"I don’t like DC’s heroes. They’re all too goody-goody."
- So anyway, I had every intention of putting together another list of a hundred items that I love about comic books, like I’ve done for the last three Valentine’s Days. But, alas, time got away from me, and it just wasn’t going to happen this year. Sorry, gang. I am pleased to note that Bill at Trusty Plinko Stick picked up the slack and continued the tradition, so everyone please go to his site and appreciate his efforts.
Reader Julius responded to my gag about just listing “All Star Batman” for each of the hundred entries by suggesting I do “100 Things I Love about All Star Batman.”
Hmmmm…I bet I can do it. Watch this space, and I’ll see what I can do. (Because if not me, then who? Who?)
- At the store:
Me: “Now remember, Employee Aaron, when it comes to alphabetizing comics, it’s always Darkness before the Dawn.”
Aaron: “I quit. Again.”
- Did anyone else watch Shoot ‘Em Up and think “this is what a good Punisher movie would be like.” You know, if they allowed something like a Punisher movie to have any “life” or “energy” or “style.” Maybe someday they’ll go back and digitally add a white skull to Clive Owen’s shirt and make it into a Punisher movie retroactively.
This movie kicks ass, by the way. I was talking to someone about it the other day and mentioned the opening “childbirth/shoot-out” scene, and realized that pretty much every scene in the film can be described as a “[something]/shoot-out” scene.
- Terrific Tim O’Neil let me know that not only is there a “How This Works” article on Superman Vs. Jedi (as you all first saw here, and recently popped up again here), but he also let me know that How Stuff Works link made the front news page of Yahoo. It’s gone too far, too far. (EDIT: I just rewrote this section so that it now makes some kind of sense. Don’t write your blogs when you’re half-asleep, kids!)
- Following up on his post about the Blackhawks’ Chop Chop, comes…another post on Chop Chop, this time featuring a post-Chaykin Blackhawks’ version of the character reacting to his own racist caricature in a Blackhawk comic book.
- Alan Doane is conducting a poll on comics retailing, and is gathering responses through Sunday, February 17th, at midnight. Prizes to be won! And when you tell him about having to deal with me at the shop while I’m drunk, remember that I’m lovably drunk like Arthur. And you might not want to mention “Pantsless Thursdays.”
- Things that sadden me: that there’s a “bloody” variant of the new X-Force #1’s cover, featuring blood and chunky stuff all over costumes, claws, other pointy bits, etc. Hmm. They’ll be doing this for issue #2 as well.
It’s selling okay, though…once people are reassured that there’s no Rob Liefeld involvement, they’re willing to give it a try.
- Many years ago, in my pre-comics retail days, I had a subscription to a mailed newsletter from another store (now long since defunct). In the newsletter was a section marked “BEST INVESTMENTS,” that would usually list a bunch of #1s, and books by people who just happened to have been at that shop for a signing recently.
In this particular example of the newsletter I’m looking at, it has the list of suggested titles (including Nathaniel Dusk #1, Hercules #1, Amazing Spider-Man #250, and so on), but also includes this follow-up paragraph:
“Most number ones will go up in value. Also there are some titles that are more than doubling their cover price value. These titles you can buy that shoot up in worth are: Thor, X-Men, Alpha Flight, Fantastic Four, Teen Titans, Legion of Super-Heroes, Camelot 3000. If you have any questions or need advice to buy comics as an investment, just ask us. After all, it’s our business.”
Oh good gravy, talk about things I would never ever ever do at our store. I’ve noted my reasons why on the site several times in the past — primarily, so that a customer who invested in a comic I suggested and eventually goes nowhere doesn’t come back to the shop and stab me to death with a backing board folded into a knife. Even if some of the comics do go up in value (generally not by much, for the most part), that just seems like a bad behavior to encourage in your customer base. (See also the ’90s market crash.)
By the way, this shop was also the one where I overheard this conversation between a couple of other customers looking at a poster of DC Comics superheroes:
Customer #1: “I don’t like DC’s heroes. They’re all too goody-goody.”
Customer #2: “Yeah, they’re not serious and cool like Marvel’s.”
Oh, fans.
