I keep coming back to this Warren Ellis post about the state of web comics, digital comics, and why they’re different things for different audiences, and feeling like there’s something I’m missing in it. Not that it’s badly written, because it’s not – It’s Ellis, after all – but it feels incomplete, somehow, and I can’t work out why. File under Food For Thought, definitely (Anyone interested in comics that aren’t just print, which should really be anyone interested in comics as a medium at this point, you should go and read it, if you haven’t already), but this part bears repeating:

Also, it’s a hell of a lot easier to take your time telling a story when you’re not charging people.

And, while there’s a smile in that comment, there’s also a degree of truth.  Compressing comics down to twenty pages, nineteen pages, probably eight or ten or twelve pages when people get to producing original material through digital comics services… while it’ll certainly make a nice change for a lot of people, after a decade of spacious and airy commercial comics, I’m compelled to point out that the crushed-in nature of commercial comics in the 1970s was one of the driving forces behind the big changes to the commercial medium that came in the 80s.  People were desperate for longer episodes and arcs that allowed them to tell stories more novelistically – and, in large part, they did that by using the then-new process of selling to the direct sales comics store market.

We’re all looking at compression techniques now, because we need them for commercial comics and we’re going to need them for digital comics.

It’s not just digital comics, I’d argue; with both DC and Marvel essentially formalizing “20 pages” as the length of a comic book now in the same way that 22 pages was the formalized length previously, comics in general are going to become more compressed in future.

Also, Ellis is totally right about American Flagg and how essential and overlooked it is.

Over at The Beat, Paul O’Brien is wondering about crossovers:

There are plenty of FEAR ITSELF tie-in books in August. But only two were up in comparison with February – AVENGERS ACADEMY and UNCANNY X-MEN. In most cases there’s a gain for the start of a FEAR ITSELF tie-in arc, but it’s a small one. The tie-ins don’t seem to be doing any great harm, but nor is it obvious that they’re doing a great deal of good either.Interestingly, the smaller events like Spider-Island and Schism seem to be having better luck in shifting copies of the tie-in issues. Perhaps when fewer books are involved, readers are more likely to believe that they all matter – or are simply more likely to commit to buying them all.

Bolstering his case are increased sales for Generation Hope, the only Schism tie-in, and the various Spider-Island books, compared with things like Invincible Iron Man, which doesn’t get any bump from its Fear Itself tie-ins, or the surprisingly low-selling Fear Itself: Wolverine or not-so-surprisingly low-selling Fear Itself: Fearsome Four. His theory seems sound, but I wonder whether it’s a number of crossovers thing, or a quality of crossovers thing. I mean, if you liked Schism, then Generation Hope is of a similar tone and visual style (well, as consistent a visual style as you can get for a core series that had five artists); the same thing with Spider-Island, with the Spider-Office priding itself on a consistent tone for its books, I think. But Fear Itself? Those crossovers were all over the place, in terms of tone, content and style. Maybe less broad, and more consistent, is the way to go for future big event tie-ins?

A thought occurred while seeing the new Marvel tease for the Battle Scars mini launching next month: What is Marvel planning for May next year? Turns out that that’s a pretty important month for Marvel in a lot of ways; not only is it the month that Avengers is released in movie theaters, suggesting we’ll see a new Avengers #1 of some kind, but it’s also the month following the final issues of not only Battle Scars, but also Fear Itself: The Fearless and Avengers: X-Sanction – the former two, of course, spinning out of Marvel’s current big event, and the latter being hyped up as launching Marvel’s 2012 big event. So… May 2012 would seem to be the start of the 2012 event, right?

More hints will, presumably, come in the Point One oneshot due in December – but I suspect that the increasing amounts of “The Entire Marvel Universe Is Coming Together” talk we’ve been hearing in recent months from creators and editors, in the wake of Fear Itself and X-Men: Schism, may be coming from an attempt to use media interest in the Avengers movie to spread all across entire comic version of the Marvel Universe via an Avengers-centric crossover event on a scale we haven’t seen in quite some time… After all, if X-Sanction brings the X-Men books and the Avengers books together, wouldn’t the upcoming Age of Ultron also bring the Avengers books in line with the Annihilation titles…?

The question may be, is this big event the thing that the “It’s Coming” announcement, expected at this weekend’s New York Comic-Con is going to be about?

For those who hoped that the Castle and Season One original graphic novels might be a sign that Marvel was finally getting over its institutional fear of the OGN format, Axel Alonso has some sad news for you:

Personally, I love the OGN format. But when you’re talking about the material we publish, the periodical format is still our best option.

The enormous marketing and publicity afforded to us by being a part of a national television show was a great help in garnering high sales on the “Castle” OGN, and we’ve been thrilled with the results. But at this time, [SVP for Sales & Publishing] David Gabriel informs me that there are no imminent plans to create any kind of OGN program, or even to look at doing any more OGNs.

I wonder if that’s some kind of comment about Marvel not feeling comfortable with its bookstore numbers without some kind of additional push? It’s a very odd thing to say, considering that the Season One books, which aren’t even out yet, are very clearly the beginnings of an OGN program for the publisher.

The “Red Circle” group of heroes has returned to Archie Comics after a brief run with DC Comics, but they are returning with more than one twist.

Archie announced the return of super hero comics in their line via the New York Times last night. In the announcement, they detailed the return, which features the classic heroes living in retirement in a community called, appropriately enough, “Red Circle.” Most of these retired heroes are killed, and replacements, the New Crusaders are brought in to save the day, led by veteran The Shield. The new stories will be 6-page digital exclusives written by Ian Flynn and drawn by Ben Bates, with no release schedule revealed.

In addition to these shorts however, Archie will be offering an extensive digital archive featuring their superheroes. For a low (not yet determined) monthly fee, only $3 or $4, readers will have access to the new stories plus an archive featuring “thousands and thousands of pages” of older stories. More details as they come, but what do you think of this deal so far?

We mentioned the rumor yesterday, and now it’s official: Barnes & Noble is pulling the print versions of the DC Comics graphic novels that are being offered as digital exclusives through Amazon’s new Kindle Fire device off their shelves. Talking to Publisher’s Weekly, a spokesperson explained “We pulled those 100 DC Comics graphic novels that we were not offered in digital format. Our policy is that unless we receive all formats of a title to make available to our customers, we will not sell those physical titles in our stores.”

The 100 print titles will, however, be available via B&N’s website, as well as to customers who make special orders from the stores themselves.

When contacted for a response, DC released the following statement:

We are disappointed that Barnes & Noble has made the decision to remove these books off their shelves and make them unavailable to their customers.

DC Entertainment will continue to make our content available to our fans and new readers through multiple distribution channels including locally-owned comic book retailers, independent bookstores, other bookstore chains and other widespread means such as online through Amazon and through our apps on iOS and select Android powered devices as well as new and exciting devices going forward.

As one of the largest book publishers in North America, DC Entertainment’s publishing strategy is to give our consumers the choice to read our stories in whichever format they prefer but we also know that nothing will ever take away from the joy and collectability of physical books, comics and graphic novels.

Rob Liefeld gives a masterclass in How To Beat The Haters. And, let’s face it, he should know:

You can never rest on your laurels, award winning, record setting or otherwise. This is a “What have you done for me lately” business, and you need to deliver product and make it timely or else. I’ve learned this the hard way, after failing to deliver many books on time, I turned it around and started producing regular work starting with X-Force in 2004, Shattestar and Teen Titans in 2005 and most recently Deadpool and Deadpool Corps. my longest stint on any title or character in a decade. It may not be the gig you desire but any regular gig is an opportunity to show fans and more importantly, retailers, that you are deserving of their commitment. Without product you are the equivalent of a tribute band, playing dated tunes from another period. I love Night Ranger as much as the next guy, but I’m not buying a ticket to hear them belt out “Sister Christian” for the thousandth time. Keep the product coming and your connections will increase in every facet of the business. I’m currently producing more work than at any time in my career, pencilling 2 books a month and producing Avengelyne. I’m doing it now because I won’t be young forever and I feel that at my peak in the 90′s I failed to deliver as many comics as I could have. And I don’t hear “Liefeld can’t deliver on time anymore.”

I’m not a massive fan of Liefeld’s artwork, but I can’t bring myself to dislike him because… well, how can you really feel bad about a guy who writes “Laugh at yourself. it’s the single most important aspect of surviving this crazy business. And that’s from the man that gave Cap boobs”?

In a move sure to rile skeptics, Bluewater announced on Thursday that they’ve released their Steve Jobs bio comic digitally three weeks ahead of the scheduled print release date, following the Apple co-founder’s death on Wednesday.

While those critical of the oft-controversial publisher might characterize this as capitalizing on the death of a beloved public figure, perhaps the most eyebrow-raising part of this news is that the digital comic is, per Bluewater’s press release, only available on NOOK and Kindle as of right now. The print version of Steve Jobs: Co-founder of Apple goes on sale on Oct. 27, along with the ComiXology version, so you can actually, y’know, view it on an Apple device.

To Bluewater’s credit, the comic was first announced back in June, with a release originally planned for August. According to their press release, Bluewater has pledged to donate a portion of the proceeds of the comic to the American Cancer Society. Jobs passed away on Wednesday at age 56, after a long bout with pancreatic cancer.

The comic’s full cover is after the jump.

(more…)

Well, this is interesting: That free digital copy to be included in every print edition of Avenging Spider-Man #1? If it’s successful, it’ll be the start of a plan by Marvel to include a free digital download code in every $3.99 book, apparently:

Will these eventually be in all $3.99 books? We’d like to get there. Consumers are demanding more value for their purchase and we strongly feel that this will give them that extra added value.

Will I have the option to buy versions of the comic without the free digital copy? No, all copies of this issue, including variant covers, will contain the free digital copy codes. Marvel has a responsibility to our consumers and we’ll be promoting that all copies contain the digital codes. We don’t want to run into a situation where a customer goes into a retail shop to buy this book with the code and the retailer only has a different version of the product. That makes us all look bad. Also, it’s a confusing message to make if we were to say “only some of the copies will contain digital codes, so good luck finding the retailer that sells these…”

There’s a lot to unpack in the information Marvel has given to retailers about the Avenging Spider-Man pilot program (as made public by Bleeding Cool), including the direct email marketing that those who download the digital comics will apparently be agreeing to – Not only will Marvel be emailing them, the publisher will also be passing on the email addresses to the retailers that they bought the print copy from – and what retailers will be getting out of the deal (A 50 cent credit for those who download the digital version within six months of purchase, although the digital version will remain available for a year). It’s too early to say what impact this will have on print/digital sales, but it’ll be interesting to watch unfold. It feels like a good move, but I’m curious to see retailer reaction.

The votes – well, preorders – are in, and Barack Obama has won the hearts, minds and wallets of the comic industry, winning Boom! Studios’ Decision 2012 straw poll for the 2012 presidential candidate most deserving of his or her own comic book. The poll was launched in August and ran until the end of last month, and gave readers and political wonks alike the chance to vote with their pre-order dollars for the chance to read biographies of Obama, Michele Bachman, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, Sarah Palin, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, with whichever books that got pre-orders of more than 1500 seeing print.

Only four books met that target: Obama, Sarah Palin – who is, of course, not actually running for President – Ron Paul and Michele Bachmann. Surprisingly, media favorite in the Republican field Rick Perry came dead last in the poll, with Mitt Romney only managing to rank fifth out of the ten candidates in this particular race. A sign of the left-leaning nature of the comic book industry, the disillusionment people have over the current field of Republican nominees (Oh, if only there had been a Chris Christie book offered!), or just more proof that people can’t get enough of those President Barack Obama comics? You be the judge.

Marvel is continuing to decline to comment on the rumor that its Chief Operating Officer Jim Sokolowski has been let go from the company, as first reported by Bleeding Cool this morning and seemingly confirmed by Comic Book Resources. The latter report suggests that “basic economic realities” were behind the layoff and that it was not performance-related, unlike August’s firing of the entire Marvel Studios marketing department.

As COO, Sokolowski had been in charge of production, circulation and talent management at the publisher. It’s unknown at this time who will replace him, whether the position will be filled within Marvel or, like the Marvel Studios marketing department, whether the responsibilities will end up going to someone within the larger Disney structure. Developing…

I’m not too surprised to see that Barnes & Noble is considering pushing back in some way against the DC Comics/Amazon Kindle Fire exclusive deal announced last week, although the possibility of the chain taking DC books off the shelves of physical stores seems like the kind of upping of the ante that’ll cause a lot of concern for the publisher.

It’s unlikely that DC would be able to back out of the exclusivity clause with Amazon at this point, so I’m not sure what the solution would be for them if other retailers were to follow this route (Remember, the Amazon Kindle editions also look to be significantly cheaper than the print versions, so a direct market retailer protest isn’t out of the question, either) – unless, of course, the potential gain from the Amazon audience is going to be seen as being worth the risk and loss of business elsewhere. I wonder if this is the start of the much-anticipated print/digital war…?

Pictures have leaked online of Russell Crowe as Jor-El, Superman’s father in Man of Steel, 2013′s movie revival of DC’s original superhero, and judging by the look of him, Krypton has become much more forgiving of shaggy hair since Richard Donner’s original movie:

Also interesting: Doesn’t it look as if he’s wearing Henry Cavill’s Superman outfit underneath that robe? Perhaps the new movie is hewing closely to the New 52 idea that the Superman costume is actually Kryptonian ceremonial armor…

And as if that wasn’t enough, other pictures from the set reveal another shocking change the movie is making from its comic roots: Amy Adams’ Lois Lane has red hair.

Backlash expected in 3… 2… 1…

On the same day as the record gets set straight about some of Mark Millar’s previous charitable efforts (Spoiler: It’s good news), Millar has announced that he and artist Lenil Francis Yu will be “sharing” their Captain Marvel-esque Superior with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society to raise awareness for the society and MS in general. (more…)

Ever since the first cast portraits from next year’s Avengers movie were released last week, I’ve been mildly obsessed with Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner pic. It’s not just his hilarious, I-can’t-believe-they-actually-released-that-picture, Blue Steel expression that hypnotized me so, however. Instead, it was this realization: Every subsequent Bruce Banner has bigger hair. Don’t believe me? Look:

Every single time they replace an actor as Bruce Banner, his hair gets bigger. I refuse to believe this is coincidence for many reasons, not least of which being that both Ed Norton and Mark Ruffalo normally have flatter hair than they have in their Banner roles. Clearly, there’s some weird Samson thing going on behind the scenes – Perhaps a reference to Doc Samson, in some weird Easter Eggy way? – but it does give me hope that the Avengers movie will feature the world’s first CGI bouffant-toting gamma-irradiated monster. And in 3D, too!

Over on her tumblr, Gail Simone has revealed two things for fans of her Secret Six run. Firstly, Catman was/is bisexual. Secondly, Gail has more Catman in her future, in some form. Somehow, I suspect that the former is going to be the thing that people are going to react to the most, but for me, the latter is the more exciting. Especially when she says this (emphasis mine):

I don’t want to reveal the exact scene yet, but [Catman's sexuality] would become revealed to Deadshot through a set of circumstances. My first thought was Deadshot reacting in a bit of shock, which seemed to make sense going by Deadshot’s character. But then I thought about it, and I think it’s MORE his character that he knew or suspected and didn’t give a ****.

I can’t use the exact scene I had in mind, so I can at least reveal that bit. But the rest is still in play the next time I get to write the two of them together, which Dan has assured me, is very much on the table.

It took me awhile to warm up to Secret Six, because I am stupid, but this news makes me very, very happy. I’d eagerly pick up a Deadshot/Catman title, if that ended up happening (Although, really, the one I’d really want would be a Scandal series…).

A couple of weeks after its release, Scott Lobdell is talking about Starfire’s portrayal in Red Hood and The Outlaws #1, to the (anonymous?) owner of the Fire Tonight tumblr :

So to clear a couple things up, I asked if Starfire was being serious or sarcastic about not remembering the Titans:

Kory was definitely being evasive/sarcastic because she did NOT want to talk about her past with them and issues that will come up later in the series. She does not have a memory of ‘a goldfish’ as some people have been saying ‘round the ‘net.

Also, Jason was lying to Roy about certain implications he made in the first issue to Roy about Kory. I won’t say what exactly because I don’t want to spoil the next issue, especially since it’s not out yet.

On the one hand, I’m glad to see that Starfire’s portrayal will be fleshed out in future issues. On the other, I’m not sure the scene really got over the idea that she was being purposefully evasive because of issues that’ll come up later in the series. But unclear writing isn’t the same as thoughtless writing, so let’s chalk this up to (unpleasant) experience and hope for the best moving forward, I guess. But somehow, I find myself hoping that the sarcastic amnesia doesn’t last too long…

Over on his blog, writer (and Black Lightning co-creator – And, DC? There’s a character who could be easily revived for a new series if and when you need one) Tony Isabella shares his 1996 “manifesto for comics”: a list of 10 demands – or, requests, perhaps – for the comic industry in order to get its house in order. Looking at it now, 15 years later, it’s depressing to see how many of these still seem necessary. There’s only one I don’t think we still need – the “Commissioner of Comics” mentioned in the final demand – and that’s only because I don’t agree with it in general. Have we really progressed that little in the last decade and a half?

I wrote about this earlier today for Time’s Techland blog (Look at me, crossing the streams of my writing gigs), but as I was doing so, I couldn’t stop thinking about the digital comics world: Multiple publishers and digital booksellers are facing a staggering seventeen class action lawsuits over the pricing of digital books, specifically something called “agency pricing,” which is essentially how digital comic prices are set.

Agency pricing is when publishers set the price of their digital releases, and that price point is used across whatever retailer sells said releases. It’s a system that’s been adopted by the big US publishing houses in response to fears that digital prices were so low that they were undercutting print prices and hurting the print retailers in doing so… Does any of this sound familiar yet? (more…)

I admit, I pretty much missed out on the Marv Wolfman and George Perez New Teen Titans run the first time around; I was too young, too non-American (For some reason, I don’t think I ever saw an issue of NTT in a store until it had become Tales of The New Teen Titans and moved on to the Eduardo Barreto days), and too into reading Justice League of America, anyway. Surprisingly, there’s never really been an affordable series of collections of the run, either, so it’s taken me until now to read the Archives of the earliest issues and trades of later arcs, and… I just don’t get it.

That’s not to say I think it’s bad, because I don’t. But, reading things like The Terror of Trigon, I feel as if I’m missing something, and I’m not sure what. I don’t think this is just limited to me, or to New Teen Titans; I have a friend who didn’t read Walt Simonson’s run on Thor until earlier this year when the gigantic omnibus came out, and he didn’t see what all the fuss was about (Despite it clearly being the best Thor run since Lee and Kirby, I mean, come on). There are classic runs and era-defining comics that seem to be as much about the context they were created in as the comics themselves, and reading them later, without any sense of nostalgia… Well, it’s just not the same.

I’m curious; am I wrong about New Teen Titans? Should I go all in and get the omnibus and try for a full immersion to hopefully understand it once more? And also, what classics have you sampled and ended up shaking your head in confusion over what everyone else saw so clearly that you failed to…?