New comics day
Aquaman #39:
Pal Corey: “So does Aquaman still have his hand made from magical water?”
Me: “Yes, as far as I know…it looks like he’s just wearing his glove over the hand in this new issue.”
C: “They never did fully use Aquaman’s water hand.”
Me: “‘Hey! I’m my own bidet!‘”
ABC A-Z Terra Obscura & Splash Brannigan – This is probably more what people were expecting when this project was first announced…images of characters with accompanying text pieces, like Marvel Universe or DC’s Who’s Who. However, it wouldn’t be an Alan Moore-related project without some kind of production error, and there appears to be one in this comic as well. If you look at the left side of the centerspread, you’ll notice a big empty white space right above two character images…a space where two short text pieces were probably supposed to go. Oops. Otherwise, I quite enjoyed this particular comic…but then, I was one of the dozen people that apparently really liked the Terra Obscura series, so your own mileage may vary.
Buffy Magazine#23: “In this issue, we catch up with [any given actor/actress from Buffy or Angel] and ask [him/her] what’s been going on since leaving the series.”
Actor/actress: “Well, I’m doing okay…I just wish I wouldn’t keep getting bothered every few months about doing interviews with fan magazines based around a property I haven’t been involved with for three years now.”
Why Mike and pal Dorian are stupid, Chapter One:
Introduction – media magazines like those for Lost, Battlestar Galactica, Buffy, and so on, come published with two covers. One is intended for newsstands, and the other is a “Previews Exclusive” edition, with a different cover, that is sold only through specialty shops. In the past, we’ve ordered equal numbers on both covers for our store, and sometimes one cover variant of a magazine will be shorted, leaving us to wonder which cover it is we actually received. It’s not indicated in the magazine itself, the solicitation information, or on the invoice. There was absolutely no way to tell…until realization finally dawned today after calling in several shortages of this type to Diamond, and I afterward had this exchange to Dorian, who was there to get his funnybook fix:
M: “Hey, you know how we used to have trouble telling the Previews Exclusive cover from the regular cover?”
D: “Right.”
M: “Well, we were shorted on one of the covers for both Lost and Buffy, but looking at the Battlestar Galactica magazines we got, it suddenly dawned on me that the newsstand cover is probably the one…with the UPC CODE. The Previews cover has none…at least, that’s what the situation appears to be with the Galactica mags.”
D: (slaps head) “And it took us how many years to figure this out?”
Don’t let Mike talk to the customers:
Customer: “Hey, is this series any good? It’s written by Jeph Loeb.”*
M: “Well, I haven’t read that particular comic, but the man did bring us Teen Wolf.”
Customer: [purchases comic]
(Okay, maybe I should be allowed to talk to the customers….)
