Archive for the 'Chuck Grigsby' Category

Week of December 7th

Published on December 7, 2009 in Chuck Grigsby, Comics and Matt's stupid ramblings. 0 Comments

Geeky Success…

Geeky X-mas was a big success.  We had nice more steady numbers of people this year rather than the crazy two hours at the start of the day last year.

For Toys for Tots, we collected nearly fifty more toys this year over last in a third less time.  Last year we had the drop off boxes out for three weeks and this year it was out for a week.  Great numbers, but even better when I heard we collected more toys then the Nadas concert did last Friday.  That’s pretty cool.

The Geek Boutique raised over $300 for Iowa Public Television.  It was a great place to find some odd gift for the odd friend of family member.  I got some gift buying out of the way, that’s for sure.

We doubled the financial donations for Animal Lifeline from last year too and we aren’t done yet, I’ll have more on that later.  The money goes for the care of special needs animals and operations of the no kill shelter.  We are on, at least, our second box for collecting supplies.  You couldn’t help but give if you had saw the near total blind Korgi dog, Doogel, who was in the shop for storytime.  He was friendly, able to get around and so well behaved.  I looked like he had a good time at the shop.  Thing is, he is a great example of why the shelter exists.  Here is a dog who with-in his first year developed cataracts in his eyes and is nearly 100% blind.  However, the shelter has him now and is working to find a proper home.

Now for the thanking.  This event wouldn’t have been a success without all of you who donated and showed up.  Thanks.  And a huge thank you Jenn and Kathy.  You two are great and put in so much time on this.  All the credit for it goes to you two.

Gift Wrapping for Donations…

Speaking of Jenn and Kathy, they will be wrapping packages for Animal Lifeline on Saturday, December 19 from 10am to 5pm and Sunday the 20th from 10am to 4pm.  The wrapping will be done for a free will donation benefiting the shelter and everyone who makes a donation will get to enter a drawing for one of two gift baskets one for a kitty and one for a dog.

This is the third year they this and I use the service each year now.  It’s great.  I don’t need any wrapping paper.  My packages look good and people think I… no, no one thinks I did it, but I like to think that anyway.

Chuck in Russia, the update…

Chuck Grigsby, customer and cage fighter, was in Russia last week for the final leg of an international tournament he has been participating in for several months.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t like Rocky IV and Chuck was handed a third round decision loss.  Sounds like the decision was pretty close (stupid Ruskie judges) and Chuck did get some good looks from some promoters.  None the less, we are very proud of you anyway Chuck.

Worst Idea Ever, today…

Found the next terrible comic book idea; WWE comics.  Do the people you are putting these out watch wrestling?  It doesn’t lend itself to comics.  I’m an old school wrestling fan, it didn’t work as a Saturday morning cartoon, it barely works in the ring… comics?  Go here and see for yourself why this is dumb.

From bad to Much, Much Better…

Did anyone read that issue of Jonah Hex last week?  Holy SH!T, It was great!!  Granted, Darwyn Cooke’s art was fantastic, Palmiotti and Grey’s writing was great… Hell, Nothing came close to it.  If the movie could be even half as good as that issue was, it will be the best film I’ve seen in years.

Marvel is trying to kill me…

Without making this as long as the e-mail I sent to my Diamond rep today, I am sure Marvel is trying to kill me and all the other small direct market retailers.  But I think they are trying to get us to do the killing for them.

They have a big book, Siege, coming out soon and though the basic story looks pretty good, they are doing a terrible job behind the scenes to get us retailers to order it.  They announced an incentive on ordering the book nearly a month ago and have now changed that incentive THREE times.

Without telling you all the sordid details, we were set to order more copies of Siege #1 then any comic in the history of the shop.  We expected to get the book in at an amazingly low price, which we would have passed some of those savings on to you the customer.  However, due to last minute changes, that isn’t going to happen.

I have often wondered if anyone at that company knows what the guy or gal in the next cubical is doing.  We know this is the case when it comes to editing and creation of the books, but for the first time I don’t think the people in accounting do either.

Did anyone read the Dark Avengers Annual last week?  Yeah, gives away the Captain America one shot (which will probably ship before the end of Cap Reborn,) but also had some seriously messed up pricing as well.  $4.99 for 37 pages?  Come on guys.  Yeah, the Chris Bachalo art was pretty, but… not $4.99 pretty (certainly not when Jonah Hex was on the rack below it!!)   Rich Johnston does a breakdown on www.bleedingcool.com/2009/12/04/number-crunching-dark-avengers-annual-1/.

I just don’t know if Marvel gets it.  I don’t know how to get them to see it from our standpoint, both retailer and consumer (which I am one too.)  I want to sell their stuff, but they are making it very, very hard.  How can Captain America Reborn be so late when Captain America (regular) was on time every month.  (It isn’t a question, I know how and why and you do too.  See Flash Rebirth.)

I could go on and on about the numbers (and have before,) but we as consumers and as retailers need to speak up.  Get on blogs and start talking about how Marvel’s business practices are harming the industry.  Ask questions like… Why are the Blackest Night mini-series only $2.99 and all of the Avengers/Hulk/Dark Reign books $3.99?  Go to their panels at the big cons and be vocal.  Consider what you buy and purchase wisely.

I will be going to the C2E2 convention in Chicago and will be going early to a Diamond retailer conference.  I have been e-mailing my rep, but will be going with a very pissed off chip on my shoulder.  I want some answers.  I think we all do.

Stupid Marvel, now I’m in an even worse mood.  I’m going to go read more Chew.  Restocked trades in this Wednesday.  $9.99 for issues one through five and it is really original and entertaining.

The Week of Geeky X-Mas

Published on November 30, 2009 in Chuck Grigsby, Comics and Shop Crap. 0 Comments

Quick note on the shipment this week, no delivery on Wednesday.  They are delayed due to UPS not picking up last Friday.  We’ll have them done by 11:00 Thursday.

Geeky X-Mas Is This Weekend…

Coming this weekend, the return of Geeky Christmas our annual charity event at the shop to benefit Animal Lifeline, Toys for Tots and Iowa Public TV.

When: This coming Saturday, December 5th from 11am to 4pm

Where: At the shop, Cup o’ Kryptonite 4521 Fleur Drive

Why: To benefit three fabulous charities; Animal Life Line, Toys for Tots and Iowa Public Television.

What: Events all day including appearances by

  • The Star Wars 501st and Rebel Alliance (All Day)
  • Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (Noon to 2)
  • Old Saint Nick, Santa Claus (2:30 to 4)
  • An Animal Lifeline Furry Friend (3-4)

Christmas Crafts all day.

Goody bags for the first 100 kids.

Donation Gift Wrapping for Animal Lifeline

Geek Boutique for IPTV

Door Prize drawings throughout the day

Drawings for special gift baskets

What is needed, donation wise:

These are some of the needs for Animal Lifeline, a no kill animal shelter here on the south side.  Here is some less expensive things they need all the time.  A full can be picked up at the shop.

  • General Supplies

Liquid laundry soap, bleach, dish soap

Clorox Anywhere Spray

Tall kitchen garbage bags

Zip Loc storage bags – gallon size

Paper Towels, toilet paper, Kleenex tissues

Endust Spry and air fresheners

Sponges

  • Dog Supplies

Milk bone dog biscuits

Dog toys from puppies to large dogs

Peanut Butter

  • Cat Supplies

Toys of all types and sizes

Scoopable cat litter

Canned cat food, Fancy Feast for finicky eaters

When considering a toy to donate to Toys for Tots remember they will take whatever, but a maximum value of $20 is usually preferred.  (It is tough giving one kid an I-pod and the next Candyland.)  Please, no stuffed animals unless they are still wrapped or boxed in original packaging.  Also, the toughest ages they have for donations are kids three and under and girls 14 and up.

Toys for Tots is a 501c3 not for profit and all donations are tax deductible.

Last Year’s event was an unexpected success with donations of over $800 and more than 200 toys collected.  We hope to have an even bigger day this year.

Though the day is designed for kids, adults will find something to do even if it is just coming out sitting, chatting and having a cup of coffee.  If you can please try and make time to attend.

But really why…

I was asked why we didn’t have Zombiefest this year?  To some I said, we didn’t have time, to others I said the genre is dead (no pun intended) and then to those close I said I just plain didn’t want to.  Why?  Seriously, what was the point?

This, Geeky Christmas, has a point.  This is what having a business is, or at one time, was what it was all about; giving something back to the community.  We are not an cooperate giant that has vaults of cash lying around that we get to throw around in an attempt to make us look better or get a bigger tax write off.  We get to work with groups we support and help people and animals here in Iowa.

The thing is I do very little with this event.  Nearly all the work is done by Kathy Scott.  She is the brain child behind this event.  She was also responsible for Children’s area out at the I-Con two years ago and the Sci-fi Saturday earlier this year.  Kathy has been a customer for seven years and is easily one of the very best people I know.

Grigsby Update…

Chuck is off to Russia, again, for the final leg of an international tournament (The M-1 Challenge Finals) he has been competing in over the last couple months.  Recently, The Reverend was in action in Council Bluffs defending his VFC title at the Mid-American Center.  I got a link to the fight from his lovely wife Sara.  You can check out the match here.  Good luck in Russia, Chuck.

ChuckGrigsby

Blackest Eye for Marvel…

I do think Marvel is wondering where the left hook came from.  DC’s Blackest Night is doing a number on their esteemed competition.  The estimated sales numbers were released yesterday and, wow, DC has to be pretty happy with what they have gotten out of the little crossover that could.  DC trails Marvel by a little more than two and a half percent in total market share registered in both Units and Dollars.

If you are an overall fan of DC, great news, your company can actually still bite, now don’t screw it up.  You are having a really successful event, when those things, events, had started to slip and used the motto, at least so far, less is more.

If you are a Marvel fan, have faith.  These are the kinds of things that get the House of “Ideas” to think over what they have been doing.  It will probably force Siege to be readable (I’ll bet the re-writes are taking place right now) by cutting out a good amount of the boring, never ending bouts of talking.  This should shake up some stagnate old school long standing books (Spider-man?) or it could teach them to just put their damn books out on time.  If you want to take a look at the numbers yourself, check ‘em out on Newsarama.com.

Some Light History Reading…

I’ve mentioned the course that is being taught at Michigan State University on the History of Comic Books before.  Well, I wanted to remind you of it, as they are talking about one of, in my opinion, one of the most important eras of comics, The Fredrick Wertham/Comic’s Code Authority.  A good read with a lot of good information.  You can find it on BleedingCool.com.

Blackest Eye for Marvel…

I do think Marvel is wondering where the left hook came from.  DC’s Blackest Night is doing a number on their esteemed competition.  The estimated sales numbers were released yesterday and, wow, DC has to be pretty happy with what they have gotten out of the little crossover that could.  DC trails Marvel by a little more than two and a half percent in total market share registered in both Units and Dollars.

If you are an overall fan of DC, great news, your company can actually still bite, now don’t screw it up.  You are having a really successful event, when those things, events, had started to slip and used the motto, at least so far, less is more.

If you are a Marvel fan, have faith.  These are the kinds of things that get the House of “Ideas” to think over what they have been doing.  It will probably force Siege to be readable (I’ll bet the re-writes are taking place right now) by cutting out a good amount of the boring, never ending bouts of talking.  This should shake up some stagnate old school long standing books (Spider-man?) or it could teach them to just put their damn books out on time.  If you want to take a look at the numbers yourself, check ‘em out on Newsarama.com.

The Week of September 28th

Published on September 28, 2009 in Chuck Grigsby, Comics and Reviews-comics. 0 Comments

I went wondering the web in search of comic news today.  I know, I know, that’s like walking alone in a dimly lit, seedy area of town near some railroad tracks while counting a bunch of money, just not a good idea.  Well, today I could have had wads of cash falling out of my pockets, ‘cause there is nothing out there.  Nada, zero, zilch… no comic news.

So, I’m going to tell you about Chuck’s weekend, present an idea, review a couple of books and get home early for once on a Monday.

Chuck the Champ…

I don’t know too much about what and how it went down, but Chuck Grigsby is back in his winning ways again this time in Russia.  Chuck was in  Eastern Russia to fight this last weekend.  He won a second round decision and as it was described to me by his wife Sara, he was dominate enough in the first two rounds to have the fight called before a third round was even started.  I would have some great pics of a Grigsby punch finding a face, but I’m not smart enough to figure out how to download them into this post.  boo.  sorry.

Binding Comics 101…

Last weekend I was wondering around the web looking for comic book news.  (See, only bad comes of the internets.  Stupid Al Gore for creating something so evil.)  I came across a post on Bleedingcool.com about book binding for comic collectors.  The post was about a specific place in Texas, which I’ve later found to be, in comparison to a lot of other places, rather reasonable and how they were going to stop binding comics after the company was purchased.

I was intrigued.  What was this comic binding thing?  I did some digging.  What I found was a sub-set of comic collectors who, after collecting a run of comics, take or send their collection off to a book binder and have them made into hardcover collections.

Holy bad-ass books Batman!!  I wanted to know more and wanted to know how I could do this with some of the series I’ve got piling up and annoying my wife in walls worth of white boxes.

There are several companies doing this across the country, but no one, that we could find, currently and actively doing it in Des Moines.  So, we contacted a local book binder to see if he would have interest in doing something like this.  We talked at length and probably scared Matt at our excitement in getting stuff bound.  (I’m guessing he doesn’t deal with excited people getting medical journals and old bibles bound up very often.)

Matt took a run of Hourman (Yes, the DC book from a decade ago, it was good, shut up) and took some light information from us and a couple of days later we had a bound volume of Hourman in our hands.  It looks great is something DC will NEVER republish in softcover, let alone in hardcover.  Ah, but now it is.

The ideas for binding are limitless.  That complete run of Fantastic Four you have all neatly filled away now could be in a matching set of hardcovers or that run of Fables or Preacher trade paperbacks, collected together in beautiful hardcovers at a much reduced price then what DC is charging.

So, you might be wondering what this costs.  We are talking with Matt tomorrow and trying to get a good price nailed down.  Last week he said it would run about $50 per collection and he could fit about 25 issues or two inches of paper into a collection.  I compared this to the places on the web and with shipping costs added in, that is what most places end up costing.  However, group discounts, a bunch of work at a time, could get us a discount.

I would love to present this to you as one more option for your collections.  If you think this is something you might have interest in ask to see the one of a kind hardcover edition of Hourman we have.  I think you will be surprised at how nice it is.  Then talk to Kyle or I about the next step in getting those comics bound up.

Reviewing the Comics…

On the review docket today is some great space adventure, a renewed and revitalized classic and a book that could drive me quite mad.

Detective Comics…

First with the madness.  Detective Comics is a fantastic example of the best and the worst of our artistic and literary medium.  On the one hand is the art by J.H. Williams.  Easily Detective has the best and most innovative layout of panels being done on a mainstream book.  Pencils and inks are off the charts and the color, by industry award winner Dave Stewart, is unlike most comics, it is noticeably spectacular.  There is not one bad thing you can say about the ART in Detective Comics.  Too bad that is only one half of the whole.

The writing is so bad I admit I only looked at the pretty pictures.  Greg Rucka is a long way away from the days of Whiteout, easily his best work.  Rucka also writes one of the non-super Superman titles.  I don’t remember which one and frankly, I care so little, I’m not going to get up to check which it is.  His writing on which ever not-super title it is, happens to be better than his writing on Detective.  What I’m getting at is that in the span of less than two issues he has made me not care for his character, not care for her supporting cast and actually wish harm on them.  I’ve read A LOT of Batman comics over the years and have a full run of over four hundred (nearly five hundred) issues of Detective Comics.  There have been bad issues and great issues in that run, but never did I wish they would just cancel it, until now.

I don’t care about the art being so great, I want my Batman back.

Rucka doesn’t make us care for this new character.  He needed to give us something we would latch on to as DC forced this change of No Batman onto us.  I don’t care that she is a lesbian.  It isn’t even a relevant part of her character that has no back story and not one scrap of interesting plot that would make her better then than having the Huntress in the book instead.

I shouldn’t be so angry at this book, and wouldn’t be if I had a choice in collecting it, but after four hundred issues, I can’t drop it.  I figure Batman will be back and make things right eventually, but in the mean time I’m stuck with paying more for. (YEAH! A question back up story I don’t read either and it doesn’t even have decent art.)   I blame DC’s Editor in Hell, er, Chief for this horrible choice.  Yes, we are all better for reading about multi-cultural aspects in our comics.  Right, Right Blue Beetle and the Atom, those worked out too, but do we have to have Batman and Superman missing from the industries oldest continually running comics that are known for those characters carrying through good times and bad?

Fantastic Four…

Speaking of old stalwarts, The Fantastic Four is back and SO much better than it was just a few months ago.  If you read this column you know my less then favorable love for Mark Miller’s writing.  I understand he has a following, I am not in it.  I did not make it through the first issue of his arc of FF.  It was terrible and I was unwilling to torture myself with Ultimate FF inside the regular Marvel Universe.  I’ve read the Fantastic Four since I was seven.  I know good and bad first family stories and his was terrible.  Oh, and sales showed too dropping in half during his inconsistent output.  Now out of his shadow has come a  far superior take.

I wasn’t sure what Jonathan Hickman would bring to the title.  Writer of Nightly News and Pax Romona, he has written very little in the main stream of comics.  And you don’t get much more main stream then the FF.  The fore mentioned stories of his were not of a necessarily mass market reader friendly variety and with that he strode in and sent Mr. Fantastic to join a consortium of Mr. Fantastics.  The plot of the first arc has Reed meeting alternate realities of himself and deciding if he wants to join this meeting of the minds to right wrongs and “solve everything.”

Frankly, this is something Grant Morrison would write.  It is a breath of fresh air on a rather stale comic and hopefully will breathe life into sales on the book too.  I don’t just recommend this book, but Curt does as well and he does NOT like the Fantastic Four.  Pretty high praise.

Abnett and Lanning Space Opera…

If these two names don’t make you smile, then you need a healthy dose of Marvel Space Opera.  Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning have been writing good space opera (a term used to descried fast paced space oriented Sc-fi like Star Wars) for a long time.  The first I took great notice of their style’s of SO was on Legion of Super Heroes back in the late 90’s.  They were taking a rather run down series that had seen a lot of miles (AND had gone through a re-boot about five years before) and made it into one of the best written series in comics.

Sales on the other hand didn’t reflect the writing skill that was being shown and eventually the books got yet another re-boot and destroyed all the good the dynamic duo had done.  (I’m still bitter at Mark Waid for his lies.  He and I have unfinished business.)

Well, flash forward nearly a decade and we see these two at Marvel and writing a group of somewhat similar books.  AND they are all so very good.  I’ve never been into the Marvel space characters, but Abnett and Lanning are making me a big fan.

The group of books that they are writing includes Nova, Guardians of the Galaxy and all of the War of Kings stuff.  They were at the helm of the Annihilation Conquest, which was very good.

They have taken over a huge corner of Marvel and it looks like they are being left alone to do as they wish.  When they were on Legion of Super Heroes it was sort-of the same thing.  Left to their own story telling and not effected by crossovers they had a great run.  Now, they have multiple books to work into their own universe inside the Marvel U.  In the latest War of Kings book, Who Will Rule the answer is simple, it is Abnett and Lanning.  You can not go wrong with any of their books.

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 March 30th

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

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

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

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

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