Text on poster is as follows:
"WANTED:
GRANT MORRISON
FOR CRIMES AGAINST REASON
Doom Patrol writer Grant Morrison is accused of the following unnatural acts:
- Corrupting the minds of impressionable comics readers
- Altering DC characters beyond recognition
- Twisting a nice, wholesome superhero book into his own bizarre personal nightmare
Previous offenses:
Animal Man,
Arkham Asylum
Those unfamiliar with Morrison's outrageously surreal writing should pick up the subversive
Doom Patrol immediately.
But use extreme caution - weirdness can be addictive."
This is an official DC Comics promotional poster, dated 1990. I was going through some old boxes of stuff we had stored away in the back room and found this treasure.
I'm amused by the fact that the things DC trumpeted as Morrison's virtues on this poster are pretty much the same things said by comic book message board Morrison-haters. You know the type: "ew, it's weird and and I don't understand it, therefore it's bad."
And yes, those are lamps coming out of his head. I believe this is the "light bulbs = ideas" metaphor made literal. God bless Grant Morrison.
Added a new little Javascript thingie to my page, which randomizes my user picture just to the right there, above the weblog links. There's only four different images so far...let me know if it works, causes random crashes, what have you.
1.
Mark Evanier is a cruel, cruel man.
2. Reading up on the lowdown from the Wizard World convention here in slightly overcast Southern California...so apparently, the Marvel Comics panel was basically the editor-in-chief announcing a bunch of new titles designed to cannibalize sales from other Marvel titles?
Oh, and DC apparently announced some new Batman mini-series. Oh. Hey. What a surprise.
Check out
The Pulse for several articles about Wizard World.
3. Some comic selling observations:
- Over the last couple years, at our store, Grant Morrison's New X-Men has outsold Uncanny X-Men by about 2 to 1 and X-Treme X-Men by about 3 to 1. Also, Morrison's X-Men is a huge back issue seller as well.
- By keeping full runs of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Lenore on a rack specifically devoted to gother-than-a-goth-thing-that's-goth comics, I've probably sold hundreds of copies over the last few years...lots of them to that near-mythical comic shop clientele, teenage girls. I've sold lots of the "Spooky, The Thing What Squeeks" toys, too.
- Street Angel sold fairly well. Even had a couple people add it to their pull lists after I recommended the first issue to them.
- Spider-man sales are slowly eroding. I wonder if it has anything to do with too many Spider-man titles on the stands?
- For all the grief people give Rob Liefeld over his art, he can still sell comics...well, as long as they're Marvel comics. Remember those Wolverines he did a couple years back? Sold like crazy. They still sell like crazy, whenever we can get them back in stock. Moral of the story? People say they don't like it...but they'll buy it anyway.
4. I think it was pal Dorian who pointed out
an article on ICV2 that stated, for the month of January 2004, DC Comics'
Watchmen had already sold 800 copies in bookstores. This is for a graphic novel well over 15 years old. These are probably better numbers than some Marvel trades get brand new.
5. I came across
this Time Online article about graphic novels where Frank Miller's
Dark Knight Returns is correctly described as a "black comedy."
Finally somebody gets it. I've been saying that
Dark Knight Returns is a "comic" book (in every sense of the term) for years. It's a parody that too many writers afterward took at face value.
6.
Comic Treadmill is treading through the 1970s run of
All-Star Comics...good stuff!
7. I held
one of these in my hands today. Ooooh, it was neat.
8. Today's Dave Cockrum link:
an interview conducted for
Comic Book Artist magazine.
