So let’s talk a bit about some of the new comics that are coming out today, since this is a comics blog, don’cha know.
- American Vampire #1 – New comic that Stephen King’s involved with somehow. Didn’t order large numbers, since King’s comic marketplace pull reached diminishing returns in very short order. (Though I do like them myself, but I’m an easy mark for King-related work. Who saw Maximum Overdrive, Cat’s Eye and Creepshow 2 in the theatre? This guy.)
- Brave and the Bold #32 – Team-up between Aquaman and the Demon. …Okay, you have me, let’s see what you got, comic. I know it’s going to be heavyhanded and kind of dopey, but so far B&B has been keeping me entertained. Probably for all the wrong reasons, but entertained none the less.
- Green Arrow #31 – Pondered a bit over order numbers on this, since this is the “new direction” for GA. Sales on this series had been pretty abysmal, but the price is dropping to $2.99 and it’s picking up plotlines from Cry for Justice — a comic that, despite internet outrage, sold pretty well for us. Ended up ordering about double what we usually get, and we’ll put in an immediate reorder if it looks like it’s flying off the shelves.
- Green Hornet: Year One #1 – Speaking of things that aren’t selling as expected…well, the first issue of the regular series didn’t exactly fly off the stands when it first came out. But, as time has gone on, and word has apparently gotten out, we’ve had a few more bites. A handful of people each needing to buy one apiece of all the variant covers helps, but it looks like future issues will probably drop down to single digit sales for us, like the rest of Dynamite’s licensed books. Maybe as the movie approaches release we’ll see an upswing in interest.
- Green Lantern Corps #46 – This “Blackest Night” crossover is still like printing money. I figured fatigue would have set in among our customers by now, but sales haven’t flagged in the slightest. I suspect that’ll hit a few weeks into the biweekly Brightest Day series.
- Hit-Monkey#1 2nd printing – The first print of this comic was kind of a surprise seller for us. A rare instance of a 2nd printing from Marvel that’ll actually come in handy.
- Hulk #21/Incredible Hulk #608 – Both in the same week, huh? Couldn’t space ’em out a bit? I’m going to buy ’em both, since Hulk is one of (well, okay, two of) those series I always buy. But still.
- Jughead #200 – Oh, good gravy, it’s up to issue #200 already? It seems like just yesterday they were starting the series over. Oh, Juggie, you misogynistic binge-eater!
- Muppet King Arthur #3 and Muppet Show #3 – Like the Hulk books, I wish these were spaced out a bit, but these are still great comics, regardless of release schedule.
- Siege #3 – Marvel’s latest crossover event started up with a big fizzle for us, but picked up steam in the last month or so. Lots of requests for issues #1 and #2 in anticipation of #3.
- Star Trek Movie Adaptation #2 – Still kind of amazed they’re doing this now. The purpose of comic book movie adaptations is pretty much lost nowadays, given that you can get the actual movie for the price (or less) of the adaptation, usually within a few months of the film leaving the theatres. This ain’t the ’50s anymore.
- Superman Eighty-Page Giant #1 – Okay, maybe I can give you a pass on the previous Superman 80-pagers from the ’60s. But there were three issues of a previous Superman 80-page series only about 10 years ago. Why isn’t this #4? (And don’t get me started on the Uncanny X-Men Annual situation.)
- Time Lincoln – Only took Antarctic Press 26 years, but they finally published something I might want to read:
That’s a fine cover. Yessirree. (And I don’t mean to be harsh on Antarctic…I mean, bless ’em for sticking it out for so long. Just I’ve never seen anything from them that’s ever grabbed my attention. Sorry, can’t be interested in everything!) (I’m not even sure about Time Lincoln yet, since all I’ve seen is the cover.) (And if you’ll forgive another parenthetical aside, that cover has a bit of a Rick Veitch-y feel to it, don’t you think? The Maximortal-ish logo certainly helps. Probably why it appeals so much to me.) - Uncle Scrooge #389 – An actual conversation I had with a customer about the current Uncle Scrooge series:
Customer: “I don’t like this new Uncle Scrooge. It’s too much of a kiddie comic.”
Me: “Errr….”
- X-Factor Forever #1 – In the tradition of X-Men Forever #1, X-Factor Forever picks up from where the X-Factor continuity left off a decade or so ago, and continues from there outside of the regular Marvel Comics universe.
…
Uh huh. When I can get Man-Thing Forever, where Michael Fleisher picks up from his storylines in Man-Thing volume 2, before Chris Claremont took over, let me know.
>American Vampire #1
Boy, I hope this is better than the vibe I’m getting from the 2-page spreads in recent Vertigo titles (oooh, vampire in a cowboy hat? Yeehaw!). You know that I’ll try every Vertigo series, but another vampire storyline? Sigh.
At least Vertigo has been putting out some good new titles…Sweet Tooth, The Unwritten, Daytripper…all very good, and each one has a nice concept.
That Time Lincoln logo evokes DC’s ill-fated late seventies SF anthology Time Warp’s logo more than Maximortal, to me…
Jeff beat me to it, but yes, that is the old “Time Warp” logo.
As for MAN-THING… well, I’m with you 1000%, Mikester!
That first issue of the Man-Thing 2nd series always gets me… right here (points to heart and lump in throat).
And speaking of Manny… check this out:
http://tinyurl.com/StMannysDay
~P~
PTOR
“When I can get Man-Thing Forever, where Michael Fleisher picks up from his storylines in Man-Thing volume 2, before Chris Claremont took over, let me know.”
Check out What If #26 for that… right between “What if Captain America were elected President” and “Untold Tales of the Marvel Universe: Outpost on Uranus” (insert snicker here).
(Okay, it’s 10 or 12 pages, and not “Forever.” Still: Fleisher. He packs a lot in there.)
Chris K
U.S. Presidents are rapidly becoming the new zombies.
How about X-Men Forever Forever where Len Wein re-starts the story from just before when Claremont took over?
(Or, what I’d really like, all joking aside, West Coast Avengers Forever, where Englehart can re-start the story from just before when Byrne totally fucked everything up?)
Also, my first reaction to the whole “X-Factor Forever” thing was, “wasn’t the ‘classic’ writer on that Peter David, and isn’t he on that book currently anyway, so what’s the point?” Then I saw that it’s the Louise Simonson “original five posing as mutant hunters” run that burdened the X-Books with Apokalips, which I never thought was all that fondly remembered (as much as Louise Simonson may otherwise be fondly remembered as a writer and person). In fact, wasn’t the shakeup under David a reaction to the fact that the “original” X-Factor was perceived as kind of sucking?
So, same as the Claremont situation, in a lot of ways…
Oh, Time Lincoln, you had me at “Time.”
Thanks Chris K…
I totally forgot about that What If? issue.
I just re-read it.
A lot in those few pages.
[…] to report that my non-readership streak of Antarctic’s books remain unbroken, as, despite my initial hopes for the title, a glance through Time Lincoln didn’t do anything for me. Sorry! No hard […]