Author: Glenn Hauman

The general consensus is that during hard times, people stay at home and turn to cheap entertainment to save money. And various and sundry players across the net have claimed that comics always do well in recessionary times.

Except, it turns out, those two widely held beliefs are in direct conflict.

Aaron Albert at About.com (you can tell he’s in comics with alliteration like that) runs the numbers on entertainment bang for the buck per minute, and comics are the worst deal of the bunch:

If we suppose that it takes 15 minutes to read a standard comic book what kind of deal are we getting?

• $3.99 Comic – ECPM’s – 27 cents
• $2.99 Comic – ECPM’s – 20 cents
• Movie – $10 (Average running time lets say 1hr 30 min.) – ECPM’s – 11 cents
• Rental Movie – $5 (Same time as above) – ECPM’s – 5.5 cents
• DVD – $20 (Typical 2 disc with, say, 2 hrs bonus material) – ECPM’s – 7 cents
• Video Game – $60 (Average length, around 15-20 hrs to complete) – ECPM’s – 5-7 cents
• MMORPG – (A game like WOW costs $15 a month with the average player putting 22 hrs a week…its scientific, I Googled it) – ECPM’s – 2/10 cents (yes that’s two tenths of a cent per minute)

The conclusion is obvious, particularly when you see how many people will read free comics available online.

The Jonah Hex movie is getting a new director, according to The Hollywood Reporter.  Jimmy Hayward, who directed Horton Hears a Who, has been signed to direct Hex as his second feature, and his first in live action.  Prior to directing Horton, Hayward started as an animator for Reboot and then went on to Pixar.

Josh Brolin is still attached to star in the film– because after playing an ornery cuss from the south who goes in guns blazing in W., this was a natural.

Hat tip: ICV2.

The half-hour series Wolverine and the X-Men will finally make its US premiere on Nicktoons Network with back-to-back episodes on Friday, January 23, 8-9 pm.  Produced by Marvel Animation, Wolverine and the X-Men will air regularly Fridays at 8p.  The network also launches the new tie-in website, areyouamutant.com, on Tuesday, January 20, where fans can check their DNA for mutant genes, which will let them into the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters where they can visit various rooms, watch replays of the series, and play a game called Wolverine and the X-Men: Sentinel Slash.

Get those kids exposed to slash fiction while they’re young, I always say– then we can move them up to Hellfire Club costumes and really have some fun.

Additionally, content from the series will be available on TurboNick and via Nickelodeon’s wireless platforms.  The series will also have a dedicated category in Nick’s VOD offering from January 19.

If Avi Arad was hoping that the Bratz franchise would completely disappear and take the movie he produced with it, he’s out of luck. A US federal judge has ruled that Bratz dolls will be able to remain on store shelves through 2009.  The judge gave MGA Entertainment, the manufacturer of Bratz merchandise a stay of sorts, asking MGA and Mattel to come up with a proposal under which the dolls can continue to be manufactured and sold through the year, according to the LA Times. Under the original ruling, MGA would have had to pull the dolls from shelves as of February 11, 2009.  The judge made this new modified ruling "to address the concerns regarding the 2009 retail buying season."  

Last year, Mattel sued and won a copyright infringement against MGA Entertainment concerning the Bratz dolls. But like the vampire blodsuckers they emulate, they keep coming back from the dead.