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Just noticed that “I’m Chalk!” appears in the Wikipedia “Swamp Thing” entry (apparently first appearing as of the March 5, 2005 revision, far as I can tell).

I should fix the entry, since it isn’t really a “text bubble” reading “I’m Chalk” on the package, but that would require “effort,” and I’m tired.

(EDIT: It’s been fixed for me…thanks, So-Called Austin Mayor!)

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Witnessed in the last week:

• Someone so incredibly excited about a particular new comic coming out that he actually does the “pee pee dance.”
• Someone asking me, in our store — a store devoted to actually attempting to sell comic books — where he could download scans of currently-released comics for free.
• A gaggle of kids, presumably walking home from the nearby high school, enjoying their after-school smoke, shouting “NERDS!” into the store as they walk by. Ooh, boy, I’ve been put in my place, for certain.

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So that Jack Chick random generator I linked a while back…the fellow what runs that site pointed out that he got linked by the Generator Blog…and following that link back, I see that the Generator Blog got the link from Sarcasmo’s Corner, who got the link from Link Machine Go, who got the link from me in the first place.

Just found that amusing, is all.

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Congrats to Mag ‘n’ H for the Comic Treadmill’s 1000th post!

…or for posting, so enjoy this YouTube link in lieu of actual content:

Well, it made me laugh, anyway….

So we’ve gone from “Stephen King is gonna write comics!” to “Stephen King will perhaps be collaborating on comics with a creative partner” to “Leonard Nimoy’s Primortals,” it seems.

Okay, okay, don’t get on my case…I’m not trying to sound so negative about it. That’s more a comment on how the project’s been presented/perceived than on the actual quality of the project itself (and I am the target audience for this, having read the Dark Tower series across the couple of decades it took to complete, and being a fan of Peter David’s work as well). I do get the impression that King will be more involved in the Dark Tower comic than just having his people rubber-stamp “APPROVED” or “NOT APPROVED” on submitted ideas.

But the progression of hype and news around this project does come this close to feeling like, say, Dark Horse announcing twenty years ago that George Lucas was going to be writing Star Wars comics for them, only to end up having all the scripts just run by Lucasfilm for approval instead.

And come to think of it…did Marvel ever actually say that King was going to write for them, or did they just hint heavily at it and let all the news sites and message boards and weblogs fill in the blanks for themselves?

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So some new comics came out this week, I guess:

Infinite Crisis #6 – Swamp Thing cameo. Really, that’s all you need to know. Oh, and Stanley and his Monster show up, too. There, that’s two things you should know. Or three, if you count Stanley and the Monster separately.

Overstreet Price Guide #36 – House of Secrets #92 is up to $900! Woo hoo!

Moon Knight #1 – To hear a number of my customers talk about this comic, you’d think that every Moon Knight series ever published would have outsold the Bible. Where’d this love for Moon Knight come from? I mean, I know people liked the issues Bill Sienkiewicz drew way back when, but since then? Okay, there was that brief moment when people, desperate to invest in something, latched onto the S. Platt issues, but that bump in demand died out years ago.

Tick Days of Drama #5 – You know, I’m beginning to get the feeling that Ben Edlund may not be coming back to draw Tick comics.

Hell in a Handbasket by Tom Tomorrow – best thing out this week. Man, I loves me the Tom Tomorrow.

Book of Lost Souls #6 – I’m now officially at selling all of one copy of this per month.

Ed the Happy Clown #6 – the footnotes reach the point where Chester Brown discusses turning a penis into the President of the United States. And if you have no idea what I’m talking about, I can only imagine how insane that sentence sounds.

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Enough with the new comics, on to the linkage:

So that Doom t-shirt ad I posted yesterday? Shane had it first, and I totally forgot. I’m a big jerk. Sorry, Shane!

I have a new column up at Comic Book Galaxy. I apologize in advance for the fact that it’s mostly recycled entries from this website. My time was pretty short ahead of the deadline. Of course, now, I have more time than I know what to do with. Ah, well.

Speaking of columns, pal Ian has a new one at the Comic Foundry, about how I helped him find…the Best Comic Ever. And about how I relentlessly pushed comics on him, parting him from his hard-earned money. And how I beat him up every day after school, pushing him in the mud and stealing his glasses. Well, okay, maybe not that last bit.

Gaze into a whole bunch of Kirby eyes.

And now, because I’m in a bad mood, I’m going to subject you to this:

For those of you who don’t know, the back of the sweatshirt reads “There goes the Incredible Hulk” with a pic of the Hulk walking away while pulling a toy duck on a rope. That still remains one of the greatest superhero shirt designs of all time.

You folks brought up some good suggestions for some solid movie-inspired comic books…I’m ashamed I didn’t think of the Creepshow adaptation by Stephen King and Bernie Wrightson, for example. You also reminded me of the slew of two and three-issue movie mini-series Marvel churned out throughout the 80s (usually reprinted from, or reprinted in, the Marvel Super Special magazines)…Dark Crystal was a favorite of mine as a young Mikester…in fact, and my nerd-credibilty may be completely shot by this admission, but I’ve never seen the movie. The comic remains only exposure to this particular story.

Buckaroo Banzai was another Marvel mini, and I remember sampling the first issue but never getting the second. As long as I’m destroying my geek-cred for all time, I wasn’t much of a fan of the movie either, finding it to be a mostly unwatchable mess. Now, before you jump all over me, keep in mind I haven’t seen it since it was in theatres, and now that I’m older perhaps I could appreciate it more. Maybe I’ll throw it onto the Netflix queue and give it another go someday.

Dave mentions something I didn’t realize…that there was a comic book adaptation of the 1980 Flash Gordon movie drawn by Al Williamson! What th–?!? Now, I loved this movie (yes, I loved Flash Gordon but not Buckaroo Banzai — keep reading for a more appalling admission), and I know the movie’s no damned good. But, it is fun to watch, and it’s certainly visually beautiful…I’d love to see what Williamson did with this material.

Another interesting adaptation was Hook, a four issue series from Marvel released in the early ’90s and featuring work by Charles Vess, Gray Morrow, John Ridgeway, and several others. It’s certainly an attractive-looking book, regardless of what you think of the film…it’s a guilty pleasure of mine, despite featuring Steven Spielberg at his Steve Spielbergiest and Robin Williams leaving his toothmarks in every bit of scenery. Yes, I liked Hook more than Buckaroo Banzai…the beatdown line begins to the right — please, no shoving.

I’m also glad to see Topps Comics getting some credit for their adaptations: I personally never warmed to the continuing Jurassic Park series, but the original adaptation featured Gil Kane art, inked by George Perez, so how bad could it be? And some issues featured standout covers by Michael Golden. Also, Mike Mignola’s adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula is bit of a hidden treasure, perhaps better than the inspiring film.

Please keep adding your thoughts to the discussion…I’ve been enjoying what you’ve had to say!

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Some linkage from around the interweb:

James Sime of Isotope Comics fame has been running a Legal Download Fest on his site: go download a PDF preview of Oni Press’ Leading Man here, and enjoy new downloads every day for the rest of the week. Go check it out!

Laura “Tegan” Gjovaag has a couple entries about her visit to the Emerald City Comicon…lots of photos, Kurt Busiek, Aquaman, and trolls. It’s a fun read.

Pal Dorian reviews the next batch of DC’s One Year Later titles.

And have I mentioned the (not by me, I swear to God) Swamp Thing Blog?

A random thought from work: Dark Horse has hitched its wagon to its share of chickens re: licensed movie tie-ins. Lost in Space, the Tim Burton version of Planet of the Apes, Aeon Flux…with POTA especially it looked like Dark Horse was trying to create an ongoing funnybook franchise, which kinda petered out. That’s a long way from the salad days of Aliens, Predator, and Terminator (and, to a lesser extent, Robocop).

Part of the problem, of course, is with the films themselves readily available on DVD, there’s little incentive to read the adaptations and film-inspired tie-ins to “recapture the excitement of the movie”…not like the heyday of comic book movie adaptations decades ago, when you saw the movie once in the theatre, and that was pretty much it unless it eventually turned up on television or in rerelease.

Plus, it doesn’t help that the films themselves barely inspire any desire to see more. Did anyone seeing the largely-unnecessary Tim Burton “reimagining” of Planet of the Apes really want to read more about it? Obviously somebody must have, since they did a couple minis, but not enough to produce any more than that. (And I just want to note here that leaving the “surprise ending” out of the adaptation of the film was a really, really bad idea…I’m sure it was the studio’s decision to keep the ending secret, but really, so what? They kept it secret for, what, an extra week? Or two? And the Drudge Report ended up totally spoiling it right away, as I recall. Anyway, without the ending, the adaptation now just looks stupid. Well, more stupid. Feh.)

Star Wars, of course, is the notable exception, and the comics and trades inspired by this movie series are still selling quite well. Dark Horse even managed to get the adaptations of Episodes I, II, and III to move, primarily by releasing them prior to the films’ debuts. However, to its credit, I regularly sell the trade paperback collections of the film adaptations, mostly to children.

I also still sell lots of the Aliens and Predator comics as back issues…even the three Batman Vs. Predator series continue to move. I’m assuming that Dark Horse still has the rights to these two properties, though, if I’m remembering correctly, some behind-the-scenes shenanigans has put the kibosh on those comics for the time being. If so, that’s a shame…those appeal to younger readers as well (I do warn parents about content, but generally, and unusually, if they’re letting their kids watch the films, they don’t object too much to the comics).

Of the Big Two companies, Marvel lately just publishes adaptations of films based on their characters, while flooding related titles with the villains that are featured in said films. (If I never see Doctor Octopus again, it’ll be too soon.) DC also recently has stuck to adapting films based on their books, though they released a handsome-looking adaptation of Sleepy Hollow a few years back. (And remember the earlier adaptation of Alien Nation and, despite the Gene Colan art, the ghastly Little Shop of Horrors? Comic book presentations of musical films are a really, really bad idea.) Most of those sold okay, not great, and when those prequels to Superman Returns arrive, I’ll be interested to see how well those sell.

So, once again, I throw the question to you folks…what comic book adaptations (or spin-off series, or prequels) of films have you really enjoyed? Some of my favorites include the Heavy Metal graphic novel version of Alien drawn by Walt Simonson (with its notoriously fragile binding), the infamous adaptation of Steven Spielberg’s 1941 by Steve Bissette and Rick Veitch, and the Time Bandits comic (that I’ve mentioned before).

What say you, internet pals?

…I hate you.

Love, Mike

EDIT: P.S. But you’ve made me love you again with Punisher Scratch ‘n’ Sniff cards:

If you scratch the cloud of smoke, it smells like…well, like a bunch of chemicals that have soaked into a piece of cardboard, but bless your little heart anyway.

Things I never hear at the store:

“Is the new Youngblood out yet?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, it’s very rude for me to talk on my cell phone the entire time you’re trying to complete a transaction with me. Let me end my call so that we may conclude our business without distraction.”

“Does this ‘My Other Hard Drive Is The Millennium Falcon’* t-shirt look good on me?”

“Wow, I wasn’t expecting the new issue of Ultimates to be out so soon!”

“My young daughter is sure to love this new issue of Supergirl.”

“Mr. Sterling, put down the shotgun and broken wine bottle…we have the store surrounded.”

“Just look for the Comics Code Authority stamp, Little Billy…those are the comics that are appropriate for you.”

“$2.99? Well, considering the lower print runs and increased paper costs, not to mention the need to provide every person involved in the production and distribution process with a living wage, that’s actually quite a reasonable price for a comic book, and I’m glad to pay it.”

“‘Giant-Size Man-Thing?’ What’s so funny about that?”

“Hey, that last issue of Uncanny X-Men was really good!”

“I’d like to sell this old comic I have here…it’s kinda beat up, I think it’s pretty common, and, come to think of it, it’s really not all that old…a year or two at most. Actually, I’m sure it’s not worth anything….sorry to waste your time.”

“You know what I wish? I wish there was yet another new ongoing monthly Spider-Man title. A half-dozen just isn’t enough, frankly.”

“I was going to ask you to put this comic behind the counter for me so that I can come back to buy it later today, but, let’s face it, I’m going to get distracted and forget to return for it, so I might as well just leave it on the shelf.”

“Hey, Ian, you’re sober!”

“Do you have any other female-empowering comics, like Victoria’s Secret Service?”

“You know what I’d just love? If you secretly noted every stupid thing I say and post it later on your weblog. That’d be fantastic.”

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My embarrassing moment of the day: asking one of our customers if he wanted the latest Spike one-shot, forgetting that he reads this site and finding out that he remembers my negative review of same. Um, heh. (You’re a trooper, Corey!)

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The mighty Booksteve digs out a 20-year-old Swamp Thing fanzine cartoon for all to enjoy. Well done, sir.

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Happy anniversary to Dave’s Long Box, you magnificent son of a bitch.

* Thanks to Employee Nathan for coming up with this mindbender. I don’t know what it means, either.

Commenter Chris had this to say in regards to my topic from this morning, regarding the storage of personal collections:

“Just curious: How many of the comics in your boxes do you pull out and read once they’re in?”

Er, yeah, that is a good question.

When I was younger, I seemed to have more time to reread older comics…nowadays, not so much. I’m glad to know that those comics are there in the vast Mikester Comic Archives, to pull out and read if and when I want to…but realistically, I don’t do to that terribly often.

That’s not to say I don’t. Last year I reread the Superman comics from about the “Death of Superman” period until the present, and right now I’m rereading JSA. And every once in a while I’ll go through and grab a random comic or two to read…or to use on the site, which gives me a great excuse to go digging through the stacks that I didn’t have before.

But there are a few things I own that I may never reread. That run of Silver Surfer, for instance…the Steve Englehart/Marshall Rogers/Jim Starlin/Ron Marz/Ron Lim series. I reread it a few years ago, and may never look at it again. But our store doesn’t need them, and I don’t particularly feel like selling them on the eBay for pennies on the dollar, so I guess I’ll just keep them in storage. They’re not in the way or anything, and who knows…maybe I’ll need to whip out one of those issues for something here on the site.

As for the graphic novels/trades/oversized volumes…I didn’t consider those in my initial query, but I’m glad you folks told me what you did with yours.

In my case, I’m lucky enough to have enough space to have an actual library room, with real shelves and everything. All of my books, graphic novels and all, are kept here, and I have large enough shelving to accomodate my treasury editions, Barry Windsor-Smith: Storyteller, and even Chris Ware’s most excessively-sized issues of Acme Novelty Library.

Also, I should note that I bag all my comics, if only because, during years of dealing in funnybooks, I’ve seen many unfortunate examples of ruined comics that could have been saved simply by slapping cheap plastic baggies over the stupid things. I don’t put backing boards in everything, but some of the more expensive (and thus, harder to replace) items do get ’em.

Please continue letting me know how you keep your comics…I’m finding it very interesting!

I can’t believe I forgot to change my little corner box image yesterday. Having an impending dentist visit in the morning causes things to slip my mind a bit, I guess. Well, that and old age.

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A couple memories from my ’70s childhood:

• The neighbor girl whose house had a room where books were just tossed into a pile on the floor. Literally. They were apparently heavy readers — novels, digests, comics, anything — and when a book or magazine was finished, the door to that room was opened, the book was thrown in, the door was closed again. Occasionally I’d be allowed to borrow some books from the pile…it was huge, a sprawling wall-to-wall flattened haystack of books and mags, and one could dig through the strata seeking the treasures below.

  I read a whole lot of Richie Rich and Archie digests in this fashion. The temptation was to keep the books, since I knew they would simply just be thown back into the room where they would stay until Social Services paid a visit, but I never did keep any. Wish I did now, though.

  Oddly enough, that family was real protective of their books, given how they treated them. It took some doing to get them to let me borrow them in the first place.

• Finding, at a friend’s house, a large open-topped cardboard box filled to the brim with pre-superhero Marvel monster comics, kept outside at the side of the house. Alas, I didn’t find this box until after the big rains earlier that week.

  Just felt like making you cringe with that.

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One of the side effects of managing a comic shop is that, after a day of working with comic books, the last thing you want to do when you get home is put away your own funnybooks. As a result, I had about three months’ worth to file away in the vast Mikester Comic Archives on Monday.

In the stack to file…four issues of JSA Classifed, one issue of Ultimates 2. Three issues of Firestorm, one issue of Superman/Batman (though I’d give Jeph Loeb some slack for the lateness of that title, given his personal situations). One issue of Tales Designed to Thrizzle, no issues of Sonic Distruptors.

Thank God Marvel has eased on on their every two-to-three weeks schedule, for the most part…at least on the very few titles I get.

Anyway, I got to thinking…how do you guys sort out your comics in your personal collections? In general, currently running titles/companies in my collection are kept in a series of easily-accessable short boxes (i.e. my Flash boxes, or my Fantagraphics boxes). Some currently-running Marvel and DC series that don’t require their own boxes are in “Current Marvel Misc.” and “Current DC Misc.” boxes.

Completed series (either by design or by cancellation) are, in general kept in a series of long boxes.

I keep saying “in general” since there are some exceptions to this organization…my short boxes of Dell/Gold Key books are on the shelves next to the new books, and I have a long box of Disney books, to which I still add on a regular basis, with the older, completed collections. Ah, well, so long as I know where they’re at.

In short, the comics are organized, in both sections, by company first, then by title within each company. I keep meaning to put actual labels on the front of the boxes, but small pencilled notations are good enough for now.

And then there are the magazine boxes, and the fanzine boxes, and the giant Swamp Thing shrine with candles and silk curtains…but they’re all in some kind of reasonable order.

I’m assuming that most of you folks reading this site, having an interest in comics, probably have a stock of comics sorted away in a comparable fashion, and not just tossing them out as soon as you’re done, or keeping them all in shoeboxes or copy-paper boxes or ammo cases (all of which I’ve seen done).

So, how do you do it? Alphabetically in short boxes? On shelves? Just tossed into whatever box that happens to have some empty space? Do you bag everything? Do you board everything? Does everything go into a Mylar sleeve? Basically, are you as anal-retentive as I am? Are you more so, God help you?

Just curious, is all. Leave a comment if you’d like. No salesman will call.