You can read Marvels’ entire press release on their Q1 results here. Here’s the relevant portion on publishing:

Marvel’s Publishing Segment net sales declined by $1.0 million or 4% to $26.5 million in Q1 2008 principally due to the timing of major publishing initiatives. Q1 2008 net sales reflected a decline in comic book sales within the direct channel and lower advertising and custom sales, offset in part by continued strong growth in the Mass Market channel. The year-over-year decline in direct channel sales principally reflects strong sales of high profile titles Civil War and The Death of Captain America in the year ago period, versus no comparable specialty titles in Q1 2008. Operating income in the Publishing segment declined by 14% on a year-over-year basis to $9.9 million in Q1 2008 with an operating margin of approximately 37% compared to approximately 42% in the prior-year-period. Based on its planned slate of publishing initiatives, including the release of the Secret Invasion series in late Q2 2008, Marvel expects its Publishing segment to return to traditional margins for the full year 2008.

The link also includes all movie and TV stuff in the pipeline. Although it’s trye taht MArvel Studios won’t have a movie out in 2009, it won’t be Marvel-less at the movies: WOLVERINE opens in May.

MORE: Earnings Call Transcript

ALSO: Marvel stock continues to climb, up 9% yesterday.

Marvel held an earnings call this morning, and the big, no-brainer news was IRON MAN 2 in 2010. Also on the slate: THOR in 2010, followed by CAPTIAN AMERICA: FIRST AVENGER and THE AVENGERS in 2011. 2009 will be a bare cupboard year for Marvel, because of the writers strike, but IRON MAN’s smashing debut should keep their name in lights until then.

The company said its improved forecast did not include upside from the box office success of “Iron Man,” only its better-than-expected first-quarter performance.

Marvel shares jumped $2.34, or 7.7 percent, to $32.59 in morning trading.

The rise in stock prices is a first for Marvel — traditionally, after a big movie opening the stock price goes down a bit. It wasn’t all golden news, though: publishing was down 4% for the quarter and 14% year to year. Marvel hopes SECRET INVASION will pick up the slack and leave this year up over last, however.

It is official: Iron Man is a monster hit, taking in over $200 mil worldwide in its first weekend.

Pictures and Marvel Studios’ Iron Man exceeded all expectations, earning a massive $100.75 million during its opening weekend domestically from 4,105 theaters and $104.2 million since debuting Thursday night, averaging $24,543 per site. Internationally, the film has also earned an incredible $96.7 million in 57 countries since it began opening Wednesday, putting its worldwide total at $201 million after just five days!

As predicted, it’s the 10th biggest opening ever, the 4th biggest opening for a superhero movie, and the second biggest non-sequel movie opening, after Spider-Man.

The news is great for Marvel, of course, although traditionally their stock dips after each and every blockbuster as profit-takers sell off. Stock was up slightly on Friday behind very heavy volume. We’ll update it when the market opens. They’re holding their Q1 earnings call this morning, and that should be a lot of fun to listen to.

On the larger front. this will do nothing to crimp Hollywood’s love affair with the comics…well, hell, we write this every time a comic-book-movie does well, but the fact is that CBM’s do very well at the box office. Now, the movies that do well are always based on source material of some vision and/or passion — from Spider-Man to 300 to Ghost World. It remains to be seen of the stampede of “made to be optioned” comics to the option block will result in any actual films, let alone good films. Even something like 30 DAYS OF NIGHT, which opened at #1 but was generally undistinguished yet profitable, was based on a graphic novel which had flair and originality. But there will have to be many, many, MANY clinkers to end this love affair.

But there is always a naysayer, as Popular Mechanics points out that comic book movies, are driving out real SF films:

Despite the rise of the so-called graphic novel over the past few decades—self-contained, morally complex comic series like Alan Moore’s Watchmen and Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns—comic books are still widely regarded as kiddie stuff. And when X-Men and Spider-Man recently proved that film adaptations of popular comics were a relatively untapped box-office goldmine, they did so without substantially updating the science behind the superheroes.

We’ll throw in our own little naysay here: while IRON MAN’s critical response is the best ever for a superhero movie, it is not, in our opinion, the best ever superhero movie, let alone best ever comic book movie. It is very very good, but the plot is too formulaic for that. We’d pick SPIDER-MAN 2 as the best superhero movie — just our opinion, mind — followed closely by BATMAN & ROBIN. Wink wink! But you know, almost every time a good superhero movie opens everyone thinks it’s the best ever for a while.

So much for GTA IV:

The summer blockbuster season is off to a flying start with Robert Downey, Jr. in Iron Man. Financed and produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Paramount, the spectacularly-reviewed comic book adaptation received an estimated 12% improvement from its opening day for a staggering $36.4M Saturday. That should translate to a $94.74M 3-day, and when Thursday night preview screenings are added in, the John Favreau-directed pic should have $100.24M banked by Monday morning.

The movie is tracking to be the 9th biggest opening ever, and the second biggest non-sequel opening ever after — what else? — Spider-Man.

Anyway you slice it, it’s a it’s a spectacular success for the debut film from Marvel Studios.

How if they can just get past the Hulk.

IRON MAN is a lot of fun and will make a lot of money. It seems to have a bit of “four quadrant” appeal even, and may be the superhero movie that breaks out of the young male demographic that is their bread and butter.

Or maybe not. It’s hard to imagine a movie that investigates boyish fantasies more thoroughly. Fast cars, loud missiles, flying around in a metal suit shooting fire out your hand, tinkering in the lab and soldering together a miniature nuclear power plant out of some scraps you found lying around the cave - this is a Radio Shack fantasy all the way.

Mild spoilers to follow below the cut.

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One last IRON MAN item. It seems the ridiculous stilettos worn by Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts are spawning their OWN fashion movement:

Looks like movie stars really do influence the buying habits of the many minions.

Selfridges, the London department store, has seen a nearly 35% increase in sales of hyper-high heels since Gwyneth Paltrow strutted them down multiple red carpets for the Iron Man promotional tour this week.

With 7-inch spikes, it’s no wonder they’re called “fetish” heels; a pair by Alexander McQueen is particularly popular.

Just call it “Iron Ankles.”

Warning: You must sit through all of the credits in IRON MAN to see a cameo by Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. This has kind of been floating around, but though we stayed to the “shot on Arriflex” credit for IRON MAN, most of the Marvel screening audience had already left the theatre, so we bolted, and we didn’t hear any whooping and hollering as we walked out that would have indicated the ending scene. But there it is up on Youtube…or it was for a few days. So what gives? If only we had paid more attention to Rich Johnston the other day.

One thing missing from the film was the much-touted end of movie scene with Samuel Jackson as Nick Fury. I understand from British Film classification sources that the scene is in the print that they’ve approved for general release, but not in premiere or preview screenings, so as not to spoil the um.. surprise… bugger. Anyway, he’s recruiting for a group called The Avengers.

Vulture has a whole run down of the affair, but basically the cameo was kept out of the critics’ screenings and put back in for regular audiences. Personally, we don’t mind saying until the very end of the credits—we were raised to believe it is a mark of respect to the filmmakers. However that was before credits went on for 5 minutes or so. (We were watching 1979’s Alien on TV last night and were shocked to see the credits lasted all of about 30 seconds.) What we do find annoying is the current trend of putting the ending of a movie AFTER the five minute credits — see Pirates of the Caribbean 3. Many movies these days do not pass the “bladder test” and making it necessary to sit through those endless credits may well be torture for many.

Meanwhile, the films has a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes at the moment. Trust us — it was GOOD, but it wasn’t the rapture. The movie is key for Marvel Studio’s future but they spent big — very big, ICv2 reports:

Iron Man, which cost $150 million to produce and another $75 million to promote, will require a strong debut to keep the stock market analysts looking favorably on Marvel Entertainment’s stock. Although with Marvel Studios’ unique financing plan, the company actually has little immediate financial risk associated with the film (see “Marvel to Produce Its Own Films”).

Not that Marvel really has much to worry about: the question about IRON MAN is not whether it will be a blockbuster, but how big a blockbuster it will be.

The movie is expected to open well, between $65 and $100 million, depending on how seriously you take the tracking that shows young women are not interested in seeing the picture–only 19% first choice– which makes it a “three quadrant” movie for starters. The biggest blockbusters, like Narnia, wind up pulling everybody. Young men under 25 have 95% awareness of Iron Man, 65% definite interest and 35% first choice. Women over 25 are more interested in Downey and Gwenyth Paltrow; they will spread the word that Downey is fun and Paltrow actually has a decent role. So the picture could hold well.

By Paul O’Brien

After a quiet couple of months, March saw Marvel starting to gear up again. In fact, there’s only one really big new title this month - DARK TOWER, which returns for a second miniseries. But there’s also the launch of two new monthly series, CABLE and WOLVERINE: FIRST CLASS. And although SECRET INVASION itself won’t show up until the April chart, the first tie-ins are starting to to crop up.

Once again, Marvel dominated the direct market, leading DC by 44% to 32% in units and 39% to 30% in dollars. And this is before the big crossover season even gets under way, remember.

Thanks as always to Milton Griepp and ICV2 for permission to use their figures for these calculations.

1.  DARK TOWER
03/07  Gunslinger Born #2 of 7 - 168,258  (-22.4%)
04/07  Gunslinger Born #3 of 7 - 149,168  (-11.3%)
05/07  Gunslinger Born #4 of 7 - 139,545  ( -6.5%)
06/07  Gunslinger Born #5 of 7 - 132,090  ( -5.3%)
07/07  Gunslinger Born #6 of 7 - 128,336  ( -2.8%)
08/07  Gunslinger Born #7 of 7 - 124,609  ( -2.9%)
09/07  —
10/07  —
11/07  —
12/07  —
01/08  —
02/08  —
03/08  Long Road Home #1 of 5  - 123,839  ( -0.6%)
                                  6 mnth  (  — )
                                  1 year  (-26.4%)

The first DARK TOWER miniseries was a huge hit for Marvel in 2007, a rare example of a book with obvious mass market appeal which also sold in huge quantities in the direct market. While the first series was mostly an adaptation of Stephen King’s novel WIZARD AND GLASS, the new series is original material. The first issue comes in below the final issue of GUNSLINGER BORN, but only just. Diminishing returns are to be expected with sequels, and besides, 124K for a debut issue is a good performance by any standards. Marvel should be very satisfied with this number.

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By the by, if you are coming to IRON MAN and want to read more of Ol’ Shellhead’s adventures, Alan Kistler at ComicMix has the story that should have been the lead story on EVERY comics website this week: 10 Must-Read Stories Before You Watch ‘Iron Man’ in Theaters.

Marvel has repeatedly learned that boffo box office doesn’t necessarily turn into boffo at the comics shop, enjoying only modest upticks in graphic novels sales after their blockbusting movies. This time out, they have a top ten Iron Man Graphic Novel list on Marvel.com. A new Marvel series called THE INVINCIBLE IRON MAN by Fraction and LaRocca debuts next week, with variant photo covers.

Anyway, click the links for a welcome reminder that there was an Iron man before Robert Downey Jr.

Up at Apple.
Image ganked from Pulp Secret. Sorry boys, we’re very pressed for time.

Everyone has IRON MAN fever! The film, opening Friday, has gotten fab reviews from everyone but the New Yorker, and Robert Downey Jr’s performance is being hailed as one of his best ever, and a new benchmark for a superhero movie.

However there have been a few glitches along the way. Tireless Jeff Trexler alerts us to a legal spat over a screening. It seems the blog TechCrunch set up an early screening viaa source unknown, which Marvel Studios objected to.

Whoever decided to authorize an early screening without looping in Marvel, the company that made the movie, was not thinking. The 2005 distribution agreement between Marvel and Paramount provides, in article 10, that “Marvel shall be meaningfully consulted on the release pattern and distribution pattern” of the film; Article 7 also requires Marvel to be consulted for all commercial co-promotions and tie-ins. That the screening was apparently arranged through Paramount’s group sales department will probably have behind-the-scenes ramifications; this incident does give the impression that Paramount is something of a loose cannon, with few if any internal controls at the local level.

Meanwhile Marvel is colluding with EW to reveal a new version of Venom and fill in future Spider-Man storylines.

There comes a time when even a storied supervillain needs a do-over, and that moment has arrived for Spider-Man arch-nemesis Venom. Well, sorta. The extraterrestrial symbiote — which most famously glommed onto embittered Spider-friend Eddie Brock — is classically depicted as a onyx-colored, cuspated shape-shifter. But Marvel decided the dude needed to lighten up, so they created an additional symbiote as a visual foil to their old standby: Here’s your first glimpse at the new, angelically hued…Anti-Venom.

Truly the day that the comics industry gets both the NY Daily News and EW to reveal their superhero spoilers shows there are no boundaries anymore. NO BOUNDARIES.

Illo above by John Romita Jr. who, come to think of it, still nails that classic superhero look in a way an old timer like The Beat finds very pleasant.

Variety liked it:

Finally, someone’s found a sure-fire way to make money with a modern Middle East war movie: Just send a Marvel superhero into the fray to kick some insurgent butt. The powerhouse comicbook-inspired actioner “Iron Man” isn’t principally about this fantasy, but it won’t hurt at least American audiences’ enjoyment of this expansively entertaining special effects extravaganza. Having an actor as supercharged as Robert Downey Jr. at the center of such a tech-oriented enterprise reps a huge plus, and Paramount should reap big B.O. rewards by getting out ahead of the summer tentpole pack with such a classy refitting of an overworked format.

It’s refreshing, for a start, that the character suddenly endowed with superpowers isn’t a dweeby teen, but rather a pushing-middle-age genius who is himself entirely responsible for the advanced means he acquires to combat his adversaries; even more than the latest incarnation of Batman, he’s a self-made superman. And while we’ve seen plenty of masks and gravity-resistant heroes before, the outfit sported by the main man here, which looks as though it was made by a top ski boot manufacturer, is striking and capable of great things.

Evidently, Marvel sees some promise in this digital thing. PR:

Marvel Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: MVL) has appointed Ira Rubenstein to the position of Executive Vice President of Marvel’s newly launched Global Digital Media Group. In this newly created position, Mr. Rubenstein will oversee Marvel’s digital distribution strategy across all media and platforms. Mr. Rubenstein will relocate to Marvel’s New York headquarters and report to John Turitzin, Executive Vice President, Office of the Chief Executive.

Mr. Rubenstein joins Marvel after more than 12 years with Sony, most recently as executive vice president of Sony Pictures Digital. His appointment reflects Marvel’s commitment to growth in the digital space. He will be responsible for developing and implementing the company’s efforts to maximize the Marvel Universe across all digital media. He will look to extend the reach of Marvel properties into the digital marketplace by maximizing the potential of Marvel’s current proprietary digital consumer destinations — Marvel.com, MarvelKids.com, and Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited – as well as through digital video, animated content, mobile games, casual games and strategic partnerships.

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EW covers the rumored Ed Norton/Marvel feud over the upcoming Hulk movie, and scoops Norton’s own statement on the donnybrook, which he refers to by the Hollywood term: “healthy process.”

“Like so many people I’ve loved the story of The Hulk since I was a kid, so it was thrilling when Marvel asked me to write and help produce an altogether new screen incarnation, as well as play Bruce Banner. I grew up reading Marvel Comics and always loved the mythic dimension and contemporary themes in the stories, and I’m proud of the script I wrote. In every phase of production, including the editing, working with Louis Leterrier has been wonderful…I’ve never had a better partner, and the collaboration with all the rest of the creative team has been terrific. Every good movie gets forged through collaboration, and different ideas among people who are all committed and respect the validity of each other’s opinions is the heart of filmmaking. Regrettably, our healthy process, which is and should be a private matter, was misrepresented publicly as a ‘dispute,’ seized on by people looking for a good story, and has been distorted to such a degree that it risks distracting from the film itself, which Marvel, Universal and I refuse to let happen. It has always been my firm conviction that films should speak for themselves and that knowing too much about how they are made diminishes the magic of watching them. All of us believe The Incredible Hulk will excite old fans and create new ones and be a huge hit…our focus has always been to deliver the Hulk that people have been waiting for and keep the worldwide love affair with the big green guy going strong.'’

So you see? Nothing to see here. Just buy a ticket already.

Not much is going on at Marvel these days so they will be very quiet at the New York show…

PSYCHE! Marvel has more events than you can shake a Shkull at.

Marvel will be having a wide range of panels and events happening over the course of this weekend’s New York Comic-Con. Everything from a rare appearance by Jonathan Lethem, a Marvel Costume Contest, a signing by the director of The Incredible Hulk Louis Leterrier, a chance to get a signature form Stan Lee and Skrull Masks! Find all the details below and come by the Marvel Booth (#1141) and panels during the show!

Much much more below the cut.

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Some mixed messages for Marvel’s next two films — both of them from the newly launched Marvel Studios.

First, the New York Times rounds up what everyone has been whispering for some time: THE INCREDIBLE HULK movie may be more of a tantrum than a rampage:

Bad buzz. Creative infighting. Superhero gridlock at the multiplex. For Marvel Studios, handling gamma rays is starting to look like a cakewalk compared to turning “The Incredible Hulk” into a movie franchise.

The article covers all the familiar beats: Ang Lee disappointment, blah blah; Edward Norton and studio feuding, blah blah; fan dismay with cgi, blah blah.

The story reports “lip-biting” among investors and worries over Norton’s continued feud with the filmmakers: if he doesn’t get his say over the final cut he may not even do any publicity, a body blow in a summer crammed with competing action/adventure movies. Marvel Studios head David Maisel handles the rumors with the diplomacy one must develop when dealing with volatile stars whom you wouldn’t like when they are angry:

“When you get to this point in the process, there are always lots of passionate discussions,” he said. “Edward is very passionate. He is as passionate about the Hulk as we are.” (For those unaccustomed to Hollywood speak, “very passionate” roughly translates to a seven on the “he’s a difficult person” scale.)

BUT all is not gloomy for Marvel, as trade reporter Anne Thompson delivers a big wet kiss to Marvel’s OTHER summer movie: “Iron Man: Why it Will be Huge”:

Those of us who saw Paramount’s first Iron Man materials at Comic-Con–and witnessed the hordes lining up just to see the damned costume unveiled–don’t need to be convinced that this picture will be a summer boxoffice juggernaut. It should easily pass $200 million. Will it get to $300 million is another question.

Why?

1. NEW ACTION HERO. This may be the robust male action fantasy hero that we’ve been waiting for. A new contemporary complex male who isn’t Batman or Superman. (Face it, they’ve been around for a while.) Check out the latest clip and our photo gallery. Who wouldn’t want to fly around like that? While Iron Man comicbook fans are legion, this is a new modern movie hero who kicks ass. And he’s not a nice guy.

All systems seem to be go for IRON MAN — good buzz, great looking trailers, well received assets. Even people who aren’t familiar with Ol’ Shellhead think the movie looks “fun.”

Our guess? IRON MAN will do very well; THE INCREDIBLE HULK will make money on DVD.

§ Comics2Film, another Web 1.0 comics site — it’s been around since 1997 — has been purchased by Mania.com.

§ Ed Brubaker faces the mini-masses at Whitechapel.

§ At PWCW, Laura Hudson talks to Marvel about the viral marketing campaign for SECRET INVASION:

“We’ve done a lot of mainstream pushes, not just to the industry itself, but to a larger audience,” said Marvel v-p of merchandising and communication Mike Pasciullo. “The characters are icons that people are aware of even if they’re not buying comics regularly,” Pasciullo said, “but if you tell interesting stories, they will seek them out.”

Acclaimed Marvel writer Brian Michael Bendis, the writer of Secret Invasion, agreed. “We’re trying to reach out to the millions of people that might never read a comic.” He describes the marketing shift as part of an effort to stop undervaluing the medium. “The comics [industry] in general tends to treat itself like an ugly stepsister of film or TV,” said Bendis. “But it’s not, so let’s not treat it that way. Let’s sell it like they sell a movie.”

No mention of now-squelched Marvel-b0y, but there will be Skrull Masks at NYCC.

§ Meanwhile, over at Marvel’s Agent M Flickr set, you can see editors Tom Brevoort and Nick Lowe sporting evidence of an abandoned crossover event in which the Marvel U was invaded by clones of Mary Jane and Gwen Stacy,

§ BUT Ian Brill wonders if all this marketing innovation this is just like pushing margaritas to people in Tijuana:

While reading Laura Hudson’s article on Marvel’s viral marketing I thought of something. It’s cool to see Marvel branching out and everything. I just wish that instead of using these innovations, innovations for Marvel that is, to sell a book that is going to be a blockbuster no matter what they could use this strategy towards marketing lower selling titles.

§ i09 has an entertaining look at superhero movies not based on comics, like DARKMAN and SKY HIGH. There are more than you might think, since many of them were subsequently adapted into comics.

§ Coming Soon Net has the first video journal from WATCHMEN. No footage just atmospherics.

§ PS here is Scarlett Johansson as a sexy nurse from THE SPIRIT movie. Peruse before Lionsgate makes us take ‘em down.

AW SHUCKS. I got my official Lionsgate C&D. Wow, I feel like I rank now!

Technorati Tags: The Spirit

You know, that one where Doctor Doom takes the Invisible Woman hostage and then tricks the rest of The Fantastic Four into going back in time to steal Blackbeard’s treasure…and it turns out The Thing was actually Blackbeard and wanted to stay back there and remain king of the pirates because there he had respect but in modern times he was just a freak?

The island gods are restless tonight. Matt Fraction, Ed Brubaker and David Aja are all leaving their extremely well received run on THE IMMORTAL IRON FIST. Cable writer Duane Swierczynski and artist Travel Foreman take on the book with issue #17. This is notable in that the run was a quirky, creator-driven take on an old character, just the kind of comic that gains acclaim and prestige as time goes on. It’s an increasingly rare phenomenon in the company driven x-over era. So why did the band break up? Brub was already doing less on each issue; Aja was leaving because of a new baby and it seemed like a good time to hang it up for the entire team. Fraction also had baby-related timing:

Matt Fraction: The second story was wrapped up, Danny and the Iron Fist mythos were where we wanted them, I had a new baby and new work coming in and it felt like we were at the absolute top of our game with the book… so let’s get the hell of the stage now before we ruin it all. Let’s leave after London Calling and not Combat Rock.

Call us old fashioned, but normally the arrival of a baby means freelancers must sweat even MORE to afford nappies and so on; it’s a nice change that people at the Fraction/Aja level afford go be more selective about their workload. It’s also telling that a year and change seems to be the outer limit of how long a quirky, creator driven book can run these days.

MEANWHILE, Geoff Johns is also leaving a book, in this case BOOSTER GOLD, after, you guessed it, a year.

It was announced in January here on CBR News that Johns will be leaving the time traveling “Booster Gold” title later this year. Unfortunately for his fans, Johns still plans on exiting the hit series, but not with issue #11 as was previously reported.

“It’s actually issue #1,000,000,” Johns revealed. “And we’re introducing a new character in that issue, too. But yes, my run ends after 12 issues, if you include #1,000,000 and #0, which was our seventh issue. So it’s been a full year. I never intended to stay on the book that long.

Marko Djurdjevic, whose art is as distinctive as his name is hard to spell, is creating a special variant cover for Uncanny X-Men #497 only available at the Emerald City ComiCon.

When Marc Oliver Frisch asked why Brave and the Bold by Mark Waid and George Perez had been sliding in sales, it seemed to touch a nerve, and Graeme at Blogorama kept the ball in play. Surely Waid and Perez were fan favorites? (Perez has left the book, but Waid continues on.) Shouldn’t such a book be right in the wheelhouse of the presumed 40-year-old fanbase of DC Comics? But is that really who reads DC comics any more?

We’re always suspicious of comment threads as a barometer of any kind of valid demographic or marketing information, but the one at Blog@ is worth looking at for the widely varying reasons readers have rejected the title. The overall picture is a reminder that just because it was hot for the Tweeners who now run comics, doesn’t mean the current audience likes it. For instance, Ryan Dunlavey, artist on Action Philosophers writes:

Why I don’t buy Brave and the Bold:
1 - It’s boring.
2 - I don’t like George Perez’s artwork.
3 - Super heroes.

“Don’t like George Perez”???? Wha–? That’s heresy! Ed Ward has a even more stark assessment:

The fact that it reads like older, pre-decompression comics is, I’m pretty sure, one of the reasons it’s a tough sell to contemporary readers. The storytelling is very much a part of a different era of comics and, I suspect, doesn’t ‘click’ with a lot of people explicitly because of that.

I also think that people who may not innately respond to that style of storytelling make adjustments when they are reading older work, because they expect that storytelling style going in, but will not make that adjustment for new books.

I know that it definitely takes a lot more effort for me as a reader to find an ‘in’ to a book by George Perez than it takes me for almost any other contemporary books, and it it’s more work for me to stay involved. The adjustment in my headspace feels very similar to the adjustment in headspace I need to make as a film viewer when I’m watching something from the silent-era as opposed to something contemporary.

Given the constant exumation of every facet of both Marvel and DC history, the idea of “contemporary” isn’t one that necessarily tops the list of current comics selling points. (Other readers in the thread say that the overall storyline wasn’t strong enough to keep their interest.) But seeing this brought up several times shows that it isn’t just John Byrne who’s out of touch these days.

Johanna also links to this thread but picks another pull quote

B&B appeals to intelligent readers who appreciate the history of DC’s universe and the caring attention Waid and Perez give to the characters they use in their stories. Such readers have by and large stopped reading DC comics, since the bulk of the DCU is now run by overgrown fanboys with dismemberment fetishes.

This comment reflects the general consensus of many respected observers on who reads superhero comics and why, but there is no denying that the Ultimate/Identity Crisis/52 generation of superhero comics readers IS a generation of superhero comics readers, and not just the lingering survivors of an older tribe.

While old timers–like The Beat–turn up their noses at this “decompressed” storytelling — rejecting what seems like plotlessness and a lack of pacing, for today’s readers, this is what they expect from comics. And for old timers with any sense of taste, the difference in quality between a Millar/Hitch comics, say, and the average rush job corporate comic, is fairly obvious. In the same way that the Image style drove out John Byrne, the “decompressed” style is throwing dirt on the grave.

What’s interesting from our own viewpoint, anyway, is that in a quest for new comics that satisfy in less widescreen ways, the only place to go is indie comics. The average Oni, D&Q or Top Shelf book has more “traditional” storytelling than corporate comics these days, and are created by young cartoonists with completely different sensibilities.

Looked at another way, a few posts back we linked to some gobsmackingly beautiful old comics by Reed Crandall. Crandall’s heydey as an artist would have been 20 years before those Harris comics were published — a shorter time than George Perez’s heydey was from now. Looking on the Crandall pages today we’re stunned by their artistry and timeless skill. Had they been published 10 or 20 years ago the style would have been seen as hoplesssly old fashioned, however.

But the 20-something comics reader has got his own bag now. What do you think, kids? Who are the greatest storytellers of the “decompressed” era?

Yow! You’ll never believe it but that Kinsey girl on MySpace was really a Marvel viral video campaign! The final video launched last night and shows Kinsey (played by Megan Sherlock) finding out her brother has been replaced by a Skrull. The videos were written by Marvel’s own Jim McCann and Ben Morse, and directed by Sam Walker. Filmed over the course of a weekend, and uploaded over a month, the videos detailed Kinsey’s anxieties about going to the prom and other teen-aged pursuits before morphing into a tale of alien invasion.

Marvel was internally so pleased with the results that Kinsey has been written into the Marvel U. and will appear in Marvel’s first original webcomic, written by Ivan Brandon and with art by Nick Postic and edited by longtime webcomics mole John Barber. The webcomic launches today, we’re told, and will be ongoing.

Say what you will about Secret Invasion and “viral marketing”, Marvel’s marketing for this mini-series is at least bringing comics “events” up to speed with the new media atmosphere. We’re told Marvel teamed up with MySpace to get one Kinsey video featured on the video front page, garnering over 200,000 views. From reading the comments on Kinsey’s page a lot of people were following along just to sympathize with her prom plight and not just to find out about Skrulls. The jury is out on whether any of those 200K viewers will translate into comics readers, but you gotta give Marvel some points for fighting fire with fire.

But that leaves Marvel_b0y out in the cold. A Marvel insider, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of fanboy panties, said that “Marvel_b0y has been dealt with. He’s not Kinsey’s brother.”

Our guess? A viral campaign that didn’t go quite as well as planned. This one can be chalked up to as flinging stuff against the wall. Some of it sticks, some doesn’t.

UPDATE: The webcomic is now live at the Marvel site.ringtone free sanyo 4900sanyo ringtone 5400 free8500 ringtone audiovox freeringtones phone american cell indianalltel phone 6235 nokia .99 ringtonesringtone 5125 free tracfone forringtones polyphonic uk a800 freeabsolutely pcs free ringtone sprint Map

Rich Johnston sleuths out another Marvel viral marketing plot for SECRET INVASION, this one purportedly the MySpace video blog of a teenaged girl named Kinsey whose brother Hank is acting VERY strange. Like…an Alien in fact. Jess Lemon meets LonglyGirl15! Very clever, Marvel!

Meanwhile, Marvel_b0y is widely known to be a viral plant at Marvel as well. However, the other Skrull squealer is real and was causing real office agita.

As for us, we have one rule of thumb: never believe something is real on the internet when it involves a teen-aged girl.

Now this, this is real:

By Paul O’Brien

After the chaos of the January chart, we’re back to normal in February. And it’s a pretty quiet month. For Marvel, this is a lull between crossovers. We’ve had the Spider-Man relaunch, we’ve had “Messiah Complex”, WORLD WAR HULK is way in the past, and SECRET INVASION isn’t here yet.

However, we do have a small number of new launches, two of them from Mark Millar. Firstly, he’s reunited with Bryan Hitch as the new creative team on FANTASTIC FOUR. And then there’s KICK-ASS, his creator-owned title, which is appearing under Marvel’s Icon imprint. We’ve also got the first issue of the revived X-FORCE and… well, there are some scattered minis and one-shots too. But basically, this is a month of consolidation, where we start to see how recent launches and relaunches are going to bed down.

As usual, Marvel had the biggest share of the direct market. They beat DC by 38% to 30% in dollar share, and 42% to 33% in units.

Thanks as always to Milton Griepp and ICV2 for permission to use their figures for these calculations.

And so, let us ceremonially crown Mark Millar and Byran Hitch’s FANTASTIC FOUR as the number one title for February.

1.  X-FORCE
02/08  X-Force #1 - 105,149

Oh.

Didn’t see that one coming, to be honest. Aside from the fact that I was expecting FANTASTIC FOUR to top the chart, I had this book figured for the lower end of the top ten. But apparently “Messiah Complex” did a better job of promoting this new series than I gave it credit for, and the variant covers don’t hurt.

Realistically, I don’t see X-FORCE continuing to outperform the other X-Men books. I expect it to settle at a lower level fairly quickly. But this is certainly an excellent start, which suggests the book has a bright future ahead of it. This also bodes well for the upcoming CABLE series, which was also heavily trailed in “Messiah Complex.”

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