Oh, okay, fine…Sluggo Saturday #105.
QUIT YOU
You are currently browsing the archives for September, 2011
QUIT YOU
from How Sluggo Survives (1989)
I don’t get to use the word “sass” nearly often enough.
- A DOUBLE ANDREW-WHAMMY: Have I mentioned that Andrew has been poking through his old Wizard magazines and posting things of interest from them? Well, if I did before, I did it again just now. Also, steel yourself for his latest Nobody’s Favorites entry.
- Dr. Polite Scott reviews the new Hawk & Dove. Willingly. …Okay, okay, it’s easy to dismiss it via a generous dollop of sass, but Dr. Polite Scott gives it a fair and considered review, as well as examining its context within the larger DC continuity.
- Oh, nothing, just an awesome Ultra-Humanite one-pager by Kevin Church, Eric Canete and Jordie Bellaire.
- Are you reading Atlas/Seaboard Week, as presented by Bully, America’s #1 Little Stuffed Bull? Because you really should be. I love the ’70s Atlas Comics, and I don’t write about them enough…though after Bully’s through puttin’ the horns to ’em, I may no longer have to write about them!
- Some dick stole a bunch of Superman comics from a mentally-disabled comics fan. If you want to help that fan out, you can find the contact address and some info here.
I don’t use “dollop” often enough either.
Okay, let me complain about Superman’s new costume.
To follow up on yesterday: I ended up not getting Justice League International…just seemed a little too…generic-y superhero, you know? I also picked up Omac, after giving it a look-through or two, and hearing a good word or two about it from comrade-in-funnybook-arms Chris Sims. It’s Keith Giffen doing a totally-nuts Kirby riff, and if you’re gonna do a book like Omac, Kirby it up as much as possible, I say.
And Swamp Thing…my mystical eye of Aga-Mike-o has peered across the nerdinet and has witnessed the pleasingly positive response most people have had to this new debut issue. Like I said yesterday, it continues the “Alec Holland evading his Swamp Thing destiny” storyline from the mini-series, and I’m assuming Scott Snyder will eventually provide the explanation for the sudden reseparation of Alec from Swampy, when the rejoining of the two was such a big deal at the end of Brightest Day. But, also like I noted, where the Search for Swamp Thing mini-series seemed awkward and forced, this new issue is more along the lines of what I want from a Swamp Thing comic…creepier and more introspective.
There’s also a bit of business introducing Swamp Thing’s next adversary, which features a certainly intentional reference to one of the more disturbing visuals from the Moore/Bissette/Totleben era. I don’t know that it’s supposed to be the same thing from the Moore run, but…well, I realize I’m being vague here, in an attempt to avoid spoilers. But you’ll know what I’m talking about when you see it.
One more thing, and this could be a SPOILER, I guess: this comic features, I believe, the second in-story appearance of Superman in his new costume that we’ve seen since the beginning of the relaunch. And while Yanick Paquette does a remarkable job illustrating this issue, there’s only so much one can do with that new Superman costume. It just plain looks awkward. Even the dude who designed the thing couldn’t make it work in the one panel he had to sell us on it in Justice League #1.
I like to think that I’m not simply being a typical reactionary comics fan, hating something because it’s different from what I’m used to. I mean, it’s…I’m not even sure how to articulate it. I think it’s a level of…pretension, perhaps, that seems uncharacteristic of what we think of when we consider the character of Superman. I think it’s that collar. It sort of gives him, like…airs of royalty, maybe? A “hey, this is my important uniform, I outrank you” kind of thing? And the action figure space-boots he suddenly has? It’s like Superman is slowly turning into the kind of superhero Old Superman opposed in Kingdom Come, with the overwrought, overdesigned ’90s tech-fest look.
Yes, maybe the red underwear over the blue tights was kind of goofy. Actually, there’s no “kind of” about it…it is goofy. And as someone reminded me on the Twitter not long ago, Superman’s costume is essentially just an old-timey circus strongman outfit. And…I’m okay with that. “Simple” works for Superman. So does “goofy” — it’s a little more humanizing, helping to bring a fantastic (in the original sense) character like Superman down to earth. (Compare also with the work jeans and boots costume in the new Action.)
Granted, that George Perez cover makes it look okay, but then, that’s George Perez. He makes purt’near everything look okay. But I’ll have to see what he does with it inside the book. Maybe once I get the in-story explanation for it (if there is one), I’ll be a little more accepting.
I mean, sure, if DC sticks with this costume, I’ll get used to it. But it’s really no improvement, especially if no one can draw it in an appealing fashion. It’s just change for change’s sake, and just one more shout of “hey, look, we’re different now!” among DC’s cacophony of similar cries.
So, in conclusion, I liked the new Swamp Thing comic. And let us put an end to the DC posts on this site…at least ’til next week.
My free advertising for DC Comics continues.
I asked a couple of days ago what DC books you were looking forward to the most, and the big winner was Action Comics by Grant Morrison and Rags Morales, followed closely by the J.H. Williams Batwoman comic. Neither of these are a real surprise, as Morrison on Superman is always a draw (and the Siegel & Shuster/Golden Age-esque take on the character intrigues), and we’ve all seen the beautiful work Williams has done on Batwoman in the last couple of years.
This is hardly a comprehensive scientific survey, I realize, but it surprises me that the Green Lantern franchise makes such a poor showing, with only one respondent noting interest. Given that there are four GL-related titles coming our way monthly, I wonder if that doesn’t bode well.
Another one that sort of surprises me is Mr. Terrific, if only because, at least at our shop, there seemed like there was an unusual amount of interest in this title, considering he’s hardly one of DC’s first-stringers. This was a while back, though, right after his title was announced, and perhaps it’s since been overshadowed by other more attention-grabbing series.
And despite my jerkiness about the title in the initial post, some brave souls still indicated that Hawk & Dove was their pick. I can tell you, having broken down the comic order and pulled comic subs Tuesday night…we’ve got more than a few requests at our shop for it. Liefeld is still a draw…or at least not enough of a deterrent to keep Hawk & Dove fans away. And seriously, more power to ’em. Like whatever you want, man, I’m not going to judge. Out loud. To your face.
Okay, okay, really seriously, read whatever you want. “People reading comics” is the primary goal here. We can worry about “people reading the comics I like” later.
Speaking of which, only two of you picked Swamp Thing. …I’m very disappointed.
Anyway, I might have more to say on this later, but I’ve had a long work day, and I’m still recovering from my illness. But let me say this, as I’ve had a “sneak peek” at the new DCs this wek whilst breaking down the order: decided I’m going to get Batgirl, too…looks like a fun read, as is typical of writer Gail Simone. And Action…not the kind of Superman story that’ll be familiar to folks accustomed to the post-Byrne revamp era of the character. Quite good. And Swamp Thing…ah, yes, Swamp Thing. Still spinning our wheels a bit on the “Alec must rejoin with Swampy” jag that we endured in that mini-series, but only it’s done well this time. Animal Man is about as good as you’re hoping, and I’m still undecided on Justice League International. Maybe if Swamp Thing joined.
In which I finally get around to my rambling answers to those DC Comics retailing questions.
REMINDER: let me know what the ONE new DC title you’re looking forward to the most is. I’ll probably comment on your response tomorrow, assuming I don’t die tonight while breaking down the comics order, doing pulls, and suffering from flu symptoms.
Anyway, those questions a couple of you asked about DC’s current publishing plan, and how it affects me, Mike Sterling:
Boosteriffic says
“It seems to me that DC has been telling us that part of the reason for this whole rebootalaunch is because retailers aren’t doing their job finding new customers (probably true: I don’t live in a major city, but all the comic stores I know of are really gaming stores with some reading material for between matches), and it seems I hear retailers saying it’s because DC’s business model and storytelling are alienating their readers (of which I am certainly one: now I have to wait six issues to finish a story the bronze age Batman would have tackled in one?). Do you have any insight into the validity of this back and forth argument?”
There are a lot of reasons for sales reaching the point that triggered DC’s newest publishing hoohar, but I don’t think it’s as easy as saying “retailers fell down on the job” or “DC alienated its readers.” Not that either assumption is necessarily wrong: we’ve all been to comic shops that seemingly didn’t go out of the way to encourage business, repeat or otherwise. And what Boosteriffic says about DC applies to Marvel as well, with extended storylines intended to keep readers coming back month after month, and designed for republication in trade paperbacks or hardcover editions, which can in some (but not necessarily all) cases result in story-padding and less satisfying reads.
But there’s also the death-spiral of lower sales = higher per-unit prices = higher cover prices = even lower sales = even higher production costs, and so on. And there’s the economy in general, which, at the moment, isn’t exactly facilitating the generation of disposal income. Plus there’s also the usual explanations of increased competition for the entertainment dollar, the lack of an audience turnover for comics, the insular nature of superhero comics, the difficulty of even finding comics, and so on. You’ve heard all the reasons before.
Boosteriffic adds:
“…Will you be closing the doors if this whatever-DC-is-calling-it doesn’t take off because your comic sales have flatlined?”
In our case, comic sales have been increasing…slowly, but steadily. And judging by demand for the new Justice League #1 and the interest we’ve seen in DC’s next batch of first issues, we’re expecting a bit of a bump in sales over the next few weeks. Whether that bump sticks, even as a slight net gain after the initial excitement over the new launches peters out and we see what the sales levels on these titles will actually be, remains to be seen. But I’m optimistic. My fear was that our upward store sales trend may have been derailed by DC cancelling everything and starting again, alienating the readership we were building, but for the most part that doesn’t seem to be happening. But, you know, in six months or a year or so, we’ll know for sure.
Now, that’s what’s going on for us, but if other stores end up with a net loss in readership for their DCs, to the point where Warner Brothers tells DC “nice try, kids, but we’re handing all your properties over the movie and television development departments,” and DC Comics as a publishing concern goes away…that’s bad news for everybody. Not that I think that will happen. But let’s say it does, and DC Comics are no longer on your local funnybook store’s rack. That’s a pretty significant chunk of income lost for your comic shop. And some comic shops wouldn’t survive that loss…and when those shops close up, that means fewer venues through which the other comic companies can sell their wares, which results in lower profits for them, and comic publishers going out of business, and lower profits for shops…I hate to use the phrase “death-spiral” twice in one post, but you get the picture.
And, as folks have noted in the past, the death of the comics market as it is now doesn’t mean the death of comics. As long as people can tell stories through sequential images, there’ll be comics. They’ll just be sold and / or distributed via different means. Like through this “internet” I’ve heard so much about.
Not that the very concept of “comic book store” would go away if there were no longer any periodicals as we know them now. After all, there are still record stores. I can see our shop holding on, downsized significantly, still dealing in old comics to an increasingly specialized clientele. And there will still be some publishing holdouts and novelty press, putting out limited runs of staplebound entertainments for the discerning reader, that we could carry.
Also, in this post-apocalyptic future, we will fight each other to the death in Thunderdome, but that probably goes without saying.
Dallas has a few questions as well:
“Does it make any lick of retail sense to be out of a fairly big comic after 1 day?
Is/was there a program through Diamond/DC that could get you more comics as quick as Fri/Sat or Monday 9/5?
I assume that you won’t get the reorder till the week of September 12, so how many sales are lost?”
I’d rather not be out of a Big Title after one day, but when you’re ordering three months ahead of time…and even getting a chance to adjust orders about three to four weeks prior…sometimes you just can’t predict how something’s going to go over. We ordered five times on this Justice League #1 what we normally order on Justice League of America, and up until about a week or so before the #1’s release, that seemed like plenty. And then the media attention hit, and lo and behold people seemed to care, and the demand jumped upwards. I tried to place a reorder ahead of the comic’s release, but by that time all available copies of the first printing had sold out.
I did get a number of requests for the comic over the weekend, so yeah, I could have sold quite a few more copies. Now, had DC had more of Justice League #1 available, I suppose it could have been theoretically possible to receive more copies by Friday via Diamond’s two-day air shipping on reorders, if we had the time to put an order together and we get in it to Diamond early enough for them to process it right away. I could plan ahead, prep a theoretical emergency reorder a couple of days before, and then send it in Wednesday morning if necessary. But then again, even if demand seems high, pulling the trigger on a significant reorder before actually seeing if the demand pans out could be an expensive mistake. About halfway through Wednesday it looked like we’d have enough JL #1 to meet the immediate demand, but later in the day, and through Thursday, sales and demand picked up and we blew through our copies. But it easily could have dropped off completely, and getting another pile of copies on top of the ones we already had warming the shelves would be a problem.
Now, like I said, once we got closer to the release day, JL #1 started to seem like it was really going to take off, so a prerelease reorder seemed like a good risk. But for the other titles…well, here’s your next question:
“Have you done anything to change the orders for the rest of September now that this happened?”
Yes, I’ve gone through and bumped up some numbers, keeping in mind that, even if some of the titles are returnable, we still have to plan our budget to pay for these books. I’d love to order a thousand of everything, and return what we couldn’t sell, but we’d still have to cough up the cash to pay for all those copies.
“Does the system of ordering/printing comics just not compute?”
Most of the time, the way we order comics through the direct market is fine. We see what we’ve been selling on the books in the past, we plan our orders accordingly, we send them in. Even on new first issues, we can make reasonably educated guesses based on the store’s sales trends. But this new DC initiative is fairly unprecedented. We have to guess at sales on these new series vis-à-vis past sales trends, customer interest in first issues, possible bleed-over interest generated by real-world publicity for Justice League #1, and, maybe most importantly, the “first issue fatigue” I discussed before.
I mean, let’s take All-Star Western, starring Jonah Hex. On one hand, sales on the Jonah Hex series were pretty terrible. On the other hand, All-Star Western is a new first issue, which can expect a slight bump in sales. On the other, other hand, it says “Western” in the title, and westerns aren’t big sellers in the superhero comics market. On the other, other, other hand, it’s tied in a little more closely to the DC Universe, taking place in Gotham City an’ all. But it’s not like Batman’s going to show up. But it could ride that “hey, it’s a new DC #1, let’s buy it” wave. But it’s still a Jonah Hex comic. But it’s returnable. And so on. Again, love to order a ton of them, and just return what we don’t sell, but we have to operate within a realistic budget.
“Is it too much to ask DC to have a pile of extra copies of JLA ready to be shipped out. Or does a reprint business model and the new, variant covers make more sense for all parties involved, including the general public getting their greasy hands on this over-priced, under-written 4-color superhero funny book.”
Like us, DC has to operate within a realistic budget. I’m sure they would have loved to have looked at the initial orders, said “hmm, better print up ten times that number to meet reorder demand” and sat on the copies ’til retailers asked for them. But that costs money, and again, there’s no guarantee ahead of time, when the decisions are being made to actually go to press, that there would be that much demand. Publishers generally do some overprinting to allow for replacement shipments on items that are lost or damaged, plus some allowance for reorders, but within reason.
That they announced a second printing, and a third printing, so quickly means that they were staying on top of things, at least. Economically, this makes more sense for DC than tying up money in a stockpile of extra first printings. And it’s good for us, because it’ll meet the demand for customers who just want to read the thing, and couldn’t care less about “first printing” or “investment opportunity” or what have you.
…That was a lot to read, I realize. Also, I’m on the cold medication, so if something doesn’t make sense, ask me to clarify.
Just in case you haven’t read enough about the new DC titles lately.
So I was planning on responding to a couple of lengthy comments recently left on this here site regarding DC Comics and its current launchalanche, but neither 1) time nor 2) health are cooperating with me. I’ll get to them soon, I promise.
In the meantime, since I didn’t really have anything else planned for today…let me ask you: what’s the one new DC book you’re looking forward to the most? Just tell me ONE…don’t be wishy-washy and leave me a list of, like, your fourteen favorites. Pick one and stick to it, pals! …I think you can probably guess mine.
And I know Justice League already came out. You can say you’re looking forward most to #2, if you’d like. Or you can even pick Hawk and Dove. Either case, I won’t make fun of you. Promise. And you don’t need to pop in and declare “I’m not buying ANY of them because I hates DC forever” because that’s not what I’m asking for. I mean, c’mon, don’t be That Guy.
Anyway, I’ll probably do a tally of them for…Wednesday’s post, let’s say, and see what you folks are most interested in. Assuming I get enough response to tally, of course.
Super Mario Bros. Saturday #1.
IN WHICH CASE…NEVER MIND
from Adventures of the Super Mario Brothers #8 (September 1991)
by Bill Vallely, Mark McClellan, George Wildman, et al.
According to the sketchbook material in Justice League #1, the costumes could have been even more unnecessarily complicated.
So yes, we sold out of the first issue of Justice League, the vanguard title for DC’s rebootalaunch, and orders have already been placed for the second printing. Had a few new faces come into the shop looking for it, had plenty of our regulars pick it up, and have been receiving calls from out-of-towners trying to track it down as their local suppliers ran dry. That kind of momentum isn’t going to keep up, of course, as media coverage dwindles and first-issue fatigue starts to set in as wave after wave of debuts hit the racks…but at least it shows some interest is there, and that DC’s new publishing initiative isn’t falling flat on its face saleswise from the get-go.
An interesting thing I’ve noted is the number of people asking when those next #1s were due to come out, and how surprised they were when I told them DC would be releasing several #1s every week for the next month. So apparently DC was successful in getting the word out there that there was a new Justice League #1, that there would be more #1s to follow, but not when they were coming? Or perhaps I just had a string of folks who happened to miss that bit of info. Or even more likely, people were still in denial that they have 51 more first issues headed their way. “Tell me it’s not true…it can’t be true!”
About the Justice League itself…well, yeah, as our intro to this new DC Universe continuity, it’s a little underwhelming. Superheroes meet, they fight, we get teased with the supervillain threat, oh hey there’s Superman, and suddenly “to be continued.” All very by-the-numbers, with nothing to intrigue or inspire the imagination. I mean, it looks okay, with Jim Lee turning in a respectable art job on this issue, even if Superman’s new costume continues to appear unnecessarily rejiggered. And I’m calling “no way” on Batman being able to yank Green Lantern’s ring off his hand without GL noticing. I mean, come on.
DC’s other release this week was Flashpoint #5, the conclusion of the whole crossover event hoohar that introduced this new DC Universe. I hadn’t read any of the previous issues of the mini, and the only tie-in minis I read were the Frankenstein series (which seemed to have very little to do with it) and Project Superman (the reasons for which I explained previously). However, having read plenty of superhero comics in my life, I don’t feel like I missed anything by not reading the first four issues of the series. I can pretty safely extrapolate how they got to this point, I think. But anyway, the only reason I did pick up Flashpoint #5 was for the Swamp Thing cameos. …Yeah, I know.
I was discussing DC’s new publishing strategy yesterday with a longtime customer of mine, and he was wondering when DC would switch everything back to the way things were, including continuity, issue numbering, etc. My response was that if things went badly enough that this new strategy clearly wasn’t working, this wouldn’t be the kind of problem that would be solved by reverting to the old issue numbers and the old DCU. As I said on this site before, this whole thing smacks of a “nothing left to lose” decision, that is was either this or “might as well shutter the publishing arm and give our characters to the movie and TV studios so they can make real money with them.” No idea if that’s actually the case, though this article [EDIT: link dead] makes it seem like it is.
At the very least, DC’s efforts are generating some activity and discussion among our customers, and that certainly doesn’t hurt. Whether it helps in the long run…well, let’s hope so.
Revised March 2021
Progressive Ruin presents…the End of Civilization.
Is it true…? Could it be…? Yes, it is…it’s the End of Civilization, as I work through the newest Diamond Previews catalog and point at things and crack wise about them. It’s all in good fun, folks. Plus, if I don’t get it out here, I’ll take it out on my customers or on Employee Aaron, and nobody wants that. Especially Employee Aaron. So grab your September 2011 edition of Previews and follow along! And before you say anything, yeah, I didn’t include Green Arrow. Not enough…um, well, you’ll see.
p. 28-29 – Angel & Faith #4 & Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9 #3:
…But not in any of the listed credits of the folks actually working on the books. He simply hovers above them, a ghostly divine presence, inspiring them with his magical essence.
p. 42-43 – Kull: The Cat and the Skull #2 & Solomon Kane Volume 3 Red Shadows TP:
Ooh, considering how the movie did, you might want to downplay that part a bit.
p. 64 – Aquaman #3:
Blood!
p. 76 – Batman #3:
Ooh, more blood!
p. 83 – Catwoman #3:
And yet more blood!
p. 89 – Green Lantern Corps #3:
Impalings! And blood!
p. 91 – Red Lanterns #3:
Look at all that blood!
p. 96 – I, Vampire #3:
Blood via axing!
p. 101 – Suicide Squad #3:
…And in conclusion: blood! Please donate it where you work or bank. Thank you.
p. 113 – DC Comics Presents Elseworlds 80-Page Giant #1:
Oh, great, now they’re releasing it? I flew to England where they were accidentally distributed in order to buy multiple copies for investment, and now they’re worth nothing! NOTHING! How am I supposed to pay for my new driveway now?
NOTE: not making a joke, really. Just venting over something stupid someone once said in my comments. Don’t mind me.
p. 226 – Billy Tucci: A Child Is Born one-shot:
Finally, the life story of Billy Tucci, in comic bo…wait, what? Really? …Oh. Never mind.
p. 230 – Archie Cyber Adventures TP:
Archie waits for his Windows Updates to finish downloading! Betty tries out Chatroulette, and you’ll never believe what she finds! What is the mystery of the black van parked outside Mr. Weatherbee’s house? Hot Dog is on Twitter, and Jughead is steamed that he has fewer followers! Who is the mysterious “D.D.” behind “Riverdaleleaks?”
p. 260 – Decision 2012:
Basically, a “straw poll” for comic fans…the publisher will tally up the preorders and announce the numbers, with the highest-ordered book being the “winner.” Books that don’t get at least 1,500 orders won’t be printed.
Oh, thank goodness, that Obama comic book drought was a rough one to ride out.
What is it that she keeps looking at off-panel?
At one point in his business career, Mr. Cain oversaw the operations of a number of Burger Kings. I only bring this up because I want this comic to be about Herman Cain and the Burger King going out on adventures. I don’t care if it’s not true.
Why this man hasn’t exploited his name to get that valuable Monty Python Fan vote, I have no idea.
Ooh, shame about that 1,500 preorder barrier, Jon. Better luck next time.
Hey, why do the pages suddenly go blank halfway through?
Don’t worry, Ron, I’m sure your comic will demonstrate the free market in action.
Like politically-themed comics? Don’t worry, there’s paw-lenty more where those came from!
I just want them to explain the name “Mitt.” …On second thought, don’t. Let the world have a little mystery in it.
Santorum was always my favorite Kirby Monster.
p. 348 – The Classic Marvel Figurine Collection Magazine Special: M.O.D.O.K.:
On the other hand, I think M.O.D.O.K. would make a great President.
p. 353 – Star Wars Shadow Games MMPB:
Is it weird to think about the Star Wars Universe having “pop stars?” The movies are so caught up in magical superbeings and royal leaders and big space battles that a concept as relatively mundane as a “pop star” seems hopelessly out of place. …Would Star Wars Universe pop stars wear clothing reminiscent of the Empire (maybe even a Vader-esque helmet) to give themselves that counter-cultural veneer that would attract youth and outrage parents?
p. 373 – Thor’s Hammer Sculpted Bottle Opener:
You can pretty much just make up your own joke about using this to open beer bottles so you can “get hammered.”
p. 385 – Mr. Potato Head: Star Trek – Kirk/Kor Set:
Is that Mr. Potato Kirk’s real hair? Only his chef knows for sure.
p. 390 – Dazzler Statue:
Not pointing this out to make fun…just wanted to state that they picked the best possible base for this statue.
p. 403 – S.H. Monster Arts: Godzilla Action Figure:
Oh dear, when you start needing a walker for your atomic breath, it’s probably time to retire, don’cha know.
p. 404 – Ikki Tousen: Ryofu Housen “Maid Suntan Version” PVC Figure:
That’s an awfully specific name for a figure that’s basically “Naked Submissive Chick in an Apron.”
p. 411 – Pez Presidents of the United States Volume 1 Gift Set:
You don’t want to know where the candy comes out of the Bill Clinton dispenser.
p. 426 – Metallica Collector’s Edition Monopoly:
Pretty sure there are still people in the JAIL square doin’ time on the Napster rap.
p. 432- Smallville The Complete Series DVD Set:
Relieve those ten years waiting for Clark Kent to turn into Superman. Hey, maybe it’ll turn out differently this time!
