Business News

As more folks start off their year with funding announcements, Graphicly has just announced that they have received $3 million in VC via various...

2011 is going to be a tumultuous year for comics. Heck, it's already tumultuous. There's going to be consolidation and retrenchment. So over the next few weeks we'll be checking in at a few companies to see what's going on -- some of it's great and some of it is not so great. We will start with Top Cow which announced last week that they were consolidating many of their functions at Image Central, including production, marketing and sales efforts.

Okay, so a member of the Fantastic Four died in FF #587 -- a comic which would normally be on sale tomorrow, Wednesday, like usual, but went on sale early at selected retailers. At the same time, a story hit the wires, NPR and just about every other media outlet with a "DEATH IN THE FAMILY" type story, effectively spoiling what had been a pretty well kept secret until then. Twitter was fluttering from the moment the stories hit. Whether you were outraged or shrugged your shoulders at the spoilage it was yet another example of a Big Two publisher planting a major media story and having no good option for timing. This also happened, famously, with the death of Captain America, the death of Batman, and surely many others stories we are too jaded to remember.

While the timing, abutting yesterday's Wizard announcements, would seem to be connected, there's no mention of Gareb Shamus in today's news of $1.5 million in capital being raised for GeekChicDaily. Shamus launched the daily newsletter last year along with Peter Levin and $1 million in seed money from producer Peter Guber.

Numerous reports this morning that the print version of Wizard Magazine is shutting down, effective immediately, with all staff laid off and assignments canceled. According to Bleeding Cool, ToyFare magazine will continue. And based on the number of tweets coming out of the Wizard World convention business, the Wizard World shows will also continue. According to a press release just released from Gareb Shamus, Wizard will continue as an online "Wizard World" Magazine. In addition, the previous Wizard corporation is being replaced by Wizard World, a new public company, which is being traded as a penny stock.

Over a year ago, when Marvel and DC both turned into pawns of the larger game of Disney and Warners, it wasn't too hard to see the handwriting on the wall for some massive changes as the "Big Two" at the heart of comics publishing fundamentally altered their corporate structures -- including eliminating up some of their unprofitable businesses and looking to save money all over. At DC, there have been lots of snippets of change coming out, including, of course, shutting down the Zuda, CMX and WildStorm lines, and more recently, a major change in the contracts for creator participation books which has made Vertigo a much less desirable destination for creators. Chris Butcher has an interesting post which mentions other cost cutting measures, including not shrink wrapping hardcovers any more.

After yesterday's news that DC Comics was dropping the Comics Code, leaving Archie the last surviving member of the Comics Code Authority...comes word that...

From what we're hearing, it's going to be a rough year in the business end of comics -- the herd will be thinned. And here's one that's lagging behind as the hyenas circle: Russ Cochran is one of the survivors of the pre-direct market days as an independent publisher, specifically known for his extensive reprinting of the EC comics long before classic comics reprints were commonplace. His publishing company was purchased by Diamond in 1993, and formed the foundation of much of the Gemstone line of EC and Disney reprints. While Gemstone's actual publishing has been shut down (after running up hefty printing bills), Cochran continues to put out his own line of EC reprints, licensed through the Gaines Estates. However, according to a recent mailer, even that modest business is in trouble:

I'm going to have to be completely honest with you now. My business, which has been in existence since 1971...that's FORTY YEARS...is in financial trouble, and unless something changes soon, I will be closing my doors before 2011 is over.