Disney Acquires Marvel
Doesn’t that sound official? It’s true. Disney has bought Marvel for $4 billion.
Johanna Draper at Comics Worth Reading notes that this means Disney might be able to add Marvel Characters to their theme parks. I have no speculations at this point. What do you think this means for both companies?
Bleeding Cool lists some reactions.
Borders Ink and Teens
Thanks to supernatural hot tickets Harry Potter and Bella Swan, the teen market is booming. Or as booming as anything can be right now. It’s also bolstered by manga like Naruto and Vampire Knight, edgy superhero novels and the indie comics that appeal to the art students.
Borders is hoping to capitalize by adding a new section targeting teens called Ink.
According to the Wall Street Journal, it will stock “graphic novels, fantasy and young-adult titles together” along with all kinds of other teen merch. The facebook fanpage already has over 1,000 fans. I don’t have time to see how many of them are actually teenagers.
Hopefully, this will make the teen books easier to find. I had a hard time finding a Scott Westerfeld title the last time I was in a Borders. However, sometimes this kind of branding can be the kiss of death. Older teens are too embarressed to go there, thinking of themselves as too mature and adult readers feel preverted if they flip through a slighty suggestive manga underneath the fleetingly hip teen signage.
Thoughts?
Ryan Reynolds cast as Green Lantern
According to Reuters, Ryan Reynolds has been casted as Green Lantern.
If you’re unfamiliar with Reynolds, go see X-Men Origins: Wolverine. He’s Deadpool. Actually, go see Origins anyway, just for fun. He does a decent Deadpool and is getting a spinoff movie. Then he’s also Green Lantern? Others were up for the role: Bradley Cooper, Jared Leto, even Justin Timberlake. I gotta be honest I see all of those guys as Hal Jordan before I see Reynolds.
What do you think? Will he make a good Green Lantern? Will Ryan Reynolds really became “that guy who does the superhero movies”?
Spiderman Does Broadway
No, really. Evan Rachel Woods is Mary Jane.
The official website for Spiderman: Turn off the Dark doesn’t offer much explanation. It will be a “new take on the mythic tale”. Oh, and Bono is involved. It’s all so bizarre. But they have made some pretty amazing musicals out of unconventional material. Dr. Seuss. Monty Python. One of my favorite books, Wicked, was adapted to the stage.
So, on the one hand, it could be really great.
On the other hand, Bono.
Tickets go on sale in September. Will you go? If it comes to Oklahoma City, I most certainly will!
Tokyopop Raising Prices, Dropping Quality
To be honest, when I first heard that Tokyopop was raising their prices by a dollar I wasn’t that concerned. I want manga to stay around for, well, EVER. If that means paying more for it than I will. However when the quality is so bad you can barely read it?
John Jakala over at Sporadic Sequential has a great post about the poor quality of new Tokyopop titles. You can see in his scan of Sgt. Frog just how low we’re talking here. The back of one page bleeds through to the next. Tokyopop who, like other manga companies, doesn’t flop their manga so as to retain the integrity of the artwork really lets me down. Because nothing says ‘we care about artwork’ like letting one character’s face show up in a nostril of a monster one page over.
I don’t know much about paper companies. Everything I know I’ve learned from The Office so I can’t comment on Tokyopop claims that they can no longer use the paper they once did.
I visited my local comic book store this weekend but I didn’t buy any Tokyopop volumes. However, I want to see the new titles for myself so I might go this weekend and browse.
Archie Loves Veronica
As if there was ever any doubt.
Now it’s official. Archie will ask Veronica to marry him. That’s coming from CNN no less! The Archie comics and I go way back. I took them to family summer camp. I would go back and forth between Betty and Veronica, a lot like Archie did. Though I never understood why the two girls would fight over him when, hello? REGGIE!!!
Intellectual Property – where the Goth Girl goes mainstream
Then there’s this:
The L.A. Times Blog explains the controversy.
Comics Worth Reading has the follow up.
What are your thoughts?
I can’t believe that any judge will entertain a lawsuit to stop a lawsuit. What kind of precedent will that set? With the announcement of Sonia Sotomeyer as the new Supreme Court Judge, who has a background in intellectual property law, I wonder just how far this case can go?
I’m going to consult my lawyer and get back to this.
The End of Shojo Beat? – Update rumor confirmed
Oh man, this rumor sucks – Shojo Beat Ending » Comics Worth Reading.
Update - rumor has been confirmed.
Is it true? Is Shojo Beat ceasing publication in July???? First I can’t get my subscription to Yen Plus to come nor can I get anyone at Yen Press to respond and now Shojo Beat is leaving?
I wonder what the rationale is. Considering that most of the shojo titles that land on the NYT Graphic Books bestseller list are SB series you would think they would really try to keep the magazine going. Are times this tough?
Does anyone know of any campaign to save the shojo?
The other thing that bothers me is that, according to the blog post, I’ll get Shonen Jump for the duration of my subscription. Ummm, I didn’t sign up for SJ. I don’t WANT SJ. There is absolutely nothing of interest (besides maaaayyyybeee Bleach) in there.
Now I’m off to try and get someone to talk to me about my Yen Plus subscription….again.
UPDATE – in case you care, apparently I was supposed to have gotten my first issue Yen Plus issue this month but I didn’t…grrr. Anyway, July’s issue is supposed to be here by June. We’ll see. I left a snarky comment on their blog which I now feel kind of bad about…
Why “Sex and the City” should never be a template
I don’t hate Sex and the City so much as squirm uncomfortably when it comes on. Although, I don’t exactly change the channel. Because some things are funny and because I feel the need to figure out just what the hell people mean when they declare themselves “a Carrie” – as if it’s a badge of honor. There’s no denying the show made some kind of cultural impact but my god, enough already!
Then you get this:
We fight crime and have bad taste in men - tee hee!
There’s a lively discussion going on over at Comic Book Resources about the new Marvel Divas that promises to be:
“Sex and the City” in the Marvel Universe, and there’s definitely that “naughty” element to it, but I also think the series is doing to a deeper place, asking question about what it means…truly means…to be a woman in an industry dominated by testosterone and guns. (And I mean both the super hero industry and the comic book industry.) But mostly it’s just a lot of hot fun.”
Wow. Really? A lot of hot fun? Cause last I checked working in a male dominated field wasn’t so much “hot fun” as “cold shoulder” but whatever. It may actually be an interesting endeavor with a terrible pitch. After all, one of the reason I really like X-Men is because the interpersonal relationships are more fleshed out than, say, Batman.
But here’s why they shouldn’t use “Sex and the City” as a template or model.
1. The endearing quality of Sex and the City was NEVER about the characters as they appeared on paper. If you were to describe each of these characters most women would cringe. An aging sex kitten who uses her sexuality to get ahead in her career to little or no success? But the actresses who played these characters gave them heart, a silliness or awareness that I think translated to the screen. It wasn’t the characters themselves women related to but the what the actresses made them.
2. Fashion is central and spandex is soooo not there. Spandex has never been there.
3. Sex and the City is inherently irritating to most people. The grating whininess of selfish women will get on even the most “a Charolette”’s nerves. So this series can’t last very long.
4. Sex and the City wasn’t hot fun. If they really want to use the Sex and the City model then the sex needs to be awkward, drunken and hidden by strategically placed bed posts. Lame.
So I’m not against giving the Marvel superheroines romantic lives or exploring the concept of “what being a woman means” (barf, ok I am against that because it’s somewhat insulting to suggest that being a woman means constantly surrounded by this weird mystique that separates you from the “norm” despite being half of all populations in the world) – sorry, ok back on track – I’m not against Marvel Divas (oh god the title is just terrible, worse than Minx) -
One more time here, I really and truly am not against this idea. But please please Marvel do NOT use the Sex and the City template. If you are going to go that route, take note that all of the City ladies were a B cup or smaller.
Though a really interesting side story might be the decision to get surgically altered to better fit into the superhero world…
#amazonfail
Ah, the power of the internet. Or rather, the people behind the internet. I’m in love with how information, rumors, photos, speculations, data and fears move so quickly through so many anonymous lives. Then, when something like this happens how people band together to use the internet not only to react but to change minds.
It all started when author Mark Probst wrote on his blog about a curious incident in which all of his novels (which contain homosexual characters and themes) began disappearing from the sales rank numbers. That’s a problem because those numbers are used to generate lists and in turn those lists are used by consumers to purchase books. So…what’s up?
Here’s the answer he received when inquiring about his numbers:
Uh, no, you don't. -picture from Rocko's Modern Life, Nickelodeon
“In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude “adult” material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature.
Hence, if you have further questions, kindly write back to us.
Best regards,
Ashlyn D
Member Services
Amazon.com Advantage”
Uh huh. Let’s be clear. Mark Probst novels are not ’steamy’ enough to be considered erotic and even if they were… In fact, as he points out, his novel The Filly is meant for young adult readers. But this post isn’t about how ridiculous or unfair the whole ordeal is – this is about what people did about it. What you can do about it.
Twitter exploded. Adding the hashtag #amazonfail to the end of their tweets, the public expressed their anger, shared updated news and blogs. The result, Amazon answered with this:
I’ll pause while you laugh. If you really want to continue the Amazon onslaught add #glitchmyass to the end of your tweets.
How does this effect the graphic world? So far, it hasn’t appeared to, which isn’t surprising. The amount of young children carried into Watchmen proves that the general public still thinks books with pictures are for kids. Yaoi and explicit graphic novels still have their sales rank as do Alex Sanchez and Nancy Garden -two young adult writers who focus on gay themes. Though a quick last check reveals that Alex Sanchez’s brilliant Rainbow Boys lost its ranking.
And it looks like it probably won’t ever spread. This censorship was cut off in a matter of hours!
Will there be another movement? One that pushes for Amazon to reinstate the “glitch”? Probably but I don’t see it being that strong. Usually the first outcry is the loudest, the strongest. Having something taken away from you is a powerful motivator and this weekend, we took it back.
On that note, get pumped about the power of the people with The Getbackers! Then read some yaoi – I’ve heard Red Blinds the Foolish is really good. Also, if you want a great overview of the situation plus updates plus blacklisted titles and shocking titles that still stand – check out this Jezebel post. – link via Precocious Curmudgeon.
