Oh yeah it’s the final countdown, as industry professionals from every walk of life pick out the biggest stories an dpersonalities of 2012 and look ahead to what’s in store for 2013, with plenty of news and art sneak peeks strewn along the way. Perviously: Part One, Part Two, Part Three

BTW, if you count up all the “biggest story of 2012” answers, the most votes went to one partricular story: Karen Berger leaving Vertigo. It was truly the end of an era of comics.


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JohnJacksonMillerSmall John Jackson Miller Writer, analyst http://www.farawaypress.com research http://www.comichron.com

BartSimpson772013 Projects: I’m continuing to do more comics — I have some more Simpsons work coming up, and more of my trade collections will be on the way from Dark Horse — but I have a lot of big prose projects coming up in 2013, including some of my first creator-owned work. The big news already announced is that I’m writing a hardcover novel for release late next year: Star Wars: Kenobi.

Kenobi is set in the months after Obi-Wan Kenobi arrives on Tatooine for a life in watchful exile — and it deals with what turns out to be a difficult period of transition for him. It’s tough to go from being the galaxy’s greatest hero to a hermit, and it doesn’t happen overnight. The book’s part epic western, part high-stakes drama, part romance — it should be a lot of fun.

What was the biggest story in comics in 2012? The biggest story was that the industry not only held onto the gains from the DC relaunch, but actually improved on them. We’re looking at a $475 million year in the direct market, up around $60 million over 2011 — and in unadjusted dollar terms, it’s the biggest number we’ve seen since the 1990s. Just as a pure matter of year-to-year percentage increase, a +14% year would be the biggest bump we’ve seen since 1993 over 1992 (though the numbers then were astronomically higher in both years).

And it doesn’t appear to have come simply from DC, as I’ve written before (notably here) — every major publisher saw increases of one size or another in the year following the relaunch.

What will be the biggest story in comics in 2013? The digital numbers are really coming along — at least $75 million alongside the closer to $700 million that came from print, between the direct market, newsstand, and bookstore trade in North America — and as noted above, print sales did not go down while digital went up. It is continuing to look as though digital is moving toward being a parallel “leg holding up the table,” alongside periodicals and trade paperbacks — but I think most agree that the table needs to be balanced on all three legs for the industry to thrive. So I think we’ll all want to keep an eye on that.

What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2013? This is one of those pleasures that’s limited to a strange obsessive like me, but I’m finally nearing completion on one of my lifelong projects, collecting all the Statements of Ownership reporting circulation data. My new list, when it appears on Comichron, more than triples the number of titles on the top-seller list for 1960. It delights me no end to find more data in places I’d never thought to look. (Car-Toons, anyone?) So it’s definitely going to be a pleasure to get that out there.


jimmie_robinsonJimmie Robinson Cartoonist, Jimmykitty.com

2013 Projects: Five Weapons, Bomb Queen

What was the biggest story in comics in 2012? Image Comics.

What will be the biggest story in comics in 2013? Digital publishers like Monkey Brain. Someone is going to stake some venture money into one of these online publishers and we might see a real run for the money for online eyeballs. The print stand is fairly solid, but the digital scene is still a wide open field. However, readers online are pretty fickle. They surf. They are pulled in several directions. How to get their attention will take more than just good writing and art. It would require a movement and awareness akin to what happened with Kickstarter. The devices are in the hands of consumers. The content is there. Who leads the race, however, is still up for grabs. Currently, Comixology has the awareness, but they’re mostly acting as a distributor. Do that for an online publisher and a lot of heads will be turning in 2013.

What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2013? Returning to the comic convention scene. In particular the conventions outside of my region, like NYCC. I’m also excited about the upcoming RoseCon in Oregon — now that they’ve partnered with Emerald City Con. I missed out in 2012 because I switched my focus on my new projects with Image and my marriage and honeymoon. But now that the dust has settled I’m eager to rejoin the convention fun.


Means-ShannonHannah Means-Shannon

Scholar, journalist hannahmenziesblog.wordpress.com

2013 Projects: MEET THE MAGUS, a study on magic in the works of Alan Moore for Sequart Research and Literacy Organization

What was the biggest story in comics in 2012? Karen Berger stepping down from Vertigo.

What will be the biggest story in comics in 2013? The future of Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man.

What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2013? The opening of the IRON MAN 3 film. Love the films.


jesse_blaze_snider Jesse Snider writer, www.jesseblaze.com

2013 Projects: Evil Ernie (new ongoing) & the greater CHAOS! COMICS universe! NEXT YEAR: A project for THRILLBENT and lots of new MUSIC!

What was the biggest story in comics in 2012? A TIE MARVEL NOW! I think that people are nitpicking, because that is what a lot of so-called comics journalism has become, but by and large MARVEL NOW was well thought out, executed and has produced few “misses” so far. It’s also rolled out at what I think is a great pace! On top of all that, I believe there were a few creators at Marvel who had grown kind of aimless, this new shift seems to have reinvigorated creators across the line and that is never a bad thing. I had to drop out of the monthly grind years ago because I couldn’t keep up with my pull list, I’ve been dipping my toe back in recently to some monthlies, but MARVEL NOW is about to put both my feet firmly in monthly comics once again. I can’t believe it and they deserve more PURE accolades than they are getting. Well done Marvel. Seriously.

Karen Berger steps down from Vertigo! As a younger writer, being hired by Karen & Vertigo was a bit of a dream. I’ve had some flirtations with Vertigo, but nothing has ever come together. I actually have a project I was waiting to pitch Karen when my schedule opened up and when I heard the news my heart dropped, because Karen was an important part of that dream for me. It won’t feel the same to get in there now that she’s gone. Vertigo has long been a taste maker, because Karen was and is, now VERTIGO is a brand with less meaning somehow. A very major changing of the guard, I’m interested to see how it all shakes out.

What will be the biggest story in comics in 2013? The JUSTICE LEAGUE movie. Fans do NOT trust Warner Bros. and we honestly have very little reason to. Every success they’ve had in film has been spearheaded by a single brilliant vision, outside of that the WB has squandered ALL of our good will and didn’t start catering to the fans until GL. And if you saw that, its a bit of a mixed bag. For all those reason, fans and comics journalists will be scrutinizing every plot detail and bit of casting decisions for the whole year. I know I will, because hey, if they blow it, we’re gonna have to wait another bunch of years until they try again. Of course, we scrutinize because we want it to be great and there is really no reason why it shouldn’t be. I guarantee pound for pound, JL movie amounts to the biggest story of 2013 even though it won’t come out until the year after.

What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2013? When I was growing up comics were a guilty pleasure for most of my friends. I don’t view it that way. I don’t feel guilty about any of the things that give me pleasure and don’t see why anyone should ever have to defend a positive opinion. If you enjoyed something, why should someone try and take that enjoyment away. If I didn’t notice the bad things you did, well then yay for me! I got the rare gift of entertainment, by making me feel bad about it your are sullying my positive feelings. Who needs that? BUT if you really want to press me…

I suppose I should feel guilty for my six inch scale action figure city and all of the ridiculous stories I am going to tell alone in my detached garage late at night, but really, I’m pretty good with it.


Ivan Cohen writer, @ivanmcohen

2013 Projects: Writer, Green Lantern: The Animated Series (comic-book); Consultant, THE NEVER-ENDING BATTLE (PBS documentary about superheroes); too many things with NDAs to mention.

What was the biggest story in comics in 2012? Karen Berger leaving Vertigo. Going forward, interesting to see if the imprint gets broader, maybe as more of a catch-all for anything not showcasing DCU characters and concepts. More sci-fi action/adventure, maybe even mature-reader superhero comics.

What will be the biggest story in comics in 2013? It’ll be trends, I think, rather than a specific event. On the self-publishing side, lots of Kickstarter projects from this year will start coming out, and we’ll see if there’s a market for some creators’ output beyond their core fans, or if there’s just going to be a glut of underperforming graphic novels with limited tools for outreach. In traditional publishing, consolidation of publishers will put a lot of pressure on the graphic-novel category and increase competition for already-stretched marketing dollars.


ayoDarryl Ayo

Cartoonist, http://littlegardencomics.com http://letsgoayo.com pundit

2013 Projects: Comics criticism took up the majority of my year in 2012. At the moment, I’m taking some much needed time to work on a short story that I’ve been dreaming of for a few months.

What was the biggest story in comics in 2012? The death of Moebius. The thirtieth anniversary of Love and Rockets. Brandon Graham, Simon Roy, Farel Dalrymple and Giannis Milogiannis on Prophet. The micro-press Oily Comics. To a lesser extent, “Before” Watchmen.

What will be the biggest story in comics in 2013? With any luck we’ll see even more gains for comic books and graphic novels in the North American public library system.

What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2013? Recently I’ve been checking out the Top Cow Productions miniseries, such as Aphrodite IX and Madame Mirage. So anything that they’ve got in that vein of self-contained potboiler genre stuff will probably end up in my database soon.


Chris Roberson

Chris Roberson

writer, publisher http://www.monkeybraincomics.com

2013 Projects: EDISON REX with Dennis Culver (Monkeybrain Comics), MEMORIAL with Rich Ellis (IDW), MASKS with Alex Ross and Dennis Calero (Dynamite), and the forthcoming REIGN with Paul Maybury (Image) and THE STRANGERS with Scott Kowalchuck (ONI). I’ve also got my hands full with a new slate of MONKEYBRAIN COMICS titles available through Comixology, including new issues of Dan Goldman’s RED LIGHT PROPERTIES, and a pair of one-shots, UNFAIR by Vance Sumner and Sandy Jarrell, and DENALI by Jay Faerber and John Broglia, and that’s just in the coming weeks, with even more good stuff over the horizon!

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What was the biggest story in comics in 2012? There were a lot of big comics news this year, but I think the biggest had to be the announcement that Karen Berger was stepping down as the head of Vertigo. When you consider how many great comics have come out of Vertigo, and the kinds of success that they’ve had commercially and critically, and then consider that Karen STARTED Vertigo, that’s pretty big news. It’s just been announced that Shelly Bond will be taking over as Executive Editor, and having worked with Shelly for years I think that they couldn’t have picked a better person for the job. But a Vertigo without Karen Berger is a DIFFERENT Vertigo than we’ve known up to now, and it remains to be seen HOW things will be different.

What will be the biggest story in comics in 2013? I think the biggest story in comics next year is one that’s already started. We’re in the middle of a paradigm shift of sorts, as digital distribution works to expand the existing comics market. And as with previous paradigm shifts, there are lots of interesting things happening on the margins, as individual creators and smaller companies find new ecological niches to occupy in a changing landscape. This happened before with the rise of the direct market, when independent companies like First, Eclipse, and Comico were able to establish footholds that wouldn’t have been possible under the old newsstand model. And the proliferation of distributors in the 80s and early 90s helped to foster an environment that made the self-publishing boom of those years possible. In much the same way, I see digital distribution creating opportunities for creators and companies to provide comics that would have difficulty finding audiences under the old model. And ultimately, as with the previous paradigm shifts, I think the people who benefit most are the readers themselves.

What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2013? I don’t really believe in guilty pleasures, since I’m pretty vocal about the kinds of things I like, and The_Strangers_01_FCBDI don’t feel guilty about any of it. But I suppose the thing I’m most looking forward to in the coming year is the return of SCOOBY DOO: MYSTERY INCORPORATED, which I argue is not only the best Scooby Doo we’ve seen to date, but one of the best series on television, bar none. I say “return,” even though new episodes haven’t yet been announced, because I’m willing it into existence. It’s coming back. It HAS to!


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charles_souleCharles Soule writer, http://charlessoule.wordpress.com

2013 Projects: Strange Attractors, a hardcover OGN due from Archaia in March – set in NYC, it’s the story of two mathematicians who figure out how to turn the city into sort of an engine using complexity theory (the butterfly effect, basically), and what happens when they turn it on. It’s been two years in the making, and it’s a real love letter to what I think is the most amazing city in the world. I hope people check it out – it’s a lot of fun.

What was the biggest story in comics in 2012?I don’t think it’s a stretch to call the resurgence of creator-owned books as the biggest story of 2012. Some of the most influential names in comics chose to put their books out in a creator-owned model – and more importantly, readers followed! I think that strong, original stories are one of the most likely ways to grow the reader base, and 2012 was certainly a year that delivered in that respect.

What will be the biggest story in comics in 2013? Impossible to say! I mean, every year seems to have its share of surprises. I wouldn’t be surprised if we start to see real digital sales figures getting released, though – we’re reaching a tipping point as more and more people find and read comics digitally.

What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2013? I’m not even sure this is a “guilty” pleasure, but I can’t wait for Season 3 of Game of Thrones. Those are some of my favorite (prose) books, and they’re doing a magnificent job with the adaptations.


marderLarry Marder

cartoonist, larrymarder.blogspot.com

2013 Projects: Beanworld. Too slowly. CBLDF is going to keep me busy in 2013 too. What was the biggest story in comics in 2012? The business held its own. Anything truly interesting is happening off screen, in the shadows, behind the curtain. We get hints and clues and puzzle pieces now and then but when something REALLY big is going down its almost always opaque until it’s revealed ala Disney/Lucas.

What will be the biggest story in comics in 2013? Something no one sees coming as always.

What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2013? Guilty? Season 2 of Magic City on Starz. Jewish gangsters, Miami Beach hotels, Cuban dancing, JFK and so on. Not as good as it might be but sucked me in

Not guilty? Season 4 of Treme on HBO. Such a great blend music of post-Katrina New Orleans music, food, Mardi Gras Indians, and cops.


neil_kleid_400 Neil Kleid

cartoonist, writer, neilkleid.tumblr.com

2013 Projects: A year of development, mostly—two short anthology stories in 2013, one for MOON LAKE, VOL.2 for Archaia Studios, the other for a license I’ve been hungry to work on for a while now. Apart from that I’m working on AMERICAN CAESAR, an original graphic novel for an unnamed publisher for 2014 with artist Eion Coveney while still art directing and building incredible sports apps for Topps, Inc. like Topps HUDDLE—our casual, social football game—and Topps BUNT, it’s baseball counterpart, relaunching in March 2013.

What was the biggest story in comics in 2012? As far as I’m concerned the departure of Karen Berger trumps most, along with the reorganization and—hopefully—revitalization of DC/Vertigo.

What will be the biggest story in comics in 2013? If I’m being optimistic, it’s going to be the continued evolvement of one of the current, gestating digital publishers —like Thrillbent or Monkeybrain—to the point where the company starts bringing in enough revenue and hiring enough talent to become a viable presence and mover/shaker in the “Big Four” style publisher rankings. It’s a dream we all share, sure, but it may not happen this year. If not…um…let’s go with Doctor Octopus Spider-Clone Marriage. Sure. That works.

What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2013? I wouldn’t be guilty in saying I’m looking forward to more MAD MEN, GAME OF THRONES and BOARDWALK EMPIRE, so let’s just say I’m anxiously waiting for them to unlock more Angry Birds Star Wars. Neil gotta play him some Yoda Birds! Also? Robot sex in SAGA. Yowza.


Fingeroth_03Danny Fingeroth

comics writer and editor, teacher, and author of books on comics including Superman on the Couch, www.dannyfingeroth.com

2013 Projects: THE STAN LEE UNIVERSE, edited by Danny Fingeroth and Roy Thomas, from TwoMorrows Publishing. An amazing compendium of Lee-rarities from Stan’s personal archived and elsewhere, just in time for his recent 90th birthday! The book has been out for a year, but its contents are timeless. If you haven’t seen it, please check out the lengthy preview at the TwoMorrows web link:

What was the biggest story in comics in 2012? The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art—MoCCA—merging with The Society of Illustrators.

What will be the biggest story in comics in 2013? The 35th anniversary of A Contract With God will stimulate even greater appreciation of Will Eisner’s body of work than already exists, and will rekindle interest in graphic novels among mainstream publishers.

What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2013? Buying more books despite my vow to get rid of books I have no room for to begin with.SLU-Stan-Lee-Universe


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Super1low Christian Beranek

writer, http://www.christianberanek.com

2013 Projects: My Kickstarter project Post Apocalyptic Nick comes out at the end of February. I’m very excited for readers to see what co-writer Tony DiGerolamo and artist Tom Kurzanski and I have been up to. I’m also debuting the first chapters of Unhappy White Girls and Blood and Bones. I’m fortunate to be able to create my own comics and have a growing audience. Hopefully I can build upon that in 2013.

What was the biggest story in comics in 2012? The Avengers movie. It not only fulfilled the Marvel Studios vision to bring characters from different films together to create a coherent universe, but it broke box office records and was also loads of fun. Joss Whedon has arrived as a director. I don’t think anyone else could have pulled off such a great story with an ensemble cast the way he did.

What will be the biggest story in comics in 2013? Webcomics. The iPad. The future. People will finally realize it’s already here.

What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2013? I am finally getting back to doing conventions again and appreciate cosplayers. Maybe I’ll do some cosplay of my own

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Kat Kan

Graphic Novel Selector for Brodart Books & Library Services, school librarian, and graphic novel reviewer/columnist for Voice of Youth Advocates and Booklist

2013 Projects: I create monthly lists of recommended graphic novels through my job for Brodart, which librarians can use to make their selection jobs a little easier. I’ve been doing this for 10 years come February 17, 2013.

What was the biggest story in comics in 2012? Digital comics is definitely a growing area, with more publishers producing them; I liked Robert Kirkman’s assessment that digital comics sales has not hurt the print sales of The Walking Dead. Also, iVerse is working on getting digital comics into libraries, which should increase the number of comics readers. Another thing is the growing importance of regional comics conventions.

What will be the biggest story in comics in 2013? What I’m hoping to see is greater digital growth in comics helping more indie comics.

What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2013? I’m at an age now where I’ve decided there are no more guilty pleasures. I’m hoping for my Florida state certification as a teacher librarian; I know it’s an odd thing to think of as a pleasure, but it will definitely give me more credibility when I start using more comics in my classes at school. I’m also looking forward to our local Creative Con at Bay County Public Library; it will be our fourth year, and we’re hoping to add more activities for kids and teens.


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Joe HarrisJoe Harris

writer, www.joeharris.net

2013 Projects: Great Pacific w/Martin Morazzo (Image Comics)

Wars In Toyland OGN w/Adam Pollina (Oni Press) What was the biggest story in comics in 2012? The Image Comics creator-owned revival. It’s so energetic and exciting… from Saga to Manhattan Projects to Revival and Luther Strode and Mara and on and on and on. Diversity of genre and scope, but all somehow feeding into this brand loyalty readers seem to be passing on for the Image Comics banner. Awesome stuff.

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What will be the biggest story in comics in 2013? More creator-owned work from more creators

What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2013? The continued intransigent, knuckle-dragging obstruction the congressional GOP has been perfecting since Obama took office. It’s almost veered into the realm of performance art by now. And laughing makes it easier to hide your tears. The President pushing forward and bringing the country along, despite the lack of republican cooperation, is going to be pleasurable to behold too. Just guiltless, by comparison.


imageMatthew Petz

cartoonist, Warofthewoodscomic.com

2013 Projects: writing and drawing War of the Woods Season II!

What was the biggest story in comics in 2012? Karen Berger leaving Vertigo. For me it’s the end of an era at DC.

What will be the biggest story in comics in 2013? I think it’ll be another sale/ acquisition/reorganization that will freak everyone out. Let’s say— Disney purchases DC comics for 10 billion?

What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2013? I can’t believe I’m admitting this, but that show about guys that make duck calls. Yeah, I can watch that all day.


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Sue of DC Women Kicking Ass

journalist, dcwomenkickingass.tumblr.com

2013 Projects: Other than the blog and the podcast, nothing I can mention right now but keep an eye out for some potential news.

What was the biggest story in comics in 2012? I think at an industry level it was the (re)focus on creators’ rights in comics. The year started off the debates around Alan Moore and DC’s decision to move forward with Before Watchmen moved onto a reopening the discussion of Jack Kirby’s treatment by Marvel because of the release of the Avengers movie. It continued with Roger Langridge’s and Chris Roberson’s departures and Roberson’s launching of MonkeyBrain Comics. You also saw the 20th anniversary of Image Comics which celebrated by publishing some of the best reviewed comics of the year including the megahit Saga and seeing The Walking Dead continue to build into an industry of its own. With the emergence of Kickstarter as a proven way for creators such as Gail Simone, Jimmy Palmiotti and Jamal Igle to create comics without a publisher and with some very big creators (and editors) now unattached to a big two publisher, I won’t be surprised to see a new imprint emerge in 2013 focused on creator owned comics.

From women and comics perspective that I focus on the, the big story was Marvel’s turnaround in female creators and female led titles. I was very concerned late last year after Marvel cancelled X-23 and Ghost Rider leaving it with no female led books just one female writer assigned to an ongoing, Marjorie Liu. Over the last year the publisher has launched Captain Marvel and Red She-Hulk and given Kelly Sue DeConnick two ongoing titles. Marvel has also turned Journey into Mystery over to Kathryn Immonen and Sif and announced an all-female team book “Fearless Defenders”. Nicely done.

What will be the biggest story in comics in 2013? Whether the film Man of Steel will be a hit and enable DC to compete with Marvel in the movie business. The reboot of Superman was a critical dice roll when it was first announced over two years ago. Now it is a basically a live or die proposition. DC Entertainment was creator to farm the IP of DC Comics into multimedia; if Man of Steel fails it will set them back 5 years.

What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2013? Oh, if I could only talk about one of them which is due mid year … but since I can’t …I will say I am looking forward to Lois Lane swag from Man of Steel and potentially a Wonder Woman TV show.


TRGEO relaunch_cover

Ron Perazza

digital media strategist, http://www.comicbookthinktank.com

2013 Projects: I recently launched COMIC BOOK THINK TANK as a progressive digital comics platform. Our most recent comic is THE ROAD GOES EVER ON, an homage to The Hobbit and the work of J.R.R. Tolkien. We’re working on the second part of RELAUNCH, our ongoing science fiction comic and that should go live in the near future. You can find both of them online for free at http://www.comicbookthinktank.com/comics.html

What was the biggest story in comics in 2012? I would have loved for the biggest comic story of 2012 to be something specifically about digital comics but I think it’d be a stretch. The biggest comic event of 2012 has to be the wildly popular success of The Avengers. Marvel has successfully made a conceptual leap creating a series of “solo books” and “team books” that share a common continuity…AND made it appealing to a mass market audience. They pretty much proved that a lot of people still like heroes and comic storytelling.

What will be the biggest story in comics in 2013? I think increasingly easier access to both create and distribute digital comics, combined with the proliferation of tablets among potential readers and a drive for more creator owned properties is a potent mix. I know it’s easy to paint the big publishers with a broad brush and apply the sins of the past to the present but I think the comic book industry is poised for a dramatic shift in the way they work work creators. What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2013? For comics? Over the last few years I haven’t really been interested in mainstream superhero books but Marvel has been doing some things lately to pull me back. I’m looking forward to getting back into some of their titles. For non-comics? I just bought a house and have discovered I actually like doing yard work. So I can’t wait for Spring!


Rich Johnson 149607_1750174754979_3872312_n

Editor

2013 Projects: Acquiring and editing graphic novels for Penguin Group on the adult side under the imprint InkLit and for kids under the Dial imprint. I am putting the finishing touches on the proposal and script for my graphic memoir with my yet to be revealed artist. Writing more and working on some other projects that I hope to announce soon.

What was the biggest story in comics in 2012? The expansion of the medium. The two biggest movies of the year are from comics. Two of the most popular and most successful shows on television are either based on comics (The Walking Dead ) or are rooted in comic book geekdom and culture (The Big Bang Theory). The growth of successful graphic novels for kids — the first issue of My Little Pony comic book had a print run of over 100,000 copies and was a bestseller on the iBooks store. Raina Telgemeier’s Smile has been on The New York Times Graphic Novel Best for forty-two weeks as of the December 16th list and her latest Drama has been there since the release twelve weeks ago. And speaking of the Times list The Walking Dead Volume #1 graphic novel has survived on the list 135 weeks and the series occupies four spots in the top ten. Alison Bechdel’s sequel to Funhome —Are You My Mother had a an announced first print run of 100,000 copies and Chris Ware’s publisher sold out of the first printing of Building Stories. And with the increasing popularity of tablet, digital comics and graphic novels have made made the increased the potential audience.

What will be the biggest story in comics in 2013? The biggest story will be how publishers will react to this brave new word. Will they take advantage of opportunities to expand the reach of the medium by effectively marketing in all channels ; comic shops, chain and independent bookstores, online retailers, mass market outlets, libraries, schools and digital? How will they please established fand and gain new readers?

What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2013? It’s funny, before I worked for DC Comics my biggest guilty please was reading comics! My guilty pleasure now is playing video games and I have some catching up to do.


IF Glenn Hauman

writer, webmaster, ComicMix, and about thirty others website for various comics pros, retailers, and news sites.

2013 Projects: * Helping Peter David raise funds to help recover from his stroke. See here for starters. * A whole bunch of interesting projects at ComicMix that we’ll be announcing any day now. Mwahahahah. * The Harvey Awards website— last year we computerized the voting; this year, the nominations! (I hope.)

What was the biggest story in comics in 2012? Digital, digital, digital— digital sales, digital distribution, digital fundraising and preordering. Honorable mentions: 1. comic book properties bringing in box office of over $1.3 billion domestically, just shy of $3.5 billion worldwide— and yet people think that this means recreating every major comic property to “improve” it. 2. Karen Berger leaving Vertigo and DC. The Old Order Changeth.

What will be the biggest story in comics in 2013? Health insurance and freelancers. With Obamacare beginning to kick in more and more, we’ll start to see exclusive contracts go away as that was the major thing keeping them signed with the majors.

Also: a major comic book company buys Evil Inc. Or is it that Evil Inc. buys a major comic book company? Reply hazy, ask again later.

What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2013? Coulson lives. So far.


jimmy_aquino_200pxJimmy Aquino

podcast Host/Producer,, Comic News Insider, Pop Culture Contributing Editor Stated Magazine

2013 Projects: Continue doing the weekly podcast, attend more comic conventions, more interviews/start writing articles for Stated, write for The Beat, possibly write/perform a musical and maybe get back into the world of acting/comedy in some way.

What was the biggest story in comics in 2012? Some major Marvel or DC character biting the big one. It’s the biggest story because we know they’ll never be back and we’ll just have to grieve and move on and let their adventures live on in past stories. If any of them return, I will get another lap dance. And we know how much I hate those.

What will be the biggest story in comics in 2013? See above.

What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2013? Anything Archie Comics related. For reals, yo. I loves me some Archie Comics.

1 COMMENT

  1. You mention lot of topic & illustration to make a mind to take a sample according any topic therefore I might have to concentration to it.I think every year plenty of planning to getting beat another servicing company because its impact the customers going there by & this is reality of the day.

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