The Lois and Clark expedition.

filed under Categories Uncategorized 16 Comments

Keeping it as short ‘n’ sweet today as I can manage, since I’ve been under the weather…but I’ve recently been rewatching some early episodes of Lois and Clark, the mid-’90s Superman TV show starring Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher, spurred on a bit by some recent discussion of the show on the Twitter, due mostly, I think, to the show’s entire run being available via streaming Netflix.

And I have to tell you, seeing the pilot episode for the first time since it aired in 1993…boy, they sure got a whole lot right. Clark’s inherent niceness and caring for humanity, the most perfect Perry White ever (“Great Shades of Elvis” and all…which, let’s face it, isn’t any more ridiculous than exclaiming “Great Caesar’s Ghost”), a great Jimmy Olsen (actor replaced after the first season, of course), the wonderful relationship between Clark and his Earth parents, a sufficiently bastardly Lex Luthor, and so on. And I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned this before on the site, but this is the one instance of the live action transformation of Clark into Superman and honestly thinking “hey, maybe the glasses thing actually would work.”

Now, I watched the show through about the third season, when I just sort of lost interest, I guess. But after watching a handful of the early episodes…well, there was enough good stuff going on that I think I will continue revisiting the series via Netflix for the time being. I may just stick to the more interesting-sounding episodes, though I did spot one episode which had a Netflix-written description that included the words “guest-starring Sonny Bono,” and baby, that’s next in the queue.

A couple of memories of the show:

  • At home watching the episode starring The Jeffersons‘ Sherman Hemsley as the Toyman (and guest-starring Hemsley’s Jeffersons co-star Isabel Sanford), when the phone rings. It’s old pal (and former coworker) Rob, who called to tell me he was also watching Lois and Clark…for the first time, in fact…and that it was terrible.

  • At the time, one of our customers was either head of, or a higher-up in, a nationwide Lois and Clark fan club, and she arranged for the club members to buy all their boxes of the newly-released Lois and Clark trading card boxes through our store. We sold…well, I believe the exact number was one trillion boxes of these things. I may be rounding up slightly. We also ordered extra boxes and broke them up into sets, which also sold like gangbusters. …To this day, I still find the multicolored Superman “S” stickers from those packs floating around here and there in the shop. And, less often, the metal pins featuring a photo of Hatcher and Cain that were packed one per box. Boy, those pins didn’t age well…the pictures on them are awfully faded.

ADDITIONAL READING:

Dyingpool.

filed under Categories Uncategorized 19 Comments

Reader Leroy had a question in response to yesterday’s post:

“…Do the ‘Deadpool’ books sell as well for you guys as Marvel claims they are across the country?”

“…I just keep finding it harder and harder to believe so MANY ‘Pool books are being supported by such a fragile market. It’s just hard to believe, seeing as though the character made a brief, mostly-horrible appearance in the “Wolverine” movie, he’s suddenly seen such a huge resurgence, which I assume will only peak and crumble once Deadpool sooner than later has his own movie. And is this trend in your opinion caused by people STILL thinking they can retire on comic books sparked by movie interest?”

I don’t have the exact numbers in front of me, but in general, as each new Deadpool series appeared on the stands, sales dipped slightly across all the series across the board. Not at first…sales were reasonably consistent and stable, if not high. Deadpool was in the lower-middle tier of sales for us, but in recent months it’s dipped lower than even that. A major problem is that as each new Deadpool title (or any other new title that effectively duplicates an already existing series) is released, there’s not suddenly another 30,000 new readers entering the marketplace to read that comic. It’s the 30,000 people already reading the one (or two, or four) Deadpool comics that suddenly have to decide to 1) ignore the new title and just keep reading what they’re already reading, 2) expand their comic budget to add yet another series to their regular reads; 3) stop reading another title to make room for this new title, or 4) decide that it’s too much to keep up with, and drop most of them, if not all. For a while, we seemed to be experiencing more of #2, but #4 is on the rise, it appears.

And if you’re curious, the multiple Avengers titles are going through #2, since it’s all Fresh and New…er, relatively speaking…but I suspect we’ll be going through #4 soon enough, with sales shaking out so that the comic actually called The Avengers will be the top seller, with the other titles selling only about a half or a third as much. I hope not…as a funnybook seller, I want every comic to sell lots and lots of copies, and for our customers to shove tons of money our way in order to buy them all, but realistically, something usually has to give. (I’ve written before on the topic of different sales levels for what are essentially the same books.)

As for movie interest sparking interest in Deadpool…there was some excitement for a while over the possibility of a forthcoming Deadpool movie, but mostly among the already-converted. If/when an actual movie actually approaches release, we may get some increased sales from new readers curious about the character…though, depending on the advertising blitz and the public’s reaction to it, I’m thinking those new readers may simply come from people already buying comics and not, um, “civilians,” I guess.

At this point in time, I don’t think too many people are buying movie-related comics in the hopes that they’d be good investments. I’m sure some people are (like the fellow who bought all our copies of Amazing Spider-Man #252, the first appearance of the black costume, in anticipation of the third Spider-Man film), but a lot of the interest in the comics spurred on by movies seems to be genuine interest from curiosity, not from financial concerns. Like I’ve said plenty of times before, that curiosity is usually satisfied by the actual film, rendering the comics redundant.

Well, that was a lot to write, considering I was just planning on slumming it today. Ah, well. I hope that sort of answers your question, Leroy. If you (or anyone else) have any questions or need for clarification, hie yourself hither to my comments.

No votes for Widening Gyre?

filed under Categories question time 6 Comments

So I asked you folks to pick your single favorite ongoing comic book (or manga/TPB) series, and boy, you certainly chimed in.

I actually went through the comments and tallied up how many “votes” each title received…not that I was planning on declaring a winner or anything, but more out of curiosity. I half-suspected that, even though this isn’t necessarily a large enough sample (or even a diverse enough sample, given that it was restricted to a group relatively web-savvy and, I’m assuming, perhaps slightly more aware of the reading choices available to them), that the votes may somewhat reflect a general relationship to in-store sales.

There’s a slight correlation between the votes and our shop sales, in that, say, Batman and Robin (the top vote-getter) is one of the bestselling comics at our shop, compared to, say, 2000 A.D. or DMZ, which each got one vote and sell very little at our store. (In fairness, I should note that while the monthly DMZ sells poorly, we do good business in the paperback collections.)

However, the correlation doesn’t remain the same across the board…Amazing Spider-Man only received one vote, but is still a consistent mid-range seller for us, while Jonah Hex received three votes, though in-store sales have plummeted since the film was inflicted upon movie theatres. So anyway, as far as correlation goes, it’s close in some cases, but no cigar.

Let’s take a look at what you folks voted for:

  • Batman and Robin – As I said, most of you folks picked this as your number one (and some of you included “all Batman by Morrison” in your vote, which does sort of fit with my rule of multiple series that are essentially part of the same run). I’d probably pick this one as my current favorite as well, since All Star Batman is currently resting.

  • The next-highest vote-getter is Secret Six, which kind of surprised me since you don’t really hear a whole lot of chatter about it. Or maybe you do, and I just don’t hang out with the right people. But it is a good series, written by Gail Simone (and occasionally John Ostrander) with a nice mix of dark humor, exciting adventure, and outright horror. Consistently sells well for us, and I’m always having to bump up orders and put in reorders on it.

And then we get down to the middling vote-getters, the ones that got three, four, or five votes apiece:

  • Scalped – Another Vertigo title that barely moves any copies of the periodical magazine version at all, but sells relatively well in its trade paperback format. It seems like the trick with Vertigo is finding that balance between reasonably strong monthly sales versus the portion of the audience that waits for the trade, and by and large only Fables and related titles seem to manage an even balance right now. (By the way, the last time I did this “name your fave” thing, Fables was at the top…this time around, it only got mentioned twice.)

  • Walking Dead – A solid and consistent seller, and another comic that found a successful balance between monthly releases and trade collections. I wonder what effect the TV show will have on sales, if any. I mean, if there was a Walking Dead movie coming out, yeah, comic sales would peak right before release and then die off completely, which is what usually happens. But an ongoing TV show…well, it’ll be interesting to see what it does for the comic.

  • Hellboy and B.P.R.D. – …got an equal number of votes, appropriately enough. Both are essentially continuing series released as a series of mini-series (more B.P.R.D. than Hellboy), and…well, it’s good stuff. Don’t really have much to add to that. Also, they recovered nicely from the sales-killing movie effect, thankfully.

  • Fantastic Four – This is another title that’s recently undergone an upward bump in sales, as people seem to be catching on to Jonathan Hickman’s excellent scripting on the title. I really like the concept of the Fantastic Four, though there have been gaps in my reading of the title (like, oh, say, the 1990s) where I didn’t much care for what was being done with it. But I came back onboard with Mark Waid’s run, followed by Mark Millar, and now Hickman, and it’s been quite a fun ride throughout.

  • Yotsuba&! was the top manga vote-getter, and it is indeed a very amusing and cute comic, about a five-year-old girl doing five-year-old girl things, to the amusement and occasional annoyance of family and friends, and its return to the shelves after a brief publishing hiatus was quite welcome.

And then there were a couple of things that sort of surprised me:

  • The only X-Men title anyone mentioned was X-Men Forever, which received one vote. The continuity-free, retro-style X-Men title, the only one anyone voted for. Perhaps there’s something to be learned here.

  • Deadpool – another one-voter, though there’s something like two dozen Deadpool comics on the stands at any given time. Okay, I exaggerate slightly, but not by much, and somebody‘s buying and reading all these. (And not reading my site, apparently.)

  • Punishermax – only one vote, which surprises me since the title seems to be slowly gaining readers with each issue. And it is a good series…I talked about it before, and it really is a return to the Garth Ennis-style Punisher. And as people catch on to that, the sales creep up.

  • American Vampire – also one vote, but this is one of the stronger Vertigo debuts in a while, and it’s selling reasonably well. I wonder if it can maintain the strong newsstand sales once the paperback collections hit.

  • Tales Designed to Thrizzle only received a couple of votes. This should have received every vote, my friends.

Okay, I’m going to cut it off here for now…if I have more to say about the results, I’ll pick it up tomorrow, but in the meantime — thanks for participating, everyone! This gave me a nice overview as to what you folks are reading and enjoying, and I’m glad you all took the time to leave a comment. I really do appreciate it.

Overall, this is an awesome Joker splash page…

filed under Categories Uncategorized 4 Comments

…featuring the Harlequin of Hate squaring off against the Scarecrow:


…but the best part of it is this absolutely terrifying gun:


There’s some nightmare fuel for you tonight, folks.

from The Joker #8 (July-Aug 1976) by Elliot S! Maggin, Irv Novick and Tex Blaisdell

Starro in my eyes.

filed under Categories sir-links-a-lot 10 Comments


So Employee Aaron brought me one of these swell Starro masks from the San Diego Comic Con, and now I wear it as often as possible. Particularly when I’m working the cash register.

In other news:

  • Every time Chris Sims decides to say something about a Kevin Smith comic, hilarity ensues in the comments. (Widening Gyre #6 certainly is…something else, I’ll give it that. I like the general idea of it, which is “What Happens The Day Batman Lets Down His Guard,” but the execution is a bit curious, to say the least.)

  • Internet pal Dave celebrates the eighth anniversary of his weblog this week. Them’s a lot of Legos, my friend. Congrats, and here’s to many more years!

  • “The Apocalypse came and went, and no one attending San Diego Comic-Con really noticed. When they emerged from the convention center on Sunday night to find the world in ruins around them, they realized that they had been spared for a purpose. They realized that the wasteland around them held nothing for them, least of all a return to their old lives.

    “They realized the Con could go on forever.”

    BEHOLD: THE LONG CON.

  • Pal Dorian brings you…Previews for Gays! (By the way, Dorian gave me the joke for the Warlord of Mars entry in yesterday’s End of Civilization post.)

  • So they’re trying to find a new superhero show for their network after Smallville finally leaves the airwaves. I’m hoping for Blue Devil.

  • So the leaked trailer for the Thor movie popped up on the Internet in the last day or so, and it’s appearing and disappearing as lawyers send out copyright nastygrams as quickly as possible. Now, I’m not saying I saw the trailer online anywhere, but if I did see it, I’d say it was surprisingly Disney trailer-esque in its ability to apparently reveal the entire content of the film. It does look like it’ll be pretty good…or, at least, I’d imagine it’ll be pretty good, if I’d seen anything I could have passed judgment on. Which I didn’t.

  • Speaking of trailers: STARE INTO THE FACE OF HELL

  • REMINDER: I’m still asking for your single favorite currently-running comic book series, so drop your answer into the comments on that post. Just one title, please, with an explanation or without. No idea what I’m going to do with this information, but I’ll come up with something. Hopefully.

Progressive Ruin presents…the End of Civilization.

filed under Categories End of Civilization 27 Comments

Hey, look, it’s another one of these…another brisk gallop through the latest Diamond Previews catalog, pointing out items of interest for your edification. Whip out your copy of the August 2010 edition and follow along! (Also, an EoC fan asked if he could put together a page of some of his favorite entries, I said yes, and here’s what resulted. Also, in response to some of his comments there, I am slowly going through and adding “End of Civilization” tags to those posts…about halfway done, but I’ll get the rest soon!)

p. 130 – Green Lantern Vs. Sinestro Statue Set:


“Great Guardians! Some unknown force has replaced my right arm with a giant green sea urchin! How can I possibly defeat Sinestro now?”

p. 220 – Steampunk Palin one-shot:


It’s another visit from the Pop Culture Mixmaster, slapping together two faddish tastes into a great new flavor explosion! …Sorry, that’s the best metaphor I’ve got. Whaddaya want for free?

p. 242 – Alice in Wonderland San Diego Comic-Con Johnny Depp Photo Edition HC:


The solicitation notes that this Tim Burton film took in over a billion dollars in its worldwide box office take, and I thought “c’mon, no way, I’m calling these guys on this.”

But then I looked it up, and I’ll be damned, it did take in over a billion dollars.

Of course, that still doesn’t answer the question “Why? Why did this film take in over a billion dollars?” or take away the knowledge that any film with this scene managed to do so, but at least I don’t have to bust the chops of my pals at Boom! about the claim.

p. 253 – Warlord of Mars #1:


Well, at least they put some clothes on her for the comic book adaptation.

p. 365 – Plastic Man Close-Up T-Shirt:


This is strangely upsetting. Do you think Plastic Man has the same body heat as a normal person? Also, it seems unlikely that his actual mass would change. So if you were wearing Plastic Man in the form of a shirt, would it feel like being heavily squeezed or pressed down around your upper body by other people, their body heat emanating into you?

…You’re welcome.

p. 379 – Bat Boy 8-Inch Retro Style Action Figure:


I certainly hope Bat Boy is getting his fair share of the royalties from all this tie-in merchandise.

p. 380 – Mr. Corn Plush:

This comes in two varieties…the Happy Fresh Version, with a little smiley face, and the impossibly depressing SAD TENDER VERSION:


He is sad because he knows some of his kernels will inevitably not be digested and will…ahem…pass through, intact. THE SUFFERING OF MR. CORN WILL NEVER END.

p. 384 – Living Dead Dolls Nohell Doll:


It took me a moment to figure out the gag in the name. I’m really terrible about catching stuff like this sometimes.

p. 384 – Lego Brickmaster Atlantis HC:


Now you can build Atlantis from scratch, just like Plato did!

p. 390 – Mr. Potato Head KISS:


I was going to make a joke about “Potatoes in Satan’s Service,” but, um, that abbreviates in an unfortunate fashion.

p. 395 – Battlestar Galactica Kara “Starbuck” Thrace Mini-Bust:


ATTENTION: JOKE SPECIFICALLY FOR BATTLESTAR GALACTICA NERDS COMING IN 3…2….

“Note: Statue may suddenly disappear from display without warning.”

p. 403 – Star Wars Death Trooper Mini-Bust with Novel:


That’s a Zombie Stormtrooper, speaking of the Pop Culture Mixmaster. Just thought that was worth noting. Plus, it’ll look nice sitting on the mantelpiece next to the picture of Grandma.

p. 410 – Evangelion 2.0 Entry Plug Chopsticks:


…AND NOT AT ALL LIGHTSABER CHOPSTICKS.

p. 414 – Doctor Who 11th Doctor Diecast Sonic Screwdriver:

“It comes with three tips – large, medium, and small – and each tip is reversable [sic] with Phillips and Flathead ends.”

So it’s a replica…of the Sonic Screwdriver…that’s actually a screwdriver. Whoaaaa…far out, man.

p. 425 – Disney Traditions Light-Up Tinker Bell Lantern:


“Ah ha ha ha! At last, Tinker Bell, I have you trapped in my Lantern Prison! As soon as I turn the light on, you’ll be fried to a crisp, my little fairy!”

“Captain Hook, you fiend!”

Marvel Previews p. 102 – X-Force A Force to Be Reckoned With Premiere HC:


Reprinting those last few issues of New Mutants and the initial issues of X-Force, in a high quality hardcover.

Somewhere, a tree is crying.

Marvel Previews p. 188 – Carnage Poster:


“Art is currently being constructed from only the highest quality materials, handmade in Belgium by our most talented artisans, and flown in to our master craftsmen and electricians, who will spend countless hours assembling and wiring this item to very exacting specifications. We know you expect a high standard of quality on anything with the proud name of ‘Carnage Poster’ attached, and we aim to please.”