Commentary on various aspects of publishing and marketing, primarily focused on books, magazines, and social media.
Just lopped a bunch of titles from my Midtown Comics pull list, and what's left appears below. The titles in bold are pretty safe from the axe, for now, while the italicized titles are on the chopping block, either outright or via wait-for-the-trade. I feel like there's a few titles missing, too, probably stuff I pick up on sight but haven't added to my pull list yet.Dark HorseConanConan: Book Of ThothDCAll Star Batman & Robin, The Boy Wonder American VirginAmerican WayAstro City: The Dark Age Batman Batman And The Monster Men Detective Comics Ex Machina Infinite Crisis (George Perez Cover)JLA:…
Support GOOD Comics! Try something new EVERY month! Check out the Independents' Day Campaign, a rallying cry for comics fans to...you guessed it -- TRY SOMETHING NEW: "This coming New Comics Day, give up your copy of Teen Titans and New X-Men and consider instead Femforce, Hero Squared, GI Joe America's Elite or Starship Troopers Blaze Of Glory." Ironically, I feel like I've hit the wall with my own sampling, much more likely to pick up an OGN or TPB than I am a new floppy these days. I have no interest in subsidizing the industry and its broken business…
Support GOOD Comics! Try something new EVERY month! My weekly look at select comic books being released Wednesday, 3/8/06. 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 BrownsvilleABRAMS Moms Cancer HC, $12.95 No idea what this is, but it's a catchy title that would certainly get me to pick it up and give it a flip-through. That it's published by…
I've had Gerard Jones' enthralling must-read, MEN OF TOMORROW, on my mind a lot the past few days, thanks as much to the Speakeasy fiasco as my general feelings about the comics industry lately. So much of what I see happening with seemingly naive creators getting screwed over by inept publishers with big plans and little common sense -- and even in the corporate comics world, what with hastily revised plotlines resulting in lackluster stories potentially killing fledgling careers, etc. -- reminds me of the Donenfelds, Liebowitz', Siegels, Schusters, Fingers, et al, of the early days of the industry. Back…
Support GOOD Comics! Try something new EVERY month! My weekly look at select comic books being released Wednesday, 3/1/06. 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 Infinite Crisis #5 (Don't hate. At least not until you read it!)AMAZE INK (SLAVE LABOR GRAPHICS) Corporate Ninja #2, $2.95 Vaistron #4, $2.95 I think I remember Corporate Ninja #1 being a fun…
UPDATED...AGAIN! Let the fallout begin... Elk's Run creator/writer, Joshua Hale Fialkov, confirmed what seemed pretty inevitable earlier this afternoon over on his blog: So, just got off the phone with Adam Fortier, President etc. of Speakeasy Comics. Speakeasy is no more. Due to some payment problems and low sales, it seems, they've had to lock up shop. Perhaps realizing the story was about to break, Speakeasy mouthpiece Vito Delsante emailed Speakeasy cheerleader Chris Butcher, a Toronto retailer and comics blogiverse gadfly, a confirmation, which he posted about half an hour ago: "As unofficial public relations for Speakeasy Comics, I feel…
Go elsewhere if you want pointless snark-for-snark's sake or ill-informed whining from people who didn't attend the show, because while there were definitely many things that went wrong this weekend, the final result was undeniable: NY Comic-Con was a huge victory for the industry. Not just the usual suspects, either, as I believe Reed's success in tapping the mainstream side of the publishing industry -- ie: Borders, Del Rey, Harry N. Abrams, Simon & Schuster, Roaring Brooks' :01 (First Second) imprint -- plus a small army of librarians who were reportedly roaming the floors checking out many of the indie…
