Yesterday’s rumblings of Gemstone giving up both the Disney and EC licenses have been answered by an official statement from Diamond, confirming what we’d read in the comments, that much of the Gemstone staff had been laid off, but saying that it isn’t the “end of Gemstone.”

“In the past few days, there have been a number of rumors circulating about Gemstone Publishing. As has been the case with many businesses across a wide array of industries, there has been a reduction in staff at Gemstone, and this included the departure of many valued employees. This, however, is not the end of Gemstone Publishing,” said Steve Geppi, President of Gemstone Publishing.

“Our flagship title, The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, remains a vital tool for comic book collectors throughout North America and around the world and it continues to be a highly profitable item for the retailers who carry it. I look forward to making announcements regarding new developments for the Guide’s 40th anniversary next year,” Geppi said.

“At this time, no final decision has been made regarding The EC Archives or our comic books featuring Disney’s standard characters, but it seems certain that both lines will continue in some form,” he said. “We all anticipate resolving the issues facing us and moving forward, and I will be happy to announce the specifics once things have been finalized.”

ICv2 has a slightly different version of the statement but the details remain the same. Reading between the lines confirms what we’ve heard from other sources–that the Disney and EC licenses are definitely being shopped around.

Disney has been quietly ramping up its own comics publishing program under Rich Thomas and Steve Behling (Former DC editor Nachie Castro also came on board last year) but they’ve been concentrating on graphic novels, not periodicals. BOOM! recently launched their own line of Pixar Comics, and scored a newsstand distribution deal, so they could be in a good position to pick up even more Disney licenses. (Tokyopop has — or had — a bunch of Disney Channel licenses like Hannah Montana.)

Or they might think the risks are just too great, as every US publisher in the last 30 years has come up dry publishing Disney Comics in the US — including Disney itself with the short-lived Disney Comics line of the early ’90s.

Gemstone’s take on the Disney books was to aim it heavily at hardcore Disney collectors, a strategy that The Mouse often uses itself, but probably one with less inherent sales potential than aiming comics at Disney-friendly kids. However since they were reprinting material that originally appeared in Europe aimed at a mixed audience of kids and adults and fantastically successful — in certain parts of Europe, Don Rosa is practically a household name, as bizarre as that seems to us.

At any rate, it’s a pretty sure bet that SOMEONE will pick up the Disney license — it’s a potential goldmine.

Technorati Tags: Diamond

Since Barack Obama is to 2009 comics what foil variants were to 1993 comics and black and white parodies were to 1988 comics, it is natural that more and more companies should jump on the bandwagon, like Devil’s Due with Barack the Barbarian, an ongoing parody written by Larry Hama. The artist is not named.

BARACK THE BARBARIAN: QUEST FOR THE TREASURE OF STIMULI

Larry Hama (G.I. Joe, Wolverine) take political satire to a whole new level. Hama, a surprise hire to some, but not to those who truly know his tastes, will take a look at the current state of politics both past and present and isn’t afraid to point fun at Washinton’s sacred cows. In the distant future the story of Barack Obama has become a little… distorted. According to THE MADDOWIAN CHRONICLES he was the one destined to save the great republic of America and dethrone the overpaid despots of the time. Join Barack, Sorceress Hilaria, her demi-god trickster husband Biil, Overlord Boosh and Chainknee of the Elephant Kingdom. Who can the lone barbarian trust, if anyone?

Although Dick Cheney makes a great Thulsa Doom, we can only quote the Geico gecko…”Oh, dear.”

It’s Moonstone.

We have no context for this, but at least she didn’t go the popular route of having a sex change along the way.

The “Next Door Neighbor” webcomics anthology has been running at SMITH Magazine for some time, with contributions from everyone from Harvey Pekar to K. Thor Jensen and back again. Chronicling tales of nightmare neighbors — and we’ve all got one of THOSE — the series is edited by Dean Haspiel. Babelgum, an online video site, now has a nice piece on Haspiel, NDN and the Deep Six Studio up.

We all have a next-door neighbor and a next-door neighbor story. With this realization in mind, comic book artist, Harvey Pekar collaborator and founder of webcomix collective Act-i-vate, Dean Haspiel approached storytelling site SMITH magazine. The result: a yearlong anthology of diverse, shocking and heartfelt true-life webcomix published biweekly by both emerging and celebrated writers and artists. We visit Dean, and contributors Joan Reilly and Joe Infurnari, at their communal workspace deep in industrial Brooklyn and discuss the importance of place and community – real life and virtual.

You’ll have to go to the link to watch the video.

When you’ve been doing this as long as I have you are often Googling for information on some topic and end up finding something you wrote and have no memory of. Such is the case with this piece from late 2002 which ran in Publishers Weekly with the title The Year of the Graphic Novel . How have things changed in 6 years?

This has been a year of fundamental change for comics publishers. The industry managed to weather a potentially disastrous distributor bankruptcy, while the stunning sales growth of Japanese comics (manga) and a powerful sales boost from several hit movies has led to new ways of doing business with general trade bookstores.

Comics publishers across the country are crowing about a sales explosion in their graphic novel divisions. “For Marvel, bookstore sales have increased over 400% in the past three years,” said company COO Bill Jemas. “Bookstores now represent a significant portion of sales. Sales to comics specialty shops are going up—it’s just that bookstore sales are growing at an even faster rate.”

DC Comics Publisher Paul Levitz confirmed the sales explosion: “We’re going to be up maybe 25% for the year. And I don’t think we gained market share, so the overall growth was even greater than that.”

We’d be interested to compare the numbers cited at the end with today’s output:

One thing that everyone is planning for 2003 is more product. DC’s graphic novel output is increasing from 91 to 131 releases; Dark Horse published about 103 book titles (37 were manga) up from 80 last year; CrossGen is doubling its output, from around 20 to more than 40; and Marvel is planning over 200 trade book titles. Image plans to release a trade paperback a week. Valentino echoes a familiar fear in the comics industry: a glut of product. “We face [the danger] of flooding this new market with product. We prefer a long-term, continued growth strategy over a short-term ‘beat out the competition’ one. The latter has proven disastrous in our own industry time, and carrying it over to a new market seems the height of short-sightedness,” he said.

A mammoth collection assembling three previous reprints by the peerless Gilbert Hernandez.

Want.

The Fantagraphics website even has a Flickr slideshow.

§ Two from THE SAVAGE CRITIC:
Abhay Khosla finds a stack of old comics and does the “you can’t go home again” thing:

Stray Bullets #3 by Dave Lapham: This issue is titled “The Party,” but it doesn’t have Lapham’s best party scene in it. For that, you want issue #5, the first Orson issue. But I remember when this comic first started coming out being so excited, going out-of-my-head excited, that the page numbers continued from issue to issue. You know, how if issue #2 ended at page 45, then issue #3 started at page 46…? Oh, man!

It’s a strange detail to be excited by but I think a lot of people overlook how much those little details can matter for fans. The letter page in the old Bendis Jinx comics, the page numbers in Stray Bullets, the lettering in American Flagg– just some hint that there’s something going on, some extra bit of work being invested.

The new comics I’ve seen? Can I really tell any of them apart? The Great Unknown has a one-color all-blue color scheme, but even that’s becoming a thing now, maybe.

While it’s an excellent piece, you do need to be careful with this “comics were fresher then” thing. They were fresh to US. It’s unlikely that some of today’s comics strike new readers with the same kind of freshness.

Likewise, Jeff Lester looks back at his comics sacred cows

But over time, as you get older, you watch most of your sacred cows get a bolt in their brain, hung upside down and bled, cut into parts. Then you are offered the chance to plunk down some cash so you can bite into that extra-thick and juicy hamburger formerly known as your sacred cow. And some of us bite deep into that burger just so we can complain knowledgeably about what a horrible waste, a sacrilege, a defilement of the divine, the burger’s production is. And some of us realize the sacred cows were never grazing in our pasture, and we either stay because we like the view, or we split.

Or, you know, every so often, in mid-self-righteous mouthful,we find ourselves going, ‘this is one damn tasty burger.’ I was not a big fan of bringing Bucky back, but god-damned if Brubaker didn’t grill that shit up and serve it to me with thick-sliced onions and a side of bacon. I was incredibly annoyed at how lame ‘One More Day’ was, but on the next-to-last page, I was a little bummed Gwen Stacy wasn’t right there next to Harry Osborn–as long as you’re gonna defile the church, people, fornicate on the altar, not in the pews.

§ Steve Duin profiles Paul Hornschemeier prior to an upcoming art show.

That’s right: Zeno’s Paradoxes. Hornschemeier is, after all, the son of a lawyer and a federal judge; his older sister is an astrophysicist, his younger sister pursuing her Masters in Education while working at the Death Penalty Clinic at DePaul University’s law school.

“Achievement was the baseline in our family,” he notes, and it is the hallmark of his career. “Not only does he grapple with the big questions,” Schutz said, “but he’s really, really smart.”

§ Timmy Williams, from the comedy troupe, The Whitest Kids You Know, is writing a column for The Daily Cross Hatch:

I Woke Up Today Wondering, “Will Warren Beatty Ever Do Something With His Dick Tracy Rights? And Now Look At This!

* I really was thinking about that when I woke up today. Now I find this article just a few hours later. This can only mean one thing: the Internet is spying on us in our sleep (was there ever any doubt though?). And yes, I do realize that I totally missed out on a great “Warren Beatty May Lose His Dick” joke, but I’m a little too classy for that. Or am I?

§ Speaking of the Daily Cross Hatch, Adri Cowan has taken over writing the news roundup, The Cross Hatch Dispatch, so yay, one more source for us to borrow from!

§ QUESTION: Does Victoria Beckham emulate The Flash?

Our answer: No.

To expand on that: No.

§ Film Fodder interviews Larry Hama:

Larry Hama: I stopped buying comics back in the sixties. I used to get comics for free from both Marvel and DC, so I would at least look at the pictures. If I can’t tell what the story is about by just looking at the pictures, I’m not interested. The companies have not comped me on comics for close to twenty years, so I have no idea what is going on in the story lines. I have a lot of problems with the concept of guys in masks dispensing “justice” according to their own standards. It’s easy to rationalize these actions by having stories where the characters are troubled and conflicted by their own actions, but that is just white-washing the unpleasant truth.

§ Digital City interviews Comics Book Club co-host Alexander Zalben and we learned many things:

Did you ever feel nervous around a guest?

There’s always a moment where, if we have a celebrity, or someone who is one of my favorite writers or artists on the show, when they walk in the room … It’s very weird. And then you have to sit on stage with them for an hour, and make fun of them to their face (to be fair, you don’t have to do this, but I like to), so you get over it very quickly. I think they things I have been most nervous about are guests that have had something public and, say, negative. We had one of the producers of The Spirit (the movie, which was universally panned) on the show a few weeks ago, and I was really nervous about bringing it up. But I pushed through, asked him in a way that, hopefully, wasn’t confrontational, and we had a great discussion about what went wrong, and what went right. In summary, people aren’t nearly as intimidating, or as sensitive as I thought they would be before doing this show.

§ The adaptation of PRIEST, the supernatural manhwa by Min-Woo Hyung, is on again, with Paul Bettany now cast as the lead. This movie has been brewing for a while — at one point dear, dear Gerard Butler was set to star, with junior hottie Steven Strait tagging along as the adorable sidekick. However, now Bettany is set to reunite with director Scott Stewart, who just directed Bettany in LEGION.

BTW, despite this being a manhwa (Korean manga), the lead character is supposed to be a Caucasian from the mythical Old West, so hold your scorn for now.

PRIEST is published in the US by Tokyopop.

§ The Wonder Woman move is stirring again! It seems Warners is hunting for a director. But don’t hold your breath waiting for this to take place. As Cinemablend points out:

Speaking of searches, run a search of Wonder Woman in our news database and see how many ridiculous rumors and pieces of news we’ve reported on this project in the past. Wow. You’d think a movie with that much gossip would be well underway by now (either that or completely 86’d). Instead, the movie is still in project purgatory, and who knows if this will actually be the move forward that gets the movie made.

We managed to move our office, but were so appalled by the amount of stuff that we had accumulated that we just moved it all so we can sit and stare at it in horror.

We did, however uncover some surplus comics, so look for some cool giveaways here at Stately Beat Manor over the next few days!

We are still way behind opening our email, so if you have recently written to us and not gotten a response, please be patient. Apologies. Keep those tips coming in!

Today’s cover comes from GIRLS LOVE STORIES, published by DC from 1949 until 1972. We like this one because these two hooligans have evidently just struck a bargain over who gets to watch a shirtless hunk pitch hay all day. They were forced to do this because in olden days, THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER did not exist. But it is true that back in the ’50s, this was the kind of thing that girls fought over, and when they did, they turned up their shirt collars so they looked both snappy and tragic. They also created elaborate pic-a-nick baskets to hurl at each other during disagreements. Truly, there is much to be learned from this comic book cover!

A presentation for group sales agents and ticket brokers by director Julie Taymor and composer Bono and the Edge reveals lots and lots of details on what sounds like a groundbreaking musical experience: Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark:

The NY Post’s Spidey senses were tingling:

WHAT do you call a $40 million theatrical extravaganza that features gigantic, perspective-skewing sets, 3-D projections, more aerial acrobatics than Cirque du Soleil, a cast of heroes and villains from Marvel comic books and a rock score by Bono and The Edge?

The phrase “Broadway musical” doesn’t seem grand enough to convey the size and scope of “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,” which is due to open in New York at the Hilton Theater in January 2010.

…

As Spider-Man, Peter clashes with a parade of Marvel villains — Green Goblin, Carnage, Electro, Rhino, Swarm and Lizard.

Berger and Taymor have invented a new baddie for the show — Swiss Miss, whose costume, designed by Oscar winner Eiko Ishioka (”Bram Stoker’s Dracula”), consists of rotating knives and swirling corkscrews.

Five young singers performed six songs from the show, including the haunting “Rise Above,” which is as good as any rock ballad in “Rent.”

The kid who sang that song, Reeve Carney, fluttered the hearts of all ladies in the auditorium. He seemed to have impressed Bono as well, and is said to be the leading contender to play Peter Parker.

Modern Fabulosity has even more, including word on more songs:

My favorite songs included two beautiful ballads written for Peter Parker which bookended the presentation, “Rise Above” and “Boy Falls From The Sky.” Both were incredibly successful at marrying story to lyric; they also managed to simultaneously sound like U2 rock tracks AND Broadway classics. I also liked the title ballad, “Turn Off The Dark,” a minor-chord metaphor for heroism, and an uptempo rocker, “Bouncing Off The Walls,” which will have Peter taking the title literally…with walls that move to accomodate his bouncing!

This is gonna be a big deal…

Numerous reports today that Gemstone, the publishing arm of Diamond Distributors, is ending its Disney license, meaning that the core Disney characters once again have no American publisher. According to a post on

The Disney Comics Blog:

Gary Leach, who has been doing art and editorial work for US Disney comics for over two decades, reported on the DCML yesterday that “Gemstone is not renewing the Disney comics license, and won’t be putting out any more issues”. This sad news means the end of Disney comics in the United States, at least those with classic Disney characters like Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse. Gary added that “Disney is looking for someone else to take the license” and he believes that they do have some candidates, although nothing is nailed down at this point.

A mailing from Diamond indicated the following cancellations:

Donald Duck Adventures: Lost In The Andes/Return To Plain Awful The The Daan Jippes Collection Volume 2: Donald Duck Family
The Don Rosa Library Volume 1: 1987-1988
The EC Archives: Tales From The Crypt Volume 4
The EC Archives: Vault Of Horror Volume 2
Uncle Scrooge Adventures: The Mysterious Stone Ray/Cash Flow Walt Disney Treasures - Donald Duck: 75 Unlucky Years
Walt Disney’s Spring Fever Volume 3
Walt Disney’s Vacation Parade Volume 6
Walt Disney’s Christmas Parade #5
Walt Disney’s Comics And Stories #699-on
Uncle Scrooge #384-on

The loss of the Rosa volume is especially saddening to long time fans.

In February, it was announced that Gemstone was closing its Missouri office, but publisher Russ Cochran was moving to Erie, Pennsylvania to continue work on Disney and EC archival editions.

George Gene Gustines looks at Marvel and DC’s comic book price increases in the NY Times:

Mr. Buckley felt that, because of comic books’ origin in the world of pulp and disposable entertainment, the effort that goes into their creation is sometimes underestimated.

“Comics are a legit form of entertainment, and there are highly respected and well-paid individuals creating them,” he said. “People have an affinity for nickel and dime comics from the 1940s, but we’re competing with video games, film and television.” He added, “We need to keep the talent on the books to make them work.”

Paul Levitz, the president and publisher of DC Comics, said, “We’re not really doing a lot of price escalation this year. The largest thrust we’ve got is exploring whether or not there’s a next package up that works.” One of those packaging efforts is the addition of a “co-feature,” as the company is describing it, to the comics that will increase to $3.99.

“Next package up”….hm.

As reported late last week, a mother in Millard, Nebraska was shocked by the sexual undertones in a Spider-Man graphic novel that her six-year-old son checked out of the local school library:

“It has a lot of sexual undertones in here, as far as sexuality goes,” she said. “They can learn this through any other place, but it’s not something I allow them to learn, in my house at least.”

Svendsen said she’s actively involved with her four children’s educations and said comic books like the one in question hold little literary value. She said she’s especially concerned about her 6-year-old son, who’s still developing reading skills.

The exact nature of the undertones was not mentioned, in the news report; however, more than likely the culprit was once again…an underwear-type thing, as Mary Jane was romping around in a bikini. It’s safe to say that this mother is almost certainly correct in suspecting that her young son will eventually show great interest in a sexy redhead with giant gazongas bending over in a bikini, so give her a point on that one, okay?

ICV2 identifies the actual GN as
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN VOL. 2: REVELATIONS, written by J. Michael Straczynski, and points out that the age rating on the book is PG — for age 12 and up.

In this case Marvel’s own age rating indicates that book is not intended for 6-year-olds and would be more appropriate in a junior high school or high school library.

UPDATE: Does anyone want to wade into the 13 pages of comments on the original story, because today we sure don’t have time for it.

Back in November, underground cartooning legend S. Clay Wilson suffered a severe brain injury that has left him incapacitated. While at first it was feared that Wilson would not survive, he has made a lot of progress — he’s laughing and drawing again but will need supervised care for the rest of his life.

That care will be expensive. Wilson’s longtime companion, Lorraine Chamberlain, has started the S. Clay Wilson 
Special Needs Trust, where folks can donate or help out:

Although he is still recovering in the hospital and beginning to draw again, (in his signature dense-pack style) his ability to earn a living in the future is in serious question. a depleted bank account and mounting bills make it imperative that his fellow man (and woman) come forward now and donate what they can to help this iconic artist develop a healthy, independent quality of life when he comes home to Lorraine Chamberlain, with whom he has lived for the past nine years.

He will need loving care for the rest of his life. Please help us do that for him.

Comic-strip book reviews are the new YouTube book review! Alison Bechdel reviews A Pocket History of Sex in the Twentieth Century by Jane Vandenburgh for the comics-loving New York Times.

§ J.K. Parkin has a nice article on comics that were never finished or ended under unusual circumstances. There are old time classics like MIRACLEMAN AND modern day marvels like AQUA LEUNG.

§ World without Borders©? Too easy! Todd Allen imagines a world without a direct market:

I want to emphasize, this is not written for the express purpose of fear mongering. This is a look at what might happen if a few current industry trends are taken to their logical conclusion. I’ve discussed these scenarios with a few publishing professionals (both comics and “traditional” book publishing) and the consensus is this could happen if things break wrong. I’ll be running three parts to this: the Doomsday Scenario (here), “Webcomics in a Post-Direct Market World,” and “Graphic Novels in a Post-Direct Market World.”

§ Brit kids mag The DFC has been canceled, but some of the comics creators are banding together for something called Super Comics Adventure Squad! The blog includes a report on “The Thing”, a one-day small press comics show that was held in London this past Saturday.

§ Who will buy…R. Crumb’s underwear? It’s worth noting that the Crumb undies (Crumdies?) are currently going for more than knickers from Nick Cave and Jarvis Cocker, to name but two. Fergie’s underpants top the list — clearly, bidders are hopeful that the skivvies have already been peed in. [Thanks to Giancarlo for the link.]

[Via Kanye West]

Paul Pope teases a page from “Loverman”, a story for the French comics magazine Pilote. “Loverman is an American parody of a French parody of the American comic books the French would’ve seen in the 1970s.”

Over at his LJ, Jim Rugg (Street Angel, Plain Janes) posts some test art and sketches from an upcoming graphic novel. More news to come, he writes.

If you’re in LA in early May, you may want to check out a new Gary Baseman art show at the Corey Helford Gallery, billed as “La Noche de la Fusión”:

…a colorful and climactic solo exhibition of new works by Pervasive Los Angeles artist Gary Baseman. Joining Corey Helford for the first time, Baseman will transform the gallery into a Carnivalesque festival celebrating the beauty of the bittersweetness of life. His new works of paintings and sculptures culminate in a synergetic event fusing visual art and a pan-cultural celebration. Open to the public, “La Noche de la Fusión” kicks off with an outdoor festival at 6:30pm followed by a gallery reception from 7 to 10pm on Saturday, May 2. Guests are encouraged and welcome to wear costumes to the opening, and the exhibition will be on view until May 23, 2009.

by Steve Horton

[Ed’s note: We’re running this column as something of an experiment. Let us know what you think, publicly…or privately.]

Welcome to a monthly column on indie comics sales, a companion to the long-running Marvel and DC columns by Paul O’Brien and Marc-Oliver Frisch, respectively.

What are indie comics? I define them strictly as comics not from Marvel or DC. I’m including both creator-owned and licensed books. That means any Icon, Vertigo or Wildstorm books will still be discussed in the Marvel & DC columns.

What is creator-owned and what is licensed? I define creator-owned as a title whose original creator is still in control of the property and owns or co-owns the copyright, even though said creator may not be working on the title at the moment. Licensed titles are usually television and movie tie-ins.

You’ll notice that I don’t cover the entire top 300. I’m discussing books which have consistent top 300 data from month to month. Titles that debut in the top 300 and quickly fall off simply don’t have enough data points. Likewise titles that appear toward the bottom in slow months only to get knocked off when the latest Marvel & DC summer event kicks off won’t appear here. Therefore, we’ve cut things off this month at #273, Shrapnel, with sales of 3,653. That ranking and sales cutoff will change from month to month. Unfortunately, that excludes many fine creator-owned books, including personal favorites of mine such as Proof. Nothing much I can do about that.

The biggest news in February’s chart is that sales dropped almost across the board. Three reasons for that: the economy continues to tank, several comic shops closed in the new year, and Diamond moved warehouses, goofing up the supply chain. You’ll see a lot of weird sales aberrations as a result; these figures may or may not correct themselves by March, depending on how the U.S. and Diamond recovery goes.

Thanks to Milton Griepp and ICv2.com for the permission to use their figures.

12 - BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER (Dark Horse)
Licensed
-
02/2008: Season Eight #11 88070
03/2008: Season Eight #12 88930  +0.98%
04/2008: Season Eight #13 83580  -6.02%
05/2008: Season Eight #14 82069  -1.81%
06/2008: Season Eight #15 80464  -1.96%
07/2008: Season Eight #16 82031  +1.95%
08/2008: Season Eight #17 79307  -3.32%
09/2008: Season Eight #18 77589  -2.17%
10/2008: -
11/2008: Season Eight #19 74202  -4.37%
12/2008: Season Eight #20 71896  -3.11%
01/2009: Season Eight #21 69980  -2.66%
02/2009: Season Eight #22 67575  -3.44%
-
6 months:    -14.79%
1 year:      -23.27%

The #1 licensed title in comics since Joss Whedon took a personal hand, Buffy’s sales have plummeted from the six figures early in its run to just over 67K. The drop doesn’t seem to be slowing any just yet, either. However, the trades are monsters. The third volume of Buffy took #9 on the 03/04 New York Times Graphic Books bestseller list. Whether in comic or book form, fans can’t get enough of the continuing adventures of the vampire slayer.
(more…)

Yesterday, the comics internets burst with the news that Pádraig O Méalóid, aka LiveJournal user glycon, had acquired and posted a set of xeroxes of the complete long lost BIG NUMBERS #3 by Alan Moore, Bill Sienkiewicz, and Al Columbia. Planned to run 12 issues, had it been completed, it would be fairly unique in Moore’s oeuvre– a contemporary story about real people, albeit with heavy duty science fictional trappings. It would be interesting to see how it would have been ranked by Moore admirers, but we’ll never know — he has no interest in completing it and it appears that many of its ideas will be incorporated into his long-simmering novel, Jerusalem.

According to Méalóid, he acquired the xeroxes via an eBay auction from someone who got the copies from someone who got the copies probably from someone who had worked at Tundra. Since the script for #3 was available, an unknown party went ahead and lettered the art.

Obviously there are a lot of missing steps here. A few pages of the art has previously been published in a magazine called Submedia, but it’s quite noteworthy that the missing pieces of such an important project from such a noted creative team had been floating around for nearly 20 years and just now got restored. (It’s a bootleg to be sure, but Moore has given his blessing to the posting.) It’s sort of like someone finding the lost tracking shot from the last reel of THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, or Charles Dickens’ notes for the ending of The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

At any rate, it’s fun to live in a time when oddities like that can still be discovered–despite our media saturation, there are still mysteries to be solved, and that’s half the fun of it.

Eddie Campbell has some very noteworthy commentary on the discovery:

this is an important event. I don’t know the whole story of who did it yet, but the entire unpublished third issue of Big Numbers has been cobbled together. I recall asking publisher Kevin Eastman at the time why, even though the 12-issue series was abandoned, he couldn’t put out the existing third issue. He looked at me as though I was daft. Who would want a third issue if they knew there wouldn’t be any after that? Given the number of unexplainables he had already published, and the millions of dollars squandered, I couldn’t follow his logic.

He also mentions this:

Another thing I remembered, and I don’t think I ever mentioned it to Alan, but I always felt a certain resentment that Billy the Sink got Big Numbers and blew it while i was stuck drawing Jack the bloody Ripper for ten years (I once described it as a penny dreadful that costs thirty five bucks).

Eddie, we think you may have had the last laugh.

We haven’t read the third issue yet — we have to find our copies of BIG NUMBERS #1 and 2, which we haven’t read in, oh…20 years or so. For a refresher, here’s Frank Santoro’s take on the book:

Okay, wait, I take that back. It’s an inspired work, but there is this lack of motion, of movement that adds to the density. Beyond the incredible glass shattering sequence in the first issue, it’s basically a quiet European film of a comic. I’m sure Moore’s script was pretty intense and Sienkiewicz does a decent job of mixing and matching talking heads and word balloons with these formal devices that “open up” the page and let it breathe a little. But again because of the photographic sources, there is always this middle ground focus where every character is shot from the waist up, gesturing. There will be two pages of dense talking head panels and then some sharp detailed sketch within a scene (like above) that is very focused, not only in technical articulation but in feeling. They show great restraint and balance and then release into sketchy memory. The pages are clean in their black white and grey purity but somehow the palette only adds to the gloomy claustrophobia of its rigid structure and square format. Big Numbers, just plods on and on formally like this and ultimately feels like a straight-jacket.

Variety reports that Marvel Studios has launched a writers program that will pay several screenwriters to sit around and work on developing Marvel movie ideas.

Marvel will invite up to five writers each year to work on specific projects, said a source familiar with the deal. Those could include staffers behind Marvel’s comicbooks. Tenpercenteries around town are currently pitching potential candidates with writing samples.

The company will provide the specific pitches it wants the scribes to tackle. Those could involve certain plot points for movies already in development or characters it would like to see in its future film slate.

Gathering of scribes will help Marvel come up with creative ways to launch its lesser-known properties, such as Black Panther, Cable, Doctor Strange, Iron Fist, Nighthawk and Vision.

This sounds all well and good — the writers could make $100k a year– but Nikki Finke says it comes at a price:

One source tells me the terms of the program “are apparently more onerous than the terms of the Disney Writers Program. Before the writers are even allowed to come in and meet, they must sign a non-disclosure agreement and a 70-page, non-negotiable contract. Among other things, the contract gives Marvel ownership over everything the writers create during the one year term of [the] deal, plus a first look and last refusal to any and all projects the writers have previously written or will write for 24 months in the future.” Egads! Unfortunately, with Hollywood feature development at a near standstill, I suspect Marvel could have its pick of film writers in exchange for $5 and a hot lunch.

One of our email pen pals compared this to a Tokyopop type deal, but we suspect Toykopop did not pay its creators $100,000 a year. (Disney has a similar writing program and pays $50,000 a year.) Selling your immediate past and future is indeed a pretty onerous deal, but we hear comics writers are jostling for a place in the program. Go figure.

BONUS: make sure to read the comment section at Finke’s blog for a “spirited debate.”

Wimpy Kid unsurprisingly won two of the inaugural Nickelodeon Magazine Comics Awards, but Naruto got beaten by Pokémon. The winners:

+ Favorite Graphic Novel: Diary of a Wimpy Kid (series), by Jeff Kinney, Amulet Books/Harry Abrams
+ Favorite Comic Book Series: Simpsons comics, Bongo Comics
+ Cutest Comic Character: Snoopy–from Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz (United Feature Syndicate)
+ Favorite Comic Strip: Garfield by Jim Davis (Universal Press Syndicate)
+ Best Hair in Comics: Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson (Universal Press Syndicate)
+ Favorite Manga Series: Best of Pokémon Adventures, by Hidenori Kusaka and Mato (Viz)
+ Grossest Thing in Comics: The Cheese from Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney (Amulet Books/Abrams)
+ Favorite Fantasy Graphic Novel: Bone (series), by Jeff Smith

Via PR:

Nickelodeon Magazine, the leading entertainment and humor magazine for kids, announces the winners of the first Nickelodeon Magazine Comics Awards. The eight winners, chosen by more than 17,000 readers, are featured in the April 2009 issue of Nickelodeon Magazine– currently on newsstands. The Nickelodeon Magazine Comics Awards–the first major comics awards for kids–honors the best comic books, strips and graphic novels for kids published across the U.S.

“Our readers have spoken, and thousands have cast their votes,” said Laura Galen, Editorial Director of Nick Magazine. “This contest presented us with a great opportunity to engage our readers and make them a part of the editorial process. We hope they’ll enjoy seeing their favorites in print.”

Over a six week period (Nov. 24–Dec. 31, 2008), readers cast their votes for their favorite comics and characters across eight categories through a mail-in print ballot and online at http://www.nickmag.com. Readers selected their favorite graphic novels, fantasy graphic novels, comic book series, comic strips, manga series, cutest comic characters, best hair in comics and grossest thing in comics.

Rumors flew yesterday that Wizard had canceled Anime Insider, its J-culture-themed magazine, and Newsarama confirmed:

In an email to Newsarama, Gramling writes, “…after several years of producing Anime Insider magazine, Wizard Entertainment has decided to discontinue its publication. The last issue will be Anime Insider #67. We thank our dedicated staffers for all of their hard work, and we thank our readership for their loyal support.”

Johanna Draper Carlson rounds up other recent comics magazine expirations, including Comics Now! — the last issue came out in September, now officially canceled. Comic Foundry and Write Now! are also mentioned, although it should be noted, Comic Foundry ended because its creator just didn’t have time to do it anymore, not really because of economic factors.

Is Comics Comics still coming out? I forget.

The Cartoon Network held its upfronts the other day — you can read the PR here – but like most cable channels, the name of the channel is becoming less and less accurate. Broadcasting & Cable assesses the changes:

Cartoon Network is boosting its live action fare and expanding into unscripted alternative programming in an attempt to woo a slightly older (and potentially more profitable) new crowd.

“Just like the boy that wakes up one day and starts to sound different, our voice is changing too,” said Stu Snyder president and COO of Turner Broadcasting’s Animation, Young Adults and Kids Media division.

Upcoming shows include a live action show about kids working with a demolition expert to blow things up, a show about teenagers asking silly questions, and various other sorts of quiz shows, viral videos and the like.

But there will be SOME cartoons — Genndy Tartakovsky has a new show , and more Ben 10 spin-offs and Scooby Doo movies are in the works. Tartakovsky’s show is called Sym-Bionic Titan, and it’s “an exciting hybrid of high school drama and giant robot battles.”

GIANT ROBOT BATTLES! Back in the olden days, that’s as exciting as it got! Kids didn’t need any fancy demolition quiz videos!

The Cartoon Brew comment section on the announcements has a “spirited discussion” of the announcements.