Don’t worry, it’s not another linkblogging post.
While breaking down the comic shipment Wednesday morning, prior to opening:
New Employee Tim: “Another Wolverine one-shot? This makes me want to punch Marvel.”
Employee Aaron: “How long have you worked here, and you already want to punch Marvel?”
Me: “Yeah, seriously…what took you so long?”
Also, we finally received an order of Watchmen trade paperbacks…not the order Diamond lost on us last week, but a second order I placed a few days after that initial doomed order, prior to DC runnin’ out of copies.
Guess what trade paperback we didn’t sell a single copy of on Wednesday? After weeks of people coming in and demanding it?
I think we’ll sell through on them by the weekend, but still, just a little annoying.
At least, I’m assuming we didn’t sell any Wednesday, as I was still feeling under the weather and left the shop early. I decided that morning that after I pulled the comic savers, did the mail order, did some reordering, and took care of some other business I had to take care of at the shop, I was going to leave early and let Employees Tim and Aaron handle the rest of the day.
I managed to leave 45 minutes before closing. Ah, well.
Other new comic day notes:
- Okay, it’s not a new comic, but we reordered the All Star Batman and Robin hardcover a few weeks ago, and in the shipment it was originally supposed to arrive in, it didn’t. We called it in as a shortage, and replacements were on the invoice as coming in this week…and they didn’t arrive again. It’s some kind of cosmic irony that the comic store managed by the one man on the planet who unashamedly loves All Star Batman can’t get the hardcover back in stock. DARN YOU, WHOEVER’S IN CHARGE OF COSMIC IRONY!
- Other reorder frustration: the Walking Dead volume 1 softcover has been unavailable from Diamond for about three months now, more or less. Kinda makes it hard to sell volumes 2 through 8 to new readers who might be interested in it. Yes, there is a hardcover that includes the comics from volumes 1 and 2, but a $9.95 paperback is easier to sell to someone just trying it out, as opposed to a thirty buck hardcover. Here’s hoping it’s back in print soon.
- Army @ Love: The Art of War #1 – the “second season” of Rick Veitch’s war satire looks as if it might quite possibly be even weirder than the initial series. And it has what may be the greatest expository reintroduction to a returning series’ characters and premise yet. Also, our store sold out right away, so a-reorderin’ I will go.
- Seeing Crossed #0 on the invoice listed as “#0 (of 9)” makes me want to hit somebody. Not unique to Crossed, I know, but still, it just sticks in my craw. It’s more hyperviolent zombie-esque shenanigans, from the looks of things, but, hey, this #0 is only a buck, it’s by Garth Ennis, and…Good Lord, does Jacen Burrows draw everything for Avatar? Does he ever sleep?
- While I adore Final Crisis, the “director’s cut” version of #1 is…well, if you want to see the black and white linework for the entire issue, then you may get more out of the first part of the book. The interview and script make for interesting reading, but, like I said about the Final Crisis sketchbook, this sort of material may be better off being released after the project is over, when the comic can be discussed without playing coy with spoilers.
As for Final Crisis #3…man, so densely-packed, so full of good stuff. It’s nuts, and I love it.
- Thanks to Employee Aaron, I now think of Echo as “the comic about the girl with super-boobs.” Unfair? Yeah, probably. But hey, at least there’s no poetry like in the guy’s previous comic. Yet.
- More Disney comics, finally. Wish they didn’t put out their two regular “monthly” comics ($7.99 each) and a Vacation Special ($9.95!) all out in the same week…but at least they’re out, and beggars can’t be choosers, I suppose.
I know it wasn’t as long as a break between issues as Gemstone’s publishing unpleasantness from last year, but it still had some of our Disney customers getting a little testy.
- Did you read that FX comic from IDW (last issue on sale now)? If so…why? I’m honestly not being snarky, here…what was it about FX that made you keep reading it? Is it just fans of that particular artist supporting the book?
- Jonah Hex #34 – I liked the story, about Jonah’s difficulty in leaving his old life behind…but depending on who’s drawing Jonah’s scarred face, I have a very hard time believing that Hex doesn’t just cut that damned tiny flap of skin off his mouth. It’s such a piddling little strand in this issue…it gets to be distracting how nonsensical it is that it’d still be there.
So, “minor nitpick of the month?” Maybe so. I remember seeing someone out there suggest that elements of Two-Face’s scarring from the Dark Knight movie would be a better way of portraying Hex’s injury.
- Hulk #5 – I shouldn’t like this comic as much as I do. It’s big, loud, and stupid, and takes like two minutes to read…but it’s an enjoyable two minutes, with great art by Ed McGuinness. I think the Thor purists are going to cringe at this issue, though.
- Showcase Presents House of Secrets Vol. 1 – Contains a reprint of the first Swamp Thing story, and another 500-something pages of less important stuff. Oh, okay, it has the Sergio Aragones gag pages, too.
Nothing to do with comics, but everything to do with fans of the Mystery Science Theatre 3000: the third Cinematic Titanic film, The Wasp Woman, should be available for download as you read this, and the DVD release should be available by Monday.
