Quick note on my activities: you'll notice I've been pretty quiet the last few weeks. Chalk it up to End of Year stuff (busy retail throughout December, January is getting going to year-end accounting, and so on). I'll be doing review posts again "soon", but it might be another week or so. FYI.
Another small shipping week makes New Stuff in January look not all so good. But there's a few swell books, yes...
ALL NEW BATMAN THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #3
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #651 BIG
BATGIRL #17
BATMAN AND ROBIN #19
BIRDS OF PREY #8
BLACK PANTHER MAN WITHOUT FEAR #514
BOOSTER GOLD #40
BPRD HELL ON EARTH GODS #1 (OF 3)
CAPTAIN AMERICA MAN OUT OF TIME #3 (OF 5)
CASANOVA GULA #1 (OF 4)
CHAOS WAR DEAD AVENGERS #3 (OF 3)
DAREDEVIL REBORN #1 (OF 4)
DARK TOWER GUNSLINGER LITTLE SISTERS ELURIA #2 (OF 5)
DEADPOOL #31
DOC SAVAGE #10
DONALD DUCK AND FRIENDS #362
FEVRE DREAM #10 (OF 10)
GREEN LANTERN EMERALD WARRIORS #6 (BRIGHTEST DAY)
HACK SLASH ME WITHOUT YOU (ONE-SHOT)
HALCYON #3
HEROES FOR HIRE #2
I AM AN AVENGER #5 (OF 5)
INCREDIBLE HULKS #620
INFINITE VACATION #1
JUSTICE LEAGUE GENERATION LOST #17 (BRIGHTEST DAY)
KNIGHT & SQUIRE #4 (OF 6)
REBELS #24
RED ROBIN #19
ROBERT E HOWARDS SAVAGE SWORD #1
SAVAGE DRAGON #168
SECRET SIX #29
SPAWN #200
STAN LEE STARBORN #2
STAR WARS KNIGHT ERRANT #4 AFLAME PT 4 (OF 5)
SUPER HEROES #10
SUPERMAN #707
THOR MIGHTY AVENGER #8
THUNDER AGENTS #3
TITANS #31
UNWRITTEN #21
VICTORIAN UNDEAD II HOLMES VS DRACULA #3 (OF 5)
WALKING DEAD WEEKLY #2
WIDOW MAKER #3 (OF 4)
WONDER GIRL #1
X-MEN FOREVER 2 #15
Books / Mags / Stuff
BRODYS GHOST BOOK 02
CASANOVA TP LUXURIA VOL 01
CHILL TP
DARK TOWER GUNSLINGER JOURNEY BEGINS PREM HC
DODGEM LOGIC MAGAZINE #6
KOOKABURRA K TP
MARVEL ADVENTURES AVENGERS THOR DIGEST TP
NEW AVENGERS BY BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS PREM HC VOL 01
ORSON SCOTT CARDS ENDER IN EXILE PREM HC
SIEGE DARK AVENGERS TP
SIXTH GUN TP VOL 01
UNCLE SCROOGE LIKE A HURRICANE TP
X-FACTOR TP VOL 10 SECOND COMING
Okay, so here's what happened. Jeff and I were emailing each other about recording a new Wait, What? tomorrow (Still to come this week on this very site: Ep. 22.2), and what started as our talking about what we should talk about ended up becoming... well, I guess it's the first all-text episode of Wait, What?. So, sing the theme tune for yourself and we'll dive right in mid-conversation...
Graeme: And, yeah, we really do have some news to talk about tomorrow, huh...?
Jeff: Yeah, the news is going to be something else. But here's how bad my memory is: Did we even mention the possibility of Axel becoming EIC when we starting talking our picks? I kinda feel like we did but I'm really not sure....
Graeme: I'm pretty sure that, if we did, we pretty much ignored it in favor of Brevoort. Shows what we (I) know.
Jeff: I'm okay with it if we did a "he'd be interesting/great but clearly it's going to be Brevoort." Because I'm still surprised it's not Brevoort, to be honest. I wonder if his "it's okay to be a dick on Formspring if I think I'm right" approach cost him?
Graeme: I honestly am convinced that Brevoort must've turned it down, still, or else pissed someone off. It was clearly his for the taking, and his new gig is clearly a booby prize.
Jeff: I agree--in terms of just what he edited and how it sold, he must've been the guy.
I can't imagine him turning it down, though...or maybe he did because...uh, I dunno. If he'd taken it, he never would've had a shot at DC? (Though I think he already burned that bridge?)
Graeme: I'm pretty sure the DC bridge shut down as soon as Bob Harras got the nod. It's not often I agree with Erik Larsen, but in this case, I share his disbelief that Marvel made the guy who brought the Spider-Man and X-Men books down in sales gets the gig, instead of the guy who made the Avengers books into the top franchise at the company.
Jeff: Exactly. Avengers *and* Civil War. There's got to be some other factor at play.
It could be, maybe, that Alonso has done a better job of nurturing new talent than TB? Also, that Deadpool thing, though a really weird fluke, might've looked really good on paper...
Graeme: Honestly, I think it might just be that Alonso looks "newer" and more exciting than Brevoort to TPTB.
Here's something that struck me yesterday: Does this herald a shift in writer power over there? Alonso has never edited a Bendis or Brubaker book, but he's the guy who brought Fraction into the company.
Jeff: I would think it would have to, wouldn't it? Though didn't Fraction come into the company via Brubaker and Iron Fist? Was that an AA joint? Aaron is Alonso's but Brevoort brought in Hickman?
I think what Alonso has got is he's kept a dead-end imprint (MAX) going at suprisingly solid sales for much longer than anyone could expect. I think he's got really, really good relations with talent and, up until he got promoted too high, he made recruiting new talent a very big deal.
But yeah, I'd love to be Victor Gischler right about now...
Graeme: I wonder whether Alonso will stay on as even an executive editor at this point. Who'll take over the X-Men books?
Jeff: My guess is: no. When I talked to him at NYCC, he was already in the "sorry, but you have to talk to the editors who work under me" phase of things. He said at that point he'd moved too far up to really spend time developing new talent and that it would have to be for his editors to handle. And that was three months ago.
So I would think all of his people move up to his books and he moves up to handling the PR and hype (which, as I think we've talked about, he's not especially good at) and wrangling talent and direction (which he is good at, as long as you don't look at the resulting bottom line--but, then? How can you?)
It might be classic Peter Principle at work; we'll see.
Graeme: But how involved in new talent development is an EiC, really? I think this promotion might take him out of his comfort zone - and what he's good at - and leave him in a weird place. One potential plus: Other editors may try and learn from his efforts, and be more experimental and better talent wranglers? Maybe? That might be too optimistic, though.
Jeff: I meant "wrangling *current* talent," as opposed to "new talent." I'm probably not paying enough attention but it appears like--although the x-books aren't selling--they're moving in a cohesive direction and the talent have been on the books for a decent period of time. I just suspect Alonso's books run a lot more smoothly (though I can't tell if that really holds up in the shipping schedules--or if Marvel even pays attention to those, even a little). I also wonder if he's also juggled a lot more talent--my perception (again, probably incorrectly) is that Brevoort has worked with only a handful of the same dudes, and the projects also end up delayed--like, a lot. (Cap:Reborn, Civil War, any big Bendis project). But I'm probably really off-base on this.
Graeme: Yeah, Alonso's definitely brought a specific direction to the X-Books, but I'm not sure if it's one that's not pretty much over now: I mean, from Messiah Complex to Second Coming, that's the arc, right? Is there really anywhere else for it to go now? I haven't been paying too much attention to the X-Books as a franchise lately, but it seems as if it's playing for time, esp. with the relative lack of noise surrounding "Curse Of The Mutants." You're probably right about things running more smoothly under Alonso's eye, however. Maybe that's why he got the gig over Brevoort: He can keep the trains running on time more successfully.
Jeff: I'm only triangulating based on teasers and the panels I sat in on (trying to cadge work) but I would guess "Cyclops pays the price for everything he's done" is the real conclusion to the X-Men arc and it wouldn't surprise me if that comes down during/just after Fear, Itself. (And maybe that's why Curse of the Mutants played for time?)
[BTW, I was thinking how you could actually have a book called "Exile" now that would make a lot of sense, because the mutant community is so small, you really could have them decide to exile a character from San Francisco/Utopia. And they could kind of wander the earth, helping others and sobbing over the way the community that has shunned them...kinda classic Marvel stuff. It almost seems cliche for it to happen to Cyclops, though.]
Graeme: Random question: How involved do you think Joe Q will be in publishing from now on?
Jeff: I'm kind of at a loss as to where he goes or what he does now unless he becomes something like what Stan did for the company, and becomes the main interface between Marvel and Hollywood. (which in this case would be Marvel Hollywood.) I think Marvel has to keep him in their back pocket in case things don't work out (and because, frankly, I could almost see him and Palmiotti making a go of publishing now that Q's got the tall Marvel dollars) but I don't know what his place is or will be.
Graeme: Well, Joe Q has become Geoff Johns, weirdly enough - The conduit between Marvel Comics and Marvel Everything Else - but I don't really see him being able to leave publishing alone, to be honest... I also don't think that he can realistically ever be officially seen to come back as EiC without it being a major embarrassment for the company, although I wouldn't be too surprised if he keeps a hand or several in for the next few months, at the very least. He really has become the new Stan, which is interesting.
It'll definitely be an interesting year for Marvel, though...
Let's start 2011 off with a controversial statement: Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz's THE MIGHTY THOR is great. No, wait, that's not controversial enough. How about this? Comparing it to the current Matt Fraction/Pascal Ferry run only points out the latter's flaws all the more clearly.
I picked up #393-400 of Thor at the recent Excalibur 50% off New Year's Sale, here in Portland; there wasn't a great deal of forethought in the purchase, I admit. Pretty much, it was "Wait, each issue will be less than a dollar? And it's a pretty heavily Kirby-influenced run, I seem to remember... How bad can it be?" The answer turned out to be "Not bad at all," with issues that pretty much hit all my highpoints in terms of what I'd want out of a Thor comic's tone, (melo)drama and scale. In many ways, it made me convinced that DeFalco and Frenz were a creative team out of their time - If the exact same run had been published ten years later, it would've been lauded as a wonderful retro pastiche and exercise in Kirby revivalism, but instead, it came as Marvel turned towards a new style in artists like Todd McFarlane and Jim Lee and was still too close to leaning on Kirby and Buscema clones visually to really appreciate those styles as styles just yet.
(Frenz channels Kirby amazingly well in these issues, but he also does something that's very subtle and very, very enjoyable: He also channels Walt Simonson. It's only for Lorelei, the Simonson-created sister of the Enchantress, but look at the body-type and the finishes that Frenz gives her. It doesn't look out of place with the rest of the characters, but it's definitely there: He's reinforcing the looks given to each character by their creators, instead of just blindly turning everything into Kirby pastiche.)
For all the ridiculously overwritten dialogue - intentionally so, and with tongue-more-in-cheek than DeFalco gets credit for, I think; there's a line in #400 where Ron Frenz "tells" DeFalco in story that Stan Lee should get royalties for every word DeFalco writes, which shows a nice sense of self-awareness - there's a wonderful pace and economy to the writing, as well: Each issue advances the story but also has an arc of its own (Thor starts one issue captured and imprisoned, and by the end of the issue, he's escaped and on the run, for example - the villain isn't defeated, but our hero has accomplished something and the reader gets a sense of a beginning/middle/end in the chapter), and the overall storyline constantly builds in intensity and overblown scale as it goes on. There's a real sense of "Think we can't go any further? Well, look at this!" to it, and that's very much to its benefit; by the time we've reached the final issue, so much is going on, and so much seems out-of-control, that the pace alone convinces that this battle "means" something.
It's that sense of... I don't know, intensity? Pace? Scale? that really pulled me to contrast these issues with the first four Fraction/Ferry issues of the current Thor run. I've said elsewhere - Wait, What?, I think - that one of my biggest problems with the run to date is that things don't really make sense, but upon reading the DeFalco/Frenz issues, I realized that what it really is is that I'm given too much time to realize that things don't really make sense. There's been plenty of commentary that Fraction's Thor is slow, and that's true, but it's not just that it's slow-going - there's also a lack of kinetic energy to keep going, keep reading to find out what's going to happen next and oh my God you won't believe what's on the next page. Instead, Fraction and Ferry have mistaken acres and acres of foreshadowing and portentousness for epic scale and importance, and spend too long telling us that bad things are coming instead of showing us why we should believe them.
(I'm sure that many out there will complain that the scenes of destruction on various realms by the World Eaters demonstrates why we should care, but I don't think that's true; it's destruction without any context and without any characters to empathize with - 52's issue of alien apocalypse without the familiar PoV concepts like the Green Lanterns or characters like Captain Comet, if you will - and so it's almost meaningless. "These are bad guys who can do bad things, they're important," the pages say, but it's all intellectual, there's no heart. And isn't heart one of the things that we should expect most from epic tales? Aren't they stories that stir our emotions, more than anything?)
It doesn't help that we see re-runs of these scenes of contextless foreboding and destruction taking up precious real estate of the issues time after time. Familiarity breeds boredom, if not contempt, after all, and by now we've had four issues of being told that "something terrible is coming" but it's still not here yet, and in the meantime, very little else has happened. Again, it's about pace: Fraction and Ferry's Thor isn't exciting or engaging on an emotional level because everything seems to take so long that there's no urgency or intensity to any of it, and the characters are... well, unheroic: "The bad guys are coming and the good guys don't have any time to prepare! I mean, sure, they've had four issues if they'd only listened to the guy explaining everything over and over again for pages at a time in the first three issues, but Thor was busy sulking."
(Another aside: I wonder if the difference between Marvel heroes' reactions to tragedy - From stoic inner angst that would rarely seep out in public in Stan's day, to self-involved disconnection with what's going on in the rest of the world today - could be seen as a reflection of the times, or some comment upon them? It's amusing to remember the idea that Dark Reign would make all of Marvel's heroes into put-upon Spider-Mans, because what's happened is that they've all somehow become Spider-Man in attitude, as well. It's not just Thor's attitude in this story; look at Balder, as well, in #618: "What can Asgard do for you? The same thing we can do for ourselves. Nothing.")
Maybe it's a generational thing. Maybe I'm just too old for Fraction and Ferry's adolescent Thor, all pretty, if static and oversized, pictures - Ferry's line is very particular and great, I know, but I think that Matt Hollingsworth deserves equal praise for his work on the book. That said, I really do think that there's something lacking in terms of storytelling in the book... an energy, perhaps, or timing being thrown by the constant, massive panels dominating pages or spreads for empty emphasis - and promises of satisfaction delayed. I do feel like an old man for preferring DeFalco and Frenz's take on the same ideas (Literally, in some cases; both arcs feature an overwhelming attack on Asgard and the return of Odin), as if I'm steps away from telling people to get off my lawn and turn down their rock and roll music, but there just seems more interest, more happening, more life in the stories from 1988 than the ones from 2010. The latter may be cooler, I'm sure, but the former has much more to say and wants you to give you reason to listen.
Thor #393-400: A surprising Very Good, Thor #615-618: A pretty Eh.
Good morning, happy 2011 to you, and welcome to our first podcast episode of the year! In it, Graeme and I talk upcoming releases from Marvel, the weird world of porn comics, and the weirder world of Patton Oswalt Wired articles.
I'll keep this short so you can get right to it (though I suppose if you want to cue up your web browser for our last remaining thirty mins. or so where we look at Birdland, Gilbert Hernandez, and the livejournal of Brandon Graham, you can hunt the web with us in real time!).
For some reason, Itunes hasn't loaded the update to our feed yet though it should be forthcoming shortly (I...hope?), but for now, you are more than welcome to listen to us talk right here:
Same deal, first presenting it by QUANTITY SOLD. Note this is what SOLD, not what I *ordered*, which are way different numbers! You'll also probably be able to tell some of what I sold out of before I "should have", if you use a bit of logic in parsing the listings.
1 Quarter Book - Single
2 Dollar Book
3 Back Issue
4 SIEGE #1 (OF 4)
5 BATMAN AND ROBIN #7
6 BATMAN AND ROBIN #10
BATMAN RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE #1 (OF 6)
9 BATMAN AND ROBIN #8
BATMAN AND ROBIN #9
11 BATMAN AND ROBIN #11
12 BATMAN AND ROBIN #12
13 BATMAN AND ROBIN #16
14 BATMAN #700
BATMAN AND ROBIN #13
16 BATMAN RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE #2 OF(6)
JOE THE BARBARIAN #1 (OF 8)
18 BATMAN INCORPORATED #1
BLACKEST NIGHT #8 (OF 8)
20 Starter Set
21 BATMAN AND ROBIN #14
22 BLACKEST NIGHT #7 (OF 8)
BRIGHTEST DAY #0
24 BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #32 TWILIGHT PT 1 (OF 5)
25 BATMAN RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE #3 (OF 6)
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #33 TWILIGHT PT 2 (OF 5)
27 BATMAN AND ROBIN #15
28 BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #34 TWILIGHT PT 3 (OF 5)
29 NEMESIS #1 (OF 4)
30 BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #31 JO CHEN CVR
31 AVENGERS #1 HA
BRIGHTEST DAY #1
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #35 TWILIGHT PT 4 (OF 4)
NEW AVENGERS #1 HA
35 JOE THE BARBARIAN #2 (OF 8)
36 BATMAN RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE #4 (OF 6)
37 AMERICAN VAMPIRE #1
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #36 LAST GLEAMING PT 1 (OF 5)
39 BATMAN RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE #6 (OF 6)
BATMAN THE RETURN #1
41 BATMAN RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE #5 (OF 6)
SIEGE #2 (OF 4)
SIEGE #3 (OF 4)
SIEGE #4 (OF 4)
45 BATMAN #701
46 FLASH #1
KICK-ASS 2 #1
NEMESIS #2 (OF 4)
WONDER WOMAN #600
50 BLACKEST NIGHT #6 (OF 8)
JOE THE BARBARIAN #3 (OF 8)
52 DETECTIVE COMICS #861
53 AVENGERS #2 HA
DETECTIVE COMICS #862
SECRET AVENGERS #1
56 BRIGHTEST DAY #2
BRIGHTEST DAY #4
58 BATMAN #702
BUFFY VAMPIRE SLAYER #37 LAST GLEAMING PT 2 (OF 5)
CAPTAIN AMERICA #602
CAPTAIN AMERICA REBORN #6 (OF 6)
FLASH REBIRTH #6 (OF 6)
GREEN LANTERN #50
NEW AVENGERS #61 SIEGE
65 JOE THE BARBARIAN #4 (OF 8)
66 SCARLET #1
UNCANNY X-MEN #523
68 ASTONISHING X-MEN #34
BATMAN AND ROBIN #17
BRIGHTEST DAY #3
BRIGHTEST DAY #6
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER WILLOW ONE SHOT
SERENITY FLOAT OUT ONE SHOT #1 JO CHEN CVR
74 AMERICAN VAMPIRE #2
BRIGHTEST DAY #9
BUFFY VAMPIRE SLAYER #38 LAST GLEAMING PT 3 (OF 5)
GREEN LANTERN #51
INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #25
NEW AVENGERS #62 SIEGE
80 BRIGHTEST DAY #5
BRIGHTEST DAY #7
CAPTAIN AMERICA #603
DARK AVENGERS #13 SIEGE
DETECTIVE COMICS #863
DETECTIVE COMICS #864
GREEN LANTERN #52
GREEN LANTERN #53
HELLBOY IN MEXICO OR DRUNKEN BLUR ONE SHOT
HELLBOY THE STORM #1 (OF 3)
JOE THE BARBARIAN #5 (OF 8)
LEGION OF SUPER HEROES #1
NEW AVENGERS #64 SIEGE
SECRET AVENGERS #2
SHIELD #1
SHIELD #2
WALKING DEAD #74
WALKING DEAD #75
WALKING DEAD #77
X-MEN #1
100 BRIGHTEST DAY #8
FLASH #2
KICK ASS #8
SECRET AVENGERS #3
SUPERGOD #3 (OF 5)
SUPERIOR #1 (OF 6)
UNCANNY X-MEN #526
WALKING DEAD #71
WALKING DEAD #76
WALKING DEAD #79
And, like before, here's the same magilla, except looking at DOLLARS SOLD instead (A lot fewer ties here!):
1 Back Issue
2 Starter Set
3 Quarter Book - Single
4 BATMAN #700
5 BATMAN RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE #1 (OF 6)
6 Dollar Book
7 BATMAN AND ROBIN #16
8 BATMAN RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE #2 OF(6)
9 BATMAN INCORPORATED #1
10 BLACKEST NIGHT #8 (OF 8)
11 BATMAN AND ROBIN #7
12 BATMAN THE RETURN #1
13 SIEGE #1 (OF 4)
14 BATMAN AND ROBIN #10
15 BRIGHTEST DAY #0
16 FABLES #100
17 BATMAN RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE #3 (OF 6)
18 BATMAN AND ROBIN #8
19 BATMAN AND ROBIN #9
20 BLACKEST NIGHT #7 (OF 8)
21 BATMAN AND ROBIN #11
22 BATMAN AND ROBIN #12
23 AMERICAN VAMPIRE #1
24 BATMAN RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE #4 (OF 6)
25 BATMAN AND ROBIN #13
26 BATMAN RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE #6 (OF 6)
27 AVENGERS #1 HA
28 BATMAN RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE #5 (OF 6)
29 BATMAN AND ROBIN #14
30 SIEGE #2 (OF 4)
SIEGE #3 (OF 4)
32 BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #32 TWILIGHT PT 1 (OF 5)
33 SIEGE #4 (OF 4)
34 BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #33 TWILIGHT PT 2 (OF 5)
35 WONDER WOMAN #600
36 VERTIGO RESURRECTED #1
37 BATMAN AND ROBIN #15
38 BLACKEST NIGHT #6 (OF 8)
39 BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #34 TWILIGHT PT 3 (OF 5)
40 NEMESIS #1 (OF 4)
41 DETECTIVE COMICS #861
42 BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #31 JO CHEN CVR
43 SECRET AVENGERS #1
44 BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #35 TWILIGHT PT 4 (OF 4)
45 BRIGHTEST DAY #1
46 CAPTAIN AMERICA REBORN #6 (OF 6)
47 DETECTIVE COMICS #862
48 JOE THE BARBARIAN #2 (OF 8)
49 NEW AVENGERS FINALE #1
50 BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #36 LAST GLEAMING PT 1 (OF 5)
51 STRANGE TALES 2 #1
52 AVENGERS #2 HA
53 FLASH #1
54 SCARLET #1
55 AMERICAN VAMPIRE #2
56 GREEN LANTERN #50
57 NEW AVENGERS #61 SIEGE
58 DARK AVENGERS #13 SIEGE
59 SHIELD #1 4TH PTG WEAVER VAR
60 DETECTIVE COMICS #863
61 SUPERGOD #3 (OF 5)
62 SECRET AVENGERS #2
63 WALKING DEAD #75
64 BATMAN #701
65 SECRET AVENGERS #3
66 LEGION OF SUPER HEROES #1
67 NEMESIS #2 (OF 4)
68 SUPERMAN #700
69 KICK-ASS 2 #1
70 X-MEN SECOND COMING #1
71 BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER WILLOW ONE SHOT
72 STRANGE TALES 2 #2 (OF 3)
73 SERENITY FLOAT OUT ONE SHOT #1 JO CHEN CVR
74 ALAN MOORE NEONOMICON #1 (OF 4)
AMERICAN VAMPIRE #3
INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #25
77 JOE THE BARBARIAN #3 (OF 8)
78 CAPTAIN AMERICA #602
79 NEW AVENGERS #1 HA
NEW AVENGERS #63 SIEGE
NEW AVENGERS #64 SIEGE
82 SCARLET #2
83 CAPTAIN SWING #1 (OF 4)
84 HATE ANNUAL #8
85 X-WOMEN #1
86 AVENGERS #3
87 BRIGHTEST DAY #2
BRIGHTEST DAY #4
89 AMERICAN VAMPIRE #4
AMERICAN VAMPIRE #5
91 HELLBOY IN MEXICO OR DRUNKEN BLUR ONE SHOT
92 DARK AVENGERS #15
93 BUFFY VAMPIRE SLAYER #37 LAST GLEAMING PT 2 (OF 5)
94 ASTONISHING X-MEN XENOGENESIS #1 (OF 5)
AVENGERS #4
96 UNCANNY X-MEN #522
97 BATMAN #702
98 UNCANNY X-MEN #526
99 ASTRO CITY THE DARK AGE BOOK FOUR #4 (OF 4)
100 INCOGNITO BAD INFLUENCES #1
It is probably worth noting that this is what things SOLD FOR, so if, for example, I discounted something (or, perhaps, wholesaled it off?) that can skew the charts a bounce or three.
Anyway, that's what the year in sales looked like to me -- I'm always interested in your comments!
Here's a look at the top selling "Books" for Comix Experience in 2010, under the cut...
First off, here's the sales charts sorted by PIECES. I'm not doing a lot of cleanup on this, there's garbagey artifacts of the output process (some books have Diamond order codes appended, and so on) -- also ignore all "new Printing" notes, each new printing just overwrites the product description, but I don't feel like cleaning that all up...
This is the top 100 (well, 108, thanks to ties...)
1 SCOTT PILGRIM GN VOL 06 FINEST HOUR
2 SCOTT PILGRIM GN VOL 01 PRECIOUS LITTLE LIFE
3 WALKING DEAD TP VOL 11 FEAR THE HUNTERS
4 WILSON HC
5 WALKING DEAD TP VOL 01 DAYS GONE BYE
6 CHEW TP VOL 01
7 SCOTT PILGRIM GN VOL 02 VS THE WORLD
8 WALKING DEAD TP VOL 12 LIFE AMONG THEM
9 ASTERIOS POLYP GN
10 FABLES TP VOL 13 THE GREAT FABLES CROSSOVER
11 LOVE AND ROCKETS NEW STORIES TP VOL 03
12 SCOTT PILGRIM GN VOL 05 SP VS THE UNIVERSE
13 SCOTT PILGRIM GN VOL 04 SP GETS IT TOGETHER
14 UNWRITTEN TP VOL 01 TOMMY TAYLOR BOGUS IDENTITY TP
15 WALKING DEAD TP VOL 02 MILES BEHIND US
16 WALKING DEAD TP VOL 10 WHAT WE BECOME
17 BOOK OF GENESIS ILLUS BY ROBERT CRUMB HC
18 KICK ASS PREM HC
WALKING DEAD COMPENDIUM TP VOL 01
20 Y THE LAST MAN TP VOL 01 UNMANNED (OCT058020)
21 SCOTT PILGRIM GN VOL 03 INFINITE SADNESS
WALKING DEAD TP VOL 13 TOO FAR GONE
23 WALKING DEAD TP VOL 03 SAFETY BEHIND BARS (NEW PTG) (MR)
24 BTVS SEASON 8 TP VOL 06 RETREAT
CHEW TP VOL 02 INTERNATIONAL FLAVOR
HELLBOY TP VOL 09 WILD HUNT
SERENITY SHEPHERDS TALE HC
28 ALL STAR SUPERMAN TP VOL 02
EX MACHINA TP VOL 09 RING OUT THE OLD
FABLES TP VOL 01 LEGENDS IN EXILE (APR058372)
LOEG III CENTURY #1 1910 NEW PTG
32 WALKING DEAD TP VOL 04 HEARTS DESIRE
WALKING DEAD TP VOL 09 HERE WE REMAIN
34 BATMAN DARK KNIGHT RETURNS TP (DEC058055)
RICHARD STARKS PARKER THE OUTFIT HC
36 ACME NOVELTY LIBRARY HC #20
DRINKING AT THE MOVIES SC
INCOGNITO TP
TRANSMETROPOLITAN TP VOL 01 BACK ON THE STREET
WALKING DEAD TP VOL 08 MADE TO SUFFER
Y THE LAST MAN TP VOL 02 CYCLES (OCT058281) (MR)
42 SERENITY BETTER DAYS TP NEW PTG
Y THE LAST MAN TP VOL 07 PAPER DOLLS (FEB060341) (MR)
44 BATMAN YEAR ONE DELUXE SC (OCT060163)
BTVS SEASON 8 TP VOL 03 WOLVES AT THE GATE
FABLES TP VOL 14 WITCHES
FROM HELL TP NEW PTG
PREACHER TP VOL 01 GONE TO TEXAS NEW EDITION (MAR050489)
WALKING DEAD TP VOL 05 BEST DEFENSE
WALKING DEAD TP VOL 07 THE CALM BEFORE
Y THE LAST MAN TP VOL 10 WHYS AND WHEREFORES (MAR080241)
52 ALL STAR SUPERMAN TP VOL 01
BLACK HOLE COLLECTED SC NEW PTG
BTVS SEASON 8 TP VOL 01 LONG WAY HOME NEW PTG
CLUMSY GN
SANDMAN TP VOL 01 PRELUDES & NOCTURNES (DEC058090)
UNWRITTEN TP VOL 02 INSIDE MAN
58 100 BULLETS TP VOL 01 FIRST SHOT LAST CALL (SEP068078)
AMAZING SCREW ON HEAD & OTHER CURIOUS OBJECTS HC
AMULET SC VOL 01 STONEKEEPER
BATMAN THE KILLING JOKE SPECIAL ED HC
BOYS TP VOL 06 SELF-PRESERVATION SOCIETY
BTVS SEASON 8 TP VOL 05 PREDATOR & PREY
COMPLETE PERSEPOLIS TP
DMZ TP VOL 08 HEARTS AND MINDS
EX MACHINA TP VOL 10 TERM LIMITS
R CRUMBS HEROES OF BLUES JAZZ & COUNTRY WITH CD HC
RAMAYANA DIVINE LOOPHOLE HC
SCALPED TP VOL 06 THE GNAWING
WATCHMEN TP (FEB058406)
71 BATMAN AND ROBIN DELUXE HC VOL 01 BATMAN REBORN
BLACKSAD HC VOL 01
BOYS TP VOL 01 NAME OF THE GAME
CROSSED TP VOL 01
DMZ TP VOL 01 ON THE GROUND (MAR060383) (MR)
EIGHTBALL GHOST WORLD TP
EX MACHINA TP VOL 08 DIRTY TRICKS
HELLBOY TP VOL 01 SEED OF DESTRUCTION
IGNITION CITY TP VOL 01
LOEG VOL ONE TP (JUL068290)
NO HERO TP
OTHER LIVES HC
PREACHER TP VOL 02 UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD NEW EDITION
RICHARD STARKS PARKER THE HUNTER HC
WALKING DEAD TP VOL 06 SORROWFUL LIFE
WEATHERCRAFT HC
WITCHFINDER IN THE SERVICE OF ANGELS TP VOL 01
Y THE LAST MAN TP VOL 03 ONE SMALL STEP (MAR068027) (MR)
Y THE LAST MAN TP VOL 09 MOTHERLAND (FEB070362) (MR)
90 BATWOMAN ELEGY DELUXE EDITION HC
BOYS TP VOL 02 GET SOME
CHARLES BURNS X ED OUT GN
CHEW TP VOL 03 JUST DESSERTS
CHI SWEET HOME GN VOL 01
FABLES TP VOL 03 STORYBOOK LOVE (MAY068085) (MR)
FREAKANGELS TP VOL 04
GRENDEL BEHOLD THE DEVIL HC
HELLBOY TP VOL 10 CROOKED MAN & OTHERS
MESMO DELIVERY GN VOL 01
PROMETHEA TP BOOK 01 (APR068028)
SANDMAN TP VOL 02 THE DOLLS HOUSE (APR058268)
SCALPED TP VOL 01 INDIAN COUNTRY (MAY070243) (MR)
SUPERMAN RED SON TP (NOV058130)
SWAMP THING TP VOL 01 SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING (APR058269)
THE ARRIVAL GN (C: 1-1-2)
UMBRELLA ACADEMY TP VOL 02 DALLAS NEW PTG
V FOR VENDETTA NEW EDITION TP (MR)
Y THE LAST MAN TP VOL 08 KIMONO DRAGONS (AUG060299) (MR)
I'm pretty happy with the diversity of the list, as always, though clearly Bryan Lee O'Malley and Robert Kirkman are the big big winners of this year's spread.
I'm a retail, so DOLLARS actually kind of matter more to me than QTY does, so here's a top 100 sorted out by dollars sold -- it looks a smidge different...
1 WALKING DEAD COMPENDIUM TP VOL 01
2 SCOTT PILGRIM GN VOL 06 FINEST HOUR
3 WILSON HC
4 ASTERIOS POLYP GN
5 WALKING DEAD TP VOL 11 FEAR THE HUNTERS
6 SCOTT PILGRIM GN VOL 01 PRECIOUS LITTLE LIFE
7 BOOK OF GENESIS ILLUS BY ROBERT CRUMB HC
8 KICK ASS PREM HC
9 FABLES TP VOL 13 THE GREAT FABLES CROSSOVER
10 WALKING DEAD TP VOL 12 LIFE AMONG THEM
11 WALKING DEAD TP VOL 01 DAYS GONE BYE
12 FROM HELL TP NEW PTG
13 CHEW TP VOL 01
14 SCOTT PILGRIM GN VOL 02 VS THE WORLD
15 LOVE AND ROCKETS NEW STORIES TP VOL 03
16 WALKING DEAD TP VOL 02 MILES BEHIND US
17 WALKING DEAD TP VOL 10 WHAT WE BECOME
18 RICHARD STARKS PARKER THE OUTFIT HC
19 SCOTT PILGRIM GN VOL 05 SP VS THE UNIVERSE
20 HELLBOY TP VOL 09 WILD HUNT
21 ACME NOVELTY LIBRARY HC #20
22 SCOTT PILGRIM GN VOL 04 SP GETS IT TOGETHER
23 RAMAYANA DIVINE LOOPHOLE HC
24 BLACKSAD HC VOL 01
25 COMPLETE PERSEPOLIS TP
26 INCOGNITO TP
27 WALKING DEAD TP VOL 03 SAFETY BEHIND BARS (NEW PTG) (MR)
WALKING DEAD TP VOL 13 TOO FAR GONE
29 NEXTWAVE AGENTS OF HATE TP ULTIMATE COLLECTION
30 BTVS SEASON 8 TP VOL 06 RETREAT
31 BATMAN AND ROBIN DELUXE HC VOL 01 BATMAN REBORN
OTHER LIVES HC
33 Y THE LAST MAN TP VOL 01 UNMANNED (OCT058020)
34 WHO KILLED AMANDA PALMER HC
35 UNWRITTEN TP VOL 01 TOMMY TAYLOR BOGUS IDENTITY TP
36 SERENITY SHEPHERDS TALE HC
37 RICHARD STARKS PARKER THE HUNTER HC
38 BLACKEST NIGHT HC
DAVE MCKEAN CAGES TP
40 CROSSED TP VOL 01
41 SANDMAN TP VOL 01 PRELUDES & NOCTURNES (DEC058090)
42 EX MACHINA TP VOL 09 RING OUT THE OLD
43 ABSOLUTE SANDMAN HC VOL 01
ABSOLUTE SANDMAN HC VOL 03 (JAN080242)
45 WALKING DEAD TP VOL 04 HEARTS DESIRE
46 FABLES TP VOL 14 WITCHES
47 WALKING DEAD TP VOL 09 HERE WE REMAIN
48 CHEW TP VOL 02 INTERNATIONAL FLAVOR
49 BATMAN DARK KNIGHT RETURNS TP (DEC058055)
50 BLACK HOLE COLLECTED SC NEW PTG
51 SCOTT PILGRIM GN VOL 03 INFINITE SADNESS
52 ABSOLUTE DEATH HC
53 WASTELAND APOCALYPTIC ED HC VOL 01
54 WATCHMEN TP (FEB058406)
55 R CRUMBS HEROES OF BLUES JAZZ & COUNTRY WITH CD HC
56 ALL STAR SUPERMAN TP VOL 02
57 LOST GIRLS HC
58 Y THE LAST MAN DELUXE EDITION HC VOL 01
59 TRANSMETROPOLITAN TP VOL 01 BACK ON THE STREET
WALKING DEAD TP VOL 08 MADE TO SUFFER
61 BLANKETS GN
62 BOYS TP VOL 06 SELF-PRESERVATION SOCIETY
WEATHERCRAFT HC
64 BTVS SEASON 8 TP VOL 03 WOLVES AT THE GATE
65 BEST AMERICAN COMICS HC 2010
66 BATMAN THE KILLING JOKE SPECIAL ED HC
67 Y THE LAST MAN TP VOL 07 PAPER DOLLS (FEB060341) (MR)
68 MORE THAN COMPLETE ACTION PHILOSOPHERS TP
69 PREACHER TP VOL 01 GONE TO TEXAS NEW EDITION (MAR050489)
70 DRINKING AT THE MOVIES SC
71 WALKING DEAD HC VOL 05
72 BOYS TP VOL 02 GET SOME
IGNITION CITY TP VOL 01
NO HERO TP
SWAMP THING TP VOL 01 SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING (APR058269)
THE ARRIVAL GN (C: 1-1-2)
V FOR VENDETTA NEW EDITION TP (MR)
78 BTVS SEASON 8 TP VOL 01 LONG WAY HOME NEW PTG
79 BATMAN YEAR ONE DELUXE SC (OCT060163)
WALKING DEAD TP VOL 05 BEST DEFENSE
81 CHARLES BURNS X ED OUT GN
82 SANDMAN TP VOL 02 THE DOLLS HOUSE (APR058268)
83 OMEGA THE UNKNOWN PREM HC
84 Y THE LAST MAN TP VOL 10 WHYS AND WHEREFORES (MAR080241)
85 Y THE LAST MAN TP VOL 02 CYCLES (OCT058281) (MR)
86 FREAKANGELS TP VOL 04
87 BONE ONE VOL ED SC
88 DMZ TP VOL 08 HEARTS AND MINDS
89 BATWOMAN ELEGY DELUXE EDITION HC
90 INVINCIBLE IRON MAN HC VOL 01
91 BTVS SEASON 8 TP VOL 05 PREDATOR & PREY
92 AMAZING SCREW ON HEAD & OTHER CURIOUS OBJECTS HC
93 BOYS TP VOL 01 NAME OF THE GAME
94 WEDNESDAY COMICS HC
95 FABLES TP VOL 01 LEGENDS IN EXILE (APR058372)
96 FLIGHT GN VOL 07
97 SUPERMAN RED SON TP (NOV058130)
98 HELLBOY TP VOL 01 SEED OF DESTRUCTION
99 UMBRELLA ACADEMY TP VOL 02 DALLAS NEW PTG
100 DARK TOWER FALL OF GILEAD PREM HC
I'm rather proud of my Top 10, actually (especially considering that GENESIS came out LAST Christmas...) -- I also love that the WALKING DEAD COMPENDIUM soars right up to #1, when looking at dollars...that's what a $60 cover price can do for you! (well, if you're Kirkman, that probably won't work for YOU...)
Anyway, I'm always up for your commentary on these lists...
Hey, it's a New Year, which means it is time to look back at performance. I'll place it under the Jump for those who Just Don't Care...
At the Top-Level analysis, it wasn't a terrific year. In fact, sales were down about 8% overall. Given the general state of the economy, and San Francisco Unemployment in general, and really, the average slate of comics being released and how people are reacting to them, I don't absolutely hate this result. There were bits of the year I thought the overall number could be down by 13-15%! So, especially the fact that the 4th quarter flew back up in sales makes me feel like things are adequate.
I'm certainly doing a number of things to reduce expenses -- ONOMATOPOEIA is going to 8 pages (from 12) a month, and we've trimmed back our health insurance a bit (my own damn fault, I hadn't actually realized we still had maternity coverage, and we're not going to have any more kids at our age...) and so on, so profit is going to be less of an issue in 2011.
The real problem is the collapsing market for new periodical comics -- this year we're 55% books/41% comics, which is at a historical low for comics -- and without that weekly driver to draw people through the door, it makes it harder to sell books to people....
I expect this year that we're going to lose at least 2 Bay Area stores, maybe as many as five or six, and we'll see whether those customers scatter to the winds, or shore up the remaining stores in SF (in 1989 when I opened, there were 26 comic shops in SF proper, now we're at about a dozen), and, of course, we have a few stores locally that "don't play by the rules" (ie, paying employees in comics, rather than money; not paying proper taxes, and so on) which always makes competition harder... but we'll see what happens.
Another big change this year is the HUGE shift to credit cards -- 61% of sales is in cards, which eats up a few percentage points of sales in fees and such. The worst one this year was that someone actually tried to charge 27 cents for a "Quarter comic" (plus tax). *sigh*
I'll go into greater detail in the next two posts, but the overall Top 20 items (regardless of category) in quantity looks like this:
1 Quarter Book - Single
2 BORG - Bag & Board Combo
3 Sale Book
4 Dollar Book
5 Back Issue
6 SCOTT PILGRIM GN VOL 06 FINEST HOUR
7 SIEGE #1 (OF 4)
8 COMIC BAGS 100 CT - MODERN AGE
9 COMIC BOARDS 100 CT - MODERN AGE
10 BATMAN AND ROBIN #7
11 BATMAN AND ROBIN #10
BATMAN RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE #1 (OF 6)
13 BATMAN AND ROBIN #8
BATMAN AND ROBIN #9
15 BATMAN AND ROBIN #11
16 BATMAN AND ROBIN #12
17 BATMAN AND ROBIN #16
18 BATMAN #700
BATMAN AND ROBIN #13
20 BATMAN RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE #2 OF(6)
COMIC BOX - SHORT
JOE THE BARBARIAN #1 (OF 8)
So, yeah, people seem to like both cheap comics, supplies, as well as Grant Morrison -- but they also clearly likely GM's BATMAN less as the year wore on...
Note that there's only one single TP/GN in the Top 20, that should make it fairly clear how important the periodical comic is to building traffic... especially when you consider that SP v6 is more akin to an "annual periodical" than it is a book, per se.
(and "Long Box" came in at tied-for-#23, never realized how much we actually sold there...)
One thing to consider is that all of the store-specific/generic items (quarter books, supplies, etc.) are for sale 12 months of the year, while most of the comics here are only on sale for 6-8 months, max. B&R #7 was on my racks from January to September, so, perhaps, the comparisons aren't that fair... but, then, SP v6 only went on sale in July (but 80% of those sales were in the first week.)
"Sale book" is something put on clearance.
Another observation: "BORGS", in sum, sold less than 4% of our combined sales of periodicals, so the "collector impulse" is significantly less than a raw look at these sales might suggest.
The New Year starts off with a....
ADVENTURE COMICS #522
ANITA BLAKE CIRCUS OF DAMNED INGENUE #1 (OF 5)
ANT-MAN & WASP #3 (OF 3)
AVENGERS CHILDRENS CRUSADE #4 (OF 9)
AVENGERS EARTHS MIGHTIEST HEROES #3 (OF 4)
AVENGERS PRIME #5 (OF 5)
AZRAEL #16
BATMAN BEYOND #1
BATMAN CONFIDENTIAL #52
BETTY & VERONICA DOUBLE DIGEST #187
BILLY THE KID GHASTLY FIEND LONDON #4 ERIC POWELL CVR
BRIGHTEST DAY #17
BRING THE THUNDER #2
CAPTAIN AMERICA HAIL HYDRA #1 (OF 5)
CHIP N DALE RESCUE RANGERS #2
CHOKER #5 (OF 6)
CLINT #4
DARKNESS #88
DC COMICS PRESENTS LOBO #1
DOC MACABRE #2 (OF 3)
DOOM PATROL #18
DRACULA COMPANY OF MONSTERS #5
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS DARK SUN #1 (OF 5)
EARP SAINTS FOR SINNERS #1 (OF 5)
EDGE OF DOOM #3
FALLEN ANGEL RETURN OF THE SON #1 (OF 4)
FREEDOM FIGHTERS #5
GENERATION HOPE #3
GREEN HORNET #12
GREEN HORNET BLOOD TIES #3
HOUSE OF MYSTERY #33
IRON MAN LEGACY #10
IRON MAN THOR #3 (OF 4)
IRREDEEMABLE #21
IZOMBIE #9
JOHN BYRNE NEXT MEN #2
JONAH HEX #63
JSA ALL STARS #14
KODT BLACK HANDS 2010 #2 (OF 2)
LADY DEATH (ONGOING) #1
LOONEY TUNES #194
OZMA OF OZ #3 (OF 8)
RAISE THE DEAD II #2
SCOOBY DOO WHERE ARE YOU #5
SHE-HULKS #3 (OF 4)
SIMPSONS SUPER SPECTACULAR #12
SPIKE #4 (OF 8)
STAR TREK KHAN RULING IN HELL #4 (OF 4)
STARMAN CONGORILLA #1
STEEL #1
SUPERBOY #3
SWEET TOOTH #17
SWEETS #4 (OF 5)
TEENS AT PLAY #4 (A)
THANOS IMPERATIVE DEVESTATION
TORCHWOOD #6
ULTIMATE COMICS CAPTAIN AMERICA #1 (OF 4)
UNCLE SCROOGE #399
VAMPIRELLA #2
WALKING DEAD #80
WALKING DEAD WEEKLY #1
WEIRD WORLDS #1 (OF 6)
WHO IS JAKE ELLIS? #1
WOLVERINE BEST THERE IS #2
X-FACTOR #213
Books / Mags / Stuff
DEADWORLD OMNIBUS SC VOL 01
DEATH NOTE BLACK ED TP
FALLEN ANGEL OMNIBUS SC VOL 02
HACK SLASH MY FIRST MANIAC TP VOL 01
HALO TP HELLJUMPER (RES)
HEAVY METAL MARCH 2011
HI FRUCTOSE MAGAZINE QUARTERLY #18
INVINCIBLE IRON MAN TP VOL 04 STARK DISASSEMBLED
LAST MAN STANDING GN KILLBOOK BOUNTY HUNTER
MADAME XANADU TP VOL 03 BROKEN HOUSE OF CARDS
SHREK ONCE UPON A SLIME TP
SUPERMAN NIGHTWING AND FLAMEBIRD TP
VIDEO WATCHDOG #160
WIZARD MAGAZINE #234
Real quick: I couldn't figure out how to register to post a thank you note on the Comics Journal site, so a quick thanks to Dirk Deppey. Many is the morning that I started my day, stumbling out of bed and heading straight to read my "news" from off the Journalista blog Mr. Deppey wrote for many years. It was a lot of mornings thinking, "Why can't you just eat breakfast like a normal boy? Why is this how you choose to spend your first waking moments? Why can't you ever just be a normal boy? Why?? Just put on some underwear already, at least."
So... thanks for that (?) and best wishes in the future to him.
This one is primarily about X'ED OUT, JOE THE BARBARIAN, BATMAN, THE INVISIBLES, and... I like to think that everything I've ever written about, at the end of the day, is about the healing power of love. So, you know: that, too.
* * *
Two books featured on many of the Best of 2010 lists I've seen are essentially the same exact book. How did that happen? Same exact book, at least how I read them. I refer here, of course, to Grant Morrison, Sean Murphy, and Dave Stewart's death-by-diabetes hijinx-adventureJOE THE BARBARIAN and Charles Burns's Tintin on the Island of the Bad Hipster Haircuts adventure X'ED OUT.
Both seem to tell the exact same story: a generic character (JOE's dull non-descript boy, X'ED OUT's equally-if-not-more-dull non-descript hipster) suffers a medical trauma (diabetes and/or unidentified head trauma) that triggers each to mentally flee into a kingdom built out of childhood fantasies (X'ED OUT's allusions to Tintin, or JOE's allusions to action figures, superheroes, 1980's cereal-box heroes), wherein a colorful adventure is had at the same time as a story about the dull character's medical trauma is presented for the reader's edification. Both notably received more attention for art than story (maybe even more specifically, for inking than for any other facet, though the colors to both may be more praiseworthy). I read both naked. Both feature as a dominant element the main character being motivated by his relationship with his pet from the real world in the fantasy universe. And neither concluded in 2010.
Dude: Same book.
X'ED OUT is basically just JOE THE BARBARIAN but for rich people. X'ED out is for fancy gentlemen, with butlers and prep school accents, who model part-time for the LL Bean Catalog, and can spend $20 for 56 pages of an incomplete comic-- repeat: $20 for 56 pages of an incomplete comic. Swimming pools, movie stars; lakes, boats, friends and noodle salad. "Do you like my new comic book? Why, it's almost European. Do you like my monocle? It helps me get out of jail free for I am the Monopoly Man."
On the other hand, JOE THE BARBARIAN is plainly for meatheads, morlocks, weirdos. Paper stapled together, bar-code slapped onto the front cover, right on top of the art-- wait, wait, is the comic done yet? Fuck it, close enough-- get it out the fucking door. They put the price of the book on the cover twice: once at the top of the cover, another time above the advertisement for the company website that they also placed over the art. Videogames and sneakers are advertised on the back covers-- the hot teen fad in 2010 was teens using Axe Body Spray to light themselves on fire, but I guess Chiat Day is still working on the ad campaign for that.
X'ED OUT has a quote from "R. Crumb" on the back cover. JOE THE BARBARIAN's fourth cover comes with a quote from IGN, a videogame website. One gets reviewed by the New York Times (well: aka Douglas), New York Magazine, the Guardian and Book Forum; the other was one of MTV Geek's top ten books of the year and was well-reviewed by Ain't It Cool. Respected, legitimate, likely-soon-to-be-bankrupt publications remark upon X'ED OUT's significance, shortly before all discussion of the book disappears from this Earth. The other gets reviewed by video-game websites, underneath flashing web-ads touting the number of polygons in 50 CENT: BLOOD IN THE SAND; then, if other Grant Morrison comics are any indication, gets discussed endlessly, ENDLESSLY by blogs, comment threads, obsessive-compulsives, argued over, flamed, dismissed, over-praised, ridiculously over-praised, sickeningly over-praised, oh god enough already over-praised, annotated, footnoted, cross-referenced, and finally re-reviewed upon release of an ABSOLUTE ULTIMATE JIZZ-BOMB EDITION. Cue: streamers, should old acq-uaint-ances be forgot, vomit, and ... scene. WELCOME TO AMERICA!
Red states, blue states, yooks, zooks, fuck it-- and yet: setting all of that aside, substantively? Substantively? Dude, same fucking story! Same exact fucking story in both comic books.
What is that exactly? Both books, hitting most of the Top 10 lists as mentioned above. Both books striking a chord. Why's a story about the fantasy lives of boring characters hitting a chord in both the "mainstream" and the "arthouse"? Why was 2010 this year in Walter Mittys? Or why do you figure two major comic creators, from what has become two different Comics-- why do you think they both found themselves on such similar creative terrain?
* * *
... You want to do those questions...? Nah. It's been done. Yeah: let's not do those questions.
I mean, we could go that way, but bo-ring. Cue me making some lame jokes about unemployment figures, end with a sappy, melodramatic finish, high-five, and cue youtube video. Eh. It's just been done. Bad economy, shitty lives, quiet desparation, blah blah blah-- that'd be too boring no matter how naked I get (e.g. completely). I'm sure I'll do that sort of thing again, and soon, because I am a one-trick fucking pony, but ... let's not start a new year that way, at least. Hopefully that sort of talk is just 2010 shit anyways.
So, instead: setting aside the why, how do you figure the right and wrong of the story that's being told here?
I would argue the fun part of X'ED OUT, the part that certainly sold me on the book when I read the reviews, were the Tintin sequences, not watching Wiley Wiggins's uneventful journey through some minor strata of the performance art world. Same thing with JOE THE BARBARIAN: the fun parts is watching Sean Murphy draw his fantasy universe, and its pop culture inhabitants-- monsters, cameos, pop culture, invention.
The fun of the Story is thus arguably rooting for debilitating diabetes / nebulous-head-trauma. If I have a complaint with X'ED OUT: not enough head trauma. I did not get $20 worth of head trauma from that comic-- I think reviews have maybe way oversold how much head trauma is in that comic. The ratio of shitty-hipsters to Tintin way, way favored the former, for my tastes. The Tintin stretches that reviewers have trumpeted are concentrated at the beginning of the comic and at the end of the comic, and there is a long middle of not-Tintin inbetween the two. So, I for one hope the main character's physical condition deteriorates significantly in future volumes so we can dance the dance what brought me.
I really hope that the main characters spend less time in reality, and if that means watching the little generic brat from JOE THE BARBARIAN die or Cobrasnake's pool boy from X'ED OUT going into a coma, so be it! Entertain me, disease-- anything but more drawings of icky old reality.
... What?
* * *
Okay, no: nothing in X'ED OUT explicitly states, "It's a good thing to go into a fantasy universe rather than face the cruelty of reality." If anything, X'ED OUT suggests the opposite, suggests the main character deserved the brain trauma.
The Long Middle is about the comic's main character creating a second fantasy universe for himself, one the reader doesn't see on the page, but one I'd figure more of the population will grok than the Tintin sequences: the brain trauma seems to be the result of the main character having created an elaborate fantasy in his head concerning his romantic interest, a Quiet Fucked-Up Girl-- a fantasy which has nothing to do with the reality of how awful she is.
Okay; sure; I can check that box on my W-2. Good times. The main character's fantasy version still seems to be trapped in a "I'll Save Her" fantasy, too, which... Oh, brother.
The only thing we're told about the Quiet Fucked Up Girl is that she's a cutter whose hobbies include violent ex-boyfriends and sadomasochism-- so, good luck with all of that, Peter Brady's tennis coach. Maybe placing her next to the personality vacuum that is the main character has a fun-house mirror effect, which makes her seem worse than she is. But the main character's romantic pining that goes on for her, especially watching him selectively create memories of their relationship using old photographs (noooooo! no, Patrick Fugit's black swan, no!), for me, that was all like watching a girl with a healthy interest in sex for her age wander into the woods in a FRIDAY THE 13TH movie. It's the creepiest thing in a comic otherwise full of cycloptic lizardmen, midgets-in-diapers, and maggots.
The comic even suggests the main character's dad is broken the same way-- I liked that part. And that cover-- a main character staring at a fantasy egg, with his hand to his heart suggesting a heart-ache that this fantasy image of femininity is causing him-- well, it's a little on the nose, but heck, it works. (Or is his heart on the other side...? Well, heart's actually in the center, but ... Whatever-- you get my point).
Maybe "the danger of becoming trapped in fantasies" is a generous reading of the book, though, a generous way of justifying why the lead female character in it is so underwritten. I suppose someone else could see that fact as a failing of the book-- here's another comic about how sex damages women and the travails of innocent boys with bad haircuts coping with that fact...? I don't think that charge would work with BLACK HOLE but it'd be easier to lay out at X'ED OUT's feet, the comic's contents being so thin to date. (God, I feel like I should be able to make a Belle & Sebastian joke here but-- I really don't pay enough attention to lyrics to make a Belle & Sebastian joke. The only thing I think about when I hear one of their songs is how awesome it'd be to date a girl in the LL Bean Catalog. Am I close? I think I'm probably pretty close).
Who knows? As much as my opinion about X'ED OUT has improved while writing about it, there's really just not enough comic here to really guess what it's going to ultimately add up to or say, making it feel a little silly to get especially enthusiastic over it. Unless you focus solely on the storytelling or what comic dudes have taken to call "mark-making" (and which I guess I still call drawing), where I'd rather defer to my betters. And regardless of the thematic contents, I think my original point holds:
If the best part of the book is the fantasy Tintin sequences, isn't there an inherent message being sent by the form regardless of the content?
* * *
As for JOE THE BARBARIAN... well...This being a blog entry about a Grant Morrison comic, I think I'm obligated by Blogger Code to act the fool by overdoing how much I read into his comics. So: let's talk about Grant Morrison, and since JOE's not done, and since I have attention disorders, BATMAN.
Not being into Morrison's BATMAN began to rankle. The internet loved them some Morrison BATMAN so I recently sat down finally last month, and read the damn thing (and/or re-read-- I'd dipped a toe in now and then, before, to poor results).
The good news: up until FINAL CRISIS, it mostly made sense, and Morrison's told an extremely straightforward story once the bigger shape of the thing comes into focus. Good? It has moments, good (JH Williams) and bad (when the Magical Negro stereotype shows up to give Batman a clock radio...? I didn't read your way-too-lengthy annotations, internet, so the significance of that Bagger Vance cameo was lost on me).
The bad news: I think Grant needs our help. There are a million pages of annotations for this comic on the internet, but... Have any of those annotations mentioned how this whole thing is a giant cry for help? Is that why all those annotations are so long?
If you'll agree with me that X'ED OUT is JOE THE BARBARIAN, BATMAN is basically the same story as THE INVISIBLES -- but written by a very different person. I mean, granted-- yes, the majority of his major work has been about the relationships between writers and the fictions they create. The Grant Morrison character is the author of ANIMAL MAN, the Chief is the author of the DOOM PATROL; NEW X-MEN climaxes with Jean Grey becoming the author; FINAL CRISIS has its Monitors; the same ideas are present for the FILTH, SEVEN SOLDIERS, maybe the 10th issue of ALL STAR SUPERMAN, etc.
But THEINVISIBLES and BATMAN are both specifically about writers who become trapped within their fictions. Same story. The differences, though, between the two are stark and sad.
THE INVISIBLES is about a writer Ragged Robin who becomes trapped within her story, and the story climaxes with the characters of this fiction uniting to free her, and thus themselves from the fiction they're all trapped in. That idea is found elsewhere in the work, as well-- most effectively at the end of Volume 2, where King Mob walks away finally from the spy persona he'd trapped himself in and blows up a Bruce Wayne figure's mansion in order to free that character of his fictions.
THE INVISIBLES was a comic about the prisons our fictions can be-- the prison of fictions of racial identity, sexual identity, and most of all, the prison of the the fiction of good and evil. Similarly, the crux of Morrison's BATMAN story also arises from a suspicion of the power of fiction, but ... goes a different way with it..
Morrison's BATMAN is about a writer, Batman, who becomes trapped in a book he's written, the "Black Casebook." This book leads to his ... well, not his death, but to Batman punching a helicopter at the end of BATMAN RIP, which then in turn leads to his "death" in FINAL CRISIS. Specifically, the Batman is confronted by the god of evil, shoots said god of evil in the head, which in turn somehow (?) helps to cause the god of evil to be hit by his own evil powers which are steered into him by two characters both named the Flash who dress identically, all of which somehow (?) lead to Superman singing the god of evil away, which in turn... something about Superman fighting a space vampire outside of space-time, which relates somehow to the events of a 3-d spin-off mini-series that I still have never read...? I don't know. Ask the internet; internet fucking loves the space-vampire; I'm probably missing out.
(I should pause for those few of you who don't pay attention to the current state of mainstream comics; just Mickey Mouse elementary stuff for the rest of you, rest of you can skip this part, but just in case: many if not most of the critically lauded mainstream comics of the moment are indecipherable unless you read usually-terrible "multi-title crossovers"-- people may recommend the current runs of CAPTAIN AMERICA, IRON MAN, or BATMAN to you, but unless you're also willing to read CIVIL WAR, SECRET INVASION, SIEGE or FINAL CRISIS-- there's really no point as major plot points will just appear and disappear at random from those works. Morrison at least has the advantage of having been the author of the multi-title crossover that thoroughly derails his BATMAN run, though this is small comfort, because as set forth above, his series required you to read other series, which in turn required me to take off my clothes. Of course, it's all some kind of sick, black joke that this has happened AFTER mainstream comics finally began to become collected into convenient collected editions and sold in bookstores to casual audiences, or that the authors of the multi-title crossovers have usually been writers who themselves benefited from not having their major runs interfered with previously, but... unfortunately, not a joke that's remained funny over the last five to six years and counting that companies and creators have pursued this scorched-earth strategy. But: Short-Term Strategies, For the Long-Term-- that's on the crest).
Anyways, Batman's "death" then leads to his rebirth in THE RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE miniseries, which climaxes in Batman being presented with a choice by the warring gods of evil and knowledge between non-existence and existence. In choosing existence, Batman then himself becomes the author of Batman which is signified by Batman hand-writing a critical moment from his origin story. The comic concludes immediately after Batman again becomes an author, for what I think is at that point the fourth time in Morrison's run. The adventure now continues in BATMAN INC. where Batman drags schlubby Japanese guys away from their girlfriends and into his grubby, violent fictions. (Indeed, Batman is now only a writer but a modern mainstream comics writer, insisting we read spin-offs of lame characters no one really wants to read when they could be reading about Batman instead. Schlubby Japanese Guy is Brother Voodoo to Batman's Whoever-the-Hell-Thought-the-Audience-Wanted-More-Brother-Voodoo).
So.
On the one hand, we have THE INVISIBLES where evil is an illusion, and our heroes triumph by freeing the author of the harsh fictions that imprison them. I'd suggest this is a valuable story, as the fiction of good and evil continues to be a dominant motivation for war, racism, etc. But instead, on the other hand, we have BATMAN, where evil is a dark omnipresent force of the universe that the author can only defeat by submerging themselves completely into a ridiculous fiction.
And I don't understand that difference other than to just guess that something sad has happened. The more you skim the extremely-lengthy annotations (no interest in condensing stuff down, guys? Really?), or investigate the comic, the worse the picture that emerges of the Morrison BATMAN-- long stretches of dialogue that apparently repeat obscure Silver Age Batman comics, interview excerpts that reference bizarre, pointless plans to "make sense" of a wildly inconsistent publication history, micro-details like red-black motifs that apparently arise out of two or three pages of the long-forgotten DC UNIVERSE #0 one-shot; one annotation-- I'm sorry but I don't remember which-- puzzled over whether a character's name was a micro-reference to the fucking giant penny in Batman's cave(!).
Even to the extent the themes I'm talking about here are all intentional, this doesn't really sound healthy, any of this. Granted, *I'm* asking about what's *healthy behavior* on the *internet*, but...
Still: it don't.
However much his BATMAN run might have concluded in some bizarre out-of-nowhere affirmation of friendship, it's such a lonely comic. It's not difficult to read the BATMAN annotations and imagine Morrison himself as no longer King Mob, but become Ragged Robin-- trapped now, trapped by his career, trapped by a DC Universe he's wished "alive," trapped in a room with old Silver Age comics, gone sad trying to figure out how he can get them to make sense. THE INVISIBLES was about authors and fictions, but it was also about music, poverty, ex-girlfriends, and poetry. BATMAN is about Batman, wall-to-wall Batman, a black hole of Batman that life can't escape. Earlier iterations of the Morrison Public Persona talked about drugs, travel, jeet kune do; modern era Morrison Public Persona writes silly, angry screeds about how bad comic fans on the internet are in the back of Mark Waid comics. Get off his lawn, kids! (On the Savage Critic scale, I'd put Morrison's letter column rants about the internets as OKAY, because I did like the Phantom Zone shout-out at least, which places him slightly ahead of Matt Fraction's much vaguer letter column rant about the internet, which I'd rank as EH, but both obviously, way, way behind Dan Slott telling that one dude to Fuck Off, which I'd put at VERY GOOD, probably the best thing of Dan Slott's I've ever read. 2011: this site is going to rank the shit out of everything this year!)
So, regardless of how JOE THE BARBARIAN turns out, it kind of doesn't matter for me because-- because I've read Morrison comics since goddamn high school, he's meant just the world to me since then, and something's just not right here, guys. I mean, I don't know what all this adds up to, but: instead of annotating every panel of his next comic book, could somebody maybe please instead take the guy dancing?
* * *
Retreating into a fantasy universe-- well, we probably all had our reasons to do that sort of thing in 2010 (and/or every year before that, if you're anything like me). But damnit, it's a new year, and it can be a new start-- New Year's is my favorite holiday; no other holiday is so hopeful. It's an entire holiday based upon irrational hopes-- I love every second of it. I love it to death. Fuck Halloween, fuck Christmas, fuck Thanksgiving: if you're a fan of those, that's fine, good for you, but what I'm saying is-- New Year's. Maybe my favorite comic in 2011 will be that one where the girl goes to Israel. I don't know-- that's supposed to be a good comic-- maybe that happens; who knows what this year has in store for us? Maybe the next volume of X'ED OUT, the main character gets a haicut, and goes to Israel and he becomes best friends with that girl, and learns about seashells or how telescopes were invented, and re-discovers how great reality is. That'd be a great comic-- no one would see that plot twist coming.
And maybe that can happen for you or I, too. 2011 can be that year for any one of us. I mean, whatever the right or wrong, we create these fantasies, and sure, they damage us, but what's the alternative but to go back for more, shit-eating grin, hat in hand, once that new year comes around? All we need is a barber, some plane tickets, and maybe some Judaism. All things well within our reach. This can be the year you grab for those dreams.
2011: The Year We Desperately Grab at Judaism Because None of this Other Shit Is Working Anymore.
2011: The Year We Make a Brand New Very Best Friend.
2011: Clothing optional.
2011: This is What the Fantasy Universe Inside My Head Looks Like, and I Go There Once a Year, No Brain Trauma Necessary.
As above, so below: I've told you about my guilty pleasure of the year already, and now it's time for its opposite number: The book I kept buying, just out of dread curiosity and something indefinable: X-MEN. Or, to use its subtitle, X-Men: Curse Of The Mutants. Or, to use the title it should've had, X-Men: No, Seriously, What The Hell Is This.
You may remember, before this series launched, such solicitation promises as "Why have vampires targeted the mutant population? And who's the jaw-dropping new member of the X-Men? The answers to these questions will dramatically alter the Marvel Universe" and "The Curse of The Mutants leaves the X-Men forever scarred!" And, having read the six issue core storyline in full now, I have to say: I think I might be the one scarred from this experience.
It's not so much that the series is bad, because it's not - It's just that it's also not good, or even okay. It's barely there, a void with a trace of lackadaisical contract fulfillment all the way through it. Even allowing for the traditional hyperbole of hype that surrounds any new project launch, X-Men is a staggering disappointment considering what was promised: Yes, Paco Diaz's art is nice enough, but the story... the story... Well, let's start by answering those questions from the solicit, shall we?
Why have vampires targeted the mutant population?
Because Dracula's son - who's now in charge of all the vampires, having killed his dad off in an earlier comic that really should've been part of this run, but isn't because, hey, it's comics - wants them to team-up against the humans or something. I'm not entirely sure what his plan actually is, and it never really gets properly explained beyond "You're a minority! We're a minority! We're the same! As long as you ignore that we're undead and want to destroy humanity, but details!"
Who's the jaw-dropping new member of the X-Men?
No-one. I think this bears repeating: No-one joins the X-Men during the course of this story. Sure, Blade comes along and helps out, but joining the team? Not so much. Maybe jaws were supposed to drop because it didn't happen. Anyway, he's gone by the end of the sixth issue.
Oh, and here's an extra one: What about the Marvel Universe has been dramatically altered as a result of this storyline?
Nothing. In fact, let's be completely honest: Beyond Jubilee being turned into a vampire, the only thing that this storyline did was undo the death of Dracula and rise to power of Dracula's previously unknown son Xarius, which only happened a month before X-Men #1 came out. So, instead of dramatically altering the Marvel Universe, this storyline actually restored the status quo, more or less. "Dramatic!"
I can't help but think that this storyline was rewritten somewhere along the line, maybe in response to it not really having the sales and/or fan impact that it was supposed to. Part of that is due to that whole "restoring the status quo" thing, but it's also because I'd like to give Victor Gischler the credit for not having always planned to have what should've been a large scale set-piece (The amassed vampire army attacking the X-Men's floating island base) happen, essentially, off-panel. Or, for that matter, plot devices like "We remote-control switched off Wolverine's healing power so that he could become a vampire and now that he is a vampire, we're remote-control switching his healing power back on and look! He's normal again and he'll kill all the vampires! Off panel!"
I may be too kind in giving Gischler that credit, mind you; there's a lot happening off-panel throughout this storyline, not least of which the death of Dracula and recovering of his body, both of which happen in other comics altogether, despite being fairly central to the plot here. Never mind the fact that, after he's brought back to life by the X-Men, Dracula pretty much leaves the book until he shows up to take command of the vampires again, which - par for the course here - happens without much drama or reason to be interested. That's a weird hallmark of the six issues here: Everything that you feel should have some level of dramatic tension, interest or whatever just... happens. Sure, there may be some posturing from one or more of the characters, but there's never any excitement or resolution or anything that the reader actually gets to experience. In six whole issues.
(The resolution of the storyline is actually a great example of this: Having slaughtered the vampire army off-panel in the previous issue, the X-Men go all out to attack the vampire stronghold to rescue Jubilee. Once they get there, they break in, off-panel, fight off the guards, off-panel, and by the time they get to Dracula and his cronies, there's a stare-off before Dracula gives Jubilee back to the X-Men. The only action to be seen is Cyclops knocking Blade out - with an eye-beam to the back, weirdly enough - to stop him from attacking Dracula. Because, of course, the X-Men have no issue with Dracula, they had a problem with his son, who's now dead. The end.)
There's a certain futility in being disappointed in a superhero event comic for failing to live up to its hype; it's like being annoyed when the sun sets every evening, after all. But Curse of The Mutants does more than just fail to live up to its hype: It's almost entirely disconnected to the hype, not only failing to answer the questions from the hype (or, really, even acknowledging them. Was the solicit written based on plans that changed in the writing? I guess so) but failing to offer anything to replace those questions. I couldn't tell you why I bought all six issues of this storyline - Part of it was a car-crash quality, I admit, part of it was wondering if it would ever actually go anywhere close to the pre-release hype, but beyond that...? I have no idea. Inertia? Masochism? - but now that they're over, I have no idea whether I feel like it's been a waste of time and money, or a strangely hypnotic example of accidental zen anti-event comics. Let's be safe and just say that they're Awful, shall we?
See? I told you it would be forthcoming and lo, it has...forthcame. Part 2 of our review of The Year in Comics 2010 is ready and waiting for you, with a Top Ten List from Graeme, some quibbling from me (okay, maybe a lot of quibbling from me, along with some supplementary choices) and even a bit of jawing about that there Iron Man 3 movie.
Oh, and I'd be totally remiss if I didn't point recent listeners to the lovely bit of promo art assembled by the talented Adam P. Knave. (And if you think that I'll be leaning heavily on that as a promo image for Wait, What? in the year to come , you're entirely correct.)
Those of you with the Itunes thingy enabled should already have access to this ep., but you are more than welcome--in fact, you are invited!--to listen to it here and now:
Apropos of nothing, I re-read James Robinson's run to date on JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA over the weekend - in part because I hadn't read the latest issue by that point, and wanted to remind myself of what was happening before I did - and, as I did so, I realized two things. Firstly, it's actually a book that I've come to really love, despite itself. And secondly, I can completely understand why that "despite itself" might be such a problem for everyone else.
Let's get this out of the way first of all: Robinson's JLA is very, very different from his Justice League: Cry For Justice. It's not as overwrought or, thankfully, as overwritten, and tonally it's much lighter and more constructive than the mini that preceded it. In fact, one of the things that I like about it is how much it's contributed to the DCU, whether it's a new German superteam (The Elite Guard, who are apparently using repurposed Rocket Red technology) or a new magical society on the dark side of the moon, ruled by the golden age Green Lantern. He's also brought in STAR Labs for the first time in a long time, it seems like, and uses forgotten or underused characters like Naiad, Josiah Power or Sebastian Faust in a way that feels less like Easter Egg cameos but something more organic, and I really enjoy that - That he makes JLA into a book that's somehow bigger than the team itself, and more of a book about the DC Universe.
It's something that spills into the story arcs, which skew towards the epic wherever possible: Something is destroying the multiverse! Something is causing all the people with environmental superpowers to go insane! There's an ambition to what Robinson's trying to do, and it really appeals to me. So much so, in fact, that it allows me to overlook the (admittedly, fairly obvious) problems with the book. For one thing, there's the scattered nature of the plotting - Less so now, thankfully, but the first six issues of Robinson's run was marked by some amazingly disjointed plots and two complete overhauls to the team's line-up, one happening midway through the third issue of the new line-up and essentially happening off-panel with little explanation. Presumably, a lot of that was editorially mandated (Even if some of it makes little sense: Cyborg was seemingly written out to go... nowhere?), and a plot that started his run took two issues off before continuing for three issues before disappearing for another six issues.
There's also the issue of the art. JLA has been a book that's historically never really worked artistically for me since maybe Adam Hughes' JLI run way back when (with the exception of Doug Mahnke's art in the last run), and viewed in that continuum, Mark Bagley's art is definitely better than Ed Benes' or Howard Porter: Characters are in proper human proportion, and page layouts are clear and understandable. But - and this may be inking, in part - there's a generic quality to the faces, and everyone looks about seventeen years old. Which, you know, works great on Ultimate Spider-Man, but not so much here. Things aren't likely to get better with Bagley's departure, as Brett Booth - one of the few comic artists whose work I'd honestly classify as ugly - is set to take over as regular penciller. I hope it'll surprise me, but I'm not holding my breath.
I know that I should classify JLA as a guilty pleasure: I'm well aware that it has large flaws, but there's something about its spirit and ambition, about its sense of fun, that makes me love it nonetheless. Much like the equally-flawed-yet-addictive X-Men Forever, it's something that I find myself looking forward to, and wanting more of as soon as I'm finished with each issue. Objectively, I know that it's probably only Okay, but for whatever reason, I wouldn't feel right calling it any less than Good.
I have no reason why there is an illustration of Devil Dinosaur accompanying this post. Surely, you would think that "because it is awesome" would be reason enough, right? At the time, I was trying to find a way to illustrate some points Graeme and I make about Marvel in this particular installment but...well, sometimes Google Images is just not kind when it comes to expressing abstract concepts.
In any event: Episode 21.1 is here, and in it Graeme and I spend a certain amount of time (the first 22 minutes and thirty seconds, in fact) catching up before launching into our discussion of what we thought were the top news stories of the year. It's just the sort of thing to listen to while huddling for warmth on a stranded A Train or wondering which member of your snowed-in family will be the first to be eaten...or so I have it on good authority.
This installment should already be burning a hole in your Itunes, but if not, or if you'd rather just stare at wonderful Kirbyness while listening, you can listen to it here:
Ladies and Gentlemen: Your last shipping week of 2010!
27 (TWENTY SEVEN) #2 (OF 4)
ACTION COMICS #896
ALAN MOORE NEONOMICON #3 (OF 4)
ALL NEW BATMAN THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #2
ASTONISHING SPIDER-MAN WOLVERINE #4 (OF 6)
ASTONISHING X-MEN XENOGENESIS #4 (OF 5)
AVENGERS #8
BATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT #1
BULLETPROOF COFFIN #6 (OF 6)
BULLSEYE PERFECT GAME #2 (OF 2)
CAPTAIN AMERICA #613
CARNAGE #2 (OF 5)
CHAOS WAR X-MEN #1 (OF 2)
CRICKETS #3 (NOTE PRICE)
DAKEN DARK WOLVERINE #4
DC COMICS PRESENTS JLA #1
DC COMICS PRESENTS THUNDER AGENTS #1
DEADPOOL CORPS #9
DEADPOOL TEAM-UP #886
DETECTIVE COMICS #872
ELEPHANTMEN #29
FAME LADY GAGA #2
FEMALE FORCE BETTY WHITE
FLASH #8 (BRIGHTEST DAY)
GEARS OF WAR #15
GI JOE #25
GIRL MEETS TENTACLE #1 (A)
GOTHAM CITY SIRENS #18
GREEN ARROW #7 (BRIGHTEST DAY)
GREEN LANTERN #61 (BRIGHTEST DAY)
GRIMM FAIRY TALES #54
HELLBOY SLEEPING & DEAD #1 (OF 2) MIKE MIGNOLA CVR
HEROIC AGE X-MEN #1
HULK #28
JACK OF FABLES #49
JLA THE 99 #3 (OF 6)
JOHN MOORE PRESENTS DEAD SOLDIER #4 (OF 4)
JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #46
KEVIN SMITH KATO #6
LIFE WITH ARCHIE MARRIED LIFE #6
LONE RANGER & TONTO #4
NEW MUTANTS #20
OSBORN #2 BIG
PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR #2 (OF 4)
RED EYES ONLY #1
ROBERT JORDAN WHEEL OF TIME EYE O/T WORLD #7
ROYAL HISTORIAN OF OZ #3
SCALPED #44
SECRET WARRIORS #23
SHIELD #5
SHREK #2 (OF 4)
SPIDER-GIRL #2 BIG
SUPERMAN BATMAN #79
TEEN TITANS #90
TERRY MOORES ECHO #27
TINY TITANS #35
TRUE BLOOD #6 (OF 6)
ULTIMATE COMICS AVENGERS 3 #5 (OF 6)
ULTIMATE COMICS THOR #3 (OF 4)
UNTOUCHABLE ONE-SHOT
VERONICA #204
WHAT IF 200
WIDOWMAKER #2 (OF 4)
X-23 #4
X-MEN FOREVER 2 #14
X-MEN TO SERVE AND PROTECT #2 (OF 4)
Books / Mags / Stuff
A SINGLE MATCH HC
ARCHIE & FRIENDS TP VOL 07 BETTY & VERONICA STORYBOOK
AVENGERS ASSEMBLE TP VOL 01
BIGFOOT HC
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER TALES HC
CASA HOWHARD SC VOL 05 (A)
EMITOWN TP
GOOD EGGS A MEMOIR GN
INCORRUPTIBLE TP VOL 03
JIM SILKE JUNGLE GIRLS SC
JOHN CARTER OF MARS WEIRD WORLDS TP
JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE #305
JUXTAPOZ #120 JAN 2011
KA-ZAR BY MARK WAID & ANDY KUBERT TP VOL 01
LOBSTER JOHNSON TP VOL 01 IRON PROMETHEUS
MAGDALENA ORIGIN TP VOL 01 (OF 2)
NEIL GAIMAN GRAVEYARD BOOK MMPB
NEW SMITHSONIAN BOOK OF COMIC BOOK STORIES HC NEW PTG (O/A)
PREVIEWS #268 JANUARY 2011
ROTTEN TP VOL 01 REACTIVATED
SALVATORE GN VOL 01 TRANSPORTS OF LOVE
SECRET WARRIORS TP VOL 03 WAKE BEAST
SIEGE TP THOR
SIEGE TP THUNDERBOLTS
SIZZLE #48 (A)
SPIDER-MAN TP BLACK CAT
SUPER HERO SQUAD GN TP INFINITY SWORD QUEST
TALES FROM WONDERLAND TP VOL 03
TWISTED TOYFARE THEATRE TP VOL 11
Oh, man. Sometimes you type "Wolverine vampire" into Photobucket and totally regret it, and then there are times like this. These kids are just dang adorable, aren't they? Too cute.
And it's also our subtle cue that you will be hearing us talk about the X-Men vs. Vampires arc on this installment of Wait, What?, as well as Tron: Legacy, DC Universe: Legacies, Superman's legacy, and Mark Millar's....uh, something. You can find it on Itunes sooner or later, or should you wish, listen to it here:
Ugh, woke up feeling flu-ey today. No commentary, just going to crawl back into bed..
28 DAYS LATER #18
AGE OF BRONZE #31
AMERICAN VAMPIRE #10
AMORY WARS KEEPING SECRETS OF SILENT EARTH 3 #7 (OF 12)
ANGEL ILLYRIA #2 (OF 4)
ARCHIE #616
ARTIFACTS #4 (OF 13) CVR A BROUSSARD
AZRAEL #15
BART SIMPSON COMICS #57
BATMAN ANNUAL #28
BATMAN INCORPORATED #2
BATMAN STREETS OF GOTHAM #18
BOMB QUEEN VI #3 (OF 4) (RES)
CARTOON NETWORK ACTION PACK #55
CHAOS WAR DEAD AVENGERS #2 (OF 3)
CHEW #16
CHIMICHANGA #1 (OF 3) (O/A)
CYCLOPS #1
DC COMICS PRESENTS YOUNG JUSTICE #3
DC UNIVERSE LEGACIES #8 (OF 10)
DEADPOOL #30
DEADPOOL PULP #4 (OF 4)
DEMI & SEX SQUAD GIANT SIZE #1 (A)
FANTASTIC FOUR #586 BIG
GIANT-SIZE GFT 2010 HOLIDAY ED A CVR RIO
GREEN HORNET YEAR ONE #7
GREEN LANTERN CORPS #55 (BRIGHTEST DAY)
GREEN LANTERN LARFLEEZE CHRISTMAS SPECIAL #1
GUILD VORK #1 DARICK ROBERTSON CVR
HAUNT #12
HELLBLAZER #274
INCOGNITO BAD INFLUENCES #2
INCORRUPTIBLE #13
INCREDIBLE HULKS #619
INVINCIBLE #76
INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #33
JOE HILLS THE CAPE ONE-SHOT
JUSTICE LEAGUE GENERATION LOST #16 (BRIGHTEST DAY)
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #52
KILL SHAKESPEARE #8 (OF 12)
KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE #169
KULL THE HATE WITCH #2 (OF 4) TOM FLEMING CVR
LEGION OF SUPER HEROES #8
MICE TEMPLAR VOL 3 #1 MICHAEL AVON OEMING CVR
MICKEY MOUSE & FRIENDS #303
MORNING GLORIES #5
NAMOR FIRST MUTANT #5
NEMESIS #4 (OF 4)
OUTSIDERS #35
POCKET GOD #2
POWER GIRL #19
PUNISHER IN BLOOD #2 (OF 5)
SAVAGE DRAGON #167
SECRET AVENGERS #8
SIXTH GUN #7
SKULLKICKERS #4
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #220
SPIDER-MAN #9
STAN LEE TRAVELER #2
STAR WARS INVASION RESCUES #6 (OF 6)
SUPERIOR #3 (OF 6)
TANK GIRL BAD WIND RISING #1 (OF 4)
TEEN TITANS COLD CASE #1
THOR WOLVES NORTH #1
THUNDERSTRIKE #2 (OF 5)
TOY STORY TALES FROM TOY CHEST #4
ULTIMATE COMICS DOOM #1 (OF 4)
ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN #151
UNCANNY X-MEN #531
USAGI YOJIMBO #134
WALT DISNEYS COMICS & STORIES #714
WARLORD OF MARS #3
WHAT IF DARK REIGN
WILDCATS #30
WONDER WOMAN #605
WORLD OF WARCRAFT CURSE OF THE WORGEN #2 (OF 5)
X-FILES 30 DAYS OF NIGHT #6 (OF 6)
X-MEN #6
X-MEN LEGACY #243
ZATANNA #8
Books / Mags / Stuff
AXE COP TP VOL 01
BATMAN DARK KNIGHT ARCHIVES HC VOL 07
CHARLEYS WAR GREAT MUTINY HC
CHI SWEET HOME GN VOL 04
FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND #253
GRANT MORRISON TALKING WITH GODS DVD
HITMAN TP VOL 03 LOCAL HEROES NEW PTG
ILL GIVE IT MY ALL TOMORROW TP VOL 02
INCAL CLASSIC COLLECTION DLX HC
JEFFREY JONES A LIFE IN ART HC
MAD MAGAZINE #507
MARVEL UNIVERSE VS PUNISHER HC
MARVELS TP EYE OF CAMERA (RES)
NAOKI URASAWA 20TH CENTURY BOYS GN VOL 12
PETER & MAX A FABLES NOVEL TP
REID FLEMING WORLDS TOUGHEST MILKMAN HC VOL 01
SINFEST VIVA LA RESISTANCE
STAR WARS LEGACY TP VOL 10 EXTREMES
THOR VS SETH SERPENT GOD TP
VAMPIRELLA ARCHIVES HC VOL 01
VIKING TP VOL 01 LONG COLD FIRE
And so it goes: I actually had this one edited last week, but decided to give you guys a chance to catch up on that extra-long "let's answer everyone's questions--and we mean everyone's!" installment from last week.
And but so here we are again, discussing New Avengers #7 and Action Comics Annual and Matt Fraction's Thor, and a whole bunch of other stuff that Graeme had read and I hadn't. (I did get around to reading New Avengers #7 a day or two after the fact and thought it was pretty fun.)
Should you be the type that likes to let the good times roll in your web browser of choice, you can listen to the ep. here:
Alternately, you can listen to it on Itunes, where I believe it will be entry no. fifty in our gaudy ongoing audio pageant. It is our hope that you enjoy it, and entry fifty-one should be along very, very soon.
This ep. is remarkably close to our holiday ep., what with Graeme talking about the five pages of his imaginary Jack Kirby S.A.N.T.A. book, and us answering questions about our favorite Christmas stories, and also its near-appalling audio-girth, since this ep. is where we answer questions submitted to us on Twitter.
At just under two hours, it's got a little bit of everything for everyone (or maybe a whole lot of everything for everyone) including five very-insidery minutes toward the end that I almost cut but thought it was worth leaving in. It went up on Itunes last night (albeit with the incorrect time--thanks for head's up, Ben Lipman) and you can also listen to it here:
I came dangerously close to using dogs barking Jingle Bells as our opening music (and playing sleigh bells throughout) but man, are recordings of dogs barking Jingle Bells not what they used to be: it's like people record 'em on the electric keyboards at the mall. As Kanye would tell you, that's no way to cut an album!
Anyway, we hope you find the time to listen, that you enjoy, and that you're having yourself some Happy Holidays!
It's beginning to look a lot like Chri.... HEY WAIT, IT ISN'T!
Another smallish week, below the jump...
2000 AD PACK NOV 2010
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #650 BIG
ANGEL #40
ATOMIC ROBO DEADLY ART OF SCIENCE #2 (OF 5)
AVENGERS ACADEMY #7
AVENGERS VS PET AVENGERS #3 (OF 4)
BATMAN #705
BATMAN AND ROBIN #18
BATMAN ORPHANS #2 (OF 2)
BETTY & VERONICA #251
BIG QUESTIONS #15
BIRDS OF PREY #7
BLACK PANTHER MAN WITHOUT FEAR #513
BLACK TERROR #12
BOYS HIGHLAND LADDIE #5 (OF 6)
BRIGHTEST DAY #16
CAPTAIN AMERICA MAN OUT OF TIME #2 (OF 5)
CHAOS WAR #4 (OF 5)
CHAOS WAR THOR #2 (OF 2)
CHARMED #4 A CVR SEIDMAN
CONAN THE ROAD OF KINGS #1 (OF 6)
CROSSED FAMILY VALUES #6 (OF 7)
DARKWING DUCK #7
DC COMICS PRESENTS BATMAN #3
DEADPOOLMAX #3
DMZ #60
DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP #18 (OF 24)
DOC MACABRE #1 (OF 3)
DOCTOR SOLAR MAN OF ATOM #4
DONALD DUCK AND FRIENDS #361
DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS #2
GEN 13 #39
GREEN HORNET #11
GREEN LANTERN #60 (BRIGHTEST DAY)
GREEN LANTERN EMERALD WARRIORS #5 (BRIGHTEST DAY)
GREEN LANTERN PLASTIC MAN WEAPON MASS DECEPTION #1
GRIMM FAIRY TALES #53
IDES OF BLOOD #5 (OF 6)
IRON MAN LEGACY #9
JOHN BYRNE NEXT MEN #1
LOKI #2 (OF 4)
MAGUS #1 (OF 5)
META 4 #4 (OF 5)
METALOCALYPSE DETHKLOK #2 (OF 3)
MIGHTY CRUSADERS #6 (OF 6)
MIGHTY SAMSON #1 RAYMOND SWANLAND CVR
MOUSE GUARD BLACK AXE #1 (OF 6)
NEW MUTANTS FOREVER #5 (OF 5)
NIGHT O/T LIVING DEAD #2 (OF 5)
NIGHTMARES & FAIRY TALES ANNABELLES STORY #1 (OF 4)
OFF HANDBOOK MARVEL UNIVERSE A TO Z UPDATE #5
PATRICIA BRIGGS MERCY THOMPSON MOON CALLED #3
SECRET HISTORY BOOK 13
SIMPSONS COMICS #173
SPIRIT #9
STAN LEE SOLDIER ZERO #3
STAR WARS LEGACY WAR #1 (OF 6)
STRANGE TALES 2 #3 (OF 3)
SUPERGIRL #59
SUPERMAN #706
TALES OF THE DRAGON GUARD INTO VEIL #3 (OF 3)
THOR FIRST THUNDER #4 (OF 5)
THUNDERBOLTS #151
TICK NEW SERIES #7
TIME BOMB #3 (OF 3)
TIME MASTERS VANISHING POINT #5 (OF 6)
TITANS #30
TRON ORIGINAL MOVIE ADAPTATION #2 (OF 2)
UNCANNY X-FORCE #3
UNWRITTEN #20
VELOCITY #3 (OF 4)
VERTIGO RESURRECTED HELLBLAZER #1
VICTORIAN UNDEAD II HOLMES VS DRACULA #2 (OF 5)
WELCOME TO TRANQUILITY ONE FOOT GRAVE #6 (OF 6)
WHAT IF SPIDER-MAN
WITCHBLADE #140
WITCHBLADE ANNUAL 2010 #1
WOLVERINE #4
X-FACTOR #212
Books / Mags / Stuff
ALTER EGO #98
BATGIRL THE GREATEST STORIES EVER TOLD TP
CANDIE LAND MAGAZINE #2
DISEASE OF LANGUAGE GN
EDIBLE SECRETS FOOD TOUR US HISTORY SC NOVEL
EL VOCHO GN
GENERATION X CLASSIC TP VOL 01
GLAMAZONIA THE UNCANNY SUPER TRANNY GN
IRREDEEMABLE TP VOL 05
LIGHT TP VOL 01
MAD WOMAN O/T SACRED HEART HC
MOTEL ART IMPROVEMENT SERVICE HC
MYSTERY SOCIETY TP VOL 01
ORC STAIN TP VOL 01
PREACHER HC BOOK 03
RAWHIDE KID TP SENSATIONAL SEVEN
SHOWCASE PRESENTS OUR ARMY AT WAR TP VOL 01
STEVE DITKO ARCHIVES HC VOL 02 UNEXPLORED WORLDS
SUPER HERO SQUAD TP HEROED OUT DIGEST
SUPERMAN SECRET ORIGIN DELUXE HC (RES)
TALES OF THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS TP VOL 03
TOYFARE #162
TWO STEP TP
UNCANNY X-MEN TP BIRTH OF GENERATION HOPE
X-NECROSHA TP
YOTSUBA & ! GN VOL 09
