Comic Book Resources

Straight for the art blog | Comic Twart draws Zorro

by Mitch Breitweiser

Chris Samnee, Mike Hawthorne, Andy Kuhn, Mitch Breitweiser and several other artists have united to form Comic Twart, an art blog where every week the group will draw a different character. This week's character, if you couldn't guess, is Zorro.

Image United #3, in progress">Straight for the art | A look at Image United #3, in progress

From "Image United" #3

On Twitter, Rob Liefeld showed off in-progress panels from Image United #3, featuring art by Erik Larsen, Jim Valentino and himself.

He also posted a panel from Deadpool Corps #1, which will be released by Marvel in April.

S.W.O.R.D. series">Gillen confirms ax has fallen on Marvel's S.W.O.R.D. series

S.W.O.R.D. #5

Writer Kieron Gillen confirmed this morning that Marvel's Astonishing X-Men spin-off S.W.O.R.D. will end in March with Issue 5.

Rumors of the title's cancellation began circulating last week, sparking a last-minute Valentines-themed campaign to save the low-selling S.W.O.R.D. However, the comic's absence from Diamond's April order form -- available online over the weekend, but now removed -- makes it clear the effort came far too late.

"While cynics have noted, it’s unlikely this sort of activity will magically get S.W.O.R.D.’s run extended," Gillen wrote on his blog. "But it’s not just about that. Letting a publisher know they released a book which people liked and had an audience is always worthwhile. As others have noted, if you dug it, it’s worth being grateful for five issues."

S.W.O.R.D. (Sentient World Observation and Response Department), an agency that deals with extraterrestrial threats, was introduced in 2005 in Astonishing X-Men #3, and played a prominent role in Secret Invasion. The monthly series, by Gillen and artist Steven Sanders debuted in November 2009 to estimated sales of 22,000. By the second issue, the figure had dropped to barely 15,000.

"Comics operate on a system of pre-ordering," Gillen wrote. "As in, the first issue’s orders were in before anyone had even read a single page of the book. The numbers which people are reporting are low enough that the inevitable second issue dip -- also ordered before anyone had read Issue 1 -- would move it into a clearly dangerously low sales for a book in the X-family. In other words, I actually don’t feel that bad about the cancellation. It was already on unsteady ground before anyone had even read the thing, and got annoyed over Sanders’ Beast design or my over-verbal theatrics."

Word of S.W.O.R.D.'s cancellation comes just weeks after Marvel announced it would end the newly launched Doctor Voodoo: Avenger of the Supernatural after just five issues.

DC Universe Online">DC to launch weekly series set in world of DC Universe Online

From "DC Universe Online"

On the heels of announcing two new biweekly miniseries, DC Comics has unveiled plans for a weekly title set in the world of DC Universe Online, the highly anticipated massively multiplayer game from Sony Online Entertainment.

DC Universe: Legends, which will debut later this year, is an attempt by the publisher and SOE to bridge the comic-book and gaming audiences. But just how will they go about doing that?

"First, we're going to set up the conceit of the universe, how it works and what the rules are," DC Comics Executive Editor Dan DiDio tells IGN.com. "We'll also be trying to work gaming tips and secrets into the body of the book as we move along in the series. You'll see a lot of support material including turnarounds and designs that went into the actual building of the game.

"What I think is the most exciting thing is that, if everything is working as well as we hope once we get down the line, characters that players create actually have an opportunity to work their way from the game into the comics themselves."

DiDio also announced that Tony Bedard and Dan Jurgens will write Legends. Other creators will be named later.

Creators launch 'Heroes 4 Haiti' site to raise money for earthquake victims

Heroes 4 Haiti

A group of comics industry folks have come together to raise funds to support organizations that are helping victims of the recent 7.0 earthquake in Haiti.

Heroes 4 Haiti is "a grassroots movement of artists seeking to raise money for organizations helping victims of the recent Haitian earthquake. Heroes for Haiti is not an organization, it's a collective response to human tragedy. We're asking everyone to donate a little bit of their talent, money or time towards helping those in need." Artist Mike Cavallaro, SMITH Magazine's Jeff Newelt and the CBLDF's Charles Brownstein are all involved with the organization.

They're asking folks to donate art, collectibles and services via eBay auctions. For more information, check out their blog or their Facebook page.

Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

The Storm in the Barn

Awards | Matt Phelan's The Storm in the Barn last week became the first graphic novel to win the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction. However, some are questioning whether the book, which contains a fantasy element, should qualify for the prize.

Established in 1982 by Scott O’Dell, author of Island of the Blue Dolphins, the $5,000 award is given to works of historical fiction for young people written by U.S. citizens, released by a U.S. publisher and set in South, Central or North America. [School Library Journal, Good Comics for Kids]

Publishing | Editor & Publisher, the venerable trade magazine of the newspaper industry, was purchased Thursday by Duncan McIntosh Co., and will resume publication online and in print. E&P and sibling magazine Kirkus Reviews were closed last month after former owner Nielsen Media Business failed to find buyers. [Editor & Publisher]

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Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

The Amazing Spider-Man #583

Publishing | Retailer Brian Hibbs asserts that substantial shipping problems created by the move of Diamond's Memphis, Tennessee, warehouse in February may have contributed to the 2-percent overall decline of comics in 2009: "More or less the entire month of February there weren't reorders on any product shipping from Diamond. ... Even once they 'fixed' that issue (which memory tells me stretched into early April on many titles), there were HORRIBLE cockups in fill rates, accuracy, damages, etc all through the summer and fall. It wasn't really until 4th quarter that things went ANYwhere close back to normal."

Meanwhile, in USA Today John Geddes looks at direct-market sales in 2009. [The Savage Critics, USA Today]

Publishing | Twenty-one major Japanese publishers, including Kodansha, Shinchosha and Shueisha, are forming an electronic-book association in an effort to counter the expected launch of Amazon's Japanese-language Kindle. The group plans to focus on creating a contract model for writers and e-book stores, contract negotiations and legislation. [The Mainichi Daily News]

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Straight for the art | King Conan, by Dustin Nguyen

Conan O'Brien, by Dustin Nguyen

Batman: Streets of Gotham artist Dustin Nguyen takes sides in NBC's late-night kerfuffle with this wonderful take on The Tonight Show host Conan O'Brien. So that's one more for Team Coco. See the full illustration on Nguyen's blog.

Birds of Prey series">Simone and Benes reunite for new Birds of Prey series

Birds of Prey #1

DC Comics announced this morning that writer Gail Simone and artist Ed Benes will reunite this spring to launch a new Birds of Prey series.

Simone and Benes took over the series, which centers on Oracle and a roster of superheroines ranging from Black Canary and Huntress to Big Barda and Lady Blackhawk, in 2003. Benes left the title two years later, but Simone continued her run until July 2007.

Birds of Prey was canceled in February 2009 with Issue 127 during DC's shakeup of the Batman titles.

The relaunched series will see the return of Black Canary, who left at the team at the end of Simone's tenure.

"... Even if you've read every previous BoP issue multiple times, I think you're going to really feel the ground shift a little with this. It's going to be a blast," Simone tells Comics Alliance. "It's Black Canary putting her boot in bad guys' faces and the Huntress taking no *&^% from anyone and Oracle being smarter than anyone else in Gotham. That's what I loved about the book in the first place.

"... It's classic Birds of Prey but maybe just a little tougher and a little naughtier. I've been given some really surprising approvals and I think long-time readers and newbies will find it quite unlike any other comic on the stands. I've always said the secret of the book is that it's a female buddy cop story, basically, and that is a surprisingly rare thing in all media."

Comics nominees announced for 21st annual GLAAD Media Awards

Nominations were announced this morning for the 21st annual GLAAD Media Awards, which honor media for their representations of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and issues.

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation is the nation's leading LGBT media-advocacy group.

The nominees for Outstanding Comic Book are:

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer, by Jane Espenson, Steven S. DeKnight, Drew Z. Greenberg, Jim Krueger, Doug Petrie, Joss Whedon, Georges Jeanty and others (Dark Horse)
• Detective Comics, by Greg Rucka, J.H. Williams III and Cully Hamner (DC Comics)
• Madame Xanadu, by Matt Wagner, Amy Reeder Hadley and Richard Friend (DC Comics)
• Secret Six, by Gail Simone, Jim Calafiore, Doug Hazelwood, Nicola Scott and others (DC Comics)
• X-Factor, by Peter David, Bing Cansino, Valentine De Landro, Marco Santucci and others (Marvel)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and writers Drew Goddard, Jeph Loeb and Joss Whedon, won the award last year.

Winners in all categories will be presented during ceremonies in New York City (March 13), Los Angeles (April 17) and San Francisco (June 5). At which event the comics category will be honored is anybody's guess.

Unbound: Talking Gyakushu! with Dan Hipp

Dan Hipp's graphic novel Gyakushu! debuted in 2007 as one of Tokyopop's original global manga titles. Like many of the books in that line, Gyakushu! could only loosely be described as manga, as Hipp has a drawing and storytelling style all his own, and judging from the favorable reviews it garnered online, the series seems to have been popular with fans of American comics as well as manga. Although the third (and final) volume has been complete for some time, it has yet to be published, due to structural changes at Tokyopop, although the plan is to eventually publish it online.

So Hipp decided to take matters into his own hands and use the web to build an audience. This week, with Tokyopop's permission, he put the first two volumes online in their entirety, along with a preview of the third volume. We were curious about this and e-mailed Hipp to find out what he is up to. In addition to Gyakushu!, Hipp is the artist for The Amazing Joy Buzzards and Ben 10 Alien Force: Doom Dimension, which was scripted by Peter David and is due out in February from Del Rey. He is also the creator of Bonehead.

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Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

Blackest Night #6

Publishing | DC Comics' Blackest Night #6 was the top-selling periodical in an anemic December in which direct-market stores were hampered by a week in which Diamond Comic Distributors didn't ship new titles. The latest issue of the bestselling event miniseries barely broke 100,000 copies, down from 144,000 for Issue 5. The top-selling graphic novel, the eighth volume of Wildstorm's Ex Machina, moved an estimated 5,000 copies.

Retailer-oriented news and analysis site ICv2.com reports that single-issue sales in comic shops slipped 11 percent, while graphic novels and trade paperbacks fell 22 percent. Periodicals were off just 2 percent for the year, but graphic novels were down 15 percent; the overall decline in the direct market was 5 percent for 2009.

Blackest Night and its tie-ins allowed DC to take six of the Top 10 periodical spots for December; Marvel planted its flag with Captain America: Reborn and the Avengers franchise.

As usual, the graphic-novel chart provided more genre and publisher variety, with titles ranging from Star Wars: The Clone Wars to Bleach to Irredeemable cracking the Top 10. [ICv2.com, The Comichron]

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A roundup of end-of-the-year (and decade) pieces

Dark Reign: Zodiac #1

• Chad Nevett selects the best comics of 2009, including Joe Casey and Nathan Fox's Dark Reign: Zodiac and David Lapham's Young Liars. Nevett also looks at a handful of titles that didn't make the cut.

• At the Forbidden Planet International blog, Richard Bruton lists the year's best comics, including Roger Gibson and Vince Danks' Harker, Andi Watson's Glister and Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie's Phonogram: The Singles Club.

• At PopImage, Brian Domingos breaks down the best of 2009 -- and a few from the decade -- by category, from miniseries (Dark Reign: Zodiac) to anthology (Wednesday Comics) to new ongoing series (The Unwritten).

• At Random House's Suvudu website, Dallas Middaugh names the 10 best graphic novels of the year. (One of his selections, Dash Shaw's Bottomless Belly Button, was actually released in 2008.)

• Tom Spurgeon wraps up his holiday-interview series with critics discussing comics emblematic of the decade: Johanna Draper Carlson on Fun Home; Bill Kartalopoulos on Kramers Ergot, Vol. 4.

• Likewise, Heidi MacDonald winds down her year-end survey of industry professionals here and here.

• Christopher Butcher continues his look at 10 manga milestones of the past decade that changed comics with an entry on the short-lived Raijin Comics.

• David Ferraro runs down the most-anticipated comics of 2010.

• Marc Sobel reflects on the 15 best back issues he read in 2009.

Blackest Night follow-up: Brightest Day [Updated]">DC announces Blackest Night follow-up: Brightest Day [Updated]

"Brightest Day" teaser

"DC Comics this morning announced Brightest Day, the long-rumored follow-up to its bestselling Blackest Night crossover event.

On the DC Universe blog, Executive Editor Dan DiDio described Brightest Day as a 26-issue biweekly series that will debut in April with an Issue 0. The comic will be written by Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi.

The title, like Blackest Night, is derived, of course, from the first line of the Green Lantern oath: "In brightest day, in blackest night ..."

Fernando Pasarin (The Outsiders, Justice Society of America) will pencil Brightest Day #0. However, no artists were announced for the rest of the series. More details are promised later this morning.

Update (12:27 p.m. PST): This afternoon, DiDio announced that newly DC-exclusive artist David Finch will provide the covers for Brightest Day.

And in an interview with IGN.com, Johns revealed that some of the central characters from Blackest Night, such as the Atom and Mera, will be seen in Brightest Day.

"We're introducing new characters, rebuilding some classic DC heroes and villains, and at the same time bringing in new concepts and ideas," he said. It's a lot like what we've done with Green Lantern. ... That's what I'm hoping Brightest Day accomplishes in the DCU – taking characters and concepts that have been around for a long time and reintroducing them in big ways and with new elements. That's a lot of why, in Blackest Night, you'll see a lot of characters confronting the past, because it's time for us and them to put the past to bed so characters like Ray Palmer can move on to the next adventure and next step."

Kirby family attorneys respond to Marvel lawsuit

Fantastic Four #1

Attorneys for the heirs of Jack Kirby call Marvel's assertion that the late artist's contributions were work made for hire "a standard claim predictably made by comic book companies to deprive artists, writers and other talent of all rights in their work."

The statement comes in response to a lawsuit filed Friday by Marvel asking for a judge to invalidate 45 copyright-termination notices issued in September related to such creations as the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, Thor, The Avengers, the X-Men and Spider-Man.

Marvel maintains that Kirby's work for the company was "for hire," invalidating the claims of his four children.

However, a press release issued late Friday by Kirby attorneys Toberoff & Associates points out that Marvel was unsuccessful when it made a similar argument in its legal battle with Joe Simon concerning Captain America.

"The truth is that Jack Kirby was his own man," the release states. "Like so many artists in the fledgling comic book industry of the late 1950's/early 1960's, Kirby worked with Marvel out of his own house as a free-lancer with no employment contract, no financial or other security, nor any other indicia of employment. ... Kirby's wonderful creations, which leapt from the page, were not Marvel's 'assignments,' but were instead authored by Kirby under his own steam and then published by Marvel. It was not until 1972 that Kirby by contract granted Marvel the copyrights to his works. It is to this grant that the Kirby family's statutory notices of termination apply."

According to Toberoff & Associates, the Kirby terminations would become effective beginning in 2014. However, it's unclear to which property that date refers. (What notable Kirby co-creations debuted at Marvel in 1958?)

When Congress increased the duration of copyright, lawmakers included a provision that, after a lengthy waiting period, permits authors or their heirs or estates to terminate the grant of rights. However, if the property is determined to be "work made for hire," the copyright would belong to the company that commissioned it.