Publishers

by Zachary Clemente "The last story of the Greatest Generation" Don't let the semi-snarky headline fool you - I love me some Hickman Madness. Secret with artist Bodenheim...

Rat Queens co-creator Kurtis J. Wiebe has posted a statement regarding his co-creator Roc Upchurch's recent arrest for domestic violence after attacking his ex-wife. The upshot: Upchurch is off the book.

Exhibit A: A Howard the Duck cameo at the end of the years #1 movie Exhibit B: Marvel brings out a Howard the Duck Omnibus, reprinting the masterful comics by Steve Gerber, Gene Colan, Val Mayerik and more. It doesn't take much detective work to figure out that a new Howard the Duck ONGOING COMIC was on the way. And it's by Chip Zdarsky and Joe Quinones , EW reveals. Did I ever think I would be writing a story about Chip Zdarsky writing for Marvel? Writing Howard the Duck? No, I did not.

And here's another second look at a comics property that already had a time at the dance—Global Frequency, already the subject of a failed project way back in the prehistory of 2005, is getting another look as a TV show, with Jerry Bruckheimer once again leading the way.

Now what was that I was just saying about non Marvel and DC properties getting a second look—or in the case of From Hell, a third look. The masterpiece by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell that followed the saga of Jack the Ripper in fascinating detail was already made into a movie starring Johnny Depp. But now it's back in development as a TV show:

With 56 super franchise movies coming at ya in the next six years, The Beat has been keeping an eye on whether any of...

The post-Guardians partnership between Marvel and Jim Starlin continues with the second original graphic novel in a proposed trilogy about Thanos the purple skinned Mad Titan created by Starlin. THANOS: THE INFINITY RELATIVITY OGN comes out in June. While standalone graphic novels were once rare at Marvel they've gotten into the pool with the Starlin books, and some introductory books aimed at beginning (as in not experts in Marvel continuity) readers. The first book in the trilogy, Thanos: The Infinity Revelation, made the NY Times bestseller list, so it probably did all right.

Oni publicity guy John Schork has left, as announced in a model of grown-upness via social media

There are now a ton of job listings up at the WB job board for DC's new West Coast set-up. Among them publicity and strategy and...

Another win for a graphic novel as Jillian Tamaki won canada's Governor General Award : for This One Summer in the Children's Literature Illustrations...

Valiant continues to roll out some new books—this month it's Josh Dysart's Imperium—but I really just posted this for the Matt Kindt/Jeff Lemire  variant covers.   IMPERIUM...

BY JASON ENRIGHT — Hello Sales Chart Analyzers! In October, there were a lot of books. So to start, let’s break down the numbers a bit. An interesting trend to look at this month is how variant numbers affect the sales. Several titles benefitted from being included in one or more of Marvel’s themed variant programs this month. In October, Marvel had 3 variant themes, the Anti-Bullying variants, Deadpool 75th anniversary variants and Hasbro toy variants. Many of these issues were in the middle of an arc and normally would have suffered standard attrition of -1 to -3%, but due to these variant programs they got a nice +3 to +5% sales boost. Variants are one of many incentive programs that companies use to boost sales. Recently Marvel and DC have been doing these themed variants across multiple books and they definitely seem to be working. Whether or not, they are actually good for comic sales in the long term is another question entirely. What do you think of variants? Let’s discuss it in the comments below. For now let’s dive into the numbers.