Big Two Comics

Some rambling thoughts on various aspects of making comics and making money. I alluded earlier to the sudden announcement that Nonplayer #2 by Nate Simpson was finished and would be presumably be coming out later this year. Simpson has written a much longer piece complete with a FAQ confirming that the issue will be in the May solicitations from Image; he's contacted Image about reprinting issue #1 but no response yet, and Warners—which had optioned the comic—has let their rights lapse, so it's there for the taking. And then he gets to why it took 3 1/2 years to draw the comic. It's a long answer but I'll lift a graph:

This is obviously prefaced with a heaping helping of “what the hell does a straight white male know about these issues?”. The simple truth: I don’t know anything. I likely never will - or...

Brought to you by Publishers Weekly, it's More To Come, the weekly podcast of comics news, interviews and discussion with Calvin Reid, Kate Fitzsimons and The Beat’s own Heidi MacDonald. In this week's podcast, the...

Out with the old, in with the new? As we've been reporting, October comics sales were pretty damn massive. It's the culmination of a year that started a little rocky but has blossomed as new trends blew into town behind a strong trade wind. Multiversity's David Harper has the much needed big think piece on what's happening complete with CHARTS. First he points out that The Big Two are still the big two:

Not content to resurrect Secret Wars, their most successful mega-event ever, Marvel just sent out a Civil Wars teaser image showing Iron Man and Captain America once again battling for the soul of Spider-Man, as he was in the 2005 Civil War event. The cover image is by Adi Granov. Civil War the original event was written by Mark Millar and drawn by Steve McNiven. It ran for seven issues from 2006-7 and had the tagline "Whose side are you on?" It was the waning years of the Bush administration and Milar's story played into the still fresh wound of 9/11 with a story in which Iron Man and Captain America took different sides on the eternal debate over freedom vs safety. The book was well written and had a larger subtext that just who was fighting who and really tied into the Zeitgiest. Perhaps by no coincidence it remains the ONLY event book which still sells in collected edition form (at this very moment it's Marvel's #6 book on Amazon.)

Recorded at Publishers Weekly, it's More To Come, the weekly podcast of comics news, interviews and discussion with Calvin Reid, Kate Fitzsimons and The Beat’s own Heidi MacDonald. In this week's podcast the More to...

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