Publishers

Beyond sweeping a perfect 10 out of the month's Top 10 comic books, DC's "New 52" titles are also starting to show first signs of stabilization in January. The average "New 52" title dropped 7.4% in sales, down from 17.4% in December and 19.6% in November. This gives reason to be cautiously optimistic on the longer-term prospects of DC's relaunched line. The trend should be taken with a grain of salt, however, as DC made a number of changes to its various retailer incentives in January that may be affecting sales one way or another. On Detective Comics, Batman: The Dark Knight, Superman and Aquaman, the returnability incentive was replaced with 1:25 variant-cover incentives. Batwoman, Green Lantern: New Guardians and Swamp Thing, which were promoted with a special-discount incentive from September through December, also switched to 1:25 variant-cover incentives in January. Finally, the threshold retailers were required to meet in January to qualify for returnability on the 37 titles that weren't promoted through variant-cover or discount incentives changed from 125% of retailers' May 2011 orders to 100% of November 2011 orders. With this in mind, let's wait for the February figures to see if the trend holds when incentives are equal from one month to the next.

New day, new Avengers poster. This time Black Widow is face front and the character in the brokeback pose is....the Hulk? Truly, this is the dawning of a new day.

Anonymous Image creator on the mood at the Image Expo. It was by all account a successful weekend if only as a pep rally, with hopes for the future and independence for creators. The crowds weren't immense, except on Saturday, but they liked what they saw.

With his gorgeous GOLIATH out from D&Q, Tom Gauld is embarking on a two-continent tour. UK dates are above; here's his US schedule.

There seemed to be some mixed thoughts going around about Image Expo and that seems to be best summed up by a conversation between a local retailer and a pro who'd been to a lot of shows in Oakland.

Is the world ready for a new graphic novel from outsider musician/artist Daniel Johnston? Probably. Johnston, whose long career as a very eccentric musician was the subject of the 2006 documentary THE DEVIL AND DANIEL JOHNSTON, is also an avid comics reader, and this is his first GN. It comes complete with added soundtrack and app for the 360º experience. For those not familiar, Johnston is somewhere north of Wild Man Fischer and south of They Might be Giants and early Beck.

From Image, another new series:

As cat people, we're not really sold on on the whole "dress your pets" humiliation tool; however, for those who like to dress their doggie, Marvel and Fetch are introducing a line of Marvel-themed pet attire called cool pets!. The line of toys, apparel, and accessories will be available at your local PetSmart.

By Paul O'Brien

Perhaps it's a side effect of the decision to trim the line, but Marvel seem to have gone back to the days when each month had a small number of new launches that they could focus on properly. This month's sole new title is SCARLET SPIDER, and the only major new miniseries is WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN: ALPHA & OMEGA. There's also WOLVERINE #300, and the second issue of the AvX lead-in mini AVENGERS: X-SANCTION. DC's resurgence continued in January, as once again Marvel faced a fight to be the top publisher in the direct market. In terms of market share, it's really too close to call; DC led in units, by 40% to 38%, while Marvel led in dollars, by 36% to 34%. On the other hand, DC swept the top ten with the fifth issues of their regular titles - some of which are selling in a different league from anything in Marvel's range. It's been a long time since AQUAMAN was outselling the entire Marvel line. Thanks as always to ICV2.com for permission to use these figures.

Well, looks like this Valiant relaunch is going to go places we've never gone before. The first issue of X-O Manowar will have a QR Voice Variant—"the world's first QR code-augmented, talking comic book cover!" Jelena Kevic-Djurdjevic supplies the art. On Wednesday, a preview poster will be shipped to local comic shops so you can preview the technology, which involves a QR code, a smart phone and a steady hand.

Remember how we keep telling you that kids' graphic novels are the fastest growing segment of the US GN market? One of the reason for the spurt is that the books keep getting better. For example, GIANTS BEWARE! from First Second by writer Jorge Aguirre and artist Rafael Rosado. It's a pretty simple tale:

Here's more of the promo art that came out over the weekend from various Image projects, mostly released at CBR or on Twitter. Previously, MARA and CHIN MUSIC.