I keep trying to avoid that situation (which I know is nonetheless inevitable) where I'll post pictures of the event next week and someone will say, "Hey, I didn't know that was happening! Why didn't you post a reminder or something? I even looked at your blog that Friday because I was in town for APE and I didn't see anything!"
If you're in town around 5, stop by. It's going to be a tremendous gathering of talent under one roof, and a great way to kick off your APE weekend.
Hey, look, the Eisner Nominations are out. And two names in particular stand out for me: Best Graphic Album—New American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang (First Second)
Special Recognition Hope Larson, Gray Horses (Oni)
Wow, wouldn't it be great if the two of them appeared together at a signing along with Kevin Huizenga and Bryan Lee O'Malley? Like, tomorrow, between 5 and 7?
I just wanted to get that in before Jeff did.
...even after I said I wouldn't. What follows are the notes I tapped out while working, unedited except for spelling and clarification, of my first six hours at the shop. Might be interesting for some of you who wonder what our store's like and who shops there, even though this is 100% pure anecdote and things may well be utterly different the other six days of the week. Wherever possible, I've tried to keep everyone anonymous so that subscribers, regular shoppers and lonely guys buying porn can retain their privacy.
11:24 a.m.: Okay. Store is open, music is playing (Elastica's first album, which is directly attributable to reading Mr. Gillen's endpapers in Phonogram), two people are in the store currently. Arune called hoping to get in touch with Graeme, and UPS just dropped off Diamond's blackline, which means work on a new newsletter has to start soon.
First purchase of the day? Somebody buying a copy of Small Favors, Ho Che Anderson's Eros comic (Temple Duncan or something like that), and the third issue of Conan and the Midnight God. It'd be easier to make fun of such a purchase if I didn't actually like Small Favors and up until recently read Conan.
Second purchase of the day? A copy of Civil War: The Initiative and Wolverine, from a guy who was looking for the latest issue of the Transformers movie comic. Nice guy, too. Seemed very happy that we had still had the first printing of The Initiative.
I've read the latest 52, and All-Star Superman #7. I think I've missed the last page importance of All-Star Superman, though. So the Sbarro pizza chain is a weird genetic offshoot of Bizarro? I guess it kinda makes sense....
11:35: Wow. That Elastica album is SHORT. There's a guy looking through the DC Showcase volumes, with the tag from his shirt sticking out about three inches. It looks like a black polyester transmitter jutting out of his neck. Two guys walking around the store, talking to each other in, I dunno, Italian or Portuguese, have just been joined by three other friends. As one, the group of five loudly descend on the porn rack. It's going to be one of those days, it looks like.
11:40 a.m. : Caller asking when X-23 is coming out. After that, there's a pause and then he asks what every retailer loves to hear: "Hey, what about the next issue of that Ultimate Hulk Vs. Wolverine? Is that ever gonna come out?"
11:45 a.m.: The five guys leave with compliments for the store in their halting English. Turns out they're Brazilian musicians traveling and one guy really wants this Giger hardcover that we have, but is worried it weighs too much to travel with. Says they'll try to come back.
11:50 a.m.: Two more Brazilian guys, unrelated to the first group, remarkably enough. One wants to see the Walking Dead books. The other is looking for Dabel Brothers books because his friend did the art on one of the issues.
Another call (busy phone morning) from a guy wanting old Milestone issues. We've got four issues of Static Shock in our starter sets for cheap, recommend he come down and browse our other sets--the Milestone stuff seems to appear and disappear from that section reuglarly.
11:58 a.m.: The first Brazilian (the Walking Dead guy) asks about Bone, and wow do I wish I had one of those big Bone-In-One volumes to show him. Instead, Point him to the color version adn also show him the first two issues of the Shazam mini, which amuses and delights him.
12:05 p.m.: The two Brazilians leave, one buying that Dabel Brothers book and the 300: The Art Of book which he tells me is actually really hard to find. His friend gets that second volume of Walking Dead and also Tiny Tyrant. The first guy asks me when the next volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is due out. I swear to god, one day the riddle of the sphinx is going to be posed to me, and it's going to be "Hey, did the second issue of Daredevil: Target ever come out?"
12:10: One dude with a khaki cap browsed for a few minutes, left, now a bespectacled guy with an Ideo messenger bag is browsing the Vertigo comics section. At this rate, between the whole customers and describing-the-customers thing, I'll never get a chance to read any comics, will I?
12: 15: Did I mention I'm listening to The Good, The Bad & The Queen now?
12:18: Perusing the blackline and, yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm not allowed to post anything I'm seeing. I will say that I yelped aloud at a certain Omnibus announcement.
12:24 p. m.: Joe Ideo is gone, having purchased several back issues of NewUniversal, the latest Fell, Buffy #2, All-Star Superman #7, and the latest issue of Optic Nerve. I hesitate to call him a prototypical CE customer but he skews pretty close, dontcha think?
12:38 p.m.: First sub of the day just left with a handful of great stuff. Second sub showed up 45 seconds after and is still browsing the store. Mentions that the Wilco song playing sounds like it's going to break into the Batman theme at any second. Funny and also, if I listen carefully, kinda true.
12:43 p.m.: There's also a manga announcement in the new Blackline I'm pretty damn happy about. And a cool webcomic collection from Dark Horse, too?
12:45 p.m.: Danny (the second subber) is gone so store's empty now. Wonder how long that'll last.
12:46 p.m.: Answer: approximately 90 seconds.
12:48 p.m. : And now the store's empty again. So it goes.
1:18 p.m.: First woman to set foot in the store today. Shows up with her boyfriend. They are both dressed entirely in black. Right behind her a trio of kids, all boys between the ages of what looks like 13 and 16, the oldest of which buys a Batman shirt.
1:23 p.m .: Wilco's done. Just put on Compounds + Elements: An Introduction to All Saints Records. I've read (in reverse order) Fell, Blade, New Avengers, Uncanny X-Men. I could use some lunch--less for the food and more for the desire to get my ass out of the store for a few minutes. (This is why people who work retail, smoke.)
1:32 p.m.: The couple leaves, having bought two issues of Fell, two issues of Wormwood, and two issues of 30 Days of Night. Ben Templesmith fans would be what I'm thinking.
Forty seconds after them, a long haired kid with green streaks buys Iron Man #15, Nightwing #131 and that latest issue of the Scarface mini. Huh.
1:36 p.m.: The fourth sub's out the door and, yeah, forgot to mention subscriber number three, sorry. After buying a handful of Vertigo titles and the latest Optic Nerve. See? Optic Nerve. Big, big seller for us. Asks if the second Rocketo trade has come out yet. (Uh, no?)
1:45 p.m.: Current store count: subber number five, a pair of women, and a tall guy with a camo ruck, a Cure haircut, a flannel shirt and an angular sunburned face. Oh, and a trucker cap. The tall guy has enough interesting quirks to his appearance for five people.
1:47 p.m.: Trucker cap leaves empty-handed, but very pleasant. One of the women asks about back issues of Anders Nilssen's Big Questions, and I can't help her--we've just got two of his trades. I give her an APE bookmark and suggest she look there, but she says she's from out of town. She gives the bookmark to her friend, who says she'll go and look for the books if her friend makes a list of what to look for. Awww. That's a friend for you. On the way out the door, the woman who says she'll go to APE says to her friend, "Yeah, [guy's name] is having Art Spiegelman do all this stuff?" Which suggest she's probably better-connected to finding those issues of Big Questions then she either realizes or lets on.
1:51 p.m.: Mail call! And nothing for me. Although the excitement of opening and setting out the free screening tickets for Severance is mine and mine alone.
1:57 pm.: GRAEME!! stops by for a few as he's getting ready to head out of town for the weekend with Kate. I finally loan him my copy of Empowered. He essentially has stopped by to tell me that he's very excited about next week's signing, which is great becuase I am too, but he's excited in that "not puking blood" overreacting kind of way and I am. (He also already knew about the Omnibus, damn it.)
3:03 p.m.: And suddenly it's over an hour later. Graeme leaves, along with sub no. 5. A few weeks ago, I'd talked briefly over the phone to an ex-retailer in the U.K. who was coming over here to shop for silver age books. At the time, I turned him on to Al's and a few other places, but he and his friend stop by today anyway, just to make sure we don't have anything.
We don't, but nevertheless he buys a Batman year one t-shirt (second one of the day, weirdly enough) and shoots the breeze while waiting for his cab to show up and shuttle him out to the avenues.
While he's here, more people show up including a semi-regular who picked up the first two issues of Joss's Buffy last week and so I recommended Runaways #1 to her--she also buys Y: The Last Man from us so I figured it'd be a pretty good fit--and so she's back to start in on our Runaways back issues. Then there's the couple from San Jose--she ends up buying Optic Nerve and Love & Rockets, he buys fifty gajillion back issues, including a huge chunk of Daredevil back issues by Bendis and Maleev. She makes a joke about staying in bed all weekend together and reading comics. Awwww.
Another subscriber, in and out in under ten minutes. A very quiet older gentleman steps up to the register with a great handful of books--both Don Rosa Scrooge books, volumes 1 and 2 of the Superman Chronicles, It Rhymes with Lust and the girly art cartoons of an artist I always think is Dan DeCarlo but isn't (or maybe it is). [Ed.: I'm 90% sure it's The Glamor Girls of Don Flowers.]
I really should get lunch soon.
3:15 p.m.: A teen girl suddenly appears in the doorway with wide eyes. "Do you have Naruto?" Her family trails in a few seconds later; they're traveling from Omaha to (I think?) Washington. The mom tells me, "My daughter looked you up on Google when she found out we were coming here, so... it works!" The daughter buys two volumes of Naruto while the family walks around the store, caught somewhere between awe and amusement that such a thing exists. Or maybe they're just burnt out by their time on the road. The mom and (I assume) the dad look through a few volumes of Tintin, having heard from someone else that they're reallly good, but they don't buy anything and then they're gone.
3:30 p.m.: A tall guy in running shorts with a black IPod strapped to his arm, comes in and asks if the latest issue of Buffy is out and seems really excited about it. "Really? Issue #2? It's out? When?" He's just started jogging but assures me he'll be back.
So, yeah, I'm starting to see what Hibbs is talking about when he says that this Whedon Buffy stuff could have legs for us.
3:40 p.m.: My friend Theresa calls on my cell to tell me her sister Jean just had a baby. Of course, this being the real world, the store phone rings at the same time and it's the guy from the Bay Guardian calling to remind us about the deadline for the ad we're placing promoting the signing. I'm really glad he called because Edi sent the ad to him yesterday. After a few seconds of him checking his inbox, then looking at the attachment to see if it's formatted correctly, we're good to go but it ends up cutting my time with Theresa short.
3:50 p.m.: The jogger is back, true to his word. Asks about Runaways, but doesn't pick it up. One of the two subbers who buys 2000 A.D. drops by for his weekly fix and, to my delight, picks up The Professor's Daughter just "because it looks good. "
Oh, and after forty-five minutes of browsing, the eccentric lurker of the day (dressed in all black, bearing luggage, wearing galoshes) leaves. He asks several questions ranging from the very knowledgeable ("Do you have any works by Tardi?") to the, uh, less than knowledgeable ("Image? That's Marvel, right?" which sounds kinda crazy but since he follows this up with asking if Vertigo is DC, it actually makes a weird kinda sense.)
Now, if this other subber buys his books and heads out before someone else comes in, I can grab "lunch." I probably shoulda booted him or galoshes guy for a few minutes but I actually brought food with me today so I'm not dying or anything.
3:57 p.m.: Subber leaves and of course a guy comes in at the same time. I'll give him two minutes and hit lunch.
Also, forty-five seconds after the last subber leaves, I realize I went to college with the guy. Forty-five seconds after that, I realize he's left behind one of the books he bought. Shit.
I call the number we have on file for him in the hopes that it'll be his cell phone but it's an old answering machine where "The Girl From Ipanema" is playing on the background through a rainstorm as funnelled through a paper towel roll. (Good ol' answering machines.) I leave a message, write out a note explaining what's happened, and put the book back in his slot.
During all this drama, three more people have come in: a dude who does a lap around the store and heads out, and a couple browsing the crime section. Another subber comes in, fills out the form, shoots the shit. Topics range from The Boys to The Secret Six (he didn't know about the crossover with Birds of Prey so I hunt that up) to Y: The Last Man. Then he goes and checks the racks. When he asks what I'm reading and what's good, I go and hunt up a copy of The Professor's Daughter which he looks through and nods.
4:22 p.m.: The Brazilian musician who wanted the Geiger book is back to browse. Someone else comes in with a bottle of orange sports drink, gets a call on his cell phone and leaves. It's just five people quietly browsing comics, the radio playing old UB40 and my stomach, gurgling merrily. I can handle missing lunch, but I can't handle old UB40. I get up and put on the soundtrack to One From the Heart.
4:33 p.m.: Maybe it's the hunger talking, but this Dr. 13 story by Azzarello and Chiang in the latest Tales of the Unexpected is kinda brilliant and really, really amusingly savage about the current state of DC affairs. And just unbelievably gorgeous art by Cliff Chiang. I pray to god this sucker gets collected in a trade because I haven't been buying the issues.
4:40 p.m.: A German (or maybe Austrian?) guy comes in asking what's "good." His benchmark, when asked? "Oh, I liked Spawn five or six years ago." I point him to Walking Dead and cross my fingers.
4:43 p.m.: So the guy I pointed to Walking Dead after he said he likes Spawn? Comes to the front with....Kafka, that biography with art by Crumb. Go figure. The guy tells me a little bit about the Yerba Buena Crumb show which I've entirely forgotten about until he mentions it. Not a big show, according to the guy. "Just one room, and not even any Fritz The Cat." Hmmm.
5:00 p.m.: And suddenly everyone leaves at once: the two subbers, the couple who was browsing the crime section (French), a bunch of other guys. Somebody shows up to pass out cards for APE related showings and it turns out it's Dave Crosland! Holy crap!
And that's where I had to stop because (a) Rob Bennett showed up to see how I was doing and brought Guinness; (b) I had to go get something to eat, finally; and (c) it got even busier from there on out. Although the quality of my anecdotes would have improved because Ian Brill, James Masente, Dave Robson (also bringing beer, bless him) and Peter Wong all showed up and spent time hanging out and shooting the shit, I just didn't have time to even take notes. And Lord knows how I'm gonna write reviews this week since I read so little and during so much business...
But, anyway, there's your peek behind the curtain. Surprising, or no?
It's almost ready. Are you?
Sorry for being so tardy with the posting lately. I sat down this morning to write a few reviews and found myself stuck: I spent over an hour typing sentences and deleting 'em, typing and deleting in turn. Anyway, I have tentative plans to try liveblogging from the store tomorrow so hopefully that'll work out a bit better. Lord knows there's enough coming out....
Off to Vegas, be back on... well from your POV, probably Sunday. (Maybe MOnday, when I think of it) Sorry I've been slack the last few days -- lots on my mind!
One other thing I forgot to mention: in addition to the shipping-from-Diamond list I posted, we ALSO got these items in this week, via Baker & Taylor:
ALIAS THE CAT HC (Kim Deitch) BLINDSPOT GN (Kevin Pyle -- I really really liked this one, though it's a smidge expensive for how long it takes to read) FLIGHT v1 & v2 -- the new "Ballentine" editions PROFESSOR'S DAUGHTER TINY TYRANT -- both from FirstSecond, and, I think, the strongest two books in this "wave" of releases.
As far as I know, we're the only store in SF to have these books currently, as DIamond hasn't distributed them yet. That's one reason I bought them via B&T.
In addition to that, they're CHEAPER from B&T -- Diamond offered them all at a "H" discount (max 40%), while B&T had them for about 46%, once you calculate the free shipping, the extra pre-order discount, and the additional "pay on time" discount.
Plus, they're returnable. (not that I order anything to return - but its nice to know that option is potentially available)
So, the BOOKSTORE distributor beats the COMICS-SPECIFIC distributor on a) time, b) discount, and c) returnability.
There's something very very wrong with this picture. (which, amazingly, will get worse once they're no longer "new" -- Diamond's discount will drop to a pathetic 37% on these as reorders, while I can not possibly order them for B&T for less than 43%)
Can you guess one of my prime topics for the ComicsPRO meeting?
Anyway, see you in a while!
-B
Less than two weeks until the signing? Holy Cow, that's just crazy.
Oh, and since I posted this on a Saturday, you can probably count on it showing up in the middle of this upcoming week (and probably next week as well, come to think of it.)
Hope any of you inclined to show up will do so. It oughta be awesome.
I haven’t done a lot of charts here, mostly because the response is always so muted. I know only a small number of people have the Numbers Wonk gene, but if you’re one of those people, here’s a peek behind the curtain of Comix Experience, so you can see how things work. That’s because it’s paperwork day here at Casa Hibbs, and one of the things I’m working on is the April subscription orders. Unlike a lot of stores, we ask subs to order month-by-month. You don’t say you want “Batman” – you say you want “Batman #665” followed by “Batman #666” and so on.
The following list is our top 40 sub orders for the month of April 2007. The deadline to turn this in was February 14th, so most of our customers made their decisions 6-8 weeks ago – this especially means on books that are on #2 or #3, sub counts tend to be lower as customers haven’t SEEN #1 with their own eyes yet. People tend to be willing to “take a flyer” on a new #1, much less so on the #2 and #3. Once you hit #4+, these numbers get increasingly accurate.
The first column is the numeric rank, the second column is the percentage of our total subscribers who ordered the book, and the third column is (obviously) the title. That is to say: our #1 preordered book for April (Astonishing #22) was preordered by 41% of our subscription customers.
Hopefully this will format OK as I transfer it from Excel to Word to Blogger. If not? Deal!
1 41% Astonishing X-Men #22 2 36% 52 Weeks 48-52 3 34% JLA #8 4 31% JSA #5 5 29% Batman #665 6 27% Justice #11 27% The Spirit #5 8 26% Daredevil #96 9 23% Brave & Bold #3 23% Fables #60 11 22% Hellboy: Darkness Calls #1 22% Buffy Season 8 #2 13 20% New Avengers #29 14 19% Detective #831 19% Shazam: Monster Society #3 19% Runaways #25 19% Ultimate Spidey #108 19% Uncanny X-Men #485 19% Thunderbolts #113 20 18% World War II #1-4 18% Midnighter #6 18% Iron Fist #5 18% Punisher Max #46 18% Ultimate Power #5 25 17% Teen Titans #46 17% Y, The Last Man #56 17% Ex Machina #27 17% Stephen King's Dark Tower #3 17% Ultimate FF #41 30 16% Green Lantern #19 16% Jack of Fables #10 16% The Boys #10 16% Mighty Avengers #2 16% X-Factor #18 35 15% BPRD Garden of Souls #2 15% Dr. Fate #1 15% Ultimate X-Men #81 38 14% Supergirl & LSH #15 14% Optic Nerve #11 14% Love & Rockets #19 14% Fantastic Four #545
Anything interesting pop out to you? (this isn’t a test or anything)
-B
Here’s a list of the “top 40” comics “expected to arrive in April 2007”, and how I ordered them. These are my gut-reaction orders from about 8 weeks ago when I did my first pass through the catalog. These numbers may have switched around a bit at FOC time, but there’s usually not a TON of adjusting going on. Like above, we’ve got three columns. Again, rank, followed by a let’s-use-Diamond’s-percentage-of-BATMAN-metric, followed by title.
(note: some of this WON'T ACTUALLY SHIP IN APRIL 2007!)
1 231% Buffy Season 8 #2 2 169% Astonishing X-Men #22 3 138% JLA #8 4 131% 52 Week #52 131% Stephen King's Dark Tower #3 6 123% 52 Week #50 123% 52 Week #51 123% Hellboy: Darkness Calls #1 9 115% 52 Week #48 115% 52 Week #49 115% JSA #5 12 108% Brave & Bold #3 108% Justice #11 14 100% Batman #665 100% Runaways #25 16 92% Mighty Avengers #2 92% Optic Nerve #11 92% World War II #1 92% World War II #2 92% World War II #3 92% World War II #4 22 86% Ultimate Power #5 23 77% Madman Atomic Comics #1 77% New Avengers #29 77% Shazam: Monster Society #3 77% The Boys #10 77% Wonder Woman #7 77% Wonder Woman #8 29 71% The Spirit #5 30 69% Daredevil #96 69% Uncanny X-Men #485 69% X-Men #198 33 66% Thunderbolts #113 34 62% Army @ Love #2 62% Avengers: The Initiative #1 62% BPRD Garden of Souls #2 62% Detective #831 62% Fables #60 62% Iron Fist #5 62% Love & Rockets #19 62% Marvel Zombies/Army of Darkness #2 62% newuniversal #4
As you can probably see, I’m a lot bolder than my preorders in some places – especially “civilian friendly” material and new books. And there’s some places I’m decidedly more timid.
-B
Traditionally everyone stares the most at the quantity list. But, at a retailer, the DOLLAR list is probably more important. Same set up as above, but often different results. (note: several of these have already been cancelled, or won't otherwise actually ship in 4/07!!)
1 231% Buffy Season 8 #2 2 216% Y, The Last Man v9 TP 3 175% Stephen King's Dark Tower #3 4 169% Astonishing X-Men #22 5 154% Shazam: Monster Society #3 6 138% JLA #8 7 126% Justice #11 8 123% Hellboy: Darkness Calls #1 9 122% Optic Nerve #11 10 115% JSA #5 11 109% 52 Week #52 12 108% Brave & Bold #3 13 103% 52 Week #50 103% 52 Week #51 15 103% Wonder Woman: Who is WW HC 16 100% Batman #665 100% Runaways #25 18 96% 52 Week #48 96% 52 Week #49 20 93% Love & Rockets #19 21 92% Wizard #187 22 92% Mighty Avengers #2 23 90% Mouse Guard v1 HC 24 86% Ultimate Power #5 25 82% 52 volume 1 TP 26 82% Art of Bone HC 27 77% World War II #1 77% World War II #2 77% World War II #3 77% World War II #4 77% Golden Age Dr. Fate Archives 32 77% Eternals by Gaiman HC 33 77% Alpha Flight Classic v1 TP 34 77% EC Archives: Shock SuspenStories v2 HC 77% The Plain Janes GN 36 77% Hellboy Companion TP 77% Madman Atomic Comics #1 77% New Avengers #29 77% The Boys #10 77% Wonder Woman #7 77% Wonder Woman #8
Any thoughts?
Here’s one from me. By SUBS, OPTIC NERVE #11 is a Top 40 hit. By quantity ordered, it is a Top 20 hit. By the amount of money I expect to make from it… it’s a Top 10 book.
-B
Tzipora wonders why I go to bed at 1 am every night, and it's because it is midnight and I'm still typing. BUT, now that it is Midnight, that means it is April 1, which means you're going to read a lot of stupid stuff on the 'net today that you shouldn't believe. This one is real, however.
Comix Experience is 18 years old today. Give her a round of applause!
(you have no idea how old this makes me feel, by the way)
-B
Dude, the truck came FOUR hours late today (pulled up at 5:05 pm), so I didn't even get home until 13 hours after I left this morning. Thus: head aches too much to review. However, this gives me the excuse to post something I keep thinking should mention and keep forgetting to do...
If you're moving, you need boxes. Many many boxes. Boxes are life.
Comics are pretty bulky. Really, quite amazingly bulky, really, so comic shops get lots and lots of boxes every week.
The nice thing about the boxes they ship our comics in, is that they come with two inner boxes inside the outer box -- one box actually contains 3 boxes. And they're not shitty boxes. They're actually really strong high quality boxes.
They're perfect for packing comics in of course. Ever so less perfect for other kinds of books. The work great for clothes and things like that, too.
Anyway, every week, I have at least 15 or so of these boxes which we just dump out for the cardboard scavengers to get. Why not just give them to you instead?
So, if you're moving, and if you need boxes.... ask at your Local Comic Book Store to see if you can have theirs. You'll be happy.
More later.
-B
Okay, this has been in the hopper for a while, but I didn't get that gorgeous green light until just last week. We're having a signing from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. on Friday, April 20, 2007 and I think it's a pretty big deal. Y'see, when this year's guests at APE were announced, I kinda lost my mind. So many great guests this year! I went to Hibbs and begged him to get some sort of signing together which he consented to as long as I organized it. So if this post doesn't make much sense, or seems quasi-unhinged, please understand: not only am I tremendously whacked out because this is the first signing I've ever organized, but--more importantly--the signing is going to be for:
him, and also for:
her, as well as for:
him, but also for:
him.
Yeah, that's right. Kevin Huizenga, Hope Larson, Bryan Lee O'Malley, and Gene Yang are signing at Comix Experience from 5:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. on Friday, April 20, 2007. That's an absurd amount of talent under one roof, and I owe big props to the artists and also Gary Sassaman and Comic-Con for going for it. This group of artists did some of the best work of 2006 and it's all I can do not to unleash torrents of hype at all of you about their utter awesomeness. If you're a Bay Area type or in town for APE, I hope you'll drop by the store from 5 to 7, get a book signed from these four amazing talents, or just stop by to "hey." APE can be an all-encompassing swirl and this may be a great way to get face time. (Plus, there more of you there are, the less the four of them will be subjected to the quivering fanboyness that is Jeff Lester, which I assure you is best for all involved.)
Anyway, I'll be back later with reviews, and when we get the flier put together this week, I'll also post it here. But I just couldn't keep it under wraps any longer, and had to share this with all y'all. As I said, I hope you can stop by.
So, I'm working on the New Comics part of the new Onomatopoeia (For those who don't live in San Francisco and/or have never been in the store to know what I'm talking about, Onomatopoeia is the free monthly Comix Experience newsletter thing; I do a bunch of blurbs about the new comics that can be preordered that month, Peter Wong does a column called Lost in Pictopia, and most importantly, Jeff Lester from this very parish does a column called Fanboy Rampage! - He came up with it first; I stole it without realizing it, because I am unoriginal and a pilferer - that is more often than not the funniest thing you'll read of a month. Really, it's a rather wonderful little newsletter thing and you should all check it out), and it strikes me how insanely that Marvel are throwing things out there. I mean, as of June, there are going to be five ongoing Avengers books. Five! There weren't even that many in the 1990s, weren't there? There are also nine regular Spider-Man books (Amazing, Sensational, Friendly Neighborhood, Ultimate, Loves Mary Jane, Marvel Adventures, Family, Spider-Girl and New Avengers, if you're wondering about my math), and if you're an X-Men completist, then things get even uglier, because June will see you picking up the following ongoing books: X-Men Uncanny X-Men New X-Men X-Factor Wolverine Wolverine: Origins Cable/Deadpool Exiles Excalibur X-Men: First Class Ultimate X-Men Black Panther (because Storm is now a regular cast member; she also rejoins the X-Men in June's Uncanny, according to the solicits and Ed Brubaker's comments at Wizard World LA that she's in the book for the foreseeable future) Fantastic Four (because Storm's now a regular cast member of this book, as well. She's the new Wolverine!) New Avengers (because Wolverine's a member)
And that's missing Astonishing, because - no surprise - Astonishing isn't shipping in June. I missed out the mini-series and guest-shots for the month, as well.
The moral of this story is either that it doesn't pay to be an X-Men completist in financial terms as well as spiritual ones, or that Marvel is literally out to flood the market with their product without really taking much notice of its audience. Maybe the most obvious example of this currently is the surprise hit of last year, Marvel Zombies, which had three separate books solicited for May (Marvel Zombies: Dead Days, Marvel Zombies Vs. Army of Darkness and Black Panther, which is hitching itself to the bandwagon for a storyline). Way to run a sleeper hit into the ground, Marvel.
Sure, you could make similar noises about DC. To use DC's biggest franchise, a Batman completist would "only" be picking up eleven books in June, and that's not counting trades. But Marvel feels like a much worse offender - In June, DC are launching four new series, three of which are in their CMX line, but Marvel are launching more than ten, including three different "events" (Major Arcana; World War Hulk and Annihilation: Conquest. That's not even mentioning Endangered Species, the X-book back-up crossover that's really just a 17-part lead-in to another crossover event that's starting later this year).
I dunno; I'm not a retailer like Hibbs nor anything other than a generic loudmouth on the internet, and maybe there's an eager audience for all of these books, but it strikes me that when you get a four-issue miniseries about Daredevil's dad's boxing career, then just maybe Marvel is putting out too many books. Am I overreacting because I have to write about all of them, or does anyone else think that there's something horribly familiar and '90s-esque about the sheer volume of product these days?
http://www.newsarama.com/Tilting2_0/Tilting38.html I have to admit I'm fairly dumbstruck how many people in the thread that follows are talking about how great SUPERMAN #75 was. I guess it really IS true that whatever you read first when you're 13, is the greatest comic ever. Or something.
-B
I'm probably stupid to have not mentioned this before, but my understanding is that we DO have a large confirmed order of CAPTAIN AMERICA #25 (1st printings) coming in this Wednesday, and we currently have a list going at the store if you want to "get in line" for one. We are, last time I looked (Saturday) about 16 deep now, so we should be able to fill any request before Wednesday with no problem (with the normal cavaet, as we are with all books at all times, you're limited to 2 copies max, unless you preorder something) I also forgot to mention my appearance on issue #231 of the Comic Geek Speak podcast. I show up around the 51 minute mark, blabbing about sales and how retailers order things like 52 and COUNTDOWN. You can find that at http://www.comicgeekspeak.com/episodedetail.asp?episodeid=319 -- if you pay attention, you can hear the start of my cold, and maybe even me cooking dinner, or Ben in his bath. I really really want us to eventually do at least one test podcast ourselves here at Savage Critic, because I think that would rock.
This early daylight savings time is weird. I *think* I like it, but that's only because it gives me a decent chance of a second park trip with Ben in the afternoon for a couple of weeks here. We had a GLORIOUSLY beautiful day here in San Francisco for the changeover which was nice, except that I'm on tail-end of sickness, and desperate to catch up on paperwork and stuff, and Tzipora has gone into full-bore sickness -- 2 days behind me. Of course, she's fifty times healthier than I am, so she's not sleeping for 16 hours a day, just being low energy. Still, sucks to have a LOVELY day, and to be not at 100%.
Right, that's me catching up. Here's what's shipping this week:
2000 AD #1525 2000 AD #1526 52 WEEK #45 A LATE FREEZE AMAZING SPIDER-GIRL #6 ANGEL AULD LANG SYNE #5 ANT #11 AVENGERS EARTHS MIGHTIEST HEROES II #7 (OF 8) BATMAN STRIKES #31 BATTLE POPE #13 BATTLESTAR GALACTICA #7 BATTLESTAR GALACTICA CYLON APOCALYPSE #1 BETTY & VERONICA #225 BETTY & VERONICA DIGEST #173 BLADE #7 BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL #123 BPRD GARDEN OF SOULS #1 (OF 5) BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #1 CARTOON NETWORK ACTION PACK #11 CIVIL WAR THE CONFESSION CVO AFRICAN BLOOD #3 DAMNED #5 DETECTIVE COMICS #829 FABLES #58 FRANKLIN RICHARDS MARCH MADNESS GARTH ENNIS CHRONICLES OF WORMWOOD #2 (OF 6) GEN 13 #6 GHOST RIDER #9 GREEN ARROW #72 GREEN LANTERN CORPS #10 GRIFTER MIDNIGHTER #1 (OF 6) GRIMM FAIRY TALES #13 (RES) HACK SLASH VS CHUCKY HELLGATE LONDON #3 (OF 4) IRREDEEMABLE ANT-MAN #6 JACK KIRBYS GALACTIC BOUNTY HUNTERS #5 JLA CLASSIFIED #36 JUGHEADS DOUBLE DIGEST #129 KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE #124 LONE RANGER #5 MAD MAGAZINE #476 MARTIAN MANHUNTER #8 (OF 8) MARVEL ADVENTURES FANTASTIC FOUR #22 MARVEL SPOTLIGHT CIVIL WAR AFTERMATH MOON KNIGHT #8 CW MYSTERY IN SPACE #7 (OF 8) NEW AVENGERS #28 NEW X-MEN #36 PTOLUS CITY BY THE SPIRE #5 (OF 6) PUNISHER WAR JOURNAL #5 ROBIN #160 SAM NOIR RONIN HOLIDAY #2 (OF 3) SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE SLEEP OF REASON #4 (OF 5) SPIDER-MAN REIGN #4 (OF 4) STORMWATCH PHD #5 SUPERMAN #660 TAG CURSED CVR A #2 (OF 5) TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED #6 (OF 8) TEEN TITANS #44 THUNDERBOLTS #112 THUNDERBOLTS PRESENTS ZEMO BORN BETTER #2 (OF 4) TRENTON DOYLE HANDBOOK WHAT WERE THEY THINKING GO WEST YOUNG MAN ONE SHOT WILDSTORM FINE ARTS SPOTLIGHT J SCOTT CAMPBELL WOLVERINE ORIGINS #12 WONDER WOMAN #5 (RES) WONDERLAND #3 WORMWOOD GENTLEMAN CORPSE #6
Books / Mags / Stuff AMERICAN ELF VOL 2 COLL SKETCHBOOK DIARIES OF JAMES KOCHALKA BACK ISSUE #21 BLUE MONDAY VOL 1 THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT TP NEW PTG CEST BON ANTHOLOGY VOL 2 GN CRISIS ON MULTIPLE EARTHS THE TEAM UPS VOL 2 TP CRYING FREEMAN VOL 5 TP HARLAN ELLISONS DREAM CORRIDOR VOL 2 TP HIP FLASK CONCRETE JUNGLE HC IRON WOK JAN GN #23 KIN-DER KIDS SC KING CITY VOL 1 GN (OF 3) MS MARVEL VOL 1 BEST OF THE BEST TP NEW EXCALIBUR VOL 2 LAST DAYS OF CAMELOT TP PIRACY IS LIBERATION VOL 1 INFORMATION WANTS TO BE FREE GN PVP VOL 4 PVP GOES BANANAS TP SFX #154 SIZZLE #33 (A) STREET FIGHTER LEGENDS VOL 1 SAKURA TP STREET FIGHTER VOL 3 FIGHTERS DESTINY TP SUPERMAN BATMAN THE GREATEST STORIES EVER TOLD TABOO DISTRICT GN (A) TIMES OF BOTCHAN VOL 3 GN (OF 10) TOYFARE HASBRO SPIDER-MAN 3 MOVIE CVR #117 ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN ULTIMATE COLLECTION VOL 1 TP VIDEO WATCHDOG #129 WARCRAFT VOL 3 GN (OF 3) WOLVERINE ORIGINS VOL 2 SAVIOR PREMIERE HC WORLDS OF AMANO HC WORMWOOD GENTLEMAN CORPSE VOL 1 TP YUKIKOS SPINACH NEW EDITION GN YURI MONOGATARI VOL 4 GN
What looks good to you?
-B
I've got a lot of stuff to catch up on today (and a misbehaving child who is making it harder to do so then I would like), and a phone interview with ComicGeekSpeak tonight, so I may not finish the reviews tonight. Still, trying the daily thing here, so must Feed the Beast. Veneta Rogers has one of her Talking Shop pieces for Newsarama up at http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=103822, on the topic of Digital Comics. I was one of the people she emailed on the topic, but I wrote a statement, rathering than answering her bulleted questions, so I ended up mostly on the cutting room floor. Here's the entirety of what I wrote:
I'm fairly non-plussed, at this stage, about digital comics.
There are a couple of reasons for this:
1) Music, our primary source for "how will this impact us" analysis, is very different than reading. Music tends to be either something that is either a social function/lubricant or an activity that is done while doing something else (like, say, taking the bus, or studying or surfing the web). "Listening to music", I believe, in most cases for most people, most of the time, is a relatively "passive" activity -- most of the time you're not putting 100% of your focus ON the music, if you understand what I mean? This is not the case for "reading" (be it comics or prose) -- that's an "active" activity all of the time, and can really only be done alone. It makes sense for you to be able to carry 10k songs in your pocket. It makes less sense to have 10k comic books there.
2) Excluding a few audio-philes, the difference between an song playing on a MP3 over your computer's crappy speakers, or listening to a "tape" on your "Walkman", or playing a CD on your stereo is pretty much nil -- there's a portability between formats and the listening device, and so, naturally whichever format takes up the least space and costs the least will win.
The experience of "reading" is very different, and we're nowhere near the "portability" of music (or video, for that matter, though even that has a while to go) -- until there's a ubiquitous low-cost universal portable reader, I don't see the one we currently have (paper) being especially harmed. And even then I have my doubts.
(the corollary of that point is there's every reason to believe that digital "sampling" can lead to increased sales of physical objects)
3) Unlike prose, the physical presentation of content matters very much -- a comics page is usually designed as a unit, and the "timing" of the story depends on its physical space. Reading comics formatted for a comic's dimension is a wholly different experience on a computer screen. How successful would digital music have proven if you had to fiddle with the balance controls for each and every song?
I think digital comics are inevitable, but I don't think, at this stage, they should be feared by the quality DM retailer, because the disadvantages of the experience, portability, and presentation don't prove much of a "threat" to the physically printed object.
'cuz, y'see, right now this very second, you can get this week's comics, for 100% free, from the net, yet comic sales are on their 6th straight year of rise. Yes, there are some percentage of people who would like to switch to digital, but haven't done so for ethical reasons (yay, them!) or technology know-how ones, but I don't think they'll be statistically significant; and I think they'll be outnumbered by the new people we expose to the art form.
At least for stores that are "civilian-friendly", diversely stocked and focused, and are taste-makers rather than trend-followers.
-B
Just back from WonderCon -- Fridays are generally slow there, so its definitely the right day to go. I expect Saturday to be Madness. MADNESS, I say! WC moved yet again -- this time to Moscone South, or "The Big Moscone", which made it seem even more slow, but, if I had to guess, attendance was probably up a little bit, just spread out over a bigger area.
Pro attendance seemed kind of low to me, but this may be a function of Convention Season Death March, with Florida 2 weeks ago, NY last week, and LA in 2 weeks from now -- how can people do THAT MANY shows in a row?
Ben came with me for a couple hours in the morning -- he's so adorable out in public; and the purchase I allowed him, after doing the whole show floor to make sure what he got what was he REALLY wanted, was a mummy pen and a sarcophagus pencil case. He loved showing that off to every adult we spoke to, and virtually every adult was pretty stunned to see such a little man know that it was called a "sarcophagus", and what Hieroglyphics were. Kid has himself an amazing vocabulary.
Got 2 new JSA pieces for the gallery from Matt Wagner -- Hourman and Mr. Terrific. They are awesome, and I will punch you if you don't think so. With the speed that I move to get things framed, it will probably be 3-4 months before they make it on CE's walls, so if you're at the store, ask and I shall show. We're just down to 4 pieces left... Atom, Spectre, and (Golden age) Superman and Batman. Maybe we'll even be finished by 2010!
Um, didn't read a lot of comics yesterday (as you'll see below) -- decided to get caught up on TV, and the week's worth of DAILY SHOWs backed up, etc. I desperately want to stop watching LOST because it keeps on spinning and spinning and spinning its wheels (LAST week, I *literally* screamed at the TV to HAVE SOMETHING [ANYTHING!!] HAPPEN!!!! and STOP INTRODUCING NEW FUCKING 'OTHERS', WE DON'T CARE YOU FUCKS!). The only reason I keep watching is because I feel like I invested some sixty hours of my life at this point, and I'd like that to fucking pay off, thankyouverymuch. THis is almost certainly a fool's errand at this point.
Didn't much care for THE BLACK DONNELEYS, but I'll give it one more episode to see if it's going anywhere.
Dude, have you seen the "Back To The Future" commercial for DirecTV with Christopher Lloyd as Doc Brown? It bothers me. Deeply. Not just because I'd rather if every beloved movie wasn't whored out to shill for something. And not just because I kinda assumed Christopher Lloyd was the kind of savvy actor who had such a string of visible memorable roles that I kind of figured he was set for life at this point, and didn't need to do commercials. But really because it violates the very logic of the thing that it's trying to use to shill. Marty, after the rescue at the clock tower in the 1950s, zooms, well, back to the future, and Doc Brown comes running up and say "Great Scott! I forgot to tell Marty about DirecTV!". Yeah, except this is 1950s Doc Brown, who hasn't time travelled, and won't for another 30 years, and HE DOESN'T KNOW ABOUT ANY SUCH THING. Further, even if he DID tell Marty, what the fuck could Marty DO with that info? Marty is going back to the 1980s -- he's at least 10 years from even the possibility of ubiquitous wide-spread satellite TV. Fuck, sell out if you HAVE to, but at least have the shit make sense, wouldja?
Whaaaaaat? You want comics? Well, between last night and now I've only read three:
CITY OF OTHERS #1: I'm torn. It's really fucking pretty. Like "man, that's god-damn amazingly wonderful looking!"; and it has one of the strongest voices Steve Niles has ever delivered yet with a cold, disassociated killer. But, it's all in the service of what is pretty sub-NIGHT GALLERY story. First off, the killer is stupendously, no... RIDICulously! competent. TORE me out of the story. Second, what the fuck was up with that train? Third, isn't that pretty directly ripped off from "Midnight Meat Train" in Clive Barker's BOOKS OF BLOOD? Fourth, didn't Niles either directly adapt, or at least edit the adaptation to comics of "Midnight Meat Train"? (I may be wrong on that score, but am too lazy to google it) Fifth, (paraphrasing) that last line of "And that's how I knew it was zombies.... and vampires!" was truly truly cringe-inducing. Sixth, the fawning editorial page where she declares this, in effect, the second coming of horror comics, and how awesomely amazingly awesome it was, was just salt in the wounds. I dig she has a she-woody for Wrightson -- and hell, his art is really really damn fine handled this way -- but keep it in your pants. An editor should never come on the page and tell you how great something you just read was. (JOe and Dan could learn that lesson, too) It's... well, it is simply unseemly. How do you balance an AWFUL (the story) with a GOOD (the lovely lovely art, and the specific scripting)? I'll go with EH.
WOLVERINE #51: Oh cripes. Second verse, same as above. BEAUTIFUL looking little thing. HORRIFIC thing to read, filled with jibber jabber and blah blah blah and nonsensical nonsense about pretty much nothing. Marvel is offering a color-free version of the book (still $3, though! HAHAHAHAH!)... what about offering a words-free version? If it was just Bianchi drawing 22 pages of whatever-the-fuck... well, I wouldn't have "enjoyed it", but I'd be a lot closer to "Cool!", but this is dragged down by the script. Sorry, we average out to AWFUL in this case (though, again, I FULLY SUPPORT those of you buying it for the art)
X-FACTOR #16: Art was much less likeable this go round (and likely drops it a full "grade"), but this was a really strong episode of Madrox Finds Himself. Didn't really care about the Monet/Siryn thread too much, though. Monet is too one-note to continue to be entertaining. With the possible (and not always) exception of ASTONISHING, THIS is the best X-book being published each month. GOOD.
I'm sort of undecided about this "daily" experiment. I'm probably writing more than I would, and it's not "Oh, God, block out 3 hours..." chore that writing a big one entails, but more manageable 30-60 chunks, but I also know I really can't maintain this over the longer haul. Let me know if you like it like this, or if you prefer the longer single-entry-for-a-week entries...
I'll be back tomorrow with more (assuming I get to read any more)
As always.... what did YOU think?
-B
Lost a couple of hours today because some DC staffers popped in the store before WOnderCon, but I should be able to get this done before midnight, and keep my schedule... Speaking of WonderCon, I've got a panel on SUNDAY:
11:30-12:30 Comic Retailer Roundtable— Join moderator Dan Shahin (Hijinx Comics) and fellow comic retailers Joe Ferrara (Atlantis Fantasyworld), Joe Field (Flying Colors), Brian Hibbs (Comix Experience) and Ryan Higgins (Comics Conspiracy), for an up to the minute look into the realities of modern comic book retailing. Special focus will be placed on recent industry changes and how retailers are adapting and planning for the future. Room 228
Do feel free to come and yell things at us...
ACTION COMICS #846: Horrifically crippled from the scheduling problems (We had, what? 50 years where ACTION shipped 12x a year or better?), I've lost some of the thread here, and a significant part of my interest. Still, despite feeling lost in several places, this was an OK enough issue. I'm less comfortable with some of the grafting of SUPERMAN-THE-MOVIE continuity in here, but probably more from seeming to contradict the SUPERMAN II continuity more than anything else. But, yeah, highly OK
BLACK PANTHER #25: A week later, this seems pretty "yeah, and...?" to me. I may have enjoyed this more last week, WITH CW #7. EH.
DAREDEVIL #94: Great cover. Lotsa recap on the insides. I felt like there were really only 2-3 pages of "new" content in here. So, gonna go with EH.
ETERNALS #7: If you asked me what a Neil Gaiman-written ETERNALS comic would be like, this issue would be very very close to that answer. That is to say that I kinda thought this single-handedly "rescued" the whole mini, and gave them at least an adequate new purpose in the Marvel U, if anyone follows up on it. I'll go with a GOOD.
GREEN LANTERN #17: That one sequence with Batman and the Sinestro ring makes the whole thing worth it to me. It could have been followed by 19 more pages of Hal picking his nose and saying "Dur!" to the camera, and I still'd probably have liked this. Well, maybe not, but still: great moment. GOOD.
JLA CLASSIFIED #35: Yeah.... don't care. AWFUL.
RUNAWAYS #24: BKV's run ends nicely. This has been a fun little book, and I hope that Whedon (and who ever is post-WHedon) can keep it up. GOOD.
SUPERGIRL AND LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #27: Too many characters, too much chicken-with-head-cut-off running around. It's not BAD, but too busy to be any fun. EH.
And... believe it or not, that's everything I've read so far now.
OK, off to pay bills (WHERE THE HELL DID FEBRUARY GO?!?!) and get some more pre-WC stuff done... More (maybe, probably) tomorrow...
What did you think?
-B
http://www.newsarama.com/Tilting2_0/Tilting37.html Its very very long.
Go read, tell me what you think!
-B
LA's invoicing just went up, and it looks like EVERY West Coast retailer is getting massively allocated (to the tune of 10-15% -- I ordered 100 copies, and am recieving 14) on CIVIL WAR #6 this week. We're ASSUMING it's like last week's problem with the DCs, and they didn't, y'know, burn up in a fiery traffic accident or something, but we don't actually know because, as is normal, we found out by looking at our invoices, and not because anyone at Diamond, y'know, told us.
I'll have the shipping list up on tomorrow (or probably Monday), but in the meantime I want your input of how to deal with this operationally.
As I see it, I have 3 options: 1) Fill the subs to the degree that I can. We have (I think) 42 preorders for CIVIL WAR #6, and we're getting 14 copies. I can possibly FIFO the order with which people signed up, or I can give them in the order that people arrive, or I can do what I did with JUSTICE #9 last week and just fill in alpha-order (skipping the staff, skipping anyone w/o current paperwork, and anyone with a week+ of holds on file). Ken Valentin did not like this method last week.
2) Skip the subs entirely, and just make it first-come/first-served to the first 14 people who walk in the door. However, subscribers have signed a legal binding contract to purchase the book from me, many as much as 19 weeks in advance (CW #6 is very late), so this is a crummy plan in terms of risk/reward.
3) Say "fuck it" and just not sell ANYONE the book until I can sell it to EVERYONE. The problem with this concept is that we have 3 other stores in a mile of us. 6 in 2 miles. Now, everyone in the City of San Francisco will be out by, say, 1 PM, and, in a scenerio #2, I can only help 14 people any way, but I'm not so sure that I want to tell the first 2 hours of New Comics Day trade (they being the hardcorest of the hardcore) to go to another store.
What do you think?
Additionally, I want to strongly urge all Blog Critics reading this to please NOT review CIVIL WAR #6 for a week -- at least 1/3 of the country isn't going to be able to read it this week (and all of Australia... they're served from the LA warehouse), and saying anything that could be remotely read as a spoiler is really just Dirty Pool.
-B
