§ In a three-part interview with ICv2, Dynamite Entertainment CEO Nick Barrucci was his usual talkative self::

Going back to where I see the market going, I see it just like the periodical market. Everyone is going to have to make harder decisions about which projects become a trade paperback or hardcover collection. I will tell you there are series that we are doing that we are not collecting in trade paperback or hardcover as quickly as we have been. We’re pushing some back because not everything should be a trade paperback or a hardcover. I think that way of thinking needs to go away. If there’s something compelling that you feel that a new audience would be interested in as a trade paperback or hardcover then you do that, or if there’s a strong audience existing, but just doing it to do it should go the way of the dinosaurs as this point.


In Part 2 and Part 3 Barrucci covers more of the industry and Dynamite’s output, including the admission that in 2010 they put out too many Green Hornet books. Lessons learned.

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§ Also via ICv2 news that NBM/Papercutz has sold 350,000 copies of the Geronimo Stilton graphic novels. The print version has sold 12 million for Scholastic. For those not familiar with the series, it involves a cute mouse professor who goes around learning things and having adventures. Like many popular children’s books, it was originally printed in Italy.

§ Beau Smith rounds up some realities for retailers.

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§ Does the LA Times’ Geoff Boucher do nothing but run around having idyllic afternoons with famous creators and then write up what they said? This time out, he profiles Moebius who hasn’t been heard from too much in the US in recent years. The great French cartoonist, now 72, mentions that failing eyesight has impacted his productivity. The interview is filled with great quotes:

“They said that I changed their life,” Giraud whispered in amazement. “‘You changed my life.’ ‘Your work is why I became an artist.’ Oh, it makes me happy. But you know at same time I have an internal broom to clean it all up. It can be dangerous to believe it. Someone wrote, ‘Moebius is a legendary artist.’ I put a frame around me. A legend — now I am like a unicorn.”

§ BTW, it’s one of the great mysteries of current comics as to why there isn’t more Moebius in print in the US. He doesn’t even have a US publisher at present. We’re told that several publishers have tried, but negotiations always break down for this or that reason, which is unfortunate.

§ From WonderCon: A report on the panel spotlighting the non-fiction series Comics for Social Justice

§ If you could read Italian, you would doubtless find this blog for the Bilbolbul festival in Bologna very informative.

§ Inappropriate PR department: after drafting our report on how the Village Voice now pays cartoonists in exposure instead of cash, we were amused to get this PR:

Wanted to make sure you saw this week’s edition of The Village Voice: The Comics Issue. With book stores still well stocked with comic books/graphic novels and Hollywood continuing to roll out the next blockbuster hit based on your favorite comic character (dare we mention Broadway?), this week’s feature focuses on the current state of cartooning.

What is truly amazing is that The Voice worked with 30 contributing artists to supplement the entire issue with hilarious comic frames, interesting graphics and unique images to create an impressive visual publication. It’s a really fun issue – check out the links below to get the full experience.


Fun is the one thing that money can’t buy.

§ The Hero Initiative has provided two updates on recent health issues for cartoonists for whom they were providing assistance. Following knee surgery, Russ Heath has regained a lot of mobility.

Russ Heath is BLOWING UP the recovery curve after his knee replacement surgery. He was out of the rehab facility eight days after the operation, even though 14 days was expected. He has the (hopefully!) final appointment with the aftercare specialist today.

Meanwhile, artist Josh Medors has been battling terminal cancer for more than two years, and he’s still battling and drawing.

“It turns out Josh’s white blood cell counts were two one-hundredths of a point away from being too low to continue chemo. We’re working on getting those back up. In the meantime, his body is having a tough time fighting off infections due to this. He is fighting a bit of a cold, but he is keeping his spirits up. He has been drawing like crazy! It seems he is either sleeping or drawing all the time lately. It is really nice to see him drawing again!”

Speaking of Josh drawing, we’ll have some news on a cover gig for Josh and a great product tie-in as well coming soon. Eyes open.

§ A nice little MoCCA preview from the local am:NY website.

1 COMMENT

  1. Maybe someone into Moebius read this and can answer. Is the Incal Classic Collection HC still due in May? It’s on the front page of http://www.humanoids.com. However, Amazon doesn’t have a listing for it and recently canceled my pre-order of the Titan version. Any info?

  2. This year at WonderCon, I bought two Moebius book. One in full color with hard cover, and one in black and white with soft color cover. Both in french, both beautiful and both purchased at Stuart Ng’s booth.

  3. The Epic series was fairly complete, the most obvious title that was missing (I think) was “Les Yeux du Chat” (eyes of the cat) with Jodorowsky, which is beautiful. A bunch of shorter (1 or 2 page) titles are also missing from those collections. The last two parts of the Edena cycle are missing as well but those didn’t exist yet when epic was publishing him.

  4. I have pretty much all the Moebius/Jean Girard Marvel/Epic books and they are among my most prized possessions.

  5. I too have most of the Epic books and they are excellent both in translation and reproduction. No they are not hardbound like their Euro counterparts but still larger format than US comics. I wish the rest of the Edena cycle was printed as well. I think it is only missing one volume printed after Stel. Keeping fingers crossed it will see print in english one day.

  6. i’ve known to publishers that have tried to both distribute and publish his work, but were shot down by his pain in the ass business manager aka his wife.