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A guillotine, a Sister of Battle, and a scrapbook picture from the 2001 National Poetry Slam.

Ghost Rider’s Qualified Success and What it Means for DC

Ghost RiderWith the estimates for its third weekend in ($11.5m towards $94m to-date, domestic) it’s safe to consider Ghost Rider a qualified success as it’s quite likely that it will surpass director Mark Steven Johnson’s previous effort, Daredevil — which topped out at $102m after 22 weeks in release — by the end of next weekend, despite receiving even worse reviews; and its final domestic take should, at least, cover its pricey $120m production budget. In doing so, it will also likely match, or beat, the combined box office of Daredevil and its ill-conceived spinoff, Elektra, which bombed two years ago with a mere $24m domestic take.

Did anyone other than Avi Arad, Johnson and Nicolas Cage (for whom Ghost Rider represents his widest initial release and best opening weekend box office ever) really see this coming? Suddenly, the decision to postpone its release from August 2006 and invest in some top-notch special effects seems to have paid off immensely as it’s hard to believe it would have found this level of success in last summer’s crowded schedule, lost in the shadow of the likes of Pirates of the Carribean, X-Men: The Last Stand and Superman Returns.

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A guillotine, a Sister of Battle, and a scrapbook picture from the 2001 National Poetry Slam.

Marketing Monday: A Simple Plan, Part II

Last week I covered the first three steps of Kevin Stirtz' "Smart Marketing System", focusing on a marketing plan's Goals, Market and Message, and this week I'll take a look at the final two pieces of this simple but apparently often confounding puzzle: 1. The GOALS or objectives you want to accomplish 2. The MARKET you want to reach 3. The MESSAGE you want to deliver to your market 4. The MONEY you are willing to spend to deliver your message 5. The MEDIA you will use to deliver your message Money and Media, of course, are pretty much inseparable,…

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A guillotine, a Sister of Battle, and a scrapbook picture from the 2001 National Poetry Slam.

Marketing Monday: A Simple Plan, Part I

Before I go any further with this, I want to establish the three basic principles that will represent the foundation for the Marketing Monday series of columns: 1) Publishing comics is a business, not a hobby; 2) Proftability within 3-5 years, if not sooner, is the goal. 3) The ultimate goal of marketing is to match a company's products and services to the people who need and want them, thereby [ensuring] profitability. (Investopedia) Last week, I referenced Kevin Stirtz' "Smart Marketing System", a simple, 5-step blueprint for building and implementing a successful marketing plan, and posited it as a good…

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A guillotine, a Sister of Battle, and a scrapbook picture from the 2001 National Poetry Slam.

For Black History Month: Flashback

I have a love-hate relationship with Black History Month, simultaneously appreciating the thought behind it while despising its continued necessity. As such, I'm not planning to make a big deal about it 'round these parts; it's a thing for less diverse sites and blogs to take note of, an opportunity to pay lip service to diversity for the next 28 days before returning to the status quo. (Cynical? Not me!) That said, in light of some recent relevant discussions across the blogiverse, I thought I'd "reprint" the first really good post I ever made here (and to-date, still one of…

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A guillotine, a Sister of Battle, and a scrapbook picture from the 2001 National Poetry Slam.

Smallville’s "Justice" Was Pretty Damn Good

It's been a long while since I caught a full episode of Smallville, but there was no way I was missing tonight's episode, "Justice", even if it meant skipping my latest addiction, Ugly Betty. (One year after "Code Black", Grey's Anatomy remains my numero uno!) Bart Allen is the only one of the nascent Justice League I'd ever seen before, and while I still didn't particularly like him, I think the kid who plays him does so perfectly, because if I did like him, something would be wrong. Victor Stone was cool, a rare combination of brains and brawn (even…

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A guillotine, a Sister of Battle, and a scrapbook picture from the 2001 National Poetry Slam.

Much Ado About Cowboys & Aliens

I knew a lot of people in the comics industry didn't like Platinum Comics' Scott Rosenberg, but holy cow!Comics writer A. David Lewis (the excellent The Lone and Level Sands) absolutely flipped his lid last Friday upon seeing Entertainment Weekly's sporadic comics sales chart showing Cowboys & Aliens in the top spot, according to Midtown Comics:"What smarts most is that C&A is listed as the top-selling graphic novel. Yes, Entertainment Weekly crowns it as #1.First, that's crap. I think we all know that's crap. And, by 'we,' I mean people who actually go to comic book shops on an almost…

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A guillotine, a Sister of Battle, and a scrapbook picture from the 2001 National Poetry Slam.

Review: American Born Chinese

American Born ChineseBy Gene Luen Yang (First Second, 2006; $16.95)When I first heard about American Born Chinese back in July, I pegged it as the highlight of First Second's second wave of releases purely based on a few preview images and its solicitation copy. After doing so, I crossed my fingers that it would actually live up to my lofty expectations, as Deogratias had set the bar pretty high. It took me a while to finally pick up a copy, and before I did, it was named as a finalist for this year's National Book Award in Young People's Literature,…

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