Your 2013 Predictions, Part Three: Inferno.

§ January 8th, 2014 § Filed under predictions § 4 Comments

So here was part one, here was part two, and oh Lordy, today is part three of my response to your 2013 predictions. Will I finish by the weekend? Or before I die from a fatal case of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome? Let’s find out!

Don’t forget…give me your 2014 predictions. THIS I COMMAND.

• • •

googum, as always, googummed:

“I’m not going to try my usual ‘death of Vertigo’ guess this year; they seem to keep limping along.”

Yup, they’re still hanging in there, what with Sandman, and, oh, I suppose some other titles, allegedly.

“Marvel/Disney is finally going to go too far in their movie casting lowballing, and is going to lose a fan-favorite actor who refuses to budge.”

I don’t follow the Marvel casting news, so I don’t know if there have been any big losses so far. It looks like everyone likes getting a paycheck so far…they even got Sir Anthony Hopkins into two of these things. I suppose it’s only a matter of time, though.

“The Superman/Wonder Woman power couple (that everyone seems to have forgotten about, since it doesn’t come into play in any other books…) will break up; and it’s really uncomfortable, since traditionally in super-hero comics things are settled with fight scenes.”

I don’t think any of us would have predicted the arrival of a Superman/Wonder Woman series last year, or would I think any of us would have guessed that it would actually be kinda entertaining. I guess we’re stuck with the romance so long as this new series sells.

“DC will also lose points by killing off a semi-beloved but somewhat redundant legacy character–someone like Tim Drake or Kyle Rayner. Marvel doesn’t have legacies to burn like that, but they’ll kill off somebody–I’m at a loss as to who, that hasn’t spent time dead already. Maybe Iceman or Kitty Pryde?”

We did get the death of Damian Wayne in Batman Incorporated, which, well, I guess that kinda counts, even though he lives on in some marginally-incomprehensible “Imaginary Story” mini-series. Oh, and that he could come back as a clone at any time, as per the conclusion of the Incorporated storyline.

• • •

Mike Nielsen provides this data:

“By 2014, in continuing the tradition of ‘Archie Meets Kiss’ and ‘Archie Meets Glee’, Archie will announce new storylines were Archie crosses over with other pop-culture items, like ‘Archie Meets Sons of Anarchy’ and ‘Archie meets Star Wars’.”

Sort of got this one, I’d say, in that we got “Archie Meets Zombies” in Afterlife with Archie. While not a specific property, there are very few things more pop-culture-y than zombies at the moment.

• • •

Timothy T. tees off with:

“Poop. I was going to make a prediction that Guardians of the Galaxy will either flop or else be successful yet alienate audiences who won’t watch the following films (comics fans will love it). But, it comes out next year.”

Fair enough. Marvel’s been pretty good with their films being accessible to non-comic fans, but Guardians could be the real test of that. But, c’mon, there’s a space raccoon with a ray gun. That appeals to every demographic.

• • •

demoncat unleashes:

“time warner will manage to get the rights to swamp thing and get the film going and then let del torro do his film with the magic characters. dc deciding the new look of captain carrot will do it with the zoo crew also as space pirates. marvel will after changing spider man back to peter parker decide to also bring back doctor octopus. marvel will finaly undo one more day. doctor strange will not only finaly get his film but a new comic”

I think they have the rights, no Del Toro movie yet, no other reboots of the Captain Carrot crew a la “K’rot” that I know of, Pete ain’t back yet but I’m sure they’ll bring back Doc too when they do, the ramifications of One More Day still hold firm at least until sales dip so badly they dip back into that well, no Doc Strange film or series but he’s popped up a lot in the last year.

• • •

ExistentialMan brings the following predictions into existence:

“1) Chris Ware will win an Eisner for ‘Building Stories’.”

Four Eisners, in fact: Best Publication Design, Best Lettering, Best Writer/Artist, Best Graphic Album, not to mention a top-flight showing in the swimsuit competition.

“2) Over half of the kids killed in Avengers Arena will turn out not to be dead.”

Didn’t read it, but went to that repository of all the world’s truth, Wikipedia, to see what they had to say. According to the list there, eight characters apparently died, but two ended up either having not actually died, or being resurrected through magical-science-y comic means. And of course, comics being comics, the rest of the fallen characters will come back eventually, I’m sure.

“3) The Walking Dead on AMC will have a fourth showrunner by year’s end”

Still on three, unless there’s a more recent story I’ve missed!

“4) BOOM! Studios Adventure Time #1 (unslabbed) will sell for over $150 on eBay.”

I found some slabbed copies selling at close to that price, but unslabbed…nah, not yet. Did find at least one online shop trying to move one of the first issue variants at $200+ but no idea if they’ve sold any at that price.

“5) Marvel will outsell DC every month of 2013 in overall dollar and unit sales according to Diamond sales data. DC will still dominate in trade sales.”

Marvel did outdo DC in both categories most months, except three months where DC did more retail business, and one month where they moved more units. I couldn’t find any handy percentages on trade sales re: DC vs. Marvel, but it looks like, at least through Diamond, Marvel and Image were usually dominating the top spots on the charts. As far as total overall sales….well, I’m having trouble trying to find any convenient “percentage of graphic novel market per publisher” charts for 2013, but maybe someone can direct me to one. My guess is that Marvel did outdo DC in this arena, too, at least through Diamond…through other booksales sources, I suspect it’s the other way around.

“6) Snyder and Lee’s Superman will sell like crazy at first but taper off quickly much like the Azzarello/Lee ‘For Tomorrow’ Supes story.”

I was talking to my Diamond rep about Superman Unchained for some reason or ‘nother back before #1 came out and he just straight up asked me “why is everyone ordering SO MUCH of this comic?” which immediately told me 1) uh oh, and 2) what was going to be in quarter boxes for the foreseeable future.

Now, we made our money back on #1s, and some profit aside, thanks to the variants, so while we still have a pretty good pile of the regular covers left over, we could throw them out and still be ahead. Now, I’ve since cut orders way down (where it’s now selling about twice up from the regular Action and Superman comics), and I suspect this happened at most other shops too.

Good comic, though.

“7) The Star Wars comic book franchise will return to Marvel in 2013. Brian Wood will continue to write – starting with a new #1.”

The announcement came in early 2014, so you were close. No word on who will actually be doing any of the new books, but it would be nice if at least that current Star Wars series Wood is doing could continue over, somehow. Not holding my breath.

“8) Mike’s hair will continue to get even better in 2013. Around August, he’ll decide to go with 80’s style cornrow braids.”

Absolutely 100% correct. You are psychic!

“9) Ed Brubaker will complete his previously mentioned film/TV scripts in 2013 and both will be optioned by the end of the year.”

Can’t find any info on this. Maybe you can tell me!

“10) Someone, somewhere on the internet will reveal a major spoiler for the ending of ‘Age of Ultron’ story.”

I hope it doesn’t involve Angela. That would be terrible.

• • •

Smicha1 laments:

“The Tick Season Three will continue to not be available on DVD”

Apparently it’s available in the UK, but probably not what you meant.

• • •

Ray Tomczak brings us:

“I’ve already predicted this on my own blog in my year in review post, and you don’t really need psychic powers to see that the loss of their longest running title, followed closely by the resignation of founding editor Karen Berger, does not bode well for the future of Vertigo. It seems likely that DC will draw the twenty year old mature readers imprint to a close sometime after Berger leaves in March.”

As discussed above, Vertigo is hanging in there. It certainly looked like DC wanted to fight the impression that Vertigo was done for, given the promotion and new title push we got from the imprint this year.

• • •

philip shockingly reveals:

Pogressive Ruin will run its course, to the dismay of several.”

It was always planned as a short-run project, but I still update it about once a month or so. It’s not dead, just breathing very slowly.

• • •

Bully the Little Prognostic Bull says:

“Point One issues for everyone!”

After DC’s Villains Month and Marvel’s “.INH” and “.NOW” nonsense, I never want to see a decimal point in an issue number ever again!

• • •

Michael Grabowski grabs at a couple of predictions:

“1. I’d say it’s probably The Hulk’s turn to die and be replaced for a time.”

Probably, but not yet! “THE DEATH OF THE HULK” does sound like some kind of Big Marvel Event just ready to happen, doesn’t it?

“2. DC will announce plans for some kind of After Watchmen comic(s).”

I am really, honestly, surprised this didn’t happen.

• • •

matt Jeske dares to reveal:

“1) Fantagraphics will reprint some classic comic book, comic strip or Graphic Novel that I’m familiar with, but somehow forgot was unavailable. Maybe a nice collection of the work of Jose Munoz?”

I’m taking a look at their 2013 releases, and there are probably a couple of things that would fit that description. I lean towards the collection of Gahan Wilson’s Sunday comic strips, myself.

“2) Mark Waid will write a zombie comic.”

He did a digital strip in 2012, but in 2013…I could be missing something, but I don’t see that he did any zombie stories last year. Unless you count mummies.

• • •

My old pal Kurt Onstad bounces a couple of ideas off me:

“1) DC will announce a big event that brings back, at least in part, the Pre-Flashpoint Universe.”

Not yet!

“2) Multiversity issue 1 still won’t be released by years end.”

Sucker bet!

“3) Speedball will take his rightful place as the most powerful and most popular character in the Marvel Universe.”

Is that a threat?

• • •

The always amazingly-named Interstate Shogun lets us know:

“Gaiman’s new Sandman series will come out very irregularly, if at all because of the loss of Karen Berger, but will still be the top selling comic of the year and will win Eisners. But that’s an easy and obvious slam dunk.”

It was #8 in the month it was released, which ain’t too shabby. Any delays appear to be (self-admittedly) Gaiman’s own doing, however. I’m sure it’ll get an Eisner or two next year.

“Personally, I’ll predict that if Peter David is unable to continue writing comics because of his stroke and is forced into retirement, I’ll probably drop whatever few Marvel comics left that I still collect. I jumped off Marvel in a big way with Marvel NOW and if some lame hack took over X Factor, one of the few consistently great comics Marvel has, then I’d probably just say to hell with it and dump Marvel. I’ve already dumped DC and with the exception of the aforementioned Sandman, I won’t be getting anything from them in the future.”

Thankfully, David is still working in comics, with the first issue of his All-New X-Factor hitting stands today!

“I also predict that there will be no Astro City in 2013 either, another exception I would make for DC.”

Also thankfully, Astro City did hit the stands, and is maintaining a regular schedule!

“There will be no new Marvelman either. That’s another easy one.”

While a Miracleman series was solicited, where’s still a ways away from actual new material, though at the rate they’re reprinting the old work, Marvel should get to the new Gaiman/Buckingham stories by early 2015.

“Digital comics won’t make any inroads in terms of sales numbers this year, but a lot of bloggers will still moan about it.”

Like I noted yesterday, I don’t know enough about the sales to answer this intelligently. And are bloggers complaining about this? I really don’t know.

“Comics based movies are due for a big drop off. They’ll still make loads of money, which the creators of said characters will still not see a dime of, but the quality level will drop and burnout will start to set in.”

I am sure the crash is coming, but they’re still doing well, and I think we’re at the point where a real stinko of a superhero movie will just mean people saying “boy, that movie was terrible,” and not “boy, ALL SUPERHERO MOVIES are terrible.” I think the genre has a little life left. We’ll see what happens after Man of Steel 2 does.

• • •

Thelonious_Nick comes at me with:

“1) After a huge, commercially-successful 2012, superhero movies will have an off-year in 2013, prompting articles with titles like ‘The End of the Superhero Movie Era?'”

As discussed in my first predictions post this year, and also just above, they’re still doing great. $1.2 billion for Iron Man 3. Freakin’ IRON MAN.

“2) Marvel NOW will suffer from over-pricing and over-shipping and sales on several titles will slip. Superior Spider-Man will be foremost among these when readers don’t take a non-Peter Parker Spider-Man.”

Well, I know each time they add another Avengers title, sales across the board on the Avengers franchise take a hit. But despite being on a “whenever the hell they feel like it” schedule, Superior Spider-Man is still holding strong.

“3) Walking Dead and Saga will regularly reach top 10 in monthly sales, with at least one other new Image/Dark Horse/IDW title joining them by year’s end.”

Looking at Diamond’s charts, Walking Dead was regularly in the top 10 to 20, and Saga in the top 20 to 30, so they are doing pretty well, if not exclusively top 10 ranking.

At the end of the year (the November chart, the latest available) Walking Dead is at #13 and #14, and the next indie on the list is Unity #1 (which had a special deal for retailers, likely boosting its numbers way up). Then at 28 is The Star Wars, which ain’t too bad in a month dominated by Batman books and event titles and a new Harley Quinn comic.

• • •

And I think that uses up my daily allotment of Internetting for today. Be back tomorrow for more endless blocks of text!

4 Responses to “Your 2013 Predictions, Part Three: Inferno.”

  • David Oakes says:

    That is not Digger in the Daredevil comic, but Simon Garth, The Zombie!

  • ExistentialMan says:

    Reading Bully’s predictions (and your response) to the annoying decimal-numbering trend makes me kind of want a pi-month where every issue of every comic issue ends in .14159265359

  • Pal Cully says:

    Totally off this subject. Dan DeCarlo contributed to “My Friend Irma” “Hedy of Hollywood” and “Millie the Model” in the early 50’s. They’re wonderfully racy. Check out the CBDB galleries.

  • Stevonicus says:

    The Zoo Crew sort of made a reappearance at DC. One of the issues of Justice League of America had a flashback to Stargirl’s childhood where she watched a Yankee Poodle cartoon.