Happy New Year, Baby New Year! Here’s a scary clown!
Tags: clownz, Picture of the day
The Starlight Girls bill themselves as psychedelic lounge, and I guess that’s as good a term as any. I could see them backing the soundtrack of an edgier Austin Powers, or maybe a fight scene in a Tarantino flick. They’re a few gals out of Brooklyn, looking to promote their debut (by giving it away). It’s smart, cool, and much better than it oughtta be for free music. I know that there’s a million bands with a retro sound desperate to get coverage these days, but this band is one of the ones that’s worth your time. Check ‘em out. I’d love to see what they’re like live…
Get the whole thing free here!
Tags: Extended Player (EP), Free Album!, Indie Pop
Sometimes I forget this dude is still funny. ‘Cause his movies suck bloody farts from old folks touring in Mexico.
Tags: Picture of the day
Sad Little Men=Indie rock with great lyrics and vocals, bursting out of Portland, Oregon, with a fantastic sound. And apparently it’s just two guys. I guess when you’ve got an amazing drummer, you can sound big with just a little band.
I’m truly lovin’ this.
Sad Little Men I’ll Be the Octopus
Tags: Indie
The top 10 things Marvel oughtta consider for 2012. Look back for my suggestions for DC and indies.
10. Make Marvel Digital iPad compatible. This is a no brainer.
9. Collect the Micronauts. Whatever the legal bullshit may be, do what it takes. And donate a huge chunk of it to Bill Mantlo’s medical fund while you’re at it.
9. More animated movies! Your Avengers Next, the Ultimate Avengers DVDs, X-Men Anime, and Planet Hulk proved you can do it right. So keep it up!
8. You should be having less, not more, Avengers books. I know they sell, but the quality is slipping, guys. I have hopes for Rick Remender on Secret Avengers—if that’s good, maybe you’ll change my mind.
7. Except for Black Avengers. Or were you kidding about that?
6. The Ultimate universe books are scattered, unfocused, and mostly kind of suck. Fix that, please.
5. Instead of cancelling DeadpoolMAX, grow it! If this book doesn’t have legs, then make it a bimonthly double size book with other satirical takes on heroes. You could have the X-Statix crew or Madrox, or include NEXTWAVE or even Irving Forbush! It could be an opportunity for stories like Matt Fraction’s brilliant Punisher tale about the funeral for Stilt Man. How about featuring some of the odder Morrison characters 
from New X-Men (like the see-through guy, the floating head, and Beak)? Even a look back a the old Power Man and Iron Fist rogues gallery, who were largely inane but terrific fun to read (Chemistro!). This is a book that could, can, and should reward nerds—we’ll buy it, I promise.
4. But cancel the “regular” Deadpool. When the horse is dead, it is prudent to dismount. Put the book on hold for a while and then bring it back when/if the movie gets made.
3. Contain the X-Verse, at least a little bit. It’s all over the place. New readers can’t jump in. You need a new “Astonishing” title, like the one Joss Whedon did, which rewards long-time readers but doesn’t alienate those of us who don’t have enough resources (or patience) to read 7 mutant monthlies.
3 (tie). And while you’re at it, leave some money on the table. Yes, you can probably sell a million X-books or cross-overs with the “events” you hold, but your fans are irritated with you for holding us hostage.
2. Break the Omnibi! I loved the Byrne and Simonson Omnibus editions you released in 2011, but they’re just too damn big. For the same price, you could easily print three softcovers and sell them as a set (maybe in a nice bookshelf hardcover sleeve, like they do for DVD sets). It would prevent breaking the binding. Of course, reading an Omnibus is sometimes my only form of exercise, so I can’t complain that much…
1. No more events. Schism was good, but it really wasn’t an “event,” it was just a good, fairly self-contained X-men story. Fear Itself, on the other hand, really, really, really sucked.
1 (tie). And since you’re going to ignore that last one, make events matter. There really was no fall out after Fear Itself. Bucky Cap and Thor died, but then came back just .1 and .3 issues later. And nobody thought they’d really died anyway. Ho hum.
Tags: Comic books, Deadpool, Filthy Muties, The Avengers
As noted last post I’m doing a wish list—here’s the overall and indie one. D.C. and Marvel to follow.
Also known as the top 10 suggestions D.C. will ignore in 2012….For indies and the overall industry, go here.
10. Bring back Vertigo’s crime line. Seriously. It was awesome.
9. Bring back Gail Simone and the Sinister Six. It was a book that died in its prime and before its time.
8. Bring back Batman: The Brave and the Bold Animated Series. It was the best TV you’ve done since Teen Titans Go. Okay, that’s my last lament for returns. The rest of my suggestions are prospective….
7. Make JMS write Gotham Hospital, like he promised. Gotham Central was my favorite Batman book ever (take that, Grant Morrison!) and this concept focusing on a hospital procedural could be even better. And if J. Michael is too busy writing original hardcovers, get Greg Rucka to do it. Or Gail Simone. Or Brian Azzarello. Hell, there’s lots of folks who could have a gift for a gritty, serialized noir.
6. Kill the back up features. Sorry, guys. It’s why I quit reading Adventure Comics in the old 52, and it’s making me want to drop Action. If you can’t sell a title as a main story, why would think I’d want to lose pages out of the book I really want? As an alternative, offer the back-ups as premium digital content: A buck a month, e.g. This could also help you expand your digital presence which, frankly, is the future of the industry.
5. Fix the DCU. I’m not a slave to continuity, but the Batverse makes no sense at all anymore.
4. Less books, better books. Within three issues after the relaunch, about 1 in 5 new 52s have either rebooted creators or are looking like they’ll be cancelled. In fact, coming out with the hardbound “omnibus” of all 52 books in one shot makes it seem like some of these won’t even get collected in trade. If you would take my suggestion to publish bigger books less often.
3. Get Grant Morrison to bring his A Game to Action Comics. This title isn’t nearly the thrill ride it oughtta be. In fact, reading it kind of feels like work.
2. ‘Mazing Man: Absolute Edition and Steve Gerber’s Hard Time Vol. 2. Pretty please? These issues have never been collected, and they’re two of the best books DC has ever published!
1. Regular cross-overs with Marvel! Three of my most-re-read, most favoritest comics of all time were the Batman/Hulk and Superman/Spidey oversized comics and the JLA/Avengers minis. Granted, most of the other DC/Marvel stuff was sheite, but if you make a plan for an annual cross-over and dedicate the right talent to it, there’s no reason it couldn’t be good. And let the indies play, too—we all rise on the same tide, don’t we? Here’s my suggestions to start you off:
Tags: Comic books, Superman, The Caped Crusader
The gang at Multiversity, a pretty good comics blog, recently posted all their various wish lists. They don’t want me as a commenter on their site (I asked), but I liked the idea. They have a huge team of writers, but I only have me. Yet, I still managed a substantial list, all by my lonesome. I’ll be publishing them over a series of posts.
MY TOP 10 WISHES FOR THE INDUSTRY, AND NON-D.C. AND NON-MARVEL COMICS IN 2012.
10. Reach out to libraries and teachers. More and more are carrying Manga and other trades, but the utility of comic books as a way to get kids reading is largely untapped. Go to schools! Offer free tours of your offices, or internships!
9. And while you’re at it, offer free subscriptions to certain students. Maybe honors kids, and/or kids who accept a challenge to increase proficiency on national reading test. There’s lots of possibilities to integrate comic books into schools, and if you do that you’ll be increasing the odds that the industry will expand rather than shrink as my generation dies off.
8. But also compete digitally—especially you indies! Marvel and DC cream all of you, combined, in the sales department for monthlies, although a few of you kick ass in the in the back-issue trades arena (I’m thinking specifically of Scott Pilgrim and The Walking Dead). But they’re vulnerable in the internet market. Why not offer the first three issues of a series for free or a nominal cost, to get readers hooked. This would encourage retail sales of back issue trades, which seems to be the real bug-a-boo for most of you (i.e., not wanting to piss off the brick-and-mortar sellers). Oh, and retailers: Get over it. You’re not going to lose the die-hards to digital—we’re all older, fatter dudes who like paper—but if the industry can’t reach the college campuses, it’s dead.
7. Cerebus: Year One. There, I said it. And it doesn’t even have to be by Dave Sim. I’d be happy with David Lapham. Or Joe Kelly.
6. Fewer #1s. Yeah, they generate sales-for-sales sake, but they seem desperate.
5. Retail only specials, and often.Free Green Lantern rings or Avengers nick-nacks are
I got a full set--I use 'em as X-Mas ornaments!
instant collectibles, which you can’t get on line (legally or illegally), and they bring folks into stores where they’ll probably drop some coin. Going to specialty stores should be a surprising event, especially for younger kids.
4. Don’t let previews count as pages. I’ve caught Marvel, D.C., and several independents reducing page count to include a “special” preview, which is really nothing more than an advertisement. At what you’re charging for the floppy books, you guys oughtta cut that shit out right now.
3. Publish trade paperbacks digitally! This is a suggestion for Marvel and D.C. especially: Paying $2 or $3 for a digital comic that, if I get it through Comixology, I only have the rights to read (they don’t actually send you a file), is too much. But selling trades at 15-25% off the cover price? That’s a deal! It would also help Marvel in that they tend to stop printing their backlisted trades without warning, which can lead to some ridiculous prices if you want to read a whole creator’s storyline.
2. And while you’re at it, kill the DRM. Comixology sucks because I don’t actually get a copy of the book, so I can’t read it if I’m somewhere without internet. And, frankly, I want my own copy for three bucks. There’s all kinds of options here: Limit additional uses of the material to a fixed number of computers (like iTunes does); offer non-DRM versions after the issue has been out for a certain number of months free to those who paid for the DRM versions; offer the same issues as a bundle (like a trade paperback) without DRM if they’re a year old; etc. Get creative, but give me an actual product—that might make me want to buy stuff online. Right now, I don’t.
1. Get rid of fixed-page-number monthlies! There’s tons of wait-for-trade folks (like me, much of the time), who can’t afford to spend $24 on six issues of a book ($18 for a non-Marvel book) that’s too thin and who, even if we could afford it, prefer our stories to have a little more development in them. Think of the possibilities if instead of printing Spider-Man three times a month, e.g., it came out twice, was $6 an issue, and was twice as big? Or if we let some books publish every six weeks, but the issue was all meat, no filler. Recently, Jonathan Hickman and Dustin Weaver’s terrific S.H.E.I.L.D. published an all-art, no words issue, which on the one had was great because the art was so good but on the other hand it didn’t develop the tale much at all. So, I felt gyped. I wouldn’t have, though, if it was a little longer. This format would also allow for Hickman’s cute little “text” art that he loves, and wouldn’t make me feel cheated by the “Oral History of the Avengers” that cut stories short in the Bends issues.
Next: My D.C. Comics Wish List!
Tags: Comic books
