SAGA from Image Comics

[BrianLynch]

Brian K Vaughn's return to comics.  So good.  I would imagine this will get adapted into a TV show or a movie or animated something or other. 

First issue is out.  Get it today in comic stores, or download it on the Image App. 

[Tom B]

I hadn't realised Vaughan had been away from comics for so long until you mentioned this, but wow, it's been maybe two or three years since he was last working on monthly books, right? Anyway, excited to read this because he's always pretty fantastic, thanks for the heads-up.

MORE COMICS TALK

It seems like Ennis is wrapping up THE BOYS, so I'm looking forward to seeing how it ends and what he moves onto. BOYS has been a bit weighed down by the conspiracy / CIA sub-plots for the last few arcs, but Ennis' dialogue and character work is just still so great most the time (especially in the BUTCHER, BAKER mini).

There are some new Vertigo series launching in the next month or so, which is something to look forward to, though I'm not sure how interested I am in any of them. Maybe SAUCER COUNTRY? I think the others are another FABLES tie-in and then a couple of urban fantasy type deals.

Of the current Vertigo books, I'm only getting HELLBLAZER, SWEET TOOTH and SPACEMAN, and they're all very different but really good. Is SWEET TOOTH not supposed to be ending soon? The current plot seems to be building to something that could be an ending, but I just don't know. I hope not. I love you, SWEET TOOTH, please stay.

[Rich]

Nice!  I forgot this came out today.

[Chris O.]

Don't know if this is the right thread, but it's connected.  Thought comic folks would be interested in reading this.  I imagine Lynch has some first-hand experience with this as well?  I read something similar with regard to indie albums, too...

http://it-sparkles.blogspot.com/2012/03/selling-out.html

[Tom B]

Interesting read - the comics retail model does seem to be about as conservative as you can get, so while it's not really built for any kind of huge successes (or at least not on any kind of regular basis), the number of huge failures seem pretty minimal too (I think?)

Evan Dorkin talked about this on his blog recently - http://evandorkin.livejournal.com/273883.html - and I couldn't really think of any series from the big publishers that were big money losers. For smaller publishers, I guess it's much easier for a less succesful book to really hit hard (especially if it uses an expensive propery - Dorkin mentions SLG's reprints of his Bill and Ted comics being a bit of a bust because of this) but as far as the big two go, it seems like while ever their big comics might be torn to shreds critically, you never really hear about them doing terribly financially, or at least not in the same way that you hear about big movies doing awfully. Huge difference in scale, but yeah. It's interesting.

(Also, THE MANHATTAN PROJECTS that gets mentioned in that blog Chris posted is really awesome.)