Oh Brave New World…

It looks like the 32-page monthly comicbook magazine is doomed. Digital comics seem to be following the evolutionary model of MP3s, video-on-demand, and e-books. What can comics shops do to remain successful?

Digital Is The New Direct Market

If all you do is read the headline and the excerpt, I want you to remember this phrase: "Digital is the new Direct Market." Not "digital is the new newsstand". Direct Market. Let me explain with some history.

What were the top selling graphic novels of 2010?

It’s one of The Beat’s favorite times of year: Brian Hibbs’ annual BookScan analyses! Not only has he broken down reported sell-through for the graphic novel category, he’s made the raw data available for us all to have fun with. In past years Hibbs used this data to talk about the importance/supremacy of the direct sales market for comics material, and I had cause to disgaree with some of his conclusions. This time, all he does is analyze the numbers, because they kind of speak for themselves. And he's done an amazing job. I urge you all just to go to the link and read the whole damn long thing. But for those who have pressing matters, here’s my own edited take on a few conclusions: (And a lot are similar to what I said last year! And also to what I said about the Diamond year-end figures.) But it bears repeating:

Ziggy Marley comic book ad hits Times Square for real

Remember when Mark Millar cleverly used Photoshop to make it look like he was advertising a comic book on a Times Sqaure billboard? Well, something like that actually happened earlier this week when the PR Newswire Bulletin Board ran some press for Marijuanaman, a new comics from Image spotlighting a character created by Ziggy Marley.

Essex County’s near-win points up anti-GN prejudice

MAC Wonder Woman makeup Michael Allred motion comic debuts

MAC Cosmetics has debuted a commercial for its Wonder Woman themed makeup line, featuring animations by Michael Allred. Call us nutso, but this seems to be one of the more successful attempts at a "mocom" -- probably because it wasn't just a comic book to begin with but was conceived as limited animation.

Watch: X-Men: First Class trailer

Just unveiled over at Facebook, the X-Men: First Class trailer is here. Directed by Matthew Vaughn (Stardust, Kick-Ass) and staring James McEvoy, Michael Fassbender, January Jones and a cast of thousands, it's a retcon showing the origins of the mutant team in the 60s, starring young Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr. The original X-Men: First Class comic was written by Jeff Parker, but it hasn't been explained how much of an influence it had on filmmakers. This is miles better than the dreadfully boring stills have were previously released; Vaughn knows his superhero stuff and how to give it some life. Our one big beef: this does not look like it was set in the 60s! Some JFK voice-overs do not a different decade make! Have they never seen Mad Men? Or A Simple Man? Or...the British Avengers.

South Park crew is creating a Broadway musical!

BTW, did you know that while the Spider-Man musical has been painfully making its way to a long-delayed opening, South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker have done what they should have done years ago and created a Broadway musical? The Book of Mormon opens at the end of March. It's a collaboration with Robert Lopez, creator of the cult puppet hit Avenue Q. Parker and Stone wrote the book and the songs, as they did with the South Park movie, TEAM AMERICA, and countless episodes of South Park. And so far, people actually like it!

Captain America — F*** yeah!

From Team America to Captain America -- the great message comes through.

DC Comics Month-to-Month Sales: December 2010

by Marc-Oliver Frisch On the surface, December 2010 was a great month for DC Comics. The company had a bigger share of the market than its main competitor Marvel, if only in terms of dollar value, and took all of the Top 5 spots on the chart, as well as a total 8 out of the Top 10. That doesn't happen a lot. Upon closer inspection, though, a less rosy picture emerges: DC's average comic-book sales in the direct market were slightly down from November, average dollar and unit sales were only slightly up. So, despite big releases like the debut of writer/artist David Finch's Batman: The Dark Knight and, over in the "Graphic Novel" section, J. Michael Straczynski's Superman: Earth One book, it turns out December was more or less business as usual, from a commercial vantage point. Meanwhile, DC's WildStorm imprint, which the company bought from Jim Lee in 1998 and then proceeded to slowly but determinedly squeeze the life out of, ceased publication in December. Average WildStorm sales sagged below the 5K mark, to the lowest number in history.

Preview: AN ELEGY FOR AMELIA JOHNSON

While comics dealing with cancer have usually been true life tales -- Mom's Cancer or Our Cancer Year -- AN ELEGY FOR AMELIA JOHNSON takes a more unusual tack, following the two best friends of a dying woman — a slightly egotistical documentary director and a self-absorbed journalist -- as they journey to bring her last words to the people she cares about. But if you think this is going to be a weepy about a saintly sick person...you are wrong.

Japan; The manga censor’s day

This article from New Zealand goes into more detail on he thinking behind the current manga sales restrictions, and they are pretty much aimed at stopping young folks from doing anything stupid and fun, not stopping perverts. Take this from gynecologist Dr Tsuneo Akaeda, who thinks manga leads to STDs:

SD11: No more room at the volunteer booth, either

If you were thinking of getting into the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con via volunteering, that window too passed a few weeks ago:

EXCLUSIVE: Diamond’s Dave Bowen explains how they will sell digital comics in stores

[Yesterday Diamond announced their plan to team with iVerse to offer digital comics downloads for sale in comics shops. Gievn the hot button nature of this discussion, and the big picture nature of the announcement, Dave Bowen, Diamond's Director of Digital Distribution, was eager to talk to us to explain more about it. This is a long interview, but Bowen goes into welcome detail on the thinking behind and motivation for this plan. Short version: retailers deserve to be brought into the process.]

Japanese sexualization of young girls: Just icky or illegal?

Hiroko Tabuchi of the NY Times has alengthy piece Japan's recent legislation banning sales of adult material to minors. Along the way there's a lot of "Only in Japan!" stuff: