| Dynamite Entertainment CEO Nick Barrucci talks frankly about the state of the marketplace, digital comics, and his company’s plans. He also acknowledges some missteps: “ Green Hornet was a license we paid a lot of attention to last year, probably too much attention. Going back to what we were talking about earlier, putting out too much product, we put out too much Green Hornet product. Part of it is that we wanted to get trade paperback collections out in time for the movie, and we did that, we succeeded. We built up our market share and we generated more revenue for us and the retailers. I’m going off on a tangent here, so I apologize, but we took that money and reinvested into projects like Vampirella , like Warlord of Mars , like the upcoming Kirby: Genesis . But we overdid it, and that we realize, which is why you don’t see us doing four Vampirella titles and four Warlord of Mars titles.” [ICv2.com]
Creators | For its annual Comics Issue, the Village Voice takes a fascinating, lengthy and very depressing look at the often-grim financial reality faced by cartoonists — an environment to which, it turns out, the Village Voice contributed. “I’m not sure how much you’ll be allowed to write about this,” says Dan Perkins ( Tom Tomorrow ), “but of course the Village Voice Media chain is one of the major culprits in this —their decision to ‘suspend’ cartoons [in 15 papers in 2009] dealt a serious blow to the struggling subgenre of alt-weekly cartoons.” It’s noted parenthetically that Tom Tomorrow will return to the paper “within a few months,” and that “many of the artists in this issue aren’t getting paid, but have contributed work for the exposure.” [Village Voice]
Publishing | Papercutz reveals that sales of its Geronimo Stilton graphic novels have exceeded 350,000 copies. The seventh volume was released in January. [ICv2.com]
Conventions | Heidi MacDonald wraps up last weekend’s WonderCon in San Francisco: “While WonderCon has long been seen as the smaller, more laid back cousin of the pop culture behemoth known as Comic-Con, there were some signs that the show is getting big and crazy as well—the line to get into the Green Lantern panel stretched halfway around the convention center, a smaller version of the all-day line to get into San Diego’s Hall H.” [Publishers Weekly]
Conventions | In the final run-up to this weekend’s inauguralKapow! Comic Conin London, rivalMCM Expohas announced it’s set a record for advanced sales for its May event. Rich Johnston notes the competition is again heating up between the two conventions, a la the Wizard World-Reed Exhibitions rivalry. [MCV,Bleeding Cool]
Conventions | Victoria Hungerford covers the “Indy Marketing 101″ panel at last weekend’s WonderCon. [The Bottom Line]
Creators | Jeffrey Brown talks about moving to Chicago, his process, the new Incredible Change-Bots sequel and more: “I grew up watching the original Transformers cartoons, playing with the toys, reading the Marvel comic books. In high school I had the cassette soundtrack to the Transformers animated film and some friends were making fun of me, saying, ‘What’s on that tape? Sixty minutes of chee-choo-chee-chook?’ And so years later I was doodling in my sketchbook and came up with the Incredible Change-Bots , making fun of that aspect, and later just everything I found amusing and lovable about those old cartoons. The first book had more straightforward parallels to the Transformers , but after that I worked with the characters more and they became something more of their own thing. The first book was well received, and I enjoyed drawing the Change-Bots, and had an idea for what the sequel would be about, so I went ahead and did it. It’s more about drawing things I enjoy, and following my own muse, so don’t be surprised if I keep drawing them until I get sick of it.” [Chicagoist]
Creators | Sergio Aragones is interviewed at WonderCon. [San Francisco Chronicle]
Creators | Phil Jimenez chats briefly about his influences, his approach to writing and drawing, and being an openly gay creator. [Pink Kryptonite]
Creators | Georges Jeanty discusses Buffy the Vampire Slayer , and what drew him back for the upcoming Season 9: “As any fan will tell you it’s the characters. You feel so much for these characters that it was really a joy to come back. It wasn’t a chore. It’s funny because I did have a conversation with Joss [Whedon]. And I sort of asked him, ‘Are you coming back?’ He said, ‘Well, are you coming back?’ I was like, ‘I’ll come back if you come back.’ And he was like, ‘Alright, that makes me feel better about coming on then.’ It sort of went like that. I was like, ‘Yeah, if we can keep the quality level of what we were doing before, I would love to keep doing this.’ And, heaven help me, they’ve got me for another twenty-five issues.” [
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