Retailer Chris Butcher noted on Friday that Marvel has about twice as many books coming out on Wednesday as DC does:

Retailers reading over their invoices for comics and graphic novels shipping next week will be shocked to discover that Marvel Comics is shipping about 34 titles next week, to only about 17 titles from DC Comics. It’s a rare thing for Marvel to ship that many titles in a week (this week, for example, they only shipped about 17 or so), but to double the output of their closest competitor? That’s very rare indeed… Until you stop to consider that one of DC’s titles shipping next week is the next installment in their summer crossover Final Crisis.

So the question is, would Marvel release 34 superhero books on the same day just to try and bleed fans’ wallets dry on the week where DC tries to make a big push with their flagship book? Well, considering nearly every one of Marvel’s top sellers is dropping this week, I’m going to go ahead and guess here: Oh yeah, that’s exactly what they’re doing. Either that or it’s the sort of hideous oversight that betrays gross incompetence. But it was probably deliberate.

Some of the books Marvel has shipping this week include both Avengers books, Ultimates 3, 1985, both X-Men books, Fantastic Four and the last Joss Whedon Runaways, just to name a few. Retailers could end up feeling the squeeze this week, as they have a lot of money tied up paying for all this product and some customers may not come in for a few weeks to buy their books.

Addendum: Chris Williams at Pop Syndicate breaks down Marvel’s June output with an eye-catching pie chart

A 7-foot papier-mâché sculpture of the Hulk was no match for two drunk* guys in a truck, who stole him from outside the Outpost 12 comic book store in Boise, Idaho. According to the Idaho Statesman, the statue was recovered, broken and bruised, from “a drainage ditch at the bad end of 36th Street.” We’ve all been there, haven’t we?

More from the Statesman:

Following what one of the Hulk’s owners, Ray Egusquiza, described as a “semi-anonymous” phone call Friday night from someone claiming to work for “the highway department,” the shattered superhero was hauled from the muck.

He’s currently in seclusion in the Outpost 12 game room.

“His arm is sitting on a table all by itself. Yeah, it’s kind of depressing,” Egusquiza said.

They’re working now to rebuild him.

* For the record, there’s nothing in the story that says the guys were drunk … but it seems like a safe assumption.

– Suit up!

– Bill Watterson is writing the forward to the first Cul de Sac book.

– Marc Bell has a blog now.

– Neil Gaiman sings the praises of Jules Feiffer. Speaking of which I interviewed Feiffer about the new collection of his Village Voice strips, Explainers, here.

– Here’s an interview with Jennifer Holm, author of the Babymouse books.

– Tom Spurgeon talks with Bob Greenberger, author of the new Batman Encyclopedia.

– Don’t hate the superhero, hate the game.

– Brandon Graham is waiting to hear from Tokyopop on what’s going to happen with the second King City volume.

– The L.A. Times reviews Blake Bell’s Ditko book.

– James Jean creates posters for AIDES, a European HIV/AIDS charity, which win an award. (NSFW)

–The New Yorker presents Antiheroes, the opposite of Heroes. Via.

– Hip hop, medicine and comics collide in Tha’ Hip Hop Doc and the Legion of Health.

– Funnybook Babylon on the legacy of Bill Jemas.

– Craig Thompson breaks down a page of his upcoming graphic novel Habibi.

– Larry Young talks about making the cover to the Black Diamond trade.

Compiled by JK and Chris.

No DC executives were harmed in the collecting of this week’s quotes. As tempting as it might be to have some DiDio-related quotes, it seems his name has been negatively bandied about in recent weeks even more than Bill Jemas at his worst. So I have opted out of the DiDio news cycle for this week’s column.

“For the best American edition of foreign material category, the judges looked over a year that saw the publication of Tekkonkinkreet, Mushishi, Osamu Tezuka’s MW, To Terra, Tokyo Is My Garden, and significant chunks of Emma, Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, and After School Nightmare, not to mention NBM’s beautiful edition of Run, Bong-gu Run, and opted for the manga version Romeo and Juliet, which is pretty good but not exactly original, and the hideously drawn Witchblade, which is based on an American comic. You get the feeling that the judges felt grudgingly obligated to pick some of that manga stuff so they just threw a dart at a stack of old Previews.”
- Brigid Alverson, trying to make heads or tails of the thought process behind the 2008 Harvey nominations

(more…)

My nomination for headline of the week (Spoilers, maybe?): “Batman Gets Orgy Shock In New Comic Book” — from a brief item in the Glasgow Sunday Mail about the latest twist in Grant Morrison’s “Batman RIP” storyline.

Orgy shocks are much worse than electrical shocks. Or so I’m told.

Rumblings about DC Comics Executive Editor Dan DiDio move beyond comics blogs and message boards this morning as Hollywood gossip columnist Nikki Finke takes up the story:

With Comic-Con fast approaching (July 24-27) and all the Hollywood studios getting ready, I understand that Warner Bros has been nervously monitoring the deteriorating situation at its subsidiary DC Comics. There could be a major shake-up – especially if Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes keeps cleaning house inside the Big Media corp.

[snip]

The problem isn’t just that, under DiDio’s leadership, fanboys are disappointed with the directions of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and other characters. … But also average sales of the DCU line are down more than 20% from a year ago, and DiDio has lost a big chunk of existing readers in a year while deliberately failing to reach out to new ones.

Much of what Finke writes appears to be culled from the online chatter that we’ve all read, mixed with “[her] own reporting.” But what’s perhaps significant about the post is that Finke, who generally sticks to TV- and movie-industry items, views the welfare of DC Comics to be of critical importance to the well-being of Warner Bros. — and of interest to her audience, which usually reads about box-office tallies, studio and network deals, and behind-the-scenes Hollywood maneuverings.

“With DC Universe so much a part of Warner Bros’ bottom line, getting DC Comics back on track has to be a top priority,” she writes.

One of the biggest conversation topics this week has been the news of Chuck Dixon leaving DC Comics.

The blogger at Collected Editions has his own take on the subject:

First, when you play major league baseball, and your coach tells you to hit a home run, you hit a home run. Alternatively, if the coach tells you to make a sacrifice play to bring another runner home, you take one for the team. When you’re writing for DC-freaking-Comics, you don’t balk at being asked to take part in crossovers, you make the best of it; this is what makes Geoff Johns, Geoff Johns.

Second, when you write for DC or Marvel, or really any company where the characters appear on Underoos, you’re playing in their sandbox, with their toys. If they say Superman needs to grow a third arm today, man, you ask, “How many fingers?”; they say Spider-Man’s going to wear polka-dots, you ask, “Pink or purple?” And you can be assured, any big changes you make to a character, they’re going to be undone one of these days. Anyone who thinks differently is kidding themselves.

(more…)

Also coming out of the State of the industry panel at HeroesCon, Van Jensen at ComicMix reports that Mark Waid revealed John Byrne will write the previously announced Farscape comic for BOOM!

I put a question mark in the headline because of the way Jensen phrased it in his report:

Mark Waid, with an elbow from Larsen, revealed that John Byrne will be writing the Farscape book for Boom! Studios.

I’m wondering if the elbow from Larsen means that maybe Waid was kidding? And if he wasn’t, does this means Mark Waid is unbanned from the Byrne Forum?

Update: Check our comments section … Mark Waid confirms it was indeed a joke.

Over at ComicMix, Van Jensen reports on yesterday’s “State of the Industry” panel at Heroes Con, which featured Dan DiDio, Erik Larsen, Jimmy Palmiotti, Mark Waid and moderator Tom Spurgeon. It sounds like it was kind of a downer panel:

The DC presence was pretty tense. DiDio stayed pretty gruff throughout the State of the Industry panel and dodged moderator Tom Spurgeon’s questions about the past week at DC, marred by Chuck Dixon’s acrimonious exit.

Not inspiring anyone, at one point DiDio said, “We have the same characters… There’s only so much you can do with them. You’ve seen it all, you’ve heard it all.”

Wow. It’s obviously been a pretty tough week for DC and for DiDio, as rumors and speculation floated around the internet that he might be on his way out. Not to mention John Nee resigning, May’s sales chart and Chuck Dixon not quitting.

I was hoping to hear more about what was discussed at the panel, but neither Newsarama (who is covering the show) nor Comic Book Resources (who so far isn’t) — nor anyone else besides ComicMix, for that matter — seems to have covered it. Heidi at the Beat says she’ll have a report from it later. Maybe she’ll have some more tidbits about what happened and what’s been going on with DC at the con.

On the surface, these new “talking posters” for The Spirit are kind of neat. (If you pass your cursor over each of the images here, you’ll hear Eva Mendes, Scarlett Johansson, Jaime King and Sarah Paulson speak the lines on the poster.)

But then I think about the horrible ways in which this feature will undoubtedly be used …

The Biography Channel’s Mobsters series will turn its attention to Murder, Inc. tonight, and Neil Kleid’s Brownsville graphic novel will make an appearance.

“The producers approached NBM and I, asking to show some pages from Brownsville on air,” Kleid said in an email. The graphic novel is about the gangsters who were part of “the deadliest hit operation in mafia history, Murder, Inc.” back in the 1930s. Many of the members were Jewish gangsters from the Brooklyn neighborhood of Brownsville.

The show airs at 9 p.m. Eastern, and then Sunday at 1 a.m.

I think I’ve said it before on this website, but nothing bothers me more than people who see things purely in extremes. Human society is so complex that any commentary on it needs to be approached with thought, perspective and sympathy.

It’s the lack of thought that really gets me. Most of what I write about–dustups over social issues–can be not only cleared up but avoided with a little thought. With a little sympathy. And certainly with a little perspective, because what it usually come down to is someone who is unable to think from the perspective of another person.
(more…)

Spider-Man will swing back into theaters, but not for another three years.

Speaking Thursday to theater owners from California and Nevada, Spider-Man producer Laura Ziskin said the fourth installment of the franchise is tentatively set to open in May 2011. There’s still no screenplay, but Ziskin said she and Sony Pictures are hopeful Spider-Man 4 could be ready by the target date.

Of course, the script isn’t the only hurdle the production faces: Neither director Sam Raimi nor star Tobey Maguire has committed to a fourth installment. Raimi has said he wants to see a screenplay first, while Maguire’s participation seems to hinge on Raimi’s decision.

It was reported last month that Sony had renewed the rights to the franchise, which has grossed $2.5 billion worldwide.

John Nee, DC Comics’ senior vice president of business development, has resigned from the company.

Rich Johnston and Comic Book Resources report that, as of today, Nee is still working in the DC offices.

Swift-moving rumors online and at Heroes Con had led many to speculate that we’d be hearing word of Executive Editor Dan DiDio’s departure.

Nee, who was promoted last year to his current position, joined DC in 1998 as vice president and general manager of Widstorm. He oversaw that imprint and the CMX manga line, and helped to arrange the company’s investment in Japanese publisher Flex Comix.

I thought this was kind of cool … this ad popped up earlier this week after I sent an email via Yahoo Mail:

The ad linked to Marvel.com’s “Required Reading: 10 Essential Incredible Hulk Collections” posting. It’s a nice example of hitting several of the right buttons — advertising to potential new readers who may have seen your recent big-budget flick, advertising comics somewhere big (Yahoo) and using content you’ve already created (a story on your website). I wonder how well it’s working.

According to Photo District News, an L.A. photographer has filed a lawsuit against Marvel and Paramount, accusing them of using a photo he took of Iron Man as part of a mock newspaper front page in the film.

Photographer Ronnie Adams shot a series of photos of the Iron Man set back in May of 2007 from a parking structure with a view of the set, which were posted on the movie site IESB.net. Paramount managed to shut down the site for a brief time over the photos. Now Adams claims Paramount used one of his photos in the film without his permission.

The picture in question features Iron Man from behind a chain -ink fence. Adams claims it’s the same picture used in a scene in the movie, where Tony Stark is reading the paper and the front-page headline asks “Who is the Iron Man?”

Photo District News has a side-by-side comparison (click on the image on their site to open the pop up), so you can see for yourself how well they match up. Of course, it’s also possible that someone associated with the film took a shot of that scene as well.

Adams is asking for unspecified monetary damages, as well as “an order stopping Paramount and Marvel from using the picture in the DVD release of the movie, in advertising and in any video game,” according to the story.

(Thanks, Larry!)

Comics retailer and convention organizer Michael George was sentenced this morning to life in prison in the 1990 murder of his first wife Barbara.

He’ll remain in the Macomb County, Mich., jail until Aug. 8, when Circuit Judge James Biernat will hear defense attorneys’ arguments for a new trial.

George was convicted March 17 of first-degree murder, felony firearm, insurance fraud and obtaining money from an insurance agency under false pretenses. He shot his wife in the head on July 13, 1990, in the back of their Clinton Township comic store and staged in to look like a robbery.

Hotel Africa Vol. 1 by Hee Jung Park, Tokyopop, $12.99.

Fever Vol. 1 by Hee Jung Park, Tokyopop, $9.99.

Several months ago, back before Tokyopop entered the “going under for the first time” phase of their corporate career, much ado was made of the company signing a multi-book publishing deal with Korean author Hee Jung Park, dubbed by ICv2 to be one of the country’s “top female creators.” Here’s what TOKYOPOP Editor-in-Chief Rob Tokar had to say in the initial press release:

“Hee Jung Park is a phenomenal talent as well as a manga superstar. Along with her bestselling sequential art, her work has been collected in art books and gallery shows around the world. “Inventive”, “unusual” and “sophisticated” are words that often arise in discussions about Ms. Park’s manga classics and we are both excited and proud to publish them.”

A quote like that is just setting itself up for a fall, isn’t it?

Here’s the thing: I haven’t had too much luck with manhwa. While I understand there are some highly regarded titles out there, most of the Korean comics I’ve read have been noticeably sub-par — mediocre at best, sloppy and excruciating to read at worst.

So I was curious, would Park’s work prove to be the exception? Would it be the work that finally woke me to the splendor that is manhwa? (more…)

Straczynski: Silver Surfer spin-off is up in the air

Remember talk last year of a Silver Surfer spin-off movie, before the Fantastic Four sequel had even opened? Well, it may be just that — talk.

Screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski tells AMC’s SciFi Scanner the future doesn’t look promising for the Herald of Galactus.

“Whether or not it ever gets made I don’t know because they were kind of disappointed in how Fantastic Four 2 did,” Straczynski says. “And given how this will be a subset of FF2 in terms of the marketing strategy, I think there is hesitation there about putting it forward. The script is pretty good, I like it, but whether or not it goes into production, I have no idea.”

He reveals that the Silver Surfer movie would’ve picked up “literally the next frame” after the FF sequel ends, and that audiences actually would have seen the Devourer of Worlds.

“In the script I come up with some ways to visualize him that are true to the original, but take it one step further using the current CGI technology that we have,” Straczynski says. “So we would have seen him as a character on numerous occasions in the second movie, not inconsistent with the first distant shot of him in that that’s just a way of concealing who and what he really is. Believe me, he would be not at all silly looking.”

The Ticker

• Get Smart director Pete Segal says movement has slowed on Billy Batson and the Legend of Shazam because of a backlog created by the writers’ strike: “We started to do our re-write process but he [screenwriter John August] had to service some of these other prior commitments. So now we’re kind of waiting in line to get him back …” [FirstShowing]

• Here’s your semiannual feature about the relationship between the comics industry and Hollywood. Frank Miller, Mark Millar, Mike Mignola, Zack Snyder and Kevin Smith have starring roles. [Time]

• TV’s Caped Crusader, actor Adam West, describes the recent Batman movies as “dark, gothic, sinister, full of explosions.” [ComicBookMovie]

Paul Pope has a new vinyl toy set debuting in San Diego next month:

July sees the release of my Masked Karimbah 2-piece vinyl toy set, direct from the THB universe via Kid Robot. We will be debuting this at the San Diego Comics Convention; my only appearance this year will be on Saturday for Kid Robot.

According to the Kid Robot site, it will retail for $150 and is limited to 300.