Publishers

As retailers keep slashing their orders on Before Watchmen and the replacement "New 52" titles, DC's overall figures decline again in July. That, in itself, is not surprising, however, and the company is still doing quite well. I see no reason to disagree with anything prominent retailer Brian Hibbs said in his recent look at "New 52" numbers. With regard to DC's overall performance, Hibbs makes some of the same points that I've been making here in the months since the relaunch, and as far as his own store is concerned, his observations seem to match the market climate. "The reboot was a remarkable success," Hibbs says, and: "There hardly could have been a better result." I agree, all things (such as the stifled potential of the comic-book format and the stifling way the major publishers are set up now, structurally) considered. But it's also worth remembering that what we talk about now when we talk about comic-book sales that are "doing quite well" and a relaunch that's "a remarkable success," and note that "there hardly could have been a better result," are the kinds of sales figures we used to see more regularly five years ago, when the DC Universe imprint was publishing fewer comic books than it is now. (From 2007 through 2009, the average number of published DC Universe titles was 52. From 2010 through August 2011, it went up to 57. Since the relaunch in September 2011, it's been an average 63 DC Universe titles per month. "Keeping it at 52"? Not very much, Dan DiDio.)

Each year, Marvel SVP of Publishing Tom Brevoort gives a lecture on editing to younger Marvel staffers. At this year's Baltimore Comic-Con, he presented the two-hour talk for the audience, as recounted by Alex Zalben. Although there's definitely some "Marvel Way" in the talk, most of it was the kind of common sense that everyone needs drilled into them. However, it's also a pretty interesting glimpse into the day-to-day thinking behind Marvel's editorial decision making. The whole thing is worth a read, but a few selected excerpts to give the flava:

Here's today's teaser: Dennis Hopeless. Salvador Larroca. December 2012 Paging Robert Langdon! What could this lettering mean?

One of the topics we've all had our eyes on here at Creator Watch 2012 is the Jim Starlin Situation. In brief, as you all know, Thanos was teased as a villain at the end of THE AVENGERS, and the announced Guardians of the Galaxy seems to be setting up some kind of cosmic menace for Marvel's movie universe. And it just so happens that Thanos -- and Gamora, who is a member of the GotG -- were both created by Starlin as part of his run on Warlock. In the case of Thanos, Starlin has posted evidence showing that he created the character prior to working at Marvel. And when asked about the character's appearance in the third highest grossing movie of all time, it turned out that he had been in the dark about it. As if that wasn't ominous enough, a Thanos miniseries to be written by Joe Keatinge was announced with great fanfare and then very hastily canceled, with no reason given, leaving room for all kinds of speculation that the character might be in some kind of ownership tussle.

Oni's former Operations Director George Rohac has been promoted to Director of Business Development, the company announced today. Rohac will relocate to the East Coast in order to pursue working with various Oni partners. Rohac joined the company in 2009.

By Steve Morris We've reported on a comic becoming a show, now here's a show becoming a comic. The Insider reports that Jane Espenson and...

By Todd Allen Valiant's roll out continues.  If you're familiar with the original, you caught an Eternal Warrior reference in the first issues of Archer and...

Warners hasn't given up on getting Wonder Woman on the small screen, Vulture reports and it seems that this time they are taking a...

Time for a new teaser image from Marvel! Your word of the day is "Survive". So just what the ruddy deuce could this one be...

By Steve Morris Pleased with the success of these teasers at the start of Marvel NOW, it looks like Marvel will now be slowly announcing...

Via a statement today, Archaia is back at Diamond, after a one year stint with PGW. Although leaving Diamond Books is a popular move...

By Steve Morris Via that very best of methods: the Dustin Weaver giganti-cover. The covers for issues 1-3 of Jonathan Hickman's Avengers relaunch have been...