Monday, August 2, 2010
MOMENTS OF THE WEEK
 Friday means it's time for the Moments of the Week. We've got cowboys, bladder spasms, Punishers everywhere and more in this week's edition. Hit the jump and enjoy! Action Comics #891  Lex expected this. I couldn't dream of something like this and he expected it. Moments like this are why I love comics. Amazing Spider-Man Presents: Black Cat #2  Really cool silhouette scene. Great use of colour and sense of motion here. Batman: The Widening Gyre #6  Remember that awesome moment from Batman: Year One? You know, the one where he tells the mobsters they're done feasting on the innocents of Gotham? One of the greatest Batman moments ever? Well, Kevin Smith didn't think Year One humanized Batman enough, so he he had him relate to his new sidekick/pet character how he actually had a bladder spasm and pissed himself during that scene. Good times.  Not content with making a joke of one of Batman's greatest moments, we get another excellent scene where Batman's fiancee relates to Alfred the story behind why she's nicknamed Batman 'Deedee'. That's right, the first time they had sex, they did it 11 times (she mentions the number specifically on another page) in one go. Alfred's response? To tell us the hilarious story of how a 15 year old Bruce Wayne was statutorily raped by a pre-med college student. Nothing says Kevin Smith comics like rape! Even with only spotlighting two horrible moments from this comic, it's pretty safe to say that this is one of the worst comics ever written. Frankencastle #19    Green Arrow #2  Green Arrow gets arrow'd in the head, just like he did to Prometheus in Cry for Justice. As he's living in the forest of life or some such, I imagine that tree with the White Lantern logo on it will bring him back. Green Lantern #56   Is Sayd actually dead? Larfleeze has only used constructs of those he's killed so far, yet there she as a construct below Larfleeze. He tells Hal that she's "on an errand" and trails off. Was he just covering up the fact he killed her? Or is she really on an errand? Lex Luthor was able to make his own constructs in Blackest Night, though, so who knows? We'll have to take Larfleeze's word on it. PunisherMAX #9  Bullseye is seriously $%^'d up in the MAX Universe.  I'd put Frank as a green man, myself.  All I could think of at the end of this incredibly messed up chat was Van Wilder with Bullseye's 'good talk' line at the end. Thor #612  There is something eating giblets with chopsticks that makes Mephisto so much more evil looking to me.  Ever wonder how Thor would react to a One More Day-like offer from Mephisto? Think he'd sell his soul or trade his love of Sif/Jane Foster for a rebuilt Asgard or something similar? Yeah, me neither, but I bet it would play out exactly like it did in this moment.  I loved this little speech. It's such a fitting line that takes into account these are gods that know they live in an endless cycle of deaths and rebirths. Adds a lot of weight to the journey to Hell they are about to undertake when we know the stakes are that much greater. Wonder Woman #601  A quick shot of the new origin for Wonder Woman as her mother kills herself to prevent the shadowy figure from using the Lasso of Truth on her to learn where Wonder Woman, still a child at this point, had been spirited off to for safe keeping.         |
Posted: 30 Jul 2010 02:04 PM PDT  The end of Siege and the beginning of the Heroic Age brought with it new titles and relaunches of current or older titles. In addition to relaunching their Avengers line, Marvel also launched a number of books starring B- and C-list characters. While this may seem like a good thing since Marvel is giving some properties that aren't A-list level a chance, two recent and similar titles, S.W.O.R.D. and Doctor Voodoo, were both canceled after only running for five issues. Will these new titles and relaunches face a similar fate? Hit the jump to find out as I take a look at the sales for the early issues of five series to see how long they might last. Before I continue, I would like to point that this is not a judgment of the quality on any of these series but simply a look how well they are selling and how long they might run before being canceled. I have not read any of these new launches and, as such, can't say whether they are good or bad. As for the sales numbers, all numbers are taken from ICv2.com and are only estimates, not the actual amount a book sold. The numbers also represent the number of comics sold to retailers, not the number of comics bought by readers. REPEATING HISTORY?  As mentioned above, both S.W.O.R.D. and Doctor Voodoo where low tier characters and concepts that Marvel decided to give an ongoing series to but where both canceled after having only five issues released. Both series launched with a little over 20,000 units sold for their first issues (~22,000 for S.W.O.R.D. and ~23,000 for Doctor Voodoo) and both ended with a little over 10,000 for their fifth and final issue (~11,000 for S.W.O.R.D. and ~12,000 for Doctor Voodoo). Both titles were also spin-offs of Top 10 selling books as well (Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men for S.W.O.R.D. and Brian Bendis's New Avengers for Dr Voodoo). So, if two books that spun out of Top 10 selling titles failed commercially, what chance would books that didn't have? While there is always the chance that something can unexpectedly become popular, I thought that it was unwise for Marvel to be launching more new titles right now given how S.W.O.R.D. and Doctor Voodoo fared. In addition to being relatively untested titles, all of the first issues carried a $4 price tag, which has been a hot button issue for a lot readers recently and could possibly turn off otherwise interested readers. There is also the fact that Marvel have been expanding their "family" titles like the Avengers or Batman by launching new ongoings and miniseries or creating new ones, like Marvel's Wolverine "family" of titles which launch in September, all of which are A-list or solid B-list titles that would more likely be bought given they are firmly established properties. So, how did these launches fair? Overall, not that good but there were one or two surprises. THE COMICS  ATLASThe Agents of Atlas are the pet team of Jeff Parker. The group, made up of characters from Marvel Comic's predecessor, Atlas Comics, made their modern debut in 2006 with a six issue miniseries by Jeff Parker and Leonard Kirk. The characters then got another ongoing series that launched as part of Dark Reign, with art by Carlo Pagulayan, and lasted 11 before being canceled. Next, two miniseries,X-Men vs. Agents of Atlas (2 issues) and then Avengers vs. Agents of Atlas (4 issues), ran before the Agents of Atlas was relaunched as Atlas with art by Gabriel Hardman, who also did the art on Avengers vs. Agents of Atlas. Current Series Given these sales numbers, it's unsurprising that Marvel has canceled Atlas with issue #5. Why? Although both Agents of Atlas and Atlas appear to have launched under similar circumstances, there are a couple of crucial differences. First, and I think foremost, the $4 price tag. While the $4 price tag on many comics was introduced with Dark Reign, it has only recently seemed to have become a big enough concern to effect sales and you can find plenty of people online mentioning the $4 price tag as a reason why they passed up on a series. Of course, only the first issue is $4 but everyone might not be aware of that and, even if they are, they still might not want to spend $4 on the comic. Another, and very important, difference is that the people already had multiple chances to check out the team with Agents of Atlas and decide whether or not they were interested in the series. Even a crossover-over title with Marvel's most popular franchise, the Avengers, didn't do much to build interest in the title either. Although Marvel has given the title plenty of chances fans are just not interested in the ongoing adventures of the team.  BLACK WIDOWAlthough Black Widow has been a perennial B or C listAvenger, this is the first self-tilted ongoing solo-series she has starred in. The character previously had a couple of miniseries from 1999 to 2004 and a recent origin retelling by Paul Cornell, John Paul Leon and Tom Raney. The current series was launched by Marjorie Liu and Daniel Acuna in April of this year, a month before the launch of the Heroic Age and was given a Heroic Age banner with issue #2. Current Series Given the fact that Black Widow has been a solid B-list character for a while now, I'm surprised that the sales are this low, especially since the character has been regularly appearing in Ed Brubaker's Captain America and Matt Fraction's Invincible Iron Man titles. Liu and Acuna are not big name writers though, so that could account for the lower sales. Of course, there is always the possibility that there just isn't that much interest in the character to support her own series on an ongoing basis despite her long history in theMarvel Universe, but she was also just in the Iron Man 2 movie, which adds another layer to the mystery of why this isn't catching on at all with people. However, with issue #6 the title is getting a new creative team, Duane Swierczynski andManuel Garcia, so it is probably safe to assume that the series will at last make it to issue #10, but unless the new creative team brings a substantial sales boost, which is unlikely (not a shot at the creators, just logistics and past history backing me up), it probably won't make it too long past that since there is a crossover with Hawkeye and Mockingbird starting up in December. The crossover could boost sales as Hawkeye and Mockingbird is selling more but, again, any long term gains are unlikely so I would expect the crossover to signal the end for the series.  HAWKEYE & MOCKINGBIRDAs the title would suggest, Hawkeye and Mockingbird stars the perennial Avenger Hawkeye and his recently resurrected wife Mockingbird. Although Mockingbird has never had either a self-titled miniseries or ongoing, Hawkeye has had several. The character had a miniseries in both the 80's and 90's plus a canceled ongoing that was launched in 2003 and lasted only eight issues. Recently, the pair starred in the post-Secret Invasion miniseries New Avengers: The Reunion by the creative team of Jim McCann and David Lopez, who are also the team working on the current series. Current Series The drop in sales from the last New Avengers:The Reunion issue to Hawkeye & Mockingbird #1 looks like a standard drop from one issue to the next for an ongoing series, which isn't a good thing. There was no sales bump for the new title so the previous series or the character appearances in New Avengers didn't build up hype or interest in either of the characters during the down time between The Reunion and Hawkeye & Mockingbird. Of course, the market is also different now than it was post-Secret Invasion when The Reunion launched. People seem to be wary of new titles, which may be a factor. Another factor is the fact that the previous miniseries was branded as a New Avengers title, which could have generated some interest off of the name alone with either retailers or fans. I would suspect that Hawkeye & Mockingbird won't last the year given that the first issue started off with less that 30,000 units in sales, though there is always the possibility that sales could immediately level off and the title survives for longer, especially if it bolstered by tie-ins. That said, I wouldn't expect sales to hold steady given the drop between New Avengers: The Reunion and Hawkeye & Mockingbird is similar to the standard issue to issue drop off and the title would be near or below cancellation levels around issue #10 if those kind of drops continued. However, given that there wasn't that large of a drop, most of the readers left could be fans of the characters and there won't be that much further drop off and sales could stabilize.  YOUNG ALLIESYoung Allies is a team book that mostly features a variety of C-list teen heroes that have been showing up in the Marvel Universe over the past couple of years - the new Spider-Girl, Nomad and Gravity. It also features newcomer Toroand ex-New Warrior Firestar. The series is written by Sean McKeever, who has a reputation for writing good teen-centric titles despite his ill-received run on DC's Teen Titans, with art by David Baldeon. Current Series Shockingly, the title isn't going to be canceled at this timeaccording to Tom Brevoort. As for why it isn't going to be canceled, I couldn't even begin to think why since its first issue sales were all lower than S.W.O.R.D., Doctor Voodoo and Atlas. Maybe Marvel has a lot of faith in the series or wants to see it succeed but, other than that, I can't think of anything else. Why the series is doing so bad is obvious though. Title's biggest character is Firestar, an ex-New Warrior, a group who hasn't had a lot of success or positive buzz since before Civil War. Not to mentioned that there was no pre-launch push for the title either in the comics themselves or any PR hype from Marvel. The title was basically on its own and failed to attract readers since it had no high profile characters or creators.  S.H.I.E.L.D.Although Jonathan Hickman's and Dustin Weaver's S.H.I.E.L.D isn't a Heroic Age title, it launched around the same time as the banner event so I thought it would be worth taking a look at. The title details the previously unknown secret history of the Marvel Universe and theS.H.I.E.L.D organization by mixing Marvel continuity with real world history. The biggest character in the series, to date, is arguable Leonardo Di Vinci given that the central character, a man named Leonid, is an entirely new character. S.H.I.E.L.D. #1 - 44,543 (38,030 without reorders and re-printings) I'll be honest, these sales surprised me. I expect the first issue to sell around 30,000 units at best but, when taking reorders into account, it sold over 40,000. Honestly, I'm not particularly sure why S.H.I.E.L.D is doing so well. While it's true that Marvel and DC tend to lag a few years behind mainstream entertainment trends, Di Vinci mania has been dead for a good few years now so that's not really an explanation. Jonathan Hickman isn't an established creator at this point either and this title is currently selling better than both Fantastic Four and Secret Warriors, Hickman's other titles. My guess would be the continuity and secret history angels are what is driving interest in the title but, like I said, I have no real idea as to why this is doing so well. |
SCARLET
Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev launched their creator title, Scarlet, last month with variants from David Lafuente and Mike Deodato, but it looks like Bendis's Powers collaborator, Michael Avon Oeming, had to get in on the Scarlet action with the above image posted last night. Haven't heard if this will be a variant for issue two or if it was just Oeming posting a great sketch. All I know is I likes it and had to share it with everyone.
PORTFOLIO - VLADIMIR KONCAR
Croatian designer Vladimir Koncar enjoys the “process of creation.” So much, in fact, that he spends his time wearing the hats of graphic and web designer, photographer, illustrator and film maker. Throw in a little experimental typography and you have the picture of a man who embraces the journey as much as the destination. Join us as Koncar talks dresses, honesty and his love of Hairvetica. “The story that follows the melody talks about the fact that every man for once in his life dreams, thinks about or secretly tries to dress up as a woman.” These are the words used to describe the 2006 music video “Rippling (dress)” that was directed by Croatian visual artist and designer Vladimir Koncar. When asked if he had ever partaken in such activities he responded, “Of course I have, I have tried it but under a pretence of being in a masquerade. It wasn’t bad. A dress seems like a comfortable piece of clothing. Sometimes I envy women on their possibility to dress creatively.” It’s a rare thing to find a man so honest and comfortable in his own skin that would do something considered by many to be taboo, but that is Koncar. Koncar seems to do a little bit of everything. He has expanded his repertoire to include the more “traditional” print and web media projects, but he also delves into short, independent film-making and experimental typography. Like many creatives, he says his inspiration comes from everyday life and he credits a daily run as the thing that “gets rid of the negative energy,” a meditative act that results in the focus required to craft his works.
The way he interprets everyday life is anything but typical, however. For example, when discussing the origin of his experimental typography or diary type as he calls it: "Diary Type project emerged spontaneously from my daily ideas and thoughts that I noted down in my pad. I was wondering what would be the best way to visualize them and I realized that I could emphasize some thoughts with custom letters. I’ve always been fascinated by the interference effect and in some way it helped me to create those sentences which sometimes amplify the thought I’d like to express visually, and sometimes they do just the opposite. All the fonts you’ve seen so far have actually emerged from the same idea, but they’ve evolved through time. In the beginning I only made letters I needed, while nowadays I obsessively create the entire alphabet." These daily thoughts and ideas that he wrote in his pad led to things like “Hairvetica,” “Cigarette Type” and “Pills Type.” None of these have ever been used in a commercial sense, but do they really have to be in order to be considered art? The witty statements he uses to illustrate the usage of the letters are entertaining in and of themselves. While the ideas may have come from his mind, the objects didn’t necessarily come from his personal collection. In the case of the three types just mentioned, the answers are a yes, no and maybe. We’ll let you decide what corresponds to which material.  From the BeginningKoncar grew up in Bjelovar, which is 80 km away from Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. His younger brother, who has a love for music, is currently finishing up his second university where he is studying Biochemistry. Koncar muses that since his parents have no artistic background, “it’s unusual that [my] brother and I are swimming in the art waters.” He was a quiet and curious child who “participated in everything [he] could.” It’s no doubt that this desire to experience as much as life has to offer nourished the creative mind responsible for his unique and imaginative artistic creations. Unlike many of his fellow designers, Koncar didn’t grow up always knowing he wanted to do something artistic. His first ambition was to be a cook and that was followed up by the desire to be a diver. It was when he won a visual arts award in primary school that he set his sights on the arts. At first his intention was to become a painter and over time that evolved into “being some kind of designer [or] artist.” His father, however, wanted him to become an economist “to have something to live off of.” Luckily, he continued, he didn’t give into that pressure because he’s now living off of work that he loves. After finishing a language high school he enrolled in the Faculty of Graphics and Design program in Zagreb. He never finished his studies there because he founded a studio and started working. Now, at 31, he’s back to college to try to complete his degree. He is doing this because of his desire to constantly learn, improve himself and evolve as a man and artist. “I never made a list of things I should achieve in my lifetime. I don’t bother myself with that.” One thing he wishes he did do though was attend music school to learn to play a musical instrument. Koncar did attend a film school at night in addition to different drawing workshops. One of his biggest influences though was Frano Radak, an art professor with whom he studied painting for four years. “Working with Radak has [had the most affect on] my view of art and my creativity today,” he said.  Studio RevolucijaIn 2003 Koncar started Studio Revolucija or Studio Revolution, with two college friends, Gorjan Agačević and Ozren Crnogorac. What started out as a small three-man company run out of a garage has more than doubled in size and they now take on projects from graphic design, complex web applications and web development tointeractive multimedia experiences, educational CD-ROMs and multiplayer games. In fact, one of his favorite projects was the CD-ROM “Tesla’s Day,” which is about the life and work of Nikola Tesla, a great inventor from Croatia. He threw himself into the research required and the collection of all of the materials he needed to produce this educational piece. It’s no doubt that this project holds a special place in his heart. Not only was he able to learn more about the life and work of this talented man, but he was creating something that allowed primary and high school students as well as their teachers the opportunity to learn about this ‘unmatched genius’ as his contemporaries called him [whose] discoveries shaped significantly the life style of the people of the 20th [and] 21st century.”
Over the last several years Studio Revolucija has won many awards and “it’s [their] goal to constantly challenge ourselves to keep developing new and unforgettable visuals and experiences.” When it comes to those unforgettable experiences, Koncar is a self-described “Art Dictator,” which is somewhat fitting for a man named Vladimir, a name of Slavic origins that means “to rule with greatness.” “I am pretty demanding when a project is set up on its feet. I like to be included in all aspects of creating a project and I insist on precision. I direct a project visually and I don’t like compromises,” he said. Compromise or not, the creative team at Studio Revolucija is on the same page when it comes to producing the high-quality designs they are known for. They believe in “great design, web standards and accessibility and are able to take a project from inception to completion, without limitations.” While Koncar says his company is always open to experimentation and collaboration, he believes that there are no right or wrong stereotypes of designers and that anyone can be one and they can be broken down into two categories: good and bad. "I think that it isn’t enough just to learn the rules of design in order to design, but for every step forward there has to be an idea. I appreciate the technical part, but it is not crucial, the idea is what I cherish the most, and that’s what makes the difference. I love when I can recognize honesty in one’s work." Honest is another term that can be used to describe Koncar and his work. Even with all of the successes he’s enjoyed throughout his career, he is not immune to some to the frustrations suffered by most people in the field such as surreal deadlines, unprepared materials and flippant clients, just to name a few. Today he counts the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia, Museum of Contemporary Art, Croatian Natural History Museum, Zagreb Brewery and ZBI Invest among his long list of big-name clients, yet he’s had his share of projects that didn’t turn out as planned. He can also look back on these past projects and realize that while they may have not turned out perfectly, the mistakes he made were all learning experiences and “that it isn’t enough to be creative but that the raw creativity needs to be articulated through knowledge.” Early on in his career Koncar recognized his weaknesses and has systematically either overcome them, or abandoned the pursuit, what could be considered to be the ultimate display of honesty.   |
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