Random Comics News Story Round-Up

* this story about someone reported they had $80,000 in comics stolen that they just had sitting in a basement somewhere sounds more like an Encyclopedia Brown set-up than a compelling true-life crime tale.

* the writer Tim O'Neil has written a few posts about 1990s comic book sales and his blog The Hurting that are worth reading if you're interested in the subject of comics sales generally or mainstream comic book publishing history specifically. I like this one best, because it talks about the comics' content and notes that comics were a place for kids to access transgressive art during the last surge of the Reagan/Bush guarded culture. I would suggest that most kids were probably watching copies of Scarface over and over and over again, but it seems likely that quite a few young people also saw comic books as an opportunity to experience that kind of thing.

* "antiseptic, constipated, dry and bland"

* not comics: Sean Collins is right that this is a fine ad, and that it encompasses the best idea in the movie as it relates to the Batman enterprise: the asserted secret-secret-secret origin for the Joker that he's just some random dude standing on a street corner.

* because I'm well-known for my passion for event comics...?

* not comics: I'm surprised this list of comics TV shows that never got made didn't include the Sub-Mariner series bandied about a half-century or so ago. It didn't get very far, but surely if the Internet were around back then it would have received as much attention as the horrible Graysons idea.

* I want to hear more about the "DC Morale Team" mentioned here, particularly if they all wear the same uniform and fly around in a spaceship, hectoring Superman.

* prominent comics blogger Michael Cavna looks into the question as to how much a newspaper's political cartoonist is worth. I agree with his answer, although this applies to stars in both categories.

* finally, this two-parter is a decent interview if you want that company's perspective on general publishing realities and strategies, given full voice by Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Dan DiDio. Although there are several points within the discussion presented on which one might challenge DiDio a bit, and certainly a ton of topics not broached where you might, it's sometimes extremely useful to hear the full blast of how a company want to present itself. One thing I think is clear is that DC's general strategy of focusing on its main characters for a while sounds like a replication of Marvel's recent success in placing things like Thor and Hulk into its top 10 as opposed to having their line led the way it was years ago by a couple of strong brands and bunch of supporting ones.
 
posted 6:30 am PST | Permalink
 

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