I think everyone has noticed that Marvel has started publishing a number of their books more than once a month. They’ve been ramping up on this for a while, and it’s something I’ve kind of shook my head at, because it’s a desperate ploy to gain marketshare that doesn’t promote sustainability on any level. It’s a cash grab, pure and simple, and when you couple that with the fact so many of their books are creeping up on $3.99, I shudder to think of the long-term effects.

And I can hear you shaking your own head now. Okay, maybe I can’t hear you doing that, but I can imagine the chuckling: “Desperate? Marvel is the number one publisher in comics!” – but I’ll stand by my words. When DC launched their new 52 last September, Marvel didn’t fight back with awesome. They fought back with the only real tool in their shed: more. They’re not increasing the frequency of their books out of generosity, they’re doing it to dominate the market. And in the absence of anything even resembling new, all we get is more.

That’s Image Comics’ Eric Stephenson, writing about Marvel’s recent moves and – worryingly, perhaps, for Marvel fans – making a lot of sense. He goes on to point out the similarity in recent Marvel storylines (“Other characters get the Hulk’s powers. Other characters get Spider-Man’s powers. Other characters get hammers like Thor. Now, if that recent Iron Fist image from an upcoming issue of New Avengers is any indication, a bunch of characters will be imbued with the Phoenix Force. I know DC went green by using recycled paper, but maybe Marvel’s trying to recycle in other ways”) and event structures (“Civil War, House of M, World War Hulk, Secret Invasion, Shadowland, Ultimatum, Fear Itself, Spider-Island, X-Men: Schism, and now, Avengers Vs. X-Men. It’s all-out hero on hero action in the mighty Marvel manner, again and again and again”), and it makes for pretty depressing reading. “These are not serious creative statements,” he says, “It’s more like a bored child reaching into the toy box trying to find new ways to wring some meager enjoyment out of faded old playthings.”

The same argument can be made for DC’s New 52 initiative – especially in the second wave, which removed titles like Mr. Terrific and OMAC which, if not entirely original, were at least something different from the DC norm, in favor of another Batman book and the return of Earth-2 as an ongoing concern, something we haven’t for more than quarter of a century. Less immediate repetition than Marvel, perhaps, but also less room for defending the work with a “This Is What They Want.” Because, as Stephenson admits, Avengers Vs. X-Men may be filled with ideas and characters we’ve seen countless ways already, but it’ll sell, and in far greater numbers that more “deserving” books like Fatale, The Manhattan Projects or Casanova, even though those books all have the same writers as AvX. Is the problem with the comic industry’s obsession with familiarity not the creators – who are doing new work, for the most part – or the publishers – which are, after all, businesses which exist solely to make money – but the readers, who not only indulge in the endless nostalgia and everything-we’ve-seen-before, but do so in such volume that it drowns out other, more original comics that need the attention to survive?

I don’t know. It could be a circular argument (If only more original work was pushed more, more people would know about it, so it would sell better, so more people could afford to do it, so it could be more popular, which would mean it would be talked about more and pushed more, because the ad dollars would see more return on investment, and so on) that leads nowhere. But the more I think about it, the more I think there’s a missing piece in the argument that the Big Two are only interested in maintaining existing intellectual property versus creating some new stuff…

It’s well worth reading David Brothers’ response to Joshua Hale Fialkov’s recent blogpost about comics piracy and the downfall of the comic industry, if you haven’t already done so; if nothing else, it’s a great analysis of what’s really hurting the direct market today (and it’s not just piracy):

To put forth the idea that piracy on the part of consumers is “singly responsible” for anything, especially when piracy by its very nature is impossible to nail down in terms of concrete numbers and cause & effect is dishonest. Bootlegs have always existed, whether in barbershops or art galleries. They’ve been here, and they aren’t going away. Do they cause harm? Any idiot knows the answer to that question is “yes.”

But for my money, the thing that killed comic books is “everything else.” We’re living in an all-new status quo, and I keep seeing people, especially comics people, acting like piracy is the sole cause of all their ills. When no, that isn’t true, and a half glance at the world will tell you so.

I don’t even have to leave my house to be flooded with things to do. I can have food delivered, songs and movies I buy (or download, whatever) appear on my hard drive or PlayStation like magic, video games can be bought and played without ever touching a physical disc… we’re living in the future, and that’s without even going outside. Outside, I can go to the movies, check out stand-up open mics, hang out with friends, drink Starbucks, eat donuts, play board games, go to bars…

There is so much to do, and when you tell me my choice is between (in this instance) a comic that averages out to being just okay and costs three to four dollars to read for five to ten minutes and doing anything else, I’m going to choose anything else, nine times out of ten, with exceptions made for creators I enjoy or books that might have a good hook that I’m curious about.

Hey, publishers: THIS. If someone who likes comic books so much that he devotes part of his life to writing about them online believes this – and people like me agree – then imagine how non-comic readers feel about the prospect of picking up the habit. Seriously, go read Brothers’ post (and Fialkov’s, too, for that matter – I don’t necessarily agree with the emphasis he puts on comics piracy as the singular downfall of the industry, as well as his estimate of the size of the modern comic market – How many copies has Justice League #1 sold by this point? I don’t think that’s all speculation – but there’s something to his notion of moral responsibility in regards to piracy, nonetheless); it’s great stuff.

Something caught my eye in this Marvel.com story about the unveiling of “Asgardia,” the new city designed by Tony Stark for the Earth-bound former inhabitants of the World Tree that’ll debut in next month’s Mighty Thor. Namely, this Matt Fraction quote:

Since we’ve fixed the World Tree on Earth, we’ve created a capitol city where denizens of all nine realms may reside… Everyone’s in it together now, and the cast and flavor of the book is all the more diverse and varied for it. The Nine Worlds aren’t a ladder anymore but a wheel, with no top and no bottom, no paradise and no hell—and Asgardia is its hub.

The Nine Worlds are a wheel? Like… a wheel where gods live? Wouldn’t that make it a Godwheel?

There’s every chance that Fraction’s comment has absolutely nothing to do with the Malibu Ultraverse concept of a “cosmic artifact of tremendous size [that] contains many realms at the same time,” but considering that Thor was the first Marvel character to appear in an Ultraverse title, and that that title was the Godwheel series, that’s a particularly weird, unlikely coincidence, don’t you think?

Marvel has shied away from using Ultraverse characters and concepts since the line died out in the late 1990s, with the reason usually given that there are contractual complications in Marvel’s ownership of the line that prevent anything from the one-time successful line being used these days, so this wheel of gods likely has nothing to do with Malibu’s Godwheel.

But… if Marvel has quietly wrinkled out all the problems with licenses and contracts and whatever, this would be a nice and unexpected thing to reintroduce to the Marvel Universe once the dust settles from Avengers vs. X-Men, wouldn’t it? Never mind “No More Mutants,” what if the combined Phoenix Force and Scarlet Witch hex power can conjure up a new life for the Ultraverse?

…Nah, it’s probably just a coincidence. Right?

Looks like the lack of Generation Hope in the recent Marvel solicits wasn’t a one-time thing, as writer James Asmus confirms the book’s cancellation in an interview over at CBR:

Yes, the book is ending with issue #17.  I will say (as I did a month ago) that these were the five issues I planned from the beginning.  You can read all the old interviews where I promised to get to the betrayal, and I knew I had to do it before “Avengers vs. X-Men.”  The book was already under 20K copies when I took over, so while I figured there was a chance to tie into “AvX,” the way the market and the event developed, a “Generation Hope” tie-in doesn’t make sense… When Marvel first asked me to hop on the book last summer, I was told that they wanted me to take the book up to “AvX”.  Sales were already below the 20K copy mark, so there was the expectation that unless a market-miracle happened, the book probably wouldn’t keep going after the first five issues.

I guess the question now becomes “Just how much of the remainder of the book’s run is going to be run-up to Avengers vs. X-Men?” Maybe Avengers: X-Sanction isn’t the only prelude book for that event after all…

It’s possibly just me, but there’s something particularly spoilery about the new Marvel solicits, officially released today, in regards to the upcoming Avengers Vs. X-Men event. Thanks to the solicits for the main book and titles like Avengers, Secret Avengers and Wolverine and The X-Men, we now have a pretty good idea of the beginning of the conflict: The X-Men are in favor of the return of the Phoenix Force, because they suspect it’ll restart the mutant race (I thought this had already happened, at the end of Second Coming?), and this brings them into conflict with the Avengers and specifically Captain America, who declares war on the mutants and leads an invasion of Utopia. Oh, and Wolverine is forced to pick sides, as is mentioned in three different solicits.

Here’s the thing: This sounds like a classic “When Titans Clash!” set-up for this kind of story, simultaneously dumb enough and believable enough that I can buy into it easily as the flashpoint that sets the whole thing off. But it also feels like too much detail to know three months before the story actually begins, to me, at least. I get that solicits are supposed to give some idea of what’s happening in the books, and that there are those for whom “It’s Avengers! Fighting X-Men! And there’s Phoenix!” isn’t enough of a hook to actually check out the series, but I’m not sure that what’s been revealed will turn anyone around on a negative opinion, but may turn some people off buying the first issue. Am I being paranoid? Did everyone else see these solicits and think “No, that’s just enough information for me, my mind is now made up?”

The good: Marvel is now offering digital versions of their collected editions through ComiXology. The bad: Pricing on the collections is all over the place, ranging from $6.99 for the 105 pages of Avengers Disassembled to $10.99 for the 135 pages of Daredevil: Yellow, with some collections as much as $24.99 (the 330 page Planet Hulk). The potentially ugly: The prices are nonetheless cheaper than the print editions of each book, which could mean that we’re about to see another protest from direct market retailers (understandably) upset about being undercut on what may be a core part of their business. On the upside, a lot of the material being offered by ComiXology isn’t necessarily in print anymore – yes, I know, that’s an odd choice of “upside” – so it’s not direct competition as such, but nonetheless, it’ll be interesting to see (if any) fallout could follow this product launch.

Teases aside, the fate of Marvelman remains up in the air; Marvel announced that they’d bought the character two and a half years ago, but aside from a couple of reprint projects, they still haven’t done anything with him – especially not what everyone wants the company to do, which is reprint the Alan Moore run and complete the Neil Gaiman run. With Axel Alonso recently promising an update soon, Pádraig Ó Méalóid takes a look at all of Marvel’s public statements to date on the property, and it makes for particularly frustrating reading. Whatever happened to the publishing plan mentioned by Joe Quesada back in 2010…?

Over on his blog, The Sixth Gun writer (and up-and-coming Marvel star, what with The Fearless, as well as Captain America and Hawkeye and Wolverine coming up) Cullen Bunn shares his writing technique, and it has a lot more longhand than you might’ve expected…:

Some writers might go directly into scripting at this point, but I like a little more of a safety net. For me, the more prep work I do early on, the less time I have to spend during the actual scripting. If the story is clear once I sit down at the computer, I can devote more energy to “painting a picture” for the editors and artists. Obviously, I do a lot of work in longhand before I sit down at the computer. I like this because I can do the heavy lifting while sitting on the couch or watching my kid play at the park or while having a margarita.

Also surprising: Bunn’s scripts are long – He estimates that, for the 24 page Sixth Gun he uses as an example for this blog post, the script goes 50 pages. It’s a fascinating post, and filled with all manner of great process stuff for those of you (well, us, really; I love that kind of thing) who’re into learning about writing…

Want to know more about the co-creator of pretty much all of your favorite Marvel Comics characters (Note: claim void if your favorite characters were all created post-1970 or so)? Well, keep your eyes on the pay-per-view screen because, according to Deadline, EPIX is close to buying the rights to With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story, a documentary feature that traces the life of Lee from childhood to the modern day, with interviews from various Marvel movie stars, as well as other comic creators. The movie is expected to appear on the pay cable channel and EPIX’s website later this year, following its debut at the Slamdance Film Festival tomorrow.

The other week, Axel Alonso talked about the importance of licensed titles to Marvel’s current output:

The third party titles have been a solid addition to our publishing plan — they sell well and they allow us to communicate with a new audience — so of course we’re doing more.

Bearing that in mind, I have a small suggestion for whoever makes the licensing decisions at Marvel: Please try and get the Micronauts license again.

I’ll admit that a lot of this decision is powered by nostalgia; I loved the Micronauts series (both of them; yes, I am that rare New Voyages fan) way back when, and would love to see that material made available again as an Essentials series. Micronauts is a comics franchise unlike other toy tie-ins, because so much of what makes the original incarnation(s) work is owned by Marvel and so can’t transfer to whoever else attempts it, a la GI Joe or Transformers; without Bug or Marionette or Rann, it’s not the same book, and even “the Microverse” is pretty much a Marvel concept. It helps the connection when you consider the number of Marvel Universe characters who guest-starred in the Marvel runs, whether it’s Nick Fury, the Beyonder or the X-Men (There was even the X-Men/Micronauts mini in the 1980s), making the idea of someone other than Marvel reprinting the material almost impossible.

But it’s not just happy memories – or the chance of some sweet reprint royalties – that could and should make this appealing to Marvel; the Micronauts are reportedly being primed for a movie produced by JJ Abrams and written by the people behind Zombieland, which sounds as close to a recipe for ideal franchise revival as possible. Projects like John Carter show that Marvel is okay with movie tie-ins, and even if Micronauts isn’t a Disney property, it still feels like something that could very much appeal to the Marvel faithful if done properly.

It’d be nice to imagine that someone at Marvel has already done the math about this, and can see how it could work out. While Marvel continues to mine the archives for new material to collect in book format, Micronauts remains one of the company’s few sadly-untouched properties (Outside of this and Rom, it’s hard to think of a long-running series that hasn’t been revived in the last few years). Maybe if we all close our eyes and wish real hard…

The annual GLAAD Award nominees have been announced, and the comic category has some strong contenders this year; both Archie’s Kevin Keller and DC’s Batwoman feature LGBT leads, with the latter’s Secret Six and Marvel’s two nominees, Avengers: The Children’s Crusade and X-Factor all featuring prominent LGBT characters in their core line-up. My biases may push the choice in Kevin Keller‘s favor, if only because of Archie’s boldness not only introducing the character into the traditionally conservative universe but also allowing him to get married – but what do you think? Who deserves the win – and which books (and characters) should’ve made the nominee list but didn’t?

Consider it the cost-cutting exercise you haven’t noticed just yet, but Marvel’s collected editions are getting shorter after the fact. In the last two weeks, the following collections have all been announced as dropping 8 pages from their solicited page count in Marvel’s updated forecasts to retailers: Avengers: Big Three TP, Enders Shadow Ultimate Collection TP, Ultimate Comics Ultimates by Jonathan Hickman Vol. 1 Premiere HC, Ultimate Comics Spider-Man by Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 1 Premiere HC, Vengeance HC, X-Factor: Super Unnatural Premiere HC and X-Men: FF Premiere HC, with Fear Itself: Fearsome Four Premiere HC losing 16 pages in the revised solicit. The prices of each book, of course, aren’t changed by their new length.

With all of the upheaval at Marvel in the last few months, it’s not too much of a stretch to guess that this is another part of the same cost-cutting that has apparently seen a new cancellation threshold for series being installed as well as the dismissal of 15 employees in October. What’s unanswered with all of the product updates is what content (if any) is being lost with the eight (or, in Fearsome Four‘s case, 16) pages that have been cut – Covers, sketchbook material or merely endpapers with creator and backlist information? At its new pagecount of 136 pages, Ultimate Comics Ultimates by Jonathan Hickman Vol. 1 still can contain all six issues of story advertised, along with the covers for each issue and still have ten pages left over, by my count; is “all” that’s being lost peripheral extra material?

Update: Asked and answered, apparently: Marvel collections editor Jen Grunwald tweets at me: “You DO realise that all of Marvel’s comics are now 20 pages instead of 22 so that a 4-issue TPB would drop 8 (etc.) pages, right?” I’d assumed that the pagecount of the stories would’ve been factored in before solicitation – and also that the 20 page stories weren’t behind the 8 page drops, because most of the affected collections have more than four issues in them – but if anyone would know, it’d be Grunwald…

Writing about the lack of visual continuity in the new DC Comics logo the other day made me think about the current Justice League logo, and the way that it, too, has broken with tradition. Y’see, for the most part – of the nine logos the book has had since the title launched way back in 1960, all but three haven’t featured a shield motif in one way or another (and those have all been the most generic and forgettable of the logos, interestingly enough). (more…)

The new DC Comics logo is real, and officially launched at Fast Company. Here are some of the variant versions we’ll see in months to come:

The story includes DC’s EVP of Sales John Rood and Amit Desai, senior vice president of franchise management, talking about the change, with Desai explaining that “The peel element can tie back to the storytelling content or character we’re showcasing, and leverage those colors. The ‘C’ can be a vessel to showcase stories and character. It’s unexpected, requires a little thinking and some storytelling behind that mark.”

Seeing these finished, colored and variant versions has taken me from kind of liking the logo to really liking it – It may not be Milton Glaser’s classic DC bullet, but it’s more attractive to me than the current DC spin. Apparently, the look will begin appearing on comics in March.

Apparently I blinked and missed the announcement of Marvel’s 2012 convention schedule:

As 2011 rocked, we here at Marvel.com are working on a jam-packed-ride for all the cosplayers, costumers & fans out there! We’re still working on the details, but expect more profiles, photo posts, and con recaps, plus much, much more!

For now, check out Marvel’s convention schedule:

Mar 16-18 – Wonderconin Anaheim, CA.
Apr 13-15 – C2E2in Chicago, IL
Jul 11-15 – San Diego Comic-Conin San Diego, CA
Oct 11-14 – New York Comic Conin New York, NY

First: I swear Wondercon gets earlier every year. Second: Doesn’t that seem a remarkably short list? I know that Marvel tends to keep the official corporate convention appearances at a minimum, but even so, this really seems like the company will be keeping a relative low profile this year. Third: No Disney Con? Or maybe that doesn’t as a convention appearance for some reason?

Today sees the release of both Oni Press’ Wasteland #33 and Dynamite Entertainment’s Lord of The Jungle #1, both of which are specially-priced promotional issues that offer a full-length issue for just $1.00. I’ve read – and enjoyed – both, but it’s a fair bet that I was going to pick both up nonetheless (Especially as I’ve enjoyed Wasteland for some time; if you’re a fan of post-apocalyptic sci-fi, you really should pick the series up). Why I’m mentioning the books, though, is that I’m wondering if specially-priced (i.e., cheap) promo issues work: Have you found yourself trying series that you usually wouldn’t because they were a buck? Or, just the opposite, have you ever found yourself avoiding a book because of this kind of stunt? Use the comments, people: I’d love to know what people think.

If rumors are true, DC Comics is just days away from announcing a new corporate logo (which has so far received more than its fair share of abuse online; personally, I quite like it). What’s surprising about this – beyond the fact that the reveal wasn’t timed with last September’s linewide relaunch of the entire DCU line – is the logo itself, which is the first in the company’s 77 year history to break with the brand’s visual signature of the circle. After all, here are DC’s logos to date:

Even with the tilted spin of the most recent logo, there’s a sense of evolution and continuity from redesign to redesign that the rumored new logo just… doesn’t have. Clearly, it’s the end of an era…

Last week, Marvel stripped announcements across five days of press conferences, with Next Big Thing events for previously-known events like Remender and Hardman’s Secret Avengers run and the 15th anniversary of Thunderbolts mixed in with artist changes (Walt Simonson joining Avengers), crossovers (“The Omega Event” running through Avenging Spider-Man, Daredevil and Punisher) and a book relaunch (Captain America And…). In comparison, DC lumped the announcement of six new series into one USA Today story.

There’s something to be gleaned from this comparison, but I’m not entirely sure what it actually is just yet: That Marvel knows how to make the most out of what could otherwise be bland status updates? That DC prefers to emphasize the overall “New 52″ line over individual books or individual creators (I feel that Marvel tends to place creators at the center of their announcements, whereas DC’s feel more focused on the characters, DC as a company and the upper echelons of management, but that may just be me)? That Marvel just generally makes more of a song and dance out of things than DC…? If nothing else, that last one does fit the stereotype for both companies, so maybe it’s really just as simple as that – but I can’t stop myself feeling as if both companies could choose to learn from each other in terms of which announcements to emphasize, and which to just leave out there without feeling the need to push.

Warren Ellis offers the public service of explaining to would-be comic writers exactly what the purpose of a comic script is:

This set of instructions must surround your story to the extent that you feel necessary and comfortable. Some writers produce reams of panel description because they require fine control of the artist, letterer and colourist to meet their vision of the story. Some writers boil their description down to a telegram because they require only that the most basic requirements of the panel be met in order to achieve their goals.

Both methods, however, and everything in between, are about manipulation of the artist. That sounds grim, doesn’t it?

Is it strange that I hope that this is the first installment in a series of posts commenting on/teaching comic writing skills by Ellis? The lack of his voice in the comic criticism/analysis continues to feel like a noticeble absence, even all these years after he last wrote about comics on a regular basis.

What makes a hit comic? In a thread over at Millarworld, Mark Millar tries to explain:

A book needs 2 of 3 things to sell in the direct market… a big writer, a big artist and a big character. 3 is better but to really do well you need at least 2. This is why the Millarworld books sell so well every month as they’re aimed at established readers. Trade sales are more mainstream and so the artist doesn’t need to have established himself at Marvel or DC.

It’s an interesting thread overall, if only for the glimpse inside Millar’s take on how to promote your books and your brand:

Like Marvel, I also embraced a multimedia approach and quickly got them going as movies, T-shirts, games, toys and had the success of those bring heat to the new projects… I’ve timed this carefully. Not just building a rep on company-owned, but I think the cycle at the moment is people wanting fresh concepts like they wanted them in 1992. There’s only so many times a villain can come back in the old books. The Millarworld books so far show the audience and multimedia potential is unlimited. A lot of people really hadn’t gotten what I’ve been doing here, but they’re starting to see it now. All going well we’ll have 2 or more movies a year coming out by 2013 and beyond.

Millar also promises that he will continue to be the center of his own brand:

I’ll never bring in other writers. That’s the huge mistake Image made when they expanded too fast in 93/94 and collapsed their model. People knew picking up an Image book meant they were getting one of their fave Marvel artists, but when other guys were writing and drawing those books they diluted their appeal. I’d rather write 3 volumes of Kick-Ass and have them permanently in print with movies, TV shows, games, etc, than have someone come in and dilute what makes it work.

Say what you like about Millar, he’s maintained a level of success from the Marvel work that made his name through to his own creator-owned work, so he’s clearly doing something right…