This coming Saturday is Free Comic Book Day. I want to invite everyone down to the shop for a couple of free comics. We will have them out when we open and have them out until they are gone or the end of the day, which ever comes first. There is some decent offerings this year. Dark Horse and Marvel have original stories, Hellboy and X-Men respectivly. (Though, like last year with Spider-man, this X-Men story will probably be in a book later. The Spiderman story showed up in one of the Brand New Day stories.)
There are a few good books that are being put out for kids though, and that is what this “holiday” should be for. The Tiny Titans book is being reprinted by DC, an all ages adventures story from Marvel and of course the yearly Archie story. Now, this is what we should be doing on a more regular basis. Getting free or cheap comics into the hands of kids.
I see kids coming into the shop with their parents who are getting coffee and make a bee line for the comics. I did this when I was a kid and I’m guessing many of you did too. I did it when we went to the drug store and it was a lot easier to get one then, as I only had to talk my mom or dad out of less then fifty cents. (My father would do it to keep me quite. The barber shop was very close to the drug store and I got one nearly every time I didn’t bitch and whine when I got my locks cut.)
I have to admit I don’t read the Marvel Adventures books, however, I am told that they harken back to a lighter more free spirited day when Marvel was… Fun and a lot more goofey. There is a problem though, these books are $2.99. Now I don’t know what kids get for allowences or charge to mow lawns, but three dollars for a comics is lot.
I do have pretty good sales on Marvel Adventures and have very good sales on some of the DC all ages books. I also over the last couple months, have for the first time in the shops history finnally gotten a couple of kids as pull customers.
Maybe my doom and gloom for the future of the industry is unfounded and there are a small but important group of kids who are reading. (One, even reads the regular Marvel books, which his dad checks out first.)
SO, on Saturday, please, come in and get a comic and go out and give it to a kid. Read it first, but make sure it goes to someone else. This is what we are should be doing on this “holiday;” starting new readership, especaily young readership.
Have a good Free Comic Book Day.
Monthly Archive for April, 2008
I want to thank you all for your support over the last year. It’s been a tough road, as it is with any small business that has a giant corporate monster come sit on its lawn. You guys are a good group of customers/friends, thank you. I don’t tell you all that enough. Now on to my ranting.
Sometimes I feel like I’m the crazy guy with the placard that says “The End is Nigh” standing out in the middle of the crowd that is standing looking at the really cool shinny alien spaceship. People just poo poo me and continue staring at the ship.
Well, I have a new batch of signs the comic world is coming to an end.
Remember Valiant comics? Well, they’re back. If you don’t, let me refresh your coffee for you. They were the company back in the day that came on like a house on fire with massive marketing pushes, variant covers and hot flashy art. They “perfected” the dye cut chrome cover. They had titles like XO-Man of War and Harbinger. They announced this weekend that they would be back publishing again. When, well, that’s to be announced and the details are still to be worked out, but I’m sure they’ll get the stuff out real soon.
Speaking of not keeping a deadline…Rob Liefeld is “returning” soon too. (I hope you all shuddered at that.) I can’t stand Liefeld and know (just can’t prove) that he causes more harm to comics each year then fire does. Well, Rob is going to do an book called Armageddon Now. Yep, it’s about the “biblical” end of the world. (The reason I put quotes around the word biblical is because in the article I choked through Liefeld gets his end of the world info wrong a half dozen times… gah, he sucks.) What are the chances it will ever even be published, about as good as the last two attempts of getting a Liefeld drawn Youngblood (again with the shuddering) title out. So, not real good.
The thing is this is one more sign that we are a little closer to returning to the nineties. That is not a good thing. The variant multiple covers and the cheeky back office corporate deals and the disregard for the customer or direct market retailers… yikes, did these people not learn anything?
Fine, Fine… you all just keep watching the spaceship, but I’ve seen this before. I’m getting out of here before they fry us.
AND NO, I won’t order you any Liefeld end of the world books.
They released the Eisner Nominees today. These are the academy awards of comics. I’m not going to post and discuss all of them here. You can go and check all of them out for yourself here or find it on Newsarama.com. Here are a couple for your quick viewing pleasure…
So, here are your best continuing series nominees:
1. The Boys, by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson (Dynamite)
2. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, by Joss Whedon, Brian K. Vaughan, Georges Jeanty, and Andy Owens (Dark Horse)
3. Naoki Urasawa’s Monster, by Naoki Urasawa (Viz)
4. The Spirit, by Darwyn Cooke (DC)
5. Y: The Last Man, by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra, and Jose Marzan, Jr. (Vertigo)
You’ll start to see a bit of a trend in these lists. Lots of Vaughn and Lots of Buffy. I think, personally, The Spirit is best of these offerings. I don’t know how The Boys got on here after that russian storyline. What do I know? At least Boys is better now, maybe they can see into the future.
Best Writer Nominees:
1. Ed Brubaker, Captain America, Criminal, Daredevil, Immortal Iron Fist (Marvel)
2. James Sturm, Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow (Center for Cartoon Studies/Hyperion)
3. Brian K. Vaughan, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Dark Horse); Ex Machina (WildStorm/DC), Y: The Last Man (Vertigo/DC),
4. Joss Whedon, Astonishing X-Men (Marvel); Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Dark Horse)
5. Brian Wood, DMZ, Northlanders (Vertigo)
I like seeing Brubaker on this list, he should win by quantity alone. Strum has been making great comics for years, Satchel Paige is a fantastic read. Vaughn is a great writter, but… is this because he got to the end of Y and didn’t really do anything for the last two years in the book? Wood is a fantastic writter and I love both these books. AND Joss Whedon… Listen, sorry, but Ass-tonishing X-Men is, well, I think I just told you what I think about that.
Best Single Issue Nominees:
1. Amelia Rules! #18: “Things I Cannot Change,†by Jimmy Gownley (Renaissance)
Delilah Dirk and the Treasure of Constantinople, by Tony Cliff (self-published)
2. Johnny Hiro #1, by Fred Chao (AdHouse)
3. Justice League of America #11: “Walls,†by Brad Meltzer and Gene Ha (DC)
4. Sensational Spider-Man Annual: “To Have or to Hold,†by Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca (Marvel)
Best Limited Series Nominees:
1. Atomic Robo, by Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegender (Red 5 Comics)
2. Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born, by Peter David, Robin Furth, and Jae Lee (Marvel)
3. Nightly News, by Jonathan Hickman (Image)
4. Parade (with Fireworks), by Michael Cavallaro (Shadowline/Image)
5. The Umbrella Academy, by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá (Dark Horse)
I’ve written a lot about how great Umbrella and News are. I just can’t say enough. We have Nightly News in stock and will have Umbrella Academy in stock in trade in another month or so.
Best New Series:
1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, by Joss Whedon, Brian K. Vaughan, Georges Jeanty, and Andy Owens (Dark Horse)
2. Immortal Iron Fist, by Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, David Aja, and others (Marvel)
3. Johnny Hiro, by Fred Chao (AdHouse)
4. The Infinite Horizon, by Gerry Duggan and Phil Noto (Image)
5. Scalped, by Jason Aaron and R. M. Guéra (Vertigo/DC)
I love Immortal Iron Fist, but how does Scalped not win this? It’s a great series. Actually, I think kick ass artist Ron Wagner says it best when he says “I want to work on comics that are this good.” Ron only shows up in the shop on Wednesday’s that have a Scalped issue come out. Otherwise, he doesn’t care.
There you go. Check out the rest on Newsarama.com.
I was talking to my employee Curt about mini-series and how much they’ve hurt the industry, but rather then make this e-mail even longer, I’ll do it next week. So, if you have some comments on mini-series drop me an e-mail and help me write this thing.
I want to point out that we have more t-shirts in. They are still only $15.00. They are available again in small, medium, large and x-tra large. We are going to have to get more double x-tra large shirts.
The latest super crossover is on us, Secret Invasion. I won’t ruin anything if you haven’t read it yet, but I actually thought it was pretty good… for a Bendis written story. I have lost a lot of faith in the man who used to be Brian Bendis (now maybe he is the Skrull). I was reading Powers early on and have long sense dropped it. I’m barely hanging on New or Mighty Avengers. I like the old Marvel characters that are in both titles, but the lack of action and never ending long drawn out (entire) issues worth of nothing but talking are starting to grade on my comic nerves. So, needless to say I entered the first issue of Secret Invasion with more then a bit of trepidation.
As if you don’t know, the premise of this book is that the Skrulls (the nasty little green beasties that have tried to invade Earth several times) have infiltrated nearly every super team and are planning a full take over of Earth, or at least that is what appears to be happening.
In the first issue you will find several people revealed as Skrulls and a strange HUH?-kind of ending. The art by Lenil Yu is pretty good. It is more his typical stuff, not that horrible run he had on the New Avengers where it appeared he didn’t have an inker. (Note to Marvel – Yu NEEDS an inker!)
What can we expect to see in this series? Well, it depends on who you read. Some are saying this will redo Marvel to pre-Civil War. Some are saying it will alter a bunch of characters back to pre-1980′s Marvel. It is a fact that this story has been written (some are saying secretly) for years and the payoff will be amazing with clues having been placed as far back as Secret War (the really late one with Nick Fury, not the one with the Beyonder.)
Either way, this is the start of the summer crossover season. I’ll tell you this, I’m more excited for Infinite Crisis then Secret Invasion as it is written by someone I hold more respect for, Grant Morrison. Then again, we will have to see. A lot is hinging, in my opinion, on these two big “events.” Comic fans are becoming more disgruntled. Talking with customer Todd Ulrich he had this to say about where he is at in his collecting and impending cut down (though you shouldn’t do this) to his pull list:
“Please note that I am 44 years old and have collected comics almost my entire life… and am seriously thinking about hanging up collecting for good. The hobby just hasn’t been as fun anymore. The recent Spiderman storylines were awful. The big two’s constant non-stop crossovers, mini-series, one shots, and inconsistent publishing schedules (do we really need Amazing Spiderman three times a month) are beginning to take their toll. A lot of the writing and artwork in many of the books has been bad. Equally frustrating is the ability of one writer (Bendis) to take over a company and run it into the ground, The total lack of continuity ticks me off (I miss the days when the editor would actually give us references to past issues in the panels). I guess the days when the stories were confined to each individual book and the only special issue was the yearly annuals are gone for good.”
See, I’m not the only old school collector. I really hope these two summer “events” are good. I think they could go a long way to repairing some of the distrust Todd (and I) are feeling. We shall see. Until then, let the invasion begin.
Sorry for the shortness of the post this, but Monday was a national holiday, Opening Day, and being a devote follower of the church of Baseball, I needed to take the day off. Sorry.
However, I do have some non-comic, sports related info for you.
Because there it is the start of Baseball, I wanted to tell you about a new card shop on the south side, CC Sports Cards. Chad Casavant is the owner and his shop is located just north of Lincoln High School at 2428 SW 9th Street in Lincoln Plaza. If you are into sports cards go see Chad, he’ll hook you up.
Also, another sport, Ultimate Fighting, would like you to get into the cage or at least their website. My friend, Chuck Grigsby – The Reverend – has a new site for the team that trains with him, it’s Team Revolution and if you are interested and want to find out more, Chuck has asked me to pass on some info to you. Go to www.Teamrevolution515.com and sign up for forum registration. As more people show interest in the site, the more stuff will be put up. Chuck has signed a big deal and is on the cusp of a big breakthrough. We’ve supported The Reverend for the last couple years and am so happy to see him reach the point when all his hard work starts to pay off (even more so then the . Chuck is a hell of a good guy, go support him.
All right, that’s it. Back to the glorious baseball.