Indie Comics

Indie seems to be having something of a renaissance at the moment, with a lot of books selling out and going to second print. Walking Dead and Buffy top the chart once more this month, with the new Magic The Gathering and Conan titles taking the next two spots, Fatale holding strong and the new Star Wars book, Dawn of The Jedi, looks to be a genuine hit. Rob Kirkman’s new book Thief of Thieves and a new Stephen King adaptation also score high, with kids comic Adventure Time also launching very well.

134 indie books charted this month, 2 down on last month. The bottom book sold 4,270, over 1,500 up on last month. In total those books sold approximately 1,257,329, well up on last month’s 1,052,459 with fewer titles. Average sales are 9,389 per book, also up on last month’s 7,739. As usual, UK and European sales from Diamond UK are not reported in this chart.

This month IDW were the number three publisher, thanks to the first two issues of Magic the Gathering, with 6.66% dollar share and a 5.62 market share, followed by Image with 5.53% dollar share and 4.88% market share, Dark Horse with a 4.98% dollar share and a 4.06% market share, Dynamite with a 4.20% dollar share and a 3.82% market share and Boom with 1.61% dollar share and 1.40% market share. Everyone but Boom was up for the month.

MoCCA Fest 2012 has finally announced its guests and begun rolling out other activities—and they have a brand new dedicated website, above, to do so. P. Craig Russell is the guest of honor—which explains the exquisite rococo ad we've been running for the past month -- and Gary Panter will be presented with the Klein Award, MoCCA's lifetime achievement honor.

Although best known for their biographical comics line, Bluewater publishes other titles, original and licensed. Here's a new book based on Solder of Fortune magazine, full of rootin' tootin' manly action — the first series will be written by NY Times bestselling author Marc Shapiro with art by Steven Black:

Huh, well, this is innovative. It seems Katchoo will turn into a zombie and Francine will have to hunt her down. No, that isn't it.

Walking Dead and Buffy top the chart again, but the debuts of Lord of the Jungle, Fatale and Danger Girl: Revolver push the Turtles down to sixth. Elsewhere there are two new Transformers ongoings, a few more new Image books, and the end of several titles.

 

136 indie books charted this month, 10 up on last month and again less Marvel or DC books charting this month. The bottom book sold 2,606, half of what it was 2 months ago. In total those books sold approximately 1,052,459 down from last month's 1,067,927 with more titles. That's the second month in a row that'. Average sales are 7,739 per book, well down from last month's 8,475. As usual, UK and European sales from Diamond UK are not reported in this chart.

 

This month Image were again the number three publisher, with 5.48% dollar share and a 4.83 market share, followed by Dark Horse with 4.89% dollar share and 3.55% market share, IDW with a 4.35% dollar share and a 3.78% market share, Dynamite with a 3.46% dollar share and a 3.66% market share, Boom with 1.66% dollar share and 1.35% market share and Eaglemoss with 1.47% dollar and 0.30% market share. IDW, Dynamite & Boom are up for the month, everyone else is down.

Sparkplug has a complete selection. Ditko didn't stop drawing when he left Spider-Man, you know!

AMC, History Channel, Spike—every TV network that ever wanted to do a "Comic Book Idol" TV show—here is the comic book life captured in its most primal and dramatic: people arguing about cover design in front of over stuffed bookcases and furnishing mingled from antiques and plastic storage boxes from Target. Yes, this is the life.

By Paul Mellerick --

Walking Dead, Buffy and TMNT again dominate, but a rare appearance of Aspen’s Lady Mechanika is the third best-selling indie book this month. Dark Horse and Dynamite have a couple of promising launches, but apart from them it’s mostly downhill for the rest of the chart. If you ever wanted an indie charts drinking game, try taking a shot everytime I say drop or dropping, you’ll be smashed before you’re halfway through.

126 indie books charted this month, slightly up on last month with less Marvel or DC books charting this month. The bottom book sold 3,105, way lower than last month’s 4,330. In total those books sold approximately 1,067,927, a bit down from last month’s 1,099,699 with more titles. Average sales are 8,475 per book, down from last month’s 8,940. As usual, UK and European sales from Diamond UK are not reported in this chart.

Bongo is the successful comics publishing company that nobody knows about. Although it will celebrate its 17th anniversary this year, and has mastered the periodical-to-trade business model, and has been happily plugging along publishing essentially creator driven comics for all that time....no one in the comics industry EVER talks about Bongo. Sure, publishing Simpsons comics seems like a no-brainer...but do you think the books would have lasted this long as a licensed title at DC or Marvel? Well, now there have been some changes. And some new branding. It has a new logo to start with—three's a trend! And long-time art director Nathan Kane has been promoted to Creative Director, replacing Bill Morrison, who, we're told, has joined Simpsons creator (and Bongo owner) Matt Groening to work on secret projects.

The 2012 Toronto Comic Arts Festival has just unveiled it's first guests and it's as eclectic lineup of stellar creators from around the world, including Alison Bechdel, Jeff Smith Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon, Guy Delisle, Kate Beaton, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Jason, and others from around the world. The festival also unveiled its to die for poster, by Bá and Moon. Held May 5-6 in Toronto, this free comics festival is shaping up to be one of the shows of the year. Although considered part of the"indie" circuit, TCAF's guest line-up, as in past years, spotlights creators from all levels of the medium. Webcomics, kids comics and cartoonists from 15 nations will be mingling in what many creators consider the best show of the year.

In a world where every comics-to-movie project gets endlessly covered, SAVE THE DATE has pretty much flown under the radar -- but then it's an indie movie created by an indie cartoonist and not based specifically on a comics property. The film, based on ideas from indie cartoonist stalwart Jeffrey Brown, follows two sisters -- one about to get married, the other just broken up with her boyfriend, and how they approach love and commitment. Directed by Mike Mohan ("One Too Many Mornings") from a script by Mohan, Jeffrey Brown and Egan Reich, the movie debuts this weekend at Sundance and has already gotten some buzz behind it. It stars Lizzy Caplan (True Blood, 127 Hours), as the single sister (who happens to be a cartoonist), Alison Brie (Mad Men, Scream 4) as the sister about to get married, Martin Starr (Mad Love, Adventureland) and Geoffrey Arend.

The Beat has now received Alex de Campi's rebuttal to James Hodgkin's statement on being fired from ASHES, the graphic novel project they got funded on Kickstarter for $32,000. I said I would have my comments, and they are sad ones. I'm an admirer of both creators involved here -- professionally and personally. But if there was ever a case of he said/she said this is it. "Creative differences" indeed. The whole thing reminds me (for the old timers out there) of D'arc Tangent, a long ago collaboration between Phil Foglio and Freff which dissolved into "creative differences," never to be seen again.