Off the Shelf

Been almost a month since I last posted, so I'll try to make some brief mention of what I've read recently and what I thought of it.
The first issue of Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds (DC) was really quite good. Written by Geoff Johns with art by George Perez and Scott Koblish, it was definitely one of the more impressive titles I picked up that particular week. It is obviously a Final Crisis tie-in (hence the words Final Crisis in the title) but not required reading. But if you're a Legion fan, or you enjoy Geoff Johns and/or George Perez's work, then you should definitely pick it up. Geoff has expressed previous interested in writing the Legion of Superheroes, so this is his chance to fulfill that desire. It looks like it is going to be another excellent project from him.
Trinity (DC) has been a very enjoyable series thus far. I really didn't NEED another weekly series, but this is definitely a solid project. Jeph Loeb and Mark Bagley have done a bang-up job thus far. I really like what Loeb has done in establishing the connection between the characters and the different ways they represent a special trinity. Some very interesting stuff in this one so far. Definitely worth a look.
The concluding issue of the most recent Wonder Woman (DC) story arc finally made its way in front of me and it was a pretty good pay-off. I thought perhaps Diana defeated her foe a little too easily once it was all said and done, but there are only so many pages to fit it all into so I can understand why that part of it might have been more rushed. Anyway, this title continues to get better and better under Gail Simone's hand.
The fourth issue of the current Batgirl/Catwoman story arc in Batman Confidential (DC) showed up in the comic shop unexpectedly (at least for me ... I didn't remember seeing it on the shipping list for that week). I've really been enjoying this one. Fabian Nicieza should write a monthly (Tales of) Batgirl title.
I decided to pick up the first issue of Joe Kelly's I Kill Giants (Image). It wasn't quite what I was expecting, but it is only a five issue mini-series so I can stick around for the duration. Hopefully it will be a little more entertaining within the next couple of issues.
I ordered Red Mass For Mars (Image) even before I started hearing good things about it, and once some of the reviews started to filter in, I was even more excited to read it. The first issue did not disappoint at all. This is definitely a worthwhile read.
It was a slow week at the LCS, so I decided to pick up the first issue of the third volume of Fathom (Aspen). I had picked up a Fathom one-shot the previous month and it was decent enough to make me check out more. There has obviously been a lot that has happened in the previous two volumes, but J.T. Krul (the writer) did a good enough job establishing the principle aspects of the story that I didn't feel lost. And it certainly doesn't hurt that Ale' Garza is handling the pencils on this title. I'll definitely pick up the next couple of issues and kind of see where it goes from there.
Terry Moore's Echo (Abstract Studios) has been nothing short of fantastic. I definitely recommend this one. The story is very entertaining, the characters likeable, and the art is great. The trade collecting the first story arc will be in stores soon. You should definitely pick up a copy.
And the final book I'll talk about is The Bond of Saint Marcel (Archaia Studios Press). Archaia Studios Press really puts out some high quality material. I've been impressed with almost every single one of their publications that I have picked up. This particular mini-series is a vampire tale. It reminds me a little of Hellsing just in some of the set-up. It is written by Jennifer Quintenz and features some really fantastic art from Christian Gossett. I rate this one as definitely worth a look (if even just for the art alone --- but the story looks pretty interesting too).

One More Day - The AfterMath

Back in January of this year, I commented (in my zine for the MZS APA) on how Joe Quesada's move to cancel the lower selling Spider-Man titles in order to consolidate everything under the Amazing Spider-Man banner (with 3 issues published per month) would allow him to hide the decline in the actual number of readers of the main title even while the overall monthly sales would be higher. I even tossed out some numbers, citing an expected attrition in existing ASM readers who couldn't or didn't want to fork out for 3 issues a month as well as defections by fans unhappy with the new direction. In the original example, I noted how Spider-Man sales at the time sat around 190K per month (with 100K from ASM and the other 90K split between Spectacular Spider-Man and Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man). I estimated a 15% attrition rate (readers who didn't want to buy the extra two copies of ASM per month) and another 20% decline (from the original 100K number) due to unhappy readers leaving the title. I also noted I thought the 15% attrition rate was probably a conservative number and the 20% decline was far less conservative (in fact, I mentioned I thought that number might actually come in closer to 10-12%). So the final breakdown was 100K - 15K (15% attribition) - 20K (20% decline) which left the title with a cool 65K of sales PER ISSUE. With the title now being published three times per month, that would make the total monthly number 195K, which just comes in ahead of the 190K the were doing with three different titles. Taking the more conservative view, it seemed likely the per issue number would be a little closer to 72K, resulting in nearly 216K per month, which is a clearly a more notable increase over the 190K number.
Well, we're six months past the end of One More Day so we've got 18 issues of sales numbers to examine. Thus far the numbers have not quite settled. There has been a continual decline in sales from issue to issue. I will note that these numbers are only estimates as Marvel and Diamond do not release actual sales numbers. However, the estimates should be consistent between pre-OMD numbers and post-OMD numbers (in other words, regardless if the actual numbers are incorrect, they were calculated using the same methodology, so whatever the pre-OMD numbers are wrong by is what the post-OMD numbers would be wrong by --- long story short, that means they can be compared against each other and any resulting difference should have some reasonable validity).
I'm using the numbers as estimated by the guys over at ICv2.com - you can find their analysis here if you're curious: http://www.icv2.com/articles/home/1850.html
So let's break it all down. We're going to start all the way back in January 2007 to show what sales were pre-OMD and then finish with the numbers up through June 2008.

January 07
ASM (537) - 114,800
SSM (34) - 47,000
FNSM (16) - 41,800

February 07
ASM - 142,900
SSM - 59,400
FNSM - 52,800

March 07
ASM - 137,700
SSM - 56,100
FNSM - 50,700

April 07
ASM - (no issue)
SSM - 57,500
FNSM - 50,300

May 07
ASM - 119,628
SSM - 48,460 (annual)
FNSM - 49,891

June 07
ASM - 108,220
SSM - 57,057
FNSM - 47,886

July 07
ASM - 105,671
SSM - 55,323
FNSM - 46,446

August 07
ASM - 106,485
SSM - 52,180
FNSM - 44,661

So we can see that pre-OMD, the Spider-Man family of monthly titles was actually averaging about 220,729 copies per month (I threw out the April figures since ASM wasn't published that month and there is no way to properly gauge how many issues one more issue of ASM would have sold given the fluctuations in the monthly sales numbers of that title over the 8 month period)

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One More Day

September 07
ASM - 150,788

October 07
FNS - 110,295

November 07
SSN - 105,050

December 07
ASM - 129,085

These numbers held fairly steady with what ASM was doing before the big change (complete with major fluctuations)

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January 08
ASM 546 - 127,958
ASM 547 - 101,213
ASM 548 - 97,959

February 08
ASM 549 - 101,112
ASM 550 - 90,874
ASM 551 - 88,084

March 08
ASM 552 – 89,835
ASM 553 – 82,648
ASM 554 – 81,072

April 08
ASM 555 - 86,902
ASM 556 - 78,458
ASM 557 - 77,057

May 08
ASM 558 - 76,966
ASM 559 - 74,206
ASM 560 - 74,012

June 08
ASM 561 - 72,372
ASM 562 - 71,409
ASM 563 - 70,792

We can see post-OMD a significant decline in sales. Up to this point, the title has averaged about 257,154 copies a month (which is obviously 37K more than the Spidey books were doing pre-OMD), though obviously the trend has it only selling 214,573 in June while showing only minimal signs of stopping the decline.
The numbers speak for themselves. As of June, ASM isn't selling anywhere near close to what it was averaging per issue before Joe imposed his vision on the Spidey universe. It was averaging well over 100K per issue and is currently sitting at about 70K. In my own opinion, even with the move to a three times per month publishing schedule, ASM is a title that should still be able to do 80-85K per issue. There should be a strong enough core fan-base for the character to achieve those numbers. Right now, they obviously are not doing that.
Let's look at reality versus expectation. The reality is the book is currently selling 70K per issue (and still falling). The expectation is that a title like ASM should be sitting between 80-85K. That is a difference of 15K per issue at the moment (and if the book does fall to 65K, that would make it a 20K difference). 15K per issue times three issues a month is 45K issues. 45K issues that ARE NOT selling each month.
Go look at the June charts - http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/12929.html
According to those numbers, a title that sells 45K for the month would be in the top 50 list. In other words, Marvel has the equivalent of a top 50 title that isn't hitting their bottom line. Now let's take it even further. 45K times 12 months is 540K. That is over half a million copies PER YEAR that isn't hitting Marvel's bottom line as it should be.
Clearly Joe's vision isn't working. He should be answering questions before Marvel's board of directors and their stockholders as to why the publishing division is leaving so much money on the table with this particular flagship title.

Comi-Con 2008

Is it just me or has Comic-Con 2008 been rather ... ho-hum thus far?
I know there have been several announcements of some notable degree (new Vertigo Crime imprint from DC, Disney/Pixar projects at BOOM! Studios, and Devil's Due teaming with TriggerStreet.com among them), but two days into the Con there hasn't really been any big announcements the likes of what we've seen in previous years. Even the panel reports I've read have seemed less promotion-based than usual as they appear to be a lot more Q&A oriented. Q&A is certainly good and it allows the audience to interact more with the publishers, but there just seems to be a lot less excitement overall. Is this a case of publishers no longer holding back announcments for Comic-Con or is there really just not that much stuff to announce this year? In recent years there seemed to be a lot more things at the forefront of the panels along the lines of - 'we signed this guy to an exclusive' or 'this guy is doing a project for us' or 'here is the next major story-arc for this group of titles or line' - and there just seemed to be a heck of a lot more promotion for these projects and 'events'. Where is all the hoopla this year? Have publishers decided to dial it back because they believe they are approaching event overload or is this a case of the economic downturn forcing publishers to trim the lines a bit and not try to throw so many things at the wall at once to see what sticks? Whatever the reason, if the result is that publishers will have a stronger focus on a narrower range of books, I think it will result in better comics.
I do like the idea of the Veritgo Crime imprint, just because it means DC is putting even more resources into the Vertigo family.  When I look at the stack of comics I buy each month, invariably the Veritgo books are the ones I end up enjoying the most.  Superhero titles are here to stay and will certainly continue to drive the direct market, but the real future of the medium is in the type of material you'll find under the Vertigo banner (and with some other small publishers as well).  Those are the projects that are going to continue to open doors and expand to more mainstream audiences.

Rogue Angel: Teller of Tall Tales

I'm trying to figure out where the buzz is for this title. I'm trying to figure out why there doesn't really seem to be much of anyone talking about this title. I'm really trying to figure out why some of the people who I would expect to be making mention of this title are not doing so.
Is it simply that no one knows about it???
I realize is it published by IDW and they don't have the presence of a DC, Dark Horse, Image, or Marvel. But they are certainly not Little Tiny Hole In The Ground Publishing Inc.
Is it that no one is buying it because of the cover price? I admit $3.99 is steep. It is the reason I don't buy any of IDW's offerings. The only reason I picked up Rogue Angel in the first place is that I was looking for something to buy at Zeus Comics (when I was up in Dallas for CAPE). I grabbed the first two issues of Rogue Angel (and a couple of other random comics that I don't recall) because there wasn't a whole lot else I was interested in that I didn't already have waiting for me at home. And since I purchased those first two issues, that sort of committed me to buying the rest of the series.
Even if people are not buying it because of the price, that still doesn't explain why it isn't at least being discussed for things outside of the story. For what it is.
So what is it?
First, Rogue Angel is a book series published by Harlequin Publishing. According to Wikipedia, the series first saw publication in July of 2006 and is written under the house name of Alex Archer. The series is about a young woman named Annja Creed. Creed is an archaelogist and host of a sydnicated television show called Chasing History's Monsters. She also happens to be the possessor of Joan of Arc's mystic sword -- key word being mystic. If you want to know more, go read the Wikipedia entry.
Rogue Angel: Teller of Tall Tales is comic mini-series based on the character from the book series. I've never read the books, so I don't know if Teller of Tall Tales is a direct adaptation of any of the novels in specific or if it is something entirely original.
Rogue Angel: Teller of Tall Tales is written by Barbara Randall Kesel and illustrated by Renae De Liz.
Ok. Now let's have a look at what we've got with this title.
Tough, independent, successful, and confident female protagonist. Check.
Written by a long-time comics veteran who also happens to be female. Check.
Illustrated by an up-and-coming artist who, as it just so happens, is also female. Check.
Is this picture coming into focus yet?
WHERE is the buzz? Where is the support?
Why don't I see anyone talking about this title?
I did a search using Google focused on blog entries (which is a pretty nice option I didn't even know was available until tonight) and only came up with a couple of (brief) reviews from people who actually read an issue. I checked out the archives of When Fangirls Attack from February through the end of June to see if there were any headlines containing the word Rogue - but there was nothing relating to the Rogue Angel series. I checked out the archives of Sequential Tart from February through June and didn't see any noticeable mention of the Rogue Angel series. I did a forum search on Girl-Wonder.org and it came up with nothing (though that doesn't mean there absolutely wasn't any mention of the series in the forum -- it just means the search didn't bring me any results to prove otherwise). I did a search on the P.O.W.E.R. in Comics forum without any successful results.
So I ask again. Where is the buzz? Where is the support?
Isn't this the kind of thing a fair number of female comic readers have been asking for? A smart and very capable female protagonist who isn't the typical balloon-chested superheroine trading punches in high heels. No porn faces. No crotch shots. No elastic spines. And then you have the bonus of a female creative team (which I imagine is a big part of the reason why there are no porn faces, crotch shots, elastic spines, etc.).
So there it is.
A five issue mini-series that would appear to hit all the right notes has come and gone and no one seems to have noticed.
I don't know if it will be collected in trade form (sales on the individual issues were likely not very strong) so chances are an opportunity has been lost.

 

 

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[07-14-08 Edit]

FYI.
Reading through the July Previews today I saw the trade collection for Rogue Angel: Teller of Tall Tales solicited there. So it is indeed being collected and will be available in September.
Thus, there is a still a chance to make good on it.

Madame Xanadu

Madame Xanadu No. 1 (DC-Vertigo) - $2.99
Matt Wagner - Writer; Amy Reader Hadley - Artist
Synopsis: Centuries long and around the globe her tale winds before the ageless fortuneteller arrives in modern era New York. Her powers of sight can change the course of human events, but how does the seer see herself? The first issue opens into a medieval kingdom beset by intrigue and foul sorcery. A fair sylph with magic of her own is thrown into the world of war and men — where she encounters a dark stranger who knows not only her past, but her most intimate future as well.
I must admit to having absolutely no familiarity at all with the character Madame Xanadu. And after reading this debut issue of this new series, I still don’t. That isn’t a bad thing though. This issue focuses on a young forest sylph named Nimue Inwudu. She is the sister of the Vivienne (the Mistress of the Lake) and Morganna. Druids have asked for her assistance as the kingdom of Camelot has come under dark times, and they believe Morganna is to blame. Nimue also finds herself visited by a powerful stranger who tells her the fates have already been cast and there is nothing she can do to stem the tide of the coming war. 
I believe this title is supposed to be rooted in the present day (or close enough to it), so I think what Matt Wagner is doing here with this first issue is establishing the history of the character Madame Xanadu (who would appear to be Nimue). I really like the approach and I’m very interested in seeing where Matt takes it when he does jump forward. The art by Amy Reader Hadley is excellent. Her style reminds me quite a bit of Charles Vess, so if you’re a fan of his work, then you should definitely like this. 
I think this is a very fine debut issue and it certainly succeeds in making me want to come back for more. 
4 ½ zombies (out of five)