publishing

Letting it all hang out.

filed under Categories dc comics, marvel, publishing, retailing 8 Comments

So Marvel unleashed its “Ultimate” Universe in 2000/2001, starting with Ultimate Spider-Man and Ultimate X-Men, partially out of a need to have some “new reader friendly” material on the stands free of the deep continuity in the regular Marvel Universe. Also, a collapsed comics market and Marvel being on the verge of “going away” for good probably helped push along any desperate ideas to keep them afloat. Whatever the reason, the Ultimate books came out, giving fresh starts to their properties separate from the still-ongoing Marvel Universe proper…until they became just as convoluted as the mainline universe and purpose successfully defeated.

But it ran a long time, and made lots of money and had a strong readership, and “the sweet taste of success attracts many tongues,” as no one but me says, and DC was trying to figure out how to get some of that Ultimate scratch.

First they tried with their “All-Star” line in the mid-2000s, with All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder and All-Star Superman…both sold amazingly well, though one got a little more critical acclaim than the other. All-Star Superman was a mini and wrapped up after 12 issues, while the Batman title stopped mid-story with #10, and planned Batgirl and Wonder Woman titles for the line never appeared.

Then DC tried out the “Earth One” line of graphic novels, starting in 2009, again giving fresh starts to their major properties and hoping to catch a new bookstore audience with them. The Superman and Batman series for this imprint put out multiple volumes, but never really seemed to catch any traction. The Wonder Woman run of three books was generally well received, as was the Green Lantern run. But it looks like this effort was finally abandoned a few years ago (though a collection of the Wonder Woman books as part of DC’s Compact Line has done well for me!).

And then, finally, The Third Time’s the Charm, as they say, as just a couple years ago DC launched their Absolute line. Similar to the Ultimate Universe, the Absolute Universe gave fresh starts to their heavy hitters (Supes, Bats, and Wondy) in continuities separate from the mainstream DCU. Interestingly, the milieu spins out of one of DC’s Big Event titles, positing a reality centered around the Omega Energy of the seemingly fallen Darkseid. Sorry if that sounds a little inside-baseball for anyone coming onto this out of context, but the general idea is that this is not just a darker universe, but an existence where the heroes we know lack the advantages their regular counterparts have.

At any rate, this line (which quickly added a handful of new titles) is pretty much DC just printing money at this point. Absolute Batman is far and away the biggest hit. DC just keeps issuing reprint after reprint of the entire run of individual comics, and I keep putting them on my shelves, and they keep selling. They’re up to, like, a 12th printing on #1. This is almost unheard of for just a regular monthly title at DC, especially after the trade paperback collections started getting released.

And it’s not to speculators…it’s new readers, it’s teenagers, it’s adults who’d heard about this thing online somewhere. It’s the Holy Grail of what DC and Marvel have been looking for, A Title That Gets New Readers into Comic Shops Specifically for Their Thing.

The other Absolute titles also do well, if not at quite the extreme Absolute Batman does, but they’ve found their levels and move off the shelves.

Anyway, now that DC has found its Ultimate line, Marvel seems like it’s going to try to find its Absolute line, with this new Midnight publishing initiative they’re about to launch. I was going to say “I don’t know that this is directly a response to DC’s Absolute line,” but the headline of this article, “Marvel’s new Midnight universe makes DC’s Absolute comics look ‘pretty polite,’ says Spider-Man writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson,” seems to clear up any confusion.

The “Midnight” line is horror-centric, apparently, separate from the regular Marvel Universe, with darker versions of Marvel’s mainstays, which feels like a misread of the Absolute line, but, well, we’ll see what they do with it. The solicit for the first issue of Midnight: Fantastic Four #1 reads

“FIRST STEPS INTO DARKNESS! An obsessive scientist delves into the secrets of the universe perhaps best left unknown to humankind, leaving himself and three others warped in strange and horrifying ways. What horrible secrets lie in the new dimensions they have discovered? And can humanity survive the discovery? From the twisted minds of Benjamin Percy (WOLVERINE, PUNISHER) and Kev Walker (INFERNAL HULK, DOCTOR STRANGE) comes a tale of existential dread and secrets best kept…”

I can do without the “from the twisted minds of…” business, I mean c’mon, but I don’t know, Fantastic Four as a cosmic horror comic? Or even, dare I say, Lovecraftian? Yeah, I’d be all for that.

Just so we’re clear, I’m not criticizing anything they’re doing here. I obviously haven’t read any of these yet. They could be great! They have solid creative teams. But the question is, will these capture the same attention and sales as DC’s Absolute line?

This is something I had to ask myself when I was finalizing orders on the initial releases from this line. And while I tend to order conservatively on new titles, I did bump orders up quite a bit for these books. I think they will do very well, at least at first, as everyone tries to get in on the ground floor of what they think will be the Next Big Thing. And maybe they’ll be right, and it will be the Next Big Thing.

But I honestly think it will be at best a good selling new Marvel line to already established comic fans, and not the constantly-selling, new customer-attracting, phenomenon that Absolute has been. That niche is already filled, you see, and lightning striking again seems highly unlikely.

Again, just my feeling. I could be wrong, and maybe I’ll still be selling the 12th printing of Midnight: X-Men #1 off my shelves two years from now. And I’ll be cursing myself for not having ordered ten times the amount I did for the first printing of that issue.

We’ll all see soon enough how the Midnight line does. And whether I was on target with my orders. I’ve had strong interest from my regular clientele regarding these books, and I’ll be interested to see if there’s any demand beyond that.

Digesting some thoughts.

filed under Categories publishing 21 Comments

Pictured above, Golden Comics Digest #45 from 1975, which I’m pretty sure I had back then.

Mark Evanier wrote an interesting article about the Gold Key Digests of the ’60s and ’70s. I don’t encounter these too often in the wild, unfortunately…I had a collection come in with some Boris Karloff digests, but it was so far back that I can’t remember if it was at my current store or at the shop at which I used to work.

Any, Mr. Evanier presents some surprising revelations about how these digests sold, depending on whether or not other regular-sized comics were available as well. I’m going to ask you to read his post first so I don’t spoil it — okay, have you read it?

Good. Basically, he says that Gold Key’s digests tended to sell poorly when the digests were available in the same retail space as regular-sized comics, or even if regular-sized comics happened to be in a nearby store. However, if the digests were the only comics game in town, they sold pretty well.

That surprises me a little, given that a money-conscious child should find that a relatively thick digest a better deal than a normal comic book…twice or three times the price for maybe four or five or more times the content?

Evanier believes that sales were poor in comparison to the typical comic book size as the digests looked “cheap and unimportant,” which could be possible. A problem with perceived value could have set in, with kids comparing the smaller, pricier format to the more familiar, less expensive, larger format and deciding “bigger is better,” I suppose. Even if the the digests were, page-to-penny, a better deal.

And perhaps there was the perceived nature of “newness” — the periodicals came in new every month or two. So did the digests (perhaps not as frequently) but they may have read as “books” and “non-periodicals” to a child’s eye, and did not seem as “fresh.”

Not that comic digests died with Gold Key/Western’s offerings. Archie had been selling digests for years, probably helped quite a bit by being grandfathered into those grocery store racks right near the registers in prime “impulse buy/kids begging their parents for one” spacing. I do wonder what their particular sell-throughs were on those, given that anything distributed through retail chains like that would be returnable. These sales numbers on Comichron can give you an idea of how Archies sold in general, and it includes the note that, eventually, the digests outsold the periodicals. (However, the digests are having their own issues at the moment.)

Personally, at my previous place of employment and my own store, the Archie digests sold…in bursts, actually. I’d order ’em, they’d sit on the shelf for a while, then someone would come in, exclaim “ARCHIE DIGESTS!” then buy an armload of them. So they weren’t consistent sellers so much as eventual ones.

One thing I did get reminded of with Mr. Evanier’s post was, of course, the DC Comics digest.


Starting in the late ’70s, not too long after the Gold Key digests took their final bow, these were primarily reprints of older comics, but the occasional new story would slip in here and there. You had Best of DC (which ran 71 issues from 1979 to 1986), and DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest (24 issues from 1980 to 1982) as the primary series, though the DC Special Series had a couple of digests in its run as well.

I have no idea if these suffered the same sales fate as what Mr. Evanier described for the Gold Key digests. Alas, I didn’t check with my former boss about how they sold for him at the time, so Watch This Space for updates once I ask him. But I’m guessing they didn’t…this was a slightly different target audience, and one (at least among your already-converted comic book fans) that may have had a stronger appeal. There’s a not-insignificant portion of that audience that wants reprints of material they might have missed.

I know I picked up just about every digest DC put out for a while…I was still relatively new to following the DC Universe, and these digests made for great catch-up tools. Origins were reprinted, interesting multi-issue storylines were gathered together (making for mini graphic novels, of sorts). Sometime some new editorial content was provided, like Bob Rozakis explaining how he scripted the heroes vs. villains baseball game in this “Strange Sports Stories” digest. Or sometimes there would be text pieces, usually by E. Nelson Bridwell, contextualizing the reprinted stories.

I would generally find these in locations like convenience stores tha talso carried your standard-sized periodical comics, so again, I’m guessing they didn’t take quite the same sales hit as the Gold Key digest line did. Regardless, by the mid-1980s, this format was essentially dead, replaced by the more costly, but probably more bookstore-friendly, trade paperbacks. (Marvel had its own short-lived line of digests in the mid-to-late 1980s, reprinting some of their licensed material like G.I. Joe, which may warrant its own post.)

The digest format is missed, I think, as it was a quick and easy and inexpensive way to catch people up on some classic comics. I always liked DC’s digests, particularly with some of the wild new covers some of them got. Unfortunately, my current eyeball status probably precludes enjoying the reprints therein, but for Young Mike, they were just the perfect size and format.

It’s not quite the same, but DC seems to be having some success with the current Compact format, which are essentially manga-sized paperbacks representing many of their classic books in a smaller format, at a flat $9.99 price point. At least, they sell well for me, and they keep making them, so DC must be making some money on them. Titles like Watchmen, New Frontier, Supergirl: World of Tomorrow…not quite the diverse and weird themes that would be collected in digests (like “here are all the weird secret identities Superman used!”) but it’s nice to have a lot of this work in more affordable formats.

Again, maybe just a little too small for easy readability by yours truly, but those of you with young, spritely peepers should be fine. However, I imagine even the sharpest of eyeballs will feel my pain once that Compact edition of Crisis on Infinite Earths comes out. Keep your magnifying glasses at the ready!

G.I. Joe and Mr. Monopoly versus the Transformers and the Pound Puppies.

filed under Categories publishing 21 Comments

So on top of everything else going on this week in comics (like the release of Absolute Catwoman #1 and the second issue of Ben 10 — there’s demand for that second issue, but nowhere near the panic for #1), we got the neweset entry in Robert Kirkman’s “Energon Universe,” M.A.S.K. For those unfamiliar, the “Energon Universe” is Kirkman’s blanket label for the shared world in which the licensed Hasbro properties G.I. Joe and Transformers exist.

Anyhoo, not satisfied with just two Hasbro toy lines under one funnybook tent, Kirkman’s newest addition is the M.A.S.K. series based on the action figure/vehicle toyline of the mid-1980s (and the associated cartoon). Noe, I knew nothing about it specifically, other than it was indeed a toy line and cartoon that I never interacted with, and that there was a DC comic book that I never sold out of the back issue bins. But I figured, hey, this new series is tying into this other “Energon” stuff that’s selling reasonably well, maybe folks will pick it up.

Now as it turned out, this past New Comics Wednesday was a particularly busy one, with a large line waiting out the door prior to opening. And lo, did we sell a whole lot of comics that day, including a lot of demand for that M.A.S.K. book. As it turned out, I ordered kinda/sorta spot on, since as of Thursday evening I still had a couple of copies on the shelf. And I say “kinda/sorta” because I did have some demand for specific variants that I was unable to fill, and can’t get any reorders at this point. I even just got an email Thursday evening from someone asking me to put aside a couple of the blind bags for him, which, um, about 36 hours too late for that, my friend.

And speaking of those blind bags, where you pays your money and takes your chances on a comic wrapped up inside an opaque bag, in which you may find variants of varying rarity, or sketch covers, or something else entirely. And in the case of the M.A.S.K. blind bags, one of those somethings-else entirely was, well, a new ROM #1:


Yes, that’s right, “ROM” as in “ROM Space Knight,” the failed 1978 weirdo action figure that was too tall to play with your Star Wars figures:


…and yet lived on as a pretty successful comic book series from Marvel Comics:


…and was picked up years later by IDW for a series that faced bit of an uphill battle specifically because it wasn’t in the Marvel Universe:


and now, here we are, finding out basically NOW that ROM is the newest member of the Energon Universe, where he can finally team up with Snakes Eyes and Optimum Prime and presumably shake off the long shadow of the Marvel series. I mean, that’s the way to get readers excited about ROM again, tying him into a couple of other already popular comic books. I’m not joking about it needed to escape the Marvel influence if it’s gonna succeed…I really think that hurt the IDW run.

One of the things that surprised me when looking into this is the fact that ROM’s enemies from the Marvel Comics, the shape-changing Dire Wraiths, weren’t just a Marvel property. Apparently the name came from Parker Brothers (the original owners of ROM) as the bad guys, but presumably due to the failure of the initial toy, no Dire Wraith toys were ever made. So ’twas Marvel that made up what the backstory was for these enemies, and as such…the current owners, Hasbro, and the current licensee, Robert Kirkman, can use the name “Dire Wraiths” but they will have to be different from their Marvel progenitors. Huh, learn something new every day. Not something terribly important, mind you, but new nonetheless.

Anyway, if you want a copy of this new ROM #1, then it’s off to the eBays with ya, because the blind bags are probably all sold out from the shops, and you only had bit of a chance to get one that way anyway. I presume it’ll get reprinted eventually in an easier-to-acquire formet.

I believe it was the late Peter David who said he was once, during his days in Marvel Sales in the 1980s, taking questions from a convention crowd regarding the company, when the following exchange happened:

Person in crowd: “Hey, you guys publish G.I. Joe.”

Peter David: “Yes.”

PiC: “You also publish Transformers.”

PD: “Also correct.”

PiC: “They’re both owned by Hasbro.”

PD: “Indeed they are.”

PiC: “Why don’t you guys do a comic where G.I. Joe meets the Transformers?”

PD: [a picture of a giant mountain of money falling onto the Marvel offices forms in his head]

Okay, I’m using a little artistic license for that last line, but not much. But I only bring all that up to say…whoever that guy was in that convention crowd so long ago, you have a lot to answer for.
 
 

The ROM #1 (Image) picture and the ROM action figure pic are both “borrowed” from eBay. The two comic pics are equally borrowed from the Grand Comics Database.

Unless everyone’s speculating on the reprints.

filed under Categories batman, collecting, publishing, retailing 3 Comments

Thanks, pals, for being patient as my blogging batteries recharge. I plan to have another “My Fantastic Four-ay” post this week, and should have another installment of the Final ’90s Countdown coming along in short order.

In the meantime, let me address a question that came up in the last post, about the supposedly-damaged Absolute Batman #20s, from D:

“So are people buying 2 copies of AbBat every month, one to read & one to slab at 9.8 to flip? Or is no one actually reading the book at all and just having their issues encased?”

I’m reminded of that one creator, during the height of the pandemic-inspired comic speculation frenzy where every first appearance of anything was snapped up in desparation for making that big eBay killing, who was so excited at the huge jump in demand for their comic. “Wow! Sales are through the roof! Thanks everyone for your support!” and I just didn’t have the heart to tell ’em that this was only a speculation-fueled bump, that sales were going to drop right back down to where they were previously. And the book ended shortly thereafter (it was a Marvel book, so “ending shortly thereafter” is pretty much a given, what with current publishing stragegies).

I think the point I’m trying to make here is that if Absolute Batman was purely a title supported by speculators, I don’t think it would have lasted this long and at its current high sales volume. That said, speculation is part of the formula here, as most issues have something to generate that sort of interest (1st Absolute Catwoman! 1st Absolute Bane! 1st Absolute Robin(s)!), so that sort of investment behavior is certainly subsidizing the sales.

In general I order around the same numbers for each new issue of Absolute Batman, and I can tell the difference between the issues that have something Hot and Investable in them and those that do not, given on how many I have left over after the initial sales week. However, the amount of demand from people who seem to be actually interested in reading the comic is enough that even if the issue has extra remaining copies, they will continue to sell through the following weeks.

Here’s the thing…I haven’t back-issued any Absolute Batman. (Or any of the Absolute books, for that matter.) I keep every available issue up on the rack and for sale. DC seems intent on keeping the periodicals in print, even if they’ve been reprinted in hardcovers/trade paperbacks, which is unusual. But DC seems to recognize the strong continuing sales of the individual comics and their appeal to new readers, and keeping them in print is money in the bank for themselves and the retailers. I just placed a reorder for more reprints of the entire run, and expect to sell through those again. We’re up to an 11th printing on #1, if you can believe it.

I’m not a mind-reader, so I can’t say for certain that the majority of sales for Absolute Batman is by readers, and not by people immediately shipping them off to CGC to be slabbed and graded. But the general vibe that I’m getting is that they are being bought by readers, and said readers find the comics exciting and compelling. Nearly all my sales in the shop are single copies to customers. Only occasionally do I have someone picking up two or three copies for themselves.

Now, this is just my store. Maybe other stores that are more CGC-oriented than mine (which ain’t hard to achieve) are seeing people buy Absolute Batman by the handful for immediate flipping. I can’t deny that speculation isn’t rampant with this comic, because otherwise this recent controversy over the “damaged” copies of #20 wouldn’t have happened if a significant number of people weren’t upset about not being able to get their coveted “9.8s.” But my sense is that, given the continuing reprinting of the individual issues, given the sales patterns I see at the store, given the general buzz around the actual contents of the stories, this book is getting more reader-driven demand than speculator-driven.

I hope Overstreet lists them as “no copies better than VF exist.”

filed under Categories collecting, employee aaron, publishing 7 Comments

So the big news this week is that several new comics showed up “damaged” to retailers this week…and to be honest, this damage wasn’t immediately obvious to me, so I figured I lucked out and didn’t get any of those copies. However, a customer did later point out a couple of minor spine creases on Absolute Batman #20, which apparently affected the entire print run (along with Absolute Martian Manhunter #11 and Barbara Gordon: Breakout #1).

I mean, honestly, the “damage” I’ve seen so far on these books appear to be well within the acceptability of new sales. I just looked at my own copy of Absolute Batman #20 and there is one single little spine break…I’ve seen a lot worse on new comics I’ve received that didn’t get all this hubbub. I also examined my personal copy of the new Absolute Martian Manhunter and I don’t see anything I’d call damage.

The instigation for this is, of course, the people who want to get those “9.8” returns on the Absolute Batmans submitted to CGC, since those are Big Money right now. Had this same thing happened to, I don’t know, Aquaman, we wouldn’t be hearing a peep. I don’t know, maybe I did get lucky and only have minor issues with my copies. Maybe other stores’ copies were absolute (heh) disasters.

Anyway, DC is putting out free “2nd printing” replacements for all these, which…I don’t know, I suppose that’ll keep the comic-flippers happy since Absolute Batman reprints also still seem to be “hot” and “collectible.” And DC announced that they’ll be talking to the grading companies like CGC about the linewide damage on these books, to…I don’t know, make them consider these books “Near Mint” even with the spine ticks? Or call them “Qualified 9.8” which, as I’ve probably noted before here or on the socials, a meaningless grade?

Sigh. But still, it’s an ill wind that blows no one any good (as per this eBay listing sent to me by former employee Aaron):


So technically, still not Near Mint because it’s been repaired. Would’ve been better off just leaving the comic alone.

And frankly, given the printing, handling, and shipping processes comics go through to get to the local comic shop, folks should be glad they show up in one piece at all.

SCIENCE!

filed under Categories pal plugging, publishing, superman 12 Comments

Thanks for the response to my Fantastic Four post, which, I have to admit, was a last-minute thing that I wrote with little to no planning. I do plan on returning to the topic, probably next week, with a little more thought to what I’m doing, I hope!

But for today, since I have a very early morning doctor’s appointment, I’m going to just point out that DC Comics is releasing 1972’s Action Comics #419 in a facsimile reprint edition this week.


Now, DC is releasing it because it’s the first appearance of the Human Target, who gets the occasional series and once had a TV show. But the big reason to pick up this comic is for its connection to the Hubble space telescope!

Bluesky pal Paul Cornish had an article in Scientific American a while back explaining the connection, and now seems like a good time to link to it!

• • •

In other news, the new Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide is out, and you may notice a slight physical difference from the previous year’edition:


Don’t get too excited, the new Guide is actually about 100 pages shorter in length. It’s printed on thicker, and much lighter, paper, so it no longer feels like the solid brick it paper that it used to. It’s slight and airy, despite its bulky appearance.

The comic book price listings are still in the same print size, with about 40 additional pages. Also, the strips of three mini cover reproductions across the tops of pages have been reduced to just one scan in the page corners.

In this day of “Hot Comic Apps” and such, the Guide may seem archaic, but it’s still a useful base for pricing, so long as you, y’know, do your research on that small percentage of books that may be seeing current price fluctuations. But stuff like Captain Savage, you probably don’t need to worry about the Guide being too far off the mark.

It’s still frustrating that the Guide devotes pages in every volume to “Pioneer” and “Victorian” comics, while ignoring undergrounds, which are more likely to be encountered in the wild. And, are more in need of current, consistent pricing. And, frankly, every time I’ve tried to buy a “Victorian-age” comic someone brought into the shop, given that the comic in question is in worse-for-wear condition, going by Guide prices always results in a rejection of my offer. “It’s old, therefore it’s expensive,” of course. Nobody wants to know their century-old item is worth only about $20.

Also, Yummy Fur still isn’t listed. C’mon, guys.

I’m sure I’ll have more to say. Oh, should note my copy of House of Secrets #92 is now valued at about $3500.

Now do The World Below.

filed under Categories pal plugging, publishing 10 Comments

So it seems to be a big time for BIG COMIC BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS, with the Comicspro event going on currently at…um, wherever it’s taking place, I have no idea. But the news just keeps coming…like a comic with Jay and Silent Bob invading the Marvel Universe (scripted by Kevin Smith, natch):


…which, frankly, I don’t know if they’re going to go “full blue” with the dialogue like that Archie Meets Jay and Silent Bob book last year. I mean, if it was just Deadpool, then yeah, I can see ’em swearin’ it up, but Jeff the Land Shark is there! You can’t say “fuck” in front of Jeff the Land Shark! Anyway, I may have more Smith tolerance than most of my fellow comics-noscenti, so I’m looking forward to it, at least.

And then there’s DC, surprise surprise, announcing more titles for their best-selling Absolute line: Absolute Catwoman and Absolute Green Arrow:


…which, I mean, why not. I’m hoping DC doesn’t kill that goose for its golden eggs by cramming as many titles under this imprint as possible. They’re not really doing it now, they’re taking it nice and slow, but while Absolute Batman is outselling every other comic on the stands, that’s not necessarily true for the other Absolute titles. There are one or two that I honestly don’t expect to be around within a year or so, but we’ll see. In the meantime, I’m already getting in-store interest in these new additions, so that goose ain’t dead yet.

The big, big news, which…was it from Comicspro? Ah, who cares, it’s still big news. Anyway, it’s the return of Paul Chadwick’s Concrete:


I actually had to go back to this “Final ’80s Countdown” post where I wrote about the Concrete comics to figure out where the character’s storyline left off, and it was the 2006 mini-series The Human Dilemma. Yes, that was 20 years ago, and it was almost Miracleman-esque in its leaving readers hanging on a cliffhanger for decades. (Yes, there were a few shorts collected into a 2012 one-shot, but that’s not quite the same.)

Anyway, I’ll be glad to see more Concrete, and hope it doesn’t take another 20 years for a 90-year-old Paul Chadwick to release the next one!

For the last bit of shocking news I’m going to mention here, we’re finally getting repri–er, excuse me, facsimile editions, of the Kurt Busiek/George Pérez JLA/Avengers mini-series this summer.


As originally, Marvel and DC will be splitting the publishing chores, with Marvel putting out #1 and #3, and DC releasing #2 and #4. From Marvel’s May solicits here (get that pop-up blocker ready). Shockingly, it’s only $5.99 per issue. The last reprinting was just a few years ago in a supremely-limited edition, so it’ll be nice to have this comic around again. Honestly, it should never be out of print.

There’s just so much more going on in the comic news world right now (a Hello Kitty comic? HELLO MONEY), and I suggest you seek out your favorite Genre TV/Movie Site That Has Some Comic Book News Squirrelled Away Somewhere and catch up. I bet I’ll have a lot more to talk about on Monday. I haven’t even mentioned pal Amy‘s upcoming mystery comic yet! Lots of comics coming out that Comic Fan Mike is excited about, and Retailer Mike dreads having to figure out orders for. Ah well, I knew the job was dangerous when I took it.

• • •

In old news, Comic Book Yeti presents a 1994 interview with Mike Mignola talking about his brand new comic book Hellboy! (That’s a silly name, it’ll never go anywhere.) It’s funny to see him talk about having John Byrne continue to be involved in the Hellboy production process (SPOILER: Byrne only worked on the one Hellboy mini, though did other unrelated comics that featured cameos from Hellboy characters).

And speaking of Comic Book Yeti, I did a podcast interview with them a while back. And hey, so did Amy, listen to hers too!

Mind the apostrophe.

filed under Categories publishing, question time 7 Comments

I’ve decided that I’ll just do one more post replying to Isaac’s question, as I’m sure I’ve hit the big ones here. Specifically, as you may remember, he asked about the different “universes” publishers were cranking ouit in the ’90s, which titles I wish had been successes (i.e. still published ’til today) and what memories I had of these companies at the time.

I’ve already tacked Valiant and Ultraverse, and I know there are plenty more, but I’ve got to move on to other stuff. But you never know, I may come back to this topic when you least expect it.

But to wrap things up, for now, let’s talk about Dark Horse’s superhero universe initiative, Comics’ Greatest World:


Launched in 1993 as a series of one-shots, each centered around a different character or team. Y’know, like the one above, which is where the character Ghost first appeared. The one-shots themselves were released in themed sets, after a fashion, with characters attached to four different locations across the U.S., represented by a symbol on the cover. Like, some of the books would be tied to Steel Harbor, others to Arcadia, and so on. That “scales of justice” with the anti-sign over it on the Ghost cover? That represents Arcadia.

Anyway, I don’t know how much attention fans paid to that region-specific distinction. As I recall, customers either just bought all of the CGW books, didn’t buy any at all, or just bought one or two, like Ghost because Adam Hughes did the art. I seem to recall these one-shots selling…okay, not great. It was just too much all at once with too many new characters that didn’t grab a lot of interest.

Didn’t stop Dark Horse from continuing to push it along, with attempts at ongoing series and mini-series spinning out of this initial launch. Ghost was relatively popular at our shop from the get-go, particularly with the Adam Hughes boost when he was on the book, and I feel like this is the one I wished had continued on ’til today. I mean, she sorta has, having had a mini within the last ten years, so they’re still trying with her. But it ran for quite a few issues in the mid to late ’80s, making this probably the most successful comic of the bunch.

Another title I wish was still around was Barb Wire:


…which…yes, I know, the Pamela Anderson movie, yuck, but it’s probably because of that movie folks even remember Barb Wire today. I know they tried another Barb Wire series a few years back, but it’d be nice to have it back on the stands. Folks seem to have a soft spot for it.

X is another title that had a following at our shop:


…both the initial series, and this revival series that ended about a decade ago. This Punisher-esque vigilante character still had a little bit of a following around here.

So there. you go, those are the three properties from Comics’ Greatest World I wished had been successful enough to continue non-stop from the get-go, no relaunches required. (To be fair, they did come close.) Or, maybe, a series of mini-series, one or two a year, Hellboy-style. That would have been nice. Just this little circle of books in a shared universe that might have been the focal point for future spin-offs and crossovers with other CGW characters.

This isn’t a fair assessment, I realize, since I’ve not read the majority of the comics under the Comics’ Greatest World banner. I mean, I don’t know, The Machine could’ve been good, but I suppose there is no way for us to ever know. And some of the above comics I singled out had been revived within the last decade, but departed fairly quickly.

This brings us back to the post were this all started, where I relate how I saw the Comics’ Greatest World on the cover of Diamond Previews and wondered how anyone could afford all these. Which really is the most prominent memory I have of this influx of new publishers and imprints at the time. So many companies just desperate for attention in a marketplace that had recently explosvely shrunk and wasn’t getting much larger.

Okay, that’s enough on the topic for now, and I’ll try to get back to it later in the month if interest warrants. And I’m sure I’ll see something in the comments sections that I’ll want to address. But ’til then, thanks for reading all this, and I should be back Wednesday with more typing on a different topic.

Yes, I do remember which writer it was, too.

filed under Categories publishing, question time 14 Comments

First order of business: get me your 2026 comic industry predictions! Read the rules, then submit! SUBMIT, I tell you.

Next, back to Isaac P.’s question about ’90s comic publishers. Specifically:

“Is there one of these [oublishers/imprints] that you, as a reader, wish had been a success? Alternatively, are there any particular memories of this era that stick out to you from the sales side of things?”

Well, one I would have liked to see stick around is the Ultraverse line from Malibu, later purchased by Marvel Comics:


Yup, that’s Sludge there, Steve Gerber’s attempt at doing a new variation on the Swamp Thing/Man-Thing formula. Haven’t read it in a while, but I remember enjoying it, because, hey, Gerber writing a man-monster comic, of course I’d like it. (The initial artist of the book, Aaron Lopresti, would occasionally plot an issue and there are a couple he outright wrote himself.)

Anyway, I would have liked to have seen more of that book. And most of the Ultraverse in general. (Prime, a Shazam!-esque comic about a young man who can turn into a grotesquely-overmuscled adult hero, was one I enjoyed, until it turned out one of its original writers was a sex offender, tainting that particular property for all time.) But other books had their followings, like Mantra (an immortal male warrior reincarnated into the body of a woman), Rune (an evil demonic entity that got up to plenty of trouble, early issues written and drawn by Barry Windsor-Smith), Firearm (a non-superpowered private detective)…all quite popular at the time. And I know I’m leaving out your favorite, sorry.

Now, of the ’90s imprints that came and went, it would seem like Ultraverse would be the one that had at least one foot in the door for a full revival. The publisher was purchased by Marvel Comics, and for a time, there were several crossovers between the Marvel Universe and the Ultraverse. But, eventually, the Ultraverse characters just stopped appearing, even though Marvel still owns them.

There’s no official reason given, and there’s a whole section on the Wikipedia page about the current status of those properties. Revivals were planned and discarded, and it’s been suggested that the line’s former publisher maintains business interests in the Ultraverse titles, which I guess put the kibosh on any relaunches.

It’s a shame those titles can’t be revived or reprinted, at least at this time, as there was a lot of good work in there. I already mentioned Windsor-Smith, but there was a whole of of George Pérez in there, too. Ah, well, it’s just (maybe) a bunch of legal red tape, maybe it’ll get unknotted someday and we can see these books again.

One particular memory I have from the ’90s was when one of the Ultraverse writers happened to come to our store to do a little shopping. Now, back then, we did a lot of business in recent back issues, and we had several boxes of Ultraverse backstock marked and shelves in the back room, just visible through one of the doorways into that back area. The writer happened to spot those boxes and mentioned to his friend (but within my earshot, which I don’t think he realized) “oh, they’re never going to sell those.”

Well, ha HA mister, we did sell all of those! Eventually. In the 2000s. In a bulk sale for about a dime apiece. BUT WE SOLD THEM.

Anyway, Ultraverse…I think it would have been okay if it kept going. Maybe not even as its own standalone thing, but just fully integrated into the Marvel Universe like they were trying to do. I mean, 30+ years of Firearm comics? C’mon, that would’ve been pretty cool. And Rune, maybe not as his own standalone title, but as one of the many wildly-powered adversaries who menaces our heroes on a regular basis. He could have been the Big Bad in a series of Marvel movies by now. Brings a tear to one’s eye.

Next ’90s company/imprint to discuss: oh, what the heck, let’s talk about Comics’ Greatest World, even though I’ve read, like, almost none of it. But I’ll give it a shot in a few days.

Because someone’s gonna mention it, yes, I know the actual first iteration of Valiant was all those Nintendo comics.

filed under Categories publishing, question time, valiant 7 Comments

So when we last met, I was looking at an inquiry from Isaac P. regarding the 1990s New Superhero Universe Explosion. One of his questions was “do you wish any of them had been a success?” vis-à-vis my comics fandom (as opposed to being a comics retailer).

Well, in a way, most of them were successes, at least briefly, in that many comics from that period of the industry managed to pull in some numbers. I remember specifically Valiant Comics having a slow start with us, as Harbinger #1 showed up and I don’t think we sold a single copy.


That quickly changed as Wizard Magazine got on board the Valiant/hot comics train for whatever reason, and suddenly all Valiants were suddenly in demand. (At least until Turok Dinosaur Hunter #1 came out, but you don’t need me to write about that again.)

Now, for Isaac’s use of the term “success,” I’m going to presume “continuing to publish past the ’90s boom/crash and perhaps even ’til today” as the definition of the term, instead of the short-term windfalls these companies acquired. And while there are still Valiant titles being published today, it is not the same company it once was. It’s changed owners, titles have been relaunched and rebooted, so on and so forth.

The Valiant I’m thinking of, the era where I believe it was the best it had ever been, was its initial superhero universe from the early 1990s. X-O Manowar, Shadowman, the aforementioned Harbinger, and titles featuring licensed characters as part of their shared universe, Solar Man of the Atom and Magnus Robot Fighter (and eventually Turok, yes, yes). This was overseen, and some titles written by, former Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter, and everything wove together more or less smoothly and it was all a lot of fun.

Once Shooter left Valiant, and more and more titles started to be added, it became a little more difficult for most readers to stay immersed in the entirety of this superhero universe. I didn’t much care for how things went post-Shooter, but Your Mileage May Vary, of course.

But I think of all the new shared universes that popped up in ’90s, I wish that early period of Valiant had been able to continue on ’til today, without all the reboots/relaunches/changes in ownership, and still including the licensed books as part of the whole (as most of those moved on to other publishers after the first iteration of Valiant ended).

And I know people have soft spots for some of the later 1990s Valiant books, like Second Life of Dr. Mirage, Bloodshot and Quantum and Woody, so…what the hell, let’s keep them around, too.

I don’t mean to disparage any work being done on Valiant properties currently (except the anti-trans horseshit in that Bloodshot book, off to the sea with that garbage). I’m mostly just waxing nostalgic for a period of that company’s publishing endeavors that kept me entertained and invested as a fan, not just as a guy slinging comics from behind the counter.

Anyway, remember when I said this was going to be a two-part answer to Isaac’s question? With today being part two? Well, I lied, I guess, because I’ll continue on with Ultraverse Comics in the next installment. I may have other stuff posted in the meantime, like the long-awaited new entry in the Final ’90s Countdown. But I’ll come back to it in short order, Isaac, honest!