Mike Sterling's Progressive Ruin
Quicker than quick, stronger than strong since 1969
Mikester 
A contentious figure, certainly, but very much a talented one, whose writing has loomed large in my life for many, many years. There’s a whole lot one could say about him, good and ill, and no matter your opinion on him, I’m sure it’s entirely justified. Still, it’s going to be weird thinking he’s no longer out there, being angry about something, pissing somebody off, or writing something amazing, or doing all three at once.
So long, Harlan.
I’ve been taking it easy of late, spending my nights watching movies and not thinking about work, health issues, the world in general…you know, this “relaxing” I’ve heard so much about. About a week or so ago I borrowed the animated Batman: Ninja movie from Netflix, which wasn’t very good…it was like having to watch the cut scenes for a video game you weren’t able to play, plus the film was afflicted by a particularly screechy Joker that seemed to occupy 175% of the movie’s runtime. But that got me to pull out some of the previous DC direct-to-home-video animated features that I own and give them a rewatch.
Well, okay, this current spate of rewatches really started with an initial viewing of the new Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay movie, the latest in DC’s “R” rated cartoons for the kiddies. It was…better than I expected it to be, actually. Plenty of action and humor and a surprising callback to the Flashpoint cartoon (which kicked off DC’s current “animated universe” continuity)…it certainly keeps your interest as everyone chases after the story’s MacGuffin (the “Get Out of Hell” card from Gail Simone’s Secret Six run. As I sort of referred to on Twitter a bit ago, the superpowered community in the DC universe is likely aware of concrete evidence of the existence of an afterlife, just from the course of doing their usual business. So, for most of the characters in this film, “Hell” is a very real thing they are desperately trying to avoid, adding an extra layer of…well, dread, I guess, to the proceedings. Anyway, a pretty good film that I’m sure Mom or Dad just threw into the DVD player for Little Billy to watch, resulting in quite the shock.
Hell to Pay has the usual trailers and “sneak peeks” for upcoming DC cartoons, including a new adaptation of “The Death of Superman” (I discussed their previous go at it here). Well, I have a specific complaint about it I’ll make a little farther down this post, but really, DC, you can do better than this:
The next movie I watched was Superman Unbound, the adaptation of that Geoff Johns/Gary Frank Brainiac story. Another good one, I thought…this precedes DC’s animated universe continuity, and I seem to recall saying somewhere or ‘nother at the time that it was a shame the film was setting up a sequel that would probably never come. It also throws in the Clark/Lois romance that 1) establishes that Lois totally knows that Clark is Superman, and 2) ends with Clark’s proposal to Lois, which, again, won’t be followed up on in anything. Probably some folks coming to this movie cold are thrown off by this sudden change in the status quo that is for the most part not reflected in any of the other films. Or just as probably, don’t care, and leave it to big goofs like me who think about things like this too much. Aside from all that…a big, bruising Brainiac that can physically go toe-to-toe with Superman still seems a bit weird to me, but remains an interesting take on the character, differentiating him enough from Lex Luthor so that he’s just not “the smart guy from space” where Lex is “the smart guy from Earth.” My animated Brainiac preference remains the one from the Superman: The Animated Series, however.
Followed that up with a couple of Batman-specific films…Batman: Under the Red Hood gives us, well, the Red Hood, a reborn Jason Todd who comes back under circumstances a lot less Big-Event Heavy than the ones in the original comics. Is Infinite Crisis/Earth-Prime Superboy still the catalyst for Red Hood’s return in post-Flashpoint continuity? Seems like it shouldn’t be. And yes, I feel shame for even wording that question. Aside from all that, I enjoyed John DiMaggio’s deep-voiced Joker…still a maniac, but a more controlled, dangerous maniac, as well as Wade Williams as the entirely-contrasting Black Mask, histrionic and entirely bonkers. The film ends on a remarkably melancholy note, as Todd’s initial venture as Robin the Boy Wonder is recalled. A very downbeat but effective film.
Son of Batman was the next I watched, introducing Damian Wayne to the new animated continuity. I…don’t really have much to say about it, aside from it doing a good job showing why this character was so divisive for comic fans at the start, and progressing this new Robin into a character you want to see more from at the end. And you do see more of him, since as part of the Animated Universe, Damian will pop again…
…such as in Justice League Versus Teen Titans, which I’m currently in the middle of rewatching. Aside from the “Old Comic Fan” disease I’m experiencing due to the incongruity of Cyborg being in the Justice League, and his place in the Titans being taken by the newest iteration of the Blue Beetle, it’s been a fun film. One thing watching this film reminded me of, however, was Superman’s post-New 52 reworked costume that the Animated Universe is using:
It…it just doesn’t look good. I mean, I guess I can live with it, and now that Superman’s costume is now about 99% back to its usual look in the comics, hopefully these cartoons will follow suit. Alas, not in time to keep this costume about of that Death of Superman movie (which the trailer shows Clark running into action and stripping off his shirt to reveal the Superman getup…even though the collar should have clearly been sticking out from underneath his clothing). Ah well, what can you do.
Not sure what I’m going to watch next…there’s that one Batman film with Batwoman, which I know I saw but don’t entirely recall. Or there’s the Justice League: Throne of Atlantis, which I seem to remember being fairly slight as these films go, and not caring for it much. Maybe time for a second try? We’ll see.
So that’s what I’ve been doing, instead of blogging…totally being a couch potato. Sometimes, just for the sake of keeping one’s head on straight, that’s just what you gotta do, so please don’t judge too harshly.
Back soon with more stuff. Thanks for reading, pals.
So earlier in the week, comments were left on my war comics post regarding where one could find inexpensive reprints/collections of those very books. As was noted, DC put out several black and white volumes of their war books when they were still doing the Showcase series of paperback reprints.
Many of DC’s old war books had been reprinted, in digests and specials and 80/64/48-Page Giants over the years, but it’s been a while, and as the market is wont to do, even those reprints have crept up a bit in price. Now as it turns out, most of the war books I received in this collection I was talking about on Monday are in…less than pristine condition, and priced accordingly, so if anyone wants some cheap war comics and won’t be too particularly about the shape they’re in, I’m your guy!
Now all this talk about war comic reprints reminded me of one item that I rarely see…the last time I saw it was several years ago at the previous place of employment:
Totally stole the image from here, and if you look at the publisher listing you can see many of the other titles that were of the same ilk. Including, for example, the most famous of the bunch, Origins of Marvel Comics and Son of Origins, which I’ve seen pop in collections several dozen times versus the whole one time I found that America at War volume.
I’m sure once this Blackhawk movie gets a little closer to release we’ll start seeing some collections of those comics come back into print (with any luck, those great Mark Evanier/Dan Spiegel stories from the ’80s). Maybe it would be too much to hope that other war comic collections would follow suit? Maybe if Arnold Schwarzenegger had actually made that Sgt. Rock movie we would have had all the war comic reprints we could stand.
So this kind of blew my mind: Sting to write introduction to John Constantine anniversary hardcover.
The surprising element is that Constantine’s creation in Swamp Thing was inspired by artists Steve Bissette and John Totleben’s desire to drawn a character based on Sting. Now, for whatever reason, based on nothing in particular, I’d always half-believed that DC downplayed that particular connection to avoid any…legal shenanigans, perhaps. I don’t know. That’s probably part of the reason why this came as such a surprise to me. (The other reason was thinking Sting’s response would be “They based a WHAT on me? They want me to do WHAT? Get outta here.”)
But nope, there it is, officially announced by DC Comics. And if you click on that first link, you’ll see an actual honest-to-goodness video of Mr. Sting speaking about the occasion, dressed like Constantine. I mean, if only that could have been our movie version of John, right? (EDIT: video is gone from the DC post, but you can see a clip here.)
Anyway, the most shocking element of said video is his pronunciation of “Constantine” — as the dreaded “Constan-TEEN.” You maybe remember my longstanding losing battle against this, starting way back when with this here Swamp Thing panel:
…but, man, that’s it. I admit defeat. If Sting says it that way, then, you know, that’s just how it’s going to be. MY WAR IS OVER.
One strange aspect of being involved in comics retail for so long (officially 30 years this September)
is that despite all the old comics and collections that have passed through my hands, both at my previous place of employment and at my own shop
and how familiar to me many, many individual issues and covers of other genres of comics have become, DC Comics war titles always seem fresh and new to me.
I’ve held multiple copies of Amazing Fantasy #15, but I’m pretty sure it’s the first time I’ve ever beheld many of these recent war comic acquisitions in person (such as this copy of DC Special Series #13 from 1978).
DC’s war comics don’t turn up in collections very often or in much quantity, at least compared to their superpowered cousins
whether it’s due to copies not surviving, readers not giving up their copies, or simply scarcity from comparatively lower sales (particularly in latter-day examples).
Even the rarest superhero comics have a feeling of “been there, seen it” that the war comics do not, possibly due to the extra coverage they get, the extensive reprinting, the familiarity of the characters and situations.
Occasionally I’ll even find one in a collection I want to keep…the irony, in regards to this discussion, that the comic in question prominently features superhero covers is not lost on me.
But as much as I get that “new to me” feeling from individual DC war issues I rarely encounter, don’t get me started on the Charlton war books.
So as I was talking to my former boss Ralph about Miracleman orders, as I mentioned last time, I also had a question or two about the actual process of ordering the monthly comics back in the long-ago days of the early 1980s. You may recall that I’d been going through boxes and boxes of Ralph’s old comic company promotional materials from the early days of his shop (something I need to get back to soon, in fact). In the process of doing so, I found several retailer packs filled with order forms and publisher promos and such…no single Previews catalog like we have now, but rather pretty much every publisher supplied their own individual fliers with product information. You’d go through all these, figure out your orders, write the numbers down in the order form supplied by the distributor, and send that in.
I asked Ralph if that was as huge a pain in the ass as it seemed, and he said that, actually, no, it wasn’t. For one thing, there was a lot less monthly product to be ordered. There weren’t hundreds and hundreds of pages to plow through…I don’t have one of those old retailer packs right in front of me at the moment, but if I had to make a rough estimate, at the absolute high end all those different fliers and info sheets probably didn’t total up to more than about 100 pages. In addition, orders were probably a lot more consistent from month to month…no reboots/relaunches/crossover events/variant covers/whathaveyou making you have to ponder and re-ponder your numbers. You’d have to pay attention to things like “who’s drawing this issue?” and “is Wolverine guest-starring?” more than “how many more readers are going to bail on the book with its fifth consecutive first issue in as many years?”
Now, with the Previews catalog slowly becoming multiple booklets (as I somewhat sarcastically commented upon at the beginning of this End of Civilization post), it’s like we’re slowly returning to that time. I only half-jokingly suggested that Dynamite and IDW and so on would get their own separate product info publications…that’s how things used to be done, and maybe could again. At least, until it all goes entirely digital, and I’m squinting at an endless series of downloaded order form PDFs on my computer screen.
Anyway, one thing Ralph mentioned about ordering comics way back when was, a thing that made the actual process easier, was that with the smaller product line it was easier to keep track of things in his head, versus maintaining extensive cycle sheets, on which you could keep track of each title’s orders and weekly sales. That was fine up until the late ’80s/early ’90s comics boom, when numbers on a lot of titles suddenly exploded, and instead of 20 or 30 copies of something, you were suddenly ordering 300 copies. Even at that point, it was theoretically possible to just mentally track the numbers, but once the comics market crash hit…hoo boy.
Now keep in mind that we didn’t know that the crash was “The Crash” as it was initially happening. After a couple of years of huge, nonstop sales — “it’s like our Christmas rush never ended!” I remember saying to someone at the time — a sudden downturn wasn’t seen as an immediate problem. It was like, “oh, That’s Just Retail, it comes and goes, the customers will be back” and orders stayed up…and up, and up, and eventually the lightbulb clicks on over your head and you realize “oh, wait, this is bad.” Particularly with a two or three month lead time between making your orders and receiving them, at a time before distributors had the “Final Order Cutoffs” for retailers to adjust orders on some products a little closer to the actual release dates.
If you look back in my “market crash” category, you’ll see me talking about this sort of thing. What I haven’t mentioned is what my former coworker Rob and I used to do was make notes for Ralph in the Previews or Capital City catalogs (which by this time did exist as a retailing tool, versus all the separate booklets) and make notes next to specific title that we felt had desperately egregious differences between what was ordered and what was left over. In other words, basically saying “for God’s sake, order fewer copies of Spider-Man Unlimited” or whatever. It was this sort of thing that eventually brought us to adopting the full-on cycle sheet method of keeping track of orders versus weekly sales, rather than just depending on memory and the now completely gone consistency of numbers from month to month. Gone were the days of bumping up numbers because “if it doesn’t sell on the rack, surely it’ll sell through as back issues,” which may have been sorta true during the boom, but “cutting numbers to the bone” was the strategy of the day after the crash took full hold.
Today, at my own shop, I use a combination of methods…I don’t necessarily use full cycle sheets, but I do keep track of certain items of note, do regular checks of what is and isn’t moving on the new shelf, and otherwise just keep a close eye on sales. It’s a bit easier when I’m the one man on the job, there every day, seeing how stuff is selling. Everything that leaves the store passes through my hands (well, I mean, let’s hope) so I am directly witnessing how product is moving. It’s still tricky…sales on the previous Venom or Hulk series wouldn’t have given me any clue as to how the new relaunches would sell, for example…but for the most part, everything’s more or less consistent and I’m not having too much trouble staying on top of everything. Now, if there should be another big comics boom, I’d definitely switch everything over to detailed sales tracking, which would be a lot more work, but, you know, a good problem to have…while it lasted.
Just a brief follow-up on MIRACLEMAN TALK (from this day and this other day)…I did ask my former boss about the comic and the relative scarcity thereof, and once again I called upon his powers of recollection regarding his comic orders from decades ago.
To the best of his memory, while in general his Miracleman orders had dropped as the series went on over the years, his numbers hadn’t varied that much during that end run by Moore and Totleben. In other words, he didn’t suddenly cut orders on #15, purposefully making that the “rare” issue. While delays and such did affect sales a bit, Ralph said that he quite liked Miracleman and wanted to support it. It was generally agreed that the likely explanations for that one issue’s relative scarcity was the reputation it had garnered when it was new and on the shelf, thus bumping up sales to curious readers who hadn’t been following the title before, and in the years that followed said reputation kept the comic out of circulation as, to repeat what I’d said before, it was “hot and rare” because it was “hot and rare” – an assumption of collectability that fed into itself.
Related to the former assumption that some of those #15s that were bought as one-off samplings of the series by folks who didn’t otherwise read the comic is the idea that many of those particular comics were just simply lost or discarded — “ah, I just have the one” [tosses it into the trashcan], that sort of thing. Or perhaps they’re still there, buried in neglected short boxes out in the garage, with tools and pieces of wood and that old tire pump that doesn’t really work all that well but you never seem to get around to buying another one so the old one will do for now, all piled on top of the lid. That’s just talking about the people who dipped in and out again buying the one issue, inflating those rack sales…I’m sure there are plenty of full runs of Miracleman out there equally languishing. I mean, I know I have a set of the series tucked away for another reread after I actually catch up on all the recent comics I’ve not had time to read yet.
Anyway, the scarcity of #15 was borne out by his recollection (and mine, from my years tending the comics mines at that shop) that as far as backstock storage went, Ralph still had leftover unsold stock on most of the Miracleman issues, but didn’t have any #15s. Without cycle sheet information tracking sales at the time, that was our only real indicator of the increased demand for that one issue over the ones around it. Now, whether that was specifically from rack sales or just secondary market demand, that’s hard to say today. (Eventually most of the rest of the stock was sold off, too, as Miracleman went through occasional fits of demand over the years…and of course with the advent of eBay, the stock depleted even further).
So there we go…plenty of assumptions and some distant memories…nothing but the coldest, hardest facts here at Dubba-U Dubba-U Dubba-u Dot Progressively Ruined Dot Weirdcountrycode. Also, as I was talking to Ralph, the topic came up of, as I said, cycle sheets, plus the actual process of ordering back in Ye Olden Dayes, so look forward to that, and more Comic Crash Talk, in the next day or so.
HO HO HO! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everyone! Let’s see what presents jolly ol’ Saint Nick is bringing us in his giant sack of goodies by looking in the newest Diamond Previews catalog, June edi–wait, hold on.
…
Er…happy summer, everyone, I think? Follow along in your June 2018 Previews and let’s see what we can expect in…the fall? I mean, some of this stuff may show up around Christmastime, right? Anyway, here we go…and I apologize in advance to my Italian videogame plumber friends:
p. 48 – The Walking Dead Comic Book Box:
“Wow, a box to hold all our Blu-ray sets! This is really neat!”
p. 94 – Super Mario Bros. Encylopedia HC:
“Remember-a me, Mario? I had a report due on space-a!”
p. 227 – Peanuts Dell Archive HC:
Look, it’s worth it just to get this story on nice paper:
This here website is no stranger to questioning the semi-physicality of the unquiet spirits of Harvey Comics (for example). Granted, Casper isn’t shown actually eating anything here, so perhaps the ghosts of the Harvey Universe wander the earth, torturing themselves with memories of their long-lost ability to enjoy the taste of food, lustfully gazing upon that which is forever denied them, their desire never sated. I mean, as far as Casper goes. Hot Stuff’s nature as a “demon” is presumably not as phantasmal as Casper’s, and thus can eat things like cake, and souls, and, you know, whatever.
p. 296 – Star Wars Cookbook: Han Sandwiches & Other Galactic Snacks HC:
Whoever came up with “Han Sandwiches” deserves an award, followed by some jail time. Also, are the iconic Wookiee-ookies (as namechecked in the Star Wars Holiday Special) present in this volume? If not, then GOOD DAY, SIR.
p. 236 – DC Comics Anatomy of a Metahuman HC:
Boy, remember when we had to dissect actual metahumans in our high school biology classes? Now it’s all “computer simulations” and such and you kids have it so easy today.
p. 328 – Doctor Cthulittle Illustrated Novella HC:
DOIN’ TIME NEXT TO THE “HAN SANDWICHES” PERSON.
p. M17 – Muppets Action Figures Swedish Chef Deluxe Gift Set:
…Okay, not really a joke as such, but it’s been stuck in my head since coming across this issue at the shop, and, well, there you go.
DC Previews p. 2 – Sandman Universe #1:
THE DEBUT OF THE SANDMAN’S NEW ARMOR COSTUME, WITH THE GIANT BOOTS AND FANCY CUFFS AND THE HIGH NECK COLLAR…well, okay sometimes he actually has the high neck collar, look, let me make my incredibly timely New 52 Superman costume joke.
DC Previews p. 38 – Injustice Vs. The Masters of the Universe #2:
Swamp Thing’s in it. …SIGH.
DC Previews p. 52 – Scooby-Doo Team-Up #41:
Someone inform Overstreet we’ve got a new bondage cover to be singled out in the price guide listings.
DC Previews p. 87 – Titans Book One Together Forever TP & Titans Vol. 4 Titans Apart TP:
Well, that escalated quickly.
DC Previews p. 88 – Watchmen DC Modern Classics Edition HC:
Finally, DC’s come up with the perfect reprint format for All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder. I expect this in the solicitations soon, DC .
Marvel Previews p. 12 – Fantastic Four #1:
“At last Marvel is bringing back the Fantastic Four! Surely they’ve come up with a new sales strategy to encourage readers to pick up a title that, over the last few years, has had trouble finding an audience!”
[sees $5.99 price tag on #1]
“Well, better luck next time.”
Marvel Previews p. 192 – Star Wars Beckett #1:
Finally, I can find out how much all my Star Wars trading cards are worth.
Marvel Previews p. 135 – Iron Man 2020 TPB (New Printing):
Couldn’t wait, like, another year and a half, could they.
Okay, I was planning on this being a two-post week, but I find myself having to report on the only big comic news to come out in the last few days. I am, of course, talking about the reveal of the covers for the first issue of Dark Horse’s Mystery Science Theater 3000 series.
The regular cover, by Todd Nauck, which has a real Mad Magazine vibe to it:
The variant, by regular contributor to the MST3K box sets Steve Vance, featuring Tom Servo’s very disturbing man-hands:
I have no idea what ratio that variant will be available in…1 in 10? 1 in 100? 1 in 1000? Well, I hope my customers are ready for 1,000 copies of the MST3K comic, because I’m gonna need both versions. Anyway, read more about it at this article here.
As I assumed back in ye olden tymes, the comics will indeed be the Satellite of Love crew riffing over old comics (as was the original plan waaaaay back even farther when Acclaim Comics intended to do their own MST funnybooks). I’ve been waiting for a MST3K comic book for a very long time, and I’m very glad it’s almost here.
Oh, and I guess there’s some big to-do about Vertigo this week as well. I mean, in much less important news.