We thought Tom was just taking some well deserved time off, but it turns out Comics Reporter has suffered a big outtage, and his exemplary interview series has been interrupted:

This really screws up the momentum of the holiday interview series, for which I apologize. Frank’s interview was posted on Sunday but was only up for two hours or so, Chris Pitzer was supposed to go out Monday, I was going to give away 50 boxes of comics on Christmas, and Francoise Mouly is supposed to be up today. Not to mention the seven already completed pieces that no one can access right now, or the 11 interviews yet to come that I’m unable to finish work on, a few of which may now be crowded out.

Some of Tom’s interviews have been posted at Comics Comics in the interim. Mightly Blogging League Unite!

By Paul O’Brien

Unlike the previous month, Marvel shipped most of their big titles in November, and managed to complete their autumn crossover. It was another light month for new titles, with only a few miniseries hitting the shelves. But the “Messiah Complex” crossover in the X-books got into full swing, WORLD WAR HULK wrapped up, and “One More Day” continued.

Most of the Marvel Universe superhero titles are, by this point, between events. They completed their WORLD WAR HULK crossovers as originally scheduled, and they’ve stopped carrying “Initiative” banners on the front. Although November saw the first book to carry a “Secret Invasion” banner – NEW AVENGERS: ILLUMINATI #5 – the event proper is still months away. This is presumably the main reason why a lot of former Initiative titles have gone into a dramatic sales decline over the last couple of months, which continued in November.

Still, with Marvel’s major titles reaching the shelves, we’re back to business as usual in terms of market share. Once again, Marvel was the largest publisher in the direct market, leading DC by a tight 37% to 36% in dollar share, and a slightly more comfortable 42% to 36% in units.

Thanks as always to Milton Griepp and ICV2 for permission to use their figures for these calculations.

1.  WORLD WAR HULK
05/07  Prologue               - 111,153
06/07  World War Hulk #1 of 5 - 204,823  (+84.3%)
07/07  World War Hulk #2 of 5 - 165,402  (-19.2%)
08/07  World War Hulk #3 of 5 - 156,526  ( -5.4%)
09/07  World War Hulk #4 of 5 - 148,610  ( -5.1%)
10/07  ---
11/07  World War Hulk #5 of 5 - 145,821  ( -1.9%)
                                 6 mnth  (+31.2%)

Although WORLD WAR HULK hasn’t sold in the numbers of CIVIL WAR, nobody really expected it to. When you consider that the parent title generally sells around 47K, these are astronomical numbers. By any reasonable standards, the book has to be considered a huge success.

The next question is how well Marvel can capitalise. They have a new HULK title in the wings, while INCREDIBLE HULK is being relaunched (presumably temporarily) as a Hercules series. There are also a couple of spin-off miniseries from the crossover: WARBOUND and DAMAGE CONTROL.

Issue #5 has a variant cover, like the rest of the series.

(more…)

Speaking of the New Yorker, check out this gallery of holiday covers over the years.
Above, Ilonka Karasz from 1938. Below, Joost Swarte, 2007.

We’re always hearing about how comics are a great tool for literacy (and those among us who learned to read from comics would back this up) but how are comics being accepted in the educational field? The New York Times investigates with an article that includes many yaysayers, but also the most common objections, as it looks at two rather modest programs, including the pilot program rolled out in Baltimore by Diamond and Disney Publishing.

In Maryland, the State Education Department is expanding a new comics-based literacy curriculum, after a small pilot program yielded promising results. In New York City, a group of educators applied to open a new small high school that would be based around a comics theme and named after the creators of Superman; their application was rejected but they plan to try again next year. And the Comic Book Project, a program run out of Teachers College at Columbia University that has children create their own comic strips as an “alternative pathway to literacy,” is catching on. Six years after it started in one Queens elementary school, it has expanded to 860 schools across the country.

BUT SEE ALSO: a recent issue of the New Yorker includes a modestly titled piece called “Twilight of the Books” which discusses the changes to thinking that take place in societies that no longer read:

There’s no reason to think that reading and writing are about to become extinct, but some sociologists speculate that reading books for pleasure will one day be the province of a special “reading class,” much as it was before the arrival of mass literacy, in the second half of the nineteenth century. They warn that it probably won’t regain the prestige of exclusivity; it may just become “an increasingly arcane hobby.” Such a shift would change the texture of society. If one person decides to watch “The Sopranos” rather than to read Leonardo Sciascia’s novella “To Each His Own,” the culture goes on largely as before—both viewer and reader are entertaining themselves while learning something about the Mafia in the bargain. But if, over time, many people choose television over books, then a nation’s conversation with itself is likely to change. A reader learns about the world and imagines it differently from the way a viewer does; according to some experimental psychologists, a reader and a viewer even think differently. If the eclipse of reading continues, the alteration is likely to matter in ways that aren’t foreseeable.

Expect the discussion of literacy, post-literacy and where words and pictures fit in to become even more of a topic of discussion in 2008.

Dave Gibbons pays another visit to the WATCHMEN set:

The rest of the visit kaleidoscopes crazily by: I watch footage of Rorschach pulling Nite Owl off a bloodied Knot Top; I flip through an issue of the Black Freighter; on a laptop, I see raw CGI blocking for the Vietnam sequence; I hold a smiley face pin splattered with what looks like real human bean juice; sitting in my own personal director’s chair, I sign dozens of books and posters for cast and crew…

It’s kinda neat that the cast wanted his autograph, doncha think?

Let’s face it, no one wants to work this week, and that even includes us. So we’re still loafing as we gradually get back up to speed.

In the meantime, check out this exclusive footage we found of Chip and Dale* planning how to take out someone named Donald. Fascinating.

* Yes, Chip ‘n’ Dale were chipmunks and these are grey squirrels. Who cares! They are so cute chittering back and forth to each other. And oh! their cunning little hands!

From everyone at Stately Beat Manor to all of you

!

Watch the third one for a special treat for our kind.

Here at Stately Beat Manor we’ve been getting many holiday cards, both physical and electronic, and each and every one brightens our mailbox with tidings of joy. By far the most unusual, however, was the Virgin Comics holiday card, above. At first we thought “Kaliiiiiiiiii!” but’s it’s actually a character from VOODOO CHILD by Nicolas and Weston Cage. Not what we were expecting but here’s to diversity!

MTV.com has an article up talking to a bunch of folks about Heath Ledger’s Joker. Included in the article are Guillermo del Toro, Paul Dini, Jeph Loeb and … ADAM WEST!

Posted by Mark Coale

While Dirk has rolled up his welcome mat, and The Beat has been loafing, at least a couple of bloggers have been WORKING.

Brian Heater at Daily Cross Hatch polls a wide-ranging list of cartoonists on their favorite comics of the year. Much love for Julia Wertz’ The Fart Party but the whole list should be perused by all.

Meanwhile, Tom Spurgeon at The Comics Reporter goes all the way with a series of wide-ranging, informative interviews covering manga, the mainstream, and indies. How DOES he do it? Read them all when you have a quiet moment.

§ The great Joe Sacco
§ Manga guide author Jason Thompson
§ Artist Simon Gane
§ Writer Will Pfeifer
§ D&Q’s Tom Devlin
§ Comics Comics’ Tim Hodler
§ Cartoonist Julia Wertz
§ Cartoonist Frank Santoro

If Tom adds more, we’ll update this page.

Many blogs, including Colleen Doran’s are reporting an item from Spin Magazine regarding COMIC BOOK TATTOO, a new anthology based on the songs of Tori Amos. The book will run some 400 pages and stories will be based on individual songs. Long-time Amos cohort Rantz Hoseley edits. Doran has a bit more:

I will be illustrating a 12 page short story for the anthology in fully painted color, using the style I used for the Orbiter cover art. The story is written by noted writer Derek McCulloch.

Other announced contributors include Lea Hernandez, Chris Arrant, Russell Lissau, and doubtless scores more. Hernandez had this to say:

I don’t know if I can say what mine is, but I can say no one will expect my take on it. Nope. Never. Being a fan of Tori’s since Little Earthquakes, and what a profound effect her music has had on me emotionally and artistically, this is not only a dream come true but an honor.

Amos is one of early adapters in the comics/media crossover trend, due to her friendship with Neil Gaiman (the two were introduced by Hoseley) resulting in many lyrical and comical mentions of one another over the years.

Frazer Irving writes to assure us that he is indeed, working on issue #3 of GUTSVILLE, the well-received comic by him and Simon Spurrier about life inside a giant whale. To prove it, he even points us to a five-page preview.
Enjoy!

xxxx

Ron Hogan at GalleyCat has a report on the Comic Book Club One Year Anniversary which we wrote about earlier, with a fuller report

It was definitely Fraction who said of his work on Punisher War Journal, one of the best mainstream superhero comics I know of right now, “I wanted to make the most metal comic in the whole world. This is a comic you’d paint on the side of your van.” (And it’s true; if I had a van I would totally paint Fraction’s Punisher on the side…unless I’d already covered it with his independent comic, Casanova.)

Ron also points us towards better pictures by Keith Huang, once of which we’ve ganked above. It also reminds us us of an exchange which we’ve recounted to several people since then but negelcted to recount here; this must be remedied.

You’ll recall the show is hosted by comics/comics fans Pete LePage, Justin Tyler and Alex Zalben. The guests were Bill Hader, Seth Meyers, Matt Fraction, Brian Bendis and Ed Brubaker. One of the segments involves audience questions and this one was the beloved chestnut “If you had a superpower what would it be?”

The answers started from the comics writer end. Ed said he’d like to have the power to sleep through the night. Bendis said he’d like to be able to spell. Fraction said he wished he didn’t have to eat, because then he’d have more time.

By now the SNL end of the couch was getting the drift here. “You guys need to stop thinking about work!” said Meyers. “I’d like a power that doesn’t come with Word! How about FLYING?”

Of course there was general hilarity, in the audience, but it was also a rather rueful moment. Granted the Marvel side was mentally fried from a day of Summiting, but it was also maybe a little more symbollic. In the world of the freelancer, it’s all about getting the work out, by any means necessary. When you deal with fantasies all day, they become all too quotidian. We’d all like more time to sleep.

We attended a nice holiday party last night thrown by artist Kelli Bickman and jill-of-all-trades Paulette Powell. It was just a bunch of folks getting together, but it was nice to see old friends like Kyle Baker, Martha Thomases and Jim Salicrup and have a chance to talk a bit. We also chatted with Anne Murphy, the widow of Archie Goodwin, whom we hadn’t seen in forever.

In case you don’t know, Archie Goodwin was a writer and an editor who died at the much too young age of 60 in 1998. Archie ran Creepy, Eerie, Marvel Comics (he preceded Jim Shooter as Editor in Chief), founded Epic, and edited many great stories at DC. He also wrote Star Wars and Manhunter. But that’s just the tip of his resume. He’s pretty much considered probably the best comic book editor ever, and one of the very best writers as well. Archie was always kind and patient with the very young and annoying Beat, and for that we are always grateful. In later years, when we had grown up a bit, at local functions, Anne was usually by his side. She was a former editor at Redbook, and as smart, feisty and creative a lady as you would ever want to meet and we remember having many interesting conversations over the years with her.

It was truly a pleasure to see her again, and hear her talk about Archie, and also many episodes of comics history from the 70s through the 90s from a very different perspective. Sadly we can’t repeat most of them here, but there was one about a 70s comic book artist–let’s call him Timmy– who showed up at the house of a rival artist with a couple of goons, only to be met at the door by the rival’s wife and child. Timmy then called his rival and said “I know what your wife and kid look like!” News of this incident spread and Timmy didn’t get much work for a long time.

These days, the internet has lessened the distance between people who work on the comics and people who read the comics to the point where there barely is any. Talking to Anne was a sharp reminder that there have always been larger than life personalities and creative dramas in comics. They didn’t have message boards to duke it out on, so they did things in a more colorful way. Those were the days.

Okay we’re taking the day off from blogging except for a few odds and ends…time to get those last minute gifts and get ready for the trip home. We may have a seasonal greetings over the next few days but basically, we wish you ALL a very safe and happy holiday wherever you may be.

In the meantime, someone sent us the above faux-children’s book last night, and we think it’s just awesome.