Comics Of Today

As I write this, I am waiting for Fantagraphics' website to load up so I can attempt placing an order. If there's one thing I learned the last couple of days while visiting Shanell in Saskatoon, it is I can always find new ways to spend what little money I have on comics.

Let's try something different this week...breaking it down into Books, Comix, and Comics

BOOKS

ADV OF TINTIN NEW ED HC VOL 05
Ordered ahead with this series because I really want to see Herge draw spacecraft and the moon. My French-Belgian comics fascination has started to mild out a bit, mostly because there is just so very little of it available in this part of the continent. What I did manage to order were a few Christopher "GUS AND HIS GANG" Blain graphic novels, specifically ISAAC THE PIRATE and THE SHIP ABATER.

But speaking of orange-haired action-adventures staples...



COMPLETE TERRY & THE PIRATES HC VOL 05 & VOL 06
Aaaand…scene! These are going to look pretty fab right in between DICK TRACY and PEANUTS. Oh, but this doesn't mean I'm done with these hardcover archival reprints! Why, there's still two WALT & SKEEZIX I have to get, as well as getting a start on LITTLE ORPHAN ANNIE. The good news I actually started reading TERRY Volume 1! The aim is to keep up a rotating of comic strip reading: TERRY, POPEYE, KRAZY KAT, DICK TRACY, and so on.

RICHARD STARK'S PARKER THE HUNTER HC
Came out last week for the rest of the world it seems, but better late than never. If you don't know Richard Stark/Donald Westlake, Darwyn Cooke, or Ed Brubaker...crazy. If that is the case, you should read this great Tom Spurgeon/Cooke/Brubaker interview from back in May. Probably one of the best interviews I've read in years.






YOU SHALL DIE BY YOUR OWN EVIL CREATION TP
Kind of excited for this.








COMIX

CITIZEN REX #1 (OF 6)
Hey, Hernandez comics! Will we be getting GRIP? Or SLOTH? Or maybe SPEAK OF THE DEVIL? CHANCE IN HELL?








DELPHINE #4 & GROTESQUE #3
Hey, Fantagraphics Ignatz comics! I forgot all about you!








COMICS

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #600 & INCREDIBLE HULK #600
Congratulations, Peter Parker! Congratulations, Bruce Banner! You know what frightens me? I was doing some house cleaning the other week, and I realized I have almost complete consecutive runs of both AMAZING and HULK starting at their respective #300 issues. For every issue of ARCADE, or ZERO ZERO, or ACME NOVELTY LIBRARY, or DIRTY PLOTTE, or Al Columbia comics I have, my Marvel superhero comics outnumber them...what, 10, 15, 20 to 1?

...

Hey, did you know that Alex Ross is one of the 21 artists who changed mainstream comics (for better or worse)? Actually, AVClub.com has been doing a real comics beatdown this week: Seth talking comics, the already mentioned list, an interview with Michael Kupperman, now I see an interview with Grant Morrison.


BLACKEST NIGHT TALES OF THE CORPS #2 (OF 3) & GREEN LANTERN #44
Let the wholesale slaughter for profit continue! Actually the first TALES OF THE CORPS was pretty good. Actually times two, as much as I pretty well scoff at the absurdity of this comic book, at least it is entertaining in an incredibly stupid way. I just find it tragic that for many comic shop denizens this is literally the best thing they'll read this week.



BOYS HEROGASM #3 (OF 6)
Why, Garth Ennis, do you write this? Why, John McCrea, do you draw this? Why, Jarrett Duncan, do you buy this?







CAPTAIN BRITAIN AND MI 13 #15
Last issue, yeah? Thanks to Caleb for bringing this highlight in the Marvel superhero line-up to my and others' attention, if even for a short time.







CONAN THE CIMMERIAN #12
I want to grow up to be the 40 to 50 year old dads who come in and this and JONAH HEX are all we know.






DETHKLOK VS THE GOON
A really random order, hopefully turns out better than last week's CREEPY #1.







FINAL CRISIS LEGION OF THREE WORLDS #5 (OF 5)
What a fuck up. I’ve never really liked George Perez (save that CRIMSON PLAGUE comics, which was suitably trashy and nice to look at), so none of this seems worth all the delays. Oh, I feel a rant coming on.

Speaking of fairly popular, incredibly late limited series: please, Marvel, make sure you overprint your OLD MAN LOGAN GIANT-SIZED SPECIAL thing, because being so incredibly slow and late no retailer will be able to remember how much to bring in initially. Do we order high, supporting the numbers of the various printings and various runs we've sold beyond initial orders on, say, #72? How about all those people who have since cancelled WOLVERINE off their file because 1) Mark Millar/Steven McNiven aren't on it, and 2) what is DARK WOLVERINE, who would still like to get that last issue? This is all very short term, no big deal in the end, but definitely drives people in the long run into the waiting arms of 'waiting for trades' (meaning decreased over all sales because waits become never buys), or into Other Less Demanding and Needlessly Convoluted Hobbies.

IMMORTAL WEAPONS #1 (OF 5)
I’m curious whether or not IRON FIST will continue after this miniseries of one shots by different creators wraps. Same thing is happening with GHOST RIDER, which I actually just started to really enjoy once Jason Aaron had a good artist. Hey, did you hear that Jason Aaron is going to continue on with PUNISHER MAX with Garth Ennis in mind? Could be great, based on that hilariously dark PUNISHER CHRISTMAS SPECIAL he did!


-Jarrett

A Tale of Three Connies

A confluence of "Connie" the last 24 hours.

From TERRY AND THE PIRATES:
The daily comic strip CONNIE!
ANd what's Traylor got to say to John Constantine of HELLBLAZER fame?Oh, it looks like George Webster "Connie" Confucius has something to add.
Poor Connie...

-Jarrett

The Comics I Read Today - July 15th, 2009

ALL SELECT COMICS #1
Michael Kupperman tackles Marvex, The Super Robot! Fuck, this was hilarious. Are you a TALES DESIGNED TO THRIZZLE fan? Have you heard of TALES DESIGNED TO THRIZZLE? This is a must own comics if you are. Boring, shithead comics fans will hate it, but if you're a Michael Kupperman fan, this cannot disappoint. What's most fucked up is that I thought Kupperman was totally playing around...and then you get to the reprinted original Marvex, The Super Robot story...and he was playing it Almost straight. Compared to the shit I'd be reading very soon, this was the best comic pamphlet of the month.

Even the Javier Pulido-drawn story looks really nice (didn't bother to read it though).

WEDNESDAY COMICS #2
(Apparently DC refuses to put up a cover for this, so here's my lousy scan). Azzarrello/Risso BATMAN continues to be serviceable. Gibbons/Sook's KAMANDI is sticking to its PRINCE VALIANT riffing, and you'll either admire it or will just skip it. Arcude/Bermejo SUPERMAN is just a dull, bitchy conversation between a Superman and a Batman made even sadder when you know they are printing this in USA TODAY, and not Paul Pope's ADAM STRANGE or Kyle Baker's HAWKMAN. Bullock/Heuck DEADMAN continues to showcase a very Darwyn Cooke look to it that I love to look at, indifferent to read. Busiek/Quinones I've already completely forgotten (it looks ok?). Gaiman/Allred's METAMORPHO deliver one three-panel comics, and a second utterly stupid additional strip that makes me think about how much more Neil Gaiman got paid for this page compared to everyone else. Berzanga/Galloway TEEN TITANS continues banality. Paul Pope STRANGE ADVENTURES is just beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, and probably the true success of this project right now. Palmiotti/Conner SUPERGIRL makes me wish Amanda Conner would draw a comic for someone who can write well outside of JONAH HEX. Didio/Garcia Lopez's METAL MEN can just go away, as well as Caldwell/Marston's WONDER WOMAN. The Kuberts' SGT. ROCK continues to turn at a snail's uninteresting pace. Kerschl/Fletcher/Leigh/McCraig's FLASH/IRIS WEST is just so nice to look at, and in many ways far more interesting than the event FLASH: REBIRTH. Simonson/Stelfreeze create an attractive looking page that I just don't want to read. And Kyle Baker HAWKMAN continues to really leave me happy. You know, they could really do something interesting with HAWKMAN, based on this and that one HAWKMAN strip in BIZARRO COMICS!

"A Very Special Issue of" CAPTAIN AMERICA #601
O-oh. Maybe we did order just right. Total placeholder comic while the whole CAPTAIN AMERICA: REBORN thing gets rolling. In some ways, I think this was a complete missed opportunity. You have a vampire story and Gene Colan...and you don't throw actual DRACULA in there? I love ol' Baron Blood and Union Jack (that Roger Stern written story from the #250s of CAP? Awesome! Or, hell, Paul Grist's JACK STAFF), but I kept hoping and hoping, and just got Old Man Gene Colan art, and a flashback story with Winter Soldier and Nick Fury watching videos at some undisclosed place and time.





CREEPY #1
Wow, that was shockingly stupid and bad. Ok, "The Curse" and "All The Help You Neeed" were typical and only guilty by association, but "Hell Hound Blues"? "Chemical 13"? What the fuck was the point of this? Don't try to appease me with old Alex Toth art either!

Did the original CREEPY and EERIE have this EC Horror Comics Intro/Outro bit character "Uncle Creepy" in it?








BLACKEST NIGHT #1
SPOILERS AHEAD, chit'lins!








Remember what I was saying about HAWKMAN in WEDNESDAY COMICS and BIZARRO COMICS? Geoff Johns and DC Editorial seem to think otherwise about his future.


Summary: So zombie Elongated Man and zombie Sue Dibney show up inexplicably in Hawkman/Hawkgirl's house, spearing Hawkgirl and smashing Hawkman's head in with his own mace. And THEN Elongated Man tears out Hawkman's heart, and then we're left hanging off a cliff (as the saying goes) with the promise of Hawkman/Hawkgirl coming back as zombie Hawkman and zombie Hawkgirl. And a man wearing a costume made out of a bodybag (revealed last issue!) who just shot himself in the head after murdering his family is carrying around the skull of Batman (?), watching.

Before all this goes down, there's a lot of creaky setting up of all these dead folks which makes sense from a marketing/selling perspective as DC is trying to make this their big selling book of the year, and since almost no one reads DC or DC comics, they have no idea who the hell any of these dead characters are (the logic goes if they were popular, they wouldn't be dead). And a blue scarred midget attacks another blue midget by biting into the neck, and greenish yellow goo comes pouring out because they are aliens.

Ok, one genuinely good bit in this? The swarm of black rings spreading through the galaxy, making sounds like flies. The rest of it is all kind of funny in the way I've always found Geoff Johns' comics to be.

Poor Hawkman. *Sniff*



-Jarrett

Corben! And Comics For Tomorrow!

Richard Corben comics. I had no idea he did the cover for Meat Loaf's BAT OUT OF HELL until a week ago, and it really shook me. I always thought my first exposure to Corben was that Hard Times storyline he drew for Brian Azzarello on Azzarello's first HELLBLAZER storyline "Hard Times", followed by those ridiculous BANNER and CAGE miniseries for Marvel. But no! The first time I ever encountered Corben was when I was 3 or 4 years old, looking through my parents' LPs and being terrified by that bat. The other thing that has got me wanting more Corben is coming across a really big chunk of his late 80s/early 90s Fantagor Press stuff: DEN, CHILDREN OF FIRE, RIP OF TIME, SON OF MUTANT WORLD. It is out there, and I aim to get what I can get.

Well, I'm starting to feel the urge to write some non-shopping list posts here...just the mildest, tingling sensation.

ACTION COMICS #879
Holy shit has this been a terrible comic book. The art has progressively got worse, the ongoing story is just dullsville...I never read Rucka's ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN comics, but know of their ill regarded reputation. Actually, if it weren't for the strength of WORLD OF KRYTON alone, the entire SUPERMAN line would be pretty lackluster until the Geoff Johns/Gary Frank SECRET ORIGIN project kicks off...which still strikes me as fairly unnecessary, even considering its very unnecessary nature of being a superhero miniseries. Oh, those SUPERGIRL covers are all pretty nice, and remind me why I don't really miss having new Michael Turner covers anymore.

ALL SELECT COMICS #1 70TH ANNIV SPECIAL
Michael Kupperman! Or, just another chink in the Golden Age Marvel revival stuff. Really, outside the initial issue that got me hooked on buying these (YOUNG ALLIES)...they haven't been all that terrible interesting.






ALL STAR COMPANION TP VOL 04
Oh, right, I ordered this, even though 1) I haven't read the previous two (don't let that stop you!), and 2) I couldn't care less about Justice Society anymore, in a post-Geoff Johns series.

Oh, I couldn't find a cover for this, but I did stumble across this odd cover of GREEN LANTERN.




BLACKEST NIGHT #1 (OF 8) & BLACKEST NIGHT TALES OF THE CORPS #1 (OF 3)
And speaking of Geoff Johns. So #1 is coming out, finally revealing whether this is going to be Entertaining and Fun like a Sinestro Corp Wars way, or a Anti-Readable Editorially Mandated Geoff Johns story like INFINITE CRISIS was. And hey, don't forget to get your free Black Lantern ring from your retailer tomorrow with every purchase of BLACKEST NIGHT!



CAPTAIN AMERICA #601
Hmm, I think we may have underordered this...it will be curious to see how much this will have to do with anything, between #600 and REBORN #1.






COMPLETE TERRY & THE PIRATES HC VOL 04 1941-1942
Wooo, four down, two to go! Have I mentioned how nice these covers are?





CREEPY COMICS #1
My random sample and order from that month's PREVIEWS, not even sure what to expect.










INCOGNITO #5
So I haven't actually heard anything too glowingly positive or damningly negative about this...is everyone just politely waiting for CRIMINAL to start again? Regardless, wow, that's probably my favourite Sean Phillips cover in a long time!




RASL #5
This is selling decently in issues, but we still have the same three trade paperbacks of Vol. 1 of this that we did the day they arrived. It isn't exactly going for the young BONE reader (kind of an adult book), but maybe the potential 'thick edition' collecting it all in one go is putting people off?





SHADOW DOUBLE NOVEL VOL 2 & 3
These were getting cleared out at a steal of a deal, got the first one a while ago, might as well pick these up while they are still available.









WEDNESDAY COMICS #2 (OF 12)
Sometime shortly after I left and the store closed we sold our last shelf copy of #1, earning it 2 reorders. Showed a friend my copy, he wanted it, sold that one, reordered again. This is where publishers help the retailer out: overprint!

Random though: what I would love to have is the series of SOLO reprinted in two volumes, right alongside BIZARRO COMICS and BIZARRO WORLD to be able to sell people as a bridge from superhero comics to indie stuff. What a dream!

I did read #1 the other day: I think everyone who is buying and reading this is all on the same message: the TEEN TITANS and WONDER WOMAN strips are terribly for two different reasons (TT is an absolute nothing, and WW is needlessly dense, reproduced poorly on this paper, and dull). Everything else varies from "Awesome" (ADAM STRANGE, FLASH/IRIS WEST, HAWKMAN) "Really Fun" (DEADMAN, KAMANDI) to "That Was Ok" (SUPERMAN, GREEN LANTERN, METAMORPHO, SUPERGIRL, BATMAN, SGT. ROCK) to "Hmm, Well At Least It Wasn't TT and WW" (METAL MEN, DEMON/CATWOMAN).

The rest: SCALPED #30, X-FACTOR #46 & YOUNG LIARS #17
Part of the great unread pile...in the very real sense that I have literally not read either series since maybe the first storyline. With YOUNG LIARS...only one more of these to go. I do remember not really caring for the first few issues, but apparently by the end of the 'first act', it completely changed. I like Lapham's comics, generally, and I guess by buying anything he does gets us a little closer to seeing more STRAY BULLETS.

Before we go, let's check in with Traylor, see what he has to say.

Until next time!

-Jarrett

What I Bought Today

ASTERIOS POLYP GN
It wasn't until very recently that I even knew this was coming out. Outside of the obvious (DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN, BATMAN: YEAR ONE, CITY OF GLASS) I have always really liked Mazzucchelli, and imagined he was just done with comics, or very slow. A very pleasant surprise indeed. Looked at the first ten or so pages and...well, we'll see how it goes.



GREEN LANTERN #43
When Doug Mahnke was announced as the fill-in artist on the last issue of FINAL CRISIS, I was kind of happy. After SEVEN SOLDIERS: FRANKENSTEIN, I knew Mahnke was yet another one of those artists who seemed to be able to take Morrison scripts and make them readable as comics. After the fairly terrible art on the last few issues of GREEN LANTERN (Philip Tan, who I get to look forward to being the follow up artist to Frank fucking Quitely on BATMAN & fucking ROBIN), I was glad to see him pop up here next.


HARLAN ELLISONS DREAM CORRIDOR TP VOL 02
A really random purchase (Vol. 1 is coming next week I guess). I didn't realize there was as much Harlan Ellison stories adapted into comics, nor did I know that there was an entire series with some artists of reputation drawing them (Richard Corben!).







NOBODY HC
A combination of Jeff Lemiere's previous work on TALES FROM ESSEX COUNTY, the forthcoming SWEET TOOTH, and my fetish for bandaged characters in visual mediums, sold this sight unseen/unreviewed.







PRINCE VALIANT HC VOL 01 1937-1938
I have never read any Hal Foster comics before, and I've been looking forward to doing so after having read about him in Dave Sim's GLAMOURPUSS (which, for my money, is one of the most important comics coming out right now...well, at least half of it anyway). This might be another of those prestige archival collections that go unread for quite a while (if ever? hi FLASH GORDON/BUCK ROGERS), but essential for the sake of my personal comics art history.


WEDNESDAY COMICS #1 (OF 12)
I imagine and hope that the inevitable collection of this material is something along the lines of PRINCE VALIANT/previous ACME NOVELTY LIBRARY. I really like this project myself, ordered it without question. Amazing line up of creators, something a bit exciting and daring from a mainstream publisher format wise, a definite change of pace from the dreary to mundane string of weekly comic projects from DC since 52.

So from a retailing perspective; Bob ordered 8 copies total. Of these 8, 3 were pre-ordered (me, a friend, and a hardcore Joe Kubert and Neil Gaiman fan). Talking to Bob, no one asked him about it in the last few months. From the two weeks I worked the store solo, not a single request or question. I have read many comments that suggest that retailers are leery about this comic and were ordering via pull lists/pre-orders, and conservatively for the shelf. I have read ensuing comments from reader-customers that this is 'idiotic' and the retailer should know to support this fully, without reservation, to reach out beyond the 'Wednesday' crowd (ha!).

Considering this is full colour printed on newsprint for $3.99US an issue...that's $2 or so retailer cost for a format which was created in the mindset of existing temporarily, in a slight unconvential, flimsy state that promises only to yellow, tear, tatter. It doesn't look entirely unlike the freebie Marvel (a 1930s issue of the DAILY BUGLE) did a few weeks ago promoting their Golden Age MARVEL PROJECT. Newsprints, some colour...and free. Obviously you cannot compare the contents (dig that creator line up), but asking $3.99US, for twelve issues, for something this close to a recycling bin?

Day one sales: We have all but one copy unsold at the store now. Two file customers tried it out, gave it to the guy who buys literally everything from Marvel and DC, and one guy bought it who Bob had never seen before. One for the shelf. Checking Diamond, it appears to still be in stock. If I do sell that last copy tomorrow, and I have some more requests reorders are still possible. If I have a sudden rush of 5 or more people wanting to at least check it out, I've got a copy on hand to show off, and will happily reorder and sell it in another week (and play catch up with subsequent issues until we find our sales bottom).

Oh, just remembered I was thinking of doing this. These are our initial orders for the first and last issues of the DC weekly series.

52 WEEK #1

60

60

52 WEEK #52

37

37

COUNTDOWN 51

45

45

COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS 1

29

29

TRINITY #1

50

50

TRINITY #52

11

11

And DC didn't even do the same returnable offer that it did with 52 or COUNTDOWN, did it? Maybe tomorrow I should gather up a stack of all the remainder issues of 52 and COUNTDOWN and TRINITY the store still has and take a photo. And these comics were $2.99US each, on the whole. TRINITY, at the very end, was straight to file.

And now...WEDNESDAY COMICS #1........8. An untested physical format, in a fairly tainted release format, with a one week USA TODAY article (not so widely read in Lethbridge, Alberta), appealing to...well, either hardcore DC types (a really dying breed), experimenters who will likely try the first one, and you & me.

-Jarrett