Today sees the release of both Oni Press’ Wasteland #33 and Dynamite Entertainment’s Lord of The Jungle #1, both of which are specially-priced promotional issues that offer a full-length issue for just $1.00. I’ve read – and enjoyed – both, but it’s a fair bet that I was going to pick both up nonetheless (Especially as I’ve enjoyed Wasteland for some time; if you’re a fan of post-apocalyptic sci-fi, you really should pick the series up). Why I’m mentioning the books, though, is that I’m wondering if specially-priced (i.e., cheap) promo issues work: Have you found yourself trying series that you usually wouldn’t because they were a buck? Or, just the opposite, have you ever found yourself avoiding a book because of this kind of stunt? Use the comments, people: I’d love to know what people think.

If rumors are true, DC Comics is just days away from announcing a new corporate logo (which has so far received more than its fair share of abuse online; personally, I quite like it). What’s surprising about this – beyond the fact that the reveal wasn’t timed with last September’s linewide relaunch of the entire DCU line – is the logo itself, which is the first in the company’s 77 year history to break with the brand’s visual signature of the circle. After all, here are DC’s logos to date:

Even with the tilted spin of the most recent logo, there’s a sense of evolution and continuity from redesign to redesign that the rumored new logo just… doesn’t have. Clearly, it’s the end of an era…

Last week, Marvel stripped announcements across five days of press conferences, with Next Big Thing events for previously-known events like Remender and Hardman’s Secret Avengers run and the 15th anniversary of Thunderbolts mixed in with artist changes (Walt Simonson joining Avengers), crossovers (“The Omega Event” running through Avenging Spider-Man, Daredevil and Punisher) and a book relaunch (Captain America And…). In comparison, DC lumped the announcement of six new series into one USA Today story.

There’s something to be gleaned from this comparison, but I’m not entirely sure what it actually is just yet: That Marvel knows how to make the most out of what could otherwise be bland status updates? That DC prefers to emphasize the overall “New 52″ line over individual books or individual creators (I feel that Marvel tends to place creators at the center of their announcements, whereas DC’s feel more focused on the characters, DC as a company and the upper echelons of management, but that may just be me)? That Marvel just generally makes more of a song and dance out of things than DC…? If nothing else, that last one does fit the stereotype for both companies, so maybe it’s really just as simple as that – but I can’t stop myself feeling as if both companies could choose to learn from each other in terms of which announcements to emphasize, and which to just leave out there without feeling the need to push.

Warren Ellis offers the public service of explaining to would-be comic writers exactly what the purpose of a comic script is:

This set of instructions must surround your story to the extent that you feel necessary and comfortable. Some writers produce reams of panel description because they require fine control of the artist, letterer and colourist to meet their vision of the story. Some writers boil their description down to a telegram because they require only that the most basic requirements of the panel be met in order to achieve their goals.

Both methods, however, and everything in between, are about manipulation of the artist. That sounds grim, doesn’t it?

Is it strange that I hope that this is the first installment in a series of posts commenting on/teaching comic writing skills by Ellis? The lack of his voice in the comic criticism/analysis continues to feel like a noticeble absence, even all these years after he last wrote about comics on a regular basis.

What makes a hit comic? In a thread over at Millarworld, Mark Millar tries to explain:

A book needs 2 of 3 things to sell in the direct market… a big writer, a big artist and a big character. 3 is better but to really do well you need at least 2. This is why the Millarworld books sell so well every month as they’re aimed at established readers. Trade sales are more mainstream and so the artist doesn’t need to have established himself at Marvel or DC.

It’s an interesting thread overall, if only for the glimpse inside Millar’s take on how to promote your books and your brand:

Like Marvel, I also embraced a multimedia approach and quickly got them going as movies, T-shirts, games, toys and had the success of those bring heat to the new projects… I’ve timed this carefully. Not just building a rep on company-owned, but I think the cycle at the moment is people wanting fresh concepts like they wanted them in 1992. There’s only so many times a villain can come back in the old books. The Millarworld books so far show the audience and multimedia potential is unlimited. A lot of people really hadn’t gotten what I’ve been doing here, but they’re starting to see it now. All going well we’ll have 2 or more movies a year coming out by 2013 and beyond.

Millar also promises that he will continue to be the center of his own brand:

I’ll never bring in other writers. That’s the huge mistake Image made when they expanded too fast in 93/94 and collapsed their model. People knew picking up an Image book meant they were getting one of their fave Marvel artists, but when other guys were writing and drawing those books they diluted their appeal. I’d rather write 3 volumes of Kick-Ass and have them permanently in print with movies, TV shows, games, etc, than have someone come in and dilute what makes it work.

Say what you like about Millar, he’s maintained a level of success from the Marvel work that made his name through to his own creator-owned work, so he’s clearly doing something right…

Marvel has released the cover for Avengers vs. X-Men #1, and as you can see, the Jim Cheung image is going for that superhero classic cover pose – The face-off:

What I’m more interested in, though, is seeing the clues planted in the AvX cover for the rest of the series: Wolverine and Beast are both on the Avengers’ side when the series launches? Well, now we have a better idea of who’ll be crossing sides at some point during the twelve issues, if nothing else…

Something from Axel Alonso’s last CBR piece stuck in my head all weekend:

For “cosmic” to matter, it has to be relatable. For Nova to compete with Spider-Man, Captain America and Wolverine — and we’d love him to — his story has to touch your heart and it has to be grounded in things you can recognize and understand. If the stakes of a Nova story only matter “out there” in space or on some far-flung planet, then no amount of good craft is going to help us reach an audience larger the hardcore cosmic fans.

I think what’s so odd about the statement for me is the idea that things can only be relatable if they’re happening on Earth. Surely a Nova story – or a Green Lantern story or whatever – can be perfectly relatable no matter where it takes place because the reader empathizes with the emotional journey/choices/situation of the characters, whether or not they’re human and living in a location that you can find on Google Earth? I can’t help but think that complaining that the stakes of a story only mattering “‘out there’ in space or on some far-flung planet” is kind of missing the appeal of a lot of sci-fi, not to mention storytelling-as-metaphor, which just seems odd considering Alonso’s history, as well as Marvel’s bread-and-butter of telling stories about people who can do fantastic things far outside the ability of its readers.

That said, it may explain why we’ve not really seen much of the Cosmic books over at Marvel in recent months…

The Adventures of Tintin won Best Animated Feature at the Golden Globes Sunday night, beating out Arthur Christmas, Cars 2, Puss in Boots and Rango. Tintin getting the edge over Cars 2 means that it’s actually the first non-Pixar film in the history of the award to win (past winners, in reverse chronological order, were Toy Story 3, Up, Wall-E, Ratatouille and the original Cars).

Director/producer Steven Spielberg accepted the award, but in his speech, neglected to mention Hergé, the late, legendary Belgian writer and artist who created Tintin. That fact wasn’t lost on multiple observers, including Fear Itself artist Stuart Immonen, who tweeted the following:

The natural next question is whether or not Tintin will earn a similar recognition at this year’s Academy Awards — nominations are announced on Jan. 24, just a tad more than a month before the Feb. 26 show.

Color me a little disappointed here. The Daily Blam reports that during the Television Critics Association press tour, the Powers pilot that was greenlit may not be picked up after all for the 2012 television season. The show would feature Jason Patric as Detective Walker, Lucy Punch as Detective Pilgrim and Charles S. Dutton as the head of a homicide police precinct. The pilot also stars Carly Foulkes as Retro Girl, Bailey Madison as young orphan Calista, Titus Welliver as Triphammer, and Vinnie Jones as, you guessed it,  mobster Johnny Royale.

Everything seemed to be in place, so what exactly happened? “[It's a] fairly substantial rewrite,” FX president John Landgraf explained, adding that much of the pilot would have to be re-shot. “Right now we’re in the process of deciding whether to pull the trigger on that re-shoot.” After filming had completed late last year and the network screened the show, screenwriter Charles Eglee was brought back to perform rewrites on the script which would retool major aspects of the pilot that didn’t quite mesh well. The Hollywood Reporter described the project as “still in limbo.”

This really is a shame, especially with the success of The Walking Dead and Smallville‘s 10 year run, I think this program would be a great addition to any line-up FX might have planned. Maybe a lead in to the second season of American Horror Story?

Readers and Powers fans, what do you think about this situation?

This is interesting: After the trial on Fantastic Four #601, Marvel seems to be moving towards the “self-cover” format for its titles – wherein the paper stock for covers and interior pages are the same – with the following titles being switched to the format according to the most recent shipping update:

Another trial, or perhaps the start of a push towards a new format for Marvel books in general…?

If anyone was surprised to see Ariel Olivetti’s name mentioned as one of the creators working on DC’s newly-announced GI Combat, thinking that he was a Marvel exclusive artist these days, Rich Johnston found a particularly revealing interview with the artist where he talks about working on Iron Man 2.0:

The scripts were awful at the end, at first it worked well with the other story that Marvel was publishing… but later it went to hell. They invented an archivillian that made no sense. The scripts were backwards, the writer married in the middle, leaving everybody stuck, they put an replacement writer who was worse. The editor kicked the replacement writer off and he wrote the scripts. A disaster that thankfully ended.

In the penultimate issue I could draw ten pages and nothing more, because the script never came. So I had a week to deliver the rest and the script was not finished yet. And in the final issue I draw five pages nothing more. I got the script and they said, “How many pages you can do for next Friday?”. And we had five days, five pages. Because I color directly, How would you do it? It’s impossible. So they called in other guys and you will see for yourself. The last issues of Iron Man 2.0 are a disaster. There is one woman who is blonde, then in the other frame is a brunette. It is impossible that in a week all the artists could agree and say “Man, the blouse you have to draw is red, and the girl who was drinking tea, I did drinking beer. ”

Olivetti  went on to compare Marvel to McDonalds, and say “At one time Marvel worked like a little clock, but it melted down 2 or 3 years ago,” before suggesting that he was about to ask permission to leave his exclusive contract early due to lack of available work. This really doesn’t paint whatever happened behind the scenes on the book in anything close to a positive light, and makes you wonder whether the recent spate of multiple-artists-on-one-issue at Marvel is also down to later-than-ideal scripts…

Looks like the former house of Smallville is looking for another bullseye.

Deadline is reporting that the CW is finalizing a deal for a Green Arrow pilot, presently called Arrow. Written and executive produced by Green Lantern co-writers Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim, and Fringe and Vampire Diaries writer, Andrew Kreisberg. This would take place outside comic canon and focus much on it’s own mythology, though I’m sure with nods and certain details from the Green Arrow comic origin.

Now take into consideration that there is still a Deadman pilot in the works and developing a series based on a DC property to succeed the departed Smallville is a priority for the CW this development season. No word yet if Justin Hartley will sling the bow and arrow again this round or if they are looking to start from beginning and start fresh.

So readers, what do you think of this matter? With NBC passing on Wonder Woman, and Smallville gone, is there room for the Emerald Archer on your tv screens?

DC is clearly continuing to revise its collection policies when it comes to pre-New 52 material. Not only does the latest round of shipping updates permanently cancel the final collection of Eric Wallace’s Titans run (and in the same week as his Mister Terrific series gets cancelled, too! Sorry, Mr. Wallace), but it also cancels the current orders for both Batman vs. The Black Glove Deluxe Edition HC and Legion of Super-Heroes: The Choice TP, with both to be resolicited at a later date. It’ll be interesting to see whether or not the content of both collections changes with the new solicits; if nothing else, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Batman vs. The Black Glove Deluxe Edition HC ends up being farmed out into two shorter collections – At 14 issues for $29.99, this oversized hardcover seemed like a surprisingly good deal.

Todd Allen continues his look at Marvel’s surreal collected edition policies over at The Beat, but the must-see comment comes from Charles Vess in the comments:

It would be nice if they actually paid the creators whose work they are reprinting. A year after their Warrior’s Three collection which featured a cover and over 100 pages of my work I received one (!!) comp copy and no word of any sort of reprint or royalty fee. Of course it might not have sold very well. Now I see that they are cobbling together 3 or 4 Spider-Man GNs into one enormous, hideously produced, hardcover. My long ago GN ‘Spirits of the Earth’ which I wrote/drew/painted is one of them. We’ll see what they do about that one. In contrast, DC provides 25 comp copies and a royalty check sent ever 4 months. Hmmm… now who would you work for?

Ouch.

And also: This seems almost unbelievable, right? I’m not the only one who reads that and thinks “Oh, that must be wrong,” surely – I’m not meaning to call Vess a liar, because I firmly believe that he’s telling the truth, but Marvel doesn’t pay reprint royalties or even give creators notice that they’re reprinting their work?!? That just seems breathtaking. Even if that’s only the policy on work of a specific age… I am genuinely stunned. That’s appalling.

If you looked at the list of top-selling collections and OGNs yesterday and thought, “Wait, where’s Marvel?” then this Publishers’ Weekly piece might answer your question in a depressing way:

The problem is that Marvel is inconsistent in what they keep in print. A series with 8 volumes in it will frequently have two or three of the middle volumes out of print. Some titles that should be evergreen sellers, like Secret Wars, will be randomly out of print. To compound the frustration felt by retailers, when titles come back in print, they sometimes are reprinted in a different format entirely… The 10-volume Essential Amazing Spider-Man has volumes 5, 7, 8 and 9 out of stock and the 8-volume Essential Fantastic Four only has volume 8 in stock.

“They’re a publisher that publishes their trade books like they’re periodicals” says [Chicago retailer Eric] Kirsammer, who adds, “They don’t really have a backstock. I’ve been told by Marvel they don’t.”

According to DC Editor-in-Chief Bob Harras, just because OMAC, Hawk & Dove, Men of War, Blackhawks, Mister Terrific and Static Shock are ending with #8 doesn’t mean that we’ve seen the last of those characters:

[T]hose characters that are not going to be in their own titles will be appearing in other books as well. We are definitely dedicated to diversity. That’s not going to stop now. That’s an ongoing part and parcel to what we do.As I said earlier, those characters are not going away. They will be appearing in other books.

Some of those other books seem relatively easy to predict: Mister Terrific, after all, was launched in the Justice League family, and so will presumably turn up in that book at some point, and both Static and Hawk & Dove have histories with the Teen Titans franchise, and so might show up over there in the future (Dove, of course, is also a co-star in Justice League Dark right now, so it’s not impossible that Hawk might join that cast as well). But what about OMAC, the Blackhawks or Sgt. Rock? OMAC, perhaps, might end up in Frankenstein considering their recent crossover, but as for the latter two, I’m stumped. Are there other New 52 books that need these characters – and if so, what are they?

Notice anything missing from the DC section of Diamond Distributors’ list of books to be released next week…? Here’s a clue: It’s been the top-selling book for the last few months, and an embarrassing – but not necessarily surprising – choice for the first New 52 book to miss a scheduled ship date. Yes, Justice League #5 has been delayed according to current shipping updates, fulfilling every naysayer’s expectations since Jim Lee was announced as the series artist.

The book is apparently only slipping a week, but given its third week placement in DC’s monthly schedule, that makes it perilously close to slipping a calendar month in future. Lee is also off the book for #7 and #8 (Gene Ha is filling in with #7, #8′s artist hasn’t been revealed yet, I don’t think…?), allowing the book to get back on time if #6 stays on the later schedule, but nonetheless: the flagship of the line shipping late is sure to cause some red faces over at DC – and if it manages to slip into another month altogether, it’ll also impact the publisher’s bottom line. What is the likelihood that we’ll see some unannounced fill-in artist helping Lee with #6 to ensure that doesn’t happen?

Today’s Marvel Next Big Thing call has revealed that Captain America and Bucky is to undergo a revamp and become Captain America and Hawkeye for a storyline before bringing on a new co-star in future arcs… which makes me realize that Marvel’s real Next Big Thing is stealth team-up books. Not only do now have Captain America and, but November saw the launch of Avenging Spider-Man – which is a Spider-Man team-up title to all intents and purposes – and we already have X-Men, which is as close to an X-Men Team-Up as we’re likely to get anytime soon.

I’m actually a really big fan of Team-Up books when they’re done right (I was even tempted by Deadpool Team-Up numerous times, but could never get over my intense disinterest in Deadpool as a character. Sorry, everyone), so I find myself more taken with this trend that you might expect. I admit to preferring shorter team-ups than the six-issue arc model (in part because it means more team-ups on an annual basis, which generally produces more likelihood of obscure characters being dropped into the mix; I want to see Spider-Man and Nighthawk Team-Up, dammit), but Avenging, at least, seems fast enough on the changing of co-stars for now. But what character will get their own team-up ongoing next, I wonder…? I mean, surely Wolverine could do with one now that that franchise has lost both Daken and X-23 as ongoing titles…

Looking at the top 10 graphic novels of last year is a fascinating peek at an alternative comic-reading audience to the direct market single issue one we’re all more familiar with: Six volumes of Walking Dead? And what’s interesting is seeing that it’s the three most recent volumes and the first three, suggesting two different sizable groups – Clearly, the AMC show is bringing in newcomers to the comic itself, which is great. Also, note the almost complete lack of superheroes, with the exception of the OGN Batman: Noel; is this a sign that superhero readers prefer the single issue format, perhaps? (Also, clearly there’s an audience out there for superhero OGNs, too; I wonder if next year’s chart will feature appearances by Marvel’s various Season One books?)

What’s worth remembering is that this is just the Diamond book chart – Publishers also use other distributors, so this is a potentially misleading idea of where the book market actually is. Don’t both DC and Marvel have additional distribution outside of the direct market? I wonder if that information would significantly change the idea of what sells and what doesn’t? I guess we’ll have to wait until the Bookscan numbers for the year get revealed.

The news that Hostess is to file for bankruptcy should send nostalgic shivers down the spines of superheroes worldwide, given the multiple crimes the company’s snack foods helped prevent in the 1970s and ’80s; from 1975 through 1982, ads for Hostess Fruit Pies, Twinkies and other products appeared in both Marvel and DC comics, each one an original one-page strip featuring a superhero from that publisher’s stable using the “tasty snack” of choice to distract criminals, monsters and other ne’er-do-wells from destruction, thievery and other unfortunate rampages against society. For those who haven’t seen them, the strips were variations on a theme, all written to the same basic formula but weirdly enjoyable for that very reason, reducing characters to stereotype and snack-obsessed mindsets; there’s a selection available here for you to sample them for yourself. Of course, for those of us who grew up reading these strips, the very name “Hostess” has a very specific nostalgia, not so much for the snacks themselves, but the ads, and the kinds of comics that they appeared in. Remember when comic book ads weren’t just for more comics and the occasional movie or TV show…?