Publishers

Over at his blog, Adam Hughes has posted his thoughts on drawing Dr. Manhattan for BEFORE WATCHMEN:

After years of rumors, DC has confirmed that they will publish BEFORE WATCHMEN, a series of seven interconnected prequels to the Alan Moore/Dave GIbbons classic. As absurd as the idea may seem on the surface, they have rounded up a bunch of A-listers for the project which will consist of six mini series, a wrap-up and an ongoing pirate-themed "featurette". Here's the line-up:

We've mentioned a few times here a lawsuit for copyright infringement by DC against an outfit called Gotham Garage, which sells replica Batmobiles—based on the '60s Batman TV show in particular—as well as other vehicles based on famed fantasy cars, like the Mach Five. If you were thinking of buying one, better hurry, because a judge has ruled that the Batmobile is subject to copyright.

You knew you couldn't go much more than two weeks without DC shuffling creative teams on the not-as-new 52. This time, it really is more of a shuffle than wholesale replacements, though, as three books get a new writer and DC's announcing things a little further out.

DC has released it's book schedule for Vertigo for the fall, including two originals, one yet to be announced -- THE PRINCE OF CATS by Ron Wimberly. Judging by his tumblr for the project, it an updated take on Shakespeare's ROMEO AND JULIET starring Tybalt.

The first ever Image Expo is shaping up for the end of next month with the addition of Ed Brubaker, whose FATALE recently launched and has sold out. This is really looking like a zeitgeisty kind of show -- Image is scooping up formerly exclusive mainstream writers like a rescue boat in the North Sea, and the lineup of guests includes many with passionate followings.

A sequel to the well-received X-MEN: FIRST CLASS has been greenlit with Matthew Vaughn once again to direct, Deadline reports. Simon Kinberg has written a script and Bryan Singer will produce. Everyone expects Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy to reprise their roles as Magneto and Professor X, but no one has officially been signed yet. And given Fassbender's recent roles, maybe we'll get to see little Magneto, too.

DC has released their non-New 52 collections list for September-November and it's chock full of goodies, including, at long last, a Collected Amethyst of Gemworld, which, as Kevin Melrose reports, is something people have been asking for for a long time. We're Amethyst fans from way back in the day (we even owned a piece of Ernie Colon original art form the series once, before it was destroyed in a fire. =( ) Blogger TangognaT has a longer run down of the series, an occidental take on shojo manga before anyone even knew what that was—and also a fairly typical example of the kind of books Karen Berger edited before she got to launch Vertigo. Lots more at TangognaT's blog, where she has been keeping track of Amethyst stuff for several years.

Here's what I discovered at the recent American Library Association Mid-Winter conference in Dallas, Texas! Librarians are rocking the graphic novels!

New comics! Fun stuff for everyone! (And, of course, before you hand the book over to a young impressionable mind, you have to read it first to make sure it is age-appropriate!)

Once again, a creator loses a copyright battle against a major comics publisher with a major motion picture soon to screen. The artist is living in poverty, has health problems, and is forgotten by the general public. Sound familiar? Read on... it gets worse.

Sales of the "New 52" books show no sign of stabilization, four issues into DC's big relaunch. The average "New 52" title dropped by 17.4% in December, versus 19.6% in November and 5.2% in October. The only "New 52" titles with single-digit drops in December are Aquaman (6.0%), Teen Titans (9.6%) and Batman: The Dark Knight (9.7%). The three "New 52" titles with the biggest fourth-issue drops are Static Shock (28.2%), Mister Terrific (29.0%) and Men of War (30.0%). Overall, there are 18 "New 52" titles with drops in excess of 20% in December, down from 22 in November. The lack of re-orders on the chart also suggests that the sheen is off the "New 52." Whereas 51 of the debut issues made the chart again in October, only two of the second issues charted again in November. In December, none of the third issues made the chart again. The average drop-off in first-month sales since issue #1 for the "New 52" books is 36.4%, as of December. The three titles with the smallest overall drop-off are Animal Man (7.4%), Detective Comics (13.5%) and Nightwing (17.6%). The three titles with the largest overall drop-off are Blackhawks (58.0%), Mister Terrific (56.7%) and Men of War (55.6%). Only 7 of the "New 52" titles display an overall drop-off of less than 20%, while 9 of them have already lost more than 50% of their debut first-month sales.