It’s difficult to know how to take some people on the internet. I’ll assume Wraith is being wholly serious, because it’s always good exercise to try to believe six impossible things before breakfast. But wait. Let me essay another interpretation of these facts. If Paul Cornell has written episodes of a national TV show, and is a popular novelist, that might mean that he is not a ‘celebrity’ writer, but… possibly!… gasp!… that thing of which we hear rumour and sigh so often online, and yet are so rarely privileged to witness at work… could it be…? yes, it could…! … he’s a writer who possesses… duh duh DUHHHH… BASIC FUCKING STORYTELLING TALENT AND CRAFT! **.

In other words - I feel I need to repeat the point, on account of you evidently being a spatula - he’s someone who might have a better grasp on telling a story, and better ideas for what to put in those stories, than some random who-are-you who’s only ever written the same pop-geeky vampire / SF comic half a dozen times for EarnNothingButKeepYourCopyright Press Ltd before being desperately snapped up by the Big Two because he comes with a preloaded and mouthy 10K internet fanbase.

How many people know Paul Cornell is a good writer? Let me check the viewing figures for the brilliant and epic two-parter he did on Doctor Who last year. Oh look. Ten million. In the UK alone. Don’t you wish comics had an audience like that?

Well, here’s the thing. Apparently you don’t, because your orbit is seeded with space junk like Wraith sitting there emitting their furious little numbered protests at the use of writers like Cornell, who, after all, only know how to cater for the tastes of a mere ten million people at once, and god knows, I hear Doctor Who fans will accept any old shit.

Whenever DC and Marvel hire a writer I’ve actually heard of, I tend to think (a) brave choice! perhaps this will lead to something new! something good! something fresh! something done well!… and (b) brave choice! because people like you will wibble on about them not being Comics People. And here you are. With friends like you, no wonder comics are sick. Your screen name should be Brutus, you honourable man.

Gil

(** OR HIGHER THAN BASIC, OBVIOUSLY, FOOL.)

It is apparent to me that BND was a total wreck, and I wonder what else should happen to be declared as such. If I made a tenth of such a Mistake in my job, I’d been fired on the place…

I buy Captain Britain and think its an enjoyable read, but then again lots of stuff I bought has been canned in the last year(the Order, Manhunter, Checkmate), so what do I know?

Claremont pushed her through a hole in time or somesuch during the Uncanny X-Men House of M tie-in because he wanted Captain Britain but not her in New Excalibur.

I’ve heard it was a mistake, but since I preorder my comics I had to go with the announced price, which I refused to pay, so I didn’t order it.

I guess it must have happened to many other people. Very bad for the series.

Best,
Hunter (Pedro Bouça)

I had no idea about Young X-men, thats unfortunate. I think the writer misfired with the whole mystery/murdering X-men idea at the beginning. As it is now with the current arc and the current team? I think he should have started there.

Which it was. I’m sure the delay was at least in part my fault, because I handed in my column about a week after Paul did.

That said, it was the holidays. Relax.

LL

Wraith - Claremont may have sold more X-Men books a few years back, but everything was selling better then. You only have to look at Exiles, which Claremont’s totally killed, to see that he probably wouldn’t be doing any better than Fraction or Carey. As for CB&MI-13, again, it’s just not terribly compelling. Cornell can be an okay writer (I quite liked the Wisdom mini), but FF: True Story was dreadful, and I’m finding it hard to care about anyone in CB (can anyone tell me what actually happened to Meggan prior to this series, btw? I don’t recall.).

Hiring “celebrity” writers (from Hollywood and novels) to write their books is just another sales gimmick the Big 2 have been using (and milking) in order to sale their comics.

but what I do know, I kept posting while H and FMB were in Maine or stuck trying to get there.

Both DEADPOOL and CABLE would be selling much lower after the crossovers and gimmick covers stopped, if both series weren’t newly relaunched. In other words, both those books would be selling around the same numbers (or even lower) if the books were around for about 2 years before the variant covers and crossovers started.

The reason why CB&MI-13 is not selling well is because (a) it is the unofficial 3rd relaunch of EXCALIBUR, and people have given up on the brand (b) because there are too many spin off books of other high profile comics and/or A-list characters taking many fans hard earned money (the completest fans) and (c) Marvel is more concerned with promoting the fact that a CELEBRITY writer like PC is writing the book instead of promoting the actual concept and characters in the book.

I have a feeling that ADAM:LEGEND OF THE BLUE MARVEL might become a low selling cult hit. I can’t speak for other comic book stores, but we have sold out of the first 2 issues of the mini series.

X-Factor is consistently one of my favorite books, but the Stroman art (in the last half-dozen or so issues) has been so incredibly off-putting that even I considered dropping it until Stroman departed. Fortunately, Stroman departed between pages four and five of the most recent issue, so maybe sales will now stabilize.

That’s kind of like saying that the Titanic was still seaworthy, immediately after it had been struck by the iceberg, just because it hadn’t sunk yet.

As I recall, Paul, when you originally submitted your 63K “magic number” as a determiner of Amazing Spider-Man’s relative success, you also said something to the effect of, “But it’s hard to imagine sales getting even CLOSE to that low.”

Month to month, the last issue of November lost 3.4 percent of the sales of the last issue of October, even after it was immediately preceded by a variant cover issue.

A 3.4-percent loss in sales at this point is not a good sign, and anyone who thinks the book won’t sink below 63K in 2009 is kidding themselves, even with variant covers every other issue.

Retcon backlash, mediocre stories, too many sales gimmicks and the new publishing schedule have broken many readers of their monthly ASM buying habit, to the point that PER-ISSUE sales are now the lowest they’ve been since the Byrne/Mackie era.

Then shut the fuck up.

WTF is this getting posted when the DECEMBER charts are almost out?

And since there’s no plug on the column itself, I’ll take this opportunity to plug my blog at http://ifdestroyed.blogspot.com and my podcast at http://housetoastonish.podomatic.com, for those of you who might be interested…