Kieron Gillen looks back on his 2012, and blows my mind a little with his productivity:

I had things to do and I’ve done them. I end the year with (bar the ongoing commitments to Unannounced Avatar Project 2) a clean slate of creator owned projects. I’m in the position where I can decide what to do next, and even have the chance it may come out before the end of the year. The lack of anything other than my work for Marvel is the year’s big regret. The silver-lining there is that because it’s all in the can, when it comes out I’m going to look like the most productive man in comics. Unannounced Avatar Project actually is just about to be announced, and there’s the equivalent of seven issues drawn already. The last William told me was that THE HEAT may have a new artist, which means that may join everything else. So alongside YOUNG AVENGERS and IRON MAN, there should be THREE, the 2 avatar books and (eventually) PHONOGRAM: THE IMMATERIAL GIRL. Plus some other stuff which isn’t signed off on yet.

Gillen is one of those writers who, for me, has had a really interesting year; it feels as if he’s quietly risen to the big leagues in Marvel (alongside Rick Remender) purely on the basis of performance and quality, and now has a whole new stage to play on. I’m curious to see what 2013 brings for him, and very excited about his creator-owned work.

So, was Avengers Vs. X-Men the shape of things to come at Marvel? Here’s Axel Alonso talking about 2012 in review:

Another thing I learned was the power of collaborative writing. This wasn’t my first rodeo with a big event story featuring multiple writers and artists — I’d cut my teeth on “Messiah CompleX” and “Second Coming” — but “Avengers Vs. X-Men” was so much bigger in its scope. And I truly believe that the story benefitted from the combined might of its five writers and three editors. “AvX” gave me a lot of confidence that we can do more of this in the future.

We know that Age of Ultron is a solo-written event book, but will the post-AU Marvel Universe have more mass-writing experiments in it…?

Writer Peter David suffered a stroke while on vacation in Florida, according to his personal website. He announced the news on Sunday via the following notice:

We were on vacation in Florida when I lost control of the right side of my body. I cannot see properly and I cannot move my right arm or leg. We are currently getting the extent of the damage sorted out and will report as further details become clarified.

David is best known for his lengthy runs on The Incredible Hulk, Captain Marvel and X-Factor at Marvel; Young Justice, Supergirl and Aquaman at DC; the Spectacular Spider-Man story “The Death of Jean DeWolff;” creator-owned series including Fallen Angel; the Star Trek: New Frontier novel series and more. Currently, he’s writing X-Factor and the Castle: A Calm Before Storm miniseries for Marvel.

We’ll update when more details become available, and wish David the best in a full and speedy recovery.

Happy birthday, Stan Lee! It’s the comic book legend’s 90th birthday today, and the co-creator of Spider-Man, Iron Man, the Hulk, the X-Men, the Avengers and more is being celebrated around the Internet and beyond, with tributes pouring in from everyone including potential Guardians of the Galaxy Star-Lord frontrunner Zachary Levi to Batman writer Scott Snyder (and you saw the exchange between Lee and Dan Slott, right? Spoilers in link).

To celebrate the occasion, here’s a clip of Stan Lee talking his career in the 1988 documentary Comic Book Confidential. And did you know that Lee is apparently good friends (not to mention birthday buddies) with True Blood‘s Joe Manganiello? Well, there you go!

As part of his wonderful Holiday Interview series, Comics Reporter Tom Spurgeon talks to Mark Siegel, the man behind the great – and constantly underrated – First Second Books:

I think part of the mission of First Second is to help win a place in both highbrow culture and popular culture for comics that is long overdue in America. We’re certainly not the only ones trying to do that. I do think we put special effort in terms of speaking different languages for different audiences and putting books out that are aimed to reach across many different kinds of audiences. I’m always interested in books that are really legit and have real cred for people who love and know comics, but can also speak to people that don’t know comics. We’re always looking for ways… I love it, like I’ve heard that Anya’s Ghost was one book that somebody told me what was great about it is that it doesn’t need a secret handshake. It lets you in right away. It’s not necessarily a measure for every book, but for that one I think that’s a real success.

Really good stuff. Go read.

So, who is going to play Star-Lord in the movie version of Guardians of The Galaxy? Rumors so far put both Zachary Levi and Jim Sturgess in the frame, but director James Gunn took to Twitter to deny those rumors – and then, very quickly, deleted those tweets. SpinOff Online has the story:

“Almost everything in the Variety article on the Guardians of the Galaxy casting (and the following articles based on it) was/is inaccurate,” Gunn tweeted first.

That annoyed Variety writer Jeff Sneider, who tweeted in response, “Also weird how Sturgess and Levi never denied it, and neither did Marvel. Maybe James isn’t on the same page as everyone else…”

When Gunn deleted his tweet, Sneider added, “Ah yes, the old ‘a posting he later removed.’ Believe me, if there was something grossly inaccurate, some1 would have called to bitch & moan”

After Gunn sent out his first tweet, IGN ran a story called “Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn denies report that Zachary Levi is in the running to play lead role.” Gunn then responded to that by saying, “I didn’t deny (or confirm) specifics. I just said the majority of the Variety article was inaccurate. So your headline is off.” He later deleted that tweet as well, but IGN has updated its story.

Is Marvel stepping in to tell Gunn to keep his Tweetmouth shut? After all, it seems to be Marvel Studios policy to not respond to Internet rumors based on past events, and instead enjoy the free publicity. Or are things going on in terms of casting that even Gunn isn’t privy to?

Rob Liefeld looks ahead to 2013:

So what does 2013 bring? Count on Marvel continuing their current win streak as they go deeper into their bench of go-to fan favorite characters and stack the deck with even more re-launches. Wolverine hasn’t arrived as of this writing, neither has the Spider-Man family of books and can a second Deadpool book really be that far behind? This is what separates Marvel from DC, the depth and scope of their bench. The X-Men family alone sports a slew of characters with plenty of commercial appeal in Gambit, Bishop, Storm and Fantomex. Where is DC’s counter? Martian Manhunter? Katana? Vibe? Seriously?

Not to worry, though, DC; Rob has a suggestion for what to do to fix things:

Take some of those Dark Knight profits and invest them in the actual cloning of Jim Lee. I buy whatever Jim touches, so does everyone else, two of him gives you plenty of options, 3 Jim’s even more so. Get on that STAT.

Did you know that Detective Comics was banned in Australia in the late 1930s? Daniel Best has the somewhat unbelievable tale of state censorship from history:

The banning of Detective Comics really began with a statement from the Minister for Trade and Customs, in which the proposal for the prohibition on the importation of undesirable literature was put forward.  Although the proposal was titled ‘literature’, the text made it clear that the focus would be firmly placed upon pulp magazines and comic books which were deemed to be blasphemous, indecent and obscene.  The content of the statement also placed a strong emphasis on the undesirable content of the literature in question, in particular sex and crime and the harmful effect that any exposure to either would have on youth.  Damning evidence was provided in the form of a recent murder case in which the murderer had been found with a large collection of pulps, thus, for the powers that be, showing a direct line from pulps and comic books to outright murder.  It was all that was needed.

The whole forgotten story can be found here, and is well worth a read.

Found via the Forbidden Planet blog: Olly Moss’ sketch for a never-happened Avengers Assemble cover:

Just lovely; Avengers Assemble seems to be cycling through cover artists right now (#9 had a cover by Steve McNiven, #10 by Greg Land) – It’d be nice if Moss somehow ended up as the ongoing artist on the cover, giving the book’s covers a visual identity of their own that fits the “this is the one for the movie fans” idea behind the book’s launch.

Hey, it’s that thing we’ve always been saying that we wanted:

Marvel will launch a series of interstitials [to air during the return of Ultimate Spider-Man on Disney XD next month] titled, Marvel Comics Close-Up. The series of shorts are designed to encourage kids to read, by offering viewers an insider peek at 10 different comics. Some of the titles to be featured will include Ultimate Spider-Man #7, Invincible Iron Man #7, Hulk #3, Thor #364 and Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #16.

The shorts will be hosted by Marvel CCO Joe Quesada and Disney star Riley Snyder, and be backed up by free digital comics to download on the Disney XD website. This sounds like a pretty great way to bridge the gap between cartoons and comics for kids, to be honest; I can only hope it’s ridiculously successful – and also that this promotion introduces lots and lots of kids to the idea that Thor turns into a frog (That’s what happens in Thor #364, in case you were wondering).

Ultimate Spider-Man returns to Disney XD on January 21.

Never mind Amazing Spider-Man or Justice League, the big release of this week may be a new issue of Richard Starkings’ Hip Flask, with full-issue art by the incomparable Ladronn. How much of an event is this, for fans? Starkings gave some sense of that while talking to Multiversity Comics:

I launched [spin-off series] ELEPHANTMEN because I had a lot of ideas for the HIP FLASK characters begging my attention and I couldn’t wait on Ladrönn. I met with him recently and pointed out that I completed 50 issues of ELEPHANTMEN in the time it has taken him to finish this 4th issue of HIP FLASK!

The fourth issue is the penultimate one; it’ll be interesting – and somewhat tortuous – to see how long it takes for the final issue to be finished.

File under “Things That Might Have Been Missed In The Run-Up to Christmas”:

Disney’s purchase of Lucasfilm closed on Friday, with Disney paying $2.208,199,950 in cash and 37,076,679 Disney shares to Lucasfilm shareholders.

Roll on, 2015 and the new movies, apparently. The first official piece of Disney/Lucasfilm magic? Darth Vader and his Stormtroopers were featured prominently in the Disney Christmas Parade broadcast live Christmas morning, with the Imperial March playing as they patrolled Main Street in Magic Kingdom, Disney World. We’ll see if there’s any clarification about the future of the comics license anytime soon, as well.

This is what Christmas is about: Family get-togethers, right?

Merry Christmas, for those who celebrate it. For those who don’t, I hope you have a couple of days off, anyway. I’ll be back on Wednesday with more of the usual.

Congratulations, Complex Magazine. By running an article that claims to announce the 10 Worst Comic Books of 2012, you’ve guaranteed yourself attention and almost inevitable outcry from those who enjoyed said comics – especially when the list includes something like Avengers Vs. X-Men:

Though it’s always entertaining to see the heroes go at it, this book was 12 issues of overblown story decisions, terrible characterizations, and shallow shocks to boost sales. Cyclops and Captain America were written so inconsistently from their personalities over the years that they felt like strangers in this series. It’s as if they only acted a certain way to fit the plot around them. Cyclops’ sudden change, in particular, threw away years of characterization so the story had a villain to root against.

Pretty much agreed on The Savage Hawkman, mind you.

Rick Remender explains his writing philosophy:

When I work on a book, I end up seeding larger stories that I can tell, but it’s too easy to think up a big story and just keep escalating things. I like to seed things that have intention and show that there’s a long plan. At the same time, it feels like my responsibility is to give you an ending every four to five issues; to give some sort of conclusion while there are still plenty of B and C stories percolating and moving forward into my bigger plan. I’m making sure to tell you stories with beginnings, middles and ends, and when those stories are put together, they form a much bigger story — like a Voltron of Nerdocity.

Subplots and slow builds! I was going to write “Just like Chris Claremont at his best!” except, of course, Remender tends to have an end game in mind, which Claremont, bless him, rarely did if ever. It makes me wonder whether one of the reasons why we’re in such a writer-centric golden age these days is because writers stay on titles for shorter spans on average, so more stories tend to actually have endings…

What do readers expect from first issues of comics, these days?

When Image Comics publisher Eric Stephenson was talking about response to the first issue of Nowhere Men, a series he co-created, he told iFanboy, “I’m not real sure when this trend of expecting the first issue of a comic to explain every single thing about where a series is going started, but it’s not something I’m particularly into as a reader or a publisher.” It was something that resonated with writer and critic Abhay Khosla, and not necessarily in a good way:

No.  There’s no such “trend”— there’ve been any number of hit comics that didn’t “explain every single thing” with sales and critical success ensuing.  Even if there were such a trend, audiences are allowed to expect things— those are called audience expectations, and understanding and manipulating those is a normal and understood part of the job of a creative artist; that’s on the job description.

But even if we assumed arguendo that audiences have complained in a clumsy way about unrealistic expectations not being satisfied, audiences are allowed to say things in a clumsy way.  They’re the audience not James Walcott; their job isn’t to be the editor while a professional editor is in absentia, carefully articulating the deficiencies of their experiences.  One needs only to look past the clumsiness, and the sentiment he’s complaining about is invariably the oldest one there is:  ”The first issue has to give me a reason to buy the second issue, and it didn’t.” Yeah: that’s not a “trend” or a “meme” or a “fad”— that’s the job.  That’s always been the job.  That “trend” started at the dawn of the enterprise.

Ales Kot, writer of Image’s Change and Wild Children, disagrees, somewhat:

Stephenson isn’t talking about that, is he? It seems like you’re putting your own words (i.e. ideas on how his brain operates, also know as assumptions, which are often derived from expectations) into his mouth. Stephenson is the publisher of Image Comics, the company that gave 2012 more interesting first issues than any other this year as far as I’m concerned – and I’m saying that as a reader and the guy who is making comics that Image publishes. So what? I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t see it that way. Are there duds? Fuck yes there are. But there’s also way more interesting, exciting stuff than anywhere else at the moment except for Koyama Press and Fantagraphics, two companies that are not really in the #1 business anyway.

First issues are becoming increasingly common (and important, in some way) to the mainstream side of the industry in recent years, and they’re often sales crutches and tools as much as – if not more than – they’re true beginnings or restarts of series. The above conversation feels like the start of something that may not be necessary, but would be nice to see more of throughout 2012: People actually trying to work out that the point of a first issue is, and what it’s actually supposed to do.

Tom Spurgeon talks to Scott Snyder, and the result is just as heady and interesting as you could hope for, as Snyder talks about his plans for Batman (Slight spoilers, I feel? At least as far as it goes for the emotional arc of “Death In The Family”) and Superman, amongst other topics:

Superman as a kid you love because of the powers and he’s the strongest and he’s the best. When I write him as an adult, you have to figure out what you’ve always loved about him to write the character. Me personally, not everybody, but I have to figure it out. I have to figure out what matters to me about them right now. It’s an extension of this core thing. Each Batman story I have done is about this heroism versus pathology core that makes me interested in him. With the Court Of Owls, are you so obsessed with the notion that you know the city that you can’t see the forest for the trees? What’s going to happen when the city lets you know you don’t know it at all?

With Superman for me it’s really this notion of restraint. He’s a superhero that in some ways can’t do what he’s capable of doing without becoming the villain. Meaning Superman could reshape the world however he wanted. He could take down countries. He could sculpt the political landscape however he wanted. But he looks to us to do that and serves a different mission. It’s tremendously painful for him as well. As proud and as inspired as he is, I think the heroism comes from that restraint and how much he admires the human race. That’s kind of at the core of the story we’re doing with Superman. So for me I try to figure out what’s at the core of the hero that’s interesting to me. That doesn’t mean that they’re interesting to other people. That might not be the core of Batman for Frank Miller or Alan Moore. But you have to figure out where your interests are. Or I feel they’re empty stories. That’s not to say anyone needs to follow my example as far as how to proceed. That’s just how I proceed. If I don’t figure those things out and build a story out of that core material I don’t feel it resonating for me, and I can’t do it.

Oh, the tangled web that cross-title continuity weaves sometimes. So, the latest issue of Daredevil ends with a cameo from the Superior Spider-Man, which means that the most recent storyline (#18 onwards) presumably takes place after Amazing Spider-Man #700. Which, itself, takes place after the first storyline in Jonathan Hickman’s Avengers (And yet, no mention of evolution bombs altering cities across the world; maybe they get fixed?). And Hickman’s Avengers takes place after the current Avengers Assemble storyline, considering the costumes everyone is wearing (And the Peter Parker Spider-Man). Given that we see Captain America switch from his old costume to his new costume in Avengers #1, however, that storyline clearly happens before the first issue of Uncanny Avengers, which seems to happen in the immediate aftermath of Avengers Vs. X-Men (Assuming that the funeral of Charles Xavier happened relatively close to his death), which means that all of “Avengers World” happens between AVX and Uncanny Avengers…?

To make matters more confusing, Dan Slott has claimed on Twitter that at least part of Age of Ultron takes place before the final issue of Amazing Spider-Man because we see Peter Parker in action, even though Superior Spider-Man actually has a crossover issue with the event in March. I’m willing to believe that Dan was either joking, lying or flat-out wrong about that, just because Age of Ultron is supposed to be status-quo changing from the get-go and, based on what we’ve seen in Daredevil, the Marvel Universe’s status seems very much as quo as it ever is.

Cross-title continuity can be a wonderful thing, building a sense of a world beyond the pages of the comic you’re reading and making the fictional world that little bit more “real” for the fan. And yet, with the pressure from fans for stories to “matter” or “count” in some vague, wide-reaching, sense these days, and so many characters appearing in multiple titles (Remember when Wolverine used to be the sole character we joked about appearing in multiple books a month? Iron Man will soon be regularly appearing in five ongoing series at once, Captain America in four. Hell, Captain Marvel will soon be simultaneously in three, for Pete’s sake), what we’re ending up with are various series that just step on everyone’s toes. We know that Avengers‘ first storyline poses no real threat to the core Avengers, because they’re all fine and unchanged in Uncanny Avengers and their own books; we know that the world isn’t too affected by Ex Nihilo’s evolution bombs, because everything seems just fine and dandy in Daredevil and Amazing Spider-Man, and so on.

I’m not sure what the answer to this problem is. Not caring seems like the most appropriate one (After all, who really believed that anything would happen to the big name character at Marvel, especially when their own books have just been relaunched?), but nonetheless, surely there can be some different approach taken – a minimizing of characters appearing in the same books, perhaps, or a lowering of the stakes in each adventure? – that would cut down on the fact that the dramatic tension in Marvel’s titles (and DC’s too, although I feel as if Marvel is a slightly worse offender right now, but that may just be my own boredom with a lot of the DC output currently coming through) is constantly and consistently being undone by Marvel’s own comic books.

It’s the best early Christmas present you could want: Cameron Stewart has released a 19-page preview of NIRO, his new, creator-owned, digital comic that’ll launch next year. As you might expect, it looks amazing:

Stewart describes the series as “the story of a gunslinger cleric and a young girl who becomes his unlikely companion as they search for The Nomad – a roaming fortress that may hold both the girl’s captive family, and answers to NIRO’s mysterious past,” adding that it’s inspired by the likes of Sergio Leone, Moebius and Alejandro Jodorowski. The series launches early next year, but go get a sneak peek now.

Well, we all thought it was going to happen, and now the Disney-centric blog Blue Sky Disney claims to be confirming that Dark Horse will lose the Star Wars license to Marvel:

The Suits in the know have determined that no new contracts will be given to Dark Horse after the current ones expire. So all new projects after 2013 will be handled internally by Marvel. It’s not known yet if titles will be worked into the regular line up, or will Marvel create a special branch of the company that deals with Star Wars. It’ll take a couple of years for the old deals to work there course, but the stories that Dark Horse have coming down the pipeline will be the last. And you can expect anything new from Marvel dealing with Star Wars to arrive around 2015.

So, potentially two years of Brian Wood and Gabriel Hardman Star Wars comics before Marvel takes over the license? I am perfectly okay with that (although, I admit, I wish it was slightly longer…). That Marvel’s line is being predicted to launch at the same time as the first Disney-fied Star Wars movie doesn’t seem to be a coincidence, either.