Old habits, hard to yadda yadda

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The comic news, in links: Paul O'Brien looks at Marvel's September sales, while Marc-Oliver Frisch does the same for DC and the occasional indie and points out something that everyone was worried about: "Overall, the general trend at DC appears to be an overall increase of sales, achieved by an increased emphasis on the publisher's mainstream superhero line and at the expense of the Vertigo, WildStorm and Johnny DC lines." Not that everything is going well for Marvel, either, as the company lowers expectations in the wake of a drop in their Q3 earnings:

"As if that news didn’t have stockholders happy, Marvel’s projection for 2006 had them seriously depressed – the company is now scaling back its profit projections for 2006. How much? For 2005, Marvel is projecting full-year earnings to hit somewhere between $1.02 and $1.07 a share. For 2006 Marvel is projecting earnings of $0.37 to $0.52 a share. Chief among the reasons for the small projections, Marvel Chairman Morton Handel is quoted in Marvel’s report as saying 2006 will be 'a difficult year for both toys and licensing.' And that’s with the third X-Men feature film opening in May."

What Marvel need to do to make shareholders feel better, of course, is push the blame onto someone else for the drop, which is something that Alias are very, very good at:

"In reaction to the lateness and the continued mishandling of certain financial responsibilities, Alias Publisher, Brett Burner, has effectively bought out the partners responsible for these setbacks to instead assume all accounting and production duties internally... 'The problem was that these individuals were acting on their own judgment, making crucial decisions irregardless of our input,' said Burner. 'We are not, however, looking for a scapegoat.'"

I always find that when I'm not looking for a scapegoat, the best way to not look for a scapegoat is to put out a press release blaming unnamed third parties for my problems and then say that I'm not looking for a scapegoat.

Meanwhile, Heidi has more on Marvel's Q3 earnings causing trouble for the House of Ideas - although, personally, I think the entire stock market just read about (basis of the next big Marvel event, well, the one after Planet Hulk and Decimation, anyway) The Illuminati and realized that, if even the Tomb Raider movie did Illuminati stuff four years ago, then perhaps the whole Illuminati thing is, like, so over - and Speakeasy being partnered/purchased by a movie company. Over at The Engine, she also drops this nugget that I wish someone had followed up on:

"At least one of the two big publishers actively discourages by ANY MEANS NECESSARY mentioning any current events in their comics. No wonder mainstream comics are increasingly irrelevent."

On that bombshell, I'll shut up. Thanks for your kind attention, blogosphere. I'm Marvin Gaye and that's... What's Going On.

Crimes and Misdemeanors

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So last week I posted the picture of all the comics that had accrued during my honeymoon. This week, I'm posting a picture of all the books I picked up just last week. Kinda criminal how similar the two pictures are, aren't they? But what's really criminal is that I didn't take the time to review FINDER #38 last week. I've been a fan of this book for a long, long time but kinda stopped paying attention when I missed the jumping on point for "The Kidnappers" arc.

Well, that arc is over, and this is a great self-contained issue about crazy chicks. Oh, sure, it says "Part One," but it stands fine on its own with a lovely little anecdote about the things that are important to men and women--like cake, for example.

Anyway, this was Very Good work and you should come 'round to the shop and pick up a copy. Or you can go to Speed's website and read it online if you're cheap...and very patient: She's putting up the issue at the rate of two pages a week. Either way, well worth your time. Posted by Picasa

Garage Sale Aftermath....

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Essentially, it was an awesome garage sale. Admittedly, you have to kind of stretch your definition of awesome to include "cold, drizzly, and underserved by foot traffic," but if you can, then yeah, it was awesome. Blessed be to Hibbs for letting me advertise the sale here and at the store--the bulk of the people who showed up were CE customers and subs who totally bowled over Edi with how funny, polite and kind they were. Most of them seemed pretty pleased with their purchases, to the point of more or less apologizing for robbing me blind by buying so many comic books and stuff at such low prices, but I was really happy to move some stuff and see people happy at getting a good deal. (As I've said, a comic store run by me would be out of business in six months.) Randy asked in a previous thread if the parting process was painful, but that all took place before I put stuff out to be sold. Once I did, I only wanted to see it gone (with the exception of my copy of The Megalomaniacal Spider-Man, which Sam convinced me to keep). The general foot traffic totally sucked, though: not only was it a horribly cold day that threatened to rain more than once in the first few hours, but considering it was supposed to be a hillwide garage sale day for Bernal Heights, there was nobody. I actually did better business with people walking their dogs at 9:00 a.m. than I did through registering through the neighborhood center for this community event. And I found out later that Cortland, the main street of Bernal, was apparently the place to be, with dealers staking out big sections of sidewalk and hawking their wares, and customers skipping from dealer to dealer with money all but falling out of their pockets. All that careful assembly of sets to appeal to the non-comics reader? Basically wasted. Grrr.

But, to get back to the point, I sold at least 1200 comics, half a dozen complete sets, about forty to fifty graphic novels, and cleared away four longboxes, thanks to Joel, Josh, their buddy who had worked all night (Chris, maybe?), Frank (the only one who showed up with a car and cleared away a longbox and a half all by himself), Robson, Sam, Brian, the Hibbs familia, and a couple of great passerby. This leaves me pretty well situated to try moving some stuff through Ebay after the wedding and the holidays and stuff.

Okay, work is a bit crazy today. Let's see if I can get out any reviews of something at some point...

Last Freakin' Garage Sale Update...

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Because tomorrow is the big sale, and at the moment I'm trying to figure out if I should put prices on some of these odds and ends, like memory cards and stuff, or if that's just dumb. I'm really, really glad there are people like Hibbs who can do what they do, because if I was running a comic book store? It'd make it maybe a year, tops. I mean, I was glad to spend three bucks on the seventh issue of Shanna so I can now bag it with the other issues and sell the whole set tomorrow for six bucks. That's a hard thing to type knowing Brian is going to fall off his chair laughing when he reads it, but it's true. Another step I'm taking to make sure the whole realm of financial dumb-assedness is covered are trade paperbacks. I'm not actually selling that many of them, between fifty and sixty tops, but I'm pricing them at $3.00 apiece or 5 for $10. Some of this includes manga I didn't much care for (seeya, Heat Guy J!) but also some that I dearly love (seeya, first two volumes of Tezuka's Black Jack!), as well as stuff like Swamp Thing: Love and Death, Flash: The Death of Barry Allen, two different Jim Mahfood Grrl Scouts trades, Jack Staff, Stray Bullets, and others. I'm trying to make a garage sale that I've always wanted to go to and, apart from that one where I bought a hardcover first volume of Love & Rockets for a dollar, never have. Hopefully, some of you will want to attend as well.

Okay. So for the last time: This Saturday, the 13th, from 9:00 to 5:00 at 3225 Folsom Street, 94110. Edi said the tiny URL (http://tinyurl.com/bevxq) of the googlemap was inexact but it's still working fine for me. I planned out the trip on Muni through 511.org and you can see that list of what Bart and Muni busses to catch at http://tinyurl.com/7779k. In an earlier comments thread, pal Dave Robson also suggested either catching the J Church to Cesar Chavez and then hiking or bussing his way along that to Folsom, or catching the 22 to Folsom and then catching the 12. He says that should work, and I have no reason to doubt him.

Reviews on my end may be spotty but I figure I'll post something by Monday morning. I spent most of the day reading Alex Robinson's Tricked and maybe I'll be able to say a thing or two about my reaction to it then. But mainly I hope to be hanging out and selling comic books, and I hope I'll see some of you tomorrow.

And as I said previously, you can write me at pig.latin AT gmail.com if you have any questions you don't want to leave in comments.

Thanks and have a good weekend!

Another Garage Sale Update....

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Yes, another one. Don't worry. By Saturday night, this will all be over. So more cling-wrapping for sets, but I also decided to follow Hibbs' advice. He said if I wanted to guarantee that the stuff moves I should mark it ten for a buck. I kinda didn't want to do that considering the money I've spent on this stuff over time but then again, I want to sell it on Ebay even less. So I do hope some of you are planning on stopping by, because the post office's loss is your gain. I've got over seven long boxes of comics that are a dime apiece, and I think it's a pleasing mix of good, bad and indescribable. Those of you who remember how little I liked Mark Millar's run on MK Spider-Man, for example, will be pleased to know I'm selling all twelve issues of that for a dime apiece; a very large number of Waid's Fantastic Four and JMS's Amazing Spider-Man are in there, as is stuff I quite like but have replaced with trades, like Reload and Ministry of Space by Ellis, Ennis issues of Hellblazer, Fables, Boneyard, Age of Bronze, and a lot, lot more.

I also have a weird mix of older comix, not in mint condition or anything, but still well worth more than a dime, including an issue of Kirby's OMAC, Uncanny X-Men issues from around #175, a few obscure 100 page giants, that Baxter paper collection of Kirby's New Gods from the early '80s, a smattering of Master of Kung-Fu, and a oddly large number of issues of Spider-Woman.

After deciding to do the dime longboxes, I'm now worried that the sets are overpriced although they're mainly to appeal to people who want a complete story or set of stories in pack, which is why I'm selling the entire run of Burns' Black Hole for $10(!, if I do say so myself), the entire run of Global Frequency for $6.00, and the first two Blue Monday minis (plus one-shots) for $4.00. I've got more sets to make this evening (and probably tomorrow after work) but a lot of them are loose aggregations of Simpsons comics, or other things local parents might buy for their kids, and a few more things I'm trying to work out.

The two problem sets, both pricing and packaging, are the entire run of Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol, and Knights of the Dinner Table #46-104. I have no idea how to price them, and no idea, because of their size, how to package them. If you have any idea particularly as to a good price point, leave 'em in the comments.

God. With each sentence of this entry, I'm realizing there is not enough beer in the house to get all this done.

So there you have it. this Saturday, the 13th, from 9:00 to 5:00 at 3225 Folsom Street, 94110. Edi said the tiny URL (http://tinyurl.com/bevxq) of the googlemap was inexact but it works fine for me and I'm wondering if it's because she's using Safari as her browser. I planned out the trip on Muni through 511.org and you can see that list of what Bart and Muni busses to catch at http://tinyurl.com/7779k. And as I said previously, you can write me at pig.latin AT gmail.com if you have any questions you don't want to leave in comments.

Okay. Off to do something about that beer situation....

In Which Jeff Advertises His Upcoming Garage Sale...

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The battle with cling wrap continues...or will be, shortly. It's already past two and I've pissed most of the day away watching G.I. Samurai (an old fave I just discovered was on DVD last night) and The Wicker Man, an old copy of which I discovered digging through my stuff. A great double-feature, but it doesn't bind up the ol' JLA/Avengers miniseries in cling wrap, unfortunately.... Anyway, what follows is the text that I posted to the garage sale section of Craigslist just now. Fortunately I can do stuff here that I couldn't or wouldn't on Craigslist and can give you both a tinyURL for the googlemaps location of the sale, and an email address in case you have any questions. I hope if you're in S.F. that day you'll think about coming by--I'm really trying to get rid of a lot of stuff and I'm throwing in some great loss leaders (if you ever wanted to boast about buying a Criterion DVD for less than $10, this would be your chance):

Comics! Toys! Video Games! All the stuff that makes life worth living—is being sold off at Jeff Lester's garage sale!

Come 'round 3225 Folsom (Two blocks up the hill from Cesar Chavez) on Saturday August 13th from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. to help make room for a new life of marital bliss.

Perfect condition PS2 games for $7! Mint on Card action figures for $4! Hellboy and Grendel action figures $5, mint on card! Godzilla playsets for $2! True Crime Cards! Sin City lunchbox for $4! A complete run of Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol—for less than cover price! Sets of: Bendis' Daredevil! Simpsons Comics! An entire run of New Avengers for less than half cover! Real Kirby! Faux Kirby And (God help me) hundreds more!

Where: 3225 Folsom (off Cesar Chavez) Google map at: http://tinyurl.com/bevxq

When: Saturday, August 13th 9:00a.m.-5:00 p.m.

A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center.

Questions? Feel free to email me at pig.latin AT gmail.com

See you there!!

Somewhat Annoyed

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As Lester noted, it was, in fact, APE weekend (had a loverly time, thanks!), and newsletter week and, I just wanted to spend some quality time with Ben, so there went time for the reviews. I actually sorta wanted to write some up today (at least my SIN CITY movie review -- next week, sure), despite my TILTING AT WINDMILLS deadline hanging over my head (due Friday, 0 words written, no solid topic in my head), but I decided to go play hooky and try and meet Gene Wilder at a book signing at the Balboa movie theatre this afternoon.

So, I get there about 90 minutes early, and there's just a handful of people standing around the lobby. "What's the deal?" I ask, "Do we have a formal line or something?" The cashier tells me that the signing is at 5:30, right when YOUNG FRANKENSTIEN gets out, and that theatre patrons will form a line when the screening is done. People who DON'T see the movie have to wait until AFTER all of the theatre-goers are done, and, so, they might not get to meet Mr. Wilder, who will leave at 7.

So, that sounds fair, I guess. Well, "fair-ish" at least. And spending 90 minutes waiting in the dark cool movie house is better than 90 minutes on a cold windy street. I also beleive in supporting local theatres, because, y'know, fuck those big multiplexes. I buy a ticket and go in, though that wasn't my plan when I arrived.

So, the movie gets out, I'm the 5th or 6th person out of the theatre's door, and I walk into the lobby, and, um, there's a really long line, and Mr. Wilder is already signing. "Um, where's the line for the people who saw the movie?" I am pointed out the door, with the general line. Well, that's kinda fucked up, ah, but what the hell, I'd really like to meet the man, tell him how much pleasure he's brought me, shake his hand.

So, I start for the line, then I notice the sign: "MR. WILDER WILL NOT BE SIGNING _ANYTHING_ OTHER THAN HIS NEW BOOK." I turn back towards the signing table, and, yup, I see the current person up for signing being told emphatically "No" when he wants a WILLY WONKA movie poster signed. Well, shit -- I can't really say if I want his signature on a book I haven't even read yet. Y'know what I mean? I had brought an old ratty VHS copy of THE LITTLE PRINCE (he was The Fox -- what a great adaptation of the original novel!), and my DVD of WILLY WONKA. THOSE what I wanted signed, not the book. I was even intellectually ready to BUY a copy of the book, if I had to -- but what I wanted SIGNED, to discuss for 15 or seconds or so, maybe, were those works.

So, I'm weighing if I should ask if I could BUY the book, and have Mr. Wilder sign something else ('cuz, y'know, that's probably going to come off as offensive to the author -- he's here to promote something CURRENT, not decades old work), then they make The Announcement. "Because far more people showed up to see Mr. Wilder than we expected, he will be unable to personalize your copy. It will be autograph only." Which, to me, sorta DEFEATS THE PURPOSE OF A SIGNING, and, y'know, encourages the people there to get an autograph so they can just sell it on eBay later, but what do I know?

So, I left. Oh sure, I could have used this very time to write some reviews, but I decided for once to use the internet for it's intended purpose: venting. In a blog.

-B

Oh, WonderCon, my WonderCon

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Well, I had a terrific time at WonderCon this weekend. WC has been a weird show for a while -- the last few years in Oakland had what looked like declining attendence, and tumbleweeds in the aisle, and the sale of the show to the San Diego ComiCon brought the show to San Francisco 3 years ago. The first two years at the Moscone can be charitbly descibed as marginal, where the show was dwarfed by the space around it, but 2005 was the year that broke big.

Friday's attendence looked solid (for a Friday), but the place was reasonably quiet. This was actually great because it gave me a good chance to get some business done, talk to people I pretty much only see at conventions and the like. More than anything else, it reminded me of a San Diego show from BEFORE the move into the new convention space -- those years when SD was THE place to be, yet you were still able to have half hour conversations with people while they manned thier booths. For me, as a person who would never ever SET UP at a show, yet has lots of comicy goodness and business to handle, that's a perfect as perfect could be.

Saturday, the place exploded. Probably because of Whedon and Kevin Smith, yes, but the convention floor itself was pretty steadily packed full of people wandering AND, it seemed, spending money. The show opened at 10 am, and at 1:30 that afternoon, there was STILL a steady 100-person long line to get in, which kind of blew me away. Especially since, by that point, it was thudding rain down. I was told that they actually ran out of badgeholders, and they had to take scissors to the exhibotr and guest badges in order to meet demand. It also seemed that they ran out of those as I saw someone with thier badge STAPLED to thier t-shirt!

There were a couple of minutes on early Saturday where it was nearly downright unpleasent to be on the convention floor -- the 10 minutes to walk 10 feet, because there are so many bodies in the place thang, and the for the love of god, turn on the air conditioners thang -- which I took as a good sign, actually. Business seemed to be solid and steady.

I was struck by how few publishers actually came -- DC, Image, Bongo and SLG were the only 4 traditional publishers set up (I very much missed Top Shelf and Oni, both of whom I wanted to discuss a few things with, and who were here last year) -- but I think if WC continues its growth curve, this has the potential to become an excellent show.

I learned a lot of interesting things, almost all of which were of the "just between me and you" variety, so you don't get to find out about any of them, but, in the end, I just had a terrific time.... something I haven't said about a comics convention in a decade or more. (Probably since the Pro/Con years at WC)

Ben went with me on Saturday morning, riding up on my shoulders most of the time. He charmed the hell out of both the ladies and the chaps, but he could only handle about 2 hours before his baby brain started to get overstimulated. The beauty of having a show in my home town was being able to take him all the way home, and still being able to make it back to the show within an hour.

Saturday night was the party at the new location for Comic Relief. Traditionally, Rory and I swap off years for store parties, and this year was technically our turn, but with his new venue, I was happy to cede it to CR. Helping out a fellow retailing brother is much more important than banging my own drum.

CR's new space is nothing short of impressive. Hell, given that they'd only had it for 18 days, and they had to prep WC, the quality of the presentation was nothing short of mind blowing. Comic Relief's staff and family should be amazingly proud of what they've been able to accomplish. Y'know, a lot of time me and Rory (and most other visible retailers, for that matter), get conflated with our stores. We'll say "Good Job, Rory" for anything that happens with CR -- but that does a great disservice to the people who actually MAKE the store what it is. CR has an excellent crew, and the victory of the new store is something they should all take individual pride in, and ownership of.

I can't say enough good things about the new space, however. It's huge, it's gi-normous; it's a big as a whale, and it's about to set sail! It is the kind of retail space that makes old men and young girls weep. It isn't there yet (only 18 days old), but I think that a year from now (especially if a store planner is brought in, modern signage installed, etc. etc.) this has the potential to be the single best comic book store in the WORLD. Seriously. I'm jealous.

So, that was my weekend. Now I'm just waiting for Lester to send me the final bits for ONOMATOPOEIA (Don't you love it when conventions and monthly deadlines collide?), so I can work all afternoon and evening. Hurray!

I might possibly squidge in with a few reviews on Monday (Here's a quick free one: PROMETHEA #32: I'm too old to read a comic that needs constanly turning and flipping, and has mostly yellow lettering on light blue backgrounds! It hurt my widdle head when I contemplated it. INCOMPLETE), but, honestly, I wouldn't expect it. I thinking I'm coming down with a cold, too.

-B

Some reviews of 1/19 stuff

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I'm double-plus overbusy this week -- I haven't even finished reading this week's books! Ben's getting to be a real handful -- willful as all get out (that's my boy!), and in everything all the time. He might possibly be learning the word "no", though. We think he knows when he's doing the wrong thing, he gets this little gleam in his eye, and wags his finger at us, then goes and does whatever it was he shouldn't have been doing.

So this is why I have so little time these days. I'm desperate to get back and finish my rewrite of my novel that got put off because Ben was born -- but I just don't see HOW to get back to it while he's a little terror who is just a little too young to play by himself.

Anyway, so that's why this review thing is kinda not here this week for me.

I do want to say this: Watch BATTLESTAR GALACTICA on Sci-Fi. Really killer show. I never was a fan of the original, and I only watched the middle of the pilot last year, but Bennett got the DVD and made me watch it and the first 2 episodes of the series, and I'm damn glad he did.

God, it's nice to have some quality science fiction on the air again, after all of these barren years.

If anything it reminds me of DS9 during the dominion war. Arc based storytelling, strong characters, desperate situation. It's Ron Moore, so that's probably why.

It has flaws, yes (I don't really like the Sexy Cylon chick), and it gets notes wrong here and there, but overall, it is a terrific show, and you should jump right in. Thankfully it is Sci-Fi, so you know you'll be able to get caught up in rerun pretty fast.

As for this week's comics....within what I've manged to read this week (about 60%), I think I'll go with POWERS #8 as my PICK OF THE WEEK, not because it was an exceptional issue, but because there really wasn't much else this week. I also liked the end of BULLSEYES GREATEST HITS #5 more than I thought I would.

PICK OF THE WEAK? Probably a three-way tie between FREEDOM FORCE #1 (I already played the game -- several times in fact, it's terrific! -- who wants a literal retelling?) ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #71 (each of these team ups has stank more than the one before. I think the book has leapt the rails) and WANTED #6 (I expected something more clever than that last page. Don't know what, but I did.) But then, I didn't read a LOT of stuff, man.

The BOOK / TP OF THE WEEK easilly goes to EX MACHINA THE FIRST HUNDRED DAYS. We sold out of 7 rack copies in the first day, I was stunned!

And that, for what it is worth, is that!

-B

Bumblefuck!

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Sickness reigns in the Hibbs/Friedman household. Benny got it on Tuesday, Tzipora on Wednesday, and on Thursday night I came down with the stomach flu, with nasty things flying out of my orifices at very high velocities.

I'm strong enough to type a bit today, but the reviews will be delayed for a little bit until all of my muscles start working properly again...

If you haven;t already seen it, or followed alink from Grim or Tom, the new TILTING AT WINDMILLS is up on Newsarama -- http://www.newsarama.com/pages/Tilting/Tilting11.htm

-B

Kibbles and Bits

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Probably the last time you'll ever see a political commentary on this blog, but is anyone REALLY surprised that Bush won? I mean, look, Kerry wasn't running on anything other than being NotBush. NotBush is a nice position, to be sure, for some percentage of the country, but it's not a way to win.

The Democrats have to get thier shit together -- that's two elections in a row they've run a wonkish stiff who is defined by his opponent. Bush really should have been the most defeatable candidate ever, but the Demos blew it by running yet another woodman.

Or to put it another way, Kerry won here in San Francisco, like 85%/15%.... and I don't know a single person, not ONE (including myself) who voted for Kerry because they wanted to vote for Kerry -- they voted for Kerry because he was NotBush.

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If Matt Brady is reading this, I beg and plead you to never ever EVER turn NEWSARAMA over to someone else again, like this week's "Joe Casey-a-rama". It sucked last year when you did it with Brian Wood, and it sucked this year just as hard. If I want to read puff pieces and softball interviews with the subject's friends, I can go and read WIZARD, y'know?

Seriously, let's at least _pretend_ it's an actual journalistic site, can we?

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Half a beat more of politics.

When I spoke to Rob today, who was devestated by the results (though, probably more from the DNA databse here in Cali than anything else), I said, "think of the up side -- at least you know we've only got 4 years to go. It's not like Dick Cheney will run for President in '08, and I don't think W has any credible successors"

Rob glumly said "They're going to change the constitution for Arnold."

Nah, I don't think so. I don't think we're that far gone yet.

Anyway, since when is 51% a "mandate"? The fuck? Shouldn't that be like 2/3 or better? Is it just me?

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I was hoping to have some "final" good news today because the judge in the Marvel Class Action suit held a hearing about it this morning, but he still hasn't signed the order. The expectation is he'll either sign it, or reject it in the next week or three (By Thanksgiving?), and, if he signs it, then 30 days for appeals (which no one, to my knowledge, will make... including Marvel), and then credits will be issued no later than 30 days after that. Presumably this is late December, early January. As a general thing, that sounds like a fine time table -- most stores can use the credits more AFTER the holidays than before them, but given how lonnnnnng this thing has stetched out, maybe it won't be until spring...

Anyway, back to reading comics -- hope to have SOME reviews from this week up for tomorrow....

-B