§ May 4th, 2009 § Filed under galactus Comments Off on Wrapping up a week o’Galactus.
Just a couple of brief Galactus notes, then I’m going to give the site a rest for the day before tackling responses to my Free Comic Book Day posts from the last few days.
First, Reader Joel notes in this post‘s comments that some of Galactus’ pals from his home planet, presumably ones from that giant cylinder Galactus shot off into his space, did come back during the Annihilation event hoohar. I didn’t realize that, and I suppose that’s what I get for not reading everything!
Secondly, I trust everyone saw that this came out last week from Marvel:
That would be issue #2 of the
Marvel Assistant-Sized Spectacular, a callback to that publishing stunt Marvel did 20-something years ago where the assistant editors purportedly took over the books while the editors were at Comic Con, and proceeded to do wild and crazy things with the titles. Anyway, this comic didn’t sell worth beans for us, even if it did have Galacta, the daughter of Galactus.
And finally, reader John Lancaster, who’s been contributing banners for this site ever since I started taking submissions, put this together for me way back when and I never got around to using it since it was larger than the specified dimensions for my banner. But here it is, half size but full awesome:
I was planning on wrapping up Galactus week with some kind of explanation as to
why I like the character so much, but my attempts were essentially variations on “he’s just awesome, man.” I suppose I just admired the out-thereness of the concept, a giant super-powered alien who shows up and wants to eat your planet, who wasn’t
really villainous since he was simply just trying to survive, and also had a bitchin’ helmet. Plus, the character’s concept was so strong that he maintained his dignity, his gravitas, and even a measure of melancholy regardless of circumstance…even when he was
pining for Dazzler.
Reminder: if you have any thoughts or questions about Free Comic Book Day, feel free to throw ’em into my comments section from yesterday and I’ll likely address them in the next day or so.
But for the rest of today…I’m relaxing!
§ May 3rd, 2009 § Filed under free comic book day Comments Off on Free Comic Book Day 2009, and ‘I.O.U. One Galactus Post.’
Okay, finally got together my links to my previous discussions of Free Comic Book Day…they’ll probably migrate into somewhere in the sidebar for easy access:
2004: 1
2005: 1 2
2006: 1 2 3 4
2007: 1 2
2008: 1 2 3 4 5
Not much to add this time beyond what I’ve said before. We gave away nearly every FCBD book we had for this year, and business appeared to have been up from last year. No major problems, everyone seemed happy, Dana (kid sister of former employee Nathan #2) brought us cupcakes and soda, pal Dorian brought us cheeseburgers and fries, and a couple of readers of my site (hi guys!) came out all the way from Bakersfield to enjoy FCBD at our shop.
So, all in all, another successful Free Comic Book Day. Again, like I said, I don’t have any new insights about the event this year, but if you have any questions or observations for me, please drop ’em in the comments section. (Just keep in mind I’ve already answered the “does it bring in new business” question.) Also, I did manage to get in some “live-Tweeting” of the day on my Twitter thingie. Includes a completely unnecessary Blackhawk battle-cry and gratuitous references to the rock band Foreigner. I’M DESTROYING INTERNET DISCOURSE.
Also, I’m curious as to what your favorite FCBD offering was this year. I’m a bit partial to the John Stanley Nancy/Melvin the Monster giveaway, myself, but you probably guessed that.
I haven’t forgotten about Galactus Week, though we have had seven days in a row of Galactus posting here. I think I still have a thing or two to say about the fella, so I’ll try to do that Monday to wrap up.
§ May 2nd, 2009 § Filed under free comic book day Comments Off on Free Comic Book Day!
Today’s the day! Mosey on over to your local funnybook store and get your free comics! And think good thoughts for folks like me, who’ll be on the other side of the counter surveying the mayhem.
Also, in case you missed it…my scheduled post for yesterday is finally up, after Blogger’s 24-hour-long publishing outage which affected a large number of its users…including, of course, yours truly. I apologize for the interruption in the regular delivery of your required daily doses of iron-fortified Progressive Ruin.
§ May 1st, 2009 § Filed under galactus Comments Off on Wolverine, Kid Chris, Employee Aaron, and Naked Galactus.
So reader DJ requested I scan ‘n’ post a panel from page 16 of Super-Villain Classics #1 (May 1983) for Galactus Week. Assuming he meant the page numbered 16, and not the actual page 16 (counting from the front of the book, including ads), I’m fairly certain he’s speaking about this panel, since he didn’t specify which exact one he was talking about:
So yeah, it’s Naked Off-Panel Galactus assembling his gloves, booties, delicate underthings, his awesome helmet, and so on. Well, you know, those clothes had to come from
somewhere, I suppose. Not like he can go store-bought with his outfit…I mean, I’ve heard of Big ‘n’ Tall,
but this is ridiculous!
But it’s this other panel on the page that really got me wondering:
Briefly, Galactus is the last survivor of the universe that existed prior to the currently-existing one…his ship was trapped intact in the “cosmic egg” that eventually exploded and created the universe, expelling the ship in the process. The “lifeless companions” mentioned in the caption are Galactus’s shipmates, from his home planet, who died prior to entering the “cosmic egg.”
So, according to that panel, there exists floating around in the Marvel Universe cosmos a shipload of Galactus’s people (barring the ship flying into a star or a black hole or something). Dead, sure, but you know how death never seems to stick in superhero books. They went through the same process, more or less, that transformed Galen the scientist into Galactus…maybe their incubation period is just lasting a little longer. Maybe there’s a gaggle of Galactus-type beings about to appear in the Marvel Universe.
Hey, just throwing that out there. Just seems like an interesting and overlooked detail from the origin of Galactus.
Here’s something I’ve been meaning to comment upon for a while now: Marvel is fiddling with the Wolverine release schedule, so that #73 (the first part of a two part story) comes out before #72 (the penultimate chapter of the “Old Man Logan” story). The reason given is so that following the excitement built by the new Wolverine movie, the hordes of new fans flooding into comic shops across the nation will have an issue of Wolverine that’s more of a jumping-on point, rather than be in the middle of an ongoing story.
That’s all well and good, but overlooks a couple of things:
1. Wolverine #73 won’t be out until nearly two weeks after the movie opens, so movie-driven traffic into comic shops, if any, will be good ‘n’ done by then. If the comic was coming out THIS week, that’s one thing. Two weeks from now…why bother with the schedule shuffle?
2. It’s not as if there’s any shortage of Wolverine comics on the stands at the moment. Having one of those comics be in the middle a story isn’t going to make a difference. Perhaps having a fresh batch of reprints of the early issues of “Old Man Logan” ready for the film’s release would have been a better idea. (Reprints have been solicited and ordered, but won’t be in for another week or two, at least).
Here are a couple of points in Marvel’s favor, however:
1. The recently-begun Wolverine: Weapon X series, which by most accounts ain’t half-bad, and is as good a starting point as any for anyone inspired by the movie to check out the source material. Has the added bonus of being available (with a new printing this week!) in the prime movie-inspired-comic-purchases window of opportunity (i.e. prior to the film’s release).
2. The Free Comic Book Day Wolverine comic, which, surprisingly enough, actually is appropriate for All Ages. This should make a lot of kids happy this weekend.
Speaking of Free Comic Book Day…here are Kid Chris and Employee Aaron pausing for a moment from their prepping and sorting for the Big Event this Saturday:
Please note Kid Chris is wearing a FCBD shirt, a FCBD button,
and a FCBD baseball cap. Now
that‘s commitment, friends. I’d like to see that same level of commitment from the
other employees,
Aaron.
You know, looking at that photo, Kid Chris looks a bit like Sylar from Heroes, there. PLEASE NOTE: Store not responsible if Kid Chris attempts to eat your brain.
Well, before I go even more on a tangent, I’ll just note that we’re well on our way to being prepared for the Big Event. I’ve written about Free Comic Book Day pretty much every year since I started the site (search the archives in late April/early May for 2005-2008 for previous posts on the topic…I’ll try to put together the actual links in the next day or two), so I’m not sure what else to add, really. I’m sure I’ll do the usual postmortem, and I’m going to try to do a little live-Twittering that day, if I have time. Pal Dorian has done his regular FCBD preview review (though I have four more that came in this week that I’ve not been able to get to him yet).
Among my many posts on the topic, I’ve offered hints and tips for funnybook sellers on how to have a successful FCBD, which I shall sum up thusly: 1. Clean your store. 2. Don’t be dicks. (To be fair, I haven’t quite mastered step 2 yet.)
So, in conclusion — Free Comic Book Day:
I will. Won’t
you?
And just to wrap this post up with a little bit of a tearjerker…The Rack says goodbye to one of its cast members in today’s strip.
But don’t worry…the character will soon be starring in this here new strip, the URL of which may be a spoiler if you haven’t been following The Rack over the last couple of days.
