Archive for October, 2007
Over at The Beat, Marc-Oliver Frisch looks at the September sales figures for DC comics.
Man, is it a generally depressing read. Batman and Superman titles sell in the 40-50K range. Titles like Jonah Hex and Blue Beetle are dipping down into 15K. And outside of Fables and Y: The Last Man (which is ending), most Vertigo title are doing horribly. The big names like 100 Bullets and DMZ have fallen below 12K, while even big name creators like Mike Carey, Andy Diggle, and Rick Veitch can’t carry books as their respective books are in the 5-7K range. Now, I know most Vertigo books do better in longterm TPB sales than in monthlies, but this is still pretty bad.
Jeez, all I can say is I’m glad I’m not trying to put food on the table for my family working in this biz.
Sadly, All-Star Batman and Robin is still the best seeling Batman title, despite the ridiculous delays, terrible reviews, and a loss of nearly 2/3 of its readers since the first issue:
6 – ALL STAR BATMAN & ROBIN, THE BOY WONDER
07/2005: All Star Batman #1 — 261,046 [306,976]
09/2005: All Star Batman #2 — 178,592 [184,962]
12/2005: All Star Batman #3 — 162,993 [166,218]
05/2006: All Star Batman #4 — 160,401
————————————–
09/2006: –
10/2006: –
11/2006: –
12/2006: –
01/2007: –
02/2007: –
03/2007: –
04/2007: –
05/2007: All Star Batman #5 — 114,302 (-28.7%)
06/2007: –
07/2007: All Star Batman #6 — 105,991 (- 7.3%)
08/2007: –
09/2007: All Star Batman #7 — 100,582 (- 5.1%)
—————-
6 months: n.a.
1 year : n.a.
2 years : -38.3%
Carol Tyler
Sepia Tome: Telling Dad’s World War II Story
Thursday, November 8, 2007
4:00 pm
Free and open to the public
021L Wexner Center, 27 West 17th Avenue Mall
Adjacent to the Ohio State University Cartoon Research Library
Comic artist Carol Tyler will discuss her upcoming book Sepia Tome: Telling Dad’s World War II Story. Tyler’s comics first appeared in Weirdo and Wimmen’s Comix twenty years ago. Since then she has contributed to numerous comics anthologies and published two solo works, The Job Thing in 1993 and Late Bloomer in 2005. Late Bloomer presents a rich and powerful collection of Tyler’s autobiographical comic stories beautifully published in color by Fantagraphics.
In the introduction to Late Bloomer, Robert Crumb writes, “She is tops, in my book, one of the best artists alive and working in the comics medium. She has fine aesthetic instincts… Her drawings are always pleasing to look at, warm, delicate, inviting. Yet the content, the stories, are all about gritty reality, the hard struggles of common, everyday life.” For more information about Carol Tyler, see her website: www.bloomerland.com.
Tyler’s presentation is co-sponsored by the Cartoon Research Library, Project Narrative, Department of Women’s Studies and the Department of History’s Harvey Goldberg Program for Excellence in Teaching.
This event is part of Storytelling 2007: A Celebration of Graphic Narrative, a special year of events and exhibitions celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of master-storyteller Milton Caniff, the founding donor of the Cartoon Research Library. Caniff was the creator of the comic strips Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon.
Parking available at the Ohio Union Garage.
For more information, see http://cartoons.osu.edu.
Last week’s page was tough to guess. Let’s see if this one is a tad easier…
(click image to UHHRsize)
(previous weeks: 9/12/2005, 9/19/2005, 9/26/2005, 10/3/2005, 10/10/2005, 10/17/2005, 10/24/2005, 10/31/2005, 11/1/2005, 11/2/2005, 11/3/2005, 11/4/2005, 11/5/2005, 11/6/2005, 11/7/2005, 11/14/2005, 11/21/2005, 11/28/2005, 12/5/2005, 12/12/2005, 12/19/2005, 12/26/2005, 1/2/2006, 1/9/2006, 1/16/2006, 1/23/2006, 1/30/2006, 2/06/2006, 2/13/2006, 2/20/2006, 2/27/2006, 3/6/2006, 3/13/2006, 3/20/2006, 3/27/2006, 4/3/2006, 4/4/2006, 4/5/2006, 4/6/2006, 4/7/2006, 4/8/2006, 4/9/2006, 4/10/2006, 4/17/2006, 4/23/2006, 5/1/2006, 5/8/2006, 5/15/2006, 5/22/2006, 5/29/2006, 6/5/2006, 6/12/2006, 6/19/2006, 6/26/2006, 7/3/2006, 7/10/2006, 7/17/2006, 7/24/2006, 7/31/2006, 8/7/2006, 8/13/2006, 8/21/2006, 8/28/2006, 9/4/2006, 9/11/2006, 9/18/2006, 9/25/2006, 10/2/2006, 10/9/2006, 10/16/2006, 10/23/2006, 10/30/2006, 11/6/2006, 11/13/2006, 11/20/2006, 11/27/2006, 12/4/2006, 12/11/2006, 12/18/2006, 12/25/2006, 1/1/2007, 1/8/2007, 1/15/2007, 1/22/2007, 1/29/2007, 2/5/2007, 2/12/2007, 2/19/2007, 2/26/2007, 3/5/2007, 3/12/2007, 3/19/2007, 3/26/2007, 4/2/2007, 4/5/2007, 4/9/2007, 4/16/2007, 4/23/2007, 4/30/2007, 5/7/2007, 5/14/2007, 5/21/2007, 5/28/2007, 6/4/2007, 6/11/2007, 6/18/2007, 6/25/2007, 7/2/2007, 7/9/2007, 7/16/2007, 7/23/2007, 7/30/2007, 8/6/2007, 8/13/2007, 8/20/2007, 8/27/2007, 9/3/2007, 9/10/2007, 9/17/2007, 9/24/2007, 10/1/2007, 10/8/2007, 10/15/2007, 10/22/2007)
Daredevil Special #1
My disappointment at Gene Colan’s non-appearance at this year’s MidOhio Con is tempered somewhat by the fact that I did get to meet the man many moons ago, back when I was in high school. He turned up at some small show here in Columbus (this being back when MidOhio was held further north each year) and I got his signature on a Howard the Duck as well as this particular issue of Daredevil. I dusted the annual off recently for a review here on the blog, and all I can say is… I’m sure glad I got that Howard the Duck signed.
Colan’s art is wonderful, don’t get me wrong, but to me Daredevil has always been Marvel’s honorary DC series. Like Iron Man and Thor, he lacks a compelling backstory to support the basic concept of the character, and he has the added burden of the most absurd rogue’s gallery—a bunch of losers who would fit right in with the Rainbow Raider and Calander Man. I’ll confess that the Ann Nocenti/Romita Jr. run on the series is actually among my favorites ever (a head-bending road trip guest starring everyone from the Inhumans to the Silver Surfer), and Frank Miller made some of the Best Comics Ever during his stay on the series, but I’m bewildered that Daredevil was ever around for 150 issues for Frank to find a home.
Swinging through the city in his bright red garb and his wisecracking swashbuckler persona, Daredevil filled an obvious niche: his was the comic to buy when there wasn’t a new Spider-Man book on the spinner rack. The brooding vigilante of Frank Miller’s era is far removed from the happy-go-lucky swinger who quotes Jackie Gleason as he charges into battle:
And here’s how a busy crimefighter gets the energy to battle injustice: Nutriment capsules! Gee, Daredevil, I wonder how your girlfriend ended up being a junkie…
This annual assembles the best of the worst of DD’s arch-foes for a 39 page fight scene. The only villain in the group with any street cred, Electro, is borrowed from Spider-Man, and his costume design isn’t exactly one of Steve Ditko’s finer moments. The plot centers around Electro trying to get DD’s villains together all at once to defeat him; unfortunately, they’re all very lame so it’s a one-sided yet seemingly endless fight scene. Here’s the run down:
The Matador!
Dressed like the Village People’s version of Pete Best, his method of attack is to throw his red cape over someone’s head before attempting to beat the tar out of them. I don’t know what else to add about this guy, except for this panel which has some, as Dara puts it, “sweet super-villain dialogue.”
Leap Frog!
Scuba fins with giant springs attached to the bottom; surely the most embarassing super-villain outfit ever. The guy I grew up next door to who tried to rob the Groveport Pharmacy disguised with a scuba mask (while his sister was ringing up customers) had a more sinister M.O.
Okay, wait for it…
Stilt-Man!
The secret to his longevity is that he’s actually the most menacing member of DD’s rogues gallery, even if that is kind of like taking the gold at the special olympics. He’s the only villain in this issue who merits his own splash page, even if it betrays the basic flaw in his premise. His stilts move him farther away from the target, making DD harder to hit! If he had simply adopted the identity of “Gun-Man,” he might have made a name for himself.
Gladiator!
Okay, his deadly whirling blades actually do make him a threatening figure, but he chooses to hang out with this bunch, so he can’t be much more than an eighth grade shop teacher gone bad. His prison cell must have some nice bookshelves.
Maybe Stan was being smarter than I’m giving him credit for here; this was the perfect book to lure in DC Comics readers who were used to seeing Ace the Bat Hound and “Boxing Glove Arrows”, sort of a transitional comic to draw them into all the really good stuff he was writing. That’s the only way Daredevil makes sense.
File under “people with too much free time on their hands”…or “there’s a blog for everything under the sun, isn’t there?”
Nad Shots, a blog dedicated to shots to the groin, compiled from various comic books!
(via boingboing)
Some really nice work I stumbled across on over at Juxtapoz. Check out Dave Kinsey‘s site. The profile on Juxtapoz covers his show at BLK/MRKT Gallery in Culver City.
Warm up you’re tivo’s kids, the Charles Schultz documentary‘s on the 29th of this month (on American Masters). Maybe it’ll be better than the documentary on Alex Toth.
This week’s “ethnically confused” page comes your way courtesy of fellow Panelist Craig Bogart. As he puts it: “[The artist] nails Sulu and Uhura’s likenesses in closeups, but apparently the colorist wasn’t going by the same photo references [the artist] used…” Guess away!
(click image to REOOWWersize)
(previous weeks: 9/12/2005, 9/19/2005, 9/26/2005, 10/3/2005, 10/10/2005, 10/17/2005, 10/24/2005, 10/31/2005, 11/1/2005, 11/2/2005, 11/3/2005, 11/4/2005, 11/5/2005, 11/6/2005, 11/7/2005, 11/14/2005, 11/21/2005, 11/28/2005, 12/5/2005, 12/12/2005, 12/19/2005, 12/26/2005, 1/2/2006, 1/9/2006, 1/16/2006, 1/23/2006, 1/30/2006, 2/06/2006, 2/13/2006, 2/20/2006, 2/27/2006, 3/6/2006, 3/13/2006, 3/20/2006, 3/27/2006, 4/3/2006, 4/4/2006, 4/5/2006, 4/6/2006, 4/7/2006, 4/8/2006, 4/9/2006, 4/10/2006, 4/17/2006, 4/23/2006, 5/1/2006, 5/8/2006, 5/15/2006, 5/22/2006, 5/29/2006, 6/5/2006, 6/12/2006, 6/19/2006, 6/26/2006, 7/3/2006, 7/10/2006, 7/17/2006, 7/24/2006, 7/31/2006, 8/7/2006, 8/13/2006, 8/21/2006, 8/28/2006, 9/4/2006, 9/11/2006, 9/18/2006, 9/25/2006, 10/2/2006, 10/9/2006, 10/16/2006, 10/23/2006, 10/30/2006, 11/6/2006, 11/13/2006, 11/20/2006, 11/27/2006, 12/4/2006, 12/11/2006, 12/18/2006, 12/25/2006, 1/1/2007, 1/8/2007, 1/15/2007, 1/22/2007, 1/29/2007, 2/5/2007, 2/12/2007, 2/19/2007, 2/26/2007, 3/5/2007, 3/12/2007, 3/19/2007, 3/26/2007, 4/2/2007, 4/5/2007, 4/9/2007, 4/16/2007, 4/23/2007, 4/30/2007, 5/7/2007, 5/14/2007, 5/21/2007, 5/28/2007, 6/4/2007, 6/11/2007, 6/18/2007, 6/25/2007, 7/2/2007, 7/9/2007, 7/16/2007, 7/23/2007, 7/30/2007, 8/6/2007, 8/13/2007, 8/20/2007, 8/27/2007, 9/3/2007, 9/10/2007, 9/17/2007, 9/24/2007, 10/1/2007, 10/8/2007, 10/15/2007)
The lovely Lisa sent me word that the prints made their journey to England alright. The print show will be up at the Travelling Man Coffee Bar in Leeds. For more info go here. The coffee bar serves up graphic novels and lattes. A model that I think would be interesting to try stateside as well.
She’s also heading up the Thought Balloon Festival in Leeds. Interesting mix of indie and mainstream.
While lurking at the Ogre, I bumped into a volunteer from the Cartoon Library. Sweet lady. We struck up a conversation about the festival. She had her shopping list with her. What I found out was that the one free event tied to the Cartoon Festival falls on Thursday night. A reception for the Canniff show at the Thurber Center Gallery. Whether this is true or not I have no confirmation. The reception runs from 6-8pm (per the posted schedule).