Monthly Archive for January, 2009

The Week of January 26th in 3-D!!

Published on January 26, 2009 in Comics, Reviews-comics and Shop Crap. 1 Comment

Last week I briefly mentioned that Diamond was raising their thresholds for publishers to list their comics.  In a nut shell, it means companies will have to sell more to be able to be in the Previews catalogue.  This could mean many (some are saying a lot) of publishers are out of Previews and Diamond all together.  What this means for the catalogue?  Well, it could be cut in half.  I don’t have any idea what it means for the crazy “back of the book stuff” that people love ordering.  As I find out more I will let you know.
I am in the process of finding a second line of distribution, an indy distributor if you will, to make sure the books Diamond doesn’t want, but you do, still arrive in the shop and find their way into your hold box.
Lying in the Gutters last week had a great layman’s explanation as to what Diamond’s increasing of thresholds means.  You can find Rich Johnston’s write up here:
www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=19605
I want to point to one paragraph in his piece:
“But Diamond will make more money per item now, and become more profitable. Which may help owner Steve Geppi pay off debts from his other businesses but, more likely, instantly improve Diamond’s cash flow. They may bring in a little less money overall, but they will be expending a lot less money to get it.”
This is an example of what has me so angry about this “economic slowdown” talk.  Are we in a recession?  Are we in a depression?  Or are we simply in a place where corporations can use “talk” to get rid of employees they took on and now regret having done so.  Are the heads of these companies taking a cut in pay or are they laying off, cutting services and reducing quality because of “talk” with no risk to them?
and as if I needed any thing to back up my theory…
DC Comics has laid off editor Bob Schreck.  Yeah, the man who oversaw the very successful All-Star books and resurrected the Batman line when he came to the company is now looking for work.  How can a company without solid editing do without a solid editor?
I might just dislike large corporations… yes, that is very true… but it is times like this I will always fly my small indy business banner high.  When you shop, remember who is part of your community.  Remember, where your money goes when you spend it.  I point to coffee as one of the biggest ways you can show a little community pride.  Shop a small independent coffee shop when you need a caffeine fix.  Des Moines has a lot of good LOCAL coffee shops; Ritual Cafe, Java Joes, Fredrick’s or Grounds for Celebration, just to name a few.  Stay away from corporate box stores of all kinds and your community and the world will be a brighter and better place.

All right, get off your damn soap box and talk about comics again and enough doom and gloom.  There were a few good comics that came out last week.  The first of which is Mighty Avengers #21.  The Avengers books, can you even remember a time when there was only one, are now four thick.  I was unsure if I even cared to read this new start on Mighty, as I’m swamped with books to get through on a normal week, but decided to give it a try as it was Dan Slott who was taking over on the writing chores.  I was pleasantly surprised.  The book feels like it did way back in the days when George Perez was drawing it (around issue 200 of volume one!)  The days of wacky mixed up teams of heroes thrown together for really no good reason, but somehow making sense in the same way a child grabbing just the right action figures to play with might.  There is something about the Avengers having that strange mish-mash of characters that can work when it won’t on any other book.  And the villain in this tale is some wacky mystic causing a bunch of terrible chaos around the globe… but of course.  The basic plot has to do with the Scarlet Witch reappearing and plucking out this mish-mash and assembling them to fight the terrible chaos.  Not much more to it then that, but Slott with artist Khoi Pham has another reader in the saddle wanting more.  Solid dialog and good art help any book and for the Avengers… that is saying a lot.  While trying to remember when there was only one Avengers book, also try and remember when you read an Avengers book you cared about.  We might have actually found one.
A brief sidebar to this review should be about the Dark Avengers.  I am awful harsh on Brian Bendis and though I continue to read his books (except Powers, which I have long since dropped… as I think he has too) I am always intrigued by the story ideas, but less so on the pay off after it is done and back in the bag.  I felt that Secret Invasion was a colossal waste of time, except that last couple pages.  It is my understanding the entire Secret Invasion story was supposed to be just an Avengers crossover, not a company wide one.  Which I think would have or could have worked.
Dark Reign, I feel, is actually working, at least so far, in giving a little pay off too.  I think a solid editor would work wonders on Bendis’s writing.  (Hey, Schreck, you know how to work with super egos!)  Tied in last week to this was Thunderbolts, which was a great read and I’ve already mentioned in a previous post how much I’m enjoying Invincible Iron Man.  Shaking up the status quo is a good thing.
So, what did I think of Dark Avengers?  Well, it is intriguing, but we need something to happen.  Bendis has forgotten how to write anything other then dialog.  When was the last actual action sequence that took place in an Avengers title written by Bendis?… and as you ponder that, you understand where I’m at with HIS avengers books.

And now for something completely different…
Superman Beyond #2 finally came out as well.  I am a sucker for 3-D anything.  I would probably be the dork in Back to the Future wearing the 3-D glasses all the time if I could get away with it.  (The 3-D world is just so much better then ours.)  This book was just freak’n cool.  Did it make a lick of sense?  No.  Did I care?  No.  Grant Morrison can write gobbledy gook and I’d eat it up with a spoon and ask for seconds… oh, this is issue two isn’t it?  If you are looking for something that makes a lot of sense this is not the comic for you.  But action, wacky story and 3-D, man, this book has it in abundance.  The story is about, I think, Superman trying to stop the top super villain of the Monitors, Mandrakk (didn’t know there was a super villain of the Monitors?  Doesn’t matter!)  and while trying to secure a healing potion for Lois Lane, who is one heart beat away from death, the explains where Superman has been during the Final Crisis.  Yep, that sounds logical, but the story is not.  The art however is fantastic.  Doug Mahnke, a personal favorite, really pulls out all the stops.  This is his best work since the Seven Soldiers Frankenstein issues.  This is probably the worst positive review ever… one of those times it is hard to say why you like something, you just do even if it’s really weird…. and in 3-D!!

The Week of January 19th

Published on January 19, 2009 in Uncategorized. 3 Comments

So, anything big happen in the world of comics last week?
Well, it certainly wasn’t the number of comics.  Wow, what sparse pickings.  Hmm, was there a special cover or something… right now I remember.  I had been beating my head against the brick wall hard enough I thought that mess was blocked out.  I guess not.

Obama vs. Spider-man vs. The Comic Industry 2
Customer Nate probably summed it up best “rarely has a ball been dropped so badly.”  The industry had such a great opportunity to do good and it was, in almost every way, handled so badly.
For their part, Diamond was really good about it and I think did everything they could to try and make it run smoothly.  There was a lot of forces beyond their control being dealt with. (Well, actually just one, Marvel!)  When I called my rep to report damages, missings and overages for the week, I was asked how things are going.  I said “oh, that stupid Obama/Spider…” and was cut off.  I couldn’t even get Man out of my mouth, when she responded, “I don’t even what to hear it.  It’s ten times worse on this end.”  And I’m sure it was.
Marvel really screwed the proverbial pooch on this one, but I do hope some good can come of it.  I hope in a meeting room somewhere, some Marvel executives and editors, one that has an “in Chief” on his name plate are getting yelled at, reprimanded and maybe a few need to lose their jobs or at the very least think the next time some hair-brained idea pops into their heads.
I don’t know if you read the story or even saw the cover, but both were terrible.  The variant, the one everyone wanted, looked pretty good, but hey, it’s Phil Jimenez, of course it looked good.  The regular had a word balloon on it saying “Face it Cougars, you’ve hit the jackpot.”  I don’t know if you know it or not (my wife did not), but Cougars does not refer to the sports team the two ladies on the cover support or play for.  No, it is a term used, not flatteringly, to refer to mid-aged ladies trying to date (sleep with) younger men.  Wow, Marvel, that’s so awesome of a face to present to the world.
And the story… someone on a message board asked if it was deliberately written for a fifth grader.  My lovely wife put it perfectly, “that is what all this was about?” and shook her head.
I could go on and on about the immense problems with Spider-man #583, but instead I’ll let someone else do it for me.  If you don’t usually read Brian Hibbs’s column Tilting at Windmills, make this your first.  It can be found here: www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=19580 This month’s talks extensively about the mess this issue was and still is.  It’s a VERY good read.

SPOILER NOTICE!!
I am going to talk about something you might not have read yet, Final Crisis #6 and am warning you now.
Do not continue if you have not read it and do not want to know about the ending.
still here?  Okay… Continue.
Hibbs talks somewhat about this in his column as well, but I just have to mention it too.  How does the death of one of comic’s biggest, if not THE biggest, icons happen and no one seemed to care or notice?
Batman is dead my friends!  For crying out load, The dark knight died and no one knows about it… and none of the media paid even a shred of air time to it!  I have to say it was a little nice reading through issue 6 of Final Crisis and was a little surprised.  That does NOT happen very often, but still, IT’S BATMAN!!
On the other hand, how they will bring him back is merely a formality, but still, this should have been THE event and threw DC dropping the ball (second time that phrase is used to describe a comic event on January 14… not good) and a super stunt cover overshadowing everything… well, it’s just a little sad.
Matt Brady has a good article on Newsarama, here: www.newsarama.com/comics/010915-Batman-RIP-Finally.html talking about it.  It’s worth a read.
If you didn’t get a copy and want one, we will have second prints in January 28th… though the cover of the second print, yeah, it’ll have the last page of the issue as it’s cover.  No, seriously!  It makes you wonder if anyone with even half a brain is running any of these companies.

Looks like The Watchmen Movie will come out as scheduled.  A settlement was reached last week in the lawsuit filed by 20th Century Fox.  Go look up the details on Comic Book Resources or Newsarama, but the gist of it is Fox will net some percentage of the profits from the Warner Brothers’ produced film.  There doesn’t seem to be any part of the deal to get the 1960′s Batman TV show on to DVD.  The rights are jointly owned and was a rumored possibility as at least part of a settlement.  Now, making it even less of a chance this will happen is if Fox was a pain about what percentage they felt they deserved.  Sad and stupid all around.  Money, Money…

Speaking of sad and stupid… Diamond has made a move that could hurt small independent publishers.  They raised their benchmarks to be carried in the Previews magazine.  This is bad in a number of ways and I’ll let Robot 6 describe it in better detail here: robot6.comicbookresources.com/2009/01/diamond-raises-order-benchmarks-for-publishers/

I do have a good read or two for you.  Some will say “where the hell have you been,” but I finished Annihilation: Conquest (with the second trade coming out last week.)  I enjoyed it thoroughly and highly recommend it for fans of Marvel’s less used cosmic characters and for Green Lantern readers in need of an extra read.  It is nice to see the old school space opera stories coming back and the characters being written well.  I grew up on some Silver Surfer and the Infinity Gauntlet.  I’ve been reading Green Lantern long before it was even half way decent with Ron Marz’s creation of Kyle Rayner.  Cosmic books are not perfect though.  The Legion of Superheroes is still a mess, but hey, fans of quality cosmic comics are really experiencing a renaissance right now.  Nova, Guardians of the Galaxy and the War of Kings stories from Marvel and recent Green Lantern storylines like Sinestro Corp War are good examples of not having to hype something to death to get people to read quality.
Speaking of War of Kings, we still have some free-bees that recap the stories leading up to the crossover.  It does a great job helping new readers into the series.  These recappers is something Marvel has been doing well of late (maybe the only thing.)  However, for every success… They had a similar recap in the new Punisher restart, but added a dollar to the price because of it.  The main story in the book was good, but I don’t know if it was worth an extra dollar to find out the history of the character.  If I had picked up the issue, I probably already had a guess as to that history or didn’t care to start.  Another dropped pass or missed shot depending on which winter sport analogy you wanted to end on today…

The Week of January 12th

Published on January 12, 2009 in Comics, Movies and Shop Crap. 0 Comments

If anyone hasn’t heard about this damned Spider-man #583 comic, you are living under a rock (and I want to move there.)  This comic, the press surrounding it and the way Marvel has handled it has me pulling my hair out… and as you know, I just don’t have much to spare.
The comic has gone through several variations, all adding to headaches for retailers.   Back several months ago, the issue was slated to come out as a regular, normal, run of the mill Spidey issue.  This is what the solicitation listed it as: “YOU ASKED FOR IT, YOU GOT IT! PETER PARKER ON A DATE!
After the revelations of “Mind on Fire”, love is in the air for more than one member of the cast and Pete finally gets some time out with the ladies. (and who better to bring it to you than two men who both had dates as recently as 1987!)  Amidst the romance though, forces are gathering that will spell trouble for Peter in the months to come.”
This was probably before the election and, I’m guessing, no plans were in place to have a back-up story.  But when has Marvel ever passed up an opportunity to try and grab a quick buck and even quicker press?  Never!  Here is the new solicit on Diamond’s website: “To celebrate the inauguration of Barack Obama, Marvel proudly presents this new printing of Amazing Spider-Man #583 teaming one of the world’s most recognizable political figures with the world’s greatest super-hero! Written by Zeb Wells with art by Todd Nauck & Frank D’Armata, the new story takes place in Washington, DC on Inauguration Day as one of Spider-Man’s oldest foes attempts to thwart the swearing in ceremony of the 44th President of the United States!”  It doesn’t even mention the original story, which is still the main story and the inauguration is merely a back up which increased the size, the page count and the number of covers, which you may or may not know – since the press has reported on this incorrectly from the beginning – it does NOT have equal distribution of these covers.
We had to exceed our numbers on Amazing Spider-man #575 and we could order as many of these Obama covers as we wanted.  The problem is Spider-man has been selling any thing but amazingly of late, so, we were questioning even bothering getting any extra at all.  When a similar “stunt” cover was done with Stephen Colbert, they sold rather poorly and we were stuck with a bunch of extra copies of the regular book.
Now they have released information that the comic has sold out at the distributor (this was Friday) and will go to a second printing.  This will have a reversed picture and changes of color on the background and will ship next week.  Why Marvel didn’t have enough faith they could sell a crap load of these in a first print basis?  Oh, because the real truth of the deal comes out.  They knew they would go to a second printing and make even more money off it.  Customers, Speculators retailers and the general good that having a story about the inauguration of our first black president… well, it can all be damned.
Here is the press release for the second printing: “To meet the overwhelming demand for ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ #583, Marvel is going back to press with ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ #583 Second Printing Variant. Marvel is rushing this to the printers over the weekend and urges all retailers to use Diamond Code NOV088096 to place orders by Monday to best ensure that they have quantity in stock for the upcoming historic United States Presidential Inauguration. Everyone at Marvel appreciates the overwhelming support from press, retailers and fans for this momentous issue of ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ and continues to everything possible to make sure this issue is available to all readers, new and old.”  Oh… pardon me, I’ve got throw up on my Rush T-Shirt!  Come on, really?
Probably in hindsight I should have ordered more (duh, obviously you should have dumb-ass!)  However, maybe the economy or the fact that comic sales have been down as of late or I’m just hesitant to buy into any more of Marvel’s bull shit hype a month before or two days before we actually get a book.  I’ve been suckered in the past and failed in the past when we were not given the right info (Captain America #25 – Dead Cap) or “helpful info” (New Avengers – death of skrull Electra.)  Maybe I didn’t see the fact that the media, having nothing to do (I guess they didn’t have any good footage of a water skiing squirrel this week) glommed on to the latest thing that caught their two second attention span of this rock star President Elect.
AND now we have found the real reason I’m pissed off at this whole thing!!  Not Marvel, no I expect the rather underhanded tactics they use to make money with no regard for anyone but themselves… no, after six years, that doesn’t have me as pissed off as the media does.
Quesada was on every major 24 hour, seven day a week, 365 day a year cable news station.  It made every newspaper.  This is, for some reason, quite an event; the big story of the inauguration?  It is NOT the first time a president has been in comics and won’t be the last.  It isn’t the first time a President has been on the cover.
President Richard Nixon was Number One in the Secret Empire storyline of Captain America.  The very same storyline that caused Captain America to become Nomad for awhile after he was disillusioned with America after seeing the face of the villain who had plagued him for several months.  No, really, it’s true!  Ask Steve Englehart if you ever see him at a con.  He’s a great guy and will tell you the story.  Marvel wouldn’t let them actually make it Nixon and you never see his face, but he’ll tell you it was him all the same and if you read the story and know the time period it was writen in… it’s Nixon.
It isn’t even the first time Obama has been on a cover.  He was on the cover of Savage Dragon #137 a couple months back excepting The Dragon’s endorsement and will be on the cover of issue #145 in a couple months.
But really, shouldn’t the media “minds” be more concerned that this President Elect needs to take the reigns of a seriously messed up country?  Shouldn’t they be more concerned with what he should do in the first 100 days, 100 hours or 100 minutes of his presidency rather then having any interest in the fact he’s enjoyed and may still read comics from time to time?  Get your priorities in line people!!  Our last President probably colored in coloring books, but that wasn’t a news story!
Stepping off my high horse for a moment… those who have the book on their hold list already have one.  If you would like one, you need to let me know.  First come first served… and you have to survive the pit.  Just kidding… maybe.  I’ve been in one fowl mood lately.  The variant is $30.00, the regular is $3.99 as will be the second print.

In other news…
The Watchmen court case could be headed to a settlement… what that settlement is, no one is really sure, but the movie will probably come out on time (sarcastically he expressed his joy!)  Maybe though this will finally bring the Batman TV series to DVD and that would some good to come of all this.

And turning to our international correspondent…
Last week Rich Johnston, in his column Lying in the Gutters, reported that Allen Moore is ready to release another League of Extraordinary Gentlemen volume and this time from Topself Comics, not DC.  This is fantastic news.  It will be in three parts and 80 pages apiece.  For more information, try this link here:
www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=19384

Thank you for staying up with us… We leave you with another look at your three day forecast and more video of the crazy water skiing squirrel… he’s so cute.  Good night!

The Week of January 5th

Published on January 6, 2009 in Comics, Reviews-comics and Shop Crap. 0 Comments Tags: .

So, here we are in the future world of 2009.  It kind of bothers me that we are a year away from the second of the Author C. Clarke stories, which as a kid, both movie versions made me think of these far off amazing super futures… in the far FUTURE!  Now we are here and we can’t even get proper health care for our nations kids, let alone adults or a pot hole fixed in a timely manor.  So, I suppose my dreams of a damn flying car or personal rocket pack are pretty much out the window.
This brings a question posed a week or so ago.  (Most of the time I am going somewhere, just follow me, I’ll get there eventually.)  My friend and actual real life neighbor, Jonah Hardenbrook, left a post on the website asking what we were looking forward to most in comics in the New Year.  I don’t know where to start, but as per my wishes of a better world of flying cars and free health care, I want this to be about my HOPES for the new year.  (There really is so much I could talk about in this post that I could take up weeks of crappy topics.)  However, I won’t.  I’ll just take up a bunch of space this week instead and why not start at the top of my… list and the company I deal with the most, my distributor, Diamond.
Diamond, as you may or may not know, is the only distributor of comics to direct market comic shops in the world.  I would hope they start taking a more active role in making the industry better.  I am just a little guy, one tiny comic shop in Des Moines, Iowa for crying out load.  I have a big mouth, but the two big comic companies don’t or can’t (can’t – and don’t) hear me, hell, Marvel doesn’t even have a representative that deals with shops.
If the economy is going to get or continue to be as crappy as chicken little news outlets are screaming it is or will be, then we need some large entity to take a stand and demand, spearhead and motivate change in the ways comics are currently being done.  This goes for how much they cost to what kind of stock the covers are to the kind of printing ink they use.  Costs are the real issue here, but if we could get someone, who controls such a large part of the movement of comics in this industry, to say we need to seriously look at what can be done to lower prices not raise them.
We, as an industry, can NOT withstand another price increase!  It’s bad enough that Secret Invasion and Final Crisis, the big “event” comics are costing $3.99, but no one is going to pay that for Ms. Marvel… actually only a couple people pay $2.99 for Ms. Marvel now.
They just need to help with making the industry better rather then swimming in the money they make off the backs of small businesses.
I would hope the two companies would take a look at the comics they are publishing and cut one quarter of them.  Yep, the big cancellation to 25% and then stop publishing every stupid idea that comes across their editor’s desks.  Really, do we need another DC space story revolving around Rann and Thanagar?  No, we don’t and if you are asking yourself if you even knew that was even being published, good for you.  Do we need another C list X-Men character to get their own miniseries?  No, we don’t.
I hope the two big companies stop writing for the trade and for the big crossover.  I hope to see the end of variant covers and a return to newsprint paper too (watch the price drop like a rock if that was to happen), but none of those things will happen either.
It would, seriously, be nice to not be treated like a child or at the very least like an extra in a crappy Kevin Smith film (is there any other kind of Kevin Smith film?) just because I like to read comic books.  I am so sick of the stereo types of comic book readers being dorks, nerds or geeks.  I hope that the year 2009 is kinder and gentler to us, the rejected fools of literature.  Granted, strides have been made.  We – the royal “I collect comics” we – control Hollywood now and we are in news magazines, like the Wall Street Journal, all the time and now it isn’t just for more then stories about “the dorky super-guy who dies in the quaint issue that comes out tomorrow.”
Hey, it isn’t all gloom and doom.  We have a comic collector in the White House.  Like or hate his politics, he is one of us.  President Barack Obama is a comic book fan.  He prefers Conan and Spiderman.  That’s something, right?  I know for all the hopes I have for the new year, this one makes me smile a little.  (He is also a White Sox fan, that makes me smile a lot.) Now, granted the Presidential hopes are a blog post of a different kind, but we will have to see if maybe this is the start of something good for all of us, both comics-wise and nation-wise.

A “news” note.  Got this tidbit from my friend Kathy of the Brave New World Sci-Fi Club, and via the BBC.  They have picked a new Doctor Who.  This new guy, actor Matt Smith (he’s British, and no, I’d never heard of him either)  certainly looks a good Doctor, but we will see.  If you have interest check out this link: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7807996.stm
Also, Tuesday, January 13th, at 7:00pm will be the next Sci-Fi club meeting.  The topic: “Science Fiction on Television: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.”  Everything from early childhood remembrances of “Lost in Space” and “Battlestar Galactic” to “Smallville” and “The X Files.”  Be ready to talk about any and all television sci-fi.

I do also have a review for you this week too.  Oh, shocking… it’s the new Ed Brubaker book, Incognito and, even more shocking, I love it.  The book is focusing around an ex-super villain and the “witness protection” he’s been put into.  I don’t want to give to much away, but he starts to get back into the action, though not as you might guess, but with it comes a certain amount of guilt, joy and a whole lot of potential problems, which is sure to grow as the plot develops in the next couple issues.
Brubaker says he will continue to write the book like he has his other Icon book, Criminal, with an eye towards an older, more pulp style.  He describes the book as being in the vain of The Shadow or Doc Savage, heroes who preceded Superman or Batman.  In the back of the book, similar to Criminal, is also included a fantastic, scholarly, write up about one of these old pulp characters, movies or books.  This issues is about The Shadow.  More are promised and this, much like Criminal, very well may be the best part of the book.
This is a great first issue and I most highly recommend it.  If you like it, it’s also a great time to get into Brubaker’s Criminal, as volume four is out soon… hell, start reading all of Brubaker’s books, you really can’t go wrong with his writing.  As a very good customer said to me today, “I even read his X-men”…