The News Blog of Comics Culture
By Steve Morris Fan Expo Canada unfolded across this weekend, bringing all sorts of unwashed comic creators to Toronto. And with them came all sorts of pictures and words which, when assembled into coherent form, will result in exciting and surprising announcements for us all to digest, before experiencing a series of hot sweats. Read […]
The AVENGERS VS X-MEN crossover continued to dominate both franchises in July. There are also two new ongoing titles – CAPTAIN MARVEL and X-TREME X-MEN – which unusually launch in the middle of the big crossover. And while Marvel have generally eased off on their miniseries of late, we have two this month – SPACE PUNISHER and INFERNAL MAN-THING.
In terms of market share, DC won the month, leading Marvel by 37% to 35% in units and 33% to 32% in dollars. The other big news, of course, is the remarkable sales of WALKING DEAD #100, which topped the charts with an extraordinary estimated sale of over 335,000 – but that’s a story for another column. (It also seems like a good opportunity to remind people that these figures only reflect sales to the direct market in North America. Total sales are therefore bound to be higher once you factor in sales through other channels, most obviously to the UK and Europe.)
DC Entertainment has been setting up some unusual partnerships of late and this may just be the most innovative: a team up with dating site Match.com to present profiles of Superman and Wonder Woman, who are rumored to be hooking up in JLA #12. Perhaps realizing that many young comics fans are single, DC has surveyed male AND female Match.com users to discover that Superman is the most kissable superhero and other stuff like that. Which makes us say that Match.com users, you are totally wrong because it is Batman all the way!
Star Wars Celebration was held this weekend and this big news was a brand new Star Wars tv show, but not the one you were looking for. DETOURS is an animated comedy version of the Star Wars universe from the Robot Chicken team of Todd Grimes, Seth Green & Matt Senreich. The show will be […]
Very sad news. Even as a recent Kickstarter campaign had raised money for a new digital edition of Dave Sim’s seminal “High Society” storyline in CEREBUS, in a horrible stroke of irony, all of those negatives and all the digital scans made from them have gone up in flames, as the home of Sandeep Atwal burned to the ground. Sim updated the situation on the Moment of Cerebus page:
What could possibly happen in the week before Labor Day? We tell ourselves that every year, and every year something wild and wacky happens, like Disney buying Marvel, or Rob Liefeld becoming the Twitter Assassin. Despite temptation, we’re still taking some time off this week to view historical sites around the US. Todd Terrific is also indisposed this week, and I think Sterling Steve is also on vacation. Tireless Torsten and Jaunty Jessica are still at the helm, however.
In New York City, an active community of professionals working in comics and image-text combinations hopes to share their knowledge and benefit from the experience of others in the field. The New York Comics and Picture-story Symposium is a collective for trading stories, tips, critiques, and encouragement in a fresh setting by combining the social with the educational.
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