Comicraft’s Annual Font Sale

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials,

Do you like fonts? Do you blog, letter, create crazy posters and signs? Are you tired of Comic Sans?

Richard Starkings is one of the industry premier letterers.

His company, Comicraft, is having its annual New Year’s sale and you can’t find a better art-related sale anywhere. Forget Black Friday, Boxing Day, Cyber Monday and all those others. Font Day is the creator’s choice.

Each of Comicraft fonts are on sale for a mere $20.12. Even the ones that cost $395, and even the ones that cost $19.00.

The sale begins at midnight, December 31 and ends at midnight January 1. If you miss it, you have to wait another year for the next one.

[Artwork: Comic Book Lettering The Comicraft Way, taken from My Comic Shop]

Graphic Novels Outsell Snooki

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Television, Dynamic Forces, Image Comics,

It appears that nobody wants the read a book that Snooki claims to have written. The tanned and tiny "star" of MTV's Jersey Shore had her first novel, A Shore Thing published about a month ago. Since then, it's sold less than 9000 copies.

This despite a massive pr push that's seen the little orange pumpkin rolling from TV appearance to TV appearance.

9000 copies.

How does that compare to graphic novel sales? John Jackson Miller at The Comics Chronicles has the scoop.

In 2010, Image's Walking Dead Vol 1: Days Gone Bye sold 43,900 copies, DC's Blackest Night hardcover (19,200), Image's Chew Vol. 1 (13,600), and Dynamite's Boys Vol. 6 Self-Preservation Society (11,100). And that's just a sampling.

In all, some 38 graphic novels outsold Snooki's book and that's just using GN sales figures from the direct market.

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Comic Book Jobs: Tokyopop Intern

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, TokyoPop,

Weekend Reading: Gene Day, Wonder Woman and Old Indiana Jones

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Conventions, Editorials, Television, DC Comics, Image Comics, Marvel Comics,

It’s been a great internet this week, so let’s take a look!

Comics & Media: There’s someone out there who believes that The Walking Dead comic books and trade compilations won’t see a boost in sales despite the tremendous success of the new TV series. Dirk Deppey delivers the smackdown and makes me wish I could write like that. (Scroll down a little.)

I only have anecdotal “evidence” about the book’s success from this year’s San Diego Con. I saw The Walking Dead booth doing tremendous business, and by Friday afternoon, they’d sold out of all the Volume 1 compilations they’d brought to the show (which still had more than two days to go).

And speaking of smackdowns, Lynda Carter tells Megan Fox to STFU.

P. Craig Russell: Want to have a sneak peek at his upcoming digital comic, The Gift of the Magi? I know you do.

Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Gene Day, Wonder Woman and Old Indiana Jones

Harlan Ellison’s Book Purge

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, DC Comics,

If you’ve ever wanted to stroll through an author’s personal library, but they won’t let you into their house (and with good reason), Harlan Ellison’s wife Susan offers the next best thing: a book purge from his private collection.

There’s enough good stuff written about Mr. Ellison available on the internet that you don’t need me to cut and paste a bunch of it to reaffirm the award-winning author’s place in literature and pop culture. From books to movies to TV to comic books, he’s really done it all and won awards for lots of it. Mr. Ellison and I have had about a dozen fun and friendly encounters over the years and it was always a pleasure to hear his voice at the other end of the phone.

“What the hell are you doing now, Mason?” he’d call out teasingly and we’d take it from there. Very enjoyable conversations about the state of the world, the comic book industry, and even one about the history of, if I remember correctly, the Golden Age super-hero, Cat-Man.

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The Surrogates & Alan Moore: On Sale Now!

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials,

It costs a bunch of money to make a movie and nearly as much to actually go see one in the theaters. Top Shelf has hit a fall jackpot with their comic book The Surrogates, written by Robert Venditti and drawn by Brett Weldele. It’s debuting as a movie on September 25th, directed by Jonathan Mostow, written by John Brancato and Michael Ferris and starring Bruce Willis and Rosamund Pike.

To celebrate the movie’s release (check out the trailer after the jump!), Top Shelf is debuting The Surrogates comics at iTunes, so you can read the original graphic novel on your iPod Touch or iPhone. You can get the first two issues for 99¢ and the remaining three issues for 99¢ each. If that seems like too big a risk for you, then you can just download the entire first issue—that’s The Surrogates #1—for free from the iTunes App Store. Got it?

Between now and September 25th, Top Shelf will be taking advantage of the slow fall comic book season and offering up a whopper of a sale to celebrate: lots of great graphic novels and comic booky stuff for $3 a pop and reduced prices for their prime Alan Moore books like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Lost Girls, and From Hell. Also, Halloween is coming up, and what better gift than a copy of Johnny Boo by James Kochalka?

It’s a great time to be alive.

[Artwork: The Surrogates © Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele]

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