Just when it looked like the Watchmen “trailer effect” was subsiding, the collection of the 1986 miniseries jumped five spots to No. 13 on USA Today’s bestseller list — which may be the highest-ever position held by a graphic novel.

Two weeks ago the trade paperback reached No. 15 on the book chart, the same spot held in April 2007 by the 16th volume of Natsuki Takaya’s Fruits Basket. I can’t recall a comic performing better than that, but if anyone has a better memory for these things, please correct me.

USA Today’s chart tracks all genres and formats of books sold in some 4,700 brick-and-mortar and online stores.

Fueled by the release of the trailer for Zack Snyder’s adaptation, sales of the Alan Moore-Dave Gibbons collection have skyrocketed. To meet increased demand, DC Comics has printed an additional 900,000 copies of Watchmen since the teaser’s debut on July 17. That means the book will have a print run of more than 1 million copies this year.

Related: Andrew Steven Harris takes a look at the legal fight between Fox and Warner Bros. over the Watchmen adaptation, and provides my favorite headline of the week: “The world will look up and say, ’sue us.’ And I’ll look down and whisper, ‘okay’.”

MGM wants to bring Jonas Moore comic to TV

MGM Domestic Television Distribution has optioned the U.K.-based multimedia online comic The Many Worlds of Jonas Moore for development as a series.

The comic, created by Howard Webster, blends photography, music, live-action footage and comics art to tell the story of Jonas Moore (portrayed by Colin Salmon), a video-game player in a future where the British Empire still reigns supreme and America is just one of thousands of virtual worlds.

Variety reports that Jonas Moore is part of MGM’s push to restart its television-production business.

The Ticker

• All of the hand-wringing about the future of Watchmen is probably unnecessary, according to entertainment attorneys: “Fox has no financial risk here in a movie that could produce revenues for it,” Dinah Perez says. “As such, I doubt that Fox is going to force Warner Bros. to shelve the movie. In all likelihood, a settlement will be reached whereby Warner Bros. gets to distribute the movie, and Fox gets a piece of the action.” [Underwire]

• Watchmen co-creator Dave Gibbons has seen a two-hour and 45-minute rough cut of the movie, which he says is “very sexy, very violent.” The addition of the Tales of the Black Freighter segments to the DVD will push the release past three hours. [Blockbuster Buzz]

• Iron Man director Jon Favreau is at work on the sequel — and on a political cause. [Hero Complex]

• The Lord of the Rings writing team is back together for The Hobbit and its sequel: Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens will collaborate with Peter Jackson and director Guillermo del Toro. [The Hollywood Reporter]

• Rumor mill: Is there turmoil on the set of X-Men Origins: Wolverine? [Splash Page]

• “After Watchmen, Hollywood Should Tackle These ‘Unfilmable’ Comics.” [SciFi Scanner]

• A timeline tracing the history of anime. [Variety]

This “viral” trailer for author and comics writer Brad Meltzer’s new novel The Book of Lies is kind of interesting, really. In the video — it looks like something from a conspiracy-theory documentary on Discovery — Joss Whedon, Brian K. Vaughan, Damon Lindelof and others draw a link between the murder of the biblical Abel and the murder of Jerry Siegel’s father. They also discuss The Book of Lies, which God supposedly gave to Adam.

It’s all in service of Meltzer’s book of the same name, due in stores on Sept. 2.

(Via Risky Biz Blog)

• The runaway success of The Dark Knight may be to blame for Warner Bros.’ decision to move Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince from Nov. 21 to July 17. Industry insiders say the shift could stop next year’s profits from looking anemic in comparison. “They don’t need the money this year anymore,” says a rival studio executive. “When a movie overperforms the way Dark Knight has, you really don’t need Harry Potter in the fall.” [Hollywood Insider]

• Seeing a vacancy in the fall schedule, Summit Entertainment has moved the tween vampire sensation Twilight to Nov. 21 from Dec. 12: “With a giant franchise like Harry Potter in the market, we had to stay clear of it,” said Summit co-chairman Rob Friedman. “Their move created an opportunity to bring the movie to fans three weeks earlier, who have continued to show their enthusiasm, from Comic-Con to the giant Breaking Dawn book sales. We felt we had to take that opportunity.” [Variety]

• TheWB.com will officially launch on Aug. 27. It will feature not only old WB fare like Smallville, Gilmore Girls and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and some new content, as was previously announced, but will also feature programs that aired on other networks, like Veronica Mars and Firefly. [Variety]

• Rumor has it that Lionsgate wants Punisher: War Zone to be released as a PG-13 film, rather than with the previously planned R rating. That follows the still-circulating rumor from last month that director Lexi Alexander, who didn’t appear at Comic-Con, had been removed from the project. [Latino Review]

• Could David S. Goyer bump X-Men Origins: Magneto in favor of The Invisible Man? “I’m in the process of doing [Invisible Man] right now, and I’m working with some conceptual artists in tandem with writing the script. … So it could be Magneto, or it could be The Invisible Man next.” [MTV Movies Blog]

• Justin Marks, who’s writing Grayskull – the He-Man movie — says the adaptation will stay true to the ’80s cartoon series, while working within a somewhat logical framework: “The script is very true to the characters — we’re not talking about putting nipples on the Trapjaw suit. But we had to come up with a reason again why Trapjaw would actually not just be something that’s totally absurd, but why he would need those bionic parts added to him.” [MTV Movies Blog]

• “Besides the Clone Wars, the Star Wars Comics Introduced Us to Talking Bunnies and the Dark Lady of the Sith.” [SciFi Scanner]

• A fan creates a hypothetical Dark Knight sequel — one featuring The Riddler as the villain, of course. Are you reading this, Brian Austin Green? [Slashfilm]

Compiled by JK and Kevin.

To mark the 69th anniversary of MGM’s Wizard of Oz – it debuted on Aug. 12, 1939, in Oconomowoc, Wisc., of all places — National Geographic Magazine features a 1980 map of The Marvelous Land of Oz by James E. Haff and Dick Martin as its Map of the Day.

It’s interactive, so you can zoom in on such locales as Wise Acres (hyuk) and Catty Corners (hyuk-hyuk).

(Via Neatorama)

• Warner Bros.’ adaptation of Arvid Nelson’s noirish alternate-history series Rex Mundi is chugging ahead. Co-producer Barry Levine says a second draft is due in from Fight Club screenwriter Jim Uhls. Now co-producer and star Johnny Depp must settle on a director. [Splash Page]

• Iron Man 2 screenwriter Justin Theroux says the movie won’t take on a darker tone: “You know, I tremulously went and watched The Dark Knight myself, but it’s a totally different movie, like, you know that Tom Cruise movie where he played the race-car driver? What was that movie called … anyway. It’s like comparing that movie to Talladega Nights — it’s two totally different animals. We have a leading man who can sort of relish being a cad, and that’s a fun character to write for. We feel like we’re in the clear.” [Vulture]

• Last week a sentence in an Australian newspaper sparked rumores that the troubled Justice League movie is back on track. Not so, according to sources at Warner Bros. — of both the official and unofficial variety. [Spoiler warning: IESB]

• That IESB link includes supposed story details from the planned Green Lantern movie. [Spoiler warning: IESB]

• Lionsgate as acquired the film rights to Duane Swierczynski’s novel Severance Package; Brett Simon will direct. What’s the comics connection, you ask? Swierczynski is a crime novelist who now writes Cable and The Immortal Iron Fist for Marvel. Also, comics artist Tom Coker illustrated the cover of Severance Package. [Variety]

• Brian Austin Green, of Beverly Hills 90210 fame, would love to play The Riddler. [Splash Page]

GoofButton posts a series of humorous travel illustrations by the great (and severely underrated) Roy Doty.

The Watchmen “trailer effect” continues as the trade paperback slips just three places to No. 18 in its fourth week on USA Today’s bestseller list.

The trailer for Zack Snyder’s adaptation was released on July 17 with The Dark Knight, driving the collection of the 1986 miniseries to No. 83 in just three days. USA Today’s chart tracks all genres and formats of books sold in some 4,700 brick-and-mortar and online stores.

To meet increased demand for the Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons trade paperback, DC Comics ordered an additional 300,000 copies. BookScan recorded Watchmen selling 10,000 copies in just one week; last year, it sold about 100,000 copies in total.

Watchmen, which topped BookScan’s July graphic novels chart, climbed as high as No. 2 on Amazon.com’s bestseller list. It now rests at No. 10.

Update: This morning’s New York Times reports that DC has printed an additional 900,000 copies of Watchmen since the trailer debuted. That means the book will have a print run of more than one million copies this year.

• Lionsgate has hired Dirk Blackman and Howard McCain (Outlander, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans) to rework the script for Conan. Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer (Sahara) had written earlier drafts. For some reason, the “2009″ on that teaser poster seems a little hopeful. [The Hollywood Reporter]

• Tropic Thunder stands a good chance of ending The Dark Knight’s reign at the top of the box office. [Variety]

• Speaking of Tropic Thunder, and The Dark Knight, Robert Downey Jr. — aka Tony Stark — offers his assessment of the Batman sequel: “I feel like I’m dumb because I feel like I don’t get how many things that are so smart. It’s like a Ferrari engine of storytelling and script writing and I’m like, ‘That’s not my idea of what I want to see in a movie.’ I loved The Prestige but didn’t understand The Dark Knight. Didn’t get it, still can’t tell you what happened in the movie, what happened to the character and in the end they need him to be a bad guy. I’m like, ‘I get it. This is so high brow and so f–king smart, I clearly need a college education to understand this movie.’ You know what? F-ck DC comics. That’s all I have to say and that’s where I’m really coming from.” [Moviehole]

• Universal Pictures has picked up the film rights to Robert Jordan’s bestselling fantasy series The Wheel of Time. [Variety]

• “10 Comics Creators We Wish Would Make Movies Instead of Frank Miller.” [io9]

The ever-watchful Scans Daily has images from The Dark Knight: Batman Saves the Day, a somewhat surreal children’s book adaptation of part of the movie, by Jennifer Frantz, Cameron Stewart and Dave McCaig:

Bruce Wayne’s friends throw him a birthday party. But a surprise guest shows up to spoil the fun—it’s the Joker! Can Batman get there in time to save the day?

I can’t wait for the sequel, Harvey Goes to the Hospital.

(Via K.D. Bryan)

The 22-year-old Watchmen continues its climb up the book charts, fueled by the trailer for Zack Snyder’s upcoming adaptation.

The collection of the Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons miniseries pushed another 14 places up USA Today’s Top 150 list to No. 15. Natsuki Takaya’s Fruits Basket reached the same spot in April 2007; that may be the highest position held by a graphic novel.

USA Today’s chart tracks all genres and formats of books sold in some 4,700 brick-and-mortar and online stores.

So, it probably comes as no surprise that Watchmen topped BookScan’s Top 20 graphic novels chart in July.

To meet increased demands for the trade paperback, DC Comics has ordered an additional 300,000 copies. (Previous reports placed the order between 200,000 and 250,000.) DC President and Publisher Paul Levitz told Publishers Weekly that BookScan recorded Watchmen selling 10,000 copies in just one week.

The Watchmen trailer was released July 17 with The Dark Knight, whose box-office success has given a boost to several Batman collections.

Batman: The Killing Joke, the 1988 graphic novel that served as inspiration for the movie’s version of The Joker, entered the USA Today list last week at No. 114. Although it fell off the list this week, it was No. 4 on BookScan’s July chart, followed by Batman: The Long Halloween at No. 8, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns at No. 11, and Batman: Year One at No. 13.

I really enjoyed this interview scholar and critic Jeet Heer did with Seetha Srinivasan, who as former director for the University of Mississippi Press, published a number of stellar comics-related publications, such as R.C. Harvey’s Art of the Comic Strip and David Kunzle’s recent biography of Rudolphe Topffer:

Jeet: In your article for the International Journal of Comic Art, you mentioned that there has been some resistance to comics scholarship. Do you want to expand on that and talk about some of the difficulties the press and its authors have faced in this area? One area that might be worth exploring here is the issue of copyright and the difficulty of reprinting certain art and articles.

Seetha: One of our authors told me that when his dissertation topic was announced at graduation there was derisive laughter in the audience, and this after he had struggled to get his topic approved. Once when discussing a manuscript, I asked an author why his analysis of an aspect of comics was laced with theoretical considerations that were not integral to the subject. He assured me that the book manuscript would be stripped of these; they were in the dissertation to address concerns that his subject was not worthy of scholarship. I believe, however, that these barriers are disappearing as witnessed by the increasing number of comics scholars. Also, as I mentioned there was resistance from some of members of our editorial board who questioned whether UPM wanted to be known as a publisher of books on the comics. Were these worthy of consideration of attention from a scholarly press? It is to the credit of these members that they were willing to be persuaded of the central role comics played in a culture and to take a risk on the first titles. It is also to their credit that they subsequently acknowledged that they were mistaken about the value of this area of scholarship. So far we have not had trouble clearing permissions for use in our books. Even Disney gives permission, though it takes a long time to answer and charges a modest fee. We are particular in advising authors to limit images to those that are essential to the argument and not let them be eye candy. This helps us make our case to rights holders.

To quote the Flickr page:

Scanned caricatures by Josef Lada from Jaroslav Hašek’s satirical tour de force about World War I (published in 1924). This is less than one third of the line drawings supplied by Lada. The book is absolutely wonderful and was an influence on Heller’s Catch 22.

You can also go here to learn more.

The Watchmen “trailer effect” continues to be felt in the book market as the collection of the 22-year-old miniseries leaps 54 places up USA Today’s Top 150 list to No. 29.

USA Today’s chart tracks all genres and formats of books sold in some 4,700 brick-and-mortar and online stores.

Released July 17 with The Dark Knight, the teaser for Zack Snyder’s film adaptation quickly boosted sales of the Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons trade paperback. Within three days of the trailer’s debut, Watchmen had rocketed to No. 83 on the book chart and as high as No. 2 on the Amazon.com bestseller list (it now sits at No. 3).

Last week publisher DC Comics ordered a 200,000-copy new printing to meet increased demands.

But Watchmen isn’t the only comic to receive a movie bump this week: Batman: The Killing Joke, the 1988 graphic novel by Moore and Brian Bolland, enters the USA Today list at No. 114. The work served as the inspiration for the depiction of The Joker in The Dark Knight. (Dennis O’Neil’s novelization appears on the list, too, at No. 141.)

Other comics on the USA Today chart: Jeff Kinney’s hybrid Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, at Nos. 49 and 54; and Masashi Kishimoto’s Naruto, Vol. 30, at No. 101.

Science fiction author, and sometimes-comics writer, Orson Scott Card long has been … let’s call it vocal … in his views on homosexuality and in his opposition to gay marriage. So his hyperbolic and, frankly, bewildering column on the subject last week in the Mormon Times doesn’t come as that much of a surprise.

The reaction isn’t entirely unexpected, either; Card’s writings on homosexuality and gay rights are frequently met with opposition. What’s a little different this time is that Marvel is mentioned in some of the return volleys — from outside of the comics community.

Card, who’s best known for his 1985 novel Ender’s Game, penned two Ultimate Iron Man miniseries for Marvel in 2005 and 2007. And at New York Comic-Con, the publisher announced it’s adapting Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow, beginning in October. Marvel further promoted the titles over the weekend at Comic-Con.

In an editorial at AfterElton.com, part of the Logo network (owned by Viacom), Brent Hartinger takes Card to task, but points out that the author has received little mainstream criticism for his history of anti-gay comments: “… major media players such as Marvel Comics, Warner Brothers, and Card’s publisher Tom Doherty Associates continue to work with him.”

Elsewhere on the website, Brian Juergens provides readers with ways to contact Marvel and Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada to express their views on Card and the adaptation of Ender’s Game.

Paul Constant, books editor for Seattle alternative weekly The Stranger, isn’t quite as tactful, repeatedly using the phrase “Orson Scott Card is a homophobe,” linked back to the Mormon Times essay:

I’m never in favor of banning books, of course, but I do think that more people need to understand that Orson Scott Card is a hateful homophobe. It needs to become common knowledge that Orson Scott Card is a hateful homophobe. If Marvel Comics and Warner Brothers knew that more people know that Orson Scott Card is a hateful homophobe, they might be less likely to give Orson Scott Card (who is a hateful homophobe) a shitload of money.

Feministe, MetaFilter and a slew of other blogs and sites also have picked up on the topic — although many move away from the Marvel Comics aspect to focus on one of Card’s comments, which some interpret as the author advocating the overthrow of the government.

With all of the hustle, bustle and hype of Comic-Con, we could all use a little break. So it’s probably good that it’s a light week for big releases.

Well, mostly. Del Rey Manga has seven noteworthy releases this Wednesday, from the first volume of Me and the Devil Blues to the second volume of Toto! to the fourth volume of Parasyte. Image uncorks a second installment of the Popgun anthology, and Winsor McCay’s groundbreaking Little Nemo in Slumberland gets two hardcovers.

To see what other titles Chris Mautner and I think are worth mentioning, just keep reading. As always, let us know your choices in the comments below.

(more…)

– Tom Spurgeon talks to Blake Bell, author of Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Dikto.

– Do comics really do well in bad economies, or is that a myth?

– Did you know that superhero comic books sometimes resort to political commentary? I’ve been living in a cave for the past 20 years, so I sure didn’t.

– What everyone else did instead of going to Comic-Con. That picture of Eric Reynolds’ daughter is adorable.

– Geekanerd dissects the Watchmen trailer.