Comics

Marvel have made a change to their solicitations, revealing that issue #17 of Wolverine & The X-Men is going to be a showcase issue for Doop.

Something that may have gotten lost in the shuffle of Comicon was the release of Bloodshot #1, the third title from Valiant's relaunch. Valiant went raiding Marvel again for the creative team: Duane Swierczynski (Iron Fist, Cable, and more recently Birds of Prey) is the writer, Manuel Garcia (probably best known for runs on Raven and Checkmate) is penciling with Arturo Lozzi, Stefano Gaudiano (all sorts of Marvel titles... plus X-O Manowar) is inking.

There's been some concern over Marvel's sales in the last six months or so. "But AVX is frickin' huge," you say. And it is. But that might be masking Marvel's inability to sell comics that aren't part of a crossover/Event. Marvel's Next event is the pseudo-relaunch of Marvel NOW! and nobody's quite sure what to make of that just yet. Last week, Brian Hibbs penned a column expressing concerns about Marvel NOW!'s viability and the poor general state of Marvel's and non-Event top list and mid-list. I think it's time to compare some of the numbers on this.

You know how one day you had never heard of a thing and then the next day you heard about it three different places from completely different sources? Thus it is with The Beat and Connie Sun, an aspiring cartoonist who draws in between her day job in "higher education." Despite the "aspiring part" her comics are sweet and charming and will send you into the weekend with a smile.

In May, DC reminded us that the old sales-boosting tricks still work. In June, we're reminded how short-lived those sales increases are. Coming out of the "Night of the Owls" crossover, the Batman line basically dropped right back to its previous levels, and the same applies to other titles participating in other crossovers in May; second, DC cut many of its variant-cover editions in June, with predictable results; third, the six replacement "New 52" titles all show second-issue drops between 20% and 44% in June; finally, a range of "New 52" titles display bigger-than-usual drops for no readily available reason in June, so it seems retailers weren't done yet trying to catch up with actual demand, after all. As a result of all this, DC's numbers were actually slightly down in June, despite the Before Watchmen launch and despite the fact that DC published two more DC Universe (and one more Vertigo) titles than they did in May. The DC Universe imprint's estimated average comic-book unit sales dropped from 39,179 units in May to 37,599, total unit sales from 2.69 million to 2.67 million, and total dollar sales from $9.05 million to $8.98 million. On the up side, though, the numbers are still golden overall, thanks, of course, to the four juggernaut debut issues of the Before Watchmen line, all of which made the Top 10 and cleared between 110,000 and 120,000 units each. Consequently, average DC Universe unit sales were still the 25th highest ever since March 2003, total DC Universe unit sales the 8th highest, and total DC Universe dollar sales the 6th highest. While it seems unlikely that DC will be able to sustain these types of sales levels through the rest of the year, it's well worth mentioning: They're doing very well right now.

More teasers for Marvel NOW! Suggesting Rick Remender and John Romita Jr will be in charge of Captain America, and Si Spurrier and Tan Eng Huat on what may be a new X-Men title.

Following the sudden closing of its physical space earlier this year, the fate of New York's Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art was in question. Now its future direction has been announced: MoCCA is transferring its assets to the more than 100-year-old Society of Illustrators. The SoI, as it is known, will install a permanent gallery from MoCCA's holdings, as well as stage special exhibits, the first of which will be 2013's “The Comic Art of Harvey Kurtzman,” which opens in March. The Society of Illustrators will also continue running the MoCCA Festival in its Armory location.

Mystery of the week: Literary comics mainstay D&Q is suddenly getting into prose with 15-year-old Tavi Gevinson’s ‘Rookie Yearbook One’ , a collection of the popular online magazine for teenage girls? With a company-high 40k first printing? Who? How? Why? All this is shocking enough. But here's the stunning drawing room reveal: it was Chris Ware's idea! What th--? Will Ware's unnamed one-legged protagonist suddenly be modeling Fit-Flops?

Stately Beat Manor approves of David Aja art. Click for larger images. HAWKEYE #2, written by Matt Fraction with art and cover by Aja, goes on sale September 5.

by Paul O'Brien

The AVENGERS VS X-MEN crossover continued to dominate Marvel's schedule in June, but the month also saw another high profile release - the SPIDER-MEN miniseries, in which the original Spider-Man meets the new Ultimate Universe version of the character. The Icon imprint also launches a HIT-GIRL miniseries. And other than that, it's a pretty quiet month for new releases, as often tends to be the case in the height of major crossovers. Despite the sales boost from the summer crossover, it was a very close month in terms of market share in the North American direct market, with DC leading Marvel in unit terms by 38.2% to 37.8%, but Marvel leading in retail share by 33.8% to 33.0%. Effectively a tie, then. DC's performance can be attributed in large part to all four BEFORE WATCHMEN titles landing in the top 10 with estimated sales of over 100K each.

Thor has found a villain and he's the king of the elves! What is this mysterious Avengers spin-off that Disney is kicking around? And what's this about a Prometheus SEQUEL?

With the new surprise in this week's issue of Avengers Vs X-Men now revealed, I offer a look at Black Panther's history, and why Marvel chose to go in this direction with him