Well, this was somewhat unexpected when it showed up in my inbox this morning:

A Sons of Anarchy comic? I doubt even the most ardent fan of the FX show would’ve seen that coming. We’ll doubtlessly find out more when Boom!’s next round of solicitations are launched, but right now, this seems like a pretty great get for the publisher.

(Interestingly enough, if there is a comic and it launches in September, that’s the same month that the show returns to FX for its sixth – and, according to rumor, penultimate – season. Good timing, whoever worked that one out.)

Boom! Studios had a new look, it seems. Here’s VP of Publishing and Marketing Filip Sablik to explain:

Redesigning the logo struck us as the natural and strongest way to communicate the evolution of BOOM! to our retail partners, creators and fans. Just like the logo is a natural evolution and maturation of what BOOM! has been doing for the last seven years, our publishing plan for 2013 is a natural evolution of what we’ve been building since the company was founded. More prominent creators, bigger licenses, and more efforts to expand the marketplace…yup, we’re doing all of that, but this is about taking the conversation we’ve been having internally at the company and making it external. It’s letting everyone know, “Hey! Here’s what our philosophy is, here are our core beliefs, this is why we get up every morning ready to conquer the world. And if you believe the same things, come join us and help us build something amazing.

It’s part of what appears to be a rededication of the publisher towards new work and a variety of genres and audiences. Go read Sablik talking about what’s almost a reboot for the company, in a way.

Via a BOOM! press release….

It’s not even released until tomorrow, but Boom! Studios’ Freelancers #1 is already sold out. According to the press release that’s just landed in my inbox:

FREELANCERS, the newest original series from BOOM! Studios, features a main story by writer Ian Brill (DARKWING DUCK) and newcomer artist Joshua Covey (THE AVENGEFULS) and a special backup story by co-creators Matt Gagnon (BOOM! Editor-in-Chief ) and Felipe Smith (MBQ, PEEPO CHOO). The full debut issue of this series carries a cover price of only one dollar. FREELANCERS #1 second print will be available for order from Diamond Comic Distributors the second week of November.

Freelancers is the series created by Felipe Smith about two women raised in a Kung-Fu Orphanage who’ve become bounty hunters in Los Angeles; if you see it in your stores tomorrow, pick it up; it’s only a dollar, after all.

If the news yesterday that Boom! Studios was going exclusive with Diamond Distributors wasn’t particularly interesting to you, maybe there’s one wrinkle in the press release that could be worth a closer look. Ross Richie is quoted as explaining that the exclusive deal not only gives retailers a higher ordering discount, but also offers “better fill rates on comic book reorders; and our entire graphic novel backlist inventory will now be available for immediate ordering.” Reorders seem to be a big deal for Boom!; back when they partnered with Haven in 2009, it was to ensure faster reorder shipments (Haven closed last year, which also leaves me wondering if Boom!’s exclusivity announcement is a weird PR opportunity that doesn’t exactly make sense; without Haven, did Boom! even have another direct market distributor for the last six months? Weren’t they exclusive by default?), which leaves me to wonder if Boom! is suffering from the kind of systematic, repetitive under-ordering that Image Publisher Eric Stephenson wrote about last week. Marvel and DC aside, is any publisher in the direct market getting enough copies ordered in the first round of ordering…? And if not, how easily can that kind of thing be course-corrected?

These days, it can be very tough for a superhero series to stand out. And there’s also the growing opinion that there aren’t enough reader-friendly stories out there that don’t require knowledge of years of continuity. With this in mind, BOOM! Studios is releasing a welcome addition to the stands this week: Supurbia #1, a new spin on familiar territory, fueled by an obvious enthusiasm from its creators.

On the surface, it seems to be another typical superhero team, a group of heroes called the Meta-Legion. But the idea behind this book is that it seem less like the Justice League and more like a superhero version of TMZ or a Real Housewives reality show. The focus of Supurbia is the drama behind the masks, the problems that rise in families with secret identities are known and superhuman careers invite all sorts of arguments and misunderstandings, as well as unexpected secrets.

The book’s storytellers are writer Grace Randolph, known for her work at Marvel’s Nation X and Her-Oes, and new artist Russell Dauterman. The two introduce a quirky and inviting cast of characters, and Dauterman’s designs are very effective in quickly letting you know what kind of folks the Meta-Legion members are.

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The votes – well, preorders – are in, and Barack Obama has won the hearts, minds and wallets of the comic industry, winning Boom! Studios’ Decision 2012 straw poll for the 2012 presidential candidate most deserving of his or her own comic book. The poll was launched in August and ran until the end of last month, and gave readers and political wonks alike the chance to vote with their pre-order dollars for the chance to read biographies of Obama, Michele Bachman, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, Sarah Palin, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, with whichever books that got pre-orders of more than 1500 seeing print.

Only four books met that target: Obama, Sarah Palin – who is, of course, not actually running for President – Ron Paul and Michele Bachmann. Surprisingly, media favorite in the Republican field Rick Perry came dead last in the poll, with Mitt Romney only managing to rank fifth out of the ten candidates in this particular race. A sign of the left-leaning nature of the comic book industry, the disillusionment people have over the current field of Republican nominees (Oh, if only there had been a Chris Christie book offered!), or just more proof that people can’t get enough of those President Barack Obama comics? You be the judge.

Last weekend, comics lost a great up-and-coming artist when Minck Oosterveer, who’d co-created The Unknown with Mark Waid, and also worked with Waid on Ruse at Marvel, died in a motorcycle accident. Over at the Boom! Studios blog, editor Matt Gagnon remembers Oosterveer:

Minck was incredibly kind and thoughtful, funny and smart, passionate and genuine. As an artist, you literally couldn’t ask for anybody more professional and talented. His art was–is–transcendent. He would turn in beautiful comic book pages, every day, that were damn near perfect. Every morning I would look forward to opening my e-mail and seeing a new page from Minck. His work ethic and consistent level of quality was uncanny. There was a never a deadline he couldn’t meet. The man was truly a rare talent.

As a celebration of his work, Boom! have released both series of The Unknown for free on ComiXology, iVerse, Graphic.ly and MyDigitalComics. Hopefully, people go and check out the series; Oosterveer’s work on both was great, and fans of Waid will enjoy some of his sharpest writing in recent years.

Well, I guess we can all get settled in for another year+ of political comic book stunts again, with the announcement of Boom! Studios’ Decision 2012, in which fans – whether comic book or political – get to pre-order a biographical comic of the presidential candidate of their choice, with the most highly-ordered seeing print. No, really:

The whole concept of comic book’s first straw poll is that the comic book with the most pre-orders wins. That means that if you are a supporter of a particular candidate and you want him or her to win, you need to make sure you tell all your friends to pre-order your candidate’s comic book before September 29th, 2011.

I don’t know whether this means there will be lots of unseen material for the losers, or whether the stories will only be created once a winner has been chosen, but… this is either an awesome idea or a terrible idea. I mean, it’s A Death In The Family meets U Decide meets Bluewater’s political biographies and, if nothing else, that’s not what anyone was expecting, right…?

(In all seriousness, I’m fascinated by the outreach potential for this; the website includes a quick “What are comics, anyway?” in the FAQs, so clearly this is meant to go beyond the direct market faithful, so on that basis alone, I’m pulling for Boom! here.)

BOOM! Studios has been slowly ceding its Disney licenses over to Marvel, with Cars, Toy Story and The Muppet Show all migrating over to the House of Ideas in recent months. Then the “classic” Disney properties like Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse and Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories disappeared from BOOM’s schedule, and the writing was pretty much on the wall at that point.

Slipped into BOOM’s October solicitations, released over the weekend, was confirmation the publisher would be shipping its last Disney titles that month, with DuckTales and Darkwing Duck both coming to a close. From the write-up of Darkwing Duck #18:

Final Issue! “Dangerous Currency,” Part 4. The epic Darkwing Duck/DuckTales crossover event concludes right here! This is it fans, the last Disney single issue from KABOOM! has arrived. It’s the end of an era as we say goodbye to Disney at KABOOM!

BOOM! first acquired the license to Disney’s Pixar properties in 2008, with the classic roster of Mickey, Donald, Goofy, et al. following in June 2009. Comics like The Muppet Show and Darkwing Duck brought both attention and acclaim to the publisher, but when Disney bought Marvel at the tail end of summer 2009, it seemed inevitable that the Disney properties weren’t going to stick around at BOOM! forever.

Though whether or not Marvel has plans for the classic Disney characters or the “Disney Afternoon” titles like Darkwing and DuckTales remain to be seen, or if they’ll be producing any new material in the near future — Marvel’s Muppet Show and Cars releases are both reprints of BOOM’s previously published material.

Hey, did you know that George Lucas’ Star Wars franchise is popular in other countries that aren’t even America, even some countries that are in Europe, a cradle of actual culture, and not just pop culture?

I suppose I sort of knew that, in the back of my head, but I was still surprised to see actual evidence of it, in the form of Space Warped #1, the first half of a Boom Studio’s published translation of Herve Bourhis and Rudy Spiessert’s Rustic Wars.

The new title alludes to the source material being parodied, but the original title better reflects the premise. It’s well known that Lucas sought inspiration from a variety of sources, including Jack Kirby’s Fourth World comics, Japanese cinema, Westerns and Joseph Cambell-digested world myth, and Bourhis and Spiessert essentially take the original Star Wars movie as Lucas created it, and then walked it back toward some of that inspiration.

In other words, it’s still an adventure story with elements of fantasy set long ago and far, far away, but the long ago is pre-Industrial Revolution, and the far, far away is Europe.
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It has to be said, Shannon Wheeler has a much better attitude to accidentally being left off the Eisner Awards ballots than I would have; besides the above cartoon, he also wrote that he hoped the slip up – described by the Eisner committee as a “computer glitch” that left Wheeler’s I Thought You Would Be Funnier off the online ballot for Best Humor Publication; it’s since been corrected, and votes can be revisited in that category as a result – didn’t lose him too many votes, adding “Though now I can blame the computers if I lose. Ha.” Eisner Voters: Don’t let the humorless robots win.

Charles Schulz’s Peanuts has long been available in book-length collections, the slim, often topical paperbacks a staple of children’s departments at libraries and old book stores.

Such collections pre-dated the normalization of the term “graphic novel,” though—the technical definition of which could be argued at great length, but the current popular definition of which within the publishing industry is simply comics bound with a spine—which allows Boom Studios to proclaim Happiness Is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown the first Peanuts graphic novel.

One could argue whether or not that is the case, I suppose, but not without first arguing about the semantics of the term, so let’s skip all that. This is definitely the first Peanuts-branded comics packaged and sold as a graphic novel, as opposed to a collection, its the first that reads like a graphic novel and, more noteworthy to fans of the characters and their creator, it’s also the first new Peanuts comics material produced since the death of Schulz.

“New” probably needs some qualification, though. The 85-page book is an adaptation of the recently-produced animated special of the same name, and that was based on Schulz’s strips. The result then is a pretty perfect balance between providing new Peanuts material without resorting to someone other than the late Schulz doing it—No, he didn’t draw these lines, but these are still his gags and his story. The book, like the special, is therefore more of a respectful cover song than a whole new band exploiting the name of another one.

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Hellraiser #1 is in stores right now from BOOM! Studios, and the publisher is also offering an eight-issue prelude — not in stores. The only way to get it is download it in PDF format, and a result it’s spread far and wide across the Internet — in fact, you can download it right here, even!

It may sound suspicious, but we can assure you it’s fully legal and completely free, and sharing the comic is highly encouraged by the publisher, saying “READ IT. SHARE IT. e-mail. upload. tweet. torrent. link. facebook” (Still holding on to that hyphen in email that the Associated Press eliminated last week; stay strong, brothers.) The eight-page prelude is co-written by Hellraiser mastermind Clive Barker and Christopher Monfette, with art from Leonard Manco.

The PDF ends with a list of ComicsPRO-participating retailers and an ad for the Comic Shop Locator Service, clearly establishing the purpose of this digital comic to drive people to physical stores to pick up the print product. The Best Shots team has a review of Hellraiser #1 here.

(And oh yeah — it’s a little gory and probably NSFW, which you may have gathered on your own given the fact that it’s, y’know, a Hellraiser comic.)

The clever idea at the center of Dracula: The Company of Monsters is an obvious one, suggested by the “Bloodsucker vs. Bloodsuckers” tagline on the back of the first volume collecting the ongoing series.

Dracula may have been a ruthless prince who impaled his foes, literally did a deal with the literal devil and became an undead blood-drinking fiend, but at least he’s not a modern CEO.

The “You know who the real monsters are…?” statement is a staple of horror and monster entertainment, and its one this comic has the cognizance to apply to the major problems of the day. Certainly the commentary may at times be a little too pointed, as when Dracula makes a “That is the difference between a prince and a chief executive” speech, disgusted that the corporate CEO that engineered his resurrection and is keeping him chained in the company HQ’s basement has laid off hundreds of workers in order to improve the balance sheet.

But then, perhaps there is some poetry in a the sub-text of a story about the undead refusing to stay buried.
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Earlier this afternoon, Marvel announced Disney•Pixar Presents, a 96-page magazine featuring comics starring characters from Disney/Pixar films including Toy Story, The Incredibles and Cars. Ross Richie, CEO & publisher of previous Pixar license-holder BOOM! Studios, sent Newsarama official comment on the news:

“The team over at Marvel is some of the best in comics publishing — Dan, Joe, Axel, and Tom are great at what they do, and I’m sure the characters will be in excellent hands.  I certainly love the material they’re collecting from our CARS: RALLY RACE graphic novel.  Landy Walker and Marcio Takara were unable to finish their last arc of THE INCREDIBLES so I hope Marvel’s able to complete the story, I for one would love to read it.  Working with Disney and Pixar was a highlight in my 6 years of BOOM! publishing. Those are some great folks!  Meanwhile, Mickey, Donald and Darkwing fans can look forward to some great stories from BOOM Kids! and all the BOOM Kids! fans need not fret — BOOM Kids! 2.0 is right around the corner.”

Cars: Rally Race was published in collected edition form by BOOM! in May of last year, and originally appeared in print as Cars #0-3 in early 2010. Though Marvel did not explicitly state that they were reprinting BOOM! material in their press release, the statement disclosed that the magazine would be “a mix of brand new stories, classic adventures,” and the creative team and concept mentioned by the publisher match that of Cars: Rally Race. Newsarama’s Vaneta Rogers interviewed writer Alan Porter in an article published in January 2010.

Richie’s allusion to “Mickey, Donald and Darkwing” appears to confirm that, for the time being, BOOM!’s non-Pixar Disney licenses — which include currently ongoing titles Mickey Mouse and Friends, Donald Duck and Friends and Darkwing Duck — are unaffected by today’s news.

BOOM!’s Disney/Pixar licensed comics launched in 2008, and announced the acquisition of the Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck license in June 2009. Disney announced their acquisition of Marvel in late August 2009. Despite that, BOOM!’s licensed Disney comics remained largely unaffected until the cancellation of previously solicited Pixar titles last month. The first Disney product published by Marvel following the acquisition was Tron: The Betrayal, a limited series that debuted in October and tied-in to last December’s Tron: Legacy feature film.

More disappointing news for Roger Langridge fans: Following the news two weeks ago that Thor: The Mighty Avenger, the Marvel Comics title he writes with artist Chris Samnee, was ending with issue #8, Langridge shared today on his blog that his next arc on BOOM!’s acclaimed The Muppet Show Comic Book would be his last. (more…)

The second of three titles from BOOM!’s Stan Lee line hits tomorrow, The Traveler by Mark Waid and Chad Hardin. And though you may have thought those Xtranormal videos with the two cartoon animals talking in Stephen Hawking voices peaked in early 2009, BOOM! Studios has shown there’s still some unusual marketing potential there in this video, lightly satirizing the current superhero comic book climate while pushing The Traveler. Hey, here it is!

Was the preview of Stan Lee’s Starborn we ran last week not enough for you? Well, as is the rage these days, BOOM! Studios has produced a teaser trailer promoting the series. It’s only 28 seconds, but hey, the first issue is out next month. And here it is:

Harvey Kurtzman’s comics version of the classic insect fable was originally produced in 1960 for Esquire magazine, and almost 50 years later it’s still a remarkably relevant work. Perhaps that should come as nor surprise; 50 years is awfully recent compared to the original fable’s suspected vintage (Heck, the Bible’s Book of Proverbs includes a version of it).

Of course, it might also come down to the fact that this is a Kurtzman comic we’re talking about, and the late, great cartoonist’s work boasts a vitality and originality that makes it always seem fresh and new. (When I first encountered his work, it was his covers to the earliest issues of Mad that were reprinted in various price catalogs and histories of comics, and I remember being quite shocked to learn that those drawings were done before my parents were born, but looked just as fresh as the previous Saturday’s Saturday morning cartoons).

Kurtzman’s The Grasshopper and The Ant is a 37-page story, with each page consisting of a single large drawing, the edges of the page making each page its own de facto panel, with the lovely hand-lettering in dialogue balloons sometimes breaking the single image into several moments, by virtue of the time it takes to read all the words. (We probably shouldn’t get into this now, but Kurtzman does some pretty amazing stuff in these pages when it comes to manipulating time through the interaction of the words and pictures…it’s particularly amazing given the perfect uniformity of the pages and panels; given the format, each page should “last” as long as every other one, but that’s not the case. Shit, this is a comic not just to read, but to study).

You probably know the basic story. There’s a grasshopper and an ant. The former wants to sing and dance and play all year around, while the latter works gathering food; when winter comes along, the grasshopper has nothing to eat and either starves or is saved by the ant so he can survive to learn his lesson.

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