Mike Sterling's Progressive Ruin
Quicker than quick, stronger than strong since 1969
The Hoaxmaster:
Uh….
EL GORGO #2 UNLEASHED UPON UNSUSPECTING WORLD – Millions Flee in Panic!
C’mon, it’s a gorilla luchador, you’ve gotta at least take a peek.
NOT COMICS: For you old Mystery Science Theatre 3000 fans, the newest release from MST creator Joel Hodgson’s new project Cinematic Titanic is out: Frankenstein’s Castle of Freaks, available on DVD or by download. With each new entry the CT project is just getting better and funnier, and well worth the purchase.
Also found, poking around on that site: MANGA DARKSEID.
Other links of note:
I’m probably going to hold off on making any predictions myself…well, other than someone will do something stupid that’ll cause me irritation out of proportion to the actual offense, but only because that seems to happen every year anyway.
Here’s an update on Carla and her husband Lance, injured in the recent Santa Barbara fires.
And this is the most recent update on the murder of our longtime customer Sean. Not much new news so far, other than his employers offering a $10,000 dollar reward. I also want to note that friends of Sean’s have set up some donation jars around town to raise money for his family, including at our shop…and I’m glad to say that our customers have been very generous and giving.
Very strange not seeing Sean at the shop this past week. Strange and sad.
Well, I’m just gonna kind of scoot through last year’s predictions left on my site by you folks. I’m not going to cover every single one…if I have something to say about ’em, I will…don’t be offended if I don’t specifically address your comments. I still love you. No one else loves you like I do. However, if you have something to say about the predictions, whether I cover them here or not, please feel free.
“I don’t think Marvel’s online comics scheme will last the year, at least not without changes. (Man, that was noncommittal.)”
You know, here’s one of the reasons I was sort of putting off the prediction commentary…I honestly have no idea how Marvel’s online comics thing is going. Well, I know it’s still going, sure, but how it’s going…I don’t know. Haven’t been following.
The Brand New Day experiment will be retooled rather quickly when sales grow uneven and unpredictable from one creative team to the next
Hasn’t happened yet, though sales do seem to be trending downward, with occasional spikes, as seen in this sales chart. Yes, I know that the sales figures that seem to show up in the various news sites have been questioned as to their accuracy, but this is probably enough to get an idea of where things are headed.
I’ll be surprised if the nearly-weekly Amazing Spider-Man schedule makes it through this year, if sales continue to drop. ‘Course, I may very well be saying the same thing next year, assuming I haven’t chucked the comics thing and gone into a respectable career like “drug mule” by then. Anyway, like I said recently, I’m sure we’ll be seeing an announcement of a new ongoing Spidey title sooner rather than later.
There will be a new artist on Batman
WE HAVE A HIT.
Gerard Way will win an Eisner Award
So will Gabriel Ba
As a matter o’fact, they both did, for Umbrella Academy, which I haven’t read just yet, but I hear is popular with all the kids. Ba also picked up an award for the self-published anthology 5 (with Becky Cloonan, Fabio Moon, Vasillis Lolos and Rafael Grampa).
Marvel’s Ultimate Universe will falter significantly when it gets caught up in its own version of Event Fatigue
Well, something weird is going on, at any rate. I keep expecting the Ultimate line to go away, frankly, since its alleged reason for existing (giving new readers attracted by Marvel’s media presence a jumping on point) is pretty much moot.
Final Crisis will outsell Secret Invasion
Well, it did once or thrice at our shop, anyway!
I predict a Marvel implosion. A slowing economy and an overextension by Quesada’s policies (some of which if interpreted in the right light come across as grasping at straws to hold onto a failing comic line) cause Marvel to cut back their publishing schedule by more than 50%. The only division that has any expansion is trade paper backs and Marvel begins sinking into a company that only lives on selling its old assets.
No dramatic implosion as of yet, but they’re still in the “throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what will hopefully stick” phase, with a heavy turnover in mini-series and low-selling regular series featuring some new characters and revived old properties. DC on the other hand just knocked off quite a few mid-range titles, so we’ll see if Marvel follows suit.
I predict that all the same bitching and moaning about the state and fate of comics will continue its sad cycle (honestly, I was filing away some fanzines from the 1970’s and read the same exact stuff in those articles and letter-columns that I read on the internet today. Practically word for word.
Some things never change, my friend. Though (and I’ve thought this more than once) I wonder what the fans complaining about violence in comics back in the ’70s would have thought about today’s comics?
Oh, and I ALSO predict that I’ll be thoroughly enjoying Mike’s Progressive Ruin ALL throughout 2008.
Well, geez that didn’t happen for anyone!
…that DC may rethink its plans for a third weekly series
Well, they keep selling reasonably well, but eventually it’s going to come to the point if the money made off the weeklies is worth the production headaches.
…Series 4 of DOCTOR WHO will receive much critical knocking, simply due to the fact that RTD may have “jumped the shark”
What, Doctor Who fans, complaining? Sir, you’ve gone too far, too far.
…fans of ALL STAR BATMAN & ROBIN will realize that Frank Miller is engaging in lazy hackery. (And I don’t use “hackery” lightly, either)
LIES.
After a tepid reception to Secret Invasion and less-than-spectacular sales on the relaunched Amazing Spider-Man (after the flush of the first few months), Joe Q is forced to step down as Editor-In-Chief at Marvel.
We’ve already discussed the Spider-Man situation, but here’s the thing about Secret Invasion…it may have indeed received a less-than-enthusiastic response to the actual quality of the comic, but it still sold well, and ultimately that’s what matters. Joe Q’s job is safe, for the time being.
Massive influx of young readers to Spider-Man titles now that he’s not married.
No comment I can really add to that, is there?
A Thundarr the Barbarian nostalgia craze will sweep fandom.
Oddly enough, I think I may have watched more Thundarr in the last year than I ever have in my entire life. Thanks, cable cartoon channels! And by being on the air again…hey, who knows, maybe it is picking up new fans.
Things will happen. Words will be said. Lines will be drawn. Tempers will be raised. The gauntlet will be run.
Well, I know I blew a gasket more than once this year. I wouldn’t have to get so angry if people would stop being stupid. You know, like telling customers to NOT BUY while limiting their Free Comic Book Day book distribution and getting overly upset at a comic shop employee’s brief moment of silliness while simultaneously telling me that sexual harassment at comic book conventions is no big deal. That may have grated on me.
That long awaited third issue of Ultimate Hulk v. Wolverine comes out and it explains why Black Panther has joined The Ultimates. But only in November or December.
Oh, Jon, your youthful optimism brings this wizened old heart joy, but I’m afraid I have to break the news that we’re well on our way to the third anniversary of the release of Ultimate Hulk Vs. Wolverine #2’s release with no follow-up issue. (I know it’s coming, but not ’til March. Supposedly.)
1. A superhero will die.
Martian Manhunter.
2. A superhero will come back to life.
The Barry Allen Flash.
3. A cross-title event will change everything.
“Batman: R.I.P.”
4. A cross-title event will undue a cross-title event that changed everything.
Um…Secret Invasion?
5. A movie will be certain to increase interest in the comic.
Watchmen.
6. A movie will fail to increase interest in the comic.
The rest of them.
7. A creative genius’ much-anticipated magnum opus will cause industry-wide buzz.
Huh, what to pick. I’m going to say Hembeck Archives, because that was awesome.
8. A creative genius’ much-anticipated magnum opus will fail to appear.
Redeemer. …What?
9. Snark will blossom on the internet.
I didn’t see anything like that happening. Oh, So-Called Austin Mayor, you kidder.
10. Kirby will still be King!
Natch.
Manga sales in bookstores decline steeply.
…While “kids sitting in the aisles reading the manga for free and picking which ones they’re going to download off Bittorrent” have increased.
At least one major indie publisher disappears.
I’m sorry, did someone say “Virgin Comics?”
A film based on a super-hero comic bombs at the box office.
We thought Punisher War Zone was the biggest bomb, ’til along came The Spirit.
The mainstream media praises a mediocre indie comic as the bestest thing EVAH!
I’m sure they did, but don’t recall any. All my news comes from the Lyndon LaRouche Excective Intelligence Review, and they don’t cover comics.
Sad, joyless people continue to gripe about ASB&RTBW.
Now, Dor, they deserve our pity, not our scorn.
Ultimate Wolverine Vs. Hulk continues to be a no-show.
This is what we call in the business a “gimme.”
Indie comics see noticable sales increases in the direct market.
Did anything show noticeable sales increases? We sure could have used some.
Mark Millar will say one of the following two things depending upon the success/failure of the Wanted film adaptation:
Success: “It succeeded because of my fantastic story! I am awesome!”
Failure: “It failed because they changed my fantastic story! I am awesome!”
I’ve no idea. What’d he end up saying?
The new Spider-books will actually be good, heralding a move backward into not-so-grim-and-gritty superhero comics, but it’ll still be too late to gain much in the way of new readership.
By and large, people seem to be happy with the new Spider-Man books, but as discussed previously (and as you correctly surmised) new readers aren’t exactly flocking to the books outside the usual fluke sales bumps.
Final Crisis will be greeted much as World War Hulk was: appreciated for making with the big booms and not sucking, a welcome bit of halfway-decent action and craziness after a string of disappointing crossovers. It will not be a beloved classic, but it will not generate the hoots of derision that came with Infinite Crisis.
That’s probably about right…outside of the typical “I don’t understand” complaints that Morrison attracts simply by being attached to a project, the people who’ve actually read it seem to be enjoying it well enough. The tie-in minis seems to be taking the brunt of the criticism.
The zombie fad will die out. Unfortunately, it’ll be before Marvel Zombies 3 can be released.
Marvel seems to have gone to that well one too many times, as many of us were thinking. And let me be clear: I’ve no beef with the Marvel Zombies comics. I think they’re darkly amusing. But the novelty’s worn thin, and that’s reflected in how the third series is selling. (Though I wonder if it would have sold better if Kirkman remained on board?)
All those comics companies still publishing next year, take one step forward. Uh uh, not so fast there, Virgin Comics and Zuda.
Well, you’re half right. I know Virgin’s not completely gone, but c’mon.
I will continue to wait for Date With Debbi/Swing With Scooter/Stanley and His Monster TPB collections, and I will be continue to be disappointed when they don’t materialize.
Sadly, sir, you are correct. If only there were some way a publisher could put a bunch of comics on some kind of cheaply-produced, widely available storage medium for easy distribution.
I will continue not to read cross-over events.
So how are you liking Final Crisis, Ken? Ah ha ha. Ha ha. Ha ha HA. HA HA HA HA HA HA (cough) HA!
I will forget about Spider-Man’s stupid-ass divorce until someone reminds me with a “best/worst of 2008” list this time next year.
Whoops, sorry.
I will continue to shake my head sadly at every Virgin Comics cover I see.
Thankfully that wasn’t a problem for too long.
I will weep like a bitch when reading Ennis’s final PUNISHER MAX issue.
Well, do tell.
CLOVERFIELD will be forgotten by June.
The what now?
Marvel’s Ultimate line will cease to exist by the end of 2008.
It looks like it’s gonna lurch on a little longer. Though current events in those books sure have a sense of finality about them.
…but as far as LGBT representations in comics go, there won’t be any significant strides, just a few of the same controversies.
I think it was kind of a holding pattern this year. I don’t recall any new controversies popping up, but my memory is terrible.
Both of the Big Two will keep relying on writers from “respected” media who will continue to screw them over with missed deadlines and godawful stories that show no respect for the source material (a la J. Michael Straczynski, Orson Scott Card, Judi Picoult, etc.)…in fact, I think the trend will escalate.
Did anyone like that new Kevin Smith Batman book? (Well, anyone online…it sells okay in our shop.)
All in all, neither of the Big Two will successfully address the fact that the comics medium is not a respected art form in American culture (although I think DC, unlike Marvel, will make significant efforts), but smaller companies will make slow but steady progress.
Hold on a sec, let me check…nope, not a respected art form in the U.S. yet. I was kinda hoping!
All Star Wonder Woman will not be completed.
I’d completely forgotten about this. I’d call this a HIT, sir.
Dark Horse and Image will stay their respective courses.
A handful of good-selling titles and a bunch barely hanging on? Check.
“Iron Man” will go the way of “Daredevil,” while “The Dark Knight” kicks it up a notch.
In a way that’s sort of right…while Iron Man was in fact a critically acclaimed hit, there was some wondering if Dark Knight was overshadowed…and lo and behold Dark Knight, if anything, was even better received than Iron Man, if only just barely.
Honestly, it’s hard for me to compare the two, except in that they sure raised the stakes for what a good superhero movie should be like. By comparison, the new Hulk, while certainly a good and entertaining film, seemed a bit shallow and by the numbers compared to those other two films.
Buffy will go lesbian…and I will love every minute of it.
I’ve told you all about that sign I saw on a table at Wizard World, right? “THIS ISSUE BUFFY GOES LESBIAN,” or something like that, with a five or six buck price tag? All class. Anyway, whether you loved every minute of that, I have no idea. You’ll have to tell me.
Mike will finaly find a minor flaw in All-Star Batman, causing his ego to become fragile and open to complimenting an Ultimates storyline by accident.
LIES.
A huge controversy over a completely trivial event (perhaps a tasteless cover, a piece of crass licensed merchandise or the death of a character no one previously cared about) will lead to the first Great Blogger War, which will result in the death of thousands.
I was really looking forward to the Great Blogger War. Worst I got was some guy snarking about me in some sloppily-written post, which resulted in a small if amusing dogpile on the poor sap.
My local comics shop guy says that some comic stores will go out of business in 2008 because of the economy. Don’t people know comics are a necessity not a luxury?
Sadly, this was the case. It was a rough year, not just for comic shops, but for pretty much everyone. Here’s hoping to a better 2009.
Marvel with Joe at the helm will continue down the sad path of character deaths and annulled marriages.
Well, they totally killed the Wasp twice, which seemed a bit excessive.
Vertigo will continue to publish the smartest and most diverse stories.
There’s certainly some good stuff coming from Vertigo, but I have to say my favorite at the moment is the decidedly lowbrow Haunted Tank revival. It’s a real hoot.
Wonder Woman will find a true audience now that Gail is writing. BoP loses its magic though.
While I think people are enjoying Wonder Woman, I think it’s still in the process of finding its audience. The series’ pre-Gail delays and misfires may have made folks a bit gunshy. And Birds of Prey, alas, is canceled. I think that counts as losing its magic.
Librarians will receive promotions and accolades and financial compensation for all their work promoting and collecting graphic novels and trades! (or at least get another free badge for NYCC!)
I used to be a librarian. “Financial compensation” usually meant “hey, someone dropped a nickel in the book return…TODAY WE EAT.”
The mid-range comics keep getting shuffled: books like Catwoman, She-Hulk, Avengers: the Initiative, even Spider-Girl, won’t be allowed to just coast along at their current level of sales. Relaunch will follow relaunch, making these books limited series without set ends.
Well, more or less, only without the “relaunch” part. I suppose it’s only a matter of time, though, before some of them come back. (And how can we miss Avengers: Initiative if it won’t go away?)
Marvel will piss off the fan community by naming a ‘fan-favorite’ (but low selling) character a Skrull, then try to use Skrulls as scapegoats to fix some problem like Iron Man.
I don’t know that anyone really cared enough to get angry. I’m sure someone did…this is the internet….but I didn’t notice any particular cases of outrage over some character or ‘nother being revealed as a Skrull. Eye-rolling, maybe.
In chain bookstores, the comics section will see manga continuing to take up more shelf space than superhero books, while the superheros will take up much more room than non-superhero Western graphic novels. However, non-Big 2 publishers will try to get their works promoted in other sections of the bookstore, much like Maus and Persepolis is shelved with memoirs, and the colored Bone goes in the kids section.
Well, maybe that’s a pipe dream of mine.
I’ve been spending my year trying to get the local bookstores to rack the graphic novels with the role-playing books again. No reason, other than being a jerk.
Seriously, I have been poking into the graphic novel sections at the bookstores and seeing a lot of tightly-packed shelves with increasingly shopworn books. I’m sure they must be selling something, and not just providing something to read while having a coffee at the in-store snack bar, otherwise they wouldn’t devote the space.
Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of its run: Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch’s FANTASTIC FOUR will get later and later.
Well, its schedule isn’t what I’d call strictly “monthly,” no. So long as it’s not Ultimates late.
Just noticed that pal Dorian has put in a little voting widget on his side project site Mike Sterling Is A Big Cheater Pants. Now you, the home viewer, can vote on just how big of a cheater pants I am. Just head over to Mike Sterling Is A Big Cheater Pants and look for the radiobutton thingie in the sidebar.
…but I got bit of a late start, it looks like that post will be a bit time intensive, and I’m still recovering from a cold I’ve been trying to shake all weekend, so WAH BLOGGING’S HARD. But I still love you…well, most of you, anyway…so here are a couple of awesome panels I wanted to share.
Like this one from Atlas Comics’ Targitt #1 (March 1975):
And then there’s this panel from another Atlas title, Phoenix #4 (October 1975):
Anyway, kind of a lame post, I know, but if I tried this again you all would rise up against me with your rakes and torches and I’m already facing that from the employees.
So, with any luck I’ll get around to discussing those predictions tomorrow. If, you know, you’re still interested.
But I made an exception for Final Crisis Secret Files, as it gave me a choice between a “stripe” cover with a generic pic of Wonder Woman, and this:
Also, from just a quick glance about the internets, apparently I’m the only person who liked this comic. Go ahead, tell me I’m wrong for liking it, you know you want to.
Of course, I can hope for a nice, clean break from the subplots and supporting characters from the previous few years. I think the still-remaining specials starring the current Doctor, David Tennant, will go a long way to putting some distance between the baggage of the previous seasons and giving the new fellow a fresh start. I mean, it’s not like we’re not going to get the prerequisite Dalek episode(s), but just so long as we don’t get “hmm, well, let’s pop in and see how Rose/Martha/Donna is/are getting on” for at least a while, that’ll be fine. Because I’m sure the show’s producers are depending upon my approval.
Anyway, yesterday on the Twitter, during the pre-announcement hoohar that was happening on that site, I posted this message:
“I think Dr. Stephen Hawking was a very brave choice for the eleventh Doctor Who.”
…because 1) hey, he’s British, and 2) like Hawking isn’t enough of a geek himself to totally take the role if they offered it to him.
A few of my Twitter pals took up the phrasing of “I think ___________ was a very brave choice for the eleventh Doctor Who” and the end result was, well, this, some of which I thought were pretty funny, and plus had the added bonus of making me responsible for a little Twitter havoc. I’ve finally accomplished something.
(Tip of the toupee to Dave for the Twitter search link.)
I’m picturing it as some kind of terrifying fever dream of a film, from what I’ve been hearing (and by what I’ve seen, since I cheated a little and looked at the trading card set). I may not get around to it until I rent it from the Netflix, but I’m gonna see this flick, sooner or later.
I know none of this is important to anyone, but I felt I had to mark the day so that at least I remembered.
So I’m going to be doing some follow-ups on posts from the beginning of last year (with perhaps the exception of my “resolutions” post, of which I accomplished pretty much none), and I’m starting off with my predictions before looking at some of the ones you folks made. You know, it’s only fair.
1. DC will further experiment with higher price points/expanded page count anthology-esque titles like Countdown to Mystery. I don’t think we’re going to say goodbye to the $2.99 format this year, but I think its end is likely near…$3.25 or $3.50 is imminent.
Well…I was right about the $2.99 format not going away, but there sure has been a lot of chatter about the seemingly imminent $3.99 price point standard (with a lot of wondering about skipping any intermediary price levels). Of course, the transition hasn’t happened yet, so there may yet be hope for a $3.25/$3.50 price level before we hit that four buck mark.
And I really was thinking there’d be a lot more action from DC on their $3.99 anthologies, since I thought that was a pretty good format. Will the forthcoming Adventure Comics series be $3.99? Seems like a natural.
2. The Spider-Man “One More Day” boondoggle won’t be reversed, at least certainly not within its first year…that would be tantamount to Marvel admitting it made a mistake, and we know how they don’t like that. […] However, I think, at least from the creative end, the problems involved in this reboot will become increasingly evident (from “continuity patches” to the undermining of reader confidence in Marvel’s storytelling).
I am seeing some questioning about what is still in Spider-Man continuity and what isn’t…apparently Peter and Mary Jane were shacked up for a while in this new revised continuity? That Harry’s death was faked? I don’t know. By and large, though, people seem to be enjoying the new Spider-Man comics so long as they try not to think too much about the deal-with-the-devil elephant in the room.
I seem to recall spotting a report somewhere or ‘other about Spider-Man sales dipping…they seem to be holding okay, more or less, at our shop, which surprised me, as I honestly expected some measure of Spider-fatigue to set in. Like I’ve argued before, a lot of my customers decided that they only wanted to read one Spider-Man book, and that book was the flagship, Amazing Spider-Man. One monthly book was enough for ’em. But now, being forced to buy three titles a month when they were reading only ASM specifically so that they didn’t have to buy three titles a month…that didn’t result in the backlash I was expecting. So, you know, good. Always like to sell more comics than less.
But I’m going to have to track down overall sales figures on the title, so I have something more to go on than just my experience at the shop.
I am curious how long it’s going to be before we see an announcement for another ongoing Spider-Man title, however.
3. Final Crisis will be a straightforward and clever mini-series, as these events go, which will be decried as “weird” and “hard to understand” by the usual suspects because Grant Morrison is writing.
Nailed it. Next…?
Okay, it’s a shame about the scheduling. But the comic is a blast, honest!
4. Sales on the next Stephen King’s Dark Tower series will be nowhere near the sales on the previous mini. It’ll be ordered high, certainly, and the first issue might sell well, but the drop-off will occur even more quickly than it did on the initial series, as the hardcore King fans will just wait for the next collection.
Overall, sales are pretty low on Dark Tower monthlies for us…the hardcovers do okay, but the periodicals aren’t bringing in the King fans like they did at first. The novelty’s worn thin, I guess, as the King fans who aren’t already comic book fans have appeared to have given up on trekking to the funnybook store once a month and are waiting for the collections. The Stand is selling about the same, if not a little less.
5. On a related note…some comic from Marvel or DC will be hailed as the “breakout comic” that finally gets the general non-comic-reading audience to start buying funnybooks on a regular basis, while ignoring the fact that said general audience is only buying that “breakout” comic and nothing else.
Well, I don’t know that anything really stood out as being pushed as the “breakout” book. I certainly saw my fair share of customers who only bought Buffy or (to a far, far lesser extent) Dark Tower or Anita Blake, but those had been around for a while and thus didn’t get the “certainly this will save the comics industry!” talk that this sort of thing seems to get.
6. And finally, comic fans will finally catch up to me and realize the inherent beauty, humor, and satire of All Star Batman and Robin. I will be hailed as a genius of incredible foresight for being the internet’s primary proponent of ASB so early on in that book’s history. Money and awards will be showered upon me, women (and 10% of the men) will throw themselves at me, and I will go down in history as the comic internet’s wisest, and most stunningly handsome, observer.
ALL DOCUMENTED, ALL TRUE.
Seriously, though, I saw a few reactions to that issue of All Star Batman with the Robin Vs. Green Lantern fight which seemed to indicate a turning-around of opinion, at least to a limited degree, on this title…at least some acknowledgment of “oh, okay, now I get this comic!” Okay, that’s just anecdotal evidence, but at least it there was a little positive commentary on the series!
Okay, more commentary on YOUR predictions after the weekend, hopefully.
