Comics A.M. | Dark Horse to renumber B.P.R.D. with Issue 100

Comics A.M. | Dark Horse to renumber B.P.R.D. with Issue 100

B.P.R.D. #100

Publishing | Dark Horse editor Scott Allie explains the publisher's plan to start numbering B.P.R.D. sequentially, starting with #100, rather than as 'an ongoing series of miniseries': 'The reason to make the change was in part how many times [San Francisco retailer and industry pundit] Brian Hibbs told me, 'Well, really B.P.R.D. is an ongoing'' And he's right. Another part of the reason is that as we've moved into doing more short stories ' two- or three-issue stories ' we get those new issue #1's too often. You do new #1's to give readers jumping on points, but when they're coming so quickly it becomes more confusing than anything else. Depending on how retailers rack, you could have two or three B.P.R.D. #1's on the shelf at a time, and it's hard for readers or retailer to know what to read next. So while I know it will cause a little confusion to suddenly have #100 out there, a few months down the road it'll make everything simpler.' [Comics Alliance]

Creators | Mark Waid and Matt Fraction guest on Kieron Gillen's Decompressed podcast to discuss the 'Marvel Method' of writing comics. The post includes script excerpts and all the visual aids needed to follow the discussion. [Kieron Gillen's Workblog]

Tom Brevoort

Publishing | Tom Brevoort, Marvel's senior vice president and executive editor, remembers his roots as a college intern at Marvel'making copies, sending out rejection letters, and realizing that computers were the future. [University of Delaware Messenger]

Publishing | Archaia is establishing itself as one of the top choices for artists who aren't interested in writing comics the Marvel way, and editor Rebecca Taylor explains how she screens submissions of new comics: A story can't get in the door with good art, transmedia possibilities are a big plus, and no superheroes need apply. There's lots more detail in this interesting interview. [Panel Bound]

Retailing | The future of the Manchester, Connecticut, store Buried Under Comics is uncertain following the unexpected death last weekend of owner Brian Kozicki. [Patch.com]

Matt Groening, by Matt Groening

Creators | Matt Groening talks about why he ended his syndicated comic Life in Hell, and why he kept going for so long: 'Everything you read in newspapers and magazines generally has the unseen hand of an editor. You don't know exactly what the writer's original intent was. What's great about a comic strip is they're generally hand drawn, hand lettered, and don't have the feeling of being edited. They really feel like an undiluted thought by a specific individual.' [Editor & Publisher]

Comics | Matt Dembicki talks about editing District Comics, a new collection of short comics about the history of Washington, D.C. [DCist]

Publishing | Manga creator Shuho Sato, who has been a thorn in the side of the Japanese publishing establishment since he pulled his long-running series Say Hello to Black Jack away from its publisher, claiming he wasn't making any money, and put it up on the web, has a new strategy: Starting Sept. 15, he will stop enforcing his copyright on the work, allowing anyone, anywhere to copy his manga or use it in derivative works such as novels. ''The traditional model of making profit by holding onto a copyright is gradually going stale' he said. 'I want to explore the possible benefits to authors beyond this system.'' [Rocket News 24]

Cartooning | Andertoons artist Mark Anderson gives an overview of the possibilities for freelance work in cartooning. [Andertoons]

Conventions | The second annual Eau Claire Comic Con will take place this weekend, featuring local creators who do work for Image and Marvel, as well as a display of props from 1980s movies. [VolumeOne]

• August 23, 2012 @ 06:55 AM by Brigid Alverson
• Tagged: Archaia, B.P.R.D., cartooning, comic conventions, comic retailers, comic strips, comics a.m., comics numbering, copyright, Dark Horse Comics, direct market, Kieron Gillen, manga, Mark Anderson, mark waid, Matt Dembicki, matt fraction, Matt Groening, Scott Allie, Shuho Sato, tom brevoort

2 Comments

Thanks Dark Horse, I've been wanting your'll to do this for a long time. Now it will be so much easier to follow BPRD.

Glad to see BPRD is getting sequential numbering. I've considered picking it up several times via iPad, but could never figure out where to start. I guess I could start anywhere, but the multitudes of miniseries are a little intimidating.

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