Draw Star Wars: The Clone Wars–We Have Winners!
Dec 09That’s right, WINNERS in our Draw Star Wars: The Clone Wars book giveaway contest!
Though you are all “winners” in our book. Just not real winners, so you don’t get a prize. Except our undying appreciation for your readership, which isn’t much of a prize cause you can’t hold it or read it or use it to draw Yoda.
WINNERS!
1. Robo
2. Sarah
3. Angel
4. Clare Jordan
5. Tenya
We just sent an e-mail to each of the winners to set up mailing the prize, so watch your inboxes, folks! And thanks for playing, everyone! We love you each dearly, in a platonic and unique way.
More on Earth One
Dec 08I was gonna put together a follow up to Jeff’s post from yesterday but Chris Butcher said it far better than I could.
For the purposes of discussion, this is almost two announcements: The “fanboy bait” we got today, and the publishing and marketing details that will indicate at some point whether DC has designs on reasonable success in the non-direct market, or whether this is some insane new DM scheme that on its face makes no sense, OR whether the first of the two preceeding theories is correct AND they have the strategy that Butcher discusses worked out.
I think Butcher’s most salient point may be that there are already so very many Superman and Batman collections at your average Borders that unless there is significant thought put into how to design and truly SELL these books into an essentially “new” market, this thing will die on the vine.
For whatever reason, as a publishing move, it intrigues me. We’ll see.
Is OGN-Only The Right Move For Earth One?
Dec 07Today, DC Comics announced its new, graphic novel-only ‘Earth One’ imprint, which is set to feature new interpretations of Batman and Superman by top-tier writers and artists. These graphic novels represent the creation of a new shared continuity and, predictably, begin with origin stories for the characters.
There are a couple of different ways to react to this news.
1. This imprint, just like All-Star and all the myriad other non-Vertigo imprints published by Time Warner (man, remember Impact Comics? Or Minx?) is going to mis-start and die on the vine, its full potential unrealized.
2. This is a proactive approach to the impending death of the direct market and a move to ingratiate itself to the Borders/B&N audience over the give me my floppies every Wednesday audience.
3. The Ultimate universe was pretty novel when Marvel tried it a few years ago.
While comparisons to the Ultimate books are certainly there to be drawn and pretty valid, to boot, the Earth One books are not simply Ultimate DC. At least, not from a marketing perspective. They’re a glimpse of the Next Thing – not digital comics (that’s already here for most publishers), but a philosophical change in how comics get delivered to us. Which is to say, at the bookstore, where we buy our Vampire Academy novels volumes of convoluted and intellectual essays on current events as opposed to the comic shop, where we buy our Punisher t-shirts.
For at least a decade and a half, “new readers” have been the Little Redheaded Girl to the industry’s Charlie Brown. It’s tried every way it knows to lure them in en masse, to court them, but none of them stick. Part of that is the medium itself, yes, but more significantly, new adult readers do not want to come in to Batman 690-some issues into it. They don’t want or need to know about Krona and the Guardians and the Fourth World and The Haunted Tank and all of the rest of the ancillary material that stands on Batman’s and Superman’s shoulders.
The Ultimate U was a new reader-friendly experiment that wasn’t position to bring in new readers. Earth One takes the concept to its natural conclusion, making these new stories about these iconic characters acessible physically as well as in terms of their content. Which was, if you will remember, the stated purpose of the now as-good-as-defunct All-Star imprint, which gave us the best Superman story ever and the most divisive Batman of all time. Hopefully, and the attachment of JMS and Geoff Johns gives me hope, DC has learned from Frank Miller’s liberties with All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder.
Now, the question remains, can DC actually market to the bookstore? That was its goal with Minx, and Minx was a commercial failure despite its critical success. I feel like this can be a big success for DC, but it’s not a ‘build it and they will come’ kind of project – it needs to be promoted well in-store.
What do you think about DC’s Earth One gambit? Will you be reading it?
A Fangirl is Born
Dec 04For the longest time, I thought I made it up.
I remembered a superheroine telling her origin story to a gang of attentive old friends. I remembered that said origin story somehow involved high school and people being big mean meanies. I remembered the moment when she realized she could fly.
It all sounds so generic when I say it like that. But this was all I could remember, a series of vague images rendered in bad ‘80s animation — the kind where “running†is represented by a repetitive sequence of mechanical lurches.
It wasn’t until recently that the pieces came together. I was describing my collection of hazy half-memories to my husband, and he was like, “Wait, that’s a thing. A thing that actually exists.†And then we realized it was “A Firestar is Born.â€
Fantastic, Mr. Fox (Alert Nerd Family Show)
Dec 02I left Fantastic Mr. Fox a bit nonplussed by the whole affair. I realize that’s a serious asshole move when you’ve just viewed a stop-motion animated film, perhaps the most difficult style of filmmaking available to today’s auteurs, with the possible exception of hopping in one of Jimmy Cameron’s super-submarines to stage a Titanic sequel amid the wreckage of the actual boat. It’s sort of like eating a home-cooked meal and then declaring, “Meh! The salt in the mashed potatoes was unforgivable!” You can say it, sure, but you’re assuring your douchebaghood.
But then, mild pleasure and confusion are common reactions for me when it comes to Wes Anderson’s films. And yet, he’s probably my favorite filmmaker working today.
He makes the kind of movies that linger in my brain and slowly unpack themselves over days, months, even years. Other than big dumb event movies, the only films I can say I rewatch with any regularity are Wes Anderson’s movies. I went on a BIG Rushmore kick in my mid-twenties, and The Royal Tennenbaums is one I’ve returned to as well.
When it comes out on DVD, I have a feeling I’ll be returning to Fox. In fact, I hope I can hook my kids on it so we have to watch it over and over. I’m betting it’s a grower.
