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This is the part where we fellow journos log roll, right? CBR News Editor Kiel Phegley has the most delightful Comic-Con recap, from yachts to Joe Keatinge to Elijah Wood to Whit Spurgeon. And so many potential quotes of the day. Is it THIS:
* One more observation from the floor: when you’re a fan walking around San Diego and you see people in the biz chatting each other up, you may wonder what they’re talking about. Maybe they’re talking about the proliferation of comics culture in the world? Maybe they’re talking about the profits and perils of digital comics? Maybe they’re talking about some rad new series you won’t see for another six months? No, I’m just messing with you. What they’re talking about is “how much the other publishers booths suck balls compared to theirs, because you think our booth is the best one of the floor this year, right?” Booth envy. IT’S ACTUALLY A THING.
Or this:
On Saturday night, Ben and I embarked on the world’s nerdiest, boringest episode of “The Amazing Race” ever when we tried to go out to eat with about a dozen Marvel staffers. 1.5 hours and seven restaurants later, we ended up eating alone in a diner with My Little Pony on the walls.
But no, probably for the future of comics it is THIS:
In other words, Monkeybrain is to the 2010s what First and Pacific were to the 1980s.
0 Comments on Quotes of the Day: Kiel Phegley Edition as of 7/26/2012 2:51:00 PM
Seriously. I feel like it is New Year’s Day again now that you-know-what is over. I can clean the closets, file things away, start NEW projects and just get on with life. BONUS: Comic-Con was so early this year that I actually have five weeks of summer left! Next year it will be back to normal, held July 18-21 with Preview Night on July 17th.
As befits a hangover, I’m trying really hard not to drag out our coverage any more. One or two more panel reports that were in the queue, and my own wrap-up. Commensurate with the month long frenzy of build up, everyone wants to forget about it as soon as possible when its over. The one exception may be an ongoing listing of panel audio; every year so many great panels, they really deserve wider dissemination. But after tomorrow NO MORE COMIC-CON POSTS. Promise.
Speaking of new projects, one of the ways I’m getting on with my life is getting back to fixing up the Beat! A redesign and server move is underway that should patch up the database so there aren’t any more nasty crashes whenever there’s the merest traffic surge. My jerry-rigged fix before the con actually held up during the show, despite traffic going up 50%. The fix did not stand up to the getting home wave on the Tuesday after the show, which I accurately predicted would be the biggest day of all. It’s really funny how everyone gets home and hits the Beat (and other sites) first thing in the morning to see what actually happened.
Anyway, I’m tanned, rested and ready to pick up the pieces of my life. Moving on.
1 Comments on All is calm on New Year’s Day, last added: 7/23/2012
Courtesy of Jamie Coville, here are 16 of the top panels from Comic-Con 2012. It’s almost as good as being there and if you don’t like crowds, it’s better. Many thanks to Jamie for providing this service. Jamie’s photos can be seen here.
How to Get News Coverage (53:51, 49.3mb)
Moderated by Rik Offenberger, a bunch of comic news sites writers talk about how to get coverage on their sites. One the panel was Rich Johnston, Alan Kistler, Bryan Young, Dan Manser, Holly Golightly, Chris Thompson, J.C. Vaughn, Josh Waldrop, Heidi MacDonald and Glenn Hauman. They taled about what e-mails they did and did not read, what information should be in the e-mail, things that people shouldn’t do which will ensure you get ignored, they also talked about smaller sites vs bigger sites when it comes to promoting a project.
Spotlight on Geof Darrow (100:30, 55.3mb)
Geof Darrow wins an Inkpot award and talks about how he got started in comics with Moebius, Frank Miller and the Wachowski Brothers. He showed a partly worked on Shaolin Cowboy Anime that had no audio, but gave funny commentary as it played. He talked in detail about trying to get the anime created and some road bumps he encountered along the way. Geof took the unusual step of asking the audience questions and giving them some signed prints for answering them. The audience did ask him some questions and the Geof talked about good movies the audience should see towards the end.
Bleeding Alliance of Beat Reporters (47:51, 43.8mb)
On this panel was Andy Khouri, Rich Johnston, Heidi MacDonald and Tom Spurgeon. The panel was moderated by Douglas Wolk. The group talked about making a living with their blogs, how they deal with commentators, how much they write vs editing their contributors, what type of stories get und
1 Comments on SDCC 12: Listen to the top panels, last added: 7/21/2012
[Each year we try to find a newcomer to the amazements of Comic-Con to report on their adventures; it's a nice way of seeing the very real enthusiasm for what is truly a one-of-a-kind experience. This year's con virgin is cartoonist Matthew Petz who offered to both write and sketch some of his experiences at the con, starting with not even having a badge... Here's his first report and part 2.]
by Matthew Petz
The adventure continues…
Note: My notes for the next two days were increasingly less and less. Saturday and Sunday really were one HUGE day broken up by about 5 hours of sleep, but lets dive in!
SATURDAY:
Saturday as I woke up my hotel mates and I were still laughing about the previous nights game. As I write this I’m still cracking a smile. “Martian Manhunter”, giggle.
I headed out to breakfast at the Broken Yolk. That place is pretty great, but you need to get there before the line forms. We arrived JUST before it would have been a hassle. It’s worth mentioning that San Diego is basically one gigantic line that weekend. You wait for everything. Also no matter how awesome your shoes are, your feet will hurt at some point. Remember to bring your Advil!
That day at the show was intense. Just packed. Cos players were out in force. More then any other convention the cos player roadblocks just grind to a halt any movement at SDCC. Sexy Boba Fetts WILL stop you from getting anywhere. Then a few minutes later sexy Bane stops everything. After the first two or three times I found it really annoying. The con should have a HOV lane for cos players
Speaking of cos players, I get the feeling that a lot of them are looking to be models or actress’s. Maybe walking around in a sexy Batgirl costume is the modeling equivalent to getting an editor to look at your samples?
Saturday afternoon fatigue was setting in…BUT I had one more task to try and complete. I had my exclusives, and I wanted to see about getting into Hall H.
Now when I left for the Con that day the Hall H line wrapped around the nearby marina– twice. Later on I heard that people started lining up at midnight the night before. Thus is the power of The Hobbit. As I totally ditched plans to wait on line, I thought I would try and lie my way it. Horrible, I know. I heard that once you left Hall H you received a ticket for re-entry. This seemed the most logical way to break in. I approached the gigantic security guy and said I had lost my re-entry ticket, but had been there earlier…he just shrugged and said I had to get in line again. End of conversation. Failure.
Did I feel bad about trying to get in that way? A little…but thus is the mania of seeing a Godzilla trailer…which DID in fact play, and apparently was awesome. Argh.
Frankly, by this time the con was just too packed to really enjoy so I went to lunch.
I had a burger at the Fox Sports Grill. Decent grub. Decent price. They were playing Batman Begins and the Dark Knight on flats screens – at the same time –
0 Comments on SDCC 12: The Virgin Diaries: Part 3 — From Hall H to recovery as of 1/1/1900
One of the hot topics in the comics industry is the movement into the digital medium, and of course the biggest question in that migration is, “what’s it going to cost?” Sunday afternoon at San Diego Comic-Con, the leading voices in this debate came together to discuss this topic: Mark Waid representing Thrillbent, Scott Kurtz the creator of PvP, IDW Publishing’s ePublishing director Jeff Webber, Chris Ross attending as Top Shelf’s director of digital publications, and moderating the panel is comiXology’s Chip Mosher.Mark Waid was a little late showing up, having just won three Eisner Awards the evening before, and after introducing the panel Chip asked the panelists, “what is the ideal price for digital comics and why?”
The line of responses started with Mark Waid, and he suggested, “99 cents… because 99 cents is the point at which even the most casual readers will drop 99 cents will try something they have not tried before. 99 cents is the price you’d pay on an app from the app store… We’re not competing with other comics and we’re not competing with print comics, we’re competing with other things that cost 99 cents.”
Jeff Webber suggested that, “there’s not one price,” following up by suggesting a staggered price system based on date of release, starting from full cover price and lowering after periods of time with the inclusion of discounts; citing that IDW’s best selling digital items at the, “highest price up… except when we do a 99 cent sale.”
Scott Kurtz focused on the question, “Is this digital market the first or secondary market for this content?” His belief is that depending on the use of the digital market, should influence the price, whereas first market should be 99 cents and secondary should be free; especially in regard to marketing, “it should be zero or very little.”
Chris Ross narrowed the question to specifically what sort of comics should be priced and in which way, “Top Shelf publishes big, huge books, it doesn’t make sense to price those 99 cents.” He explained that Top Shelf’s strategy is to price their digital books to help supplement physical books and in a way that encourages readers to invest in physical copies. Mark Waid followed up with the price point concept by suggesting the question, “My motto at Thrillbent is more, ‘I want to charge 99 cents for this, then how much can I give you?’”
Chip Mosher then posed the question, “Don’t you think the 99 price point discussion is really about having people discover more comics, making them accessible, cheaper?” Chris Ross replied “I think the one thing we keep coming to as far as the 99 cents, is Angry Birds. That’s the thing that said you can get hours and hours of entertainment for only a dollar. So when you purchase a comic or you purchase a graphic novel, if it’s anything that takes you an hour or two, you feel that if you pay $4 for it you just got screwed.”
Scott Kurtz replied by saying, “It’s scary to spend 5 bucks to ‘rent’ a comic,” and continued on how paying a full price becomes an obstacle to draw in new readers and how portals or a
16 Comments on SDCC: Digital Comics Price Fight, last added: 7/19/2012
There is not one price for all print comics, it’s silly to think there is one best price for digital. Both Waid and Ross have strategies that work for them. Waid is making his content fit the price he wants to charge. Ross has a set amount of content and has to price accordingly. Neither is wrong, they are just different.
The streaming vs downloading issue is probably keeping more people away that the price. Even 99 cents is too much if you don’t trust the content to stick around.
Richard Caldwell said, on 7/18/2012 6:42:00 PM
I would never pay anything for a digital comic. I honestly don’t understand the logic in anybody paying more than pennies even.
Ian Boothby said, on 7/18/2012 6:46:00 PM
We used to have the price raised on comics and the high cost of paper was blamed. Then then the high cost of gas to transport them was blamed. Digital readers shouldn’t be paying paper and gas rates when neither exist.
Alex said, on 7/18/2012 7:12:00 PM
Waid is right…the print market is doomed long term…there is no “if”…it is doomed…and people need to accept that in thirty years we aren’t going to be cutting down trees for 99% of books…so let’s be honest here and realize that the future is not the comic book store…the future is either DC > consumer or artist > consumer with maybe an Apple or Amazon as the distributor…so the idea of digital propping up paper is silly…and people simply aren’t going to pay $3.99 for a two minute read…it’s that simple…so either charge a fair price ($0.99) or drive people to piracy.
I’d have paid $70 to read DMZ…$210? or $280? Forget it.
Richard Caldwell said, on 7/18/2012 7:27:00 PM
Print media isn’t dying, just bad print media. My ma apparently subscribes to Guideposts magazine, cheesy christian stuff. They sell more copies in a quarter than every issue of every Marvel and DC and Image and IDW and Boom and Dark Horse title combined. COMBINED.
Comic books and newspapers are suffering because they are run by cheapskates and mobsters. Real print media is doing fine, if not increasingly better.
saipaman said, on 7/18/2012 10:01:00 PM
For older material, even twenty five cents is too much.
One thing to consider here is the Pokemon effect. I’m sure there is a price point most readers will convince themselves that have to have them all.
BobH said, on 7/18/2012 11:16:00 PM
We’ll see how Waid does when he actually tries to start charging. The chapters of the free comic he’s putting up seem to be the story equivalent of 5-7 pages of a print comic, so if that’s what he think he can charge 99 cents for than his prices are pretty much the same as the $3/$4 that most print publishers charge for same day releases (and they mostly drop those prices after a month). I wouldn’t pay that much for that little.
I think Top Shelf has a better idea, publish real substantial books and charge a fair price for them, far below the print price but more than 99 cents in most cases. Not that I’m a huge market, but about half of the $50 I’ve spent on digital comics since I got an ipad 3 months ago has been on Top Shelf books.
And free sounds about right for Scott Kurtz comics. Maybe a bit high.
Geoff said, on 7/19/2012 12:19:00 AM
Dark Horse has a great price structure with their “bundles”. Most are a little more than $1 an issue when you buy a 5 issue arc. On Comixology I ONLY buy sale items at $.99. I suppose I would spend more for a few titles or writers but it makes NO sense to spend print prices or even half. I use to support my local shop but they just closed. I’m going strictly digital now and $.99 is plenty.
Comic2read said, on 7/19/2012 1:23:00 AM
Digital Comics are not using their greatest advantage in that they can give comics NOW as soon as it’s done. No waiting for the printer. NO waiting for Wednesday. We want our books NOW.
As for pricing, they should pass the savings of not using paper to the buyer. My shop gives me a 15% discount and digital should also match that.
Niels van Eekelen said, on 7/19/2012 3:46:00 AM
I can only speak for my own experience, but:
I simply will not pay print prices for digital books.
$1.99 seems to be my upper limit for regular issues. Don’t like to wait a month for a price drop, but I’ll do it. (I ended up skipping the Valiant reboot because their dropped prices are still $2.99, and I don’t buy any Marvel books digitally because though their prices will drop to $1.99, there is no schedule to this that will allow my to regularly follow a series.)
For $0.99, though, I’ll pretty much buy as much as I can read. Often more.
Ned said, on 7/19/2012 4:23:00 AM
Especially where services such as Comixology are concerned, I would never pay squat for a digital comic.* You are not buying a copy of the comic, you are paying for a license to view a copy of the comic, a license which can be revoked at any time at Comixology’s discretion, and which disappears in to thin air as soon as Comixology goes out of business. Print will never die because people like me want to OWN what they are paying for, not just pretend they do.
* The only digital comics I’ve bought were from Kickstarter projects, where the bidding level included a DRM-free PDF file at a very reasonable price compared to the expensive print format.
Vincent Moore said, on 7/19/2012 4:57:00 AM
It is interesting to see what wasn’t brought up by the panel (or wasn’t reported) and what isn’t being brought up in the comments. Namely, how much of the price point is shaped by the costs of producing the comics. You know, paying the writer. artists, writer/artists, whatever.
One could guess that from Waid’s perspective, a mix of ad revenue and volume will be how creators are paid. For Kurtz, as a single creator, the cost of those man-hours is reduced down to paying one person. For the publishers, though, they are thinking of their own revenue as well as what they have to pay the creators. For all the talk of not wanting to pay a print price point for digital, no one in the comments is thinking of the creator. The only thought is eliminating print and its costs somehow makes the comics free or nearly so.
As someone who has and hopes to continue earning money from my creative efforts, I find that attitude worrying.
Zach Adams said, on 7/19/2012 5:17:00 AM
In the case of single issues, one of the big obstacles is Apple. Demanding that all in app purchases have a price ending in .99 prevents the pubs from doing as much experimentation as they might want to find a sweet spot (not a big deal with Top Shelf, but problematic when .99 is too low for the pub and 1.99 is too high.). Everyone’s reliance on Comixology is an issue too…I don’t know what their cut is, but if it’s over ten percent it may make .99 comics a difficult proposition for a $3 cover price item. I wish more pubs would break out of the Comixology ecosystem…but then IDW tried going solo and ended up with CX anyway, and I have actually seen people say they won’t do DH or Viz because they’re unwilling to work with multiple libraries in different apps.
Wally Stong said, on 7/19/2012 5:18:00 AM
Chris Ross replied “I think the one thing we keep coming to as far as the 99 cents, is Angry Birds. That’s the thing that said you can get hours and hours of entertainment for only a dollar. So when you purchase a comic or you purchase a graphic novel, if it’s anything that takes you an hour or two, you feel that if you pay $4 for it you just got screwed.”
Sums up my feelings exactly regardless if it’s print or digital. The serial format of most stories don’t provide enough bang for my buck when compared to other forms of entertainment like games, novels, or even overpriced feature films. Take TDKR. I’ll likely pay 7 bucks for over 2 hours of entertainment whereas $7 won’t even by me two issues of a top-tier comic. Sure, I can reread my comic but why would I if the content is so brief that the experience is negligible.
Niels van Eekelen said, on 7/19/2012 7:06:00 AM
“For all the talk of not wanting to pay a print price point for digital, no one in the comments is thinking of the creator. The only thought is eliminating print and its costs somehow makes the comics free or nearly so.”
Not that frankly ridiculous argument again. Nobody says digital comics don’t have costs–the fact is that print comics have costs for creative, printing/shipping and distribution. Digital comics have creative and distribution. That’s less.
Add to that that you get less for it as well–access rather than ownership, no option to re-sell–and the purchase of a digital comic is fundamentally different from that of a print object.
Apollo9000 said, on 7/19/2012 8:07:00 AM
While 99 cents is the most I’ve paid for a digital comic, I can see instances where the pricing will be different. Take Dark Horses’ bundles for example. A Hellboy mini digitally will cost the same as a printed Annual. That’s about $1.50 an issue for 3 issue mini. DC drops the price of their titles by a dollar a month after they’ve been on sale. Most of the books are 20 page $2.99 products. That’s 10 pages for a dollar. It seems nice but overall is slight. Another major factor is that most books are written for the trade. Decompressed storytelling in comics doesn’t lend itself well to impulse buys or random try outs. I think digital comics will have to look at comics past to advance in it’s future. Following the basic rules of newspaper strips – limited number of panels/ space to tell a compressed, full bodied story will be the way to go. By following in the footsteps of newspaper comic strips, creators could develop a working schedule that changes their “shipping” schedule from monthly to bi-weekly or even weekly. Publishers have to view most casual/ new readers as people looking for an “one night stand”. They aren’t looking for a commitment. Trying to hook them with ongoings makes things harder. Instead of trying to push out a ridiculous number of ongoings only for them to cancelled because they couldn’t “find an audience”, try the Hellboy/ B.P.R.D. Mini series model. Do more one shots digitally. Then for digital bundles/ paperback/ hardcover collections, you can group the minis and one shots more neatly, making it easier for new and current readers to find and buy in any format they may choose.
[Each year we try to find a newcomer to the amazements of Comic-Con to report on their adventures; it's a nice way of seeing the very real enthusiasm for what is truly a one-of-a-kind experience. This year's con virgin is cartoonist Matthew Petz who offered to both write and sketch some of his experiences at the con, starting with not even having a badge... Here's his first report.]
What day is it?
Seriously…with SDCC a day behind me I can finally get around to writing up my experiences. In a nutshell, it lived up to the hype. Good and bad.
THURSDAY:
I knew the trip was going to be all that and a bag of chips when my flight had the Comedian (Jeffery Dean Morgan) and real live penguins! Seriously, the penguins had been on the Today show and were going back to the San Diego Zoo. Mid flight the handlers brought them through the cabin to a 100 camera phones clicking away. Mine included.
I landed in SD at 8:30 local time, but 11:30 my time. Jet lag would continue to haunt me the whole weekend…no doubt the late nights and drinking didn’t help. Oh well. I dropped my bags at the Bay Front Hilton, and taxied over to the iFanboy party to meet up with friends. I was there MAYBE 5 minutes before we all bailed, I think the iFanboy thing was wrapping up and the roof was transforming into a club?
Our party of 7 split cars and headed to the Hyatt…but seconds into MY ride we changed plans and end up at the CBLDF party.
Thus is the SDCC…It’s a manic pop culture free for all that never ever lets up.
Shit happens, then it doesn’t, then it happens again, and then plans change and then you end up… somewhere. You must be adaptable. You will miss things and people, and that’s OK. Part of the fun is jumping out of the plane and seeing where you land. Sometimes it’s a private party, other times it’s drinks with fellow creators discussing what the “Haunted Tank” is…but I’m getting ahead of myself.
After the CBLDF party my friends and I left and got dinner. Walking around SD’s Gas Lamp district is pretty crazy… It’s a city full of cos players, pedicabs, lots of traffic vehicular and human… and this was only Thursday! Everything is wrapped in some sort of promotion. EVERYTHING. By the end of the weekend I was overloaded with the amount of sponsorship.
From projection screens on buildings at rooftop parties, to cups emblazoned with advertisements for TV shows that will surely be cancelled, San Diego becomes one gigantic ad you can’t fast forward through.
After dinner Thursday I went back to my hotel room at the Bay Front Hilton. It was 4:30 AM my time. Toast.
FRIDAY:
Up and at ‘em!
Still reeling from jet lag, I was up at 8 and out the door by 8:30 (I deserve a medal) I set off.
Between the Bay Front and the convention center there were all the Batmobiles from the TV show and movies. It was awesome, but I totally blew by them to get into the convention! On my way in I passed the growing line for Hall H. It was no joke. It’s everything you think it is, anime characters lined up next to
0 Comments on The Virgin Diaries Part 2: Matthew Petz — from the Comedian to Penguins to Sleestaks as of 7/18/2012 5:22:00 PM
However, one negative note to come out of the event’s conclusion is the rampant outbreak of an illness. Some celebrities even publicly mentioned coming down with the communicable bug, such as long-time MythBuster’s figure Kari Byron stating that she needed a break due to coming down with “the Comic Con cold.” Wil Wheaton, of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Big Bang Theory fame, even amusingly dubbed the illness “ConSARS.”
While the consequences of sharing a bottle of Kristal in the Green Room have to be dealt with, we can only be glad that our nerdlebrity heroes soldiered on in the face of illness.
5 Comments on SDCC 12: ConSARS ravages nerdlebrity ranks, last added: 7/19/2012
When I travel, I pop 500mg tablets of Vitamin C at least once a day. If symptoms start to develop (sneezing, throat), then I pop them more frequently.
If the recirculated air on an airplane doesn’t infect you, then the general mass of humanity at a con will.
Of course, at least one convention has been hit with a serious outbreak: Philadelphia, 1976, 34 deaths. So, with hope, that “ConSARS” remark won’t become a tasteless joke in retrospect…
austinspace said, on 7/18/2012 12:58:00 PM
I noticed I was sneezing a LOT during Comic-Con, walking the floor, and lots of people around me were, too. Now, a few days away from it, I have no symptoms. I wonder if the air ducts were crammed with dust or something?
I wonder if this happens at other cons, when you have that many people together I can see it also happening. I’m bother that it seems to pick on the fact that it’s geeks when it might have been brought in to the con by a playmate model in the first place.
Torsten Adair said, on 7/19/2012 7:04:00 AM
“Con Crud” happens at almost any convention. The large number of vectors in a confined space (with recirculated air), with stress and lack of sleep, helps to encourage infections.
It got noticed at CCI because celebrities who tweet were involved.
The term “con crud” has been in use since at least 2002. It was only with the recent bird flu scare that public spaces such as airports and convention centers began to install free hand sanitizer dispensers. (Tip: want to save time? Use the hand sanitizers located outside restrooms for a quick and ecological alternative to washing your hands.)
SDCC only finishes once Heidi finds out where in Stately Beat Manor I’m currently hiding (under the rug? down the stairs? behind the curtain?), and throws me out once and for all. With that in mind, Chris Roberson and Allison Baker’s digital publishing company Monkeybrain Comics had a big panel at the event, which saw some new titles announced.
Amongst them were books by Joe Keatinge and Joshua Williamson, as well as an anthology title edited by Chris Schweitzer. Here’s the full list of titles announced, to go alongside the five books already released by the fledgling company:
WANDER, by Kevin Church and Grace Allison
A fantastical story about a woman from Earth who ends up in a magical, fantasy world.
MASKS AND MOBSTERS, by Joshua Williamson and Mike Henderson
A 1930s/40s crime story about the mob, unsurprisingly, as they find their business interrupted by the birth of the superhero.
INTERGALACTIC, by Joe Keatinge and Ken Garing
A ‘realist’ space story which explores what would’ve happened if humanity had kept pushing for space exploration. There are no aliens in the book – this is about a family who try to keep themselves alive in the depths of lawless outer space.
KONQUEROR, by Chris Schweitzer and Audrey Morris
This sounds like the book we all wanted Amethyst to be. Silly sci-fi, but with politics mixed into it. And also, according to Schweitzer, there is a character called Princess Thunderpunch, so she sounds lovely.
ROUNDUP, edited by Chris Schweitzer
The anthology title I touched on above. This will feature a number of creators like Kevin Church, Stan Lynde and Matt Kindt, all writing western-themed stories which last around 8-12 pages.
DREAMSEQUENCER: SPIRIT OF THE LAW, by Brandon Seifert and Michael Montena
This is also an anthology of sorts, but really just a chance for Seifert and Montena to do stories about whatever they want, with no real theme interlinking them. Just whatever takes their interest.
AWESOME ADVENTURES, by Chris Roberson and Thomas N. Perkins IV
A family of explorers go out and have weird adventures – a little like the Fantastic Four, perhaps, just by means of simple comparison.
11 Comments on SDCC 2012: Monkeybrain announces seven new titles, last added: 7/21/2012
I must admit, once you’ve heard “Princess Thunderpunch,” it becomes very hard to ignore.
Rich said, on 7/18/2012 9:18:00 AM
An interesting slate of projects. Any word when they’re supposed to be on Comixology?
Ron said, on 7/18/2012 9:44:00 AM
Mr. Roberson, you may yet get me to purchase an iPad (not a problem, really, I’ve always wanted one).
Nick said, on 7/18/2012 11:12:00 AM
I’m chomping at the bit to see Konqueror. It’s either going to be the best book of the line or a disaster. But Princess Thunderpunch is a stupendous name.
Bill Williams said, on 7/18/2012 11:55:00 AM
Can’t wait to read the second issue of Bandette.
David Bird said, on 7/18/2012 12:52:00 PM
I tried Bandette and October Girl. I enjoyed the first one–in spite of how short it was it contained a solid amount of story–but October Girl was barely more than a sampler.
There are a couple of titles here that I’ll probably try, but there are lots of other publishers offering full sized issues for the same amount and in these penny pinching times that matters.
Nawid said, on 7/18/2012 2:01:00 PM
Yeah, people have been talking about how cheap these are, when they really aren’t. I liked October Girl but I think I read it in a minute or two tops.
Nawid said, on 7/18/2012 2:03:00 PM
Still giving all these a shot though. So far, I dug Citizen Rex and Intergalactic looks right up my alley.
Brandon Seifert said, on 7/18/2012 4:29:00 PM
Thank you for the coverage! Two quick corrections: My collaborator on “Spirit of the Law” is Michael Montenat — and “DreamSequencer” will feature a different artist on each story, rather than having all stories drawn by Michael.
Steve Morris said, on 7/19/2012 4:39:00 AM
Fixed! Thanks for the heads-up.
Brandon Seifert said, on 7/21/2012 6:32:00 PM
Steve,
You fixed the bit about Michael not being on for the whole project — but Michael’s last name is still mispelled “Montena” instead of “Montenat”. :) Thank you for fixing part of it, though!
Okay, The Beatrix is on her way back from Sunny California, so we’re restocking the refrigerator, refilling liquor bottles, and covering the strawberry stains on the ceiling with a fresh coat of paint.
So, what’s still floating around in our data banks? All sorts of interesting stuff which seems to have been overlooked while Hollywood was in town!
There are just four cards in each pack, but they all pack a punch! First fans will receive a premium base card on thick card stock from the 50-card base set numbered to just 99 copies. Next they will receive a one-of-one sketch card from top Marvel artists. The third card is an industry first where collectors will find a dual, triple or quadruple hinged sketch card. These are really remarkable trading cards and we will be releasing images of them soon. The fourth card will be either a “Classic Corners” card, a Shadowbox card or an “Emotion” booklet card by Jason Adams and NAR!
Are those cards worth $50 each? $10,000 to collect the whole set (if you don’t get duplicates!) What would an unopened pack (one of a calculated 5000) be worth years from now? Basically, Upper Deck is offering nothing but premiums in each pack, which isn’t a bad marketing ploy. Of course, the only way to surpass this would be to offer a single card set of 5000 cards, and let someone try to acquire the entire set (or subsets). Maybe take that sixteen-square-foot “Marvel Universe” poster and cut it into cards. Or commission a newer version, perhaps done on art boards, and cut those up into smaller squares… sort of a sketch card and collector card all in one. Print the art in blue pencil, and have artists finish the artwork, signing the back of each card.
Hmmm…. I wonder what the empty wrapper will be worth?
And also at the Con: Rust, My Friend Dahmer, Creepy are in development. No. REALLY. I keep hoping for “The Cowboy Wally Show” and “Proposition Player”… both could be made for less than $20 Million, easy. Heck, shoot “Wally” on video, to make it seem even more a
1 Comments on SDCC12: Watchtower Wrap-Up, last added: 7/18/2012
Every Comic-Con, IDW sells lots of copies of their oversized “Artist’s Editions”. These massive tomes reprint comics stories of well-known comic book creators, photographing the original art of seminal stories and reprinting the stories at original art size (usually 11×17 inches, or larger). Here’s a photo for scale, of Walt Simonson signing a copy of the Eisner-Award winning book!
These are beautiful volumes, reprinting the black-and-white art in color (that is, a color photograph of the black-and-white art boards), and last years’ Walter Simonson’s Thor Artist’s Edition won the Eisner award for Best Archival Collection/Project – Comic Books last Friday!
IDW also uses Comic-Con to announce their next volumes in the series, and did so Friday. (Another reason why it’s not good for comics companies to announce news during Comic-Con… it gets buried under the Hollywood hype.)
The first volume, MARK SCHULTZ’S XENOZOIC TALES: ARTIST’S EDITION, is planned for a June 2013 release. It will total some 144 pages, and will definitely showcase Schultz’ amazing artwork! Younger Beat readers might remember the brief “Cadillacs and Dinosaurs” cartoon which aired on CBS in 1993, which was based on Xenozoic Tales, and which is available for download at Amazon. To quote the PR:
Schultz creates a story that is beautifully told and exquisitely illustrated. A student of classic comic strip and comic book artists, Schultz’s influences include Al Williamson, Wally Wood and others, but, like all great artist’s, evolved into his own, unique self.
Flesk Publications recently collected the series, and preview pages can be found at their website.
16 Comments on SCC12: IDW Announces More Artist’s Editions!, last added: 7/17/2012
RED NAILS by BWS Last I saw, they were all complete in one collector’s possession but that was long ago.
SWAMP THING by Wrightson
MORT CINDER by A. Breccia
MASTER OF KUNG FU by Paul Gulacy
Michael Golden at Marvel Comics
Shark Jumper said, on 7/16/2012 8:34:00 PM
Thanks for the update on the Eisner edition. I had thought that one had fallen off the list and was forgotten.
My list of books I’d like to see get the Artist’s Edition…..
Brian Bolland’s Killing Joke
Byrne’s Uncanny X-Men #137 (and maybe any other issues of the Dark Phoenix storyline)
Paul Chadwick’s Concrete
Dale Keown’s Hulk
Gary Frank’s Hulk
Alan Davis’ Excalibur
Steve Rude’s Nexus
George Perez’s Teen Titans (the obvious choice would be that Terra storyline but I prefer the earlier stories with Tanghal’s inking rather than Giordano’s).
Kirby’s FF with Sinnott inks
Any Michael Golden (Micronauts and that Star Wars story would probably be asking too much, right?)
I had Xenozoic Tales on that list too but I can happily cross that one off. I’m hoping that it will be all later issues as Schultz really hit got better and better later in the run. This really should be a marvelous book and, I hope, will inspire future inkers as to what is possible. But please, IDW, if you do a con exclusive, let us know early enough. :)
Niels van Eekelen said, on 7/17/2012 2:50:00 AM
I got the Mazzucchelli Artist’s Edition, and glorious though it is (and believe me, it is), the price tag is high enough that I probably won’t buy any more unless I have some special emotional/nostalgic connection to the contents. On that note:
Bill Sienkiewicz’s New Mutants run
Art Adams’s Uncanny X-Men/New Mutants specials
Wendy Pini’s ElfQuest
Mark Mayerson said, on 7/17/2012 4:10:00 AM
Kirby’s Kamandi inked by Royer.
Kirby’s New Gods inked by Royer.
Paul said, on 7/17/2012 4:21:00 AM
If they let people vote on these I bet it’d start some punchin’ fights.
I’d shell out for Man of Steel, anything Rude, anything Garcia-Lopez — would love to see a Schaffenberger Superman one.
How about Mad Love filled out with other Timm stories and maybe the original character designs and stuff from the show?
adrian Kinnaird said, on 7/17/2012 5:14:00 AM
I second the call for Garcia-Lopez!! A Batman collection would be EPIC. I love Gil Kane, but would rather see some of his other work that he inked himself, like ‘The Ring’.
I’d also like to see:
-Ditko Spider-man
-Kevin Maguire’s JLI
-Dave Gibbon’s 80’s Green Lantern run (because it deserves more than a crummy paperback!).
-Neil Adams Batman or GA/GL
M Kitchen said, on 7/17/2012 6:10:00 AM
I hope they do a Dave Sim volume or two.
Hint, hint. Nudge, nudge.
Torsten Adair said, on 7/17/2012 6:30:00 AM
I keep hoping for a hardcover run of Cerebus.
Rich said, on 7/17/2012 6:42:00 AM
Dream projects aside, inclusion in this series seems to require that either (1) an artist kept his/her original art, (2) the publisher retained the original art, or (3) a single collector acquired the original art of complete stories.
I wish I knew more about what material fits those criteria.
jacob goddard said, on 7/17/2012 6:46:00 AM
Dave Sim/Gerhard Cerebus
Jaime/Gilbert Hernandez L & R
Charles Burns Black Hole
Michael Zulli Sandman
Hal Foster Tarzan and/or Prince Valiant
Anything by Kirby and Ditko
Chris Ware Acme Novelty Library
Rob Liefeld X Force
Matthew Southworth said, on 7/17/2012 9:25:00 AM
Bernie Krigstein at EC!
Or–how about this–a LITTLE ANNIE FANNY Artist’s Edition that reproduces the colored layers that Kurtzman would prepare on vellum? THAT would be a monster of a book!
Shark Jumper said, on 7/17/2012 9:52:00 AM
I don’t think there would be any fist fights over these. Lots of great choices, especially the ones I didn’t think of. But the Liefeld one was to see if I was awake and paying attention this morning, right? :)
Steely Dan said, on 7/17/2012 9:53:00 AM
More than anything I’d love to see them put out something by Alex Toth (maybe “Bravo for Adventure” or a collection of some of his DC work from the 1970s).
Other than Toth:
“Man of Steel” by John Byrne
“The Next Nexus” by Steve Rude
Steely Dan said, on 7/17/2012 9:59:00 AM
BTW, I have the Mazzucchelli edition and the Wally Wood edition and both books are unbelievably beautiful.
And just so people know, the Wood book is really, really huge. Much bigger than I expected it to be. I know the publisher’s intention is to present the artwork at its original size, but the Wood book is so big that it is actually difficult to read. I’m probably in the minority, but I would not have minded if that book had been reduced a bit in size (to, say, the size of the Mazzucchelli book).
That said, if you’re on the fence about any of these, I highly recommend taking the plunge and getting them. I’m still kicking myself for not getting the Dave Stevens edition when I had the chance.
mikoza said, on 7/17/2012 10:40:00 AM
I can’t believe nobody mention first six legendary episodes of ” Monster of Frankenstein”, by also legendary Mike Ploog! Please Idw!
Rich said, on 7/17/2012 11:03:00 AM
“I’m still kicking myself for not getting the Dave Stevens edition when I had the chance.”
IDW announced a second printing of the Dave Stevens book at SDCC. You still have a chance!
Robert Downy Jr. at the SDCC Iron Man 3 Press Conference
While this year’s San Diego Comic Con was lighter on movies and heavier on TV then it has been in recent years, the Iron Man movie franchise still managed to make the rounds on Saturday. After an obligatory appearance at the Entertainment Weekly Suite at the Hard Rock Cafe and a surprise appearance in Hall H, Marvel Studios’ President of Production, Kevin Feige, Iron Man 3 Director Shane Black and the film’s stars, Robert Downey Jr. and Don Cheadle sat down for a press conference to talk about the upcoming film, which The Beat was lucky enough to attend.
The crowded conference questioning opened up with the rumors circulating about leaked footage of the film that features what looks like an Iron Patriot suit, causing Mr. Feige to remark that,”what’s interesting (about the internet) is how much of what the fans are guessing is so wrong.” He did, however, indicate that, Mr. Cheadle may don the suit at some point during the film.
From there most of the discussion centered around Iron Man 3’s storyline and what kind of direction Tony Stark’s character will take in the film. Mr. Feige emphasized that Marvel is “confident of the infrastructure they’re able to provide storytellers.” While Mr. Black remarked that Jon Favreau, director of the first installment of the franchise, has been available for all kinds of tips and advice on how to make an awesome Iron Man movie, thereby freeing him up to really focus on the character and story. “This is a very Tony Stark-centric film,” said Mr. Black, “Iron Man Three by design is a very serious character study.”
All the chitter chatter about character and story prompted questions about exactly what sides of Tony Stark the audience will be privvy to this go-around, with Mr. Stark himself, Robert Downey Jr., commenting that Iron Man 3 has the same kind of magic The Avengers had of the “right director, the right story and the right time” with Mr. Black at the helm.
In reference to the darker, drunker sides of Mr. Stark, Downey went on to say that, “there’s a way to enjoy all that kind of a shadowy stuff” without making him totally wasted. In fact, Mr. Feige took time to confirm that, “Tony will not fall off the wagon” to which Downey replied, “you haven’t seen my re-writes” then made a quip about how we’ll see Mr. Stark heading off to The Betty Ford Center in rehab appropriate Iron Man suit.
Feige went on to say that while the story may build on future films in the Marvel franchise, “Iron Man 3 is (the same) self-contained story that’s been done since Iron Man 1,”
8 Comments on Iron Man 3 surprises fans at SDCC 2012, last added: 7/18/2012
That last photo… Marvel scheduled an Iron Man costume contest for kids, and Mr. Downey made a surprise appearance! (And if that isn’t cool enough, check out the kid front and center with the goatee!)
I’ll say it again: Will the Academy please ask him to host the Oscars?!
Jimmie Robinson said, on 7/16/2012 7:56:00 PM
I watched the video and that was very cool of him. Though I’m not sure how much of a surprise it was when about 20 cameramen and crew are set up to film a *kid’s Iron Man* costume contest. Obviously, they were waiting for something.
The kids, however, might have been kept in the dark. And yes, the drawn on goatee was great, as was the Iron Girl costume.
Shannon OLeary said, on 7/17/2012 9:30:00 AM
Yeah, Marvel Studios definitely wins for staging the best most authentic seeming marketing events.
6: Lavish Rancho | Structured Gibberish said, on 7/17/2012 9:33:00 AM
[...] Iron Man 3 surprises fans at SDCC 2012 [...]
Lesley said, on 7/17/2012 10:38:00 AM
OMG!! That picture of RDJ with all the kids dressed like Iron Man is quite possibly the cutest thing I have ever seen! He looks like he’s having as much fun as they are. And if I wasn’t already a total RDJ fangirl, this would do it. Just when I think I can’t possibly like him any more!
Dear Todd said, on 7/17/2012 6:00:00 PM
Here’s a pitch. Avengers Assemble issue features Marvel movie Earth-199999 Robert Downey trying to film Iron Man during attack from Thanos
gridlockmanifesto said, on 7/18/2012 9:21:00 AM
I just saw Iron Man 2 on Epix HD: 1 and it was just as good as I remembered it in the theater. I wondered what was going on with the third installment and this is interesting news. They are letting out details small enough to keep all of us hanging on with anticipation. I love going to see the big movies in the theatre, but I also love watching them on my home theater, and my Dish co-worker comes over to watch with me. Since I have Epix 1 in HD, I get the best quality my theater can produce, 1080p, and that makes all the difference with my 90-inch projector.
The Geekcast – The Geekcast #317 – Nexus 7 Tab said, on 7/18/2012 9:00:00 PM
Although eclipsed by the showbiz extravaganza’s in the popular mind, the Masquerade may just be the most spectacular live event at Comic-COn with amazing costumes that people slave over all year. The winners of Saturday’s main event are now up, and here’s the grand prize winners, Project Runway All Star Wars
Worn By: Caitlin, Cassidy, Catherine, Chad, Connor, Cordelia, Danica, Daniel, Desiree, Laura, Nicole and Rogue. Designed and Made By: Audrey, Caitlin, Cassidy, Catherine, Chad, Connor, Cordelia, Danica, Daniel, Nicole and Rogue
Above photo by Barry Brown.
3 Comments on SDCC 12: The Masquerade winners, last added: 7/17/2012
The Masquerade is always a lot of fun. Alan Lavigne’s JLA group this year looked great. One of my favs was the Galactus with the mini Earth and Silver Surfer.
Realizing that getting new stores out there is crucial to growing the comics business. Diamond has announced a couple of new programs to help get new stores up and running by softening the financial blow of assembling opening inventory. New business director Chris Powell announced these at todays Diamond retailer lunch. One program is allows stores to order two month’s worth of books and make returns before being charged. The other is a bigger deeper discount.
Details via pr:
As part of its ongoing efforts to grow the comic book specialty market, Diamond Comic Distributors today announced a new initiative with leading suppliers to encourage existing retailers to open new locations and/or relocate their current stores to larger, higher traffic locations.
BOOM! Studios, Dark Horse Comics, DC Entertainment, Diamond Select Toys, Dynamite Entertainment, IDW Publishing, Image Comics and Marvel Comics have all signed on to provide incentives to qualifying retailers.
“Promising retail sales for comic book stores in 2011 and 2012 have encouraged a growing number of retailers to expand into larger stores or to open new ones,” said Diamond Executive Director of Business Development Chris Powell. “Together with our leading publishers and suppliers, we’re excited to announce a program that will allow these retailers to expand with confidence and, by doing so, continue to strengthen the entire comic book industry.”
Programs initially offered to qualifying retailers vary by supplier, but will include:
•Increased discounts of up to 69% off orders of backlist products from Diamond and participating publishers and manufacturers;
•Backlist consignment programs, allowing retailers to fully stock their stores with graphic novels, trade paperbacks and other pop-culture merchandise with extended payment terms and the ability to adjust stock levels after 6 months;
•Increased discounts and/or consignment billing on a new store’s initial orders of comics for its first two months of operation, with consignment billing deferred until retailers have the opportunity to return overstocked product after keeping it on sale for a period of 6-12 weeks; and
•Store Starter Kits, offering selections of free trade paperbacks and graphic novels from participating publishers that showcase the vast breadth and depth of comic stories that retailers can use to attract any audience into their stores.
Under the new programs, Diamond will continue to provide professional advice and in-depth instruction on Diamond’s systems from Powell and a team of Diamond personnel.
Expressing views held by many in the industry, DC Entertainment SVP-Sales & Marketing Bob Wayne said: “The weekly experience that the comic book specialty market provides for our fans is extremely important to all of DC Entertainment. We’re excited about this opportunity to work with our retail partners to expand the size of the market, in cooperation with Diamond and our fellow publishers.”
According to Powell, most retailers opening new locations of existing businesses must invest a significant portion of their cash-flow to fleshing out their backlist inventory and preordering monthly comics based on projected sales.
“With this new initiative,” he said, “we will work with retailers to minimize these risks and outlays. This allows the retailer to stock the hottest graphic novels, trade paperbacks and other bestselling merchandise from day one, which lets them make a great first impression on new customers. It also gives them more flexibility in their budgets for marketing their new store so that they can continue attracting customers and generating sales.”
4 Comments on SDCC 12: Diamond offers incentives for new stores, last added: 7/17/2012
This isn’t new, Diamond has had a similar program in place for at least a decade.
DiamondCP said, on 7/17/2012 11:11:00 AM
These are entirely new programs aimed at increasing the size and health of the Comic Book Specialty Market. We had a program that allowed for a single stock-up order of collected editions at an increased discount, but had no such programs in place for new, periodical product. The existing program had no allowances for returns, either, which some publishers are now accepting.
This is a fantastic program, and I am very proud that we’ve been able to accomplish it with our publishing partners.
Thanks,
-CP
Chris Powell
Executive Director, Business Development
Diamond Comic Distributors
Simon Rage said, on 7/17/2012 1:21:00 PM
I was talking to my good friend,Paywinda, awhile back and he had a thoery. Do you want kids and more adults to buy and read comics? Make the price 65 cents motherfuckers.
Cory!! Strode said, on 7/17/2012 6:50:00 PM
Simon, people have been saying that for decades, and every time comics companies put out cheaper comics, they fail. Even ones that are considered VERY well done (like Untold tales of Spider-Man). Stores don’t like them because the amount of profit per shelf space is lower, outside retailers don’t carry them, and fans ignore them because they are “cheap.”
For all of the talk about how comics fans will boycott $4 comics, check out the sale charts…Marve’s best selling books are the $4 books.
You want people to buy more comics? Hell, get them to buy more BOOKS. Political books and non-fiction books outside fiction on a staggering scale. People. Don’t. Read. Any. More.
The Washington Post instructs on how to enjoy Comic-Con remotely. Awww… Robert Downey, Jr. surrounded by little Iron Men!
(Here’s the info about RDJ and the kids! There was an Iron Man contest for kids at the Marvel booth! He is now one of the coolest actors in Hollywood. Oh, and that blurb from a restroom? AMPAS, please get him to host the Oscars next year!)
Our friends over at the Mary Sue (we get together for random game nights at random Manhattan bars), have the “while you were sleeping” summary of Saturday. Ant-Man has been cast, and has been at Con?!
Mondo, purveyor of awesome geek prints, announces a special “Dark Knight Rises” print, on sale for 24 hours only. Plus one lucky consumer wins a special print!
Line for Hall H on Saturday was over 2 and a half miles long. No thanks.
Panels were next to impossible to get into this year unless you camped out over night or were there at 2 in the morning.
Rob J. said, on 7/16/2012 2:56:00 PM
Uh, Torsten, maybe you should have waited until you were sober to post this one?
Torsten Adair said, on 7/16/2012 3:05:00 PM
Johnny… that was a joke up top… I made the mistake in an earlier post… and you missed the other three errors in that same sentence!
I did get it right down below… where I talk about her cosplay.
—
Hall H: A columnist for Slate wrote about waiting in line at Hall H. For what? To see a few trailers and maybe ask a question? (Which will almost instantly be blogged ad infinitum on every news site.) All those lines do is keep people from the other spaces in the Con. Could you imagine all those people in line wandering around the convention center?
Once again, I’ll suggest tickets/wristbands for events in Hall H. They keep saying there’s not enough time for clearing the room, but there is time built in between panels already, they could start earlier, end later (24/7?)
Torsten Adair said, on 7/16/2012 3:08:00 PM
Actually, I should have done it drunk… I got to stay home and check the news feeds, but by Sunday evening, I was wiped out.
But I should be recovered by October…
Torsten Adair said, on 7/16/2012 3:12:00 PM
Ooops.. missed a link!
Inside Comic-Con: The view from the Fourth (and a half) Estate.
For those who don’t know, the Bleeding Alliance of Beat Reporters is four of the biggest names in comic book journalism in one panel held during Thursday evening of San Diego Comic-Con and moderated by another big name in comics journalism, Douglas Wolk. Andy Khouri of Comics Alliance, Rich Johnston of Bleeding Cool, Heidi MacDonald of The Beat, and Tom Spurgeon of The Comics Reporter filed into the panel for an evening of talking about their publications and beliefs about other side of the comics industry most people don’t consider often: reporting about it.
Most of the time, if you look behind the curtain, you might hear about those individuals pecking at each other over various stories and events, but the level of professionalism shown among those panelists was something to be admired. Their job that evening was to inform us about comics journalism and the what life becomes when you follow that profession.
There was a great discussion about readership and how each publication handles their own followers. It clearly reflected each of their aims toward journalism and writing in general. In the end while all the panelists agreed that journalists write for themselves and writing news for the sake of numbers was a secondary priority there is a fine line where good quality reporting does become news or ratings worthy.
When asked about how each of them would make a living on journalism alone, it was mentioned that there has to be a sort of diversifaction in writing professions to be able to stay afloat. The fact that they emphasized being able to maintain a varied skill set was interesting because that seems to be a common topic in the comics industry when acquiring work.
3 Comments on SDCC: Bleeding Alliance of Beat Reporters, last added: 7/16/2012
My buddy Chris Thompson of Orbital Comics in London recorded another media-centric panel, also including both Heidi MacDonald, Rich Johnston, and MANY others, for his own site:
It’s not over quite yet! Even while Torsten attempts to shoo the remaining sheep out of Stately Beat Manor’s library and Todd tries to piece together one of Heidi’s vases, SDCC 2012 still has a few small bits and pieces left for us all. Marvel’s Spider-Man panel have been announcing a few changes in the company’s third-biggest franchise (assuming that X-Men are first, Avengers are second, and Doop fourth) today, including the cover for this year’s issue #700, and details on the ‘Minimum Carnage’ crossover story.
Yes, Minimum Carnage, following the previous two Zeb Wells-helmed stories featuring the red-fury symbiote villain. Starting with ‘Minimum Carnage Alpha’ and, absolutely, concluding with the Steve-predicted ‘Minimum Carnage Omega’, the series is this time a crossover story. Chris Yost’s Scarlet Spider and Cullen Bunn’s Venom are the two books involved, as the pair of antiheroes team up (after probably fighting each other a bit, as per tradition) to try and stop Cletus Kassady from, y’know, doing a load of murders. Lan Medina will draw the opening issue, before Khoi Pham tackles the Scarlet Spider side of the story and Declan Shalvey draws Venom.
Avenging Spider-Man #13 will be by Kevin Shinick and Aaron Kuder, and features Hypno Hustler and Deadpool. This may well be part of a tie-in to the weird web series Marvel announced earlier in the con, called ‘All-Winners Squad’. This series – live action – features Squirrel Girl, The Unicorn, Hypno Hustler and Doop as they… do something… and Morgan Spurlock is involved. It’s bizarre, nobody quite knows what’s going on. You can read a little bit about it on CBR, who seem equally confused about what Marvel are trying. OR! The issue is unconnected to the webseries entirely, and I just wasted ten seconds of your time.
Issue 700 of Amazing Spider-Man will look like this:
In other news, Punisher: War Zone was revealed to be a five-issue miniseries which wraps up Greg Rucka and Marco Checchetto’s current run with the character. To confirm: Punisher is cancelled in September, with this miniseries starting in October.
In it, the Avengers finally decide that it’s time to do something about the ol’ mass murdering vigilante, and things get messy
0 Comments on SDCC 2012: Wait you guys! There’s still a Spider-Man panel! as of 1/1/1900
It’s windup day here. All the glittering art displays and carnivals are being taken down; everyone has gone home but the poor cast of Fringe, who were left behind to cover the retreat. And the comicos are also joining the caravan to the north and east.
We’ll have a lot more to say in the days to come but today is a crucial day for the future of comics at Comic-Con. Most everyone we talked to among the comics publishers and artists told us this has been a slow show for sales. People who were sold out by Saturday at HeroesCon are sitting on stacks of books. We don’t doubt that some people are doing well, but whereas in past years SDCC was definitely the biggest sales show of the year—justifying the enormous costs of attending—if booth sales slow, the exodus of comics talent may continue.
As we just reported, Bill Willingham has announced he won’t be back in 2013. At Tr!ckster last night, Mike Mignola told me this is the last time he’ll be setting up a booth here. To which Matt Wagner, standing nearby, said, “I did that three years ago and it was a great decision.” Another well known artist also mentioned he was giving up his booth for next year. Of course Wagner was still at the show, and Mignola said he would come for a few days to see friends and do business perhaps, but it is beginning to feel like an exodus.
Speaking of Tr!ckster, it was jammed last night. It’s been SRO every night. The vibe was something like a nightclub as dubstep blared out and people came in whirled through and dashed out, making the comics scene. Apparently sales were brisker there for comics than on the floor.
The Hyatt was a riot as usual, although security guards weren’t always allowing drinks outside as they did in past years. There seemed to be a general air of fearfulness from hotel staff that a full on donnybrook would break out at any minute. In reality,. people seemed more set on enjoying one last night of name-dropping and talking about future projects in development.
Still lots of good times here and lots of comics. Just different, as always.
15 Comments on SDCC 12: The cartoonists — and everyone else — go home, last added: 7/16/2012
more and more people say NYCC and TCAF are the conventions to go to.
if SDCC has finally turned into San Diego MovieCon and the tv/movie panel crowds are not interested in buying comics then it’s time to go.
Matthew Fabb said, on 7/15/2012 12:12:00 PM
Damn, last year was the first year that I went to SDCC and seeing Mike Mignola & Bill Willingham were part of my highlights. However, I can understand that they won’t pay for a booth if they don’t make money from it. Hopefully they will still be around at least for panels.
While Mike Mignola’s booth had little sketch books, most artists who I am a big fan of, I already own all their books unless they are debuting something new at SDCC. So I might be getting something signed that I already own, but even then I can only travel with so many books to San Diego knowing that I’m going to be bringing a lot of stuff back home.
Secret Identity said, on 7/15/2012 1:30:00 PM
Maybe Comic-Con should just close while on top. Trickster, Nerd HQ and other shows across the country may be a good reason to let the people who organize the San Diego show a time to finally have a permanent break after 43 years of doing this.
While they still have a contract until 2015, as I understand it, they have nothing after so this might be an easy way to bow out.
Jim said, on 7/15/2012 2:02:00 PM
They’ve turned Comic Con into a TRADE SHOW. A place for producers to promote upcoming product, and give away free advertising swag. It’s not really a good place to sell anymore — especially comics, books, or original art.
Fortunately, there’s a number of great conventions growing around the country. I’m just sorry to have lost San Diego. I attended for 25 years and loved it, but it’s not the same show anymore, and I can no longer justify the expense or hassle.
Torsten Adair said, on 7/15/2012 2:13:00 PM
Why have a table/booth if you’re a famous cartoonist? Do some signings at publishers booths. Do some panels. Take some meetings. Hang out at Trickster.
The evolution of CCI is not a surprise. As Comic-Con becomes more famous, that creates more interest in other comic cons. These seedlings eventually will grow to be large shows, but most likely without the media presence of CCI. (Except for NYCC, which could launch Fall television and Holiday blockbusters/Oscar contenders.)
If you want Comic-Con without the media, go attend Dragon*Con. Of course, reserve your hotel room far in advance.
CitizenCliff said, on 7/15/2012 2:58:00 PM
When I see the photos of SDCC these past few years with booths of film and TV studios, video games, toys and clothing companies, I can’t help but think it’s The Licensing Show with the public allowed in.
It’s great to know that the other cons throughout the country will thrive as SDCC evolves into something that has no use for comic creators and small publishers. I only hope the smaller cons, as they grow, do not also become media cons, and stick to their comic book roots. Should be interesting to see how this whole circus shapes up or shakes out.
Gabriel Hardman said, on 7/15/2012 3:00:00 PM
Torsten Adair: “Why have a table/booth if you’re a famous cartoonist? Do some signings at publishers booths. Do some panels. Take some meetings. Hang out at Trickster.”
I don’t know from personal experience but I’m pretty sure even a “famous cartoonist” needs to make money. Everything about attending Comic-Con is expensive.
reglab said, on 7/15/2012 3:44:00 PM
“While they still have a contract until 2015, as I understand it, they have nothing after so this might be an easy way to bow out.”
—do people read this stuff before they post it? what rot.
God forbid The Beat report facts, not people’s bar sentiments.
jacob goddard said, on 7/15/2012 4:34:00 PM
Haven’t they been saying this every year for the last 10th years?
Serhend Sirkecioglu said, on 7/15/2012 7:30:00 PM
which is why I’m going to TCAF nxt year.
JakeOrion said, on 7/15/2012 8:32:00 PM
I would say 80% of the vendors I talked to today (small time, not corps) said they did not break even this year. Many said they were there simply for the advertising, rather than selling.
With ticket prices likely to skyrocket yet again (guessing $250 for a 4 day), less and less people are buying and are only there for the free stuff.
It’s just a matter of time before the SDCC implodes.
Chris Hero said, on 7/15/2012 8:55:00 PM
I think the comics landscape is changing dramatically. No one _needs_ publishers anymore. Also, no one _needs_ to network with the old guard anymore. Today anyone can publish their comics on the web and it’s all about hits and unique sales, not selling enough books to break even.
The big reasons to go to SDCC, to break even on the books you published for the year and to schmooze with the press and network with publishers, just don’t exist anymore. Cartoonists now do just fine with their webcomics and the comic press doesn’t even know they exist.
Jimmie Robinson said, on 7/15/2012 9:08:00 PM
I keep hearing about NYCC…
But I’ve looked into the prices (flight / hotel / booth) and it looks very comparable to me. In short, still costly. NYCC, however, hasn’t been completely hammered with corporations and studios, yet. But from what I understand… they are growing that direction.
Perhaps I should hit up NYCC soon.
Jimmie Robinson said, on 7/15/2012 9:32:00 PM
As for SDCC, I didn’t go this year (due to circumstances in my life), but I planned to return next year. However, hearing this news kinda depresses the thought. My only saving grace is that I live close enough to the Con that I can drive there, which saves money on travel… but if even that isn’t making the difference then I will consider my options.
Neil said, on 7/15/2012 9:48:00 PM
I think Chris Hero is right.I visited in 2011 for a portfolio review based on advice from Getting into the Business of Comics by Lurene Haines .It was a waste of Time and money.
Trying to keep up with all the Comicon News and Announcements? It’s fast and furious (the convention, not the movie). Here are the links for the Saturday stories from morning to evening.
There’s a new teaser poster for Man of Steel making the rounds at Comicon:
It’s probably not really going to be *quite* as dark as when it’s being lit like that. Still, that’s a darker costume than we’re used to seeing and a lot of texture. Somewhere between a vinyl and a plastic look perhaps?
The obvious next question is “what’s Zod wearing?”
11 Comments on SDCC 2012 – The Man of Steel Movie Poster, last added: 7/16/2012
The textures, here as well as the Webb Spidey and even Raimi Spidey I don’t get. I know spandex is silly, and Matrix had everything leaning towards leather and latex, but this vulcanized thing doesn’t do it for me. With Supes- I gather it’s to be alien materials, but I wonder what the designers were basing it on.
What-Ev said, on 7/14/2012 10:46:00 PM
“With Supes- I gather it’s to be alien materials, but I wonder what the designers were basing it on.”
Chainmail?
CitizenCliff said, on 7/15/2012 8:23:00 AM
Why not just let Bruce Timm make these movies? He’s the only guy in that stupid town that has any concept of what these characters stand for.
Pablo said, on 7/15/2012 8:26:00 AM
Is that supposed to be armor?
Keyser said, on 7/15/2012 10:21:00 AM
Man, that costume sucks… Poor Superman in the clutches of the guy who gave us Sucker Punch…
Irwin Schwab said, on 7/15/2012 11:20:00 AM
Man of steel? Looks more like man of shit.
Jesse said, on 7/15/2012 11:32:00 AM
DC could not be more lost with this license. Poor Clark is just getting wacked around the table like a cue ball. It’s bizarre to have grown up with Christopher Reeve and Bryne’s Superman only to see him so unrecognizable today.
Al™ said, on 7/15/2012 5:28:00 PM
I could see a suit made of nanobots. That would make sense. Oh, never mind.
Chuck Melville said, on 7/15/2012 8:14:00 PM
Not exactly a cheerful looking ad, is it?
It doesn’t conjure up a sense of wonder either, as in “You will believe a man can fly”… Although it does make me wonder what, exactly, the poster is trying to sell.
I think the designer needs a reintroduction to primary colors.
Kevin said, on 7/16/2012 8:01:00 AM
Yeah…looks like they’re certainly going with the original plan of a “darker” “edgier” Superman. Add some bat ears to it and you get a Dark Knight Rises poster. Doesn’t really look like Superman to me.
OK, so it’s supposed to be the Iron Man 3 panel. And it is, but they started out by confirming a few things for the second phase of the MCU. MCU? Marvel Cinematic Universe. What is there to be confirmed? Here’s a handy list:
Thor: The Dark World; directed by Alan Taylor (of Game of Thrones); Nov. 8 2013
Captain America: The Winter Soldier; April 4, 2014; Directed by the Russo brothers
Guardians of the Galaxy is confirmed: Drax, Groot, Starlord, Gamora, Rocket Raccoon; August 1, 2014
Edgar Wright is confirmed for Ant-Man; he’s thinking about basing the script on an issue of Marvel Premiere
Ben Kingsley is The Mandarin in Iron Man 3
That’s a lot of rumors confirmed. Creators rights buffs, take note: Drax and Gamora are two more Jim Starlin creations. Drax goes back to the first appearance of Thanos in Iron Man, so this isn’t exactly going to be pouring water on the fire, if you get where I’m going.
No clue what Thor’s “Dark World” is going to be, but if the Winter Soldier is our old friend Buck Barnes, that is a really quick leap from the comics page to the big screen.
Depending on where Ant-Man gets scheduled, we’re probably looking at Avengers 2 following Guardians of the Galaxy. I suppose that would make it entirely possible for Thanos to appear in Guardians and bridge over into Avengers 2. I expect we’ll be hearing a few rumors about that until there’s a confirmation or denial.
That’s the upcoming Marvel slate. They’re going a little further out on a limb with Groot, er, Guardians of the Galaxy. Ant-Man may not have a tone of visibility, but the character’s been in the comics with some regularity for 50 years, even if he wasn’t headlining his own book very often. The Guardians have popped up much more sporadically over the years. That will be a bigger test of how Marvel’s film unit has branded itself with the movie-going population.
Let’s leave with Marvel’s concept art for the Guardians film:
15 Comments on SDCC 2012 Marvel Movie Panel: Confirmations Galore, last added: 7/16/2012
I wonder if Dark World is going to build off those wonderful Lee/Kirby story where Thor flies off into space with the Rigelian recorder and deals with Ego, Galactus, and the like. It would be a great way to tie in to the Guardians and/or Thanos.
Richard Caldwell said, on 7/14/2012 8:17:00 PM
I hereby volunteer to play Rocket Raccoon, my own stunts included, entirely for free.
Torsten Adair said, on 7/15/2012 4:28:00 AM
Ant-man is an easy sell. He shrinks and talks with ants. I believe The Incredible Shrinking Man was the inspiration. Of course, shrink small enough, and you meet what’s left of the Micronauts license…which Disney has recently trademarked.
Want to be audacious? End Guardians with a cliff hanger in May, and finish it in Avengers in December! (with lots of talk at comic-con in between!) What’s epic? maybe a rogue planet approaching our solar system, ala flash gordan.
Apollo9000 said, on 7/15/2012 7:46:00 AM
Marvel’s most exciting news came from their movie slate. Image pretty much stole the publishing thunder with their numerous announcements. DC also had a good look publishing wise with the Sandman mini series announcement. It’s sort of the anti-Before Watchmen.
I hope Ant Man does Egdar Wright what Avengers did fir Joss Whedon. In truth, Ant Man is the quintessential Marvel hero of the 21st century.
If Marvel pulls off Ant Man, DC will have no excuse why they can’t make a solid, epic Aquaman film.
Nat Gertler said, on 7/15/2012 9:05:00 AM
Rocket Racoon was co-created by Bill Mantlo, who has been in ongoing care after having been the victim of a hit-and-run accident in the 1990s. It would be nice if there was some benefit from use of this most unlikely character, in terms of paying for his ongoing care expenses.
MBunge said, on 7/15/2012 9:51:00 AM
I hearby predict that Guardians of the Galaxy will be the first huge bomb of the New Era of Marvel-Made Movies. The original Guardians had a ready-for-film origin story. How is this one going to start? With somebody picking names out of a hat?
Mike
SF said, on 7/15/2012 9:54:00 AM
@MBunge – Introduce Star-Lord, introduce cosmic threat, Star-Lord assembles a team of misfits, they go fight.
Seems simple.
They could also draw on the Star-Lord mini-series, and have the team assembled Dirty Dozen style. Since that was essentially the core of the team for the ongoing series, they too have a ready-for-film origin story.
Rob J. said, on 7/15/2012 11:20:00 AM
I don’t see how you do a Guardians or Avengers movie starring Thanos, Drax and Gamora without Adam Warlock.
Synsidar said, on 7/15/2012 2:07:00 PM
They could also draw on the Star-Lord mini-series, and have the team assembled Dirty Dozen style. Since that was essentially the core of the team for the ongoing series, they too have a ready-for-film origin story.
As I recall, the STARLORD miniseries Giffen wrote was originally conceived as a parody. Characters were brought in for the purpose of killing them. The miniseries eventually became something other than a parody and sold well enough that the group continued. What a conceptual mess. How can Rocket Raccoon be taken seriously in a dramatic story any more than, say, Road Runner would be? And Road Runner even has superpowers. He runs fast, his beep scares people, and he can run into spots of black paint that look like holes.
SRS
Richard Caldwell said, on 7/15/2012 2:19:00 PM
@Synsidar
If you go by the original Rocket Raccoon mini, from Mantlo and Mignola, the character was kept surprisingly serious in tone.
MBunge said, on 7/15/2012 2:32:00 PM
“Introduce Star-Lord, introduce cosmic threat, Star-Lord assembles a team of misfits, they go fight.”
And why should we give a crap about any of them? And exactly who is Star-Lord anyway?
Compare that with…present day astronaut volunteers to be placed in suspended animation for 1,000 year voyage. Arrives at his destination to find humanity invented FTL drive in the meantime and he ends up a tragic anachronism rather than courageous explorer. He retreats from human civilization and bonds with one of the natives of his destination, only to see an alien armada invade and devastate Earth’s solar system. The time-lost astronaut must rescue the sole survivors of Earth’s colonies and launch a counter-attack to save Mankind.
Hollywood could screw it up, of course, but that gives you both the bare bones of a real plot and the emotional/dramatic themes of the story. Compare that to the generic genericosity of “Here’s this dude. Here’s this threat. Here are these other dudes. Fight!”
Mike
SF said, on 7/15/2012 5:00:00 PM
@MBunge: “And why should we give a crap about any of them? And exactly who is Star-Lord anyway?”
How is that different than the task facing any other non-sequel movie in terms of establishing characters the audience wants to see? Or any non-adaptation movie? Is this that different than the set-up for Star Wars? Not really. Establish characters, establish threat, set them on a collision course.
“Compare that to the generic genericosity of “Here’s this dude. Here’s this threat. Here are these other dudes. Fight!””
I’m not suggesting they keep it as simple as that. Come on, seriously. You introduce the characters, get the audience to start to like them, introduce the threat, continue to develop the characters while they prepare to combat that threat.
And your summary of the old GotG is no different than what I’m suggesting. It’s the same exact thing: Introduce Vance Astro (“Here’s this dude.”), introduce threat of alien armada (“Here’s this threat.”), Astro assembles a team from the colonies (“Here are these other dudes.”) Then, as you say, “Fight!”
The basic idea can be done with the old GotG characters, and it can be done with the new ones.
SF said, on 7/15/2012 5:08:00 PM
@Synisdar: “As I recall, the STARLORD miniseries Giffen wrote was originally conceived as a parody. Characters were brought in for the purpose of killing them.”
I haven’t read any interviews with Giffen about it, but it seemed more like an overt homage to “The Dirty Dozen.” That’s what you’re describing. (And if the purpose was to kill the characters, why did most of them survive?)
“The miniseries eventually became something other than a parody and sold well enough that the group continued. What a conceptual mess.”
How was it a conceptual mess? People liked what Abnett and Lanning did with the characters, liked the characters, wanted more, so Marvel had Abnett and Lanning write some more. It was a lot of fun, until the heavy crossovers hit.
MBunge said, on 7/16/2012 7:26:00 AM
“And your summary of the old GotG is no different than what I’m suggesting.”
Yes it is. I describe who the main character is and the personal challenge he faces. I also detail how and why he comes to be the one who heads up the fight against the main threat. And I explain who the other characters are, where they come from and why they get involved. This is stuff that has already been established in the comics. Again, they could screw it up, but it’s already there.
Who is Star-Lord?
Who are the rest of these jokers?
What is the threat?
Why is Star-Lord leading the fight against it?
Why do the rest of the characters join in?
The original GotG characters have an origin story that fits together fairly neatly and easily lends itself to big screen adaptation. Rocket Raccoon? Groot? Gamora? Starlord? Drax? How are you going to connect their disparate comic book origins? How do you then explain them coming together as a group? Even if you add Thanos to the mix, he only explains Drax and Gamora. How much time does everything else get in a film that will probably been 2 hours or less?
We always knew Shaq liked comics and it predated his turn as Steel on the big screen. Looks like he’s going to publish them. Come to find out, Shaq has two comics lined up for the “Shaq Comic Book Company.” This venture is a partnership between Shaq Entertainment and New Kingdom Entertainment. New Kingdom operates The Fanboy’s Guide website.
If you click the gallery button on the New Kingdom site, you’ll see some sample pages for a couple comics: “Killer of Men” and “Shoot It,” so apparently they have a small press wing.
Shaq’s comics will be “Hoop Fighters” and “Clean Ops.”
There’s a trailer for them on YouTube.
Details are a little sketchy right now, but it looks like another celebrity has joined the fray.
1 Comments on SDCC 2012: Shaq Attack — Shaquille O’Neal Launches His Own Comics Line, last added: 7/15/2012
GAAH! I can’t stand browsing through the Google News feeds anymore! Too many celebrities! Too many shows and movies no one will care about in five years! I’m sick of looking for ponies in piles of muck!
So, I’m gonna go see what AP has on their site. Yes, I know a lot of what they post are the celebrity photos, from panels and parties. Got a foot fetish? AP has pictures of the shoes worn to the Twilight panel in Hall H! (I’ve alerted the Pulitzer committee.)
But… they also have stringers. There’s lots of “atmosphere” shots of crowds and cosplayers and everything else. It’s like having someone take photos for you, while you wander the aisles looking for cool stuff. (Last seven days = 2,374 photos) argh… too much work. and there’s the watermarks, and fair use, so back to Google…
So, here are some pretty pictures. Enjoy.
I'm not exactly sure what Anne Curry is dressed up for, but I'm sure she'll have lots of adherents!
Doesn't this fall under the "giant sword" rule? (LA Times)
The over-sized chibi-Maleficent is f*ckin’ brilliant.
Al™ said, on 7/14/2012 5:50:00 PM
I love the photos of people having fun. And of Jar Jar on a platter.
Nick Jones said, on 7/14/2012 6:21:00 PM
“I’m not exactly sure what Anne Curry is dressed up for, but I’m sure she’ll have lots of adherents!”
If my eyes do not deceive me, Adrianne Curry is cosplaying as the popular(?) internet meme “Raptor Jesus.”
David said, on 7/14/2012 10:32:00 PM
@Nick Jones: that’s what I thought, too! Raptor Jesus is awesomely weird, didn’t realize that stuff was still floating around online, but should have known it was…
“Hey Raptor Jesus, is that baby for sale?”
RJ: “It is now! Hahahaha”
Johnny said, on 7/14/2012 10:32:00 PM
That’s her, alright.
Torsten Adair said, on 7/15/2012 4:17:00 AM
My apologies to Ann and Adrianne. Thanks for the so clarification! There needs to be a word created to describe the situation where one creates an awesome costume, but most people do not recognize your brilliance.
“an in-costume” like an “in-joke”? Kinda like those obscure references on MST3K.
Jesse said, on 7/15/2012 12:43:00 PM
Is the prettiest girl at comic-con a fat man’s race?
As you might have guessed, there wasn’t a lot of new news at the Avengers Vs. X-Men panel. Nobody wants to spoil the ending. There’s definitely an epilogue in the form of the Consequences mini-series, which will also point the way to what comes next. (The next Event? Marvel Now relaunches? I’m not sure what they meant by that.)
In fact, the only thing I took as news was that the Consequences mini-series will be structured a bit like the Schism mini-series for X-Men and have a different artist each issue.
What actually happened at the panel? Let me pull some tangential quotes from Marvel’s own liveblogging to show what was being discussed.
The Phoenix Five (with a new member, not Namor) will be joining Alliance this fall, with their own take on the story.
So AVX will be entering the world of Marvel’s Facebook game (a really entertaining facebook game, as it happens).
New line of Avengers VS X-Men hats coming this fall!
Highly anticipated haberdashery, surely.
Moving on to the topic of Marvel Now:
“Get a great writer, put them with a great artist, and have them tell a story that will be appealing to old fans and bring in new fans.” – Axel
“THIS IS NOT A REBOOT. This all takes place within the Marvel Universe. We do not open a portal, or go back in time. This is all in the Universe post AvX.” – Axel
I think we’re going to hear very nearly those exact phrases many times between now and the actual relaunch.
“Friends go into a comic shop and want to buy a book, but it is just so daunting. Now you can tell your friends to download the AR app, point their phone at a comic, and they get a recap.” – Joe
The recap page will still be there for those who don’t have the app or a smart phone.” – Arune
Honest question: has anyone seen someone do that in a comic shop lately? It seems like it takes a lot more effort to pull out your phone, open the app and point the phone at the comic than it does to just pick it up and open the cover. If everything’s bagged, maybe. If they find the continuity or choices daunting, I’m not clear how putting the recap page that’s already there onto a phone is going to change anything.
I just tried holding my phone over Thor and Captain America, with no results, so maybe this isn’t fully implemented yet.
They did seem to be pushing the digital download codes quite a bit, too. The free downloads and AR seem to be frequently used as justifications for the $3.99 price point.
Other than that, same old, same old.
I think we’ll get some new announcements tomorrow at the Spider-Man Panel
4 Comments on SDCC 2012: The Avengers Vs. X-Men Panel, last added: 7/15/2012
They certainly don’t want to spoil the ending, no. Let’s recap:
1. All (presumably) the Avengers reboots have been announced,, while the X-books remain shrouded in mystery.
2. Alonso (per CBR) said “one team will deal with the question of new leadership.” And Cap has already been mentioned as Avengers leader post-AvX.
3. They’ve polled the audience of several panels on whether Cyclops should die.
Now, any actual death talk may be a red herring, but I won’t exactly be surprised if Bendis’s Kid Cyclops will replace rather than hang out with Old Man Cyclops.
Ron said, on 7/14/2012 7:38:00 PM
“I just tried holding my phone over Thor and Captain America, with no results, so maybe this isn’t fully implemented yet.”
Considering that the AR features aren’t on that book, you’re right. It’s not implemented yet.
Ron Catapano said, on 7/15/2012 9:59:00 AM
So, Marvel is saying, business as usual …
no reboot just a lot of re-titling and re-numbering.
If Marvel makes more money from this it’s going to be by sticking retailers with a lot of unsold #1 issues at $3.99 each.
House of ideas my @ss!
b.t.t.c. said, on 7/15/2012 12:59:00 PM
“It seems like it takes a lot more effort to pull out your phone, open the app and point the phone at the comic than it does to just pick it up and open the cover.”
Yes, good point. So far I’ve seen absolutely nothing on Marvel’s AR that made me think the option is worthwhile.
Though it’s kind of funny to see clips of Bendis putting on airs as if he actually takes time to think about what he writes anymore.
Looking for a theme at Comicon isn’t always the most sensible thing to do. It’s a big show and there’s a lot going on. I am, however, seeing some momentum being gathered — in force — from a trend that seemed to spin out of the Image convention this past spring. It’s a little bit more than a movement back towards creator ownership, though that’s certainly part of it. It’s about the era of exclusive contracts dying and an age of , for lack of a better term, playing the field coming back.
The last 10-15 years was an age of exclusive contracts. Historically, it was a little unusual for someone to work at DC and Marvel simultaneously. It would happen every once in a while, but it was unusual. There was a need for exclusive contracts. This was also more of a writer thing than an artist thing. There aren’t too many artists that can handle two comics per month anymore. Writers can do three or four books a month (depending on how many changes are getting handed down from the editorial planning meetings).
The exclusive contracts war heated up a bit more when Crossgen starting hiring people and moving them down to Florida. One of the things Crossgen did was enter healthcare benefits into the exclusive contract equation. This was a huge deal, particularly for freelancers with families and at certain times, it felt like there were more people on exclusive contracts at DC and Marvel, than not.
Frequently, there would a 1-book “out” in the exclusive contracts, as it was more about keeping DC talent away from Marvel and Marvel away from DC. So Greg Rucka could still do Queen & Country and Brian Bendis could still do Powers. Eventually, Marvel added the Icon line to sweeten the deal for their exclusive contract creators and keep them closer to the vest.
That all seems to be changing and we’re seeing a wave of creators playing the field with multiple companies.
Take the example of Mark Waid. What’s Waid up to? Daredevil at Marvel. Shadow Walk at Legendary. Steed & Mrs. Peel at Boom!. Insufferable at his own Thrillbent digital label. Apparently, there’s plenty of Waid to go around.
J. Michael Straczynski is doing The Majestic Files at Legendary. He’s re-formed his old “Joe’s Comics” imprint at Image. I haven’t heard that he’s left DC, and he was promoting the next volume of Superman: Earth One at a panel today, so I assume he’s still working with them.
For that matter, his Earth One artist, Shane Davis, was on that panel as is doing Shadow Walk over at Legendary.
What I’m taking from the announcements is that many creators are now quite aware that you must own some of your ideas/stories, rather than be known as someone to service someone else’s brand. Good on all of them!
Brian Wood said, on 7/14/2012 3:55:00 PM
It’s also important not to have all one’s eggs in one basket, as I learned with some bitter tears.
Richard Caldwell said, on 7/14/2012 3:58:00 PM
On the contrary, there may be some big name exceptions now, but they are still just exceptions to the greater rule. I wonder if DnA having books/runs canned at the Big Two have anything to do with their of late unwillingness in signing exclusives, as an example.
Ian Boothby said, on 7/14/2012 3:59:00 PM
Brian’s right. Also try not to get paid in eggs.
Perry said, on 7/14/2012 4:26:00 PM
Chalk up another win for Captain Obvious!
Arsh said, on 7/14/2012 4:30:00 PM
I think there is more excusivities on DC side.
Phil said, on 7/14/2012 5:07:00 PM
I’d work for eggs!
horatio weisfeld said, on 7/14/2012 11:28:00 PM
I’ve had conversations with a number of (once company exclusive) comic book artists in the last few years, all on the way out of – or looking to get out of- doing mainstream comics .. and I can tell you that not one complained of some unfilled yearning to do their “own thing” and not one artist was moving on to doing their “own thing” — in fact they were all upset because, while they see the comics based movies making big bucks –they also see their “silly book” artist page rates being slashed lower and lower, year after year.
Another way of putting it: Comic book artists are finally waking up to seeing that while their working in a great art form, their also slaving in a shitty little business.
Another way of putting it would be: These artist all seem to agree that being an artists for Marvel Comics or DC Comics equals NO FUTURE.
Me thinks there be a certain level of pretension permeating this board- it dictates that artists always have to do things for reasons different than, say, truck drivers or dry cleaners.
Richard Caldwell said, on 7/14/2012 11:46:00 PM
@Horatio
I am literally starving to death, but I am doing my own thing so I care not.
horatio weisfeld said, on 7/14/2012 11:56:00 PM
@Richard: All the best of luck & god’s speed 2 u*
*don’t mean about the starving :)
Mikael said, on 7/15/2012 8:06:00 AM
While their page rates might be getting lowered – the rush to be exclusive also came with perks and benefits and such. Publishers weren’t forcing them into exclusivity, creators were LOOKING for it. Do you know how many creators actually have agents these days? And exclusives have been around for far, far longer than 10-15 years.
Comic-Con 2012 draws to an end, and Whedon whets t said, on 7/16/2012 8:07:00 AM
[...] Comics Beat reckoned the age of exclusive contracts – in other words, DC and Marvel tethering writers — was ending. [...]
What have Image got to offer us? Y’know, on top of EVERYTHING ELSE they’ve been offering us this year? Here’s a look at the books announced tonight at their SDCC panel. I’ll throw some pictures at the bottom, but let’s just try and get a hang on just what’s being announced! They are announcing TONNES OF COMICS. I’ll re-update this with new pictures and info as soon as possible, folks.
So far we have:
Non-Humans - Whilce Portacio and Glen Brunswick
Nowhere Men – Eric Stephenson
Satellite Sam - Matt Fraction and Howard Chaykin.
A murder mystery set in the world of children’s television.
Pretty Deadly - KellySue DeConnick and Emma Rios
A spaghetti western in classic style
Multiple Warheads – Brandon Graham
Saviour - James Robinson and J. Bone
About an alien invasion of earth by shapeshifters, and a stoner’s attempts to stop them
Sex - Joe Casey and Piotr Kowalski
The Bounce – Joe Casey and David Messina
Lazarus – Greg Rucka and Michael Lark
Gritty sci-fi thriller set in a dystopian future
Reign – Chris Roberson and Paul Mayberry
Oliver – Darick Robertson and Gary Whitta
Point of Impact – Jay Faerber
Great Pacific – Joe Harris
8 Comments on SDCC 2012 Image Announce Even More Comics Than You Could Ever Believe, last added: 7/16/2012
Heidi, did you get the breakfast burrito you wanted at SDCC this year?