This is what the store looks like RIGHT NOW
/No, seriously!
Stay tuned!
-B
This is what the store looks like right now...
/(check back in a few hours!)
New Tilting is up!
/Comic Book Resources has it, as always. Feel free to use this comments section to discuss it, if you like.
-B
One thing I'd like to say, that most of you probably can safely ignore
/Generally speaking when there's a business model that is about one party introducing another to a third, say... Matchmaking, or Headhunting or things like that, that facilitation nets hundreds if not thousands of dollars per client. The starting price in the digital model offered at the moment seems to be something like 15 cents.
I can't see how any retailer, in any industry, under any model could possibly accept any deal where they didn't keep proprietary control of data/customer/whatever. It sure as heck didn't work when Borders handed all of their business off over to Amazon for fulfillment. How long does it take the customer to think "but, wait, why do I need Borders in this transaction in the first place?" Sure, there is going to be some teeny tiny percentage of people who will reward you for a prior loyal relationship, but that's not a realistically tenable business model for the future, right?
It's weird, there's this large part of me which would love to embrace digital comics with both arms -- I think it would be a perfect fit for this website, in particular, under certain conditions, but those do not appear to be the circumstances we're actually being asked to live with.
Working retail is as much about curation, and knowledge about, and core enthusiasm FOR the product as it is about having the selection of product in the first place. And I think there's value in that, true value. I would, of course!
-B
Craig Thompson @ CE on 9/28
/It's a mid-afternoon signing (from 2-4), but we're shuddering with glee that we've got Craig Thompson coming to sign Habibi on September 28. You can find more information here!
Hope to see you there!
-B
New Comix Experience website!
/In other news, we've completed a refresh of the Comix Experience website, which was pretty long overdue, I hate to say. In addition to it just looking visually fresher, there's a fair chunk of new content on the site for you to examine -- in super-particular I've put up an additional 26 Tilting at Windmills, and you can also find a scan of the ultra-rare Comix Experience 5th anniversary magazine, yay!
Spend a few minutes tooling around, let me know what you think?
Much love to my Mom, who did the rebuild! THANKS MOM!
-B
New Tilting is up
/You can find it at CBR, by clicking this link. If you don't like to post over there, you have the option of posting comments here.
-B
Two free passes to SDCC!
/Yeah, I know it's pretty last minute, but I have two FREE *four-day* passes to the San Diego Comic-Con. We've got a raffle box in the store for these and today through Thursday July 14 we'll be collecting names of people who would like to receive these tickets. We'll pull a winner on Friday 7/15.
No purchase necessary, natch, but you need to physically come into the store to enter -- no email, calls, tweets, semaphore, or, really, anything other than walking into the store and saying "enter ME!"
Good luck!
-B
Comix Experience Best Sellers: Comics, first half of 2011
/I'm looking at my half-year performance, so you can too!
Actually, before I get into the comics, let's do the big overview. First: sales down for the half by 2.1%, versus same period in 2010. *sad face*
As is pretty usual, if I kept cheap stuff in the charts, it would totally dominate. Here's the Top Ten in Pieces, including Everything:
| 1 | Quarter Book - Single |
| 2 | Dollar Book |
| 3 | Sale Book |
| 4 | Back Issue |
| 5 | FEAR ITSELF #1 (OF 7) |
| 6 | BATMAN INCORPORATED #3 |
| 7 | BATMAN INCORPORATED #4 |
| 8 | Starter Set |
| 9 | BATMAN INCORPORATED #6 |
| 10 | BUFFY VAMPIRE SLAYER #40 LAST GLEAMING PT 5 (OF 5) |
Dang, look how all of the cheapies outsell everything else!
So, let's remove those cheapies from consideration, and ONLY look at comics right now. Here's the Top 100 in units sold:
| 1 | FEAR ITSELF #1 (OF 7) |
| 2 | BATMAN INCORPORATED #3 |
| 3 | BATMAN INCORPORATED #4 |
| 4 | BATMAN INCORPORATED #6 |
| 5 | BUFFY VAMPIRE SLAYER #40 LAST GLEAMING PT 5 (OF 5) |
| FEAR ITSELF #2 (OF 7) | |
| FLASHPOINT #1 | |
| 8 | XOMBI #1 |
| 9 | BATMAN INCORPORATED #5 |
| 10 | FF #1 |
| KICK-ASS 2 #2 | |
| WALKING DEAD #82 | |
| WALKING DEAD #83 | |
| WALKING DEAD #85 | |
| 15 | FEAR ITSELF #3 (OF 7) |
| 16 | FANTASTIC FOUR #587 |
| 17 | WALKING DEAD #80 |
| 18 | WALKING DEAD #81 |
| WALKING DEAD #84 | |
| 20 | BATMAN AND ROBIN #19 |
| CRIMINAL LAST OF INNOCENT #1 (OF 4) | |
| 22 | BATMAN INCORPORATED #2 |
| GREEN LANTERN #64 | |
| 24 | ASTONISHING X-MEN #36 |
| BRIGHTEST DAY #20 | |
| BRIGHTEST DAY #21 | |
| INCOGNITO BAD INFLUENCES #4 | |
| 28 | BATMAN AND ROBIN #20 |
| BRIGHTEST DAY #19 | |
| BRIGHTEST DAY #24 | |
| FF #2 | |
| FLASHPOINT #2 | |
| HELLBOY SLEEPING & DEAD #2 (OF 2) | |
| INCOGNITO BAD INFLUENCES #3 | |
| XOMBI #2 | |
| 36 | FABLES #101 |
| FABLES #102 | |
| UNCANNY X-MEN #534 POINT ONE | |
| 39 | BATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT #2 |
| BRIGHTEST DAY #17 | |
| BRIGHTEST DAY #18 | |
| BRIGHTEST DAY #22 | |
| BRIGHTEST DAY #23 | |
| FABLES #103 | |
| FF #3 | |
| GARTH ENNIS JENNIFER BLOOD #1 | |
| INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #500 | |
| JOE THE BARBARIAN #8 (OF 8) | |
| UNCANNY X-MEN #533 | |
| 50 | AVENGERS #10 |
| AVENGERS #11 | |
| BATMAN AND ROBIN #22 | |
| BPRD HELL ON EARTH GODS #1 (OF 3) | |
| FANTASTIC FOUR #588 THREE | |
| FF #4 | |
| GARTH ENNIS JENNIFER BLOOD #2 | |
| GREEN LANTERN #63 | |
| SCARLET #4 | |
| ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN #160 DOSM | |
| 60 | ALAN MOORE NEONOMICON #4 (OF 4) |
| AVENGERS #9 | |
| FABLES #104 | |
| UNCANNY X-MEN #534 | |
| 64 | AVENGERS #12 |
| FEAR ITSELF BOOK OF THE SKULL #1 | |
| NEW AVENGERS #9 | |
| SCARLET #5 | |
| SECRET AVENGERS #10 | |
| SECRET AVENGERS #9 | |
| UNCANNY X-MEN #532 | |
| WITCHFINDER LOST & GONE FOREVER #1 (OF 5) | |
| XOMBI #3 | |
| 73 | AVENGERS #12 POINT ONE |
| BATMAN #706 | |
| BATMAN AND ROBIN #21 | |
| CAPTAIN AMERICA #615 | |
| HELLBOY BEING HUMAN ONE SHOT | |
| HELLBOY BUSTER OAKLEY GETS HIS WISH | |
| NEW AVENGERS #8 | |
| UNCANNY X-MEN #535 | |
| UNCANNY X-MEN #536 | |
| 82 | AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #654.1 |
| AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #656 BIG | |
| AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #657 BIG | |
| AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #658 BIG | |
| BATMAN #707 | |
| BOYS #51 | |
| BOYS #52 | |
| BPRD HELL ON EARTH GODS #2 (OF 3) | |
| CAPTAIN AMERICA #615 POINT ONE | |
| DETECTIVE COMICS #873 | |
| GARTH ENNIS JENNIFER BLOOD #3 | |
| GREEN LANTERN #62 | |
| INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #501 | |
| SUPERIOR #4 (OF 6) | |
| AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #659 BIG | |
| 97 | BATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT #1 |
| BOYS #50 | |
| BOYS #53 | |
| CAPTAIN AMERICA #614 | |
| FABLES #105 | |
| INCOGNITO BAD INFLUENCES #2 | |
| INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #503 FEAR | |
| UNWRITTEN #21 | |
| UNWRITTEN #23 |
And, here's the Top 100, in dollars sold (close, but not the same):
| 1 | FEAR ITSELF #1 (OF 7) |
| 2 | FLASHPOINT #1 |
| 3 | FEAR ITSELF #2 (OF 7) |
| 4 | FF #1 |
| 5 | BRIGHTEST DAY #24 |
| 6 | FEAR ITSELF #3 (OF 7) |
| 7 | BATMAN INCORPORATED #4 |
| 8 | BATMAN INCORPORATED #6 |
| 9 | FANTASTIC FOUR #587 |
| 10 | BUFFY VAMPIRE SLAYER #40 LAST GLEAMING PT 5 (OF 5) |
| 11 | BATMAN INCORPORATED #3 |
| 12 | ACTION COMICS #900 |
| 13 | DARK HORSE PRESENTS #1 PAUL CHADWICK CVR |
| 14 | BATMAN INCORPORATED #2 |
| 15 | XOMBI #1 |
| 16 | INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #500 |
| 17 | BATMAN INCORPORATED #5 |
| 18 | FLASHPOINT #2 |
| 19 | ASTONISHING X-MEN #36 |
| 20 | STRANGE ADVENTURES #1 |
| 21 | KICK-ASS 2 #2 |
| 22 | CRIMINAL LAST OF INNOCENT #1 (OF 4) |
| 23 | GARTH ENNIS JENNIFER BLOOD #1 |
| 24 | WALKING DEAD #83 |
| 25 | GARTH ENNIS JENNIFER BLOOD #2 |
| 26 | ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN #160 DOSM |
| 27 | JOE THE BARBARIAN #8 (OF 8) |
| 28 | CAPTAIN AMERICA #616 |
| 29 | FANTASTIC FOUR #588 THREE |
| 30 | WALKING DEAD #85 |
| 31 | SCARLET #4 |
| 32 | ALAN MOORE NEONOMICON #4 (OF 4) |
| AVENGERS #9 | |
| 34 | WALKING DEAD #82 |
| 35 | INCOGNITO BAD INFLUENCES #3 |
| 36 | WALKING DEAD #80 |
| 37 | FEAR ITSELF BOOK OF THE SKULL #1 |
| UNCANNY X-MEN #532 | |
| 39 | SCARLET #5 |
| 40 | WALKING DEAD #81 |
| WALKING DEAD #84 | |
| 42 | UNCANNY X-MEN #534 |
| UNCANNY X-MEN #535 | |
| 44 | LEGION OF SUPER HEROES ANNUAL #1 |
| 45 | AVENGERS #10 |
| UNCANNY X-MEN #536 | |
| 47 | GREEN LANTERN #64 |
| 48 | GARTH ENNIS JENNIFER BLOOD #3 |
| 49 | BPRD HELL ON EARTH GODS #1 (OF 3) |
| 50 | AVENGERS #12 |
| 51 | BOYS #52 |
| UNCANNY X-MEN #533 | |
| 53 | BATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT #1 |
| 54 | CAPTAIN AMERICA #615 |
| 55 | INCOGNITO BAD INFLUENCES #4 |
| 56 | BRIGHTEST DAY #21 |
| 57 | BOYS #51 |
| BOYS #53 | |
| 59 | HATE ANNUAL #9 |
| 60 | INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #501 |
| 61 | SECRET AVENGERS #10 |
| 62 | BRIGHTEST DAY #20 |
| 63 | CAPTAIN AMERICA #614 |
| 64 | AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #659 BIG |
| BOYS #50 | |
| BOYS #54 | |
| 67 | HELLBOY SLEEPING & DEAD #2 (OF 2) |
| 68 | SECRET AVENGERS #9 |
| 69 | FABLES #101 |
| FABLES #102 | |
| 71 | UNCANNY X-MEN #534 POINT ONE |
| 72 | FF #2 |
| XOMBI #2 | |
| 74 | HELLBOY BUSTER OAKLEY GETS HIS WISH |
| 75 | BATMAN AND ROBIN #20 |
| 76 | HELLBOY BEING HUMAN ONE SHOT |
| 77 | AVENGERS #13 FEAR |
| MOON KNIGHT #1 | |
| 79 | BATMAN AND ROBIN #19 |
| BATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT #2 | |
| BRIGHTEST DAY #19 | |
| BRIGHTEST DAY #22 | |
| BRIGHTEST DAY #23 | |
| FABLES #103 | |
| 85 | UNCANNY X-MEN #537 |
| 86 | BPRD HELL ON EARTH GODS #2 (OF 3) |
| 87 | AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #653 BIG |
| AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #655 BIG | |
| 89 | FF #3 |
| 90 | BRIGHTEST DAY #17 |
| BRIGHTEST DAY #18 | |
| 92 | ASTONISHING X-MEN #37 |
| AVENGERS #11 | |
| BOYS #55 | |
| 95 | GREEN LANTERN #63 |
| 96 | FF #4 |
| 97 | AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #652 BIG |
| AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #654 BIG | |
| AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #656 BIG | |
| AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #658 BIG |
Overall, I'd say it's been an ugly-ish six months for periodical comics. Anything interesting stand out for you?
-B
Comix Experience Best Sellers: Books, first half of 2011
/Same thing as previous, but looking at things that have a spine. Once again, knocking out "sale books" as an entry, because that would be number one, by far.
Here it is in pieces:
| 1 | Comic Book Guide to Mission |
| 2 | WALKING DEAD TP VOL 14 NO WAY OUT |
| 3 | CHEW TP VOL 03 JUST DESSERTS |
| FABLES TP VOL 15 ROSE RED | |
| WALKING DEAD TP VOL 01 DAYS GONE BYE | |
| WALKING DEAD TP VOL 13 TOO FAR GONE | |
| 7 | DAN CLOWES MISTER WONDERFUL LOVE STORY TP |
| 8 | CHEW TP VOL 01 |
| WALKING DEAD TP VOL 02 MILES BEHIND US | |
| 10 | FABLES TP VOL 01 LEGENDS IN EXILE (APR058372) |
| SCENES FROM AN IMPENDING MARRIAGE HC | |
| SCOTT PILGRIM GN VOL 01 PRECIOUS LITTLE LIFE | |
| 13 | BLACK HOLE COLLECTED SC NEW PTG |
| CHEW TP VOL 02 INTERNATIONAL FLAVOR | |
| FABLES TP VOL 14 WITCHES | |
| 16 | ASTERIOS POLYP GN |
| 17 | BOYS TP VOL 08 HIGHLAND LADDIE |
| DAYTRIPPER TP | |
| DMZ TP VOL 09 MIA | |
| INCOGNITO TP | |
| PLANETARY TP BOOK 04 SPACETIME ARCHAEOLOGY | |
| WALKING DEAD TP VOL 12 LIFE AMONG THEM | |
| 23 | AMAZING SCREW ON HEAD & OTHER CURIOUS OBJECTS HC |
| BATMAN DARK KNIGHT RETURNS TP (DEC058055) | |
| FINDER GN VOL 01 VOICE | |
| FREAKANGELS TP VOL 05 | |
| LOEG VOL ONE TP (JUL068290) | |
| MORNING GLORIES TP VOL 01 FOR A BETTER FUTURE | |
| PAYING FOR IT HC | |
| 30 | BATMAN THE RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE DELUXE ED HC |
| BLACKSAD HC VOL 01 | |
| DMZ TP VOL 10 COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT | |
| FABLES TP VOL 02 ANIMAL FARM (MAR058123) | |
| ORC STAIN TP VOL 01 | |
| WALKING DEAD TP VOL 11 FEAR THE HUNTERS | |
| WARREN ELLIS CROOKED LITTLE VEIN MMPB | |
| Y THE LAST MAN TP VOL 01 UNMANNED | |
| 38 | ALL OVER COFFEE v2: EVERYTHING IS ITS OWN REWARD |
| BLACK DYNAMITE SLAVE ISLAND GN | |
| BTVS SEASON 8 TP VOL 07 TWILIGHT | |
| DMZ TP VOL 01 ON THE GROUND (MAR060383) (MR) | |
| GETTING CLOSE | |
| SANDMAN TP VOL 02 THE DOLLS HOUSE NEW ED | |
| SCOTT PILGRIM GN VOL 02 VS THE WORLD | |
| TRANSMETROPOLITAN TP VOL 01 BACK ON THE STREET | |
| UNWRITTEN TP VOL 03 DEAD MANS KNOCK | |
| V FOR VENDETTA NEW EDITION TP (MR) | |
| WALKING DEAD TP VOL 09 HERE WE REMAIN | |
| WALKING DEAD TP VOL 10 WHAT WE BECOME | |
| Y THE LAST MAN TP VOL 05 RING OF TRUTH (MAY050306) (MR) | |
| Y THE LAST MAN TP VOL 06 GIRL ON GIRL (SEP050317) (MR) | |
| Y THE LAST MAN TP VOL 09 MOTHERLAND (FEB070362) (MR) | |
| Y THE LAST MAN TP VOL 10 WHYS AND WHEREFORES (MAR080241) (MR | |
| 54 | AXE COP TP VOL 01 |
| BATMAN AND ROBIN TP VOL 01 BATMAN REBORN | |
| CRIMINAL TP VOL 01 COWARD (MR) | |
| DELIRIUMS PARTY A LITTLE ENDLESS STORYBOOK HC | |
| ISLE OF 100000 GRAVES HC | |
| JACK OF FABLES TP VOL 08 THE FULMINATE BLADE TP | |
| LOEG III CENTURY #1 1910 | |
| LOVE FROM THE SHADOWS HC | |
| SCALPED TP VOL 07 REZ BLUES | |
| WALKING DEAD TP VOL 03 SAFETY BEHIND BARS (NEW PTG) (MR) | |
| WALKING DEAD TP VOL 05 BEST DEFENSE | |
| WATCHMEN TP | |
| Y THE LAST MAN TP VOL 07 PAPER DOLLS (FEB060341) (MR) | |
| Y THE LAST MAN TP VOL 08 KIMONO DRAGONS (AUG060299) (MR) | |
| 68 | ALL STAR SUPERMAN TP VOL 01 |
| ALL STAR SUPERMAN TP VOL 02 | |
| BATMAN THE KILLING JOKE SPECIAL ED HC | |
| CASANOVA TP LUXURIA VOL 01 | |
| CLUMSY GN | |
| HELLBLAZER TP VOL 01 ORIGINAL SINS NEW ED | |
| IRREDEEMABLE TP VOL 01 | |
| PREACHER TP VOL 04 ANCIENT HISTORY NEW EDITION (MAY050299) ( | |
| R CRUMBS HEROES OF BLUES JAZZ & COUNTRY WITH CD HC | |
| SANDMAN TP VOL 01 PRELUDES & NOCTURNES NEW ED | |
| SHOWCASE PRESENTS THE WITCHING HOUR TP VOL 01 | |
| SUPERMAN RED SON TP (NOV058130) | |
| SWEET TOOTH TP VOL 02 IN CAPTIVITY | |
| WALKING DEAD TP VOL 04 HEARTS DESIRE | |
| WALKING DEAD TP VOL 06 SORROWFUL LIFE | |
| 83 | BTVS SEASON 8 TP VOL 01 LONG WAY HOME NEW PTG |
| BTVS SEASON 8 TP VOL 06 RETREAT | |
| BTVS SEASON 8 TP VOL 08 LAST GLEAMING | |
| BULLETPROOF COFFIN TP | |
| CAT GETTING OUT OF A BAG HC | |
| CROSSED 3D GN VOL 01 | |
| DRINKING AT THE MOVIES SC | |
| ELEPHANTMEN TP VOL 01 WOUNDED ANIMALS REVISED ED | |
| FABLES TP VOL 03 STORYBOOK LOVE (MAY068085) (MR) | |
| FINDER LIBRARY TP VOL 01 | |
| HOUSE OF MYSTERY TP VOL 05 UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT | |
| KOKO BE GOOD GN | |
| MOUSE GUARD TP FALL 1152 (JAN083948) | |
| NEMESIS PREM HC | |
| PLANETARY TP VOL 01 ALL OVER THE WORLD AND OTHER STORIES | |
| PLANETARY TP VOL 02 THE FOURTH MAN | |
| PREACHER TP VOL 01 GONE TO TEXAS NEW EDITION (MAR050489) (MR | |
| PREACHER TP VOL 05 DIXIE FRIED NEW EDITION (JUL050315) (MR) | |
| PROMETHEA TP BOOK 01 (APR068028) | |
| PROMETHEA TP BOOK 02 (MAR068220) | |
| SWAMP THING TP VOL 01 SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING | |
| TALES OF A HIPPY KID TP | |
| TRANSMETROPOLITAN TP VOL 02 LUST FOR LIFE NEW ED (MR) | |
| UMBRELLA ACADEMY TP VOL 01 APOCALYPSE SUITE NEW PTG |
And the same thing sorted in dollars:
| 1 | Comic Book Guide to Mission |
| 2 | FABLES TP VOL 15 ROSE RED |
| 3 | ASTERIOS POLYP GN |
| 4 | DAN CLOWES MISTER WONDERFUL LOVE STORY TP |
| 5 | WALKING DEAD TP VOL 13 TOO FAR GONE |
| 6 | WALKING DEAD TP VOL 14 NO WAY OUT |
| 7 | BLACKSAD HC VOL 01 |
| 8 | BATMAN THE RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE DELUXE ED HC |
| 9 | CHEW TP VOL 03 JUST DESSERTS |
| 10 | BLACK HOLE COLLECTED SC NEW PTG |
| 11 | PAYING FOR IT HC |
| 12 | FABLES TP VOL 14 WITCHES |
| 13 | ALL OVER COFFEE v2: EVERYTHING IS ITS OWN REWARD |
| 14 | WALKING DEAD TP VOL 02 MILES BEHIND US |
| 15 | DAYTRIPPER TP |
| 16 | INCOGNITO TP |
| 17 | BOYS TP VOL 08 HIGHLAND LADDIE |
| FREAKANGELS TP VOL 05 | |
| 19 | WALKING DEAD TP VOL 01 DAYS GONE BYE |
| 20 | PLANETARY TP BOOK 04 SPACETIME ARCHAEOLOGY |
| 21 | FINDER GN VOL 01 VOICE |
| 22 | AMAZING SCREW ON HEAD & OTHER CURIOUS OBJECTS HC |
| 23 | FABLES TP VOL 01 LEGENDS IN EXILE (APR058372) |
| 24 | CHEW TP VOL 02 INTERNATIONAL FLAVOR |
| 25 | WALKING DEAD COMPENDIUM TP VOL 01 |
| 26 | ORC STAIN TP VOL 01 |
| 27 | WALKING DEAD TP VOL 12 LIFE AMONG THEM |
| 28 | SCOTT PILGRIM GN VOL 01 PRECIOUS LITTLE LIFE |
| 29 | STARSTRUCK HC DLX ED |
| 30 | FROM HELL TP |
| 31 | DMZ TP VOL 09 MIA |
| 32 | SANDMAN TP VOL 02 THE DOLLS HOUSE NEW ED |
| V FOR VENDETTA NEW EDITION TP (MR) | |
| 34 | BATMAN DARK KNIGHT RETURNS TP (DEC058055) |
| 35 | PREACHER HC BOOK 01 |
| 36 | LOVE FROM THE SHADOWS HC |
| 37 | CHEW TP VOL 01 |
| 38 | LOEG VOL ONE TP (JUL068290) |
| 39 | BTVS SEASON 8 TP VOL 07 TWILIGHT |
| 40 | WATCHMEN TP |
| 41 | CAPTAIN AMERICA LIVES OMNIBUS HC |
| 42 | CREEPY ARCHIVES HC VOL 01 NEW PTG |
| 43 | BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER TALES HC |
| WOLVERINE OLD MAN LOGAN TP | |
| 45 | Y THE LAST MAN DELUXE EDITION HC VOL 01 |
| 46 | WALKING DEAD TP VOL 11 FEAR THE HUNTERS |
| 47 | SCENES FROM AN IMPENDING MARRIAGE HC |
| 48 | SCALPED TP VOL 07 REZ BLUES |
| 49 | Y THE LAST MAN TP VOL 01 UNMANNED |
| 50 | R CRUMBS HEROES OF BLUES JAZZ & COUNTRY WITH CD HC |
| 51 | DMZ TP VOL 10 COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT |
| 52 | FABULOUS FURRY FREAK BROTHERS OMNIBUS TP |
| 53 | WALKING DEAD HC VOL 02 NEW PTG |
| X-NECROSHA TP | |
| 55 | FINDER LIBRARY TP VOL 01 |
| 56 | WARREN ELLIS CROOKED LITTLE VEIN MMPB |
| 57 | TRANSMETROPOLITAN TP VOL 01 BACK ON THE STREET |
| UNWRITTEN TP VOL 03 DEAD MANS KNOCK | |
| WALKING DEAD TP VOL 09 HERE WE REMAIN | |
| WALKING DEAD TP VOL 10 WHAT WE BECOME | |
| Y THE LAST MAN TP VOL 05 RING OF TRUTH (MAY050306) (MR) | |
| Y THE LAST MAN TP VOL 09 MOTHERLAND (FEB070362) (MR) | |
| Y THE LAST MAN TP VOL 10 WHYS AND WHEREFORES (MAR080241) (MR | |
| 64 | SHOWCASE PRESENTS THE WITCHING HOUR TP VOL 01 |
| 65 | SANDMAN TP VOL 01 PRELUDES & NOCTURNES NEW ED |
| 66 | FABLES TP VOL 02 ANIMAL FARM (MAR058123) |
| 67 | BATMAN THE KILLING JOKE SPECIAL ED HC |
| SUPERMAN RED SON TP (NOV058130) | |
| 69 | CAPTAIN AMERICA WINTER SOLDIER ULTIMATE COLLECTION TP |
| GRANT MORRISON 18 DAYS | |
| HOW TO UNDERSTAND ISRAEL IN 60 DAYS OR LESS HC | |
| MARIJUANAMAN HC | |
| POWERS TP VOL 13 Z | |
| RICHARD STARKS PARKER THE OUTFIT HC | |
| 75 | ALEXANDRO JODOROWSKY SCREAMING PLANET HC |
| 76 | TEZUKA AYAKO GN |
| 77 | HELLBLAZER TP VOL 01 ORIGINAL SINS NEW ED |
| 78 | BLOOM COUNTY COMPLETE LIBRARY HC VOL 04 |
| 79 | AKIRA KODANSHA ED GN VOL 06 |
| JOHN CARTER OF MARS WARLOARD OF MARS TP | |
| 81 | ELEPHANTMEN TP VOL 01 WOUNDED ANIMALS REVISED ED |
| NEMESIS PREM HC | |
| SWAMP THING TP VOL 01 SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING | |
| 84 | AXE COP TP VOL 01 |
| BATMAN AND ROBIN TP VOL 01 BATMAN REBORN | |
| CRIMINAL TP VOL 01 COWARD (MR) | |
| DELIRIUMS PARTY A LITTLE ENDLESS STORYBOOK HC | |
| JACK OF FABLES TP VOL 08 THE FULMINATE BLADE TP | |
| WALKING DEAD TP VOL 03 SAFETY BEHIND BARS (NEW PTG) (MR) | |
| WALKING DEAD TP VOL 05 BEST DEFENSE | |
| Y THE LAST MAN TP VOL 07 PAPER DOLLS (FEB060341) (MR) | |
| Y THE LAST MAN TP VOL 08 KIMONO DRAGONS (AUG060299) (MR) | |
| 93 | HORROR THE HORROR COMICS GOVERNMENT DIDNT WANT YOU READ |
| 94 | ACME NOVELTY LIBRARY HC #20 |
| 95 | Y THE LAST MAN TP VOL 06 GIRL ON GIRL (SEP050317) (MR) |
| 96 | WALKING DEAD HC VOL 01 NEW PTG |
| 97 | LOGICOMIX GN |
| TRICKSTER NATIVE AMERICAN TALES GN ANTHOLOGY | |
| 99 | KOKO BE GOOD GN |
| 100 | ISLE OF 100000 GRAVES HC |
Like usual, I look at these lists and think "Well, yes, there's a comic shop I'd like to shop at!"
Thankfully. It would suck to work at a shitty comics store, hah!
Anything you see or think?
-B
"Don't Fuck With the POS", and other thoughts on 6/29 by Hibbs
/Retailing story first, then into some reviews...
So, I'm in the back of the store yesterday, pulling the subs, but I can hear what's going on the floor just fine. I hear Matt greet someone, then, in a shockingly short time -- like within a minute -- something escalates to screaming. "You're trying to rip me off!" and things like that. I give Matt a few minutes to try and sort it out, but he's not able to calm the guy down.
So, I saunter out, "Hello, I'm the owner, what seems to be the trouble here?"
Older gentlemen, probably in his 50s, with a teenager with him. He's gone straight to apoplectic, which is generally a sign that someone is lying to you before they even start, but let's listen to his story.
"I was trying to explain to this guy," the guy launches in, "that I was here a week or so ago to buy MICE TEMPLAR volume 2.1 for my son, and your store sold me THIS instead!" He thrusts a copy of MICE TEMPLAR v1 in HC in my hand. "And now he won't exchange it!"
"Hm, I see," I say, "do you have your receipt with you?"
"NO! I already told him, I lost the receipt. Your store sold me the wrong book!"
"Can you tell me who sold it to you, sir?"
"It was a guy with black hair, and he was wearing a hat."
"Interesting, because me and Matt are the only two people working here in the last few weeks, and our other employees are both women." (Matt and I are both light haired, and don't wear hats, BTW)
"Well, it must have been that guy!" he said, pointing to Matt. I feel if you're going to accuse someone of chicanery, you should at least have a clue as to who you are accusing.
"Hm, OK, give me a second, and let's look at the records. We're computerized, shouldn't take a moment. Hm, hm, well, I have a record of someone buying a copy of v2.1 on 6/18 from Matt."
"Yes, that was when it was, but he sold me this one instead!"
(After the guy leaves, Matt tells me that he remembers the first encounter, and how the customer and he had had a conversation about what if the man has bought the wrong copy for his son? Keep the receipt, Matt says he said, and we can exchange, of course. This is SOP at the store, and I thoroughly believe that Matt had that conversation with the guy.)
"We haven't sold a copy of v1 in HC since... looks like 2008."
"Anyway," I go on, "it doesn't seem likely that you thought you were buying a paperback of volume 2.1, but were sold a HC of v1. Didn't you notice?"
"No! That's what I'm saying! You're cheating me!"
"Well, sir, that really isn't possible. The computer reads the barcode..."
"It must have read it wrong!"
"That's really not possible, sir..."
"Well, that's what happened!"
"Really, sir, it couldn't have. Look, let's test it now." I scan the HC he is "returning" -- it scans as v1 HC. I scan a TP of 2.1, it scans as a TP of 2.1. "So, you see sir, what you're describing really isn't possible. Now, if you can find the receipt..."
"FINE!" he yells, throwing down the HC, "You just keep this one, and I'm NEVER SHOPPING HERE EVER AGAIN!"
"Fine by me!" I tell his back. I have little patience for liars.
What's funny is that if someone came in, without a receipt, saying they'd bought the wrong book, I'd generally be cool enough to swap it out -- there's nothing wrong with customer service; but to try and trick us with a completely different book that we haven't sold a copy of in THREE years? Man, I don't think so. When someone gets THAT angry, THAT fast, it's usually a good sign they're lying.
The open question is what was going on here: did he somehow have a second copy of v1, and thought he could get an easy 2.2 in exchange for it? What's weirdest is that in looking at our record for the HC of v1, it showed up on a periodic "haven't sold in a year" report that I ran in early May. On 5/13, I wasn't able to find the copy as I trolled the racks pulling off dead stock, so I noted that in the computer with a "Biffed out previously?" note, since, really, it should have been dealt with in 2010, at the latest (though I seldom make it all the way through the biffage list before I fill up the bins, and boxes in the back room)
ANYway, what I'm thinking NOW is that either he or his son STOLE the HC some time before 5/13/11, bought that 2.1 on 6/18, then thought they'd trade the stolen book for 2.2 yesterday. Can't prove if that's right or not, but it feels correct to me.
Either way, if you're trying to take the moral high ground when you storm out, leaving the business you are storming out of the book that you claim they sold you under false pretenses? Not exactly a "punishment", really.
Really though, the point is, don't fuck with the POS -- I can track, with a pretty insane level of accuracy, everything that I've EVER sold since 2007!
***
Comics you say? Sure, here's some!
WALKING DEAD #86: In a weird way, WALKING DEAD has entered this strange place where since it is so consistently good month-after-month, there's really very little need to chime in and say "Hey, another great issue!" USAGI YOJIMBO is like that, too, and I often feel bad that that book doesn't get more attention, too.
Anyway, this blog used to tweak Robert Kirkman a LOT about timeliness, and it's good to every once in a while jump back in and give an "attaboy!" for staying on schedule. WD isn't *quite* clockwork-same-week-of-every month, but it HAS been no-more-than-five-weeks-between-issues for the last FIFTEEN months, which is pretty damn good, especially for an Image book.
(I HAVE to note here that IMAGE UNITED? Issue #4 is now FOURTEEN months late, as of today -- and that's after EIGHT MONTHS between issues 2 & 3)
The other thing Kirkman is doing is using the power of HIS book, to promote OTHER books, and here with #86, he hits a Grand Slam, including the entire (COLOR) 32 pages of ELEPHANTMEN #1 -- which means he had to pay color prices even for his B&W WD pages... making this issue a giant 52 pages, half in color, for the same regular $2.99.
My only "negative" note on that, would be "might be a good idea to LET RETAILERS KNOW" when you do something like that, so they might have extra stock on hand to capitalize on it." Sadly, with the way that reorders work, if I place orders for something TODAY, it won't arrive here for thirteen more days.
Anyway, "another great issue!" VERY GOOD.
AVENGERS: CHILDREN'S CRUSADE #6: I'm not really sure when exactly this stopped having pretty much anything to do with YOUNG AVENGERS per se, and moved to trying to undo HOUSE OF M. I dunno, I want to like this because I really like the YA characters, and I guess seeing two of them getting back with mom is fun, and I absolutely adore Jim Cheung's art on this... but I'm bored to tears reading about the Scarlet Witch's "redemption". This is one of the few cases where leaving the character in limbo might have been a better thing. Very EH.
THUNDER AGENTS #8: I think this book suffers pretty badly from pacing problems -- just when there's a little forward momentum in this story, the issue suddenly ends. Plus the Dan Panosian art was pretty plain.
But what really prompted me to say something was the cover blurb.
Blurbed from "weeklycomicbookreview.com" it says ""IF YOU HAVEN'T JUMPED ON YET, NOW'S THE TIME."
Yes! Jump on now! Two Issues before the book gets Cancelled! Gooood Call!
(You know, to the best of my knowledge, after ten years of reviewing comics on the internet, Savage Critic has NEVER been cover blurbed on anything? Isn't that weird?)
Anyway: a very EH comic.
That's it for me this week, I think.
As always, what did YOU think?
-B
Wait, What? Ep. 44: Our Man in Havana
/
Yes, it's episode 44 of the podcast but it's also a first for Graeme and me -- as in, our first interview. As you might infer from the graphic above, there were some minor technical difficulties to be had, but we didn't let that stop us from doing the interview with....Mr. Brian Hibbs! It's something we've been meaning to do for a long time, and it seems like news of the DC reboot was the "best" time to do it.
This was recorded on Thursday, June 9, so I guess we had just about all the info from DC at that point. Mr. Hibbs walks us through his brave new world of accountability, tiered discounts, and the challenges facing comic book retailers in the coming months. It should be floating around on iTunes already, and you can also listen to it right here:
Wait, What? Ep. 44: Our Man in Havana
We hope you enjoy it, and definitely give us some feedback below if you'd like!
Tilting #203 is live
/Find it at CBR, all about how the market is likely to respond to DC's reboot plan.
I thought I was clear, but, man, already the talk back threads are filled with people who don't seem to have much reading comprehension?
Anyway, chat here, as well, if you like.
-B
Preliminary thoughts on DC's announcement
/I think the "official" one that DC wants you, the consumer to see is the US Today one, but I think that Bob Wayne's statement is probably the better one to look at. I'll reprint this below the jump...
Here's Bob Wayne (I could link you to Rich, but he doesn't need more hits):
******
A LETTER ON THE DC UNIVERSE AND SEPTEMBER 2011
To our comics retail partners,
In the time I've worked at DC Comics, I've witnessed any number of industry defining moments. But today, I bring you what is perhaps the biggest news to date.
Many of you have heard rumors that DC Comics has been working on a big publishing initiative for later this year. This is indeed an historic time for us as, come this September, we are relaunching the entire DC Universe line of comic books with all new first issues. 52 of them to be exact.
In addition, the new #1s will introduce readers to a more modern, diverse DC Universe, with some character variations in appearance, origin and age. All stories will be grounded in each character's legend - but will relate to real world situations, interactions, tragedy and triumph.
This epic event will kick off on Wednesday, August 31st with the debut of a brand new JUSTICE LEAGUE #1, which pairs Geoff Johns and Jim Lee, together for the first time. (Yes, this is the same week as FLASHPOINT #5.)
We think our current fans will be excited by this evolution, and that it will make jumping into the story extremely accessible to first-time readers - giving them a chance to discover DC's characters and stories.
We are positioning ourselves to tell the most innovative stories with our characters to allow fans to see them from a new angle. We have taken great care in maintaining continuity where most important, but fans will see a new approach to our storytelling. Some of the characters will have new origins, while others will undergo minor changes. Our characters are always being updated; however, this is the first time all of our characters will be presented in a new way all at once.
Dan DiDio, Bob Harras and Eddie Berganza have been working diligently to pull together some of the best creative teams in the industry. Over 50 new costumes will debut in September, many updated and designed by artist Jim Lee, ensuring that the updated images appeal to the current generation of readers.
The publication of JUSTICE LEAGUE #1 will also launch digital day-and-date for all ongoing superhero comic book titles - an industry first.
On Wednesday, June 1st, this initiative is expected to be announced in a nationwide feature article, and we're hopeful the news will be picked up by media outlets around the world. Throughout the month we'll reveal more details of our plans with articles in both the mainstream and comics press and on June 13th the Diamond catalog solicitations for all of the September titles will be released, followed by the June 29th street date of the print version of Previews.
DC Comics will support this initiative with an innovative mix of publicity, promotional efforts and retailer incentives designed to maximize your opportunity to increase your DC sales. We will discuss additional details of these incentives when we get closer to solicitation later in June.
We'll be updating you more through email as September nears. But today, I hope your share our enthusiasm for this historic news!
Sincerely,
Bob Wayne SVP, Sales DC Entertainment
***********
SOME of my thoughts, in chaotic and jumbled order:
1) FIFTY TWO new #1's? First off, that's insane, second off, that's FUCKING insane. Who on earth will buy all of those? The DCU is roughly 35-ish monthly ongoing titles now -- is Vertigo rebooting, too? I don't *think* it is? So they're increasing the line by 50%-ish?
2) This CAN ONLY work if we get a big wave of civvies coming in... but 13 titles a week is way way way too much for civvies. Two or three a week might maybe have been possible?
3) full line-wide day and day is potentially huge because of the ripple impact it might have. It will take very very very few current customers moving channels to have a catastrophic cascade impact along and down the chain. Maybe as little as 3-5%? If we're not netting more NEW readers (and I DO NOT MEAN "Marvel readers switching loyalty") (And see above) we're really running the risk of the entire comics market collapsing in fairly fast order -- and I'm including things that aren't superheroes.
4) this smells more like a jumping off point to me, for a lot of current readers -- especially the "super fans". I wonder what Garret thinks?
5) There was a time to do this: after the First CRISIS. Or maybe after the "Final" one. I don't think the economy/market is (at all) in the right place to absorb this right now.
6) FIFTY TWO new superhero #1s? Are there 52 strong creative teams out there? Editors who know how to shepherd a story properly? Seriously, DC hasn't shown the editorial strength to have more than 8-12 (maybe) "on all cylinders" have they? I'M NOT TRYING TO BE MEAN ON THIS -- but the consumer reality in the comics market is that readers judge this kind of initiative by the "WORST" element of it, not the BEST.
7) Fuck, they should have staggered out the launch over a few months... 1 (or 2, maybe 3) new books a week until they were up to their "right" number. I bet a LOT of people would try the "new" DC if the DCU was just 12 titles total in month #1
8) DCU Editorial, per Didio, has by and large been a cycle of events -- generally with "big beats" hitting every two-ish weeks (sometimes more frequently)... for like the last 6-7 YEARS. But here's the thing: structurally these kinds of beats can be generated because of history -- "starting over" would appear on the face to eliminate that particular crutch?
9) The last time they tried anything EVEN REMOTELY like this it was a critical failure, and largely a commercial failure. Those three words? "One. Year. Later."
10) I don't want to trade the numbering on the "legacy" titles for the short-term bounce of a #1. In 2011 THAT BOUNCE NO LONGER "STICKS". It is no more than a 2 month bounce any longer. In my secret heart, I was praying for the other way around -- that they'd go back to "old" numbering on everything -- GREEN LANTERN would be #487, or whatever it would have been.
11) Does this mean that all of the backlist on my racks will now be dead weight? If they're rebooting Superman continuity, do I want to have ANY copies whatsoever of 98% of the in print Superman backlist?
12) This part fills me with dread: "a more modern, diverse DC Universe, with some character variations in appearance, origin and age. All stories will be grounded in each character's legend - but will relate to real world situations, interactions, tragedy and triumph." DC is not Marvel, and, I think the appeal of DC over Marvel is the more fantastic nature of much of the characters/cosmology. "The New Blue Beetle will be a Filipino Transexual character" (or whatever) doesn't sound like a recipe for success to me, though.. and DC's track record on "diversity" actually succeeding with the audience is fairly poor.
13) They've done REALLY well in keeping this on the downlow, though, haven't they?
14) Following up on #11, does this imply we're going to go 6-ish month without any NEW DC backlist? Will DC be smarter about WHAT gets collected and what doesn't?
15) FIFTY-TWO new #1s? Jeebus.
16) If this hits, it *could* hit big; but if it fails, it will be catastrophic.
17) JUSTICE LEAGUE by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee sounds like something I could sell mountains of -- if it was the lead of the month. First, are the other 51 teams at that status (answer: no. Because there are not 51 other creative teams of that weight IN ALL OF COMICS), and, second, will it get lost in the other 51 books?
There's more, I'm sure -- this is pure gut reaction, without any long think behind it.. look for something more reasoned, I suspect, in the next Tilting at Windmills in about two weeks...
-B
Tilting at Windmills #202 is up
/Yeah, I skipped a month there, but hey I'm back!
Go and read it here.
Thoughts and opinions can be put here if you don't want to post on CBR
-B
Public Service Announcement
/This is not directly tied to Savage Criticing, but I figure cartooning jobs are few and far enough between for it to be good Karma for me to mention this.
In going through this week's San Francisco Bay Guardian, I espied a little blurb that said "Cartoonist wanted. The Guardian is looking for a cartoonist to take the place of the retired TROUBLETOWN. Must be: Funny. Different. Political. Have Some Local Connection. email samples to cartoons@sfbg.com. No calls, please."
If you get a gig because you saw this here, you owe me lunch!
-B
May 14: Meet MariNaomi
/Comix Experience is very pleased to have local San Francisco cartoonist MariNaomi appearing on Saturday, May 14th, from noon to 2 PM.
MariNaomi is the author of Kiss & Tell: a Romantic Resume, Ages 0 to 22, where she documents each and every romantic/sexual encounter she had until young adulthood. It is a gripping piece of work, set against the backdrop of San Francisco in the 80s and 90s.
Which means, if you're a Bay Area resident, it's even possible you're in this book -- at least one Comix Experience customer is!
Please join us on Saturday, May 14, from noon to 2 PM to celebrate this special book!
Events in mah brain!
/It is April, and we're starting this year's cycle of event storytelling. I'm fairly unconvinced this is what the audience actually and truly wants -- at best I tend to think that the market supports them because its been sooooo long since we sold comics purely on the strength of the comics that we've forgotten anything BUT events, but I guess we'll see what shakes out.
Clearly the market is reeling right now -- January and February were abysmal, and March not really that much better -- and there's a sense to me, at least, that this year's are "make or break" for the Marvel and DC universes in some fashion or another.
Not like comics will go away, of course, my big happy thought from WonderCon was that Larry Marder is still doing Beanworld, and getting paid to do so, and as long as THAT still happens, comics are just fine, thanks very much!
But that's something more to develop in a TILTING (which, huh, I should get to writing, shouldn't I?) -- this is to talk about the comics themselves.
FEAR ITSELF #1: In many many many ways, I think that the success of failure of an event can often be determined by looking at its "log line" or "elevator pitch" -- the one sentence summation of what the book is about. I'm not all that terrific at perfectly encapsulating them, for example I'm sure someone can come up with something more precise or sexy for CIVIL WAR than "Superheroes fight among themselves over liberty versus security", but that was pretty much what I used in '06, and it worked a charm, selling a bucketload of comics for me.
In the same way, DC's biggest recent hit, BLACKEST NIGHT, can be reduced to "Dead superheroes come back from the grave as murderous zombies" -- that the kind of thing people often say "Wow, cool!" to. The CLEARER the pitch, the more direct and large the sales.
FEAR ITSELF is a weird "event" comic -- I'll say straight up that I liked it pretty well. I have problems with bits of it (when don't I?): I thought the Avengers pro-Stark shilling was a bit.... strange, given the libertarian nature of some of the characters; I thought that the interactions between Thor and Odin were kind of heavy-handed; and I thought the lettering was oddly large, but all in all I liked the issue as I was reading it, and I'll even skip to the chase and say I thought it was pretty GOOD.
But I still can't log line it! Even after reading it! That's not a great situation.
I mean, I could say "An older pantheon of gods returns to kick the Asgardian's asses", I guess? But I don't think that's all there is to it, and, anyway, that sounds way too insider baseball for fan-off-the-street. Very very few people ACTUALLY care about "the Asgardians" as an abstract group, we have decades of sales information to clearly show that. And, clearly, Marvel is struggling with it as well, because THEY'VE yet to log line it themselves -- their marketing is all over the map, and not defining things in terms of story really. Even the title doesn't suggest what the story might be about.
Our first week sales were "fine" -- just a smidge above AVENGERS... but I have a hard time considering an event book a hit unless it does, say, twice, three times that. That's kind of the problem with Direct Market 2011 in a nutshell, in fact -- the bottom- and middle- sellers are no worse than flat, and even substantially up in a lot of cases, but the top-selling books have cratered to less than half of what they were 2-3 years ago. That's an ugly prospect.
I'm cool with the stock I have on hand -- worst case we'll sell out sometime right around the last issue shipping, but I *want* to have to go back for more, say, before issue #3 arrives in store.
Anyway, log-lines, yeah. That's the problem here. The comic is pretty GOOD, but I can't find the words to SELL it.
JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #622: Kieron Gillen's first issue, and also the first crossover tie-in to FEAR ITSELF, and I really REALLY liked it. If you had said "Neil Gaiman wrote this" I might have believed you. Gillen's always been strong on plotting, but this brings his prose up to a new level, and I'm anxious to see how long he can sustain this questing story with Loki as a lead. I hope it's a real long time. VERY GOOD.
FLASH #10: This is the second "prelude" issue to the upcoming Big DC event FLASHPOINT, and every problem I have with FEAR ITSELF is magnified widely for FLASHPOINT -- what the hell is it about? Well, I've figured out that the best thing to say is maybe "It's 'Age of Apocalypse' for the DC Universe", but if you don't already read comics (and lots of them), then I have to explain what AoA is, right? I guess you could also say "It's an 'Elseworlds' as an event", but same problem, right?
Comics ABOUT comics are kind of a hard sell.
The problem is compounded by the fact that FLASH has really been a dull book, to date. I *still* don't know what compelling narrative reason there was to bringing Saint Barry back in the first place, and I *like* DC's Silver Age.
What I *did* like about this issue was the *idea* of "Hot Pursuit" as being from Earth-47 (or whatever), and I'm intrigued about the rest of the heroes on what could potentially be a "no non-tech superpowers" world, but since I'm sort of expecting HP to *be* the bad-guy here, I suspect that is going to go nowhere? I also hope very very much I'm wrong, because isn't that more or less the plot of the first FLASH arc anyway?
Bottom line: There's nothing here that interests me, or, more importantly, creates more interest for FLASHPOINT, and a lot of what DC is doing this year would seem to depend on one or the other of those conditions being met? FLASH #10 was essentially EH.
BRIGHTEST DAY #23: I know that there's one more to go, and I should probably hold off until then just to see if they tie the loose ends well.... but I can't see how they can?
I guess I'm just flabbergasted that the POINT of an entire year of a series, not to mention the end of BLACKEST NIGHT seems to have been to return Swamp Thing to the DCU universe? Really? Realllllllly?
Then there's the "And what the FUCK did that have to do with a WHITE LANTERN?!?!" I mean the whole "lantern" concept seems sort of inherently more than about parochial Terran concerns, no? Or how about how this ties in with some of the other returnees most specifically Max Lord? Or how about, how do you return the Terran Earth elemental with a cat from Mars, and another one from frickin' thanagar?
Plus, Alec Holland's body? Meatless.
Plus plus, how are you returning SWAMP Thing to what's clearly meant to be a Northwestern city (like Portland or Seattle)? Meh.
I also think the cosmology, as already established in the DCU is kind of off -- Firestorm ALREADY was the Fire Elemental, and there was mm, whatsname, Niaid is it? as the Water one. I mean, those are DC comics, not Vertigo ones!
I don't know.
But, at the end of the day, I can't believe all that was leading to the return of Swamp Thing, because I'm a retailer and I know that no Swamp Thing comic NOT written by Alan Moore is going to be commercially successful within a year. So why waste all of the effort to reintroducing what, at very very very best will be a supporting character?
I thought this was pretty AWFUL.
ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN #157 and ULTIMATE AVENGERS VS NEW ULTIMATES #3: OK, now I *think* I see what they're going to do here, and it seems like they are going to kill "Spider-Man", presumably by completely crippling Peter Parker. Maybe they'll then turn Peter into the new Reed Richards of the Ultimate U, or, like "Professor P." running a team from his wheelchair or something. I guess there's some slight story potential there.
The thing is.... the thing is, as a marketing concept, they sold this entirely the wrong way. We had the postcards proclaiming "THE DEATH OF SPIDER-MAN!" on our counter for several weeks, and MANY people asked about it. "Yeah," says I, "It's in ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN". "Oh," says them, "so not the 'real' one". I'd then try to convince them that USM is actually spiffy, indeed, but you can see the eyes glaze over.
So, yeah, by marketing it like this, especially with the 3 "prequel" issues, boldly bannered and all that, they're setting up some false expectations, at best. I guess that I feel that if they had just DID it, without trying to make it a marketing "event", that it would have caught everyone by surprise, and sales could have built up from the sheer buzz and audacity of it. But, by doing it "top down" like this, I think you're not going to get the kind of audience response that the Ultimate line desperately desperately needs right now.
I quite liked the Spidey portion of these two issues (GOOD), but thought the Avengers portion was overblown, and undercooked (EH)
Yeah, that's enough out of me. What did YOU think?
-B
Happy 22nd anniversary, Comix Experience!
/My utmost gratitude to all of our wonderful customers and excellent staff for helping Comix Experience get to this, our 22nd anniversary of operation! -B
The Reason We Read Periodical Comics
/There are two kinds of special thrills that periodical comics can bring. The first is tied to world-building, in which you get a piece of a story here, and another piece there, and eventually it adds up, building into something much larger than it's parts -- this is much of the thrill of the Marvel or DC universes, and one of the reasons that every other attempt to make a "universe" usually comes crashing down: it is nearly impossible to coordinate in that particular way, and it takes a multi-year dedication to build, with titles come out in a specific way. When you try to "erect" that kind of thing, the scaffolding is usually pretty apparent, and like a magic trick, you don't want to see how it is done.
(Because, of course, DC and Marvel both stumbled into their "universes" nearly by accident -- and they grew organically from there)
Even Marvel and DC have become pretty bad a really mining this special thrill. Look at the way sales figures have flattened as they've tried to geometrically expand the search for that thrill!
But this is something that really only main-veins as a periodical experience -- because that kind of manic soap opera thrill depends AT LEAST as much on sequence and spatial-relationship-in-time as it does about content. That is to say, to create a really lousy example that doesn't actually exist, anyone can team up Spider-Man and Daredevil to fight, but only comics can have Spidey start a swing-punch in SPIDER-MAN #123, and have him finish that arc in DAREDEVIL #213. When the inter-relationships-of-titles get reprinted in book form, you're generally only getting one strand of it, so you miss out on this whole kind of meta-thingy.
I could totally explain this better, I think, but THAT thrill isn't the one I actually want to really talk about today, it's the OTHER one: the cliffhanger.
I remember vividly the first cliffhanger that REALLY stuck with me -- at the end of the first issue of the O'Neill/Cowan QUESTION #1, Vic Sage gets shot in the head at point blank range, and falls into the river, apparently dead.
Whoa!
That was a very long month, I tell you.
In #2 it turned out that because of the caliber of bullet, the angle of the shot and the shockingly cold temperature of the river, the bullet just bounced off Vic's skull, and he was able to survive. O'Neill even told a story in the letter's page of a similar real-life incident that he took as inspiration.
But when you read this in the paperback collection, where one page he plunges down, and the next he is rescued most of the cliffhanger's power is completely abrogated. It's actually a pretty flat sequence.
It's a bit like, say, watching LOST on DVD box set, and just CHEWING through the episodes -- that can be satisfying in it's own way, but losing out on the week-between-airings and the time-to-think that stems from that is missing most of the cultural weight that LOST had on the Broadcast audience.
In fact, in really terrific network-style TV, you can get some awesome impacts of this kind of thing just from commercial breaks, which, again, get often minimized on DVD. The thing TV-on-DVD has going for it (as it were) are the musical cues which can help build suspense or otherwise manipulate your emotional reaction.
Comics don't have THAT particular trick (though they have a few native ones), so it is my firm belief that the cadence of periodical versus book-format is very very different.
Once one has been doing comics enough, it's very possible to make the periodical seams vanish when something gets collceted -- what we usually refer to as "decompressed storytelling", but unless you're very careful or very very good, it's pretty easy to short change the periodical.
I'd say that, consistently, really the only cartoonist who master the comic/book split right has been Dave Sim. Especially from, say, CHURCH & STATE through to MELMOTH or so, there are little jolty cliffhangers every 20 pages in CEREBUS, so that reading the monthly was generally satisfying (and often thrilling), but when you join those together in a book, almost every one of those cliffhangers is nearly invisible within the book as a whole. Things rise and fall differently in a book.
The other guys who have started to really figure out the trick are Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard in WALKING DEAD.
Which brings us to this week's issue of WALKING DEAD #86.
There's a potenitally massive massive game changer here, just one of those moments where your jaw drops and you're all "please god say you didn't!" and "I wantwantwantwant the next issue NOW!!!!", and now you've got to live what what you saw for the next entire month.
I'm not going to spoil it, but I KNOW it is going to read differently in the paperback than it does here. Why? Because similar things in previous issues have as well -- it read one way in serialization, and in a more subdued way in the collection.
And if you're one of the (many!) "I read it in trade" people, well you're missing out on one of the best thrills of WALKING DEAD -- the wait between events, and the suspense that engenders.
(Plus, the Big Thing isn't the ONLY thing that happens this issue -- there's at least one more Pretty Big Thing [and maybe 2] that gets undersold because of the Big Thing)
Anyway, this is really WHY I read comics -- for the suspense BETWEEN issues, and this was a truly EXCELLENT example of that.
What did YOU think? (though, if you comment, any spoilery ones will be deleted by me)
-B
