News for the Week of December 4, 2008
New Comic Day will be Thursday this week due to the holiday!
Rick’s Writin’s
I hope the end of this Thanksgiving Holiday weekend finds you folks not
the worse for wear after days of turkey feasting, drinking, Black Friday
shopping battles, drinking, family gatherings, drinking and all that goes
with holidays and drinking. Perhaps you relaxed and read comics while
you drank. I know it's possible some of you didn't drink...possible. I
had a nice meal at my friend Jan's, as usual. Three kinds of PIE!!! Apple/Cranberry
(Yum!) Sweet Potato (Yummy!) and Pecan Pie made with maple syrup (oh My
GOD!!!) Lots of other goodies too including my favorite appetizer: Deviled
Eggs! Spent a bit of time doing chores and of course I worked Friday and
Saturday as some of you can attest to. Now I have a couple days to relax
and I'm hoping to catch up on my reading, particularly the Batman RIP.
More on that later though. There's not really much else to say. I don't
have anything to complain about, there's no sports to talk about really,
except I think it's time to re-do the Seahawks. They've fallen pretty
hard and I'm not inspired by having fragile Matt Hasslebeck as the main
man anymore. I think a quarterback change for next year is in order and
actually two of them as I think that Seneca Wallace should not be the
back-up QB. They've wasted Wallace's potential to be a versatile weapon
such as a Randell Cunningham. If they were even the least bit creative
they'd have figured out a way to get Wallace in the game. What a waste
to have one of the fastest guys on the team hold a clipboard on the sidelines.
Baseball wise, the General Manager meetings are this next weekend, and
there's a few other factors coming into play soon that will determine
player availability as well. I'm dying to see what the M's new GM is going
to do. On to comics...
First, comics will be on Thursday this week. It's odd that the week AFTER the holiday is affected, but I think it's a fairness issue. Diamond wants all shops to get their books the same day, and because of UPS's driving schedule (They handle delivery of the books around the country) some of the farther away shops wouldn't be able to have their books on Wednesday as normal, so ALL shops get to wait. Oh well, I guess if we were an outlying shop I would be happy. The selection this week is nice, with the highlight being the conclusion of Marvel's big Secret Invasion event (#8 of 8). By conclusion I mean the main series. There's still some off-shoots and cross-over stuff such as this weeks New Avengers (#47), not to mention the follow-up stories such as Secret Invasion Aftermath and the coming new SI continuing story arcs called The Dark Reign and War of Kings. The X titles have a new mini series X-Infernus (#1 of 4) to add to the other ten or twelve X minis going on (Does anybody really know what's going on in the X books?? They lost me a long time ago) In X-Inferus we have a Witchblade type devil girl called Darkchylde looking for her soul. Now, this book has a cover by David Finch, who can draw devil girls pretty well and his is a hot cover, with a variant cover by J. Scott Campbell who's no slouch either, and that's all well and good. My question is, wasn't Darkchylde an Image Comics character in the 1990's by Randy Queen, and if I'm correct (I am), what is she doing in an X book for Marvel? Did Marvel buy the rights to her? Are they using a character with the same name, no relation? If so, has Randy Queen sued? If not, what is he waiting for? This next book, Marvels: Eye of the Camera (#1 of 6) is a sequel to the famous Marvels series from the early 1990's that put Alex Ross on the map due to his spectacular art in that series. Marvels premise is to see the Marvel Universe and its heroes and villains through the eyes of a common everyday schmoe. In Eye of the Camera, as in Marvels, it was a photographer from the Daily Bugle newspaper, Phil Sheldon. Original Marvels writer Kurt Busiek is back with this sequel and he's teamed up with another artist that I think is as good as Alex Ross in his own way, and that's Jay Anacleto, known for his work on Image's Aria and Athena Inc. His is a very realistic style with lots of detail. Be sure to check this one out, as I guarantee the art will be great. Believe it or not, Anacleto either used to be or still is a dentist. We'll have the second issue of this series later in the month. Last Marvel book to mention is a one-shot featuring Iron Man, Hulk and Nick Fury (The Samuel L. Jackson movie Fury) with a couple stories taken from webcomics on Marvel's website plus an all new one.
DC is getting set to really do a number on their Universe and titles and I have to admit it's got me excited and nervous at the same time as many of my favorite books are going to be changed or canceled. Much has to do with the Bat books, given the RIP story line as well as what's going on in the Final Crisis story and Superman's New Krypton. This week's Batman (#682) is one of two Batman books this month, as a two part story told by Wayne manor butler Alfred puts all what has happened into perspective. I'm worried though, because the final issues of Nightwing, Robin, Birds of Prey and Blue Beetle are all solicited in the new Previews. This goes along with the fact that the Justice League title is going to re-start. And, I've read that DC is going to take Superman out of Action Comics, the title he started in and has been in for seventy years. Plus, DC is also starting up the Adventure Comics title again. I'm ascared!! I'm ASCARED!!
Paula’s Picks
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We had a great time here. The
turkey came out great; the leek mashed potatoes were yummy and the gravy
delicious and lump-free.
It seems like everyone is getting ready to do their holiday shopping and it’s time to bring out the Holiday Wish Lists! “What’s that?” you might say (or yay! It’s about freakin’ time!). Our Holiday Wish is a gift registry that you can fill out at our shop. You can fill out up to 10 items and get discounts on those items. The first item gets 25% off, the 2nd and 3rd items get 20% off, the 4th, 5th and 6th items get 15% off and the last 4 items get 10% off. The items can be in stock graphic novels, single issues, back issues, comic sets, special priced variant issues, trading card sets and action figures. Once you fill out the list, be sure to tell all of your friends and family about it. When they pick up something off the list, we mark it off so there are no duplicate gifts.
>From DC, we’re getting
Justice Society of America #21. This is the penultimate (next to last)
part of the “One World, Under Gog” story by Geoff Johns and
Alex Ross. Terror Titans #3 continues written by Sean McKeever with art
by Joe Bennett and Jack Jadson. This series has been selling better for
us than we thought it would. We’ve been running out, but DC has
made it easy for us to get more in. So, if you’ve missed the first
couple, we’ve got them on the shelf now.
>From Marvel, we’re getting a couple of Manifest Destiny books:
Wolverine Manifest Destiny #2 and X-Men Manifest Destiny #4. What if House
of M answers the question “What if Scarlet Witch has said ‘No
more powers?’” Well, what if? My question is would there still
be people with superpowers since after House of M, there were still some
mutants? We’re also getting Amazing Spider-Man #579 and Anita Blake
Laughing Corpse #2.
Hellboy Wild Hunt #1 starts this week written by Mike Mignola and art by Duncan Fegredo. Hellboy goes out to hunt giants in England. I love it when Hellboy fights giants!