The midnight release is TONIGHT! (For those of you not reading this on Tuesday, "tonight" is defined as Tuesday Night/Wednesday Morning.) Come by and pick up the first copy of the newest Dark Tower series! Heck, even if you aren't too concerned about the Dark Tower, we figured that, if we're going to open the store at such a late hour, why not have a sale, too? Believe me when I say this sale is going to be pretty awesome.
$22.00
Hey, the new Vampire Counts stuff is here! The general assessment? They're pretty awesome. The new Army Book comes in this week, and we're also getting some of the new models, like the awesomely-revamped (no pun intended) skeletons, the corpse cart, and other things. If you're tired of the boring old skeleton models, these new ones should be exactly what you wanted. Also, they'll work well if you need some easily-customized skeleton miniatures in an RPG. Not that I know of any roleplaying games that use skeletons.
$7.99
Hey, they're coming out with a poster that has some of Jae Lee's fancy-man from this new Dark Tower book! What art, you may ask? Why the art to the right and possibly slightly above these words, of course! Oh, but it will be larger. Like, imagine that image, but the size of a poster! Great, huh?
oh god do I finally have enough filler text here now so the layout doesn't break
$19.99
You know, this story was kind of overshadowed by the whole thing where the last issue was delayed so bad it became an Annual, which is apparently where you finish your story arcs that are written by writers who apparently never had any intention of finishing their story arcs because they were too busy with their movies or tv shows or whatever. Still, if you ignore the infuriating delay, this story arc was actually pretty good. It had great dialogue, which is to be expected from Allan Heinberg (when he turns in his scripts) and an interesting plot. On the art side, I don't think anybody realistically expected the art in a Dodson-illustrated Wonder Woman to be worse than "excellent," so, congratulations everybody, you were right. Anyway, this story is definitely worth checking out for a read in one sitting where you can separate the work from the painful, embarassing delay.
$17.99
You probably didn't buy the Highwaymen when it came out. That's okay, you have a chance to rectify this mistake with this trade paperback collecting the entire series. It's essentially an old-school high-octane action flick in comic book form. It's got sharp writing and sharp art, and it's definitely worth a read.
Here are the results as of right now:
Robert Farciane - 4-0 with 8896 VP
Anthony - 2-1 with 4193 VP
Steve - 0-2 with 1253 VP
Defib - 0-1 with 500 VP
Nick - 0-1 with 472 VP
Chris - 0-1 with 432 VP
There's still time to play!
This auction is for the comic book anthology AARGH! (Artists Against Rampant Government Homophobia) which was put out by Alan Moore's Mad Love in 1988. This was published in protest of the controversial Section 28 amendment. Features the work of Alan Moore, Steve Bissette, Brian Bolland, Neil Gaiman, Bryan Talbot, R. Crumb, Harvey Pekar, Art Spiegelman, and more. I believe all the work present is original to this release and not republished anywhere else.
Book is staple bound, black and white, and has overall minor wear.
This auction contains the rare vintage water color portrait of Robert E. Lee colored frontispiece drawn expressly for Frank Leslie Popular Monthly by Warren B. Davis from photographs taken in 1865. It's a watercolor facsimile, The Gray Litho. Co., N.Y. It was taken from Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly Magazine from 1896. It is in nice shape with only lite edge wear, slight tears on outside edges. Additional sheet with portrait details has a couple chips missing from edges and lite to moderate edge and corner wear. They each measure approx 11 1/8" X 8 1/4". Perfect for Civil War collectors and for framing! Don't miss out on this hard-to-find piece of history!
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
| OLD DATE | NEW DATE | |
| Invincible #49 | 12/19/07 | 03/12/08 |
| Walking Dead #47 (MR) | 01/30/08 | 03/12/08 |
| Empowered TP Vol. 03 (MR) | 03/05/08 | 03/12/08 |
| Loveless #23 (MR) | 03/05/08 | 03/26/08 |
| Powers Encyclopedia Vol. 1 (MR) | 03/06/08 | 03/26/08 |
| Ultimates 3 #1 B&W Gatefold Var. | 03/12/08 | 03/19/08 |
| Runaways #30 | 03/12/08 | 04/09/08 |
| All Star Superman #10 | 03/12/08 | 03/19/08 |
| Batman #675 | 03/26/08 | 04/02/08 |
| Countdown to Mystery #7 | 03/26/08 | 04/02/08 |
Writer: Mark Millar
Artist: John Romita Jr.
Publisher: Icon
Price: $2.99
Rating: Senior in High School, or the guy just promoted to lead stocker.
There is an idea that saying something makes it true. I could go into detail, talking about the Center of Narrative Gravity and all that crap, but I don't feel like it. The way it works is, if you believe it long enough, it will happen. The book talks about this, when the main character wills himself into a superhero, but the book is doing it on its own. If they call it the Greatest Superhero book of All Time, then it will become the Greatest Superhero book of All Time. Well, guess what. It isn't.
It is good, however. Really good. The book tracks a young comic geek who's desperate to be different and special and is slowly learning that he isn't different or special. Like most Mark Millar books, there is a hint of brutality here. Mark Miller writes with a sledge-hammer. He can't make a subtle point. I blame his English upbringing. The opening shot of the book shows a guy jump off a building and land on a car, followed by a shot of Mr. Kick-Ass himself, with live-wires attached to his testicles. Man, Mark. Calm down.
John Romita Jr's art is pure genius here. I think he's finally found his stride. I'm not saying that his previous works were garbage. Of course not. But what I am saying is that his work is getting better. This makes me happy.
So, why isn't Kick-Ass the best comic in the history of the world? Because it isn't Watchmen, which has that title and will keep it for all time. Mainly, though, I think Mark Millar has a problem with wanting to see people hurt. It just seems lazy to me. I can find a five year old and that five year old can write a scene where a guy is hurt in different and funny ways. That doesn't make for good writing. Yeah, a lot of the sensitive, character driving stuff in the book is solid and well written. But then we see a guy get stabbed and run over by a SUV. Somewhere, I've seen this level of torture-porn before. Where have I seen it? Oh, yeah. Preacher. And it was done better. Stop it. Stop it. Yes, you should buy this book. But don't go in thinking it will change your life. It won't.
RATING: 4.5/5
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Sean Phillips
Colors: Val Staples
Publisher: Icon
Price: $3.50
Rating: Junior Year of High School
There was a time when I use to love, absolutely love, crime books. I read every crime novel I could get my hands on and tried to write in that style. There is something just amazingly primal about crime fiction. I appreciate its history, its complications, its richness. Even to this day, I love shows like Homicide and The Wire. The desperation of a man on either side of the law is very interesting to me.
Crime fiction does have its pit falls, however. Things are either black or white, with most things leaning towards the black. The darkness of crime fiction can be depressing and can quickly get old. It is tough reading about revenge, betrayal and sadness over and over again. Criminal by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips is good and bad in that way. But the good heavily outweighs the bad.
The story starts off with one man pleading for his life, and moves towards how that one moment changed the life of the men's sons. Jake is a black man trying to be a real-time boxer, trying to fly straight. Sebastian is a white man trying to learn the ways of the mob, and trying to get that mean edge he'll need. The "Black man and White man as friends" angle has been done before. What year is it? Is it that strange? I guess, since the story is set in the 1970s, it is a bit strange. But, as always, the guys are best friends. And, like always, a woman comes between them.
I like this book because it looks at both characters deeply, shows how they are evolving and changing. Criminal understands how crime books work, and works hard to avoid any silly stereotypes that it runs across. The crime element seems a bit shallow to me. We have no idea what sort of crime the criminals do. We don't completely understand the crime world. But, that's typical for books like this. It trusts that the cliché is strong enough that they don't have to do all the work. I'm not saying that Ed Brubaker is lazy. He's one of the best writers in comics today. I'm just saying it could be a bit stronger. Sean Phillips' art is amazing as always. Check this book out. It is most def worth your time and money.
RATING: 4.5/5
Writer: Mike Carey
Pencils: John Romita Jr. and Scot Eaton
Inkers: Klaus Janson and John Dell
Colors: Christina Strain and Frank D'Armata
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $2.99
Rating: 7th Grade.
The guys working on the X-men books sure do know how to hate their characters.
That's a good thing, by the way. The more you make your characters suffer, the more you make them go through an amazing amount of crap, the more interesting the story is. But, I mean, how much stuff does Charles Xavier have to go through? He's died a few times, he's lost his legs a few times, he created Onslaught, he went into space, lost his powers a billion times, was re-created before, and shot with a techno-organic virus. And all that stuff happened after 1980. Now we're back at it, with a Bishop shooting him and Xavier losing and trying to regain his mind. Geez.
The book is good because we get a sense of Xavier. We see what he thought when he began the X-men, how he handled some of the major moments in the history. I hope that is what the book will focus on. I like knowing about this secret history stuff. With Cyclops becoming more of a leader, it's cool to see how Xavier approached him and what he thought. We won't be getting anything really new here. We see when he made the Danger Room, we see him flirt with Moira McTagget, all that stuff. When we aren't in his head, we see Exodus and some other villains trying to save him. I like that twist, especially the ending. It's surprising and extremely welcome.
If I'm worried about anything, it's that this story line will either go to long, or be too short. There is a place in the middle that will work, but I'm not sure what it is. Hopefully, the X-men editorial team has a set plan and the means to implement it. John Romita Jr's work is amazing here. It is fresh and breath-taking. I usually get annoyed with his work, but in these pages they are a pleasure. If you are a tried and true X-men fan, you have to buy this book. Fortunately, it's worth it.
RATING: 4.5/5
Hey, if you read this newsletter, you might have discovered I have some sort of inexplicable dislike for comics gossip columnist Rich Johnston, which more or less culminated in a recent article where I talked about his "swipe file" and how most of what he lists aren't swipes, they're just embarassing. Well, his latest column cleared that up a little bit:
Of course, this isn't just a collection of swipes, which is where confusion may set in. "Swipe File" is itself a swipe from both the previous website that carried its name and the irregular and fairly abandoned feature in "The Comics Journal." It collects and compares, homages, pastiches, swipes, reinterpretations, coincidental similarities and recreations.
Swipe File also doesn't judge. There are all sorts of reasons for why images appear similar. It's merely fascinated by the process of influence, especially in a way that can be demonstrated graphically.
If, as a result, some fans go on a fanboy rampage over it, or certain publishers issue letters demanding creators do not infringe copyright with the images they use, that's their call.
Well, that's quite a good explanation! I guess he isn't claiming that the things in his "Swipe File" are swipes at all. That's why the section is labeled "Swipe File" and that's the only description of what's contained within. This great explanation has earned Rich Johnston his place in what I hope will become a new regular feature:
THE IDIOT FILE
Now, some might think that I'm just launching an ad hominem attack on Rich Johnston by calling him an idiot. This isn't just a collection of idiots, though, which is where confusion may set in. It celebrates human intelligence in all forms, including idiots, geniuses, average folks, mathematical savants, artistic prodigies and many others. The idiot file doesn't judge.
This week in the idiot file: Rich Johnston!
That's a picture of Rich Johnston being supremely satisfied that a Marvel intern told him about a post on the Bendis Board! Next time you talk to Rich Johnston, (I'm assuming you're a Marvel or DC intern) tell him you saw him on the Idiot File! But that's not an insult, because it's actually about other things, too.
Serenity: Better Days #1
I always thought the stages of grief were Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Spider-Man, and Acceptance, but based on the behavior of Joss Whedon fans, the stages seem to be Denial, Denial, Denial, Denial, and A Comic Book Comes Out. So, congratulations on your continuous denial, Serenity fans! It's gotten you another comic book miniseries for your dead (and, I'll admit, excellent) TV show. So, here you go, folks!
Fantastic Four #555
Mark Millar's Fantastic Four series hit the ground running with the first issue and the second looks to keep up the pace. You've got all the hallmarks of a great Fantastic Four story entering play at this point: tension between the characters, a huge sci-fi-inspired premise, and something that the Thing can punch. Also, to quote the solicitation, "the Torch gets nekkid with a super-villain."
The Last Defenders #1
Nighthawk! Blazing Skull! Colossus! She-Hulk! These are the New Jersey Defenders, here to defend New York whenever the Avengers are out of town! If that doesn't get your blood boiling, it's probably because you don't recognize half of those names. That's okay, though! The book is written by Joe Casey and looks to be pretty sharp with the dialogue and the plot and what-have-you, so you can still justify looking at it even if you don't know who Blazing Skull is.
ARRGH! Comic Anthology
Robert E. Lee Portrait
