jesse Baker explains why the Byrne Wikipedia rampage last week:

"As a regular Wikipedia contributor (both anonymously and via my log in ID), I was pissed as fuck that Byrne was trying to bully the site to remove what was essentially the truth about the motherfucker from it's entry on John Byrne. So I did what anyone in my position (and reputation) would have done: channel the animal spirit of Daffy Duck, told myself 'I Am Fucking Baker_Baker. I am Fucking Baker_Baker! I am fucking Baker_Baker!!!!!', go on the offensive, and then watch the fall-out ensue as Byrne and his message board syncophants run around reacting to my strategic strike and further dig their own hole towards proving what a piece of shit they are."

To clarify: Jesse is, apparently, "fucking Baker_Baker". But he is Baker_Baker. Insert your own masturbation joke in here, dear reader.

House of M - Political allegory? You may be surprised (or you may not), but Augie? You might want to look away:

"The whole 'War on Sapien Terror', the unethical way Magneto seized power, and the loss of privacy at the hands of the Sentinals all look to be a play on current politics in America. So, if politics are very similar between the Marvel Universe and reality then there must inevitably be a comparison between the leaders of both worlds: Magneto and our current president, George W. Bush. There are some great similarities between the two, but also some incredible differences... Allow me to demonstrate:

"Similarities: 1.) Both Bush and Magneto seized power unethically by distorting reality (Bush with his PR firms, Magneto with the Scarlet Witch) [...] 2.) Both Bush and Magneto believe in violating an individual's right to privacy for the 'greater good' (In fact, I think the Pentagon is working on that Sentinel technology as we speak...) 3.) Both Bush and Magneto are waging a 'War on Terrorism' (Bush is fighting it against Islamic extremists and countries that have vast oil fields, while Magneto wages war upon the entire human race)

"Differences: 1.) Magneto is well read, competent, and has a clear vision for the future that does not involve the almighty dollar. Bush is the exact opposite. 2.) Magneto can bend steel with his mind. Bush can't even handle the simple task of eating a pretzel. 3.) Magneto wants to create a world to serve the mutant 'master race'. Bush wants to create a world that largely serves the class interest of the rich. Wait, you could chalk this one up as a similarity... Ah whatever, there's a difference.

"Now, please feel free to comment on any perceived similarities or differences you see between Bush and Magneto, or any other parallels you see between current world politics and the House of M or any of the tie-ins (I'll give you a nerd-erific example: One could compare the Hulk's takeover of Australia and refusal to fight the 'War on Sapien Terrorism' to the socialists taking over Spain and withdrawing their troops from Iraq...Or the 'Fearsome Four's' Dr. Doom getting bitch slapped by Magneto might be compared to John McCain getting bitch-slapped by Bush's push polling in 2000, to which McCain is now a broken man currently carrying water for the administration)."

"Spider-Man: House of M is obviously a metaphor for homosexuality in Hollywood. I mean, look at that Green Goblin costume. It's FABULOUS!"

"Anyone read the first story arc in Ultimate X-Men where Magneto drags a naked George Bush out on the front lawn of the White House and makes him beg for mercy? Now THAT was quality storytelling."

(Thanks, Ian.)

My lack of law interest returns to haunt me, apparently:

"In late August, there was an interesting new ruling in the [Marvel vs.] City of Heroes lawsuit, with another good win for NCSoft. NCSoft, the game operator, sued Marvel under 17 USC 512(f) for sending bogus takedown notices... NCSoft alleged the following facts: * Marvel sent takedown notices on characters that Marvel itself created or that had already been removed [...] * Marvel knowingly sent notices to have NCSoft remove identically-named characters across multiple servers, even though some of those characters were legitimate [...] * the consequences were material because NCSoft added terms to its block list and deleted innocent players' characters [...] * these caused damages of lost goodwill, lost subscriptions and investigation expenses. These facts were enough to survive a motion to dismiss. We'll see if the plaintiff can prove the requisite facts, but this ruling is a pretty significant development. Many of us have hoped for stronger consequences to inhibit copyright owners from sending poorly-conceived takedown notices, and this ruling gives extra teeth to the 512(f) cause of action... NCSoft has also gone on the offensive by claiming that Marvel infringed its trademark in 'City of Heroes' based on Marvel's use of the term 'City of Heroes' in some promotional copy on some comic books. The trademark claims survived a motion to dismiss. I'm a little worried about how far NCSoft is trying to stretch its trademark against a slogan use by Marvel, but I support the aggressive response by NCSoft generally. Marvel is quickly learning that there are potential unexpected costs of enforcing its IP rights, and those include counterclaims."

A day late, a dollar short, but for those who haven't seen them, DC's December solicits. As usual, of interest:

* All Star Batman and Robin The Boy Wonder gets what Marvel would call a Director's Cut. DC just call it a Special Edition: "Don't miss an incomparable new version of the best-selling premiere issue of ALL STAR BATMAN AND ROBIN, THE BOY WONDER, sporting a stunning new cover by comics legend Frank Miller! This 48-page Special offers a peek into the creative process, featuring Jim Lee's stunning original pencil art (with lettering) for the entire first issue. As a bonus, Miller's script for this landmark collaboration is also included!"

* My Silver Age "jones" gets "fixed" with Crisis On Multiple Earths: The Team-Ups and Showcase Presents Justice League of America. Another interesting collection is The Best of The Spirit, collecting 22 Will Eisner stories with an introduction by Neil Gaiman.

* Talking of Gaiman, he contributes a Deadman story for Teddy Kristansen's issue of Solo. Yes, Teddy Kristansen. It's as if DC are now targeting the people I'd love to see more work from but would never have expected a Solo issue from.

* Those of you who, like me, wanted Jim Corrigan's name in Gotham Central to be an injoke instead of a plot point can get disappointed by the latest solicit for the title: "Corrupt cop Jim Corrigan has crossed the line for the final time, and Allen and Montoya are going to bring him down. But is there any connection between Corrigan and the man who shared his name; the man once known as... the Spectre?"

* Rann/Thanagar War and Villains United get rush-trades to capitalize on Infinite Crisis. My bet for Mockingbird's identity, by the way? Vandal Savage. And I thought that before I saw this.

* The Bulleteer goes in a direction I didn't expect, for some reason: "Who killed the Seven Soldiers? More shattering secrets of the Seven Soldiers are revealed in this special issue which unfolds directly from events in the best-selling SEVEN SOLDIERS #0! Together with a dying FBI agent, the Bulleteer investigates the disappearance of six bargain-basement Super Heroes, uncovering mysteries dating back decades... and beyond. Alix Harrower finds herself drawn deeper into a world she wants no part of as her journey into the dark underbelly of the hero dream brings her face-to-face with her first super-villain! Plus, from the grave — the return of the Vigilante!"

* Hard Time returns, free from the Focus imprint and with some quote action (from Wizard, People magazine and Entertainment Weekly): "One of the most acclaimed new series of 2004 returns! Sentenced to 50 years to life for his role in a high school prank gone tragically wrong, Ethan Harrow has just turned 16 in a maximum-security prison. He's made fast friends, earned mortal enemies, and even gotten his first kiss from a mysterious girl named Red. Above all else, Ethan's only just started to learn the boundaries of superpowers he didn't know he had!"

* Hands up everyone who thought Tom Strong had already finished! Well, we're all wrong: "It's 'Tom Strong at the End of the World' as Alan Moore and Chris Sprouse reunite for one final, breathtaking story! The events of the last several issues of PROMETHEA are recalled as our hero — and special guest stars Jack B. Quick, Greyshirt, Splash Brannigan, The Cobweb, Jonni Future, and many others — discover what happens when the world comes to an end. But that's all small potatoes compared to the really big news revealed within these pages!"

At Baltimore, Marvel announced some of their 2006 projects. Of interest, something called 1985 - "One of Mark Millar’s upcoming projects is entitled 1985, which will combine photography, art, and digital art. Reportedly, the story follows a kid through the year 1985 in the Marvel Universe" - and the previously announced Omega The Unknown. Nice to see the Kirby worship continues, with a hardcover collection of The Eternals, too.

Joe Casey and Matt Fraction, gentlemen both, discuss The Engine and the ghost of the WEF:

"WEF was this party that got so huge, so massive, and so crazed that it passed into local legend, right? Every high school or college had one, that one legendary bash that all others were measured up to, right? After a while the good and the bad and the truth of it all gets washed away and watered down and rewritten. Suddenly you've got people that weren't there telling ninth generation stories about The Day Warren Called So-and-So a Cocksucker and Banned 780 People-- shit that never happened, even remotely, passes into truth. So... WEF was some kind of massive blowout, impossible to replicate, and, even if you could, who on Earth would want to? The Engine seems smaller, more intimate. Even with the 2000 some registered members, it's more focused on the medium itself and... well, if WEF was the house party to end all house parties, right now it seems like The Engine's more of a conversational dinner party. Something more about the talk than the spectacle, more lounge than riot, you know?"

Comics - They're popular, says ICv2:

"Dollar sales of comics and graphic novels in comic shops in August were up a healthy 18% over sales in the same month a year ago -- aided perhaps by the fact that August had five comic on-sale days (Wednesdays), though based on Diamond's invoicing procedures the effect of the extra week is difficult to weigh and a definitive answer on sales for this period may have to wait until next month when the numbers for the entire third quarter are available. With that caveat in mind, August figures look good--comic book sales ballooned by a substantial 16%, while graphic novels increased their dollar total by 26%."

DC offers different terms of sale for 52*:

"Acknowledging that the trail they’re on was blazed by Marvel, DC will experiment with a 'last minute' order adjustment system similar to Marvel’s FOC date, it was announced by DC’s Bob Wayne at yesterday’s Diamond Retailer Summit in Baltimore. Marvel, Newsarama readers will recall, changed their ordering system from a monthly based system to one that has weekly Final Order Cutoffs in early 2003. Under Marvel’s system, retailers can increase or decrease their orders for books up until the Thursday, three weeks before eth respective book hits the shelf. According to Wayne, in speaking to retailers, the title that will be order adjustable (paraphrasing) up until the last minute is one that makes eminent sense for the publisher to try the system out on – next year’s 52*, the weekly series filling in the gap between the end of Infinite Crisis and the beginning of the 'One Year Later' startpoint of all the DC Universe titles post Crisis."

Christ, you spend a day in bed sick and all this news happens. What's that all about? It was a Monday, for God's sake.

Anyway, Diamond finally commented about their change in policy:

"We have been evaluating threshold points for sometime internally here, weighing the dollars and units sold on items below the benchmark at different levels. The benchmark has always existed as a target goal for each new solicitation and has only increased $500 in the last decade to the current $1500 level. We have always quoted the goal of making the minimum benchmark as our target when selecting items to be listed in Previews. There is the assumption that the potential to reach that goal exists before we run it in the catalog. The threshold is just measuring what items are currently under 40% of the target benchmark as a place to begin evaluating the situation... At the end of the day, we’re hoping that by analyzing the trends with our lowest performing comics that we can cut back on some of the products that are not finding a niche in an effort to strengthen the catalog, retailers, and the overall market. Diamond benefits from a strong and healthy marketplace where retailers continue to order the full line of comics with confidence that they will sell if put on their shelves next to their premiere selections. There are a lot of really great items listed in the Comics Section that have yet to find major audiences and we hope this will be a factor in helping them to develop."

Offered without comment, from Baltimore Comicon:



Thanks, Mystery Correspondent.

Warren Ellis links to a sample of Alan Moore script. The Engine trembles:

"Moore is insane."

"I was laughing myself silly after clicking 'down' twice and it was STILL on Panel 1. 'Killing Joke', indeed. Jokes aside, I love the fact that Moore thinks of the presentation as a whole. He doesn't throw any shit in there unless it absolutely works perfectly and uniquely wherever it is. Like the opening suggesting that the end papers of the GN have a purpose in framing the story.And he talks out everything on the front receptionist's desk, right down to the Graham Greene novel she's reading, 'The Comedians'. Who would think of that, in a story about the Joker, except Moore?"

"...Dave Gibbons had a great perspective on the minute detail when he spoke at the Alan Moore panels. Something like 'You don't have to draw the 'transient crystalline icicles on his freezing breath' just because Alan writes that in a script'."

Gibbons himself pops in:

"I did indeed go through Alan's WATCHMEN scripts and highlight what was necessary to draw each panel. Yellow for shot, red for details, blue for lettering, as I recall. Which is not to say I 'ignored' the rest, I just didn't want to have to wade through it when I was actually drawing. I was usually working from a carbon copy, bashed out on one of Alan's ravaged typewriters, typed right up to the edge of the page, so I needed all the focus I could get..."

Chris Ware gets a regular gig in the NYT:

"In introducing the new feature the editors of the Times Magazine invoked the popular American Weekly Sunday supplement created for the Hearst papers in 1896, which featured full color comic strips such as R.F. Outcault's The Yellow Kid, a sensation in its day and a landmark in the development of sequential popular art in the U.S. Ironically in the 1890s and throughout the twentieth century the stately New York Times eschewed running the highly popular comic strips that were characteristic of its more sensationalist newspaper competitors (Outcault's Yellow Kid was the source for the phrase 'yellow journalism' after all). Now 100 years later the Times is easing up a bit on its comic strip ban and including a regularly reoccurring comic-though no one will confuse Chris Ware's Building Stories, which the Times characterizes as 'an architectural comic,' with Get Fuzzy or Funky Winkerbean."

In a surprising coincidence, however, both Funky Winkerbean and Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Boy On Earth featured guest art by John Byrne while the regular artist recovered from surgery.

Keith Giffen talks 52*:

"[The other writers involved are] the top talents in comics at the top of their game. And I'll tell you... there is nothing quite like sitting in a room with that kind of talent and that kind of creative force, just watching their free exchange of ideas, when everyone puts aside their egos and starts getting genuinely creative, without any thought given to 'will I be able to follow this through? Is this something that I will be doing?' It was just a genuine contributing of everyone into a common pot. I've never been in a circumstance like that before. I've never seen a group like that contribute so selflessly to any project. I am inordinately impressed with this group. I'm actually very confident in the project. I'm very confident in each one of the participants being able to pull this off."

Meanwhile, for those keeping up with the Infinite Crisis news, Marv Wolfman is getting involved, now.

An interesting rumor at Scream If You Want It:

"Frank Miller has three films in development, and Neal Adams may have one of New York City’s hottest studios, but neither of these cats can shake their comics jones. Strong rumor has it they are the new dynamic duo on a secret Batman mini-series/graphic novel that DC is about to announce. The way we heard it, it’s Adams’ pencils, Miller’s dialogue, and potential inkers are lining up at the door. Will this be a huge money-maker or what?"

Meanwhile, All The Rage reports on the next big Marvel project (allegedly):

"It seems that there will be a new five issue miniseries spinning out of Mark Millar and Greg Land’s current Ultimate Fantastic Four story arc. As readers of that title already know, it deals with Ultimate Reed Richards journeying to an alternate Earth overrun by zombie versions of Marvel’s superheroes. The way I hear it, the new miniseries is called Marvel Zombies and takes place entirely on Earth 615, Earth Z, the Zombie world… whatever they’re gonna call it. Someone will probably come up with a new name for that world. As for the creative team, the mini is being written by none other than Robert Kirkman, who’s had a lot of zombie experience on his creator owned title, The Walking Dead. Sean Phillips (Sleeper) is said to be the artist attached to this project. The early word is that the Marvel Zombies miniseries will be out in December. If so, I think we can expect an official announcement sometime soon..."

Alex Ross and Jim Kreuger's Justice was the #1 book of last month.

Yeah, I was surprised, as well. Supergirl launched within the top ten, too. It's a world gone mad.

DC announce their retailers affected by Katrina relief package. Three different categories, release from due payments, free books, co-op dollars and more.

John Byrne doesn't like Wikipedia:

"Does anyone know how to contact whatever Powers may Be at this online 'encyclopedia'? For a couple of days now, between other, more important concerns, I have been trying to delete from the entry about me all the nonsense that goes beyond encyclopdic reference and enters the realms of opinion, rumor and borderline libel, and the result is that the page has been 'locked' against my editing, on that grounds that my attempts to delete lies and troll-fodder constitute 'vandalism'. To add insult to injury, I have even been sent a little 'message' from someone calling herself{?) DragonflySixtyseven, telling me I should not be trying to delete 'actual fact'! 'Actual fact' is what I am trying to get the 'entry' to actually contain! I have made several attempts to find my way thru the labyrinthian coils of the administrative section of Wikipedia, but to no result. (And how about that ability they have to send the users 'messages' to which the users cannot directly respond? Makes AOL seem like a bastion of sanity and decorum!)"

The Byrne board declares war:

"My line of thinking is that Wikipedia seems to treat gossip, whether it is true or not, as fact. so why not manipulate that to JB's benefit? Why not create gossip that JB finds enjoyable or at least amusing? And by Wikipedia's criteria that is fact, and therefore relevant... Think of it as "good gossip". The gossip they seem to post is only negative to JB. Why not post flattering gossip as well, to at least illustrate how silly it is to post any of it?"

A Wikipedian appears, to try and explain what's going on:

"I was the Wikipedia administrator who temporarily locked the article to prevent anyone - not just you - from editing it. Removing 95% of the article, including such harmless items as pictures of your comic book covers, a bibliography, categories, and links to places like this forum, was vandalism. At no time did you tell anyone what you were doing by mentioning it on the article's talk page or in the edit summary and neither did you respond to the messages left for you on Wikipedia by a number of different editors. Look at it from our perspective: what were we supposed to think about what was happening? You and posters here may think little of our project, and that's fine. There are certainly a number of valid criticisms that can be leveled at us. While certain articles on popular entertainment may be cluttered with fan rumors and the like, I'd say most of the editors on Wikipedia are committed to making the encyclopedia as fair and accurate as possible.

"If you want, you can go to the top and talk to Mr. Wales (or Jimbo, as we affectionately call him) and deal with it that way. I believe Harlan Ellison did much the same thing, and I don't think anything really came of it. Or you and the posters here can tell us what specific problems the article has and we can work together to correct them so that everyone benefits."

And then... disaster strikes. Todd Hembrough notices first:

"So here is what is up now. I hope this is someones idea of a joke... 'A controversial writer/artist known for his use of the 'N-Word' and hatred for blonde latino women, Christopher Reeves (who Byrne believes should not be considered a 'hero' for the way he dealt with his crippling injuries substained in a horse riding accident) and anatomically correct robots, Byrne is imfamous for his hatred for anything not done by him. Many fans blame his widely beloved Superman reboot for starting this, as John Byrne took on a jihad in the wake of the reboot's success to 'fix' all comic books and comic franchises that didn't need fixing, leaving a trail of damaged characters, who thanks to Byrne's pointless meddling, have been rendered so utterly defiled so as to prevent any further writers from using them'"

(There's actually much more there, including "In the world of John Byrne, only he knows what good comic books and has his own message board (Byrne Robotics) where he holds court and has a gaggle of twelve drooling fanboys syncophanticly worshipping him and buying into Byrne's hatespeach. Those who call Byrne out on his evil often are banned and any sort of non-company line discussion is promptly deleted into the void." and wonderful descriptions of what Byrne has supposedly done to characters.)

"The whole article now reeks of conjecture and opinions and is just plain mean-spirited. Up till now, I could see where disavowing Wikipedia based on his entry to be a little over the top. Now, after seeing this vindictive attitude displayed by them, I no longer have any respect for that site at all."

"It is one 'editor' code named JesseBaker inserting the crap."

Wikipedia editor! Go!:

"The Jesse Baker problem is easily solved. His contributions are easily reverted. If he reverts the removal of this material more than three times in 24 hours he can be immediately hit with a temporary block by any administrator. If he keeps up general trollish behavior, I can block him permanently, though I must show that I attempted to reason with him for a reasonable amount of time before I do something like this. The system is not perfect, but in general Wikipedians believe that we can put up with a little fuss to preserve the open nature of the project. Personally, I'd prefer a little less talk and a little more troll smiting, but I have to work with the system we've got."

Byrne board! Discuss the workings of Wikipedia!:

"From personal experience if I had to correct something like 'known for his use of the "N-Word" and hatred for blonde latino women' Wiki would overrule my deletion of the sentence. I would have settle for something inane like 'Byrne has used the N-Word once as part of an analogy illustrating incorrect terminology. He has a distaste for the look of blonde dye jobs on Latinas.' And I would have to fight for that change for days on end. And then Wikipedia doesn't even care if that has nothing to do with why Byrne is a notable comic book creator. It shouldn't even be there but you Wiki admins don't care."

Over at The Engine, OEL creators discuss just what OEL is. Things get interesting when CB Cebulski appears:

"Now I've spoken with editors at all four major Japanese publishers, and at lots of the smaller ones too. They all agree on one thing; this 'OEL' boom they hear about coming from the States is a marketing ploy. They don't appreciate it either. So much so that (and I don't want to piss off other fellow comic creators here any more than I already have), the Japanese already have a term for it. What we call 'OEL', they're calling 'Nissei Comi', which can be translated to mean 'second generation' or 'fake' comics... Look, agree or diasgree, I'm just stating facts here. Offering up a side of the discussion most people don't get to hear. Yes, this will rock the boat a bit and I know that, but I'm just trying to give another perspective on the discussion. Manga is purely Japanese and that's just how it is... I'm not a manga-ka. I never will be. But I don't care. I'm happy."

OEL creators react:

"Hey, that's interesting, the Term 'nissei manga', meaning second generation. Which is a big euphemism, by the looks of things, of what they REALLY think. But I'm not surprised, since Japan is such an insular country - and one that draws very strong lines between what is considered purely 'Japanese' and what isn't. I have the feeling that no matter what anyone here draws or how good any of us become, they'll never look at it as the equal of 'manga'. Not that it bothers me!!!"

"IMHO, I find this little tidbit incredibly fascinating. People don't typically take offense or try to put down others unless they consider them as some sort of competition. If they feel threatened. It's politics to undermine the competition... Honestly, I find a lot of the Japanese manga market very stuffy, restricted, and heavily controlled. Foreigners (us) have something fresh to offer, and looking at how our work is slowly but surely ramping up to a higher quality, there's the potential of a real threat both at home and abroad."

Erik Larsen says 'Are comics dying... or evolving?':

"If I cut the cover price of 'Savage Dragon' in half tomorrow, sales wouldn't double. They might not even go up! Readers don't buy a book because it costs less than others. Marvel did these 99¢ comics a few years back and they weren't (for the most part) as good as the regular Marvel comics and they sold worse than the more expensive Marvel mags. So they stopped doing them. So-- what's the solution? Nothing that will fix things tomorrow. I think we're looking at the evolution of comics. We're going to see the form change over the next decade or two and it wouldn't surprise me to see something entirely different emerge out the other side. Ultimately, our comics may more closely resemble comics from Japan or Europe in terms of their form and we're seeing a lot of that already with the emergence of Manga in America."

More Hollywood talent gets into the comics game, with production designer Scott Chambliss creating the wonderfully named 'Maahvelous!: Princess Puut And Dali Do Venice':

"I did this only for myself because I wanted a purely creative project that was all mine. The only purpose was that I wanted something that made me happy. I worked on it for a couple of years until I finally got to the point where I felt I was finished. Then I just started showing it to a couple of friends to make them laugh and right off the bat one of them, that is connected to the publishing biz, said 'This is really publishable stuff.' They passed it to somebody at Chronicle Books and they passed on it, which was no big deal. But my friend kept encouraging me to put the book out there and then I decided that if somebody gets the material, likes it and wants to publish it as is, then great, we’ll do that. But if somebody goes 'Well, we like the rough idea, but why don’t you do this and this?' I would have no interest in that because this is my baby... I thought the only people who would like it would be gay guys like myself. But it turns out that it is really popular with young teenage girls, especially girls 13 to 14. But there are also girls that like from ages seven to 20. It just cracks them up."

Bill Messner-Loebs starts something that calls itself a blog, but walks like a column:

"'I had one day to feel like the most unlucky human on earth, then, well, self-pity was an indulgence.' I had managed some self-pity anyway. On the TV they are dragging waterlogged corpses out of nursing homes in the Big Easy. There are still neighborhoods under twenty feet of water. Bush is fondling refugees to prove he’s paying attention. My Governor is trying to find places in Michigan where we can store Southerners over the next six months and not have them freeze to death. And natural gas is going to be 30% higher this winter. 'Since we’ve been struggling with this and that there have been two seasons of wildfires in California, the Earthquake and Tsunami in the Pacific, and now this hurricane. Shit happens.'"

Neil Kleid's Big Pond returns, with Andrew Dabb and Dan Taylor in tow, to prove that they're all big potty mouths:

"Sometimes, I find, that one of the hardest questions a writer can ask him or herself is 'how much should I sacrifice for the sake of society and sales?' When a writer crafts a story – and I’m not talking a work for hire story which might have known rules and regulations going in. I mean, if you’re writing a Spiderman story, don’t have him swinging through New York flipping the bird at Daily Bugle signs and cursing a mile a minute. Show Vicki Vale’s panty covered ass, sure, but steer clear of writing her sliding it down the Batpole if you know what I’m saying. And I know you do... You can’t write a story in a whorehouse without having a whore. What's the point of entitling a six page story 'Tourette’s the Ape' unless there’s going to be some motherfuckingcocksuckinggoddamnballs!balls!balls! cursing?"

Someone on the Geoff Johns board is very upset about the latest issue of Green Arrow (spoilers, for those who care):

"Ok, first of all who the F&$#'s idea was it to have Arthur Light absorb Kimiyo Hoshi's powers? Was it yours or Judd's? Second of all, is this PERMENANT? Cause if it is, then, even though she's still alive, my vow will take immediate effect (although, unlike killing her, there is chance for redemption should she ever come back but I severly doubt it). Next, if it IS permemant, WHY is Lady Quark and Pariah back? I bet you're going to bring back Harbinger from the dead too? Also Psycho Pirate is back too! What's next? The Monitor and/or Anti-Monitor? If this is permenant for her, then you are screwing her over in ways WORSE than she was screwed over in JLE/I and I never thought that would be possible! Now, if it's not permenant, is she going to play a major role in IC? If she dies there, I won't be AS upset so long as it's a valient death. Look, I know I must sound crazy right now but, I'm mainly blowing off some steam. But seriously COME ON! This is Kimiyo Hoshi we're talking about here! The person who did the more devestating damage to DC's most powerful villian AT HIS PEAK OF POWER! She was one of the founding members of the reformed JLA! Why is it that she has been screwed over in ways worse than any superhero has ever been screwed over before? Geoff...honestly...I will not get any rest (I am NOT joking here, I am NOT ranting here, I am dead serious) until you answer me!"

The rest of the Geoff Johns board are sympathetic:

"Wow... and I thought I was worried about The Ray 'biting it' in Infinite Crisis..."

"wow. I thought I was too attached to Bart."

"I heart you dude, but don't be such a queen. It's only a freaking comic"

Geoff Johns responds, nonetheless:

"Um...I don't write Green Arrow. Regardless, I was just talking to Keith Giffen about ideas for Doctor Light II. There are fairly interesting plans for her and they're all good. But ask again like this, I won't respond. Now go get ice cream or take a nap or something! Just RE-LAX"

Rivkah considers markets:

"When I first started working on 'Steady Beat,' I had a very specific agenda in mind: to create a work that has the visual conventions of manga that I love and enjoy, while writing purely for an American audience. These are American kids with American worries and American ambitions. And there's something else I constantly keep in mind: to avoid becoming too niche. I could have easily written my book from the perspective of the *gay* character rather than straight. In fact, it would have been a heck of a lot easier since I'm able to relate better. I've been through the whole "coming out" scene with friends, family, and community alike. However, if Kinsey is correct, about 6-10% of the American population is gay while the rest ... well, the rest is not. By default, I'd be writing my perspective from the viewpoint of a niche audience. So I changed the dynamic and gave myself a challenge. Write the story from the perspective of someone who’s straight, but knows somebody gay. Everybody knows someone who's gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, questioning, etc. It's practically a universal theme. And it's only through this universal theme, that I am able to touch upon the specific topics later addressed in the book such as questions of community, family, prejudice, tolerance, religion, politics, etc. It's a very broad book with a broad range of appeal to a very broad range of people. That's what mainstream does."

Variety announces that The Losers has been optioned as a possible movie, reports Newsarama:

"Having debuted in summer of 2003, and written by Andy Diggle, with art by Jock, the comic series is about a black ops CIA team who was double-crossed in Afghanistan and left for dead. Of course, from there, it’s time to learn who betrayed them, and get some hot revenge. The property shares its name with a Silver Age version as published by DC (starring World War II era heroes), but under Diggle and Jock, the property has met with critical acclaim as a look at the “other” side of war in a post 9/11 world. Optioned by Warner Bros. Pictures, the film version will be produced by Peter ('Friday night Lights') Berg and Akiva Goldsman, with Berg writing a screenplay, and possibly directing as well. Berg is already attached as director on the upcoming films 'The Kingdom' and 'Bran Mak Morn'."

Neal Adams is resigned to the way things are, surprisingly:

"A big celebration is in order for Dave Cockrum. And a regret. Dave is about to receive his first royalty check for Nightcrawler from Marvel Comics. It’s for the year, and unless everyone had helped, that royalty alone wouldn’t be enough to get by on. What is perhaps surprising and sad is that if Dave received royalties on all five or so characters that he clearly created, his yearly income would be secure. Ah, a secure income for an artist who created the stuff of our dreams and fantasies of adventure. Would be right. You’d think a company like Marvel, once it saw reason and good sense, would complete the gesture and give to Dave and his wife the royalties they deserve rather than what Marvel in its high seat deigns to dole out. Anyway... that’s the yin and yang of it, folks. A good day... with regret. Sure, write letters if you want. They’re used to them by now."

Chris Butcher provides links for you to follow and purchase nice posters.

The Comics Journal considers one of fandom's favorite topics:

"Just randomly wondering why people have such strong feelings about John Byrne. I missed where he stole everyone's lunch-money and kicked all those babies, or whatever his crimes against humanity are..."

"Apparently he's outspoken or something."

"I think a lot of fans of a certain generation came to think of him as the greatest superhero cartoonist in the world and then, when they grew up, they looked at his stuff again (which hasn't really changed very much over the last 30-odd years) and realised it was just reasonably facile hackwork and felt somehow personally betrayed. I think maybe that explains the strength of feeling, at least partly."

"I've heard nothing - and I mean NOTHING - but bad things about Byrne's treatment of other human beings, especially fans. Common courtesies such as holding a door open or saying please or thank you or moving out of someone's way are apparently beneath his concern. Also, he's *not* a good artist, nor has he ever been. He epitomizes 'hack.'"

"Does he still sit in that giant chair at conventions that makes him tower over the other artists by 4 or 5 feet?"

DC release a third variant edition of All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder:

"DC has announced that it will provide one free copy of a special retailer variant of All Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder #1 to attending retail organizations a the Diamond/Alliance Retailer Summits in Baltimore and Fort Wayne. The Retailer Variant Edition will feature the pencil version of Jim Lee's cover to issue #1. Among other notable comic schwag items are Transformers #0 (Gold Edition) from IDW, House of M #1 Madureira Convention Edition from Marvel (Baltimore only), and Fell #1 and Fear Agent #1 limited editions from Image (Baltimore only)... Although the most important value of trade shows such as the Diamond/Alliance Summits is what's learned, the schwag can help pay for the trip or provide great giveaways, door prizes, or premiums for in-store use."

Talking of things that I've recieved in the post and adored recently, Local #1 turns out to have a destructive force unimagined by it's creators, as Brian Wood explains:

"So almost right after we immortalize Portland's Nob Hill Pharmacy in the pages of Local #1, it shuts down... Does this make Local #1 a collector's item now?"

Turns out, however, that this isn't a first for Brian, as his Pounded partner Steve Rolston reminds him:

"I think it makes you a jinx. Remember when they tore down Vancouver's Starfish Room within a week after it was immortalized in Pounded?"

Every town that's going to be featured in Local? Be very afraid.

(Local #1 is great, by the way. I could go the same way as Warren and Augie and compare it to a pop song, but it read more like an Aimee Bender short story to me...)

Steve Lieber and Sara Ryan talk about Flytrap, their new mini-comic. Ryan:

"We're in Portland, where there's huge enthusiasm for DIY projects, and I think that's part of what we're tapping into by working this way. I want to put these stories out there for people to find, without making a big deal about how what we're doing fits, or doesn't, into the broader comics industry."

Lieber:

"I'll put it in that context -- the industry is all about gigantic event projects right now; I've worked on some of them myself. But I want to devote some of my time and energy to simply telling a few great stories without worrying about marketing or continuity or licensing deals or contracts. I deal with that stuff on everything else. I'm happy to let this one be different."

Me, I read this at the weekend (Thanks, Steve!), and it's well worth the two and a half dollars that you'd be spending on it, if you haven't done so already. So, really, go order one already.

Harvey Pekar talks about The Quitter:

"I know what caused me to become a quitter, or to use this quitter’s behavior... At least, I think I can figure that out. In the first few years of school, I got absolutely no approval from anybody. I wasn’t involved with any other kids, I didn’t have any friends, and was pretty much on my own, and I craved acceptance. I figured that the way to do that, to gain acceptance, would be to excel in something, which is actually why I got into fighting, because it was something I could do well. But as far as solving the problem, I haven’t solved it. You program yourself in your life, and a lot of times, you end up having to live with the monster you created."

Kyle Baker announces a new exclusive signing:

"Kyle Baker Publishing announced today it has finalized an exclusive agreement with the legendary cartoonist and graphic novel pioneer Kyle Baker, granting the cartoonist an unprecedented degree of creative control and profit participation... 'KBP is an amazing publisher. I’ve had a great working relationship with them for years,' says Baker. 'They’ve done an incredible job with NAT TURNER and the CARTOONIST books. When I saw what they had planned for 2006, I was ready to sign on the dotted line.' As much praise as Baker has for his publisher, a good deal of the credit for the company’s meteoric success rests with Baker, who has created for KBP such terrific characters as NAT TURNER and, well, KYLE BAKER. 'Yes, it’s safe to say that Kyle Baker drawing Kyle Baker is the perfect fit between character and creator,' observes Kyle Baker Publishing president Elizabeth Glass. 'Kyle Baker is the character Kyle Baker was born to draw.'"

"Beaucoup" Kevin Church is celebrating a blogaversary by giving away comics! Well, a graphic novel. Also, a mix CD! All for the price of one question! Go here for details, pilgrim.

Heidi MacDonald considers Warren Ellis's new board, the Engine:

"Bendis Board is funny, and the people who post there are surprisingly diverse in their tastes, but it's a circus. Millarworld is okay, but they are very concerned with Ultimates, which is their right, but it does tend to skew the conversation. Comicon.com and the TCJ message board are both hopelessly marred by crackpot masturbation due to the lack of efficient moderation. (Both have some wonderful moments, however.) So when you think about the astonishing changes in the comics industry over the past couple of years -- the ascent of manga, the explosive growth of graphic novel sales in bookstores AND comics shops, the emerging blogosphere, the growing influence of libraries, the mainstream media's interest in graphic novels, new techniques in marketing, the rise of webcomics -- it's pretty amazing that no public square has emerged as a rallying point... Many people have TRIED to create a board like the Engine, but none have taken hold. Is that because the audience consist mostly of people who want to make comics? On the other hand, it's less likely that people who buy PERSEPOLIS or ACME NOVELTY LIBRARY down at Barnes & Noble will run home to find a comic book message board to yap about it on. There are already 1200 messages in the Introduction thread at the Engine. That's a lot of people."

Newsarama - Asking the questions that matter:

"Is your LCS full of weirdos? I know mine is. Don't get me wrong, it's the best LCS I've ever been in as far as size, selection of products, lighting, etc. I 've never seen another shop build a special gaming area, much less have room for one. The area had, until recently, cut down on the weird/unintentionally funny factor some. All the CCG players are always back there, all the RPGers, when before they were out in the store making all sorts of racket. But recently the staff has move a couple of table to the front, so they can talk to their friends while they man the counter. Now, my LCS when i was in college, i was one of the friends that sat up front. But we were socially adjusted people, and could talk about different topics. EVERY time i go into the place here, it's always MTG being played and argued over. And not by kids usually, but by the greasy unwashed 30 year olds still living in mom's basement. 3 moments stand out in my mind though, as testaments of the momumental weirdness of the place."

"Dont think of them as weirdos. Think of them as 'local colour'"

"The only weirdos in my LCS are the workers. The workers consist of the own/manager who's cuckholded by the most evil woman I've ever met...his mother. A reformed/lapsed drunk, a closet homosexual bloke who had a nervous breakdown and babbles incoherantly most of the time and an openly gay, slightly pederastic religious zealot."

If the industry was perfect, all genres would be represented equally. Well, apart from reality shows, I guess, but you know what I mean. Anyway! The Bendis Board discusses what genres are lacking in comics:

"I want to hear of some genre's that aren't represented at all in the comic industry. So, spit some out. Mine? Medical. Anything in the medical field"

"Midget anything... why are there no midgets in comics? Lemur on a big wheel should do battle with midget on a unicycle... but NOOOOO"

"Musicals!(Except for the excellent Marvel/Star adaptation of The Muppets Take Manhatten.)"

"kindergarteners. the comedic potential of kindergarteners is limitless."

"Muppet snuff porn."

NBM announces the return of Omaha the Cat Dancer:

"NBM Publishing has announced that it will be publishing new stories starring long-time post-underground comics character Omaha the Cat Dancer in Sizzle, its erotic comics magazine under its Eurotica imprint. The new work will be written by James (Kings in Disguise) Vance, the husband of the late Kate Worley, who created the original stories with Reed Waller. Worley left behind a detailed outline of the next Omaha story arc, which Vance and Waller will realize in at least 128 new pages over several quarterly issues of Sizzle. The first new story will appear in Sizzle #28 in November."

Brian Wood reminds interested customers that Local orders are due soon:

"It's getting close to the time when comic shops send their initial orders in to Diamond, and this is when its crucial for those of you out there to pre-order the book with your local comic shop (or online). Your retailer is going to (in part) base his orders on yours, so if 5 of his customers ask for it, he might only order 5. Or maybe 5 and one or two more for the shelf, if I'm lucky. So if you think your shop is like most shops, the chance of finding shelf copies of Local #1 is slim. This is the sort of thing that keeps me up at night. Seriously. I want Local to get good orders, to be able to run for its planned 12 issues. I want to be able to create comics for a living. I know some of you have already done this, and everyone involved thanks you from the bottom of our hearts. But there is no such thing as too many pre-orders, so I'm lookin' at the rest of you to help out. And don't forget DMZ as well. Your shop is slightly more likely to have shelf copies of DMZ than they are of Local, but you might as well ask for both while you're at it."

Order codes and badges - or, as you Americans call them, "buttons" available at the link.

The Bendis Board discusses missed opportunities in the Ultimate Universe:

"They are playing things too safe, making the Characters too much like they are in the regular Universe. If you had a chance to restart and re-invision, why not really go for it?Nick Fury is Black, and Colossus is gay. That's a good start. And I love hippie Thor, brilliant. Punk Dazzler, also a good change. But why not more? Why not have Daredevil be Asian? The Human Torch a Woman? Dr. Strange be gay? Why are they playing things so safe, seriously? People want new and different takes don't they?"

"Why not? Because that's not the point of the Ultimate Universe. Plus, that's so PC it makes me puke."

"why is it daring to make a character another ethnicity or gay? you can always make them ACT the same way. gay/ethnic does nothing but change the visual or small things. do big things. massive things. dd is still a blind lawyer...turn him into a cop who got burned in the line of duty and kicked serious ass. or even more extreme than that. motivation is what makes characters. change the motivation. the rest is just quibbly, surface level changes."

"I don't get it. Why should Ultimate Marvel become the Superfriends (Apache Chief, Black Vulcan, Samurai--characters created SOLELY for diversity)?"

SPX - at the end of this month, September 23rd and 24th - is looking for volunteers.

The Comics Journal board reacts to Diamond's new terms of sale:

"Anyone seen an announcement about Diamond Comics Dropping your book 100% if you don't reach the sales #'s they set? I had always heard that they would drop the series if it didn't reach the #s but today I was informed that they NOW drop the series in the middle of the solictitaion. They don't even send you a purchase order for the books that were ALREADY in Previews [...] Anybody seen anything to confirm this ?"

"It's not just small publishers that would be fucked by this. If this is true, it bothers me as a customer. From the sounds of it, this means that if I order a book, but not 'enough' people order it, then I don't get the book. This also screws the retailers through whom dropped books are ordered."

"I hate to be all doom and gloom but, reading between the lines in the DC story in the latest TCJ (Imagine how an ambitious group of Warners' suits, with no prior interest in comics, would view the current state and profit potential of DC) , talking to a once quite successful retailer who just went out of business partly due to problems with a line of credit with Diamond, listening to other retailers fuss, realizing that Steve Geppi is likely not going to live forever (though he may out live the North American Direct market and no else one really seems to be gunning to take his place), and now the subject at hand things do not look very promising.
Most of the smaller towns I visit do not even have shops anymore and many of the game oriented stores seem to find them less and less worth the trouble. The comics based movies may have peaked in popularity and mechandising potential. We may go back to a '70s style situation where eager fans and semi pros swap and sell homemade zines and the majors do some minimal effort/maximum profit thing just to keep the licenses alive (say a line of 10 or 20 100 page comics devoted to just the major charecters with lesser ones rotated as back ups. This is not a new idea.) The more artistic souls could self publish till succeed or they run out of money and energy or they are snapped up by the surviving alt publishers (likely Fantagraphics, Last Gasp, etc.) or Pantheon and it's ilk."

"Yes, this new policy is real, but may be subject to change.
However, it remains to be seen how strictly this new rule will be enforced. I would imagine purchase managers still have some discretion regarding titles which they are strongly confident in. Assuming an MSRP of $3.00, a comic now must have at least a minimum order of 500 copies to receive a PO. But remember that the minimum retail value is already $3750 for Diamond to list the comic, so this new rule is unlikely to affect many existing publishers. I suppose their logic is that if the comic can't even hit 40% of their minimum benchmark, it'll probably never meet the benchmark. And that's probably true in most cases. I think the immediate result of this new policy for titles which are flirting with the cut-off, would be publishers raising prices on these comics to meet the PO requirement. In the long run, this is probably another nail in the coffin for pamphlet style comics, at least for the small publishers, as they are forced to look into prestige or tpb formats."

Tom Brevoort has a chat session at CBR last week. Joe Casey popped in to keep things moving:

"Scott King: How hard or easy is it to keep writers reigned in and on a direction with a title that you like?

"Tom Brevoort: If you hire the right guys, not terribly.

"JoeCasey: Tom likes to show writers the back of his hand...

"Scott King: Joe-- really? I saw Tom at a convention once and he sincerely seemed like a non-violent type of guy

"JoeCasey: Scott-- oh, man... lemme tell ya... he's got a short fuse, no doubt about it...

"Brad Curran: What kind of Jack Bauer-esque torture techniques do you employ?

"Tom Brevoort: I have a crowbar in my office."

What is wrong with superhero comics these days?, asks retailer Steve Bennett:

"What I propose here is that we may finally have to accept the notion the super-hero comic book is a 'niche' genre; not because this vast mass audience rejects as silly our cherished adolescent power/revenge fantasies. From the way Hollywood has steadily been 'borrowing' from us over the last few years its clear America has developed a taste for the fantastic. But as currently written and drawn, the super-hero comic book is just too overwhelmingly dark to appeal to them. In one of those strange coincidences that plague our industry, earlier this year on the same month DC released Wonder Woman #202 and Marvel The Pulse #2. Both comics featured a major villain brutally and ruthlessly killing a minor cast member. As written they were genuinely chilling scenes integral to the plot, but as the months went by and the criminals went unpunished it became clear the Green Goblin and Dr. Psycho had just gotten away with murder. They were never going to be punished for their crimes. Never. Because, ultimately, the publishers need them both too much to permanently put them in a cell or stick a needle in their arms, if not next month then next year; and by then they'll have committed fresh new atrocities and no one will remember (or care) about the death of a couple of nobodies."

"My sense of smell started to shut down immediately followed closely by my sight, due to fact that my eyes were flowing profusely like Niagara Falls. I tried to recover as quickly as possible because I didn’t want to seem offended by this experience, even though I was the one whose senses were assaulted. Besides, a little mantra that I created in my mind right before I got to the convention – I live in NYC, this should be a piece of cake – kept playing over and over in my head. This was a challenge and I was going to get through it, the brave soul I was. So, with my chin up and senses almost intact, I soldiered on."

Heidi presents the story of the non-comic reader's first time at a comic convention, and the interesting body odors she encountered.

House of M, Marvel's crossover everything-will-change-no-really series, has the Bendis Board all excited. About what, you may ask? Well, probably not what Marvel were hoping:

"House of M #6: She-Hulk... Fully, man! THAT is a Fully."

"What's a Fully?"

"From context clues, I would guess he means a 'fully exposed breast.'"

"Yeah. She has popped right out."

"Yeah, how did this get past editorial? I'm shocked."

"I'm usally not so shallow but SOLD!"

"Well, being that her boyfriend can't see them and all, there's no sense in letting them go to waste."

Graphic novels/trade paperbacks save comics, says ICv2. Well, kind of:

"Graphic novel sales in comic stores rose a dramatic 33% in the first half of 2005, dragging a near-flat 2% growth rate in comic periodicals to a 7% over-all growth rate for the comics and graphic novel category."

Tokyopop had a staggering 81% growth in the first quarter of the year, while DC had an impressive 26% growth in the second quarter.

Remember The Unfunnies, Mark Millar's unfinished Millarworld book? The end may be nigh after all:

"I'm going to get the contracts signed and off this afternoon so we can release the rest of the series. However, it's been over a year since we've had one and two out and I spoke to William about the idea of releasing the first two issues again in a (cheap-ish) catch-up issue for anyone who missed it. We did 13K of this thing (amazing for an Avatar book), but I'm sure there's plenty of people missing a copy. Also, I'd like to release issues three and four together in the same month. His January solicits are already booked up, but I think we're shooting for February. As someone said on another thread, such is the Jesse Custer-like power of Garth Ennis when he said we should get the last two issues of this thing out there!"

Millar then answers some criticisms of the comic. On the cartoony art being unsuited to the tone of the story:

"No, that's part of the plan. If fact, it's the crux of it. We aren't scared when we see Vertigo horror art. We just expect horror. Juxtaposing these two styles is what makes it so unsettling. You'll see what I mean over the next 2 issues as it pretty much goes outright horror."

On the sales being lower than Millar's usual sales figures:

"Alan Moore's stuff does around 6K over at Avatar and Warren does around the same. It's a tiny company run out of a guy's house. Most of their books do 2 or 3K. So 13K and 10K on our first couple of issues with funny animal art is pretty bloody good, especially considering it beat pretty much the entire Wildstorm line that month. It was doubtless helped by being linked to strong selling titles like Chosen and Wanted, of course."

John Romita Jr. talks about the Sentry:

"I was actually asked to do this by Joe Quesada, and when I heard that Paul was writing, I instantly agreed, because I really enjoyed working with him on the Hulk. It was a strategy thing between me and Quesada – I told him that I would entrust my career path at Marvel to him for a couple of years, and we’d see how it went. First, he pushed me towards Wolverine after leaving Spider-Man, which I didn’t initially want to do... Maybe my Spider-Man was getting a little stale – it’s hard for me to say, but I think that’s what Joe was feeling. The change from doing all Spider-Man to doing Black Panther and Wolverine was virtually the same as changing your workout in the gym – entirely new muscles had to be trained. A couple of weeks later, I was feeling confident about it, but it was a change."

For those who miss Robot Fist, or for those of you who think that The V is one of the intentionally funnier forums on that there internet, there's a new blog from many of those responsible - including official Fanboy Rampage!!! favorite Matthew Craig - called Punch Drunk Pop Culture Review. They're talking about the pop music, the television shows and the drinking. What more could you want?

Oh, okay, they're also talking about the comics as well.

Jeez. You folk. Obsessed with comics.

Jeff Mason is tying demographics together:

"If you eat cheese, and like the Fantastic Four... You can get a Fantastic Four t-shirt for $1.69 shipping w/3 proof of purchases from Kraft cheese slices: http://www.kraftfoods.com/fantasticfour/"

Not that the rest of The Comics Journal board is that impressed:

"But that's not cheese. Though the shirt may well be cheesy."

"Didn't the Kirby Estate get cheese slices as royalty payment for that movie? No...wait. They got nothing."

"Wait...the Thing is made of cheese?"

The Geoff Johns board is concerned with DC's timeliness:

"dc says were gonna be getting [52*] weekly. but there has been problems getting the monthly books out on time. do you think dc will be able to 'deliver' the goods on time. or do you expect tons of delays like we get with the monthly's titles now and then?"

"Yeah right,it aint going to happen,my only hope is when they get behind they spoil us with all the books in one week to catch us all up."

"These guys have passed all the tests thus far. Now this may be pushing it. I just have this feeling that one story here or there may contradict something we learn in the individual books. But like I said these guys have been on the ball thus far."

"We are talking a weekly comic coming out every week for a year, if they don't mess up at least once they deserve a medal, or award of some sort!"

The Bendis Board consider profiling:

"You can tell a lot about a person from their pull list. I for one decided to buy all of Joshua Fialkov's stuff because he and I seem to like 95% of the same shit.And some people, even though I like them, have such total shit on their list I wonder if they even read them. No ideas if this has any merit, just saying."

"I can't wrap my mind around those guys that get like, 20 titles, and all but two of them are X-Men and Spider-Man titles. Hasn't anyone ever told them about variety? I mean, just how much can one person read about mutants? Oh, and I have no respect for people who don't get at least one Vertigo title... ok, not so much a loss of respect, but I stop trusting them or their opinions."

"I've read a lot of different comics, and I can honestly say that when it comes down to it, I'd prefer to buy every Spider-Man comic and not have enough cash to buy every other comic I might enjoy. A few years ago, I was buying just about everything Oni was publishing, along with a number of other small press books, a few Vertigo titles, a random DC book or two, and maybe a couple from Image. But now I live with my fiancee instead of a few college buddies, and my rent is three times as much. I've cut back on my comic spending, and I've dropped just about everything but a few vertigo books, a few marvel books, and all the Spider-Man books. That's not to say I don't try other things if they sound interesting enough, but new things have a shorter leash. Honestly, I don't see why everyone gets so huffy over other people's comic habits, anyways. I know my purchases make me happy, so what does anyone else care what I'm buying?"

Warren Ellis is still having trouble launching his new forum, The Engine, as one of today's Bad Signal mailings explains:

"Well, it was working ten minutes ago. And then I sent out the Signal, and you've all logged on to the Engine and crushed it. Log out, try again later. There really shouldn't be so many of you in GMT and CET, surely?"

Wizard get themselves in more trouble with Marvel:

"In one of the quickest 'now you see it, now you don’t' yet, followed by a couple 'these aren’t the droids you’re looking for' (ahhh, geeky references), it appears that the writer of Marvel’s upcoming Ultimate Hulk vs. Wolverine will be Lost co-creator and writer, Damon Lindelof. The news, which was originally supposed to be revealed in a mainstream outlet (reportedly USA Today, as early as this Friday) popped up in a quick blurb on wizarduniverse.com, which was taken down shortly after 3:00pm. Threads about Lindelof writing the miniseries which sprung up on Millarworld and the Bendis Board were deleted quickly."

Accidentally revealing (well, confirming) the Ultimates 3 team early, now this... What's next for Wizard and ruining Marvel's creative surprises? The explanation of that King teaser? Oh, no, wait, Chris Butcher may have let that slip here yesterday.

Takeshi Miyazawa talks about craft, comics and the influence of manga:

"Any type of cross-referencing and merging of ideas only helps the art to grow into something new. We need more unpredictability and a palette of fresh ideas right now to shake things up and what better way for this to happen than looking to what’s coming out from Japan where it’s more creator-centric. Stylistic stereotypes aside, I like cinematic sequences and storytelling and I’m sure the kids who are reading and consuming this visual language of manga feel the same. Narrative boxes that tell you everything is SO yesterday. Like, c’mon! It’s also been great to see comics shifting towards the book market more which, five years ago, was next to unheard of. The entire art-to-business and distribution aspect of manga has been a great model to learn from for us in North America."

Warren Ellis's new forum, The Engine, launches and is immediately a victim of its own success, as Warren writes about in a Bad Signal reposted at the Bendis Board:

"It's still showing a 'too many connections' error to me. The Engine is on a huge box, I've got something like 33 gig of bandwidth to burn per day, Beehive forum software is tough and stable, and you've STILL kneecapped it."

The Bendis Board responds - the thread, incidentally, is called "A Bad Signal From Ellis - Don't you just want to root against him?":

"dammit!!! where else am i supposed to talk about Ultimate Secret!??!!?"

"You know, for all the to-do Ellis made about the Bendis Board and the rape-o comments, there he is posting pictures of gal pals selling pin-up portraits on his website. 'Help Katie pay for things like food.' Right classy."

"Does this count as 'other board' Drama?"

Micah Ian Wright wants to do his bit for charity, responding to Rob Liefeld auctioning off original art for Hurricane Katrina victims:

"Wow, nice one by Rob. Not a bad idea of what to do with those old pages of original art that so many artists have cluttering up their offices. Think anyone would want to bid on a script signed by a renowned liar? ...Of course. I'd sign it with any name the winning bidder requested. Seriously, would anyone here pay real money to the Red Cross for a batch of scripts? Or is art the only collectible in comics?"

The idea is raised that he could auction off scripts for his unproduced work for DC, including the final issue of Stormwatch and his killed Vigilante series...

DC continues to ramp up their marketing division:

"DC Comics is ramping up its marketing efforts with two newly created positions. John Cunningham has been named Vice President, Marketing and Nellie Kurtzman has been named Director, Marketing, it was announced today by Stephanie Fierman, DC Comics' Senior Vice President, Sales & Marketing. In his newly created position, Cunningham will supervise the marketing and publicity efforts of DC Comics, Vertigo, WildStorm, CMX and DC Direct and report to Fierman. Kurtzman will report to Cunningham... Prior to DC Comics, Cunningham was Vice President, Associate Publisher at St. Martin's Press. At St. Martin's, Cunningham developed the sales, marketing and PR strategies that launched many successful books, ranging from best-selling fiction and non-fiction to literary titles. Among authors with whom he worked are Janet Evanovich, Augusten Burroughs, Joseph Finder, Jennifer Crusie, Kinky Friedman, Jill Scott, Bruce Campbell and Tom Perrotta. In 1999, Cunningham founded Minotaur, St. Martin's award-winning crime imprint. Prior to DC Comics, Kurtzman was Associate Director of Marketing at Simon & Schuster for children's paperbacks and the new adult pop culture imprint Simon Spotlight Entertainment (which she helped launch). Simon Spotlight Entertainment's first book, 'He's Just Not That Into You', became a #1 New York Times bestseller. Before working at Simon & Schuster, Kurtzman was the freelance Marketing Manager at Winslow Press and the Advertising Manager at Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers."

Millarworld gets overly optimistic, after Rich Johnston points out that Marvel's "King" teaser is similar to the signature of a character in Watchmen:

"Now who the hell are the new [Marvel] exclusives!!!?? Ferry is one. Can another one be Alan Moore? Could King be him??? is this his big F- U to DC??"

"My theory? Marvelman/Miracleman is just about squared away and ready to begin to see print again. Not only that, but I recall that one of Alan Moore's big deals with Marvel was that they allow Miracleman to be published here under it's original Marvelman name. I'm willing to bet they've aquiesed to that demand, coupled with Moore's recent problems with DC... If it really is Alan Moore, this is the scenario that makes the most sense to me."

Heidi MacDonald's attempt to bring some reality to the discussion - "I interviewed Alan Moore last week, and I'm pretty sure he isn't working for Marvel." - is met with disbelief:

"With no disrespect directed toward you Heidi but why wouldnt you think that he might have kept that info mum from you?"

Another variant cover at DC... This time, Frank Miller provides a variant for the second issue of All Star Batman:

"'This striking cover marks Frank's artistic return to the world of Batman after a three-year absence,' says Bob Wayne, DC's VP - Sales. 'Retailers should up their orders now to make sure they get enough.'"

I love that they position it as if they're only passing on helpful information for the retailers.

Rikvah pulls out an interesting response to her first column at The Pulse:

"While a number of valuable points were brought up--mainly what people both like and dislike about both mediums--the real meat doesn't come out until page 2 in which Brandon Montclare of DC Comics (former editor at TokyoPop)decides to enter the conversation in response to a comment I made about the difference in pacing between Eastern manga and Western comics... [He wrote] 'Anyway, my point is that American comics do in fact have deliberate pacing, but it is a deliberately uneven beat—and this goes back to its roots with Windsor McCay and later Will Eisner. American comics (generally speaking, of course) rely on syncopation in the pacing, and actually aspire to be jagged rather than fluid. To butcher some musical categories, American comics are more like Ragtime Jazz where Japanese manga are more like Symphonic Classical music. I am of the opinion that syncopation provides more opportunities for complexity than fluidity—but it is also more prone to being misapplied and end disastrously. You say that manga is more controlled—but I don’t agree: it’s much easier TO control, but comics that are successfully paced demonstrate a much more sophisticated ability of controlled storytelling on the part of the creator.'"

An interesting response to the interesting response:

"That’s pretty interesting. I hear Jazz musicians most often die from heart attacks because of the erratic music they play. I also hear that baroque classical music makes you smarter, keeps you relaxed, and stimulates your brain in many positive ways. I wonder if there is any correlation here."

Heidi MacDonald looks at The 40 Year-Old Virgin, and what it says about we nerds:

"In THE COMICS JOURNAL #200 (published in 1997) I wrote an essay entitled 'You Guys Need to Get Laid' in which I laid out what I saw as the psychological roots of collecting, and how that had impeded the abilities of creators, publishers and retailers alike to overcome their own personal collecting quirks and build a stronger, more viable industry. I'm not saying that mylar bags and celibacy go hand in hand -- I know many many dedicated collectors who are married and even have kids who look like them -- but as with all stereotypes, the figure of the sexually inhibited geek is based at some level on a universal truth... Comics fans and creators seem to be a particularly self-loathing bunch -- although that is changing as comics and their posh cousin graphic novels get wider acceptance in American culture. FORTY YEAR OLD VIRGIN is pretty much about all of us, or all of us as we could be. Andy has made the best of his situation, but he also has a deep streak of self-loathing, which, as the movie points out, is actually a universal human emotion."

Augie De Blieck Jr. reviews the first issue of Local, Brian Wood's new series:

"Warren Ellis has already described the book as something akin to a three-minute single from the world of music. He's right... The story is a quick punch to the gut, with a nice hook and fantastic art from someone who knows how to create shadows and depth on his art using multiple tools. I was a bit hesitant about this series going in, but this issue sold me. It's due out in November, so retailers should still be accepting your pre-orders on it for another week or so. I'd recommend giving at least this first issue a chance."

Those who are interested in behind the scenes shenanigans can check out the Local Workblog.

Next year's New York Comic-Con gains momentum:

"Reed Expo has announced that over half the exhibit space for the New York Comic-Con next February, 90,000 square feet on Level 1 at the Javits Center, has sold. The trade and consumer show devoted to comics, games, anime, and related categories was announced in June. Reed Group VP-Launch Pad Greg Topalian said of the sales, 'We are well ahead of where we planned to be at this point.' Several new exhibitors were announced, including manga publishers Tokyopop, Viz, and Del Rey; games powerhouse (Hasbro subsidiary) Wizards of the Coast; book houses Simon & Schuster and Pantheon; and Dreamworks. A first group of sponsors (including 'major sponsor' Diamond, ICv2, Publishers Weekly, Variety, Playthings, and Library Journal) and exhibitors (Marvel, DC, and ADV) was announced in June."

Grant Morrison talks to Alex Ness:

"Mike Cotton from Wizard and I were talking at the start of the year and Mike fronted the question, 'Is Grant Morrison too smart for comics?' I was quite surprised. I've been employed as a comic writer for nigh on a hundred years now and my bibliography of successful titles shows no sign of coming to an end, but people always seem to be very concerned that I don't have an audience or that it's dwindling. All I can say is, there may just be some readers who are TOO DUMB for comics but they're not a part of my audience."

A new part of Grant's audience, however, is Robbie Williams, as Millarworld discusses the fact that Grant and Frank Quitely are producing work for Williams' new album:

"Apparently this is all down to Robbie getting heavily into Magick. Seriously. Him and Morrison are on the phone for hours every day... Definitely didn't see that one coming. Normally eejit pop stars find Jesus after they f*ck up on drink and drugs, so at least he's being kinda original. i still hate they guy, mind."

"I'd love to hear what Mark has to say about it. Hurm.."

"Isn't Mr Millar doing concept work on Eminem's new album? Har, har, har."

Marvel Comics No More!:

"Reflecting the completion of a $525 million non-recourse debt facility (originally announced in April), Marvel today announced that, effective immediately, it has changed its name to 'Marvel Entertainment, Inc.' The deal, Newsarama readers will recall, will allow Marvel to produce the films itself, rather than option the properties to third parties, while Paramount will distribute the films... As previously reported, the Marvel-produced film slate includes up to 10 movies, based on characters that include Captain America, Nick Fury and The Avengers, with the first theatrical release expected for summer 2008."

Alan David Doane and Paul O'Brien agree on something. Namely, that Steve Lieber and Sara Ryan's Flytrap is great... ADD:

"A hugely entertaining 'pilot episode' to what I hope is a long series of stories about one of the most charming and interesting comics characters to debut in years... As accessible and entertaining as Ryan's script is, half the book's success must be credited to artist Steve Lieber. With a supremely confident economy of line that seems at times here strongly influenced by Alex Toth, Lieber places Maddy in a real world that we recognize and relate to. She's a beautiful woman, and that's nice, but much more importantly, her every pose, movement and gesture seems altogether human, genuine and entirely in keeping with the intent of the script."

Paul:

"Flytrap is a sort of 'pilot episode' for a series of minicomics by Sara Ryan and Steve Lieber. I adored their last collaboration, Me and Edith Head, so I'm delighted to see them doing something on a larger scale. Only slightly larger, mind you - we're still in the realm of minicomics here, and if you want a copy of this, you'll have to order it via Steve Lieber's website. But I'd encourage you to do that... Black and white line art by Steve Lieber is always a joy. In the limited space of a minicomic, you need an artist who can act if the characters are really going to come to life. And Lieber's your man, because he's able to add depth to the characters while making potentially dull office scenes visually interesting."

It's the comic that so good, it heals the comic internet's wounds, apparently. Read some preview pages and see for yourself.

It's Labor Day here in the US, so no blogging for today besides this:

"A government-backed comic book about a young superhero who combats neo-Nazism has been launched to try to teach German teenagers how to recognise and confront rightwing extremism. According to author Thomas Grumke, the government-funded comic, Andi, is designed to be as cool as possible to attract 14- to 16-year-olds. Drawn in a flashy Japanese Manga style, Andi and his multiracial friends Murat and Ben attempt to confront neo-Nazis without resorting to violence... In the first edition, Andi and his friends challenge arch-villain Eisenheinrich and his gang, who dress in neo-Nazi clothing, hate foreigners and distribute far-right music at school, to a game of basketball, which invariably the skinheads lose. 'It 's hard to find enough people to practise with when you only want to play with 'real Germans',' quips Andi."

Joe Quesada "rocks," if you will, "the mic" in the latest installment of Joe Fridays at Newsarama. This week's theme - Antagonism is good for the soul:

"I firmly believe that an angry, competitive DC trying to overtake Marvel will do more good than a complacent DC and an industry that picnics together. I think retailers will bear me out on that one as well. But to reach beyond the initiated it’s going to take more than that and more than a unified front, it’s going to take creating product that is compelling and most importantly accessible to the rest of the world. And, by accessible, I mean accessible to read and accessible as in placing the product in places where people shop. What good is a unified front if the product stinks or you can’t get it to the people who want it? ...[L]et's be honest, when you look across the world of big business, big businesses succeed by having heated rivalries and fierce competition. Quite frankly, I think we’ve come farther as an industry over the last few years than ever before. And by the way, Marvel and DC have been around longer than I’ve been alive, I don’t think you’re ever going to see both companies ever holding hands - with the exception of the hand shakes after our annual softball games. So, if that’s going to be the case, lets be competitive and lets make great product."

Kirsten Baldock talks at Sequential Tart about Smoke and Guns, and getting comics to new readers:

"If we want to expand comic readership, it seems to me that it's vitally important that there are good comics that will appeal to non-comic readers. I love a good superhero comic as much as the next comic reader and I think a lot of those comics would be great reads for anyone from my sister-in-law to my next-door neighbor. But the truth is that some people just aren't open to reading certain kinds of comics. One of the main tenets of librarianship is 'For every reader his book. For every book its reader.' It's an especially important idea for comics, a medium that is still fighting the effects of a long-standing prejudice. There has to be a good variety of comics for all sorts of people for there to be all sorts of comic readers. I think the comic industry is doing a good job of getting the good comics out there already. Now we just need make sure they get more public exposure, which is a whole other can of worms!"

(Oh, and Kirsten? You can link yourself to Kevin Bacon in less than six degrees: You know Larry Young, who owns a space suit from Mission To Mars, which starred Tim Robbins, who was in Mystic River with Kevin Bacon.)

"I wish I could tell you that it's worthwhile to go into it for love of the characters, which is what I tried to do, but the truth is, even that ends up pretty badly: the characters are corporate-owned entities designed for marketing deals, and chances are good that there's a reason no one has ever yet tried your One Great Idea. Chances are, we're not allowed to. The only reason to work in comics as a writer is because you love writing. Any other motivation will bring you grief."

Part two of Devin Grayson's Comic Foundry interview is up.

The San Francisco Chronicle writes about Sho Murase, who's currently working on the new series of Nancy Drew OGNs:

"On a recent bright and sunny afternoon, Murase sat deep inside her dark office -- wearing an acid-green Pop Art halter top, a wide grommet belt, low- rise cargo pants and fawn suede platform boots -- drawing directly on her computer screen with an interactive pen. With a few bold strokes, her sure hand sketched the face of the new Nancy Drew. Her brand-new Cintiq monitor, with a 21-inch flat screen, is state of the art for computer animators. Murase has the plum job of creating an updated look for the popular girl sleuth, a character much beloved by generations of fans who collected the books by Carolyn Keene... 'I love stories of girls with strong personalities, stories that are not just romances,' she said. 'It's an exciting character to portray, especially in comic form, which mainly has been geared toward teenage boys in the realm of superheroes.'"

The Comics Journal board discusses indie creators moving to mainstream publishers:

"What's next, is someone going to complain that Chris Ware is taking money out of the hands of Fantagraphics by choosing to self-publish Acme Library? What about writers who start off with small publishing houses, only to get picked up by bigger houses when they become more successful? It's unfortunate that Top Shelf has to do without whatever revenues Craig Thompson would bring in, but what do you propose to do about it? Would you suggest that comics publishers sign their cartoonists to lifetime contracts, creating a studio system ala old Hollywood ?"

"A simple stipulation that the original publisher has first rights to publish collected works, or some portion of collected works, without any commitment regarding new, original works, would suffice. But it's really a matter to be worked out between publisher and creator. What this news indicates to me is that Top Shelf treats its creators very favorably in terms of contracts, although is unable to offer the kind of market access creators might prefer. There might be a bright side to this, as the news may generate more sympathy for Top Shelf which prompts fans to order more of their other books."

"Personally, I'd like to see Craig Thompson, after being ditched by Pantheon when his titles failed to be blockbusters, clad in rags and camping out in a cardboard box in front of the Top Shelf offices, begging piteously to be taken back: "Ple-e-e-a-se!" (But I'm just mean-spirited...)"

Evan Dorkin appears to talk sense:

"People seem to forget that this has been happening in comics for some time, plenty of folks have abandoned publishers and projects for what they considered to be greener pastures... It's not so clear-cut, and I really don't think it's anything anyone can do anything about,it's a free market, people are worth what they can get, you can't poay the bills on handshakes, and if it's within someones rights, I don't see getting all het up over it. It's a personal choice of a publisher to try to tie folks up or not, it's a personal choice of the cartoonist to honor a commitment, to stick it out with the person who brought them to the dance, or to make a better deal to meet their needs... If someone screws someone over, I think that crosses the line, but if they're within their rights, it's not like a crime's been committed. We'd like everyone to hold hands and work from their love of the medium, I'd also like to fly under my own power. I might be someone who follows through on a handshake, but I don't shake hands unless I really, really mean it. And it helps that I'm not someone who anyone is clamoring to publish. Not being in demand always makes your decision-making process simpler. Who knows how anyone would react when people are throwing numbers and contracts at you? And who knows how how long you might be in demand, or what your situation will be down the line? My career's in the toilet, despite my feelings for SLG and past decisions I must admit it would be difficult to resist a solid paycheck for doing exactly what I want to do. And being human, most folks also are enticed by the idea of promotion, media coverage, signings at actual stores, and a few parties where no one's wearing Graffiti t-shirts."

Dreamwave - A new owner, but no creators! That's where you come in - Yes, you!:

"Dreamwave is at an interesting place right now... We have been talking to established comic book professionals and getting very positive responses, but we're also interested in supporting and encouraging new talent. I want to get the best people I can on these books, and that means looking at as much material as possible from every source. We're particularly interested in artists with strong narrative storytelling skills, a passion for the science fiction genre, and unique, interesting styles."

Marvel push "The Other: Evolve or Die", or whatever it's called these days:

"Marvel's first Spider-Man cross-over in five years, Spider-Man: The Other, is getting a big push from the House, with marketing support, special trade dress, and a unique editorial configuration. In its press conference on Thursday, Marvel laid out the marketing support, which will include a p.o.p. poster; mini-posters, which will arrive in stores next week; and 300 free promotional checklist postcards per store, which will arrive about two weeks before the on-sale date of Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #1, the kick-off issue... Each month's books will share a common trade dress to make it clear to consumers that they're a single storyline, despite being in different Spider-Man titles. The October covers will all be in red, the November books in blue, the December books in gray, and the January books in a yet-to-be determined hue. Numbering identifying the books as issues one to twelve of the crossover will also be employed. Marvel has also determined that if reprints are made necessary by sell-outs, it will use sketch covers as opposed to a color variant to distinguish the second printings."

Anyone taking bets as to how soon the variant sketch cover editions will be solicited?

Erik Larsen responds to people who say "Your old work was better":

"Things change. There are creators whose work I hated as a kid and grew to love. Conversely, there are creators whose work I loved as a kid that I can't stand today. Perceptions change. The more I learn-- the more aware I become-- the more chinks I see in the armor. The work of the guys who were the fan faves of yesterday is no longer a mystery to me. I can see how it was done.

"There are those who explain the attraction to many of the hot artists of the late '80s and early '90s as, 'guys that drew the way fans would draw if they could draw.' It was the ultimate fan art. Many Jane Watson had more hair, more lashes, bigger jugs, and wore less clothing than anybody thought possible in a book approved by the Comics Code. Characters had an impossible array of pads, pockets and weapons and nobody cared if things changed from one panel to the next or if there were two moons in the sky-- it was fan art and fan art was crude and crazy and busy as all hell. This work repels me now. The comics that came out from Image and especially those comics that came out from our competitors who were trying so hard to be what we were repel me. What happened? Where did it all go so horribly wrong?"

Newsarama is keeping track of efforts in the comics community to raise money to help those affected by Hurricane Katrina. Currently, there's news of efforts by Kody Chamberlin, the Bendis Board and Rob Liefeld, but it's being constantly updated.

ICv2 also has news on the same subject.

First things first. For the hour or so they were on stage last night, Pine*am were my newest favorite band, which is the best that you can really hope for from a - 'ow do you say in eengleesh - "gig". They sing about chocolate bars and do dance routines, which is always a sign of quality. For some reason, Kevin Church, I'm sure that you'd be interested in them.

Okay, back onto the doings of the comics internet. I'm sure there's some stupidity and/or interest out there.

Indie publisher Ronin announces an anthology to benefit those affected by Hurricane Katrina:

"After the Tsunami of 2004, a lot of people at Ronin Studios got together to produce the first volume of HOPE, an anthology benefiting the Red Cross in the cleanup effort after the disaster in the Indian Ocean (web presence). Two more volumes are forthcoming. In the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, inker Jeffery LaJaunie suggested we make another book, with the proceeds going toward helping the Red Cross in this area. Jeffery is living near New Orleans (fortunately, his family and house are safe), so this is especially important to him. A lot of other Roninites also feel that we need to do something to help, so this book is getting made. This new volume will likely be more themed than the previous HOPE volumes, with stories based on/in or inspired by New Orleans."

They're looking for contributors - go here to volunteer.

The Bendis Board asks the other big question:

"What Does It Take To Make It Big In Comics? You know, besides talent and a good book, what does it take to make it big in this industry?"

"You have to beleive in it. In the medium, and the fact for anyone looking and reading the best stuff it can produce that it is a far more effective medium at conveying mood and developing characters than movies or television. I can spend a whole issue on one of my characters alone (the one I'm writing now in fact). I could never focus on one character in an adventure movie for very long, but I can in a comic."

"Just do Joe Quesada"

"[T]o be frank, sell out. Go do work for Marvel/DC, anything to get your name out there in the comics world. Then when you have some sort of following, redirect them to your creator owned IP."

Alternatively, Y The Last Man's Pia Guerra offers up some constructive advice.

Rivkah Greulich, the creator who brought the comics internet to its knees with her outsider's view of conventions and what mainstream artists forget to do (ie, draw for fun every now and again), has a new column starting at The Pulse:

"In future columns of 'Culture Clash', you're going to get a fresh look at the comics industry from somebody already involved . . . yet seeing it for the first time with unbiased eyes. I don't 'take sides.' You will never see me waving the 'manga' flag nor the 'comics' flag. Each have their own merits—as I'm surely learning. And it’s the merging of the two—this fusion of East and West—that fascinates me. Because it’s a reflection of a New Generation of artists and writers who grew up on something very different from your typical Marvel and DC fare. But it's also a look from the perspective of someone with a little business sense, and a LOT of opinion. Expect to be offended. But expect to think."

Retailer Steve Bennett explains what makes a comic book store successful - Pets:

"I need to stress there's absolutely nothing remarkable about [my store's pet cat]; he's an ordinary, aged, mid-range short hair black cat. Like most cats he does nothing, but does it so splendidly people regularly come in to say hello to him; he's showered with gifts, has his picture taken and is just generally feted and fussed over like he was a minor local celebrity. There are times I'm convinced we're not so much a book store as the world's smallest petting zoo. I want to sell the books and comics I love so much, I know I'd dearly like to get through an entire conversation with a customer without being interrupted by a member of his fan club that wants to know 'Where's Bart?' (like I'm ever going to say, 'On break; he's out by the dumpster having a smoke')."

Millarworld goes for the big question:

"The comics audience has aged, we all know that, but WHY? Our parents and grandparents stopped reading superhero comics (in fact, all comics) at very young ages - so why is my generation (I'm 32) still buying Batman? Are we just pampered consumerists who aren't worried about paying the rent so we indulge in our childhood fantasies? Why do those of us over 18 buy Ultimate Spiderman more often than, say, Smoke?"

"People ask me the same thing, and I always challenge them to name a modern book, movie or TV show that's had the same impact, creativity or longevity as comics."

"'Cause I'm hooked. Shit's like junk. Even if I go a few months without it, the itch is still there. I think in layouts. Plan in grids. I have am gone mad."

"I think the answer to the question posed is fairly obvious... Only truly f*cking fantastic people read comics. And those that hold our wonderful medium in contempt are scumbags. I've tried to think of a counter-argument to this opinion, and I can't come up with one."

Alex Maleev shows what direction Bendis's Spider-Woman title is going to be taking: The classic "Emphasis of the Breasts" one. Newsarama has the first released Maleev Spider-Woman image, which also appears in the new Wizard.