Race for the Cure 2009

Hi,

On Sunday, September 13, 2009, I'll be Racing for the Cure (very slowly around Central Park). Please help me with a donation that will go towards breast cancer education, screenings, treatment programs, and research for a cure. If each of you contributes five dollars, we'll donate over $1200 towards finding a cure.

You can donate at this site: Komen Greater New York City - Race for the Cure 2009.

Thank you for your consideration, and your generosity.


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It's Scott Pilgrim Day!

Today is Scott Pilgrim Day, the celebration of the (roughly) yearly release of a new volume of Scott Pilgrim, Bryan Lee O’Malley’s video game-inspired action-comedy-romance, and your intrepid Tor.com reporter was on scene at Jim Hanley’s Universe in New York City for the midnight release party to bring you the story (and to get his book signed).

Bryan Lee O’Malley (pictured above being totally awesome), started signing at 12:01am, the first moment anyone could legally buy the books, and was still signing till well past 1:30am. And up to the end he was delightfully chipper, signing playing cards and drawing smiley faces while a camera crew from Universal Pictures looked on (Universal is producing the Scott Pilgrim movie, directed by Edgar Wright and starring Michael Cera). And everyone who attended got the special foil cover (IT’S SHINY!) with obi wrap (pictured below)!

For those who don’t know, Scott Pilgrim is the story of a 23-year-old slacker whose life changes when he meets Ramona Flowers, literally the girl of his dreams. But before they can live happily ever after, Scott must defeat her Seven Evil Ex-Boyfriends in Street Fighter-esque combat. By the beginning of the latest volume, Scott Pilgrim vs. The Universe, Scott has already defeated four of the seven exes, gotten a real job and moved in with Ramona. Now he has to face his biggest challenge yet, a real relationship.

None of which really tells you what drags over a hundred comics fans out of their basements on a Tuesday night to get an early copy, or what’s going to make Scott Pilgrim THE book for the upcoming New York Comic Con. Some of it is that the books are blisteringly funny; it is riddled with references to comic book and video game culture (the name of Scott’s band is “Sex Bob-Omb”); O’Malley employs an art style that blends American action comics, indie autobiographical style, and manga conventions; and that it has a huge cast of great characters, like Knives Chau, lovestruck high school girl/ninja, or Todd Ingram, who has Vegan super powers.

But mostly, Scott Pilgrim captures the spirit of being young and in love. How getting through a date feels like an achievement. How the past can overcome people not yet twenty-five. How the future can be terrifying (even if it includes jet packs). And how much easier life would be if you could punch it in the face.

I would so punch life in the face.

(Crossposted with Tor.com)

New York Comic Con

Is this thing still on? Hello?

Um, sorry for the ultra low content mode.

This isn't really a post either. Just wanted to let y'all know I'll be working the New York Comic Con this weekend.

If, for some inexplicable reason, you'd like to meet me, I'll be at the Tor/Seven Seas booth on Friday from 1-4, and Saturday from 4-7, and will otherwise be around for the rest of the con.

See you there!

Steven

My Endorsement

"I was not born in a manger. I was actually born on Krypton and sent here by my father, Jor-el, to save the Planet Earth."

Vote for the superhero geek.

I'm over there!

First post up on Tor.com! It's about ROBOTS! And Mirrors!

Moving Right Along

Tor Books has a new group blog.

I work for Tor.

...

I'll be blogging on the Tor's new group blog, so radio silence on this blog will continue for a while longer.

"You Know, For Kids"

Is there anyway to track newsstands sales of comics?

I ask because, when analyzing monthly sales figures, The Beat uses Diamond shipments and bookstore sales numbers to calculate sales, with the caveat that this will under report more kid-oriented books, such as the Johnny DC and Marvel Adventure line, that sell better at the newsstands.

So I have a theory, but without newsstands sales figures, I only have anecdotal evidence to back it up.

I think Blue Beetle is the gateway comic.

You know, that mythical beast, the comic you can give to a 10-12 year old, where he or she doesn't have to know the history to jump right in, is age appropriate and yet intelligent and genuinely moving, and might, just might, interest the young reader, or older reluctant superhero fan, to get interested in the rest of the superhero universe.

I think this because, well... That promo piece for the new kid oriented The Brave and the Bold cartoon? There's Blue Beetle. The cover for the Johnny DC Tiny Titans? There's Blue Beetle again. The "Spanish" issue that came out this week is part of an effort to attract more Hispanic readers. Matt Sturges, new ongoing writer, what's the most important part of the series? "I want Blue Beetle to continue to be a book that’s as fun for my twelve-year-old nephew as it is for me and my friends".

Clearly someone thinks that Blue Beetle not only appeals to kids, but that the character is actually an excellent ambassador for the DC Universe as a whole. Certainly sales of the series in the direct market don't support this claim (lower than canceled series Shadowpact and Checkmate, which launched the same month as Blue Beetle).

Which leads me to suspect that Blue Beetle is selling in newsstand market. But I don't have any numbers to back that up, and can't seem to find any.

Can someone help me out?

As Seen on the Daily Show

Not to go all Warren Ellis or anything but seriously: What year is this?

Thirteen "suspected sorcerers" have been arrested in the Congo for "stealing or shrinking penises".

Strangely enough, the arrests are the most rational part of the story, since arresting these "suspected sorcerers" is the best way of protecting innocent people, usually foreigners, from being beaten and burned by angry mobs spurred on by panicked men screaming that their penises have vanished.

It's straight out of Monty Python's Holy Grail, including the part where the police try to explain to the "victim" that he still has a penis, and is not believed.

Maybe the worst part of the story, this strange brew of superstition, sexual anxiety, paranoia, xenophobia, and just out and out ignorance, is that it's not an isolated incident: it's common. In 2001 in Benin, in 1997 in Ghana, in China and the Sudan, wherever understanding of human anatomy is low, this pattern repeats and repeats.

It's sickening and depressing. People are dying because no one took these men aside during puberty and said "Penises shrink. It happens. Sometime it's anxiety, sometimes it's just cold. Here, watch this episode of Seinfeld."

People, we need to talk frankly about sex. People have to learn how their bodies work. Sex is how we as a species survive, it's built into our notions of romantic love and gender dynamics. If people grow up not understanding one of the most vital parts of living, they are going to just be fucked up, and more people are going to die because some idiot stayed in a cold shower too long.

Apples and Much Much Bigger Apples

Kevin has a moment of clarity about the comics industry when he reads that CBS canceled a show after it's first episode got only 4.6 million viewers.

But that's a highly unfair comparison.

There is no medium that can compare to television (particularly broadcast television) in terms of popularity.

Yes, the comics industry is a small niche market. The best selling comics sell a hundred thousand, maybe, and the average is sales are closer to the ten thousand range (maybe higher if you're Marvel or DC, but not by much). So if 4.6 million people bought a comic, it would be the best selling comic in the last thirty years.

But if a (non-Harry Potter) book sold 4.6 million, it would ALSO be record shattering and pay for all of the other books that publisher would put out that year.

A movie that sold 4.6 million tickets would make 40 million dollars, which is a healthy opening weekend (it's how much "There Will Be Blood" made, total).

Heck, even Battlestar Galactica, a HIGHLY successful show--on cable--had only 2 million tune in for the season 4 premier.

Network television is a low cost medium. Low financial cost (once you've bought the set, broadcast shows are free). Low cost to acquire (the program is piped directly into the home). Low cost to "read" (the pictures and sound happen for you). It's incredibly easy get and understand and enjoy.

Comics, ALL comics, not just the superhero stuff, are high cost mediums. Each issue costs money, they must be acquired at book stores if not specialty shops, and they must be read with a skill for navigating image and word that must be learned. That requires a lot more investment from the reader, and thus a lot less people feel like its worth it.

When you compare comics to a more similarly costed medium, like genre paperbacks (which also must be purchased, which need to be bought in stores or specialty stores, which require specialized knowledge of the genre or series), then the sales numbers become a lot more similar, averaging around ten thousand of so.

And of course I'm talking about comic books. Comic strips, like Dilbert, which are syndicated in almost every paper in America, have GIGANTIC audiences in the high high millions. That's because they are low cost financially (they don't cost extra once you've bought the paper) and they don't require a lot of effort to get (most papers are still delivered to the front door). Web comics have similar advantages of ease of acquiring.

But they'll still be comics, with a sequence of words and pictures telling a story, which means it will still take more effort to read than to watch television, and that's going to reduce potential audience. (not that TV shows can't be complex. Many are. They just don't have to be). So comparing comics to network shows is always going to be comparing apples to apple orchards. Comics just cannot compete.

Adaptation

From Blog@Newsarama in regards to Angel Season 6, the comics continuation of the television series:

Any time you’re thinking “wow, we could never have done this on TV!” that’s a sign that you shouldn’t be doing it.

I have trouble disagreeing with that statement more.

I think it defeats the whole purpose of adapting a story from one medium to another if the adaptation is limited strictly to doing what the earlier version has already done, and better.

It seems to me that the only reason to adapt a show to comics (or a comic to movies, or whatever) is specifically to do what could not be done (or done well) in the previous medium.

The law office drama (with occasional fights) that was Angel season 5 worked with live actors, television length episodes and pacing, and, honestly, better dialog writers. It would have been deathly boring to repeat that on the page, where snappy banter is harder to communicate and actors' charisma doesn't come through the pencil and inks.

On the other hand, "Angel fights a dragon", exciting as that is and hinted at in the series finale, would have looked terrible with television quality special effects, but makes terrific comics.

Arguably, too many changes lose the intangible essence of the original, and that's terrible too. But an adaptation that does nothing but repeat what has come before, what was designed for the strengths and weaknesses of its previous form, is an adaptation that should not be done.