Jamesb

Cool News.

James

Thought some of you guys might be interested in this:

aturday 8th April 1-2pm

MIKE CAREY

THE DEVIL YOU KNOW: A FELIX CASTOR NOVEL

Our Price : £6.99

Forbidden Planet London

179 Shaftsbury Avenue

All Orders must be placed before 12pm on Friday 9th April

From the writer of Ultimate Fantastic Four, Hellblazer and Lucifer comes an all new novel!

Felix Castor is a freelance exorcist, and London is his stamping ground. At a time when the supernatural world is in upheaval and spilling over into the mundane reality of the living, his skills have never been more in demand. A good exorcist can charge what he likes - and enjoy a hell of a life-style - but there's a risk: sooner or later he's going to take on a spirit that's too strong for him

http://www.forbiddenplanet.com/Event.shtml

I recently was at a comic mart in Dublin and a particular stall had a great selection of comics that were either misprints or pulped, although all within the last 20 years.

There was the League of Ex gentlemen with the advert about marvel, and also a superman, batman and Death title.

I must try and find out what they were, anyhow, all were £50+ and he sold some.

Himself and his girlfriend worked in a comic shop, hence got quite a few interesting items.

just goes to show.

Jamesb

I spoke to the guys in 'A Place in Space' I was mentioning the variety of positive reviews, and how I wouldnt agree with them all, but the interest aint a bad thing.

They are reordering hellblazer 216.

Retailers of course, may have been caught somewhat unawares, I had a look at Previews and it didnt really knock me out, or anything and we have discussed the lack of promotion, by DC themselves.

anyhow, I am fairly happy that some people have jumped on, or back onto the title. Interested to see if there is any increase in sales.

J

So I went ionto my local shops, to buy a third copy of Hellblazer, for a good friend, who stopped reading at issue 120. I had already bought a second copy for another friend, never read it.

I went into A place in Space and the lads seem to have it on re-order, but were efinatly sold out.

Forbiden Prices, CROYDON< was also sold out.

Went into Town yesterday, and met him, and we found a copy, in Orbital, on charing X rd. just got his comment.

was nice to read - felt like putting on an old comfortable pair of slippers (not that I've slippers since I was 8)

I may go and buy a few more issues, some people I know have just fallen out of buying comics, and its a perfect jumping on point.

has anyone else managed to entice friends with it?

J

Corben is an aquired taste, thats for dure, I think I have some of hes work in the old Marvel Epic magazines.

His mainstream comic work is sometimes a bit odd, but he is a great artist in the overall sense of what that means.

James

I have all up to 90, then its patchy.

I have a couple of Jenkins, all of azzerellos and ellis' and a couple of Careys.

Most of the spin offs I bought, didnt buy the recent Papa Midnite.

could never afford the cold cast statue, but bought the figure when it was in the sale for £4.

I have a fair bit of artwork though, which I have always found to be reasnobly priced, for what it is.

James

All publicity is good publicity.

is it going to have the exact result I want when its badlty researched and written, the answear may be a resounding NO. In this case, it may bring more readers to Hellblazer, it wont turn any current readers off ( i would have reckoned) and anyone who was potential before reading the article, well I reckon that would be few.

If someone reads that poor Times reveiw, yet then picks up Hellblazer, GREAT.

They may realise that it is a poor review, or that the reveiwer is not so good, BUT they may also find they like hellblazer and stick to it. A badly written reveiew does in no way reflect the quality of work in the last issue of Hellblazer.

If they dont, then they dont. But unless people know about the comic, unless people are positive about their reading experience and pass that on, people will not be turned onto the comic.

Waiting for the comics just to be taken away, has so far in hellbalzers case, proven not to be a solution.

You are right about publicity not always being helpful, and of course there is an element of thruth to that if one looks at the movie, but then again, the few who are still readers were legitimatley turned onto Hellblazer. Is that bad?

Whats importnat in my mind, is that Mina is recieving positive reviews, and these are in places where comic readers read, and thats more targeted and a grand thing, IMHO.

Sure, there will be badly written, badly spelt and even reviews which beggar belief.

BUT so far the positive reviews that people have mentioned and others I have seen, are overall a good thing, IMHO. Let there be inacuracies and errors, its the press, its always full of mistakes, but at least Mina is getting some spotlight.

Hellblazer may gain some readers.

I am well within my remit to decide NOT to read future poor reveiwers as are others who after arriving at issue 216, find that they are unhappy with the review. I may not actually read any other review by the guys who have so far made mention in this forum.

Of course, a review is often just a mention of something, and to me I ususally base my opinion on what I read myself, rather than retrospectively comparing it to the original review. But maybe people do that, and stop reading something good cause the reveiw is at odds with their experience.

I am not going to NIT pick errors, and whinge about mistakes, when if the authour concerned has real isue with it, she has the right to take the reviewers to task.

The real question, and I am thinking from a writers point of view, despite errors, would Mina prefer the publicity, or not.

Jamesb

Not sure if it comes across as well as it could do, isnt that always the way with press.

BUT its a great bit of PR and fair play to Mina or whoever at the times got the artice off the ground.

there is surely a buzz about her taking over, I hope its infective

Jamesb

I loved the Acme novelty library comics, the variety of all aspects and the wonderful writing, is really nice, while there is such a huge tongue in cheeck type of thing going on at times.

Jimmy C is great too, but I think my GF likes it much much more than I do.

Jamesb

Steve Dillon, Will Simpson, David Llyodd and John Higgins. I think in that order, but it would vary depending, I reckon all four are brilliant artist anyhow.

I would have loved Fabry to have done an issue.

I like Sean Phillips artwork a lot, but his hellblazer never caught me.

jamesb

I meant "Britain" in the colloquial sense, which I mentioned in the subsequent explanatory post - "Britain" is sometimes misleadingly used to refer to the whole United Kingdom. I should have made that clearer, though - sorry.

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Thats fair enough, its a bloody confusing thing though to be honest.

Of course it has reminded me of the US post boxes and yellow taxi cabs, in issue 49? or was it 48?

Jamesb

'It's a pretty common mistake, but still one worth correcting. Wales is not in England, but they're both in Britain, as is Northern Ireland.'

I do not believe that Northern Ireland is part of Britain.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the offical term, and as you can see it seperates Northern Ireland.

This is a historical thing, as Great Britain is much older than when Ireland (all of it) became part of the Union.

People in Northern Ireland can indeed be British Citizens, and cars will have GB on their international identification plate, BUT Northern Ireland is not Britain.

It is Northern Ireland. On the island of Ireland.

anyone can make an error, I supposse, but does it matter?

the point is that all these reviews achieve much more than the whinging about inacuracies about what reviewers say, SURE I would like beter reveiws, but if it gets a reader to try hellblazer, then I have to say, I dont mind so much, if the reader likes hellblazer, they will stick with it.

The reviews generally read positively, they are OK, and in actual fact I am grateful that they are not leaden and boring full of facts that a new reader can find themselves at a later stage, but which might turn them off at the initial introduction point.

Jamesb

I think its good that there are positive reviews online about Hellblazer.

I dont care what comic the reveiwer likd best previously, but RIGHT NOW Hellblazer is getting good reviews.

Its unfortunate that some reviewers need to be negative about previous creators, in order to enhance their opinion of the current ones, rather than usuing language to decribe the positives.

I too ahve reviewed the comic, for an online website, I make mention of it for a column in the Bristish Science Fiction Associations magazine, and I have posted shortened reccomendations on a number of forums and my live journal.

Its hard to get your excitement over to new or potential readers, sometimes, and I can understand why a reveiwer would not say:

'The cover is nice, but not as nice as Tim Bradstreet'

Thats not my approach, I thought the cover was good, detailed, as I said in my comment here, and a bot different. Its not a pising contest.

anyhow, the most important factor, regardless of the interesting crtiques of reviews, which overall are positive, is that hopefully NEW readers may get enticed to buy the title, and if so, they will at least then have the pleasure of fining so many graphic novels to choose from,

James

I enjoyed this issue.

I thought for what the cover lacked in vividness it definatly made up for in the detail. I like the way that Johns hair is subtley modernised as if he has applied gel yet retained a desheveled look. I liked the way his trenchcoat looks. True the banner is poor, and I secretly hoped they would revert back to the original style, but its a nice cover, and rather simple really, and in the comic shop it stood from the bright colours that filled the shelves. Not sure about the background girlie, yet.

The story is a perfect welcome, well it was for me and I ahvent been buying the title for a while. It not too complicated, with a simple enough twist. The pub setting immediatly gives any new readers an idea of what John is about, as does the rest of the story.

I am going to be urging people to start collecting from this issue, because the story, in my mind is so accessable.

The start of the conversation, the 'whats' made me smile, its very accurate of that type of thing. I liked John having a Guinness, obviously and thought that the attention to detail with all bradning was quite a nice touch.

Initially I thought the art work was too dark, but the image on the bottom of page 6, caught something and the 'daylight' frames had interesting shadings.

I liked the way that the girl looked like a pseudo-Death look-alike, and initially wondered if thats what the character was about -playing silly buggers and pretending to be one of the endless.

Overall I am pleased with the begining of mina's run and slightly intrigued, I like the way that a confrontation is set up and how there was enough nastiness and horror but not gratuously portrayed.

It ranvcours with me that DC have not supported this more, as it is really a great jumping on point. Obviously Mina has a bit to go before I am totally convinced, but its a great start to her run.

Just right IMHO - 9

Jamesb

wow, how crap.

I thought that sort of stuff demised with Nemisis the warlock!

Jamesb

Good idea about the CD, I think Marvel have done some stuff on CD.

its a difficult one, part of me says, that DC should produce cheap black and white 500 page volumes, and part says just produce the whole run numbered and available.

I think Marvel Knights had a vision, and that what I talk about.

Dismissing Bergers obvious lack of interest in the readers that she peddles her wares to, and promises things to, by saying someone else does it, is not a good excuse.

Mark seems to think that the comic is fine, and to be honest, I will see how I find MIna's run, but I do think there is a lack of good publicity and management at Vertigo and serious lack of vision.

jamesb

cant wait for it.

I saw a film of Moore talking about his projects, from the 80's and he is so impressive.

james

I like the current covers, well I just have one in my hand, at the moment, and want to see where they go, if they are in this veign for the series, and change arter that might be nice.

I thought 50 was OK, but that the washing machine cover was dodgy.

I love Glenn Fabrys covers and of course a lot of covers from the absoulte begining.

I was always dissapointed by covers 41-48 and thought it was the wekest part of that run, and did no justice to the quality of comic therein.

Jamesb

So Karen Berger is Executive Editor for vertigo. Fair enough but

I personally feel that Karen Berger, is somehwat neglecting Vertigo. Regardless of what has hapened in the past, its a hollow argument to claim she is doing a good job, and yet at the same time note that there is a definate lack of marketing for MIna comming onto the title.

the perfect oppurtunity to promote someone.

For instance in Loveless 3, there is a half page advert for hellblazer, its a generic one, no mention of a new writer, maybe I am being presumptuous, but something about Mina would be nice, like its the perfect stepping in point.

You mean the US circuit. Remember a whole market in Europe and beyond is ignored. Which is strange as I always saw Vertigo as having a big appeal in Europe.

and what of Shelly Bond, is she in there somewhere?

wasnt she some editor, has anyone every heard anything from her?

Simple adverts in other comics would be a good start, I remember there being an interesting advert for Ennis' start on hellblazer, does it matter whther it was issue 41? I dont think so.

Advertising and marketing Vertigo should be a priority for an individual. Not another brief in many. As is the case now with Berger.

The comparrison that is missed with both Wildstorm and Marvel Knights, is that there is one person in charge, titled and focussed, at least, whereas, Verigo does not have an individual like that, someone who gives ME the average eader that thye are passionatte and dedicated to the titles.

The lack of information online, or anywhere else, regarding City Lights, is down to Karen Berger. I didnt shout about the product, she did, and if her people are not going to bring it to fruition, the least she can do is either say it will never happen, or at least TRY and arrange and schedule a date it will. I am aware of schedules going astray, and it is something that ahppens, but usually one would hear something.

Not impressed, maybe mediocrity is acceptable, but I think there is a lack of effort.

and again, DOES HELLBLAZER NEED TO BE KEPT ALIVE?

james

Depends what he means by "average", but I don't think that quote is offensive. Of course, it applies just as readily to "average Brits, Canucks, Aussies, Arabians, etc".

It's the same mentality that leads to blockbuster movies raking in all the dough and shop-talk, while indy movies are forgotten about or never talked of.

 

"Maus" is an anomaly. I don't think people quite grasp that it's a COMIC BOOK. The Nobel Prize would be my explanation for "Maus".

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sorry Christian, there was a Vertigo Logo'd version of watchmen, I'll just have to find it to ptove it, won't I, then your nit wil be picked ;-)

Karen Berger being Amiable, thats great, but I dont see a vision for Vertigo, comparing the comics inductry to a football cliub is interesting, but I dont know much about football.

She promised City Light in vertigo X, and I have never seen anything else about the project since, . Its a mushroom policy, keep the readers in the Dark and feed them shite.

I can't find much online in the DC website about stuff by VERTIGO editors?

What I do know is that wildstorm have Jim Lee, and Vertigo has no-one. Vertigo is not the cutting edge it once was, and Hellblazer is far from being hugely succesful.

Marvel Knights had JOE QUESADA, who I believe was responsible for some of the major turn around in Marvels prospects, and went on to be made editor.

he also had the common sense to employ some interesting DC and Vertigo creators.

Who does Vertigo have?

I do not see Hellblazer as it currently stands as being succesful.

The topic is 'keeping helblazer alive' if peope feel that it is very alive and well, then its at odds with the whole topic.

Maybe the question is, Does Hellblazer need keeping alive???

I think it does.

Jamesb

They do.

It's Karen Berger.

 

Check all the comic conventions in the US (The Uk has apparently ceased to be of interest for them - probably business suits getting in the way of creative ones).

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Karen Berger shows leadersdhip for vertigo, well if you think so, But I don't.

I was at San Diego Comic con, and didnt see any business suits, actually, and I met a lot of people. The Directors usually wore open shirts etc, nice casual.

You give a fine example of a lack of leadership - no interest in a market - and say she shows leadership.

jamesb

Was that seriously on the books before his departure? Could've been very interesting, although Im not so sure about the mismatch in tone between Hellblazer and the typical superhero romps...

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http://fourcolorheroes.home.insightbb.com/twilightfree.html

has a lot of info, I expect you may have seen it.

er, during the mid nineties, Watchmen was packaged for a while as Vertigo just when V for Vendetta was(which is a superhero book of sorts), and more recently the likes of Skreamer which were published as DC have been rebranded.

I just dislike the carte blanche methodology of DC when it comes to the classification if there is such a thing as for their comics. Saying that superheroes are all in the DCU is a cop out, it avoids the issue, IMHO of lack of direction.

Is Morrisons Doom Patrol a title currently in the DCU going to be rebranded as DC.

Jim Lee is an editorial director in charge of stuff at Wildstorm. Who does this job for Vertigo. Karen Berger; who in Vertigo X promised City Lights???

Ms. Berger must me an impressive lady, but I think that vertigo deserves some sort of brand editorial manager, someone who leads the brand and stands up for it, and maybe occassionbally speaks online.

Speculating that DC are trying to take titles back into DC to reach a wider audience only spell doubt and a lacking of confidence in the VERTIGO brand.

I just wish, someone would actually show some leadership.

Jamesb

The new Vertigo logo on the spines of the Trades are more compelling to me. It's white and bold and jumps out at me.

It used to read Vertigo/DC Comics.

 

well I just been into my local comic shop, and the spines have vertigo in small lettering in colours in tine with the design. There is nothing striking at all about them, unlike the red marvel or new blue DC logo which one sees from afar. Identifying the bloody product would help.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Are you sure these were trades with the new logo? I agree with Christian that they are actually very striking, almost distractingly so. At my bookstore we're able to now have an easily shelved Vertigo section in the graphic novels because the logo at the bottom of the spine is SO obvious. You really can't miss it, and easily unifies all the Vertigo titles together.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Dunno - maybe I am wrong and a new logo has yet to hit stores here, but they had no shortage of vertigo titles, and all were plain writing.

hhhhmmmm

If they have a new striking logo - THATS GOOD!

meanwhile, not advertising mina is shortsighted.

Might as well advertise Batman then if its about sales, I would have thought a new writer deserves some prominence.

J

The new Vertigo logo on the spines of the Trades are more compelling to me. It's white and bold and jumps out at me.

It used to read Vertigo/DC Comics.

well I just been into my local comic shop, and the spines have vertigo in small lettering in colours in tine with the design. There is nothing striking at all about them, unlike the red marvel or new blue DC logo which one sees from afar. Identifying the bloody product would help.

Jonah Hex and Sgt. Rock both had their time at Vertigo, but Vertigo wants to move farther and farther away from having anything to do with the DCU, and establish their own identity.

Establish their own identity, bit late in the day for that. I thought they were the mature end of DC comics, covering a variety of genres from horror to war.

Bit rich to think Vertigo will now eschew DC titles, since much of the 'VERTIGO' line were actually DC comics. Watchmen and V for Vendetta are now branded as Vertigo, Sandman, Hellblazer, shade the changing man, swamp thing - all DC titles and all rebranded Vertigo.

If thats their policy, will Watchmen go back to being DC?

Or will they rebrand Original sins as DC?

It just shows a lack of strtegy and consistancy and overall planning.

Despite new titles such as exterminator, DMZ and Loveless, the line seems still jaded. In fairness the guys in the comic shop were abuzz about exterminators, they reckon its going to be a 'silent hit' but even so, there is some sorta spark missing.

The people at DC make the decisions, and somewhere along the line, no doubt it came up at a meeting, and was dealt with accordingly. We have no adverts.

It shows a tremendous lack of commitment, and political will, in the sense that decisions are being made that are not positive to the title.

You need someone to champion the whole line, al of VERTIGO, who si that person right now?

who is in charge and what do they say?

Who is the managing editor or manager of the Vertigo titles.

Jim lee is a director of ildstorm, so who has Vertigo?

and where are city lights???

Jamesb