What if…Mike wasn’t dead tired as he was writing this?

filed under Categories marvel 6 Comments

So I was just poking through some old issues of Marvel’s What If…? at the shop (hey, I’m the boss, I can waste a little time looking at comics if I want) and was reminded that the occasional issue would have something like this:

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…a short gag back-up, or an “Untold Tales of the Marvel Universe” story, or…well, more content than what was promised on the covers. I’m generally familiar with the main stories for most of the issues, just from having seen the covers over and over and over again at whatever store I happened to be working at the time. But the back-ups…unless it was an issue I’d actually purchased and read at the time, the supplementary material in What If…? are nearly always new to me.

For example, I remember finding out that there was a Man-Thing story in the first series of What If…? But, darned if I could find it, because as it turned out, this was the comic it was in:

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…and not a Man-Thing to be seen on that cover, alas. Of course, eventually the Internet would spring into being and never again would I ever have any trouble tracking down that exact bit of information I need, and I’d finally put an end to my half-hearted seeking of this issue.

There are plenty more short and funny pieces located in those old What If…?s, with issue #34 (of both the ’70s and ’80s/’90s runs) basically being an issue filled with those same shorts. Don’t know if they had space to spare in these new What If…? comics that are Coming Soon to a Shop Never You for gags like this, but it’d be nice.

I’m really not kidding about Sugar and Spike.

filed under Categories dc comics, retailing 1 Comment

The cancellation of a few DC titles was just announced, and, well, it was a mix of surprising/not totally surprising.

Gotham by Midnight was the most surprising to me, as, while not a huge seller, my sales on what was essentially a Batman horror series was slowly creeping upward. But I guess it was doing so too slowly, so that’s that.

Justice League United was another semi-shock, but of late getting a Justice League book going that isn’t the main series is bit of an uphill battle. It’s no comment on the quality — and in fact the recent new direction of the series has been fun — but more a comment on just how many different Justice League comics people really want to buy. Even the newest iteration of Justice League of America has shown a dip in sales from the first issue, but we’re only three issues in so who knows if this is a trend or just settling in at a particular sales level.

The Omega Men title was a little surprising, too, if only because of the good buzz it was getting. Alas, good buzz doesn’t always equal sales, and though it was beginning to get something of a following at the shop, it was too little, too late. Were people put off by the title, remembering that there was an old series by that name and thinking this was a continuation? Was there not enough Batman in it?

Now Lobo…the traditional problem with Lobo wasn’t his character design, but his overuse. We saw an awful lot of the character in the ’80s and ’90s, and I think most of us are still kind of burnt out on him. The solution probably wasn’t this New 52 redesign, which took our biker-tough ruffian Lobo and turned him into this sleek, sophisticated assassin with style. But, I guess, they had to try something, and if it didn’t work…well, that’s okay. I expect Lobo will return with a back-to-basics (well, not too far back) approach soon enough.

Doomed, according to the article linked about, simply doesn’t have an entry in the new solicitations, so the assumption is that it’s cancelled. Who knows if it’s gone or not. Wouldn’t surprise me, since the first issue barely sold for me, and the later issues don’t sell at all. I mean, literally…I get one copy for the shelf, and then a month later I back issue it and put one copy of the next issue on the rack. Funny, I sell a lot of comics here….

Now, the problem with this series is the problem we’ve seen lately with follow-up series/mini-series to Big Events: by the time the Big Event is over, everyone’s pretty much done with it and don’t necessarily want to revisit it right away. Like, after Fear Itself was finished, out came Fear Itself: The Fearless and that was mostly given a hearty “no thank you” by the market. Same with this…we just endured approximately 1,000 “Doomsday” crossover event issues in the New 52’s Superman line of books, and then here comes yet another Doomsday-themed comic, and not even starring the Man of Steel.

I mean, I guess DC likes that Doomsday money, but aside from 1) having Doomsday turn up in the Superman books every month or three, or 2) having a series starring the actual Doomsday (which would be crazy and I’d absolutely read that) I don’t know how else they’d continue that specific subset of the franchise.

I’m glad at least DC is trying some new stuff and revisiting some old properties, though, like I’ve lamented before, I wish DC would just try some of these things out as mini-series first, since “the mini-series has reached its conclusion” sounds a lot better than “more books got canned.” I hope this doesn’t put the kibosh on that Sugar-and-Spike-as-adults mini. I am so looking forward to that.

Guess I still gotta go to work.

filed under Categories the eBay, trading cards 4 Comments

So I recently acquired a whole bunch more boxes of trading cards that I’m in the process of throwing onto the eBay store, including this particular goodie:

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“Whoa, a whole box of Dark Crystal cards!” I thought, “with sealed packs and everything!”

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“Surely this will be worth tons and tons of American dollars!” I briefly hoped until I looked up concluded sales on eBay and saw that it generally sells in the $20 range. I mean, full boxes of this set sell for more than that:

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It was kind of a surprise. Judging by the number of boxes of these that are on, and have been on, eBay, there’s no particular shortage of them. Plus, as time goes on and the turnaround between “seeing a movie in a theater” and “owning the actual film in some home video format” shortens, the actual need for a movie souvenir that recounts the plot of the film is lessened. (Same reason why movie adaptations aren’t such a big deal in comics, anymore…the focus is on “prequels” or some other kind of new story to supplement the one on the big screen.)

That’s not to say these Dark Crystal cards won’t sell. They clearly are, just not for the “Mike can retire early” money I was hoping for.

Of course, that doesn’t explain why those X-Force cards sell for slightly better money. Those are all just pictures taken from the comics, as I recall. If you have the comics, you have all the images in this set. Is it just the act of collecting and collating the cards? There aren’t even rare chase cards in this particular set. Of course, the answer could just be “I like superhero comic cards, so back off, mister,” which is perfectly fine with me.

This close to Frank Miller’s All-Star Batman making the list, just to see what Alan would do.

filed under Categories from the vast Mikester comic archives, self-promotion 3 Comments

The new Trouble with Comics Question Time is up, and the question de la semaine this time around is “What are the five most powerful or affecting graphic novels you have read?” As I noted on the Twitterers, I had a real “one of these things is not like the other” response, but I think I had a pretty good mix there. A few of the books I’ve discussed on the site before (like here and here).

Another book I discussed at TWC I did briefly mention here long ago, like within a week of the site’s launch. The link to the official site is dead, I didn’t bother with any scans at the time, so here’s the cover of Dan O’Neill’s Hear The Sound of My Feet Walking (1975), the book I discussed then, and again this week at TWC:

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A few years later, while perusing the stacks at the comic shop as a mere customer rather than the retail powerhouse I would later become, I spotted the other book in this series, The Collective Unconscience of Odd Bodkins (1973), sitting on the shelf. I picked it up and looked at it during a couple of consecutive weekly visits, before finally pulling the trigger and taking this book to the register:

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“I was wondering when you were going to buy that!” former-comic-guy-later-former-boss Ralph said to me when I plopped it down on the counter. “Huh, I didn’t know he was paying that much attention to me,” thought Young Mike, prior to his spending nearly three decades in comics retail and remembering still which of you out there bought Youngblood #1.

Eventually we’ll get a one-shot starring the three-eyed fish, and I will read that like my life depended on it.

filed under Categories miraclemarvelman, this week's comics 3 Comments


So I put out my bafflement on the Twitters yesterday afternoon, wondering why this comic was still being polybagged enough though the content was hardly warranting it. Yes, previously there was the childbirth issue, and the all-violence issue, but to the best of my recollection there’s nothing in issues yet to be reprinted that require that plastic protection from prying eyes.

As I discussed this with pals, it occurred to me that Miracleman is still branded under the Marvel imprint, and still has a “MATURE READERS” slug on the cover. That’s probably “why the polybag,” as opposed to Marvel’s other much more adult-y type titles like Powers, which are published under separate imprints like “Icon.” Like I said, I don’t think there’s anything particularly parent-shocking coming up, unless Gaiman and Buckingham have an “ALL-NUDE SPECIAL!” planned once they start doing new stories again.

And speaking of which, I’m sure somebody’s glad they can start crediting the actual writer now, since Alan Moore didn’t want his name attached to the previous reprints. Should make it easier to market once those new stories do start showing up. …Man, new Miracleman stories. Hard to believe they’re so close now. Big news for those of us who’ve been waiting decades for this to continue.


The thing I keep hearing is “the new creative team of Daredevil is going to have a hard time following that,” and yes, the Waid/Samnee/etc. run was a good’un. It got me to read Daredevil for the first time in a long time, probably since…the Kevin Smith run, I think? I know, I know, everyone’s all “ACK! KEVIN SMITH!” now but those were pretty good, too. But back to my original point…yes, the new creative team is going to have a rough go winning folks over, but this is Charles Soule writing the new series. Soule, who seems to impress with nearly everything he writes. Who is also a lawyer. Who excels at writing lawyerin’-type stories, as seen in She-Hulk. And seeing as how Daredevil’s day job is “lawyer,” I think everything’s going to be just fine.


I could have sworn this was a four-issue series, but nope, there’s a number 5 on that cover, so I guess I read all five issues and, um, it was fine, I guess. It’s the only Secret Wars tie-in I followed, what with it following up on Peter David’s plotlines from his initial run on Incredible Hulk (and the previous Future Imperfect mini with George Perez). Even if the book felt stretched a little thin (hence my surprise that it was a five-issue series), it was still fun to revisit the characters. There were a couple of clever twists along the way, but even if the ending was of a type we’ve seen often enough before, it did manage to strongly underscore the inherent tragedy and, well, patheticness (shut up, it’s a word) of the Hulk character, especially in this series’s role as the Maestro.


Just wanted to mention again that I love these character-specific Simpsons one-shots. Bongo could almost literally do these forever, what with The Simpsons having one of the most amazing supporting casts in television history. (Maybe they could…NAH.)

These one-shots usually have some kind of gimmick insert, like stickers and such. I hope the eventual Ned Flanders one-shot has a Jack Chick-esque tract stapled inside.

The image at the top of the linked article may be a subtle clue.

filed under Categories pal plugging, self-promotion, swamp thing 3 Comments

So a couple more thoughts to wrap up “Wes Craven’s Swamp Thing Week” here on Progressive Dot Ruin Comma Com Interrobang:

I never saw the Swamp Thing movie in the theater. I’m not sure why. It’s not as if I didn’t know it was out. I think I even watched a review of it on Siskel and Ebert’s TV show. I suppose I just never thought about it. I was twelve or thirteen at the time, and my parents probably would have taken me to see it if I’d asked. Plus, at that point I was beginning to ride my bicycle to local theaters once in a while to see movies…I know I made a bike trip to go see Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. It’s possible that Swamp Thing may not have made it anywhere close enough to me to go see…there were plenty of theaters around, but in 1982 they were still mostly one or two screens, and I’m guessing it was pretty unlikely they were going to throw away a screen on some dumb low-budget rubber monster movie. It’s possible it made it to one of the several drive-ins in our area, but I doubt they would have let me ride my bike into the lot.

Ah, well, just one of those mysteries, I guess. At least I have both the original “naughty” DVD and the new Blu-ray to experience the film as God intended…on a big ol’ flatscreen in the privacy of your own home without having to deal with fellow filmgoers, who are usually the worst.

Anyway, speaking of the film, as I have been this week so I don’t know why I really needed the segue, Reader Jonathan from Australia emailed me about this recent article, 23 Things We Learned from Wes Craven’s Swamp Thing Commentary. Just what it says on the tin, it’s a list of interesting bits from the Blu-ray commentary that I still haven’t found time to listen to, but I really need to, now. And by the way, if you get a chance to listen to Jim Wynorski’s director commentary on the Return of Swamp Thing DVD, that’s a hoot as well.

• • •

I forgot to mention I once again participated in this week’s Question over at Trouble with Comics, where the query posed to us this time was “name a comic where a later creative team exceeded the work done by the comic’s original creators, but without ‘damaging’ the initial work.” That’s a hard question to paraphrase, by the way. But answer the question I did, and one guess as to which comic character I may have discussed.

Oh, and you should be reading the rest of the site, too. A new feature started up this week, Mick Martin’s “It Takes A Villain,” which promises to be a fun read. TWC is turning into the kind of comics ‘zine I’ve missed reading, and I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes. With any luck, maybe I can find the time to do more than just answer a question every week! …Ah, who needs sleep, anyway?

Presumably he gathered moss despite himself.

filed under Categories swamp thing 8 Comments

So I just picked up a big ol’ stack of Famous Monsters of Filmland, and put it right back down again because it was so heavy. I’m still in the process of stripping off the awful, awful bags and their gooey taped flaps (don’t use tape on comic bags, c’mon people) and throwing them on the eBays, but to the surprise of surely nobody who has read this comics blog for any period of time, I’m hanging onto this issue:


Haven’t had much time to do more than just flip through the issue, but I did want to note that while the tagline right there at the beginning of the Swamp Thing article is okay:


…the header they used as a section break within the article is a thing of sublime beauty:


Well played, writer for the May 1982 edition of Famous Monsters of Filmland…well played, indeed.