Publishers

By Steve Morris The first creative team for the December-launching Marvel Now comics has been revealed today on Newsarama: artist Steve Dillon and writer Daniel Way...

By Steve Morris Read no further until you pick up today's issue of Avengers Vs X-Men, unless you want to be spoiled! Alternatively, pick up...

Comic Book Death. Inexorable and irreversible. Okay, maybe not, but good for a story in the Daily News, anyway. We've even changed the URL to avoid the spoilers, but according to the story in today's AVENGERS vs. X-MEN #11, a beloved character dies at the hands of another beloved character an event that left its mark on the Marvel staff:

By Steve Morris More Jane Espenson! Dark Horse Comics have today been discussing Espenson's upcoming issue #14 of their Buffy Season 9 comic, in which...

By Steve Morris More Jane Espenson! Dark Horse Comics have today been discussing Espenson's upcoming issue #14 of their Buffy Season 9 comic, in which...

A few months ago, Guillem March's cover for the CATWOMAN #0 issue was met with widespread scorn around the internet, including right here, and, sure enough, when the issue actually appeared, it was a bit different. What I'm about to say may shock many but...I kind of liked the original one better.

Is a Y: THE LAST MAN movie on again after years of on and off again? Sounds like it. According to Claude Brodesser-Akner, New Line is all ginned up by a new draft for a Y movie by Matthew Federman and Stephen Scaia (Jericho) and everyone has fanned out to search for a director.

By Steve Morris In an interview with CBR, writer Rick Remender has confirmed that his 'Final Execution' arc of Uncanny X-Force will be his last...

By Steve Morris In an interview with CBR, writer Rick Remender has confirmed that his 'Final Execution' arc of Uncanny X-Force will be his last...

As retailers keep slashing their orders on Before Watchmen and the replacement "New 52" titles, DC's overall figures decline again in July. That, in itself, is not surprising, however, and the company is still doing quite well. I see no reason to disagree with anything prominent retailer Brian Hibbs said in his recent look at "New 52" numbers. With regard to DC's overall performance, Hibbs makes some of the same points that I've been making here in the months since the relaunch, and as far as his own store is concerned, his observations seem to match the market climate. "The reboot was a remarkable success," Hibbs says, and: "There hardly could have been a better result." I agree, all things (such as the stifled potential of the comic-book format and the stifling way the major publishers are set up now, structurally) considered. But it's also worth remembering that what we talk about now when we talk about comic-book sales that are "doing quite well" and a relaunch that's "a remarkable success," and note that "there hardly could have been a better result," are the kinds of sales figures we used to see more regularly five years ago, when the DC Universe imprint was publishing fewer comic books than it is now. (From 2007 through 2009, the average number of published DC Universe titles was 52. From 2010 through August 2011, it went up to 57. Since the relaunch in September 2011, it's been an average 63 DC Universe titles per month. "Keeping it at 52"? Not very much, Dan DiDio.)

Each year, Marvel SVP of Publishing Tom Brevoort gives a lecture on editing to younger Marvel staffers. At this year's Baltimore Comic-Con, he presented the two-hour talk for the audience, as recounted by Alex Zalben. Although there's definitely some "Marvel Way" in the talk, most of it was the kind of common sense that everyone needs drilled into them. However, it's also a pretty interesting glimpse into the day-to-day thinking behind Marvel's editorial decision making. The whole thing is worth a read, but a few selected excerpts to give the flava:

Here's today's teaser: Dennis Hopeless. Salvador Larroca. December 2012 Paging Robert Langdon! What could this lettering mean?