Huh, hadn’t heard about this: the fan film Losing Lois Lane – a depressed Superman crashes with Jimmy Olsen and begins to overstay his welcome. The opening credits alone challenge the very meaning of “fair use.”
The official site for the folks behind the film can be found here.
Logan at House of the Ded is giving away a run of Marvel’s recent Loki mini-series…go here for details.
I remember when I first heard about the Loki mini-series, mostly through Marvel’s slightly excessive hype machine,* I figured we were looking at yet another unnecessary spinoff of a Marvel property that currently isn’t really doing all that well to begin with. Well, surprise surprise, it actually turned out to be pretty good, nicely painted, and it sold well to boot.
I’m still kinda pleased with my interpretation of the ending of the series, if I may break my arm patting myself on the back for a moment.
(Kid Chris and I are processing some back issues at the shop on Sunday. Chris pulls up a copy of a Marvel MAX book….)
Kid Chris: “Hey, this cover makes it look kind of like a Vertigo comic!”
Me: “Yeah, well, one of Marvel’s primary marketing strategies is ‘consumer confusion.'”
Kid Chris: “Oh, you mean like Marvel publishing Identity Disc at the same time as DC’s Identity Crisis?”
Me: “Sorta like that, yeah.”
My favorite example of that particular strategy is this comic, which I’m sure wasn’t inspired at all by this one.
Found via Memepool – a list of 100 Bad Mother F’ers, currently in progress. Pointed out here due to the number of comic-book related entries…though the very first entry, the non-comic related #100, is my absolute favorite so far.
1. This new case picked up by the CBLDF (Tom Spurgeon gives us the coverage overview) hopefully will be seen as the one-time oversight that it certainly is (and accidents do happen) and not as part of a pattern of distributing naughty books to kids. We try to be really careful about this at our own store, erring on the side of caution, insisting parents look through certain comics before buying them for their children. That said, I’m still glad we have several lawyers and a D.A. as customers!
2. The real name of The Simpsons‘ Comic Book Guy is revealed here…and it’s not Louis Lane. Rats.
3. I don’t have a silly comics overview today, but Chaosmonkey does. The 1987 Fantastic Four Vs. The X-Men mini-series, given the treatment it most likely deserves…go check it out!
4. Your “ganked from Boing Boing” link of the day: “Superhero thugs captured on CCTV.”
I think this was the only time the pronunciation of Constantine’s name was addressed in the comics…pal Cully mentioned to me on Sunday that he thought he came across a similar scene in Hellblazer, but I haven’t yet tracked it down.
Don’t worry, I’m not going to turn into “that guy” (“They said his name wrong! This film is a debacle, a debacle!”), and for all I know Veitch was the one guy at DC who thought John’s name should be said this way, but I just thought I’d point it out. It amused me, anyway.
That Comic Reader cover I posted yesterday wasn’t what I was planning on posting. I had scanned a page out of an old British Marvel hardcover annual a couple weeks back, and now I can’t find the scan. And I can’t rescan the page, because I’ve since sold the book on the eBay, and it’s currently winging its way to the wild jungles of Canada. Well, rats.
Here’s a conversation I have entirely too often at the shop:
Customer: “Hey, I have a Spawn #1. What do you sell it for?” (i.e. tell me how much my copy is worth so I don’t have to buy a price guide to find out)
Me: “Well, I have a copy here in near mint for $15.00.”
Customer: “That’s it? When did the price drop?”
Me: “Well, I think we had copies at $18.00 for a brief period of time a while back, but for the most part it’s been around $15.00.”*
The customer will then proceed to tell me that he either thought it was worth a lot more or that he paid much more for a copy. It seems to be a common perception that Spawn #1 has to be a valuable comic, since it’s a #1 (and we all know #1s always go up in value, he said sarcastically), it’s an early Image comic, it’s a comic with some visibility in the general public (thanks to the movie, cartoons, toys, etc.), and it’s by Todd McFarlane (a distant second to Stan Lee in the realm of “comic creators non-comic fans may actually have heard of”).
And though Spawn new issue sales are only a fraction of what they were (at least at our shop), back issue sales are still fairly brisk. Spawn #1 itself is not rare by any means, but it still has enough demand to keep its price range at that level. In fact, around here the only “rare” issues are the ones in the 40 to 70 range.
We’ve sort of been through the “I can’t believe it’s that cheap” thing before, with Superman #75 (the black-bagged “Death of Superman” issue). I can sort of see why people would be surprised at the pricing of this item (coincidentally, also between $15 and $18…at least until a recent slight jump in price), given that at the time of its release there was a lot of “panic” pricing. The most extreme price I heard was $200(!), and I’m sure there were even more outrageous examples than that. I’ve shocked plenty of people when I told them that we never sold it for more than $18 at our shop…and that wasn’t until years after its release.
Did someone say Wildcat? Yes indeedy, someone‘s favorite superhero turned up on Justice League Unlimited last night for a surprisingly brutal half-hour. Then again, the episode was focused around an underground fighting arena, so the violence should be expected, but it was still tough going. TV Tome, as usual, has a fairly comprehensive overview of the episode.
Ever make a post on your weblog just so that your next graphics-intensive post will push the previous graphics-intensive post off the main page, since you’ve already used about 1/5 of your free bandwidth allotment for the month and it’s only the 4th?
Yeah, me neither.
Well, since pal Dorian outed me as a Star Trek fan, I thought I’d say a word or two about the demise of Enterprise, and the possible demise of Trek in its entirety. (With no mention of comic books…sorry about that!)
Now, do I think Trek is gone for good? No, of course not. Paramount has made a lot of money on the franchise over the years, but with diminishing returns and an inability to attract any kind of sizable new audience, I’m not going to hold my breath for any more TV series or movies for the foreseeable future. We’ll probably see the book lines continue, and I’m sure we’ll still see other merchandise, but it will all be bought by the same folks who’ve always bought Trek stuff. (Warren Ellis said it best, in an essay I can’t seem to find online anymore, but Neilalien thankfully quoted from.)
Dorian once said about a particular musician (I’m not going to say who…I don’t need to start that here) that you can tell the end is near for his career, as instead of producing new material, all that’s been happening is that his older material is being continually repackaged in more and more gimmicky fashions. This isn’t designed to grab new fans, it’s simply there to get more money out of the old fans this musician has left. I’m talking about things like “collectors box sets” of CD-singles, designed to look like 45s, complete with individual sleeves. It’s material the fans already have, but they don’t have it in this format, so they gotta get it!
The Trek books are kind of like that. The books are either part of a series (Worlds of Deep Space Nine Part 3, Starfleet Corps of Engineers) or they’re “written” by William Shatner. The books can’t stand on their own…they need to be shored up by some kind of gimmick. Enterprise, too, is playing solely to the fans, giving backstories to various elements of the Trek universe. The series was at its best when it left behind all the continuity-laden baggage and entered a year-long storyline away from familiar space for its third season (though Mr. Ellis again has thoughts worth considering on this very turn of events). However, with the end of that story, we’re back with stories about Vulcan civil wars, or Eugenics Wars, or Next Generation‘s Data’s grandpappy, or (forthcoming) an explanation of why “modern” Klingons have head-ridges and why “classic” Klingons didn’t…it’s all about why things are the way they are in other Trek stories. Using past continuity as a springboard for stories is one thing…Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan is probably the best example…but devoting your stories to minutiae that only your hardcore fans care about gives the appearance of insularity. It repels new viewers.
I’m not saying I haven’t enjoyed Enterprise. I’m a lifelong Trek fan, so the series is very clearly aimed at me, and I think the series has shown a marked improvement over the last couple years, even despite my criticisms. (I’m probably also the one person on the planet who didn’t completely hate the theme song.) But, I believe, it’s about time to give it a rest. Like Ellis has said, and like Dorian has also noted, there just isn’t enough fan support for a Trek show any more. I would rather see Paramount pull the plug for the time being, rather than just put less and less money into a TV show they’re only keeping on the air for the few fans left who are watching it.
I’m sure we’ll see it back in live action sooner or later, hopefully with different people in charge so we can get a fresh take instead of yet another variation on the original ’60s series. A take that, hopefully, can grab new viewers instead of just catering to those of us who have watched Star Trek for so long. I like Trek…I want it to continue, but I realize that it won’t be able to without reaching out to people who otherwise wouldn’t watch the show.
(As an aside…please don’t protest the series’ cancellation at anybody’s offices…that’s just embarrassing.)
1. I’ve mentioned before that it seems like someone on the internet rediscovers Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane #106 (“I Am Curious (Black)”) every few months, and holds the comic up for discussion, or at least ridicule. However, there’s life in the old girl yet, as Scott from Polite Dissent gives it a go from his unique medical perspective. Well played, sir, well played.
2. Thor, Thor, Thor, Thor, Thor, and Thor. (Okay, that last one has nothing to do with the Marvel Comics Thor, but it still rules.)
