As of this week, Vertigo’s acclaimed series The Unwritten is number 8 on the Paperback Graphic Books Best-Sellers’ list. Now, you might not think that’s a big deal, but considering the list only has two freshman titles, I think this is an amazing feat since I’m shocked people aren’t picking up this incredible story. If you are unfamiliar with the title, it focuses around a young man by the name of Tommy Taylor, who may or may not be, the fictional boy wizard character of his missing father’s novels. However, Harry Potter, this ain’t.

Blog@ spoke with co-creator and writer of the series, Mike Carey about this announcement and what it means to him. “We’d heard this was coming last week, but we weren’t allowed to leak it! It’s fantastic that the book is getting such a great reception. It’s popping up in all kinds of lists of the best of 2009, Publishers’ Weekly gave it a really positive review, and now we turn up in the New York Times charts. The whole Unwritten team is very proud, and at the same time it puts us on our mettle. You really don’t want to blow it with so many people watching.”

Even though I have all the issues thus far in the series, I made sure to get a copy of the trade just so I could lend it out to readers who haven’t discovered this book yet.

The Unwritten Vol.1: “Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity” collects issues 1-5 and is available for $9.99.

Find out more about Global Freezing here on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays or at ComicsByEgg.com.

With all the craziness of this week — that’s right, I’m looking at you, Conan and Martha Coakley — I’ve been catching up on my posting this week, which is why I haven’t been able to give a proper shout-out to this list. Here’s the American Library Association’s Top Ten graphic novels for teens:

Hardison, Jim and Bart Sears. The Helm. Dark Horse. 2009.

Igarashi, Daisuke. Children of the Sea, vol 1. VIZ Media. 2009.

Jensen, Van and Dusty Higgins. Pinocchio: Vampire Slayer. SLG Publishing. 2009.

Kelly, Joe and J.M. Ken Nimura. I Kill Giants. Image. 2009.

Lethem, Jonathan and Farel Dalrymple. Omega the Unknown. Marvel. 2008.

Love, Jeremy. Bayou, vol 1. DC Comics/Zuda. 2009.

Neufeld, Josh. A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge. Pantheon Books. 2009.

Siddell, Tom. Gunnerkrigg Court, vol 1: Orientation. Archaia Studios Press. 2009.

Urasawa, Naoki and Takashi Nagasaki. Pluto. VIZ Media. 2009.

Yoshinaga, Fumi. Ooku: The Inner Chambers, vol 1. VIZ Media. 2009.

Want to see more graphic novels for teens? Check out the ALA’s full list here!

IDW and its latest imprint, Desperado, will be releasing a retrospective on the artwork of Tony Harris, called “Tony Harris: Art & Skulduggery”:

Ain’t that cover a beaut? Here’s what Desperado founder Joe Pruett had to say on the IDW blog about the Eisner-winning artist of Ex Machina and Starman:

“Tony Harris is an important artist in comics, and this series is an impressive tribute to his work… Focusing on such a presence in the industry, Tony Harris is the perfect way to begin our Desperado imprint.”

Desperado is also scheduled to have retrospectives on Dave Dorman and George Perez later this year.

The Tony Harris book, which is due out in March, is 312 pages, and is available either as a $49.99 hardcover, or a $79.99 signed and numbered limited edition hardcover.

For those of you who haven’t heard about Diary of a Wimpy Kid (like, er, me), take a look at the trailer for the upcoming film adaptation of the illustrated book:

Spike Jonze. Young Robots in Love. Need I say more? How about this — WATCH IT:

I just wanna know — how do you say “daaaaaaaawwww!!” in binary code?

[Extreme hat-tip to Christine]

Conan the Barbarian has been brought back to life, this time being played by Jason Momoa!

Deadline Hollywood reports that the (ahem) Stargate: Atlantis actor has been cast for the title, beating out Twilight actor Kellan Lutz as well as the upcoming Tonight Show host Jay Leno.

(For those of you who don’t stand with Coco, that last one was a joke. Let’s see NBC try to give a bloodthirsty Cimmerian less than seven months to beat Letterman! Without ER, no less!)

This decision came after much speculation, in which Millennium Films. Lionsgate, and Paradox Entertainment narrowly OK’d the casting after seeing test footage of Momoa in action.

Kevin Smith talks—well, tweets—about his next Bat-work: On his Twitter account yesterday, the writer/director-turned-casual comics writer let loose some details about what he and his Batman: Cacophony collaborator Walter Flanagan will be doing after the sixth issue of their current limited series ships:  1) The Baphomet solo series he had previously mentioned is actually going to be called Gotham Babylon, rather than Baphomet (which is too bad…I was really looking forward to the mainstream media hearing about a book called Baphomet from the publishers of Superman), 2) Gotham Babylon will apparently be a limited series, with a second volume of Widening Gyre starting after it finishes, and 3) A second volume of Widening Gyre will follow a new new hero.

Reminder #357, 654: Comics are a medium, not a genre. Also, there’s a hyphen in “Spider-Man.” Also, there’s a hyphen in “X-Men.” Hey that’s three strikes! This crazy blog is out!

“Spider-Man reboot gets director Marc Webb”: I have this suspicion that (500) Days of Summer director Marc Webb got the gig of a directing a fourth Spider-Man film because some executive was leaning back in his chair and free associating, thinking “Spider-Man…does what a spider can…spiders spin webs…Oh my God! Get Marc Webb on the phone!”

The #1 reason I wish I was wealthy (today): So I’d be able to bid on and win Evan Dorkin’s totally awesome Marvel villains group shot. You can see Dorkin’s piece here at his home base, or here, nestled among a bunch of other pieces of art up for auction.  (By the way, Juan Doe sure does a fine Spidey drawing, doesn’t he?)

Given that its rating on Rotten Tomatoes is 7%–which makes it 3% lower than Catwoman—this week’s DVD and Blu-Ray release of Whiteout will face an uphill battle getting anyone, even fans of the graphic novel upon which it’s based, to buy it.

Which is a shame, really. The movie’s not nearly as bad as Catwoman. It’s not even in the same league as Elektra (10%) or Steel (13%); it’s basically just a two-hour version of a mediocre police procedural. I can see Whiteout being a “very special episode” of some “CSI” or “Law & Order” spinoff without a problem.

That said, it’s not a great movie. Not even a good movie. It’s just…well…a two-hour version of a police procedural. There’s Kate Beckinsale, pretty as ever and acting reasonably well, and then there’s a bunch of bit players you’ve never seen or heard of before. Piled on top of them is Tom Skerritt, and you know what they say about the one, random, recognizable face in a story like this. The murder mystery plot plods along, and by the time the death in the first scene ties in with the death that the main characters are investigating, you’ve already given up hope that the damned thing is going to make any sense.

Meanwhile, given that there are only about ten characters in the film and most of them have pretty specifically-outlined roles to play, the identity of our killer becomes pretty obvious about 40 minutes into the movie and rarely if ever does your suspicion shift from that character.

I’ve always thought that a great mystery story should allow you to consider the killer, discount them completely to move onto others, and then accept within reason that s/he was actually the badguy once the hero lays out their case. Instead, the killer here is the killer because…well, because he’s the killer. There’s little other logic attached and the story could easily have gone another way, except that it didn’t. Having never read Rucka’s lauded Oni Press comics based on this character, I’m kind of at a loss as to whether this is a case of a bad adaptation of a good property or just an overrated property—but I’m willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. After all, I probably wouldn’t have read Gregory McDonald’s Fletch (one of my favorite characters in mystery lit) if I’d seen the movie first. That said, it would have been nice of Warner Bros. to include a commentary track, making-of featurette or anything else that might give some insight into the process. Instead, the only features we get are a handful of deleted scenes that make viewers glad the movie wasn’t EVEN longer.

All that said, this is the kind of movie that you can put on and have a little fun with it; it’s a murder mystery in name, but with a masked killer, a desolate and isolated setting and a plot that barely holds up under its own weight, it plays with a lot of the tropes of horror films, and does so better than most horror movies do. Plus, if you go in thinking that a good time is more important than quality cinema, you’ll have plenty of fun with the CGI snow accumulating on Beckinsale’s face during the final showdown with the movie’s big bad.

(Click the image above for a larger version of the strip.)

WORLD OF HURT – The Thrill-Seekers – Episode 24: “Tell The Truth, Shame The Devil – Part 4”

Despite her unassuming nature, Alicia isn’t one to take any crap off of anyone.  I really loved her speech here, because I thought I did a solid job of capturing the voice of a Black woman from the South.  I especially love her muttering under her breath about Duke’s insolence putting her on the verge of abandoning her sense of decorum. “Make me forget I’m a child of God” is a phrase that I’ve heard on several occasions.  It’s a wonderfully colorful term that says so much about Alicia’s upbringing and indicates just how far Duke has pushed her.

New strips of WORLD OF HURT – The Internet’s #1 Blaxploitation Webcomic are posted every Wednesday at www.worldofhurtonline.com.

- JEP

Yesterday Entertainment Weekly teased their coverage of the upcoming Twilight: The Graphic Novel online, with the cover, a one-page excerpt, and a snippet of an interview with Stephenie Meyer. The full interview and a ten-page excerpt of the manga will appear in the new issue of EW, which is on sale tomorrow.

The Yen Press book is being created by Young Kim, who will be making her comics debut (?!) on what looks like it may be the biggest possible stage on which one can make one’s comics debut at the moment. The first printing will be 350,000 copies, it’s going to retail for $20 and it will go on sale March 16.

Brigid Alverson has the initial press release posted on her blog, as well as a few notes on what that 350,000 number actually means, compared to other manga and similar releases.

Given that Twilight long ago reached genuine phenomenon status, even before the film adaptations started rolling out, it’s no surprise that Yen Press is so confident in the property, and it’s probably safe to say they have every reason to be so confident.

Some thoughts on the project:

—I found the cover credits interesting. At the bottom of the cover it says “Stephenie Meyer” in bold, and in a much smaller font below that it reads “Art and Adaptation by Young Kim.” From what she told EW, Meyer didn’t actually script the graphic novel, and her contributions seemed to be supplying the source novel and then asking for changes and tweaking some dialogue. Obviously, hers is the bigger name and the one that’s going to be likely the one that moves books, but the credits don’t really seem to accurately reflect who did what (This isn’t at all unusual, of course, although it is perhaps unfortunate that Yen is adhering to the trend rather than breaking it).

—For some added context of that 350,000 number, check out John Jackson Miller’s analysis of the top-selling comics of the past decade. If Yen sells through that initial print, they will have outsold every single-issue comic book save the Obama/Spidey issue of Amazing Spider-Man. And keep in mind that the top ten books on Miller’s list are all priced at $2.99. Twilight will be over six times that price. If anyone still thinks that superhero comics constituted “mainstream” comics, that’s something to keep in mind.

—Simon Jones’ reaction is worth checking out just for the title of his post: “Yen prints 350,000 copies Twilight graphic novel, CCi attendees no longer allowed to complain.” Actually, Jones makes some quite salient points in his piece, including the fact that the book “will expose more fresh eyeballs to comics than any other single release, even series, in 2010” and that it offers a pretty perfect opportunity for retailers to get potential new customers in their stores. Personally, I hope a lot of ‘em are already planning their Twilight: The Graphic Novel release parties and working on their “If you like this, you’ll like these”-style displays.

—Expect a ton of press on this one, from mainstream media, comics media and Twilight fandom. The book is still two months out, and here’s what I found in my Google News feed since EW ran their preview piece: The BBC,The Guardian, The Independent, USA Today, MTV’s Splash Page, Anime News Network, OK! Magazine, Perez Hilton, Cinematical, The Hollywood Gossip, Twilight Lexicon, Zimbio.com and this person’s blog.

—I hate to judge a comic based on a single page, but man, that was not a very good single page of comics, was it? The character designs are very nice though.

—Much, much, much shorter comics adaptations of Twilight are already available online for free. The extremely talented Lucy Knisley adapted Twilight into four panels here (plus she handles each of the sequels in four panels, in addition to a killer strip about the experience of reading the Twilight saga), while Chris Sims managed it in a single panel while announcing this year’s 30-Second Recap Contest.

If you like what you’ve read so far (c’mon, how can you not?) totally check out more super cute comics at:www.sosuperduper.com!

Coming this Summer from Diamond Select, an exciting new line featuring one of the most alluring femme fatales of modern comics’ history starting with Jim Balent’s Witch of the Black Rose – Tarot! Standing over eight inches tall, this Sam Greenwell sculpt showcases the Broadsword Comics beauty as never before with stunning detail. Balent was hands-on with the design and it has led to an amazing portrayal of the character.

Fans of the series may want to jump on this fast and pre-ordering is available at www.diamondselecttoys.com/ for $35.

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

Like most people in the US, I was stunned and horrified by the horrible damage suffered by the people of Haiti after they were hit with a 7.0 earthquake last week. And like many, I did what I could do to aid in the disaster relief efforts by donating to a worthy charity. It got me thinking, why do we wait until a disaster to help out the little guy?

Would the people of Haiti be suffering in the same way now if we had been proactive in helping their improvised nation raise their standard of living and infrastructure? In this Op-Ed from the New York Times, David Brooks points out that a similar earthquake in San Francisco killed 63 people as opposed to the 72,000 reported killed in Haiti by CNN. Brooks suggests that the tragedy in Haiti is a result of poverty, not a natural disaster. Further more, we aren’t tackling the problem in the most effective manner.

Now, I’m not an economist, sociologist, or even a politician; I’m just a guy who makes comics. I don’t have any answers for problems of this scale. Any attempt I might make to suggest solutions would be hubris on my part.

I also want to be very clear. I’m not suggesting that you shouldn’t donate generously to the relief efforts. You should. You can find a list of ways you can help HERE. You can also support Heroes4Haiti, a relief effort by comic artist and the comic industry.

But why do we wait until over 70,000 people die in Haiti before mobilizing into action?

Is it part of human nature? Or something inherent about living in a country where despite economic hardship, we’re all living comfortably compared to much of the rest of the world?

This train of thought brought me to other parallels (albeit smaller in scale and importance). Two weeks ago, NBC announced they were moving Jay Leno back into his old time slot at 11:30, which forced Conan O’Brien to step down from the Tonight Show. There was a great outcry of online support for Conan from fans. Everyone wondered how NBC could possibly take Conan off the air. Well, I suspect if everyone who had rallied for Conan last week had been watching his show for the last six months, perhaps his job would have been secure.

Or when Fox threatened to take Dollhouse off the air after its first season. Fans grabbed their pitchforks and torches, and Fox agreed to renew the show for a second season.  When ratings didn’t increase, they canceled the show.

I hear people complain all of the time about how there aren’t more smaller, smarter films and why we’re flooded with big films with the same ten actors, aimed firmly at the lowest common denominator. It’s simple dollars and cents, folks. You vote with your wallet when you go to the theater to see Avatar rather than Up in the Air.

It happens in our industry as well. Truly innovative and interesting series end up relegated to “wait for trade” status. But here’s the rub, if the individual issue sales for a series are low enough, the publisher may be forced to cancel it, which means there may never be a trade.

Budgets are tight and difficult choices need to be made. Perhaps the next time you are at your local comic shop and you have the latest top 10 selling title in one hand and a smaller, under-represented title in the other, you can put the blockbuster back on the shelf. It’ll be there next week. And there will certainly be a trade, a hardcover, and an over-sized edition. That other book however may not be there next month without your support.

I get it. Heck, I’m guilty of it too. I want to see how the big event series or blockbuster film is, so I can talk about it around the coffee machine. I’ve been burned by supporting TV shows, comics, and magazines that get axed before their time. I know the sting of getting invested and never getting a satisfactory ending for my investment. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t support those efforts.

So in conclusion, give generously and be proactive about supporting the little guy. Go ahead and “wait for the trade,” but do it on the blockbusters.

Take care,

Filip Sablik

Publisher Guy

Filip Sablik is the Publisher of Top Cow Productions, Inc. He’s been in the business for ten years and is in 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.

The Walking Dead are one step closer to invading your television set!

Variety reports that AMC has ordered a pilot episode for the small-screen adaptation of the Robert Kirkman comic.

This is some pretty fantastic news for all you zombie fans out there, considering it means that — assuming the final product isn’t atrocious or too gory for TV — we’ll likely see at least one episode of the series.

Shawshank Redemption producer Frank Darabont apparently wrote the adaptation, while Gale Anne Hurd and David Alpert are exec-producing.

Scrublands
Written & Illustrated by Joe Daly
Published by Fantagaphics

Here’s another really nice thing about libraries: not only do they save you cash, not only do they prevent you from taking up huge amounts of your precious shelf space, but they’re also the best option going when you really want to sample something but aren’t quite sure about investing in it.

Many people have talked up Joe Daly’s The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book to me, and I’ve been wanting to check it out. Alas, the New York Public Library does not, to date, possess a copy. The library does carry a previous collection of Daly’s work, a 128-page compilation of various odds and ends, published by Fantagraphics in 2006. This book is titled Scrublands.

It didn’t really work for me. Having no real clue what to expect, I found Scrublands a mixed bag of unconnected strips. Ranging from three panels to forty pages, Daly certainly gives himself plenty of freedom to explore his material as he sees fit. If the material were better, it would be a more admirable quality.

The jokes don’t have any zing to them. Peculiar and surreal events occur, but don’t seem to provide any meaning beyond their oddness. The long, dreamy ramble “Prebaby,” which takes up nearly half the pages in the book, never coalesces into anything. Other strips skip right past funny and charge full-on into meanness when tearing down religious beliefs. Being an easy target only makes the joke harder to find.

And still, so many people have dug on The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book, I still want to read it.  Quite a bit actually.  Plenty of men and women have started creative careers with misfires after all.  If I’d liked Scrublands, I’d probably buy Red Monkey.  As it stands, I guess I’ll hold out for the library to obtain a copy.  File this review away for later, because I’m still anticipating another encounter with Joe Daly’s work.

Fan favorite Bat-artist Dustin Nguyen debuted the new look to his site, Duss005.com, today and it looks sharp. Blog@ talked to Nguyen about what’s different and how proud he is of it, and why it took a while to do.

“It took a long time mostly because i’ve been just busy with work and family stuff,” Nguyen explain. “The biggest difference right off the bat is that it’s a real website this time. Looks a lot better. It just browses easier.”

He goes on with “The newest thing in it that I’ve never had before is the store. It helps me archive everything I’ve done into one place and lets anyone interested in pieces know of their availability. Before this, my site has just been a place to see random odd sketches- now i feel like a real comic artist again. Somewhat.”

On the actual designer of the site, Nguyen says “a close buddy of mine put it together for me, he doesn’t really do it for a living, but likes to help out when he can. He’s also the guy that’s put together sites for artist Sean Murphy, Takeshi Miyazawa, and Christina Strain. The guy is rad.”

For art collectors like myself, I’m really grateful for the store part of the site. So grateful in fact, I might pick up a piece today since my collection is severely lacking some Nguyen-ness.

As the Great Con Wars heat up in nearby Chicago, Indianapolis-based Gen Con has mildly shuffled their schedule.

According to a release from Gen Con and the Comics Buyers Guide, this year’s Gen Con will take place in Indianapolis on August 5-8, moving from August 13-16 the year before.

For those who don’t know, Wizard World Entertainment will be hosting their convention the following week in nearby Chicago. (And the Star Wars Convention will be taking place in Tampa, as well.) Considering the Comic Buyers Guide is involved, I wouldn’t be surprised if that came into consideration any.

The release also says there will be a costume contest, a life-sized D&D adventure, anime programming, and of course auctions.

Jakprints unveiled a new piece of art that is the fruition of three great talents: Neil Gaiman, Jim Lee, and Todd Klein. Gaiman provided the words, Lee was on the art, and Klein hand-lettered this stunning work of art, which is entitled “100 Words”.

This measures 10″ x 28″ and is printed in soy and vegetable based ink on their 13pt uncoated cardstock, which is 100% recycled. Talk about looking good and being green.

The print can be bought at Neil’s Neverwear site for $35.00, and can be seen in full here.

I just love how this looks, and I have been thinking about something to hang over my couch. I think I might have found it.

If there’s one thing everyone knows about Barry Allen, is that despite his superspeed, he always has a predilection for being late.

But Geoff Johns – who’s also been working on Blackest Night, Green Lantern, Adventure Comics, Blackest Night: Flash, as well as getting a head-start on the upcoming Flash series with Francis Manapul — has said that the long, long rebirthing process is almost over!

Via Comicbloc:

I believe the February 24th date will hold…I pray to the Flash Gods.

I want the new monthly book out TOMORROW. I’m extremely proud of it.

The series began April 1st, and was turned from five issues to six. That said, artist Ethan Van Sciver has always been a methodical artist, from what I recall, with his cover for Flash: Rebirth #1 earning second place in our Top Covers of 2009 contest. What say you, Rama readers? You excited to see what happens to Barry?