News for the Week of March 4, 2009
Rick’s Writin’s
Well, the fun has started getting the new point of sale (POS) system ready
to go. I've already quit working with it once out of frustration, though
my problem was personal blindness, not the systems fault. But that scroll
button is near impossible to see. Be that as it may, we're still on track
to have this up and running in the pretty near future. It's all an effort
to manage and control costs while still being able to offer a widely diverse
selection, and deep back issues. The system should help us determine how
deep we need to keep some titles and also let us know that no matter how
badly we want customers to buy a particular title or book we're carrying,
there just isn't any interest in it and we should let it go. It'll also
help us track the sales ebbs and flows of titles as they go through story
and creator changes. I'm going to quote our customers Mike S.'s e-mail
he sent last week, as he put into very good words a concept I hadn't really
thought of : "I think sometimes readers look at comics like TV shows.
How often have you watched a show that started off good, but went sideways
at some point, and you stopped watching? And sometimes, that bad show
will become good again, so you jump back on the bus. I personally view
comic books as episodic entertainment." I hadn't thought about the
episodic format similarity with comics and television, but I think that's
a great comparison. I know from following TV ratings and watching comic
sales and readers changes on their pull lists that what Mike is saying
fits, though I don't exactly follow that myself. I decide beforehand if
I want to watch a show or read a title. Occasionally I'll be swayed by
outside chatter and try something, but usually if I drop a show or title
it stays dropped. Either because there's something I didn't like, or I
don't have time (last week's problem), but I can't think of a show I went
back to that I dropped, though a creator change has had me try a dropped
book. I still think Spider-Girl wouldn't have been canceled twice or three
times if they'd just change the writer...even once. It's ALWAYS Tom DeFalco
, and that's a book I read the first 40 some issues (Volume 1) and then
dropped, never to return again, no matter how good the buzz. Anyhow, I
thought Mike's was an excellent concept, and I was surprised I hadn't
seen it like that before.
Before I move on to comics
I want to talk about this week's driving peeve. If I've mentioned this
one before, I'm sorry, but it happened to me twice this week so it's on
my mind. What possesses "Joe Meandering" the driver that drives
5-10 MPH below the speed limit, to speed up when you try to pass him?
Does he finally discover he actually has a gas pedal, or is he just a
jerk? Then, once you don't have the opportunity to pass him, why does
he slow back down to below the speed limit? I swear we should have rockets
in our cars to launch at these guys. And it's mostly always guys. This
is a game women drivers don't seem to play, except by accident, because
they're probably busy doing other things like breast feeding their child
AND talking on the phone while they're driving. This really happened this
week and the woman was busted for child endangerment. She said "What!!?
I'm supposed to let my child go hungry?!?" I'm hungry...for comics.
Another good sized batch of books this week with mini series titles being
the key pieces. First up DC starts a couple: Strange Adventures (#1 of
8) with writer Jim Starlin bringing together Adam Strange and Bizarro
in a space adventure also featuring Comet, but I don't think it's Supergirl's
horse Comet, who's actually a centaur cursed by Circe into staying a horse,
but I guess this guy Comet used to be Linda Danvers' boyfriend so there
is some Supergirl connection (Thank You Wikipedia). The next mini features
undead Solomon Grundy (#1 of 7)... the former BATMAN villain (ok, Green
Lantern villain) with each issue coinciding with a day and the Solomon
Grundy nursery rhyme "Solomon Grundy, born on a Monday..." .
OK Wikipedia, quit giving me fascinating facts. The Solomon Grundy rhyme
goes way back. Here's the whole thing:
"Solomon Grundy"
is a 19th century children's nursery rhyme, and was presented by James
Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps in 1842. The poem is essentially a riddle
in which the life of Solomon Grundy appears to take place in the process
of a single week, the answer being that each day's events represent the
seven ages of man.
Solomon Grundy,
Born on a Monday,
Christened on Tuesday,
Married on Wednesday,
Took ill on Thursday,
Grew worse on Friday,
Died on Saturday,
Buried on Sunday.
That was the end of
Solomon Grundy.
Talking about Kevin Smith and Batman Cacophony (#3 of 3) seems kind of mundane now, after the history lesson we just had. I know...we'll go back to talking about undeads. Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Season Eight (#23) continues, with Buffy dueling it out with swords against some buzz haired girl. SWEET. Back to DC. One of the most famous Legion of Superheroes stories, and a personal favorite of mine as a kid , is "The Death of Ferro Lad" from Adventure Comics. This mid 1960's story had one of the first real "deaths" of a comic character, where he actually stayed dead. Big stuff back then. This arc, which includes the first appearance of the Fatal Five and the Sun-Eater is collected for the first time, in color, in DC's new hardcover Classics Library format. A top notch story that I wish was in a cheaper priced book, but worth saving your pennies for.
Marvel also has minis, starting with War Of Kings (#1 of 6) dealing with the Inhumans, Skrulls and other cosmic Marvel dudes and dudettes. Daredevil faces off with Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin, who's back in Hell's Kitchen and wanting to take back control in the Return of the King story. I always liked Kingpin as a Spider-Man villain, but he's pretty good with Daredevil too. The Dark Reign story continues in Secret Warriors (#2), the new female Black Panther (#2), and everybody's pal Deadpool (#8). And finally, the first NEW issue in nearly three years of Ultimate Hulk versus Wolverine (#3 of 6). To give you an idea, this story takes place between issues 69 and 71 of Ultimate X-Men (now at issue 100) and before Ultimates 2 issue 11 (Ultimates was so late that that info probably doesn't help much). How do I know this??...Wikipedia!! Til' next week, unless I popped a gasket trying to get ready to "bip" comics.
Paula’s Picks
Tear Update: 2
Yup, up to 2 now. For those of you interested, we are running a contest.
Guess how many times the Point of Sale system brings me to tears from
February 22nd to March 22nd. We’re accepting entries until the end
of the day Wednesday, March 4th.
I’ll be keeping an eye on Rick this week. I’m a little worried that he might start acting like Janis Joplin and eating cats because of all the Wikipedia that he’s reading. (30 Rock fans will get that. Not a 30 Rock fan? Go watch it! Tina’s awesome!)
Ugh! I’m running behind, so I’m going make this quick. Buffy #23 continues the adventures of a young vampire slayer and her friend, Mr. Pointy. House of Mystery #11: more creepy things happen in a creepy house. Jack of Fables volume 5: learn more about the Page sisters. I believe this story leads into a crossover with Fables and Jack of Fables with a mini series called The Literals.
Watchmen comes out this coming Friday. I hope everyone gets to go see it. I’m going to see it at IMAX on Saturday. AMC Theaters in Southcenter now has an IMAX if you don’t want to deal with Seattle Center parking (or lack thereof).