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What better way to celebrate the Beat’s 11th anniversary than with a preview of one of our all time favorite comics, Corto Maltese by Hugo Pratt, now being reprinted in lovely English language editions from IDW and Dean Mullaney’s Euro comix imprint. This volume goes on sales today and follow’s Corto’s ravishingly romantic and lushly inked adventures in South America from the Mosquito Coast to Barbados to a deadly struggle among Jivaro head-hunters in the Peruvian Amazon.

Corto Maltese: Beyond the Windy Isle
Hugo Pratt (w & a & c)
The second of twelve volumes presenting the definitive English-language edition of Hugo Pratt’s masterpiece in the original oversized B&W format!
TPB • BW • $29.99 • 120 pages • 9.25” x 11.75”  • ISBN: 978-1-63140-317-0

 

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Today, IDW sent out a press release announcing the San Diego Comic Con 2015 exclusives.  In an interesting move, attendees will actually be able to preorder some of these exclusives from the IDW website for pickup at the con, hopefully reducing the amount of time you spend in their line and thus giving you more time to spend in somebody else’s queue.  #linecon2015

ARTIST’S EDITIONS

Jack Kirby Kamandi Artist’s Edition Convention Variant
Jack Kirby’s most beloved creation is now an extraordinary Artist’s Edition, collecting six complete issues ofKamandi! There is no better way to view the magic of King Kirby than in the one and only Artist’s Edition. Pick up the debut of the convention variant early while supplies last!
$100, Limited to 100 copies, 2 per person
ALSO AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER: http://bit.ly/1GxgYuC

Mike Zeck’s Classic Marvel Stories Artist’s Edition Convention Variant
Mike Zeck is one of the classic artists of the 1980s, at the forefront of many of the best books and in demand by fans and editors alike. This unique Artist’s Edition showcases some of Zeck’s finest works, including full issues and an array of his finest covers! This convention variant features Captain America and Wolverine squaring off!
$125, Limited to 125 copies, 2 per person
ALSO AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER: http://bit.ly/1Gb5fiN

Frank Miller’s Daredevil Artifact Edition Convention Variant
Frank Miller, multiple Eisner Award-winner, is one of the finest and most influential comics creators of his generation. From Sin City to Dark Knight Returns, to Daredevil: Born Again and Batman: Year One (both of which he wrote and collaborated on with David Mazzucchelli), his contribution to the art form is nearly peerless. But before these incredible works came his groundbreaking turn on Daredevil! This convention exclusive boasts a stunning variant cover by Miller featuring Daredevil and Black Widow.
$100, Limited to 175 copies, 2 per person
ALSO AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER: http://bit.ly/1BBI5WI

Eric Powell’s The Goon: China Town Artist’s Edition Convention Variant
Since debuting in 1999, The Goon has won constant critical praise as well as a large and rabid fan base for creator Eric Powell. This beautiful Artist’s Edition features Powell’s Goon original graphic novel, Chinatown and the Mystery of Mr. Wicker, the opus that earned the writer/artist two Eisner Awards! Variant cover only available at the IDW booth.
$100, Limited to 100 copies, 2 per person
ALSO AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER: http://bit.ly/1dVhHvz

Walter Simonson’s Manhunter & Other Stories Artist’s Edition, Remarqued
Manhunter by Archie Goodwin and Walter Simonson was one of the most acclaimed series of the 1970s, winning numerous awards along the way—not bad for a backup feature that only ran seven episodes! This Artist’s Edition presents the original run of Manhunter, as well as a classic Batman story, Dr. Fate, Metal Men, and Captain Fear tales. This very limited edition variant is signed & remarqued by Walter Simonson and is numbered as one of a limited edition of 50 copies.
$250, Limited to 50 copies, 2 per person
ALSO AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER: http://bit.ly/1BtlFXi

DISNEY COMICS

Don Rosa’s The Life & Times of Scrooge McDuck Artist’s Edition Convention Variant
Debuting at San Diego Comic-Con, Don Rosa’s Eisner-award winning work on The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck gets the Artist’s Edition treatment with a special convention exclusive cover with Scrooge hitting pay dirt!
$125, Limited to 100 copies, 2 per person
ALSO AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER: http://bit.ly/1kGVMUL

Donald Duck #1 Convention Variant
Donald, Mickey, and Goofy head to a comic convention of their own on this special variant cover by Derek Charm.
$5, Limited to 500 copies, 3 per person

Mickey Mouse #1 Convention Variant
Donald, Mickey, and Goofy’s adventure at a comic convention continues on this special exclusive cover with art by Derek Charm.
$5, Limited to 500 copies, 3 per person

IDW HIT TITLES

Ghostbusters: Get Real #1 Convention Variant
It’s the ultimate Ghostbusters team-up on this convention exclusive cover to the new series Ghostbusters: Get Real! With art by Dan Schoening, this is one exclusive you’ll want to catch early!
$5, Limited to 500 copies, 3 per person

Godzilla in Hell #1 Convention Variant
James Stokoe returns to Godzilla and drags him straight to Hell! This convention exclusive cover features Stokoe’s hyper-detailed work on a special wraparound cover!
$10, Limited to 200 copies, 3 per person

Jem & The Holograms #1 Convention Variant
SHOWTIME, SYNERGY! Meet Jerrica Benton—a girl with a secret. She and her sister Kimber team with two friends to become… JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS! An all-new cover featuring Pizzaz by Amy Mebbersongraces this convention exclusive!
$5, Limited to 200 copies, 3 per person
A Blank Sketch Cover also available!
$5, Limited to 300 copies, 3 per person

Onyx #1 Convention Variant
A star-born knight for a new generation takes flight here! Get your convention exclusive copy signed by creators Chris Ryall and Gabriel Rodriguez at the booth!
$5, Limited to 300 copies, 3 per person

Star Trek/ Green Lantern #1 Convention Variant
The biggest crossover in the galaxy debuts at Comic-Con! Don’t miss this exclusive convention variant byFreddie E. Williams III featuring the Green Lantern Corps and the Enterprise crew side-by-side!
$5, Limited to 500 copies, 3 per person

TRANSFORMERS

Transformers #42 Convention Variant
The Combiner Wars are over, but the fallout has just begun! Don’t miss out on this convention exclusive bySara Pitre-Durocher featuring Arcee that connects to More Than Meets the Eye #42 and Windblade #4!
$5, Limited to 300 copies, 3 per person

Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye #42 Convention Variant
The quest for the Knights of Cybertron reaches a new epoch! Chromia and the Lost Light are featured on this convention exclusive edition by Sara Pitre-Durocher that connects to Transformers #42 and Windblade #4!
$5, Limited to 300 copies, 3per person

Transformers: Windblade #4 Convention Variant
Windblade heads into battle on this variant cover by Sara Pitre-Durocher that connects to Transformers #42 and More Than Meets the Eye #42!
$5, Limited to 300 copies, 3 per person

Transformers: Combiner Hunters #1 Convention Variant
Spinning out of the explosive Combiner Wars arc, the Combiner Hunters face off against their first great threat on this convention exclusive cover by Sara Pitre-Durocher!
$10, Limited to 300 copies, 3 per person

Get $5 off when you buy all four issues together! $20 total.

TURTLES & PONIES

Casey & April #1 Convention Variant
Morning Glories artist Joe Eisma suits up Casey & April on this convention exclusive cover of the debut issue written by Comic-Con special guest Mariko Tamaki!
$5, Limited to 300 copies, 3 per person

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #44 SIGNED Convention Variant
Only available at SDCC, a set of first printings of the issue that had the whole world talking! This issue comes pre-signed by none other than Kevin Eastman!
$40 a set (Cover A & B), Limited to 50 copies, 3 per person
ALSO AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER: http://bit.ly/1I3SEmv

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic #32 Convention Variant
“Night of the Living Apples,” Part 1! Bad apples have come alive and determined to take over all of Ponyville! Don’t miss the exclusive cover by Tony Fleecs done in the EC Cover tradition!
$5, Limited to 500 copies, 3 per person

My Little Pony: Fiendship is Magic TP Convention Variant
This collection of the entire mini-series boosts a special convention variant featuring a cover with the iconic villains of Equestria by Thom Zahler.
$25, Limited to 100 copies, 3 per person

HARDCOVER COLLECTIONS

Little Nemo: Return To Slumberland HC Convention Variant
Get your convention exclusive copy of the three time Eisner-nominated, all-ages series featuring a special Black & White variant cover by series artist Gabriel Rodriguez!
$30, Limited to 200 copies, 3 per person
ALSO AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER: http://bit.ly/1BBIrwg

Locke & Key Vol. 1 Master Edition HC Convention Variant
The critically acclaimed series by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez takes on new life in a reformatted hardcover collection which features the first two arcs, “Welcome to Lovecraft” and “Headgames,” with a special Black & White variant cover.
$50, Limited to 250 copies, 3 per person
ALSO AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER: http://bit.ly/1fmRC9V

Bacchus Omnibus HC Convention Variant
Only available at the Top Shelf booth #1721, Eddie Campbell’s Bacchus is a true epic, spanning a decade of work, over a thousand pages, and several millennia of alcohol consumption. This convention exclusive hardcover comes signed and numbered by Campbell!
$75, Limited to 250 Copies, 3 per person
ALSO AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER: http://bit.ly/1Ipf4KA

Complete Essex County Hardcover – SHOW DEBUT
Top Shelf is celebrating the award-winning masterpiece that made Jeff Lemire a household name with the convention debut of the Essex County hardcover. This elegant, foil-stamped slipcase edition features an exclusive letterpress bookplate signed & numbered by the author! Don’t miss the chance to get a deluxe version of this intimate study of an eccentric farming community and a tender meditation on family, memory, grief, secrets, reconciliation — and hockey.
$75, Limited to 500 Copies, 3 per person
ALSO AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER: http://bit.ly/1BBIF6S
Also available with a sketch!
$150, Limited to 50 copies, 2 per person
ALSO AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER: http://bit.ly/1Gb5zOB

A CARD GAME
Making its show debut, the card game based off the acclaimed series CHEW from John Layman and Rob Guillory. Anyone who buys the CHEW card game at SDCC will get a free exclusive bonus pack containing two playable Chog Frappe cards and five variant green Chogs.

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Even though I was never quite in love with the considered-a-classic Samurai Jack TV show, I’ve been infatuated by Samurai Jack the comic book since before Issue 1. The stoic, solemn character interacting with a colorful world works, in my opinion, better in sequential form than it does on the screen. Writer Jim Zub is a big reason why. That’s why I was excited to talk to him yet again, this time about wrapping up his continuation of Samurai Jack with Andy Suriano and other artists.

You said you felt like you could write Samurai Jack forever. What makes the character and the series feel so endurable to you?

Genndy and his crew put together a really powerful alchemical mix of elements when they created Samurai Jack. It’s a genre melting pot, fusing martial arts, fantasy, science fiction, and just about any other type of genre fiction you can imagine. It can be downright silly at times but also surprisingly deep and philosophical. That incredibly broad range, all of it “in-play,” is a wonderful sandbox to play in. It continually generates new ideas and I don’t think I could ever run out.

How was the pre-established history of Samurai Jack a challenge?

Over four seasons the Samurai Jack animation crew tackled a slew of amazing iconic concepts, so a lot of my initial brainstorming would slam up against something that had already been done. At first that was intimidating but over time it became a blessing.

How was it a blessing?

It forced me to push further and come up with unexpected approaches to the stories. It also convinced me that the best way for us to continue Jack’s legacy was to keep moving forward, coming up with new characters and situations instead of only re-using bits from the show.

Given that he worked on the original animated series, what was your collaboration like with Andy Suriano?

It was a real dream come true. No matter what crazy stuff I came up with, Andy was always there ready to take it to the next level with his art and design. The wilder he got with it, the more I wanted to push things with the next issue. We fed off of each other’s excitement.

Andy didn’t use the line-free style of the cartoon, but he channeled the look and feel of the show while optimizing it for the comic page. It wasn’t about rigidly following a model sheet. Andy’s work is all about translating that motion and energy to the page.

Did it take getting used to working with somebody who had been involved with the property since almost the beginning?

I kept expecting Andy to tell me I was doing it wrong, that I was doing something too weird or that “Jack wouldn’t do that”, but that didn’t happen. We just hit the ground running and Andy was 110% supportive of my story ideas. It was genuinely one of the most enjoyable projects I’ve ever worked on and Andy was a huge part of the reason why.

Have you talked about doing other work together?

Yeah, absolutely. At Emerald City Comicon last year we actually talked about the fact that this would end at some point and we should do other stories together. I know he’s super busy with his animation day job and working on Cosmic Scoundrels, but I really do hope we get to build more awesome stories real soon.

How is your working relationship different with fill-in artists?

Carlos Guzman, our awesome Editor at IDW, handled most of the fill-in stuff. I would write ahead not knowing who would be doing those one or two part stories and he cast artists based on their strengths.

I pushed really hard to get Brittney Williams on for the two part Scotsman story because I’m crazy about her artwork and felt she’d be a perfect fit. She did a great job.

Sergio Quijada was a huge Jack fan who peppered us with fan art until we couldn’t help but bring him on board. I’m really glad he had the chance to do the two part “Master of Time” story.

Were you involved in the decision to give Suriano an issue to write and draw on his own?

That was factored in early on. Before I was brought on board there was talk of Andy writing and drawing the whole series, so we wanted to make sure Andy could get a story idea he had percolating down on the page. The dialogue free “Caves of Crystal Calamity” story from issue 8 is also one I scripted based on Andy’s story idea.

As a long-time fan of Samurai Jack, what did you think of Andy’s issue 18?

It was great! It felt weird reading a Samurai Jack comic I didn’t have a hand in, but that’s what made it so cool. Andy built a cool action set piece and just went wild with it.

Samurai Jack is your second-longest work, behind Skullkickers, and your longest on a property that you don’t own. What did you take away from doing a more lengthy run?

It was really nice settling in with a concept, almost indulgently so at times. Weird little ideas I’d brainstorm had time to gestate and I didn’t feel like I had to cram everything in all at once. Almost every story idea I included in my original pitch for the series found its way to the printed page at some point during the run and a lot of other little details or in-jokes made it in there too.

Samurai Jack #20 is such a definitive way to go out. With such a strong ending, would you feel comfortable returning to the character, if given the chance?

Absolutely. “Mako the Scribe” is definitive in a lot of ways and delivers a possible ending to the series, but it’s also cast in the far flung future. Andy and I had a bunch of other story ideas bubbling around in our heads that would happen before that big ending.

When I finished writing the 5 part “Quest For the Broken Blade” story I thought I’d gone as big as I could go with Jack and possible threats he could face, but within a few weeks I came up with a new 5 part epic that would have originally been issues #21-25. If Cartoon Network or IDW ever want us to do that story as a mini-series, standalone graphic novel, or animation (Genndy – Call me! :) ) I’m there in a heartbeat.

Between Samurai Jack and Figment, you’ve had a lot of success breathing new life into older concepts. Are there any other forgotten or ignored properties that you’d like to revitalize next?

That’s hard to say. Samurai Jack and Figment weren’t properties I sought out and yet they became near and dear to me during the pitching/writing process. I enjoy the challenge of digging in with something unexpected and finding aspects that resonate with me (and hopefully readers too).

What do you think you added to the character of Samurai Jack during your run?

That’s a really hard thing to answer because the show was already a modern classic before I ever came along. We did our damnedest to build on the amazing work done on the show and tell entertaining stories that pushed Jack to new limits. In the end our contribution is up to the fans and Genndy Tartakovsky to decide. I hope people look back on these stories fondly and that they have a really long shelf life.

What new lessons did you learn from the experience?

A lot of my previous comic work was dialogue and sound effect heavy. I was afraid of letting a panel fall silent, like I was somehow not doing my job properly if there wasn’t a bunch of text jammed in there. Working on Jack opened me up to the strength of silence. He’s the silent stoic center while everything else is loud and crazy all around him.

More than that though, working on Samurai Jack recharged my creative batteries. Right before the Jack gig came along I hit a real low point in my writing career. I was supposed to take over Birds of Prey for the New 52 and when that inexplicably crumbled I genuinely felt like I’d missed my big chance and wouldn’t be able to get out of that slump. Writing Samurai Jack reminded me that this crazy creative career is more than just one opportunity. Making work I’m proud of over the long haul is the true measure of success.

 The entire Samurai Jack series written by Jim Zub is available now. Find Jim on his website, Twitter and Tumblr.

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MATT CHATS is a weekly interview series with a person of prominence and/or value in the comic book industry. Find its author, Matt O’Keefe, on Twitter and Tumblr. Email him with questions, comments, complaints, etc. at [email protected].

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The Humble Bundle model of “bundling” digital comics for a pay what you want price (while offering a percentage to charity) has had a pretty big impact on both comics readers and publishers over the past year, generating over $4 million in sales for ebook last year. You can see why publishers would be hep to a cut of that. Anyway, there’s a new Humble IDW / Top Shelf Comics Bundle that just went up — the charity beneficiary is Traveling Stories, a nonprofit organization dedicated to “outsmarting poverty one book at a time.”

For graphic noel loevrs, this is a bonanza, with the best of IDW’s non licensed titles added to Top Shelf’s stellar slate. So you get Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill’s Nemo, March, Darwyn Cooke’s Parker, and books by Jeff Lemire, Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez, Jess Fink, Mark Russell & Shannon Wheeler and Liz Prince. It’s a good deal for some great books.

The Bundle has been up for a week and already netted $125,102.90 on 8,736 purchases.

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There are a lot of licensed comics out there that lack a certain legitimacy. Whether they’re good or bad, they’re not the main version of those characters and those worlds, and they’re usually created by people who weren’t involved in the original. IDW’s Samurai Jack circumvents that sense of not feeling like the “real” thing not only by continuing where the animated series left off but also with art by Andy Suriano, character designer of the Samurai Jack TV show. I spoke to Suriano about how it felt to wrap up the comic with Issue 20, along with other projects he’s involved in.

For a day job you’re working on cartoons of Mickey Mouse, who is Disney’s flagship character but has lately been off a lot of viewers’ radars. Does that give you a chance to experiment and get away with more?

I wouldn’t say Mickey Mouse is ever off anyone’s radar, but yes, Disney has been very supportive and encouraging with the type of designs, humor and stories we’ve been doing–playing to the strength’s of our team as well as the climate of today’s viewer, all the while keeping them timeless.

You were considered to write the series as well as handling art duties. How did the plans you laid out in your pitch differ from what you and Jim Zub did together with the series?

I think my stories were more stand alone that intersected occasionally versus Jim’s more connected, linear story arcs, which fit better with the direction they wanted for the book. I’m happy Jim landed the gig because he did a terrific job. But I am happy that a couple of my stories still made it into the final product with issues #8 and #18 which I got co-writing and writing on, respectively. 

What unique elements do you think Zub added to Samurai Jack that weren’t there before the comic book series started?

Well, Jim brought the AWESOME that IS Jim to the series. He came on board with actually more knowledge about the episodes I worked on than even I did. I think he took the rules and framework of what we established with the animated series, and quickly took ownership of the character and was able to expand the mythos in a fun way.

In your mind, what are the most crucial elements of any Samurai Jack story?

Action. Humor. Visual storytelling. 

Zub mentioned that he’s seen you draw a Samurai Jack sketch in less than 10 seconds. How long does it take you to draw a whole page?

It’s not about the time in which I do a drawing, it’s what I put into it. I purposely decided early on to use a more kinetic line quality on the book to intimate a sense of movement and speed, that was so integral to the animated series. It was my way to try and “animate” the stationary printed page. 

A number of pages of Samurai Jack (such as Page 4 of #20) contain multiple actions but don’t use typical panel arrangements. How do you manage to keep everything coherent?

Ha! I close my eyes and hope for the best! Confusion to the reader or viewer is what will kill you, so I experiment a lot in the layout phase and see what works the best–and what leads the readers eye the best, to hopefully create a fluid, organic and fun experience. 

Is Samurai Jack #20 your final stamp on the character, or would you return for more?

If IDW and Cartoon Network decided to do more and asked Jim, Josh and I back, we’d be back!

What did you take away from more time with the property?

I just enjoyed getting an opportunity to live in that world a little bit longer.

After two years revisiting Samurai Jack, where do you go from here?

Well, thankfully I still have my day job on the new Mickey Mouse shorts at Disney, I actively contribute to the new TMNT series at Nickelodeon and I do a weekly webcomic with homestarrunner.com creator Matt Chapman called Cosmic Scoundrels which I encourage you and anyone reading to check out and help us spread the word! 

You can find Andy Suriano on social media like Twitter and Tumblr. Check in next week for my interview with Samurai Jack writer Jim Zub!

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What a 48hrs it’s been. Gamers have been given reason to cheer and cry. Such weight that can only be decompressed with hours of performing Mortal Kombat X fatalities.

Wait that ain’t it… oh well let’s talk about some of the major news video games has recently bombarded us with.

On Sunday, Treyarch showed off the first full trailer for the next installment of the Call of Duty franchise. Call of Duty: Black Ops III comes to the PS4, Xbox One, and PC this November.

Now the series has become a yearly expectation, not unlike a new Madden Football game or MLB The Show. Hell, the game has even aided in giving birth to pro gaming leagues where Mountain Dew fueled players compete for bragging rights and copious amounts of cash. So what can a new installment bring that we haven’t seen before? Bigger combat arenas allowed the game to boast a 4-player co-op campaign. For the first time in the franchise’s history, the campaign’s protagonist is fully customizable. In addition to upgrading abilities, changing your character’s appearance and tweaking weapons, players can pick the gender of their Call of Duty hero. Black Ops also brings back Zombie survival mode, where players obliterate wave after wave of the undead. This time the mode comes with a full character progression system similar to multiplayer.

Being the third CoD game by Treyarch, the group is leaving nothing out. Come November we’ll see wall running, underwater combat, unlimited sprinting, the ability to customize your solider as a heroic female in the campaign, and swimming. Yes according to the developer certain battle arenas will have areas where players can have their solider swim while still controlling weapons and combat. Though we haven’t seen much of how this development will affect the game, it sure does sound like a thing they threw in after the art directors pool party. The one thing the game really needs is a new Jim Lee drawn cover.

Cause this weird “I gotta go to the bathroom but I don’t want to put my guns down” box ain’t cutting it.

 

Call of Duty: Black Ops III is set to release on November 6, 2015. Preordering through Gamestop will get you access to the upcoming beta.

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Disney Infinity 2.0 finally released their mobile app on Android today. The guesstimated five of us that don’t have iPhones can now:

Create your own worlds and games starring over 60 of your favorite Marvel and Disney characters! Marvel Super Heroes come to Disney Infinity: Toy Box 2.0, with some of your favorite characters including the Avengers, Spider-Man, and Guardians of the Galaxy. Also explore some of your favorite Disney and Disney/Pixar characters from Frozen (Elsa & Anna), Big Hero 6 (Hiro & Baymax), Brave (Merida), Pirates of the Caribbean, Monsters Inc, and more!

For anyone that hasn’t picked up any Disney Infinity console and PC version… yes the cost goes beyond what you’ll initially pay after the starter set. This is just the new trend in gaming. These miniature versions of Mickey Mouse, Venom, Jack Sparrow, and Baymax we all have to buy are the new form of downloadable content for games. Though they have the distinction of having desk/shelf potential for collectors, it can still add up to serious coin, which is why it’s a nice feature that you can use web code cards from your physical Disney Infinity Figures to unlock characters in the mobile game. Such a novelty is essentially making the content transferable through all the platforms that gives it a value other games could learn from.

Now if we could just get those Legos and Amibos to talk to each other.

Plus look at the meme potential!

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As we talked a little about yesterday, Batman: Arkham Knight or as I call it “That thing I’m not going to work the week of June 23rd for,” dropped a new trailer that included the long awaited story playability of Nightwing, Robin, and Catwoman (I don’t count Arkham City cause you had to download her). The feature looks to be similar to what Grand Theft Auto 5 did with switching between three main characters at the push of a button at any time.

Here it is again in all it’s glory:

Two-Face, Oracle, Azrael, and the bat-plane also appear in the trailer. In addition to all this, pre-ordering the game get’s you a playable Harley Quinn in the game’s challenge maps and if you do it through GameStop then the Red Hood (Jason Todd) will also be yours. The game’s “Mature” rating doesn’t shine through in the trailer but you can see a level of despair that hasn’t been hit in the series yet, and that’s saying a lot because Arkham City wasn’t exactly sunshine and roses.

Fortunately we won’t have to wait too much longer as the game is locked into releasing worldwide June 23, 2015 on the PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

In the meantime, have you figured out who “Johnny Charisma” is yet?

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Before we start the rundown of what gaming comics will be in stores this week, we should take a moment of “silence” for Silent Hills. Last year the world was told to play the creepy ass downloadable game P.T. In it, you’re put in the shoes of a man trapped in the hallways of a house where some supernatural depressing Scooby Doo ghost shit is going down.  The erie vibrance and mind bending nature of the situation made the game a brief but intense ride. Then at the end players find out that this is just a “Playable Teaser” for a game called Silent Hills. As if that wasn’t enough, we’re then told the game is being developed by Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima and master film director Guillermo Del Torro. Then as if that isn’t enough we’re told Daryl Dixon himself, Norman Reedus, is going to  model and voice the main character.

Yesterday, Konami confirmed our worst fears and officially canceled Silent Hills.

For fans of the Silent Hill series; the teaser was like being defibrillated back to life. A franchise whose better days were behind them, only showing mere glimpses of awesome in comics being published by IDW, was going to make a comeback. For a brief moment two storytelling giants that specialize in the bizarre were going to give fans the game they knew this series could be and P.T was the proof.

What went wrong? While we may never know the real answer to that, at least until someone makes the documentary about all this ten years from now; the writing had been on the wall for quite sometime. Rumors surrounding Kojima leaving Konami after Metal Gear Solid 5 turned into plausible scenarios. Though he doesn’t look it, Hideo Kojima is like 50 something years old (Somewhere there’s an attic with a painting of an old Hideo Kojima screaming cause this guy doesn’t age). If he feels it’s time to move on and tell a new story then he’s earned that right. Most feel that he’ll put his passion for Hollywood to use. Then, Konami itself is starting to show signs of restructuring to focus on other ventures like gambling; they even pulled themselves from the New York Stock Exchange. Though, if you look at their numbers, it was apparent very little trading happened in the US for them. Both parites will undoutebly be okay as their names and properties alone could keep them afloat for years.

There’s the matter of Guillermo Del Torro. He was the first one to come out and say that he was no longer working on Silent Hills. The news was just the latest in a string of incomplete projects the filmmaker has in his portfolio; Justice League Dark and Haunted Mansion (announced at SDCC 2010 but only now finding its star) come to mind . It looks like Pacific Rim 2 will be done before either of those movies gets to theaters. In the end the tragic news of Silent Hills doesn’t fall on Del Torro, he’s a gamer and a storyteller who wanted to create art with a man he sees as a legend. When it became apparent that the legend was leaving the table, he decided not to do the project.

Kojima will be okay, Del Torro will be okay, Konami will be okay; the only real casualties here are all of us because we’ll never know what could have been.

 

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Gaming Comics 4/29:

Injustice: Year Three Annual #1                                                                                                                                         (W) Ray Fawkes, Brian Buccellato (A) Sergio Fernandez Davila & Various (CA) Neil Googe

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We now live in a post Star Wars trailer world, it’s a world where anything is possible including universally liking things. This week we’ll touch on new developments with Batman, Disney Interactive, and free Mortal Kombat X goodies.

In addition to seeing the first full trailer for The Force Awakens, fans at Celebration in Anaheim got a first look at Battlefield game series developer DICE’s plunge into the Star Wars universe with Battlefront. With the game set to be a November holiday release we can now start the anticipation build up. DICE has lit the match and started the fire by releasing a series of video diaries chronicling the game’s progress. Watch the first one below:

Star Wars: Battlefront comes to the PS4, Xbox One, and Origin PC on November 17, 2015.

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While no official announcement has been made, Infinity Inquirer managed to get a leaked image  of possible characters for Disney Interactive 3.0. The image showcases a lineup of 11 new collectible toys which include Sam Flynn and Quarra from Tron Legacy, Olaf, and Mulan. Keep in mind Disney has neither confirmed or denied the image, but it has been taken down at the request of Disney from several sites.

With E3 approaching soon we should find out more details on the future of the franchise, including the possibility of incorporating figures from or to previous versions of the game.

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Last week the Mortal Kombat franchise had it’s biggest launch in the game’s history. While no specific numbers are known it has been released that the PS4 version is outselling both Xbox One and PC. For a breakdown of sales, MKX sold 61% of its copies on PS4, 38% on Xbox One, and 1% on PC.

This week, to thank fans who’ve been part of this launch the latest game update will include a new free DLC skin for a classic character. Patch 1.02 improves online stability, adds a new move for Takeda, and includes general balancing tweaks. It’s most visible addition is the classic look of Sub-Zero seen here.

Destructoid has also reported that classic Mortal Kombat fatalities from the 90’s could be coming back in DLC form.

Now that we’ve played the game, it’ll be interesting to see how the DC Comics prequel series catches up to the game. As of now one of the game’s main four characters, Takeda, is a teen just starting his training under Scorpion. The series still has yet to do any significant story on the game’s main character Cassie Cage.

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Halo 5: Guardians released a new trailer that showcases UNSC elite manhunter Spartan Locke taking out Covenant while in pursuit of Master Chief. If you check it out you’ll see new weapons and multiplayer abilities the game will have when it releases this October. Additionally it’s been announced anyone pre-ordering the shooter from GameStop in the US will get access to the Hunter-Class armor set.

Halo 5: Guardians releases for the Xbox One on 10-27-2015.

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Batman: Arkham Knight draws closer and closer each week, yet the wait feels unbearable. The game’s director Sefton Hill isn’t making things easier. He teased fans on  twitter with talk of a new trailer, as if that wasn’t enough there’s also talk of new features Rocksteady has not yet disclosed.

 

 

He even went so far as to say, a familiar face from Arkham City would be appearing in the new trailer. With just about everyone in the Batman universe appearing during Arkham City, it’s anyone’s guess just who he’s referring to. We should know more about the trailer including a possible date in the next few days.

Batman: Arkham Knight is set to release on June 23, 2015 for the Xbox One, PS4, and PC.

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Game Comics out 4/22:

Halo: Escalation #17 (Dark Horse Comics)

(W) Duffy Boudreau (A) Douglas Franchin, Rob Lean (CA) Sparth                                               “The Glass Horizon” part 1: An action-packed survival tale on the treacherous and barren glasslands of a Covenant-ravaged colony world . . . and a Spartan-IV’s mysterious origin revealed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tomb Raider #15 (Dark Horse Comics)

(W) Rhianna Pratchett (A) Derliz Santacruz, Andy Owens (CA) Andy Park

While using the cover of a fake documentary about the legendary Chupacabra, Lara and her friends are drawn into a missing-child case while hunting the organization holding their friend hostage!

 

 

 

 

 

Batman: Arkham Knight #3 (DC Comics) (Print ed)    

 (W) Peter J. Tomasi (A) Viktor Bogdanovic & Various (CA) Dan Panosian

The Arkham Knight’s shadow spreads across the city as Batman digs deeper into the murders of villains – and it will soon put him on a collision course with the most dangerous enemy he’s ever faced!

 

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This exhibit of works from Craig Yoe’s original art collection has already garnered stellar accolades – tonight you can see why. And that’s not all …

I had the good fortune of seeing an early preview of Is That Art? at the Society of Illustrators a few weeks ago, and it’s a must-see for anyone who wants to connect with the magic and the power of creative design. The exhibit covers much of the first century of comics & cartoon art, and the work is displayed in ways that highlight deep connections and spark new ideas. A original Spark Plug parallel to a Peanuts strip where Snoopy is dismissed as a dog; a landmark portrait of Superman for Siegel-and-Shuster’s syndicate chief near a reflection on a woman’s dual identity by Fay King; the first Pogo newspaper strip; the original Fin-Fang-Foom-awakes page, signed by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Dick Ayers ….

I could go on, but I’ll leave you to discover all the wonders for yourself. The exhibit’s official opening is tonight from 5pm – 10pm at the Society of Illustrators, 128 E. 63rd St. in New York City. If you can’t make it this evening (or at all, alas), you can find some consolation in the extensive Yoe! Books library, which includes lavish and faithful restorations of material ranging from kitsch to classics. One place to start: the latest Yoe! Books/IDW publication, Milt Gross’ New York, which has been receiving impressive reviews.

If you can make it to the Society of Illustrators, don’t miss its other must-see exhibits. The original art from Little Nemo: Dream Another Dream is up through tomorrow (April 9), and seeing it at full size reminded me of seeing the original art for Robert Crumb’s Book of Genesis at the Hammer Museum – a revelation. As for the exhibit on Alt-Weekly Comics curated by Warren Bernard and Bill Kartalopoulos, well, that too deserves a book of its own – this exhibit is important not just for chronicling an influential, if under-appreciated genre within North American comics, but for helping us understand the world today.

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Here’s a round-up of more IDW announcements during ECCC, most of them part of a “Five Featured Firsts” program which will see a new book every week in July.

• Onyx by Chris Ryall (Zombies vs Robots) and Gabriel Rodriguez (Locke & Key),

Onyx tells the tale of a female metal-suited warrior who comes to Earth on a quest to either save the planet or destroy it. It’s up to a team of super-soldiers to figure out which before it’s too late, and before a much greater threat overwhelms both them and the planet itself.

The series will be introduced with a standalone 5-page story, Onyx #0, that will run in Many of IDW’s May titles. Variant cover artists for Onyx #1 include Ashley Wood, Charles Paul Wilson III, Alan Robinson and Sal Buscema.

•The Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson, Ted Adams and Mark Torres

IDW CEO and Publisher Adams adapts Matheson’s famed science fiction novel, The Shrinking Man

This legendary tale chronicles the events of an average family man, Scott Carey, who, after being exposed to a mysterious cloud, comes to the frightening realization that he is shrinking slowly day-by-day is being brought to vivid life in this 4-issue series.

• String Divers by Ashley Wood, Chris Ryall and Nelson Daniel
Wood and Ryall write this title based on Wood’s 3A Toys’ line of titular figures, String Divers “incorporates string theory as threats to our universe at the sub-microscopic level have dire and lasting repercussions in our universe and across all dimensions.” Daniel provide the art.

• Godzilla in Hell
James Stokoe, whose Godzilla: The Half Century War mini-series stunned and delighted many, returns with the first issue of a five-issue mini series that sends the Big G to, yes, the underworld. “This July the mystery of what led to Godzilla’s damnation, and what it will face, will take readers on a dark and twisted journey unlike any Godzilla story! A rotating creative team will each take Godzilla through a new layers of Hell, beginning with writer/artist James Stokoe with successive issues by Bob Eggleton; Dave Wachter; Ulises Farinas; Erick Freitas; and Brandon Seifert with artists to be announced at a later time.”

•EC Comics Cover Month
IDW jumps on the “variant cover month” trend with “EC Comics cover month” in July. Here’s the line-up, and that’s Jeff Zornow’s Godzilla variant above, via Multiversity

• Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency #3 – Robert Hack
• Edward Scissorhands #10 – Drew Rausch
• The Fly: Outbreak #5 – Alberto Ponticelli
• Ghostbusters: Get Real #2 – Doc Shaner
• Godzilla in Hell #1 – Jeff Zornow
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• G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #216 – Andy Suriano
• Onyx #1 – Alan Robinson
• The Shrinking Man #1 – Mark Torres
• Star Trek #47 – Derek Charm
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #48 – Ryan Browne
• T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents 50th Anniversary Special – Andrew Pepoy
• Zombies vs Robots #7 – Mark Torres

• X-Files Season 11 is coming, with writer Joe Harris on board.

• Ghostbusters: Get Real by Erik Burnham and Dan Schoening.

• New IDW exlcusive artist Kevin Eastman reveals more of what’s coming in a CBR interview:

Besides the Turtles stuff I do, my next project, that I’m actually working on now, is “Lost Angeles.” It’s a post-apocalyptic retelling of “The Warriors,” if you will, all set in LA. That’s the first one I’m working on now, but we looked at the stuff I wanted to do — there’s one story I developed 10 years ago, and drew 200 pages on, and just got frustrated with, and it wasn’t working the way I wanted it to, so I put it on a shelf, and it sat for five or six years. [Laughs] That’s another project that will probably find its way into the IDW schedule.

It feels like home. It’s a great bunch of people, really creative. I buy all of their Artist’s Editions. The first time when they did one of the “Turtles” collections — such a beautiful package.

 

 

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• Valiant announced VALIANT ORIGINS a web series spotlighting the origins of Valiant’s biggest heroes. 10 episodes will be released bi-weekly Valiant’s official YouTube channel.  Heroes in the spotlight include Bloodshot, X-O Manowar, Ninjak, Livewire, Quantum and Woody, Divinity and more.

• In July Valiant is releasing the BOOK OF DEATH. Teaser art by Robert Gill.

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman is now exclusive with IDW with many new projects to be announced. “Kevin is one of my oldest friends in comics and it makes me extremely happy that he’s going to be part of the IDW team, said IDW CEO and Publisher, Ted Adams. “Kevin’s contribution to pop culture can’t be overstated and everyone at IDW is looking forward to helping him bring his new ideas into the world.”

• Archaia is release an Art of Mouse Guard book in July:

THE ART OF MOUSE GUARD 2005-2015

Author: David Petersen

Artists: David Petersen, Mike Mignola, Stan Sakai, Bill Willingham, Various

Cover: David Petersen

Format: 12″ x 12″, 368 pages, color and B&W, hardcover

On sale: July 2015

Celebrate the first 10 years of a comics classic from the very first sketch. For the first time since the series debut, David Petersen’s process for creating the world of Mouse Guard and bringing it to life in stunning illustration is documented in exquisite detail. With never-before-seen sketches; 100 pages of full-color, oversized artwork; and commentary from colleagues, collaborators, and Petersen himself, readers and fans get an unprecedented look behind the pages at how their favorite characters and adventures were born.

• Boom is releasing Adventure Time with Fionna & Cake: Card Wars, a miniseries by Jen Wang (In Real Life) and Britt Wilson, also in July.

Cake is a Card Wars champ who can’t be beat, and Fionna…is really tired of getting beaten! They set off in search of a challenger who can really test Cake’s mettle. When they stumble across some gamer slugs, they think they’ve hit the jackpot, but these guys have never heard of Cake and refuse to even play with her!

 

• And Dark Horse is releasing TEN new series!

Barb Wire #1

Chris Warner (W)

Patrick Olliffe (A)

On Sale in July

Nail-hard tough and drop-dead gorgeous, Barb Wire is the baddest bounty hunter on the mean streets of Steel Harbor, where gangsters can lift bulldozers and leap rusting factories in a single bound. The hunting is stupid good and the bounties are hella big—if Barb lives long enough to collect!

King Tiger #1

Randy Stradley (W)

Doug Wheatley (A)

On Sale in August

Blood, death, and fire—the darkest kind of magic. A monstrous secret from King Tiger’s past has found the mystic warrior, but can Tiger’s skills and sorcery triumph against an unthinkable supernatural obscenity linked to his own destiny? If the Tiger falls, the Dragon will rise!

Negative Space #1

Ryan K Lindsay (W)

Owen Gieni (A)

On Sale in July

When one man’s writer’s block gets in the way of his suicide note, he goes for a walk to clear his head and soon uncovers a century-old conspiracy dedicated to creating and mining the worst lows of human desperation. A corporation has manipulated his life purely so they can farm his suicide note as a sadness artifact that will be packed and shipped to ancient underwater creatures who feed off our strongest and most base emotions. Our hero partners with a cult intent on exposing the corporation, and only a suicide mission can solve the whole mess.

The Tomorrows #1

Curt Pires (W)

Jason Copland (A)

On Sale in July

A bold new speculative-fiction comic from the mind of writer Curt Pires, each issue illustrated by a different brilliant artist!

The future: art is illegal. Everything everyone ever posted online has been weaponized against them. The reign of the Corporation is quickly becoming as absolute as it is brutal—unless the Tomorrows can stop it.

They told you the counterculture was dead. They were wrong. Welcome to the new reality.

Death Head #1

Zack Keller, Nick Keller (W)

Joanna Estep (A)

On Sale in July

When Niles and Justine Burton go camping to get a break from their stressful lives, they expect to find peace . . . not an abandoned village hiding an ancient evil. In a turn of events ripped straight from a horror movie, a brutal killer wearing a plague doctor’s mask begins hunting Niles, Justine, and their two kids. Who is the Plague Doctor? What does he want? And how will the family survive?

Zodiac Starforce #1

Kevin Panetta (W)

Paulina Ganucheau (A)

On Sale in August

They’re an elite group of teenage girls with magical powers who have sworn to protect our planet against dark creatures . . . as long as they can get out of class! Known as the Zodiac Starforce, these high-school girls aren’t just combating math tests. They’re also battling monsters—not your typical afterschool activity! But when an evil force from another dimension infects team leader Emma, she must work with her team of magically powered friends to save herself—and the world—from the evil Diana and her mean-girl minions!

From Kevin Panetta (Bravest Warriors) and Paulina Ganucheau (TMNT: New Animated Adventures, Bravest Warriors), this super-fun and heartfelt story of growing up and friendship—with plenty of magical-girl fighting action—delivers the most exciting new ensemble cast in comics!

Adam.3 #1

Scott Kolins (W/A)

On Sale in August

Award-winning writer and artist Scott Kolins (Past Aways, The Flash, The Avengers, Solomon Grundy) premieres Adam.3.

On a futuristic island paradise populated by talking animals and monitored by orbiting control satellites, the peaceful lives of Adam and his wife Skye are troubled by growing tension between Adam and his previous son, Beo. The situation goes from bad to worse when an alien invader infects the animals—turning them into aliens themselves. When Beo is captured, Adam must battle his transformed animal friends to save his son—and their island home!

Power Cubed #1

Aaron Lopresti (W/A)

On Sale in September

On his eighteenth birthday, Kenny’s inventor father gives him a phenomenal piece of matter-reinterpreting technology, attracting the attention of a bumbling Nazi scientist and an elite government agent. Aaron Lopresti delivers a comical coming-of-age tale in a fantastic sci-fi universe!

The Steam Man #1

Mark Miller (W)

Joe R. Lansdale (W)

Piotr Kowalski (A)

On Sale in October

The Old West (but not as we know it): Giant robots that run on steam power are created to take down invading Martians and armies of killer albino apes in an all-out brawl. The Steam Man, a giant metal man operated by a team of monster hunters, seems to have the town protected and the West under control, until a crazed and powerful vampire comes to town to bring forth the apocalypse.

Chimichanga: Sorrow of the World’s Worst Face #1

Eric Powell (W)

Stephanie Buscema (A)

On Sale in late 2015

Wrinkle’s Traveling Circus’s most adorable bearded girl and her savory-named beast are back, and there is a new act in store! Come one, come all to the Sorrow of the World’s Worst Face! But beware: those who look behind the curtain are in for an awful treat, and it’s not just his face we’re talkin’ about!

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Finland—home of saunas, heavy metal, fish pies…and mobile game design. It must be all the coffee they drink. Next Games is one of Finland’s newest game studios, comprised of veterans from Rovio and other studios, and they’ve just launched Compass Point: West, a 3D game set in the Wild West which ties together mobile game play, card collecting, and now a comic book from IDW. Yee haw!

“In Compass Point: West we draw inspiration from the unbelievably rich Wild West theme. The game boasts fascinating characters and lots of humor combined with stunning 3D graphics and an original card collecting mechanic at its heart. This setting lends itself very well to other entertainment formats beyond games such as the gorgeous comic by IDW Publishing”, said Teemu Huuhtanen, CEO, Next Games.

The comic will be available worldwide through multiple platforms including Apple iBooks and Google Play or on the web. Obviously, comics based on games have had a big impact in recent years—IDW’s Angry Birds comics, Dark Horse’s Plants. vs Zombies, and Dynamite’s Doodle Jump comics being prime examples. (The Beat is currently enthralled with PvZ, but it’s about time for a new game, so we’ll check this one out.)

“IDW has been developing the Compass Point: West  comic since very early in the game’s development, and we’ve enjoyed creating characters and backstories in a way that extends the game’s world,” stated Ted Adams, IDW CEO & Publisher. “The Next Games team has a long-range plan that we’re proud to be a part of.”

Next Games has three more games on tap, but you can download Compass Point West now for iOs and Android, or check out the trailer below.

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Miracleman, a character with one of the most fascinating back stories in comics chronicled in our own Poisoned Chalice pieces is getting an Artifact Edition from IDW. The collection was announced this morning from Comics Alliance, and contains 144 pages of sheer Alan Moore awesomeness. The hardcover is going to set you back $95, but features an orientation size of 15 x 20. The book is for those who describe themselves as ‘process nerds’ featuring artwork in the size that it was presented with notes as the title was produced.

Miracleman Artifact Edition HC

The Original Writer (w) • Garry Leach, Alan Davis, John Totleben, and more (a) • John Totleben (c)

Miracleman was launched 30 years ago in the now legendary Warrior magazine. It turned the concept of “super-hero” on its ear with big ideas that helped redefine an entire genre… when Miracleman fought Kid Miracle Man on the streets of London… well, things would never be the same.

And then there was the art.

Miracleman had a true knack for bringing out the best work from extraordinary artists. Starting with co-creator Garry Leach, followed by Alan Davis (and others) and finishing with one of the most amazing endings in comics history by the phenomenal John Totleben, Miracleman was a work of art painted on a grand canvas, unlike anything before or since.

HC • BW • $95.00 net discount item • 144 Pages • 15” x 20” • ISBN: 978-1-63140-392-7

Miracleman is a special character who was finally capitalized on in recent reprints of the series from Marvel. This excellent work from people like Garry Leach, John Totleben, and Alan Moore (who is credited as the original writer) is now widely available in numerous incarnations across bookshelves, and for that we commend IDW and Marvel. Miracleman is so rich with history and intrigue, it’s excellent to think that a new horde of readers are going to be digging into the incredible work.

Please, make sure to buy responsibly.

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What th–!!?? IDW’s Orphan Black #1, following the mysteries of a cloned woman, was the #1 comic of February, according to the figures released today by Diamond. While details of the crate haven’t been released yet, its suspected that the comic is part of the March Loot Crate offering. With 350,000 subscribers (and growing) this has become something of a cottage industry for comics like Rocket Raccoon #1 and Star Wars #1.

Elsewhere, retailers were humming The Imperial March as Darth Vader #1 was the #2 book. Marvel held a commanding lead over DC for the month in both dollars and market share, with Image once against breaking 10% in both categories.  Superman: Earth One Volume 3 continued the urn of the series at #1m topping graphic novel charts.

 

 

Overall sales showed a healthy increase both against February 2014 and tear to date. Graphic novels took a bit of a tumble in the month to month but remain stable overall.

 

TOP COMIC BOOK PUBLISHERS

PUBLISHER

DOLLAR

SHARE

UNIT

SHARE

MARVEL COMICS 38.44% 39.33% DC ENTERTAINMENT 25.91% 28.15% IMAGE COMICS 10.51% 10.61% IDW PUBLISHING 5.57% 8.06% DARK HORSE COMICS 3.48% 2.66% DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT 2.63% 2.38% BOOM! STUDIOS 2.12% 2.12% EAGLEMOSS PUBLICATIONS LTD 0.95% 0.18% VIZ MEDIA 0.89% 0.32% AVATAR PRESS INC 0.85% 0.64% OTHER NON-TOP 10 8.64% 5.54%

NEW TITLES SHIPPED

PUBLISHER

COMICS SHIPPED

GRAPHIC NOVELS SHIPPED

MAGAZINES SHIPPED

TOTAL

SHIPPED

DC COMICS 94 26 1 121 MARVEL COMICS 79 28 0 107 IMAGE COMICS 61 15 0 76 DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT 34 6 0 40 BOOM ENTERTAINMENT 33 6 0 39 DARK HORSE COMICS 27 9 0 36 IDW PUBLISHING 23 8 0 31 VIZ LLC 0 25 0 25 AVATAR PRESS INC 8 2 1 11 EAGLEMOSS 0 0 10 10 OTHER NON-TOP 10 99 96 26 221

 

COMPARATIVE SALES STATISTICS

	DOLLARS	UNITS
FEBRUARY 2015 VS. JANUARY 2015
COMICS	3.22%	6.42%
GRAPHIC NOVELS	-18.17%	-17.23%
TOTAL COMICS/GN	-3.56%	4.53%
FEBRUARY 2015 VS. FEBRUARY 2014
COMICS	20.42%	22.14%
GRAPHIC NOVELS	0.08%	-12.28%
TOTAL COMICS/GN	14.17%	19.18%
YEAR-TO-DATE 2015 VS. YEAR-TO-DATE 2014
COMICS	15.20%	15.76%
GRAPHIC NOVELS	8.64%	-0.34%
TOTAL COMICS/GN	13.20%	14.43%

TOP 10 COMIC BOOKS

RANK	DESCRIPTION	PRICE	ITEM CODE	VENDOR
1	ORPHAN BLACK #1	$3.99	DEC140468-M	IDW
2	DARTH VADER #1	$4.99	DEC140792-M	MAR
3	SPIDER-GWEN #1	$3.99	DEC140832-M	MAR
4	STAR WARS #2	$3.99	DEC140806-M	MAR
5	BATMAN #39	$3.99	DEC140325-M	DC
6	AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #14	$3.99	DEC140845-M	MAR
7	DARTH VADER #2	$3.99	DEC140803-M	MAR
8	AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #15	$3.99	DEC140849-M	MAR
9	SILK #1	$3.99	DEC140837-M	MAR
10	JUSTICE LEAGUE #39	$3.99	DEC140263-M	DC

TOP 10 GRAPHIC NOVELS & TRADE PAPERBACKS

RANK	DESCRIPTION	PRICE	ITEM CODE	VENDOR
1	SUPERMAN: EARTH ONE VOLUME 3 HC	$22.99	OCT140340	DC
2	SEX CRIMINALS VOLUME 2: TWO WORLDS ONE COP TP (MR)	$14.99	OCT140654	IMA
3	THE FADE-OUT VOLUME 1 TP (MR)	$9.99	DEC140664	IMA
4	SAGA VOLUME 4 TP (MR)	$14.99	OCT140644	IMA
5	CHEW VOLUME 9: CHICKEN TENDERS TP (MR)	$14.99	DEC140632	IMA
6	TREES VOLUME 1 TP (MR)	$14.99	DEC140696	IMA
7	THE WALKING DEAD VOLUME 11 HC (MR)	$34.99	DEC140703	IMA
8	MS. MARVEL VOLUME 1: NO NORMAL TP	$15.99	JUN140725	MAR
9	SAGA VOLUME 1 TP (MR)	$9.99	AUG120491	IMA
10	KICK-ASS 3 TP (MR)	$24.99	DEC140939	MAR

 

TOP 10 BOOKS

RANK	DESCRIPTION	PRICE	ITEM CODE	VENDOR
1	THE SHADOW DOUBLE NOVEL VOLUME 92 SC	$14.95	DEC141899	SAN
2	NEIL GAIMAN & DAVE MCKEAN: CRAZY HAIR SC	$6.99	DEC141894	HAR
3	LEGEND OF ZELDA: HYRULE HISTORIA HC	$34.99	SEP120055	DAR
4	STREET FIGHTER: WORLD WARRIOR ENCYCLOPEDIA HC	$34.99	DEC141695	UDO
5	DOC SAVAGE DOUBLE NOVEL VOLUME 79 SC	$14.95	NOV141853	SAN
6	MODERN MASTERS VOLUME 30: PAOLO RIVERA SC	$15.95	NOV141664	TWO
7	NEIL GAIMAN: TRIGGER WARNING HC	$26.99	DEC141895	HAR
8	DC COMICS VISUAL HISTORY HC	$50.00	DEC141865	DK
9	EARLY PHOTOGRAPHS OF BETTIE PAGE SC (MR)	$19.99	DEC141862	BIN
10	MARVEL COMICS IN THE 1980S SC	$27.95	SEP141665	TWO

TOP 10 TOYS

RANK	DESCRIPTION	ITEM CODE	VENDOR
1	MARVEL SELECT: ULTRON ACTION FIGURE	MAR121603	DST
2	DC COMICS BOMBSHELLS: HAWKGIRL STATUE	AUG140386	DC
3	MARVELL JUBILEE BISHOUJO STATUE	AUG142464	KOT
4	DC COMICS VARIANT PLAY ARTS KAI: HARLEY QUINN FIGURE	AUG148399	SQU
5	DC COMICS: THE NEW 52: NIGHTWING ACTION FIGURE	NOV140358	DC
6	DC COMICS SUPER VILLAINS: HARLEY QUINN 2ND EDITION BUST	JUN140318	DC
7	AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2l SPIDER-MAN MAF EX DELUXE FIGURE	FEB148328	MED
8	BATMAN ARKHAM ORIGINS SERIES 1: BATMAN FIGURE	JUN130307	DC
9	GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY: ELECTRONIC DANCING BABY GROOT	SEP148110	KID
10	SOFT SPOTS: PORTABLE PUPPY PLAYSET	APR148308	ACT

TOP 10 GAMES

RANK	DESCRIPTION	ITEM CODE	VENDOR
1	DC HEROCLIX JUSTICE LEAGUEL TRINITY WAR BOOSTER BRICK	DEC142573	NEC
2	JAY & SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK MONOPOLY	DEC142209	DST
3	MAGIC THE GATHERING TCG: FATE REFORGED BOOSTER PACKS	JAN152654	WIZ
4	DC HEROCLIX WAR OF LIGHT GRAVITY PACKS	DEC142579	NEC
5	DC HEROCLIX JUSTICE LEAGUE: TRINITY WAR GRAVITY PACKS	DEC142576	NEC
6	RISK: THE WALKING DEAD SURVIVAL EDITION	OCT128267	USA
7	DC HEROCLIX JUSTICE LEAGUE: TRINITY WAR BOOSTER PROMO	DEC142574	NEC
8	DC HEROCLIX JUSTICE LEAGUE: TRINITY WAR FAST FORCES 6-PACK	DEC142577	NEC
9	MAGIC THE GATHERING TCG: FATE REFORGED FAT PACK	JAN152656	WIZ
10	MONOPOLY: THE WALKING DEAD SURVIVAL EDITION	OCT128266	USA

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By Matt O’Keefe

Ryan Ferrier jumpstarted his comic book writing career with the self-published Tiger Lawyer in 2010. In it he playfully poked at the wide breadth of interpretations of licensed characters, both story-wise and artistically, by splitting his creator-owned comic into two parts: one goofy and broad and the other dark and gritty, but both about the same protagonist. From there, Ferrier has gone on to build a career out of comics in both the styles he introduced in Tiger Lawyer #1. He balances writing more eclectic comics like D4VE from Monkeybrain and soon in print from IDW with darker ones like Brothers James and the upcoming Curb Stomp and Sons of Anarchy for BOOM! Studios. I spoke to Ryan about his humble small-press beginnings and speedy rise to publishers like Monkeybrain, BOOM! and IDW.

I thought the split between the fun and the serious in Tiger Lawyer was really clever. What made you decide to go that route?

It wasn’t planned; it just kind of happened. It started as a joke. I posted the script online for the funny half and Matt McCray, the artist, really got into it and said we should make it into a comic. So we did it and it steamrolled from there. That was all unplanned. After that half of the comic was completed I decided I wanted to put out a full issue and not just an ashcan, and at the time I really wanted to work with Vic Malhotra, whose art I just love. So we paired up and took it in a different direction with the crime noir more serious half. Because it was so unplanned we didn’t feel that we had to do it all fun [like the first half] and we could just do whatever we wanted with it. It was just comics people kind of goofing off, jamming with it. It just kind of took off from there. People dug it so we kept doing it.

How’d you get people to pay attention to Challenger Comics when it first started up?

It has (or had, I haven’t touched it in a while) a pretty small following, but the people who did follow it were really cool and excited about it. And I think a part of it was how everyone involved in Challenger Comics had already worked hard for years trying to “break in.” So each person that contributed kind of had their own equity in the sense that they all had people rooting for them and followers from their other work. And it can’t be understated how important social media is for creators just starting out. Twitter’s just been amazing about getting the word out and spreading links around and getting attention. So it was kind of a culmination of all those different things. And the first year that we did Challenger we put out just a ton of comics. I had several banked up from before the site had even launched, and in the first year we had over a dozen [on the site]. We hit the ground running, which is now kind of biting us in the butt because Challenger slowed down a lot. I think that’s partly because everyone involved is seeing bigger work. So it’s a lot harder for any of us to make a free short because we’re just so busy right now.

Yeah, I saw that like three people from Challenger Books have had books published Monkeybrain?

Yeah. Monkeybrain was really cool. We all kind of got on that Monkeybrain train this year and that was just a really interesting transition. And I’m even seeing now that a lot of people who were or are involved in Monkeybrain stuff are catapulting to other things like Mike Moreci, Ryan Lindsay and Paul Allor. They’re all getting big work now so I think i think Monkeybrain’s a logical next avenue for people putting all their work online and getting their work out there independently like with Challenger. But at the same time Monkeybrain has top names doing books there. Gabriel Hardman has Kinski and Joshua Williamson has Masks and Mobsters. The closest thing I can equate Monkeybrain to, and I use this comparison a lot with Challenger, is that it’s a really cool online convention for people really into making interesting comics their own way.

D4VE is coming out from IDW as single issues, right?

Yeah, that starts in Mid-February.

Why the shift from graphic novels to single issues for a Monkeybrain book?

You know, I’m not entirely sure. I’m certainly very cool with it. I think when I first started talking with IDW we were talking under the assumption that it would go right to trade. I can’t speak for Alison [Type] or Chris [Roberson], who run Monkeybrain, or anyone at IDW but I think that D4VE has had some good feedback and I think people dig it. At least I hope that’s why they want to do it in singles. But yeah, I’m interested in seeing how it does in a different market. Although at the same time there’s not too much difference between putting out a book at Monkeybrain and putting out a book in print with the exception of page count. That’s something a little bit different in the case of D4VE because of its digital roots. Some issues run a couple pages short, some run over. So that’s really the only kind of logistical challenge, but yeah, I’m really excited to see how it all plays out.

How did you tackle the page count challenge?

Well, in the case of D4VE with IDW we’re doing a whole bunch of new backmatter, so every issue is going to have some really cool original stuff. I know Issue 1 has a couple pin ups but moving forward with Issues 2-5 there’s going to be a whole bunch of cool stuff that me and Valentin [Ramon, the artist] are working on right now. And we’re doing all-new covers as well. I think each issue is going to have 3-4 variants and Valentin did a whole row of covers that connect to each other. It’s pretty exciting

Do you worry if cheap digital will cannibalize the sales for the print version?

That’s a really good question. I have thought about that many times, and I honestly don’t really know what to expect because this is also my first book at a bigger publisher. It’s my first time solicited in previews and being in regular comic shops and being on the shelves and stuff like that. Up until now I’ve just been super indy swinging it on my own, so I’m really curious to see how it goes. I think we’re still in a period of feeling out digital comics and I think there’s still a really big audience that is print only and an audience that’s digital only. I’ve heard lots of people say that they’re excited to read D4VE but they’re print people so they’ll get it once a trade comes out. So I’m hoping that [the print version finds an audience]. But at the same time I’m really just happy to have anyone read it, whether it be on ComiXology or the print books. I hope they buy the print books because I want them to be successful and I just quit my day job so [laughs] I would like to keep some money and hopefully it snowballs into more work. But I’m kind of not worried too much about it. More than anything, I’m grateful to have anything out. It’ll be interesting.

How’d you land a miniseries at BOOM Studios?

That’s a good question. I think I’m still figuring that out [laughs] but BOOM is awesome I love BOOM very much and they have been really really good to me. I guess long story short was that I met BOOM at a convention a few years ago and just started talking to them and some of their peoples. I actually started out lettering for BOOM. I do a lot of lettering still, and that for me has been a really good way to meet people in the industry, get experience and talk to editors. I don’t want to say sneak in through the backdoor because there’s no such thing, but for me lettering stuff was a way to build a relationship with editors and other creators. So yeah, that’s more or less how it happened. I started out lettering RoboCop two years ago and they were really nice to give me work and I’ve just been pitching stuff to them for awhile now and they were really stoked about Curb Stomp. Now that’s coming out, I think, two weeks after D4VE.

Curb Stomp seems to to be in a somewhat similar vein to Brothers James. Is that accurate?

I think in the sense that it’s not at all like D4VE or Tiger Lawyer you’re definitely on the right track. I think Brothers James is a little more of a genre book. I kind of hate using that term, but it’s really grindhousey pulpy. It knows what it is, it knows it’s in that cinematic, gritty world. I think that, if anything, Curb Stomp has a little more brightness to it. Which is really weird because Curb Stomp deals with more real social issues and there are a lot more messages in it than there were in Brothers James. And I think that Curb Stomp has a wider array of characters and different kinds of characters. That’s not at all to put down Brothers James because I love Brothers James. That was like my first passion project and I love what Brian and I have done with it; it was one of my favorite books to work on. But [Brothers James and Curb Stomp] are similar in that they’re really ultra violent but not in an offensive way, I hope. They’re more serious books and they’re more gritty. But Curb Stomp has a lot of humor and atmosphere and interesting and fun character stuff.

You mentioned the violence isn’t offensive in Curb Stomp and Brothers James. The violence in the Sons of Anarchy TV show is offensive to some people. How do you address that in the comic version? 

That’s a very good question. It’s very, very interesting writing Curb Stomp and Sons of Anarchy at the same time because in Curb Stomp there are a lot of my beliefs and a lot of real issues that we’re tackling. And not to fault Sons of Anarchy, but it knows what it is and it knows the kind of content that it has. So there are a lot of differences in how to approach Sons of Anarchy as opposed to Curb Stomp. Like, if I wrote the kind of violence in Sons of Anarchy that I write in Curb Stomp, it wouldn’t feel like Sons of Anarchy. But at the same time I think [Sons of Anarchy] is a modern book. It’s a really great show so there’s wiggle room there, but there’s a distinct difference in how to approach both of them. I’m about an issues into Sons and it’s been a really interesting experience. Although they’re both in the same wheelhouse as gang-related, violent, kind-of-thriller books they’re like apples and oranges in terms of what headspace I need to get into to write them.

Your career has been progressing at a steady clip. Have you been following any sort of game plan to get where you are now?

Oh, man. That’s a tough one. I think it’s very, very apt that you ask me this today, because I finally came to terms that I’m going to quit my day job in a few weeks. I’m at that point in my career when it’s really, really fucking terrifying. This is it and I’m either going to fail spectacularly or at best kind of keep my head above water. But I think the game plan… lettering’s helped out a lot, but it’s not something that you can rest on entirely, just hope writing gigs come out of it. Over the past six or seven years I’ve made a lot of sacrifices and just worked myself to the bone. That’s what you have to do; you have to work so much and for very little. You have to work and know that most of [what you’re working on] is not going to get published. You just have to kinda hope that you get good and nurture relationships. There are so many things that affect a career. There are so many different factors that go into getting a comic book series greenlit. I honestly don’t really know anything beyond that you just have to hustle. So that’s kinda what i’m going to keep doing. I’m not going to slow down now that I don’t have a day job. After taking the leap you just have to hustle ten times faster [laughs].

You can find Ryan Ferrier on Twitter and Tumblr. D4VE #1 just went on sale last week and Curb Stomp #1 comes out tomorrow 2/25. 

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DC isn’t the only comics company moving office—IDW just announced a move to a former Navy barracks within the historic NTC in Liberty Station in Point Loma. And they’re adding the San Diego Comic Art Gallery to their office space, to be opened in June. The move is both for expansion and to make IDW more of the community. Or as Ted Adams put it “We’re going to be able to show the community, and the world, just who IDW is.”

Details:

The San Diego Comic Art Gallery will be a unique, new and dynamic space located within the IDW offices, designed to educate and engage the local San Diego community and the region of Southern California with the sequential comic book and graphic arts. The SDCAG will create a permanent home in San Diego as a showcase for this celebrated art form; already so pervasive in pop culture, thanks to the meteoric success of comic-based films, television and entertainment, and already so associated with the San Diego area, thanks to Comic-Con International. With a retail space, a gallery of original art from comics and animation, and actual working artists on the premises, the SDCAG is an entirely new kind of venture. Harry L. Katz, former Head Curator in the Prints and Photographs Division at the Library of Congress, has been named the curator of SDCAG.
 

Through events, author and artist appearances, art installations and celebrations, the SDCAG will become a destination to worldwide fans of the medium, and cement San Diego’s status as a Capital of the comic arts, while becoming an integral part of the immediate community. The first installation will be an extensive showcase of the work of Kevin Eastman, co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and local San Diego resident.
 
“We’ve been looking to make a move for a while,” said Ted Adams, CEO & Publisher of IDW, “We’ve been expanding rapidly, and simply have run out of room. At the same time, we’ve been looking for a space that more accurately reflects who we are as a company. When we started talking with the NTC, it became evident immediately that this would be a perfect fit. And with the gallery, we’re going to be able to show the community, and the world, just who IDW is. This move is the perfect next step in the evolution of our company.”
 
“The NTC Foundation welcomes IDW Publishing and their creative team to the NTC Arts & Culture District at Liberty Station,” said NTC Foundation Executive Director Alan Ziter.  “Their new San Diego Comic Art Gallery will be a great addition to the numerous art galleries and museums already at NTC and we look forward to the creative collaborations ahead. We anticipate it will be a San Diego landmark destination for comic and animation art lovers from all over the world.”

Moving into a historic building has its unique challenges and is being made possible with the assistance of San Diego local area businesses such as Good & Roberts LLC and obrARCHITECTURE inc. Taking 18,344 square feet, IDW will now be the largest tenant in the already vibrant arts district.
 
After 15 years as a prominent part of the local business community, IDW Publishing is sure to be a more public presence with the move to NTC. The Grand Opening is scheduled for June 1, 2015.

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by Pamela Auditore

Anyone familiar with Spike TV Scream Award Winner and New York Times Bestselling Artist/Writer Ben Templesmith’s work knows he is profoundly influenced by HP Lovecraft. Even a cursorary glance at his art makes this apparent. Lovecraft’s influence is most directly on display in Templesmith’s most recent graphic novel Squidder.  A tale of a one time warrior doing battle and eluding the common place acolytes who’ve accepted the Dark Cephlopod Gods as their own.

But now, the marriage is official!

Templesmith will be tackling Lovecraft himself, the horror master who has influenced creators for nearly a century, including Mike Mignola, Nic Pizzolatto (“True Detective”) and GRR Martin.

In an e-mail yesterday, Templesmith, announced he is temporarily forgoing a sequel to Squidder, for an adaption of HP Lovecraft’s “DAGON.” “A proto-Chuthullu story,” as the Kickstarter page calls it.

Dagon

As Templesmith tells it:

“‘DAGON’ is the first Lovecraft story I ever read… and is just oozing in mood and fear [sic]…so I figured I’d turn the visuals it gives me in to a deluxe graphic novella. I finally get to handle some of the unspeakable horrors of Lovecraft, especially because it’s the 125th anniversary of his birth.”

Templesmith also says he will be working on Fell, and is in talks with Warren Ellis for more issues of Wormwood.

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WHO will be the Netflix/Spotify of comics? Several companies have been trying to offer all you can eat comcis buffets, but a lack of top content has been holding them back. But Scribd just made a major play announcing a $8.99 a month plan that allows you access to 10,000 comics, including top titles from Marvel, IDW/Top Shelf, Archie, Dynamite and Valiant. Scribd has been around for a while as en embeddable pdf reader, and already offers over a million ebooks and audiobooks on a subscription basis, so this makes a lot of sense.

Titles in the 10,000 book library include Spider-Man, My Little Pony, X-O Manowar, Lcoke & Key and graphic novels by Alan Moore, Matt Fraction, Gail Simone, George R.R. Martin and more—so a lot of good content but not everything available on Marvel Unlimited, for instance.
 
“We are very excited to take this step in expanding our subscription service beyond books,” said Trip Adler, co-founder and CEO of Scribd in a statement. “This addition gives comics readers the freedom of unlimited reading, while also giving our ebook and audiobook lovers the opportunity to discover comics and graphic novels.”

“IDW and Top Shelf have been considering subscription models for comics for some time,” said Jeff Webber, IDW’s Vice President of Digital Publishing & Business Development in his own statement. “Scribd came to us with the perfect opportunity to offer the entire catalog to fans and new readers. Time for some binge-reading!”

“For decades, a driving force at Marvel has been the desire to put comics in the hands of new readers,” sschimed in Daniele Campbell, Marvel’s VP CRM. “Our partnership with Scribd allows some of Marvel’s greatest stories to sit alongside Scribd’s already vast and eclectic catalogue of content in an effort to reach readers who might not have access to a comic shop.”

Ever unafraid to take a digital plunge, IDW is offering a two month free trial running until 2/17, where as regular Scribd offers a one month trial.

I’ve never been a fan of how Scribd embeds work in blog posts, but I never tried their sub service, which is optimized for tablets, so I’m sure it will be a better reading experience.

$8.99 — the cost of a mere two or three comics a month— is a pretty reasonable deal—well this be the next killer app? What do you all think? Will you sign up?

 
Some more deets on the content:

●        Classic Comics – Classic runs of the Avengers, the X-Men, Daredevil, Archie, Judge Dredd, the Rocketeer and more
●        Top Characters – Spider-Man, the Avengers, Betty and Veronica, Kevin Keller, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, My Little Pony, G.I. Joe, Bloodshot, Adventure Time
●        Major Creators – Alan Moore, Frank Miller, Fiona Staples, Darwyn Cooke, Mark Waid, Ed Brubaker, Renee French, Jeffrey Brown, Joe Hill, and many more
●        Acclaimed Graphic Novels – March, From Hell, Swallow Me Whole, Underwater Welder, Spiral-Bound, The Ticking, Too Cool to Be Forgotten
●        Award Winners – League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, 30 Days of Night, Locke & Key, Alec, Will You Still Love Me if I Wet the Bed?
●      Hit YA Titles – Ultimate Spider-Man, Runaways, Afterlife With Archie, Harbinger, Lumberjanes
●        Manga – Partnership with MediaDo brings titles from Cork and Harlequin Manga, including work by acclaimed artist Moyoco Anno
●        Leading Publishers – Marvel, Arcana, Archie, Boom! Studios, Dynamite, IDW/Top Shelf, Kingstone, Space Goat, Top Cow, Valiant, Zenescope

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This year marks the Tenth anniversary of IDW Publishing and Hasbro being in business together, a relationship that began in 2005 with the publication of IDW’s first TRANSFORMERS title. To celebrate a decade of creativity, innovation, and success, the two companies are announcing the extension of their blockbuster relationship.
 


Once TRANSFORMERS was established as an immediate success, IDW expanded its comic line to include the Hasbro property G.I. JOE, then eventually the smash-hit MY LITTLE PONY and coming this March, JEM & THE HOLOGRAMS! IDW will also continue to publish the LITTLEST PET SHOP and DUNGEONS & DRAGONS comics.  These titles have become perennial staples at IDW, and will continue to play key roles in IDW’s publishing slate going forward, in all existing formats, both print and digital. Fans of the line can expect much more of the quality products they’ve come to expect: Comics, Trade Paperbacks, Hardcovers, Micro Comic Fun Packs, IDW Limited collections, and more.
 
“At this point, I almost feel I’ve run out of superlatives for Hasbro. They remain an absolutely fantastic collaborator on every level,” said IDW CEO & Publisher, Ted Adams. “After ten years in business together, it’s clear what a huge part of our success Hasbro has been, and what an appropriate time this is to solidify our relationship well into the future.”

When I first got this email, I read it as “Ended their relationship, and I was like WHA–???!?!? But no no, the correct title is “IDW And Hasbro Celebrate 10 Years By Extending Their Relationship ” which makes a ton of sense. Books like Transformers, GI Joe and My Little Pony have become mainstays for IDW and often damn good comics, like the epic TRANSFORMERS VS GI JOE that Tom Scioli and John Barber turned into a critical hit.

2014 was full of hits that captivated fans and critics alike. From the hit TRANSFORMERS event Dark Cybertron, to the celebratory 25th issue of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, readers were treated to some truly monumental stories. The critically acclaimed TRANSFORMERS vs G.I. JOE, series found itself among 8 “Best Of” lists for 2014, with VICE Magazine proclaiming, “If you were a child in the ‘80s and remember playing with these toys, this comic will work for you on that level. If you appreciate some of the most beautiful drawings currently being published in a comic book, then this can work for you on that level, too.”
 
“IDW embodies all of the great qualities Hasbro looks for in a publisher, and we share common values,” said Michael Kelly, Hasbro’s Director of Global Publishing. “With IDW, we know we can count on superb storytelling, innovative distribution strategies, and bold thinking. We’ve come a long way together in ten years, but this is only the beginning.”
 
Announced recently by Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. the fan-favorite series My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic was voted the Best All-Ages Series and earned the coveted Diamond Gem award for 2014! This marks the second Diamond Gem award earned by the series, the previous being Best Licensed TP/HC in 2013.
 
With an extension on most licenses and formats moving into the future, it’s clear that 2015 is only the beginning for IDW and Hasbro. 

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Under the Sign of Capricorn by Hugo Pratt
IDW/Eurocomics, $29.99
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As the year turns, IDW’s EuroComics imprint debuts with the first of twelve projected volumes of Hugo Pratt’s beloved Corto Maltese. For these elegantly produced trade paperbacks, Pratt’s literate, witty, exceedingly well-researched and beautifully drawn stories are translated by Simone Castaldi of Hofstra University and Dean Mullaney, producer/co-editor of IDW’s essential Milton Caniff collections and their Eisner award-winning Alex Toth biographical trilogy. Pratt’s Corto Maltese is among the most highly regarded series in European fiction, but American publications done by NBM in the 1980s and by Rizzoli in 2012 had production problems and they found lukewarm receptions. Finally, Mullaney and IDW do Pratt justice with this new series.

Hugo Pratt was born in 1927, of Italian, English, Jewish and Turkish heritage. In 1936 his father, a Mussolini supporter, moved his family to Africa, where at the age of 14 young Hugo was conscripted into the colonial police. The now-multilingual youth became entranced by Caniff’s comic strip Terry and the Pirates and writers like Joseph Conrad, Jack London and Robert Louis Stevenson. After his father’s death in a British POW camp in East Africa in 1942, Pratt and his mother returned to Venice, where he studied at the military college Città di Castello and interpreted for the allied army. In 1949 he moved to South America where he collaborated with the late writer Héctor Oesterheld on El Sergeanto Kirk, Ernie Pike and Ticoderoga and he created Fort Wheeling, Anna della Jungla and other well-known titles.
His most famous creation Corto Maltese was first seen in “The Ballad of the Salty Sea” in the Sgt. Kirk title, then after he returned to Italy in the early 1960s, the series debuted in earnest in the French magazine Pif in 1970 and made Pratt famous; it has been translated into more than fifteen languages and is still a best-seller in Europe. Concurrent with Corto, Pratt also created many other series, such as Scorpions of the Desert and Morgan. He wrote Indian Summer (1983) and Gaucho (1991) for artist Milo Manara and he also wrote prose novels such as Jesuit Joe (1980). Pratt is the recipient of many honors worldwide including a French knighthood; in America he was inducted into the Eisner Hall of Fame in 2005. Pratt died of cancer in Switzerland in 1995.

I interviewed Dean Mullaney and Simone Castaldi by email in December 2014.

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James: It is hard to overemphasize how significant I believe this project to be; Hugo Pratt is simply one of the greatest cartoonists to ever walk the Earth.

Dean: We’re all in agreement here! I first tried getting the rights in 1982, hoping to serialize the short stories in Eclipse! You live long enough…dreams sometimes do come true.

James: Pratt and Corto Maltese have been huge in Europe for many years, but are unknown here. How will IDW promote such an important series?

Dean: Introducing Hugo Pratt to an American audience presents its challenges but we are wholly dedicated to making it a success. I personally consider this one of the most important projects I’ve ever edited. Corto Maltese is the lead feature in IDW’s winter catalogue. The promotional budget for the series is easily the highest of any of our previous books. In the U.S. Hugo Pratt and Corto Maltese are primarily known by professional comics writers and artists, who have eagerly “enlisted” in spreading the word to their fans. With Patrizia Zanotti, Pratt’s longtime assistant, we are putting together a Pratt presentation at the Society of Illustrators in cooperation with the French Embassy. And Corto benefits as the premiere title in our new EuroComics imprint.

James: “Under the Sign of Capricorn” contains all of the stories that were in NBM’s The Brazilian Eagle and two of the pieces are from Banana Conga. Will forthcoming volumes include a lot of material never published in English before?

Dean:  Although Pratt’s 20-page Corto stories have been published in several formats and in seemingly arbitrary configurations such as “Banana Conga,” he envisioned them as belonging to four distinct cycles. We are publishing these stories in four collections according to Pratt’s overall design and will complete the entire series in twelve volumes.

James: Your initial offering is actually the third book in the series. Will there be hardcover editions forthcoming at some point?

Dean: We’re beginning with the third book because the poorly-received Rizzoli edition of “The Ballad of the Salt [sic] Sea” (chronologically the second book in the series) is still in print. We’ll cycle through the rest of the books, and then double-back to present “The Early Years” and “The Ballad of the Salty Sea.” “Under the Sign of Capricorn” is a good place to start because it’s with these inter-related short stories from the early 1970s that Pratt established most of his primary themes and characters.
We will also issue six oversized (close to the dimensions of Pratt’s original artwork), limited edition hardcovers, each containing the contents of two trade paperbacks. For example, the first hardcover will collect, for the first time anywhere, the entire “Caribbean Suite” (the first eleven short stories) in a single volume—something Pratt had always wanted to see. These hardcovers will include many “extras” — essays, artwork, and photographs that provide background on the stories and Pratt’s intensive historical research. The covers of the hardcovers will feature Pratt’s watercolors.

James: Yours is a beautiful packaging, done at a much more appropriate, larger scale than the NBM versions from the 1980s and the small color book done by Rizzoli a few years ago. To be fair, the earlier US editions were well-intended, I think. NBM’s efforts were the first and they are long out-of-print. The worst aspect of them was their very lackluster covers. Rizzoli’s book was actually done with the cooperation of Patrizia Zanotti, who did the color with Pratt’s blessing; the main detriments were the scale, the odd font lettering and some pixelation of the art. Now, IDW’s excellent reproduction is a clear improvement. Did you have access to stats, or scans of the original art?

Dean: Because Corto has been published around the world in various formats and sizes, both B&W and color, the digital files are of varying quality. I rejected the first set we received from Europe. Some of the artwork was blown-out, details were missing, etc.. They were a disservice to the cartoonist. Oddly, these were the identical files used by NBM in the 1980s. I’ve been wanting to edit a definitive edition of Corto Maltese for too many years to settle for sub-par reproduction. The Italian files we have for translation were made from pristine sources and we requested nothing less.
All stories will be published in B&W. I specifically chose a heavyweight matte stock with a slight sheen that would give the book substance and hold the ink well, providing crisp, sharp blacks, which is essential to doing justice to Pratt’s art. Like Milton Caniff and Alex Toth, Pratt was a master at spotting blacks. It’s one of the factors that, I believe, makes his art seem better in B&W. What’s also fascinating about Pratt is that unlike most cartoonists who develop a style early in their careers and run with for decades in often-deteriorating exactness, he (again like Toth) improved with age. Pratt stripped his storytelling down to the minimum elements necessary to tell his story effectively and with impact. There are certain panels that make you just shake your head, wondering how he decided to place his characters that specific way within the frame. An example comes to mind in “So Much for Gentlemen of Fortune,” in which he focuses a slight downshot on Corto and Ambiguity as they step on the gangway to Rasputin’s ship. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that angle in any other comic. And then there are memorable panels like the straight-on close-up of Sureshot peering through a window in “Sureshot Samba.” As both writer and artist Pratt creates images that stay with us forever.

James: Will any of the future books be in color?

Dean: Will we eventually publish them in color? Perhaps, but at first, it’s essential that we present Pratt’s artwork the way he originally intended.

James:  [Update, Feb. 2015: I generally prefer Pratt in black and white, but an exception can be seen in a book I just got in Paris, Casterman’s 2015 facsimile of the original Italian 1977 Milano Libri edition of Corto Maltese en Siberie. This book boasts some gorgeous color done by Pratt’s partner of the time, Anne Frognier, which is printed in the ben-day dots of American Sunday newspaper strips and comic books. The dots are described in a booklet that is included with the volume as the “ancestor of the pixel”; this look is explicitly referenced in the story as Corto reads a newspaper with a Geo. Herriman “Krazy Kat” strip and one must also think that Caniff was homaging his greatest influence, Caniff.]  I have not read the originals, but can you tell me what is involved in translating a work with such specificity of international and historical significance?

Simone: I do a first basic, literal translation indicating all idiomatic instances and uses that are proper to the Italian language and suggest possible ways to adapt them into English. This way Dean has a good starting point to smooth everything out in a coherent and uniform style. Then Dean and I compare solutions and make sure that the literal meaning and stylistic flavor is preserved. The challenge we face is that of rendering the peculiarities of Pratt’s style and the laconic “hard boiled” dialogue in Pratt’s stories. Corto is part a Stevensonian and part a Chandlerian character. However, his sarcasm and elliptical rhetoric have both literary and specific regional roots. As a Venetian, Pratt has absorbed the traditional quick and stinging humor of the Venetian people. Corto, although he doesn’t speak the dialect of Pratt’s hometown, is inherently Venetian.

Dean:  It’s not our place to show the reader how clever we can be. My job is to make you believe that you are reading Hugo Pratt’s dialogue in English. If I can capture the cadence and rhythm of Pratt’s narrative, then our translation is a success. It was imperative that we went back to Pratt’s original Italian scripts. Previous English editions were translated second-hand from French. It’s like the old game of telephone — the original message changes with each retelling until eventually the meaning completely veers off course. That Pratt was an inveterate researcher adds an additional layer of complexity to the translation; we need to embrace the breadth of his research in order to interpret it into English. Further, Pratt makes liberal use of literary allusions. I spent a half hour on a single panel that made no sense in the literal Italian or translated French, until I realized that he was making an oblique reference to Malraux’s “The Voices of Silence.” Patrizia has been helpful in some of these instances because she recalls discussions with Hugo Pratt about his influences.

James: I usually dislike digital lettering, but the font used here, derived from Caniff’s illuminator Frank Engli, seems to be the best possible choice in that regard.

Dean:  I created a digital font of Frank Engli’s lettering because reading “Terry and the Pirates” was what made Pratt want to become a cartoonist in the first place. Patrizia Zanotti agreed that Pratt would have been thrilled to have Frank Engli letter his work!

James: Pratt’s collaborations with the late writer Héctor Oesterheld are among the most significant European comics to never reach our shores. Do you plan to translate them?

Dean:  I would love to eventually edit a larger library of Hugo Pratt’s work, but first things first — we need to make Corto a success on this side of the Atlantic.

James: Can you speak a little about the uniqueness of Pratt’s content in comics, for instance his critique of capitalism/imperialism? He certainly retains a powerful sense of adventure and romanticism, but at the same time deglamorizes how the western world subjugates various cultures.

Simone: Pratt’s early works like “Asso di Picche” appeared in the immediate post-war years in Italy. The Corto Maltese stories hit the Italian, and European, scene in the late sixties—after Pratt’s return from Argentina—and become very popular with the ’68 generation of student protesters and left-wing activists. This happened almost by chance as Pratt clearly belongs to an older generation, that of the pre-economic boom Italy of the ’50s. Nonetheless, incidentally, Corto reflected some of the stances of the ’68 youth and it even predated the anti-ideological movements of ’77. Although Pratt’s personal political positions became a bit more conservative later in his life, Corto’s individualism, his refusal of country, family, even personal gain, made him an ideal hero for the times. Moreover, not only can his Caribbean saga be read as the first post-colonialist stance in the comic medium, but Pratt’s demystification of WWI (especially Italy’s role in it) and the dismantling of the patriotic rhetoric tied to it are of great significance in the largely conservative Italy of the times.

Dean:  I think it’s also instructive to place Pratt’s Corto stories in context of what was happening in mainstream American comics at the time. For example, in 1967 when Pratt started “The Ballad of the Salty Sea,” even the best of Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, et al was aimed at a juvenile audience.  Pratt, on the other hand, was an adult writing about mature themes in a nuanced manner for a sophisticated audience. We didn’t see anything in American comics approaching Pratt’s take on colonialism and the plight of indigenous people, for example, until Don McGregor “Panther’s Rage” in 1973, and even that remained an anomaly, whereas Pratt continued to develop his themes in Corto.

It must be remembered that Hugo Pratt’s comics reflect his own peripatetic experiences. He came by a humanist outlook honestly — from his youth in Ethiopia to his many years in Argentina. That his stories resonated with a late ’60s and early ’70s audience — and still resonate with us today — is because he writes of the universal struggle for human dignity, and did so in the context of a classic adventure narrative.

James: What’s next for the EuroComics imprint?

Dean: For our next series we will turn to the Iberian peninsula and what many consider the most important graphic memoir comics to have ever been published in Europe—“Paracuellos,” Carlos Giménez’s poignant stories of being forced to grow up, along with thousands of other “children of the defeated,” in church-run “orphanages” in Franco’s fascist Spain. Will Eisner says, “Carlos Giménez speaks with humor and sensitivity to the human condition. His work is international.”

________________________________________________

(A heavily edited excerpt of this interview ran in Publishers Weekly Comics World)

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IDW sort of hinted at this back at NYCC, when they announced an Artists Editions of the Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck by Don Rosa. At the retailer meeting, Dirk Wood said, in that special way of his, something along the lines of “There will be more coming from IDW and Disney.” which at the time was a pretty clear indication there would be…more.

And so there is, and they mentioned it again in the fall but no one noticed. And now they just slyly let it out in the April Solicitations.

Uncle Scrooge #1—GEM OF THE MONTH

Jonathan Gray, Rodolfo Cimino (w) • Romano Scarpa (a) • Giorgio Cavazzano (c)

Wak! Disney’s richest epic hero returns! In “The Wrath of Gigabeagle,” the McDuck Money Bin meets a monster-sized Beagle Boy mech!

FC • 48 pages • $3.99

Uncle Scrooge #1—Subscription Variant

Jonathan Gray, Rodolfo Cimino (w) • Romano Scarpa (a) • Derek Charm (c)

FC • 48 pages • $3.99

 

Uncle Scrooge #1—Blank Sketch Variant

Jonathan Gray, Rodolfo Cimino (w) • Romano Scarpa (a) • Blank Sketch Variant (c)

FC • 48 pages • $3.99

 

Bullet points:

• Monthly Disney Comics are back, from IDW!
• Fan-favorite creators: Romano Scarpa (legendary Italian Uncle Scrooge master), Jonathan Gray (Sonic the Hedgehog) and more!
• Capcom’s recent DuckTales: Remastered video game has brought Scrooge McDuck back to Disney stardom. See what all the quacking is about!
• 48 action-packed Pages for only $3.99!

And with this ad in Previews:

Mickey Mouse! And Donald Duck! As noted by Graeme McMillan IDW is great at picking up licenses that their owners don’t want to put out, as they also publish Cartoon Network books, which are owned by Warner Bros.

Based on the first book, IDW seems to be taking the tried and true method of picking up some of the gazillions of pages of Italian Disney material and bringing it to the US. And everyone loves Romano Scarpa.

This leaves Marvel putting out ride-related titles such as Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, the somewhat mysterious Joe’s Books putting out Darkwing Duck and Frozen, and Disney itself doing the odd graphic novel like Space Mountain. And no one particularly trumpeting it from the rooftops, except Fantagraphics with their awesome Barks and Gottfredson reprints. But at least IDW is picking up Walt Disney Comics and Stories right where it left off (at Kaboom) with issue #721.

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It has only been over a month since Roberto Orci walked away from the director’s chair on the upcoming Star Trek threequel, with Fast & Furious series director Justin Lin taking over the job not long after.

With Orci’s script for the film (which he co-wrote with John D. Payne and Patrick McKay) being tossed, Paramount needed to find a replacement, and fast, if the studio planned on making their 2016 Anniversary release date.

They didn’t have to look too far, as Simon Pegg (Montgomery Scott/Scotty in the current series) will be teaming up with Doug Jung (Banshee) on a new iteration of the script.

Pegg is no stranger to these duties, having teamed up with Edgar Wright to co-write Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World’s End. With that pedigree, this is a definite upgrade for the series and for the first time since just before the release of Star Trek Into Darkness, my interest is piqued.

This isn’t the first time that a cast-member has jumped into Trek’s big screen creative end, as he’ll join Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner and Jonathan Frakes, who have all taken a swing at a Star Trek film of their own (though in director duties, but Nimoy and Shatner did co-write the stories for The Voyage Home and The Final Frontier respectively).

With any luck, this means Pegg will also have some supervisory involvement in any upcoming tie-in comics produced by IDW in the same way Orci did for the previous array of miniseries.

Star Trek 3 is set to release on July 8, 2016.

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When last we discussed what was going on with Diamond and Books A Million (BAM), it wasn’t entirely clear what was going on, other than there were comics on sale and they were coming from Diamond, bagged & boarded.  Interestingly, _nobody_ wanted to comment about their monthly comics being available at BAM.  Diamond would not give a written confirmation this was happening, although I got a verbal confirmation that BAM was a customer and the books were not returnable.

How often do publishers NOT want to tell you where you can buy their books?  Or a retail chain doesn’t want to tell you what they carry?

I did eventually get some information from that most notorious of informants, “the unnamed source.”  As usual, “unnamed” was in a position to clarify what was going on.  There are apparently around 70 BAM-owned stores getting shipments from Diamond.  All 23 of the “2^nd & Charles” used book chain owned by BAM and 40-ish BAM stores.  This apparently started back around August, so it appears to be a rollout with my local store only coming online in December.

My source says 25-30 titles are being ordered and that lines up with what I’ve seen in person.  Most of the comics in the store near me appear to have 3 copies at most and as it goes into the second month of stocking the DM titles, there are multiple issues of some titles on the rack.  It’s a mix of Marvel, Image and IDW.  Heavier on the Marvel, if all the stores stock the same.

Now, going back to 2^nd & Charles, I was informed that they were doing pull lists.  I called one up.  Sure enough, they had pull lists.  And I didn’t have to explain what a pull list was, either, which is interesting, since I’d consider that a DM-centric term.  I also asked if they could special order a comic?  The response was that they could make a request, but it wouldn’t necessarily get filled.  In contrast, I asked the local BAM if they could place a special order for me and they said they only got what the distributor sent them.

I surmise from those responses that the ordering for BAM is still fairly centralized, which would make a certain amount of sense if it isn’t completely rolled out and/or is still in a pilot stage.  (BAM didn’t return phone calls or emails on the topic.)

I also see BAM has their very own Star Wars #1 variant cover, so they’re being a fairly active participant in stocking Marvel.  Looked like a 10 copy order for my local, much heavier than anything else.

So, 250 BAM stores at 3 copies per title = 750 copies for anything they carry at such a time as it becomes a full rollout.  Maybe they order heavier on some things, maybe they don’t.  At what point the stores get the authority/ability to place special orders with Diamond is a very interesting question, since there’s no reason someone with an account shouldn’t be able to do so.

It may or may not be a coincidence that Dark Horse has disappeared off the newsstand at both BAM and Barnes & Noble in my area.  I’m waiting to see if Dark Horse turns up bagged & boarded at BAM.

I’m also waiting to see if Marvel, Image and IDW turn up at Barnes & Noble.  That’s pure speculation, but Hastings has a relationship with Diamond.  BAM has a relationship with Diamond.  I can’t imagine Diamond not trying to get some product placement on the Barnes & Noble newsstand.

The number of Direct Market comic shops is thought to be around 2600.  Adding in 250 BAMs bumps it around 9%, even if it’s a limited selection.  Barnes & Noble would be more like 750 locations.  We’ll see if it happens, but Diamond’s reach is getting wider with BAM and more places to buy is a good thing for anybody whose title gets picked up, although I suspect that DM retailers are not going to be particularly happy about this development.

——————

Have you read Todd’s book Economics of Digital Comics?  You can also ignore him on Twitter at @Real_Todd_Allen

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Brought to you by Publishers Weekly, it’s More To Come, the weekly podcast of comics news, interviews and discussion with Calvin Reid, Kate Fitzsimons and The Beat’s own Heidi MacDonald.

In this week’s podcast, the More to Come crew discuss Charlie Hebdo, the attack on its offices and its cultural context as well as comics publisher IDW purchasing Top Shelf, Reed Pop buying Emerald City Comic Con and much more on PW Comics World’s More To Come.

Download this episode direct here, listen to it in streaming here and catch up with our previous podcasts on the Publishers Weekly website, or subscribe to More To Come on iTunes

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In the post Amazology world. many digital comics apps and companies have sprung up trying to stake their claim in this growing world. Farrago Comics is an app for iPad and android that offers a range of free comics. As suggested by their motto “Comic Book Freedom!” the idea is to provide a manageable app for sampling and reading—which isn’t a bad one given today’s crazy quilt of digital platforms. Revenue is provided by ads, as it is with many apps. Up until now they were offering mostly Golden Age and indie comics, but they’ve just sign up with IDW to offer some fan fave #1 from the likes of Steve Niles, Ben Templesmith, Jonathan Maberry, Chris Roberson, Ashley Wood, etc.

Here’s the whole list:

• 30 Days of Night #1
• Mystery Society #1
• Winterworld #1
• Zombies vs Robots #0
On Farrago: January 21, 2014
• Groom Lake #1
• The Last Fall #1
• V-Wars #1
On Farrago: January 28, 2014
• Night of 1,000 Wolves #1
• Pantheon #1
• Memorial #1

“We are thrilled to team up with such a mighty force in the comics universe as IDW, ” says Martin Fleischmann, CEO and Co-founder of Farrago Comics in a statement. “We believe making a large set of great comics and graphic novels free and easy to find in one place helps eliminate the entry barrier to a medium that everyone can (and once did) enjoy.”  Matt Lieberman, Chief Devolopment Officer and Co-founder of Farrago Comics, added “The 10 comics IDW picked as their first to offer on Farrago add a veritable super sampler to our catalog, sure to delight newcomers and aficionados alike.”

According to IDW’s VP Digital Publishing & Business Development, Jeff Webber, they’re eager to test this model. “This is an excellent model to attract new readers to our comics and to comics in general.”

Farrago has been in beta for four months, which they stress test the reader experience and trackable ad counts. I’m told they have more deals in the works, so we’ll see if it catches on.

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By Bruce Lidl

Lost somewhat in the initial burst of news from last week’s ImageExpo was the announcement of a new Image Humble Bundle offering, beginning that morning and lasting until January 21. The “Humble Image Comics Bundle 2: Image Firsts” is a massive collection of digital comics that can be purchased for whatever price the consumer chooses. Included in the basic bundle are the beginning issues of a number of recent series, including Alex + Ada, Deadly Class, C.O.W.L., Elephantmen 2260 Book One, Minimum Wage, God Hates Astronauts, Genius, and Satellite Sam. Paying at least $15 also gets you the slightly higher profile titles The Manhattan Projects, The Wicked + The Divine, The Fuse, Velvet, Sex Criminals, Wytches, The Walking Dead Vol. 22: A New Beginning (#127-132), The Fade Out #1, Nailbiter, Stray Bullets, Southern Bastards, and Shutter. And finally, a stretch price of $18 brings The Walking Dead Compendium One (#1-48), East of West: The World, and Saga Book One (#1-18). For anybody at all interested in Image brand comics, the price truly cannot be beat, especially as the retail price of the comics would be over $300 according to Humble Bundle. Also, purchasers are strongly encouraged to mark a portion of their price paid towards charity, in this case the comics creator focused Hero Initiative. As of this evening, the Image bundle has generated almost $318,000, with over five days left to go.

The current offering is the third Humble Bundle to include Image titles. The first time Humble Bundle included any digital comics was the Image bundle in April 2014 that generated almost $400,000 revenue in two weeks, with titles including Saga, Walking Dead, Fatale, Invincible and Chew. Image imprint Skybound also did a special Comic-Con Humble Bundle in July 2014 as well, which was almost entirely Kirkman based titles such as The Walking Dead, Invincible, Thief of Thieves, and Super Dinosaur. That bundle alone generated $232,000.

Other comic publishers that have released Humble Bundles since April include Dark Horse, Oni, Dynamite, BOOM!, IDW, Top Shelf and Valiant. According to Kelley Allen, Director of Books for Humble Bundle, comics publishers are eager to work with them, and she has a number of ebook and comics bundles planned in 2015 alongside Humble Bundle’s traditional gaming focused offerings. The average revenue number for the comics based bundles so far has been $288,000 for the 14 day period. According to Allen, non-gaming bundles allow Humble to “break out from their core gaming audience” but from the comics perspective, they can also create “enormous crossover” by getting great comics in front of the very large Humble Bundle community. With a very clearly defined, and devoted, young male demographic, Humble Bundle chooses comics with both a logical appeal, like Transformers, Star Wars and The Walking Dead, but Allen also curates high quality titles that may stretch demographic borders. She “pushed very hard” to include titles like Sex Criminals in the latest Image bundle, trusting the Humble Bundle audience to appreciate an outstanding title, even without prior awareness.

While the Humble Bundles may help expand the reach of digital comics, they are also helping to encourage comics publishers to feel comfortable with forgoing DRM protections for their products. Humble Bundles, regardless of content, gaming or ebooks, do not use Digital Rights Management anti-copying technologies, both for philosophical reasons and from a practical standpoint. As Allen pointed out, why use DRM when the consumer could theoretically decide to purchase the content for one cent in any case? Even Dark Horse, which has been very reluctant to forgo DRM generally, was convinced to try not using it for their big Star Wars themed Humble Bundle in October and was rewarded with sales over $375,000 for the two week offering.

Fundamentally, the Humble Bundle “pay what you want” approach reflects exactly the insights independent game developers have learned over the years in regards to digital sales. Since their products are almost universally available to be pirated, often in formats that are actually *more* user friendly than the official versions, game creators have learned to embrace the concept of giving customers compelling reasons to purchase, in the recognition that they do not have to anymore. Distribution options like Steam and Humble Bundle provide explicit value beyond what a pirated version can give, whether through ease of use, personal connection to the creators, community recognition, charitable giving, etc. The Humble Bundle experiment really leverages the unique potential of digital distribution, as the pay what you want model could not really scale in a system that necessitated fulfillment and postage charges. With this almost “donation” type model there is no extra expense for the seller after the first sale, everything after that is essentially “profit.” And the possibility that the new readers exposed to the material may become fans, and go on to make further purchases, even print purchases in local comic books stores, only heightens the value of the Humble Bundle offering. We are likely to see a number of interesting comics based bundles in 2015 and we will learn if this kind of non-traditional sales can become a significant portion of publishers’ revenue, in much the same way digital has already established itself recently.

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