§ Retailer Brian Hibbs is done with Heroes, the NBC super-show which was recently renewed for a fourth season. But the reason is not what you were expecting:

Oddly, it wasn’t the inanity of the plots: between this week’s scenes of the “bad ass” fed trying to turn super-powered people into suicide bombers (Ut? why would anyone, anywhere, draw a line between an explosives vest and the powers?), and the Sylar-finds-his-dad-then-doesn’t-DO-anything, I would certainly have been justified.

No, it is the comics shop scenes.


§ Joey Manley wonders why so many webcomickers cease their publishing deals with “mainstream” publishers:

The failed Diesel Sweeties/United relationship came to mind today when I read that Gina Biggs is reclaiming the book publishing rights to her popular webmanga Red String from Dark Horse. If I remember correctly, MegaTokyo also started out with a Dark Horse deal and left (for DC). And I believe that Penny Arcade started out with a Dark Horse deal and left (for Del Ray). In both of those cases, the creators went from one large publishing house to an even larger one. Biggs, on the other hand, like Stevens, has decided that self-publishing is the most efficient way for her to, as they say in the business, maximize her revenue potential.

§ Colleen Doran has some fun with a Conservative blogger who wasn’t happy with WATCHMEN.

§ After reading Augie De Blieck Jr.’s new Pipeline, we’re pretty sure that a fatwa has been issued on him by comic book retailers:

Don’t go to the comic shop this week. However, do make a print out of the comics you would have bought. Store it away; you’ll need it next week. After all, all those shelf talkers telling you which books are new will be moved already to the new week’s books seven days hence. You’ll want to keep track.

You’ll be amazed at how many comics you don’t care about a week later. Maybe it’ll be that money in your pocket that you’d rather not spend. Maybe it’ll be some bad reviews you read on-line. Maybe the initial enthusiasm and excitement around the big releases will have fizzled out, and you’ll find you just won’t care that much anymore.

§ Not comics: The Cinematologist is a new blog by teacher and choreographer Kriota Willberg that examines the medicine behind some popular movies. First up, FACE/OFF, because you know face transplants are so 2009!

§ Nikki Finke gives a lengthy postmortem on WATCHMEN’s grosses:

But, first, let’s consider if the pic will earn out. “It’s way to soon to tell,” one of the studio moguls involved tells me. “What counts is where a film finishes, not where it starts. We have to see what the holds are like and what the international does in the end. With decent holds, it should be fine.” Estimates I’m hearing are that Watchmen will make $130M domestic and that’s more than it will take in overseas. But remember: Warner Bros still owns most of the pic as producer and domestic distributor. And Paramount owns 25% plus is the international distributor. Then Legendary Pictures owns a chunk. Then there were all those courtroom fights between 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. When the dust finally settled, Fox will receive up to 8 1/2% gross participation, and a piece of everything going forward (including any improbable sequel or spinoff), and a cash payment upfront including recoupment of its development costs and attorney fees. So cutting Fox in at the last minute played havoc with Warner Bros’ economics on the movie. Which is why there’s a lot of speculation that Warner Bros will seek to sue Larry Gordon, and he in turn seek to sue his law firm that made the deal (Bloom Hergott), which supposedly has a $10 million insurance policy which will end up in Warner Bros pocket.

1 COMMENT

  1. Not to defend Heroes, but the scene between Sylar and his dad was the best scene I’ve seen on that show in *seasons*. Sylar came to kill a man who, it turned out, wasn’t really interested in being alive anyway. What he left behind was a man burning to be alive, who was dying. That’s the most evil thing I can imagine he could have done.

    But the comic book shop sequence struck me as ludicrous, too.

    And, yeah, I’m not really all that interested in Heroes anymore.

    So why post? I dunno. I did like that Sylar scene.

  4. “You’ll be amazed at how many comics you don’t care about a week later. Maybe it’ll be that money in your pocket that you’d rather not spend. Maybe it’ll be some bad reviews you read on-line. Maybe the initial enthusiasm and excitement around the big releases will have fizzled out, and you’ll find you just won’t care that much anymore.”

    Well, you could say the same thing about most tv shows, movies, and everything else. After a while, much of our taste in entertainment is habitual … break the habit for a couple of weeks, and see how your buying/viewing habits change.