…AND DESPAIR.

I found Cute Galactus (actually, the “Superhero Squad Galactus,” which also includes Cute Human Torch) while I was out allegedly shopping for gifts for other people, but instead apparently finding things I wanted. I resisted nearly everything, but Cute Galactus? HAD TO OWN IT.

Here’s a shot of Cute Galactus in all his glory, taken from the back of the package:

I tried to take a picture of the front of the box, but I’m photographically inept, and plus I have no decent lighting. But here’s a scan I managed to get of Cartoon Cute Galactus from the front of the box, as he contemplates the vast cardboard void behind him:

And yes, his name is being zapped out of his crotch. Such is the power of…Cute Galactus.

If you want a better look at the packaging, feel free to dig this Amazon listing and click on the thumbnails. Yes, if you buy one there, I get a piece of the action. I’m shameless.

And always remember:

Yum!

One thing I wonder about whenever I see these amusement park coupons in old DC Comics:

Did anyone ever use them? I mean, with the Marvel Value Stamps, we always have to check each issue that contains them to make sure they haven’t been clipped. I don’t think I’ve ever once had to check through a collection of comics and make sure the Palisades Park coupons were still intact. I’ve never seen them missing.

Obviously unlike the Marvel stamps, these coupons have very limited regional interest. Unless you happen to be within visiting distance of Palisades Park, what good are these coupons for you? Well, maybe there were kids in other non-New Jersey lands who clipped the coupons and used them in pretend-play, making believe they were going to the park. I know that should be a indicator of creativity on the part of children, but I’m picturing a lonely little boy or girl in, say, Arizona, sitting in his/her bedroom, unevenly clipped Palisades Park coupons stuck to fingers with tears, while Dad downs his fourth beer while watching Ed Sullivan on the black and white in the darkened living room.

Wow, where’d that come from?

Anyway, I wonder…do comic shops in the New Jersey area, or thereabouts (it has been a decade or four, after all…plenty of time for the comics to have disseminated outward), have to keep a close eye on the old DC books in case these coupons have been removed? Has anyone ever seen these missing?

These are the things I think about…at least, when I’m not inventing the most depressing scenarios ever.

• A quick follow-up on the whole League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier thing from yesterday…when I was doing reorders on Sunday, I noticed that the “variant cover” edition of the hardcover was still available from Diamond. ‘Course, too late to do us any good, since by the time we receive it, it’ll be Christmas, or just about.

  However, I did try to reorder the Wanted graphic novel while there’s currently some interest in it due to the forthcoming film adaptation. I hear tell the trailer looks…er, less than promising, but I haven’t seen it yet myself. Okay, you know, I’m going to go look for it online right now, and I’ll return to composing this post as soon as I’ve seen it. Hold on a moment.

  (tempus fugit)

  Woo boy. All those people looking for the graphic novel based on what they saw in the trailer are going to be unpleasantly surprised. “Hey, what’s with all this superhero crap?”

  It’s a moot point, anyway, since the graphic novel is currently unavailable. Figures.

• Speaking of trailers, apparently there’s a new Batman movie coming soon.

  I forget where I saw this…I think it was from one of my Twitter pals, but man oh man, look at all the websites Warner Brothers put up for this movie. Remember those names, because they’re going to turn into spam/porn sites soon as Warner Bros. stops renewing those domains.

• A few days ago I was going on about the Watchmen book and how the movie may negatively impact sales after its release. Well, with the movie still a threat lurking over the horizon, the book sales are still strong…we sold through our restock from last Wednesday over the weekend.

  On a related topic, this gentleman is running a poll on who may or may not have read Watchmen, divided by “comic readers” and “non-comic readers.” Unsurprisingly “comic readers who have read Watchmen” are leading by a wide margin.

• Rich from Cable and Tweed had this question for me in my comments section from yesterday:
  

  “…Does the negative online and verbal reaction to Ultimates 3 translate to shops ordering fewer copies? I know it was a hyped-up #1 and all, but I’m pretty sure my local shops all sold out.”

  Well, the online reaction, not as such. There’s usually a pretty wide gulf between what online fans are saying and what the people who walk into stores are actually buying. Case in point: Countdown, Countdown: Arena, All Star Batman…all reviled online, all sell great for us at our shop.

  Verbal reaction from our customers in the shop…yeah, we should pay attention to that, but here’s the thing. Comic fans may complain about the comics they read, online and in the real world, but a good amount of the time, they’re still buying the books they’re complaining about. (Assuming they’re actually buying, and not just mooching free reads off online scans or at the chain bookstores.)

  Now, there was no way Ultimates 3 #1 was not going to sell well…it was a highly anticipated book, and curiosity value was high due to the new creative team. That it ended up being crap is not an issue…well, not yet, and I’ll get to that in a second. Even if the word-of-mouth is that the book is bad, it’s still going to sell because 1) it’s a number one, 2) it’s a Marvel number one, 3) it’s a Marvel number one in its Ultimate line, and 4) that Battle Chasers guy is drawing it, and he still somehow has fans despite not having a whole lot of work in the industry over the last decade.

  We can’t drop orders yet based on customers’ complaints because, as I said, comic fans can have the habit of continuing to buy books they don’t like to “maintain the collection,” or to follow a particular character they like, or whatever. So, we’re going to have to wait and see how issue #2 does before we start making any drastic changes to our order numbers. Some minor adjustment downward, sure, and maybe even lower if we start getting our comic saver folks cutting the title from their lists, but it’s still too early to say for sure if Marvel has a dog on their hands.

  And, you know, as noted in that comments section from yesterday, some people did like Ultimates 3 #1. And, sincerely, good for them. Every comic, no matter how low your opinion of it, has its fans.

• Pal Dorian told me at the shop on Saturday that some of the chain bookstores he’s visited recently have plenty of copies of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier in stock, warming the shelves and marked down in price. Several were unshrinkwrapped, missing the 3-D glasses.

  In the meantime, we poor comick shoppes have to wait for the 2nd printing, due out after Christmas.

  Dor also told me he saw plenty of copies of the Stephen King’s Dark Tower collection floating around. Didn’t see any copies of the Heroes hardcover, though.

• Uncle Scrooge #370 and Walt Disney’s Comics & Stories #685 were the most recent issues released by Gemstone, on the stands back in late September. Three months on, there’s still no sign of the following issues (including a Christmas special). A quick Googling turns up this discussion on the matter (which also links to a Disney-specific comics board), where there are mentions of “printing problems” causing delays.

  I don’t remember reading anything official from Diamond on the matter, though it’s possible there was something in the weekly distributor newsletter and I just don’t recall seeing it. (Not surprising, since I invariably try to glance at it on New Comics Day, which isn’t the best idea I’ve ever had.)

  I also saw some discussion of Gemstone losing sales by not having inexpensive comics for kids to pick up, which ignores the facts that 1) Gemstone had inexpensive comics which kids didn’t want (or just plain couldn’t find, given the frequency of comic shops bothering to order Disney, coupled with the frequency of kids actually going into comic shops), and 2) Gemstone’s $6.99 (now $7.50) comics aren’t too expensive for kids, since they’re buying mass quantities of, say, Naruto at $7.95 a pop…if they wanted Disney comics, they’d buy ’em.

  Sadly, comics with the traditional Disney characters are primarily bought by guys my age or older, and the book kids did buy with the newest Disney characters (Disney Adventures) is cancelled.

  I’m speaking in general terms, of course…I know some kids somewhere bought Disney books. We sold a few Disneys to kids here and there, and I have a young lady currently buying back issues of Mickey Mouse at our shop. But, I fear for the most part that the final, miniscule storytelling aspects of Mickey, Donald, and the rest are fading away at last, forgotten by newer generations, and they’ll only be remembered as characters in video games and as corporate mascots.

  Well, in the U.S., at least. I understand the Disney books still do quite well internationally.

• Does anyone out there like Ultimates 3 #1? None of my customers like it, and in my admittedly limited casting about the comics interwebs over the last few days, I don’ t see anyone out there liking it either. Even the online guys who bend over backwards to cut Marvel enormous amounts of slack don’t like it.

  I haven’t read it, myself. I looked inside the first issue, thought the art looked like someone spilled coffee on the pages, and put it back on the shelf. Oh, well. At least it’s only five issues long.

• And, I swear, if Jeph Loeb manages to screw up a Hulk comic drawn by Ed McGuinness, I’m gonna be steamed. McGuinness drawing the Hulk = Good. Loeb typing the words = I’m not holding out much hope.

  Sorry, I’m being cranky. ‘Tis the season and all.

• Hey, here’s stuff I liked recently:

  Popeye Vol. 2: Well Blow Me Down – an absolutely gorgeous reprinting of the classic E.C. Segar strips…it’s kinda sad when you reach the point former Thimble Theatre star Harold Hamgravy is shuffled off the strip into comics obscurity for all time, in favor of the one-eyed sailor man.

  Batlash #1 – Sergio Aragones (with Peter Brandvold) and John Severin on a Western? There’s no possible way this could have been bad.

  Green Lantern #25 – a rollicking round-up to the Sinestro Corps War storyline…I’ve always liked Green Lantern, Sinestro was always one of my favorite super-villains, and the set-up at the end of the book for future storylines has captured my interest. When this relaunched GL title began, I was sorta indifferent to it, but this storyline instilled the book with new life, turning it into one of my favorite superhero books.

  Captain Carrot and the Final Ark #3 – apparently the ending of this mini ticked off some people. I found it funny, sad, and intriguing all at once. The likelihood of this ever being followed up is nil, but it’s an interesting way to end the series.

  Fall of Cthulhu #8 – I tend to be a sucker for Lovecraftian stuff anyway, and most of Boom! Studios’ Cthulhu output has been entertaining. This current storyline, where the entities are taking more direct (if still covert) action in the “real” world, has been compelling reading.

• I was packing up some mail order at the shop the other day, and I started singing to myself as I was doing it. In short order I’d created the beginnings of “Priority Mail: The Musical.” Employee Aaron suggested I needed pal Dorian as a counterpoint to me in the song, so it’d go something like this:

  “This will fit in the flat rate box.”

  “NO, IT WON’T FIT IN THE FLAT RATE BOX.”

  “I will ship for the flat rate fee.”

  “THERE’LL BE NO SUCH THING FOR THEE.”

  Boy, as a lyricist, I make a good comics blogger.

  Good God, I need a vacation.

from Action Comics #514 (Dec. 1980)
by Marv Wolfman, Curt Swan & Frank Chiaramonte

From Justice League of America #93 (Oct/Nov 1971) is this full page house-ad ballyhooing the Shazam! awards DC won:

Giordano’s sporting sideburns of heroic proportions, I must say. I also like that they had a comic awards category for “dramatic division,” meaning, of course, dramatic superheroes. Are there any other kind?

And, presented here for no good reason, from the very same book is this ad, complete with a misused “it’s,” for Venus Flytraps:

Hell, a buck? That seems like a bargain, now. A quick, sloppy, non-comprehensive search on the Google turns up individual plants currently for sale at about six or seven bucks each, and a full “Venus Flytrap Kit” for $19.95 (includes terrarium).

This Venus Flytrap is, of course, priceless.

…proof that someone once subscribed to Punisher 2099:

Okay, calm down there, I know you all had subscriptions to Punisher 2099 and are just itching to tell me so in the comments section. Just a joke, pals.

But, really, Punisher 2099? You subscribed to th…no, no, no, I didn’t say that. Just ignore it.

Anyway, we picked up a collection recently where the seller had apparently, abruptly, stopped reading comics, to the point where he had about a half-dozen comics received via subscription, still sealed in their mailing bags.

I seem to recall some ballyhooing, by either Marvel or DC, or likely both, that their subscription comics were shipped in protective bags with backing boards, and I’m assuming this is what they meant by that. I don’t remember the exact wording of those ads, and I’m going entirely off memory since I’m writing this at about midnight and I’m too tired to go digging through the vast Mikester Comic Archives for research. But as backing boards go, this piece of paper sealed in there with the comic barely counts…it flops around like uncooked bacon. You can’t argue with success, though, since most of these comics look like they’re in pretty good condition. Some minor spine wear, of course, since the board doesn’t prevent bending in the slightest. It’s certainly a vast improvement over how my one comic book subscription, circa the early ’80s to Amazing Spider-Man, was packaged…one thin strip of paper, with mailing label, around the middle of the comic, leaving three-fourths of the comics naked, exposed unprotected to the harsh elements, with nothing between it and inclement weather, a mailman’s spilled coffee, nibbling by otters, et cetera.

But these comics from the recently-acquired collection, what with their fancypants bags and boards, were from seventeen years ago. How are they mailed now? Is it about the same…sealed in a baggie, with a thin board inserted to hold the mailing label/subscription info?

I do like the look of the boards, so here are a handful of images of them from the collection:

I know, I’ve talked about this before, but I was preparing a bunch of these cards for the eBay, and I was struck by it again. Now, most of the costume cards we get nowadays are from recent shows…you get a costume (generally a shirt or a pair of pants) worn by Supporting Actor #2 or Guest Actor or, even sometimes, the Lead Actor in one episode or ‘nother, chop it up, glue the pieces into these extree-thick trading cards, and disperse them out to the non-sport trading card masses.

When they do this to costumes from recent shows and movies, it doesn’t seem so tragic. But when they do it to a thirty year old costume like Lt. Ilia’s up there, taken from a…well, I hesitate to call Star Trek: The Motion Picture a classic, but we all know it, I’m sure the majority of you folks reading this have seen at least a bit of it, and we all recognize Persis Khambatta and her bald head and her gray uniform. So this costume, a recognizable piece of film history (to overstate it only slightly) has been sitting around in storage since the late ’70s, only to be pulled and and cut up and distributed on trading cards. That seems a little sad to me…sure, it’s neat that the fans can get a piece of something that appeared in a movie they liked, but I think I’d rather have seen that costume (and the other costumes destroyed for this set) remain intact.

Then again, that’s easy for me to say. I didn’t have to store these costumes for thirty years. Not everything is meant to be kept around forever.

And while I say it seems less tragic to do this to costumes from newer shows, who knows? Maybe in thirty years fans will look back on what we were getting up to today and exclaim “I can’t believe they cut up Buffy’s Doublemeat Palace pants for trading cards! What a loss to television history!”

Okay, that’s a bit of a bummer, so here’s something we can all enjoy: a signature card from the guy who played Young Spock in Star Trek III:

---

A few follow-up response to comments left recently:

Bill asks

“So is there any bit of that Elseworlds 80 Page Giant that hasn’t been reprinted somewhere by now?”

Well, I took a quick look at the Wikipedia listing of contents, and I think of the stories listed, only Superman’s Babysitter story and the Super Sons story escaped their pulping fate. As far as I know, anyway…if I missed one, let me know.

Michael Jones queries

“Just out of curiosity, how are back-issue sales on the first dozen Original Watchmen comics?”

So far, not too much action. Right now people are just interested in reading the story, so they’re going for the trades. However, as the movie approaches, people will start asking for copies of the comics for “investment potential” and such, much like how we were wiped out of every copy of Amazing Spider-Man #252 (1st black costume) prior to the third Spider-Man flick. As you can infer from my statements yesterday, none of this demand will continue past the film’s release.

Joe G. relates:

“It made me wonder just how many hardcore, long time comics readers have never bothered with Watchmen and that’s why it keeps selling.”

And that’s something I need to remember when I think “how can there be anyone who hasn’t yet read Watchmen?” Not everyone has been buying and reading comics for 30+ years like I have. Some people new to the hobby just haven’t got around to it. Some people old to the hobby haven’t got around to it. Some people in the hobby were born long after Watchmen was completed. There’s still plenty of potential audience for the book within the hobby, as baffling as that may seem, but that’s good. I’ll be happy to sell it to them.

LaRue wonders

“Was that issue with Arcane as a half-spider strangling Swamp-Thing on the cover part of the Pasko era?”

Yes…that would be issue #19 of Saga of the Swamp Thing, which was Pasko’s last on the series. That issue is also discussed in my old post about comic book Easter eggs.

And Jack T. asks

“where can I get more Herbie? ????”

Well, I can point you in the direction of this post at Again with The Comics, with a full Herbie story, but since he was linked by Boing Boing, I suspect you already know about that.

As for actual reprints…well, a few years back A+ Comics published several black and white comics reprinting Herbie stories in no particular order, and of varying printing quality. But it was better than (a fat little) nothing.

And Dark Horse attempted a 10(?) issue color mini-series reprinting classic Herbie tales along with new Herbie back-up stories by current creators. Alas, only two issues made it out the door, and the series was canned.

I should also note Herbie guest-starred in issue #31 of Flaming Carrot. If anyone can “get” Herbie, it’s FC’s creator Bob Burden.

A full chronological reprinting of all of Herbie’s adventures, recolored, on nice paper, perhaps in Archive-style format, would be ideal, if perhaps nearly, but not quite, as unlikely as that long-awaited Absolute Edition Sonic Distruptors hardcover and slipcase, complete with unpublished ending. But someday, perhaps…someday.