Man, our Native American friends are always getting it in the shorts thanks to our old funnybooks. I’d like to think that, maybe, the comic is commenting on the short-sighted, stereotyping attitudes of some of the wrestling match’s audience members, but since the story also gives the Arizona Apache an “AIEEEEE” battle cry, well….
On the other hand, maybe it’s a subtle criticism of the usage of stereotypes within, not just the world of pro wrestling, but entertainment in general, which is a layer of metatext too great for some dumb mid-’60s Batman comic (which clearly just used these clichés to sell the character’s Indian-ness) to support without collapsing into a black hole of overanalysis.
Didn’t stop me from trying, though, did it? Sigh…such is the burden of the comics blogger.
In other news:
I mentioned it here, and I gotta tell you, after the weekend, we’re down to one copy of Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters. Okay, we didn’t start with too many to begin with, but that we still managed to move copies of this book is just mildly stunning.
Also following up on that Wednesday post of mine, we sold through all our Captain America #34s, but solely to our regular comic buyers. In our area, at least, all that real world coverage just preached to the converted, if it influenced them at all. So it did sell a little better than normal, just not “crazy better” like the “death” issue did. So, basically, it sold like we thought it would.
I’ve noticed that some of the real world coverage is still rolling out, here and there, so I suppose there’s still the possibility of a new customer or two curious enough about this here new Cap fella to make it to the shop and inquire after copies. ‘Course, they’ll have to wait until the “variant cover” 2nd printing, or the dreaded “Director’s Cut,” if they’re still interested.
With that Project Superpowers #0 priced at a buck, people are a little more willing to buy two copies in order to get both halves of that Alex Ross connecting cover (pictured at the top left right here. It would have been nice to have one wraparound cover instead, however.
If I may direct your attention to the sidebar for a little shameless shilling, I’d like to point out that due this week is the animated Turok Son of Stone DVD…I’ve only seen this trailer, which makes it look like it’s sticking, more or less, with the original concept of the character, and none of the sci-fi “dinos with guns” trappings tacked on later. Well, maybe with a lot more blood, but close enough. No idea if it’s any good, but thought some of you would like to know that it’ll be unleashed this Tuesday.
Also, I missed that the new Ms. Tree novel Deadly Beloved and the latest Wild Cards novel Inside Straight have been released. So, I thought I’d pass that info along (as well as Amazon store sidebar links, nudge wink) in case any of you missed that, too.
So at the store, we regularly get free merchadise bags from a promotional company that produces said bags advertising various movies and TV shows. We’ve had Torchwood bags, and South Park bags, and, currently, we have a bunch of bags advertising the Terminator TV show. The box they came in was getting a little ratty, so I decided to move our stock of these things into a new container…and in the process, I found this little doodad, packed in among the plastic sacks:
It was a little Terminator flashlight keychain, which I thought was kind of a neat thing, so I threw it in my pocket and continued the repacking of the bags.
When I got home later that evening, the porch of my house was pretty dark, and I remembered that I had the flashlight on my person. Instead of briefly fumbling with the keys, trying to get the right one into the keyhole, I thought I’d save myself that one whole extra second and shed a little light on the matter. And I was surprised to see this:
I though it was just a plain ol’ flashlight, but it instead projects an ad for the show. That pic’s a little blurry, but you can see the Terminator skull and the logo. Cool!
I know, it doesn’t take much to amuse me. Also, it hasn’t inspired me to start watching the show, so I guess as a TV show promoter, it makes a good dark porch illuminator.
For those of you that were wondering, and I bet you were…my copy of the Swamp Thing TV show DVD set came in the mail a couple days ago, containing two full seasons of wonder and beauty. Well, okay, actually it just contains the Swamp Thing TV show. There are a couple special features, interviews with the character’s co-creator Len Wein, and with the actor under the rubber swamp outfit, Dick Durock.
I only just started watching the episodes themselves, and I’d forgotten just how…metallic and gravelly, if you get my meaning, Swamp Thing’s voice sounded on this show. Also, I have lots and lots of footage of Arcane’s Dennis Miller-esque hairdo to look forward to.
I hadn’t seen the show in years, and for some reason, my brief exposures to the show left me with the impression that there were lots of shots of Swampy standing in bushes, behind walls, etc., all to save the cost of having to get poor Mr. Durock in the full get-up. I guess I’ll be seeing if that impression was true.
And remember, kids…do not bring your evil here, or face…
Or at least attempted to, since he was apparently interrupted and didn’t get to finish. Hmmm…that’s definitely an “S,” and that looks kind of like he was going to paint an “I” — so, Sims, where were you the night of December 1st?
Pal Dorian sent around a link to this article, forecasting big, big sales for the Watchmen trade paperback as the movie looms ever closer.
Longtime readers of this site know my experience with this…movie-related comics tend to peak in sales just before the movie’s release, before dropping down to pre-movie hype sales (or even lower) upon or shortly after the film’s debut. It happened with V for Vendetta, the first Spider-Man movie, From Hell, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and so on. And, judging by customer demand, trade sales could have been bumped upwards by the Sin City and Hellboy movies, but since Dark Horse was incapable of supplying those books to the direct market during peak demand, that’s all theoretical.
The Watchmen movie is the real test, however. The Watchmen graphic novel has been a consistent, constant seller for years. I don’t have the numbers right in front of me, but I imagine it probably outsells several new graphic novels from Marvel and DC in any given month. It has a legendary status within the hobby, and at least some minor amount of recognition outside the hobby. I’m still reordering copies every week…and just when I think that there’s no possibly way everyone hasn’t read this book by now, I sell more copies.
Now, at this point there’s little chance that this movie is going to sink without a trace. It’s a big-budget superhero movie, and it’s gonna get noticed by the general public. Sometime late next year, and especially early ’09, we’re gonna be sick of seeing that smiley-face-with-blood-splash symbol all over everything advertising this flick. So, this movie will almost certainly enter the public consciousness.
If the movie’s good, the comic will become superfluous. “I’ve seen the movie…I don’t need to read the comic.” If the movie’s bad, it’ll be people in the store pointing at the book on the shelf and saying “Oh, yeah, Watchmen…that was a crap movie. Look, there’s a comic based on it!” And then they’ll laugh. (This is also known as the “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Effect.”)
I exaggerate slightly, but not much. V for Vendetta still sells, for example, but not nearly at the numbers it used to. I expect something similar to happen to Watchmen. Hopefully the movie will be at least watchable, so I don’t have the additional burden of trying to convince customers that, yes, this comic is good, no really, it’s not like the movie. (This is known as the “Howard the Duck Effect.”)
Kid Chris has my back on the movies/comics thing. Also, speaking of Kid Chris…sort of, since he’s absent from the podcast again, the Bispectacult has a new podcast up, entitled “Mary Jane Must Die!” Oh, goodness me. And that darn Dafna has the potty mouth, mind you, so keep those speakers turned down at work.
Here’s what may be my favorite last line of a comic book, ever, from Barbaric Tales #1 (1986). A barbarian sneaks into a stronghold to confront the sorceress who killed his people. She says to him:
“You seek your revenge with twisted words! An ill-phrased epitath [sic] for an ignorant savage! […] Behold, barbarian…I will slay you as I did your clan…with words!”
As she begins to cast her spell, the barbarian runs her through with his sword, slaying her. And, as he departs, he rubs it in with a little clever wordplay:
Employee Aaron dug up this comic while filing some books, and showed me this story. I was literally flabbergasted, and I do not flabbergast easily.
I was poking through the recent Super Sons trade that DC put out, reprinting the Bob Haney “Sons of Superman and Batman” adventures from the ’70s, and noticed that it included the Super Sons story from the Elseworlds 80 Page Giant. You know, the Giant that was ordered pulped by the publisher, because someone was a big ol’ girl’s blouse and was afraid that an element in the story where a baby Superman is babysat (baby Supes sitting in the microwave) would be imitated by the theoretical and mostly imaginary children who’d be reading this comic aimed at men in their 40s. So, being reminded of that just annoyed me, particularly since DC was later shamed into printing said Superman’s Babysitter story (by Kyle Baker) when it won an Eisner award or two, thus making all the brouhaha kinda moot anyway.
Another thing the Super Sons book reminded me of, and I’m sure someone out there in the comics internet already pointed out…in current DC continuity, we have Chris, the Kryptonian kid being raised by Clark and Lois…and we have Damian, the son of Batman.
Dude…NEW SUPER SONS STORIES. Surely this must happen.
Wha…what…? I didn’t see this in the latest issue of Star Wars Insider, did I?
I think “Plastic Man in Disguise” is a good paint scheme for a room:
Okay, I know it’s not an exact match, but I swear, that’s the first thing I thought when I saw that.
(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.
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.”
Someday I’d like to see a collection of all the space-filling short humor strips used to fill out comics back in the day. Also…was this Weird Watson’s only appearance? How can you not love that guy?
Weekly World News has had several connections to the comic book world, such as editors Paul Kupperburg and Bob Greenberger, writer Andy Mangels, and, of course, Peter Bagge’s run of initial “Bat Boy” comic strips, among others.
The supermarket just won’t be the same without Weekly World News staring back out at you at the checkout line. Another little piece of Americana slips away.
“One thing I’ve started wondering about your memories of the speculative boom – how much cash would your average collector buying multiple copies for investment value actually have sent down the toilet, in terms of purchase price versus current value?”
That’s a hard question to answer. Well, maybe not…the general response would be “a lot,” but it would depend really on what multiple copies they purchased (and assuming they kept them in sellable shape, which, as I noted Friday, was rarely the case).
But even if they did end up investing in a boom-era comic book with some current demand and a reasonable aftermarket price — say, for example, Spawn #1 — is the 30% to 50% (if you’re lucky) of that aftermarket price you’re going to get by selling it to a dealer, or on eBay, worth the fifteen years you’ve stored them? And if you have a lot of them, you might run into the problem I mentioned here…you might be able to sell 5 or 10 or even 20 copies of Spawn #1 to the same buyer, but it’s not likely you’ll be able to sell a full case of a couple hundred copies to that buyer. At least, not without taking an enormous loss on them. I can use some Spawn #1s for the shop, but I’m not going to tie up a lot of money in 200 copes that might take me a decade or more to sell. If you want me to buy a full case of Spawn #1, it better be cheap.
And if you’ve got something nobody wants, like, say, Brigade #1, you’ve gone from the “you may make a little bit of your money back” situation with Spawn to the “too bad it’s not soft enough to use as toilet paper” side of things. Sure, the price guide might say it’s worth cover price or so, but they’re not actually selling for that. To anyone. Ever. They’re not even selling in our bargain bins, much less at full price. Anyone who invested in Brigade will find themselves…well, I believe the technical term is “losing one’s ass.”
Speaking of asses and the loss thereof…another thing to consider, when it comes to value of many of the boom books…some of you folks may remember that our shop was clearing out some backstock, selling about 100,000 units to somebody who needed comic books in bulk, regardless of title or publisher. We unloaded tons of ’90s crash-era comics at the princely sum of one shiny nickel per funnybook. Alas, I doubt you’ll see that pricing reflected in the listings of your favorite price guide (“SECOND LIFE OF DR. MIRAGE #1 – $0.05 in NM condition”).
So, anyway, to actually answer the question: while I’m sure there are some success stories, the vast majority of people who invested in multiple copies probably only realized pennies for each dollar spent, if even that.
“Do you think 52 would have sold as well if DC published it as a monthly trade rather than a weekly pamphlet?”
If they had gone the monthly paperback route, 52 would have been a drastically different creature. (For one, they would have called it 12.) It was designed as a weekly serial, with cliffhangers, and its impact (and novelty) would have been diminished had it been yet another monthly publication. Not saying there isn’t room for DC to experiment with a superhero story serialized as a monthly trade paperback, but 52 was primarily designed to take advantage of the weekly new comic pamphlet release schedule, which contributed to its sale success.
Another good sequence from Adventures into Darkness #14:
I don’t normally buy current publications from Archie Comics, and when I do, it’s almost always books that reprint their work from the ’60s and earlier. Such was the case with last week’s Archie Digest #236, which reprints Archie’s first appearance from Pep #22, along with a full reprinting of Archie #1 from 1942.
One of the stories from Archie #1 has Archie involved in a series of mix-ups on a train with another passenger, and the poor railroad porter gets caught in the shenanigans as well. The porter looks and talks like this:
I realize it’s no shock to anyone familiar with comic book history that racist caricatures of black people (and Asians, and Native Americans, and so on) were common in early stories (and this isn’t even the worst example from this particular story, with other panels including dialogue like “I done thought…” and “Mus’ be dat bump on yo’ had!”). Not having an original Archie #1 lying around the house, I’m going to assume the porter has been recolored slightly for the reprint, even though all his stereotypical dialogue appears to have remained intact.
I’m not saying this shouldn’t have been reprinted as is. If you’re going to reprint your old material for historical purposes, it should be reprinted as it was, warts and all*. And that’s what folks have been doing…a glance through your Shazam Archives and your Golden Age Wonder Woman Archives, among others, will show you examples of political incorrectness similar to that bit of business with the porter. But these are high end reprints, aimed at comic collectors, who are presumably familiar with the poor way minority groups were portrayed. Disclaimers aren’t uncommon, noting the usage of such caricatures were typical of the time, and left unchanged for historical reference.
This Archie digest, however, is aimed at a young, general audience. It’s one of the few modern comics actually sold in places where people who aren’t comic fans shop. At my grocery store, they’re right up there at the checkout line, next to the TV Guide and the Weekly World News. How will kids take the porter’s portrayal — how will the parents? — particularly since there is no disclaimer that I can find noting the historical reasons for that portrayal.
I’m very curious as to the response Archie Comics will receive.
Okay, one last round of “Mike Remembers Barely Making It Through the 1990s:”
“Do you think we’ll ever see comic books back in supermarkets and convenience stores?”
It’d be nice, and in some cases apparently you can find comics in some convenience stores…but a widespread revival of this manner of distribution? Not unless 1) comics get a whole lot more popular, and 2) the profit potential for them is enough for store owners to risk valuable space on them.
“Do you think Gemstone will keep publishing Disney comics for very long?”
Hard to say…my gut feeling says “no,” since their number of publications has declined, and their prices have gone up. Their last Don Rosa reprint book has sold very well for us, though, so maybe there’s some life there yet.
“There are those who insist that monthly super-hero comics will be dead sooner rather than later. Do you see a trend in that department? What’s your take on the viability of our beloved monthlies?”
I think if the price point of the standard comic book goes much higher, something is going to have to give. My guess is a regular comic book will eventually undergo some form of evolution, possibly into a much thicker publication with more stories, at a slightly higher price point (but giving a higher perceived value to the reader), and just loaded with ads to help subsidize the cost of the magazine.
There are a lot of economic factors there that I’m overlooking (such as whether or not a comic book publication could attract enough ads, and get enough money from them). At the very least, I don’t think monthly books will go away, but they’ll have to become something new to give readers more perceived value for their money.
“Where the hell did all these investors come from in the first place? I mean, why did everyone suddenly get the idea that these comics would be worth a lot of money? Comics had been around for decades and decades, and then — all of a sudden, out of nowhere — all these non-comic book fans start investing in them? Why? Was there some sort of triggering event? I don’t get it.”
Apparently there was a large crash in the sports card market just prior, and it was just a lateral shift from collecting one thing to another…I don’t have exact details, but it appeared to be common knowledge at the time. I can personally testify to the number of investor-types requesting “comic book Becketts” — Beckett being the publisher of several sports card price guides — so that lends credence to that theory.
Also, the greater awareness of comics among the general populace, driven by movies and media-hyped events, combined with a possible economic downturn and plenty of newspaper stories dragging out the old “did you know old comics are worth money?” thing…that made comics a large, attractive target for investing, without all that “dealing with brokers” stuff.
“Oh, another question — why are you so remorseful about selling pogs? How is that any worse than selling, say, a trading card or an action figure? People wanted pogs, and they wanted to give you money in order to own them. What’s the big crisis of conscience there?”
Because I can see the value of a trading card or an action figure. Though technically, I realize, there’s only a slight difference between a trading card and a POG, but least trading cards were numbered, sometimes had cardback text, and could be put into sets. They had something to them. POGs (or, rather, milkcaps) were, with some exceptions, just random pictures on bits of round cardboard, and just felt to me like it was worthless junk. The alleged “game” involving milkcaps was essentially jacks or marbles, without the skill….you threw a heavy disc down onto a pile of cardboard discs. and you kept the ones that turned over, or some damned thing.
I understand this might just be bias on my part, since there are plenty of folks who think comics are worthless junk too, but even if customers were willing to part with their money for POGs, I felt like I was giving them nothing of value in return. I was essentially turning their money into crap. I know I should feel like this when I sell someone a copy of, say, Purgatori, but I don’t.
Yeah, cheap shot at Purgatori, sorry, but I can accept that someone might find entertainment value in that comic. Somehow. I just don’t see that value in milkcaps.
* As far as story content goes, anyway…I realize the comics in question have been recolored and (it seems) relettered for clarity.
Okay, I’m gonna try to go through these a little more quickly…I’ve given you a lot to read this week, which means a lot of typing on my part, and a man’s gotta get some sleep sometime. Plus, that Doctor Who Genesis of the Daleks DVD I got from Netflix ain’t gonna watch itself.
So, here are a few more answers to questions posed to me about the comics market, the ’90s, and, God help us all, POGs:
“Did you as a retailer see any signs that comics were recovering in the late-’90s, or was it just a long period of malaise from the Bust until Quesada/Jemas at Marvel kicked off the Media Age?”
I think the simple departure of the investors meant a stabilization/correction of the market…unfortunately, that stabilization of the market also included the departure of fans who were present prior to the fad/boom, who left for a myriad of reasons (tired of the decline in quality, disgusted by the catering to investors, distracted by other hobbies, etc.).
At that point, there was no where to go but up, really, and with the shaking out of lesser books and a general increase in quality in what was left, you got the sense that a slightly healthier market was beginning to emerge. Retailers ordering more sanely, consumers showing a bit more discretion…we all went from “wild abandon” to “cautious penny-pinchers” right quick.
The Quesada/Jemas thing, if anything, probably stirred things up a bit more than the market was really ready to deal with at the time. It’s like taking someone out dancing two days after they broke both their legs…a little more recovery time is probably required. I’m thinking the whole “upping comics schedules to every three weeks instead of monthly” shenanigans they tried, briefly, before discovering everyone hated it.
“I was wondering if your shop saw a lot of customers who, like me, didn’t even notice the boom and bust.”
Probably…we had a few folks wondering where all their Punisher titles went, for example, or noting that a lot of the comics they were following suddenly dried up, or came out less frequently. Whether some of them were aware of the changing marketplace as a whole, I don’t know…I imagine some never really noticed. So long as we still had our doors open, still getting new comics every week for them to buy, then it was all Business As Usual.
“Rare, sought-after book = high value. Did speculators not realize that companies printing 300k-500k copies of a new book, and everyone buying five copies apiece to store away, meant that these books were by definition not rare and therefore not valuable?”
You’d think. I did a lot of explaining to people trying to sell us comics during the lean years why their stacks of Image #1s weren’t worth diddly squat.
On the other hand, there’s a particular phenomenon I’ve noticed when I see collections from people who bought multiple copies in large quantities. The vast majority of these people did not keep their comics in new condition. Of those 500,000 copy print runs, chances are the copies that actually made it into customers’ hands (and not just stored away in shop’s backrooms) are not longer in mint shape, if they were even kept at all and not just tossed out once the faddish fever broke.
So, maybe, just maybe, that one person who bought fifty copies of Secret Weapons #1 and managed to keep them in mint shape actually may have something, there. Still not going to buy ’em, though.
“You wouldn’t happen to have any packs of GHOST RIDER hero caps (aka; pogs) left over would ya?”
Nope, no more POGs. A year or two back I found one last cardboard box filled with POGs and associated paraphernalia still gathering dust in the back room, threw it as is on the eBay, and got about thirty bucks for it. Aside from maybe a POG promo or two in our card section, and that little tiny plastic POG case with a few caps in it that I use as both a paperweight and as a constant reminder of my retailing sins, POGs are no longer welcome in the store. Phooey, sez I.
FMguru has lotsa questions, so let’s see what kind of answers I can give him:
“When the boom was going on, did you believe that the market was ascending to a new plateau (i.e. that a lot of the boom was actual long-term growth in the market) or did you think it was all hot air and candyfloss and likely to end in tears (or, more positively, a nice little bump in sales and cashflow before things settled back to normal)?”
My expectations was that it was a faddish increase, and that things would eventually normalize…but I figured it would normalize with some extra folks joining the comics scene as regular readers, so that as a whole the market would be slightly larger than before. Alas, what ended up happening, as I noted earlier in this post, was that the investors went away, the fad-followers went away, and a bunch of the regular fans went away, leaving us with a shell of an industry.
“Also, what was the most traumatic event of the boom, from a retailer’s POV? What one thing (corporate decision, book delay, whatever) did the most damage to your business?”
I’ve discussed this in past posts of mine, trying to track down the book that killed the industry. In my mind, it’s still Turok Dinosaur Hunter #1 from Valiant, which every retailer overordered, and ended up not selling anywhere close to expectations. It might just be me creating connections in hindsight, but it seemed to me that this was the book that triggered the realization that investing in comics, particularly comics that had larger print runs than the Bible, was a really stupid thing to be doing.
“What was the most ludicrous waste of money that was clearly going to be an enormous failure? I’m thinking Tekno Comics, here.”
Tekno Comics is a good answer, featuring a lot of Big Famous Names on titles that they were only tangentially attached to, like, say, Isaac Asimov’s I-Bots. Not saying they were bad books, but having “Isaac Asimov’s” and “Neil Gaiman’s” and “Mickey Spillane’s” across the tops of the covers, and having someone else write the insides, was bound to disappoint somebody. Yeah, I know, what were they expecting, but still.
In general, though, I think the huge amounts of money spent to try to compete with Marvel and DC at their own shared-universe superhero game was a bad idea. And the whole “collect the trading cards to assemble the first issue of our series” idea for Defiant’s Warriors of Plasm and, I think, Dark Dominion, seemed like a good way to dissuade people from trying your books.
“What role did the Magic: The Gathering boom of 95-96 have in helping keep your store afloat during the comic market implosion?”
Games in general helped keep us going…half the store was devoted to role-playing and tabletop gaming, and that kept bringing in the bacon when the comic half was in the doldrums. I knew something was up with Magic almost from the start, when we’d get calls like this:
“Hi, I’m in Los Angeles. Do you have any Magic packs?”
“Uh, yeah, I have a couple left here.”
“HOLD THEM FOR ME I’M DRIVING UP THERE RIGHT NOW.”
So, yeah, RPGs, Magic, Warhammer…all that stuff definitely helped.
Not a question, but an observation:
“One other good side effect of the boom was that it created a huge demand for writers and artists, and a whole bunch of people who otherwise wouldn’t have broken into the industry got breaks.”
True enough…I was going to touch on that, but I kept wanting to phrase it as “consumer confidence was undermined by the influx of not-ready-for-prime-time artists and writers hired primarily for their ability to fill a page with something, regardless of quality, as all those books being pumped out each month couldn’t go out blank.”
But you’re right…the side effect of this was that, just by the sheer numbers involved, some of those people would actually turn out to be pretty good, and got their breaks during this creative influx. So that’s a good thing, but too bad about the trials we all had to endure for this to happen.
“Finally, of all the dumb cover enhancements that came along in the 90s, which was your favorite? I really liked a Superman cover that was just a Metropolis cityscape with a slightly waxy coating – and it came with a sheet of ColorForms(tm) you could peel off and make your own cover with. Reusable!”
“You know, I still can’t effin’ understand how POGs are played. Is player? Are played with? I can’t even get the prepositions right!”
It involves throwing a heavier POG, or a Slammer, at a stack of other caps, and whatever flipped over you got to keep, or something. Either that, or the point was to accumulate as many POGs as possible, so your mom will something to complain at you about leaving all over the floor of your room.
“About the black-and-white boom, it should be noted that some of those ‘failures’ were selling in numbers which would happily get them continued by a small black-and-white publisher today.”
True enough…though a portion of those b&w titles were selling to retailers, and not necessarily getting into the hands of any customers. Shadow of the Groundhog sold great to that convention guy I told you about yesterday…he just couldn’t sell ’em to anybody else!
But I get your point….lots of good b&w titles sold solid numbers, to actual readers…numbers that may have been sneered at by Marvel and DC at the time, but are probably looked at now as “pie in the sky hopes” dream numbers by the Big Two.
Speaking of Pal Nat, the (sniff) last issue of Licensable Bear™, #4, is now out in stores. Read more about the cutest little licensable bear ever at Licensablebeartm.com.
And here’s a Licensable Bear™ video that I seemed to have accidentally skipped featuring on my site when it was released. So, please, enjoy a lesson in branding and marketing from the only expert you can trust…a bear wearing a shirt:
Tim O’Neil continues his in-depth examination of the rise and fall and rise again of the Punisher comic book, inspired, at least in part, by a post of mine briefly discussing the character’s waning and waxing popularity. (Here’s part one of Tim’s Punisher posts.)
Well, let me set up the situation for you, in case you don’t know already.
DC Comics brought the previous Flash series, starring the Wally West version of the character, to an end about a year and a half ago. Then a new Flash series was launched, featuring Bart Allen, the former Impulse, as the title character. It was a whole big relaunch hoo-har, with a new #1 issue and everything, and even though the writing in the early issues of the book was pretty dismal, things picked up a bit when a new writer came on board and readers started to slowly come back, at least in our neck of the woods.
But it’s not the quality of the book that concerns me here. Don’t get me wrong, it does concern me, and that is an important issue, but the point I am trying to make here makes the actual quality of the title moot.
As I’m sure most of you know, we have to order books ahead of time, getting our order numbers in to the distributor about two months or so, usually, before the items are released. And, in the last couple of months, we dutifully placed our orders for Flash #14 and Flash #15.
Well, Flash #13, which came out a couple weeks ago, is actually the last issue of the series, and DC took order numbers on succeeding issues as an attempt to keep secret the shocking surprise wrap-up to Bart Allen’s run as the Scarlet Speedster (a strategy last used, far as I recall, for the Ultraverse title Exiles). The orders for issues #14 and #15 have since been transferred to a Flash one-shot special and the “first” issue (actually picking up the numbering from the previous Wally West series) of the new Flash title.
And, judging from statements made by folks at DC, this was the plan the whole time. There were a lot of comments made along the lines of “don’t get attached to this new Flash” and “the Flash in the early issues may not be the same Flash in the later issues” and that sort of thing.
The end result is that a title that was launched as a new ongoing series was, in fact, a mini-series. I don’t have the solicitation info right here in front of me, so maybe it was never explicitly described as an “ongoing,” but neither was it presented as a finite run, either.
In most cases, this wouldn’t be that big of a deal. Plenty of comics start big, intended as ongoing series, and fizzle out in short order. In fact, this was practically Image Comics’ publishing strategy for a while, there. In any case, publishers start new ongoing series, retailers order what they think they can sell, and we all hope for the best. Sometimes things go well, sometimes they don’t, sometimes publishers pull the plug on a series a little too soon, sometimes something that sells well for us isn’t selling well anywhere else and thus gets canned, and so on.
But a Flash series is different.
There are certain characters that Marvel and DC publish that, while not their primary licensable properties like Superman or Spider-man, will nevertheless almost always be assured a place in their publishing schedules. Partially because of the its recognizability or importance to the company’s history, primarily because of the its translatability to toys and movies, these characters will almost always have a comic with their logo on the cover. There will likely always be a Captain America comic, for example, or a Green Lantern comic. Sometime sales will dip so low that one of these titles will disappear for a brief time (like GL did, or Thor), but will then get relaunched with a lot of fanfare.
In short, the chances of survival for an ongoing series starring the Flash is better than, say, the chances of survival for an ongoing series starring, say, Penance or Blue Devil. Not saying I wouldn’t like to see an ongoing title with…well, with Blue Devil, at least, but from the point of view of someone who has to sell these books for a living, I’d have to imagine the publisher would have more invested in perpetuating the recognizable, marketable trademark in an ongoing series than any of their secondary, less marketable characters. If a Blue Devil series is launched, goes nowhere, gets cancelled…no big whoop. That idea didn’t work, let’s try something else with another character. If a Captain America series is launched, goes nowhere, gets cancelled…they’ll try again with a new Captain America series in short order.
So, let’s go back to the beginnings of this recently cancelled Flash series:
DC puts an end to their previous Flash series starring Wally West. Okay, it wasn’t selling like gangbusters or anything, but I can see where DC may want to revitalize their Flash character with a big, new revamp/relaunch.
It’s time for us to place orders for the new Flash #1, the series starring Bart Allen. Since it’s a Flash series, and the previous Flash series have each lasted hundreds of issues, we make the seemingly-safe judgment call that this new Flash series probably will stick around for a while. Given this, and the fact that we tend to do pretty good business in back number sales, we order heavier on the initial issues. We’ll adjust orders once actual sales figures are evident, but it’s okay if we have some extras of #1, #2, and #3 floating around. Having a Flash series on the stands, particularly with low numbering, functions as a good advertisement for its own back issues. People who start with, say, #8, are likely to go back and buy the first seven. Plus, early and relatively inexpensive issues of a comic book series starring one of the major characters is an attractive draw.
And, while the Bart series is running (har har), we do indeed experience some significant back issue movement. People pick up a Flash #3 on the stands, they’re gonna want a #1 and a #2.
Had the Bart series continued, this probably would have been the case for quite some time. Not indefinitely, of course…once you get to issue #15 or so, which the series had been approaching, you’re not going to have as many people impulse-buying (har har, again) #1 through #14. But, as I’d said, this is a series featuring one of DC’s major properties…those #1s through #3s had at least a little sales life left in them.
However, now that the Bart series is a self-contained one-off mini, with that version of the Flash not being seen again at least for the near future, and which has been supplanted with the revived numbering of the previous Flash series and once again starring Wally West…well, one of the motivators for folks to buy those back issues has been removed. Now it’s a canceled, soon to be forgotten oddity, for Flash fans and completists only, with no back issue sales to casual comic fans driven by new issues of that series on the rack.
Had this actually been an ongoing series that we’d ordered heavily on for the early issues, and it got canned due to poor sales…well, What Can You Do? We took a bet that the series would succeed, we lost, it happens. We ordered the best we could with the information we had.
For the Bart Flash series, we didn’t have all the information. We didn’t know it was only an interim series published during a hiatus in the Wally West series. Yes, there were hints that the Flash that started the series may not be the Flash who would end up starring in it…but at no time did we suspect that the relaunched title, quite the big deal at the time, would be canceled and replaced by the previous title with the old numbering.
I expect to still sell some back issues of the Bart series, as there may be some cursory interest driven by the news around the Flash cancelation/relaunch and the forthcoming All-Flash one-shot which spins off from that last issue. The healthy lifespan of those back issue sales, however, has been severely curtailed without a “live” series driving them. Even where, unlike this case, there’s a continuity of character across multiple “ongoing” (but canceled and replaced by other ongoings) series, like Captain America…back issue sales on the previous series tend to dry up in favor of the current one.
That was a long row to hoe to basically say “We wish we new that Bart Allen series was a mini, because we would have ordered it as such.”
…sixty-nine copies of Marvel’s Time Bandits adaptation:
We recently found ourselves in possession of a collection that consisted of lots of multiple copies of various titles from the early ’80s, primarily extra-sized comics, anniversary issues, and annuals. We paid well for the stuff we could use, and everything else (sloppily packed into old and decaying cardboard boxes) ended up getting dumped on us.
But that’s okay…as a result, you may be getting more pictures like the above in the near future. In fact, on Wednesday, on new comics day, instead of doing actual work, there I was, carefully spreading out Time Bandits comics on the floor, then balancing on top of the aluminum ladder that I dragged out of the back of the store in order to get the right angle for my shot.
The things I do for this site.
Hey, look, I have an article over on Cracked.com….”Awesome Super-Powers (And Why You Don’t Want Them).” (EDIT 9/9/12: Link dead. Just as well…it wasn’t that good.) Go read, you.
I can’t take credit for the swell job done on the graphic element of that article, but those Cracked guys sure dressed up my textual drivel right purty.
Speaking of new comics day (as I was, up there, somewhere), we received our case of Spawn Series 29, the one supposedly containing the Man of Miracles figure (based on Marvelman/Miracleman, ownership of which is…contested, to say the least). I say “supposedly” because our case didn’t have one. Comments I’ve seen here and there have stated that this figure is the short-pack of the case…if so, ours was so short-packed we didn’t even get one.
We also received the figures based on Michael Turner’s artwork from the nigh-unreadable Superman/Batman “Return of Supergirl” storyline. Oh, Sweet Mother McCrea, these figures are even more appalling in person. Supergirl is frightful, and Corrupted Supergirl, even more so.
While Googling up some info on the Man of Miracles figure, I came across a reference to the character on this Wikipedia disambiguation page:
“A thinly-veiled rip-off of Miracleman, ‘created’ by Todd McFarlane for the comic book Spawn.”
That instance of opining has been removed from the current version of the page. As noted in the page history file:
“(Removal of POV (even if I agree with it!) from disambig.)”
Well, I thought it was amusing, anyway.
I’m not going to talk about this today, but how long do I have to wait before I discuss the “surprise” twist from the end of this week’s release of Civil War #2, without having to surround it with SPOILER WARNINGS? Is it safe to assume that anyone online with any interest in the story already knows it? (Here’s the reveal if you hadn’t heard.)
You know what? Forget it. I am going to discuss it. so current SPOILERS in effect, kids.
So the big reveal at the end (the same reveal that ended up in this week’s Thunderbolts, so everybody found out about it last week when they read that comic in the Marvel preview pack) is almost certainly going to get reversed in short order. A friend of mine, whose first initial is Dorian, has noted that Marvel’s current talking point is that this character’s current relationship status quo is a bad idea, and shouldn’t have been done…probably to get folks ready for something to happen to that status quo during the course of Civil War. Probably not death or divorce, as the Marvel folks seem to be against that.
Well, my guess is that whenever they reverse the reveal from Civil War #2 (maybe Dr. Strange casting a spell, or time travel, or however they do it), the hero in question will ask that his relationship be undone, retconned, “made never was,” to protect his loved ones from any harm being caused by their proximity to him. Particularly if said loved ones undergo some kind of traumatic experience as a result of the reveal. And vee-ola, we’re back to square one.
That’s just my guess, anyway. Could be completely off.
I did like the reaction of the hero’s boss to his reveal, though. Very funny.
Super F*ckers “#277” by James Kochalka is out this week…more charming, wistful, violent, silly, and remarkably potty-mouthed superhero funnies. It’s probably my favorite superhero book of the week. It may be five bucks for 24 pages, but it’s so densely-packed that you certainly get more than your money’s worth. (Unlike, say, my experience with last week’s Wonder Woman #1, which felt like I got from one cover to the other in no time at all). Kochalka says a few words about Super F*ckers (and other topics) in Alan David Doane’s Five Questions interview.
I don’t have much new to say about it, but I always like to note when the new volumes of Little Lulu arrive. This one is Volume 10, All Dressed Up, and John Stanley and Irving Tripp’s work is about as close to “perfect” as comics can get. Classic, funny, and ageless material.
For reading all this, you get a picture of twenty-eight copies of The Life of Pope John Paul II:
Hey, there’s some kind of giant orange lizard creature on the cover of the new Marvel Knights: 4. I hope the Thing fights it inside.
YOUR EMBARRASSING STORY OF THE DAY: Several years ago, I had a customer who, as it happened, was blind in one eye, and was wearing a patch over said eye. He asked me if we had a particular item in stock. I told him that, no, we were out of that item at the moment. He asked if we could ever get it back in stock, and if so, if I could let him know when it does show up.
I told him that I’d keep an eye out for it.
Even as I was saying it, I was thinking “maybe this isn’t the best way to say this to this particular customer,” but too late…it was out of my mouth.
Luckily, he wasn’t offended…and maybe I was worrying just a tad too much, but boy, to this day I can’t believe I said that to him.
Congratulations to Will Pfeifer on hitting his weblog’s one year mark! Go visit his site, and give him some well-wishing along with the Duke!
And vaya con pollos to weblogging mainstay Franklin Harris, who’s putting an end to his site, for good this time. We’ll miss ya, Mr. Harris!
Someone, somewhere, at this very moment, is having a heart attack over how Batman is portrayed in All Star Batman and Robin #2. But man, I couldn’t stop laughing, not so much as to the actual content of the story, but to Frank Miller’s hearty “screw you” to the fans who want their Batman deadly serious. (And yeah, I know Batman’s behavior was, mostly, supposed to be an act to get reactions out of Dick Grayson. Still damned funny.)
Okay, just when you’ve thought you’ve heard the last of this…so, about the early ’90s comic crash….
Now stop that groaning, this’ll only take a minute or two.
Anyway, we were trying to pin down if Superman #75 (the dreaded “Death of Superman” issue) came out at the same time as Turok #1 (the dreaded “Death of the Comics Market for All Time” issue). Some folks said “yay,” others, like commenter Gardner said “nay,” and, lacking easy access to our invoices of the time, I sought an answer elsewhere.
Now, there were a lot of #1s coming out at the same time as that Turok, but the only really big one was Marvel’s Infinity Crusade. However, with Marvel having gone to that “Infinity” well a few too many times over too short a period, it didn’t do so well. So, basically, Turok wasn’t facing much competition from other titles that week. However, looking at these lists, I see quite a few things that most stores (including our own…we’re not innocent in this) probably way overordered. Sigh…this much “nostalgia” isn’t healthy, I’m sure.
On a (mostly) non-comic-related note, pal Scott (who is also secretly pal JP‘s brother) has had his book turned into a movie directed by Harold Ramis and starring John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, and freakin’ Randy Quaid. Hey, pretty cool.
* Freudian slip alert: as I was typing this sentence, I was intending to type “original,” but somehow I typed “real.” I see what the deepest, darkest recesses of my fanboy brain is thinking….
“So, I’m looking for a comic I had a while back. It may have been published in the ’50s or ’60s, or maybe the early ’70s. I think Superman was in it, or maybe Spider-Man. Anyway, they were fighting some guys in costumes. Oh, and the cover was like a reddish-blue or orange color. Do you have that issue?”
COMIC SHOP CLERK TYPE: The Bummer
“Yeah, it’s too bad about the comics industry. I’m sure it’ll all be gone within a couple years. Nobody’s buying any of this new stuff, everybody complains about every new book, nothing’s as good as it used to be, sales are in the dumps, creators are leaving the industry in droves, paper prices are skyrocketing, and we all die alone and afraid.
“Thanks for shopping.”
COMIC SHOP CUSTOMER TYPE: The Magpie
No sample dialogue…mostly just says “is this free?” repeatedly as he or she grabs everything that even vaguely looks like it’s being offered free of charge. Generally buys nothing.
COMIC SHOP CLERK TYPE: The Reader
(As he’s ringing you up) “Hey, this looks pretty good!” (starts flipping through the comic you’re trying to buy)
COMIC SHOP CUSTOMER TYPE: The Spoiler
(On new comics day, a customer flips through one of the new releases) “Wow, hey, I can’t believe they just killed off Lady Dynamo in the new issue of Super Militia! Right on the last page, too. I never saw that coming!”
(Said to you, before you’ve had a chance to read Super Militia for yourself. Customer may thrust the page in question right into your face, for added effect)
Just read the quotes here and here and here. You’ve met him. Oh yes.
Sample: “But Aquaman, you cannot marry a woman without gills. You’re from two different worlds.”
COMIC SHOP CUSTOMER TYPE: The Unreasonable Mint Hound
Customer: “I’m looking for a copy of Tales from the Uncanny Valley #2. I’ve been looking for that thing for years…I can’t believe just how rare that comic is. I’ve encountered dealers who’ve never even seen an issue of this series. According to my sources, there may only be about 20 to 25 copies of that particular issue left in the world.”
Clerk: “Oh, hey, we have one. It’s in Very Fine Minus for $25.00.”
Customer: “No thanks, I’d rather get one in better condition.”
COMIC SHOP CLERK TYPE: The Giver of Too Much Information
“So, yeah, that was some fight my girlfriend and I had last night. Man, she was really letting me have it, just because she thinks I drink too much. Ah, well, it’s worth a little grief, since she’s good in the sack, know what I mean? Anyway, it all started at a party we were at earlier that day…I just had a couple beers, just to loosen up, and I tripped on a chair and really banged the hell out of my elbow. It’s still all crusty and sore…hey, take a look at that, does that look infected? So that’s when my old lady started giving me sh–
“What? No, sorry kid, we don’t sell Pokemon cards.”
COMIC SHOP CUSTOMER TYPE: The Poseur
“I see comics as the ultimate form of free, personal expression, unfettered by commercial restraints. I prefer comics that strive for this ideal, eshewing cliches in favor of originality. Please, good comic book clerk, lead me to your graphic novels, where I may find artistic beauty in its purest state.”
…And, no matter what he’s shown, he buys Wolverine comics drawn by Sam Keith.
COMIC SHOP CLERK TYPE: The Dick
“Oh, you’re buying that comic? Boy, that one really sucks. The writer on that book really doesn’t know what he’s doing. But, given the character he’s working with, I suppose it’s not entirely his fault. And that artist…has he ever seen an actual human body? Man, I can’t believe anyone actually enjoys that comic.
