Monthly Archive for March, 2010

The Week of March 29

Published on March 29, 2010 in Comics, Matt's stupid ramblings, Reviews-comics and Shop Crap. 0 Comments

Day after the Super bowl and I feel pretty good, though maybe a little bit tired.  What, you say, the Super bowl wasn’t yesterday!”  Oh, but it was.  The REAL Super bowl, The main event, the grand daddy… Wrestlemania!

Most of you know I am an old school wrestling fan and follow it fairly regularly and though a dead rodent could put together better plot lines most of the time, I still love my adult male soap operas with extra violence.

Every year a group of us gather and watch and drink and swear at the wrestling and have a great time.  Last night was no different, except we got Ronnie to stick around and watch with us.

At first he said, “I’m only going to stick around for a match or two.  I don’t really think I’ll enjoy it all that much.”  It changed to “This is awesome” and he stuck around for the entire four hours.

So, why do I bring this up?  Not because we might have gotten Ronnie hooked on wrestling like a kid on heroine, but because, wrestling is great and I so wanted to use this header:

To be the man, you have to beat the man?…

That is what Marvel needs to be saying to DC after the statement by Dan Didio last week that DC wants to be number one in total sales.  The website Bleeding cool has the basic story (though it is more in regards to creators getting their portfolios to DC editors.)  You can find it here: www.bleedingcool.com/2010/03/25/dc-comics-gunning-for-direct-market-top-spot/

I don’t understand this.  It is such a childish fight that will only hurt the industry and their company in the end.  It really reminds me of a pro-wrestling plotline.  The bad guy comes out and goads the title holder into a fight he doesn’t want, cheats and takes the title away, only to eventually lose it back to the real champ at the Pay Per View.

DC has such a new emphasis on puffing and beating their chests like a shaved white gorilla (hmmm, look at that picture of Didio, is he the Ultra huminite?) to prove something to someone.  They have nothing to prove and nowhere to go to prove it.

I say nothing to prove because, in this retailers opinion, Blackest Night just proved everything.  They had a great event and one of the best crossovers (not saying a lot there) in a decade or longer.  Why not build off of that, cautiously, and make less into more sales not just more comics, events and stories?  You have a good thing going why ruin it by pumping more less quality into an industry with plenty of not good floating about already.

DCLOGO2

And that is the crux of why this is bad for DC, for you the reader and me, a retailer.  For DC to top Marvel they need to publish A LOT more and/or sell A LOT more.  They do this one of two ways, by publishing A LOT more books, probably in areas they can guarantee some sales (Batman, Superman, Batman, Justice League, Batman.)  Problem is, as we are seeing with several side books coming from DC right now, so much of this is crap.  Publishing more crap clogs the walls and diverts money away from the quality.  People who only collect Batman will still get all the Batman books, but won’t try, say, the Justice League if they are having to buy now more Batman books.  Do we need even more Batman?  A better question would be do we need more JSA or Justice League or Green Arrow?  NO!  The second JSA book shows without question the unfortunate results of extending your line to far.

Crap doesn’t sell well, so, we still want to beat Marvel by publishing more… lets raise prices.  Bad move.  You have the “moral” high ground now by increasing your overall numbers without higher prices, so use it.  Don’t raise your prices, raise your standards.  Have more people read more for less.  They will be happier and then possibly try more of your side projects if you give them a little at a time.  Force feeding huge gulps only makes them and the retailer who is serving, choke.

The experiment with eight page back-up stories is a failure.  No one wants eight pages of the lowest of D level characters who can’t sell their own books, don’t have anything to do with the main characters and the stories only exist to clog the book for an additional dollar.  Why do more failure?

Thing is… There is an area of DC that doesn’t and has never taken this theory to hart, Vertigo.  Smart comics, reasonable prices (by industry standards) at high production value in the art and writing areas.  Vertigo tries to launch books with dollar teaser issues now, a fantastic idea to give people a taste and get them interested so they will come back for more.  This has worked wonders on starting out new series for us.  One dollar, I’ll try it.  Three dollars, eh, I’ll buy some capes and cowls instead.

The sales, at least for us and for those who do read this stuff and comment on it, have begun to again move towards a growing dissatisfaction in mediocrity and a growth in sales of Vertigo, where nearly everything is higher in creativity, intelligence  and overall quality.  Vertigo publishes less, but makes us far more and creates happier customers.  Wait!  But this is within their own offices?  Silly, stupid industry.

Didio, please, think this through.  Learn from your own company and be the bigger man in the cage match.  You don’t need to beat the marvelous man to be a better man for the all the industries sake.

My Nemesis… Nemesises?… Nemesiseeses?…

I say all of that about corporate comics and the games they play against each other and one of the bestselling books of the last week is a creator owned book called Nemesis.

nemesis

I have stated before I am not a huge fan of Mark Miller’s writing.  I feel most of it is devoid of overall story and designed principally only for shock sake and a chance to go overboard with gratuitous violence.  Those are my opinions and not, obviously by looking at sales, what most people think.  I am in the extremely small minority on his work, however, I do think Mark Miller is an interesting creator as a person and would LOVE to sit and have a beer or three with him and talk industry and characters.  Miller is the biggest self promoter in the industry which works great for a book which is creator owned.

So, what did I think of Nemesis, I didn’t hate it and will actually read the second issue.  This is a ringing endorsement from one who has only ever really liked one thing, the Wolverine story Enemy of the State, he has done.  It may turn on me and I’ll end up not liking it at some point, but so far after only the first issue, I’m intrigued.

The plot is about this world’s only super villain.  He targets a do gooder, police commissioner or cop and issues a statement telling them when they will die.  Then goes about making good on that threat.  He has now decided to targeted the hero super cop of Washington DC this time and after only a single issue, we know the book will be one of the most violent reads of the year.

There are a few copies left (out of a large order we had shipped only last Wednesday.)  If you miss these, let someone know and we’ll get you a second print when they ship in a few weeks.

Blackest Night Sale Continues…

One more week of our Blackest Night Sale.  Get 25% off all BN titles except GL #52, GLC #46 and BN #8.  Power Rings (except Green) are on sale for only a single dollar and we will be getting in more Black Rings this week and selling them for only a buck as well!

Molly Free is Awesome!

Ronnie’s wife Molly is a great mom, a wonderful artist and a hell of a tattooist.  She now has a snazzy new website to feature her work.  Check it out at mollyfree.wordpress.com/ and if you are looking to get a tattoo any time soon, you might consider Molly.  She is now working with Sheri, who if you know Des Moines tattooing, you know her work.  Check out her work and send her an e-mail.

The Week of March 22

Published on March 22, 2010 in Matt's stupid ramblings, Reviews-comics and Shop Crap. 0 Comments

Sorry this is super late as you are probably reading it Tuesday morning.  Team Kryptonite had a makeup hockey game Monday.  We beat my good friend’s team of Puck Hawgz like a drum and, yours truly, continued his point streak extending it to five games, but individual achievements are not as important as team wins, right?  Well, we are in first place too.  What, you don’t care about hockey?  Grrrr.  Fine, I’ll rip on comics then.

Great Article…

I want to start this week by pointing you away from this column or blog post (Some of you are now cheering and saying this is the best thing I have ever done, saving you from having to read my writing again.)  I want you to read the latest column from Brian Hibbs, he the owner of Comics Experience in San Francisco.

He posts Tilting at Windmills and this month’s post (found here at www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=25315) is about publishers and what could be perceived as a desire by them to kill the monthly/weekly periodical system.

In the article Hibbs brings up the light week and the heavy week, the skip week from X-Mas and what the companies are doing about all of this.  It is written about and for retailers, but I want to mention it and encourage you to read it because it talks about a things very important to keeping your hobby/culture/love healthy.

Hibbs talks about how we retailers want you to come in every week, of course.  There is more chance you will buy more if you do.  However, this recent trend of back loading the month is really presenting a disturbing trend and I, personally, think it is a desire to actually cut down to twice a month shipping.  I spoke about how much I hated even the idea of the holiday skip week and though it was not as harmful to us as I might have thought (BECAUSE Blackest Night shipped and we had to MAKE sales by putting stuff ON sale) it doesn’t make me change my view that it was a bad idea and a potentially slippery slope to go down.  Comic companies have been historically bad about taking a onetime acceptable idea and turning it into crap or ruining it completely (Free Comic Book Day).

Hibbs also brings up a very good point about volume of what is published and the volume of what isn’t very good continually being published.  Marvel and DC both are very guilty of publishing too much “B minus” “C grade” garbage.  Does 1 or 2 really good Spider-man books sell better than 7 different all bad Spider-man books?  I can answer that.  NO!!!!!! they @#^$*&% do not!!!  I have numbers to prove it.  The only reason I make more money off of Amazing Spider-man then some other books if because it comes out three times or more a month.  We sell LESS with it coming out three times a month than it did once a month when Strazynski was writing it and we sell more Tiny Titans compared to a single issue of Amazing.  Let me re-type that so you do not have to re-read it.  We sell more, single issue to single issue, of Tiny Titans than we do of a single issue of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN!!!! And Spider-man is NOT a C grade character, so, WHY is there a Doom Patrol, Magog, Torch, Spider-Woman, Marvel Boy the Uranus or Uranian, Deathlok, Pixie, Outsiders, Great Ten or Human Target book being published?  (By the way if you combine all the sales of those books do not sell as well as ONE single issue of Tiny Titans!)

I can go on and on with this, so, go and read the Hibbs article.  It is great and makes Marvel and DC look like morons.

Blackest Night Sale…

blackest_night_6After ripping on the industry I should take a minute and actually give a little praise.  It is easy to say the Blackest Night crossover has been the most successful one our shop has ever seen.  This is made mostly possible by you the reader letting us know what you wanted and DC keeping stuff in stock for reorders (a serious problem with Marvel) and offering different related promotions, discounts and variant cover offers.

However, even with its success we have some overstock that we would like to get rid of.

To coincide with the release next week of Blackest Night #8 we will have a special 25% off, two week sale of all of the Blackest Night books (some exceptions – like BN #8, GL #52 and GLC #46.)  Maybe you missed an issue and or want to complete the run of something, whatever.  Help us get rid of the overstock.  Also, all Power Rings that are left (except Green) will be only a dollar during the sale which starts this Wednesday the 24th.

American Vampire…

The new Stephen King inspired and partially written comic debuted last week and it is even better then I thought it would be.

am-vampire

There are two stories in the book (remember when more comics used to do this, ahhh, better times.)  The first is written by Scott Snyder and tells the story of a young aspiring actress in 1920’s LA.  I’ve heard from a several different people, varying degrees of comic reader – some more superhero and some no superhero, who say they like and prefer the first story over that of King’s.  I disagree, but in no way dislike any part of this book.  I think what gets me in the first story, and we need to remember this IS a horror story, is with after what we see in the first few pages, you are kept on the edge of your seat and wait for the boogie man to jump out for the whole story.  When it eventually does, you are left with a great cliffhanger ending and wanting much more.  The writer, Snyder, has a great sense of timing and the basic page layouts are top notch for a relative new comer to the medium (he has written primarily novels.)

Stephen King’s story is the second half and, I have to say, I liked it more.  Not to take anything away from Snyder’s, but I love a story set in the old west.  (Jonah Hex is still one of my favorite reads.)  It will tell the story of Skinner Sweet, and how he becomes a new form of American Vampire.  The story will be told through a writer (is King writing himself into the comic?) and his recollection of events.  It’s a little more set up then the first half of the book, but for what I presume will be a bigger pay off in issues to come.  However, there is more than enough action (and violence) to keep you interested.

The art chores, inks and pencils, are being handled for the whole book by Rafael Albuquerque and they are spectacular!  The Snyder starlet story is hard inked with a very finished look to it and, I’m pretty sure the King Skinner Sweet story in back is colors under hard pencils and shading giving the panels a lightly unfinished and washed out look (like Cary Nord’s stuff on the first few years of Dark Horse’s Conan.)  It really is some fine work.

Seriously, everyone should be reading this book.  If you are reading any of the other Vertigo stuff, this is up your ally.  The story is adult and has language.  It is a mature reader title, so that implies a slightly higher level of thought is needed, but not a pinky out while tea drinking comic at all, like, frankly, some Vertigo books can be, sorry Neil Gaiman crowd.  The two stories work well together and blend a great amount of action between them that as a whole, they have more than enough of everything to keep ANYONE interested in ALL of it.

So, I state again everyone should be reading this title.  If you read comics and enjoy this medium there is SO much you should not read in place of this.  (see above rant on Spider-man.)  Give it a try, you will NOT be disappointed.

The Week of March 15th

Published on March 15, 2010 in Comics, Cons and Matt's stupid ramblings. 0 Comments

Another week and I so do not want to write this e-mail/blog post.  It is my understanding that it is common that people who blog on a regular basis (not my once a week thing) either get really into it and do it to an annoying degree or burn out.  I’ve been at it, on a weekly basis, writing a fairly decent sized “letter,” for lack of a better term, for several years now.  Some weeks I love doing this, some weeks this is a real drag.  However, there is a crowd that wants this and endeavor to serve.

I think I’ve come a long way in what I cover and what I write about.  I am told by a lot of non comic book reader friends that they read the post on the website, most of you get this through your e-mail.  This shocks me.  Why anyone, who is not a regular comic book reader cares about A. the shop B. this stupid ridiculously inefficiently run industry is beyond my understanding.  But thanks for your interest anyway.

And speaking of interest outside of the “regular” comic industry… (Man, segway king!)

American Vampire hits stands on Wednesday…

The first original pen to paper to comic writing Stephen King has done in twenty some years!

am-vampire

I am putting out a personal plea to all of you, if you know someone who doesn’t read comic books, but is a huge Stephen King fan (and there are a hell of a lot more of them then there is of us) buy them a copy or let them read yours.  This is a great way to get them into our medium.  They might not be regular Guardians of the Galaxy or Powergirl readers after this, but you never know what they might start into after getting a taste.

I am constantly amazed at how, once introduced to comics, people start wanting more.  Maybe this proves there is some addictive additive they drop in the ink, some insidious plan like fluoridation of water and the sapping of our precious bodily fluids… or not and this is just a great medium that others, once introduced to start to love like we do.

So, what I’m saying is… be a pusher!  He he he.

On an aside to the whole American Vampire coming out is about word bubbles.  Stephen King admitted in an interview on The Daily Beast he hadn’t released the industry standard is that word balloons are no longer used.  He wrote the first issue, submitted it and was told politely by an editor that it is text, like narration now.  Think if you were the editor who has to tell Stephen King, “um, uh, sir… that isn’t how it’s done anymore.”

am-vampire1

If you want to read the full interview: www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-03-14/stephen-king-on-his-comics-debut/#

There is some nice advice to be gleaned for aspiring comic writers in it too.

Digital Comics and why they SUCK!!…

So, this weekend the Emerald City Comic Convention was held out in Seattle and as with all the major cons now, DC and Marvel were there holding panels (not that they really say anything at these things) and patting themselves on the back for doing such a great job and glad handing to the people who worship the crap they spew, fan boys.

Most of these horrible wretched “panels” do not even have a purpose, but just answer idiotic questions and are run by Idiots in Chief self promoting themselves and cracking stupid one liners and dumb jokes.  However, there is an occasional bit of actual information that filters out.

More and more there are questions about digital comics.  This weekend one was asked of Quesada-Bendis about Spiderwoman and the answer was it is cancelled.  The “official” answer is that the artist, Alex Maleev, was tired of drawing the character, so, issue #7 will be the end of the book (even if the solicitation said “end of the first story arc.”)  OR… could the real answer be that sales on the actual comic were crap and no one cared about the “motion comic” on line?  NO WAY, that implies failure.

Other questions were raised about when more content would be made available digitally or when, in a panel with Didio-Johns, (we need combo names for these four like the crappy entertainment “news” shows give celebrity couples)  DC would get into doing digital comics.

OR we could NOT want this and should NOT continue down this road.

I have never met anyone who prefers this format over REAL comics, not one.  I have met some people who read downloaded comics illegally off the internet (and have had to be pulled away from them after nearly getting into a fist fights,) but even they prefer REAL comics.  Now a days the computer is a way to create comics, but not an acceptable way to READ them.  Marvel was recently seen slashing the monthly price of their online digital subscriptions (to all old content.)  It seems to me the consumer has spoken and NO one is listening.  Why do we need to beat this obviously dead horse?

But what about specific creations for the new I-pad (dumbest name in the history of technology) or comics designed for a Kindle type device?  I, for one, DO NOT CARE and will stop collecting when paper is not used for comics.  I like my computer.  It has uses and makes my life easier, but at the end of the day NOTHING beats sitting down with a good book or comic or news-type-paper substance.  You can sit in bed and read, you can go outside and read or head to the woods and not need, in a few hours, more power or have difficulty seeing the screen or the cold (or too warm) feel of the uncaring computer.

Oh, you old fashioned curmudgeon!  Yep, and get off my lawn too.  Listen, there are things that are sacred in my eyes and books and comics are they.  So, why would the industry want to go down this road?  Cost and ease to new readers, but of course.  It costs a lot to print/ship and publish comic books.  Now you can get it by clicking a button and we can charge you anyway, bypassing the distributor and the retailer!

However, and this is the most important part in my eyes to why it will NEVER catch on with true comic collectors; collecting!!!  Wow, I have a full run of digital bits!  As long as there are collectors, there will not be fully digital comic books.  So, let’s hear it for the dorks that need every issue of [insert stupid underwear on the outside superhero.]  We might actually save this industry from self destructive itself.

Planet Comic Con in KC…

You have probably noticed the flyers in the shop, but in case you have not, Planet Comic Con draws near.  One of the great cons in the Midwest, Planet Comic Con is March 27th-28th this year and features a wide array of entertainment guests and comic creators.  I love this con and am sad to not be able to go, however, encourage you to.  My employee Ronnie is considering going, but if you are please let me know in case he is not.  I would really like to get a Michael Golden sketch.  I would like a Chris Sprouse or Herb Trimpe sketch too, but, uh, yeah… budget buster indeed.

For more information, check out the site www.planetcomicon.com

Video Gaming Hangout…

A regular customer for years is considering opening a video game and gaming store to Des Moines that specializes in selling, renting, exchanging and providing a place to play video games.  At the shop are questionnaires that will help in tailoring it to the type of store people who would patron it would want.

Just ask whoever is at the counter for one and they will get it for you and thanks for your help.

Previews due this week…

I’m finishing up the March Previews order this week. So, if you want to get anything from this order in and guarantee its shipping, please do so this week.

The Week of March 8th

Published on March 8, 2010 in Comics, Matt's stupid ramblings, Reviews-comics and Shop Crap. 0 Comments

Greetings again comic fans.  Hope things go well for you.  Not much in the way of “news” in comicland this week.  Which is fine.  I dislike the majority of the comic “news” sites and REALLY dislike the message boards even more.  I was not much of a fan of Legion of Three Worlds, but have to say the end (it did actually finish, it just seemed like that last issue never came out) was nice as it made fun of posters on comic message boards and equated them to crazy super villains.

I don’t know if I would go that far, but I think certain writers and executives and editors at the big two comic companies go a little over board in the attention they give the posts made and the posters who make them.

Why am I mentioning this, well it involves what took place in the last few pages of issue seven of Justice League: Cry For Justice.  I am giving you the big SOILER ALERT right now as I am about to talk about and ruin the ending of this book.

I’m going to do it.

Please avert your eyes!!

Your Last Warning!

DC’s Continuity and Morals: The fans who care and the writers who don’t…

JLCFJ7

Last week DC released the book Justice League: Cry for Justice #7 and with it came a storm of posts about the righteousness of what is done at the end.  In issue six Prometheus (Grant Morrison’s super villain created during his run on JLA) is defeated as he is taking down a group who might be the Justice League (I’m not really sure, I didn’t read the first couple issues.)  During the fight Arsenal (Green Arrow’s former sidekick Speedy) losses an arm.  (Yep, the whole thing, shut-up it’s important later.)

While Prometheus is imprisoned at a secret Justice League compound or something a back-up/fail safe goes into effect threatening a number of DC cities like Opal, Central and Fawcett with shimmery destructive, er, destruction.  If Prometheus is not released he will destroy one city at a time until he is.  The Justice League refuses and Prometheus levels Star City, Green Arrow’s home town, killing tens of thousands of people including Arsenal’s daughter Lian.

A lot of bad James Robinson writing (he has done so much better than this) later and a lot of different people talking leads someone, not sure who, in the Justice League to officially decide to let him go (the big splash page makes it look like everyone is talking at once.) I guess they do this so none of the other cities will be destroyed as they could not figure out a way to stop the destructive destruction which might or might not have started in the other cities that were not Star City.  (I wasn’t really sure if all the cities were actually being destroyed or not or if they were lightly being messed up… the art or storytelling isn’t very clear.)

This all, I guess, takes place before Blackest Night and in an epilogue three pages later, Green Arrow shows up in a secret secret Prometheus hideout and puts an arrow between Prometheus’s eyes exclaiming “Justice.”  Hence the name of the book, get it?

There are a number of problems I had with the few issues I read, but the posters on a few boards were put off by Green Arrow killing.  I ask, seriously, that is your problem?  The series is ripe with plot holes, inconsistencies throughout and art that didn’t flow well with the dialogue on the pages, but if the big ending/cliffhanger/thing is your first problem maybe you should look at the book again, but if you know your Green Arrow continuity this should NOT be a surprise.  Ollie has killed several times.

Now, he is no Wolverine, who can easily be put in the mass murderer section of our righteous quagmire, but in just a quick look through the first few issues of the Mike Grell ongoing Green Arrow series from several decades ago, Ollie and Black Canary kill nearly a person an issue and in The Long Bow Hunters (the mini-series Grell wrote and drew before the ongoing was started) Ollie kills or allows to be killed four people who had captured Black Canary and were torturing her.  Ollie is no Superman or Batman who always find a way.

I understand what is going on, the old “need to shake up the character and the character’s around him by creating a big moral question of right and wrong” card.  We want to question the thought process of the Justice League and Green Arrow’s morals.  I get it.  No really I do, but get your facts and your continuity straight first and didn’t we do this a few years ago?  What did we call it calling it… uh, Identity Crisis?  Nah, no one will remember, go with it.

The basic moral question, I guess that is a personal judgment call.  I like Superman and Batman and DC comics of old and do NOT believe killing is ever an option for a DC hero.  Marvel, hell, it’s a little more morally malleable.   I’ve read a lot of Punisher and LOVE Jason Aaron’s take on Wolverine in his Weapon X book, where Logan admits to holy righteous roller Captain America he’s a mega-murderer.

DC heroes don’t kill, but Ollie already has and, I guess, did so again for pretty good reasons. (Torture of your wife or girl friend equals pretty good reason.  Killing nearly 100,000 people in your home city, probably good enough reason for someone who has let people drown and allowed others to kill because they were poisoning the streets or running drugs or just a generally bad corporate criminal.)

So, where is this going?  This week Justice League: Rise and Fall Special comes out.  This is supposed to try and jump start the failing Green Arrow book (though the last couple jump starts haven’t helped either and this book has been REALLY bad lately.)  It is a major story arc that will put Ollie on the outs with and on the run from the Justice League.  This could be either good or bad as it sort-of ties you into a corner.

Breaking a bat-back is one thing, killing a Bat-man is another.  Having a Batman die via super evil god bullet that propels the victim into the past, probably easy to fix (Wow, that sounds bad when you say it out load, sorry Curt.)  Killing off Superman’s dad via heart attack, not so easy.  What I’m trying to get at is everything is fixable in comics.  Some fixes are as easy as forgetting about the pesky continuity.  Some are tougher when they are rather recent.  Do you make Ollie an outlaw for the next couple years?  Is he an assassin now?  Or this all years until we forget he hunted down and murdered someone.  “Hey, no problem.  We forgive you, come on back to the League YOU helped found.”

It is at least a different direction and take on the character and heroes in the DC universe, but major changes are sticky things when consequences to the book are not fully thought out.  I’ll be reading, as I have a full run of every solo issue Green Arrow has ever appeared in and can’t stop now.  (At this point I don’t stop even if, shudder, Judd Winick comes back on the book, though that would seriously make me stop and think about stopping.)  But will other readers come on and give it a try?  Hopefully it will at the very least take a “good” turn in writing if though a “bad” one for the morals of one of DC’s top characters.

Review time…

Holy Cats, that new Steven King book “N” is great!  Alex Maleev’s art is so very creepy and Mark Guggenheim’s story telling is fantastic.  The basic premise is that the remains of a house where a grisly murder took place hold an evil spirit/demon/monster thing and after driving one man to kill themselves is after a new victim.  It takes place in Maine, too.

The thing I liked most about Guggenheim’s storytelling was his pacing.  It starts in the past with two page spreads and very little words, letting the scary pictures do the haunting.  It draws you in,  and will not let you go as it moves forward in time from one lost soul to the next.  I highly recommend this for anyone who enjoys a good horror comic.  It is only four issues, but is priced $3.99.  It will be out in hardcover not long after the last issue is out, if you can wait that long.

Two quickies…

If you are not reading Unwritten and Sweet Tooth, I ask what is wrong with you.  Both are quickly climbing up our sales charts with Unwritten one of our best selling books.  Currently all seven issues of Sweet Tooth are in stock, starting with the first issue which is only a dollar.  The first arc tells of the post-apocalyptic road story an antlered boy and his savior take to the mythical (?) preserve.  Great, Sad and scary.

And Unwritten, the messed up alternate adult version of Harry Potter, has its first trade out and collects the first five issues for only $9.99.  Everyone should be reading this book.  If you have to drop a crappy superhero book and start reading this one on Wednesday.  No, scratch that, don’t drop a book, just eat less for dinner that night.

Join the BPRD…

Yep, another issue of BPRD is coming out this week making it worth doing the shipment.  Who knows, no BPRD, maybe I just decide to not do it some week.  Write Dark Horse and tell them to keep it coming or NO COMICS!

Nonetheless, now is your chance to join the BPRD yourself.  I’ve always thought you were a little weird, but now you can finally fit in.  Here is what Dark Horse sent me today:

The stories in Hellboy, BPRD, Abe Sapien, Lobster Johnson and Witchfinder share a weave of common threads: strong characterization, an ongoing storyline that’s shared between titles, a pantheon of heros and villains, cool monsters, awesome superpowers and smash-em up action.
To celebrate a particularly exciting publishing period, we’ve created a new program that will give our most loyal fans something extra. We’re calling it “Join the BPRD!”
Readers who sign up will have access to monthly exclusives and first looks, including: news, covert art, interiors, editorial commentary, creator signings, first-in-line privileges, contests, discounts, freebies and more. The program will run on the Facebook platform as it allows fans to share a common social network, chat with each other, give us feedback, track events and get excited. We’re encouraging readers and retailers to join Facebook, but we’ll make the program available to non-members via a regular newsletter as well.

I’m already signed up and you can too!  Go here: www.darkhorse.com/Newsletter

Iowa Public TV Challenge…

I want to challenge all of you to call in to Iowa Public Television on Friday night and make some pledge (small is fine, just make a pledge) during the Red Dwarf segment between 10 and 12:30.  Several customers from the shop, a number of the 501st Central Garrison and others from Geeky Christmas will be there taking pledges.

You’ve heard my praise of Public Television in the past.  We have a great station here in Des Moines and it needs help.  Frankly, this is something that needs to be done, because our suck government won’t do it for us, but don’t get me started down that road.

So please, if you can, call and make a pledge.

The Week of March 1st

Published on March 1, 2010 in Comics and Matt's stupid ramblings. 0 Comments

Last week saw the February Previews ship.  Usually there are some kind of great hidden gems in there for specific people, but unsure how to get this knowledge to the specific people who need/or would like to know about it.  (without driving myself crazy with extra work trying to.)

So, this week I would like to highlight just a few things I found that might have some interest for you.  If you sit up in amazement and say “I’ve got to have that when it comes out”  Just e-mail me or let someone know the next time you are in the shop.  OR, you could always get a coffee and sit with the phonebook shaped catalogue and flip through it?

…Now with panels instead of paragraphs.

There are some big names in literature getting in on this comic thing.  I’ll comment more on this with some general thought surrounding this later, but right now I just want to point out the books.

First up is Janet Evanovich (and Alex Evanovich) and her new work, Troublemaker.  Published through Dark Horse, this is a continuation of her very popular Barnaby series as a 112 page graphic novel.  The book will be hard cover and feature art from Joelle Jones, who most recently did the Dr. Horrible one shot.

Next up is James Patterson and a serialized version of his Witch and Wizard series.  Battle for Shadowland will see his teenage characters go up against the New Order after magic is declared evil incarnate.  The series will come from IDW, but will only feature characters from Patterson, not his actual writing.

And then there is Stephen King.  This guy, he sold a book or two here and there, has already been working with and in the world of comics for some time and it is understood he is a very big fan of the medium.  His Stand and Dark Tower series have been very successful, especially in collected form outside of the direct comic market.

Now he finally putting pen to paper for comics in American Vampire.  (He did do a short Marvel story some years ago in a benefit book, but nothing since.)  King will write one of the two stories in the new mini-series about a new form of vampire, purely American and not glittering in any way.  The first issue arrives on March 17th from Vertigo.

King also has an adaptation of his novel The Talisman coming from Del Rey books (but not for a couple months.)  It will be hard cover and feature the writing of Robin Furth and Peter Straub.  I believe this to be a series of books, much like the Stand and Dark Tower are.  It tells the story of a journeyman traveling from our earth to an alternate world.

AND… this very week will see the MUCH less hyped series “N.”  It is based on Just After Sunset from a recent collection of King short stories.  It is only a four issue long mini-series and has some serious hitters putting in work on it.  Mark Guggenheim is taking on the writing chores and Alex Maleev will be on art.  I really haven’t seen much on this, which kind of surprises me.  The story, however, sounds great.  It revolves around a Stonehenge like structure in, of course, Maine that might be controlling one man and may have already killed another.  Oh, and there is an evil eye at the rock ring’s center and scary looking demon on the cover.  Okay, I’ll read it.

How many Hornets are too many?…

One month ago there were, count them, NO Green Hornet books out.  In two months time, there will be not one, not three, nope… not four, keep going, YES, FIVE!!  In comics, nothing says success like over saturation?!!?

All this is structured around Kevin Smith’s script for a Hornet movie that didn’t get enough traction a few years ago.  (A shame, because I think more so then the eighteenth X-Men movie or the forty first Superman re-boot, this could have been pretty good.)  It is that script that is being turned into Kevin Smith’s Green Hornet (book 1.)  This comes out Wednesday.

Then there is The Green Hornet: Year One (book 2) written by Matt Wagner and Kevin Smith’s Kato (book 3) written by Ande Parks and drawn by Ale Garza.  These start next month in April.  After that are Kato Origins: Way of the Ninja (book 4) and The Green Hornet Strikes (book 5.)  They will be out in two months, May.

I could not find a listing in Previews as to the limited-ness of their runs, but I assume some, if not all, are limited to some extent.  Every single one of them have at least two variant covers and several have multiple regular covers.  The regular Green Hornet (um, book 1 if you need numerical reference) book’s issue three has at least seven different covers listed and order options for a signed one as well.

Who would unleash such a monster on the unsuspecting comic buying public, well, none other than Dynamite Entertainment the comic publishing wing of super speculating Dynamic Forces.

So, why is this too much?  Well, I was marveling over this onslaught (get it?) aloud and my wife asked what I was mumbling about.  I told her, “well, there will be five different books from once there were none, all based around Green Hornet” and I kid you not, she stopped me and said, “who is Green Hornet?”  My wife is not dumb and fairly with it on pop culture references. I rest my case on this being too many books too fast.

More Rings Anyone?…

The Blackest Night ring promotion must have gone over well, because there are more to come.  I don’t want to give anything away, but there will be White Lantern Power Rings associated with the release of Brightest Day #1. (The “revelation” of this new Lantern was in Blackest Night #7 which came out last week and frankly, if you didn’t see that coming, you are blind as a Batman.)

There will also be Flash rings connected with the release of the new ongoing and relaunched issue number one.  If you are not familiar with the character of Barry Allen, he carried a tightly rolled up costume inside a lightning bolt emblem embossed ring.  (Yeah, and still no one knew it was him.  “Hey, Barry was your high school the Bolts?”  “You born in the year of the lightning bolt?”)

We will be offering the same deal with both of these rings that we did with the Blackest Night tie-in books.  Buy the book, get a free ring or if you just want the ring it will be $2.00.  We hope this will present a reason to stay with the book.  Pretty good guess that once the Legion of Super Heroes is relaunched with Paul Levitz at the helm, there will probably be flight rings too.

Two books to report on…

Read today that Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray’s new creator owned book, formerly called Splatterman, has had to go through a renaming.  Due to a legal challenge and deciding on the better part of valor they will now call it Random Acts of Violence.  It is set to come out April 28th and though the price will be $6.99, you will get 66 pages of blood spattered goodness.

Speaking of violence and blood, Crossed #9 hits stands Wednesday and Avatar is already set to go with a new story happening “at the same time” the events in Garth Ennis’s twisted tale take place.  It will be called Crossed: Family Values and if your thoughts are, “no, no one should write more,” go read the editorial page in Previews by long time twisted story teller David Lapham.  It is some funny and probably rather sane logic that he lays down about creative types, insanely horrific storytelling and Garth Ennis.  It had me turned from, “no I don’t want any of that” to “yes please, more.”

AND… if you have not read Crossed, one of the best and most disturbing horror reads I’ve ever put before my eyes, it is due out in trade paperback and hardcover sometime in April.

A Beer with Batman…

Though that sounds better, I would rather have a beer with Superman, but as we know DC won’t allow that (tried to happen on the cover of an issue of Action Comics once, don’t ask) but now you can if you want to.  There are pint glasses offered from the company Toon Tumblers again and now available to be ordered individually.  We will be getting some of these, but preordering (making it a little easier for me to know how many of each to order) will get you a dollar off each you put down AND pay for.  They are $10.99 each and Batman, Superman, The Joker, Justice League, Aquaman, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman are all available.  I have several Marvel characters myself and they just so mauch better then a regular plain pint glass.

Enough hocking of goods.  Time for some incoherent rambling.

Best Selling Blah, Blah, Blah…

Isn’t it great that we are being blessed by the mere presence of such a fantastic bunch of writers who so graciously are bestowing their talents to us, the sub-humans that dwell in the dark dank corners of comic book shops like foul bug eyed morlocks.  These the high and mighty of the New York Times’ Best Seller ranks, who can’t sell an idea to Whorey-wood anymore because of those darned upstart comic creators, are now going to give it the “old college spirit” and try their hand at this new literary SUB-genre.

My mother gave me an article out of that there Des Moines Register Newz-paper about the James Patterson book I mentioned above.  (I think she gave it to me because she secretly wants to read it without saying the words, “Son, would you please order me this comic book.”)  In the article, Patterson is quoted as saying, “Comics could reach a much larger audience than they do right now.  With the quality work and talent that’s out there, this industry could be much bigger.”

WOW JAMES, are you going to save us?  Well, [expletives deleted] and the horse you rode in on.  Frankly, we don’t need you.  I was fine without these writers and will be fine once they go away.  Thanks for gracing us with your presence, but kindly go back to where you came from and leave us alone.

OH, I get why the comic companies what them here.  Publicity, real mainstream news attention and you get to have your COMIC books on the same rack as the REAL literature.  You get to feel like you’ve made it in the REAL world of REAL publishing.  And with a big city name on it, you can sell it to some Hollywood hotshot for big bucks.

Some of the above is sarcasm, if you hadn’t guessed, but a goodly amount is straight up fact.  We need to be proud of our medium for what it is and challenge the interlopers to produce.  Anyone remember the cluster left in the wake of Dick Donner on Action Comics or Brad Meltzer’s run of quality on Justice League?  I’m not saying we need a secret club with decoder rings, though the blackest night rings really kind of do that for us already, but the above noted publicity/media attention and new readership, which are all good things, should not be worth sacrificing our industry’s soul.  Or is it too late for that at this point?

(and you thought you wouldn’t get some real venom from me this week?)