Your 2019 Predictions, Part Six: Perihelion.
At long last, the final installment of my going over your 2019 comic industry predictions (and if you missed ’em: parts one, two, three, four and five).
Like I said last time (and speaking of last time, you should go back and reread that post because I had to fix some errors after its initial publication) I plan to address some of your comments on these posts on Friday. And then…that’s it! ‘Til next January, anyway, when I cover your 2020 predictions!
Enough preamble, let’s get down to business:
Michael Grabowski grasps the following
“1. Absolute Ambush Bug.”
Actually, I’d love to have that. Maybe it could have an introduction by José Muñoz!
“2. A pair of current DC creators will make an attempt at rebooting the Fleming/Von Eeden Thriller concept as a 12-issue Vertigo series. It will be cohesive while still a bit of a challenging read, but will lack the unique approach of the original. Its success will lead to an eventual attempt to develop the series for the streaming entertainment complex.”
Huh. That would have been something. At the very least, I would have expected one of the TV shows or movies to have nicked the visual of the character Scabbard pulling a sword out of his back. Ah well…maybe someday we can get a nice hardcover edition of this series.
“3. (Wishful thinking here. But aren’t these all?) Marvel will publish True Believers editions of Lee- Ditko work, including their unfairly neglected Hulk stories for Tales To Astonish.”
WISHES CAN COME TRUE! A True Believers $1.00 reprint of Incredible Hulk #6 by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko came out last year! Now if can get them to do the other five in $1.00 editions, we’d be set. (I know they did one of those $3.99 “facsimile editions” of #1…look, I’m cheap, what can I tell you.)
Dave Carter has yet another set of predictions
“The X-Men will be relaunched with a new #1 (whether as Uncanny again or a different title).”
Correct! Boy howdy did X-Men ever relaunch. It’s still relaunching, with more X-titles coming! X-relaunches stomping on our comic racks, forever!
“2. Raina Telgemeier’s ‘Guts’ will be the top-selling comic of the year (just not in comic stores, where it will barely make a blip).”
I don’t know if it was the top of the year for sure, but looking around at various real-world best seller lists, where it’s consistently at the top, I suspect, yes, you’re probably right. (Especially given this lst of the top graphic novels of the decade which is mostly Telgemeier and those Dog Boy books (not to be confused with).
Looking at Diamond’s top ten list for best-selling graphic novels for 2019…no Guts to be found. Watchmen is in first place, however, no doubt buoyed by the hit HBO TV show That’s Our Rorschach!
“3. The Shazam! movie will underperform (by which I mean it will stall make over $100M domestically, but that will be considered a failure”
I think it’s considered a hit, enough so that a sequel is on the way. It did make over $100 million domestially…$140 million, according to Box Office Mojo, with over $360,000,000 total including its performance in distant and mysterious lands. …I don’t know why I look at that number and think “huh, that’s it” like $360M is like something I’d lose behind the couch cushions. All these billion-dollar superhero movies have skewed my perspective.
Philippe Leblanc hugs us with
“1. After audience who saw the movie Avengers: Infinity War got confused and bought the comic Infinity War of the same name rather than the Infinity Gauntlet, people decides that Avengers Endgame is based on the comics ‘Marvel: The End’ from 2003 and purchase this old series en masse.”
I didn’t have that much confusion over War/Gauntlet at my shop, I don’t believe. Most people knew to seek out Infinity Gauntlet. Endgame just seemed to get more people looking for Infinity Gauntlet. Go figure.
“2. DC Comics success with the Swamp Thing TV leads to some interests in a new series. After seeing such a tremendous success to the first title, DC launches ‘The Swamp Universe,’ closely modeled after The Sandman Universe.”
Oh man. Just think, solo titles for Abby. Chester Williams. CRANIUS (his second!).
“3. A popular monthly Lego Comics will be launched, presumably by DC Comics, but maybe BOOM Studios or First Second.”
Still waiting, unfortunately. I’m sure the original graphic novels do okay in bookstores…at least well enough to not settle for the pennies gained from a an ongoing comic book series for comic shop.
DavidG drops these
“1. This will be the year that DC relaunches Legion of Superheroes, as teenagers, to awful effect. I know I predicted this last year, but I have to be right eventually.”
Believe it or not, the Legion has finally returned to stands…whether it’s awful is up to you, I suppose. I think it’s okay, if a little…busy.
“2. This year’s Avengers movie will be peak Marvel – it will make slightly more than the last one, but won’t be out grossed for a long time, because of superhero fatigue and the key actors finally moving on. And the average person recognising that comics’ fondness for killing characters for a cheap emotional buzz, then bringing them straight back again, is essentially cynical and dull.”
Infinity War did just over $2 billion, which seemed like it would be hard to beat…’til Endgame got within spitin’ distance of $3 billion. I think that you’re probably right about it not being outrgrossed anytime soon, at least until that X-Men vs. The Avengers, Guest-Starring Forbush Man comes out.
Probably too soon for audience cynicism to set in regarding superhero deaths and such, at least in the movies. We’ll see how they’ll deal with the eventual casting of key roles of Iron Man or Captain America.
“3. Not only will there be no new issues of Miracleman, but Neil Gaiman will start to publicly hint that it is all too hard, and he has better things to do with his time.”
No new issues, no, but Gaiman still insists that more MM is on the way! I mean, you’re right, he probably does have better (and higher-paying) things to do, but I’m glad he hasn’t forsaken this project! Been waiting decades for the resolution to that cliffhanger!
And Adan Espino Michael DeForges it all up in this joint with
“1. After this Realms crossover with Marvel the books that were actually doing well with readers that I am enjoying (Hulk / Venom), will drop in readership due to interruption.”
Popping in at Comichron again, looks like Venom started out the year with close to 59,000 copies of #10, and ended the year with 74,000 of #21, so that seems to be doing okay…of course, other events and various hoohar beyond just War of the Realms would fiddle with numbers, too.
Immortal Hulk started off the year with 41,000 for #11 (a lot lower than I would ahve thought, honest) and ends the year with 50,000 for #28, so 1) sales may be catching up to all the positive attention it’s receiving, and 2) there were 17 issues of Immortal Hulk this year, which…man, I’d thought Marvel maybe eased up on that shit. Anyway, WoTR wasn’t too much of a series killer…I think in general people kind of liked that series, which, y’know, good.
“2. DC releases an indie creators title kind of like Marvel Strange Tales from years back, and Michael DeForge contributes and his story is one that I actually remember past a few months after reading.”
That would have been neat, but I can’t recall anything that was quite like that. What was the last time DC did that? That Bizarro Comics collection DC assembled to have a place to put that “Superman’s Babysitter” story they were finally shamed into publishing? I mean, some of that wasn’t bad. I’m sure indie creators did work for DC, but not on anything as overtly, well, “indie” as your Strange Tales example. No DeForge at DC that I know of, but maybe he can get in on their young adult/”gimme that bookstore money” line of books they’ve been doing lately.
“3. Marvel and DC both continue to release comics that are 20-22 pages long–of which half the pages in said comics have explosions on them for some kind of dramatic gravitas (only to be glazed over by myself)…at which point I will just dig out something tried and true, like Starman or Swamp Thing…or whatever Michael DeForge did in the last couple of years to scratch the sequential story-reading itch.”
Haven’t done a personal survey myself, but I feel like Big Explosion Content hasn’t cut too much into storytelling…at least, not in all the comics I struggled to read with my wonky eyes over the last year. I could’ve used more explosions to give me a break from trying to discern the word balloons.
However, I appreciate your cited alternatives…more Swamp Thing reading is always encouraged by me, of course. And I sure hope Mr. DeForge appreciates the advertising!
Is that it? Are we done? I think we’re done! Well, except the mopping up, which we’ll do on Friday, so we’ll all meet back here then. Thanks for reading and contributing, pals, and I’ll be back then.
I hate you for making me dream of Keith Giffen Ambush Bug pages in Absolute size. GIVE ME COFFEE TABLE SIZED CHEEKS THE TOY WONDER YOU COWARDS