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Great first post!!

Is this you too?

Oh and welcome.

Interesting, actually -- ISTR Andy Diggle saying on his (now largely inactive) blog that The Losers fell below break-even on monthly sales but the trades were selling in sufficient volume to convince DC/Vertigo to publish the last eight or nine monthly issues anyway.

I'm pretty sure Vertigo in particular does very nicely out of the trades - Hellblazer sales are poor and well below the normal cut-off that DC series would be cancelled at but it seems to keep rolling because of the excellent trade sales (each one can turn a few thousand through the direct market and if you bring in bookstores, especially Amazon, I wouldn't be surprised if they sold as many trades as they do individual comic books). It doesn't save some titles though, which is a pity as Vinyl Underground and Young Liars were damn fine series. Also helps that Hellblazer is their flagship title really.

If Capt Britain wins, which I'd certainly be happy about, it'll be interesting to see how Marvel reacts. While its not their fault that it didn't generate the sales they need its a shame that they can't find a way to back books of this quality in the way DC seems more able to do.

I suppose the key difference has been that DC have Warners backing them - a backer with deep pockets who is, at least partly, interested in the development and exploitation of IP gives you the ability to take risks and keep titles running when it falls below a threshold that would see it cancelled at another company. In fact they might encourage this as you never know when the big breakout hit comes from, with a star who can spin-off their own multimedia franchise. Now Marvel are owned by Disney we might see them taking more chances in the hope a title gets more momentum.

Also DC lead Marvel in trade paperback sales, so that might help too. However, as DC have declared they want to be #1 in comic book sales, so Marvel might want to take a slice out of the trade sales.

As it seems to be award season here are the Hugos:

http://www.thehugoawards.org/2010/04/2010-hugo-award-nominees-details/

I suppose the main ones for us is the Best Graphic Story:

• Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? Written by Neil Gaiman; Pencilled by Andy Kubert; Inked by Scott Williams (DC Comics)
• Captain Britain And MI13. Volume 3: Vampire State Written by Paul Cornell; Pencilled by Leonard Kirk with Mike Collins, Adrian Alphona and Ardian Syaf (Marvel Comics)
• Fables Vol 12: The Dark Ages Written by Bill Willingham; Pencilled by Mark Buckingham; Art by Peter Gross & Andrew Pepoy, Michael Allred, David Hahn; Colour by Lee Loughridge & Laura Allred; Letters by Todd Klein (Vertigo Comics)
• Girl Genius, Volume 9: Agatha Heterodyne and the Heirs of the Storm Written by Kaja and Phil Foglio; Art by Phil Foglio; Colours by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment)
• Schlock Mercenary: The Longshoreman of the Apocalypse Written and Illustrated by Howard Tayler

I'm obviously going for CB&MI13, especially as Vampire State was the best storyline of the run. Gaiman seems the bookie's favourite (I'm saying this without any consultation with bookies so who knows/) but Paul Cornell is no stranger to Hugo Award nominations so he does stand a solid chance. Girl Genius can't win again can it? As this is the second year that'd mean a 100% sweep of the boards!!

Although Best Novel is always a good line-up:

• Boneshaker, Cherie Priest (Tor)
• The City & The City, China Miéville (Del Rey; Macmillan UK)
• Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America, Robert Charles Wilson (Tor)
• Palimpsest, Catherynne M. Valente (Bantam Spectra)
• Wake, Robert J. Sawyer (Ace; Penguin; Gollancz; Analog)
• The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade)

Me old China is the one I'm rooting for (he says with unearned familiarity) and seems the best bet as the others are less high profile but they all sound interesting:

www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2010/apr/06/hugo-awards-2010-shortlist

I'll be ordering Boneshaker later - I've been meaning to read some Cherie Priest for a while and can't remember why I haven't (although I seem to recall I got stuck in a moral quandary about whether I was being swayed by her being fit or not and then got distracted by something shiny).

Anything else take anyone's fancy?

I'd hope Moon or District 9 would win over Avatar for example.

Paul Cornell is nominated again in Best Novelette for a story in Rebellion's own Solaris compilation volume, so you've got to root for the home team there (although I also like Charles Stross' work).

I wonder if so many Doctor Who nominations might split its vote - I'd have liked to have seen Torchwood's Children of Earth in there too.

Would somebody be kind enough to post a list of the Nikolai Dante books please?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Dante#Collected_editions

You're all beautiful people and I've come over all emotional now! 

And now we burn him!! Bring forth the wickerman!! The prettiest amongst us must die, as it has been done for generations (or since Pete Wells mentioned it), so we have bountiful harvests.

This topic has been moved to Creative Common.

http://www.2000adonline.com/forum/index.php?topic=28167.0

The man is a total cnut

Careful now -- that's the sort of talk that gets you thrown out of places like the John Byrne Forum!

Or thrown into them.

That is some impressive Dr Who goodies you've got there already - imagine the hardcore who fans would fight each other for possession of that. The Barry Kitson Anderson page rough is embarrassingly good for something one might attach the label "rough" to.

Good luck with the auctions and let us know how it goes.

On that link Rich says:

this could provide a useful resource for, well, budding 2000AD writers at least.

Makes me wonder if we have all the possible Mega Cities boxed off? Are there areas we just don't hear from? Or are they all gone? I'm just looking at the map and I know Istanbul quite well... I wonder if there is room for another Mega City? Even if just in some... 2000AD fanzine (if there is such a thing).

I was thinking of a poll along the lines of:

Q: Is Kevin Levell brilliant?

• Yes, he is brilliant!
• No, he is better than that!!

But a backlash would work for me too.

Hi is indeed- all my bitches are.

I see a line of T-shirts (and novelty things) catching on: Rich's Bitches.

Isn't Kevin Levell brilliant!

Yes he is.

And congratulations to Kev, may it be the first of many.

Good analysis of Ichabod Azrael so far if anyone missed it.

Got a mention by Rob Williams:

Really interesting (for me, at least) spot of bloggery about ICHABOD AZREAL and something I was heavily concerned with when writing it...

http://twitter.com/Robwilliams71/status/11882815643

... how you keep the reader's sympathy for a lead who's a remorseless mass-murderer. I worried about this a fair bit.

http://twitter.com/Robwilliams71/status/11882890683

http://thatremindsmeofthis.blogspot.com/2010/04/heroes-and-villains-how-williams.html

http://twitter.com/Robwilliams71/status/11882893717

... And we're there.

Page 16 with another splendid art job, this time by Chris Askham, is available for your reading pleasure.

And that is the end of arc 2. So those waiting to read a complete arc in one go can start at either page 1 and catch-up on two whole arcs:
http://fractalfriction.blogspot.com/2009/11/page-1.html

Or page 9 the start of arc 2:
http://fractalfriction.blogspot.com/2010/02/page-9.html

In other news Jeff Lemire just included us in his "follow Friday" tweet which is great:

http://twitter.com/JeffLemire/status/11883539946

I'm curious to hear what you think of another omission Jim. As highlighted on Bleeding Cool Tood Klein hasn't been nominated for the first time in years. Now is this a good thing as other people are better and the changes needed ringing or a terrible oversight of people taking a true great for granted?

There is the possibility he has ruled himself out - he has won all but 1 or 2 of the lettering Eisners for the last 15 years and he might have thought it was time to let other people have a chance (as winning an Einser is a big deal). I notice Joe Quesada has ruled himself out of the Eagle's.

I notice a curious omission in "Best Digital Comic" too

That said it is an impressive line-up - the Eag;es will be largely flooded by the massive popular webcomics that steamroller all before them. The Eisner nomination are a a better reflection of quality - I'm loving The Guns of Shadow Valley for example and I wouldn't have found it without the Eisner nomination:

• Abominable Charles Christopher, by Karl Kerschl
• Bayou, by Jeremy Love
• The Guns of Shadow Valley, by David Wachter and James Andrew Clark
• Power Out, by Nathan Schreiber
• Sin Titulo, by Cameron Stewart