And then, suddenly: more predictions! (Part one of my commentary here). Again, not commenting on every single one, but I will return to them in a year to see how folks did!
De declares
“The summer superhero movies will perform well enough but not fantastically, causing studios to mine more past properties in hopes of making a quick buck (get ready for the Strawberry Shortcake movie in 2012!).”
I think there’s probably some movement in that direct already, attempting to exploit the less-“name” properties to generate some real-world income outside the Superman/Spider-Man/Batman perennials. There’s talk of that TV show based on Teen Titans’ Raven, there may someday be an Ant Man movie, and so on. But too many second stringer comic book films like Punisher War Zone, The Spirit and Jonah Hex crashing and burning in the box office may be bit of a discouragement.
“Marvel and DC will stop producing direct-to-video films as the public grows tired of the superhero genre.”
Well, there will always be kids, and kids like superheroes (at least in animated form) so I think these may stick around for a while. There can be an oversaturation point, but I don’ t know that we’ve reached it yet. DC’s direct-to-DVD releases are about one every…four to six months, something like that. If they were monthly, that’d be a bit much.
“The recently announced Carl Barks collections by Fantagraphics will receive public attention on the Today Show via Al Roker and become selections in Oprah’s Book Club. The widespread exposure of clever humor and commentary by 50-year old Donald Duck comics create a nationwide movement of crazy alternative-energy initiatives and treasure hunting.”
De, I like the way you think. If more people read Donald Duck comics, the world would be a better place indeed.
“Green Lantern may have a harder climb for that: imagine a mythical ‘new reader’ bounding out of the GL movie and into, say, Blackest Night. No.”
Yeah, that is a good point. None of the current Green Lantern titles are exactly inviting to the non-initiated, are they? I’ve already begun planning orders on the Green Lantern Showcase and Chronicles reprint volumes for anyone expressing interest in early GL material, though I hope I don’t have to explain the whole “Pieface” thing to anyone. The two Sinestro War volumes might be a good sampling of recent material.
“My predictions for 2011, The Green Lantern movie will be critically panned, but commercially successful.”
Yeah, probably. It looks cool, but will surely be your standard by-the-numbers, cliché-ahoy superhero flick.
“The Superman books will reintroduce elements from the new krypton storylines.”
Oh Lordy I hope not. After, what, two years of that hoohar? I’d be happy if they just reintroduced Superman to the Superman books. (Not a slam on the Luthor/Jimmy Action, which is a hoot.)
Frowny frowns
“At some point Grant Morrison will be done with Batman and then there will be incredibly ham handed attempts to return the character to the status quo in time for the new film.”
I think eventually that’s gonna happen, like I’ve noted at the end of this post, but Batman is kind of a special case. Batman’s one of those characters that doesn’t necessarily need to adhere to any particular interpretation, and in fact seems to invite reinterpretation…and, almost uniquely, this facet of the character is understood and accepted by most people encountering the character. I get the “this doesn’t look like Superman” or “what’s with Spider-Man’s costume” stuff all the time, but different versions of Batman seem to be taken in stride. (Though a very small percentage of people didn’t appreciate All Star Batman‘s genius, but we can safely ignore them.) Even the Batman and Robin “Dick is Batman, and there’s a different Robin” thing was pretty easily grasped by most people newly exposed to that title.
“For some stupid reason, Steve Rogers will be back in the Captain America costume in time for the new film.”
That’ll probably happen, if only because Marvel seems to be a little more self-conscious about that sort of thing.
Wayne states
“I honestly believe that each Earth-One GN will be terrible.”
“Marvel will go back to the MARVEL ZOMBIES pool one more time, this time utilizing Disney’s animatronic special effects wizardry for a live-action amusement park thrill ride (because ‘teh kidz’ just love rotting corpse versions of their favorite heroes).”
I could totally see a remade Pirates of the Caribbean ride long these lines. Would probably traumatize every kid that went through it, though. (Or maybe delight every kid and traumatize every parent, more likely.)
Seriously, I do expect a return to the Marvel Zombies thing in the comics at some point…maybe a full-on “Marvel Universe Vs. The Marvel Zombies” event, which seems like the only way for this oddball franchise to go at this point.
“Mike Sterling will email me to tell me how much I owe him for the variant editions he obtained for me.”
Nah, that Mike Sterling guy is a jerk. He’ll never do this.
philip speaks up with
“We’ll see the end of ‘events’ for a while and a return to good, long-form storytelling (okay, that’s really a “hope” more than a prediction and though it is unlikely, please just let me have this).”
That would be nice, but don’t hold your breath.
“There will be just enough new work from Los Bros Hernandez to make me wish there was more new work from them.”
This is always true of every year.
“DC will still not know what to do with Wonder Woman.”
Sadly, also true of almost every year.
Ben peeks into my dreams with
“DC will guerrilla market a one-shot via leaked uncolored pages, wherein Swamp Thing returns to the main DCU, but he is wearing tights and is traveling across America with his perky goth girlfriend Death. The comics intarwebs will collapse upon itself in an orgasm of hate.”
If only this would happen. If only.
Dan Wars enters the battle with
“By the end of 2011, the original Fantastic Four will be reunited. Duh!”
And it will feel so good. But yeah, that’s pretty inevitable, I think. “Thanks for buying us for billions of dollars, Disney…don’t mind if we ‘permanently’ alter one of our properties, do you?”
Greg Merritt merits a response with
“Gin Genie will make her long-awaited return to the Marvel Universe.”
I honestly had to look that up, because my brain immediately went to David Bowie’s “The Jean Genie,” and I couldn’t get that out of my head. But, yeah, any character whose Wiki entry reads “there was some indication that alcohol helped or increased her powers” probably needs to come back.
Mr. A leaves no gray area by predicting
“Without Dirk Deppey’s daily links roundup, traffic to TCJ.com will crash by at least 90%.”
Well, I certainly hope not, as there’s still some quality material there, and the Fantagraphics blog is a fine place to start. But I think the internet will certainly miss Dirk Deppey’s fine linkblogging, if it hasn’t already.
“Smaller, more independent press comics focusing on non-superhero fare will begin to become more prevalent and receive more press, since superhero comics will be seen more as ‘movies-in-the-making.'”
That would be nice, but unfortunately, with the number of comics-friendly press outlets shrinking, and the competition for attention increasing, the press may focus on the big, loud and splashy versus the subtle and challenging. You know, unlike before.
“The trend towards “graphic novels” made specifically to be turned into other media (30 Days of Night, anyone?) will increase, with a plethora of celebrity-driven “vanity projects” arising (one example – Ron Jeremy’s CAPTAIN HEDGEHOG)”
First, that is the most horrible example you could have possibly made. Second…yeah, that’s a given, especially in this economy, where a nice fat TV or movie studio check would be quite welcome. And…I’m trying to think of some current celebrity comics, but am drawing a bit of a blank. …Is Turf by Jonathan Ross still happening? I don’t even remember. But I’m sure there will always be some marketplace presence of comic books with licensed celebrity names attached to them, even if, as of late, it doesn’t really seem to help sales that much. Oh, wait, I just remembered…one of those guys from Heroes had a comic book, too. Is that still going? I should probably check.
“The repeated use of ironic quotation marks, ‘…,’ ‘anyone”’and ‘meh’ will gradually fade, as more articulate comics/pop culture aficionados emerge online, thereby causing nerd critical sites (and Mike Sterling’s Empire 4.0 tumbler thingie) to disappear.”
That would be Estate 4.1, thank you, and alas, “meh” is a blight that will never fade.
“Next franchise for DC to exploit: Joel Schumaker’s SWAMP THING. (Sorry, Mike)”
Would still totally see it.
“Dan DiDio and Brian Bendis will both wrestle a bear at a convention…and lose.”
Better get my bear costume drycleaned.
“Finally, Mike Sterling will still be seen as the greatest comics blogger in the multiverse.”
Well, naturally.
And on that point, I’d better stop for the day. Yes, that means there will be a third part to this. I’m very sorry.
So I was doing my usual retail tour in my not-yet-panicking-but-soon rounds of Christmas shopping, and I made one of my two-or-three times yearly visits to the local giant toy store franchise. And of course, I found myself by that one shelf in the action figure aisle set aside for those toys forgotten by both God and man…prices usually slashed, sometimes not (though the price cut is inevitable, as the dust piles upon them, the packages worn from handling). Here are a few that caught my eye:
Hellboy II: Princess Nuala:
That was the first one to grab my attention. There sure were a lot of these on the shelves (along with one figure of that goblin in the cart). Nicely done action figure, but overlooked in favor of Hellboy, Abe Sapien, and the other monster figures, I’m guessing. Or just overproduced for assortments.
Heroes: Exploding Man Peter:
Handful of these warming the pegs…good luck moving this hideous thing now that the series has been over for a year, and not liked for nearly four years.
The Jonah Hex movie action figures:
Surprisingly, there were a bunch of the Megan Fox figures on the shelves, and only a couple of the Jonah Hex and Turnbull. These figures didn’t look too bad, actually…unlike the movie, which was too long even at 72 minutes.
The Spirit – The Octopus action figure:
As the only person on the planet who liked the movie, that essentially makes me the one-man target audience for this action figure, and I still didn’t buy it. But it’s pretty amazing, I have to admit.
Watchmen Kubrick sets:
Two sets, three figures each, $19.99 a pop. Dr. Manhattan sees a price reduction in these items’ futures.
And this next item wasn’t a leftover toy, I don’t think…it was on the shelf facing the previous toys, and looked like it was still part of an active line. I’d known about it, but this was the first time I’d seen in person the giant f’-off Marvel Universe Galactus figure:
It’s ginormous, stupid, and beautiful, all at the same time. It’s also fifty bones, which, alas, I wasn’t about to drop when I’m shopping for presents for other folks.
Other figures from the land of unloved toys: a bunch of Prince of Persia figures, from a film which is pretty much done and gone now; those 3 1/2 inch figures from the Star Trek reboot movie, which seem so quaint and backwards now that most figures are larger and more detailed; and the Tron: Legacy figures, which…whoops, sorry, those weren’t on the close-out shelves. Getting ahead of myself, there.
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.
Welcome, everyone, to the ONE BILLIONTH entry in the End of Civilization series! …Well, okay, I rounded up slightly, but boy howdy, I have been doing these a while. Anyway, here we go again…grab your copy of Diamond Previews, July 2010 edition, or download your space-age digital copy to your iDroid/ApplePad3000 thingie, and let’s go! (Also, I cut the thalidomide joke…consider yourself lucky.)
p. 135 – Batman Arkham Asylum Series 2 Action Figures:
Oh, sure, I really want this staring back at me:
Though looking at the figures, here…they’re basically making Batman and Robin movie figures, aren’t they?
p. 152 – Star Trek Captain’s Log: Pike One-Shot:
I really hope this is just a single shot of Pike in his chair staring at you, repeated for 23 pages. Maybe the light on the front of his space-wheelchair can be lit or unlit on different pages.
p. 193 – Spawn #207:
Just a reminder that the Spawn comic is still hangin’ in there. Yeah, I’m amazed, too.
p. 210 – Marvel Minimates Series 37 Mini-Figure 2-Packs:
Okay, the six-armed Spider-Man Minimate is an abomination before God and nature:
…but Incognito Thing is ten kinds of awesome:
p. 222 – Duncan the Wonder Dog Volume 1: Show One:
I think Rex the Wonder Dog might have a word or two about this:
p. 232 – Archie Marries… Slipcased HC:
Hey, remember that one time everyone thought something was going to happen in Archie and it turned out it really didn’t? Here’s your chance to remember it forever!
p. 350 – DC Comics Year by Year A Visual Chronicle HC (with Slipcase):
1934 – 1970: Nothing much of importance happens.
1971: Swamp Thing introduced.
p. 350 – The DC Comics Superhero Collection Magazine:
“Hey! Hey, you, DC Comics! Stop getting rid of all your non-white characters!”
“Whoa whoa whoa, don’t blame me, man! Some of my best friends come from the interdimensional island of Marzal!”
p. 352 – Final Crisis The Novel:
Phew! At last, a clear, plain novelization of Grant Morrison’s epic mini-series which will explain everything, since apparently “powerful beings invade the Earth and cause mayhem” is a plot of nigh-Joycean proportions.
p. 354 – Stan Lee’s How to Draw Comics Limited Edition HC:
“Face front, true believers! I can’t draw a straight line with a ruler and a straight-line drawing machine, which is why I hired artists to draw my comics! If you can’t draw, you should hire artists, too! Excelsior!”
p. 354 – Disneystrology HC:
“Disneystrology combines astrology, numerology, and the magic of movies to help readers understand their own personalities.”
How can so much hard science be contained in only 48 pages?
p. 358 – The Snuggie Sutra TP:
“POSITION 32: Just take the damned thing off. I mean, c’mon, seriously, what’re you thinking?”
p. 361 – Reefer Movie Madness: The Ultimate Stoner Film Guide SC:
“WARNING: Readers may be really, really hungry after reading this book.”
p. 364 – Star Wars Millennium Falcon 3-D Owner’s Guide HC:
“Includes technical notes from Han Solo….”
I don’t know that Han Solo would be all that big on “technical notes.” “If it doesn’t work, hit it with your space-wrench. Or get your Wookiee pal to fix it.”
p. 374 – The Demon T-Shirt:
Will delight 1 out of 20 people you encounter who are also Jack Kirby fans. The other 19 will simply assume you worship Satan.
p. 381 – Nightmare on Elm Street Freddy Deluxe Sweater:
Okay, they’re just selling the sweater in this particular solicitation, but they could have tried a little harder on the actual mask. Looks like a background alien from Babylon 5.
p. 383 – Alice in Wonderland Mad Hatter Prestige Costume:
Man, what the hell happened to Carrottop?
p. 400 – Living Dead Dolls Presents Freddy Kreuger Classic 10-Inch Figure:
Oh, c’mon, how many victims is he realistically going to slash to death with those wee little nubbins of arms?
p. 407 – Star Wars Flying Millennium Falcon R/C Vehicle:
At first glance, as I was skimming the catalog, I thought this was some kind of hat, or visor. I’d bet Employee Aaron’s salary that such a thing actually does exist.
p. 407 – Toy Story 3 Mr. Potato Head as Buzz Lightyear:
“OH MY GOD he’s killed and skinned Buzz and he’s (choke) wearing him!”
p. 411 – Return to Wonderland Alice Statue:
“Why, you sneaky little phallic symbol, coming up behind me like that, you rascal!”
p. 431 – Toy Story Kubricks:
Why, these are kind of cute and neat-looking…nice translations of the screen characters in Kubrick form. …Hmm, and what’s this….
p. 431 – Toy Story 3 Buzz & Woody Be@rbrick:
oh no why would anyone do this
p. 435 – Farts in a Can Sound F/X Toy:
AND NOW WHY MIKE IS NOT INVITED TO PARTIES:
“BRRAAAAPP!”
“Ha ha! Mike, you scamp, you have one of those Farts in a Can toys, don’t you?”
“A what in a can?”
“Um….”
p. 437 – Cthulhu Plush Cell Phone Holder:
“Hello? Hello? Are the stars right now?”
p. 437 – Zombie Fragrance Oil:
“For a zombie in a state of decay, they need Zombie Fragrance Oil. Liberally apply this scent, and combat that lingering odor of decay to entire the comely young undead thing that has caught your fancy.”
I don’t even know where to start on this.
p. 439 – Superman Returns Desk Clock/Paperweight:
Wow, somebody still has some old Superman Returns stock left over.
p. 441 – Zodiac Smurf Figures:
JOKE #1: Newspaper Editor Smurf keeps getting letters from an anonymous suspect who claims “I’m going to smurf again!”
JOKE #2: James Randi Smurf has totally debunked this astrosmurfology nonsense. These Smurfs should be ashamed of themselves.
p. 453 – Back to the Future The Card Game:
“Oh, man…I drew the ‘Your Mom Hits on You’ card. I’m feeling very uncomfortable.”
p. 458 – DC Heroclix Jonah Hex Battle Pack:
Made from recycled Jonah Hex movie filmstock!
Marvel Previews p. 77 – Wolverine #1:
Well, yes, I guess…but if you need more Wolverine-style action, there’s the Wolverine: The Road to Hell one-shot, the new Daken: Dark Wolverine ongoing series, the ongoing X-23 spin-off character, there’s Wolverine’s appearance in X-Force, and he’s prominently featured in the Avengers: The Children’s Crusade ad, and there he is as the feature character in New Avengers #4, and oh, look, there he is in Spider-Man/Fantastic Four #3, and Astonishing X-Men #4, oh, and Astonishing Spider-Man and Wolverine #1 Director’s Cut, and there’s his origin in Origins of Marvel Comics: X-Men #1, and I can see him there in X-Men #3, and there’s a little tiny pic of him on the cover of X-Men: Curse of the Mutants – X-Men Vs. Vampires #1, and he might be in Avengers #5 or some of the other X-titles, but I’m not seeing him in the ads, but you know, maybe, if we’re lucky, Wolvie might in those titles, too. So thank goodness, we’ll hopefully have sufficient Wolverine content in the months to come!
Marvel Previews p. 88 – Kick-Ass 2: Balls to the Wall #1:
Available in August…and then sporadically thereafter!
Bryant Paul Johnson shows us all what he thinks that China Miéville Swamp Thing comic might have been like. (Thanks pal Dave for pointing this out to me.)
Bully the Little Stuffed Bull is the single greatest stuffed animal comics blogger on the entire nerdinet, and he proves it yet again with this…well, I say “tour de force” a lot describing Bully’s posts, but seriously, how else could you describe the genius of…“What Really Happened the Night of June 16, 1973” — God bless that Bully.
How I would have improved it: halfway through the film, Jonah Hex is whisked away from the Old West and transported into the future. C’mon, that would have been awesome.
Okay, that’s more than three links. “Three bullet points” isn’t quite as snappy. And yes, that’s a Brak Show reference. I’m not made of stone, people.
A couple of Comico’s founders, who work on the CO2 Comics site, noticed that I posted an old Comico promo kit and were, thankfully, amused by it. Also, they promise to post some other items from those early days of indie comics, which I’m looking forward to.
Due to increased interest in Jonah Hex (thanks to the movie, which hopefully won’t kill all interest in the character once it’s released), Dwayne at Matching Dragoons has put together some links to posts on his site giving newcomers plenty of background on just who this fella with the funny-lookin’ face is.
By the way, did you know that pal Ian, one of the charter members of the Associated Comics and Pop Culture Webloggers of Ventura County, CA And Outlying Environs (which is, as always, ACAPCWOVCCAOE for short) is writing the new Darkwing Duck comic book from Boom! Studios, which debuted this week? Maybe if the boy wasn’t so shy and told us something about it on his Twitter feed….
But seriously, I’m totally picking this up because Ian’s a pal and…well, I said either here or on my own Twitter feed that I’ve not seen frame one of a Darkwing Duck cartoon, and my awareness of the character is primarily from seeing him on the covers of the previous comic book appearances. But I’ll give it a try anyway. And if I end up not liking it, I’ll make Ian pay me back.
QUOTES YOU WON’T SEE ON THE EVENTUAL TRADE PAPERBACK:
“…If I end up not liking it, I’ll make Ian pay me back.”
–Mike Sterling, funnybook salesman, blog dork
It does look good, based on my quick flip-through, so I imagine Ian’s pocketbook is safe. For now.
Unrepentant Smurfs fan that I am, I’m so totally looking forward to the Smurfs movie:
Our shipping company sent one of the boxes from our comic book distributor on a free trip to the San Fernando Valley, so we were out 60 lbs. of new funnybooks today. SIXTY POUNDS. No Punishermax. No Chew. No Buzzard. No Uncle Scrooge. Not a single luxury.
Thankfully, our customers were understanding about it, and the box should be at the shop Thursday, but this still means I essentially have to do the comic saver pulls twice, and frankly I’m not all that good at doing them once a week, so we’ll see how this goes.
Some of the things we did get in this week:
Batman #700 – fun story from Grant Morrison with multiple Batmen, multiple artists (yay, more Frank Quitely!), and time travel. The $4.99 price point for this Extra! Special! Big! Issue! is a damned shame, and if they’d cut the pin-ups and the Guide to the Batcave that I’ll probably never get around to looking at, maybe this could have been $3.99, which is still an ol’ kick in the pocketbook but then I wouldn’t be paying and extra buck for a bunch of stuff I really don’t care about and you know I think I probably have a period around here somewhere, oh, look, here it is.
Wednesday Comics HC – which I know actually came out a couple of weeks ago, but the copies we first received weren’t packed properly for shipping and had crunched corners…and given these were $50 books, I didn’t feel right charging full price for ’em. Anyway, we received replacement copies this week, and they were pristine, and all was right with the world.
By the way, pal Sean bought one of the tweaked one, which he got with his Former Employee Discount so he didn’t pay full price for it, at least. He popped it open to let me take a look…and surprisingly, the unpleasantly difficult-to-read Wonder Woman story had been relettered from its original printing in the newspaper format, making it slightly less unpleasantly difficult-to-read. The rest of the book looks nice, too. This has been Mike’s In-Depth Review.
Doom Patrol #11 – I finally really enjoyed a Doom Patrol story in this comic, which is probably a terrible thing to say eleven issues in, but Doom Patrol is one of those titles/groups/concepts that I’ll buy regardless, which probably makes me a bad comics fan that’s hurting the health of the medium, but screw you, it’s my money. I mean, Doom Patrol has never been really bad…well, okay, the Byrne issues were at least enjoyable in a “these are really dopey and amusing” sort of way. At least for me. Don’t look at me like that. But this new series was…interesting, but never really grabbed me, especially when we were forced to compare the lead DP story with the excellent and sadly missed Metal Men back-ups. But this issue everything finally clicked with me, I guess, what with the usage of that one Giffen character, and a few more Morrison concepts creeping back in. Really got a kick out of it.
Star Trek: Leonard McCoy #3 – This is the one with Larry Niven’s Puppeteer alien on the front cover. Well, one of the front covers, since this needed to have a 50/50 split of variant covers, for some reason. The Puppeteer is not on the inside, sorry. Anyway, Niven fanboys, be on the alert. The red alert! I have no idea what I’m saying.
Ooh, ooh, Tom Strong and the Robots of Doom #1 – I really liked this comic. Yeah, it’s not Alan Moore writing it, but it is Peter Hogan writing, and Chris Sprouse drawing, and it fits in perfectly well with any of the Moore stories. Great set-up, can’t wait to see how everything plays out.
X-Men Forever 2 #1 – Oh, I’m sure this totally needed restarting with a new #1.
Jonah Hex #56 has a Darwyn Cooke cover and comes polybagged with a Jonah Hex movie poster. Man oh man, this movie. I suspect it won’t be any good, but it’ll be entirely entertaining. The comic’s always good, though…you should read it.
Justice League: Generation Lost #3 – Entertaining, but I’m already getting the feeling that this 26-issue biweekly series will be about 13 issues too long. Too soon to really say, I realize, so I’ll update my reaction here in a few months. Pretty sure it’ll be better than Trinity.
Red Sonja #50 – Number fifty? Really?
• • •
In other news:
There’s some kind of rumor that Swamp Thing will be making his reappearance in the non-Vertigo DC Universe in the forthcoming Plastic Man series, to which the creator of said PM series said “uh, no” so I guess that’s not happening. Anyway, you’ll just have to take my word for this because over my dead body I’m linking to the site where all this is going on.
In lighter Swamp Thing news, there’s this discussion where the main concern is apparently the number of times Batman has taken a beating from Swamp Thing. Sez one gentleman, he sez
“The Vertigo community which I’m part of feels this is just a ploy so that they can pit Batman and Swamp Thing back together and rectify, two of Batman’s very few losses.”
…which not only indicates that there’s two places on the nerdinet where Swamp Thing beating Batman is a point of contention, but that it’s felt this is the reason that Swampy was moved away from the mature reader Vertigo into the slightly-less mature reader DC Universe. And not, say, that the Vertigo-ized Swampy was a bit played out and needed to be retooled, or that one of DC’s more recognizable characters needed some rehabilitation for marketing exploitation, or something. Actually, I don’t care about the reasons, just bring me more Swamp Thing comics. Of any kind. And make it snappy.
Pal Dorian presents…Previews for Gays. BONUS: Dor breaks his Archie silence to comment on the imminent arrival of Archie’s first (openly) gay character.
War Rocket Ajax copilot and fellow Bureau Chief Eugene has gifted you all with a swell new song that you should all go listen to. Its “beats” are very “phat,” I believe you kids would say.
Yup. It’s another one of these things, because YOU demanded it! Not even an earthquake which occurred while I was putting this together could prevent this from happening! Ha! Take that, nature!
p. 132 – Blackest Night Series 7 Action Figures:
Doesn’t say in the solicitation, but I’m presuming Dex-Star, the feline Red Lantern, is packaged with the Red Lantern Mera. Really, DC could’ve skipped making that Mera figure and just made Dex-Star. No one wants a figure of Aquaman’s wife. Everyone wants an evil space-kitty.
p. 228 – Life with Archie The Married Life #1:
Continuing the “imaginary” (as they say) stories of Archie in his marriages with Betty and with Veronica. Any theoretical little kids who may read this and not quite get what’s going on here may find themselves exposed early on to the idea of polygamy.
p. 234 – Aspen Splash 2010 Swimsuit Spectacular #1:
A swimsuit special. Published by Aspen. LILY STATUS: GILDED.
p. 394 – Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Communicator Role-Play Replica:
“Features 3 play modes: Voice Clip Mode, Screaming Kirk Mode, and Hail / Call-Back function.”
Due out September 2010. When the movie’s been out of first-run theatres for about 6 months, and, I’m assuming, will have been on DVD for about two months.
That’s some good timing.
p. 406 – Mr. Potato Head Elvis Presley:
Sadly, Mr. Potato Head Elvis Presley was found floating in his toilet this morning.
p. 415 – Clash of the Titans Baton from Gods Prop Replica:
There are three replica swords from the movie available from the same page. At least the swords sort of look like something that has a use (even with the presumably blunted edges, I’m guessing). The baton…not really so much, no. I suppose you can use it for added emphasis if you gesture with it. “You’re lookin’ for Old Mill Road? Well, go a half-mile in that direction” (BATON POINT) “turn left at the silo” (BATON SWEEP TO LEFT) “and keep headin’ north…you can’t miss it” (BATON TAP TO BRIM OF HAT). “Have a nice day.”
p. 417 – Return to Wonderland Calie Bronze Statue:
Enough of a fan of the Grimm Fairy Tales comic to drop $2,900 on a bronze statue? Now’s your chance.
(My mind always boggles at super high-end comics merchandise like this. I mean, they’re only making 30 of these, which seems…well, reasonable, for the lack of a better word, and surely someone must being buying these, right?)
p. 423 – Jonah Hex Tomahawk Axe Prop Replica and Turnbull’s Cane Prop Replica:
YAAAAAWN. How boring. You know merchandise the Jonah Hex movie needs? “Jonah Hex’s Make-Up Kit for Li’l Cowboys.” Comes with one-size-fits-all prosthetic mouth scar-flap, and optional oversized googly-eye.
p. 426 – Star Wars The Force Unleashed Darth Vader Mini-Bust:
I’d be okay with Lucas going back and redoing the original Star Wars movies one last time, if we could have that climactic lightsaber battle in Return of the Jedi with Darth looking like this.
p. 429 – Darth Maul Lightsaber Chopsticks:
“…A special bonus connector piece lets you turn the Darth Maul chopsticks into a fun double-bladed lightsaber.”
“WARNING: Trying to eat meal with chopsticks in this configuration will only annoy your friends and piss off the waiter. ALSO NOTE: ‘Fun’ may vary from customer to customer. Length of fun not guaranteed.”
p. 433 – Doctor Who the 11th Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver:
Me: “Hey, look, it’s that new Sonic Screwdriver.”
Nora: “Really? What does it do?”
Me: “Well, it…lights up, and these claws at the end open up, here….”
Nora: “And they want…thirty-two dollars for that?”
Me: “And now you know why I started ‘The End of Civilization.'”
p. 436 – Kick-Ass Talking “In Your Pocket” Keychain:
Plays “six different phrases taken from the film.” There’s only one phrase…well, word from the film in particular anyone really talked about. I would die if that’s on this toy.
p. 443 – Star Trek Cufflinks:
For the stealth nerd in your life. “Sapstein, I don’t want to see you wearing your Star Trek t-shirt to work. Nothing but collared shirts and ties from now on. Got it?” “Got it, boss!” (turns to camera, winks, flashes cuffs, and links, for audience to see)
p. 448 – Tinker Bell Treasure Chest Box:
“OH GOD MY BACK, IT’S BROKEN didn’t that stupid human see me leaning here PLEASE OPEN THE BOX OH GOD THE PAIN”
Marvel Previews p. 73 – X-Women #1:
VERY SPECIFIC JOKE, REQUIRES NERD KNOWLEDGE: “We’re one step closer to getting X-Men: Click.”
SLIGHTLY MORE GENERAL USE JOKE: “At last, bringing all those amateur-made sexy X-Men drawings for sale on eBay into continuity!”
§ January 4th, 2010§ Filed under UncategorizedComments Off on I forgot that I’m a blogger, so I’d better blog!
“Yipes! I forgot I’m a witch!”
“Oops! I, Sgt. Fury, forgot that I hate Nazis, and therefore I’d better start shooting them instead of sending them presents.”
“Crap! I, the Human Torch, forgot I was on fire. Er…sorry about the couch, sis.”
“D’oh! I, Batman, forgot I hate crime! Let me stop helping these criminals rob this bank and I shall instead punch them and throw car batteries at them!”
“Whoops! I, Spider-Man, forgot that I was married! No, really, that’s what happened!”
“Well, shoot…I, Jonah Hex, forgot I was disfigured. I’ll have to change which side of my face I present to the camera during my many portrait sittings.”
“Ah, poop…I, the Thing, forgot I was big and rocky. These Speedos are going to look terrible.”
“Darn…I, Wonder Woman, forgot that I am a wonderful woman, and had best get started on womaning up some wondrous womany-type woman stuff.”
“Don’t this beat all…I, Ant Man, forgot that I’m the size of an ant. You’d think that’d be sort of obvious to me.”
“Well, duh…I, Man-Thing, forgot that I can’t talk, therefore “
§ December 28th, 2009§ Filed under UncategorizedComments Off on I was given an Xbox 360 for Christmas. In related news…thanks for reading Progressiveruin.com, everyone! So long!
On the Wednesday before Christmas, pal Sean dropped by the store and we exchanged Christmas gifts. Usually we open our gifts right then and there, because we’re adults and we’ll completely spoil Christmas for ourselves by opening presents early. Delayed gratification is for chumps. But this time, Sean told me that I had to wait until I saw pal Dorian before I could open the small box he handed me.
So when I saw pal Dorian on Christmas Eve for our gift exchange, he handed me this heavy ol’ present with the world’s largest ribbon and bade me to open it. And inside was, as the title of this post may have given away, an Xbox 360 gaming system. Needless to say, I was blown away by the generosity of the gift…I know Dor had floated the idea several months ago of taking up a collection to get one of these for me, since this is exactly the kind of thing I’d love to have but could never justify the expense. And to be honest, I’d completely forgotten that he’d made that suggestion, so I was genuinely surprised when I unwrapped the present.
And in pal Sean’s box was a 12-month Gold membership for the online Xbox stuff, packaged with a small keyboard that attaches to the controller, plus a headset. So, yeah, that would have given away the surprise a bit had I opened it early. (Sean also kicked down a spare Xbox wireless connector he happened to have, which saved me, what, $70? $100? That was most kind.)
Anyway, I wanted to express my thanks here to Dorian, who is a wonderful friend and a swell guy. And to Sean, who’s been a cheerfully energetic presence in my life for many years. And to employees Aaron and Timmy, who also contributed and, I guess, I have to be nice to them now.
And to a bunch of guys who also contributed that I’ve never even met, aside from maybe speaking to some of them on the phone once or twice, and yet through our extensive online interactions over the last few years I still feel they’re real pals: Kevin, Chris, Ken, Andrew, Benjamin, and Josh. Well, okay, I’ve actually met Josh, but I got along with him swimmingly, and I’m going to assume that experience would be shared with any theoretical real world interaction with the rest of those folks.
I suspect the ulterior motive for these guys to get me an Xbox is to have the opportunity to shoot me in the face during a group session of Grand Theft Auto. But, hey, that’s what friends are for, right?
Thanks, guys. I was really touched by the gift. You’re all a bunch of swell cats.
And because you’re gonna ask: my gamertag is MikesterJr. Not doing any online gaming just yet, since I’m not yet accustomed to a video game system that isn’t the Atari 2600, but I’ll get to it eventually. But I have to tell you…streaming Netflix is a little bit like Heaven.
I should also note that a Secret Santa out there sent me a copy of the Watchmen: Ultimate Cut DVD set that I discussed last week. No card inside, no e-mail, no nuthin’ telling me who sent it my way. Just showed up Christmas Eve and I was totally surprised. That really wasn’t the intention of that post of mine (mostly I was just commenting on apparent DVD sales, and hoping maybe to get some sales referrals on Amazon). But to whoever sent that to me…thanks! Very much appreciated.
Okay, so this isn’t all just “Mike got awesome stuff for Christmas,” here’s some comics content:
First, I’m a little behind on my funnybook reading due to my pre-Christmas shopping panic, so it took Employee Timmy to point out a DC Universe cameo appearance of Swamp Thing in the latest issue of Action Comics (#884):
That I didn’t get a bunch of e-mails telling me about it over the last couple of weeks sort of indicates to me that no one is reading it. Or none of my readers are reading it. Or everyone just assumed my Swamp Thing sense picked it up already, which, admittedly, is usually pretty good about this sort of thing.
Second, in another Employee Timmy-related incident, Timmy was asking me about time-traveling Jonah Hex stories (well, specifically, stories where Batman is working side-by-side with Hex, but expanded to time-travel Hex stories in general), and I mentioned DC Challenge:
Briefly, DC Challenge was a mini-series where randomly assigned creative teams would set up puzzles and cliffhangers in each issue to be solved or elaborated upon by the following creative team in the next issue. It was a convoluted bunch of nonsense, but entertaining nonsense with interesting art teams (Curt Swan and Terry Austin! Gil Kane and Klaus Janson!) and an amusing mix of characters (B’wana Beast and Congorilla turn up in early issues). It was a fun series, and sadly mostly forgotten.
I’m only joking about quitting this site, by the way. But I bet there may be a night or two where my posting may be a bit…light, due to Xboxing. I’ll try not to let that happen, though. However, if only I can get by on two hours of sleep a night, then maybe I can catch up on everything.
Images from Action Comics #884 (Feb. 2010) by James Robinson & Cafu, DC Challenge #2 (Dec. 1985) by Len Wein, Chuck Patton & Mike DeCarlo
