Culture

The Walking Dead #100 led the charts in July, even as DC just barely edged out Marvel in both dollars and units—a sign that Marvel NOW can't come soon enough perhaps. BATMAN: EARTH ONE led the graphic novel charts, topping a strong month for DC. Sales were generally flat from June, although remain much higher year to year. Comics were down a tad while GNs declined in dollars but gained in units.

The final teaser of the week hands over the keys to the Baxter Building to Matt Fraction, Mark Bagley, and Mike Allred

And you thought comics had it bad. It's been a banner year for video game sexual harassment—or at least video game sexual harassment awareness. The Anita Sarkeesian Kickstarter and subsequent online abuse has been well documented, and it's been discussed so much that the Times is ON it with a piece that nonetheless serves as a good round-up. This is the last frontier, as anonymity and youth add up to a culture of harassment—which spills over into the real world as when a female gamer was harassed by the captain of her own team IRL (above.) The Times says it's gone so far even video game makers are trying to do something:

Marvel's newest teaser is for Deadpool, suggesting the new creative team will be comedian Brian Posehn, writer Gerry Duggan, and artist Tony Moore.

Color Scott Pilgrim is coming. It was available at Comic-Con. And soon it will be available on-line. Soon meaning August 8th. But to get the very rare Collector's Editions (which includes the Evil Edition, along with all the sweet merch mentioned below and pictured above, like coins and prints and patches) you must watch and wait. And then crash the server, probably. Here are the details:

Frank Santoro's new process blog Comics Workbook, which has "flipped the script":

Read Comics in Public 2012 has just been announced for Tuesday, August 28th, which happens to be another great date in comics history:

The Blown Covers blog recalls the gag insert in Raw #8 which included an one page gags by Burns, Marischal, Panter, and the rest of the Raw gang. The punchlines were created by commitee however:

If you are one of the last souls who has yet to buy WANDER or DRACULA THE UNCONQUERED #2, allow me to convince you. Put away that latte money for I have something better for you to enjoy.

The latest Skyfall trailer trailer has dropped. Have a quick view and let's discuss:

The next Marvel teaser suggests that Aaron and Ribic will be the team for the relaunched Thor series, which I guess they're going to call 'The Worthy Thor'? Or perhaps it's a team series.

As an addendum to the previous post, and for further reading, there's currently a Women Write About Comics roundtable going on, with interviews with lots of smart people. The most recent is with Alexa Dickman of the Ladies Making Comics tumblr and her indispensable Women in Comics wiki which is doing an amazing job of bringing to light tons of forgotten women in the comics industry. Lots of smart talk, including this gem: