Mikester

We ran through our copies of that new Amazing Spider-Man by mid-afternoon, but we saved a copy for Employee Tim since he wasn’t going to be able to pop into the store until after school let out.

So I prepared a copy specifically for him:

Anyway, we didn’t have the hassle that I feared we would over this. Had a few people get snippy over the fact that we didn’t have the Obama cover, including a couple of phone calls that ended with the folks on the other end slamming their phones down as soon as the words “don’t have the Obama cover” left our mouths, and so on. But by and large we weren’t swamped with people seeking to make their fortunes. It was more “a spattering of interest in the ‘Spider-Man unmasking’ story” than the “oh sweet heavens there’s a line of people around the block waiting to buy the Death of Superman,” at least for us. But hey, after months of the book dropping sales we finally got an issue of Amazing Spider-Man that actually sold well…now there’s change I can believe in.

In related news, I found this message thread through my referral logs, where they’re going on about Marvel not sending people the Obama covers. To wit:

“I don’t think it’s fair that the men and women who pick up every issue of this comic cannot get the alternate because Marvel has only sent them to select retailers. Yes, I firmly believe Marvel deliberately sent the books to the specific stores so they could get the price jacked up for online orders. There, I said it!”

I don’t know how that argument follows exactly, but someone did try to send him to my post on Tuesday where I explained how Marvel actually distributed the comic. To recap: so long as you matched orders of a previous issue with the regular cover of this new issue, you could order as many Obama covers as you wanted. You could order a thousand. You could order ten thousand, but you’d probably get a lot of questioning phone calls and e-mails from the distributor, I’d imagine. Marvel has been offering several variants in this fashion in recent months.

From the sound of things, a lot of stores found themselves in the same position we were in: looking at the dropping sales of Spider-Man, trying to decide whether raising the orders and ordering the variants on top of that was worth it, and either opted not to do so or to order very conservatively. It’s not a case of Marvel picking and choosing who gets the variants; it’s a case of many retailers having little or no confidence in sales on the comic, and keeping orders low. (Again, keep in mind all this order decision-making was done and finalized prior to the news coverage.)

That’s just a generalization…I’m sure some stores ordered TONS, and some stores didn’t order it because they didn’t know about it. But regardless, I wish Marvel just stuck with one cover on this book and avoided all the confusion.

Of course, it’s hard to explain this over and over again in the store to people who want “the comic with Obama on it” and wonder why the comic we’re handing them has an implied-threesome gag on the cover. But What Can You Do? I did tell ’em we’d have a new printing the following week, with the Obama cover, which made some of them happy.

Well, here’s to the weekend…wonder how many calls about this comic I’m going to get over the next few days?

READ MORE ABOUT IT: Dr. K tells a story about a store where the guy behind the counter apparently had his fill of the Spider-Obama comic. It’s remarkably unpleasant.

In other news:

• So it’s bad enough I accidentally duplicated part of someone else’s post yesterday…but it had to be part of a post by Bully, the Little Stuffed Bull! Even down to the same panels. Boy, I’m a jerk.

  Don’t worry, everything’s cool between me and Bully. Plus, I think my focus was more on my continuing fascination of the filling of the gaps/backstories of every single aspect of the Star Wars universe, though we both had to say something about the “Piggy” comment. I mean, c’mon, you kinda have to, he said self-justifyingly.

  Speaking of which, as I Twittered last night, it’s not enough that Han Solo has a stripe design on his pants. It has to be a Corellian Bloodstripe, with its own significance and backstory.

  I’m not taking the moral high ground or anything: I’m a big ol’ Star Wars dork. I’ve read all the books. But I’ve got enough self-awareness, I think, to occasionally roll my eyes at some of the “Expanded Universe” excesses. Did you know pretty much every character in the Mos Eisley cantina has a backstory that’s been told? Of course they do. And it doesn’t stop there. (Again, no moral high ground, I read all those.)

  As I told a friend of mine on Twitter yesterday: while the 8-year-old Mikester loves this stuff, the 39-year-old Mikester can’t help but wonder why he keeps reading these. Probably because the 8-year-old Mikester is the one in charge of the book budget.

• Speaking of Star Wars, pal Dorian posted a good example of one of the most effective advertising strategies: confusing the customer.
• Here, have a review of Final Crisis #6 from someone not taking a paycheck from Marvel. Seriously, this is some crazed superhero stuff, and a lot of fun.
• When Fangirls Attack and Written World‘s Lisa Fortuner makes her triumphant return to her “Just Past the Horizon” column at its new home.
• Now seems like a pretty good time to link to Andrew’s tale of “Mr. Tawny’s Pleasure Peril.” (For the record: I can enjoy Tawny both here and in Final Crisis, because my sense of humor is simultaneously innocent and cruel.)
• Tim O’Neil writes smart about the Wasp (who’s had her share of problems lately), and has some insightful reviews of a handful of super-books.
• Boy, that was a lot to read. Well, you’re not doing anything right now anyway, right?

from Star Wars #6, reprinted in Marvel Special Edition featuring Star Wars #2
by Roy Thomas, Howard Chaykin, Rick Hoberg and others

Anyway, like all things Star Warsian, major or minor, there’s an involved backstory for Porkins — in particular the various names and nicknames, insulting and otherwise — which you can read about at Wookieepedia. I should also note that I’m a bad person for laughing at the transcript of Porkins’ death, which you can find in the article under the heading “Battle of Yavin.”

In conclusion…Lucas. You had to call the fat guy “Porkins.” Really.

1. The Amazing Spider-Man comic with Obama that’s coming out this week.

Seriously, I don’t even want to deal with it. We ordered based on what we thought we could sell, and on the information Marvel gave us (and they did give us enough info on the comic itself ahead of time), not based on media coverage that may or may not have materialized. If there’s still demand, we’ll have a second printing the following week. If demand continues, we’ll continue getting reprints if Marvel keeps supplying them.

We’ve had some phone calls for it, but not a whole lot. ‘Course, I wasn’t in the store on Monday, so maybe the phone rang off the hook all day. I don’t know.

But we’re not going to bump orders way up on a comic that’s been generally trending downward in sales, in a month where comic sales are usually sluggish for us, in the hopes that real-world news will create more one-shot customers that only come by for the hyped comic, and never come back. (Like they did on, say, the Captain America death issue. Sales sure scaled back on that title right quick.)

Yeah, maybe we missed out on the hundred dollar eBay sales and the “investment opportunity,” and maybe someone will pop into my comments to tell me how he, I don’t know, reshingled his roof with the money he made reselling this comic on the secondary market. Hey, good for you. I don’t care.

So, again, we based orders on information we had on hand, not on potential hype (which, by the way, started after we finalized our numbers on this comic). This may be a conservative way of doing things, but this isn’t an industry that, on the whole, really encourages, or rewards, or can even support, a whole lot of risk-taking. Because I’m sure if we ordered a metric ton of copies of a comic via direct sales in the hopes (or on the promise) of media attention, and it fizzled, the publisher would surely let us return the unsold copies…right?

Right?

Our preview of Wednesday, courtesy Employee Tim:

NOTES:

1. I’m not as angry about this as I sound, honest. I’m more bemused by it all.

2. Yes, I know publishers sometimes will offer items on a limited returnable basis to encourage orders. That’s more the exception than the rule.

3. I actually think Obama meeting Spider-Man is a cool idea, given that our President-Elect’s a Spidey fan.

4. “Our President-Elect’s a Spidey fan” is a very strange thing to find myself typing.

I keep trying to find a use for this particular panel:

Maybe you can find a use for it:

I keep getting e-mails (and at least one comment!) about this interview with DC Comics’ Dan DiDio. In particular, this bit of business discussing the impending Solomon Grundy series:

“People will ask, ‘Where’s Swamp Thing in the DCU?’ and one of the things that we thought we could do with Solomon Grundy that can be interesting, that can be part of the DCU, and maybe fill that need that people are looking for in a more brute-like character such as Swamp Thing. I’m not saying, mind you, that Solomon Grundy will be like Swamp Thing in this miniseries, but that he’s a type of character that’s similar to Swamp Thing.”

Huh.

Whenever the topic’s come up before regarding Swamp Thing returning to the regular DC Universe from the mature-readers Vertigo imprint, the answer has generally been “Vertigo won’t let him go.” Which, I guess, is understandable, since Swamp Thing is one of the most well-known properties in under Vertigo’s umbrella, though perhaps more for the movies than for any of the comics.

So what appears to be said here is that what the audience is looking for is that niche of…well, let’s set aside the description of “brute-like” since that’s bit of an oversimplification of Swamp Thing’s appeal. Let’s go with the “man trapped in a monster’s body” niche, since that appears to be the direction they’re going in, based on that Faces of Evil: Grundy comic that came out last Wednesday. Anyway, so DiDio’s saying that what the audience wants is that niche filled, and since they can’t get Swamp Thing, Solomon Grundy will do.

And I can see what he’s saying. You’ve got the man stuck in a monster’s body, you’ve got the (sorta) fresh take on the regular DCU as seen though the horror genre filter, and you’ve got a character that’s still firmly in the DCU, and not co-opted by the mature-readers imprint.

But I think the premise established here is wrong. I don’t think the people who want Swamp Thing back in the DCU so that particular character type is present in the shared superhero universe. I think it’s simply because they* like Swamp Thing, and would like to see the character again. Not a similar character, but that specific character. And, if I can explain my personal reasoning, the last couple of Vertigo Swamp Thing series didn’t last very long, and maybe getting the character back in the DCU may help in generating some fresh interest in the character with, you know, crossovers and such. Yes, I want my Swamp Thing versus the Teen Titans comic…what of it?

Not saying I wouldn’t enjoy a good Solomon Grundy comic, though I was a tad annoyed that the Faces of Evil one-shot didn’t have an ending, but a lead-in to the forthcoming series. I still liked it well enough.

But it ain’t no Swamp Thing.

* And by “they” I primarily mean me and Rich.

The Hoaxmaster:

from UFO & Outer Space #15 (July 1978) & #16 (August 1978)

Well, I’m just gonna kind of scoot through last year’s predictions left on my site by you folks. I’m not going to cover every single one…if I have something to say about ’em, I will…don’t be offended if I don’t specifically address your comments. I still love you. No one else loves you like I do. However, if you have something to say about the predictions, whether I cover them here or not, please feel free.

• Phill:
  

  “I don’t think Marvel’s online comics scheme will last the year, at least not without changes. (Man, that was noncommittal.)”

  You know, here’s one of the reasons I was sort of putting off the prediction commentary…I honestly have no idea how Marvel’s online comics thing is going. Well, I know it’s still going, sure, but how it’s going…I don’t know. Haven’t been following.

• Benjamin Birdie of The Rack:
  

  The Brand New Day experiment will be retooled rather quickly when sales grow uneven and unpredictable from one creative team to the next

  Hasn’t happened yet, though sales do seem to be trending downward, with occasional spikes, as seen in this sales chart. Yes, I know that the sales figures that seem to show up in the various news sites have been questioned as to their accuracy, but this is probably enough to get an idea of where things are headed.

  I’ll be surprised if the nearly-weekly Amazing Spider-Man schedule makes it through this year, if sales continue to drop. ‘Course, I may very well be saying the same thing next year, assuming I haven’t chucked the comics thing and gone into a respectable career like “drug mule” by then. Anyway, like I said recently, I’m sure we’ll be seeing an announcement of a new ongoing Spidey title sooner rather than later.

  There will be a new artist on Batman

  WE HAVE A HIT.

  Gerard Way will win an Eisner Award

  So will Gabriel Ba

  As a matter o’fact, they both did, for Umbrella Academy, which I haven’t read just yet, but I hear is popular with all the kids. Ba also picked up an award for the self-published anthology 5 (with Becky Cloonan, Fabio Moon, Vasillis Lolos and Rafael Grampa).

  Marvel’s Ultimate Universe will falter significantly when it gets caught up in its own version of Event Fatigue

  Well, something weird is going on, at any rate. I keep expecting the Ultimate line to go away, frankly, since its alleged reason for existing (giving new readers attracted by Marvel’s media presence a jumping on point) is pretty much moot.

  Final Crisis will outsell Secret Invasion

  Well, it did once or thrice at our shop, anyway!

• Just Some Guy:
  

  I predict a Marvel implosion. A slowing economy and an overextension by Quesada’s policies (some of which if interpreted in the right light come across as grasping at straws to hold onto a failing comic line) cause Marvel to cut back their publishing schedule by more than 50%. The only division that has any expansion is trade paper backs and Marvel begins sinking into a company that only lives on selling its old assets.

  No dramatic implosion as of yet, but they’re still in the “throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what will hopefully stick” phase, with a heavy turnover in mini-series and low-selling regular series featuring some new characters and revived old properties. DC on the other hand just knocked off quite a few mid-range titles, so we’ll see if Marvel follows suit.

  P-TOR:

  I predict that all the same bitching and moaning about the state and fate of comics will continue its sad cycle (honestly, I was filing away some fanzines from the 1970’s and read the same exact stuff in those articles and letter-columns that I read on the internet today. Practically word for word.

  Some things never change, my friend. Though (and I’ve thought this more than once) I wonder what the fans complaining about violence in comics back in the ’70s would have thought about today’s comics?

  Oh, and I ALSO predict that I’ll be thoroughly enjoying Mike’s Progressive Ruin ALL throughout 2008.

  Well, geez that didn’t happen for anyone!

• Gordon:
  

  …that DC may rethink its plans for a third weekly series

  Well, they keep selling reasonably well, but eventually it’s going to come to the point if the money made off the weeklies is worth the production headaches.

  …Series 4 of DOCTOR WHO will receive much critical knocking, simply due to the fact that RTD may have “jumped the shark”

  What, Doctor Who fans, complaining? Sir, you’ve gone too far, too far.

  …fans of ALL STAR BATMAN & ROBIN will realize that Frank Miller is engaging in lazy hackery. (And I don’t use “hackery” lightly, either)

  LIES.

• Steve Canadian:
  

  After a tepid reception to Secret Invasion and less-than-spectacular sales on the relaunched Amazing Spider-Man (after the flush of the first few months), Joe Q is forced to step down as Editor-In-Chief at Marvel.

  We’ve already discussed the Spider-Man situation, but here’s the thing about Secret Invasion…it may have indeed received a less-than-enthusiastic response to the actual quality of the comic, but it still sold well, and ultimately that’s what matters. Joe Q’s job is safe, for the time being.

• Dave Campbell:
  

  Massive influx of young readers to Spider-Man titles now that he’s not married.

  No comment I can really add to that, is there?

• Professor Fury:
  

  A Thundarr the Barbarian nostalgia craze will sweep fandom.

  Oddly enough, I think I may have watched more Thundarr in the last year than I ever have in my entire life. Thanks, cable cartoon channels! And by being on the air again…hey, who knows, maybe it is picking up new fans.

• Bully:
  

  Things will happen. Words will be said. Lines will be drawn. Tempers will be raised. The gauntlet will be run.

  Well, I know I blew a gasket more than once this year. I wouldn’t have to get so angry if people would stop being stupid. You know, like telling customers to NOT BUY while limiting their Free Comic Book Day book distribution and getting overly upset at a comic shop employee’s brief moment of silliness while simultaneously telling me that sexual harassment at comic book conventions is no big deal. That may have grated on me.

• Jon Cormier:
  

  That long awaited third issue of Ultimate Hulk v. Wolverine comes out and it explains why Black Panther has joined The Ultimates. But only in November or December.

  Oh, Jon, your youthful optimism brings this wizened old heart joy, but I’m afraid I have to break the news that we’re well on our way to the third anniversary of the release of Ultimate Hulk Vs. Wolverine #2’s release with no follow-up issue. (I know it’s coming, but not ’til March. Supposedly.)

• So-Called Austin Mayor:
  

  1. A superhero will die.

  Martian Manhunter.

  2. A superhero will come back to life.

  The Barry Allen Flash.

  3. A cross-title event will change everything.

  “Batman: R.I.P.”

  4. A cross-title event will undue a cross-title event that changed everything.

  Um…Secret Invasion?

  5. A movie will be certain to increase interest in the comic.

  Watchmen.

  6. A movie will fail to increase interest in the comic.

  The rest of them.

  7. A creative genius’ much-anticipated magnum opus will cause industry-wide buzz.

  Huh, what to pick. I’m going to say Hembeck Archives, because that was awesome.

  8. A creative genius’ much-anticipated magnum opus will fail to appear.

  Redeemer. …What?

  9. Snark will blossom on the internet.

  I didn’t see anything like that happening. Oh, So-Called Austin Mayor, you kidder.

  10. Kirby will still be King!

  Natch.

• Pal Dorian:
  

  Manga sales in bookstores decline steeply.

  …While “kids sitting in the aisles reading the manga for free and picking which ones they’re going to download off Bittorrent” have increased.

  At least one major indie publisher disappears.

  I’m sorry, did someone say “Virgin Comics?”

  A film based on a super-hero comic bombs at the box office.

  We thought Punisher War Zone was the biggest bomb, ’til along came The Spirit.

  The mainstream media praises a mediocre indie comic as the bestest thing EVAH!

  I’m sure they did, but don’t recall any. All my news comes from the Lyndon LaRouche Excective Intelligence Review, and they don’t cover comics.

  Sad, joyless people continue to gripe about ASB&RTBW.

  Now, Dor, they deserve our pity, not our scorn.

  Ultimate Wolverine Vs. Hulk continues to be a no-show.

  This is what we call in the business a “gimme.”

  Indie comics see noticable sales increases in the direct market.

  Did anything show noticeable sales increases? We sure could have used some.

• Jason:
  

  Mark Millar will say one of the following two things depending upon the success/failure of the Wanted film adaptation:

  Success: “It succeeded because of my fantastic story! I am awesome!”

  Failure: “It failed because they changed my fantastic story! I am awesome!”

  I’ve no idea. What’d he end up saying?

• Mike McGee:
  

  The new Spider-books will actually be good, heralding a move backward into not-so-grim-and-gritty superhero comics, but it’ll still be too late to gain much in the way of new readership.

  By and large, people seem to be happy with the new Spider-Man books, but as discussed previously (and as you correctly surmised) new readers aren’t exactly flocking to the books outside the usual fluke sales bumps.

• Harvey Jerkwater (who MUST return to blogging, someday):
  

  Final Crisis will be greeted much as World War Hulk was: appreciated for making with the big booms and not sucking, a welcome bit of halfway-decent action and craziness after a string of disappointing crossovers. It will not be a beloved classic, but it will not generate the hoots of derision that came with Infinite Crisis.

  That’s probably about right…outside of the typical “I don’t understand” complaints that Morrison attracts simply by being attached to a project, the people who’ve actually read it seem to be enjoying it well enough. The tie-in minis seems to be taking the brunt of the criticism.

• Tony Collett:
  

  The zombie fad will die out. Unfortunately, it’ll be before Marvel Zombies 3 can be released.

  Marvel seems to have gone to that well one too many times, as many of us were thinking. And let me be clear: I’ve no beef with the Marvel Zombies comics. I think they’re darkly amusing. But the novelty’s worn thin, and that’s reflected in how the third series is selling. (Though I wonder if it would have sold better if Kirkman remained on board?)

  All those comics companies still publishing next year, take one step forward. Uh uh, not so fast there, Virgin Comics and Zuda.

  Well, you’re half right. I know Virgin’s not completely gone, but c’mon.

• Andrew Weiss:
  

  I will continue to wait for Date With Debbi/Swing With Scooter/Stanley and His Monster TPB collections, and I will be continue to be disappointed when they don’t materialize.

  Sadly, sir, you are correct. If only there were some way a publisher could put a bunch of comics on some kind of cheaply-produced, widely available storage medium for easy distribution.

• Ken Lowery:
  

  I will continue not to read cross-over events.

  So how are you liking Final Crisis, Ken? Ah ha ha. Ha ha. Ha ha HA. HA HA HA HA HA HA (cough) HA!

  I will forget about Spider-Man’s stupid-ass divorce until someone reminds me with a “best/worst of 2008” list this time next year.

  Whoops, sorry.

  I will continue to shake my head sadly at every Virgin Comics cover I see.

  Thankfully that wasn’t a problem for too long.

  I will weep like a bitch when reading Ennis’s final PUNISHER MAX issue.

  Well, do tell.

  CLOVERFIELD will be forgotten by June.

  The what now?

• Chad:
  

  Marvel’s Ultimate line will cease to exist by the end of 2008.

  It looks like it’s gonna lurch on a little longer. Though current events in those books sure have a sense of finality about them.

  …but as far as LGBT representations in comics go, there won’t be any significant strides, just a few of the same controversies.

  I think it was kind of a holding pattern this year. I don’t recall any new controversies popping up, but my memory is terrible.

  Both of the Big Two will keep relying on writers from “respected” media who will continue to screw them over with missed deadlines and godawful stories that show no respect for the source material (a la J. Michael Straczynski, Orson Scott Card, Judi Picoult, etc.)…in fact, I think the trend will escalate.

  Did anyone like that new Kevin Smith Batman book? (Well, anyone online…it sells okay in our shop.)

  All in all, neither of the Big Two will successfully address the fact that the comics medium is not a respected art form in American culture (although I think DC, unlike Marvel, will make significant efforts), but smaller companies will make slow but steady progress.

  Hold on a sec, let me check…nope, not a respected art form in the U.S. yet. I was kinda hoping!

• Philip:
  

  All Star Wonder Woman will not be completed.

  I’d completely forgotten about this. I’d call this a HIT, sir.

  Dark Horse and Image will stay their respective courses.

  A handful of good-selling titles and a bunch barely hanging on? Check.

• Aqualad:
  

  “Iron Man” will go the way of “Daredevil,” while “The Dark Knight” kicks it up a notch.

  In a way that’s sort of right…while Iron Man was in fact a critically acclaimed hit, there was some wondering if Dark Knight was overshadowed…and lo and behold Dark Knight, if anything, was even better received than Iron Man, if only just barely.

  Honestly, it’s hard for me to compare the two, except in that they sure raised the stakes for what a good superhero movie should be like. By comparison, the new Hulk, while certainly a good and entertaining film, seemed a bit shallow and by the numbers compared to those other two films.

  Buffy will go lesbian…and I will love every minute of it.

  I’ve told you all about that sign I saw on a table at Wizard World, right? “THIS ISSUE BUFFY GOES LESBIAN,” or something like that, with a five or six buck price tag? All class. Anyway, whether you loved every minute of that, I have no idea. You’ll have to tell me.

  Mike will finaly find a minor flaw in All-Star Batman, causing his ego to become fragile and open to complimenting an Ultimates storyline by accident.

  LIES.

• Allan:
  

  A huge controversy over a completely trivial event (perhaps a tasteless cover, a piece of crass licensed merchandise or the death of a character no one previously cared about) will lead to the first Great Blogger War, which will result in the death of thousands.

  I was really looking forward to the Great Blogger War. Worst I got was some guy snarking about me in some sloppily-written post, which resulted in a small if amusing dogpile on the poor sap.

• Redhead Fangirl:
  

  My local comics shop guy says that some comic stores will go out of business in 2008 because of the economy. Don’t people know comics are a necessity not a luxury?

  Sadly, this was the case. It was a rough year, not just for comic shops, but for pretty much everyone. Here’s hoping to a better 2009.

  Marvel with Joe at the helm will continue down the sad path of character deaths and annulled marriages.

  Well, they totally killed the Wasp twice, which seemed a bit excessive.

  Vertigo will continue to publish the smartest and most diverse stories.

  There’s certainly some good stuff coming from Vertigo, but I have to say my favorite at the moment is the decidedly lowbrow Haunted Tank revival. It’s a real hoot.

  Wonder Woman will find a true audience now that Gail is writing. BoP loses its magic though.

  While I think people are enjoying Wonder Woman, I think it’s still in the process of finding its audience. The series’ pre-Gail delays and misfires may have made folks a bit gunshy. And Birds of Prey, alas, is canceled. I think that counts as losing its magic.

  Librarians will receive promotions and accolades and financial compensation for all their work promoting and collecting graphic novels and trades! (or at least get another free badge for NYCC!)

  I used to be a librarian. “Financial compensation” usually meant “hey, someone dropped a nickel in the book return…TODAY WE EAT.”

• Googum:
  

  The mid-range comics keep getting shuffled: books like Catwoman, She-Hulk, Avengers: the Initiative, even Spider-Girl, won’t be allowed to just coast along at their current level of sales. Relaunch will follow relaunch, making these books limited series without set ends.

  Well, more or less, only without the “relaunch” part. I suppose it’s only a matter of time, though, before some of them come back. (And how can we miss Avengers: Initiative if it won’t go away?)

  Marvel will piss off the fan community by naming a ‘fan-favorite’ (but low selling) character a Skrull, then try to use Skrulls as scapegoats to fix some problem like Iron Man.

  I don’t know that anyone really cared enough to get angry. I’m sure someone did…this is the internet….but I didn’t notice any particular cases of outrage over some character or ‘nother being revealed as a Skrull. Eye-rolling, maybe.

• Brian:
  

  In chain bookstores, the comics section will see manga continuing to take up more shelf space than superhero books, while the superheros will take up much more room than non-superhero Western graphic novels. However, non-Big 2 publishers will try to get their works promoted in other sections of the bookstore, much like Maus and Persepolis is shelved with memoirs, and the colored Bone goes in the kids section.
  Well, maybe that’s a pipe dream of mine.

  I’ve been spending my year trying to get the local bookstores to rack the graphic novels with the role-playing books again. No reason, other than being a jerk.

  Seriously, I have been poking into the graphic novel sections at the bookstores and seeing a lot of tightly-packed shelves with increasingly shopworn books. I’m sure they must be selling something, and not just providing something to read while having a coffee at the in-store snack bar, otherwise they wouldn’t devote the space.

• Mark Kardwell:
  

  Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of its run: Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch’s FANTASTIC FOUR will get later and later.

  Well, its schedule isn’t what I’d call strictly “monthly,” no. So long as it’s not Ultimates late.