So after reading a rather intruiging series of posts on the bendis board, collected rather brilliantly Newsarama's Graeme McMillan here, I have a new idea.
What if, just what if with me here Marvel-ites, the whole OMD/BND thing is a clever ruse to view spider-man in a what could be different scenario before returning us into the living hell that was Peter's life before a deal with Mephisto. I mean honestly, could you imagine both the joy and dismay of fans and creators alike (let alone the twisted happiness brought across Mephisto's face) if suddenly around a year from now we see Peter living this happy and amazing life on his own before BAM! Suddenly he's back to May dying, trying to hold together his marriage, and everyone knowing exactly who he is. Honestly, what if this suddenly happier lifestyle he's living gets thrown out the window and the fans all get what they've been begging for, the old continuity of Spidey. I wouldn't put it past Joe Q, he has been known to show a rather twisted mind for circle compositions. Furthermore, it could definitely sink in with certain theories about Steve Rogers and others. I know I for one would give the story far more credit if they messed with my comic emotions so well. So what do you all think, is Joe Q an evil comic genius, playing with our hearts like a mad puppeteer? Or, is he merely to be taken at face value? If thats the case Joe, you still have sometime to come off as incomparable in the comic market with such an amazingly near-unforseen twist that could captivate us all.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
PICK OF THE WEEK
Every Wednesday new comic books arrive at my store and I choose my favourite as my personal ‘Pick of the Week’. This decision is made before I read the issue and is based upon several variables. Contributing factors include the creators, cover, story summary, previous events in the comic, and personal interest in the comic. The options I choose from our only limited by what Diamond has listed to release this week according to their shipping list (and in some rare cases the issue won’t even arrive at my shop). So without further adieu, this week’s pick is:
THE BOYS #15
Garth Ennis & Darick Robertson
Part one of the four part "Good For The Soul": Hughie visits The Legend, determined to find out more about The Boys- their history, their personalities, and their mysterious hidden agenda. Meanwhile, Annie January (alias Starlight) has her own doubts about membership of The Seven. This storyline also reveals a little more about the other members of the team- beginning with Butcher, and his relationship with CIA director Susan Rayner.
Dynamite Entertainment has been constantly putting out comics I've wanted to pick up for sometime now. However, Boys is a release that has found its way to the top of my read pile since It left Vertigo sometime ago. I honestly love this series and its dark, perverse, and utterly hilarious look at the Superhero genre. Once again this week was a bit of a competition with titles like Warren Ellis' Doktor Sleepless, Buffy Season 8, and the Darkness. It looks to be like an enjoyable time to sit down and crack open a comic book.
THE BOYS #15
Garth Ennis & Darick Robertson
Part one of the four part "Good For The Soul": Hughie visits The Legend, determined to find out more about The Boys- their history, their personalities, and their mysterious hidden agenda. Meanwhile, Annie January (alias Starlight) has her own doubts about membership of The Seven. This storyline also reveals a little more about the other members of the team- beginning with Butcher, and his relationship with CIA director Susan Rayner.
Dynamite Entertainment has been constantly putting out comics I've wanted to pick up for sometime now. However, Boys is a release that has found its way to the top of my read pile since It left Vertigo sometime ago. I honestly love this series and its dark, perverse, and utterly hilarious look at the Superhero genre. Once again this week was a bit of a competition with titles like Warren Ellis' Doktor Sleepless, Buffy Season 8, and the Darkness. It looks to be like an enjoyable time to sit down and crack open a comic book.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Step Aside Steve, There is a New Captain in America
James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes is the new Captain America. I'd normally put a spoiler over such things, however in this case I have a reason. Anyone who truly cares should have long since known this outcome. In fact, if you actually read the comic last month, you'd have known Bucky would be the new Cap before his "debut" issue even occured in #34.
This was hardly an unforseen twist from the day Captain America #26 was released. However, a little over a year ago (well many of us were awaiting Captain America #25 and far more were just not expecting to visit a comic shop that week) no one would've seen it coming. When Steve died the news went wild and I sold litterally hundreds of copies of this issue in my store alone. Hell, when I find them I can still sell Captain America #25 at a pretty penny. Sadly, issue #34 will not likely hold the same value or love. The media coverage was near non-existant as a few places mentioned it, the largest program coverage being displayed below on the Colbert Report. I recieved 40 copies at my store and sold out of all of them by sunday. I feel 40 was an appropriate amount because not once did anyone ask me for the issue, it sold well on its own and mainly to comic fans. This is very unlike Cap #25 where I had many people unfamiliar with comic shops coming into ask if I had the issue and where they could find it in the store. I've come to learn over my years at this shop that when people ask where the comics would be in this comic shop, they're generally not comic fans. Thusly the lack of any questions about the issue and simple yet silent sale of all 40 issues in under 5 days tells me the general audience for this issue. That being said, who knows how many late comers will barge into the store over the next month asking for a copy. I'll definitely be ordering second printings.
As for the issue itself, it was good. Thats all, it was merely good. I enjoyed the issue, it was not in anyway bad, but there was no amazing moment or milestone to it. I didn't feel some special tingle when Bucky put on the costume or ever think to myself that "this is steve's sucessor". I mean, the most meroable and amusing moment in the issue was Bucky in the new Cap outfit, capping three AIM agents in the knees. It was just like every issue since Cap's death though, good, worth reading, but not any spectacular moment that has me saying Steve is finally gone.
When issue #25 originally came on shelves I told almost all my customers that this was in no way the end of Steve Rogers. Of course we all knew Steve would eventually be back, but I expected a little sooner than those that were waiting for the next "wipe the slate clean" Marvel event. I was originally shooting out dates like a year to two years. Now, I can't say my view never faltered, unlike my co-worker who still says 18 months. I fortunately got to talk with Ed Brubaker at the 2007 WWLA convention and he persuaded me that Cap was dead. Thusly, I returned with the "He's Dead, Jim" attitude that he wont come back until said "clean slate" event. Now I'm back where I started, he'll be back and soon. Why do I hold this view? Bucky isn't the new Captain America. If Marvel and Brubaker were serious about this transition we would all see a full page splash, glorious, and patriotic moment where Bucky first throws on that Captain America outfit. I didn't see that or get that feeling. Furthermore, the unmemorable and merely enjoyable issue that #34 was leads me to believe this is all merely a temporary thing and Steve will be back in full force within the year.
Furthermore, as much as I did enjoy Bucky as Captain America, he just wouldn't work out. Look at him, he's carring the gun around and hold his darker, Winter Soldier, attitude still that simply doesn't have that Captain America feeling of hope. Bucky is just not the guy you all look up to and admire as the amazing symbol of Captain America. My final word: Good issue, definitely worth the read, expect Steve back soon.
This was hardly an unforseen twist from the day Captain America #26 was released. However, a little over a year ago (well many of us were awaiting Captain America #25 and far more were just not expecting to visit a comic shop that week) no one would've seen it coming. When Steve died the news went wild and I sold litterally hundreds of copies of this issue in my store alone. Hell, when I find them I can still sell Captain America #25 at a pretty penny. Sadly, issue #34 will not likely hold the same value or love. The media coverage was near non-existant as a few places mentioned it, the largest program coverage being displayed below on the Colbert Report. I recieved 40 copies at my store and sold out of all of them by sunday. I feel 40 was an appropriate amount because not once did anyone ask me for the issue, it sold well on its own and mainly to comic fans. This is very unlike Cap #25 where I had many people unfamiliar with comic shops coming into ask if I had the issue and where they could find it in the store. I've come to learn over my years at this shop that when people ask where the comics would be in this comic shop, they're generally not comic fans. Thusly the lack of any questions about the issue and simple yet silent sale of all 40 issues in under 5 days tells me the general audience for this issue. That being said, who knows how many late comers will barge into the store over the next month asking for a copy. I'll definitely be ordering second printings.
As for the issue itself, it was good. Thats all, it was merely good. I enjoyed the issue, it was not in anyway bad, but there was no amazing moment or milestone to it. I didn't feel some special tingle when Bucky put on the costume or ever think to myself that "this is steve's sucessor". I mean, the most meroable and amusing moment in the issue was Bucky in the new Cap outfit, capping three AIM agents in the knees. It was just like every issue since Cap's death though, good, worth reading, but not any spectacular moment that has me saying Steve is finally gone.
When issue #25 originally came on shelves I told almost all my customers that this was in no way the end of Steve Rogers. Of course we all knew Steve would eventually be back, but I expected a little sooner than those that were waiting for the next "wipe the slate clean" Marvel event. I was originally shooting out dates like a year to two years. Now, I can't say my view never faltered, unlike my co-worker who still says 18 months. I fortunately got to talk with Ed Brubaker at the 2007 WWLA convention and he persuaded me that Cap was dead. Thusly, I returned with the "He's Dead, Jim" attitude that he wont come back until said "clean slate" event. Now I'm back where I started, he'll be back and soon. Why do I hold this view? Bucky isn't the new Captain America. If Marvel and Brubaker were serious about this transition we would all see a full page splash, glorious, and patriotic moment where Bucky first throws on that Captain America outfit. I didn't see that or get that feeling. Furthermore, the unmemorable and merely enjoyable issue that #34 was leads me to believe this is all merely a temporary thing and Steve will be back in full force within the year.
Furthermore, as much as I did enjoy Bucky as Captain America, he just wouldn't work out. Look at him, he's carring the gun around and hold his darker, Winter Soldier, attitude still that simply doesn't have that Captain America feeling of hope. Bucky is just not the guy you all look up to and admire as the amazing symbol of Captain America. My final word: Good issue, definitely worth the read, expect Steve back soon.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
The Goddamned Batman
I've got any idea! What if we make a Batman comic series wherein we play him as an extremely over the top, ultra violent psycho. He'll be atleast 23x darker than any alternate incarnations, swear more than the worst of sailors, and then we'll cover it in sexy babes. Hell, lets just make it laughable in excessively played actions. Then? lets release the title over several years, averaging two issues a year.
Now that was not at all what the pitch for All Star Batman and Robin looked like (I presume), but it might as well have been word for word. Don't get me wrong though, it's one of the better titles coming out from DC...when it does actually come out. This title makes me laugh hysterically at the large degree of exaggerated moments in batman history. Furthermore, its almost like a drinking game, taking a shot everytime Batman says 'goddamn'. On a side note, I don't advise play such a game without a very high tolerance to the liquor you're consuming. Honestly, what were they doing letting Frank Miller write this? I honestly can't tell why, but for some odd reason the series amuses me to no end. From the word goddamn popping up in just about every panel of issue #7 to nazi nipples in issue #8, this just screams out as being a badcall from DC. Still--and don't ask me why--this series is absolutely amusing and worth far beyond its simple $2.99 a copy.
Here is what I'm wondering though. DC is a comic company that censored the hell out of the fairly mature "Tenjou Tenge" manga they released through subsidarary CMX. Why are they allowing their most well known character to be drawn as such a raving lunatic? As amusing as it is, it still feels like a bad buisness move. Perhaps its because once the comic fans it was truly aimed for get past the insanity there is so much humour to be found in it that we'll snatch it off the shelf a million times faster than they put it out (quite litterally, because I'm pretty sure I'd grab at it in under 15.5 seconds, 1/millionth of the time between issues). Still, it seems to give a very...unique and unmarketable view of the character. In fact, the script seems like it would far better suit the Midnighter over at Wildstorm. None the less, seeing Jim Lee's beautiful artwork showing off sexy and half naked dames, damaging the dentures of Gotham scum, and masterfully illustrating many of DC's greatest heroes does allow me to ignore the out of character attitude far easier.
So my over all opinion for All Star Batman and Robin would be to recognize it as an atlernate reality parody of Batman. Perhaps consider it the modern day version of our 1960's Batman television series. This is because a simple open minded view allows you to honestly enjoy the humour of the situation where Batman has become the most outrageous superhero title on the market.
Now that was not at all what the pitch for All Star Batman and Robin looked like (I presume), but it might as well have been word for word. Don't get me wrong though, it's one of the better titles coming out from DC...when it does actually come out. This title makes me laugh hysterically at the large degree of exaggerated moments in batman history. Furthermore, its almost like a drinking game, taking a shot everytime Batman says 'goddamn'. On a side note, I don't advise play such a game without a very high tolerance to the liquor you're consuming. Honestly, what were they doing letting Frank Miller write this? I honestly can't tell why, but for some odd reason the series amuses me to no end. From the word goddamn popping up in just about every panel of issue #7 to nazi nipples in issue #8, this just screams out as being a badcall from DC. Still--and don't ask me why--this series is absolutely amusing and worth far beyond its simple $2.99 a copy.
Here is what I'm wondering though. DC is a comic company that censored the hell out of the fairly mature "Tenjou Tenge" manga they released through subsidarary CMX. Why are they allowing their most well known character to be drawn as such a raving lunatic? As amusing as it is, it still feels like a bad buisness move. Perhaps its because once the comic fans it was truly aimed for get past the insanity there is so much humour to be found in it that we'll snatch it off the shelf a million times faster than they put it out (quite litterally, because I'm pretty sure I'd grab at it in under 15.5 seconds, 1/millionth of the time between issues). Still, it seems to give a very...unique and unmarketable view of the character. In fact, the script seems like it would far better suit the Midnighter over at Wildstorm. None the less, seeing Jim Lee's beautiful artwork showing off sexy and half naked dames, damaging the dentures of Gotham scum, and masterfully illustrating many of DC's greatest heroes does allow me to ignore the out of character attitude far easier.
So my over all opinion for All Star Batman and Robin would be to recognize it as an atlernate reality parody of Batman. Perhaps consider it the modern day version of our 1960's Batman television series. This is because a simple open minded view allows you to honestly enjoy the humour of the situation where Batman has become the most outrageous superhero title on the market.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Colbert * Quesada '08!!!
As many of you may well know, Joe Q was on the infamous and amazing Colbert Report last night. Did you miss it? maybe you want to see it again? you can thank me later.
First off, before you run off to check your Amazing Spider-man #546 covers in disbelief, the Colbert '08 ad is sadly not on there. I wish it was and would buy the issue over again with this variance, yet it doesn't seem such a cover exists...yet!
Now as for the idea of Colbert being a viable canidate for the '08 presidential election within the Marvel universe? I'd find this a beautifully well thought out advertising scheme that would benefit both groups and amuse countless fans. It could honestly be done quite simply through a subtle viral campaign. Think about it, now and then seeing billboards, bumper stickers, and newspapers mentioning Colbert for president throughout the pages of Marvel comics. It would detract from the story anymore than the fake ads do now and would certainly beat the hell out of the Army and Lost ads currently leaking into our comic pages. I can also guarantee that people would pick up the comics for this factor and retailers would sell a few extra copies. I mean...I sold all the issues of Tek Jansen #1 we got in my store with the greatest of ease. The only question is...who is Stephen going to choose for his running mate? I'd honestly put a Colbert * Quesada '08 sticker on...well, just about everything I own. So listen up Marvel, its time to get this campaign running and put Colbert in something as close to the Marvel's Oval Office as possible!
Now, an image to remember, lets look at Quesada's cover to the never released (or even written) Rampaging Colbert #1
First off, before you run off to check your Amazing Spider-man #546 covers in disbelief, the Colbert '08 ad is sadly not on there. I wish it was and would buy the issue over again with this variance, yet it doesn't seem such a cover exists...yet!
Now as for the idea of Colbert being a viable canidate for the '08 presidential election within the Marvel universe? I'd find this a beautifully well thought out advertising scheme that would benefit both groups and amuse countless fans. It could honestly be done quite simply through a subtle viral campaign. Think about it, now and then seeing billboards, bumper stickers, and newspapers mentioning Colbert for president throughout the pages of Marvel comics. It would detract from the story anymore than the fake ads do now and would certainly beat the hell out of the Army and Lost ads currently leaking into our comic pages. I can also guarantee that people would pick up the comics for this factor and retailers would sell a few extra copies. I mean...I sold all the issues of Tek Jansen #1 we got in my store with the greatest of ease. The only question is...who is Stephen going to choose for his running mate? I'd honestly put a Colbert * Quesada '08 sticker on...well, just about everything I own. So listen up Marvel, its time to get this campaign running and put Colbert in something as close to the Marvel's Oval Office as possible!
Now, an image to remember, lets look at Quesada's cover to the never released (or even written) Rampaging Colbert #1
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
PICK OF THE WEEK
Every Wednesday new comic books arrive at my store and I choose my favourite as my personal ‘Pick of the Week’. This decision is made before I read the issue and is based upon several variables. Contributing factors include the creators, cover, story summary, previous events in the comic, and personal interest in the comic. The options I choose from our only limited by what Diamond has listed to release this week according to their shipping list (and in some rare cases the issue won’t even arrive at my shop). So without further adieu, this week’s pick is:
Wormwood: Calamari Rising Part #1
Ben Templesmith
Just when Wormwood thought he could finally have that quiet drink without worrying about the world coming to an end, or a friend with a parasitic infection trying to kill him, The Brotherhood of the Calamari decide to crash the party. Since their last meeting, they've tracked him across the thousand million dimensional possibilities of existence—and this time the entire Squideeverse is with them. Wormwood is going to learn the hard way he can't keep running from his problems as his oldest foe now threatens his favorite watering hole, Earth, with absorption into the Calamari group mind.
FC • $3.99 • 32 pages
It was a hard choice this week, especially when Jamie Delano FINALLY has a new book coming out (Narcopolis) and you're competing with Black Adam, 2 Star Wars titles, and 3 Avengers books. Hell, even the new Captain America was revealed this week (which I'll talk about this weekend)!!! Still, credit given where credit is due and this is where it belongs. Templesmith has never written a wormwood story that hasn't made me smile.
Wormwood: Calamari Rising Part #1
Ben Templesmith
Just when Wormwood thought he could finally have that quiet drink without worrying about the world coming to an end, or a friend with a parasitic infection trying to kill him, The Brotherhood of the Calamari decide to crash the party. Since their last meeting, they've tracked him across the thousand million dimensional possibilities of existence—and this time the entire Squideeverse is with them. Wormwood is going to learn the hard way he can't keep running from his problems as his oldest foe now threatens his favorite watering hole, Earth, with absorption into the Calamari group mind.
FC • $3.99 • 32 pages
It was a hard choice this week, especially when Jamie Delano FINALLY has a new book coming out (Narcopolis) and you're competing with Black Adam, 2 Star Wars titles, and 3 Avengers books. Hell, even the new Captain America was revealed this week (which I'll talk about this weekend)!!! Still, credit given where credit is due and this is where it belongs. Templesmith has never written a wormwood story that hasn't made me smile.
Guaranteed Sales
There are certain comic creators whose work I enjoy so much I will buy anything they put out, regardless of what it is. Its not necessarily because they are my favourite creators (though in some cases they are), but these people have put out enough consistantly good work that I trust future projects will be equally enjoyable. Here is a list:
Writers:
Alan Moore, Jamie Delano, Geoff Johns, Warren Ellis, Greg Rucka, Brad Meltzer, Judd Winick, & Ed Brubaker
Pencilers:
Michael Turner, Jim Lee, Frank Cho, Ben Templesmith, & Josh Howard
Colourists: (yes, there are some colourists I find so amazing I am guaranteed to buy their works)
Peter Stiegerwald & Christina Strain
Writers:
Alan Moore, Jamie Delano, Geoff Johns, Warren Ellis, Greg Rucka, Brad Meltzer, Judd Winick, & Ed Brubaker
Pencilers:
Michael Turner, Jim Lee, Frank Cho, Ben Templesmith, & Josh Howard
Colourists: (yes, there are some colourists I find so amazing I am guaranteed to buy their works)
Peter Stiegerwald & Christina Strain
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