So anyway, I got a book deal.

§ January 15th, 2010 § Filed under Uncategorized Comments Off on So anyway, I got a book deal.

We interrupt my tour through my funnybook collection to bring you this important announcement: the Bureau Chiefs (including yours truly) behind Fake AP Stylebook, the Twitter grammar and journalism humor feed, now have an official, honest-to-goodness book deal. The book (title to be determined) is due Spring 2011 from Three Rivers Press.

Nearly all of the contributors to the project are very closely tied to comics and online comics fandom, which has me a bit surprised that online comics news sources have ignored the fact that folks from within the hobby and/or business were responsible for something that’s otherwise received so much attention and acclaim. The guys who created it, Ken Lowery and Mark Hale, don’t do a whole lot of comics blogging anymore, though they had their beginnings in that same 2003/2004 wave of comics blogging that dragged me into all this nonsense. (Some of you more comics-oriented folks may be more familiar with Ken’s previous site Ringwood.)

Other people involved include pal Dorian who surely needs no introduction by now, Dave Campbell of Dave’s Long Box and Society of Dave fame, “King Oblivion, PhD” from the International Society of Supervillains, master of all things Lego Dave Lartigue, the Mistress of Manga Anna, the King of All Internet Media Chris Sims, Sims’ partner in crime from War Rocket Ajax – the rapping lawyer Eugene Ahn, real life college professor and unapologetic Blackhawk fan Dr. K, that comic-writin’ son-of-a-bitch Kevin Church, that tall drink of water Josh Krach, Green Lantern fan and former Newsarama contributor Ragnell, another former Newsarama-er and current design whiz Shane Bailey, the much too smart to be hanging out with us Andrew Weiss, co-creator of The Rack and all-around swell artist Benjamin Birdie, the devious genius behind Random Panels Brandon Bragg, The City Desk editor and Wasted Words host RJ White…and last but not least, a certain cute little stuffed bull. Oh, and like I said before, I’m involved, too. I brew the coffee.

That looks like a pretty solid collection of talent to me, despite my involvement, and as noted, nearly all involved are tied to the comics industry, either as fans, commentators, or gen-you-ine professionals. That would probably explain the number of references we make to Batman over in the Twitter feed.

Anyway, we gots us a book to write, so please wish us luck!


In other news, I guess Marvel has some cockamamie scheme for retailers to send in their overstock of DC’s Blackest Night comics (in particular, the ones retailers had to order certain numbers on in order to get the various rings), and for every fifty copies, retailers would get some variant or something.

Well, let’s see here.

I realize this won’t be true across the board for every retailer, but we not only sold through nearly every comic we ordered as a result of DC’s ring promotion, but we sold through almost all the reprints, too. (I think we have a couple of the Outsiders 2nd printings left.) Of the initial printings, we have some overstock of Blackest Night #5…intentionally, since we want them available as back issues for the duration of the series’ run. But even then, we don’t have nearly as many of those as we’d like for backstock.

I suspect this is more of a plan to put the seed in readers’ minds that “Blackest Night didn’t do well” than anything else. Sort of like how some of those second printings Marvel’s doing for books that don’t really need them give the impression that the books must be red-hot if they need reprintin’! Better buy the next issue when I see it!

Okay, I have no idea if that’s the strategy or not, but can’t shake the feeling, really. But this small survey of retailers doesn’t seem to reveal much enthusiasm for the program. And frankly, giving up nearly $200 retail in product from an event series that seems to have been doing quite well in exchange for a single variant cover…well, I don’t know. Maybe I could get $200 for it on eBay, certainly not in the shop. And if I were just swamped with tons of these Blackest Nights and I thought they were unsellable, I might consider it. But that still seems like a shortsighted way to make some fast cash, selling one variant cover to one collector, rather than building a readership with a variety of books. Depends on the situation, I suppose.


Over the past week, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, I’ve been going through my collection and picking out some oddball items to talk about. I’ve been enjoying it, and hopefully you’ve been enjoying it as well, and I’m thinking about continuing it for a second week. I don’t want to test anyone’s patience (says the guy who did this for a week), but if you folks out there don’t object too strenuously, I may pick up again on Sunday or Monday.

I have had a complaint or two about “shilling for Amazon” with these posts, which, I assure you, wasn’t the point. As part of my discussion for these items, I was curious about what prices other folks were trying to get for them currently, and Amazon just happened to be the first thing that came to mind. And yes, by slapping Amazon ads on these posts I have the potential of collecting upwards of multiple cents per sale, and surely you don’t begrudge your old pal Mike pulling in some coin of the realm for the many seconds of entertainment I’ve provided over the years. At the same time, if any of you are interested enough in what I’m talking about, those Amazon links give you an easy opportunity to get a copy for yourself. At least a couple of people have snapped up those Superman Spectaculars, so hopefully they’ll enjoy them.

Basically, I’m just posting those banner links because I can. I’m really not trying to do a hardsell on you…if you don’t want to buy them, then don’t click. Or if you want them but are offended by my blatant capitalism, buy ’em through pal Dorian‘s Amazon search box.


You know, if Jay Leno had just plain got off the air after “retiring” from the Tonight Show, instead of undercutting Conan O’Brien’s run by starting what essentially was the same show earlier in the evening, maybe Conan wouldn’t be getting screwed right now. Plus, this means that Andy Richter is losing yet another show, the poor bastard.

Yeah, that has nothing to do with comic books, but man, if I were Conan, I’d be absolutely livid. And I’m sure he is.

“Boo hoo, rich people having problems.” Still, c’mon, as dick moves go, this is pretty epic.


In much more serious news, please visit the American Red Cross site to make a donation to Haiti earthquake victims. Even easier: donate $10, charged to your cell phone bill, to the fund by texting “HAITI” to “90999.”

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