Convention Wrap and thank-yous

This years Fanexpo went extremely well. If I've heard correctly, Fridays attendance was up something like 60% over last year, and thats easy to believe from the crowds packing the floors shortly after opening . A lot of fun and innovative costumes were on parade as usual.
The mood was good among retailers and fans alike and a lot of product moved throughout the weekend. I was happy to see a lot of familiar faces in the crowd, both regular customers from the store and people I only see a few times a year(mostly at the cons).
I really need to thank my usual group of helpers and employees who all ensured things ran fairly smooth through the weekend, without too much interruption of regular store business.
Kellie, Rob, Danny and Glenn, have been helping keep things running with conventions and in-store events for a few years now, with very little or no pay. Behind the scenes are even more people like Sean, Chuck, Shawn, or even Al, who kick in some help when needed.
All of them put up with a lot of work and stress(mostly putting up with me) and I would like to publicly thank them for all their help.
Staying in business for over 20 years would not be possible without these people and all the great customers who stop in week after week to fill their funnybook habit.
As a special thank-you to my customers, each weekend through September, I will be having spotlight sales on select product.
SEPTEMBER 5th-6th DC ARCHIVES and MARVEL MASTERWORKS will be bargain priced at $30.00 each or 4/$100.00.
ONLY RED TAG volumes will be included in the sale and will be displayed on the front and back tables of the store.
Look here next Monday for the following weekend sale item.

FANEXPO

Just reminding everyone to come on down to the Toronto Fanexpo at the Metro Convention Center this weekend and check out the all new Comics & More booth.

Gotta give a big thank-you to little brother ED, for the last minute design work and invaluable help getting this thing set-up(at least on paper).

Aside from our usual great paperback and hardcover book bargains, we will also have a fair selection of manga, as well as some Marvel and DC lead collectors figures(the British ones that come with the magazine).

The biggest ticket items in the booth will be part of a collection I'm helping a friend sell.

I will have on display, a run of Amazing Spider-Man #'s 1-20, and a few other higher issues.

These books aren't CGC rated and some are in less than perfect condition, but all are at least good or better condition.

Stop by and take a look at this great little collection before the serious buyers break it up.

NEW COMICS WEDNESDAY - AUGUST 26TH

Pretty busy week this time as Marvel piles on most of their Avengers titles the same time as all the Dark Reign spinoffs.





There's a few first issues though, with Kevin Smith back doing another Batman mini-series, ( what the heck is a Widening Gyre anyway) that promises a lot of guest stars. And the Titans Blackest Night 3 parter starts up( probably the least anticipated of the Blackest Night X-overs).
The Shield is the final issue of the Straczynski Red Circle relaunches. And while not a first issue, the Fantastic Four get a new creative team with a lot less hype than the last guys, but Hickman and Eaglesham are both fan favourites that could give us a book worth reading again.
Check out the full shipping list at http://www.shop.comicsnmore.ca/online/



If you have any cash left after buying all these goodies remember to stop on down to the Fanexpo this weekend. Friday August 28-Sunday 30th.

Comics & More will be there as usual,(look for the red and white banner) with tables and shelves full of great deals.

1000's of paperbacks and hardcovers as low as $3.00 -$10.00


Manga fans will even be able to stock up on their favourite titles at great prices or buy up some clearance issues for $5.00 each, 3/$10.00
The show has some great guests this year and promises to be a lot fun as usual.
Hope to see you there.

NEW COMICS WEDNESDAY - AUGUST 19th

BATGIRL #1 - PUNISHER NOIR #1 - BLACKEST NIGHT SUPERMAN #1


Yeah there's some first issues this week. None are a big surprise though and will sell to the people who buy stuff like Batman, Superman, Blackest Night or Punisher. There's also the two crime noir hrdcvrs coming from DC/Vertigo. But the only book that will be selling to loads of people who don't frequent the comic shops every week, will be this one.

ARCHIE #600.

A milestone anniversary for the 3rd longest running American comic book character. Despite Marvels big renumbering event this year, Archie is 2nd only to Batman and Superman when it comes to having a continuous on-going comic of his own.

I really hope everyone who is actually interested in this comic has gotten their preorder in. I sincerely doubt you will find any on a comic book rack by noon Wednesday. I ordered heavier on this than any Marvel or DC event comic in years, and over 3/4 of them are slated for reserve. More will be arriving with the August 26Th delivery, and supermarkets and variety stores will get their copies early in September. But if its a slow news day Tuesday, you can bet to see a rush for these, first thing Wednesday morning.

How many comic shops have you ever been in that actually have Archie comics on display?

Do you think that will change after this, or will most specialty stores go back to ignoring this perennial favourite once this story is over?

NEW COMICS WEDNESDAY-AUGUST 12th

I really wish the publishers would work out a way to shift the delivery schedules around so we didn't get so many of the "big" titles and or first issues all in the same week. We've seen it before where 15 X-Men or a half-dozen Avengers titles all arrive at once.

This week has several prominent #1's at the same time.

DC ships us the first issue of Blackest Night: Batman, along with Blackest Night #2 and Green Lantern Corps #39. At least in a case like this they may have the excuse the the storyline forces the books to arrive together, although what order to read them in is usually confusing. In the Batman title, Deadman, has to help Dick Grayson against his newly revived and powered up parents. I originally thought that the Black Lanterns were meant to be dead superpowered folk, but apparently any deceased character is a candidate for the Black ring.

Adventure Comics gets revived as well, and features the return of Superboy and the Legion. In 2 separate stories sure, but for $4.00 this looks like a sure winner. Both stories lead off from the hugely popular Final Crisis Legion mini-series.

Also in the restart department, Marvel wiped out huge chunks of their Ultimates Universe in the recent Ultimatum storyline, and now restarts 2 of the on-going titles with the new continuity.

This seems to be a popular thing to do with alternate Earths, as DC has tried this with their Wildstorm Universe at least a couple of times now. Lets hope Marvel has better luck at it than they have.(I must have been the only person enjoying the recent Wildstorm relaunch as they announced at San Diego, it would be relaunching yet again, soon).

Most of the Avengers came through the destruction intact, so that title can move along much as it did before, and with Mark Millar back writing, you can bet it moves slowly.

Ultimate Spider-Man (and a lot of friends, judging by this cover) however, will apparently feature someone other than Peter Parker in the costume. Brian Bendis is still writing however, so most of his fans can carry right along and ignore the new numbering.

The Marvels Project is being hyped big time by Marvel, including a special 70th anniversary party to release the book on Tuesday night rather than Wednesday. There's also something like 6 alternate covers planned for it. Not being entirely sure just what it was all about, I'll only have the 2 regular covers available. From the actual text on Marvels site, it sounds kind of like the old Alex Ross book, Marvels, only it implies some kind of hidden link behind all the early superhumans. Also, it has been implied that this series may be a setup for the new Human Torch title coming soon. Brubaker and Epting are a hard combo to beat in any case.

A couple of great paperback collections arrive as well. The latest volumes of Walking Dead, Fables and Invincible, each of which regularly outsell almost anything on the shelves here.

And of course DC finally collects Hush into one volume,(aside from the ridiculouly priced Absolute edition) I could never figure out why it was 2 volumes in the first place.

NEW COMICS - WEDNESDAY AUGUST 5th

Pretty decent week coming up with a fair number of first issues.

First off are 2 new titles by one of my favourite writers, Christos Gage. I know he's not one of the big names, and most people are saying"huh" right about now, due to the fact he's never been on a regular title, at least for long. He has done work for pretty much every publisher and a few of these House of M minis though, as well as a run of Wildstorm issues, and always delivers a solid story with well paced action.

His new Avataar series is Absolution, set in one of those "if powers existed in the real world" type stories. The lead character is a powered police officer who crosses the line. As a writer for TV crime shows such as Law and Order, you can expect Gage will deliver a believable story here.

Speaking of powers crossing the line, Mark Waid's Irredeemable has been selling out since the first issue. If you've missed it, here's you chance to jump in as the first collection arrives at the bargain price of $10.99. Plus if you like what you see, issue #5 arrives for only a buck.

Jason Aaron has been pulling in new readers on Ghost Rider for months now, and it looks like Marvel has decided to give new readers a fresh start by cancelling the regular book and restarting it as a series of mini-series. Its a dumb stunt that could end up losing the momentum the title has built. Then again this could be a great little story for people who've been avoiding jumping into a title mid-stream. With both Ghost Riders and Hellstorm thrown in for a little extra "fire" power, saving the Anti-Christ should be a cinch.

Doom Patrol gets yet another relaunch. This book has had what seems like a dozen incarnations over the years, with its last relaunch just a few years ago. This time they have 2 things going for them though, and that's Keith Giffen and the Metal Men. The Metal Men are another quirky group that's had their fair share of restarts, but if anyone can make these two teams work, it's Giffen. It only helps that he has two great artists to work with as well. Mathew Clark draws some beautiful super people and delivers some of his best on Doom Patrol, and Maguire is the perfect fit for the Metal Men.

J. Micheal Straczynski starts his relaunch of the Red Circle(Archie) characters with the Hangman. Others to follow will include the Shield and the Fly. A few have already been popping up in the backgrounds and crowd scenes of some regular DC titles the last few months, but these one-shots will be the official intro-origins of the nearly forgotten super-heroes.

Captain America is still lost in time in the 2nd issue of Reborn. Sales on the first issue were actually a tad stronger than I was expecting and continues to sell well off the shelf a month later. Lets see how the hype of the first issue stands up, the killing Hitler cover can't hurt.

And to all those parents who thought they were done with Bone when the final volume shipped earlier this year, here's the Rose solo story done in the same format as the rest of the series.
The gorgeous artwork by Charles Vess makes it worth every penny.

Lots more coming , check out the on-line store for the rest.