Yes, I realize the "protest" was likely a publicity gimmick.
Walt Disney’s Comics & Stories #699 features the Disney characters in superhero drag, which is a bit peculiar but, okay, I’m game for a short run of stories done in this fashion. I realize it was a thing going on in the Italian Disney comics, but I suspect in the years to come, people might look back upon these issues as being as much an aberration as those “Mickey Mouse Super Secret Agent” stories where Mickey and Goofy were side-by-side with realistically-drawn humans in ’60s style spy adventures.
But don’t get me wrong…the comic is fun, with some dynamic cartooning, and it is of course nice to see Super Goof (a particular favorite of mine as a young Mikester) again. I’ve never seen so many footnote captions in a Disney comic, which, even though I realize it’s part of the “superhero comic” gag, is a bit distracting. Plus, the comic does end a bit abruptly, with the story continuing into the next issue, but they could only fit so much of the comics they’re reprinting into the page count provided by the $2.99 format, though I suppose that was as good a place as any to cut things off. But that we have Walt Disney’s Comics & Stories (and the forthcoming Uncle Scrooge) at $2.99 now, as opposed to Gemstone’s near $10 cover price on the same titles, is enough to let me forgive any such reprinting quirks.
In other “kids” comic news, apparently the media at large has finally twigged onto the fact that the “Archie gets married” hoohar is all an imaginary story (as opposed to all those real Archie stories)…something I even brought up the first time I mentioned the storyline on this site. And, as I said back then, I’ve had to explain the exact circumstances of the situation multiple times at the shop. But sales remain surprisingly strong on this storyline so far, and we’ll see if increased awareness of the “reality” (er…you get my meaning) of the story hurts demand for future issues. Of course, you’d think anyone actually reading the book would know what’s going on, but I’ve seen enough of this sort of thing to know that for some folks, reading the comics they’re investing in is out of the question.
I wonder how that one guy who was selling his Archie #1 in protest felt when he realized he was all upset about nuthin’? (Yeah, I know, I know…”he felt about $30,000 richer.” Assuming it was sold, I have no idea.)
A couple of stories from the shop:
1. Had a guy come in over the weekend ask us for Felix the Cat comics. We had a pretty good stack of ’em, ranging from some 1950s publications to Harvey’s ’90s revival to that most recent black and white series…and the customer bought them all, wiping us out of in-store Felix stock. And as soon as he left, another guy walked in (and I mean that literally…they passed each other in the shop’s doorway), and asked for our Felix comics. Sadly, we had none to sell him.
Then, on Thursday, we had a lady looking around at stuff while she waited for her kid to finish shopping…when she suddenly asked us if we had any Felix comics for sale.
You know, I’ve gone a very long time without anyone asking us for Felix books, and then we get three more or less in a row. Is there some kind of Felix the Cat revival going on that I’m not aware of? Is there a live-action F3L1X movie coming out, with Seth Rogen in the title role and Michael Cera as his computer-hacker pal Poindexter? Because if so, I want in, baby!
2. I talked a customer out of a sale today…well, kind of, as she was going to buy the Superman Salutes the Bicentennial treasury for a relative who is a Superman fan, and I had to break the news that it was, in fact, mostly just Tomahawk reprints.
And when I said I “kind of” talked her out of a sale, I mean that I sold her another treasury comic (this one all Superman) instead.
Another exciting tale of disaster averted and monies earned, courtesy yours truly, Mike Sterling! No, no, please, your awed admiration is embarrassing me.
