Commentary on various aspects of publishing and marketing, primarily focused on books, magazines, and social media.
With the publication of Fell, Warren Ellis started a mini-trend with what Image has now branded as their Slimline format: 24 pages @ $1.99. Fell has been very good, and a solid success story from a sales perspective, while Casanova has been a critical darling with respectable sales for an Image Central title without a well-known creator attached.Shadowline, Image co-founder Jim Valentino's personal imprint, has recently latched on to the format with their mini-series Sam Noir: Samurai Detective, but has taken a rather odd approach with it by...well, let Shadowline editor Kris Simon explain it:Sam Noir is done in that…
Today's N.Y. Daily News, in their monthly Viva New York pullout section, included a feature called "Authors Pick Their Favorite Reads of 2006", wherein Junot Diaz (of the critically acclaimed collection of short stories, Drown), gave Rocketo a shout-out:"A comic book of extraordinary power, with a Cuban hero, written by a Cuban writer. I've read nothing like it before and can't imagine anything like it ever being written again."High praise indeed! And with Diaz being one of three featured authors in the article, his selection, the only comic book picked, really stands out. (Drown was an excellent read, highly recommended,…
It's been a while between Bumperboy updates here at CBC, but Debbie Huey just posted a sneak peek at the upcoming Bumperboy.net redesign and it looks pretty sweet.Huey is not only a talented creator, but a savvy marketer and merchandiser, and Bumperboy.net is the perfect example of a comics web site done right. Hopefully the relaunch will integrate her own LiveJournal, while offering new updates from Gordy.For the uninitiated, check out my review of Bumperboy Loses His Marbles, the first collected volume of Bubtopia's favorite marble-playing, sock-wearing-Bear friend-having, Borperer Supreme!Then, hit Bumperboy's Shop to get yourself a copy, along with…
Reading is fundamental. Don't waste your time reading bad comics out of habit! My weekly, semi-informed look at select comic books being released Wednesday, 12/13/06 follows. The full shipping is list available at ComicList. [NOTE: Not all of these titles will actually arrive in all stores. If your LCBS offers a pre-ordering service, be sure to take advantage of it. If not, find another one; or try Khepri.com or MidtownComics.com] PICK OF THE WEEK Star Wars: Legacy #1CUP O JAVA STUDIO World Without Super Heroes #1, $2.99 Curious about this title? Hope not because there's no sign of it anywhere…
It's like "MySpace for comics", which is a rather scary thought when you think about it...Warren Ellis promoted it via Bad Signal about a half hour ago and quite possibly crashed the site, so it may take a few minutes to get in. I got in right before the rush: http://www.comicspace.com/glecharles/NOTE: In a nice bit of marketing savvy, they've updated their "no_connection.php" page to include the Project Wonderful banner ad so their advertisers still get promotion while the site is inaccessible.UPDATE: The site seems to be back online now.
Reading is fundamental. Don't waste your time reading bad comics out of habit! My weekly, semi-informed look at select comic books being released Wednesday, 12/6/06 follows. The full shipping is list available at ComicList. [NOTE: Not all of these titles will actually arrive in all stores. If your LCBS offers a pre-ordering service, be sure to take advantage of it. If not, find another one; or try Khepri.com or MidtownComics.com] PICK OF THE WEEK Robotika (HC)ARCANA STUDIO Ezra Evoked Emotions #2 (Of 3), $3.95 I missed the first issue of this new mini and didn't see it on the shelves…
I'm pretty sure I've seen some advertising somewhere for Wowio recently, but had no idea what it was until I saw it mentioned in this Newsarama article about Devil's Due publisher Josh Blaylock's latest project, Pullbox Online:NRAMA: What effect do you think this will have, a) on your print titles, and b) on your properties overall? Could you see a revival of, say, your superhero line?JB: I think this is great for print titles and the sale of trade paperbacks. Think of the most common scenario for hundreds of independent series out there that fail. As a customer, you see…
