Tired blogging.
UPS showed up at the store on Wednesday, with our shipment of the new comics, at 3:30 in the afternoon. Needless to say, that was one crappy Wednesday. I still haven’t pulled for the comic savers yet, so I have that still waiting for me.
And there’s a Tomb of Dracula statue that’s gone AWOL, floating around somewhere in the UPS warehouse’s tender mercies, and hopefully that will show up today.
So I’m pooped. Pooped like a really poopy thing. Let me just mention an item or three I picked up this week:
- The Incredible Hulk – The Complete Collection DVD – Okay, not a “new this week” item, but somehow it slipped past me in the original solicitation, and I just happened upon in while doing reorders. Sure, I’ve been reading the Hulk comics for about 25 years now, but there are 20 previous years that I don’t have in the vast Mikester Comic Archives and couldn’t resist getting ’em all in a relatively cheap and compact format. Stats: Every issue up to Dec. 2006, including annuals and the Tales to Astonish stuff. They’re all scanned to good-sized PDF files, and while I’m not 100% thrilled with reading comics on a computer screen, I’ll deal. Particularly if gets me out of having to buy those way too expensive issues with the first appearance of Wolverine.
- Mantlo: A Life in Comics – a dense, inexpensive (only $7.50) magazine-format tribute to the work of comic writer Bill Mantlo, who, fifteen years ago, was seriously injured in an accident and left an invalid in need of constant care. All proceeds from the book go directly to Bill’s care, and if your store doesn’t have a copy, you can buy one here.
Now I know Mr. Mantlo’s writing is, shall we say, not as polished and celebrated as other more famous comic writers. Sometimes it was a little clunky, the dialogue sometimes improbable, and he wasn’t exactly subtle…but some of his comics still stick with me, still resonate with me, decades after I originally read them. They were fun, they were weird, they were outright goofy…I have a great fondness for a lot of his work. His Rom comic took a toy license and actually did something worthwhile and entertaining with it. His Alpha Flight was bizarre and creepy, particularly when he was paired with Hellboy‘s Mike Mignola. And his Hulk run was especially imaginative and compelling during its last couple of years. A lot of the stuff people seem to associate with Peter David’s run on the Hulk had its origins in Mantlo’s work.
And for God’s sake, the man gave us Rocket Raccoon. He’s achieved immortality simply for that.
I’ve only barely started going through the book, but there appears to be plenty of good readin’ ahead. Pick up a copy…it’s cheap, and the money goes to a good cause.
- Schulz’s Youth, a collection of Charles M. Schulz’s comic strips about teenagers, is finally out this week, and makes a good companion to your Complete Peanuts hardcover volumes. In fact, I daresay your Complete Peanuts collection is incomplete without it. See Big Nat G for more details. Available in hardcover and softcover formats.
And now for no good reason, another random sketch of mine:
SWAMP KEENE
Yeah, I don’t know either.
