Robert Kirkman on Invincible #100′s death – and what it has to do with superhero comics as a whole. There are spoilers, so it’s under the jump: (more…)

If Rich Johnston is to be believed, it’s not just DC that’s looking to pull back on its line:

Dark Avengers is canceled as of May.

Looks like Captain Marvel will be gone, unless an upcoming Avengers Assemble mini-crossover can lift sales enough.

Winter Soldier is also for the chop by the summer.

None of these are especially surprising, considering the sales figures – and Winter Soldier‘s already having had a last-minute reprieve from the chopping block – but they are frustrating, if true. Here’s hoping for another change of heart/sales bump for the affected titles (Captain Marvel #9, in particular, should be picked up if you were interested in the book when it launched but unconvinced by the early issues. Perhaps it’s just me, but Felipe Andrade’s art is a far stronger fit for the book’s tone than Dexter Soy…).

Axel Alonso teases the cosmic nature of Marvel’s Free Comic Book Day edition for this year:

I can’t tell you too much now, but I can say that in two weeks we’re going to reveal the cover and suddenly the light bulbs will go off around the CBR message boards. We’ve said how “Nova,” “Thanos Rising,” “Guardians of the Galaxy” and Jonathan Hickman’s “Avengers” are all shaping the future of the Marvel Universe — this image will very specifically answer the question of “How?” Our FCBD issue features an all-new story that leads into a huge epic later in the year, along with a heavily demanded reprint of a character’s first solo story and a beautiful new cover by one of our top cover artists. This same cover will be on FCBD t-shirts this year so that gives you an idea of the scale and importance of what we’re bringing you this year.

So, a Thanos-centric book…? Or maybe Rocket Raccoon? What do you think, people?

According to Crain’s New York Business, ComiXology is a start-up worth watching for investors:

If most tech startups are plumbing existing markets, comiXology has practically created a new one with its digital marketplace for comic books. Every major retailer and publisher sells comics through this Chelsea startup. In 2011, downloads from the site—100 million of them—accounted for 75% of all digital comics downloads that year, according to pop-culture site ICv2.com.

ComiXology turned profitable in 2011 on sales of $19 million, and while it hasn’t disclosed 2012 revenue, the company estimated that they would triple. Angel-backed, comiXology has yet to seek venture money, although it might in order to get more resources to grow, said co-founder and CEO David Steinberger.

Is this the first time that we’ve seen the $19 million/100 million downloads in 2011 figures? Considering the price point for digital releases, that’s a lot of free downloads in 2011… I wonder how that shifted last year, as DC and Marvel properly moved into day-and-date and the audience grew?

(EDIT: It’s been pointed out to me that the 100 million downloads number is all-time downloads, not 2011 alone. Sorry for my confusion.)

At Forbes, Christina Blanch considers gender in superhero comics:

In the 1990s, comics saw a spike in how muscular the characters became. Batman, for example, morphed from the diminutive figure portrayed by Adam West into a hulking warrior donning chiseled body armor. When I ask my students which superhero is the most masculine, Batman’s name comes up more often than Superman. Perhaps this is because he is a mortal man yet manages to survive perilous falls and brutal beatings without suffering lasting effects. Contrast this with Batgirl, who was paralyzed after being shot through the spine by Batman’s arch nemesis, the Joker.

The juxtaposition of Batman’s invincibility and Batgirl’s frailty is consistent with an obsession with overt male strength that dominated the 90s. This preoccupation with physical stature, which was punctuated so perfectly by steroid scandals in pro sports, is thought by many to have been a reaction to third-wave feminism, one of the most influential gender movements in history.

This is seemingly a prelude to Blanch teaching a month-long course entitled Gender Through Comic Books online later this year; that course will feature interviews with Mark Waid and Brian K. Vaughan, amongst others, and may very well be worth enrolling in.

Over at The Beat, Todd Allen looks at how Marvel performs in Diamond’s end-of-year graphic novel chart and pulls out some interesting observations:

What are we not seeing?  The collections supporting the Events.  Where are Iron Man: Fear Itself and all those titles?  Where are all the Avengers and X-Men titles that are so integral to the “universe” part of all the cross-overs?  They’re not there.

It seems clear that readers will show up for the big events, but could care less about the supporting crossovers in book form.  Can you really blame them?  The supporting issues of Avengers, Spider-Man and so forth take place between the issues of the actual Event, so either you need to integrate them into the collected edition or the reading experience is going to be drastically different.  (Here’s how convoluted the Secret Invasion experience is when you try and read the expanded universe in book form, for an example.)

Marvel might be taking a break from the approach with Marvel Now.  We’ll have to see how that plays out the rest of the year.  If they keep the new book editions as independent story units, things may improve.

It’s worth pointing out that Age of Ultron will have reasonably few crossover issues at first glance. Perhaps we’re headed towards an era of smaller events after all…?

Today sees the release of Superior Spider-Man #1, but thanks to the wonders of teasers, we already have an idea of what lies in the future of the title… And the combination of the two has me somewhat convinced that what is going on with the new series isn’t the creation of an all-new Spider-Man status quo, but the slow reintroduction of an old one. Spoilers and speculation under the jump. (more…)

Before we get started on COMICS 2013 properly, here are three look-backs for last year that are worth your time:

• ICv2 runs down the top ten comics business stories of 2012, ranked according to impact. I have to admit, I think the re-emergence of creators’ rights as a rallying call – particularly paired with both the return of Image Comics as a sales- and critical- force to be reckoned with and the debut of Monkeybrain (as well as Thrillbent and other digital initiatives from formerly print creators) – was the biggest story of the year, but I’ve been wrong before.
• Brian Hibbs of San Francisco’s Comix Experience lists his best-selling comic books and trades/graphic novels of 2012. Likely not representative of the rest of the Direct Market (How many other DM stores have books outselling single issues at 55% to 40%?), but well worth a look nonetheless. Man, look at Saga dominate that single issue list.
• Tom Spurgeon brought in the new year with a list of 50 Comics Positives for 2012. While I admit my tendency for being negative, Spurgeon reminds us all that things aren’t necessarily as bad as they seem with the wit and common sense you’d expect from him. “I don’t believe in positivity for positivity’s sake,” he explained. “We live in a world dominated by consumption impulses that feed on that kind of thing like sharks on chum, and I think there’s an additional danger of losing what exactly makes something positive or good beyond its desire to be seen that way if you don’t routinely face the challenge of engaging the negative and less than laudatory. But I do think it’s helpful every now and then to remind yourself of the good things that are going on, and comics has plenty of those.”

So, 2013, yes? Let’s see what happens in the next year.

Did you know that Detective Comics was banned in Australia in the late 1930s? Daniel Best has the somewhat unbelievable tale of state censorship from history:

The banning of Detective Comics really began with a statement from the Minister for Trade and Customs, in which the proposal for the prohibition on the importation of undesirable literature was put forward.  Although the proposal was titled ‘literature’, the text made it clear that the focus would be firmly placed upon pulp magazines and comic books which were deemed to be blasphemous, indecent and obscene.  The content of the statement also placed a strong emphasis on the undesirable content of the literature in question, in particular sex and crime and the harmful effect that any exposure to either would have on youth.  Damning evidence was provided in the form of a recent murder case in which the murderer had been found with a large collection of pulps, thus, for the powers that be, showing a direct line from pulps and comic books to outright murder.  It was all that was needed.

The whole forgotten story can be found here, and is well worth a read.

Congratulations, Complex Magazine. By running an article that claims to announce the 10 Worst Comic Books of 2012, you’ve guaranteed yourself attention and almost inevitable outcry from those who enjoyed said comics – especially when the list includes something like Avengers Vs. X-Men:

Though it’s always entertaining to see the heroes go at it, this book was 12 issues of overblown story decisions, terrible characterizations, and shallow shocks to boost sales. Cyclops and Captain America were written so inconsistently from their personalities over the years that they felt like strangers in this series. It’s as if they only acted a certain way to fit the plot around them. Cyclops’ sudden change, in particular, threw away years of characterization so the story had a villain to root against.

Pretty much agreed on The Savage Hawkman, mind you.

Oh, the tangled web that cross-title continuity weaves sometimes. So, the latest issue of Daredevil ends with a cameo from the Superior Spider-Man, which means that the most recent storyline (#18 onwards) presumably takes place after Amazing Spider-Man #700. Which, itself, takes place after the first storyline in Jonathan Hickman’s Avengers (And yet, no mention of evolution bombs altering cities across the world; maybe they get fixed?). And Hickman’s Avengers takes place after the current Avengers Assemble storyline, considering the costumes everyone is wearing (And the Peter Parker Spider-Man). Given that we see Captain America switch from his old costume to his new costume in Avengers #1, however, that storyline clearly happens before the first issue of Uncanny Avengers, which seems to happen in the immediate aftermath of Avengers Vs. X-Men (Assuming that the funeral of Charles Xavier happened relatively close to his death), which means that all of “Avengers World” happens between AVX and Uncanny Avengers…?

To make matters more confusing, Dan Slott has claimed on Twitter that at least part of Age of Ultron takes place before the final issue of Amazing Spider-Man because we see Peter Parker in action, even though Superior Spider-Man actually has a crossover issue with the event in March. I’m willing to believe that Dan was either joking, lying or flat-out wrong about that, just because Age of Ultron is supposed to be status-quo changing from the get-go and, based on what we’ve seen in Daredevil, the Marvel Universe’s status seems very much as quo as it ever is.

Cross-title continuity can be a wonderful thing, building a sense of a world beyond the pages of the comic you’re reading and making the fictional world that little bit more “real” for the fan. And yet, with the pressure from fans for stories to “matter” or “count” in some vague, wide-reaching, sense these days, and so many characters appearing in multiple titles (Remember when Wolverine used to be the sole character we joked about appearing in multiple books a month? Iron Man will soon be regularly appearing in five ongoing series at once, Captain America in four. Hell, Captain Marvel will soon be simultaneously in three, for Pete’s sake), what we’re ending up with are various series that just step on everyone’s toes. We know that Avengers‘ first storyline poses no real threat to the core Avengers, because they’re all fine and unchanged in Uncanny Avengers and their own books; we know that the world isn’t too affected by Ex Nihilo’s evolution bombs, because everything seems just fine and dandy in Daredevil and Amazing Spider-Man, and so on.

I’m not sure what the answer to this problem is. Not caring seems like the most appropriate one (After all, who really believed that anything would happen to the big name character at Marvel, especially when their own books have just been relaunched?), but nonetheless, surely there can be some different approach taken – a minimizing of characters appearing in the same books, perhaps, or a lowering of the stakes in each adventure? – that would cut down on the fact that the dramatic tension in Marvel’s titles (and DC’s too, although I feel as if Marvel is a slightly worse offender right now, but that may just be my own boredom with a lot of the DC output currently coming through) is constantly and consistently being undone by Marvel’s own comic books.

This is just glorious. Henry Flint’s cover for 2000AD‘s Free Comic Book Day 2013 issue, courtesy of the 2000AD Twitter feed:

I’ve spent a lot of this year telling people that 2000AD has been on a high recently, but with new Dredd and Zombo, as well as reprints of Indigo Prime and DR & Quinch… People: This is already one of the must-have FCBD releases of next year. It’ll be amazing.

This coming Sunday, Philadelphia’s most famous comic shop, Locust Moon Comics will be hosting the Locust Moon Comics Festival at the Rotunda in West Philadelphia. The focus of the festival will be independent writers, artists, and creators of the area and celebrating creator-owned books.

“[The festival is] important to us because we think there’s something really special happening in the Philadelphia comics scene, and we want to create a place where all these diffuse talents can come together with their compatriots from this city and all over the world,” said Locust Moon owner, Josh O’Neill.

He spoke to Newsarama along with partner Chris Stevens about the festival and what it means to them and the creators. “We want people to walk into the festival and see that there’s a small-scale revolution happening here, that comics is a medium that can be explored in infinite directions and the horizons are always expanding, and there’s something really special happening in this city that doesn’t get nearly enough attention,” O’Neil says. “We want our festival to be a lot more than a comic convention — we want it to be a true CELEBRATION of comic books and comic creators. We want the joy we all share to be palpable and present for anybody who wants to wander in.”

“It’s going to be a real celebration of comics and the medium, with a healthy mix of local creators and folks coming in to town like Jim Rugg, Brandon Graham, and Farel Dalrymple,” added Stevens. “We’ve got festival exclusive prints from Jim and Farel and Mark Robinson, and guys like J.G. Jones will be there doing their thing.”

This event is the most recent of O’Neil and Steven’s many efforts to unify, accelerate, and publicize the up and coming Philadelphia comic scene. “There’s a really rambunctious spirit to the Philly creative communities,” O’Neill says. “It’s not about getting noticed by some publisher or label or gallery, it’s not about becoming the Next Big Thing, it’s about making your work and pushing it out there into the world.”

Over in the New Statesman of all places, Colin Smith talks to Al Ewing and Henry Flint about the creative resurgence of 2000AD this year:

A comic that’s approaching its 36th year in print might be expected to be heading for heritage status, safely churning out approximations of old glories for an ever-diminishing audience. But no one could hold on to such an assumption after interviewing Flint and Ewing. Both speak enthusiastically, for example, of their involvement in the recent Trifecta crossover, in which a trio of apparently quite separate strips by entirely different creative teams were slowly revealed to be telling the same story from multiple perspectives. The equivalent of three prime-time cop shows reaching mid-series before unexpectedly beginning to merge, Trifecta presented the reader with an unusually complex and inventive cross-narrative about a coup in Judge Dredd’s beloved Mega-City One. An experiment the likes of which the comic had never seen before, it’s been greeted with unanimously positive reviews.

Yet no matter how enthused by that experience Flint’s been, he’s still playfully sure that the next Zombo series will be, all “modesty set aside… brilliant”. But then, as Ewing argues, “the best thing we’ve done together is always the newest thing”.

Both Ewing and Flint are talents to pay a lot of attention to in the future. 2000AD, on the evidence of recent issues, is also something that should be considered a must-read once again. Here’s to more of all three in 2013.

ICv2 raises a simple question: Did Marvel Comics treat Spider-Man’s 30th birthday as a bigger deal than it did the character’s 50th?

Plans for the year were summarized in the December 1991 issue of Internal Correspondence, the precursor to ICv2, based on presentations at Marvel’s sales meeting for distributors.  A Spidey event was planned for every month of 1992, including a traveling Spider-Man museum display, Spider-Man character appearances around the country, a nationwide Spidey-party in retail stores for which special kits were sent out.  Editorial material included a special edition of Amazing Fantasy #15, the first Marvel Masterworks for Amazing Spider-Man, special editions, and bookshelf releases.

There was also an article in that issue of Internal Correspondence about a James Cameron Spider-Man movie planned for 1993, so not all the plans came to pass, but there was a lot of promotional activity and a substantial publishing program supporting the anniversary.

I could be wrong, but I feel as if the same has been true of all of the big Marvel birthday dates in recent memory; the 50th anniversaries of not only Spidey, but the Hulk, Thor and the Fantastic Four have all passed relatively without much hoopla from Marvel itself (Sure, there have been variant covers, but when aren’t there variant covers these days?). At least Amazing Spider-Man got an oversized birthday issue. Could it be that reminding fans and readers that these characters have been around for five decades isn’t something that’s seems particularly attractive these days…?

Next year, of course, sees the 50th anniversary of Marvel’s big cash cows: Iron Man, the Avengers, and the X-Men. It’ll be interesting to see what, if anything, happens to mark those birthdays…

So, reading Uncanny Avengers and All-New X-Men back-to-back yesterday, I started to wonder what to make of two of the Marvel NOW! flagship titles’ use of time-travel and literally bringing fan-favorite characters back from the past into today’s comic books. Even though the appearance of both the original X-Men (Except, of course, now they’re not the original X-Men) and the Red Skull didn’t end up in Marvel NOW!’s now through similar methods, I can’t help but hope that there’s some connective tissue to the re-use of the idea between the two books, especially considering both books are playing in the exactly same conceptual sandbox (That is, “How do we respond to the death of Charles Xavier/re-emergence of mutants as an evolutionary force/Cyclops apparently going bad?”) and All-New X-Men is doing weird things to established character continuity (Jean’s upgrade in #2, he says, skirting around the spoiler slightly, which doesn’t really make a lot of sense if we’re going on the original reasoning behind it). Is there groundwork for a future event being laid already in terms of time travel, and if so, is even the brand name “Marvel NOW!” a hint…?

Thinking about Marvel’s upcoming Age of Ultron this weekend, I started to wonder whether the similarities between the upcoming event and DC’s 2008 event Final Crisis are entirely accidental or not. Both series are centered around the idea of a long-standing bad guy finally succeeding in taking over the world, both are events with breaks built into the structure of the series, both are event books with multiple artists (Although, in Final Crisis‘ case, that wasn’t exactly the intent at the start of things; weirdly, both titles featured Carlos Pacheco as one of the core artists), and both are “limited” crossovers in terms of officially-branded tie-ins; Age of Ultron is expected to total somewhere around 22 issues by the time it’s all said and done, and Final Crisis was, what, 27 (I may be forgetting some tie-ins somewhere for that one)…?

Considering the (lack of) impact Final Crisis had on the larger DCU, I can only hope that Age of Ultron doesn’t go the same way for Marvel…

This is just spectacular – The Periodic Table of Comic Books, which tracks uses of particular elements in comic books. It’s the work of University of Kentucky chemistry professors John P. Selegue and F. James Holler, and it’s filled with all manner of wonderful (and somewhat hilarious, albeit unintentionally so) Golden and Silver Age work, especially a lot from – as you’d expect – Metal Men and Metamorpho. If only they’d had this when I was a kid, I might have been better in science class…

(Via.)

How long has Age of Ultron been in development? Well, we had a prologue appear in April of 2011 (and a second prologue show up in September of that year). We know that Bryan Hitch finished the art for his half before he started on America’s Got Powers (which launched this April), and also that it doesn’t reflect current Amazing Spider-Man/Superior Spider-Man continuity when it launches, although it will apparently catch up at some point. But an easier way to check may be to look at this double-page spread released to CBR and see what’s out-of-date:

So, let’s see: Xavier’s alive, Hawkeye’s in his old costume, Carol Danvers is a Ms. instead of a Captain Marvel, Bucky Barnes is Captain America… But, wait: There’s more going on on that wall that just old continuity, because said wall also features characters that (a) have been dead for awhile and (b) Age of Ultron writer Brian Michael Bendis himself killed off: Sentry? Ares? There’s also a mention of Rom, weirdly enough. So is this artwork that’s been lapsed by current events in Marvel continuity, a tease that part of Age of Ultron takes place in an alternate timeline, or something else altogether? It’ll take until the start of the event next year to get an answer – but it’ll be interesting to see how much of the above spread gets corrected/altered in the coloring/lettering process before it sees print, too.

One of the best pieces of obscure Marvel history shared by Sean Howe as promotion for his (very good) Marvel Comics: The Untold Story book? Probably this memo from Roy Thomas to Stan Lee in 1972 about a series of proposed horror comics:

Suggested titles and comments:

(1) Beware! This Magazine Is… HAUNTED! This is one of Fawcett’s old titles from ’50s and, non-horror-reader that I was, it always grabbed me. The word “haunted,” which is not used in any DC book or as the strict title of a Charlton book, should not be overlooked as we did “Ghosts” until too late (“Ghosts” was one title we kicked around before TOWER OF ETCETERA a couple of years back; now DC has it)

(2) At the Stroke of MIDNIGHT! (Since we can’t do “Witching Hour” — and since this seems to be a very effect title, having been used on 500 Timely horror stories over the years.)

There’s more at the link.

Not only do I love the idea of a comic called Beware! This Magazine Is… HAUNTED! (Please, Marvel! Is it too late to change the title of the new Morbius to this?), I’m also surprised at how clearly the horror line was intended as a reaction to DC’s horror books, with both Ghosts and Witching Hour getting named specifically. Also, how can you not love overly-long titles that end in ALL-CAPS?