CHRONIC INSOMNIA

A Few Thoughts Regarding The Curious Case Of Gary Friedrich!

2012-02-13T18:50:00.005-06:00

The big news this week is Marvel winning the suit Gary Friedrich brought against it, and especially the $17,000 Marvel is demanding in lieu of a counter suit. Mr. Friedrich is now prohibited from selling his customary unauthorized prints, and in a particularly odd result, Friedrich is no longer allowed to claim himself creator of Ghost Rider. He is still allowed to charge for his autograph on items, provided they are properly licensed. Thank God for class and good taste on that result.

Anybody familiar with myself or the Chronic Insomnia podcast knows that I have long been an ardent and enthusiast Marvel basher. In fact, I dare anybody to find an entity more critical of Marvel. It's going to take you awhile, I'd advise against the effort. When they earn it, I load up and give them both barrels. With glee.

In truth, I'm not in support of that $17,000 pimp smack against Friedrich, who clearly can't pay it. They know this, of course. The court documents claim that figure represents the unwarranted profits Friedrich secured violating Marvel's copyright. The reality is that the figure represents a message to any creator past or present looking to challenge Marvel's ownership of their intellectual property catalog:

Mess with a nickel of the Big Dog's money....expect to get bit.

That's the message, and it's a bully's message, and I despise bullies and tyrants. I want to be clear about that.

When I read the blogosphere's reaction to the Friedrich debacle, though, I hear a lot of talk about boycotting, and a lot of reductive logic about how the Big Bad Corporation is once again beating up on the Little Guy. Marvel's culpable on several fronts, but before we throw throw them into the Lake of Fire, I think it's valuable to keep a few thoughts in mind.

Thought # 1: Gary Friedrich says he created the Ghost Rider, but nobody else remembers it quite that way.

Roy Thomas, (editor of Ghost Rider for both the western revamp and the flaming motorcycle version) says that Friedrich pitched the idea originally as a Daredevil villain, and that penciller Mike Ploog and he designed the visuals.

Ploog says he doesn't remember who exactly came up with the flaming skull part, but he does describe a very collaborative effort, pulling design cues from the old original western character, and adding the stripes down the black costume to keep track of the body. He certainly never gives the impression that Gary Friedrich handed them a completely formed template.

That's important, because even inside of comics, a strongly visual medium, Ghost Rider's appeal is very much a visual appeal. No way to verify this without a time machine, but if Johnny Blaze is just a guy who makes a Faustian bargain and looks like an unshaven Kurt Russel knock-off, that character doesn't really fly. That character pops because there's a demon-looking guy with no flesh on his face, and fire shooting out of his skull. Mike Ploog's contributions, even if they did come from Friedrich's description, are (in my opinion) more important to the success of the character. Again, assuming that those design cues did come from Friedrich at all.

That's Friedrich's story, and he's the only one that recalls it as such. While it's clear that Friedrich has a significant role in Ghost Rider's birth, it feels a bit false and presumptuous to claim full ownership.

"It was my idea. It was always my idea from the first time we talked about it, it turned out to be a guy with a flaming skull and rode a motorcycle. Ploog seems to think the flaming skull was his idea. But, to tell you the truth, it was my idea."
- 5/2001 issue of Comic Book Artist

That claim seems spurious to me partially because.....

Thought # 2: Ghost Rider is a revamp of a revamped western character, not a Friedrich original

Ghost Rider was not a new concept in 1971 when Marvel Spotlight # 5 hit the stands. It wasn't even a new concept when Friedrich and Roy Thomas first put out a Ghost Rider western character in 1968. That character was directly ripped from a property that Ray Krank and Dick Ayers came up with ages ago.

When I say "ripped", I don't mean to imply that Thomas and Friedrich did anything unseemly. The original Ghost Rider's copyright had lapsed, it was open for exploitation. But it wasn't Friedrich's idea. It was a microscopic tweaking of and then a modernization of a weird, justice-seeking, horse riding character that came before him. The horses were now in the engine of the motorcycle, is all.

Now, I'm not suggesting that Friedrich did nothing - making the horse mechanical is a significant twist. Marvel and Friedrich had the legal rights to do the western Ghost Rider and to develop the concept further. Nothing criminal about that.

But all I keep hearing about in Pundit Town regarding the Friedrich ruling is "It's not just a matter of what's legal, but what's right and fair"! OK, but that being the case, where is the outrage for Krank and Ayers and the true origins of the property? Why isn't Friedrich advocating for their rights and acknowledging their contributions? Why isn't anybody worried about their remunerations?

Thought # 3: Like it or not, work-made-for-hire was (and still is) the standard

When Freidrich and Ploog created the Ghost Rider, work-made-for-hire was the standard. We may not like that idea in 2012, and frankly, nobody (other than the publishers) liked it in 1971. Guys like Neal Adams and Steve Gerber took a fair amount of heat and trouble for vocally not liking it back in the day. But it wasn't like it was a big secret.

If you weren't aware of this unsightly little detail, your paycheck spelled it out for you in great detail, right by the endorsement line.

"By acceptance and endorsement of this check, payee acknowledges, a) full payment for payee's employment by Magazine Management Co., Inc. and/or Marvel Comics Group, b) that all payee's work has been within the scope of that employment, and c) that all payee's works are and shall be considered as works-made-for-hire, the property of Magazine Management Co., Inc. and/or Marvel Comics Group."

Just in case you didn't get the memo, they put the memo on your paycheck, where you'd be sure to find it. "Hey, you don't own these characters, we do." Again, this may not be pleasing to our 2012 taste buds. It probably shouldn't be.

But the idea that Gary Friedrich didn't know that he was signing away his Ghost Rider rights? Not possible. And that's not what he was arguing, actually. He was arguing that Marvel never filed a proper copyright back in 1971. Back then, you had to file paperwork to secure a copyright. A court found that Marvel did.

Gary Friedrich was not bamboozled by Marvel. They offered a shitty deal, and Friedrich decided a shitty deal was better than starving and took the page rate. That doesn't make Marvel a hero. But the idea that this was slipped under creator's noses in the fine print? Preposterous. For better or worse, work for hire was the established standard.

Yes, Ryan, but back then there weren't multi-million dollar toy deals, and blockbuster movies, and grand licensing opportunities - shouldn't we return to the idea of just compensation now that the scope of the game has changed?

The answer is - probably. Gary Friedrich did not know in 1971 that he was signing away movie money, or he may have made a different decision. Maybe. I think Marvel could find a better way to deal with this Brave New World apart from trying to take Friedrich's last few dollars, and I'll get to that before I'm done, promise.

Yup, the game has changed. But I object to the constant refrain I keep hearing that goes:

"Marvel made millions of Ghost Rider dollars off the back of this poor man and gives nothing in return!"

Not true.

Thought # 4: What does Ghost Rider look like today without Marvel?

It's easy and intuitive to look at the Ghost Rider movie, smell the millions of dollars in play and then say - "Without Gary Friedrich, none of that is possible."

In truth, it takes a lot to make that possible, and Friedrich was simply a tiny but important cog at the beginning. Ask yourself what happens to Gary Friedrich's Ghost Rider without Marvel Comics:

Does it even get published or distributed?
Without the context of the shared Marvel Universe, does anybody read it?
Is it popular without the mighty marketing muscle of merry ol' Marvel? (after Stan Lee)
Do we have a publishing history worth making a film without Marvel?

Without Marvel, Ghost Rider is a non-entity. This was not some floundering fly-by-night operation waiting for Gary Friedrich to save with his incredible motorcycle guy. Ghost Rider is what it is today largely because Marvel was big enough to combine a collection of inspired creations and market them into a cohesive machine.

Gary Friedrich was undoubtedly a part of that. I think there's plenty of wiggle room for Marvel to give more to Friedrich than just his old page rate. But the millions of dollars? Friedrich didn't hand that to Marvel. Marvel spun that out of a few threads of Friedrich and Ploog gold.

And frankly, a lot more people than that. My attraction to the Ghost Rider, however much there is, is mostly due to a double splash page panel that Todd McFarlane drew in Spider-Man # 7. I bet for a lot of people, the seed of attraction was planted in that ghastly but oh so sexy glow in the dark cover for Ghost Rider # 15. And that was Danny Ketch, not Johnny Blaze.

This idea that Marvel made a gajillion dollars off Ghost Rider and so Gary Friedrich and Friedrich only should get paid? I just don't buy it. I can't prove it scientifically, but I think Mark Texeira has as much to do with the character's strength as Friedrich.

Thought # 5: Boycotting is Bullshit

The common solution I hear to resolve all this is boycotting. They're going to boycott the Ghost Rider film, or they're going to boycott Marvel...or at the very least, they're going to say that's what they'll do in the harshest post possible on their local chat board. I think all that is irrational rubbish.

It’s fine to assert your principles and it's your money, you can do what you want with it. I get wanting to make a statement that Marvel will hear. The problem with boycotting is that if you hold consistent with it, I think you’re forced to not only give up the Ghost Rider movie and all of comics...but anything else you purchase. It’s the 1 Corinthians 5:10 effect – if you stay so pure that you never come in contact with an asshole, you will have to leave the world to do so.

Every company has done various and sundry shitty things to their employees and their customers. It’s how the world works. If you want to boycott those entities that trod upon the innocent, you better start growing your own food and killing animals for their pelts, because no corporation has skated a clean program yet. I wish you the best of luck with your purity project, and I sincerely hope you don't go digging too deeply. You'll be burning your house down by the end of the day, because everything in it was the unfortunate fruit of some diabolical prick torturing some other innocent bastard.

And if you think about, you're not just a victim, either.

Thought # 5: You're a lot more like Marvel than you think

Did Marvel pay Gary Friedrich less than it could have for the Ghost Rider property? Surely. This is how the world operates. It's how you operate.

All day, every day you make value decisions. Not every decision is a value decision, but mostly you’re looking to get maximum payoff for your dollar. So if that milk shake is $4, and it’s only worth about $2 to you, the odds are good you order something else. But if that feels like a $30 shirt, and it’s on clearance for $13.60, do you voluntarily hand the store that extra $16.40, or do you take the value and run, content inside at what a wonderful frugal person you are? I’m betting you paid $13.60, because that was the contract. It's called "Consumer Surplus" in the economy game.

Marvel paid Gary Friedrich his page rate and nothing more because that was the contract. If you have a problem with that, you should probably start paying your actual valuation for the goods and services you buy. If you wish to remain pure, that is. Otherwise, you’re just going to have to live with the fact that you have more in common with Marvel than you might find comfortable.

Listen, Marvel still sucks. Gary Friedrich was not a threat to Marvel selling prints and t-shirts. The guy is unemployed, reportedly not in the best of health, and a complete sweetheart according to anybody who comes in contact with him. Going after Gary Friedrich for $17,000 is the wrong thing to do, period.

Rather than punishing the people that helped make them great, I think it would be advisable for Marvel to negotiate with these creators and offer them reasonable compensation. Not because it's legal, but because it right, and ultimately I believe, better for their future long term.

There are precedents for giving back to creators. Deals have been struck for Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, the Siegels, etc. It shouldn't be unthinkable for Marvel to go to Gary Friedrich and Mike Ploog and say:

"Hey, what do you say to either a one-time lump settlement of six figures or a point on all future profits on collections and multi-media considerations?"

This would not break Marvel. What it would do is send the message to creators that they now have an incentive to create again. Is it any wonder why comics suffer from stagnation? Why would anybody create anything new for Marvel or DC, when they know full well that they will never share in the gains of a new hit? Offer a piece of the action, and offer it on the profits, so that there is nothing to be lost. If the creators are only getting a chunk of the black, it will be in their best interest to produce work that makes money. Everybody wins.

Marvel will never do this, of course. Too short-sighted to begin with, and now that they're under the Mouse umbrella? Forget it. There has never been a more hypocritical attack demon regarding copyright than the Disney corporation.

Here's the thing, after all of that philosophical back-and-forth. Marvel is wrong to play the bully, and I donated to the Gary Friedrich fund that Steve Niles set up. Steve Niles is a stand-up cat (when he isn't stealing your girlfriend) and I trust him to handle the money accordingly. I encourage anybody with a heart to do the same. Don't let Neal Adams hog all the charity, let's all get involved!

Yes, let's help Gary Friedrich. But it's more complicated than "Gary Friedrich good, Marvel bad", and I don't think anything gets solved with a boycott. But can we give Marvel another black eye on the blogs? Yeah, I think we can and should do that. And I think I just did.

- Ryan

Market Spotlight:!

2012-01-23T23:55:00.001-06:00

Let's start with one of the craziest goddamn things I've ever witnessed in my time as a Gamer:

Batman: Black Mirror HC

ISBN: 140123206X

SRP: $29.99

Amazon min: $45+

This book JUST CAME OUT. The listed launch date on Amazon is December 16 and yeah, that sounds about right. We're talking about a single month on a Batman title from a fairly significant comics publisher - and it appears completely out of print.

It's not available. Amazon is out of its stock. Barnes & Noble says it has some, but it also has that "usually available in 1-2 weeks" nonsense attached, which would read "don't hold your precious breath" if it were at all honest. Instocktrades? Nope. None at Lone Star or Mile High, either.

If you want this Batman book, the one that came out a month ago, you have to go to the secondary market. IDW thinks that's fucked up.

I just don't understand it. I mean, I guess people might be finally catching on to the idea that Scott Snyder is putting down a seminal run. I guess the New 52 might have a few extra people interested. But how would that catch DC by surprise? We didn't know people would want the really good Batman book??? It not compute.

At any rate, I"m not suggesting you back up the truck if you see this on your LCS shelves, but then again, I'm not suggesting you don't. My assumption is that this is is a hiccup quickly remedied. But ah, my assumption is that the thing wouldn't be effectively out of print 30 days after launch, either. So my predictions are a bit lacking.

This I do know - Black Mirror is a fantastic read, I believe it ages well, and I'm certainly glad that I got a copy. If for some reason DC doesn't go to press on this again in short order, this could be a huge earner. This whole situation.....I've never seen anything like it. Stay tuned!

Dead Space # 1-6

Image Comics

SRP: $3/per

Going rate for the set: $50+

In 2008 Image went to market with this as a prequel story to the video game. Said video game is pretty popular, the print runs on this are extremely modest, and this is that classic wheelhouse situation where a niche audience really needs something it can't easily find.

Because print runs are so tiny, the odds of you finding stacks of these at your LCS are not good. On the other hand, I went searching for Dead Space issues a few days ago and found 1 full set and 2/3 of another, all for cover price or less.

This is significant because the going rate for complete sets of the Dead Space mini is $50 or better. If you can score the Dead Space Extraction one-shot (previously featured on Market Spotlight) you can sometimes reach $100 for the works.

Those are nice margins, and it's good to break out of my continuous "TPB or bust" mindset. There's lots of earners out there, especially in little niche markets like Dead Space. Take this next book, for example....

Art of Dead Space HC

ISBN: 0811866122

SRP: Free (declared $10 value)

Amazon Min: $45/$250

This adorable little hardcover (it's practically the size of your wallet) was given away for pre-ordering the Dead Space video game at places like Game Stop, Best Buy, or Game Crazy. It came with a pair of 3D glasses, and it's important to have them intact and included for collectors. And if you're selling this thing for $50 or better, you can bet your ass you're selling to a collector.

I just bought one of these on eBay for $13 and flipped it for $50 the very same day I posted it. This is what the pros call arbitrage. I almost feel guilty pulling shit like that, but whaddyagonnado?

The key is to think outside the box. I stumbled upon this when I discovered the Image Dead Space comics doing well. What else is out there for Dead Space that I can sell? I ran a completed search on eBay for Dead Space and just started looking for things that appealed to me. That hardcover looked interesting, so I typed it into Amazon. Oh look, min is $50, that's interesting.

And listen, these are always experiments with some degree of risk. I believe in it now, because when I sell something quick like that it shows active interest. At any rate, it's a strategy to add to your tool box.

Ryan

Chronic Review: Whispers # 1!

2012-01-19T22:55:00.000-06:00

Whispers # 1

Image Comics

Script: Joshua Luna

Pencils: Joshua Luna

Whispers is about secret hearts. Inside we're all at least slightly damaged goods, sad to say. Each of us shows a brave face to the world, but the inside monologue is a plague of nagging doubts and insecurities. Blaine has access to other people's secret hearts, and he is learning to give those hearts a nudge in whatever direction he chooses.

Blaine: OCD with astral projection and girl issues. Score!

Pretty high concept, pretty intriguing concept, and a pretty ballsy concept for Joshua Luna's first solo effort.

There's several layers to this story, which is partially about Blaine exploring his new found abilities from the ground floor, partially about his managing his obsessive compulsive disorder, and partially about his managing his relationships. Inside of issue one, we're introduced to a complicated and competitive scene with his ex-girlfriend and her circle, a broken relationship with his mother, and a potentially dangerous connection with an ex-ex-girlfriend.

That's quite a lot to pack into an intro! None of it feels cramped, mind you, not that one need be worried about one of the co-creators of The Sword. It all looks gorgeous, too. There's a Luna style, and if that's what you like, that's what you're going to get. Having said that, I certainly remember The Girls, and the art I'm looking at in Whispers is more complex and more beautiful.

I particularly enjoyed this little experiment with light and shading, as the trees cast a shadow over Blaine and Lily:

It's striking, no?

Lots to like about Whispers. Your basic superhero story assumes powers and pinpoint control. Blaine has no clue what he's doing, and he's figuring out the rules with the reader. He's got limitations on his controls, and all conclusions are guesswork at this point. There's more drama in that, and a good choice, I think.

The juice of the story rides on a dirt simple question - "If you could push the thoughts of anybody you knew toward whatever end you liked...what would you do?" If Luna can provide answers that surprise, show the inevitable pitfalls without preaching, the book should be very good. We're not that far yet.

To be great, not just very good, the secret hearts need to ring true. I don't know if that's the case in issue one. It's an admittedly tough wire to walk, crawling inside the human soul, cutting out all the bullshit dressing and showing how people really think inside where nobody is watching. The scene with Blaine's mother in particular felt slightly....off. Slightly disingenuous.

In terms of nailing the internal dialogue in a manner that makes one believe his character can actually pierce people's souls, Whispers gets a C. In terms of delivering an intriguing concept packed with story in an attractive looking package, Whispers is an A. It's early, but it's looking like we can chalk up another solid win for Eric Stephenson and Image.

- Ryan

Chronic Review: Prophet # 21!

2012-01-18T22:19:00.000-06:00

Prophet # 21

Image Comics

Script: Brandon Graham

Pencils: Simon Roy

The new Prophet arrives with a certain amount of simmering heat, which is not unheard of these days. It seems like just yesterday 27, or was it Nonplayer that was going to take over the world with its hype before it was ever born? Neither is a bad comic, but neither has ascended to reach admittedly unrealistic lofty expectations, either.


Always start the day with a puked up stimulant

So consider me skeptical before I've even cracked a page of this, especially considering that the new "would be messiah: comes from the house of Rob Liefield and Extreme Studios. I read the 9 page preview on CBR, too, and was nonplussed.

Here's what Prophet is, stripped of as much preconceived baggage as I can muster - singularly pure science fiction.

Comics do fiddle and fumble with sci-fi occasionally, with all the skill and dexterity of a 16 year-old with a peach fuzz moustache in the back of his Chevy Citation. Ordinarily it's an excuse to dress up sophomoric sex play in a different costume, more an exercise in exploring a different brand of the same old fetish than actually delving into a different genre. Even a book like Y The Last Man, an outstanding achievement, is more interested in its fiction than its science. Prophet is a book likely to make Asimov proud.

The foundational premise is dirt simple. John Prophet has been asleep beneath the earth for centuries, and the story picks up as he awakens. His mission is collect tools and allies in an apocalyptic future to begin the human race anew. His first big picture objective is to reignite the G.O.D. satellite. In order to do that, he has to whack a lot of weird creatures in the face with his axe, snack on what's become of the human race, and have sex with even weirder creatures than those he axed in the face.

There are more ideas per page than one normally bumps into during a modern comic book's reading. Graham has obviously spent some time thinking about tech, how it works, making it more biological, then taking it further into the bizarre and xenobiological. He's thought about what's populating his future earth, and the politics of that. He gives it to you in a manner that demonstrates he knows what he's doing as the author, and trusts you to know what you're doing as a reader.


Post coital bong hit - sexy!

This Prophet is much more than an imported hot artist and a guy with padded head gear, dig? If Liefield's goal was to launch the property as a message saying "This is NOT your father's Extreme Studio"....mission accomplished, sir.

The new Prophet is interesting and challenging and different, and those are all good things. Lots of people are wetting themselves over this book, which is a sentiment that I understand but don't share. I think the spark I'm missing is in the art. I'm sure I'm in the minority on this, and I'm sure he was appropriately chosen as part of the "not old Extreme" gambit. I guess I just can't help but wonder how astonishing this would all look if they had gotten the next Wally Wood for it. Wally Woods don't grow on trees, I guess. (yes, I recognize that was a horrible thing to type in all ways)

I suppose the final assessment for me is that Prophet has a lot to be proud of, and I'm glad it exists. This is certainly not what I was expecting, and that's an achievement all its own these days. But in terms of freshness, vitality, world-building, energy...is it any better than Stokoe's Orc Stain?

I don't think so. Maybe the take away is not to dismiss Prophet but to re-assert Orc Stain as something worth keeping around? I think for comic fans looking for something different, you've got a new, worthwhile flavor to sample in Prophet. And for pure science fiction fans, you ought to be in love.

- Ryan

Project: Enlightenment!

2012-01-07T17:45:00.001-06:00

Fyodor Dostoevsky: The Mad Russian

Project: Enlightenment

No question about it, the old man has slipped into quite a state of arrested development. There's absolutely nothing wrong with reading comics, and in fact, I heartily endorse them. Even those scandalously horrible (gasp!) superhero comics. I know. What a positively ghastly assertion!

Comics are fine, but man can not live by comics alone - except I pretty much have been, for far too long.

It's making me....no, not stupid, that's not it. It's making me one-dimensional, inflexible, less fit for mental duty.

So in an effort to become more of the Renaissance Man I was meant to be, I have decided to read at least one book book (not a comic book) per month. Incidentally, Renaissance is pronounced REN-uh-zonce. It's not pronounced ren-AY-zonce. If you pronounce it with the hard "A" sound, you are hereby instructed to punch yourself in the balls, because I'm not there to do it for you. If you don't have balls, substitute your baby box.

To produce the Renaissance Man, I came up with Project: Enlightenment. Some of you are inwardly grousing about how "those are two different eras, jackass." You are also hereby commanded to punch yourself directly in the balls. Pretentious pricks, all of you.

The point is to pick a number of authors, genres, and time periods. They don't have to be texts likely to be covered in a college lit course, but it would sure help.

Here's the deal - the brain is a machine that operates on synaptic highways. You can (and do) train your brain to run down certain tracks. The plus side is that the brain gets very good rolling down those synaptic highways. The bad news is that you're allowing large swaths of your gray matter to atrophy. Part of the difficulty in kicking something like heroin is that an addict has trained their brain to define pleasure inside of some very narrow streets. Nothing else quite translates, at least not in the beginning of the recovery process.

Same thing with learning and thinking. I've funnelled a far too large concentration of synaptic firing into a tiny little four-color box. There's some variety inside the medium, of course. You flex different muscles reading 100 Bullets than you do reading Comic Book Comics. But still. I think you get the point. I need to reach outside of my comfort zone before my brain box turns into a 98 pound weakling capable of only dissecting Superman stories.

To that end, Project: Enlightenment is designed to break out of Comic Book City and into a wider world. I'm a really weird English major in that I've never read or been interested in reading any of The Canon. Time to get to it in my old age!

I'm not prescribing myself strictly to the classics, whatever those actually are. The idea is enjoy the process, not torture myself. The books need not be fiction, but I like fiction quite a bit, and I'm weak there. So I've picked out a few entries such as:

January
Notes From The Underground - Fyodor Dostoevsky
It seems to me that my iconoclastic and anti-authoritarian impulses should mix with the Mad Russian nicely. I'm going to find out one way or another.

February
The Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison
It's Black History Month, so it seemed like an appropriate and intriguing choice

October
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
No, I've never read it. Yes, I'm ashamed of that. Seems about perfect for Halloween month.

Other titles I'm considering for the Project:
Atlast Shrugged - Ayn Rand
Hell's Angels - Hunter S. Thompson
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Heinlein
The Magus - John Fowles
The Man Who Was Thursday - GK Chesterton
As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner
Common Sense - Thomas Paine

Any thoughts from the peanut gallery? I'm open to suggestions. Pitch me a classic that you've particularly enjoyed. It works especially well if you can attach a significance to a particular month, although that's certainly not a requirement.

Ryan

Even Jedi poot in their pants.

2012-01-05T02:16:00.000-06:00

Ryan saw this on AOTS and had to share it with me. Now I'm sharing it with you all. This is the base kind of humor that seems really funny at 1:30am after doing two hours of show. Please Enjoy! I know we did.

Michael

Market Spotlight!

2011-12-29T23:09:00.003-06:00

Haven't done one of these in awhile, let's see if I remember how to do this. Oh yeah, I guess I just riff on secondary market stuff I've noticed recently.

Here's an interesting one, and - brace for it - this has nothing whatever to do with trade paperbacks!

So I'm ambling about the closed comics listings on eBay, because that's where the real learning is done; wandering about, poking one's nose where it doesn't belong, for no other reason outside of curiosity. Whilst ambling I discovered this listing, where some crazy bastard actually dropped $62 on a beat up copy of a counterfeit comic book.

Now, these things can get a little dodgy. No way of knowing if any money actually traded hands. Just because the listing closed, doesn't mean it really closed. But there's every good chance that this actually happened. What makes it extra head scratchy is that right now you could probably make an offer and score on this fully authentic Cry For Dawn # 1 in a much more attractive 9.4 grade for about $150.

I just can't get over that sale, because it has absolutely nothing going for it. Sure it's beat to shit, but at least it's fake.... I'll pop for $50 on that all day long! What the hell where they thinking?

Some other items catching my attention:

MPD Psycho Vol 6
ISBN: 1593079966
SRP: $10.95
Amazon Min: $80/$80

In point of fact, volumes 3-7 of this series all seem to be out of print and scrambling toward some degree of profitability, at least on paper.

I have a hard time trusting this. Part of the problem is that I've never made one nickel on reprinted manga in my life, so there's the novelty of it. Part of the problem is that this feels spiritually akin to some of the all ages digest scenarios that have burnt me several times in the past.

I've seen J2 digests and Mary Jane digests climb for the stars on Amazon...but I've never been able to capitalize. Whatever the min is, some items just don't seem to command more than half cover price. The audience will simply do without rather than pounce on an expensive book. Now, I'm rational enough to recognize that what happened with Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane two years ago has little to do with what I can expect from MPD Psycho material now.

If you look at the closed eBay listings on the series, there's no heat there, either. I don't trust it, is what I'm saying. Having said that, the SRP is $11, so if this thing is for real, you're looking at margins north of 7:1, and that's awfully tempting. Awfully tempting. If you can find this thing laying around your LCS, I might snap it up and see what happens if you dangle it for $50.

She Hulk Vol 7: Here Today
ISBN:    0785129660
SRP:      $14.99
Amazon Min:   $18/$25

This whole series has been kind of a rock star this year. I've had multiple sales on Volume 2 and especially Volume 9 recently. So it comes as no surprise to find Here Today poking its nose out for a whirl at profitability.

It's not unusual to see prices cycle, but I've noticed that this whole She Hulk business has been particularly volatile. A few days ago this looked like an even juicier peach. It's still pretty good, though. And the only reason why the low "new" condition bid is sitting at $25 is because your not-so-humble scribe is under-selling the book right now trying for the quick flip.

Let's talk about that for a second. There's several schools of thought on maximizing profits, but I'm in the "when in doubt, get your money and get out" school. I picked this up today at Hot Comics from the 50% off shelf, which means that I got it for about $8. Now, my book is brand new in very nice condition. I'm looking at the Amazon listings, and the lowest of the used is sitting around $18, but there's a nice sounding "like new" book at $20. The lowest price on the "new" chart when I got there is about $40.

First impulse for many is to slap it up there at $39.99 and let it ride, and that's not a terrible plan. What I did is calculate what a 3:1 would look like, calculate my ability to replace the book, and gauge the volatility involved, and how confident I was about selling the book in the higher echelons.

What I did was post it for $24.99 looking for the quick turnaround. Am I selling myself short? Perhaps. I don't have a history with this book, so mostly I'm dealing with unknowns. But at $24.99, I'm making a nice margin, and there's another copy sitting at Hot Comics for $8 if I need it.

"Why didn't you just buy both", says Faithful Reader? Because I'm not in the business of getting in deep with any book until we have a relationship, and I have every confidence it will be waiting for me if I need it. Yes, even after publicly announcing it. I have six readers, and none of them frequent Hot Comics.

The strategy is: get in dirt cheap, make a nice margin, plow it into the next thing. That book that looks so pretty on Amazon with the $80 price tag on it is doing you no favors until somebody pulls the trigger on it. It's all a loss until you sell it. That book you bought for $10 and flipped for $30 goes into the next thing and makes another $20, and another $20, and it doesn't take long before those boring little trades are completely outshining that $80 book collecting dust on your shelf.

Having said that, the wise Gamer also makes distinctions about perennials and the truly scarce. You don't blow out your copy of Batman: Legacy because you can't replace it. I can find another copy of She Hulk Volume 7, easy. I can't drive to the LCS and expect to find X-Men: Zero Tolerance sitting there. So when I've got something good, scarce, with a history, then yes I'll make my customer pay for the privilege. But I don't think I'm ever going to lament making $15 off a She Hulk volume, ever.

Starman Omnibus Vol 1
ISBN: 9781401216993
SRP: $49.99
Amazon Min: $45/$45

Obviously you're not making money on this right now buying at full retail. Not yet, in any case. But do any of you remember when the Batwoman: Elegy HC was sitting at cover price and I told you it was going to $60 in six months? Well, I lied. It got there in three, because min for a new copy is up to $56 and will continue to climb.

Same thing with Starman Omnibus Volume 1, which now appears to have gone out of print, and let the feeding frenzy begin. This is legendary stuff in an attractive format, and I don't see this going out of style...ever.

DC may go back to press on this at some point, but I don't see that happening in the near future. It's a thick book with a smallish but fervent fan base. DC is not going to trip over themselves to reprint this, and in the interim, profit city.

It's a steep investment at full retail. Do I think this book hits par ($100) or better by this time next year? Yeah, I do. If this is resting at your LCS, watch the market and don't wait too long. Worst case scenario? You've got about 12 hours of the best damn reading you'll do all year. Starman is something special.

Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor signed edition
ISBN: 9781607064831
SRP: $124.99

I mention this because I pre-ordered one from Amazon for about $65, and I can't imagine an easier called shot. Rise of the Governor is the first in a trilogy of Walking Dead prose novels, and Skybound is offering a limited quantity of signed editions in a handsome little slipcase. The regular HC is regularly priced at $25, the deluxe slipcased edition is $75, and the signed edition retails at $125.

I don't think it too controversial to claim that the Walking Dead property has some legs. I don't know how many copies were signed, because there's no way I'm breaking the seal on my copy. I do know that there will always be more people looking for this than have it.

I don't know if I advocate spending full retail on the item, but luckily, you don't have to. This is still available for around $75, and I believe it's a steal at that price.

Ryan Lee and his Pillows are in need of your help!

2011-12-22T17:40:00.003-06:00

Good friend and fan of the show Cody Carey made this hilarious video about the fate of Ryan Lee's pillows. We love it when fans do stuff like this for the show. Thank you so much for making us both laugh harder than we have in a while and also thank you for grossing us out a little. We can only hope that people respond to this and help Ryan's poor pillows before it's too late.

Market Spotlight!

2011-12-02T00:03:00.001-06:00

How about a trio of Marvel books, and an interesting case study this week?

Hulk/Thing: Hard Knocks
ISBN: 0785115765
SRP: $13.99
Amazon Min: $22/$30

This is a bit dodgy, as it barely scrapes 2:1 at full retail. I can't imagine a super strong demand for it, either, but then again I am staring at a 2:1 so I guess we're experiencing a little interest.

This is a classic example of Marvel squeezing a little extra out of the turnip by turning a 4 issue mini into 4 issues plus an old reprint, and not even a particularly in demand Hulk/Thing barney. (It's Marvel Superstars # 1) I think they would have been better served by throwing in Fantastic Four # 12, or # 112, but what do I know.

I would avoid paying full retail for this unless it goes higher, but I'd feel pretty safe with a discounted copy. I can't see Marvel going back to press on this, so supply should stay relatively scarce.

She Hulk Vol 9: Lady Liberators
ISBN: 0785141146
SRP: $14.99
Amazon Min: $22/$38

Of course we've already observed a couple of these volumes pop from the Slott end of things. It wouldn't surprise me to see the entire series enter a comfortable place of profitability. It reminds me quite a bit of the Nightwing phenomenon, where a second tier star with a cult following hits that sweet spot where a niche crowd is looking for the material, but not in droves to spur a new edition.

If the copy is in nice shape, I'd advocate paying full retail for Lady Liberators. Don't panic if it cycles down, either. Nightwing does the same thing, bouncing up and down. Target a reasonable price and let the market catch up with you.

Daredevil: The Devil Inside & Out Vol 2
ISBN: 0785122419
SRP: $14.99
Amazon Min: $26/$54

We've seen quite a few of the Bendis volumes dry and up then shoot for the stars, and now it looks like Brubaker is taking his turn.

The thesis is pretty strong on this line. Quality run, quality creative team, demand should stay very strong for this book. Decent chance your local retailer has a copy of this laying around, and it's an easy buy at $15 and below.

Morning Glories Vol 1 HC
ISBN:   9781607064305
SRP:     $39.99
Amazon Min:    N/A

Image has recalled the original print run for the book, because one of the pages was erroneously issued with no dialogue. Some of the biggest sources are complying with the recall. Amazon is waiting for the corrected editions before distributing product, and the same goes for DCB Service. A good portion of the smaller retailers will send the error books back as well.

Some, but not all. I was able to score a copy of the "bad" edition this afternoon. It will be uncontroversial to assert that the error editions will be the most scarce. What's unclear is whether that means anything regarding the value of the book.

Similar problems have plagued items like the first Bendis Daredevil Omnibus, and the the old Captain America: Classic Years slipcase collection. Both of those items are quite valuable, but I haven't noticed any consistent premium placed on the scarcer error editions.

The secondary trade market is in its infancy, though. Just because there's no premium now doesn't mean that future collector's won't be making those distinctions. I'm not suggesting that you run out and back up the truck on a stack of $40 hardcovers waiting for the market to catch up with you. But for me, I'm a card carrying Morning Glories fanatic, and I'm pleased as punch to have the original edition in my collection. Anything else is just gravy.

- Ryan

Chronic Thanksgiving Special: Home Game!

2011-11-23T13:42:00.000-06:00

We covered this story in the opener of Chronic # 213, the Thanksgiving Special, but you really need the visuals in order to properly enjoy it.

In this case, a picture is worth a desire to leave the planet. This is Oneal Ron Morris, dispenser of creative cosmetic surgeries. If you want your booty to look like this, Mr./Ms. Morris would be more than happy to inject your ass with cement, mineral oil, and Fix-A-Flat for only $700. Wow.

Market Spotlight: There Are Limits!

2011-11-22T18:17:00.001-06:00


DENIED!

As loyal Gamers and readers of the blog already know, I've been sending out shipments of trades to CGC for grading each month. It's a bit of an adventure, because nobody is really doing this outside of myself. I'm blazing the trail here, and discovering that yes, there are limits.

What have I learned so far? There is debate in the CGC Towers about what tier to place the trades in. I tried to do the right thing, by the way, and sent multiple emails to the address given on the CGC website explaining what I was considering and asking for guidance. I received no response to any of these emails. Not a "we don't do that sort of thing", not a "I'm not sure, but let me dig into it and get back to you". Just... nothing. To be fair, any time I've sent an email requesting info or a correction on an order, I've received a response within 24 hours. But until they had my money, nobody over there was interested in what I had to say. Not sure if those two concepts are related or not. But they might be. Just maybe.


Under Siege: Maximum beefiness allowed

I've sent in each of my shipments under the regular "modern" tier of grading, ($17/book) the same tier you'd use to process any comic published after 1980. The first four times I sent books in for grading, nobody batted an eye. The fifth shipment, I received an email claiming my books were too big, and that they'd be processed under the "magazine" tier. (slightly more expensive at $23/book) Then I got a backtracking email a few hours later stating that there was no problem, and that they'd be happy to slab my books in magazine sized cases for the regular modern price.

I've been experimenting with the sizes of the trades, searching for capacity. The first batch I sent was mostly super thin stuff that I couldn't imagine anybody objecting too, and have been pushing the thickness barrier up ever since. I thought for sure I would hit it with Avengers: Under Siege, which is kind of a beast. They graded that, slabbed it, and sent it back without blanching.

This time, though, they graded Green Lantern: Power of Ion, and then decided they couldn't fit it into a slab. I know they graded it a 9.6, because I saw it posted on the web site on my order page. So, if you want to know if your trade is slabbable, just plunk it down next to Power of Ion and you'll have your answer. Anything thinner than that should be good to go.

It costs to make these mistakes, by the way. I didn't get a refund for that book, nor would I consider asking for one. They provided the service, and I sent in a pretty ridiculously sized tome. I consider it a "buyer beware" situation of my own creation, and just part of the cost of doing business.

I also sent in my best copy of the Spawn Capital Collection, a nice limited piece offered only to specific retailers and signed by Todd McFarlane. CGC is not really in the signature verification game unless they have their own people peering over the creator's shoulder as its signed, though, so my book says "T McFarlane written in marker on first page". I don't know why, but I find that adorable.

They're in a tough spot on that one, actually. Those books are a known commodity, so there's no reason to suspect foul play or a ghost signer. Everybody understands that Todd signed those books. If they didn't think it was signed, my book honestly should have been sent back with a green "qualified" label, because it had been written on. I'm glad they didn't do that, by the way, because that green label is pretty much a death sentence to the perceived value of the book.

I do wish they had stated what color the "T McFarlane" was written in, though. I have two copies - one is signed in green, the other in red. It's possible that one of those signatures is significantly more rare than the other, and should probably be reflected on the slab. I could have asked, I guess, but I didn't.

I think it's more important to note the edition of the book, but the CGC graders do not make those distinctions. The year of publication is listed, so one could ostensibly determine edition based on that information, provided that the book didn't go to press multiple times within the calendar year. If I could make one change in the way CGC does things with trades, I'd request they list the print edition on the slab. On the whole, though? I'm more than satisfied.

Some of you may be wondering about the speed of these transactions. The regular modern tier claims a 20 business day turnaround. That's not been my experience. It's actually about a two month wait, although things seem to be speeding up a bit lately. Word on the board is that things bog down during convention season, and that the wheels churn more quickly from October-January.

There's quite a bit of venom to be had on the member forums, almost exclusively directed at CGC for their turnaround times. Many of them have a legitimate gripe. Think about this - for books older than 1980, your cheapest option is the value tier. You can't send in anything that could be expected to trade at more than $150, and you have to send in a minimum of 30 books. At $23/book, you're sending CGC more than $700 after the shipping costs, and the stated wait is 40 business days. It is now November 22, and they're just sending out value books they received on July1. If I sent somebody $700 and had to wait six months for my service....I'd be pissed, too. Especially when the sign says it's a two month process.

But the thing is...where else you gonna go? Gonna send those books out to PGX? No, I didn't think so. Unless Robert Overstreet wants to set up shop as competition or something, I don't think CGC really has to care what their constituency thinks, because they are The Man.

- Ryan

Market Spotlight: Results Edition!

2011-11-14T23:54:00.002-06:00


Welcome to your 8:1 profit margin

Rather than look at "new" findings and looking at future profits, I thought it might be instructive to focus on actual artifacts that sold for actual profits.

So for this column I printed out everything I've sold on Amazon since my last Market Spotlight entry on November 7. I'm also listing (when known) what I paid for the book in question, and the source of the book. It's a very small sample size, and we're heading into the height of Christmas book season, so sales are slightly more brisk than they would be in say, May. The point is that this list certainly doesn't tell the whole story on book scouting by any stretch. But it might tell some kind of useful story.

November 8, 2011

Black Canary/Oracle: Birds of Prey
Purchase Price: $5.00
Source: $5.00 box of trades at Fallcon
Sold for: $27.99

November 10, 2011

Classic Gambit
Purchase Price: $2.00
Source: Half Price Books clearance rack
Sold for: $14.99

X-Men: Blinded by the Light
Purchase Price: $7.50
Source Half Price Books (Fallcon)
Sold for: $34.99

Art of Hack Slash
Purchase Price: $13.99
Source: Instocktrades.com
Sold for: $39.99

Batman: Shaman
Purchase Price: unknown
Source: unknown
Sold for: $29.99

November 11, 2011

Essential Conan
Purchase Price: $7.00
Source: Half Price Books (Fallcon)
Sold For: $29.99

November 13, 2011

Carnage
Purchase Price: $3.50
Source: Half Price Books (Fallcon)
Sold for: $17.99

Hellblazer: Hard Time
Purchase Price: $9.50
Source: Local Comic Shop
Sold For: $29.99

Green Arrow: Straight Shooter
Purchase Price: $3.60
Source: Lone Star Comics
Sold For: $19.99

Countdown to Final Crisis Vol 4
Purchase Price: $10.00
Source: Half Price Books (Fallcon)
Sold For: $34.99

Invisibles Vol 2: Apocalipstick
Purchase Price: $19.50
Source: Local Comic Shop
Sold For: $37.99

November 14, 2011

Batman: Venom
Purchase Price: $5.00
Source: Comic Collector Live
Sold For: $39.99

Secret Six: Depths
Purchase Price: $14.50
Source: Local Comic Shop
Sold For: $34.99

Secret Six: Six Degrees of Devastation
Purchase Price: $14.50
Source: Local Comic Shop
Sold For: $34.99

Looking at the results from the past couple of days, you can see illustrated many of the points I keep hammering on. It's hard to sell an expensive book. People are very willing to drop $20 or less, less willing at $30, but still doable. The highest price realized was $39.99, and that's fine, particularly when you're able to score that copy of Batman: Venom for only a fiver!

Incidentally, we're getting to the time of year when wallets will loosen up a bit, and you will be able to move those deluxe high-end hardcovers. But even in the midst of that Christmas buying season, it's pretty easy to see that your money is made buying material dirt cheap and then trying to flip it in that $20-$30 range. You turn the product over, and then you funnel it into more product.

Yeah, I might have been able to squeeze another $5 out of a book or two in this list. But then again, maybe not. You're not doing yourself any favors letting that book collect dust on the shelf for a couple of bucks. Turn it over and keep that machine rolling! How much sense does it make to hold onto a book for an extra $5 when you could have turned it into new product that generates another $10, or $30? I check my listings about twice a month and do some surgery, slashing prices to meet the "new" market.

Not every book is going to be a grand slam. Sometimes you may end up selling a book for less than you paid for it. Take your lumps and dump that liquid capital into something that will earn you some money. You do yourself no favors waiting for that dead end to cycle back. Granted, higher end product requires a little patience to find the right buyer. But if you're still sitting on that book you bought a year ago waiting for a miracle, you're making a mistake. Purge it, and generate somewhere else.

You can also see the benefits of diversifying your sources. Work those conventions, hit the used book stores, cultivate multiple online sources. Look to hit that sweet spot of 3:1 as much as possible. Unless. I'll settle for 2:1 on material I know I can move. I had already sold a half dozen copies of Invisibles: Apocalipstick, so I was perfectly confident in a relatively quick sale. In that case I'm happy to pay $20 for a book that will sell for $38. But even that involves some risk, because the day DC goes back to press - poof! You're stuck with what you've got at way less than cover. This is why I trickled them out, and never had more than 2 on my shelf at a time.

The total for all items came to $428.86, but understand that Amazon is getting about 20% of that. So my actual take is something like $343.09, and that's not profit, that's revenue. Adding up purchase prices, I get about $115.59, but I just don't remember where I got Batman: Shaman from or what I paid for it. It might have been from Lone Star, in which case it would have been in the $12 range. It might be a straggler from a large Batman lot I scored ages ago, in which case the cost would be under $5. Whatever I paid for that book, I'm still solidly in that 3:1 sweet spot for the whole lot.

Total profit? Somewhere in the neighborhood of $215-$220, which is high for me but not completely out of control. Can you quit your job and do this instead? Probably not. Maybe if you expanded your game outside of TPBs you could do it. Can you sell enough books to subsidize a really nice comic collection? Yeah, I'd say you can.

- Ryan

Idle Thoughts!

2011-11-12T23:19:00.000-06:00

I think I've been going through my version of a mid-life crisis off and on since I was about 23 years old. I've been thinking extensively about death lately, most particularly my own. Not because I get some kind of macabre satisfaction out of it, and not because I'm suffering from acute fear of it, either.


Right in the tit hole, John

I've been considering my own demise because I consider a lot of things, and I've always been drawn naturally to those subjects that other people just don't, or more to the point won't think about. Denial is for pussies. Give me the rough stuff, every time. One of the better ironies of life is that nobody gets out alive, and as for the rest, well...I have my own theories. Theories being all we have, of course. If you value your safety, you will not approach me with any "but Colton Burpo knows what happens after death" kind of gibberish. Fuck him and John Edward in the tit hole. Charlatans and sideshow barkers are anyone who tells you they can pierce that veil.

Nobody knows, which is simultaneously disconcerting and wonderful. Your life would lose a great deal of its luster were it not in question. Trust me on that.

No, I'm not going to last forever, which is fine. Or is it? On the Myers-Briggs chart I come out as an "NT", or Rational. That means a lot of things, but mostly it makes me one of those assholes with his head in the clouds, looking at the "big picture", and finding microscopic faults with everything and everyone. I'm a prime source of irritation for those around me, but if it's any consolation, nobody feels the cuts of my own analytical blade more than I do.

So I've been under the knife all day, pruning thoughts, comparing where I've been to where I am. Wondering if it measures up, "it" being my accomplishments, I suppose. Wondering if "I" measure up, meaning my practical positive impact on my environment, I suppose. I don't know that I do measure up, but the good news is that (a) there is still (a continuously depleting cache of) time, and (b) it could be worse. This is my version of health, hope, and optimism by the way.

Sometimes it's difficult to even know what one is. If you dissect yourself logically, there isn't a cell on you that was there even seven years ago. I'm not the same man I was, no matter how you approach the concept. Attack the physical or the ineffable, I make decisions now that would be inconceivable to 23 year old Ryan, whom I now consider an idiot of the highest caliber. I admire that kid's stones, though, I'll tell you that.

As I dug deeper, though, something of a core emerged. The machine may have gotten more complex, and it might operate differently, but it's possible I've always been the same machine.

Let me tell you who I am.

We used to take trips down to New Ulm every couple of months to visit my grandparents. It was a two hour drive or thereabouts, it felt like it took a week to get there. It was the 1970s, mind you, I didn't have a phone that could download cartoons or a television housed in the headrest in front of me. Mostly I just had motion sickness to entertain me.

I did bring some toys with me to pass the time once we got there. When I was a young child, I loved to do jigsaw puzzles. I quickly outgrew the simple puzzles with the fat pieces and moved on to the colorful 100 piece puzzles featuring cartoon characters by the time I was three years old.

Puzzles were attractive because they were simultaneously creative and scientific. Puzzles have rules, and strategies. Ultimately, they always make sense - the corresponding shapes will fit together. If it's not fitting together, it aint the puzzle that's broke, it's you. There are clues in the colors, or the borders. If you know what you're building, (if you can see the picture) you can use that information to make productive choices. If you have discipline and can perceive correctly, you can take a giant goddamn mess and create a picture of Pink Panther besting Inspector Clouseau.

I remember one particular trip I brought a Pink Panther puzzle with me and set up my puzzle board in a side hallway near the spare bedroom so I wasn't blocking the path to the bathroom. My dad custom built my puzzle board, and it was one of my prized possessions. I don't know what kind of wood it was, but it was super smooth on the puzzle building side, and had a little texture on the floor side. Knowing my dad, he did that on purpose because a little friction on the floor side would help keep the board from moving if place on carpeting. Holding still is a plus when doing puzzles.

My puzzle board was also covered with Star Wars stickers. I think you got one sticker in each pack of Star Wars cards, and I had a lot of those. If I got a "double" of a sticker, it went straight onto the puzzle board. Bam! I wish I had that puzzle board now, actually. But I digress.

So I finished my Pink Panther puzzle, and then I decided to do it straight away again. I turned it into a next-level game. I had done the puzzle a number of times, so my "victory" wasn't in question. Completing it wasn't the goal in more - I decided to absolutely master it. So I put myself on an internal clock, and vaguely began timing myself, and testing to see how quickly I could finish.

I'd been at the same puzzle for hours, though, and after awhile folks started to notice that I wasn't a dumbass kid taking forever to do one puzzle, but instead was a psychotic dumbass kid rifling through the pieces like a frenetic compulsive, and was getting to the point where I wouldn't make a wrong move and was assembling the thing inside of five minutes. My aunt began to time me, and begged other folks to watch. Which they did. And against their better judgement, some were mildly impressed. But underneath that, they thought I was a bit odd.

And that's who I am, and who I've always been. Trapped in my own little world, marshaling my own pocket of skills into some kind of scientific/artistic nirvana. And a little weird.

The good news is that I'm mostly OK with that. There's something to be said for branching outside of one's pocket nirvana and affecting a better change for those around you. I heartily endorse that concept.

Not important, but it's what we got

But here's the deal - you can't fake it. You can branch the nirvana out of the pocket, if it allows, and you're able. It's more important that you find that "one thing" that Curly was talking about and run with it, for you. Because the truth of the matter is that we are living on the ass end of the Orion-Cygnus arm in the ass end of a low rent galaxy. If the universe were a party, we would not be dancing. We wouldn't even be a discarded plastic cup. We would be a tiny sliver of a tiny speck of dust on the door jam.

So even if you cure cancer for all humans for all time, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is, you cured cancer for all humans for all time. The bad news is that there are about 200 billion stars in this galaxy, and about 200 billion galaxies in the observable universe. There is nothing going on here that is meaningful in the big picture.

Now, that can be depressing, if one is overly tied up in ego, and drama, and selfishness. We're just not that important. The silver lining is that such a realization can also be quite liberating, because it takes some of the pressure off, doesn't it? And in the end, even if you are on the ass end of the Orion-Cygnus arm of the Milky Way, sometimes the most important thing in the universe is whether or not that hot chick you really clicked with last night will call or not. You've got the best of both worlds if you want it.

This has been a very long way of rationalizing my largely irresponsible and socially awkward interest in comic books. It's just another interest, another pocket nirvana for me to explore. There are more than 100 pieces to factor in, and they don't always fit. But it's still fun, and there is a sense that I might master the concept if I show discipline, and there are certainly colorful characters involved.

It's my thing, (for now) and I'm not faking it. And I'm a little weird. When I die, I suspect that a small handful will remember me fondly, and also probably lament that I didn't spend more time with more prudent pursuits. And that's fine. I also bet that many of them will wish that they had spent a little more time in their pocket nirvana on their own journey, instead of marching to some other's orders.

And that's life.

- Ryan

Market Spotlight!

2011-11-07T22:13:00.000-06:00

It's been overlong since I've done one of these, mainly because I'm having trouble finding anything new that really looks enticing. Uncanny X-Force # 4 is completely out of its mind right now, that's for sure. But that was Rich's homework, not mine. What I should probably do is either talk about some really powerful "old" material, or get into some next-level thinking on the actual nuts and bolts of selling.

Instead, I'll just talk about these tepid little tomes:

Black Panther: Bad Mutha
ISBN: 0785117504
SRP: $10.99
Amazon Min: $20+

Not exactly a barn burner at the $20 mark, and I don't imagine the Reggie Hudlin era is remembered as a high point of the character's progression. In the long term, I think I like Priest's "Enemy of the State" better than this as an investment.

But in the now, the initial investment isn't that much, and if it spikes up from here, the margins look pretty darned good. I've had good success finding a couple copies for around $5 as well, which takes a lot of the risk out of the equation. Again, not my favorite find in the world, but I bet I make some money on this one.

Green Lantern Corps: The Dark Side of Green
ISBN: 1401215076
SRP: $12.99
Amazon Min: $20/$30

I've had much success with a wide selection of Green Lantern books, although this is the first simmerings I've observed from the "Corps" camp. Can't say I fully trust it, yet, especially when Amazon doesn't even have it listed correctly. (It's in there now as "darker" side of green)

But it doesn't seem crazy for this to be riding the coattails of the well popular Geoff Johns books. (none of which do well in the secondary market as trades because they keep up with supply) If you can dig one up in the 50% range in nice shape, it's tough to imagine losing money on that.

George RR Martin's Hedge Knight TPB
ISBN: 0785127240
SRP: $14.99
Amazon Min: $????

This one is kind of an intriguing, disgusting mess. I've actually sold the hardcover version of volume one for a profit before. Martin's got a little heat on him now with the success of the Game of Thrones HBO show, so the thesis on this one is actually strong.

But again, this thing is a mess. The listings on Amazon are all over the place. There's a book club version of this, which is bad, because that generally means a much larger supply lying somewhere latent and waiting. It's a little dodgy to figure out where exactly to list the damn thing, even with an ISBN, and prices are spotty as well. Near as I can tell, nobody is selling this for less than $30 right now.

I did see a corroborating sale on eBay recently, where some poor bastard apparently gave up $75 for a copy of this book. More than one witness tends to make the story sound more plausible. And to be fair, even a giant latent supply doesn't necessarily kill the profit. Not sure that I did better with anything last year than Cowboys & Aliens, which had an absolutely monster supply behind it. I was buying multiple copies from Instocktrades for $2, posting them, and then selling them for $20-$35 overnight.

Long story longer, I think you can make money on this book, but I would be awfully wary about sinking money into multiple copies. I think supply can catch up on this quite quickly.

- Ryan

Best of Times/Worst of Times: Cinematic Storytelling Part 2!

2011-11-05T22:07:00.000-05:00

OK, so...Cloak & Dagger: Spider-Island doesn't really have anything to do with Spider-Island. You would not get that notion from the "Cloak & Dagger: Spider Island" banner, or the legion of guys in Spider-Man costumes littering the cover. This is called "button-hooking" the audience, and it does not add value to the package. In fact, it's a giant dick in a disadvantaged orifice.

Oh, some will look at the trim and claim I'm hyperbolizing. Yes, there are spider mutates mucking about in the background of the series. Dagger even fights some for a little bit in issue # 1 before she decides she'd rather be going to her community college course. That's how important Spider Island is to this series - Dagger actually engages with it and then basically says "This is boring the shit out of me, I'd rather do homework." So if you dropped your money down looking for events to flesh out what Dan Slott is doing over in Amazing Spider-Man, then Marvel willfully lied to you and stole your money. Now that's value!

No, the story has nothing whatever to do with Spider Island. This is about Nick Spencer re-defining Cloak & Dagger, physically and thematically. The catalyst is one Mr. Negative, who is burdened with a prophecy that Dagger will be the death of him.

Spoilers ahoy now - he captures her, uses some kind of mysticism to invert her powers and turn her into a darkforce wielder, and then Cloak shows up to save her, and somewhere in the process he turns into a light wielder. So they make out, their powers flip-flop, and then Mr. Negative just leaves her alone.

Now, that may be all well and good. Maybe. It's a very weird anti-climax that Negative just lets her go, although that weirdness is at least acknowledged in the script. It doesn't necessarily make the story feel more satisfying, though. It feels like most everything in Marvel feels like these days - narrative check kiting. "I know you didn't get what you were looking for in this story, kids, but that's because we've got the REAL big thing coming up next!" And then the next "real big thing" comes along and fails miserably as well, but just wait until that next one, folks, when the SUPER real big stuff happens! Pfff. I'm not amused.

Which isn't to say that nothing happened in the series. Parts of it were quite entertaining. I enjoyed the new takes on both Ty and Tandy, they felt more like real people than they have in, well, ever. Switching the powers/roles of the duo is, I suppose, a "big thing" potentially. Mr. Negative was sort of refreshing in that he's smarter than your average bad guy bear. I'm not saying I've never seen this before, but often the best guys are truly evil while still maintaining a strict sense of honor and use next-level thinking more than brute violence. Peter David is the king of writing these villains. And to be fair, I think the end of the book, where Spencer goes for the slightly more difficult emotional ending carried by tenderness? I think that worked. Basically.

But it was all overplayed, there wasn't enough in it, and it took me about four minutes to read. And this is where the devil's advocates begin to rant "Ah man, it took you four minutes because you're not stopping to appreciate the art and pause to absorb everything and let it sink in!"

To which I reply: it took me four minutes to read because there twenty pages of content, and by my count nine of those were either splash pages or double splash pages. That's bullshit. No story is that big. If cracked the galaxy in half, you don't need nine splash pages to do that. A couple of crazy New York kids switching their super-powers definitely don't need nine splash pages.

It's gets to the point where I can't even really guess the purpose any more. Here's the first splash page of the comic, which is really nothing more than just changing scenery:

What is the point of that? Can you even see anything in that shot? Yeah, spiders are running around, we get it. What was so important there, that it required 5% of the entire story space? There is such a thing as the Law of Diminishing Returns. The splash page, near as I can reckon, is a trick in the artist's tool box to lock in on a key moment in a story or character's progression. It says "big" by being physically larger, showing more detail, using a greater percentage of the story space to give a dynamic moment a chance to be all that it can be in relation to the rest of the text. That's what it's supposed to be.

The above panel is....just a change of scenery. We already know things got dark. We already know there are giant mutated spiders running around. Nothing is at stake, and nothing is amplified because none of the figures are large enough to exhibit any detail. To me, this is inexcusable, even it weren't over used.

But it is. A large number of panels for a page in this comic is five. The scene where Ty moves in to save Tandy from the darkness? Big scene, sure. But it takes up six pages, five of which are either splash or double splash pages. Four of them amount to a pair of "making out" double splashes. It's too much, man, and it's overdone.

And then you've got three pages of post spit-swapping pillow talk, followed by a fourth splash page:

It's pure self indulgence. It's writers thinking that every one of their scenes is a shining pearl in the annals of the medium, and nothing less than a full panoramic view will suffice for the legendary shit they're putting down. It's artists who are more in love with their secondary market re-sale value than the story their telling. The pin-ups look good. Mostly. But you get to the end of the comic, and most of what happened:

A) Had nothing to do with Spider-Island, in direct opposition to all promises and marketing
B) Didn't particularly make sense given the motivations of the villain as portrayed in the series
C) Seems built entirely to erase all drama within the series in order to point to the next series
D) Takes a few scant minutes to plow through

Just to reiterate, I don't think Cloak & Dagger: Spider Island is a bad story. I think what's there is enjoyable. But it feels light, and inefficient, and self-indulgent. A thing can be good and still be over-priced, and that's exactly what Cloak & Dagger is. Unfortunately, that's what a lot of comics in 2001 are.

- Ryan

Best Of Times/Worst Of Times: Cinematic Storytelling!

2011-11-04T00:55:00.003-05:00

Right now is the absolute best and worst time to be reading comic books, for a myriad of reasons. The best books I've ever read in my now 30+ year career in reading these damn things...I'm reading now. And yet it never fails that each week I find my blood pressure rising and throwing something down in disgust. Sometimes I'll declare the same comic genius and also throw it down in disgust at some point in the reading process.

If there's an over-arching, primary, 600-pound-gorilla-type-problem in the industry currently, it's the problem of value. It's hard to scientifically clarify what we mean by a comic with that exhibits good "value", although having the page count to flesh out the stories does help. I think we can all think of shorter comics or even back-up features that have entertained and earned the cover cost, and I believe we've all read longer works that didn't pay off with a visceral response. Which had greater value?

I suppose we know it when we experience it, but also I think lost in the potential nitpicking is the very obvious and demonstrable claim:

Today's comics are the least efficient and most expensive comics in the history of the medium.

With very few exceptions, there are no comics that leave one feeling they've received good value - even the comics one enjoys. I'm going to talk about two examples I read this evening; Last of the Greats # 2, and Cloak & Dagger: Spider-Island # 3. Here's the thing. I genuinely enjoyed both books, and in fact, I thought what was there in LOTG was pretty fantastic. But here's the other thing:

This is Charles at the end of his presser, explaining to the world that the last remaining great is perfectly willing to fix the world as they know it, but he's going to require a serious adulation commitment. Then he walks away from the mic.

Now, I'm not a complete rube. I intellectually understand an attempt at poignancy when I see it. But what does that PAGE, and what is pictured above is an entire PAGE of the LOTG # 2, actually accomplish? I imagine that Joshua Fialkov sees us slowing down our eyes and fully digesting this, his most dramatic of all moments. Because he has ordered Brent Peeples to fill a largely empty page with a microphone and a grim, statuesque figure, we are now understanding the true and pregnant implications of the people's decision.

And you know what? If this kind of thing happened in a comic book series once every six months, these little tricks might have that kind of power. The problem, or one of the big problems, is that today's writers think every little scene they write is the BIGGEST THING THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED IN COMICS. That scene where Charles walks away from the mic is actually a waste of everyone's time. We only get twenty pages a month to move these forward, gents. You can't waste them with a line of dialogue and a smear of blue watercolor for a background. That's a waste of time, and a waste of my money.

This scene to me is even worse:

What is the point of the first three panels, and why couldn't that have been conveyed in one panel, about half the size used? Here's the story beat: the angry child is running away. That's it. Why does that require 70% of a page to illustrate? We're not breaking new ground here or pushing the medium forward. This is a waste of space, a waste of my time, and a waste of my money.

Comics are not television or movies, and I dearly wish they'd stop trying to be. The juice in comics is what happens between your ears between the panels. It's about connecting dots, not throwing still shots of film cells on a page. Take this gun scene, as an example:

Charles is depressed. We know this. It's fine to re-establish that, to show a grim despondency and set the scene emotionally again. But why do we need a play-by-play of the gun inching toward his head? "Sad look with gun on table" + "gun at temple" in next scene is more than enough for us to get the idea. These panels don't need to be that big, either. Not to tell the story.

My conclusion upon finishing Last of the Greats # 2 was that it was an outstanding little chunk of a story I'm enjoying very much...that I also overpaid for. And this one was one of the $2.99 books! I didn't clock myself reading it, but completing the issue took closer to five minutes than ten.

Joshua Fialkov is a smart writer. He's not afraid to cut to the heart of the dark part of human nature, but he does it with some elegance instead of hitting you with a sledge hammer. Last of the Greats has an outstanding hook - dirt simple with lots of layers. I don't want to ruin anything by just blurting out all the plot details, but issue # 1 had me flip-flopping on where I invested my sympathy twice, and then at the beginning of the second issue, the remaining Great pulls a maneuver that makes you question everything again.

A child is fed to sharks at some point, and its not just for Mark MillarianFialkov is good to the point where it pays to think about these things, because you can bet he has. It means something.

This is a story with both theme and purpose, something more comic books should take note of and do likewise. I really enjoy this story.

But does Last of the Greats # 2 have good value? No, it does not. It has better value than a dull comic of the same length, width, and efficiency, but that doesn't mean it's a good value. Not enough happened.

And this isn't an isolated occurrence. In the same pile I read Fialkov's I, Vampire # 2. Also a good book with a wicked hook. Star-crossed lovers in an unhealthy supernatural co-dependent relationship, ready to take the vampire nation to the next level, in inevitable opposition with the superhero community. But if you break I, Vampire # 2 into its basic ingredients, what you have is a lot of poetic posturing, one vampire fight where the protagonist in never in any actual danger, and the realization that Mary set him up for it just to make life tougher for him down the line. It could have been done in five pages, easy. In the golden age, it probably would have been done in two pages at most.

And I'm not positing that we need a return to the golden age by any stretch. Not enough sophistication there to satisfy modern sensibilities. But neither do we need a page to show a many walking away from a microphone, either. Surely there's a middle ground in there somewhere?

It's self indulgence of the highest order. It's the assertion that these scenes are all of such magnitude that each sublime moment must have a double splash page for the masses to properly digest the galactic implications. It's absurd.

But Fialkov is by no means alone or the worst of his kind. No, the King of Self Indulgence is the divinely conceived Nick Spencer. And I'll show you how Cloak & Dagger: Spider Island # 3 blows the doors off LOTG in terms of inefficiency when next I pontificate at you.

- Ryan

Chronic Insomnia Secret Formula!

2011-10-29T12:32:00.002-05:00

What do you get when you mix the whacky Charles Nelson Reilly....

With the equally whacky Sally Jesse Raphael?

Click "read more" for the startling answer!

You get Scott Lobdell, of course.

I want my pulitzer now for uncovering this shocking, previously undiscovered love child situation. Incidentally, Lobdell just returned fire on newsarama regarding the whole Starfire calamity, and it's certainly worth reading. However one feels about Kori's depiction, he has a point - you can can say that she's a skeezy space slut for playing the field, but you just lost your access to the moral High Horse.

Listen, naughty girls need love, too. I learned that from Professor Samantha Fox. She was full of educational opportunities, that saucy little gutter whore. Looks like I'll have to descend from my high horse, now.. Crap.

- Ryan

Market Spotlight: Halloween Edition!

2011-10-27T21:56:00.001-05:00

Well, it's just about Halloween, which means it's about time to bust out that Crow DVD and see what Eric Draven is doing. It can't rain all the time, I know that for sure. Love that movie. Love it!

You know what's better than a sack full of tiny Butterfinger bars? Making some damn money off your horror trade paperbacks, that's what!

Dracula TPB

ISBN: 1883313007

SRP: $13.95

Amazon min: $15/$50

Once upon a time Topps made comic books, and as I recall the X-Files books were pretty darned good. And they had Lady Rawhide in all her bondagey goodness, carrying a whip and what-not in case Zorro got out of line. Those were the days.

They also adapted the Dracula movie starring Gary Oldman. Don't ever say that guy can't act - he almost made us believe he was attracted to Winona Ryder, for crying out loud. Roy Thomas did the adaptation, it was almost required in those days that if you had an adaptation, that you must shackle Thomas to it. Which wasn't a bad idea, really. The guy could write and that Star Wars thing worked out pretty well.

The point, finally, is that the collected edition is fairly scarce, particularly in nice condition. I would pay up for a really nice copy, but I'm looking for 50% or more before I pull the trigger on something well loved. There's money to be made there, though. You have to be patient on a book like that, give it time to breathe and find a home. The market is there, but it's niche. There won't be 1,000 hooligans banging down your door for a twenty year old collected adaptation of a disappointing film.

Resident Evil: Collection One

ISBN: 1563895722

SRP: $14.95

Amazon Min: $33/$60

I've had a lot of success selling this book. Flipped it about a half dozen times, and I don't think I ever got less than $50 for it. Long ago there used to be a Resident Evil magazine, and this collection reprints stories from the first four issues.

It's one of those books that is legitimately scarce. Resident Evil also has a more rabid and well-populated following than say, the Gary Oldman Dracula movie, which helps. Apparently those video games are huge or something.

Not a great chance that it's sitting at your LCS, but I could definitely see somebody cycling this through Half Price books, and neither the customer nor the retailer will have a clue that their fingers are dancing on Gamer Gold. I like this book at full retail in almost all conditions, and I'd be very surprised if it ever goes back to press.

Thing From Another World: Climate of Fear

ISBN: 187857485X

SRP: $15.95

Amazon min: $87/$150

This one has cycled quite a bit in the past. I've sold this book for as little as $15, and as high as $80. Depending on condition, I think you could probably get closer to $100 for the book as I type this, and that probably has a lot to do with the fact that there's a new movie out prequelling The Thing.

This is a Dark Horse collected edition, I've read it, and it's actually kind of fun to see the further adventures of McReady. I'll tell you one thing - it's tough to find a copy of this that hasn't been abused. Certain books just don't lend themselves to NM, and I don't exactly know why all the time. Like the Elfquest Reader's Collection series -what the hell happened to those?

At any rate. I advocate picking up copies of this right now in almost any condition at full retail, and I advocate paying up for a copy if it's really shiny. Remember, though, this one cycles. That movie sheen is coming off sometime soon. I think the book stays profitable, but not crazy profitable for much longer.

EC Archives: Tales From The Crypt Vol 1

ISBN: 1888472553

SRP: $49.99

Amazon Min: $130/$185

Tales From the Crypt - how are you going to get any more Halloweeny than that? This is a great series, and this is a great book, particularly if you can find it sealed. Often times the big ticket hardcovers are very profitable, but they take longer to move.

Not so with this little beauty. When I've found it new and sealed, I can't keep it in stock, even when the price tag eclipses $100. I would say that over the last 5-10 years, the demand for the EC material has softened a little, but it's still incredibly strong. This book is not going out of style, and an easy purchase even at the steeper investment rate. The tough part is finding it. Duh.

Cheaper Deeper Sleeper: Faust Communion Edition Vol 1

ISBN: N/A

SRP: $12.95

Amazon min: ???

Faust is an odd duck. David Quinn and Tim Vigil self-published Faust at the tail end of Ye Olde Black & White Explosion, and it was part Wolverine, part Twin Peaks, part Ron Jeremy. It was boobs and blood in an era where people could actually be titillated by such things. Seems sort of precious now, with its adorable psychodrama cuttin' people up riffs.

Oh, and they made it into a completely intolerable film, too. Do avoid that.

I'm probably being unduly unkind to the work, which was relevant and daring when it broke, and honestly ought to be remembered with fondness. The "communion" editions are just TPBs, nothing more, nothing less. The first edition collects the first three "acts" of Faust. (do you see how precious it all was?) They're quite difficult to find in any condition, and I've never laid eyes on one in near mint.

If you want to know just how scarce it is...try finding a good listing for it on Amazon. I'm pretty good at this stuff, and I can't seem to find anything I trust. eBay is not exactly a road map either. Tough to find a listing that actually closes, and the few listings you do find are usually at price gouging rates.

It's a niche product, and the print runs make it pretty attractive. If you have this laying around your LCS or find it at a convention, I bet you can get it for cover or less, and I certainly think it's worth that and then some.

- Ryan

Some Thoughts On Watchmen 2!

2011-10-24T17:57:00.001-05:00

Some Thoughts On Watchmen 2, And Other Irrelevancies I Probably Shouldn't Encourage With Further Analysis

Rich Johnston is really going pedal to the floor with the Watchmen 2 bit over on Bleeding Cool, which I have no issues with. He's there to chase hits, he's not hurting anybody, and the damn story may end up being accurate on top of it.

My issue, if I have one, is that the whingers are going to come out in full force and be wrong about everything again. And DC, being the new DC that pays attention to its constituents and sometimes makes decisions based upon their moronic peasant thinking, particularly if they look good in a Batgirl suit and publicly embarrass them, might actually enact changes based upon said whinging.

The principal objection will be that The Watchmen is far too pure and holy to be debauched by mortal sinners with supplemental material.

This is, of course, absolute rubbish.

Don't get me wrong, I adore The Watchmen, warts and all. "Fearful Symmetry", in my opinion, is a tour de force in narration and structure that no comic book has surpassed before or since. Yes, we have the Watchmen to thank for comics now able to concern themselves with whether or not a character's cock works. Let no man claim that I don't give the work its due, and in fact, Quincy and I produced a low rent cable access program extolling the virtues of Watchmen when the movie came out. I respect it, kay? OK.

Let's be clear about this - there is no work so pure and holy that it can't be added to. If that sort of thinking were valid, why did DC not put a cork in Batman after the Dark Knight Returns? Equally lauded, and holding up as equally canonical. You don't stop making Fantastic Four because they made "This Man, This Monster." Thank all that is sublime they didn't! A signature work or an inspired effort does not mandate retiring the concept. Do you quit telling X-Men stories after Days of Future Past? That's just silly. You'd never know it to listen to the rank and file bitch about it, though.

If you think about it, there should be far more rancor over producing more Batman work post DKR than producing Watchmen work post-Alan Moore. Break it down to its basic ingredients, and Watchmen is just a bunch of patently obvious analogs of throw-away-two-bit Charlton characters trapped in a story largely ripped from an episode of Outer Limits. That's the pristine virgin we can't sully with prequels by Darwyn Cooke? Save me the robe tearing, oh ye Pharisees.

The truth of the matter is that this is a corporate entity with a commercial product, and the only real question is why it hasn't been exploited prior to this. Or rather, that's the obvious and wrong-headed question.

The real question is: Why can't we seem to break out of this unhealthy and overblown infatuation with nostalgia?

My problem with Watchmen 2 isn't the idea the idea that DC would dare to "piss" on the Moore legacy. Urinate away! My problem is that they can't think of anything new to do. We've 52 "new" books out now, and not one of them with a fresh character or concept. It's all twists on crap we've seen before. And yes, some of the twists are entertaining. Fine. Where's the new?

Part of the responsibility rests with us, the knobs. We tend not to buy things we haven't seen a billion times before. I think the larger share of responsibility rests with cowardly and greedy publishers, who are loathe to take a risk, and even more loathe to cough up a couple of extra pennies paying royalties on new creations. Give Mark Millar a few points on his intellectual properties and see what he can do for you, will ya? But no, Disney/Marvel and Warner/DC want it all. So if you're a comic book writer or artist, what is your incentive to create the Next Big Thing? You have none.

Or at least, you have none at Marvel or DC. This is why you see a lot of juice and energy heading over to Image. This is why you have Morning Glories, Last of the Greats, Echoes, Green Wake, Chew, Butcher Baker, Non Player (sort of), Who Killed Jake Ellis?, Skullkickers, and Witch Doctor turning heads over at Image. Did I miss any? I bet missed more than a half dozen.

There is still inspiration over at the Big 2. Hickman's Fantastic Four and Simone's Secret Six are achievements in storytelling. But there is a disproportionate amount of creativity in the Image books, and I don't think you need an engineering degree to figure this shit out. They have a financial incentive to innovate, and the creative freedom to make it happen. Boom! Magic. I'm not suggesting that DC shelve whatever its doing in those "Panic Room" meetings and go with an Image style incentive program. It doesn't have to be all or nothing?

But why is it unthinkable to allow a creative team to share 10% of profits on new properties, at least for purposes of licensing and multi-platform options? I don't have a problem with comics companies going back to the well periodically to dust off an old favorite, but there is such a thing as the law of diminishing returns, and I'd say the sales data has been reflecting said law quite clearly.

If you want to go back to 1986, there is a diamond in that rough. And it isn't Watchmen. It's this:

Yeah, that piece of crap! No, the answer isn't to relaunch Spitfire. Leave all that shit alone. Learn from the mistakes of The New Universe - it was underfunded, undertalented, and rushed. Summon the testicles to keep the core tenet - let's try something we haven't seen yet. Because we're so creatively inbred right now we're starting to produce little other than Wrong Turn babies. I will not be purchasing or picketing Watchmen 2. I'm just waiting for something that isn't steeped in the past.

- Ryan

Market Spotlight!

2011-10-21T16:13:00.007-05:00

Thank you, FallCon!

I posted that picture of Fantastic Four # 45 not because of some Market Spotlighty kind of called shot (although like most key silver age books, it's certainly not a bad investment) but because I picked this up at FallCon last weekend, and I'm absolutely in love with it.

Comic Conventions, even ones in Minnesota, are still great places to find crazy good deals if you have discipline and a plan. I found this book in a dealers "Everything in this box 50% off!" box, and the comic itself is somewhere between Fine and Very Fine condition, leaning heavily toward Very Fine. Current Overstreet value? Somewhere between $100-$150, depending on what grade you actually decide the book is in. I bought it for $35, and couldn't be happier. It's a nice book, complete with that intoxicating "old comic book" smell.

What else did I get that I adore from that trip? I bought a copy of Batman # 244 in Fine condition for about market value, (I paid $26 for it) but to me that's still a steal. It's my favorite of the Neal Adams Batman covers - how are you ever going to go wrong with shirtless Batman? I also picked up a very well loved (I still put it at VG) copy of Detective Comics # 371. I don't know why, but I'm suddenly interested in Batgirl and Supergirl. I could not rationalize this if you gave me a week to think about it and a cash prize. Sometimes these things just happen.

So at the moment, my new pet project is to score a copy of Detective Comics # 359 (Batgirl's first appearance) in around VF condition for something approximating current market value. It's not as easy to do as you might think. Old books, particularly old DC books, are exceptionally tough to find in even Very Fine. And when somebody has a book like that, and they know they can't easily replace it, they charge a premium. Some would say I have a skewed view of market value, and that I should just pay up for it. Poppycock. What I'm seeing is a lot of "Buy It Nows" priced over the moon, waiting for a sucker. I'm not a sucker. I will find that book at a reasonable price, because I always win in the end. It just takes diligence and discipline.

So why Detective # 371? It's an early Batgirl cover, and what a delicious piece of Americana it is! "I've got a bigger problem, gents, a run in my tights!" Absolutely priceless. If you just love comics, you can buy fantastic issues like this dirt cheap in lower grades. I bought my copy of Detective 371 for $4. That's a bargain, for sure. There was a time when I would blanch at anything under VF and consider it roach. These days, I don't mind as long as I'm not paying up for it.

I've even turned the corner on writing on books. That used to be a deal breaker for me if the book was marked in any way. Now it almost seems to add character if it's not overpowering. Nah, these days my deal breakers are tears and books that are loose/detached at the staples. If the book has been folded in half and creased all to hell, my finer sensibilities are not affected. But if there's a 1/4" piece missing from the corner of the cover, or the comic is detached at the top staple, it no longer feels like a comic book to me. I'm not saying it's rational, I'm just saying that's how my brain works at the moment. Anywho.

What's drawn my attention this week?

Catwoman Vol 2: Crooked Little Town
ISBN:   1401200087
SRP:       $14.95
Amazon Min:     $30/$57

I've been watching this simmer for some time now, and I'm not 100% sure that I trust it yet, never having made a profitable sale on it to this point. But it's got a couple of things going for it, not the least of which are scripts by Ed Brubaker and pencils by Darwyn Cooke. This book is never going out of style!

The character also has a little heat on it what with the oh so scandalous Bat-sex going on with the new 52 and all. I don't think that's what is causing the book to pop, but it certainly isn't going to hurt it. I would advocate picking up a copy in NM or better shape, even at full retail. I'd be a little more leery of the gently used copies, and as always, watch for new editions to crush your profits instantly. I could definitely see DC going back to press on this at some point.

Wonder Woman: Warkiller
ISBN:    1401227791
SRP:       $14.99
Amazon Min:    $13/$30

This is what happens when absolutely everything goes into collected form. Nothing wrong with Gail Simone's Wonder Woman, and there will always be a niche audience for any work, including this one. But Wonder Woman was not exactly burning up the charts in floppy form, and needless to say the collection was not mega-ordered. Or ordered at all in most cases.

The result is that while Warkiller looks less enticing on paper, I trust this more than I trust Crooked Little Town. There are about twenty total copies of this available on Amazon, and the book is just over a year old. I can't see DC going back to press on this, because I can't imagine it was much of a moneymaker the first time. My guess is that this is a book relatively easy to sell at $50 by this time next year...if you can find it.

Sleeper: Batwoman Elegy HC
ISBN: 1401226922
SRP: $24.99
Amazon Min: $22/$25

This one's not quite ripe yet, but I can see the kaboom coming and I wouldn't wait. To be clear, we're talking about the deluxe hardcover edition, not the soft trade paperback.

It's sitting right at about retail these days, but the supply is drying up, and this has "major earner" stencilled on it in bold type. Has any artist been as highly regarded as JH Williams? Kirby for sure, maybe Neal Adams. I just can't imagine a world in which this book isn't easy to sell at $60 or more in the next six months.

Pick it up when you can find it sealed, while you can. I don't do called shots often, but I'm very comfortable with this pick.

Deeper Cheaper Sleeper: Green Lanten # 54

Green Lantern # 54 is widely available in dollar boxes across this nation. It's on my radar now because I think the concept of "women in refrigerators" is (for better or worse) deeply ingrained in the comic book psyche, and it all started here, and I don't think the world at large has caught on about how historically important this comic really is.

Women in refrigerators is a buzz phrase, and a movement with plenty of traction in today's comics landscape. The reason you hear as much whinging about the DCnU as you do is directly attributable to that concept, and it all started when poor Ron Marz thought he'd add some drama to GLs life having him stumble upon his girlfriend's corpse next to the milk.

Think about it - is this comic any less relevant than Iron Man # 128, "Demon in a Bottle"? The cover is surely more memorable, but in terms of its impact on comics, I think Green Lantern # 54 has it crushed. Is it worth picking up out of a dollar box? Yeah, I'd say so.

- Ryan

Chronic Review: Monocyte # 1!

2011-10-20T22:48:00.006-05:00

Monocyte # 1

IDW

Script: Kasra Ghanbari/menton3

Pencils: menton3

Monocyte is the best kind of abject failure; an ambitious one. It's a futuristic world more concerned with the psychological landscape than the physical, and both are desolate. You've got two camps of immortals - you've got your technologically created overlords called the Olignostics, and you've got your original and natural immortals called the Antedeluvians. Both groups are parasitic bastards living off the regular chattel, namely you and me. (Or would be you and me if we lived in the future)

Most of that back story is doled out in two text-heavy pages in the front 1/3 of the book. It's slightly more decipherable than the attempt at poetry that dominates the rest of the comic...but still mostly inscrutable. How does achieving absolute zero create immortality exactly? Well...you make a conduit, obviously. Duh. And feed people into it, I guess. I don't know. (and what's with the non sequitur medieval longbow lesson at the back?)


Mordare, circa 1993

Monocyte is the protagonist of the book. In a world of unnatural stagnation, he represents death, or change, and that's a good thing. The comic seems to suggest that he's the right hand man of the original antedeluvian, and probably the figure of Moses from the Old Testament. He's also incredibly similar to Mordare from the early 90s book Eudaemon. Similar to the point where one can't help but think the lawsuit should be just around the corner.

Here's the deal - Monocyte does have some real ideas. I actually think the antedeluvian back story is kind of fun. The idea that there are immortals shuffling about occasionally dispensing actual universal secrets to certain humans as a laugh is, well, a bit of a laugh.

Unfortunately, all of those ideas are well-coated in thick, rich, dollops of bullshit. Some of the bullshit does make some kind of sense if you can care enough to stare at it long enough. From page one: "Long has this melancholy endured, buoyancy forming thoughts ripened to whispers becoming vice, idleness made kindle." OK, fine. These old fucks have sat stagnant for so long in direct opposition to everything natural, that the system is wired to implode, just to have a fresh go at it. Sure, I guess I can see that. I don't think I'd ever write it that way, but it can be parsed.

But a lot of this nonsense is just that, nonsense. From page 17: "....Your time is drawn, now. Bleed the sting of fear again. Construct wears veil to persist. Tradition insists a fleeting prevail." Obviously personal tastes will vary on this, but in my opinion that dreck crosses the line from "stylistic choice" to "pure bullshit".

I'm not sure if I've brought this up on the blog yet or not, but I've always adored a tagline on the back of Bloody Kisses by Type O Negative. It declares in bold type "Don't Mistake Lack Of Talent For Genius". Ah, the wisdom of Pete Steele. You are missed, sir, you are missed. Monocyte is exactly the type of of work Steele had in mind for that blast, methinks.

When I read this book I get the same feeling as listening to a Peter Murphy album, where I imagine the author desperately grasping for something properly confusing to add the illusion of depth. "Surely if I can just arrange the proper mixture of letters found in the obscure parts of the dictionary, they will all finally love me." Sad, and ineffective.

The juice is in the revealing, not the obscuring. To write and write well is to show the audience something real. And you can show them something they've never known before, or perhaps even higher magic, you can show them something they always knew but didn't realize. But there's no real art in showing off, because it isn't genuine. Listen, I don't really know what's knocking around Kasra Ghanbari's skull. It certainly appears that there are some genuine insights in there somewhere, but they're so covered in shit it hardly seems worth the bother to clean them off.


Monocyte attack!

I would also lift a wary eyebrow at anything calling itself "menton3", which fairly drips with pretense. I'll say this - whatever a menton3 is, it certainly produces gorgeous (if drably colored) artwork. When it isn't borrowing from Nelson's Eudaemon, it's borrowing from Ben Templesmith, but it certainly does it with beauty and skill.

What I like about Monocyte is that it appears to have outreached its grasp, and that demonstrates balls. I like balls. At this stage of my reading career, I think I prefer an inspired but failed attempt over a competent success, because it feels like I've seen it all. If Monocyte fails, and I think it does, at least it shot for the moon. I just wish it had done so with more authenticity and less dog-and-pony show.

- Ryan

Chronic Reviews: The Rundown!

2011-10-14T14:18:00.003-05:00

My intention is to write a series of very brief reactions/criticisms to a bevy of stuff I've been reading lately, and by lately I mean the last 60 days or so. The only text I want to cover in a little bit more depth is the first one. So here goes...

A God Somewhere
I've been waiting to talk about this book for awhile now, because I keep waiting for it to settle into my brain at the "Eureka, I've got it!" level, and it's just never going to happen. I don't know exactly how to feel about A God Somewhere, I don't think I ever will, and that's part of its achievement.

The quick capsule gist is that a regular Joe gets superpowers when a mysterious phenomenon hits his house, and the travails that causes the people around him. That's the quick gist, but the text is really rather complex in its themes and philosophy. The theme of "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely" is in there for sure. It has something to say about religious zeal, and it isn't all positive, but neither is it ham handed. It's odd. A God Somewhere is about family, and letting yourself get caught up in how awesome you are, the value/danger of solving problems with violence, the ethics of power, and inexplicably, it's also about what it really means to be "black", I guess.

There is a message in the bottle, but I don't know that I have a lock on that, and I doubt that any two people will entirely agree on what said message is. A God Somewhere knows where superhero books have been before, knows you know where they've been, knowingly leads you down those very familiar paths...and then punches you directly in the face. Numerous times. You know you know where the story is going. But you don't. This is not a "comfort" book.

A God Somewhere is exactly what indie comics should be. The trouble with something like, Witchblade, as an example, is that it really isn't an alternative. It's the same superheroics you've been reading all your life, only with characters you care less about. I'm not suggesting that Witchblade is a bad comic. I've read and enjoyed large chunks of the Marz run. It's fine. What I'm saying is, (finally!) is that Marvel or DC would never, ever, EVER do A God Somewhere with one of its characters. It's too raw, and it's too challenging, and it has too much in the brass balls department. That's what indie comics should do - what Marvel dare not, lest it sully the sales figures on that Spider-Man toothpaste it wants to sell.

I haven't directly declared whether I like the book or not. I surely did. It's imperfect, but it might be genius. The story makes you turn the pages with intensity, then makes you wonder what the hell just happened to you when you're done. Not very many comics do that any more. I wish more comics had the audacity of A God Somewhere.

DCnU Stuff!
I read some of the new 52, and like everybody else, I have an opinion. Here's a very brief recounting of my experience tackling the soft reboot books:

Action Comics
My favorite of the new DC titles, and the best Superman story I've ever read. Without question the most daring and fresh of the new 52. I think the more vulnerable, human take on the character will make for the best Superman stories of my lifetime, and cause a lot of small minds to cringe.

Superman
Hard to believe the Perez Superman could have anything at all to do with Morrison's version, but I've given up on that. I found it uninspired, but also warm and comforting - it reminds me of a bygone era I adore, when it took more than three minutes to read a book.

Batman
What more can I say about Scott Snyder's work on Batman? It's a superlative blend of distinctive voices and characterizations, odd and surprising plot twists, and the atmosphere is always pitch perfect. What you thought a Batman book should feel like? That's what Snyder is doing.

Detective Comics
It certainly gets points for style and gusto. If Batman is a fine single malt Scotch, Detective is a shot of sour mash. It gets the job done, though, and I know plenty of people who prefer Jack to Glenlivet.

Batgirl
I like the fact that Gail took a risk with the character and played up Barbara Gordon's vulnerabilities and fears. Not enough to continue with the book, particularly since I find her roommate to be more grating than spunky. But to me, the new 52 was supposed to be about taking chances and trying things, and Batgirl does those things.

Swamp Thing
One of the great objections I hear is that the DCnU urinates upon that which came before it, and you can make a case for that. Swamp Thing, however, knows exactly where its been, apes it and advances it. Maybe I'm just in love with Scott Snyder, but this was a smart horror book that I look forward to.

Animal Man
Speaking of smart horror books that lovingly know from whence they came - it's Animal Man! Lemire's script was edgy, and this is a pure and classic Vertigo title without the label. I find Travel Foreman difficult to digest, but there's enough Lemire sugar in it to get it down.

Resurrection Man
It's Abnett & Lanning. You'll never be bored, and given enough time, it really seems like there's a deep "A" plot to dig into, and a lot of random "B" plot smashing and banging to keep you occupied in the interim. So far good, with a fair to middlin' chance at being terrific somewhere down the road.

Wonder Woman
It's not the horror book that Azarello threatened in a recent interview, but this is not your father's Wonder Woman! I don't know that I was in love with the first issue, but the visuals are striking enough and the mythological angle Azarello takes is so raw and novel that I appreciate it more as I digest it, and have decided to give it some time to develop

Grifter
Really disappointing. This might have been my most anticipated read of the lot, (weird but true) and one that really seemed to suffer under the Didio "ramp up the action" dictum. The concept is still intact, and the hook is actually very strong, (what if everyone thought you were crazy because you were the only one who could see the real threat?) but the execution needs to get more clear and more clever.

Stormwatch
This was a big fat mess, and I think largely dependent on two shaky foundations. 1) The idea that "big stuff" you can't possibly feel invested in is happening and 2) Martian Manhunter's "This is where I go to be a bad ass" line. I wasn't impressed with either.

Justice League Dark
I think I said something like "this is close to a perfect comic" on the show a couple weeks ago, and after reading it again....no. Not anywhere close to perfect. But pretty darned good, and worth it for at least two reasons. 1) Milligan doing Shade = magic. 2) This is a REALLY pretty book. I'm around for six issues at minimum to see if Milligan can make these characters live and breathe, instead of spout cryptic nonsense.

Green Lantern
It had a couple of "Aw, C'mon, man!" moments in it, but it was also energetic, fun, and set itself up to play Hal and Sinestro off each other in the most entertaining ways. It may not be reinventing the wheel, but I wouldn't miss that Odd Couple taking it to the Guardians for anything. Well played, Mr. Johns.

Fury of Firestorm
There's something of value in there somewhere, but it got lost for me in all the random, heavy-handed racial stuff. I despised both of the main characters, so even if the the plot hammer was sublime, (it isn't) I'm not sure I could tolerate this as is.

Suicide Squad
Perhaps I was predisposed to object to this as a "replacement" to the incomparable Secret Six, but I found the characters to be less than refined and less than entertaining. Skinny Waller doesn't bother me a lick, but this felt a little too "lowest common denominator". Having said that, the cliffhanger had me desperately interested in looking over someone's shoulder as they crack the second issue. Does that mean I actually liked it?

Thoughts on the reboot as a whole:

I consider it a success. I enjoyed many of the books, and didn't get caught up in feeling betrayed, although I can understand it. Carol Ferris pulls a complete about-face as a character in the GL reboot, and I don't think it was an improvement. But you know what? It's a do-over, and it was worth it. For me, at any rate.

What's funny to me is that I'm hearing shots fired from all angles. Some blister the books for not really doing anything new, (Batman just picked up where it left off!) while others blast the comics for destroying all that was once good and pure. The Old Guard supposedly hates the changes, while the new readers supposedly won't be able to keep up with what's not been left behind. Somewhere in all that rancor, nobody seems able to keep these books in stock!

If I were to be critical of the DCnU, I think the levelled charges of exploiting that which titillates is probably fair. They probably catered a bit too much to the adolescent erection. It doesn't offend me, and in fact I enjoy both sex and violence. But you can have too much of a good thing, and the pendulum is swinging pretty far. I also don't think think there was very much actual "new" in the DCnU, either. Lots of new paint on old toys. I think they can do better, be more innovative. When some of these first experiments hit the scrap heap, maybe we'll see some more creative projects.

Sure the reboot has some warts. But this is exciting, we are seeing new people, and this is proving two axioms I've been banging on for years:

1) People love comics. When they see them, they buy them. The hullaballoo is getting people to see the books, and they're buying them.
2) Winnowing works

DC went with about thirty fewer titles this month, and did equivalent or better sales. That's HUGE. And that's healthier for everybody.

I'm tired now, so I'm going to bed. I might pick this up later and do more baby reviews. Or maybe not. Good night!

- Ryan

Market Spotlight!

2011-10-13T22:07:00.001-05:00

It seems like about 12 seconds ago I posted the last Market Spotlight entry. Since then I'm made sales on Secret Six: Depths, and I've made multiple sales on Doom Patrol Vol 2 and Invisibles Vol 2. Sick of the Grant Morrison phenomenon yet? Too bad, because here comes another...

Invisibles Vol 4: Bloody Hell In America

ISBN: 1563894440

SRP: $12.95

Amazon Min: $30/$50

Now we're talkin', Gamers! Invisibles Vol 4 appears to have all the selling strength of Apocalipstick, but your entry cost is 33% lower. Now that sounds like an opportunity to me!

I've been banging this drum pretty hard lately, but I don't know why we'd stop at this point. The thesis is golden, and the results (for me, at least) have been brisk and predictable. As always, you need to exercise a little bit of restraint. Surely DC cannot possibly let this go much longer, right? These books will be going back to press sometime soon, at which time the profit faucet shuts off immediately. But in the now, I certainly advocate picking up copies of this tome for full retail price.

DC Graphic Novel Vol 1: Hunger Dogs

ISBN: N/A

SRP: $5.95

Amazon Min: $13/$30

I've never tracked the DC graphic novels before, but I saw this one pop for $37 on eBay (listed as 9.2 condition) and the interest instantly perked. This is Kirby Fourth World stuff, which means it will always have some emotional cache with the Old Guard, and that's a good thing.

Your entry cost is very low, it's difficult to imagine interest drying up. I mean, they could come out with a new edition of something, but does that seem likely to you? Even in garbage shape, getting your 3:1 margin doesn't seem too tough. I actually wouldn't mind paying up for a really nice copy on something like this. It was produced in 1985, which feels like it's fully inside the modern age, because it is. It's also more than 25 years old. Age conspires against condition, so if you find one that's particularly shiny, get yourself one of these.

Spider-Man: India

ISBN: 0785116400

SRP: $9.99

Amazon Min: $30/$40

Every once in awhile, I get to tell myself "I told you so". About three years ago I just had a feeling about this one. My rational thesis was that it was a Spider-Man book likely to be under-ordered, and eventually the completists would want this weird little collection and not be able to find it. That was the thesis, but not a particularly strong one. I just had one of those feelings.

Back then, I could have picked this up all day long in quantity for $2-$5. It was everywhere. Slashed prices at every convention I went to. Remember the Torpedo site? That was really nice when it was up and running. You could have bought stacks of that book for $5. Man, I wish I had done that!

I don't know if my theory proved correct, but I do know that it takes at least $30 to nab one of these on Amazon, $40 if you want it in nice shape. It should prove to be a nice little earner if you can find one at your LCS or a con, and really, that doesn't seem that unlikely. It's a really strong property, and the margins are perfect. They would have been really perfect at $5 a copy - doh!

Atomic Robo Vol 1: Atomic Robo & The Fightin' Scientist of Tesladyne

ISBN: 0980930200

SRP: $18.95

Amazon Min: $47+

I like this book, but you need to tread carefully. Not long ago I saw a similar feeding frenzy with Atomic Robo Vol 2, and then Red 5 went back to press with due haste. I got out with a tiny profit on my two copies, but just barely.

The good news is the Clevinger and company have built a very nice niche audience with the property. Atomic Robo is not a flash in the pan, they've really captured something mixing sci-fi and humor, plus the folks at Red 5 make a really pretty product. The bad news is that your entry cost on that pretty product is relatively steep, so there's more risk than I'm perfectly comfortable with at full retail.

I'll put a caveat on that, though. The picture on the right is the cover for the first edition. If you're looking long term, I wouldn't mind paying full retail for a copy of that, and I wouldn't mind holding on to it, either. Second or later editions I'm looking to pay 50% of retail and focused on flipping it quick.

- Ryan

Chronic Mailbag!

2011-10-12T17:45:00.003-05:00

Friend of the show Nick asks:

After reading FF # 8, I have to ask, in which order would you bang Black Bolt's five wives?

This is an important and excellent question, but a question which can only be answered in the hypothetical. Not because these are fictional characters, because in infinite time/space, somewhere out there fiction is reality. No, it must be answered in the hypothetical because a wise man does not tap the ass of any woman mixed up with a guy that can erase Europe by clearing his throat. Not worth it.

But answering in the spirit in which the question was asked, here's your list, from least desirable to the most poundable of Black Bolt's five wives:

#5: Kymelian First Chair Onomi Whitemane
There's a lot of problems here. First Chair means she plays some kind of musical instrument at a high level. Forget what you heard about band camp and the euphemistic allure of a woman with a flute in her mouth - when you're dealing with a first chair, you're dealing with a demure wallflower, not a bedroom wild cat.

Plus, too skinny. Somebody get a feed bag on that girl! Onomi needs some sugar cubes! Look, I'm an out of the box guy, but if I'm going to go for an animal chick, I'm shooting straight past the horse chick, I'm passing up the dolphin girl, and throwing a skirt on Rocket Raccoon and drilling for the win. The end.

#4: Badoon Queen Aladi Ko Eke
We're moving up the chain of hurts-so-good possibilities now. I like a woman to knock me around for a couple rounds before we get to the main event, and a Badoon dame is certainly up for that. I'm not opposed to Aladi, per se, but she's not that hot, and she's got more hair on her arms than Robin Williams.

So as much as I like the sport, I still want a woman, you know. Aladi Ko Eke is too much man for me. If I wanted a man, I'd go find Jensen Ackles or something.

#3: Centaurian Matriarch Oola Udonta
Now we're talking! Oola is a Centaurian, so she's also tough as adamantium nails and ready to destroy me, but she's also all woman. This is the best of all worlds, and I wouldn't mind wearing the bruises required to go a round or three with Ms. Udonta. The only downside here is that I'm just not into the fin thing (sorry, dolphins) and she has no hair. Speaking of hair...

# 2: Inhuman Queen Medusa
Yeah, baby! She's a hot piece of ace, but you still maintain the "outside of the species" forbidden pleasure thing. Plus, she's absolutely got the desperate housewife ready to explode on some lucky bastard vibe going. Black Bolt is not a doting husband, you know what I'm saying? She's ready to give it up, hard.

She could still put me in check, which is nice, she's got access to Terrigen mists, who knows what that shit actually does? Anything could happen. And I don't know what she's capable of doing with that prehensile hair, but I'm not above finding out.

Small downside is that the same baggage that is likely to make her a maelstrom of sexual frustration uncoiled is also likely to make her want to sit around afterward and yap about feelings and crap. Her husband literally doesn't talk. She smells like a need bomb waiting to go off. But strictly for the pop-pop-pop? Medusa's a winner. But she's not the winner.

# 1: Dire Wraith Goddess Avoe
Don't underestimate the power of a shape-changing Dirty Girl. Hey, I know that her arms look like 12 pounds of jello in a tiny little ziplock bag. But listen - she can look like anything you can imagine. The possibilities....are endless.

Plus, this is an out-of-the-box thinker who does black magic and worships a dark sun. There is nothing you can suggest that is going to have Avoe back on her vestigial heels, and nothing her morphing body can't pull off. You see a red demon...I see Kate Beckinsale daring me to the limits of each orifice in alphabetical order in the the name of science. Crown her!

- Ryan

Market Spotlight!

2011-10-06T19:26:00.000-05:00

What's caught my attention this week? Some really good stuff heating up, that's what...

Secret Six Vol 2: Depths
DC Comics
ISBN: 1401225995
SRP: $14.99
Amazon Min: $35+

We've already seen the rise of Secret Six: Six Degrees of Devastation, and now demand for the second volume of the ongoing is outstripping the supply. Secret Six is simply put one of the most entertaining narratives published in the last decade, and that's a good thing. Even though the title wasn't carried over into the DCnU, (Suicide Squad is the closest incarnation, but no Gail means no Secret Six in truth) I don't see this comic losing steam in terms of its legend.

What that means is that the only thing going to stop this runaway train would be going back to press. Which is always possible, and in fact likely at some point. Until then, look for prices on Depths to rise, and look for other volumes in the series to pop further down the road. I fully advocate paying full retail for Depths, for any reason. Buy a truckload and pass them out to your friends. Or turn a profit, up to you.

Invisibles Vol 2: Apocalipstick
DC Comics
ISBN: 1563897024
SRP: $19.99
Amazon Min: $32/$40

Did Grant Morrison take a dump in somebody's pillowcase at DC? First they let his Doom Patrol work slip out of print and into a mild feeding frenzy, and now I'm watching the second Invisibles volume creep well past cover price.

This has exactly the same catalyst and activity as the Painting That Ate Paris phenomenon; it's top notch, well regarded comics work from an industry legend. The Invisibles may not be a "hot" commodity at the moment, but it is fully vested with cult classic status, and as such should never be allowed to dry up as it has.

Your SRP makes it a little pricey at current levels, but I still like it (until DC comes to it senses and goes back to press) because of its strong following. I'll accept smaller margins if I think I can sell it. And I think I can sell this. A wise gamer will be keeping tabs on both Doom Patrol and the Invisibles as a whole, because other opportunities may be just around the corner.

The Goon: Rough Stuff
Albatross
ISBN:     Uknown
SRP:       $15.95
Amazon Min:   $40/$95

The Goon: Rough Stuff is another example of the Gamers wheelhouse scenario - quality material, well regarded, niche audience, low print run. Since Dark Horse has picked up the property, they have provided an ample supply of this material. You can get Rough Stuff on the cheap at will.

But there's only one first edition, and I can't imagine that Albatross produced a metric ton of these. Is this something likely to be sitting around at your LCS? Probably not. But if it is, it's certainly worth buying at full retail. It's absolutely something that might turn up at a local convention or a Half Price Books.

This is an example of "next level" thinking in the Trade Game. I would definitely pay up for a NM or better copy of this book, anticipating future demand as a bonafide scarce collectible.

Scott Snyder's Detective Comics Run
I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before, but it bears repeating since the phenomenon is getting stronger and extending to pretty much Snyder's whole run on Detective Comics. This is really good stuff, people are taking notice, and those back issues are very tricky to get hold of.

I'm seeing auction results like this one that are actually quite astonishing. Not just because somebody paid more than $25 for a couple of Snyder Batman issues, although that would be newsworthy by itself. Somebody paid more than $25 for a couple of Snyder Batman issues that were both described as having creases on the covers. That's kinda crazy.

Detective Comics # 871 & #873 (the "white background" month cover) are the most desirable at the moment, but don't sleep on 880-881, either. One features a joker cover, and the other closes out the original run of the series. Listen, more than 200,000 people just bought Batman # 1, and many of them are about to fall in love with Scott Snyder's work on Batman. When they realize the stories began with Detective # 871, some of them will be satisfied with a "Black Mirror" TPB, but many of them will start scrambling for the original floppies. There's already a legitimate lack of supply on those issues - what do you think they'll look like in six months?

Anything from Detective Comics 871-881 at cover price or less is an insta-buy.

- Ryan

Fashion Files: The Thomas of Podcasting!

2011-10-05T21:35:00.001-05:00

Now, this first shot is horrifying enough. We've got a St. Cloud State University shirt with a University of MN hat? No way.

I'm still trying to figure out the track pants. Is the Thomas of Podcasting trying to demonstrate his athletic superiority? Somewhere Ralph Lauren is crying, I know that.

But that's not the worst of it. Almost exactly one hour later, the Thomas of Podcasting enters the same retail establishment again...wearing an entirely different track suit????

What the hell happened in 60 minutes that necessitated a wardrobe change? It's like a Lady Gaga show, only with more femininity. Now we've got a Batman shirt and different gray track pants??? I just can't wrap my brain around it.

He also refuses to stop swinging his keys around like a raging key fairy. What's that all about?

So many questions. Is there a legitimate excuse for this crime against fashion? Tune into the latest episode of Chronic Insomnia to find out!

Top Three 80s Cartoon Themes Of All Time!

2011-10-04T23:48:00.003-05:00

What do you say we wash the horrible aftertaste of social commentary out of our brains with something important like...

The Top Three 1980s Cartoon Themes Of All Time!

The rules are pretty simple. The cartoon has to have aired original episodes between 1/1/1980 and 12/31/1989. We're talking about the theme song, mind you, and not factoring in the quality of the show. If we factored the show's content, obviously Jem would be the easy winner. Yeah, I can't even type that with a straight face.

For my purposes, I'm looking for an intro that vaguely captures the show in some way, but also encapsulates the decade that wrought it. It should be completely processed, cheesy, and soulless. There ought to be a lot of reverb on the vocals, and should probably remind one of Kenny Loggins. Despite its complete lack of musical nutrition, the proper 80s cartoon theme should have you mindlessly humming it throughout the day despite yourself.

With those parameters in mind, let's get started!

80s Cartoon Theme # 3: M.A.S.K

Masked crusaders, working overtime
fighting crime - FIGHTING CRIME!
Secret raiders, who will neutralize
Soon as they arrive (at the site)

Trakker's gonna lead the mission
And Spectrum's got such super vision
M-M-M-M.A.S.K.!
M.A.S.K.! is the mighty power that can save the day
M-M-M-M.A.S.K.!
M.A.S.K.! No one knows what lies behind their masquerades!
M-M-M-M.A.S.K.!
Always riding on V.E.N.O.M.'s trail
Come see their laser rays
Fire away!

This is a quintessential 80s theme song, threatening to take over the top spot with it's mechanized "m-m-m-M.A.S.K." buried in there about 35 times. It gets points for avoiding the lengthy voice over exposition that so many 80s tunes indulged in. We get everything we need to know from the developmentally challenged lyrics - you've got guys with masks and lasers fighting against V.E.N.O.M. They even incorporated a couple of main characters and told you the legally bare minimum about them.

It's a deceptively efficient musical vehicle, actually. While the synthesizer is acceptably over-processed, cheesy, and simple to the point where DEVO thinks they could add some depth to it, there is a distinct lack of 80s guitar here that drags it down to # 3.

Honestly, if they would have added a little axe to this tune, this could be the king of all 80s cartoon themes. The show is absolute rubbish. (It was a horribly derivative amalgam of the already wildly popular GI Joe and Transformers) I defy you to get this out of your head after a single spin, though. You can't do it. Also, I'm not 100% sure about the lyrics. At the end, it almost sounds like the words are "no one knows what lies behind their M.A.S.K. charades", which would be even more asinine and probably make me feel more fondly yet. If anyone has an opinion on what the lyrics actually are, feel free to chime in on the comments section.

80s Cartoon Theme # 2: Galaxy Rangers!

Voice over:
In 2086, two peaceful aliens
journey to earth seeking our help

In return they gave us the plans
for our first hyper drive,
allowing mankind to open
the doors to the stars

We have assembled a team
of unique individuals
to protect earth and its allies -

Courageous individuals committed
to the highest ideals of justice
and dedicated to preserving law
and order across the new frontier!

These are the adventures of the Galaxy Rangers!

Song
Somewhere in the future, far away from here
Trouble is waiting on the last frontier

Into these worlds of unknown danger they ride
They're the Galaxy Rangers - heroes in the sky!

No guts no glory, no pain no gain
Once for all, and all for one, riders on the range

No guts no glory, we're taking a stand
Ready to prove it again

No guts no glory!

Holy Chockatolleez, that is one badass 80s tune! It's got all the cliched trappings of the Reagan Era; guts, glory, taking stands, proving that shit to whatever crosses your spurs - it's perfect!

Almost. Almost perfect. The actual cartoon intro is a little too voice over heavy, and they chop the actual complete theme into something less than savory when you watch the shows. The outro is actually better than the intro, and just the theme song on its own is the absolute best. If you listen to the Galaxy Rangers theme, you are going to want to strap a cap pistol to your waist and go kick some Cobra Kai ass.

The song is catchy, and it features a good amount of classic 80s guitar, supplemented with a dash of highly processed synthesizer. The lyrics are dirt simple, convey the spirit of the show, and absolutely laden with the American monomyth spirit. This is a song that you could easily jam out to on the ol' Walkman, and in fact is so delicious it is only surpassed by the most perfect mixture of 80s gestalt ever created....

80s Cartoon Theme # 1: Jayce & The Wheeled Warriors!

Voice over:
Thundering across the stars
to save the universe from the Monster Minds,
Jayce searches for his father to unite
the magic root and lead his Lightning League to victory
over the changing form of Sawboss

Wheeled Warriors explode into battle!
Lightning strikes!

Song
There's a power that comes
from deep inside of you
'Cause every day you're reaching toward the light

And you know there's a long,
long way ahead of you
But when your wheels get you there
things will turn out right

Just keep em' turning, don't stop rolling,
the fire is on! (Wheeled Warriors!)
Battle drums burning - wheels movin'
Wheeled Warriors! (Wheeled Warriors!)
Cause we can just keep 'em turning, don't stop rolling,
the fire is on! (Wheeled Warriors!)
Battle drums burning - wheels movin'
Wheeled Warriors! (Wheeled Warriors!)

Oh MAN, this song could not be more awesomely 80s if it jammed a Rubik's cube up the ass of its pinned up pinstripe pants!

Wheeled Warriors has it all - it's got the 80s cartoon voice over, but it doesn't take up all the space, and it's really goddamn weird to boot. Nobody could cap that with "lightning strikes!" except a 1980s voice over guy. It sounds like the synthesizer and drums came from a Casio SK1, and the guitar is pure over-processed soulless garbage. Love it!

Your best 80s cartoon theme should sound like Whitesnake actually wrote it, but was too embarrassed to own up. Mission accomplished! It almost sounds like Coverdale wailing that chorus, doesn't it? Awesome. Once again, you've got that 1980s "can do" American spirit going, where there's some shining star inside your chest that will surely prevail against against any foe, provided you just keep your damn wheels rolling.

I can't imagine a song that better captures the bizarre, catchy, aggressive, we're-not-taking-ourselves-incredibly-seriously-because-our-big-bad-is-named-Sawboss 1980s. What you have to understand is that it isn't good music. There's nothing nutritional about it. This is the Twinkie of theme songs. And yet, you will not be able to stop this tune from penetrating your every thought for the next fortnight. You'll hate yourself for eating that Twinkie, but you can't deny it.

Jayce & The Wheeled Warriors: the GREATEST cartoon theme song of the 1980s!

- Ryan

Honorable mentions: Thundercats, Robotix, Inhumanoids, Defenders of the Earth

Can Someone Get Me Off This Planet, Please? Episode # 1,793: White Guilt

2011-10-03T01:16:00.000-05:00

So, I don't even know why I do this any more, but I'm looking at CBR and see that Comics Should Be Good decided to review all 52 of the new DC books. I decided to take a peek mostly because I'm leaning toward trying out Supergirl but I'd like a couple of outside opinions before I plunk down the money for it. Fine.

Greg Burgas reviews the books, and then at the bottom of each review, and I swear to you I'm not making this up, he fucking counts speaking parts for minority characters. As though that were something any healthy human would be interested in. As though that were something anybody wanted, needed. As though that were beneficial in any way.

Someday you'll atone, Greg

And just so you know, a couple of minorities get top billing, and the rest of us can go fuck ourselves, I guess. If you're black, or hispanic, or have a uterus, or you're known to be gay - than you ma'am, are a precious commodity. You get your own count. Now, I'm a white guy, so I'm tallied as well, but not for the same reasons. As usual, I'm the unspoken but well understood evil mastermind holding the rest of you back, which is why the counting is necessary, right?

I'm pretty used to that bullshit, by the way, so that's not really what has me upset. I just don't understand what the Burgas agenda is. Was it mandated that way from an editor? I guess he thinks somewhere out there Immanuel Kant is collecting karma tokens for him, and maybe this will help pay off some of the evil he was saddled with when he had the audacity to be born white. Who can say?

I don't know if he recognizes how pointless, counter-productive, and ridiculous it is to spotlight a couple of sects worthy of our current pity and attention, while the rest get prodded into the "other" cattle car. If you're Jewish? Fuck you, your pain don't rate. You're in the "other" box. American Indian? Nah, that's old news. The ol' Trail of Tears goes in the "other" crate, with the rest of the has-beens of Pity City.

SUPER.

How about fat people? Nope. Fuck you, too. We're hyper focused on race, sexuality, and gender at the moment, so if you'd just be a sweetie and park your fat ass in the "other" box for now? If you can fit, I mean. Thanks. Thanks so much. I doubt Burgas was even counting fat people when he did his charting. He must be a raging Body Typist, (insert horror here!) and I a very holy figure for mentioning it. Yes, that sounds right.

The whole thing is so ludicrous, and tired, and weak, and banal, and is it getting us anywhere? I think I could live with being The Real Bad Guy every day of my life if I thought it might make a difference.

Not Super - DCs rampant glassesism!

How about people with glasses? I don't remember too many of those in my new 52s. I guess Clark Kent does, but when he goes Super, he's glasses free. Shit.... I wear glasses. Does that mean that I'm not super? Is DC telling me that I'm not super in their super secret agenda of hate and intolerance? Am I under-represented as well? Could I... please be a victim, too, huh? HUH? Please? Please? PLEASE CAN I? I'd like to paint myself as a victim like everybody else, that sounds ever so healthy.

Let me get this straight. The operating philosophy is that we'd like to create a world which recognizes only the sublime ineffable special snowflake inside of us, and leave that extraneous and superfluous skin stuff behind. How shall we create that world? I know - lets hyper-obsess over the extraneous and superfluous skins stuff, and count speaking parts for a handful of Premier Gold Club minorities! That should work, right? I mean, we didn't completely subvert our entire philosophy by jamming attention into the exact area we claim to disavow, did we? Oh...we did? Ah. Shit.

You can't do that chart right, folks. In order to do it right, you have to shed your crocodile tears for all the minorities, and what will become painfully obvious in the process is that everybody is a fucking minority for some reason or another. Life sucks. Things are tough all over. You don't like it? Good! That's called....wait for it....being human. I'm human, too. I know that's hard to recognize over my vitriol and the fact that you've been trained from the cradle to hate me, and I've been trained from the cradle to hate myself.

It's not helping. White Guilt sounds awfully good until you get to the fine print where it doesn't work. DC isn't keeping you down, folks. Can we let that ridiculous fantasy go, please? In 2011, DC will give you whatever you will buy, in whatever flavor. That's the truth. Buy the books you like and stop making check marks and putting people into stupid boxes, will you? You're killing me over here. Yeesh.

- Ryan

Chronic Review: Rachel Rising # 2!

2011-09-30T21:33:00.001-05:00

Rachel Rising # 2

Abstract Studio

Script/Pencils: Terry Moore

(Basically) 18 pages for $3.99

Rachel Rising is the story of a girl who wakes up in the ground. She's pretty, she's pretty sure she's dead, she's pretty sure somebody made her that way on purpose, and she's pretty sure she wants to figure out who did the deed. It's a horror mystery, and as horror mysteries go, it seems to be a pretty darned good one.

This is all Terry Moore, of course, because everything is what he does. Robyn Moore (I'm assuming his wife?) is listed with a publisher credit, but the rest is Mr. Terry Moore, and you just don't see that much these days. Erik Larsen on Savage Dragon, yup. (If he's not doing everything, it's awfully close) Dave Sim, sure, but he's not monthly at this stage in his career, not that I'm suggesting he should be. You crank out the longest sustained narrative possibly in the history of fiction...you can work at your own pace without hearing any bitching from the Layla Miller of podcasting.

My point is that I can't help but hold a reserve of respect and admiration for Moore's work, because what he's doing is very rare and I have to assume arduous. That probably shouldn't play into how I perceive the narrative on the page, though. I shouldn't, but I think it does. I'm just announcing that fact as an attempt to play fair with the reader and announce my probable bias, and you can do with that what you will.

So we have poor dead Rachel, or do we? At least some folks can see her, and when they do, they claim she isn't Rachel. And we don't know for sure that she's dead, but she pretty much has to be. Rachel doesn't think she's dead, though. She doesn't behave much like a ghost, either. She can get inside her Aunt Johnny's car and physically grab him, for example. She's got scars around her neck. Nothing is exactly clear at this point, which is precisely as it should be in the second installment of a murder mystery, or you've failed at the mystery part.

Aunt Johnny is a bit of a nut, and in fact everyone in the comic is eccentric in some way. When Rachel first visits Johnny at the Underwood Mortuary, he presumes her to be a figment of his imagination, yet has a lengthy conversation without a blip. Over in the B plot there's a little girl named Zoe. I won't ruin how deep her eccentricity runs, but I will say you might be surprised how creepy a grade schooler can get with nothing sharper than a roll or plastic wrap.

Rachel Rising is quirky, character driven, surprising, and ominous. These are all good things to be. If I were to nitpick, I might critique the actual volume of content presented. The first page is mostly black, with a woodsy silhouette and an Edward Munch quote. The back page was essentially credits. In between 18 pages of black and white story. I think $3.99 is a lot to pay for 18 pages of narrative, but if you put it on the satisfaction scale, I wouldn't say I felt cheated.

Rachel Rising # 2 introduced the character of Aunt Johnny with some depth and craft. We know a lot about his world view, and how the relationship between he and Rachel works and has worked in the past. We know that he does embalming work, and from him we know several discomforting historical facts about where Rachel was buried. Every nugget of every panel feels like it has some portent to the bigger picture, and as I passed through the panels I found myself making a mental inventory of flash facts to fill in the blanks for later. It's a good comic that makes you do that, and an efficient one. Plenty happened in the "limited" space available.


Do not mess with Zoe. Trust me.

It's hard to tell right now what the B plot with Zoe has to do with the A plot, but it certainly provided a stunner toward the end! The danger in writing an extended mystery is to allow the reader to feel that things are dragging, that the "real action" is further down the road, and that time is being wasted with filler until the main course is served.

Not so in either of the first two issues of Rachel Rising. As I read this title, I don't get the sense that these issues are dangled empty carrots in front of a one trick pony. The pony appears capable of doing tricks every month. I'm trying right now to compare it to something, and I'm having difficulty. May, perhaps? I'm thinking of May because it's mostly about people, but there's an undercurrent of skin crawling involved. The comparison doesn't feel quite right, though, probably because none of the menace is emanating from Rachel herself. For now. Anything feels possible in this book, which is solidly horror without question, but not a strictly gruesome. Nothing is allowed to quite feel "safe" in this comic, if that makes any sense. And if that's your brand of chills, than you need to ask your retailer to order Rachel Rising, because unfortunately the odds are good they aren't doing it otherwise.

- Ryan

Market Spotlight!

2011-09-29T18:35:00.001-05:00

It's been too long, Cabin Weekend really derailed blogging and my prep for Chronic Insomnia # 205. Oh well, on with the show! Some items that have recently caught my attention:

Conan HC Vol 0: Born on the Battlefield
ISBN:     159307980X
SRP:        $24.95
Amazon min:    $45/$80

This is a really strong opportunity, because these Conan books fit a very predictable pattern, and there's a history of earners from this particular line of books. It's the usual story, where a niche but fervent audience seeks out the best and most desirable material. Hardcovers are nice but expensive, which works in a Gamers favor both ways. People want the material the most, but retailers are less apt to order it, because it entails more financial risk.

If you've got an exceptional copy, I don't think $75 is out of the question, which puts you in that very cozy 3:1 profit/entry ratio I'm always looking for. I really don't even mind 2:1 on this one, for a couple of reasons. First, I'm extra confident I can make a sale on this product. Secondly, I think the odds are good that even if I'm 2:1 now, I'll be better than that by Christmas.

Here's a little tip: come holiday season, your higher priced items pop with ease. It's often necessary to slash prices in summer, but when somebody absolutely has to have that deluxe signed Spawn slipcase for their husband, they will pay the going rate for fresh, quality product.

Just as an aside, your earners now for that Conan HC series are volume 0,1, and 4. Volume 4, Hall of the Dead is especially in demand right now. I think you can score $100 or more with that book currently.

JLA Titans: Technis Imperative
ISBN: 1563895633
SRP: $12.95
Amazon min: $15/$40

I haven't sold this book yet, so I'm not sure if I trust it yet. It certainly looks good on paper, though. It's certainly got age in its favor as a 1999 release. Many items from the mid-to-late 90s eventually crawl into some form of profitability.

As I type this, the money seems to be tucked into the high end of the condition spectrum, which is not unusual. If I saw this at my LCS in really nice shape, I'd feel comfortable paying cover. Hell, I'd feel comfortable paying cover for just about any TPB in great shape from 1999. They're hard to find, and increasingly preferred collectibles. I snap up any old collected edition if I see if its in pristine condition, because I'm pretty sure I'm going to retire on my CGC graded editions. More on that in a bit.

Doom Patrol Vol 4: Musclebound
ISBN:      1401209998
SRP:    $19.99
Amazon min:    $35/$40

So, we covered The Painting That Ate Paris a couple weeks ago, and that has certainly worked out. I bought a copy of Volume 2 a few days ago for $18, posted it for $50, and it sold inside of six hours. It's really quite odd that DC has let these modern classics go out of print, but I certainly advocate taking advantage of the situation for the (I'm guessing) brief window of opportunity available.

The thesis is pretty simple. Doom Patrol is a Grant Morrison favorite. It's probably never going to land on the Diamond Top 300 chart again, (unless somebody makes a movie?) but a steady stream of emerging Morrisonites are going to be interested. If they can't find the book at their LCS or Barnes & Noble, it's feeding frenzy time. And that's what we've got going right now.

Musclebound is currently sitting at around the $40 mark, which is only 2:1, but I think it's such an easy sell right now it's probably worth it. Again, check in periodically to see where supply is at on Amazon. If things really dry up, I can see something like this commanding $100 until DC finally wakes up and goes back to press.

My Retirement Fund
I've been experimenting with sending books to CGC for grading. When I started, I wasn't even sure that they'd accept them, and I was deathly afraid that they'd reject anything thicker than a four issue collection.

What I've discovered is that CGC readily accepts trade paperbacks, and the holders are able to deal with some fairly thick editions. I'm not crazy enough to send them anything as extreme as say, X-Men: Zero Tolerance, which is thick as a phone book. But I sent them Avengers: Under Siege, which is a bit of a monster, and they graded it without complaint.

I should honestly keep my mouth shut on the issue, because I'm giving away some pretty powerful milk for free, while simultaneously creating my own competition. The problem is that I am in the words of Malcolm Gladwell, a Maven. So I just can't help myself. I'm going to retire on the profits secured sending my high end trade paperbacks to CGC, and if you're smart, you can as well.

It's really a perfect storm of opportunity. When released, these books were not perceived as collectible, and as a consequence very little survives of any age that isn't dog-eared. Just sitting on a shelf is often hard work for these books. The perception of TPBs has shifted to the point where it's obvious to anybody paying attention that they are the preferred format of a strong and growing segment of the comics market, and they are just now beginning to ascend as collectibles.

Start cherry-picking now, folks. Anything old with sharp corners, a nice spine, and lays flat will work. It's better if it's a Batman book, and it's better if it's a first print/first edition. I'll say this about my grading results from CGC - they're very fair, and I'm a tougher grader than they are. I used to feel bad about posting my trades on Amazon as "new" unless they were pristine. What I recognize now is that I shouldn't have been selling those books, I should have been grading them.

I just sent my four best copies of Miracleman vol 1-4, and earned a pair of 9.6 grades, one 9.4, and one 9.2 for my copy of Olympus. Now, Miracleman is a pretty known commodity at this point. It's also well known in 2011 that the TPBs are even more scarce and collectible than the floppies, because the legal issues appear to have halted the printing press on more collections.

But if you look at the CGC census, you'll notice that Miracleman # 1, which is not particularly scarce, and not particularly valuable, has been graded no less than 460 times. The first collected edition, Dream of Flying, has been graded a grand total of 4 times. Friends, Romans, Gamers - we are WAY ahead of the curve on this one.

I've just received my copy of Dream of Flying back with a CGC 9.6 mark. I don't really know what that's "worth", because the market is in its infancy. I know this - if you offered me $1,000 for it, I wouldn't take the money. Mind you, I'm not claiming I could get more for it at present on the open market. Frankly, I think the open market is currently too stupid to know what it's looking at. I'm saying that I think it's worth far more than $1,000 in less than 10 years, and it's harder for me to find a high grade copy of that book than it is to keep the one I've got. But it can be done.

Keep looking for those shiny, perfect little trades. Get them graded. Nobody else is doing this right now, bless their hearts. Now is the time. Happy hunting!

- Ryan

Chronic Review: Swamp Thing # 1

2011-09-20T23:45:00.000-05:00

Swamp Thing # 1

DC Comics

Script: Scott Snyder

Pencils: Yanick Paquette

22 pages for $2.99

Let's open with the stock of the soup: the new Swamp Thing is more keenly interested in Alec Holland than it has been since "The Anatomy Lesson", and that's going back about 30 years. The man and the creature are separate, at least for now. There is a Swamp Thing, it isn't Alec Holland, (at least for now) and he claims he never was Swamp Thing. If we're going with the Alan Moore revamp, (and we certainly appear to be) that's all correct and expected.

In the New 52 edition, Alec Holland woke up six weeks ago cold and alone in a swamp six weeks ago. He's currently doing construction work, which is a curious choice for a botanist. These are tough times, though, and Holland appears eager to let his past go. Sort of. The past has a way of creeping up on you, and while Alec might prefer in some part of his brain to leave everything behind, he's got a bottle of his completed bio-restorative formula, and he's left with odd reverberations of an attraction to a white-haired woman he's never met. Plus, his Swamp Thing connection makes him important enough to earn a meeting with Superman. Membership to Club Weird has its perks.

Here's some things I loved about the new Swamp Thing:

Plants Are Dicks

It's the little things that count. Snyder has Holland describe the quietly violent nature of plants. They choke out other plants. The invade, they take over, and they pillage just as aggressively as any animal. They simply do it with a lot less noise, so it tends to go unnoticed.

These are the tiny gifts that Scott Snyder offers up in all of his work, and it pays off on two levels. Directly, as you read it, it makes the book more interesting. Does it work to strap cabbage to an arthritic knee? Hell if I know. But I bet it's at least plausible, and it's the kind of thing a botanist might think of that I would not. It's called world-building, and it's called establishing voice, and that gets me to the second benefit.

When a writer takes the time to do a little research and then applies it to the story in an organic fashion, it heightens the ability of the reader to fall in. Ultimately, comics ask a lot of its victims. We are required to take some astonishing leaps in order to invest in these wildly improbable situations and characters. What we need to get over that believability hump is to have faith that there is a conductor at the wheel, a skilled driver with an objective in mind and the goods to get you there. Neil Gaiman is the best I've ever seen at presenting the presence of a skilled conductor. Nick Spencer has some of that in him. Scott Snyder's even better than Spencer, though.

Plants are dicks. We know this because Alec Holland teaches it, in his thoughts and actions, and it's seeping through the tone of the book, which is in point of fact, quite dark.

This Is A Moore-Inspired Horror Book

Swamp Thing resides in the DCU proper now, but make no mistake - this is a Vertigo horror title. It's a horror book, and a worthy successor to what Alan Moore laid down before in terms of tone and sophistication, and style.

The comic opens with expository captions that cut to the tone of the action, not the plot. There's a malevolent wave of foreboding tension throughout, where Swamp Thing stands as a tiny buffer/conduit plugging a massive dyke of vegetative ass whup. Snyder even apes Moore's old technique of mirrored transitions. A red maelstrom inexplicably picks up a mastodon skeleton as the captions read "no good". A panel later, Alec Holland pitches a piece of timber while declaring it "no good."

Like Animal Man, Swamp Thing knows exactly where its legend was born. Back when Alan Moore was changing the way modern mainstream comics were written, Swamp Thing wore the crown "Sophisticated Suspense!" on its brow. That's what Snyder is aiming for with this title.

Yanick Paquette Makes Everything Beautiful

I generally don't comment on the art, because I don't feel qualified. So really all I can tell you is that I found everything between these covers to be....beautiful. Strikingly so. Even the ugly stuff is beautiful.

Some of the facial storytelling is eerily life-like. I don't know if Paquette is using photo reference or not, maybe his imagination is photo-reference quality. The people in these panels feel "real", for lack of a better word, with the exception of the Superman bits in the middle of the book. I do know that Paquette is knocking out these visuals on a Cintiq, though. How do I know that? Because like all self-respecting comic book aficionados, I listened to him explain his process on episode # 162 of Where Monsters Dwell. But I digress.

Swamp Thing is smart, creepy, and lavishly illustrated. The first issue made plants interesting, for God's sake. I want to know why animals are dropping dead in clumps, I want to know why supernatural forces are interested in mastodon skeletons and torturing scientist at the dig. I'm interested in the new relationship between Alec Holland, Swamp Thing, and where the heck Abby might be. How can I ask for more than that?

- Ryan

Chronic Review: Green Lantern # 1!

2011-09-20T17:53:00.000-05:00

Green Lantern # 1

DC Comics

Script: Geoff Johns

Pencils: Doug Mahnke

22 pages for $2.99

Where to start with these? I've got a lot of muddled thoughts about the New 52 books, almost all of them are positive, which causes me some consternation. Partly because I'm never comfortable being comfortable, and partly because it sometimes feels to me that I'm letting some things slide for DC that I'm not for Marvel. Perhaps it's best to just talk about the book at hand and then bring in the background noise as it seems warranted.

Truth is I loved Green Lantern #1, warts and all. I brought some baggage with me as a previous reader of the Old Green Lantern book, and some of it got in the way, but none of it was deal-breaking for me. Here's an example of what I'm talking about.

Carol Ferris Has Done An Abrupt About Face

During Blackest Night and the Green Lantern War that followed, I was really impressed with the way Johns was portraying Carol. Yes, she was in that ridiculously revealing Sapphire suit, but inside...she was evolving into quite the badass. When Hal would make whiny little overtures at her, she would tell him to take a cold shower. While everyone else was riddled with doubt and whinging about what to do about all these damn Black Lanterns and power battery entities, Carol Ferris took charge, took command of her corps, and generally positioned herself as the character most worthy of respect in the title. That was then.

This is now, and this is Carol Ferris claiming she hasn't slipped the ring on her finger since returning to earth, and doesn't plan to. And this is Carol Ferris getting over-emotional on dinner dates because Hal asked her for a co-sign on a car loan instead of her hand in marriage. That's not just different...that's a character arc diametrically opposed to her path just 30 days ago. It's probably a less interesting path, too. I liked Bad Ass Carol. A lot.

So what to do about it? I guess the question is: what is the social contract we signed off on? What did DC promise us, and have they fulfilled said promises? My understanding is that DCs offer was a new beginning with a limited offer on prior continuity. The base contract was: overhaul. We're starting a new ground floor, and letting everybody in. As a bone to the rather tweaky and inbred established audiences, they promised that certain old elements would remain in canon. In particular, Green Lantern was cited as a book that would maintain much of its continuity, including Blackest Night and such.

So if an established reader wants to feel betrayed by this overtly contradictory character portrayal, I honestly couldn't fight them on it. If it feels to you like the contract has been broken, you have a legitimate case. I like to read reviews over at the Savage Critics, and for most of the new DC books you can just feel the pain of Brian Hibbs peeling off the screen. "Waitaminute - you said you were keeping these stories intact! How the hell does this work?"

So I understand the sentiment, even if I don't share it. And I don't share it. I rationalize it like so - to me, the main thrust of the new contract between DC and its readership was a fresh start. They spun a story of kept continuity so as not set an already irascible pack of miscreants over the top with rage. I'm sure some elements of the old continuity are still in place, but frankly, I don't give a damn if they are or not.

The Difference Between Marvel and DC
Here's the critical difference between my perception of DCs continuity "gaffes" and Marvel's: intent. I think Geoff Johns pulled a switcheroo on Carol Ferris because this was the place to make a fresh break, it was a place intended to serve as an introduction to new readers, and I believe those changes were made to make a more compelling/traditional romance between Hal and Carol. Now, I may not be in love with that change, but maybe Johns is correct. Maybe it's more interesting for that new audience to see a Carol Ferris that still isn't a complete pushover, but it is obviously pining for the guy. It's more of a Moonlighting vibe than what we were getting before, which was a Carol Ferris who really didn't appear interested.

When I see DC making changes now, I interpret them as making a clean break in an attempt to reach new people, and I am all in on that. When I see Marvel send Wolverine to hell and none of the 13 other books he appears in each month seem to acknowledge that, I see it as a group of editorially lazy fucks who know they can get away with it. Perhaps I'm naive about all of this, but that's my perception. Rationally, I recognize that much of DCs promises regarding kept continuity were empty, counter-productive spin. But emotionally, I don't feel betrayed because idea was, duh, this is a New 52, and sometimes Carol Ferris is going to act in a blatantly contradictory manner so we can play a more traditional "will they/won't they" romance game. Here's what I'm looking for out of the New 52 books - are they interesting?

And Green Lantern surely is. Hal's been de-ringed by the Guardians for conduct unbecoming, (never mind that his conduct saved everyone's asses) and he's doing even worse back home. Ferris can't insure him so he's out of a job, the bills are piling up, and it's not easy to gear down to Coast City cruising speeds when you've been in space protecting sector 2814.

Hal simply doesn't fit in anywhere any more, as evidenced by Hal's very heroic dive from a 7th story window to save a damsel in distress. The damsel being a paid actress, of course. Hal didn't save anybody, he just cost a film crew their take. I think it's appropriate to look at a scene like that and say "Aw, C'MON, MAN!" There is suspension of disbelief, and then there's this. But you know what? It's incredibly unlikely, but it was also fun. The point was to demonstrate how Hal's Space Cop instincts just don't serve him well as a regular Joe. Mission accomplished.

While Hal Jordan is getting drummed out of the corps, Sinestro is being shoe-horned back in. He's essentially forced to recite the oath on a plank, and sent back to his home sector to regulate. What he finds is that his Yellow Lantern cronies have been subjugating his people, not providing order. This will simply not do.

So what we're left with is a new playing field where Hal is in pariah mode, and Sinestro is in similar straights, and the only people who can really relate is each other. And Sinestro's got a plan (of course he does) to put both of them back on top, if Hal will play ball. He almost certainly will, and because of that, I'm instantly excited about not just Green Lantern # 2, but probably the next six months. This is fun. This is what comics are supposed to be.

Notice that the juice doesn't lie in a banner across the top of the book, or a character death, or a ridiculous resurrection, or tying into other titles, or some manufactured eventy type villain. The juice, as always, lies inside the natural repercussions of story action. When you've got two enemies disgraced and marginalized by the same group of bureaucratic ass hats, sometimes they put aside their differences to fuck shit up together. Now that's a story.

- Ryan

Market Spotlight!

2011-09-16T23:14:00.001-05:00


You're not getting $22.50 for this

OK, let's see what money-making goodies are currently crossing my mind's eye. I think we'll start with:

What To Do With The New 52?

DC has certainly hit the beast with a cattle prod, haven't they? Titles are selling out, disappearing, and hitting the secondary market for some occasionally attractive numbers. And not just the big guns, either - I don't think it's out of bounds to say that the books carrying the most buzz right now are Animal Man and Batgirl, at least in terms of under-ordering and market activity.

We have to be a bit careful here, though. I don't recommend looking at the Bleeding Cool charts and backing up the truck for a metric ton of Animal Man books. That book did close at $22.50....once. It was an isolated moment of some poor bastard's madness, or perhaps a toddler got hold of the keyboard for a moment. I can't explain why that happened, but I know it isn't consistent. Can you reasonably expect to sell some of these books for $8-$10 at the moment? Yes, Virginia, you can.

But again, I would caution any kind of major exposure, because I'm not in love with the long term values on any of them. Is it conceivable that history will look fondly on something like Action Comics # 1? Certainly. But will we perceive it more fondly, than say, Grant's JLA # 1 from 1997? Is it a bigger deal than say, the John Byrne revamp from 1987? I think the answer to both questions is "no", and I can pick up perfect copies of JLA # 1 for less than $10, and I can score all the John Byrne Superman # 1s I want in mint condition for about a buck. There's too many copies available to achieve any kind of critical mass in my opinion.

Having said that...if you put a gun to my head and said "pick one investment opportunity out the bunch", I would instantly choose the Justice League # 1 digital combo pack. The print run on Justice League # 1 is going to be sitting pretty close to 300,000 copies before all is said and done. Estimated copies of the first print combo pack? 15,000. That's relatively scarce, and what's more than that, it represents the first ever example of "same day digital" from DC comics. That makes it scarce and historically significant, and that sounds like a reasonable investment opportunity to me. It's a no-brainer at the $4.99 suggested retail, and I honestly wouldn't be opposed to paying the current going rate of $15 for a copy.

Long story longer, if you want to try and find one of those Green Lantern error copies at your LCS and buy 1 for cover price, knock yourself out. But I wouldn't sink a ton of money into buying multiple copies of New 52 books, the risk/reward just isn't there. These are for reading, I think, and huzzah for that.

Elephantmen: War Toys - No Surrender
Image Comics
ISBN: 1582409803
SRP: $9.99

What a delicious little morsel this book is! It's got all the makings: a cult hit with a strong niche following, a fairly consistent shipping schedule on the monthly book to drive interest in the collections, and a dirt cheap entry point should you find one hanging about your local comic shop.

It takes $45-$50 to buy a copy of this book on Amazon in any condition right now. Even with no discounts, you're looking at a minimum of 4-5X on your investment, which is exceptionally nice. I haven't found one, so I can't vouch for how quickly to expect a turnaround. But Starking's work on Elephantmen is widely acclaimed, so I don't see the material going out of style, nor do I expect it to go back to press immediately. Perfect.

Ion Vol 2 - Dying Flame
DC Comics
ISBN: 1401215513
SRP: $14.99

There are actually quite a few books featuring Kyle Rayner that do very well in the secondary market. If I were to name the most underrated champions of the secondary trade market, I would give you Dick Grayson and Kyle Rayner. So it really didn't shock me to recently discover that the second volume of the Ion series was commanding close to $40 in used condition, and $50+ in new.

The place you want to be as a trade flipper is that 3X or better factor, and with the SRP at $15, we're sitting in a very comfortable spot with Dying Flame. I think this one is an insta-buy, because the track record here is very comforting.

Happy Hunting!

-Ryan

Chronic Insomnia # 203: Enik's Post Game Wrap Up!

2011-09-15T22:50:00.000-05:00

Greetings and salutations from the Land of the Lost. I am Enik, mutant sleestak genius, and having just shuffled the pylons to catch the latest Chronic Insomnia podcast, feel compelled to clarify a few trifling matters. Ryan Lee is quite correct in describing me as a lamentable figure - I spent a significant portion of my day observing my sleestak brethren bugger a shockingly large number of fruits and animals. He was quite incorrect in classifying me as fiction, however. To paraphrase Descarte - "I blog, therefore I am".

While my Earl Gray steeps, I shall annotate and elucidate upon the Peter North Corneas episode:

Peter North
Ryan claims to have the "Peter North of corneas". Born one Alden Brown, and Canadian at that. He's a legend in the porn industry, or at least so I'm told. I have no experience with such tripe and filth, and have certainly not dialled up Mr. North's scene in "Dickochet" with the pylons three hundred and eighty seven times. I know that for sure.

And I absolutely did not watch it with a sedated and semi-nude Holly Marshall, either. What do you think "acquitted" means, people? Appalling that you'd even bring it up, really.


Fuckin right, they do

Panda Poop
In what passes for credible journalism on the show, Mike and Ryan also delved into the recent scientific breakthroughs discovered in panda feces. Turns out the bacterium found in panda scat is exceptionally adept at breaking down plants and wood fiber into basic sugars.

Contrary to the wrongheaded hosts of Chronic, this does not mean you should sprinkle it on your breakfast cereal. It means that it may prove to be a better biofuel alternative to ethanol, which the hosts would recognize if they weren't busy fantasizing about panda obsessions with Timothy Olyphant. Absolute rubbish. All panda test groups to date have shown that they clearly prefer Ian McShane.

Ben Wa
Not actually a person. Simply another case of Ryan talking directly out of his rectum. In fact it's well known that "Ben Wa Balls" were created by Richard Gere, who paid Booster Gold to plant them back in the 13th century so as to avoid suspicion about their true origins. True story.


Hot, for a human

Meg Coburn
Mira Sorvino was really hot in Replacement Killers, and she did play a white collar crook forging passports. Somebody alert the press, Chronic Insomnia got something right. Tastes vary, of course. I far prefer to watch an old episode of "V", or perhaps Species 3. Call it my reptile bias.

That whistling in the background would be my tea. I suppose I'll sit down with a cup and try to ignore my sleestak brothers performing their own experiments with bear poop. I wouldn't call what they're doing science, though. No. Not science at all.

Perhaps we'll meet again, friends from another world, when we discuss a future episode of the World's (and perhaps multiverse's) Most Absurd Comic Book Podcast.....

- Enik
Mutant Sleestak Genius, and keeper of pylons

Whatever happened to....?

2011-09-10T22:22:00.001-05:00

A couple of ponderings knocking around the ol' skull this afternoon. The first one was -

Whatever Happened To.......

........Nonplayer?

You remember Nonplayer, of course. Took the comic book industry by storm in April, or at least as much storm as moving 8,869 copies can produce. (Another estimated 5,956 on the second print) People were excited about it. And to be fair, the excitement was warranted. Nonplayer is a gorgeous looking book, the script was competent plus, and the whole thing had the stink of a runaway train about it.

Nonplayer bought Nate Simpson a Russ Manning award at the Eisners, and it also garnered the attention of Warner Bros, who bought the film rights to the project and handed it to Roy Lee and David Hayden.

And to be fair a second time, Simpson warned us all that it was going to take some time for the second issue to come out. Fine. But five months? Does it take five months to produce a 20 page comic book?

I don't know how long it takes to produce a comic of Nonplayer's caliber. I'm sure it takes a great deal of time and effort. According to Simpson himself on Nathan Edmondson's discussion board, it takes 12-13 hours of each hair-tearing, teeth-grinding, stomach-churning scramble of a day. I'm no mathologist, but if it's been five months, and he's working five days a week, that means that Nonplayer # 2 has absorbed about 1,250 man hours. And not only do we not have the book...we don't have the solicitation for the book. It almost seems like he would have better spent his time creating something less arduous, like a suspension bridge. More money in that, too, I'd wager.

I know I'm not supposed to care. I know that I'm supposed to ask myself if I want it done on time, or if want it done right, and should just feel lucky that I live in a world that might someday grace me with another issue of Nonplayer. I just don't do what I'm supposed to do, is all.

Because all I can think about is all the momentum lost, and how the industry could have used a nice runaway train these last six months, and all the revenue the retailers lost not having those issues to sell, and all the questions they had to answer about where that kick ass MMO comic book went.

I'm rational enough to recognize that Nate Simpson is his own man and responsible for his own interests, not mine. He certainly doesn't owe me anything, and I'm not so far gone that I imagine that he's "holding out on us" as some kind of punishment. I'm sure he's an upstanding cat doing the best he can and all that rot.

Here's the thing.

It's like...you're sitting around at a house party with your crew, and everything is going swimmingly, and suddenly somebody starts gushing about this guy that somebody else knows, and maybe he's on the football team or something, and everybody is now inexplicably excited about this dude.

And so you move the party over to that somebody's house, and your people are way too excited and tripping over themselves for this football cat that nobody even really knows, and there's some real energy in the room... but you're not even sure it's warranted, and sure as shit five minutes later the football guy has split to go to some cooler party you clearly aren't invited to, and now you've shot your entire evening drooling over the hint of some random dude's phantom popular aura and wondering what the fuck happened. And you feel like you've embarrassed yourself a little bit, and demeaned yourself.

You think to yourself - do we really lack self-esteem to the point where we instantly gush and melt for anybody coming down the pipe who feel's "bigger" than us? We gave this guy an Eisner, announced him the Second Coming after one issue and then he splits?

That's what the whole Nonplayer thing feels like to me. Which is, admittedly, sophomoric and reductive. But there we are. More importantly, can anybody point me in the general direction of Nonplayer # 2, because it's starting to feel like cryptozoology over there, and I'm wondering what these folks over at Warner Bros. think they're going to film.

I don't know. I hope that somewhere right now Nate Simpson is finishing up formatting Nonplayer # 6, and is about to start soliciting the rest of the series tomorrow. I hope he puts in the last touches to lettering tonight and just writes a response to this blog post that simply states "FACE!", and then it becomes a top ten selling title as it finishes monthly. I genuinely would like all of those things. But right now, that whole situation is just a bit perplexing.

Speaking of perplexing, whatever happened to....

.....Simon Oliver?

You remember Simon Oliver, don't you? He's written plenty, but I will always remember him as the guy who did The Exterminators. It was pure Vertigo, baby - dark, edgy, smart, gross, punchy, with odd characters doing unexpected things in a plot that was infinitely more complex than you'd think bug killing could possibly get. It was clever, it was well researched, and it kicked ass.

And then....nothing. Well, almost nothing. There was word that Showtime was buying the television option in 2008, but I've heard nothing since. And then a little digging showed me that Mr. Oliver did one of those much-ignored and oddly-sized Vertigo crime books with Jason LaTour called Noche Roja. (Guess what I bought today?)

Incidentally, it's worth the effort to demand your retailer order Loose Ends from 12 gauge. They won't order it if you don't demand it, either. If you like crime books at all, what Jason LaTour is putting on his Loose Ends pages is just stunning. Hard to explain unless you read it, but the whole thing feels....raw. And alive. But I digress.

My point is that I think somebody at DC needs to remember Simon Oliver's number and have him pitch something. That's way too big a talent to just let fall through the cracks, and it feels like DC is ready for some of that edgy, punchy, clever stuff right now.

- Ryan

Chronic Insomnia Post Game Wrap-Up!

2011-09-09T22:34:00.000-05:00


My favorite Superman story. Ever.

It was our second show back from vacation, I was sick, and there were about 3,000 things I'd like to change about last night's show, but there you go. Lots of twisted tongue action, (kinda like Luke with his sister in Empire) a host of factual errors, and frankly, too much anger.

I actually had two other "news" items tucked into my copious amount of notes, and I just couldn't do it. It was just going to be more bitching and vitriol, and I was sick of hearing my own rancor, which tells me that an outside audience should be about ready to vomit. I'm not sure I've ever done that before. When you get sick of hearing your own whining, I suppose that's nature's way of saying "shut the fuck up, now."

One thing I don't regret bitching about was the Comics Conspiracy boycott of Grant Morrison over the "GD" sound effect in Action Comics # 1. They've since back-tracked and apologized to Morrison, which is all well and good, but how does something like that happen in the first place?

How in the world are you in the business of selling comics and don't understand subtext enough to know that when a guy gets hit with a tank shell, he might just be grunting through his teeth? Why would Grant Morrison have to explain that to you? This would be the equivalent of a gas station owner boycotting Snickers bars because they keep giving him indigestion, and the President of Packaging/Distribution calling him up and explaining that "you have to take the wrapper off first, because if you eat the wrapper it makes your tummy hurt." It's that level of absurdity that has me with my thumb out again so my Space Brothers can come pick me up, because I'm clearly not meant to share space with that dude, am I?

It's bizarre, and it's something I would ordinarily try to dismiss as something endemic to said shop's proximity to the ol' Mason-Dixon line. But I read a strong piece today over at IFanboy by Josh Flanagan detailing similar outrages in decorum and good sense by other comics retailers, and these were all representing that bastion of culture, the north east. So I guess we're all a bit mad and backward, and that's negative, and not really what I wanted to talk about today.

I've said before and it bears repeating that the success or failure of the DCnU will not be declared until much further down the road. Whatever happens today with print runs and sell-outs, it means nothing if the hype is just hype and the same inbred batch of customers are buying 1/3 the volume six months from now. I would say the earliest we could even consider rationally judging the situation would be January. That's probably three months too soon, but I would harbor arguments, at least. Right now, we know next to nothing.

But I know this - if the "New 52" were to somehow against all odds create a critical mass and tip some buzz into an actual positive phenomenon...this is what it would like like.

It would like like massively upped orders, then sell-outs, then re-orders, then more sell-outs. It would sound like people talking about the comics in a spirited manner, whether good or bad, because that would mean the unthinkable - that comics actually mattered. It would mean that somewhere buried inside the dross of recycled old crap we're getting in this "New 52" are some fresh takes with a brass sets of genitalia.

And I think we're getting all of those.

You can't argue with the sell-outs, because nobody needs a second print unless the book is actually making it into a customer's hands, and other customers are actively asking for the product. I don't have an accurate buzzometer, but I've got my ear to the ground and my eyes on the blogosphere. People are talking about the new DC products, and they are excited about many of them. Some of these excited people weren't around last month. Feel that tingle in your nethers? That's new blood tingle. Been a while since you felt that one innit?

I can't claim that I'm in love with every aspect of DCs new line. I really, really, really, wish that Justice League and Action Comics were $2.99 books. If you're going to chase long-term growth at the expense of your short-term margins, go whole hog, I say. And I don't think that every comic coming out of the new epoch is an Eisner nominee, either, but how could anybody expect that? It's absurd.

What I was looking for were some comics with balls, where creators were free to run with some wild ideas, and I feel like we're getting them. Historically, Tony Daniel's scripts haven't blown my skirt up, but that Detective # 1 was not a rote effort. That thing had a set of balls. Action Comics # 1 is wonderful. Is it for everybody? Somehow I doubt it, but they'll have George Perez over on Superman for a different take. Action has aggressive, fresh balls on it.

The DCnU has people buying comics, talking about comics, and dare I say...anticipating comics. These books are "hot", they're drying up, there's a reason to rush to the store on Wednesday. What's going on with Batgirl??? Is it a Gail Simone thing? Is it a Barbara-Gordon-out-of-the-chair fascination thing? I don't know - but whatever it is, it's real.

I don't think we're near done with these little rushes, either. Wait til' something really under the radar catches hold. I'm looking at Nathan Edmondson on Grifter, or Josh Fialkov's I, Vampire to catch fire and really start some shit. Don't sleep on Fialkov, folks, he's for real. Go read Echoes and tell me he's not for real.

When we get something really obscure to catch, then it's going to get crazy. You get a couple of the "lesser" titles to bring some heat, and the perception is that anything from DC could be the "next big thing", and then you've got the equivalent of a gold rush. It's not identical, but the feeling I get from DC now is akin to that feeling we had for Valiant in 1992. It was the feeling that something pertinent was happening, that we were on the ground floor of something important. There's a warning there somewhere, I suppose.

Do I worry about too much of the hype settling on dollar figures instead of narrative attraction? Some of you will find this strange, but you're damn right I am. In that Flanagan piece, there's a comic shop asking $6 for brand new copies of Batgirl # 1. That is an institution that does not know its history. And don't these people know that if they really need it today they can get it for $3 all day long on ComiXology? I guess that's probably a secret well kept in a house that sells new books for double cover. Fuckers.

Yeah, the jury is still out, and this is not a perfect beast. How is Schrodinger's cat doing in that box right now? I don't know. We've got a few months left before that contraption's contents are known. But here's the thing. While it may not be possible to declare the DCnU a win yet, it would have been possible to declare it a loser this early if the initial reports were down and the water cooler effect were nil.

But that's not the case. If the DCnU were a miracle...this is what it would look like, sound like, feel like. My favorite Superman story I've ever read? That would be Action Comics # 1. The one that came out on Wednesday. Even an incredible bastard such as myself can find comfort in that, and some long needed hope for the future.

- Ryan

Market Spotlight!

2011-09-07T22:25:00.001-05:00


Totally an earner, eh.

Alpha Flight Classic Vol 1
Marvel Comics
SRP: $24.99
ISBN: 0785127461

This volume collects the first 8 issues of Alpha Flight, as written and pencilled by John Byrne. Really good stuff, actually. Sort of revolutionary at the time in that it was a team book which rarely if ever featured the entire team. Members were dispatched as skill sets dictated, or luck sometimes played a part. Sometimes Puck would just get into it with hospital staff. These things happened in the 80s.

The point is that Amazon min on this book is currently sitting at around $50, which makes it pretty attractive at full retail and full-on Aurora attractive for less. I like the long term prospects on this book. I just don't see Marvel going back to press on this book.

The Maxx, Volume 1
DC/Wildstorm
SRP: $17.95
ISBN: 1401201245

This one is a little weird. I can tell you that the first editions of The Maxx were produced by Image, (2 volumes worth, to be exact) but I can't tell you what those volumes are worth. Or are they folded into the Wildstorm prices? As much as I like to pretend I'm an expert on these matters, I just don't know.

I do know that as I type this prices on used copies of the Wildstorm edition run at $25+, and really nice copies cost you $50 or more. So if you find one in NM, you've got lots of room for profit at full retail.

I'm not surprised to see this spike. This property made it to MTV, for crying out loud, and Sam Keith has a distinctive style. I can see a niche crowd wanting these forever. My suspicion is that there is a premium on the original Image editions, or at least there should be. The good news is that since they're older, if you should find them at your local comic shop your entry point will be more, not less. No way to lose on this one, near as I can tell.

Authority Vol 6 - Fractured Worlds
DC/Wildstorm
SRP: $17.95
ISBN: 1401203000

Amazon min for this book is at $45. I've made plenty of money on Final Orbit, so I tend to trust this a little more than the average anomaly. Maybe the new Stormwatch book pumps more interest into these Authority books? Stranger things have happened. I certainly advocate paying full retail on Fractured Worlds.

Chronic Approved: Savage Dragon # 173!

2011-09-05T17:43:00.000-05:00

I got my DCB Service box on Friday, read most of them today. (Couldn't wait to dive into FF, that got read the instant I got home from work) What is it today, Labor Day? Is that why I'm not getting mail? Whatever actual day we're supposed to be celebrating, I hope yours is going better than mine.

I got sick. So I'm a bit off, I have zero patience, and it feels like my higher faculties are missing at the moment. I doubt I'll have anything of import or insight to share, which is just as well. Spacey angry posts can be good, too, I suppose.

I read a lot of pretty good comics today, the theme seemed to be a packet of well-intentioned but very much self aware books; Batman, Inc. # 8, Xombi # 6, and Butcher Baker The Righteous Maker # 6. Each is very aware of how clever they are, to be specific. And this can be a good thing, and I wouldn't suggest that any of these comics constituted bad storytelling.


The best book nobody read

I rather enjoyed Xombi # 6, matter of fact. That book has a signature energy, a kind of child-like exuberance rarely seen from well, anyone or any thing these days. Xombi # 6 featured a sisterhood of blood mummies with two hearts, cloaks made from spiders still crawling about their handiwork, and each carrying a moon blade with 28 different side effects. Depending on what phase the moon is in, a strike from one of those blades might remove memories of loved ones. That's what John Rozum brought to the table every issue of this woefully under appreciated series. Frazier Irving's art was always off the charts, too. I don't even understand art and I know what he's doing to special. We didn't order it, so we don't deserve it, I guess.

Batman, Inc. was interesting, but this one was probably the most "in your face" with how cutting edge it desperately wanted you to understand it was. Lots of virtual threats in cyber space, with Batman again showing how far out of the box he's become with his crusade against crime. And it is smart, to be sure. The art, quite odd and fascinating. For me, the package as a whole didn't land. We'll blame it on the bacteria raging through my system.


Like Playboy, read it for the articles

And once again, I enjoyed the back matter in Butcher Baker 300% more than I enjoyed the main contents. I did enjoy the fact that Casey is elevating the Jackie Gleason Sheriff's role into something closer to formidable, and pushing Butcher toward something more zen than cro magnun. But mostly it was a lot of experimental psychedelia, and a lot less fun than we've been having.

The back matter, of course, was worth the price of admission. And in this installment, mostly Casey describes his comic book reading rituals as a teenager. I wish I could have had 20 pages of that, frankly. Matter of fact, I think if Joe Casey were to attempt something along the lines of Morrison's Super Gods, I would pay $20 for that without a twitch. Just - bam! - give me that, right now.

The comic that struck me most today was Savage Dragon, though. It all started with a throw-away gag that Larsen planted in a newspaper Malcolm was reading:

Now that's funny to me, all day long. It's a nice example of a way in which comics work that most mediums do not. You could certainly do that in South Park, for sure. But South Park's entire game is centered around pushing boundaries and doing what established mores say one should not. I don't think it's commentary on marketing/advertising, or anything dull like that. I think Erik Larsen just thought that was funny, (he's correct) it's his book, (he's also correct about that) and so he just did it. You can still do stuff like that in comics. For a little while, any way.

I'm always a little back-and-forth on Dragon, I think because I'm not really the target audience. What I ultimately find appealing is this sort of weird paradox where things are wide open, free, and it doesn't take itself too seriously, and yet...it's very respectful to it's players. The book is crazy, but there's never any winking to the audience about how silly all of this is. We're meant to care about the characters and the events that shape their lives. Erik Larsen certainly does, and there's no Deadpoolian playing to the crowd to subvert the drama.

But make no mistake, the book is crazy. The "big bad" of this issue was a red-faced behemoth named "Mr. Glum", for god's sake. But then again, inside of that Larsen was playing with the negative side effects of fame and image, and the burden's of legacy. Of course the bulk of the action was spurred by Mr. Glum wanting to go on a kind of "date night" cheeseburger run in another dimension with his partner, who is pretty hot and really shouldn't want anything to do with a would-be-world-conqueror with a red stone face.

And it all would have gone off without a hitch, but Mr. Glum forgot to bring money, and couldn't remember what American dollars looked like well enough to pass off his illusion. So he dined and dashed, and Malcolm Dragon proceeded to dispense with culinary justice. Naturally, this will almost certainly cause Mr. Glum to try and take over the planet somewhere down the road. It's just...crazy. But it's a good kind of crazy, and it's the kind we don't see enough of in comics.

Larsen didn't write that story so he could sell a "Mr. Glum Attacks" crossover event six months from now. He obviously did it because he thought it might be interesting and develop the characters a bit before they got to punching each other in the face. And once again, Erik Larsen is right. It was fun, and it is interesting. And with the poop joke included, this month's issue of Savage Dragon is absolutely certified as "Chronic Approved".

- Ryan

Market Spotlight: Battlefields!

2011-09-02T13:38:00.002-05:00

Let's take a look at a few items that have grabbed my attention this week starting with...

Complete Battlefields Vol 1 HC
Dynamite/SRP $29.99
ISBN: 160690079x

This is where Garth Ennis' heart truly lies - with tales of soldiers and war. Battlefields operates as kind of an anthology of war stories, and they've been received fairly well. Stories included in this volume; Night Witches, Dear Billy, and Tankies.

As usual, the hardcover demands a premium because it's perceived as a superior product, and the higher price point tends to create lower orders/re-orders, and therefore less supply to soak up the niche demand.

Right now it takes about $75 to buy a copy of this book in any condition. I picked one up on Wednesday and flipped it for $70 within 24 hours. So demand is pretty strong, and should stay that way. Ennis is a brand name, and it seems unlikely to me that Dynamite would go back to press on this, but I've been wrong before.

She-Hulk Vol 2: Superhuman Law
Marvel/SRP $14.99
ISBN: 0785115706

I've actually been waiting for these to pop for some time, because Dan Slott's run on She-Hulk is regarded very warmly. These books are in a perfect little zone where a pocket of Slott fans are always going to be digging around for material, but not so many that I think Marvel will be rushing back to press on these trades. That is the sweet spot!

As I type this, She Hulk Vol 2 is trading for about $30 in nice shape, and around $20 for a well-loved copy. With a SRP of $15, it's pretty tough to make money on this book right now unless you find something near perfect, but I would be very comfortable grabbing those near perfect copies at full retail.

She-Hulk Vol 4: Laws of Attraction
Marvel/SRP $19.99
ISBN: 0785122184

Hey, look, She-Hulk. Laws of Attraction is in a similar boat, but the current demand is not quite as strong, and the investment is steeper, so it's slightly less attractive at the moment. Right now Amazon has min offers of $10 for used copies, and $25+ for newer material. Since your full retail entry is $20, that's not where you want to be.

So why mention it? I mention it because there are many methods of grabbing these books at below retail, like auctions or Half Price books. You may be able to squeeze some money out of these books now if you can scout out a good price.

More importantly, I've seen this kind of thing many, many times before, and I don't think we've hit the ceiling on these volumes. This smells like a Punisher Knights Vol 6 situation, where prices cycle a little bit, but never seem to dip below $30, and often climb to $50. If you wait to buy these She-Hulk books at the ceiling, I think the stuff at your LCS is likely to be gone.

I don't advocate this often, but I think it's a solid play to "overprice" a really nice copy at $40/$50 and let the market catch up to you. VF or worse, deal them for what you can, when you can.

Doom Patrol Vol 2: The Painting That Ate Paris
DC/SRP $ 19.99
ISBN: 1401203426

It's really a bit odd that this is spiking over cover price, because Grant Morrison is a very known commodity, and DC is usually quite good at keeping its "evergreen" series in print. And yet, right now on Amazon it takes $25-$30 to snag a copy, and none of the reliable sources I know of for this kind of material have anything in stock. Weird.

Obviously there isn't much room for profit this second if you're paying full retail, but I mention it because again, it's possible to score books for less than retail, and this bears close scrutiny. Eventually, DC will figure this out and go back to press for another edition. But in the interim, there may be a tiny window where this thing really goes crazy.

When you've got a strong property like this, (Morrison's Doom Patrol is a genre classic) people will pay whatever it takes to land a book when the bug hits. Pay attention to prices over the next month or two on Amazon. There may be a copy or two laying about your LCS right now. (Frankly, if they're serious about selling comics, there damn well ought to be) When this hits $50+, it's an insta-buy, and probably an insta-sell. Again, you have to be careful, though, because DC will bring in more supply at some point.

Happy Hunting!

- Ryan

DCnU: Preliminary Returns!

2011-08-31T14:36:00.003-05:00

I walked into Hot Comics in New Hope today with yearning anticipation in my heart, which is unusual for me. Usually it's just quiet rage. Now, I wasn't expecting Geoff Johns to hand me a slice of pizza or anything like that. This is flyover country, not Midtown Comics. I get that.

But maybe, just maybe, I thought I might find a small avalanche of people inside. Or old regulars, even. Hot Comics is the joint where Baby Mike used to participate in Wednesday Morning Breakfast Club, you know?

Instead what I found was Rasul, Mike, and one other customer. Rasul had the Thundercats playing on his laptop, and other than that it was quiet as a grave in there. There were plenty of copies of Justice League # 1 on the rack, sans poly-bag. I don't know if that means that DC ditched the poly-bag idea, or if Hot Comics just removed them. Either way, I think it was a fantastic idea to have that bright cover showing and not a sheaf of plastic.

Granted, this one tiny comic shop just outside the City That God Forgot is not an indicative microcosm of the larger world. But still, I couldn't help but feel the wind come out of Schrodinger's Cat this morning. I walked in there at 11:15am, they'd been open for an hour, this was not only Wednesday, it was goddamn NEW DCnU WEDNESDAY, {BOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!}and it was just business as usual. Or less. Probably less.

I asked Mike and Rasul if they'd seen any new faces in the shop looking for that JLA book. They saw one guy.. "And he didn't end up getting anything." Yikes.

Muy disapointante. I'm not going to comment on either the Justice League # 1 or the Flashpoint finale yet, because believe it or not, we will be discussing these when we record Chronic Insomnia # 201 tomorrow night. So. Stay tuned for that - should be available bright and early on Friday morning!

- Ryan

Market Spotlight: Modern Investing!

2011-08-28T17:21:00.000-05:00

I've been thinking a lot about investment strategies ever since I starting parsing the front portion of the latest Overstreet tome, as I do every time a new edition comes out. I think the big takeaway from recent history is that $30,000 sale on a CGC 9.6 copy of Green Lantern # 76. I think the takeaway is that investing did not die with the Silver Age.

There are a lot of people out there that have cast a sneering backwards glance at the Bronze Age and later material, and they're still doing it. There's a group of old blue bloods running around, and they laugh when they see somebody excited about their copy of Incredible Hulk # 181, and they just about throw up when they think about Iron Fist # 14. "Those comics aren't old, and they aren't scarce, and they don't have any real value", say the stodgy bastards.

Well, they're wrong. On several points. And I think that Green Lantern # 76, published in 1970 and solidly inside the Bronze era, has landed the point home for good. Let's take a step back, have a nice long breath, get the lymphic system going a little bit, and really think about things before we go hog wild and start backing up the truck on Youngblood # 1 again, though. Because there are some wrinkles with the GL # 76 that are worth considering.

Consider first that it's a genuinely scarce book to find in investment grade. Just as a comparison, let's look at the top grades for GL # 76 and Amazing Spider-Man # 76. Sort of random, and it's not really an apples-to-apples juxtaposition, given that Green Lantern # 76 is a "key" book, and ASM # 76 is not. But on the other hand, Amazing Spider-Man is eminently collectible, and those two comics were published within a year of each other. (ASM 76 in 9/69 and GL 76 in 4/70)

As I type this, here's the CGC census results for those books in top grades:

Amazing Spider-Man # 76 (278 total graded submissions)
9.8:    3
9.6:    24
9.4:    31

Green Lantern # 76 (688 total graded submissions)
9.8:   2
9.6:   10
9.4:   24

Couple of things to go over there. Firstly, it's difficult to say anything specific or concrete about the actual scarcity of any particular book based upon the CGC census. People grade books (and refuse to grade books) for many different reasons. We could imagine a world in which some of the folks that own super-high grades on GL 76 don't submit them because they're "purists", they don't believe in slabs, they believe comic books should be reading ready, or maybe they're afraid to let a third party potentially undergrade their particular little gem. Any or all of these might apply, and some of those objections might not apply to the ASM comic, which doesn't quite hold the historical clout that a seminal Denny O'Neil/Neal Adams collaboration does.

So we can't simply declare that there are fewer copies of GL # 76 in grade extant, but there's certainly evidence for that. CGC grading is not a new thing, the financial benefits are well documented, so there's a reward for doing it. I think most folks who have investment grade (call it 9.0 or better) copies of that comic have sent them in. Not all certainly, but most. I would guess that a greater percentage of high grade ASM # 76 are currently unslabbed, because there's less of a financial incentive. Having said that, I think the ASM books are in largely the same boat, it's just not identical.

So when we compare GL and ASM # 76, what we find is that only 1.7% of the submitted copies of Green Lantern # 76 achieved a grade higher than 9.4, while nearly 10% of the submitted copies of Amazing Spider-Man # 76 did. Again, it doesn't say anything gospel, but it appears significant. For one reason or another, it appears to be disgustingly difficult to find that GL book in really nice shape, about five times more difficult than it is to find an Amazing Spider-Man book from the same time frame.

So if you want to know why a relatively "modern" book can command a $30,000 price tag, that's why. Well, it's a large portion of it. As time rolls on, the Neal Adams legend continues to grow. Just ask him, he'll tell you all about it. That particular run of Green Lantern/Green Arrow also seems to collect affection as one of the prototype social conscience/social relevance titles. It's got a lot going for it.

And it's also forty years old, mind you. Can you believe it? And those impossibly new-fangled comic books from 1980? Those are now thirty years old. Does that sound "modern" to you? Those Valiant books are now twenty years old. It boggles the mind, it does.

The prevailing wisdom is that anything newer than 1969 is suspect, and anything newer than 1979 is fit only for the dollar bin. The operating theory is that after 1980, the direct market took over, and nobody was collecting except collectors. These kids weren't rolling up their comics, sticking them in their back pockets, and playing tackle football with them. Everything went straight to a bag and board, probably without reading them. And the 1990s? Forget about it. Every issue had a print run of three million and were placed into protected sleeves with gloved hands.


Not scarce

Prevailing wisdom has half a point. By the 1980s, comic books are a known collectible commodity, and there are more high grade copies available from 1983 than there are from say, 1963. I can think of some egregious examples of well-protected books, particularly Secret Wars # 8, the first appearance of the alien symbiote that would become Venom. As I type this there are literally thousands of those books available in CGC 9.6 or better. (2,513 to be exact, representing 61.2% of total submissions) That is not a scarce book in high grade, and you'll never see a 9.8 of that comic close at $30,000. I'll concede that.

But to simply throw away the entirety of the Copper or Modern ages as over-produced and over-protected garbage is to be extreme and wrong-headed. In terms of investing, I like the Golden and Silver age as much as anybody. As more and more material lands in collections and out of the marketplace, the prices do go up with demand. Provided, of course, that there remain a collecting base interested in the material.

As a side note, I would mention that the world is kinda scary at the moment. Every other country is coming at their leadership with torches and pitchforks, and it isn't just the regularly ornery middle east, either. Most of Europe is ready to burn itself to the ground, and if America thinks it can continue to print money like this without ramifications, well...history has a different story to tell. My point is that when a group of hungry people are breaking down your door with automatic weapons for your box of Fruit Roll-Ups because bread costs 9,000,000,000 a loaf, nobody is really that interested in your Walking Dead # 1. They are the goddamn walking dead. The market for little luxury collectibles goes south when the world falls apart.

But assuming that the world does indeed hold together, (let's go with that for the purposes of this article) the biggest gains are to be made in the newer eras. You can probably make money buying Berkeshire Hathaway stock right now. Probably. But you would have made a lot more buying it thirty years ago. The point is to be in on the ground floor, ahead of the curve. All investing is contrarian investing, frankly. Prevailing wisdom says that modern books are rubbish. Perfect. Sounds like an opportunity for a smarter jaguar to pounce. I'm that jaguar.

All of this has been a very long-winded way of getting to a quartet of "newer" comics that represent solid or better investment opportunities. It's certainly not an exhaustive list, but an attempt to show you a spectrum of what I'm thinking about, so you can apply that thinking to other stuff you know about that I probably don't. And I've skipped a lot of material that already has too much of their value baked in.

What do I mean by that? I think that Daredevil # 168 is a prime investment. It was published in 1982, so it's off most "serious" investors lists. That's a mistake. It also takes about $150 to get one in grade, even raw. Frank Miller is probably the name of the modern era, and I don't see that changing. It's a good investment, but not a cheap one.

How about Heavy Metal # 1? I think that's an outstanding sleeper of an opportunity. That magazine means nothing to the old guard, but for my generation it means robots with boobs, and Richard Corben, and Moebius, and hot alien chicks with boobs, and Luis Royo. That's a Bronze or Copper item, depending on who you ask. I think it has a LOT of room to grow, but it isn't strictly cheap. Heavy Metal # 1 in grade should run you at least $50. It's got some value already baked in.

So without further ado, here are some opportunities on modern books that you can probably purchase right now for the loose bills in your pocket:

Thor # 337
Marvel Comics (1983)

This is the first appearance of Beta Ray Bill, and the beginning of Walt Simonson's incredible run on Thor. Interest in this book has been picking up recently. I was grabbing NM copies of this comic for $2-3 about two years ago. It's more difficult to do that now, but still possible.

These days, you're more likely to pay something in the neighborhood of $10 for a high grade raw copy of this book, which is still quite ridiculous. In terms of historical significance, I think this book far outshines Iron Man # 128, and it's consistently available for 25% of the entry price.

The Walt Simonson run on Thor holds up extremely well, and it's one of the few old school Marvel properties that isn't dominated by "Stan and Jack" nostalgia. When most people think of classic Thor material, they're thinking of Simonson. That's a feat right there.

It's not strictly speaking scarce in high grade. CGC currently lists more than 200 copies in 9.8 condition, currently the most plentiful grade for the book. That's the closest thing there is to a downside, though. Be a little discriminating about condition, but if you can find one in 9.4 or better I'd pay the measly $10 all day for a bonafide legend that continues to increase in adoration.

Batman Adventures # 12
DC Comics (1993)

The Paul Dini/Yvel Guichet one-shot draws all the attention, but this is the first Harley Quinn appearance in comics, beating that Paul Dini book by a full six years. So why isn't this one the expensive one?

Perhaps because Batman Adventures is not set in the DCU "proper", but after all the many Crisises and Countdowns and 52s and reboolaunches, does that even matter any more? Harley began as a cartoon property, so an appearance in the Adventures book seems even more poetic, in my opinion.

Frankly, it's difficult to think of many new characters with any lasting impact. Deadpool, maybe? That makes for fewer "key" books in the modern age, and that means this comic is even more special. Like Thor # 337, I've seen interest pick up on this book recently, but also like Thor # 337, not nearly as much as it should.

This one is actually difficult to find, period, and extra difficult to find in higher grade. Contrary to that prevailing wisdom I keep downgrading, people were not buying Batman Adventures as investments and throwing them in mylar. This was a cartoon book aimed at kids, and treated disposably for the most part. When nice copies do show up, they typically command between $10-$15, which is an absolute bargain.

CGC currently lists 37 copies in 9.8 condition, which is more than 50% of all submissions. It's not GL # 76, right? But I'm telling you, this is not as easy to locate as you think, and most of the copies you will find land in VF town or worse. Be patient, wait for that NM copy, and pay less than $20 and you've got yourself a winner, Mr. J.

Megaton # 3
Megaton Comics (1986)

I don't know exactly why, but nobody at present seems willing to give The Savage Dragon its due. Erik Larsen is a founding and key member of Image, and he's produced nearly 200 issues of Dragon comics. It's good stuff. Larsen is important, Savage Dragon is important, and eventually history will look kindly on their contributions to the comics landscape.

I guess the proper response is to just thank the investment gods that nobody is paying attention right now, because it leaves Megaton # 3 wide open. Published in 1986, Megaton features several prototype Erik Larsen creations. (and some Rob Liefield ones, too) Dragon first appears in Megaton # 2, and that's not a bad investment, either. Sometimes first isn't best, though. Wolverine makes a cameo in Hulk # 180, and nobody seems particularly impressed by that. Gambit first appears in an X-Men annual, but the money flocks to Uncanny # 266. Same thing with Megaton # 3.

I don't know what the print run was like on Megaton in 1986, but it couldn't have been huge to begin with. Couple that with the fact that the indie crowd tends to disdain bags and boards and the fact that Dragon doesn't get national attention until the early 1990s and you have a situation where high grade copies are legitimately scarce.

As I type this, only 9 copies have been graded in CGC 9.8 about 20% of total submissions. These are not lying all over the place, but it is still possible to find copies. Usually in VF or less. I would expect to pay around $20 for a NM raw book, but I just bought one in VF for $6. That's just criminal! This book is WAY too historically significant to languish at those levels forever.

Hellblazer # 41
DC/Vertigo (1991)

Speaking of underdogs with not enough love to bask in, Hellblazer is at the top of the list. You can put the first issue on your investment list as well, but I think 41 has an even higher ceiling and currently cheaper to obtain.

This is the debut of one Garth Ennis on the book, (you may have heard of him) and the opening chapter of "Dangerous Habits", loosely inspiring the feature film starring Keanu Reeves. This is the comic that put Garth Ennis on the map, and for good reason - it's goddamn brilliant stuff.

Traditionally, "key" issues are centered around first appearances of creators and artists. I think as the market evolves, it will catch up with the way we read comics now, and that trend is more writer-centric. This may not be a # 1 issue or a first appearance, but it's probably the most important book in the run.

And let's remember now that Hellblazer is a grand old dame, not far from reaching 300 issues. She's the best survivor in the Vertigo brand. Books like Sandman and Y The Last Man may hold a little more cultural capital, but where are they now? Constantine just keeps chugging, and eventually it will catch up with people - this is one of the most important comics of the modern era.

As I type this, only 9 examples of this book have even been submitted to CGC, and we're still waiting for our first 9.8 grade. Now, that's a little crazy. It doesn't say anything definitive about the actual scarcity of the book in high grade. But ordinarily, if you're going to send something like a mid-run Hellblazer comic for grading, it's because you think it's going to score the high. So far, no dice.

Right now, we don't have a single NM/MT book available, and that smells like money to me. And it makes a certain degree of sense. People didn't buy Hellblazer books in 1991 because they thought they'd be valuable. Sandman, maybe. But not John Constantine. I'm not at all surprised that this book isn't readily available in super high grade. Take that, ya damn Silver Agers!

Hellblazer # 41 is picking up interest, as it should, but it is possible to find NM copies for less than $10, which is an absolute steal. If you find one in REALLY nice shape, I'd pay up a little for that if I had to.

- Ryan

DCnU Pregame Report!

2011-08-25T23:33:00.002-05:00

In less than a week, the Flashpoint finale will ship, along with a poly-bagged debut issue of the Geoff Johns/Jim Lee new JLA. Less than a week until "everything as we know it changes forever {BOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!} Except of course we know that's a lie. Or is it?


Schrodinger's Cat is pissed.

One of the fascinating aspects of the DCnU for me is the idea that Schrodinger's Cat is palpably in that box, perhaps stone dead, perhaps idly preening or more likely pissed about something it has no right to be. In a month or six we'll know the results, basically. And however things turn out, we will all (myself included) expound at length about how the outcome was obvious from the beginning.

But it isn't obvious. At least, it isn't obvious to me. Perhaps I've duped myself into some form of precious optimism as a coping mechanism? That doesn't sound like me, but even Ryan The Robot must admit to some form of sentimental attachment. There's a lot riding on this gambit, perhaps the future of the direct market. It's possible that my precognitive powers are dulled by the fact that I don't just want this to succeed, we all probably need this to succeed.

There is cause for grave concern. Ambushing an already over-jaded and over-taxed vestige of a consumer base with 52 new # 1 issues is, quite frankly, madness. For a concept supposedly dedicated to the "new" and the "fresh", there is not one truly new commodity being offered. Not one. Batwing is the closest, but even Batwing is just an elevation of a fairly recent invention. Analyze even casually, and you'd have to conclude that 99.7% of the "new" DCU is simply old cars with fresh paint and a new cup holder.

The new universe has the slight aroma of slapdashery about it. Obviously somebody put some thought into this thing, they put their titles into seven different brackets, right? Nah, I'm not convinced. I read Lois Lane & The Resistance. Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning are good writers, it wasn't terrible, but you can't con a con. That was a magician playing sleight of hand and distracting eyes to buy a few seconds of time to pull other shit together.

I read Booster Gold # 47. Second page, a bound Booster Gold monologues this:

A greater threat "that" Doomsy, huh? Listen, I'm not suggesting that a typo in a comic book is a rare and mystical creature. What I'm saying is, nothing about this reboolaunch displays confident body language or the sense that the conductor has both hands on the wheel. One gets the sense that everybody at the top of DC is sweating right now, praying to the Superhero Gods that somebody pulls something out of their ass. Fuck, even Grant Morrison is casually acknowledging the beast is probably dead. Grant "don't bore me with your substandard downbeat chakra" Goddamn Morrison. We've got to be fucked.

And yet.

And yet, it isn't over, goddammit, and isn't this how the game works? Always darkest before the dawn, and then Batman finds a way. Somehow, some way, against all reason and pain Batman finds a way. And here is DC offering a perhaps final window at a self-fulfilling prophecy. 52 new flags screaming "come with me, if you want to live!"

Dan Didio - not an idiot. There. I said it.

There is cause for great hope. Geoff Johns, Jim Lee, and dare I say Dan Didio are all sharp and capable people who care a great deal about the present and future of comics. It's a business, yes, but for these men it's more than that. These are not idiots. We're in good hands.

This would have been the perfect time for a group of bastards to ditch "hold the line at $2.99", and I'll give DC massive credit for this - they have not. All sound evidence points to the fact that DC has and will continue to lose money selling these comics at $2.99. There is a good case in the sales data for the idea that $2.99 decelerates attrition, but it has not added readership in any significant way, and it has not helped DC tip market share. When you see that $2.99 on a DC comic, I want you to recognize it for what it is - a foolish pledge from a lovestruck paramour declaring his eternal affection for you. Because in the monthly ledgers, it's a negative opportunity cost. There's no other reason for it to exist. Let me assure you, Marvel does not love you like that.

And how do we define success for the DCnU? I think the prime goal is to access lapsed and new readers. Initial orders on the new JLA book are being reported prematurely at more than 200,000 copies, which is wonderful, but most pundits are correctly concluding that the real proof will be in the 3rd or 4th issue's pudding. If the idea is to reach outside of our current parameters, the real success of the DCnU will be a JLA that hits 250,000 copies with issue # 4. Does that seem likely to you? Or even possible? We've got about 2,000 retail stores to work with, (4 less now that Atomic closed up shop) and to sell a quarter million books, each location needs to move 125 copies. It's hard to imagine.

Then again, it was hard to imagine a popular X-Men book in 1975, before a punk kid named Claremont took what nobody wanted and perfected soap operatics while nobody was looking. It was hard to imagine a popular Daredevil book in 1981 until they handed it to Frank Miller, the punk artist on the book Comic books have a history of taking desperation and spinning it into gold by handing the reins of the forgotten to young mad men ready to show the world that The Man had it wrong.

Edmondson's Grifter - I'm in.

Trouble is, it's hard to find that pool of young mad men (or women, for that matter) in DCs stables right now. It surely isn't Ron Marz or Scott Lobdell, is it? Maybe it's Nathan Edmondson or Joshua Fialkov. Are these the mad men we're looking for? Or was it never the youth, but the simple surrender to the creative rather than the conservative that makes the magic?

I'd like to think that Geoff Johns and company know the value of trusting their muses and turning these animals loose. Azarello is talking about making Wonder Woman into a horror book. Sounds like a comic with a brass uterus to me. A whole fleet of inspired, brazen, unfettered creative content really could change everything, and that's a fact.

I think I heard Schrodinger's cat shift in that box. But maybe I just hoped it.

- Ryan

Chronic Review: Kult # 1!

2011-08-20T21:41:00.001-05:00

Kult # 1 (of 4)

Dark Horse Comics

Script: Jeremy Barlow

Pencils: Iwan Nazif

20 pages for $3.50

Kult is not a new thing, it started out as a role playing game created by some mad Swedish bastard, Gunilla Jonsson. I remember being instantly attracted to the tagline - "Death Is Only The Beginning"....fuck n' a right, man!


Original Kult RPG

The Kult world is a dark, dark world in the nihilistic mold of an H.P. Lovecraft. In the Kult cosmology, people are at best an afterthought in the universe, and outside of that, a nuisance to be stomped out with impunity. There's no humanistic "special snowflake" thinking involved, nor any conventional religious optimism of things working out for the better in the end. For Kult, we live in a sham of world where God is dead, and everything else across the veil is pissed off and not terribly fond of us. This is my kind of narrative landscape, folks.

I mention this for a couple of reasons. Firstly, to give a sense of story ambiance, and secondly because a good chunk of the lucky few who might stumble upon Kult and discount it unfairly. I think a lot of readers will pick up on the fact that there's a malevolent sham of a world looking for a new savior and say "Hey! I've seen this before in The Invisibles and The Matrix! What a rip!" But actually Kult got there first, so I wouldn't penalize it for that. Just sayin'.


Now I've got a red pill, and a blue pill...

So, back to the book at hand. The original tagline for Millar's Nemesis was "What if Batman was a cunt?" The tagline for this Kult series should be - "What if Neo was a cunt?" The story is centered around Tomas Zenk, a potential replacement for the deceased almighty. Naturally there are lots of monstrous things looking to squelch that action, and an enlightened few that are looking for a way out of the endless cycle of pain and misery. As backdrops go, it's pretty epic.

I like the world, and I think if Dark Horse could have snagged Warren Ellis for the project, we might really have something special on our hands. As it stands in the hands of Jeremy Barlow, there's nothing broken about it, but nothing really pops on the page, either.

The gist of the story is that Tomas Zenk is your typical "in over his head" would be savior of the world. He's kind of a dick, and he's kind of a loser, and his job as a parole officer spins him toward an awakening to the larger Kult reality. There's plenty of evil Cthulhian monster action to be had, and a small group of rebels who ex machina onto the scene to help out, and eventually activate the Godhood inside the man.

I don't actually consider it a mistake to make Tomas Zenk unlikeable. The problem is that he's unexceptional. If you're going to make him a prick, do it with some aggression and panache. If he's going to be "The One", there ought to be something about him that draws interest, and there's nothing like that about Zenk. He's just kind of there, being a parole officer with child custody issues.

I'm probably being unfair to Kult because I read it directly after finishing the Secret Six finale, and ahhh... that's a tough act to follow. After you get done reading Gail Simone's characters spout off one Shakespearean gem after another, (Bane: "I'm bound for hell, I will not enter it as a comedy") it's difficult to be impacted by an extra dimensional force that pulls a Macauley Culkin face slap and says "No--You cannot halt the machine!" It just lays flat. I mean, it does get more clever than that. There was a bit from the same demon a few pages earlier about tasting ashes on tongues and such. A book like this really needs to sell the idea that its giving you dark poetry from an alien perspective to pay off, though. For me, there are kinks to work out yet.

So here's what I'll say about Kult. I'm not in love with any of the characters, but in spite of everything I've said so far, understand that I'm very much interested in the Kult world. I saw enough on the page here that I'm certainly going to continue with it. I don't know if Barlow is actually the guy for this, but then again, I don't know that he's not. I'm going to let the thing run its course a bit before I declare that he's not up to the task

I would say that if you're into painfully dark world views, or Lovecraft, or even just monster stories, Kult is certainly worth a test drive.

- Ryan


Yeah....what he said.

Marvel: That Guy

2011-08-19T01:04:00.002-05:00

Tanarus. Thank God we got that "clean jumping on point" for those movie folks!

I was trading emails this morning with friend of the Nick, he was asking me if X-Factor was being cancelled, and how upset we should be about it. There's been no announcement, of course, the cancellation buzz stems from the fact that there's no solicitation to look at for the next edition of Previews. Yet. Marvel are being funny about this latest batch, sending their solicits in an untimely and incomplete fashion.


Layla - you got me on my knees

I'll tell you like I told Nick, I don't think it's being cancelled, and even if it was, cancelled doesn't mean what it used to. Ultimate Spider-Man has been cancelled twice in the last three years. Seems to be humming along just fine, unless you consider it a problem that the property has had to renumber three times in the last hour or so and change main characters to try and stay afloat. Me? I'd consider that a problem.

Uncanny X-Men is getting cancelled - cancelled like a fox! Welcome to two new titles instead of one, yo! There's your cancelled, buddy.

Peter David did an X-Position with CBR about a week ago, and he was talking about post-Schism shake-em-ups happening after issue # 230. That doesn't sound like a dead book to me, although plans do change and work does get scrapped. That sounds like a book ready to get "cancelled" so that it can regroup and relaunch with yet another new # 1 issue. How original. (yawn)

How upset should we be? Hmmmm. I'm pretty good at getting upset. When it comes to Marvel, I've turned a bit of a corner and just can't be arsed any more. You get to a point where an entity is so brazenly smarmy and stupid for so long, you just start to recognize them as that guy. You can bitch about it, and I certainly have, but here's the thing - I used to bitch because I perceived the behavior as unnecessary, unjustified, avoidable, correctable. That's where the pain comes from, the idea that things could and should be better.

Folks, it's time to understand and accept the fact that Marvel Comics are run by a pack of retarded musk oxen with drinking problems, and that's just the end of it. We can't save it, we can't stop it, it's not going to get better while current management is in place, and so there's no sense in expending any more energy on it.

Marvel is that guy.

Marvel Comics

You know that guy. In the old days he'd be a used car salesman, now he's probably a trader at a hedge fund. His teeth are white, and he smiles a lot. He's wearing the latest style, he's not afraid to mention that fact, and also unafraid to let you know that he didn't get it on sale, either.

He'd jam a phone book up his grandmother's ass if he could get $20 for a service fee, then have his lawyer sue his grandma for defamation of character and make some more money on the back end when she squealed, if you know what I mean. If you asked him about it later, he'd lie with a sharp smile and tell you she asked him to do it, and that it actually cleared out some blockage for her.

You can talk to that guy, sometimes you can even profit from him a little. He might land you an interview or get you a job at the firm if you can choke down the false saccharine bullshit pouring out of his mouth long enough to establish a "relationship" with him. But you never want to talk to him, and you sure as shit aren't asking him out for drinks after work, because you feel like washing your hands after looking at him.

And next thing you know, you're out on your ass and fired and can't get a job anywhere in town, and you come to find out that that guy almost certainly fucked you behind your back for no discernible reason. You can't prove it, but everything that guy touches ultimately turns to shit that benefits only himself in the most meaningless and short term ways.

That's what Marvel Comics are.

Listen, it doesn't take a forensics degree to work this out any more, and their behavior has gone from painful, to the sublimely absurd, to so far past Cartoon Land I can't seriously analyze this shit any more.

I mean, Fear Itself # 7.1, # 7.2, and #7.3???? C'mon, man, do I have to break down how underhanded and childish that is? If it's part of the series, (which it obviously isn't, kay?) then you call it issues 8,9,10. If you got a focus group of third graders and asked them to come up with a way to make more money on Fear Itself, that's what you would get.

Double shipping on books isn't enough for them, so let's take some half-ass aftermath material and just pretend it's an extension of the real thing, and the real thing sucks, by the way. Just so you know. SUCKS. No balls, no soul, artificially inflated nonsense that is "changing everything", except until the next thing that's going to change everything next month. SUCKS.

And oh, wait, remember that new Thor title the world absolutely needed as a clean jumping on point for that imaginary horde of new fans streaming out the movie theaters? Yeah, not only does the Thor character in the comics already bear no real resemblance to the one portrayed by Hemsworth, but let's now remove him from the book after seven issues and replace him what....Tanarus? Yes, let's replace him with an obvious (and desperately lame) gimmick carrying a "hammer" that looks like the world's worst grappling hook. That really ought to solve all of our problems, yes?

Tanarus and insert him directly into some other asshole's asshole, because it isn't going in mine. And just so we're clear, you can keep the Worthy, The Unworthy, The Henpecked, The Fearless, The Cuckolded, The Battle Scarred, and The Forgiven, too. Don't need any of that bullshit. Because I'm tired of being a member of The Bamboozled, and I don't believe a fucking word that comes out your lying, over-hyped mouths any more. But I'm not going to get emotionally involved any more, because it doesn't pay.

Here's the deal, folks. I don't advocate or promote boycotting Marvel, you'll never see me with a picket sign. I'm not quitting them. If you tread carefully, there are still some spectacular creators that are occasionally allowed to do terrific work over there. Hickman's FF is wonderful. I will adore Peter David's X-Factor as long as they let me, and frankly, Layla Miller is my favorite character in all of comics. I don't know anybody who actually read Waid's Daredevil book that didn't fall completely in love.

There's no reason to deny yourself of Deadpool MAX, even though those stupid assholes just couldn't help but make it $3.99 and are also needlessly complicating the situation by throwing a new # 1 into our near future. What David Lapham and Kyle Baker are doing on that book is truly exceptional, and worthy of your attention. The creators are fine, and I will support any Marvel title that shines through the excrement. When the excrement covers the shine, then I move on.

You just have to understand that while the talent is undeniable, the management is aggressively malignant. This is a parody of a company. I understand this, and Lao Tzu taught me that this too shall pass. Someday. In the meantime, I'm going to go have a beer with DC....

- Ryan

Dreamhaven Trip!

2011-08-18T18:13:00.002-05:00


Secret of a forbidden face? Do an audio podcast.

I took a trip to Dreamhaven today with Metro Mike, and as usual it was an immersive experience. There are so many incredible treasures and little seen ephemera lurking in there, you just get lost in it. You can lose track of time in there very easily, and you can wander for two solid hours and feel that you haven't gotten past the first couple layers of archaeological goodness.

Metro Mike was looking to complete a run of Doc Savage collections, and they had just about all of them. (He still needs Vol. 14, and then he's caught up) Dreamhaven has a rather good pulp selection, surely the best of any comic shop in the area. They carry a ton of sci-fi and horror books, and if you're into the Universal Monters, you just found your honey hole. I think Remy would pass out if he walked into that joint.


This is hilarious to me

There's a couple of things that separate Dreamhaven in my mind. Number one is that you're going to see items you don't find anywhere else. They have a relationship with Neil Gaiman, so there's lots of signed material available. I spent a good chunk of time just flipping through a score of movie poster prints and vintage horror paperbacks. I was particularly smitten with the Invasion of the Saucer Men, complete with Saucer Man carting off some precious booty.

The second thing that always strikes me about Dreamhaven is that it's got you covered wherever you fall on the budget spectrum. Take the collectible paperbacks, as an example. They've got one in the case for $750, and I'm sure it's worth every penny. There are rare books available, and in condition. They've got every volume of ECs slipcase collections, and all ten boxed volumes of the Carl Barks Library in hardcover, for crying out loud. It's a serious haven for rare collectibles.

But the unticketed paperbacks were on sale for $1.00 per, and a good host of the ticketed items were yours for $5 or less. And yeah, if you wanted all of those Carl Barks HCs, it was going to run you $2,000. (spendy, but good luck finding those anywhere else on earth) But if you wanted cheap comics, there were plenty available for less than a dollar.

I was looking for Doctor Strange books, because I'm trying to put together a complete run of the 1974 series in 9.2 or better. I'm about 2/3 done, and Dreamhaven has two short boxes of miscellaneous bronze stuff priced to move. I didn't find any Doctor Strange in there, but I did find that those comics were now on sale for "buy one, get one free". So at that point I knew I wasn't escaping those boxes without taking some of them home with me.

I ended up grabbing a half dozen issues of Superman's Girlfriend, Lois Lane. Turek raised an eyebrow at that, then assumed that I bought them to flip. Truth is I probably could flip them for a tiny profit right now, since I paid about $3 a book and they were in Fine-Very Fine condition. Mostly I bought them because I adore how absurd they are.

It really does crack me up when I see certain folks getting upset about Superman and his pristine image. He renounces his American citizenship (did he ever really qualify?) for about five minutes (apparently his global focus is gone for the reboolaunch) and a small contingent of idiots lost their bloody minds.

See, I know better. The uninitiated equate Superman with truth, justice, and boy scout purity. What the uninitiated don't understand is that for large chunks of his history, Superman was a stone dick. He was a bully, an asshole, and would smugly advocate that you "slap a jap" during World War II. His mean streak was never more finely honed than in the Lois Lane comics.

After the Wertham hearings, comics decided to neuter their own balls off with the comics code, and it didn't allow for much of anything that was actually entertaining. The Lois Lane books were targeted for girls, I'm guessing, because they were all about the pitfalls of being in love with an asshole who just won't commit. There was no bigger asshole than Superman.


Lois Lane # 136

It wasn't just that he failed to cave in to Lois's wants and needs, he took great pleasure in exacting as much psychological pain as possible. Once in awhile he'd even pull a feint and say "Lois, meet me at the church at 8:00 o'clock sharp and I'll marry you." Then she'd roll up to the chapel just in time and Clark would seal her in the vehicle by welding the doors tight with his heat vision, then point and laugh at her ass. It's just delightfully absurd!

My favorite book that I picked up today was Lois Lane # 136, guest starring Wonder Woman. Superman announces out of the blue that he's been spending time with Diana lately, and they've decided to get hitched. Nothing in any of the books prior that would support that by the way, in 1974 there didn't need to be. No message boards to bitch about things, and the 1974 message boards wouldn't bitch about that any way, because they really didn't expect or give a shit about continuity. Any way, I'm getting off the story.

The point is that Superman decides to hand Lois the scoop on this story. Take this to the papers, honey, I'm leaving you for another woman! It's just delicious. But as disgusting as that is, he's not nearly done layering on the pain. He actually makes sure to point out to Lois that he's hooking up with Wonder Woman because he's quite sure that a life with her would bore the shit out of him. And he's doing it with a giant smile on his super face! Right, you wouldn't write that into your worst villain's mouth in 2011, much less the angelic and perfect Superman. But hey, man, it was the 70s, and we were just more awesome back then.

After Superman makes his big announcement and Lois loses about three pounds of water weight crying, she goes on a bounce-back date with daredevil Stacy Mason, douche bag extraordinaire. These are his actual moves:

Priceless. Stacy got his ass chucked out of the boat. You go, Lois! Of course the big breakup is all an elaborate ruse Clark cooked up to protect Lois from a released mental patient. See, Clark knew that the very deranged and obsessed Marcia Roche would come after whomever he was dating at the time. Rather than put Lois in the cross hairs, he decided to split up with her in the most humiliating and emotionally scarring manner possible. And not clue Lois in on the plan. And he made sure to make out with Wonder Woman as much as possible while enjoying his clever little hall pass. Oh, and by the way? No apology of an kind from the Kryptonian cock, it isn't even addressed. Ostensibly things will just go back to normal next month with no mention of this ever again. God bless you, Cary Bates!

So yeah, I got those Lois Lane books, and a Jimmy Olsen comic where Superman has to contend with a man with a "forbidden face". Like I wasn't going to buy that one. It was $3, are you kidding me? I also got some really nice Dead of Night comics from Marvel for $2 each, which is great.

It was great, but it was also a bit sad in there today, because for the first time it occurred to me that for Dreamhaven, like most everywhere else, comics are on the way out. The Marvel section of trades was down to a couple shelves of a single book case, and it was all old. In fact, there was very little evidence that they were carrying anything new for comics at all. The only thing that appeared to be current was the Vertigo section.

Yup, comics are on the way out at Dreamhaven, and that's a shame. Remember that comic shop I reviewed awhile back just down the road from the Comic College? Uh huh. Double Danger Comics is now some gift shop, Puff-N-Stuff collectibles or some other bullshit. Those cases are now lined with ridiculous plush monstrosities. I about puked before I left it. The Comic Book College? Still going, but maybe it's going. There's a giant "For Lease" sign hanging on it.

It's goddamn depressing, is what it is. I get it, but it's depressing. I would certainly not suggest that an establishment lose money just to prove something about how hard core they are. I'm sure Double Danger did the right thing fiscally, and Dreamhaven is doing the same. They cater to a diverse palate of tastes, I wish them the best, and I'd like to think they can make it work as a book and curiosity shop.

But yeah. As happy as I was to leave Dreamhaven today with a fantastic stack of comics, I was a little sad to wonder how much longer I'll have the honor of doing so.

- Ryan

Market Spotlight: You're Thor? I Can Barely Sit Down Edition!

2011-08-11T21:52:00.002-05:00

Mighty Thor Artist's Edition
IDW
ISBN: unknown at posting
SRP: $100.00

IDW is a strange and wonderful beast when it comes to releasing collected material. This book contains scans of Walt Simonson's original artwork from Mighty Thor # 337-340, and 360-363. These are Marvel books, in case that wasn't apparent. So how does IDW have the ability to publish these? I don't know. I suppose that these days the artist does own their original art, but under those parameters, what would stop a creator from self-publishing a "Marvel Essential" style book? Kinda weird.

And also kinda cool. I'll say this about IDW, they have a real knack for producing quality material and packaging it in a most attractive manner, and this book is no exception. I'll say this as well - they also have a knack for making sure that nobody has the ability to back order or purchase their attractive product after initial release.

Which is a long way around saying that I think this book has all the makings of a very solid earner. This isn't the first "Artist's Edition" of the series. There's a Dave Stevens collection or three somewhere out there. You can expect to pay $250 to obtain a copy of that book. Good luck finding anybody with one.

Incidentally, there is also a variant cover edition available, it was available exclusively at this year's San Diego Comic Con. That's a nice one to have as well. $100 is a steep price to pay, but it's a really nice product with a track record, and I don't see people losing interest in that Thor run of Simonson's.

One more incidentally. Somewhere down the line IDW also plan on producing a Will Eisner Spirit Artist's Edition. You'll probably want to pre-order that.

Thor Visionaries: Walt Simonson Vol 5
Marvel Comics
ISBN: 0785127372
SRP: $24.99

See, I told you Marvel owns this stuff. I've made quite a bit of money on Vol 2 and Vol 3 on this series, at least I did before they went back to press on new editions. Right now Amazon min on this book is sitting right around $45. It's tough to advocate paying full retail on a copy with the prices in that range.

Still, there is some wiggle room there, and if you can score something at Half Price or eBay dirt cheap I think this is a pretty easy sell. As mentioned earlier, there is strong interest in Simonson's Thor run. And there should be, because it's bad ass.


Complete Dick Tracy Volume 10

Complete Dick Tracy Vol 9/10
IDW
ISBN: 1600105327/1600105785
SRP: $39.99

Hey, look, IDW created a high quality series of books that nobody can get hold of. That's odd. These books are just a year or two old, mind you.

These are reprints of the old Dick Tracy comic strips. It's hard core niche stuff, which often makes for the best profit opportunities. I don't need the most popular thing in the world. I need something that a few people just have to have, and can't seem to find it.

Amazon min on Volume 9 is sitting around $130 as I type this, and Volume 10 has a min price of $165. It's appropriate to wonder if those prices are actually out in space or feasible. All I can tell you is that I had a copy of Volume 10 last week, posted it for $125 and it popped inside of 24 hours. So I feel pretty comfortable buying either book at full retail.

Detective Comics # 871
DC Comics
SRP: $3.99

Every time I open my mouth I'm extolling the virtues of Scott Snyder's run on Detective, and apparently I'm not the only person who has noticed how ridiculously good it is.

Prices are a little spotty right now, but this issue is consistently closing on eBay for $15-$20, and I don't think it's a fluke. My guess is that the floppy dips a bit (or a lot) when the material is available in collected form, because I think that market is being driven by people trying to read the issue, not invest.

It's an interesting window right now, though, and I do like the comic long term at $4 because I think history will look very kindly on Snyder's run, and print runs are relatively tiny in 2011.

- Ryan

Chronic Summit Meeting!

2011-08-10T18:04:00.001-05:00

Mike and I got together on Monday night for a Chronic Insomnia Summit Meeting. It was time to check in and see where our energy levels were at and how we felt about the show. We discussed the things we've been doing well, things that could be done better, things we might like to try in the future.

I can't speak for my podcast partner, but I think it went very well.

I will not get into specifics on changes to format and content, and we're not ready to set a target date for our inevitable return. I can tell you that after Monday's Summit, Chronic Insomnia will be coming back in a form that will be recognizable to those who have been listening. We've got some prep work to do, and some more self-indulgent lazing about to accomplish first. But it's coming. Soon. For better or for worse.

And in the meantime.....comics!

Detective Comics # 881
DC Comics
Script: Scott Snyder
Pencils: Francesco Francavilla

I've gone on record multiple times saying that I think it's a bit of a shame and a tactical error to reboot this franchise. But if you're going to go out...what a way to go out.

Scott Snyder's run on Detective Comics is the finest work done on the character since Dark Knight Returns. It hasn't been flawlessly executed, but the feel of it is so satisfying. Dick is his own man, Detective tells actual Detective stories, the plot lines are suitably dark and sophisticated, and the character work is superb.

James Gordon, Jr. is now one of the great Bat-Villains, and this issue clinched it. All of Snyder's main threads are sewn up by the end of the issue, emotionally and mechanically. The payoff is an absolute jackpot, because the double size issue gives the drama a chance to breathe. In the hands of a different writer, I think this issue would read a little clunky and little too expository. Because Snyder has such a chillingly good grasp on the sociopathic mind, though, you spend every panel gritting your teeth and hanging on every word.

So yeah, not only is this a very fitting end to the arc and this era of Detective, but it also plants the seeds for what should be some outstanding fruit further down the road. I'm not going to spoil it. I'm just going to tell you for the thousandth time - if you haven't been reading Scott Snyder's Detective...shame on you.

Spider-Island: Cloak & Dagger # 1 (of 3)
Marvel Comics
Script: Nick Spencer
Pencils: Emma Rios

There are so many things not to like about this. Let's see - it's yet another retread, for starters. It's getting kind of embarrassing at the House of Ideas, frankly. They don't have one success story in the last five years to point to, (and I'm being conservative and generous with that five year mark) yet they still keep trotting out these "golden oldies" and further dilute the power of an already spent tactic. Just off the top of my head: Moon Knight, Ghost Rider, Alpha Flight, and Heroes for Hire. Every book is somebody's favorite, but none of these are economically viable.

We don't actually need a Cloak & Dagger book, and if we did, now is probably the worst time in the world to test it out. We need to contract, pull back, tighten up, and put out the best of the best in this market, not throw another fish at the wall and see if it sticks.

Then there's the "Spider-Island" factor, or more appropriately, the lack of a Spider-Island factor. I'm not reading Amazing Spider-Man right now, (it's $3.99 and it's usually pencilled by Humberto Ramos, so that's a double no-go for me) but I don't have to be reading it to tell you that this Cloak & Dagger installment adds NOTHING to it. Absolutely nothing.

This comic mentions that Spider-Island is happening, and even spends a few pages mindlessly mixing it up with the victims. But that element is so muted, dull, and non-integral that Dagger literally stops fighting mid-swing to go to her community college class. You think I'm kidding. I'm not.

And this is the sort of thing that I really love about Nick Spencer, but I gotta tell you - if I bought this book specifically to get more on Spider Island? I'm PISSED.

Lots to loathe about this comic. And yet, I do have a soft spot in my heart for these characters, I am mildly interested in what Spencer is doing with them, and Osborn taught me to adore the pencils of Emma Rios. It looks like Spencer is interested in exploring Cloak & Dagger as a loving relationship, not a romantic one, and I think that's probably a good idea. I think it's infinitely more interesting to let those feelings stay subtle, tense and dramatic. ( a la the best of Moonlighting and Castle, as an example)

Spencer's take on the pair dynamic is to make them polar and dichotomous, which is obvious... but also makes sense. Dagger wants a sense of normalcy and the mundane, Cloak seems to yearn for excellence and the extraordinary. That's an odd couple theme that can work.

Spencer also seems able to address racial issues with a scalpel instead of the 4 pound maul everyone else is interested in wielding in 2011. When the Avengers come calling for assistance with the rioting Spider-Folks, Cloak wonders why they always feel the need to address Dagger. When he gets a real conversation, he gets it from Luke Cage. Now that felt real to me. That felt like a real thing, and I didn't feel preached at. Maybe it's just because I'm hopelessly white, and so is Nick Spencer. God help me, I'm actually curious to know what Hannibal Tabu's thoughts on this issue will be.

series

- Ryan