Random Comics News Story Round-Up

* Jeff Smith is going back to print on RASL #1 and argues that the Direct Market is moving more copies of Scholastic's Bone series than they're given credit for moving in a generally snappy write-up on mid-March's ComicsPRO meeting in Las Vegas. I like that Smith is so open and honest now about his sales figures -- he's never been shy about releasing that kind of information, but he seems to making more of a point to be explicit about figures these days. Given the manipulative paranoia that dictates how some big companies approach the public dissemination of those numbers, it's triply refreshing.

* speaking of refreshing candor, Carl Horn talks openly about disappointing sales figures for some of Dark Horse's critically acclaimed manga.

* great news for fans of obscure, comics-related art: Eric Reynolds is going to move his running art show off of the walls of his home and into his sketchbook.

* Jim Kingman wants to know what your favorite ongoing serial is.

* not comics, but industry watchers should make a note of this story about Oakley suing Marvel. My contention is that Marvel's post-bankruptcy success in managing successful and prominent licensing partnerships has been as big a key to their success as the movies and the general perceived vitality of the publishing line -- so anything that show them potentially fumbling the ball in that arena should be remembered.

* I happened to be in a Barnes and Noble in Albuquerque yesterday, and a few things stood about their comics section: 1) DC had a full shelf to themselves with books facing out; 2) there was a lot less manga than the in the Borders up the road; 3) strip collection like Fantagraphics' Popeye were with the other strip books in Humor rather than in the graphic novels section; 4) some books that aren't manga were shelved with manga if they were roughly that size -- like First Second's Three Shadows.

* extended comics discussion update #1: the comics and culture site Metabunker has some damning comparative scans featuring that huge Barks collection that's due to be published here.

* extended comics discussion update #2: the great Eddie Campbell continues to talk about what he feels is people unfairly maligning Vince Colletta.

* extended comics discussion update #3: an essay on the value of having work on-line with positions staked out by R Stevens and Ted Rall.

* extended comics discussions update #4: more on the value of comic book shops, the good and the bad ones, in a long and heartfelt essay by Charles Hatfield and a short, funny post about an awful comic shop by Charles Yoakum.

* the New York Times kicks in with a fine obituary on Dave Stevens. From the same august publication: love for the great Al Jaffee.

* the fact that DC Comics executive Paul Levitz is going to blog at Blog@Newsarama is kind of astonishing news in a sense until you remember 1) Levitz's fanzine-making roots, a historical comics movement from which comics industry trade news including sites like Newsarama and its blogging arm sprang, and 2) Levitz has occasionally written astonishingly long letters to comics-related publications on various issues. One of the more interesting things will be to see how his DC-centric view of the comics universe will sit with readers -- if this repeated kidney-punching over one of Levitz's claims is any indication, sometimes not very well.
 
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