Steve Ekstrom, a long-time Newsarama contributor, has written a short story published today on Top Shelf 2.0, titled “Breakfast.” It’s genre-appropriate for today’s holiday, and as you can see from the panel above, even takes place in October. “Breakfast” was originally published in black-and-white back in 2008 for Desperado Publishing, now (as is probably pretty obvious) it’s in color. Read it here, and, if you like what you see, “Haunted,” a story written by Ekstrom and published by Top Shelf 2.0 last Halloween, is here.

The corporate changes at Marvel continue with the news that Ruwan Jayatilleke has been named as Senior Vice President, Associate Publisher for the company. This is something of a sideways promotion for Jayatilleke, who had previously been SVP Development & Planning, and before that SVP Strategic Development-Acquisitions & Licensing. Given the title, presumably Jayatilleke will be working alongside Tom Brevoort, who is Marvel’s SVP Publishing, a move potentially made to allow Brevoort more time to be directly involved in editing again following the recent layoffs in the last few weeks.

(Above, Jayatilleke on far left of picture, taken at New York Anime Festival in 2007.)

How big was the New 52 relaunch by DC? Industry website ICv2 looks at some numbers for September:

Sales in comic stores over the last three months before August (May through July) had averaged over a 10% decline.  And the seasonal impact is negative in September.   By our calculations, that makes a roughly 10% average increase over the previous year during August and September explainable only with a 20% bump from the previous run rate of 10% decline, without any seasonal effect.  If you throw in a normal drop-off in September from the previous months, the effect of the New 52, not only on DC’s sales but on overall sales, may have been on the order of a 25-30% increase over what would have otherwise occurred.

A 25-30% increase on overall sales? That’s amazing – and arguably a sign that, despite conventional wisdom, things like mainstream advertising might possibly drive new traffic to comic stores. Your mileage may vary, but I really think that seeing a rise of that size across overall sales and not just DC’s suggests that new or lapsed customers really were going to stores for the launch, as opposed to DC just gaining readers from the existing fanbase.

Okay, internet. It’s time to start your speculating: If Gail Simone is going to write a new team book for DC, who is it going to feature? We already have both Teen Titans and Legion of Super-Heroes titles, the two classic “teen teams” for DC, so it’s more than likely going to be a new title – or, perhaps, a new usage for an old title – unless Gail’s going to use something from out of left-field (Newsboy Legion? Young Heroes In Love? The Ravers? Hey, there isn’t an actual Young Justice book running in the DCU these days…). We’re still lacking an Outsiders title in the new 52iverse, and we have all manner of characters who could fill it these days (Wally West! Donna Troy! Stephanie Brown! And so on!).

But there’s a really, really obvious possibility for a teen team for Gail to write in the New 52 that might not spring immediately to mind… One, in fact, that she’s written before: Gen 13. We know, after all, Caitlin Fairchild is a supporting character in Superboy and Teen Titans, with those books hinting that there’s more to her than meets the eye, so what’s to stop there being a spin-off title with her discovering her powers and running off to form her own superhero team?

Despite Gail’s con appearance tease, there’s been no official confirmation from DC, nor scheduling information. So, in other words, don’t expect a final answer on this anytime soon.

If you’re in San Francisco tomorrow night, then you really might want to make room in your evening for what’s happening at Isotope:

Come join us for this festivity of sweetest of sweet treats, featuring the long-awaited Isotope return of Lark Pien (LONG TAIL KITTY), and also sugar-coated welcomes to special guest superstars Thien Pham (LEVEL-UP), Alex Puvilland (SOLOMON’S THIEVES), legendary creator/game designer Jordan Mechner (PRINCE OF PERSIA), and also the one and only First Second Books Editorial Director Mark Siegel.

We’ll be stuffing your metaphorical treat bags with this killer early-eve celebration of some of the best comic books being published today and a generous handful of :01’s best creators.

The event also includes a costume contest being judged by the First Second guests, which I’m really, really hoping leads to some truly impressive The Amazing Remarkable Monsieur Leotard cosplay – Not to mention some great pics from the event afterwards.

The event runs from 6-9pm tomorrow. If you’re anywhere near the area, make a point of going; you won’t regret it.

This is a great post from the blog Graphic Policy, looking at the demographics of digital comic fans on Facebook:

Interestingly enough, digital fans skew much more male and are more educated than their mass fan brethren.  The average population is 29.12% college grads while digital fans are 54.38% college grads.  Men dominate as well, making up a little over 81% of the population… [D]igital comic book fans are between 26 and 41 and peak in the 34-37 age.  This is over a decade difference compared to the general population.

It’s worth pointing out that this is coming from incomplete data – Those who are Facebook fans of digital distributors like Graphic.ly, comiXology and iVerse on Facebook, as opposed to all digital readers (or even purchasers) – but even bearing that in mind, this is a weirdly fascinating study. Digital fans are older and more male than “general comic fans”? That seems surprising, and somewhat counterintuitive, to be honest; I wonder if it’s also a sign that the digital push isn’t reaching the audiences that everyone was expecting it to just yet…

So, Jim Shooter has been sharing some of John Byrne’s ideas about how to revamp Superman from before the 1986 Man of Steel reboot – These come from the never-happened-but-almost-did Marvel buyout of DC in the early ’80s, apparently – over on his blog:

At the perfect moment, Jor-El waves to Lara in the little ship and launches the rocket. Lara looks back at dying Krypton—which explodes, sending forth a burst of “searing radiation”—the mysterious, additional factor, maybe? John doesn’t say. Lara feels the radiation affecting her just before the rocket enters hyper space.

Over on John Byrne’s forum, he’s not so happy about this – complaining that he was never paid for the work, and that what was shared was more “spitballing” than an actual pitch. He also throws this odd comment into the mix of whether or not Shooter’s recollection of DC almost being bought out by Marvel is even true:

It didn’t [happen]. Shooter was convinced, during his later years as EiC, that Marvel was on the verge of buying DC.

Take from that what you will.

The whole idea that DC was almost licensed out prior to its mid-80s renaissance has been surprising from the start; it’d be interesting to hear someone who was at DC or Warners at the time having some input into whether or not it’s true or not.

Something occurred to me while reading Wolverine and The X-Men this week: Almost ad in the book is for a Marvel product. Of the nine ad pages in the issue, only two aren’t Marvel related, and those are a double-page spread for Harley-Davidson motorcycles. It’s not just this book, either; last week’s Fear Itself #7 had ten ad pages (Eleven, if you could the “Follow…” page pointing to the epilogue books), and only one wasn’t Marvel related – and even that was for a Disney sibling, ABC’s Once Upon A Time.

DC is doing slightly better; looking at The Flash #2 from this week, I count six ad pages – twelve, if you include the Batman: Noel preview – and four aren’t DC-related. That said, two of those are interesting; one is for syndication of The Big Bang Theory, which is a Warner Bros. sibling show (DC and WB are doing a cross-promotion for that show in comic stores, I think?), and another is for the IFC show Onion News Network, which is one of the shows that ran DC New 52 advertising before the relaunch last month, which makes me wonder if there was some kind of ad-swap going on at some point (BBC America ads used to run in DC books when the channel was running TV ads for the Vertigo line, earlier this year, as well).

So is outside advertising down in comic books in general, or is this an oddly coincidental blip that I’ve noticed? And if it is down, would bringing in more advertising help lower the cost of the comics themselves – assuming, of course, that the DM provides the right audience for advertisers to want to reach?

Looking to do some good, and get some awesome art for it? The Albany Comic Con, a fantastic show in its own right, is giving back to those in upstate New York, which has been hit recently with hurricanes and flooding.

Among the artwork available will be an original Dick Tracy from artist Joe Staton, as well as a Doctor Who piece by Matthew Dow Smith, a Batman from John Hebert, a Universal Monsters piece from Fred Hembeck, and Superman from Paul Abrams.

The silent auction will take place during the convention, which will be held at the Holiday Inn in Colonie, N.Y. on Sunday, October 30. As someone who has hit the con before, the number of creators present make it well worth the $5 for admission. Guests include Ron Marz, Matthew Dow Smith, David Gallaher, Steve Ellis, Dick Ayers, Tom Peyer, Jim Starlin and more.

I am embarrassingly late in noting that this upcoming Sunday is the annual Women of Wonder Day in my hometown of Portland OR, as well as San Antonio, TX, and Flemington, NJ. Formerly known as Wonder Woman Day, this is the catch-all title for three events happening in a comic store of each of the above cities in support of Domestic Violence programs, with creator appearances, signings and original art auctions taking place in Portland’s Excalibur Comics, Heroes And Fantasies in San Antonio and Comic Fusion in Flemington. Previous events have raised more than $110,000 for survivors of domestic violence, with 100% of all proceeds from the events going to the charities.

For more details, go here. And if you want to bid on some pretty great auctions for the event – including the chance to appear in a Bendis comic – go here.

This caught my eye from Albert’s postgame Fear Itself chat with editor Tom Brevoort and writer Matt Fraction, who’s the one behind this quote:

[F]or me it really ends with the #7.1, #7.2 and #7.3. To explain it to you in Star Wars, this is sort of like we’ve stopped the movie after the first guy tried to build up the Death Star in the trench and blew it. Luke has just switched off the targeting computer, and credits. We’re not quite there yet. I expect when the Point One, Point Two and Point Three issues are all out, and we have a chance to bury Bucky, to burn Thor, and for Tony and Odin to have their final showdown, then I’ll feel like it’s truly done, but at this point there’s still a lot of stuff out there — the character stuff, the whole thing that brings people to these stories, that brought me to this story in the first place — kind of unanswered.

Now, I know that in something like the Marvel Universe, there’s never any real endings and that crossover event books always have epilogues and all of that, but… there’s something really… odd seeing the writer of an event book tell you that the final issue isn’t actually the ending, even though the issues that are the ending as the writer intended – issues that aren’t entirely written by said writer, nor drawn by series artist Stuart Immonen, off for a well-deserved rest after seven issues of carnage – aren’t contained in the collection of the series, right?

(I know that #7 does, in fact, close out the main action of the series, and I suspect that the #7.1-7.3 issues are much more epilogue than Fraction suggests above, before anyone points it out. But there’s something very, very strange and offputting about a writer outright saying “Hey, that last issue? I don’t think it’s the end, pick up these three comics instead” when the three comics aren’t apparently official enough to stick in the collection.)

Since I’m oddly fascinated by these things, I found myself wondering how Marvel got to 300 issues of Wolverine, which they’re commemorating in January with an issue by the Astonishing Spider-Man & Wolverine creative team of writer Jason Aaron and artist Adam Kubert. Wolverine has starred in a lot of different solo series over the year, sometimes (like right now) multiple books at once., so there are many different methodologies that could be at work here. But here’s my best guess:

- 189 issues of the original series. (And Larry Hama wrote the majority of them.)
- 74 issues of the second series that started in 2003. It actually lasted to issue #90, but starred Daken as of #75 and was rechristened “Dark Wolverine,” so that’s probably out of play.
- 16 issues of Wolverine: Weapon X. Some might think to exclude this since it was technically an ancillary title at the time, but it was written by Aaron and during the period that the main book starred Daken, so let’s count it.
- 20 issues of the current volume of Wolverine, which hits #20 in December.

That all adds up to — 299, making January’s issue #300. Now, that discounts things like 1997′s Minus One issue and last year’s Wolverine #900 (fair enough), satellite books like Wolverine: Origins and Wolverine: The Best There Is (makes sense) and the original Chris Claremont/Frank Miller four-issue miniseries (mildly surprising, though consistent with usual renumbering logic), but it does effectively represent the collective total of the main, ongoing solo book starring Wolverine for the past couple of decades. Congrats Wolvie, the math works!

Here’s Marvel’s VP of Sales and Marketing, David Gabriel, from the announcement of more free digital download codes in future Avenging Spider-Man issues:

Based on initial orders of over 100,000 units for the first issue—and the steady increase in orders since we’ve begun promotion on this plan—we knew that including a code for a free digital copy in future issues of Avenging Spider-Man not only excites our retailers, but incentivizes fans to come into stores for one of the year’s hottest new releases. It’s a win-win for everyone with no extra cost to readers and an increased revenue share for retailers.

Firstly: This is the second Marvel PR (following last week’s Point One release) where David Gabriel is quoted as saying that more than 100,000 copies are being shipped. Clearly, the success of DC’s New 52 relaunch has had the effect of making Gabriel trumpet all books shipping more than 100K as often as possible.

Secondly: “Excites out retailers”? Considering some of the retailer responses that I’ve seen, “exciting” is an interesting spin to put on it.

Thirdly: How, exactly, does the digital code “incentivize fans to come into stores”? Surely if they didn’t want a print version of the comic, they’d just buy it digitally anyway, which doesn’t involve them going into the store. And if they did want a print version, then they’d be going into the store anyway. Is there some exclusive content available with the digital versions downloaded with the code? Is Avenging Spider-Man *only* available digitally with the code, and not through the Marvel Apps or ComiXology or Graphic.ly? Seriously, I don’t understand this particular part of what Gabriel is saying. Have I missed something?

I’ve actually never read or seen Kick-Ass. I just know it came after The Death-Ray [first appeared in Eightball], and when it came out, people said, “Oh, that’s a lot like The Death-Ray,” and now that this book has come out after the movie, people are like, “Oh, that’s a little like Kick-Ass.” And that’s the kind of thing I deeply resent, so I don’t want anybody thinking I’m responding to it… Oh, he doesn’t [have powers]? I didn’t know that. [Laughs.] See? That’s very different. I won’t even have to address this question anymore. Now I know. I’m glad you told me. It’s more similar to Thor or something. [Laughs.]

That’s Dan Clowes, getting over his distaste at hearing about Kick-Ass while talking about his The Death Ray, over at New York Magazine. This now makes me want to see Clowes take over writing Thor.

Chalk yet another project up for Stan Lee. The man who co-created pretty much the entire Marvel Universe as we know it has been particularly busy in recent years with projects announced with Boom! Studios, the NHL, and 1821 Comics amongst many others, and now he’s at it again with the announcement of a new partnership with Vuguru, the independent studio owned by former Disney CEO Michael Eisner.

The aims of the partnership seem vague in the initial announcement, with a promise of “studio quality films, episodic series and a variety of digital content across multiple platforms” without actually naming any upcoming projects. Nonetheless, Vuguru president Larry Tanz seems enthusiastic:

As a fan of Stan Lee and the iconic characters he has created, we are thrilled to work together with POW! Entertainment. This is a tremendous opportunity to bring compelling and heroic stories to a mass audience.

POW! Entertainment, Lee’s production company since 2001, was brought to Vuguru by former Sony and Microsoft strategist Scott Nocas, who is quoted in the announcement as promising that the partnership “will certainly lead to a whole new experience in storytelling.”

If nothing else, there’s something fitting in seeing the former EiC of Marvel team up with the former CEO of Disney, considering the relationship between their two previous employers these days…

Ed Brubaker’s first Criminal story arc – “Coward” — is in the works as a feature film, Variety reports.

Brubaker is adapting the story himself, which he produced in print with frequent artistic collaborator Sean Phillips in issues #1-#5 of Criminal. David Slade is attached to direct, with a resume including Hard Candy, comic book adaptation 30 Days of Night and last year’s The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. Earlier this year, Slade was announced as director of a new Daredevil film at Fox, though news has been slow on that front as of late.

The movie will be produced by Jamie Patricof’s Hunting Lane Films, which was behind the 2010 Academy Award-nominated romantic drama Blue Valentine. In the Variety piece, Brubaker names Blue Valentine star Ryan Gosling as a potential ideal choice to play Coward‘s main character Leo — had he not starred in this year’s critically acclaimed Drive, also a story in the crime noir genre.

In an interview with VH1, current Dr. Who, Matt Smith revealed he will be leaving the show after the 2012/2013 season. He mentions he wants to take a stab at Hollywood and give American cinemas a try.

Interestingly enough  this would place the regeneration of the next Doctor right in the 50th anniversary season of 2013.

At the age of 26, Smith was the youngest Doctor to be casted, only 3 years shy of Peter Davidson when he was cast in 1981. When Smith began the role at of the previous season, he received a mixed reaction from fans, mostly because the previous actor, David Tennant was so well loved by audiences. However, with the BBC’s expansion to American television providers and not having to deal with an airing delay, Smith has gained quite a following and in some eyes, surpasses Tennant’s popularity.

While this is hardly set in stone, it does seem like Smith has already decided that he’ll be done playing Doctor after next season.

So Whovians, are you ready to see Matt off yet and to bigger things, or are you still wanting more?

From Gerry Conway’s Twitter feed:

Some months ago, Marvel sent me a contract offering to acknowledge my creation of a character called Mindworm. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindworm

Really, Marvel? This http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindworm is the character you want to acknowledge I created for you? No other characters come to mind?

For those who may not understand what Gerry’s getting at, Kurt Busiek offers a clue:

@gerryconway I particularly liked the MINDWORM WAR JOURNAL series.

Conway – who added “I’m not bitter, honestly, just bemused” – then went on to ask Marvel why they don’t send him comps of statues based on his creations, the same way that DC does, and then offers examples of both. In the process, he reminds you of all the characters he’s created that are still in use today: Firestorm and the Punisher, obviously, but also Vixen, Killer Croc, Power Girl and Marvel’s Jackal. It’s a pretty impressive resume, really. More impressive, at least, that having the legacy of the man who created Mindworm…

Heeeeee’s baaa-aaaack:

Well, now I understand [Bill Jemas] will be working for Wizard Comics, on their digital publications side. Whether this will be a full expose of his time at Marvel, some entertaining anecdotes or insisting that one issue of Wizard have no words at all, I don’t know.

I can’t tell you how much that I would enjoy a tell-all about the Jemas years at Marvel, but somehow I doubt that’s what he’s doing. That said, I’m not that surprised to see Jemas return to comics right now; there’s something romantically nostalgic about his era at Marvel right now, what with all the troubles the publisher is currently facing – or, for that matter, the success that DC is having, with an all-reader-friendly step-away-from-the-crossover attitude that recalls some of Jemas’ ideas for the House of Ideas way back when. It’ll be interesting to see if the Jemas at Wizard rumor turns out to be true, and if so, what he’s doing there. After all, if he rescued Marvel from disaster way back when, there’s no reason why he shouldn’t be able to do it for Wizard…

The Walking Dead is a popular show. The latest example of that simple axiom came today, with news from The Hollywood Reporter that AMC has already renewed the show for a third season. Ratings have remained strong in The Walking Dead‘s second year, with the Oct. 16 season premiere drawing 7.3 million total viewers, performing especially well in the key 18-49 demographic (4.8 million viewers).

This is the second quick renewal for the series, which last year got picked up for season two eight days after the series premiere. Yet there’s only four episodes of the zombie drama left in the near future — the season’s being split in two, going on hiatus after six episodes, before closing things out with a run of seven episodes starting on Feb. 12.

Robert Kirkman, creator of The Walking Dead comic book and writer of two episodes this season, talked to Newsarama about the season season earlier this month at New York Comic Con, check out the video here.