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So, yeah, sorry about that post yesterday. I really meant to keep it short, honest, but, you know, get me talking about Swamp Thing, and look what happens. But at least I do it here, where you all have avenues of escape, and not at the store, where I could possibly corner some poor bastard and discuss Patchwork Man continuity for half an hour.
I answered a couple of questions in yesterday’s comments already, but let me address a couple more here today:
Dwayne the Canoe Guy asks:
“I saw today that Tamga.com is selling a discount subscription to Swamp Thing and recently featured Justice League. Tanga normally discounts boardgames & novelty electronics. Does this discounting indicate that DC is desperate?”
I’d say the fact that DC restarted all their books with new #1s was already a pretty good sign of desperation. But no, offering cheap subscriptions to comics on a discount deal site sounds more like loss-leading promotion than “oh dear God someone please buy our comics.” It’s just another venue to hawk their wares, rather than just pushing their offerings through the usual places.
eee-gah wants to know, in response to my slightly snarky comment about blood ‘n’ guts in DC’s superhero books:
“Has anyone ever complained to you at the shop about the level of gore in a random DC book?”
No, not really “complained” as such. The few people who have noted it usually do so with a sense of…bemusement. Like, “oh, look what DC did THIS time.” But I haven’t had any angry parents stomp into the store and gripe that their precious Little Billy picked up a copy of Teen Titans: Risk – A Call to Arms #1 and was offended by all the violence therein. But I have had a parent complain about Lesbian Batwoman, so I guess I know where the lines are drawn in our neighborhood.
Also…it’s been a while since this happened, but I always like to mention that one mother who complained that the Spider-Man comics her son was reading were “too sexy.” Specifically, the Steve Ditko Spider-Man comics her son was reading in reprints. That’s probably the one and only time that particular complaint was leveled at Ditko’s Spidey.
• • •
Okay, so you’ve read
Fake AP Stylebook, you’ve bought your mandatory three copies per household of the Fake AP Stylebook book
Write More Good, and maybe some of you are following our lonely, lonely Twitter feed
The Content Farm. Now,
The Bureau Chiefs bring you…
Fake Pew Research, featuring improbable statistics for an intractable society.
Anyway, as pal Dave L. so accurately puts it, it’s just another goofy thing we’re doing to make each other laugh, and hopefully it’ll make some of you laugh too.
I asked a couple of days ago what DC books you were looking forward to the most, and the big winner was Action Comics by Grant Morrison and Rags Morales, followed closely by the J.H. Williams Batwoman comic. Neither of these are a real surprise, as Morrison on Superman is always a draw (and the Siegel & Shuster/Golden Age-esque take on the character intrigues), and we’ve all seen the beautiful work Williams has done on Batwoman in the last couple of years.
This is hardly a comprehensive scientific survey, I realize, but it surprises me that the Green Lantern franchise makes such a poor showing, with only one respondent noting interest. Given that there are four GL-related titles coming our way monthly, I wonder if that doesn’t bode well.
Another one that sort of surprises me is Mr. Terrific, if only because, at least at our shop, there seemed like there was an unusual amount of interest in this title, considering he’s hardly one of DC’s first-stringers. This was a while back, though, right after his title was announced, and perhaps it’s since been overshadowed by other more attention-grabbing series.
And despite my jerkiness about the title in the initial post, some brave souls still indicated that Hawk & Dove was their pick. I can tell you, having broken down the comic order and pulled comic subs Tuesday night…we’ve got more than a few requests at our shop for it. Liefeld is still a draw…or at least not enough of a deterrent to keep Hawk & Dove fans away. And seriously, more power to ‘em. Like whatever you want, man, I’m not going to judge. Out loud. To your face.
Okay, okay, really seriously, read whatever you want. “People reading comics” is the primary goal here. We can worry about “people reading the comics I like” later.
Speaking of which, only two of you picked Swamp Thing. …I’m very disappointed.
Anyway, I might have more to say on this later, but I’ve had a long work day, and I’m still recovering from my illness. But let me say this, as I’ve had a “sneak peek” at the new DCs this wek whilst breaking down the order: decided I’m going to get Batgirl, too…looks like a fun read, as is typical of writer Gail Simone. And Action…not the kind of Superman story that’ll be familiar to folks accustomed to the post-Byrne revamp era of the character. Quite good. And Swamp Thing…ah, yes, Swamp Thing. Still spinning our wheels a bit on the “Alec must rejoin with Swampy” jag that we endured in that mini-series, but only it’s done well this time. Animal Man is about as good as you’re hoping, and I’m still undecided on Justice League International. Maybe if Swamp Thing joined.
So I was planning on responding to a couple of lengthy comments recently left on this here site regarding DC Comics and its current launchalanche, but neither 1) time nor 2) health are cooperating with me. I’ll get to them soon, I promise.
In the meantime, since I didn’t really have anything else planned for today…let me ask you: what’s the one new DC book you’re looking forward to the most? Just tell me ONE…don’t be wishy-washy and leave me a list of, like, your fourteen favorites. Pick one and stick to it, pals! …I think you can probably guess mine.
And I know Justice League already came out. You can say you’re looking forward most to #2, if you’d like. Or you can even pick Hawk and Dove. Either case, I won’t make fun of you. Promise. And you don’t need to pop in and declare “I’m not buying ANY of them because I hates DC forever” because that’s not what I’m asking for. I mean, c’mon, don’t be That Guy.
Anyway, I’ll probably do a tally of them for…Wednesday’s post, let’s say, and see what you folks are most interested in. Assuming I get enough response to tally, of course.
So I asked on the Twitter late last night for a couple of topics that I could write about today in brief, and this is what I was given:
From Celamowari:
…Did you like any of DC’s RetroActive books?
It seems that I’m liking them more in concept than I do in actual execution. And that might just be me. I’ve been told the 1970s-style Flash one-shot has some clever stuff in it. But it’s been a real…”you can’t go home again” kind of thing, I guess. I did pick up the 1970s-style Superman book, but I’ve only read about a third of it so far and haven’t gone back to it. I just might not be in the mood for it or something…it’s hard to say.
I am looking forward to the Justice League retro special illustrated by Kevin Maguire.
Nscottg supplied a few topics here:
“the Absence of Wally West”
Actually, as far as I’m concerned there’s an absence of the Flash, period, since I gave up on the Flash books a while back. I stuck through Flash: Rebirth, but the relaunched series with Barry Allen under the cowl just felt like a step backwards. And it didn’t help that the new series was just kinda bland.
As for the larger implications of the absence of former Kid Flash/former regular Flash Wally West…just one of those casualties, I suppose, of DC’s attempt to revitalize a moribund property critically damaged by too many restarts and retoolings in too short a time. Bringing back Barry seemed like a last resort, since Wally’s sales didn’t seem like they’d be going back up any time soon, and since Flash sales are up (or rather, were up, since they’re relaunched the series again as part of DC’s September Flood and who knows how it’ll do after that) I’m guessing Wally’s either out of the picture or reduced to a supporting role for the time being.
“something random about G’nort”
I liked Bad-Ass G’nort in that Howard Chaykin Guy Gardner mini. But I don’t think we’ll ever see G’nort as a regular player in the Green Lantern books. Unless he’s a Blue Lantern now…the “hope” thing would really fit him.
what Marvel Characters would make awesome Black Lanterns
Uncle Ben, natch. Imagine the head games a Black Lantern Uncle Ben would pull on Spider-Man.
Also, Black Lantern H.E.R.B.I.E. Yeah, I know he’s a robot. Still want to see it.
Comic miniseries that refuse to die (see: Secret Six, Suicide Squad, Agents of Atlas, etc, etc)
I know it’s a way to artificially bump sales with a new #1 every year, but it gets to be kind of a drag to follow, you know? If they’re going to do a series, just do a series, instead of giving readers nice jumping-off points after six months and hoping they’ll come back with the next series.
On the other hand, it is nice that the mini-series format gives certain sales-challenged but critically-acclaimed properties like Agents of Atlas multiple chances to find a more extensive audience. Not that it did, but at least they tried.
And then there’s the mini-series that should probably be given a rest. The first Marvel Zombies mini? Like printing money. The recent Marvel Zombies Supreme mini? Like printing Shadowhawk. Time to let that property sit on a shelf for a while, guys.
Marvel’s ratio of female creators?
Well, I didn’t check every book Marvel is currently publishing, but it looks like there’s at least two comics coming out this week with female writers (X-23 by Marjorie Liu, Mystic by G. Willow Wilson). So there’s two!
A few more questions from you, the loyal Progressiveruin.com readers:
- Thelonious_Nick wonders
Why do all these big events that the comics companies are always pushing on us sound so awesome ahead of time but end up being so god-awful when they actually occur?
Well, we’re only human, and we’re comic fans (two states of being that are not mutually exclusive, despite popular belief)…it’s pretty easy to buy into the hype and excitement, or at least absorb a small bit of it, ahead of time, which perhaps inflates expectations beyond any point the event in question can possibly satisfy.
Or maybe they just end up being terrible. (The true answer is probably somewhere between these two options.)
- Moonrock rockets off
“Having just picked up some back issues of Secret Wars II, which I hadn’t read since it first came out years ago, I was curious if I was the only one who thinks the Beyonder looked like Jim Shooter with a jheri(sp?) curl? Mike, do you think Shooter was egotistic enough to write himself in SWII as an omnipotent being?”
If I remember correctly, there was some thought at the time that the Secret Wars II Beyonder was indeed a “Mary Sue” of sorts for Shooter, and the Secret Wars page on TV Tropes even refers to the Beyonder as “Self Insert Fic” in regards to the character’s relation to Shooter.
I don’t know if it was an intentional thing, but, to be frank, had I been in his position, I would have done the exact same thing. I totally would have made myself the main character of Sterling W–er, Secret Wars II. Except I wouldn’t have had to change my hair, since my hairstyle has already achieved beautiful perfection.
- Roger Green inquires
“Did you see this Swamp Thing item?”
Actually, I did not see this amusing alteration to Steve Bissette’s drawing of Swamp Thing and Man-Thing palling around until you pointed it out. Thanks! Also learned at the link: there’s a Facebook application which allows you to make your own Life magazine cover, which could result in some mischievous fun.
- Professor Booty is about to be partially disappointed in at least one answer to his two questions:
Are you watching Game of Thrones, Mike? On a scale of 1 to 10, how awesome is it?
I haven’t seen one single frame of Game of Thrones, nor have I even read any of the books. However, I understand Peter Dinklage is involved in the TV show, and Mr. Dinklage always…always…gets a 10 on the awesome scale. (Yes, even in Underdog.)
Do you wear any clothes with Swamp Thing on them? Did Mike Sterling ever dress as Swamp Thing for Halloween (or just to work or something!) and are there pictures of it? If so, how come I never seen them here?
The only piece of Swamp Thing clothing I’ve worn is this 1994 t-shirt, which I couldn’t find a pic of online so, in a Progressive Ruin first, I scanned the actual shirt from my own closet:
It…shows a little wear, and I haven’t worn it in a while, but I can’t bring myself to get rid of it. And yeah, it’s a bit of a peculiar design, what with Swampy ‘n’ Abby’s daughter Tefe sittin’ up there.
You know what Swamp Thing shirt I’d love to have? One with this cover. I would so pay money for that.
I never dressed as Swamp Thing for Halloween, unfortunately. Nor do I dress as Swamp Thing for the shop, nor do I dress as him while just hanging around the house, vacuuming or something. Because I know you were wondering. However, I have had two employees dress as me for Halloween…only one of whom was male.
- The Mutt shouts
“Henderson!”
“HENDERSON!”
(Listen to a few of these for further explanation.)
Okay, one last Twitter question from last night, which came when I was plotting to destroy my enemies sound asleep, from TheMeanGeek:
“do you listen to podcasts? which ones and why? totally self-serving by the way”
“Self-serving,” he says, because he has his own podcast which I haven’t listened to yet, but I promise I’ll give it a try!
Anyway, I do listen to a handful of podcasts, which include the following:
That’s not all of them, but those are the main ones I check out regularly. Keep meaning to start one myself, but that would require, you know, time. And effort. And probably equipment.
A question or two from “White Lantern Alec Holland” from yesterday’s post:
“I need a complete accurate list of of all of DC Comics letters pages of the last forty years responding to previous Swamp Thing related guest-appearances and intros in these titles that I have yet to follow, including [LIST OMITTED]“
Oh, Lordy, I don’t know. To be honest, it never occurred to me to collection Swamp Thing’s mentions in letter columns, though I suppose in some cases, if it was a series I was buying regularly, I got them by default. So…um, I’ll have to get back to you on that one.
He also asks
“What did you think of Garbage Man vs. Mossy Man in Weird Worlds #6?”
I’d actually given up on the Weird World series, but Tim O’Neil mentioned to me on the Twitter that there was a Man-Thing-ish type critter who popped up in that last issue, so I gave the comic a quick poke-through at the shop. My general feeling is that this one story felt more like a classic ’70s-style Marvel/DC horror comic than the other “Garbage Man” installments. More even than the (relatively) recent Swamp Thing/Man-Thing comics themselves, which were too much of the Vertigo Comics generation to really be evocative of the simpler stories of times past. The basic story of a misunderstood monster befriended by a child is straight out of an old House of Mystery. Or the Gamera films, for that matter, I realize, but this particular execution of the plot did give me that slight twinge of nostalgia.
…
So long as I’m in a question-answerin’ mood, if you have any lingering queries, go ahead and pop ‘em in the comments and I’ll give ‘em a go. In the meantime, I’ll just be sittin’ here approximatin’ a casual speakin’ voice by replacin’ letters with apostrophes.
So normally when I do my “question times”, I put the call out on this site and gather up a few dozen comments and then answer them at length over the following eight or nine weeks, much to the delight of everyone who reads this site, I’m sure. But this time, I pulled a Chris Sims (who regularly does this for his Comics Alliance “Ask Chris” column) and put a question-call on my Twitter thingie. In short order I received, amongst the abuse, a few actual questions, so let’s see what I can do here:
From Chris Sims his own self, he asks
“My question is Swamp Thing is dumb, and I’ll take my answer off the air.”
Well, Mr. Chris “I Love My Little Pony with All My Heart and Soul” Sims, I’ll have you know that, as revealed in Swamp Thing #75 (August 1988, by Rick Veitch & Alfredo Alcala), the template for Swamp Thing’s mind was formed around the critically-injured and dying Alec Holland’s mind:
…and as such, doesn’t function as well as a normal, healthy brain. However, over the course of this issue, Swamp Thing grew himself a big ol’ brain to think himself out of a particular stumper of a dilemma. So he’s not really dumb, since his mind is based on that of a scientist, after all…it’s just that his thinker doesn’t think too quickly. A limitation he can get around, apparently, but sitting down and growing a giant Hector Hammond-esque head. So put
that in your Twilight Sparkle and smoke it, mister!
“Franzferdinand2″ wants to know
“Jay-Z and Nas decide to revisit their beef, but will settle it without using rap. What is the forum they use?”
I know next to nothing about either of these men, aside from having heard Jay-Z’s name in passing, but I will go with the default time-honored method of solving any disputes: Rock-’Em Sock-’Em Robots, which you can read about here, or, apparently, see in this forthcoming movie from the looks of things.
Pal Alex dares to ask
“who / what is this Swamp Thing everyone’s talking about? sounds dumb”
Swamp Thing was rocketed from the distant planet Houma and crash-landed on Earth, whereupon he was bitten by radioactive eelgrass and thus gained all the powers of plantlife, such as climbing walls and the invaluable “plant sense” – which comes in handy when he’s confronted by the metallic tentacles of the nefarious Doc Arcane.
Alex also tempts fate by asking
“What was it like going to high school with Abe Lincoln when dinosaurs still walked the earth?”
Man, these new school textbooks aren’t doing anyone any good.
JacobMartin queries
“I feel pop culturally baffled as to what to get into next, and the movies coming out recently fail to interest. What to do?”
Well, if nothing new is grabbing your fancy, that’s okay. There’s no need to force it…you don’t have to be “into” something at any given moment. Just go ahead and enjoy what you’re already enjoying, and chances are that thing will eventually lead you into something new, or that your attention will eventually be caught by something new that comes along. You don’t always have to chase it…sometimes it’ll come right to you.
Leeatard has a question:
“Do you think there’s a possibility the upcoming DC reboot will finally cure event fatigue?”
That’s hard to say. It depends on whether or not DC stops doing “events” after the September Number One-alanche, and I think we can all assume that the big events will continue. Particularly if the whole initiative flops and DC suddenly has a “Crisis of Going Back to The Way Things Were” crossover series.
But then again, this September thing is sort of the ultimate expression of a Big Event, isn’t it? Can they kill the disease with a big ol’ dose of said disease? We’ll find out in a few months.
And of course, it’s not like Marvel is going to scale back their eventifiying. It’ll probably be two or three going on at any given time, as per usual.
Tim O’Neil wonders
“Who is more powerful, Gladstone Gander or Longshot?”
They do both have powerful “luck” powers, in which events will somehow miraculously fall in their favor. It does seem like an “immovable object meets irresistible force” situation, but I will give the nod to Gladstone, as he is a funny animal, and funny animals have that additional level and / or expectation of “defying all sense of physics and realism” that human comic characters generally do not have. Well, aside from Plastic Man.
TheBrobe inquires
“Have you ever had a week without a mistake or damaged book from Diamond? In my three years it hasn’t happened once.”
It does happen, if rarely. With the sheer number of books and comics being processed, errors and damages are bound to creep in, and that’s, you know, just a thing you gotta deal with. However, this one time, after a string of error-filled shipments, we had an order come in with no problems whatsoever. Completely flawless. So impressed were we that we placed our regular call to our Diamond sales rep anyway, just to compliment folks on a job well done! …And we think we ended up irritating our rep, who thought we were being sarcastic. We weren’t, honest!
Celamowari asks
“What is your stance on other swamp monsters like the Heap, the Glob, etc.?”
MY STANCE IS WIDE. Er, that is to say, I’m cool with other swamp monsters. I really dug Steve Gerber’s Sludge, for example, and enjoyed what little of the Heap I’ve been able to read. And I liked this brief Heap revival book from 1971. So I’m all for more swamp critters in my funnybooks.
Celamowari also asks
“Tapping Tommy – threat or menace?”
A tap-dancing super-villain? “Freakin’ annoying” is what I’d call him. I hope Scourge shot him twice.
And then he adds
“What is the deal with DC super-villain Quakemaster?”
He makes quakes. What’s so hard about that? Pretty sure he does it out of anger over the discontinuing of his favorite cereal.
Finally, Celamowari wants to know
“Do you…do you like me?”
Oh, I guess.
So I asked you folks to pick your single favorite ongoing comic book (or manga/TPB) series, and boy, you certainly chimed in.
I actually went through the comments and tallied up how many “votes” each title received…not that I was planning on declaring a winner or anything, but more out of curiosity. I half-suspected that, even though this isn’t necessarily a large enough sample (or even a diverse enough sample, given that it was restricted to a group relatively web-savvy and, I’m assuming, perhaps slightly more aware of the reading choices available to them), that the votes may somewhat reflect a general relationship to in-store sales.
There’s a slight correlation between the votes and our shop sales, in that, say, Batman and Robin (the top vote-getter) is one of the bestselling comics at our shop, compared to, say, 2000 A.D. or DMZ, which each got one vote and sell very little at our store. (In fairness, I should note that while the monthly DMZ sells poorly, we do good business in the paperback collections.)
However, the correlation doesn’t remain the same across the board…Amazing Spider-Man only received one vote, but is still a consistent mid-range seller for us, while Jonah Hex received three votes, though in-store sales have plummeted since the film was inflicted upon movie theatres. So anyway, as far as correlation goes, it’s close in some cases, but no cigar.
Let’s take a look at what you folks voted for:
- Batman and Robin – As I said, most of you folks picked this as your number one (and some of you included “all Batman by Morrison” in your vote, which does sort of fit with my rule of multiple series that are essentially part of the same run). I’d probably pick this one as my current favorite as well, since All Star Batman is currently resting.
- The next-highest vote-getter is Secret Six, which kind of surprised me since you don’t really hear a whole lot of chatter about it. Or maybe you do, and I just don’t hang out with the right people. But it is a good series, written by Gail Simone (and occasionally John Ostrander) with a nice mix of dark humor, exciting adventure, and outright horror. Consistently sells well for us, and I’m always having to bump up orders and put in reorders on it.
And then we get down to the middling vote-getters, the ones that got three, four, or five votes apiece:
- Scalped – Another Vertigo title that barely moves any copies of the periodical magazine version at all, but sells relatively well in its trade paperback format. It seems like the trick with Vertigo is finding that balance between reasonably strong monthly sales versus the portion of the audience that waits for the trade, and by and large only Fables and related titles seem to manage an even balance right now. (By the way, the last time I did this “name your fave” thing, Fables was at the top…this time around, it only got mentioned twice.)
- Walking Dead – A solid and consistent seller, and another comic that found a successful balance between monthly releases and trade collections. I wonder what effect the TV show will have on sales, if any. I mean, if there was a Walking Dead movie coming out, yeah, comic sales would peak right before release and then die off completely, which is what usually happens. But an ongoing TV show…well, it’ll be interesting to see what it does for the comic.
- Hellboy and B.P.R.D. – …got an equal number of votes, appropriately enough. Both are essentially continuing series released as a series of mini-series (more B.P.R.D. than Hellboy), and…well, it’s good stuff. Don’t really have much to add to that. Also, they recovered nicely from the sales-killing movie effect, thankfully.
- Fantastic Four – This is another title that’s recently undergone an upward bump in sales, as people seem to be catching on to Jonathan Hickman’s excellent scripting on the title. I really like the concept of the Fantastic Four, though there have been gaps in my reading of the title (like, oh, say, the 1990s) where I didn’t much care for what was being done with it. But I came back onboard with Mark Waid’s run, followed by Mark Millar, and now Hickman, and it’s been quite a fun ride throughout.
- Yotsuba&! was the top manga vote-getter, and it is indeed a very amusing and cute comic, about a five-year-old girl doing five-year-old girl things, to the amusement and occasional annoyance of family and friends, and its return to the shelves after a brief publishing hiatus was quite welcome.
And then there were a couple of things that sort of surprised me:
- The only X-Men title anyone mentioned was X-Men Forever, which received one vote. The continuity-free, retro-style X-Men title, the only one anyone voted for. Perhaps there’s something to be learned here.
- Deadpool – another one-voter, though there’s something like two dozen Deadpool comics on the stands at any given time. Okay, I exaggerate slightly, but not by much, and somebody‘s buying and reading all these. (And not reading my site, apparently.)
- Punishermax – only one vote, which surprises me since the title seems to be slowly gaining readers with each issue. And it is a good series…I talked about it before, and it really is a return to the Garth Ennis-style Punisher. And as people catch on to that, the sales creep up.
- American Vampire – also one vote, but this is one of the stronger Vertigo debuts in a while, and it’s selling reasonably well. I wonder if it can maintain the strong newsstand sales once the paperback collections hit.
- Tales Designed to Thrizzle only received a couple of votes. This should have received every vote, my friends.
Okay, I’m going to cut it off here for now…if I have more to say about the results, I’ll pick it up tomorrow, but in the meantime — thanks for participating, everyone! This gave me a nice overview as to what you folks are reading and enjoying, and I’m glad you all took the time to leave a comment. I really do appreciate it.
Sorry, gang…was tied up working on some other projects, and suddenly, whoops, no time left to generate anything hilarious or thought-provoking or, ahem, copyright-stretching for the site. So, I’m going to ask you a question, and I’ll do a follow-up post on your responses within the next few days.
And that question is:
What’s your favorite currently-running comic book series right now?
You don’t have to tell me why if you don’t want to, but I’d like it if you did. But the only things I do request regarding your responses:
1. Just pick one series…no “well, I can’t decide between these two, so I’ll list ‘em both. Or the top three. Or maybe a dozen.” PICK JUST ONE SERIES, PLEASE. Pretend your life depends on it. In fact, maybe it does.
2. Don’t make fun of other people’s choices. Now, I feel terrible even saying that, because most of you folks who populate my comments sections are usually pretty civil, but, you know, there’s always someone who wants to stir up trouble. So don’t be that guy!
3. I’ll allow some leeway for lame-duck series like Atlas, or comics that are effectively the same series, like the ongoing chain of Marvel’s Hercules comics. But I’m going to force you to pick which among Avengers, New Avengers, and Secret Avengers is your favorite, if this is the case, because I’m a jerk.
EDIT: 4. And one of the early responders reminded me…it doesn’t have to be a traditional comic book series, as in the monthly magazine format…if it’s a manga or other graphic novel series, that’s fine, too.
So with that in mind, tell me your favorite comic book series, please. Your credit card will not be charged, and no salesman will call.
I’m feeling a bit run-down as I write this, I’m afraid…I was going to beg off, but there are just a few questions left and I’d like to get them answered. So let’s see how I do today.
- Steve Cameron asks
“With so much getting collected now, most stores have sold off their old issues to give most of their floor space over to trades and manga and graphic novels and what not, but I understand that Ralph’s still has a lot of back issue bins. Do you still do a lot of sales in old floppies? How’s it changed from a decade or two ago?”
Actually, I don’t think it’s changed all that much. Since we’re one of the few stores left that still has deep stock in back issues, we still remain a destination for folks seeking out old comics. It’s still about the same percentage of the business we do now as it’s always been.
- Erik has a question or two for me:
“If I download comics that aren’t collected am I still killing comics?”
Yes. Now that the police have heard your confession, they will be by to collect you in the morning.
“What’s better, Dark Knight Returns or Watchmen?”
Oh, that’s a toughie. A real toughie. We’re talking two very different takes on essentially the same subject: the dissection and, to a certain extent, parody, of a genre, with Dark Knight taking a more visceral approach, and Watchmen a more mechanical one. If I have to pick one, I’d say Watchmen, if only just barely. Like exactly one micron of difference.
“Who would win in a fight, Supergoof or Mighty Mouse?”
Mighty Mouse is clearly the more powerful and competent of the two, but never underestimate the power of Supergoof’s sheer dumb luck. I’d say it’s Goofy for the win.
- Allan inquires
“What do you think is the most significant contribution to society you completely failed to make because of a) comic books and b) your blogging about comic books? How many people do you think would be alive today if you had chosen a less geeky path? And if the answer is greater than one, does the thought of this ever keep you awake at night or do you consider the existence of Progressive Ruin to be more important than any one nameless individual’s life?”
Well, let’s face it, I was never going to be a doctor or a fireman. It was either this or librarian…and I’ve done the librarian thing, and I like this better. I can sleep well at night being reasonably certain that no one’s life depended on my life choices.
Besides, I know for a fact that my being in a comic retail job was directly responsible for a couple of my friends marrying each other, so chalk one up for the nerd life!
- Keith must know
“Another question relating to the secret genius behind Progressive Ruin.
Noticing employee Aaron (with his hair cut) has a girlfriend, I have not help but be a bit skeptical, is she real or is she one of those ‘I have a girlfriend, but she lives two states over’ kind of girlfriends? Bonus question: If real, is she shorter than him? (As if that’s even possible?)”
I can absolutely verify the existence of Employee Aaron’s girlfriend. She’s been coming into the store since she was just a wee thing, and, in fact, just saw her here at the shop the other day.
She is just a bit shorter than Employee Aaron, but then Aaron’s taken to wearing his KISS-style boots with the six inch lifts, so perhaps that’s throwing off my eyeballed measurements a bit.
- Jay V asks
“Do you have any thoughts/opinions on Charlton comics? How about Gold Key? Do you have any back issues of Wacky Witch?”
Charlton Comics have this almost endearing half-assedness about them, so I can never really dislike them too much, even if a lot of them are, well, kind of crap. But I read a lot of them as a kid in the ’70s, so I have a soft spot in my head…er, heart for them.
I’m okay with Gold Key. Lots of nice covers, some swell TV tie-in books, handled the Disney line, and Turok was under their banner for a while, so I’ve got no beef with them. I read a handful of their digest comics as a young Mikester, too.
You know, we have back issues of Wacky Witch at the shop, but I can’t recall if I’ve ever looked inside one. I’ll have to correct that omission.
- MichaelFromJamaicaNY entreats
“Can you help me open this jar of Palm Hearts?”
Sure! What you do is you kind of bang the lid of the jar against a countertop, which hopefully will loosen it up a bit. If it’s still a bit tight, try covering the top with a paper or cloth towel, and grabbing and twisting the towel-covered lid. That should give you enough traction to get it loose.
Rich Handley wonders
“Since changing over from the prior blog site to the new ultra-white version, have you seen a change in your traffic? Does it look like most of your regulars made the jump to the new location?”
Traffic appears to be about the same, thankfully. I think there may have been a slight dip when my RSS feeds changed, but I think everyone’s caught on by now. I hope.
- Josh Perdue needs to know
“Years ago in college I had a class with this girl who was a friend of a friend. We sat beside one another in class and used to chat sometimes and she was always very friendly. Then all of a sudden one day she was very rude to me. I used to see her outside of school and say hi and she would reluctantly acknowledge me, then ignored me outright.
What did I do?”
Lady Ruinites out there reading this post, look away for a moment.
…
Okay…Josh, there’s only one answer to this, and the answer is this: Chicks, man…chicks. Who can figure ‘em?
…
All right, gals, you can come back to the site now! (Phew, good thing none of them read what I just wrote!)
- Tom Mason asks
“What are the three biggest things – hit comic book movie, blogging, distribution changes, crossovers, clean windows, Virgin Comics, anything really – that have had a positive impact on the store?”
Hmmm…I’d say 1) trade paperback/book collections and the audience they attract, 2) moving to a larger space all those years ago (though we could stand to have more space now!), and 3) movies and TV shows and just plain ol’ increased media presence of comic book properties (not that it directly translates to equivalent sales, but it does bring in some interest from new readers).
- Progressive Sterling’s Mike Ruin (hmm…odd name) wants to know:
“Who would win in a fist fight: Chris Sims or Dave Campbell?”
Well, Campbell’s got some reach on him, but Sims has watched enough wrestling to try something that would end up hurting them both. So the only winner would be me, as I laugh and laugh.
“From a strictly visual point of view: do you think Swamp Thing looks better than Man-Thing? WHY??:O”
I’d say they both have their visual appeal. Man-Thing certainly is more monstrous than Swamp Thing, but Swampy as drawn by, say, Steve Bissette and John Totleben sometimes seems to have almost infinite detail to him. I’d say as long as Swamp Thing is being drawn as a swamp monster, and not just as a big green guy, he’s the more interesting design if only that you can read his expressions and emotions. Though the completely blank look on Man-Thing’s “face” is terrifying in its own way…AAARGH too wishy-washy to pick one. It’s my weblog, I say I like ‘em both just fine. So there.
”’Swamp Thongs’. For the ladies. Sexy or not?”
So, they’d be all…leafy, or vine-y? …Sorry, man, can’t see it.
- Roger Green asks
“I had to delete you from my weblog on Blogger then reinstall you. I assume that’s tied to your new feed. Is that a common issue or am I merely technologically cursed?”
No, that was caused by the new RSS feed the changeover created. I did publish one last post to the old feed asking everyone to change over to the new feed, and I may do another one in case anyone missed it. So don’t worry…I broke the link on your site, not you!
deadlytoque asks
“I’ve never read any comics with Thor or Iron Man, but I am keen on both characters. I’m a fan of Matt Fraction and also of Warren Ellis, and (to a lesser extent) J. Michael Straczynski . I also like the new Marvel Adventures stuff.
“If I buy Fraction’s runs on both titles, as well as JMS’s Thor and Ellis’s Iron Man, and then some of the MA: Iron Man books… will any of them make sense to me? Or will my total lack of knowledge of the decades of continuity exclude me?”
I think you’re okay. You’ve read comics, you have some passing familiarity with the characters, I say jump on in. Everyone’s gotta start somewhere, and none of these books have any kind of steep learning curve preventing you from catching onto the stories.
- Metz77 wraps up today’s questions with
“What do you think of Fantastic Four right now? I’ve never been a fan of the series before but the current creative team seems good. Do you think it’ll last?”
I’ve always liked the Fantastic Four, though I don’t always like what’s being done with the title. But, right now, with Jonathan Hickman on writing chores, it’s been a fun, strongly written, and tightly focused book. Imaginative, a little weird, stories don’t go on for too long, and all the characters seem reasonably in character. Can’t ask for more than that. As for how long it’ll last…as with all good books, it’ll feel like it ended too early.
I know some follow-up questions popped up in later comments sections, but those will have to wait for a day when I’m not dead on my feet. Thanks for reading, internet pals, and hopefully tomorrow I’ll be a bit more up to speed.
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