DC overtakes Marvel
Due to SJW convergence at Marvel:
The timing is perfect, as far as I'm concerned. As it happens, we'll be offering more than just Alt-Hero and Wodehouse in the first batch of 24-pagers in February. Some of you may recall this scene from a certain Castalia novel.
DC Finally Overtakes SJW Marvel as Top Comic Book Company of 2017No worries. Brian Bendis has arrived at DC to converge Superman. And if their television shows are any guide, there is no shortage of convergence already metastasizing at DC.
Marvel recently fired its SJW Editor in Chief, and cancelled a slew of SJW titles in what butthurt SJWs are calling an apocalypse, but they're still pumping out already-written-and-drawn SJW comics. It won't be until the 2nd quarter 2018 that we'll start to see if Marvel is still an SJW clownshow.
But as for 2017 -- the damage was done. Looking at the entire year, DC beat Marvel.
Looking at the most-ordered comic books in the North American comic market, DC Entertainment had a particularly strong year, with seven of the top 10 issues of the year being published by the home of Superman, Batman and the Justice League. The numbers illustrate how much the market has changed in the past few years -- in more ways than one.
Comparing this year's most-ordered issues with the top 10 from 2014, the scale of DC's success becomes more apparent; just four years ago, not one DC title made it to the list, with nine titles coming from Marvel alone.
The timing is perfect, as far as I'm concerned. As it happens, we'll be offering more than just Alt-Hero and Wodehouse in the first batch of 24-pagers in February. Some of you may recall this scene from a certain Castalia novel.
54 Comments:
Maybe off topic but without question tangentially related... people can't figure out why The Walking Dead is killing off the Carl Grimes character. I know this isn't a popular blog for The Walking Dead as sci-fi or fantasy but I wish more of the fans read this blog. The directors and producers have clearly converge that show and they're killing off Grimes because they don't want to take any chances that a white male heterosexual may end up leading the group into the future. They want to make it clear that the post zombie apocalypse future will be led by noble minorities, strong women, faggs, peds, and lesbians.
They keep bragging about the show going for upwards of 12 seasons. Right now I'm thinking 10 at the most and they may yet have to kill it at the end of 9.
Haha DC Comics has no future. Several friends actually walked out of the Social Justice League movie, and they are more of the tolerant types.
Suggestion: you should have some way of indicating subvocalization to the reader, like maybe putting subvocalized text in parentheses or brackets, or grey text, or a special kind of word bubble. Looking forward to seeing someone else's mind's eye's version of that world.
Alas, after the Justice League film--a complete betrayal of everything that is the archetypal-brand of superhero DC, theoretically. specializes in--this 'victory' will likely be short-lived.
/still extremely bitter, re: Synder being marginalized for the clownshow that is Joss Whedon's 'interpretation'.
>Here are the raw figures.
Marvel Legacy No. 1 (303,574) (Marvel Entertainment) September
Dark Nights: Metal No. 1 (271,108) (DC Entertainment) August
Doomsday Clock No. 1 (238,643) (DC Entertainment) November
Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man No. 1 (231,566) (Marvel Entertainment) June
Batman No. 21 (219,472) (DC Entertainment) April
Batman No. 22 (186,914) (DC Entertainment) May
The Flash No. 21 (174,803) (DC Entertainment) April
The Flash No. 22 (163,767) (DC Entertainment) May
Dark Nights: Metal No. 2 (162,823) (DC Entertainment) September
Secret Empire No. 0 (162,718) (Marvel Entertainment) April
Five of DC's top seven sellers are either Batman, Batman-centric or have Batman as a guest star.
Superman doesn't show up until 27. Interestingly Wonder Woman doesn't make an appearance until 37, so the movie clearly didn't boost her numbers.
In case your thinking that the TV show is what gave Flash the edge, think again. Green Arrow clocked in at an anemic number 85. And Supergirl didn't break into the top 100 at all.
What this means to me is that DC only has two actual characters, in that you can...without saying what their powers are or what they do...describe the characters of Bruce Wayne and Barry Allen.
The rest are kind of a blank slate. You can recognize the costume but you don't know the man behind the mask.
It would appear to be a comic for Quantum Mortis?
Forgive me for going all "cross media branding" for a moment, but having both a Book and Comic publishing branch opens up cross-promotions & other approaches that no one has really thought through very much. Especially for more YA or kids books, launching a Comic book and the book at the same time could be some fascinating marketing. One or both could take off and tell you, quickly, which approach is more valuable for a story.
Obviously depends on a lot of factors, but since this type of stuff is normally approached as a "marketing gimmick", rather than a business model approach, I'm not sure we really know as much about the potential, at the moment, as we could automatically think. This really isn't "well, it's been done before, and that didn't work" situation.
Young Mans War would make a great comic too.
Great to see more output but please work on improving the quality of the artwork
Brian Bendis: not that you ever would, but if you ever wanted to know what your middle school guidance counselor would do with comic books.
The only place for a white male in today's media defined culture is power bottom, think ESPN
Quantum Mortis? Excellent! I may be buying more than just Alt-Hero. I'm just going to sit down right here and wait four to eight more weeks...
Are we there yet?
Five of DC's top seven sellers are either Batman, Batman-centric or have Batman as a guest star.
Batman is one of the few still allowed to be somewhat masculine, although that's fading fast too.
As it happens, we'll be offering more than just Alt-Hero and Wodehouse in the first batch of 24-pagers in February.
Going off on a small tangent here, but to point out the following observation:
In the absence of much Alt-Hero news, I've taken to trawling the internet/twitter on occasion as to see what people are saying about it. As far as I can tell, the SJWs are still pretty irked by it - and this is when they think it's either not happening or far off in the indeterminate future. It's like Trump all over again - it deranges them to the point where they just go bonkers. For example, one guy took that picture of Dynamique flicking away a cigarette and practically circled the entire thing, literally finding fault with every inch of her (and none of it was substantive, at least to my layman's eyes):
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DLdrul-X0AEKpsW.jpg
Remember, this is when they think Alt-Hero has failed. What are they going to do in Feburary when not just Alt-Hero comes out, but a whole slew of other comics from Castalia, some of them being from Vox's own novels?
The reeeees, they won't just reach outer space; they'll leave the entire galaxy.
@1
"killing off Grimes because they don't want to take any chances that a white male heterosexual may end up leading the group into the future"
Though the show has gone a bit astray, Carl dies in the graphic novel. I think he may have even lasted longer than he was supposed to. No surprise there at all.
A quick note on Marvel Legacy Number 1.
None of the old characters from the Marvelverse THAT ARE ON THE COVER, are even in the book. None of them.
It was the ultimate bait and switch.
I think SJW Marvel is still hoping to trick readers into loving their godawful creations.
Moonflute wrote:Great to see more output but please work on improving the quality of the artwork Oh come off it. Haven't you read classic comics? The art is fine.
Rocklea wrote:Young Mans War would make a great comic too.
Walker's "Alien Game" also.
Now speaking of Wonder Women,
I ended up not watching the entire movie. I thought the origin or setup for the character was overly long and unlikely. And then they put the apparently tropical island in what seemed like the British Channel complete with Nazi invaders. Then the apparently capable but rustic females then had what amounted to superhuman skills. The babe did look good in her costume, but that was all there was. So what the hell, more irritated than entertained, I didn't bother to watch the rest of the thing.
For example, one guy took that picture of Dynamique flicking away a cigarette and practically circled the entire thing, literally finding fault with every inch of her (and none of it was substantive, at least to my layman's eyes):
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DLdrul-X0AEKpsW.jpg
I found that hand to be downright irritating, but the rest of his criticisms are so unlikely as to be hilarious, and that is not me laughing with him.
Forgive me for going all "cross media branding" for a moment, but having both a Book and Comic publishing branch opens up cross-promotions & other approaches that no one has really thought through very much.
Why on Earth would you say that? We have not only thought about these things, we are actively working on some of them.
Great to see more output but please work on improving the quality of the artwork
The artwork is fine. Amateurs always think "great artwork" is the reason a comic is successful. Simply reviewing the sales numbers is sufficient to explode that logic; the best artists are not all drawing Batman.
Story and dialogue are both much more important. Great art won't save a bad story and even crude art won't harm a great story. Scott Adams is not successful because he draws better than other cartoonists.
Looking at the early art from Alt*Hero, I can see not one piece of Art that does not pass my regressed 8 year old viewpoint, and yup, story and dialogue is most everything. Art is the secondary form of communication, sets up the mood or ambiance of the work.
Hey, look at Matt Groening's early work?!
"If Carl dies tonight, it would be the biggest deviation yet from Robert Kirkman's comic books, where Carl is still alive as of issue #174, the most recent issue. Carl has survived far past the end of the volume 21, All Out War: Part Two, which concluded in issue #126."
The Original Arrogant Steelers Fan wrote:Maybe off topic but without question tangentially related... people can't figure out why The Walking Dead is killing off the Carl Grimes character. I know this isn't a popular blog for The Walking Dead as sci-fi or fantasy but I wish more of the fans read this blog. The directors and producers have clearly converge that show and they're killing off Grimes because they don't want to take any chances that a white male heterosexual may end up leading the group into the future. They want to make it clear that the post zombie apocalypse future will be led by noble minorities, strong women, faggs, peds, and lesbians.
They keep bragging about the show going for upwards of 12 seasons. Right now I'm thinking 10 at the most and they may yet have to kill it at the end of 9.
Agreed. I can't watch the show anymore because the convergence has grown beyond my ability to look beyond it.
Fear the Walking Dead is even worse. They practically run the whole show in Spanish now with English subtitles. It should be on Univision instead of AMC.
@18 VD
Well, book publishing has been around for 100s of years and comic publishing will approach 100 years in not the too far future, yet we're actually dealing with a situation that's effectively new. Thus I went with a generalized "no one has really thought through very much" as a point of discussion. I was under the assumption that Castalia was thinking about it due simply to the reality of publishing both a book and an introductory comic in fairly close succession.
However, for all of us in the comments section, this really is new territory and worth discussing a bit, as the topic hadn't come up beyond a few comments back during the Alt-Hero campaign.
As for Artwork, Art is simply the vehicle for the story. It's normally only ever a problem when it takes you out of the situation. Like seeing a boom mic in a movie scene. Most comic serials have fairly "poor" art, yet most can list of a collection of newspaper comics without much thought. You only care if it makes you laugh or not.
However, for all of us in the comments section, this really is new territory and worth discussing a bit, as the topic hadn't come up beyond a few comments back during the Alt-Hero campaign.
Fair enough. Discuss amongst yourselves.
they're killing off Grimes because they don't want to take any chances that a white male heterosexual may end up leading the group into the future
When they canceled Last Man Standing, Tim Allen said the one thing Hollywood can't stand is a likeable conservative. I can tell you that Bravo made Duck Dynasty to make fun of rednecks and hated that people watched the show for the wrong reasons. Firefly was also shut down because people watched for wrong reasons "Oy vey we made an episode about a fallen preacher, a gun nut and a whore having a gunfight in a whore house and people thought it was pro gun + pro liberty."
VD even covered here that jews making a show about Nazis taking over the US couldn't help but make a nicer society than we have today & people watched The Man in the High Castle for the wrong reasons.
Great to see more output but please work on improving the quality of the artwork
Unless it's something like Conan's muscles a good story trumps art especially considering multiple pictures per page.
@23 VD
Thanks.
Main thing that strikes me about the situation might be the "Boba Fett Rule" for characters that just randomly work. A character might work better in Comic rather than Book form, so it produces side-story opportunities that otherwise wouldn't be available.
This could be especially interesting given that Short Stories aren't greatly economic endeavors for modern writers at the moment, but if you have a set of characters you could roll that story into a comic and it might be far more profitable. Along with some straight-forward cross marketing approaches.
What I do hope develops is something like a "Castalia Book Comic Starter Pack". Something like a group of 4-5 comics that are introductions/chapters from book series that might interest a younger child. Makes an interesting gift opportunity, as if they like the comic, the child might be interested in the book. (Makes for follow-up gifting opportunities, as well.) Thinking back on my own youth, a comic to introduce a book might actually work fairly well. Books are now in a weird place with the advent of digital screens, so maybe the Comic -> Book transition will work in a number of cases.
The fun of "new approaches" is you don't know what'll work. The downside is we're guessing at what might work.
@20 Thanks for the correction.
Just wanted to add to the voices saying that the art is fine on Alt.Hero. Also, as many have noted, story telling drives a comic more than great art. The excerpts we've seen so far have definitely left me wanting more.
dude... this is awesome. I've been hoping to see something like this... as QM is actually the best stuff you've written.
That said... not thrilled with the art. its not gritty enough. its... sterile.
Related, maybe, sorta, oh fuck I just don't know where to put this.
McRapey seems to have released a single...
The power of "Whatever" exceeds the contents of the "Fucks Given" jar.
I was a comics nerd in high school, but lost interest when they got too nihilistic.
This stuff actually looks fun. (The art looks fine to me. It's refreshing to see bold colors and simple lines.)
I'm looking forward reading comics again after a long, long time.
Holy Sh#t,(((They))) doubled down on orc lives matter. Black cop partnered with an orc cop
https://www.netflix.com/title/80119234
Bright: A Netflix Original
Bright 2017 TV-MA 1h 57m
In an LA rife with interspecies tensions, a human cop and his orc partner stumble on a powerful object and become embroiled in a prophesied turf war.
QM: good choice, although the panel doesn't do justice to Hildi. In my mind she was much more attractive.
One thing is certain; there will never be consensus on the art.
Who's the artist on this piece? The color choices and framing are old school.
Attack on Titan, the comic (manga) not the tv-show was an overnight success. The story is gripping because the author is a master at creating tension. Any character can die and will die, including the main one, with no foreshadowing whatsoever.
The art is abysmal. It's painful to look at. Usually when a manga is successful the author can afford hiring a professional illustrator. Not this guy. The comic is still ongoing, it's still illustrated by the author, and he's not getting better at drawing at all. There's been an animated series, 2 live action movies, several video games, novels, and a steady growing fanbase. All of this due to the creative talents of some guy who can write but can't draw.
Thus art is necessary but not sufficient for a successful comic. Though to be fair it's not a zero-sum game.
You only want the art to be "fine"?
I wouldn't have expected such an approach from you, Vox.
@Nate, the art is fine.
VD wrote:
Story and dialogue are both much more important. Great art won't save a bad story and even crude art won't harm a great story. Scott Adams is not successful because he draws better than other cartoonists.
Jack Kirby "made" the Fantastic Four. He was never the greatest artist on the planet, especially if you look at the 1940s Captain America with Simon. But teamed with Stan Lee for honing dialog and script on Kirby's plotting, and coupled with Joe Sinnott inks, Fantastic Four 44-102 generated some of the most memorable villains and stories in the Silver Age.
Marvel had some of the *best* caliber artists available to it, from the present going back over 30 years. Most of that 30 years is nothing but trash, because SJW stories.
Story trumps art. Every time.
Stickwick wrote:
I was a comics nerd in high school, but lost interest when they got too nihilistic.
This stuff actually looks fun. (The art looks fine to me. It's refreshing to see bold colors and simple lines.)
I'm looking forward reading comics again after a long, long time.
The QM art has a Dick Tracy or 1950s Captain America "commie smasher" vibe to it. I'm hitchin' a ride on this one!
I certainly didn't say I wouldn't buy it. c'mon people. I said it was awesome and I am obviously excited about it.
I don't think the art fits. I don't like it. In no way does that mean I think it will ruin or damage the product. its just constructive criticism. it has an Archie feel to it that I never was able to take seriously. Still can't. I doubt I am alone in this assessment. That said... this is big job and QM is perfect for a graphic novel. so if this is what the artist that is doing the work chooses as a style.. hey man... rock on.
Good enough is always good enough.
Perfect is a nefarious bitch that takes way to much time and energy and is never actually worth it.
My only problem with the artwork is that it says "talentless 1998 ironic pastiche". I'm sure in context, with some actual dialogue, it will work better.
"I'm sure in context, with some actual dialogue, it will work better."
its just a style choice. this is the style the artist chose. I think they should've gone with a completely different color scheme... greens and blues and greys... this is bright and happy and bright and happy is not QM.
QM should look and feel like The Matrix.
but hey... I'm not the guy drawing it. I'm just bitchin' from the cheap seats.
> My only problem with the artwork is that it says "talentless 1998 ironic pastiche".
Actually, as Man of the Atom notes, it says "Dick Tracy was here". Just look up the old Dick Tracy strips. That style is as old as they hills.
Now, I agree with Nate that the Dick Tracy style isn't the best one for QM. I had a completely different view of the characters from the excerpt Vox posted some time ago. But it'll do.
>>I don't think the art fits...it has an Archie feel to it that I never was able to take seriously.
I have to agree. It's too cartoony for me.
@21 "Agreed. I can't watch the show anymore because the convergence has grown beyond my ability to look beyond it.
Fear the Walking Dead is even worse. They practically run the whole show in Spanish now with English subtitles. It should be on Univision instead of AMC."
Don't want to water this thread down too much... but I'll make a few points.
First, a request for VD to make an open TWD thread. Considering that some are now calling TWD universe the "Star Wars of US television history" (ironically it IS becoming contemporary Star Wars) it may be an important battleground. I see that it's not popular here, but...
Second, I agree with you totally. I gave up on FTWD after episode 3, as in cold turkey gave up. Actually, come to think of it, there was no SJW converge with FTWD because it was an SJW production from the start. The heroin junky they converted to a superhero by the third episode... I mean, for the lolz...
However, I did see they killed off Travis at some point, which sucks as he was the only thing approaching a good character - acted too much like a great white male, I guess. Side note, Cliff Curtis is a fantastic actor who deserved better - he won me over with his role in the war movie "Three Kings."
Third, I became extremely pissed at TWD with the Gregory character. I guess he may or may not act like the comic character, but it's clear he's an SJW virtue signaler meme. He sat in his STUDY as the sniveling unicorn inept older wise white man ruling the Hilltop roost - that the STUDY has been replaced with "man caves" is one of those little turds of hell in our current world that really sticks in my craw... anyway...
Fourth, now they are sending Morgan to FTWD as the "crossover" character. The crossover idea is actually a good idea. That is has to be Morgan, come on. He is my favorite character. I absolutely love the character's story-line arc and the Cheesemaker episode was my favorite episode. No, I'm not virtue signaling myself - that they made such a great minority black man character is really to the originator's credit.
Re: Bright. I'm surprised that the SJWs haven't been crying louder that the black and hispanic ghetto dwellers are being compared to orcs.
@40
Yep! My first reaction was the same: "Huh. Well, that's a interesting style choice for QM" and "Hot-diggetty, QM! My favourite Vox Day fiction."
That said, our mental image of the QM world is based on Space Opera mil-SF movies created by the covers of the books. Which do their job well signalling the likely contents to potential readers - but not in setting up visual expectations for a comic book spin off.
The best comparison I can think of that you will have heard of is Rick Riordan's Lighning Thief and the tie-in comics made for it. Both are extremely successful despite the same cover art genre / comic art style disconnect.
So, yep, the art is probably fine! I think hot blonde cop chick is perfect.
One serious quibble (also mentioned by @3)
The artist really needs to find a solid visual cue for the sub-vocal, muttered vocal, and out loud communications between Graven and Baby. Scott McCloud's book might have some how-to suggestions.
@Overgrown Hobbit, the letterer should have a handle on the different modes of communication. It's his job to be sure the conversations and narration works. It's an art all by itself and I struggled with it three few times I did it.
I watched, and liked it. Will Smith does his fair share of discriminating against his partner, too.
@1-The multiracial, multicultural aspect to Walking Dead was always annoying. Okay, there may be some gangs in the post-apocalypse who tolerate differences. But every single group they meet is mixed-raced. Why? Wouldn't people stick with their own kind in those circumstances?
There is also an unusual amount of interracial couples.
And Carl is dying because he went out of his way to save a Muslim who nervously mentioned the Koran for no reason the first time they encountered him .
I assumed they're killing Carl as an excuse to keep Negan alive. Carl is being set up to have his dying wish be for his dad to show mercy.
From what I understand, Negan survives the war and teams up with the Rick Gang in the comic book. Which just wouldn't work on the show, because the Negan character has been disastrous. A good character in theory, but poorly written and a repetitive bore, in my opinion. His tenure has coincided with a ratings nosedive. They're back to Season Two levels.
On the bright side, Negan surviving means another strong white male character surviving. The most popular characters are the white alpha males Rick and Daryl (though Daryl is shy and hasn't had a proper love interest), the samurai negress Michonne (who has no business dating Rick, but there aren't many available white or Latina women available), and Carol. Negan could possibly join that list, if they write him better.
Carl was never anyone's favorite, but the character was blossoming. He was always vitally important to the show, considering he was the closest to the main character, Rick. Also, he represents the future. There was a definite sense that he would take a leadership position eventually.
The show is killing him for a ratings grab, obviously (tune in next February to watch him die slowly), which sucks. They're also killing him to keep around a failing character, which sucks. If they're killing him because they don't want white males running anything in the New World Order, screw that.
@12-If Carl died in the comics, that's one thing. But I happen to be aware there's a lot more of his story they haven't got to. For instance, there's a reason the show developed the relationship between Carl and Neagan.
@44-The idea that a heroin addict would be good post-apocalypse because, um, he's used to living in filth and hustling for his keep, is silly. I mean, a former addict might do well. But that character was detoxing when the world went to heck. And he was weak, obviously, and could sink the whole crew if he relapsed.
Which he has, in the recent season. He stole pills from a dying friend, as I recall.
I don't understand western comics at all and I never have.
I don't understand western comics at all and I never have.
Western comics hard for you to understand?
Maybe that's because you're not a Westerner.
@11 " For example, one guy took that picture of Dynamique flicking away a cigarette and practically circled the entire thing, literally finding fault with every inch of her"
Heh: "shoulders too narrow for torso". No they aren't: it's just that Dynamique is drawn as a woman.
"Thumbs don't open 90' from index fingers" - what? Mine totally do. What's wrong with this critic's hands?
Agreed that her pelvis is a little long. Women have hips. There are a couple of other points that are fair enough.
But really - we all know what's actually going on here.
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