News for the Week of May 7, 2008
Rick’s Writin’s
WEEEE DOGGIES!!! That was some Free Comic Book Day! Thanks to all of you
that made it out to our annual comic awareness event! I hope you enjoy
the goodies you picked up. Many of you took advantage of the sale and
we thank you for that too. Makes for a nice sales day, and in these times
(or any time actually), who can't use that! Some came in talking up the
new Iron Man movie, and the word from EVERY one is that it's pretty darn
good!! (also, heads up...stay through the credits.) I also heard a rumor
that Iron Man has a cameo in the new Hulk movie, but I don't know if that's
true. Guess we'll see. This is definitely shaping up to be a super-hero
summer movie wise. We have Iron Man, then Hulk, Batman and Hancock, Will
Smith's July 4th holiday movie which is supposed to be HUGE! I just saw
a preview and I'll be going. I read an interview of Will Smith and he
thinks Hancock will be his biggest movie by far, and given his excellent
box office history, that's saying something.
This is a big comic week, given that it's the first Wednesday of the month,
but it's a shame that many of these titles weren't on the shelves last
week so we'd have them to show the new customers that came in for yesterday's
Free Comic Day. It's probably just the way the dates fell, but I think
the publishers should have made an effort to load the shelves with the
good stuff for the newbies to see. Only DC with its DC Universe Zero had
a book to point new readers to. Previous years had big event books on
the shelves the week of FCBD. Anyhow, they're here this week. Marvel brings
out Secret Invasion #2 (of 8), with the Skrulls popping up everywhere.
They're popping up in Mighty Avengers (#13) too. Stephen King's Dark Tower:
Long Road Home (#3 of 5) is another biggie, but I think the most important
book from Marvel this week is the Avengers/Invaders (#1 of 12) issue maxi
series. The books will feature Alex Ross covers and are also co-written
by Ross. The Invaders, Marvels 1940's era heroes including Sub-Mariner,
Human Torch, Toro, Bucky and Captain America get transported into the
future and meet up with the present day Avengers. I'm guessing this is
the vehicle that Marvel will use to bring back Steve Rogers as Captain
America, by leaving the Invaders Cap in the present. It's totally a guess,
but it makes sense to me because then it's not a clone or some other lame
back from the dead story. You know eventually Steve Rogers will be back
as Cap, and by the time this maxi is over, the time will be right. Iron
Man, the movie star, has two new books debuting this week: the on-going
new Invincible Iron Man (#1) and Iron Man: Viva Las Vegas (#1 of 4) mini.
The preview art on Invincible Iron Man looks really nice, and it's written
by Matt Fraction, who seems to be writing many Marvel books lately. Viva
Las Vegas is written by Iron Man movie director Jon Favreau and is being
promoted showing the Iron one with many Las Vegas babes. Hope his suit
holds up.
Joss Whedon junkies get both Buffy (#14) and Angel (#7) this week. I think
that's the first time that's happened. I hope you all will be able to
handle the excitement. DC isn't quiet this week either. Two interesting
series start, the first being Rann/Thanagar Holy War (#1 of 8), with Adam
Strange, Hawkman, Starfire, Starman and many other DC space oriented folks.
The other is the book I'm most looking forward to, and that's the War
That Time Forgot (#1 of 12) maxi. This one mixes DC's historic war characters
including Enemy Ace, Tomahawk, and Firehair with dinosaurs on an island.
It's a new take on a Silver Age classic, and I'd bet that DC is using
many characters they haven't used for a bit in order to protect their
copyright interests. Still, soldiers versus dinosaurs, gotta like that.
The new Vertigo title this week also has Silver Age roots. House of Mystery
(#1) started in the 1950's, and it's being re-launched as a mature readers
Vertigo line on-going series. It's written by the Fables gang: Bill Willingham
and Matthew Sturges, with art by Luca Rossi. There's a variant cover by
1970's horror great Bernie Wrightson too. Last items are Sci-Fi ones,
Star Wars: Legacy #23, the most popular of the Star Wars titles, and for
you Serenity buffs, a re-order on the new printing hard cover Serenity
book, and the Dark Horse Reavers ship ornament/statue finally arrives
after much delay. I'll have me one of those, please.
I was going to pitch a fit about how pathetic the Mariners have been lately,
but I'm in a pretty good mood and writing that'll just get me mad, so
I'm not going to. I'd just like to comment on how stupid I think it was
to designate for assignment Greg Norton, the only reserve guy that was
hitting decently, and the only REAL back-up/replacement for Sexson at
first, and keep useless, never needed him in the first place, Miguel Cairo.
We already had Cairo, except his name's Willie Bloomquist. Yeah, Yeah,
Clement could play first Blah, Blah. So who's was out there today, giving
Richie a rest...200 hitting Jose Vidro. And yesterday, going 0-4 in place
of the almost .300 hitting Jose Lopez...Miguel Cairo, who's not got a
hit in his whopping nine at bats he's had. We scored four runs in three
games against the Yankees. BOOOOO. I have to stop now. Think happy thoughts,
like Bavasi being fired soon, and maybe McLaren too (I'm starting to think
maybe he needs to go. The sloppy, uninspired play and some of the manager
moves are on him) trading for Junior, who, back home and comfortable,
wakes up and starts blasting. The rookies figure it out and start to contribute
and we start to win with the pretty decent starting pitching we've had.
Happy Thoughts... but at the current rate our season will be over just
in time to gear up for Seahawks exhibition games.
Paula’s Picks
Free Comic Book Day was a blast! It looked like everyone that came in
had a good time and enjoyed their free comics. Bonnie from the Puyallup
Public Library told me their Free Comic Book Day was a success as well.
This week, there will be a new series written by Bill Willingham and Matthew
Sturges (the same team that writes Jack of Fables) called House of Mystery.
It’s about 5 people trapped in the house with no means of escape.
The only things they have to entertain themselves are stories. The series
will include a variety of guest artists including Bernie Wrightson and
Jill Thompson.
Everyone’s been telling me how great the Iron Man movie is (stay
after the credits). I have yet to see it and I probably won’t be
able to until after the Emerald City Comic Con is over. We are getting
in some new Iron Man books this week. The Invincible Iron Man is a new
ongoing series written by Matt Faction with art by Salvador Larroca. We’ll
also be getting a new mini-series, Iron Man: Viva Las Vegas.