Mikester

1. At long, long last…Fleshhead speaketh:

“…There are freakin’ Klingons walking around. In character. Speaking Klingon. Speaking Klingon CORRECTLY. After that, anything can happen.”

Pal Sean, the secret weapon of the Associated Comics And Pop Culture Webloggers of Ventura County, CA And Outlying Environs, talks smart about the forthcoming San Diego Comic Convention. Sean’s been attending the con every year for…well, pretty much as long as I’ve known him, which is several years now, and he’s got plenty of good tips for you folks new to the Comic Con scene.

He also plans on posting pictures a’plenty from the trip, but should he have links to photos of what he and his wife are gettin’ up to in their hotel room…look away, look away!

1a. Pal Sean trivia…he’s the fella what took that photo of me reading a copy of Marvel Comics’ The Smurfs, which you can see on my user pic page and at the top of my column at the new Comic Book Galaxy. Thanks, Sean!

2. I’m suddenly getting some traffic from this Wikipedia entry on Superman…I’m footnote #3, which links to this post (under March 2nd) about Superman protecting his identity through super-hypnosis. (Well, actually, it links to the archive page and not the specific post.)

Coincidentally, this same archive page is linked to by another Wikipedia entry, the one on Brian Bolland, specifically to my Killing Joke post (the same one Comic Treadmill keeps sending traffic to).

Anyway, I’m a Wikipedia “source.” Neat. I know, I know, it’s only two links, but considering that when I started this little weblog I didn’t think anyone was going to pay it any attention, I think it’s pretty cool.

3. Customer questions I shouldn’t answer honestly: “So, what did you think of the latest issue of X-Men?”

4. For once, I haven’t been swamped with customers just itching to tell me about the Fantastic Four film, like they usually do whenever a new superhero film pops up. That may not be a good sign. I’m planning on seeing it Monday night, myself…we’ve had pretty good luck getting a non-idiot, non-cell phone using crowd on early Monday evenings. At any rate, the few customers who have mentioned the film have pretty much confirmed what I thought…it’s big, loud, and stupid, but still fun.

So I’ll look forward to it as a way to shut my brain off for a couple hours. At the very least, the theatre will be air-conditioned, so that’ll be nice.

4a. As a follow-up to my previous FF vs. the Incredibles posts (1, 2) , I should point out this interview with Marvel’s CEO Avi Arad (found via the essential Neilalien). The Incredibles, a commercial for the Fantastic Four flick? I’m with Mr. Alien on this: wha–?

5. One of these days, I’m going to change the font color or something on new links I add to the sidebar in order to make ’em stand out. But, until that day, lemme just welcome the newest additions here: Crisis/Boring Change (from the former proprietor of Wednesday Week), The Next Voice You Hear, So So Silver Age, Double Articulation, Without Me You’re Only You, The Daily Burn, Zilla & The Comic Junkies, and The Fortress of Soliloquy. Howdy, folks! No idea how I’m gonna keep up with you all, but I’m gonna try, gosh darn it!

Hee Hee Comics (1970) – art by Larry Rippee

A few more comparisons:

“‘Fantastic Four’ rescues itself from joinging comic book-movie trash heap”

“With no stars, little fan base and its thunder stolen by ‘The Incredibles’ (a parody of ‘FF’), the buzz has been as quiet as a hummingbird’s wings.”

“‘Fantastic Four’ is a freak show”

“‘Fantastic Four” got there first, developing the concept of superheroes as a dysfunctional family four decades ago. But ‘The Incredibles” did it far, far better on the big screen. […] Now the original foursome must flounder in the wake of ‘The Incredibles,’ which makes ‘Fantastic Four” look like a dim, dismal affair by comparison.”

Weekend Best Bets

“…It’s had numerous rewrites and folks affiliated with the film worry some filmgovers will see this as a rip-off of ‘The Incredibles.’ Huh?”

Swell cat Nat Gertler popped by the shop the other day and gifted me with this fine piece of Licensable Bear™ merchandise…an actual, honest-to-God, real postage stamp with Mr. Bear™ on its face. He’ll have these for sale at the San Diego Comic Con, so be sure to seek Nat out and buy dozens of them. And get a copy of the comic, too, while you’re at it. Tell him Mike sent you.

You can make your own legally-usable U.S. postage stamps at Photostamps.com.

One of these days, I’m gonna get to the San Diego Comic Con. Given my relative proximity to the festivities — only a hop, skip, and four-to-five hour drive away — one would think that it wouldn’t be that big of a deal to go. The closest I came was a few years back when I actually was in San Diego at the same time as the convention, but I was in town for non-funnybook reasons and couldn’t find the time to pop in.

The main reason is that, without fail, the San Diego Con occurs at about the same time of the year that my disposable income is at its lowest ebb and I can’t really afford to go anyway. And, on top of that, this year I have some house-stuff happening at about the same time as the convention, so my schedule really won’t allow it.

That’s fine, though…I think I mentioned before that being in the presence of that much comic book overkill would probably drive any love of comics right out of me.

So anyway, if you are going, have fun, drink plenty of fluids (something other than beer, Ian!), and if any of you happen to find copies of Yummy Fur #9 or Dog Boy (Fantagraphics series) #8, I could sure use ’em.

And yes, that means no swordfight. Sorry, Augie!

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I don’t poke around much on Newsarama…maybe once a week at most. So, when pal Dorian pointed out that they had a preview image for Infinite Crisis, I bade him “load the page, good sir!” And…well, Batman and Wonder Woman look okay, I suppose, but what’s up with Superman, there? Dor thinks Supes is posed so awkwardly to show off the full “S” shield, but as Kid Chris noted, who buying this series is not going to recognize Superman? Unless, of course, they’re thinking “new Jim Lee retail poster.”

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And so there we were, pal Dorian, Kid Chris, and I discussing Spider-Man and his new status quo of organic web-shooters (as opposed to the Ultimate version, who still have the mechanical ones). And I was thinking…what propels the webbing? Is it under a great deal of pressure in his arms, slowly building as more webbing is generated? Would that backed-up webbing feel uncomfortable, almost like the need to go to the restroom but having to hold it? If Spidey doesn’t release the pressure caused by the webbing, is there…seepage? (“Peter, why are your wrists wet?”) Or it there some kind of super-muscle, rapidly shoving the webbing out of Spidey’s body? Because, really, that webbing usually has to go a pretty long distance, like to the tops of buildings and whatnot. Under normal circumstances, it would seem that regular humans would have trouble achieving such distances forcing semi-viscous liquidy substances out of their bodies. (Yeah, yeah, I know…”speak for yourself!”)

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As we were having the previous discussion, pal JP walked into the store, and I suddenly had a vision of what it must have looked like to him. You know the stereotypical scene from movies and TV shows where the point of view character walks in on a group of nerds/misfits/what have you and they’re debating some kind of completely trivial topic (like, say, Spider-Man’s webbing), and great mirth is had at the nerds’ expense? Yeah, it was sort of like that.

But it’s okay, ’cause pal JP is one of us. Gabba gabba, we accept you.

High-Flyin’ Funnies Comix & Stories (1970) – art by Bill Crawford

So I was taking a Previews order from one of our customers today, and this customer, who gets every, and I mean every, DC Archives that’s published, is skipping the Kamandi Archives. I hope that’s not an ill omen for this particular release.

Just on a whim, I thought I’d see how much it would cost to buy issues 1 through 10 of Kamandi, which are reprinted in the Archive edition. I pulled the cheapest copies we had of each issue out of our back issue bins…the most expensive was #1, in VG+ for about thirteen bucks. The cheapest was a Fr/G copy of #5 for $1.20. Altogether…our copies of #1 – #10 came to $49.95, exactly four cents cheaper than the cost of the Archives.

If you can find a run of issues all in Good condition, and priced strictly by Overstreet, it would run about $36.00. Then again, if they were all in Near Mint, it would cost you a cool $375, so the Archives definitely looks like a bargain then.

I would have liked to have seen this in DC’s new $10 manga-sized reprint format, but it looks like that’s reserved for material that the general public may recognize, while Kamandi is almost exclusively for the comic-collector, Kirby-fan crowd.

The black and white Showcase volumes would have been okay, I guess, but previous black and white Kirby reprints (from both Marvel and DC) have failed to impress. There needs to be some color on that Kirby, gosh darn it!

Worst prank call we’ve ever received at the store:

“Do you have any butt comics?”

Butt comics? That’s your prank call? C’mon, you’re not even trying, friend.

Best prank call:

I answer the phone, giving the name of the store and asking “can I help you?”

At the same time, someone is giving the name of our (now-defunct) crosstown competitor’s store and also asking “can I help you?”

After a moment’s confusion, we figure out that a third party has arranged for us to be in some kind of conference call or something, so that it looked like we each called the other’s store. Now that’s good planning.

I’m only thinking of prank calls because, on Sunday, someone called that I swore was going to turn out to be a gag. It sounded like the person on the phone was using a fake voice, asking for cheap used (“not collectible”) old comics. I told him the price of the comics in our bargain bins, but those were “too expensive.” We also knew most comic books were “pretty gross,” so I had to reassure him that I could find him some age-appropriate material.

Well, according to pal Dorian, this wasn’t a prank call. This person came in when I wasn’t at the store and, while I don’t know all the details just yet, apparently even Disney comics were too violent and gross.

Sigh.

One News New Movie Review

“The superhero-team-as-family-unit idea had its thunder stolen somewhat by last year’s The Incredibles, which borrowed considerably from the Fantastic Four comics, but kids and less discerning adults should be sufficiently entertained by this movie.”

“Four? Yep! Fantastic? Not so much…”

“Didn’t the filmmakers get that this should all be ‘cool’? It was clear last year that Pixar got it with ‘The Incredibles’ (really a thinly disguised take on FF), which makes it more puzzling that Marvel and Fox hit so far off the mark.”

“Flame on, switch off”

“Unfortunately, The Incredibles has already stolen some thunder from the first family of superheroes.”

“Meet the Fantastic Four”

“Basically, if you’ve seen The Incredibles, you’ve got the template for this quartet.”

“‘Fantastic Four’ film’s family spirit stays true to comic original”

“It may sound more than a bit familiar: the tale of a superhero family with powers including amazing strength, invisibility and the ability to stretch to astounding lengths.

“No, it’s not last year’s ‘The Incredibles.’ It’s ‘Fantastic Four,’ arriving in theaters July 8. And though Mr. Incredible and his family beat them to the big screen, the Fantastic Four have been around a lot longer.”

“Will Fan-4 crush Batman?”

“Mainstream movie-going audiences, however, may confuse the characters with the stars of last year’s computer-animated blockbuster ‘The Incredibles.'”

The Fantastic Four versus the Incredibles…to the death! (Well, not really.)

Here are a couple comic-related essays from those “free term paper” sites…you get what you pay for, kids:

“Comics are not trash” – it was hard to pick out a particularly choice quote, since you really need to read the whole thing for the full impact:

“…One of the great things about books is that they can teach you a lot of things, whether it is about deep things or facts that you did not know; they broaden your horizon. Well, that is also true of some comic books.”

“Book Version Vs. Screen Version” – this one devotes a lot of attention to the “recent” Generation X movie and its differences from the comic book:

“‘Generation — X’ has surpassed many in special effects. …The special effects were a milestone that was not only crossed but broken.”

Well said.

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Here’s an interesting 1993 essay on super-heroines:

“Comic books are only now beginning to accept that women can differ in appearance from the Caucasian norm without being inherently repugnant or seductive.”

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I’m sure someone must have linked to this article before, but here’s the American Family Association’s take on the funnybooks:

“In a two-part Green Lantern comic, published by DC Comics, ‘gay’ teenager Terry Berg is shown kissing his boyfriend. After three thugs beat Terry, the storyline turns into a blatant promotion of hate crime laws.”

…Because blatant promotion of hate crime laws is a bad thing, don’t you know.

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Here’s a positive look at comic books (and comic book movies) from a Christian perspective:

“Their characters, as memorable in their own way as those of Homer or Milton, battle great opponents both without and within—wrestling with the same joys and pains, the same temporary triumphs and the same tragic results of the Fall as do we ourselves.”

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“Good Comics Is Good Readin'” – an article on how to get started reading comic books:

“Graphic novels are cool, since they collect many issues of a comic in one place so you can read the whole story arc. Warning: REAL comics people don’t get these because they won’t appreciate in value like single issues will.”

The writer doesn’t have much of a high opinion of comic book stores or their employees. I’ll have you know I shower at least once a month, mister!

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Comic Book Literature – nice, pro-comics essay:

“Looking back now, I wonder sometimes if Beowulf wore spandex and a big ‘B’ on his chest or if Grendel’s mom had long flowing hair a lot of cleavage, whether or not literary buffs would dismiss it as ‘pop culture’ and push it aside.”

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“Comic books are crap!”

“…All the movies based on them have all been crap, and will continue to be so. They are simply not good source material for movies because they do not contain complete, logical stories.”

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And for a dissenting opinion…another “comic books have grown up” article:

“There is no longer a place for corny dialogue or shoddy illustrations. There are only great stories and amazing illustrations.”