Like anyone’s going to want to cut up their comics.

§ September 30th, 2020 § Filed under batman, collecting, this week's comics § 7 Comments

So in Monday’s post, I linked back to an ancient entry on my site regarding the insertion of flexidiscs into comic books. I warned this particular entry was rife with dead links, but I should probably have noted there was some dead information there as well.

2004 Me stated “we can pretty much forget about seeing comics with flexidisc inserts ever again” given that record players were on the way out. Well, 2020 Me knows that actual vinyl records have made a resurgence…and never really went away in the first place, though it feels like they’re more of a “thing” now. Could be I’m just more aware of it, after inheriting a large-ish collection of LPs from my grandparents and purchasing a brand new record player. And buying new records. And haunting local thrift stores for any album donations. And maybe taking in some Nipsey Russell records at the shop for store credit.

At any rate, Records Ain’t Dead, and neither are flexidiscs being distributed in funnybooks, and I had claimed. Reader Matthew was first in the comments to note

“Post York #1 (published by Uncivilized Books) in 2012 and Hip Hop Family Tree #12 in 2016”

and I do remember taking preordeers on that Hip Hop Family Tree specifically for the inserted flexidisc.

And then BKMunn pointed in the direction of this now sold-out comic from a musician that included a flexidisc.

I guess there’s still some life in the ol’ flexi just yet. Now if we can get paper/cardboard discs on comic book back covers that we’d have to cut out, like we older folks used to do as kids with cereal boxes, that’d be great. There’s a gimmick I coiuld get behind. GET ON IT, um, I don’t know, VAULT COMICS I guess.

• • •

Okay, I didn’t read a lot of new comics this week (been watching I, Claudius on DVD and streaming the final season of The Good Place now that it’s finally made its way to Netflix) but boy howdy did I read Batman: Three Jokers #2. I won’t go all into it like I did with the first issue, but suffice to say that the art by Jason Fabok (both interiors and all those covers) is still spot on. The story…welllll, this is one of those comics that feels like a ten pound load in a fifty pound sack. A lot of this probably could’ve been taken care of in a single 48-page special or, you know, a two-parter at most.

The majority of this issue is concerned with the ramifications of events from the last issue, so there’s lots of interpersonal drama and a set-up for either a big reveal next issue (placing this firmly in out-of-continuity territory) or a big reset button (making it in continuity or whatever passes for it now). I mean, whatever, it’s fine…not as important as it wants to be, and it’s kind of sweet that it’s trying so hard to tie itself to the look ‘n[‘ feel of The Killing Joke. I know some online hay was made out of a shot of a couple of manilla folders, one marked “missing criminals,” and the other marked “missing clowns,” and c’mon, there’s kind of a weird ridiculous beauty to that.

• • •

Still taking comic artform/business/whathaveyou questions to answer here in the coming weeks, so just drop one into the comments at that post if you can!

7 Responses to “Like anyone’s going to want to cut up their comics.”

  • Isaac says:

    Best flexidisc ever was in the Bloom County collection Billy and Boingers Bootleg. “Let’s Run Over Lionel Ritchie With a Tank” is an unsung classic.

  • Randal says:

    Wasn’t it “U Stink but I Luv U?” Ages ago at San Diego, when IDW was just starting their Bloom County collections, I asked the panel if they were going to include the disc. They said they hoped to. Liars!

  • Mike Loughlin says:

    3 Jokers 1 was dumb fun. 3 Jokers 2 was everything I dislike about Geoff Johns’s writing. I hope issue 3 swings back to dumb fun, Great art, though.

  • Mikester says:

    As a proud owner of the Bloom County flexidisc from the very moment it was released, I can tell you side one is “I’m A Boinger,” and side two is “U-Stink-But-I-♥-U.”

    It was so popular at a college radio station I was tangentially involved with at the time that the station director hid the cart the single was on to keep deejays from playing it over and over again.

  • Isaac says:

    I stand corrected! Thanks for providing the right title. Nice to know I’m not alone in my love for it!

  • Snark Shark says:

    “Let’s Run Over Lionel Ritchie With a Tank” is a song mentioned in the strip itself, not recorded in real life (as far as I know).

    Decibel, a heavy metal magazine, includes flexi-discs in each issue! they’re been doing that for at least a couple of years.

  • Snark Shark says:

    ““missing criminals,” and the other marked “missing clowns,””

    Make your own TRUMP joke!