Released this past Wednesday, Shinku Volume 1 is a nice alternative if the other vampires that have taken over pop culture for the past few years aren’t your thing. “If you want vampires that sparkle, look elsewhere. It’s bloody, it’s sexy, and rated M for Mature,” says Marz. Needless to say, the creative team had a little fun with the ad above “celebrating” the Twilight finale also coming out this week.

This doesn’t look good:

Digital Manga President Hikaru Sasahara has announced that print releases for the company’s DMP, June Manga, DokiDoki and 801 Media imprints will be placed on hiatus effective January 2013 until June.  The step is being taken “to coordinate our production schedule for 2013 and temporarily shift our focus to our digital publications,” he said.

I am in no way a manga expert, and so have no idea whether DMP releases had been particularly unfocused prior to this announcement, but nonetheless; suspending the first half of a year’s output to sort out any problem seems like a somewhat drastic move. According to the ICv2 report, titles solicited for December are actually included in the suspension list, although everything previously solicited will appear at some point post-June.

Hey, remember when I wrote

Please, please, someone at another publisher add “Uncanny” to titles of your series come February; maybe you’ll be able to get some shared heat, somehow

back when Marvel teased Uncanny X-Men Volume 3? Take a bow, Jim Zubkavich and Edward Huang. The two are behind the February Uncanny Skullkickers from Image. In fact, take two bows, because look at the cover:

Spectacular.

Trip City — the Brooklyn-based online “literary arts salon” started by Billy Dogma creator/Emmy-winner Dean Haspiel, Leaping Tall Buildings photographer Seth Kushner, writer/actor Chris Miskiewicz and Americans UK multihyphenate (and my good buddy) Jeffrey Burandt — turned one-year-old as of this week, and the site is celebrating its newfound maturity with new content.

Among the offerings: Suckers, a new monthly “urban noir” comic, written by Eric Skillman and illustrated by Jorge Coelho, about the son of a con man. Plus, Burandt, along with artist ZEES, debuted a new chapter of their superhero-gentrification saga Just Super, “Bibbin’s Bodega;” and Kushner, joined by artist George Schall, faces an ex in the latest installment of his auto-bio comic, Schmuck.

Trip City is regularly updated, and the crew has presented a considerable amount of content over the past year — comics, podcasts (with folks like Bryan Lee O’Malley and Chuck Klosterman), “photocomix,” videos and the singular work that is “Time Fucker” — and it’s free, thus rather low-risk to check out. If you enjoy the experience, but then think — “Hey, what if this was printed on paper?” — your very specific musing comes kind of true in December with Image’s Creator Owned Heroes #7, featuring contributions from all four founding Trip Citizens, including Burandt and Haspiel’s “Blood + Brains.”

It’s just about time for the fourth Marvel NOW! “Next Big Thing” press conference of the week, this one focusing on Cable and X-Force, with series writer Dennis Hopeless and editor Nick Lowe on the line. We’re covering the call live and continuously updating this story, so keep hitting refresh for the latest.

For new interior art from the first two Cable and X-Force issues, click over here.

Marvel’s James Viscardi starts the call by asking what readers can expect when they open up the first issue. “They get dropped in, smack-dab, in the middle of a pretty horrible situation,” Lowe says, with the cast standing around a bunch of dead bodies, in a factory (though Lowe doesn’t want to say what kind of factory). That leads to a confrontation with the Uncanny Avengers.

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In what was, let’s be honest, a pretty great week for comic releases, this is likely to be my favorite cover:

I love dialogue on covers. And the whole “Is This A… QUESTION?” thing, too. It’s like this cover was made for me.

(The comic inside was kind of wonderful, too, but that should’ve been obvious from Jeff Parker’s involvement. That man just doesn’t write bad stuff.)

“Geek” is a gendered noun. There’s a GeekGirlCon, but no GeekGuyCon: every con is GeekGuyCon, unless it specifies otherwise. You don’t say “geek guys” the way you say “geek girls”: once you’ve said “geek,” the “guy” is pretty much taken as read.

When a label is gendered, it carries all the attendant baggage. What does that mean to geeks? Well, we, as a culture, regulate masculinity very closely. It’s valuable in ways femininity isn’t, and that makes it more fragile as well. The worst words you can call a man are the ones that question his masculinity, or, worse, imply that he’s feminine. Even “girl” gets thrown around as an insult.

Take a moment to think about what that means–to women, but also to men; and particularly to the way men are taught to see women. Girls in a guy zone become a threat. They taint what they touch by association. A girl who’s into guy stuff, that’s understandable, an upgrade; but a guy into girl stuff is a broken machine.

If you start there, it’s easy to see how we might have become predisposed to looking at female-identified geeks with suspicion. They’re other. They don’t fit the narrative. They require qualifiers, not just “geeks,” but “geek girls” or “girl geeks”: already a step removed from the real deal.

So, when I say that “geek” is a gendered noun, and that its default gender is masculine, I’m saying something about how it intersects with a specific set of cultural values–and, by extension, I’m saying something about the value of masculine identity to the geek community.

Dark Horse editor Rachel Edidin has written about the “fake geek girl” phenomenon over at Comics Alliance. You really, really should go read.

The most surprising thing in today’s new Marvel solicitations? Probably the re-appearance of Powers: Bureau #1-2, now both scheduled for a February release. What’s so surprising, perhaps, is that there’s no text noting that these are re-solicitations and previous orders have been cancelled. After all, #1 was originally solicited as Powers: FBI (before someone at the FBI likely stepped in and told Bendis and Oeming that they weren’t allowed to use the Bureau’s name commercially) way back in April for a July 2012 release, with #2 appearing in the October solicits as Powers: The Bureau.

Of course, this shouldn’t really come as a surprise; Powers, like all of Bendis’ creator-owned work, has historically run amazingly late. The previous issue of the series, Powers #11 was released on August 29 this year, having been originally solicited for November 2011, for example, although that’s hardly the worst offender for lateness: the sixth issue of Scarlet, Bendis’ series with Alex Maleev, is currently scheduled for a December release despite its original solicitation for June 2011. And as for Brilliant, his series with Mark Bagley… Well, who knows what’s going on with that one; it’s been late since the first issue (Ironically, when announcing that initial delay, Bendis wrote “Subsequent issues of Brilliant will ship on time.” Not one issue of Brilliant has yet managed to ship on its originally scheduled release date).

It’d be nice to think that the resolicit of Powers: Bureau marks a do-over for the series – Well, a do-over for its scheduling, as well as a do-over for the content, I mean – and that the title will actually start to ship when promised in future. I hope so; considering that all of the creators involved with these books are busy elsewhere – Bendis is busy producing a ridiculous amount of work for Marvel on a regular basis, and Oeming, Bagley and Maleev have all had other work out during these delays, which, really, explains the delays – it feels unfair to blame them for not being able to produce even more work, but at the same time: Stop promising ship dates that you can’t hit, people.

Really, the problem lies with being overly optimistic when soliciting the material, and especially when soliciting the later issues of a series; if Brilliant #4 isn’t anywhere near completion until, let’s say, July (It was finally published in August this year, originally solicited for January), then do not solicit #7 for August. That’s just inviting upset and snarky blog posts like this one…

The third “Marvel NOW! Next Big Thing” press conference of the week is all about Uncanny Avengers, with writer Rick Remender talking about what’s next for the book, and the new additions coming in issue #5. Things should be getting started very soon, and we’ll be covering it live — this page will be continuously updated, so keep hitting refresh.

While we’re waiting, of note: According to Diamond, Uncanny Avengers #3 has moved released dates from Dec. 19 to Jan. 16, and #4 has moved from Jan. 30 to Feb. 20.

Right off the bat, Marvel’s James Viscardi asks Remender about the new members of the team: As pictured, Wonder Man, Wasp and Sunfire, bringing the total to nine. “Obviously, I’m not going to have all nine in every issue,” Remender says.

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One of the best pieces of obscure Marvel history shared by Sean Howe as promotion for his (very good) Marvel Comics: The Untold Story book? Probably this memo from Roy Thomas to Stan Lee in 1972 about a series of proposed horror comics:

Suggested titles and comments:

(1) Beware! This Magazine Is… HAUNTED! This is one of Fawcett’s old titles from ’50s and, non-horror-reader that I was, it always grabbed me. The word “haunted,” which is not used in any DC book or as the strict title of a Charlton book, should not be overlooked as we did “Ghosts” until too late (“Ghosts” was one title we kicked around before TOWER OF ETCETERA a couple of years back; now DC has it)

(2) At the Stroke of MIDNIGHT! (Since we can’t do “Witching Hour” — and since this seems to be a very effect title, having been used on 500 Timely horror stories over the years.)

There’s more at the link.

Not only do I love the idea of a comic called Beware! This Magazine Is… HAUNTED! (Please, Marvel! Is it too late to change the title of the new Morbius to this?), I’m also surprised at how clearly the horror line was intended as a reaction to DC’s horror books, with both Ghosts and Witching Hour getting named specifically. Also, how can you not love overly-long titles that end in ALL-CAPS?

Let’s just call this the greatest rumor of the day, shall we?

Thanks to a new trademark filed November 7th by Hasbro at the United States Patent & Trademark Office we know that there maybe an attempt to bring back the “Rom: The Spaceknight” toyline.

In many ways, a revival of Rom would cement Hasbro’s move from purely a toy company to a transmedia IP machine; after all, the Rom toy flopped dramatically upon release in the late 1970s, but the character lived a surprisingly successful life as a comic book character thanks to Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema (and later, Steve Ditko)’s Marvel Comic. That book lasted 75 issues, and added the “Spaceknight” mythology to the Marvel Universe which is still being used today (Jim Starlin’s Spaceknights mini is being reprinted as we speak).

This isn’t the first time that Hasbro has tried to revive Rom; in addition to the November 7 filing (There’s also a filing from a day earlier, also by Hasbro), it looks like there were multiple filings made by the company regarding the character in 2008 that went nowhere. As someone who adored the old Marvel series, I can only hope that things go differently this time around.

October seems to have been a good month for… well, everyone, as far as Diamond orders are concerned:

Due to the happy confluence of the end of its successful Avengers vs. X-Men event and the debut of its Marvel NOW! line, Marvel placed five titles in the top ten compared with four for DC and one for Image. Regaining some dominance at the top of the comic book chart was crucial in allowing Marvel to recapture the marketshare crown decisively in October. In addition to the previously mentioned Uncanny Avengers #1 variants, Marvel also utilized the technique on a number of other titles, some of which got “Final Issue” variants, while others received pink “Susan G. Komen” variants.

Even though most of DC’s top titles dipped slightly from their “0” issues in September, many of them posted gains over their #12 issues in August. With Jim Lee no longer penciling Justice League, Scott Snyder’s Batman is easily the publisher’s top title, and the strong debut of the “Death of a Family” storyline in issue #13 indicates that the situation is not likely to change anytime soon. Also showing great promise in October was Green Lantern #13, which actually posted a gain over its “0” issue thanks to the start of the “Rise of the Third Army” saga in issue #13. John Layman (Chew) took over as the writer of Detective with issue #13 and his tenure is off to a strong start.

Overall five titles in the top 25 showed growth in circulation in October (seven if the DC “0” issues are disregarded), while sixteen posted declines (there were four #1’s in the top 25).

Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead #103, the title that posted the biggest circulation increase from September to October, also cracked the top 10 for the first time (with the obvious exception of its #100 issue, the bestselling comic of the year so far). Aided by the debut of the new season of The Walking Dead on AMC, the black-and-white Image comic moved up from #24 in September to #9 in October as it posted a 28% increase in sales, which grew to 74,378.

Avengers Arena is already one of the most discussed and controversial Marvel NOW! launch titles, with the hook — Arcade forcing Marvel teen heroes to fight to the death — attracting a wide variety of debate and responses.

It’s also the subject of the latest “Next Big Thing” conference call with the comic book press, set to start at around 3 p.m. eastern, with series writer Dennis Hopeless and more on the line. We’re covering it live, and this page will be continuously updated — so keep hitting refresh. For new art and covers from the series, click here.

“Fifteen of your favorite Marvel teen heroes, and Darkhawk, who has been made very clear to me is not a teenager, wake up on an island, and are told, ‘Only one of you will come out of this alive,’” Hopeless says, detailing the series premise.

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Chad Nevett comes up with an order in which to read all of the Avengers vs. X-Men issues:

It may surprise you to learn that it wasn’t too difficult. Parts of the order are strictly judgement calls and some issues could be switched around with no real impact on anything, because they’re so self-contained. An example of this are the intial tie-in arcs of Avengers Academy and X-Men Legacy where they both fall within the same timeframe, but could be read in any order really. I’ll try to explain myself as I go and, maybe, update when necessary (aka when someone points out a factual error that makes my order impossible… though, in some cases, those are unavoidable). My biggest criteria for order is that events show in Avengers vs. X-Men trump all tie-ins with AVX: VS trumping all other tie-ins. So, events seen in Avengers vs. X-Men and tie-ins will always have Avengers vs. X-Men as the first comic to show those events with the others following. I think that makes sense.

I didn’t read every issue of the event, so I’ll just assume that he’s correct in his ordering. What strikes me as I read through the order and summary of each issue is how exhausting the whole thing is, when taken as a whole. You start looking at the shape of the entire event and thinking, “What was the point of the dual outer-space arcs in Avengers and Secret Avengers again…?” and wondering whether all of the “And then the Phoenix Five hunted the Avengers” issues are maybe a little too much. It’s a strange thing, looking at the entire event from a distance like this; things that didn’t necessarily seem so obvious in the midst of things start to become clear…

Marvel steps up to the plate to promote Marvel NOW!, as per the press release that just landed in my inbox:

Turn up those dials because Marvel NOW! is hitting the airwaves as Marvel Entertainment is pleased to announce nationwide radio advertising in support of the blockbuster new launches hitting throughout this year and next! Exciting new radio spots for Uncanny Avengers, Deadpool, Fantastic Four, All-New X-Men, Indestructible Hulk, Thor: God of Thunder, Captain America and more will be featured nationwide during top programs including “Fox Sports”, “Jim Rome,” “Nikki Sixx”, “Petros & Money” & “Opie & Anthony”.

Ah, radio. The most obvious choice of medium in which to promote the primarily visual appeal of comic books.

Considering that Disney owns multiple television outlets, I’m somewhat surprised we’re not seeing some TV ads for the line (but fully expect product placement in Once Upon a Time and other ABC shows sooner rather than later); still, this is better than nothing. I wonder what the ads will sound like – and whether they’ll learn from the experience of DC with its New 52 radio spots last year?

I kind of love Jim Mroczkowski’s tongue-in-cheek theory behind the scheduling SNAFU that is Uncanny Avengers – That it’s intentional to give fans something to complain about because everything else in comics was going a little too well:

When they first announced John Cassaday as the artist on this book, I thought, “Yowza. That is exciting. Mind you, I can’t imagine how it will work, but it’s exciting. Every time I’ve seen Cassaday’s name in connection with a book, it’s been in an article about that book’s epic lateness, but never mind all that now. Marvel have launched this huge initiative about this bold new direction. Uncanny Avengers is the flagship book of that initiative. I don’t know what’s going on, but if they announced Cassaday on their flagship monthly book, they must know what they’re doing. They must have worked out one helluva plan.”

Life spoiler: hey, whaddya know?, there is no plan at all. Plan equals zero! There apparently never was a notion, vis-à-vis “what we do next.” The first issue of Uncanny Avengers came out on time. The second issue was immediately late. The third issue will be delivered via space-mail to your deathbed.

WTE (“What The Eff?’)? These people want us to focus on their bold new direction, and then their bold new direction doesn’t come out? The flagship is anchored off the coast of the foreseeable future? Ridiculous. This is some bald-faced nonsense. This is… some prime feeding ground for the Red-Faced Outrage.

It’s downright considerate, if you think about it.

Clearly, DC also decided to give back to the outrage-based community with the 52 variant covers for Justice League of America. It’s like community-based outreach for the gripe-starved. Good work, publishers!

For those wondering why DC’s new Vibe comic is called Justice League of America’s Vibe when Katana’s comic is just called Katana: What’s the likelihood it has something to do with the fact that there’s already a pretty well-known publication out there called Vibe? (Not that having Justice League of America in the title isn’t likely to help orders, of course…)

Marvel is set for another week of “Next Big Thing” conference calls with the comic book press, discussing upcoming releases from their Marvel NOW! slate.

First up: Iron Man. Issue #1 just went on sale last week, but, based on the cover to #6 released to the press by Marvel, it looks like details on the second arc will be revealed, Things will get started right around 3 p.m. — we’ll keep you continually updated, so keep refreshing this page.

On the line: Marvel’s James Viscardi and series writer Kieron Gillen, plus a bunch of reporters.

Gillen’s second Iron Man arc starts in February, “Godkiller.” It’s set in space, and is essentially what happens “in between” Gillen’s first story on the book, and Tony Stark joining the Guardians of the Galaxy.

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It’s official – WonderCon will not be returning to San Francisco in 2013:

As many of you are aware, it has been our hope to return to San Francisco for WonderCon 2013.

We have been waiting for information on the availability of the Moscone Center and were just officially offered dates, though they were for the fall.

However, those dates coincide with another very large city wide event, and this has resulted in some unavoidable conflicts. Among them hotel room blocks we explored near, and not so near, the Moscone Center started at $300 per night.

This, along with the expected difficulty of exhibitors and attendees in securing airfare for those outside of driving distance of San Francisco for that weekend, has resulted in us not being able to secure San Francisco as a location for WonderCon in 2013.

However, because we knew there was a possibility of not being able to return to San Francisco, we have scheduled WonderCon: Anaheim to be held March 29-31, 2013. Hopefully we will be able to return WonderCon to San Francisco sometime soon.

Apparently, not all of the latest cycles of interviews that DC’s Senior VP of Sales Bob Wayne and VP of Marketing John Cunningham are doing are quite as passive aggressive and dismissive as Vaneta’s latest conversation with them on the main site (If you haven’t read that yet, you should; it’s eye-opening, and not in a good way); talking to ICv2, Wayne revealed that DC is going to pull back on variant covers, post Justice League of America:

Overall we’re running in the zone of Spinal Tap in that we’ve got it up to 11 on that.  We’re going to pull back and drop variants from a handful of titles in the next solicitation cycle to pull back that number ourselves, where it didn’t seem the variant was making a substantial difference in the buy-in for the book or the perception of books.  We’ll be looking at the remaining titles that have variants the following month.

It’s like having a balanced breakfast in the sense that if you only have variants and you don’t have other aspects of how you try to get the attention of retailers and through retailers to consumers, it would be like only eating pizza.  We’re just trying to make sure we keep a balance between the different ways that we can draw attention to books.

Firstly: “If you only have variants and you don’t have other aspects of how you try to get the attention of retailers and through retailers to consumers, it would be like only eating pizza”: A backhanded slap at Marvel, which seems to be relying mostly on variants to push titles lately? Secondly: Yes, please, any publisher that wants to pull back on variant covers, that’d be great, thank you very much. If only everyone would go for that idea.