• While looking something else up in the Overstreet Price Guide, I spotted that Hex #1 was up to $8.00 in near mint condition. Eight bucks. How the heck did that happen? Is this another case of everyone's copies going straight to the quarter boxes, and therefore are now hard to find in nice condition (like I theorized about Shazam #1)?
  
  
• On a related note, how many comic shops out there still have quarter boxes? When we still had them, we just dumped the absolute unsellable junk, unbagged, in there and hoped for the best. We did move some stuff, but occasionally selling books at a quarter each didn't really justify the retail space the boxes were taking up. For a while we had 50-cent boxes, and currently we have dollar boxes (or 13 for ten bucks...woo hoo!) which are working very well for us, and more easily support the space in our store that these boxes occupy. Plus, the material in the dollar boxes is actually pretty good (we even had some reader copies of '60s Marvels in there), so we have no problem moving them.
  
  The only problem with bargain boxes is thinking about all the things we sold for cheap in the past that we wish we had now. You know how many DC 100 pagers we sold for 50 cents a pop? Those things used to be common as dirt. I wonder what future high-priced collectibles are currently living in our dollar boxes?
  
  
• Discovered while restocking: we actually sold some West Coast Avengers, somehow. Well, I know we sold this issue, which introduced the Great Lakes Avengers (gee, wonder why that sold), but it turned out we actually had sold quite a few other issues of this series as well. Go figure.
  
  
• Someone's also been buying the Evolutionary War crossover annuals...I didn't read this when it came out, and I don't think I've even looked inside a single installment of this adventure. I looked inside a couple of the annuals I was restocking yesterday...hoo boy, I didn't really miss anything, did I? It looked like this series just plain summed up the generic-ness of late '80s Marvel.
  
  
• We've also been selling Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn back issues lately, surely inspired by the current Green Lantern: Rebirth series. The first issue of this series has one of my favorite covers...that purple is really eye-catching.
  
  
• We also sold some copies of Arana #1 as back issues...none yet to the apparent young Hispanic female audience that Marvel supposedly was hoping for. (That particular demographic is more interested in manga and the "goth" comics, at least at our shop.)
  
  
• Other consistent back issue sellers: Avengers #196 (1st appearance of Taskmaster...I think we're finally down to our last copy), New Mutants #98 (1st Dead Pool...Deadpool...Dead-pool...I don't feel like looking up the proper spelling), and the current Adam Strange mini-series.
  

posted by Mikester  @ 09:34 |

posted by Mikester  @ 09:07 |

* I lied. I love puppies. I think they taste great.**

** I'm joking. Save the hate e-mail.

posted by Mikester  @ 00:02 |

from Fantastic Four #158 (May 1975)

cover detail from Fantastic Four #386 (March 1994) - art by Paul Ryan

posted by Mikester  @ 07:51 |

Yeah, okay, I saw Sin City, along with pals

• Let's get the biggie out of the way...Mickey Rourke's Marv makeup. Okay, as I was watching the film, I was pondering just what the purpose was behind such garish, obvious prostheses and doodads and whatnot. So there's Problem #1 - I probably shouldn't be thinking about someone's makeup as I'm watching the film. I was wondering if the Marv look was intended to dehumanize the character, to make him monstrous, to make us accept that he can still keep on operating after all the damage he takes, after being shot and hit by cars and so forth. At any rate, the makeup was a minor distraction, and I never really suspended my disbelief long enough to accept it as someone's actual face. Ah, well.
  
  
• Elijah Wood - yeah, that's right, he rules. When I heard that he was playing Kevin, I had no idea how Mr. Wood was going to pull off a creepy cannibalistic serial killer...but pull it off he did.
  
  
• Devon Aoki as Miho rules too. My two favorite characters in the film had no dialogue. Coincidence?
  
  
• Okay, the Yellow Bastard smells. He smells bad. His blood smells even worse. It's repeatedly brought up in the movie. So neither Hartigan nor Nancy can smell the YB hiding in the back seat of their car? I suppose the explanation would be that they thought the smell was coming from the YB's blood on Hartigan's fingers...but that stuck me as a little odd. EDIT: Commenter Brian notes that this is addressed in the film's narrative...I just didn't remember.
  
  
• Should I be reading something into Frank Miller being killed by one of his own creations?
  
  
• Audiences don't like it when bad things happen to penises.
  
  
• My other concern with the movie was the spot coloring...it was distracting at first, but I did get used to it as the film progressed. The "high contrast" bits -- the reverse silhouette white-on-black images -- worked much less well. It was an interesting experiment, at any rate.
  
  
• On the other hand...the film's music started off well enough, but seemed to become increasingly distracting as the movie moved along. That cacophony over most of the closing credits is downright unlistenable.
  
  
• I really liked the opening credit sequence...the music, the credits flashing over Miller's artwork, the "SPECIAL GUEST DIRECTOR" credit, all added up to a great beginning. I have a soft spot for comic book movies that have opening sequences which incorporate actual comic artwork...The Return of the Swamp Thing is still my favorite example of this.
  

posted by Mikester  @ 09:47 |

The Comic Reader #123 (November 1975) - art by Mark Evanier

The Comic Reader #133 (July/August 1976) - art by Sergio Aragones

The Comic Reader #161 (October 1978) - art by Fred Hembeck

posted by Mikester  @ 09:02 |

What?

* Yes, I cut the image off there on purpose.

** I'm only kidding...mostly.

posted by Mikester  @ 18:48 |

"...An unnamed Lucasfilm official [said] that the book was not terminated: rather, 'We're just putting it on hold until the next film is released.' [...] ...A Marvel spokesperson [said]: 'If there's another movie, we'll be publishing tomorrow morning.'"

"The 1983 adaptation of The Return of the Jedi was marred by the early shipment and placement on sale of the issues, revealing the plot twists and surprises of the film before it had opened. Despite Marvel's attempts at retrieving the shipping books, tens of thousands of the issues were bought and circulated, with the advance story of the film even being read on the radio in one instance, scooping the film's opening."

posted by Mikester  @ 10:26 |