Comics Media

As I was drying my tears following the dramatic conclusion of this week's episode of Agent Carter, 'Snafu', all I could think about was that I wanted more. More Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter, whose range and presence eats up every frame of this small-screen show that plays like a big-screen adventure. More of the fabulous, smart dialogue and fantastic supporting cast; more of the beautiful costumes and period lighting -- just more! More than just next week's season finale.

Randy Duncan and Matthew Smith have published a second edition of their essential textbook on the history and business of comics -- and this time, they're joined by a new author: Paul Levitz.

When people talk about saving John Constantine, usually it's a hopeless task, as the scouser magician's soul has long been consigned to hell for his many sins on earth. But another campaign to save Constantine is under way—and this time it's fans attempting to keep his TV show going past a 13 episode commitment despite middling ratings.

As announced on Twitter and expanded on via Tumblr Andy Khouri is stepping down as editor in chief at Comics Alliance, and the dynamic duo of Andrew Wheeler and Janelle Asselin-Moore will shares duties.

We're looking for a few writers around here and near here.

§ Jason Enright is moving on from the Marvel monthly sales charts due to some exciting but unannounced news. I know a bunch of you apply for this every time, but please reapply -- previous experience with databases and a glee for number crunching required. Jason is graciously doing this month's chart but after that, we are on our own. Email me at comicsbeat at gmail.com if interested. This is a volunteer position.

Bookmark! Bookmark! Bookmark! Darling Sleeper is a new comics magazine hosted on medium.com. It's run by cartoonist Jesse Lucas, who has put out books including Colloquial and works at Forest Giant when he isn't cartooning. The site is billed as "a publication focusing on comics, art and other independent thought" and has already featured interviews with Box Brown, Aisha Taylor and Sam Alden, a comics excerpt from Whitney Taylor, new comics from J. Jonny and Keiler Roberts and Lucas's own Guide to Self Publishing.

If Marvel was hoping Agent Carter would improve on its ratings from last week’s 2-episode season premiere, they must be somewhat disappointed this morning. While Agent Carter still snagged second place behind NBC’s Parks and Recreation, it’s ratings are still down 21 percent from last week. Marvel should be interested in more than just ratings, as the show has received considerable critical acclaim.

The other day, Tom Spurgeon linked to a Facebook post by cartoonist T Edward Bak in which he frets about the "money vs art vs oh god what the hell am I doing" feeling that many in the indie world are having, and which we've written about many times. In response I was about to go link to a fantastic FB post by Derf Backderf in which he talks about being a cancer survivor and what he's done since—delivered the great book My Friend Dahmer, continued to cartoon, enjoyed life with his family, travelled the world. It was a wonderful life affirming post that puts a lot of things into perspective. But....it was gone.

Former retailer and current CBLDF director Alex Cox pens a piece called How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Ignore the Internet with a...

Did I get tricked into running this somewhat non-slick infographic because The Beat is ranked #8 in a list of the top 100 comics blogs? You bet. But I did like that The Nib is #1. I think the chart went by Alexa rankings and it includes webcomics among the blogs, which doesn't really make any sense. But anyway, talking points.

On Friday, the long running—22 years!—Brian Bendis message board shut down with the above message, and al of its archives went with it. The Bendis...

We here at The Beat have long been a fan of Tim Beyer's analysis of comics and comics-based entertainment trends at The Motley Fool and he's just launched his own site to expand on that called The Full Bleed: