At Good Comics for Kids, Michael May leads a roundtable about how well Marvel and DC serve young readers (Spoiler: Not very well at all):

Scott: DC and Marvel have published a number of series geared towards young readers but frankly, none of them have been truly worthwhile because they don’t stay in print. As well, they don’t appeal purely to young readers because they’re often mired in nostalgia. DC, especially, doesn’t want to upset their core adult audience.

Michael: I really dug Marvel’s Marvel Adventures line from a few years ago. It was exactly what I want in an all-ages comic: imaginative, humorous, self-contained stories. And by “self-contained” I mean not only that they didn’t constantly refer to other stories I’d have to stop and explain to my son, but also that they were done in one issue and didn’t require a huge investment in time or money. Unfortunately, as you noted, Marvel editorial didn’t seem to know what to do with them. They kept tinkering with the format and branding until no one (not even them) was sure what the imprint was anymore.

Mike Pawuk makes a very good point in the piece: “Libraries are practically begging for younger reader superhero comics. Young kids come into the library to read Batman – and there’s not a lot out there collected and nothing in single issues anymore. DC Comics has access to 150 single issues alone from Batman: The Animated Series’ comic book counterpart. If Batman is timeless, shouldn’t these stories be too?” DC announced a push towards libraries and focusing on the library market last week. It’d be nice if this was one of the subjects that got addressed because of that.

We’re more than a year into a world where direct market retailers can have their own digital stores thanks to either iVerse/Diamond or ComiXology. How’s that working out for them? Brigid Alverson took a look at what’s out there:

Most comics shops are small businesses, and the person who runs them may not be particularly web-savvy. Still, there’s no excuse for not having a website in this day and age, and lack of digital comics storefronts would seem to be a missed opportunity as well. Brick-and-mortar retailers have expressed the fear that digital comics would cannibalize their sales, but so far that seems not to be the case; sales of both print and digital comics were up sharply in 2012.

Retailer Torsten Adair, over at the Beat, reinforced the “lost opportunity” idea, writing that “People are not afraid of digital comics…  Many readers either do not live near a comics shop, or do not want to be bothered with the clutter of back issues,” and adding:

There is no “iTunes” store for comics, at least in the mind of the general consumer.  Both the Kindle and Nook e-readers offer digital comics, as well as sell actual graphic novels and other merchandise.  Digital music sales were not commonplace until Apple opened their iTunes store.  Apple or Amazon could easily create a national comics shop selling paper and digital comics online.  (Amazon already dominates online retailing, and could subsidize the new store.  Comics by mail-order is nothing new, and Amazon is adept at shipping books with strict-on-sale dates so that they arrive on a specific date.) The Diamond Digital API allows stores to sell digital comics via their websites.  A store could easily do what Amazon does with their e-books, selling titles either at a loss, or at a minimal profit.

But how much of a loss leader would digital storefronts actually be? In the comments section of Alverson’s piece, San Francisco retailer Brian Hibbs put his store (Comix Experience)’s digital sales in perspective:

I make at least $130/hour in physical retail…. I haven’t made 20% of that in three QUARTERS with digital. Even if cMx could make me TWENTY TIMES what iVerse does (and I doubt it, since I’d then have to do FORTY times the volume), most of a year still wouldn’t generate what a single average MONDAY in the store does (and Monday is, by far, the slowest day of the week).

Is digital simply something that can’t be inclusive of direct market retailers? And if it can, then what needs to be done differently to make it so?

Occasionally, you find something that just makes you stop and say what, because nothing else makes any sense. To wit: Rob Liefeld has written a screenplay about the formation of Image Comics, entitled Icons. It took him three days, and he’s only shown it to close friends – and, weirdly, seemingly shared excerpts of it online.

Go, read. It’s very, very strange, but oddly compelling.

Warren Ellis answers a not-uncommon question, offering suggestions about how to write a comic panel. Yes, panel, not page:

You’re also, wherever possible, looking for an interesting image. But don’t confuse “interesting” with “splashy.” You’re still trying to serve the demands of storytelling, telling the story as clearly and simply as possible.  In most forms of narrative, each panel must have a relationship with the panels on either side of it.  You’re plotting out a sequence of motion in a series of stills.  Imagine it like that, and you may be able to get a better sense of how a story in comics might flow.  It’s not a perfect analogy, but it might be worth considering if this is something you’re having trouble with.  You’ll develop your own view, approach and methods as you go.  Everybody does.

This reminds me of part of the discussion from the latest episode of Kieron Gillen’s always-enjoyable podcast Decompressed, which this time features an interview with Al Ewing about Jennifer Blood #17. Except, even if you don’t follow Jennifer Blood, there’s a lot to love in this podcast, as the two talk about the technical aspects of writing and what the artist of the book – Kewber Baal – brought to the work that wasn’t asked for in the script. Anyone interested in process should check this one out.

Did Superman’s red tights disappear because DC Entertainment was worried about losing the copyright to the character? Jeff Trexler considers the claim:

Is it possible that some lawyers might have tried to use the case to micro-manage Superman material? Sure, there are folks who go beyond the pale of what’s required in any number of organizations, and that’s not limited to lawyers. There was an argument to be made that stripping Superman of his shorts or changing the S-shield might have reduced the Siegels’ payout by a few dollars, but would the change have been worth it? At max the Siegels (before last week) would have had 50% of current Superman material, and most likely it would have been less. In that context it would have been much more business-savvy to make whatever choices maximized brand value as opposed to risking greater returns on minimal savings.

Normally, though, the fact that attorneys are trained to take this issue-and-argument-spotting approach to content does not mean that the lawyers are calling all the shots. Creatives change things; companies stay in business by keeping content fresh. This may have given DC’s lawyers some helpful arguments, but it doesn’t mean they were always pulling the strings.

There’s a lot more in the post, and as always with Trexler’s material, it’s well worth reading.

I can’t help it. The more I look at the new Cyclops design for Uncanny X-Men, the more I wonder just how he’s going to see, never mind shoot his optic blasts in that new helmet/hood/X-design:

Don’t get me wrong; I get that it’s a very eye-catching design, especially now that the character has adopted the “X” of “X-Men” as his freedom fighter visual signature -

- After all, with the new look, he doesn’t have to worry about his arms getting tired from crossing them and frowning whenever there’s a camera nearby, or having to put down his groceries or whatever he’s carrying if someone wants a picture (I wonder, how soon before he’s using his eyebeams to carve “X”s into walls, just like Zorro carved “Z”s into drapes?). So, from that basis alone, I get that the X-head makes some sense. And the overall Chris Bachalo design is definitely an attractive one:

It’s just that – Well, as far as I can tell from all the art I’ve seen of the outfit, the X visor doesn’t actually cover his eyes. Instead, his eyes are covered by the black/dark red/whatever color the rest of the costume actually is (Comics!). Which, unless we’re going for some unstable molecules, oh he can see through his material, thing, means that the guy whose entire power revolves around his eyes is somehow going into battle blind for the sake of fashion from now on.

You know why he’s raising his hand to his head in this promo pic? It’s not because he’s going to activate his optic blast. It’s because he’s pre-emptively shielding himself from the inevitable tumble that will happen when he walks into Wolverine in a second because he can’t see where he’s going. Scott, Scott, Scott: Is this some kind of mid-life crisis reaction to seeing Jean again?

Something I was surprised not to see suggested in the analysis of Marvel’s April solicits: Is Age of Ultron Marvel’s Flashpoint?

Judging from the solicits, after all, we “know” – Well, as much as one can know anything from solicitations, which don’t always reflect the actual contents of the books for reasons misleading, mistaken or somewhere in between – that Age of Ultron will feature a hopeless battle during which heroes will die… just like the climactic battle in Flashpoint, with signs pointing to the fact that that battle will end up being part of some alternate reality (unless you really think that the dead heroes are going to remain dead after the series is over, in which case, hey, perhaps you’d like to buy this crate of Fantastic Four #588s I have, it’s where Johnny Storm dies and he never came back), a la Flashpoint.

Also, as the Wolverine and The X-Men tie-in solicit reveals, Wolverine and the Invisible Woman – and other characters as well, for all we know – go back in time for reasons as yet mysterious but presumably to prevent the creation of Ultron in the first place (Judging by the preview art, it’s the right time period). This is where I wonder whether or not we’re actually headed into Flashpoint territory, because having characters travel back in time to change the past essentially puts everything in the present (or Marvel NOW!, if you’d rather) up for grabs.

While I’m not expecting a wholescale reboot as a result of this event book – We’ve just had a linewide relaunch, after all; as much as Marvel likes to reboot and relaunch books, I don’t think they’d really have put this much effort into NOW! if they were planning to do it all over again within a year -  isn’t it possible that all manner of smaller continuity changes could be put into place from this trip, and this crossover, loosening up the 50-odd years of continuity for each character and leaving little mysteries and secrets for each title to reveal if and when the creators so desire? Hrm. Maybe that makes this more Zero Hour than full-on-Flashpoint…

(On a related note: Bendis really seems to be into his time-traveling X-Men these days, doesn’t he? I wonder what that is leading to.)

I missed it first time around, so consider this a belated chance to read Matt Santori-Griffith’s essay connecting Jeff Lemire’s Sweet Tooth and Jack Kirby’s Kamandi in terms of apocalyptic anthropomorphism:

It’s only in Jepperd’s conscionable return to rescue Gus — and Gus’s own brush with the necessity of violence to save his friend’s life — that we begin to experience human (or hybrid) nature as it truly is. Good and evil are a choice we make in the world, and no one’s inherent character is decided by their genetic make-up or species. But while it may be in our power to make that choice, the consequence of choosing a world of violence has repercussions that remain unavoidable. As the remaining humans become more and more desperate to destroy Gus and his friends, the inevitability of their deserved demise becomes ever more clear. If Kamandi is a parable of man’s ability to conquer his own destiny, Sweet Tooth may very well be that of man’s ability to seal it.

I’d never made the connection between the two projects before, but once you read this, it seems especially obvious. Go check it out.

Over at ICv2, American Shonen Jump editor Andy Nakatani explains the thinking behind the title’s upcoming day-and-date digital release with the Japanese print edition:

Going back, when you think about it, when we were doing the print magazine here we were something like two years behind the Japanese edition, and I think the fans, the readers they always wanted something more current.  Plus the whole impetus behind starting (the digital) Shonen Jump Alpha last year was to catch the readers up and get as close as we could and we have managed to get within a few weeks of Japan.  So for this year the next logical step was to go simultaneous with publication in Japan… I would say that the main objectives are increasing circulation and increasing our subscriber base for it as well as creating a buzz for the whole product line.  As far as forestalling scanlation by going “simultaneous” we are trying to provide an alternative for those people who do want it right away.  The fastest that we can release the material is when it officially releases in Japan.  We can’t go before that.  That’s the best that we can do.

The immediacy does defeat one of the traditional reasons behind scanslations… I wonder if it will mean a drop in the number of scanslation readers for the material?

First, Ryan Stegman pays homage to… himself, specifically Superior Spider-Man #1, on the cover to Scarlet Spider #16:

Then, there’s the cover to Cable and X-Force #7 by Salvador Larroca, which nicely captures the current wave of Cyclopsmania:

(Full Marvel April 2013 solicitations are here, our monthly analysis is here.)

iFanboy’s Ron Richards… isn’t iFanboy’s Ron Richards anymore:

Since 2001, iFanboy has been a passion and the focus of much of my dedication. Teaming up with two of my best friends to create something out of nothing was fun. To see what heights we’ve reached since then has been mind boggling. So you can only imagine how it is with a heavy heart that I’ve come to this decision. It was not an easy one to make, but given where I’m now headed, unfortunately there would be no way for me to do what I’ve done at iFanboy, on a daily basis, for the past 12 years.I’ve accepted a position at Image Comics.

For years when asked if I ever wanted to work in comics, I’ve laughed off the question, stating that I’m neither a writer nor an artist and would probably not do well as a creator. But, I’ve said, if there was one aspect of comics that interested me it was the publishing and business side. That was something that I find infinitely interesting (I published my own magazine in college) and that is exactly what I will be doing at Image Comics. I will be joining the Image team as the Director of Business Development, working closely with Publisher Eric Stephenson and Marketing & PR Director Jennifer De Guzman and the rest of the amazing staff at Image Central in Berkeley, CA. I will primarily be focusing on sales and marketing as I work to help Image continue the amazing success that they have been experiencing.

Really good news for a good guy. Best of luck, Ron.

UPDATE: Here’s the official PR from Image.

Now that we’re three months in to the Marvel NOW! reality, retailer Brian Hibbs takes a look at how the line is performing in his store (and beyond):

If current sales figures continue, it looks like Marvel will get a solid — perhaps 10-20%? — boost in sales in my store from the relaunch. I’m down with that, but, as I said, it has been a slow burn, and we have not seen any of the huge wave of “lapsed” fans coming back in the way we did with DC. With New 52, I had multiple titles selling into triple digits for the first issues, but no current NOW! titles has yet hit those levels. What’s relatively odd about this is that the number of “Lapsed” Marvel readers is a couple of multiples of the same for DC, which makes me wonder why NOW! hasn’t brought in massive crowds…

One other thing that I find a little distressing from the November and December Marvel estimates is that only that one single book shipped a second issue that managed to keep sales over 100K. What’s utterly unknown is if this is a result of retailer caution (two issues in a month often means that you’re ordering the second one entirely “blind”), or audience reaction. But either way, that’s not really a particularly healthy nationwide base to decline further from — it’s hard to see how the best-selling Marvel monthly ongoing will settle much above the 80k mark, with the best-selling DC book (“Batman”) being in the 130-150k range.

Todd Allen makes a similar point to Hibbs, over at The Beat:

These titles appear to be settling down/dropping a lot faster than the new 52.  It doesn’t appear from this data that anything is likely to compete with Batman and Justice League on the sales charts, past the debut issues (tricked out with many, many variants).  Deadpool looks like the early winner, in terms of sales bump.  I suspect Marvel was hoping for a regular 100K for All New X-Men, but the 80Ks aren’t bad if it holds.  The rest of it gives the impression of a return to sales levels of 2-4 years ago.  It’s healthier, but it’s just not New 52 numbers or the Civil War era sales Marvel has been chasing ever since.

Parsing this information is somewhat difficult; the gut reaction is “Well, if it doesn’t put Marvel back on top of the charts permanently, it’s failed,” but that’s ridiculously reductive and caught in the mindset of a permanent race between Marvel and DC instead of looking at the line as its own thing. After all, if the line gets a bump of 10-20% overall as a result of the relaunch, then that’s definitely some sort of win, right…? Except, of course, that kind of bump isn’t substantial enough to stop it from being wiped out within a couple of bad months given the traditional sales attrition we’ve gotten used to. Of course, let’s face it: If there’s one thing we’ve learned from Marvel’s publishing cycles over the last few years, we’re only a couple of years out from the next big relaunch anyway.

Bleeding Cool has a surprisingly early look at the Marvel solicits for April, allowing me to point out this particular piece of marketing genius (or misdirection). From the solicitation for Age of Ultron #6:

Meanwhile, Wolverine takes it upon himself to make one of the most controversial decisions in the history of Marvel comics …and you’ll never believe who goes along with him!

Two solicitations later:

WOLVERINE AND X-MEN #27AU
(W) Matt Kindt (A) Paco Medina (CA) Mike Deodato
• An AGE OF ULTRON tie-in (make sure you read #6 first!)
• Wolverine and the Invisible Woman find themselves in the Avengers’ past!

I’m just going to guess that I can guess who goes along with Wolverine on one of the most controversial decisions in the history of Marvel Comics. Maybe not everyone, but certainly at least one person.

Maggie Thompson talks about her time with the Comic Buyer’s Guide:

I think we were part of the party.  People were having fun with it and we were part of the fun.  It was a delight to be in contact with so many people, and to really work at the outreach that we were all looking for at that point.  Because what is today such a popular art form that it makes the cover of Entertainment Weekly, at that point still was a very localized, almost a cult following of aficionados who understood the art form.

Now it’s kind of taken for granted and has almost gone the other way.  It has reached the point at which some people are concerned that comics require so much knowledge that the beginner would have a lot of trouble finding their way through this incredibly technical art form. As we all know, comics are fun.  I have lectured a couple of times with the title “Don’t be afraid of graphic novels, they’re just comic books,” which to me is very amusing.

It’s been awhile since I’ve mentioned Peter David’s progress, so this seems like a good time to remind people that Peter and his family need help with the financial cost of recovering from his stroke during the holidays. In addition to being able to help by buying books published through his Crazy 8 Press digital publishing company, there is now a Donate button on his website created with the help of the Hero Initiative (“All your donations made through this button will be earmarked to help Peter out, and are tax-deductible,” Kathleen David explains).

As for Peter’s recovery, Kathleen updated news of that yesterday:

We had mostly good news from his recovery team with only one what I am hoping is small set back. He has made vast improvements in a week and the team is feeling very positive about the next couple of weeks. We also have a tentative date when he might be coming home. This is only tentative and may change depending on so many different things but at least there is a date in sight and we have an idea of what is next for him.Now I need some recommendations of places for outpatient therapy for stroke victims out in Suffolk Country Long Island. So if anyone has any recommendations or someone that might be able to help, you can write to me at puppetmaker (at) gmail (dot) com or comment here. I want to get those ducks in a row before he comes home since a lot of paper work needs to be done.

As always, all the best to her and her family, and especially to Peter during this time.

Once upon a time, the difference between Marvel and DC for creators was believed to be the speed at which each company moved. DC planned, we were told, with projects scheduled far in advance and Marvel flying by the seat of its collective pants, coming up with new ideas on the fly and scheduling them by the end of the day. Today…? Well, here’s Christy Marx, new writer on Birds of Prey, from the mothership, yesterday:

I was interested in the mix of characters and the possibilities they offered. And I do love kick-ass women.In general, it’s too early for me to say anything more. I’m still absorbing a ton of previous material and doing my initial thinking about the direction.

Assuming that Marx’s first issue on BOP is #18, the issue that Jim Zub was initially announced as writing, then that issue is due to hit shelves in nine weeks. Let’s be generous and say that Marx wasn’t actually speaking to Vaneta yesterday, but some time earlier; that still means that Marx and whatever artists are drawing the issue are definitely under the gun in terms of scheduling to get that first issue done in time. How long is printing and distribution turnaround these days, anyway…?

Something else that rankles about this whole thing; Marx clearly is coming to terms with the characters and the series and her thinking as to the book’s longterm direction under her pen, which is entirely understandable… But Jim Zub had talked previously (Just last week) about having to pitch for the title, which meant that both he and his editors had a set idea for the book’s direction before he even had the job. In making the change in writers, Birds of Prey has gone from a book with a plan to one with no plan as yet, but a writer having to fly by the seat of her pants, coming up with new ideas on the fly because the deadline is already right there in her face.

Meanwhile, over at Marvel, they’re preparing for Age of Ultron, a crossover event that’s literally been in the works since at least early 2011. It truly is an ever-changing world in which we’re living.

Spinning out of Laura Hudson’s interview with Brian Wood for Wired about the upcoming X-Men, Wood shares the full back-and-forth with Hudson on his Tumblr, including this great exchange:

What’s the rationale behind forming the all-female team within the context of the plot? How do the male X-Men feel about it?

Who cares!  Haha.  I hope I never have to write that scene, because even the suggestion that anyone would see a problem with these particular X-Men together on a team is enough to suggest there’s something wrong with the idea, when of course there isn’t.  As far as the rationale, well, its sort of wrapped up in the first issue’s story, and this far out I don’t want to tell too much of it.  But in broad strokes they rally around one of their own in a time of personal crisis, and that crisis has bigger implications than anyone thought, and the next thing they know villains old and new are showing up at the Jean Grey School and there we go.  But at the core of it is they’re friends, they care about each other and so of course they’ll all help.  They’re family.

I am finding myself increasingly excited about this book.

Interesting… Ron Perazza, who has previously worked with DC Comics on their digital plans (He headed up Zuda for them, way back when) and has most recently been seen with ComiXology as their Vice President and General Manager of Publisher and Creator Services and then launching his own Comic Book Think Tank to play with digital comics, has apparently signed up with Marvel in some mysterious new capacity:

The capacity in which Perazza will currently be serving the company is unknown, but it seems likely he’s working on something in the digital comics realm, considering his vast experience with the medium… When CBR contacted Marvel for specifics on Perazza’s employment, the publisher simply replied, “No Comment.”

We haven’t seen any new Infinite Comics since Avengers Vs. X-Men, despite the high-profile launch less than a year ago. Maybe Perazza has been lured over to continue the work he’s been doing with his Think Tank and make that more of an ongoing concern for the publisher?

Literally years in the making, Paul Pope’s Battling Boy has finally been scheduled for this October by First Second. Born of Pope’s feeling that we lacked a 21st Century superhero, the graphic novel series has been plagued with delays that have only enhanced its status as a Big Deal That Was Much Anticipated (It was due in 2010, and has been in the works for many years before then). Here’s Entertainment Weekly explaining the delay:

In 2008, Pope pitched the idea of Battling Boy to an exec at Paramount that he had gotten to know during the course of [working on an abandoned attempt to bring Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay to the big screen]. The studio bought the property for Brad Pitt’s production company, Plan B, with hopes that the star would play a key role. Pope, as consulting producer, began helping screenwriter Alex Tse (Watchmen) on the script. They worked together for many months and through many drafts. In 2010, David Gordon Green was recruited to rewrite the screenplay and direct. In 2011, there were reports – quickly debunked — that Pitt wanted to cast his son, Maddox Jolie-Pitt, in the lead role. Over this span of time and activity, Pope was supposed to be drafting Battling Boy: The Printed Object, which was originally scheduled for a 2010 release. But this wasn’t happening. Pope says his inability to find the time to draw was beginning to affect the movie team’s ability to find the right vision for the movie, as the film needed to be informed by the comic. “It was this terrible conundrum. The film can’t get made until the book is done, but the book can’t get done until I get off the film to finish it,” says Pope, who adds that his time management during this period was also challenged by a “once in a lifetime offer” to develop a Grand Theft Auto-like videogame for Animal Logic. “How could I say no to that?” he laughs.Eventually, Pope had an epiphany: “I had to superglue my ass to a chair and finish the book.” He says he did so with the blessing of Paramount and Pitt, who was committed to other projects, anyway, including Moneyball, Killing Them Softly (now in theaters), and the forthcoming World War Z. In retrospect, Pope says, “Maybe if it was a Faustian mistake to sell the book so fast.” But he has no regrets, and in fact, Pope reports that he’s “getting back into the movie” beginning this week before embarking an aggressive promotional campaign for the graphic novel. He’ll then buckle down anew and draw the second volume of Battling Boy, which is expected in 2014.

Along with an interview with Pope about the project, EW also has a ten page preview of the first volume of the series itself, and it looks worth the wait with the creator channeling Kirby channeling the great myths. I’d say that I can’t wait, but I’ve already had to; instead, I’ll just say that this is one of my most eagerly anticipated releases of the year.

Marvel’s “Next Big Thing” conference call, featuring writer Brian Michael Bendis talking Guardians of the Galaxy, is slated to start a 4 p.m. eastern. Keep refreshing this page; it’ll be updated continuously with the latest. To check out covers from the series, head over here.

Opening the call, Bendis describes Guardians of the Galaxy as the beginning of a “whole new chapter” of Marvel NOW!, and, in his opinion, a surprising one. “For fans who have been yelling and screaming about how awesome this corner of the Marvel Universe, here’s a brand-new #1, the most reader-friendly place to have them without taking away what makes them special in the first place,” he said.

Bendis says even now when you say the words “Guardians of the Galaxy movie” aloud, you can’t believe that it’s actually happening. The comic book series will show a butterfly effects of recent Marvel events — some obvious, like Secret Invasion, and some not so obvious — that the Guardians will deal with directly. “You’re going to see these characters face off with some gigantic villains and concepts,” Bendis says. “To alien civilizations, Earth is this place where the Phoenix Force goes and does not destroy the Earth. Galactus shows up and he doesn’t eat it. The Earth is the scariest place. What happens when Earth joins the cosmic civilization?”

(more…)