Archive Page 2196

February 2024

Robert Downey Jr. wanted Scarecrow role in Nolan's Batman Begins – People MSN

"Spider-Man" climbs the Las Vegas Sphere where Superbowl LVIII will be played in a few days – Indy Star

From cubicle to comics to digital art – how this artist made $2.2 million at the first woman-run NFT marketplace – Fortune

Traveling comic book store in hot Springs Arkansas – Sentinel-Record Hot Springs Arkansas

Saturn Awards gives Guardians of the Galaxy 3 "best comic book movie" for 2023 – Comicbook

New Black Panther #1 gets a second printing and its not even out yet – SuperheroHype

"Shaky start" for sales on Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League – Game Rant

The 2016 David Ayers film did well, and despite negative critical reviews at the time, made $750 million worldwide. The 2021 James Gunn "revision" tanked horribly in theatres with a total worldwide earning of $167 million (though it did do well for viewing numbers as a streaming item on HBO Max). There are theories about why what was once a hot property now repulses mass attention, but the the situation, whatever the explanation, is that the Suicide Squad is a "damaged brand."

The French comic book field doubled during the pandemic - will the boom last?

Story at UK Guardian

It is testament to the fresh energy injected into the BD market by the pandemic: between 2019 and 2021, fanned by measures such as the Culture Pass that gave teenagers hundreds of euros to spend, it almost doubled in size from 48.4m sales a year to 87.2m. “We didn’t expect this phenomenon [to last] after lockdown was lifted,” says Marie Parisot, marketing and commercial director of Dargaud, publishers of Blake and Mortimer and Lucky Luke. “Everyone was worried people would stay at home, turned in on themselves.” Now one in four books of any kind sold in France are comics.

Two people arrested after leaking Shonen Jump manga before official publication – Comicsbeat

I heard you were dead, dept.

They're going to bring back Thanos? – Bounding into Comics

Suicide Squad Kill The Justice League game playercount "worryingly low" – Forbes and on top of that "the game gets positive reviews but no one is playing it – Dote Sports

On the other hand, there are complaints online that the game is disparaging to some of the hero characters and there are fans feeling insulted by the game.

Does Batman really die in Kill the Justice League? – Polygon

The "canon event" for Spider-Man – USA Today

Job changes at IDW, Top Shelf Productions and Random House

Story at Bleeding Cool

Christopher Reeves documentary – MSN The Wrap

Argylle film bombing (?) but on top of weekend box office – The Numbers

After posting just $1.7 million in previews on Thursday it will need to come storming back over the next few days to reach a respectable opening number."

Marvel talks up Venom-Spawn crossover – Yahoo News - Superhero Hype

Taiwan manga coming to USA – Comicsbeat

Remake of Bride of Frankenstein coming – Boundingintocomics

"What is Ghost Machine, and why is it one of the most significant developments in the industry since the original formation of Image?" – IGN News

Kevin Conroy to get one more Batman credit – MSN Screenrant

The "script to comic book" contest – Hollywood Reporter

The competition that turns screenplays into comic books has a new sponsor: the Japanese publisher Kodansha, which is behind titles such as Attack on Titan, Akira and Ghost and the Shell. It's a noteworthy move for Script2Comic, as its winners now could have their work being turned into a Manga that Kodansha could develop into an animated series, in addition to being published as comics in the United States by boutique publisher AMP Comics.

The stuff that the Disney company owns – Motley Fool

Thief caught who broke into Memphis comic book store – WREG Memphis

Hyderabad Comic Con in India concludes with record-breaking 37,000 attendees – Telangana Today

Madame Web hype gearing up: posters and pre-release tickets – Comicbookmovie

Current projections point to a $25 million opening weekend, a figure well below even Morbius (which debuted with $39 million). It's also a far cry from Venom's $80 million debut and Venom: Let There Be Carnage's $90 million haul.

More Madame Web, 2024

James Gunn: no Batman to appear for Superman Legacy project – Yahoo News

Layoffs galore: "Media melting down" – Hollywood Reporter

The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Time, Condé Nast, Sports Illustrated, Business Insider, New York Daily News, National Geographic and The Baltimore Sun have all been in the news just this month for layoffs, cost-cutting, labor walkouts or bleak prognosticating.

Aquaman II earnings cross $400 million worldwide – Koimoi

Adding theatres overseas has coughed up more earnings for the Jason Momoa sequel to the $1.1 billion earning Aquaman from 2018.

Massive growth in Korean manga – Korea Times

Naver Webtoon, an online comics subsidiary of Naver, said sales in Japan exceeded 100 billion yen ($675 million) from January to November of 2023. It also said that as of last December, Line Manga, its Japanese service platform, was the only comic app there with over 10 million monthly active users (MAUs), maintaining the top spot.

...Naver Webtoon has over 40 online comics with over 1 billion views globally and 108 titles with over 500 million views as of 2022. One of the reasons for Naver Webtoon's huge success in the Japanese market was the popularity in Japan of the online comic "Teenage Mercenary," which is very popular in Korea, the company added. The online comic exceeded annual sales of 1 billion yen in Japan last year.

Those are incredible numbers, and making headway into the land of manga itself is also amazing.

Rob Liefield's new project Last Blood – Comicbook

Rob Liefeld, the Image Comics co-founder best known for creating characters like Deadpool and Cable, has a new, creator-owned title available for sale at Whatnot. Titled Last Blood, Liefeld's mysterious new book has been selling at sky-high prices in the early going, particularly because he has a number of exclusive variant covers, some of which are only available to the earliest adopters on Whatnot.

The search for a new Supergirl actor – Superherohype

2024 Judges for Eisner Awards – Comicsbeat

Wattpad Webtoon gets distribution deal with Penguin Random House – Publishers Weekly

Was a Andrew Garfield Spider-Man cameo in Madame Web cut out? – Yahoo

Comics: the uniquely American art form – Columbus Dispatch

Auction for Batman, Captain Scarlet, novelties, etc. – Downthetubes

Some of the items:

1. Batman #147 – May 1962, DC Comics
2. Buster comics dated 5th May 1962
3. George and Lynn Original Comic Art, by Josep Gual
4. Man From U.N.C.L.E. Shield Pin Badge
5. Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons Metal Toy Lone Star
6. Crunch No. 1, cover dated 20th January 1979

See the auction catalog online

Using comic strips to introduce newspapers to kids – MSN Jackson Sun

Thundercats preorders top 170K copies – Comicsbeat

Echo is a big hit for Disney – Forbes

Marvel has a hit on its hands with Echo, the MA-rated superhero venture starring Alaqua Cox that performed well on both Hulu and Disney Plus, and did so with a budget of $40 million, less than 20% of some of the MCU’s enormous, unwieldy series like She-Hulk and Secret Invasion. Now, the success of Echo is having ripple effects, and it seems tohave triggered what might be the solution to Marvel’s up and down run of Disney Plus series, risking it all with these massive budgets. There are reports that Echo has spawned big increases in the viewing of old Daredevil seasons, and now filming restarts on the reworked version of the show that scrapped an original poor revival idea and is instead building straight from season 3 of the Netflix original, with the original cast and revived guest stars like Jon Bernthal’s Punisher.

Deadline says Echo was number one on Disney+ and on Hulu, but didn't mention any actual viewership numbers. Streaming audience numbers seems to be a big secret across the board, and no one has come up with a way to audit what the true audience sizes are for streamed programming. On the other hand, cable and broadcast TV numbers are estimated and this chart at National Media Spots shows overall audience sizes for particular networks and broadcast sources.

Heard online at the Friday Night Tights Youtube show: "Anonymous WGA writer" claims that comic book based TV shows are telling writers they hire its better if they're not familiar with a show's comic book nor fans of what's gone before. The goal is a "new take on the characters relevant to today" and not burdened with familiarity with the material, or even liking it.

Reviewing the 2023 Comic sales market – Nerdly

Get into the Public Domain archives that are online at Graphic Chatter

Original page January 26, 2024