Mikester

For some reason, I found myself flipping through a copy of the Overstreet Price Guide from 1992, and in my continuing backwards-looking efforts to drag my website into irrelevancy, I wanted to point out a couple things from its 1991 market report.

When the original X-Force #1 was released, each issue was factory sealed in a polybag with one of five different trading cards. Most folks nowadays, look back at X-Force with the feeling of “I can’t believe I fell for that,” but this is what Overstreet had to say at the time:

“Devilishly clever! One comic – but five cards. Many collectors bought a complete set of five bags which went unopened, and one extra one to open and read. Result – 3.6 million copies sold and a second printing minus the cards four months later. A huge success for the publisher, distributor, retailer and collector as the prices for unopened bags rose in the secondary market. This was a high water mark for Marvel, and the comic collecting universe in general and followed other highly creative, refreshingly innovative and precisely executed product enhancements to get all the sales possible out of a targeted product.”

It’s hard to believe now that anyone was ever that excited about X-Force #1. And thought it was a good thing, and not one of the indicators of the general instability and lack of healthy purchasing decisions in the comics marketplace. “Hindsight is 20/20” and all that, of course.

The report goes on to mention the multi-covered X-Men #1 (which outstripped X-Force in order numbers, but left many retailers stuck with copies), other successful gimmick covers (like Silver Surfer #50 with the foil Surfer) and some unsuccessful ones (like Daredevil #300, whose “spot-varnish” cover barely counts as a gimmick, compared to its flashier foil/chromium/die cut cousins).

It also mentions DC’s primary effort in the “product enhancement” arena, Robin II (declared a success, despite delays and production issues), as well as noting the good sales on Batman/Judge Dredd and the Batman & Dracula: Red Rain graphic novel.

Overstreet additionally notes the badly-bungled War of the Gods crossover series (where the multiple “chapters” of the story came out in the wrong order, making the event nearly unreadable), and has a frank evaluation of DC’s efforts with another little title of theirs:

“A Sandman push with T-Shirts, statues, trade paperbacks, a glow in the dark cover and other promotional gimmicks did little to produce long term additional interest in the title.”

Yeah, that Sandman book is never going to go anywhere. Surely people won’t be buying “trade paperbacks” of this series in real, major bookstores for years after the series has ended. But, man, that X-Force gimmick kicked ass!

YES, I’M BEING ENTIRELY UNFAIR. I just thought it was funny, is all.

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Apparently, on Monday, when I was out of the shop, we had a customer who, excited as he was by our extensive stock and our low, low prices and our helpful and usually sober staff, was moved to exclaim “This store has got it goin’ on!”

So there you have it. We’ve got it goin’ on, and you other, lesser, stores do not. Take that, you.

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Children react with open animal panic to “Superman’s Hall of Trophies” – Clark, Lois and Jimmy are unmoved by the youngsters’ fear:

from Amazing World of Superman, Metropolis Edition (1973),
reprinted from 1955

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Pal Nat notes the passing of Disney Adventures, the long-running and widely-read comics (et al) digest and the lack of discussion of said passing in the comicsweblogosphere.

I saw it every time I was at the grocery store…between losing this and the Weekly World News, there are now two big holes left up there by the register. I doubt that space is going to be used by other comics publications (or, in the case of WWN, publications run by guys from the comics world).

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Speaking of Nat, he and his little pal Licensable Bear™ have unleashed another informative video…watch and learn, friends:

Superman #666 – I can’t wait for the more sensitive parents to see this cover:

I mean, if you’re gonna have issue #666 of something, might as well play it up, right? I think the cover’s a hoot, myself. Inside ain’t too shabby, either…it’s a full-on Walt Simonson tour de force, and it makes me wish he was on the book full time. Or any book, frankly…I don’t get enough Simonson art in my monthly comics anymore. It’s also a nice done-in-one story by Kurt Busiek, unburdened by any ongoing subplots or crossovers. Three thumbs up, sez I. Don’t ask where the extra thumb came from.

EXTRA LINKAGE: The mighty BeaucoupKevin responds to negative online reaction to this issue’s art with some sample panels.

EXTRA EXTRA LINKAGE: Actually, the evil number in question could be 616, but it lacks the marketing department that 666 has.

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Chance in Hell – Since we’re serviced by the Los Angeles Diamond Comics warehouse, the last in the line, we get some things later than everyone else. This week, it was Gilbert Hernandez’s new graphic novel Chance in Hell, which the rest of the country apparently received last week:

Don’t know a whole lot about it, but I’m buying it, and I know it’ll be great, because it’s by Gilbert and the man knows how to do some fine comic bookin’.

Rick Altergott provides the painted cover, perhaps because his style is more suited to the old fashioned lurid painted paperback cover design in use here. It’s always nice to see work by Altergott, and it’s interesting to see Gilbert’s character designs filtered through someone else’s artistic interpretation.

Speaking of Mr. Altergott, here’s a Confidential Message to pal JP: hey, JP, the new Raisin Pie is out.

Perhaps that wasn’t all that confidential.

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Overall customer reaction to Rob Liefeld’s Youngblood being on the cover of this week’s Comic Shop News – outright derision.

And yet, Liefeld’s Onslaught Reborn sells.

However, seeing Doc Rocket, from Alan Moore’s too brief Youngblood run, on that CSN cover reminded me how much I liked that run, and made me wish there had been more.

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Okay, for some reason, someone decided to take offense to my linking to a Wikipedia article yesterday. It’s possible the person was joking, but I don’t get that feeling from the two comments left…and it resulted in a lot of silliness, so ultimately it all worked out for the best anyway.

And I understand that some people have issues with how things are done on Wikipedia, and how some believe certain entries may have accuracy/bias problems, and that leaving anything open to editing by anybody is going to result in some shenanigans here and there. But for my purposes — occasionally linking to a Wiki article about some character or ‘nother — Wikipedia’s just fine.

And if you don’t like it…well, go start WikipediagotmyfavoriteNsyncmemberseyecolorwrongandnowIhatesitforever.com and leave me the hell out of it.

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Big Swamp Thing news…well, sorta: it’s being reported that the live-action Swamp Thing TV series from the early ’90s is headed to DVD early in ’08.

Okay, this isn’t a good TV show, by any means, but being the pathetic Swamp Thing completist that I am, I will shamefully put down my hard-earned coinage for this.

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Nobody cares about this but me. And Rich. And this guy.

The origin:

from the Peter Porker back-up stories in Marvel Tales #212 & #214 (Jun/Aug 1988)

by Michael Eury, Alan Kupperberg & Joe Albelo

* Beating Ultimate Spider-Ham to the joke by nearly 20 years.