Monthly Archive for April, 2009

The Week of 4/20, um, I mean April 20th

Published on April 20, 2009 in Comics, Movies, Reviews-comics and Shop Crap. 0 Comments

To varying degrees the shop has become somewhat of a place for kids/teens to hang out over the last few years.  I haven’t totally become Ken King yet to yell at them enough to keep them away, I guess and several of them are pretty good little sh…shooters.  A couple of them put together an ad as to why Cup is better then Starbutts.  Don’t sue us giant mindless corporation X (if you get that reference, Curt and Kyle love you) it was the kids, all the kids.
Enjoy, it’s pretty awesome.
Use this link:
vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=55624476

Matt’s recommendation of the week… Captain Britain and MI13
WOWSERS!!  I have found a new great comic I must read each month, or at least until the end of this storyline, Captain Britain and MI13.  Six words: Magical Vampire Missiles from the Moon!!!  I love my old seventy and eighties comics where stuff was a little goofier, at lot less serious.  The current era can, at times, lack fun, but Vampire Missiles… that is fun, but less so for our heroes.  The book centers around a couple of British heroes who are “employed” by one of the British governmental agencies.  Among the very miss-mashed group are Captain Britain (obviously), Black Knight, Pete Wisdom and Blade (didn’t realize he was British, but in the comics he is.  Learn something new every day!)  The book started as a Secret Invasion spin-off and was rather uninspired, but I think it isn’t a stretch to say the writer Paul Cornell was just bidding his time to get to the latest storyline where Dracula is going to try and take over Great Britain.  Big D has made a deal with Dr. Doom to keep the Dark Reign-ers from interfering.  There are a lot of other questions you might have and I do to, but for the most part I just sat back and loved seeing an old classic villain used diabolically as he should be.  This is super-hero comics at there best.  High Recommendation.

Wednesday Comics…
Yes, that is when they will ship this week, but also what they will be called in a few months.  DC’s new “weekly” book is getting a little more info released on it.  I have a link and there are actual art pages!!:
blog.newsarama.com/2009/04/17/cant-wait-for-wednesday-comics-dc-shows-more/
I think this is going to be a real sleeper hit.  Kyle and I were talking today and both of us are jazzed as hell (there is going to be a Kamandi story with Ryan Sook art!!!)  Granted, I don’t have a clue as to who else will want it, though.  There are about ten people and those are the ones that read Sea Guy already, so, those are easy.  Then there are like ten more who read artsy stuff, but are okay with superheroes that are, well, not what I recommended above.  It’s going to be $3.99, which at first sounds like a bit of a rip off at only 16 pages, but those pages will be very oversized in a fold-out format.  I guess you have to give them credit for doing something different if nothing else.
and yes, I will keep posting on this and keep telling you about it until it comes out and you buy it and you love it!

Green Lantern, The Movie?
The details of the GL movie is starting to see the light of day.  The director will be Martin Campbell (Casino Royale) and the writers will include Marc Guggenheim, who has written comics and worked on Battlestar Galactica.  GL will have a $150 million budget and be filmed in Australia.
Hmmm.  As long as Ben Affleck is not Hal Jordan, though the casting would be pretty spot on, they are both a little douch-ie.

Michael Bay to direct Thundercats??
Speaking of big movie news… okay, not real movie news, but this link my wife found on the Onion was to good to pass up:
www.theonion.com/content/news/michael_bay_signs_50m_deal_to_fuck?utm_source=EMTF_Onion

The Week of April 13th

Published on April 13, 2009 in Comics and Uncategorized. 0 Comments

I have two words for you, TAX TIME!!

Save us Jebus, save us.  So, you’ll get a couple short reviews and a little commentary today then on to the lists and get me home, back to bed and back in here again tomorrow.

The best book I read last week was Ignition City by Avatar Publishing.  This is the new space punk-ish comic from Warren Ellis and it is fantastic.  Really not all that much happens in the first issue, but the style, mood and feeling laid down in this book is so damn good I will be reading the rest of the series for sure.  The story of the book is set in a space faring Earth of the past and follows Mary on her search for the remaining effects of her deceased father.
This is the second new series from Avatar that has me anxiously anticipating the next issue.  The first was Crossed and if you read that one, let me say the feel from Ignition City is a 180 degree difference.  No horse appendage wielding lunatics in this book, but both are relying on dialogue driven story telling and well drawn, but not over wrought or over drawn, art.  This is one to get, or pre-order the trade.  The Highest Recommendation.

Last week saw a couple big DC books released; Superman: World of New Krypton #2, Batman: Battle for the Cowl #2 and Green Lantern #39.  Of all of them, I thought Batman BFTC was the best.  The art makes the book and I have to say the story, though rather violent, harkens back to a less serious, slightly more colorful era (something I’ve wanted DC to go back to for some time.)
As you know, Batman is dead and this is the story of who inherits the Bat-cowl, but in issue two it is more specifically about Dick Grayson and Tim Drake fighting Jason Todd (the one who died, then didn’t – whatever. Stupid Judd Winick!) as he dishes out his version of Bat-justice.  By the end of this issue, you start to see which way the Bat-books are headed for the next bat-year.
I’ve not read the side BFTC books and I think they are merely extra stuff filling in some of the gaps and elluded to stories in the main book.  I didn’t think I would say this a few months ago, but I recommend the main Battle for the Cowl title.  I doubt I will be saying the same for any of the regular Bat-titles after things get worked out (URGH – Judd Winick on Batman?!?  gack.  He is THE worst writer in comics!), but who knows, maybe… oh, right, then there’s Batman and Robin.  awesome.

Green Lantern #39 kicked off the Blackest Night storyline this week.  This has been building for over a year, maybe two.  The basic story goes like this: the Guardians of the Universe (the blue guys that control the Green Lantern corp like a police force) has been mildly splintered.  In addition to this, several additional factions have gained power across the universe, leading everyone towards a big old sloberknocker.
Above I said I like the slightly more colorful comics DC used to do, but I think they might be going a little far this time.  Each of the factions in Blackest Night has its own color and its own ring.  If you read it and don’t talk about it, you’ll do fine, but if you start talking about it aloud, it sounds really stupid.  It’s a very ridiculous premise, but really, how many superhero comics are not.

If we are headed down the slide, we have arrived at Superman: World of New Krypton.  I don’t like to write bad reviews (it tends to hurt business) and I will read this book as well as both Action and Superman through this year long storyline.  I actually thought the Superman-less Action Comics and Superman were pretty interesting.  I can’t say the same for World of.  I think the book will pick up, but issue two was pretty boring.  (I have to insert Mike Nuttall into this review… “It’s Superman, of course it’s boring!”  Shut up Mike!)  I just don’t really see why this whole thing is necessary.  It really seems like someone (who could that be) started a big storyline, got it going and dropped it into the lap of someone else.  I have faith in James Robinson to, at the very least, give us well written dialogue, but the action needs to pick up.

Speaking of picking up the pace… Flash: Rebirth #1.  was. one. slow. and boring read, in my opinion.  Now, this is only the first issue, so I hold off true criticism, but man, I need a little more then just story in my superhero books.  Lets get it going.  If I remember correctly (and we know that doesn’t happen often) Green Lantern Rebirth started a little quicker and had more action off the bat, then this did.  Like the Superman book, we shall see.

The quote of the week comes from good customer and good guy Dan the Ape Man.  He was in looking for something for his sister and said, “really, whatever works, I’m just trying to keep her away from the Manga.”

Opening Day, April 6th

Published on April 6, 2009 in Comics, Movies and Shop Crap. 2 Comments

Sorry, but today (Monday) is a national holiday far more important then Valentines Day, Mother/Father Day or any of the rest of those stupid Hallmark/Postal Service day o’ rests combine… Today is Opening Day!  and the information and commentary you read below might seem a little old and short.  That’s because it is.  I’ve been drinking my little head off and celebrating this greatest of days.  The universe is in alignment again.  Factor in the fact that last night was Wrestlemania, it’s a pretty good two days.
So, below is something I wrote last week.  Sorry, but I celebrate today and mark the return of the best sport and the end of another long winter.  All Hail The Baseball!!

Big Wolverine Discount…
There is a new Wolverine book shipping this week, Wolverine: Weapon X #1.  Normally we don’t do big discounts on new books, but frankly, the writer deserves the support.  Weapon X is being written by Jason Aaron.  If you’ve read either Scalped or Ghost Rider recently you know how great he is.  I don’t remember a new comer with this much pure talent and I expect, for Marvel to give him such a high profile book, it to be pretty good.
We are giving a 30% discount on the first issue, making it only $2.80, cheaper then a regular Wolverine book.  The deal will be for a limited time, so, grab it while you can… at OUR cheap introductory price.
Hmmm, maybe we should start doing this for all of the big new number one issues.

Speaking of Wolverine…
Anyone seen the movie yet?  I hear the new Wolverine movie, which is scheduled to be released May 8th, was up on a bit torrent site last week and over 100,000 downloads were done on it.  Fox studio exects say it was an incomplete and early copy, but none the less, it got out there.  The same exec also said the FBI was investigating the incident.  Fox is probably pretty pissed off as this was supposed to be a major summer release and numbers will most likely be worse for this.  I read one article that mentioned online bloggers calling it Karma for Fox suing over Watchmen rights.  I have to say I think it’s kind of funny, but I hate all big corporations.

Speaking of bad numbers…
I wish I knew what Marvel has planned for Spider-man, because our sales numbers are down the toilet and into the sewer.  Let me put it like this we are now selling less then half the numbers we were before the Myphisto continuity screw job.  (It is sort-of like the Vince McMahon/Bret Hart incident, but in this case it’s Joe Quesada screwing you the readers.)
I’ve only heard from one reader who likes it more then before.  I’ve personally only read one two part storyline and it could have been from any time line, though was written well.  However, the numbers at three times a month are not as good as they were before this brand new Spider started and there were three books.
Continuity-wise, I’m still lost.  I just don’t get it.  I don’t understand how it works and how it is supposed to make sense.  Though frankly, I’m starting not to care.
The latest lame Spidey-reveals-his-identity-to-the-Avengers story (in New Avengers #51) was brutally bad.  If you did read it and were wondering, the “coma girl” stuff referred to a single issue in the Bendis written Alias series.  I’m not a big fan of Bendis, but that bad writing was some of his worst.  I think what I hated most about this is he wrote it a couple year ago and is now having to do it again and did a worse job.
I guess what I’m trying to get at is how far does this go?  We now sell less issues of Spider-man a month then Superman, and Supes isn’t even in his own book!!!  This has never happened at our shop and any shop I’ve ever know of.  Granted, we have smart comic collectors, but I’ve heard of people who have life long Spidey collections dropping the title.  That’s bad!
Not that anyone from Marvel would be reading this, but I, not a Spider-man fan mind you, but a comic fan and retailer, implore you to right this ship.  Your mad experiment has gone too far and now threatens the town.  Fix this soon or we the towns folk will take up the pitchforks and torches.