§ February 4th, 2008§ Filed under all star batman, death of cap, racial sensitivity, retailingComments Off on More racial sensitivity in comic books, selling out, shameless shilling, on becoming a tool for big media, and the menace of Arcane’s hair.
From Detective Comics #355 (Sept. 1966):
Man, our Native American friends are always getting it in the shorts thanks to our old funnybooks. I’d like to think that, maybe, the comic is commenting on the short-sighted, stereotyping attitudes of some of the wrestling match’s audience members, but since the story also gives the Arizona Apache an “AIEEEEE” battle cry, well….
On the other hand, maybe it’s a subtle criticism of the usage of stereotypes within, not just the world of pro wrestling, but entertainment in general, which is a layer of metatext too great for some dumb mid-’60s Batman comic (which clearly just used these clichés to sell the character’s Indian-ness) to support without collapsing into a black hole of overanalysis.
Didn’t stop me from trying, though, did it? Sigh…such is the burden of the comics blogger.
In other news:
I mentioned it here, and I gotta tell you, after the weekend, we’re down to one copy of Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters. Okay, we didn’t start with too many to begin with, but that we still managed to move copies of this book is just mildly stunning.
Also following up on that Wednesday post of mine, we sold through all our Captain America #34s, but solely to our regular comic buyers. In our area, at least, all that real world coverage just preached to the converted, if it influenced them at all. So it did sell a little better than normal, just not “crazy better” like the “death” issue did. So, basically, it sold like we thought it would.
I’ve noticed that some of the real world coverage is still rolling out, here and there, so I suppose there’s still the possibility of a new customer or two curious enough about this here new Cap fella to make it to the shop and inquire after copies. ‘Course, they’ll have to wait until the “variant cover” 2nd printing, or the dreaded “Director’s Cut,” if they’re still interested.
With that Project Superpowers #0 priced at a buck, people are a little more willing to buy two copies in order to get both halves of that Alex Ross connecting cover (pictured at the top left right here. It would have been nice to have one wraparound cover instead, however.
If I may direct your attention to the sidebar for a little shameless shilling, I’d like to point out that due this week is the animated Turok Son of Stone DVD…I’ve only seen this trailer, which makes it look like it’s sticking, more or less, with the original concept of the character, and none of the sci-fi “dinos with guns” trappings tacked on later. Well, maybe with a lot more blood, but close enough. No idea if it’s any good, but thought some of you would like to know that it’ll be unleashed this Tuesday.
Also, I missed that the new Ms. Tree novel Deadly Beloved and the latest Wild Cards novel Inside Straight have been released. So, I thought I’d pass that info along (as well as Amazon store sidebar links, nudge wink) in case any of you missed that, too.
So at the store, we regularly get free merchadise bags from a promotional company that produces said bags advertising various movies and TV shows. We’ve had Torchwood bags, and South Park bags, and, currently, we have a bunch of bags advertising the Terminator TV show. The box they came in was getting a little ratty, so I decided to move our stock of these things into a new container…and in the process, I found this little doodad, packed in among the plastic sacks:
It was a little Terminator flashlight keychain, which I thought was kind of a neat thing, so I threw it in my pocket and continued the repacking of the bags.
When I got home later that evening, the porch of my house was pretty dark, and I remembered that I had the flashlight on my person. Instead of briefly fumbling with the keys, trying to get the right one into the keyhole, I thought I’d save myself that one whole extra second and shed a little light on the matter. And I was surprised to see this:
I though it was just a plain ol’ flashlight, but it instead projects an ad for the show. That pic’s a little blurry, but you can see the Terminator skull and the logo. Cool!
I know, it doesn’t take much to amuse me. Also, it hasn’t inspired me to start watching the show, so I guess as a TV show promoter, it makes a good dark porch illuminator.
For those of you that were wondering, and I bet you were…my copy of the Swamp Thing TV show DVD set came in the mail a couple days ago, containing two full seasons of wonder and beauty. Well, okay, actually it just contains the Swamp Thing TV show. There are a couple special features, interviews with the character’s co-creator Len Wein, and with the actor under the rubber swamp outfit, Dick Durock.
I only just started watching the episodes themselves, and I’d forgotten just how…metallic and gravelly, if you get my meaning, Swamp Thing’s voice sounded on this show. Also, I have lots and lots of footage of Arcane’s Dennis Miller-esque hairdo to look forward to.
I hadn’t seen the show in years, and for some reason, my brief exposures to the show left me with the impression that there were lots of shots of Swampy standing in bushes, behind walls, etc., all to save the cost of having to get poor Mr. Durock in the full get-up. I guess I’ll be seeing if that impression was true.
And remember, kids…do not bring your evil here, or face…
§ February 3rd, 2008§ Filed under UncategorizedComments Off on "Pointy, fleshy Bat-ears."
The “ape” half of DC Comics’ Angel and the Ape, Sam Simeon, was a cartoonist when he wasn’t helping Angel in her detective work. As a filler page in issue #6 of their series (Sept/Oct 1969), an alleged sample of Simeon’s work was presented:
Reminds me a little of this issue of Batman (#294, Dec. 1977):
But Sam’s version has the little pointy, fleshy Bat-ears, which makes me a tad queasy, frankly.
The logo for Sam’s cartoon is also oddly disturbing:
Giant hairy letters with paws moving of their own accord. Please enjoy this nightmare fuel.
Special programming note: Dafna and Kid Chris have a new Bispectacult comics podcast up for your enjoyment. It’s an hour’s worth of silliness, and it’s free! Free Tell them Mike sent you.
§ February 2nd, 2008§ Filed under UncategorizedComments Off on So I am to understand that a person by the name of Sluggo may have been here at some point in the recent past?
from Four Color #1034 (Sept-Nov 1959)
1. If you’re gonna name your cabinet the “Cooky Cabinet,” you’re just asking for trouble. Okay, even if your name’s “Cooky” because you’re, you know, the cook, any kid poking around in the camp kitchen is gonna see that and go lookin’ for cookies.
1a. Then again, the “Cooky Cabinet” could mean that, within its confines, things are completely kooky and wacky and crazy. I mean, don’t you wish you had a Cooky Cabinet like that in your house, that you could reach into at any time when the situation demands it?
2. I don’t even want to know how Sluggo was distracting Camp Director Mr. Simply so that he could write “Sluggo Was Here” across Simply’s knees.
3. Speaking of those knees, let us consider this image:
Either Sluggo’s lettering is defying physics, or Sluggo used his expert lettering technique to create foreshortened and otherwise distorted writing to make the lettering appear as normal from this angle, even as it goes around the natural curves of the legs. Like, if you were to look at, say, that “G” from the side, it would look all stretched out, but from where we readers are looking, it looks like a standard “G.”
Or maybe Mr. Simply’s flabby leg-flesh just slammed together into a flat and clammy wall upon which Sluggo could make his mark.
Or maybe, while Mr. Simply was distracted, Sluggo wrapped Simply’s knees in cellophane, and….
§ February 1st, 2008§ Filed under UncategorizedComments Off on "You sure that’s not Wonder Woman?" "No, no…I’m pretty sure that’s Batman."
Here’s something I should have mentioned in yesterday’s “End of Civilization” post:
“I Think It’s Batman” strikes me as bit of an odd name for this shirt, if the one they’re offering is in fact the image shown there. Well, it’s a guy dressed as Batman, behind a giant logo that reads “Batman” — I’m reasonably certain that is, indeed, Batman. Unless it’s some guy other than Bruce Wayne just dressed up as Batman, which would be a weird thing to put on a shirt.
Also, the other day we received our copy of Dave Sim’s newest comic Glamourpuss:
Complete with personalized message and autograph…here’s the message:
I’ve given this a read-through and…well, it’s certainly not like any comic I’ve read before. It’s part Dave discussing art of past comic masters like Alex Raymond, part exploring how and why he’s following his Cerebus epic with a comic about fashion, and part brief introduction to the fictional narrative, following the internal reflections of fashion model N’atashae, along with a couple parodies of fashion-mag type columns/articles. It certainly keeps your attention, even as you’re trying to grasp just where Dave plans on going with this.
For another review, here’s one I found through Mr. Spurgeon where the fellow worked off his memories of reading a preview copy at his shop, since the store wouldn’t let him take it home. I have the comic right here in front of me as I’m typing this, and I don’t think I’m able to do better than this person’s review. Unlike that reviewer, however, I am sufficiently intrigued to see what’s gonna happen in #2. Even if it’s more of this unusual mix of personal observation/reflection, art history, and an ongoing fashion narrative, rather than traditional funnybooking, it’s unique and interesting enough to bring me back.
In other news:
DC Comics is offering a download of a full issue of Saga of the Swamp Thing on this page for the Swamp Thing Vol. 1: Saga of the Swamp Thing trade paperback. It’s issue #21, the second issue of Alan Moore’s classic run (and not issue #1, as it says on that page). It’d be nice if, maybe, they could offer a download for Moore’s first issue, #20. Heck, how ’bout a downloadable PDF “book” for the first 20 issues, since it doesn’t seem likely they’ll ever get reprinted in trade form anyway.
Captain America #34, with the debut of the “new” Captain, hasn’t had the real world news-driven sales as yet, at least among the folks who don’t think about comics until they see them mentioned on the magic moving-picture box. Our regular customers are picking it up, but haven’t been seeing any new ones for it. Maybe we haven’t had enough coverage of the return in our local media yet, or maybe the story hasn’t got around enough yet (it just popped up on Yahoo, for example), or maybe “new guy in costume” doesn’t attract as many folks as “YAY DEATH.” We still have weekend sales coming up, so I’m not ready to call this an Adventures of Superman #500 situation just yet (where retailers way overordered on a book, expecting a mass media-pushed sales blitz that never arrived).
It could be just a local thing, too. Is it selling in your area? To regular folk, or to weirdoes like us what already read the funnybooks?
Y The Last Man #60: down to our last copy of the last issue of this series. Sold better than previous issues, which means 1) some people are picking it up solely because it’s the last issue, or 2) we just happened to have a bunch of people visiting from out of town stopping by here to grab their new funnybooks.
Mostly I just mention this so anyone who read my comment about Y here will realize I was joking.
For no good reason, other than I’ve been looking for an online copy of this for quite a while, and, at last, here it is…the Conan O’Brien “Lincoln Money Shot” bit.
Not Safe for Work, likely, and Not Respectful to Lincoln in the slightest, but boy, it makes me laugh:
I’m terribly, terribly sorry…by which I mean, “not sorry at all.”
