Random Comics News Story Round-Up

* you rarely hear a Dark Horse official's view on the market, so I found this interview with the company's marketing guru Dirk Wood to be sort of fascinating.

* famed editor Harold Ross's one-liner is funny than any of the color-using comics that follow in this New Yorker experiment.

* the great city of Los Angeles has a lot of good comic shops, including a half-dozen in which I've personally enjoyed shopping and about four I'd recommend to anyone: you can vote for your favorite in this sure-to-be-competitive poll.

* this article suggests that artists are self-censoring themselves in terms of commentary on radical Islam, due in part to the violence and political outrage that broke out in the Danish Cartoons Controversy of early 2006 but also due to other events like the murder of filmmaker Theo Van Gogh. It's kind of a muddy piece, but the central idea is worth consideration.

* last night I temporarily fell into a strange, pocket universe where a joke on a network television show can be made using the terms "Watchmen Babies." Kiel Phegley suffered the same fate and did a short interview with Alan Moore about it and his new League of Extraordinary Gentlemen book.

* speaking of people I saw on TV in that place, there's no reason you shouldn't be reading weekly installments of Dan Clowes' Mr. Wonderful.

* Alan David Doane talks some more about why he chose Highwaymen as one of the worst comics of 2007, I suppose responding to this post by writer Marc Bernardin. I'm afraid to go closer to look for sure.

* various artists suggest comics-related holiday gifts at TCJ.com.

* vocal retailer Brian Hibbs muses on Marvel's new on-line comics initiative, and suggests caution all around. His best point is that the DM market is fragile enough in the manner that when things are abused for years they tend to draw tight so that a small drop in retailer sales percentage-wise could trigger a catastrophic event. One of the more generous elements of rhetoric floated in some e-mails I've read is that the DM might be treated in healthier fashion if the onus for bottom-line sales fell to another market -- that suddenly there would be interest in treating comics as comics. I think this is insane, but it's still sort of interesting. The weakest part of Hibbs is when he suggests that the serial nature of comic books would dissuade people from buying individual issues on-line, as I think you'd see definite spikes for event moments and first issues. Hell, even I would have bought Captain America's death to get a look at the thing were I able to download it for $.99 or whatever.

* is it crazy to suggest that comics retailers might want to come up with a system where they could host individual comics downloads on their sites? I know why that would be a tough sell, but I'm not sure it's so conclusively not going to happen that someone shouldn't try. I wouldn't care if I went to ChicagoComics.com or Marvel.com to buy a few downloads to read on a Friday evening stuck at home.
 
posted 8:06 pm PST | Permalink
 

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