Marvel Month-to-Month Sales: January 2011
by Paul O'Brien Let's be blunt: January was a pretty terrible month for the direct market. Compared with January 2010, comic book sales were down by 23% in units and 22% in dollars. The picture for graphic novels wasn't much better. In part, it's because of a lack of really big titles; but to be honest, there seems to have been a lack of titles across the board. The number 300 title in January was LADY MECHANIKA #1, with estimated orders of only 1,291. That's extraordinarily low. In December, it took more than three times that many sales to make the chart. As usual, Marvel had the largest share of the direct market, and the margin was bigger than normal - they led DC by 39% to 26% in dollars, and 42% to 32% in units. The big release this month, of course, is FANTASTIC FOUR #587, with the death of the Human Torch. There's also INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #500, the AGE OF X ALPHA one-shot and a handful of new minis. But it's a quiet month. As always, thanks to ICV2.com for permission to use these figures.
Continue ReadingCrazy new MOTION POSTER for Conan movie
IGN has just debuted a "motion poster" for the upcoming CONAN THE BARBARIAN 3D movie starring Jason Momoa, Ron Perlman, Stephen Lang and Rose McGowan, in which he slaughters and avenges all the way across Hyboria. A "motion poster" is like a fancier GIF, and it kind of reminds me of those photos in the Harry Potter-verse...and as such it is kinda cool. Better than a motion comic, anyway.
Continue ReadingCreators who are MIA
Although comics are such a cool, welcoming place that sometimes it seems no one ever goes away, that isn't true. People drop in and out all the time. Two recent blog posts rack down some of the most missed MIAs. At Comics Comics, the indie side of things gets covered with Frank Santoro and friends recalling Guang Yap, (above) Joel Orff, Jeff Nicholson among others. The long comments thread brings u many other memories and ideas of Things That Are Best Left Forgotten:
Continue ReadingOther movie news: Diane Lane is Ma Kent! Elizabeth Hurley! Hellfire Club! Blade Runner!
• Diane Lane has been cast as Martha Kent, Superman's adoptive mom, in the Superman reboot being readied by Zack Snyder. Henry Cavill plays the Man of Steel.. Because she looks so matronly, shown here with husby Josh Brolin at the TRUE GRIT premiere.
Continue ReadingREVEALED! The Red Skull!
This week's EW has an interview with Captain America director Joe Johnston and an exclusive look at the Red Skull, played by Hugo Weaving, which became unexclusive a few minutes ago.
Continue ReadingMust read: Chris Sotomayor’s Dirty Dozen with Kurt Busiek
ColoristChris Sotomayor has just begun a new series of interviews on his website, where he asks subjects a series of pointed questions regarding the state of the industry. First up, writer Kurt Busiek, whom you may remember from such hits as MARVELS, SUPERMAN: SECRET IDENTITY, ASTRO CITY, and that post here at the Beat where he made a really great point. The whole thing comprises only a dozen questions but covers Busiek's break into comics, followed by a swift break out of comics, and years working at Burger King to break in again, and also one of the double-edged swords that we all live with:
Continue ReadingTron: Uprising animated trailer
Disney's plans for their TRON resurrection include big plans for it to be a tentpole for their boy-friendly offerings; although TRON LEGACY didn't quite slay as much as hoped at the box office, that never stoped the Disney Army from following a plan. TRON UPRISING the cartoon starts airing on XD in fall 2012 and it has some good folks attached: director Charlie Bean and painted Alberto Mielgo. Definitely looks like something folks can watch late at night while they come down from being party people, which is of course exactly the audience Disney planned it for.
Continue ReadingNice art: Michael Golden’s Crystar
They just don't make 'em like they used to. UPDATE WITH DANZIG!!!
Continue ReadingMassive Bone 20th Anniversary Color One Volume Edition available later this year
Exciting news: a huge one-volume edition of the full color BONE (long teased) will be available later this year. The book will come in three editions, two of them extremely limited.
Continue ReadingThe brave recent world of reviewing digital comics
Consider this an open thread. When not working on The Beat, as longtime readers know, I edit the comics reviews for Publishers Weekly, among other duties there. And of late I've been trying to figure out what to to with digital review copies. Up until recently, I had a pretty hard and fast rule about only sending out books to reviewers that were actual books or galleys (with a few planned exceptions.) It seemed to me that if you couldn't afford to at least send out a handful of xeroxes or books to major review sources, you weren't that serious about publishing. While that may seem a tad draconian to some, the other reason is just logistics: we get dozens of books a week, and have a couple dozen reviewers, and keeping track of everything is very important. It's simply too easy to lose a pdf file or a link in an email unless you have a very careful, natural system in place. Plus, I've polled my reviewers several times, and most of them prefer to review from printed copies. The reason this is even an issue is that PW only reviews ADVANCE copies of books. Few comics publishers can afford galleys of any but the most important books, and getting the books in advance is always a race against the calendar.
Continue ReadingNew comic: Chefs of America by Nick Abadzis
Via: This food-theme comic runs in Gourmet Live, one of those iPad magazines from Condé Nast. You can download the app to read the strip here.
Continue ReadingTo do tonight: Legal Comics with Van Lente and Dunlavey at Midtown Downtown store
This sounds like an awesome event! It takes place at the downtown Midtown, 64 Fulton Street, corner Gold Street.
Continue ReadingOni promotes Chu and Beaton
Oni has just announced the promotion of Jill Beaton and Charlie Chu to full editors. “For the last year both Jill and Charlie have given their all to Oni Press as associate editors and integral parts of our editorial team,” editor in chief James Lucas Jones said in a statement. “They each have taken on added responsibility, working with established Oni creators on stellar books and reaching out to bring new creators into the Oni fold.”
Continue ReadingTokyopop follow-up: Is Stuart Levy the Charlie Sheen of comics?
Following up on yesterday's new about Tokyopop laying off at least three editors, the scuttlebutt has continued to flow. Some sources are telling us that there are only 7 people left on staff, including founder Stuart Levy and president Mike Kiley -- the rest of the duties of getting out a line of manga being assigned to freelancers. Brigid Alverson is about as calm and rational a person as we have ever met, so tosee her unload as she does in this post about Tpop's history is a fearsome thing. The layoffs, the OEL rights disasters, the silly detours into movies and Web-TV, and over it all the seeming cluelessness of Levy -- Brigid nails it all:
Continue ReadingComics finally make The Daily Show — anti-jihadist comics, that is
Last night Bosch Fawstin, the former-Muslim-turned-ant-jihadist crusader, was quizzed on the Daily Show regarding his alarm over Nightrunner, Batman's parkour-practicing Muslim French sidekick. Aasif Mandvi does the interviewing, and he also gets Chris Sims (one 'm') from Comics Alliance to explain what's happening from a comics blogger point of view.
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