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P Is for Paranormal--Still
There's no new way to say it, except possibly en francais, the language of love. Paranormal is le dernier cri in the romance category--its hold on readers and publishers alike defies any logic or explanation. In its first year it was a phase, then it became a definite trend. Now, it's a sea change, with no evidence that the tide's waning. So, sure, everybody agrees about the Pword, but what, exactly, is its appeal— why is this romance genre so, er, bloody popular?
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Bolstering the Reference Category
Earlier this month Apple released a remarkable bit of news: just 28 days after the release of the iPad, its much hyped and anticipated multifunctional touch-screen device, the company had sold one million units—a milestone achieved in less than half the time it took the company to reach with its debut iPhone in 2007. What's more, in the same time period, new iPad owners downloaded more than 12 million apps from the Apple App Store and 1.5 million books from the newly unveiled iBookstore.
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Why I Write: Steven Saylor
I can't remember the bookshop, or the city where it happened. I can't even remember which book I was promoting, or much about the reader who asked it—but I'll never forget the question.
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Imaginary Murders, Real Sleuths
In order to tell a good lie, it's best to mix in some truth. The same often holds true for historical mysteries: to tell an authentic whodunit set in the past, try mixing in real-life figures. In several successful historical series, authors go further than just name-checking the contemporary president or alluding to an ongoing war. Instead, they use well-known historical figures, often fellow authors, as their crime-solving heroes.
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Why I Write...
A momentous event in my seventh year started me on a lifelong passion: my grandmother gave me a typewriter. I began to write to understand what I was living.
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Mysteries of History
Hilary Mantel's winning the Man Booker Prize for Wolf Hall (Holt, Oct. 2009)--a novel of Tudor England focused on Thomas Cromwell, one of Henry VIII's closest adviser--makes this an appropriate time to reflect on a major mystery subgenre--the historical.
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Azzarello Reinvents Pulp Icons & Superheroes in 'First Wave'
On March 3rd, DC Comics kicks off a new fictional universe built on a combination of two sturdy adventure concepts: classic pulp icons including Doc Savage and the Avenger and hardboiled superheroes from Batman to the Spirit. Or as writer Brian Azzarello put it, "The number one draw is 'Let's do a superhero book with no super powers.'"
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MacDonald Relaunches Comics News Blog, The Beat
Heidi MacDonald has moved her poppuar comics news blog, The Beat, to its own web domain and will focus the site on a newly transformed (and still transforming) comics industry.
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Gods, Man and Comics: George O’Connor’s Olympians
For many kids, the gods of Greek mythology are every bit as exciting as the superheroes seen in comic books and on TV. Now, with the release of George O'Connor's graphic novels Zeus: King of the Gods (First Second, Jan.) and Athena: Grey-Eyed Goddess (Apr.), the gods look the part. O'Connor spoke with PW Comics Week about his visual inspiration for the books, the relationship between modern superheroes and their mythical predecessors, and how he dealt with the less PC aspects of the myths.
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February Comics Bestsellers
Two of Jeff Kinney’s Wimpy Kid series, Dog Days and Last Straw, rule the top two slots; followed by Viz’s Yu-Gi-Oh! GX vol. 4; R. Crumb’s Book of Genesis and Naruto Vol. 47. Next up is Full Metal Alchemist, Vol. 22 at #7; followed by Zombie Survival Guide; Yen Press’s Black Butler, Vol. 1 and Warriors: Shattered Peace.
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Diamond's Thresholds a Year Later
On January 16th, 2009, Diamond announced a policy change that would have a huge impact on the comics market: the threshold for orders on new products was bumped up from $1500 to $2500, and fewer items would be relisted after their initial offering. In the year since, the change has had far reaching effects.
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Viz Signature and Manga for Grownups
Viz Media editorial manager Leyla Aker took some time to talk with PW Comics Week about the thinking behind the Signature line and Viz’s plans for SigIKKI, an online comics site that also targets older readers, as well as what is in the works for Viz Signature in 2010.
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Funnies Business: Big Cross-Over Events and the Barrier Method
You ever notice how hard it is these days to pick up a single comic title from Marvel or DC? And by single a comic title, I mean picking up one series that isn’t crossing over with several other titles a couple times each year and only comes out once a month. If you want to avoid bulk purchases, this plague of crossovers amounts to a barrier to entry for readers.
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It’s Here! Comics Publishers Respond to Apple’s iPad
Last week Apple CEO Steven Jobs finally unveiled the iPad, Apple’s much anticipated multimedia computing and reading device, and there was much discussion among comics publishers and fans about what the device will mean for the future of digital comics.
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Abrams to Publish Deluxe Simpsons Futurama Collection
If you happen to like the Simpsons and Futurama—and really, who doesn’t?—then you’re going to love Matt Groening’s, The Simpson Futurama Crossover Crisis, a deluxe slip-cased hardcover that collects two periodical mini-series originally published in 2002 and 2005 that will be released in April by Abrams' ComicsArt imprint. The book will have a first printing of 100,000 copies worldwide.
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Kevin Smith Gets Dynamic with Green Hornet
Kevin Smith is best known as the director of such slacker classics as Clerks and Dogma, but he has been successfully moonlighting as a comics writer for years, working on such heroes as Green Arrow, Bat-Man and Daredevil. Now his two roles are coming together as he adapts his unproduced Green Hornet screenplay into a 10-issue mini series for Dynamite Entertainment, which debuts in March.
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Teaching and Drawing: James Sturm Returns with Market Day
Like so many creative professionals, James Sturm wears more than one hat. Both a dedicated comics educator and a critically acclaimed cartoonist, Sturm is publishing a new work of fiction, Market Day, which will be released this spring by Drawn and Quarterly.
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Fantagraphics to Release Special Edition of King Graphic Biography
Originally published in three volumes released between 1993 and 2003, King, Ho Che Anderson’s much acclaimed graphic biography of Martin Luther King, will be re-released in a special revised hardcover edition in February in conjunction with the beginning of Black History Month.
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Boom! Studios to Launch New Imprint
Despite a tough economy that has forced other publishers to scale back, independent comics publisher Boom! Studios is upsizing its operations and launching Boom! Town, a new imprint that will focus on “literary comics” and selective reissues of out-of-print works in addition to merchandising deals. The new line has projects lined up with legendary comics publisher and now literary agent Denis Kitchen and with cartoonist Shannon Wheeler, creator of Too Much Coffee Man.
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Discovering Manga with Frederik Schodt
Writer, translator and Japanese pop culture expert, Frederik Schodt was writing about manga and Osamu Tezuka when many of us were still watching the Flintstones. Schodt has written a number of books on Japan including Dreamland Japan, The Astroboy Essays, and the reference book on Japanese comics that has become somewhat of a bible, Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics.
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