Random Comics News Story Round-Up

* Marvel is apparently thinking of offering $5 off in a funnybook store to readers that spend 99 cents on some digital stuff. As has been the case with most of these efforts lately, I'm partly glad that people are trying new models, and partly impatient for the major players to settle into a general set of strategies so that we can continue to move forward.

* Deb Aoki chimes in with her picks for the best manga of 2011.

* The Death Ray and Hark! A Vagrant both made Time's top ten fiction list.

* I didn't track that Dark Horse clarification of digital pricing strategy story very well. I guess what happened is that retailers complained -- one, or perhaps a few (depending on who's saying) openly -- about the idea of the Oregon-based publisher offering digital comics at less than the price of the print comics, and that this then led to the clarification, which wasn't as much a clarification as an attempt to do some damage control and to adjust the policy in the direction the brick and mortar retailers tend to demand. Brian Wood has a nice summary post here, including a bunch of thoughts of his own. I'm sort of distressed about the picture Brian paints of everyone bleeding, because it seems to me that at the end of the year the number guys are predicting sales roughly on par with last year. This makes me suspect that we may have finally made the shift from a system where if the sales go down the profits go down to a system that no matter what happens the profits must go up, even if the powers that be have to cut the shit out of someone else's piece of the pie to ensure the sanctity of their own. Why the hell are we so frequently talking about drastic reductions and sacrifices in a year where the sales look like they'll be roughly the same, merchandising and licensing revenues continue to surge and whole classes of comics are doing better than ever? The austerity on display doesn't match the reality of the situation.

* Todd Klein on Green Lantern: New Guardians #1-2, Swamp Thing #1-3 and Superman #1-2. Don MacPherson on the New 52 books. Erica Friedman on Kaname No Etoile. Sean Gaffney on The Wallflower Vol. 27. Greg McElhatton on Picket Line and Hidden. Johanna Draper Carlson on The Cartoon Guide To Calculus and Ooku: The Inner Chambes Vol. 6. J. Caleb Mozzocco on a bunch of comic book-style comics. Kelly Thompson on The Defenders #1.

* Dave Richards talks to Rick Remender.

* Alan Moore and David Lloyd will be working together on an Occupy-related effort. I'm thinking that comics' longstanding tradition of being late on cultural moments may hold here, but I don't have the best read on that situation.

* I am shocked and dismayed that in their attempt to hype the next big thing a comic book company may not offer a sober reading of their own publishing history.

* finally, here's one of many posts effusive in their praise for Kate Beaton's latest round of Wonder Woman comics.
 
posted 11:10 pm PST | Permalink
 

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