Mark Millar responds to Before Watchmen as only Mark Millar can:

AFTER WATCHMEN: THE SECRET SERVICE

Do I dare do that as a publicity campaign for the book?

“Attention Watchmen loyalists – Vote with your dollars and buy Secret Service #1 in April”

Is that too much? Even for me?

Considering Watchmen‘s Dave Gibbons is illustrating the book, it’s almost fitting, especially as – as Sarah Velez puts it in the resulting thread at Millarworld, “[t]his is pretty much the perfect dichotomy between creator owned and company owned stuff. You and the co-creator of the watchmen coming out with original new material–while DC put out prequels down by neither co-creator, based on 25 year old work.” With DC creating “Before Watchmen” as a brand, it was only a matter of time before someone decided to use “After Watchmen”; if not this, then I’d hope Top Shelf use it for the next League of Extraordinary Gentlemen book…

For followers of comic history, the Comics Journal website is reprinting a Gary Groth interview with Kevin Eastman where he talks about Tundra, his well-intentioned-but-ultimately-doomed publisher from the early 1990s, and it is a must-read, if only to see just how the best intentions can end up going so horribly, horribly wrong:

I believed I was armor-plated and unstoppable. I thought I would have all the resources I needed with some of the finest work from some of what I thought were some of the best creators in the field, and that this would be the “comics company” that would break down some of those barriers. By the time I arrived at the cold “reality” of my “fantasy,” I’m killing myself for something that’s never going to work: it’s too late! This whole time, as long as I’m physically awake, I’m working. Either related to Mirage or related to Tundra: In a bed that I made myself, for sure… I really thought that Tundra would be something. But it was ludicrous. I thought I would spend a year forming this brilliant company that would break all the rules. I’d bring all these talented people in and then expect them to climb inside my head, read my mind, and try to make these impossible things happen. At the same time I’m a poor leader crippling them.

It’s fascinating, occasionally breathtakingly ludicrous, stuff. A must read.

Wondering what it’s like for self-publishing creators these days? This year-in-review by Tina Anderson, who writes what she describes as “graphic novels and fan comics for fans of homoerotic stories,” might answer your questions:

I list Amazon as my most successful distributor, because be it print or digital, they’ve consistently remained a strong and user-friendly, sales outlet.  They’re generous with my take, easy to fulfill, sales info is never late or missing, and payment is always on time.  Also on my list of good partnerships turned out to be LSI.  Loud Snow was produced with them last year and it came out great, and they took over my fulfillment duties with Amazon and BN with no hiccups, saving me the cost of shipping to these sales outlets myself.  I was able to enroll in Ingram, and sold to smaller bookstores—and while this didn’t bring me as much of a percentage as I liked, I appreciated the accuracy of their sales reporting and the willingness to distribute to smaller vendors.  Even the price change on Loud Snow went through without issue, and actually led to an increase in sales.

She’s far less complimentary about Barnes & Noble – “There’s still no dedicated support to smaller pubs for digital works and product page set up—they raid the Bowker database for title information that’s often outdated, then list this misinformation as on sale and take pre-orders,” she notes – as well as Apple and eManga. It’s a fascinating glimpse into a side of the business I rarely think about, but one that I suspect may become more and more important as digital offers creators the chance to own and produce their own work more easily.

Now this is something I can get behind. Joe Eisma, one half of the tag team that created critically-acclaimed Morning Glories, put this up over at his DeviantArt. It’s a nice little mash up of the Morning Glories gang with the Peanuts crew. ” Had this idea for awhile, but never got around to it until now,” Eisma stated on the post. “Would love to do more of these fun things with the Morning Glory Babies as time permits!”

Morning Glories is one of the most talked-about books on the market now. So if you’re looking for getting something for a person interested in getting into comics, but fear they might not be that into capes, I recommend this one.

To celebrate nine years of publishing (damn fine) comics, AdHouse’s Chris Pitzer shares stories from the creation of nine of their books, including Process Recess, Pulphope and the spectacular Skyscrapers of The Midwest:

I forget what year of the MoCCA Festival it was, but it was still at the Puck building, so that means people were in charge who knew what they were doing. (zing!) I was up walking around, which is a luxury at a show, and I saw some skinny kid with a mini-comic in his hand that I had just heard about. I seem to recall it had just won that Isotope Mini-Comic award, and I was curious to see if I thought the judges had any taste. So I asked that skinny kid if I could buy some of those comics from him. I think he gave them to me, being the shrewd business man that he was. Flash forward a few weeks, I finally get to read them, love them, and want to help him spread the gospel of the Midwest. So we come up with a plan to print the mini-comics into a full size maxi-comic and then let him produce new content as he sees fit. I consider the experience of working with Josh Cotter to be one of the best perks to this old AdHouse thing. He is genuine. I love him.

To completely soapbox for a minute: It’s very possible that you’ve not read Skyscrapers of The Midwest by now. This is something that you really, really should rectify as soon as possible; it’s an amazingly good series, and Josh Cotter is hands-down one of the best creators working in comics today. Pitzer is right; he’s definitely the real thing. As is AdHouse Books in general – Here’s to nine more years, and then plenty more after that.

Artist Robbi Rodriguez has been making a name for himself as of late. Aside from independent hits such as Tek Jansen, Moon Lake, and the upcoming Polly and the Pirates 2, he’s also joining Rick Remender on Uncanny X-Force and Vertigo title, The Unexpected. Rodriguez has been promoting the sequel to his creator-owned Frankie Get Your Gun. Blog@ talked to Rodriguez and discussed “FGYG2″ and his influences behind his storytelling process.

Blog@: Robbi, you’ve been promoting Frankie for a while now. The first part came out last year or so, for those unfamiliar with Frankie and why she has to get her gun, can you fill us in?

Robbi Rodriguez: Yeah FGYG is an acid western. It’s about the subject of revenge and just what are the ramifications from those actions. Its follows the typical hit list formula at the very beginning, but I start it out at the end of the list. It follows Frankie Kansas, a child born with the soul purpose to seek retribution of a gang of land grabbers from years past. The thing is Frankie is autistic and that handicap has been used to her advance on her campaign over the years by her trainer, Jericho Topo, a ex-war vet. And it will be needed as her last target , Bastin Window, an immortal space god trying  to make out of town as he’s doubled-crossed one to many folks. But at its heart it’s also about some Mother-Daughter relations. I grew up in a house of women and seeing first hand a woman finding her identity with a mother’s preset obligations. I found it could be the foundation hell of a story. Especially one with basically two female leads.

Blog@: Interesting that you’d make Frankie autisic, any reason on why?

RR: That’s an aspect I took from the 70′s Hong Kong and Japanese films. The protagonist in those films always have a handicap. The one-armed boxer for example that actually serves as an advantage. And with all the films in the revenge genre they always have this one-tracked mind or presented as a thoughtless killing machine. While she is not thoughtless at all, she is presented to her world as one.

Blog@: Like “The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi“?

RR: Exactly.

Blog@: The art style is very kinetic here. What are some influences on your style and the visuals you used?

RR: This is basically the voice that has been trying to get out for a while. “Polly 2″ was the hill I needed to climb to find it. I alway wanted to do something like this because this was something I was not seeing out there while I was originally working on it. I am a huge Jamie Hewlett fan, and as you can see by the work, a huge Tank Girl fan, too. Thus the nod with Frankie’s look. I wanted to see comics like that again. I mean you see it in most indie books, but I wanted to bring it back to genre comics. Not just a slice of life about nerd pop culture. And I also wanted to bring that energy of the 70′s low budget genre pics. I guess what they call “Grindhouse”. I grew up on that stuff. Dawn of the Dead is the point I wanted to hit.  Its so over the top, but at the same time it’s so down to earth. I wanted to bring the attitude of a Hewlett and [Katsuhiro] Otomo with character interaction of a [Alex] Toth and [Dave] Mazzucchelli.

Blog@: So where are you taking Frankie and company in Part 2?

RR: Issue two recounts the story of the train ride out of town. It’s the beginning of the race for Window. All the parties are showcased and what they have to lose. My wife was looking over the end of the issue and she was shocked by a direction I took. I knew I was on to something here. It’s an issue to show that there are no black and white hats here. They are grey in their own way.

Blog@: And you’re planning on making this a web series, correct?

RR: This was always planned as a digital comic from the start. Back in ’05 when I just heard the rumors of an Apple tablet reader. It will be online for free at Frankiegetyourgun.com every Wednesday, 2-5 pages a week. But also a magazine-sized version of the issues as well. Then down the line, a hard cover collection with an EP from this great band called Married with Sea Monsters.I wanna use the Radiohead/NIN model. Value for value. Support it in a way you see fit. If you want to chip a buck or buy a book, rad. If you just wanna just read the book, hey just spread the word. It will also be on Four Studio’s Double Feature with 50 pages at 99 cents.

[Blog@ notes: Robbi even made a "trailer" for FGYG2: click here]

I’ve actually never read or seen Kick-Ass. I just know it came after The Death-Ray [first appeared in Eightball], and when it came out, people said, “Oh, that’s a lot like The Death-Ray,” and now that this book has come out after the movie, people are like, “Oh, that’s a little like Kick-Ass.” And that’s the kind of thing I deeply resent, so I don’t want anybody thinking I’m responding to it… Oh, he doesn’t [have powers]? I didn’t know that. [Laughs.] See? That’s very different. I won’t even have to address this question anymore. Now I know. I’m glad you told me. It’s more similar to Thor or something. [Laughs.]

That’s Dan Clowes, getting over his distaste at hearing about Kick-Ass while talking about his The Death Ray, over at New York Magazine. This now makes me want to see Clowes take over writing Thor.

An interesting twist in the Barnes & Noble/DC/Amazon kerfuffle: 2000AD/Rebellion has stepped in to fill Barnes & Noble’s empty shelves with a new deal that’ll see the line get what is probably its broadest US release to date:

A major part of the deal involves 2000 AD’s extensive library of Alan Moore-written comics. Having published some of Moore’s earliest material for decades, the British company has struggled to find a firm foothold in the giant US publishing business. DC’s loss is 2000 AD’s gain, however, as orders of titles like “The Complete Alan Moore Future Shocks” and “Tharg’s Terror Tales” have been increased by B&N in significant quantities in an effort to fill the hole left in the chain’s stock by the DC Comics purge.

This is great news for 2000AD/Rebellion, although I wonder what will happen if/when the bookseller decides to add the DC titles back to its stores. But as someone who grew up reading 2000AD, and who’s been disappointed by the lack of penetration the title has made in the US to date, this seems like a great opportunity; now I hope there’s going to be enough promotion to ensure that potential readers know what these books actually are.

Color me fascinated by the news that SLG has made the jump to offering all of its single issues through digital only, especially given publisher Dan Vado’s reasons why (In the announcement, he’s quoted as saying “The market has been pushing us away from serialized comics and more towards books and graphic novels for some time… However it is difficult to publish a 200 page graphic novel from an unknown artist without having some sort of lower-cost entry point like a comic book series to help build an audience, so going digital first seems like a good way to introduce readers to new creators and build an audience which we can build on for potential book releases”). This feels oddly important, both in terms of an indicator of where the direct market is at these days, but also as a test of the strength of the digital market: Will there be enough of an audience there to subsidize – and advertise – the eventual print editions, or is this more of a “Whatever we can make from digital is a bonus” scenario?

It’ll be interesting to see if other publishers follow suit, and if so, which ones – For all of the news of DC and Marvel both claiming various digital victories in the last few weeks, I can’t help but feel that the real strides in digital are being made by indies (SLG, Archie and IDW in particular). If we see companies like Boom!, Dynamite or even Dark Horse pushing a similar strategy – pushing some titles as digital-only until the collection, say – I wonder how long it’ll take before the Big Two follow… and what that will do to the direct market.

This roundtable with the publishers of Boom!, Dark Horse, Dynamite, IDW and Top Cow on what effect the DC relaunch will have on them is well worth a read, for two reasons. Firstly, almost all of them argue that their books didn’t see drops in sales in September, despite the massive push on DC’s behalf. Secondly, Nick Barrucci speaking truth:

Do I agree with other publishers that this is generally good news for them? Yes, it is on so many levels. Not on every level, but on so many levels. It’s generally good news for the whole industry because if retailers are making more money they are more stable. The drop in sales have been so bad this summer, that one of the biggest and best retailers in the country was affected. And it hurts the industry. Atomic was one of the top retailers who carried comics, and help “move the needle.” Mike was, and always will be, a mainstay in our industry. If Atomic Comics were still around during this DC launch I would say, not knowing all the reasons why they closed down, that this would have impacted them positively sales wise to where the money would have helped them where they may not have needed to shut down. Would they make all of the money last week, this week, or this month? I don’t know, but over the course of the rest of the year I believe it could have. It’s terrible that they closed down literally a few weeks before they DC re-launch happened, terrible. But DC is going to put more money in retailer’s pockets both from outside the industry and inside. This will help stabilize retailers cash flow. And the marketing that DC is putting behind this, is incredible. It’s unprecedented. Between the news coverage, the advertising they are doing, the co-op, it is historic. This is better than a movie bringing awareness as I feel few movies push the industry, and today do not push comics sales as they may have. On select titles and characters, yes. Across the board, no. DC is working to promote comics. The periodicals. The bread and butter of the industry. They are creating the awareness that only DC or Marvel could. Long-term will it help? Yes. Does a rising tide float all boats in other words? Sure, why not. A rising tide will float boats, but is it today or long term. I’m betting long term. But today, the rising tide allows DC’s boat more than anyone’s, and again, as it should be. They made it happen.

The entire article is a fascinating look at what some of the leading indie publishers are thinking about the state of the industry, and well worth checking out. Go read.

It’s sad news that Peter Laird has announced the end of the Xeric Award for upcoming indie cartoonists, especially looking at Laird’s explanation as to why:

When I began the Xeric Foundation back in 1992, things were very different. The Internet — and web-based publishing — was in its infancy. This has changed, radically, and the Xeric Foundation needs to change accordingly.

The advent of essentially free web publishing has forever altered the way aspiring comic book creators can get their work out into the public eye. With this in mind, I have decided that it makes sense that the Xeric Foundation will no longer provide grants to self-publishing comic book creators, and instead devote all of its available grants funds to charitable organizations.

Ignoring that webcomics and print comics are two different beasts – and that the rise of one does not necessarily mean a drop-off in those wanting to pursue the other – I’m surprised that Laird is dropping the grant altogether, instead of perhaps offering smaller grants for webcomic creators. After all, “essentially free” is not the same as “actually free,” and the more popular a webcomic, the greater the server costs.

I’m not begrudging the donations to charitable organizations – Just the opposite – but I do wish there had been some way to keep the support system for new creators in addition to that. After all, it’s not like there are multiple Peter Lairds out there offering money to the next generation of comic creators…

As if the relaunching of First Comics wasn’t interesting enough, co-founder Ken Levin offers this surprising bit of news very casually in an interview with CBR:

My understanding is that the initial First Comics titles will be made available to retailers in November, and that First Comics will be directly marketing to comic book stores rather than go through distributors. Retailers at Comic-Con will be able to arrange for books at the First Comics booth, #2001 (mnemonic “Space Odyssey” — it’s the only booth number I remember). Their press runs aren’t so many that they can’t deal with stores directly or that stores can’t deal with them directly. Fortunately not my problem; they’ll get it figured out.

Going directly to retailers? Is this just the first releases, or an ongoing program? It’s an interesting thought – Bypassing Diamond means that the books will be absent from the sales charts, but also means that their print runs can be as small as they need to be without falling afoul of Diamond rules that would see them dropped from Previews. But without the books appearing in Previews in the first place, will enough retailers know they exist in order to buy them directly from the publisher…?

Potentially my new favorite comic blog of the moment is Douglas Wolk’s new one, Dredd Reckoning. Longterm comicinteretters may remember Wolk’s 52 Pick-Up, in which he annotated the hell out of DC’s weekly series following on from Infinite Crisis, but it’s also possible that you know his work from the spectacular Reading Comics book, or his pieces in Rolling Stone, Salon and multiple other places (Full disclosure: He’s also a friend, and one of the most vocal supporters of my move to Portland way back when, so I may be biased in my love of his work). But what makes this particular blog so interesting – especially, I suspect, to those who’ve heard a lot about British anthology comic 2000AD but never actually read any of it – is what he’s doing with it: Reviewing and/or commenting on every single Judge Dredd book in print (and he adds, some that aren’t in print anymore) in roughly chronological order. In other words, it’s the perfect place to read one of comics’ smartest commentators writing about one of comics’ best, and least discussed, series. How can you resist? (more…)

I’ll admit it: I haven’t read Chester Brown’s Paying For It, in part because I don’t have enough disposable income at hand right not to, ironically, pay for it. But that hasn’t stopped me from reading the four part roundtable from the Savage Critics about the book, where retailer Brian Hibbs and critics Abhay Khosla, Jeff Lester, Tucker Stone and Chris Eckert discuss the book, Brown’s argument for the legalization of prostitution and how well appendixes work for comic books. Here’s Abhay:

I didn’t spend too much time with the appendices.  As a life-long Democrat, I’m rather predictably more favorable towards hearing about prostitution than Libertarianism. My family crest has “Prostitution, not Libertarianism” on it, with pictures of Gary Hart and Ted Kennedy underneath.  I got a big whiff of “the market” off the appendices and ran the other way.  Banging whores I want to hear about, but the elaborate rhetorical edifices that libertarians construct around their orgasms– no thanks.  That’s really not of significant interest of me.

The whole thing is very, very worth reading if you have any interest in Brown, Paying For It or just good discussion about comics. Go and check it out.

Bleeding Cool’s Rich Johnston talks to Bob Burden, creator of Mysterymen about Marvel Comics’ new series Mystery Men and their trademarking the name – despite his having used the one word version since 1987:

Nothing good will come of it. I don’t think this kind, clipping indie titles for trademarks, will open the world like an oyster for them. There are probably lots of titles and characters out there that have lapsed, and I’m sure there are a lot that were never officially trademarked at all… What Mike [Richardson, president of Dark Horse, Burden's publisher] explained to me – and this is important for everyone – is that while copyrights last many years, Trademarks last only ten. Well, I think Universal [The studio that made the Mystery Men movie adapting Burden's comic back in 1999] filed for the trademark August 5^th 1999, the day before the movie came out. The Marvel trademark was filed August 5^th 2009. That could even mean that someone was sitting there ready to snipe it. So who knows what else they have their eye on, or what they’re going for next.

At the end of the story, Marvel appears to dispute this:

Marvel representatives tell me that there was no intention to “snipe” a trademark and that the timing was purely coincidental. That the writer, David Liss, asked if the name was available, and it was. And that the whole series was completed before the name was publically announced.

Nonetheless, a simple search of the US Patent and Trademark Office’s site shows that, yes, Marvel trademarked “Mystery Men” on August 5th, 2009. So was Liss working on the book two years ago? And did Marvel really manage to check that the title was available legally, approve the title editorially and apply for the trademark on the same day, never mind it being the same day that the trademark actually became available? Because, while that’s not impossible, it’s certainly an astounding coincidence. In a schaudenfreude-filled way, I look forward to the inevitable lawsuit…

Wondering why Marvel would announce a new line of adaptations of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter novels even though Dynamite Entertainment launched their own Warlord of Mars franchise last year? Or how it’s even possible that Dynamite’s Nick Barrucci can say that their books won’t be affected by the news? Two words: Public domain. Oh, and one more: Synergy. (more…)

I’ll admit that I wasn’t a voracious Valiant reader back in the ’90s – In fact, I’m not sure that I’ve ever read a Valiant book, now that I think about it – but today’s news that the publisher is back seems especially odd to me when you consider that the Gold Key characters are still being published by Dark Horse. I know that there were all new characters like XO Manowar and Archer & Armstrong and all, but… weren’t Solar, Turok and Magnus, Robot Fighter kind of the basis for the entire line? The defensiveness with which the new publishing team’s Jason Kothari addressed the issue over at CBR suggests that the loss is still being felt:

Valiant has a huge library of characters, and we have the Valiant Universe which is larger than any one character as it plays an invaluable role in supporting and strengthening all the characters within it. The Gold Key characters are part of our past, but they are not important to our future.

It’ll be interesting to see what these books look like when they launch next year. I’m nervous that, despite the David Aja preview art, no creator names have been linked to the relaunch in any of the press yet, but if there’s one thing that the new Valiant is already known for, it’s caution – They’ve owned these characters for three years before getting around to announcing the relaunch, after all, so what’s another year or so of waiting around to find out who’s working on the books?

Released on Monday, and entirely lost in the mad shuffle of yesterday’s news… Say hello to the cover art for what will undoubtedly be one of the books of the year:

Hark! A Vagrant, a collection of strips from Kate Beaton’s site of the same name – which I’m hoping that all of you have been reading for a long time now, and if not, go and do it now – is out from Drawn & Quarterly in October, hopefully in time for my birthday. Seriously, there is almost no way that this will not be spectacular.

So, it sounds as if Kick-Ass and X-Men: First Class director Matthew Vaughn has gone a little cold on the idea of adapting the comic book sequel to Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.’s violent “real life” superhero book:

Everyone says we’re doing Kick-Ass 2 but… the weird thing about Kick-Ass 2 is I’d love to do it, because I enjoyed it so much, but I’m a big believer that if you’re going to do a sequel it’s got to be as good as the first one if not better. I just don’t know how I could…

My business brain just says do Kick-Ass 2, shoot it and get it out there and it would make a lot of money but I really do love that movie. It was a special moment to me making that film and I don’t want to spoil it. I’m not saying it’s as good as Pulp Fiction but I think it would be weird if Tarantino did Pulp Fiction 2. Everything that made Kick-Ass original and fun, if you do it again, it would be crass…

Firstly: Wait, Kick-Ass wasn’t supposed to be crass?

Secondly: This can’t come as a massive surprise to anyone other than, perhaps, Mark Millar. The original movie wasn’t enough of a success to ensure a sequel, and Vaughn has been offering variations on the theme of “Superhero movies are almost dead” in interviews since before he even started X-Men; First Class; the idea that he’d make three superhero movies in a row seemed incredibly unlikely, if not outright impossible. What I’m curious about now is Millar’s response – He may have promised that this movie would happen in the past, but considering that Nemesis and Supercrooks seem to be more likely to happen as movies at this point, he may just wholeheartedly move both his attention and internal hype machine in their direction, and ignore even the idea of a second Kick-Ass movie from now on…

John Stanley Library: Melvin Monster v. 3
Written & Illustrated by John Stanley
Published by Drawn & Quarterly

Drawn & Quarterly brings readers another collection of John Stanley’s terrific Melvin Monster comics, originally published in the late 1960s. Melvin’s a young monster, living with his Baddy and Mummy in Monsterville, and he just doesn’t fit it. He’s very polite and wants to go to school – which makes him a very poor monster!

This third hardcover collects the final three issues of Melvin, and though the formula has become more obvious than ever (the increasing number of short gags suggest Stanley was running out of twists on his longer narratives), Stanley’s strong cartooning and sturdy scripting keep the series engaging and fun.

While it’s definitely a book for children, fans of quality cartooning will find plenty of reasons to appreciate Stanley’s terrific work. He’s able to move readers’ eyes confidently through pages, and his quirky, iconic character designs capture the core essence of each character so immediately that little dialogue is needed to enforce their personality.

Drawn & Quarterly, working with designer Seth, continue to knock it out of the park in the design and assembly of the Stanley Library tomes. Sturdy hardcovers, sewn bindings, flat solid pages – you can actually give these comics to their target audience! I’m almost disappointed to get to the end of Melvin Monster; it’s been a relentless fun, terrifically clever series. If you have kids, get all three books. If you don’t, you still owe it to yourself see why Stanley’s considered a master (I’d recommend the second book if you get only one – that’s where I felt Stanley’s voice felt strongest and freshest on this particular series).