DC

As everyone probably knows by now, the first public footage from the eagerly awaited Green Lantern movie starring Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively has surfaced as a teaser for a full reveal on Tuesday's Entertainment Tonight. The reaction to this footage has been...mixed.

WOW -- so much e-ink over the news that J. Michael Straczynski, a prominent comics writer and Hollywood show runner, is leaving monthly comics to write an OGN sequel. And now two interviews at CBR and Newsarama to explain what really happened:

Okay, here's what we know now. Re, death of Spider-Man, Marvel released a cover for AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #655 which seems to link up to that...

Well. That was fast The SUPERMAN: EARTH ONE OGN has been a BIG, BIG hit for DC, topping the NY Times graphic best seller list AND the Diamond charts. So a sequel by writer J Michael Straczynski and artist Shane Davis is a no-brainer. This the DC blog announces today.

Digital comics continue to evolve quickly into a significant revenue stream for publishers, and they are increasingly moving forward without worrying about other sales outlets. To wit, today's announcement that DC has installed a standalone comics store on their site. Co-publisher Jim Lee, who has led the charge on this, made the announcement on the Source blog:

Artist Ashley Wood ruminates on the occasion of a collected edition of Automatic Kafka, his surreal but energizing collaboration with writer Joe Casey, most recently lauded as part of the WildStorm heritage. What Thrillerwas the the '80s this was to the Aughts, and it's fantastic that it's finally been collected. Only one catch...it's in Spanish.

In all the massive changes taking place at DC of late, the fate of the Vertigo imprint has caused much speculation and fretting. The staff has been slashed, output has been slowed, and what the future focus will be has not been publicly revealed. This comes, ironically enough, at the very time that plans long hatched for Vertigo to become more of a graphic novel imprint are finally being published. Chris Mautner takes a look at several recent GN offerings, which include work by novelists Stephen King, Peter Straub, Denise Mina, and Mat Johnson, as well as more typical comics types like Matt Kindt, Sarah Glidden and Dean Haspiel. There are hits and misses but this is really a pretty lively line-up for any publisher, let alone one that is being completely rebranded.

Yesterday's release of BATMANn & ROBIN #16 -- the final issue leading into the new BATMAN, INC, book by Grant Morrison and Yanick Paquette -- included a shocking ending. It was also the first time DC's new Editor-in-chief Bob Harras had made the press rounds with a bunch of interviews at various sites, including a chat with Kiel Phegley at CBR. Nothing too shocking or revelatory. Harras shows himself to be a smart publishing professional who likes Grant Morrison and thinks comics are a visual medium. He's also getting a handle on a wide-ranging job:

Via The Source a study of the Great Rian Hughes's various logos for Batman and Robin. All so similar in the strong shape (derived from the 60 year old original) and yet differing in tiny details in the readability of the lettering and even Batman's eyes.

By Torsten Adair The following is a selection of new comics titles due to be published in November 2010. This list is not comprehensive, as...

Via DC's the Source, a preview of the new SUPERBOY #1, which goes on sale next Wednesday. The story is by Jeff Lemire and art by Pier Gallo, with cover by Rafael Albuquerque. Avoiding any issues with the still pending Superboy lawsuit, this is NOT young Clark Kent but a new clone named Connor Kent.

August 2010 wasn't a great month for the direct market as a whole, and DC Comics was no exception. The current tent-pole title Brightest Day and its tie-in books kept performing solidly overall, but a number of other high-profile books, including Green Lantern, Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne, Batman and Robin and The Flash missed their August shipping dates, putting a bit of a dent in DC's periodical performance: Overall dollar sales for new comic books were the lowest since June 2009, and average unit sales dropped to their second-lowest point of the last 12 months. For the publisher's Vertigo brand, August was particularly tough, with estimated average unit sales dropping to a new all-time low of 9,094. Again, though, the schedule is the culprit: With American Vampire, Joe the Barbarian and Jack of Fables, some of Vertigo's best-selling comic-book titles didn't come out in August. At the WildStorm imprint, average unit sales crashed back to just above 6K, and in this case, the schedule had little to do with it. At this stage, it's not hard to see why DC is pulling the plug on WildStorm.