Batman: The Killing Joke is getting another comic-sized reprinted with the original coloring, as opposed to the recolored hardcover which had been the only way to obtain the story as of late. And that’s good…I’ve had a handful of people ask for the story who didn’t want to put out the cash for the deluxe hardcover. Having a cheap…well, cheaper version around is very welcome.
On the topic…I know Killing Joke went through about a hundred different printings, most of which sold well, and yet the only copies that ever turn up in collections are first printings. I know the first print moved tons of copies, but you’d think we’d come across at least the occasional fifth printing or something. Ah, well.
DC Comics Classics Library: Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil HC – reprinting the classic C.C. Beck serial from the original Captain Marvel comics. This had been reprinted before, in a nice oversized slipcased hardcover, many years ago, and a friend let me borrow his copy so that I could read it. It’ll be nice to be able to get my own copy of this story, finally.
Superman: Secret Origin #2 – So they’re establishing Young Clark Kent was Superboy again, if only (I’m assuming) for his adventures with the Legion. BUT THAT CONTRADICTS A REVAMP FROM 23 YEARS AGO HOW DARE YOU.
Okay, I’m only kidding. It’s a little weird, if only because I still remember the big deal they were making about the changes to the official Superman continuity during the mid-’80s revamp, including the ousting of the whole Superboy thing. But as how I’m one of the, oh, maybe dozen of readers at the time who are still reading Superman today, there’s no particular reason to be beholden to a continuity fix only a few of your readers really care about, or even remember, any more.
And I’m sure the reintroduction of Superboy can still be explained even within the context of the ’80s revamp…but, to reiterate, it doesn’t bother me. I’m more interested in it as an example of the ongoing undoing of the ’80s reboot…kinda like how “Contemporary Acquaintance of Clark in Smallville” Lex eventually supplanted “Contemporary Acquaintance of Perry White during the Depression” Lex.
Good Lord, are there enough Batman comics coming out? Maybe they should give a new ongoing series to…oh, I don’t know, how ’bout Alfred. Sure, I’d go for a series about Alfred. “The Dark Knight Domestic in…I BUTTLE BY NIGHT.” Would totally read it.
In other news:
Andrew is starting a new series of posts on this site entitled “Nobody’s Favorites,” in which he talks about those comic characters that are…well, you know, like it says in the title I just told you. First installment is here, and at the very least, this is a good way to find out if any of these characters have “#1 FANs” because they’ll surely turn up in the comments sections.
Big, bold and brassy Chris Sims wrote an article called “The 40 Most Violent Comics Ever” which probably leaves out your favorite, so be sure to leave a comment that reads “um, actually, you forgot….” because Sims will love that. Also, it’s one of those lists that make you click through multiple pages to see all the entries in order to present more ads, but it’s Sims, and therefore worth it.
Pal Dorian is going to San Diego, the bastard, and he’s taking along employees Aaron and Timmy, probably to sell for parts so he can afford parking and overpriced bottles of alleged water. Anyway, in the meantime he’s got some amusing goodies arranged for his site, including this bingo card inspired by a particular sci-fi show message board.
Was informed by my girlfriend’s niece that some television show she was watching was attempting to settle the question of which is nerdier: Star Wars or Star Trek.
The nod was given to Star Trek, natch, since it is sort of the baseline standard for all things nerdy. And I’m saying this as someone who’s been a lifelong fan, you realize.
But then again, it’s hard to top this, which may not be nerdy, but is certainly this side of terrifying.
§ July 20th, 2009§ Filed under UncategorizedComments Off on In which Mike’s mind works in mysterious, but mostly dumb, ways.
So there I was, watching the trailers attached to the new Harry Potter movie, when this comes on:
And for just a few seconds, beyond all reason (since if such a thing existed I probably couldn’t have avoided any discussion of it online), I thought that maybe what I was watching was the trailer for the Captain Marvel/SHAZAM! movie. You know, what with all the talk of gods and lightning and heroes and so forth. Okay, so he went into a building instead of a subway…I thought maybe they could have updated the origin.
Yes, I realize that I was being stupid. Again, if there was a Captain Marvel movie this far along in production to have a trailer, I’m sure I would have come across folks complaining about it on Twitter or something. But just for one brief, magical, deluded second…I thought I was going to get to hear the shout of “SHAZAM!” from the theatre speakers. Ah, well.
I guess that means I’m a fanboy. Because, you know, I wasn’t sure before.
Oh, and the new Harry Potter film ended up being not too bad. Kinda talky, mostly just setting up the mayhem in the next installment, but still nice to see all the actors again. (Who rules? Alan Rickman rules.)
(Here’s the official site for the Percy Jackson movie, in case the trailer is “disappeared” off the YouTube.)
§ July 19th, 2009§ Filed under UncategorizedComments Off on The weeks come, the weeks go.
LAST WEEK:
I’m happy to report that the “Guest Starring A Joss Whedon Character” strategy has worked much better for our in-stores sales of Fallen Angel: Reborn #1 than did the “Guest Starring Shi” strategy for the previous Fallen Angel series.* We’ve had a few Buffy/Angel fans pick it up specifically for the guest appearance of Illyria, who…well, I’ll just let Wikipedia explain that one, but if you’re not familiar with the character, enough is explained in the comic. Anyway, I hope some of these new readers stick around for the non-Buffy related adventures of the book, as it’s a pretty good series and would like sales to stay up so I can continue to read it. Yes, that’s a totally selfish reason. Hey, I’m entitled.
I’ve been putting tags on the shelves for Marvel’s “Utopia” crossovers with the actual title and issue number, since at first glance the comics (such as this week’s Dark Avengers #7) look like issues of Utopia due to the huge logo with that name, instead of issues of ongoing monthly series. The trade dress for the crossover seems to be detrimental, is what I’m saying. Dark Avengers is a strong seller for us, and disguising it as something else that isn’t selling quite as well doesn’t help.
I don’t think we’ve sold a single issue of Iron Man Armored Adventures #1 so far. Well, except maybe to the folks who get every first issue.
Sold out of Dark Horse’s Creepy #1, the revivial of the old Warren magazine. I’m sure this great Eric Powell cover didn’t hurt.
Blackest Night #1 is still flying off the shelves, and everybody’s thrilled to get their replica Black Lantern ring. Also, we apparently underordered the Tales of the Corps tie-in, as we sold out of that before the weekend. Ah, well, that’s what reorders are for.
Okay, the 1970s variant for Amazing Spider-Man #599 is pretty awesome – a nice play on that Obama cover:
This sample art does leave off the word balloon (“Face it, tiger…I am not a crook!”) but you get the idea.
Nexus is over (or at least on extended hiatus) for now, with the latest double-issue…and there were so many plot elements, old characters, new characters, references to previous adventures, etc., that I felt a little bit like I was going crazy while I was reading this. Not in a bad way, I hasten to add. There’s nothing quite like a Nexus comic, and I’m glad to have had it back, even for just a little while.
We received our second printings of Deadpool: Suicide Kings #2, which is a good thing since we were shorted our shipment of first printings, and replacements were not to be had. Our customers have been okay with it, especially when I explained what happened, but still…would have liked to have had those first printings. Especially at the momemt, since Deadpool comics seem to be like printing money.
Wednesday Comics #2 didn’t have as strong of sales as the first ish, which was to be expected. But still doing well. A few people picking up #1 and #2, I’ve noticed.
THIS WEEK:
Yes, yes, the last issue of Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds is coming out this week. At least, it’s on our invoice, so we’re getting charged for it, anyway.
Archie #599 – sorry, still not the marriage issue. Try again next month.
Lenore Volume 2 #1 – first issue from Lenore‘s new publisher Titan Books. Hopefully they’ll be able to offer continual reorders on this comic like the title’s previous publisher did, since the title is one of those that continually sells off the shelf over extended periods of time…we’ve kept stock of this title on the shelves (not in the back issue bins) for years, and it still sells. And it sells to teenage girls, a demographic generally foreign to funnybook stores (except during the Great Manga Scare** of ’05 – ’07).
Did someone say…Weasel Patrol? The trade paperback is due this week, and it’s funny stuff. (And it’s published by Pal Nat, who deserves your money because he’s swell.)
The long-awaited Beanworld volume 2 is coming this week. I’ve tried to explain Beanworld before, and this wiki may confuse and frighten you, but trust me on this…Beanworld is brilliant, and you need to check it out. Nothing can really explain Beanworld except a Beanworld comic, so here’s a brief sample.
Star Trek: Spock Reflections #1 – “Why, I remember when I was young and used to look like that guy from Heroes….”
Two…count ’em, two extra sized “#600” special issues from Marvel this week. And I have to get ’em both: Amazing Spider-Man #600 for the girlfriend, and Incredible Hulk #600 for me. …A hundred years from now, the three comic collectors who are left are going to try and figure out Marvel’s renumbering shenanigans, and all I can say is “Godspeed, future panelologists…godspeed.”
Freddy Jason Ash: Nightmare Warriors #2 – not quite catching on this time around. The original series teaming these three horror icons had quite the following. Someone tell Fangoria to tell its readers that this new series is out.
The second printing of Muppet Robin Hood #1 is coming this week…not quite as excellent as the Muppet Show comic, but still amusing and well drawn.
YESTERDAY:
“…IS HORNY” would have been the obvious joke, you see.
* But still not as strong as the “maybe it’s Supergirl, maybe it isn’t” strategy at the series’ very beginning.
§ July 17th, 2009§ Filed under super powersComments Off on Hawkman Presents: Things Most People Usually Don’t Find Themselves Saying While on The Job.*
from Super Powers Collection: Hawkman (1983)
* …Except at a trampoline factory with bad shelving, yes, I know.
“I think the ring set looks pretty cheap. That picture makes it look like a plastic toy. A cute desk doo-dad but not worth anything close to $250 ($50 would be pushing it).”
Fair enough. I think my initial positive reaction to it is primarily due to the rings themselves…I’d love to have a replica set of all these Lantern rings. I keep hoping (though I’m reasonably certain it’s not going to happen now) that DC would put out more promo rings to help us poor, needy fanboys fill out the collection. I know there’ve been a number of Green rings given out over the years (the one with the glow-in-the-dark bit in the center, another smaller ring, and a couple of different pack-ins with the action figures, both Golden and Silver age if I recall), and if I remember correctly there was a Yellow ring included with a Sinestro figure.
“I’ve never been into the statues, but I do pick up a random vinyl figure from time to time. You know, the type where you don’t know which one you’re going to get?
“I’ve never tried to ‘catch ’em all,’ but I do like the random menagerie that I’ve built up of vinyl figures. I always wonder how those things sell. Do people try to get a full set? Dose the Wednesday crowd pick them up, or is it a different group?
“Do you stock them at the store, Mike?”
We’ve carried those figures, to differing levels of success. Apparently there were enough complaints about the random nature of these figures that the “random” element was removed and they started marking on the outside of the box which figure was contained therein. Missing the point, obviously, but this kind of marketing of figurines probably isn’t going to catch on in the U.S.
Once in a while we’d have someone trying for a full set, but not very often. I myself went for a full set of the Bone figures that were released this way, but I had an advantage in that I was at the shop and was able to trade with customers who ended up with doubles.
Usually, though, folks would buy one or two as a whim, and that was pretty much it.
Super-rob wonders
“Question though: why did they put labels on the colors of the rings display? I mean, I can see labeling FEAR and HOPE, but does DC assume that if you’re stupid enough to pay $250 for copies of rings that you do not know the difference between your colors?”
My guess is that the labels are there simply as a design element to fill space, to give the item more color and make it more visually interesting, and more worthy of your two hundred fifty bones.
Seriously, just give us a pack of plastic replica rings for all the colors. That’s all we want. We don’t need the fancy-schmancy display thingie. “DC DIRECT: LANTERN CORPS RING ASSORTMENT – Features 8 plastic rings, representing the colors of all the different Corps! Packaged in a clear baggie. $9.99.” Would totally buy it. Could sell TONS of them.
Speaking of the plastic rings, the Black Lantern rings were a big hit at the store. Right now we’re giving them away with each purchase of the Blackest Night comic, and I posted a sign to that effect by the comic on the rack. I had a few folks buy the comic just to get the ring, which I thought was interesting.
I thought the comic itself was a strong start for this new crossover brouhaha…I mean, it’s essentially DC Zombies, and thus was as gruesome and icky as I was hoping. The difference, though, is where Marvel Zombies is basically an extended dark joke, which softens the horror a bit, Blackest Night is playing it straight and, so far, humorless, which could drag a bit. But, it’s got me reading right now, and it’s nice that the series proper has finally started after the approximately thirty years’ worth of prelude stories.
At the very least, we’ve had some lively discussions at the shop about which dead characters should come back as Black Lanterns. As I dropped on the Twitter a while back (and has been picked up by other bloggers here and there), I’m pushing for the Red Bee and his pet trained bee. THE RED ZOMBEE.
Also, I’m reasonably certain the event’s going to end with resurrections for several of the dead characters. Except, you know, the ones that need to stay dead. Sorry, Thomas and Martha Wayne.
Also, via Neilalien, as good an explanation as you’re going to get for Al Jaffee’s predilection for featuring full fish skeletons embedded into his depictions of vomit. Yeah, that’s right, my weblog is all class.
Have a link to Nerdsayswhat.com. I may have helped a bit with this site. I may have also said a few of things presented there. Except “Meh.” I loathe “Meh.”
This Let’s Be Friends Again has been getting a lot of linking love lately, and for good reason. It’s nerd humor, but it’s good nerd humor. And I’m a big ol’ nerd, so it all works out. Plus, Mystery Science Theatre 3000 humor! (And, tying in to recent Green Lantern events, Lantern humor!)
Rich has photographic evidence of some anonymous con-attendee not being very happy with having to wait to see Brian Michael Bendis. Creepiness ahoy!
§ July 15th, 2009§ Filed under retailingComments Off on I think this is a really neat-looking item.
Light-up base, removable rings, extremely nerdy…it’s a wonderful thing. The description says the rings aren’t meant to be worn, but you know anyone who gets their hands on this are going to try. I wonder if we’ll hear about any incidents about someone who misjudged the size and ends up getting a Blue Lantern ring cut off their finger?
But at $250 I don’t see myself picking up one of these just because it looks neat. Not that I’m going to be down on anyone who does — I have two Swamp Thing statues, need I remind you — but someone for whom Green Lantern is his or her favorite character, I can see where this might be tempting.
I believe it was Tom Spurgeon who wondered in an entry linking to an End of Civilization post of mine about the sales feasibility for high end, limited-use novelty items like this in our currently suffering economy. And that’s certainly something worth considering…we’ve never done a whole lot of business in statues and props, but I know stores that do, and I’m wondering how their sales are on them. I wonder how orders on items like this are in general. At a time when comic readers are looking for reasons to cut their funnybook expenses, you would think that high end merchandise would take a hit, too, but I still see them on Diamond’s sales charts, and they’re still showing up in the catalogs.
‘Course, it’s not as if these were ever enormous sellers, and it’s not like there are a large number of consumers buying every prop that turns up in the catalog. (I do have a fellow who orders a Marvel bust or two out of every catalog, but that’s probably more the exception than the rule.) An economic downturn would cause anyone buying lots of these to cut back a bit, I imagine, but probably wouldn’t affect the guy who’s been saving up for that one high-end goodie he has to have.
I do know merchandise in general has slowed down some. We’ve cut orders on DC Direct and Marvel Select figures, and cut McFarlane Toys entirely (selling the shortpacked female figure, and that’s it, time and time again was bit of a discouragement). In this case, it may be more due to overproduction (“oh, look, another Superman figure”) and disinterest (“hey, look at all these Spawn characters I’ve never heard of”) than anything relating to current economic issues.
You know, my intention for this post was just to say “look at this, I think it’s neat,” but I ended up running off at the mouth anyway. Sorry about that. But so long as I have your attention…how have your comics merchandise-buying habits been lately? Have you bought any real high-end statues or props recently? Have you cut down your action figure habit? Is it the economy encouraging your decisions, or have you simply had enough? Please let me know in the comments section.
(You know, doing a post on New Comics Day asking people to think about the amount of money they’re spending on comics stuff isn’t the smartest thing I’ve ever done…!)
I bought the five Ernie Bushmiller’s Nancy books published by Kitchen Sink Press in the late ’80s/very early ’90s, spurred on by snippets of the books I’d seen in magazines, the admiration of the strip by one of my favorite cartoonists, (Bill “Zippy the Pinhead” Griffith), and my old friend Rob extolling the virtues of the comic.
I’d never thought much about the strip prior to that. I was aware of it, of course, but I was hardly an avid follower. But I thought “well, I’ve been amused by what I’ve seen so far, my friend Rob really likes it, and Bill Griffith likes it…I’ll give it a shot.” I started with Nancy Eats Food, the first of the series. And in short order, I ended up buying the rest.
It’s difficult to explain just why I enjoy Bushmiller’s Nancy so much. I’ve read many essays by a variety of folks trying to explain (or perhaps justify) their own love for the strip, and I’m not sure I’m quite ready to add my own to the mix. I don’t know that I really even can pin down what exactly it is that endears the strip to me. The juxtaposition of apparent normalcy with bizarre circumstances? The dedication to the more-than-occasional shameless joke? The awesomeness of Sluggo? It’s all these and more besides, I’d say.
My enjoyment of the strip even extends to the comics, as you may have noticed, though the Bushmiller-ness of the strips is softened into the new “kid’s adventure” stories created specifically for those publishers, if they weren’t simply reprinting the original strips in color. But even in this lesser form, the occasional moment of weirdness still shines through. (And legendary cartoonist John Stanley contributed his skills to the cause, so you can’t go wrong there.)
I know I’m not the only fan: looking at the Amazon listing linked above for Nancy Eats Food, as well as for the following books – Bums, Beatniks and Hippies/Artists & Con Artists, Nancy’s Pets, How Sluggo Survives!, and Dreams and Schemes, I see some adventurous pricing at work, in the $30 to $60 (or even $100+) range. Okay, what they’re selling these for isn’t necessarily what people are buying them for, but it’s at least one indicator of demand. (And yes, all those Amazon links throw a little somethin’-somethin’ back in my direction should you decide to take the Sluggo Plunge. Buy the really expensive ones, if you do.)
I’m…well, I was going to say I’m surprised there hasn’t been a more extensive reprinting of these strips in recent years. Just a handful of books, like the Kitchen Sink volumes and this intriguing book that I don’t yet have. But I’m not terribly surprised if only because Nancy may be just a little too “niche” to support an extensive “Complete Nancy” publishing program like Fantagraphics’ Complete Peanuts.
I bought the five Ernie Bushmiller’s Nancy books published by Kitchen Sink Press in the late ’80s/very early ’90s, spurred on by snippets of the books I’d seen in magazines, the admiration of the strip by one of my favorite cartoonists, (Bill “Zippy the Pinhead” Griffith), and my old friend Rob extolling the virtues of the comic.
, the first of the series. And in short order, I ended up buying the rest. 
, 
, 
, and 
, I see some adventurous pricing at work, in the $30 to $60 (or even $100+) range. Okay, what they’re selling these for isn’t necessarily what people are buying them for, but it’s at least one indicator of demand. (And yes, all those Amazon links throw a little somethin’-somethin’ back in my direction should you decide to take the Sluggo Plunge. Buy the really expensive ones, if you do.)
that I don’t yet have. But I’m not terribly surprised if only because Nancy may be just a little too “niche” to support an extensive “Complete Nancy” publishing program like Fantagraphics’ 
