Anyone else want to smack Adbusters staff around? Selfrighteousness-r-us.
96 pages, $125. Wait, what?
Some people can’t really find agreement with the publisher’s decision to make the 7th issue of anthology Gramers Ergot a $125, 96-page hardcover book. Plenty has been said and written about it but the follow up blog post on comicsworthreading.com tries to tone down the debate a bit by giving some explanation to why the book is so darn expensive.
Last, the final word on Kramer’s Ergot #7, the $125 anthology: Supporter Tom Spurgeon talks with editor Sammy Harkham about its contents, contributors, and the rationale behind the price point. Among the factors: due to its size, each copy has to be bound by hand. Custom shipping boxes had to be made. And the editor wanted to do an on-site press check, so he had to fly to Singapore.
I don’t know about you, but this rationale, to me, sounds like more evidence that maybe they were out of their league and should’ve maybe changed their printing requirements to something more down to earth.
The Transformers 25th Anniversary
“Man, Idunno, what can we do to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of one of our most successful toy franchises.”
“Let’s rerelease Optimus Prime. AGAIN.”
“Brilliant. let’s go to lunch.”
You’re doing it wrong.
Heidi MacDonald sheds more light on the Virgin Birth and it’s recent premature passing (I told you I’d be here all week, and we really have a lot of veal in the freezer.) The “go us, we were a great company” comment by Mark Frangos is to be expected, but it really doesn’t get interesting until Heidi gets to an ex-employee with a bit more… openness about how Virgin worked. Or rather, didn’t.
[CMO Larry Lieberman]subsequently drew a picture for me to explain ourbusiness model wherein Dynamite and Virgin Comics were both rocket ships, and the Virgin rocketship soared ahead of the Dynamite rocket. The parabolic arcs of both rockets ended with them crashing into the ground, though the implications of that escaped him. Sequential art wasn’t really his strong suit.
Virgin’s business model was a direct opposite of the CrossGen model; where CrossGen set out to create a complex, varied universe of comics and tried to make a buck in that field, Virgin was trying to pop out as many little potential movie options as possible. Interestingly, neither of these extremes got a solid foothold in the market, with CrossGen (2000) ceasing operations in 2004, while Virgin was barely going on two (2006-2008) before it’s demise. (Funny coincidence: both Virgin and CrossGen were founded by millionaires.)
Other models than these absolutes are no guarantee for success either; SpeakEasy closed shop after two years of aggressively marketing a small stable of SpeakEasy-owned titles along with a slew of creator-owned properties. Dreamwave tried to create a foundation for itself with the highly popular Transformers license and still failed in the long run.
Granted, there is a lot we don’t know about the demise of each of these companies. (hey, this is the Internet. That won’t stop speculation.) But the bottom line is — in a world market where people read less and less, where video games and movies rule the entertainment industry, it’s getting harder and harder for companies to find their niche — or to even get a chance to mine it.
That Hansel is so hot right now.
See what’s popular on Twitter, graphs and all. Currently, Ubiquity* is all that and a bag of chips.
* = Which makes sense, because it’s awesome, but I didn’t feel like spending a blog post on what people are already saying.
James Jean on leaving Fables
“This is a difficult email for me to write. Don’t worry … as far as I know, I don’t have any tumors or crippling neuroses, and my taxes are in order. But I feel like I’m breaking up with the prom queen on prom night, after having dated through grades 6 – 12. Feeble analogies aside, it has been an amazing opportunity to work on Fables these past 7 years (8 this October). But I feel that it’s time to devote myself full-time to painting and personal work. Shelly and I talked yesterday, and my last cover will be 81, at the end of the story arc. It has been a true privilege to work on a team that has produced such great chemistry on paper, and to have been a part of such an important book that has entertained and drawn together so many people.”
James Jean on leaving Fables. My initial response to reading this involved several words that you can’t say on the radio.
Dark as all fuck.
“Like the recent Batman sequel — which has become the highest-grossing film of the year thus far — Mr. Robinov wants his next pack of superhero movies to be bathed in the same brooding tone as “The Dark Knight.” Creatively, he sees exploring the evil side to characters as the key to unlocking some of Warner Bros.’ DC properties. “We’re going to try to go dark to the extent that the characters allow it,” he says. That goes for the company’s Superman franchise as well.”
Warner Bros. Pictures Group President Jeff Robinov is planning to make all the DC superhero movies dark as all fuck. Great plan Jeff. By all means don’t review the properties individually and see what suits them best. Can’t wait for Dark-as-fuck Plastic Man.
Virgin Comics shut down
Crash. There’s plenty of puns that can be made about the subject, but the only cliche I’ll spout here is: I told you so. Virgin’s material was interesting but it’s heavy roots in Indian mythology made for an odd fit with a market focussed on either a) manga, b) superheroes or c) graphic novels for “grown ups”.
Jim Mahfood restyles Colt 45
Mahfood is one of my favorite artists around right now, and I’m tempted to buy a few bottles for the art alone. Emphasis on art alone, since I doubt they also had Jim make the recipe actually tasty. Tales of Colt 45
Confirmed: Warner Bros. Will Reboot Superman Film Franchise
I’d just buy a new hard drive and reinstall the OS, personally. Thank you, thank you, I’ll be here all week. Try the veal.
The Con Anti-Harassment Project
It’s sad that this is neccesary. As if half the target market living in their mom’s basement isn’t bad enough for the perception of the average comic book reader.
iPhone/touch storage apps reviewed
These things always come out after I buy just one. At least I bet on a high rated one, I guess.
I’m late to the party.
Not everybody’s cup of tea, but highly enjoyable, Quick Stop Entertainment (clearly somehow related to Kevin Smith) is running a series of singer/songwriter competitions called “Song Fu”. Some of the usual suspects are involved (Jonathan Coulton, Paul and Storm) but there’s some other nice surprises in there.
Subject matter.
I guess I forgot to describe the subject matter of this here blog. Basically, whatever strikes my fancy, but as the blog progresses I’m hoping to start tying more of my topics together more as if I were an amateur Neal Stephenson. Topics will include but are not limited to: art, design, comics, programming, the web, marketing and pop culture. Considering every single of those subjects have overlap with at least one other on that list, I’m setting myself up for one hell of a complex venn diagram here.