Publishers

Archaia is making some moves, both with a new distributor -- PGW -- and its first illustrated novel, strong>Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes. Buried in a PR on the Ape book is the news that Archaia is leaving Diamond for PGW, which already distributes Cartoon Books. PGW distributes over 100 independent publishers, so picking up a few GN publishers makes sense. And Archaia's new books-only plan is also a good bit for a books-only distributor.

Do successful comic book movies create new comics readers? As the "Watchmen Principle" demonstrates, when a movie is based on a finite graphic novel or series, the answer is yes. When it is based on an ongoing 50 year saga the results are not so clear. CBR's Greg Hatcher chanced upon a display of bagged comics at his CostCo which showed that Marvel had put together a product that seemed to be aimed at people who liked THOR and wanted to know where to go next: A photo-cover of hunky Chris Hemsworth as Thor graced the front of the package and an assortment of alluring titles lurked beneath.

DC is releasing all kinds of FLASHPOINT world information today on the Source blog, and first up is an actual map of the new FLASHPOINT world, with a zombiefied Alaska, and Ape-led Africa (um...) and the Black Adam protectorate of Arabia. It was designed by writer Rex Ogle and artist Freddie E. Williams II, and shows the effect of a world without its greatest superheroes, a war-torn landscape of primal conflicts.

The countdown to THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, the highly anticipated third entry in Chris Nolan's Batman trilogy, kicked off today with a new new site, which thus far contains ominous chanting. The site was linked to via a Twitter account, @TheFireRises, which sends you to a page where you can upload your Twitter or Facebook avatar to help collate a collage of an image of Tom Hardy as Bane, one of the villains in the movie.

Gene Luen Yang's new book, LEVEL UP, covers some territory that may be familiar to many people -- a young man whose parents want him to make something of himself, while he just wants to play video games. Drawn by Thien Pham, it's Yang's latest exploration of growth and personal identity, especially as it relates to Asian Americans. But the book isn't just about video game addiction. At Wired's GeekDad, he explains where the book is really coming from in his own experience.

Behind the scenes at FLASHPOINT and Marvel, among other things.

Just a few weeks ago we were musing about how to get digital comics reviewed, and in our ongoing conversations about this is definitely seems to be the wave of the future. And now Dark Horse has made it official by joining NetGalley, a service that has been automating galley distribution for book publishers for a few years now. Instead of sending out review copies to a kabillion different sites and magazines, publishers can just send them to NetGalley -- reviewers sign up for an account and you're off to the races.

Did you know that Disney owned Marvel Comics? You do now, as Marvel is putting out a licensed comic from the ABC show Castle, which stars nerdlebrity godhead Nathan Fillion as a mystery writer who also solves crimes. The GN. will not be an adapttaion of the show, however, but a story about Castle's best-selling character, Derrick Storm. Tellingly, this will not be a periodical, but a standalone graphic novel, due in September, written by Brian Michael Bendis and Kelly Sue DeConnick with art by Lan Medina and a cover by Carlo Pagulayan.

Led by the top-selling Batman: The Dark Knight and Batman, Inc., which were back on the racks after a two-month absence, and a double-shipping Green Lantern, DC Comics' periodical sales continued a slow recovery in February. Notably, the February numbers also show modest increases across the rest of DC's line-up. Maybe the company's decision to cancel around 25% of its current ongoing titles and stick to a $ 2.99 price point is encouraging retailers, after all.

This is the busiest month Marvel have had in quite some time. The big release for March was the relaunch of FANTASTIC FOUR as just plain FF, but the month also sees the prologue to upcoming mega-crossover FEAR ITSELF, two new ongoing titles in VENOM and IRON MAN 2.0, the revival of CrossGen titles RUSE and SIGIL, and issues from the "Death of Spider-Man" and "Age of X" crossovers. We also have the second month of Point One issues - more on that below. As usual, Marvel had the largest share of the direct market, both in terms of dollars (leading DC by 40% to 28%) and unit sales (45% to 32%).

On his Twitter account, DC's vp of Online Ron Perazza confirmed that he is leaving DC instead of moving to the West Coast, as had been previously reported. Perazza was a 12-year-vet at DC, following a stint at Marvel, starting out in creative services where he rose rapidly in influence and rank to vp of creative services. Perazza's best known public move at DC was starting the Zuda webcomics line, which was controversial but one of the most innovative efforts at DC in recent years, and one which developed a thriving online community.

Just a reminder: The NBM blog is running regular web comics by Lewis Trondheim, one of the finest cartoon diarists of all time. The comics are excerpted from his acclaimed Little Nothings series, published in the US by NBM. Bookmark!