Greg Capullo has accidentally revealed he’s working on Wolverine for Marvel. December’s top-selling comics have been revealed. Was Kate Beaton’s Napoleon stolen for Carol? All on Comic Book Club News for January 8, 2024.
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Episode Transcript:
Greg Capullo working on Wolverine.
December’s top-selling comics revealed.
Kate Beaton’s Napoleon stolen?
This is Comic Book Club News for January 8, 2024.
Greg Capullo Reveals He’s Working On Wolverine For Marvel:
Greg Capullo has seemingly accidentally revealed he’s returning to Marvel to draw a new Wolverine #1. The news came via a now-deleted X (formerly Twitter) post which showed off a work-in-progress page — with the label Wolverine #1 accidentally not cropped out. Capullo also posted the page on Instagram, albeit with the eye-popping label cropped.
Said Capullo: “After decades away, I’m back at Marvel. Today I drew my first page. Sadly, this is the only page that I’ll be able to share until this project is formerly announced. Hope you dig it.”
Since it has been informally announced, as of yet it’s unknown whether Capullo will be drawing the first issue of a Wolverine miniseries, a new ongoing series, or who will be writing the book. However, the timing of this definitely seems to line up with Marvel’s reboot of the X-Men line after the Krakoa era ends in a few months time. Starting in July, a teaser at the end of last month’s Timeless #1 revealed the subtitle for the new era is “From the Ashes.”
And rumors are flying fast and hot about what’s to come. Gail Simone will be writing a Jubilee story with David Marquez on art for this May’s Free Comic Book Day story, with every indication that she’ll be some part of the upcoming, Tom Brevoort edited line of comics. Whether she’ll write the main X-Men title, and if Marquez is along for the ride is TBD. And on a recent podcast hosted by Rob Liefeld, the creator revealed that — according to him — Jim Lee was courted to take over the X-Men last year, but instead reupped his contract with DC.
With Capullo and Simone somewhere on the roster, it seems Brevoort is assembling an elite X-Men team of his own. More on this as it develops.
December’s Top Selling Comics Have Been Revealed:
December’s top-selling comics have been revealed. And once again, Spider-Man, Batman, and Transformers are taking the top slots.
In fact, according to ICv2‘s breakdowns of the December 2023 sales chart, of the Top 50 books in units sold, seven books are Spider-Man-related, eight are Batman-related, and the only non-Marvel or DC Comics on the chart are Transformers #3, fellow Energon Universe title Duke #1 at number sixteen, and James Tynion IV’s W0rldtr33 at number thirty-three.
The same is mostly true of ICv2’s books by dollars chart, which is also dominated by Spider-Man, Batman, X-Men, and the Energon titles. However, BOOM! Studios managed to sneak three titles on that chart, thanks to higher price points. BRZRKR Fallen Empire #1 and Book of Butcher #1, both at $9.99, and Stuff of Nightmares Slay Ride #1 at $7.99, all rank in that Top 50 – and are the most expensive books on the chart as well, with Marvel and DC books rising as high for some issues as $6.99.
Comics: they are expensive. More breaking commentary like this, only on Comic Book Club News.
Kate Beaton’s Napoleon Stolen For 2015’s Carol?
Here’s some breaking news from 2015: the Todd Haynes-directed feature Carol used Kate Beaton’s iconic Napoleon from Hark! A Vagrant without her permission.
We previously reported the story on Comic Book Club’s website during this podcast’s hiatus, but during a recent viewing of the award-winning movie, we couldn’t help but notice that an establishing shot of the town of Waterloo, Iowa, featured a cartoon of Napoleon eerily similar to the character as drawn by Beaton. A cursory search of the internet showed that indeed, this was the same positioning and general look of a cartoon posted by Beaton back in 2012.
When reached for comment by Comic Book Club News, Beaton confirmed as much.
Said Beaton: “Yeah that’s mine but I wasn’t involved in anything, I imagine some art person on the movie googled Napoleon cartoons and just ripped it! I got a lot of emails when the movie came out.”
Before we grab the pitchforks, though, Beaton seems to be generally okay with the lifting. Continued Beaton: “They owe me big time haha, where’s my Oscar.”
The funnier part about that joke is that Carol was actually snubbed by the Academy Awards, though has become an iconic part of queer film history in the interim. However, this is part of a history of director Todd Haynes using material without consent. His first feature, Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, ran into trouble both for using Barbie dolls to tell the story and using licensed music without permission. And recently, May December has come under fire from Vili Fualaau, whose story inspired the movie and had direct dialogue lifted from interviews with the real-life figure but was not consulted for the film.
We’ve reached out to Haynes’s reps for comment.
For Comic Book Club News, I’m Alex Zalben. And we’re back, baby! Happy New Year, one and all.
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