Say What?: State of the Union Edition

“The members of the 9/11 Commission, since we finished our work, have been very careful not to participate in a number of documentaries and at least a couple of books on the subject. We have believed since the beginning that what we have said and the official report itself ought to stand alone on its own merits. Then this came along as the exception.”
–Senator Slade Gorton, SDCC ’06: THE 9/11 REPORT

“Unlike the past couple of years, this Comic-Con wasn’t marked by the frenzy of creator-exclusive announcements — most of the “marquee names” at Marvel and DC are already under contract. And with 52 and Civil War only really beginning, and Infinite Crisis and House of M still in our rearview mirrors, there wasn’t talk of The Next Crossover That Will Change Everything.”
–Kevin Melrose, Comic-Con: There’s got to be a morning after

“What I wasn’t seeing was any way of addressing audience stagnation or expansion of comics outside the direct market, or the aggressive creation of new characters that are likely to appeal to new readers or anything resembling genre diversification. What I saw from the big two, certainly, was a lot of treading water.”
–Matt Maxwell, This year, you betcha

“Also, it seems to me that maybe DC’s 52 in this month started what seems likely to be a sustained drop, while Civil War is performing ahead of expectations, although that’s only a hunch. I like making that hunch because it kind of parallels the fortunes of the film industry, where Time Warner’s Superman Returns seems to lack legs while Marvel would represent all the studios with poorly reviewed blockbusters that people like anyway.”
–Tom Spurgeon, ICv2.com: 18 June Comic Books 100K+

“Instead of dumping two hundred million dollars or so into superhero movie series that come out with installments every, oh, say, three or four years or so, why not give twenty million to the guys who do some of the better fanfilms (like Grayson or World’s Finest ) and have them produce a superhero movie serial? Weekly or biweekly installments, not more than about ten minutes long, plugged in front of whatever the new release happens to be that week. Might get some people back into the habit of going to the movies on a regular basis…”
–Mike Sterling, Some random stuff.

“The savvy comics shops are reaching out. The bread-and-butter appeal of someone like us is that we carry a lot of stuff, like Abrams Image, at close to Diamond’s discounts.”
–John Davis, Comics Shops Turn to Book Distributors for Graphic Novels

“600 million teenagers. Think about that number. That’s twice as many people as there are in America, from infants to the elderly. One doesn’t have to squint hard to read between the lines: There is a hell of a lot of money to be made in India. And you don’t have to ape other cultures to do it; India has more than enough source material to work with. So why does Devi look so much like something Top Cow would put out?”
–Ken Lowery, Devi #1

Written by Guy LeCharles Gonzalez

Guy LeCharles Gonzalez is the Chief Content Officer for LibraryPass, and former publisher & marketing director for Writer’s Digest. Previously, he was also project lead for the Panorama Project; director, content strategy & audience development for Library Journal & School Library Journal; and founding director of programming & business development for the original Digital Book World.