The subject of comic book violence is getting discussed at Millarworld:

“Sometimes it can got too far like The Walking Dead falling into the ‘torture porn’ category. I get the feeling you’re meaning superhero comics rather than comics in general? But comic books are a form of escapism arguably like most forms of entertainment. Superheroes for example appeal because they beat the guy who deserves being hit in the face by doing just that. Which is something everyone has undeniably wanted to do. But we can’t because there’s consequences. And we’re told from childhood that is not the way to do things. Plus comics are very visual, people talking is dull and boring to draw. Unless you’re a ridiculously talented artist, it would be very hard to keep a ‘talking heads’ series going with no action at all. But a guy being thrown out (or even through) a building or punching another guy’s jaw off? Very fun to draw. Ask Ryan Ottely.”

“I think comics especially superhero comics are pretty tame in terms of violence. I would say that most of the afternoon and evening kids programming on the Nick channels, Cartoon network, and Disney XD is on par with what is on the stands and that gets a passing rating all the time. Comicbooks are a form of myth when done right and in that context violence is part of the eternal struggle between good and evil.”

“I actually like extreme violent porn rape comics like Suehiro Mauro makes. And yet I am the most non-violent person you’ll ever meet. I don’t mind what a comic does, so long as it’s not boring or poorly done.”

My take is closer to those who are saying “Comic books are a medium, so it’s hard to generalize, but if you’re talking about superhero comics, then, yeah, probably.” But then, I’m a punching prude that way. The idea, though, that violence is somehow necessary for superhero comics…? I’m not sure that I really buy that. An easy way to illustrate (and resolve) conflict, sure, but necessary…?

I love that this is actually a headline on a newspaper’s website:

It’s from here, a commentary blog by Geno Carter that immediately reassures non-comic readers that, hey, all those cliches you’ve heard about guys who read comics? Totally not true:

I’m 43 years old and I love comic books. I have a great job, I don’t have any bodies buried in my back yard, I have even gone on dates with actual women. I’m here to say that it’s cool to read comic books.

When will this segregation against comic-book loving murderers who go on dates with fake women end?!?

Grant Morrison is planning on leaving both of his DC superhero books — Action Comics and Batman Incorporated — and maybe sooner than you think, opting instead to focus on creator-owned books like Happy at Image Comics (interview with Morrison and Darick Robertson on that book here).

In an interview with CBR, Morrison disclosed that his last issue of Action Comics will be #16 — which should be out in January 2013, schedule permitting — and his Batman Incorporated run (and thus the Batman uber-arc he’s been writing since 2006) ends with issue #12, likely out in May 2013.

Here’s the full quote, courtesy of Morrison himself, which includes a hint of a Multiversity update:

The “Action Comics” run concludes with issue #16, “Batman Incorporated” wraps up my take with issue #12, and after that I don’t have any plans for monthly superhero books for a while. “Multiversity” is eight issues and I’m 30-odd pages into a Wonder Woman project but those are finite stories.

Heidi Macdonald offers yet more evidence that the comic industry just might be… well, if not booming, then at least bubbling nicely:

The optimistic tone struck by [Diamond Distributors' Steve] Geppi was echoed in a panel called “Retail Optimism” in which store owners—Joe Field (Flying Colors Comics, Concord, CA), Carr D’Angelo (Earth-2 Comics, Sherman Oaks, CA), Thomas Gaul (Corner Store Comics, Anaheim, CA), and Calum Johnston (Strange Adventures Bookshop, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada)—shared success stories. Field noted that his sales for the first half of 2012 were higher than the last half of 2011. “And the second half tends to be the dominant half,” he said. “It’s an anomaly.”

The panel noted that the high quality and diversity of material and growing general interest in comics were fueling the rise in sales. “We run sales reports and not only do I see the per transaction number has changed but, more importantly, we’re seeing traffic increase on a weekly basis,” said D’Angelo. “In our Northridge store we’re having an incredible rise. The number of people buying things each week has gone up. It’s not like this community changed somehow—people found us.”

“The pie has gotten bigger,” he concluded.

People who’ve been waiting for the third issue of Batman Incorporated… You’ll have to keep waiting: It’s being delayed a month following the horrific Aurora, Colorado shooting of last week. DC released an email to retailers yesterday explaining that “Out of respect for the victims and families in Aurora, Colorado DC Entertainment has made the decision to postpone the release of BATMAN INCORPORATED #3 for one month because the comic contains content that may be perceived as insensitive in light of recent events.”

On Twitter, artist Chris Burnham went into more detail, saying that “The book printed on time. I’m looking at a copy on my desk right now. This isn’t a scheduling excuse, we’re trying to do the right thing,” before adding that “it’s not just a Batman comic with guns in it. There’s a specific scene that made DC & the whole Bat-team say ‘Yikes.’ Too close for comfort.”

The new ship date for the book is August 22.

If you’re wondering what direction Jonathan Hickman is planning to take his Avengers, the answer is… more:

The idea is that the Avengers have to get bigger. That means bigger in every sense. That means the roster has to be bigger, and the missions have to be bigger, and the adversaries and scenarios they find themselves in have to be larger. I’ve played with this stuff a little bit over in the Ultimate Universe. Obviously, it’s a completely different weight class here, but in a lot of ways that’s the kind of velocity that the book should have. We (Tom Brevoort and I) also felt like that if the book was going to be about an Avengers world, it should look more like the world. Of course there are complications starting out when the necessary movie characters are five white dudes and a white lady, but, you know, bigger roster. Frankly, I’m really, really excited at how we address that. The lineup is killer.

That’s an eighteen-character line-up, but don’t expect that to be an entirely big-name collection, apparently. “The book very quickly becomes about all the characters that surround the big guns of the Marvel Universe… Once people see how the issues work, it will become very clear. This isn’t about a random group of characters I just decided to put together,” Hickman explained. “This is about a bunch of heroes who feel the same way about the main Avengers as we do. You want to see Thor? So do these guys.” The mighty fanboys? This could end up being an interesting take on the idea…

You will believe a man can fish in the Man of Steel trailer that’s been attached to The Dark Knight Rises in theaters. I have to admit, I really, really like this teaser; it’s far more subtle and beautifully shot than I would’ve expected from a Zack Snyder movie, and gives me hope that the finished version will be something more than Sucker Punch. But what do you think? Too slow? Too abstract? Or just enough to make you look forward to next summer…?

Let’s say that you couldn’t make it to this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, but wish that you could’ve attended some of the more process-oriented panels. Thankfully, Jamie Colville has you covered, with audio from sixteen panels, as well as the complete Eisner Awards, available for download. The panels include spotlights on Geoff Darrow, Larry Hama, Gilbert Shelton and Steve Englehart, along with panels on more general topics like digital pricing, retailing and how to get news coverage. Think of it like being there, only without the visuals and sense of overwhelmedness from everything else going on around you…

If the latest DC shipping updates turn out to be correct, it looks like more Marvel exclusive artists aren’t exclusive to Marvel anymore:

• RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #12 (JUN120195) now features art by Pascual Ferry.
• GREEN LANTERN #12 (JUN120196 / JUN120197, $2.99 ea.; JUN120198, $3.99) now features art by Renato Guedes and Jim Calafiore.

Add Will Conrad, now working on Stormwatch, to that group, too. I wonder who else is going to show up quietly and unannounced in the future…?

Everything about this seems fishy: Latino Review, the blog that broke the news that Marvel’s second 2014 movie release was going to be Guardians of The Galaxy, is claiming to have received an email from a “security expert” working with Marvel attempting to find out who leaked the information in the first place. The letter, if genuine, is surreally “good cop”:

The executives at Marvel are extremely upset regarding the release of this information and they have instructed me to find you and ascertain how you received it.  My goal is to accomplish this in a quiet manner. I do not want to see you or anyone else get into trouble nor do I want to see anyone’s career be tarnished because of this.  However I am very confident that through your efforts and mine, we will be able to work through this together.

“If you provide me with your source, I will make it worth your effort,” the letter says at one point. For some reason, I can’t shake the feeling that this seems like a prank – If only because the letter seems so over-the-top, I can’t take it seriously – but if not, I guess that we know that Marvel Studios takes its secrecy very seriously…

And that’s the danger of writing and posting blog posts ahead of time; posts about the Punisher end up going live on a morning when we’re all waking up to the news that twelve have been killed in an Aurora, Colorado shooting during a screening of The Dark Knight Rises. My sincere apologies to anyone offended by the coincidence, and the original image of the gun-toting, skull-faced Castle (now removed), which seemed in poor taste in light of everything that’s happened. It’s possible that I’m being too sensitive and no-one other than me was bothered, in which case… Sorry for breaking into the regularly scheduled programming, I guess? I just woke up, saw the news and immediately felt sick to my stomach about the post, so wanted to (over-)explain and remove the image. My thoughts go out to those affected by this tragedy, as I’m sure everyone else’s do.

If there’s one thing that I love about Greg Rucka, it’s that you can count on him to be honest in interviews. Here’s a prime example, when asked to talk about the origins of upcoming mini-series Punisher: War Zone:

Well, it’s a combination of things. The story in Punisher was reaching a terminus. There was a sort of second act of that terminus which involved the Avengers and always did. At some point a few months ago I was informed that Marvel wanted to end the book and would be spinning Punisher out into a different team book and I wouldn’t be writing it. So [editor Steve] Wacker and I talked about how we were going to wrap this up. It was Steve who proposed that maybe it’ll serve us better if we end the run in the way we want to end it, and then we can do this as its own stand-alone coda to it.

Firstly: It’s sad to see Rucka’s run end; I was a late convert (As in, it took me reading the first collection this month late), but it was an interesting take on the character (“It was a bummer to me too, but you know, this is the name of the game,” Rucka says about leaving the book elsewhere in the same interview). Secondly: The Punisher in a team book? Start speculating on whatever Marvel NOW! book that will be, I think…

We talked to Amy Reeder and Brandon Montclare about their creator-owned, Kickstarter-funded one-shot Halloween Eve in an article that ran on the homepage Tuesday, and the duo had been waiting to announce a publisher for the book. The announcement is now official, and it’s a big one — the increasingly bustling Image Comics, who broke the news Thursday in a press release.

Some words from the creative team, courtesy of the release:

“Halloween Eve will break your heart and blow you away!” said Reeder. “I am so excited to be creating my own characters and story, and I’m glad it’s in the hands of what has lately felt like creator-owned central, Image Comics.”

“Working with Amy Reeder to co-create Halloween Eve was already almost too good to be true,” added Montclare. “Being at Image—without a doubt the place-to-be for creator-owned comics—is unbelievable.”

Check out the full Halloween Eve cover after the jump.

(more…)

Comic-Con 2012 only started a week ago today, but it’s already time for the retrospective take on it. CCI’s David Glanzer talked to ICv2 about this year’s show:

Another thing is to make sure that those who really qualify can get it in.  Comic-Con has always been known to be friendly in terms of press and pros.  We’re getting so many requests, it’s really important that those people who truly qualify have the opportunity to attend.  In terms of press, it was a lot more difficult than it’s been in the past, but it’s not fair to somebody who has worked diligently all year to promote and report on comics and related popular art forms, to come in in favor of someone who maybe makes a big splash, but doesn’t report on this all year round… We would love to allow more attendees to come, but it’s not going to do the attendees any good if you don’t have really good professionals.  It’s the same thing with exhibitors, too.  It’s awful that we have a finite amount of space for exhibitors, because you can’t welcome new exhibitors unless someone shrinks their booth or doesn’t come back, so each one of those categories is really important to us.  The idea is that, in the past, where someone may have been a secretary, or someone may have been very loosely related to the industry, could get into the show, we’re trying to be a little more critical of that now.

Did The Avengers finally disprove the traditional belief that comic book movies not actually moving the needle on comic book sales…? According to Tom Brevoort, yes:

It did happen with AVENGERS, big time. The sales of, for example, the INFINITY GAUNTLET collection went through the roof as people came out of the theaters interested in finding out more about that guy at the end of the film. Just because you don’t see the result from your limited vantage point doesn’t mean that it’s not there.

It strikes me that Watchmen was said to benefit from its movie, too; I wonder if the secret is to have one, core tie-in book for movie audiences to go to before/after the movie, as opposed to multiple books to fit a variety of tastes? Is flooding the market with, say, Thor or Captain America collections ultimately giving people too much choice, so they end up walking away…?

You read about it before Comic-Con, and now you can actually contribute! Top Cow’s Cyber Force Kickstarter campaign is finally live:

For those who don’t remember, Top Cow is looking to launch its new Cyber Force ongoing series by releasing the first five issue arc for free in print and online; to do that, they want to raise $75,000. One day in, and they’re already above $10,000. Looks like a good start…

Jeff Parker explains the thinking behind the new Red She-Hulk series:

Though you may only know my superhero stories, I am far from someone who thinks that genre IS comics, and I know that others may fit female readers more naturally. But I don’t think we should abandon trying, because despite conventional wisdom, many do want stories about powerful women in big action- did Buffy the Vampire Slayer teach us nothing? This gender does have daydreams about throwing cars around and flattening fools with a backhand swat. The superhero model appeals to something fundamental in us- that we feel, despite appearances, we have untapped power that could break out in the right circumstances.

The HULK myth goes further- and somewhat scarier- because it acknowledges our rage. The feeling that deep inside, whether from personal history or even wilder remnants still left from our ancestors, we harbor something devastating. Feelings we have to work at constantly because in the real world, letting that out doesn’t end well. But to be Hulk is to let that wave roll right out and wash away everything in your way. If you don’t think the ladies can relate to that, you haven’t talked to any lately.

I have to admit: I’m very much looking forward to this title.

Augie De Blieck notices a recurring theme in Marvel’s storytelling:

Axel Alonso to Newsarama: “We have a great idea for something next summer that will be the culmination of a lot of things that will be building in the books.”I’m sure if I dug up enough interviews in CBR’s archives from the last ten years, we’d find that this is about the tenth time a Marvel Editor In Chief made that claim about the next major crossover event.

“Civil War” was the culmination of what started in “Avengers Disassembled.”

“Secret Invasion” was the culmination of Brian Bendis’ eight year Avengers plan.

That, of course, was after “Dark Reign” culminated in “The List.” That series “heralded the next major chapter of the Marvel Universe,” which implies that it’s also the culmination of the last chapter.

“The Siege” was touted as the “culmination of five years of event comics.”

And, heck, the Marvel NOW! Initiative is the culmination of Marvel ReEvolution, which just started a couple of months ago.

That’s not forgetting that Avengers vs. X-Men was also described, at one point, as the culmination of everything that’s happened in the Marvel Universe since Avengers Disassembled. Marvel: Where things keep ending, over and over and over again, apparently.

Excited about The Dark Knight Rises? You’re not the only one:

Several days before it debuts, ”The Dark Knight Rises” is generating more audience excitement than the three-highest grossing movies of the last 12 months.

Pre-release research shows director Christopher Nolan’s final Batman movie is exceeding mega-hits “The Avengers,” “The Hunger Games” and the final “Harry Potter” film in the critical “first choice” category that studios use to gauge moviegoers’ interest in their upcoming releases.As a result, “The Dark Knight Rises” is expected to generate more than $180 million in ticket sales this weekend, according to people who have seen the data but are not authorized to speak publicly. It even has a chance, these people said, of beating the $207-million opening weekend record set by “The Avengers” in May.

What is likely to keep Avengers on top is that it was a 3D movie and could charge higher prices for tickets than the non-3D DKR. So, even if DKR sells more tickets, it could still make less money overall. In a strange way, that could be a best case scenario for any conflict between the two movies: Everyone could win.

Only two days now…

In his regular look at DC sales, Marc-Oliver Frisch points out the sad state of Vertigo comics, with Hellblazer selling less than 10,000 copies and Dominique Laveau: Voodoo Child hitting under 7,000 by its third issue:

[That title is] cancelled with issue #7, and it’s not hard to see why. The question is where Vertigo will go from here. Plainly, this is what they get with new titles by unknown creators — and it’s not like established creators like Paul Cornell, Mike Carey or Brian Azzarello are doing much better.

Obviously, the new Sandman title will provide a bump in Vertigo’s overall sales when it arrives, but that doesn’t really provide a longterm answer for the imprint. Vertigo is – to me, if not to DC executives – one of the most important parts of the publisher, the only imprint dedicated to new concepts and allowing creators freedom in subject matter and execution as well as ownership (or part-ownership, at least); the idea that it could slowly disappear through reader neglect and disinterest is more than a little heartbreaking. But what can be done to change things?