Comic Books

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/24443359

Abstract

The portrayal of comic book characters is often oversexualized, which is intended to boost sales in a market traditionally dominated by male readers. However, the comic book market today has a diverse readership, and women in particular consume more comics than in the past. Against this background, the present study uses a sample of 648 comic book covers to empirically test whether the underlying sex sells logic actually works. In this context, the results of the regression analysis show no evidence that sexualized images are associated with comic book sales. The article provides theoretical explanations for this result and discusses scientific and managerial implications of this finding.

Valentowitsch, Johann (2024) Journal of Managerial Issues, Vol 36, Issue 3, p188

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/24430300

There used to be two types of Godzilla stories you could tell. The first used Godzilla as a metaphor, mostly for the horrors of atomic warfare – see the original 1954 Godzilla or Godzilla Minus One. The second has Godzilla acting as a protector of the Earth, often battling other monsters or teaming up with them – Legendary’s MonsterVerse built an entire franchise on this concept alone. But Godzilla: Heist #1 from Van Jensen and Kelsey Ramsay takes a different approach, seeing the King of the Monsters unwittingly play accomplice to a grand heist.

This happens thanks to an extremely clever thief named Jai. Using a series of drones and a computer that predicts Godzilla’s movements, Jai is able to lift $90 million from a casino. But this puts him in the crosshairs of another group of thieves, who strong-arm him into using his skills to break into Whitehall, which is home to Britain’s defense ministry. Like any good thief, though, Jai has a few tricks up his sleeve.

I was genuinely surprised by Godzilla: Heist, and not just in terms of its high-concept pitch but that Jensen actually puts a lot of work into pulling it off. His script starts off slow, showcasing Jai setting everything into place before Godzilla bursts into the scene. Like any good heist, Jensen throws in a few twists, including the real reason why Jai decides to go along with the Whitehall job, which involves another major figure from Godzilla lore.

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Godzilla: Heist #1 is a truly unique Godzilla story, mixing the absolute destruction the King of Monsters is known for with a high-stakes robbery. If this is the level of creativity IDW is going for with its new Godzilla books, it’s sure to pull in plenty of new fans.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/24429805

Following the previously announced Godzilla Vs X-Men, Godzilla Vs Fantastic Four and Godzilla Vs Spider-Man, I get the rather predictable word that it will be followed by Godzilla Vs Avengers #1 one-shot for June. However, that still leaves two of the six slots unfilled. Might one of them be Godzilla Vs Hulk? And the other, either Godzilla Vs Deadpool or Godzilla Vs Jeff The Land Shark? Anyway, I do know Godzilla Vs Avengers #1 one-shot for June for sure, with covers by Lee Garbett, Mike Allred and Nick Bradshaw. But that is all. The first, Godzilla Vs FF is out in a month.

Cover at the Simon Comics crowdfunding campaign.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/simonstudios/simon-comics-presents-killshott-stuntman-and-pathetic?ref=discovery&term=Killshott&total_hits=5&category_id=250

New list is up! Looks like a slimmer week for me thankfully

Eat Sleep Reap Repeat #1&2 - gonna have to special order these, looks fun though! Something about reaping souls, I've been sort of obsessed with the idea of multiple reapers having an agency of sorts and the office-like behavior therein since The Mighty Boosh's cab scene.

From The World Of Minor Threats The Brood #3 - You know me and my Minor Threats! Best superhero/villain series I've read so far, of course being that I'm not usually a fan of that stuff the competition is pretty slim, but still I'm not a fan generally but like this one, that's saying something!

Let This One Be A Devil #1 - Jersey Devil?! Let's fucking go. Dude also did one recently about Project Blue Book, I think me and this dude would get a long lol.

Herculoids #1 - ?!?!? Other people know this show?! I have to buy this to send to a friend, we used to get mega stoned and watch it lol.

Space Ghost #10 - I'm so behind..

w0rldtr33 #13 - Still haven't read 12 but it's on the "next" pile

I'm sure my shop will be delayed on some, but I'm fine with putting it off a little, I'm delayed anyway. Well that's it for me, what are you pulling?

What happens when two comics artists ‘meet on the page’ to explore the tragedies of the Israel-Gaza war? Art Spiegelman, best known for his Pulitzer prize-winning Holocaust memoir Maus, and Joe Sacco, author of bestselling graphic reportage Palestine, grapple with the ongoing crisis

This expansive collection, published by Dark Horse, includes The Complete ElfQuest Volumes 1 - 7, The Final Quest, and Stargazer’s Hunt. Celebrate 45 years of ElfQuest, and support World Central Kitchen with your purchase!

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/32876527

As a child of the 80s, it is a real treat to add this to the collection. “Wings of silver. Nerves of steel…”

Acclaimed comic book creator Brian K. Vaughan has commented on the renewed success of his prescient 2015 Image Comics series We Stand On Guard. Given the present political tensions between the United States and Canada, Vaughan though grateful for the book's comeback, hopes its premise firmly remains fiction.

Set a hundred years in the future, We Stand On Guard follows a heroic band of Canadian civilians turned freedom fighters who must defend their homeland from invasion by a technologically superior opponent, the U.S. Vaughan (Y the Last Man, Saga, Paper Girls) collaborated with renowned artist Steve Skroce (Wolverine, Cable, storyboard artist for The Matrix) for the series that has had its six issues collected for the release by Image Comics. "Many of my proudest collaborations have been with Canadian creators, and it was a particular thrill to finally work with legendary artist Steve Skroce," the writer said. "So I'm grateful that readers have been revisiting our nightmarish war story, which we hope remains fiction."

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According to Image Comics, orders piling up this week for We Stand On Guard, available in trade paperback and hardcover, exceeded the total sales for the title in 2024. The limited edition deluxe hardcover is almost completely sold-out at the distributor and copies of the paperback are flying off the shelves at record speed.

We Stand On Guard debuted in 2015, with the first issue selling over 78,000 copies. The sixth and final issue sold over 35,000, and while it was the least-selling throughout the run, the limited series remained in the list of top 75 books sold in a month. We Stand On Guard's deluxe edition earned a spot on The New York Times hardcover graphic books bestseller list for June 2016.

Dark Horse Comics will publish acclaimed Spanish comic book creator Alex Vede's original graphic novel, Riptide, in English for the first time. The book will arrive on August 20, three months after Vede's first graphic novel with the publisher, Yucatan 1512, debuts in May.

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Dark Horse Comics' Riptide synopsis reads, "The secretive NARWAL organization is hiding powerful secrets during the most contentious point of the Cold War. One marine biologist, Max, is drawn into the mysteries surrounding whale communications that mention the legendary Ceto—an advanced underwater civilization believed to be a myth. If Max is forced to choose between his loyalty to humanity and the opportunity to bring about peace with the last inhabitants of the lost city of Atlantis, will he risk everything and save both species?"

Broken Frontier strives to be an inclusive platform reflecting and celebrating the diversity of the form and its practitioners. Our internal coverage policies are designed to prioritise diverse voices and work that spotlights marginalised communities wherever possible. You can read our team statement on this here. To that end we are also building up relevant resource lists of comics that communicate those stories.

This is a work-in-progress so rest assured that there are a number of other resource lists currently being worked on to be added here at a later date. Click on each title below to access the relevant list.

Our resource lists are part of our #BrokenFrontierConnects initiative.

Categories include:

• Black History and Black Lives
• Climate Change and the Environment Comics and Islam
• Disability – Physical, Developmental and Dementia
• Jewish Lives
• LGBTQ+ Comics
• Mental Health Awareness
• Pandemic Comics
• The Refugee Crisis
• Social Reform
• Trans and Non-Binary Stories

Superheroes dominated the comic industry for decades, and while DC and Marvel remain the two biggest comic publishers in the world, reader interests have shifted. Creators are branching off to tell their own kinds of stories beyond heroes and villains in capes. Fans need only look past DC and Marvel to comic publishers such as Image and BOOM! Studios.

Fans of the Walking Dead TV series should check out the comic it was based on. DC's Vertigo imprint may publish Sandman, but it's closer to mythology than superheroes. Comics like Black Science, Saga and Descender are all sci-fi epics. Comic books are so much more than superheroes and superpowers; these comics prove that good sequential stories exist in any genre.

They are:

1. Saga
2. Something is Killing the Children
3. Descender
4. East of West
5. The Wicked + The Divine
6. Black Science
7. Criminal
8. Once & Future
9. Sandman (vol. 2)
10. The Walking Dead

List is up! I'm excited for some of these..

Into The Unbeing Part Two #1 - Liked the first run, I'll keep on it. Basic story, some people find a cave, but the cave might be somethings skull? Something...alive?

Creepshow In Love #1 - Creepshoooooow!

Geiger #11 - Dude honestly I'm about 4 behind on this

Hive #1 - "Mason Shaw is no one. A worker bee. All that changes when he crosses paths with a few stragglers trying to stay one step ahead of a queen with immense powers who is determined to control her hive no matter who she has to kill. Welcome to THE HIVE." Looks like it might be ok, I'll at least flip through it.

I Hate Fairyland #20 - The End of this one?

Moon Is Following Us #6 - The Continuation of this one.

That's it for me, what're you pulling?

Last year IGN broke the news that actor Thomas Jane is making the jump to comics with the horror series The Lycan. With that series about to debut on the Comixology Originals platform, we can now debut an exclusive preview of the first chapter.

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The Lycan is based on a story by Jane and screenwriter David James Kelly (Logan), with a script by Mike Carey (Lucifer, The Unwritten), art by artist Diego Yapur, coloring by D.C. Alonso, and lettering by AndWorld Design. Tim Bradstreet (Punisher MAX, Hellblazer) will provide covers for the series.

Here's Comixology's official description for The Lycan #1:

Year of Our Lord 1777: A hardened band of international big game hunters returning from Africa are shipwrecked off a small British island.

In exchange for new supplies and the repairing of their good ship The Calydonian, Lord Ludgate engages the men for a task they are particularly well suited for: find the Berserking Beasts that have been eating his subjects, including a group of young Benedictine Nuns, and destroy them.

Free Comic Book Day is owned and run by Diamond Comic Distributors. The company has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and has seen a number of publishers pull out of Diamond completely as a result. With tariffs threatened on comics published in Canada – which is most of the Free Comic Book Day titles – how will all this affect Free Comic Book Day on Saturday, the 3rd of May? Well, first, the comics have all been printed by now and have been shipped across the border for the USA. That is not an issue, this year around at least. And Diamond Comic Distributors is fully stocked with them, ready to send out to stores if they are still operating as they intended. Copies are meant to arrive in stores in the middle of April before the bankruptcy period is over. Some sites have reported the 1st of April as the bankruptcy cut-off date, but that is wrong. However, some titles available in bundles of ten, twenty, twenty-five or fifty will only be available from Penguin Random House or Lunar Distribution, with singles through Diamond, especially from publishers such as Mad Cave Studios and Vault Comics that recently left Diamond in toto. And DC titles will only be available through Lunar. Here's looking at how and where comic book retailers will have been ordering them;

And anything with multiverses and parallel worlds, reading tom strong made me feel some chidlike wonder. Enjoyed the dark undertones.

Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld has cut ties with Marvel after expressing disappointment with his alleged treatment at the premiere of the latest film.

The artist and writer is the brains behind the foul-mouthed anti-hero, and has a working relationship with the comic book publishers lasting more than 30 years.

But he felt sidelined at the New York premiere of Deadpool & Wolverine, the first Deadpool film to be released since Disney acquired Fox, and has opened up about his perceived experience.

According to Liefeld, he felt ignored by Disney bosses, including Marvel Studios head Kevin Fiege, at the July 2024 event and was upset to discover he and his family had not been invited to the premiere afterparty.

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Liefeld, who receives large revenue streams for the character he created in 1991, revealed that, one month before the film’s release, he requested more involvement with the marketing and promotion.

He also wanted a special credit different to the standard one given to comic book creators at the end of the film – noting that his request stemmed from Marvel’s decision to give Roy Thomas a Wolverine co-creator status alongside Len Wein and John Romita, Sr.

He wrote in the email: “Marvel’s treatment of creators has never been their strength. Without the worlds, the characters and the concepts that we create – and in this specific case, the world of Deadpool – there are no films to shoot. No blockbusters to distribute. … I am not the easy button at Staples. I am the human imagination behind it all.”

Liefeld claimed that his response did not get received in the way he was after, tweeting: “My reps were screamed at today ‘We are NOT Fox!’ Tell me about it. Also hung up on.”

I've previously posted a comic here where I asked who signed it. I'd like to know where you guys buy or sell comics? The local shop who sold them to a fair price recently closed down.

I mean, yeah, just because it's Myanmar doesn't mean the person has to be Burmese... but sheesh.

(I'm biased, my daughter in law is Burmese.)

Google translate:

"--AND A SECONDARY ATTACK TEAM AIMING FOR GOTHAM AFTER TWO CONFIRMED SIGHTINGS OF THE CHOSEN ONE. SHE IS BACK WITH THE CANARY IN GOTHAM, WE'RE SURE. THIS IS OUR BEST CHANCE--KRRRRKKKTE"

What a fantastic read, and really wanted to share it with someone. It got on my radar via some 2024 recommendation lists. I went in fully blind, not knowing what to expect.

The book had me hooked since page 1. It is intruiging, well written, and full of twists and turns. The way that Ram V and Dan Watters have woven their story is amazing. Same for the art, really captivating, props to Campbell and Kumar.

If you like thrillers and mysteries, or just want a good read, then please give it a go!

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/23687492

A woman from New Zealand has filed a civil lawsuit against bestselling British author Neil Gaiman and his estranged wife, musician Amanda Palmer, accusing Gaiman of repeatedly sexually assaulting her while she was working as the couple’s babysitter and nanny.

Scarlett Pavlovich filed the lawsuit in federal court in Wisconsin, Massachusetts and New York on Monday. Pavlovich previously publicly identified herself in an interview with New York magazine, which published an article in January detailing allegations of assault, abuse and coercion levelled at Gaiman by multiple women.

Pavlovich’s lawsuit also accuses Gaiman of rape, coercion and human trafficking, and Palmer of “procuring and presenting” her to Gaiman “for such abuse”.

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Pavlovich’s lawsuit states that she filed a police report in New Zealand, accusing Gaiman of sexual assault, but she alleges “the police took no action because Palmer refused to talk to them”.

Gaiman has worked with numerous publishers over the years. Two of them, HarperCollins and WW Norton, have said they have no plans to release his books in the future. Others, including Bloomsbury, have so far declined to comment.

Dark Horse Comics announced in January that it would no longer release its illustrated series based on Gaiman’s novel Anansi Boys. The seventh of eight editions was released earlier that month.

A production of Coraline has been cancelled, while Disney has paused a planned adaptation of Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book. Netflix is still scheduled to release a second season based on The Sandman, but announced last week it would be the last, in a statement that did not acknowledge the allegations against Gaiman.