This site does not condone the concussing of ponies.

§ July 13th, 2011 § Filed under blogging about blogging is a sin, retailing, this week's comics § 8 Comments

So now that I finally started using my Tumblr site, I believe I finally found a purpose for it (aside from using it to comment on friends’ posts and reblogging awesome things, like this unused Superman versus Titano cover by Curt Swan). I think I may be using it as a “commentary track” or “greatest hits” supplement for this site, revisiting old posts and images and providing some additional info, background material, or just reminding folks of some of the older, sillier stuff. Okay, I did just repost that recent Klarion pic but c’mon, that pic is fantastic.

In other news…I’m sure most of you are aware by now of the Diamond street dates thing, in which retailers can get their comics on Tuesday in order to prep them for Wednesday sale, and woe betide you if you sell them early. I hear tell that Diamond has “secret shoppers” out there in the wild, enforcing the Wednesday street dates. Well, considering I yell even at Employee Aaron if he even looks at the books as I’m breaking down the order, I think I’m pretty safe there.

But anyway, this Tuesday, we had a large order of gaming product come in from Diamond, along with our usual comics order. I mean, a very large order. It was all prepaid for by a customer, so we had the coin of the realm on hand to take care of it, but still, it’s a bit imposing when you check the status of your UPS shipment and discover sixty boxes waiting for you. There’s always that fear that maybe your finger slipped while placing your orders three months ago and you accidentally ordered 15,000 copies of Green Hornet: Aftermath #4 and they all turned up today and OH GOD. But no, it was just the games stuff, and it was about fifty boxes all of approximately the same size and shape and while Aaron and I were tempted to build a fort with them, alas, we were too busy.

It was also a fairly sizable comics ship week as well, with a handful of notable items, like Superman #713, the next issue after the surprise Krypto fill-in for the scheduled Muslim superhero story. Some folks claimed the fill-in had something to do with the powers-that-be not liking the originally-planned story showing Superman rescuing a kitten, as it undermined the strength of the character or something. Well…guess what happens in this new issue? Go on, guess. Okay, it involves a roof, not a tree, but if anyone’s really going to split hairs over that, they are welcome to jump up my hinder.

Oh, and Superman #713 has this awesome Jeff Smith variant, and they should totally give Smith his own Superman series to do. (And speaking of Smith, the new issue of Rasl is out this week, too.)

The next issue of the Flashpoint: Frankenstein and the Creatures of the Unknown mini is also released this week, which turned out to be the only Flashpoint book I’m reading. I wasn’t going to be reading any of them, but those cats over at the War Rocket Ajax podcast convinced me to give it a try via their discussion of it on the show, and they were right: this is the stuff.

And this action figure is out this week. This is a gargantuan hunk of plastic. You could probably concuss a pony with this thing. I am praying this is how Tom Hardy looks in The Dark Knight Rises.

8 Responses to “This site does not condone the concussing of ponies.”

  • g23 says:

    Until I read this post, I had no idea that “concuss” was a verb. Well done, sir.

  • ExistentialMan says:

    Until I read this post. I had no idea the word “hinder” could be used in that way. I will probably tell several people to “jump up my hinder” today.

    And yes, Jeff Smith on Superman would be a must-buy. He came to our high school two years ago to talk with the students about Bone and RASL. A very engaging afternoon.

  • Frowny says:

    Dear God. That Bane looks like someone actually made an action figure of Schlong from Jhonen Vasquez’s “Meanwhile. . . In Some Testosterone Abundant Dimension.” Okay, maybe not squinty enough. I’d find a picture, but I’m not googling “Schlong and Lady Sexhole” while I’m at work.

  • Garrie says:

    Re: the Krypto story…

    Inside the story, Superman 713: “Superman told the crowd that the truth was what mattered. He could have lied to us from the beginning … but that wouldn’t have been right.”

    Inside the letters column, Superman 713: “…sorry we threw a last-minute curveball at everybody last issue by running that ‘Krypto’ story instead of the planned latest chapter of ‘Grounded.’ Unfortunately, the deadlines got away from us on the editorial end of thigns, so we decided to run that ‘Krypto’ story that we’ve been dying to run for years!”

  • Mikester says:

    Garrie – I was discussing that thing from the letters page with a friend of mine the other night. Apparently the Internet does not exist wherever the person who wrote that lives.

  • Garrie says:

    Yes, the editorial staff they’ve got is not accustomed to dealing with the live 24-hour media of the Internet, yet.

    Next issue’s (#714)letters page will undoubtedly end with: “Hey, deadlines got away from us before we could confirm the reason the Krypto story bumped the previously-scheduled chapter. Apologies for the misinformation: it won’t happen again. The full story behind the story will appear -next- issue, right here, in the letters page … so don’t miss issue 715!”

  • Tenzil Kem, Esq. says:

    The comic store where I work in Birmingham, AL, got secret-shopped a few weeks ago. A guy in his late 40’s-50’s (who we didn’t know) stopped in about 30 minutes before closing that Tuesday night. He asked me if we had the last Uncanny X-Men (May’s), so I gave him the issue from our new release wall. He thanked me, looked around for a minute, and then he pulled a sheet of paper from his pocket. He compared the issue to his sheet of paper and then said his son had that issue and he needed the newest one. I explained it would be available the next day and asked if he needed anything else. He then requested two more Marvel books that went on sale the next day. When I wouldn’t sell him any of the books he was looking for, he got very irate and stormed out of our store, but it’s better to piss someone off than lose your Diamond account for three months!