The News Blog of Comics Culture
TweetBy Paul O’Brien Usually, Marvel are the largest publisher in the North American direct market by a comfortable margin. But October was close. Marvel still held on to first place, beating DC by 40% to 38% in unit share, and 36.5% to 34% in dollars. That’s an unusually narrow gap. What’s more, DC took the [...]
TweetWhile we’re still recovering, physically, spiritually and morally from the brutal fall show schedule, we’re going to man up one more time for what should be the final — and one of the best — local shows of the year, the The Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival, to be held this Saturday in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, [...]
Tweet Fresh from their triumph on The View, with a Babwa Wawa comic, Bluewater has announced another comics bio of a daytime staple: Ellen Degeneres. Female Force: Ellen Degeneres Author(s): Sandra C. Ruckdeschel Artist(s) Pedro Ponzo Cover Artist(s): cover by Viinie Tartamella Ellen DeGeneres is taking the world by storm! Emmy’s! Endless accolades! It all [...]
TweetBeat pal Robert Simpson saw our post on comics surveys and was inspired to recall comics reader surveys of the past. DC Comics surveyed their readers in both 1970 and 1978 — possibly confounded by the emerging youth market and Marvel’s much higher Q. Both are archived online. The 1970 survey from Comics Treadmill, with [...]
TweetAmazon has its nominations for Best Book Cover of the Year up and there are a few familiar friends in the nominees — graphic novels get a category but it’s shared with art books, and the only comics nominee is ASTERIOS POLYP. Readers can vote for their favorites while entering a sweepstakes, so good deal.
Tweet The new, online version of The Comics Journal is in beta testing today, and, in accordance with the evolution of early 21st century media outlets, it looks mostly like a blog. But a blog with Noah Berlatsky on Junko Mizuno, Gavin Lees on Ball Peen Hammer, Marc Sobel considering the Reichian allusions in Gilbert [...]
Tweet Come March, Random House will publish Backing Into Forward a memoir by Jules Feiffer, master cartoonist, playwright, screenwriter and all around renaissance man. According to an early review, it includes much material on his time as Will Eisner’s assistant and other matter from the comics business of the period. As well as a fantastic [...]
Tweet ’90s nostalgia alert! All 13 episodes of The Maxx, the ultra quirky cartoon based on Sam Kieth’s mega-quirky comic book, will be out next year on DVD-R. The disc includes interviews with Kieth and director Gregg Vanzo as well as audio commentary. It’s not quite a done deal though — no release date is [...]
Tweet § High school mash-up of the Red Skull and Batman? No. Golden Bat, a Japanese superhero who predated Batman and Superman. He was first seen in 1931 (seven years before Superman first took flight and eight before that Gotham City fellow who dressed like a bat) and his exploits were told in kamishibai, which [...]
TweetWe try not to overly hype Future Mr Beat aka Ben McCool’s projects here, but his upcoming book with Ben Templesmith CHOKER, is in Previews this month, and Ben T. has created a handy flyer, should you wish to purchase it. Proceeds help maintain Stately Beat Manor’s infrastructure, so it’s all for a good cause.
Tweet The 12th month is upon us, and all our usual end-of-year tasks are coming due — the Beat’s annual year-end survey. the PWCW’s critics poll, our own “Best of” lists, other people’s requests for “Best of” lists, the gift guide someone suggested we do a month ago, and, oh yes SHOPPING. Plus…HOLIDAY PARTIES. Beware [...]
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