Let’s just see ’em try to do Super Chief.

filed under Categories question time 17 Comments

So let’s get cracking on your questions, starting off with customer Sean:

“My suggestion is that you do a post on the characters which appear in the mural in the Hall of Justice in the Superman [movie] and the likelihood of James Gunn using them in future DCU films or streaming series–especially since the text prologue at the beginning of the film mentions powered heroes first appearing three hundred years ago.

“Do you think you will see a spike in people coming into your store and wanting the first appearances of The Demon Knights, El Diablo, Amazing Man, Vibe, Freedom Beast, Gunfire, or Maxwell Lord, etc.? Should we expect more facsimile editions from DC reprinting the first appearances of these mural characters (I know I would be down for Bulletman and Bulletgirl Fawcett Comics facsimile editions)? And what are the odds that James Gunn’s upcoming projects will drive up the value of more Silver and Bronze Age DC back issues which seem to have been undervalued for the past forty to sixty years?”

Okay Sean, you’re really straddling the line here of “multi-part questions” that I asked folks to avoid, but I think I can probably swing something here that won’t take me all day to answer and will hit most of your salient points.
The mural Sean is talking about, seen briefly in that new Superman film, is this one here…image found online somewhere and cut into two pieces so we can get a better look at the images here on my website:


As Sean notes, James Gunn gave us a DC Universe That Is Already in Progress, based not just on the characters actually appearing in the movie (like, there’s a whole to-do in DC’s milieu before you find yourself with a Guy Gardner, for example), but based on the opening text establishing that super-powered being had been around for centuries.

And in that mural above, on display in the Hall of Justice, presents a number of characters from DC’s past, all apparent precursors to the modern DCU that we are seeing in Superman and will see in presumably the coming movies/TV shows based in the same setting.

There are a lot of classic characters there…Sean named a bunch, and I’ve always had a soft spot for Liberty Belle, and I know pal Dorian would like to see Wildcat. I of course would love to see these characters in live action, but at best we’ll see them as supporting characters or in flashback, or they’ll be legacy characters, with someone in modern times taking on their mantles. A period piece would be interesting, but probably not in the development strategy of Gunn and that other guy also in charge of this whose name I never remember.

If any of these characters do put in any appearances, I suspect DC won’t be shy about getting those facsimile reprint editions out on the shelf. I mean, we got a new edition of Metamorpho’s first appearance, as well as a trade of his early appearances. Guy Gardner did have a reprint of his first appeance not too long ago, but didn’t feel like it was part of the Superman promotional push. Mr. Terrific is a little trickier, with his first appearance in Ostrander & Mandrake’s Spectre and is a little harder to single out an issue with a heavy focus on him. We did get a new mini, though.

When it comes to affecting the back issue market, DC movies don’t seem to put a collective finger on the scale quite the same way Marvel movies do. I had a very slight uptick of interest in Superman comics, but it wasn’t consistent. Otherwise, no go, outside the stuff that’s already of interest (like Guy’s first appearance). That’s not to say there probably isn’t someone out there doubling their prices on every appearance of all the characters from the movies, and that there aren’t buyers out there going for it.

This is a little outside the purview of the question, but it’s possible DC prices may increase once supply begins to shrink further, as the stores that bother to carry that backstock become fewer and harder to find. OR prices plummet as the comics from those stores get dumped on the market as those shops die off. Definitely one of those two…come back and check with me about this in a few decades.

This week’s new issue of Krypto is good too.

filed under Categories blogging about blogging is a sin, pal plugging, the thing, this week's comics 1 Comment

Hi pals! I’ve been a tad out of sorts of late so the content-generating gears in my brain have been working slower than usual, for which I apologize. Proper content will resume shortly on this site, such as starting on answers to your questions and getting to the next entry in the Final ’90s Countdown.

In the meantime, why not hie yourself hither to the Longbox Heroes podcast run by close personal friends Todd and Joe, which while on the Patreon site, their main weekly comics podcast and their weekly After Dark show remain free. However, if you throw ’em a buck or five, you get all their bonus podcasts (sometimes right away, sometimes you have to wait a couple of weeks, depending on your subscription level).

Now, those bonus Patreon-only podcasts may be of interest to you, the Progressive Ruin Platinum Member Cardholder, in that I’m definitely involved in one, and may eventually be involved in the other. In the first case is their monthly “Previewing the Past” show, where they send 2 to 3 hours discussing the Diamond Previews released exactly 30 years ago this very evening WOOOoooOOOO spooky! And Todd and Joe were nice enough to invite me, or I shoved my way in, one of those two, and I’ve been supplying additional notes based on my own memories and experiences about some of the items in these old catalogs. Since, after all, I am quickly approaching my 37th anniversary in the business, so I sold all the stuff in those 30-year-old Previews!

I should emphasize I’m submitting written material for Joe and Todd to read, so you’re not going to hear my malodorous — er, mellifluous voice on the show. However, their other monthly Patreon podcast, “Comic Book Oddities,” is where the two lads discuss comic book movies of the past. The next episode’s movie is randomly picked at the end of each show, and somewhere in the mix is America’s greatest cinematic achievement, Frank Miller’s The Spirit. And Joe has said, on air, that should The Spirit ever turn up via random selection, they’ll find a way to have me actually on the episode. So, there you go, added incentive (or perhaps, decentive) to sign up.

And, um, okay, here’s some actual comic book stuff: I read this week’s forthcoming release of Marvel All-on-One #1:


…and it’s a hoot. All splash pages inside, as befitting a comic where the Thing just beats the stuffing out of folks. Don’t reveal the surprise ending to your friends!

SPOILERS for…well, a few comics, actually.

filed under Categories publishing 21 Comments

So the other day I was thinking about endings in comics, where a character/franchise was allowed to come to its natural conclusion. Not just “well, this series of Avengers has reached its conclusion/dropped enough in sales, time to end it and start a new series with the same name.” But, like, creator-owned characters, ones where there is a person in charge who can say “well, that’s enough of that” and wrap everything up, without anyone to gainsay them.

Probably one of the most famous examples of this is Cerebus. Dave Sim created his Conan parody in the 1970s, plugged along at it, and eventually announced this series was going to run 300 issues and would end with the main character’s death.

And good golly, Dave done dood it. I mean, things were either a little rushed or kinda padded at the end there, depending on where you dropped in during the last, say, 50 or 75 issues of the run, but Dave didn’t lie to us. The gray little bastard croaked in #300, and that was that. Well, except for all the Cerebus in Hell webcomics published afterwards, but man, that’s a whole ‘nother post.

So that’s kind of what I mean by a comic “ending.” A definitive ending is provided for the character and his story…but if the creator is, like, still alive and active, they can still do, like, flashback issues or silliness like the Cerebus in Hell books, and not worry that their life’s work will be incomplete if they’re in a parachuting accident or something.

And look…I’m specifically talking about your standard American monthly-or-whatever comics here. I know there are plenty of graphic novels and manga and whatnot that are designed with specific endings in mind. What I’m focusing on here are the serialized titles that resemble the “would continue forever if they could” brand of books from Marvel and DC, but have the potential to conclude if their creators so desire.

Like Hellboy. Frankly, I wasn’t expecting this when it happened, but all the supernatural conflict and hoohar going on in the ongoing Hellboy/B.P.R.D. storylines came to a head and, well, the world came to an end. That, as they say, was that. This was the end of the forward progression of Hellboy’s story, so, if creator Mike Mignola wanted to, he could just say “yup, Hellboy’s done, all the Ts have been crossed and all the Is dotted, his adventures are over.”

But of course, they’re not over. Even with his story come to its final conclusion, Hellboy is still getting new comics made that take place over the long prior history of the character. And we’re getting more minis that take place in Hellboy’s world, like Lady Baltimore. On top of all that, we’re getting post-ending stories, mostly in the form of the Frankenstein series exploring the new and recovering Earth.

Mignola reached his character’s ending, and now no longer has to worry about finishing that story while he’s working on new ones in the same franchise.

Which puts me in mind of Concrete, where creator Paul Chadiwck had noted a way to end the series. I talk about it here, but in short Chadwick’s idea is that the final story would begin when the other person who received a Concrete body showed up on the first Concrete’s doorstep. As I noted in that older post, given that the origin was revised to show that other Concrete’s apparent death, it seems like this story is out of the question.

Or it may not be, of course…”it was just a scratch!” Other Concrete says by way of explanation. Or maybe Other Concrete is dead and it’s the aliens returning that brings about the end of the character. All a moot point anyway, given it’s been nearly 20 years since the last mini-series and like 13 years since that one-shot collection of shorts from the revived Dark Horse Presents. I don’t know that we’re ever getting another mini…or if we do, it’s probably not going to be The End.

And then there’s Dreadstar, where, if I’m recalling correctly, Dreadstar’s compatriots from the end of “Metamorphosis Odyssey” would return for whatever ending the comics would take. Given that we’re getting new Dreadstars in the form of group-funded graphic novels every few years, I feel like this is an ending that’s probably not coming.

This all has me wondering…have other creators said that they’ve got potential endings in mind for their characters? Does Erik Larsen have a conclusion for Savage Dragon? Did Todd McFarlane extend the possibility that Spawn could have a final battle in its future? I’m curious who has ideas to wrap up their comics, even if it’s unlikely that it’ll ever happen.

Or I could just give every one asking a Swamp Thing.

filed under Categories retailing, watchmen 28 Comments

I noticed a lot of discussion on the Blueskies, at least amongst several groups of folks that I follow, regarding the appropriateness of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen graphic novel as an introductory comic for new readers.

Reactions, as you might imagine, are mixed, heavier on the “no you probably shouldn’t” versus “sure, why not.” My own particular contribution to the discussion was that I personally don’t need to handsell the Watchmen to anyone. It feels like anyone already coming into a comic shop looking for comics, Watchmen is already a known quantity, and it sells just find without my intervention.

It had been a while since it was that way…Watchmen sales took a hit around the time its movie was released, at least in my neck of the woods. But as time has passed, sales have slowly built back up again to having to reorder the books on a near-weekly basis. There were blips (or anti-blips, slowing sales down a bit) here and there, with the presence of the HBO series, or the prequel comics, or Doomsday Clock, but Watchmen is back to its bestseller status.

All that said, is Watchmen the right book to give to someone new to comics?

Well, it depends.

If someone comes in and asks “so, what are the classic graphic novels that everyone should read?” then Watchmen is definitely on the list, along with Dark Knight Returns and some others. I have received this question in the past, and these are exactly the kind of comics these people are looking for.

If someone comes in and asks “I’m looking for a comic to start with,” then it’s anyone’s guess. Asking “what are you in the mood for” and “what characters do you like” or “what kind of things do you like to read” and so on and so forth are necessary in pointing folks in the right direction. And not always to the graphic novels (unless they specify they want a longer read), but maybe finding a single issue as well.

It’s single issues that I most have to track down for folks who come in buying comics for other people, usually adults (parents or grandparents and such) looking for something for kids, either present or not. It’s not easy, sometimes, as for example I offered recent issues of Amazing Spider-Man and Superman to a couple of adults for a child, and their response was “these seem awfully dark.”

Many times when I have adults asking on behalf of children, they request “nothing too violent or bloody” which can also be a little tricky because I won’t know what their particular limits are for those sorts of things. Ever since I had a mom complain that the ladies in a reprint of a Steve Ditko Spider-Man comic were “too sexy,” I never try to assume what “too much” of something is going to be. Thus, it takes a moment or two of letting them go through the comics to make sure they match their needs.

We’re a bit off the main topic here, which is “Watchman: Good or Bad” for new readers, and honestly I’m neutral on it. Like I said, it’ll sell on its own anyway, especially now that it’s available in a $9.99 Compact Comics format. In terms of difficulty for new readers, I don’t think it’s too challenging for, y’know, a bright teen or an invested adult to tackle it.

As an alternative for someone looking for a good superhero comic to start with, the All-Star Superman book by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely is a popular favorite, as is Darwyn Cooke’s New Frontier. Both have their own challenges for new readers, but honestly any comic book-styled graphic novel may not exactly be smooth sailing for someone unfamiliar with the format.

Of course, this is just in regards to superhero comics, but when people come in for their first comics, it’s superhero stuff they’re looking for. But sometimes the little, little kids are happy with Disney or My Little Pony…I probably wouldn’t hand a 5-year-old Watchmen.

Any excuse to link to Buddy.

filed under Categories blogging about blogging is a sin, undergrounds 4 Comments

Okay, first, a couple of brief updates:

1. Okay, so I didn’t realize that the alternate Earth on which the Fantastic Four movie took place was numbered after Jack Kirby’s birthday (Earth-828) until folks brought it up in the comments. Post has been updated accordingly.

2. In the comments on Friday’s post about the Superman story and the cutting of Siegel and Shuster’s credits, it was pointed out that Tom Brevoort did a very thorough job outlining the changes in the different printings of that story. So, basically, my post was more or less redundant, and I could have saved everyone some time just by linking to that post in the first place, had I known about it.

I think the bafflement of my younger self trying to work out the internal logic of the story still stands, however.

Anyway, used to be in ye olden dayes I’d scour the internet making sure I wasn’t going to trod over well-traveled ground with all my posts about, for example, how great All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder and Frank Miller’s The Spirit were. I would go down the list of the recently updated sites on the Comics Weblog Update-A-Tron 3000 to see what other people posted that day before I wrote my post and anyway, I’m feeling much better now.

Can’t say I’m never going to cover a topic not already covered by someone else. If I do, I’m not trying to step on any toes. But at the very least, I promise to bring my own spin on things, my personal perspective. No cheap listicles here! …Unless that’s all I’ve got time for, then LISTICLES AHOY

• • •

I am still taking your questions or topics, so query/topic-ize(?) away! Just follow the rules, please, and take it easy on your pal Mike.

I’ll probably start answering these pretty soon, so Watch This Space for your responses!

• • •

Thing I was not expecting here in the Year of Our Lord 2025…a new Robert Crumb comic:


Man’s 81 now and doesn’t seem to have slipped at all artistically. His writing has been…hit or miss, sure, but one more comic from the old master is certainly something to which we should pay attention.

Now, if we could get a new Freak Bros. comic out of Gilbert Shelton, well, I’m sure I’d just about plotz.

“A source of cute embarrassment.”

filed under Categories golden age, superman 5 Comments

So when I was poking through old Superman comics looking for the perfect panel to head this post (where I’m still taking your questions and/or topic suggestions!), I came across this peculiar image from Action Comics #45 (1942):


…featuring Supes enjoying a copy of his own comic book.

This melding of comic fantasy with publishing reality is of course nothing new to us, the Jaded People of The Future, where it’s been long established that there is a Marvel Comics in the Marvel Universe that publishes licensed (I’m assuming) comics based on the “real life” superheroes that live there. I’m pretty sure, though, that this Action panel was a very early appearance of This Sort of Thing in superhero comics.

And it reminded me of something else…the slightly mind-bending story I recall reading in my old, beloved hardcover edition of Superman from the 30’s [sic] to the 70’s [sic again]. In this tale, also from 1942 (so the publisher was hitting that metafictional drum pretty heavily at the time), Clark and Lois go to the movies, where there is a featured cartoon…starring Superman!


And apparently the film, and the comics from which it was derived, are all news to Mr. Kent:


Anyway, what was mindbending about it to me, as but a young Mikester when I first obtained this tome, was the idea that Clark had to spend the duration of the film distracting Lois from the scenes that revealed his double life as Superman, even though it was apparently cool with him that the rest of the packed house found out.

I, like Clark, found that to be a puzzle, in my more innocent years before I took a cue from those wise philosophers and realized “it’s just a comic book, I really should just relax.”

Anyhoo, while I thought that push into semi-self awareness was interesting, what I found strange were some of the edits done to the work. One should remember that this book of mine, Superman from the ’30s to the ’70s, as it should be titled, was originally published in 1971. My copy is a 6th printing, which I got sometime in the very late ’70s, maybe 1980. But when originally assembled, Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were…well, let’s just say the company for which they created their character did not afford them the respect they deserved.

And as such, as noted by the GCD entry, the story’s splash page includes an extra “Our Very First IMAGINARY Story” blurb, apparently placed there to cover Siegel & Shuster’s credit. (And notably, not replaced in the version currently available on the DC app, as pictured above.)


Also notable is that Siegel & Shuster’s credits are removed from the main story:


…but these are restored in the currently available version, also seen up there somewhere.

Now, there was a newer edition of the Superman hardcover, called Superman from the ’30s to the ’80s, which I don’t have on hand. But the GCD entry does note that the “IMAGINARY Story” blurb is still there, so I presume the other credit deletion is still there was well. But, if someone has a copy of this newer hardcover and can check for me, please let me know.

There is a smidgen of new text by then-publisher Jenette Kahn, so I’m presuming she gives Siegel and Shuster some proper, er, props there…again, let me know if that’s the case if you can.

The Final ’90s Countdown: Part Thirteen.

filed under Categories final '90s countdown 6 Comments

Back to the Final ’90s Countdown, with the next in line of the one-vote receivers:

Optic Nerve (Drawn & Quarterly, 1995-2015)

Now here’s a comic where I read every gosh-darn issue, unlike some of thge other entries in this particular series of posts. Adrian Tomine’s Optic Nerve had its origins in a series of self-published mini-comics in the first half of the 1990s. …Which, okay, I lied, I hadn’t read the mini-comics, but can easily at any time, which I’ll get into in a sec.

Optic Nerve, at least the Drawn & Quarterly run, always sort of struck me as a quieter, more melancholy Dan Clowes, with stories that are only sporadically autobiographical, and often very slice-of-life tales. Very emotional at times, often sad, always affecting.

There are a number of reprints for these comics, including (as I noted) the original minis, which can be read in a book titled 32 Stories. There is also a boxed set of replicas of the seven individual minis called the 32 Stories Optic Nerve Box Set.

Of the Drawn & Quarterly series, there are four collections: Sleepwalk and Other Stories, Shortcomings, Summer Blonde, and Killing and Dying. Of interest is an additional book called Q & A, in which Tomine answers questions about his work and career. These are of..sporadic availability from the main distributors for most comic shops, but those stores that have set up accounts with more general distributors may have better luck.

Honestly, I was surprised to discover Optic Nerve came to an end as long ago as 2015, but Tomine’s done more than just that series. There was his humorous collection Scenes from an Impending Marriage, Scrapbook: Uncollected Work 1990-2004, New York Drawings, and most recently, The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist, where he relates tales of his life in the cartooning business.

Really one of the top boks of the “autobio” genre from the period, of which there were many, even if that element was only occasionally present. Well worth tracking down and visiting if you haven’t before…and worth revisiting if it’s been a while.

I see you with all your questions and such over there.

filed under Categories question time 29 Comments

My apologies for not posting last Friday…been a week or two of not enough rest, leaving me with no energy to whip up Some Content™ at night.

So what am I doing today? Asking you to help me create even more content! Yes, Question Time has once again rolled around on here, the Progressive Ruin Hour of Power, where I ask you kind folks for your questions or even topic suggestions for future posts!

Just a couple of rules to follow, because who doesn’t love to follow rules?

1. JUST ONE QUESTION/TOPIC PER PERSON, PLEASE. I know some folks try to get around this with “I have. one question, in four parts. Chapter One…” but let’s try to avoid that if we can. Thank you!

2. LET’S KEEP THE QUESTIONS COMICS-RELATED. No pictures of rashes and asking me how best to treat them, please. I only play a doctor on TV.

And there we go. I reserve the right to reject questions/topics that are too silly or trolling, but usually I even answer those as well if past Question Times have shown us anything. Nothing too personal though…I mean, I’ve already told all you guys about my eye injections, what more do you want? (And by the way, I still haven’t had that surgery.)

So yes, this means I’ll be answering questions or responding to your. topic ideas while still doing the Final ’90s Countdown (on which I’ll be picking up the pace, I apologize for taking so long). I’ve no plans to shutter the site and move on to my true love, deep sea fishing, any time soon, and as such you’ll be putting up with my writing here for a good, long time. Well, for certain values of “good,” anyway.

Thanks for reading, pals.

I went out of my way to not use the phrase “here’s the Thing.”

filed under Categories fantastic four, movie reviews 16 Comments

[SPOILERS for Fantastic Four: First Steps ahead]

There are a couple of very specific details I appreciated about the newest Fantastic Four movie.

First, the film avoided the usual character tropes of having Ben Grimm mope over being a huge rocky monster, or Johnny Storm being immature and irresponsible. He’s still impulsive, but never seemingly in a way that makes the rest of the family kinda roll their eyes and think “not again.”

That the movie starts with the FF having been around for four years, we can assume a lot of this behavior may have already run its course. Not that Ben is any happier about being the Thing, but he’s clearly dealing with it a little more easily now.

Second, that the idea (pushed hard by John Byrne during his legendary FF run) that the Invisible Woman is the most powerful member of the team. Not just in terms of literal superpowers (though single-handedly pushing back Galactus is certainly an expression of that), but in terms of leadership ability (defending herself against an angry crowd, negotiating peace with the Mole Man).

Third — speaking of Galactus, I think they pretty much nailed the character, after being disappointed the first time they almost had him in a movie. We wanted a giant dude in Kirby gear, we got a giant guy in Kirby gear, stomping his way through New York.

Fourth, the whole portion of the film where the FF were all, “well, better hop into the spaceship and travel through hyperspace to where all these planets are disappearing.” Not something I was expecting, a full-on sci-fi epic with the team wandering through a giant, unknowable landscape to meet a menacing demigod. It’s a weird, strangely modern/futuristic setting in the midst of all this ’60s-esque aesthetic.

Okay, I can’t count any higher than four, so I’ll mention a couple of other things, like how early on in the film we only saw quick snippets/clips of Reed Richards stretching, so I figured the stretching effects tech hadn’t yet advanced so far beyond where it was for the previous movies. But then we get plenty of it later on in the film, and the stretchiness looks fine.

I think what I liked most of all was the overall look ‘n’ feel of the film, which of course I’m sure wasn’t missed by anyone. More than just the previously stated ’60s-style aesthetic, it just seemed like a…gentler film, not so loud or abrasive as other Marvel movies could be. It was simply fun, a comic book movie that didn’t shy away from its origins, name-checked several of the FF’s bad guys, and straight up showed us at least one of the Red Ghost’s Super-Apes.

The one concession to the Marvel Cinematic Universe at large (which you don’t need to watch as homework for this film) is the opening caption telling you this is “Earth-883” or whatever the number was in the Multiverse. (EDIT: I am reminded in the comments that it is Earth-828, AKA 8/28 as in Jack Kirby’s birthday!) (The main Marvel Earth in the films is 616, same as the main Earth in the Marvel comics, though if I recall correctly the Cinematic Earth in the Marvel Comics Multiverse is given a different number, while its inhabitants still call it 616…anyway, I have a nosebleed now.)

It shall come as no surprise that eventually the twain shall meet and the FF will cross over to the main Marvel Movie-verse…we’ve seen something pointing to this already as a post-credits scene in ThunderboltsAsterisk. Trying to merge the FF’s storytelling sensibilities with the somewhat sharper-edged primary MCU would be a shame…it feels like the former would have to fit the latter, costing some of the appeal.

I don’t know, we’ll see what eventually happens, since we’re promised as the end of the film that the FF will return in Avengers: Doomsday (you know, the one where Superman dies) due out in 2026, maybe. I hope that doesn’t preclude the possibility of more standalone FF movies in the future…I think we as a people are owed an Impossible Man adventure.

Fishnets Planet.

filed under Categories original art 2 Comments

So a while back, when he popped into the shop, I pestered Jed Dougherty about maybe commissioning a piece on a sketch cover for his new Image Comics series Free Planet. Jed (who’s an old friend of pal Dorian and a regular at the shop) said he’d be happy to do something for me, and asked what I’d like. I just said “oh, surprise me.”

And sure enough, Jed did surprise me, as a couple of days ago he popped back into the shop with this:


Now, I had expected a character or situation from the Free Planet comic itself, but, you know, I’ll take an original Zatanna drawing, absolutely. And as I said to Jed, maybe she is in the comic, just standing behind someone in a crowd scene or something.

That was some nice work by Jed, and I’m glad to have it. And if you all haven’t been reading Free Planet, give it a try!