In the sixth production diary to be released, director Zack Snyder and his gang reveal some of the techniques utilized in filming Watchmen. In related Watchmen news, DC Comics has printed nearly one million new copies of the collected edition and you can barely enter a retail outlet of any kidn without seeing it on sale. Speaking of sales, Tower Records is offering it at less than 50% cover price while Things From Another World has it for exactly 50% off. Its sales remain brisk and it remains the number one graphic novel and number two book in Literature & Fiction at Amazon.
Maybe some bean counter finally tallied up all those comic book trade paperback sales. But Amazon.com, the world’s largest online retailer of, well, just about everything is now offering comic book subscriptions. Not for collected editions, but the regular old monthly books that some call “floppies.”
Is this a direct attack against your local comic store? Hardly. Amazon has been offering magazine subscriptions for years now. Adding comics to the mix is just an expansion of that business.
The offerings from Amazon are for the more mainstream, monthly comics. Not the best-sellers only found in direct market shops, like Secret Invasion, but titles more likely to appeal to the “My son really liked the Dark Knight movie, so let me get him a subscription to Batman” set.
It’s true that this could potentially take some casual market dollars out of dealers’ hands, but today’s shared universe, interconnected comics might have those readers seeking out stores for more titles. And think of the benefit to readers who live nowhere near a comic shop.
From a Wired article about the excessive success of this year’s Comic-Con is a little tidbit about the success of comics: Watchmen is now sitting at the top of Amazon’s fiction and literature sales list.
DC has been printing up copies like mad to meet the demand, which is of course churned up by the upcoming Zack Snyder film adaptation.
From the article:
Last week’s release of the movie’s trailer sent sales of a paperback collection of Alan Moore’s original Watchmen comics through the roof. The graphic novel now sits at the top of Amazon.com’s literature and fiction sales list.
"That’s never happened before," said DC’s Levitz. "We literally can’t print enough…. I don’t think we’ve been able to kill any more trees fast enough."
The Amazons of Paradise Island lived in peace for hundreds of years, safe from men and their cruelty. But their queen Hippolyta was not completely happy. She longed for a child of her own.
Shaping clay from the island into the statue of a little girl, Hippolyta begged the gods to grant her request and bring the statue to life. The gods took pity upon their beloved servant and the statue became a little girl who leaped into the arms of her “mother.” Hippolyta was overjoyed.
She named the girl Diana and raised her as her daughter and heir. Years later, when Captain Steve Trevor crashed on Paradise Island, Diana fell in love with him and saved his life. Trevor informed the Amazons of the war going on in the world beyond, and the goddess Aphrodite decreed that an Amazon should go forth and battle the Nazis on Paradise Island’s behalf. Hippolyta held a contest to select their champion and Diana secretly entered and won.
She journeyed to the outside world and became known as Wonder Woman. Since then Princess Diana has been a force for good throughout the world.
This one’s for Elayne and Valerie, because dang it, sometimes when guys talk about geek porn, we really mean geek porn:
In the great lineage of comic books, no one has explored heroes and villains quite like Nerdcore™. In this 12-month, 2008 calendar, heroines and their evil counterparts square off in quite revealing ways — a fully nude firestarter igniting her surroundings, a “super” lass undresses after a hard day’s night of battling bad guys, and a katana-wielding vixen, wearing a headband and not much else, shows a few ninjas who’s the real boss is. These are the powered-up ladies that watch over downtown Los Angeles from rooftops and can turn invisible with the snap of a finger. They are the heroes and villains of the 2008 Nerdcore™ calendar.
The best thing about this calendar– okay, tied for first– is that the calendar also includes the high holy days for geeks, including major movie releases like Iron Man, Speed Racer, The Dark Knight, Indiana Jones 4, Harold and Kumar 2, and The Incredible Hulk; conventions like San Diego Comic-Con, Alternative Press Expo, etc.; anniversaries for Night of the Living Dead and more cult classics; birthdays for Stan Lee, Quentin Tarantino, Jean Luc Picard and others; even Sarah Connor’s assassination, the morning Oceanic Airlines Flight 815 departed, and the day Marty was sent back to the future.
Hey, that’s important to me, I write for a website that needs that kind of important information. Shut up. I need this calendar for the dates. And no, not the dates that involve a jar of– just shut up.
Do I really have to tell you the link is not safe for work? Fine, you’ve been warned.
Now if there was only a way to put in an Amazon link for it… wait, it actually isavailable on Amazon? Well, what are you waiting for? This has got to make a decent Christmas present for someone you know. Even if the only thing they want to do with it is burn it.
Comic Book Resourcestalks to Eric Powell about The Goon.
The eighth week of “X-Position” from Comic Book Resources is an interview with Peter David about what’s going on in the X-books. (Silly, CBR, don’t you know that exposition will never wash away the sins of mankind?)
Comic Book Resourcesalso chats with Dynamite Entertainment Publisher Nick Barrucci about their upcoming Alex Ross/Jim Krueger book Superpowers.
SciFi Wireinterviews Ellen Datlow about her new anthology (with Terri Windling) The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales.
Amazon’s blog has a quick phone conversation with Austin Grossman, author of Soon I Will Be Invincible, in the middle of his tour.
Transmissions from Wintermuteinterviews short story writer Benjamin Rosenbaum.
Blondie: The Complete Bumstead Family History by strip writer Dean Young (son of Chic Young, Blondie’s real daddy) and Melena Ryzik have penned the definitive tale of the world’s most heavily circulated newspaper comic strip. Even if you find today’s efforts rather mundane, Blondie started out as a continuity strip: the story of millionaire Dagwood Bumstead and his love for jazz-age flapper Blondie – despite the threat of being disinherited by his family!
Yep, Blondie’s roots are dark, indeed. Personally, I want to find out what happened to Daisy’s many, many pups. They all disappeared, you know. Hmmmm…
According to Amazon.com: It’s all here in this definitive book for the Blondie fan: Blondie and Dagwood, their children Alexander and Cookie, their neighbors Herb and Tootsie Woodley, the family dog Daisy, Dagwood’s boss Mr. Dithers, the mailman Mr. Beasley, and the neighborhood kid Elmo Tuttle. The book includes early history; Dagwood at work, Blondie’s starting her catering business, favorite cartoon strips, and the story of Chic and Dean Young, the creators of Blondie.
Blondie: The Complete Bumstead Family History comes out this August.
(Artwork copyright King Features Syndicate. All Rights Reserved.)
From a Wired 
This one’s for Elayne and 
They’re about to throw the book at Blondie.
