Page 348 – Mike Sterling's Progressive Ruin

Yes, the post’s point is basically “reading a comic book is different from reading a trade paperback.”

October 13, 2010February 24, 2009 filed under watchmen

So all this Watchmen talk had me thinking…I’ve spoken to a handful of people at the shop who were new to the work, and reported stalling a bit on the text pieces between chapters. My advice to them was to go ahead and skip those bits if they’re getting in the way of the story, and go back and read them afterward. Yeah, okay, some of you are wincing, but according to a few of those folks that strategy seemed to work.

And this is what got me wondering. I read Watchmen in its original serialized format, one issue every month (or six weeks, or two months). That meant I had plenty of time to read the comic portion of the story and digest the text back-up pieces before the next issue came out.

However, in the collected format, I wonder if the text pieces function more as “speed bumps” for some readers, interruptions between chapters of the “real” story that one feels obligated to slog through before going on to the pages with actual comics on them. Without the time gaps between chapters forced by the monthly-or-so release schedule, perhaps some readers feel as if they have less time to contemplate the text pieces, knowing that the plot continues just a page turn or two away.

That’s just a random thought that occurred to me during a discussion of the work I was having yesterday. I could be completely off…but I’ve heard from enough people that the text back-ups did slow them up a bit that I think, in some cases, the pacing is drastically altered by the story’s collection under one cover.

Anyway, the other advice to readers, besides “skip ’em ’til the end,” is “take it slow” — don’t feel like you have to speed through the entire book in record time. Read just a chapter (plus text piece) a day, let it sink in, move on to the next chapter the next day. Or a few days later…whatever. But if you still feel the need to just skim that owl essay supposedly by Dan Dreiberg…well, I don’t tell anyone.

On a related note, in a preview for Watchmen that appeared in Amazing Heroes #97 (June 1986), it says the following:

“In place of a letters page in the first three issues you won’t be seeing the usual awkward selection of biographies or series notes, but extracts from ‘Under the Hood,’ the memoirs of Hollis Mason, the original Nite-Owl.”

Now I suspect this may have been a misinterpretation by the article’s writer, who was told that the first three issues would have that back-up feature and may have assumed that the letters column would appear after the back-ups were completed. Or maybe the other back-ups actually were late additions…which seems a bit unlikely, but possible, I suppose. (EDIT: Okay, ignore my suppositions…Augie reminds me that Dave Gibbons’ book Watching the Watchmen confirms the initial plans for a letter column.)

But now I’m imagining Watchmen with letter columns, people writing in guessing how it’s going to end, talking about how badass Rorschach is, asking why Dr. Manhattan isn’t wearing pants, etc. And of course the editorial plug for the next installment:

“NEXT ISSUE: One character learns a terrible secret about the past, while another makes a fateful decision that will change The Watchmen forever! Watch for issue #9, The Darkness of Mere Being by Moore and Gibbons, coming next month!”

I enjoyed writing that last bit far more than I should have.

C’mon, the guy’s name seriously isn’t "Bowles."

February 23, 2009 filed under Uncategorized

We have, in one of the many collections we’re dealing with at the store at the moment, a copy of Broadway Magazine from 1910. The back is filled with a lot of great period ads like the one above, and of the sort I’m sure many of you would recognize as similar to ads used as back page illustrations in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen mini-series. In fact, this very issue of Broadway has the infamous “Marvel Syringe” ad, the inclusion of which in an issue of League resulted in that issue’s pulping and revising as so, I suppose, not to offend DC’s crosstown rivals. You can read more about that (and see the ad in question) here, if you scroll down a bit.

Anyway, that’s my loose connection to comics for this post, justifying it ever so slightly for inclusion on this site. But mostly I just wanted to present this ad because, man, they really make things sound terribly dire, don’t they? “Some men are eaten alive by tape-worms, others wander hopelessly for years, dying slow deaths from bowel disease.” WOW. If only I had some kind of Candy Cathartic to counter these horrible fates.

And let’s look at the testimonial by Mr. (ahem) Bowles: I’m going to say that the phrase “there came on the scene” a freakin’ 18-FOOT TAPEWORM, expelled after taking this wonder drug, gets the 1910 Award for Most Polite Euphemism. “There came on the scene,” like, you know, Mr. J. Frederick Tapeworm, of the Hampton Tapeworms, just happened to pop by the parlor for afternoon tea.

That this medicine is from the “Sterling Remedy Co.” isn’t lost on me, by the way. I better not have missed out on some enormous Candy Cathartic fortune.

Things We Really Shouldn’t Still Have at The Store, #2596.

February 23, 2009 filed under Uncategorized

DICK TRACY’S BREATHLESS MAHONEY KEYCHAIN
Seriously, this is just sad. Employee Aaron dug up a stash of these from one of the many poorly-lit underground storage tunnels that extend miles through the earth beneath our store, and now I’ve got something else to throw on the eBay.

A Breathless keychain. Sigh. Well, I guess it is technically a Madonna collectible, so who knows…maybe I can get something for these.

Happy 3rd Annual Ultimate Wolverine Vs. Hulk Day!

February 22, 2009 filed under Uncategorized 4 Comments

In answer to my question from the second anniversary…well, I guess we are celebrating the third anniversary. Only this time, I’ve got the name right…I keep swapping the positions of “Hulk” and “Wolverine” in the title.

Anyway, here we are, three years after the original release of issue #2 of this six issue mini-series. This time is a little different, as issue #3 (pictured to the right) is allegedly imminent, with a scheduled release date of March 4th. And Marvel has released “All New Printings” of #1 and #2 for those folks who missed it the first time around, or perhaps did read it before, but those memories of yesteryear…faded, near-forgotten recollections, like faded Polaroids…no longer hold any trace of those initial exciting installments.

Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating the whole “lost to the mists of time” thing a bit, but not much. Because, three years? What the hell, man? That’s just embarrassing. Hope the bragging rights of getting a guy from Lost to write a story about Hulk and Wolverine punching each other was worth the joke this series has become.

Of course, the series will still probably sell, so the answer is “sure, of course it was worth it.” Doesn’t change the fact that extreme lateness on high profile books is a pain in the ass, especially during the first year or so when people kept asking us for the next issue, and would give us the “somehow this is your fault” look when we told them about the delays.

But we’re allegedly that much closer to finally being done with this thing…unless we get more delays between later issues. If I’m still waiting for #6’s release in 2018, I’m going to be a tad steamed. At least Marvel appears to be attempting to finish this series, unlike this other stuntcast-writer series which was just full-on abandoned.

I don’t have any new complaints about this I didn’t cover during the last two anniversaries, so be sure to read those if you have a great need to experience more of my shouting into the wind. Let’s just hope Marvel’s learned a little something from this. Which I’m sure they have…until the next time this happens.

On a somewhat related note, I have this one guy who keeps calling to ask if the fourth Planetary trade paperback is out yet. Someone has apple-pie-in-the-sky hopes. (First, the last issue has to come out. Then we get the hardcover collection. Then we get the softcover. Even if the last issue pops up in the next Previews, we wouldn’t see a trade until a year, year and half down the line, maybe. Assuming we survived the initial shock-induced heart attack caused by the solicitation.)

I hope someday I’ll be able to sell this person a fourth collection. It’s a good series, but sales on the trades stalled a bit when people discovered that the concluding chapters are not in print, and that we’ve long since blown through most of our back issue stock on those later singles. Fortunately the stories are mostly stand-alone-ish, so it’s not that much of a detriment, and we’re able to move some copies of the volumes. However, the set’s long-standing incompleteness still stands as a barrier for some potential customers, despite my salesmanship mojo, and that’s a shame.

"Yatta yatta Tom Selleck."

February 21, 2009 filed under Uncategorized

So last night I saw, for the very first time, the animated version of Warlock from the ’90s X-Men cartoon:

image from this eBay auction

Warlock was from one of those too few periods in the last couple of decades or so where something interesting was being done with the X-Men franchise…in this particular case, giving New Mutants to Bill Sienkiewicz to draw:

Obviously there’s bit of a difference there between the comic book version and the cartoon version, but all things considered, they didn’t do too badly. In fact, animated Warlock didn’t look too dissimilar from the comic book representations by artists that weren’t Sienkiewicz. The cartoon version wasn’t without its charm…it was googly-eyed goofy enough to get across that sense of oddity that the character brought to the X-Universe. If anything, it was one brief bit of personality in a cartoon that, from the few installments I’ve seen, seems sorta generically bland.

Anyway, aside from all that, I wanted to run this panel from Sienkiewicz’s run as well:

…you know, just because.

images from New Mutants #21 (Nov. 1984) by Chris Claremont & Bill Sienkiewicz

Today’s post is dumb.

February 20, 2009 filed under Uncategorized

CHAIRLESS METRON

IS SAD
Nearly every customer of mine who spots the Metron figure from the latest set of New Gods figures in our shop remarks on the fact that Metron is missing his normally ever-present Mobius Chair, as seen here:

CHAIRED METRON

IS SLIGHTLY LESS SAD
Okay, sure, I know there would have been an attendant (and likely significant) price increase had the chair been included. But the people, they demand the chair!

Well, maybe folks can make their own Mobius Chairs for their Metron figures. There’s a good hobbyist project for you. Heck, if you’re inspired, make yourself a life-size Mobius Chair! Put it at the head of the dinner table! Be the talk of the neighborhood! (“He was always such a quiet man, usually kept to himself….”)

On a related note: if we don’t eventually get a Black Racer action figure, I’m going to be very disappointed.

It’s not often I get to link to a Cookie Monster video while talking about Watchmen marketing.

October 13, 2010February 19, 2009 filed under watchmen 1 Comment

So DC Comics is releasing a handful of $1.00 sampler issues to capitalize on interest in the Watchmen movie, including first issues of Preacher, Transmetropolitan, Planetary and the seemingly odd choice of Identity Crisis, along with the above pictured comic reprinting #21 of Saga of the Swamp Thing.

Now, I say “seemingly odd” because while it feels like a very “one of these things is not like the other” sort of situation, it does 1) feature DC’s major superheroes 2) in a murder mystery (which Watchmen is, among other things) 3) by a best-selling author, so I get where they’re coming from. ‘Course, while I did like Identity Crisis, it ain’t a patch on Watchmen, so I really can’t blame anyone too much for a little eye-rolling at DC’s attempt to connect the two. But, you know, can’t fault DC for trying.

The timing is a bit tragic, too, since my experience with nearly every comic book based movie aside from the first Batman film has been that movie-driven demand for the related comics almost completely vanishes as soon as the flick opens. The people DC wants to reach with these $1.00 books, which are slated to begin arriving in stores the week after the film’s release date, are coming into stores right now. I’m currently getting plenty of people in the door who aren’t regular customers looking for “this Watchmen thing.” I’ll only get a fraction as many after March 6th.

It may be a moot point anyway, since most media-driven comics demand results in sales of just that particular item being advertised. I’m no slouch at salesmanship, but by and large people coming in just to buy, say, the new Stephen King comic don’t want to buy anything else. However, given that the trade dress for these $1.00 books actually has the Watchmen logo on it, I admit that it is possible it might attract the attention of, and be an easier sale to, anyone coming in just for that book.

Anyway, we’ll see. At least I’ll get another Swamp Thing item out of this, because I really don’t have enough already. Plus, we’ll have $1.00 samplers for various graphic novels that I’ll be able to use as sales tools for the near future…and I can give them away during Free Comic Book Day, too. Heck, they cost us about as much as some of the FCBD books anyway.

In conclusion: I can use these $1.00 “After Watchmen” comics, but unless Watchmen bucks the trend and the general non-comics-fan audience continues demanding Watchmen comics after the movie’s release, those $1.00 books will primarily be additional marketing for the regular customer base.

Then again, this is Watchmen we’re talking about. It’s a graphic novel that, even 20+ years after its release, can easily outsell many brand new graphic novels, movie or no movie. Hopefully Mr. Cynical-Pants Blogger here will be pleasantly surprised.

I also wanted to note that the clock design in the “After Watchmen” logo made me laugh. Well played, sirs.

READ MORE ABOUT IT: Bully, the Little Stuffed Bull, takes a look at Watchmen merchandise. Enjoy, won’t you?