Saturday, February 18, 2006
 Friday, February 17, 2006Clarification, accidental insults, and how not to cut your hair.
Just to clarify my discussion of Infinite Crisis and other house-cleaning company crossovers...I'm not stuck on the idea of company-wide continuity, and it doesn't much bother me if, say, the revamp of Hedge-Trimming Man contradicts the back-story given to Punch Squad. I'm more bemused than anything else...I'm not going to write nasty letters to the publisher, or write fan-fiction "correcting" the mistake, or anything like that. I might comment on it here because, hey, this weblog doesn't write itself, but it ain't nothin' I'm gonna get worked up over.
Unless it screws with Swamp Thing continuity. Then you'd better look out. And I did like Hawkworld, since the subject came up. I particularly enjoyed the fun first annual, which was, I believe, the first of many efforts at explaining how this revamped Hawkman fit into the history of the DC Universe. And probably the initial moment when the folks at DC realized "Uh, oh...what'd we do?" For further reading on internal consistency/revamps in myths and storytelling, may I recommend this discussion? So former employee Kid Chris (here's a photo for the ladies and so-inclined guys) related a tale to current employee Nathan, which he shared with me, which I'm now going to share with all of you (though names will be omitted to protect the embarrassed). KC was at a party recently, and the topic of his involvement in the funnybook retail world came up. Someone at the party informed Chris that his roommate was, in fact, a comic book writer...a writer of a particular indie title that had received a good amount of positive buzz. Tact-master Chris responded with "Wow, that comic flopped!" And, as it turned out, the person's roommate, the writer in question, happened to be standing right there. He simply turned to Chris and said, sadly, "Yeah...I know." I'd been in a similar situation...many years ago, when I still went to the occasional comic convention, I was in the process of purchasing stock for the store when a fellow going through a comic box next to me decided to start up a conversation. Fellow: "Hey, you guys sell [a particular now-defunct publisher] Comics?" Me: "Yeah, they do okay, I suppose." Fellow: "So, what do you think of them?" Okay, at this point I should have realized, "Hey, this guy may be involved with the company somehow." However, I was but a young Mikester, my instincts not yet fully honed, so this was my response: Me: "Well, they're pretty amateurish...there are one or two okay artists, but otherwise, I don't think they're very good." Fellow: "Um...I draw for that company." And that's how I felt like a real jerk for the rest of that day. Yeah, I know, he asked, but I still felt pretty bad. Not as bad as that one time I completely and unintentionally mocked a customer from Ireland who was visiting our store, but that may be a story for later. (And it was unintentional, I swear!) "Is it weird to get your hair cut like a super hero?" "I just really liked the way Clark Kent's hair looked in this issue of Birthright and got my hair cut person to do it like that for me. I know it's just you basic part, but it just looked really cool. I didn't begin to question whether or not this was kind of weird up until I was flipping through the latest Premier magazine with Brandon Routh on the cover and really liked his hair, too, then I got my hair cut person to cut my hair like that. Is that weird?" Thursday, February 16, 2006"Screw Bob Kane! Frank Miller created Batman!" - Pal Corey
That was pal Corey's response to my telling him about Miller's forever forthcoming Batman Versus al-Qaida. It may be no Daredevil Battles Hitler, but I'm sure it'll be...well, I'm not sure what it'll be, but I'm sure it's going to get someone ticked off somewhere. (Oh, and Corey may not have used the word "screw." I just didn't want "f***" in the title.)
Anyway, another new comics day, another dollar: Dear Diamond - please don't let your employees use one of the books we ordered as a clipboard prior to sending it to us. The House of M book doesn't look very appealing when we can plainly read the writing gouged into the cover by whoever was using the book to support the paper they were scribbling on. Question of the day: "So, what's Apocalypse Vs. Dracula about?" My response: "I don't think I can explain any better than the title." The Rosen Graphic Mysteries: UFOs/Bigfoot/Loch Ness Monster/etc. - Well, at least the text pieces in the back make a token reference to the fact all this stuff is hogwash. Otherwise, so long as you take this material with a big ol' grain of salt these books can be fun...a little crudely drawn, a bit garish, but still good old fashioned unacceptable entertainment, like comics should be. Kinda wish we didn't get a dozen of 'em at once (including the related "Myths" line), however. Planetary Brigade #1 - Boom! Studios's newest release is a spin-off of the very entertaining Hero Squared, focusing on the adventures of Captain Valor before he "teamed up" with a parallel-universe slacker version of himself. It's superhero team hijinks a la the Keith Giffen/J.M. DeMatteis Justice League, which is only natural since these are the folks writing it. Amusing, entertaining, and imaginative...I think my favorite new character is the Mauve Visitor, the haughty and vain alien member of the Brigade, more concerned with his coat and drink than with the troubles at hand. He's a "Prissuvian," and that name probably tells you what you need to know about him. Very funny stuff. A variety of artists contribute to the book, including Hero Squared regular Joe Abraham, as well as Cynthia Martin, Eduardo Barretto, and Mark Badger, whose loose cartoony style is always welcome in my book. Anyway, check it out...previous knowledge of Hero Squared not necessary, though you should be reading that, too. The Identity Crisis action figures have arrived, based on Michael Turner's artwork, and...well, Deadshot and Zatanna come off okay. Green Arrow's head seems awfully out of proportion with the rest of his body, and Hawkman appears to be just a little too buff. And I had about a half-dozen incredibly inappropriate things to say about the Dr. Light figure, but I think I'd better just keep those to myself. Speaking of inappropriate...Angry Youth Comics #10. That's all I'm saying. Go look at it yourself, next time you're in the store. Sgt. Rock: The Prophecy #2 - That puppy's going to come to no good end, isn't it? (I've talked about the "avenging the dead puppy" DC war stories before...you know, hero befriends puppy, puppy dies horribly, hero uses anger over puppy's death to give him the strength to kill the enemy..."this one's for you, dead puppy!" This is going to be another one, I just know it.) So were were talking about Infinite Crisis at the shop, and while we all agreed that, as far as crossovers go, this is probably one of the most exactingly planned crossover events in comic book history, with very little minor scheduling hitches (i.e. Supergirl) along the way, something was bound to be screwed up somewhere. Like, hugely screwed up, as in "we better do another crossover series to fix the mistakes caused by Infinite Crisis," which of course would create more problems for yet more crossovers to fix, and so on. For example, what happened to Hawkman in all the revamping following Crisis on Infinite Earths, which they tried to fix during Zero Hour, which ended up getting sorta fixed in JSA by skipping over the revamped Hawkman entirely and going back to the Golden Age one. It's still too early to tell what's likely to be the problem caused by IC...we're still in the middle of the story, and they're in the process of breaking things apart before putting them back together again...and it may not even be until a couple years after the fact before we get an inkling of any problems this series may cause. There was no clue in the original Crisis that Hawkman was going to get the short end of the stick, for example...that was more a symptom than a direct result of the series' events. But still, I wonder what "corrective measures" we have to look forward to after IC is over? Wednesday, February 15, 2006
 "Tubby, no!"
    reprinted in Little Lulu Vol. 8: Late for School - by John Stanley & Irving TrippI may never look at Tubby the same way ever again.... Tuesday, February 14, 2006100 More Things I Love About Comics!
 As you can see with Swamp Thing and Abby above, love is in the air today, and so following up on last year's Valentine's Day entry is, yes, another post with a hundred more things I love about comics. (Inspired, of course, by Fred Hembeck and Alan David Doane...see my original post for links to more lists from last year.) 1. Acme Novelty Library 2. Art Adams 3. All-Star Batman and Robin The Boy Wonder 4. All-Star Superman 5. America’s Best Comics 6. America Versus The Justice Society 7. Avengers #100 (particularly the first few pages pencilled and inked by Barry Windsor-Smith 8. Badger by Mike Baron and others (about the first 30 issues or so) 9. The 1960s Batman TV show 10. The Beyonder (i.e. Jim Shooter’s Mary Sue) -- this character just kills me. 11. Blackhawks as superheroes (particularly "The Listener") 12. Bloom County by Berke Breathed 13. Blue Devil 14. BOOM! Studios 15. Wayne Boring 16. Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson 17. Captain American and the Falcon, 70s-style 18. Captain Carrot And His Amazing Zoo Crew 19. Adventures of Captain Jack by Mike Kazaleh 20. Nick Cardy 21. Howard Chaykin 22. Cholly and Flytrap by Arthur Suydam 23. Comic book adaptations of movies that feature full scenes that were cut from the final released films (like the original Marvel Star Wars or Superman IV: The Quest for Peace) 24. Comic book covers that feature "big questions" or otherwise directly address the reader 25. Comic book covers where the disembodied floating heads of supporting characters/teammates look on in dismay and/or shock. 26. Comics Reporter 27. Cutey Bunny 28. Dan DeCarlo 29. DC Comics Presents #61 (Superman and Omac) by Len Wein and George Perez 30. DC's old line of science fiction graphic novels 31. Deadman 32. Kim Deitch 33. Desolation Jones by Warren Ellis & J.H. Williams III 34. Dick Tracy by Chester Gould 35. Doctor Doom & Doctor Strange: Triumph and Torment graphic novel by Roger Stern & Mike Mignola ("Pain? Pain is like love, like compassion. It is a thing only for lesser men. What is pain to Doom?") 36. Dog Boy by Steve Lafler 37. Dorothy of Oz 38. Dreadstar by Jim Starlin 39. E.C. Comics 40. Earth-2 and the rest of DC’s Multiverse 41. The Fantastic Four Roast by Fred Hembeck and a cast of thousands 42. Fatman, The Human Flying Saucer 43. Fell by Warren Ellis and Ben Templesmith 44. Flipping open an old comic and finding a letter from someone who later became a comics pro 45. Frank by Jim Woodring 46. Galactus 47. Gentleman Ghost 48. Gnatrat by Mark Martin 49. Gorilla Grodd (as promised) 50. Grand Comic Book Database 51. Hawkman drawn by Joe Kubert 52. Inducks.org 53. Journey by William Messner-Loebs 54. "The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man" 55. Land of Nod by Jay Stephens 56. Mage by Matt Wagner 57. Man-Thing by Steve Gerber and others (but especially Mike Ploog) 58. Mars by Mark Wheatley and Marc Hempel 59. Marvel's many and varied fan clubs (F.O.O.M., M.M.M.S., and God help us, W.A.M.) 60. That 1980s Meat Loaf ad 61. Maxwell the Magic Cat 62. Mister O by Lewis Trondheim 63. Mr. Mxyzptlk 64. New Adventures of Abraham Lincoln by Scott McCloud (I liked it, Scott!) 65. normalman by Jim Valentino 66. Mike Parobeck 67. Per Degaton 68. The Phantom Stranger 69. Plop! 70. "Quiet, or Papa spank!" 71. Reid Fleming, World’s Toughest Milkman 72. Sam & Max Freelance Police 73. Seven Soldiers of Victory by Grant Morrison ‘n’ pals 74. Sgt. Fury 75. Sgt. Rock 76. Gail Simone 77. Snarf 78. The very fact that Marvel published a comic book titled The Son of Satan 79. Dick Sprang 80. The Showcase Presents reprint line 81. Squa Tront (scroll down a bit) 82. Squadron Supreme by Mark Gruenwald and Bob Hall 83. Steven by Doug Allen 84. The now-defunct Strand Newsstand, one of the places I used to buy comics in my pre-comic book store days...this was where I first saw indie comics (in the early days of Fantagraphics, Eclipse, PC, and Cerebus) as well as my first fanzines. Mr. Burns (no, not that one) and his wife, who used to run the store, would hold onto comics for me, without my even asking, in case they were in danger of selling out. 85. Superboy stories where he has his "first" meetings with other DC superheroes 86. Superman And His Fortress of Solitude treasury edition 87. Superman whenever he’s drawn as being really, really old, with a full flowing white beard, but still in his Superman costume 88. Curt Swan’s aliens (a couple samples) 89. Tales Designed to Thrizzle by Michael Kupperman 90. Ty Templeton 91. Thunderbolts by Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley (primarily the first couple dozen issues) 92. The Tick by Ben Edlund 93. Time Bandits comic book adaptation by Steve Parkhouse, David Lloyd & John Stokes 94. The Trouble with Girls (discussed at end of article) by Will Jacobs, Gerard Jones & Tim Hamilton 95. Uncle Scrooge and Money 96. Valiant Comics (early on, before Jim Shooter left) 97. Vaughn Bode 98. "You Can’t Pin A Medal on A Gorilla!" 99. Zatanna 100. ...And, of course, all of you, readers and/or fellow webloggers, who (hopefully) enjoy reading this site of mine. My sincere thanks. 100 1/2. "These are my words."Monday, February 13, 2006Still waiting for the repairmen...
...so here's a discussion from the Greatest Internet Message Board Ever, Killer Movies:
"Could Batman Actually Happen??" "Scenario: I'm a multi-millionaire who's in decent shape and I'm bored. I decide to hire a bunch of personal martial arts trainers (the best money can buy) to train me rigorously for a year or so. [...] Given the money and the will to do it, Batman as we saw him in the movie could actually exist." Well said. More sales reports.
I enjoyed doing the sales report post from yesterday, and while I'm just sitting around and waiting for people to come over and do some repair to the house, I thought I'd do it again. Enjoy, won't you?
Sgt. Rock: The Prophecy - Sold very well, though there was some initial resistance from the older Rock fans to the non-Joe Kubert alternate covers. However, I am now getting requests from those fans for the other covers. Showcase Presents - Hard to judge what's going to sell. The Metamorpho volume did very well, the Justice League volume just kinda sat there. Green Arrow didn't move as expected, but we sold out of Jonah Hex and House of Mystery immediately. Maybe the oddball titles are more in demand...if that's the case, I expect Haunted Tank to do tremendously well. Fury: Peacemaker - The first issue hasn't exactly taken off, perhaps because people who want to read Garth Ennis' take on the character preferred the over-the-top, black humored MAX line version to the relatively played-straight version in this series. It's a good read, and maybe first issue sales will pick up once we get two or three issues in. Mickey Mouse and Friends - I wish I could make sense of this title. Of the Disney comics, the Mickey titles always pale in sales comparison to the Duck books. And some months, this current series just sits there on the rack and doesn't move a single copy. Then, for a few issues in a row, it'll sell through completely. Very frustrating come ordering time. Walt Disney's Comics and Stories and Uncle Scrooge - These high-end Disney titles ($6.95 the copy) sell okay in general, but they fly out the door in good numbers whenever there's a new (or, at least, previously-unprinted in the U.S.) Don Rosa story inside. Sable and Fortune - Combine a Spider-Man villain that isn't nearly as interesting as Marvel seems to think she is, with a character that was pretty much only done right when his creator, Howard Chaykin, was working on him, and the end result? One D.O.A. mini-series. When it was time to call in order reductions on this title to our distributor, the customer rep didn't seem terribly surprised. Alias comics in general - Tenth Muse does okay, due to local artists working on the book. Other Alias titles...not so much. Conan - Still selling well, with good back issue movement. Beginning to see an increase in interest in the original Marvel mags and comics again, too. Schizo #4 - The long-awaited new release from Ivan Brunetti is selling okay for us, given the unusual size and price point...just had to put in my third reorder. Maze Agency - First issue sold okay, second issue selling primarily to people who were fans of the previous Maze Agency series. Freshmen - The "created by Seth Green" novelty has worn off. Sales way down. Nodwick - Not a big seller, but with a vocal and loyal following. Jonah Hex - Still maintaining its strong sales, with good back issue movement. I was lucky enough to get copies of #1 and #2 before DC ran out, so I'm able to feed demand for the time being. Spider-Man titles - Sensational Spider-Man #23 seems to have confused a few folks..."What's this? Where are the first 22 issues?" "It used to be the Marvel Knights Spider-Man title." "What?" It's selling okay, and that striking cover helps (hey, I happen to like Angel Medina's work). The other Spider-titles are beginning to show more movement after an initial resistance to the 12-part "Other" storyline, with people catching up on the back issues they originally skipped. The variant/alternate covers for each "Other" chapter, while popular at first, no longer seem to be in demand. I think it was the "Peter Porker" cover that killed it. Simpsons titles - Still strong movers, both as a new issue and as a back issue. Trade sales are good as well. Speakeasy comics in general - Well, Beowulf does okay for us, anyway. Sunday, February 12, 2006Sunday evening sales report.
 from Superman Family #195 (June 1979) - by Ross Andru & Dick GiordanoSome brief thoughts on recent funnybook sales trends at the shop: Infinite Crisis - Sales up on IC and tie-in comics across the board. Firestorm in particular has benefited from the current crossover. Walking Dead - Comic sales (new and back issue) are down, as are the trade paperback sales. I haven't had to call in a reorder on these books in weeks. Astro City - Trades are moving again, which is unusual since sales generally pick up only when there's a series currently on the stands. Maybe in anticipation of a forthcoming series? Marvel Zombies - Like printing money. And, surprisingly, copies are still available for reorder, so I'm able to (mostly) meet demand. I know there's extreme demand for this series because, unlike every other Marvel series in recent memory, people will still buy the current issue even if the previous issues aren't available. Hellboy - The new comic by Mignola and Corben has sold very well. Trade sales still soft, but Hellboy Jr. is suddenly in demand. Animal Man/Invisibles - Trades suddenly moving again, perhaps in the case of the former due to its possible connection to Infinite Crisis, and in the case of the latter possibly due to increased interest in Morrison's work. Sonic the Hedgehog - Sales down on the original series, Sonic X dead in the water. Still plenty of kids coming in...just not interested in Sonic right now, I guess. Mad Magazine - Just noticed that I'm apparently the only person buying it from our store right now. Goes in cycles...it'll consistently sell out for a few months, then die completely for a few months. We must be in the "down" part of the cycle. G.I. Joe/Transformers - Someone please put these franchises out of our misery. Nobody cares anymore. Red Sonja - Stealth seller. Always looks like we have a lot on the rack, always looks like no one is buying it...but then at the end of the month, somehow we've sold a bunch. Go figure. Must be ghosts. Powers - Trade sales up, individual comic sales way down. It's even dipped below our numbers when we were ordering it from Image. (I've discussed Powers' sales before, if you're interested.) Hulk - "Planet Hulk" storyline has bumped sales up...now we're sold out of the first chapter. With no reprint apparently forthcoming, we'll see how this hurts sales on future installments. X-Men: Deadly Genesis - Strong seller, helped by availability of all issues. People seem actually interested in this crossover, as opposed to House of M which most of our customers seemed to buy sorta grudgingly. Johnny the Homicidal Maniac/Lenore/Squee - After all these years, still strong sellers. Very popular with our female customers. All-Star Superman - Very strong seller. Tons of requests for #1s, and #2 is moving very well. All-Star Batman and Robin - Also selling well...demand is increasing for all issues. Must be all that good word of mouth on the internet. Good morning.
1. Big Bill Sherman has his own observations about the Bones comic book episode that aired this past week. Don't know why I'm so interested in this, particularly since I didn't see this episode, and don't watch the show normally anyway. Just feel like picking at the "everyone hates comic fans" scab, I guess.
2. Recently received issue #45 of Comic Effect, a good old-fashioned fanzine, on real paper with staples and everything. This particular issue focuses on Superman and Superboy comics, with plenty of black and white cover repos, discussion on the changes Superman has undergone over the years, specific vintage issue reviews, and much more. It's fun reading, and recommended for fans of Silver and "Bronze" age Super-books. Ordering information is available on the 'zine's site...this issue isn't up on the site yet, but it exists, I promise. 3. "True Blue"
Yes, I saw that "Shuster" was misspelled. Again. And that, eleswhere in the article, the Man of Steel mini-series was given the wrong release date...it was confused with the MOS regular series from '91. And...well, there are a couple other mistakes, but otherwise it's an interesting look at what a non-fan (I'm presuming) thinks of Superman's current media presence. |
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