I was planning to write more about the new DCs this week, but got a late start on the post. Sorry.

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So the weekend before Justice League #1 was due out, I had a last minute feeling of “hmmm…maybe I should have more copies of this, since it is the first New DC title, and will likely sell well.” Thus, along with my regular reorders I sent in that Sunday evening, I put in an order for an extra bushel or two of that first Justice League comic.

Well, the immediate response from our distributor was “only available via back order,” which most of the time is the equivalent of “fat chance, laughing boy.” That, coupled with the reports of sellouts and announcements of reprintings, told me that my reordering was in vain.

…Until this week, when we received a big ol’ stack of Justice League #1, first printing, with our regular weekly shipment. Not sure how our distributor came across these (warehouse find? initial order for a now defunct store?) but there they were. And I threw them back on the new comics shelf, with a little “1st printing!” tag on them, and sold them for cover price. I didn’t do the “one per customer” thing, if only because 1) that results in panic buying, making people feel like they have to buy it rather than just picking it up if they’re interested, and 2) I didn’t feel like dealing with dudes returning to the shop five minutes later wearing a beret and a fake mustache saying “Bonjour! I am Monsieur I-Wasn’t-Just-Here-Buying-A-Copy-of-Justice-League-#1…may I buy a copy of Justice League #1?”

Speaking of panic-buying…remember a while back, when I looked at the sales patterns of the multiple Flashpoint tie-ins, and thought maybe the seeming new-series fatigue that sort of set in there may reflect a similar fatigue with this onslaught of DC debuts? Looks like the opposite may be true…with the constant sellouts and reprint announcements, this seems to be encouraging higher and faster sales than before, with folks not wanting to miss out. We planned ahead as best as we could, trying to anticipate sales among our clientele, but with customers from other comic shops coming to us for their books, along with a cascading demand feeding more sales and even more interest, we went from looking at our initial orders thinking “hope we don’t get stuck with these” to “oh crap, that’s not nearly enough.”

I did place back orders on everything hoping for a repeat of that Justice League situation, but lightning probably won’t strike twice. I did get some confirmations on some of my advance reorders, so we’re not totally out of luck. And I’m getting lots of the second printings as well.

In other non-DC news…the new Optic Nerve (#12) is out, and it’s a good’un. Actually, really good. Sergio Aragones Funnies #3 is also out, and you should be grateful that there’s a regular monthly booklet of cover-to-cover work by one of the world’s greatest cartoonists. You really should buy it. Mark Waid and Paolo Rivera’s Daredevil (also #3) is pulling off what I thought was impossible – me buying a Daredevil comic that doesn’t have the name “Miller” anywhere in the credits. Punishermax #17, that great comic with the worst name, (re-)introduces a character that usually isn’t of any interest when appearing in comics that don’t have the name “Miller” anywhere in the credits, but is sure used effectively here.

And that Sugar and Spike Archives is really good. Yeah, that doesn’t fit under “non-DC news,” since it is DC, but I don’t care. It’s great cartooning by Sheldon Mayer, and in every way deserving of its reputation.

They’re all dead now.

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CLICK TO GALAPAGOS TORTOISE-SIZE

…Or maybe some of them are still patiently waiting, no longer baby turtles, in some out-of-the-way warehouse somewhere in New York, where a few times a week a guy in his 80s pops in, refreshes the water and the Turtle Chow in the tank, and checks the mailbox looking for any newly mailed-in coupons, hoping that someday — someday soon — his burden will be lifted.
 
 
 

ad from the back cover of Love Problems #22 (July 1953)

And now, something from the Old DC.

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So this is the week the Sugar and Spike Archives finally…finally…comes out, reprinting the first ten issues of this classic series by Sheldon Mayer. I would have preferred maybe something a little more…consumer-friendly, perhaps, but beggars can’t be choosers, really. And I’m sure there are economic concerns re: expected sales versus production costs versus cover prices that makes the hardcover Archives format the best perceived match for this material…not to mention the fact that the people most interested in this will be willing to dole out nearly any price for it.

Anyway, it’s here! it’s here! And since Sugar and Spike ran for under a hundred issues, at ten issues per volume, that’s only ten books! Get cracking, DC…oh, wait, there’s also the other S&S material Mayer produced for overseas markets, some of which was printed in the U.S. in DC’s digest format in the 1980s. So, yeah, we’ll need reprints of that, too, DC. THIS I COMMAND.

After you’re done with that, you can start on Mayer’s Scribbly. Yes, I’ll allow you do to so. No need to thank me.

Anyway, I was poking through my Sugar and Spike comics here in the Vast Mikester Comic Archives for a good image to illustrate this post, when I came across this panel in Sugar and Spike #48 (Aug-Sept 1963). Mayer often dedicated stories to specific readers, usually in the format of “this story is for [name], age [#], [city/state or country].” But sometimes there’d be some additional info, like so:


Now that makes the mind a’wander. Was this just a lonely old man who wrote letters to a comic book, hoping someday he’d see a response? Was he a huge fan of Sugar & Spike, and also of (admittedly stereotyped) Native Americans, that he absolutely had to see them put together in a story? Was he writing on behalf of a grandchild or great-grandchild, sending letters month after month inspired by that child’s brief whim, finally seeing success years after the child had forgotten s/he’d even desired such a thing? Did Mayer sift through the mailsack every few weeks, pulling out yet another letter from Nugget-Pete, rolling his eyes and thinking “boy, this guy again?” (Actually, I think you can probably infer that last bit from the tone of message beneath the panel.)

Regardless, I hope Nugget-Pete did get to see his story in print. I bet it was a thrill for Sugar & Spike fans of any age to see a story that was dedicated just to them.

…Oh, and while I’m thinking of it…DC, we need an Archive edition of Mayer’s “Dizzy Dog” strips, too. Get on that, would you?

I’ll try not to go on about DC Comics all this week, too.

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“Do you have any copies of Action Comics #1 left?”

“Sorry, no, all our copies pretty much blew out the door. We’re all sold out.”

“Wow. So, what were you selling them for?”

“Um…cover price.”

“Really! …Do you have any more copies in the back room?”

“No, we’re all sold out.”

Had a variation or two of that particular conversation over the weekend, as we experienced a phenomenon we hadn’t quite planned for: lots of out-of-towners, unable to find copies in their area as their stores have run dry, driving many, many miles to come buy them at our shop. So, as we were planning our orders, in addition to the extra copies we ordered to accommodate the estimated increased demand from our own regular clientele and then some, we should have ordered even more copies to cover regular customers from other shops.

This is the sort of thing, like the not-always reliable media coverage-driven sales, that makes it really difficult to order comics, sometimes. And seems to have caught a lot of people short.

Yeah, I know, “boo hoo, we’re selling comics,” but still. Like I noted before, we ordered what we thought were plenty, but this New DC thing really took off beyond expectations.

I had a customer ask me the other day when I thought DC might revert to the old numbering on some of their titles. Honestly, as I told that customer, I don’t think that’s going to happen for a while, as that would be tantamount to an admission of failure of this new initiative. Frankly, if things get that bad that quickly, I think “renumbering the titles” will be the least of DC’s worries. And on a related note, I don’t expect any of these new series to be cancelled right off the bat (even ones like the awesome OMAC, which might as well have a “SOON TO BE CANCELLED!” banner right above the logo) for the same reason. I’m guessing a year’s worth of issues, minimum, for the bottom sellers. …I have no idea, really…that’s just a gut feeling, is all. (EDIT: Further rumination on this point here.)

The other thing I mentioned in response to that customer is that there are built-in future sales boosts already evident in the titles. Like, for example, Superman…as soon as the court-ordered Superman: The Man of Steel movie wraps up its break-even-plus-maybe-some-change run in theaters, the need to keep the comic book version of the character close in appearance to the mass media version will diminish, and we’ll probably get the attention-grabbing “The Return of Superman’s Original Costume” Saga. Or in Green Lantern, when we get “The Return of the Green Lantern Everyone Knows…No, Not The Black Guy, The Other One” Saga. And, you know, other similarly marketable events.

Of course, it won’t be long before it all goes back to the old standbys, like death (“In this issue, a character with no mass media presence but all you fans claim to love dies!”) or crossovers (“Crisis of Batman Appearing in Multiple Books You Wouldn’t Ordinarily Look at Otherwise”). And as I noted before, assuming things last that long, we’ll see acknowledgements of the 1000th issue of Action and other such milestones, without necessarily renumbering the books.

Okay, perhaps I may have been slightly too cynical up there. All that aside, I can say customers are still really excited about what’s going on, and that’s good to see.

Also, Omac really is a hoot. Trust me on this.

• • •

In related news, pal Dorian reviews the first week of DC’s new titles. He liked Omac too. Just buy the stupid thing.

Sluggo Saturday: The Antemortem.

filed under Categories blogging about blogging is a sin, how the sausage is made, sluggo 5 Comments

So here’s what my original plan was:

After posting the final Sluggo Saturday and writing up my goodbyes, farewells, and amens, my initial intention was to do “Satan Saturdays.” However, I found I didn’t have immediate access to a sufficient number of devilish images to use for this project, so the plan changed slightly, to what you’ve been seeing me do over the last few months.

And…well, I wasn’t completely satisfied with the results. I mean, they were okay, I guess…I’m inordinately proud of myself for the Sea Devils Saturday entry, for example. But it felt a little forced to me, and turning these things up was more of a chore than a joy. And most importantly, they just weren’t tickling that same part of my brain that the Sluggo Saturdays were.

My goal was to do the “[character name beginning with the letter S] Saturday” thing for a year, and on the anniversary of that last Sluggo Saturday post, drop in a new Sluggo Saturday completely without notice. And then continue on with other characters, as before. Obviously, I didn’t make it that far.

So, um…apologies for making such a big deal out of my dropping the feature. I really intended to retire it, honest. But just when I thought I was out of Sluggo, Sluggo pulls me back in.

This doesn’t mean I plan on doing Sluggo Saturday every Saturday again, though…I’m going to try to keep it a little more sporadic than that, running when inspiration strikes. I’m also not continuing the other “S-Saturday” feature, unless, again, I come up with a good’un. Other than that, I have no idea what I’m going to be doing with my Saturday posts since I don’t have another regular feature planned. I suppose I could always go back to characters angrily pointing at this.

I don’t get to use the word “sass” nearly often enough.

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  • A DOUBLE ANDREW-WHAMMY: Have I mentioned that Andrew has been poking through his old Wizard magazines and posting things of interest from them? Well, if I did before, I did it again just now. Also, steel yourself for his latest Nobody’s Favorites entry.

  • Dr. Polite Scott reviews the new Hawk & Dove. Willingly. …Okay, okay, it’s easy to dismiss it via a generous dollop of sass, but Dr. Polite Scott gives it a fair and considered review, as well as examining its context within the larger DC continuity.

  • Oh, nothing, just an awesome Ultra-Humanite one-pager by Kevin Church, Eric Canete and Jordie Bellaire.

  • Are you reading Atlas/Seaboard Week, as presented by Bully, America’s #1 Little Stuffed Bull? Because you really should be. I love the ’70s Atlas Comics, and I don’t write about them enough…though after Bully’s through puttin’ the horns to ’em, I may no longer have to write about them!

  • Some dick stole a bunch of Superman comics from a mentally-disabled comics fan. If you want to help that fan out, you can find the contact address and some info here.

I don’t use “dollop” often enough either.

Okay, let me complain about Superman’s new costume.

filed under Categories superman, swamp thing, this week's comics 16 Comments

To follow up on yesterday: I ended up not getting Justice League International…just seemed a little too…generic-y superhero, you know? I also picked up Omac, after giving it a look-through or two, and hearing a good word or two about it from comrade-in-funnybook-arms Chris Sims. It’s Keith Giffen doing a totally-nuts Kirby riff, and if you’re gonna do a book like Omac, Kirby it up as much as possible, I say.

And Swamp Thing…my mystical eye of Aga-Mike-o has peered across the nerdinet and has witnessed the pleasingly positive response most people have had to this new debut issue. Like I said yesterday, it continues the “Alec Holland evading his Swamp Thing destiny” storyline from the mini-series, and I’m assuming Scott Snyder will eventually provide the explanation for the sudden reseparation of Alec from Swampy, when the rejoining of the two was such a big deal at the end of Brightest Day. But, also like I noted, where the Search for Swamp Thing mini-series seemed awkward and forced, this new issue is more along the lines of what I want from a Swamp Thing comic…creepier and more introspective.

There’s also a bit of business introducing Swamp Thing’s next adversary, which features a certainly intentional reference to one of the more disturbing visuals from the Moore/Bissette/Totleben era. I don’t know that it’s supposed to be the same thing from the Moore run, but…well, I realize I’m being vague here, in an attempt to avoid spoilers. But you’ll know what I’m talking about when you see it.

One more thing, and this could be a SPOILER, I guess: this comic features, I believe, the second in-story appearance of Superman in his new costume that we’ve seen since the beginning of the relaunch. And while Yanick Paquette does a remarkable job illustrating this issue, there’s only so much one can do with that new Superman costume. It just plain looks awkward. Even the dude who designed the thing couldn’t make it work in the one panel he had to sell us on it in Justice League #1.

I like to think that I’m not simply being a typical reactionary comics fan, hating something because it’s different from what I’m used to. I mean, it’s…I’m not even sure how to articulate it. I think it’s a level of…pretension, perhaps, that seems uncharacteristic of what we think of when we consider the character of Superman. I think it’s that collar. It sort of gives him, like…airs of royalty, maybe? A “hey, this is my important uniform, I outrank you” kind of thing? And the action figure space-boots he suddenly has? It’s like Superman is slowly turning into the kind of superhero Old Superman opposed in Kingdom Come, with the overwrought, overdesigned ’90s tech-fest look.

Yes, maybe the red underwear over the blue tights was kind of goofy. Actually, there’s no “kind of” about it…it is goofy. And as someone reminded me on the Twitter not long ago, Superman’s costume is essentially just an old-timey circus strongman outfit. And…I’m okay with that. “Simple” works for Superman. So does “goofy” — it’s a little more humanizing, helping to bring a fantastic (in the original sense) character like Superman down to earth. (Compare also with the work jeans and boots costume in the new Action.)

Granted, that George Perez cover makes it look okay, but then, that’s George Perez. He makes purt’near everything look okay. But I’ll have to see what he does with it inside the book. Maybe once I get the in-story explanation for it (if there is one), I’ll be a little more accepting.

I mean, sure, if DC sticks with this costume, I’ll get used to it. But it’s really no improvement, especially if no one can draw it in an appealing fashion. It’s just change for change’s sake, and just one more shout of “hey, look, we’re different now!” among DC’s cacophony of similar cries.

So, in conclusion, I liked the new Swamp Thing comic. And let us put an end to the DC posts on this site…at least ’til next week.

My free advertising for DC Comics continues.

filed under Categories question time, retailing 15 Comments

I asked a couple of days ago what DC books you were looking forward to the most, and the big winner was Action Comics by Grant Morrison and Rags Morales, followed closely by the J.H. Williams Batwoman comic. Neither of these are a real surprise, as Morrison on Superman is always a draw (and the Siegel & Shuster/Golden Age-esque take on the character intrigues), and we’ve all seen the beautiful work Williams has done on Batwoman in the last couple of years.

This is hardly a comprehensive scientific survey, I realize, but it surprises me that the Green Lantern franchise makes such a poor showing, with only one respondent noting interest. Given that there are four GL-related titles coming our way monthly, I wonder if that doesn’t bode well.

Another one that sort of surprises me is Mr. Terrific, if only because, at least at our shop, there seemed like there was an unusual amount of interest in this title, considering he’s hardly one of DC’s first-stringers. This was a while back, though, right after his title was announced, and perhaps it’s since been overshadowed by other more attention-grabbing series.

And despite my jerkiness about the title in the initial post, some brave souls still indicated that Hawk & Dove was their pick. I can tell you, having broken down the comic order and pulled comic subs Tuesday night…we’ve got more than a few requests at our shop for it. Liefeld is still a draw…or at least not enough of a deterrent to keep Hawk & Dove fans away. And seriously, more power to ’em. Like whatever you want, man, I’m not going to judge. Out loud. To your face.

Okay, okay, really seriously, read whatever you want. “People reading comics” is the primary goal here. We can worry about “people reading the comics I like” later.

Speaking of which, only two of you picked Swamp Thing. …I’m very disappointed.

Anyway, I might have more to say on this later, but I’ve had a long work day, and I’m still recovering from my illness. But let me say this, as I’ve had a “sneak peek” at the new DCs this wek whilst breaking down the order: decided I’m going to get Batgirl, too…looks like a fun read, as is typical of writer Gail Simone. And Action…not the kind of Superman story that’ll be familiar to folks accustomed to the post-Byrne revamp era of the character. Quite good. And Swamp Thing…ah, yes, Swamp Thing. Still spinning our wheels a bit on the “Alec must rejoin with Swampy” jag that we endured in that mini-series, but only it’s done well this time. Animal Man is about as good as you’re hoping, and I’m still undecided on Justice League International. Maybe if Swamp Thing joined.