Kibbles ‘n’ Bits — 2/11/10

Lee — the comic icon responsible for “Spider-Man,” “The Incredible Hulk,” “X-Men” and “Iron Man” and founder of his own POW! Entertainment — is collaborating with Archie Comics and A Squared Entertainment on “Super Seven,” set for launch in the fall. The story is centered around “seven aliens who find themselves stranded on planet Earth after their spaceship crashes, only to be befriended by none other than Lee himself,” according to the release. “Taking them under his care, Lee becomes their leader and enables them to resume their lives as superheroes on Earth.”

Reading makes my world go round. A friend of mine created this comic book called Bastard Samurai, so I wrote a song called “Bastard Samurai” on the new record. He’s a big High on Fire fan so I did it in honor of his comic book. It’s about this Yakuza samurai that runs around. He’s in this gambit, and there’s this girl guiding him for the Yakuza. The Yakuza bets on him, and he’s randomly attacked at any time. They gamble on it. They know when it’s going to happen but he doesn’t. He’s such a killer—he just kills everything in his way all the time. For a comic book, it’s a really cool story. I based the song off that.

Last week, however, Xavier Guilbert of the influential comics news and review site Du9 presented his annual analysis of sales figures in French comics, simply entitled Numérologie, and he sees little reason for optimism. Guilbert’s analysis, which is repeated in the online magazine BoDoï, is simply alarming. Even though the average price of a comic has risen some 3 %, the total market value has only grown with a meagre 0.3 %. Nearly all large publishers, with the exception of Flammarion, have seen a reduction in their issues sold, with Soleil even plumetting no less than 11 %. Similarly, the five large publishing houses (Média participations, Glénat, Flammarion, Soleil and Delcourt) have seen their market share fall back from more than 80 % in 2002 to 70 % in 2009

Unlike a graphic novel, you can’t just sit down and do it. You’ve got to bring together a lot of resources. You need people and money and even institutions to help you do such a thing. That all just started coming together up here. in 2002, my youngest daughter was born, so that’s when I moved out of the very rural home I was living in in Hartland. When my second was born, there was just no way in the world I was going to get any artwork done. I got a studio in White River Junction, and started working out of there. I really just began this love affair with the village.