Mike Sterling's Progressive RuinThe reason cows are out of season since 1969

New comics this week, and other exciting features.

§ September 2nd, 2009 § Filed under Uncategorized Comments Off on New comics this week, and other exciting features.

• Astro Boy Movie Adaptation #3 – Not selling at all at our shop, and we’ve dropped our orders down to one copy, just so we have it in case someone wants it someday. The movie itself isn’t due out ’til the end of October, and I haven’t heard a single customer express any interest in it. Maybe once the film is a little closer to being in theatres, we’ll start hearing some buzz.
• Chew #1 (4th print), #2 (3rd print), #3 (2nd print) – It’ll be nice to have copies of #1 again, since we got shorted on our orders of the previous reprint and they were never replaced. Lots of talk about this book online, and we’ve sold well on 1 and 2…though last I checked, we still have a few 3s left.
• DC Library – JLA by George Perez HC – I got into the Justice League comics when these were coming out, and I sure picked a good time to do so because, man oh man, Perez on the book was something else. It’ll be nice to have these on…well, slightly better paper than the paper they were originally printed on. This book includes the two-part Secret Origin of the Red Tornado, which is a particularly nostalgic favorite of mine.
• Dead Romeo #6 – Surely somebody somewhere must have read this.
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? #2 – The first issue of this Philip K. Dick adaptation had reasonably strong sales for us, the second issue not quite so much but still respectable. The series is getting a handful of folks though the door that don’t normally buy the funnybooks, and with any luck they’ll keep with it though the (good gravy) 24-issue run, unlike all the folks who bailed out on Marvel’s Dark Tower series.

  Also, I just noticed pal Ian is editor on the book. Ian, dude, I’m telling you: DECKARD VS. CTHULHU. It’ll sell itself.

• Final Crisis Aftermath: Run #5 – This ended up being the only one of the FC Aftermath books I followed, though I hear Dance is pretty good, too. Look, I can’t read everything. But something about the lead character in Run (Mike, the “Human Flame,” who killed the Martian Manhunter in Final Crisis, and the depths to which this guy is sinking in his ongoing quest to become a major player…there’s a dark, schadenfreude-ish humor to this series that I’m really enjoying in a horrible, sick way.
• Iron Man: Armor Wars #2 – Not sure why this needed to be a separate mini-series, aside from making sure there are as many new Iron Man trades and hardcovers as possible on the shelves when the new movie is releas…oh, never mind, I think I know the reason. And isn’t there an Ultimate Armor Wars about to come out, too? I was going to say something about retelling old superhero stories/events over and over again, but duh…that’s not a bug, that’s a feature, as they say.
• Irredeemable #6 – Sold through multiple reorders of the trade collecting the first four issues, as well as plenty of the 99-cent fifth issue. Looking forward to possibly strong sales on #6. This series has been a good read, though each issue feels like it’s too short…probably because you’re left anxiously awaiting the next installment. Like the recent Battlestar Galactica series, it manages to be dark and almost fatalistic without being oppressive, which can be a thin line to walk.
• Jonah Hex #47 – Ooooh, hang on, little buddy, the movie’s almost here! Sales should pick up right before then, so enjoy ’em while you can!
• Magog #1 – Not sure the world demanded a Magog series, but, you know, it is Keith Giffen writing, so it may end up being strangely entertaining.
• Marvel Zombies Return #1 – Originally was going to be a series of one-shots, but Marvel wisely decided to present it as a sequentially numbered mini-series, which may help sales a bit. Also features the return of the Marvel Zombies from the earlier series (like Spider-Man, Hulk, and so on) which may turn around the franchise a bit after the not-quite-so-well-received Marvel Zombies 4.

  Sometimes I look at what I’m writing about, and I just shake my head.

• Marvelman by Joe Quesada poster – Most of our posters at the shop tend to be bought by (or for) younger folks. I didn’t order very heavily on the Marvelman poster.
• Red Tornado #1 – Remember my mention of nostalgia for the Red Tornado origin story from JLA? That same nostalgia will probably drive me into at least looking at this series. “My name is Mike, and I have Red Tornado nostalgia.” “Hi, Mike!”
• Solomon Grundy #7 – Ended up being a pretty good little series, and though the last issue is a Blackest Night tie-in, Scott Kolins I think will make it all flow smoothly enough.
• Star Wars Invasion #2 – Not that the Star Wars franchise hasn’t done its share of backwards-looking, fill-in-the-gaps stories, but for some reason publishing a comic now that ties into one of the big Expanded Universe novel events that ended years ago feels a little peculiar.
• Strange Tales #1 – Marvel characters by Peter Bagge, Nicholas Gurewitch, Paul Pope, Johnny Ryan, James Kochalka, Michael Kupperman, Junko Mizuno, and many, many others…this is going to be one spectacularly weird book. This means (more or less) that Johnny Ryan is officially drawing Disney characters. What a world, what a world. (Here’s Johnny Ryan drawing a Disney character unofficially…don’t worry, it’s Safe for Work.)

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In other news:

• DAYS in the making! It’s the second action-packed installment of The Variants, the video webseries about the gang what works at a comic book store. Highly recommended!
• Pal Dorian asked for requests on what comics he should talk about, and he answers those requests right here with some thoughtful commentary and shocking opinions. (No, Dor, not The Killing Joke! Noooooo!)
• Secret Supreme Leader of the comics blogosphere, Neilalien, has been gathering links related to the Disney/Marvel hoohar, and Tom Spurgeon has links to some analyses as well. Also, Tom has an old Spider-Mickey pic illustrating his post, taken from Spider-Man Annual #5. I should have remembered that, when I made my merchandise prediction the other day, as we used to have the original artwork for the pages that image came from hanging in our shop. (Before you ask…nope, sold ’em years ago.)

A little more Wednesday on Friday.

§ July 10th, 2009 § Filed under Uncategorized Comments Off on A little more Wednesday on Friday.

Still making some slow progress on getting posts labeled here at Progressive Ruin Industries: there are now tags for the 1990s market crash, not to mention racial sensitivity in comic books, if you want to see all (or most, anyway) posts relating to those.

Like I said, it’s slow going, and many of the other labels you’ll see on those posts don’t link to too much so far. But there will be an “All Star Batman” label, and God help me, I’ve tagged at least one post “pogs.”

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Thank you for all your responses to yesterday’s Wednesday Comics post. (There was also some completely random Canada bashing…hey, I’ve no beef with Canada. I love Bob & Doug MacKenzie, and I’m sure every Canadian is exactly like them.)

Let me address a couple of questions/comments that popped up there:

Bryan wants to know

“Will stores be able to back order issues over the next few weeks? Because I can sort of see this as being something where if you don’t get in on the ground floor, the serialised natured will make it impossible to start reading it after a few weeks, and the chances of a ‘breakthrough’ comic deflate with each passing week.”

I certainly hope so. We ordered plenty of the first few issues, assuming that the odd format would possibly mean little to no overprinting for later reorders. But, I just checked Diamond’s retailer site as I was typing this, and the first issue is still available for reorder. Of course, it’s only been out for a day or two, but that it’s not sold out at the distributor level already is a little reassuring that there is some kind of overprint for reorders available.

Richard asks

“I haven’t gone to the shop and picked up my copy yet, but are there any other type of characters included besides superheroes?

If not, why not?”

A couple of folks (including one of the project’s writers!) already answered this, but no, it’s not all superheroes, depending on how you define the term. Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth, is sci-fi fantasy, I suppose, though as the character’s adventures are usually presented, it’s only barely distinguishable from superhero-style books. In the case of Wednesday Comics, however, the strip is given a more Prince Valiant-esque treatment, which is quite nicely done. Sgt. Rock also appears, and I’ve seen the argument made in the past that Rock is basically just a superhero strip done in war drag, and in the comments the argument is made that Adam Strange is more in the pulp sci-fi hero tradition than in the superhero tradition. That’s fair enough, though Strange toes the line a bit, I think. But, as I was discussing this with some pals, someone much wiser than me noted that if I stretch the meaning of “superhero” too far, it’s just going to lose any meaning.

So, for the sake of not being contrarian, I’ll agree that Kamandi is post apocalyptic sci-fantasy adventure, Sgt. Rock is a war comic, and Adam Strange is pulp hero sci-fi. Thus, there’s at least a little variety outside the super-guys.

However, I’m still sticking to my contention that Neil Gaiman’s Sandman is totally a superhero comic. Don’t you argue with me, I’m totally right on this.

CW sez

“What’s going to be interesting is to see in thirty years how many mint examples of the ‘Wednesday Comics’ will be in existence. It’s a difficult format to keep in a collection.”

We were joking about that at the shop on New Comics Day. “Dear God in heaven, IT’S NOT MINT!” Plus, we were wondering if CGC would slab these folded, or manufacture an oversized plastic covering that could accommodate an unfolded version. There probably is one that size already, which I suppose I could find out if I felt like checking.

I suppose if I had to preserve ’em, I’d just put them in bags and find a place on my bookshelf, or just keep ’em in magazine boxes.

Rob notes

“…In my interview with Mark Chiarello for my TreasuryComics.com site, he said that if WC is a big hit, then they’d do another series–which might mean there’d be a wider, more diverse set of characters (I’d love to see a Jonah Hex, Plastic Man, even Sugar and Spike!)”

Jonah Hex would be a good idea, particularly since I hear tell there’s a film coming out based on the character. Plastic Man would be good, since he has a pretty high recognition factor among those folks what don’t normally read the funnybooks. Sugar & Spike, if it ran, had better be Shelly Mayer stories reedited for this new format.

And how about a Swamp Thing strip, he said unbiasedly.

JBS asks

“Is this being distributed to outlets besides funny book stores?”

Not that I’m aware of. Probably some marketing/distribution thing that makes it a little more difficult getting it into stores that generally just handle the regular comics. Or perhaps DC didn’t want to take the chance on massive returns for this experimental item. Or whatever the reason, I have no idea. I suppose it could sell if a miracle happened and it was put on the shelves next to the grocery line, but don’t hold your breath, because that ain’t happening. Unless another 3 or 4 tabloid magazines go out of business.

And then there are a few more comments about storage and handling of this item, and that had me wondering about how they’re going to eventually reprint these stories. I’d like to see thin, 12-page oversized magazines or even hardcovers for each story, on nice paper. Again, breath, do not hold. But those would be neat!

The Progressive Ruin Questionnaire-Fest 2009, Part Six: The Undiscovered Country.

§ January 25th, 2009 § Filed under Uncategorized Comments Off on The Progressive Ruin Questionnaire-Fest 2009, Part Six: The Undiscovered Country.

Okay, one last time answering your questions:

• glmmrtwn asks
  

  “Hey Mike, did you ever do a post on that really weird DC Comics Presents issue where Superman teams up with the Swamp Thing (I think it was issue 12)? It was by Steve Englehart and Murphy Anderson and was pretty trippy. In continuity or not?”

  Hmmm…that was number 8 of DC Comics Presents, and I don’t think I ever really did much with it aside from including a few panels from that story at the end of this post. I don’t think there’s anything about the story that makes it explicitly non-continuity. Well, aside from the miscoloring of Swamp Thing’s word balloons and thought bubbles, but that hardly counts. It does feature the first meeting between Swampy and Solomon Grundy, which is sort of obliquely referenced when the two characters meet again in Swamp Thing (second series) #67, where they greet each other as old acquaintances. Since DCCP #8 is the only (“on-screen”) prior meeting of the characters, I suppose it’s still continuity.

  On a related note, when Swamp Thing encounters Deadman in Swamp Thing Annual #2, Deadman refers to having encountered Swampy before…which we only saw in the Challengers of the Unknown comics that guest-starred them both. Of course, it’s vague enough that the two characters could have “met” under as-yet-unrevealed circumstances, and not specifically those Challs issues, the canonicity of which remains vague given the Swamp Thing storyline contained therein spins off from issues of the first series explicitly deemed non-continuity by DC editorial.

  Wow, you never really know just how much nerdity you’ve got welling up within you until it all just spills out like that.

• John Parker wants to know
  

  “What’s the first comic you remember reading?”

  That’s a very good question, and I think I tried to pin it down before on this site, though I can’t find the exact post at the moment. I remember some Donald Duck, some Pink Panther, some Teen Titans, all from about the early/mid ’70s…like, ’74, ’75. I didn’t really become interested in following comics on a regular basis until the Star Wars comic book launched in ’77, which hooked me in well and good.

  Unfortunately, I can’t remember the exact comic that was my first. My hunch is that it was a Disney comic, since I read a lot of those as a young Mikester. I have very clear early memories of looking at panels with Gyro Gearloose’ helper Helper and wondering what was up with that guy. Those would be my earliest memories of comics.

• Fnord Serious has some questions for me:
  

  “What is your favorite dead multi-book superhero universe (New Universe, Charlton, Shadowline, Ultraverse, etc) ? I am partial to the Marvel 2099 books myself. If you could bring said universe back, would you like a continuation of the previous continuity, a reboot (like the !mpact revival of the Archie/MLJ heroes), or integration into a preexisting universe as with the Milestone characters currently being brought into the DCU?”

  I think my favorite was the Jim Shooter-era Valiant comics. I liked nearly all the books, they meshed together well, and when taken together formed an interesting and certainly quirky shared universe. If it were to return, I’d prefer a continuation of the previous continuity, since in this specific case we did see a rebooted continuity supplanting that Shooter-era, and it didn’t really do anything for me.

  “I always enjoy your tales of the history of comics retail. I particularly enjoyed your observations on the 90’s crash. As a comics buyer I never thought it had started as far back as Turok #1. More of those posts are always welcome.”

  This is one of those times when I wished I had tags on my posts, because a “market crash” tag would be very useful right now to send you all to my previous writings on this topic.

  In the meantime, though, here are more links to my writings about the crash than you could ever possibly want: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

  Not sure what else I’d have to say about it, but stay tuned…you never know when I’ll be inspired.

  “Anything to say about Doctor Who? I never got into it as a kid, but Mrs. Serious & I have enjoyed watching the recent revival on DVD.”

  I wrote quite a bit on the topic about a year ago, and my thoughts on the topic haven’t changed much since then. Curious about how the new Doctor will be, but that’s still a ways off yet. And I’m still renting the occasional old Who serial from Netflix.

• Dan Wars demands
  

  “So how many comic books do you have, anyway?”

  I was actually asked this in one of my previous Q&A sessions. I said about 20,000 then, so…lessee, about 8 new comics a week…let’s say another 1,000 added to that.

• Employee Aaron tempts fate by asking
  

  “What kind of vampire would you be?”

  The firin’ kind.

• Anonymous puzzles me with
  

  “How many ways can you show us how to solve ‘Zzzax Mmmaze’ using edited scans from 1980’s issue #12 of Marvel FUN AND GAMES MAGAZINE?”

  Er…I suppose any number of ways, if I’m using edited scans. I can remove all the lines of the maze, I can Photoshop (poorly) a bridge stretching from the Start to the Finish…that sort of thing.

  “And can you do it better than your (currently active) comics blogger friends on a meme?”

  I don’t know…that Dave runs a mean Photoshop. I wouldn’t want to challenge him to a combination scanning/rap contest.

• Anonymous asks
  

  “Do you believe that old Swamp Thing comics can forsee and prevent disasters in the future? Like say, THIS ONE predicting THIS?

  Embrace the undeniable wisdom of SWAMP THING comics.

  EMBRACE IT!”

  Dude, you don’t need to tell me twice. As soon as Swamp Thing starts giving me lottery numbers and horse race results, I’ll be totally set!

• Billy inquires
  

  “Can you comment on the first part of this piece?
  http://www.comicbookresources.co…rticle& id=19650

  Specifically, are Marvel titles really the only reason folks go to comics stores?”

  Well, no, but Marvel and DC do drive the weekly comics sales event, so missing one or the other would be bad news all around.

• Okay, now for a couple of questions that popped up in the comments sections for my answers posts…like these few from Flossin:
  

  “-I know this blog doesn’t really deal with Marvel stuff (and I can see why) but here’s a question: Since everybody is sick of Wolverine and the fact that he’s everywhere, what do you think would make him ‘cool’ again for the people that got sick of him when he started being overexposed and overrated?”

  i do deal with Marvel stuff from time to time…I’m more of a DC guy, but I don’t have anything against the characters living at the House of Ideas. Well, aside from Night Thrasher. That name, man, I swear.

  As to your Wolverine question…well, the answer is in your inquiry. When you only saw Wolverine once a month in Uncanny X-Men, the character’s mystique and uniqueness stood out. Now that he’s “overexposed,” as you say, the novelty’s worn off. Cutting back his appearances could go a long way to restoring some of that novelty…though the train may have totally left that station as the character has practically no mystery left.

  “Did you ever in your life wore clown make-up and/or costume?”

  I did wear white face make-up during my brief participation in one of those Haunted House tours that set up at the fairgrounds once a year. I wasn’t a clown, though…I was some kind of…evil cave-dweller or some darn thing. I don’t know.

  “Do you like Madcap?”

  I liked this one ish of She-Hulk well enough, I guess.

  “When will the fourth issue of ‘Ultimate Hulk vs Wolverine’ be out?”

  You’ll have to ask my eventual grandchildren for the answer to that.

• Nate wants to know
  

  “Power Pack, great super team or greatest super team?”

  I suspect this question may be biased.

• Dwayne “the canoe guy” asks
  

  “One last question: What if, somehow, Jonah Hex got absorbed into Swamp Thing? Would a bounty hunting plant elemental be the most bad-ass thing ever or the biggest joke ever seen?”

  While a Swamp Thing bounty hunter would be cool, I don’t know that simply absorbing Hex’s body would be enough to give Swampy the gunslingin’ skills. Though that’d be a useful ability. “Hey…I need…piano playing…abilities.” (absorbs Franz Liszt) (Swampy starts tickling ivories)

And (phew) I’m more or less done. Thank you for putting up with this past week of question-answering, and especially thank you for the kinds words and continuing patronage of this site.

Tomorrow: fewer italicized words!

“Suddenly, five years later….”

§ December 5th, 2008 § Filed under suddenly... Comments Off on “Suddenly, five years later….”

Five years I’ve been doing this website. Five years of daily updates. Seriously, what’s up with that?

After going through the thanks four times previously, I’m totally repeating myself here, but thank you. Thank you to all you folks who come back day after day, reading what I write here, interacting with me in the comments, putting up with my occasional cranky moments, tolerating my eccentricities, contributing banners, clicking on my Amazon links hint hint nudge, and so on. It startles me sometimes to know that there are a few thousand people looking at what I’m doing here on a regular basis.

And thanks, once again, to my girlfriend Nora and her incredible tolerance of my peculiar four-color obsessions; to my parents, who don’t always know what the heck I’m going on about here but think it’s pretty neat anyway; to my fellow comics webloggers, with whom I don’t always agree except in that, hey, we do love the funnybooks; to Neilalien, for blazing the trail and his always welcome advice; and of course, to pal Dorian, my swell friend and nefarious partner in crime.

This site has become sort of my online home, my base of operations despite having other internet boltholes here and there…I have a MySpace (EDIT: link removed – I canceled the MySpace account) and a Facebook, both of which I hardly use to their full potential, though I check in on them on a fairly regular basis. And someday I may use Mikesterling.com for something other than a gateway page to here. However, over the last year I’ve been expanding my use of the oddly addicting Twitter, which at first I thought was a ridiculous idea, and now I find myself in the position of convincing friends to sign up for it. I love the Twitter. I can’t promise I’ll follow everyone who follows me there (I’m at about the max number of people I can comfortably keep up with), but I suggest you check it out if you want some kind of online soapbox without the burden of a full-blown blog.

Speaking of burdens, I keep saying I’m going to stop the daily schedule, that maybe I’d go to, say, three times a week. That seems like a reasonable amount of content for the site, right? Well, I still can’t bring myself to do it. I’m going to keep up the daily posting for as long as I’m able…will I make six years? We’ll see. Will it make me lose my mind? That’s a fair bet.

And that’s as good as a segue as any into what’s become my annual tradition: a listing of highlights from the past year, and by “highlights” I mean “about 2/3rds of everything I’ve posted because I can’t edit myself,” apparently. But just the same, feel free to peruse some of these links and relive the horrors:

When Darkseid met Swamp Thing (or at least sat in him), the wit and wisdom of Genocide, Marvel subscription inserts, BEHOLD CUTE GALACTUS, yes I saw Underdog – what of it, All Star Batfan banners, the only comic review scale you need, the Black Racer is still cool, hey this Flash comic ain’t too bad, I have to be stopped, it’s just a wee dram o’Comic Sans, the Sluggo Strut, Cloverfield shenanigans at the shop, I meant to blog more about the Flash, smart-ass pie charts, don’t mess with Alvin (with bonus Sluggo content), making a buck off Heath Ledger’s death, Sluggo was here, I talk a bit about Doctor Who, ’90s X-books and the collectibility thereof, stop bedwetting you hideous monster, The Shadow over Aqualad, bolos bolos bolos, I don’t do story overviews like this much anymore, Snapper Carr annoys you, so long to Steve Gerber (1 and 2), I’m only including this link so I can type “Wolverine’s Penis” again, the 2nd annual Ultimate Wolverine Vs. Hulk Day, I can’t believe I actually did this post, Wonder Woman’s marginally new costume (plus bonus shower scene), I may have had a specific person in mind with this YouTube video, BAD TRIP OWL, the Turok DVD, God bless you Herbie Popnecker, a few words on the passing of Gary Gygax, DC’s stamps, I’m glad I didn’t have to explain why I posted about Jack Benny on my 39th birthday, Lois Lane in Near-Immediate Irony Theatre, Darkseid bids one bleen, the Question meets Rorschach kinda sorta, people took this comic ages thing way more seriously than I intended, the horrifying carnage of Wizard World L.A. (1 and 2), Dynamic Forces comics, Garfield Minus Everything, half of a full run of the Brady Bunch comic, SHADOWMAN RAP CONTEST, Mike’s a smart-ass about Secret Invasion, All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder, I’m the only person who thought the stealth Durlan variant was funny, DVDs and James Brolin, Doom’s got words for you, LITTLE ARCHIE VERSUS SHARK, Archie’s Giant-Size Freak-Out isn’t as cool as it sounds, Greek Batman (there’s a joke there somewhere), I really wanted to order those tribbles, the beauty of Funnybook Shatner, Monkey Doodle got me linked on Boingboing, Star Trek and Spiro Agnew together again, this post resulted in a whole lot of Wikipedia editing, are you Space-Crazy, oh go cry about it Validus, this is a really inappropriate title for my Iron Man review, Free Comic Book Day aftermath, apparently giving away as many FCBD books as possible makes me the jerk, this panel still makes me laugh, that Phantom movie ain’t half-bad, oh Lord these X-Men cards, Lex Luthor versus Swamp Thing, THE NOSE OF VALIDUS, Hex versus the Legion, Steve Ditko versus the Legion, new members for the Avengers, this is just way too much to think about Brainiac 5, letters to Jimmy Olsen, a tribute to the moustache of Bouncing Boy, this still puzzles me, Slash the turtle, entirely inappropriate in-store behavior, seriously some people need to yank that stick out, X-Men versus Pizza Hut, Kubert School student ‘zines, in which we talk novelizations (1, 2, 3), MIKE REVIEW HULK MOVIE, Condorman: International Adventurer, this Batman panel drove me crazy, Batman’s villains had the most awesome hideouts, Baby Spock, Batman and Robin don their rubbers, Bizarro Break, the future of Peanuts, no one loves the Badrock Skydisc, my Hellboy 2 review, seriously just what the hell is going on in Batman comics, my Dark Knight review and follow-up, the disturbing faces of Popeye, Swamp Thing masks and Employee Aaron at San Diego, Mike’s mini-comic nostalgia (and some actual comics by me: 1 and 2), emo Batman is emo, the Cosmic Cube’s love for Twinkies, Superman and Batman and the state of their friendship, that whole stupid NOT BUY thing (and the inability of people to, oh, I don’t know, ADDRESS THE ACTUAL POINT), extreme close-ups of old comic ads, things I have found inside other things, OBVIOUS POINT COMING IN ON RUNWAY 12, why oh why was Walking Dead Vol. 1 unavailable all summer, Squeeks the Monkey, Land of the Lost creeps me out, in-store oral adventures, Mike’s dirty Aunt May post, CONTEMPLATE SLUGGO, Mike watches cartoons, no honestly don’t invest in F/X comics you dummies, I thought these panels were funny, thank goodness my readers have got mad Photoshop skillz, Sluggo planes wood and is awesome, Marvel and Star Trek coins, Avengers swimtrunks, Dead Jonah Hex is still Badass Jonah Hex (and follow-up: 1 and 2), King Richard I is a fighter, this is really gross, the Punisher versus typefaces, the Golden Age Sub-Mariner is so much better than the modern one, the Batman and Robin movie is discussed to death (1, 2, 3 and 4), Buenas Noches Dr. Manhattan, gorilla arms and adult babies, the internet’s only quality source for Rex the Wonder Dog adventure (1, 2 and 3), we actually had to explain why this might be construed as racist, plain brown wrappers, only I care about MacKenzie Queen, the forgotten faces of laughter, this is not suitable for viewing by anyone, French super-comics, a few quotes from an issue of Turok, hey kids comics, Sluggo questions the universe, way too much discussion about Smallville (1, 2, 3, 4), this mystery half-wit accidentally duplicated a post by Dr. K, the most important election of the year and the follow-up, an original Dark Knight Returns press release, the greatest promo poster of all time, Heroes for Hope radio script, and some bits of business re: Heroes for Hope interior pages (i.e. the ones are any good).

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For looking at all that, let me show you yet again the unofficial mascot of Mike Sterling’s Progressive Ruin, the Swamp Thing Chalk:

…but with one important difference, thanks to Employee Aaron taking it with him on a recent convention visit:

It’s now autographed by Swampy’s cocreator Len Wein…who, according to Aaron, saw the chalk and exclaimed “hey, I have one of those!” AWESOME.

Thanks again for reading, internet pals, and I’ll see you tomorrow.

Don’t worry, it’s not another linkblogging post.

§ August 7th, 2008 § Filed under retailing, watchmen Comments Off on Don’t worry, it’s not another linkblogging post.

While breaking down the comic shipment Wednesday morning, prior to opening:

New Employee Tim: “Another Wolverine one-shot? This makes me want to punch Marvel.”

Employee Aaron: “How long have you worked here, and you already want to punch Marvel?”

Me: “Yeah, seriously…what took you so long?”

Also, we finally received an order of Watchmen trade paperbacks…not the order Diamond lost on us last week, but a second order I placed a few days after that initial doomed order, prior to DC runnin’ out of copies.

Guess what trade paperback we didn’t sell a single copy of on Wednesday? After weeks of people coming in and demanding it?

I think we’ll sell through on them by the weekend, but still, just a little annoying.

At least, I’m assuming we didn’t sell any Wednesday, as I was still feeling under the weather and left the shop early. I decided that morning that after I pulled the comic savers, did the mail order, did some reordering, and took care of some other business I had to take care of at the shop, I was going to leave early and let Employees Tim and Aaron handle the rest of the day.

I managed to leave 45 minutes before closing. Ah, well.

Other new comic day notes:

• Okay, it’s not a new comic, but we reordered the All Star Batman and Robin hardcover a few weeks ago, and in the shipment it was originally supposed to arrive in, it didn’t. We called it in as a shortage, and replacements were on the invoice as coming in this week…and they didn’t arrive again. It’s some kind of cosmic irony that the comic store managed by the one man on the planet who unashamedly loves All Star Batman can’t get the hardcover back in stock. DARN YOU, WHOEVER’S IN CHARGE OF COSMIC IRONY!
• Other reorder frustration: the Walking Dead volume 1 softcover has been unavailable from Diamond for about three months now, more or less. Kinda makes it hard to sell volumes 2 through 8 to new readers who might be interested in it. Yes, there is a hardcover that includes the comics from volumes 1 and 2, but a $9.95 paperback is easier to sell to someone just trying it out, as opposed to a thirty buck hardcover. Here’s hoping it’s back in print soon.
• Army @ Love: The Art of War #1 – the “second season” of Rick Veitch’s war satire looks as if it might quite possibly be even weirder than the initial series. And it has what may be the greatest expository reintroduction to a returning series’ characters and premise yet. Also, our store sold out right away, so a-reorderin’ I will go.
• Seeing Crossed #0 on the invoice listed as “#0 (of 9)” makes me want to hit somebody. Not unique to Crossed, I know, but still, it just sticks in my craw. It’s more hyperviolent zombie-esque shenanigans, from the looks of things, but, hey, this #0 is only a buck, it’s by Garth Ennis, and…Good Lord, does Jacen Burrows draw everything for Avatar? Does he ever sleep?
• While I adore Final Crisis, the “director’s cut” version of #1 is…well, if you want to see the black and white linework for the entire issue, then you may get more out of the first part of the book. The interview and script make for interesting reading, but, like I said about the Final Crisis sketchbook, this sort of material may be better off being released after the project is over, when the comic can be discussed without playing coy with spoilers.

  As for Final Crisis #3…man, so densely-packed, so full of good stuff. It’s nuts, and I love it.

• Thanks to Employee Aaron, I now think of Echo as “the comic about the girl with super-boobs.” Unfair? Yeah, probably. But hey, at least there’s no poetry like in the guy’s previous comic. Yet.
• More Disney comics, finally. Wish they didn’t put out their two regular “monthly” comics ($7.99 each) and a Vacation Special ($9.95!) all out in the same week…but at least they’re out, and beggars can’t be choosers, I suppose.

  I know it wasn’t as long as a break between issues as Gemstone’s publishing unpleasantness from last year, but it still had some of our Disney customers getting a little testy.

• Did you read that FX comic from IDW (last issue on sale now)? If so…why? I’m honestly not being snarky, here…what was it about FX that made you keep reading it? Is it just fans of that particular artist supporting the book?
• Jonah Hex #34 – I liked the story, about Jonah’s difficulty in leaving his old life behind…but depending on who’s drawing Jonah’s scarred face, I have a very hard time believing that Hex doesn’t just cut that damned tiny flap of skin off his mouth. It’s such a piddling little strand in this issue…it gets to be distracting how nonsensical it is that it’d still be there.

  So, “minor nitpick of the month?” Maybe so. I remember seeing someone out there suggest that elements of Two-Face’s scarring from the Dark Knight movie would be a better way of portraying Hex’s injury.

• Hulk #5 – I shouldn’t like this comic as much as I do. It’s big, loud, and stupid, and takes like two minutes to read…but it’s an enjoyable two minutes, with great art by Ed McGuinness. I think the Thor purists are going to cringe at this issue, though.
• Showcase Presents House of Secrets Vol. 1 – Contains a reprint of the first Swamp Thing story, and another 500-something pages of less important stuff. Oh, okay, it has the Sergio Aragones gag pages, too.

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Nothing to do with comics, but everything to do with fans of the Mystery Science Theatre 3000: the third Cinematic Titanic film, The Wasp Woman, should be available for download as you read this, and the DVD release should be available by Monday.

Don’t irritate me.

§ June 5th, 2008 § Filed under Uncategorized Comments Off on Don’t irritate me.

Well, it was another pretty busy Wednesday, with a boatload of funnybooks and a parade of customers, and me cracking the whip on employees Aaron and Jeff to ensure that NO FUN was being had, lest we offend the thin-skinned with our lack of professionalism. It was NO FUN DAY: “EMPLOYEE-BOT JEFF-1000 IS PROGRAMMED TO PROVIDE COMICS TO THE HU-MANS. PLEASE CONSUME AND ENJOY.”

Received was our reorder of the mighty Hembeck Omnibus, frightening the lily-hearted and the weak-willed with its enormous girth, and yet nearly selling through by the end of the day anyway.

The first installment of DC’s newest weekly comic Trinity is out, and it’s interesting, amusing, clever…so the online comic fans are likely complaining about it. “Oh no, ‘quality’ — we hate that!” But it’s a nice beginning for what looks like a fun Superman/Batman/Wonder Woman adventure. And the back-up, featuring Jack Kirby’s verison of Morgaine Le Fey, is, if anything, better than the lead. Certainly intriguing, making for some above-average superheroing.

Ultimate Origins #1 – No, I didn’t buy this…don’t really care about Ultimate-anything, anymore…but it does seem like the Ultimate books are a lot thinner now for some reason. Not less pages, but, like, thinner paper stock. Is it just me?

Thor: Search for Odin – reprints issues 7 and 8 of the current Thor series. Not sure why we ordered it…though I suppose we’ll sell at least one or two to the completists, so that’s reason enough to get some. Were enough stores out of 7 and 8 that a reprinting was necessary?

Grimm Fairy Tales #27 – I’m never quite sure what to make of this comic, but darned if it doesn’t sell reasonably well. Near as I can tell, it’s about large-breasted women who reenact classic fairy tales, more or less. No wonder it sells well, I guess.

From the cover of Marvel Spotlight: Secret Invasion:

I believe it was Employee Jeff who pointed out that he misses this type of Skrull, with the goo-goo-googly eyes. EDIT: Okay, it was actually Employee Aaron. Hell, I don’t know, all these employees begin to look alike after a while.

A THING THAT SURPRISED ME: Tom Strong Volume 6 showing up this week. I’d totally forgotten it was coming, or that ABC still had more comics to collect. EDIT: It’s a softcover version of a hardcover from a couple of years ago. Probably should have noted that.

If you all are still looking for a prestige format version of The Killing Joke, there’s one in the Killing Joke action figure set, complete with Joker in Hawaiian shirt. The comic has the green lettering on the cover…which the first printing had. I know these aren’t first printings, but maybe someone who bought the set can identify what printing it is, and whether the letters are embossed (didn’t look like it to me).

Robin/Spoiler Special – Okay, will this make all those Spoiler fans happy, finally? (Yeah, I already know the answer.)

American Splendor Season Two #3 – And now, my favorite cover of the week. If Harvey hosted a TV talk show, that’d be his logo.

Scream Queen #1 – A little…bloodier than I expect from Boom! Studios, but, still, what was I expecting, right? Flipping through it felt like I was watching one of those cheap ’80s slasher films that cropped up in Halloween‘s wake…and I mean that in a good way.

We never seem to order enough of the Fables trade paperbacks (of which volume #10 was out this week). We keep bumping the orders up, we keep selling out.

Haunt of Horror: Lovecraft #1 – Richard Corben? Illustrating H.P. Lovecraft stories? Sure, count me in.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Raising Cain #2 – Wow, we’re down to ordering two copies of this for the store. Surely these must sell somewhere.

Star Wars Omnibus: Droids Vol. 1 – The Droids comics and trades were always the poorest sellers out of the Star Wars books, at least for us. Even the SW newspaper strip reprint comics outsold it. Kinda curious if we’ll have any bites on the Droid comics in this new format.

Jonah Hex #32 – Gorgeous art by Jordi Bernet…really one of the best looking titles on the stands. The writing’s pretty good, too…it’s no Hex, but what is?

Legion of Super-Heroes: 1050 Years in the Future TP – Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the teen superteam with a bunch of stories I already own in Archives or in the original format. But it looks like a reasonable overview of various points in the Legion’s history, so if you’re looking for a sampler, here you go. It includes issue #300 of Legion of Super-Heroes, which is a blast.

Golden Age Sheena Queen of the Jungle – Okay, this actually came out a couple of weeks ago, but I wanted to mention its inclusion of pre-Code and post-Code versions of the same Sheena story, showing how a comic was rescripted to be more kid-safe and mother-approved. Though I doubt Mother would want Little Billy leering at Sheena’s shapely gams, regardless of how tame the dialogue was.

Anyway, I love these post/pre-Code comparisons. I think one or two popped up in the late and greatly lamented Tales Too Terrible to Tell as well. I’d dig a full book of these, I think.

I’ll stop talking about the Italian hypnotist-supervillain soon, I promise.

§ March 25th, 2008 § Filed under Uncategorized Comments Off on I’ll stop talking about the Italian hypnotist-supervillain soon, I promise.

So, from yesterday’s post, I did want to mention that I was going to note our Italian hypnotist-supervillain friend bore some slight resemblance to long-time DC nogoodnik Vandal Savage:

I didn’t bring it up, for whatever reason, but fortunately commenter Corey was first out the gate and noted it immediately.

Because, really, if there were going to be an Italian hypnotist-supervillian, wouldn’t he have to look like that?

Also, a few of you had some pretty good supervillain names for this guy, but I’m particularly struck by Dumma’s suggestion of “Mesmerollini.”

Okay, I know I’m going on about this perhaps a little too much, but c’mon…whadda story! If it turns out to be a hoax, I’m going to be terribly disappointed.

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In other news:

• Why is pal Dorian my pal? Because of stuff like this. And you should see the ones he didn’t post!
• Special “Links Stolen from the Mighty Tom Spurgeon” Section:

  First, DC has announced that some tasty hardcovers are headed our way. Noted in the article are deluxe hardcover editions of Camelot 3000 and the original classic Captain Marvel story The Monster Society of Evil, which folks seem to be pretty excited about. I’m interested in the Absolute Edition of Ronin, Frank Miller’s sci-fi/horror mini-series from the mid-’80s. Not that it needs better reproduction or anything…the paper it was originally printed on could probably withstand a nuclear attack, but “Absolute Edition” means BIGGER PAGES, and it’ll probably look stunning. Plus, I’m sorta curious about any kind of bonus material that could be provided.

  Also noted in the article is that one of the criteria for putting something into an Absolute edition is whether it could be used to promote other material being published by DC. Interesting, and I suppose it makes sense considering the likely expense in producing these things.

  Second link “borrowed” from Mr. Spurgeon: crazy huge Carl Barks reprints, at about $100 a pop for about 900 pages of comics per volume…ten volumes in all. These look like real bullet-stoppers, and will likely cut off all circulation in your legs if you try to read ’em while sitting on the couch. Tempting (the comics, not the lack of circulation), but I already collected all the Gladstone/Gemstone “Carl Barks in Color” volumes, and I’m not ready to do that again, better paper/coloring or not. They do look pretty nice, though.

• Jonah Hex and G.I. Joe’s Snake Eyes…separated at birth?
• Remember when I used to put some kind of “tag” or “watermark” or whatever on my images? I don’t do that anymore, mostly because I’m lazy, but it does help me notice when one of my old scans has gone walkabout, like in this Fark thread about a Salon review of The Ten Cent Plague. (It’s a Supergirl panel, just a few comments in.) It was an amusing surprise (and kudos on the fella for not trying to hotlink it…I don’t wanna pay for Fark traffic!).
• I promise never to say “gone walkabout” ever again.
• I better note it here, because I keep getting e-mails about it…if you want to watch the live-action Swamp Thing TV show online, well, your prayers are answered. And if you want to buy it (the first two seasons, anyway), well…hint hint:

• I’m one of the seven intellectuals in America! At least, according to this Zippy the Pinhead strip where he and Claude debate the merits of Nancy and Sluggo. (Thanks for Cole for the tip!)

In case you didn’t hear enough about Wizard World L.A., here’s more about Wizard World L.A.

§ March 18th, 2008 § Filed under Uncategorized Comments Off on In case you didn’t hear enough about Wizard World L.A., here’s more about Wizard World L.A.

I think I’ve mentioned before that what I usually do here on this site is write something up at night, timestamp it at a minute past midnight, and post it before going to bed. Then, in the morning, I can check and see all the comments, hate mail, etc. that my post had gathered in the intervening hours.

The one downside of that particular habit is that sometimes I’m too tired to really write anything, but find myself writing anyway, and that’s when the typos creep in. Well, sure, a typo here and there ain’t no big deal…everybody makes ’em. But that Wizard World post of mine from yesterday…woo boy, clearly Mr. Sandman was trying to drag me off to Dreamland when I was putting that post together, because every time I look at the damned thing, another stupid typo leaps out, slaps me across the face, and calls me “stupid.” For example, I used “write” when I meant “right.” I used “tales” when I meant “tails.”

So, any of you folks out there who popped by to read my thrilling tails…er, tales of convention adventure, and, after seeing all my stupid misspellings and typos and such, wondered “what the hell is this guy’s problem,” I apologize. I’ll try knot two due that again.

Let me get these last bits of convention stuff out of my system, if you all don’t mind.

For example, here’s some video footage from a previous convention of that Drunk Boba Fett that I apparently missed. I don’t know if it’s the same Drunk Boba Fett, but honestly, can there be more than one in the world? Thanks to “FoldedSoup” for cluing me in.

CW asks if that Hulk #1 Wizard variant was just a new cover, or if there was any new material. No, it appears to be the first issue as originally published, just with a new cover image and an ad for yet another Wizard World convention on the back.

Dwayne asks if the “crooked drunken Mounties” from the upcoming Jonah Hex illustrated by Darwyn Cooke is “triply redundant.” Hey, he said it, not me. I’ll direct you to a post by my Canadian twin for further information on crooked drunken Mounties, my friend.

And, Matt, Matt, Matt…you looked fine in that pic. Any problems with that photo are my fault. “It’s not you, baby, it’s me.” Also, thanks for describing me as the second best-dressed comics retailer you know. There’s no shame in being second to that natty James Sime.

Jimbo noted that I’d better not be jerkin’ him around on the Congorilla in the new Justice League thing, or there’s gonna be trouble. Well, okay, he didn’t put it like that, exactly. But, yes, as far as I can tell, James Robinson means it. I did have some day-after second thoughts, as thinking back on it, the reveal went something like this. They first said it was going to be a 90-year-old man named Bill. Then they said it would be Congo Bill. Then they dropped the Congorilla bomb. My confusion arose because I wasn’t sure if they simply mentioned Congorilla in the context of “yes, this is the same guy who used to be Congorilla, not that he’ll be in Congorilla form in the series,” or in the context of “he’s totally going to be Congorilla in the series…Batwoman and Congorilla, fighting side-by-side.” The latter is what we all want, of course. (Looking at this interview…by golly, that’s what we’re getting! Huzzah!)

And, yes, Nathaniel — CONGORILLA!

Other stuff:

• Pal Dorian posted more photos from the con, including one of the guy dressed as Superman. I don’t think he looked that bad…certainly not deserving of the dickitude of that one guy at the costume contest I mentioned yesterday. He certainly looks better than I would in spandex.

  The other photos include another shot of that great Wolverine outfit, and possibly the most menacing image of Electro and Hellcat from that con that you’ll see. Oh, and he’s got his Todd Nauck Wildcat sketch up.

• Dan Didio, as he usually does with at the end of his DC panels, I gather, had his “lightning round” of yes/no questions from the audience. When he tried to wrap things up on “the best question you guys got,” some wag asked if Bob Wayne would be writing a Time Masters 2. Only if the trade sells, came Wayne’s reply…who then encouraged said sales by whipping a copy of the book out of his pack and made sure everyone in the audience got a good look at it.
• Another amusing moment from that panel…when Robinson was talking about his forthcoming work, Didio (and, well, everyone else) was slightly baffled by the loud “banging” microphone noises. Until, eventually, it dawned on Didio that it was Robinson popping his “Ps” too close to his microphone, causing that obnoxious sound. Upon being notified of this, Robinson began speaking about his “purple Plastic Man figure.” Well, we all thought it was funny.
• Someone asked at the panel what the difference is between this new proactive Justice League title and the Batman and the Outsiders title was, since apparently both have similar concepts. My initial reaction was “the Justice League one would actually be good,” but that’s because I’m a jerk. The answer given was that the Outsiders were more about persuing Batman’s agenda, whereas the League would be more wide-ranging. Or, you know, something like that.

And that’s pretty much that. I’ll be back to my normal “all Nancy and Sluggo” format tomorrow, with any luck.

Wizard World L.A., the shocking aftermath.

§ March 17th, 2008 § Filed under Uncategorized Comments Off on Wizard World L.A., the shocking aftermath.

Well, that was certainly a convention.

So Saturday morning, pal Dorian, his boyfriend Pete, my girlfriend Nora, and I all piled into a car and made our way down to Los Angeles for the Wizard World convention, and aside from a minor incident involving a nasty bump in the road and a blown tire, it was a reasonably uneventful trip. (We didn’t notice a problem at first…there’s nothing quite like driving along and having everyone who passes you on your left honk at you and point in the general direction of your front left wheel.)

Anyway, we made it to the convention, waited in line for about five minutes to get our badges and our freebies…well, Pete and Nora got the freebies, since Dor and I had the comp tickets I got through the store…that was freebie enough, I guess. Which is okay, since Nora gave the freebie (a Hulk comic with a convention-exclusive cover) to me anyhow. You know, now that I think about it, I just realized I haven’t even looked at the comic, since I just tossed it in the bag on the way into the show. Lemme go take a look at it.

Oh good heavens.

Michael Turner, you’ve done it again! But, what the hell, it’s free. I was told by customer George, who had also attended the show, that there was a dealer there offering $10 to attendees for their copies of this comic.

It’s been a while since either Dor and I have been to a full-on comic book convention, so we were both a little overwhelmed at first. We just sorta wandered around aimlessly, poking in the occasional back issue box, looking at the folks wandering the convention in their Star Wars costumes (and there were a lot of Star Wars costumes), and seeking out the people we knew at the artists’ tables. Speaking of whom, I got to see longtime customer, now comics pro, Weshoyot at the Archaic table, sketching her little heart out. And I got to see this guy:

Because I take photos like Uwe Boll makes movies, I totally got a glare on the book, so here you go:

That man there is Matt Maxwell, comics blogger and writer, and he was nice enough to sign a copy of his book for me, as well as put up with my request to take a picture of him for my site. Anyway, everyone go look at the preview for Strangeways, and look for it on the shelves of your better comics shops by the end of this month.

My few passes though the artists’ alley netted me no appearance of Bob Burden, sadly, and I don’t think I ever spotted Keith Knight at his table, which is a shame. I met Knight several years ago at one of the Alternative Press Expos in San Jose, and we got to chat for a few minutes. He was a swell guy, and I wanted to say hello to him again at this con, but no luck. Ah, well. Just bad timing on my part, I think.

Once we settled down and stopped the aimless wandering, the delving into the actual comics began. I decided before even showing up I wasn’t going to spend a lot of money…I was going to look for cheap old stuff, which…yeah, okay, stop laughing out there, I know that “cheap old stuff” is a contradiction in terms when it comes to comic book conventions. Usually it’s the “antique shop” mentality at work: “Hey, it’s old, it’s gotta be expensive,” which I saw an awful lot of at the show. But I did find a few things, poking through some Silver Age and ’70s boxes which were marked down to 50% off (which in some cases meant the prices came down to what the books probably should actually have been selling for in the first place). I found a few Nancy & Sluggo books, as well as a nice copy of Turok #99. At another table I found a Fritzi Ritz #25, and my big splurge of the day was an Amazing World of DC Comics ‘zine for $15…probably too much, but I never see them anymore, and I don’t feel like competing in eBay auctions for them. Oh, and I also grabbed a DC Comics Presents #65 (Superman and Madame Xanadu) out of a dollar box, since I’ve been meaning to buy the stupid thing for years for the great Gray Morrow art.

Otherwise, it was a lot of window shopping…looking through boxes of ’40s and ’50s horror and romance comics was a lot of fun, seeing those great “Bride Romance”-type photo covers and wishing I had the cash to spend to bring them home with me. Oh well.

I’ve discovered, too, that I don’t have quite the patience I used to have to go through the countless boxes of bargain books. Maybe seeing the endless parade of Wolfpack depresses me. I did find a few random things for a buck each for the shop, however…some later Hellblazers, the first issue of the Married with Children…hey, it wasn’t much, but I can use ’em.

As a retailer-type person, I did have some concern on the behalf of some of the sellers here, particularly those who had hundred-dollar books just sitting out there, in the front of boxes at the edges of their tables, just waiting for someone to stroll on by and yank the comic when the guy behind the counter wasn’t looking. I know they have to have the books out for people to look at, but I can only hope they all kept a close eye on their stock. It made me nervous, and these weren’t even my comics.

And then there’s the new stuff, the recently-released comics that are still on most stores’ new arrivals shelves that some dealers have marked up at…adventurous prices. The new X-Force #1 at $6.50 surprised me a bit, and that one fellow who had Terry Moore’s new funnybook Echo marked at $6.00…wonder how many he sold. A Hulk #2 “variant 2nd printing” was also at the six buck mark. And the guy who had Locke & Key #1 at $5 — man, don’t get me started. Pal Dorian noted this too, but there was at least one table with the most recent issue of Buffy Season 8 marked at five bucks, with a little sign that read “BUFFY IS GAY!” Hey, you stay classy, comics industry.

The actual events and such at the show, we didn’t much take part in. There was a huge line for the Alyssa Milano appearance…I didn’t see her myself, but my girlfriend spotted her at some point and let me know that Milano was a tiny little wisp of a petite person, which, well, in case you were wondering. And I happened to see Lou Ferrigno wandering the floor, and I looked right at him and thought, “huh, I know that’s a famous person of some sort, but I wonder who it is?” Yes, that’s right, I didn’t immediately recognize Lou Ferrigno. I’ll turn in my nerd card right away. (But I did spot Jeph Loeb walking by while I was looking through a back issue bin…go figure.)

We did catch the costume contest, which was fairly entertaining. Alas, I was too far back in the crowd to get many photos, but Dorian got plenty of good ones, so I’ll link to his Flickr pages as appropriate.

The costumes on these two guys ruled:

That Jawa costume with the glowing eyes was disturbingly awesome, and that Optimus Prime get-up…that was the clear favorite of the crowd, and why he didn’t win the prize is beyond me. Some website or TV show or whatever interviewed “Optimus” after the contest, and ignored the actual winners as far as I can tell.

And who did win, you ask?

These cats:

Okay, granted, they were funny, and they totally played up the fakey Italian accents, and there was a nice bit where Luigi there was comparing his tiny mallet to the HUGE FREAKIN’ MALLET being wielded by a young lady dressed as Harley Quinn (whom you can see here smacking Peter in the stomach).

Other people I didn’t get good photos of, but Dorian did:

Elektro and Hellcat – “Elektro” actually had little electric buzzing/shocking/light-up bits in his fingertips which was a little scary and probably not entirely legal, but still looked neat. (You can kinda see it in action here.) And Hellcat’s costume worked out quite nicely as well…when they came onstage, there were a few cameras out for Elektro’s appearance, but the picture-taking came on full-force when Hellcat showed up, so I imagine you’ll be seeing some of those photos on your finer “mature interest” websites.

Green Hornet had a nice costume, I thought. Simple but elegant.

And here are Iron Fist and Harley.

We don’t have a photo of the guy dressed as Superman, but he was a…thinner fella, but he was game enough to show up in costume and have fun, but that didn’t stop some wag in the audience from shouting “more like Superboy!” which we all thought was kind of a dick thing to do.

There were a couple guys who didn’t take part in the costume contest, but were sort of hanging around it, like this excellent “Desert Storm” Wolverine:

Here’s another pic, this time posing with Dorian. No, Dorian isn’t doing anything salacious with Wolvie in the photo.

And then there’s this guy in the Hulk outfit, which just plain cracked me up:

And this fella was just part of the people wandering the convention in Star Wars costumes, but as long as I’m talking about costumes, I’ll put it here:

I mean, anyone can go to a show dressed as a run-of-the-mill Stormtrooper, but a Snowtrooper? That’s commitment, my friend.

And apparently there was someone at the show dressed as Drunk Boba Fett (wearing a leisure suit, carrying an ersatz martini, and wearing the Fett helmet) but I never saw him. Alas. Plus there was the assortment of catgirls, with the fuzzy ears and safety-pinned tails, some booth babes for a horror movie site who, I suppose, were technically clothed, and that one person who perhaps was a little too into The Matrix, and not only had the overcoat get-up, but even had a computer port tattoo on the back of the neck. Egads.

Also, no Klingons. Dammit.

We all wrapped up our day attending the DC Comics panel, where DC executive editor Dan Didio headed a discussion, accompanied by James Robinson, Bob Wayne, Darwyn Cooke, and, for some reason, a pretty young woman dressed as Evil Mary Marvel. Of note:

• New Justice League title, written by Robinson, featuring a more proactive team, and starring the Hal Jordan Green Lantern, Green Arrow (the Oliver Queen version), Ray Palmer (but not as the Atom), Supergirl, Freddie Freeman (as whatever he’ll eventually be called), Starman (not Jack Knight, but the blue one), Batwoman, and…believe it or not, Congorilla. Freakin’ Congorilla, man. Robinson promises that this will be everyone’s favorite character on the team within six months of the series’ debut. (EDIT: Though the name “Congorilla” was thrown out there, specifically he was originally described by Mr. Robinson as a “90-year-old man named Bill” — later revealed to be Congo Bill, “yes, Congorilla” as I believe Didio said. Dorian recorded the whole thing…we’ll check the tapes.) No artist announced, despite someone waving a ten dollar bill in the audience in an attempt to bribe the info out of Didio.
• Cooke will be drawing a Jonah Hex story set in Canada, featuring, quote, “crooked, drunken mounties.”
• The Arthur Curry Aquaman may reappear this year, as they’re trying to cook up a version that “works best for fans.”
• When Manhunter returns, they’ll have enough material in the can to avoid publishing delays. In fact, Didio specifically addressed the publishing delays issue they’ve been having, saying measures are being taken to correct this problem. I’ll believe it when I see it, frankly.
• It was hinted that some of the fake covers in the New Frontier special may actually become real published books.
• When Didio noted that they’re trying to create a “cohesive continuity,” Cooke openly laughed at him. “These panels are a gas,” says he.
• The Dr. Fate regular series is a no-go at this time, as it was to be written by Steve Gerber, spinning out of Countdown to Mystery. Didio felt it didn’t feel right to simply hand the title off to a new writer so soon after Gerber’s passing.
• Some plot points from Justice League of America #0 may be addressed in the 50-cent DC Universe #0, among other places.
• Someone asked if, with the current popularity of Sinestro, if the mini-series Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn II will be reissued. That resulted in an emphatic “NO” from pretty much the entire panel. They’re trying to forget that story, apparently.
• Question about Barry Allen’s return: Bob Wayne says, “if I say ‘yes,’ you’ll be disappointed, if I say ‘no,’ you’ll be disappointed. So, ‘no comment.'”
• And there was some fun had at Cooke’s expense, regarding his affinity for older material. When current DCU plans were being discussed, Cooke piped in saying he had no idea what anyone was talking about. “We send you a box [of comp books],” Didio said — “Do you even open it?”

Anyway, those were the things that stuck out. I imagine one of the comic news sites will have a more complete transcript of the events.

I honestly tried to think of a question to ask, but my brain kept revolving around Swamp Thing queries, and I didn’t really have any. It wasn’t until the drive home that I realized I should have asked: “Since All Star Batman and Robin is the finest book currently being published by DC, is it possible to keep Frank Miller and Jim Lee on the title for ever and ever?”

I’m sure I have more to say about the con at some point, but I’ve already gone on long enough for this installment. Overall, the show was fun, but I’m glad it’s over and done with. In the meantime, here’s Kid Chris’ con experience, as well as he and Dafna Trekkin’ out.

If I actually show up in that costume, you have my permission to beat me senseless.

§ February 8th, 2008 § Filed under Uncategorized Comments Off on If I actually show up in that costume, you have my permission to beat me senseless.

Okay, enough of the ’50s and ’60s Batman comics. For now, anyway.

• So what would Lost star Josh Holloway look like as DC Comics’ Jonah Hex? Darned frightening, that’s what he’d look like.
• See, I did manage to sell a copy of Gene Simmons’ Zipper. Okay, not at our store, but still…
• I’ve seen a couple of links, here and there, to this article about Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonists contributing to a forthcoming issue of Mad Magazine. The bit of the article that gets me is near the end, where representatives of the mag claim the average age of its readers is 26 years old (median 19).

  My initial reading period of Mad was from when I was about 7 years old ’til I was about 11 or 12 years old, and I guess, because of that, I’d assumed that’s about the same period most kids discover and read Mad, and thus made up the bulk of its readership. I suppose nowadays there a lot more folks like me in their readership, who read Mad as a kid, and just (relatively) recently started picking it up again, and not as many people getting exposed to it, and picking it up, at an early age.

  Or maybe it was always something older kids read, and much younger kids (like I was, once, centuries ago) were the exception. I really don’t know.

• If you happen to be in Santa Rosa, CA this coming Saturday, why not drop by the Schulz Museum and say “howdy” to pal Nat, who’ll be the Cartoonist in Residence for that day. Check that second link for details.
• Apparently there was yet another discussion about lightsabers vs. Superman, and a commenter there with a long memory linked back to my post about finding a fantastic message board discussion on the topic. (Or, rather, a “Jedi Vs. Superman” discussion, which, inevitably, brought us to the brilliance of the “Kryptonite lightsaber.”) After the debate continues in the comments, someone worries “you’re really trying to get Mike Sterling to laugh at us,” but he needn’t worry. At this point, there’s nothing left but tears.

  I’m reminded, in a way, of a minor plot aside in an episode of (I believe) Angel, where two characters go on and on arguing about who would win in a fight…cavemen or astronauts. This apparently was based on real behind-the-scenes activity on the show, where that topic was brought up, decried as being “a really stupid thing to talk about,” and yet, the concept wormed its way into everyone’s head, and everyone suddenly had a strong argument for their position, pro-astronaut or pro-caveman.

  I think “Superman Vs. Jedi” has the potential to be another one of these mind-grabbers. Something you don’t want to have an opinion on, but sooner or later…you will.

  And if you have to discuss it on my site, for God’s sake, continue in the comments section for my original post.

• Dafna at the Bispectacult recently posted a Youtube video featuring a musical adaptation of a Jack Chick religious tract. It’s not too much different from the actual comic.
• Employee Aaron (looking through the preview copy of Millar and Hitch’s Fantastic Four comic…due out next week, effendi!): “So, what’s the big deal about this comic again?”

  Me: “It has a lot of splash pages.”

  Aaron: “Oh.”

• Happy Blogiversary to my Blogging Neighbor only about 45 minutes north of me…Carla at Snap Judgments!
• Tim O’Neil comments on a couple of recent quiet moments in superhero books.
• Ken has a few words about super-fans (i.e. the ones who lack any sense of perspective and self-awareness, not people like me or you, my fine, upstanding, intelligent, Mike’s-Amazon.com-link-using readers), and Bitterandrew also has a few allegory-tastic words along those same lines.
• At the shop, I mentioned in passing that I may — may — be going to the Los Angeles Wizard World convention in March, and a customer asked if I’d be going in costume. I replied “Yes…I’ll be dressed as a Klingon who’s dressed as a Stormtrooper.”

  Employee Aaron was apparently amused enough by this concept to knock out a quickie preliminary sketch:

  
  I really need to give that boy more to do at the store.