Monthly Archive for March, 2009

The Week of March 30th

Published on March 30, 2009 in Chuck Grigsby and Comics. 0 Comments

First things first… long time member of the Cup family Chuck Grigsby headed off to Bulgaria (not quite Zaire, but close) for a fight this last weekend and walked away (well, we hope) with a victory.  If you are new to the column, Chuck has been an MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) style cage fighter for a couple years now and this is his first international fight.  He fought on Saturday as a light heavyweight against Atanas Dzhambazov (9-1/93 kg/204.6 lbs.).  The Chuckster (17-4/93 kg/204.6 lbs.) was able to pull off the victory with a three-round unanimous decision!  Congratulations and, as always with you Chuck, you are most defiantly THE MAN!
www.m-1global.com/en/news/detail/id/9138/m-1-challenge-bulgaria-results

Brian Hibbs, Superhero of retailing!…
Comicbookresources.com has another Tilting at Windmills article up by Brian Hibbs of the Comic Experience in San Francisco.  This month’s talks about the ComicsPRO meeting in Memphis recently.
I like Hibbs for a lot of reasons.  One, he successfully sued Marvel comics and two, he is hated by Diamond.  For those two reasons alone, he practically walks on water.
This latest column mentions when ComicsPRO group going on a tour of the new Diamond facility.  The one replacing the Memphis facility where we got our direct and reorder shipments from.  He really nails the irritation over the last two months from a retailer’s perspective.  Here is an excerpt:
“Walking into the warehouse really is like the final scene in “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” this huge facility stretching back out to your visual vanishing point.  A few words on [the switch]: Diamond pretty much catastrophically screwed the pooch for reorders in February – the move from their old facility to this new one went wrong in just about every way possible.”
So, if you think I’ve been making up stories to deflect blame, the comic Messiah has spoken and it is the truth!  Thanks Brian.  To read the rest of this month’s Tilting at Windmills you can find it here: www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=20595

Hockey goon gets five minutes for fighting…
Last week I, the bully of our story, tried to pick a fight, mostly with my business partner Curt on the matter of Geoff Johns, but several of you jumped up to the challenge instead.  — kind of like George Larauqe last year when everyone tried to pick on little sissy boy Cindy Crosby, but I digress.
To recap, I have been feeling Johns has lost his ability to write new and different (read that as good) superhero narratives lately.  To sum up my comments from last week (and many a week before) I feel he retreads too much on older writers ideas and changes stuff for the sake of change, not something I like to see from any writer, but especially one with actual talent.
However, enough from my punk ass.  This is what some of you had to say:
Chad credits Johns with getting him into Green Lantern and Jonah said that he had utter disdain for the Green Lantern, until the regular series and Johns’s writing brought him into it.  Jonah goes so far as to call him one of the best superhero writers in the industry.  Both will be buying the Flash: Rebirth series (which comes out this week!) and Jonah would like a Johns-esque Aquaman: Rebirth and Martian Manhunter one as well.  (Well, Johns is going to do that to Marty, but not really like you were thinking.  Stay tuned to one of the books you are currently reading.  I know what is planed, but am not saying.)
Mike, who helps me every other Wednesday with books, is a very a big Johns fan and said it was I who got him to start reading his stuff in the first place. “I recall being a some what new member to the Cup Clan and I still wasn’t reading a whole lot of titles at the time.  But one day when I was in the shop, Big Poppa Cup (Matt) said “Dude (yes I do believe at the time he was saying dude) you’ve got to read the Flash it is AWESOME!!!” To which I gave my patented response, “But ‘dude’ it’s the Flash.” At which time Matt
said, “But this new guy is writing him, his name is Geoff Johns and he is AWESOME and he has made the Flash even more AWESOME!!!”
Mike probably exaggerates, I would never (as I adjust my monocle) call anyone “dude.” He continues saying I got him to suggest Green Lantern as well and now he reads and loves it, because of the Johns writing alone.  He counters my argument of Johns falling behind on his story telling quality by saying “…I don’t think this was Johns’ fault. Marvel and DC both do this to good writers.”  They throw money at them and put them on every book, because of dollar signs.
I think Mike is probably right on about this.  I probably am a little harsh in some of my criticism when it comes to the big writers, due to their being stretched too thin.  When you just work on one thing and focus solely on that one thing, you will be good at it.  Juggle fifteen things and you’ll drop something for sure.  However, if you are an artist (writer), shouldn’t that weigh in?  Maybe yes, maybe no.
Allen H. chimed in and I think unknowingly supports the argument in saying “Johns was at his best when he wrote the Flash.  Now he writes everything to set up stories in the future like Clairmont used to do on X-Men.  When he leaves a title, the next writer has to tie up too much stuff.”  This is sort-of is my point when I compare him to John Byrne.  My god, the poor sap who is going to take over JSA or even what happens to Tomasi on Green Lantern Corp.  I personally enjoy GL Corp more then GL because of the characters (hates the Hal), but sometimes it really seems like the story is dictated in from story notes.
There was one person who wrote in to help me out.  In hockey terms it would have been called ‘third man in’ and he would have gotten in or around 15 minutes of penalties, possibly ejected from the game and maybe a league suspension, but his disgust with DC has NO bounds.  Joe used to read a bunch of just DC books, but now refers to his dwindling pile as his “weekly disappointment.”
About Flash: Rebirth he had this to say, “Barry has been gone for close to 25 years. He had his run. How much will current readership care about his return? For myself and many other readers, Wally West has grown into the role of the Flash and is our Flash. The Flash is a legacy character. If they could create a new Flash and make him compelling, I’d be more interested honestly.”
Is this what the fans want to see or what Geoff Johns wants to see?  The same could be said for what he did to Kyle Rayner during Green Lantern: Rebirth.
Joe goes on to ask about continuity of the speedsters including Max Mercury or how Bart was used, aged and killed when none of that worked.  Joe says that “Barry fans beware of when the next editor or writer gets bored and he is phased out.”
He continues with an excellent little rant about Dan Didio, bringing Barry back, the terribleness of Identity Crisis (and I would add by extension, the neverending crossover that led to Johns’s horrible Infinite Crisis) and how, nearly none of this works with what has come before and even what they are trying to do now.  He ends by saying “I really know how the Pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths fans felt… The rug has been pulled out from under me.”
If Joe will let me I’ll post his comments on the website.  You can also find the longer and better written comments under last week’s post from Jonah.
I guess to sum up, I’ve probably been to harsh.  He is a good writer, but when he gets the praise for bringing back a character who doesn’t need to be brought back or messing up a bunch of continuity (or just throwing it out), it makes me mad.  He is still lauded as the god of DC… and this happens while a great writer goes nearly unnoticed over on X-Factor, writing one of, if not their best book.  That writer is Peter David.  I guess I just don’t like someone, and Johns fits this to a tee, getting to comfy and they should be challenged to do better then they are currently doing.
and… Because Johns is pretty much the anointed one at DC, those of us who consider these “our” characters turn our anger against the heads of the company when we feel slighted by the decisions that change the company we were supporting long before they got any critical (Wizard) or financial praise (big money crossovers).
Also, always know, these are, as almost everyone who wrote in said, merely my opinion.  I’m just trying to spark discussion… and occasionally a fight.

On that note… lets tar and feather Brain Bendis…
I have an article for your consideration.  Pat, the X-collector, brought a blog post to my attention this week that implies Brian Bendis hates women or at the very least has some serious issues.  Neither he or I agree with it entirely, but it is interesting, to say the least.  Here is the post:
cbddossiers.blogspot.com/2007/06/record-brian-michael-bendis.html
...and the two of us were, off the top of our heads, putting together a list of other stuff the article doesn’t mention, like: Tigra v. The Hood, when Dr. Doom actually called Ms. Marvel a whore, Norman Osborne shooting the queen skrull in the head, Spider-women is hated by everyone due to skrull queenie running around as her, Wasp killed, New Avengers #47 where a female skrull is shot in the head by a SHIELD agent before even revealing info, all the Scarlet Witch stuff in Disassembled and finally, Sentry ripping off Morgan le Fay’s head in Dark Avengers… WOW!  WTF?!?  Pat puts it best by saying, “If Bendis doesn’t hate women he sure isn’t helping his case.”  What do you think?  I have to say, I think….

The Week of March 23rd

Published on March 23, 2009 in Comics, Cons and Shop Crap. 1 Comment

Not a lot new happening at or with the shop, so I’m going to jump into the potpourri of information I have for you this week…

Cup o’ K apparel…
You may or may not know (and hopefully don’t care) the shop co-sponsors an adult rec league hockey team.  It’s a team with a group of people I’ve played with for sometime.  Good times, good exercise playing the best sport period.  It’s time for another season and we will probably be getting more jerseys printed up again.  The last time I did a print run of jerseys I did only a small order to handle the numbers on the team and several people were upset saying they would have bought one if they would have known.  Here’s your chance if you want in.  I do not have prices yet or sizes, but let me know if you have interest and I’ll let you know in a couple weeks.
Connected with this print run would be more T-Shirts.  Let us know if you would buy one (or another one) if we did a run on say, green shirts.

Planet Comic Con…
The Brothers DC (Curt and Kyle) are heading down to Kansas City on Saturday for the Planet Comic Con.  Going with them are employee Nate and helper buddy Mike.  They have said they would look for books that people need.  You have until Wednesday to get me lists and they need to have dollar values attached to everything you are looking for, but they will hunt for you.
and if you bored with nothing to do this weekend, few cons I’ve ever been to are as good as the KC con.  You should just drive down, spend time and money and then jet back after it’s over.  A well spent Saturday or Sunday afternoon.

Last week was X-Week?  I didn’t get the memo…
What the hell was up with Marvel’s week of x-books?  Every major X-book except Cable and Ass-tonishing X-Men came out last week.  As a retailer, this sucks.  Come on, we want people to come in each week and pick up comics, not once a month.  As a reader, I would like my books spread out, at least a little and certainly not all at once.  Now, we did only have one hold customer to have all the books on his hold list.  Thanks Pat for being the X-Messiah of the X-books, the one trying to keep all of them going.

Speaking of stupid comic companies stupid moves…
The geniuses at IDW, who have become the kings of the licensed property, just don’t know when to stop.  I truly think they believe more is better.  Gluttons to the core.  They have Four GI Joe books or minis out right now, three Transformers books, with occasional one shot features and two Terminator books.  We don’t have to many people who collect these titles and I think much of it has to do with the fact many have said “I don’t want all of that.”  To me, it would be nice to see a really good series with well paid writers and artists on each.  You could do this if all the money going out on three (or more) was pooled to make just one.  But hey, I do NOT have a marketing degree and in the comic industry money speaks loader then quality.

Batman and Robin, second try…
If you are interested in what is happening in regards to the Bat-books that are coming out right now, you have probably seen some of the new titles slated to appear over the next couple of months.  I’m not keen on nearly any of these changes and would like Bruce to hurry back and get me my regular bat stories under way again.  (but I’m an old curmudgeon and a general comic grouch, so… what do I know.)
There is one that has caught my eye, Batman and Robin written by Grant Morrison and drawn by Frank Quietly.  Their run on Superman was better then any Superman that has been done since Man for all seasons and I think it was better then that.
Comic book resources did an interview with Morrison (do they have him chained in their basement or does he just like to talk to the comic “press?”) and can be found at this link:
www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=20487

New “weekly” “comic”…
DC is trying another weekly comic, but comic, in the traditional sense, sounds like it might be a bit of a stretch.  The 12 week series is being called Wednesday Comics and will be an odd sized anthology staring some of DC’s biggest characters… yes, arty and less to no continuity can be taken out of those words.  Here’s a link for more info and some really BIG names attached to it:
robot6.comicbookresources.com/2009/03/dc-confirms-next-weekly-series-wednesday-comics/

Best for last…
One HELL of a crossover…
My buddy Mike found and sent me a “news” article for the most bizarre crossover of all time, Dethlok vs. The Goon!!  Yes, the Cartoon Network show and the Dark Horse comic book.  Here is a link: www.metalsucks.net/2009/03/18/dethklok-vs-the-goon/
I can’t wait!!  This will be so awesome!!

One last thing…
Time to pick a fight…
I start this week’s column with talk of hockey and by the end I try to get a fight to break out… I’ve heard a joke similar to that before.  Call me George Laraque or Dan Carcillo or even Sean Avery (heh, heh, no girl friend jokes), but I am going to try and get some chatter started in this weekly e-mail.  I am sick of Geoff Johns.  I’m sick of his ideas and his writing, to be frank.  I’ve challenged my business partner to defend this guy… this writer guy, but so far, nothing… yet.  I’m like the defenseman on the ice who is trying to get the superstar to fight and the big shot won’t bite, but it doesn’t stop me from trying.  I’m the goon, the bully… the a-ho… ah, ha, just like Guy Gardner, my favorite character!
Next week is Flash Rebirth.  I would love to hear from you all.  Is this going to be good, are you going to buy it?  I read the most recent run of the Flash, which was more like a slow dieing trot.  Actually, you ten people who bought it, thanks for sticking it out, because, I’m sure you would agree… it sucked!!  So, is Rebirth going to be better then this?  Sure, but if it’s anything like the Green Lantern Rebirth, which was down right stupid, I will get done reading Rebirth and wish Johns would just go away and write TV or play with his friend Dick Donner in the movies.
I hope it’s good, but there is so much we don’t need with this book.  We DO NOT NEED ANOTHER FLASH!  Barry is dead and should stay that way.  We needed to write good stories, which Johns did on Flash at one time with THE Flash we had, Wally West.  The same went for Green Lantern.  Stop restarting books, what are you Marvel?  This is such a cash grab and I see the evil black hand of Dan Didio in this.
SO, write me your feelings and comments… Curt, the iron gauntlet has been thrown down, the gloves are off, do your worst.

The Week of March 17th

Published on March 16, 2009 in Comics, Movies, Reviews-comics and Shop Crap. 0 Comments

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to all!!

A few weeks ago the Datebook had a small review of our coffee and the shop in it.  I don’t normally toot my own horn when it comes to stuff like this, but, frankly, this was a pretty kick ass review.  Here is a small excerpt:
“…they make themselves exactly what a true coffee house should be – a cozy combination of coffee and culture.  It is the antithesis of the chain coffee shop experience.  It is a place where, blessedly, a large cup of coffee is called a large cup of coffee, not some adjective with pseudo-Italian affectations.  And the coffee?  Served up by a sole barista who serves as the docent of the comic book collections – a barista who is very likely to remember customer’s favorite drinks after only a few visits – is divine.  Lively, but not too sharp, with a deep-breath aroma, rich body and almost nutty flavor, Cup o’ Kryptonite brews one of the best – if not the best – cup of joe in Des Moines.”
Thank you, that is some hell-a-good praise.  They were referring to our light roast Panamanian (which, by the way, we brew all day not just in the mornings like some chains I won’t mention.)  I personally like our dark roast, a Sumatran, which is bolder and stronger in taste, but not caffeine.

The website is going through some updates and new content and design are coming.  (yeah, yeah, shut it Curt, stop making fun of me and it.)  A few weeks ago we got the invoice for a very small shop in Wisconsin and Curt said, lets find out who these guys are.  We look them up on Google, went to their website and Curt turns and says “Wow, their website is better then ours.  That’s sad.”  Furious, I tossed Curt through the front window and said, “yeah, well… now you’re covered in glass.”  No. He had a very good point, rare, but good and I only considered tossing him through the window for it, but we are working on making it better.  promise.  seriously.

Good or bad for the Devil without fear?…
I’ve been reading and promoting Daredevil, to varied degrees of success, over the last six and half years.  Looks like there could be a new writer headed to horn head’s corner.  Looks like Marvel let the cat out of the bag by mentioning Andy Diggle during their Cup of Joe interview this week.  Here’s the full story:
robot6.comicbookresources.com/2009/03/is-andy-diggle-heading-to-daredevil/
Diggle has been doing a good job on Thunderbolts, but Brubaker’s run on Daredevil has been as good or better then Bendis’s and B.M. Bendis run is easily one of the best of any comic’s in my recent memory.

“Masters” of marketing…
There is a new marketing ploy being used by DC in conjunction with the release of Watchmen movie.  It’s called After Watchmen …What’s next?  They are printing a bunch of single issue “important” issues to try and grab new readers or entice people who have come into a comic shop after seeing Watchmen.  The first of which is out this week and is a reprint of Saga of the Swamp Thing #21, which is written by Alan Moore (I didn’t know that this was not his Moore’s first issue on Swampy.  He actually wrote issue #20, but because it was wrapping up dangling plot lines, it’s only just recently been collected and very hard to find. – thanks to Brook Turner artist on Golly for pointing this out to me.)
The issues are only a dollar and a great way to try some stuff you should have already read.  We’ll be getting them in and some of the titles include Sandman #1, Preacher #1 and Transmetropolitan #1 among others.
They also have a list of suggestions on other good reads for trades to try:
ALL-STAR SUPERMAN VOL. 1, BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM, BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE, EX MACHINA VOL. 1: THE FIRST HUNDRED DAYS, FABLES VOL. 1: LEGENDS IN EXILE, IDENTITY CRISIS, JOKER, KINGDOM COME, THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN VOL. 1, PLANETARY BOOK 1: ALL OVER THE WORLD AND OTHER STORIES, PREACHER VOL.1: GONE TO TEXAS, RONIN, SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING, THE SANDMAN VOL. 1: PRELUDES AND NOCTURNES, SUPERMAN: RED SON, TRANSMETROPOLITAN VOL. 1: BACK ON THE STREET, WE3, Y: THE LAST MAN — UNMANNED and V FOR VENDETTA.
I agree with the basic marketing plan.  All of these, well, most – I thought Joker was a pile of shit I couldn’t even finish it (any single volume of 100 Bullets is 100 times better, but I get why it’s there.)  Several are highly overrated.  I just have a sort of gross drippy slim coming from this.  I have a paranoid big brother, heavy handed feeling of Warner Brothers telling DC how to do this.  It’s… just sort of feels wrong.
BUT, hey, I’ll use cheap first issues of major comic series to help sell trades! And to back that up, if you buy one of these comics and then buy the corresponding trade, we’ll knock that dollar off the price of the trade.

Bad weekend…
So, who watches the Watchmen?  well, not as many people who watch the Rock or 67% less people then last weekend.  Watchmen fell off very badly this weekend at the box office as it made a little more then $18 million and finished behind Race to Witch Mountain, starting Dwayne the Rock Johnson.  It’s total so far is around $135 million world wide and though it will make its budget back, it may not make it’s total budget (including marketing which can be double a pictures actual budget) back.

Speaking of Watchmen though…
Last week I asked for some reviews from any of you who have actually seen The Watchmen.  My neighbor Jonah Hardenbrook posted this over at standardattrition.com:
“I saw Watchmen twice this weekend. I enjoyed the shit out of it, and will probably see it again. Was it a perfect movie? No, but I have to give much props to the creators behind the film as I believe they did
the best possible job adapting the book to the screen. This was clearly a labor of love for Zack Snyder. It was easily accessible to those not familiar with the source material, as my wife can attest to, and I feel
the essence of the book was well maintained for those that have read it.
I remember hearing fan backlash long before the movie was released regarding a change to the ending. There will be those loyalists disheartened by those changes, but I found it well suited to a mass
audience.”
…and Jason Caskey (hmm, the two reviews are both by people who have created actual physical comics) sent his two cents as well:
“I really dug it. I went in with reservations, since I’m one of those fans who DOES think [Watchmen] is one of the best comics ever. Not really for the story or characters; they were entertaining enough, but the thing that makes Watchmen (the comic) stand out to me is experimentation in the storytelling. To me it truly is the Citizen Kane of comic books; its not the story told that is so special; its HOW it was told. Looking back it maybe doesn’t seem so unique a comic, but I think that its because it had such a profound influence on works that came after (and not always very good work), that it did change the art form of comics forever. I think that ties in with the reason the comics industry has kind of been on hold the past week; finally after 20+ years the rest of the world is finally being introduced to what many say is the best thing to ever come out of comics.  Of course it really isn’t the BEST thing ever in comics; that title is co-held by US1 and Prez: Teenaged President.
Ok, back to the movie.  The cast was really strong. I thought the movie ending was stronger and made more sense than the original comic. I have to give credit to Synder and co. for doing an outstanding job of conveying a real sense of history and setting in the world the movie takes place in. I’m curious to see what gets included as extra material in the DVD. Its made me dig out my 20 year old battered hardback and reread it.”
…and Jason pointed out it was Len Wien who was the first editor on Watchmen and he was, as always, right and I was wrong.  I meant to type that, but I guess I needed more coffee, as always.

One review and big praise …
A hell of a good Ex Machina special #4 last week.  For those of you who have dropped it due to its lateness and lax publishing schedule, are missing out.  In the issue there is segment where Mayor Hundred brings up green printing in regards to newspapers, but writer Brian K. Vaughn really fires a shot over the bow of comics, in essence the point or issue of the… issue.  I then noticed the $1.00 Swamp Thing issue was printed with the SFI certification on the first page.  This means the paper in the book adheres to the standards of the Sustainable Forest Initiative.  I had heard DC was moving towards better management of their paper, but this is a great sign.  If you would like to learn more about SFI check them out here: www.sfiprogram.org.  Now if we can get them to move back to cheaper newsprint and lower the prices of the comics all together, the planet and comic book fans win together… YEAH!! Unicorns and comets for everyone.

One last thing…
read this review of the latest episode of Heroes by one of my heroes, Brian Hibbs:
savagecritic.com/2009/03/turning-it-off-hibbs-is-done-with.html
HELL, YEAH, you speak the truth Brother Hibbs!  To hell with Heroes!

The Week of March 9th

Published on March 9, 2009 in Comics, Movies, Reviews-comics and Shop Crap. 0 Comments

There is no news except Watchmen movie news.  It is very much like the industry has shut down to go see this movie.  I’ve heard and read reviews both positive and negative, but no one that I’ve talked to has hated it.  True to my word, I did not see it, but I did finally see the full and final trailer on a real big movie theatre screen (they have these in the big city) last Thursday when I went to Slumdog Millionaire (which was good, by the way.)
The movie did rather well.  Watchmen brought in over $55.7 million domestically, but I read this morning that the number was below expectations.  I find this hard to believe.  Over $55 million for an R rated superhero movie sounds pretty good to me, but then I read 300 did over $70 million in it’s first weekend.  All this means nothing if the movie has legs and can stretch it out over a couple weeks like a Bat-movie that came out last year.  For the slew of big budget superhero movies in the pipes, it had better.  I understand Watchmen had a budget of around $150 million and I’m unsure if this is big or not anymore.
Review wise… Roger Ebert gave it four out of four stars.  Rotten Tomatoes (the website that takes all the reviews of “professionals” and gives films a percentage positive) gave Watchmen 65%.  A morning customer, and long time friend and comic junkie, gave it a five out of ten and his buddy Dave gave it a four out of ten.  They didn’t have glowing reviews, but Eric, another good customer, said it was easily one of the better adaptations of a source material he had ever seen and praised it thoroughly.  So, if you have an opinion, send it to me and I’ll post it next week.
If you haven’t read the trade paperback, we have a crap load in stock and if you call yourself a comic collector you need to read it.  It has been a few years (see how I’m diverting the subject away from something yucky like the movie…) but I liked it a lot.  I consider it a must read, like Gilgamesh is in Humanities 101 in first year college.  I, however, do not consider it the be all end all of comics like the status it has been lifted to over the last few years.  In my opinion, there are some better and more enjoyable collections out there… and several are written by Alan Moore.  I do not want to disparage, I did like it, and it does read well as a full colleted thing rather then individual issues.  There are some small issues I have with it, though the art is not  one of them.  Many will bring up the ending.  I personally liked it.  One who did not would be the original series editor Lee Weeks who told writer Moore the ending could be better and called it a rip off of an old Outer Limits episode and left the mini-series when no compromise could be reached.  Nonetheless, if you haven’t read it… do it and then you can tell people you read comics, because you can’t if you have never read this book.

So small is the news (man, you should see the size of Rich Johnston’s column – tiny) I have nearly nothing else for you this week.  So, one piece of “news,” a couple of quick reviews and this reminder…

An Evening of Dr Who to Benefit Iowa Public Television at Cup o’ Kryptonite…
“Life in the Whoniverse” with Special Guest – Author Lars Pearson on Tuesday, March 10th     from 7-9 pm.  The evening will include a brief history of the television series followed by an open discussion of “Who” conducted by Lars Pearson. It’s your opportunity to learn everything you ever wanted to know about the Doctor, but were afraid to ask, from one of the foremost experts on “Dr Who” in North America.  There will be a chance to win door prizes for all who attend and the chance to win special prizes for all those making a contribution to Iowa Public Television.  Lars Pearson cut his teeth as an editor for Wizard and then founded Mad Norwegian Press — a publisher of Sci-Fi guides and novels. Pearson has authored, edited or published 11 books on “Doctor Who.” He also routinely hosts Iowa Public Television’s “Doctor Who” pledge night.  It should be a very informative night.

Are they really doing this?…
The terrible movie “news” I found was that Marmaduke is being made into a movie and Family Circus is being collected by IDW.  Did we need either of these?  I mean seriously, the Family Circus?  Urrrghhh!  I hate the Family Circus.

Dumb ideas from the worlds of Superman and Batman…
The first of the year long experiment by taking Clark out of the Superman and Bruce out of the Batman books has begun.  The New World of Krypton was okay, but I find myself rather unsatisfied and questioning why it couldn’t be done in the actual two Superman books?  The story could develop into something and that will keep me going with it… oh, and Superman is in it.  Though I’m concerned that Geoff Johns is not on it.  He got the characters into this mess and has now handed it off to others for them to write?  I am very untrusting when it comes to this hac… guy.  He’s the 800 pound gorilla in the room, ready to wreak everything and rumor has it he’s working on an “origin” story for Superman.  As Kyle says “Nuns in India know the origin of Superman.  Why do we need another origin story of Superman?”  Yep and the word origin to Johns translates to “scrap everything else and go with my new non-continuity story.  Did I mention I’m writing it, that makes it better thne those before.”  He’s like John Byrne, but without the ability to draw too.  Maybe he needs to go away and bother someone else’s favorite characters for awhile.
The first Batman is Dead book was not so good.  I had a hard time getting into the characters, the story or the plot.  I think I’m spoiled after the great runs by Paul Dini and Grant Morrison.  Or the fact that Batman isn’t in it… However, I’ll hold off full judgment until Battle for the Cowl comes out this week.  This one should be better as some major plot lines should be explored in this comic.  We shall see.  At least Johns isn’t ruining anything here.

and one last review…
The 10th anniversary of the Goon was great.

The Week of March 2nd

Published on March 2, 2009 in Comics, Movies and Shop Crap. 0 Comments

I heard from a couple of you last week about my Watchmen post.  Wow, I’m actually concerned some of you might pull a little Clockwork Orange on me and have me screaming for Ludwig Von… or I guess in this case “NO MOORE, ALAN MOORE, I promise to be good and watch all superhero movies!  No MOORE!!”
So, here’s my deal with you.  I’m not going.    …but many of you are.  I do actually want to know what you think.  No, Really.  Send me your reviews.  I’ll post some of your comments in the weekly e-mail.
If you do go, please consider the Merle Hay Cinema as your destination.  I don’t know show times yet, but come on, the screen is 60 foot.  No one beats that theater for sound, screen and auditorium size or concession prices.  You may not realize, because when was the last time you actually paid for popcorn at a theater, but pop and soda are excellent additions to any movie outing and it’s nice to stay under $20 for your ticket and concessions and the ONLY place you can do that in Des Moines is the Merle Hay Cinema.  However, I’m super biased as I am a major movie snob and have been going to this theater since I was a kid… one of the few good ones that has been kept up and still exists from the “good old days” of Des Moines’s theater past.

An evening of Dr Who to Benefit Iowa Public Television at Cup o’ Kryptonite…
“Life in the Whoniverse” with Special Guest – Author Lars Pearson on Tuesday, March 10th     from 7-9 pm.  The evening will include a brief history of the television series followed by an open discussion of “Who” conducted by Lars Pearson. It’s your opportunity to learn everything you ever wanted to know about the Doctor, but were afraid to ask, from one of the foremost experts on “Dr Who” in North America.  There will be a chance to win door prizes for all who attend and the chance to win special prizes for all those making a contribution to Iowa Public Television.  Lars Pearson cut his teeth as an editor for Wizard and then founded Mad Norwegian Press — a publisher of Sci-Fi guides and novels. Pearson has authored, edited or published 11 books on “Doctor Who.” He also routinely hosts Iowa Public Television’s “Doctor Who” pledge night.  It should be a very informative night.

On with the posting…
I’m going to try and keep this posting positive… so, to do that I’ll mention the excellent help I got by one of the reps at Diamond to fix the total cluster #^*& of an attempted reorder last week.  They may be trying to kill me, but I’ve excepted my fate and no longer have any desire for a bit of the old ultra violence.

A couple books you may want…
I want to give a heads up to some books that will be shipping in the next week or so.  I just don’t know how many of some of these titles to order and want to get you the books you want, but not loose my shirt doing it.  Most of them circle around the Battle for the Cowl storyline.  If you want these, you might want to let me know and I’ll make sure they get into your box.  We’ve sold the holy hell out of Batman #686, but I am doubting all that will transfer to Battle for the Cowl.
Here are some of the titles coming out of it:
Gotham Gazette: Batman Dead?  Arrives this week.
Batman: Battle for the Cowl #1-3  Arrives next week.
Azrael #1-3 (why? oh, right being positive.)
Oracle: The Cure #1-3
Arkham Asylum One Shot
Commissioner Gordon One Shot
Man-Bat One Shot
The Network One Shot
The Underground One Shot
Gotham Gazette: Batman Alive?
…and then whatever is going on in June, but we don’t have any info on that yet.

Another will be the Blackest Night run, but for now it is just running in Green Lantern, but we know big stuff like that can’t be contained to JUST the regular issues of two comics… No, Sir.

On the Superman front…
This week sees the first issue of Superman: World of New Krypton, not to be confused with just World of Krypton which was written by the one and only John Byrne 20 years ago.  No, this is much different.  In this storyline they are taking Superman out of his two books and putting him in a new book (hence the NEW in front of World) and for those of you not paying attention, or those who don’t care, I did say that right, Superman is not going to be in the comic book SUPERMAN, or Action Comics either.  These books don’t sell real great anyway, why DC thinks taking the sole reason for buying Superman (um, that would be Superman, right?) out of the book is going to help sales… well, I’m not a marketing executive, and obviously neither is Dan Didio, but I don’t think this is a good idea.  We think pull numbers on hold lists for these two books will get into the single digits.  I know of a few of you sucke… I mean loyalists who will get it no matter what (Don’t worry I’m a sucker too), but if Mon-el, Steel and Guardian needed their own series, maybe they should get their OWN series?  Maybe?
(When I told this Super marketing plan to a friend of mine, Jill said “what, seriously?  Is this like the Coy and Vance years on Dukes of Hazard?  Yes, Jill, sadly it is.)

BUT, in happier news…
The Goon is ten years old this month.  It is great to see a self published book, a really good self published book, make it to the big time.  It’s also good to see a company do real math in figuring anniversaries, but I digress.  I’ve been reading this, pleading with others to give it a shot and those who have, have been very happy they tried it.  Just giving a shout out to Eric Powell for ten years of solid goofy storytelling.  Hell of job, now back to work for ten more.

and while we are in Portland…
More props for Dark Horse who has started a policy of calling their customers and answering questions taking reorders and letting us know about upcoming promotions and savings.  They are THE BEST COMPANY IN COMICS and not only put out the best top quality comics, but give a damn about those buying their stuff.  Today’s conversation centered around the new Alien book which is coming in May.  If they are getting behind it as big as they are, I have faith it will be awesome.  Connected with it will be a relaunch of the Predator series as well.  Both will be written by John Arcudi, who has been doing a fantastic job on BPRD.

That’s all folks…
If you need anything don’t hesitate to e-mail me.  I might not respond unless you ask as I’ve been increasing my work load of late and it will only get worse as Baseball and more hockey approach, but be assured every e-mail is read and if needed, whatever is in it is addressed, one way or another.