§ The May solicits for both Marvel and DC are up.

§ J. Michael Stracsynski is no longer exclusive with Marvel, breaking up the old Millar/Bendis/JMS troika just a bit. He’ll be announcing his newest projects at WonderCon.

So I’m now in a comfortable place to opt out of exclusivity. Consequently, a few weeks ago, I contacted Joe Quesada and Dan Buckley to let them know that I would no longer be exclusive after the first of February, 2008. They were gracious and understanding and I have nothing but praise for both individuals. That Joe and I have disagreed over stuff from time to time, as will happen in any working relationship, that has no impact on how I perceive him as an editor and a stand-up guy. Stuff is just stuff; it has nothing to do with the person. Ditto and then some for Dan Buckley, who has always been an absolute mensch. They understood the importance of being able to grow by working in different universes, and have been completely supportive in this decision.

So what’s next? I will continue to write Thor, finish up The Twelve, and as time permits, take on occasional limited-series special projects for Marvel. I’m not leaving Marvel, only opting to widen the creative horizons a bit to include some of the other amazing comics universes out there.

§ House of Mystery is coming back via Bill Willingham and Matt Sturges.

§ Writer Simon Oliver talks about the Exterminators, ending with issue #30, 20 issues before a planned 50 issue run (30 issues is still pretty good in this day and age.)

Yeah, I’d had a magic number of 50 planted in my head. The ways things came down I was a few issues ahead and that left something like three and half issues to wrap things up. It was tough. At one point I called Jon to try and sell on him the idea of not finishing it, have it just end, with no closure. It felt rushed to [end the series] so quickly, especially as I prefer a fairly relaxed pace so the characters have more room to breath. But Jon, as he tends to be, was right and I wrote an ending, with some degree of closure.

§ Greg Rucka is leaving CHECKMATE and Bruce Jones is taking over.

On the POSITIVE tip for Marvel’s movie fortunes, a bunch of new cast members for the WOLVERINE movie were just announced, and they will provide Beat fodder for months to come.

Danny Huston, a bright spot in 30 DAYS OF NIGHT, will play General Stryker. Taylor Kitsch (above), from FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, will play GAMBIT, which we obviously approve. Will.i.am, of the Blackl Eyed Peas, plays Wraith, and Lynn Collins (”The Number 23″) plays love interest Kayla Silverfox. Best of all, Ryan Reynolds has a cameo as Deadpool!

Can you say…WOLVERINE will be ABS-TASTIC? We think you can.

Remember when Marvel Studios was one of the independent movie studios who signed a separate interim deal with the WGA? It turns out there was quite a bit of urgency behind this, as the strike has created a big gap for Marvel’s planned filmed ventures. ICv2 puts the pieces together from yesterday’s investor conference call and earnings announcement:

In a conference call with stock analysts Marvel Studio’s David Maisel indicated that, because of the strike, the company was scrambling to get one film debut in 2009 (and indicated that if that happened, it would likely be in late 2009). Marvel lists four films in development, Ant Man, Captain America, Thor and The Avengers, but Maisel gave no indication which one of those projects might be the one that Marvel plans to release in 2009 — look for an announcement in the fairly near future, because given the time necessary for special effects work, a new Marvel Studio project would need to get underway by this spring or early summer in order to make a 2009 date. There will be one Marvel-based film debuting in the summer of 2009, but it will be X-Men Origins: Wolverine from Fox, which is slated for a May 1st release, not a Marvel Studios’ film.

Since Marvel’s future earnings are in large part based on the movies they produce, this is a big deal and perhaps part of the reason their stock declined yesterday despite the huge rise in profits they announced. A transcript of the investor’s call is available here.

300 the movie may have spawned a dozen catch phrases and its own little pop culture cult, but it’s been shut out of the awards season frenzy — until the Saturn noms came out today, honoring the best in SF, fantasy and horror films:

Leading the nominations this year is the groundbreaking film, “300” with 10 nominations. “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” follows close behind with 9 nominations and Tim Burton’s “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” is represented with 8 nominations.
A trio of fantastic adventures: “The Golden Compass”, “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”, and “Spider-Man 3” received 4 nominations each, while “The Bourne Ultimatum”, “Eastern Promises”, “Enchanted”, “Grindhouse”, “The Mist”, “No Country For Old Men”, “Stardust”, and “There Will Be Blood” each received 3 nominations.

Some of those films kind of make us scratch our heads. We’re always for honoring Vigg, but was EASTERN PROMISES really a “horror” film? Oh well.

HT: ComicMix.

A new edition of alt.comix anthology MEATHAUS is on the horizon, and Nerdcore has a big preview. Contributors include James Jean , Farel Dalrymple, Brandon Graham, Tomer and Asaf Hanuka, Thomas Herpich, Jim Rugg , Corey Lewis, Matt Furie, D-pi, Ross Campbell, Sheldon Vella, and Dave Kiersh. S.O.S. was edited by Brandon Graham and Chris McD, and that line-up (and the above collage) should clue you in that this is an essential purchase.

Big news for webcomics as Nicholas Gurewitch announces the strip is going on hiatus.

“It’s really not as big a deal as it might seem,” Nicholas said today. “I’ll simply be producing comics at a pace I’m more comfortable with.” Monday newspapers publishing his strip received the surprising announcement from the cartoonist. “I’m making this decision for a variety of reasons,” Nicholas told them in an email, “but mainly because I want to do other things besides be a cartoonist.”

Gurewitch cites the success of the PBF collection as part of the reason for the move, and in fact will live at least partially off the proceeds. The fact that he can do this at age 25 is about as big an indicator of the new metrics of cartooning as anything we’ve seen lately.
THe link above includes a hilarious account of an appearance by Gurewitch on Fox News (!) in which he reenacted one of our very favorite PBF strips. Does Gurewitch have a big future as a television personality? We wouldn’t be a bit surprised.

Running very late as you all can see. Ironically,this is due to our revamped body clock which entails getting up at 9ish and going to sleep at 1-2ish, unlike our old up at noon, asleep at 5 am routine.That is great for blogging but bad for everything else. We’ll try to figure out a way to get The Beat with morning coffee again.

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If you’ve been dying to ask Dave Sim a question about Gender Issues, today’s your last chance, as for one day only, he takes on questions at Sequential Tart. Enjoy!

There is an intrinsic nobility for a man in working hard to provide for himself and for his family, to improve their lot and give them every advantage in life. But I think I’m safe in saying that for most husbands and fathers, The Job was the means to the end, The Job was not an end in itself. The end was the home and the family. “This is why I work this hard.” And on the part of the wife and mother there was an ancillary motivation. He is working terribly hard to provide for us, so I, too, will work terribly
hard to make A Good Home with all that that entails, a place of rest for him from the dog-eat-dog world. This is what he is doing it for, so I have to do my part to live up to that.

Your grandmother and your great-grandmother didn’t see it as being “stuck at home all the time.” The idea of “stuck” and “home” being used in the same sentence would have struck any good Christian woman as ludicrous. How dare you say about My Home -the home I have made for my family, with all that that entails with regards to aesthetics, decor, cleanliness, craft, cookery,etc. etc. etc. that it is a place to be “stuck” in? It is a never ending challenge to maintain and improve, certainly, but “stuck” in? Never.

Of course our grandmothers and great grandmothers had centuries of tradition that were handed down carefully: how to do this more effectively, cooking and baking secrets and so on. They couldn’t have conceived of being “stuck” at home: every season had its own attendant problems and disciplines to enact as they had been enacted for untold generations.

It seems to me that the huge success of Martha Stewart illustrates that those instincts are dormant, not dead. She certainly never seemed to run out of things that could enhance, maintain or improve the home. Of course she was preaching to a generation who just wanted to know where they had to go to hire a Martha Stewart to do all that stuff for them.

Rich Johnston, the only journalist in comics, dished up a very tasty rumor which has all the tang of fact:

Sources close to freelancers inform me that DC Comics has a new in house policy for pencillers. Aside from very specific contracted creators (such as Jim Lee), any penciller contracted to work on a monthly book must deliver complete turnaround of 22 pages of work in four weeks. Not a month, four weeks. If that schedule isn’t maintained, they’ll pull pages and assign them to other creators. And you may run short of future work. A reduction in quality is more acceptable than a reduction in quantity.

Specific examples I’ve been given include the recent issue of “Wonder Woman” was half Dodson and half Ron Randall. Also why Koi Turnball was dropped from “Jack Hawksmoor.” And it has been pointed out that there are already three fill-ins on the new “Legion” schedule.

Creators are also being dropped from exclusive contracts over this new regime. Expect certain publishing vultures to swarm.

There’s a lot to be said about this, including the changes in expectations and temperament required of today’s comics artists. It’s not enough to get Dan Spiegle every month (which would be fine with The Beat us, you’d better believe it), you have to get Bryan Hitch every month. But of course what you end up with is often something worse than either.

Former DCU editor Valerie D’Orazio has another take

Looking at the DC creative teams listed in the latest Previews, and noting how many books have fill-in artists or books with the art chores broken up, I can believe this. But I think it’s a mistake. We saw how well this method worked for Countdown. Nothing will kill a book like sloppy, rushed art or breaking up the art chores among several different artists. The other side of the coin is, do you want a book that is late?

[Above, cover to the originally solicited Secret History Of The Authority Jack Hawksmoor #1 by Cully Hamner. ]

Dan Clowes on Mythbusters. (People sensitive to the sound of chalk on a board are advised to view with caution.)

Jules Feiffer on The Naked Brothers Band.

[Thanks to Randall Kirby!]

Technorati Tags: Daniel Clowes, Jules Feiffer

HeavyInk is a new comics e-tailer that offers social networking functionality with its 20% discount. We’ll let you parse the press release:

After a period of public beta, comics retail and social networking site HeavyInk (http://www.heavyink.com) has announced its official launch, effective today. Bringing together comics and community in a way that revolutionizes online comics retail, HeavyInk offers a fully-featured social networking framework along with a comprehensive selection of comics titles, graphic novels, and trade paperback collections.

(more…)

Frank Santoro in the comments section of the Comics Comics Cage Match on Paul Pope’s Heavy Liquid:

Oh, and I do want to mention that I’m getting a few emails from friends (and professionals in the, um, industry) who are too pussy to post a comment here but all more or less say “PP rules, Dan doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” What is it about comics artists who can’t,won’t, write about their likes and dislikes in a forum like this? Yet privately they’ll say “Oh, no, I don’t like so and so’s work.” Or even have super positive interesting things but feel like they can’t because they don’t want to “upset” people. Or their peers. Maybe thats it. I’m mostly talking about comics creators afraid to tell each other what they really feel about each other’s work.

Introducing Amazing Facts…and Beyond! Click for larger version.

[Via Tim Hodler]

Marvel had its quarterly earnings call today, and the picture was rosy, led by a rise in net income from $11.7 million in Q4 2006 to $27.6 million in Q4 2007. The rise was due to higher profits from outsourcing toy production. While licensing was up 129%, Publishing also showed a rise:

Marvel’s Publishing Segment net sales increased $1.7 million or 6% to $30.3 million in Q4 2007 principally due to continued strength in the Direct and Mass Market channels and the benefit of special event publishing such as World War Hulk and Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. Operating income in the publishing segment also rose 6% on a year-over-year basis to $12.3 million in Q4 2007 with a comparable operating margin of approximately 41%.

You can listen to the entire investors call here.

Technorati Tags: Money

Perhaps the biggest thing to happen while we were away was this wholescale lid-ripping by Brian Hibbs who gets hold of the Bookscan graphic novelssales chart for all of 2007 and analyses the top 750 items. We’ve seen Dirk’s response, and a briefer analysis by Tom Spurgeon, but we’re still digesting the numbers and don’t want to rush our own findings.

In any event, Hibbs does the unthinkable and reveals actual sales numbers on a ton of books — we’ve seen numbers from time to time, but this is a wholescale rumble. We’ll have our own comments tomorrow but in the meantime, here’s the most quoted part of Hibbs’ piece:

Not one of the Minx titles makes the Top 750, nor does any CMX title except for Megatokyo, which is OEL. Looking deep into the Long Tail, Minx’s Plain Janes sells 3201 copies, none of the other four Minx titles even manages to crack a meager 800 copies sold in the bookstore environment. Aren’t those books specifically designed for the bookstores, and the customers that shop there?

There’s a lot of conventional wisdom that suggests that things like the Minx and Vertigo books sell oodles and oodles better in the bookstore market than the do in the DM, but I have to tell you, now that I’m looking at the “full” BookScan list, I can guarantee you that this is simply false. Now that I can see into the Long Tail, what I can tell you is that, while the bookstore market can (potentially) sell more copies of the “top” of the “bookstore-oriented” material, on anything else the DM beats them handily.

Here’s just one example: none of the three American Virgin trades charted more than 400 copies sold on BookScan; we can pretty definitively state that each of those three sold at least 2000 copies in the DM (because their first month, alone, sold-in more copies than that) Many many Vertigo titles are selling 3-5x as many copies in the DM, as they did through BookScan.

Discuss. Meet you back here tomorrow.

Technorati Tags: The Industry

Jason’s new comic is being serialized in The New York Times Magazine. It’s called LOW MOON and it’s a Western. We’re in.

Last Friday Freakangels the new webcomic by Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield debuted. It’s a steampunk tale of 12 specially powered 20-somethings that will appear in weekly installments of 6 pages. Ellis has already written several hundred pages, so hopefully Duffield is up to the task. More in this brief interview with Ellis.

Technorati Tags: Warren Ellis, Avatar

Heads turned last week when it was revealed that webcomics packager Rogue Wolf had purchased Cold Cut Distribution. As the only other distribution option to Diamond for the direct sales market, Cold Cut has a small but potentially important role to play in carrying items that Diamond doesn’t stock or restock. Todd Allen learns a bit more about the new operation from co-owner Lance Stahlberg, VP of Operations.

What made you decide to buy Cold Cut?

LS: It was just too good an opportunity to pass up. Struggling in the self-publisher pool as I was had huge potential of burning me out before I got my break.

I saw that getting involved in the comic distribution business would help me on two fronts. It would give my Rogue Wolf comics a huge boost in exposure and enable me to build a solid network in the marketplace. At the same time, it created potential for a more flexible schedule so that I could more effectively juggle my career aspirations around my financial needs.

As I mentioned, I’ve become a student of the industry. Seeing Cold Cut for sale was a sign from above that it was time to start my graduate studies.

More: Comics Related looks at some message board postings by Stahlberg.

AND, Cody Machler speculates on whether Cold Cut could emerge as a viable alternative to Diamond.

Unfortunately, while I feel most retailers would love an alternative to Diamond, I also feel that most retailers are lazy and do not like change. As such, I doubt those retailers would be willing to buy from multiple distributors; the mainstream books from Diamond and the independent books from Cold Cut. Therefore, the only way Cold Cut can truly lure retailers away from Diamond is to keep the big, mainstream publishers from resigning exclusive contracts with Diamond. And in order to do that, not only will Cold Cut need to make an attractive offer to those publishers, it will have to overcome the “best friends forever” relationships that exist in the direct market.

Our guess? Launching a full-scale alternative to Diamond for the floppies is almost impossible, given their immense existing infrastructure. The reality is that Baker & Taylor, the huge book distributor which offers returnability at a Diamond-like discount for graphic novels, is already the alternative to Diamond for mainstream books that Diamond just doesn’t seem to be able to offer at a competitive level.

Where a Cold Cut could fit in is in offering lower discounts or speedier reorders on selected titles from smaller, specialty publishers. It’s certainly a niche with potential, although whether the Rogue Wolf guys really have what it takes to grow the niche remains to be seen.

Kristy Valenti at comiXology continues her essential series of interviews and profiles. This one with Randy Chang of Bodega proves that you can hang in the bar with a guy a dozen times and still learn more about him from a well written profile:

[…]Chang and Ralph had connected at the Highwater table at SPX: when Ralph began publishing Daybreak — the story of a one-armed survivor of a zombie holocaust — online, Chang made inquiries as to publishing it. Bodega’s flagship titles were well received: particularly Mourning Star, as it earned Strzepek an Eisner nomination and an Ignatz award. Chang acknowledged the award nominations “generated a lot of interest for the book that it probably otherwise wouldn’t have, for readers that don’t go to the shows and foreign publishers. But really what it’s changed is it’s made things easier for my parents. Before they would always tell their friends they didn’t really know what I was up to, some crazy comic-book thing. Now they can say ‘our son Randy is an AWARD-WINNING publisher,’ which makes them happy and which means less grief for me.”

Lea Hernandez posts a picture of a tattoo based on her Cloud Monkey art.

The Comics Comics gang has a tag-team critical reassessment of Paul Pope’s Heavy Liquid from 1999-2000:

Pow! Dan Nadel:

So, when I note that I like Paul Pope as an action cartoonist I mean I like him in a utilitarian way — like, I wish he’d drawn Batman for 20 years. I like him in a similar way as liking Gene Colan or even Alex Toth (though both are more interesting artists) — I just want to look at the comics and try not to read them. If you read them, for the most part, you’re sunk.

Sock! Tim Hodler:

A lot of this seems more like an ad hominem argument (what does Nick Cave have to do with anything?) than it does a critique of the book per se. Outside of that bit you quote from the Paris scene in issue four, anyway. That monologue really is one of the worst parts of the book, though you cut it off before it got semi-interesting (in a revealing way) — when the protagonist starts musing about “the Romantics”.

Bam! Frank Santoro:

So everyone knows about THB, right? THB was a big free-wheelin’ indie hit in the mid ’90s. After that, if I remember correctly, Pope did stories for Dark Horse Presents (and famously worked for a Japanese publisher around then, too), and after that, Heavy Liquid was his first book for the majors. I think on his Dark Horse stories they had someone else lettering. The idea was to polish Pope up. You can imagine the meetings at DC: “So, we’ve got to get him to tighten up the way the balloons are placed — and don’t let him letter the book himself–” So Pope agrees (I’m imagining all this) and uses a circle template for the balloons. And DC gets workhouse John Workman to letter it in a “futuristic” style.

Ongoing throughout the day.,..go join in the donnybrook!

Variety reports a frequently reported on comics-related biopic has acquired a director. John Landis will make Ghoulishly Yours, a biography of EC/Mad publisher William M. Gaines:

Pic’s centered on an anti-establishment group of artists and writers, led by a reluctant Gaines and cohort Al Feldstein, as they produce their comicbooks. At the peak of his success, Gaines became a First Amendment figurehead due to his unapologetic testimony before a Senate subcommittee investigating juvenile delinquency.

Technorati Tags: puppy, WM Gaines

§ This week’s big event is WONDERCON, and you can read about badge pick-up here.

§ Grant Morrison to attend New York Comic-Con

§ Baltimore Comic-Con anounces guests: Mack, Oeming, Bendis

Back online, a little sunburned and keeping more normal hours, which should be the entire point of a vacation. Thanks as always to Mark Coale for keeping an eye on things while we were away. We’re sorry we couldn’t give you more of a blow by blow account of our weekend, but the internet connection at our hotel was slow as molasses.

We’ll be posting through the day, catching you up on Toy Fair, and other news.

The signing was a huge success from all accounts — ironically, we didn’t actually get to attend because of personal matters. However, big big ups to Steve Henderlong of Sci-Fi City for his fantastic hospitality over the last five days. We took some pictures of his tremendous store which we’ll be posting soon. Big thanks also to Jim Lee for letting us tag along. Jim is, as always, a gentleman and one of the best ambassadors that comics could have.

We’ve seen and done a lot in five days…it’s really all a blur, but we’ll have a small pictorial later in the week…or the day as the case may be.

UPDATE 1 pm: Hm, many many very thoughtp[rovoking things going on. Rather than rush our analysis, we’ll just wade in slowly.

A very slow internet connection has foiled our attempts to stay current. Right now we are racing off in a limo to pick up Jim Lee from the airport before his big signing at SciFi City tomorrow. It’s been a good few days of alligator hunting and sight seeing here in Florida. More later. palos home verdes loan california companyhome california company loan valenciadown programs loan payment assistance homehome loan interest calculatorhome loan loveland mortgage refinancehome down no loan paymentprograms loan maine homeloan reviews home Map