Don’t lick Galactus.
Things I forgot to mention about stuff that came in this week:
First, I’m a sucker for all things Galactus, and guess which Classic Marvel Figurine Collection magazine made it into the shop this week?
You can see the full sized ad at the official site, and if you’re in the UK…order one up for yourself! It’s a nice looking statue. They even gave him the little square eyeballs.
The price of this package in what remains of the American dollar: $38. Can’t quite fit that into the budget at the moment, but I made sure to get my dirty, dirty eyetracks all over this lead figurine and the accompanying literature at the store. The mag does include an extensive and fully-illustrated history of the character, both within the Marvel Universe and behind-the-scenes. It’s written in just this side of a little too jokey a manner, but then, this is a guy in a big purple helmet who eats planets, so what was I expecting, really.
Second, and this was pointed out to me by customer Jess, is that the regular cover of Amazing Spider-Girl #19 is misnumbered as #17…but the Skrull variant for this issue has the correct numbering. That’s a little amusing, I think. Hey, I’ll take my amusement where I can find it.
Third…well, this isn’t a new release or anything, but it is something I found this week in that huge sci-fi book collection we purchased a few weeks back:
Yes, that would be Gerry Conway, longtime comics writer, creator of Firestorm, original writer on Atari Force, later TV producer ‘n’ writer, who wrote this book back in ’74. He was twenty-two at the time. He had written a previous novel at 19. What have you done lately? (The cover artist is Kelly Freas, in case you were wondering.) You know, I always realized “Gerry” was short for another name, but it still looks weird to me, seeing his full name like that. Just too many years seeing him credited as “Gerry” in the funnybooks, I guess.
Speaking of which, when I was pokin’ around on the internet to see if this was indeed the same Mr. Conway, I found a reference on the Wikipedia page stating that his last comics work was for Topps in ’93. Is that right? Has it really been that long? Goodness.
In other news:
- My Canadian comics-blogging twin has more Riverdale shark shenanigans to accompany my Little Archie post from Sunday.
- Chris Sims loves Wild Dog so you don’t have to. (But then again…I do kind of like Wild Dog, despite itself. Somehow I managed to buy every appearance. I’m a Wild Dog completist! Surely there’s some kind of ten-step program for that.)
- Chris Butcher has a few thoughts about superhero comics, including his curiosity about just who out there is really in need of a second printing of Secret Invasion. Answer is “nobody,” for the most part, since there’s no shortage on this comic. My take on Marvel’s reprint policy on books like this (such as Hulk #1 and the first “Brand New Day” Spider-Man book, which I alluded to here) is that Marvel is making a big deal out of reprinting these books to give the impression of “hotness,” to get the buzz going, rather than out of filling any consumer demand. It’s just an advertising gimmick to keep people talking about their releases, and to get the idea into everyone’s head that they should buy the first printings of future issues of [CURRENT HOT SERIES] before they’re gone and replaced by second printings as well.
On the other hand…there is that small percentage of the customer base that will buy something just because it is a variant cover, whether it’s because they like the new cover better than the one on the first printing, or because they’re completists and have to have every variation of the book, or whatever. So for those customers, at least, we’ll order a few copies.
Yeah, it’s an annoyance that Marvel does this, but I prefer this to its “no reprint” policy from a few years ago. They do manage to occasionally reprint comics that we can use, like some chapters of the X-Men “Messiah Complex” storyline, or, most notably, the first Marvel Zombies mini which, for a while there, was like printing money. That they offer up reprints of stuff like Secret Invasion once in a while is just one of those things we put up with. Like Chris says, they ain’t foolin’ anybody.
- Just a reminder: he’s been advertising in my Project Wonderful ad section over the last week or two, but I wanted to point him out here in the main portion of my site. Scott Saavedra, the spiritual godfather of my little weblog here, is still blogging away at Comic Book Heaven, which, as always, comes with my highest recommendation. He also has a second great weblog right here which, of late, has focused on his art direction of some of his Previews ads, and some cute alien t-shirt designs. Go visit, say “hi!”
