Big comics news.

By ANDREW A. SMITH
Scripps Howard News Service
Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Lots of comics news will come out of San Diego's Comic-Con International, the biggest pop-culture show on the planet, July 26-30. But a number of publishers have announced news beforehand, which should be mentioned before it gets lost in the CCI tsunami:

Online, Part I: DC Comics has announced the launch of Zuda Comics (zudacomics.com), a Web comics "imprint," in October.

In the spirit of YouTube, creators of any stripe will be encouraged to submit original Web comics in any genre to Zuda, and the readers will vote in periodic competitions for their favorites. Winners will receive commissions to create a year's worth of Web comics for the site, which will be printed as well -- and they'll even get paid!

DC has partnered with IBM Global Business Services to build the Zuda site, with guidelines for Web-friendly formatting. A minimal zudacomics.com site is already online, if you want to sign up for updates.

"There is an explosion of creativity in Web comics," said Paul Levitz, DC Comics president and publisher, in a press release. "DC wants to be a good publisher for the evolving and growing community of online comic creators, so that we can be their partner for showcasing new kinds of works to entertain future generations."

And maybe make a little money, too, eh?

Online, Part II: Newcomer Virgin Comics has teamed with MySpace to create Coalition Comix -- another online comic-book platform.

According to Virgin, Coalition will commission various professionals to collaborate with viewers as "Story Masters." On this site, the 2.0 aspect is readers voting on plot twists. Each "digital issue" will have a real-time creation period of two weeks, with sketches, artwork and scripts continuously uploaded for interactivity.

The first pro on deck is Mike Carey, who has written a number of well-received comics ("Lucifer," "X-Men") and just released his first novel, the supernatural thriller "The Devil You Know" (Warner Books). You can join up to participate at http://www.myspace.com/coalitioncomix, and Virgin also suggests visiting the official MySpace Comic Books profile site (www.myspace.com/comicbooks).

Virgin has also released a YouTube video promoting the new title "Virulents" (youtube.com/watch?v=Ws8nQjGSU4o), and Chief Creative Officer Gotham Chopra talks about it on his blog, virgincomics.wordpress.com/2007/07/06/blood-guts-and-terroristsoh-my/.

Online, Part III (sort of): The world's most popular MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) is making the leap to print at DC Comics.

The ongoing series "World of Warcraft" will debut in the fall, written by the legendary Walt Simonson ("Thor," "Orion") and illustrated by Ludo Lullabi and Sandra Hope. Preview art will debut, naturally, at Comic-Con International.

Online, Part IV: Joss Whedon, creator of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," has been writing Marvel's "Runaways" for the last three months, and the entire first issue (No. 25) is available online for free at whedonesque.com/comments/13683. It's really not unusual for comics to be posted online these days, but it gives me an excuse to talk about Whedon, and something else besides the Internet:

Good Press: The July 17 "Publishers Weekly" ran a pretty positive article by Douglas Wolk about comics companies' efforts to reach non-traditional readers (publishersweekly.com/article/CA6460848.html?nid=2789). Wolk found a number of Southern California retailers who raved about Whedon's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" series (Dark Horse Comics), which acts as "season eight" for the TV show, and Stephen King's "Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born" (Marvel Comics). Apparently, at least in SoCal, these books can outsell "traditional" comic books like "X-Men" by as much as a six-to-one margin.

But "traditional" books are selling well, too. 2007 marks the fifth consecutive year of rising sales for the comic-book industry, with some titles routinely selling three times what they did in the '90s at comic shops. In addition, manga has been boffo at bookstores, opening up a new venue for publishers. And the movie, cartoon, toy and paraphernalia tie-ins have become a cash cow for big publishers like Marvel, DC and Dark Horse. It's a good time to be a retailer, or a fan.

Bad Press: But not if you believe a July 17 article by the Los Angeles Times Web comics editor, Tim Cavanaugh, who somehow sees a death spiral in all this success (latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oew-cavanaugh17jul17,0,3500070.story). I'm ignoring him, though, since "Web editors" have a vested interested in seeing print die off and this article manages to find the bad news it's looking for.

(Contact Andrew A. Smith of the Memphis Commercial Appeal at capncomics(at)aol.com or visit www.captaincomics.us/forums.)