JANUARY PREVIEWS

I can’t believe I’m reviewing books arriving in January 2008 already. Time indeed flies when you’re having fun, and despite occasional rants and complaints, I have to admit I still love what I do here and wouldn’t trade my job for anything.( well, playboy billionaire would be a pretty good alternative)

DARK HORSE starts out strong with a new B.P.R.D. 5 issue mini set in 1946.Travel back to the beginnings of the team that discovered Hellboy, Abe Sapien and the rest.

Bruce Campbell has a new movie coming up, appropriately titled They Call Me Bruce, and you can check it out with the 1-shot movie adaptation arriving mid-January. Starting about then will be the newly expanded 4 –issue version of the original Evil Dead adaptation, with new painted art by John Bolton.
The 3rd Classic Harvey volume is coming, and this one is devoted to that cute little devil Hot Stuff. If you haven’t seen them, these books are beautiful glossy collections featuring close to 500 pages of pure joy. Most of the book is B&W with only about 60 pages in full colour, but the reproduction quality is fantastic. I can’t tell you how much I miss the whole Harvey universe and really wish someone could get them back in stores on a monthly basis. Every day I see more and more parents coming in with young children, and Casper, Richie and friends would be perfect starter material for this new crop of readers. If Dark Horse were smart, they would produce a Free Comic Day issue for release next May, and help me sell a ton of these.

Originally solicited for earlier this year, the

Dark Horse 20th Anniversary hardcover

has been relisted to go on sale in January of ’08. It may be a year or more late but it’ll be worth the wait. This beauty will feature over 400 pages of classic story and art from the publisher’s 20 year history including work by some of the biggest names in comics, Miller, Mignola, Hughes, Kubert, Eisner and more. In celebration of my own 20 year anniversary, I will be offering this book at the special price of $15.00, or roughly 40 % off the U.S. cover price. Quantities may be limited so add it to your list as soon as possible.

DC Comics is scaring me lately with their new previews. They haven’t had any real big first issue launches for a couple months now, and I can only assume they’ll be making up for lost time sooner or later. They seem to have more books wrapping up than beginning. Probably clearing the path for the huge launch of Final Crisis in the spring.

A couple of Titans projects being launched the same month seems odd, especially as neither one looks all that great. Teen Titans Year One #1 of 6 could be good although the art isn’t really to my taste. A little more interesting is the Titans Lost Annual, a one-shot special set in the ‘60’s, written by Bob Haney before his death, making it a true “lost” annual. The Titans must race into space to rescue JFK from aliens. Classic Haney.

Spirit #14 enters a new age as Sergio Aragones comes on as writer with art by Mike Ploog. I think Darwyn Cooke fans will be missing out if they write this one off their list.

DC gives us a 20th anniversary present with the release of the Killing Joke Special Edition hardcover. Probably one of the most famous and recognized comic covers of all time wraps this newly re-coloured version which includes an extra story “An Innocent Guy”, originally printed in Batman Black and White. I’ll be offering this book at a special price of $12.00 to members as well,(see Dark Horse Preview section) And don’t miss out on the Killing Joke Box Set, a beautiful new sculpt of Batman and Bermuda shorts Joker figures, it includes a copy of the original format Killing Joke.

Alas poor Yorick we knew you well. Y-The Last Man#60 wraps up probably one of the finest Vertigo titles I've ever read, and it will indeed be sorely missed. If you've never experienced the joy of this excellent book, don't fret. I'm sure you'll be seeing all 10 volumes of this series in print on shelves for years to come.

Backstock Sale

Well the $1.00 sale continues with more backstock issues flying out the door. It's become apparent these last two weeks that people still like the single issue format, and there are plenty of comics from the last decade or two they are interested in owning, if the price is right. When I first opened 20 years ago, it was still common to price most back issues below the price of a new comic. As the collector mentality took over, prices began to rise higher with the justification that labour, storage and protection(bags & boards) all factored in to the cost of the initial books. Many stores even began adding U.S. exchange to back issues(yeah I know I did it too). In effect, retailers were pricing themselves out of sales.

As I restock the empty bins over the next few weeks, the fresh stock will be priced to sell. Gone are the days of Overstreet plus 20% for NM. I'll instead be using the Comic Buyers Guide http://www.cbgxtra.com/price lists which are actual retail prices realized from stores across North America, and is a much fairer representation of what a comic can realistically sell for in todays market. I'm expecting that when I'm done about 90% of the comics in the bins will be priced at $3-4.00 and less. The effect should be that back issue bins will rotate stock on a more regular basis as comics sell quicker giving customers a reason to check through them more often.

I'm just finishing up a batch of Daredevils and I think most people will be surprised at the prices some of these great classic Miller issues are going for. By next weekend I should have a great run of Byrne era Fantastic Fours bagged and priced.

Remember the sale continues with all titles starting with M-R at a $1.00 each from Tues. Nov.6th-11th. And all S titles start on sale Nov. 13th.

SELLOUT

Wow I can't believe I sold out on Countdown #27 this week. I keep hearing the series slammed on message boards and other blogs and yet 3-4 people walked out of here so far this week without a copy. I'd like to review it and find out just what has fans jumping back on, but I never got to read it. I guess I'll find out next week when the re-orders show up.
The backstock sale is moving along better than I'd hoped too. You guys really like a bargain I guess because the A-E section of the bins looks like a ghost town right now and the sale runs to Sunday. Some people are just picking out prestige format Batman's ( great stuff that's hard to justify paying $6-$8 for) while 1 guy took a near full run of Batgirl's home with him.The section with titles starting with F-L goes to a buck each starting Tuesday October 30Th. Fantastic Four, Hulk, Legion, and more for a dollar a piece.
Now the real work starts, refilling those empty bins with fresh stock.

SALE TIME

Speaking with a customer the other day, the subject of sales came up. He mentioned his favourite all time sale was the Alphabet backstock sale I did a few years ago. Basically a different section of the bins would be on sale each week. This gives the customer a smaller section to concentrate on when making his/her purchases as well as plan ahead for the titles they might be most interested in. This works well for me too, as it gives me time to update the bins at a more leisurely pace as the sale progresses.
So, an Alphabet sale it is. Starting Tuesday October 23rd – Sunday October 29th, all titles in the main bins (in the center of the store) starting with the letters A-B-C–D and E, will be going for the low price of $1.00 each. That’s right, all Avengers, Batman, Captain America, Daredevil, and others in that section will be $1.00 each + tax. Remember that my bins are mostly sorted by character rather than title so that Amazing Spiderman or Action would be in the S section.
Each Tuesday the sale will move to the next section for one week, so next up will be all the titles from F-L. Each week’s sale will be listed clearly in store and I will follow up here on the blog every Sunday.
MEMBERS BONUS- To make the sale even more special for the members (and to make up for the lack of a discount card this time around) for every $10.00 spent on backstock during the sale, you will receive a $1.00 credit towards paperbacks. You can use this credit right away, or save it up until the end of the sale. Remember that Customer Appreciation Day is the last weekend in November, lots of great deals will be made even better when using the credit you earned during the backstock sale.

HALLOWEEN COMICS BUNDLES

Its that time of year again when the ghouls and goblins(and probably a few Paris's and Britneys) will be showing up at your door looking for something good to eat. Tell 'em what I say,"Its better to rot your brain than your teeth". Give those little monsters a comic instead of candy and help spread the joy of reading.
Once again I'm selling packs of comics for the low cost of only 10 for $1.00, thats 10 of the same comic(all Free comic day editions) for 10 cents a piece. Cheaper than sweets and better for them. Choose from Little Archie, Sonic, Legion, Spiderman,Marvel Advs,+ a few others. They went fast last year and quantities are limited, so buy what you need early.

THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY DELAY

Due to the Thanksgiving Holiday Monday October 8th, the regular comic delivery will be delayed till Thursday that week.

DECEMBER PREVIEWS - CONTINUED

Holy Crap, I know the Marvel Ultimate line is famous for lateness, but does anyone even remember when the first half of ULTIMATE IRON MAN came out? I guess Orson Scott Card is a busy man, lets just hope he used this time to actually finish all 4 issues before this was announced.
( Then again the full series was originally billed as a 6 issue that was later turned into 2, 5-parters, and now the second half is only 4)
Don’t get me wrong I thought this was a great comic, and I’m looking forward to the wrap-up, I just wish that Marvel and DC would wise up to how these lateness issues make the whole industry (and my livelihood) look like a joke.

Speaking of late titles ULTIMATES 3 is finally ready to start. The team for this book was announced more than a year and a half ago while we were still waiting for Ultimates 2 to finish up. The main reason for this was the idea of putting Joe Maduriera on the art chores. Anyone remember Battlechasers? The book it took Joe Mad 3 years to get 7 issues out. I notice this volume of Ultimates is listed as a 5 issue mini, rather than the 12-13 issue arcs the first 2 runs got. The next batch (volume 4) has already been announced with the art by Ed McGuinness, it might have been smarter to give us the more reliable McGuinness first and give Maduriera more time to catch up. The art is also a radical departure from the more realistic style used by Hitch, but both artists have a solid fan base so sales should be fairly consistent.
There is also the promise that this series will change the Ultimates Universe forever. Marvel seems serious about getting people on board for whatever is coming up because they are releasing a special FREE comic featuring art and info on all the Ultimate titles new and old that will be shipping during 2008. Simply titled ULTIMATE MARVEL it will be given to all regular members who order any Ultimate titles regularly.

Peter David returns to the Hulk in a special one-shot pitting him against that other big green monster, FIN FANG FOOM. Its 48 pages of mayhem with a bunch of classic slugfests as backup. (It doesn’t say how much of the 48 pages is new material but I’m expecting it to be the standard 21-22.) I’m kind of surprised they don’t have an artist listed. You think that would be the first order of business. Lets all hope for someone like Dale Keown and not Liefeld.

World War Hulk continues with WARBOUND, a 5 issue mini-series that features the monster squad the Hulk brought back with him from space, fighting against an old Hulk enemy in the New Mexico desert.

The latest fad seems to be to bring back old Golden Age characters and throw them together as a group. This was done well with the underrated Marvel series Agents of Atlas earlier this year. Now J. Michael Straczynski is putting together THE TWELVE, twelve individual characters from the glory days of Marvel back when they were known as Atlas Comics. This #0 issue is a preview for the upcoming regular series, and features the reprinted origins of 3 of these classic characters from the 40’s, along with preview art from Chris Weston.

Dynamite Entertainment is releasing their 40's revival series the same month, only theirs features story and some art by Alex Ross.

SUPERPOWERS #0 is a special 40 page preview issue to start of this amazing new series and as a bonus its only $1.00!! The book comes with 2 connecting covers that will be worth the price of the comics themselves.

The BADGER is back at last in, THE BADGER SAVES THE WORLD. Apparently our favourite crazy hero is up to his old tricks, kicking butt and saving Larry from the forces of evil. First Nexus and now Badger? its like Mike Baron is helping me celebrate my 20th year in the comics business by bringing back the 80's singlehandedly.

You'd think Branson was serious about getting into the comics business or something with some of the latest books listed from Virgin comics. November starts the revival of DAN DARE by Garth Ennis and now in December comes the 25cent preview issue of Jenna Jameson's SHADOW HUNTER#0. Although limited to mature sales only, I'm sure this one will be a quick seller at Christmastime.