Mikester

I’m sure I made a typo somewhere in this post which negates my entire point.

filed under Categories this week's comics 11 Comments

So there I was, reading the long-awaited final issue of Dark Nights: Metal, new this week from DC Comics, a series that has been a hoot-and-a-half pretty much all the way through, until I come to this. Here, at a gathering where one person has just given an inspirational speech, the others cry out their approval with the traditional cheer of


…by which I assume they mean “hear, hear,” the shortened form of the older phrase “hear him, hear him,” which makes it even more obvious that somebody must have screwed up somewhere. It’s very much an “editing by spellcheck” error, like the kind that was prevalent at the original early ’90s Valiant Comics, which never met a misused “it’s” it didn’t like.

I mean, yeah, okay, it happens. Everyoone makes mistaaks, but it’s especially embarrassing at the end of a highly-regarded, high profile event series for which they’re dinging you a fiver per copy. As these things go, it’s fairly minor…at least the pages aren’t out of order, or the cover doesn’t have an enormous spelling mistake in big red letters:


Anyway, I found that Dark Nights typo distracting. Had it been, like, in someone’s word balloon, maybe I wouldn’t have been bothered as much, but there it is, in attention-grabbing bold letters, floating over the heads of the characters, poking me directly in my eyes. I know some people do argue for the “here, here” spelling, but my calm and rational response is that they’re wrong and must be shunned forever.

As for the comic itself, aside from all that: loud and fun nonsense, that’s taking another shot at making a certain DC Comics second-stringer usable again, which may or may not work this time. We’ll see. Also, in terms of “introducing new characters and teams and leading into new comic book series,” I give it a 0.75 on the “Last Issue of Millennium” Blatancy Scale, which I think is more than fair.

Yes, “buck” is supposed to be singular.

filed under Categories blogging about blogging is a sin, retailing 7 Comments

Hey, I keep forgetting to mention that Mike over at Zombie Cat Bacon is doing a rundown of comics blogs linked at a couple of the weblog update sites (such as the immortal Comics Weblog Update-a-Tron 3000) and seeing who’s active, who’s not, who’s moved on to other formats, who’s transcended this world of pain, who’s naughty, who’s nice, and so on. That link up there goes to the most recent post, but the previous installments are mostly on the main page and the next page back.

It’s interesting, if a little…I don’t know, melancholy I guess, since a lot of the folks I thought of as “my fellow comics bloggers” have, probably wisely, found other things to do, leaving me and a few others as the last standing members of the old folks…er, old guard still doing whatever it is we think we’re doing. Meanwhile, you young folks with your Tumblrs and your Mastodons and your Snapgrams will forge ahead with your New and Now comics commentary while I’m still posting about how comics aren’t like how they were back when I was a kid, while trying to open up my Geritol with my weak, gnarled hands.

Of course comic blogging is all going to end with Johanna and I fighting each other with broadswords on a desert plateau somewhere, while Neilalien looks sadly down upon us from whatever multidimensional plane to which he’d long since ascended.

• • •

Here, let me write a little about comics so it’s not just blogging about blogging again:

One of the recent comics retail phenomenons is of course the recent increase in demand for issues leading up to The Big Anniversary Issues, Action Comics #1000 and Amazing Spider-Man #800. To a small extent, some of the sales increase, at least in the case of Marvel’s books, may be attributable to the gradual rise in purchases due to the recent, and already about to be rescinded, “Marvel Legacy” initiative, as I wrote about here. In the case of Spidey’s book, however, the primary reason seems to be a combination of whatever is going on the Green (or, rather, Red) Goblin, a new evolution of a classic Marvel villain, plus the fact that Amazing Spider-Man sales had been kinda eh lately which means a “scarcity” of copies in comparison to the number of people trying to get their hands on them. They’re Hot, They’re Rare, People Snap Lots of Copies off Shelves, They’re Even Rarer and Hotter Now. You know the cycle.

Action Comics I’ve certainly noticed a small bump in sales as we approach #1000, but not quite the same “hotness” since I’ve had pretty good luck getting reorders on recent issues. A nice side effect is that the lenticular covers for the “Oz Effect” storyline, which, er, I may have had a few extras for and thus left on the rack, are selling again.

Now the trick of course, as has been noted, is trying to figure out how these titles are going to sell after hitting the big double and/or triple zero milestone…made especially trickier as we’ve got some changes in status quos coming to both (yet another relaunch for one, Big Name Writer for the other). As I’m pretty sure I’ve already discussed somewhere already (oh, wait, it was here), the relaunched Spider-Man I’m going to have a lot easier time figuring numbers on (the assumption being that ASM sales will likely shrink back to where they were before), while for Bendis coming onto Superman, I’m going to have to extend all my sales-estimating powers. I think it’ll do well at least at first, but how well, for how long? That’s what they pay me the big buck to figure out, so let’s hope I can.

Remember when my Swamp Thing posts were all like “HEY, SWAMP THING’S HAND IS IN AN ISSUE OF INFINITE CRISIS.”

filed under Categories justice league, pal plugging, swamp thing, television 4 Comments

An Addendumdedumdum to My Most Recent Post: it is now The Future, so I may now reveal the truth behind that No-Prize. It is, in fact, a No-No-Prize, a simulacrum, a deliberate reconstruction of what how a No-Prize may have appeared, constructed by a friend (not Rob, as previously theorized) who shall go nameless here lest Stan the Man himself call down the Merry Marvel Marching Society upon him for such perilous perfidy. Anyway, said friend assembled the pics, slapped ’em on envelopes, and sent them to me and at least one other person just for laffs. YOU GOT ME, FRIEND I AM PROTECTING FROM THE MARVEL ZOMBIE HORDE.

• • •

So the only comic news this week is the revelation that Swamp Thing is returning to the funnybook pages (like, again…he’s always up to something, somewhere, since he’s come back to the regular DC Universe). He’s going to be a member of the revived Justice League Dark title, along with Zatanna and Detective Chimp, as God intended:

…yeah, that’s a new look for him. Saw someone on Twitter (can’t remember who, now) commenting that he’s basically been made to look like Alan Moore, which, okay, that’s kind of funny. Anyway, I’m looking forward to this and the other dozen or so new Justice League titles DC is releasing in the wake of that movie’s success.

• • •

What’s that? You want more Swamp Thing news, you say? Well, you’ve come to probably the right place, as there are a couple of new toys, or at least new to me, that just came to my awareness thanks to being pointed out by pals on the Twitter (and images for which I “borrowed” from this good person’s Twitter feed. First up is one based on the Justice League Action animated series appearing on a Cartoon Network near you.


And then this second one is from the “DC Super Friends” line:


Interesting that both feature Swamp Thing with his traditional weapon of choice, the Huge-Ass Club. Anyway, I suppose I’ll have to track these down, too, even though I’m trying to buy less doodads and tchotchkes but there’s always the Swamp Thing Exception Clause in my life contract as I pass through the other end of middle age.

• • •


Here’s a thing I somehow missed back in the toy stores of yore, but now reproduced in the new popular digital format all you kids are into: the handheld Swamp Thing game from Tiger Electronics, in all its emulated glory.

Anyway, while all you nerds are playing your funnybook game, I’ll be over here playing this manly sportsman-like Electronic Quarterback from Coleco (which, all kidding aside, I actually did play back in the late ’70s, as a friend owned it — I had a basketball version, for some reason, though that specific game appears not to be amongst the emulated here).

• • •

So I did watch SyFy’s new Krypton show (as discussed previously) and…yeah, it seemed interesting enough. At first, it seemed like it was going to go the Smallville route of making the Superman story unnecessarily complicated for the sake of getting any kind of compellingly-watchable TV show out of all this nonsense. But of course this pushes everything far enough back that Superman himself, as we know him, while offstage (for now) and the target of some kind of time-traveling threat, is relatively untouched by the proceedings. In Smallville, despite knowing that yes, this was just a different interpretation of the character, it was difficult to draw a line from what we were seeing in that show to what we knew about Superman. Just…too many weird continuity shenanigans. That’s more the problem with my fanboy brain than anything the producers were doing, admittedly. In Krypton, though, actual events on Krypton are enough of an open book that I could theoretically avoid any such issues.

And I say “theoretically” only because I’m way behind on the few shows I do watch, and adding one more to the pile isn’t going to help matters any. I watched this first one more out of curiosity, but I expect I won’t end up watching any more ’til it’s on a streaming service or discs I can rent from Netflix. I will reiterate that directly connecting the events of the show to the “present” of Superman’s time was the gimmick needed to get me at least somewhat interested, more than just giving us A Game of Space-Thrones That Is Sorta Connected to Superman, Eventually.

• • •

Hey, my old pal Brandon is doing a little research for a collector’s guide project he’s working on, regarding “all your favorite giant rubber animals, dinos and monsters […] Toys by Imperial Toy, Chitech, Dor Mei & more!” If you’re on the Twitterers, you can follow that link and direct-message him there. Or if you’re not on the Tweetings, you can email me and I can pass along your contact information. If you can help him out, please do! Thanks!

I can only presume that my mailman just sighs and shakes his head every time he has to put something in my mailbox.

filed under Categories marvel 4 Comments

EDIT: Update at end of this post!

So here’s something I got in the mail the other day:


…what appears to be a genuine Marvel No-Prize (which is, for those of you who don’t know, the long-running “award” of sorts sent out by Marvel to the fans for various reasons, and is always comprised of an empty envelope). I’m pretty sure this wasn’t sent by Marvel, as that looks like my old friend (and former coworker) Rob’s writing on the front of the envelope there, so the full story of this particular item is yet in my future.

I once had what I thought was a surefire way of getting an actual from-Marvel No-Prize for myself a few decades back, in the 1980s, when it seemed like No-Prizes were just given out willy-nilly. Sometimes No-Prizes were given out for coming up with some clever explanation for what appeared to be an in-story mistake or some other kind of error. I found such an error in Marvel’s in-house “fanzine” Marvel Age, where an article was given the wrong page number on the table of contents. Turning to that page actually brought you to a picture of Doctor Doom, and I had some kind of elaborate and “funny” and possibly No-Prize-worthy idea that this was in fact a cunning ruse by ol’ Vic Von, to trick people into gazing upon his visage and falling under his thrall, instead of finding a sneak peek of Wolfpack or whatever that article was in the TOC.

Anyway, never mailed it in, so I lost my chance at my non-reward…but I guess getting this in the mail makes up for it. Thanks, anonymous benefactor who is probably Rob!

EDIT 3/23/18: Okay, it wasn’t Rob, but another friend who mocked up a No-Prize envelope and mailed it to me. That sneaky guy!

For the love of God, I hope they’re not eating the gum.

filed under Categories retailing, trading cards 6 Comments

So I haven’t done a whole lot with trading cards at my store since opening up a tad over three years ago. I think I maybe a box of some Marvel set in 2015 that slowly, eventually sold out. It was a trend I noticed at the previous place of employment, too…the nonsport cards just weren’t doing all that great for us. I mean, sure, the game cards did fine, your Magic and your Pokemon and your Spellfire and your Galactic Empires, that’s a different story. But your “110 More Tiny Pictures of Wolverine” card sets, those just seem…passé of late.

I mean, nothing against them. I’d like them to sell, and new sets still come out once in a while, so they’re selling somewhere, but it’s not like how it was in ye olden dayes. (Okay, yeah, I know, comics themselves don’t sell like they used to, either.) But we’re a long way from when we’d get in multiple cases of whatever the newest Marvel Universe set was, and we’d just put a stack of full boxes of packs up by the register and watch the impulse buys happen and that stack disappear. In the ’80s and ’90s, it seemed like everybody bought cards. I even still have a few binders of sets I put together back then…the all-chromium set of Golden Age comic book covers is still a weird favorite of mine.

For the longest time, the nonsport cards…well, okay, let me stop being coy, specifically the Marvel cards…were like sports cards. Lots of people coming in and asking about them, but never because they wanted to buy any. It was almost exclusively “what are mine worth?” and “will you buy them?” Rarely did the words “Boy, I would sure like to purchase any available sets of Marvel Universe Series IV you may have!” echo throughout our showroom, which didn’t exactly encourage us to stock card sets in any kind of depth. And we did have card sets (again, still talking about the previous place of employment)…had a small glass case with a number of sets and chase cards prices out and displayed, but only rarely did they move.

Shortly after I opened my new shop, I had someone bring in a collection of still-sealed boxes of nonsport cards (Marvel and otherwise) that I did okay with selling online. Usually not for a lot of money, but they sold, so the demand was there…the boxes just had to be cheap. And recently, an old friend of mine began to liquidate some of his collection, and asked me to sell his card product: full boxes, autographed cards, and even some of those slabbed, graded single cards. It was from his collection that I obtained this box of Dune cards you may have seen me post about on the Twitters:


…which ended up selling for about $40, which…well, that ain’t nuthin’, but when first I saw that I figured “ah geez, a hundred bucks easy!” until I looked at the eBay card market and eh, that wasn’t going to happen. But still, that’s $40 we didn’t have before, and for a full box of relatively recent trading cards, that ain’t too bad, I guess. I sold a bunch of boxes of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? cards for about $15 each, which doesn’t seem like much, but eventually you’d just rather have the $15 a pop than multiple boxes sitting in a storage room somewhere.

Just the other day, my friend brought me another box of unopened card boxes, including this set which I don’t even remember:


I mean, I imagine I would have remembered at least the typo on the lid (“FANS-tastic,” indeed) but it’s possible that 1) it was a while ago, and there’s probably plenty of card product I just don’t remember, or 2) there was so much card product that we couldn’t order everything, so we passed on this one. As far as I can tell, there weren’t even fancy chase cards randomly packed in this series, which would have been especially odd in 1991, I think. Anyway, like most sets from the manufacturer Comic Images, there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of “collectors’ market” online demand for sealed boxes.

However, the new few sets seem to do have demand, selling for…well, not quite original retail, or maybe thereabouts, but certainly not the $1.29 I’ve seen some other card boxes sell for (Desert Storm cards, anybody?).

I remember the Marvel Masterpieces cards being quite the hot ticket back in the day:


…as people were really taken with the look of these cards, and, as I recall, they were quite nice. Seeing the full, sealed box like this does twinge the ol’ nostalgia nerves, I have to admit.

The thing about the next two sets:


…is not just that the design and color of the boxes attracted attention, but the size. This goes for that Masterpieces box, too…these were wee little tiny boxes, palm-sized and basically just shouted to customers “Look how small and cute we are! C’mon, don’t mess with packs, just buy us by the full box!” I can’t help but think this really encouraged the impulse buys at the time…just made them psychologically easier and more appealing to justify purchasing, over the big ol’ unwieldy Comic Images boxes with the 48 fat packs and a not-zero amount of air.

And as it turns out, there’s still a pretty good aftermarket for these as well. Not that I’ve sold mine yet, but sales histories for the sets seem to show that there have been multiple sales at significantly better than close-out prices, so with any luck it’s just a matter of time.

None of this means, of course, that there’s any sort of potential improvement in the marketplace for new trading card sets that’ll sell to store walk-in traffic. Those are different circumstances, but still, maybe I’ll try out a new card set or two just to see how they do. The 1990s market is never coming back, but it shouldn’t hurt too much to poke at the edges of the 2018 market. so long as one pokes wisely.

49 (and change).

filed under Categories jack kirby, obituary, old, smallville, superman, television 13 Comments

So one of the victims of my part-week blogging break was no birthday post. Yes, that’s right, your pal Mike just began his last year of his forties this past Tuesday…the warranty’s long expired, the creaking frame continues to bow, and the decay continues apace. I did mention the occasion on the Twitters, however, and received some very kind response there (as well as wishing birthday-and-blogging-brother Andrew a happy day).

The Bullest with the Mostest, Bully the Little Birthday Bull, worked up a bit of magic:


You can find the original image he used on this page of nightmare fuel. Oh, and by the way, now that I can make GIFs I may need to revisit that last pic.

Oh, and Tom Spurgeon over at Ye Olde Comics Reporter also noted the occasion, as he does every year. Thanks, Tom!

Another reason I kinda skipped out on the birthday post this time around is that I had my heart set on a particular panel, but could not find the thing, which has me wondering if I’m remembering the right comic, or if my age-addled brain has it confused with another comic, or if I didn’t just make up the whole thing out of thin air. Anyway, I’ll mention it here in case it rings a bell with any of you fine folks:

What I’m remembering is a panel from a Star Trek comic, maybe in the first DC series, or possibly the second run, where mention is made of Captain Kirk’s 49th birthday. However, and the reason this has stuck with me all this time (assuming I’m remembering it correctly at all) is that the “49th” in the comic had very obviously been relettered just prior to going to print, and almost certainly read “50th” originally. I mean, that was my presumption, in that they probably wouldn’t be making any kind of big deal out of a 49th birthday for story purposes. I remember guessing they were likely saving a 50th birthday story for some bigger event, or someone at the main Trek headquarters decided that they didn’t want Kirk to be that old, or some darned thing.

I hunted through my Trek comics for the scene, and couldn’t find it…I still have full runs of both series (didn’t give ’em up to my store!) plus all the specials and minis and whatnot, so if it actually exists, it’s in there somewhere. But, like I said, at this point I’m even sure it was in a Trek comic and involving Kirk. If you know, please share your knowledge!

• • •

So this week, DC released a freebie funnybook tying into the imminent Superman-prequel Krypton series appearing on the SyFy cable channel:


My immediate reaction to seeing that cover is “…Tom? Tom Welling?” but that’s likely because I watched all ten seasons of Smallville and I’m still recovering. But it didn’t help when I looked inside the comic at the “meet the characters” section and Superman’s grandfather is dressed like this:


…which all the world looks like the get-up Clark was wearing in the latter seasons of Smallville:


I mean, that has to be deliberate, right? Aside from all that…despite my initial skepticism regarding the show (“It’s about Superman’s grandpa?”) I’m actually intrigued, particularly now that I know about the time travel element and the inclusion of DC’s classic space hero Adam Strange. I may be one of those “wait to binge it on streaming” guys, since I’m way behind on everything as it is, but I’ll at least try to catch the first episode. …There better be at least one Thought-Beast on the show, that’s all I’m saying.

This tweet from Twitter pal Joe sort of got me thinking about that Smallville-esque comparison, though Joe’s point of contention/admiration was more for the “Fight Like El” tagline, which is admittedly both amazing and appalling. And if you’re wondering, yes, the entry for the Zod family character has a reference to kneeling, because that’s just a Zod thing now and you better be used to it. (“Fight Like El” reminded me of these somewhat confrontational DC bookmarks from a while back.)

Oh, that World of Krypton comic, by the way, is a reprint of the first issue of the mini-series of the same name from the mid-ish 1980s by John Byrne and Hellboy creator Mike Mignola. If you’ve never read it, it’s not bad…and if you like it, the entire series has been very conveniently reprinted in a World of Krypton trade paperback released just a week or two ago (along with other Krypton-based stories).

• • •

Oh, and there’s going to be a live-action New Gods movie…you know, no big deal. That of course means…LIVE ACTION SLEEZ:


Well, okay, maybe not. But the director of A Wrinkle in Time, Ava DuVernay, is signed on to direct, and given what I’ve seen of the visuals for that film (which I haven’t had a chance to see yet, despite really, really wanting to) gives me a good feeling about her take on Kirby’s Fourth World. Also, to quote my hopes for this film from Twitter, only with the stupid typo in the original corrected:

“I want this New Gods movie to be the Kirby-est thing that’s ever Kirbied. I want to SEE the quotation marks around assorted words in actors’ dialogue.”

I mean…right? Yes, yes, I know Thor: Ragnarok was very Kirby-ish, but New Gods was straight out of Kirby’s head, no Stan Lee required. I want everyone in their original costumes (yes, even…especially…Black Racer), I want dialogue quoted from the comics, I want that opening bit preserved in its entirety (“THERE CAME A TIME WHEN THE OLD GODS DIED!”), everything. I don’t care if movie audiences are ready for it. Let the studio paraphrase Jack himself on the movie posters: “DON’T ASK, JUST WATCH IT!”

Alas, it comes too late for the Don Rickles cameo:


…though it was suggested having one of his old movies/TV appearances on a television screen might be a good reference for those in the know.

But…c’mon, a New Gods movie. I can’t wait.

• • •

Mark Evanier reports that comics writer Michael Fleisher passed away last month at the age of 75. He was probably most famous for his Spectre and his Jonah Hex (and, ’round these here parts, the amazing Hex), but this is what I’ll remember him for the most:


I wrote a bit about that book a couple of years back…man, I spent I don’t know how many hours perusing that tome. And there it still sits on my bookshelf today, nearly forty years after I first acquired it. Thanks, Michael, for all that entertaining information you provided a young me, just beginning to learn about Superman’s history.

The State of the Site.

filed under Categories blogging about blogging is a sin 7 Comments

Okay, just to allay any fears (or, on the other hand, dash any hopes), given the semi-ominous title of this post, I’m not going anywhere. I just wanted to go over a few things.

First, and most importantly, regarding my my Patreon: yeah, that didn’t work out the way I was hoping. No, not you folks who contributed, I appreciate that like you wouldn’t believe. I mean specifically the idea to do a biweekly Swamp Thing comic review post…that was the weak part of this particular plan since, as it turns out, ha ha, that takes a lot of time. Time, I quickly discovered, I really did not have. I was trying to find a balance between my usual blog voice here and something, well, not formal as such, but “look, people are paying a buck to see these things, I need to get it together a little more than I tend to do.” I’m still trying to figure out an approach to these that doesn’t eat up every extra moment I have but still satisfies everyone’s Swampy cravings.

In the meantime…those Patreon contributions are helping me out quite a bit, in the original intention of me setting up the thing in the first place to subsidize my time spent on the site a little bit should anyone decide to chip in. Thank you to everyone who’s done so…my Early-Release-to-Patreon-Supporters Swamp Thing postings were my attempt at giving folks a little bit of an extra incentive to contribute, but clearly I need to rework my plans so that I can actually present an incentive I can continue to do.

Believe it or not, my other idea was a podcast, because sure, those take hardly any time at all to do, right? Blogging sister Tegan was doing a short form Star Wars podcast for her Patreon that I quite liked, and inspired me to think about my own. Part of the problem is that I’m not a very good extemporaneous speaker, which would require creating some kind of script (or even an outline) prior to recording, and I can already see that creating the very same time crunch the Swamp Thing posts were, even for the very short recordings I was planning. Well, at some point I would like to make some kind of audio file to inflict upon your ears, so we’ll see what I can do there.

As for the actual site here: yes, my decreasing amount of comic book computer fun time does impact this site as well. Like I said at the beginning, I’m not going anywhere. My intent is to continue posting every Monday/Wednesday/Friday and the occasional Saturday when I remember to do a “Sluggo Saturday” or “_____ Saturday” post. (Good Lord, I haven’t done one of the latter since 2013!) There may be (and have been!) weeks were I only posted Tuesday and Thursday. We’re a long way away from those halcyon days of me posting every single day like a crazy person, but this reduced schedule leaves me more time to take care of other responsibilities, AND really does give me more opportunities to create a little more lengthy, in-depth posts that won’t necessarily get lost in the day-to-day nonstop onslaught of More! Content! being posted here every day. But I apologize in advance for my shorter, Low Content Mode weeks…sometimes it just can’t be helped.

Speaking of which, one of my longterm plans for this site is to finally get all the posts on this site tagged and (eep) titled, to make it easier to find particular subjects here. In the early Blogger days of this site, you didn’t need subject lines, really…a post link was generated with, I think, the time and date of the posting, so you could just click on that to get to the exact post. Well, when I switched over to WordPress, that was no longer the case, and the actual subject line was the post’s direct link. So, there are a bunch of posts on this site still without titles, especially very early on, and I am slowly going through and trying to fix those. What’s slowing me up is I’m also trying simultaneously to fix dead links in old posts, which can be a lot of links, sometimes. I think my new strategy here is to get those content tags and post titles taken care of first, and fix links in the bodies of the posts later.

One of the things I miss about the old version of the site is having direct links to several posts of note in the sidebar. Replacing that with a sidebar function where you can search by tags is okay, and something I’ll do soon, but I still have specific posts that I’d like to not be forgotten, or removed from discourse (whatever discourse blogs may still influence today, what with your InstaSnaps and your Toomblurs). Perhaps a separate page on this site you can look at, with a list of “Hey, Read These Posts of Mine, Why Don’cha?” That seems like something that’s doable, eventually.

The one feature I do want to make sure continues unabated is The End of Civilization, which I promised myself, after the suspension of the feature while opening my store, and especially after starting my Patreon, I wouldn’t skip out on again. And, well, I missed it one month, but otherwise I’ve kept doing them, and will continue to do them as long as I keep getting Diamond Previews catalogs. People still seem to like them, and I still enjoy doing them.

Another type of post I haven’t done here in a while is my occasional overview of some of the weekly comics. Not that I haven’t wanted to, or haven’t had the blogging time to do a little something on the subject, but lately I’ve been behind on my reading. Part of the problem is that the actual tag I have for this topic specifically says “this week’s comics,” so I feel sort of obligated to review that week’s comics during the week they actually came out. Yes, I know that’s dumb, and easily fixed by changing the tag to “comic reviews” or something. I mean, it’s my site, I can do what I want, but that’s a weird little psychological barrier nonetheless. (Says the guy who just straight up reviews Jimmy Olsen comics from 1968, like, whenever.)

And of course I will absolutely continue the reader participation posts, such as taking your questions or asking for predictions. I have been very fortunate to have some great comment sections on this site, particularly in an internet era where reader comments are generally feared and despised. You folks have always had good and interesting things to say, and I am very grateful. Yes, there’s the occasional…problem, but that is definitely the exception. I know I usually don’t tend to post in the comments section themselves, but if it’s something I feel the need to respond to, you may have noticed I’m not shy about doing so in the main blog (like this recent example). So again, thanks to all of you for your continued readership and involvement.

Oh, and I’m sure this kind of post will come back eventually too.

So this has been pretty much the “blogging about blogging is a sin”-est post I’ve ever posted. Some of that was for you, to let you know where things stand as far as my ability to keep the blog going, and some of it was for me, to work out in my own head what parts of this site are important at least to me. I hope to keep things going here for a good, long time, and I certainly would like all of you to stick around. I know this kind of “blogging” is kind of a passé thing now, but I like writing, this format still works for me, and I hope it still works for you. I mean, if I have to go all “PROGRESSIVE RUIN – THE INSTAGRAM,” I guess I’ll have to, but I’m happy right here.

Talk to you all again soon.

I’m pretty sure some of the sentences I typed here make sense.

filed under Categories publishing 7 Comments

So I’ve been trying to think of a solution to the issue-numbering albatross that’s been hanging around the comic industry’s neck for so long, and surprise, I don’t know any easy fixes that don’t involve everyone who publishes/buys/is otherwise attached to comics just, you know, not worrying about issue numbers. Honestly, I really think the best best, and one that was working at least up until Marvel said “ha ha, never mind, here are more #1s” was just keeping that issue number where it was, based on the number of previous issues published. People were buying Doctor Strange #387 or whatever…like I said, sales were beginning to creep up as consumer confidence rose in the titles they were following having some established (and potentially future) consistency. I mean, over at DC, Action and Detective seem to be doing fine with their issue numbers in the hundreds.

Some points were made in the comments to my last post on the topic. Both Brian and Daniel T bring up what Dark Horse does with their Hellboy-universe books, having an overall series number inside the book, while having, if necessary, “chapter” numbers on the fronts of the book. I went into annoying detail on this very topic almost exactly five years ago discussing this very thing.

I mean…maybe that could work for superhero books, maybe, but that would require a huge change in mindsets regarding how readers approach the titles they follow. We’re too used to there being a regular monthly Batman book, for example…while, with a regular monthly title, switches in storylines and creative teams would in effect make an ongoing feel like a bunch of “mini-series” that just happen to be tied together with a shared numbering system. Actually making them literally different mini-series, with new #1s on the cover of each first chapter, even with a secondary overall numbering inside that ties them all together. The Hellboy/BPRD comics can pull this off, as the comics have a mostly consistent aesthetic/tone with a relatively small circle of creative teams. It’s the nature of superhero comics to change in style pretty significantly with new stories and creators, so a “mini-series” by J. Master Artist might sell a lot better than the follow up “mini” by Hacky McHackerton, causing a distinct change in order numbers and sales figures that might be smoothed out by a more obvious shared-numbering system and a sense that it’s all “of a piece.”

My personal preference would just be picking a numbering system, sticking to it, and don’t kill a series and crank out a new #1 just because, I don’t know, the Beast changed the color of his trunks or something. First issues used to be special, a big event…”here’s a brand new series starring the character YOU demanded!” I’d like to see them that way again. Not to say we still don’t get occasional excitement over some new first issues…the recent batch of new launches from DC is getting a small amount of interest, which is a change from that lack of response that “DC-You” thing got. Anyway, the ultimate solution to all this is likely going to be the transition away from monthlies to trades/graphic novels. Which, of course, will still be numbered so here we go again, but possibly would be more conducive to an environment where the specific order of release is less important than the individual reading experience of each volume.

So let’s meet back here in a decade or two and see how it all shakes out.

• • •

In other news…I love — well, cringe sympathetically at, more accurately — stories about shops that have been stuck with way too many copies of something, particularly from the years of excess during the 1990s. You may recall this tale of the tragic fate of 14 long boxes full of Valiant’s Turok #1. Well, here’s a brief remembrance of the Superman Wedding Special which leaves me thankful that we only had as many left over as we did.

Had a long Tuesday…

filed under Categories pal plugging 1 Comment

…so while I intend to going back and discuss your responses to The Big Renumbering Hoohar, all I have for you in the meantime is this recommendation that you keep your peepers open for The Dragon Slayer: Folktales from Latin America by talented human being Jaime Hernandez:


100% all-ages friendly, and available at a comic shop near you, hopefully!

Progressive Ruin presents…the End of Civilization.

filed under Categories End of Civilization 12 Comments

Because you demanded it! Well, because one of you demanded it! Okay, fine, because no one explicitly said “no, stop, don’t do this,” here is the new installment of the End of Civilization, presented by Progressive Ruin and Lucky Strike! “LSMFT!” Pull out your copy of the latest Diamond Previews (the February 2018 edition), smoke ’em if you got ’em, and follow along:

p. 136 – Final Crisis The 10th Anniversary Omnibus HC:


Oh, it’s been ten whole years since our “Final Crisis,” eh? …Then how do you explain THIS?


 
 
p. 214 – Son of Hitler HC:

“HELLO, SON.”

“Get out of here, Hate-Monger! You’re not my real dad!”


 
 
p. 219 – The Beef #4:


Look, issue #1 of The Beef has been on my new comics rack for a few days now, and not one person has come in to ask “Where’s The Beef?” I’m very disappointed.
 
 
p. 285 – The Tremendous Trump: She-Trump #1:


Just the other day I overheard some young folks observing the Trump comics I had on my shelf and wondering “are these pro-Trump or are they making fun of Trump” and I honestly have no idea.
 
 
p. 331 – Lady Death Naughtier Limited Edition Artbook HC:


Hey, kids…ass!
 
 
p. 456 – The Comic Book Story of Baseball GN:


Probably not explained inside: people coming in to comic shops to sell their baseball cards, and persisting even after it’s been made quite clear that no, the shop doesn’t deal in baseball cards, and no, we don’t want to buy them, and no, we don’t know who is, since it looks like everyone’s trying to sell off their cards and not actually buy any new ones and perhaps I’ve let my personal feelings slip into this item description.
 
 
p. 496 – Batman Deluxe Cowl & Illustrated Book Kit:

“This kit includes a 6-inch tall Batman cowl with illumination feature at the lenses.”

[high-pitched raspy voice] “I’M TINY BATMAN.” [eyelights rapidly blink on and off]

PENGUIN: “Yeah, I’m not feelin’ too terrified right now.”
 
 
p. 496 – Justice League The 100 Greatest Moments HC:


In honor of the recent passing of David Odgen Stiers, let future editions of this book include his appearance as the first live action version of the Martian Manhunter in the 1997 Justice League pilot:


Yes, really.
 
 
p. 501 – 100 Things Star Wars Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die SC:


I’d say “learn how to become a Force Ghost” should be somewhere near the top of that list.
 
 
p. 501 – Star Wars Block: Over 100 Words Every Fan Should Know HC:

“Okay…here we go:
1. Ugnaught
2. Jar-Jar
3. Prequel
4. Lasersword
5. Blue
6. Milk
7. Evacuate?
8. Bloodstripe
9. Gonk…”

tempus fugit

“…93. Bad
95. Feeling
96. About
97. This
98. Power
99. Converter
And 100. Yippee.”
 
 
p. 502 – A History of Video Games in 64 Objects HC:


One of those objects had better be the Magic Dot from the Atari 2600 Adventure or there’s gonna be trouble.
 
 
p. 502 – I Am Gandhi: A Graphic Biography:


Let’s hope this is successful so that the sequel can get a comics adaptation as well:


 
 
p. 506 – Star Wars Insider #181:


Keepin’ that naked Jawa cover under wraps ’til the absolute last minute, eh, guys? Let’s be honest, that yellow banner is only barely covering his modesty.
 
 
p. 542 – Ghostbusters Egon Spengler Proton Pack Legacy Series Replica:


For only $2999.99, you can be the envy of people who wished they could just blow $2999.99 on something like this.
 
 
p. 572 – Justice League Batman Bearbrick:


“That’s it, I shall become a bat…! No, wait, not scary enough…what other animal can I mix in there to make myself even more terrifying?”
 
 
p. 572 – Peanuts Sally Bearbrick:


ṂὛ ṨẂἝἝҬ ϐᾋϐϐὋὋ Ἷ ἬᾋVἝ ṨȖƇἬ ṨἿƓἬҬṨ ҬὋ ṨἬὋẂ ὛὋȖ
 
 
p. 493 – Deadpool Monopoly:


“Heck, go ahead, pass GO! Pass whatever you want! There are no rules here! I’m wacky!”
 
 
Marvel Previews p. 28 – Amazing Spider-Man #800:

“The biggest Peter Parker/Norman Osborn story of all time unfolds over one 80-page story, a scope unmatched in comics!”

“AHEM.”

 
 
 

Hate-Monger images “borrowed” from here.