PROJECT UPDATE -- WIDOWED

Quick update tonight.

Issue one of Widowed is almost a wrap. Joaquin is finishing up the last few pages of color, and then it's off to prospective publishers in search of a nice home.

Until then, I've posted the first five pages here. Check it out, leave a comment, or even better, tell you friends!

Portfolio Updates

Mission: Help Adam Quit The Day Job... 

Step 1: Update portfolios. 

Lettering -- CLICK HERE

Logo Design -- CLICK HERE

The Hot List: The Walking Dead - Rise of the Governor

I read The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor over the weekend and it was awesome.

I should start by saying I love both The Walking Dead comic book and the television series, so when I sat down with Rise of the Governor I immediately found myself in a familiar world. If you read the comics, Rise of the Governor is like time traveling back to the beginning of the series. You will learn how one of the nastiest comic book villains rises to power, and your reading of the comics will be a whole new experience.

If you've only ever watched the television series, read this book before season three starts. That's all. Just do it. And seriously... read the damn comics. They're amazing. 

The Walking Dead comic book is coming up on its 100^th issue. That's a lot of comics. That's a lot of character development. That's a lot of shit these characters have been dragged through. If you've been reading along from the beginning, you have grown with these characters, and you've probably forgotten a lot about what those early days of the horrific zombie apocalypse were like for Rick and his crew. What Rise of the Governor does, and does well, is transport you back to the earliest days of the outbreak, it's like going back in time and seeing everything you already know, but from a different perspective. The twist is this is the perspective of a character for which you already know the ending. Or at least you think you do.

If you read this book, and if you're a fan of either the show or the comic I highly recommend it, you will relive a lot of familiar themes and events. You follow Blake and his companions through small abandoned towns, crowded highways, back alleys, and the rooftops of Atlanta. Tough decisions will have to be made. People will die. You've been there before with Rick, and you might find yourself thinking that it's just the same story with different characters. In some ways you would be correct, but that's kind of the point. Rise of the Governor is about so much more than the Governor. It's like a parallel universe where new questions are raised about Rick and what the world has become. In both of the other incarnations of The Walking Dead we watch Rick turn into a different person. In Rise of the Governor, you watch Blake become someone different too, and you can't help but compare the two men and wonder what would have happened if they're positions were flipped from the start.

Read this book and you will want to go back re-read the Governor issues of the comic. You'll look at that character with fresh eyes, with some level of understanding or maybe sympathy. And, if you stop and think about it for a moment, you'll realize you are experiencing something else too. You will realize how this Walking Dead world changes perspectives. You saw The Governor through Rick's eyes. You saw an evil man who thrived in an evil world. After Rise of the Governor, you will see a good man who succumbed to a broken world.

And then you will immediately wonder what the people of the Hilltop see when they look at Rick.  

The Walking Dead - Rise of the Governor

Written by Robert Kirkman & Jay Bonansinga

Buy it here.

PROGRESS REPORT - WIDOWED

Just a quick project update today.

Joaquin Pereyra just finished up the colors for two pages of Widowed. It looks fantastic. Click here to see them.

I also have some very good news. I will be self publishing the first issue of Widowed. Marcelo has several projects currently on his drawing table, so we're looking at an end of summer release (time to complete the art, have it lettered and printed). Whether or not this first print run will be in full color or black and white will depend on how much money I can scrounge up before Marcelo finishes the pages. Fingers crossed!

Stay tuned...

- Adam

WHY THE AVENGERS MATTERS

“If you build it, they will come.” That might work for baseball fields, but it definitely doesn't for comic books.

I've seen Marvel's The Avengers four times now, each time with a different group of people who were all seeing it for the first time (okay, I'll admit it, once by myself). Of my four viewings, two of them were opening weekend, one was in the film's second week, and the final time several weeks after. The one thing that was consistent was that each time the theater was jam packed. Each time the movie garnered laughs, cheers and applause, and all along the way I watched the box office numbers climb. It topped $200 million dollars on opening weekend. Then a billion dollars worldwide in less than 20 days. As a life long comic book fan and reader this had me thinking, how many of the people that loved The Avengers movie have actually read an Avengers comic?

So, I did a little digging, crunched a few numbers, and discovered that there is a vast chasm between the number of people who actually read comic books and the number of people who could be reading comic books.

First, given that I've seen the movie several times myself, I realize that a lot of those ticket sales went to repeat viewings. What I wanted to know was how many people who saw The Avengers were unique viewers. This is almost impossible to do with the resources I have available. So instead, I've done a little magic math-estimation. In 2011, the average movie ticket price in the United States rose a few pennies to about $8 (source). Taking increase prices for 3D into consideration, I'm going to use an average of $10/ticket in my calculation.

I will also only use the Avenger's domestic opening box office figure because, A) the US is the primary market for American comic books, and B) as the weeks go on the box office numbers will more than likely reflect a higher percentage of repeat viewers.

The Avengers domestic opening weekend total at the box office was $207,438,708.

So with a $207,438,708 box office haul, at $10 a ticket, that leaves approximately 20,743,870 tickets sold on opening weekend. Now, there were most definitely repeat viewers on opening weekend. To account for that, let's say only 50% of the opening weekend sales were the unique viewers that I'm looking for. That leaves us with a little over 10 million individuals who plopped down in the theater to watch a group of comic book superheroes unite to fight an alien invasion.

I'm also only concerned with people who are potential comic book readers, and let's face it, some people are predisposed to never pick up a comic book. So, maybe only five percent of those unique movie goers are the type of people that already read comics or are potential comic readers. That's 500,000 people who should be reading the comics. But the true numbers are far from that. 

Now, let's look at comic book sales figures from April of 2012 (source). Because we're talking about an Avengers movie, I'll use Avengers v. X-Men #2 (AvX) as my example of a “top seller” comic. For April 2012, AvX #2 sold about 158,000 individual copies. If we assume that each and every one of those copies were purchased by a unique reader and not collectors purchasing multiple cover variants, that leaves 342,000 potential comic book readers that remain untapped for one reason or another. And this is a very conservative estimate given that AvX is a “big event” series that almost always garners increased sales when compared to the standard monthly titles. For example: The Avengers #25 sold 65,000 copies. That's less than half of what AvX sold. Another popular title, Uncanny X-men #11, sold approximately 69,000 copies.

Another interesting factor is that these numbers don't necessarily represent actual readers. If you're familiar with the direct sales market then you will understand why. If you aren't, let me explain. Comic book shop owners purchase all their books several months in advance based on the estimated demand of their customers. To more accurately predict this demand most comic shops will offer a subscription service or “pull list” for their customers. Essentially, a customer agrees to purchase the new issues of his her or favorite comics each month, and in doing so, the shop owner relies on the amount of pull customers to gauge how many copies of each issue to order. Comic shop owners will almost always over order books like Batman, Avengers, X-Men, Justice League, Spider-Man, etc, because these are “high profile” books that the shop owners know they will have a better chance of selling to the uninitiated walk-in customer.

But, I'm only concerned with actual readers. So, while comic shops might have ordered 65,000 copies of Avengers #25, only a percentage of that number walked out of the shop with the comic in hand. The surplus copies, however many that may be, are sitting on shelves in comic shops around the country waiting to be either purchased or, eventually, banished to the dark corners of the back issue long boxes.

See, there is that gaping chasm between people who like what comics are about, but don't actually read comics.

Comics do this on a monthly basis. 

For the hundred or so thousand people who went to see Avengers and can't wait for the sequel, they can find twice as much action in the comics every month. One of the best thing about comic books is that there is no budget to adhere to. An editor at Marvel or DC is never going to tell their creative team that they can't have another space battle because of a funding issue. In comics, if it can be thought up, it can be drawn, and when comics are done well, there isn't a better form of entertainment out there for your money.

But, this is all considering just the “big two” books and the household names like Batman and The Avengers. What frustrates me even more are the independent books that suffer in sales while their counterparts in other storytelling mediums thrive. Take for example Scott Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque's American Vampire, published through DC's Vertigo imprint. While Stephanie Meyer sells bazillions of copies of Twilight novels, and at least one Vampire movie a year fills up theaters, American Vampire is selling less than 15,000 copies a month – And it's better than any of those other vampire tales across the board. Consider that for every book like American Vampire, there are three or four books that are just as good but get canceled because of low sales. This is a tragedy of the highest order.

There is an audience. There is an audience that likes stories about costume heroics, or dark and lusty vampires, or military espionage, and many more. Unfortunately, this audience is flocking to novels and movies while completely over looking one of the best storytelling mediums out there.

There is no good reason for this. Comics are simply another valid medium for telling stories, and people love stories, they've been telling us that with their hard earn dollars for decades. The seemingly unanswerable question is how to get these people to the comics.

But there is an answer, it's just not an easy one. It's going to take a group effort, from publishers, comic shops and fans alike. Publishers are trying. The emergence of digital comics has reached into a small sliver of that untapped fan base. But that's not enough. Comic shop owners need to realize that the pull list customers they have had for 20+ years will not be there forever. Comic shop owners should have been standing in The Avengers line at the movie theaters handing out comics with their business cards attached to them. It's time to pull the posters off the comic shop windows and show people that you aren't really a front for a head shop. And us fans, it's time to turn “read comic in public day” (August 28^th) into every day. We can show people that it's okay to read comics. We can show people that if you liked the Iron Man, Thor, Batman, Green Lantern, Hulk, Captain America or Avengers movie, you can experience that and much, much more every month in the comics. And if capes and spandex aren't their thing, then we can show them that there is so much more out there.

There is something for everyone in comic books. I don't think comics are dying, they will be around in one form or another for years to come. But if we, the publishers, the shops, the fans, want comics to flourish and push what they can be to the limits, then we can't sit back and think it will happen on its own.

We have to make it happen.

Adam Wollet

For the Love of Comics.  

PROGESS REPORT

Here are a few quick updates for some of the projects I've been working on lately.

I've added a few more pages of lettered pages to my lettering portfolio. The new pages are from a project titled Liberty At Arms and is written and created by Brandon Gish (twitter) and Randy Holliday, with pencils by Nicholas Valente (deviantart), inks by James Whynot, and colors by Ross Campbell.  

Next, I have an update for one of my personal projects, Widowed. Click here, or on the Widowed link at the top of page for an early look at character designs and the first few pages of art. I've teamed up with Marcelo Salaza again for this project. You've previously seen Marcelo's work on Kingdom Bum, and as good as those pages were, Marcelo is bringing a very different style to Widowed. Check it out and leave a comment to let us know what you think.  

That's it for now. I should have more Widowed pages to post soon. I'm also working on some ideas for a logo. Once I get a few that I think are on the right track I'll post them up here as a test run. 

Thanks for taking a look! 

The Hot List

To start, I'd like to say a little bit about this blog. Simply put, it's about comic books, that should be obvious. This blog will function as a hub for all the comic projects I'm currently working on, as well as a sounding board from which I will heap praise on all the comics I'm currently reading and loving. Finally, this blog will focus on only the good in the comic book industry. If you want to read about who is suing whom, the daily twitter spats or rumor mongering, there are dozens of other websites out there for you to pour over. There is a lot of negativity on the internet about the comic book industry. Here I will focus on the amazing people and fantastic work, which are far more numerous than all the negative stuff anyway.

Speaking of the good, here are some of my favorite comics I've read recently.

(Okay, I feel I should offer a disclaimer: I am almost always behind in my comic book reading. I work a lot, and a good portion of my free time is spent writing my own comics, or working with others on theirs. So, the comics I talk about here might not always been most current weeks pull, but they will all be worth talking about. Also, I buy a lot of comics, but there are also a lot that I can't. So, if I've missed a comic that you think is amazing, by all means let me know.) 

First up: 

RESIDENT ALIEN

Written by Peter Hogan

Art by Steve Parkhouse

This story was first serialized in Dark Horse Presents, but I didn't discover it until it was collected and released as Resident Alien #0, but man, am I glad I did. The story is a simple small town murder mystery, but the man tasked with solving the crime, Harry Vanderspeigle, isn't a man at all – he's an alien, marooned on Earth many years ago. “Harry” maintains his secret by using his mental powers, forcing others to “not see him as he is”.

I fell into this comic immediately, mostly because it's an interesting twist on an alien story. Harry doesn't seem to be the “destroy all humans” alien. Instead, he is a peaceful, all around good guy, who is just trying to fit in as best he can until he can find a way home. Make no mistake, Harry is the real draw here. As a reader, I instantly liked Harry. He's introspective, and thoughtful, and he's been stranded on Earth long enough to assimilate our cultural habits, even though he still doesn't understand some of them. 

Another thing I loved about this first issue is the story economy. Hogan and Parkhouse tell you just about everything you need to know in the first three or four pages. There is no wasted space, each panel matters, and the pacing is spot on. After this fluid setup, the rest of the issue is spent progressing the story, building up Harry's character and dropping hints to the larger mystery at hand.

Resident Alien reads like old school science fiction with a modern polish. It's definitely a must read!

THE WALKING DEAD #96

Written by Robert Kirkman

Art by Charlie Adlard (pencils, inks) & Cliff Rathburn (gray tones) 

Lettered by Rus Wooton

Let's be honest here, The Walking Dead isn't wanting for praise. A zombie story that has lasted for 90+ issues speaks for itself (not to mention the television series, board game, video game, action figures, and whatever else I'm forgetting). But, issue 96 stands out to me because it marks a true turning point in this long long story. 

Up to this point, Rick and his crew have had no identity. At different, and sometimes overlapping times, they have been survivors, scavengers, fighters, farmers, and more, and this whole time they've done so on their own. This issue marks the “adult years” of Rick's crew. They've spent the last 95 issues like infants thrown into a crazy new world, fumbled their way through the emotional teens, and now the people they have grown up to be have been identified – they are the grizzled warriors. Rick said it himself, they don't have much to offer for trade other than their hardened ability to fight off just about anyone. They might be the founders of the new worlds first true army.

Or, I'm completely wrong and they will all die by issue #100. Either way, issue #96 marks a new direction for The Walking Dead. There are other civilized people still alive in the world. Things can't stay the same from here.

If you're not reading this comic by now, you should be. Between weekly reprints, trades, compendiums, and digital, you can find this comic just about anywhere. Trust me, you won't be disappointed.