I know you’ve already heard about this elsewhere by now, but imagine my surprise Sunday, when I checked our e-mailed Diamond invoice for items arriving this week and found that we’re receiving about 8% of our order for Civil War #6. Like the problems with the DC Comics from last week, west coast retailers are receiving allocated orders on this comic.

As soon as I saw that on the invoice, I suddenly had a vision of what the following week of work was going to be like. Customer after customer, coming in the store expecting the new Civil War, wondering where it is, and my having to explain repeatedly what happened. And, as usual, there’s always that small percentage of folks who’ll get mad at us, like it’s our fault, or assume we’re lying and move on to another comic shop (where they won’t find it, either, probably).

Sigh. So it’s not bad enough the series is behind schedule in the first place, but now we’ve got to wait an extra week while we take the brunt of our customers’ annoyance.

Well, maybe I can take the opportunity to sell them some good comics.

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A quick weblog note: Noetic Concordance has started up again, kicking off the new year with his favorite comics of 2006.

Also, pal Tom just posted his 2006 movie round-up, which you should read. Or else.

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Here, have a random comic book reference in the middle of this analysis of the U.S.’s military forces:

“There might be those who liken the reality of President Bush’s predicament with a DC Comics event in 2002 intended to promote a series of comic books. ‘Power Surge’ was composed of seven eponymous one-shot issues involving participation by classic cartoon characters such as ‘Batman’ and then ‘Wonder Woman’ and others such as ‘The Justice League.’

Or there might not.

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Apparently I’m not the only one who expressed doubts at the viability of the Who Wants to Be A Superhero comic being released so long after the conclusion of the TV series: via Johanna we see that the comic’s publisher, Dark Horse, has pushed back its release to tie into the show’s second season.

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This video is pretty rough going, but about halfway through there’s a sequence of Batman TV show style sound effects that made me laugh:

And I really don’t want to know what that one guy is doing to that pole in the latter half of the video.

Okay, I’ve been stalling on the 2006 review because 1) I’m terrible at remembering what’s gone on over the last year, and 2) pal Dorian already hit some of the points I wanted to make. But, I’ll give it a go anyway:

Favorite comics: Gumby by Bob Burden and Rick Geary (bizarre but innocent fun), Dork #11 (Evan Dorkin hits you with gag after gag after gag after gag….), All Star Superman (only a few issues out this year, but beautifully written and drawn), Elephantmen (for a sci-fi comic about genetically engineered humanoid animals, it’s oddly touching), Schizo #4 (Ivan Brunetti’s long awaited strip collection), 52 (sometimes uneven, but mostly successful in sustaining its narrative on a weekly basis), Nextwave (treats Marvel superhero clichés with the respect they deserve), All Star Batman and Robin (only one issue this year, but it’s a year’s worth of entertainment!), Solo #11 (the all-Sergio Aragones ish), and I’m sure I’m forgetting something….

Favorite trade paperback/graphic novel: I think at the top of the list is Rick Veitch’s Abraxas and the Earthman, compiling the serialized story from Marvel’s Epic Illustrated magazine. I’d been waiting for this collection for years, and now that it’s here, it doesn’t disappoint…just as colorful and weird as I remember.

I also enjoyed Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall, Gilbert Hernandez’s New Tales of Old Palomar, Acme Novelty Library #17, and the latest Kim Deitch collection Shadowland.

Favorite reprints: I’m going to have to go with Dark Horse’s Little Lulu volumes again. Each one is an absolute gem. The color special released this year was especially nice.

Favorite comic strip collection: While Fantagraphics’ Peanuts collections are still just dandy, I’m giving the nod to their Popeye hardcover, if only because now I don’t need to search on the eBay for the original Popeye albums.

Biggest surprise: Stealth Swamp Thing appearances in the DC Universe (his hand in Infinite Crisis, an old ST villain in All-New Atom), and maybe something in the new issue of Justice League of America, I’m assuming, since it was hinted at by that commenter, but I won’t know until I actually receive that issue at the shop.

Another fine surprise was the creator of Gantar the Last Nabu finding this old post of mine, leaving a comment with additional information about the comic. I’m fascinated by the black and white boom and always appreciate getting background info on the books from the people who were there.

Yet another welcome surprise was a regular reader of this site being kind enough to send to me third volume of the Critic’s Choice: Swamp Thing series (the first two discussed here), which I didn’t even know existed. Wow.

And then there’s this thing, where someone used my comments section to unload some Civil War spoilers, before the first issue had even shipped.

Biggest disappointment: Cancellation of the long awaited Swampmen book from Twomorrows. NOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Online trends that need to stop: Blogging. I mean, c’mon, don’t we all have better things to be doing with our time? Okay, that and jokes about “Earth-Prime Superboy punching continuity.” That one’s getting a little threadbare.

Best comic book related toy: There is nothing better than the Watcher figure. The MODOK figure comes close, but loses points by being pieced out in a half-dozen or so other action figure packages. I don’t want to buy a bunch of toys I don’t want just so I can have a bad-ass MODOK figure. I mean, honestly.

Best comics related thingie in another medium: The Visions of Frank DVD, with many varying interpretations of Jim Woodring’s silent cat character. Weird and beautiful.

Appalling discovery of the year: Not only are there extensive debates about who’s more powerful, Superman or the Dragonball cartoon character Goku, but that people are honest-to-God serious about it. I ran into one of these people in person…and no, they’re not joking. (Superman is more powerful, by the way.)

Second biggest disappointment: Yahoo “upgrading” their pinging service, which has broken the Comics Weblog Update-A-Tron 3000. Well, poop.

Screw-up of the year: Hard to decide: leaving off the text intro to Alan Moore’s Superman story in the trade reprint was pretty bad, and the utter incompetence evident in the Ultimate Avengers DVD pop-up commentary is just embarrassing.

But I think it needs to go to the lateness issues surrounding Civil War and its impact on the rest of Marvel’s publishing line. Pal Dorian covered it pretty succinctly, but if you want to see me make the same points in a more longwinded fashion, here’s something I wrote for Comic Book Galaxy.

Narrowly-averted crisis of the year: THE RETURN OF POGS. At least, they didn’t catch on ’round here. If they’re popular in your neighborhood…don’t tell me. Let me live on in blissful ignorance.

Favorite “meme:” Look no further than this thing Dorian unleashed upon us all.

Favorite online discussion: The whole “Superman versus Jedis” thing that ended with one of the all-time great creations – the Kryptonite Lightsabre.

Favorite weblog: MINE. That’s it, just me. Forget you guys.

…Oh, you know I’m just joking. As always, I waffle on picking just one, since I love you all. Well, “like” you all. Okay, “tolerate.” But I’m giving special attention to Dirk Deppey and Journalista, which made its welcome return this year. Along with the always essential Comics Reporter, that’s just about all the comic news you can use. Or stand.

And I’m still a big fan of Chris Karath’s site. He has a new URL now, you know.

So Kid Chris pops by the shop and tells me 1) he bought his new comics somewhere else, the lousy no-good askljflffd — and 2) that he encountered a parallel universe version of me working at another comic shop. As Swamp Thing is my favorite comic book character, this other fellow’s favorite character is Marvel’s swamp creature Man-Thing.

Clearly, we’re going to have to have a crossover, where my counterpart and I encounter each other and immediately fight, only to realize that we’re on the same side and that we have to team up and fight a common foe: a guy whose favorite comic book character is the Heap.

Anyway, that’s enough reason for me to run this Comics Buyer’s Guide cover again:

As a side note, this counterpart of mine is apparently clean-shaven, while I wear a goatee, which means on the Star Trek “Mirror Universe” scale that I’m the evil one.

As a side-side note…I was talking with pal Dorian on Saturday about how there should be a variation on the common usage of Godwin’s Law, in regards to Star Trek. Something like: “If Star Trek is invoked in a discussion that has nothing to do with Star Trek, then [something].” I’m wavering between “the discussion is pretty much over” and “the invoker shall be pointed at and mocked accordingly.”

And I’m saying this as a Star Trek fan who brings up the franchise all the time on my site. It’s too late for me…SAVE YOURSELF. (And too late for Kid Chris, who was wearing his gold Classic Trek captain’s shirt the day he told me about the Man-Thing fan.)

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I was processing a collection today that we acquired from a customer who used to do his funnybook buying from our (now several years gone) crosstown competition. This other store used to seal their back issue bags with a large sticker with their name, address and phone number. And that reminded me of how, shortly after that other store opened, a lot of those stickers just happened to suddenly appear up and down our block, stuck near public phones, on light poles, and so on.

But then, we stuck a deal with a fast food joint, in the same shopping center where they were located, to distribute coupons for our store. Comics business in the ’90s: cutthroat and heartless.

Every once in a while I feel like discussing the half-dozen or so other stores that popped up in our general area during that brief period of time when comics were HOT and COLLECTIBLE and VALUABLE and MOSTLY NOT VERY GOOD and VASTLY OVERPRIN–I mean, HOT and COLLECTIBLE. But, nah, I never see any reason to go into excessive detail…I can’t blame folks for trying to make a buck, and, at the time, the comics business seemed like (and was) a lucrative way to make a living. And you all know how the story ends (comic market crashes, nearly takes entire industry with it).

Let me just leave it at “there, but for the grace of God….”

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For some reason, I was also reminded of some comic fanzines I purchased some years back from a particular mail order comic company, whose idea of “Mint” apparently included “Has colored stickers applied directly to the face of the scuffed front cover.” Luckily, I paid next to nothing for these items, and I’m not especially picky on my fanzine conditions (I’ll accept “readable” and “no cat pee”), but still, that didn’t fill me with confidence in regards to any other “Mint” items they may have had for sale.

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A sad farewell to Filing Cabinet of the Damned, one of the good’uns in the comicsweblogosphere, which is ending its two year run. Best wishes to you, Mr. Jerkwater!

“SUPERMAN AND SUPERGIRL THIMBLES – THIMBLE PAIR” – If you’re gonna protect your thumbs from the needle-pricking, let a couple of invulnerable Kryptonians do the job:

“Vintage Superman TV Tray with Stand” – I would have loved to have had one of these as a kid. Heck, I’d love to have one now:

“~SUPERMAN~HERMIT CRAB SHELL~PAINTED SEASHELLS~” – “NON-TOXIC HERMIT CRAB FRIENDLY PAINT USED,” thank goodness:

“SUPERMAN ICE BLING HIP HOP RAPPER LIGHTER GIFT BOX” – “BRAND NEW Bling-bling LIGHTER […] Shiny white genuine Stones, bling-bling,” as the kids say:

“Superman Ice Bling Hip Hop Rapper Lighter Gift Box.” It’s…it’s like poetry.

So I got a whole five comics (or six…see #5) for myself this New Comics Day:

1. Nextwave: Agents of Hate #11 – Some people may complain about the series of six two-page spreads featuring the Nextwave team fighting various groups of threats. I am not one of those people. These is a lot of joy and silliness in those pages (Kev’s got a sample) that rewards re-reviewing and extensive contemplation.

This comic is worth a thousand Onslaught Reborns.

2. 52 #34 – Origin of Zatanna drawn by Brian Bolland. Fantastic. (Here’s another classic Zatanna by Bolland image, in case you don’t know what I’m talking about. And how could you not?)

3. Love & Rockets #18 – Gilbert namedrops my place of employment on page 21:

4. Justice #9 – I enjoy the series, mostly, though occasionally Alex Ross’ not-so-subtle “here’s what the DC Universe should be like!” undertones are a bit distracting. But I do like this cover.

5. Ah, the Gumby quandary. Now, the new Gumby comic by Flaming Carrot’s Bob Burden and Rick Geary is a thing of beauty and genius. People may try to do bizarre comics, but Bob Burden is bizarre comics, somehow made even more strange by trying to make this comic an all-ages adventure.

Now, the quandary is this: issue #2 of Gumby has, God help us, a variant cover drawn by Burden:

Which is odd and great, of course, but here’s Rick Geary’s cover for the “regular” edition:

…which features Golem Gumby, complete with the Hebrew word Emet on his head:

I may actually have to buy both the regular cover and the variant cover of a comic. They’ve finally found a way to make me do it. Yeah, I could just save the scan, but then I wouldn’t have my fetishized collectible object. Don’t judge me, you.

And here’s an image from Supergirl #13, which I didn’t buy, but I happened to flip through and saw this:

Um, yeah, okay.

Also, for whatever reason a number of DC Comics that made it to shops everywhere else didn’t get to several Southern California accounts. We were shorted over 2/3rds of our Justice order, and we received no copies of Justice League of America #5 (among others), which apparently has something in there I should see. We did receive about a dozen or so DCs, which is better than some stores which, apparently, only received two or three titles.

That’s okay, since Marvel made up for it by publishing about a thousand books this week. Remember when the period between Christmas and New Year’s was a dead week for comics?

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In other news, pal Dorian has another of his inimitable end-of-year award wrap-ups. Well, it’ll be imitated a little, since I’ll be getting around to mine next Monday (hopefully) and, um, I’m going to have to find a way to say the same thing about Civil War without stepping on any toes, there.

You have to go see Dorian’s artwork, though.

(via Alex Segura, who’s going to pay for this, oh yes)

One of the gifts I received for Christmas was the Mel Brooks Boxed Collection DVD set, given to me by my mother, which reminds me that I probably never shared with you, the semi–loyal and occasionally–sober Progressive Ruin readers, one of my favorite movie-going experiences:

Now, Mel Brooks’ Robin Hood: Men in Tights will probably never be referred to as one of Brooks’ major achievements, but it was a relatively amusing spoof of Kevin Costner’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (which itself wasn’t terrible, but certainly not a patch on Errol Flynn’s version).

However, that same weekend my girlfriend and I went to see Robin Hood: Men in Tights, there was a festival at our local marina, and as part of that festival there was an ersatz pirate ship, manned by dozens of folks in piratey costumes, doing piratey things. And, after the festival closed up shop for the night, those pirate folks went looking for some fine evening entertainment…and they all wound up at the very same showing of Robin Hood: Men in Tights that we attended. Me and my girlfriend, surrounded by dozens of rowdy folks in pirate costumes.

My initial response was “well, better go get a refund on the tickets, because there’s no way we’re going to be able to watch the movie with this noisy crowd,” but for whatever reason we decided to stay and see if things quieted down.

Well, as it turned out, it didn’t quiet down, but that ended up being okay, as our pirate pals were really into the movie. They cheered at all the right spots, they groaned at the awful puns, and just plain enjoyed the film. (One particular example I remember was when Robin Hood (Cary Elwes) says to the camera “Unlike some other Robin Hoods, I can speak with an English accent,” the entire audience let out a loud “ooooooOOOOOOOOooooooh!”) It was darned infectious, this joy was, and and it basically took what would have been an average film-going experience and turned it into a real blast.

Believe me, it was vastly preferable to the vast sea of cell phone lights that seem to pollute any movie-going experience I have nowadays. Even now I think to myself, at pretty much any movie I go to, “how much more would I enjoy this film if there were a crowd of pirates here with me?”

In fact, if you plan on attending any movies, do your best to share a theatre with a bunch of folks dressed as pirates. I highly recommend it.

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By the way, in that Wikipedia entry about the Brooks film, they mention that they change the “English accent” line for some other countries. The German joke is pretty good (“Because I, unlike some other Robin Hoods, do not cost the producers 5 million”), but man, the French and the Italians get shafted with their versions of the gag, referring to Costner’s earlier hit (“Because unlike other Robin Hoods, I do not dance with the wolves”). Unless there’s some cultural thing, or word play in those languages, that this ugly American is not aware of that makes it funny…that joke’s pretty lame.

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Okay, here’s a little bit of comic book news:

“‘Civil War’ best comic book series of the year”

“1. Civil War (Marvel Comics): The best comics always hold a mirror to society. In this stark and tightly written miniseries, superheroes had to determine among themselves why they do what they do. […] Civil War is a thought-provoking nail-biter.”

Aaaaaaaand…DISCUSS.