Monthly Archives: June 2011

More DCnU CanCon news… David Finch & Jason Fabok, Yanick Paquette and Jeff Lemire

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Announced yesterday:

Batman, The Dark Knight 1

BATMAN, THE DARK KNIGHT will relaunch in September with a new first issue. Same creative team as before: David Finch (writer/artist) and Jason Fabok (art). They have a few issues of the old series to crank out between now and the end of August.

Announced today:

Animal Man #1

Jeff Lemire will be writing two DCnU titles, both with a supernatural bent: Animal Man and Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. Travel Foreman is drawing Animal Man and the Alberto Ponticelli (Unknown Soldier) is drawing Frankenstein!

Swamp Thing #1

Yanick Paquette is the artist on the new Swamp Thing #1, written by Scott Snyder.

Incidentally, I cannot make heads or tails out of the DCnU (DC new Universe). I’ve been told a basic premise, but DC keeps on releasing solicits on books that seem to be continuing plot threads and themes from the old DCU that undermines this new premise: that this is a revised timeline, and we are five years into the new heroic age that started with the arrival of Superman and Batman (instead of about 10-15 years into it like the old DCU). I wrote in an earlier post about alienating older fans in order to appeal to new ones, but DC seems to be doing an unsatisfying and deeply confusing job of explaining what this is all about.

What’s obvious is that there’s time travel involved at the end of Flashpoint, and when things are supposed to return to the way they should be – something doesn’t go quite right and there’s a reset on some things but not others, making for a hodge-podge confusing new continuity that  hits the reboot button (not relaunch) on some characters such as Green Arrow, Firestorm, Batgirl, Flash, Hawkman, the Justice League — but not others, who just get a relaunch of a new #1 like the majority of the already popular Batman and Green Lantern lines.

As a person that buys only collected editions, I see some things I might pick up in 2012 when they are eventually collected. I don’t see anything here that will make me consider picking up any floppies or downloading any digital comics.

I still see this as being good and bad. Good in the sense that the numbers will go way up on some books – regretfully this seems to follow the Marvel lead of short term gains followed by free fall declines until the next event relaunch.  Retailers are in a terrible pickle next month when they need to decide what to order and in what quantities and it will only get worse when they must order the second and third issues without having seen any of the actual books. Return-ability is great, but you still need to outlay the cash and hope for sales or you are stuck waiting to get the credit back for the unsold merchandise.

Congratulations to Francis Manapul and the other winners of the 2011 Inkwell Awards

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With an exciting turnout in voting from April 1-30, The Inkwell Awards are now able to release for their fourth year the ballot results from the six categories targeting the exceptional 2010 work of ink artists.

Scott Hanna took the winning slot for Favorite Inker this year for his work on Marvel titles Hulk and Avengers: Prime, followed by Runner-up Wade Von Grawbadger, 2009′s winner in this category.

For the second consecutive year, Scott also won the Most-Adaptable Inker Award category for his various and eclectic ink works from both Marvel and DC (Avengers Academy, Incredible Hulk, Nova, Shadowland: Powerman, Batman & Robin, R.E.B.E.L.S.), followed in second place by Mark Morales, who won Favorite Inker last year.

In the Props Award category, for an ink artist deserving of more attention, there was a real multitude of nominees with eleven candidates this year, but Art Thibert took the top position by a clear margin for his work on Doc Savage, Captain Action, and Brightest Day, followed by runner-up Mariah Benes.

The S.P.A.M.I. Award (Small Press And Mainstream Independent) had the closest turnout this year as last year’s number two and number three positioned nominees, Cliff Rathburn and Todd McFarlane, were neck and neck with Cliff beating out Todd by only four votes for his work on Image Comics’ Guarding the Globe and Invincible.

The All-in-One Award category, for those artists who ink their own pencil work, was scooped by Francis Manapul for his work on DC’s Adventure Comics and The Flash, followed close behind by runner-up Jerry Ordway (who himself just edged out Chris Samnee by one vote).

For the Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame Award, this years award recipients were Kevin Nowlan and Wally Wood, and both were 2010 nominees in this category (In fact, ‘Woody’, as he’s affectionately known, was the runner-up last year).  Wally entered the comic book industry by the late ’40s with lettering, doing backgrounds, inking, and finally pencilling.  He became a breakout star at EC Comics in the 1950s, doing horror, adventure, romance, and humor, but it was with the science fiction genre that he excelled.  He also worked with Will Eisner on The Spirit and inked Jack Kirby on the Skymasters of the Space Force strip.  Iin the silver-age he was especially prolific, working for numerous publishers, and at Marvel he is especially remembered for his contributions to the title Daredevil.  And as a publisher he was a pioneer for his brilliant independent creations like Witzend, Sally Forth, and Heroes Inc. Presents Cannon.  Wood worked into the bronze-age but he passed away in 1981, leaving behind hordes of fans and having inspired scores of artists.   Inkwell ambassador J. David Spurlock, the representative for the Wood Estate, accepted the posthumous award and made a statement on behalf of the estate.

Our other Hall of Fame Award recipient, Kevin Nowlan had previously won the ‘Favorite Finisher/Embellisher (Modern)’ category in 2008 before the Inkwell ballot and nomination process was restructured the following year.  As a self-taught illustrator, Kevin’s work received fandom recognition in the 1980s for his work at Marvel, DC, and other independent publishers.  While he has excelled in pencilling, lettering, and in doing animation character designs, the majority of his work has been as an ink artist, and one of the few inkers that sees himself more as a ‘finisher’ for his embellishing skills.  His approach has been mutually revered by both fans and his peers.

Joe Sinnott shared this statement in regards to this year’s results:

“I just want to say again what an honor it truly is to have my name associated with the Inkwells annual Hall of Fame Award.  To have these fine inkers share in this great honor of this award is truly gratifying to me.  The finished product that we all see on the comic book pages is the result of fine embellishment provided by these talented inkers.

As you know, all too often most pencilers do a magnificent job, however, the finished product in many cases is the result of a talented inker.   I would like to congratulate my old friend the late Wally Wood, and the highly talented Kevin Nowlan on receiving this year’s award.  Waiting in the wings there are many who are deserving of this honor. Best wishes and good luck to those nominated next year and in the years to come.
Joltin’ Joe Sinnott (class of 2008)”

The results were officially announced at the Inkwell Awards first live awards ceremony that took place at Heroes Con on Saturday June 4th.  Inkwell founder and director Bob Almond acted as host, former-committee member Tim Townsend acted as Presenter, Inkwell contributor Dan Panosian acted as Keynote Speaker, and Inkwell ambassador Ethan Van Sciver acted as auctioneer for the live fundraising auction that followed the ceremony.  Outgoing committee member Bob Shaw was awarded a silver inkwell trophy after three years on the team and artist Cully Hamner was made known as an incoming Inkwell ambassador. The spokesmodel Ms. Inkwell, played by model Kathy Taylor, and much of the organization was in attendance, as well as all of the award recipients except Francis Manapul who couldn’t make the event and Cliff Rathburn who couldn’t be reached.

For more info regarding the 2011 results such as winners’ acceptance speeches, nomination committee participants, and more, please keep checking the official Inkwell Awards website at http://www.inkwellawards.com

The Inkwell Awards is a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote and educate about the art form of comic book inking and to annually recognize and award the best ink artists and their work. Now wrapping up their fourth year, the organization is overseen by a number of industry professionals such as founder & director Bob Almond, Jimmy Tournas, Bob Shaw, Nathan Massengill, and Daniel Best who make up the IA core committee, and Adam Hughes, Mike Marts, Ethan Van Sciver, Mark Brooks, Sal Velluto, Mike McKone, Trevor Von Eeden and J. David Spurlock who make up their IA ambassadors, and numerous contributors such as Mark McKenna, Dan Panosian, Louis Small, Jr. and Randy Green among others. They sponsor the Dave Simons Inkwell Memorial Scholarship Fund for the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon & Graphic Art and host the Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame.

Announcing the 2011 Joe Shuster Awards hosts: Ajay Fry and Teddy Wilson!

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We are proud to announce the hosts for the 7th Annual Joe Shuster Awards, to be held on Saturday, June 18th, 2011 at the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo:

AJAY FRY

As the Host of InnerSPACE, AJAY FRY is no stranger to SPACE or the airwaves. Born in Toronto, Ajay attributes his bizarre and creative sense of humour to growing up in Ottawa. His career in television began at an early age with roles on LASSIE, ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK and BIG WOLF ON CAMPUS. He also regularly lent his young voice to cartoons such as ARTHUR, LITTLE LULU and CAILLOU.

As a teenager, Ajay studied and performed improvisational comedy at Ottawa’s popular comedy club The iNSTiTUTiON under owner and Second City alumnus Ken Godmere. Shortly after turning 18, Ajay traveled to Beijing, China where he voiced a series of educational videos which were distributed across the country.

In 2003 Ajay came to Toronto to study comedy and improv. He completed the conservatory program at The Second City and the Humber College Comedy program where he became a nominee for the prestigious Phil Hartman Award.

After graduating, Ajay joined YTV as host of CRUNCH, their popular Saturday morning programming block. Ajay delighted YTV audiences for two years before joining SPACE in 2008 as host of the weekly genre entertainment show, THE CIRCUIT.

In fall 2009, Ajay joined forces with Teddy Wilson to co-host the SPACE flagship genre entertainment show, INNERSPACE. Four nights a week, from Tuesday to Friday, Ajay and Teddy navigate the ever-changing world of genre entertainment commenting on SPACE’s signature primetime series, genre films, videogames and more.

When not hosting INNERSPACE, Ajay is demolishing fellow gamers in online computer games like Left 4 Dead 2, StarCraft 2 and TeamFortress 2, designing websites or kicking around the local Toronto comedy scene.

TEDDY WILSON

As on-air host for InnerSPACE, TEDDY WILSON goes above and beyond the call of duty to bring the world of genre to your space.

Growing up in Ottawa, Teddy began his career in the entertainment industry as a child actor on the internationally syndicated series YOU CAN’T DO THAT ON TELEVISION. After earning an Honours B.A. in Political Science, the politically-active Wilson moved to Toronto to work at Queen’s Park. Political advisor by day, he started producing and promoting live comedy revues at various venues at night, including the prestigious Tim Sims Encouragement Fund Award at The Second City.

After leaving politics Wilson worked his way up in TV production, eventually serving as talent booker on the Comedy Network series POPCULTURED WITH ELVIRA KURT. In 2005, Teddy joined MTV and helped launch flagship show MTV LIVE. While working as studio producer on the series his “former child star” status was often parodied during the popular “after-school special” spoofs. In 2008 Teddy left MTV to join SPACE as on-air reporter.

Teddy’s first assignment for SPACE was interviewing George Lucas at Skywalker Ranch. Since then he’s been fortunate to interview a wildly eclectic range of other personalities, including: Jerry Bruckheimer, KISS’s Gene Simmons, George Clooney, director Terry Gilliam, Pixar’s Andrew Stanton and Pete Docter, Adrien Brody, shock-rockers GWAR, Jeff Bridges, comic artists/authors Bryan Lee O’Malley and Daniel Clowes and many others.

In fall 2009, Teddy joined forces with Ajay Fry to co-host the SPACE flagship genre entertainment show, INNERSPACE. Four nights a week, from Tuesday to Friday, Teddy and Ajay navigate the ever-changing world of genre entertainment commenting on SPACE’s signature primetime series, genre films, videogames and more.

When not busy hosting INNERSPACE, Teddy plays drums in the indie-rock band HUDDLE, reads far too many comic-books and goes to a lot of movies.

Bob Wayne writes retailers to allay concerns about “New DC”

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It looks like something might blow up here. Best to contain it. The new Captain Atom #1.


To our comics retail partners,

With The New DCU – the September launch of our 52 #1s – we have created an event that we believe will generate unprecedented buzz, and, more importantly, unprecedented sales results for you. This is a shock to the system, no question, but we have the quality stories and the unrivaled sales/marketing support and the increased public attention to help you best absorb that shock and profit from it.

As a follow-up to my first letter, we wanted to provide some immediate specifics on September:

CONTENT
We know that you want more details on the creative teams and their title-by-title assignments for the launch. . (And by the way, let me just reiterate this point: this is the launch of the New DCU. It is not a “reboot.” I think you will soon discover why that is.) We will send you an e-mail with more creative details next week, as a teaser in advance of the solicitation copy for Previews going live on the 13th. Once solicit copy is released, we will be sending you a short introductory video, starring our creators and our content. We will also be taking this act on the road, for a series of retailer meetings in markets including New York, Dallas/Fort Worth, Baltimore, Chicago, and Los Angeles, during the days leading up to the release of the physical Previews catalog. Stay tuned for more details, and send us a note to make sure you’re on the invite list.

DIGITAL
To clarify from my last note, we will be at “price-parity” for same-day digital. No DC digital comic will be cheaper than its physical counterpart at launch. Same-day (a.k.a. “Day/ Date”) parity pricing is for the first four weeks of release; thereafter, the digital titles will follow our standard pricing, with $2.99 comics dropping in price to $1.99, $3.99 comics dropping in price to $2.99, and so forth. Keep in mind that our goal with our 52 new #1s will be to ensure that the physical comic book is more compelling than ever!

Additionally, we will be offering you an additional special “combo pack” for Justice League. This is a Diamond-exclusive $4.99 physical polybagged JUSTICE LEAGUE comic which will contain a redemption code for a digital copy on the inside cover. So consumers will have three main ways to read Justice League beginning August 31st – $3.99 physical, the $4.99 combo pack, and $3.99 digital. As mentioned above, after four weeks the digital-only price drops to $2.99, per our standard price for oversized digital titles.

INCENTIVES
For optimal sales impact, each of our 52 titles will have one of three distinct incentives:

a) Variants
For variants, we chose our core iconic titles, the ones that you tell us your consumers want most. And of course, we sought out those titles with the most compelling visuals. At a minimum, this variant plan will be offered for September, October, and November. We will be offering variants on five different titles, with at least one each week.

· 1:25 variant
JUSTICE LEAGUE #1 – 8/31 in-store. This cover will have a 1:25 ordering incentive.

· Weekly targeted variant
FLASH #1 – 9/28 in-store. Retailers may order at FOC up to as many copies of the FLASH #1 variant as were ordered at FOC of their lowest-ordered DCU title for the 9/28 in-store week. (This is an example; each week will feature a title with a variant following this incentive pattern.)

b) Deep Discounting
For deeper discounts, we chose to spotlight potential break-out titles which can help you focus your staff and your customers. Books that have a compelling creator, an obvious jumping-on point for your readers, etc. We will be offering an additional 15% discount on six different titles for orders placed by FOC, effectively giving you a 50% to 72% discount spread, instead of our normal 35% to 57% spread. At a minimum, this deep discounting will be offered for September, October, and November. The lead title is WONDER WOMAN with five others that will be announced next week.

c) Returnability
We are backing up our commitment to you and this launch, by putting our copies where are mouths are. We will be offering 100% Returnability on all of the remaining 41 titles. Returnability across the rest of the 52 allows the breadth of these titles to get their fair chance with your consumers. This comes with a qualifier – your total post-FOC September orders in dollars for DC periodicals must be 125% or more of your May post-FOC orders for DC periodicals.

As with prior returnable programs, qualifying retailers will be required to return stripped covers from the returnable issues along with an affidavit of destruction to Diamond Comic Distributors at a date to be named later. Retailers will then be issued credit for each copy, minus 10% of the cover price. At a minimum, this returnability program will be offered for September, October, and November.

Call or e-mail me or my team with any questions.

Thank you for your enthusiasm, your patience, and your partnership. Come make history with us!

Bob Wayne

DC COMICS