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§ December 8th, 2005 § Filed under Uncategorized Comments Off on Some quick linky-linky.
Dave at Yet Another Comics Blog is having his second annual Comic Book Legal Defense Fund drive, a worthy cause.
Mag and H present the multimedia experience of…“Jingle Belles, Batman Smells” – the timeless classic.
The Boardgamegeek comic book/strip category – see such classics as the Swamp Thing boardgame (which I’ve discussed previously), the Superman II game (ZOD!), the hideous Archie Game, and, my goodness, X-Men Uno. (Thanks to pal Robert for pointing out this site to me — no, Rob, I haven’t yet found that game I was telling you about!)
§ December 8th, 2005 § Filed under Uncategorized Comments Off on New comics day.
A brief exchange I had with someone yesterday:
Someone: “I drew this cartoony figure in life drawing class, and the teacher kept talking about it to the class and comparing it to Crumb’s work. But it didn’t look anything like Crumb!”
Me: “So basically the only cartoonist your teacher knew by name was Crumb.”
Someone: “…Yeah, pretty much.”
Anyway, it was new comics day yesterday, and I may have jumped the gun a little on my review yesterday for Zombie Tales: Death Valley, which I thought would be out but didn’t arrive. Oops, my mistake…well, it should be out soon, so check it out then.
Aeon Flux #3 – There’s nothing sadder than the last couple of issues of a movie-based comic book mini-series that are released after the movie in question has flopped hugely.
Essential Spider-Woman – The meaning of the word “essential” just keeps getting stretched further and further, doesn’t it? Well, I suppose there’s a fan out there not named “Brian Michael Bendis” who wants this book. (Says the man who wants a Showcase Presents ‘Mazing Man.)
Marvel Zombies #1 – This shouldn’t have been enjoyable — Marvel jumping on the zombie trend, spinning out of a Ultimate FF storyline that seemed to irritate most folks with its bait ‘n’ switch — but it was just grotesque enough to be fun. The bit with zombie Banner not being able to deal with what zombie Hulk ate was particularly dark-humored.
Penny Arcade 25-center – Has anyone else noticed quality issues with this comic? No, not the contents, I mean the actual printing and paper quality? Maybe we just got a bad batch of ’em.
No-show: Hard Time Season Two #1. Also, sorta no-shows were the DC promotional bookmarks (for Sandman and such) that were supposed to be allocated to Diamond accounts at about five to fifteen each…but we ended up getting one each. What good does that do us, exactly? I wonder if Borders and Barnes & Noble got all the DC bookmarks they wanted?
Special “This stuff shoulda been delivered to us in previous weeks but we just got ’em yesterday” section:
I kept thinking Amazing Fantasy #15 was actually #10. I can’t imagine why, aside from the HUGE FREAKIN’ black circle with the number “10” inside right up there next to the issue number.
Re: Dawn 2006 Calendar – publishers, please, next time you release a calendar in a comic or magazine format, at least have the courtesy to punch a hole through the edge of the pages so that people buying your item would at least be able to hang it up.
So a while back, DC Comics offered a free Superman Justice variant action figure to retailers who had bought the same variant figure previously as a Justice #1 ordering incentive. If you bought one before, you’d get another for free as a “thank you” for supporting the series, or two for two, and so on. Well, we were supposed to get it last week, but we were shorted…but we got our replacement this week, which is when I noticed that we were getting charged nine bucks for it. Now, the press release from DC emphasized repeatedly we’d be getting this figure for free…still waiting for Diamond to offer up an explanation for this one.
Anyway, I’m a little grumpy…Killer Japanese Seizure Robots, take me away!
§ December 7th, 2005 § Filed under Uncategorized Comments Off on Don’t click on that link. You’ll know which one.
So I’m looking at this ad that ran on the back of Marvel Comics in 1987, which is designed to look like a letter the Thing wrote to Dr. Doom to tell him about the new Fantastic Four team. I thought it was pretty amusing…and perfectly in character for the Thing to type out (or, more likely, dictate to the FF’s robotic secretary) a missive to Doom just to razz him.
And that got me to thinking…what other superhero/villain relationships would work at this level? You wouldn’t see Batman mocking the Joker like this, nor would Superman do the same to Lex Luthor. Spider-Man? Maybe, but it seems to me Spidey would keep his mocking of the bad guys to just during the actual conflicts…he wouldn’t cruise by their homes and moon ’em, for example.
No, it sorta seems to me the Thing (and, perhaps, his occasional partner in crime, the Human Torch) would get a kick out of haranguing the bad guys even during their down time. I like to think that the Thing would send Doom harassing e-mails as well:
"From: thing@fantasticfour.mvl
To: iamdoom@latveriaonline.le
Subject: Interestin' website
Hey Vic, here's a site I thought you might like. Har har!
Love,
the ever-lovin' blue-eyed Thing"
Don’t click on that link, by the way.
Okay, maybe I’m reading a little too much into an ad, but for me, it just underlines what a unique creation Stan ‘n’ Jack had in the Thing…he could have been nothing more than a tragic character, but his sense of humor and irreverence keep us connected to him, even during the, shall we say, lower points of his history:
That’s the splash from
Fantastic Four Unplugged #1 (1995)…here’s a better look at that word balloon:
Where were all you people complaining about “I’m the gosh-danged Batman” when
this came out?
In other news:
Boom! Studios has a new zombie comic out today: Zombie Tales: Death Valley Book One, and it’s a fun comic about a bunch of high school students facing a world full of zombies. Yes, we’ve seen set-up before, with a last batch of remaining humans fighting against vast numbers of the undead, but the story by Andrew Crosby and Johanna Stokes is fast-paced and goes down easy. The students themselves are outta central casting, with the Jock, the Smart Kid, the Shallow Cute One, and so on. However, effort is made to make them individuals beyond the cliches, so that when the deaths begin to occur, you actually feel sorry to see those characters go. The artwork, by Rhoald Marcellus, is less to my taste, a sort of a manga-esque cartoony style that feels a little rough-hewn, but it grew on me as read the book. Overall…not groundbreaking, but if you love the zombie comics, as I know some of you do, it’s good entertainment.
§ December 6th, 2005 § Filed under Uncategorized Comments Off on Two years and a day.
So I spend yesterday’s post going “rah rah rah look at me, two years, w00t,” and then I don’t have any time to post anything substantial today. So, that means links ahoy!
- I think the “apologies to Chris Ware” comment in this cartoon‘s right margin is really funny (as in “peculiar,” not “ha ha”)…I’m gonna guess Rall isn’t really apologetic about anything in this strip.
- If you gotta have the Fantastic Four movie on that hip new DVD format, you might wanna wait instead of rushing out and buying it today.
- Apparently there’s a trailer for the new X-Men film. I wonder how they’ll write Professor X and Cyclops out of most of the movie this time?
- The Comics Reporter gives us the sad news that Jim Sasseville, Charles Schulz’ comrade-in-arms on the Peanuts comic book and the It’s Only A Game comic strip, has passed away.
- “Zap! Comic Book Man hit with collecting bug”
“Tomlinson, a 2000 Hunt High School graduate, keeps his comics individually stored in Mylar bags along with a thin sheet of cardboard to provide sturdiness. Once the comics are ‘bagged and boarded,’ they’re stored in boxes specially designed for comic book collections. He has more than a dozen long boxes, each holding hundreds of issues, stacked up in a room.”
Honestly, I had no idea what quote to pull from this article. It’s all so…well, prosaic. Yeah, I know it’s funny to us to read an article about an average comics fan being presented as “news,” but I’m sure it’s news to someone. Though I did like the “HOBBIES: Collecting comic books and swords” line at the end.*
- Thanks to everyone for the kind words!
* EDIT: Just noticed Tom Spurgeon had this article in his Dec. 6 “Quick Hits” section. I only meant to steal the Sasseville thing, honest!
§ December 5th, 2005 § Filed under suddenly... Comments Off on “Suddenly, two years later….”
Don’t worry, I won’t run off at the mouth like last time. I was briefly tempted to go with H‘s idea of “everything you knew about ‘the secret origin of Mike Sterling’s Progressive Ruin’ is wrong,” however.
But anyway, here it is, the two-year anniversary of this goofy weblog of mine. Even though I had planned on slacking off a bit on the daily posting once I passed the one-year mark, I still had something new on my site every day. Cut it close that one day while I was in the process of moving, but I still managed it, gosh darn it! Whether that’s something to be terribly proud of, I’m not sure (“I goofed off on my computer every day this year…yay!”), but it’s an achievement of some sort, surely. I even squeezed in a monthly column at Comic Book Galaxy as well (new installment today, in fact).
Now, for the future…ah, heck, I’ll still keep trying to post every day, barring disaster, personal upheaval, and/or finally getting fed up with it. Don’t worry, I’m not likely to get fed up anytime soon…I still like talkin’ about comics, so you’re not rid of me yet!
I had planned on doing some kind of annotated index of highlights from the site over the last year, but as I was working on it, it was turning out to be horribly, horribly long, and more self-indulgent than I was planning.
However, I’m not above a little self-indulgence, so let me tell you about a couple things on this site that you may not know about: for example, a page I put up, at Bjorn’s request, showing how this site looked on April Fool’s Day. (For comparison, here’s pal Dorian‘s April Fool’s page.) Also, I posted a page of all my sidebar icons, accessible by clicking the current pic. Now that I’ve got a lot of ’em, that page is beginning to look pretty neat, if I do say so myself.
I think I’ll still point out a few of my favorite things from the last year, like my Free Comic Book Day speedos, ROBOT SHERLOCK HOLMES, the Swamp Thing sketch by Fred Hembeck, the Swamp Man drawing that Scott Saavedra was nice enough to place in my possession, Swamp Thing versus Man-Thing, deviant sexual behavior in Riverdale, some comic book haiku, some masterful packing, the Watcher movie, “you help blow too,” the many faces of Lex Luthor, the racial sensitivity of Green Arrow, DOOM BUTTON, scary Swamp Thing moments, and, God help us, the “SPECIAL EXTRA LARGE LESBIAN UNICORN ISSUE” — ask for it by name.
And it’s been that long since my last audio post? I need to do more of those.
In all seriousness, thanks to all of you folks out there who read my site. The traffic on this site is way up…still not a patch on some folks, but pretty good for a comics weblog, I think. In case you’re curious, the consistent top referrers to my site, aside from the Update-A-Tron, are Cognitive Dissonance, Dave’s Long Box, and, unsurprisingly, pal Dorian…but a big thank you to everyone else who links to this site, too.
When I started this weblog, it was just another way to express my enjoyment of comics, particularly the more goofy aspects of the hobby, as well as talking about some of the tribulations of selling the darn things for a living. I never expected to have an audience beyond a few friends…but it’s very gratifying to know that a lot of you out there come back to my site day after day, reading whatever crazy talk I happen to be posting. I honestly appreciate your readership, as well as your comments and e-mails. Again, thank you.
And special thanks as well to the Associated Comics And Pop Culture Webloggers of Ventura County, CA And Outlying Environs: pals Dorian, Corey, Sean, Tom, Ian, JP, and Kid Chris, who all encourage me in this sort of behavior.
Well, for the one-year anniversary I presented an embarrassing letter of comment of mine that was printed in a Superman comic. Alas, I have no more LOCs of mine to show you, but, to wrap things up, I do have this embarrassing photo of me as a young Mikester:
The certificate I’m holding is an award for “Most Fantastic Hair in Ventura County” (a title I
still hold, thank you).
See you tomorrow!
§ December 4th, 2005 § Filed under Uncategorized Comments Off on
WHY?
WHY?
DEAR GOD IN HEAVEN, WHY???
Well, because of DC’s offer to take returns on these poorly-painted figures, that’s why. They just want the heads, and I aims to please. As far as the actual paintjobs go, they’re not completely horrible, but they’re just “off” enough to look pretty poor compared to the usual quality of the other DC Direct figures. It’s like they were colored with the Flexographic process or something.
I will say that those rubbery capes (and, in the case of the Monitor figure, the rubbery skirt) were very upsetting to have to handle. I mean, ick.
To respond to commenter Roel from yesterday’s Samurai the 13th post:
First, believe it or not, that wasn’t a “Jason clone” in that comic…it was explicitly supposed to be the actual Jason from the movies, and the story takes place in the familiar surroundings of Camp Crystal Lake.
Second, as to the actual enjoyment one may extract from the comic…well, the panels I posted were funny, and there’s a brief climatic battle between Jason and the samurai which isn’t bad…but the rest of the comic is played like a straightforward horror comic. It’s like a Friday the 13th movie, only with Toshirô Mifune instead of, I don’t know, Kevin Bacon? Crispin Glover? The only “breaking the fourth wall” satiric aspect of the story is that (um, SPOILER, I suppose) Jason is defeated when his Friday the 13th movie contract is ripped to pieces, causing him to fade away into nothingness. Overall, the comic’s not terrible…for, y’know, a Solson comic.
And I like the fact that Jason’s usually accompanied by his theme music:
…which, I suppose, is also fourth-wall breaking when you get right down to it.
So that darn Scipio has begun his quest for comics-retail domination with his new Big Monkey chain of stores…go visit their swanky website and check ’em out. Speaking as someone who’s sold comics for a living for…well, far too long…I say “good luck to you, friend! Vaya con pollos!”
As long as I’m giving “shout-outs,” as the kids say, here, by request of former employee Kid Chris, is a shout-out to Summit 8 and the guys in Sammy (i.e. Sigma Alpha Mu) down there at that UCLA party school I hear so much about. Hi, collegiate chums! Kid Chris says y’all need to follow his fine example and be more studious. And buy more comics. From us, that is…the Kid will give you the address.
§ December 3rd, 2005 § Filed under Uncategorized Comments Off on God bless you, Solson Comics.
Samurai The 13th #2 (1987) – art by Michael Shaw & Scott Gladfelter
§ December 2nd, 2005 § Filed under Uncategorized Comments Off on The Shadow’s Nose.
So every time I bring up the late ’80s Andy Helfer/Kyle Baker run on The Shadow (this time in the form of my sidebar icon, duplicated to the right here in this post since that icon will be replaced eventually), it always attracts a small amount of discussion. Most of that discussion is along the lines of almost universal agreement that it was indeed a classic run, and that its early ending was quite a shame. And that its ending was brought about by the Shadow’s copyright holders not being terribly thrilled with the fact that their character had been decapitated and has had his head placed on a robot body. The Hurting‘s Tim O’Neil wondered if the “copyright holder” story was perhaps just an urban legend, and that’s a fair question.
A quick Google check brings up several references to the “owners didn’t like the Shadow comic” story (like at this pulp magazine page), but I haven’t found any comments straight from the horse’s mouth (like from anyone at Conde Nast, or anybody from DC). I checked a couple print interviews I had with Kyle Baker, but found nothing there either. I suppose there’s probably something more definite somewhere, and if any of you know where that might be, point me in that direction!
I should note that in the comics themselves, that particular story is denied in an editorial response to a letter of comment in The Shadow Strikes #4:
“No, it is emphatically NOT true that Conde Nast, the copyright holders of the Shadow, ‘pulled the plug’ [on the Helfer/Baker series]. The good folks over there have always been most cooperative and helpful. The true and complete reason the H/B Shadow was cancelled was that the creative team’s schedules proved prohibitive. Plus, they had the Prestige JUSTICE INC. to complete.”
Compare the comment about the creative team’s schedule to Baker’s comment in this interview:
“‘The Shadow’ was easy to draw. I used to do a whole book in a week.”
Also, in the Amazing Heroes Preview Special from January 1989, the entry for The Shadow has brief synopses for events in issues beyond the actual last printed issue (#19), and states that #24 would be the last for Helfer and Baker. So if even if they were just kinda winging it on the series (as commenter Dan relates), it looks like they were still holding out the possibility for more Shadow stories prior to the axe coming down.
That editorial reply in The Shadow Strikes also includes a reference to the theoretical Shadow Special that would have wrapped up the story:
“As for that Special concluding the ’80s storylines, it’s scheduled to come out one of these days….”
Sixteen years on, I’m still waiting for that special!
§ December 2nd, 2005 § Filed under Uncategorized Comments Off on Hey, look.
I’m quoted in a National Review opinion column that discusses Liberality for All, and this site is referred to as a “lefty blog.” Well, I am left-handed. Oh, okay, there are a few sites probably not approved by GWB in the sidebar there, but I rarely bring up politics on the site itself. (But maybe I should…you know the kind of traffic those sites get? Except my “abolish all political parties” stance probably wouldn’t be all that popular.)
Speaking of Liberality for All, we have now sold three copies of the first issue. I have yet to sell one to an actual conservative, however.
ADDITIONAL LINKAGE: Alicublog has a pretty thorough evisceration of said column.
§ December 1st, 2005 § Filed under Uncategorized Comments Off on
Alan David Doane is back to some non-Kochalkian comics weblogging, which includes this discussion about Claypool Comics’ impending drop from Diamond’s catalog (and its sure-to-follow demise). Now at our store, the only one of Claypool’s series that ever sold any kind of numbers was Peter David and Richard Howell’s Soulsearchers & Co., and only briefly, at the beginning. I even tried to get it to move, putting up “Hey, this is written by Peter David!” signs by the comic, but no go. I currently have one customer for it at our shop, and he’s a mail order customer, so the one copy we actually sell goes out of state.
Deadbeats started off with no readers at our store, continued with no readers, and currently still has no readers.
Elvira sold so-so at first, but dropped to literally nothing…until one of my customers decided he wanted it on his pull list, so I now sell one copy of each issue. We used to sell the occasional back issue, but it’s been years. (The only Elvira back issue that ever sells anymore is this one.)
We do still order ’em, above and beyond the two actual copies we sell…we get one of each for the rack, which won’t kill us. And you never know, maybe someday the World’s Biggest Claypool Fan may walk in the door needed to buy extra copies of comics he already has for…well, whatever reason.
As an aside, I’d always assumed (rightly or wrongly) that the sales of the Elvira comic through sources other than comic book stores (such as through the official Elvira website or at Elvira’s convention appearances) subsidized the rest of the line. Well, that, coupled with the company’s apparently very low overhead.
I hate to see ’em go…I don’t like seeing anyone put out of work, but like ADD says, it ain’t entirely the retailers’ fault the books lost the audiences they had. I even read Soulsearchers at first, and…well, lost interest. Sorry.
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