Tom Spurgeon has a quick conversation (part one, part two) with Image Comics publisher Eric Stephenson about how things are going for the publisher, amid big-name creator signings and new hits like Saga and Fatale:

I see [the publisher's recent announcements] as a continuity in terms of what Jim and Erik were doing, and I see it as a continuation of the original purpose of Image was. That was to bring more people into the world of creator-owned comics. Those guys didn’t just set out to make a company for themselves. They very much wanted it to be a lot of people joining them. I feel like… until a couple of years ago there was a major focus on finding new talent. What we’re trying to do now is trying to get more well-known writers and artists to do work for us… I think the [Image Comics] package sells itself, and I think that having books like The Walking Dead and now Saga and things like that make it even easier for the package to sell itself. They’re sterling examples of successful books. On the other hand, I’m not bashful of talking about what our strengths are and why I think it’s important it’s important to do new, creator-driven comics. And I’m also not sorry for talking about that.

Image’s success – and the focus it puts on creator-owned comics – is spreading to the mainstream; the publisher got profiled in the New York Times this past weekend.

Still catching up with SDCC news, this seems particularly interesting – Diamond has teamed up with multiple publishers to incentivize the opening of new direct market comic stores:

With sales on the uptick in 2012, now is a good time to think about expansion according to Chris Powell, Diamond’s Director of Business Development. Programs offered to qualifying retailers vary by supplier but will include: (1) Discounts of up to 69% on backlist products; (2) Backlist consignment programs that will allow retailers to stock their stores with graphic novels, trade paperbacks, and other merchandise with extended payment terms and the ability to adjust stock levels after six months; (3) Increased discounts and/or consignment billing on a new store’s initial orders of comics for its first two months of operation with consignment billing deferred until retailers have the opportunity to return overstocked product after keeping it on sale for 6 to 12 weeks; (4) Store Starter Kits that offer a selection of free trade paperbacks and graphic novels from participating suppliers.

According to ICv2, the companies signed up to the new initiative include Boom! Studios, Dark Horse Comics, DC Entertainment, Diamond Select Toys, Dynamite Entertainment, IDW Publishing, Image Comics, and Marvel Entertainment. This is the second such incentive move from Diamond announced in the last week; also during con, the distributor said it would make $6250 in free backlist material available to retailers purchasing its digital Point of Sale system. Clearly, Diamond is pushing to re-open the market in light of recent increasing sales figures.

It’s possible that the surprise of this year’s San Diego Comic-Con was the complete lack of additional information given out by Marvel about Marvel NOW! at any of its panels; although we’re still months away from the roll-out of that new wave of branding, the fact that it’s been announced and seemed to be something to get fans excited suggested that it would be something Marvel could capitalize on at the convention. Instead, the comic arm of the company seemed to fade into the background, eclipsed by the movie panel’s confirmation of long-standing rumors of Ant-Man footage and Guardians of The Galaxy as the studio’s second 2014 movie, as well as DC’s two surprise announcements of the return of Sandman and a Django Unchained comic, as well as the swath of Image Comics announcements.

The cynic in me, recovering from the surprise lack of NOW! news, snarked that it made sense, because why waste announcements at a comic convention when there will always be USA Today pieces available? But that in itself feels oddly telling, and not just about Marvel’s current intentions. After all, DC announced two projects that would have sizable mainstream crossover potential at the con, instead of in some news outlet, which seems like a shift in policy considering the media news blitz for… well, everything to do with the New 52, really. With Sandman still at least twelve months away, that announcement came as a massive surprise – and, still, feels like “the news” of the con – in large part because, let’s face it, who actually spills something that big at a comic convention anymore?

Part of me wonders if both the Sandman and Django announcements were calculated risks for DC; big enough that, even if they were announced at SDCC, they would be picked up by mainstream media outlets even without exclusivity, as opposed to superhero news that may be less unlikely to appear as “news” to anyone without the promise of “You’ll have it first, and everyone will be linking to you.” Plus, by announcing it at SDCC, DC manages to appear more fan-friendly and reclaim some fandom buzz in a year that’s been particularly unkind to the company.

Marvel, though; while there are plenty of benefits to keeping mum on Marvel NOW! for, well, now – Not least of which is the fact that the books are going to roll out over the next few months, and so this way they get to theoretically extend the initial excitement as new titles/teams are announced – the lack of NOW! news feels like a mistake. By concentrating on Avengers vs. X-Men spin-offs like AvX: Consequences, A-Babies vs. X-Babies and even A+X, Marvel NOW! faded into the background in terms of awareness, even as Marvel’s publishing arm in general seemed to fade into the background when compared with what the movie arm was getting up to this weekend.

I don’t know. Am I overthinking things? Was Marvel right to hold back on Marvel NOW! announcements at San Diego?

For those wondering whether or not we’re going to see more or less variant cover madness in upcoming months, may I present to you the report that Uncanny Avengers (AKA, the Justice League of Marvel NOW!) will have no less than twelve covers:

The original John Cassaday cover, an Adi Granov cover, a Daniel Acuna cover,  three more yet to be assigned including another sketch cover, an Avengers cover, an X-Men cover, a blank variant, a “Call Me Maybe” Deadpool cover and the Baby cover by Skottie Young , variants of which will appear on many covers that month to promote the A-Babies Vs X-Babies comic…

Ignoring the fact that twelve covers is an insane amount of variants – Clearly, Marvel is very serious about ensuring that this book will take the #1 spot for orders in October – the choices for covers listed seem rather unusual. If the purpose of the series is to show the Avengers and X-Men teaming up, then having separate X-Men and Avengers covers seems… counter-intuitive, perhaps (I also wonder if it’ll be a “same drawing, different colors” thing, like the Avengers/X-Men variants for Avengers vs. X-Men)? Not to mention the weirdness of a “Call Me Maybe” Deadpool variant – because that particular summer pop song phenomenon will be a big draw three months from now, clearly – or the Skottie Young Babies variant, which has a Marvel Zombies feel of “Wait, there’s demand for this, let’s see how much demand by putting out as much product as quickly as possible.”

Remember when Joe Quesada used to say that he didn’t like variants, but the market responded well to them? Well, now we have some level of proof that he wasn’t a fan, I guess, because Marvel didn’t embrace this many covers back when he was the EiC…

We all know that the 100th issue of The Walking Dead has been massively successful, but the level of success is underscored by a new press release from Image last night that revealed the (amazing) number of copies ordered of the landmark issue:

Robert Kirkman’s Eisner Award-winning The Walking Dead comic series for Image Comics/Skybound reached its milestone 100th issue and instantly sold out of its 383,612 initial orders on July 11th, the same day it was released, effectively becoming the best-selling comic book in initial orders for any publisher since 1997, when Image Comics/Top Cow’s The Darkness #11 was released.

383,612 copies. Congratulations, Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard. For those curious, that is more than 10 times the number of orders for #99 (estimated at around 37,000). Guess having all those multiple covers paid off, huh?

On the plus side, having that exact figure will make it much, much easier for people to work out July sales estimates this time around, once the Diamond figures are released. I wonder what will happen to Walking Dead for #101 – After such impressively high sales for the centenary issue, will it go back to being a midlist book, around #47 on the sales chart?

The Man of Steel panel had all sorts of reveals, including a minute and a half teaser that will debut before The Dark Knight Rises next week, along with teaser poster was also revealed and later released on the internet soon after.

Where as Superman Returns took a minimalist approach and just unveiled the symbol on its first poster, we get a half glimpse of the Man of Steel and a closer look on the material on his costume. The dark pallet still does nothing for me, but from what I’ve read of the teaser itself, this take will be something VERY different from anything we’ve seen before, but still familiar.

Does the poster whet your appetite, readers?

Man of Steel is scheduled for released on June 14th, 2013.

Pity the poor Batman cosplayer in this room:

(It’s from Scott Snyder’s Twitter, taken during a DC panel at SDCC yesterday.)

For everyone not at Comic-Con this weekend, here’s something to do with your time this weekend… Kieron Gillen has launched a comic process podcast:

The basic idea is I interview a creator about an issue, and really dig into it. In a “What were you trying to do with that panel” way, though it’s not quite as all as detail orientated at that… For this pilot I’m joined by the patient and awesomely bearded JASON AARON who’s discussing WOLVERINE & THE X-MEN 13. The podcast will probably work best if you get hold of a copy of your issue. It came out this week, so will be in your local shop and/or comic app.

Gillen is a smart, smart man. You know this will be great.

Like, I suspect, most of you, I learned about Neil Gaiman’s return to Sandman via Albert’s liveblogging of the Vertigo panel yesterday. I was at the computer, reading along with a sense of “They wouldn’t. Would they?” about the whole thing; I had heard the rumor, but to be honest, couldn’t really believe it was true because DC and Gaiman had failed to come to an agreement for this very thing five years earlier, and because I assumed – feel free to throw in that thing about assuming making an ass out’ve you and me here – that Alan Moore’s increasing discomfort with DC over Before Watchmen may have pulled Gaiman away from the idea of working with the publisher considering the friendship between the creators. But, no, it is happening… And part of me wonders whether something this big will end up dominating the rest of con and overshadowing the other announcements not only from DC but also Marvel? After all, as I said on Twitter last night, suddenly “It’s All-New X-Men! With Brian Michael Bendis!” seems a little… underwhelming in comparison to something like this news. Face it, tigers: DC has most likely just won the con.

(Worth pointing out, though: DC has just burned through both Watchmen and Sandman legacies in the course of a year, in terms of announcements; what else of a similar scale does it have in its back pocket for the future…?)

I think you get [superheroes] in too many forms now… You get them in the movies, there are graphic novels being published, there are digital comics you can see. It used to be that if you wanted a superhero story you had to buy a Marvel or a DC or whatever. Now you don’t. Now you can turn on your computer and read on your computer screen or go to a movie and see one or rent one on Netflix or so on. So all of these things are biting into the sales of comic books themselves. It’s natural.

I think there will always be comics. They may never be as big as they once were, but it’s that way with everything. Look at newspapers. People now more and more are getting news on their iPads … the digital revolution is affecting all of civilization, it’s affecting every part of culture and the economy, so I’m not surprised. I didn’t know they were selling less because I don’t keep up with that, but if they are, I’m not surprised.

That’s Stan Lee, talking about the pop cultural ubiquitousness of superheroes, and how that is hurting comic sales. I’m not sure I agree with him – In fact, I’m pretty sure that I don’t – but there’s something both ironic and depressing about the idea that comics’ largest cultural export is the very thing that ended up hurting comics the most…

For those not at Comic-Con, there’s always the Internet. In addition to keeping up with the news here, Top Shelf has created Cyber-Con, a sale of digital releases relating to creators and books at SDCC:

The biggest comic-book event of the year has arrived, and Top Shelf is celebrating like never before. Comic-Con International is in San Diego tonight through Sunday, but you don’t have to be in San Diego to participate — all you need is a computer screen, tablet, or smartphone.

Today, we’re launching digital editions of our greatest new graphic novels. On top of that, from now through Sunday, July 15, we’re slashing prices on dozens of digital comics whose authors are appearing at Comic-Con — including some of our most beloved books.

Top Shelf digital comics are available in a variety of formats, including Comixology, Apple iBooks, iVerse Comics Plus, Google Play, Nook, Kobo, and more! They can be read on your computer, Apple iOS device, or Android device, as well as many e-readers.

There is some amazing stuff there for ridiculously good prices. Go see.

Does a nine second clip really constitute enough of a first look at a new movie? If so, here’s your first look at Item 47, the new short that’ll accompany Marvel’s The Avengers on DVD and BluRay, as Lost‘s Titus Welliver sends out a SHIELD agent with a familiar name to retrieve an artifact lost during Loki’s invasion…

…Agent Sitwell? Jasper, is that you?

(Via)

Paul Tobin, whose resume includes Spider-Girl, Marvel Adventures Super Heroes, The Age of The Sentry and other Marvel books in addition to current comics projects The Bionic Woman and Bandette, has written a novel; it’s called Prepare to Die, and it’s rather wonderful (You should buy a copy; it’s about a superhero who has two weeks to get his affairs in order before being killed, so you know you’d like it). The reason I’m telling you this, however, is because Tobin wrote – and drew! – a blog post to explain why he’d moved into prose, whether it meant he was leaving comics, and to thank those who’d bought the book, and it’s as charming as hell.

Personally, I’d read any Spider-Man comic that actually included that last exchange in a heartbeat. There’s much more comic at the link.

Mark Waid on why digital is so important to the future of comics:

The problem with comics, and I’ve said this before, is that we have over the past 50 years very, very successfully taken what used to be a mass medium and successfully turned it into a niche market. Which is crazy, the idea that comics are a destination point now, that I can’t find them anywhere. If I’m in the middle of the country, I have to get in a phonebook and see if there’s a store within 100 miles of me that even carries comics. This is why you don’t see mass advertising for comics during movies, during the trailers. This is why you don’t see mass advertising for comics in, say, a “Got milk?” sort of ad campaign. There’s no “Got comics?” campaign. It’s not because we don’t want people to read comics. It’s not because that’s not an interesting way of advertising comics. But let’s say you’ve gone to see Avengers in a multiplex in the middle of Alabama. Let’s say Huntsville, Alabama. I’m pulling that out of the blue. And you leave that theater going, “Oh my God, now I’m stoked about the Avengers, and I saw this great trailer or commercial before the movie for Avengers comics. I gotta have an Avengers comic.” Well, where the hell are you going to go? [Laughs.] You know? You can’t go to the 7-Eleven. You can’t go to the mini-mart. You can’t go to the drugstore. You can’t go to the grocery store. If you’re lucky, there might be a comics store in the northern half of Alabama. I don’t know if there is. There may be one. It’s wasted advertising.You can do that with milk because everybody knows where to find milk. You can do that with beef, “That’s what’s for dinner.” If I see a commercial for beef, and I suddenly decide I want beef, I know where to find beef. [Laughs.] Comics is a different thing. The beauty of digital, the beauty of the iPad, the beauty of mobile devices is that that’s the new newsstand. That gives us the potential to reach out to people and give them comics on a platform that is as ubiquitous to them as convenience stores were to you and me when we were growing up. That doesn’t mean they’ll automatically find comics. It doesn’t mean that is an automatic fix. I’m not saying that because we sold a million iPads today means that there’s a million other people going to read comics next week. But at least there’s a fighting chance. There’s a much better chance to reach them through the iPad than through comics stores.

It’s from a great, somewhat scattered, interview at the AV Club (I wish there has been follow-up questions, personally) that is well-worth checking out. Waid is a great interview subject, a great writer, and someone with a very particular view on the industry through his many experiences. Go read.

Top Cow’s President Matt Hawkins explains the reward tiers for the Cyber Force Kickstarter, for those doubters in the audience (I’m one, I admit):

We’re doing a black and white variant of each issue of Marc’s covers that is only available through Kickstarter… Marc [Silvestri] is using the original art for the cover to #1 as a higher tier incentive. The moneymaker will be the $50 tier, which will be the only way to ever get the hardcover of the first volume. Hardcovers seem to be what people collect now, and we only need to sell 1500 of those at the $50 tier — where you also get all five sketch variants — to raise the $75k we need.

Contrary to earlier reports, the series will be an ongoing, with only the first five issues – the first arc – being made available for free if/when the Kickstarter becomes fully funded. The idea of essentially monetizing variants and collections to the point where the regular edition of a comic becomes a giveaway is a weirdly devious one, a way of exploiting the collector mentality potentially for a greater good. For that reason alone, I now find myself hoping this works…

From the New York Times profile on Valiant:

Home to superheroes like Spider-Man and the Hulk, Marvel achieved one of the most spectacular rallies in media history. With its shares trading for as little as 93 cents, Marvel went from bankruptcy in 1997 to Hollywood heavyweight in 2009, selling itself to Disney for $4.3 billion, or about $53 a share.

Now two professed comic book geeks — with backing from the turnaround specialist Peter Cuneo, who spent 10 years at Marvel in various roles, including chief executive — are trying to make lightning strike twice with Valiant, a comics company that was a force in the 1990s but fell victim to legal quarrels and bankruptcy. Valiant, which is based in New York, restarted its comics line in May, achieving strong sales, and has five movies in development.

“Think of us as Marvel 2.0,” said Mr. Cuneo, whose résumé includes turnaround work at Black & Decker and Clairol.

The story goes on to explain the the comparison is more one of business model similarity to explain the company to investors than anything else, but it’s still an interesting claim to make…

Heidi Macdonald has more on the surprise closure of MoCCA’s physical space, including a statement from the organization:

While the physical space is closing, plans are afoot to continueMoCCA in a new and exciting incarnation.  An announcement of MoCCA’s future arrangements will be forthcoming by the end of July.
Current memberships will be honored at the new venue, as will table renewals forMoCCA Fest 2013.

That the space was closed effective immediately with little warning remains more than a little troubling, but Macdonald notes that “MoCCA president Ellen Abramowitz has a background in real estate and brokered the museum’s past deal, so she’s the right person for the job of finding a new spot for the museum.” Hopefully, more on this story will come out either during or, more likely, after San Diego Comic-Con.

Comics: We’re getting healthier, it seems:

Sales of comics and graphic novels in comic stores were up 18.16% for the first half of 2012 compared to the first half of 2011, according to numbers released by Diamond Comic Distributors today.  June helped that total, but actually pulled the average down a little, with total comics and graphic novel sales in June 2012 up 10.74% compared to June 2011.

It’s tempting to put everything onto the rising tide from the New 52 launch, but there’s got to be more at play here, right…? Is this the effect of seeing more high profile Image books drawing readers from The Big Two, of AVX drawing in lapsed or new readers (perhaps assisted by that Avengers movie that kinda did well), or something else altogether? After all, we’re now at January 2008 sales levels, apparently…

Wondering where Jeff Parker’s Hulk series went when it failed to show up for September solicitations? Apparently, all will be revealed soon:

This week at San Diego’s Comicon International there will be many book announcements, and now we’ll finally get closure on where HULK, the book I was writing went. Sorry I couldn’t say much before, and I really shouldn’t make one-off jokes because apparently many people thought the book didn’t have a solicitation because I forgot to write it. Do you think the editors do nothing? They would at least write “Red Hulk does stuff!” in there if I didn’t. They often improve my solicit text because it is not the skill I excel at anyway.

Interestingly, Parker says that what’s happened to the book is “a development that I think is important and necessary.” Does that reinforce or rebuff the Hulk And The Agents of SMASH rumors about the title’s future…? I’m trying to work out whether the formal addition of A-Bomb to the ongoing cast could be called “necessary” for anyone other than me…

Axel Alonso talks up Marvel NOW! by talking “$#!#” about the Distinguished Competition:

And a couple things I want to emphasize: Marvel NOW! starts with the creators, so don’t expect writer shake-ups across the line by the fourth or fifth issue, or half the titles to get cancelled and replaced by a new #1. We aren’t throwing $#!# at a wall, seeing what falls off and then replacing it with more $#!#. [Laughs] We’re building books we expect to last. Retailers that order them, and fans that read them, will be purchasing new ongoing titles, not limited series. Also, Marvel NOW! unfolds across four months, not one. Each week, we will be offering at least one new entry-point into the Marvel Universe for readers — old, lapsed and new. It’s a patient rollout that demonstrates respect for the fan and his wallet.

Those words are definitely going to come back to haunt him if writers leave titles early – See Zeb Wells on Avenging Spider-Man or Jonathan Hickman on Ultimate Comics Ultimates for Marvel examples, although both cases were later than some of the New 52 shake-ups – or titles are cancelled earlier than #8 for sales reasons…