And don’t get me started on “Copper Age.”
Found this in the boxes o’old promo stuff…an ad slick for the videotape release of 1989’s Batman, since we were talking about that very thing a few days back. (The reverse side of the page is a larger, greytoned version of the ad.) If I remember correctly, when I put a reserve on a copy at our local video shoppe, I paid $19.99…saved a whole $4.99 like the bargain hunter that I am! I believe I still have my copy of the video around here somewhere, in case I feel like having a Pan ‘n’ Scan Party in the entertainment den.
Anyway, let me take care of a little business right now, so y’all can go on and enjoy your weekend:
- Alas, looks like the End of Civilization for this month will in fact be postponed ’til next time. Sorry, my free time was less free these last few weeks, so it’s the blogging what pays the price when that happens. This is also what put a crimp in my Patreon plans this month…Swamp Thing #8 is the next issue to be covered, and it will be covered, I promise. Just gotta clear the schedule.
- From the comments section for my October 9th post, rag notes
“[Seventh Generation] sounds somewhat similar to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twilight_of_the_Superheroes“
Yeah, that was brought up to me on the Twitters as well. For those who don’t know, that’s an Alan Moore proposal for a company-wide event at DC Comics, in which shenanigans are afoot in a dark future for Earth’s superheroes, and part of the plot involves characters coming back to the past (our present of 1987 or so) to prevent whatever was going to cause said dark future. Or you can just read the Wiki link there. That’s not an uncommon trope (like I mentioned, it’s happening in the Justice League comic right now), but funny that it popped up twice in two different DC event books, neither of which ended up happening. Maybe the descendants of Dan DiDio traveled back from the 23rd century to prevent those series from getting published. And if so, why couldn’t they save Frank Miller’s All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder?
- Jmurphy quite reasonably wonders
“Mike, there was an omnibus of some kind released on the 4th. Will we be hearing about it here?”
Yes, yes indeedy. The Swamp Thing Bronze Age Omnibus (and part of my brain still rejects the “Bronze Age” label as a dumb marketing term to help make those old issues of Human Fly seem sellable) is in my hands and ready for my perusal. But, related to those “free time” problems mentioned previously, I still haven’t even removed the shrinkwrap. But there it is, staring at me from atop the pile of comics from the last few weeks that I also haven’t read. However, rest assured, Jmurphy, that the Omnibus is on my Omni-genda.
- From the comments for October 11th, Zoot Koomie zoots
“I’m curious about the New Universe cancellation story. How was the implosion of that imprint covered at the time? Was information about the behind-the-scenes turmoil leaking out or was it just hype about line reconfiguration around the Pitt crossover?”
It was just a short article about how four titles in the New Universe line were cancelled due to poor sales, and would be replaced by as-yet-undetermined new series. The replacement of the editor for the imprint was also noted, from which one may infer behind the scenes troubles, but nothing was explicitly detailed. As far as more general coverage elsewhere in the Comics ‘Zine-a-verse…I don’t remember. I’ll have to look through the Amazing Heroes and Comics Journal collections to see what at least the general tone there was. …Actually, I can probably already guess.
- DanielT cashes in with
“Any particular reason your eBay prices are all $ xx.97?”
Well, as you know, if you price something at $9.99 instead of $10, the $9.99 price point looks like it’s a whole dollar cheaper, right? Well, that $xx.97 price is me undercutting everyone listing things at $xx.99, like the crafty capitalist storeowner that I am, as opposed to those sons-of-bitches undercutting me with their $xx.96 prices, the jerks. How dare they!
- William Burns fires me up with
“They have comics in Japan? What ever happened with that?”
Japan? Never heard of it.
- The JRC store called, and they said
“I always like CSN, especially the semi-regular oversized season preview issues that covered the coming quarter/or six months.
“I was surprised, shocked really, to get a copy a few months back when I happened into a previously unexplored shop.
“It is little more than reprinted press releases, but there’s still something neat about holding a newsprint style paper in hand.”
I wonder just how widespread the distribution is on Comic Shop News. I know some stores don’t carry it, which seems weird to me given its low cost and its usefulness to customers, which I’d mentioned in that post. But they must be doing okay…I did a little searching on the Diamond website, and it looks like the per-bundle cost has only gone up a dollar in the last few years, which seems reasonable enough. I know the number of copies per bundle dropped a little bit at some point, but that was prior to the oldest entry I could find in Diamond’s database. I’ll take that to mean that orders on CSN are holding relatively steady. Or they’re charging more for ads to subsidize the price, one of those.
I’m glad they’re still around. Yeah, it’s a lot of press releases, but as mentioned that’s how many customers get their comics news, so that’s okay. It’s not like there are any other print mags or ‘zines covering the current market, or at least nothing with the reach of CSN. It’s hard to beat “free at the store’s front counter” for distribution.
And there’s more than just press releases. You get those great Fred Hembeck covers on the special issues, there’s the occasional “Red K” awards issue that pokes fun at recent comics industry hoohar, there are interviews, and of course there is the surreal experience of the Spider-Man newspaper strips that are reprinted therein. How can anyone do without those?
Okay, pals…thanks for sticking with me. Back with More Stuff™ in short order.
I started reading comics pretty much exactly at what is commonly recognized as the beginning of the “Bronze Age” — 1968 or so. They didn’t use the term THEN, but “Silver Age” was already in use, and already referring to The Recent Past But We’re Not There Anymore. Reprints from the late ’50s to the mid ’60s were “Silver Age Classics.”
There was a period in the ’80s when the early ’70s were being lumped into the “Silver Age”, but that never seemed right to me.
I think “Bronze Age” first popped up shortly after the Crisis, and to me, it just seemed RIGHT; since then, I’ve identified as a “Bronze Age Fan”.
I’ll note that in the ’70s, DC used “Golden Age” and “Silver Age” in their ads and comics — to me, one of the key parts of the Bronze Age was DC kicking every book up to 52* pages and adding reprints as back-up stories, which gave me a sense of comics HISTORY. Marvel, to my recollection, only occasionally used “Golden Age”, and never used “Silver Age” at all until much later.
* And I only just realized that the number that DC has latched onto as their Metaphysically Significant Arc Number has its roots deeper than the 2006-2007 weekly series of the same name. “52 BIG Pages! Only 25 cents!”
Gotta love the Larry Lieber Spider-man strip.
Somehow, Batman at the movie theatre was a breathtaking gothic opera, but Batman on VHS was a silly awkward bore.
Huh. Chasdom has a point. Removed from the big screen, where it did come across as a colossal gothic opera, Batman did become kind of silly on a normal television. Mind, I wonder if that would’ve applied if we’d had 55″ widescreen monsters back then.
Sorry, I think Chuck Barris already trademarked that.