Wasn’t that an awesome issue of Captain America last week. What? You don’t read Cap? I can only try to move you over to the good books, I can’t force them on you. Newsarama’s Matt Brady had a great interview with Ed Brubaker about what happened in the issue and what is going to happen. You can find it here: forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=150886
I am happy to say that Cap is also our most ordered comic now. It surpassed New Avengers (which had reclaimed the top spot from The Boys after so many people dropped it during the Russian storyline) with issue #36. That makes me very happy. Thank you.
Also, the rental wall is helping another good read. Fables sales are finally increased to the point I need to put reorders in. Everyone should read this great book, but it isn’t very accessible. That is why we have the rental library. It has really helped with Walking Dead, Invincible and Fables. I promise more stuff will go into the rental library this summer after we sell some of the junk that doesn’t rent at the I-Con.
I was going to recommend and review three new independent comics this week. However, due to the fact all three sold out and only one has even decided to go back to press, I won’t be able to. Terry Moore’s Echo, Jeff Smith’s Rasl and Locke and Key, were to be my choices, but I can’t get them. I ordered decent on Rasl, but never even got a chance to look through it. Echo, I’ll admit, I ordered low, but double what we were selling of Stanger’s in Paradise. With Locke and Key I got shorted three quarters of my shipment and then they weren’t even available to be reshipped to me. What I’m getting at is the industry has some great creative juices flowing right now, but it reminds me of the eighties when great stuff was so hard to find it made you wonder how anyone was even reading it. When Akira or The Tick were first being published these books were huge, but very scarce. I don’t blame the small publishers for trying to make as much as they can, but orders shouldn’t be cut down so much there are not enough for resemble reorders. It makes me sad that a possible rebirth in Indy books is passing and no one even knew it started because they couldn’t get a hold of the books.
Monthly Archive for March, 2008
This week’s post will be shortened due to the great holiday taking place today, Monday, Saint Patty’s Day. I have a personal love for this day. It isn’t tied to anything stupid… it’s all about drinking and lots of it. Something I love. Hope you were able to partake in the festivites. I was out ealry this morning. There are a few perks to owning your own business. Not many, but a few.
The talk of drink reminds me, if you are ever in need of a tasty adult beverage you need only go next door to the shop to Fleur Wine and Ale. Ethan is a good friend of mine and knows his stuff, be it wine or beer. I challenge anyone to find a liquor store in the Des Moines area that has a better selection at the prices Ethan puts on his stuff. He has saved my sanity on more then one occasion.
The Con season approaches and if this thing is your thing here are two options in the Midwestern area. One is right here in Des Moines at the State Fair Grounds on May 17th, 2008. Some of the guests that are set to attend this year’s I-Con are Mike Baron (writer on Flash, Nexus, Star Wars), John Ostrander (writer of Spectre, Suicide Squad, Star Wars Legacy), Greg Larocque (artist on Flash, LOSH, Marvel Team Up, Avengers) and Matthew Clark (artist Wonder Woman, Adv Superman, Outsiders). We’ll have more info as we get closer, or check out their website at www.iowacomicbookclub.com.
Also, the Planet Comic Con is down in Kansas City on April 5th and 6th. It costs only $15 for the weekend. Just a few of the guest set to appear this year are Bernie Wrightson, Kurt Buisek, Gary Friedrich, Mark Texeira and the amazing Eric Powell. This is always a pretty good con for the price and doesn’t have an association with Wizard like in Chicago, so your soul isn’t tainted when you attend. You can check out more deatils at www.planetcomicon.com.
That’s all I have, I need to get back to the drinking. So much Guinness and so little time to be an honorary Irishmen.
There are a couple little things I want to get through first then I have a review for you.
First off, if any of you play Magic, we are having booster draft tournaments on Thursday nights starting at 6:30. Cost is the price of three boosters (around $10) and you can keep the cards after you are done. If we start getting decent crowds, we’ll start giving out prizes.
We also currently have Heroclix tournaments every Sunday afternoon.
I mentioned about a month ago, the idea of Guitar Hero nights and that is going to happen. We’ve just had a little delay in getting the right screen for the projector. If this works well, we will also do retro video game nights in conjunction with it.
Also, for poker players, we may be having a tournament or two in the near future. I’ll keep you up date when all this is set in motion.
For a review this week, I’m going to do something I feel is a little stupid as a retailer. I’m going to give, not one, but two bad reviews. I normally try to hold my tongue on things like books or issues I dislike. Companies I don’t have a problem bashing, since as a whole, most people seem to agree on a dislike of the corporate side of comics, but it just isn’t good business since to bash something you are trying to sell.
Hey, no one ever said I was a genius.
First, I want to “talk” about Fantastic Four. The first issue of the new Mark Miller and Bryan Hitch run (issue 554) came out last month and I do believe it is one of the single most boring comics I’ve read in years. NOTHING happened! How do you put these big action creators on a book and have talking for 22 pages?
I feel Hitch, who is a good artist, is on the wrong book. He’s probably better suited for an Ultimate title where all the characters are tailored to look like young Hollywood types not characters who have been around for awhile and do not need younger looks. Still, at least the art is pretty good, though be it dull.
Miller’s writing, on the other hand, is terrible. I did not like the last two Ultimate’s runs he did and am now checking my memory to find the last full story I did like of his. I think it was his run on Spider-man, but it had some problems as well. Civil War was a easily one of the most anti-climactic endings to anything – film, comics, novels – in the history of recorded media. And if you dislike bad endings, don’t ever read Wanted. Is he the most over-hyped creator in comics? Possibly. He reminds me of the superstar athlete who hits well during the season, but when it comes to hitting the homer to win the World Series, strikes out on three pitches. The thing is, with Fantastic Four, he is off to an 0 for 45 start to the season.
Will I continue to read Fantastic Four? I guess so, I’ve been reading it for nearly thirty years and it isn’t as bad as the days of the mid 1990′s, but at least then the Four did do something rather in their book rather then just talk about it.
Maybe I was too harsh on the Millar/Hitch FF. I’ll turn my eyes to something else, this I’ve disliked for years.
Wizard Magazine is the worst single publication in comics.
Yes, it is true and I want you to think about that statement.
It tries to say it’s a magazine about comics though they have now actually changed the statement on the cover to be “The magazine of comics, entertainment and pop culture.” I did a rough count of the pages in the latest Wizard and found that the majority of the content is actually about comics and there were more pages of ads then there was content about movies.
However, of the page counts of either (movies or comics) a fifth of each were full page pictures with none or next to no actual content. Add this to the number of pages of adds and Wizard’s majority pages are full of nothing.
Wizard is the USA Today of comic magazines. Flashy, but lacking in real content. A good friend and thirty year police reporter once told me the USA Today is a crap paper. I asked him what he meant and he replied, “There isn’t much to it, writing wise or general content. Just take it to the can, because you can finish the whole thing in the time it takes you to take your morning crap.”
I’ve mentioned journalism and it is this I dislike most about Wizard. When you write for a publication, Kevin Smith should NOT be your word smith. I enjoyed Clerks, but after the other half dozen films with over used snide and cynical one liners it gets old. That’s Wizard in a nut shell. I understand you are writing for “that audience,” but you can still keep a modicum of respect by writing for slightly higher education level then fifth grade.
There are so many good comic publications being put out (two examples are Comic’s Journal and Comic Buyers Guide) it is truly a shame this is the comic’s top representative.
I will give a little bit of credit. They have a section called the Wizard Edge, which is about indy books and publishers. The printing looks great and they do always have the “top” – top selling – creators quoted and interviewed in it. The thing is substance is so lacking in anyone of these compliments, that it really is more of a backhanded compliment.
I’m not telling you not to buy it, but think about the extra two comics you could be getting instead of this “source” of comic news that is so readily available on line. Next month, ask one of my staff for two recommendations instead of your monthly Wizard.
All right. If those two reviews don’t get me an Honorary Ken King comic retailer of the year award, I don’t know what will.
Dark Tower volume 2 #1 hits our shelves this Wednesday. There shouldn’t be a need to reserve a copy as I ordered heavy and if you got the first volume, your already down for the second, but if you know of someone who is a big King fan of the Tower books, let them know. This is one of the best ways to get non-comic readers to start reading comics. Usually it goes something like this. “Oh, that was cool. What else do you have of these… what did you call them, comics? Yeah, that looks good. I’ll read that.” Then you get them into the hard stuff. A good pusher moves slowly.
A couple little tidbits today.
The first is a new trailer for the Iron Man movie coming May 2nd. You know my opinion of nearly every superhero film… yeah. I’m going to see this. I will pay money to see a big budget superhero movie. Oh, well, it does have Robert Downey Jr. so, that really is the main reason, but still the trailer looks pretty damn cool.
Here’s a link: Iron Man Movie Trailer Link
Neo-New York is about to explode?
Sticking with the movie theme, did you hear they are going to make Akira into two live action movies? The film is being produced by Leonardo DiCaprio’s production studio and rumors are circulating that DiCaprio will star and the film will take place in an apocalyptic New York rather then Tokyo. I’ve railed on the very idea of a live action Watchmen… this could be even worse. At least the original creator, Katsuhiro Otomo, is going to get a serious pay day out of the deal. If you have never read it the original manga is amazing (wow, those words were really typed – manga and amazing. something is wrong today.) It’s six volumes and all of them look like phonebooks, so, it is a massive undertaking, but if you start you will not put it down.
And from bad to worse… the Justice League Movie is back on track. I’m only mentioning it because… I don’t know why I’m mentioning it. This will suck worse then the worst moments of The Fantastic Four and Batman and Robin combined, though, Road Warrior and Babe Director George Miller is set to helm this… thing.
Alright, enough superhero movie news, on to a superhero comic review. I’ve noticed flagging sales on Batman lately. I don’t know if it has something to do with the stupid, horrible, wretched Ra’s Al Gual multi-part bat-over or if people just aren’t digging the Morrison writing, but I have to say last week’s issue was fantastic.
This really is the best the book has been since the Englehart/Rodgers run of the late seventies. The latest story arc (and I think this is developing into a continuing storyline) deals with a secret experiment done on three police officers to create a “replacement” for Batman, if something were to ever happen to him. There is an additional storyline involving a sensory deprivation chamber and hallucinations (?) of Batmite.
Well written, well drawn (Tony Daniel is really doing a great job) and it has NOTHING to do with any crossover. If you are choosing All Star Batman over the real Bat, I question that choice and you should too.