Random Comics News Story Round-Up

* poster artist and cartoonist Vittorio Fiorucci, 1932-2008.

* this note at DailyCartoonist.com about a theory that newspapers no longer provide social currency cracks me up not because I believe it's true -- I have some problems with its assumptions -- but because I'm hoping it kicks off a trend of ridding paper of all its traditional roles. I want an article about how people no longer use newspapers to start fires in their home fireplace and an article on how people refuse to gut and clean a fish on a newspaper. Gang up on newspapers!

* not comics: the comics business and news analysis site ICv2.com has a nice, short and I think not totally a piece of marketing disguised as news piece up about Titan's Watchmen-related books being released in anticipation of the movie. Although they're not comics as such, they're likely to be attractive to a lot of retailers that primarily carry comics because of the original comic's sterling sales pedigree in those stores, and the fact that there aren't sequels or an ongoing series to push along with the trade if you do business that way. Also, since the first Titan book is going to be released in October with the rest coming in January, perhaps retailers and buyers in all facets of the printed materials world will get a chance to gauge demand.

* the San Francisco Chronicle talks to Axel Alonso about the X-Men moving to San Francisco. I'm old enough to remember that Daredevil once "lived" there, so I'm crossing my fingers this means a re-boot for Angar the Screamer.

* finally, it's always a little confusing to me why people get worked up in any way about the fact that Sammy Harkham's next book will cost $125. The way I see it, Kramers Ergot Vol. 7 is just an expensive book. If you don't want it, don't buy it. They're not gouging people; they're taking a risk that there will be an audience for the book and paying a huge printing bill and taking on the additional expense of hand-selling some of the copies and storing it. No one gets rich making a lavishly produced art comic. No one pays a big printing bill to make some obtuse point about the value of art comics.

Me, I'm getting one. I don't even think it's that expensive. After the Amazon.com discount, the over-sized KE will cost about as much as 26 issues of the Trinity mini-series, or two and a half Hellboy t-shirts, or half a Disney figurine, or the run of Wolverine: Origins to date. I would rather have KE Vol. 7 than any of those things, even twice the number of those things. If you look at the over-sized anthology as an art book instead of a comic book, a ton of material in that realm is in that same general price range, if not going for a lot more. Times are tough, I agree, and likely getting tougher, and maybe there will come a time when no one can even think of buying a book like this one. Maybe that time will be November of this year. This may make KE7 an even bigger risk than usual for Buenaventura Press, but I figure it's their risk. My only risk is spending that much money and coming away disappointed, and that's a risk I'm willing to take.
 
posted 7:30 am PST | Permalink
 

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