Via today’s Diamond Daily, a slight change to the year-old order minimum benchmarks; now, even if a product offered in Previews does not meet the benchmark, orders will still be processed for the first offering:

In response to retailer feedback, Diamond is modifying its guidelines for cancelling retailers’ initial orders for underperforming products and merchandise in PREVIEWS.

In the first quarter of 2009, in an effort to reduce the number of underperforming products in PREVIEWS, Diamond implemented higher minimums for purchase orders. At that time, Diamond also began cancelling retailers’ initial orders for affected products.

Now, however, having had almost a year to fine-tune the processes for choosing catalog offerings, Diamond will place a purchase order with a publisher or vendor to fill retailers’ initial orders for any products offered in PREVIEWS, even if those orders fall below Diamond’s minimum purchase order levels. This policy takes effect with product solicited in the January, 2010 PREVIEWS.

“We feel that this modification allows us to better serve our retailers so they in turn can better serve their customers,” explained Diamond Vice President of Purchasing Bill Schanes. “If a title or item underperforms, we will still place a purchase order to fill initial orders. We’ll then address our need to avoid unprofitable SKUs by not listing subsequent issues or like products in future issues of PREVIEWS so both retailers and their consumers should order with confidence.”

Retailers can check cancellations to their own orders via their invoicing and the My Account page of Diamond’s Retailer Services Area. They can also check Diamond’s overall cancellations list in the Product Changes & Shipping Updates section of the Retailer Services Area’s Data Files page.

People have been wondering when DC would make some kind of move aimed at Marvel’s assault on their Lantern Ring promotion…and now they have. But instead of lashing out, they’ve done it in a, dare we say, grown up way — offering two new rings for an even LOWER order threshold on books that are already going to sell: they’re offering retailers Flash Rings with 10 copies of THE FLASH #1 and Green Lantern rings with 10 copies of GREEN LANTERN #53. Read between the lines of the following:

We swung by our very own Dan DiDio’s office to get his thoughts on the incentive, and he was happy to share.

“These rings are not only very cool, but they’re a big thank-you to our fans, who’ve helped make BLACKEST NIGHT a huge success. We’re hoping we can all keep the momentum going once the BLACKEST NIGHT ends and the BRIGHTEST DAY begins.”

Thanks, Dan! But there’s more. We gave Geoff Johns a quick call to get his thoughts. Geoff?

“One of the many great Flash Facts about DC Comics is that they actually do support the retailers with promotions like this that not only make our whole business a bit more fun, but also bring the promotion to every single reader. Of course, the proof is in the content and I couldn’t be prouder of the work Francis Manapul and I are doing on THE FLASH and Doug Mahnke and I are creating on GREEN LANTERN. Thanks to everyone, retailers and readers, for an amazing 2009 and here’s to an even better 2010!”

As promised, photos of DC Blackest Night tie-in comics covers returned to Marvel, via Tom Brevoort’s Twitter.

You kids play nice, now!

The ComicPRO retailer organization has announced the formation of their Industry Appreciation Awards to honor individuals who have improved the direct market. PR below, more info here.

The direct market remains the way most comic-book stories get from creator to fan. ComicsPRO, the largest organization of direct-market retailers, wants to honor those people who stand in that gap and help smooth that process. From publishers, distributors, marketers and more, a lot of people are involved in bringing the stories we all love to market. ComicsPRO would like to stand up and recognize those who have been simply the best at what they do, making the comic-book direct market more successful for all of us.

ComicsPRO has created The ComicsPRO Industry Appreciation Award to honor these individuals, and the first winners of the award will be announced at this year’s ComicsPRO Annual Members’ meeting in Memphis, TN from March 25-27. 

There are two categories for the Industry Appreciation Award, one for professionals who are still active in the business of comics and one for those who have passed away and left an indelible mark on the profession of comic book specialty retailing. After a period of accepting nominations from members, the ComicsPRO Board of Directors presents this final ballot. Members will vote for one Award recipient from each category.

The 2010 nominees for the ComicsPRO Industry Appreciation Award:
o Neil Gaiman
o Steve Geppi
o Paul Levitz
o Dave Sim
o Bob Wayne

The 2010 nominees in the posthumous category for the ComicsPRO Industry Appreciation Award:
o Will Eisner
o Carol Kalish
o Phil Seuling
o Julius Schwartz

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Well gang, here is the game changer. Here is the bestseller. This is the book that’s going to drive all-new readers into comics shops, with full support of the publisher. Unfortunately it’s Twilight so the new readers are barbarian girls. Borders, get ready. EW.com has an excerpt of an exclusive interview with Stephenie Meyer and a one-page excerpt of a 10-page preview that is set to run in this week’s issue. That’s right, 10 pages of comics in EW. Do you remember the magazine industry?

The manga — which is being published in hardcover on March 16 — will have a 350,000 initial print run, and $19.99 price. Artist Young Kimis not a character in Scott Pilgrim, but at least hasn’t been replaced by a guy yet. Little was known of Kim, but she is Korean has a fine arts background and this is her first manga — a very faithful adaptation of the book, which will be presented in two volumes. According to the EW piece, Meyer had mucho input:

The text of your original novel is boiled down so carefully that it doesn’t feel like anything is missing. Were you the one who did that?

I was definitely involved. I didn’t do the original “script” for the book, so to speak. But when I got the dialogue with the images, I did a lot of tinkering. In a couple of places, I asked for missing scenes to be inserted. For example, the conversation in the car that Bella and Edward have after she faints in Biology.

Hachette also put out a press release, which you can read in the jump.

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Earlier in the week, Comix Experience retailer Brian Hibbs mentioned that a leaky toilet had flooded his store, and all but demolished his stock of Marvel Comics.

His subsequent post, A Very Public Thank you to Marvel Comics shows that Marvel DOES listen…Hibbs was contacted by Marvel sales honcho David Gabriel and asked what was destroyed:

I gave them a list of stuff that I thought I should actually replace, in “appropriate” quantities (ie, I didn’t mention completed mini-series that I still had on the rack, I didn’t list anything b-list or under, and I only specified what I thought I might sell in the next 6 or so weeks, rather than what I actually lost — which was a truly larger number of books), and I’ve been told that I’ll have my whole list sent to me, for free, with free and expedited shipping so I’ll have it by Friday.

Marvel did not have to do that, they were under no obligation, and, frankly, since we joust so much I am not entirely sure that I’d've done the same thing in their position. But they did, and that’s awesome, and they deserve some public props for that, so here they are!

Considering that Hibbs is a vocal critic of Marvel — and even sued them once — this is a classy move.

From the moment Marvel sent out its DC-tweaking press release late on Wednesday afternoon, Siege-for-Lanterns is Topic A at BarCon and in private chatter.

Why? Why did Marvel turn the clock back to 2001-2, when Nü Marvel under Bill Jemas and Joe Quesada delighted in playing Scut Farkus to DC’s Ralphie at every opportunity — calling DC AOL Comics, and so on. Jemas also delighted in getting hostile with retailers. But in 2010, things with Marvel seem so be going pretty smooth with that whole Disney thing and all, so why now? Why such an aggressive in your face move here and now?
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A little while ago we received an email from someone at Zenescope wondering why we don’t run more of their PR. In fact we had just received this gem the day before announcing the Zenescope Girl of the Month contest.

 

… calling all aspiring models, amateur models and fans who are interested in becoming Zenescope Girl of the Month for 2010. The GRAND PRIZE winner receives a trip for 2 to San Diego, CA for Comic Con International in 2011 for 3 days and 2 nights.  Comic Con is the biggest Pop Culture event in the world, where Hollywood invades San Diego for an explosive weekend of the hottest parties and celebrity run-ins!
The winner will also appear for a signing at the Zenescope booth during the convention. 

Not only that, each monthly winner will appear in print in over 20,000 total issues of Zenescope’s popular monthly series and will also be featured online at www.zenescope.com. She will also receive a $100 gift certificate to the Blue Gryphon Comics online store and automatically be entered into the 2010 Girl of the Year voting for her chance win a trip to San Diego and be named Zenescope Girl of 2010!  Visit www.zenescope.com for more details!

Rich and Johanna already got in on this. Johanna’s post was entitled, as is her fashion,
PR: What Not to Do: Exploiting Models

In other words, instead of paying modeling fees, they get free pictures in return for calling it a contest prize. The yearly “Grand Prize” winner gets a free trip to the San Diego Con (for three days and two nights, which is also cheaping out since the show runs five days). While there, they’ll get to “appear for a signing” at the Zenescope booth. Airfare and motel must be cheaper than hiring a professional booth babe. Based on this image from last year, one key factor appears to be the willingness to flash your cleavage for the online “voters” who will be helping with this decision.

So, to answer my correspondent’s question, perhaps the reason we don’t run more of your PR is because, well, it’s icky.

UPDATE: Okay given the brouhaha in the comments we went to check out Zenescope’s web page and found so much really great art and photos that we had to share!

What can we say…onwards and upwards with the arts!

WHOA. Marvel has just announced that they will accept trade-ins of retailers’ unsold copies of Blackest Night tie-ins for copies of a Siege variant edition.

You read that right. Marvel will give you a copy of their event comics for the covers of unsold copies of DC’s event comics.

The DC comics involved were all part of DC’s Lantern ring promotion — retailers had to order Blackest Night tie-in books at high levels in order to get collectible Lantern rings. Some folks thought the levels were too high.

Our email and AIM are already lighting up with “WTF??!!??”

PR below:

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Diamond and Wizard have renewed their age old pact with Diamond’s commitment to giving retailers drinks and snacks at June’s Philadelphia Comic Con, this press release tells us. Diamond will sponsor a hospitality suite at the show. Read on with an UPDATED press release.

Diamond Comic Distributors and Wizard Entertainment announced today a renewal of its strategic partnership, with several new initiatives planned for 2010. The first event for both companies will be tied to Wizard’s Philadelphia Comic Con, with Diamond hosting a trade only event for retailers.  

At Wizard’s Philadelphia Comic Con, Diamond will host a hospitality suite where retailers can meet one-on-one with Diamond customer service and sales representatives, as well as schedule exclusive demos on Diamond’s point-of-sale program, ComicSuite.

“Wizard remains an important vendor for Diamond and its comic book retail accounts,” said Diamond’s VP-Purchasing, Bill Schanes. “We look forward to working together more closely in the coming year, with special events and publishing projects that will help retailers sell more products.”

 

“I am proud of my 20 year friendship with Diamond - Steve Geppi, Bill Schanes, Roger Fletcher, and the rest of the Diamond crew,” said Wizard CEO, Gareb Shamus. “By using the combination of Wizard, ToyFare, FunFare and or our ever expanding comic con tour, we are now able to host Diamond retailers.”

 

In 2009, Wizard was a top ten publisher to the comic book specialty market, according to Diamond’s year-end market share, and continues to provide successful publications and products for the comics industry. Additional projects are slated between the two companies, with details to be announced at a later date.

 

Wizard’s Philadelphia Comic Con is scheduled for June 11-13, 2010 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Retailers will join with tens of thousands of fans to converge at Philadelphia Comic Con 2010 to celebrate what’s great in pop culture: Movies, Comics, Toys, Video Gaming, Games, TV, Anime, Manga, Horror, Wrestling, MMA, Original Art, Collectibles, and more!

Diamond will be holding its next retailer summit in the Midwest, as it’s announced a team-up with Reed’s C2E2, to be held this April in Chicago. Most recent summits have been held in conjunction with the Baltimore Comic-Con, and in Las Vegas.  PR below:

After successful events in Baltimore, MD; Ft. Wayne, IN; Las Vegas, NV and elsewhere, Diamond “takes the show on the road” to the Windy City when a new version of the Diamond Retailer Summit berths at one of the industry’s most anticipated events: C²E², a.k.a. the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo.

It’s Black Friday, people. Remember to be kind to the harried and overstressed retail employees.

VIa PR, longtime comics vendor Joseph Koch announces a big comics swap meet out in Sunset Park. Given the number of folks we hear complaining (ourselves included) about how to, er, dispose of comics books that they literally cannot give away, this could be a lively event:

Where: 206-208 41st St., Brooklyn, NY 11232 (Corner of 2nd Avenue)
When: Saturday December 12th and Sunday December 13, 11am to 5pm.

Joseph Koch & Neat Stuff Collectibles present the largest single vendor buying and selling event in comics history! We have 1,000,000 comics to sell, and are looking to buy MILLIONS more! NOT ONLY COMICS, we’re looking to buy and sell all kinds of collectibles and memorabilia, including:

Comic Books, Sports Cards and collectibles, Non-Sports Cards, World’s Fair items, James Bond, Original Comic Art, Music Memorabilia, Puzzles, Lunchboxes, Toys, and Games. You name it, We want it! BUYING, Selling, and Trading EVERYTHING! Paying Top Dollar! $$$$

Has your comic store given up on selling back issues? They only carry a few issues here or there? Don’t fret. Back issues do have a home in NYC - in Brooklyn! 3/4 million sorted books, 200,000+ for $1 each. Is your comic store not interested in buying your collection, because they don’t sell back issues? Bring ‘em to Brooklyn!

The hot and hip outer borough, Brooklyn is the primordial home of Pop Culture: In 1999, Victoria (Posh Spice) and soccer star David Beckham named their first child “Brooklyn”. Over 50 years earlier, Jack (King) Kirby, co-creator of Captain America, the Fantastic Four, the X Men, and the entire medium-revolutionizing Marvel Comics Universe - knighted the American member of the Nazi-fighting Boy Commandos “Brooklyn”. Bring us your Neat Stuff to sell and star in your own “Brooklyn Antiques Roadshow”!

Go to www.nycomicwarehouse.com for more information and updates.
Sponsored in part by Forbidden Planet New York.

If there is one thing the comics industry of late is lacking, it’s demographic info we can all sink our teeth into and shake around like a chew toy. Valerie D’Orazio hinted about a study a few years ago (maybe buried somewhere in Marvel’s SEC filings?); Johanna alludes to a 1995 DC reader survey; Diamond also conducted a recent reader’s survey. But the results of costly surveys in recent years are not really available to the general public because a) they are costly and b) that is proprietary info right there. However, we just received an email from one Megan Milliken, and she is running an online survey, which is opt-in and thus less reliable, but, what the heck. Megan explains:

I am a University of Chicago graduate student conducting research on comic book readership. I’m interested in demographic trends of comic book readers as well as the medium’s effect on readers’ consumption of other cultural goods and participation in civic activities.  I’m motivated to do this research first and foremost because I am an avid comic book fan who has derived a great deal of pleasure and inspiration from both the content itself and the community. I’m interested in how comic books have impacted readers and hope to see what it is about a comic book that keeps a reader coming back month after month.  That said I have two surveys (the first is for under 18 respondents, and the other is for respondents that are 18 and over) that I have assembled. It is intended for comic book readers as well as non-comic book readers as I would like to compare responses between these two groups (so please pass it along to the norms as well).

We took the survey ourselves and it doesn’t take long, so help Megan out and maybe we’ll find a thing or two about why we are reading these darned things anyway. So pitch in and pass it along:

18 and Over Under 18

Remember how for years and years everyone said “If we could only advertise comic books on TV, everything would be solved!” Well, as announced on Vertigo’s Graphic Content blog, Vertigo is doing just that with a TV spot for their initial Crime Line releases that is currently running on BBC America. You can view the spot here.

What with advertising on cable TV being, in some places, very, very affordable, this is indeed a bold move into mainstream marketing for books with a mainstream appeal.

We don’t have it in front of us, but Vertigo is also participating in some sponsorship opportunities with some New Yorker magazine events (the imprint ran some print ads a few weeks back.) so they are clearly trying to get the word out about the Crime Line in as many places where regular crime/mystery readers would be found as possible. (You could say that the ID Channel, home of crime, mystery and forensic programming, would also be a good channel for the message, but given crime line author Ian Rankin’s big following in the UK, BBC America makes sense as well.)

Earlier this week it was announced that BOOM! Studios had signed a deal with Haven Distributors to distribute BOOM!’s second printing comics. BOOM! is the LA-based publisher of both original and licensed comics, and they have recently had several critical and sales success, including books based on Pixar, Disney, Fox, and literary sources, such as the much-praised Roger Langridge Muppet comic.

BOOM! has also been making many distribution deals in rent months — with Kable Distribution for newsstand distribution and Simon and Schuster for books.

Haven Distributors is one of the few alternative distributors for periodical comics, mostly working with smaller companies such as Ape, Markosia and Zenescope who aren’t exclusive with Diamond.

Although Diamond’s tighter policies this year have had a lot of publishers and retailers looking at alternative distribution, this deal for second printings still left a lot of people scratching their heads. We hadn’t heard of anything quite like it before. So we asked BOOM! publisher Ross Richie to explain, and he did. His answers are a little inside baseball, but hopefully shine the light on the many, many factors involved in publishing comics and graphic novels these days.

Q: You’ve recently been expanding your distribution partners on all channels, with a bunch of new deals. How does this one fit in?

Ross Richie: Working with Haven to distribute our 2nd prints is simply a supplemental direct market deal designed to help direct market retailers get more product quicker to the fans that want to buy it. 

Diamond is a great partner, but we saw potential in Haven to be able to grow our existing Direct Market business.  What’s really great here especially, is that for retailers who want to go with Haven we can offer a better discount on our 2nd prints.  We have asked Diamond twice to put us in a better discount category and they have decided it is not something they want to do.  Diamond’s in business to make money and needs to make decisions that make sense for what their best interests are.  We’re in business to make money and need to make decisions on our end that make sense for our own interests.  Sometimes those things line up, sometimes they don’t.  In this instance, Diamond decided giving us a better discount to retailers didn’t make sense.  So for retailers who would like an alternative, at least on the 2nd prints, we’ve got one.  Haven thinks it can sell more BOOM! product with a better discount.

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Hopefully we won’t be posting too much any more about the whole FTC guidelines for bloggers things, but here’s a story from Business Week that explains the amount of money changing hands at times, and turns out it’s a lot more than a measly $4 comic book:

More than 75,000 people follow Jason “Shoe Money” Schoemaker on Twitter for his candid takes on news and strategies in search engine marketing, his expertise. Recently, they got something else: a 140-character promotion for the new NBC (GE) comedy series Community. The TV network paid Schoemaker a total of $2,000 for two Twitter posts, both of which included a brief disclaimer that the message was an ad.

First off, if anyone out there wants to pay us $2000 to tweet about something, we’re all ears! But that said, there’s no way we wouldn’t make it clear that it was a paid ad ’cause that would just be icky

Paying bloggers and tweeters to blog and tweet about products is an increasingly common way for marketers to reach their audiences — hadn’t you heard, social networking is all the rage?

Indeed, the traditional way for companies to market their products — obvious paid adverts — is crumbling away just like the dude at the end of 30 DAYS OF NIGHT. Take magazine ads:

Total magazine rate-card-reported advertising revenue for the first half of 2009 closed at $9,095,979,740, posting a -21.2% decline against the previous year, according to Publishers Information Bureau (PIB).  Ad pages during the first half totaled 79,245.30, at -27.9% compared to January through June, 2008.  Total PIB revenue for the second quarter of 2009 closed at $4,905,073,446, posting a 22% decline against the same period in 2008, according to Publishers Information Bureau (PIB).  Ad pages during the second quarter totaled 41,854.95, at -29.5% compared to April through June, 2008. 

Ouch, ouch, and OUCH.

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§ Morning must-read: Over the weekend, Maltdown Comics in LA had a huge manga sale — 2000 titles on sale at $1 each — and Deb Aoki asks owner Gaston Dominguez-Letelier about the state of manga in his shop. The overage is the result of unwise buying early on, he says; manga still sells, but it’s purchased more sensibly:

Gaston Dominguez-Letelier: That time (when we order any and all manga) has passed for us. We are left with 2,000 over-stocked books and we learned a lesson. We’ve since curbed our appetite for taking risks on unproven titles and are just stocking the greatest hits now.

Nowadays for us, it’s all about getting books that appeal to the more sophisticated readers out there and figuring out how best to cater to them.

§ Did you know that when you buy a copy of the new xkcd collection, you help build a library in Laos? That is a good deed. (Via Scott McCloud)

& And speaking of Scott McCloud, Shaenon K. Garrity writes of a recent encounter with him:

Every time I see McCloud, he’s got a new theory. I suspect this would be the case if I saw McCloud every twenty minutes. He just dropped by the Cartoon Art Museum to peruse the Monsters of Webcomics show, and at one point he leaned over and asked me, “Are you familiar with something called the ‘silent issue’ of the G.I. Joe comic?”

Did he mean “Silent Interlude,” issue #21, starring Snake-Eyes? I was familiar. Oh yes.

“I’ve come to realize,” he said, “that comic was a kind of watershed moment for cartoonists of your generation. Everyone remembers it. All these things came out of it. It was like 9/11.”

The payoff to this column is terrific. And worth pondering.

§ Comics professional goes to comics shop; finds little to buy.

§ The venerable comic strip Hi and Lois recently referenced webcomics and the monetization thereof via merchandising in a vaguely humorous fashion, leading to cries from many corners that the strip was attempting to be hip and cutting edge.

§ When being a pack-rat pays off: More of Scott Edelman’s stupendously fascinating collection of memos.

§ John Hodgman spotted the reclusive Brian K. Vaughan at the Emmys!

§ When we read something like this piece by Vaneta Rogers we totally feel like a freak

The anthropologist, who is a long-time comic book fan but recently got involved in “Harry Potter” and “Twilight” fandom, made the comparison of a boy who studies the back of a football player’s rookie card while his sister couldn’t care less about those statistics, instead focusing on how seeing a touchdown made her feel. She said the same can be said about how most men and women communicate about properties like Pokemon or the X-Men.

because growing up, we TOTALLY read the stats on the backs of baseball cards, and studied ERAs and batting averages and so on.

Actually that whole piece is a little annoying because it supposes that women fans are something new. Woman have ALWAYS been big, big fans of all sorts of things, with clubs and membership cards and everything. It just seems that women’s interests and “fan” interests are increasingly overlapping. And why should that ever be a bad thing?

§ Sorta related, Laura Hudson discovers that Marvel Divas isn’t as girl unfriendly as it seemed.

§ Two reports on this weekend’s BangPop show in Bangor, ME. This one focuses on a guy who dressed as a Transformer.

“I’ll take you all on,” Ray Maddocks, 39, of Morrill said as he struggled Saturday in the bulky homemade costume to make his way into the second annual BangPop Comic Book and Pop Culture Convention.

Maddocks and his friend Elmer Nickerson, 38, of Searsport dug out the costumes they made seven or eight years ago for Halloween to show off at the event, which is designed to bring a slice of big-time comic culture displayed at events such as the Comic-Con International in San Diego to the Queen City.

This one provides a nice overview. One story says that 300 people attended on Saturday, which sounds quite petite, but there’s a lot of enthusiasm captured in both pieces.

§ Speaking of enthusiasm, two brothers find happiness opening a comics shop in Joplin, MO:

“It’s a little bit nerve-racking, but it’s the greatest thing we could ever do,” Nathan said. “We’re working harder than we ever have before, and there’s a lot more overhead now. But we’re having more fun than we ever had.”

Retailer Chris Butcher has this Tuesday’s must-read post on how Diamond’s new 2009 policies have left the DM less flexible and less relevant…

…things seem “stable” but really, that’s just a convenient lie that we’ve all bought into. Things aren’t stable, behind the scenes (and sometimes spilling onto message boards and websites) people are very worried. Fans, Retailers, Publishers. Distributors. But the thing that to me is the most disconcerting and heralds the biggest change? Diamond Comics Distributors drastically raising their order minimums. They did this a few months back. This action has shaken a lot of publishers out of the industry, and it’s meant some pretty bad things for a lot of people. But really, and realistically, The Previews catalogue is not any better or of higher quality than it was a year ago. I am reminded of this the last Tuesday of every month, when I race through that thing at break-neck speed, It’s just as tough a slog with most of the same bright spots as before. Hell, 100 pages each of Marvel and DC is more than enough to depress you on its own. But what the increased order minimums have really done is make my job as a retailer much more difficult. Why? Because of the things have been taken out of the catalogue that I have to go hunting for.

Butcher uses the example of a Yen Press manga that isn’t listed in Diamond as the gateway to his discovery that Yen Press’s complete output is not carried by Diamond any more. This, in turn, leads Butcher to use an alternative distributor source through which he can order the entire Yen output.

I can do my job as a Direct Market Comic Book Specialty Store by going outside of the Distributor of the Direct Market of Comic Book Stores. You gotta admit, that’s pretty fucked-up.

We’d quibble with that a little– doing business with multiple distributors is something most retail outlets have to deal with, so for those retailers willing to put on their big boy pants, it’s perfectly fine. But as a symbol of the impending revolution of multiple distribution channels, some not even print based, the rest of Butcher’s essay presents a nice summation of these unsettled times.

One thing we learned is that there WILL be a WINTER MEN collection!. As Chris Butcher writes:

5:17pm: Hey look, it’s THE WINTER MEN TP (page 107, $19.99, 176pages). The beloved, beautifully drawn mini-series by Lewis and John Paul Leon. We did okay with this mini–it never set any sales records or anything–but really it’s the kind of thing we’re going to do well with in trade paperback, and hopfully for years to come. Let’s order it like a VERTIGO trade and see what happens.

Joyous news!

We also learned something that has been going on for a while under our very noses, something that would have changed the way we look at the world, something we CAN’T BELIEVE NO ONE TOLD US ABOUT. It seems that there are several publishers who run a kind of variant cover called the Virgin Retailer Incentive Cover. See?

To which we can only ask: who are these virgin retailers and why do they need so much incentive? Are they like the Jonas Brothers?

The Daily News talks to Tyrese Gibson, whose MAYHEM comic goes on sale today:

Gibson has been trolling the Internet, reading the harshest criticism and vowing to convince naysayers that he isn’t some celebrity dilettante dabbling in a get-rich-quick scheme.

He gets so worked up during his interview with The News that he refers to his hero, a tortured soul looking to torture the drug- dealing mob boss that wronged him, in the first person several times.

He’s not just trying to woo existing comic fans, either. Gibson says he is serious about getting the word out to fans of his movies that have never set foot in a comic store that there’s a larger world of pop culture that they’ve been missing.

The big event is at LA’s Meltdown, where Gibson will perform a signing and a concert tonight for wristband holders. Let us know how it went!

Frank Santoro has posted an important essay on the end of the direct market as a conduit between comics for art and comics for commerce :

The bridge is over. From 1975 to 2005, the Direct Market was the bridge from the old world “Comics-as-ephemera”, returnable periodicals model to the new world “Comics-as-Literature” bookstore model. The bridge changed comics, saved it from sure death on the newsstand and put comics in a place of permanence. Everyone in Comics has noted the consolidation of the DM and the rise of the chain bookstores & the internet as venues for new work. Now, this year, more than ever, I seem to be repeatedly noting to myself the real split between the mainstream and the alternative sides of comics.

The comment section is an all-star think tank and other comments are springing up. We were so busy finishing up our debut novel “Comic-Con report” that we haven’t had time to fully digest it, but we’ll join in as soon as we’ve had our tea.

Posted by Evie

Mile High Comics’ Chuck Rozanski appears to be the first out of the gate with the annual “where are the comics at Comic Con?” lament, and Val D’Orazio has a further discussion. My personal flash-assessment, having not been there this year but having gone in the past and following the news from the perspective of journalists, publishers and creators, is that the shape of this problem depends a lot on where your stake is. For smaller retailers who are losing money, it is perhaps epic. For others who are making the books, the convention is still very much about the comics. The idea that the TV/movie/video game/toy/big money contingent is taking over is, well, that discussion is very much in progress, as we know. One thing is for sure: Chuck Rozanski is not so fussed on Twitter.

It’s also interesting when reading a few of Wired’s Geek Dad’s “Top 10 Reasons I’m Not Sorry to be Missing Comic Con”*:

8. Why should I pay to fly across the country to see people like Bruce Campbell, Nathan Fillion, Neil Patrick Harris, and Eliza Dushku, when I can see them on TV and DVD for free?

7. I haven’t been into comic books since high school, and that’s all the convention’s really about, right? I mean, why else would they call it “Comic-Con?”

Now, I’m going to give Geek Dad Matt Blum credit for intending this subtle paradox, but let’s pretend for a second that he didn’t (and maybe he didn’t). Would it be so terrible if the two biggest reasons to go to Comic Con were that you a) loved comics AND b) wanted to get your picture taken with Nathan Fillion? The argument against the corporate media takeover of comic con always seems to imply that too many of the people who fill up the convention hall are there for the glitter and not for the paper. But almost everyone I personally know in the comics community get equally weak-kneed over both Asterios Polyp and Josh Holloway (or ok Megan Fox), and I would wager it’s these things together, rather than one or the other, that make your average attendee pony up.
*Thanks to Torsten for the link.

Via PR, the nominees for the annual retailing award have been announced:

SAN DIEGO, Comic-Con International (Comic-Con), the largest comic book and popular arts event in the United States, has announced its list of nominees for the prestigious Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award (The Eisner Spirit Award). This year organizers are happy to note that Baby Tattoo, publishers of books for kids and adults, is the official sponsor of the Award.

Since 1993, The Eisner Spirit Award has been presented to an individual retailer who has performed an outstanding job of supporting the comics art medium both in the community and within the industry at large. Any retailer established in business for at least two years is eligible for nomination, and retailers, professionals, or fans may place a name in nomination. A panel of industry judges select a group of finalists to be subjected to an in-depth examination based on award criteria. These criteria include:

Support of a wide variety of innovative material: Providing opportunities for creators’ material to reach buyers; stocking a diverse inventory.

Knowledge: Working to stay informed on retailing as well as on the comics field.

Community activity: Promoting comics to the community; maintaining relationships with schools and libraries; keeping active in social, business, and arts community organizations.

Quality of store image: Innovative display approaches; using store design creatively.

Adherence to standard ethical business practices.

This years nominees are:
Acme Comics, Greensboro, NC;
Big B Comics, Ontario, Canada;
Comic Book Ink, Tacoma, WA;
Comic Oasis, Las Vegas, NV;
Comics & Vegetables, Tel Aviv, Israel;
Comicopia, Boston, MA;
Cosmic Monkey Comics, Portland, OR;
Dragon’s Lair Comics & Fantasy, Austin, TX;
Drawn To Comics, Glendale, AZ;
Happy Harbor Comics, Edmonton, AB, Canada;
Krypton Comics, Omaha, NE;
Legends Comics, Victoria, BC Canada;
OK Comics, Leeds England;
Phantom of the Attic, Pittsburgh, PA;
Tate’s Comics, Fort Lauderdale, FL;
The Comic Vault, Chicago, IL;  
Up, Up & Away, Cincinnati, OH.

Past winners are not eligible for nomination.

The Eisner Spirit Awards are part of, and underwritten by, Comic-Con International: San Diego, a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to creating awareness of and appreciation for comics and related popular art forms, primarily through the presentation of conventions and events that celebrate the historic and ongoing contributions of comics to art and culture.

Remember near the end of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND when the ET research team tentatively plays the five note theme that has been haunting the UFO-chasers…and waits, and waits and then the mother ship ANSWERS BACK? Well that’s kind of what happened at The Beat yesterday!

When we wrote about the marketing clout actor/musician Tyrese Gibson was bringing to sell his new Image Comic, MAYHEM, we kinda suspected we’d get caught up in it, and indeed, Tyrese Tweeted about the post twice and urged his followers to comment:
Very Important! Post comments! Somebody GO!!
and

Your making NON believers Believe! I Love YOU http://bit.ly/SSFjk

and his followers OBEYED with over a hundred messages in a few hours, from different IPs. (We removed some duplicates and obvious trolls.) We think this does have to be noted as a successful campaign — many of the posters mentioned being new to the comics world — who knows if MAYHEM will keep them there, but it seems to be a genuine outreach to a new audience. In the comments, Brian Hibbs wrote:

I ordered 3 copies of MAYHEM #1. Without the sense that Gibson was behind it, based on the cover and the solicitation blurb alone my “natural” order would have been zero copies.

so in that sense it’s already a success.

We’re told that one of Tyrese’s comics advisors is Percy Carey, aka MF Grimm, whose graphic novel SENTENCES came out from Vertigo last year. Carey has already written some sharp things about the comics industry, so we’ll be watching to see how all this plays out.

In the meantime, just to be clear, we think Tyrese and his Twitter street team are swell, and it’s fun to play along. So, pax everyone.