Mike Sterling's Progressive Ruin

Sluggo Saturday #9.

2009-07-04T00:01:00.000-07:00

IT IS NOT FOR YOU TO QUESTION

THE DESIRES OF SLUGGO

from Nancy and Sluggo #125 (October 1955)

Some things I just post for myself.

2009-07-03T00:01:00.000-07:00

Like this late '93 Malibu Comics house ad for Dinosaurs for Hire, which is totally making fun of Jim Shooter's Warriors of Plasm comic at Defiant:

Sometimes it's hard to imagine that "gore for the org" was once a thing, but indeed it was.

Another bit of business about that cover is the "GENESIS" logo, which was Malibu Comics' early '90s crossover event for their adventure/superhero books. And, oddly enough, a few years later DC Comics ran a crossover event also called "GENESIS." Coincidence? Well, probably. But DC's event didn't involve Dinosaurs for Hire, and therefore was vastly inferior.

In other news:

As you may have seen linked above, here's a website devoted to celebrating the writing of Jim Shooter.
Another comics writer of some note, Kurt Busiek, has a new website going, including a weblog. Good reading from one of the industry's most beloved creators.
I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often: a customer was looking for a DC Archives volume that I knew didn't exist. "But I saw it upon the Internets," sez he, so a quick Googling later, I found what he was talking about: this page of mock-ups for Archives fans are hoping for, including the one the customer had asked about. Ah, well, that may not have worked out, but we had a Showcase Presents volume for the same character, so everyone was happy.

I'd totally love to have a Firestorm Archives, by the way. Those early issues on nice paper? Fantastic.

...What?

Naked except for the felt hat.

2009-07-02T00:01:00.000-07:00

Oh what in the Sam Hill is this?

This is from the Xena Warrior Princess parody in Betty and Veronica Double Digest #172, new this week. I'm assuming this story is a reprint. Surely Archie isn't doing a Xena parody NOW. (Given that this is Archie we're talking about, you can never be quite sure.)*

Anyway, drink in the Jughorse, who certainly takes his place in the ranks of Disturbing Archie Pictures, along with this.

Speaking of this week's comics, I had a couple of variations of this discussion (which ties in what I've been going on about over the last couple of days):

Customer (looks at Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth #1): "So, is this a new Deadpool one-shot?"

Me: "No...."

Customer: "Oh, it's another Deadpool mini-series?"

Me: "No, it's the first issue in a new ongoing series."

Customer: "So wait...Deadpool has two ongoing series now."

Me: "Yup."

Customer: (rolls eyes)

Some people bought, some people didn't. But most people who commented on it demonstrated varying levels of disbelief.

Which, just as a tangent here, reminds me of something else that occurred to me today. our sales on the current version of the MAX-line Punisher and the sales on the created-pretty-much-just-to-tie-into-events Marvel Universe Punisher series together equal about what the MAX Punisher series on its own sold under Garth Ennis's tenure. Of course, as it was pointed out to me, this is Garth Ennis writing the Punisher we're talking about, so it may be a bit of an unfair comparison. But still, thought it was interesting to note.

Oh, and that Captain America: Reborn thing started this week, and while we did get our anticipated upsurge in interest from our regular clientele, Marvel's hoped-for repeat of high demand from the general public for Cap's death didn't materialize. Which is why we don't base our orders on the potential of media coverage, because 1) it may not happen, and 2) it may turn out nobody cares. I seem to recall talking a lot about this on the site around the time of Cap's alleged death. Don't really want to repeat myself, but I'm pretty sure you get the gist.

But our customers want it, and I got enough for them, and everyone's happy. Looks okay, too, as these things go...I'm not really a Cap fan, and I can count the number of his comics I own on the fingers of one hand, if I use the hand with the extra pinky, so it's not like I'm the target audience for this anyway. Hopefully the people who do read it enjoy it, and if it does generate some new Cap readership beyond the stunt aspects of this particular saga, even better.

Some good stuff that came out this week includes Muppet Robin Hood #2 (not the exercise in perfection that the Muppet Show comic is, but still amusing and well-drawn), Batman and Robin #2 (a streamlined machine of a comic, not a word or an image wasted and absolutely wonderful), Fantastic Four #568 (penultimate chapter of the Millar/Hitch run, with a guest-scripter over Millar's plot...the build-up of what seems to be a truly menacing villain continues, though with one issue to go, I suspect the defeat will be relatively prosaic compared to what came before), Tales Designed to Thrizzle hardcover (the first four issues, now with the black and white bits in color, but still just as fantastic and funny), Prince Valiant Volume 1 (a new and gorgeous hardcover reprinting the Hal Foster original strips from 1937 and 1938), and Solomon Grundy #5 (sorry, my "Swamp Thing in the DCU" need is still not fulfilled, though this isn't a bad read by any means).

In other news: well, I won't bother with the bullet point formatting, this time, since I'm just sending you over to Doctor Strange fan Neilalien's essay on what Marvel is doing with the character. Hint: he's not terribly happy about it, and I can't blame him.

* I suppose a quick Googling would resolve the query, but it's not like I really care all that much.

Charlie will soon discover that he shouldn't have provoked the spectral terror of Casper the Friendly Ghost.

2009-07-01T00:01:00.000-07:00

house ad from Richie Rich Diamonds #44 (September 1979)

Actually, I like what they did with these black and white photos to make them appear more clearly on the newsprint page. They look a bit like woodcuts. Not sure if the ultimate effect is "more quaint" or "more terrifying."

Seriously, I would totally buy that Wolverine comic.

2009-06-30T00:01:00.000-07:00

You folks have been nice enough to play along with my thing from yesterday regarding what the comics marketplace would be like with Marvel's and DC's characters/teams/franchises restricted to single titles. Just to reiterate...this isn't something I'm hoping will happen, or think will happen (beyond perhaps a condensing of titles into larger periodical anthologies in the face of rising cover prices). This is just a little thought experiment, wondering just what would be different, what situations it would improve or make worse.

I was asked in the comments if the retail end would take a hit if we didn't have (for example) the half-dozen Wolverine titles for people to buy. And granted, Wolverine comics usually do sell well. In general (and I'm bolding that so that I don't get a bunch of comments from people who need to tell me that they don't fall within the generalities I'm about to describe -- take it as a given that yes, I know), judging by my instore observations, if a customer buys just one Wolverine series, they buy the one just called Wolverine.* A large percentage (but not 100%) of those customers also buy the spin-offs, Wolverine: Origins and Wolverine: Weapon X. A much smaller percentage also buy the Wolverine: Noir mini-series and Wolverine: First Class (the first not being "in continuity" and the latter probably "not serious enough" -- surely points counted against these comics for the discerning Wolverine buyer).

This pattern shouldn't be any surprise. Amazing Spider-Man usually outsold Spectacular, Sensational, Web of, and Adjectiveless, barring special issues or high-profile creators (such as Todd McFarlane on those early Adjectiveless issues).

I think Batman/Detective and Superman/Action might be exceptions to this, where the titles have been around for 70 years, with neither book in each pair really standing out as the "home" title for the character, and where the sales levels are probably a lot closer. (Don't have the numbers in front of me, so bear with me.) I still suspect the comics with the character's actual names in the title have the edge over the generic anthological-legacy titles.

Er...what was the original question again? Oh, yes, is having multiple Wolverine titles sufficiently bringing in the bacon? Well, yes, probably. Would the loss of those other Wolverine titles mean 1) enough of a rise in sales in the main Wolverine comic to balance out those lost sales, and/or 2) that the freed-up money would automatically go to other non-Wolverine comics? The answers are "probably not" and "maybe so, maybe no." People buying the other Wolverine titles were, in general (bolding again, you notice) already buying the primary one, so there wouldn't be much of a bump there. As for the second option....

The money for those extra Wolverine comics has got to come from somewhere. Assuming the customer doesn't just outright decide that he doesn't need to pick up Wolverine: The Roaring '20s #1 (guest-starring the Great Gatsby), he needs to increase his comics budget by taking away his disposable income from other things to accommodate this new comic, or he keeps his comics budget constant by dropping another comic in favor of this new one, and I'm sure Marvel hopes he's dropping a comic by another company.

As prices increase on the standard 32-page format, the cannibalization of sales from other titles may have become the more commonly-chosen option by consumers when faced with new books. If so, the freeing of money for those Wolverine fans who read every Wolverine comic would go back to non-comic needs. But, now (in my original thought experiment -- remember that?) that those fans aren't faced with a rack filled with multiple Wolverine titles they need to keep up with, the possibility exists of spending money on other titles, should they so choose. You know, "boy, I'd like to buy Man-Thing War Journal, but I need to keep up with my Wolverine stories." Well, now they can buy Man-Thing War Journal.

Not to say that it would all balance out. Man-Thing War Journal would likely not sell as well as Wolverine: The Roaring '20s (which does sound like an awesome comic, come to think of it). But it, and other new titles, could have a chance in a market where so much of the consumer's dollar isn't tied up by trying to keep on top of multiple titles from particular franchises. A dozen different midrange titles featuring a dozen different characters/concepts versus a half-dozen titles all starring the same guy, at varying sales levels...diversity seems it would be, in the long run, a little healthier. And you never know...one of those other titles might catch on and become a top tier seller.

And in the end, this is all just, as I've said repeatedly, a thought experiment...just some armchair publishing in an imaginary world where economic realities take second place to some flights of fancy.

Good Lord, did any of that make any sense? Again, this is just some brainstorming, not a Call for Action. There are objections to be made at every level of assumption here, I realize, but my mind has been drifting in this direction over the last few days regarding the impact of multiple seemingly-redundant titles and I thought I'd try to throw my meanderings out there. Thanks for your patience, and of course I'm always interested in what you'd have to say.

Just for a chance of pace, here are a couple of links to people who can actually maintain a coherent line of thought:

Dave introduces a new feature on his site: Space Cabby Sunday, DC Comics' Silver Age-iest space character. Enjoy, won't you?
Pal Dorian has managed to find a minority sidekick character from the 1940s who wasn't an offensive caricature. (HINT: It ain't Chop-Chop.)
Speaking of comic book franchises: Tim O'Neil gives his preamble to a coming series of essays on the X-Men. Promises to be good readin'.

* Yes, it's called Dark Wolverine now. Come to think of it, I wonder if the name change, which in essence does away with a Wolverine flagship title simply titled Wolverine, is a disincentive to sales from people simply wanting a central Wolverine title and aren't interested in any of the ancillary books. Then again, it may very well be countered by the number of people buying it because of the temporary "new direction."

Something I've been pondering for a while now.

2009-06-29T00:01:00.000-07:00

What if the characters/teams from Marvel and DC were allowed one starring title, and that's it? Only one X-Men comic, only one Batman comic, only one Wolverine comic, only one Spider-Man comic -- you know, like that.

Okay, there are some caveats that you're probably wondering about. Yes, spin-offs would probably be allowed...as implied above, you could have an X-Men title and a spin-off with X-Men character Wolverine, but you couldn't have a dozen X-Men titles and a half-dozen Wolverine titles. Just one each, please. And you couldn't have both Action Comics starring Superman and Superman. Just one or the other.

And I'm going to be hardnosed and say "no mini-series or one-shots." If you've got a four-part Flash story, it can be told one chapter per month over four months' time in the Flash comic, and not in a concurrently-running Flash: Let's Beat Feet mini-series. I'll say okay to annuals, though, provided they are annual and not, say, every nine months.

Team books are still allowed...you can have a Justice League starring characters who have their own titles, for example. But not multiple Justice League comics. One's plenty.

I haven't been pondering these in excruciatingly exact and specific detail or anything. Just the process of articulating these ground rules is probably more effort than I've actually put into this thought experiment. Plus, I'm not addressing what the exact economic impact on the Big Two would be...I'm going to assume, for the purposes of this, that Marvel and DC can get by just fine on the profits from this more limited range of titles.

So what would it be like? I mean, other than looking like what the publishers were putting out in the industry's earlier decades? For one, I think readership may be higher...fans no longer having to decide which X-Men title they'd want to follow, or how many they could afford, or if it was even worth the trouble trying to jump into the cavalcade of mutant books. The cost of entry would be much lower.

Events in the stories would have more impact. Something significant happening in a Superman comic, to be continued in next month's issue of that series, wouldn't be diluted by other events in other Super-titles in the interim.

Maybe a wider variety of books? Would no longer devoting funds to buying the multiple monthly Avengers comics mean a greater likelihood of trying out a new non-Avengers title? Not to mention the fact that not having multiple variations on the same theme...i.e. that half-dozen of Wolverine titles...means more room on the rack for other material.

Would there be a trending upward in quality, stemming from more competition for fewer open slots for certain books? Or would that creative energy, instead of competing for a slot in the monthly Batman comic, instead be driven to other concepts? Would almost have to be, I think.

Anyway, this is all getting a bit convoluted, considering what kicked this off was me looking at our comics rack and thinking "you know, if there were just one ongoing X-Men title, it'd probably sell enormously well. Hell, even I'd buy it." Given the rules above, however, Marvel, being Marvel, could still get around the one-title limitation by spinning off every character into his or her book. "Coming from the House of Ideas this summer: Boom Boom #1!"

It's possible that something like this may become a reality, if only because the standard monthly comic book format is increasing in price. At $2.99 to $3.99 a pop, people are still picking up all the different Wolverines, but should the periodical format eventually get up to, say, $6.99 an issue, I'd imagine the comic-reading public would be less inclined to follow a half-dozen different Wolverine series. I know everyone assumes we'll move into some kind of trade paperback standard by that point (assuming the comics market will be able to adapt at all), but I have a hard time seeing the industry abandon the periodical market entirely. Years ago I mentioned the Amazing Heroes April Fool's column reporting a $2.95 100-page format combining several related titles into one giant book (like having X-Men and New Mutants under the same cover), and joke or not, I think something like that may be what we're heading toward. Well, it'd be a bit more than $2.95, of course, but you know what I mean.

So that's a lot of meandering rambling and half-baked thinking on the topic from me. Like I said, this is just something I've been sorta thinking about as I see the new comics rack at the shop. I thought I'd brainstorm a little about it here on the site, and if you have anything to add, feel free.

Blogging about other people's blogging, as well as my own, is a sin.

2009-06-28T00:01:00.000-07:00

Pal Tom is retiring his weblog, which is a darned shame, but I'm sure you'll all join me in wishing him the best. Plus, he's on the Twitter, so it's not like we'll never hear from the guy.

Tom was one of the four founding members of what I liked to call the Associated Comics and Pop Culture Webloggers of Ventura County, CA, and Outlying Environs (ACAPCWOVCCAOE for short, natch), along with pal Dorian, pal Ian, and myself. I've added a few folks to the collective, some of whom I realize haven't updated in a while. But Tom, Dor, Ian and I were the charter members of this alleged organization, and it is a little sad to see one of the Inner Circle decide to retire.

So good luck, Tom! Enjoy your life free of feeding the blog, what with your "going outside" and "having friends" and "enjoying life" and all that jazz. Why, you wouldn't catch me doing any of that.

In other news:

You may have noticed that I finally used tags on one of my posts. You can now click "sluggo saturday" at the end of a Sluggo Saturday post and get a faceful of Sluggo. No need to thank me.

As pal Dorian told me regarding this, "welcome to 2005," so yeah, I'm a tad behind the curve when it comes to this sort of thing. I just haven't been looking forward to going back and tagging all 3,000 posts, and I'd been putting it off until I upgraded to a more robust blogging platform. But, who knows when I'll do that, so there you go. Enjoy some tagging.
Some follow up to a couple of questions I was asked via my comments sections, but never got around to answering:

Flossin wondered

"Also: Mike, are you an Andy Kaufman fan? I saw some Amazon ads for 'My Breakfast with Blassie' here and was just wondering."

Yes, I am quite the Kaufman fan. I always appreciated that he either 1) kept audiences wondering what was a put-on and what wasn't, and 2) just outright aggressively tested their patience. I realize that, like most comedy, it's not for everybody, but I thought he was brilliant.

Roel asks

"...Isn't 500 considered a bigger event than 600? Why would they ignore 500 but return to the old numbering for 600? That seems backwards..."

I'm not entirely sure...issue 500 would have been near the middle of the 1998 Cap series, so the "new #1" sales bump would have been over, and I doubt they knew that the series was going to end at #50 by that point, so that wouldn't have been a consideration. Maybe they just plain didn't feel like it, that the series was doing well enough without having to restore the original numbering to generate an Extra-Sized Issue.

The again, they did just do that on Thor after only about 12 issues, a series that's still selling fairly well, so who knows. Just another attempt at grabbing the consumer in a rocky marketplace during economic turmoil...you gotta do what you gotta do, I guess.

Sluggo Saturday #8.

2009-06-27T00:01:00.000-07:00

SLUGGO

WASTES NO TIME

from Nancy and Sluggo #133 (June 1956)

Ed, Farrah, and Michael.

2009-06-26T00:01:00.000-07:00

I don't have really anything to add that you haven't already heard regarding the recent passings of Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson. That's a pretty large swath of pop culture celebrity to be cut away from the world, and one I would have felt funny just ignoring and moving on with the funnybook talk.

I remember Ed as, what else, Johnny Carson's support crew, always on the chair/couch there next to Johnny's desk, ready with a hearty chuckle or a well-timed straight line. Not so much a relationship between sidekick and host as it was a finely-honed comedy team. I loved Johnny, and Johnny loved Ed, and if Johnny loved Ed, then that was good enough for me...I loved Ed, too.

Oddly enough, when I think of Farrah Fawcett, I don't think of her famous pin-up poster, or of her role on Charlie's Angels. I think of some six-or-eight page color insert in...Omni Magazine, I want to say, though I'm pretty sure that's wrong...advertising the then-upcoming surely-spectacular hit film Saturn 3, in which she starred. I'm not even sure I ever got around to seeing Saturn 3 all the way through on cable, but I do remember how fascinated I was with that magazine preview insert, and that weird robot. ...That's not really saying much about Farrah, specifically, I realize.

And Michael Jackson...it's hard to say where I fall on my opinion on Michael Jackson. There's no denying his impact and importance on the music industry, as well as there's no denying his peculiar exploits over the years, or the outright scandals. It's a strange mix of admiration, revulsion, and pity. While he created some wonderful things (I mean, look at this track listing...you know nearly all of these songs), his existence seemed to be an endless succession of near-caricatural examples of the extremes of celebrity.

Anyway, my condolences to their friends and families. So long, Ed. So long, Farrah. So long, Michael.

Progressive Ruin presents...the End of Civilization.

2009-06-25T00:01:00.000-07:00

Say, friend! Are you feeling down in the dumps? Has the world beat you down? Are you on your last legs? Well, follow along with me as I go through the July 2009 edition of Diamond Previews and examine many items of interest, and we'll see if we can't finish you off once and for all! (And if that doesn't work, there are over 50 previous installments of End of Civilization linked in the sidebar!)

p. 138 - Bomb Queen VI #1:

While personally I think the premise presented for this particular comic provides an amusing contrast to the Obama-exploitathon in other titles, I'm wondering what's going to be the final straw...the one that finally gets a comment and/or a condemnation from the White House. You know, like "C'mon, guys, lay off, will ya? What's next, a comic about the President's do --"

p.211 - Puppy Power: Bo Obama:

"...Oh."

p. 344 - Black Lantern t-shirts:

I picture these as being very worrying to the uninitiated. "Oh, look, Henry, that young man is wearing a shirt that just says 'Death.' Don't make eye-contact...don't make eye-contact!"

p. 347 - I Only Read Graphic Novels Black T-shirt:

Let the world at large know that you're a comic fan of discerning taste, preferring your illustrated storytelling in larger doses, that you're not going to be beholden to a monthly schedule enforced by the publishers-that-be.

Or, in short, that you're still a dork. Hey, own your dorkiness, my friends.

p. 356 - Beverley Hills Cops Minimates Box Set:

This item will probably pull a larger profit than Mr. Murphy's last film.

p. 361 - Indiana Jones Room Booby Trap:

"Use a latched and spring-loaded Mayan idol to shower intruders with realistic plastic bugs from atop your door, or encounter a [sic] idol which launches darts at intruders."

Well, I suppose those are okay as traps go...if you're some kind of wimp. Wake me when this company markets something that'll let me do this:

p. 362 - [OFFERED AGAIN] The Spirit Movie 12-inch Deluxe Figure:

I suspect this figure is going to be OFFERED AGAIN in future catalogs for some time to come.

p. 364 - Star Wars The Force Trainer:

"As you concentrate, beta waves are generated. This information is translated in the headset into a digital signal and sent to the training tower, causing the training remote to rise and fall."

Hopefully this won't cause unrealistic expectations in any impressionable children:

"Little Billy...? What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to use my Force Powers to bring the TV remote control from the other side of the room to me."

"Um, Little Billy...there's no such thing as the Force."

"B-but I mastered the Force Trainer...! Are you telling me it's all a lie? THE TOY LIED TO ME!?"

...Okay, that's a long way to go for not much of a joke. Here's the alternate: "TOTALLY NOT A BONG." There, it's funnier because it's shorter and it's about bongs.

p. 370 - Alien 1/1-Scale Lifesize Bust:

It's a thousand bucks, but I won't lie...if I had more money than I knew what to do with, I'd totally buy one of these. Hell, I'd buy two and use them as armrests on my custom-made couch.

p. 371 - Battlestar Galactica Little Frakkin' Toaster Cylon Maquette:

I never not replace, in my head, every usage of the term "frak" with the actual vulgarity it's replacing whenever I hear or see it. "Yeah, here's this little f[beep!]ing Cylon thing...whatever, man."

p. 378 - Terminator 25th Anniversary Jacket:

I was going to say "oh, like anyone's going to see you wearing this jacket and say 'hey, that's just like the jacket in the Terminator movie!'" -- but then I realized, yeah, someone probably would. Some people are pretty scary.

p. 378 - Star Wars Darth Maul 1/6-Scale Holographic Bust:

Perhaps it's just a bad photo, or that it's just hard to photograph, or that it looks better when the internal light is turned on, but as it is now, it looks like there's been an accident in the molding process.

p. 394 - Watchmen Be@rbricks 400/100 Percent Set:

So you get a little version and a version four times the size, but I think, regardless of size, they are all equally able to cause Alan Moore a conniption. (I do like the blood-splat over where the bear's eye would be.)

p. 400 - Star Trek Pon Farr Perfume for Women:

"Sharp and aggressive, exotic yet simple, Pon Farr will drive him crazy with blood lust."

This is just slightly worrying. Anyway, I don't really have any more jokes about Star Trek perfumes (after the last batch)...mostly I'm just amazed this even exists.

p. 403 - Star Wars Back Buddies: Darth Vader:

And now...the Saddest Darth Vader of Them All:

"Won't somebody [HAAAH-PURRRR] wuuuuuv me?"

a tip o'the toupee to Bully the Little Stuffed Bull for the Indy still

But perhaps I'm not being too cynical.

2009-06-24T00:01:00.000-07:00

Lots of good discussion (and the occasional cheap joke!) about comic book covers in the comment threads (1 2) from the last couple of days' worth of posts, so feel free to join in. I'm still trying to think of how I'm going to sum it all up in a day or two, if at all. But anyway, give the comments a read, as folks have had some interesting things to say.

In the meantime, "Anonymous" has a couple of questions for me:

"1. How did you stock Herogasm at your store without (much) embarrassment?"

Well, hell, after Pee Soup and Blowjob, a title like Herogasm can practically have "Walt Disney Presents" in front of it.

Okay, perhaps I exaggerate slightly. After all, Pee Soup et al aren't exactly being put on the rack next to Supergirl and Marvel Adventures: Avengers. We are displaying Herogasm, but on racks where the bottom half of the cover is obscured by the top of the comics in the row just below it, so that mitigates the embarrassment a bit. Of course, it does still have a big ol' "HEROGASM" across the top, so, uh, yeah, anyway. It hasn't been a problem, and we haven't had any young'uns giggling at the title and trying to get their hands on it, so, so far, so good. We're keeping an eye out for any trouble that may arise, but I think we're okay.

That it doesn't feature any of the major known-by-the-public properties helps as well, so it's primarily ignored by the folks who are likely to be offended by it. If this were Spider-Man: Herogasm, we might have a problem...not to mention a completely insane and possibly fantastic Spider-Man comic. (And yes, I'm aware of this article about someone discovering some excessively nekkid Batman story, which would seem vaguely related to what we're talking about.)

"2. How can Captain America and Incredible Hulk have #600 issues WITHOUT having #500 issues like Action Comics, Detective Comics, Superman, Batman, Thor, Fantastic Four, Amazing Spider-Man, and Uncanny X-Men?"

Marketing.

Restarting a title from #1 usually creates a temporary sales bump, as retailers tend to order a little more on first issues, even if sales on the previous title featuring the same property were fairly moribund. For example, when Spider-Girl was relaunched as Amazing Spider-Girl, it experienced exactly that. Sales were up for an issue or two, then fell down to the sales level that it has when the previous series approached issue #100.

In some cases, if the previous series was close enough to an issue number divisible by 100, a new series that no longer has the "first issue sales bump" going for it will revert back to the previous series' numbering (adding in the number of issues published under the new numbering system), just in time for an Extra Special Large Size Anniversary Issue that would hopefully bring about yet another temporary sales bump.

In Captain America's case, I think I've even heard that there was an error made in figuring out the title's numbering if it had never been restarted, so that what they're calling "Issue #600" actually isn't #600. I've no idea...I'll let other folks worry about it. It's just a big mess, anyway, and I'm sure a century from now, if anyone still cares, it'll be awfully confusing for anyone trying to figure it out too long after the fact.

Keep in mind a lot of that second answer has been run through my Cynic-Filter™ and thus perhaps I'm making a too-downbeat interpretation of genuine customer outreach via such attention-grabbing efforts as renumbering and anniversary issues, required in this marketplace of overcrowded racks, declining readership, and a damaged economy.

Anyhoo, Anonymous, I hope that answers your questions. If anyone has anything to add to what I said, I'm sure they'll pop into the comments and let us know. Also, why use "Anonymous?" If you don't want to use your own name, then make up a new one! Have fun with it!

I have a question for you at the end.

2009-06-23T00:01:00.000-07:00

I'll probably get around to responding directly to some of your comments to yesterday's post in the next day or so. But just to clarify...I've got no particular preference for word balloons being or not being on comic covers. If it works, put it in. If not, leave 'em out. But as was noted...an endless series of balloonless and blurbless covers featuring the star of the book posing in generic settings (i.e. Spider-Man swinging through the city) is no way to attract attention.

My favorite attention-grabbing comic covers, though, have got to be on Sgt. Rock (and Our Army at War). I've processed a number of collections of them over the years, and I have to (usually unsuccessfully) fight the urge to poke through each issue to see just what the hell was going on inside after seeing the wonderful, compelling covers they almost always had.

Here are a couple of samples, "borrowed" from the Grand Comic Book Database:

You can see a whole bunch more here. Man, I love these covers. They sure knew how to grab you.

So I have a question for you, the kind and gentle readers. What was the last really compelling, really "I have got to see what's going on inside this book" cover that you've come across? I don't mean just an attractive cover that got your attention because it was aesthetically pleasing (like my deal with Uptight #3 I discussed recently). I mean, you saw the cover, saw the situation it set up, and you felt like you had to pick it up and see just how this situation resolved.

Please let me know in the comments. No purchase necessary, no salesman will call.

Oh, and here, as promised in the post's title, is the Question at the end:

No need to thank me.

There are nine word balloons on this cover.

2009-06-22T00:01:00.000-07:00

Justice League of America #161 (Dec. 1978) - art by Dick Dillin & Frank McLaughlin

Whenever I come across this cover at the shop, I just sorta pause and ponder it briefly.

1. Like the subject line on this post says, there are nine world balloons and eight speaking parts on this cover. This is almost the exact opposite of modern superhero comic books, which openly shun word balloons. Shun, I say.

2. Most of the folks on the cover are pretty pissed at Zatanna turning down membership, but Superman's innocent-yet-arrogant shock always amuses me. "But we're so great...why would anyone turn us down?" (Here's another guy who turned down these jive JLA turkeys.)

3. Who or what is Zatanna looking at? Is it at us? Is Zatanna magically breaking the fourth wall, years before she did it in Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers: Zatanna mini?

4. That's probably Zatanna's worst costume. This other costume of hers wasn't bad, particularly when George Perez was drawing it, but clearly her best look was this.

5. I don't recall that Zatanna shot magical energy blasts out her fingertips all that often. Maybe I'm just not remembering.

6. Just picture the members of the Justice League standing around that long, gray table, passing the notepad and pencil around as they write in Zatanna's name (or not write it in, or write "no way," or something) and tear out the page to place in the bowl. Seems like an awfully mundane process for a superhero team. I mean, even the Legion of Super-Heroes had the Planetary Chance Machine. Then again, the Legion is a thousand years in the future...perhaps the Justice League was not yet prepared for such technology.

7. But seriously, that's a lot of word balloons. Can any of you folks think of comic covers that have more than nine? I'm sure they're out there...a lot of those old crime comics seemed to give speaking parts to every man, woman, and child that happened to be on that cover. If you can think of one, go ahead and pop it into the comments.

A short Sunday.

2009-06-21T00:01:00.000-07:00

A little follow-up on yesterday's Sluggo Saturday entry...first, I didn't crop that image. That's how the panel appeared in the comic. Second, here is the panel just previous to that one:

...though frankly, that doesn't make it any less disturbing. "Clean, Sluggo. Clean, or the pain shall continue."

Anyway, I've had a long week, so I'm taking a bit of a break from the blogging today. Partial refunds for your admission prices will be issued to you shortly. In the meantime...anyone want about thirty copies of Dazzler #1 (1981) in around Fine or better? Struck a vein of them in this bulk comic stock we acquired a while back that I'm just getting around to processing.

Also, I see via Neilalien that the new Sorcerer Supreme of the Marvel Universe, formerly Dr. Strange, will now be Fred Hembeck's favorite character Brother Voodoo. Well, okay, I knew that part already. But what I didn't know is that the character will now be called "Doctor Voodoo," which, aside from these particular comics not being my thing, is actually kind of an awesome name. "BEHOLD DOCTOR VOODOO." That is both silly and wonderful.

Okay, enough of that sort of thing. See you folks tomorrow!

Sluggo Saturday #7.

2009-06-20T00:01:00.000-07:00

THE SUBJUGATION

OF SLUGGO

from Nancy and Sluggo #180 (Jan-Feb 1961)

Day Three: QUESTIONS ANSWERED, PROBLEMS RESOLVED.

2009-06-19T00:01:00.000-07:00

Here we go, the last few questions from my comments a couple of days ago. Maybe, just maybe, we might all learn a little something.

Anonymous challenges me with

"Explain the miscolored Swamp Thing stealth appearances back in Planetary #7 and in the Ambush Bug: Year None mini, with the necessary pics."

Well, I'm gonna have to do it without pics, because I'm starting this late Thursday evening and would like to go to bed at a decent hour. The "miscoloring" of Swamp Thing in Planetary was simply because the issue featuring several take-offs of Vertigo characters, and if the Swamp Thing analogue was miscolored, it was just an attempt at least slightly different visually.

In Ambush Bug, I suspect Swamp Thing was miscolored to further distance this character's portrayal from his usual Vertigo appearances, since Swamp Thing is editorially forbidden (or, at least, not permitted overtly) to appear in the regular DC Universe...or whatever passed for it in Ambush Bug.

"Was there a ST cameo in Guy Gardner: Collateral Damage? If so, prove it!"

Whoa, ease up there, cowboy. We're all friends here. Yes, there's a cameo in issue #2 of this Howard Chaykin prestige-format mini-series, and here it is:

In the first issue of the series, there's a VERY tiny image of a framed photo on a wall that may show Swamp Thing, but it's pretty vague.
Googum pipes in with

"Am I too late?"

Nope! You got in just under the wire!

"Hey, does your store sell action figures, and if so, what are the current big movers?"

We do carry action figures, but the market has become very oversaturated and we've scaled it back quite a bit. We've quit ordering McFarlane figures altogether, as we got tired of ordering a case of Spawn figures, selling the female figure immediately, and then getting stuck with a bunch of unsellable dust-collectors.

We'll order the DC Direct figures, the Marvel Select figures, and the occasional Star Trek figure, and every once in a while we'll pick up some oddball figure that we may think will grab some attention, but the days of heavy action figure stocking is pretty much done for now. As such, nothing really sticks out as big movers. The last figure to sell noticeably well was the Rorschach figure from the Watchmen movie set. And prior to that we were selling several copies of the Marvel Zombies: Hulk figure, oddly enough.
Thorn wants to know

"Hey Mike - What do you think about the news that May saw a nearly 20% drop in comic sales compared to last year? What's that all about? And do you predict that comic sales will continue to be down?"

There was a story about "the May comics crash" that theorized the causes being a lack of Big Crossover Events, no outstanding #1s, lateness of popular books, rising cover prices, and everybody being broke. And that probably covers it. I know May wasn't the greatest month for us, but things seem to be bouncing back in June, so let's hope for the best.

As for the future...I want to say things will improve, but you never know. It's going to be an ongoing process of adjustment/fine line-walking among the retailers/consumers/publishers re: pricing and formats.
R-Lex wraps up the initial question-fest with this:

"Not sure if it's too late to get in on this, but would be interested to know if you have any thoughts on the upcoming Giffen Doom Patrol series."

Well, I do love the Doom Patrol, and I enjoy Giffen's superhero writing, and the preview pages look good to me, so it'll definitely be a must-buy. Plus there's that Metal Men back-up by Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis and Kevin Maguire, so I really can't wait to read it. It sounds great.

Whether it'll stick around longer than the last couple of incarnations of Doom Patrol, I don't know. But it should be a lot of fun while it's around.

Okay, let's do a little mop-up on some comments from the last couple of days, and we'll wrap up this latest session of ~~"Help Mike Generate Content"~~ "Ask Mike Some Questions." From Wednesday:

Tim O'Neil asks

"On another subject: the Cap #600 nonstarter was predicted by all and sundry, but do you think there was any significance to the fact that, as opposed to past Marvel news stories, the news of Cap's return also happened to fall on an extremely busy newsday? In other words, stuff like Cap's death and the Obama issue of Spider-Man enjoyed good press because not a lot else was going on that particular day, but Cap just happened to return on the day that Iran exploded, North Korea threatened to destroy the world, and the Obama administration began the roll-outs for the its two biggest domestic policy initiatives to date. *If* - and obviously this is a big *if* - there was any chance of the story gaining wide traction, did the news climate essentially quash said traction before it could get started?"

Well, certainly real world events got in the way of some silly funnybook news...but there's always so much time and space to fill in the news media outlets, that even on a day when all this happened, there's still room for a puff piece on a comic book character. That night I heard the Cap story repeated, along with Iran/North Korea/etc., during the five minute newsbreak played every half hour on the radio. So the story was out there.

But people don't care. Now, by "people" I mean the folks who don't go into comic shops unless they hear about something on TV or read it in the paper...the ones who showed up for the Spider-Obama comic and for the death of Cap. So far I have yet to hear a peep from any of these people about the return of Captain America. Not one phone call, not one walk-in from any non-regulars looking for it. (The excuse of "well, Reborn isn't out yet" doesn't fly, because these same people don't pay attention to any mentioned release dates.) It's very possible it's simply because "life" doesn't sell like "death" -- or doesn't seem like it would have the same "investment potential" of having the Last Captain America Story Ever.

And there's the fact that the people who only go to comic shops for media-advertised events have already picked up the Death of Cap, and finding out their "collectible" has been undermined by the character's return, are disinclined to be sucked in again.

At any rate, this is why stores can't base orders on potential (or even promised) media coverage. Just showing your product to lots of people doesn't mean lots of people are going to want it.

On the other hand, our regulars (i.e. the already converted) have been expressing some heightened interest in the whole return of Cap thing, so the comics should sell okay to our regular clientele.
Philip notes

"I was reading an old(er) DC comic ('70s?) and found an editorial sort of apologizing for prices going up to 60-cents and to make it up to the readers they were going to include lots of back-up features in their books. There seems to be a bit of that happening now with DCs $3.99 titles, but man oh man four bucks is a dear price to pay for a comic so I am being extremely selective anymore with what I buy, and the temptation to "wait for the trade" is growing."

I do like DC's $3.99 format, introduced with the "Countdown to" titles last year. A lead and a back-up for an extra-sized comic isn't a bad deal for that price. And the titles in this format have, so far, been pretty good (like Booster Gold with Blue Beetle) or should be good (the aforementioned Doom Patrol, Detective Comics with Batwoman and the Question).

However, it's only a matter of time before the back-ups go away, the extra pages vanish, but the $3.99 price remains on the cover.

And finally, at long last, from Thursday's comments:

David Z. goes above and beyond the call of duty finding this, a reggae/ska-ish version of "Also Spracht Zarathustra" that I was crudely joking about in yesterday's post. ...It's good!
GQ notes about my pic from yesterday

"So.

You've got big hands, ain'thca?"

My fists and large and strong, from years of experience smashing down HIGH PRICES. And strangling people who tell me oh, yeah, sure, I have a Superman #1 at home, it's in perfect condition!
WH says

"Been meaning to say this for quite some time: You look like your humor, you know that?"

I've no idea how to even take that. I'm assuming he means I look dull and witless.
Andrew Davison returns with

"Just because you found some kindly gentlemen to pose next to you, doesn't prove that it's the mysterious Ralph. The real Ralph is obviously going to look more like Ditko's Crime Master."

He's FOUND ME OUT. Andrew has even somehow ferreted out the original, unretouched image:

"BTW, do they still sell those 60's Hulk t-shirts? What about the Spidey one?"

They reissued these a few years back, but I think they're out of print again. But we may still have the Hulk one in stock! I'll check when I get back to the shop.

"BTW, you need to restock several shelves behind you."

We took the pic on Wednesday, and all the new books were on our large New Arrivals rack. The empty spaces you're seeing are the spaces we've made on the regular shelves for the new books, when we move them over on Thursday.

There's a reason for all this, honest.
Sarah wraps it all up with

"Awesome 'curse youuuuuuuuu, Richaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaards!' pose you have going there, Mike."

That's pretty much how I look all day. I am megalomaniacally angry at everything. "YOU DARE BEND COMICS IN FRONT OF MIKE? I SHALL CRUSH YOU FOR THIS EFFRONTERY! NONE MAY DEFY MIKE."

"I still think Ralph is fictional, though."

So do several of our customers, oddly enough. Or they think I'm Ralph. Or his son.

It's when they think Employee Aaron is my son that I get a tad annoyed. Somehow this is Aaron's fault. He's so fired.

Okay, that's enough for this round of questions and answers with yours truly. Thank you everyone for participating, and I hope I was able to satisfy your curiosity. And of course, as always, thanks to all of you for reading, and putting up with some of my quirks. I understand I may have a few.

The Second Day.

2009-06-18T00:01:00.000-07:00

Here come more answers, such as they are, to your questions. Read on, if you dare:

Derek B. Haas asks

"Do you have a superior at Ralph's? I've never quite understood if you're a trusted employee, manager, or (although I suspect not on this one) part owner of the place."

Last time I did one of these question-and-answer sessions, someone asked me that, and I let folks know that yes indeedy, there is in fact a Ralph who owns the shop I've been managing lo these many years now. Unlike last time, however, I thought I'd provide an actual photo of the mysterious Ralph in his natural setting. Now, the two of us took a normal picture and a goofy picture, so, of course, here's the goofy one:

I didn't shave for the photo. Neither did Ralph, apparently.

Also, some of you may remember that Alan Light posted his photos of the 1982 San Diego Comic Con to his Flickr account a while back. Well, guess who's in one of the photos?

detail from a photo by Alan Light
Yup, that's Ralph. I've put together that old convention display board of his once or twice over the years. I think we even still have copies of that blue flyer posted in the lower right corner of the board.

"All impressions are that the place would be lost without you, regardless!"

Mostly just because I'm the only one who knows the passwords to all our online accounts. If I die unexpectedly, all the guys at the shop are screwed.
Alex wonders

"Have you ever read the Richard Stark (aka Donald Westlake) Parker novels? I ask because the new Darwyn Cooke hardcover adapting 'The Hunter' is dropping real soon, and I'm super stoked, and wondered if you might be too."

While I'm familiar with the names, from my old librarian years, I've not read any of his work. But if the comic adaptation excites the author's fans the way it's excited you, then I hope it does well!
Stanley very possibly opens a can of worms by asking

"If I remember correctly, you had a hand in creating Anime Jack for The Rack webcomic. Whether or not that's the case, who is the biggest 'fan-atic' you've encountered? Someone who just lives and breathes whatever they're interested in, and by proxy must tell you ALL about it?"

Yes, that is absolutely correct...I did guest-write the installment of The Rack that introduced "Anime Jack," and you can see it right here. But sure what you want to do is find out how you can get your own print copy of this fine strip, and many others as well, in that convenient "paperback" format all the kids are raving about nowadays.

I did come up with the name, Birdie the fantastic visual, and I'm thrilled to see Birdie and Kevin still use him from time to time. The character and situation is, as you may already have guessed, based on Real Life Events.

To address your actual question, let me relate to you a story I may have told before, but likely bears repeating. One particular person in his early to mid 20s, who may or may not have been an inspiration for Anime Jack, was obsessed with one specific anime property. For the sake of this discussion, let's say it was Naruto. It wasn't, I promise, but it's close enough. Anyway, this fellow would talk about Naruto to the exclusion of anything else while in the shop. If another customer even so much as glanced sideways at the manga section, our Naruto fan would immediately start trying to talk up said customer about the virtures of Naruto. He would stand by the register and try to talk to the employees and anyone coming up to the register about Naruto. In short, he drove us crazy.

Let's now focus on a particular Christmas season. I was at a Major Department Store in a local mall, desperately searching out gifts. As I was walking through the crowds, I espied at a distance our Naruto fan talking to customers, a 20-ish couple, by one of the store's counters. I noticed that the fan was wearing a nametag for the Major Department Store. Hey, the fan got a job! An actual job with some measure of responsibility and nothing at all to do with Naruto! Good for him!

I walked closer. I was able to see the expressions on the couple's faces...that of a strained politeness. I could hear what the fan was talking to them about.

Yes indeedy, it was Naruto.

Now, a brave and kind man, especially one who has had prior experience in dealing with this type of fannish obsession, could possibly have stepped in and edged our fan away from the precipice, and nudged our hapless couple toward safety.

I, on the other hand, suddenly became very interested in the sock display on the other side of the store and got the hell out of there. Hey, I'll put up with the guy as part of my job, but I ain't doin' it for free.
Just Some Guy wonders

"Is it possible for the comic book industry to grow again? Or will the remaining big publishers continue to spin their wheels until the fan base shrinks enough and prices rise enough to finally be unsustainable? Will the whole thing pop like a soap bubble in a matter of months or will it be a long slow bleed out (assuming we're not at that point already)?"

I think it's possible, surely...you never know when someone will come out with that One Comic that'll grab everyone's attention, and unlike the usual short-lived sales bump created by stunts like "The Death of Captain America" (which get customers for that comic and nothing else, especially not "The Return of Captain America"), maybe this new audience would find other works of value within the medium. And retailers and publishers alike, having learned their lesson from the short-term exploitations of the collectors' mentality, and the subsequent crash of the market, will attempt to grow the audience and their interest in their publications organically, reasonably, without pandering to greed or obsession.

And perhaps in the process I can sprout a brass band out of my butt that will play a ska version of Richard Strauss' Also sprach Zarathustra upon demand.

So in other words, I don't know that it's very likely that we'll see a sudden growth in the comics marketplace. Things are slowly healing, though with some bumps along the way, but I have a hard time seeing the market being the juggernaut (relatively speaking) it once was. It'll survive, I think, but it's going to take some serious changes on the part of retailers and publishers. Perhaps that would make a good topic for a future, more detailed, post. Let me dwell on that.
Julius Brown queries

"Do you think DC really has any faith that the Red Circle and Milestone characters have a chance of selling well or are they just trying to take up more shelf space?"

I'm sure neither DC nor any publisher puts anything out hoping it won't sell well. They probably always hope for a huge hit, but I'm guessing that from the get-go on any new project they have a pretty good idea how it may be received and what sales levels they can reasonably expect. Now this Red Circle thing has J. Michael Straczynski involved, and his work usually sells okay in the direct market and generally gets some attention. Plus, there is some slight...well, very slight, nostalgia value in these properties, even if just from people who remember the Impact comics line instead of the original Archie-published comics.

And the Milestone titles were, during their time, well-regarded and good mid-range sellers, so there's still some life in those properties, I think. Reintroducing them via other DC titles is a good idea, but I think they're still strong enough to give a solid comic rack showing.

Though it probably wouldn't hurt for DC to grab back some of that rack space Marvel's been gobbling up. I haven't done an exact count, but I think in general Marvel has at least 2 new issues every week for everyone 1 DC gets out. At least, that's what it feels like sometimes.
Andrew Davison asks many a thing:

"Finally read 'All Star Superman 1-12' due to your comments, and loved it. Quite possibly it's replaced 'Whatever happened to the Man of Tomorrow' as my favourite.

I've heard 'Superman for All Seasons' is another strong contender for 'best'. Any comments?"

Superman for All Seasons is a good one, a solid effort by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale. While Sale's giant-faced Superman does take some getting used to, the art in general is very open and beautiful, and gets across a good sense of the wonder that the Superman comics often forget about. Kurt Busiek and Stuart Immonen's Secret Identity (about a normal person in a normal world, named Clark Kent, suddenly gaining super-powers) is another nice once to give a shot. A very thoughtful and well-illustrated work.

"What happened to Warren Ellis' in your sidebar links?"

Sometimes the sidebar links get moved around or edited, for various reasons.
Jonboy says

"Do you have any idea where I can find a copy of Beautiful Stories for Ugly Children #29? Been looking for it for a couple years now to no avail. Driving me crazy."

I checked our stock, and the highest number we had of this series was #16. I'm sure #29 is out there somewhere...it was nearing the end of the series, so sales and print tuns were likely low. Good luck, my friend!
Super-Rob ironically asks

"Non-superhumans only (like, you know- in case the meta-gene and all magic goes bad or whatever): Nick Fury, Jon Sable, The Question, Rorschach, Karate Kid, Green Arrow, and I'll throw in Wildcat for kicks. Batman and Captain America are dead. Who would you put on YOUR team? (And if you really need to, you can prop Cap and Bats' dead bodies up in the corner of the room for inspiration.)"

Well, we knew Cap wasn't going to stay dead, and while the characters in the books think he's dead, we know Batman is still alive!

Now, am I supposed to be putting together a team to take on your team? That's probably not what you meant, but let's try that anyway. So let's go with...oh, the Punisher, Shang-Chi, Archie Comics' Moose Mason, Rick Jones, the Badger, and all of them backed with the finances of Richie Rich. LET'S GO.
Bully the Little Stuffed Bull posits

"Ernst Stavros Blofeld versus The Michelin Man. Who would win?"

I'd have to go with the Michelin Man. I think he'd always bounce back.
Andrew Leal asks

"Related to the queries about your recommendations and what sells and what customers ask for, how much call does your store get for 'funny' funny books or at least non superheroic (vintage John Stanley Lulu, Sluggo, Melvin etc., Carl Barks, the better Archie, those weirdo Dells based on TV sitcoms)?"

We do carry lots of this material, so we do a good amount of business in this material. We're heavy on Disney and Archie, and those get gone through on a pretty regular basis. So there's still demand for it out there!

"And a rider: I think this also came up in a previous Q&A bout, but what would you recommend of recent books (especially if there are any series, not trades) that are genuinely, *intentionally* funny (and no, I don't mean All Star Batman or anything like that; light reading preferred but not utterly mandatory)? Since I'm the kind of guy that goes into a comic store seeking Howie Post Little Audrey or asking 'Get any "My Friend Irma" in lately?'"

My mind always blanks when I get asked about stuff like this...I know it's out there, but I can never call up names when I need to. But let's see...there are old stand-bys like Groo (new series in the works, apparently), and the occasional issue of Amelia Rules, and the standard Archies and Cartoon Network tie-ins, if your tastes run in that direction. There was an attempt at getting Ralph Snart up 'n' running again, Knights of the Dinner Table is funny (if aimed at a very specific demographic), and there are examples out there of humorous adventure books (like Girl Genius). And there's more I'm sure I'm forgetting. But they're out there!
Pal Dorian jerks my chain a little with

"What does it sound like when doves cry?"

It sounds like when I'm too demanding, and you're never satisfied.

"How many roads must a man walk down before you can call him a man?"

42.

"What becomes of the broken hearted?"

They just kinda walk around and whine a lot about tumbling fruits of love and stuff like that.

"What has it gots in its pocketses?"

A baby's arm holding an apple.
Tom Spurgeon terrifies me by asking

"Do this month's DM charts prove a Sterling Effect has hit Watchmen?"

Oh God, I hope you're the only person calling it that. Anyway, Tom's referring to my constant experience with comics sales as tied to their movie tie-ins...in particular, that if there's a sales bump, it's almost always before the film's release, to be followed by a paucity of sales following the release. In my case, Watchmen, formerly a consistent seller, peaked prior to the film coming out, and then stopped selling at all since then.

There are plenty of reasons for this. Other bookstores carrying the book (though it doesn't look like they're selling any either), interest dropped off after overexposure in mass media, the local potential audience is saturated, or whatever, and it takes time for demand to build up again. And I've been in contact with stores in other parts of the country where Watchmen is still selling, so maybe it simply varies region by region.

I don't have numbers or even chart rankings right in front of me, unfortunately...the "archive" section of Diamond's website doesn't seem to be working at the moment...but for May 2009, the Watchmen TP is near the bottom of the Top 300 Graphic Novels sales list. Again, it's probably just oversaturation...a ton of copies entered the marketplace over the last few months...so a dip in orders is to be expected. If things are still the same in a year or so, and we still haven't moved many copies, then that may be a point where worry should set in a bit.
And from Keith K:

"Question time, would not be complete without some more important questions pertaining to the secret master of Mike Sterling's sucess: Employee Aaron.
After seeing a picture of employee Aaron, I have one question: Why is he so short? Can he get any shorter? (sorry, two questions). Do you wear platform shoes in order to tower over Aaron (who I suspect is of a normal vertical dimension)? Sorry, three."

Aaron's not short; he's simply conserving space in this overpopulated world by shedding unnecessary height. Also, compared to my towering, imposing 6' 7" height, he can't help but look small.

Okay, okay, I'm not all that tall either. But it's not like Aaron is a leprechaun or anything. He's a good height. He's just tall enough for his feet to reach the ground when he stands.

Anyway, here's another photo for you Aaron fans, this time posing with the one person in the shop he towers over:

That's enough for today. More tomorrow, hopefully!

Mike pays the price for Tuesday's lazy post, Part One.

2009-06-17T00:01:00.000-07:00

I put the call out for questions, and lo, you did respond. Thanks, gang! Let's see how many of these I can get through today:

John Parker inquires

"The shop I sold 1,000 comics to told me they would accept anything except Master of Kung Fu. This was mid-90s. 15 years later, are those Shang-Chi classics reviled in shops like yours?"

It's very possible this shop you were selling your books to just happened to have an overstock of Master of Kung-Fu, or at least a local lack of demand...they may not have reviled them so much as just not needed them.

As for us...we aren't actively buying Master of Kung-Fu at the moment, though we may pick up an issue or two here and there if we're low enough in our stock on it, and we can get it cheap enough. There's not a lot of demand for it right now, though with our back issue rep, we do get the occasional person hitting us up for it.

Now, long ago, in those pre-"Mike entering comics retail" days, when the sun shone a little more brightly and there was still joy and hope in the world, the store owner, Ralph (whom some of you ask about later on in the comments) would sometimes meet some resistance in selling Master of Kung-Fu. "Nah, I don't want to read some kung-fu book!" the customer would say disdainfully. "But it's really good!" Ralph would reply. "Here, take this one for free and try it out!" And the customer would take it...and a few days later would return to the store to get more Master of Kung-Fu back issues. And Ralph was able to do that a handful of times to turn people onto a book that he personally really enjoyed.

So, no, we don't revile it. We quite like it, actually.
So Anonymous asked

"Cap #600?"

...which isn't really an entire question, as such, but I get his/her/its meaning. And Joe Littrel asked the related question

"Did you actually get anyone fresh off the street looking for Cap #600 yesterday? (The only questions I got about it were 'net savvy regulars.) Did you have it delivered early?"

I'm not in the shop on Mondays, but early in the afternoon I did put in a call to Employee Aaron to see what was going on. It went like this:

Aaron: "Ralph's Comic Corner, can I help you?"

Me (excitedly): "Yeah, do you have Captain America #600? I just heard about it on the news and I have to have it!"

Aaron: "Uh, no, we won't have it 'til Wednesd...."

Me: "Aaron, it's me, Mike."

Aaron: "Oh! (laughs) Actually, you're the first call we've had for Cap #600."

So I don't know if we got any calls after that, but I'm thinking probably not too many. We didn't get it early, as related in the above conversation, and it looks like that wasn't a problem. Marvel did seem to get some news coverage for Captain America's return, but "returns" don't seem to be nearly as interesting to the general public as "deaths" (see also Adventures of Superman #500) and I'm not anticipating demand from them. Maybe some heightened interest from people already reading comics, sure.
Roger Green wants to know

"What will the direct market comic look like in five years? Will there BE a direct market comic book market in five years?"

If the direct market is still around (and I think it will be...none of the predictions of its death have come true yet...though I suppose it only has to be true once), I expect there will be an even heavier emphasis on books and collections, and fewer, but thicker, periodicals. Stores with extensive back issue selections like ours will be even fewer and farther between than they are already, as the industry continues to shift to stores that carry this month's books, trade paperbacks, and that's pretty much it. Oh, and POGs, since the nostalgia for those should be in full swing by then.

"With Geppi reportedly on the financial ropes, how much schadenfreude are you experiencing, if any?"

Well, if that's the case, I certainly hope the best for him. In this economy, in this industry in particular, you don't like seeing anyone in it experiencing any kind of financial instability. "There but for the grace of God" and all that.
Rich Handley wonders

"Why do birds suddenly appear every time you are near...um, comics?"

They keep trying to make nests out of our unsold copies of Master of Kung-Fu.
Larry E asks

"After Capt. America and Batman return from the dead, what will be the next BIG EVENT for Marvel & DC? Do you think that either company will ever realize that the more BIG EVENTS they produce, the less BIG they seem?"

Well, the next Big Thing at DC is the Blackest Night event, which I'm looking forward to, and I'm not sure what Marvel's is at the moment...seems like everything they publish has some "DARK WAR OF ZOMBIES" banner across the top of the cover, tying that book into something or 'nother. But while it's true that Special Events like these may seem less special the more they put out...and as someone on the retailing front lines, I hear the groans from the customer base as they see yet another crossover event announced...the fact is that they do still sell, and as long as they keep selling, Marvel and DC will keep doing them.
Smart guy CW asks

"If the universe is expanding, as most scientists believe, what is it expanding into? In other words, what's outside of the universe?"

Probably a Starbucks.

But if you want as close as to a real answer as you're likely to get...well, this one seems likely.
Dogwelder asks

"I can haz cheezburger?"

Well, sure, don't let me stop you.
Dwayne "The Canoe Guy" wants to know

"1) Will we ever see a page containing all of your glorious headers?"

The intention is, yes, I want to make an archive page of all the wonderful logo banners you folks have made for me, and have even started on one, but it's been difficult to find the time. I've also been planning on a major overhaul of the site for well over a year now, switching over to another blog publishing platform, but that depends on finding the free time to do that as well. I may have to arrange for another Low Content Mode week or two so I can focus on these projects.

2)"'The Death of Sluggo and the Rise of Dark Nancy.' Can you pick writer/artist team so that this book could several trillion copies across the universe? Barack Obama, nor any of his family, can appear in the series."

Oh, man. The first name to jump into my head was "Jim Starlin" and now I can't shake it. That would be the very definition of "awesome." Would also be the very definition of "only Mike, and maybe his pal Cully, would buy it."
Thelonious_Nick asks

"Which major character has had the best run over the entire run of his/her comics? Let's stick to the iconic characters who've been around decades. Besides Swamp Thing, I mean.

"In other words, if you were to select one comic at random from a character's total collection of appearances, who is likeliest to provide a good read?"

Huh. That's a good question. Who would it be? I'm stalling for time while writing a blog post, how sad it that?

I think in terms of consistency in quality and entertainment value...the Silver Age Flash, by and large, tended to offer solid comic-booking at pretty much any point during its run. Yes, even during the trial storyline at the end, there. Lots of Done-in-One stories, almost always nicely drawn, plenty of colorful characters, plenty of bizarre things always goin' on...it's hard to find a non-entertaining issue of The Flash.
Sean Hollenhors asks the forbidden question

"Do you have a favorite John Byrne related comic project?"

And Old Bull Lee seconds with

"I would also like to know if you like any Byrne stuff."

Okay, this site had been a no-Byrne zone for a while for reasons I don't particularly feel like getting into again. I didn't like doing it, since I do think he was (and still is) a talented artist, his online persona rubbed me the wrong way and I felt I was better off not engaging him or his material on my site, for fear of adding an unwelcome level of negativity to what is supposed to be a fun distraction for me.

But let's lift the ban for now and see if I can answer the question. Probably the obvious answer is his run on Fantastic Four...I like the characters anyway, and Byrne's run on the book is probably, after Stan and Jack's, the definitive version of the team.

I also loved his Alpha Flight, the team book that wasn't a team book, for its sheer peculiarity.

And of course, Next Men, probably Byrne's ultimate superhero book, and one I would like to see return someday.
Jeff Wood queries

"Is there a way to donate comics (to a library or school) that would result in a decent tax deduction?"

I suppose so...I'm not a tax expert, by any means, but I'm reasonably certain that as long as you can provide sufficient documentation, you can get at least some deduction from the donation. I don't have any more of a suggestion than that, but perhaps a reader of this site can pipe in with advice that won't result in you getting audited!
Matt M. sez

"How did you get to be so suave?"

I got to be so suave by knowing what the ladies like. And what the ladies like is...Sandman and Strangers in Paradise trades, amirite?

"What's cooler: Tarot Pogs or an Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter commerative Pog holder?"

Oh Matt.

Now I'm picturing Tarot POGs featuring scenes from the comics and OH GOD MY BRAIN. GET OUT OF THERE, YOUR POG IS HAUNTED! (link not safe for work, or sanity)
The previously-mentioned Old Bull Lee also wants to know

"And what do you think of the Nancy Collins run on Swamp Thing?"

I quite liked it, actually. After the rather poor showing of the "Quest for the Elementals" storyline which wrapped up previous writer Doug Wheeler's run, it was a good return to form to solid, if not groundbreaking, Swamp Thing horror comics.
Matthew Allison dares to ask

"Better Swamp Thing artist - Bissette, Wrightson, or Veitch?"

You bastard. I love all three of them.

The cheating answer is "they were all the best artist for their particular stories," but I'm going to give the edge to Wrightson. He set the standard for everyone else to follow.

"Better ROM:SPACE KNIGHT artist - Sal Buscema or Steve Ditko?"

I liked them both on the book, actually...but I think I'll give the nod to Sal, since I love the expressiveness of his characters.
Harvey Jerkwater has to know

"How much has your shop's customer base grown or dwindled in the last, let's say, five years? Is there much turnover in customers?"

I think it's remained fairly consistent...we've lost a few local customers, gained a few customers, and our mail order business has increased somewhat. There's some turnover, but there are also customers we've had for years, and a few for decades. I don't have a definitive answer for this, unfortunately. Compared to, say, the early '90s, the customer base has certainly dropped. But in the last five years, as the market continues its slow two steps forward/one step back recovery, it's too hard to judge.

"Who would play Herbie Popnecker in the movie?"

What's Mason Reese doing?
Gordon interjects

"If Swamp Thing took on Batman and Robin (as portrayed in Frank Miller's ALL STAR BATMAN & ROBIN THE BOY WONDER), who'd win?"

The reader, of course. And by "the reader," I mean "me, the one guy who'd want to read this."
Flotzenburger asks

"Why are you so cool?"

Because I'm never very far from an oscillating fan.
MrJM wonders

"As a comics retailer, what one thing would you tell us that we -- as buyers/readers -- don't know about comics?"

I've been thinking about this for a while, now, staring at the screen...I think one thing may be that printing comics on cheaper paper, a common suggestion from readers, won't result in less expensive comics. At best, slight decreases in stock quality might help keep prices where they're at...and even that's not working, since prices are going up anyway. And publishers probably don't want to drop down to '70s style pulp paper...reducing the perceived value of their periodicals by reducing the paper quality TOO much is something they'd certainly like to avoid.

On a retail level, the other thing I want people to know is that we folks behind the counter actually do work...we don't get to read comics all day!
Thwacko says

"What comic, series, or events sold or sell more than any nosepicker on the internet would have you believe?"

At least at our shop, All Star Batman and Robin tends to be our best-selling book of the month, whenever the planets align and a new issue is released.

Also, the first issue of Final Crisis outsold Secret Invasion #1 at our store. I had people outright tell me I was lying when I said that.

"Will we see Final Crisis and all associated spinoffs end in our lifetime?"

Don't die in the next six months, and you will!
Nik wants answers:

"What is your least favorite comic book that sells well?"

That's a hard question to answer, because it's not that I dislike books so much as I'm indifferent to them. For example, I don't care for the Avengers line of books...they don't seem like terribly interesting superhero comics to me. But they do sell well, so somebody likes them and that's just fine.

I don't hate them...they're just not for me.

"And what comic do you try to turn people on to most often that doesn't include Swamp Thing?"

Probably the Fables comics. I've had the most success turning people onto that series (including at least one celebrity, who's since said another store got him into it...grrrrr!). It's a simple concept, it's accessible, it's mostly in trade paperback, and it's a good read.
Nate needs to find out

"Is Mxyzptlk pronounced Mixelplick or Mix-yez-pittle-lick?"

The latter. Though most of the cartoons see to use the former. But if it's the Golden Age version of the character, it's Mix-yez-tipple-ick.
And for the last question for today, pal JP chimes in with

"Laziest blogger. EVER."

Yeah, I know. I just had nothing for yesterday's post, and I was sitting there at the computer Monday evening struggling to keep my eyes open (much like the people who are trying to read all this). But the "ask me question" posts result in a lot of blogging "work" for the next day or two, so it all balances out!

Okay, that's it for today. More answers tomorrow. Can you stand the suspense?

Mike's had a long day...

2009-06-16T00:01:00.000-07:00

...and didn't have a post ready, so I'm throwing open the comments to questions again. Got a question for me, hopefully comics-related? Throw it on in there, and I'll answer them in a later post.

Thanks, internet pals!

Sgt. Rock: Creationist.

2009-06-15T00:01:00.000-07:00

So as per usual, Easy Company finds itself hip deep in trouble, pinned down under enemy fire. Everyone thinks it's hopeless, but Sgt. Rock steps in with a history lesson to boost morale. Specifically, he tells his men to think back to their cavemen ancestors, and the life-and-death battles they had to fight every day just to survive.

It starts off with Rock describing a battle between cavemen and mastodons, which...okay, sure, that's fine. But then things get a little weird:

Yeah, that's Rock narrating a conflict over food between ancient man and some kind of pterosaur.

And then there's the battle between those traditional enemies, the caveman and the Tyrannosaur:

I'm going to assume Sgt. Rock was using a little poetic license here for the benefit of the troops, and that if anyone in Easy Company knew better, they didn't pipe in with "Uh, but Sarge, dinosaurs and man didn't coexist." Well, except junior archaeologist and draftee Dino "Saur" Borelli, whom Little Sure Shot kept shushing every time he tried to interrupt with a correction.

I should also note that when Employee Aaron came across this comic in a collection we were processing, he took a look at this cover:

...and wondered if it was a crossover between Sgt. Rock and Joe Kubert's old caveman character Tor. Alas, it was not, but darned if I don't have to see that now. Someone whisper a suggestion into Mr. Kubert's ear for me.

At any rate, despite the shaky science, this is still an issue full of Joe Kubert's fantastic illustrations of dinosaur versus caveman battles, and sometimes that just has to be enough.

images from Sgt. Rock #318 (July 1978) - written and drawn by Joe Kubert

Slipping you some tongue.

2009-06-14T00:01:00.000-07:00

So pal Nat informed me that, while taking a quick trip through a parallel universe, he snapped the following photo featuring a familiar pose:

DISTURBING.

In other...well, not really "news" as such:

Das Ubernerd saw the link to the C.C. Beck story I posted the other day and wrote up his own full review of the material. Nicely done.
So I was asked if I have a Sluggo fetish, in response to my newest ongoing feature "Sluggo Saturdays." I don't think it's a fetish, but it is an expression of my ongoing admiration of Sluggo; his independence, his confidence, his simple state of being into which one may read the greatest meaning.

Plus, I think bizarre Sluggo panels are really funny, so What Can You Do?
So the other day at the shop, for whatever reason, we were discussing Pokemon, and I mentioned that, even though I've never played the card game, never played the videogame, and have only seen the briefest snippet of the cartoon, I really do adore Lickitung. The character just cracks me up. I have a couple of Lickitung cards, I have a song someone recorded about Lickitung, I have a sticker or two, and I even own a stuffed Lickitung doll who comes with his own Pokeball, said the forty-year-old man. (I suppose this makes me an iconography fan like I'd been talking about.)

Anyway, during the discussion, I mentioned the idea of a two-man Lickitung costume, like the two-man horse costume idea you always see in movies or sitcoms but I've never actually seen in real life. The idea was that one person would be in the main Lickitung costume, which would be the body, and the other person would be in the tongue costume, attached to the first costume. I drew out a very quick sketch of this concept:

ALSO DISTURBING.

Okay, I'm sure I'm not the first to think of this. If anyone knows of any real-life attempts at such a costume, please let me know! Not sure why I'd need to know, but c'mon, I gotta see it if it exists.

Sluggo Saturday #6.

2009-06-13T00:01:00.000-07:00

SOME THINGS ARE LARGER

THAN THE MIND CAN HOLD

from Nancy and Sluggo #186 (Jan-Feb 1962)

In which Mike chills out with a cool item from the store's backroom.

2009-06-12T00:01:00.000-07:00

1. Decided to once again dig through some old poster stock for the eBay, and look at what I found. Shockingly, this wasn't the only poster for Batman and Robin that I turned up.

Also found a few remaining Xena Warrior Princess posters. Boy, those used to sell like crazy. I also found a poster for a Highlander sequel that I'd never heard of.

2. BEHOLD BEARDLESS MIKE. And to think a week or so ago I looked like this. Now my goofy visage is completely unfettered...there is no buffer between my made-for-radio face and your unprotected eyes!

3. I think Employee Timmy must have had the DTs, or there was an extremely localized earthquake directly beneath his feet, or something, because of the three photos, this one was the least blurry. The other two photos looked like typical examples of Bigfoot photography. Which is okay, because I had even dorkier expressions in the other photos, if you can believe that.

4. You know what's going for a lot of scratch on the eBay right now? Old Punisher posters.

You know what I can't find in our old poster stock?

5. Every time I start dealing with posters at the store, I think about how I'd like to get my hands on another copy of the Groo poster Marvel/Epic released in the late '80s. I had one at the time, but darned if I know what happened to it in the four or five moves I've made since then. (Here's one currently up for auction, and there's another in an eBay store for $100.)

6. I can't believe I've posted a picture of myself holding a Mr. Freeze poster. The things I do for you people.

Brother, can you lend a thumb?

2009-06-11T00:01:00.000-07:00

So Captain Marvel's creator C.C. Beck had a short story called "Vanishing Point" published in a magazine back in 1959. The site SFFaudio recently posted an MP3 of a reading of that story...you may need to scroll down a bit to find it.

In this message board thread, the Comics Buyer's Guide's Maggie Thompson confirms it's the same C.C. Beck, and later in the thread someone supplies a scan of the story's title page from its initial publication.

If you aren't interested in having someone read the story to you, you can read it yourself by downloading a text file from Project Gutenberg.

In other news:

Robert Elrod at Monster Portraits has posted the inked version of his Man-Thing vs. the Vision drawing. Very nice!
Another artist, Brian Hurtt, delivers up a swell Swamp Thing drawing in a web posting with a terrible, terrible title which I'm afraid I may have chuckled at. Don't you judge me!
Pal Dave instigates a discussion about word meaning, context, and responsibility. Yes, it's comic-related.
Comics internet treasure Bully the Little Stuffed Bull has been getting his special comic artist friends to create portraits of him, and he's been nice enough to share the results with his loyal readers. They're all great, but dig the one by Stan Sakai, and the accompanying photo! Everyone loves Bully!
Neilalien says a few words about Ultimate Dr. Strange's fate in the frankly peculiar Ultimatum mini-series. He also says a smart thing or two about "alternate future, only fans need apply"-type stories.
Following up on the Bat-posts from earlier in the week...I did indeed give the "Batman Reborn" issues of Batman and Red Robin a shot, and...well, they're not for me, unfortunately. Not that they were necessarily bad by any means...they had their moments, but nothing really grabbed me. Now, it may just be me. I've pretty much read all the Batman I've needed to read, so it has to be something that's really outstanding or just tickles my fancy to get me to pick it up (hence my love for Batman and Robin and the now mostly-theoretical All Star Batman). Or it may be that I am less curious about the "larger meaning of it all" and continuity-shenanigans of this twist in the Batman saga, and more interested in the "show me some cool stuff" aspect of the comics by Morrison and Quitely (and friends). So just because I wasn't compelled by them doesn't mean you won't be. As the saying goes, Your Mileage May Vary.

I am still interested in the forthcoming Batwoman stories in Detective, so we'll see how that works out.

A couple of other cool comics I grabbed this week:

Muppet Show #2 2nd printing - gave up a copy of the first printing to a customer, like I did with the first issue, so I needed this here reprint. And, seriously, this comic is absolutely spot-on in its humor, in its characterizations, and in its sentimentality, delivered in just the right amount. It's the perfect comic. Four thumbs up (I'm borrowing two from a friend).

Uptight #3 - haven't had a chance to read this yet, and it actually came out last week, but sold out before I could grab a copy. Got the restock this week, and the reason I picked it up? The absolutely stunning and strange cover (which you can see here). It's Jordan Crane, so it'll be a good read, I know, but man, that cover's something else.

Fantastic Four #567 - I've given the title some grief over its unsurprisingly-erratic publishing schedule, but the comic itself, by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch, is a fun read. I'd already linked to Tim O'Neil's review, and, yeah, what he said. I've always loved the Fantastic Four, though I've not always enjoyed what's been done with them...but what's going on here is different enough and strange enough to grab my attention, and it's a shame the team will be leaving the book soon.

R.E.B.E.L.S. #5 - I really enjoyed the original L.E.G.I.O.N. '89 (and '90, and '91, etc.) series, though it petered out at the end and I never got into the original R.E.B.E.L.S. series that followed it up at the time. But this new incarnation of the series, with a very bastardly Dox and his assemblage of cohorts, willing and not-so, has been a lot of bad fun so far. This issue is mostly just fight-fight-fight and set-up for more fight, so you don't get a whole lot of what makes this book different (i.e. Dox being an entertainingly manipulative dick), but I'm sure we'll get more of that next time.

Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers #2 - a very silly and fun series starring the animal sidekicks/knockoffs of various Marvel heroes. And I guess this means, once and for all, that Lockjaw is a dog, and not a mutated Inhuman. Anyway, Frog Thor is in this comic, and therefore it is fantastic. I'm not thrilled that a future issue is going to be yet another installment in Marvel's (and comicdom's as a whole) ongoing Obama-exploitathon. I mean, nothing against our President, but c'mon, seriously.

I didn't buy this, but I had to relate this bit of description from the back cover of the X-Men: The End trade paperback collecting all three mini-series. I offer, without (much) comment, the blurb where it says that the mini-series are

"...A trilogy of books in the style of the LORD OF THE RINGS movies."

Really. Huh.

In which I plug a lot of stuff.

2009-06-10T00:01:00.000-07:00

So at last...at long last the print edition of my favorite comic strip about a comic shop, The Rack, has been unleashed upon an unsuspecting world. Written by Killer Kevin Church and illustrated by Bashful Benjamin Birdie, the strip follows the lives of a crew of comic shop employees, both at the store and outside it, making it more than just industry in-jokes and catering to the fanguish of the moment. You get actual characterization, genuine wit, and the occasional fistfight. Something for everyone!

There's also an introduction by the industry's snappiest dresser, retailer James Sime, an interview with the creators conducted by a gen-you-ine college professor, and plenty of pin-ups by guest artists!

And in the interest of full disclosure, I have contributed to this strip as well, in that I've guest-written two strips, and have provided some minor inspiration for others. I'm very proud to have been, even in this very small way, part of this strip, and very happy for Kevin and Birdie for its success on the web and the arrival of this handsome-looking print edition.

If you want to get your own copy, and surely you must, all the details you need can be found right here. Tell 'em Mike sent you! (Not sure what that'll do for you, but tell them that anyway!)

In other news:

So remember when I said that Greg Burgas of Comics Should Be Good dropped by the shop? Well, he did a very nice write-up of the store, including a terribly frightening picture of me...I've since shaved and had a haircut, so I'm no longer as scary...or, at least, I'm scary in a different way, anyway. But go check out the write-up, and dig who left the first comment to say something nice about our shop!
Pal Dorian just did one of his patented movie trailer review posts, which I always love. Heed his advice, or ignore it at your peril!
Here's a webcomic I found out about because they've been advertising on my site recently: Multiplex, which is sort of like The Rack but only with movie theatre employees. I've not read a whole lot of them yet, but I do like the art, and it seems to be well-written. When I have more time I'll do a little diving into the archives, but so far they've got my attention.
So long as I'm enjoying Plug-Fest 2009 here, I've finally put up a few things in my personal eBay listings...a bunch of card sets, and a suddenly-redundant Blackadder DVD (due to my recently obtaining the complete DVD boxed set). Bid early, bid often, and I should have more card sets up next week.
And here's a link for swell cartoonist Cathy Leamy, just because she's awesome and deserves some positive attention.