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Thursday, June 30, 2005
Yesterday Was Busy
I came to the horrible realization yesterday that I was buying all but two of the books published by DC this week, not counting the reprint of Omac Project #2. I'll leave you all to guess which ones I passed by.
I was also flipping through several titles and came across what is possibly the most pointless retcon ever in the pages of Green Lantern #2...the green parts of Hal's costume give off heat? The hell?
I also went into shameless commercial shill mode and made sure that most of the copies of Previews that we had out for sale had the Corpse Bride cover facing out.
Several people asked about the Nat Turner comic by Kyle Baker. It was supposed to be released this week, but I suspect this is another one of those situations where West Coast stores got the distribution shaft. I think the same thing happened to us with the second issue of Action Philosophers, which again, several people have been asking for and has yet to show its face. At least I know why the new Magnus, Robot Fighter book is late, it's been resolicited in the latest Previews.
Speaking of Nat...go get Licensable Bear #2 by Nat Gertler.
High Impact Comics and Diamond have managed to annoy me greatly. We usually put up the featured merchandise poster Diamond sends to comics retailers each month along with Previews, because it's a cheap way to draw people's attention to the higher priced items they may want to buy. This month's poster features the "woman spilling liquid and ice over her breasts" variant cover for Anime Crazy Manga. Because I already have a hard time convincing parents that not all manga are dirty sex comics...
There were, in fact, lots of interesting things in Previews outside of the Big Four listings. Treehouse of Horror #11 is solicited, featuring a story by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson, antother story by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan, and a third illustrated by John Severin, Angelo Torres, Mark Schultz and Al Williamson. That's two comics by the creators of the best horror comics of the 70s and a collaboration of several EC artists.
It's also apparently spooky manga month, with Del Rey soliciting Ghost Hunt and Sugar Sugar Rune, as well as a new volume of Wallflower, Viz releasing Death Note and Monster and Tokyopop dropping the Keith Giffen written I Luv Halloween. Digital Manga Publishing also drops more yaoi than you can shake a stick at, with second volumes of Antique Bakery and Yellow, as well as Alone in My King's Harem.
There's also a novelization of Yellowbeard by Graham Chapman in the books section...and speaking of the books section, a few months ago, Heart of America by Warren Ellis was solicited, and I don't remember seeing much discussion of that. Or any at all, really. Am I the only one who looks at the books section?
F. Paul Wilson to adapt his novel The Keep for comics. This is interesting news, as I don't think a novelist has ever written a comics adaptation of thier own work before, but I'm not terribly excited about this particular project. You see, I've read the novel, and I didn't like it very much. It has a brilliant, high-concept story. I mean, how can you really go wrong with Nazis vs. vampires, right? But it dissolves into a tedious and cliche-filled battle between Absolute Good and Absolute Evil, and that's the kind of thing that annoys me in horror novels. Vague concepts just aren't that scary. Absolutes just aren't that scary. Give me something creepily plausible and ambiguous and I'll be with you.
I'm not terribly fond of the Spider-Man character, but I was willing to give the new Peter David and Mark Wieringo title a shot. With those creators, and with a title like Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (which is an utterly brilliant title), I was expecting a lighter in tone look at Spider-Man, something which has been sorely lacking from the titles of late. It also looked like it might be a Spider-Man title that I could actually start selling to kids. But then they go and announce that the first three issues are part of a cross-over series, and what's more, David won't even be writing all three of those issues. So, there goes my interest in the title. And if it's crossing over with Spider-Man and Amazing Spider-Man, there goes my hopes that it'll be a book I can sell to kids without having hyper-sensitive parents getting annoyed at me.
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