Strange week in the comic book industry. We all know about the untimely death of actor Heath Ledger; this tragedy would be news in and of itself, but as he's soon to star in The Dark Knight, this becomes not only news, but comics industry news. At least on this end, I couldn't reach Newsarama for a couple hours yesterday, between the Ledger announcement and DC Comics's April 2008 solicitations--stepping back, it goes to show how much more comics are becoming part of mainstream media, and vice versa, when an otherwise unrelated actor's death becomes comics news. Good for comics, though an unfortunate occurrence to serve as an indicator.
No big surprises in DC's April solicitations, though plenty of notable trades: the first volume of Countdown clocks in as a $19.99 trade, while Greg Rucka's The Question: The Five Books of Blood comes in the same as a hardcover. Rucka surely deserved hardcover treatment, though the issues-per-dollar ratio continues to depress. Superman: Last Son is finally solicited, with 3-D glasses no less. Green Lantern fans get both the second Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps War volume and Tales of the Sinestro Corps in the same month, which is nice, along with the first (!) new Green Lantern paperback. Don't miss the Vertigo: First Cut sampler, as well.
Finally, our friends at ComicList have tipped us off that the Green Arrow/Black Canary: The Wedding hardcover has been cancelled, apparently to be resolicited. No word on why the cancellation--maybe someone printed the invitations upside down? ComicList, by the way, is a fantastic comic lover's resource and a supporter of Collected Editions; for over ten years, they've been posting comics news and new release lists--I used to check ComicList all the time before I headed out to my local comics shop. Check 'em out at www.comicslist.com.
Thanks for reading; be good to one another.
The Joker:Last Laugh collection was a surprise to me at least. What kind of world lets that crossover get a reprint while Invasion remains un-trade-ed?
ReplyDeleteYeah ... trades like Joker: The Last Laugh make me fear a trade bust; that is, there's such a boom of trade paperbacks out there, if we waste the shelf space on trades that aren't that good, could the market contract some time and we'll lose all the burgeoning good trades? Hard to say.
ReplyDeleteInvasion, I agree, is long overdue, and after that Millenium. DC Comics could probably do good business with a "Crossover Classics" series that reprints DC "events," though for every Invasion we'd also get a Genesis.
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Personally, I think they just want more Joker material to be available before The Dark Knight. I wouldn't be surprised to see a "Best of the Joker" trade.
ReplyDeleteDoug -- DC's already got a Joker: Greatest Stories Ever Told trade on the way, and I think you're right that it's all Dark Knight tie-in, along with the Batman vs. Two-Face and other Two-Face trades, too. Even so, I tend to wonder if lackluster trades, or "event" trades (like Dark Knight tie-ins) over trades of good, solid, relevant stories, won't hurt the trade industry in the long term.
ReplyDelete