Mike Sterling's Progressive Ruin
Sparing you the worst since 1969
Mikester …I just do:
…with his SPACE AXE.
Found via Bispectacult, some set photos from the forthcoming Watchmen movie.
Yeah, yeah, Rorschach’s in one of the pics, but I like this image the best:
Anyway, these sets look nice, but I’m still a’feared of everything falling apart at the plot level. But then, I’m all old and cynical and stuff.
I think “Plastic Man in Disguise” is a good paint scheme for a room:
(from this episode of Deserving Design with Vern Yip)
Alas, it was not a Black Friday weekend for us, as once again in our area all the shoppers went to the malls and the big box stores, and there no love for the small businesses. Luckily we had a good eBay week to make up for it, but really, bleah.
Going by the past couple of years, once we actually get into December things will improve, but for Black Friday, it’s mostly a case of all of our clientele risking life and limb at the shopping centers, or, even more likely, wisely staying home and saving themselves the headache.
Why you shouldn’t work for Mike, One:
Employee (and film student) Jeff: “I ordered my $3000 camera through Amazon.”
Me: “You did? Did you use the Amazon.com link on my site?”
Employee Jeff: “Er…no.”
Me: “What!? Why not?”
Employee Jeff: “Um…I forgot?”
Me: “You dick!”
I actually came across this in a comic the other day and thought “hey, that’d go nice with my Fearless Fosdick post,” but I see Booksteve beat me to it: a Fearless Fosdick ad for Wildroot Cream Oil.
Dear DC Comics:
You know, you got people all excited about your Green Lantern “Sinestro Corps” series, even folks who normally won’t have anything to do with any comic book that doesn’t have an “X” in the title. People are really interested in what’s going to happen next. The one-shot tie-ins are selling well. The second and third printings are selling well. I even had someone ask “hey, is that comic where Ion fights Superman Prime out yet?” Yes, someone actually asked for an Ion comic. Yeah, I know it’s a different Ion, but still, that’s like a Christmas miracle a month early.
So please, for the love of God, get Green Lantern #25 out sometime soon. I have people asking me for this every day. They’ve been asking me for the last few weeks…it’s only about three weeks late, sure, but it’d sure be nice to have it on our shelves soon.
I mean, c’mon, delaying a crossover event thing like this…who do you think you are? Marvel?
Love, Mike
In the “reordering out of spite” department…we’d apparently sold out of Will Eisner’s The Plot, so I put in a reorder for it through Diamond’s online system yesterday. Should have it in again soon.
Gee, why would I do that if it wasn’t worth my time? Oh, wait, it is.
Yeah, I know…”Bitter, party of one.”
Just thinking: take, for example, Shazam! #1 from the early ’70s. That was a much anticipated comic, which attracted “investors” who bought multiple copies. As these things usually go, the prices on Shazam! didn’t go anywhere, so for decades afterward they occupied quarter bins.
Eventually, it turned out that, after the majority of Shazam! comics had spent years being used and abused in said bins, that there weren’t a whole lot of mint copies left. And, suddenly, coupled with general interest from collectors in the ’70s market, the few mint (or near mint) Shazam! #1s still around finally acquired some value.
Now, I was thinking about the collections we tend to see nowadays. Lots of folks coming by with big bags of funnybooks that “are really old” and “had been sitting in the garage/closet/car trunk” for a while, which invariably turn out to be landfill funnies from the late ’80s/early ’90s. And, invariably, are never in anything approaching mint condition.
That got me to thinking…maybe what happened to Shazam #1 will also happen to ’90s books! Perhaps enough copies of Shaman’s Tears #1 will end up being destroyed and worn that unslabbed mint copies will become rare and expensive!
Alas, the print runs on ’90s books were so high that, even assuming only 10% remained mint, that’d still likely leave more than enough for any potential collectors desperate to fill their Brigade collections. Ah, well.
I’ll see my unslabbed Shadowhawk II #1 at $75 bucks someday…someday.
Why you shouldn’t work for Mike, Two:
Carla (visiting our shop last week): “Hey, aren’t you employee Aaron?”
Employee Aaron: “Yes I am!”
Carla: “Wow, you’re a lot smarter than I expected.”
Employee Aaron: “Thanks!”
And I know I’ve discussed this before, but I really don’t get the weird nudity taboos at work in the Looney Tuniverse:
Speaking of which…say, where does Bugs plan on putting that finger?
And there you go…a little funny animal anal probing humor to brighten your Sunday. No need to thank me.
It’s high tech versus the criminal mind in Mr. District Attorney #40 (July/August 1954), and Mr. D.A. faces arsonists and murders and the skepticism of the people holding the purse strings…
The next day, a reply is received from Washington, but:
However, Mr. D.A. has a plan…mooching off of someone else’s Fastphoto system:
And just as the suspect was about to be set free, due to lack of sufficient evidence and whatnot, Harrington phones Mr. D.A.’s office to let him know they got the goods on this nogoodnik.
Harrington’s all ready to spend that reward money:
And, hey, they never did catch that arsonist.
For more Mr. District Attorney, pal Dorian posted a couple choice covers, with commentary, quite a while back.
I’ve dipped into the Comic Cavalcade #59 (Oct/Nov 1953) ads thing before, but here are a couple other ads of note from that publication:
And here’s another ad of sorts, featuring a listing of DC’s line-up at the time:
In other news:
Ah, well…such is the way of small business. We do have more gift-y type shops immediately surrounding us now that we didn’t have before, so hopefully the Christmas crowds will have more reason to make it out in our direction.
“One of the individuals responsible for the design is Matty Ryan, a former Marvel comic book (yes, comic book) artist. ‘Red and blue is a very strong color scheme,’ Ryan says. ‘A lot of comic book characters are red and blue — Spider-Man, Superman. They’re two of your primary colors, and they’re also very strong colors. Red is associated with fire and intensity, and blue has a calming effect, so they play off each other.'”
Okay, usually I just let the crazy panels stand on their own, but you folks demanded some context, and context you shall get! So, here we go, straight from Li’L Abner #95 (Sept. 1954):
Li’l Abner’s favorite newspaper comic strip detective, the redoubtable Fearless Fosdick, discovers that a can of a popular brand of beans has been poisoned:
Fosdick has his own, unique, take on the problem:
And he quickly begins his citywide reign of protection:
‘Course, mistakes are made:
Eventually, to curtail Fosdick’s protective efforts, the police chief arranges to have Fosdick’s gun stolen. Undeterred, Fosdick finds alternative means of protecting the public:
…the result of which, you can now see, was presented in those panels I posted yesterday morning.
Anyway, eventually, Fosdick accidentally “protects” a fellow law enforcer, and finds himself arrested and facing capital punishment (“This was the fastest trial in the history of the state!! – Twenty-five minutes after Fosdick was captured, he was sentenced to death!!” shouts a newscaster). He receives beans for his last meal, and of course:
But don’t worry…everything will be back to normal for the next strip:
Li’l Abner, who’d been breathlessly following Fosdick throughout this adventure, is relieved:
Also, during the course of this story, Daisy Mae dropped this bit of wisdom:
Oh, not nearly enough, Daisy Mae…not nearly enough.
In other news:
1. Okay, I’ll explain the context of those panels from this morning.
Later.
2. That World War III trade paperback seems awfully flimsy for $17.99. I’ve had grocery lists thicker than this. And while I’m sure DC has economic reasons for that price point, I’ve already had people griping that “it’s reprinting four $2.50 comics…they’re charging us eight bucks for a cover.” Plus, the comic already has a bad rep among the fans, so it’s a hard sell to begin with.
EDIT: Occurred to me on the drive home that the book also includes one of the 52 issues…so it’s $12.50 worth of comics in your $17.99 book, which is slightly better. However, the book’s so painfully thin it still looks like you’re getting rooked.
3. So our discussion this morning about Captain America: The Chosen had us wondering if it’s “in continuity” or on one of Marvel’s apparently vast numbers of parallel Earths. That somehow brought us to wondering about what Marvel’s Earth 911 would be like, and at that point we went into directions better left unsaid.
4. I haven’t had a chance to look in the new issue of Wizard yet, but judging from the employees’ derisive laughter and mockery, it sounds like yet another stellar achievement in comics journalism.
5. Best news of the day: the next hardcover edition of Marvel Zombies will feature a cover based on this issue.
6. Today’s special guest appearance at the shop: pal Ian. I sold him Composite Superman comics and Mad Magazines. He left happy. My job here is done.
7. Boy, my Lunchtime Updates seem to be getting later and later each time. They’re turning into Supper Updates.
DON’T BUY BEANS WITH A FRIEND.
