Bundled, Tossed, Untied And Stacked: Publishing News

By Tom Spurgeon

* there's a significant news story developing this morning in the superhero portion of the comics publishing world: writer Brian Michael Bendis is apparently moving from Marvel to DC. Bendis is a mega-prominent mainstream and genre-indie writer with a proven track record, is able to handle just about any title with a degree of authority (what titles he'll do will each become a news story), and was a key player in terms of the creative resurgence at Marvel that coincided with their initial film success. For Marvel, you can't say there was a lot for the writer left to do there, just in terms of coverage. If you subscribe to the theory -- not everyone does -- that the House Of Ideas a bit creatively thin right now just in terms of bodies on books, well, things just got thinner. Bendis is a creator to whom I always pay attention and he himself is one of the great stories of modern comics. I look forward to reading what he does in his new setting.

* one note as to the significance of that previous story: I have two e-mails in my inbox already speculating that Bendis may be moving in advance of a Marvel publishing line shutdown/revamp, which has been a thread in a lot of discussions of mainstream comics this year. That's when you know you're a core creator, when your change of check-signers is a sign of the apocalypse.

* Lawrence Block's work is coming to the graphic novel format via adaptation and IDW. I like adaptation projects, although on balance I prefer it when cartoonists do wholly original work. I tend to prefer the result of the latter, too, but not always.

* finally: I didn't do a whole lot of talking at last weekend's Short Run festival about future comics plans, but I did stumble across a few gems. Megan Kelso said she's back at work on a major project she's been putting off for a while now. Jim Blanchard put Trucker Fags In Denial back in print on his own and says there will be a posthumous book of Denny Eichhorn collaborations in that late-career run the writer put out, mostly stuff that was in the works when Eichhorn died. Ellen Forney's next book is nearly completed and will have a quick turnaround of May 2018. Emil Ferris swore while onstage that work continues on the second My Favorite Thing Is Monsters volume.
 
posted 3:25 pm PST | Permalink
 

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