Random Comics News Story Round-Up

* here's something nice: Scott Stantis makes his Chicago Tribune debut on its front page.

* the cartoonist Richard Sala tells the story behind the story of his great-looking new comic, Cat Burglar Black.

* there will be none of this once the Disney management team settles in, that's for sure.

* not comics: I take back anything I might have said that indicated otherwise -- journalism as currently practiced is clearly doomed. Every reporting tool shouldn't require a college course.

* the writer Timothy Hodler wants to know the first person to use an all-black panel for the reasons that an all-black panel is generally used, and he's not satisfied with the initial answer he's been given.

* there are any number of titles that superhero comics publishers put out that make me ask this question.

* here's a nice article on webcomics cartoonists going to print and the various reasons they do so.

* the cartoonist Eddie Campbell continues his exploration of Eisner's middle years.

* finally, I was struck by the overly despondent tone in this mini-rant at ICv2.com by longtime retailer Ilan Strasser that links general Marvel and DC policy to a broad set of woes facing several comic retailers right now. I've long believed that DC and Marvel have goals that compete with the aim of long-term, steady growth in the market. I've more recently been flabbergasted by the timing of the move to $3.99 comics without a corresponding big-picture strategy beyond vague affirmations that the market can handle it, assertions that the last five years of success provided by crossovers and event comics will continue, allusions to the fact that a drop in movie and licensing revenues for a certain period of time between Iron Man movies made this inevitable and the occasional apologetic publishing strategy like adding some (mostly) superfluous back-material. That's such a valuable market to those publishers in terms of monetizing a devoted but ultimately modestly-sized group of fans and assuming the risk for doing so that I wonder after putting all that extra strain on it.
 
posted 7:30 am PST | Permalink
 

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