Okay, now I’ve been avoiding buying Back Issue, yet another in the Twomorrows line of comics history/interview mags, since, well, trying to plow though Alter Ego each month is enough of a challenge without adding another similar mag to the readin’ pile. However, I’m weakening…a Back Issue from a couple months ago had an article or two on Swamp Thing, and I’m sure most of you out there know how I like the Swamp Thing.

And the new issue, #9, is out today…well, here’s a quick rundown of the issue’s contents:

An interview with Mike Baron and Steve Rude about working on Nexus

– A publishing history of Grimjack

– Sketch pages by Gil Kane

– An in-depth look at Marvel’s Star Wars comics

– Another interview, this time with Jim Starlin and Mike Mignola on their DC mini-series Cosmic Odyssey

– The Greatest Stories Never Told: DC’s Crisis on Infinite Earths follow-up, Crisis of the Soul!

Goodness me, I had to buy this issue.

Also out today is the third volume of It’s Science with Dr. Radium, cartooned by this fine fellow. Enjoy this preview if you need some convincing. I read most (if not all) of this stuff as it was coming out originally, and, let me assure you, it’s mighty funny.

Oh, and a lot of funnybooks came out today, too…I’ll discuss ’em all tomorrow. Hoo, boy.

And while I’m at it: dear Credit Card Machine gods…please stop making our card reader lose its programming for no good reason whatsoever during one of our busiest shopping days of the week. Thank you.

Macabre #3 (January 1989) – art by Rob Silverton

Yes, but how are those heads floati…um, never mind, I don’t want to know.

I should point out that Tom of Comics Ate My Brain posted his own thoughts on Star Trek‘s future a couple days ago. As to the likely resistance to recasting the original trio of Kirk, Spock and McCoy that Tom mentions…my idea of a new animated series could probably get around that, casting voice-a-likes should any theoretical animated series go in that direction. (Ideally, the cartoon I’m sorta envisioning would go in an entirely new direction, with new characters, in an attempt to give the franchise a fresh start.) The hardcore Trek fans would probably object, but as has been noted by others in the past, those are the people you need to ignore in order to kickstart the franchise again with a potentially wider audience.

Oh, and to clear things up a bit since, as Rick correctly notes, I didn’t exactly pin down my feelings about First Contact: I think it’s great. It’s fast-paced, a lot of fun, and has a more natural sense of humor (as opposed to some of the forced humor of the later films). In fact, the DVD is on “pause” right now in the other room while I take a short break to type up this post.

In fact, I like all the Trek movies (yes, even this one)…I’m just a big ol’ Trek nerd at heart. I’ve been buying these “collector’s edition” DVDs as they’ve been coming out, and they really are something else…the text commentaries that run in conjunction with the films are a particular favorite feature of these new releases.

I’ve been avoiding the season releases of the multiple TV series as those are a bottomless pit I’d just as soon not fall into…especially since there’s about a five minute gap between each new set arriving on the shelves. I may someday get the Classic series, since there are only three sets of those, and really, Trek never got much better than its original incarnation. I like the other series, but I don’t need to own every single episode…maybe once they perfect the “DVD on Demand” technology, so I can buy only the episodes I want on individually-manufactured discs, I’ll start picking up some of those Next Generations I really liked.

Okay, that’s enough nerd talk…I’m back to comics tomorrow, I promise! (“…He said with absolutely no ironic self-awareness whatsoever.”)

Special thanks to commenters Bob and Tim for providing additional information on cover dates and newsstand distribution!

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Your “Wow! Wish I’d thought of that” link of the day: Filing Cabinet of the Damned’s overview of comic publishing lines of yesteryear. I don’t necessarily share all his opinions (I’m a little more favorably inclined toward early Valiant comics, for example) but still, nicely done.

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New DVD releases today: The Incredibles is out, with a remarkably short turnaround between theatrical release and home release. I still haven’t seen it, but I think I’ll add it to the Netflix queue and give it a go.

Also out is the new “collector’s edition” DVD of Star Trek: First Contact, which is generally among Trek fans’ top three films of the series (along with Star Trek V: Hey, Didn’t We Rocket-Boot Past The Same Deck Twice? and Star Trek I: A Three-Hour Tour).

The only reason I really bring up the Star Trek disc is that it reminded me of a conversation I had with fellow comics emporium worker Kid Chris the other day. I was mentioning that I’d like to see the Star Trek animated series on DVD someday, when it suddenly came to me – HOW TO SAVE STAR TREK:

Give it to the people who do the Star Wars: Clone Wars cartoon.

This may be the only way, at this point in the franchise’s history, to get new blood (i.e. kids) interested in Trek, since the primary Trek fanbase is 1) giving up on the TV shows and movies, or 2) dying off. The Clone Wars cartoon has apparently inspired kids to start seeking out the ancillary Clone Wars merchandise, including the comics…something I didn’t see too much of during the runs of Episodes I & II. Maybe a new Star Trek cartoon may have the same effect.

Hell, can’t hurt.

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Just noticed that the DC soliciations are up. C’mon, who’s not going to want a Joker in a Santa hat action figure for Christmas?

Archie’s T.V. Laugh-Out #100 (April 1985) – art by Dan DeCarlo

Thought maybe you all would like to see Archie Comics’ tribute to the King of Pop – by whom I mean Michael Jackson, not Glenn Scarpelli (whom I’ll discuss in a moment). The lead story revolves around the Archie gang encountering “Jackie Maxon,” a Jackson-a-like who shares Jackson’s love for animals:

At any rate, as Jackie is thanking the Archies for performing as the opening band at his show, he accidentally drops and leaves behind what appears to be his private diary, which, apparently just like the real Michael Jackson, he carries with him everywhere. Eager to keep this journal from falling into the wrong hands (i.e. “Ed Sleaze,” a tabloid muckracker), the gang treks to Maxon’s spacious estate to return the book. After a series of misadventures, they finally reach Maxon…who reveals that it’s not a diary, but a book of “special food formulas for the different animals” in his zoo!

The second story stars Glenn Scarpelli, one of the stars of the sitcom One Day at a Time. If that seems like an odd person to be featured in an Archie comic, all becomes clear once you realize he’s the son of longtime Archie cartoonist Henry Scarpelli. And yes, Henry is responsible for this story, where Glenn’s car has broken down and he has to hitch a ride:

Fleeing from these girl groupies (uh…what?), Glenn finds himself lost in the forest, facing off against a bear, and finally, after hiking through the woods all night, happens upon a remote gas station. Unfortunately, the attendant doesn’t believe that this disheveled mess could possibly be the real Glenn Scarpelli:

Poor Glenn is stuck in a nightmare, where no one recognizes him! Not the attendant, not the dad ‘n’ daughter who take pity on him and give him a ride, not even his faithful butler Otto whom he manages to call with the quarter the gas attendant gave him. Luckily, it turns out that it really was a nightmare, as Glenn wakes in his own bed, back in a world where everyone recognizes him as the famous Glenn Scarpelli.

Anyway, inspired by something pal JP mentioned to me as we were talking about this comic a couple days ago, I did a Google search on Mr. Scarpelli. Of course, there’s the inevitable Internet Movie Database entry, and here’s an article from last year about Mr. Scarpelli’s latest TV project.

Thanks to everyone for the kind birthday wishes, both in my comments and via e-mail.

While I was at work today, I just happened to be sorting through some of our Amazing Spider-Man backstock and found another copy of #73. Like the one I posted earlier, this copy also had a “MAR 13” cover date stamp, but in a different typeface from the first. So, there we go…about as good as a confirmation as I’m going to get that this issue of Amazing Spider-Man did indeed come out on the day I was born. Cool. Now if I could only find some other comic released on my birthday….

A couple people have asked me why the printed cover dates are so far off from the actual release date…well, I have read a couple reasons why, and I thought I’d note them here. I’m no expert on this particular aspect of comicdom, so if someone has a better, or at least an additional, explanation, feel free to chime in.

1. To trick the retailer into keeping the comic on the stands longer. You know, March rolls around, it’s time to take the February issues off the stands, but this here copy of the True Bride-to-Be Romances comic has a cover date of June. Better keep that one on the rack! Well, I’m not sure how successful a tactic that was, though it must have caused some retailers a minor bit of confusion. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have copies of old comics now with the actual arrival dates written or stamped on the cover.

Nowadays, of course, that almost certainly doesn’t work on most comic store retailers, since, at least in our case, we keep very detailed cycle sheets tracking what came in when and how it’s selling. At the very least, you know to take the old one off the rack when the new issue comes in. For comics sold on newsstands, they still have the color-coded bars at the top of the pages which tell those retailers when to cycle out the books, bypassing the need for the cover dates entirely. (You can find more info on this here, under “3-17” near the bottom of the page.)

2. To create the psychological perception of “newness” to the reader. Well, it wasn’t worded exactly like that when I came across this explanation, but that’s the gist of it. It was felt that maybe a kid trying to choose which comic to spend his 15 cents on would lean toward the comic that was the “newer” issue. You know, passing up the September issue of Avengers for the October issue of Superman, even though both may have been released more or less at about the same time. I never really quite bought that idea, since a kid that likes the Avengers is going to buy the Avengers, regardless if there are newer books on the stands.

3. Stuff happens. You know, behind the scenes shenanigans, shipping skip weeks, missed deadlines or something ships ahead of time…and the next thing you know, issues cover dated November are coming out in August. Okay, that’s more likely today than in the ’50s or ’60s, but more along the lines of comics dated, say, November ’04 coming out in August ’05.

Anyway, whatever the reason, it hardly matters anymore. Once in a blue moon I have someone ask me for a comic by a specific month – “do you have the April Cable & Deadpool?” – as most people just go by the issue numbers (at least in the direct market).

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Again, thank you for the birthday well-wishes…and be sure to think happy thoughts for my sister, whose birthday is the 14th!

Funny, disturbing, and probably better than the movie we’re actually getting: Bil Keane’s Sin City.

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Coming eventually: Bernie Wrightson’s FRANKENSTEIN: THE ULTIMATE EDITION. Your first thought might be the same as mine – “what, again?” – but read the info page. This project sounds like it’ll be quite the must-have (and incredibly expensive) item. It’s a very long term project, as they’re still looking for some of Wrightson’s original art to scan. If you happen to be holding some of these originals, please get in contact with the publishers through the e-mail addresses on the aforementioned info page. (Via, God help me, Ain’t It Cool News)

Comic book stores serviced by Diamond Distribution (i.e. pretty much all of them) receive each year a Diamond wall calendar, with each month shilling for a different comic title/company/product line. March is Disney Comics month, and the calendar features the following blurb:

“And – in answer to numerous fan requests – look for a special edition of The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck this year. All twelve original chapters of this Eisner Award winning series by Don Rosa will be collected into one 200-plus page squarebound book that is sure to please Scrooge fans of all ages.”

Well, hey, that’s pretty cool.

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Via pal JP: Rex Morgan Talks…About Your Unborn Child.

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And now…another moment with Cap and the Falcon.

1. If I were to answer with “it’s because this scene is from a JLA/JSA crossover and both the Earth-One Superman and the Earth-Two Superman are at the funeral,” would that be too nerdy of me?

2. Oops…it was pal Corey who said that the new Demon comic looked like Jason Blood was doing the Angel thing, not pal Dorian like I said somewhere in this big freakin’ post.

3. Speaking of pal Dorian:

D: “Hey, you should do an all-manga week on your weblog. It’d be funny.”

M: “What would I do?” ‘Hey, what the heck’s going on in this comic? What’s with all the pantie-shots?'”

D: “See? It’ll be great.”

4. Spider Jerusalem’s cat born in Florida. (via Fark)