Is there a new Marvel/DC comic on the horizon? Brian Michael Bendis is hinting at something on his board:

wizard world chicago! i will be there! will there be a panel called BENDIS VS. JOHNS?? what does that mean?? i’d so go to that!!

will there be big announcements in WIZCHI? yes!! really big? could be!

Hmmm.

With LITG reporting that Shane Davis may be a fill-in artist on Final Crisis, Comic Bloc worriedly asks what would be better - fill-ins or delays if the book runs late?

“Put me down for delayed. Art-wise, I rather have a Civil War than an Infinite Crisis. Sorry to be blunt, Geoff, but the fill-ins (even if it was George Perez) ruined the book. I’m sure DC doesn’t want this to be happen again.”

“I guess it doesn’t really matter to me…yet. Until I see how the story unfolds, how the art works with the story, it is hard to say. The different artists in Infinite Crisis were close enough to each other style-wise, that it didn’t break things up all that much for me. If Davis is indeed the emergency back-up, he is a good one, but his style seems a lot different than JG’s look. I just want big projects from either of the Big Two to have some of the promised pay-off.”

“I won’t vote. I don’t mind the delay if its a month, two at the most late. But if you are going to put an artist like Adam Kubert, you better have some top quailty fill-ins standing by! I won’t mind the fill in if it means getting the story sooner then a year later.”

“Neither. If I need to have something, though, I’d prefer a fill-in. Shane Davis is good and really, since I’m reading it MONTHLY and not in a trade, as a whole, I won’t care that much about changes in art.”

“DC will get hammered by fandom either way. It’s a no-win situation.”

“I voted Delayed, even though I hate delays. I think JG Jones will do fine on this. He’s a professional and has had a good head start. I just want to buy the collected version someday and don’t want it to be a patchwork quilt like Infinite Crisis was. Wow, what a mess that was. It really took away from the story for me. How awesome would it have been to have that entire thing pencilled by Phil Jimenez?”

“It is a no win situation for DC. People will complain if there are fill ins and people will complain if there are delays. Personally, looking at how good the art is in the preview that was on EW.com, I would be happy to accept delays if it means keeping the creative team intact for the whole of the series.”

“I agree that it’s a no win situation, but they can sure lose less depending on how they go. I am sure that choosing between delaying and filling in is a business decision, so there are things going on which we fans may never understand.”

“A delay, but only during that ‘natural break’ [between #3 and 4, where the book skips a month]. At that point, DC should be able to assess the progress on the remaining four issues and if its not far enough to get those last few out before the year is over, stretch it by a month. I’d be okay with that… Technically, its already stretched another month. Final Crisis appears to be coming out at the end of each month, so if its not coming out in August, then the next issue will hit at the end of September, so that’s two more months to work on the fourth issue. (Which should be done well before then anyways.)”

With Amazon announcing that there will be a Fantastic Four hardcover collecting the first four issues of the Millar/Hitch run in August (despite no solicitation from Marvel to that effect in the August solicits, so take it with a grain of salt), Millarworld’s fans wonder what happened to Mark Millar’s comment that the run won’t be collected until it’s finished:

“I think he said there wasn’t going to be a TPB until every issue was out. Didn’t say anything about hardcovers.”

“Or possibly it’s not his decision to make..?”

Mark himself appears, to clarify (or not):

“No, we were told no collections. Hitchy knows for sure, I can’t remember, but the idea was that this wouldn’t be collected until the end of the run. This is obviously Marvel’s call, but I have such a thing about trade-waiting. It’s my little pet peeve. Like people calling comics graphic novels.”

Not that that seems to settle things down:

“I think putting off a collection until the end punishes the wrong people though. I’m a big FF fan and fan of MM/BH’s work, but I live over an hour from the nearest comic-book store. Gas prices alone make going there a losing proposition. I guess I could order online but what’s the fun in that? In the 1980s, my hometown of 12,000 people had a thriving comics shop. One of the towns next over, of about the same population, also had one. But those days are long past. Now, stores in cities of 70,000 people struggle to keep their doors open. So “trade waiting” is not often a choice any more — it’s the only option. And that’s not even considering the readers around the world who struggle to find American monthly titles.”

“I’VE SAID IT BEFORE & I’LL SAY IT AGAIN: IF CREATORS & PUBLISHERS DON’T LIKE READERS WAITING FOR TRADES, THEN THEY SHOULD STOP WRITING ALL STORIES IN MULTI-PART “ARCS” THAT READ BETTER IN ONE SITTING. GO BACK TO THE DAYS WHEN MOST COMICS WERE SINGLE-ISSUES STORIES (OR EVEN PART OF A LONGER ARC THAT STILL HAD A CLEAR BEGINNING, MIDDLE, & END IN EACH ISSUE, ALA ALL STAR SUPERMAN) & MORE MAYBE MORE PEOPLE WOULD FEEL COMPELLED TO BUY THE SINGLE ISSUES AS THEY COME OUT.”

“I can’t imagine Marvel would be too excited about having no new FF product to put on the bookshelves for 18 months/ 2 years. That wouldn’t be very good business, particularly if it’s some sort of awkward scheme to ‘punish’ a segment of its readership.”

“Yeah, I suspect Millar’s contempt for those of his fans who prefer to follow his work in a certain format isn’t shared by Marvel…”

Contempt seems like such a strong word for a “pet peeve,” surely…?

Joe Field passes on the very sad news:

Difficult news today— Rory Root, owner of Berkeley CA’s (and world-famous) COMIC RELIEF, is in a coma in an Oakland CA hospital.

…Rory has had a number of health issues in recent years. His latest seems to stem from a ruptured hernia that requires extensive surgery this past weekend.

UPDATE: Field has updated his post with the tragic news that Rory has passed away. Our thoughts are with his family and friends.

Johanna Draper Carlson points to an article by Hudson Phillips about that oft-discussed nebulous subject, “women in comics”. Phillips talked to creators Rebekah Isaacs, Julia Wertz and Amy Reeder Hanley as well as Johanna and Comic Addiction’s Angela Paman about what the ways that women deal with the current industry. Here’s Wertz on the lack of a sizable female superhero market:

I think that women are just less interested in mainstream (superhero) subjects. Most women in comics do alternative narratives and I think it’s just a gender trait that can’t be blamed on societal standards or any sort of bias. Some feminists may laud at my saying this, but women are genetically more, er, sensitive? and tend to avoid the violent/superhero comics if only by default or disinterest. I read some of them, but honestly, they don’t hold my attention like alternative and autobio narratives do. I can’t speak for all women in comics, of course, but I know many who feel the same way. 

Alternatively, here’s Johanna with another reason why women may be turned off by superhero comics:

Too many decision-makers rely on passed-down wisdom about how things are based on how they’ve been, without realizing that times, markets, and possibilities have changed. I’m reminded of the stupid comments the Supergirl editor made about how his book, featuring a badly drawn, anatomically exaggerated lead character wearing next to nothing, was aiming at girls by putting in a guy who showed some chest hair in his costume. He clearly knew nothing about what female readers wanted or considered important in their reading. 

Go, read. 

ComicBloc wonders where all the superhero comic creators have gone:

We have a plethora of comics WRITERS, all with varying skill sets. But how many are truly CREATORS? I don’t mean “let’s take the same old tired thing and put a new spin on it for the umpteenth time”, but the “let’s do something entirely new” kind of thing.

Even the most popular writers out there now just rehash (Green Lantern, Kingdom Come, Skrull Invasions, Civil War, Crisises, etc.) characters and concepts others have let go while the best we get is new and sometimes interesting takes on existing concepts.

Where are the creators outside of indie books?

The rest of the fans wonder if the problem is really with the writers and artists, or everything else:

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Millarworld - Apparently not the place to go and hype product if you’re not working for Marvel. It all started when a fan called Brian Kippenberg posted the following for his friend:

Thought I’d pass this along as a sign of support…

HELP SELL-OUT SUPERMAN # 676

Vito Delsante needs your help! On May 14, SUPERMAN #676 is released and it’s Vito’s first and (for now) only Superman comic. But you can change that! Pick up SUPERMAN #676 at your local comic shop on WEDNESDAY, MAY 14 and help to make a difference. If you’re a comic creator, post about it on your blogs! If you’re a comic book retailer, help a fellow retailer out and DON’T RETURN THE BOOK! If you’re a comic fan, make a statement with your wallets! YOU can make a difference in the burgeoning career of an up-and-coming writer!

Somewhat surprisingly, the reception was… well, slightly less than warm: (more…)

Brian Hibbs looks at Fantagraphics’ new Diamond-exclusive contract and… well, worries:

Diamond’s lock on Direct Market distribution is basically now complete, and while I think that Diamond is mechanically a fine partner (in terms of pick and pull, accuracy in fulfillment, and fixing problems), I’m always concerned with continuing to concentrate more power into one set of hands, and the more remote this makes any chance of wider distribution choices in the future.

It largely seems to me that the remaining significant publishers (among them Drawn & Quarterly, Slave Labor, Avatar, and Top Shelf) really should be looking closely at exclusivity themselves at this point, if only to ensure parity with FBI, and to ensure that their inventory is actually available when retailers want it.

And that kills me to type, honestly.

Tom Brevoort is continuing to look at the problems of perception around their “core four” non-Spider-Man, non-X-Men, franchises:

Back when I used to post around the web a bit more than I have the chance to do these days, a certain truism became apparent: The boards with the toughest audiences inevitably belonged to the Hulk and Thor, with Iron Man really close behind. In each case, there was a particular classic run that was held up as the ne plus ultra of the character, against which almost anything that was going on in the books failed to measure up at least with a segment of these folks (And let me state for the record that I’m not speaking of all HULK, THOR or IRON MAN fans here. This is a generality.) And inevitably, whenever teh discussion turned towards who they’d like to see handle the characters, the same litany would be heard again: Simonson on THOR, Michelinie & Layton on IRON MAN, Peter David on HULK.

Additionally, and maybe this is just a byproduct of one’s favorite character not being the most popular hero on the block, but all three groups of these fans always seemed to me to be inordinately concerned about the amount of “respect” these characters got in the books–respect being defined as being shown to be powerful and capable, and held in esteem or awe by the other heroes of the Marvel U. This would especially become a heated topic when you got any two of these guys together in the same story–one group would salute the excellent way in which Iron Man was able to come out ahead of Thor, while another group would decry the obvious lack of respect that all of Marvel’s creators and editors had for Thor, allowing him to be momentarily bested by Iron Man, which any sane person knows could never happen. Mix up the character names as you like, the same pattern repeated itself over and over again.

Now I feel kind of guilty for feeling that Thor without Walt Simonson just isn’t as good…

Fantagraphics has signed an exclusive distribution deal with Diamond Distribution for the direct market. Canadian retailer Chris Butcher isn’t happy:

We really wish that Fantagraphics had consulted us as their retail partners before they made this move, because we would have said “Good God No, Don’t Do It.”

Much more at the link.

Tom Brevoort on Marvel’s core non-X-Men franchises:

IRON MAN. THOR. HULK. CAPTAIN AMERICA. These core Marvel Universe titles have had a reputation of being a bit difficult to market, especially over the last fifteen years or so. As opposed to properties like X-MEN and SPIDER-MAN that have continued to have strong youth-appeal and cool-factor as the years have rolled on, the “Core Four” all have elements to their basic make-up that have given them the reputation of being out-of-step with the desires of a wider audience in the world of the 21st Century. Now, I don’t really buy into this rap–and the fact that all of these books and all of these characters are selling very well at the moment would tend to put the lie to it. Nevertheless, it’s worth examing these myths, if for no other reason than to understand the impressions various editorial regimes have had towards these characters over the years.

It’s apparently the start of a series, which should be good reading.

The Bendis Board wants to use their collective powers for… well, kind of good:

i’m not sure if there is a thread out there about this, but it seems that recently there have been some people having to give up comics for now because of financial situations and i had a thought.

my hopes for this thread is that anyone who wants to know anything about a certain title could come here, ask about it, and another boarder that does read said title could spoil it.

if there is a thread out there already like this i’m sure this one will just pass into obscurity.

be warned, if you don’t want something SPOILED, don’t read this thread or the posts about books you don’t want spoiled.

That’s right, it’s message boards are service industry:

“Well you can already find summaries on a lot of sites but it would be nice to have 1 thread with all the meat and important stuff for people who can’t read the full comics either for financial reasons, lack of free time, or both. It would save a lot of site surfing time.”

“Pretty cool idea. I only care if I get spoiled for a few books, but everything else I am fine knowing about until I read it. Walking Dead is the only book I want to be surprised on.”

Of course, they could just go to Spoilt!…

Wizard looks at the events that have shaped the comics cultural landscape since their first issue, and… well, it’s an interesting list:

48. THE SENTRY HOAX (June 2000)
When this magazine broke news that Stan Lee had created a heretofore-unseen superhero in his 1960s heyday, fans practically lactated with excitement. Only problem: it wasn’t true. Acting in collusion with then-Marvel Knights honchos Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti, Wizard told the fallacious story of the Sentry, a hero devised by Lee and fictional artist Artie Rosen; writer Paul Jenkins “found” the embryonic documents and formally introduced him to the Marvel Universe. Roughly a year later, we all came clean. Bet you’re still pissed.

Well, to be honest, I’d kind of forgotten about that whole thing…

Sometimes, I’m just completely out of step with fandom en masse. For example, take Brand New Day. Me, I kind of like it. It’s not the Stern/Romita Jr./DeFalco/Frenz joy of my youth, but it’s pretty enjoyably solid Spider-action on a weekly basis, you know? But then I check Millarworld, and read the following in response to Mark Millar asking the fans how they’re digging it:

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John Byrne revisits the good ol’ days:

See, thing was, altho Chris and I worked pretty well together, we were often at odds on who the characters were. As noted, until just a short time before I left the book, he had read no issues of X-MEN other than those produced during the Thomas/Adams run, and so, while I kept trying to maintain the characters as they had been for 60+ issues, he kept trying to turn them into other people. People I largely didn’t like.

And the problem was, no matter what I drew or scribbled in my margin notes, Chris would write the characters and the scenes as he felt moved to do when the pages where in front of him — often completely changing my or even our original intent for a scene — and THAT was what was seeing print. So, if the fans were loving the X-Men — and it seemed they were! — it was Chris’ X-Men they were loving, not mine. I Chris had left instead of me, I very much doubt the book would have proved as popular as it did in the long run.

Wait, was that humility…?

The Comics Journal message board attempts to celebrate Wizard’s 200th issue. Things don’t go so well:

“Wow! I’m gladdened by the news that apparently there are like 196 amazing comics out there that I’ve somehow missed completely and never read!”

“There were good things in Wizard (the art tutorials, for example), but they were overshadowed by the dreck.”

“Congratulations on 200 issues telling fanboys every issue which arranged collection of ink lines and patches of color is the sexiest! And thanks for Rob Liefeld!”

“I had never heard of this magazine until I walked back into a comics store after about 20 years of being away. I looked threw it and got a copy just so I could catch up on what was good these days. That was 90 mins I will never get back. The writing is just way to sub par for my taste plus…..as much as I loved reading superheros when I was a kid, these day I am just not a kid anymore. I used to collect years ago and it scares me on how much money I would have wasted if magazines like this were around in the late 60s and 70s. I am not a fan but then again I guessed you figured that out if you read this posting.”

Well… they tried, at least…

Catching up on everything I haven’t read this week with my semi-vacation, please click through to enjoy Jeff Lester’s wonderful take on DC’s recent fourth volume of Jack Kirby’s Fourth World Omnibus:

The fourth and final volume of Jack Kirby’s Fourth World Omnibus suggests the editorial staff at DC are either far ballsier, craftier, or more ignorant of the material than I thought: although printing four titles in the order of their publication (instead of grouping them by title) did a superb job of initially highlighting Kirby’s protean imagination, reading the first 250 pages of the fourth volume is like watching the weakening death throes of a formerly-powerful animal: it’s awesome in a truly depressing way.

Much, much more at the link, but it’s the only review you have to read about the book, trust me.

Paul O’Brien crunches the Marvel sales numbers for March, including a 31% sales drop for the second issue of Millar and Hitch’s Fantastic Four:

Well, I don’t understand this at all. I had Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch’s FANTASTIC FOUR pegged as a much bigger deal, but here we are down at 67K. For comparison, that’s slightly down from last June, which was an Initiative issue by Dwayne McDuffie and Paul Pelletier.

Issue #554 picks up re-orders of 5,457, but overall, this seems a very disappointing performance for such a high-profile creative team.

Mark Millar isn’t worried:

We did about 100K of the first issue (with variants) and about 80K of our second (with no variants) so things are pretty much as they were. Sales prior were about 50K so this is a nice jump up and we’re very solidly on these same numbers for the third and fourth issues. But like we always said the real jump comes with the fifth issue and the Death of Sue story… which also ties in with Old Man Logan. I reckon this should take us over the 100K and somewhere around 110K by the final Doom’s Masters storyline.

Also in that Millarworld thread, Bryan Hitch announces that there will be no FF trade until the entire Millar/Hitch run is over… which somehow, I can’t see being the case with Marvel’s usual schedule. Isn’t the Millar/Hitch run supposed to be sixteen issues? There’s really going to be almost a year and a half with no current FF trades?

Just in case you weren’t bowled over by the sight of Anti-Venom, the Spider-Man office blog at Marvel.com has another surprise coming your way:

Pssssssssssst:

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #565. Words by Guggenheim. Pencils by Jimenez. Solicits hyped the Brand New CENSORED. Who is the CENSORED? I’m not sure I can find that out just yet but…welll…let’s take a look at this one page with…

…A SKRULL?!!!!!

When Marvel events collide…? We’ll see this July, I guess.

As the countdown to the movie’s release reaches its climax, Tom Brevoort remembers his own history with Iron Man:

The first Iron Man story I read was literally the first Iron Man story–his origin, from TALES OF SUSPENSE #39, as reprinted in the SON OF ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS collection Simon & Schuster issued in the ’70s… Truth be told, I wasn’t all that knocked out by Iron Man. His first story was all right, but the second, more modern Iron Man story they’d included (illustrated by Gene Colan, who’s one of my all-time favorite Iron Man artists) didn’t really strike my fancy. Could be because it was a middle chapter of a longer storyline, in which Iron Man didn’t do much other than writhe in agony and recharge his armor from a car cigarette lighter.

But comics were relatively cheap in those days, and as I got deeper and deeper into the Marvel line (sampling modern issues of X-MEN, AVENGERS, DAREDEVIL and so forth), I eventually picked up a copy of IRON MAN on some slow week. That issue, #111, was right in the middle of an extended sequence itself, and probably wasn’t the best place to come in. IRON MAN was a series that, unbeknownst to me, had been limping along for some time, and while Bill Mantlo (who wrote this issue) had done yeoman work on the book, it wasn’t really setting the world on fire… While I like him just fine, Iron Man’s never really been a big favorite of mine. But I sure am looking forward to seeing the film in a day or so’s time.