Publishers

We're told a series of meetings will take place at 1700 Broadway today in which the shape of DC's move to the West Coast will be described.

It seems that the general air of Doompocalypsamagedden has now even extended to the comic book film, a once thriving genre that provided much of the capital that has fueled the biz for the last decade. Over at Comic Book Movie, there's an unsigned "volunteer contribution" that suggests "comic book movie" could go the way of the Western or the POLICE ACADEMY movies:

Only three were produced, alas, but they are swell. We have censored some salty language for our younger readers -- read the shocking unexpurgated version in the link!

By Torsten Adair --

The following is a selection of new comic strip titles due to be published this Fall 2010. This list is not comprehensive, as there are over 200 books about comic strips scheduled from September to December. These are just the titles which caught my eye. Although you are welcome to debate the definition of "comic strip" in the comments, for my purposes I'm including single-panel cartoons as well as books about comic strips in this list.

And speaking of long awaited graphic novels, Chester Brown, another indie comics genius long silent, has finally announced a new graphic novel for 2011. It's called PAYING FOR IT, and it deals with his ongoing experiences with prostitutes.

It was a wise man who said that comic book movies function as $20 million advertisements for graphic novels...and in the case of the Scott Pilgrim series it is certainly true.

DC Entertainment head Diane Nelson pledged a "no fear" era at DC since announcing changes earlier this year, everyone has been plenty nervous ever since she took over. The reason? DC's proposed move to the West Coast. Will it happen and when? That's been the question on everyone's mind. Word on the street is that next week, the answer to "Will DC be moving to the West Coast?" will finally be revealed, and an article in The Hollywood Reporter seems to back that up.

Twitter and Tumblr prove what they are made for as artists tweeted their versions of Marvel characters as kitty cats, and Agent M hosted the results. I'm in yr meme, being cute. So cute we can't link to just one!

The "Brightest Day" and Batman titles continued to be the driving force of DC's comic-book line in July. The publisher's overall performance in the periodical direct market remained more or less flat, consequently. The most prominent new release of the mainstream DC Universe line, and maybe a bit of a wildcard for retailers, was the debut of Batman: Odyssey, a six-issue miniseries by writer/artist Neal Adams, who is still something of a high-ticket name, but hasn't actually produced a substantial comics project in decades.

At Vertigo, overall sales were slightly down in July because Fables, for all intents the imprint's flagship series, didn't come out. At WildStorm, the numbers were slightly up because of two new miniseries debuting above the 10K mark.

See below for the details, and please consider the small print at the end of the column. Thanks to Milton Griepp and ICv2.com for the permission to use their figures. An overview of ICv2.com's estimates can be found here.

So it seems that Daredevil is going bye bye for a while -- DAREDEVIL was supposed to "end" with issue #512, with the Man Without Fear all caught up in the events of SHADOWLAND. Now it turns out that the title will start up again with issue #513 -- but starring the Black Panther. Author David Liss (A Conspiracy of Paper) will write the relaunch, with art handled by Francesco Francavilla. Solicitation copy suggest that taken from his natural setting and sundered from the doodads and moolah that come with being king of Wakanda, Black Panther will find himself having very different adventures in Hell's Kitchen.

Family Bookstore is pleased to host the launch of two new books from Fantagraphics Books: Billy Hazelnuts and the Crazy Bird Tony Millionaire

With the Green Lantern movie underway for delivery in 2011, the emerald warrior is getting all kinds of promotions to make sure that by the time Ryan Reynolds has been on 100 junkets, everyone will know who Green Lantern is. And to that end, he's already being licensed out the wazoo. For instance, the Asbury Park Press tells us that Green Lantern is getting his own roller coaster at the Great Adventures in New Jersey. The ride -- 15 stories of 63 mph mayhem -- will open to coincide with the movie.