First, things first… Geeky Christmas.
Put it on your calendars; December 3rd. I’ll have more info in the weeks to come, but it’ll be like in years past a one day big charity drive benefiting Animal Lifeline, Iowa Public Television and Toys for Tots. You will hear a lot more about this over the next month.
DC had a big month… Big deal.
So, I guess you’ve seen the big comic news this last week, October was great for DC. In total share of the market in dollars (about 43 %) and total units sold (over 50%) DC was the champ. Now, before you start freaking out and praising DC for such a great job (like the idiots on the Comic Book Resources message boards), it is always nice to put these numbers in perspective – something the media (comic or otherwise) rarely does with anything.
You need to remember these are numbers concerning issue two of the reboot. This should be huge news right? That shows the books actually increased in sales… but that wouldn’t necessarily be so. A good number of these books are returnable (which would drastically alter these numbers/sales in the end) and numbers purchased from the publisher were increased due to the fact that so many retailers were caught flat footed after selling out of the issue number ones (and were not able to re-order – still something I am sure was deliberately planned by DC to make the “demand” look greater.)
Listen, I’m not saying the first month of DC wasn’t a great success. They came out of the blocks on fire and surprised everyone, but a sane head looks at the facts and sees that they are NOT all full of roses and sunshine. There will be no reporting of how many books are sent back and pulped. You just need to know and remember that those numbers will be great. So, with no real accounting (in the public) of these numbers, it is something that needs to be kept in perspective.
I thank DC for making this arrangement of returnability on their books available, however, it is not known to the general public and like all large corporations they sort-of don’t tell you all the facts when reporting their numbers. I have no problem – at the very least – of informing those of you who see this of the facts.
A customer and friend, Carter Allen, e-mailed me last week and included his thoughts of the DC reboot at present and I felt I would include it this week as it could not be more in-line to my own thoughts:
“I do have a thought about the DC reboot/launch: up to this point, I’m not really seeing anything that says to me “brand new idea” or “brand new direction”. I was re-reading issue #1 of a Cosmic Odyssey and it struck me that it was fresher almost 20 years later than most of the NuDC stuff. As a creator myself, I am loathe to write criticisms of other comic books, but I wanted to share this. I think they would have served the community at large better with a full-fledged All-Star line.”
Carter is reading a good number of the new DC stuff, but his comments are a ringing “meh” that I am hearing from quite a few customers now two weeks into month three. I hope people are finding what they like and enjoying those books. Last Wednesday morning, three or four of us had a great discussion about a couple books and some theories on this reboot.
As a whole we came to see the inconsistencies and outright contradictions in some of the storytelling in the new line. I will point out just one. If the Batman continuity, as DC has told us, and specifically Batman Inc. is not drastically affected then how can Batman and Catwoman not know each other’s secret identity, though clearly in issue 1 and 2 of Batman Inc. they do.
I’m not trying to nerd out here, I just feel that the editors are missing something, there is great confusion in who is writing what or the company has no clue what is going on. Or the whole damn thing was thrown together and rushed out the door that the great mess is a gruel that we are now being fed.
OR there is a plan, just us stupid comic simpletons are not being told what it is, “eat your comics and like them or you won’t get anymore!”
Any of these or any combination are possible. The problem is you the fan and we the retailer are left holding the bag when these contradictions start causing people to not want to read/buy a book anymore. As a retailer, I am left wondering what old books I can sell. You the customer are left with three issues of a comic you now can’t stand.
It would be nice to get a little editorial direction as to what is going on, or going to happen and NOT just self congratulations on their not so surprising sales increases.
Carter, you are now editor in chief of DC.
Mtv sucks…
Don’t ya just hate hipsters? They are the new hippies. They just suck. Trendy little B!tches that think they know everything about something they clearly DO NOT – and dress like a bunch of idiots.
This dislike pretty much goes for all trendy conscious people. I’ve always been an outsider when it came to nearly everything. I collected comic books as a kid in the 1980s for christ sake. I was a nerd. I never cared all that much about having the hip new thing… as long as it was the NEW issue of Uncanny X-men or the NEW issue of Batman. I think this is pretty universal for comic dorks pre-2000.
Well, it is now “cool” to read comics and of course the hipsters and the trendy douces are getting in on it too. They are invading our comics and doing it in the weirdest places, the media.
Why do I make like a crazy about this? Shut up and keep reading; I’m getting there.
It has become a new trend of coolness to report on comics in mass media. One big problem, they never get their facts straight. Like on an Mtv interview done at the New York Comic Con, with Scott Snyder and Jeff Lemire, where they are said to be the founders of Vertigo!! That statement was edited out, but if you would like to see the awesome distain these two creators have for the idiot interviewer in the rest of the interview, you can find it here on Bleeding Cool.com. (Later in another part they list Snyder as the writer of Detective Comics while they are talking about his writing of Batman.)
This illustrates my anger with the “new interest in our medium. Show respect, get your facts straight and be humble enough to ask for help… but we are talking about hipsters and media types. Urgh!! Alright, rant finished.
Reviews
What a great bunch of comics was released last week. Of my top five favorite books being published four were released. I’m going to run through them quickly and then get to a big surprise and some high praise from a friend.
Usagi Yojimbo #141 This is my favorite comic being published right now and with this issue a major milestone has been reached; the 200th issue. The comic has been released by three different publishers, but it doesn’t change the fact that this book has had ONE creator; Stan Sakai. There are a very, very few books that have ever reached this point in the history of comics. Sakai does everything on the book (writing, pencils, inks and lettering) and always has.
In #141, Sakai works the milestone into the issue and also answers an important question his fans have been wondering about for some time. Nothing makes me as happy as a new issue of Usagi. Thank you Stan.
Goon #36 I get asked all the time, “I’m looking for something new.” It takes about four seconds for the statement, “are you reading The Goon?” It always is responded, after they look at it, with “I don’t know” or “welllllll.” So, I’m going to start putting it like this, “If you don’t read the Goon, don’t ask for recommendations.”
The book is damn near perfect.
In the latest issue, artist and writer Eric Powell includes what he calls his Scooby Doo like guest star, Roxi Delite and leads readers on another crazy adventure. I find it hard to describe what The Goon is as it is a lot of things to a lot of different people, but one thing everyone agrees on that reads it is that it is great. Please do yourself a favor and start reading this book!
Rachel Rising #3 I’ve spoken a lot about how good this book is, but I wanted to mention it again because it made a nice triumvirate of books where a sole individual is responsible for the majority of the work on the book. Rachel Rising being a slight exception, because Terry Moore also publishes it too.
Sales have been increasing on RR steadily and I am thankful for that. Issue 3 is the best work I’ve seen from Moore, ever. The book just keeps getting better.
Hellboy: House of the Living Dead HC Written by Mike Mignola and drawn by Richard Corben, it is the loose sequel to last year’s one shot issue Hellboy in Mexico. This is one of the best reads of the year.
The story is a crazy amalgamation, as Mignola says in his introduction of monster movies – like House of Dracula, with Christopher Lee, and House of Frankenstein – and crazy luchador movies from Mexico. If you’ve ever seen one of these, you kind-of know what you’re getting into, if not… so, much the better.
I’m going to give very little away from story, but with the recent developments in his book this has a creepy ominous tone, at the same time being very light hearted. Only Mike Mignola could creep you out and make you laugh and make you sad… ALL at the same time. He is a true master of graphic storytelling.
The art is, as always with Corben, fantastic and creepy, but this above his usual level of greatness and might be some of his best work I’ve seen in years. Dave Stewart does the color and will win another Eisner next year for this book alone, but adds so much to Corben’s fantastic pencil and ink work. I just can’t say enough about how great he is.
I did not pull this for everyone who gets Hellboy, as it is a $14.99 hard cover. I would recommend it to everyone who gets Hellboy, but understand an oversized single issue in hardcover might be too much for some.
Fear Itself 7.1 I was pretty shocked by this comic. It is hard to surprise anyone in today’s comic market. Nearly everything that is going to happen has been spoiled four months before it even hits the shelf, but this epilogue issue to Fear Itself REALLY surprised me. If you are a Captain America fan, you are going to need to read it.
The Two New X-Men books Pat is back with a quick review – or expression of love – for the new X-Books. He e-mailed me to get them added to his pull and in conversation I could not write something better. I can not agree more that if you were once a fan of the X-Men, now is the best time to be reading about the Marvel Mutants.
I am loving the new direction of the X-world. I don’t think I’ve been this into the X-Men since I religiously watched the animated series every morning before school. Marvel needs to be kissing Jason Aaron’s ass right now for making them awesome again. Schism was the perfect way to restart a franchise that seemed bogged down in one insane crossover after another. I can actually feel confident enough that they won’t go that route again – at least for awhile – and I can actually buy an X-book without having to buy all 20 of them.
I can’t even begin to describe how much I enjoyed the first issue of Wolverine and the X-Men. It was an entire issue about a school inspection and it rocked so hard it turned the volume to 11. Aaron also gets extra points for having Doop as his receptionist and Toad as the janitor, poor guy can’t even get a bed. Uncanny was also good, though not as great as Wolvie’s group. I’m back in touch with my long lost love, the X-Men, and I’m enjoying the ride.