Okay, finally got together my links to my previous discussions of Free Comic Book Day…they’ll probably migrate into somewhere in the sidebar for easy access:
Not much to add this time beyond what I’ve said before. We gave away nearly every FCBD book we had for this year, and business appeared to have been up from last year. No major problems, everyone seemed happy, Dana (kid sister of former employee Nathan #2) brought us cupcakes and soda, pal Dorian brought us cheeseburgers and fries, and a couple of readers of my site (hi guys!) came out all the way from Bakersfield to enjoy FCBD at our shop.
So, all in all, another successful Free Comic Book Day. Again, like I said, I don’t have any new insights about the event this year, but if you have any questions or observations for me, please drop ‘em in the comments section. (Just keep in mind I’ve already answered the “does it bring in new business” question.) Also, I did manage to get in some “live-Tweeting” of the day on my Twitter thingie. Includes a completely unnecessary Blackhawk battle-cry and gratuitous references to the rock band Foreigner. I’M DESTROYING INTERNET DISCOURSE.
Also, I’m curious as to what your favorite FCBD offering was this year. I’m a bit partial to the John Stanley Nancy/Melvin the Monster giveaway, myself, but you probably guessed that.
I haven’t forgotten about Galactus Week, though we have had seven days in a row of Galactus posting here. I think I still have a thing or two to say about the fella, so I’ll try to do that Monday to wrap up.
Today’s the day! Mosey on over to your local funnybook store and get your free comics! And think good thoughts for folks like me, who’ll be on the other side of the counter surveying the mayhem.
Also, in case you missed it…my scheduled post for yesterday is finally up, after Blogger’s 24-hour-longpublishing outage which affected a large number of its users…including, of course, yours truly. I apologize for the interruption in the regular delivery of your required daily doses of iron-fortified Progressive Ruin.
This one’s heavy on the Twain and Einstein, but also contains many other features of interest and amusement. Download a four-page preview at the link, there.
And for those of you who need a little convincing to try something that’s not from DC or Marvel: it’s a “Dark Reign” crossover. Also, Batman is in it. No, really, you should buy it and check it out. I wouldn’t lie to you.
It’s both what you want and what you need! It’s the third and final chapter THE CHRONICLES OF SOLOMON STONE issue #1, as revealed by Solomon Stone’s secret helpers Chris Sims, Matthew Allen Smith, and Benjamin Birdie. Read it for free! Heck, read it naked! I mean, if you’re home alone, and not looking at this on your iPhone while riding the train or anything.
We received the balance of our books for Free Comic Book Day, coming May 2nd to a shop near you, and hopefully that shop won’t screw it up by making the books only “free with purchase” or something stupid like that. Er, anyway…now that I’ve had a good look at all the books: this is a pretty nice, balanced selection this time around, I think.
One of the better books to look out for is Drawn & Quarterly’s Nancy/Melvin the Monster flip-book, featuring John Stanley’s fine cartooning printed in color on faux-yellowed pages. It looks fantastic. Fantagraphics has a fine Love & Rockets sampler, and Bongo, as always, presents a great package of their Simpsons comics, and those are always a big hit. Boom Studios is putting out a freebie for their Cars series, based on the animated film, and I’m curious to see what reaction to that will be like from our younger customers.
But overall, quality seems to be a bit higher across the board for the freebies this year. And every year we get increasingly larger crowds at the shop for the event, so I’m anticipating a day of slightly-controlled mayhem weekend after next. So drop by…see how much grayer Mike’s hair is at the end of the day!
Also, I was interviewed over the phone for the local paper regarding FCBD a week or so ago, but I don’t think the article’s been printed yet. I wanted to tell the reporter all the stuff I’ve been telling you folks on my site for the past five years about FCBD, but I think all that came out was “DUH COMICS FREE COME GETTUM.” Hopefully a little friendly editing will make that into something coherent.
So my initial response to the new Star Wars: Clone Wars cartoons may have been a bit hasty. When I first saw the trailers for the theatrical release, I thought it looked terrible, with ugly character designs. Well, the humans still look a bit awkward, as CGI humans tend to, but…the look of the series has since grown on me.
And it’s more than just the look. While the feature film (actually, three or four episodes edited together, I believe) was a bit much to take at once, the episodic adventures, at about 20 minutes per, are just the right length. It’s the strongest aspects of Star Wars (the exciting action, the bizarre worlds and aliens) without the worst aspects (the unconvincing love stories, the attempts at expanding characterizations beyond two dimensions…or even one). It’s probably the most successful attempt yet at emulating the old movie serials that partially served as inspiration for this franchise.
Additionally, there’s the aspect of just when this series is taking place…between Episodes II and III. We know what happens in III (and in case you don’t — here come some SPOILERS): the clone army is given the command to kill all the Jedi, and Anakin finally gives in to the Dark Side of the Force. The impending sense of doom and irony pervades this series, as the Jedis are allied with the clone army, giving them advice, saving their lives, complimenting their skill, and so on…basically, the Jedi are feeding their own defeat.
And then there’s Anakin young Padawan in the series, Ahsoka, who…well, most Jedi meet their makers in Episode III, aside from Ben and Yoda, who go into hiding. I suppose Ahsoka could make it out alive, too…but dramatically, it would make the most sense for her to be killed by Anakin. Of course, this’ll never be shown, otherwise you’d have the parents of many a traumatized child writing in to Lucasfilm, but that’s my guess for the character’s eventual fate.
Anyway, I’ve been enjoying Clone Wars, mostly for the action and visuals, but at least partially for the feeling of dread. Oh, and for that one scene where R2D2 fights to the death with an evil astromech unit. That was pretty awesome.
EDIT: 0. Apparently the Free Comic Book Day site is coming up as a “reported attack site,” and even a Google search has the “this site may harm your computer” caveat attached to the results. No idea what’s going on, there, but I’m changing the link to the Wikipedia article for now.
1. Had a mom and her kid tell me they’re going to make a two hour drive to come to our shop for FCBD because 1) they weren’t happy with the event at their local stores, and 2) they’d heard and read good reviews about how we handled things. That’s pretty gratifying, though I suspect (judging by some of the things she mentioned — specifically, detailing how we distributed the books — and that she identified blogs as one of her sources) one of the “reviews” may have been my account of the event, so tooting my own horn has paid off, perhaps. But anyway, it’s a bit amusingly sad that an event designed for customer outreach can have the result of driving said customers away to other shops. That’s colloquially known as “Doing It Wrong.”
I suppose, technically, it is having the intended effect of getting people into shops, but still.
2. A few people still seem to think that FCBD is something that our store created and just our store is doing. I emphasize that it’s an industry-wide thing (theoretically) and that we’ll be giving away newly-publishd comics specifically provided by multiple publishers…and not just handing out books pulled from our bargain boxes (which some folks appear to think).
It’s not as many as in previous years, so word about the event is still spreading.
3. Still hearing too many people read the advertising tagline “1ST SATURDAY IN MAY” as “oh, it’ll be on May 1st.” I’m doing my darned best to correct everyone I hear saying that.
This week’s logo banner is brought to you by reader Matthew Allison, who also provided this terrifying callback to that Sgt. Shark ad I posted a couple of months ago:
I am not terribly happy about what I’ve been hearing about how some stores treated their Free Comic Book Days. Way to make a sow’s ear out of a silk purse, guys.
Really, people, it isn’t all that difficult. Free Comic Book Day attracts a lot of media attention This is the day that people…people aside from your regulars…might actually seek out a comic book store. This is your chance to make an impression, to expose these newcomers to what comics have to offer, to demonstrate that a comic book store can be a friendly, fun place, that we’re just normal people trying to make a living.
Unfortunately, however, too many comic book stores suck. This post of mine didn’t come out of nowhere, after all.
A lot of people going to comic shops for the first time on Free Comic Book Day saw dirty, disorganized stores with indifferent, if not outright hostile, employees, only the barest acknowledgment that FCBD even was happening, and a pathetic selection and distribution of free books. (EDIT: A friend just reminded me of his local shop, which SHUT DOWN in the middle of FCBD so the employees could go see Iron Man. LAME.) The person who described his shop’s method of display as basically being just piling a couple of random stacks on a counter, and making you search through them for the ones you want…that just blew my mind. It really doesn’t take much to make the day a special event. Retailers were even offered preprinted BALLOONS for use in the shops, for God’s sake. Nothing says “festive” like balloons!
Okay, I didn’t remember to put the balloons up in our store. I was busy, and totally forgot. But by God, we were festive anyway.
I was going to go through and list, point by point, all the crap things I’ve been hearing about how some stores treated their FCBD event. In particular, if your treatment of customers on FCBD, a day specifically designed as customer outreach, causes you to lose those people as customers, you’re doing it wrong.
But, instead, let me, yet again, go through and tell you what we did. Maybe we can lead by example:
Divided up the FCBD comics into three age-appropriate bags: one for kids, one for teens, one for adults. If you got all three bags, you got one of each FCBD book, while supplies lasted.
Cleaned and vacuumed.
Set up large tables at the front of the shop, where we laid out the prepackaged bags of comics, as well as stacks of extra books in case people just wanted a few, and not the whole enchilada.
We also set up a small shelf with selections of FCBD books from previous years.
Made sure the table was monitored at all times, so that we could maintain the only limitations we put on the distribution of the comics: one of each per customer, and no age-inappropriate books for younger readers. (We would occasionally let some people slide if they wanted an extra copy or two of something for somebody who couldn’t make it…hey, so long as they weren’t grabbing 25 copies of say, Hellboy, it was fine.)
In response to Rocco‘s question: we just put a few of the Heroclix and Star Wars figures out at a time, and made sure that each customer got only one of each. (They went over well enough…I didn’t think the Iron Man Heroclix were as appealing as previous years’ offerings…the sculpt seemed a bit rough…but hey, people wanted the Iron Man stuff.)
Had in-store sales: 10% off graphic novels, four for the price of three on manga. 10% doesn’t sound like much, but even a little break like that encouraged sales. And during special events, I’ve noticed, particularly at ones where folks are having a good time, people feel a little more free to open up the pocketbooks. Not that that was my ulterior motive for making sure people were enjoying themselves…I want people to like coming to our store, especially if it’s their first visit. I can always shake them down when they come back.
But encouraging extra sales on a day when you’re giving away hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars’ worth of product is a good idea, and not that hard to do. Even a small discount, like I noted, can help. In our case, the sales on graphic novels alone that day more than paid for what we spent on the FCBD books. And we had a lot of the FCBD books.
By the way, pal Sean came in, swearing up and down he was only at the shop to get the free books, and had in fact promised the wife he wouldn’t spend any money.
He ended up buying fifty dollars’ worth of books. SUCH IS THE POWER OF FREE COMIC BOOK DAY. (Sorry, Yvonne…it wasn’t my fault, I swear!)
We were attentive to customers…answered questions, showed folks around the shop, were very, very patient with one or two people, and just generally tried to be friendly with everyone. Well, we try that every day, with varying degrees of success, but with new people coming in, you want to impress, right? Once they get used to us, then the abuse can begin.
Anyway, there was a great deal of laughter and happy chatter going around, particularly with the Iron Man high most people were on, having either seen the film prior to coming to the shop, or they were on their way to the film, or perhaps between multiple viewings. The excitement over the Iron Man film really did help.
And there are some things that we didn’t do this year, but have done in the past, like having in-store signings or distributing coupons in the FCBD baggies.
Ultimately, the success of a store’s Free Comic Book Day is in treating the day like a special event to be enjoyed, and not just a burden to be endured, like I’ve heard about too many stores this year. Yeah, I know I grumble a bit about preparing for it here on my site, but it really is a fun, if enormously busy, day. And while the long-term effects of FCBD are still being debated, whether it really does increase readership and attract new customers, it’s not as if there’s too much of a downside to having a bunch of people come away from your store happy, with an armload of free comic books that you’ve given them.
The store remained solidly busy through the majority of the day, up until about the last hour or so. Lots of kids, lots of unfamiliar faces. No “are these free?” questions regarding our new arrival racks, and thus tragic deaths were avoided.
We were much busier than we were planning for, and our 2008 FCBD supply was getting a little sparse about halfway through the workday. Luckily we had leftovers from previous FCBDs to supplement our giveaways…and we gave away plenty of those older books. We even gave away the few copies of last year’s Spider-Man book we had left. Why, we could have sold those for $20 a pop!
The topic of conversation of the day was, of course, the new Iron Man movie (which I haven’t seen yet — shooting for Monday — but I now know the last line of the film and the post-credits surprise). Reaction appeared to be overwhelmingly positive…even pal Dorian thought it was excellent. And, as I was thinking might happen, we had a large number of film-fueled requests for Iron Man comics, new and old. The FCBD Iron Man/Hulk/Spider-Man book was a popular item, and we even sold out of our copies of Marvel Adventures: Iron Man comics. We never sell out of Marvel Adventures: Iron Man.
Whether this unusual post-movie demand will last long enough to help along sales on next week’s Invincible Iron Man debut…well, we’ll see.
Speaking of pal Dorian…he brought us cookies. Thanks, Dorian!
Aside from anything involving Iron Man, it seemed like there was a lot of demand for the Simpsons comics. The previous years’ Bongo Comics offerings were extremely popular, and I had to restock them a few times. Which reminds me…when I was looking at FCBD news stories for yesterday’s post, I ran across a story or two listing the types of comics available, and the Simpsons comic was referred to only as “Bongo Comics,” with no mention of the Simpsons at all. Given that the general public doesn’t know that “Bongo Comics” = “Simpsons,” that just felt like a lost opportunity for free advertising of a commodity known to a non-comic reading audience.
I had what I thought was a pretty good story about a customer who wanted comics that featured the art of Roy Lichtenstein. As in “story by Gardner Fox, art by Roy Lichtenstein and Sid Greene.” But it turns out I misunderstood, and she was actually looking for comics that Lichtenstein…borrowed from. Ah, well.
We had a couple of minor special deals during our event. We offered a small discount on trade paperbacks for the day, and had a “buy 3, get a 4th free” deal on manga. Had a few takers on the manga, but we sold a boatload of trades…it doesn’t take much of a break on prices to get people to give the shelves a second glance.
Ultimately, we not only took in enough scratch to pay for all the FCBD books, but, if we were to subtract the subtract the FCBD day costs from our end-of-day total, that still amounts to an excellent Saturday take. Finally, those solid-gold pants will be mine, mine!
During one of our busy times of the day, Customer Rob (hi, Rob!) was trying to convince a friend of his to give the Spirit a try, and asked me for a quick description of the character. I was sorta pressed for time, and had multiple demands on my attention, so the best I could do was “More Cheery Batman.”
I don’t know…for a spur-of-the-moment thing, I thought that was pretty good.
Pal Nat dropped by, resplendent in his Licensable Bear™ t-shirt…and you can get one too! A shirt, I mean, not Nat. I think. That’d be between you and him, frankly.
As I’ve explained many times before, we pack the free comics into bags for ease of distribution to customers. Employee Aaron reported that one customer took a bag, looked inside, flipped through the comics, and handed the bag back without taking a single book. Geez, not even for free, huh?
“I’m curious, does it really bring in any new readers? Does it accomplish anything besides some P.R.?”
That’s something I covered in lengthy detail in this FCBD aftermath post from last year, when I was asked a similar question. In fact, I’ll just reprint it here, in this post, as my answer hasn’t changed much, and I’ll save you the clicky-clicky:
“Well, on the actual day of Free Comic Book Day…yes, lots of new faces show up, because not a person around doesn’t like something that’s free (unless it’s, like, ‘free measles,’ or ‘free punch in the nose,’ or ‘free Team Youngblood’).
But by ‘new customer’ you probably mean ‘new regular visitors to the funnybook store,’ the answer to which is a qualified ‘no.’ We did get some new regular customers out of past FCBDs, but they represented only a small fraction of the new folks who actually came in for free books.
But that’s okay…we don’t have to turn every new person who walked in the door that day into a New Comics Day zombie. The results of FCBD are more longterm than immediate, anyway…it gets the word out that, hey, comic books are still being published, and that they can be a viable source of entertainment. Okay, mileage may vary with some of the offerings this year, but with the sheer number of books being given away, surely most people found at least one comic they kinda liked. And our already-existing clientele invariably will find something new to try out.
Plus, it’s great advertising…if some of those folks find themselves with some kind of comic-related need, perhaps they’ll think of that swell comic shop that was giving out the free funnybooks, and they’ll come back to us. And it’s good public relations…we had a lot of happy customers that day, most of whom thanked us profusely for the books we were giving away.
And it’s the gift that keeps on giving, as I’m preparing packages of some of the leftover books for some local teachers and at least one doctor…and, as always, a big bunch of comics for my girlfriend to give away to the Sunday school class she teaches.
So, um…to answer your question, perhaps it doesn’t immediately create new regular customers, but FCBD perhaps helps to create an environment from which new customers may arise, by increasing in some small way a general awareness of comics. My, that’s high-falutin’ of me, ain’t it? Not to mention optimistic.”
The only real update is that I don’t have too many leftovers this time around.
Pal Tom notes his troubles trying to get his FCBD funnybooks, and has (as does the aforementioned customer Rob) a newfound appreciation for our store’s kindness and generosity. At least on Free Comic Book Day…the rest of the year, we’re jerks.
Seriously, though…we certainly have room for improvement at our shop, but I think, at least when it comes to Free Comic Book Day, we manage to get things mostly right. If I could have changed anything this time around, it would have been having more of this year’s selections to give away. But we managed to make a lot of people happy, so it all worked out in the end.
I’m sure I’m missing something…if I come up with anything else once the traumatic amnesia passes, I’ll let you folks know.
However, if you have your own comments and questions about FCBD, please feel free to leave them in the comments, and I’ll reply with a rambling, barely-informative post in the near future.
Your local funnybook store is hopefully giving away free comic books today, so drop on by and grab a few. With any luck your store will be one that’s making an event out of it and handing out tons of comics to everyone who walks into the shop, and not simply dumping a bunch in a disused short box by the front door with a little “FREE” sign on it (like someone told me about one of his local stores a couple of years back).
And, as noted here yesterday, you don’t even have to go to your shop in costume. But if you do, you know I want to hear about it.
“Tallahassee comic-book shops are giving away free comics Saturday. Superhero fans can pick up the free books as part of the annual Free Comic Book Day, a national event.”
This article (“No ka-boom! for comics retailers”) discusses the fact that blockbuster superhero movies don’t translate to comic sales….something I may have discussed once or twice in the past.
“Over the next three days, a few hundred thousand Americans are expected to show up at theaters for the premiere weekend of Iron Man, based on the Marvel Comics character. If only the country’s 3,000 comics stores could entice even a small percentage of them into their shops.”
Aspen Comics to debut new series on FCBD, will lead to about a half dozen different #0s and #1s, plus many multiple covers; only about a 10% chance said series will ever reach an issue number in the double-digits.
Chris Sims warned me about this article: “POW! Stores giving away free comic books Saturday”
“That’s right — FREE! BIFF! BOOM! POW! All you have to do is stroll into a participating store and ask for one.”
Oh, man.
And now, the single greatest headline relating to Free Comic Book Day that you’re going to see:
Since they finally showed up this week, I thought I’d go back to the eBay and see if they’ve been listed for sale. And sure enough, there are about a dozen listings for the Free Comic Book Day Iron Man Heroclix figure. “Super Rare,” says one.
Today we’ll be doing some last minute prep for Saturday’s Free Comic Book Day event…setting up the tables at the front of the shop, where our posted employees will be hand-distributing bags containing the free comic selections, and I’ll be making signs for the in-store sales we’ll be having that day.
Thursday I did have a group of high school kids show up and looked around, puzzled, at the shop. I asked them if they needed help, and one said “this is Free Comic Book Day, right? May 1st?” She wasn’t happy when I told her it was the 3rd…having “1st Saturday in May” on all the promo material seemed to cause some confusion at first, with some folks, but I thought we had all that straightened out. Apparently not.
I do love the calls I get from people who just can’t believe that Free Comic Book Day even exists.
Customer on phone: “So, this Free Comic Book Day…what do we have to do to get the free comics?”
Me: “Show up on Saturday.”
Customer: “…And?”
Me: “And nothing! Just come in and we’ll give you free comics!”
Customer: “Really? Do we have to dress up in costumes?”
Me: “All you have to be able to do is make it through our front door during our normal business hours on Saturday. We will then gift you with free comics, and lots of them. Honest.”
Yes, I did have someone ask if they had to wear costumes. I almost…almost…said yes.
I also had another person, a new regular, at the shop say that she and her husband weren’t going to come, because the husband was convinced we’d only give him one comic since that’s what happened to him at another shop last time. I had to assure her that, as supplies last, each person would get at least one of each FCBD book that was available. No, really, you’ll get more comics than you’ll know what to do with, I promise. I think I finally managed to convince her…it was the final bit where I said I didn’t want to store the leftovers, I want them in customers’ hands and OUT OF THE SHOP that got the point across.
We’re also still getting that thing where some folks think Free Comic Book Day is something just our store is doing, that it’s just a promotion we put together to clear out some dead stock. I’ve had to explain several times that it’s an industry-wide hoohar, and that many publishers produce books specifically for the event. This information puzzles some, alarms others. Comic book companies…working together? Joining forces? Trying to tempt the innocent citizenry with these devilish illustrated pamphlets? They must be stopped!
Anyway, if you want merciless coverage of what books you can expect to see, pal Dorian has put together his reviews for (most of) this year’s selection. As always, pal Dorian is cruel but fair.
In case you were wondering, the “Did you see it” questions started to hit Thursday afternoon. And, as usual, I’m a smartass: “Not yet…but I’ve got my tickets for Made of Honor for tomorrow night!”
On that topic (of Iron Man, not that other film)…a conversation with Employee Aaron on Thursday:
Employee Aaron (jokingly): “Ooh, I don’ t know if I’ll have time to construct my Iron Man costume to wear to the movie tonight.”
Me: “Well, just wear your Stormtrooper costume.”
Employee Aaron: “Yeah, I can paint it red and yellow!”
Me: “…”
Me: “Someone, somewhere, is doing that very thing RIGHT NOW.”
Beginning to prep for the ever-approaching Free Comic Book Day, coming May 3rd. We were shorted our Gumby and Love & Capes FCBD comics, and the Nascar Heroes and Imaginary books have yet to ship to us. Here’s a sentence I never imagined myself saying: “Boy, I hope those Nascar comics show up next week.”
As in previous years, we divide up the free funnybooks into three age-appropriate bundles to hand out to equally age-appropriate customers: “Kids,” “Teens,” and “Grown-Ups.” This year the books are all allegedly more “general audiences” than in past years, to avoid any more penis panics, but the three-pack distribution has worked well for us in the past, so we’d like to keep up the tradition. And there’s still some necessary age sorting to do…I don’t particularly want to give the Top Cow freebie to kids, and I’m just assuming the Wizard giveaway isn’t for kids, since they haven’t been yet.
Since the sorting is fairly time-intensive, we’ve got to get cracking early…but that also means when the missing or late FCBD books finally show up, we’ll have to go through and dump them all in the bags after the fact, which is a little annoying. And, we’ll only have a couple days to do it.
In addition to the bags, we’ll have loose copies of all the freebies on our tables in the FCBD staging area at the front of the store, as well as leftovers from previous years. Plus, I’ve already spoken to some folks about providing leftover giveaways to schools and libraries.
We’re using these FCBD comics for their intended purpose: promotion. Getting them into the hands of as many people as possible. Maybe…just maybe, getting a new reader or two out of it. Or getting old readers into something new. (I’ve discussed the apparent effectiveness of the event here.)
That said, here’s a quick survey of 2008 Free Comic Book Day comics I’ve found on the eBay, current and ended auctions, as of this writing:
Multiple listings for “full sets” of all of this year’s FCBD comics (one set sold for about $30)
One copy of this year’s Marvel Adventures: Iron Man, Hulk, Spider-Man with a minimum bid of $7.99 (wholesale cost, by the way: 20 cents)
One copy of this year’s Hellboy book, minimum bid about $2 U.S.
One copy of this year’s Broken Trinity (Top Cow) book, minimum bid $2 U.S.
Two copies of this year’s Sonic the Hedgehog book, sold for $2.50 and just over $3
There ain’t no law sayin’ they can’t, but it still feels like a shame. At least it’s just one or two books here and there, and not, say, case lots of FCBD books like I’ve seen in previous years. Hopefully the people selling these still have plenty more of them in stock to give away.
And I just looked at this next auction because I was wondering why a copy of the FCBD Ultimate Spider-Man #1, from a previous year, was listed at $24.95. Turns out the seller is also accepting “best offers.” Given that other copies of the same book have sold for a penny (well, half a penny, in this case)…well, good luck.
Anyway, the auction that I actually wanted to draw your attention to is this one, and don’t look at it if you’re somewhere where web page sound is gonna be a problem.
So, did you look? “What th–!?” — right? Startled the heck out of me. Here’s the site responsible (sound, natch).
Oh, okay, I know I missed a lot. There was that whole New York comic convention boondoggle over the weekend, which, from what little I managed to read about it, made that Wizard World conpal Dorian and I went to look like just a bunch of guys trading comics in a garage somewhere. Well, it is a little closer to the center of the American funnybook universe, so there’s that.
A few of my blogging buddies attended the show, and have been updating over the weekend. I imagine we’ll see more comprehensive reports once they recover (or, in Kevin’s case, sober up), but Kevin Church has a brief wrap-up here, Chris Butcher has some photos and will speak about the con on NPR Monday morning (here’s the show archive if you miss it), Johanna has run-downs of what she was getting up to Friday and Saturday, and Bully…
New ongoing Secret Six series, written by Gail Simone. Simone’s previous Secret Six stuff was a lot of fun, and she somehow pulled off the miracle of making people interested in Cat Man, of all characters, so I’m really looking forward to this series.
“Marvel Apes?” Most folks’ immediate reaction seems to be “we didn’t like this when it was called ‘JLApe’ either.” I mean, I’m all for more monkeys in my comics, but DC always struck me as your go-to company for primate funnybook action.
I like Frank Miller ‘n’ all, but I’m gonna need to see more of The Spirit movie before I can decide how I feel about this. The poster didn’t help matters much, and while I like the look of the trailer:
…I’m hoping there’s a bit more of a lighter touch in the actual film. I do appreciate that the trailer says “BASED ON THE COMIC BOOK” in BIG, BIG letters, though.
There’s a new Supergirl comic aimed at younger readers supposedly forthcoming. Hopefully kids will still want a Supergirl comic, after DC did its best to drive away budding Supergirl fans with their regular offerings.
Speaking of Benjamin Birdie of The Rack fame…he now has his own fancypants website, located at, where else, Benjaminbirdie.com. Already he knocks it out of the park with the first of an ongoing series of posts discussing single pages from assorted comics (beginning with a sequence from Marvel Boy #4). Good, insightful reading, from someone who knows what he’s talking about.
Regarding that terrifying post of mine from yesterday, reader Ironbear left a comment describing how the sound function on those toys worked:
“The cool thing was the weird sound technology: the Patented Talking Tape was embossed plastic, attached at one end to the inflatable. The sound was embossed in the tape in thousands of grooves along the length of the tape. To play, you’d simply run a fingernail along the tape: the very lo-fi sound came out of the inflatable itself.”
Huh. I was pretty sure I hadn’t heard of this, until I looked at this page about “talking tape” and suddenly it seems oddly familiar. I don’t think I ever had anything that used this technology, but I must have heard about it at some point. Anyway, here’s a short YouTube video demonstrating one of these talking tapes in action:
Sorcery! SORCERY!
We received most of our order of Free Comic Book Day comics last week, with the balance to arrive this week. Haven’t had much of a chance to go through too many of them, but the Hellboy one is nice — all new stories, though the BPRD story is is for the Long-Term Fans Only. The EC Sampler is pretty cool, even if it only exists as an advertisement for the $50 EC Archives volumes, but it’s hard to fault anything that gets old EC comics into the hands of kids. And the Archie entry is essentially a blatant ad for the Geppi comics museum.
Also, I did my usual search on the eBay for people selling this year’s new FCBD books, and, sure enough, there are a few folks out there desperately missing the point, who’d rather make a quick buck or two in the short term rather than take the chance of giving the comics away to someone who might become a regular reader.
After the FCBD event is over, I’m…well, the market will out, I suppose, on the FCBD books, but I think selling them even after FCBD is over for the year is still missing an opportunity. We use them throughout the year, giving them to libraries, passing them out at the store, and so on. It’s a great promotional tool, and it’s a shame some folks don’t see it that way.
I may have more to say on FCBD this year, but if not, you can read previous musings on the topic here and here.
