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• My mighty Canadian twin Steven sent me a couple links to videos that are on that YouTube all the kids are crazy for, including this one pairing up the soundtrack from the forthcoming Dark Knight trailer with video from our favorite live-action version of Batman:

  And then there’s this clip, which does the same thing with footage from Tim Burton’s first Bat-flick. Not quite as funny, but still amusing.

• I pop into Ain’t It Cool News about once every week or two, just in case something worthwhile is accidentally posted there that I can share with you folks. It’s been a while since I’ve found anything, but this week…oh, this week, I spotted something fabulous. Glorious, even. Behold:
  

  SAM & MAX ON DVD

  
  I thought, as cartoon adaptations of my favorite comic books go, that the animated Sam & Max wasn’t half-bad. I only managed to catch a handful of episodes before the series went away to cartoon heaven, but I’ve been desperately trying to find them again. Well, not too desperately, but I was interested in getting my hands on a full set of ’em, and here they are.

  Oh, did someone say “Amazon.com link?” Glad to oblige:

  
  Okay, it’s not due out ’til March…coincidentally, my birthday month, hint hint, nudge nudge…but order now, before you forget. Don’t let that weird little rabbity-thing down!

• Reader Mike (no relation) sent along this link to an auction for “Action Comics #1 (Real).”

  Okay, even giving this fellow the benefit of the doubt, that he actually has an original Action Comics #1 from 1938, and not one of the many, many reprints that have been issued since…I’m gonna need more that just 1) his word that it has a certificate of authenticity, and 2) what looks like a stock image of the Action #1 cover art rather than an actual scan of the comic before I thrown down fifty thousand bones.

  ‘Course, all he says is that it’s “real” — all editions of this comic are real, since they actually do exist as physical objects…they’re just not necessarily the “real” version from 1938. But, hey, like I said, for all I know this is an actual original version from 1938, but there’s not enough proof there to verify it.

  If I were selling Action #1, and I decided I was going to use the eBay to unload it, here’s what I would do. First, high quality scans of the front and back, plus close-ups of the corners, photos of some of the interior pages…basically, lots of images showing that, yes, here’s an actual copy of the book, and not just some picture I took off a website.

  Also, some grading information would be nice…notes of flaws, tears, stains, pencil marks, cover gloss, staple wear, creasing, etc. I suppose if we really wanted to soak somebody, we’d have it sent to one of those “professional grading services” to get one of those plastic coffins slapped on it, which seems to make some people open their pocketbooks a little wider, though we’d feel obligated to supply our own grade on the book along with whatever grade the service provides for it. Regardless, any information about the condition would be nice, aside from “none.” (Or “Excellent to mint,” which just tells me you don’t know what you’re talking about.)

• This may be a SPOILER for Hulk #1, so you just watch yourself, mister.

  …

  Okay, you spend months leading up to the debut of Hulk #1 with pictures of a big red Hulk. You get everyone’s curiosity up…”hey, the Hulk is…red? What gives, man?” People are wondering, people are talking, they want to know about the red Hulk. Interest in the Hulk is high, coming off two well-received Hulk-related storylines (Planet Hulk and World War Hulk) so the time is ripe, at least for now, to unleash this new twist on the Hulk franchise.

  So Hulk #1 comes out…and there’s no Red Hulk in the comic, aside from the cover, and a “next issue” ad in the back. Green Hulk appears, in a flashback/”reconstruction of a crime scene” sequence, so the Hulk appears not at all in the present day storyline.

  This irritated a few of my customers. And I think it was a misjudgment, not having this much ballyhooed red Hulk even put in an appearance in his first issue. I’m all for building up to the reveal, but c’mon, folks were looking forward to seeing the red Hulk in action, but now they have to wait ’til the second issue (if they decide they still want it). I guess the cover and the next issue ad will have to do for now.

  That said…Hulk #1 actually wasn’t too bad, all things considered. Ed McGuinness’s art style is a perfect match for this book, and even Jeph Loeb manages a readable script that kept my interest. The comic takes all of two minutes to read, but it’s a very pretty two minutes.

A few more predictions for 2008, from you, the reader:

Redhead Fangirl sez:

“My local comics shop guy says that some comic stores will go out of business in 2008 because of the economy.”

I’ve mentioned before that comic sales seem to trend upwards when the economy is heading downwards…an assumption that appears to be shared by a number of folks on the publishing end of things, judging by some e-mails I received after I brought it up the last time. Not saying some comic shops won’t go out of business…some of the Diamond invoices over the last month or two have been ridiculously ginormous, leaving some retailers scrambling to make ends meet. Of course, if the economy really takes a header, while the desire for some funnybook escapism may increase, $5 per gallon of gas and an endless parade of foreclosed homes may keep that money from reaching comic book sellers’ pockets.

Mightygodking has this to say for himself:

“…Somebody is going to put together an eMusic-like .CBR/.CBZ pay-downloading site that isn’t company exclusive, get most of the indies and Dark Horse to sign on, and debut in early 2009 with a bang and make a shitload of money, and eventually DC and Marvel will sign on with them.”

Now that’s not a bad idea…having a central download store, rather than each publisher having their own storefront, would possibly go a long way to encouraging “one stop shopping” for downloadable comics. If such a thing were enough of a success to tempt Marvel and DC, though, I’d expect the Big Two would simply crib the business model for their own use rather than share the profits with another company. Unless, of course, this theoretical downloadable-comic store is so huge and successful, the one place you have to go to buy your online comics, that Marvel and DC pretty much have to go with them if they want anyone to buy their stuff.

Hopefully, however it shakes out, there won’t be any foolin’ around with DRM protection since 1) that discourages sales, and 2) it generally takes some bored teenager in Ohio about ten minutes to break any DRM scheme any company can come up with.

EDIT: And, as has been pointed out to me, Marvel and DC offering downloads on new material would almost certainly raise objections from retailers, and likely Diamond as well. Yeah, yeah, I know, that’s “old retailing” thinking, but we’re still quite a ways away from a download model like this being viable, at least for the Big Two. Every time there’s an attempt to cut out the middle man by the big publishers, a crapstorm arises, and “hey, kids, buy your new comics online!” would cause some problems, at least in today’s marketplace. I can think of a workaround or two, and ways to allow downloads like this that don’t cut out the comic retailers that already exist, but perhaps that’s a post for another time rather than an after-the-fact edit on this post.

Googum googums:

“…One of the little sub-publishing lines like Wildstorm or Marvel Max or maybe even Vertigo will bag out of the monthly comic racket entirely, going all trade/OGN or online first or something.”

I was actually considering predicting something like this, myself. A year may be too soon for one of these imprints to make the shift entirely to TP, and at least one (Vertigo) still has enough strong-selling monthlies to keep the periodical format around. But I’m wondering when and where either Marvel or DC will take one of their established superhero properties and attempt a serialized trade format with it on, say, a quarterly or twice-yearly basis.

Googum also predicts:

“The mid-range comics keep getting shuffled: books like Catwoman, She-Hulk, Avengers: the Initiative, even Spider-Girl, won’t be allowed to just coast along at their current level of sales. Relaunch will follow relaunch, making these books limited series without set ends.”

Discussing comic reboots/relaunches with a friend of mine, I noted an observation I’ve made in my (ahem) several years of comics retailing. “Every jumping-on point is also a jumping-off point.” Every time you make a clean break and attempt to start fresh, in an attempt to attract new readers, you also give some of the old readers, who’ve had just about enough, a convenient stopping point. So, hopefully, the publishers won’t keep relaunching these titles, and instead attempt to rejuvenate them midstream without the artificial bump brought about with yet another new #1. Sure, restarting Spider-Girl gave the series a brief spurt in orders from retailers, but our orders are now back down to what they were before the relaunch, and I don’t imagine we’re the only ones.

Brian has lots to say, starting with:

“Comic book fans will complain, generally either about how the movies don’t match up with the comic book continuity (The Joker isn’t Red Hood!?!), or that the currently published books aren’t appealing to the ideal newcomer, completely missing the point that comics are published to promote the movies, toys, and other tie-ins, not the other way around.”

Well, “comic book fans complaining” is a gimme, my friend! But, yeah, even though Iron Man and Dark Knight look like they’ll be pretty good and about as reasonable an adaptation of comic books that a real, adult movie-going audience would be willing to accept, there’s always going to be someone not happy because some obscure, non-important bit of history won’t be mentioned, despite the fact its inclusion would make no story sense or even derail the proceedings.

My favorite response is the postings of “well, this is what they should have done,” followed with that fan’s theoretical film’s plot synopsis which no one in their right mind would ever, ever film.

Mark foresees:

“Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of its run: Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch’s FANTASTIC FOUR will get later and later.”

Yeah…I’m thinking “fill-in artist, sooner or later” — either that, or Fantastic Four will officially move to a quarterly schedule.

And finally, mighty Rich Handley unleashes this fever dream:

“DC will finally realize that Swamp Thing is the only comic that really matters in the grand scheme of things, canceling all its other books (aside from Hellblazer) to focus exclusively on its new AST (All-Swamp Thing) imprint. AST will produce 24 titles per month, each featuring a different writer-artist team’s interpretation of Swamp Thing, and the multiverse will be restructed during a 52-part maxiseries entitled Swamp Crisis, in which it will be revealed that the Doug Wheeler and Gerry Conway runs actually took place in Swamp-515.”

I FULLY SUPPORT THIS DEVELOPMENT. DC Comics…make this happen. But leave All Star Batman on the schedule, please…perhaps making it All Star Batman and Swamp Thing, The Muck-Encrusted Mockery of a Man.

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In other news:

• There’s one thing I completely forgot about regarding this new thrice-monthly schedule on Amazing Spider-Man, but remembered as I was pulling books for the comic savers on Wednesday. I have several pull-list customers who, of the several Spidey-titles available, only had Amazing Spider-Man on their subscriptions. This wasn’t just a case of people only buying ASM because of J. Michael Straczynski’s writing, though that applied to a handful of them. Primarily a number of my customers just bought ASM because, of all the Spidey titles, that was the flagship Spidey title, the one least likely to go away. Or that they needed a Spidey fix, and just the one comic was enough.

  Well, that one monthly comic is suddenly becoming three, and the people who just bought ASM because they didn’t want to buy two other monthly books starring Spider-Man are going to find themselves buying three Spidey books a month anyway (at least until the schedule collapses). I’ve already had a couple tentative “well, I’ll try it out for now”s from pull list customers, and a handful of drops. And though I’ve only had a day’s worth of sales to judge by, I don’t know that ASM is selling any more than normal. We’ll see.

• Onslaught: Reborn #5 came out this week. Let’s look at its release schedule, shall we?

  #1 – 11/29/06

  #2 – 12/28/06

  #3 – 03/07/07

  #4 – 07/25/07

  #5 – 01/09/08

  Oh for God’s sake. What exactly was the hold-up on this comic? It certainly wasn’t to add quality.

  But I will say this: at least it finished. It was no damned good, but you got an ending. You can’t say that about Ultimate Hulk vs. Wolverine. (Well, you can say it was no damned good.)

• The Teen Titans Lost Annual is finally out this week, after sitting on a shelf at DC for about three years. You know, having looked at it, and given the reason it was shelved (“too weird,” as per artist Jay Stephens in this quote I related a while back)…why they would have held this back, given some of the stuff they have published, I have no idea. It’s just pure goofy fun, and well worth your money. The late Bob Haney gets the last laugh, at long last.

  And it’s got a killer sketchbook section by Nick Cardy. Killer, I say. That man wields a mighty pencil.

This must be where Vibe got his skills:

You know, I would have gladly paid $3.45 plus $1.25 shipping just to have a Champion Breakdancer certificate. Not that I need a certificate to tell me that.

Anyway, I was just going to post the ad so we could all get big laffs out of it, but I pulled it out of a copy of Superman: The Secret Years #3 (April 1985), and I thought I’d say a couple words about the comic itself.

The Superman: The Secret Years four-issue mini-series takes place in that time period of the pre-Crisis Superman’s history, between his life as Superboy in Smallville and the beginning of his career as Superman in Metropolis. It’s a good series, written by Bob Rozakis…a transitory tale of a young Clark Kent suddenly faced with some very adult decisions and tragedies. (Hint: don’t be a friend of Clark Kent that’s not part of the main cast, or dire things will happen to you.)

In terms of the art, there’s good news and there’s bad news. The good news is that it’s Curt Swan on pencils, and Kurt Schaffenberger on inks. The bad news is that the entire series is saddled with that Flexographic printing process, which I’ve gone on about before. Lettering is blotchy, color is off-register and also blotchy…here’s a sample splash that doesn’t look too bad:

Also, at least one of the two text pages at the end of the issue are rendered almost unreadable due to the poor printing.

It’d be nice if this could someday get a nice trade paperback reissue with a real printing job, except it’s perhaps a little too out of continuity (made moot almost immediately by the big Superman reboot about a year after this series came out), which is a minor issue compared to the more important reason this won’t get reprinted: the disputed legal status of the Superboy comics and related elements, which feature prominently in this series.

I also liked Frank Miller’s covers for this series, a marked contrast from the artwork inside:

You can see scans of all four covers, at larger sizes, over at the Grand Comic Book Database.

So, in conclusion…hey, a breakdancing ad! Pretty funny, right?

I thought I’d collect predictions for another day before discussing them, but, nah, I’m going to go ahead and talk about a few of them now. If you have more, go ahead and keep adding to the list…maybe we can all meet back here next year and see how we did.

I never did get around to posting my own predictions, so let me lay a couple on you now and see how I match up with the folks who left comments. No, I didn’t read any of the comments yet. I will after I post these:

1. DC will further experiment with higher price points/expanded page count anthology-esque titles like Countdown to Mystery. I don’t think we’re going to say goodbye to the $2.99 format this year, but I think its end is likely near…$3.25 or $3.50 is imminent.

2. The Spider-Man “One More Day” boondoggle won’t be reversed, at least certainly not within its first year…that would be tantamount to Marvel admitting it made a mistake, and we know how they don’t like that. (Look how long it took for them to finally start doing 2nd printings again, after years of crippled sales on start-up books.) However, I think, at least from the creative end, the problems involved in this reboot will become increasingly evident (from “continuity patches” to the undermining of reader confidence in Marvel’s storytelling).

3. Final Crisis will be a straightforward and clever mini-series, as these events go, which will be decried as “weird” and “hard to understand” by the usual suspects because Grant Morrison is writing.

4. Sales on the next Stephen King’s Dark Tower series will be nowhere near the sales on the previous mini. It’ll be ordered high, certainly, and the first issue might sell well, but the drop-off will occur even more quickly than it did on the initial series, as the hardcore King fans will just wait for the next collection.

5. On a related note…some comic from Marvel or DC will be hailed as the “breakout comic” that finally gets the general non-comic-reading audience to start buying funnybooks on a regular basis, while ignoring the fact that said general audience is only buying that “breakout” comic and nothing else.

6. And finally, comic fans will finally catch up to me and realize the inherent beauty, humor, and satire of All Star Batman and Robin. I will be hailed as a genius of incredible foresight for being the internet’s primary proponent of ASB so early on in that book’s history. Money and awards will be showered upon me, women (and 10% of the men) will throw themselves at me, and I will go down in history as the comic internet’s wisest, and most stunningly handsome, observer.

Okay, lemme look at what you folks had to say.

(tempus fugit)

Whoo boy. Well, let me get started, and I may continue this over a day or two, if that’s okay with you folks. Like I said above, go ahead and keep adding your predictions if you’d like.

• There are a few comments about Marvel and DC’s online initiatives and their likely failures, and sad to say I’m inclined to agree. I don’t think either are going to go away this year, but I suspect we’ll see some rethinking about how they’re handled. In particular, Marvel will likely begin (or at least think about beginning) to offer their entire libraries for online reading, and a lot shorter delay between a book being on the shelves and being available online. Yes, that’ll annoy retailers, but historically Marvel doesn’t tend to let retailer concerns guide their business decisions.

  I agree with P-TOR in that I don’t think Marvel will permit downloadable comics, preferring instead to “stream” the books online and maintain control over their properties, which is the exact opposite of what end users want. In the meantime, like Harvey says, Marvel (and DC) will continue to make futile efforts in stopping illegal scanning ‘n’ downloading of their books.

• I honestly don’t think Joe Quesada (or Dan Didio, for that matter) are going to get fired. They’ve both increased sales across the board on their comics. That ain’t a firin’ offense. For all the crap Countdown is getting online, it sure is being ordered by retailers like it’s selling in their stores. And I don’t think the Spidey reboot Quesada forced down everyone’s throat is going to adversely affect sales, at least not right away. I think it would take something a lot more catastrophic for a forced career change to occur, and I don’t think either Marvel or DC are doing to risk doing anything that would result in a catastrophe of sufficient proportions.
• A few folks bring up the idea that the new, semi-weekly Amazing Spider-Man book won’t be nearly as successful as Marvel’s hoping, which I think is a given. I don’t think it’ll be a bomb, but I think the new schedule will be reconsidered by the end of the year, like both Harvey and Jeff R. note. I don’t think we’ll see a total roll-back, but I think we might see enough scheduling difficulties that the three per month schedule will be knocked back to biweekly.
• The Iron Man movie surprisingly gets a couple knocks, even though it seems to me that it’s quite highly anticipated, even among the people who are usually cranky and cynical about this sort of thing. By which I mean “me,” since even I’m kinda looking forward to it. Whether it’ll do well enough to be a film-franchise launcher, I don’t know, but I think it’ll be reasonably successful.
• Jon thinks it’ll come out, pal Dorian says nay, and I know you folks want to know where I stand on the matter.

  Well, Ultimate Hulk Vs. Wolverine #3, on the cusp of being two years late…will it come out this year?

  I want to say that it’ll go the way of that one Kevin Smith Daredevil series, which ended up being so late that they cancelled the book outright. But I don’t know that even Marvel would want to screw the retailers with another vaporware book.

  I’m going to say…we’ll hear some talk about it “being worked on” and “almost ready to come out,” and we may even get another reprinting of the first two issues. And if we see any issues, it’ll feature a “co-writer” or an entirely new writer that can actually finish the book. A book, that features Wolverine. Fighting the Hulk. What is the difficulty, exactly?

• Tony mentions something that I’ve touched on before on the site…that the zombie fad will finally peter out this year, but not before Marvel Zombies 3. That seems to be supported by our sales on the book…it’s not selling badly, by any means, but it’s not the “Marvel’s printing money!” of the previous series. A third series will likely be enough…unless, of course, we get a company-wide Marvel Zombies crossover, with the zombies invading the mainstream Marvel Universe and superhero vs. zombie hijinks ensue. That should kill the trend once and for all.

  Walking Dead seems to be a solid enough book to outlast the zombie fad crash, but I think any other zombie-heavy books may see their end. Good Lord, the things I find myself writing.

• From “Aqualad,” who predicts:
  

  “DC will find a way to start up a new weekly, this one focusing on Zatanna, Ambush Bug, a time-thrown Matter-Eater Lad, Metamorpho, CM3 and a newly restored Aztek finding their rightful places in the multiverse. Buttons will be made.”

  I wholeheartedly support this idea. But, please sir, “Captain Marvel, Jr.” I never cottoned to that “CM3” business.

I’ll probably cover more of the predictions tomorrow, so please feel free to add more to the original list.

If you have commentary on the predictions themselves, please try to keep it to the comments section for today’s post, just for simplicity’s sake.

Thanks for participating, internet pals. I really do appreciate it and enjoy reading everything you have to say.

I’m putting out a call for your predictions! What do you think is going to happen in the comics industry during 2008? What events do you think are going to impact the business? Which delivery formats will live, and which will die? What will sell well, what will disappear without a trace?

If you have a prediction, or two, or five, just drop them in the comments section. I’ll drop my own in there during the day, sometime.

A couple rules:

1. Don’t read the other predictions before entering your own! I’m curious to see how many people come up with similar ideas…that might tell us something about common perceptions of the industry.

2. Don’t criticize other people’s predictions…there’ll be a chance to discuss the likelihood, or lack thereof, of some predictions in my forthcoming post analyzing the contributions. I would prefer not to have any arguments break out in my comments section.

3. Don’t predict anyone’s death. I mean, honestly.

So, if you have some predictions, please feel free to let me know what they are. Remember, it’s all in fun, and maybe, just maybe, we might learn a little something. (Learning not guaranteed.)

In the meantime, here’s where I grabbed the above still, to give you a little context for the “Kit-La Predicts!” thing:

So I’m putting together yet another collection of comic books (not trades or manga…comic books specifically were requested) for one of our local libraries, as I do on a fairly regular basis. The head children’s librarian, looking for comics appropriate for the under-10 age range, sent along a list of requests based on titles I’ve sold to the library in the past, their relative demand/circulation at their branch, and patron requests.

The most requested title? Pokemon. Apparently the Pokemon comics we’ve sent before went over like gangbusters with the kids, and they’re dying for more. Alas, my Pokemon selection is finally slimming down a bit, as there’s been a resurgence of interest in this franchise of late, not just in comics but, apparently, in the trading card game as well, judging by how they’re doing at the game store next door.

Near the top of the list are Looney Tunes, Transformers, and the DC animated superhero stuff (including Legion of Super-Heroes).

At the very bottom of the list were the Classics Illustrated Junior reprints that have been coming out lately. Guess they’re a little too old-fashioned for the modern jet-set kids.

Next to the last on the list (and, in fact, when I spoke to the librarian on the phone, she specifically requested “don’t send any of these…nobody likes them”): Archie Comics.

Now, when I worked at a public library, in my long-ago pre-comics retail days, we had a subscription to a handful of Archie comic series. (I still have the fan club button and multi-ink pen Archie sent us as part of the sub.) We’d get them in, and (comic collector mint hounds, avert your eyes!) we’d use clear packing tape to reinforce the spines and covers in order to keep them intact after being lovingly handled by the little darlings. And, while they weren’t the most popular items in the library, they’d still get checked out or read at the tables in the children’s section.

It’s possible that even the less popular comics we’re selling to the libraries are still getting read, even if the circulations stats show that they’re not going home with anyone. But given that the librarian singled out the Archie comics by name as being of little or no interest to her patrons…well, that strikes me as just a little sad.

But given Archie Comics’ attempt to drop Josie and the Pussycats creator / Sabrina the Teenage Witch cocreator Dan DeCarlo into the memory hole…well, perhaps we can consider those kids’ disinterest a little karmic payback.

Of course, TV has a lot to do with it…it’s been a while since the hellishly-annoying Archie cartoons of my youth were on the air, and I’ve no idea of kids’ current awareness of the recent Josie or Sabrina live-action efforts. But Archie, Betty, Veronica, Reggie, Jughead…even with having that sweet spot for the digests up by the supermarket cash registers isn’t helping their Q ratings with kids. I’m still selling Archie comics to kids at the shop, so the line isn’t entirely dead, but, he said in the most obvious conclusion ever, they’re not what they once were. (But then, what comic is?)

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SUDDENLY:

Have a blank.

house ad from DC Comics, 1969

So, regarding the conclusion of the “One More Day” storyline in the Spider-Man line of funnybooks, in which most major changes in Spidey’s life, including his marriage, are wished away:

1. Pretty much universally reviled…most of my customers are reading it for the car-wreck aspect of it, or simply did not believe it was going to end the way it ended. And online reaction seems to be pretty negative as well…finally, online reaction and real world reaction jibe with each other.*

2. The actual writer credited with the script has been openly critical with how it was handled. (And had this just been a regular comic writer, and not a Big Name Writer Who’s Written TV Shows, Even, that Marvel is desperately trying to keep around, he’d probably be knocking on DC’s door right now looking for work as a result of that criticism.)

3. Was apparently put in place to do away with the much-maligned Spider-Man/Mary Jane marriage…well, “much maligned” in current Marvel chief editor Joe Quesada’s head, anyway, since, as I’ve noted before, most folks have seemed pretty okay with it.

4. Sets the stage for the “Brand New Day” relaunch of the Spider-Man franchise, which will be read by all the same people who already read Spider-Man comics, minus the few folks disgusted enough by how this last storyline was handled that they’ll drop the title.

5. Is almost guaranteed to be undone once Quesada is replaced, if not sooner.

So, in conclusion, these “One More Day” comics were dumb. I told you it’d be a groaner of a storyline. Spider-Man sells his soul** to the Devil to avoid personal responsibility. Another heroic triumph for our friendly neighborhood Webhead! Yay!

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Also, while thinking about a 2007 wrap-up, which may or may not happen, I was looking at some sales figures:

Over the last year or so, Captain America had some pretty good sales. It was a solid mid-lister for us to begin with, but the Civil War tie-in issues the number of copies we were moving had about doubled.

Then of course there was the “Death of Cap” issue, which sold crazy numbers, and had high demand by not just comic fans but by the general public, driven into stores by mass media reporting…for about a month, anyway. Then sales dropped back down to about the Civil War tie-in levels, and have been dipping slightly each month since. I suspect the debut of the replacement Cap with the not terribly attractive new costume will temporarily bump sales up again.

So, while the Death of Cap brought new people into shops, it appears it didn’t keep them around. I do have more people buying Captain America than prior to the Civil War/death issues, but it’s the regular comic fans, the already-converted, who made room on their buylists or in their pocketbooks, who are picking it up. The new folks who got their copies have made their investment (currently selling for about $3 to $7 on the eBay, non-CGCed), and are secure in the knowledge that Marvel is no longer publishing comics about one of their flagship characters. Why would they come back and look for more issues? They have the last one, right?

Stephen King’s Dark Tower also had a lot of hype and real-world advertising, and started off strong. It actually ended relatively strong as well, though the number of copies we were moving by that point had dropped by about 50%. A lot of the new people coming to the shop specifically for Dark Tower dropped off right quick, not wanting to come in once a month to get the latest installment. I imagine most of them eventually decided it’d be easier to get a collection of all the issues off Amazon.com rather than get it pieced out to them. Or maybe they decided a representative issue or two was enough for their King collection. There is some back issue movement to folks coming in looking for issues now that the series is over, but it’s pretty slight.

And then there’s The Un-Men. Let me take you back to the early 1980s, with early 1980s Mikester, resplendent in his Dokken (“Rhymes with ‘Rockin'”) t-shirt and his gorgeous, shoulder-length golden hair, going to his local funnybook store to buy his Swamp Thing comic. The store gets in five copies. Early 1980s Mikester buys a copy. Another customer buys a copy. The last three go unsold, unsold, and languish in the back issue bins.

And that’s where we are with Un-Men today. I buy a copy. Customer Rob buys a copy. (Hi, Rob!) And the other three are unloved. Well, I think one of the employees gets it, too. Plus, my hair seems to have a lot more gray in it now. And my t-shirt now says “I listen to both kinds of music: ‘gangsta’ and ‘rap.'”

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In other news:

• The Comics Reporter is back online!
• Longtime comics weblogger Ken Lowery now has a brand new, fancypants movie review site for you to enjoy!
• There’s Batman…and then there’s LITTLE BATMAN. All hail Batfatty!

* Unlike the online vs. real world reactions to, say, Countdown. Or All Star Batman.***

** Or “trades the perfect love of his marriage” or whatever. Still dumb.

*** Hey, I was going to get a mention of All Star Batman in here somewhere.

1. Do some kind of redesign of this site. Perhaps even (gasp) leave Blogger for some other weblogging software. At least clean up my FTP directory. Good Lord, it’s a mess, no thanks to that update to “new” Blogger.

2. Maybe someday get around to doing some kind of round-up for 2007. Like, I don’t know, in May or something.

3. Finally, finally get some kind of regular podcast/audioblog thing going. Doing this podcast with Kid Chris and Dafna was a blast, and I’d like to do more. I mean, wouldn’t you like to hear me and my pal Dorian dish the dirt?

4. Try not to get bothered by “back-seat retailers” who tell me I’m dumb for not jumping when Marvel says “jump.” Yeah, because that will never be abused.

5. Fire Employee Aar…er, I, um, I mean, investigate the possibility of expanding and/or rotating the employee pool at the shop.

6. Do another “character link-dump” at some point. I haven’t done one of those in, like, forever.

7. Hopefully get around to reviewing some of those review comics/graphic novels I’ve been sent recently. I’m so terrible at writing reviews…that almost feels like “work.”

8. Give pal Dorian a big ol’ man-hug and see how uncomfortable I can make him.

8a. Make sure his boyfriend Pete isn’t around when I do it, or things could go horribly awry.

9. Get more scripts into the hands of Church and Birdie over at The Rack. Whether they want them or not.

10. Continue to sing the praises of All Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder. I kinda fell behind on that last year.

It’s time for the last End of Civilization for 2007, internet pals, and I apologize for the delay. Bust out your copy of the Diamond Previews catalog, January 2008 edition, and follow along, why don’t you. (Links to previous installments in the sidebar, somewhere.)

p. 60 – Domo stuff:

So, how many people will I irritate by saying you can put this on your “overplayed internet fad shelf” along with your Chuck Norris book?

Yes, I know it’s a character in some cartoon or other. Hey, it’s the End of Civilization…I’m under no obligation to be reasonable.

p. 133 – The Joker 1:6 Scale Deluxe Collector Figure:

Couldn’t care less about the figure, but dude:

p. 235 – Lady Death 2007 Swimsuit Special Canvas Cover:

Only 150 copies, at $100 a pop. “Image printed on an actual canvas to fully capture the beautiful work of this master craftsman!” I don’t know what I can add to that.

p. 261 – Army of Darkness/Xena: Why Not? #1:

It’s a refreshing bit of honesty in that title, there.

p. 305 – Ghost Whisperer: The Haunted #1:

Here’s my joke for the folks who’ve been in the business for a decade or two: boy, it’s too bad Innovation’s out of business…this comic would have been perfect for them.

Also, making the Jennifer Love Hewitt photo cover the “rare” variant? Do you not want people to pick this up off the shelf? Don’t underestimate the buying power of the horny fanboy, my friend.

p. 402 – Stonehenge: Build Your Own Ancient Wonder:

You know, with just the slightest bit of repackaging…you’ve got Spinal Tap merchandise.

p. 438 – Battlestar Galactica Classic Heroes Colonial Warriors Minimates Set:

Does Muffit the robot Daggit really count as a “warrior?” I suppose he bit a Cylon or two in his time, I guess.

Which reminds me…did I ever tell you about the kid, back when I was in grade school, who insisted everyone call him “Boxey” after Muffit’s owner? (And yes, this was while BG was still on the air.) (And no, it wasn’t me.) (IT WASN’T.)

p. 438 – Battlestar Galactica Classic Villains Cylon Emperor Minimates Set:

I remember as a young’un watching BG and trying to get a good look at the Cylon’s “Imperious Leader,” always presented at the top of a tall pedestal and shrouded in shadow. There’s a photo of him on the Wikipedia page (hey, Swamp Thing star Dick Durock was in the costume…I didn’t know that!). The original toy gave you a good look at the fella, which was a tad disappointing. The Minimate version isn’t much better, but I do like the James Brown hair.

Also, the same full page ad for these Minimates appears on pages 410 and 439. Oops.

p. 460 Iron Man Classic Helmet Silver 1/1 Scale Prop Replica (& Classic Helmet Gold):

Features “comfortable black padded lining” — that means they’re wearable, friends! For only $349 (Silver) or $399 (Gold), you could be the coolest guy at Wizard World!

p. 460 – X-Men II Visor of Cyclops 1/1-Scale Prop Replica:

Putting out a pricy prop replica tying into a movie that’s several years old, and has since had a newer installment in the series? Featuring the character from the film nobody likes? Hoo boy.

p. 476 – Frank Kozik’s 8-Inch Murder Bomb Figure:

“And the award for ‘Most Tasteful Figure of 2008’ goes to….”

p. 478 – Ron English’s Cathy Cowgirl 10-Inch Vinyl Figure:

NO SEXY COW-WOMAN.

NO SEXY COW-WOMAN.

NO FOUR NIPPLES ON EACH OF SEXY COW-WOMAN’S BREASTS.

p. 494 – Doctor Who Dalek Sec Voice Changer Helmet:

Is it just me, or has Doctor Who had an awful lot of these voice changer helmets? And would even a Doctor Who fan want to wear this one? The Cyberman one, maybe. The human/Dalek hybrid…I’m not so sure.

p. 498 – Hanadeka Club by Yoneo Morita Plush Puppies:

TOO…MUCH…CUTE — NOSES…TOO…BIG….

p. 499 – Satsuriko No Jango Franco Il Nero PVC Fig:

This is your token “cutsey Japanese cartoon gal posing awkwardly and presenting her crotch to you” item for this installment of the End of Civilization. Please, enjoy.

p. 505 – Now what is it about these items that the Mr. T in Van Bobble-Head amuses me:

…whereas the Star Wars Luke Skywalker X-Wing Bobble-Head terrifies me:

p. 508 – Superman Giant Buddy:

“Why did you dismember me, your Super Buddy? Why? Why?“

p. 508 – Supergirl Incense:

“After a particularly tough tussle, even Supergirl needs to clear her head by burning incense, and this cinnamon and rose scented incense is exactly what the Maid of Steel needs!”

And then you can use your official Supergirl rolled up wet towel to block the gap under your bedroom door to keep all that scent in your room.

p. 509 -Captain America Business Card Holder:

I was going to make a crack about “how to make sure no one takes your business seriously,” but then I remembered that the business cards in our shop are being held in a little ceramic toilet, so I don’t exactly have the moral high ground, here.

p. 511 – Rambo Signature Edition Knives:

I’ve only got the First Blood knife pictured here. First Blood II and Rambo III knives are also available. Each features the signature of John Rambo…a fictional character.

If you want to learn more about Rambo’s knives, and why wouldn’t you, here’s a site all about them.

p. 511 – Simpsons Dancing “Macho Man” Homer:

If you have a figure like this featuring implied nudity, the first thing anyone browsing the shelves who spots the figure will do is look under the towel, skirt, etc., to look for naughty bits. As if they’d manufacture a Homer Simpson doll with a little dancing Homer between his legs.

‘Course, I’m not innocent in this sort of thing, either.

p. 542 – Zombie Strippers DVD:

That there’s even something called Zombie Strippers is notable enough. But the solicitiation includes this bit of info:

“NOTE: This movie has not been released on DVD. Future availability is not guaranteed.”

A couple other movies have this same qualifier. Is Sony Pictures Home Entertainment not sure these movies will ever be ready to go? I’m sure there’s a rational explanation for this, but taken at face value…okay, most new DVDs were ordered when they had not yet been released on DVD. That’s called “preordering.” And that’s also what makes them NEW DVDs. And telling us we may not get something we’re ordering? Okay, that’s nothing new for some of the specialty items purchased through Previews, but honestly.

p. 542 – Woodchipper Massacre DVD:

And let us wrap up this month’s End of Civilization with a palate-cleansing classic piece of cinema. “How much flesh would a Woodchipper chip, if a Woodchipper could chip flesh?” Let that thought guide you into the new year, my friends.