Uncategorized

• Pal Nat has posted the crossover you demanded! (Well, actually, not so much demanded as inspired by this post.) Go, look, be afraid.
• Over the last few days Rick Veitch has been relating his (heretofore unrevealed) involvement in the development of the Sentry for Marvel Comics, with Paul Jenkins. You can read all the chapters thus far right here, each accompanied by Veitch concept art, with more chapters to come.

  The very few times I’ve read stories involving the Sentry, he hasn’t really done anything for me. I gathered he was a Superman-type character, only with mental and/or confidence problems, and never felt the need to seek out more about him. Learning about Veitch’s connection to the character increases my interest a bit, at least in taking a look at the initial Sentry series, even if Veitch himself didn’t contribute his art or his particular storytelling style or perspective to the final printed product (which would have gone a long way toward making me more interested in that story).

  Plus, this sort of has me wanting to reread Maximortal again, which in a way seems to have some minor metacommentary/thematic connections to The Sentry, if taken to much greater extremes.

• I keep meaning to add this to the sidebar, because it’s an awesome site and you should visit it: Dateline: Silver Age, a great, simple concept beautifully presented.
• Bully the Little Patriotic Bull celebrates Independence Day with another mini-gallery of flag-cover comics. And speaking of Bully, content from one of his previous Independence Day posts has turned up in a couple of other blogs recently. They do give him credit, but essentially present the entire post in full, thus giving no one any reason to go back to Bully’s original post. That’s a terrible thing to do to a six-year-old stuffed bull.

  Anyway, you should all be visiting Bully’s site on a regular basis. Accept no substitutes!

Like this late ’93 Malibu Comics house ad for Dinosaurs for Hire, which is totally making fun of Jim Shooter’s Warriors of Plasm comic at Defiant:

Sometimes it’s hard to imagine that “gore for the org” was once a thing, but indeed it was.

Another bit of business about that cover is the “GENESIS” logo, which was Malibu Comics’ early ’90s crossover event for their adventure/superhero books. And, oddly enough, a few years later DC Comics ran a crossover event also called “GENESIS.” Coincidence? Well, probably. But DC’s event didn’t involve Dinosaurs for Hire, and therefore was vastly inferior.

---

In other news:

• As you may have seen linked above, here’s a website devoted to celebrating the writing of Jim Shooter.
• Another comics writer of some note, Kurt Busiek, has a new website going, including a weblog. Good reading from one of the industry’s most beloved creators.
• I’m surprised this doesn’t happen more often: a customer was looking for a DC Archives volume that I knew didn’t exist. “But I saw it upon the Internets,” sez he, so a quick Googling later, I found what he was talking about: this page of mock-ups for Archives fans are hoping for, including the one the customer had asked about. Ah, well, that may not have worked out, but we had a Showcase Presents volume for the same character, so everyone was happy.

  I’d totally love to have a Firestorm Archives, by the way. Those early issues on nice paper? Fantastic.

  …What?

You folks have been nice enough to play along with my thing from yesterday regarding what the comics marketplace would be like with Marvel’s and DC’s characters/teams/franchises restricted to single titles. Just to reiterate…this isn’t something I’m hoping will happen, or think will happen (beyond perhaps a condensing of titles into larger periodical anthologies in the face of rising cover prices). This is just a little thought experiment, wondering just what would be different, what situations it would improve or make worse.

I was asked in the comments if the retail end would take a hit if we didn’t have (for example) the half-dozen Wolverine titles for people to buy. And granted, Wolverine comics usually do sell well. In general (and I’m bolding that so that I don’t get a bunch of comments from people who need to tell me that they don’t fall within the generalities I’m about to describe — take it as a given that yes, I know), judging by my instore observations, if a customer buys just one Wolverine series, they buy the one just called Wolverine.* A large percentage (but not 100%) of those customers also buy the spin-offs, Wolverine: Origins and Wolverine: Weapon X. A much smaller percentage also buy the Wolverine: Noir mini-series and Wolverine: First Class (the first not being “in continuity” and the latter probably “not serious enough” — surely points counted against these comics for the discerning Wolverine buyer).

This pattern shouldn’t be any surprise. Amazing Spider-Man usually outsold Spectacular, Sensational, Web of, and Adjectiveless, barring special issues or high-profile creators (such as Todd McFarlane on those early Adjectiveless issues).

I think Batman/Detective and Superman/Action might be exceptions to this, where the titles have been around for 70 years, with neither book in each pair really standing out as the “home” title for the character, and where the sales levels are probably a lot closer. (Don’t have the numbers in front of me, so bear with me.) I still suspect the comics with the character’s actual names in the title have the edge over the generic anthological-legacy titles.

Er…what was the original question again? Oh, yes, is having multiple Wolverine titles sufficiently bringing in the bacon? Well, yes, probably. Would the loss of those other Wolverine titles mean 1) enough of a rise in sales in the main Wolverine comic to balance out those lost sales, and/or 2) that the freed-up money would automatically go to other non-Wolverine comics? The answers are “probably not” and “maybe so, maybe no.” People buying the other Wolverine titles were, in general (bolding again, you notice) already buying the primary one, so there wouldn’t be much of a bump there. As for the second option….

The money for those extra Wolverine comics has got to come from somewhere. Assuming the customer doesn’t just outright decide that he doesn’t need to pick up Wolverine: The Roaring ’20s #1 (guest-starring the Great Gatsby), he needs to increase his comics budget by taking away his disposable income from other things to accommodate this new comic, or he keeps his comics budget constant by dropping another comic in favor of this new one, and I’m sure Marvel hopes he’s dropping a comic by another company.

As prices increase on the standard 32-page format, the cannibalization of sales from other titles may have become the more commonly-chosen option by consumers when faced with new books. If so, the freeing of money for those Wolverine fans who read every Wolverine comic would go back to non-comic needs. But, now (in my original thought experiment — remember that?) that those fans aren’t faced with a rack filled with multiple Wolverine titles they need to keep up with, the possibility exists of spending money on other titles, should they so choose. You know, “boy, I’d like to buy Man-Thing War Journal, but I need to keep up with my Wolverine stories.” Well, now they can buy Man-Thing War Journal.

Not to say that it would all balance out. Man-Thing War Journal would likely not sell as well as Wolverine: The Roaring ’20s (which does sound like an awesome comic, come to think of it). But it, and other new titles, could have a chance in a market where so much of the consumer’s dollar isn’t tied up by trying to keep on top of multiple titles from particular franchises. A dozen different midrange titles featuring a dozen different characters/concepts versus a half-dozen titles all starring the same guy, at varying sales levels…diversity seems it would be, in the long run, a little healthier. And you never know…one of those other titles might catch on and become a top tier seller.

And in the end, this is all just, as I’ve said repeatedly, a thought experiment…just some armchair publishing in an imaginary world where economic realities take second place to some flights of fancy.

Good Lord, did any of that make any sense? Again, this is just some brainstorming, not a Call for Action. There are objections to be made at every level of assumption here, I realize, but my mind has been drifting in this direction over the last few days regarding the impact of multiple seemingly-redundant titles and I thought I’d try to throw my meanderings out there. Thanks for your patience, and of course I’m always interested in what you’d have to say.

---

Just for a chance of pace, here are a couple of links to people who can actually maintain a coherent line of thought:

• Dave introduces a new feature on his site: Space Cabby Sunday, DC Comics’ Silver Age-iest space character. Enjoy, won’t you?
• Pal Dorian has managed to find a minority sidekick character from the 1940s who wasn’t an offensive caricature. (HINT: It ain’t Chop-Chop.)
• Speaking of comic book franchises: Tim O’Neil gives his preamble to a coming series of essays on the X-Men. Promises to be good readin’.

* Yes, it’s called Dark Wolverine now. Come to think of it, I wonder if the name change, which in essence does away with a Wolverine flagship title simply titled Wolverine, is a disincentive to sales from people simply wanting a central Wolverine title and aren’t interested in any of the ancillary books. Then again, it may very well be countered by the number of people buying it because of the temporary “new direction.”

What if the characters/teams from Marvel and DC were allowed one starring title, and that’s it? Only one X-Men comic, only one Batman comic, only one Wolverine comic, only one Spider-Man comic — you know, like that.

Okay, there are some caveats that you’re probably wondering about. Yes, spin-offs would probably be allowed…as implied above, you could have an X-Men title and a spin-off with X-Men character Wolverine, but you couldn’t have a dozen X-Men titles and a half-dozen Wolverine titles. Just one each, please. And you couldn’t have both Action Comics starring Superman and Superman. Just one or the other.

And I’m going to be hardnosed and say “no mini-series or one-shots.” If you’ve got a four-part Flash story, it can be told one chapter per month over four months’ time in the Flash comic, and not in a concurrently-running Flash: Let’s Beat Feet mini-series. I’ll say okay to annuals, though, provided they are annual and not, say, every nine months.

Team books are still allowed…you can have a Justice League starring characters who have their own titles, for example. But not multiple Justice League comics. One’s plenty.

I haven’t been pondering these in excruciatingly exact and specific detail or anything. Just the process of articulating these ground rules is probably more effort than I’ve actually put into this thought experiment. Plus, I’m not addressing what the exact economic impact on the Big Two would be…I’m going to assume, for the purposes of this, that Marvel and DC can get by just fine on the profits from this more limited range of titles.

So what would it be like? I mean, other than looking like what the publishers were putting out in the industry’s earlier decades? For one, I think readership may be higher…fans no longer having to decide which X-Men title they’d want to follow, or how many they could afford, or if it was even worth the trouble trying to jump into the cavalcade of mutant books. The cost of entry would be much lower.

Events in the stories would have more impact. Something significant happening in a Superman comic, to be continued in next month’s issue of that series, wouldn’t be diluted by other events in other Super-titles in the interim.

Maybe a wider variety of books? Would no longer devoting funds to buying the multiple monthly Avengers comics mean a greater likelihood of trying out a new non-Avengers title? Not to mention the fact that not having multiple variations on the same theme…i.e. that half-dozen of Wolverine titles…means more room on the rack for other material.

Would there be a trending upward in quality, stemming from more competition for fewer open slots for certain books? Or would that creative energy, instead of competing for a slot in the monthly Batman comic, instead be driven to other concepts? Would almost have to be, I think.

Anyway, this is all getting a bit convoluted, considering what kicked this off was me looking at our comics rack and thinking “you know, if there were just one ongoing X-Men title, it’d probably sell enormously well. Hell, even I’d buy it.” Given the rules above, however, Marvel, being Marvel, could still get around the one-title limitation by spinning off every character into his or her book. “Coming from the House of Ideas this summer: Boom Boom #1!”

It’s possible that something like this may become a reality, if only because the standard monthly comic book format is increasing in price. At $2.99 to $3.99 a pop, people are still picking up all the different Wolverines, but should the periodical format eventually get up to, say, $6.99 an issue, I’d imagine the comic-reading public would be less inclined to follow a half-dozen different Wolverine series. I know everyone assumes we’ll move into some kind of trade paperback standard by that point (assuming the comics market will be able to adapt at all), but I have a hard time seeing the industry abandon the periodical market entirely. Years ago I mentioned the Amazing Heroes April Fool’s column reporting a $2.95 100-page format combining several related titles into one giant book (like having X-Men and New Mutants under the same cover), and joke or not, I think something like that may be what we’re heading toward. Well, it’d be a bit more than $2.95, of course, but you know what I mean.

So that’s a lot of meandering rambling and half-baked thinking on the topic from me. Like I said, this is just something I’ve been sorta thinking about as I see the new comics rack at the shop. I thought I’d brainstorm a little about it here on the site, and if you have anything to add, feel free.

I don’t have really anything to add that you haven’t already heard regarding the recent passings of Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson. That’s a pretty large swath of pop culture celebrity to be cut away from the world, and one I would have felt funny just ignoring and moving on with the funnybook talk.

I remember Ed as, what else, Johnny Carson’s support crew, always on the chair/couch there next to Johnny’s desk, ready with a hearty chuckle or a well-timed straight line. Not so much a relationship between sidekick and host as it was a finely-honed comedy team. I loved Johnny, and Johnny loved Ed, and if Johnny loved Ed, then that was good enough for me…I loved Ed, too.

Oddly enough, when I think of Farrah Fawcett, I don’t think of her famous pin-up poster, or of her role on Charlie’s Angels. I think of some six-or-eight page color insert in…Omni Magazine, I want to say, though I’m pretty sure that’s wrong…advertising the then-upcoming surely-spectacular hit film Saturn 3, in which she starred. I’m not even sure I ever got around to seeing Saturn 3 all the way through on cable, but I do remember how fascinated I was with that magazine preview insert, and that weird robot. …That’s not really saying much about Farrah, specifically, I realize.

And Michael Jackson…it’s hard to say where I fall on my opinion on Michael Jackson. There’s no denying his impact and importance on the music industry, as well as there’s no denying his peculiar exploits over the years, or the outright scandals. It’s a strange mix of admiration, revulsion, and pity. While he created some wonderful things (I mean, look at this track listing…you know nearly all of these songs), his existence seemed to be an endless succession of near-caricatural examples of the extremes of celebrity.

Anyway, my condolences to their friends and families. So long, Ed. So long, Farrah. So long, Michael.

Lots of good discussion (and the occasional cheap joke!) about comic book covers in the comment threads (1 2) from the last couple of days’ worth of posts, so feel free to join in. I’m still trying to think of how I’m going to sum it all up in a day or two, if at all. But anyway, give the comments a read, as folks have had some interesting things to say.

In the meantime, “Anonymous” has a couple of questions for me:

“1. How did you stock Herogasm at your store without (much) embarrassment?”

Well, hell, after Pee Soup and Blowjob, a title like Herogasm can practically have “Walt Disney Presents” in front of it.

Okay, perhaps I exaggerate slightly. After all, Pee Soup et al aren’t exactly being put on the rack next to Supergirl and Marvel Adventures: Avengers. We are displaying Herogasm, but on racks where the bottom half of the cover is obscured by the top of the comics in the row just below it, so that mitigates the embarrassment a bit. Of course, it does still have a big ol’ “HEROGASM” across the top, so, uh, yeah, anyway. It hasn’t been a problem, and we haven’t had any young’uns giggling at the title and trying to get their hands on it, so, so far, so good. We’re keeping an eye out for any trouble that may arise, but I think we’re okay.

That it doesn’t feature any of the major known-by-the-public properties helps as well, so it’s primarily ignored by the folks who are likely to be offended by it. If this were Spider-Man: Herogasm, we might have a problem…not to mention a completely insane and possibly fantastic Spider-Man comic. (And yes, I’m aware of this article about someone discovering some excessively nekkid Batman story, which would seem vaguely related to what we’re talking about.)

“2. How can Captain America and Incredible Hulk have #600 issues WITHOUT having #500 issues like Action Comics, Detective Comics, Superman, Batman, Thor, Fantastic Four, Amazing Spider-Man, and Uncanny X-Men?”

Marketing.

Restarting a title from #1 usually creates a temporary sales bump, as retailers tend to order a little more on first issues, even if sales on the previous title featuring the same property were fairly moribund. For example, when Spider-Girl was relaunched as Amazing Spider-Girl, it experienced exactly that. Sales were up for an issue or two, then fell down to the sales level that it has when the previous series approached issue #100.

In some cases, if the previous series was close enough to an issue number divisible by 100, a new series that no longer has the “first issue sales bump” going for it will revert back to the previous series’ numbering (adding in the number of issues published under the new numbering system), just in time for an Extra Special Large Size Anniversary Issue that would hopefully bring about yet another temporary sales bump.

In Captain America‘s case, I think I’ve even heard that there was an error made in figuring out the title’s numbering if it had never been restarted, so that what they’re calling “Issue #600” actually isn’t #600. I’ve no idea…I’ll let other folks worry about it. It’s just a big mess, anyway, and I’m sure a century from now, if anyone still cares, it’ll be awfully confusing for anyone trying to figure it out too long after the fact.

Keep in mind a lot of that second answer has been run through my Cynic-Filter™ and thus perhaps I’m making a too-downbeat interpretation of genuine customer outreach via such attention-grabbing efforts as renumbering and anniversary issues, required in this marketplace of overcrowded racks, declining readership, and a damaged economy.

Anyhoo, Anonymous, I hope that answers your questions. If anyone has anything to add to what I said, I’m sure they’ll pop into the comments and let us know. Also, why use “Anonymous?” If you don’t want to use your own name, then make up a new one! Have fun with it!

I’ll probably get around to responding directly to some of your comments to yesterday’s post in the next day or so. But just to clarify…I’ve got no particular preference for word balloons being or not being on comic covers. If it works, put it in. If not, leave ’em out. But as was noted…an endless series of balloonless and blurbless covers featuring the star of the book posing in generic settings (i.e. Spider-Man swinging through the city) is no way to attract attention.

My favorite attention-grabbing comic covers, though, have got to be on Sgt. Rock (and Our Army at War). I’ve processed a number of collections of them over the years, and I have to (usually unsuccessfully) fight the urge to poke through each issue to see just what the hell was going on inside after seeing the wonderful, compelling covers they almost always had.

Here are a couple of samples, “borrowed” from the Grand Comic Book Database:

You can see a whole bunch more here. Man, I love these covers. They sure knew how to grab you.

So I have a question for you, the kind and gentle readers. What was the last really compelling, really “I have got to see what’s going on inside this book” cover that you’ve come across? I don’t mean just an attractive cover that got your attention because it was aesthetically pleasing (like my deal with Uptight #3 I discussed recently). I mean, you saw the cover, saw the situation it set up, and you felt like you had to pick it up and see just how this situation resolved.

Please let me know in the comments. No purchase necessary, no salesman will call.

Oh, and here, as promised in the post’s title, is the Question at the end:

No need to thank me.

Justice League of America #161 (Dec. 1978) – art by Dick Dillin & Frank McLaughlin

Whenever I come across this cover at the shop, I just sorta pause and ponder it briefly.

1. Like the subject line on this post says, there are nine world balloons and eight speaking parts on this cover. This is almost the exact opposite of modern superhero comic books, which openly shun word balloons. Shun, I say.

2. Most of the folks on the cover are pretty pissed at Zatanna turning down membership, but Superman’s innocent-yet-arrogant shock always amuses me. “But we’re so great…why would anyone turn us down?” (Here’s another guy who turned down these jive JLA turkeys.)

3. Who or what is Zatanna looking at? Is it at us? Is Zatanna magically breaking the fourth wall, years before she did it in Grant Morrison’s Seven Soldiers: Zatanna mini?

4. That’s probably Zatanna’s worst costume. This other costume of hers wasn’t bad, particularly when George Perez was drawing it, but clearly her best look was this.

5. I don’t recall that Zatanna shot magical energy blasts out her fingertips all that often. Maybe I’m just not remembering.

6. Just picture the members of the Justice League standing around that long, gray table, passing the notepad and pencil around as they write in Zatanna’s name (or not write it in, or write “no way,” or something) and tear out the page to place in the bowl. Seems like an awfully mundane process for a superhero team. I mean, even the Legion of Super-Heroes had the Planetary Chance Machine. Then again, the Legion is a thousand years in the future…perhaps the Justice League was not yet prepared for such technology.

7. But seriously, that’s a lot of word balloons. Can any of you folks think of comic covers that have more than nine? I’m sure they’re out there…a lot of those old crime comics seemed to give speaking parts to every man, woman, and child that happened to be on that cover. If you can think of one, go ahead and pop it into the comments.

A little follow-up on yesterday’s Sluggo Saturday entry…first, I didn’t crop that image. That’s how the panel appeared in the comic. Second, here is the panel just previous to that one:

…though frankly, that doesn’t make it any less disturbing. “Clean, Sluggo. Clean, or the pain shall continue.”

Anyway, I’ve had a long week, so I’m taking a bit of a break from the blogging today. Partial refunds for your admission prices will be issued to you shortly. In the meantime…anyone want about thirty copies of Dazzler #1 (1981) in around Fine or better? Struck a vein of them in this bulk comic stock we acquired a while back that I’m just getting around to processing.

Also, I see via Neilalien that the new Sorcerer Supreme of the Marvel Universe, formerly Dr. Strange, will now be Fred Hembeck‘s favorite character Brother Voodoo. Well, okay, I knew that part already. But what I didn’t know is that the character will now be called “Doctor Voodoo,” which, aside from these particular comics not being my thing, is actually kind of an awesome name. “BEHOLD DOCTOR VOODOO.” That is both silly and wonderful.

Okay, enough of that sort of thing. See you folks tomorrow!

Here we go, the last few questions from my comments a couple of days ago. Maybe, just maybe, we might all learn a little something.

• Anonymous challenges me with
  

  “Explain the miscolored Swamp Thing stealth appearances back in Planetary #7 and in the Ambush Bug: Year None mini, with the necessary pics.”

  Well, I’m gonna have to do it without pics, because I’m starting this late Thursday evening and would like to go to bed at a decent hour. The “miscoloring” of Swamp Thing in Planetary was simply because the issue featuring several take-offs of Vertigo characters, and if the Swamp Thing analogue was miscolored, it was just an attempt at least slightly different visually.

  In Ambush Bug, I suspect Swamp Thing was miscolored to further distance this character’s portrayal from his usual Vertigo appearances, since Swamp Thing is editorially forbidden (or, at least, not permitted overtly) to appear in the regular DC Universe…or whatever passed for it in Ambush Bug.

  “Was there a ST cameo in Guy Gardner: Collateral Damage? If so, prove it!”

  Whoa, ease up there, cowboy. We’re all friends here. Yes, there’s a cameo in issue #2 of this Howard Chaykin prestige-format mini-series, and here it is:

  
  In the first issue of the series, there’s a VERY tiny image of a framed photo on a wall that may show Swamp Thing, but it’s pretty vague.

• Googum pipes in with
  

  “Am I too late?”

  Nope! You got in just under the wire!

  “Hey, does your store sell action figures, and if so, what are the current big movers?”

  We do carry action figures, but the market has become very oversaturated and we’ve scaled it back quite a bit. We’ve quit ordering McFarlane figures altogether, as we got tired of ordering a case of Spawn figures, selling the female figure immediately, and then getting stuck with a bunch of unsellable dust-collectors.

  We’ll order the DC Direct figures, the Marvel Select figures, and the occasional Star Trek figure, and every once in a while we’ll pick up some oddball figure that we may think will grab some attention, but the days of heavy action figure stocking is pretty much done for now. As such, nothing really sticks out as big movers. The last figure to sell noticeably well was the Rorschach figure from the Watchmen movie set. And prior to that we were selling several copies of the Marvel Zombies: Hulk figure, oddly enough.

• Thorn wants to know
  

  “Hey Mike – What do you think about the news that May saw a nearly 20% drop in comic sales compared to last year? What’s that all about? And do you predict that comic sales will continue to be down?”

  There was a story about “the May comics crash” that theorized the causes being a lack of Big Crossover Events, no outstanding #1s, lateness of popular books, rising cover prices, and everybody being broke. And that probably covers it. I know May wasn’t the greatest month for us, but things seem to be bouncing back in June, so let’s hope for the best.

  As for the future…I want to say things will improve, but you never know. It’s going to be an ongoing process of adjustment/fine line-walking among the retailers/consumers/publishers re: pricing and formats.

• R-Lex wraps up the initial question-fest with this:
  

  “Not sure if it’s too late to get in on this, but would be interested to know if you have any thoughts on the upcoming Giffen Doom Patrol series.”

  Well, I do love the Doom Patrol, and I enjoy Giffen’s superhero writing, and the preview pages look good to me, so it’ll definitely be a must-buy. Plus there’s that Metal Men back-up by Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis and Kevin Maguire, so I really can’t wait to read it. It sounds great.

  Whether it’ll stick around longer than the last couple of incarnations of Doom Patrol, I don’t know. But it should be a lot of fun while it’s around.

---

Okay, let’s do a little mop-up on some comments from the last couple of days, and we’ll wrap up this latest session of “Help Mike Generate Content” “Ask Mike Some Questions.” From Wednesday:

• Tim O’Neil asks
  

  “On another subject: the Cap #600 nonstarter was predicted by all and sundry, but do you think there was any significance to the fact that, as opposed to past Marvel news stories, the news of Cap’s return also happened to fall on an extremely busy newsday? In other words, stuff like Cap’s death and the Obama issue of Spider-Man enjoyed good press because not a lot else was going on that particular day, but Cap just happened to return on the day that Iran exploded, North Korea threatened to destroy the world, and the Obama administration began the roll-outs for the its two biggest domestic policy initiatives to date. *If* – and obviously this is a big *if* – there was any chance of the story gaining wide traction, did the news climate essentially quash said traction before it could get started?”

  Well, certainly real world events got in the way of some silly funnybook news…but there’s always so much time and space to fill in the news media outlets, that even on a day when all this happened, there’s still room for a puff piece on a comic book character. That night I heard the Cap story repeated, along with Iran/North Korea/etc., during the five minute newsbreak played every half hour on the radio. So the story was out there.

  But people don’t care. Now, by “people” I mean the folks who don’t go into comic shops unless they hear about something on TV or read it in the paper…the ones who showed up for the Spider-Obama comic and for the death of Cap. So far I have yet to hear a peep from any of these people about the return of Captain America. Not one phone call, not one walk-in from any non-regulars looking for it. (The excuse of “well, Reborn isn’t out yet” doesn’t fly, because these same people don’t pay attention to any mentioned release dates.) It’s very possible it’s simply because “life” doesn’t sell like “death” — or doesn’t seem like it would have the same “investment potential” of having the Last Captain America Story Ever.

  And there’s the fact that the people who only go to comic shops for media-advertised events have already picked up the Death of Cap, and finding out their “collectible” has been undermined by the character’s return, are disinclined to be sucked in again.

  At any rate, this is why stores can’t base orders on potential (or even promised) media coverage. Just showing your product to lots of people doesn’t mean lots of people are going to want it.

  On the other hand, our regulars (i.e. the already converted) have been expressing some heightened interest in the whole return of Cap thing, so the comics should sell okay to our regular clientele.

• Philip notes
  

  “I was reading an old(er) DC comic (’70s?) and found an editorial sort of apologizing for prices going up to 60-cents and to make it up to the readers they were going to include lots of back-up features in their books. There seems to be a bit of that happening now with DCs $3.99 titles, but man oh man four bucks is a dear price to pay for a comic so I am being extremely selective anymore with what I buy, and the temptation to “wait for the trade” is growing.”

  I do like DC’s $3.99 format, introduced with the “Countdown to” titles last year. A lead and a back-up for an extra-sized comic isn’t a bad deal for that price. And the titles in this format have, so far, been pretty good (like Booster Gold with Blue Beetle) or should be good (the aforementioned Doom Patrol, Detective Comics with Batwoman and the Question).

  However, it’s only a matter of time before the back-ups go away, the extra pages vanish, but the $3.99 price remains on the cover.

---

And finally, at long last, from Thursday’s comments:

• David Z. goes above and beyond the call of duty finding this, a reggae/ska-ish version of “Also Spracht Zarathustra” that I was crudely joking about in yesterday’s post. …It’s good!
• GQ notes about my pic from yesterday
  

  “So.

  You’ve got big hands, ain’thca?”

  My fists and large and strong, from years of experience smashing down HIGH PRICES. And strangling people who tell me oh, yeah, sure, I have a Superman #1 at home, it’s in perfect condition!

• WH says
  

  “Been meaning to say this for quite some time: You look like your humor, you know that?”

  I’ve no idea how to even take that. I’m assuming he means I look dull and witless.

• Andrew Davison returns with
  

  “Just because you found some kindly gentlemen to pose next to you, doesn’t prove that it’s the mysterious Ralph. The real Ralph is obviously going to look more like Ditko’s Crime Master.”

  He’s FOUND ME OUT. Andrew has even somehow ferreted out the original, unretouched image:

  

  “BTW, do they still sell those 60’s Hulk t-shirts? What about the Spidey one?”

  They reissued these a few years back, but I think they’re out of print again. But we may still have the Hulk one in stock! I’ll check when I get back to the shop.

  “BTW, you need to restock several shelves behind you.”

  We took the pic on Wednesday, and all the new books were on our large New Arrivals rack. The empty spaces you’re seeing are the spaces we’ve made on the regular shelves for the new books, when we move them over on Thursday.

  There’s a reason for all this, honest.

• Sarah wraps it all up with
  

  “Awesome ‘curse youuuuuuuuu, Richaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaards!’ pose you have going there, Mike.”

  That’s pretty much how I look all day. I am megalomaniacally angry at everything. “YOU DARE BEND COMICS IN FRONT OF MIKE? I SHALL CRUSH YOU FOR THIS EFFRONTERY! NONE MAY DEFY MIKE.”

  “I still think Ralph is fictional, though.”

  So do several of our customers, oddly enough. Or they think I’m Ralph. Or his son.

  It’s when they think Employee Aaron is my son that I get a tad annoyed. Somehow this is Aaron’s fault. He’s so fired.

---

Okay, that’s enough for this round of questions and answers with yours truly. Thank you everyone for participating, and I hope I was able to satisfy your curiosity. And of course, as always, thanks to all of you for reading, and putting up with some of my quirks. I understand I may have a few.