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The California tax law that caused Amazon to boot CA residents from their Associates program has been repealed, so my Amazon search box and links have returned to the sidebar. Just in case, you know, you happen to need to buy a $3000 camera and are stuck on where to go for one.
Also, click on the Bureau Chiefs link and pick up something from there while you’re at it. I get no direct commission from that, aside from a mild sense of bemusement that someone, somewhere, might be drinking coffee out of a mug with my “ATM Machine” gag on it.
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.
- BLOG FROM ANOTHER UNIVERSE: #1 – Mark Millar’s Invisibles; #2 – Rob Liefeld’s Big Numbers; #3 – Jack Kirby’s Fantastic Four #5000.
- That little stuffed bull, Bully, who is stuffed, little, and apparently also a bull, puts his horns to Charlton Comics’ pin-up-book-disguised-as-a-narrative Partridge Family series.
I could have sworn I’ve discussed the Partridge Family on this site before, but I think I may be confusing discussing the book in shop with writing about it on the site, which is become more and more of a problem the longer I do this internet thingie here. Anyway…well, you should go read Bully’s post first before you read my little bit of business. Go on.
…
Okay, my specific example of what I remember from the Partridge Family comic totally backs up what Bully was saying…there was a three page story that was laid out like this: page one, with story title something like “Lost at Sea,” and a full page drawing of David Cassidy saying “Boy, that was some adventure I just had, when I was lost at sea!” Page two, an actual attempt of a narrative, with four or six panels showing a boat being tossed about in a storm, along with some narration from David about what a terrible storm it was. Page three, another full page drawing of David, saying something similar to “I sure am glad I was rescued from being lost at sea!” THE END.
- So Anna has unleashed an Amethyst Tumblr, which serves as a nice reminder that this was a solid fantasy comic that deserves more attention than it gets. Though, as Anna mentions, the character is returning in the one Flashpoint event tie-in comic I plan on reading, Secret Seven. (I was planning on skipping Flashpoint altogether, but, you know, George Perez art. We all have our weaknesses.)
- Suddenly…TOPLESS JACK KIRBY.
- Sometimes I forget there was a Pac-Man cartoon. Or I wish I could forget, more accurately.
By the way, if you’re a Pac-Man fan, I’m about to ruin your whole day.
- Oh, hey, Life Magazine did a thing on our book Write More Good.
Life. Oh my goodness.
IT’S ALWAYS TIME TO PROMOTE
FAKESLUGGOBOOK
from Nancy and Sluggo #123 (June 1955)
- Oh, hey, fellow Bureau Chief (and co-writer of Fake AP Stylebook‘s Write More Good
) Josh Krach is writing a new webcomic: Troop Infinity, illustrated by Sheli Hay. Good stuff, and fun for the whole family!
- Bully, the Bull That Is Little And Also He Is Stuffed, has been doing A Kirby A Day this week, and the most recent is a fantastic image from Jack Kirby’s Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles. In a good and just world, that scene would be in the new Captain America movie. Hell, in a good and just world, the entire movie would be based on Bicentennial Battles.
- Pal Dorian unleashes this month’s installment of Previews for Gays.
- The 2011 Eisner Awards are announced…and your pal Mike at Progressive Ruin was shut out yet again. Always a bridesmaid, never a bride.
- Here’s an official announcement of all the hoohar that was going on in Brightest Day #23 that I wasn’t explicitly revealing over the last couple of days, but, um, did anyway. I do apologize if I spoiled it for anyone since, well, like was pointed out, even mentioning my particular interest in it was a spoiler all by itself. Sorry about that, pals.
…even though I hate talking about things that I’ve already read and maybe other people haven’t read — well, not old things that people haven’t read that I have, since the likelihood of any of you out there just randomly having a copy of, say, Star-Studded Comics from the 1940s, and you’re all “oh boy, I can’t wait to read this issue of Star-Studded Comics, but first I shall check the Comics Internet for the latest news and besides, it’s not as if some inconsiderate blogger out there will spoil my forthcoming reading enjoyment,” and suddenly here I am, posting this story, causing you to fall to your knees and cry out “Dipsy Doodle, nooooooooo!!! Why, Mike Sterling, whyyyyyy,” as I laugh maniacally behind my computer — no, I talking about my preference to avoid talking about spoiling current events in comics that have only been out for a day or two, since not every single person on the planet rushes into their comic book store on New Comics Day to grab the new releases, assuming they are going to comic shops and grabbing the new releases, or at least purchasing them through legitimate online outlets, and not just being cheap bastards and torrenting them for free, but regardless of how folks get the new funnybooks, if they’re also the type of people who get their comic news online chances are they’ve already seen press releases about the big news I want to talk about but even if I do discuss it on my site, even behind big SPOILER! warnings there’s always someone who says “whoa, dude, you spoiled it for me” even though as online pal Caleb has pointed out to me, even mentioning the fact that people were emailing me about the latest issue of Brightest Day is kind of spilling the beans in and of itself, and as Caleb says, it’s not like they’re writing to me to say that Sluggo appears in that issue after all, but just the same I’d feel kind of funny just coming right out and discussing it the day after the comic came out even if plenty of people have already put in their two cents and besides I haven’t quite figured out what I want to say about it so instead I thought I’d vamp a bit to give me a little more time to ponder the matter…could you tell?
In short: yes, I’m glad the character is back. I’m also looking forward to his interaction with the rest of the DC Universe, after being away for so long. That should be an interesting novelty in and of itself, and given the nature of this return, it brings sort of an extra bit of meaning to the last sentence of this post of mine from a couple of weeks ago.
Also, I knew I should have been picking up that new Green Arrow series from the beginning. Ah, well…took home ten issues of it last night. Yes, just because of its connection to the returning character. As the saying goes, we’re all fanboys about something.
• • •
In other news that’s
not insane: oh, hey, whose book just got positively reviewed by
The New Yorker?
OH YEAH.
Those of you with long memories or are simply stalking me may remember when I wondered, when it came for this series of Bloom County strips to be reprinted in the current Complete Bloom County hardcovers from IDW, if the original versions of the strips would make the cut, or the edited-to-satisfy-busybodies versions would prevail.
I am pleased to say that the original “Dreck” appears in Volume 4 of the Complete Bloom Country in all its glory:
Unfortunately, there is a minor technical glitch with one of the non-Dreck Sunday strips in the book…which, it turns out, is the strip they used on the back cover. Here is the detail from the panel which omits part of the gag song title “Let’s Roll Over Lionel Ritchie With A Tank” –
When I first saw this, I thought briefly that maybe, just maybe, a lawyer suggested against running that title on the cover, resulting in some…odd editing. But the same glitch appears on the strip inside, and the running-over-Ritchie gag is used again in another strip. So, who knows…just a minor screw-up, it looks like, hopefully fixed in future reprintings. But don’t let that stop you from enjoying this latest volume in this excellent and oh-so-welcome series. And besides, all the
true Bloom County fans pretty much know that Lionel Ritchie gag by heart anyway.
• • •
In other news…yes, I know what happens at the end of this week’s
Brightest Day #23. I’ll talk about it later this week, or maybe early next, after everyone’s had a chance to read it. I should note that sending me links to that one comics news site about it, either via email or through my comments, won’t do much good, since any messages containing links to that site are automatically spam-filtered. I do appreciate that you all thought of me when hearing the news, though, so thank you.
Also, in Write More Good news, here’s what Neil Gaiman had to say about it. And in case you were wondering: Fake AP Stylebook: The True Story. And if that’s not enough: here I am enjoying the fruits of my labor (Twitpic version if you can’t access the Facebook page).
…at least
officially, as we’ve been getting reports of some folks breaking that April 5th street date. But, it is now out, we’ve been getting some very positive advance reviews (some of which are linked
in these posts on the Bureau Chiefs site), and here’s hoping the book does very well.
At the very least, what those of us who wrote Write More Good have in that book is a…well, “testament” sounds too presumptuous, and “souvenir” seems too frivolous, but whatever it is, it’ll remain for us as an example of a bunch of like-minded folks from all across this country, some of us having never even met, coming together and successfully assembling a project, mostly just in whatever free time we happened to have.
Some reviewers, and even Mr. Roger Ebert who noted this in the introduction for our book, commented on the fact that we didn’t just transcribe the Fake AP Stylebook Twitter account that got us this book deal, but actually put the effort into writing a lot of new material. But what amazes me about this is not just that we wrote all that new material, but that we were all as cohesive as we were in maintaining the particular tone of the writing. Also, that our respective senses of humor not only merged together so well, but complemented each other, each of us bringing our specific areas of knowledge and / or obsession into the mix. And having read the book, it certainly doesn’t feel like a mishmash of multiple writers.
Of course, it certainly helped that Ken Lowery and Mark Hale, creators of Fake AP Stylebook and editors of Write More Good, worked as hard as they did taking everyone’s contributions and assembling them together into the final product. For that, and for even inviting me into this project in the first place, I thank them.
I hope I’m not sounding like I’m patting my own back or anything here…I truly am astounded that something that just started as a goof among online friends amusing each other has resulted in an honest-to-Gutenberg actual print book that one can go into a real bookstore and purchase with authentic coin of the realm. Or, alternatively, buy a real book online (or a virtual book for your Kindle):
So there we go.
Write More Good is now officially out in the wild, and let’s see how it goes. If you’re going to buy the book,
now would be the time, to get us pushed up those Amazon charts, and maybe, just
maybe, onto a bestseller list or two. …LET THE BOY DREAM.
Thanks for putting up with yet another plugfest for this book. I promise to keep Write More Good discussion to brief links from here on out, should I feel the need to mention it again. Or at least until the one-star Amazon reviews start rolling in, because I’m sure those are going to be amazing.
I’m mostly just pointing out this comic, G.I. Combat #211 (January 1979):
…because of the most excellent cover blurb:
Oooh yeah. That’s not something you’d see on today’s comics (with the possible exception of
El Gorgo).
Of course, that’s “lusty” in the general sense of “characterized by healthy vigor” as opposed to “bow chicka wow wow,” despite all appearances of the “A Luger for Lisa” story advertised on the back cover:
NOTE: At no time in the actual story does Lisa tool around in a bikini top. She does, however, pack some heat.
I suppose the other stories are plenty lusty and gutsy, though having three Haunted Tank stories in one issue really was kind of pushing it, even if one of them is titled “A Nice Day for Killing,” which sounds nicely men’s true adventure magazine-ish.
The best story is “The Steel Storm-Troopers” (or “The Steel Stormtrooper,” as the cover would have it), where American troops fight Nazi robot soldiers, and we get some swell panels like this, approved by the Comics Code because, hey, it’s just a robot:
Oh, lusty, gutsy comics. Nowadays we’ve got talky, paddy comics, and pretty sure we’re not better for it.
• • •
Speaking of lusty gutsy books, the
Fake AP Stylebook book
Write More Good by me and
a few people who aren’t me is coming out tomorrow…
tomorrow!
Here’s a sample chapter, and immediately below are the Amazon links (print on left, Kindle on right):
I know I’ve been mentioning the book a lot, and I’ll probably mention it again tomorrow on the actual release day because, hey, I’m pretty excited about it. Thanks for putting up with me in the meantime, folks.
covers by Joe Kubert, interior panel by George Kashdan and Fred Carrillo
So I just got in from one of our store’s semi-occasional Midnight Madness sales, where
pal Andres helped out through the entire evening, and
Awesome Hospital‘s
Matt Digges brought me a case of Diet Coke as tribute, and also it was Employee Aaron’s fiancée Kempo’s birthday, and anyway, I’m tired, so all you’re getting today is that
Questprobe computer game screenshot above, apparently from
Hulk’s Bondage & Domination Adventure. Thanks
indeed,Joe ‘n’ Jim!
Oh, also, I helped Moment of [Alan] Moore again, so enjoy.
Plus, pals Dorian and Ken have once again produced their monthly movie trailer reviews…only this time enlisting the Bureau Chiefs, including myself, to contribute their own reviews. I’m a terrible reviewer, but I did my best. Also, we have a book coming out this Tuesday, perhaps you’ve heard.
Okay, that’s enough…I gotta be back at work in about ten hours, so I’m getting some shut-eye. See you folks tomorrow!
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