Comic Book Critic

Stephen King and Joe Hill Partner With IDW Publishing in 2012

October 13, 2011October 13, 2011 by The Comic Book Critic

Father and son team, Stephen King and Joe Hill, will adapt their adventure tale, Throttle, for IDW in February 2012.

Road Rage: Throttle will be released in February and March, with Road Rage: Duel to follow in April and May.

San Diego, CA (October 13, 2011) – IDW Publishing is proud to announce ROAD RAGE, a new partnership with best-selling authors Stephen King and Joe Hill, to produce a comic-book adaptation of their co-written adventure tale, Throttle. This monthly two-part series begins in February, and will be followed by two issues adapting the story that inspired Throttle, Richard Matheson’s classic tale of suspense, Duel, beginning in April.

P.S. from Aéropostale Retails Exclusive Marvel Apparel

October 11, 2011 by The Comic Book Critic

Media Release — Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a global character-based entertainment company, and Aéropostale, Inc. (NYSE: ARO), the parent company to children’s retailer P.S. from Aéropostale®, today announced an exclusive collection of Marvel Super Hero merchandise available under the P.S. from Aéropostale brand. The apparel and accessories line will be targeted to P.S. from Aéropostale customers, kids ages 4 to 12 years-old and will include designs inspired by classic Marvel Super Heroes such as Spider-Man as well as next summer’s blockbuster film event Marvel’s The Avengers which features Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye.

"The P.S. brand is focused on providing innovative, fun fashion at great value," said Scott Birnbaum, Senior Vice President, Marketing and E-commerce of Aéropostale, Inc. "The partnership with Marvel combines the world’s most popular Super Heroes with our fresh designs to create a unique and exciting addition to our holiday collection."

Marvel Announces Avengers: X-Sanction #1 Retailer Variants

October 11, 2011 by The Comic Book Critic

Marvel Comics announced there will be two comic shop variant covers to Avengers: X-Sanction #1 in December. See a preview of the first issue, including another variant cover by Joe Quesada, here.

The Battle Variant, which displays the store’s name and logo, features a Captain America vs Cable cover by Carlo Pagulayan. The Wanted Variant, which will show a store photograph on a wanted poster, will be drawn by Bryan Hitch.

Avengers: X-Sanction #1 by Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness arrives in comic book stores on Wednesday December 14th, 2011.

Vertigo Publishes Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo in 2012

October 11, 2011 by The Comic Book Critic

DC Comics has acquired the worldwide rights to Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy novels consisting of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest.

DC’s Vertigo imprint will be publishing all three stories in graphic novel format starting in 2012 and ending with the third part in 2014.

Preview of Pigs #2 (Image) by Nate Cosby, Ben McCool, and Breno Temura

October 10, 2011 by The Comic Book Critic

Pigs #2, published by Image Comics, continues the neo-Cold War espionage thriller from Nate Cosby and Ben McCool. This series is one of the best new titles on the market featuring top notch writing and artistry. Francesco Francavilla lends his talents to the cover for issue #2.

If you haven’t picked up Pigs #1, featuring a cover by Jock, you should seek out a copy. You won’t regret it.

Pigs #2 by Nate Cosby, Ben McCool, and Breno Temura is available at most comic book stores on Wednesday, October 12th 2011 with a $2.99 cover price.

Preview of Avengers: X-Sanction #1 (December 2011)

October 10, 2011 by The Comic Book Critic

Cable returns to the Marvel Universe in December and he’s back with a purpose. Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness kick off one of the “Marvel Big Events of 2012” with Avengers: X-Sanction #1.

Cable’s back and he’s got just 24 hours to destroy the Avengers! Except one Avenger won’t go down without a fight, as Marvel is pleased to present your first look at Marvel CCO & legendary artist Joe Quesada’s Avengers X-Sanction #1 variant cover. Missing since Second Coming, Cable must resort to dire measures in order to save the future – even if that means taking on the heaviest hitters in the Marvel Universe. But how is he back? And can he take on all of Earth’s Mightiest alone? Find out as superstar creators Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness kick off the countdown to the 2012’s status quo-shattering event in the Avengers: X-Sanction #1 Quesada Variant!

Brian Wood Takes on Wolverine

October 8, 2011 by The Comic Book Critic

Next week, at the New York Comic-Con, Marvel will be officially announcing Brian Wood’s new project involving Wolverine and Quentin Quire.

Wood is taking on Marvel work now that DMZ is coming to an end and Northlanders has been cancelled by DC Comics. Wood, along with Becky Cloonan, created DMZ and both are expected to have a Dark Horse Conan project announced at the NYCC 2011 as well.

100 DC Titles Removed From Barnes & Noble Stores

October 8, 2011 by The Comic Book Critic

Last week, DC Comics announced that they struck an exclusive deal with Amazon to release 100 Graphic Novels and Trade Paperbacks on Amazon’s new Kindle Fire tablet. That deal certainly didn’t sit well with Barnes & Noble executives.

An e-mail was sent to all the Barnes and Noble stores on October 6th, instructing staff to pull all of the 100 graphic novels listed from the shelves, including Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns, Sandman, Fables, Batman: Year One, All Star Superman, Y The Last Man, V For Vendetta, and American Vampire. Although these titles are strong sellers for Barnes & Noble, none of those books will be available for purchase in their brick & mortar stores. You can still order them online from B&N and have them delivered to your home, but they will not be delivered to your local store for pickup.

The Comic Book Direct Market Has Outlived Its Usefulness

March 7, 2013October 4, 2011 by The Comic Book Critic

The Direct Market Needs An Alternative

DC Comics have done a good job at getting the word out about their NEW 52 relaunch and subsequently have gotten more people interested in comic books. Hopefully this can translate not only into long term readers for them, but can increase the general readership across the entire industry.

But there is one hurdle that I think the industry should be poised to overcome. That hurdle, the Direct Market, can often stifle as many sales as it creates.

If you want to buy a comic book right now, you have to go to a comic book shop to find one. This might be fine if you live in a major metropolitan area, but if you’re not, you might have to travel quite a distance to find one. You have to go out of your way with the sole purpose of buying comics. This defeats the idea of casual sales or impulse buys.

When I bought my first comic book, I did so at a small local bookstore. I don’t think the place was bigger than 400 sq. feet. They had their comics up front by the register on wire racks and a spinner rack by the door. I would sometimes spend a long while looking through them when I went there to buy actual books. The condition didn’t matter to me, I was new to comics – all that mattered was if it looked like I would like it or it had a cool cover.

Marvel’s POINT ONE Lays The Foundation for 2012

October 3, 2011 by The Comic Book Critic

POINT ONE sets the stage for numerous new series and one shots from Marvel Comics in 2012. With several teaser posters, Marvel gives us a glimpse at what they have prepared for the POINT ONE #1 oversized 64 page one shot comic.

A new Scarlett Spider? The return of Nova? Ultron? The Defenders? Uncanny X-Force spinoff? We’ll soon find out.

"POINT ONE is a massive one-shot of 64 all-new pages of story by the top creators in the business, setting the stage for the biggest stories coming in 2012. It is the starting point to what’s in store for the world’s most iconic characters and startling events. POINT ONE serves as the launch pad for dynamic new series, including one that spins directly out of the smash hit ‘Dark Angel Saga’ in UNCANNY X-FORCE, and a shocking teaser that will have everyone talking. See how all it comes together in one gigantic epic!” – Tom Brevoort, Senior Vice President, Executive Editor

Point One #1 is available on Wednesday November 2nd 2011 at your local comics shop for $5.99US for 64 pages. It features writers JEPH LOEB, BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS, MATT FRACTION, ED BRUBAKER, FRED VAN LENTE, CHRIS YOST, DAVID LAPHAM and artists ED MCGUINNESS, BRYAN HITCH, TERRY DODSON, SALVADOR LARROCA, RYAN STEGMAN, JAVIER PULIDO, ROBERTO DE LA TORRE among others.