Last Update: February 2, 2023
"God of War Ragnarok Reveals Staggering New Sales Total" – Comicbook
Philatelics
The UK Royal Mail to release X-Men Stamps on February 16 – Kent Online UK
They are presenting a gaggle of products for this - buy them online at the Royal mail website
Batmobile on clearance - Feb 2023
Official News on The Batman Sequel
Its all around the internet that The Batman II from Matt Reeves now has a release date of Oct. 3, 2025. Apparently this is not to go in the obvious direction (a Joker movie) but to utilize "other villains in Batman's Rogues Gallery."
Internet rumour: A Plastic Man movie is possible from the new batch of projects from the James Gunn-run DC Films.
"Gods and Monsters" plan of ten projects from James Gunn for DC Films
Some of what's planned:
Superman movie in 2025 Superman: Legacy
Brave and the Bold movie
Batman and Son movie based on the Grant Morrison Damian stories, apparently
Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow movie (apparently based on the Tom King series)
Swamp Thing film
Waller TV Series
Creature Commandos TV Series
What's already coming:
Shazam Fury of the Gods and The Flash films
And then there's also DC Elseworlds:
The Batman sequel with Robert Pattinson
A sequel to the Joker with Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga
Coverage all over the internet:
Profile of Bulletproof Comics in Brooklyn – Epic Center NYC
Graphic novel awards at 2023 ALA Youth Media event – Comics Beat
Complaints about chaos and trouble behind-the-scenes at MCU/Disney film-making – CBR
The article speaks from the perspective of "inside" people who have complaints about how things are being done.
...one frequent issue that aggravates contractors is Marvel's request to alter endings rather than stick to what was initially agreed upon in pre-production. The animator explained, "It’s kind of like putting the last coat of paint on a car, and while you’re putting on this last coat, you’re trying to decide what color you want. They don’t figure stuff out early enough."
Hollywood cleaning house of "weak material, dumping it into theatres" – Forbes
Before we reach sequel oasis in March that offers Creed III, Scream VI, John Wick: Chapter 4 and Shazam! Fury of the Gods, you have to weather the drought of Plane, 80 for Brady, and Fear, among other discards from production companies hedging their bets in this bizarre post-pandemic marketplace.
Comparing the teamups of Marvel and DC Comics – Gobookmart
They lead off loopking at Justice League vs Avangers
Here come the AI comic books – Comics Beat
Artificial intelligence (AI) art generators like Midjourney, DALL-E and Stable Diffusion have recently advanced in leaps and bounds..... Current peculiarities to comics with AI art include: Inconsistent faces, bodies, props, and clothing (although grassroots communities and tutorials have sprung up where comic creators swap tips on major challenges like achieving character consistency...
The trauma of artificial intelligence artwork is affecting every area of the artwork industry, and comic books are no different. The gimmick part of AI is understandable: what's bizarre, good, bad or just plain new has a chance of grabbing attention and being a viable market in the industry of image-making.
But the AI phenomenon goes well beyond that because it fuses together all that attention-getting plus the general obsession of the modern world with technology, implies any person with a computer and access to AI could theoretically start generating great art. Does this mean AI could be on the cusp of rather boldly marching into the house of already existing employed and livelihood earning artists and burning the place down around their heads? More on AI the Artificial Art
Are comic books really dying? There's sales numbers and then there's an other kind of sales numbers.
What?
"DC Confirms Batman's Superpower Is His Family" – Screenrant
Marvel has announced a special treat for Disney's 100th anniversary in 2023. There will be 12 variant covers throughout the year done by Italian Disney artists, the first 3 have been revealed and will be variant covers to Amazing Spider-Man #17, #18 and #19 pic.twitter.com/0UudIxr3oz
— LeblancPhotography@FanExpoCanada (@KingofToons) October 14, 2022
Absolute love this 'Goofy as Hulk' cover by Vitale Mangiatordi for the Disney 100th anniversary.
— Joe (@JoebiWan94) October 14, 2022
What I can't get my head around is why this is for Amazing Spider-Man and not Incredible Hulk pic.twitter.com/cRKVp4p1JB
Hawkeye star Jeremy Renner was trying to stop a snow tractor from striking his nephew when he was hurt by the device – Accuweather
Making superhero history with Angela Bassett: nominated for Oscar for supporting actress in role of Queen Ramonda from Wakanda Forever
Story at Digital Spy
April 2023 DC Comics solicitations – Comicsbeat
Seventy-nine release titles of comics, graphic novels, etc
For example:
V for Vendetta Absolute Edition 2023, by Alan Moore with cover by David Lloyd, $125, 384 pages – 8/15/23
Steel: A Celebration of 30 Years. Written by Louise Simonson, Christopher Priest, Grant Morrison, and more. Art by Jon Bogdanove, Denys Cowan, Arnie Jorgensen, Ed Benes, and more. Cover by Alex Garner. $39.99, 328 pages – 5/23/23
The Batman and Scooby Doo Mysteries #7. Written by Amanda Deibert, art and cover by Dario Brizuela. $2.99 US, 32 pages – 4/11/23
Marvel is doing an Alien series – comicbook
NFTs are still around: Bored Ape sale nets $1 million – FinanceFeeds
Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT #232 sold for 800ETH. But in truth, the sales of BAYC NFTs or Cryptopunks tell us very little about the NFT market.
About Kang the Konqueror in Quantumania – Deadline Hollywood
"Parasite Zombie" is next for Lois Lane – CBR MSN
The Marvel Movie Schedule List
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania – Feb. 17, 2023
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 – May 5, 2023
The Marvels – July 28, 2023
Armor Wars – TBA
Captain America: New World Order – May 3, 2024
Thunderbolts – July 26, 2024
Blade – September 6, 2024
Deadpool 3 – November 8, 2024
Fantastic Four – February 14, 2025
Nova – TBA
Avengers: The Kang Dynasty – May 2, 2025
Avengers: Secret Wars – May 1, 2026
Comixology has been in the news and on social media due to the massive layoffs Comixology part of Amazon’s plan to cut 18,000 jobs – Polygon
A lot of the social media comments are along the lines of "Comixology worked fine and then Amazon bought it, screwed it up and now they're cutting it to ribbons."
Still thinking about Comixology & how Amazon bought a thing that worked, gutted it, shat in its bed, and then threw it away because they didn’t want to play with it any more.
— ✪ Jonathan H. Gray: AKA Big Poyo Spookin' Thangs ✪ (@jongraywb) January 19, 2023
Jobs lost, livelihoods upended, & a fresh digital horizon that was opened up is now gone on a whim.
Marvel movies are going to get back into Chinese theatres? – CNBC MSN News
TokyoPop gets a new publisher – Publishers Weekly
The Dark Knight film was approached by Nolan "like doing a silent film" – Slash Film
Title cards for some of Christian Bale's growly Batman dialogue might have been helpful, actually.
Artist James Pearson has died
Worked on Spider-Man, Deadpool, Batman, Leagion of Super-Heores, Namor the Sub-Mariner, Spawn, Savage Dragon, Witchblade and Body Bags
Story at Comicbook
Marvel's Avengers getting a new line-up – Gamesradar
I used to work at DC Comics as an assistant to the art director 20 years ago, and the amount of artists I knew then who have since passed away is very very troubling. And I’m not talking about older artists, I’m talking artists who were in their 20s & 30’s back then.
— Valerie D'Orazio (@TheVallyD) January 17, 2023
Quantumania
The finale for the Arrowverse (and Flash) on TV – MSN Inverse
James Cameron takes a shot at Marvel movies – Bounding into Comics
...People forget to put beauty into a film. There’s a lot of snark, there’s a lot of sarcasm, there’s a lot of cutesy jokes in movies."
His undefined criticism could be applied to a number different films, not just Marvel, and does he even mean Marvel?.
Europe Comics shutting down part of operations – Details at Comics Beat
Avatar II keeps piling up the box office funds – Deadline Hollywood via Fark.com
Robbery at Brantford Canada Comic Book Store carries off $24K comic amid $75K heist
Story at LF Press
A copy of Fantastic Four #1 was taken
Alley Oop cartoonist Jack Bender has died
Story at WCF Courier
Bender, a Waterloo native who gained national prominence for drawing and inking the beloved time-traveling caveman comic strip Alley Oop, died Jan. 5 in Tulsa, Okla., from complications of dementia.He was 91.
Ezra Miller gets deal to stay out of jail – Bounding into Comics
Avatar II getting close to $2 billion box office – Variety
Before the pandemic, this kind of result for a Cameron movie wouldn't have surprised everybody, but post-pandemic (if that's where we truly are) this result is reassuring a lot of nervous movie people that there's still money out there to be had for mega-films that are not Marvel. Avatar: The Way of Water making this sort of money and Tom Cruise going to $1.5 billion with Top Gun Maverick last year cements the idea that there are things that will get ticket-buyers into seats en masse.
Avatar: The Way of Water – Box Office Mojo $1,749,253,993 worldwide
In relation to where screen-watching eyes reside: 2022 saw 600 Scripted TV Shows "Peak TV" – Hollywood Reporter
Publishers Weekly's fifteen top read comic book business stories of 2022 – Publishers Weekly
Some of the stories:
- Manga is Booming
- ‘Heavy Metal’ Gets Its Mojo Back
- Black Sands Gets $500K 'Shark Tank' Offer From Kevin Hart
- Windsor-Smith’s ‘Monsters’ Wins 2022 Eisner for Best New Graphic Novel
Sandy King's success with Storm King Comics – Variety
...it was ten years ago and they were pretty hostile to what they thought were celebrity comics and vanity comics. The comic companies themselves thought that we were all just stupid."
Website for Stormkingcomics.com
These kinds of stories pop up too often "Beloved Yonkers comic book store announces closure after decade in business" – News 12 New Jersey
Jim Starlin's Dreadstar series getting revived – Comicbook
New publisher Monkey Wrench Press is doing the graphic novel Dreadstar vs. the Inevitable. Jim Starlin is famed as creator of the Thanos and Infinity Gauntlet storyline at Marvel, besides a long career in comic books.
Superhero movies sliding with movie audiences? – MSN The Wrap
Article evidence is that comic book superhero films of 2022 were beat at the box office by Avatar: The Way of Water, Top Gun: Maverick and Jurassic World Dominion.
Sales charts on comic book publishing missing in action
Story at Comics Beat
Blame is put on the distribution wars for the lapse in numbers for sales of comic books. Whether from publishers or from Diamond Distributors (which used to own the farm, so to speak, on knowing what sold and what didn't, that is until DC and Marvel bailed on them during the pandemic which brought on the lockdown of their distribution center in Maryland and essetnially froze the comic book business in its tracks) there's no real data being put out now.
The Comic Beat article also quotes Paul Levitz, former head at DC Comics and author of books on comic book history, who attacks those "best selling comic books of all time" lists that are on the internet for getting the numbers wrong and for lack of perspective.
She-Hulk star Tatiana Maslany TV Show Invitation to a Bonfire gets cancelled in the midst of filming it – DigitalSpy
Related: She-Hulk comics writer Dan Slott defends the She Hulk TV show against fan-critics at Flickering Myth
I have yet to be able to take a superhero comics TV show too seriously as true expressions of the comic book character and stories, so criticism of the shows based on a comparison with the comic book versions doesn't resonate. I can only think of the TV versions as being variations on the original material, not representative. As such, some of it is very entertaining, but more in the way of a parody of the original material.
What is remarkable is that there's so many of these TV shows derived from comic books, and also how some of the critiques of them are so incredibly enthusiastic. These go well beyond an aesthetic rejection, that alone isn't enough to explain how much hatred a television program can gather to itself.
Who will be Superman? Yahoo thinks these are the best choices – Yahoo - The comments on the article are sometimes hilarious.
Related: James Gunn wants Elliot Page as Superman? – Fortress of Solitude
Whoa, talk about casting out of the box.
Elliot Page is a Canadian actor who was assigned female at birth. He only recently openly came out as a transgender male in 2020, so some people might not recognize the actor that has been in the film industry for years at first glance. The actor is most recognizable in his role as Juno McGuff in the 2007 classic Juno.
21st century puzzles: why was a fake comic book title used in the 1987 Lost Boys movie? – CBR MSN News
Bungleton Green just got reprinted by @NYRcomics https://t.co/ZxBSTvCocK pic.twitter.com/uKn0s05R59
— Tom Shapira (@tomshaps) September 10, 2022
California Democrat takes oath of office using rare Superman No. 1 comic – NY Post
It's a $5 million dollar swearing in.
One of the newest arrivals in Washington will swear to “bear true faith and allegiance” to the US Constitution — on one of the rarest and most valuable comic books in the world.
DC's new Batman universe, minus Batman – Comicbook
How Batman had a contingency... against himself.
Comic book's worst trends – CBR
Now here's a subject that could have a pretty subjective mix of complaints, but there's one thing clearly stated that is true:
Comics once boasted a wide range of genres, each of which were successful in their own right. Slice of life, adventure, horror, comedy and superhero comics. Even war stories had active series going, which is where the likes of Sgt. Rock had their origins. In modern comics, there are fewer dedicated genre comics than ever. War comics are basically non-existent. Fantasy has been incredibly diminished over the years and horror has been watered down. Key to a thriving industry is good representation and use of genres, which is currently lacking.
List topic examples:
- The Comic Industry Has Seen Its Genres Whittled Away
- Some Comic Books Are Clearly Written To Be TV Shows And Movies
- Decompression Is Ok, But Comic Readers Still Like Shorter Arcs
Today marks the last day for Conan and other Robert E. Howard characters to be under license by Marvel before moving on to Titan in 2023. Here is a retrospective of the highlights of Conan’s 2nd round under Marvel from 2019-2022. pic.twitter.com/sXgMWJTY2r
— Conan Comics, by Crom! (@ConanComicBooks) December 31, 2022
The creative works sliding into public domain 2023
Classic songs, stories and Sherlock Holmes go into Public Domain – PBS
"Shady legal shenanigans mean it’s a little overdue" – UK Guardian
Sherlock Holmes now public domain – ABC News
Public domain source list: Graphicchatter
Being careful of copyright infringement
The list of celebrity and entertainment biz deaths from 2022 – Deadline Hollywood
Art Spiegelman and his "500 pound mouse" – NY Times
Since then, Spiegelman has been called upon again and again to champion and defend his work. He’s given countless interviews, speeches and webinars, including a Zoom meeting with residents of the Tennessee county where “Maus” was removed after parents objected to scattered instances of profanity and nudity in the text. He has argued repeatedly that the ban is about much more than “Maus,” which details his parents’ experience during the Holocaust, depicting Jews as mice and Nazis as cats. To Spiegelman, the decision to remove “Maus” from schools reflects a more insidious campaign to sanitize disturbing chapters of history, under the guise of “protecting” children.
The best comic book story arcs that haven't made it to film yet – Yahoo Nerdist
Woke comics are "money losers" – NY Post - MSN News
John Stossel and Eric July see economic defeat in Marvel and DC's direction
