By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 2/5/2013
TweetAfter the cancellation of Superman Family Adventures, the creative team of Art Baltazar & Franco haven’t wasted any time in moving onto their next project. And what a move! After putting a Kickstarter up for their new ‘AW YEAH COMICS!’ series, which was to last six issues, it took only a few hours for them to [...]
By: Julie Gassman, Senior Editor,
on 6/13/2012
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| Here I am, standing between two giants of the comic biz: Art B. and Franco. These guys are not only two of the most talented and prolific creators working today (check out their stunning new series Superman Family Adventures!), but they are funny, friendly, and have a genuine passion for kids as well as comics. |
Black Hole Sun by David Macinnis Gill - If you like books that hit the throttle in a hurry and don't let off to the very end; boy this book is so for you! This book is set in the future where the planet Mars has been colonized and what goes for government is all but gone. In this awful environment any law that is enforced is done so by a group that would be best characterized as futuristic mercenary cowboys/samurai warriors known as Regulators. The main character in the book is Durango (a 17 year old teen who has an interesting past to say the least), a failed Regulator, who still upholds the noble tenants that Regulators once followed. Durango, who is well versed in sarcasm, is an interesting character made more so by the fact that his former Regulator Chief, Mimi, is now implanted in his brain as an artificial intelligence. The story is about him operating as a Regulator Chief to a rag tag team made up of such characters as his no nonsense first officer Vienne to the uncontrollable shoot-em-up Leroy Jenkins. Each character in the book really holds their own as characters and are not dull or uninteresting. Durango and his crew basically take on a suicide mission to protect poor miners in the middle of nowhere who are being attacked by a cannibalistic race known as the Draeu and their queen (who has many secrets also). Once the bullets, plasma weapons and hand to hand combat starts, the intensity only keeps building to the end of the story. If you love nonstop action in a book and want one you will not be able to put down, well ya found your book!!! I Loved It!!!!!!! 
By: Darth Corder,
on 2/26/2010
Hello all in the Land of Blog!!!!! (I don't know why but Blogger decided to make my whole post in BOLD) It's Darth Bill with a bunch of stuff to cover, so let's go!!!!!
First we have some additional comments on "The Lightning Thief" movie:
From Nannah V: "I took my two grandsons to see this movie. Jeff is almost 11 and Bobby is 6. They loved it! Now they want to read the book! They are also excited about the two movies they saw intros for. "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" & "The the Last Airbender". Jeff has read all of the Wimpy kid books and they are very big fans of the Airbender cartoon. Personally I agree, I wish the actors looked younger. I have a hard time believing that they were 13. They looked more like 16."
From Mrs. Quinn: "You guys hit most of my beefs with the movie: that Percy was 15 instead of 13, and that the consequent love interest story was more pronounced (really not in the book); that it just wasn't as funny, with Percy being rather flat in the movie and flat-out-funny in the books; that there were lots of changes from the book. I was really hoping for a closer rendering of the book, because its really a great one. I'm concerned that they may not make future movies, just because the story lines in book 1 were truncated, especially the parts that are important for the future movies! But if the money's there, they probably will... STILL, very worth seeing and a fun action flick. AND if it gets kids to read the book(s) - which we already have - then it's all good."
From Anyomous : "It left out my favorite part with echidna and the chimera.
giant fan of the books."
Okay now for some ultra cool Graphic Novel and Comic Reviews:
0 Comments on Spider-Man, Tiny Titans, Wolverine, Lightning and More!!! as of 2/26/2010 2:58:00 PM
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By: Darth Corder,
on 7/7/2009
Hello all in the Land of Blog!!!!! Darth Bill returns with more groovy and hip news to report. So hang on to your hats, you hepcats cause here we go:
The first super cool thing I have is a Captain Underpants Series Review by Khar Johnson:
Captain Underpants is the name of the series and it is written and is drawn by Dav Pilkey. This is a great series and the three main characters are George, Harold and Captain Underpants. I like this series because it is funny and has comics in it also. I love Comic Books.
I am sorry to report that I have yet to have the chance to read any of the Captain Underpants books but will be sure to do so in the near future. I know this is an extremely popular series that is always being checked out at our library. As always sense this was Khar's first review for us we gave him a free book. We also tried to take his picture but he turned out to be quite invisible. Check it out and see what I mean:
Khar Johnson
What: In The Spangler Tween Area there will be a head-to-head online Wii Mario Kart competition with another library/kids in Ann Arbor, Michigan!!!!
Billy Batson and The Magic of Shazam written by Art Baltazar& Franco and drawn by Byron Vaughns - ImaginOn has just started receiving this great new comic that is funny and also filled with heroic adventures. In this issue (#5, Family Affair) Billy, Shazam and Billy's sister Mary Marvel take on Mr. Atom who happens to be a giant robot made for destruction. The Evil Dr. Sivana is the one behind Mr. Atom's path of terror and Shazam and Mary Marvel are in for one heck of a fight. How does this end????? You will have to come by the library to read it or buy a copy of this excellent title to find out!!!!!!
Star Wars Adventures: Han Solo and The Hollow Moon of Khorya by Jeremy Barlow and Rick Lacy - This Graphic Novel takes place before the star wars movie "A New Hope" and stars Han Solo and his partner/best friend Chewbacca. Per usual Han finds himself in trouble with a powerful gangster. Both Chewbacca and himself are captured by this evil gangster who forces Han to go on a mission to steal something of importance from the Empire. As insurance, the gangster holds Chewbacca as a prisoner until Han completes the mission with and old friend and con artist named Bilal Batross. Once Han is gone on his mission the gangster puts Chewie in the arena to fight for his life. Will Han complete his mission successfully? How will Chewie do in the arena? Read this excellent Star Wars Graphic Novel to find out!!!!!!
0 Comments on Battle Frenzy, Thunder Gods, Tiny Titans and Other Zaniness! as of 1/1/1900
I still can’t believe DC Comics fired these guys via Previews Solicitations.
If there’s such an “incredible market out there for all-ages comics”, how come the titles they were working on sold so poorly? In others, no – the market wasn’t there. And if their DC titles were supported as much as this kickstarter, they would still be doing DC titles.
Mikael – Do you work for DC Comics? If not, then I doubt you know whether certain comics are or are not, profitable. All you can do is look at a cancellation, and make an assumption, which may be right, or may be wrong. In this case, I’d wager that assuming that Tiny Titans and Superman Family Adventures were unprofitable is a very bad guess. It may be a case where DC just didn’t think they were profitable enough, or it may have been done due to other considerations.
The market is there. The million dollar question is how best to tap it.
The market is there, folks. When Art and Franco appear at cons, the line at their table is always deep. The kids books I write now, Strawberry Shortcake, sells better at my table than any other title I’ve worked on, including Batman. My Little Pony is killing. And the store Art owns, Aw Yeah Comics, is packed with kids for events. The market is there, and we need to make products for them.
The market for kids comics is huge. Look for evidence of that in the next week or so.
So is this market just not interested in buying books based on DC superheroes? We keep hearing that the market is huge and thing like this seem to prove that the market is huge so what is the disconnect? I would imagine that most of the people who contributed to this didn’t hear about Franco and Baltazar yesterday. They probably knew about their work on Superman Family Adventures and of Tiny Titans before that. SFA was available in print and digital form.
Are these just not profitable enough for DC?
I’m glad to see this getting support. But the character set of Daring Dog (boy), Darling Dog (girl), Action Cat (boy), and Adorable Cat (girl), Adventure Bug (boy), Shelly (girl) seem right out of the Silver Age… and not in a good way. Are there any female characters in this that are not copies of male characters with lipstick added?
They’re the store mascots, Quest. They are what they are.
The potential market for kids is huge.
BUT… kids don’t own cars and (mostly) cannot get to a comic book store. If you want to sell comics to kids, you have to go where the kids are.
As long as DC and Marvel are beholden to Diamond and the direct market, their kids books (all ages books) will suffer (not sell well).
I am thrilled for Art and Franco that this was fully funded so quickly . And I hope that they have ORDER OF THE STICK level success and make millions.
But, as of a few seconds ago they are at $23,148 from only 600 backers. I am not sure that is evidence of a huge kids market.
They have less than 100 5 dollar backers and some people have pledged hundreds of dollars for stuff that has nothing to do with this new comic book such as ADVENTURE TIME cover art and a signed full run of Tiny Titans.
Again, I don’t think the fact that a relatively few people are willing to pay a relatively large amount of money for this stuff says anything about the health of the kids market. Or about the sustainability of AW YEAH COMICS!
The fact that they’re preexisting characters doesn’t make “what they are” any less disappointing.
Mikael–there is most DEFINITELY a market for kids’ comics. Anyone who loves comics and has kids wants to buy comics for their kids, I guarandamntee you, and kids like reading them.
The big problem is that there may not be a big market for kids’ comics in comic stores–a totally different issue. Average soccer mom doesn’t go to the comic store–why would she even think of that? But digital comics for kids is a potentially MASSIVE market.
My earlier comment aside, I agree that there is potentially a huge market for kids comics. I think the three main things keeping comics from selling to kids in the millions are availability, awareness, and price.
I think digital helps with the availability and could potentially lower the price. Although I think widely available, inexpensive print comics would be great too.
I guess wide availability would help with awareness too. But, some sort of marketing would be great if it could be economically feasible.
Outside of the comic shop Scholastic, Grafix and many other publishers have had great success with kids comics. Bone and Amelia Rules both were a huge success. I teach kids and they love comics and cartoons. LOVE them. Granted most don’t know about comic book stores. They either read them through the library or purchase them at book stores. If the product is there at an affordable price point the market can be gained. I love all ages comics when they are done right. It’s something I strive for in my own work as well.
peace,
Herc