Indie Comics

By Steve Morris Artist Jamie McKelvie and writer Kieron Gillen have taken the spotlight today, with several pieces of news - both good and bad - coming from their camp. The good news is that...

Much has been written and lauded about this year's SPX, and I'm late to the game but I have a few thoughts I wanted to put to pixel before the memories fade. It was a great time for just about everyone, I think. I had a blast at TCAF this year and came away from it completely optimistic about The State of Comics. That mood was only deepened by SPX, and I don't expect it to fade any time soon. A few little notes:

Those still smiling from the high of SPX can take comfort that the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festical is only 55 days away -- Sunday, November 10th to be exact. And the guests have been announced:

Okay, that was metaphorical, but...While we work on our semi-coherent SPX thoughts, check out the Official Daniel Clowes Twitter for some fantastic images of the weekend. Here's Clowes and Chris Ware pouring over Crockett Johnson Barnaby originals at the Library of Congress:

Photo via @eee Possibly the best SPX ever—and definitely the most financially successful one. That's what everyone was saying last night. By 4:30 Fantagraphics had made more money than they did at all of last...

This weekend The Small Press Expo takes place in North Bethesda, MD, offering what seems to be a once in a lifetime lineup of guests: Dan Clowes. Chris Ware. Both Hernandez Brothers. No one ever seems to remember seeing them all in one place before. They won't all be on the same panel, but there is one featuring Clowes, Los Bros and Adrian Tomine. Get there early.

By Paul Mellerick 

For a rare change we get the number one book this month, as Walking Dead #100 breaks records all over the place. Saga and Buffy are still doing decent numbers, while the third Valiant relaunch, Bloodshot does very well too. Elsewhere, Adventure Time and the Trek / Who crossover continue to punch above their weight, while new licensed Transformers and Crow titles launch strongly for IDW.

 

145 indie books charted this month, up on last month's 135. The bottom book sold 4,187, up on last month's 3,302. They sold approximately 1,717,229, up on last month's 1,344,491, the difference being almost entirely made up of Walking Dead #100. Average sales are 11,842 per book, also up on last month's 9,959, but without Walking Dead it would have been 9,448. As usual, UK and European sales from Diamond UK are not reported in this chart.

 

Out of the 145 books, 27 went up in sales, a little less th

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:

This year's Small Press Expo, to be held September 15-16 in Bethesda, has one of the most amazing guest line-ups in forever, with Jaime Hernandez, Gilbert Hernandez, Chris Ware, Dan Clowes, Francois Mouly, Adrian Tomine and MORE. Programming director Bill Kartalopoulos has out done him self with a program that covers all the bases and more. Suffice to say we'll be glued to the two programming tracks.

With Jeff Smith's first post-BONE project, RASL, wrapping up after a four-year run, he's doing a bunch of interviews, and here's a good one from Paste Magazine. HUGE SPOILER WARNING: If you haven't read all of RASL, this is definitely one to save for afterwards as it discusses plot twists and turns in depth.

The nominees for this year's Ignatz Awards, to be presented Saturday, September 15th at the Small Press Expo, have been announced. As usual, it's an eclectic mix spotlighting some outstanding work from off the beaten path—Inés Estrada— and some from mainstream publishers—My Friend Dahmer.

Walking Dead rules the top of the charts again, in preparation for next month's centennial issue, while new entries for Mars Attacks and Harbinger sandwich the ever improving Saga. Elsewhere, Spawn celebrates its 20th anniversary by almost tripling its regular sales and Brian Wood's The Massive launches encouragingly high, while a bunch of successful recent launches consolidate their figures. Lots of books dropping, further down the charts though.

   

135 indie books charted this month, up on last month's 128. The bottom book sold 3,302, down on last month's 4,477. They sold approximately 1,344,491, down on last month's 1,392,594. Average sales are 9,959 per book, also down on last month's 10,880. As usual, UK and European sales from Diamond UK are not reported in this chart.

 

Out of the 135 books, only 29 went up in sales, far less than last month, and 87 went down, with the rest made up of one-shots and debuts.