Lately There has been a resurgence of talk about racial politics in comic books. On one side, certain minority superheroes whose original portrayals were controversial are gaining more prominent roles in their respective universes. On the other, the nostalgia-driven changes, especially at DC, are having the unfortunate (and admittedly unintentional) effect of eliminating certain minority characters in favor of the all-white all-stars of the silver age.
Last week, the comic-book-o-sphere was abuzz with speculation that the Invincible Iron Man Annual #1 would cost more in its digital format when it goes Day and Date release. Yesterday, Marvel CCO Joe Quesada confirmed that those who decide to buy the annual via the Marvel iPad App would indeed pay an extra buck.
“The Iron Man comic is over 60 pages, and in print it’s priced at $4.99, but on average for that kind of page count, we would have priced it at $5.99 or broken it up into three $2.99 issues. Our comics on the Marvel App are priced at $1.99 and the way the annual is written it breaks up nicely into three chapters perfectly, so that’s how we’ll break It up in the app. So, when you do the math on this one, the direct market comic shop has the advantage in price on this one, and we’ve already received word from retailers that they feel this is the best way to set this test up.” – Comic Book Resources
A test, or a brilliant master plan for regular method of operation?
In the past, “tests” for price increases have resulted in company wide changes, and I expect that increased digital day and date release costs to become the norm for Marvel. While I understand Quesada’s reasoning for increasing the cover price so as not to anger or upset the local comic shop owners, if you really think about it, upping the price for this annual (and presumably all future day and date releases) is a huge profit margin maker for Marvel.
In a time when the planet is going through one of the worst man made ecological disasters of all time, Greenpeace is really sticking it to Big Petroleum by having a contest for graphic designers where they can show their hatred for BP.
Aquaman isn’t the only one to succumb to the company who wouldn’t know their asshole from a hole in the ocean spewing millions of gallons of raw crude into the ecosystem, another beloved character is dead as well.
Or – “There’s A Reason Why The Comics Market Never Seems To Expand…”
When I started reading comics, the Silver Age was a thing of the past, the Bronze Age was coming to an end, and comics were in as much of a nadir as I’ve ever seen. DC had just gone through their ‘DC Implosion,’ an event which in retrospect was a lot more serious than we the readers were led to believe. (It has been intimated that many of DC’s employees were expecting the company to go under entirely, and sales didn’t really recover until New Teen Titans in ’82.) Marvel’s output was, to be honest, pretty soulless, as Peter Parker spent his tenth or eleventh year as a grad student, Iron Man was in a funk after his ground-breaking ‘Demon In A Bottle’ arc, and Captain America just sort of wandered about Brooklyn. In the decades since I’ve been reading, I’ve seen bad girl crazes, black and white explosions, and Image desertions, but seldom have I felt that my imaginary friends were spinning their wheels as madly and as fruitlessly as the comics industry of today…
Thirty years ago today, audiences lined up for blocks to watch the second installment of the Star Wars film franchise. The Empire Strikes Back was ground breaking on several fronts; not only did special effects get cranked up a notch, but is probably the first sci-fi film to have a real downer of an ending, and a surprise twist that wasn’t ruined by the Intardwebz. It was also one of the few movies my father and I saw together as a team.
Or – “The Best Way Not To Miss A Key Back Issue.”
There are a lot of reasons why anyone might do a particular job for any length of time. Security, satisfaction, the joy of the work itself… While the first is seldom an issue for me, the second and third are a big deal, and when you factor in the fringe benefits (first look at any comics that come into the store, as well as just enough discount to make my enormous pull list manageable) Comic Book guy is a mighty interesting line of work to be in… Haven’t you ever wondered what it’s like to be on the OTHER side of the counter?
This has been one heck of an interesting week. Between all the new features, podcasts, and the site going down on Friday, I’ve come to realize it isn’t the big picture, but the little things that add up to something great.
At first Ultimatum sounded like an awful idea – kill off as many characters in the Ultimate Universe in hopes of shaking things up and bringing readers back to the series that got people interested in Marvel again. To make matters worse, Marvel opted to go with someone other than Brian Michael Bendis to pen the epic disaster series, which was odd in itself as Bendis has done so much for the Ultimate Universe, it should have been up to him to bring it all crashing down around everyone’s head. With the final issue of the Ultimatum series, and all related tie-in issues out, Marvel indeed gets its wish in destroying what took nine years to build.
Shaking things up wasn’t well met with critics, fans, and many running around the Intardwebz, but having finished the saga, I think this event is probably one of the best moves Marvel could have done to the Ultimate Universe.
On June 10th Wizards of the Coast released the rules changes that will go into effect when Magic’s newest core set Magic 2010 hits the shelves. Here’s my take on them. If you want to see the announcement go to http://wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/42a
I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been a huge fan of electronic books and digital content for years. I bought one of the first e-readers commercially available, and used it until the batteries were unable to hold a charge any longer. The black- and -white interface of the e-readers of yesterday and today are perfect for reading books, but for comics — not so good.
Beyond the color issue, what else do e-reader creators, comic book publishers, and retailers need to do to make the transition to digital comics a success? I’ve got a few thoughts on that one.
When Heroic Publishing first began sending me solicitations about its titles availability on WOWIO, I was pretty excited. A free (or nearly free) digital comics distribution system that paid creators because of internal ads/sponsorships is a pretty great idea. I was able to access new content, or in the case of some of my favorite Clockwork Storybook folk (Bill Willingham, Matthew Sturges, Mark Finn, Chris Roberson) get stuff that is out of print circulation.
When it was announced Platinum Studios was buying WOWIO and “retooling” the entire system, I was a bit hesitant after the debacle with DJ Coffman (search our site, you’ll see DJ’s original praise for Platinum, that has now turned into hate). I let it slide at the time because the WOWIO system appeared to be working fine for everyone, in some cases earning creators upwards of $50,000 a year in royalties – not too shabby. Or should I say, not too shabby for the creators. According to WOWIO/Platinum the model wasn’t making them any money.
Platinum Studios is not a newbie to controversy, especially when it comes to creator rights, burning through captial, and that whole Cowboys vs. Aliens ranking issue that got the ire of many a LCS. So when word started filtering my way that WOWIO, now owned by Platinum Studios, had not been paying creators on time under the new contract, it wasn’t a surprise and has become the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Comic Book Resources has an excellent summary of what is going on with WOWIO, or as I’m calling them now – Wow, Oh No, and how the changes are affecting everyone.
What’s more, the creators say that Platinum’s new Wowio contract leaves something to be desired. Originally, Wowio provided users with free sponsored downloads and compensated their creators with a share of the ad revenue. While this option remains in place, the new deal instituted a pageview function which allows users to view any and all of Wowio’s e-books in their entirety in low resolution on the web, an option for which the books’ creators only see 20% of the generated ad revenue.
In otherwords, “Why download or purchase, when you can read online for free?” Not too shabby for Platinum Studios, who now gets a bigger piece of the pie.
As much as I like the stuff Heroic Publishing keeps sending us, and want the indie publisher to succeed, I think I’m turning my back on covering anything about WOWIO until somebody gets a half a brain and gets the Wow, Oh No house in order.
