News

How many statistics can one news day handle? DC has just released results from their Retailer Survey which they launched in conjunction with the New 52. As we noted at the time, the survey was aimed at gauging interest in each and every New 52 title, as well as general readership demographics. As such, it represents the most comprehensive reader survey a comics company has made in some time. While it's very New 52-centric, it does reveal a lot. While DC has released their own bullet points, which we've shown below, ICv2 has more info and an interview with John Rood. You'll want to head over there and digest the whole thing. But here's the broad picture:

Even as the success of THE WALKING DEAD across all media has soared—it's basic cable's highest rated program—there has always been a bit of a silent partner on the book: co-creator Tony Moore who left the book after six issues. Although credited as co-creator on the series, he's been noticeably absent from promoting the book or TV series in its recent wild run of success. And now we know part of the reason why: he's just filed suit over his share of the profits of the book, profits he claims he has never had an accounting for and which he fraudulently signed away.

In the 4th "New 52" writer shuffle of the week, DC has announced Gregg Hurwitz as the new writer for Batman: The Dark Knight, as of issue #10. I suspect they really mean co-writer on that, as I'm under the impression artist David Finch, for whom the title was created pre-relaunch, has a pretty good amount of input on the plot.

The recently concluded Angoulême comics festival is the most respected comics event in the world, but also one a bit remote from the daily comics grind of the average American reader. Two con reports will bring you up to speed in a hurry. Before we link, one note: I wrote earlier that crowds were reported as smaller this year, but the overwhelming evidence is that the festival was packed, as usual, with official attendance given as 215,000.

We've mentioned a few times here a lawsuit for copyright infringement by DC against an outfit called Gotham Garage, which sells replica Batmobiles—based on the '60s Batman TV show in particular—as well as other vehicles based on famed fantasy cars, like the Mach Five. If you were thinking of buying one, better hurry, because a judge has ruled that the Batmobile is subject to copyright.

Yes, The Beat is two years old today as its own standalone website. Woot. And we're celebrating just as we always do --slaving away into the wee hours of the day so you have something to read with your coffee. Oh yeah, we also changed the background just for the day—yes, it's awful, but it's our blog and we'll be tacky if we want to.

You knew you couldn't go much more than two weeks without DC shuffling creative teams on the not-as-new 52. This time, it really is more of a shuffle than wholesale replacements, though, as three books get a new writer and DC's announcing things a little further out.

Neil Gaiman took his victory lap after the settlement in his lawsuit against Todd McFarlane with comments to the Washington Post's Michael Cavna, talking about the copyright precedents set by all the various rulings over the years.

An epic battle of two of comicdom's most successful figures that lasted more than 10 years has ended, not even with a whimper but a settlement, as Neil Gaiman and Todd McFarlane have at long last agreed on how to share the rights to characters and stories Gaiman created for McFarlane's Spawn comic.

Last week's Angoulême festival extravaganza wrapped up with the presentation of the Grand Prix to Jean-Claude Denis, whose career goes back to the '70s but is perhaps best known in France for Luc Leroi. The Grand Prix is presented for a lifetime body of work—Denis is perhaps less well-known than some other winners, at least in the US. He was presented with the award by last year's winner, Art Spiegelman, as shown in the above video.

Very sad news out of Florida, where Mike Pandel, employee at A Comic Shop and co-host of the store's video blog A Comic Show and The Nerdy Podcast, is in a coma after a car accident and not expected to pull through.

Once again, a creator loses a copyright battle against a major comics publisher with a major motion picture soon to screen. The artist is living in poverty, has health problems, and is forgotten by the general public. Sound familiar? Read on... it gets worse.