“As long as there are art school drop-outs, there will always be indie comics.”
–Kid Chris
Look, don’t blame me, Kid Chris said it. He’s about to leave employment here at the shop and go off for some higher education (or go to UCLA, one of the two) and he’s getting a little punchy, it seems. Actually, I forget what caused him to say that…I think it was pal Dorian and I talking about some really terrible-looking comic forthcoming from a prominent independent publisher that gave us both the “they gotta be freakin’ kidding me” reaction when we saw it in a catalog.
And don’t give me any grief. We’ve always, always supported indie comics at our shop. As an actual more-or-less full line comics store, that means we order from more than just the front of the Previews, and we’ve always done quite well with the non-Marvel ‘n’ DC material. So there.
Anyway, just some random thoughts as we were breaking down the comic order Wednesday morning:
– that doesn’t look like someone’s name on the G.I. Joe America’s Elite autographed incentive comic, so much as someone was testing to see if his pen worked by scribbling it on the nearest magazine.
– you know, Daredevil: Father #2 is probably funnier than Wha Huh.
– the only really cool figure from the Superman/Batman Public Enemies action figure set is Metallo, who has a removable Kryptonite heart, for heaven’s sake. The other figures all look like they have pulled muscles all over their bodies.
– Dorian’s gonna give me grief over reading this, but Hector Hammond pops up in the new Green Lantern, and, well, you know how Hammond looked just kind of silly and non-menacing with his big ol’ head and atrophied body sitting in that chair? Well, artist Ethan Van Sciver makes Hammond almost too creepy to stand, and probably just as creepy as something like Hammond would be in real life. Honestly, you gotta see it. And another revamped GL villain shows up, and he’s even more terrifying and grotesque.
– I’ve been resisting purchasing Chester Brown’s Ed the Happy Clown reissue, since I already have the comics in two formats as it is. However, the extra extensive footnotes Brown is providing to this new printing are a temptation, and the eventual collection may be a must-buy.
– Wizard gave me a reason to crack it open, what with the 8-page preview of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s All Star Superman. Looks fan-tastic. If you don’t like this, there is no love in your heart, you beast, you.
In other news, Comic Book Galaxy is celebrating its fifth anniversary today. Congrats to Alan David Doane and his gang of reprobates and ne’er-do-wells (which, of course, includes myself) for still keeping at it after all this time, even with the occasional mob of angry villagers with rakes and torches surrounding the CBG compound.
And because of this post of mine, I’ve had the gosh-dang theme to Hong Kong Phooey stuck in my head for two days! AAAAARGH!
