Culture

While looking for a comics cover for a sick alert, I realized that the heyday era of the doctor comic was definitely the early '60s. Licensed comics were such a big deal then, especially for Dell/Western. They licensed just about anything. The BEN CASEY and Dr. KILDARE comics were based on popular TV shows of the time. Dr. KILDARE lasted about 9 issues, BEN CASEY 10, although it did spin off into a comic strip which was written and drawn by Neal Adams.

Marvel bashed its way back to the top in March, winning both dollars and units and the top book with AvX #1. After getting shut out of the top 10 books for the last few months, they had three books, including the AvX 0 issues and AVENGERS ASSEMBLE #1. AvX #1 is invoiced for March although it only went on sale yesterday, in April, because it shipped to retailers a week early. Comparative charts showed March 2012 pretty flat with 2011, with only graphic novel sales up appreciably -- and that's because of a surge in WALKING DEAD VOLUME 1 sales. This perrennial led the GN chart yet again, buoyed by the TV show no doubt.

Random House has announced that Brian Michael Bendis has signed a deal with Random House to produce a book called Words for Pictures: The Art and Business of Graphic Novels. The Hollywood Reporter has it described as "designed to give those looking to break into comic writing a leg up." And they might just be missing the point. It looks to me like Bendis just wrote a textbook.

Last year a federal court in New York denied the Kirby heirs' attempt to claim the copyright in Spider-Man and other Marvel properties. Why, then, is their lawyer betting the future of the Siegel lawsuit on the same losing arguments?

Grant Morrison will present Mxyzptlk as a Kryptonian God of Chaos, in direct contrast to Brainiac, a God of Order. Both will battle across multiple dimensions (as hypothesized by String Theory), forming the "brane" of his long-awaited "Multiversity" epic.

We knew there was a Big Apple/New York Comic Market Con this weekend at the Penn Plaza Hotel...but we did not realize it was the LAST show to be put on by Mike Carbonaro. But it is. Carbonaro, an inescapable figure on the NY comics scene, has some 40 years of selling comics behind him (he started as ateen like so many of us) but really got on the NYC map with the famed "Church Con" of '96 or so when a planned major convention at the Coliseum (now torn down) was canceled at the last minute when the organizers failed to talk to/pay off the fire marshals. Carbonaro and pals like Vincent Zurzulo stepped in to throw a last-minute show in the basement of a church and a kind of tradition was born again...the kind of grimy, fan-focused shows that New York City fandom was founded on.

via Collider:

DC's latest filing in the Siegel case made headlines because of the company's request for a trial. But was that really a surprise? In today's post, we'll look at what the filing reveals about DC's not-so-secret war -- and how the final fate of Superman may be determined by Facebook and the Winklevoss twins.

The final ramp up to The Avengers, Game of Thrones news and interviews to whet your appetite for the season two premiere this Sunday, some Dark Knight casting news, plus the latest big screen development news from Image Comics..

"You've just won the MegaMillions lottery! What are you going to do with your winnings?"

Reporter Michael Dean's long, investigative reports are one of the things we most miss about the old print Comics Journal, but he's back with a look at MoCCA, both the festival and the museum:

To mark the first ten years of his stint as Executive Editor at DC, Dan DiDio ran down the top ten highlights of his years there on his Facebook page. It's an interesting list that tells you everything you need to know about the last decade in superhero comics publishing.