Monthly Archive for August, 2009

Week of September 1st

Published on August 31, 2009 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

So, hmmm.  What happened today?  Anything big?

OH, right Marvel officially became a Mickey Mouse organization.

Pretty huge news that I hadn’t heard anything of before this.  Now, it should be noted that I’m not one to keep the ear to the internet rumor mill, but if comic “news” sites were caught off guard, I don’t feel so bad.  Don’t think anyone really saw this coming.

I talked to a couple people about it and none of us can find a bad thing about this deal.  If anything, we see positives.  Let’s be frank here, Marvel, of all the companies my business deals with (and we have to deal with them THROUGH Diamond distribution because they have NO representatives to talk to retailers) they are the worst.  They are extremely unprofessional and haphazard as large scale companies go.  Maybe this will snap them into shape a bit more, now having a big company overlord.

Look at how much more professional DC acts.  They honor return policies, they put their books out when they say they will or reap the repercussions and all content aside have a better look, feel and reputation in the industry.  DC has had Warner Bros as a big brother for some time, but maybe Marvel will start acting a bit more like them when it comes to putting out their books.

Oh, and if you thought you had seen Spider-man on EVERYTHING before, wait until they have the Monster Mouse’s add department’s help.

One comment on it I loved that I read on Newsarama:

“I guess what it means is that Marvel becomes more corporate and, if it isn’t there already, a company that creates comics for reasons that have nothing to do with the joy of creating comics,” said Mike Richardson, Dark Horse publisher. “Nothing wrong with that, but certainly a far cry from the Merry Marvel Marching Society. As far as Dark Horse goes, I happen to have an inside track as to what goes on in the owner’s head (yeah, he’s a guy, not a company) and he’s still in it for the love of comics.”

Happy Birthday to Us… you get presents!

We are going to have a month long sale in honor of our seventh year doing what we love, selling you coffee and comics.

Here is a list of merchandise sales:

Week 1 (Sept. 2nd through 8th) 25% off all action figures

Week 2 (Sept. 9th through 15th) 15% off all bundled comic lots

Week 3 (Sept. 16th through 22nd) $15.99 T-Shirts and 10% off purchases from the Warehouse

Week 4 (Sept. 23rd through 30th) 10% off all trade paperbacks and hard covers

All Wednesday’s (or the one Thursday) when comics are released – 10% off all comics in the store, but only that day!

We will be having a Sidewalk Sale on the 26th.

All month our 50centers will be only a quarter each.

All Dark Horse Comics are 10% off the entire month.  (try ‘em, you’ll like ‘em.)

And Coffee Sales:

Noon to close Monday, Wednesday and Friday: 50 cents off prepared Iced Drinks

Noon to close Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday: 50 cents off prepared Hot Drinks

Noon to close Sunday is Ronnie’s Choice (Probably Legends of the Dark Chai)

Every evening after 5:00 (and all day on Sunday), Free refills on drip coffee.

Labor Day Hours

We will be open from 8am to noon Monday.  The rest of the weekend, hours are the same as normal.

Sci-fi Saturday…

The Brave New Worlds Science Fiction Club, will host a variety of activities and presentations for science fiction junkies young and old alike.   The day will include a children’s reading program in the morning and science fiction presentations and discussion groups in the afternoon by the “Star Wars” 501st Legion, Doctor Who author Lars Pearson and some jack as that thinks he knows comic books.  There will be giveaways for kids and door prize drawings for everyone throughout the day. The event is being held to benefit Iowa Public Television; all activities are free, however attendees are encouraged to make a contribution to IPTV.

One last thing…

Did anyone read the write up Mike Richardson has had in the back of Dark Horse comic books lately?  Richardson is the President and Publisher of Dark Horse and he writes about how he got into comics and why he does what he does now.  He sums it up as a Love of Comics and it shows such a contrast to the big four billion dollar deals in the world of the big publishers.  I’m not saying Dark Horse is in it for some greater reason then money, but the write up and new ad campaign “We Love Comics, Too!” comes from something I can both believe in and get behind.

And if anyone read the great write up Scott Allie had on Paper in comic books in the letter column of Witchfinder #2… you know they believe the campaign too.  There was a letter that mentioned the paper type that was used on his Solomon Kane book and he uses most of the rest of the letter column to talk about the paper comics are printed on.  I dare you to find anywhere and any publisher who cares enough to talk to their readers about the ART FORM of comics like Dark Horse does.  Those two pieces (for me in one very, very good comic) cemented why the truest comic quality is still coming out of one company, Dark Horse.

That is why we are giving the discount on all Dark Horse books during the month of September.  Please give them a try.  See if there is something new and different you might want to give a try.  Grab an old Goon issue or the latest issue of Hellboy, I assure you they are great.

The Week of August 24th

Published on August 24, 2009 in Comics, Matt's stupid ramblings, Reviews-comics and Shop Crap. 0 Comments

birthday-cakeThe Seven Year Anniversary!

Last week was our shops seventh anniversary.  I didn’t even realize it until I was talking with a fellow Norwalk alumni I graduated with back in… it was awhile ago, okay… and it dawned on me… Holy Crap, it’s been seven official years for this shop!!  Then it dawned on me that the person I was talking to was someone I kind-of had a bit of a crush on throughout school.

She was easily one of the best looking girls in our school and she still looks great.  Sure there were clicks, what high school doesn’t have them, but I got along pretty well with most of my class.  I’m sure it didn’t hurt that I was in school with a good bunch of them for a full twelve years plus (kindergarten through graduation for most of my class).

I’m not saying that anyone was mean or any of that, but I was not the super popular kid.  I was pretty nerdy.  (Shut up, I wasn’t… damn.) I didn’t go out of my way to wear my nerdyness on my sleeve (Shut up) like I quite literally do now, but lets just say I didn’t openly talk about comics in high school.  I think kids can be a bit of a “cool” nerd now a days.  I think you get what I’m saying.  I’m not sure if anything other then, It was a different time period.  Go watch Breakfast Club if you don’t believe me.

None the less, I have several people I graduated or went to school with who are regulars into the shop.  It makes me feel good to give something back to them as well as the South Side of Des Moines, provide a service and all, but I have to say, it felt really nice to help a fellow Norwalk graduate find comics and the fact it was one of the cute girls too, that’s a big win for me, the nerd.

(Sometime I’ll tell the story of one of my classmates finding out about me playing hockey and saying “No, that’s not Matt, you must have him mixed up with the guy I went to school with.”  It was pretty funny… or sad if you look at it from the Matt circa 1990.)

Related to that…

Thank you all for keeping us going for these seven years.  Those of you who remember the shop from those many years ago, thank you for your very gracious support.

It has been a long road, but you helped so much.  I sort-of feel like I’m accepting an award that I didn’t think I would win.  You know who you are that I am trying to give thanks too, but several of you I will see in the next couple weeks and will personally thank.

And to the new customers, thank you too.  We have been having one of the better years I can remember.  It’s a small business and there are always trials and tribulations, but for the most part things are pretty good right now and you all are the reason why.

Happy Birthday to us… and you get gifts?

So, to celebrate our anniversary we are going to give you presents of savings in September.  We’ll be having some kind of sale each week in September, rotating each week.  Some will highlight different publishers (Dark Horse) or titles (Marvels Project) we like or think you should read.  More next week.

Sci-Fi Club Meeting
Kathy wanted me to let you all know about the Sci-Fi Club’s September meeting.  It’ll be Tuesday, September 1st at 7 pm and run until 9:00.  Topics to be discussed include the upcoming Sci-Fi Saturday event (September 12th) for about the first half hour and then a discussion of “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, looking at  the book, the BBC series, and the movie.  All are welcome.

Uh, Hello… Read this McFly…

A couple books that didn’t sell what I thought they did, but are pretty damn good and need a little help.  The first one, Marvels Project, has started to pick up as more word of mouth has gotten out on it, but this really is a great read.  Brubaker and Epting put out one of the better first issue reads of the summer and frankly, I’m intrigued as to where they are going.  Not someone who usually is to excited about retelling origin stories (in this case the origin of Marvel continuity) this seems to look like a nice tie in with Captain America: Reborn.  Certainly worth a look.

The second one is Daredevil #500.  It sold about what a regular issue sold.  We sold much better on Spiderman and Hulk #600 and those SUCKED.  I’m not shy about my love of Daredevil.  The books been good for a long time.  Never a down moment in a decade is a pretty good run.  On issue 500, Brubaker takes his leave of the title with a bang and a MAJOR change in the character.  Comics try to say, “Everything changes for (insert comic name) in this issue.”  For Daredevil after issue #500, “nothing will be the same again!”  Andy Diggle is coming on the book next month.  He’s no slouch in the writing department, so, if you have a couple extra bucks to dump or need an extra sized read (there is a lot of comic for the $5 price tag) I suggest picking it up.  I don’t think you will be disappointed, however, you might find yourself picking up #501 too.

The Week of August 17th

Published on August 17, 2009 in Chuck Grigsby, Comics, Matt's stupid ramblings and Shop Crap. 2 Comments

You may be noticing our website has recently undergone some changes.  I have wanted to make these for many moons, but have either not had time or… not had time.  Recently I’ve been able to get more ability to make changes to it on an administrative level, hence the improvements.

Recommended reads…

Well, there is even more new content.  I’ve put up a Top Ten or recommended reading list of each of our employees, owners and helpers.  If you need help finding a good book, I hope this helps.  I’ll try to get it updated once every couple months or so.

The Warehouse…

Also we are about to unveil something I’ve wanted for a long time, The Warehouse.  You might have noticed, but if not, our storage and display space is limited.  I’ve always been pulled in two directions on this; a cluttered shop, but with tons of stuff or a slightly better cleaner more organized shop, kind of the less is more theory.  Since we have not yet been able to create a tesseract so we would be able to have the best of both, we are doing the next best thing, on line storage.  The warehouse will be a digital listing of all of the books we have in real storage, but just not at the shop currently.  This will be accessible from our website and therefore, where ever you can get access.  We figure there is something like 6,000 plus books we have bought, but not resold yet.  Some have been held for sets to sell on e-bay, some just extra.  Now it will be available to you and not on the floor at the shop.

Find something you want at the price listed, e-mail us and we’ll bring it in, drop it into your box and you can pick it up next time you are in the shop.  Easy cheesy, you get books you are looking for, and we make money off of stuff that is just sitting; a win,win situation.  We’ll keep updating it and post when it has been updated.

So, uh, do you buy comics?…

In the seven years the shop has been open, that is the number one question I have been asked.  Not “what good books have you read lately, “ but “do you buy comics?”  And it normally has a slacked jaw sound to the question too.  Since Curt and Kyle have come on board there have been a lot of changes, one of the biggest being the ability to buy comics, turn them around and re-sell them.  It has opened up a new avenue of profit the shop was lacking before.  Kyle is the buyer for the shop and the only buyer.  Ask I or Curt to look at them and we’ll both start incoherently babbling and waving our arms.

My rambling aside, with the Warehouse beginning to take shape, we will be expanding our buying of books.  I’m not saying we will most certainly buy your crappy issues of Spawn, but if you have comics for sale, we will at least look at them and give you what we consider a fair price.  The worst that can happen, you say no and no hard feelings.  Just keep it in mind.

The Diamond joke of the week…

Thought you might like this shipment from last week.  So, we got a couple things badly damaged or they were missing last week.  When there are more than a fair number, Diamond will do an emergency reship as they did last week.  This shipment was split in two boxes, coming from two different places.  If you have tried to order some stuff lately, you may have found me at my wits end trying to get it in.  Ask Burke about Battle for the Cowl number ones that after three weeks of trying to order them and having them dropped from shipments, finally were removed from the Diamond reorder site; OH, they weren’t actually there in the first place.

So, last week one of the two boxes arrived with a total of two things in it and a note inside “This box was proudly finished and packed by” and three names listed.  Yes… It’s going through your head too.  How many Diamond employees does it take to pack TWO things in one box?!!!?

Chuck in Amsterdam…

It could be the name of a zany comedy from the producers who brought you Mallcop or Harold and Kumar, but no it’s not.  It is Chuck Grigsby’s latest international MMA Fight.  This one didn’t go as well as eastern Europe did.  Chuck lost, however, he fought someone nearly fifty pounds heavier then himself and in a completely different weight class.  Chuck, for whatever reason, was moved up to heavyweight for this fight.  If there is a moral victory though, this would be it.  Chuck took the guy to a second round decision.  Pretty damn good by my standards.  You still the man, Chuck.  We are very proud of you.

Metal in your neighborhood…

I don’t get to see nearly as many bands as I once did.  But thought I would mention to anyone that cared, Deathklok is going on tour soon and will be heading to Des Moines.  Recently appearing in the Goon one shot, they also have the third season starting this fall on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim.  They will be at the Val Air Ballroom on October 14th.  Mind you they are NOT the main event, but I’ve been told they are a good show if nothing else.  Mastodon, High on Fire and Converge are all on the bill for the same night.

And if you like Metal, just five days before that on the 9th, Lamb of God and GWAR (yes, GWAR) are going to be there.

Screwing The Comic Industry 101…

I’m going to try and get my ranting and rambling to make more of a point.  So, I’ve decided to start some columns.  I have Dan, Dan the Monkey Man’s Avengers monthly recrap, but I’ve thought of starting my own Screwing the Comic Industry 101.

I talk about the end of the our world so often, I felt it would be more constructive to get this in more of a monthly organized thought process.

I’m not going to write it this week, as I put forth my thoughts on convention delays last week and if you missed it, you can find it online.  However, I do have some thoughts on Screwing the industry from my very long time customer Tony G (yeah, he’s kind-a gangsta.)

Tony was ranting about Marvel (he buys Spider-man, give him a break.)  Here is what he thinks:

“One more thing: who the *&%$ turned the lights out in the Marvel universe???? I know they went all Chapter 11 back in the day, but sum-bitch… can’t they pay their utilities? Nearly every frickin’ comic is dark… and I don’t mean that Dark Reign storyline.  Gotta be an owl to read their shite.”

Tony, I could not agree more.  I hear they are re-doing their Marvel Adventures line and have been told that Paul Tobin is doing a great job with the books… if anyone was looking for a little more light hearted flair.  AND DC is not exactly shining bright, Blackest Night is either resurrecting drooling versions of old school characters or they are killing everyone who wasn’t dead.  Heaping piles of death and darkness, now with extra gravy.

The Week of August 10th

Published on August 10, 2009 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

Kind of a dull shipment last week, but man, they are making up for it with this week.  I found it hard to pick only four (so, I didn’t) titles to highlight on the website.  Blackest Night #2, Blackest Knight: Batman #1 and Green Lantern Corps #69 for you DC freaks, Marvels Project #1, Uncanny X-Men #514 (part three or four of the Dark X-Men crossover), and the restart of Ultimate spiderman as well as Ultimate Avangers for the Marvel crowd and for those of you with a discerning palate there is Fables and Unwritten.  And then for me (and the rest of us smart readers) Hellboy and BPRD ship as well.  HOLY BIG SHIPMENT YOU HAVE THERE BATMAN!

This leads me to my rant though… I think this is one of the reasons I’m not real high on Convention season.  You can always mark down a good degree of lateness during it for books that are like clockwork the rest of the year.  I’m not talking about major lateness, but just a week or two.  If you remember back during the week before, during and after the San Diego Comic Con there was nearly nothing from Marvel.  Now all that product is arriving.  I get it, you are short staffed during that time, but the industry shouldn’t just crawl to a stop during that time.  I think more fans then not would prefer a steady diet of books then “news,” announcements and sound bites.

Speaking of cons…

Sooo, did anyone go to Chicago this last weekend?  How the mighty have slid.  The little bits I heard were that it was terrible.  If they are done doing a disservice to conventions maybe they can stop publishing their worthless magazine too.

But do not despair, those of you who long for the well done super-con in Chicago.  I’ve mentioned and more news keeps coming about the C2E2 in Chicago next April.  Same people who put on the New York con and they already have Jeff Smith and Alex Ross as guests of honor.  (JEFF SMITH!!!)

Avatar is Super and Ellis is a comic’s god…

There was some news coming out of Chicago and you can find the recaps of panels and announcements and what-have-you at the usual “news” sites, but one little piece caught my eye as I was perusing.  Warren Ellis has his next series lined up with Avatar called Supergod.  As Rich Johnston posted on his site, www.bleedingcool.com, it’s about a superhero who has left humanity behind and could have become what most would describe as a god.  Johnston says what jumps into every one’s mind, Dr. Manhattan?  To me the actual content announcement is less interesting then the thought that Avatar is building a nice catalogue of titles.  With Ignition City, Crossed, Absolution, No Hero, Anna Mercury, Black Summer… the list is getting pretty good.  Granted of those books, only two were not written by Ellis.

Avatar is showing and becoming THE place for writers to go and write stories without boundaries.  I’m guessing by sales you have not read Absolution, the new Chris Gage book from them, but he says he went to them because they would let him push the borders other companies would not.  Writers who have found themselves hamstrung by Marvel and DC are branching out to the independent market and starting to thrive.  Mark Waid’s Irredeemable, about a Superman type character going bad, is a success for fledgling Boom! and Crossed is easily one of Avatar’s best sellers ever.

This probably means you can expect more of the brutal, edge pushing from these indie companies as they try to find customers and stay afloat.   Any competition for the big two is a good thing in my book.

Miller is gone.  FF readable now?

Mark Miller is done with his dark reign on Fantastic Four.  Thank Zeus and Odin, the monster is vanquished.  I love the FF and I made it through only part of the first issue of Miller’s run on it.  It was unreadable trash.  You might remember I reviewed it in this blog and tore it apart.  Something, I am somewhat unwilling to do as it is sales-wise counterproductive.  However,  I could not and will not hold my tongue.  I do not think Miller is the be all end all greatest writer in comics.  He is highly over rated.  Has he written things I have enjoyed, yes.  Superman: Red Son was good (though there are questions about who exactly wrote the ending… Grant Morrison or Miller) and I enjoyed Wolverine: Enemy of the State.  Parts of the comic book Wanted were great, the ending was terrible and I’m not a fan of anything Ultimate except the very first issue of The Ultimates.

I have met him and he is a friendly guy who will talk to all those who stop at a signing.  He has sort of reached that point where he doesn’t need to do that sort-of thing anymore but does.  However, he it is that same stardom that makes me wonder if comics are his passion anymore.

He was in Chicago this weekend and he was pimping his film Kick-ass, but issue number seven isn’t out yet.  It’s John Romita Jr. for crying out loud, I know it isn’t the artist’s fault here.  Where is Old Man Logan?  (Wait, all of Miller’s books are always late…. Hmm?)  I just beg the question, should we give the power to people who do not deliver us product?  Should we give comic people stardom?

What is the Marvel’s Project?

I have no idea what this book is about.  I am not really all that excited either.  I think Marvel has done a very bad job getting people interested in this thing.  It is supposed to be THE summer book going hand in hand with their 70th anniversary (math is hard) and Captain America Reborn, but I don’t know what it is and I’m a bloody retailer, it’s my job to know.  Obviously the average comic collector is going to have problems getting excited.

That said, I am going to take a copy home to read.  It is written by Ed Brubaker and I’m willing to give the benefit of the doubt.  It’s just frustrating when you are trying to sell this thing and there is NO buzz in your shop about it.

That is why we are going to have a one week sale.  If you pick it up during the first week it is on sale it will only cost you $2.99, as opposed to the typically not so marvelous price of $3.99.  Your chance to try it and not commit as much if you hate it.

The Week of August 3rd

Published on August 3, 2009 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

I’m really busy and under somewhat of a gun this week, so, I’ve decided to make this an all rant “issue.”  Those are always easier to put together anyway and kicking it off…

One of my favorite customers, Dan “The Monkey Man” Musgrave bought his copy of New Avengers and now has his typical buyers remorse.   He has told me in the past that he hates doing it, but just has to buy New Avengers or he’ll feel lost in the Marvel Universe.  I think he is addicted to “the car crash.”  Some are able to look away… others, just can’t.  Don’t worry Dan, I can’t either.  Here is Dan’s latest diatribe:

Bendis has the keys to the castle and runs amok all over the Marvel Universe turning it into an episode of Dragon Ball Z.  Two issues of talking and build up, 6 pages of action, and another issue’s worth of pages where he goes back in time a week to RECAP everything that he’s already written.  This is how Marvel makes $15 off of a one issue amount of story.

Bendis is doing this, while someone with actual talent, like Jason Aaron, is given every character who’s been run into the ground and builds them into complete bad-asses.  Did anyone else read the Fat Cobra story in Immortal Weapons issue one?  ”Tongue of a thousand Passions.”  ”Nine Suns Nipple Clamp.”  ”Heaving Tiger Love Tug.”  Good god man, anyone who can so seamlessly, genius like, and accurately translate sex into kung fu terms is a writing god!  I’ll put it out there and state it as fact, Scalped is the best comic being published right now; especially after the last issue.  Nothing else is anywhere near as complex… except maybe the rationalization behind giving Bendis so much power.

That brings us to issue #55 of New Avengers dramatic cover, the big super-powered steaming pile.  That’s a surprisingly honest advertisement for what’s inside the issue, but they should have put a disclaimer on it because the only people getting whooped on in the issue are the consumers.

As far as the only thing the Avengers did inside the book… Well, verbs that could be used to complete a sentence like “The New Avengers______”, aside from SIT at a damned table for ANOTHER 20-someodd pages, was CHOKE on Chemical Man’s gas.  Could Stan Lee have ever used “Watch as the world’s mightiest heroes sit and choke” on one of his old covers?  I think not.

On page 17, Luke Cage is obviously making a very Meta-comment when he says “But this does need to be discussed… It’s Just Talk.”  BENDIS IS RUBBING IT IN OUR FACES!  He’s taunting us.  From the steaming pile on the front cover to the steaming pile he dropped in the interior, he is rubbing our noses in it.  DARK REIGN refers to him, not Norman Osborn.  BENDIS IS OSBORN.

That’s it.  I just got done wasting my 20 minutes on this issue and had to vent.  Oh, and Jeff Loeb sucks.

Thank you Dan, thank you.

And speaking of The Hulk’s writer…

I actually have to add a few things.  I was asked if I had to choose which of the #600 issues that came out two weeks ago, which one would I read.  I did actually only read one.  I only read Hulk.  I made a vow I would not sit and read Amazing Spider-man until they fixed it after the Grandma sex issue.  I was able to hold to my vow and felt good about it… until I read Incredible Hulk #600.

I don’t usually rip on books in this e-mail.  Though I trust you all to make up your own minds, it is counterproductive to really bad mouth a book.  WELL, sales are dropping so bad on Hulk that I don’t feel I’m being counterproductive.

Hulk #600 was terrible.   Jeff Loeb has been a bad writer for years, why, I don’t know, but since he wrote Long Halloween his writing has been sliding badly.  Until Hulk #600, now, it is unreadable.  We were led to believe we would learn who the red Hulk was in this issue (that didn’t happen by the way) and now we are just on to red She-hulk.  The art was as it has been for the first 599 issue… uh, I mean, 12 issues big and kid like.  If it didn’t have a lot of sexual innuendo I would have guessed (at first glance) Hulk was a kids book.  Or is it that Loeb’s kid, who writes the children’s single page hulk story in the back of the book is the better writer of the book… sorry, off on a side tangent there.

I picked Hulk, and wished I hadn’t.

Speaking of terrible books written by Loeb which is not for kids…

I don’t read any of the Ultimate books.  I don’t think they are what they were started as and, frankly, I think if you need those stories, read the originals.

That said, I obviously didn’t read Ultimatum, obviously, so, Kyle showed me issue five.  Holy Cats!  I’m not going to give away anything, but the amount of grotesque violence in this issue was, shocking.  There are three crushed or exploding heads, complete with brain mass and gore, two skin roasted blastings and one horribly incoherent story.

I could care less about this book.  We are probably not going to sell as many of issue five as issue four, because it is badly late and no one really cares about it.  Why have they been killing everyone in this and the rest of the Ultimate books?  Sales overall have been dropping badly and if you have Marvel’s mentality on sales, bad sales equals killing and changing the character so we can relaunch with a new number one.

But what has me so irritated is the violence in this book.  It is “rated” T+, which by their own system is described as “appropriate for most readers 13 and up.”  If you bought the book, or if not check it out next time in the shop, what do you think.  There is NO WAY I would sell this book to a 13 year old and Marvel should be ashamed for this.  An editor, assistant, senior and in-chief should check over a script and approve final art, so, I will not place the blame on artist David Finch.  Marvel  should be ashamed.