publishing

Bloggers, books, and beriodicals. Er, periodicals.

filed under Categories blogging about blogging is a sin, dc comics, publishing

1. Okay, so I’m a doofus: when I listed the other webloggers who answered this questionnaire, I unfortunately did not mention some of my other favorite webloggers who also answered the questions, for which I apologize. So, in addition to Attentiondeficitdisorderly Too Flat, Comic Book Galaxy, Motime Like The Present, Johnny Bacardi Show, and Otto’s Coffee Shop, we also have Legomancer, Chris Brown (thanks for the kind words!), Near Mint Heroes, and the inimitable Ringwood.

EDIT: Miraclo Miles, too.

2. Pal Dorian and I both forwarded copies to ourselves of the forthcoming DC trades e-mail I mentioned here, so there may be some overlap in discussion. (You can also find the list here, via Thought Balloons, who also points to Comics.212‘s commentary.) Anyway, I did want to point out a couple things:

  • The Vertigo book My Faith in Frankie is manga-format for $6.95. Nice to see DC putting some thought into what actually might appeal to your basic manga buyer, rather than just pumping out superhero trades in smaller formats and hoping they fly.

  • Oh dear: the cover price on JLA: Another Nail is $4.90 less than the cover price for all three issues of the mini-series.

  • That DC Rarities Archives I mentioned previously is a pretty hefty volume at 348 pages…given that the New York World’s Fair comics are 100 pages apiece, and The Big All-American Comic Book is 132(!), it’s a necessity. The other archives are about 200 to 220 pages, for comparison.

  • Swamp Thing: Bad Seed, reprinting the initial storyline of the new series, is only $9.95. I like this trend of starting off Vertigo trade paperback series with a nice, low introductory price. I hope this continues.

  • Gen 13: Ordinary Heroes: seems a little late in the game to be putting out Gen 13 books, but since this one has Alan Davis art and thus will most likely be cross-marketed with Another Nail (and it doesn’t hurt that he’s got a high-profile assigment at Marvel), it makes sense to release at least this volume, I suppose.

  • Starman: Grand Guignol is, I’m pretty sure, the last of the Starman trades…hopefully, that’ll jumpstart sales on the other books in the series, as sales on them have stagnated around here. A shame, really, since it’s a fine comic…drags a little in places, but nicely illustrated and quite thoughtful. Plus, it took a couple of your dopier Golden Age villains (Shade and the Mist) and made them interesting.

  • …and, looking at the rest of the list (lots of Humanoids, 2000 AD, Elfquest books, and so on) it almost makes DC look like a real publisher, with a wide range of products aimed at different markets. Whether the people in those different markets will come looking for them is another matter altogether.

3. New comics day: I hate when new comics day is pushed back a day due to holidays…it really throws me off. Don’t really have much to say about the new funnybooks: Superman: Birthright #11 opens with Lois spouting some dialogue that might as well have been “hey, you, reading this comic! Here’s what happened last issue!” It doesn’t seem terribly likely that anyone is starting this series with the next-to-last issue, so a little less exposition would probably be called for. Plus, it’s going to look darn awkward when the whole thing’s collected in that $29.95 hardcover. I do like this series, don’t get me wrong.

Girl Genius #11 – hey, it’s bigger! It’s magazine-size now, and that’s fine (even though everyone complained today that they won’t be able to file it with their other issues…look, we all survived the Great Eightball Size Shift, we can survive this too), as anything that emphasizes Phil Foglio’s fantastic art is okay with me.

Why must three of the four current Fantastic Four titles ship out on the exact same day?

4. My Canadian blood-brother Flat Earth has been on a Turok binge lately, of which I wholeheartedly approve. Go visit and hunt some honkers with the man. He even interviews Gary Panter about Turok…now that’s cool.

Look, that Freddie Mercury gag is gold.

filed under Categories dc comics, publishing



1. That panel to the right was pointed out to me by pal Corey, who found it in DC Comics Presents #18, guest-starring Zatanna. So, if Superman has the Necronomicon, does that mean the DC Universe fits within the Cthulhu Mythos? Will Aquaman fight the Deep Ones? Will the Justice League fight Shub-Niggurath?

2. It makes me inexplicably pleased to see in the new issue of Invincible that Invincible’s dad comes from…The Planet of the Mustachioed Men. “A planet…where men evolved from Freddy Mercury?”

3. A German comics weblog had some thoughts on my Things Not to Say… list, particularly about the “Superman’s still being published” comment. If I’m reading the translation correctly (the online automatic translator I used having a grasp of German only marginally better than my own) Comicgate believes that this problem doesn’t exactly speak well of DC Comics’ marketing department, and I’m inclined to agree, somewhat. It’s probably safe to say that the people who say this to me haven’t even thought of Superman since the whole “Death of Superman” thing, and never bothered to find out after buying their “collector’s item” if Superman ever got better.

4. And for today’s AiT/Planetlar review: Blackheart Billy by Rick Remender, Kieron Dwyer, and Harper Jaten. The title character is a skateboarding punk rocker who hates hippies, hates religious nuts, hates pacifists, hates the Grateful Dead…hates anything that offends his sensibilities (i.e. pretty much everything), and, oh, by the way, he also has a robotic head he got as a replacement when his previous head was seriously damaged at a punk rock concert. Well, it wasn’t exactly my cup of tea (and I imagine that Billy also hates people who use phrases like “wasn’t exactly my cup of tea,” and who could blame him for that)…I mean, it was fine and all, but a little of this sort of character goes a long way. The lead story is the strongest, with Billy facing the menace of a resurrected Adolph Hitler, inhabiting the body of Jerry Garcia, and wrapped within a giant robot body. It’s completely insane, plenty vulgar, and contains quite possibly the most offensive use of an inflatable love doll that you’ve ever seen. Remender’s script is amusing, with an excess of pop culture references, but it’s Dwyer’s highly detailed and appealling art that carries the story.

The rest of the book is made up of shorter stories, one pagers, and comic strips…the short with Billy trying to get a coffee shop employee to let him use the restroom is probably the best, but the final strip, with Billy and his lady-friend Skeeter having a conversation about, what else, things Billy hates, and Billy’s confrontation with a pacifist, is pretty good as well. The creators on this comic aren’t afraid to go for the gross-out in the pursuit of a joke, which one should probably expect with Dwyer‘s involvement. Again, like I said, a little does go a long way…the excessive in-your-face outrageousness can wear thin a little after several pages, and feels forced at times. On occasion it seems like the creators are practically preaching at you through Billy’s dialgoue about why these people deserve to be hated (particularly on the first few pages of the book), but that’s more the exception. Some lines, though, are laugh-out-loud funny (“Well, hi-de-ho! A generous plank and me without a carpenter!” — you really need the visual for the full impact. Yes, it’s rude). So, overall, I did enjoy Blackheart Billy, but I don’t think I’d want a steady diet of it. There, that’s my wishy-washy conclusion.

And besides, there’s a quote from Mr. Show‘s Brian Posehn on the back cover, and if he likes it, certainly you’ll find something to like here as well.

Recommended for fans of Ralph Snart (the good ones, by Marc Hansen) and Tank Girl.