Pipeline and Sundry: Humanoids on the Comics Industry, Asterix Audio Books, Schuiten’s Last Book
Humanoids Gets It
Humanoids’ marketing guru, Jud Meyers, talked recently about how backwards the North American comics industry is and how it really should just adopt the European model. (This is my summation of it, at least.)
I, obviously, agree, having been banging that particular drum for a long time now.
Also, this:
Every company has its own style and their own approach, and that’s okay. But coming from retail originally, seeing the quality of comic books fall drastically over the years, to the point where the paper curls and it’s something you have to put in a bag and board because it looks like somebody sat on it, it’s been interesting coming into a company where quality is part of the overall product, the physical copy. Not just the story and the art. It’s about how it feels on your hand and how it looks like on the shelves.
Jud Meyers, Humanoids Director of Sales and Marketing
I was leafing through a couple Marvel TPBs in a comic shop a few months ago and they were awful. I don’t know what that paper stock was, but it was starting to curl up naturally while sitting on the stands and just felt horrible in your hands.
That’s when I realized the only paper comics I had bought recently were hardcover books. Those tend to run slightly more high end, and so get better quality. The drive to make cheaper trades has resulted in… very cheap trades.
I didn’t survey DC’s trades, but I know that Image’s were fine about a year ago or so, when last I looked at them.
One More for Schuiten
It’s perhaps the worst kept secret in Franco-Belgian comics that Francois Schuiten is working on a Black & Mortimer album. What is perhaps more alarming is that he says it’ll be his last comic.
He’s successful enough at just making posters and drawing architecture and trains and things. I can’t blame him for not wanting to spend the rest of his life drawing people getting in trouble in front of architecture and trains and things. Let him do what he likes. We’ll always have the books he left behind.
Asterix at 60
Next year is the 60th anniversary of Asterix. I expect we’ll see a LOT of new Asterix stuff next year to celebrate. We know now about two things:
As mentioned previously, there will be a 60th anniversary book with contributions from an all-star roster of European talent. Some of those pages can be found on Instagram already. Nob (“Dad”) and Alessandro Barbucci have shown us glimpses so far.
And now, we have the announcement of Asterix Audio Books. They’re doing audio versions of the first two books. This could work with the right talent, I suppose. I doubt they’ll ever be released in English, but I’d be willing to give them a chance if they ever did.
Make Good Comics
Not European comics-related directly, per se, but here’s a valuable lesson courtesy Ben Towle:
My daughter, at age 10, is now into the Raina Telgemeier oeuvre, including “The Babysitter’s Club”.
European-related, she does take my copies of “Dance Class” (PaperCutz) off my bookshelf to read now and again, too.
So I agree with his point.
