Comicbookland

Marvel Comics was the top selling comic book publisher in 2011, owning 37.29 percent of the retail market share and 40.93 percent of unit market share in 2011, according to Diamond Comic Distributors.

DC followed Marvel with 31.41 percent of the retail market share and 35.77 percent of the unit market share. Image Comics, IDW Publishing and Dark Horse Comics followed the two giants. Diamond bases its numbers on total sales of comics, graphic novels and magazines to comic book specialty stores.

Newsarama has more: “As always, Diamond’s reported sales are for products ordered by comic book retailers, and not sales made to consumers in-store. Perhaps the best overall news is while January sales were down by single digits compared to December 2011, 2012 got off to a strong start compared to last year, with January comic book sales up 33.56% over January 2011 and graphic novel sales up 8.45%, for a total +31.38% jump on Year-to-Year sales.”

This week we’re bringing you a bunch of great online courses to help you launch a new career, hone your passion, or discover your hidden talent. Courses including Writing the TV Spec Script, Facebook Marketing, Intro to Digital Project Management, and Boot Camp for Journalists. See all online courses.

DC Comics has officially revealed the long-rumored and controversial prequel to the classic Watchmen graphic novel.

With seven new miniseries this summer, DC Comics will tell the backstories of the heroes featured in the original book. Original Watchmen writer Alan Moore has always been opposed to efforts to expand upon the graphic novel.

Watchmen co-creator and  artist Dave Gibbons approved the project: “The original series of Watchmen is the complete story that Alan Moore and I wanted to tell. However, I appreciate DC’s reasons for this initiative and the wish of the artists and writers involved to pay tribute to our work. May these new additions have the success they desire.”

Read more

Fantasy authors Neil Gaiman and Todd McFarlane have settled their decade long dispute about who owns the copyright to Spawn characters that Gaiman created for McFarlane’s comic book in a guest appearance.

In 2002, Gaiman filed his first suit claiming that he co-owned Medieval Spawn, among other characters that he had created. In 2010, Gaiman won a suit in which a judge determined that he should be paid royalties.

The Daily News has more about the settlement: “Jeffrey Simmons, one of Gaiman’s attorneys, said terms of the agreement were confidential … ‘This is intended to put an end to the whole thing. It’s fair to say both parties are pleased to have this resolved,’ Simmons said.”

Read more

Drawn & Quarterly will publish translations of vintage Pippi Longstocking comics this fall. The series will reprint comics written by children’s author Astrid Lindgren, drawn by Ingrid Vang Nyman and translated by Tiina Nunnally.

Rabén & Sjögren Agency negotiated the deal with acquiring editor Tom Devlin. The comics were first published in Sweden between 1957 and 1959, running in Humpty Dumpty magazine–expanding on the story book adventures of Pippi Longstocking.

Here’s more from the release: “The original illustrator for the chapter books, Vang Nyman was a very talented children’s book illustrator and an avant-garde champion of the importance of children’s literature who insisted that art in children’s books needed to meet the same aesthetic standards as art in any other medium. Sadly Vang Nyman never achieved international success, and tragically committed suicide in 1959 due to mental health issues, while Lindgren went on to become one of the world’s best loved writers with over 145 million books sold worldwide.”

Today on the Morning Media Menu, we talked with Alex Irvine, the writer behind Marvel: Avengers Alliance, the first Facebook game from Marvel Comics.

Follow this link to watch a trailer for the upcoming title that will compete with popular Facebook games like Farmville. Irvine shared tips for aspiring video game writers–you can explore the growing field in our Best Video Game Writing of the Year feature.

Here’s an excerpt from the interview: “There are a lot of social games out there, as this game gets going, I think there is going to be a lot of opportunities coming. I would expect to see a lot more games like this. I also think, because the gaming space is changing so fast, that a lot of writers are going to see what sort of opportunities are out there in new hybrid forms between prose and animation, gaming and comics. It’s all going to get mashed together, remixed and recombined in lots of interesting ways over the next few years.”

Read more

Bluewater Productions has released a new comic book biography called Steve Jobs: Founder of Apple. The 32-page comic features cover art by Joe Phillips, pencils by Chris Schmidt and a script by C.W. Cooke.

According to Bluewater, the comic was inspired by success of a successful comic profiling Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg. Bluewater also has a comic book biography of Microsoft mogul Bill Gates slated for release in March. The title, Bill Gates: Co-Founder of Microsoft, was written by Martin Pierro and illustrated by Zach Bassett.

The Bluewater comic writing was completed prior to Steve Jobs‘ death in October. Jobs now stars in Amazon’s most popular 2011 holiday book and two comic books. As we previously reported, Forbes published a 60-page graphic novel called The Zen of Steve Jobs.

Read more

At some point this quarter, Marvel will unveil its first Facebook game. The Disney-owned company hopes that Marvel: Avengers Alliance can compete  with popular Facebook games like Farmville.

The game already has a Facebook page with 20,000 likes. Follow this link to watch a trailer for the upcoming game.  What do you think?

Our sibling blog Inside Social Games has more: “The game will be a combat RPG set in the wake of “the Pulse”, a galaxy-wide disaster that has made New York the target of almost everyone in the entire pantheon of Marvel villains. Players will take on the role of a junior S.H.I.E.L.D agent, tasked with gathering the world’s superheroes together into teams to protect the city. Disney is hoping the game will balance between a casual audience and serious Marvel fans, so despite its source material, the game will not be a hardcore-player focused title.”

Would you consider Lisbeth Salander (a.k.a. the girl with the dragon tattoo) a superhero?

At New York Comic Con this year, a panel of veteran comic book writers and editors debated this topic; the panelists included Tom DeFalco (Marvel), Danny Fingeroth (Marvel), Paul Levitz (DC) , and Denny O’Neil (DC, Marvel). Psychologist Robin Rosenberg, editor of  The Psychology of Superheroes and The Psychology of the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, acted as the moderator.

The panelists all agreed that the definition of a superhero is difficult to pin down. However, they discussed two particular qualities that many superheroes possess: a heroic role heroic and abilities that go beyond what humans are realistically capable of.

Read more

Inspired by a GalleyCat post about helping the writer in your life find the time to write, author and illustrator Debbie Ridpath Ohi drew a Will Write for Chocolate cartoon (embedded above) illustrating the gift idea.

Here’s an excerpt from the original post: “There are countless ways to give the writer in your life some extra time: let them borrow your office on the weekends; buy them a stay in a nearby bed and breakfast; promise to babysit on a weekday evening; purchase a mountain of gift certificates to your local coffee shop; volunteer to do their household chores for a day; buy them a spot in a weekend retreat; in short, do anything it takes to help your writer find a few consecutive hours of peace and quiet to write. They will never forget that gift.”

You can find more of the comics on the Will Write For Chocolate Facebook page.

Bluewater Productions is working on a new comic book based on the GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul.

Paul, a libertarian who is reportedly pulling ahead in the polls these days, will be the subject of an ongoing series from the publisher called Political Power, which has also featured other Republican candidates Rick Perry, Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann. Bestselling writer Marc Shapiro is writing the graphic biography and Luciano Kars drew the artwork and artist Joe Philips drew the cover.

This is the second time Paul will have graced the pages of a Bluewater comic. He is also featured in Political Power: The Tea Party Movement, though this time he’ll be the star.

Read more