Humans, get a freaking grip on yourselves

@warrenellis so I got this phone call from Joe Quesada and it was just the sound of him rubbing himself with money and now I am confused

@the_murphy #disneybuysmarvel #humansfearchange

Nick Main There are companies that Disney doesn't own?

If aren't a comic fanling and weren't sitting next to one at breakfast this morning, you might have missed the announcement that Disney will be purchasing Marvel comics. And count yourself blessed because the fanlings are throwing their shit in the air and fantasizing how Mickey Mouse will come into their homes, pry open their long boxes, and castrate Wolverine with pink, princess ribbons.

Humans! This is a corporate transaction. If, in a few months, there are editorial directives from on high, they'll be policy changes- no one is going to be replace Ghost Rider with Goofy. Besides, Marvel doesn't need any help in undermining their characters by putting them into terrible, cartoony, out-of-place contexts.


If you're a glutton for punishment or camp, click on The Hulk. It's a cheery CD of children's songs about a character who loses control of his emotions and kills.

EDIT: Oh, but if you'd like some serious commentary on what this could mean for both companies, obviously, you should head over to The Beat.

Ravi Comics.com

Hi, all.
Sorry I haven't been posting for some time now. Here's the reason why:
ravicomics.com

Enjoy!

EDIT by Shawn: If you've never read any of Ravi's comics before, here's my warning / sales pitch: Ravi has the sense of humor of a blasphemous 5-year old. His comics will dig into your gut, crawl their way up to your brain and root around until they find the part of you that is also a blasphemous 5-year old. They'll then tickle that 5-year old until he cries, but your brain will be pulped in the process.

Collected Links

(via @CBCebulski) The Submission Guidelines for every Comic and Manga Publisher in the Universe

(via Warren Ellis) A Gross of Goblins

(via Comics Alliance) The 5 Circles of Baffling Web Comic Hell



(via @mollycrabapple) Conversation about She-Hulk and the upcoming series Strange Tales

(via @ryanqnorth) Interview with Ryan North by cbr

I'd also like to point you to Chris's review column at Comics Alliance, which you should be reading already. Also, my own short fiction can now be found at shawnmain.net. You know, in case you were wondering.

Direct Market Continues to be Schroedinger's Cat of the Comics Industry

Comics Alliance's lead blogger, Laura Hudson, just put up a great essay on the continuing demise of the direct market. Go give it a read now if you've yet to see it.

I wish I had the historical background (or the time to look up the relevant info) to compare this to the previous publishing extinctions like the end of the pulp novel era or the, for all practical purposes, death of short story magazines, because I've got a hunch there are going to be a lot of parallels between those and what we're going to witness in comics over the next decade or so. Just like we still see short fiction magazines today, we'll still have periodical-length comic books with us for a while, but they're going to become an ever-dwindling portion of the market, a curiosity read by only the most devoted and nostalgic fans.

Recent circumstances for me have led to me switching from someone who usually waited for trades to someone who now, for the first time on any kind of regular basis, is making a weekly stop to the comic store to pick up the week's new releases. And, to be perfectly honest, as a reader I found my previous approach much more satisfying. So I'm not exactly going to be shedding tears if the trade paperback becomes the standard method of release for new comics material.

But the point raised in the piece that's really got me thinking is what this is going to mean for comics publishers trying out new talent. To jump back to a comparison, it used to be that writers trying to establish themselves would start out getting short stories published and then work their way up, but with the increasingly diminished role of short stories today that's often no longer the case. Without weekly comics as a proving ground for new artists and writers, are companies going to be willing to take a chance on publishing a new graphic novel, perhaps equivalent to 4-6 issues in length, from otherwise unknown creators? Is the web and competitions like Zuda going to become the new proving ground? Or are risk-averse publishers going to hold on tight to established creative talent whose names sell books and lean more heavily on them for material?

Also, I'm going to encourage anyone reading this to jump in with comments on Comics Alliance as you see fit. To keep up to date with the site's articles, you can follow either the Twitter feed and/or the Facebook group.