DC

Poring over the February solicitations this week has revealed several bits of news. For instance, the Old New 52 gang is breaking up some more as Ron Marz is no longer writing VOODOO, to be replaced by Josh Williamson. Although VOODOO's cameltoe-tastic art by Sami Basri had drawn criticism, most observers agreed that for a story about a stripper who is really an alien, Marz had done a decent job. However, editors wanted a different take, even though editor Rex Ogle was leaving to take a job at Scholastic, as Marz told Newsarama.

Over on their blog, DC has announced the rollout for the New 52 collections. Instead of dumping 52 trades in one month, they will be staggered from May-November, with 7 or 8 books released a month. Justice League, Batman, Green Lantern, Detective, Batman & Robin, Batgirl, Batwoman, Batman: The Dark Knight, Aquaman, Green Lantern Corps, Green Lantern: New Guardians, Action, Superman and Flash are all getting hardcovers; the rest get TPBs. Missing from the list: Wonder Woman.

September was business as usual for DC Comics' periodical sales, as... oh, wait. The "New 52" project, a relaunch of its complete superhero line via 52 #1 issues, made September 2011 a record-breaking month for DC Comics -- and a joyously eventful one for the people watching their sales. It's not often that publishers attempt something on this scale, unfortunately, so it's nice not to come up with 52 different ways of expressing that sales have mostly been going down, for a change. It's a little bit like that myth about Eskimos and the words they have for snow. Anyway: The average DC comic book sold an estimated 57,224 units in September, the average DC Universe comic book a whopping 67,411 units. That's more than double what it was in August for both, as well as more than in any previous month since sole distributor Diamond started releasing information on actual sales to specialty retailers in March 2003. The month that comes closest is May 2006, when DC's line-wide "One Year Later" initiative kicked off, with 44,554 (DC total) and 59,505 (DC Universe) units, respectively. And, while we're breaking records: May 2006 was also the only previous time when the total dollar value of DC's periodical comic books exceeded 10 million, with an estimated $10,157,965. In September 2011, the amount was $10.9 million for DC total and $10.5 million for the DC Universe line, which never broke the 10-million mark on its own before. (Average cover prices were about the same, by the way: $3.05 for DC total and $3.04 for DC Universe in 2006, and vice versa in 2011.)

Well, DC has had a spectacular Fall so far, launching the New 52 comic books.  But what of their strong graphic novel line?  What's new (and old) on bookshelves this season? Quite a bit!  Absolute editions, omnibuses, deluxe editions, licensed products, and the usual titles.

Converse and DC have teamed for the DC Comics x Converse Chuck Taylor All Star Hi Collection,, which features high top sneakers based on Batman, Superman, the Flash and the Joker. We like! More pics in the link. A DC comics poster comes with each shoe purchase.

Wow, the number of women working in the New 52 just jumped 33%...or something. We're no good at percentages. Anyway, Nicola Scott will be filling in for Jesus Merino on Superman issues 3, 5 and 6 of the George Pérez written book, working from Pérez's layouts. It's definitely a fill-in in many ways. Merino will be the regular penciller from isues 7 on, although Perez is leaving the books. And Scott is pencilling a JSA book, written by James Robinson, with an indeterminate launch date SUPERMAN #3 goes on sale November 23.

We meant to post this yesterday but somehow it got lost in the shuffle. This fall Robot Chicken — the toy-motion animation satire that uses lookalikes of your favorite childhood toys to enact grisly jokes — is doing an entire 15-minute episode devoted to DC comics. Recently, Geoff Johns, a past contributor to the show, linked to the trailer — which is NSFW, we might add. Robot Chicken is animated in the super bad style, and it's ugly all the way, but with its laser-cutting, bloody wrist stumps and cock ring humor, this is one of the most disturbing things we've ever seen. And to think that DC used to burn books just because it was suggested that Superman might drink a beer.

Not a hoax, not a dream, not an imaginary story, DC is collecting FLEX MENTALLO: Man of Muscle Mystery in one of those Deluxe Editions that will look nice on your shelf next to other Grant Morrison/Quitely classics like We3 or All Star Superman. You'll recall that FLEX MENTALLO is one of the seminal works in the Morrison oeuvre—many of Morrison's most important themes found their most cogent articulation here— but a collection was long held in the vault due to past legal problems. But now it's coming your way in all its glory, and it has an awesome new cover by Quitely. It's all good.

Although battered and bruised by a wave of opprobrium over his work on the New 52, writer Scott Lobdell hasn't given up, and he's facing the music -- or questions from the internet, as the case may be. After a lengthy layoff from high-profile comics assignments, Lobdell's work on RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS and TEEN TITANS has met with a....mixed reaction. Or as he reportedly asked Gail Simone, "Why didn't you TELL me?" In an interview with Comicvine he does cover some of the more controversial aspects of his recent work like...Starfire, the amnesiac sex addict.

As if we needed more proof that superheroes in any medium other than their original one sell more units, BATMAN: ARKHAM CITY, the new video game featuring you-know-who has sold 4.6 million units in its first week, WB Interactive has announced.

We don't know exactly what is going on in these set photos from the Vancouver shoot of the new Superman movie, but we approve.

The NY Times digs in to the DC/Amazon/B&N/Books-a-MIllions spat and doesn't get too much further than the vague statements that everyone has made so far, but you can read between the lines a bit.