A place to talk about anything to do with comics that doesn’t belong in the other threads.
Random Comics-Related Stuff
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The 2021 Eisners nominees have been announced:
https://www.comic-con.org/eisner-awards-current-info
As usual, some good stuff accompanied by some head-scratchers.
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My friend Allan Harvey did the art restoration for Atlas At War (Best Archival Collection nominee). It’s a collection of war stories originally published by Atlas in the 50s, by literally every big name artist in the business at the time. The restored art looks amazing, and I’m not just saying that because Allan’s a friend. His projects always respect the original art and colouring, which you can’t always say about reprinted material.
So anyway, we’re all crossing our fingers for a win for him :)
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The whole Bat/Cat “controversy” got Dave Cockrum’s son Ivan to post some of his father’s last sketches on Twitter:
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The whole Bat/Cat “controversy” got Dave Cockrum’s son Ivan to post some of his father’s last sketches on Twitter:
Good on Nightcrawler.
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Great article on Ian Kennedy – still doing painted covers for Commando at the age of 88. 7 years old when WW2 started and with a 17 year old great grandson.
The art of a happy life: Comic book legend Ian Kennedy on why he’s still drawing at 88
A pity they don’t actually show more of his work because the great bit is it has lost none of its quality.
This is from last month. Check out the issue number by the way. Take that Action Comics!
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It’s great that Kennedy is still being productive, even greater that the publishers are still giving him work. A big contrast to the big American publishers who forgot all about artists like John Severin and Herb Trimpe and Dick Ayers when styles began changing in the late 80s/90s.
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It honestly helps a lot that the style of Commando has basically not changed a jot in decades. It kind of exists in its own timewarp where over 60 years of publication it would be hard to tell 2 issues plucked from any time period apart.
On that point though, it’s still going for 5446 issues when a whole bunch of comics that ‘modernised’ aren’t.
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Commando conics are celebrating their 60th anniversary this year. They celebrated their first double page spread in the comics back in 2019! I always pick up an issue every now and then and it’s always a decent no nonsense romp.
Regarding Kennedy the 2000ad podcast interview with him from last summer is well worth checking out.
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They celebrated their first double page spread in the comics back in 2019!
I disapprove of this rapid progress!
Truth is there’s sometimes a lot to be said of a product that does what it says on the tin. Commando is like a little graphic novel about some war or other, it’ll always be decently drawn and has an in-built discipline to tell a good story. On a long journey it would keep me and my 10 year old son entertained.
A little aside, when I first came to Malaysia 18 years ago there was a certain amount of imported comics you could pick up in bookshops and newsagents. First 2000ad disappeared, then Marvel, then DC and then Archie. Only Commando and The Beano from DC Thompson remain.
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The annual ICV2 state of the industry report is out: https://www.comichron.com/yearlycomicssales/industrywide/2020-industrywide.html
Combined comics and graphic novel sales hit a new high in the pandemic year of 2020, according to a new joint estimate by ICv2’s Milton Griepp and Comichron’s John Jackson Miller. Total comics and graphic novel sales to consumers in the U.S. and Canada were approximately $1.28 billion in 2020, a 6% increase over sales in 2019. The increase was due to strong sales of graphic novels online and in mass merchants and strong digital sales, which overcame big declines in comic and book store sales.
“The challenges of retailing in the pandemic had profound impacts on the market, including the acceleration of trends that have been in place for years,” Griepp said of the 2020 estimates. “The book channel increased its share dramatically vs. comic stores, and graphic novels increased their share vs. periodical comics, while digital sales were turbocharged.”
Sales of kids’ graphic novels in mass merchants and online drove graphic novel sales early, and as the pandemic went on (and anime streaming grew), manga sales took off. In the comic store channel, the seven-week shutdown by Diamond Comic Distributors and subsequent publisher cutbacks in periodical releases were a drag on sales, even as demand surged in the second half of the year.
“The comic periodical market was ahead for the year before the pandemic struck, and the result of production cutbacks was that 30% fewer new comic books were released by the major publishers in 2020,” Miller said. “The fact that new comics sales were down by only 20% suggests that retailers did well with what they were able to get.”
Not only was demand high for new comics and graphic novels, the collectible side of the comics business was also strong. “The collector market flourished during the year, allowing comics shops to earn significant revenue from their back-issue inventories,” Miller added. “Many new releases also saw significant levels of markup that our charts would not be able to capture, all of which helped stores offset the lack of new product.”
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Paul – you aren’t playing the game in the ‘comics are dying’ narrative.
A big jump in digital there where it had been static for a while. I think we know why because of the pandemic but it’ll be interesting to see if it sticks.
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Marvel and DC’s “Shut-Up Money:” Comic Creators Go Public Over Pay
Marvel fans were flying high with the release of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, as the Disney+ series rose to top Nielsen’s closely watched streaming chart with 855 million minutes viewed during the April 12-18 frame. Yet one person fans were surprised to learn wasn’t watching was Ed Brubaker.
The comic book writer, who co-created the Winter Soldier character and whose work helped inspire $1 billion grossers like 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, made waves with a widely circulated interview in which he expressed dissatisfaction with his Winter Soldier pay. “I have made more on SAG residuals than I have made on creating the character,” Brubaker told Kevin Smith and Marc Bernardin on the Fatman Beyond podcast, referencing his cameo in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014).
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Multiple comic creators have publicly stated that DC’s payments for adaptations, in general, is higher. Comic creator Jim Starlin turned heads in 2017 when he publicly noted that Warner Bros. paid him more for a minor character that appeared in DC’s Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice than he received for Marvel’s major Guardians of the Galaxy characters Thanos, Gamora and Drax combined. After Starlin’s airing of grievances, Disney renegotiated his deal for Thanos, the villain of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Those films went on to gross $4.83 billion globally, and Starlin, while not sharing details of his deal, walked away happy. “The cliche is that the squeaky wheel gets the grease,” Starlin tells The Hollywood Reporter. “The way these agreements are written up, Disney can be more generous if they want. It is written right there that they can change the terms to make it better.”
There’s no legal obligation to make additional payments for adaptations, with companies such as Marvel viewing these payments as thank-you gifts — and a way to avoid the bad publicity of warring with a creator. “It’s ‘shut-up’ money,” as one Marvel creator who receives such payments, but also declined to share details of compensation, likes to call it.
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For years, the job of determining payments on something like The Dark Knight fell to Paul Levitz, who served as DC’s president and publisher from 2002 to 2009. One payment category was money owed for creating a character. Other categories were murkier, such as comic storylines Nolan borrowed from, like the classic storyline The Long Halloween by writer Jeff Loeb and artist Tim Sale. Then there were categories even less easy to define.
“Christian Bale liked looking at Tim Sale’s work before he would go out and strike a pose,” says Levitz. “I’m not sure how you value that. But when you have a movie that is as successful as Batman Begins or Dark Knight, it says that there’s something there. And you should say thank you in some fashion.”
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When a creator has created dozens of characters, it can be a full-time job trying to make sure credit is given where it’s due. Former Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas receives automatic checks for his characters. If there are issues, he takes them up with two Marvel employees who act as an in-between to the Disney side. Earlier this month, Thomas flagged that he wasn’t being properly credited on Loki for his role in creating the Time Keepers, the mysterious beings at the center of the Disney+ show. Thomas, who is positive about his relationship with Marvel, was assured it would be fixed. On July 7, Thomas’ manager, John Cimino skipped to the end of that week’s episode and was disappointed not to see his clients’ name. A few days later, Cimino checked out Black Widow and was happy to confirm Thomas was thanked for his role in co-creating Red Guardian, the character played by David Harbour. And he was relieved to tune into July 14’s Loki finale to see Thomas credited as requested.
“A lot of people want that money. For me, wouldn’t you want to have your name there forever?” says Cimino.
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Credit can be so important that it can even lead to surprising behavior. THR learned of an instance in which the co-creator of an A-list DC character secretly maneuvered behind-the-scenes to have themselves listed as the sole creator on paper, with regard to merchandise or adaptations, cutting their partner out of payments. According to a knowledgeable source, the other co-creator only learned of this maneuvering years later when a Warner Bros. theatrical employee noticed the discrepancy ahead of the release of a movie featuring the character. (The wronged co-creator now receives payments, but is said to not be on friendly terms with their former collaborator.)
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Credit can be so important that it can even lead to surprising behavior. THR learned of an instance in which the co-creator of an A-list DC character secretly maneuvered behind-the-scenes to have themselves listed as the sole creator on paper, with regard to merchandise or adaptations, cutting their partner out of payments. According to a knowledgeable source, the other co-creator only learned of this maneuvering years later when a Warner Bros. theatrical employee noticed the discrepancy ahead of the release of a movie featuring the character. (The wronged co-creator now receives payments, but is said to not be on friendly terms with their former collaborator.)
There’s no “a-list” DC character with living co-creators, surely? Unless they’re being really generous to Cyborg.
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There’s no “a-list” DC character with living co-creators, surely? Unless they’re being really generous to Cyborg.
Not A-List, but the speculation I’ve seen is Huntress, who is credited to Paul Levitz solo, with no mention of Bob Layton or Joe Staton.
*cough, cough* pic.twitter.com/HbM8pvyuX3
— Be Handsome (@dstransmissions) July 16, 2021
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Ha, that’s ironic given Levitz’s role described in the article.
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From Batman 666, which took place 15 years in the future. It came out in 2007, making Grant’s predictions for 2022 pretty accurate. pic.twitter.com/9ZKswcdNBL
— Tim Seeley (@HackinTimSeeley) July 20, 2021
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This is massively disappointing, but not unexpected after the ball started rolling on it.
I’ve booked tickets but I’m considering whether to ask for a refund as Miller was by far the biggest name there and one of the few that I was really keen on seeing.
I wish there could be more nuance in these online discussions and that these complaints could be dealt with in a way other than cancelling his appearance outright.
What a shame.
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I think when regular exhibitors/guests are saying they won’t come to the convention because they don’t feel safe/comfortable being at the same show as a man who wrote a hate tract against their religion and then said exhibitor/guest gets barracked online by fans of the writer in question, it’s reasonable for the show to go with the person they have history with. Although in this case they’ve taken so long to actually make that decision, it’s seemingly too late to rebuild that trust and they’ve lost out on both.
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So you’re saying you’re not excited to meet me, Dave?
You were among that few.
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It’s definitely a no win scenario. I get that. It’s just really disappointing that it came to this.
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It’s definitely a no win scenario. I get that. It’s just really disappointing that it came to this.
Yeah, I think Thought Bubble put themselves in a position where they couldn’t win, frankly. I’m not saying Miller shouldn’t ever get to go conventions again – I don’t think people would have cared as much if he’d been booked by a Showmasters show – but given Thought Bubble has built itself (at least in part) on giving space and voice to marginalised communities, he’s not the kind of person they should be booking, let alone as headliner, really. And then they took two months to even address the complaints, which didn’t help.
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I just realised it’s now more than 10 years since Nonplayer #1 came out.
I wonder if #3 is still in the works?
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They were pretty good!
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The art looked really good! I haven’t thought about them in about ten years, but thanks for reminding me Dave!
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Yeah, I am glad that Miller is in a better place mentally these days, but as far as I am aware he has never really apologised for or disowned Holy Terror (just saying that he has changed), or made amends. I can understand disinviting him, but honestly what I would much rather see is him being invited quite normally to whatever event and then being challenged on the things he said and wrote and drew back then in every interview he gives, instead of being asked snivelling fanboy questions about his career.
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Yeah, I am glad that Miller is in a better place mentally these days, but as far as I am aware he has never really apologised for or disowned Holy Terror (just saying that he has changed), or made amends.
This interview with the Guardian makes it pretty clear that he doesn’t feel the same as he once did about these issues. Miller was obviously profoundly affected by 9/11, something seemed to snap in him mentally around that time, and it’s taken him a while to recover from it.
It also alludes to the fact that he was in a pretty bad place at that time (re. his addiction issues etc.) which doesn’t erase the things he said but can maybe be considered a mitigating factor.
Here are a couple of relevant quotes.
“My stuff always represents what I’m going through,” Miller says today. “Whenever I look at any of my work I can feel what my mindset was and I remember who I was with at the time. When I look at Holy Terror, which I really don’t do all that often, I can really feel the anger ripple out of the pages. There are places where it is bloodthirsty beyond belief.”
Does he have any regrets? “I don’t want to go back and start erasing books I did,” he replies. “I don’t want to wipe out chapters of my own biography. But I’m not capable of that book again.”
He stops short of disowning the book entirely but I think that’s a fairly reasonable stance for a creator – I think art should stand alone and speak for itself, and his comments about not being capable of the book today are a pretty clear indication of how his mindset has changed. I think it’s much better to acknowledge your past work and make it clear that you’ve moved on, rather than trying to pretend it never happened altogether.
Personally I find Holy Terror a more complex book than it is treated by many people, who are (understandably) put off by the racist and bigoted perspective of the narrator.
Miller was always very clear on wanting to create a piece of modern superhero propaganda with the book, a modern counterpart to Captain America punching Hitler or Superman urging you to “slap a Jap”, and I think if you want to do that honestly then you have to push things to extremes and delve into offensive territory or it will feel toothless.
I do think that having the concept changed to no longer be a Batman book hurt it in that way – there would be something far more transgressive in having Batman say those things and think these thoughts rather than a new original character, and if it was Batman as the lead then people would understand more easily that the protagonist wasn’t a cipher for Miller’s own thoughts and feelings, but a deliberately extreme version of a psychotic vigilante who has been pushed over the edge and has become extreme himself.
Having said all that, I’m not really a defender of the book – despite having some great art and storytelling technique in places, it doesn’t make its point very clearly a lot of the time, and the repetition of the racist stereotypes without much obvious irony or examination does make it feel like a racist tract itself in places. It’s the kid of book you feel a bit dirty after reading, which I think is what it intends, but not necessarily for the reasons it intends.
On top of all of his public comments about wishing he could personally go to the Middle East and fight the war on terror, and decrying the younger generation with stuff like his comments on the Occupy movement, I think it all helped to cement Miller’s image as a cranky out-of-touch old man. So I’m not surprised that younger comics fans who maybe weren’t really tuned in to any of this stuff until the early 2000s think of Miller mainly in that way, and don’t consider him in the context of his groundbreaking (and politically sometimes fairly progressive) comics work of the 80s and 90s.
Regarding his growth and ability to change more widely, I see from his social media that he has recently been using his art to actively campaign against anti-Asian racism, which is not something that a lot of the recent coverage has picked up. I guess because it makes it harder to paint him as an unreformed racist, but it’s a shame as I think it demonstrates his capacity to grow and change and move past his earlier views.
All of which is to say that I think Frank Miller and Holy Terror deserve a more nuanced discussion than we’ve seen in recent days, but I’m not surprised they haven’t had one.
I do somewhat struggle to see how Miller’s presence at a con would make someone feel genuinely unsafe or in danger. It’s not as though he promotes anti-Islamic views today or commands crowds of racist fans who are going to swarm the convention. I think it’s more an ideological stance of “I don’t want to share the same space as this person” because of such a strong disagreement with their views and a distaste for their work. Which is still a valid opinion to have, of course.
Either way, he’s clearly seen as part of the old guard now and someone that younger creators will want to actively push back against as part of making their own mark in comics.
Which is a shame for someone who loves his work like me, and was hoping to get a chance to see him in person, but it is clearly just the way of things.
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Great post, Dave. My feelings are much the same.
I read Holy Terror when it came out and found it rather distasteful. But, it was a work of art that portrayed the feelings of the artist – the anger was palpable on every page. I think there’s something commendable about that. It’s always good to feel the emotional investment that the artist has in their work, even if you do not agree with the subject of that work, or like the finished product all that much. And, whilst I find the rhetoric abhorrent, I can certainly understand the anger that Frank was processing at the time.
It’s why I find cancel culture so difficult to reconcile. I don’t need to agree with everything you say, but you have a right to say and feel those things. And, I have the right to ignore and avoid your work going forwards.
I sold Holy Terror not long after reading it the first time as it was not something I was interested in going back to. Ever. I still wanted to meet Frank Miller though
I’m still a fan.Sorry. That was a rambling post. Dave said it better.
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You should really submit statements like those above to Thought Bubble. It can do no harm, but maybe it can do some good.
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It’s a tough one.
Miller in a hard time in his life by all accounts took some pretty extremist views. He hasn’t om the record disavowed them but rather said he’s moved on. It is a little bit ‘sorry you were offended’ rather than sorry for what I did, which is common nowadays.
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I don’t know, seems eerily similar to when people claim Boris Johnson isn’t really a racist, he’s used fond of using racist language.
Interesting analogy, and as someone who thinks Johnson is absolute scum, I think it’s contextual. A sub-par piece of work over a career of excellence (your mileage may vary) is easier to overlook, than someone who has a repeated and consistent track record of being a dick. If Holy Terror had been followed up with a decade of evil and venomous diatribes I certainly would be less interested in his past glories or future work too.
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A lot of people seem to want to judge Miller on the basis of his lowest point, on the evidence of a book that came out a decade ago (and was written and drawn years before that), and don’t seem to want to allow for the idea that even if they are right about the book – that it’s evidence of racist views on Miller’s part – he might have changed in the 10+ years since.
It’s easy to hold on to prejudice (or bias if you’d rather call it that) against people who have expressed opinions like (or made art along the lines of) that. I see a lot other tendencies with Frank Miller that I don’t particularly like that feeds into my bias against him as a writer. Sexism being the biggest one, and in my eyes it’s so rampant in so much of his work it feels like “it’s not a bug, it’s a feature” to me.
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I think a lot of this whole argument comes down to the extent to which we’re willing to believe that a person can grow and change their views and outlook.
I don’t entirely. I believe people can and Miller probably has as he was in a very bad place then. That’s why I read his more recent work. He does though need a stronger statement than ‘well I’ve moved on but I stand by the work’.
It may be an artistic phase for him but Islamaphobia is a reality for people every day. It’s why people reacted more positively to Warren Ellis’s recent statement of genuine contrition and plans to change than a ‘sorry you were offended’ style response we often see.
It is true I am criticising the work without having read it, I haven’t and won’t because his words in promoting it as anti-Muslim propaganda, something I don’t want to financially support. While it may well be more nuanced than that by reviews, including yours, there is a good chunk of that in it.
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This interview with the Guardian makes it pretty clear that he doesn’t feel the same as he once did about these issues. Miller was obviously profoundly affected by 9/11, something seemed to snap in him mentally around that time, and it’s taken him a while to recover from it.
I do remember that interview, it’s more or less what I was refering to. I agree with a lot of what you’re saying there Dave, and I have to admit to not having read Holy Terror (more about which later), but he explicitly does not apologise for the stance he takes in that book (or the things he wrote in blogs at the time). Saying he has moved on isn’t the same as making clear your opinions have actually changed, or apologising to people who you’ve offended, and I feel that this is a case in which he clearly should’ve done both, at the very least.
So I’m not surprised that younger comics fans who maybe weren’t really tuned in to any of this stuff until the early 2000s think of Miller mainly in that way, and don’t consider him in the context of his groundbreaking (and politically sometimes fairly progressive) comics work of the 80s and 90s.
Well, it can be two things, can’t it? As a definitely-not-younger comics fan, I was struggling with Miller’s politics long before Holy Terror (which is in part why I decided not to read it, because I was pretty sure how I’d feel about it and didn’t want to give my money to him for this). Even before his mental breakdown (which I suppose is obvious he suffered in some form), Miller’s politics as you could sense them in his books had become more and more problematic to me. Sin City suffered from this in later stages, 300 was basically a fascist strong-man manifesto (though I have to say I would probably have interpreted a lot more of it as irony if I hadn’t also been reading its letter pages back when it came out) and it made a lot of sense when I realised that Martha Washington Goes to War was an homage to The Fountainhead.
So, Miller’s politics and how they run in his work have lessened my enjoyment of his work for a long time now. I will still buy his books whenever it looks like he’s created something good again, because he really is one of the best writers and artists the medium has ever had and work like Ronin or Dark Knight Returns have had a huge impact on my reading of comics. He is an incredibly important part of the comics world and should always be perceived as such.
But the “younger generation” should feel free to confront him on his politics, as should the older one. I have no desire to see him cancelled, but I would have even less desire to see people at conventions fawning over his Daredevil or Sin City work without challenging him over the Holy Terror.
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Well, it can be two things, can’t it? As a definitely-not-younger comics fan, I was struggling with Miller’s politics long before Holy Terror (which is in part why I decided not to read it, because I was pretty sure how I’d feel about it and didn’t want to give my money to him for this). Even before his mental breakdown (which I suppose is obvious he suffered in some form), Miller’s politics as you could sense them in his books had become more and more problematic to me. Sin City suffered from this in later stages, 300 was basically a fascist strong-man manifesto (though I have to say I would probably have interpreted a lot more of it as irony if I hadn’t also been reading its letter pages back when it came out) and it made a lot of sense when I realised that Martha Washington Goes to War was an homage to The Fountainhead. So, Miller’s politics and how they run in his work have lessened my enjoyment of his work for a long time now. I will still buy his books whenever it looks like he’s created something good again, because he really is one of the best writers and artists the medium has ever had and work like Ronin or Dark Knight Returns have had a huge impact on my reading of comics. He is an incredibly important part of the comics world and should always be perceived as such. But the “younger generation” should feel free to confront him on his politics, as should the older one.
I agree with this. And even as a fan, I have had my own issues with Miller’s politics over the years. The comments he was making in the early 2000s made me go back to his 80s and 90s work and question whether some of the stuff I saw as irony was really ironic or was actually more sincere than I thought.
Ultimately (as I’ve made clear many times over the years when we’ve talked about Miller, and you’re probably all bored of it by now), I am very much a separate-art-from-artist person, and I try to take the books on their own terms, provided a creator isn’t acting in such an abhorrent way that I feel like it’s morally wrong to financially support them.
So in some ways I feel like the less I know about creators the better, as it won’t skew my reading of their books. But with Miller it inevitably clouds things to an extent.
It hasn’t stopped me enjoying his past work though, even if I have more complex feelings about some of it now than I once did.
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In truth these things are often hugely subjective and everyone has their own lines. ThoughtBubble included
I haven’t cancelled Miller, I read his recent Superman comic. I’m not giving him money for his anti-Islam comic though.
Separating the art from the artist is also a two way street. The two can often collide if they place their views into the work. I knew Bill Whillingham has politics very different to mine but liked Fables because it was irrelevant to the storytelling, until it wasn’t in one issue.
They may not put it into the work at all but their crimes are so extreme you can never endorse them (Gary Glitter the twice convicted paedophile as an example but his records aren’t about that).
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Jay and Miles Explain the X-Men (all the main X-books, issue by issue),
Hey man…you really got me into this!😊
I heard this podcast and went back to their podcasts from 7 years ago when they were discussing the Byrne/Claremont issues! Amazing nostalgia. They play off each other real well and they had a chemistry which I found out was even off the air.
I googled them, found out so much that their personal lives were just as interesting as their humorous takes on the issues.
They have this huge cult following and even have their own channel on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYO80X1Mz3B9Z_muBsm_nbA
Daily Beast article on them: https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-a-podcast-came-to-lead-the-mutant-resistance
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I was listening to a podcast with Doug Braithwaite on it and he said he found out recently went to the same primary school as Jimmy Cheung. Which surprised me as I always thought Cheung was American because as far as I know he never worked on any British comics but he’s from London.
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DC vs. Marvel: How a nearly 60-year rivalry disappeared without anyone really noticing
I honestly don’t think the fans care about the rivalry anymore. I think Gen X and Boomers have moved on from it and Millennials and Gen Z never experienced it so it’s not even a thing for them. I wouldn’t be surprised if the number of hardcore “buy them all!” fans of each company has dwindled to a small number for each. I think older fans may still have their preferences for a specific company’s product but the “fanboy” mindset has faded as they have gotten older.
I would agree with the article that having huge corporate masters has also tempered the fiery rhetoric of the past.
I also wouldn’t be surprised if the companies simply forgot about the rivalry.
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Honestly I would not be surprised if a lot of people think they are all products from the same company probably Marvel.
on another note, does anyone remember an older superhero comic or action television show where the hero got his powers from smoking cigarettes? I was sure I saw something like that as a kid, but can’t find it.
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I used to watch The Eighth Man cartoon after school in the late 60s; I don’t remember the cigarette connection, but I certainly remember the theme song.
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Comixology app update will bring faster downloads, better searching, and full Amazon integration – GamesRadar link
If you read comics digitally, you’ll want to pay attention this major Comixology change
A major update to Amazon’s Comixology app will be rolling out this fall – one which will further integrate the comics reading platform with the main Amazon site. According to an email to users from Comixology co-founder/CEO David Steinberger (who is also Amazon’s head of comics worldwide), these are “important changes” – some of which are in response to customer demand.
Full integration with Amazon
The biggest change will be a complete integration of Comixology into Amazon in terms of purchases and the platform. When the Comixology app update rolls out, Steinberger says the Comixology.com homepage will be redirected to an Amazon.com section – so no more Comixology.com.
While previously you could visit Comixology.com directly or peruse its collection through Amazon (and its app), once the app update comes through browser users’ only option will be through Amazon.com. All Comixology users will be required to merge their accounts with an Amazon account – something it has been recommending (but not requiring) for the past few years.
This is part of what Steinberger calls a “revamped digital comics shopping experience,” and appears similar to how people who visit Kindle.com are redirected to a section of Amazon.com.
The Comixology section of Amazon.com is already online, if you’re interested.
Reading comics
As far as the actual reading of comics on Comixology, Steinberger says there will be some “fun” but unspecified new navigation features in its Guided View presentation, as well as more options for filtering and sorting the comics in Comixology (and your personal) collection.
The fall Comixology app update is also expected to result in “faster, more reliable” downloading for Android and iOS devices. And a feature iOS users have had for some time, being able to read a comic while it’s downloading, will be added to the new iteration of the Android app.
Kindle & Prime users
For those who read comics using a Kindle device or the Kindle app, you will now be able to read the comics you buy regardless if you purchased them through the Comixology app or through Amazon itself.
And speaking of Kindle, for those who are members of Kindle Unlimited and/or Amazon Prime, the new version of the Comixology app will allow you to input your credentials in order to directly read various Comixology Originals and other comics available to members of those Amazon services. This would include the eight upcoming creator-owned titles Scott Snyder is writing.
Additional details about what Steinberger calls “our new features and exciting changes” will be revealed in “the next couple of weeks.”
And for those comics readers who have asked Comixology (and us) when Comixology Unlimited will be available outside the US, the company says “this is a popular request but we don’t have anything to announce just yet.” That being said, Kindle Unlimited and Prime Reading (which are both available outside the US) will be able to read Comixology Originals titles in either the Kindle or Comixology apps this fall.
Amazon hasn’t specified when exactly this fall this Comixology app update will release but it says that once it does, previous versions of the app will no longer be supported and will become completely inoperable “soon” after the update.
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I think that is true about the movies. I know I’ve had to tell people that some DC movies are not part of the MCU, though I bet WB wishes they were.
That would be hilarious.
“Hey, you know in the Avengers, like, when they are all fighting those giant wormy things and Loki is trying to cut a hole in the sky with that giant laser…?”
“…Yes?”
“Where was Superman during all that? Like, couldn’t he have just lasered Loki’s laser with his laser eye gizmo and punched the worms to bits or something?”
“Superman’s DC.”
“So? They were in New York.”
“…what?”
“He can fly, dummy. DC’s like what, ten minutes from New York.”
“No. Superman is DC Comics. The Avengers are Marvel.”
“Are you having a stroke? I didn’t understand a word you just said.”
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Al Ewing vows not to work with Joe Bennett again as more antisemitic work resurfaces
Saw this story about Joe Bennett this morning. I hadn’t seen the image in question (all the news stories seem to be talking about it but not showing it) but Al Ewing’s response seems pretty reasonable.
Having said that, looking up the image itself I’m not sure whether the perceived racist caricatures are intended as such – they seem to be caricatures of specific Brazilian politicians rather than generic racist tropes.
(I will confess to not having a complete enough understanding of the political situation in Brazil to be able to judge.)
Maybe people are particularly attuned to the idea of antisemitic imagery in his work after the previous controversies.
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People have complained about a piece of artwork made by Bennett in 2017 that depicts Bolsonaro as a heroic figure, armoured on horseback, going after his political enemies.
A couple of the smaller figures do feel like they play on racist tropes but at the same time (without knowing the politicians being depicted) they may just be standard exaggerated caricatures.
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I tried reading that article but the site kept loading up an entirely different story and shoving it under the first paragraph of this one, cutting the rest off. So what’s going on?
Yeah, that was both confusing and hilarious.
It has a twitter post that says “There’s an image doing the rounds that Joe Bennett drew back in 2017. I won’t link to it, but I have seen it, and it’s reprehensible. Thread follows.”
And then it goes into an article about a comic called Sweet Paprika, so it looks like this is the “image doing the rounds.”
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Paprika should never be that sweet.
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For the first time in ages, I had a look at the comics sales for the last month or two. https://www.comichron.com/monthlycomicssales/2021/2021-07.html https://www.comichron.com/monthlycomicssales/2021/2021-06.html
Interesting to see so many newer Image and Boom books so high, while Jupiter’s Legacy Requiem is down at #152 for its second issue, of a planned twelve. I’m sure it’ll sell more in TPB, but that has to be a disappointment.
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Interesting to see so many newer Image and Boom books so high, while Jupiter’s Legacy Requiem is down at #152 for its second issue, of a planned twelve. I’m sure it’ll sell more in TPB, but that has to be a disappointment.
The first issue came out after the Netflix series dropped. I would think having miniseries out prior to the Netflix series then the trade out around the time of the premiere to build up hype for the series. I’m sure the TV series tanking didn’t help the comic book series either.
Or maybe the bloom is off the Millar rose. A few years ago, this probably would have debuted at the top of the charts. Readers may have moved on from him. I know I have. A lot of his work I sampled over the last few years just didn’t connect with me. Millar, for most of his career, has always been ahead of the curve. But it seems like after signing the Netflix deal, things have tapered off. Gar mentioned in another thread that he’s doing the newsletter thing. If that was truly the next big thing, Millar would have done that years ago. Doing it now, especially after the announcement of the big deals, seems like an afterthought. He was always proactive, not reactive.
I may be overthinking this but to me, the Millarworld brand isn’t what it used to be.
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Millatworld books pre and post Netflix deal are rather distinct. The post-deal stuff feels less.
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I would maybe look at it being a surprisingly high order for #1 rather than a big drop for #2.
Creators have been known to use certain tactics to boost numbers for #1s that don’t necessarily reflect natural demand. So it may be that #2 is more reflective of the book’s regular audience and #1 was a little inflated.
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Maybe, I wouldn’t rule it out but remember reading the average drop off between #1 and #2 is around 25%. 52k to 17k is pretty remarkable with no real gimmick marketing I can see.
If that were Marvel or DC you’d have gone from very good launch to cancellation candidate in one month.
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