Jim Lee, on the way things work at DC:

I know it’s controversial, but we always felt that it was part of our books, to try to best reflect the readership and the entirety of people in general. It’s an ongoing thing, and not everything is dictated on a top-down basis; a lot of times storylines get to us from creators. We work with some of the best creators in the business, we support their creative initiative and that’s where a lot of this comes from.

I know, I know: I’m too old-fashioned and traditional in these ways, and I know that this is how these things work now, but “a lot of times storylines get to us from creators”? A lot of times? That doesn’t even sound like it’s the majority of times…

From Brian Michael Bendis’ enjoyable, meandering talk with Greg Rucka, the latter spills about future comic projects:

There’s two comic projects we’re still trying to get going. I’ve got an idea that I’ve been carrying around for almost two years now. The first two scripts are written on this thing, it’s just the question of getting the publishing side worked out and what those deals are going to be and finding the right publisher for it… the other one—I know I talked about this before—Rick [Burchett, artist of Lady Sabre & The Pirates of the Ineffable Aether – www.ineffableaether.com] and I still want to do American Soldier. We still want to do this historical record of the history of the country as told through this one family’s military service from generation to generation. We’ve got the preliminary stuff done for the first one. But again, we have to find the right publisher.  I think the way Rick and I have been looking at American Soldier, that’s not something you can take to Marvel nor DC or Dark Horse and make it work because this is a huge freaking graphic novel. There’s going to be a lot of time and lot of money put into it, and there’s got to be an advance on it. There’s got to be some upfront money on it if only to cover Rick’s side of the work, and finding a book publisher that understands how graphic novels are done, and this is a large project and is going to require some outlay at the start. That’s its own problem, and then you go to first publisher and they say how much do you need, and you say we need $30K to start. Most will say have a nice day.

Dear Comic Industry: I would love it if someone would find a way to make American Soldier work financially, please. The project may not have an immediate draw within the direct market beyond “It’s Greg Rucka,” but, people: You can’t tell me this wouldn’t have a market in the mainstream book world.

Michonne made her first brief, shadowy appearance in The Walking Dead‘s second season finale, with word following shortly after that she’d be played in season three by Treme‘s Danai Gurira. Courtesy of Entertainment Weekly, we have the first look of Gurira in character, looking rather closely to how she’s appeared in the Walking Dead comic book series — though Robert Kirkman says to expect some changes.

“The essence of the character — her personality, her motives, everything that makes Michonne Michonne — remains intact from the comics,” Kirkman told EW. “But like a lot of things on the show, there will be little tweaks and differences here and there. We saw that her introduction is slightly different from how it was in the comic, and her interaction with Andrea is really going to be a really cool addition to the character that I think will get television viewers up to speed, and they’ll get to know her a lot faster than comic book readers did.”

I’m always interested in Comics Journalism, so it’s unsurprising that Hope Beyond Hype appeals to me. It’s a free online comic – print copies are available to buy, too – about the discovery and development of stem cell research put out by the European Commission and created by sci-fi novelist Ken McLeod and artist Edward Ross.

McLeod talks a little about the project on his blog.

I’d love to see this kind of approach taken for more things; Jim Ottoviani and Jay Hosler really should be household names by now, dammit.

(Via.)

The distribution system for comics as it stands is an upside down pyramid with the creators at the very bottom.  In this upside down pyramid the creators are the last ones allowed to recoup from their work and they get the leftovers or scraps after everyone else is finished. (If there is anything left for them.)

The creators are the people who put in all of the time and energy into the very product that’s being sold.  Even if you heavily promote your book, you’re doing it to make other people money.

The distributor makes their money, the printers get paid, the publishers, and the retailers before the artist gets to make anything or recoup money invested into a book.  It’s easy to lose money even after everyone has been paid and very common.

Mark Andrew Smith has created a new “manifesto” for creator-owned comics, called The A to B Manifesto. The creator as retailer, and it’s an interesting read that suggests that creators take on more active role in the promotion and sale of their work, and that Kickstarter will be a gamechanging tool in that. I’m not convinced that I agree, entirely, but it’s definitely the starting point for lots of conversation. Go, read. Get talking.

If you, like me, have often wondered why Marvel has never exploited the Malibu Ultraverse after the crash in the mid-1990s that doomed the original line post-purchase by the House of Ideas, then apparently we have our answer… and it’s what you probably always suspected:

[Ultraverse co-creator Steve] Englehart says that in 2004, Tom Brevoort approached him to integrate the Ultraverse into the Marvel Universe. That he’d plotted the first issue and had written a precis for the first year, including Prime joining Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, but that the project was closed down.

Later an assistant editor told Englehart that he wanted his mission to being back the Ultraverse characters but subsequently called Englehart to tell him “It’s my job if I continue to ask about this.”

And it’s all down to a pesky five percent of profits that Malibu creators are entitled to.

Except, of course, things may not be that simple:

The Ultraverse: Let’s just pretend it never happened, it’ll probably be easier for everyone involved.

Seeing Men in Black 3 in IMAX this weekend? If so, you’ll also get to see six minutes of The Amazing Spider-Man, which is running with MIB3 starting Thursday night at midnight, according to the latter movie’s official Facebook page. The two are both Sony films, so it’s a natural move for them to team up — whether or not this helps MIB3 end the three week-reign of Avengers at the top of the box office remains to be seen. It’s not clear yet is the footage will be subsequently released online.

The Amazing Spider-Man, directed by Marc Webb and starring Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone and Rhys Ifans, is scheduled for release on July 3.

Hey, continuity nuts! Here’s a reason to pick up that Civil War novel that you might have missed:

Fans returning to the Civil War saga will find that all-new material has been added to the experience, including a new take on Spider-Man’s role, with the story set in the post-”One More Day” reality and showing these events as they unfolded without Peter Parker and Mary Jane being married for the first time.

It’d be great if it was exactly the same as it unfolded the first time, except at some point, MJ says something like “Man, I’m so glad that Aunt May got over us living together even though we’re not married, tiger.” For the curious, there’s also a downloadable prologue from the novel at the link, letting you know what to expect.

Via Guttersniper, Dylan Todd reimagines a new trade dress for Marvel’s Essentials line, and comes up with just design beauty:

I mean, look at those covers. They are gorgeous. If there was any justice in the world, Marvel would get in touch with Todd to get him to work as soon as possible…

Okay, I made the Before Watchmen joke yesterday, but…

“One of the major iconic DC characters will reveal that he is gay in a storyline in June,” Courtney Simmons, DC Entertainment’s senior vice president of publicity, confirmed to ABC News.

June? That’s when Before Watchmen starts, isn’t it…? Sadly, Rorschach isn’t out until July, otherwise I really genuinely would put my metaphorical money on him… That said, you’ve got to give DC credit for teasing this (minor?) reveal out – by Simmons giving us a gender for the first time, the speculation on the character’s identity (and therefore, the story) gets at least another day of life, making DC seem progressive right before Marvel plays up their “Northstar gets married” Astonishing X-Men issue on ABC’s The View. Sneaky, sneaky…

(Via DC Women Kicking Ass.)

Okay, this is awesome. Someone get this guy a gig on Disney XD’s Marvel Universe block as soon as possible, please. Junaid Chundrigar’s Avengers Disasssembled:

(Via.)

Place your bets, DC fans:

Surprisingly, [DC Co-Publisher Dan] DiDio stated that they had changed DC’s policy in this regard. And they are about to reintroduce a previously existing DC character who was previously straight and now will be “one of our most prominent gay characters.”

One of my favorite guesses on social media has been Donna Troy, but a truly part of me really hopes that it’s going to be a Watchmen character, just to see if the internet could get any more upset about Before Watchmen…

Well, that was quick. Just two weeks after Marvel announced that all of its $2.99 books were to shift to “self-cover” format – ie, the cover is of the same paper stock as the interiors – the publisher released the following update to retailers:

Starting with the 7/4/12 On-sale items, all 32 page Marvel Universe comics, including those that contain a digital code, will be printed with 50# Coated interiors and will be Self-Cover.

I’ll admit it: I’m not that bothered with the self-cover format (Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like I’m used to it from the Dark Horse books I’ve been getting, not to mention growing up with 2000AD in the UK), but I’m curious about what the wider reaction has been out there. Does the “lighter” cover stock mean more shipping damages? Are you as a fan bothered by the change? Do people even really notice it?

Sparkshooter has been going for a few months now, and writer Troy Brownfield (Newsarama readers may have heard of him) and artist Sarah Vaughn are clearly having fun with the rock n’ roll webcomic.

To celebrate the coming of Sondra Li, the band’s new lead singer, the creative team put together a fun promo image. The image shows off her introduction in a familiar fashion, giving a shout-out to Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson.

Check out the image, and the full press release, below, and go to Sparkshooter.com for more band comic goodness.

Press Release: When Sparkshooter, the webcomic from Troy Brownfield and Sarah Vaughn, launched in February, it came with the promise that a new singer would shake up the group of friends that formerly provided the backbone of the group Crazy Yeats.  With Crazy Yeats dissolved and a new band in the offing, get ready to meet Sondra Li!

Sondra debuts on Page 13 of Sparkshooter, which posts on Wednesday, May 23rd.  To commemorate this shift in the story, series artist Sarah Vaughn created a special promo inspired by the work of Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson on the cover to Justice League of America #75, the issue wherein Black Canary joins the team.

Writer Troy Brownfield said, “With the arrival of Sondra, the whole story moves into a new direction.  Immediately following Sondra’s debut, you’ll also meet Jack Spencer, the once and future manager of the guys.  He’s going to give you some info in the coming weeks that explains how the boys got together and sets up one of the central conflicts for months to come.”

Become our friend on Facebook at www.facebook.com/sparkshootercomic

You can also follow Sparkshooter on Twitter @sparkshootercom

A new page of Sparkshooter posts every Wednesday at www.sparkshooter.com

This Guardian piece about Before Watchmen is well worth reading, if only because I feel that it’s the first time Dan Didio explicitly addresses the controversy over the ownership of the Watchmen series and characters, or Alan Moore’s condemnation of the project. His comments are weirdly telling, and weirdly empty at the same time:

DC says Watchmen was “a work for hire agreement at the start”, however. And it provides such a rich basis for prequels, according to DiDio. “The stories and ideas are so well defined, and there are so many throwaways in the body of the original work, a one-line mention or a side item or a cameo shot of a character, that were basically great wonderful springboards we could grow the world from,” he said. “That’s why when everybody says this is a finite story, true if you’re looking at the beginning, middle, end of that particular story itself. But when you’re talking about the characters, there’s nothing finite about them. They have endless possibilities in the types of stories we could tell with them. And like I said we’ve found the right creators to tell those stories.”

I have no particular horse in the Before Watchmen race, but I am endlessly amused by the line about people who think Watchmen being finite are correct “if you’re looking at the beginning, middle, end of that particular story itself.” The beginning, middle and end are the entire story!

Happy Social Media Fan Appreciation Day! What’s that? You’ve never heard of SMFAD? Well, that’s understandable considering Marvel just made it up, but the short version is, it’s a reason for you to stay on Twitter and Facebook today (as if you needed another reason):

Today Marvel wants to take the time to thank all of the fans who have liked and followed us on our social media adventures! To show our appreciation we’ll be setting up exclusive sales, cool surprises and much more!

We’ll be starting the festivities off with a 99 cents Digital Comics sale of INCREDIBLE HULK (1999) #77-112. If you loved the Green Goliath in “Marvel’s The Avengers,” follow his ongoing adventures during this sale! For fans who love to shop at the Marvel Store, shipping will be free to show our appreciation for your support!

There will be also be publishing exclusives appearing throughout the day on our Twitter and Facebook feeds, so be sure to be on the lookout! Finally, we’ll be releasing an exclusive special animation clip just for you!

The Twitter sweepstake rules are already up, with a year’s subscription to Marvel’s DCU up for grabs as a grand prize.

Damon Lindelof explains how fan obsession led to his upcoming Batman: Black and White comic with Jeff Lemire:

What happened was that I basically became obsessed with Jeff [Lemire]. [Laughs] I read “Sweet Tooth” and was like, “Holy shit. Who is this guy?” I googled him and found out about “Essex County,” so I ran out and grabbed the collected edition and read it cover to cover. Then I tweeted about him and about how awesome “Sweet Tooth” was. And then, he tweeted back at me, we exchanged email addresses and just started talking to each other.

For this project in particular, it all happened through [Editor] Ben Abernathy at DC. I’m trying to remember if Ben reached out to me first, or if Ben reached out to Jeff and then Jeff emailed me and was like, “Do you want to work on a Batman story?” When Jeff Lemire asks you if you want to work on a Batman story, you say, “Yes.” First off, that guy can write, so he’s not just doing the art; you’ve got a collaborator all the way. And he’s never drawn that character before, so I was like, “This sounds like the greatest thing ever.”

One of these days, I’m going to figure out how to do this Twitter thing properly.

Well, this is very weird:

A number of DC subscribers have contacted Bleeding Cool rather annoyed that DC Comics have told them that they can no longer get their favourite books in this fashion, and they will be cancelled with issue 10.

Which means Justice League International readers will miss the final two issues of that comic, and unless they object, will receive issues of Superman instead. And subscribers to Aquaman will be switched to Justice League (and pocket the difference in price) and Justice League Dark subscribers will, bizarrely, be switched to Batman: The Dark Knight.

Swamp Thing also turns out to be included in the seemingly inexplicable sub cancellation. It’s obviously not that the books are being cancelled because even though both Justice League titles may be in danger – well, JLI is already ending with #12 – there’s no way that either Swamp Thing or Aquaman are facing their end anytime soon bar a disastrous event at DC. So what’s going on, exactly? Is Warners/DC trying to limit subscriptions to what it considers “core” titles (Justice League, Superman, Batman: The Dark Knight and Batman are the named replacements that we know about so far) in order to strengthen branding, or is this something else? And if so, what…?

And where will WonderCon be next year, having been forced to decamp to Anaheim from San Francisco this year…? CCI’s David Glanzer revealed what little he knew to ICv2:

Our plan has always been to return to San Francisco; we just don’t have dates at the Moscone Center yet. Moscone typically gives us dates six months out, and it’s hard to ask someone to plan their convention here and not have dates until six months before the show. So we have our fingers crossed that we might get dates earlier, but here we are—it’s already May—so the more time ticks by the more challenging it is. But we hope to get back to San Francisco.

Glanzer said that it’s up in the air whether or not a return to Anaheim would be considered if the Moscone Center wasn’t available. Sorry, Southern California… It looks like you might be stuck with just having the biggest comic and pop-culture convention of the year in your neighborhood, instead of having that one and its smaller sibling.

Robert Downey Jr. plays billionaire Tony Stark (Iron Man’s not-at-all secret identity) in the Marvel Studios movies, and he’s looking to make some pretty good money himself as a result of the phenomenal box office success of Avengers.

The Hollywood Reporter cites “multiple knowledgeable sources” that RDJ is looking to take home $50 million from the picture, which includes back-end compensation and bonuses. After the success of the first Iron Man, Downey’s reps negotiated a deal where he would make a percentage of the profits from any Marvel movie where he plays the character — with The Hollywood Reporter says could be as high as 5 to 7 percent, though no concrete numbers are publicly known.

As far as the rest of the cast, THR’s sources say that Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Jeremy Renner and Mark Ruffalo will all make about $2 to $3 million from Avengers, with Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johansson making around twice that. Avengers currently sits at a worldwide total of $1,016,095,436, according to Box Office Mojo.