This just in from Kirkman and company…

…Now discuss.

Radical Publishing, home of City of Dust and Caliber: First Cannon of Justice, has won Diamond’s Gem Award for Best New Publisher, according to a press release.

“I started Radical Publishing with the commitment to releasing only the best books in terms of both story and illustration,” said Radical founder Barry Levine in the release. “Given that we were only in business for eight months for 2008 with just five titles, we definitely achieved that, and will continue to do so for this year and beyond. I want to thank all the retailers not only for their votes, but also for their overall support for this relatively new company. I would also like to thank the press for their write-ups for all of our books and to the comic fans who purchase and read them.”

Notable comics and film creators have worked with or expressed interest in the fledgling brand, including Jim Steranko, Warren Ellis, John Woo, and Bryan Singer.

I’ll have a full report of my first impressions with the latest build and developer walkthrough of DCU Online in the main Games section tomorrow, but to tide you over, for the first time anywhere, here’s Lex Luthor as designed by Jim Lee for the game. Enjoy.

(more…)

Adventure Comics #0: DC’s reprinting Adventure Comics #247 by Otto Binder and Al Plastino, the original first appearance of the Legion of Super-Heroes, in this bargain-priced $1 package. Why? Good question. It will also include a new “Origins and Omens” back-up story, so it will presumably have something to do with the future direction of the oft-rebooted franchise. Three different versions of that franchise, the results of some of those reboots, will be teaming up in this week’s Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #3 by Geoff Johns and George Perez, which I believe is the only Final Crisis-branded series yet to wrap-up now that Final Crisis’ own conclusion is a week old.

Agents of Atlas #1: Secret agent Jimmy Woo, killer robot M-11, Namor’s cousin Namora, goddess of love Venus, gorilla man Gorilla Man and alien from Uranus Marvel Boy return in the first issue of a new ongoing by Jeff Parker, who wrote a miniseries of the same name featuring these characters a few years back. His collaborator on that series, Leonard Kirk, is currently drawing Captain Britain and MI13, so it’s up to by Carlo Pagulayan and Jason Paz to draw the pictures. To make sure sales start out healthy, this first first issue has been fortified with vitamin Wolverine, which will come in the form of a 12-page flashback story in which the Agents encounter the old Canucklehead. Jeff Parker fans should have a pretty good Wednesday this week. In addition to AoA, Parker’s also got X-Men First Class Finals #1, the first issue of a four-part series featuring art by Roger Cruz and Colleen Coover, and Age Of The Sentry #5, in which Parker and cohorts Paul Tobin, Nick Dragotta and Bill Galvan continue to prove there’s no such thing as a bad character.

The Big Skinny: How I Changed My Fattitude: Cartoonist Carol Lay’s “graphic memoir” about her struggles to lose weight has received quite a bit of press attention so far. It will run you $18 for 200+ pages. You can read a sample chapter here.

Black Panther #1: New Panther, new #1, new artist, same writer. Reginald Hudlin teams with pencil artist Ken Lashley and inker Paul Neary to try again with a Black Panther ongoing. This time out he’ll have a gimmick—the new BP is a lady! And her identity is a secret!—and a “Dark Reign” logo above the title to help push the book.

Comic Book Comics #3: Writer Fred Van Lente and artist Ryan Dunlavey’s comic book about comic books returns for its third issue, this one covering Fredrick Wertham, EC comics, Mad, the Comics Code Authority and more. We’ve got a seven-page preview here.

(more…)

If you like what’s you’ve read so far totally check out more super cute comics at:www.sosuperduper.com!

Fresh Ink has an interview with the Umbrella Academy and My Chemical Romance frontman, Gerard Way, as he dishes out on his favorite comics. Among his dig list are DC’s The New Frontier (not surprising, since once upon a time Way interned at DC Comics), Vertigo’s Kill Your Boyfriend (also not surprising, considering his bromance with Grant Morrison at last year’s Comiccon), and Viz’s No. 5.

By the eponymous Troy Hickman

Y’know, thankfully a lot of folks seem to enjoy my comics, and I’d like to think I’m fairly good at what I do. I will be the first to tell you, however, that I will occasionally make a blunder so big, pull a Munson so monumental, that people are forced to ask “which guy is Hickman on the ‘Evolution of Man’ chart?”

So, in the spirit of full disclosure, I give you…

The Top Ten Stupid Things I’ve Done While Writing Comics

10. I’ve never really submitted a comic script to an editor “cold”; I’ve been lucky enough to always have folks ask me to write for ‘em. The closest I ever came, though, was back in the early 90s when I sent a complete script for a Green Lantern Corps Quarterly 12-pager to GLCQ editor Kevin Dooley on spec (I believe I had talked to him at a con earlier that year, and he encouraged me to do so). Within a short amount of time, I got a very nice note back from Kevin saying some kind things about the script, but regretfully informing me that “they’ve just told me that Green Lantern Corps Quarterly has been canceled.” Sigh…

Of course, it wasn’t dumb of me to submit a piece to a canceled book, since I had no way of knowing such was the case. No, the dumb part has to do with something Kevin pointed out to me in his note (and I’m paraphrasing here): “You have the main character using his power ring to create a giant umbrella. Why has everyone in the last forty years had GL use the ring to make umbrellas? It’s one of the most powerful weapons in the universe, and he uses it to form parasols and big green fists???”

Man, was he right. I felt like I’d found a lamp with a genie in it, and I’d used it to wish for a regular, non-genie-inhabited lamp.

9. My first real “pro” job was a gig writing Turok: Adon’s Curse for Acclaim. As it was my first, I was sure my entire comic-writing career rested on each and every panel, I wanted it to be perfect. And I thought it was…until I got a call from Fabian Nicieza to talk about what I’d turned in. It was basically fine, he said, except for one thing. During a fight scene, I had Joshua Fireseed reach into the dimensional portal that is his bag of tricks and pull out…a slingshot. “A slingshot?” Fabian asked. “He could reach in there and pull out a plasma cannon…and you give him a slingshot?”

Are you sensing a pattern here? Note to Marvel editors: if ever given the chance to write Spider-Man, I promise not to have him use his web-shooters to just make WEBS.

8. As some of you may know, my Common Grounds series was originally self-published back in the early/mid 90s as the digest-sized Holey Crullers. In the very first issue of the title, I concocted a story entitled “Sanctuary,” featuring sixteen year-old super-strong socialite Deb-U-Ton and her nosh with Moshe Chomsky, the Acidic Jew. OK, cool, the story was well-received, and I thought I could chalk another one up until…Pam Bliss. Some of you folks may not know Pam, but she makes Braniac Five look like…well, Braniacs One through Four. Nothing gets by her, and after she read my little story, she pointed out that when Moshe takes off his hat, his head is bare. I’d written a story about a very devout Hasidic Jew, and in my script, I’d forgotten to tell my partner, artist Jerry Smith, to give him a yarmulke. Oy vey. Ten years later, when Chris Bachalo redrew the story for Common Grounds, I made sure that everything was kosher.

7. Somewhere around the time I was doing my self-published series Tales of the Pathetic Club (which is where my Twilight Guardian character originated), I was working at my parents’ house while my dad was dehydrating deer meat to make jerky. The fumes that came off the stuff were disgustingly thick and pungent, but I sat there for a couple of hours working on scripts anyway. Of course, I woke up the next morning with a burst blood vessel in my eye from all the irritation. No, that wasn’t something stupid I did IN a comic, but it was still stupid. So let that be a lesson to you, kids: I’m every bit as stupid in real life.

6. And speaking of deer jerky (and amazingly enough, I WAS), when I wrote the script for the new Top Cow version of Twilight Guardian I included a bit from her previous incarnation, the fact that she dehydrates her own deer jerky (sound familiar?) and gives it to dogs to keep them from attacking her on her patrols. Again, all fine and dandy, except that on page #14, where the caption says “A black cat passes me again. I’d give him some jerky, but my supply is getting low,” she is, in fact, shown tossing something to the cat, and it sure looks like deer jerky. D’oh! Now, I could cop out and say she’s actually substituting something else (maybe part of her peanut butter and bologna sandwich from elsewhere in the issue?), but homie don’t play that. I was sent the finished artwork for the issue, and I should have caught that panel and changed the caption accordingly, but I just missed it. If you want to see my stupidity in all its glory, by the way, Newsarama ran the full comic here.

5. OK, so this next one is debatable. Is it stupid? Is it genius? Is it neither? Is it both? You decide. When I wrote the story “Roles” for Holey Crullers #2 back in the 90s, I had this interplay between Crullers waitress Jennie (the story’s main character) and her co-worker Susan:

SUSAN: Hey, Jenny, how’s business tonight? Place looks deserted.

JENNY: Yeah, pretty much. The only real hassle was when Whale-Man came in and I had to do a special order for three dozen scrod-filled eclairs. Blecch!

SUSAN: His orders are a pain, all right, but he can wash up on my beach anytime!

JENNY: Susan! Stop it right now, before you make the “Free Willy” joke I know is coming!

When Ethan Van Sciver redrew the story for Common Grounds #2, however, he decided to have some fun and throw me a curve, so in place of Susan the waitress, he drew…Bob. Bob the very male person (who looks suspiciously like Ethan, in fact). So I had two choices: I could alter the dialog so that there wasn’t anything sexual to it, or I could let Bob come out of the closet. I chose the latter, figuring that if Common Grounds has clientele who can shoot cosmic rays out of their nostrils and turn the air into bat guano, they’re probably not going to discriminate regarding orientation in their hiring policies. I remember asking Ethan what his thought process was when he turned Susan into Bob, and his reply was “oh, for the hell of it.” The credo of Ethan Van Sciver, ladies and gentlemen.

4. Back when I was publishing my own stuff, I decided to do an anthology comic in which I’d solicit work from my small press pals, based on a particular theme. I called the book Popery (that’s what passes for clever as La Hacienda Hickman), and the second issue had a theme of “True Confessions.” Because of my love for autobio comics, I wanted nothing but true-life stories of the contributors. Unfortunately, for my own contribution, I decided to bare myself as much as possible (well, within Indiana’s blue laws), and I concocted a little tale of my weight problems over the years. Yeesh. And as if this emo whine-fest (in the days when emo was still only Judy Tenuta’s husband, by the way) wasn’t enough, I thought I’d make it even MORE sequentia verite by drawing it myself. WORST. IDEA. EVER. And yet I included this thing in the issue, right there alongside some very cool strips from real talents, and actually had the gall to make copies and give ‘em to people. Do me a favor: if you ever come across Popery #2, please read the rest of it and ignore my story. Or, if you do read my story, please lie to yourself and say that I was high on model airplane glue and wasabi at the time.

3. Sometime during the early 90s, Julius Schwartz made an appearance at a con in Indianapolis. Though I’d met Julie at other cons, I thought this was a good chance to see and talk to him in a more relaxed and less crowded venue. I don’t remember what I talked to him about (probably something Superman-related), but I do remember giving him a copy of one of my self-published comics from that time. I don’t know what he said, if he said anything, but I know in the intervening years I’ve wished I hadn’t given him my crappy little comic. I’m probably being hard on myself, but I imagine him finding himself back at his hotel room, short on Charmin, and using Yoyo the Dieting Clown by Troy Hickman for his personal hygiene needs. Sadly, Julie passed away just about the time the first issue of Common Grounds hit the stands. I would’ve liked to know what he thought, as his work sure had an effect on my own.

2. When I was writing an arc for the City of Heroes comic, I had a segment where a young comic fan comes up to Sister Psyche asking for an autograph, and using her mental powers, she discerns that he’s picturing her in her underwear and freaks out. Now, in my head I was thinking “see, the irony here is that her costume is already skin-tight and revealing enough that it would actually be LESS prurient for the kid to imagine her in her undies.” Of course, if that’s what I was going for, I probably should have made more of it IN THE PANEL. So when CoH fans were kind enough to give me feedback, what I heard was “but…she’s already so scantily-clad now!” (Yes, we CoH folks regularly use the phrase “scantily-clad”…we also like to say “bawdy house” and “slatternly strumpet”). Frankly, I’m surprised they haven’t canceled my game account.

1. The stupidest mistake I’ve made while writing comics? This article! I’m sure I’m filling my potential editors with supreme confidence.D’oh! Hey, I’ve gotten better, I promise!

Troy Hickman is the creator of the upcoming Pilot Season-winning mini-series Twilight Guardian, which might accidentally contain segments where she demonstrates the power of flight or refers to herself as the “Twilight Avenger.” Pick it up and find out what the hell he’s done this time!

By Bon Alimagno

The last few weeks have brought upheaval to the comic book industry, ignited by changes in the distribution policies of Diamond Comics Distribution. A lot of the coverage portrayed this as the death of the indy comic and the exile of many publishers from the direct market. Harris Comics is uniquely positioned to weather this storm, entirely due to our dedicated fan base and a very strong online sales operation. For the rest of the industry the way I look at can be summed up by the saying, “One door closes, another opens.”

There were a lot of changes put in place, some big, some small, and a few won’t be noticed. There are two that will have far-reaching effects across the industry. One deals with limiting reorders of pamphlets past 60 days, a rule that greatly hinders the ability of comics to use word of mouth and good press to grow sales after initial publication. (Thankfully, this rule change was not applied to Harris’ most successful source of reorders: trade paperbacks.) Another essentially means that a $2.99 comic book must sell a minimum of roughly 2000 copies to receive distribution. (This threshold doesn’t affect Harris’ regular editions, but does greatly impact everything else we publish: limited editions, art prints, etc.)

I’m not sure if it has sunk into the mind of the average comic shop goer what setting these rules mean. The new rules place a huge emphasis on initial sales, in a direct market largely resistant to anything different and new. A year from now it’s very likely what few non-superhero comic books you are used to seeing at your local comic book shop may disappear unless you frequent one that already features a wide ranging selection. The direct market is a vicious cycle: comic book shops are widely considered the best place to buy superhero comics, so most of the people who frequent these shops are people who read superhero comic books. Retailers who order comic books do so on a non-returnable basis. They have to place their bet on what comic will and won’t sell. If they bet wrong they are stuck with extra inventory that may never move. More often than not they’ll place their bet with a sure thing, something with a consistent track record or built-in fan base. Retailers then order mostly superhero books. Anyone looking for anything else will more often than not find a very limited selection appealing to their tastes, so they stop coming, leaving the store increasingly in the hands of superhero comic book readers.

Non-Big Four publishers will often find their books under ordered. In cases like that, they’ll hope that word of mouth and positive reviews stir interest in their titles and lead to reorders. Except now reorders are limited to sixty days, not that much time to grow an audience.

I’ve read some people say these new rules place the burden of marketing a comic book more where it should be: with the publisher. True enough. Yet how many publishers have the marketing budget to do substantial publicity? (How many of these critics have ever seen a Wizard ad rate card?) And how many comics can receive attention in a market already oversaturated with news from the Big Four? (God help you if you debuted a comic the day Batman died AND President Obama appeared on the cover of Amazing Spider-Man.) For better or worse the few column inches granted each comic book in Previews may be the most cost effective advertising available to a publisher. And now even that will likely not be available to them.

That all sounds bleak for anyone who doesn’t have an X or a Bat on the comic book they publish. But really, this is an opportunity to refashion the direct market into one that serves not one genre but all subject matter. I don’t know how we’ll get to this promised land, but here’s what I think it’ll look like:

*A small subset of the current direct market, let’s say the 500 stores that already do order a variety of material, become the foundation for a new direct market. These stores will look more like Rocketship in Brooklyn, New York and Isotope and Comic Relief in San Francisco, California: more bookstore than hobby shop. These stores will attract a diverse audience, one willing to read an entire medium’s worth of stories, instead of limiting themselves to a single genre.

*Publishers cease trying to compete with Marvel and DC since they’re getting distributed to stores where they don’t have to. There’s less pressure to publish heavy stock, glossy, full color comic books that look collectible. They turn to thinner, cheaper stocks and much more black and white. Print costs decrease and the comics themselves are cheaper and never exceed $2.99.

*A distributor, maybe Haven, maybe one that doesn’t exist yet, serves these stores and these publishers more effectively than Diamond ever could. Diamond’s infrastructure is fashioned to move hundreds of thousands of Spider-Man issues around the country with ease, but dozens of Vampirella limited editions with difficulty. A distributor that serves this new direct market properly would be just the opposite: making it easier to distribute fewer copies and ending the need for minimums. Profit margins per item may be small, but due to volume add up to making it worth it – essentially a “long tail” method of distribution instead of one so heavily concentrated on initial orders.

The easiest answer to so many of the industry’s distribution problems is moving to a fully digital model, one that requires no distributor and no comic book stores. But something is missing here. I love walking into a comic book store and browsing through a jungle of shelves. At least once a year I go to Jim Hanley’s Universe because they seemingly order everything and I try to look at, well, everything. I am always surprised by something new I’d never seen before: a new voice, a new artist, even a new shape and size to the comic itself. What we’re facing is a direct market where the surprises grow fewer and far between, where what we see is a retread of everything that has come before. If this medium is to grow it can’t condemn itself to that. Marvel is right, we must “embrace change,” though we must make it our own.

Bon Alimagno is Director – Publishing & Editorial for Harris Comics, publishers of Vampirella.

Last week money was a bit tight, so I ended up with only Northlanders. Didn’t even get my hands on a copy of 08, though Caleb did and reviewed it for you.

This week, well, it’s NYCC and I’ll be running around like a crazy woman. Plus, someome brought me a copy of Labor Days, so I’ll be trying to finish that, as well as finally getting 08. So the only comic on my radar this week is The Boys. Anyone have any other suggestions for me?

I’m sure I’ll pick up things and stuff at the con this weekend. I’ll be running around with my press badge on, talking to people, catching panels, taking pictures, and of course blogging, so if you see me, say hello.

Well, we all knew that Bruce Wayne hates amateurs. But who’d've thought Christian Bale would take that so seriously?

TMZ has released a profanity-laden audio file (so open here at your own risk) of the Dark Knight as he lashes out at the Terminator: Salvation set.

The reason? Cinematographer Shane Hurlbut, who apparently walked into Bale’s line of sight during a scene with costar Bryce Dallas Howard.

“Do you want me to go and trash your lights? Do you want me to go and trash them?” he shouts. In another part of the clip, he says “if you do it one more time I ain’t walkin’ on this set if you’re still hired!”

(Of course, the scene becomes almost comic when Bale shouts, “you understand, my mind is not in the scene if you’re doing that.”)

Now, here’s the interesting bits — first and foremost, this isn’t the first time someone has accused Bale of having a violent temper, as just after the premiere of the Dark Knight, he was accused of threatening his mother and sister. But the really interesting bit is why this was recorded in the first place — according to TMZ, it was to be held as a lever against Bale from the insurance company, to make sure he didn’t bail from Terminator: Salvation. Could this be a dark look at the anticipated sequel?

This is gonna be a brief one, folks. The god of Thunder had some help from his comic book caretakers yesterday, as two high profile names descended upon Hollywood to meet with his new master. We already know that Kenneth Branagh has the Helm of Thor. Now, it seems, Joe Quesada and Brian Michael Bendis have joined the ranks of Asgard. Via Twitter (that wonderful, wonderful toy):

Joe Quesada: Okay, three words describe my day today “Branagh gets it!”

Bendis: @JoeQuesada hey are we allowed to talk about what we did today or is it hush hush?

Quesada: @BRIANMBENDIS We can’t go into detail but I think we can say that we met with Branagh about Thor

Bendis: @JoeQuesada so we can’t go into detail but maybe we can say that we met with Branagh about Thor

Quesada: (in response to a fan) I’ll tell you what’s sweet @rdhall Sweet is when he starts quoting continuity and past storylines. The man has immersed himself in Marvel

Quesada: Yes @BRIANMBENDIS we can hint at hour super secret Thor meeting with Branagh, but don’t give it away, just hint

So there you have it, folks. Bendis and Quesada are helping with the Thor movie. Branagh apparently is diving into it head first, hopefully in a similar way to how Jon Favreau famously handled himself with Iron Man. Outlook good for goldilocks.

Your ever-lovin’, blue-eyed Peter David has been busy, according to his blog.

Working with Ben 10, David has not only written an episode titled “In Charm’s Way,” but has also a Ben 10: Alien Force manga with Del Ray called “Ben Folds Four.” Which will be Rockin’ the Suburbs, for all you music fans out there…

Meanwhile, some big news is that David has been asked to get snikt-snikt-bub on with some additional issues of Wolverine: First Class. And finally, he teases that another limited series will be announced at NYCC…

Our friends over at Bif Bang Pow! updated their blog with a message for readers and achievers of all shapes and size:

Jason Lenzi here again, with some very exciting news that you (and I) have been waiting a long time to read: Wave 3 of our Big Lebowski Urban Achievers action figures are up for pre-order right now! With new and improved images!

That’s right, after nearly a year and a half of calls, paperwork, designs, hold ups, let downs, drinks, and heartburn, unveiled for the first time, are Donny, the Stranger and Jesus Quintana, in full regalia, over at the Entertainment Earth site, right now! They’re crafted with the same loving care that went into our previous waves, and we think they’ll look beeeutiful standing proudly next to Jeffrey and Walter (which you already have, right? Right??). From Donny’s burger, to the Strangers bottle o’ Sasparilla, to Jesus’ handy ball cleaner, all of the details and accessories you know and love from the film are in place and ready to move into your office or home.

Stay tuned for some more cool Lebowski products from BigBangPow! that we’ll be featuring on the site in the next few weeks.

MARK IT ZERO!!!!!!!

The prize winners at the Angouleme International Comics Festival have been announced and are available on the site’s “Prize List” section.

The Fauve D’Or prize for best comic book went to Pinocchio. Many more books that I’m unfamiliar with won prizes, giving me a whole list of new books to try to check out. It’s a nice reminder that there are comics all over the world worth reading, though it makes me whimper that I don’t read more languages…

Howdy, folks!

Welcome to Sequential Parts, my new column here at Blog@Newsarama!

My name is Randal C. Jarrell and I am the Managing Editor of Oni Press, an independent comic book publisher based out of Portland, OR. Oni Press was established in 1997 with an emphasis on publishing creator-owned works. We have published over 200 graphic novels and trade paperbacks from almost every genre and for every age group. My job at Oni Press brings me in contact with every aspect of the business of comic book production.  In a nutshell, I work at the intersection of creative development, commerce, and logistics. I am regularly involved in portfolio reviews, conventions, appearances, looking for talent, approving pitches, reading scripts, scanning art, digital production and clean up, prepress, and whatever other stages are involved in getting a project completed, printed, and distributed. The fact that I have worked in virtually every aspect of comic book production gives me a relatively rare perspective on many elements to this business.

In this series of columns, I hope to educate some readers about the behind-the-scenes aspects of the comics industry. I’d like this to be an informative and educational resource for anybody aspiring to work in comics. Even if you don’t have any desire to work in comics, I would hope what I intend to write will give you an added sense of appreciation for the books you read and all the hard work that goes into nurturing a project from a simple idea all the way to a physical copy of a book you can hold in your hands.

The first few columns will focus on some of the topics I cover in a series of panels I give at comic conventions called How Not to Break Into Comics. These panel discussions focus less on the how to’s and more on all the goofy mistakes people make when pitching comics or trying to get work in this industry.

For our initial column, I’d like to address one of the biggest mistakes new talent often make when pitching comics – being overly ambitious in your pitch format.

I would say that on average, we receive about a thousand pitches a year for new projects. Most of these pitches are coming from creators who we do not have any publishing history with us and the vast majority of those are from people with no publishing history at all.

When you are new and trying to break in, your best bet is to start small. Don’t pitch a 70-issue space epic. NOBODY is going to green light such a mammoth project until you have become a proven commodity that can be trusted to meet the strenuous deadlines involved with an ongoing series. It would be idiotic for any publisher to green light such an ambitious undertaking from an unproven creator.

Bryan Lee O’Malley would be a good example for this. Bryan is most known for his Scott Pilgrim series of original graphic novels. But if this had been the first thing he had come to us with, we probably wouldn’t have approved the project. Bryan’s first project with us was some inking on the second arc of Queen & Country. He then illustrated a 4-issue Hopeless Savages miniseries. After performing admirably and professionally on these two projects, Bryan then pitched Lost at Sea, his first original graphic novel that he would also write. It was after Lost at Sea that he pitched us the 6-volume Scott Pilgrim series. As you can see, each project got a bit more ambitious but he started small and his ability was both proven and strengthened at every step of the way.

We once got a 250 page pitch from an unpublished writer. 250 pages of pitch material. This was going to be the creator’s sci-fi space-viking magnum opus. The pitch had detailed histories of alien species, schematics from spaceships, excerpts from “historical” documents, and page after page after page of star charts.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to create such a large epic. It probably just won’t be your first project out of the gate. Start small. Do some shorts in anthologies. Produce a mini-comic or two. Pitch a miniseries or an original graphic novel. Heck… if you want, pitch it so that if your miniseries does gangbusters, it can be the first volume in your multi-volume epic. Everyone has to start somewhere and if you start small, each of these little projects can help build up your resume. Then, when it comes time to publishing your epic, you will hopefully have a proven track record and a built-in fan base to buy, read, and appreciate your work. That is something every publisher is looking for.

And on the theme of starting small… that’s all I have for you today.

Till next time,

Randal C. Jarrell

I’M THE GODDAM MANAGING EDITOR.

www.onipress.com

If you are going to be at the New York Comic-Con, come visit me at my panel:

How Not To Break Into Comics

Saturday, February 7^th – Panel Room 10 (1A21) – 11:00am-12:00pm

There have been countless articles and panels on how to break into comics, but very few on how not to. Come join Randal C. Jarrell (Managing Editor at Oni Press) and other industry insiders as we discuss the common and often hilarious mistakes people often make when trying to pitch or get work in the comics industry. This unique inside perspective will help any prospective creator learn how to navigate the potential pitfalls that doom far too many in their attempts to break in to comics. If you want to work in comics, you do not want to miss this panel!

Jennifer Kesler at The Hathor Legacy has another post up on the female characters in Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere (the series).

I blogged this before because I thought it was an excellent post and an equally excellent discussion broke out in the comment thread. I’m re-linking for the same reasons.

Despite these things, it is really good to see a story about an ordinary (even dorky, I would say) man surrounded by extraordinary women and men. This is a vast step-up from the usual stories of extraordinary men surrounded by adoring/decorative women, or ordinary men surrounded by extraordinary men and adoring/decorative women. The women in Neverwhere have not only agency but clear personal goals. Most of them are on quests of their own, and it’s explicitly through the quests of Door and Hunter that Richard discovers himself.

Read on. And blogroll The Hathor Legacy, already, will you? They do good work.

Variety reports that Dev Patel of Oscar contender Slumdog Millionaire will step into the part of Zuko, the The Last Airbender role vacated by Jesse McCartney.  Lead Aang will be played by Noah Ringer, a 12-year-old newcomer from Texas.  Given the controversy surrounding the casting of the project to date, it will be interesting to see how the reactions to this announcement play.

[Via Variety]

Wired’s Underwire gets specific on what we’d heard: Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter hits DVD on March 24th. 

Gerard Butler narrates the pirate tale that was woven throughout the course of the main Watchmen storyline in the series.

Additionally, the disc will include a film version of “Under the Hood”, the autobiography of the originale Nite Owl, Hollis Mason.

Rumors persist that, at some point in the future, director Zach Snyder will release a DVD version that blends Black Freighter with the Watchmen film itself in an attempt to echo the reading experience.

What do you think, readers?  Is this an automatic buy, or a wait-and-see? 

Fans have been discussing the impact of Marvel’s recently announced price increases (particularly in light of around 30 new first issues in April) , and retailers are weighing in as well.  Robert Kimmons, owner of Chicago’s Brainstorm Movies, Comics and Gaming, posted the following open letter to Marvel at his Facebook.

Hello to Joe Quesada and whoever else may be inclined to listen,

My name is Robert and I own Brainstorm Movies Comics and Gaming in Chicago. I am sending this to you in response to the recent price increase of more and more books going up to 3.99.

First of all, I realize that times change and everything goes up eventually. And I have told my customers that have expressed concern about the recent price increases that we should wait and see what happens. My argument was that if the page count goes from 32 to 40, then I could justify spending that on a GOOD book. I would even be willing to forgive it if the 32 page books kicked butt, like Dark Avengers #1.

The latest Previews has a line that seems to repeat itself and it is causing some rumbling. Namely that line is “Plus 8 pages of Director’s Cut Extras!” This is like a slap in the face as one customer put it…right before he had me take all Marvel titles off his list.

Oh, I know, you maybe smiled at that one. Oooo, there goes someone else threatening not to buy our books anymore. Oh what will Marvel Comics do if we don’t sell those 15 or 20 books a month to that one guy in Chicago? I imagine it wouldn’t be that big a deal…except this isn’t the first one this month.

I’m not so much worried about Marvel. I’m worried about Brainstorm. This was someone who has been a customer since the day he walked in. He has stuck it out through thick and thin, and he would probably even be willing to give the price increase a fair chance…UNDER THE ASSUMPTION THERE WOULD BE MORE STORY! Plus 8 pages of Director’s Cut Extras does NOT justify a price increase. Eight pages of story would be an easier sell.

If the price increases are due to budgetary reasons, then may I suggest that Marvel stop putting out things like Marvel: Your Universe or any of the Chronicles. I stopped ordering these with Hulk Chronicles, because that’s when my customers stopped buying them. And when they see this in Previews and then all these 3.99 books they ask me what gives. I don’t know what to tell them. Repacking material that has already come out in trades is like poking a wet cat…it does nothing but make the cat madder.

If you have some insight, I would appreciate it. But I’m pretty certain that this won’t get any response and if I do it will probably be something about how exciting the future of comics is and that the price increases are needed for this or that.

Regardless of whether you answer this or not, keep in mind that there are people out here who have invested everything they have into their stores. The same stores that rely upon people being able to afford the books they’re interested in reading. Because I have found that no matter how good a book is, if people have to make a choice between necessity and Wolverine, they will and have been lately, choose the necessity.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t raise the prices of your books. You’re going to do that anyway. I’ve seen the writing on that wall for a while now. I’m just asking that whoever makes these decisions please keep in mind that if you want more from us, we’re going to want more from you. And Director’s Cut Extras are not going to cut it.

Robert Kimmons
Owner
Brainstorm Movies, Comics and Gaming
1648 W. North Ave.
Chicago, IL 60622
773-384-8721

Is Fox intent on becoming the supervillain of movie studios: New York Magazine‘s Lane Brown reports that Fox, after their battle with Warner Brothers over Watchmen, may be trying to prevent Emily Blunt from appearing Paramount’s Iron Man 2, positing that it may cost Fox some goodwill among the superhero fans they’re counting on to make Wolverine a success. I don’t know, this comic book fan thinks the idea of a movie studio just kinda going around and trying to thwart supehero movies is kind of charming. Heroes need their villains, right? Perhaps the same goes for the studios that make their movies.

What can Blackagar Boltagon teach you about active listening in a business setting?: The Financial Post reviews author Sean Wise’s 2008 book How To Be Business Superhero, which divides its 35 chapters into lessons you can learn from particular superheroes and villains, and strays pretty far from the ones with household names. For example, chapter 18 is apparently entitled “Madrox: Synergistic Multitasking.” I do hope Wise didn’t suggest anyone look to superheroes for good examples of how to dress around the office.

Pekar conquers another medium: NPR’s Weekend Edition covers the hell out of Harvey Pekar and Dan Plonsey’s jazz opera, Leave Me Alone.

“News of his endeavor will baffle comic-book fans who associate him more with Spider-Man and Wolverine than with Adam and Eve”: So what’s Bill Jemas been up to lately? This Star-Ledger article checks in with the former Marvel Comics president, who’s currently working on an English translation of the Book of Genesis, and I am trying really, really hard to avoid an Ultimate Genesis joke, but it is not easy.

“With a little willpower, a cave, and a cooperative manservant, you too can kick drugs the Batman way”: Batman (with a little help from Dave Campbell) explains how to overcome drug addiction.