OCTOBER PREVIEWS-THE END

This may not be as much work today as the last 3 since the Marvel catalog, for once, is not loaded down with new titles. In fact a few of the #1's they do list have little or no appeal to me.


Howard the Duck is one of those characters that's been hanging around the back of the M.U. for a while and I'm not surprised to see this mini-series come up. Ty Templeton should deliver a fine story, the problem I have is with the Bobillo art. This cartoony style does not do Howard justice. Perhaps Marvel doesn't understand the original appeal of the duck is that he wasn't a cartoon, but a living being from a dimension where ducks were the dominant life form on Earth. As such, he should look as realistic as possible. If anyone is still interested in this book after seeing the cover, make sure to get your order in, there won't be a lot ( if any) copies going on the shelves.

Another Gerber character is resurrected in October, Omega the Unknown , and I can only assume from the art on this one too, that Marvel really does not want either of these properties to succeed. I usually try not to judge books so harshly but Omega first debuted in the 70’s, so I am pretty much its target audience, and I don’t find this book the least bit appealing. Again, if you have an interest in this book speak up early or miss it entirely.

Speaking of resurrections, another Marvel Zombies mini-series begins.Marvel just seems intent on beating a dead horse as dead as possible. This time around the dead "heroes" return to Earth to be greeted by an amazing, astounding discovery. Not since the days of Stan Lee have so many adjectives been wasted in one solicitation. Your money would be better spent on the Walking Dead paperbacks, a series Kirkman would be better off spending more time on before his increasing lateness issues start to hurt his sales.


Before you think I'm just in a Marvel bashing mood, I am looking forward to the What If? Hulk one-shot. 3 short stories each with a different twist on the Planet Hulk story. Greg Pak writes them all, and the Marvel site lists Leonard Kirk as an artist(although his name is missing from the Previews listing), still the cover alone should sell this one.

Marvel has had an on-going series of 1-shots for a while now that seem to slip under most peoples radar. Mythos Fantastic Four is the latest in this run of painted origin stories.

X-Men Messiah Complex one-shot is billed as the start of the big X-men event of the decade. I'm pretty sure that's the same thing they said about Endangered Species. I love Ed Brubaker on his crime and espionage stories, his Captain America run is the first time I ever cared about the character. But other than that first mini-series, Deadly Genesis, his X-Men stuff has left me a little cold.

Claremont writes Exiles, Claremont writes Excalibur, so how long before the two books have a crossover? X-Men Die by the Sword#1 was just a matter of time ever since he added Psylocke to the exiles. All I can say is, both titles have been slowly losing sales since Claremont came on. Exiles was one of my favourite Marvel titles for a couple years running, but I doubt if I'll bother to read this.

Marvel gives us another Max Sampler this year, its a good way to introduce some new stuff, and for a buck its a pretty good deal. Inside is a preview for Foolkiller #1 which brings back another 70's character who basically was a joke version of Punisher. Now that the Max line has given us a more mature ( violenter?) Punisher, I guess it's time to bump the Foolkiller up a notch as well.

BOOKS ARRIVING IN OCTOBER-continued

There's so many new titles starting in October that this is going to take 3 posts, hopefully I can wrap up DC today and get around to Marvel and assorted tomorrow.

Metamorpho Year One #1 brings the elemental hero into the new millennium as the host of a reality show called Treasure Quest. Its a simple enough update that it shouldn't cause any problems for older fans of the original and give new fans a good start point for a character due for a little more exposure. Dan Jurgens is a proven writer/artist capable of a fun and nice looking story.

Gotham Underground #1 sounds almost like a story left over from the defunct Gotham Knights series. Basically the entire Bat cast has to team up to take on criminal newcomers to their city. The only real surprise here is that it isn't billed as a Countdown tie-in despite the fact that the story centers around the disappearance of key players from the Gotham crime scene as Penguin mentioned in Countdown #40 this week. Also, the teaser poster for Final Crisis has Penguin standing by Trickster implying a connection of sorts, possibly villains trading off against their classic foes. Bat fans will want this, anyone else can probably ignore it.

DC Infinite Halloween Special #1, promises to deliver 13 stories in 80 pages by some top-notch talent, wrapped in a gorgeous cover by Gene Ha. Superman, Batman, Aquaman and others face off against witches, ghosts and vampires. The sentence that cinches the deal for me however is "The return of Resurrection Man" a character I always felt was "killed" off too soon.

DC must have loved the sales they saw on the Green Lantern Sinestro Special last month because in October they give us 2 Sinestro Corps Specials. The first re-introduces us to the Anti-Monitor and gives us a glimpse of things to come. The second features the Cyborg Superman. Both are must reads for anyone following the current Green lantern storyline, but will also tie in at some point with the events of Final Crisis I'm sure.

October seems the right time to launch Simon Dark #1, a new dark horror character set to give Batman a run as protector of Gotham. Steve Niles and Scott Hampton are a perfect team for this endeavour and both have a solid fan base to help support it, I just think its a little ambitious to announce this as an on-going title.

Authority Prime #1 seems like a way for Wildstorm to hide the fact that the "regular" Authority title is months late and may never be seen again. Christos Gage and Darick Robertson are a great team however and this book should not be over looked.

Vertigo seems to be getting farther from its horror roots with each new title, but that's fine with me. Vinyl Underground #1 brings us a cool hip team of occult detectives, Cameron Stewart inks.

While not a first issue, Action Comics #858 is the start of Gary Frank's run on DC's flagship character. A perfect showcase too as the story features Superman and the Legion of Superheroes.

Justice Society of America #10 is another must-have as Alex Ross comes aboard as co-writer to Geoff Johns. The story is billed as a sequel to Kingdom Come, and introduces the KC version of Supes as the newest member of the JSA.

PREVIEWS FOR BOOKS ARRIVING IN OCTOBER

Well as promised here I am with the first of my Previews Picks. Each month, shortly after the new issue of Previews arrives in the store I sit down and run through all the first issues and stories of note. I'll try to add as much personal comment as I can to give you an idea of how I feel about the book in question. If you have any questions or comments to add, feel free to do so, and to any customers out there, please let me or your own comic shop retailer know when you are interested in something, we may not order it, if we don't know you want it.

Mike Mignola has been working over time lately with Hellboy, BPRD, and even a Lobster Johnson mini-series, so it’s no surprise that he’s not personally attached to the animated stories. Still these are great little adventures suitable for all ages. Hellboy animated vol.3 features 2 stories, one with the big guy himself and the second focusing on Abe Sapien.

I totally freaked out when the big two companies first started doing their huge B&W compendiums. What comic fan doesn’t love grabbing 500+ pages of classic material for less than 20 bucks? One of the biggest disappointments however was when Marvel only got out 1 vol. of Essential Conan before losing the rights. Well now Dark Horse is jumping in, and starting off with Savage Sword of Conan. That’s right all of that wonderful savagery brought to us first in the 70’s is coming at us again in chronological order, including Conan’s appearances from Savage Tales magazine, just to make your collection complete. And the beauty is, all that gorgeous art by Windsor-Smith, Alcala, Marcos and more was originally B&W so it won’t look odd the way some of the superhero stuff does without its colour.

DC is really pumping out the Countdown crossovers and spin-offs. They’ve been losing people on the regular weekly story due to the fact it seems to be moving nowhere, slowly, maybe they should have worked in some of the spin-off stories to help move the weekly book along. Anyway Countdown Presents Lord Havok has Jason Todd, Donna Troy, Kyle Rayner and BOB the monitor (love the name they gave him) meet up with a violent militaristic group of heroes? from Earth 8. The art is by Liam Sharpe so at least it looks good.

Countdown Presents the Search for Ray Palmer: Crime Syndicate #1 is certainly the longest title of any new book in recent memory and the sub-heading implies that this is some kind of mini-series within a series of mini-series. The dimension hoping Todd, Troy, Rayner and Bob (sounds like my kind of law firm) head to the Earth where heroes are villains and vice-versa. I can't believe Sean McKeever left Marvel to write this stuff.
Captain Carrot is back!!, if only for 3 issues. Then again, while the original book was fun, if a little to punny in spots, 3 issues is probably just about the right length.
Captain Carrot and the Final Ark #1 sends the Justa Lotta Animals gang to the Sandy Eggo Comic Con, see what I mean about punny?

Batman and the Outsiders #1 gives us the official line up of DC's latest remake of a classic team book. During the 5 week event running through August we'll get to see all of the Dark Knights reasons for choosing the final members of his team. The idea of the ultimate loner banding together all the outcasts of the DC universe into a cohesive unit seems like a task doomed from the start, but with a cool line up including Metamorpho and Martian Manhunter, I'll definitely be putting this one at the top of my read pile.

Black Canary recently left Birds of Prey and Green Arrow's comic was cancelled, but now the 2 are back in 1 book, Green Arrow/Black Canary #1, although judging by the cover, it may not be the Green Arrow we were expecting. Still DC probably doesn't want to give out to much info on this issue as it comes on the heel of the various wedding specials in September. I'm mixed on this title as I really loved Simone's portrayal of Dinah in Birds and Winick(the writer of this title) has always been hit or miss for me. I'll have to watch sales on this one closely after the first issue.

The Death of the New Gods #1 had to be by Jim Starlin, no one else can do cosmic like Starlin. It seems odd however that’s it’s taken so long for this book to appear . The New God, Lightray seemingly fell to his death in Countdown #48 more than 2 months ago, and hasn’t been explored or even mentioned really since! This is another instance of DC leaving Countdown readers hanging with the feeling of not getting any kind of real story for their money. I’m not saying these 8-issues won’t be a thrill and well worth the cash, but it definitely will leave the weekly Countdown series looking even paler in comparison.

Crime Bible: The Five Lessons of Blood #1, YOW! DC must be paying their writers by the word. How else to explain the need for these huge titles that seem to run on forever. The odd thing is this is the long awaited first story arc for the new Question, straight out of 52. And yet her name appears nowhere in the title itself!! I guess calling the book Question #1 seemed to simple for the new DC. Title oddities aside, the team of Greg Rucka and Tom Mandrake are going to give us a hell of story here that I’m going to push on everyone who comes in the store. I’m so sure of the potential of this book that any member who adds it to their list here at the store or on-line, before the first of October, can have the first issue FREE with the option to take it off their list if they are not happy with what they see.

ON THE SHELVES AUGUST 1ST

A lot of great stuff is coming in Wednesday, although thankfully nowhere as busy as last week. I had to clear off the sale table at the back of the store to make room for all the comics that couldn’t fit on the racks.
Top of the “new titles” this time around is Spiderman/Red Sonja#1, Peter Parkers fascination with redheads could spell trouble as he and the she devil with a sword, go head-to-head with the mighty wizard Kulan Gath, who has a history with both characters. Spidy was instrumental in Gath’s downfall that time he changed all of New York into a scene from Conan, and Sonja actually beheaded the wizard (he got better) back in her Conan team-up days. This isn’t the first meeting of the two, as Red Sonja once possessed Mary Jane back in a Marvel Team-up issue.
The other she-devil, Shanna, returns in a new mini-series which places her in the role of protector to a batch of shipwrecked pirates. Palmiotti and Gray are a great writing team, but the last Shanna series sold mostly on the strength of Frank Cho’s art and Khari Evans( Heroes For Hire) is a nice enough artist, but he’s no Cho.

I'm not sure if its a colouring mistake but Shanna looks very much a blonde on the cover of this new series. Artistic licence or Marvels attempt to distinguish the two She-Devils apart? What’s the odds both books would show up on the same day anyway? Its too bad DC already used the new Red Tornado on a previous cover for Justice Society ( this time around its Liberty Belle) with Medusa showing up on Illuminati #4 we could have had a real theme week going.

Speaking of Justice Society #8, this issue gets us set up for the introduction of the JSA's newest member in issue #9, if you saw the cover of Wizard #191

you know who it is ( and its not Wolverine, although that wouldn't surprise me he's already in every single Marvel book)

STARDUST MOVIE

I got some Free passes to the preview of Stardust yesterday. Based on the best-selling novel by Neil Gaiman illustrated by Charles Vess, the story takes audiences on an adventure that begins in a village in England and ends up in a magical world. An all-star cast including Claire Danes, Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert Deniro bring Gaimans story to life and will be a treat to all comic fans who've read the book and an awakening to those who still dismiss comics as kid stuff.

To get your FREE pass for 2, just send your name in an e-mail to

moviepass@comicsnmore.ca (limit 1 pass per person)

Preference will be given to Comics & More membership customers.

The movie is playing at the SilverCity theatre at Yonge/Eglinton on Thursday August 2nd at 7:00 p.m.

SIDEWALK SALE AUGUST 3rd-4th

The sidewalk sale last Saturday went pretty well considering the lack of promotion. I just put the info up on the blog on Thursday, same time as I posted it on the store bulletin board, and I still moved through 300-400 comics. The majority of traffic appeared to be locals just stopping by and getting in on some bargains. Many mentioned what a great deal it was and how the comics were basically travel material. (something to keep the kids quite on the trip to the cottage). With this in mind I’ll be holding the next 20cent sale on Friday August 3rd and Saturday the 4th. That’s right, 2 days this time to give you a chance to grab some cheap reading material before leaving town for the long weekend. The tables will be out from 11:00-5:00 both days and the books will run the alphabet from aprox. P-T.
Of course if the weather should turn rainy either day, the sale that day will be postponed.

ON THE SHELVES JULY 25th

Next Wednesday looks to be one of the busiest new comic days in a while.

Black Summer, Doktor Sleepless, and Crecy, all arriving on the same day. Maybe Marvel should have had Warren Ellis write the new Amazing Spiderman run, seems like getting out 3 books a month would be child’s play for this guy. Considering how quick the #0 of Black Summer sold out, these are all safe bets for quick movers next week. Doktor Sleepless should appeal to Ellis fans that miss Transmetropolitan, while Crecy is an historical look at one of England’s greatest battles.

It seems like comic book deaths have been flying at us fast and furious since Capt. America bit it, but Marvel still thinks killing off Sabretooth in Wolverine #55 should be a big deal, so much so they actually have 3 different covers for this issue (one is in B&W). Will it sell? Sure. Will anyone care 3 months from now when he’s back running around in the comics? Doubt it.

Buffy #5 ships a week early, since they were supposed to skip July, but to most fans its going to seem 3 weeks late. This will be the last of the Whedon scripted issues for a while as the next arc will be written by Brian K Vaughan,who created Runaways, which is now being written by Whedon, sort of a musical chairs thing going on there. I'm going to be watching this one closely and am interested in your feedback as well. Do you think non-Joss issues will sell the same. Visit the poll at the top of the page.

I think the reason its been so humid lately is because Hell has frozen over and driven all the heat up here. For evidence, I give you All-Star Batman #6 barely 2 months after the #5, and in addition Batman #666, come on, this one speaks for itself. Morrison could stand to take some lessons from Ellis, it'd be nice to see another issue of Wildcats or Authority some time soon, although not necessarily on the same day.

Sidewalk Sale Saturday JULY 21st.

Barring bad weather, (like that rain storm today) I plan on putting a few tables out front this Saturday with 20 cent comics. I’ll only have room for about 10-12 boxes this time, which should cover titles from A-L. If you missed the anniversary sale (or just ran out of cash) here’s your chance to grab a stack of bargain comics and help me make room for more incoming stuff. Then as the summer goes on I’ll rotate the boxes that go out for the sale so you’ll get to see them all sooner or later.

Blog Changes

As you may have noticed I’ve changed the title of this blog and its description. The main reason is I seem to spend more time on here discussing the store and events than any real ranting. Not that that’s a bad thing, as anyone who has spent more than a few minutes in the store with me knows, I can go off on some real tirades from the slightest provocation. If I want to start being more regular on here however I need to be a little more structured and set down some kind of theme. My current plan is to try and post a monthly list of my picks from the most recent Diamond previews, sort of a hit list of things to watch for. I’ll then update this once a week with a quick list of what’s new next week, sort of an expansion of the short paragraph that tops the shipping list on the website each week. I’d like to think that these advance thoughts will be more useful than a detailed review of something that has probably already sold out by the time you read about it.
I'd also love to see your comments on here too, especially with respect to the fact that I can't give the Previews catalog the full attention it deserves. Quite often I am alerted to some very fine books by my more diligent customers who spot things I miss, either in the catalog itself or from one or another of the on-line sites devoted to comic news. Mouse Guard, Space Pinchy, MPD Psycho and a few others are recent titles I would not have had on the shelves if they had not been brought to my attention by members. Keep up the good work guys.
Tomorrow I should have some thoughts on what’s arriving July 25th.

Store News

I've had more than a few customers mention I need to update my blog more often, and I couldn't agree more. Sometimes its just a matter of finding the time, because I have more than enough to talk about believe me.
First I want to thank everyone who came by on June 23rd for my 20th anniversary sale. In total about 3,000 comics were sold at 20 cents a piece. Some of the kids(adults too) went crazy over the box of 20cent Heroclix and the poster display featured dozens of retro movie and cartoon images at the 20 cent price. There's still quite a selection of the posters available as well some of the discounted paperbacks here right at the front of the store.
I'm planning on putting some tables out front with 20 cent comics on the occasional nice Saturday or Sunday during August. Keep an eye on this site for possible dates.
One thing you can bet on is a midnight sale the weekend of the Taste on the Danforth festival, which this year takes place on Friday August 10th-Sunday August 12th
http://www.toronto.com/tasteofthedanforth
What I did last year was closed at my usual 6:00 on Saturday and reopened at 9:00-midnight, and it was a big hit. The majority of the people coming in were totally new to the comic store experience but were still very receptive to trying out just about anything I could recommend. Many were local residents who since became semi regular customers. Part of the sale will include a "Big-Little" idea I've been tossing around which involves a deal connecting Marvel Essentials and Marvel digests, sort of a Father-Son package where dad gets a big book full of classic stuff for himself and I throw in a small book of adventures for the kids.
I also need to mention I will be at the big August convention again this year http://www.hobbystar.com/ComicConToronto2007/CC_Comic_Home.asp
with lots of great deals on comics and paperbacks.