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Thursday, June 03, 2004
I Hate New Comics Thursdays
Because it means that instead of having two days a week where I'm either at work early or leaving late, I have one day where I'm not only there early but I have to leave late as well.
On the plus side, Diamond finally got our Demo re-orders to us, so I was able to make a mini-section on the rack for the first five issues. This required me to take IDW's Shield comics off the rack, which was no major loss as interest in that title seems to have dropped off dramatically after the first issue, despite the huge glowering face of Michael Chiklis staring at everyone on the wall above the comics. Or maybe because of the huge Chiklis face. Making a Demo section moved copies immediatly, being a big advertisement that yes, we have it in stock, after selling out of every single issue to have been released so far. With any luck, we'll need another re-order by next week.
Now if only we could get Diamond to stop this "Which DC book will we not ship this week" game they've been playing. This week it was Y The Last Man. Last week it was Cartoon Cartoons and the week before Wonder Woman. If they decide not to send us Identity Crisis next week I fully expect our Diamond rep to drive the emergency shipment up to the store himself, because this is getting old.
I also had the chance to see the new Chris Ware edited McSweeney's. I have strongly conflicted feelings about McSweeney's. On the one hand, I generally like most of the content of any given issue. On the other, I tend to find the whole enterprise itself just a tad pretentious. Add Chris Ware to the mix and I thoroughly confuse myself. I tend to not be a big Chris Ware fan on the whole. Visually it's interesting and occasionally it's amusing, but I find it more than a little self-important and repetitive. The fold-out cover on this issue, for example, is a better idea in concept than in execution. And everytime I see Ware complain about where bookstores shelve his work I can't help but think he should be glad that there's enough demand for his work for bookstores to even bother carrying it, especially given the space on shelves his books tend to take up. So, flipping through this issue I saw about a 50/50 split between good work and not very good work that people will say is good because it's in McSweeney's.
And finally, I looked at DC's list of forthcoming releases. First thing that stands out: DC actually bothers to publish a variety of material aimed different audiences. Unlike, say, their cheif competitor, who seems content to sell nothing but super-hero books to the same audience of aging fans they've been selling to for the last ten years. Anyway, Golden Age Sandman Archive Vol. 1 will get my money as this is one of the archives I've been wanting to see for some time, being, as it is, one of the few genuinely good Golden Age comics. I may also get the Superman: Man of Tomorrow archive, as I have much more interest in the Silver Age Superman than the Golden Age Supes. I suppose odds are still against a Lois Lane archive, though. More Sandman Mystery Theatre trades are good too, and I expect I'll have little to no trouble selling those, especially if they reprint the first trade. Adventures in the Rifle Brigade is a no-brainer, sales-wise, though I wonder what possessed them to collect Blood. Doing My Faith In Frankie at manga-size, at a low price-point is probably the smartest move I've seen from DC in awhile. "Feels like" manga and "looks like" manga on material that is actually good is a smart way to get the audience you're pursuing to look at your material. I'm not familiar with any of the Humanoids books they plan on publishing, save for the Milo Manara book. I never thought I'd see the day when DC would be publishing a Manara book. The 2000AD books may be a hard sell, as we have very few customers interested in 2000AD stuff in general. That DC seems to be putting out quite a few works by people currently or recently doing work for them may work in their favor. It couldn't hurt. And maybe now that Red Razors is coming out Mark Millar will shut the fuck up about this supposed embargo against his work at DC. Between that, Red Son, the Superman digests and the always in print Authority trades, I don't see any shortage of material with his name on it coming out from DC.