ComicsPRO position paper rumbles on…….I’m with Dirk on this one…

I’ve seen this one building for a few days and to be honest, haven’t the energy to post about it more than this.

But I just read Dirk’s take on it and think he’s pretty much bang on about it.

To summarise: ComicsPRO, the retailer organisation for comic shops, came out with a position paper that essentially complains about comic companies debuting books at conventions before making them available to comic shops and then pretty much demands they stop.

This was very quickly rounded on by Tom Spurgeon, Johanna, Alan David Doane, and I’m sure, many others (but like I say, no energy for this sadly). Brian Hibbs does put a good argument on the opposing side as well.

As for me, I can sympathise with the retailer’s lot, having worked in one a goodly portion of my adult life, but feel it’s a little akin to bullying, and seems to completely miss a lot of the main points about the failings of the direct market. Of course, the UK, having far fewer big conventions, probably has never seen the impact upon sales that ComicsPRO asserts is happening in US stores.

ComicsPRO are having a go essentially at publishers like Top Shelf, Fantagraphics, D&Q, SLG and others who routinely sell at shows and, according to anecdotal evidence sell a goodly portion of their stock at shows.

(from Dirk’s piece: “In his interview with Michael Dean for The Comics Journal #277, Top Shelf co-publisher Chris Staros noted that roughly a third of his sales come from “mail-ins and convention appearances.”)

Similarly these publishers are by and large ignored by the majority of retailers. If you want a UK specific example of that look at Paul Grist’s interview with Matthew Badham on the FPI blog a short while back:

“I think I ended up printing 3000 copies of the first issue. Then I decided to try and sell them. That was a matter of sending out a sample copy to all the comic shops in the UK and selling it directly to them. And from that I found that, out of the hundreds of comic shops in the UK, there were about 15 willing to sell something like that.”

15 shops willing to even try to sell something as obviously good as Paul Grist’s Kane. It’s the same, or even worse in the states. So if you’re someone like Top Shelf or Fantagraphics and are never that far above break even are you really going to stop selling these books at conventions just so you can be routinely ignored by the majority of the shops that ComicsPRO says are being hurt so badly by your actions?
I think not.
Remember this is Top Shelf and Fantagraphics; both of which nearly went bust a few years back when a distributor went under. They had to beg, literally beg, for us to buy extra books that month just to keep the cash flow going so that the banks didn’t close them down. But ComicsPRO is expecting them to cut off maybe up to 1/3 of their sales?
(And as is the way with these things I can find no direct link to the plea they put out, but try these anyway…. here and here.)

The shops it does hurt, people like Brian Hibbs and others who do stock a full range, are caught in the unfortunate middle ground.
I’m sure people like Brian do all this anyway, but surely, this is just one of those things to grin and bear? Indeed, based on our smaller experience in the UK convention sales don’t bite that hard.

Take the most recent convention. The Birmingham Comics Show. Loads of people there selling books that the fans could have bought from us at Nostalgia & Comics. And quite a lot of new books as well that were being sold on debut. But, although this is only anecdotal and frankly guessing, evidence, I don’t think we did all that badly out of it. I’d be guessing that 75% plus of our standing orders wouldn’t buy new when they knew they were getting it from us, such is the customer loyalty we try to foster.
And the good thing about conventions is the amount of extra trade we do on those days from people from all over the country who travel especially down to it. How do I know? Well, just by looking at the fans – there were an awful lot of Nostalgia & Comics bags at the show and we don’t just give those away at the till.

We also tend to get actively involved in the shows, hosting extra signings at the store, buying extra copies of the convention debut direct from the publishers or creators so we’ve got it in as well. Like I say, maybe this is unique to the UK with our smaller (geographically and financially) market.

Another thing with these publishers, most of the convention debuts are perennial stock items, things we plan to have on the shelves for as long as they’re in print, things that sell over and over again. Take Andi Watson. He sells at shows. But for the distributor shipping late, he would have debuted Glister 2 at the Birmingham Show. My take on that is that if Andi sells someone a Glister 2 and they shop in Birmingham then maybe, just maybe, we’ll get the sale for Glister 3, and then a copy of Breakfast Afternoon, Slow News Day, Love Fights, Paris and everything else he does. It doesn’t have to be a sale lost in the long term.

So maybe I’m really wrong, maybe I’m talking out of turn. But I just can’t see it.
Yes, it’s a bad deal on retailers in the US if they really get hit that badly by convention sales. But do ComicsPRO really expect these publishers to just roll over and go out of business waiting for the majority of the comic shops to stock them? This is precisely the reason that publishers like Fantagraphics and Top Shelf are trying to get their books carried in major book stores. They need the sales. They need more exposure, more outlets stocking them. And if the direct market isn’t doing that they have every right to look elsewhere.

In the end it comes down to a simple equation. Would the good shops, like Nostalgia & Comics, a lot of the Forbidden Planet International stores, Page 45, Gosh, Comix Experience et al rather lose a small proportion of sales to the conventions and keep the publishers in business years down the line, allowing us to sell their quality works over and over and over again or would we rather lose them for good for the short term gain?

And this was meant to be quick.

Marvel.com digital comics for free – if you can open the site.

How lovely it would be to tell you about the whole new digital comics thing going on at Marvel.
Unfortunately either the rush of people going to look at old copies of Power Pack has broken the Internet or Marvel are using a shitty, unstable, flash heavy interface that just isn’t up to the job.
Because all I kept getting was this:

Maybe not what they were aiming for.

Marvel.com digital comics for free – if you can open the site.

How lovely it would be to tell you about the whole new digital comics thing going on at Marvel.
Unfortunately either the rush of people going to look at old copies of Power Pack has broken the Internet or Marvel are using a shitty, unstable, flash heavy interface that just isn’t up to the job.
Because all I kept getting was this:

Maybe not what they were aiming for.

PROPAGANDA Reviews: PROPAGANDA goes over to the Other Side

The Other Side

Written by Jason Aaron, Art by Cameron Stewart

Perhaps the easiest criticism of this book is that it’s all been seen before, but as Captain Dale Dye USMC (Ret.) explains in the introduction, the book is deeply rooted in the existing fictions of the Vietnam War for a very good reason; the author, Jason Aaron is the cousin of Corporal Gustav Hasford USMC, another Vietnam vet who wrote the seminal book The Short-Timers, which in turn formed the basis of Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket. In fact, on a little bit of Googling it seems that Jason Aaron is attempting to single-handedly keep his cousin’s reputation alive through two websites (here and here) and this graphic novel.

So armed with this newfound knowledge about the author I’m inclined to think of this as homage rather than borrowing, but if I hadn’t read the introduction or done the research I feel I’d be a little disappointed in the derivative feel of the book’s characters. Despite these criticisms; The Other Side is a genuinely enjoyable and intriguing book of two halves. It tells the tale of two men on opposite sides of the Vietnam War; one a typical American GI, the other a soldier of the People’s Army of Vietnam.

Private Billy Everette is a grunt in the US Infantry, drafted into a war that the US can’t possibly win, to fight alongside soldiers who just want to go home. Vo Binh Dai has volunteered to be part of the glorious struggle in support of the South of his country and he endeavours to trek into a war zone, to give his life for the cause he believes in.

But as they get more and more involved in this ridiculous war, both men find their attitudes changing, as the American conscript becomes a soldier haunted by spectres of former soldiers and the Northern volunteer finds his dream of liberating a country surrounded by the grateful comrades of the South is as distant as the American’s way home.

Personally I found the US soldier’s descent into madness and a gradual realisation that war is hell to be almost a complete repeat of scenes from Full Metal Jacket and Apocalypse Now. But the story of the North Vietnamese farmer, volunteering for a war that he believes the entirety of Vietnam should be fighting is far more interesting. To see his hope, optimism and belief in the honour of his actions gradually eroded is powerfully done. Aaron could have spent a lot more time developing this aspect of the story, rather than treading all too familiar ground with the US GI and his growing disillusionment with the war and his authoritative generals.

The one faultless part of this book is the art of Cameron Stewart; he’s simply one of those artists whose style I can’t get enough of. I first noticed him on The Invisibles Volume 3, where his 5 pages of art rescues the key issue of that great book. But his work on Catwoman was the first time I saw a whole comic from him and a quite wonderful book it was, at least when Brubaker, Stewart et al were allowed to de-cheesecake the character. His art is a delight, full of meticulous details but with a cartoonist’s edge. There are many obvious influences in his work; Bolland, Kirby, Darick Robertson (Transmetropolitan, The Boys) but the most obvious one to me is Jamie Hernandez. But Stewart is getting better and better all the time and his work on The Other Side is just superb.

Originally posted at the FPI weblog here.

PROPAGANDA review: Rom-Com-Comics

I love Romantic Comedies. The soppier the better. I love the elaborate set-ups, the predictable “true love never runs smooth” plots and the feeling of contentment and fun they elicit.

Yet, in comics, the Rom-Com is a tiny, tiny genre. Which is a terrible shame, because this little genre has produced some truly marvellous little books over the last couple of years. You can just imagine these in black and white with Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn burning up the screen. Or making Richard Curtis sit up and start planning his next Hugh Grant vehicle.

These are the sort of comics that should be as popular and successful as the latest Marian Keyes novel. But because it’s comics, these most wonderful, incredible books with phenomenal crossover appeal and the potential to be an incredible mainstream hit, are called independent and sits on the shelves, lost amongst all the “Mainstream” comics with men in tight spandex and their underwear over their trousers. What a ridiculous situation.

Three Days in Europe
By Antony Johnston and Mike Hawthorne

This is a tale of Jack and Jill; both successful young things; he’s an add exec with a passion for his record collection, she’s living her dream job at a modern art gallery promoting the art she’s always loved. They’ve been a couple for a while and they’re both feeling that some of the spark has gone out of the relationship.

So he decides to surprise her with a romantic trip to Paris on Valentine’s with a hot ticket to an exclusive gallery showing. It’s so much of a surprise to her that she’s already gone ahead and booked her own Valentine’s surprise trip to London to see his favourite band Q.E.D. with full V.I.P. tickets. Imagine the surprise over a romantic meal when they find out the dilemma, and even worse, both trips are starting straight away.

They bicker and fight all the way to the airport, each wanting the other to just take the damn gift. The bickering carries on to the airport check-in when they make the momentous decision not to give in. In a moment of utter stubbornness he suggests they each go on their ideal weekends; her to Paris and her art show, he to London for his band’s gig. But in one moment of utterly predictable comedy the tickets are swapped accidentally. Next thing they know she’s on her way to a rock and roll weekend and he’s off to a gallery show with Paris’ art set.

And from there, as you can probably guess, farce ensues. But it’s a wonderful, brilliant, and funny as all hell farce. Before they know it he’s become part of a gang of art thieves and she’s on tour with Q.E.D. as the guitarist’s new girlfriend. Like all the best screwball comedies this one keeps putting the two stars through more and more bizarre situations until getting to a particularly clichéd, obvious and quite marvellous ending.

Antony Johnston’s writing here is the best he’s ever done; natural, intelligent, laced with equal parts comedy and cynicism. But it’s his timing and delivery that really turns this into a particularly precious little gem. It is simply the most complete and satisfying comic book I’ve read for a long time.

Of course, a great story like this needs a great artist capable of delivering the script. Mike Hawthorne absolutely excels, with a delightfully light and open style, all angular stylised chins and sweeping curves of hairstyles but never forgetting that a great story like this needs to be delivered to the page and made readable. He doesn’t try anything too extreme or difficult on the page, he does that most difficult of things; keeping the page simple and flowing. Quite lovely.

(panels from Three Days in Europe, art by Mike Hawthorne, published Oni Press)

And the other artists involved deserve mentions as well; J Bone’s covers and chapter breaks are delightful, but special mention has to go to Keith Wood, the book’s designer. It’s often overlooked, but some books look like crap on the shelves, and I could do a better job of making a collection with a stapler and the individual comics. But Three Days In Europe is packed with beautiful little design touches; the back cover, the repetition of the ticket motif, even the stylised lamppost illuminating the small print repeating from the inside cover. Everything in this book just works, and works absolutely perfectly.

Maria’s Wedding
Written by Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir, with art by Jose Garibaldi

“Few events exude as much joy, happiness and hope as a wedding” is how the blurb on the back cover begins; very few books I’ve read manage to convey that sense of joy, happiness and hope as Maria’s Wedding.

This book tells the tale of a large Italian-American family; the Pirellis. Their weddings are all about tradition and celebrating the family. But the last unconventional wedding; of Joseph Pirelli and his partner Matthew threw tradition out and drew battle-lines between two sides of the family. Like most family disputes the bad feelings have simmered away and it’s only now, at the wedding of Maria Pirelli that the tension is coming to the fore.

Whilst some members of the family are coming to enjoy the day, it seems that some members are coming merely to try to make the situation much worse. And in the middle of all this is Maria’s cousin Frankie, who has a habit of speaking out and merely making bad situations worse. The family are worried that Maria’s big day is going to go very wrong. But Frankie wants everything to go just right, both with the wedding and with Maria’s maid of Honour, who just happens to be Frankie’s childhood sweetheart.

(panels from Maria’s Wedding, art by Jose Garibaldi, published Oni Press)

If all this sounds far too soap opera, fear not. The writers take a potential saccharin sweet tale and make a piece of loveliness out of it. Every page has something that will make your day a little brighter, and the whole book is one of the most delightful, lovely things I’ve read in a long time.

And if you wonder how to tell all these people apart, Jose Garibaldi; the fine artist behind this tale, has given us a crib list at the front and gives each character a unique visual quirk. A small touch but it helps so very much. Maria’s Wedding is a sweet, easy to read romantic comedy, perhaps the world’s favourite genre. Yet it’s a precious rarity in comics. Cherish it for the joy it brings.

Shenanigans
by Ian Shaughnessy and Mike Holmes
Oni Press

This time it’s boy meets girl, falls in love, girl falls out of love with boy, boy dresses as another man to win her back. Very Shakespearean really; a good old fashioned romantic farce.

Holden and Casey have been going out now for long enough for Holden to get complacent and Casey to get sick of Holden. Her tutoring job keeps her very busy, mostly trying to keep her horny frat boy students’ attention somewhere above her chest. Holden, with all the emotional maturity of a love-struck teen, starts getting insanely jealous and hatches a plot so stupid, so inane and bound to fail that you wonder why Hollywood hasn’t made millions out of a story like it already.

Dressing up in a ridiculous disguise and putting on an Irish accent so thick you expect every sentence to end in ‘begorrah’, he poses as an Irish foreign student in need of tutoring and starts to take up more and more of Casey’s time – after all, if he’s with her in disguise she can’t be off romping with the frat boys

Inevitably, as Holden’s behaviour becomes more extreme and ridiculous, Casey ends the relationship and starts to fall for Holden’s Irish disguise, because when he’s in his disguise Holden actually manages to be a lot less of a dick than he normally is.

(panels from Shenanigans, art by Mike Hawthorne, published Oni Press)

From then, it’s not really a case of what happens next but when will all the inevitable plot points play out? Once you get past the thinnest of plots it’s a lovely little book. It’s got everything you’d expect, up to and including the inevitable scene where boy takes two dates out and has to keep changing clothes in the toilet. Shenanigans certainly does a Rom-Com-Comic by the numbers.

And Mike Holmes’ art suits the fun-ness of the writing, with a nice, simple, very open style with nary a background in sight to spoil the immediacy of our major characters. Another fun, feel good comic. Certainly makes a change from whatever dark, miserable, moody superhero is being brutally beaten, maimed or killed this week.

Re-Gifters

Written by Mike Carey, with art by Sonny Liew and Marc Hempel

This is very similar in style and tone to My Faith In Frankie; a truly delightful and sadly overlooked book produced by the same creative team. That book was a charming and fun romp with elements of fantasy in it, whereas Re-Gifters is unashamedly a Rom-Com.

The first thing you should notice with Re-Gifters is the cover. A beautiful piece of design; simple and stylish and an example of how a good comic cover should be. Once inside the delights of the cover give way to the delights of both art and story. Liew and Hempel are perfect artists to convey the sense of fun, playfulness and high spirits in this story of school age romance. Just as they did in My Faith In Frankie, their loose, relaxed stylings merely add to the sense of light-heartedness and simple joy to be found in the book.

The main character, Jen Dik Seong, or “Dixie” as she’s known to her friends is Korean-American, living with her lovely family in the ragged edge of LA’s Koreatown. Her only real outlet is the ancient Korean martial art of Hapkido, and she’s about to compete in the National Championships. But since this is a traditional Rom-Com you’ll not be surprised when I tell you that things don’t go smoothly for little Dixie.

She’s fallen for fellow Hapkido competitor and surf-boy Adam, but he’s only interested in one of her classmates. The crush throws Dixie off her game and nearly manages to mess up not just her family’s trust in her but nearly alienates her best friend as well. Dixie blows all her Hapkido entry money on a stupid, ridiculously expensive and sadly unappreciated gift for Adam’s birthday. But the gift is re-gifted and re-gifted again, until finally, ever so predictably, it reappears in Dixie’s life at just the right moment from a very unexpected source.

(page from Re-Gifters by Mike Carey, art by Sonny Liew and Marc Hempel, published DC)

Like I say, the plot of Re-Gifters is certainly predictable. But within the context of the story that’s not a terrible thing. This is a lovely romantic comedy, and as such, it almost has to be predictable. That doesn’t however stop it being incredibly readable, very warm and light hearted and just plain fun.

Just sometimes, it’s nothing to do with how intricately written something is, or how deep and meaningful it is. Sometimes, the most important thing is the feeling that reading a book gives you. Sometimes it’s all about the stupid, soppy grin that spreads over your face as the final page finishes and you’ve just read something gloriously, unapologetically sentimental and romantic. Which was exactly what happened at the end of Re-Gifters: huge soppy grin from ear to ear.

And that’s a great place to leave this little look at my new favourite genre in comics – the “Rom-Com-Comic”. Why don’t you try one today? After all, we could all use a little more soppy grinning.

PROPAGANDA reviews: Silver Surfer: Requiem #1

Silver Surfer – Requiem issue 1 of 4

Written by J Michael Straczynski,
Art by Esad Ribic

How can anyone not have a little love for the Silver Surfer? As a character he’s possibly one of the more delightfully stupid designs you could ever see. Naked, sexless, silver bloke from outer space flying on a giant silver surfboard. Bonkers. As a concept; brilliant. As a character; looks fantastic. As a lead role in a story; not so good.

Marvel Comics have been looking to exploit the huge popularity of the Silver Surfer in comics for as long as he’s been around. But despite all of the attempts, including a series that ran over ten years in the 80s and 90s, the character somehow seems to be destined never to be a major player.

But with the Surfer taking a leading role in the latest FF film, Marvel have decided to push the old boy into centre stage again for another try in Michael J. Straczynski and Esad Ribic’s Silver Surfer: Requiem. Now, am I the only one who thinks this isn’t exactly the sort of story that the fans of the film are going to be looking for?

Without ruining anything that hasn’t already been put across in a thousand Marvel solicitations this is the big Last Silver Surfer story. The Surfer is dying and this is his final story, which is why it seems insane for them to publish it now, effectively as a movie tie-in. However, Marvel, perhaps realising the silliness of the situation, have gone to great lengths to make it known that this is a completely out of continuity series, but surely it would have been better to have held off and published this next year?

The Silver Surfer turns up at the Fantastic Four’s place and after 22 pages of dismal, over-bearing, self indulgent writing we get the not very shocking at all revelation that the Silver Surfer is dying, which has been obvious not only throughout the preceding 21 pages but also for months when reading about the forthcoming Death of the Silver Surfer series.

And if you couldn’t tell from the last paragraph, I really hated this comic. From the very first page it’s obvious that Straczynski is tapping into his 16 year old inner voice to write deep, meaningful, poetic drivel. Nearly every page has some new bit of awful sixth form poetry tripping from the mouth of one or other of the characters. One of many Surfer monologues:

“Here is the cycle of life writ large.
To be born in fire and live in the bright flame of our passions,
illuminating the world around us.
We live and die in fire, knowing that when we die,
we are reborn in the minds and spirits
of those who will follow the path we have lit for them across the ages.
The path that one day calls us home
… at the dying of the light.”

Or this one, where the Human Torch is describing to his best friend, the Thing, how his sister reacted to the news:I particularly like all the dramatic pauses in that one. For a little fun, get your best friend and try to act out those lines. Awful.

It’s really badly written, with page after page of dialogue like that where the FF and the Silver Surfer whine and moan and reflect on how terrible the situati

on is. And based on just this first issue, I really can’t see where they’re going with this – What’s Straczynski going to do? Have the Surfer mope his way to his death, or concoct some stupid Deus ex Machina to save the day? Either way I don’t really care. And I’m not going to be around to find out.

The art doesn’t help the dismal nature of the story either. Veering from very occasional delights (such as the Surfer on page 16 shown above) to absolutely bloody awful. Ribic’s figurative work and his lack of detailing is desperately in need of a good inker. Or maybe just a better artist.

All in all, bloody awful. A comic that really, really wants to be all grown up but in the end reads like a child playing at serious adult stuff.

(Originally posted for PROPAGANDA at the FPI weblog here.)

PROPAGANDA Reviews: Doctor Strange – The Oath

Doctor Strange: The Oath

Written by Brian K Vaughan, artwork by Marcos Martin

And from one under-performing superhero incapable of reaching the great heights always expected of them to another. Doctor Strange, like the Silver Surfer, has always been side-lined in the Marvel Universe; always a bit player, rarely given centre stage and despite a devoted fanbase, never really translating that fan-favourite status into a popular and long running series.

But when Brian K Vaughan announced this new mini-series, a lot of people I knew were expecting great things, such was the fondness for the character and the expectations of Brian K Vaughan. The story itself is a simple one, yet Vaughan manages to work it well, throwing in enough good creative touches to make it an enjoyable book. Even though it runs out of steam towards the end it’s still a fine read and well worth a look, particularly for those of us who like the character.

Doctor Strange is involved in a grail quest for Otkid’s Elixir, a universal panacea, the cure to all disease known to man. He’s searching for it in an attempt to save his loyal manservant Wong from an aggressive brain tumour. After snatching it from a mystical realm, it’s wrenched from his grip, stolen away and Strange is left near death. The combined might of the pharmaceutical companies have decided that suddenly having every disease eradicated is not something they want to see. The elixir could save millions of lives, but it would also mean their companies would become irrelevant overnight and big business takes action to protect its future revenue streams.

(panel from the graphic novel collection of Doctor Strange: the Oath, art by Marcos Martin. Got to love the fact that although they are indoors and soaking wet Strange’s cape still billows around dramatically. (C) Marvel)

So Doctor Strange starts the story carried into the emergency room of the Night Nurse, Marvel’s resident superhero doctor, with a silver bullet fired from Hitler’s P38 embedded in his chest. The explanation that the gun and silver bullet provide enough negative mojo to get through Strange’s mystical defences is a little trite and silly perhaps, but it serves the purpose of throwing us straight into the story so we’ll skate over it here.

After being patched up, Strange, Wong and the Night Nurse go in search of the elixir, the thief who shot Strange and face the might of the big drug companies. From then it’s a race to get to the elixir, with Vaughan cleverly interweaving the events of the search with scenes from Doctor Strange’s past and even tying his current predicament into the circumstances that caused him to give up his previous life as a surgeon and become the world’s Sorcerer Supreme.

But it’s the artwork that really makes this a book to pick up; simply stunning throughout. Marcos Martin, formerly known for his great work on Batgirl: Year One, has produced something lovely here. There’s obviously a huge debt to pay to Steve Ditko, creator of Doctor Strange and Martin pays it handsomely, his Doctor Strange is a cleaned up version of Ditko’s beautifully strange lines.

(the classic image of Doctor Strange by the legendary Steve Ditko, (C) Marvel)

All in all, this is nothing more and nothing less than a superior example of straight superhero comics. Nothing particularly original, nothing to appeal particularly to non-comic readers, but a pleasant enough tale designed to key into the nostalgia for a great character. If, like me, you’ve fond memories of the good Doctor from your earliest comic memories, there’s an awful lot to enjoy here.

(Originally posted at the FPI weblog here.)

PROPAGANDA reviews the Other Side

Over at the FPI weblog here;
The Other Side by Jason Aaron & Cameron Stewart.

Ellis to do Ultimate Hulk/Iron Man

Comic book resources has news that Warren Ellis has signed up to do an Ultimate Hulk/Iron Man crossover.
What with spending every hour (so it seems) either in the pub or online how does he find the time?

Hitch & Millar to do monthly FF bookYes. Monthly. Yes, it is That Bryan Hitch.

Over at Newsarama there’s an interview about the new FF title from Hitch & Millar.
That’s the FF proper, not the Ultimate FF.
But it’s Bryan Hitch. On a monthly? I know he talks about being able to do it in the interview but……