Archive for the 'Movies' Category

Week of January 9th

Published on January 9, 2012 in Comics, Events, Movies and Reviews-comics. 2 Comments

I am so glad the holidays are over.

They are just big, dumb and mess up schedules… yes, I’m referring to Diamond and UPS.  Sorry about their inability to work, get the books out and shipped while staying on the schedule they set up to… not have this happen.  Whatever, it is over and we are back to normal.

 

A few things to look forward to in 2012, besides the end of the world…

We will be having a C-Day event on March 14th.

What is C-Day?  It is the relaunch/start of the new Crossed ongoing book and this one is written by Garth Ennis.  We will have some kind of party that day and with it being but days before Saint Pats Day, Curt thought “why not have Free RED beer!”  Great Idea, genius even!!  So, yes, free blood beer for everyone (over 21.)  We will also be doing something to benefit The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund too.

 

On April 3rd, we will launch Avengers vs. X-Men with a pre-party.

I’m not sure what that will entail exactly, but there will be Marvel free-bees and stuff… probably free beer too.  That one is a little further out and only moderately on the radar.

 

Book Shipping this Week…

Good friend of the shop, Brook Turner has a one shot coming out this week.  It is called Deadlands Blackwater.  I must say I am a big fan of Brook’s art and I’m not saying this just because he is one of our longest hold customers, but because he is a great artist.  If nothing else, take a look at it when you come in.

Brook did Golly with Phil Hester a couple years back.  Brook is not a full time artist, he has a “real” job too.  Lets hope we see more of his work in more comics soon.  If we can, the number of regular industry workers continues to grow in Des Moines.  Don’t forget that Ron Wagner (GI Joe and if you have been to Zombie Burger lately, all the art on the walls) and Tyler Walpole (D&D) work regularly through IDW and though you don’t see it on your comic racks, Adam Van Wyk is constantly working on the next animated adventure.  It is my understanding Adam was recently called out on some commentary of the Venture Brothers as “one of the best story board artists in the industry.”  I wish our local press would acknowledge these guys for their work.

 

Walking Dead TV Show…

Found something to make you sad.  Yes, Frank Darabont is not going to have anything to do with the second half of this season’s Walking Dead.  If you want to feel even worse about that, wait until you read what might have been in an episode that now, will never be.

You can find it here at IO9.com.

 

Bane is a mush mouth?…

If you have seen the stupid movie trailer for the inevitably terrible Batman Rises, than you too are saying, “What the hell is wrong with, is that Bane” and “what the hell did he even say” and “I can’t understand a word of his mumble mouthed non Latino – ‘cause Bane is Hispanic – ass!?!”

But Conan O’Brien is here to help.

You can find it all here on Comic Alliance.

Or you could go with something completely different.

In the same article on Comic Alliance, it also mentioned that the long ballyhooed white Akira, is dead.  Finally, someone somewhere decided, “No, it is not okay to take original source material and Sh!t on it.”  If you have never read Akira, easily the best manga I’ve ever been exposed too, you knew the ‘changes’ they had planned – like making the main characters white anglo-saxon protestants – was just plain a really bad idea.  Good job and big thumbs up faceless evil executive from stupid film company.  Kudos to you for the one good decision you will make in your life.

 

Also…

Lots of love to Comic Alliance this week.  They also have a great list of their top 11 of last year.  A nice read, though you should think of it in reverse order – Atomic Robo is number 11.  You can find the list here.

 

Anyone see December’s numbers?…

OH, was that glossed over in this week’s mainstream comic “news?”  No one noticed that Marvel is back on top in both Retail Market Share AND Unit Market Share?

Yes, it is by slim margins but it demonstrates what I’ve been saying about the great and wonderful reboot at DC, the strength of the start could not be held.  Like a long distance runner (que the Iron Maiden song) you can’t start a race with a sprint, you will tire and fall off.

While everyone was printing up stories about the strength of one issue of Justice League (is sold over 360,000 copies) the numbers came out show the continued slide and overall that the DC reboot is failing.

In case you cared what the actual numbers were, here you go, these come directly from Diamond. Marvel Comics led the print market in December, narrowly edging DC Entertainment in both the Retail Dollar (34.43% for Marvel vs. 33.74% for DC) and Unit Share (39.05% vs. 37.72%) categories.

I hate to say I told you so…. But….

 

Ronnie and I didn’t do a worst read, book or company of the year in my tops of 2011 last week and the week before.  There was too much to choose from in all that fourth quarter crap released from DC.  This is both as a retailer that has also been a collector for over thirty years too.  You CAN NOT separate yourself.  Those that do, run the risk of not understanding the product they are trying to sell.  Those that do, are not able to move customers to better written or drawn comics.  You can’t let your personal preferences cloud your judgment and though many of you, I am sure, feel my dislike and downright hate of what DC has done is clouding it, I strongly come back with – You are wrong sir.  I see the drops.  I see the customers brought in by the initial start that have just stopped coming back in.  I see the confusion in people’s voices as they ask “how is it that Martian Manhunter and Guy Gardner do not know each other?”  I can’t answer the questions poised about the non-existent continuity that once was the bedrock of this company.

I have, however, helped a good number of these new customers move to better books ones I hope they will enjoy them more and ones they will hopefully stay with.

Anyone out there that is saying, “okay, smart ass, if DC is so bad – point me to something I’ll enjoy better than Detective Comics?”  Please, come in on Wednesday or Sunday morning and talk to me.  I’ll find you a book that will come with a guarantee over something that you currently read from DC.  It will probably be from Dark Horse, but none the less… I assure you, it is better than the chaos being published by DC right now.

End rant.  On to…

 

REVIEWS…

Fatale #1 – by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips

This is the same team that did the Criminal series and the Incognito series.  Those are the same series, that collection after collection, remind me how good comics as a storytelling medium, can be.

With Fatale, Brubaker and Phillips take on horror – with plenty of crime mixed in for good measure.  You can see many elements that have made the other series so good; similar storytelling styles like structure, pacing and characters.

You can only assume that this will take on a much more horror oriented feel in subsequent issues – the first issue is not over wrought with horror elements – due to the fantastic write up in the back of the issue.  It is a great piece of scholarly writing about one of literature’s scariest writers, H.P. Lovecraft.  I swear sometimes I would get these books just to learn about the writers, characters and pulp time periods that are highlighted in these pieces (that you can only find in the single issues.)

The first issue was good, but not great.  However, I am guessing just like the other series, it was not one issue that was great, but the whole series as a whole.  I am sure that is how this will be too.

-NOTE- Issue one sold out at Cup in less than a day.  I am told it is sold out city wide.  A second printing is on the way already, but will not arrive until February 1st.  If you want one, I can have it pulled for you when it arrives.

The Goon #37 – by Eric Powell

How many times do I need to review The Goon and tell you this is one of the best books being published for you to believe me and buy this great comic?  Whatever… fine.  Keep reading (any of the books below that are not as good as the Goon which is most of them.)  Not my fault.  I tried to get you to love something good.

 

The Week of August 8th

Published on August 7, 2011 in Comics, Events, Movies and Reviews-comics. 0 Comments

New DC at Midnight on August 31st…

I was asked last week by a customer if we would be open for a midnight sale of Fashpoint #5 and Justice League #1.  I like the customer and as I’m usually up at 12:01am on a Wednesday, I said sure.

So, we’ll be having a midnight sale of these two issues, unfortunately, only these two issues will be able to be sold (don’t get me or a shop owner from Chicago started about on sale times.)  However, because we won’t be able to sell any new books we will have a major back stock and trade paperback sale for anyone willing (or insane) enough to come in at midnight.

Ronnie might come in with me and there very well might be free beer available too!  Might as well either toast the NÜ DC Universe (if you support the changes) or drown your sorrows (if you don’t.)

I’ll have more on this next week.

 

Get your new lists in…

If you haven’t submitted your revised DC pull list, please do.  I’m going to pull any book on an old list unless you have specifically told me not too.

 

So, there’s a New Spider-man in town….

So, Ultimate Fallout #4 was out this week.  (Yeah, I under ordered and am getting more in next week.  Stupid Matt.)  In it is the new Ultimate Spider-man, Miles Morales, debuts.  Killing off and replacing any regular character in comic is going to illicit a response from the book’s readers.  However, this has brought a response from non-readers.

If you don’t know, Miles Morales is half black and half Hispanic.  Now you can guess who is elicited a response from.

But before I get to that, I want to tell you the positive side of this story.  On Wednesday morning, I got to make two, hopefully regular future comic readers, very happy.  The first was a regular customer, buying for his neighbor who asked him about it.  The other was a young kid who came in looking for the book.  Both kids are African-American.  I was so proud of comics.  I was proud that KIDS were interested in comics and especially the fact that an underrepresented minority was now represented as one of the biggest characters in comics.  Things like this make you feel good.

Then I read some of the response to this.  Just plain disgusting.  When I first read about the rumors of Marvel doing this, I was of the mind, “eh, okay.”  It’s the Ultimate universe for crying out loud, big deal.  This is the place to make major changes you just wouldn’t do in the regular ongoing main universe series.  If anything it is the least that any of these companies could do.

It is funny though that the response to it negative from people OUTSIDE the industry.  Funny that comic book fans are either a good excepting group, not a pact of extremist racists or just don’t care.  I’m banking on a little bit of all three.

Here is a great link for you.  Stephen Colbert satirizing the right wing response to the whole thing:

www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/393822/august-03-2011/multiracial-spider-man

It is pretty funny.  Keep watching and see the ThreatDown, it is even funnier.

 

I hate superhero movies…

Yep, everyone pretty much knows that I hate, no let me rephrase that, I HATE superhero movies.  Nothing done in a filmed version of a comic book is better than reading that said comic book.  None, zero, nada, zip….

There that said.  I had to make a comment on the new casting of Superman.  Have you seen this guy?

Henry Cavill, don’t know – him don’t care.  He is no Brandon Routh.

I can honestly say I hated the last Superman movie, but it had nothing to do with Iowa’s native son.  Brandon was great in it.  His acting was one of the only bright spots in an abysmally bad film, superhero or otherwise.  I just don’t see why we need a new guy in the suit?

Now I could go on… okay, I will.  I’m no fan of the director on it either.  Say what you want about 300 and Watchmen, Zach Snyder is not a good director.  Bundle all this with what looks like the wretched new comic redesign of the suit… oh, craptacular all over.

But hey, go enjoy.  When you are disappointed don’t come crying to me, I’ll be re-reading All Star Superman and very, very happy.

 

Lateness and Comics…

Found a great link on Comic book Resources today.  It lists out the worst offenders of lateness still to come out.  This is an ever growing problem and is constantly mentioned in questions and comments at cons and, I can tell you, whenever a retailer talks to a company.

In any creative field, lateness can arise.  It happens and how a company or a creator responds, be it forthrightly or adversarial.  Personally, I feel the companies need to disclose to us all why a book is late, so, when I found this little bit of research, it was… interesting to see some of the responses.  Take a look.

The full list can be found here:

www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=33737

 

Review Time…

There is a lot of talk about new number ones.  I agree; there were some great ones out last week.  Two that absolutely blew me away and then there was a going away book which was such a great end to an amazing run.

Rachael Rising #1 by Terry Moore

This is the latest creator owned, produced and distributed book from master comic creator Terry Moore.  I can say and have said a great deal about my love of Terry’s last book echo and will now continue that lovefest with this new one now.

“Death is not the worst thing that can happen to you.” – Plato

These are the words on a page that is all black except for a small drawing of a spider in some leaves, presumably in a forest.  It is a pretty ominous way to start what has been promised to be Moore’s take on horror/thriller comics.  The story is one of a woman finding herself in a shallow grave and awaking and needing to dig herself out.  As the first issue rolls along, with some of the best art you will find on any book on the racks, you start to understand, as Rachael does, that she’s been murdered… AND she is slowly remembering who did it too.

I want to warn you, the first issue is a little bit of a quick read (however, I’m sure it was not quick to draw.  Some of the pages in this issue are insanely complex in the amount of line work that was put into them.)  I say quick, but only in the sense that an average read doesn’t study the panels like you should or will need to, to get the overall creepiness I think Moore was quite obviously going for.  It is that second read where it REALLY comes out.

There is a lot of set up in this issue, but of course there is.  Terry Moore is a master of character development.  His story telling is surpassed by very few in this industry.  He has the ability to show and tell so much in a facial expression or the lay of someone’s hair, but in the past he has done this in a character based drama and a sci-fi story.  How will he do with horror and most likely, revenge?  Well, if the first issue is any indication, he is going to do just fine.

I have a few issues left in the shop.  There have been a lot of people complain about the new DC stuff or that they are unhappy with the overall direction or storytelling of some of their long term superhero books they’ve been reading for years.  Please, listen to me… You like the medium of comics?  You want to read GOOD comic book stories?  Doesn’t have to be superheroes?  I won’t lead you astray.  Pick up Rachael Rising #1 (and the next book reviewed) you won’t be disappointed, or I’ll give you your money back.  Yep, they are that good.

 

Severed #1 Written by Scott Snyder and Scott Tuft, Art by Attila Futaki

I figured this would be good, but was blown away by just how good… and in every aspect too.  Writing and storytelling, art – color, pencils and style – this book has it all, oh, and a hell of a great hook to get you wanting more too.

The base story, set in and around World War I, is about a kid who has decided to run away from home and jump a train.  This is going to be our main character. However, there is a secondary character who plays prominently to the developing story.  I’m going to say no more as I don’t want to give anything away.  Just know that by the end of the book, you might be seeing how the start of the story and the end of issue one, MIGHT be tied together.

Scott Snyder really is THE Midas of comics today; everything he seems to touch turns to gold.  Not a single bad issue of anything he has written in comics since his arrival with American Vampire #1.  I am told his short stories he published (and are now available collected) are quite good too.  If you do not read American Vampire or his work on Detective Comics, you are doing yourself a disservice and of any of the New DC books, Swamp Thing is one of the few I am actually excited about.  Snyder should be perfect for the strange mix of bayou horror/strangness Swampy is famous for.

But back to Severed, it was probably the third best book I read last week (sorry, Walt Simonson Artist Edition finally arrived and there was an Usagi comic out… no one could have beat those.)  I am really amazed at how good of a publisher Image has become over the last few years.  Slowly they have moved to putting out a majority of quality books and not just “whatever came along” or “whoever was willing to fork over the cash to try.”  Image can be both a creator’s best friend and worst enemy.  They are the tip of the “self” publishing iceberg.  I’m not going to get into a whole long thing about how Image works, but you take your project to Image and costs can be very high to publish with them IF you can’t sell enough copies.  However, lately they have started to become a go to for some of the best and brightest creations seeing life on our shelf.  This only signifies continued growth for non-superhero storytelling and that is good any way you slice, or sever, it.

NOTE – I should have more copies, second prints, in on September 7th, which should also be the day the second issue ships.  If you didn’t get a first print and would like a second, please let me know asap.

 

Jonah Hex #70 Written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, art by Ryan Sook

I also wanted to comment, briefly, on a book that really needs to be recognized.  Is it not amazing that Jonah Hex made it to issue 70?  This has consistently been a great read month in and month out.  Done in “one and done” storytelling for most of its run and with a plethora a great artistic talent gracing the pages… of this western.  A western?… at 70 issues?… in today’s market?  Amazing.

All the credit in the world needs to go to Jimmy Palmiotti for showing the modern comic book industry how it SHOULD and COULD be done, if they would just try a little harder.

Oh, and issue 70 was AMAZING!!!

 

The Week of September 20th

Published on September 20, 2010 in Comics, Movies, Reviews-comics and Shop Crap. 0 Comments

Something I found on the Net…

Last week there was a post on Bleeding Cool.com about A Comic Shop in Orlando boycotting variant covers of comics.  Here is a link to the video on their site www.acomicshop.com in it one of the shop’s owners goes on a rant about never carrying, ordering and supporting variant covers to comics again.  It is an interesting theory on comic retailing.

I had the privilege to sit in on a workshop held at the C2E2 convention in Chicago last year by one of the other owners of the shop on Facebook and social media.  It was well done and had a lot of interesting ideas, especially for one such as myself who is not a friend of technology.  This shop in Orlando certainly is.

So… their rant on variants.  In the piece for their podcast, they expound on the evils and disease of, as I would call it, ultra collectors or compete-estes, those collectors that must have everything!  I agree with a lot of what they say, industry wise, but can’t go so far as to bash the collectors.  I leave the video for you.  Variants are not good for several reasons.  Here are my thoughts:

A.  They could be hurting the industry irrevocably.

They prop up sales on books that shouldn’t have them.  If Avengers sucks, but has extra books ordered to get a variant to sell on e-bay for the cost of the extra books ordered, hmmmmm, how truly accurate are the nation numbers on comic book sales?  Let’s look at this for a second.  If even the smaller books like Zatanna or Legion of Super Heroes have them – say 1 in 10 – and a shop would normally only order eight or nine, but decides to add an extra copy to get the variant and this happens over two to three thousand shops… I think you see where I’m going here.  Those are not readers, those are inflated “sales,” but NOT in shops.

So, If the numbers are skewed, probably rather badly on some books, what does this mean?  I think it could mean the entire industry is on very thin stilts, propped up over rushing, rising waters.  This concerns me more than anything in the industry currently.

B. Do any other industries do this?  Think for a minute… I can’t think of anything like this in the cousins of comics, book, music or film industries.  Sure there are the special editions of music or DVDs, but most of that is a one or the other and doesn’t really inflate sales, just adds to it.  I could be wrong on this, but I just don’t see other industries doing this sort of thing (except collector toy markets.)  If comics want to be more like books and desperately want to be excepted by them, should we be trying to make ourselves more or less freak-ish?

C. Are we in the nineties again?  It really is like this stupid industry doesn’t get it.  Let us review, Chrome, die-cut, speculator market caused one company to go bankrupt and squashed a lot of independents… just over ten years ago!  Idiots!  Learn from your own history and you’ll see variant covers are not a good thing.

D. They create a have and have not in the industry and the financial situation that follows.  It is an elitist atmosphere that benefits few.  This is one of the points that I sort of agree with and sort of don’t agree with the guys from Florida.  I kind of like comic art.  Different sketches, alternate art, someone other than the guy who normally draws the book you are reading taking a shot with its characters… these are good things.  So, the theory behind variant covers is sound, in theory, but when they start needing to charge more and more for them, well, someone needs to pay that.  Someone does and that is probably money that should have been spent somewhere else in the industry.  Get it?  A $10 variant doesn’t seem bad, but that could have been three other books.  Three other books that might have been enjoyed and continued with the next month – i.e. more sales.  Now do you get it?

Variants… all this from a hypocrite.  We sell them online (and a few in the shop.)  Can’t help it, we like the extra flow of money we make from E-bay sales.  Hell, I wish we made more to sell and more to make money on.  Ah, but what I should say is I wish I had better variants to sell.  Marvel has taken to having a Variant theme of the month.  It really started with the Zombie alteration variants from a few years back, and then on to Monkey variants and now even Vampire variants.  Some do better than others, but by and large the Super Hero Squad variants are crap.  Hey, in two months, it is Tron variants… yep, someday, Mickey Mouse variants can’t be too far off.

So, what does an industry do?  Well, hope to Zeus that my fears aren’t real.  I don’t think they are as bad as they could be.  I think the fears of digital and big box store take over are far worse, but if you really hate variants and how the industry is run… check out a company with no variants.  Publishing like Vertigo and some independents really should be the norm for the entire industry, but hey, who wants good comics, I’d much rather have another Deadpool variant cover, right?

Check below for what variants we are selling on E-bay this week…. Oh, sad.

Blackest Night Hardcover Sale…

For the next two weeks we will be blowing out our Blackest Night Hardcovers still left in stock.  This is how it will go; the three main title ones (Main book Blackest Night, Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps) will be 20% off.  The rest are 50% off.  Yes, 50%.  So, if you got one and wanted another, but didn’t want to pay crazy prices, now they aren’t so crazy (or maybe they are.)

Also, if one sells out from our stock, and I can get a reorder, I will honor the deal as long as you pre-pay.  Can’t beat that, now can you?

Ronnie’s Reviews…

DMZ #57  Brian Wood & Cliff Chiang
This issue continues Brian Wood’s tradition of one-shots studying somewhat minor characters right after a major event.  Last issue was about the self-made Chinatown warlord Wilson, this issue on past character Amina, the former brainwashed almost suicide bomber.  It picks up during the lastest U.S. military bombing raid of New York City.

(Editor’s Note – The series takes place in a future torn apart by a new civil war in a broken United States.  Much more political commentary in its narrative than Sci-fi.  It is in an alternate future… or maybe not so alternate.)

Amina discovers an abandoned infant in the rubble outside her apartment/bunker and rescues it.  The next number of pages fill us in on her current history since we last saw her, and highlights choices that had to be made in her context, which would be an ethical struggle in ours.  In NYC during the second American civil war, everything is changed, and Wood’s characters have to adapt in every way.  This is one of this authors major strengths, his characterizations.   We get to know Amina well, although it seems like her story didn’t have enough pages to really finish.  This woman has been through crap that would break you and me, and this child may be her chance at redemption.
The art is handled by Cliff Chiang, who I believe is new to this series, and it is passable.  Very Vertigo-ish, but I feel it may be to clean for this kind of story.  Still, it isn’t distracting.  Ricardo Burchielli is the usual series artist, and he fits like a glove.  Brian Wood does most of the covers himself,  which is similar to his old awesome series Channel Zero.  The story flows well, but could have really benefited from 10 or more extra pages.  This series continues to kick my butt.
For fans of Scalped, war stories, and people that like good comics.  4.5 Stars

Unwritten #17 by Mike Carey and Peter Gross.
this issue was Choose Your Own Adventure!  Seriously!  And they nailed it.  It is titled The Many Lives Of Lizzie Henam, which should tell you what it is about.  If you are not reading this series, go ahead and try this anyways, it was a ton of fun.
If you are not familiar with the choose you own adventure format, it usually goes something like this, at the end of a page, there are two or more options for you to choose to continue the story.  You choose the corresponding page/choice, and continue until that story ends.  Then you start over and try again.  For this particular issue of Unwritten, it work very well because the title Lizzie character is unsure of her actual identity, which is a major theme throughout the series.  The reader gets to basically choose which of her histories we will use.  It took me at least an hour to get through all the various storylines, which is pretty sweet for a 2.99 book. Also, the pages are setup horizontal and most split in two, which gives you double the pages to work with at that price.
I would love to see more of this format in this series, and in comics in general.  I read a lot of these styled books as a kid and loved them, but never considered how well it would work in an “adult” comic book.  Someone do this!  Please!
For fans of Fables, those who outgrew Harry Potter, and people that like good comics.  5 stars.

(Editor’s Note – This really is as good as Ronnie says.  One of the top books of the year.)
Machete by Robert Rodriguez
This ain’t a comic review!  This is a Movie review!
Full disclosure – I watch like six movies a year, so I may be a terrible candidate to review them. And Danny Trejo is my father.  (Editor’s Note – we are unable to authenticate this, but Ronnie wouldn’t lie, right?)
Machete stars Trejo as an ex-federale living in the US after being betrayed by powerful people down south.  He moves to Texas to hideout, and is then betrayed and almost killed by very powerful people there too!  Trejo decides to unravel the huge border crossing conspiracy with the help of some friends;  Michelle Rodriguez,  (possibly) the fabled heroin of an underground resistance group, Cheech Marin, a shotgun toting priest,  Lindsay Lohan, the daughter of one of the corrupt higher-ups, Jessica Alba, the change of heart border agent, lots of Mexican day laborers (and one whiteboy cholo) and an army of lowriders, big guns and as you might guess lots and lots of machetes!

They face rightwing racist Arizona/Tea Party style senators, minutemen-wannabe militias, and Steven Segal as a mexican drug kingpin, possibly his greatest role yet.
The movie is all sex and violence, and incredibly fun.  I’ve waited my whole like to see an army of lowriders take on an army of wingnut militia men!

It is NOT, as some people claim, an incitement to race war or anti-white/border/amerika.  Stop listening to Glenn Beck.  His politics relate to the real world as much this movie’s does.  They both made millions TO ENTERTAIN YOU!  Yep, Glenn Beck is an ultra wealthy entertainer who happened to find his big role, just like Adam West did.  He is not, however, in any way a political or economic analyst, and neither is Robert Rodriguez.
This movie delivers exactly what you expect, but bigger and better with more intestine swinging action than you could ever want.  It may have ran a little long, and Lohan and Alba put in terrible performances, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I saw it with my partner in crime and a bunch of cheering Mexican teenagers (and some idiot who brought a 5 or 6 year old kid!)  I walked out of the theater with a big smile on my face.  Can’t wait for the hinted at sequels and the soon to be released prequel comics.  This may be the Billy Jack of the Twitter generation.  5 stars.

Quick note about wrestling…

I’ll have more next week, but 3XW’s Halloween Horror is a week from Friday and we have pre-sale tickets at the shop now!  I’ll be there, will you?

The Week of August 16th

Published on August 16, 2010 in Comics, Matt's stupid ramblings, Movies and Shop Crap. 0 Comments

I sometimes wonder if I write this thing up and take (waste) all the time to do it and if anyone actually gets anything out of it?  Hey, I feel a lot better about it after some of the responses I received the last couple weeks while I was without a computer.  So, what happened…

The computer overlords from the future visited with a vengeance and I needed the help of a honest to god T-800 to get things back on track.  My buddy Eric forgets more every day about computers than I will know in my lifetime and he helped me get back up and running.  You, sir, are a good robot… Yes you are… good robot.  Remember who your friend is when your switch is flipped and you go on a kill crazy rampage against us fleshy ones.

First, a light rant…

I want to preface what I am about to say with the fact I have lived in Des Moines most of my life.  As a small child into my early adolescence, I and my poor sister were tortured by our parents and forced to go to the horror that is the Iowa State Fair.  This sort of unbridled child abuse will scar a kid.  Since then, I worked at various news organizations in Des Moines and would get sent out to cover stupid Fair crap like the biggest bull or some giant carrot or a cow pie flinging contest.

I HATE the State Fair!!  HATE HATE HATE it!!!  I want to point out this hatred has grown since opening a small business.  You might not know this, but the State Fair is BRUTAL on small business.  Think about it… get into Fair, corn dog or some other stupid crap on a stick, overpriced beer, riding giant slide… all of this is overpriced and ridiculous.  (Now, would I overprice coffee if I was selling it out there?  Yes, but that is not my point.)  So, when you have a minute and are thinking about where to eat on lunch or if you should go pick up a book or record, help out a local small business this week, it would be much appreciated.  That is of course the fried (insert “food”) on a stick didn’t completely put you into the poor house.

What is Kubb?…

You might have seen the signs up in the shop this week for an event on the 31st of August, “Learn to play Kubb” or Kubb o’ Kryptonite.  You are, as everyone was yesterday, asking What the Hell is Kubb?  Wellllll, that is why we are having this event, duh.

Here is the jist, it is a “yard” game created by the Vikings nearly a 1000 years ago and may or may not have involved heads and bones of fallen enemies.  Called Viking Chess, the game involves you tossing small wooden mallets and attempting to knock down opponents Kubbs, small wood markers, and eventually a King in the middle of the playing field.  There is, as with any game, a progression of play in how you go about knocking stuff down and eventually winning, or losing.

I have played and can honestly say it is a blast.  A long time friend and fellow hockey enthusiast showed me the game and taught me the rules a few weeks ago.   I will be there and encourage anyone looking for a nice lazy night out to come down to the shop.  Rules explanations and play will take place from 5:00 to 9:00 and we will have drink specials all night.

For more information, check out the Cityview article at www.dmcityview.com/2010/08/05/arts/locker.html

Star Wars Celebration this last weekend…

Don’t know if anyone knew it, but a huge event took place this last weekend in LA called Star Wars Celebration.  This is the fifth year they have had it and this year specifically celebrates the 30th anniversary of Star Wars (I feel old.)

I have some strong feelings about Star Wars, George Lucas and the marketing/destruction of my childhood, buy that is a rant for another time.  The big announcement that was made is that Star Wars is coming to Blue Ray this fall.  (Priced in the crazy range and packaged together, Lucas wants even more of your freaking money for something you already own.)

In conjunction with this, there is a new scene that is being added back into the film, Return of the Jedi.  This scene made it all the way to post production and, as I remember, was in the original novelization of the film (yes, I read anything and everything Star Wars, twice.)  It includes Vader trying to contact/mentally summon/seduce to the Dark Side Luke and Luke in turn working on his lightsabre.  It doesn’t really add anything major to the film, but… it is NEW Star Wars without a whinny child actor or arms flailing CG Stepin Fetchit.

If you want to take a look, and it is still up, check out the link on Bleedingcool.com.  It is worth a look and maybe you will have one of those lost moments of childhood flood back.  I’m just warning you, you it is fleeting and you will probably hate George Lucas more after… but the momentary high is probably worth it.

Actual News…

So, I was going to comment on Robert Kirkman’s comments made last week about mainstream comics not selling to kids properly.  In my opinion, they were the worst kind of self promotion and grandstanding from someone who has come to be known for it now that he has a TV deal.  I’m going to include a link so you can look this up and make a decision for yourself.  Go HERE.

Basically the argument surrounds how kids comics should be published and how to get the right level of maturity into the right hands.  After reading the article (and check out Tom Brevoort’s comments striking back at Kirkman) I feel the real people who have been left out of this argument are those who are actually getting them into the hands of the kids, the retailer.  This industry is not great in so many ways.  It relies on a lot of people who probably shouldn’t be making calls on comics to drive sales and product into the hands of customers.  Kirkman, who once pleaded with his readers to support shops and put his book on a hold list, now writes in a way that encourages trade sales (which are probably much more profitable – for him.)  Kirkman, who has not had a lot of mainstream success, shouldn’t make comments he isn’t backing up by not publishing children appropriate literature (Marvel Zombies, Walking Dead, Invincible – all very violent.)  I think Robert Kirkman needs to be part of the solution and not part of the problem and shut the hell up and write his independent comics, which are still pretty good.  I’m glad the mainstream comic companies (well, Marvel) fired back at him too.  Marvel and DC do publish some very good kids comics.  Are they probably too expensive, yes, but they still keep going and keep the quality pretty good.  They are working on at the very least and Kirkman, well, isn’t helping.

But I’m not going to comment on that…

Instead, I found a very interesting study on Kids and comics from Canada (automatically making it better.)  The study, which is paraphrased at Bleedingcool.com – cause, seriously we don’t all have time to read a study – shows that comics can help, especially young boys, attain and surpass the reading level of their age and that comics are a great “gateway” to encourage other forms of reading.  Once again comics are shown to be good for kids… oh, but wait.

Someone thinks differently.  Bleedingcool.com also has the full story on this as well, and shows it is a pretty shabby argument asserting that superhero archetypes of years past were much better than the ones of today.  However, the study looks to have only studied the superhero of the movies.  Hmmm, movies aren’t good and comics are?  Man, these two studies are awesome!  Read and make your own assessments.

Wrestling Tickets on Sale again…

Just letting you know that pre-sale tickets for 3XWrestling’s Clobberpalooza event on September 3rd are available.  After watching Sumer Slam last night, I can say without a hesitation that 3XW puts on a MUCH better show then the idiots running and writing the WWE right now, but hey they are more interested in a Senate seat right now than wrestling.  Nonetheless, I’ll have more on matches and whathaveyou later in the month.

And if you hadn’t heard, Jimmy Rockwell DID keep his title at King of Des Moines against five other talented stars.  A hell of a match, one you shouldn’t have missed.

The Week of June 7th

Published on June 7, 2010 in Comics, Matt's stupid ramblings, Movies and Shop Crap. 0 Comments

Superman’s Birthday Party…

Big reminder about Superman’s Birthday Party, June 23rd from 5:00 to 8:00.  We will have Punch, Pie, Prizes and PBR.  Yep, more free beer and what says Truth, Justice and the American Way more than, Papst Blue Ribbon.  Superman would approve, even if DC probably wouldn’t.  None the less, they are sending us some goodies to give away and we’ll make a big deal out of Issue #700 of Superman.  Oh, we might discount some stuff too, maybe.  Really though, do you need a reason to come and drink a free beer and hang out with comic friends?

Name Brand Super-heroes… a.k.a. matt’s rant of the week…

Read some disturbing news about the early stages of branding Green Lantern for the arrival of the movie next year.  www.bleedingcool.com/2010/06/06/green-brandon-it-begins had some pictures and commentary that just made me sick.

Now, I get it.  This is done for those idiots who don’t read comics and need to be “educated” as to what the #%@& a Green Lantern is, but do we need this?  Why can’t you make a good movie people want to see…. Just because it is good?  I suppose not, because the general public doesn’t know who the hell a DC character is besides Superman (bad slow uneventful movies) and Batman (movies in no way like his comic, but at least don’t suck).

Now, maybe I’m in an exceptionally irritable mood on this subject because of the Hockey I have been watching lately.  Normally, I don’t watch television.  WHAT?!?  You unpatriotic monster!!  Yes, it is true.  I had to hook up my stupid government mandated HD converter box for the first time in six months just to watch the Cup finals… and what did I find, WAY too many #%@&ing commercials.  I’m not naïve, I know they are there, that is why I don’t watch the idiot box, but I had forgot how terrible and invasive they are, like a cancer of stupidity in my mind.

So, I guess the thing that bothers me about the Brand X or I mean Green is I don’t really want that to happen with the things I actually like… comics and superheroes.  I don’t want the things I love to do what I hate other forms of lower entertainment life try to do to me.  Maybe, because I didn’t graduate with a degree in advertising I don’t understand.  Maybe they have a reverse golden rule, do unto others type of thing…

It all reminds me of the great Grant Morrison written story in Marvel Boy #3.  An evil (is there any other kind?) super-malignant corporate brand tries to take over the earth.  How does one fight a non-physical thing like a brand name?     It has been awhile since I read that, maybe we can learn something from comics.

Looks like I know what I’m reading before bed tonight.

Concept art for Thor and Cap…

I hate talking about comic related movies, but I couldn’t let this lie.  Did you see the concept art for Thor and Captain America’s costumes?  BWA-HA-HA… oh, wow, those are terrible!!  Yeah, good going idiots, cast poorly and then dress them worse.  Seriously, didn’t mother Marvel check them before they left the house?  “NO, Steve, you can’t wear the plaid pants with that stripped shirt and suspenders.  I’m not even giving you a link to that.  It is so horrible, I’ll save you from it… ah, who am I kidding, you’ll just go find it anyway.  Thor: www.collider.com/2010/06/02/thor-chris-hemsworth-new-images-concept-art/ and Cap: www.joblo.com/screw-words-now-you-can-see-captain-americas-costume

Need something to wash that horrible taste from your mouth.  There was some pretty amazing make-up effects released for the Walking Dead tv show: www.joblo.com/index.php?id=32400 Grr, I’ll have to actually find a way to watch this when it finally arrives in October.

Ronnie’s Review of the Month…

I Zombie #2
Another zombie book.  Great…  But, wait this one may have something going for it.
The book is written by Chris Roberson, who just finished up the kick ass Fables related Cinderella mini-series and the art is from Mike Allred, who is known for his fantastic Madman, but also did the recent Metamorpho arc in Wednesday Comics.
The first issue introduced us to Gwen, a grave digger working for an eco-friendly cemetery in Eugene, Oregon.  She also happens to be a zombie.  However, this flavor of zombie remains “normal” as long as she eats one brain once a month.  If not, she turns all “living dead like.”  But, once she eats a brain, she gains the memories of that person’s life as well.  The first issue sets the scene and introduces us to some of her friends and neighborhood weirdoes; Ellie the ghost from the ’60s, the gang of female vampires who run a paintball club, Scott the were-terrier (no really), and a couple of odd monster hunters with eye scars, knives and Matrix like future coats.  Remember, this is a Mike Allred drawn book, so, everyone appears in their mid twenties and a lot better looking than you or me; even with eye scars.  The issue ends with her eating the brain and getting the memories of a man who was murdered and wants vengeance.

Cue issue #2.  We start with Gwen painting portraits from the dead man’s memories, and the Vampires trying figure out how to up the attendance to their paint ball resort.  You can guess why they want large groups of people there?  The monster hunters are finding bodies, and a mysterious mummy (or invisible man?) is introduced.  There is a well scripted and somewhat disturbing scene in the cemetery where Gwen and the family of her brain donor have a little chat.  This issue and all of these scenes focuses less on Gwen, and more on setting the stage for larger plots.

The book has many themes in common with many other current books and movies, but the tone is very, very different.  It’s a got a bit of the ol’ ultra modern, very pop-art influenced illustrations.  (The art really carries the book too, so far.  If it a Jim Lee clone or that muddy painted artist had done the work, I probably wouldn’t like it near as much.) The coloring is hyper saturated and adds even more to the adult Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew feel of the book.  The whole package screams 50s monster movies, as opposed to horror movies.

The series is off to a slow build, with a character driven plot. The second issue hints at what could be a well developed and fun plot, if sales hold and Vertigo gives it the time it needs to get going.  Remember, Fables wasn’t what it is now right out of the shoot.  IZombie is part monster movie, part detective series, part buddy sitcom.  (Plus the preview in the back of issue two for the Revolver original graphic novel looks really good too.)  On a scale of one to ten, I give it an Eight and looking forward to the next issue.

Lots of New Books…

Just a quick note, there are a bloody hell of a lot of new books coming in this week and this month.  Some are indie and then there is the slew of new releases from Marvel and DC just like every summer.  I point this out because space is limited.  I try and stock as much stuff as I can, but if a book doesn’t sell, I’ll cut it and I do these cuts on a weekly basis, the week after it comes out.  If you are a once a month or sometimes shopper and try some of these, like them, and want them to keep coming in… please, let us know.

Marvel seems to be over publishing even more then they were over the winter months and are (in my opinion) trying to push other companies off the shelf.  This is nothing new and the big (two) companies have been doing it for a long time, but recently it has gone into overdrive.  I’m not going to make a big ranty thing of this, I’m just going to say, if you want what you are reading to come in, let me know.  Thanks.