If you’re living in LA and want to hob-nob with some comics pros, you’re in luck: Mark Waid and the rest of BOOM Studios will be working at Meltdown Comics the remaining Wednesdays in January!

The idea came to promote HEXED #1, which was released in its entirety on the Internet. But the surprise trip to Meltdown was so successful, BOOM decided to keep it up the rest of the month, not just promoting HEXED but everything in the store!

“Some of the best times I had growing up came from hanging at my LCS on new comic book day. We just thought what better way to support the release of HEXED than spending our Wednesday evenings helping out at Meltdown?” said Marketing and Sales Director Chip Mosher in a press release. “And hey, who doesn’t like to get paid to hang out at comic book store?”

In the above picture, the BOOM! staff meets up with M.F. Grimm, writer of the acclaimed Vertigo graphic novel Sentences.

As a resident of the environs of Indianapolis, I’m quite proud that we have the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in our town.  It’s an incredible museum, and well worth a visit.  They’ve just announced a program that’s sure to be of interest to our readership; it also happens to feature a couple of familiar names.

From the Press Release:

BIZARRO CREATOR DAN PIRARO & COMIC WRITER JOHN OSTRANDER HEADLINE EITELJORG’S “WESTERN AND NATIVE PORTRAYALS IN COMICS”

 

(INDIANAPOLIS) January 5, 2009 – Artist Dan Piraro, creator of the award-winning, syndicated comic strip Bizarro, and writer John Ostrander (Batman, Star Wars, Wolverine, The Kents, Apache Skies) will be the featured artists at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art’s “Western and Native Portrayals in Comics,” from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 24. The day features an in-depth look at how comics throughout history have handled portrayals of Western and Native American people and cultures. Highlights include panel discussions, gatherings of collectors, comic giveaways and sales, signings by well-known writers/artists and leading industry experts including Steve Sanderson (Cree) and Michael Sheyahshe (Caddo).

 

10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

-         Comic giveaways, sales, demonstrations, meet and greet artists, writers and experts

 

1 p.m.

-         Panel Discussion – “Native Americans in Comics” featuring Michael Sheyahshe, Steve Sanderson, John Ostrander and Dan Piraro

o       Book signing with Michael Sheyahshe in Museum Store following

 

3 p.m.

-         Panel Discussion – “Western and Native Reflections in Comics” featuring John Ostrander, Dan Piraro, Michael Sheyahshe and Steve Sanderson

o       Book signing w/ Dan Piraro in Museum Store following

 

The first 100 guests will receive a signed, limited-edition poster by Steve Sanderson.

 

Step into The Bizarro West

 

Dan Piraro is a surrealist painter, illustrator and cartoonist best-known for his award-winning syndicated panel cartoon Bizarro, which often features Western themes. He has received the National Cartoonist Society Panel Cartoon Award for 1999, 2000, and 2001, and been nominated for their Reuben Award several times for his work on the strip. Since 2001, Piraro has toured the U.S. with various forms of a one-man comedy show called, “The Bizarro Baloney Show.” The show won the 2002 New York International Fringe Festival award for “Best Solo Show.” Visit the Bizarro Web site.

 

Piraro will serve as an Eiteljorg Museum artist-in-residence from Tuesday, Jan. 20, though Sunday, Jan. 25. During that time, he will interact with museum guests and school groups, participate in “Western and Native Portrayals in Comics” and headline “The Bizarro West” at 3 p.m., Sunday, Jan. 25. During the event, Piraro will share his thoughts on Western and Native-themed Bizarro cartoons. Part lecture, part comedy—this event is an all-access look into Piraro’s writing and illustrations. The presentation will be followed by a meet-and-greet and book signing at 4:30 p.m. There is a $10 fee for “The Bizarro West.” Members and IUPUI students pay $5.

 

The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art is celebrating its 20^th year of inspiring appreciation and understanding of the art, history and cultures of the American West and the indigenous peoples of North America. The museum, which opened in 1989, is located in Downtown Indianapolis’ White River State Park. For general information about the museum and to learn more about exhibits and events, call (317) 636-WEST (9378) or visit www.eiteljorg.org.

As it happens, that isn’t the only significant comics presence at an Indianapolis museum.  The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, the largest of its type in the world, is still running its outstanding Comic Book Heroes exhibit.  It’s a stellar piece for the younger set, featuring as it does one of the Batmobiles used in the filming of Batman Begins, thousands of comics from the Max Simon collection, and videos and classes by Indianapolis’s own Stuart Sayger, creator of Shiver in the Dark and artist on a number of Vs. trading cards and Bionicle projects.

For those of you unfamiliar with the upcoming series, Tony Bedard and Andy Clarke have assumed the reins for R.E.B.E.L.S., a new series set in the present spinning off of the Legion of Superheroes franchise.

If you click here, Bedard has a great interview with Ain’t It Cool News discussing the new series. A highlight, when asked what the acronym R.E.B.E.L.S. stands for:

Well, it used to stand for Revolutionary Elite Brigade to Eradicate L.E.G.I.O.N. Supremacy. That’s right: an acronym within an acronym. The ol’ creative team must’ve been smoking some pretty good stuff when they came up with that one. This time around, I’m not bothering with explaining the title too much. Maybe that’ll puzzle a reader or two, but I think it’s all pretty self-explanatory. Dox and company are fightin’ the power. They’re building a rebellion. That’s all you really gotta know.

Bedard also discusses the Omega Men, as well as his hopes to return Lobo to the R.E.B.E.L.S. franchise. Meanwhile, if you’re interested in some of the stellar artwork, look no further!

R.E.B.E.L.S. will examine the adventures of Vril Dox, the son of Brainiac, as he puts together a team of intergalactic mercenaries to combat the robot hordes formerly under Dox’s control.

[Via AICN - which has more art, and check out the mothership's R.E.B.E.L.S. interview with Bedard here]

Zack Giallongo and Stephanie Yue’s Novasett Island is exactly the kind of high quality all-ages material that the industry needs to strongly get behind and support with well printed books and well placed marketing. The artwork and storytelling is reminiscent of the clean presentation style of Bone (but don’t get me wrong, it isn’t just a carbon copy of Jeff Smith’s look) and the open-ended concept lends itself incredibly well to a variety of stories.

I enjoy browsing through Novasett now as an adult, and as a kid I would have gone bonkers for the appealing cast of characters and swashbuckling adventures they go on.

Besides, anything that has a creature called an UPO (Unidentified Puppy Object) is aces in my book.

If you haven’t checked out the book that Sarah called “The Definite Bush Era Fiction” Khepri.com is ready to help you out. Right now, they have the first five volumes (all that have been released to date) for 43 bucks and change. That’s less than ten bucks a volume, and a real steal to get you up-to-date on this awesome Vertigo series. If you’re caught up and waiting for Vol. 6, which comes out next month, they’ve got it available for pre-order at a hefty discount, as well. Check out the deals here, and don’t say we never gave you anything.

Funcom’s Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures drew some attention for several reasons when it was released in May 2008. It was a Mature rated MMORPG (yes, that means vicious violence and bare breasts), it had a more realistic visual flare than most MMOs (based quite a bit on the look established in the Conan comic book), and it had a nearly 30 gigabyte install. Well now, less than seven months after its release, the MMO is getting attention, but likely not the kind Funcom hoped for. It seems server load is much lighter than they were hoping, and to increase interaction between players, they’re closing over 60% of the servers worldwide.

This is actually good news for those playing the game. With only one U.S. player-versus-player (PVP) server and two mission servers (PVE), players can expect to see many more possible friends and foes running around than they currently do.

The closures come in the midst of a recession in the U.S. that seems to be expanding worldwide; this obviously is not the ideal economic climate for a pay-monthly-to-play game. Of course, World of Warcraft continues to fly in the face of this, proving that if you just make the experience fun and accessible enough, people will continue to support it. Steep system requirements and the M rating have likely restricted the game’s growth more than anything else, so this doesn’t spell doom for MMOs just yet. With City of Heroes recently released for Mac, and Champions Online and DCUniverse Online coming later this year, the future still looks bright for more-piggers.

[via GI.Biz]

Just thought I’d remind everyone that James Jean, Fables cover artist and illustrator extraordinaire, has a solo show at the Jonathan Levine Gallery in New York City now through February 7.

I went to the opening Saturday night–along with what seemed like half of Manhattan. Honestly, it was so crowded when I arrived, around 7, that my friend and I perused the other galleries in the building, sampling their free wine and enjoying the breathing room, and then went back later when we could actually walk around and enjoy the art.

I am the furthest thing from an art critic, but as the cliche goes, I know what I like. And if I had thousands in spare cash lying around, one of the first things I’d spend it on would be this painting. Looks like someone beat me to it, though.

Instead, I’m making do with the Fables covers art book that my lovely friends gave me for Christmas. And I’m enjoying that artists from the comics world are getting larger recognition. I may know less than nothing about visual art, but you all know I hate elitism, and I’m sure you agree with me that artists in the comics world are as deserving of recognition as anyone else.

James Jean has done a clothing line for Prada already, and I wish him all the best in his continuing career. And I selfishly hope he won’t leave the comics world completely behind in his success.

Or that I’ll win the lottery, so I can afford one of those paintings and those Prada bags.

The Hero Initiative, which helps yesterday’s creators in financial need, has announced that it has teamed up with ComicArtFans.com. Anyone who joins both organizations will receive a $10 discount as well as sketchcards by industry veterans.

Bill Cox, the owner of ComicArtFans.com, explained that the $10 discount will go into effect on his site, allowing the Hero Initiative to receive the full membership fees.

All CAF members who sign up with the Hero Initiative will also be flagged as Hero members, giving them added recognition.

“With 40,000 registered users and more than 500 premium members, we feel that many comic art collectors that frequent our site would love to support Hero in this manner,” said Cox in a press release. “CAF has supported Hero in various ways for the past several years and we expect that by helping raise awareness of this new Hero program to our membership, that we’ll continue to benefit Hero for years to come.”

You can join the Hero Initiative by either checking out their tables at various conventions, or by clicking here. Meanwhile, you can display, buy, auction, and sell sequential art at ComicArtFans.com by joining their organization here.

Hello All!

Holly Golightly here…or Holly G! I like both… Miss Holly is okay too. Troy has so generously extended an invitation to blog here at Newsarama!

How groovy is that?

Well just so ya know – I’m VP/creator at Jim Balent’s (my hubby) BroadSword Comics… I’ve done pencils, inks, colours and more for other companies, and still do – but most happiest workin’ just for us!

I thought I’d share what’s comin’ out of our studio this year.

Tarot, Witch of the Black Rose, will turn 9 years old on March 2009! So of course we celebrate with a limited edition Photo Cover.

(more…)

John Barrowman, otherwise known as Captain Jack Harkness, will be writing a Torchwood comic strip with his sister and longtime collaborator Carole E. Barrowman.

The series will appear in issue #14 of the bimonthly Torchwood magazine. The art will be produced by Tommy Lee Edwards (1984) and Trevor Goring.

Carole explained in a press release that “When John and I were working on [John's autobiography] Anything Goes, we spent a lot of time together on the Torchwood set. In between our storytelling and moments of inspired silliness (maybe one or two), we decided we’d like to work on a project together that involved Captain Jack. The role of myth in a culture’s zeitgeist has always intrigued John and I (it probably intrigues all sci-fi fans) so I when I got back to the US, I sent John a short story I’d written, ‘The Tale of the Selkie.’ Almost immediately he called and said, ‘This should be our first Captain Jack tale.’”

According to the press release solicitations, Captain Jack will be facing a deadly menace on a remote Scottish island, as his companions are picked off one by one.

Torchwood the series spun off of the critically-acclaimed Doctor Who revival in 2005, dealing with an Earth-based organization that dealt with (and scavaged technology) from extraterrestrial encounters.

Radical Publishing has announced a bevy of talent that will be at their table during the New York Comic Con.

The first-time attendee has said that its roster of sequential artists — including the legendary Jim Steranko (NICK FURY: AGENT OF SHIELD), Arthur Suydam (MARVEL ZOMBIES), Steve Niles (30 DAYS OF NIGHT), David Hine (SPAWN), Rick Remender (PUNISHER: WAR JOURNAL), Steve Pugh (ANIMAL MAN), and Sam Sarkar (Beverly Hills 90210) — will be signing work throughout the Feb. 6-8th event.

In addition, Radical’s Dream Team will be hosting a panel at 5:15-6:15pm Saturday, in which they will discuss their newest titles. Following the panel, there will be a special drawing where winners will receive a signed poster from one of the creators.

“This is a really exciting time for the company right now,” said Barry Levine, Radical Publishing’s President and Publisher, in a press release . “We have a great lineup of new titles involving our guests to introduce at the show, along with a very special surprise announcement to be made at our panel. This is a great opportunity for fans to meet us, to see our complete library of titles and what we have in store for 2009.”

Among Radical’s lineup is Steranko’s Hercules: Knives of Kush, Suydam’s Cholly and Flytrap: Hush City, Hine’s FZVA: Federal Zombie and Vampire Agency, Niles’ City of Dust: A Philip Khrome Story, Remender’s The Last Days of American Crime, Sarkar’s Caliber: First Cannon of Justice, and Pugh and Warren Ellis’ Hotwire: Requiem for the Dead.

The New York Times’ Michael Cieply reads the body language at last night’s awards ceremony:

From where this reporter sat at the Golden Globes last night, that sure looked like Tom Rothman of Fox and Alan Horn of Warner Brothers down among the superstar seats, smiling and back-patting — each other, not the superstars — just before the show began. A public display of affection between studio chiefs, along with those pricey “Watchmen” ads on the National Football League playoff games this weekend, would add up to a message as big as the Hollywood sign: The talks between hitherto warring Fox and Warner over a settlement of Fox’s lawsuit over rights to “Watchmen” must be on track.

It’s becoming a familiar refrain.  Hollywood churns out film based on beloved anime (or plain ole’ animated) property, and fans revolt/recoil at casting news.  Receiving particular derision these days is the casting of The Last Airbender, the live-action film based on animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender.  It likely doesn’t help that director M. Knight Shyamalan has become a bit of an internet punching bag in the past few years.  However, that only exacerbates the tension that’s already present when Avatar’s pan-ethnic selection of characters gets overrun with extremely white actors.

This is similar to the storm that erupted when the Dragonball live-action trailer hit.  Fan reaction videos overran YouTube; Schwapp compiled a number of the clips here, and they run the gamut from impassioned to generally pissed.

Obviously, it would be easy for outside perspectives to dismiss this as typical fan-grousing.  However, I think that it illuminates a couple of important points.  First, fans like the media to honor the material.  And secondly, isn’t it about time that some white kids complained that the studios aren’t recognizing ethnicity?  That, to me, is a welcome notion.

What do you think, gentle readers?

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.

by Chris Ryall

In my first blog here, I talked about our reasons for relaunching G.I. JOE after being awarded the franchise. Spent nearly 900 words explaining our sound rationale, our respectful feelings toward the fans and toward the comics that had come before, our well-reasoned plan for how to best ensure the comics’ survival in the 21st century…

…and after all that, some of the responses smacked me upside my rational, well-reasoned head.

“Personally I felt the decision to reboot was a lazy, easy way out for IDW.”

“The Reboot is a very cheap cop-out.”

“Is IDW too lazy to create new characters and actually develop old ones that they need to go back to the status quo from the 80s? If you’re that desperate, go on a fanfiction site, but seriously character need to change and develop. Did Tolkien reboot Frodo? Was James Bond rebooted so the 20 movies were non canon?”

Things went onward, or maybe downward, from there, although I’m now intrigued by the idea of seeing Millar and Hitch’s Ultimate Frodo.

I mulled over responding to these complaints, where I could offer up more sound rationale and explanations and win over the accusatory and disgruntled one response at a time. And then I got my wits about me and decided that was a terrible plan. This is the Internet, and I’m no novice to this, having survived the Great (well, Pretty Solid, anyway, according to most) Transformers Relaunch of 2005. And defending too vehemently just makes one come off, well, defensive. So instead, I’ll admit I respectfully (but vehemently) disagree with the sentiments, as there is nothing cheap at all about our approach to the new titles, and I’ll let the relaunch – starting with this week’s G.I. JOE #1 – stand on its own and let the curious decide for themselves after they see where were headed with the books.

So all of that aside, we’re back live this week with JOE #1, which is really only scratching the surface-to-air of what we have planned. I left off last time with a promise to look at new Senior Editor Andy Schmidt’s overall plan for launching the comics, so let’s do it.

Andy hired on last summer, having spent his prior year since leaving Marvel evidently missing deadline crunches and getting tired of having ample time to write and run his Comics Experience classes and be with his family. He came in and was immediately thrown into a brand-new property that needed a big plan if we were going to make a relaunch work at least as well as the idea of Tolkien rebooting Frodo.
Andy scrambled, and I’ll admit we were all helped by a couple of factors: one was Larry Hama’s willingness to jump back into Joe since we offered him a chance to not just hit the ground without restraint but to start over in whatever way he wanted. I met up with Larry and Andy in New York and we talked about JOE, and Larry’s feelings for the property and what he would do if given a blank slate.

Larry admitted that he sort of “Stan Lee’d” the book at the start, making things up as he went along. And as he worked on the series for years and became a better writer and had time to think about the characters more and more, there were naturally things he would’ve changed about his earlier issues. And now he had that chance, to sort of go back and change/tweak/revise as he’d always wanted to. Which is a nice feeling to be able to offer someone, and a rare feeling, too – how many guys get a chance at a do-over at something that was pretty damned solid in the first place?

So Larry was in. As was artist Robert Atkins. But to really launch things right, Andy felt we needed more, and we lucked into some of that “more” in the form of Chuck Dixon. Now, anyone who’s read Chuck’s comics knows that he can write anything well – superhero comics, action-oriented books, fantasy, whatever. But war comics are what really suits his style, and when Chuck suddenly “became available” last year, we dropped him a line the next day. Possibly that same day. Chuck was in. Atkins was moving to Chuck’s book, Larry’s title would pick up Tom Feister and Mike Hawthorne, and… one more book was needed/wanted.

I’d had in mind the idea to do a COBRA book from the start, something that looks at the Joe world through very different eyes. And I kicked around ideas with a couple talented guys, but this was all before the direction was really set, and once Andy joined up, I wanted the books to be well and truly his, so when he presented a different take on a COBRA title, and brought in Chris Gage and Mike Costa to write, along with Italian artist Antonio Fuso to write, I knew it had potential. Potential to fracture the audience, since the things that are being done in that series are not like anything seen in JOE comics before. Issue 3 alone is possibly the most gripping JOE tale I’ve ever read. And I’ve now read juuuust about all of them. It also has the potential to be the wild-card favorite of everything we’re doing. And it will make people think about the character of Chuckles differently than they ever have before. In short, it really justifies the idea of a reboot since it does things that couldn’t have been done before. That HAVEN’T been done before. I’m a bit excited about this one, despite my overall bias and pleasure at the entire line of JOE books coming.

So the plan was set: G.I. JOE (launching Jan. 14) by Dixon and Atkins – along with variant cover artist Dave “100 Bullets” Johnson – would be the “main” title, in that it would be action-oriented and exciting; G.I. JOE: ORIGINS (February) by Hama and Hawthorne and cover artist Andrea Di Vito will be more subtle than full of wide-screen action, more character-driven, and more personal. And COBRA (March) by Gage/Costa, Fuso and cover artist Howard Chaykin would be something else entirely, offering the reinvention of a character, the new exploration of the COBRA organization, and the most gripping tale you’ve ever seen from a guy who wears a Hawaiian shirt as his uniform.

We kicked all of this off in October ’08 with our #0 issue, which featured new 5-page standalone tales from each creative team, just as a way to not only whet peoples’ appetites but to also show that this new Joe would be just that, a new JOE and not just a backwards step to the past.

And now? Now we’re on the cusp of finding out if our Ultimate Frodo-ish plan works. And Andy Schmidt’s restful days are, like the old G.I. JOE continuity, well and truly a thing of the past…

Chris Ryall is the Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of IDW Publishing. And he’s at Blogspot, on Twitter, on Facebook, now on year 7 of writing a weekly TV column at Comics101.com, probably still on MySpace, at LinkedIn, figuring out what Plaxo’s Pulse is, trying to bury an old Friendster page, scrawls graffiti in public restrooms, writes his feelings down on Post-It notes to plaster them on cars, and broadcasts his thoughts through the fillings of mental patients. His GROOM LAKE comic will look great thanks to Ben Templesmith, and the book he co-wrote for Impact Books, COMIC BOOKS 101, will read nicely thanks to Scott Tipton. His wife is eyeing him warily as he types this.

By Filip Sablik, Publisher of Top Cow Productions, Inc.

I love ice cream. It’s one of my many vices and I’m cool with that. Chocolate and vanilla are old standbys because they pair well with just about anything. Pie? Good. Cake? Good. Cookies? Good. Bananas, nuts, and candy? Good. A nice filet mignon? Probably not, but I’d be willing to try it.

As much as those two flavors are standbys and consistently the most popular flavors in surveys, I do love to experiment with different flavors. Hit me with some Peanut Butter Cup, Mint Chocolate Chip, Cookies & Cream, Rocky Road, or any number of more unique combinations and I’m a happy man. What does this have to do with comics?

In the last couple of weeks, I’ve seen a bunch of “Best” lists online for top picks of comics and graphic novels for 2008 and couldn’t help but notice how heavily dominated they are by Big Two books. When I scan the list of top-selling books from Diamond each month on ICv2, I can’t help but notice the lack of what I would call independent titles.  In the top 25 comics last month, there was only one non-Marvel, non-DC title – Buffy, The Vampire Slayer – an excellent read, but a licensed property with its roots in television. In the top 50, only two others – Angel (same boat as Buffy) and The Umbrella Academy. The Umbrella Academy gives me a little bit of hope, because it’s a fantastic, unique comic that doesn’t rely on a pre-established licensed property, but that’s only one out of 50! The top 100 looks a bit better, but only slightly so with the addition of The Walking Dead, Spawn, Conan the Cimmerian (licensed again) and Black Terror from Dynamite Entertainment.

Then reading John Mayo’s monthly report of sales through Diamond, I came across this chilling statement – “the total units sold for the top 300 comics was down by an estimated 1,763,925 units from October 2008 and down 1,185,793 from November 2007.” As John explains, the reason for this significant sales hit is because a number of high-profile titles from Marvel and DC Comics did not ship in those two months.

Back to my ice cream analogy so we can bring this blog entry full circle. Marvel and DC are our vanilla and chocolate. I say “our” because they’re mine as well, I love the characters and the stories these companies produce. But the pure domination of the market concerns me both as a fan of independent and original comics and as a publisher of the same said comics. It bugs me when I see a second or third-tier superhero character outselling a unique, critically acclaimed title like The Goon, Mouse Guard, Firebreather or Pax Romana.

Using November as an example again, Marvel had almost 43% of the total units sold to comic shops and DC had 35%. The percentages by which vanilla and chocolate are favorite flavors? According to the International Ice Cream Association, 29% prefer vanilla and less than 9% prefer chocolate. Independent comic publishers fight over 22% of the market, while other ice cream flavors compete for 62% of your taste buds. I think the latter makes for a much richer market place overall.

What do you think?

Take care,

Filip Sablik
Publisher Guy

Filip Sablik is the Publisher of Top Cow Productions, Inc. He’s been in the business for eight years and just officially entered his thirties. Occasionally, he does a bit of writing and drawing. He loves comics.

Top Cow Productions, Inc. was founded by Marc Silvestri, co-founder of Image Comics. Top Cow currently publishes its line of comic books in 21 languages in over 55 different countries. The company has launched 20 franchises (18 original and two licensed) in the industry’s Top 10, seven at #1, a feat accomplished by no other publisher in the last two decades.

You’d be hard pressed to find a comic art fan who didn’t enjoy the lavish artwork of Travis Charest. If you consider yourself a fan, you must see check out the Spacegirl online comic posted on his MSN group.

Spacegirl Volume 1
Spacegirl Volume 2

It’s classic B-movie sci-fi cheese delivered with impeccable skill and panache. Each little strip is a knockout of stellar compositions, textured inks and hand drawn lettering.

Also, if you missed any of the previous Art Link posts I’ve made so far, here’s a handy catch-up set of links:
Art Link: Intro
Art Link 1: James Jean
Art Link 2: Gabe
Art Link 3: Tracy Butler
Art Link 4: Sean Galloway
Art Link 5: Meredith Gran
Art Link 6: Niko Henrichon

Ava Hecht, the artist behind the webcomic Soprano Man, passed away on Thursday according to Gothamist.

According to New York City health officials, the 17-year-old Queens resident died of meningitis.

A senior at Stuyvesant High School, students say that Hecht looked fine the previous week, and was even working on homework the night before her death.

There is a Facebook group devoted to Hecht, which you can join here.

Soprano Man, which chronicled the superheroic exploits of a fellow choirist of Hecht’s, began in May of 2007.

As we wrote recently, Lurid Entertainment has begun a webseries with illustrator P. Craig Russell, of Sandman and Coraline, discussing the fundamentals of sequential art.

In this installment, using the Oscar Wilde play Salome, Russell discusses how to use visuals to set up the emotional dynamics between characters.

As announced at 8:58pm EST by Demi Moore, Heath Ledger posthumously received the Golden Glode for Best Supporting Actor for The Dark Knight.  The producers of the broadcast had a clip of the “interrogation scene” prepared, and it rolled after an brief explanation from Moore as director Christopher Nolan arrived on stage to accept on the late actor’s behalf.

Nolan indicated the deep “sadness” mixed with “incredible pride” that all associated with the film felt.  He noted that as he gained some distance on Ledger’s passing, that he was able to see less the “hole ripped in cinema” and focus more on the tremendous history that Ledger built in his short life.

Incredibly poignant were glimpses from the audience of fellow nominee Robert Downey Jr.  Nominated alongside Ledger for his comedic turn in Tropic Thunder, Downey experienced a career rejuvination this year with that film and Iron Man.  Downey’s been very vocal about his troubled past in interviews, and it did not appear to be lost on the star in the face of the late Ledger’s win that he was perhaps extremely lucky to still be walking the Earth.

On the road to the Academy Awards, it would seem that Ledger’s the clear favorite.  Whether the film arrives in other categories remains to be seen.