Todd Klein has posted on his blog that letterer Joe Rosen has passed away.

Rosen, who was 88, started his career at Harvey Comics, and had credits stretching back all the way to 1948. His most influential credits include the Frank Miller run on Daredevil (shown above), as well as the Spider-Man/Superman crossover.

The Comics Reporter had this to say about Rosen:

Rosen’s work managed to combine a certain hushed quality with routine clarity and even, one could say, a muscularity achieved through the crowded precision of the kerning. He enabled Miller’s unique voice in a way that was quite unique, and the work would have been slightly but I think perceptibly different without him. The long-time letterer’s work continues to be seen through Marvel’s increasingly aggressive reprint programs.

It’s a shame, as a lot of readers — indeed, even a lot of folks in the industry — will snub letterers, not even realizing that lettering is the glue that holds the whole she-bang together. Mark Evanier has a nice article up about the value of good lettering — check it out.

Scott McCloud, author of Understanding Comics and Zot!, has written an interesting post up on comics criticism — specifically, looking at negative reviews.

For myself, I always consider reviews useful—even the hatchet jobs. It makes my heart sink a little when I hear other artists dismiss all reviews as irrelevant to their process. A common claim is that reviews tell us “only about the reviewer” and tell us “nothing about the work,” but I disagree. Yes, reviewers have biases. Yes, they miss the point sometimes. But there’s always some kind of information embedded in any reaction to any creative effort.

As someone who writes reviews on a fairly regular basis, I think the idea of how the industry sees these things is really important. The best reviews — the way they should work, or at least the way I hope they work — is not only to give notice to like-minded consumers of whether or not it’s a praiseworthy effort, but to also be an advocate for readers, to respectfully let creators know what works and doesn’t work for us. In a perfect world, reviewers’ reactions to the work — even if they’re off the mark — give everyone some perspective.

But it doesn’t always work that way. Are there some reviewers with an axe to grind out there? Oh, yeah, I’d believe it — I’ve seen plenty of industry folks I know and respect have calls to be fired, have streams of invective sent their way because someone didn’t like — or worse yet, didn’t get — the work in question. Sometimes, nostalgia wins out — I’m sure you can think of status quo changes that are more controversial than others. Other times, things are lost in translation. Sometimes that’s the reviewers’ fault — other times, it’s a question of clarity on the creators’ part.

But, similar to what McCloud says at the end of his post, the most important thing — the only important thing — that a reviewer needs to have is that regardless of who you’re reviewing, regardless the character or status quo, the thing that’s most important is that a reviewer should want the industry to succeed and keep moving onwards. The story and its presentation — not the politics or inside baseball — is all that matters in comics criticism. What do you think? Fans, industry people, let us know what you think!

Talk about stepping up your game — based on an announcement issued yesterday, you can tell that BOOM! Studios is dead serious about getting their books out.

Why do I say that? The company announced yesterday that they would be teaming up with Haven Distributors, who would distribute all second printings of both the BOOM! Studios lineup and BOOM! Kids — which by the way houses their line of Disney licensed comics — to direct market stores.

The English translation here: first and foremost, having an alternate distributor is a fairly big deal. When BOOM! Studios sells out a first printing of a book, the company no longer has to wait for Diamond to send second printings out, as they work with specific monthly distribution points. Instead, if a store runs out of a book and orders a second print, Haven is free to send stuff out whenever they want.

“Retailers have been begging us to get our second prints into their stores at a faster pace for the past year,” said BOOM! Studios CEO Ross Richie in a press statement. “We’re happy to be able to offer retailers another choice in getting an important part of our product line to their stores and into the hands of their customers.”

This deal goes in conjunction with BOOM!’s deals with Simon and Schuster and HarperCollinsCanada, who distribute the company’s graphic novels to the mass market in the U.S. and Canada respectively.

Don’t worry, I’m not talking about a sixth robot lion or leaving the Galaxy Alliance.

But Voltron will be joining a heavy-hitting group, as the Hollywood Reporter announced today that they would be joining United Talent Agency.

According to the report, UTA will be working on a possible cartoon, as well as video game and toy deals. The franchise is also moving toward a full-length feature with Dark Knight producer Charles Roven and his company Atlas Entertainment, as well as Jason Netter’s Kickstart Productions.

Our little Archie is growing up.

First, he got married. Now, he’s thinking about the future — and he’s got himself some representation.

Variety reports that Riverdale’s favorite redheaded playa, along with the rest of his supporting cast, has been picked up by CAA.

Considering Disney has bought up Marvel and Warner Bros. has taken a stronger rein over DC Comics, apparently Archie Comics wants a similar sort of Hollywood interest. CAA has also helped out with Tom Hanks’ action figure spinoff film “Major Matt Mason.”

So I’m a little slow on the draw for this particular post — I’ve been meaning to write something about it, and other news got in the way — but I was interested to see Tom Brevoort talk about something that’s been on the minds of a lot of Avengers fans: will the classic lineup return?

We’ll use any and all of the classic Avengers characters as the situation demands it, of course, but those folks who are hoping for a full-blown reversal of the last ten years and a complete return to the Avengers of a decade ago are sadly in for a disappointment. And the reason for this should be obvious: in the last decade, AVENGERS has become the leading franchise in comics, and that’s in large part due to the alterations we made in the basic formula. I love the classic Avengers as much as the next person-and I edited them for a good, long time-but there are clearly so many more readers who are interested in the team and the book since we turned over the apple cart that there really isn’t any good reason to go back, other than nostalgia.

I’ll be honest, I was really sad to read this — even though I completely understand his point. It took me awhile to figure it out, but once I did, it was crystal clear: as someone who has been reading comics for the past decade and a half, I’ve always liked the Avengers more as an idea than in execution. (The one time that hasn’t been the case was the brief Geoff Johns run on the book — and even then, I didn’t really dig the book until he teamed up with Oliver Coipel for the Red Zone arc.) Because despite the archetypes being used in this book — which really do rival the Big Seven JLA in a lot of ways — a lot of times the book felt jumbled. Cramped. Suffocated by continuity and story arcs that just felt inconsequential.

In response to that, Marvel decided to do their own take on the Justice League model — ie, assemble their most popular characters for a team. Now, as someone who has been reading the current Avengers books, they aren’t series that leap off the shelves and mug me for my hard-earned dollars — for me, the tone doesn’t quite float my boat, even despite Brian Michael Bendis’ talents with Luke Cage and Ultimate Comics Spider-Man. (Which I adore.) But for a lot of people, it makes sense — it’s Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, and Wolverine teaming up, it sets the tone for crossovers for the rest of the Marvel Universe, and they dig Brian Michael Bendis’ dialogue, and that’s enough for them. It’s SOMETHING in the Avengers’ favor, when for so long it was hampered by continuity and Z-list characters. (Gilgamesh, I’m looking at you!)

But the question I have it this: when Hollywood — and thus, the general non-comics-reading public — see the Avengers, they will see something closer to the classic mold, with Cap, Iron Man, Thor, The Black Widow, The Hulk, and maybe Hawkeye or Ant-Man or the Wasp in the mix as well. Will Marvel rework the Avengers to fit that mold, as they gave Spidey his black costume back when Spider-Man 3 hit theatres? Or is the classic lineup now more Mark Millar’s domain, with the Ultimate Avengers? In Marvel’s defense, one could easily say that if you want your classic Avengers, look no further than that.

I don’t know for certain. I know that Brian Michael Bendis has done a lot to bring in the bajillion new readers to the Avengers books, which puts them higher up on the Top 300 comics lists month after month than they probably ever were. But, to play Devil’s Advocate, I also feel like comics writing has really ramped up its standards of quality in the past 10 years — taking more of a page from blockbuster cinema as opposed to soap opera — and I wonder if a classic Avengers lineup written under those conditions, with an Ed Brubaker or Matt Fraction playing up the archetypes’ potential, wouldn’t do well enough to make it worth Marvel’s while. What do you think? Are the New Avengers more archetypal than the Avengers Classic? If you wanted a return to the classic line, who do you think would be able to pull it off? Sound off!

From the UPI…

Really, if you want to push a right-wing agenda, you may want the help of a dictionary. I’ll let the Chicago Sun-Times‘ Richard Roeper explain:

Just a few ways in which Obama’s policies differ from a socialist agenda: socialism would mean no health insurance companies; decriminalization of drugs and prostitution; immediate withdrawal of all troops on foreign soil; a certain cap on all salaries in any situation and public funding for the media. I don’t see the White House calling for such measures, do you?

What say ye? Inventive comic tie-in? Guerrilla propaganda at its finest?

It struck me this week that one of my favorite bits of the Phonogram comics is the extra content at the back. I love the glossary of music referenced in the issue, the ramblings, the little view inside of the creators’ heads. I realized that several of my other favorite comics include this bit of backmatter–Local, any number of Warren Ellis books. The Vertigo Voices in the back of the Vertigo books are great fun.

It’s almost like the liner notes on a CD–one of the reasons I still buy CDs in solid format is the little booklet that comes along with it, with lyrics and pictures and other little treats. It’s a reason to still buy the solid artifact. The whole package. In a digital age, when there’s any amount of free media available on the Web, buying something you can hold in your hands has to have extra value. I get annoyed at CDs that come packaged in a simple cardboard folder and go buy the songs on iTunes instead–I don’t need the clutter if it’s not really worth having (I live in a studio apartment!).

The double features in the backs of comics are a great little bit of added value as well. I’m enjoying the resurrection of Manhunter in the back of Streets of Gotham, and the B-sides in Phonogram are fun as well. They can be experiments with shorter stories, or complete in themselves, or just choppier fragments of an ongoing tale, but they’re mostly just an added value to something you’re already buying.

As print becomes rarer, people are going to expect more and more for their money, and they’re going to expect something that won’t be the same in digital form. All these additions are a good start to experimenting with this idea.

Those attending the upcoming San Diego Comic-Con would serve themselves well to check out a party happening over that weekend. Fresh off a website overhaul, pop culture headmistress (and longtime Newsarama supporter) Whitney Matheson is hosting her Pop Candy Comic-Con Meetup. Held poolside at the Hilton San Diego Bayside (next to the convention center), most anything Ms. Matheson arranges promises to be a fun, sexy time.

Go to this link for details on this gathering Saturday, July 25th!

If you ever have the pleasure of hanging out with me for more than about an hour at a time, chances are I’ll play you some of my favorite “nerdcore” rappers (though that may be a misnomer for some of them). I usually start off easy with MC Lars, a guy who skates between nerdcore, parody, and sometimes just plain old fun songs, whom I’m happy to call my friend. After that I might drop some of the original nerdcore rapper on you with some MC Frontalot, then try to branch you out a bit into other realms of underground hiphop (that sometimes happens to have nerdy lyrics) like Schaffer the Darklord, K. Flay, Optimus Rhyme, and many others.

The aforementioned MC Lars put up a blog post tonight saying nerdcore as it was originally conceived is dead or dying, and it’s up to new musicians (and those currently making songs out of life) to come up with the next big thing.

As with any genre, if you want to last, you have write songs that affect people in an emotional way and have an interesting live show and be very savvy with your business. What came up were hundreds of Myspace sites with kids rapping over Nintendo samples about Star Wars and how they couldn’t get laid. Nerdcore has been declining in popularity and notoriety because, to be quiet honest, its appeal as a genre outside of a select few people is ultimately finite. The Ramones and the Sex Pistols had an aesthetic that changed music forever, Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash perfected the art of the breakbeat and changed the party vibe by creating a context for funky beats to be played for hours with no gaps. It wasn’t until punk evolved into the post-punk of bands like Joy Division and Public Image Limited that it became interesting again and it wasn’t until the of the breakbeat and production were reinvented by guys like Dre that hip-hop began to evolve musically. Not to oversimplify things, but music evolves when people realize that it’s time for something new, and that time for nerdcore hip-hop is now.

It’s a really cool essay on music and musicians and a lot of what he says can be applied to the evolution of creative works in general. He also lets you know who else you should be listening to that’s pushing music forward right now, and who you should go to for a little hip-hop education.

Since initially being introduced to the genre and its close siblings wow, 5 or 6 years ago now, I’ve seen it change quite a bit. Lars isn’t wrong, there are a lot of pretenders and copiers, but there are also people taking the Do-It-Yourself ethics and nerdy storytelling that nerdcore was built on and doing it in fresh new ways; some are even taking it back outside the realm of hiphop, from Jonathan Coulton to Kirby Krackle, there are people out there putting out great, new music in great, new ways, that happens to appeal largely to us of the nerdy persuasion.

So go give MC Lars’ post a read, then give a listen to some of these guys, then if you’re so inclined, go out and make some tunes yourself (and feel free to post them here).

It’s been a long time coming, but Watchmen fever has finally decreased a bit.

Inspired by the marketing on the Zack Snyder film (and eventually transcending the atrocious reviews of the commercial flop), Watchmen has been sitting pretty on the sales charts for nearly a year — at #1, to be exact.

Well, ICv2 has reported that for the first time since June 2008, Watchmen was no longer the king of BookScan’s list of top-selling graphic novels, with the top spot now being taken by Bleach Vol. 27.

Manga has traditionally dominated the list, with only Grant Morrison’s Final Crisis hardcover and Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer Vol. 4 representing from the top mainstream companies.

This week kicked off with some interesting news, with Wizard CEO Gareb Shamus announcing that the ailing entertainment company would be assuming the reins of FunFare, a toy magazine aimed at younger children.

Yet at the same time, we’ve also heard reports of even more layoffs, in addition to general complaints about Wizard’s online store. With competition looming in the convention department, and Wizard’s staff and funds shrinking to the point of consolidating into one New York office, what’s the company’s next step?

You may be surprised, but apparently it’s taking over a new convention — in Toronto.

According to the Beat, Wizard has announced that it has purchased the Toronto Comicon. “We’ve always had a strong following in Canada, so buying the Toronto Comicon is something that allows me to give back to our fans. These attendees are known to be serious collectors and comic industry followers,” Shamus said in a press release.  “I am thrilled to offer the guests, celebrities, artists, dealers and exhibitors to our Canadian audience for the very first time.”

Peter Dixon, the former owner of the con, will be “intimately involved” with the new management, who are scheuled to debut the all-new, all-different con in 2010. But with Wizard’s shrinking fortunes, is this a sound reinvestment strategy, or a Hail Mary in the face of opposition from exhibitors like Reed and websites like, well, us? What say you, Rama readers?

Valerie D’Orazio has an interesting article up on her blog about the pop culture magazine Tripwire.

While there had been some cyberspace campaigning to shore up order numbers, the magazine was unable to rank high enough to meet Diamond US’s benchmark. A highlight:

With “Comic Foundry” and “Comics Now!” gone, and “Wizard” seemingly in a not-so-awesome state…I dunno, what is the fate of the comic book magazine nowadays, anyway? Or the pop-culture periodical in general?

It’s a very interesting read, and does pose some interesting questions about comics coverage in general. (And this comes off the heels of another interesting article of Valerie’s for Comixology, in which she wonders what is the “line” that comics coverage shouldn’t cross.)

Just looking at one point she mentions — of the Big Companies having an in-house comics news apparatus — I think that the companies do already have their own outlets (albeit not as all-encompassing as an all-purpose comic news site, as someone who’s covering them on a daily basis). For me, and I say this acknowledging perhaps some subtle bias, I think having a mix of inside and outside coverage is healthy, as it gives both a steady stream of new material from the insiders, as well as a perspective (and perserverence) that truly comes from a neutral but invested reader. What do you think?

Our own Rev OJ Flow has shown off his awesome superhero tattoos here a few times. He’s opted for several characters with relatively small representations. Well, one fan had a slightly different idea:

Yup, that’s an actual chest with an actual tattoo of the tattered Spidey costume, complete with battle damage, as posted at GeekStir. According to the recipient of said tattoo, it took over 9000 minutes, or 150 hours to complete. That is one dedicated Spider-fan.

Curious about the new Kate Beckinsale film, based on the Greg Rucka/Steve Lieber book by Oni Press?

Time to get more curious.

[Link via TrailerHQ]

Whoops - According to Greg Rucka himself (and pointed out below), this isn’t the trailer. At his blog, Rucka writes: “There’s a Whiteout trailer that’s apparently making the rounds at the moment. It is not the official movie trailer, but rather the teaser that WB put together for San Diego the year before last. It’s not bad, but it’s not the trailer.”

The trailer, according to Rucka, will be in front of the film Orphan.

May proved to be a Crisis that wasn’t limited to the pantheon of DC Comics, as comic book sales plummeted by double-digit percentage points.

ICv2 reports that comic book sales dropped 19 percent in May from the previous year, with graphic novel sales dropping 13 percent. The overall drop totals at 18 percent. Here’s some more details:

A lack of potent #1 issues as well as the absence of Dark Avengers certainly didn’t help comic sales this May, a month in which no single title even came close to breaking the 100K barrier.  In contrast in May of 2008, which boasted seven titles over 100,000, comic sales were boosted by Final Crisis #1, Avengers/Invaders #1, Invincible Iron Man #1, and Giant Size Astonishing X-Men #1, all of which made the top ten along with 4 Secret Invasion titles and two issues of Batman RIP.  The paucity of big event titles and strong #1s, the continuing deep recession, and the financial drag of higher cover prices all worked together to help produce the steep decline in comic numbers in May.

The top three comics of May 2009 were New Avengers #53 (94,367 copies sold), Battle for the Cowl #3 (89,170 copies sold), and Wolverine #72 (87,075 copies sold).

This drop is the largest ever reported by ICv2. In addition, April 2008 and 2009 both had five weeks of shipping, whereas May had the typical four.

All right, New York fans — if you dig Steve Dillon, here’s your chance to meet and greet!

The Hero Initiative has announced that on Wednesday, June 24th, the Preacher and Punisher penciller will be hitting Jim Hanley’s Universe in Manhattan from 6pm to 8pm.

All proceeds, both for the $5 raffle as well as the $15 sketches, will go to the Hero Intiative, which helps out creators in financial or medical need. If you’re in the area, check it out!

That’s a terrible attempt at keeping a sad situation light. We missed this last week, but apparently another high profile member of the Wizard Magazine crew has been fired. This time around, it’s Arlene So, a designer that did the flashy layouts the magazine’s features always showed off.

Add this to the troubles we reported on a couple weeks ago with their Amazon Store, the massive layoffs over the last few months, the closing of their upstate New York office, the ending of Anime Insider, the ridiculous turnover of the convention staff, including organizers that were much beloved, the “postponement” of Wizard World LA… the list is getting rather long, and if anything seems to be picking up steam.

With fond memories, as a child, of reading Wizard magazine for the latest in comic news, and fond memories, as an adult, of attending Wizard World cons, this is far from a happy occasion for me. Luckily, with a group like Reed Exhibitions stepping up to bat, and only having to focus on cons, not on the ridiculous overhead of print, that aspect seems to be filled. You’ve heard that video killed the radio star, well it seems internet is killing the novelty mag, and this is the latest hole in its chest.

[via TCR]

UPDATE: Even as we were running with this story, we’re hearing of more layoffs. Bleeding Cool reported on the dismissals of Scott Klein and Darren Sanchez. Klein was company controller, and Sanchez was VP of production and circulation. Bleeding Cool also reiterates what we reported recently: the troubles with Wizard’s online sales. We’ll have more as this develops.

Probably the coolest thing you’ll see on the web today right here. Sorry to apoil the internet for you the rest of the day, but this is just too cool:

In honor of Gundam’s 30th Anniversary, they’ve built a life size model. Unfortunately, this means a war between Earth and the Space Colonies is bound to happen soon, so any teenagers out there in Tokyo should get ready to stumble upon this behemoth and have some natural intuition on how to use it. Everyone else, just drool at the awesome, and click through the link above for more pictures of this bad boy.

[via Twitter]

Sporadic Sequential has posted some rather sad news regarding Nexus, the sci-fi comic being put out by Steve Rude, a criminally underrated artist if I do say so myself.

With Diamond Comic Distributors rules being tighter than ever, Rude and his company Rude Dude Productions has been hit especially hard, as seen by this e-mail:

Steve is then turning his focus to gallery paintings. Steve is a brilliant artist and we’ve been living hand to mouth for the past 3 years. Losing over $5,000 in the last 2 printings we have been unable to pay our mortgage have have no desire to lose our house.

Steve does plan to continue in comics putting out a book direct to trade every few years and using gallery painting as a means to finance his comic endeavors.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us by ordering commissions or purchasing artwork.

Sporadic Sequential has their own good thoughts on all this, as well as a link to Rude’s online store. It’s always a shame when true talent gets strangled in this economy, but the worst thing we can do it is take it in silence.