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Hatter M #2

Image Comics
Art: Ben Templesmith
Script: Frank Beddor & Lix Cavalier

This is really working for me and most of the credit has to go to Ben Templesmith. The premise -- with which you may be familiar -- is straightforward: Princess Alyss has disappeared from Wonderland and Hatter M has been dispatched to our sad, grimy little world to retrieve her. Hatter M, with his assortment of knives and a wonderfully lethal hat, is a single-minded protagonist of a sort that we’re very comfortable with in comics. We expect him to prevail but the fun is in the hurdles he has to clear to do so.

And the story, taken from Frank Beddor's The Looking Glass Wars novel, has just enough depth to make those hurdles interesting. Nothing is obvious or telegraphed (at least so far, we’re only two issues in) but even if it was you’d be too busy looking at Templesmith’s fantabulous art to care. It’s just that good.

I’m sure many of you read and enjoy FELL. That’s a nice collaboration piece but its format doesn’t really allow for the range shown here. The use of light, texture and iconography is perfectly suited to the theme and the relatively spare script. This is Templesmith’s show (as acknowledged by the positioning he’s given in the credits) and he’s well up to the task. It does carry a relatively steep $3.99 cover price, but if you're looking for something fun, interesting and engaging to look at, you’ll find this a solid addition to your pull list. (And if you’d like a sample, you can preview the first issue here.)     

Linkin' on a Sunday Afternoon

I agree with PAD on this one. I think we all know how Moore feels about Hollywood now, so enough already. But…but I can’t help thinking that it’s a good thing the press is treating him with a sort of artistic reverence rather than “what’s this comic book guy complaining about” sarcasm.

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Heh. Sure, I’ll read a comic about NBA players. No...really.

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What do the back of nearly every current DC comic and the NCAA basketball tournament have in common? This.

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Check out Batman Geek, a new vlog, when you've got a few minutes. Humor, discussion and good wholesome Batman geekiness.

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This much-linked to Business Week discussion is interesting, although the “con” argument seems to revolve around the idea that Marvel and DC’s MMOs will simply try to “ape” City of Heroes, so why bother? Certainly the relative success of City of Heroes – not to mention MMOs in general – has prompted Marvel and DC to action but I haven’t seen anything to suggest they plan to Xerox CoH. 

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Over at Four Color Meat & Fish Larry has posted a fun little interview with the Supermans of Earth-1 and Earth-2, circa 1976. Here are some suggested questions for Part II of the interview:

For both: Do you prefer “superhero^tm”, “super-hero^tm”, or ”underwear pervert” (Pending Trademark) ?

Superman Earth-1: Just what were you doing for one year?

For both: Jimmy Olsen, geek or nerd? What about Gorilla Jimmy? Viking Jimmy?

Superman Earth-1: Alan Moore, John Byrne, Grant Morrison, Kurt Busiek. Compare and contrast.

For either: What exactly happened to the Man of Tomorrow? And do either of you have a way of getting a hold of him for Part III?

For both: Discuss yourself in comparison to Nietzsche’s philosophical ideas about Superman.

Superman Earth-2: Does it ever tee you off that Earth-1 Lois Lane is so dang hot?

Finally, for both: If you were Kryptonite what color would you be?

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We now know the all new Atom is not caucasian. And I'm down with all the new series previewed in Brave New World. Except OMAC. Blech.

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Is V out on DVD yet? God, I'm impatient.

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Speaking of trademarks, I’ve been really enjoying Marvel’s Essential Moon Knight. Remember when Marvel’s version of organized crime was the “Maggia”? Even as a kid I thought that was funny. As though Stan Lee was worried about a visit from Sammy “The Bull” Gravano over Marvel's portrayal of mob life. Or maybe Marvel got a cease and desist letter from a Sicilian trademark attorney preventing them from using the term “mafia”.

Infinite Crisis: Secret Files & Origins 2006

DC Comics
Script: Marv Wolfman
Art: Cast of Many

I’ll be watching the sales of this issue quite closely. It’s a peculiar book, checking in at an eye-popping six dollars, with a story that has to be crowbarred into the current INFINITE CRISIS goings on, a mish-mash of artistic talent (none of which can draw an old person) and carrying a title not wholly in sync with the contents. If DC moves the 40K+ units I expect them to on this it will become, in my mind, a part of any discussion on the effectiveness of big event comics in the current climate.

At this point nothing here is terribly secret, but Marv Wolfman does a workman like job of filling in the backstory of the Castaways from Multiple Earths. If you were wondering what turned Superboy into such an easily manipulated nutter or where Earth II Superman’s desperation came from, here you go. It was pretty good stuff. Well written, believable within the context of what we now know and interesting enough, if curiosity takes you that far. And utterly and completely unnecessary. Nothing in these pages is crucial to the larger IC story. There are no great revelations here and the various vignettes only mildly inform the characters beyond what we know of them from the pages of IC itself. And you can pretty much tell that’s going to be the case with a quick flip through the book, so any purchasing decision will likely be with the understanding that you could live without it; you’re buying because you’ve bought into this event and will purchase nearly anything carrying the trademarked IC logo or maybe you thought this might be an interesting addendum.

Did I mention the book costs six bucks? It’s a double-sized issue so the volume is there, but six dollars is quite an investment. Any success with this, combined with the hefty $4.99 price of the individual IC issues, will make it real hard for DC not to consider generating big events year round. Sure, that would get old quick, but how else will they replace this revenue? I believe Tom Spurgeon touched on this a while back, but with the kind of money spinning out of the various Big Two events, I'm more and more convinced they’ll be forced to continue the trend to keep numbers propped up. (I think we're already seeing this at Marvel.) If this book manages to finish in the Diamond top 20 for March (it will likely take 70K+ to get there and I’m skeptical of that happening) I don’t see how DC (or Marvel) can view event driven comics as anything other than a cash cow.

      

Wednesday Is Rambling On About Comics Day

Posting has been sparse of late as I juggle coaching two youth baseball teams, watching the NCAA basketball tournament, shopping for a car, and, of course, occasionally nodding in the general direction of revenue production. I have been reading, just not writing, and I hope to change that this week. Historically, the easiest way for me to get back in the groove is with a little link-o-rama action, so without further ado... 

Ice Cube is slotted for the Gabe Kotter role in the Welcome Back, Kotter remake. I think I speak for a lot of people when I say, “Huh?”

This was one of my favorite shows as a kid. I was about 11 when it debuted so you can see how I might have found it funny, edgy, and cool. Or maybe you can’t. Somehow it was the perfect antidote to an overdose of Happy Days. Kaplan’s ever-present smirk told you he enjoyed what the sweathogs were doing even if he couldn’t always tolerate it as their teacher. I’m not sure Ice Cube can bring that same feel to the role. But heck, it’ll probably end up being an action/adventure spy movie anyway, once they’re through.

What does that have to do with comics? They made a comic book of it – a DC TV Comic, no less.

But you knew that. It ran for 10 issues back in 1976. I think I still have about half of them somewhere.

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If you’re interested in the inner-workings -- particularly design related workings -- of an animated series, check out the Production Diary for the Hellboy animated series.

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I you haven’t been regularly stopping by Comic Should Be Good lately, shame on you. Brian Cronin, Brad Curran and crew have been on an absolute tear.

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You could have bought yourself a lunch with Joe Q at Wizard World Los Angeles for less than $800! You know, even if you can’t think of a single thing to ask him, this still might be cheaper than the gougingly awful, trade-show standard sandwich, chips and soda.

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If you read Sky Ape: King of Girls and wondered what the heck a “sack of four-by-fours” is, here’s a hint. It’s a West Coast thing.

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I don’t usually brag about these things, but I got Mark Evanier’s industrial strength There’s No Such Website on the very first try.

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To close, a few thoughts on the whole Team Comics and support your local Independent Comic campaign, because I know you’ve been waiting for my studied opinion.

The general drift I’m getting from the good folks supporting the ID cause is that independent works are languishing on the shelves due to lack of exposure and the intractable buying habits of the market. So let’s all get behind Indie Comics, for a month or two and then back to X-men if you like. Go Team! Wait, wait…let’s not use the Team Comics comparison, that’s too high school football. This is more of a movement, a groundswell if you will, rousing the vox populi and all that. These readers don’t know what they’re missing, just give one of these wayward Indie books a chance; you’ll like it Mikey, I promise.

Sorry, I’m getting snide.

But here’s the thing: this is the best time EVER to be creating, publishing or reading Indie comics. Which does not mean it’s easy or financially rewarding or that every worthy title will find an audience, simply that more people are buying more copies of Indie books from more varied points of distribution than ever before. And while very few Indie titles have proven they can consistently penetrate the Diamond top 50 in sales, well over one-third of all the titles on the Diamond 300 are from Indies – assuming you define these as anything not Marvel or DC. And this is just the Direct Market, I'm confident were you to factor in book store sales -- assuming you could actually put a finger on the volume they move -- the numbers would go well beyond anything we’ve previously seen. (Check out Brian Hibbs latest Tilting at Windmills column for more on this train of thought.) 

None of this is to say that it’s a perfect world for the Indie Comics. This isn’t the 1997 Internet we’re talking about. And while any effort at promotion is welcome the most effective promotions will be those that don’t simply shake a bunch of pom poms together that spell I-N-D-I-E – sorry, there I go again - but specifically target the good stuff or at least identify what’s good about specific stuff.

Superman/Shazam: First Thunder #4 (of 4)

DC Comics
Script: Judd Winnick
Art: Joshua Middleton

And so it ends - or maybe Winnick would have us think, begins.

The premise was solid enough: the first meeting between Superman and Captain Marvel. Of course there would be monsters, robots, magic, Lex Luthor, Dr. Sivana, Sabbac and Eclipso. Okay, maybe Eclipso wasn’t so obvious…or necessary…but the rest of the fuel mixture was there. The story started out fun and light, giving us a wise-cracking Marvel and a Billy Batson more in line with today’s sensibilities. Debate the merits of this all you like, but it worked well enough here to move things along – although the addition of a best friend for Billy was a clunky, none too transparent plot device. The whole of it wasn’t particularly inspired, but it was fun.

For three issues we barrel along, without much direction or apparent purpose other than two superguys beating up bad guys and working in a little bonding in the breaks. The bonding moments are handled well – pretty much what you would expect knowing these two characters and their backgrounds. As the story progresses a little darkness begins to creep in around the edges, although not in an obvious way, and as with the rest of the plot, without much clarity of purpose. In the concluding issue the larger-than-life heroics of the first three books gives way to the darker undercurrent, and while it had some effect it was ultimately at the expense of the earlier tone of the series, affectively dragging the whole thing to ground.

Unfortunately, reducing the story to more human elements detaches the first three issues from the finale, repositioning them as more of a prologue. In fact, this last issue would read more powerfully as a stand-alone book -- there’s very little attaching it to the rest of the series (that a little editing wouldn’t fix anyway) -- a fact that makes me think the rest was merely setup for this conclusion. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find out the story was developed from this point backward. The thing is it wasn’t necessary - we don’t need the first three books to contrast the power and superhumanity of the two leads against the humanity we see at the end. We know all too well these guys are powerful, no need to pad three books to make so obvious a point.

The final scenes are nice enough -- touching, even -- but they run a bit counter to the iconography of both characters, particularly Marvel. I doubt it matters much as it’s unlikely this series will ever find its way into the greater lore of these two characters.

Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis 40

DC Comics
Script: Kurt Busiek
Art: Butch Guice

My working theory on the new Aquaman subtitle is that DC editorial has adopted a strategy of the best defense is a good offense. Is it Conan underwater? Sure. And DC can either acknowledge this up front and move on, or spend months denying the comparison only to finally agree that the two are similar, but you know, different...because of the water. And the sharks.

Getting Kurt Busiek to write this book was a very savvy move on DC’s part. So many of us afford Busiek an implied trust there can’t help but be a significant boost to this monthly’s lagging numbers regardless of whatever resistance there is to the direction the new title implies. (I’ll be shocked if this issue does anything less than double the previous average, which was hovering around 18K.) For me, Busiek is on the short list of writers whom I’ll give a four to six issue cushion no matter what title they’re on, and, as evidenced by my purchase here, can also get me to shell out for something previously off my radar. With Busiek we don’t always know if it will be great but we can trust that it will be at least pretty darn good and absolutely faithful to both the genre and whatever preceding iconography exists. And this 1 Year Later debut is all of that.

So there’s a new Aquaman and his name is Arthur Curry and he can talk to fish and he seems destined to be a king of the oceanscape. (Over at the Absorbosacon, in one of the more interesting comicblogosphere exchanges regarding this book, someone commented that “oceanscape” might not be correctly used, prompting Busiek himself to chime in with a complete etymological breakdown of that word and several others proposed. Kurt Busiek, firmly at the intersection of word geeks and comic geeks.) I know this might be annoyingly clever to some, but I found the repurposing of the Aquaman tropes nicely intertwined with current DCU/OYL theme. It also conveniently set up several escape hatches should the title need to fall on its sword at some point in the future.

Butch Guice's art works well too, although I'll quickly tire of seeing Aquaman with solid black eyes. There also seemed to be some inconsistency in the rendering of the King Shark – he’s two to three times Aquaman’s size during the fight scene and much smaller on the cover and in other places within the book. Perhaps that’s by design and the character somehow increases size when in battle. (Didn’t Marvel have a sea-oriented character like that once? Orca?) Whatever the case, it was a bit distracting.

So it was interesting and I’ll be following along for at least a few more issues, making this the first time I’ve ever followed an Aquaman title. I’m sure there are plenty more of you who’ve picked this up for similar reasons, we know Busiek won’t disappoint. That’s the good news for DC. The bad news is that Busiek (and Grant Morrison) can’t write everything.

Ultra: Seven Days

Image Comics
Script: Joshua Luna
Art: Jonathan Luna

I picked up the ULTRA: SEVEN DAYS TPB based solely on its top ten finish in the Best Mini-series or One Shot of the Comic Bloggers Poll - as it was the only book in the top 10 I hadn’t read. Sometimes I carry the completist thing a bit too far.

I’m not quite sure what to make of this book. It would be pretty easy to rake it over the coals for its wafer thin plot, superficial characters and bland art, but for all that I didn’t really dislike it so much as I couldn’t really see the point.

Pearl Penalosa is Ultra, the title character, and she works for an agency that farms out superheroines -- called “Heroine Inc.” -- along with two of her closest friends. The three hang out together, fight bad guys, tease each other, make catty comments about other superheroines, and talk about their sex lives. It’s kind of like Sex in the City with capes and tights. The premise is okay, I guess - pretty much every variation on the super hero theme has been tried already so it’s hard to discount the Luna brothers because they weren’t particularly original. But you can’t give them much credit for simply not being as derivative as others either.

Much of what happens here is your standard soap opera fair. And while there are certainly elements of that in nearly all comics, ULTRA is practically an homage to that oeuvre, making little pretense towards the more “super” elements you might expect from a book about superheroes. So I guess it's no suprise this is where the book finds some success. The dialog is well written and the book flows easily from situation to situation, and by and large what plot there is seems believable within the established framework. The Lunas succeed -- with both the script and the art -- in creating a likeable and modestly interesting character in Pearl. Their biggest obstacle is setting her up as sympathetic underdog when she has more going for her than anyone could possibly imagine. It’s a hurdle that’s never completely cleared, but Pearl does keep the book from failing completely for me and she’s stands out even further against a supporting cast made up of hackneyed caricatures and cardboard cutouts.      

Like the plot and the characters, the art is decent but pedestrian. Jonathan Luna can sure draw a pretty girl. Unfortunately, he only seems able to draw one, as every girl in the book looks identical, save hair styles and hair color. (On the plus side, that should make casting for the proposed TV show a lot easier – now that they have their Pearl, it’s just a matter of hairdressers and some video overlays.) While Luna does a solid job of rendering tightly framed, quiet, conversation panels, the action depicted -- what little of it there is -- is stilted, jerky and unimaginative. To complete the list of things that I found odd, but didn’t really dislike, let’s add the coloring. Loads of earth tones, muted grays and in nearly every background, PhotoShop blurring. I’m guessing the effect was to ground the story -- the only really bright colors appear in the faux magazine stories and ads peppering the book -- and it is consistent, it just didn’t really convey anything to me.

So…eh. Maybe it’s not fair to say I don’t get it so much as I don’t get how it made it on to the top 10 list of a group of people whose opinions I generally respect. What am I missing? If you voted in the blogger poll, was it on your list? Why? And is the Luna Brother's latest work, GIRLS, better or worse?   

   

Comic Books and the Movies – Part II

Some time back I posted my view of one facet of what may be coming for the comic book industry, in a somewhat dubiously titled post, “The Future of the Comics Industry?” That post explored the growing number of publishers who have established relationships with movie studios, or in some cases, like Marvel, are actually assuming the role of movie producer. At the end of that post I promised a follow-up explaining how companies might make money a lot of money in the near term but might want to batten down the hatches over the longer haul.

My delay in posting the follow-up was to allow me time to digest Edward Jay Epstein’s fascinating book, “The Big  Picture: Money and Power in Hollywood.” (Highly recommended for anyone with so much as a passing interest in how Hollywood works. It won’t take long to get through, unless you have my unfortunate habit of reading five books at once.) I’ve also been pouring over a number of articles Epstein has written for Slate - the latest of which is here, and will lead you to others if you’re so inclined. Epstein’s numbers and analysis went a long way towards helping me understand how a company like Marvel might have success producing movies.   

The Mighty Marvel Manner

With their much publicized assumption of $525 million in movie production debt, Marvel moved to the front of any discussion regarding comic books and movies. The initial reactions to this move were mixed, with most people unsure how to balance the unquestioned past successes against the failure of others as well as the notion that what remains in the stable may not be nearly as compelling as Spider-Man, X-men and the Fantastic Four.

Most of the discussion has centered around the potential success or failure of the planned slate of movies: beginning with Captain America and ranging through such properties as Iron Man, Thor, Black Panther, Ant-Man, Cloak & Dagger, Power Pack and Doctor Strange. Beyond Captain America, and maybe Iron Man, none of these are even remotely recognizable to the non-comic reading public and most don’t even enjoy icon status within that select group. How can Marvel possibly think any of these will have success at the box office? The answer is simple: they don’t. These movies will likely be regarded as box office failures when viewed through the narrow lens of movie production finance and it seems quite likely Marvel knows this going in, as does financier Merrill Lynch. As Epstein frequently points out, very few Hollywood movies make money via theatrical release – at least in the traditional business sense where the phrase “making money” might be interpreted to mean “earning a profit after all expenses are paid.” According to Epstein, on par, studio movies bring in about $1.00 for every $1.40 doled out in expenses. That really makes you question Marvel’s move, doesn't it? Why do the deal at all? Because in the modern world of Hollywood accounting the cash cows are not theatres, but television licenses and DVD sales. Here’s the money line from the original press release:

“Marvel will receive a gross participation on all revenues from the facility as the producer of each film and will retain all of the film-related merchandising revenues. These merchandising revenues and the gross participation are neither pledged as collateral nor subject to any cash restrictions under the facility. Marvel will also receive all profits, including all revenue streams (including box office receipts, DVD/VHS sales, television, and soundtrack sales) after film costs, distribution fees, marketing, principal repayment, and interest. In addition, Marvel will have the ability to build its own film library through this initiative.” [Emphasis added.]

Prior to this move Marvel’s profit participation in their various adaptations was fairly restricted -- as is the case with most licensers -- but this sets up a new downstream that could generate income for years. Studios have been bought and sold for the value of their film libraries alone and as long cable and satellite providers continue to add stations (heck, even if they don't) the demand for content will be there. Equally, there are nearly as many ways to package and repackage DVD content as there are for old comic book stories.

A lot depends on Marvel’s ability to put out entertainment of at least passable quality. (Insert NEW AVENGERS joke of your choice here.) But that’s probably not as difficult as it sounds judging by some of the crep I clicked through on the various HBO incarnations last night.

Can I Get a Franchise With That?

While comic book films may not need to profit directly off their theatrical releases, they do need to create a buzz positive enough to generate DVD sales and, perhaps more importantly, provide at least modest momentum for sequels. Or they should if you’re trying to simultaneously build a film library, create an interest in licenses for underpants, fruit snacks and video games, and -- hopefully -- provide a little boost for your R&D, errrr, publishing division.   

Not all franchises need to be of the Spider-Man or Batman tent pole variety, nor do the characters or vehicles themselves need to enjoy broad public awareness. One thing we’ve learned over the last few years is that it doesn’t take a 99th percentile Q-rating to find some success at the box office,  and presumably the riches that follow. Of the millions who contributed to Daredevil’s $180 million worldwide gross, how many do you suppose knew anything about the character before they walked into the theater? How many knew Blade had been a comic book? Or Men in Black? Or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? All of these had good to great box office success (in terms of raw numbers) across multiple releases. And all of them continue to spin off revenue for their various studio ownership. Which is certainly why Marvel is listing sequels to both Hulk and Punisher on their production slate.

The beauty of this for anyone who isn’t DC or Marvel is that the barrier for getting your comic book with movie franchise potential franchise optioned is considerably lower than one might have thought some years ago. Here is Atmosphere Entertainment’s Mark Canton in the press release announcing that his company will work with Platinum Studios to develop a movie based on the graphic novel KILLING DEMONS:

"'Killing Demons' is the kind of movie I really like making. It's in the vein of 'Men In Black' – an exciting, heroic big-screen adventure with comedic moments, lots of action and franchise potential.” [Emphasis added.]

KILLING DEMONS? It was actually a very well done graphic novel, albeit one that even most comic book fans aren’t aware of.

The Oncoming Train

So there’s revenues to be had, although you’d be hard-pressed to discern where income is derived from a simple reading of a studios income statement. (Epstein lays everything out in his book – apparently this kind of info is disseminated to the studios, but not made readily public.)  Much of it comes after a movie leaves the theater, a period which seems to be shrinking daily as studios strive to move quickly to that DVD/TV revenue stage and take advantage of the theatrical release’s advertising. 

As long as DVD and television revenues hold up, studios will continue to make money. For that matter, any knew technology, say Blu-ray DVD, that might force consumers to repurchase some part -- preferably all -- of their entertainment library is also a good thing. But it can’t be all good news, can it? There has to be some disruptive force on the horizon and you’ve probably already guessed what it is. The nature of that light from the omnipresent oncoming train? It’s from the front of your computer; it’s that little red LED flickering away as your hard drive is accessed. I suppose you could also say it’s from the ever-growing reach of broadband and wi-fi, and from TIVO and bittorrent and DVDXCopy and iPods and really anything else that involves file sharing, data transfer or storage.   

It’s becoming increasingly easier for even the least technical among us to store data files – often without really knowing that’s what is being done. Call it a form of convergence if you will, but we’re not far away from a time when movies are tossed around the Internet in the same fashion MP3’s are today. I don’t think this spells the end for DVD sales or the current delivery model for televised programming, but there’s an adjustment period coming and the product that is most likely to be affected first are the premium services, specifically movies. The studios are clearly aware of this and seem determined not to fall down the same rat hole the recording industry currently finds itself in, but it’s hard not to imagine a financial setback, despite their efforts in the areas of digital rights management (DRM) and content delivery. The music industry has had to undergo a significant restructuring to their business model in order to stay financially viable and all indications are that Hollywood will as well. 

         

Freeform Friday

A thought occurred to me the other night. I stopped reading comics sometime in 1979 and started again in 2004. Had I simply waited another two years I might have returned to a DC Universe that was remarkably similar to the one I left. Crisis? What Crisis?

Although I follow this sort of goofiness more than he does, this Tom Spurgeon post about the “new status quo” hits home. I just have a feeling that the law of unintended consequences is going to rear its head pretty quickly, both in regards to continuity and the way all these mini’s and crossovers impact our buying habits.

I think In about five years the whole DCU is going to be a huge incomprehensible mess and we’ll all be teleblogging about how IC ruined everything and we don’t know what the hell is going on anymore. And then Kurt Busiek will write a 12 issue mini series tying all the crep together (with a six page index) and we’ll all go, “Ahaaa…”   

Speaking of Spurgeon, I’m just wrapping up his book (along with Jordan Raphael), Stan Lee and the Rise and Fall of the American Comic Book. Great stuff. I checked it out from the library where I found it oddly categorized in the Young Adult section. Oh, it’s a bout comic books. Let’s put it in the kids section.

In another television imitates comic books moment, AMC’s Make My Sunday promos showed all the movies in comic book panels and layouts. And looking at that picture of Clint you might conclude it was Jonah Hex marathon. Sadly, no.

I feel like I should say something about Speakeasy. All I can think to ask is who had February in the pool?

This weekend my kids will only be allowed to watch the Cartoon Network. (Hat tip to Graphic Novelties.) If my wife were reading this she’d ask just how that was any different to most weekends.

So I asked my five-year-old to make up some superheroes – names, powers, the whole bit. Darned if the kid didn’t rattle off like 15 ideas in under a minute. Many involved bodily functions and sounds better left unmentioned in polite blogersation, but some were down right inspired. Like Dragonia, a boy who turns into a giant dragon by flying through a volcano or a character who rolled magic dice to figure out what powers he would have that day. (My suggested name “Yahtzee” was rejected.) He had one, Growler, that bore a striking resemblance to Animal-Man – leaving me to think I may need to move some trade paperbacks to a higher shelf.

Here’s how the conversation ended:

“The last one is kind of a bad guy, Dad. He doesn’t have a name yet but he can punch peoples head off!”

“Maybe you could call him Earth Prime Superboy.”

“Nah. That’s dumb.”

No Cartoon Network for him. 

    

Comics By The Numbers – January 2006

My latest Comics by the Numbers column -- reviewing January's Direct Market sales -- is up over at PopCultureShock/Buzzscope. It's a bit later than planned but still absolutely indespensible information for getting through your day.