Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by Steve Bennett of Super-Fly Comics and Games in Yellow Springs, Ohio.  This week, Bennett talks about the future of comics and the recently released John Carter movie.

Not so long ago I was wondering what was next for comics (see "Confessions of a Comic Book Guy--Whatever Happened To Tomorrow?"), and this week there's been definite evidence  Marvel is solidly, if belatedly, facing the future.  As long as I've been writing these things I've been pushing comic book publishers to introduce value added content to their comics.  So I must admit I was well pleased by the news (see "Marvel Announces New Digital-Only Comics Imprint") starting with AvX #1 there will be an app allowing readers access to bonus material, essentially DVD extras for comic books.  Plus, there was the announcement starting in June Marvel Comics costing $3.99 will come with a free digital copy.

And when it comes to Marvel Infinite Comics; in retrospect it was obvious  someone was going to do something like this, I just never thought it was going to be Marvel.

According to the story "DC Comics To Launch DC Nation Super Spectacular" over at the Bleeding Cool website.  In May DC Comics will publish DC Nation Super Spectacular, a 64-page, $4.99 publication that's essentially a magazine version of their Saturday morning Cartoon Network block.  It's the sort of thing that Marvel has been doing for a long time and I must admit I've been waiting impatiently for DC to do something similar that could serve as a gateway for a new generation of readers.  It's, so far, a one-shot, and the market for periodicals is not what it used to be, but I'm going to go out on a limb and be optimistic.

Well I can't exactly say I was surprised by the news John Carter under performed at the box office (see "'John Carter's Dismal Debut Makes it Number Two").  I don't blame myself but the fact someone in my demographic (old guys) liked it certainly did them no favors.  Okay, sure, it's about 40 minutes overlong, but it's something that could be easily fixed by trimming Carter's pre-Mars back story and completely eliminating an absolutely unnecessary second ending.  Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins nicely embody their iconic roles but of course the true breakout star of the film was Woola, Carter's pet Calot; I honestly can't decide whether it looks more like Buster Brown's Tige or Fat Dog Mendoza.  But then, I can't even decide which of those references is more obscure.  One of the worst parts of Disney's marketing 'strategy' (i.e. they acted not so much like they were marketing a movie as trying to bury a body) is no toys means there will be no Woola plushes for Christmas.

In a lot of ways the real story behind the "failure" of John Carter the good news.  It's doing extremely well overseas.  I'm a glass half empty sort of fellow myself but it's hard to ignore "But It Earns 70 Million Overseas" (the subtitle of the ICv2 article) or "'John Carter' Opens With $100 Million Worldwide," the title of Mark Hughes piece for Forbes.  Along with doing a fine job of establishing just how important the international market has become for American films he has something of interest to say about the impact the Internet can have on them:

"While most media reports are focusing on the pre-established narrative that the film is a flop and critical failure, audiences are rating the film with a very healthy B+, some key reviewers have enthusiastically embraced the movie, and the strong foreign receipt numbers indicate it will have a much better box office run than many of the detractors seem to be giddily hoping for."

To my mind, even worse than those who were sneering at the film sight unseen were, well, guys like me who instead of talking up the film (i.e. "creating buzz") decided to put the full weight of their nerd rage against Disney's criminally negligent marketing campaign for it.  I can't honestly say writing something on the Internet actually did anything to hurt the movies chances, but then, Hughes piece is a reminder that as much as fun as it can be, constant carping and negativity might not be the best use of any-one's time.

And, finally, in case you missed it, in a piece by Rob Moynihan in TV Guide titled "Megan Mullally on Her New 'Breaking In' Role" the actress revealed...

"I do have a comic-book collection!  Just a few when I was a kid: The Spirit, Aquaman... I even have some Fantastic Four.  Then I spent one summer when we first got a computer in 2003 buying comics off of eBay.  I guess I just got busier, because I look back and think, "I had a whole summer to buy comics on eBay?  How did that happen?"

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.