Indie Comics

Everyone is figuring out new ways to get their stuff out there. Halo-8 is a multimedia company that just funded the OCCUPY COMICS anthology via Kickstarter -- but it's being released a little differently. People who purchased the book via Kickstarter get a digital subscription until the printed version comes out. They're using a similar system for GODKILLER, a comic written by Halo-8 head Matt Pizzolo and illustrated by Anna Muckcracker Wieszczyk, previously known for LUCID (Archaia) and the OCCUPY COMICS promo image.

Due to a computer glitch we had a corrupted file for the cover to Zak Sally's SAMMY THE MOUSE collection up in a previous post, so for your viewing pleasure here's the real deal. If you missed the news, Sally is collecting the three Ignatz issues of his dark strip for a 104-page trade which he funded on Kickstarter. The book will be out in March and yes -- he used that amazing printing press in his garage to print it himself. He hopes for a second collection later this year.

By Paul Mellerick

The one-two-three of Buffy, Walking Dead and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles continues to dominate the top of the indie chart, but Boom’s new Peanuts comics, containing new strips not by Schulz, gets the number four spot. Other than that it’s a quiet month, although there are 21 debut series, specials and one-shots across the list.

Now into month three of the New DC, overall it appears that the much vaunted extra sales that were rumoured are just that, rumours. Most books are still firmly on a downward heading, with many titles at the lowest sales in their history, and those that are stable have a history of being stable. A lot of this month’s new books have started well, but none have unusually high sales, bar maybe the first part of Kiss vs Archie.

123 indie books charted this month, only 4 less than 2 months ago, but with the bottom book selling almost a thousand copies more, 4,330 to 3,341. This seems largely due to new books, with 22 debut comics on the chart this month. The bottom book sold 4,330 compared to last month’s 5,167, but there were only 87 indie titles last month, and this month’s number 87 sold 6,299. In total those books sold approximately 1,099,699, up on last month’s 921,878, but this month’s top 87 sold 915,559, so like for like sales are pretty close. Still, average sales are 8,940 per book, down from last month’s 10,596. As usual, UK and European sales from Diamond UK are not reported in this chart.

--remember that "handholds and rockface" metaphor we just used in the SLG piece? Here's an example of what we meant in an interview with Secret Acres' Leon Avelino and Barry Matthews at The Comics Reporter.

Koyama Press has am impressive new website, courtesy of Squidface and the Meddler. If you have never seen the comics from this beloved indie publisher, now's the time to check 'em out.

Chris Pitzer looks back on his nine years of publishing at AdHouse Books -- from Pulpatoon Pilgrimage and on through such coveted art books as Pulphope and Process Recess to acclaimed works like Duncan the Wonder Dog and Skyscrapers of the Midwest. With stops for Afrodisiac and PopeHats and more. Even goofy stuff like the Mort Grim, a comic book about cars. Each year's output from AdHouse will only take up a few inches on your bookshelf -- but those are precious inches. What a great line-up of strongly individual visions and wonderful stories, each presented in a well-designed format.

As the comics market has gotten a lot dicier In This Economy, a few smaller companies have become a bit harder to spot in the forest. Companies like Moonstone, the long-running pulp-themed publisher of such things as KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER, BUCKAROO BANZAI, and so on. In recent year they have been best known for putting out a bunch of pulp heroes now published by Dynamite, such as The Spider and so on. Things have been pretty quiet on the Moonstone front of late -- publishing small indie comics periodicals seems like a supersonic journey to insolvency and industry scuttlebutt around Moonstone hasn't been exactly robust. But Moonstone is still around -- here are their April releases, both collections and both Buckaroo Banzai-themed. Guess that cult film has found its afterlife in the comics, with the participation of auteur W.D. Richter a big bonus.

Alex de Campi and Jimmy Broxton proposed a $27K project on Kickstarter. "Ashes" is a sequel to de Campi's and Igor Kordy's 2005 Eisner-nominated mini-series Smoke (published by IDW). This 250 page graphic novel is one of the most ambitious projects in terms of the dollar amount of the goal in the comics category on Kickstarter. Ashes has now reached it's funding goal and is sitting at 101% funded at $27,285 in funding with 11 days to go before the funding period ends.

It's all happening at Jim Hanley's Universe. Retrofit Comics is Box Brown's line of pamphlet/floppies that is bringing the periodical back to the indie comics world. Some releases thus far:

The last burst of indie comics comes out this weekend, including KRAMERS ERGOT #8 and work by Box Brown, Maurice Vellekoop and more. Check it out!

An anthology of Box Brown's much lauded EVERYTHING DIES mini-comic and webcomic is now available. Winner of two Ignatz Awards, EVERYTHING DIES deals with various historical and religious takes on the end of the world, second comings, death, and other eschatological matters. This Lulu-produced collection includes selections from both versions of the strip. Brown's THE SURVIVALIST is also available for pre-order and will be at BCGF this Saturday.

When a giant movie studio and a small comics publisher both use the same title, who gets to keep it? Well, in the case of WRATH OF THE TITANS, both. Warners is planning a sequel to its CLASH OF THE TITANS remake for next year, entitled WRATH OF THE TITANS and starring Sam Worthington and directed by Jonathan Liebesman. But Bluewater already published a seres of sequels to the movie in its Ray Harryhausen line, also entitled WRATH OF THE TITANS (this fact wasn't mentioned in the Variety story.) Harryhausen, you may recall, is the driving force behind the original CLASH OF THE TITANS, which showcased his signature stop motion animation.