Publishers

Curse of the Wendigo is a graphic album coming out tomorrow from Dynamite written by Mathieu Missoffe and drawn by Charlie Adlard. Missoffe is a French screenwriter who moonlights in comics (an increasingly American thing to be doing, it would seem). Adlard is probably most familiar to comics audience as the artist on Walking Dead. As you might guess from the phrase "graphic album," Curse of the Wendigo was originally published in France by Soliel in 2009. Yes, the same Soliel that Marvel was publishing translations of a few years back.

I look back and recall the interesting events of 2011. What's my choice for the biggest event of 2011? Read and find out!

Let's start the new year out with a "what if." Over the years, there have been a ton of early-to-mid-'80s rumors about various Marvel creators having proposals in to revamp the DC characters. Some of the stories involve Steve Gerber and Frank Miller pitching new versions of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman as Crisis on Infinite Earths was being planned (and that The Dark Knight Returns spun out of said pitches). I've heard Howard Chaykin and Walt Simonson's names attached to similar rumors.

Listen to Heidi MacDonald, The Beat herself, discuss 2011 in comics on a special year-end edition of More To Come, the PW Comics World podcast! As you may or may not know, Heidi has been one of the hosts of our bi-weekly comics news podcast for the past several months. In this episode, Heidi MacDonald and her co-hosts PW Comics World editor Calvin Reid and I discuss the biggest trends and events of the past year, including...

by Mark-Oliver Frisch -- Three months into the wholesale makeover of DC's line of superhero comic books, the direct-market numbers suggest three main things: One, the "New 52" relaunch was extremely successful at mobilizing comics specialty retailers; two, this success doesn't seem to be affecting, for good or ill, any other comics beyond the initial 52 titles; and three, the number of new comics readers the "New 52" has brought into comics stores seems negligible, overall. Retailers continued to adjust their orders for the "New 52" titles in November, and this time, the downward correction was more noticeable. On average, sales of new DC comic books dropped by nearly 10,000 units or 19.2% in November, versus 10.4% in October. The average drop on the third issues of the 52 new superhero titles was 18.8%, versus 5.2% for the second issues. Animal Man (-8.0%) and Detective Comics (-9.7%) were the "New 52" books with the smallest drops in November, while Blackhawks (-29.5%), Mister Terrific (-29.7%), Blue Beetle (-29.9%) and Captain Atom (-30.0%) were at the tail end of the spectrum. In contrast to October, when all but one of the "New 52" debut issues made the chart again with significant re-orders, only two of the #3 issues -- namely Batman and Aquaman -- charted again in November. On balance, the drop-off on those titles is still better than average. The fact that the larger drop came in November and the lack of more #2 re-orders both suggest that customer interest in the "New 52" peaked early, however.

Following the departure of VP of Marketing Micha Hershman, Dark Horse has promoted former director of online marketing Matt Parkinson to the post of senior director of marketing. Parkinson, a six-year DH vet, will take over the duties of overseeing DH's marketing efforts.

The first four pages of ACTION #5 by Grant Morrison, Andy Kubert, and Jesse Delperdang has just been previewed at Geek Dad and Underwire and not only does it present the new origin for Superman, as he's rocketed to earth by his parents, but we learn why the new DCU will not have a happy, yappy dog in a cape flying around -- instead there's a "Ghost Krypto". Oh, Grant Morrison, how could you?

Comics+ is giving away a copy of STAR TREK #1 in their app -- but only until 3 pm EST. Use code FMST01 in the app for the free book. STAR TREK #1 features the classic characters in the alternate timeline of the reboot, overseen by Robert Orci with writer Mike Johnson and artist Stephen Molnar. #1 reimagines the original pilot, “Where No Man Has Gone Before.”

Gantz, Hiroya Oku's popular, super-violent manga about a team of operatives and their mysterious missions, is ending its run in Young Jump next year, it's being reported. More than 30 volumes of the manga have appeared in Japan -- in the US, Dark Horse is up to volume 20. It's also been adapted into a TV series and two movies.

Bryan Hitch, the king of widescreen comics, is announcing the end of his Marvel run of nearly ten years -- or at least that's what he's tweet hinting:

In two days time, an amazing decade at Marvel closes for me. What a wonderful time to have joined the party. Very proud and honoured.

For the last month, Hitch has been counting down to a purported huge announcement -- he has only five days to go, so January 3 will be the big day -- coincidentally, the day that Hitch's frequent -- Ultimates, Authority-- collaborator Mark Millar also has an announcement planned. Hm.