CUP o' KRYPTONITE

New Location and Events at the New Site

The transition down to the Des Moines Social Club is nearly complete.  We’ll be open at the new location on Wednesday, April 23^rd bright and early.  Hours at the new shop will be 6:00am to 10:00pm weekdays and 7:00am to 10:00pm weekends.  The phone number stays the same – (515) 979-4144.  Emails are transitioning and for the mean time comic questions can still be sent to the same address.

If you like events, there will be several over the next month.

Free Comic Book Day will be held, as we have done in the past, at 12:01am on May 3^rd, party on Friday the 3^rd as well as bright and early the next morning too.

There are also plans for a Des Moines Social Club big giant Grand Opening too.  That is planned for May 10^th.  There are a lot things planned for that night, including a keynote address by David Byrne (he formerly of the Talking Heads.)  He’ll talk about his experiences in Des Moines and the importance of the Arts in a city.  For more info: http://firehouse.desmoinessocialclub.org/grand-opening-party/

Yes, Capes Kafe is a new name, but it’s the same thing.

Many have asked about the name change.  Yes, the name is changing, to Capes Kafe, but this is the same business and in many respects it is just a reverting back to the original idea the shop had twelve years ago – a coffee shop with comics.  Over the years, we have tried a great deal of things; businesses need to do this to keep going.  We never wanted to give up selling coffee, but the city had other ideas with grease interceptors and whathaveyou.  This is a rebirth of the original idea, in a better location, it just has a different name.

Kyle B’s – Retro Review of Captain America the Winter Soldier

By now you may have seen the Blockbuster hit movie Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier, which may have been the best of the Marvel Studios movie adoptions, in the sense it stayed true to its title character.  I love Captain America, he is a close second to Superman as my favorite character of all time, and while the film Man of Steel completely missed the mark on capturing the essence of Superman, Captain America 2 nailed what the character of Captain America is.  The movie may have a few other issues, but being true to the character is not one of them.  However, this isn’t a movie review; I’m here to talk about comics, so let’s take a look at the story arc that inspired the blockbuster movie.

Ed Brubaker had a very lengthy and critically acclaimed run on Captain America that lasted about 8 years, and he kicked it off in style with his Winter Soldier arc which spanned the first 14 issues of his run. He starts his run in a dark era.  Captain America was at a low point, struggling with how dark and twisted the world around him has become and must now track down the Red Skull who has escaped prison and may have gotten his hands on the Cosmic Cube.

His hunt for the Skull takes a total 180 degree turn as the Skull is found assassinated and the Cube missing.  Cap must then turn his search to finding the man capable of pulling off such a feat and stop whatever plans he has for the sinister cosmic cube.  Enter the Winter Soldier, a mysterious legendary assassin in the intelligence community.  The strongest and most effective tool the Russians had during the Cold War.  In case for some reason you don’t know the true identity of the man behind the mask, I’ll prevent spoiling it for you in this article, but just know that he is the most personal of Captain America’s villains and makes for one great character dynamic with loads of tension as the arc progresses.

When I originally read this arc back in 2005 and 2006, I was blown away.  It was some ground breaking stuff, so I was interested to see what I’d think when I came back and revisited it years later.  Obviously knowing the identity of the Winter Soldier took some of the mystery and tension out of those first few issues as the story builds around this assassin’s mysterious identity and past, but the story still holds up pretty well.

My one gripe would be the darkness of the story and the effect that has on Cap.  Now there is a reason for this, which would pay off in the future, so I understand Brubaker’s motivations for painting the world and Cap this way since we know there is a payoff coming a year later in Brubaker’s run (I’ve read that he was plotting Cap 3 years in advance to what was hitting shelves).  However, even knowing what’s coming, it still bothered me a little bit that Captain America seemed jaded at times, it works well within the story, and the Marvel Universe at the time, but reading it now, looking at the story from 2014 Comic’s Industry Goggles – where it seems nothing but dark jaded versions of Superheroes exist – I hate to see Captain America start to approach that same dark territory, even when it is handled much, much better by Brubaker in this case.  Other than that minor complaint, which is more of a personal bias than an actual issue with the story quality, this run is near perfect.

The art on the story is pretty stellar too; it captures the tone of the story very well.  Steve Epting has this beautiful pulpy feel to his art that is almost as flawless as the pulpy style of Francesco Francavilla.  I’d love to see him draw a 12 issue Captain America book set during World War II.  The pacing is great, issue one kicks off with a bang and it’s nothing but acceleration all the way to the finish.  There are a few spots where the dialogue seems a bit forced, but Brubaker had cleaned up his scripting pretty well by the time his run hit the 20 issue mark.

This Winter Soldier story arc ran through issues #1-7 and #8-14 of Captain America Volume 5 (2005), and Marvel recently just put out the all of these issues is one handy Trade Paperback volume for a very affordable price.  If you’ve never read this story, go out there and get your hands on it, I think you’re going to really enjoy it.

Editor’s Note – Kyle was only reviewing the first arc of the story.  I would like to point out that when you are looking for Cap, you should get the whole run Brubaker had on the character.  It is the best the character has ever been written and I believe the whole thing is now in print again.

Silent Auction Underway

We started a silent auction this week of various things, art pieces and long time fixtures of the Cup. If you would like to own a piece of our history, this is your chance.

Most of the auctions have a minimum amount we are looking for or will sell it for and the auction must meet it for us to let it go.

Stop in and take a look.  Pictures are up at our Facebook page.

Here is a list of the below stuff:

• Toy Box – Gene Ha original art framed
• Spider-man print – framed Alex Ross
• Rick Grimes – Original Tony Moore Walking Dead art framed
• five small art pieces – framed art including Dave Johnson and Mike Mignola originals
• the Original Cup o’ K sign – THE original sign
• Mouse Guard – Original Dave Petterson framed art
• In Case of Zombie Gun – the one of a kind safety measure
• Flash – Doug Mahnke original framed art
• Fantastic Four framed print – Alex Ross
• Coffee Shop Neon sign
• Catwoman Print – signed by Adam Hughes
• Batman framed prints
• Batman Neon Sign
• One Shot Wonders – signed by Mike Mignola, Jos Wheadon and Travis Charest

Super Moving Sale Continues

This week we increase the Moving Sale to these levels:

• 50% off all non-marked Trade Paperbacks and Hard Covers
• 70% off the Old Wall books dating before April
• 50% off all Bundles
• 50% off Mugs, T-Shirts, Action Figures, Heroclix
• Formerly Dollar books now 30 cents
• Formerly 50 cent books now 10 cents

This sale will go through Saturday the 19^th.

Schedule for Moving the Shop

As we begin to transition down to the Des Moines Social Club, we are had a general schedule for the rest of the month.  We expect to be open at the new location on Wednesday April 23^rd.  The Beaverdale location will be open regular hours through Saturday the 19^th.  We will be closed in both locals the 20^th through the 22^nd.  (We learned something from the last move and it is to not try and do it over night.)

Drink and Draw this week

We’ll have Drink and Draw at Good Sons in Beaverdale Thursday night at 8:00.  You don’t have to be an artist to attend.  Everyone is welcome.

Kyle’s Retro Review – Treasury Comics

This week will be another one of those Comics History lessons as opposed to the review or look at a specific story arc or run.  So with that, let’s take a look at the world of Treasury Comics, the fantastic giant sized tabloid format that flourished in the 70’s for both Marvel and DC.  Marvel and DC were not the only companies to employee this giant format, nor the first, but they certainly did it longer and more successfully than any of the smaller companies that ventured into publishing comics under this format.

What are Treasury Comics?  They are literally giant sized – traditionally a whopping 10” x 13” in dimension – comics that usually run from 60 to 100 pages in length.

DC beat Marvel to the Treasury punch so to speak, by releasing their first Treasury around the Christmas holiday season back in 1972, with a giant sized Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer special.  Rudolph comics?  That’s right, DC actually had a fairly long running Rudolph ongoing comic series in the 1950’s, and as we’ve touched on in the past, in the days of few reprints and no trade paperbacks, DC released these stories reprinted for the first time in the Giant 10 x 13” Treasury Format.  In fact Rudolph Treasuries sold so well and were so popular, that he would end up getting 7, that’s right 7, Treasury Comics, while founding members of the Justice League Aquaman, Green Lantern, and the Flash didn’t get a single Treasury Edition devoted to them!

The new marketing of comics in an uncommon size obviously did the trick, as DC would continue to crank these out.  This first Treasury Edition had no numbering, but has retroactively been numbered C-20, because the next treasury DC would release would be Shazam! Numbered simply by C-20 and released 6 months later. (Big surprise here, DC has strange numbering in the Bronze Age, we’ve hit on that before.)  From there DC would continue to crank out Treasury Edition Comics under the “Limited Collector’s Edition” title.  The series served as giant sized reprints of past stories, and usually stuck in some sort of game feature as well, with some DC themed puzzles, connect the dots, and even cut-out masks. They also released full reprints of past Golden Age issue, ads and all, under the “Famous First Edition” banner.  Like Limited Collector’s Edition, Famous First Edition reprinted classic stories that weren’t available anywhere else in a format now almost twice as big as how they were originally printed, what a great way to read the first appearances of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel.

It wouldn’t be long before Marvel decided they wanted to wade into the oversized tabloid comic market when they released Marvel Treasury Edition #1 featuring the Spectacular Spider-Man in June of 1974.  From there Marvel reprinted a number of classic stories in the Treasury Format, just like DC, including my all-time favorite, Marvel Treasury Edition #2 The Fabulous Fantastic Four, which reprinted the Galactus Saga that originally ran through Fantastic Four #48-50.

For Marvel and DC both, the Treasury format served as strictly a way to reprint past comic stories, until 1975 rolled around and they saw the Treasury Comic as a great way to introduce new stories that were originally intended to be told in this giant storytelling format.  The first Treasury to feature new content would also serve as another major milestone, it would also mark the first Marvel & DC crossover and co-publishing endeavor.

In August of 1975, DC and Marvel made history, coming together to co-publish MGM’s Wizard of Oz Treasury Edition.  This was such a success that it paved the way for the first Marvel & DC Superhero crossover, the infamous Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man treasury that hit stands in January 1976.  This featured an amazing story by a cast of DC and Marvel creators alike for this all new full length story starring the two biggest and most popular comic superheroes of the time.

From there DC and Marvel alike would both publish new stories in the Treasury Format.  Marvel would publish the new stories under their same Marvel Treasury Edition banner or under the occasional special, such as Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles.  DC on the other hand would publish their new stories under the “All New Collector’s Edition” banner but continue the C-## numbering system they previously established for their Limited Collector’s Edition treasury.  And of course the companies would continue to crossover in the Treasury Format with such gems as the Batman vs. the Incredible Hulk and second Superman and Spider-Man treasury.

Sadly by the early to mid-80’s the Treasury Comic format had all but gone by the way side by first DC, and then Marvel.  However, there is hope that it is making a comeback.  The fantastic comic company IDW Publishing has resurrected this publishing format today, and has continued to crank out 5-7 Treasury editions over the past 3 years.  They’ve released some fantastic editions, including 3 Danger Girl issues collecting the original Danger Girl series, 2 Rocketeer Treasuries, a GI JOE Real American Hero Treasury and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Treasury Edition. Their most recent is the awesome Judge Dredd Big Drokkin’ Treasury Edition.

If you’d like to learn more about Treasury Editions, check out the most comprehensive site devoted to these fantastic collectibles at the following link:

http://www.treasurycomics.com/