Publishers

§ In the never-ending discourse over gender and comics, one of those classic anecdotes -- this one told by a man:

The big news of the day: D&Q has picked up Kate Beaton and will publish her next collection, HARK! A VAGRANT. Beaton's current print outlet is the Topatoco edition of Never Learn Anything from History, which, every time we've seen Beaton at a show -- is sold out. Grrrrrr. It isn't clear from the PR if this is a new edition of that material or all new but the word "next" suggests the latter.

The Vertigo blog has some news and art this am, a new blurb for AARON & AHMED, the GN by Jay Cantor and James Romberger. Also news of MARZI by Marzena Sowa and Sylvain Savoia, sort of a Polish PERSEPOLIS about a young girl growing up in '80s Poland. Interestingly, this is NOT an original GN but a translation of the original, which was published in France, a bit of a change for the imprint. (That's the Spanish version above.)

While searching for various comics events, I discovered this over on the Image Comics website. Here, uncensored, is the PR from their website.  That's a...

So, as happens frequently in America, we treat History like a Cassandra, reading and studying, but choosing not to believe or remember the lessons it teaches us. I know Cassandra's fate, and thus the dangers of saying "I told you so". So instead, I'll quote Gene Wilder in " Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory": Oh, you should never ever doubt what nobody is sure about. So, what can we expect in 2011?

Marvel had quite a lot of new material on the market in November. Aside from AMAZING SPIDER-MAN shifting to a fortnightly format with its new "Big Time" direction, we've also got two new ongoing titles, GENERATION HOPE and SPIDER-GIRL. Further down the chart, there's also a veritable horde of new miniseries, including ASTONISHING THOR, OSBORN, SHE-HULKS and a whole bunch of CHAOS WAR tie-ins. As usual, Marvel had the largest share of the direct market. It's a relatively close month, though, with a lead over DC of 40% to 37% in unit share and 34% to 33% in dollars. A major factor there will be a number of high-profile Batman comics in the top 10.

The influential and historic DARK HORSE PRESENTS anthology -- last seen as an online anthology available on MySpace and later adapted to print --...

Coming from D&Q next year. Michael Dumontier and Neil Farber are Canadian art idols, and it's easy to see why.

After a few years sojourn at DC doing TRINITY, among other things, Mark Bagley has returned to Marvel, Bendis and Ultimate Comics Spider-Man for the "Death of Spider-Man" event.

As teased at San Diego and mentioned in passing here and there, Marvel is bringing back some CrossGen titles this march: Mark Waid's RUSE,...

Who doesn't like some Bendis, Bendis, Oeming? iFanboy has a preview of Takio, the new all-ages Icon book:

The "Return of Bruce Wayne" and "Brightest Day" brands continued to be the driving force behind DC's periodical output in October. While most of the Batman books were on hiatus, a bunch of one-shots, collectively titled Bruce Wayne: The Road Home, filled the gap. Other October releases include the low-profile miniseries Knight and Squire and JLA/The 99. Consequently, average sales of the DC Universe line remained relatively flat.