My Civil War day:
1. Distributed the few copies we had of Civil War #6 to customers with comic saver boxes at the shop that I expected to pick up their stuff within the next day or so.
2. Posted a sign by the new Civil War: Frontline #10 stating that shipments of CW #6 had been severely shorted to all retailers on the west coast, and that we no longer had any copies for sale.
3. Proceeded to answer questions about why Civil War was shorted, prompting a reworking of my sign for Friday.
4. Answered lots of phone calls from people asking if we received the new issue of Civil War.
5. Also took yet another call from the kid who keeps asking us what Alex Ross Justice action figures we have in stock, which has nothing to do with Civil War, but I swear he calls about every four days and asks for the same thing every time.
I did flip through the new issue of Civil War, and, if I can say something about it without being too much of a spoiler-pants: the Punisher’s characterization in this series, particularly in the new issue, reminds me a bit of how Bill Mantlo used to write him in the early ’80s. You know, that stuff they had to explain away later in the Steven Grant/Mike Zeck mini as being caused (if I’m remembering correctly) by drugs slipped to the Punisher by his enemies. I’m too used to reading Garth Ennis’ darkly calculating, brutal, “unstoppable engine of destruction” Punisher, I guess, since the Dumbass Punisher most everyone else writes always catches me by surprise. Not saying “crazy, unthinking Punisher” isn’t a valid interpretation of the character, mind you.
For more Civil War talk, particularly about what’s been done to a certain character in this event, pal Dorian has SPOILERS AHOY for you interested parties.
A couple other new comics day things:
Now that the DC Comics we left-coasters were supposed to get last week finally arrived, I was able to check out Justice League of America #5 for myself and see what I assumed was going to be a Swamp Thing reference and/or appearance, judging by this comment Michael left. It turned out to be just a dialogue reference, but hey, that’s good enough for me.
The new Comics Journal (#280) not only has a lengthy Frank Thorne interview and an interview with Finder‘s Carla Speed McNeil, but forty full-color pages of reprints from the legendary Crime Does Not Pay. That’s gotta be worth spending your hard-earned dough on.
Because of the DC delays, we ended up getting four Superman books this week: Superman itself (#658), a darn fine read in writer Kurt Busiek’s hands; Superman/Batman #31, an unusually coherent installment of this series, featuring the return of the last character you’d expect; Superman Confidential #3, which I skipped reading since the initial installment didn’t grab me; and the wondrous All Star Superman #6, about as flawless of a comic book as can be managed…and Krypto the Superdog is in it, too, for that extra touch of quality.
Customer Gary let me know that he’s interviewed writer Brian K. Vaughn twice on his radio show, once in March and again in November, so follow those links and listen to the podcasts, why don’t you?
