Comics A.M. | Comic sales up 18.6% for first half of year

Comics A.M. | Comic sales up 18.6% for first half of year

Avengers vs. X-Men #6

Retailing | Sales of comics and graphic novels in the direct market rose 18.6 percent for the first half of the year, compared to the same period in 2011, reports the retail news and analysis site ICv2. John Jackson Miller adds that, 'Retailers have already ordered more material through June ' nearly $223 million in retail dollars' than they did in last year through July.' He also points out that the second half of the year has outperformed the first half every year for the past decade, by an average of 10 percent, meaning we can probably expect 2012 to finish strong. [ICv2.com, Comichron]

Publishing | The new Valiant Entertainment would like to follow the movie 'blueprint' that Marvel has laid out, according to a new profile of the reborn company. 'Investors like to be able to compare concepts to other concepts,' said Valiant chairman Peter Cuneo, former CEO of Marvel. 'With Valiant, we very much have a blueprint to follow, which is Marvel.' The profile mostly focuses on the business side of Valiant, as well as some of its history. [The New York Times]

Archie Comics

Comics | Writer Laura Jane Faulds talks about her lifelong love of Archie comics: 'Archie comics come up so much, at age 27, in drunk social situations kind of thing, half hour long giggly conversations about stupid Archie comics jokes that stuck with us, which characters we most related to, and which Archie dude we'd rather date. When I was in eleventh grade my friend Hannah and I cut up a bunch of old Archie comics and whited-out all the text and then wrote dirty jokes in the speech bubbles and pasted them to our locker.' [Women Write About Comics]

Comics | With The Amazing Spider-Man in theaters, Hero Complex looks back at the early days of Marvel and the Amazing Fantasy title where Spider-Man debuted. [Hero Complex]

Stan Lee

Creators | Stan Lee answers a variety of questions about comics, mostly related to technology: 'I think there will always be comic books. There is something very pleasant about a comic book. You can read it at your own speed. You can carry it; it's not very heavy. You can fold it and put it in your back pocket. You can show it to a friend. You can collect them. They don't take up much room. You can have your own little collection of whatever character or series you like. You can go back and re-read them. I think there will always be comics, but there will be so many other versions and forms of them. Digital comics now are evolving, you'll be able to see comics that move. Not quite full animation, but almost full animation, on your cell phone or your computer screen. I think comics are becoming so pervasive culturally in our world, that they'll be all over the place. I think the humble comic book, which is where they started, will always be with us to some extent.' [Digital Trends]

Retailing | On the 35th anniversary of the opening of Hi De Ho Comics in Santa Monica, California, Joe Keatinge writes about why that store was is so important to him: 'It's going to Hi De Ho for all those years that gives me an eternal faith in the comics medium to evolve and for the industry to evolve with it. In one store I've seen good times, hard times, times where it seemed everyone loved comics, times where it seemed like the industry might be doomed. I saw it all and in the end my hope was lit eternal by coming in, flipping through bins and talking with the employees there about what else I should be reading.' [Joe Keatinge's Comics & Stories]

Wildcats Version 3.0: Brand Building

Commentary | David Brothers shows his appreciation for writer Joe Casey: 'Casey, though, doesn't like to play in that sandbox so much as kick a lot of dirt around within the confines of that sandbox, and that's wonderful. Casey can do flashback stories that have that fun old Roy Thomas feel, sure, but he's at his best when he's being disruptive, when he's taking characters or concepts we know and chopping them up until they seem new again.' [ComicsAlliance]

Commentary | Rapper Akira the Don shares five reasons he won't be seeing The Amazing Spider-Man: 'It's not being made because a bunch of people really wanted, more than anything else, to tell the best Spider-Man story they could on the sliver screen. It's being made to stop the rights to the character reverting from Sony back to Marvel. Who, as we have seen, make much better superhero movies than Sony. Because of this movie, we won't see Spider-Man in any Avengers or Avengers-related movies for at least the next decade.' [The Huffington Post]

• July 9, 2012 @ 06:55 AM by Brigid Alverson and JK Parkin
• Tagged: Akira the Don, Amazing Fantasy #15, Archie Comics, comic books, comic retailers, comics a.m., comics sales, Diamond Comic Distributors, direct market, fandom, graphic novels, Hi De Ho Comics, Joe Casey, Joe Keatinge, John Jackson Miller, Marvel, movies, Peter Cuneo, Sony, spider-man, Stan Lee, The Amazing Spider-Man, Valiant

5 Comments

'Because of this movie, we won't see Spider-Man in any Avengers or Avengers-related movies for at least the next decade.'

I sure wouldn't mind Spidey movies being made by Marvel, but I think it's funny that it's simply assumed he'd be an Avenger. It's such a change from the days when Spidey operated outside that organization. Chalk that up as a win for Bendis, I guess.

Comic book sales are up 18.6 percent. So what? DC and Marvel are still LOSING money every month. There's no PROFIT being made. Marvel was only staying afloat because of its movie division. Now it's owned by Disney, and Disney and Warner Brothers have deep pockets. I'm fascinated by the absurd 'reporting' of these numbers as if they mean anything. When DC and Marvel start actually turning a profit from comics, or even breaking even, then let us know that.

Dude. The publishing divisions of DC and Marvel make money. How do I know? I get royalty checks, which I only get after profits. I got royalties on Generation Hope for Christ's sake.You seem bound and determined to stand over the corpse of the comics industry just so you can say 'I told you so.' Chill the fuck out.
TIM

I wish everyday could start off like this. Awesome start for a Monday.

I am with Tim here. There are so many people who say they are comics fans but all they do is prophesies the end of the industry for e-penis.

Reports of increases in the industry are a good thing as it means people buying and enjoying comics, and more of them than last year. And the more stronger the industry is the more willing the big two are to take risks on unique content.

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