Mikester

The Final ’90s Countdown: Part Eight.

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Hi pals…the medical visits have slowed down briefly, but I still have that impending surgery which is happening sooner rather than later. Things may be sporadic still for a little while yet, but I’ll still bring that all important non-AI-generated Content™ when I can.

So let’s get back to our Final ’90s Countdown, where we look at the titles you voted as your favorites!

Hilly Rose (Astro Comics, 1995-7)

Here’s yet another comic from this period that’s on this ongoing list of books that I didn’t read, despite remembering its existence quite well. Hilly Rose by B.C. Boyer published a scant nine issues over a three year period, with a series of very nice sci-fi pulpy covers.

Aside from seeing the covers, I don’t know much about the actual contents, I’m afraid. The one trade paperback released for the series in 1996, reprinting the first five issues, is titled Hilly Rose Space Reporter so that should give you some idea. As a last resort I’ve dipped into my copy of The Slings and Arrows Comic Guide, Second Edition (2003) — last resort only because the print is far smaller than I’m comfortably able to read — for a bit more of a description:

“It’s science-fiction adventure with a strong humourous element used to undercut an otherwise hard-boiled tale.”

The description goes on to say that Hilly got her reporting job thanks to her influential father, but surprisingly gets offered an even more prestigious position, so there are mysteries and shenanigans involved, I’m sure.

I remember Boyer having done his Will Eisner’s The Spirit-esque The Masked Man in the earlier ’80s, to some critical acclaim. I don’t recall much critical response to Hilly Rose at the time (the Slings and Arrows book thought it was okay, if unfocused), but I know at least the cartooning is top notch. And hey, someone voted for it as their favorite ’90s series here, so I’m sure it’s a great series!

Okay, I couldn’t just leave it at that, so using the ‘zine search engine, and found this quote from Indy Magazine #14, describing the book as

“…a really fun science fiction comic with cute writing and beautiful art.”

And from Wizard #47:

“Throw together Terry and the Pirates and Bone, add a dash of drama and satire, and you’ll have something that comes pretty close to B.C. Boyer’s new self-published comic.”

So there you go. Seems like a fun comic worth seeking out to me!

An additional note: as I was searching up info on Hilly Rose, I found this Wikipedia entry on a radio talk show personality with the same name. I’m going to guess this person was not unknown to Boyer.

Still alive.

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New post inbound, probably this Wednesday. Thanks for your patience, everybody!

The updates will continue until morale improves.

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So the surgery that was scheduled for Wednesday has been postponed, which is in fact good news. There are two procedures to treat the problem in my eye, one of which I had a preference for over the other. Now, I had a complication in the eye upon which the surgery was going to occur, and if I hadn’t responded well to the new medication, we would have had to rushed into the surgery and done the procedure I did not want. However, since the medicine is doing the trick, we can wait for that eye to calm down a bit and then do the procedure I do want.

Phew. Anyway, while that medication is helping one issue, it does have the side effect of making me lethargic and a little wobbly, which is not ideal. But it’s only for a bit, so I’ll be fine.

I’m still taking it easy on this site for the time being, but I’ll still do some short form yapping on Bluesky, such as Tuesday’s thread on my feelings about “professionally graded” comics written in celebration of my somehow acquiring 5,000 followers on that site.

Now, a surgery is still in my future, there’s no getting around that. I won’t know when for sure until probably my next appointment, but I suspect it’ll be within the the next couple of weeks. I’ll keep you posted. With posts. Here on my posting site.

Thanks for reading as always, and I’ll be back soon.

Still on a break.

filed under Categories eyeball, low content mode, this week's comics 7 Comments

…Especially since I’m on a new medication that’s really throwing me for a loop. Still don’t know if the surgery is happening this week for sure or not, but supposedly my early Monday morning appointment will finally nail down what we’re doing. Probably shouldn’t use the word “nail” in association with eye surgery.

Anyway, you should pick up the new Supergirl #1, coming out this week, and if you haven’t got your copy yet, Blood and Thunder #1, the sci-fi action book from last week, is a good one to check out.

I hope everyone is doing okay out there, and with any luck I’ll be back to proper blogging here soon. Thanks for reading, pals.

An update.

filed under Categories eyeball, low content mode 16 Comments

Hello everyone! I’m just popping in here for a moment to let you know that I’ll be doing Medical Stuff for the next week or so, which currently entails some early morning doctor visits and, with any luck, another eyeball surgery on Wednesday. I say “with any luck” because some complications have arisen that may delay the procedure…I’ll know tomorrow if things will still be on schedule.

As such, content may be slowed down a bit over the next few days, so I ask your patience as I deal with real world shenanigans. I promise you, I’d rather be writing about comics.

Thanks for reading, pals, and I’ll be back to normal operations (so to speak) and the Final ’90s Countdown very soon!

The Final ’90s Countdown: Part Seven.

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“Harlequin” in Dark Horse Presents #48-#51 (Dark Horse Comics 1991)

Okay, this is stretching the boundaries of what I’m doing with this little survey here. While my intention was to cover only actual comic book series, I guess there was nothing in the rules that says a dog can’t play basketball story that ran as part of an anthology can’t be nominated as a favorite ’90s comic.

This story, by Stephan Csutoras and Stefano Gaudiano, wasn’t one I was familiar with, even though I’ve had these issues at some point, since I read Frank Miller’s Sin City entries around this period. So, with the assistance of a certain little stuffed bull, I was able to track down this story and give it a read so that I can at least discuss it somewhat.

Ultimately, it’s a gritty rejiggering of the commedia dell’arte subgenre of the Harlequinade, in which our main character, the Harlequin his own self, is in search of the body of his deceased lover Columbine. It reminded me somewhat of James O’Barr’s The Crow, peeled down to its thematic basis. Scratchy, moody artwork, shifting perspectives and perceived realities, with one interesting fourth wall-breaking moment where the characters take a peek at the story’s script. It’s a moody piece overall, told in a somewhat obfuscatory manner but not in a bad way, and I can see why this would be compelling to the right reader. It wasn’t entirely for me, but I get its appeal.

Free Comic Book Day 2025, starring Amy’s Amazing Shirt.

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Well, I survived another Free Comic Book Day, more or less, making this the…geez, I don’t know how many there have been since it started. It launched in 2002, there was one year during the beginning of COVID where it didn’t really happen as such, and it’s 2025 now. Someone good at math can probably figure it out…I think it’s about 215 of them by now? At any rate, I’ve done ’em all, and plan to keep doing them as long as 1) FCBD remains a thing, and 2) my old bones can continue to do it.

Anyway, this year was The Most Financially Successful One yet, given the associated in-store sales I always have along with the giveaways. It’s been a general uphill trend along these lines since I’ve opened, with only one year showing a slight decline from the previous years (not counting the COVID year, of course).

It’s one of the ways I can put a specific measurement on how well my FCBD events do, since I’m not really in a position to do exact headcounts of attendees or anything. Number of comics given away can be another less precise measurement, but I upped my orders quite a bit this time, and included several of Image’s dollar reprints of various Spawn titles, Astro City, Lady Mechanika, and so on. Here’s a look at some of the tables I had out in front of the shop…you can see another just past the graffitied mailbox:


It was apparent that I gave away a LOT of comics, but still had some leftovers, which is fine; I have a box in the shop to give them away to any folks unable to make it day of. And I have some deals in place with local schools to take on some of the excess stock.

In terms of which FCBD book seemed to be the most popular, it looks like the Fantastic Four/X-Men book was the tops:


…while DC’s kid book preview for the Wonder Woman-adjacent Kanga-U didn’t seem to grab a lot of attention, for whatever reason:


…and I did have a large number of kids pass through, so who knows? Just one of those things. I’m sure I’ll give away plenty of them from the leftovers box.

Helping along the day’s success was special guest, comics writer Amy Chase, as pictured here with her close personal friend X-O Manowar:


Whenever I have a guest for a signing, which admittedly isn’t often, I’m always afraid that the poor person will just sit there being ignored while people just pass ’em on by. Not this time…FCBD is of course the highest-trafficked day at my shop, and Amy had no shortage of attention from fans young and somewhat-less young buying her stuff and getting signatures. Which of course made me happy and relieved.

Oh, and did I get a signed comic for myself? You bet I did:


Speaking of relief, I worry, every single time before the event gets underway, whether I’m going to have any kind of turnout, whether my sales are going to do well, that sort of thing. The “sales” bit became even more of a worry when, after the inception of COVID, I started putting the free comic tables outside. “People will just grab the free comics and take off, nobody will come inside to buy anything!”

And as usual, I’m a big ol’ worrywart for nuthin’, as the line started to gather around 10:30 AM, and looked like this just moments after the event began:


The inside of store looked a lot like this for several hours:


As is typical, the first half of the day is the busiest, with things leveling off afterwards though still remaining reasonably busy.

So all in all, another great Free Comic Book Day, and even though even as I write this I remain a little achy and sore, I look forward to doing it again. I know there’s some question as to what will happen to FCBD with the Diamond bankruptcy/sale, but I believe it’ll continue on, in one form or another. Even if I have to do it on my own, I’ll find a way. “Hey everyone, come by for your free copies of Turok Dinosaur Hunter #1!”

Special thanks to my dad, my girlfriend Nora, pal Dorian, and former boss Ralph for helping keep the craziness under some kind of control. And thanks again to Amy for bringing her charm to the shop as well!

And real big thanks for this nice note a very young lady gave me during the festivities:


You’re very welcome.

The answers to those questions may be found elsewhere on this site.

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So some local high schoolers contacted me about doing a little filming in my store for their film class, which brought up the question “why didn’t my high school have a film class?” I mean, probably because you can film things on your phone now, versus having to carve a movie into rock frame by frame back when I a teen.

Anyway, they were good kids, held a brief interview with me (asking questions like “why did you decide to sell comics?” and “what’s changed in comics since you started in this business?”), and they even bought a small handful of funnybooks. It was bit of a fun diversion on a day where I needed a little distraction.

• • •

One final reminder:


Free Comic Book Day has come ’round again, and hie yourself hither to your local comicks shoppe and get yourself some fistfuls of free books. Retailers have to pay for the freebies, so if they’re having an associated sale (and they really should be), buy a thing or two if you can to help them out!

Most of all, have fun and spend the day enjoying comics!

• • •

So long, Butch.

Yes, that’s a Firesign Theater reference.

filed under Categories eyeball, free comic book day, from the vast Mikester comic archives 12 Comments

Hiya pals…current plans are to resume the Final ’90s Countdown posts next week, given that the next entry required a little more research. I have that research in hand now, so the next entry in the series is imminent.

Plus, I had some other things to discuss this week, and a little news that may affect this site briefly, but I’ll get to that in a moment.

First off, check this out:


Yes, your eyes don’t deceive you, that is indeed an actual copy of Guts #2 from 1982. I had posted a pic of this on Bluesky that I found in an eBay listing, lamenting that I couldn’t buy it at the moment but I at least had this pic. Enter longtime online pal Katie, who purchased the item and sent it my way! That was a very generous and unexpected thing for her to do, and she has my most sincere thanks!

So who am Guts #2, anyway? It is a very small press comics publication primarily by Steve Lafler, with short bits by other creators. It’s entirely on newsprint, no slick covers, and it’s honestly the first one of these I’ve ever seen.

Now I have seen Guts #3, as I detailed my acquisition of same a couple of years back. That item turned out to be readily available via Last Gasp’s mail order warehouse, at least at the time, at a ridiculously low price. (And I just checked, and it appears to still be available.) Now all I need to find is #1, similarly all-newsprint, and I’ll finally have all the Guts I need.

• • •

Oh, right, you know about this, right?


That’s this Saturday, friends! I’ve written a boatload of material on the event in the past, and only occasionally got pushback from people who were wrong. Anyway, I’ll do what I always do, give away as many comics as I can, be a good host to our special guest for the day, and try to have a good time.

And finally, I want to let you folks know that, unfortunately, my eyeballs have to go under the knife once again. Due to complications arising from previous issues, my right eye requires surgery, which will be happening in short order. I don’t have a date for that yet, but obviously things will be disrupted here on the site briefly for the procedure itself and recovery time. Once I have more info, I’ll let you folks know.

Okay, that’s all the news that’s fit to blog, so I’ll chat with you again soon enough. Thanks for reading, pals.

I mean, the worst that could happen is that the entire comic industry dies.

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EDIT: Things change fast in Comicstown, as here’s breaking news about Dimaond’s status…and it’s not good.

So I’m 1) feeling a little under the weather, and 2) have a medical thing in the morning, so I’ll try to keep it (relatively) short today. I’ll get back to the Final ’90s Countdown in short order, honest.

Anyway, I’d somehow missed that Alliance, the company that had put in the winning bid to acquire Diamond Comics Distributors, and then went to court when Diamond tried to sell to the second-highest bidder, has now backed out of the deal. Not sure of the reason, though I’ve seen speculation here and there, none of which is my guess that they saw the giant mound of Funko Pops on which Diamond is sitting.

Now, like the article says, the company may go to the next bidders, if they’re still interested, but who knows at this point. I do get asked a lot if Diamond’s travails are causing any issues with my shop, and honestly, as time wears on and I get less and less dependent on Diamond for product as companies depart for greener pastures, the answer is…no, not especially.

Not to say that Diamond doesn’t have stuff, still. I mean, Dynamite Entertainment is still hanging on to them for dear life, plus plenty of other indie publishers. And they carry merch like action figures and tchotchkes not available at the other distributors. Plus, while I can get most of my comic supplies from Lunar, at lower shipping costs, my customers (and me as well) prefer the thicker-walled comic boxes still available through Diamond.

But I’ve noticed having a delayed shipment from Diamond is no longer the huge pain in the rear it used to be, when, oh, nearly all my comics came from them. The news of a delayed shipment now generally elicits a small shrug. I’d rather have it all out for New Comics Day, but it hardly impacts my income and the books’ sales if they arrive late. Even Dynamite and the indie books will still sell fine if my Wednesday crowd doesn’t seem ’em ’til the following week.

So, in short, I am curious as to what happens with Diamond, but I don’t feel like my livelihood depends on their survival…especially with the attrition of publishers they’re seeing. I’d miss some of their product lines and services, which I’m sure would show up elsewhere. And that is all jumping the gun anyway, since they’re not dead yet. I do wonder what changes will be in store once another company takes control, but at least I can watch and not worry overmuch about how those changes could impact me…I mean, so long as they keep the indie comics they have left comin’, which is the big potential loss, of course.