New comics day shenanigans.
This was my first new comics day in quite a while without pal Dorian helping out, which means I was a little more swamped than usual. The new guys (Pope Nathan, and Nicknameless Aaron) are working out fine, but they don’t know the ins-‘n’-outs of new funnybook day yet, so on top of the duties I had, I also had to cover some of the responsibilities Dor used to have as well. One of those things Dor did was rearrange the new comics racks to accommodate the new arrivals…that’s something I used to do before Dor worked here, but apparently I’m a bit out of practice. It didn’t seem like it was this difficult before!
Holy crud, I had too many books come in that I wanted to buy:
1. Simpsons Comic Book Guy’s Book of Pop Culture – As a funnybook seller, I have a special affinity for the Comic Book Guy character. I would say “there but for the grace of God go I,” but I’m not out of the woods yet. This book, including articles on running a comic book store, and a day in the life of Comic Book Guy, would appear to make big chunks of my site here redundant. At the very least, I need to put off reading it at least until I finish my next article for Comic Book Galaxy (which shares initials with Comic Book Guy…coincidence?).
2. Showcase Presents Jonah Hex – Ah, finally. I’ve been pushing for a reprint of Jonah Hex comics for a while now (under Jan. 11), so I’m glad we finally got ’em. It looks great in black and white, as I thought it would. On a related note, we can’t keep the Metamorpho and Superman Showcase books in stock. Green Lantern just kind of sits there, though…which is a shame, since the Gil Kane art looks great in B&W.
3. Complete Peanuts Vol. 4 – I don’t know what to say about this book that I haven’t said already. It looks spectacular, it’s a classic strip at the peak of its form…if you don’t love this comic, you’re dead to me, dead, I say.
4. Invincible Vol. 5: Facts of Life – Just plain ol’ superhero fun. It’s the extra sketchbook pages that keep me buying this series as trades instead of single issues…and the comic is more satisfying in larger chunks, anyway.
Other new comics day notes:
The first customer of the day asked me why Powers #14 had a $3.95 cover price, since it didn’t seem any thicker than normal. I had no idea, and wasn’t expecting a price increase…and it was invoiced at $2.95. I called Diamond to confirm (just to make sure we wouldn’t get a note next week saying “hey, you know those Powers comics you were selling at $2.95? They actually were supposed to be $3.95, so we’re charging you the extra amount this week. Hope you didn’t sell too many at the wrong price!”), and yes, it was a typo on the cover. I wonder how many copies were sold nationwide at the $3.95 price?
Another surprise was getting a second helping of Seven Soldiers: Klarion #4, which we already received previously. According to our distributor rep, these are replacement copies for the previous issues which were misprinted. A side-by-side comparison shows no obvious printing errors, beyond the colors in the newer books being slightly richer. Was it just the coloring? The rep didn’t know, and I didn’t catch anything on the comics news sites about it (not that I look at them much, anyway). Any of you folks know?
And hey, while that Marvel Team-Up #14, teaming corporate movie/toy tie-in Spider-Man with the creator-owned Invincible was kinda neat, I don’t imagine Invincible’s creators are going to be too happy with the fact that the copyright information says nothing about Invincible not being a Marvel character. Maybe there’s a gentleman’s agreement behind the scenes regarding this, but the indicia does clearly state “all characters featured in this issue and the distinctive names and likenesses thereof…are trademarks of Marvel Characters, Inc.” Maybe we can look forward to “Stan Lee Presents Invincible #1″ soon. Or maybe they’ll just rename Gravity. (Oh, relax…that was just a joke there, Sparky.)
Seven Soldiers: Bulleteer #1 – People complain about apparent sexism in comic. Fans of comic defend against allegations, stating writer knows what he is doing regarding point he’s making. Original complainers state that fans of writer are groupthinkers, blindly defending everything he writes. Fans of writer call complainers chowderheads. And so on.
Liberality for All #1 – I don’t know what to say about this comic that this synopsis doesn’t already cover. It’s almost like poetry. (Hey, Dad, if you’re reading this…click that link. You’d probably get a kick out of it.)
House of M #8 – So was that an intentional slam against DC’s Identity/Infinite Crisis in there, or am I reading too much into it? (The bit about magic not being able to remove a memory.)
Donald Duck & Uncle Scrooge: Somewhere in Nowhere – There’s a piece of personal correspondence in here from Carl Barks, shortly before his passing, and it’s just sad to read. He still seemed mostly on the ball, with some thoughts about the internet’s impact on comics, but his note that he wasn’t interested in studying another cartoonist’s work because he doesn’t draw anymore…well, that depressed me. I realize that at nearly a century old, he probably had his fill of drawing, but still, sad. He didn’t care for Pokemon, either, apparently.
