Devolution: The Austin American Statesmen presents a slideshow of cartoons dating back to 1994, highlighting the way editorial cartoonist Ben Sargent’s depiction of George W. Bush has changed in the past 15 years or so.
Meanwhile, at Earth-3 Comics & Collectibles, business is fantastic: The Daily News of Los Angeles does a how’s-your-business-doing-in-the-terrible-economy piece focusing on Earth-2 Comics & Collectibles. The saddest part is the 24-year-old “graphic artist” (as opposed to a musician or dancer or poet, I guess) who expresses shame at having to get graphic novels from the library, and having to visit the teen section to do so. There’s no shame in borrowing graphic novels from the library, people! I highly encourage it. The more people who borrow GNs from libraries, the more GNs they’ll order. And they can generally afford to buy the expensive stuff that a single consumer might be reluctant to blow $50 on, like a DC Archive of Golden Age material or a Dark Horse collection of Green Lama or Herbie comics.
Thank God for The Dark Knight then: This brief USA Today piece about how well comics sold last year includes this curious lead: “The comic-book industry, helped by the enormous success of films such as The Dark Knight, showed continued growth in the burgeoning graphic novel category, according to an exclusive look at top sellers.” Oh, is that so? Then I imagine Batman, Iron Man, The Hulk, Hellboy, Punisher, Wanted, The Spirit and Speed Racer dominated comics and trade sales in ’08 then? What’s that, Secret Invasion was the best-selling comic, and Watchmen the big graphic novel success? Huh. (I know, I know, The Spirit, Speed Racer, The Hulk and Punisher movies were all considered unsuccessful at the box office. And The Spirit at least came out too late in the year to affect sales anyway.)
#26. You get to read about comics: Tom Spurgeon presents “25 Great Things About Being a Comics Fan”:
21. New Comics Day comes in the middle of the week, just when it’s most needed.
22. Old people to whom you’re related will clip comics-related newspaper articles and send them to you.
23. The spinner rack, the long box, the Mylar bag, the acid-free board, the sleeve: even the places you keep the stuff have entertaining names.
Seriously. Go read it.
January 12th, 2009 at 10:27 pm
Caleb, I wouldn’t say the newer Hulk movie was “unsuccessful,” it just wasn’t nearly as big as TDK or Iron Man. Considering the crowded movie field this summer, and how many other big genre films there were (add Indy, Hancock, Hellboy and Wanted to that list), and it had uphill fight against the stigma of the Ang Lee film, so I’d say Hulk asserted itself fairly well. It did about the same as the Lee movie did at the box office, but it’s been a bigger hit on DVD than that first one. It got mostly good reviews, and asserted Hulk in the new Marvel movie universe. Not a huge hit, but not a flop either.
As for TDK and trade sales… Go take a look at the top selling trades on Amazon right now. Aside from Watchmen, they’re almost all Batman titles. The new Joker book is in their top 10, and a bunch of those old chestnuts like Dark Knight Returns, Year One, etc., too. Also, you do realize of course that Watchmen sales skyrocketed after the trailer ran before screenings of TDK, don’t you?
You’re right about the rest though… I don’t think there’s been all that big a rush on Iron Man comics or trades, or any of those other characters/titles you mentioned.
January 13th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
OK, wait… The Joker is a hardcover GN… Not a trade. But Amazon seems to lump all that stuff together under “Graphic Novels” whether they really are or not. So my point still stands. It’s Watchmen, followed by a whole lot of Batman in their top 10 right now. Obviously, TDK’s had an impact (which includes Watchmen) on GN/trade sales. Just not a whole lot in the floppies, probably, but that’s no surprise given DC’s decision to make the current Bat-books pretty much inaccessible to new readers (and much of their line in general, for that matter).
January 13th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
Yes, looking at Diamond’s recently released info, Batman trades/gns did really well this year. The comics though weren’t even on the radar, and only the main Batman book has really done well enough for DC to, like, brag about.