Look for this sticker featuring perpetually over-used comic book character Wolverine to find great deals all over the store!
At long last, Wizards of the Coast has managed to release a new wave of some of their popular sold-out miniatures lines, and we're offering them to you in bulk at awesome prices!
Axis and Allies: War at Sea Boosters
$14.99 Each - In Stock Now!
Or special order a 12ct case for only $135.99 - regularly $179.88!
Axis and Allies: War at Sea Starters
$24.99 Each - In Stock Now!
Or special order a 6ct case for only $100.00 - regularly $149.94
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith Boosters
$14.99 Each - In Stock Now!
Or special order a 12ct case for only $135.99 - regularly $179.88
Star Wars: Universe Huge Pack
$21.99 Each - In Stock Now!
Or special order a 6ct case for only $87.69 - regularly $131.94
Dungeons and Dragons Miniatures: Deathknell Boosters
$14.99 Each - Coming 8/9/07!
Or special order a 12ct case for $135.99 - regularly $179.88
These Deathknell boosters are a limited release, so be sure to get them while you still can!
Releasing August 15th
$3.95 per Booster
$85.00 for a Box of 24 Boosters
Every aspect of the Yu-Gi-Oh TCG evolves with this new release. A new card type, a new card rarity, new foil technology, and even a new way to win the game are introduced in the biggest Yu-Gi-Oh set in three years!
Beginning at 7:00 PM
$25.00 Entry for 2 Boosters!
Play against the Fanboy Comics army and keep what you kill! Don't
worry, though, because you don't lose your pieces when they die! Just
the store does.
Also come out on Tuesday and Saturday evenings for more D&D Minis playing! It's free, and the winner of the tournaments gets one booster for every four participants!
World War Hulk #3
Last issue: Hulk Smashed!
This issue: Hulk Smashes!
Next issue: Hulk Will Smash!
Thank you, Hulk, for making comics awesome again. Also, verb conjugation.
Outsiders - Five of a Kind: Nightwing/Captain Boomerang
Well, I guess you guys didn't buy enough Outsiders comics when it was merely a good book without any major characters beyond Nightwing. Well, don't worry, because Batman's stepping in to put together the most marketable team possible out of every hero who isn't in the Justice League or Justice Society. In this first of five issues, we get to see Captain Boomerang and Nightwing do something! And then the Outsiders! What do you want from me? I'm tired, and I was sick for two days.
Metal Men #1
Well, it's August--time for the first wave of 52 spin-off books to hit. First up is the new Metal Men series by Duncan Rouleau, which looks to be good old fashioned innovative fun. The Oolong island story arc was perhaps the most fun arc out of all of 52, and if this new title can capture the spirit of that arc, it'll be one of the best books on the shelves.
The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born #7
Well, this is it. The final issue of the smash hit new series based on the smash hit novels. Truly, this book has been a watershed mark in comics, becuase it came out on time every month. That's right, for seven months, this book was on shelves the first Wednesday of every month. Not only that, but it has one artist, and a really good one at that! Truly, this comic is a mystery to all.
Performing Saturday, August 4th at 9:00 PM at the Soapbox Laundro Lounge Downstairs Basement!
www.chriscubeta.com
Thomas Writes:
This is one of the best live bands I've seen in years. Chris Cubeta and the Liar's Clube was my favorite band I saw at We Fest. They traveled all the way from New York to play on an early Sunday night at the soapbox and it was fantastic. There weren't a lot of people there, but the ones that witnessed this magical performance still talk about it. The We Fest Soundman said they were one of the best bands he has done sound for in many a year. My friend Tom Miller reports to have only bought 2 CDs at all 11 years of We Fest and "Faithful" by Chris Cubeta and the Liar's Club is one of them.
So I'm advising, urging, and begging you all to come check out this show. Please, let's show these guys some good old southern hospitality and make their trip down from New York one to remember. If you don't believe and want to check them out before you come down to the Soapbox there are a few ways: go to their myspace page and listen to some music or come out to Folks Cafe on Saturday at 4:00 PM to see a short acoustic set for free. Oh, by the way, I've seen them acoustic as well and it was amazing.
Do me and your music soul a favor and check out one of these performances.
We haven't had a chance to get any more of this Silver Age stuff priced, so here's a list of what we put out last week:
Batman: #158-160, 162-167, 171, 173-184, 187, 197-201, 203, 206, 208, Giant Batman Annual #3, 7
Detective Comics: #317, 323, 328, 329, 333, 334, 339, 340, 341, 345, 345-348, 350, 351, 355, 370
The Atom: #1, 12-15, 19, 21-27, 35, 36
Green Lantern: #2, 4, 5
Adventure Comics: #313, 317, 320, 322-329, 331, 334-336, 338-345, 347, 348, 363-366, 369, 371, 372
If you haven't seen it, it's new to you!
Magic: The Gathering Mini-Masters - Thursdays at 6:30
Each player buys a pack for $3.99 and builds a mini-deck with it. Players who make it to the second round get a new booster to build a new deck, and so do the players who make it to the third round. At the end of the tournament, the winner gets a booster for every two participants, and the runner-up gets a booster for every four participants. That’s a lot of free boosters!
ALSO: The first five players to register each week get a free movie pass to Mayfaire Cinemas!
New Warhammer Fantasy Battles League!
2000 Points - Begins Sunday, August 12th and Ends Sunday, September 30th
1st Prize - $50.00 of Warhammer Miniatures!
2nd Prize - $35.00 of Warhammer Miniatures!
3rd Prize - $15.00 of Warhammer Miniatures!
Just play in eight games against eight different players by the end of the league and you could win!
Yu-Gi-Oh $2 Tournaments - Mondays at 4:00 PM
Players compete for the chance to win a rare single!
$10.99 EachOh, look, Yu-Gi-oh Starter Decks. Blah blah blah etc. I don't care about that. Do you know what I care about?
A Yu-Gi-Oh character has the same name as me.
Sure, he spells it differently, but Yu-Gi-Oh characters aren't supposed to have real names. They all have stupid names like Zane and Kaiba and Yugi. Does this mean that I don't have a real name? Honestly, this is a huge crisis for me. I've never been more concerned in my life.
I feel so empty.
$24.95
I don't know anything about this. Here's a blurb:
Dark Horse Comics set the comics industry on its ear with its comics expansion of the Predator mythos, a comics series so true to the spirit of the original 20th Century Fox film blockbuster that concepts from the first Predator comics series were incorporated into the Predator screen universe. Now, the three core Dark Horse Predator graphic novels-Concrete Jungle, Cold War, and Dark River-and several other chilling Predator tales, some never before reprinted, are collected together for the first time, in a value-priced, quality-format omnibus, featuring over 400 explosive story pages in full color. Written by screen and television scribe Mark Verheiden (The Mask, Battlestar Galactica) and comics legend Dan Barry and illustrated by Chris Warner, Ron Randall, Dan Barry, and others, Predator Omnibus Vol. 1 is an essential piece of the Predator mythos and a great entry point into the storied Dark Horse Predator library.
So is there a line between Marketing and Arrogance? Because I think you just jumped over that line on a rocket jet-ski that is being carried by a pterodactyl, Dark Horse.
$19.95
Jackson told me this was awesome and that I should buy it.
I trust him.
Why don't you?
M-XL: $17.95What better way to declare your allegiance to an unforgiving, heartless, fictional dictator than this fancy T-Shirt? Why, look how fancy it is, what with the nice font, and the picture of Darkseid and what-have-you. I must say, it is a nice shirt, even if I have forgotten what it looks like but am still trying to write this description. That's how things go sometimes, though.
$34.99
Do you like Jack Kirby? Well, if you do, you might want to check out one of the finest Kirby homages in comics: Godland! And hey, what do you know, there's a brand new oversized hardcover collection collecting the first 12 issues of this awesome title and a whole bunch of extra material! It seems like everyone wants to do Kirby these days, but Joe Casey and Tom Scioli do Kirby their way, not the way they think Jack Kirby would do it. Which might not make sense, but that's okay, because I more or less cribbed that from Grant Morrison's awesome introduction.
Godland is the new real.
This is the League's penultimate week, and it's still anybody's game! Well, not technically. I'm winning by like 14 points, because I've been showing up every week.
HOWEVER, I am removing myself from contention for any of the monetary prizes. I still wants me my pins, but I'm not in the running for the $25.00 Store Credit for first prize or the $10.00 Store Credit for the second and third place players. That means it's still pretty much anyone's league! Here are the standings going into Week 4:
| PLAYER | POINTS | FACTION | |
| 1 | Cyrus Marriner | 29 | Cryx |
| 2 | Davin Madden | 15 | Cygnar |
| 3 | Joe Nguyen | 9 | Menoth |
| 4 | Preacher | 8 | Cygnar |
| 5 | Jackson Brantley | 8 | Skorne |
| 6 | Wayne Turner | 7 | Khador |
| 7 | Nick Truelove | 2 | Khador |
| 8 | Tony “Defib” [LAST NAME] | 1 | Menoth |
Joe picked up five points by pulling off the rag doll rampage against my Cryx--so even though he didn't win his game against me, he got just as many points for the loss as I did for the win! Keeping in mind all the different ways to get league points, I'm actually starting to get worried about my 14-point lead! That's just winning a 750 point game with a boast and a rampage!
As always, the official rules document can be found at Privateer Press's Summer Rampage Site. The house rules document, along with a quick reference rules sheet, can be found here.
If there is anything you're looking for that we stock or can special order, we can ship it to you. We ship every Tuesday and if we have to special order the item it will take some extra time. $15.00 minimum order. We take Paypal, Money Orders, Checks and Credit Cards. Paypal is preferred. E-mail us.
If you produce a comic, or have some art you'd like to submit, or have written a review or anything else that you'd like to see in the newsletter, we're totally cool with that! Just email editor@fanboycomics.biz, and we'll put your submission in the newsletter if it's appropriate! Heck, you can even send in plain old comments about the newsletter, the store, or one of our events and we might publish them! We're really accommodating, it would seem. Seriously, write some reviews. We'll hook you up with free review copies of comics. How cool is that?
Here's a rundown of the main stuff we buy:
As usual, a great many comic books have been pushed back to a later date. This news is so shocking that we are now developing a weekly section where we announce comic delays, so you can better know when your favorite books are coming out. Or when the next delay announcement will be, whatever. We'll also include other schedule announcements, like different products coming back in stock, second printings, and the like. But this is the comic industry, and we all know which type of announcment we will see the most.
Changed Release Dates
| Superman Chronicles Vol. 3 TP | 08/01/07 | 08/08/07 |
| Stardust: Moon Star Statue | 08/01/07 | 08/08/07 |
| Red Prophet: Tales of Alvin Maker #10 | 08/08/07 | 08/15/07 |
| Marvel Adventures: Hulk #2 | 08/08/07 | 08/15/07 |
| Sub-Mariner #3 CWI | 08/08/07 | 08/15/07 |
| Halo: Uprising #1 (MR) | 08/08/07 | 08/15/07 |
| Thunderbolts #116 | 08/08/07 | 08/22/07 |
| The Order #2 CWI | 08/15/07 | 08/22/07 |
| Powers Vol. 10: Cosmic TP (MR) | 08/15/07 | 08/22/07 |
| Programme #2 | 08/22/07 | 08/15/07 |
| World War Hulk: Front Line #4 | 08/29/07 | 09/19/07 |
| Superman Confidential #8 | 09/05/07 | 10/17/07 |
| World War Hulk: Front Line #5 | 09/26/07 | 10/10/07 |
| World War Hulk: Front Line #6 | 10/17/07 | 10/31/07 |
Writer: Warren Ellis
Art: Juan Jose Ryp
Publisher: Avatar
Price: $2.99
Sometimes Warren Ellis is great. Sometimes he's not. The work he is doing with Black Summer is the fellow on fire. I've already reviewed the number Zero issue, so here is the run down of number one: John Horus has successfully killed the President of the United States. The army is on the streets, looking for the rest of the "Seven Guns". The man who co-designed all the Guns enhancements, Frank Blacksmith, is revealed to be alive, but has betrayed the team. He sends one of his new Enhanced enforcers after Tom Noir, thinking he is De-powered but still too smart to be left alive. A cool Warren Ellis fight ensues and then the big ending: All the Seven Guns are going insane because of the Enhancements! Oh, no!
There are some great things about this book, but there are some things that could be improved upon. Let's start with the good first. The art for this book is amazing. I said that it reminded me of Frank Quietly's work before, but I think I was wrong. Juan Jose Ryp is doing some really interesting and amazing stuff with his pen-strokes. The attention to detail is remarkable and outstanding. Each page is packed full of "stuff". When Tom Noir crashes into his couch, it splinters and breaks and looks particularly painful. All his panel angles are twisted and odd and he pans in nice and tight to all the character's faces. Some books you read for the writing and some you get for the art. It's always a pleasure when you can get both in a nice package.
Warren Ellis is also flexing his muscles with the new enhancements. Back-up nervous systems, guns tied to parts of your brain and more are in there. I was particularly impressed with the idea of trying to work on a problem would allow you to benefit from the after effects if the problem is solved. One of the characters tries to understand a light-speed equation and, by doing that, she actually achieves super-speed. This isn't new. The Flash folks have been doing that for awhile. But I like the technical and scientific approach better than the silly stuff that some other comic writers try to pull off. Warren Ellis has always been the "thinking mans" comic writer and he hasn't let us down with Black Summer. I am very excited to see where he is going with this.
However.
This whole idea that the Seven Guns are going "insane" bothers me. When you start a story, it is very important to know what the main characters motivation is, and to remind the reader sometimes of that motivation. Tom Noir kills his assassin in the book because he learns that Frank Blacksmith is responsible for his girlfriend's death. But, apparently, John Horus only killed the President because John Horus is going insane, not because the President might deserve it. Making the main characters insane, or having multiple motivations, muddies the water and makes things very confusing, and it makes the character very unreliable. So, now, for all the following issues, whenever the Seven Guns do anything, it is because they are losing their minds. You can't trust them now and all their actions are highly suspect. I was just fine with John Horus being amazingly actively political. It is a very minor hang-up, but I've been barking a lot lately about writers and some of the lazy writing they pass on sometimes. Comics are not cheap, and we deserve great stories. I do not doubt that Warren Ellis is creating an instant and incredible hit with Black Summer. I'm sure with issue number 2, all my concerns will be quickly resolved. Or dissolved. Whatever.
RATING: 5/5
Writer: Grant Morrison
Penciller: Andy Kubert
Inker: Jesse Delperdang
Colorist: Guy Major
Publisher: DC Comics
It is another future. A world where Talia and Bruce Wayne did the nasty and produced an offspring, Damian Wayne! Damian was trained from birth to kill the Batman and, once he became Batman's trusted sidekick, he betrayed Bruce, killed him, and took the mantle for himself! Caught between two worlds! Good and Evil! He is the new Batman for a new world.
My stomach hurts.
I have a very love/hate relationship with Grant Morrison. His mind is brilliant. And I actually believe him when he says that he thought up the whole "Matrix" concept first. His writing is great and his work on the Invisibles and the JLA are classics. He has the amazing ability to get the reader hooked into the concepts and the ideas of what he is showing and producing, without making the reader work too incredibly hard. For example, Future Batman is introduced to the reader in two pages and we completely understand what is going on. No problem. There is never too much or too little dialogue with Grant Morrison's work. He has the art of comic writing down to a beautiful science and it always impressive and enjoyable to read his work.
But, man, Grant Morrison can lose a guy in a heartbeat. The main villain of the story is someone wearing a Batman outfit. Apparently he was a "Replacement" Batman at one time. He calls himself the "Son of Satan" and he wants to start the End of the World. When Future Batman confronts him, they act like they know each other. And at the end of the fight, the Evil Batman blows up? Or catches on fire or something like that. And why was this Future Batman "genetically engineered?" And why does he have to kill? Does everybody have to kill? Ugh. What is the big deal about killing? So, like, whenever some edgy version of a hero is created, he has to be a killer because all edgy things in the world are killers. And does the future have to be this horrible place? Anytime somebody writes a story about the future, it is completely horrible and everyone on the planet is one wrong step from being a gravestone? It's just getting old and I expected more from Grant Morrison.
Andy Kubert's art is still amazing. His angles and his figure positioning are flawless. He's definitely a top-notch artist that deserves all the hype he receives. I really need to hit the back issues to see more of Andy's Batman work. It is marvelous, no pun intended.
If you are a comic book fan in general, you should pick this up. It satisfies, on some level. But it's basically a story to celebrate Batman getting the big "666". But I don't know if this version of Batman has enough legs for another story line. Knowing DC, it'll probably happen anyway.
RATING: 4/5
Sorry, no Editor's Notes this week, as I was really sick. If I were to write them, they would largely include the words "orifice" and "liquid," and I don't think anyone wants that.
