A little more Wednesday on Friday.
Still making some slow progress on getting posts labeled here at Progressive Ruin Industries: there are now tags for the 1990s market crash, not to mention racial sensitivity in comic books, if you want to see all (or most, anyway) posts relating to those.
Like I said, it’s slow going, and many of the other labels you’ll see on those posts don’t link to too much so far. But there will be an “All Star Batman” label, and God help me, I’ve tagged at least one post “pogs.”
Thank you for all your responses to yesterday’s Wednesday Comics post. (There was also some completely random Canada bashing…hey, I’ve no beef with Canada. I love Bob & Doug MacKenzie, and I’m sure every Canadian is exactly like them.)
Let me address a couple of questions/comments that popped up there:
Bryan wants to know
“Will stores be able to back order issues over the next few weeks? Because I can sort of see this as being something where if you don’t get in on the ground floor, the serialised natured will make it impossible to start reading it after a few weeks, and the chances of a ‘breakthrough’ comic deflate with each passing week.”
I certainly hope so. We ordered plenty of the first few issues, assuming that the odd format would possibly mean little to no overprinting for later reorders. But, I just checked Diamond’s retailer site as I was typing this, and the first issue is still available for reorder. Of course, it’s only been out for a day or two, but that it’s not sold out at the distributor level already is a little reassuring that there is some kind of overprint for reorders available.
Richard asks
“I haven’t gone to the shop and picked up my copy yet, but are there any other type of characters included besides superheroes?
If not, why not?”
A couple of folks (including one of the project’s writers!) already answered this, but no, it’s not all superheroes, depending on how you define the term. Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth, is sci-fi fantasy, I suppose, though as the character’s adventures are usually presented, it’s only barely distinguishable from superhero-style books. In the case of Wednesday Comics, however, the strip is given a more Prince Valiant-esque treatment, which is quite nicely done. Sgt. Rock also appears, and I’ve seen the argument made in the past that Rock is basically just a superhero strip done in war drag, and in the comments the argument is made that Adam Strange is more in the pulp sci-fi hero tradition than in the superhero tradition. That’s fair enough, though Strange toes the line a bit, I think. But, as I was discussing this with some pals, someone much wiser than me noted that if I stretch the meaning of “superhero” too far, it’s just going to lose any meaning.
So, for the sake of not being contrarian, I’ll agree that Kamandi is post apocalyptic sci-fantasy adventure, Sgt. Rock is a war comic, and Adam Strange is pulp hero sci-fi. Thus, there’s at least a little variety outside the super-guys.
However, I’m still sticking to my contention that Neil Gaiman’s Sandman is totally a superhero comic. Don’t you argue with me, I’m totally right on this.
CW sez
“What’s going to be interesting is to see in thirty years how many mint examples of the ‘Wednesday Comics’ will be in existence. It’s a difficult format to keep in a collection.”
We were joking about that at the shop on New Comics Day. “Dear God in heaven, IT’S NOT MINT!” Plus, we were wondering if CGC would slab these folded, or manufacture an oversized plastic covering that could accommodate an unfolded version. There probably is one that size already, which I suppose I could find out if I felt like checking.
I suppose if I had to preserve ’em, I’d just put them in bags and find a place on my bookshelf, or just keep ’em in magazine boxes.
Rob notes
“…In my interview with Mark Chiarello for my TreasuryComics.com site, he said that if WC is a big hit, then they’d do another series–which might mean there’d be a wider, more diverse set of characters (I’d love to see a Jonah Hex, Plastic Man, even Sugar and Spike!)”
Jonah Hex would be a good idea, particularly since I hear tell there’s a film coming out based on the character. Plastic Man would be good, since he has a pretty high recognition factor among those folks what don’t normally read the funnybooks. Sugar & Spike, if it ran, had better be Shelly Mayer stories reedited for this new format.
And how about a Swamp Thing strip, he said unbiasedly.
JBS asks
“Is this being distributed to outlets besides funny book stores?”
Not that I’m aware of. Probably some marketing/distribution thing that makes it a little more difficult getting it into stores that generally just handle the regular comics. Or perhaps DC didn’t want to take the chance on massive returns for this experimental item. Or whatever the reason, I have no idea. I suppose it could sell if a miracle happened and it was put on the shelves next to the grocery line, but don’t hold your breath, because that ain’t happening. Unless another 3 or 4 tabloid magazines go out of business.
And then there are a few more comments about storage and handling of this item, and that had me wondering about how they’re going to eventually reprint these stories. I’d like to see thin, 12-page oversized magazines or even hardcovers for each story, on nice paper. Again, breath, do not hold. But those would be neat!
