SEP060002 MARVEL PREVIEWS #39 NOVEMBER 2006 EXTRAS PI SEP060005 PREVIEWS ADULT VOL XVI #11 PI SEP060001 PREVIEWS VOL XVI #11 PI
Previews: hate it, love it, you have to use it if you plan on ordering anything from the four largest publishers. The Adult catalog is always worth a few giggles.
DC Comics
AUG060266 BOYS #4 (MR) $2.99
Until I freak out in abject horror, just presume this is part of my monthly buy. The last issue was so, so very wrong, but I enjoyed it anyway. I get the feeling Ennis is building towards something epic and smart in a very crude, brute-force manner.
AUG060221 SEVEN SOLDIERS #1 (RES) $3.99
Until it’s in my very sweaty hands and tears are running down my face with joy, I’m assuming this is not coming out.
Most Phantom Stranger appearances are distinctly underwhelming, at least in my experience, but this collection should provide some sort of historic background and some good stories compared to his current case of Dr. Strange syndrome.
Image Comics
AUG061736 GODLAND #13 $2.99
Nice to have you back, my other favorite superhero comic.
Don’t bitch that you can’t find it anymore. Take these codes to your retailer and smack them when they say they can’t get it. They are liars and thieves and should have their shops taken from them.
Marvel Comics
AUG062041 DAREDEVIL #90 $2.99 AUG062115 DAREDEVIL DEVIL INSIDE AND OUT VOL 1 TP $14.99
Begin a new storyline, put the last storyline in trade. This is an interesting policy. I should make the switch from monthly to trades on ol’ Hornhead, but I do rather like this comic.
AUG062121 HEROES REBORN FANTASTIC FOUR TP $29.99
For $30, find out what I found out for $5: it’s not very good, but it’s dopey fun and there’s lots of punching.
AUG062108 MARVEL ADVENTURES SPIDER-MAN VOL 1 HC $19.99
Let’s take this to Chris Sims, comics retailer and fellow blogger:
[21:44] BeaucoupKevin: http://marvel.com/catalog/?book_id=5297 [21:44] BeaucoupKevin: The fuck they thinking? [21:44] chris_sims: The fuck? [21:45] chris_sims: The only thing I can think of is that it kinda looks like a kid’s storybook. [21:45] chris_sims: But man. [21:45] chris_sims: Talk about missing the point. [21:45] BeaucoupKevin: Exactly.
And thus ends our examination of Marvel’s stupid, stupid publishing decisions. However, almost all is forgiven with this:
AUG062063 NEXTWAVE AGENTS OF HATE #9 $2.99
I am saying this without any hyperbole at all: this is the single most glorious Marvel comic published in the last decade, if for nothing more than the last line. Thankfully, there’s a ton of cleverness in here with a sequence that is unlike anything I’ve seen in a superhero comic before, and probably unlike anything else I’ve seen anywhere unless I was force-fed a combination of peyote and LSD and had my mind blown so thoroughly that I can’t remember it to this day.
Other Companies
AUG063318 EC ARCHIVES WEIRD SCIENCE VOL 1 HC $49.95
I really, really hope these don’t have that awful cover copy that was evidenced in the solicitations. I’m curious and would like to get these in a bookshelf format, but have a lot of the reprints already and would rather avoid the cheapness the jackets shown had.
Meathaus! Always interesting, if it doesn’t flip my switches consistently.
AUG063379 SUPERMARKET TP (APR068182) $17.99
Another slightly-too-expensive trade paperback from IDW. However, If this has any extras, like pin-ups and the like, then I may have to make the plunge. This was a fucking lovely comic and once I figured out what Wood was doing with it, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
MAY062980 TAG #2 (OF 3) $3.99
I just got the second issue in a shipment from the mothership, but have yet to dive into it – I was too busy rolling around on my comp copies of What Were They Thinking and cackling.
Comments Off | Posted: October 23rd, 2006 | Filed under:Uncategorized
From BOOM!’s January solicitations:
WHAT WERE THEY THINKING: GO WEST YOUNG MAN Written by Chris Ward and Kevin Church, art by past comic book masters.
The little comedy that could continues! Strap on your six guns, we’re going out west. Reprinting classic old west comic book stories and re-writing the word balloons to make ‘em funny, fans have described WWTT as Mystery Science Theater 3000 for comics.
32 pages, $3.99.
I’ll have a Diamond order code when BOOM! has a Diamond order code. There’s a more than a couple of other interesting-looking titles coming out from the mothership in January as well, so you should take a look at them as well.
I’ve shown it before, but here’s the cover again anyway:
Comments Off | Posted: October 23rd, 2006 | Filed under:Uncategorized
Bill Willingham’s Fables is notable to me mostly for two things: those lovely James Jean covers and the fact that it’s not bloody Sandman, a series I grew weary with once Gaiman turned it into his personal very clever way of presenting the fact that yes, he’s quite well read. Willingham’s ongoing series has cleverly fused the world of fairy tales and myth with our modern age and has managed to generate some fascinating, engrossing stories at the same time. The first original graphic novel set in the Fables universe, 1001 Nights Of Snowfall borrows (and cleverly refers to) a premise established by the story of Scheherazade in The Book Of One Thousand And One Nights to feature Snow White (acting as an emissary to the Arabian Fables) telling the stories of several characters from the ongoing series including Bigby Wolf, Flycatcher, and herself.
1001 Nights of Snowfall has a premise that allowed Willingham and his editors to work with artists outside of the normal Vertigo sphere. From Michael Wm. Kaluta and Charles Vess’s spot illustrations for the prose sections of the book to Tara McPherson’s surprisingly (at least to me) effective sequential work in the story of Snow White and Rose Red’s exodus from their kingdom and meeting Frau Tottenkinder, the results – with one exception that’s purely due to my personal distaste for Mark Wheatley’s art – are consistently impressive and in more than one case, jaw-droppingly, achingly beautiful. There are several pages, including those by series designer and cover artist James Jean that demand a larger format, something akin to the Absolute series of reprints.
The art is the most obvious attraction this work will have for most people, but Willingham’s writing is spot-on throughout the entire book. While answering questions that had been dangling over the series since its inception – the origin of Bigby Wolf, for instance – as well as providing background for Flycatcher, King Cole, and others, Willingham’s writing not only giving existing readers answers, but allows neophytes the opportunity to learn about the world of Fables in a way that will expand their appreciation of the series if they continue. Of particular note here is the heartbreaking origin of Flycatcher as well as the story of Snow White and Prince Charming’s marriage, where our lead character and storyteller’s distaste for dwarves is well and truly explained to chilling effect. The stories contained in 1001 Nights of Snowfall serve as a reminder that the original Grimm’s Fairy Tales were much, much darker than the pablum they’ve become and the structure used no only serves as a viable platform for this sort of things, but has its own rewards, including the best last line I’ve read in a book in a very, very long time.
For current Fables readers, 1001 Nights Of Snowfall is a must-buy, even if the hardcover price of $19.99 is a bit daunting. People that haven’t yet wandered into the current best ongoing that Vertigo has going can pick this up with no fear of being lost, but I daresay that getting the first (inexpensive) trade, Legends In Exile is a wiser way of approaching the series.
Comments Off | Posted: October 20th, 2006 | Filed under:Uncategorized
I’m going to use one of my LJ icons here so you people know that maybe this post is worth skipping.
Man, that looks kinda weird. If I were smarter, I’d figure out how to make a table for it has my “username” and everything under it, just to mess with people. Ah well.
So anyway, I was totally working on a big “state of the industry” post and how I keep getting courted by companies looking for a mention on the blog (yes, some reviews are forthcoming, including one I can’t believe I’m doing) when Neil Kleid’s totally kickass interview with Slave Labor’s Dan Vado comes down the pike and ensures I really don’t need to bother. Here’s someone with real industry experience saying that so much of the crap hurled at people doesn’t do anything.
VADO: Something cannot be both a sleeper and a hit. A comic or graphic novel either sells or it doesn�t. Critical acclaim does not translate to sales. For all the talk and hype on Street Angel, the comic hovered around 1500 copies sold and never broke out of that. Not enough for a creator with rent to pay to keep the project going. A million blog entries or message board posts mean shit when it comes to actually selling something. For all of the hype or critical acclaim for Street Angel on the Internet, that alone wasn�t enough to help make it a financial success or, for that matter, even get it nominated for a single award in any category. Snakes on a Plane, that movie was in discount houses in a couple of weeks despite all of the viral marketing hype.
And, let me say this about �viral marketing� thing that people can�t shut up about. I think I liked �Viral Marketing� better when it was called �Word-of-Mouth advertising.� You really can�t get better advertising than someone recommending something to someone else, but it needs to be a sincere recommendation from someone who has tried the product. When Hollywood or advertising types start talking about �viral marketing,� they are basically saying that they can invent the virus, plant it in the population, and suddenly everyone is going to jump in and buy their product or go to their movie. Some of these people translate a couple of entries on someone�s blog as millions of impressions and charge accordingly. YOUTUBE.COM is valuing itself at $1.5 BILLION DOLLARS, despite the fact that they have no workable revenue stream, and someone will pay it because they think that it�s this amazing advertising platform. But once people start getting wind of the fact that most of the content you are being directed to are all fake pieces of nonsense designed to dupe you into buying deodorant or watching some crappy TV show they will abandon YOUTUBE in favor of some other thing that will become the Internet�s next big �IT� site.
Same thing with MySpace. Rupert Murdoch�s Newscorp buys MySpace for $500 Million dollars. Then what happens? People discover Myspace and start using it as a marketing platform. The result, Google has now made a deal paying Newscorp almost $900 Million, nearly twice what they paid for Myspace in the first place, to serve ads on MySpace websites. Really, how many text ads on MySpace or Livejournal does someone really click?
If I tried to take credit for creating the word-of-mouth, or the viral marketing, that made Johnny a success I would be lying. I took advantage of it, I was able to capitalize on it, but I was not responsible for it. The reason that book took off the way it did was because all of the word-of-mouth, all of the �viral marketing,� was all sincere efforts on the parts of fans to spread the word to other fans, not because we planted fake messages on message boards or because some made-up hot chick on Youtube was reading Johnny.
Some of this I disagree with – Google’s making money hand over fist with its advertising model, for instance, which certainly means they think that YouTube and the like can be monetized in some fashion – perhaps by inserting ads before the videos in the iFilm or Revver model. But yes, all of this viral marketing, it seems to not work at all and in one case directly related to comics, seems to have backfired.
Maybe I’m saying I’m unnecessary, to an extent, at least as far as marketing campaigns go, and I’m fairly sure I’m OK with that – this is my site and promoting other people’s products is sort of not my bag. You’ll note that I don’t do text ads – only two affiliate links on the right for eMusic and Dreamhost, two services that I very much like. I’d like to think that this blog, along with Mike Sterling’s and Chris Sims’s (to name two), offers something for the readers beyond acting in some vague tastemaker role. Trust me – you people don’t want to have my tastes. I try to go above and beyond the call of duty by posting old comics and occasionally writing up something that people seem to respond to, like the Weekly List and Genius Covers Sunday.
And really, I like writing for the blog a good 99% of the time. Comics fascinate and excite me and I want to share this excitement, but do I really have any sort of impact in people’s reading habits? I don’t provide handy links to blog entries, etc for feminists and I certainly don’t make fanboys piss themselves with laughter like some Newsweek-covered bastards.
I guess what I’m asking, and there’s a reason for this beyond my need for validation – really, honestly – why do you read this blog? Do you just like the words I string together? I’ve got a thousand unique visitors a day, which means something and doesn’t count however many people are reading the RSS feed, but why are you here? Is it because you know me, are you just a comics blog junkie, you’re looking for blackmail material or what? Is there something you want more of from me – reviews, commentary, etc? Is there something you don’t like about the site, I mean besides my airs of superiority?
Comment, inform, help me shape this almost-5-year-old beast.
Comments Off | Posted: October 19th, 2006 | Filed under:Uncategorized
“Where the nameless dread thing came from - or why – I didn’t know, but I became its helpless partner when I found something awesome that could have made a shambles out of Earth! But don’t blame – or thank - me for what happened! Save it for… The Alien Within Me!“
The legendary Alex Toth drew this one, no idea who wrote it. From House Of Mystery #196.
Comments Off | Posted: October 19th, 2006 | Filed under:Uncategorized
Did anyone else notice how very different Morrison’s two WildStorm titles were this week? The Authority took a very leisurely route for its opening issue that reminded me of Spielberg at his peak – think Close Encounters Of The Third Kind or Jaws – with a last page reveal that I knew was coming, but still flattened me anyway. While maybe a bit unsatisfying in the single-issue format, it’s going to knock ‘em dead in the trade paperback. Wildcats was dense with a giant information dump that sets up the new direction for a series that’s constantly finding new directions. I’m glad to see that Casey’s 3.0 material was not forgotten, as the Halo branding effort is one of my favorite superhero-related story arcs in recent memory.
What Were They Thinking: Monster Mash-Up is the latest installment of Boom! Studios’ “redialoguing classic comics” series, and it’s funny as always…if you liked the previous issues, here’s more of it! Standing out, though, are a couple contributions from that guy Kevin Church, who plays with the format of the series a bit. One story written as a Creature from the Black Lagoon-type’s online emo-journal, and another short strip where…well, I hesitate to give away the joke. It’s the one with the “Astro Alien Dog” in the “Space-year 1998″ – Church makes it into a very self-referential gag about the nature of the What Were They Thinking series, and it’s very funny.
The bastard.
Just’s just ignore the fact that I consider Mike a “friend,” and that I just sent his store some money for comics – that’s the kind of review I plan on printing out, perhaps in a nice calligraphic font, and framing for future reference. Unlike, say, Dorian’s take:
Read this review if your name is Kevin Church: This is vile, unfunny, disgusting work that pissed on the contributions of men whose boots a shiftless dilettante like Church is not fit to lick.
Read this review if your name is NOT Kevin Church: The torrid psycho-sexual subtext of this Silver Age monster tales is brought to the surface by a group of talented and funny writers. Boom’s various remix projects are the best of the recent trend, and the stories work precisely because they revel in the goofiness of the source material. Church aquits himself well in his published comics debut, and I’m not just saying that because he’s a friend, because I would never tell him that because his head is swelled enough as it is.
Not a link: Dan Clowes just underwent open-heart surgery last week, so send him well wishes and good vibes. Alternatively, just thank whatever deities that one of comics’ most unique voices is recovering well. I may not always like his work, but I appreciate every effort he makes for being above and beyond 99% of the business.
Brian Wood is now exclusive with DC Comics. (I really can’t imagine that Marvel was looking for someone with his sensibilities, but hey, let the man get some health care and stability.)
Comments Off | Posted: October 18th, 2006 | Filed under:Uncategorized
…or did anyone else flip through a stack of Desolation Jones issues this week and find that each copy of #7 had missing blacks on four pages (2+3 and the equivalent on the back end1)?
1I have had beers. I can not do the math involved in calculating the back end’s pages. 20 and 21? Maybe?
Comments Off | Posted: October 18th, 2006 | Filed under:Uncategorized
I picked up the first five issues of the Heroes Reborn version of Fantastic Four the other day for a dollar each.
I enjoyed them far, far more than I should and plan on getting the 6th issue. No, the writing’s not very good and the art is merely fine as long as you don’t examine it, but there’s a ton of action: they fight the Mole Man, clash with Namor, meet the Black Panther, and confront Doom in short order. It’s certainly more interesting than the Ultimate version of their origin, and was very refreshing compared to the last issue of the 616 FF title that I picked up. Worth the $1 I paid per issue, if not much more.
Comments Off | Posted: October 18th, 2006 | Filed under:Uncategorized
I’m shameless, me.
First of all, I’m pointing you to the latest Nitroglycerin, which basically serves to promote What Where They Thinking?!?, but I think has at least one funny bit in it on its own.
This series continues to quietly be one the best titles on the stands, long after its initial burst out of the gate. Azzarello is a bit of a one-trick pony for me, but that trick the pony does, it’s a very clever one and worthy of respect.
Two Grant Morrison comics featuring two wildly divergent ideas in the Wildstorm universe coming out on the same day with Jim Lee (who I like if I read quickly enough) and Gene Ha (whose art I want to spend hours poring over) on art?
This is a late goddamn birthday present, guys.
Image
AUG061764 CASANOVA #5 (MR) $1.99
Brilliant material. I like Casanova more with each issue. It’s a bit akin to hearing Coltrane’s Impulse material with that sheets of sound effect. At first you’re trying to figure out what the hell they’re doing and after two or three listens, it catches your ear just right and then you’re completely in step with him.
Yeah, it’s like that. Except with sequential art on paper. And not a lot of people I know (besides me) prefer Coltrane on Impulse.
Marvel
AUG062123 ESSENTIAL MARVEL HORROR VOL 1 TP $16.99
Lots of odds and sods here – I’m not sure if I ordered it. Considering I’ve yet to read the Tales of the Zombie volume, it’d just be more pulp on my shelf. Not that I have a problem with that.
AUG062091 JACK KIRBYS GALACTIC BOUNTY HUNTERS #3 $2.99
I think I’m just buying this so Jack’s kids can, I dunno, pay off their mortgages faster.
AUG063131 WHAT WERE THEY THINKING MONSTER MASH UP ONE SHOT $3.99
I wrote three things that are in it. I’d very much appreciate it if you’d buy it. Here’s what it looks like. Marc Mason liked one of my contributions OK. Johanna Stokes really does knock it out of the park with her story “Hats Off,” though. Made me a little jealous.
Comments Off | Posted: October 16th, 2006 | Filed under:Uncategorized
I had no idea that frequent Leinil Yu collaborator Gerry Alanguilan was such a terrific cartoonist in his own right, but Spurgeon educated me with this staggeringly good interview. An excerpt that made me laugh aloud in my cube:
SPURGEON: Your chickens are very handsomely drawn.
ALANGUILAN: Thank you!
Alanguilan’s forthcoming Elmer looks to be a real hoot.
I posted about this on Metafilter, but I figured it’d be good to fill out some space on my site anyway: Peter Gabriel’s introduced a free plugin for iTunes on XP called The Filter that builds playlists for you based on a few selections. Their marketing copy tells you that you should “Prepare to be reengaged and reinvigorated by your iTunes library.” I’ll install it at home and give it a whirl – I hate the shuffle mode on my iPod, but I also hate building playlists outside of strictly artist-related ones.
Who likes out-of-print movie soundtracks? This guy does!
I noticed in some preview or another – it may have been from AK Comics, but I can’t find the example online – that the dreaded Microsoft Comic Sans font was being used in dialogue and captions. That made me think of these two links: 1) Ban Comic Sans. 2) America’s Most Fonted: The 7 Worst Fonts.
Bill Willingham’s Fables is notable to me mostly for two things: those lovely James Jean covers and the fact that it’s not bloody Sandman, a series I grew weary with once Gaiman turned it into his personal very clever way of presenting the fact that yes, he’s quite well read. Willingham’s ongoing series has cleverly fused the world of fairy tales and myth with our modern age and has managed to generate some fascinating, engrossing stories at the same time. The first original graphic novel set in the Fables universe, 1001 Nights Of Snowfall borrows (and cleverly refers to) a premise established by the story of Scheherazade in The Book Of One Thousand And One Nights to feature Snow White (acting as an emissary to the Arabian Fables) telling the stories of several characters from the ongoing series including Bigby Wolf, Flycatcher, and herself.
I’m going to use one of my LJ icons here so you people know that maybe this post is worth skipping.
