Ennis and Robertson to reveal the Butcher's origin
Not to be confused with BUTCHER BAKER, RIGHTEOUS MAKER, Joe Casey and Mike Huddleston's scabrous look at superheroes, this july we'll see BUTCHER, BAKER, CANDLESTICKMAKER #1 by Garth Ennis and Darrick Robertson, a miniseries which will reveal the origin of The Butcher, "The most violent man in comics." PR and a three-page preview below.
THE BOYS has been Dynamite's most consistent selling comic for several years now; a movie is still in development with Adam McKaye last reported writing a script.
NBM goes with IPG for distribution
Although we wrote about this here, it was little noticed that NBM, publisher of fine Euro-comix and quirky originals, now has its own book distributor, IPG, a respected indie distributor located in Chicago. Just as with Fantagraphics and Norton, D&Q and FSG, this should be a good match of a dedicated GN line for a distributor that wants to diversify. PR below:
NBM goes with IPG for distribution
Although we wrote about this here, it was little noticed that NBM, publisher of fine Euro-comix and quirky originals, now has its own book distributor, IPG, a respected indie distributor located in Chicago. Just as with Fantagraphics and Norton, D&Q and FSG, this should be a good match of a dedicated GN line for a distributor that wants to diversify. PR below:
First pics from BATMAN Stage show
Unlike Spiderman: Turn Off The Critics, the BATMAN LIVE - World Arena Tour is a stunt-show, albeit probably one with more plot than the old second act of STOTD. The story is devised by Allan Heinberg, Stan Berkowitz and Alan Burnett, and cast photos from the production -- which kicks off in the UK -- have just been released. There's also a piece from the BBC which suggests this show will include tons of aerial stunts:
More Green Lantern
ICv2 has some hi-res photos of Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern that we had previously missed. Looks a bit like an action figure, no?
More in the link.
Breaking: Layoffs at Dark Horse
CBR is reporting a round of layoffs at Dark Horse including editors Shawna Gore and Dave Land and sales assistant Max Sato. The Beat has learned that Tim Ervin, Gore's ex-husband, and another editor at Dark Horse, were also let go.
DC Month-to-Month Sales: February 2011
by Marc-Oliver Frisch--
Unit and dollar sales of DC Comics' periodical business remained at the lower end of the spectrum in February, despite a slight recovery from January's all-time low in average unit sales. However, the direct market as a whole has seen better days, and so DC still managed to snatch the three top spots of the chart and six out of the Top 10 in February, regardless of the company's lackluster sales.
For the publisher's mainstream DC Universe line, the absence of major titles Batman Incorporated and Batman: The Dark Knight continued to be a problem, while the hangover from the discontinued WildStorm imprint kept dragging down the average. Average comic-book sales of DC's Vertigo imprint were still hovering above the 10k mark, meanwhile.
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.
MEANWHILE: DC confirms Retroactive teams — UPDATED
Over at The Source, DC is releasing more info on Retroactive, a series of retro one-shots by classic teams starting in July. No final art has been released yet -- the image of Superman below is just style guide art.
Casey and Dragotta team for Marvel VENGEANCE event
With comics periodical sales slogging along, many have said it's time to throw things against the wall and see what sticks -- Marvel is at least giving a nod towards this by announcing an event called VENGEANCE by Joe Casey and Nick Dragotta. Launching as a six-issue miniseries in July, VENGEANCE will take on the Marvel U's bad guys in a fresh fashion, introducing both revamped versions of younger evil-doers along with classic Marvel villains.
"We're going to the Sixth Dimension, Hitler's Germany, an insane nightclub, and a homeless shelter," Dragotta said—of the first eight pages.
Marvel Month-to-Month Sales: February 2011
February sees Marvel's "Point One" programme get under way, with issues of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, WOLVERINE and IRON MAN. The Age of X crossover starts in X-MEN LEGACY and NEW MUTANTS. And there's a new ongoing series, IRON MAN 2.0.
As usual, Marvel had the largest share of the North American direct market. It's a pretty wide margin over DC this month - 45% to 31% in unit terms, 41% to 28% in dollars.
Thanks as always to ICV2.com for permission to use these figures.
Marvel to publish Langridge's Muppet comics
With Marvel picking up most of the licensed Disney material that BOOM! Studios had published, it's no surprise that they'll be publishing the much-loved Muppets comics by Roger Langridge in a 96-page collection called "MUPPETS PRESENTS: MEET THE MUPPETS" -- previously collected by BOOM! in 2009. Bringing back Langridge's great comics is a no-brainer, but there is still the question of the Langridge comics that were left in publishing limbo. On his blog, Langridge suggested that the material in question was in a contractual limbo, with DIsney unable to publish it until it had been published by BOOM!.
Asked whether the lost material would be showing up at Marvel, a spokesman had only a "No comment."
What the critics are saying about Paying For It
Chester Brown's PAYING FOR IT is destined to be one of the most talked about graphic novels of the year -- we'd suspect it may be THE most talked about. It's a great work of comics that is nonetheless problematic for the views it espouses about human relationships and commerce.
Just in case you aren't sitting on the edge of your seat waiting for the book to come out, PAYING FOR IT is a memoir by Chester Brown about his experiences employing prostitutes. Brown's previous works include such masterworks as I NEVER LIKED YOU, ED THE HAPPY CLOWN and the historical narrative LOUIS RIEL, which is considered an important political work in Brown's native Canada. As one of the pioneers of the most successful schools of autobiographical comics, Brown is a major figure of the art comix era.
