Graphic Novel A Day: Extreme Cheater Edition

I've been a little busy, but I have been reading graphic novels on a mostly daily basis. I just haven't had time to do write-ups. So rather than go through and back-date a bunch of posts, find images, etc., which I'll probably just keep procrastinating on, here's a list of what I've read and quick thoughts:

Star Wars Visionaries TP (Dark Horse) - Stories and art from concept artists who worked on Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith. Most of the stories are pretty weak, save a decent offering about a soldier on Hoth by Alex Jaeger and M. Zachary Sherman and an interesting and beautifully painted story about the origin of General Grievous by Warren Fu. But the art throughout is really nice, and the concept art showcased really cool. I would have preferred this to be a gallery piece, mostly showing off unused concept art, but it's an interesting idea for a Star Wars book at any rate.

Mutation Vol. 1 TP (Markosia) - Really nice Bruce Timm-esque art, some solid superhero slugfests, but the stories just don't make any sense. It's clear what writer George Singley is aiming for, a basic no-calorie superhero action book, but he needs a little bit more of a hook to make it anything but pretty fights by Ethan Beavers.

Captain Gravity and the Power of the Vril TP (Penny-Farthing) - A somewhat overwrought and melodramatic take on the pulps, Dysart's script should have dialed back a little on the angst and aimed for a more fun, pulp spirit, but despite that, it's a pretty solidly entertaining yarn that is more or less true to the nature of pulp superheroes. Also, terrific art by Sal Velluto (with some inks by his Black Panther compadre Bob Almond), nice colors by Mike Garcia and solid production values from Penny-Farthing. Never rises to great, but a solid B offering.

B.P.R.D. Vol. 6: Universal Machine TP (Dark Horse Comics) - Another fantastic offering from the regular BPRD creative team, revealing some of the secret history of zombie captain Ben Daimio and really allowing non-powered agent Kate Corrigan time to shine as she bargains with a sadistic demon for the return of Roger the Homunculus. Plus, as always, Guy Davis and Dave Stewart just bring the house down with the art.

Ex Machina Vol. 5: Smoke Smoke TP (DC/Wildstorm) - The best Ex Machina trade since the first one, including flashbacks to Hundred's days as a hero, intrigue within his cabinet, great supporting cast (love the two gay firefighters more than most of Mitchell's actual support staff) and a fantastic single issues shedding light on the past of his bodyguard Bradbury. Terrific art by Harris, Feister and Mettler as well. This might be my favorite Brian Vaughan book at the moment.

Para TP (Penny Farthing) - Stuart Moore's tale of a supercollider accident, a grieving daughter and an investigation into what happened starts off intriguing and creepy and then quickly goes off into bizarre, borderline superhero/sci-fi territory where it doesn't belong. Too much over-the-top technology like killer robots and other-dimensional ghosts, and the spooky, X-Files-ish vibe of the early issues is lost. Good mystery setup, extremely dissatisfying resolution.

One Page Filler Man (Image) - Jim Mahfood just cuts loose and makes it up as he goes along. The results are mixed, but the art is strong and there are great, fun bits throughout.

The Norm In Color (The Norm.com) - This is a gorgeously produced book. Michael Jantze is an extremely talented cartoonist, and his work in color is jaw-dropping, comparable to some of the greats like Berke Breathed or Bill Watterson. Seriously, there's a visual imagination at work here that takes aspects of pop culture and cartoon culture, breaks them down and incorporates them, and it's stunning. Unfortunately, the subject matter of too many of the strips and the gags resulting are often overly familiar riffs on guys and girls and relationships, without much new to offer. That's not to say there aren't laughs to be found, or genuinely touching moments, or that The Norm is bad. Indeed, it's very entertaining most of the time, in the same way that a good, solid sitcom can be entertaining. It's just that visually, the book is breaking boundaries, but its story and characters are of a more standard variety, and art this great deserves stories just as great.

Avengers/JLA (Marvel/DC) - Finally broke down and bought this deluxe hardcover, and I still really like the story. It's a kind of old school team-up we'll not see again, given that the fans seem to want a much different kind of darker, more "realistic" superhero universe from both Marvel and DC. Makes for a last great hurrah for these types of stories, though, with amazing art by George Perez and a real love-letter to the characters by Kurt Busiek that still manages to be an exciting, classic style superhero story at the same time. The companion volume, with all the background on the Marvel/DC crossovers in general (and JLA/Avengers specifically), is also a nice treat.

Degrassi The Next Generation Vol. 1: Extra Credit (Pocket Books) - Planning to write a review of this J. Torres-penned graphic novel at Comic Pants at some point. In short, it's a lot like Breaking Up (with art by Christine Norrie) - good craftsmanship, and though I'm not really the target audience, I can tell that it does what it sets out to do very well.

King City Vol. 1 (Tokyopop) - This one I did review at Comic Pants. Loved it. My favorite graphic novel read of the month thus far.

Giant Robot Warriors (AIT/Planet Lar) - Reviewed this one at Comic Pants as well.

Essex County Vol 1 Tales From The Farm TP (Top Shelf) - An emotionally charged look at a sad little boy and the uncle who tries desperately to connect with him, and a has-been hockey player who finds a friend in the boy. Lovely art, and a poignant, effective portrayal of complicated relationships.

Weekly Comics to Come - March 21, 2007

TOP FIVE
Brave And The Bold #2 (One of my favorite superhero debuts this year, looking forward to issue two)
Empowered TP (Adam Warren pokes fun at how the superhero genre treats women... potentially entertaining, certain to look great)
Spider-man Loves Mary Jane #16 (David Hahn joins on art, Firestar shows up in the story)
Spirit #4 (Issue #3 was excellent... can't wait to see what's next)
Y The Last Man #55 (On the home stretch)

THE REST
52 Week #46 (Nothing new to say here... still reading)
Gunsmith Cats Omnibus Vol 1 (Curious to check out this car chase, guns and hot girls manga)
Marvel Adventures Avengers #11 (Since Parker's return, this book has been a lot of fun again)
Walking Dead #36 (I'm back onboard after a strong issue #35)

Weekly Comics to Come - March 14, 2007

TOP FIVE
BPRD Garden Of Souls #1 (One of my favorite series is back with a new miniseries)
Damned #5 (Great miniseries gets a conclusion, can't wait to see how it ends)
Fables #58 (The second of two with Allred's guest art)
King City Vol 1 (New OEL manga from imaginative and talented artist Brandon Graham)
Pvp Vol 4 Pvp Goes Bananas TP (Another volume of Scott Kurtz's delightful humor title)

THE REST
52 Week #45 (Coming into the home stretch, and I'm still interested)
Buffy The Vampire Slayer #1 (Wary of superhero version of Buffy, but still curious enough to give it a read)
Hack Slash Vs Chucky (Cassie Hack faces off against her first licensed villain... should be fun)
Irredeemable Ant-man #6 (More superhero depravity, but in a good way)
Tag Cursed #2 (First issue was spooky and effective, curious to see more)
Thunderbolts #112 (Disliked the second issue, but I'll give it another chance to win me back)

Adventures in Retailing: Bitch, bitch, bitch

Kind of interesting to read the various reactions around the Internet, from the retailing perspective, on Captain America... and find myself agreeing with none of them.

Joe Riley's angry tirade against Marvel seems unfair and a bit pissy that Marvel didn't anticipate the retailers' every move and counter it. Yes, Marvel could have given the info about the overprint a little earlier so that everyone could have gotten onboard with a direct ship delivery next week instead of having to wait another week until March 21st. Yeah, I'm a little annoyed about that turn of events, too. But you know who I'm most annoyed at? Me, for not going with my instinct and trying to put in an order on Wednesday. Instead, reality slapped me in the face at 2 PM on Thursday when I realized that even if they weren't available, I should call in to Diamond and see what future plans would be. Retailing isn't supposed to be easy, it's supposed to be work, and you're supposed to use your head and try to think about what's coming. Frustrating when it doesn't work, and certainly Marvel could have made things easier, but this is not something for which editorial heads should roll.

Customers are coming into your store, excited about a comic book. Many of them are not regular customers, but new people, full of potential to buy comics from your store. If they're leaving frustrated, it's at least partly your fault, because they *can* get their comic, they might just have to wait a week or two for it. If they've ever tried to buy a hot videogame or videogame system on release day (and the odds are good that they have) they're going to understand that. Unless you gripe at them about Marvel's short-sightedness and how they're trying to screw your business, in which case they might just decide you're right and comics aren't worth it.

Of course, Garner Loudermilk's defense of Marvel is arrogant, insulting and factually wrong. First of all, he considers DC's over-printing of Superman a mistake, lamenting that "now the book is barely worth a little over cover." He further spews "If Marvel has learned from DC's mistake then I for one am glad of this. If they over-printed the book then there is no chance of the book rising in value."

Garner, as someone who watched the entire industry nearly collapse thanks to assholes speculating on comics like commodities, allow me to offer a hearty "go fuck yourself." Rising in value? Bullshit. A secondary market where the book rises in value benefits Ebay, and those who view comics as stocks and bonds with four-color covers. It doesn't help Marvel (should they not print a trade, too, just in case?), it doesn't help retailers in the long run, it doesn't help the fanbase, it doesn't help the industry. Your knowledge of the comics industry is about 12 years late, so maybe you ought to clam up and do some research before you go shooting your mouth off.

Garner also offers this gem: "Where it went wrong is store owners failing to capitalize on it. Don't blame the industry, blame yourself. You knew it was selling, you read three months ago in Previews when it said someone was going to die. If you failed to order up on it and are losing out on sales, it's your fault."

In point of fact, no one read three months ago in Previews that someone was going to die. You know what we read? "CIVIL WAR - CLASSIFIED - More information to come." Except it didn't. Again... get your facts straight before you start making accusations. What the hell does a marketing associate for a toy company know about comics retail, anyway? Then he goes on to blame the fans for not pre-ordering:

"But if the customers didn't have it on their subscription list at their local comic shop then again that is their fault, not Marvel's."

Yeah, fanboys, why didn't you know that Captain America was going to die and that CNN and every news organization was going to pick it up and it was going to sell out? Why didn't you plan to buy a comic you don't regularly pick up three months ago because Marvel said it was going to be big? They've never lied about that kind of thing before, and really, shouldn't everyone be buying their comics three months ahead of time instead of coming in to the shop to browse and buy what they're interested in then?

Again, what Garner knows about comics retailing could clearly fill a thimble. But he's got a Grand Canyon sized bowl full of disdain for retailers and comic fans.

But I think I might start calling Chris Butcher before I place any of my comics orders in the future... he has some sort of crystal ball that always allows him to get things exactly right. And if some of us were caught unawares by the level of the demand, we must be idiots. Because anyone who didn't *know* that it was going to be a giant media event and thus quadruple their regular orders so they could sell out the next day rather than the day of is clearly not doing their job properly. As we all know, there are no variables to ordering comics retail, and if you don't guess everything 100% correctly all of the time, you are not doing your job properly.

Adventures in Retailing: Feeding Frenzy

So... anybody reading Captain America lately?

It was an interesting week. We knew something big was coming, because when the writer of the book tells you "Order more copies" you're more inclined to do it than when you hear it from marketing or (especially) from an editor in chief who is given to hype. So we doubled our orders on Captain America #25, a book that already has been selling pretty well for us.

As a result, we sold out by 4 PM instead of by 1 PM. I don't feel like I could have done much better... based on vague promises of "This is going to be big," I really couldn't hit my Civil War numbers. I mean, Marvel promised the same thing with Civil War: The Return, and if I had ordered Civil War numbers on that book, I'd *still* be eating the costs. By the time we get our Cap reorders, we'll be well over Civil War's numbers, though.

This being my first time dealing with Diamond back orders and a book this highly anticipated, I almost missed the boat entirely on putting in back orders, and as it is, I missed the somewhat arbitrary Thursday noon deadline, so that the majority of my books will be arriving a little later. I'm not quite sure why the direct ship deadline is Thursday noon for Captain America and Monday by 5 PM for everything else, but hey, it's an unusual situation, so I'm willing to roll with it and hope my customers can hold out for the extra week it'll take me to restock. I'm not *happy* about it, but I'm not gnashing my teeth and screaming at Diamond or Marvel about it. I've noticed that retailers like to bitch, about everything, and frankly I don't want to be one of those guys. I'd like to reserve my bitching for when I think it's constructive and at least a little bit fair.

Sure, Marvel could have handled it better. They knew enough about how big this was going to be to coordinate with the media, and to have an overprint ready. What would have been nice is if they had made sure the overprint was available the day of, so that when intrepid retailers who use the Diamond website to check stock went to see the availability, they didn't get the rather daunting impression that the book was gone, and there wasn't any point in calling my Diamond rep to ask about it.

But they really couldn't have told retailers what was going to happen. Truth is, someone in the retail community would have blabbed, ruining the story not only for the media and diminishing its attention from a business standpoint, but for the fans. We would have known the story two months ago, rather than having Yahoo! news spoil it the day of. I don't like ordering based on the invisible solicits we've been getting from Marvel, but this was a big secret to keep, and as long as it doesn't become a habit, I'm OK with it this one time.

My bigger worry is the larger scale implications of it. I was working comics retail when the Death of Superman hit. I remember lines out the door, excitement and frustration at the prices. I remember skyrocketing sales, brought down by a near-crash of the industry when people realized they'd essentially been scammed. And I worry that we're watching the whole thing repeat.

But... with any luck, the retailers who are left are smarter. I hope that a lot of the fanbase is too. The people buying Cap should know that Superman came back, and Cap will too. So far, it seems that a lot of people looking for the issue aren't looking to fund their kids' college education, but just to read what sounds like a pretty earth-shattering story. I know I've been doing my best to tell people who are buying it that it's a good story, not a commodity that's going to appreciate with time. In the short term, the comic is going for insane amounts on Ebay (and if you bought Cap #25 for like $50 or more, I'm very sorry because in about two weeks, anyone should be able to walk into a comics shop and get it for less than $5), but in the long-term, it's going to have the price of Spawn #1 or the Death of Superman issues.

This is a huge opportunity to get outsiders into comics. I hope we don't fuck it up this time. For my part, I'm going to be making up bookmarks to give away that point readers to Brubaker's Cap trades, to Criminal, to Sleeper, to Daredevil. I'm going to be doing my best to make sure that folks who come in to see Captain America's death see the breadth of what comics have to offer. And I'm going to do my best to make sure that anyone who walks out with Captain America #25 has bought it with their eyes open, so that in a few months they don't decide that comics made a bunch of false promises and the whole medium isn't worth their time.

Now, might this cost some short-term sales? Might we accidentally turn off a speculator who wants to buy 10 copies and slab them at CGC? Might we make a mint selling a few copies on Ebay for outrageous prices? Sure. But I'm more interested in the long-term, in using this very successful event to gain fans of the medium. I'd love it if in a few years, when I'm telling people "I own a comic shop" they don't say "Oh, yeah, what's my Captain America #25 worth?" but rather "Oh yeah, I started buying comics again after they killed Captain America... there's a lot of good stuff in comics."

It's a pretty good time for a comic book retailer to snag casual customers. I got a big 'ol stack of $30 300 hardcovers today... three of them were presold, it wouldn't surprise me too much if I wind up having to reorder more in the next week. Transformers is right around the corner, and is raising interest in IDW's well-produced Transformers books. Fantastic Four hits this summer, and while I question the timing of replacing the familiar team with Black Panther and Storm, having Dwayne McDuffie on as writer means that fans coming off the movie will have something cool to read. Add in Dark Tower (which sold gangbusters with its second issue this week), Buffy (coming next week), Anita Blake, etc. etc. and comics are doing better than ever at reaching out to new audiences. I feel like this was the right time to buy a shop.

Vanished

I have not, in fact, vanished from the planet. I have been doing three things:

1) Attending (and helping run) STAPLE!, which went great this year. Report to follow... eventually.

2) Running my shop - things going well, except that I am now preparing for federal income tax, and there is nothing I hate and fear more than dealing with taxes. My experience thus far this year is doing nothing to change my mind on that score.

Seriously. I'd rather go to the dentist, and I'm notoriously bad about going to the dentist.

3) Wasting time on the Internet. This one's mostly tonight, as I finally dove into about a week's worth of RSS feeds. But I did find some really cool stuff. Such as:

Josh Neufeld's work on A.D. After Deluge, a must-read story about Hurricane Katrina that features as one of its characters my friend Leo.

Self-proclaimed "art nerd" and creator of very funny posts and an amazingly cool steampunk re-invention of Star Wars Eric Poulton's blog.

There's plenty more, including some new features up at Act-i-vate, but those are a couple of links to look into where people are actually producing regular content, unlike me.

I have been reading graphic novels, but haven't posted Graphic Novel A Day posts for them. Tomorrow is a day off (mostly), so maybe I'll finally get to write some of those, and maybe write Down the Line for this month as well.

Weekly Comics to Come - March 7, 2007

TOP FIVE
Captain America #25 (I'm nervous about the "big change," but excited to see what Brubaker and Epting will do, as always)
Criminal #5 (The end of the first arc, and this is easily my most anticipated book of the week... I'm so happy to be quoted on the cover)
Essex County Vol 1 Tales From The Farm Tp (Interesting new book from Top Shelf, I glanced at it during STAPLE! last weekend and it looked good)
Fantastic Four #543 (Anniversary issue, I believe, with a number of contributors including Paul Pope)
Shazam The Monster Society Of Evil #2 (First issue was among the best things I've read this year)

THE REST
52 Week #44 (Still reading... will probably read Countdown... DC has their hooks in me)
Authority #2 (After this long of a wait, I honestly don't care... but I will at least give it a flip-through)
Borrowed Time #2 (First issue of this Oni series was amazing Twilight Zone-esque stuff, looking forward to more)
Dynamo 5 #1 (Promising new superhero with a twist series from Jay Faerber at Image)
Ex Machina Vol 5 Smoke Smoke Tp (Good storyline in this trade)
Fall Of Cthulhu #0 (Boom! does Cthulhu, and I'll be checking it out)
Manhunter #29 (Not cancelled - yay! Now if only they'd get a new number one to really promote it)
Marvel Zombies Army Of Darkness #1 (First was a guilty pleasure, with Layman writing this is gonna be pretty whacked)
Strongarm #1 (Interesting new Image series with manga-style art)

Graphic Novel A Day: Jack of Fables Vol. 1

Writers: Bill Willingham & Matthew Sturges
Artists: Tony Akins & Andrew Pepoy
Company: DC Comics/Vertigo
Price: $14.99

I wasn't sure about a spinoff from Fables, despite it being my favorite book, but as it turns out, Jack of Fables is different, but every bit as good, as the book it originated from. Following Jack, the archetypal scoundrel, the book features a willfully fourth-wall breaking narration style that really works, cleverly populated Fables worlds outside the ones we see in the Fables book itself and the same sense of humor, strong plotting and great moment-to-moment writing I've come to expect from Fables. Tony Akins and Andrew Pepoy hit the same high notes as Fables artist Mark Buckingham, and the whole thing feels like a fun roadtrip out of Fables land and into the real world, with one of the most larger than life Fables as your guide. A fun read even if you've never read Fables, an absolute must-read if you like that book.

Adventures in Retailing: Civil War

No, not the Marvel event, although, well, sort of.

No, I'm referring to the Civil War within myself, a retailer who cannot stand most of the creative decisions Marvel is making these days... even as I find myself applauding them from a business standpoint.

If you look at the numbers, the current regime at Marvel looks like geniuses. Civil War was a sales monolith, a crossover that boosted numbers on every book it touched (in some cases raising books sinking towards cancellation, like Black Panther, up to become viable entities). And post-Civil War, they're capitalizing better than DC did on Infinite Crisis.

Now the events themselves, Infinite Crisis and Civil War, suffer from much of the same problems. Lackluster plots. Recognizable heroes acting wildly out of character for shock value. Tons of C-lister characters that the average audience doesn't care about and the audience that *does* recognize them probably mostly cringes expecting the writers to off them for shock value. A weak ending, helped not at all by storytelling that seemed to veer off in one direction or another throughout, rather than aiming at one particular story target and hitting it. In the case of Civil War, lateness. In the case of Infinite Crisis, dozens of fill-in artists to avoid lateness.

However, after Infinite Crisis, DC had two big plans to hang onto their sales boost: A weekly title and "One Year Later," an event allowing the creators to shake up the main books. The weekly title was a big hit, but it probably drained some excitement from the main books. And the main books didn't help but being really, really dull in general. As with the original Crisis on Infinite Earths, despite having that very thing as an example, editorial tried to have its cake and eat it to. Rather than biting the bullet, renumbering every book with a new number one and giving the whole thing an across the board shake-up/ground-up relaunch, some books were radically altered, most were given cursory pretend alterations and some just went on with business as usual. The result? Fast sales drops back to pre-OYL levels.

Marvel, on the other hand, seems poised to capitalize. The Spider-Man books had been sinking in sales prior to Civil War, but saw a big boost during Civil War. So how do you keep that audience? Knock off a major supporting character, bring back the popular black costume. Did it work? Anecdotally, the answer seems to be yes in my store. Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man sold twice what it usually does for us, Sensational Spider-Man sold about 50% more, and we haven't seen Amazing Spider-Man yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's back up to healthy numbers as well.

Civil War had a limp ending, but it did offer up a new status quo, and Marvel is poised to jump on that, with a handful of new series and miniseries and new directions for many of its titles. Too soon to tell how it's going to shake out, but Iron Man, Director of SHIELD sold better than any Iron Man issues since the first few of the Ellis/Granov run (before it became so late nobody cared). Folks seem excited about the idea of the Initiative. Captain America #25 has huge buzz as being something big. New Avengers sold out fast and got reordered. Mighty Avengers has some buzz.

Now personally, what's selling is the last thing I want to read. I found New Avengers #27, which sees Doctor Strange, Power Man and other notable heroes fighting ninjas (that fight should take about one page... it's a waste of the characters), ridiculous and annoying. The idea of Iron Man as director of SHIELD isn't awful, but it doesn't hold any particular interest for me. And the notion of all the Marvel heroes forming some sort of nationwide army split into 50 states seems like a bizarre decision to completely uproot the foundation of the Marvel Universe as it has stood since the beginning.

But... as a retailer, I can't help but be happy that Marvel has found a way to reinvigorate interest in these characters. I mean, a Moon Knight series selling the way Charlie Huston's book has is amazing, even if I find the whole thing banal and pointlessly ultra-violent. The Avengers are a complete and utter betrayal of the concept of the team, and yet it's selling better than any version of the book that I've loved. Spider-Man: Reign seems like a viciously nihilistic misunderstanding of the appeal of the character and a weak Dark Knight Returns ripoff, but it's doing pretty solid numbers and selling out.

So what can we learn? One, it's clear that my general guidelines for Marvel and DC superheroes (let them be heroic, make them at least somewhat consistent with the past, don't be embarrassed about superhero conventions) may in fact be diametrically opposed to what the readership at large wants. And two, it is possible to be mostly bored and/or disgusted with what's going on in mainstream superhero comics and at the same time elated by it. Just tie your financial fortunes into the very books you don't very much like. ;)

Archaia Press Unveils 2007 Offerings

Archaia has an impressive line-up already, and it looks like they're doing some major expansion in 2007. There's a pretty stunning array of artists in a variety of styles, and some intriguing new concepts, which can be seen in their beautiful PDF catalog.

Blog Template Update for February

This is the latest monthly update to the left column of the blog, updating my favorite comics and TV for the previous month. The listings are alphabetical, not by rank of how much I liked them in comparison. My criteria for what makes the list is when I read them, not necessarily when they were published.

February was a busy month, just like January. It looks like 2007 just might be a busy year. I finally finished buying the comics & game shop, meaning I could finally announce it here and elsewhere. So I am now, as I write this, the owner of Rogues Gallery Comics & Games and have been for about a week and a half. How's it going? Pretty well, actually, and I'll be writing occasional bits about it here under the title "Adventures in Retailing." This goes along with my other series "Graphic Novel A Day" and "Weekly Comics to Come." Wow, themed content and titles... it's like I'm becoming a real blogger. Only without the wit of people who are good at it, like Graeme McMillan or Heidi MacDonald.

The Graphic Novel a Day feature slid a bit this month, due to two weeks of intense pressure and work around the time the comic shop buying really solidified. But I came back at the end of the month, cheating to put up about six or so reviews and spacing them out across days. The end result? 28 days in February, 14 graphic novels. OK, so it was more like "Graphic Novel Every Other Day," but that's not awful. At any rate, I'll try to do better in March, but with the business going, I'm not making any promises.

Comics-wise, as expected February was kind of a lame month. I didn't have to eliminate anything to make my Top 20, and in a stronger month, some of my Top 20 might not have made the cut. But looking at what I read this month, it's clear that the DC Universe and Marvel Universe have about equal interest for me (with 3 titles each), Vertigo also has 3, Image has 3 (2 by Kirkman, who also represents one of my Marvel books), Oni has 2, Dark Horse has 1, Archaia has 1 and DC and Marvel both have 2 non-continuity titles each. So DC, by virtue of having the Vertigo imprint, is the publisher I read the most of (with 8 titles), but mostly my reading was all over the place.

February was a good month for TV, as almost everything was new, but a bad month in that I realized that a lot of my favorite shows are losing their hooks in me. Studio 60 is probably done, and while I enjoyed what I watched, I have to say I won't be too sorry to see it go, although I hope we get something else by Sorkin as a replacement if it does go away. It's flawed, but there's still a lot I like about it. 24 has fallen into a predictable pattern, but I still enjoy it for all of that. Scrubs has been kind of weak, but with occasional good moments. Battlestar Galactica is in a slump, but it hasn't turned me off yet. And Lost? I'd been digging it more than most, especially the Desmond episode, but the episode tonight (with Hurley) was cute but ultimately empty, and made me realize just how long the writers have been dragging this whole thing out. Veronica Mars is up and down (although the two-parter with the murdered coach was pretty good) and had a pretty lackluster, rushed and unsatisfying conclusion to its second arc, Rome I'm about four episodes behind on. I'm sure I'll catch up later, but right now I'm not wildly enthusiastic, which isn't a great sign.

On the other hand... Heroes has just been getting better and better, and I'm completely hooked on it now. Episode 17, "Company Man" was easily the strongest episode of the series yet. 30 Rock has also really won me over, and the negotiations/sex-addicted agent/Jenna making a political fool of herself episode from last week was brilliant. The Office has really hit a groove with its last few episodes as well. And I rented How I Met Your Mother on DVD, watched the entire first season, and I'm now working through the second. It's not great, but it's about as good as Friends was at about the midway point, which makes it a solid comedy. CBS, you are no longer dead to me. Just mostly dead. Also pleased to see that NBC is planning on releasing the complete Kidnapped series on DVD, although at an outrageously high price point. Thank God for Netflix, I guess.

My novel for February was Fletch's Moxie. I didn't so much read it yet. So much for novel of the month.

I added only two sites to my regular RSS feeds this month. I updated Jeff Parker's blog to his new location and added the Netflix New Releases queue.

Graphic Novel A Day: Beyond! HC

Writer: Dwayne McDuffie
Artist: Scott Kolins
Company: Marvel
Price: $19.99

This is a great deal, price-wise, as it's an oversized hardcover of a six-issue miniseries for only $20. It also features great superhero comics writing by Dwayne McDuffie and terrific artwork by Scott Kolins. Heck, I'd recommend it for the Dragon-Man fight alone, but there's also a good use of Gravity (up until the end, which I'm still not crazy about), Deathlok, the Dr. Pym incarnation of Hank Pym and Space Phantom, to name only a few. Those whose love of the Marvel Universe extends into the C-listers like me will love this book. Honestly, it's the fringe characters who tend to hold my interest more than the big guys in either universe, and I was glad to see some of my small favorites get the spotlight for a little while.

Sandman Mystery Theatre Vol 4 The Scorpion

Writers: Matt Wagner & Steven Seagle
Artist: Guy Davis
Company: DC/Vertigo
Price: $12.99

Everything I said in general about Sandman Mystery Theatre being pulp goodness and excellent romance is true. Specific to this volume is an interesting story about war profiteering, the oil business back in the '30s, a deadly vigilante named The Scorpion and a big turning point for the relationship between Wesley and Dian. It's funny that only four volumes in, the big secret between them is on the verge of being outed, but I guess that at issue #20, this was about two years into the series, and it makes sense. Guy Davis has settled in as the mostly regular artist at this point, and he's a perfect choice. His work here is not as polished and jaw-dropping as his current work on B.P.R.D., but it's still excellent stuff, and only gets better with every issue from here.

Sandman Mystery Theatre Vol. 3 The Vamp

Writers: Matt Wagner & Steven Seagle
Artist: Guy Davis
Company: DC/Vertigo
Price: $12.99

Some of the earliest and best Vertigo work that has never been collected, I'm delighted that DC has finally decided to rectify this oversight with collections of Sandman Mystery Theatre. The series, a lurid adult pulp series full of the atmosphere of '30s New York, addresses a variety of social issues of the time with a framework that includes mystery, violence, detective work and one of the most endearing and believable romances comics has ever produced. Volume three, The Vamp, has a plot twist that could easily come out of a modern-day story, but which filtered through the pulp lens feels fresher and more interesting, and as always, the case at hand helps to indicate elements of the developing relationship between Wesley Dodds (the Sandman) and his girlfriend Dian Belmont. Their relationship is the real core of the series, although amusing supporting characters like the somewhat racist, ball-busting cop Burke are always fun to watch, and the action, sex and plot twists keep the reader interested. Lesbians, sex scenes, exsanguination and plenty of punching and chase scenes... what more could you want?

Adventures in Retailing: Discounts

I've always wondered why so many comic shops only carried Marvel and DC, and maybe a smattering of Image.

There's so much good stuff at Dark Horse, Oni, Boom!, Archaia, and that's just naming some of the bigger small publishers. Were they just not noticing this stuff? Did they not look past the first half of the catalog?

And then I discovered my discount for the initial six months at Diamond for everything except Marvel, DC and Image. The discounts for those three are less than they were at my previous three-store operation, but they're within striking distance of it. A reasonable speedbump.

But my discounts on indy books? On manga? On Dark Horse? Ridiculously low. Much lower than I'd originally thought. And so, when I'm looking at initial orders for these first six months, when cash flow is king and Diamond is giving me C.O.D. terms, guess what the first fat to be cut from my budget is?

I can understand, to some extent, the smaller publishers. But the manga publishers? Tokyopop and Viz can't afford to get better terms with Diamond? Dark Horse, a premier publisher, can't at least offer something equivalent to Image? I don't know if the fault lies with the publishers, with Diamond or (more likely) with both, but I will say that the ridiculously low discount on these publishers makes the previous mystery of why so few stores order outside of Marvel and DC a little less mysterious. After six months of establishing your business on the comics that are actually profitable for you to sell, it's going to be harder to suddenly retrain your customer base to look for the indies you haven't been carrying. And as much as the financial burden of comics is already on the retailers, it's even moreso when the margin on comics is as low as it is with this initial discount.

DC and Marvel offer Final Cut-Off ordering, allowing us to adjust orders within three weeks of publishing instead of two months. Image offers up a big initial stock of trade paperbacks to new accounts. Dark Horse? Nothing. Tokyopop? Nothing. Viz? Nothing.

Guess who I'm feeling more loyalty to as a retailer right now? Now as a reader, I'm all about the small press, and as a retailer, I feel a certain responsibility to give my customers a selection, so I'm going to have to suck it up and take the hit. But I'm certainly not feeling warm fuzzies about it, and it is going to make me more gun shy about books I'm not personally interested in, or that I don't already know a customer or two who might be interested.

I don't understand the logic of it. I know where my sales are going to be, and where my discount for the indies will wind up being. After six months, I'll be right back to a more reasonable level. Why cripple new retailers in this way, when their cash flow and available cash is at its lowest? I understand requiring C.O.D., because Diamond doesn't want to get stuck holding the bag when over-ambitious and under-capitalized hobbyists (or even just good businessmen with bad luck) go out of business... doesn't mean I like it, but I understand it. But I don't understand why you'd go with such a ridiculously low discount, as it seems like sacrificing long-term profits (a successful store ordering every month) for potential short-term gain (more money coming in from new accounts that may not be able to ride out the six month period).

Graphic Novel A Day: Journey Into Mohawk Country

Writer: Van Den Bogaert
Artist: George O'Connor
Company: First Second Books
Price: $17.95

An unusual graphic novel, Journey Into Mohawk Country is a graphic narrative based on the words of a real Dutch explorer who traveled into what would eventually be New York state in the early part of the 15th century. Den Bogaert's prose is a little overly florid and, oddly, kind of dry at the same time, and so the narrative text didn't really grip me as I would have liked, but O'Connor's art (with Hilary Sycamore's colors) certainly did. Recalling the work of Mark Oakley on Thieves & Kings, O'Connor's visuals provide the stirring, imaginative imagery that Den Bogaert's words don't. The result is a graphic novel that is not an entirely gripping read, but is an entirely satisfying visual performance.

Adventures in Retailing: Sickness

I think I might be a little bit sick.

No, not physical illness, although with both my daughter and wife having some kind of stomach bug, that might come at me at the worst possible time as well.

No, I mean mentally ill. Beyond the obvious indicators (I bought a comics and games shop rather than investing in something sane, like real estate or ferret farming), I worked seven of the last seven days, and when I finally get a day off, what do I do?

1) Sent out emails for a promotion for the store in June
2) Did a profit/loss estimate for the next month on the store
3) Paid bills for the store and for our personal finances
4) Set up an ebay account for the store
5) Emailed another distributor to set up an account on Monday

What's kind of sick is that I enjoyed it. I'm enjoying the hell out of working right now. There's a definite reward to owning your own business, even with the worry and the stress and the sleepless nights and mornings that come from that. I feel like I'm accomplishing something, and that's nice.

Maybe I'll relax a little bit later in the day and write some comic reviews. Which is also rewarding, but also work.

Hmm... might have to watch The Illusionist on DVD or some more of the How I Met Your Mother on Tivo to balance all this out.

Weekly Comics to Come - February 28, 2007

When I have real trouble narrowing down my top five, that forecasts a good comics week. Of course, it doesn't hurt that Archaia Studios has three books in the offing this week.

TOP FIVE
Jack Of Fables Vol 1 Nearly Great Escape Tp (The rare spinoff that's just as good as the series it sprung from)
Killer #3 (One of the best, most chilling comics I've ever read)
Okko Cycle Of Water #2 (Crazy Miyazaki-esque epic fantasy)
Runaways #24 (Essentially the last issue of Runaways for me, I'm guessing, as I don't have much interest in Whedon's 6-issue run)
Secret History Book One (The secret history of the world with beautiful artwork, I'm expecting another big success from Archaia)

THE REST
52 Week #43 (I have to admit, while some of the issues miss the mark for me, I'm pretty much hooked on a DC weekly now... I'll be checking out Countdown too)
Action Comics #846 (First issue good, second issue weak, third issue make or break for the Johns/Donner run...the upcoming fill-in story doesn't give me a lot of hope that it'll be great enough to stick around for through delays)
American Virgin #12 (Loving this series, hope it doesn't get cancelled)
City Of Others #1 (Bernie Wrightson on art in this Dark Horse horror mini)
Conan & The Midnight God #2 (First issue of this King Conan tale was pretty solid)
Crossing Midnight #4 (I'm just interested enough to keep reading, but still not completely drawn in)
Daredevil #94 (Brubaker reveals all about Daredevil's wife Milla, and I'm curious to see where he goes with it)
Doctor Strange Oath #5 (Vaughan's fun, hip Dr. Strange series, with terrific art by Marcos Martin, concludes)
Jack Of Fables #8 (Loved the first part of the Vegas series, looking forward to seeing more)
Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #15 (The last Takeshi Miyazawa issue)
Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic #14 (I'm an issue behind, but I've been digging this fun, action-packed series)
True Story Swear To God #4 (Issue behind on this one as well, but I still love it)
Walking Dead #35 (Last issue won me back over a little bit with a great cliffhanger)
Heartbreak Soup Palomar Vol 1 Tp (Always been curious to give Love & Rockets another shot, this looks like a good opportunity)
Maggie The Mechanic Locas Vol 1 Tp (Ditto)

Graphic Novel A Day: Seven Sons

Writer: Alexander Grecian
Artist: Riley Rossmo
Company: AIT/Planet Lar
Price: 12.95

A folk tale retold in a western (as in the Old West, not just a western POV) style, Seven Sons is an interesting read. I hadn't previously heard the tale of the seven brothers, but there's a good text piece in the back of the graphic novel that tracks some of its history, and Grecian's story stands alone whether you've heard it or not. It's got the universal themes of xenophobia and family loyalty, and a nice mythic feel that smoothly blends the style of American folk tales and Chinese myth, both inspirations for the tale as told. Artist Rossmo has a compelling style, with a charcoal-looking finish and a style that reminds me in some ways of Vertigo/Minx artist Sonny Liew. Although his storytelling has some kinks to work out, it's a promising debut, and I'm sure we'll be seeing more of him in future. Also, there are no lettering credits, so I'm not sure whether it was Grecian, Rossmo or somebody at Planet Lar, but the sound effects lettering on this one is nice, bold and classic.

Graphic Novel A Day: Kafka

Writer: Steven Seagle
Artist: Stefano Gaudiano
Company: Active Images
Price: $14.99

I first discovered Seagle's work on the underrated superhero book Primal Force, but it's clear he'd had a burgeoning career in the small press long before that. Thankfully, Richard Starkings' Active Images is uncovering these gems and republishing them with the same kind of beautiful design and production values you'd expect from the guys who design Godland and Elephantmen. Kafka is a thriller, about a spy with some limited abilities to influence the minds of others, and as he goes on the run from two different sets of agents, both claiming to be the government, the story unfolds as to how he got these abilities and skills. Gaudiano, best known for his work with Michael Lark on Gotham Central and Daredevil, is very rough here, but his storytelling is solid enough, and it's easy to see why this indy gem was nominated for an Eisner back in the day.

The Secret Project

Back in late December, I posted about a secret project that was taking up a lot of my time. That secret project has also been the cause of my frustration and tension over the last couple weeks. Now it has been completed, and I can reveal it on the blog, for those who care.

I bought a comic book store.

More specifically, I bought the comic book store I've been co-managing for about six years now. Dave and I, the co-managers, had expressed to the owner a couple years back that if he was ever thinking about selling the store, we'd appreciate the right of first refusal. In November, he contacted me about buying it, I was interested and I've been putting together the deal ever since.

There has been much talk online lately about comic book stores in general, especially with Riot Comics closing down. But there are some pretty significant differences between me and Jason Richards, owner of RIOT, not to mention significant differences between Riot Comics and Dragon's Lair Comics & Fantasy, which I'm buying.

For one thing, Jason had this to say: "Don’t get me wrong. I still LOVE comic books (and will continue to buy them by mailorder so I can be a geek in the privacy of my own home), but I’m not sure I was ever in love with selling comic books. There’s a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes that I was so blissfully ignorant about, from scheduling problems to freight charges, marketing gimmicks to creator meltdowns, that I’d much prefer to just be a reader again."

Oddly enough, I'm not as in love with comics as I was when I began working at the store, but my love for selling them has only grown. I love the business problems and marketing challenges presented in comics. Yes, I'd be happier with a healthier, bigger market and several distributors operating at the top of their game, but I've been dealing with Diamond for six years now (plus two years during college), and for all the shit that they get, they actually provide a pretty solid service 90% of the time. And I love selling comics to people who are getting back in or looking for something new. Even if I'm not into Civil War, I get a certain joy at seeing someone get just totally hooked on a comic series like that. And when I get to sell someone on, say, Queen & Country or Bone, or when a kid picks up Owly, that's a good feeling that's hard to beat.

Also, Dragon's Lair is a comics and games shop, about 50-50. I know some purists look down their noses at that kind of shop, but I'm pretty happy with the niche we've carved out. We've got the indie guys, the mainstream superhero readers, the kids (we've got a great level of family and kid readers) and we've got the role-playing gamers, the boardgamers, the CCG guys, etc. It's a diverse and pretty great customer base that Dave and I have cultivated over six years, and I'm really pleased to be able to continue with them.

We will be changing the name over the course of the year to distinguish ourselves. Because Yellow Pages advertising is done so far in advance, and because a new neon sign is gonna be pricey, and also because we want to avoid confusion, we're doing a slow transition. For the rest of the year, we'll still be answering to Dragon's Lair Comics & Fantasy as well as the new name.

The new name is Rogues Gallery Comics & Games. We open at 10 tomorrow (that's Monday) as we do almost every day, so if you're in the area, come on by and say hi. And maybe buy something... I've got to send my kids to college someday. ;)

Weekly Comics to Come - February 21, 2007

TOP FIVE
Invincible #39 (The Martian invasion has gotten my interest back onto the book in a big way)
Local #8 (As always, a great looking cover has me anxiously awaiting the issue)
Spirit #3 (The origin of The Spirit, sure to come with a Darwyn Cooke stylistic flair)
Naoki Urasawas Monster Vol 7 (More of a terrific suspense manga)
Brave And The Bold #1 (Mark Waid and George Perez on Batman/GL team-up, sounds like fun)

THE REST
52 Week #42 (Darick Robertson art, Ralph Dibny focus)
DMZ #16 (Continuing the story of divided loyalties, suicide bombers and corrupt corporate security forces)
Ex Machina Inside The Machine #1 (Behind the scenes info on the book)
Hellstorm Son Of Satan #5 (Concludes the New Orleans-set superhero horror book)
Immortal Iron Fist #3 (Not blown away by this, but generally enjoying it)
Impaler #3 (Moody, beautiful art and an interesting take on the vampire apocalypse)
Marvel Adventures Avengers #10 (Guest stars The Black Knight, written by Jeff Parker)
Previews Vol #27.3 (Down the Line may or may not hit this month, due to comic shop responsibilities)
Wasteland #7 (Guest art by Carla Speed McNeil!)

Blog Lapse Again

I know, I haven't posted my Weekly Comics to Come or Graphic Novel A Day reviews for the past three days. This will greatly upset the three of you who are my regular readers.

It's been a frustrating weekend. It's not that I haven't the time to write, it's that I'm so focused on frustrated anger that I can't focus enough to do it. It should end soon, and then I'll be writing again.

Graphic Novel A Day: Rock Bottom

Writer: Joe Casey
Artist: Charlie Adlard
Company: AIT/Planet Lar
Price: $12.95

Joe Casey and Charlie Adlard both have a history of AIT/Planet Lar, although most of my favorite projects from them have come from Image (Godland, The Walking Dead, etc.) Rock Bottom is an interesting story about a musician (and a bit of a womanizer) who finds himself turning to stone. The how and why leads him to dig into his own history and analyze his life, and the same happens with his best friends, a lawyer and a doctor. It's an interesting "real guys" type of story with a science-fiction element as its driving focus, and probably the best thing to recommend about it (besides Adlard's terrific clean-line artwork) is the excellent writing of human relationships that really makes the story work.

Weekly Comics to Come - February 14, 2007

I'm cheating by posting this late, so these are books I've already read. By the way, stinker of a week, the worst of 2007 thus far. Great hardcovers, single issues mostly disappointing.

TOP FOUR:
Beyond HC (Great superhero action by Dwayne McDuffie and Scott Kolins, delighted that it got a hardcover collection)
Drink & Draw Vol 1 HC (A stunning combination of sketchbook and yearbook, amazing production and great art)
Godland #16 (Wasted opportunity with a 60 cent issue on a somewhat boring recap. A standalone action story would have been better, as would a flashback narrated by Basil Cronus. You want your jumping-on point to reflect how fun the book can be, and Godland #16 doesn't)
Manhunter #28 (Continues to be a good read, but knowing that it has cancelled has put a damper in my enthusiasm for Andreyko's ongoing comics style storytelling. I'll still buy the whole thing if they do all the trades, though)

THE REST
52 Week #41 (Not as bad as week 40, but still a little bit weak)
Justice Society Of America #3 (Atrocious. The influence of the worst parts of Identity Crisis can be seen in the work on this book)
Thunderbolts #111 (Eh. Expected what I got, and sort of bored)
Y The Last Man #54 (These one-shots focusing on lost characters seem weird and out-of-place so late in the series)

Graphic Novel A Day: DMZ Vol. 2 Body of a Journalist

Writer: Brian Wood
Artists: Brian Wood, Kristian Donaldson & Riccardo Burchielli
Company: DC/Vertigo
Price: $12.99

While the first trade paperback of DMZ was good, it was uneven. There are no such troubles with DMZ Volume 2, which really takes everything good about the first volume and raises it to a new level. Wood said on his blog that "By the second DMZ arc, I had realized what sort of book I wanted DMZ to be," and it's easy to see what he means in reading Volume 2. The political machinations and general danger of Matty Roth and his newfound celebrity journalist role, not to mention the various factions working at cross purposes and the constant worry of betrayal, all come through in the "Body of a Journalist" story. And Burchielli's artwork, as always, is fantastic, bringing the images of a wartorn, third world version of Manhattan to all-too-vivid life. As a bonus, the book also includes the "origin of Zee," one of my favorite DMZ stories to date with art by up-and-comer Kristian. It closes out with issue #12, which was Brian Wood working more in the collage underground format he used for Channel Zero. While it wasn't a wholly satisfying single issue read, it makes a great extra to finish out the trade and pack the whole thing with lots of information about the world and characters of DMZ. I like the first DMZ trade, but I love volume two.

Graphic Novel A Day: Gyakushu! Vol. 1

Writer/Artist: Dan Hipp
Company: Tokyopop
Price: $9.99

I'm a big fan of Dan Hipp's work on Amazing Joy Buzzards, so I had to check out his original graphic novel Gyakushu! from Tokyopop. It's very different, tonally, featuring some of the same over-the-top sensibilities but in a more serious, tragic way than the comedic tone of AJB. To tell the truth, I prefer AJB, with its wild, out there premise and cast of characters. Gyakushu's story, featuring revenge-driven action, is similar to the type of tale I've seen plenty of before. That said, this is an interesting read, with an intriguing fantasy setting, some terrific action and fantastic artwork throughout. Though I'm awaiting his return to AJB more, I'll definitely check out another volume of Hipp's Gyakushu.

Graphic Novel A Day: Grendel Red, White & Black

Writer: Matt Wagner
Artists: Various
Company: Dark Horse Comics
Price: $19.95

It's been a while since I read this miniseries, and I'd forgotten just how good it is. True, some of the stories are a little hard to follow if you're not already familiar with the Grendel cycle, but some of them stand alone just fine. Looking back at the Hunter Rose and Argent era of Grendel, which has relatively few comics about it, results in a lot of great stories, generally with a crime noir or psychological horror edge. Wagner experiments a little in his writing, with poetry, illustrated text pieces and even illustrated haiku, but the book is at its best when it's Wagner writing a gritty crime story and one of the immensely talented artists illustrating. My favorites are Jill Thompson's "Nasty Lil Devil," Cliff Chiang's illustration of two detectives analyzing a Grendel crime scene, Tom Fowler's tale of a corrupt senator's assassination, Farel Dalrymple's work on "Devil's Retribution," Mike Huddleston's "The Devil's Tide", Zander Cannon's "Devil on the Roof" and John K. Snyder III's "Devil's Sentence," but really there are no bad stories here, and a ton of beautiful art.

Graphic Novel A Day: Who Fighter With Heart of Darkness

Writer/Artist: Seiho Takizawa
Company: Dark Horse Comics
Price: $11.95

Promising weird war tales, I was looking forward to reading Who Fighter, especially when I saw that it also included an adaptation of "Heart of Darkness," the novel on which Apocalypse Now was based. Not that I have any huge fondness for the novel or the movie (I haven't read the former nor seen much of the latter, although it's on my list to watch someday), but it was an interesting idea. As it turns out, while Who Fighter is plenty readable, it never fully engaged me. Takizawa has a love for historical detail, but at the same time he assumes his reader already knows the history, and as someone who doesn't follow military history, I didn't really know any of it. The first story is the best, about a Japanese pilot who runs afoul of alien technology, but it never really got into truly creepy or mind-blowing territory like I was hoping, playing out more or less along expected lines. "Heart of Darkness" is interesting, but lacks the edge of madness that I always picked up from Apocalypse Now, making it a bit bland. And the last story, a 8-pager about tank warfare, doesn't really have an impact either. All of these have nice artwork, particularly the impressively detailed tanks, planes and other technology of war, but the stories never connect.

Graphic Novel A Day: Grendel Tales: The Devil May Care

Writer: Terry Laban
Artist: Peter Doherty
Company: Dark Horse Comics
Price: $19.95

I've read most of the Grendel Tales series, the ones that came when Matt Wagner opened up the post-apocalyptic world of Grendel for other readers. In general, they were great reads, and this one, a rare story that I hadn't already read, was no exception. This time in, writer Terry Laban and artist Peter Doherty focus in on a nurse trying to run a hospital in Indianapolis, where the corrupt Grendel warlord system has turned the Indianapolis 500 into a barbaric ritual that is pretty much the only reason the city still exists. Like all of the Grendel stories, it has a nihilistic tone to it, and it's definitely a tragedy, but the characters are fascinating, the plot and its many twists gripping and Doherty's art really beautiful, reminiscent of Wagner's stuff but clearly his own style. Doherty, a Judge Dredd artist, clearly knows his way around futuristic violence. It occurred to me in reading this book that Grendel has a real Shakespearean feel to it in many ways, with doomed or forbidden love and a corrupt, often brutal feudal system at its heart.

Graphic Novel A Day: Museum of Terror Vol. 3

Writer/Artist: Junji Ito
Company: Dark Horse Comics
Price: $13.95

For me, Junji Ito is the best horror writer (and one of the best horror artists) in comics. I first discovered his work on the Lovecraft meets Japanese horror flavored series Uzumaki, and have been seeking out more ever since. The first two volumes of Museum of Terror, Dark Horse's reprinting of Ito's work, have focused on his undying girl who inspires murder in others Tomie, and while it was good, it wasn't as great as Uzumaki. This volume begins collecting other short stories, and while the quality is hit and miss, there are several stories in here that are as creepy and effective as the ones Ito told in Uzumaki. My particular favorites in this one are the blood-spattered Bio-House, about a secretary who gets more than she bargained for when she dines with her boss, the cover-featured "Long Hair in the Attic" about a girl whose hair gets the better of her, the EC-esque "Love As Scripted" and the story of a haunted town in "The Village of Sirens."

Weekly Comics to Come - February 7, 2007

I don't think too many people are reading, but just to head off email... Dark Tower: The Gunslinger #1 isn't on here because I have no interest.

TOP FIVE
DMZ Vol 2 Body Of A Journalist TP (The second story arc of DMZ is better than the first, which I quite enjoyed)
Gyakushu Vol 1 (Dan Hipp's action manga from Tokyopop. Love Amazing Joy Buzzards, looking forward to this work by its artist)
Pantheon High Vol 1 (The sons and daughters of the gods in high school, courtesy of my friend Paul Benjamin and Deadshot artist Steven Cummings)
Pirates Of Coney Island #4 (Loving this whacked out, beautifully drawn book from Image)
Shazam The Monster Society Of Evil #1 (Jeff Smith's take on the Marvel family... one of my most anticipated reads of the year)

THE REST
52 Week #40 (Interesting developments in the previous issue)
Action Comics Annual #10 (All-star artists, Superman by Johns and Donner, should be fun)
American Way TP (I've heard a fair amount of praise on this book, I need to check it out and see how it was)
Astro City The Dark Age Book Two #2 (Love Astro City, wish we had more of it more regularly)
Cthulhu Tales Rising One Shot (Boom's new Cthulhu ongoing debuts in this one-shot)
Fell #7 (Wow, I was starting to think we'd never see this one again)
Iron Man Hypervelocity #2 (First issue was odd, but intriguing)
Irredeemable Ant-Man #5 (The closest thing in terms of quality to his Image work that Kirkman has done at Marvel)
Maintenance #2 (First issue was kind of meh for me, but I'm a fan of both these creators, so I want to give #2 a chance)
Newuniversal #3 (Weakening interest, but still enough to read at least a couple more issues)
Other Side #5 (Lost interest in the series as it went on, but I'm hoping it'll finish strong)
Scalped #2 (Good debut issue, plenty of room to develop)
Secret #1 (New horror mini from Dark Horse with artist Jason Alexander)
Uncanny X-Men #483 (12 issues is feeling like a long time for this story... but there's still enough to keep me reading)

Graphic Novel A Day: The Nightmarist

Writer/Artist: Duncan Rouleau
Company: Active Images
Price: $14.99 ($10.19 at Amazon)

Knowing of Rouleau's general style, and of the premise of Nightmarist (it's a horror book about dreams and madness), I suspected this was going to be one weird book. I worried it might go from weird to straight-out incomprehensible. On occasion, it does cross that line and I found myself skimming over to the next bit, but in general this is a legitimately creepy, twisty, turny piece of horror fiction, with stunning black and white art that I suspect any fan of Chris Bachalo will find very much to their liking. I'll confess that the whole plot about our heroine possibly being crazy, possibly being some sort of monster, possibly some sort of savior didn't really engage me, but I found her fascinating as a character, and there were any number of great moments throughout. Unusual, beautiful and quite unlike anything else out there, if you're looking for some good horror, a rare find in American comics, check out The Nightmarist. (Note to Nate, if he's reading: You should borrow this from me.)

Blog Template Update for January

This is the latest monthly update to the left column of the blog, updating my favorite comics and TV for the previous month. The listings are alphabetical, not by rank of how much I liked them in comparison. My criteria for what makes the list is when I read them, not necessarily when they were published.

January was a busy, busy month. Why? I'll tell you in late February. But trust me, it was busy. I did find out that we're having a son (we knew we were having a baby, but not a boy), which was probably the most notable thing about the month. And, as always, I watched a lot of TV and read a lot of comics.

I did pretty well with my intent to get back to Graphic Novel A Month, just falling off here in the last couple of days. 31 days in January, and I covered 28 books. The result was about 14 graphic novels I'd consider worthy of a top 10, although I didn't have too much trouble narrowing it down. There were five Wednesdays in January, but there were several light weeks, resulting in only about 25 that I had to cut down to a top 20. But the last couple weeks of January were pretty good. DMZ fell off because it reads better in single issues, True Story because I didn't get to read it in January (although it almost certainly would have made my Top 20) and a couple others because, well... they weren't as good as the 20 I picked. As for the stats: 5 DC (1 of which is in continuity, and canceled, Manhunter), 4 Vertigo, 7 Marvel (2 Brubaker, 2 Vaughan, 1 McKeever, 1 Parker and, surprising me, 1 Ellis, and it's even tied into Civil War, where most of my picks aren't), 2 Dark Horse (Star Wars Dark Times and Usagi Yojimbo) and 2 indy (Toupydoops and Damned). No Image, weirdly, although Invincible, The Official Handbook o/t Invincible Universe, True Story Swear to God and Godland almost made it.

When it comes to TV? I gotta admit, I'm looking forward to the midseason. The Shield doesn't come back until March, which is also when Paul Haggis' The Black Donnellys starts. April looks like a pretty good month, with Sopranos and Entourage and Tim Minear's Drive. It's also a great month for comics, so I'm going to be overwhelmed with entertainment in April. Fortunately, though, the holiday viewing slump already ended in January, with the return of 24 (some great surprises in that 4 hour opener, I like a lot of the new players and I'm pretty much enjoying the manly art of action soap opera), Rome (I never look forward to it, but I always love watching it), Battlestar Galactica (coming back strong from its brief hiatus) and Veronica Mars (weakest season yet, but it's still pretty good with moments of great). What's interesting, though, is that NBC just rules my programming schedule these days. I was a Heroes skeptic, but I've been won over. I was a 30 Rock skeptic, but I now love it and find it hilarious. I see the flaws in Studio 60, but I don't care because I still really enjoy it and love the writing and the cast. I'm delighted that Scrubs is back (loved that musical episode), and last three Office episodes have been some of the best of the entire series thus far. My Name is Earl probably wouldn't be on my Top 10 if there was something else to push it off, but it's a solid, often very funny show. So NBC has six of my top 10 favorite shows in January, and they technically have a piece of Battlestar as well. If only they still had Kidnapped, that might have pushed something else off the list (probably Earl, though). Otherwise, SCIFI has 1, FOX has 1, HBO has 1, the CW has 1 and of course CBS is dead to me. ABC isn't, but I think I'm only watching Lost since they canceled The Nine.

I did "read" my novel of the month by finishing the audibook of John Hodgman's Areas of My Expertise. My novel for February is Fletch's Moxie, and perhaps other Fletch books.

I added three sites to my regular RSS feeds this month. The blog of writer Brian Wood (DMZ, Local), which I just had missed up to this point I guess; Big Head Press, home of the fantastic online graphic novel La Muse and others; and Welcome to Falling Oaks, a beautifully illustrated, intriguing new webcomic by Mora/Sea of Red's Paul Harmon.

Must-Read Online Graphic Novel

Adi Tantimedh and Hugo Petrus present the first thirteen pages of their serialized online graphic novel, La Muse. It's amazing. I wish more print comics were this good. In short, it's about a super-powerful political activist and her press agent/manager of a sister, but that really doesn't do it justice, and I'd hate to spoil the fun. There are funny moments, great action sequences and fantastic art that reminds me of the best work of Leonard Kirk or Stuart Immonen.

It's free. Go and read it, then add it to your RSS feeds. I know I have, and I'm already hoping there will be a print version I can buy when it's all done. Oh, and Big Head, the online publisher, has a variety of other interesting comics there as well.

Graphic Novel A Day: Jack Staff Vol. 3: Echoes of Tomorrow

Writer/Artist: Paul Grist
Company: Image Comics
Price: $16.99 ($11.55 at Amazon)

This volume, like volume two, jumps around in time quite a bit, and while there's a lot I like, there are a lot of elements I wasn't crazy about either. The sideways arranged story of the Druid got annoying enough that I didn't read it, and Grist again teased more of Jack's past, but stopped short of providing answers. On the other hand, the Becky Burdock/Bramble & Son story featuring vampires, vampire hunters and vampire-worshiping cults was a whole lot of fun, the Claw's short-circuiting of a young thief absolutely hilarious, the Alan Moore-looking mystic Morlan a lot of fun and the unexpected resolution of the German super soldier story quite enjoyable as well. Overall, this is a great read with nice art, although again it's the kind of thing that really reads much better in trade paperback. I miss Kane, and I'd like more answers on the backstory in Jack Staff, but this is still a really great read.

Graphic Novel A Day: Jack Staff Vol. 2 Soldiers

Writer/Artist: Paul Grist
Company: Image Comics
Price: $15.95 ($10.85 at Amazon)

Inspired by reading the last two Kane books, I decided to dive back into Paul Grist's full color superhero offering, Jack Staff. As I remembered, Jack Staff is really good comics, but it pales in comparison to Grist's work on Kane. Jack Staff has a wide cast of interesting characters equally inspired by British and American comic book heroes, and some of the same quirky weirdness that makes Kane work, but it's almost impossible to really follow in single issue form, and leaves unanswered questions even in trades. The jumping back and forth in time and jumping between narrators in this volume gets particularly confusing, and while it's not impossible to follow, it's harder than it should be. I also keep waiting for Grist to provide answers to some of the big questions, like why Jack is as young as he is for someone who fought in World War II, but he doesn't really seem interested in those details. There are answers here to what happened to Jack during World War II, what ties him to Becky Burdock and several other mysteries involving several other characters, but I wish there were more straightforward answers and straightforward storytelling.

The Department of Taking Things Too Seriously

MySpace post leads to murder conspiracy charges for 6 teen girls

I get that after Columbine, everybody is scared. I get it. As a parent, I share it. But y'know, when the "hit list" includes the Energizer Bunny, Tom Cruise and Oprah Winfrey, don'tcha think maybe those teenage girls were just venting? Especially when there's no evidence of weapons or plans? Yes, it was stupid of them. Yes, for God's sake check it out, make sure they're not storing bombs or guns or what-have-you in their closets. But if they're not, maybe you shouldn't cart them off to a juvenile detention facility?

I don't have all the facts here, just what's presented in the article at CNN. Maybe these girls are borderline psychopaths and the rural authorities of Tennessee have prevented a high school massacre. It wouldn't be my guess, but I don't *know*. Here's what I know... if anyone ever comes to take my teenage daughter away for conspiracy to commit criminal homicide on something as stupid as this, there's going to *be* a criminal homicide involving whoever is trying to take her.

I hope they sue the hell out of the school and the police.

Graphic Novel A Day: The Legend of Grimjack Vol. 6

Writer: John Ostrander
Artist: Tom Mandrake, Robb Phipps & Mike Machlan
Company: IDW
Price: $24.99 ($16.22 used at Amazon)

And so ends an era for Grimjack. Though original artist Tim Truman had already moved on, John Ostrander stuck with John Gaunt for a little while longer, until the stories reprinted in this issue, where he and new artist Tom Mandrake put him through hell with another doomed love and then sent him to his final reward. Or so it would seem. It's funny, I bet reading this in single issues was amazing, because who would have guessed they would do what they did to the main character? True, the next iteration wasn't as good as the original, and in many ways this is the end of the best of Grimjack, but there's still plenty of good stuff to come, and this was a particular high point, taking the grim noir tone of the series to its logical conclusion.

Weekly Comics to Come - January 31, 2007

TOP FIVE:
Batman And The Mad Monk #6 (Concluding Matt Wagner's great Batman stories... can't wait to see what he does next)
Ex Machina #26 (#25 was great, looking forward to this book more than ever now)
Hellboy Animated Vol 1 Black Wedding TP (Surprisingly fun, really nice art)
Jack Of Fables #7 (A little weirded out by the mid-story arc change, but I'm generally digging the book)
Usagi Yojimbo #100 (All-star celebration of Sakai's samurai rabbit)

THE REST:
52 Week #39 (DC's weekly title, and I'm running out of things to say about it)
American Virgin #11 (Interesting twist in the last issue, hope this book gets to keep going for a while)
Daredevil #93 (Epilogue to the big DD story Brubaker's been telling, I think?)
Elephantmen #6 (I'm behind on reading single issues, but this is always a good read)
Scarface Scarred For Life #2 (I'll give the second issue a try, based on immense kind words from Brubaker and Robert Kirkman)
Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic #13 (I'm an issue behind, but I've read the trade and #11, and found this to be a lot of action-oriented fun)
Superman Back In Action TP (Busiek's OYL stuff, with Superman back as himself)
Walking Dead #34 (Potentially off this book after last issue, but I'll check back in)
Wasteland #6 (I'm sort of losing the thread in single issues, think I want to read the whole story in one chunk)

Graphic Novel A Day: Hellboy Animated Vol. 1: Black Wedding

Writers: Jim Pascoe & Tad Stones
Artists: Rick Lacy & Fabio Laguna
Company: Dark Horse Comics
Price: $6.95 ($6.95 at Amazon)

Wow. I haven't watched the animated Hellboy stored on my Tivo yet, but I'm going to get to it soon, if the strength of this new digest from Dark Horse is an indication of what to expect. And given that Tad Stones, writer of the second story in the volume, is heavily involved in the animated movies, it probably is. At any rate, there are two really good stories in here. The main feature, "Black Wedding," is a beautifully illustrated story that features all the BPRD and Hellboy and is clever, funny and true to the spirit of the BPRD/Hellboy series but with a style that marks it as different for the "animated" style and the closing story, a shorter one about young Hellboy messing up BPRD research with his emulation of his screen idol, is a lot of fun as well. Great for fans of Hellboy and the BPRD, new and old alike.

The Best Political Theory Ever

John Rogers, writer of Blue Beetle, several short stories for Boom! and TV shows many and varied, chats with a friend about politics. And comes up with a shockingly, frighteningly believable theory about "crazification."

It's a Boy

Suzanne and I had our seismographoscan (I forget what it's actually called at the moment, so I'm using the name Lex Luthor would have used if he invented it) yesterday to find out the sex of the baby, and it turns out... it's a boy.

Truthfully, I think we both were expecting it. We would have been surprised if they'd told us it's a girl. This means a whole new set of learning challenges... we've been through a baby girl before, but a baby boy (and a toddler boy) is going to be quite a different story.

But I'm pretty happy about it. Would have been perfectly happy with another girl, I love Katy like I didn't think was even possible, but yeah, I'm looking forward to having a son, which is a whole different experience.

Now we just have to come up with a name. And no, Kal-El ain't even in the running. Neither is Zeus.

Graphic Novel A Day: Lucifer Vol. 11 Evensong

Writer: Mike Carey
Artists: Peter Gross, Ryan Kelly, Jon J Muth, Zander Cannon, Dean Ormston, Aaron Alexovich
Company: DC Comics/Vertigo
Price: $14.99 ($10.64 at Amazon)

Lucifer was never my favorite Vertigo series, and by the end, I mostly felt like I was reading out of completeness sake. But the final volume really hits some high notes, especially with Elaine's last tale, which is at once heartbreaking and uplifting and human, surprising given the godlike scale that the book always operated on. Carey's magnum opus, moreso even than Gaiman's Sandman from which it sprung, seems like a book that would reward re-reading all together, and that's something I'll have to do at some point, but even not fully remembering everything that had gone before, Evensong makes a pretty satisfying ending for a long-running Vertigo series. It also features some great art, and finally they get around to reprinting the one-shot Lucifer: Nirvana with art by Jon J. Muth which was one of my favorite stories in the book's run.

Graphic Novel A Day: Grendel The Devil Inside

Writer: Matt Wagner
Artist: Bernie Mireault
Company: Dark Horse Comics
Price: $12.95 ($11.01 at Amazon)

I'm a big fan of Matt Wagner, I like Mireault's artwork and I enjoy Grendel, but I have to say, this was one of my least favorite Grendel stories. One of the things I enjoy about Grendel is that Wagner feels free to change up tone and style in each arc, not to mention mixing up his protagonists and antagonists, but this third generation following the original Hunter Rose feels like it's kind of losing the path. The story, in a nutshell, is that the lover of Christine Spar has been hit hard by her loss, and combining that with a growing disdain for the city, he slowly goes mad and starts killing people, eventually putting him in conflict with the cop who brought Christine Spar down. However, the story is told through several viewpoints, including the lead character's thoughts, his notebooks and the voice of Grendel, a presence which has begun to infect him. It's all very experimental storytelling, and it's an interesting experiment, but I guess I prefer Wagner a bit more straightforward in general. Solid work, but not the best chapter in the Grendel saga.

Graphic Novel A Day: Kane Vol. 6: Partners

Writer/Artist: Paul Grist
Company: Image Comics
Price: $16.99 ($11.55 at Amazon)

Picking up nicely where Volume 5 left off, Kane Vol. 6 continues to flash back to the events that caused Kane to become a pariah in the department, as well as mirroring them with a modern "devil's bargain" that his current partner has to make with Oscar Darke to find her former partner. As always, Grist mixes experimental storytelling and quirky touches with straightforward cop stories, and as always, the results are very entertaining. Partners is a weaker offering than Vol. 5, if only because the longer story format doesn't have the same "get in, get out" punch that the short stories of Vol. 5 had, but it's still a great read. When I finished, I was disappointed, realizing that there's no Kane on the horizon anytime real soon... and I think it might be time to finally go pick up Jack Staff Vol. 2, and the recently arrived Vol. 3... only then I'll have no Grist to look forward to for a while.

Graphic Novel A Day: Kane Vol. 5 - The Untouchable Rico Costas

Writer/Artist: Paul Grist
Company: Image Comics
Price: $13.99 ($11.89 at Amazon)

I enjoy Paul Grist's British-flavored superhero anthology Jack Staff, but I *love* his quirky cop procedural Kane. I'd forgotten how much until I finally got into the last two volumes I've bought, one of which was recent and one of which has been sitting on my shelf for a while. Kane has a heavy Frank Miller influence, even going so far as to have a terrific short story in this volume that references and in some ways lampoons a lot of Miller's Sin City, but if I had to describe Kane in shorthand, I'd say it's more like NYPD Blue done by David E. Kelley and Will Eisner. Sure, the gritty police procedural is there, in the form of Kane's tortured backstory about killing his corrupt partner, but there are also bizarre characters like the self-serving blowhard mayor (not far from Family Guy's Mayor Adam West), a blind hitman who's a direct reference on Daredevil and a crimelord named Oscar Darke who "speaks" with a thick phonetic Southern accent. Add in Kane's stylistic touches, like doing a whole issue in the format of a tabloid newspaper when the story focuses on a tabloid reporter, or his skewed Sin City impression in "Fwankie's Big Night Out" and you've got a terrific and unusual book.

Graphic Novel A Day: The Irregulars

Writers: Steven-Elliot Altman & Michael Reaves
Artist: Bong Dazo
Company: Dark Horse Comics
Price: $12.95 ($11.01 at Amazon)

It seems like a good mix, the kid sidekicks of Sherlocke Holmes with contemporary villain Jack the Ripper and a touch of Lovecraft. With one of the original writers on Batman: The Original Series and Gargoyles as co-writer, even! Unfortunately, The Irregulars is sort of bland. The whole side jaunt into a fantasy realm feels more like a weak L. Frank Baum riff than Lovecraft, the writers and artist never really distinguish the characters enough to get me to care about any of them and as a result there wasn't much dramatic tension. Maybe bigger Sherlock Holmes fans than I would dig this, but I wanted to like it in theory and had trouble finishing it.

Graphic Novel A Day: Hellcity Vol. 1

Writer: Macon Blair
Artist: Joe Flood
Company: Gigantic Graphic Novels
Price: $13.95 ($11.16 at Amazon)

Previous Gigantic Graphic Novels offerings, such as Rotting in Dirtville or Dead West, have been books I've really enjoyed, so I had high expectations for Hellcity. That might help explain a little bit of disappointment, that I had set the bar too high. It's not that Hellcity is bad - it's an interesting classic style noir mystery set in an urban version of Hell - but aside from the setting, the whole thing plays out like a hundred other variations on the same crime noir story, and it didn't feel as fresh as I would have liked. I was also a bit disappointed that in a whole $14 graphic novel, I didn't feel like I got a whole story. I realize this is part one of three, but I think it's a bad idea to end your graphic novel on a cliffhanger without resolving some story thread over the course of the story. Basically, this volume is all setup, and it's intriguing setup, especially the last third or so of the book, but without any payoff, it's hard to get too engaged by the story.