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ComicMix Quick Picks – March 18, 2009

  • Uncategorized
  • March 19, 2009

natasharichardson-5425275Some items from the past few days:

  • Sad news: Natasha Richardson, scion of the famous Redgrave acting family and star of the film adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian The Handmaid’s Tale, has died from injuries suffered in a skiing accident. Our condolences go out to her husband Liam Neeson, their two boys, and the rest of their family.
     
  • David Prowse, the body of Darth Vader and the man who got Christopher Reeve bulked up to play Superman, is completing treatment for prostate cancer.
     
  • Family Guy has won its lawsuit against a music publisher that claimed that the allegedly anti-Semitic lyrics of “I Need a Jew” damaged the reputation of their song, “When You Wish Upon a Star” from the Disney film Pinocchio. The song and the episode in which it appears, “Once Upon a Weinstein,” have faced accusations of anti-Semitism before. Fox refused to show the episode when it was originally produced; audiences didn’t get to see it until 2003, when Cartoon Network broadcast it.
     
  • In other legal news, German book publishers are suing file sharing readers. Not ISPs… readers. German book publishers’ association leader Alexander Skipis said "his group intends to keep German courts busy with thousands of lawsuits. He also called P2P file sharing "organized crime" and lamented that politicians were ignoring the impact illegal downloads were having on book publishers."
     
  • And in case you missed it: Neil Gaiman on The Colbert Report.

Anything else? Consider this an open thread.

Amy Goldschlager is an editor at findingDulcinea, the Librarian of the Internet, and SweetSearch, the smarter search engine.

What was your most profitable comic collecting find?

  • News
  • March 18, 2009

One of the details in the story of Action Comics #1 sells for $317,200 was that the person selling the book found it in a second-hand store in the early 1950s when he was nine years old, and bought it for 35 cents. Obviously, he’s the current all-time champ in the single issue category, with Chuck Rozanski holding the award for bulk purchases with the Mile High Collections.

But it occurs to me that most collectors have at least one great find in their collections. The issue to the right is mine, Man Of War #1, from 1940, which my father and I found in a coin collectors store in Lake Ronkonkoma in the late 70’s-early 80’s. I bought it for $3, and it’s worth about $1000 today. At the same store, I also bought a copy of the first edition of the Overstreet Price Guide, which is worth a few hundred bucks now as well.

How about you? What was your greatest find?

Wolverine Artist Appreciation Month

  • News
  • March 17, 2009

Marvel’s press release:

Marvel is proud to announce that in honor of Wolverine‘s 35th anniversary, numerous Marvel titles will feature Wolverine Art Appreciation Variant Covers in April, as part of Wolverine Art Appreciation Month. In the tradition of Marvel’s previous variant cover programs, featuring everything from villains to zombies to monkeys, select Marvel titles will feature variant covers spotlighting the most popular X-Man through a unique lens! Inspired by some of the world’s greatest artists, these variant covers depict Wolverine like you’ve never seen him before, in styles reminiscent of Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol and more!

"This is a huge year for Wolverine as he proves why he’s arguably one of the most popular characters in the world," explained Joe Quesada, Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief. "He’s not just popular with fans but also with artists, as evidenced by how many of today’s top comic artists jockey for a chance to draw him. This got us thinking: what if Wolverine had been around for hundreds, if not thousands, of years? What great, classic artists would want a crack at drawing a Wolverine cover?"

We here at ComicMix are hereby starting Wolverine Artist Appreciation Month. This will pay tribute to the great, classic artists that have gone into creating Wolverine over the years, yet somehow are not getting their fair share from Marvel over the character to which they contributed so much, and who have been underappreciated in so many other ways.

So please, take a moment to thank:

In particular, if you’d like to honor the late great Dave Cockrum, please consider purchasing some of his file copy comic books from his estate to help his widow Paty. The list of available books is here.

The bright side to low second weekend ticket sales for ‘Watchmen’

  • News
  • March 17, 2009

The conversation between Mike Gold and myself:

MG: Actually, it’s probably a good thing that the numbers for Watchmen this past weekend weren’t so great.

GH: Okay, why? I mean, it’s not a flop, it’ll still make its money back, even if it’s no blockbuster.

MG: Exactly. If it was a blockbuster, they’d be more tempted to make a sequel.

GH: …point well made.

pilgrim01-1770569

ComicMix Quick Picks – March 16, 2009

  • News
  • March 17, 2009

pilgrim01-1770569Today’s– okay, this past week’s– list of quick items:

SciFi Channel becoming Syfy: So yeah, f*** you

  • News
  • March 17, 2009

The Sci-Fi Channel is going through its fourth logo in a decade, and its third network name. It was created as the Sci-Fi Channel, then became just Sci Fi, and as of June 7th, 2009, it will be known as SyFy.

Yes, we know April’s fool isn’t for two weeks. This is, sadly, real.

Response to the change has been, shall we say, unenthusiastic.

One commenter noted that the new name stands for "so yeah, f*** you" since they feel as if that’s what the attitude toward their fanbase seems to be, noting their horrible fan relations as compared to, say, ESPN. Another noted that it’s yet another attempt to remove the science from science fiction, which certainly seems to be working well over there.

Apparently, one of the reasons for the name change is that you can’t trademark Sci-Fi. To quote the press release, SyFy "firmly establishes a uniquely ownable trademark that is portable across all non-linear digital platforms and beyond, from Hulu to iTunes. Syfy also creates an umbrella brand name that can extend into new adjacent businesses under the Syfy Ventures banner, such as Syfy Games, Syfy Films and Syfy Kids."

So SyFy is just CyA, as it were.

In other news, the parent company is changing their name to NyByCy, so they can compete in Australia.

The new Robin revealed? Plus, whatever happened to Calvin and Hobbes?

  • News
  • March 16, 2009

Watch how we seamlessly blend three items from last week, add a bit of comics history, and… but we’re getting ahead of things.

Last week, we had Grant Morrison talking about the new Batman & Robin series he’ll be doing with Frank Quitely, discussing (among other things) a new Robin. We also saw lnks to fan images as to whatever happened to Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes now that he’s older, with one sweet image and one… not so sweet. (Incidentally, I think the girl’s name is Berkeley. No, not Breathed.)

This puts me in mind of what happened the last time we replaced Robin. I was working in the production department at DC during the time of Batman: A Death in the Family , which took Jason Todd out. And at the time, there was a tradition in production of taking that day’s Calvin and Hobbes strip, xeroxing it larger, having Bob LeRose color it, and posting it on the bulletin board.

And Steven Bové wondered what they were going to do about the new Robin. And one idea led to another, and he drew a little something. And then it got passed around the rest of the department with everybody contributing, and a minor masterpiece was born.

So here, with pencils and inks from Steven Bové, inks by Jerry Acerno, letters by John Workman, and colors by me after the late great Bob LeRose:

Nielsen 2008 ad spending numbers

  • News
  • March 16, 2009

This will portend some of the major changes in media this year– including the comics, newspapers and magazines you read and the TV and movies you watch.

The Nielsen Company reported today that U.S. advertising for the full year 2008 was down 2.6% compared to the full year 2007. According to preliminary figures from Nielsen, U.S. ad expenditures declined almost $3.7 billion to a total spend of $136.8 billion in 2008.

Newspapers saw the deepest cuts in 2008 with national down 9.6% and local down 10.2%.  Local Sunday supplements were down 11%. Magazines didn’t do much better, dropping 7.6% nationally and 3.7% locally. Only two categories are up: Cable TV by 7.8%, and Hispanic Cable TV by 9.6%.

Among the biggest ad spenders, Time Warner cut its spending by 23.7% last year, Chrysler spending was down by 31.2%, Ford down by 28.5%, and GM down by 14.9%. All of them are heavy advertisers on science fiction and action-adventure shows like Heroes.  Motion picture advertising dropped $3.3 billion from $3.75 billion, an -11.4% drop– and again, very likely to be advertising on genre shows. Only two of the major categories saw increases last year: Direct Response products were up by 9.2% and fast food restaurants were up by 3.8%.

Cable was the highest CPM-based revenue-generating medium with $26.6 billion in sales. Internet advertising, not including paid search, text only, paid fee services, performance-based campaigns, sponsorships, barters, in-stream ("pre-rolls") players, messenger apps, partnership advertising, email campaigns or in-house advertising activity, dropped by 6.4% in 2008– but with that much excluded, it’s a tougher number to calculate.

U.S. Ad Spending -% Change 2008 vs. 2007
Media Category Jan-Dec ’08 vs. Jan-Dec ’07 % Change
Hispanic Cable TV 9.6%
Cable TV 7.8%
Spot TV Top 100 -0.3%
Syndication TV -0.8%
National Sunday Supplement -1.9%
Hispanic Broadcast TV -2.4%
Network Radio -3.3%
Broadcast Network TV -3.5%
Local Magazine -3.7%
Spot Radio -4.0%
Spot TV 101-210 -4.6%
Outdoor -5.0%
FSI Coupon -5.2%
Internet* -6.4%
National Magazine -7.6%
National Newspaper -9.6%
Business to Business -9.7%
Local Newspaper -10.2%
Local Sunday Supplements -11.0%
TOTAL -2.6%
Source: The Nielsen Company

 

The Point – March 16th, 2009

  • News
  • March 16, 2009

Lock up the kids, we’re digging out the grown up stuff with a look at the history of Erotic Comics, plus the 5 cool things in the comic shop this week, Ed Brubaker’s next move and the heroics of Steve Martin.

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