It´s been longer than expected since my last post but before we jump into Power Girl´s magical cleavage window - even if only metaphorical - some news and other things I wanted to mention have accumulated. So it´s once again time for one of these long comic news posts.
A Comicbook Orange : Season 3
First and most important is of course that the third season of A Comicbook Orange is finally online with the first episode that covers Grant Morrison´s SEAGUY and has an interview with Ben Templesmith of 30 DAYS OF NIGHT fame. I´m a bit behind schedule with the announcement because the new episode went online Yesterday but my internet connection was malfunctioning again and quite frankly I kind of forgot. Mea Culpa.
I already wrote about their relaunch with their own website on the 4th of last month and I wanted to do an update when the new episodes are online. Anyway, better late than never. Now there may still people out there who don´t know what A Comicbook Orange is so here´s what I wrote in my first post about it .
A COMICBOOK ORANGE is what every comicblogger whishes he was doing. It´s a video comic review blog that´s funny, entertaining and has a decent hit and miss quota in it´s reviews. Each episode has at least three different reviews and they also do convention interviews and all the usual stuff. There is always this argument that shows on tv about comics don´t work. The pictures are too static, it´s impossible to do it in a funny way and the target audience is too narrow. Well, thankfully somebody forgot to tell the guys from A COMICBOOK ORANGE all that.
The format has changed a bit since it´s going to be one review and one interview from now on to avoid the burnout syndrome. I know I prefer a shorter show if it helps to ensure a regular schedule. So enjoy the episodes ( new and old ) and support them because we really need more guys ( and gals of course ) like them in the bloggoverse.
One last thing I somehow totally forgot. There are two ways to get on my permanent link list. The first one is via a link exchange by an invitaion from me or an invitation I get from somebody else. So far I had the luck to find some noble souls who were gracious enough to do this. The second one is as kind of an award for sheer excellence sometimes known as " freebie ". Which means that your website is so cool that I don´t care if you link back to me. I just want to share it with as many people out there as possible.
Way back when I did my first post mentioning A Comicbook Orange I wanted to add them to the link list but as they didn´t have their own website I couldn´t do it. Well, now they have it but I forgot it. Again, sorry. So here´s the link again and it is now also on the link list :
a comicbook orange
DRAW ! magazine - the blogDRAW ! magazine has now joined the ranks of internet bloggers with a new blog that has two entries so far, one about Mitch Breitweiser´s cover for issue 19 and one with an interview with Hellboy BRPD´s Guy Davis.
The purpose of the blog is to bridge the generous amounts of time between issues and to be more interactive with the fans. Of course it shouldn´t be necessary to explain what DRAW ! magazine is since it´s one of the biggest resources and must read magazines for comic pros, comic afficionados and comic fans alike. Publisher is Mike Manley, artist, cartoonist and editor of Draw! magazine. " I work in animation and the comics industries, I also teach animation, drawing and storyboarding at Uarts and DCAD. I am now back in school at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art to school to finish my MFA in painting. I create art as a compulsion, it is my religion. "
draw magazine the blog guy davis interview
Tales from the ConventionBecause I still havn´t fully recovered I missed the comicfair in Stuttgart which apparently took place last Saturday. This bugged me not so much because of the comics since the last times there have been less and less american comics to buy. But it´s one of the few opportunities for the comic scene of Stuttgart to meet. And since I´m probably not going to attend the Comicfest in Munich that´s usually my only chance to meet my old homies like Geier and buy some german hardcover editions which are just too expensive if you can´t get them halfprice.
It looks like I won´t be attending any comic conventions this year since I also couldn´t visit the 27th comic convention of Barcelona which just ended this Monday. Which might be a blessing in disguise if you keep in mind what a catastrophic experience I has during my last visit. Who knows, it may even be possible that I find the time to post the last part of my convention diary from last year.
But back to this year´s convention here are some convention diaries by comic pros. One is a short blog entry by Mark Waid the other two are by Todd Nauck and analyze the differences between american conventions and spanisch conventions - with lots of pictures. Since you usually get the reports about european conventions from a european - me - I found them pretty interesting since somebody like Todd Nauck has a different viewpoint which might be more familiar to my readers from the USA. By the way, Capitan Trueno means Captain Thunder.
todd nauck barcelona 1 todd nauck barcelona 2 mark waid barcelonaThe 3.99 price againWell, I thought that the topic of the increase of the price for comics was done but of course we haven´t heard the last of it. I fear it will be a current issue - so to speak - for months to come and we still don´t know what the ultimate ramifications are going to be. In a recent article from ROBOT 6 it seems that Marvel´s decision for the price increase was more about maximizing profits and not so much connected with rising production costs.
Which doesn´t surprise me as much as it should. In the article the main focus is on already existing books that have the new price tag and when you look at it that way the difference is not so great. The thing is that all new books and all relaunched books are also now carrying the new price and to get a impression how many new series Marvel is throwing at the readers you just have to take a look at the solicitations. The first books are all 3.99 and if you scroll down it takes a while before the fisrt 2.99 book appears.
In the article it is emphasized that Marvel has only increased the price on already existing books for the bestsellers because they know they can carry the new price. They prefered this option to the alternative of raising prices on low selling books which could have meant cancellation for said titles. Now at first that seems like Marvel doing their readers a favor. But when you look at it from the business perspective it only makes sense.
If you increase the prices on low selling books the difference in the profit you make is going to be very low because of the low sales numbers and you might have to end the title. That way you could loose the whole as a source for income. On the other hand your bestsellers are going to sell no matter what. They can carry the bigger price tag and the profit increase is going to be much bigger. And you still can keep the lower selling titles for those who are fans of it or can´t pay 3.99.
That way you could even increase readership on your lower selling titles. The only problem is that a book like HULK for example can only carry the new price tag as long as Ed McGuiness manages to stay on board or you can find a suitable substitute like Frank Cho or Arthur Adams. The minute you have a second - or third - rate artist on the book you can see the sales numbers melt.
It really sems that there are people in the comic business who can´t see that in times of global recession comics have to become cheaper not more expensive. In any case I don´t see people expanding their pull list in the near future as I myself will have to downsize my reading list dramatically. Thank god there are companies like DC who try their best to keep books at 2.99 while giving the reader more content on the 3.99 books.
marvel´s price increaseBack to the issueStaying on the topic of the price increase James Hunt over at Den of Geek is also writing about the problems connected to superhero comics and comes to some conclusions that I also presented right here. First off readers have to stop buying comics they are not satisfied with. Otherwise comic companies will continue to publish crappy comics. And secondly if you are not happy with reading current comics you might want to try back issues.
The advantages are that you often have better creative teams, you don´t have to suffered decompressed storytelling, the storytelling is much more important than it has become now and you already know which issues to buy and which to avoid and of course they are cheaper. For years comic dealers like Chuck Rozanski from MILE HIGH COMICS have said that the segment of back issues is growing and with the way comics are right now this trend is not going to end soon.
buying back issuesTop ten and other listsTo avoid ending on a negative note here are some fun links. The first one is from Comic Monsters and is a list of horror webcomics. I haven´t had the time to really dive into it but as a fan of horror comics I´m definitely going to check it out.
horror webcomicsOver at POP Jeffrey Klaehn has a list of " Top Ten Coolest Magical Comic Characters " even if I wish he had put up a bit of commentary to the entries and why he chose them. For a widely published author and cultural commentator he sure didn´t comment much on this post.
top ten magic users
And last but not least Kleefeld on Comics has a pop quiz about lightning logos.
lightning logos pop quizThat ends the comic news for this round and I don´t know if we will finally be able to focus on Power Girl´s boobs in the next post or go for another helping of comic news.
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