Seriously, chimps are terrifying.
So in the comments to my last post both Robert in New Orleans and GregNGray mention stores bagging, boarding and / or otherwise preventing the handling of the new comics on display, in one case even requiring folks to go to the counter and request which new comics they wanted to buy after looking at the sealed-off selection. Now, I have to admit, I’ve been sorely tempted by those options after yet another person trying to park on the floor and read all the new comics without buying, or after discovering yet another comic that’s been thrashed beyond the ability to sell when we were somehow not looking. I think it was even pal Dorian who half-jokingly suggested having a store where people would go to the window, tell the trained roller-skating chimpanzee there what comics they’d want, and the chimp would zip off to the rack, grab the comics, and bring ’em back to the window. Why a chimp? Hey, people love chimps. They’re cute, when they’re not doing something horrifically violent. But perhaps I’m getting off-message.
Anyway, it seems like restricting access to the new books by sealing them off, somehow, would do more harm than good. People have got to be able to at least browse a bit, otherwise how are they going to be able to decide if they want to start reading a seventh new Avengers title? Or, you know, anything else new or odd or interesting that may catch their eyes? And I mean “browsing,” not “sitting on the floor mooching free reads of entire books,” which will get you a well-deserved, mostly-metaphorical boot in the ass. Again, I’m certainly sympathetic to the responses of those retailers, but (and I’m saying this without knowing what exact circumstances caused those decisions to be made) a little more employee supervision and attention to the racks may be better in the long run than cutting off access.
Besides, I can’t imagine spending the time bagging ‘n’ boarding all the new comics for the rack each week. Who’s got that kind of time? I’m too busy teaching spoken English to roller-skating chimpanzees.
GregNGray also notes that he likes signage in his stores, and I agree. I try to put up signs everywhere, particularly identifying which graphic novels are where (from genre distinctions to featured topics and characters — “HELLBOY” or “WALKING DEAD” and the like), to clearly marking the all-ages sections (bookshelves and the new comics rack by the register), big signs on the back issue islands on the floor telling you which letter of the alphabet is where, and so on. I don’t really have a big sign saying “HERE ARE THE NEW COMICS ON THIS WALL,” but it’s a giant wall of new comics, it’s reasonably self-evident, though the new comics for the week do all have “new this week” tags on them. Our back issue bins behind the counters have tags on the front that (ahem) usually have the correct contents marked on them, though I’m shifting and moving comics so often sometimes I get a little behind in updating those. It’s still a work in progress, even after all these years, but I’m trying to get more signs up where needed.
Luke and the previously-mentioned Robert who is presumably still in New Orleans asked what sticky labels I use to seal comic bags, as using tape on comic bags is a punishment I believe that casts you into the outer ring of the Seventh Circle of Dante’s Hell. In general, we use Avery removable labels, usually the 3/4″ round ones or some of the rectangular ones that you can find perusing these pages. Some stores have their own brand of removable labels, and those should work as well, so long as you see the word “removable” on the package somewhere. I prefer using the white ones, as the colored ones seem to curl a bit more with use, and maybe this is just me, but they seem to be less…sticky, at least for the purposes of sealing and resealing a comic book bag. Anyway, the white ones also allow for a little more clarity when we write notes on them for in-store use (such as the comic’s condition, year of publication, etc.). And, best of all, there’s more of a chance that it’ll come off very cleanly should the sticker accidentally get stuck to a cover, which would be a total disaster with a piece of tape, particularly on older comics.
Now, at home, I also use removable labels, but a while back I scored a cheap deal on some 1 by 3 inch removable labels, which may seem a bit excessive in size, but I cut each label into thin strips which I then use to seal my bags. Since I’m not using those stickers for condition notes, like at store, it doesn’t matter if I don’t leave room for any writing (except for issue numbers, if necessary)…just so long as they’re wide enough for the seal to hold. I suspect I’ll be working on these boxes of labels for years. Unless I can get a comic-bagging chimpanzee to take care of them for me.
“This is our Swamp Thing rack, and everything else is just kinda shoved into that old box on the back shelf there.”
More questions, more hopefully-informative answers:
- Adam asks
“Mike, do you ever see any kind of temporary downturn for a brand when stuff like DC’s recent foibles (RE Batwoman and the Harley Quinn contest) come to light and make internet waves?”
In general, no, because most comic fans, the ones that actually go into shops every week and buy things, don’t seem to be impacted or even terribly interested in online shenaniganery much beyond general news announcements and reports of, say, shortages of 3D comic covers and such. The Internet comics world seems to be its own insular thing, with not a whole lot of overlap with the real world; otherwise, Thor: The Mighty Avenger would still be published, and Dan DiDio would have been run out of town by villagers with rakes and torches.
“Also, did people really like Spider Island?”
Yeah, they liked it well enough. The actual Spider-Man comics that tied into the storyline seemed to experience a bump in sales, while some of the other tie-ins didn’t really go anywhere. I haven’t seen much back issue movement on them, however, since once it was over it became just another Marvel crossover event like Fear Itself and Civil War that was forgotten as soon as the next event came along.
- Blogging brother Tim wants to know
“Serious question, why is 29 issues of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN that much worse than the situation in the 90s, when you had 50+ issues a year of AMAZING, SPECTACULAR, WEB OF, the adjective-less series, as well as a monthly VENOM and who knows what else? Was it that many people only bought the flagship book, so that the tertiary titles were less of an obligation?”
Offering four or so different monthly series, each usually featuring their own storylines and subplot threads and so on, is a different animal (and problem) than offering one series with an unpredictable number of installments per year. With different series with a fixed number of issues per year, the decision on how much money to invest in how many series is still up to the reader. If you’re only interested in one series, you bought just the one series, and you generally knew how much you were going to spend to keep up with it. In the case of Spider-Man, most people didn’t buy every series, but some readers didn’t seem to mind buying the occasional issue from a series they usually didn’t follow if it was part of a cross-series event.
Now, with a single series rushing out issues onto the stands as quickly as they’re able to produce them, that’s forcing you to spend more money to keep up with one particular set of storylines that you’ve already decided to follow, making you a captive audience of sorts, and that money has to come from somewhere. I wonder if people would have found more money in their budgets to buy the withering-on-the-vine Superior Foes and Superior Spider-Man Team-Up books if they weren’t already buying two issues of the main Superior Spider-Man title each month?
As an aside, I have to agree with your later comment on the J.M. DeMatteis Spectacular Spider-Man run. That was some good, weird, and occasionally dark, stuff.
- GregNGray wonders
“Would it be comic shop suicide to place indie comics front and center and big-two comics on secondary or side racks using the (undocumented and totally lacking in evidence) theory that:
a) big-two readers are far more likely to know exactly what is out each week and will have no problem finding what they want and,
b) they are less likely to make spur of the moment purchases?
Thanks.”Oh, I wouldn’t think so. Racking any comics in an easily-accessible manner is never a bad thing. Well, okay, maybe putting Faust next to Fantastic Four could be a problem, but you know what I mean. Ideally, though, all comics would be racked together alphabetically (barring age-appropriateness considerations), or by genre, if you want to get all fancy-pants about it. At the very least, if you have a Marvel/DC rack and an Everything Else rack, keep ’em close together. The fewer barriers you put between a customer and the books he or she wants to buy, the better.
We have kind of an oddball set-up, mostly based on rack types and available spacing: one larger wall rack that has enough room to accommodate new Marvel/DC/Dark Horse/Image books, and smaller wall racks of another type that have the room to accommodate all the new indies. The two are right next to each other, and I haven’t had any problem displaying and selling the indie titles. I would prefer to have the entire new comics area be one uniform series of shelving, and all the comics be mixed together, but this set-up seems to work okay for now until I can make that dream come true. One advantage is that a number of the indies tend to skew a little higher in recommended reading ages, making it a little easier to direct parents to the rack with the superhero books on it. Not that a lot of the superhero books are appropriate for Little Billy, but kids want the guys they saw on the TV and in the movies, so there you go. (And yes, we help ’em find comics that won’t turn their kids into juvenile delinquents.)
We also have another rack of kids comics (Archie stuff, My Little Pony, etc.) right at the front of the store, along with shelves of kid-friendly trades, so I guess in a way we do have a shelf of indie books front ‘n’ center.
Mostly I’m just bitter there aren’t four or five ongoing Swamp Thing titles on the stands right now.
So I had a couple of questions and comments to this post from last Friday that I wanted to respond to:
- LFC notes, regarding my comment on having 17 issues of Superior Spider-Man in eight months:
“2012 saw 29 issues of Amazing Spider-Man (including point ones, Ends of the Earth one shot and anything by Slott), 2011 saw 29 issues as well, 2010 saw 33 issues and so on. Luckily it’s a very good book.”
The quality of the book almost doesn’t matter. It’s just too much. Comic fans only have so much to budget for their books, and every dollar that goes towards maintaining their run of Amazing or whatever at two or three copies a month are dollars not going toward maybe trying out something that isn’t a Spider-Man comic that month. It’s rack crowding and market flooding, and I don’t like it when Marvel is cranking out two or three issues per title per month, and I don’t like it when both Marvel and DC are cranking out a half-dozen titles or more for each of their franchises. We don’t need this many Batman books, or this many X-Men or Green Lantern or Avengers or Superman books, except we now have a marketplace that depends on devotion to the big franchises and doesn’t leave room in anyone’s budgets to try out or support something different.
And before anyone says anything, this isn’t absolutely 100% across the board for all fans everywhere, that everyone is just buying this stuff and not buying that stuff. But there is a trend toward this kind of marketplace, where the only comics that sell well are Batman or Avengers books because if you throw a dart randomly at a comics rack that’s what you’re gonna hit, well, there you go. “We keep putting out Avengers books because those are the comics that sell” is the self-fulfilling prophecy of the comics market.
- Sean writes:
“haven’t been paying much attention to Marvel’s books for the last couple of years, so I got a good laugh out of the three-digit issue number (017) on the front of Superior Spider-Man. Is there anyone out there who genuinely thinks any of Marvel’s books are going to get to 100 before being rebooted with new issue #1′s?”
It’s a design element not just to accommodate the eventual possibility that any of the comics will make it to the triple digits, but also because it creates a uniformity of design with those few remaining comics Marvel is currently publishing that are in the triple digits. (Or is X-Factor the last?) Also, I think having the three digits seems a little more aesthetically pleasing than just having the two digits. Anyway, I’d be surprised if the current cover layouts are around for more than a couple more years at most, so the problem will likely be moot.
- ~P~ has a comment or three for me:
“I’m not sure if you’ve mentioned it yet, but how does the Marvel ‘NOW!’ trend of placing issue numbers on the BOTTOM of the cover affect your display and sales?”
Most of our comics are racked with the full cover face out, so the issue number isn’t obscured. We have some wall racks that overlap the books, and if any of the comics have non-traditional logo and number placing, I’ll make a small sign to rack with the comic to indicate any of the relevant information. A minor annoyance, but racking thing properly is what they pay me the Big Bucks. (NOTE: Bucks may not be as big as may be implied.)
“I just spent some time this past week filing away about a year’s worth of adopted comics into their drawerbox longbox forever-homes, and having logos placed wherever the heck the artist thought was aesthetically pleasing was bad enough, but issue number placement at the bottom is murder!”
Honestly, this doesn’t bother me at home, when I actually do get around to sorting my own comics into boxes. The only thing that bothers me is when no issue number is on the cover (like on many Gold Key or Dell comics, or, in the case of Hellboy or B.P.R.D. comics, when the overall series number for the various minis isn’t on the cover (as I described in annoying detail way back when). In those cases, I note the issue number on the white resealable sticker I use to seal the comic bag (because only savages and the deranged would use tape to seal their comics, I mean honestly).
“But then, what will happen when any unsold comics go into back-issue boxes?
Kids (sure, kids. Why not?) rifling thru boxes to see if you have a specific issue will have to pull the comic most of the way out of the box, and will inevitably BEND the comic backwards a bit to see the numbers.”Well, regardless of issue number placement, anyone of any age going through back issues without prior instruction or the proper encouragement from the Knuckle-Rapping Yardstick of Enforcement is likely to mishandle the back issues, so I’m keepin’ my eye on all of you. Yes, you, you comic spine-breaking vandals. Anyway, the way we try to handle issue numbers that are in less than obvious positions on the cover, or not on the cover at all, is to write them onto our price stickers which are generally placed in the upper right hand corner on the front of the comic bag.
Thanks for leaving your comments, everyone. I know the big thing on the Internet is “don’t read the comments!” and while I, ahem, may have a somewhat neglected side-project devoted to how terrible commenting can be, I do appreciate and enjoy the comments you folks leave here. A big part of my enjoyment in doing this site is the interaction from you that I receive, and I thank you for it.
Saturday Morning Swampy.
Some of you may remember my previous mentions of an early show on the Nickelodeon cable channel entitled Video Comics, in which various DC Comics stories starring the Flash, Green Lantern, Sugar and Spike, etc. would be presented panel by panel with narration. You may also remember my noting this show as one of the methods by which I was introduced to Swamp Thing, another character featured on the program.
Thanks to reader Patrick, who emailed me yesterday to let me know that an episode of Video Comics finally popped up on YouTube, starring guess who:
This episode lacks the intro Video Comics usually had (I think, probably, just for the more superhero-y installments) of the kids riding their bikes to the local market to ransack the comic racks, while Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” played. Though, I suppose if you have to have at least the music:
Anyway, thanks again to Patrick for letting me know that Video Comics finally showed up on the Internet somewhere. This hit the ol’ nostalgia button!
Now’s probably the time to put those Robin III comics back on the shelves.
Well, here they are, the DC Comics with the 3D covers, in quantities sometimes approximating the orders retailers placed months ago. And to be fair, the covers are pretty neat, adding to the tragedy that there’s not nearly enough around to meet demand. Saw several new faces over the last day or two, folks driving from out of town trying to track down the covers their local stores ran out of so quickly. Not that we were much better, with the increased demand meaning faster departures off the shelves, and once people have seen what the 3D covers looked like, the 2D covers DC offered to supplement the allocated orders were, for some, unsatisfactory replacements.
Not for everyone, though! I actually had some people with in-store pull lists request they not get the 3D covers, and believe you me, I thanked them for that, given the allocations have left me with barely enough to cover the regulars, much less the extra demand. And employee Timmy was a step head of me, looking up the 3D covers on the eBay and, sure enough, the panic buying has set in, resulting in relatively crazy prices for books that have barely been out for 48 hours. That makes the one-per-customer signs I put on some of the 3D books seem like an even better idea now, though Timmy reported to me that some folks were buying one 3D cover and the 2D version. (I can’t really say anything, since I plan on doing the same for the Swamp Thing issue that’s coming later this month. Sad when it happens to someone you know, isn’t it?)
As for the comics themselves, I did like the ones I bought well enough, though that’s bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy in that I restricted myself to buying the Villains Month issues from the series I was already reading. The Green Lantern one, Relic, was probably my favorite, giving us the backstory for this new villain, as well as finally providing full context for the story being presented on the 1:25 ratio black-and-white sketch variant covers being offered for the GL family of books over the last couple of months.
“Based on George Lucas’s original rough-draft screenplay” says the blurb on the cover, both a warning and an enticement to the remaining Star Wars fans still devoted to the minutia of the property despite it all. That would include me, apparently, since I bought this comic, more out of a deep-seated need of the Young Mikester still within me to draw a narrative thread through all the memories of the preproduction images I absorbed back in my Starlog-and-such days. I’m not the only one, it seems, since I saw more than a few new customers around my age showing up just for this comic, thanks likely to its presence in the real-world news media.
The comic itself is, well, what it is. It certainly gives the impression, whether or not this is what actually happened, that there was once a time someone could tell Lucas “no,” resulting in his beating this rough draft into the lean, mean fighting machine that is the original Star Wars movie from 1977. The emphasis in The Star Wars #1 on political intrigue, the lack of a central sympathetic “point of view” character (at least one as strong as Luke Skywalker)…you can see where the prequels came from. That said, it’s still an interesting comic, with familiar names and concepts not quite in their final form. We’ll see if that novelty carries us through eight issues.
A combination of the writing of Jonathan Hickman with the premise of the book (the return of the gods of assorted pantheons to Earth) is what got me to pick this up. That title is certainly something else, though I haven’t really noticed anyone at the shop giving it the stinkeye, so the no-such-thing-as-bad-publicity strategy hasn’t really come into play here yet. Nor is there too much of the usual bit of the old ultraviolence that you usually get in your typical serving of Avatar comics. I mean, there’s some, and I bet there’ll be more in the future, so hang in there, guys!
Seriously, though, I like the set-up here, and am hoping it pays off and isn’t just an excuse for over-the-top gore. But, you know, c’mon. I mean, I might still read it, but I’ll cast a socially-responsible upturned eyebrow upon the proceedings, see if I won’t.
The first issue of this series came out in the first week of January of this year. It is now the first week of September. There have been seventeen issues of this comic in eight months, and that’s not counting the recently launched companion series, or the Age of Ultron one-shot tie-in. But that’s okay, since you’re all rich, right?
A little context for the post’s subject line.
I too have a savage fighting ability and an incredible wit.
a coloring attempt was made.
Not as Terror-ble as things may seem.
So reader Egmont commented on this site over the weekend, in which he asks if there still any demand for St. George #2.
For folks who don’t remember, and to be fair, I barely remember and I 1) sold these things when they were new, and 2) still have them all in stock (tragic details on that momentarily), St. George was one of the titles in the Shadowline Saga imprint, published under Marvel’s Epic line, that was intended to be a new “mature” line of superheroes, because sure, why not. Anyway, St. George #2 introduced a character named Shreck (no relation; also no relation; totally a relation) who would later be apparently retooled and introduced into the Marvel Universe under the name Terror, in the series Terror Inc.
I am totally working on 20-year-old memories here, but I do recall some referencing to, or some minor contention over, whether or not Shreck from the Epic/Shadowline Saga comics was in fact the same character as Terror in the Marvel Universe. According to Wikipedia, which is right and true in all things and whose authority should never be questioned, that despite early editorial insistence that they were not the same being, one of the Marvel Universe handbooks later established that they were. And don’t get me started on the MAX version.
I don’t think anyone really cared all that much, “he said just prior to the influx of hate e-mails from the Terror Inc. fan club.” A glance at the most recent Overstreet guide shows no mention of anything special happening in St. George #2, where I was expecting at the very least “1st Shreck, later Terror (see TERROR INC.).” A Near Mint copy of this will set you back a whole three bucks, according to the guide, and, well, about that….
Let’s take a look at that Terror Inc. scan up there at the beginning of this post. Well, here, let me give you a larger scan of what I want to talk to you about:
So that’s one of our old price stickers (with my writing on it, in case you were wondering) (The newer price stickers has the proper apostrophe in “Ralph’s,” also in case you were wondering). That was the standard back issue markup for a back issue just pulled off the wall, and the fact that it’s my writing on the sticker means that it was priced either the day it was pulled off the shelf after its four week (or so) sales cycle, or within a few months of that time. If it had been an old back issue pulled out of the backroom storage during one of our regular restockings, it would been bagged and tagged and sorted into a box for Ralph to grade and price (mostly for grading-and-pricing consistency’s sake).
Seeing that sticker on that comic tells me that particular issue of Terror Inc. has been sitting in our back issue box since, oh, the early 1990s. And so had the rest of the series. The best case scenario is that maybe, say, through the early to mid 1990s we did sell some Terror Inc. issues and restocked them repeatedly, and that the last time we restocked them, I went ahead and priced the issues to help Ralph keep up with his pricin’ ‘n’ gradin’ duties. I suspect, however, that isn’t what happened.
Now, I should say we were missing one issue when I checked our Terror Inc. section over the weekend…we didn’t have #13, guest-starring Ghost Rider. Relatively recently, I did have someone looking for Ghost Rider appearances, so maybe that’s when we actually were able to move a copy of this. No worries, we had another copy in our backstock that I pulled out to replace it. By the way, the MAX series Marvel did a couple of years back didn’t move the earlier series at all.
Looking in the price guide, most of the issues are priced at three bucks a pop, except for the two issues with Wolverine ($4 each). A quick glance at the eBay shows a #1 “in high grade” selling for a quarter, and a run of every issue except #1 selling for 99 cents. And judging by how few copies we have still in our backroom, I’m guessing a number of them ended up in our bargain bins, and we may sold a few that way to any folks willing to search through those boxes.
And that’s okay. Sometimes the fate of certain series is to end up in the bargain bins, where folks are willing to throw down a quarter or a buck to take a risk on some oddball forgotten title, or to take home a shiny-covered Turok Dinosaur Hunter #1, oh God please buy more of those. And then we have copies of those same comics, sorted and guide-priced in our regular back issue bins, for anyone who would rather have the convenience of finding the book right away without having to search through long boxes of unsorted cheap books. Not that this is something that’s happened much with Terror Inc. anytime recently, but you never know…that day may come. Weirder things have happened.
It’s also a matter of marketing, too. We simply haven’t got around to getting those Terror Inc. issues priced and graded and put on our website listings, where any Binging or Googling or Veronica-ing Terror Inc. fans can find it. Or maybe when we get that #13 I just pulled out of the backroom priced, I can put it in our Recent Back Issue Arrivals boxes where it may get more eyetracks than it would in the ol’ Terror Inc. section in the regular back issue bins.
I know that this seems like a direct contradiction to my recent post claiming that there still is a back issue market, but the comic market at any time will have more than its share of dead stock. Or slow movers. Like pitch-drop level slow movers. And the quarter boxes, the dollar boxes, or whatever…that’s a partial corrective tool that doesn’t solve the problem, but does lessen it slightly. Very slightly, judging by the number of Turok Dinosaur Hunter #1s I have still. …Anyone need any?
Mint in box.
that were stored in this handpainted box:
Progressive Ruin presents…the End of Civilization.
It’s issue #300 of Diamond Previews! And it’s also, like, installment #2800 of this, my End of Civilization series of posts. Not sure how the math worked out there, exactly, but oh goodness those numbers feel right. Anyhow, grab your own copy of Previews for September 2013, and follow along as I peer at a few of the goodies contained within:
p. 139 – Scooby-Doo Team-Up #1:
Hopefully we’ll eventually get the Kamandi/Scooby-Doo team-up where Scooby is revealed to be the progenitor of all the talking animals from Kamandi’s future.
p. 141 – The Sandman Overture Special Edition #1:
“Hey, remember that Sandman #1 you bought last month? Well, you’re a sucker, because here’s a much better Sandman #1 out this month! Will there be another even more special version of #1 out next month? I guess you’ll just have to wait and find out!”
p. 153 – Batman: Hush Batman and Catwoman Kiss Statue:
Oh yeah, Batman and Catwoman want to rock and roll all night, and party every da…wait, what? Not that kind of KISS? …Well, damn.
p. 171 – Doctor Who: Prisoners of Time #12:
I’ve been waiting for the last year for an issue of this series to have a Peter Cushing cover. I’d better not be disappointed.
p. 174 – My Little Pony Micro-Series: Spike:
At long last, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer crossover you never expected!
p. 181 – Mars Attacks: The Human Condition:
Looks like the Martians are taking on our awareness of our own mortality as well as our general interest in the universe around us and our desire to perpetuate ourselves either through our offspring or through our works or both. I guess you got us, Martians.
p. 267 – All New Fathom #5:
Whoa whoa whoa hold on there, issue 5? That’s just crazy talk. You guys really need to start over with another Fathom #1.
p. 396 – Inside Seka The Platinum Princess of Porn:
Comics, everyone!
p. 397 – The Death Star Owner’s Technical Manual:
“Errata: There is a minor design flaw involving the thermal exhaust port and its direct access to the reactor core. However, this should not interfere with the enjoyment of your new Death Star.”
p. 397 – Star Wars Frames HC:
Each frame personally hand-altered by George Lucas. Oh, hey, in this one, the rancor shoots first! Awesome!
p. 397 – Star Wars A Very Vader Valentine’s Day SC:
“‘I’m all choked up over you!’ Ah, Padmé, you shouldn’t have!”
p. 415 – Thanos “Infinity Indeed” Black T-Shirt:
I am sure there is an explanation for this. I am sure I could Google it. I think I am probably better off not knowing.
p. 416 – Alpha Flight Red Heather T-Shirt:
“Excuse me? Do you have a brightly-colored t-shirt featuring the heads of members of a no-longer-published superhero team the name of which I forget, each member with a gunsight target superimposed over their heads, and the promise of one of their deaths emblazoned below the image?”
“Hmmm…lemme think. The Champions? Primal Force? Team Youngblood? Combat Kelly and his Deadly Dozen? Help me out here.”
“Oh, yeah, they’re Canadian.”
“Oh, Alpha Flight! Right this way, sir.”
p. 433 – Lost in Space Minimates Robot and Dr. Smith Two-Pack:
Dr. Smith comes with three heads, with presumably three different expressions: “prissy,” “very prissy,” and “extremely prissy.” Or “alluring,” “very alluring,” and “extremely alluring.” Your mileage may vary.
p. 445 – The Lone Ranger 7-Inch Series 2 Action Figures:
For those of you who needed to recalibrate your personal definitions of “high hopes,” here is a second series of these figures to help you out.
p. 448 – Skele-Treks 5-Inch Action Figures:
Surely this will be the creepiest item based on a popular sci-fi franchise that I’ll see in this month’s Previews.
p. 459 – The Walking Dead Daryl Dixon Walker Ear Prop:
Not that Walking Dead is uniquely guilty of this, but apparently there’s just an automated rubber stamp machine that just pounds a “YES” onto every merchandise suggestion memo that passes through it.
p. 471 – Mr Potato Head Doctor Who The Eleventh Doctor:
Forget what I said about the Skele-Treks. This is the creepiest item based on a popular sci-fi franchise that I’ll see in this month’s Previews.
p. 474 – Kick-Ass 2 400% Bearbricks:
Now, this movie people might have gone to see.
p. 509 – Minecraft The Game That Changed Everything HC:
Even as we speak, the publisher is currently rushing collected sugar cane back to the crafting table to make paper for all these books. Please appreciate the efforts they’re going through, and of course mourn the interns lost to Creepers and Endermen.
