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DC
Favorite Audio Books of May 2021!! CHOICE ONE — Alex Ross’ KINGDOM COME!!
I LOOOOOOOOVVVVVVVVVVVVVEVEEEEEEEEEEEE this audio book!. I’ve had the audio cassette for years and ripped my copy to cd so I can listen to it when in my car going to/from work, etc. I Loved the graphic novel so much that when I heard about the audio book, I just had to have it.
And this audio book, actually does what I thought was impossible. it makes the graphic novel, which I consider a masterpiece and one of my favorite books, even richer and more beloved.
That said it has been a good couple years since I have found these CDs and revisited this audio book. I listened to them this week…. and it still hits me the same…. my goodness I LOVE this audio book.
And I know Mark Waid the scripter is not a fan of this audio book, but I adore it. And what gets lost about KINGDOM COME, the graphic novel that inspires this audio book, when discussing it, is it is Alex Ross’ KINGDOM COME.
Click the image above to own the ABSOLUTE KINGDOM COME while it is still in print. A must own.
Alex Ross was not just the artist on the book, KINGDOM COME, it was his brain-child, he conceived it, this was and is very much Alex Ross’ story that he brought to DC, this idea of the Twilight of the Gods, even to having his Dad in the book as a central character, and DC paired him with Mark Waid to flesh out the story and create the script and structure.
And all due respect to Mark Waid (you can’t have a much better scripter/writer to flesh out your ideas, and make your concept better, especially when it comes to DC Characters and history and imbuing it with a sense of the iconic and the nostalgic); but I do think we need to give due respect to Alex Ross, and start giving him his due praise for the story even existing, and its romantic, and even spiritual nature… giving us the gist of this story about — faith rewarded.
And here another great writer and lover of all things DC, Elliot S. Maggin, takes the Graphic Novel and adapts it for the novel and the audio book, I think with faithful and momentous and heartfelt results.
Read the comic, then read this exceptional novelization
Verified Purchase
Moments in this audio book never fail to give me chills or make me teary eyed or make me inspired. The audio eliciting memories of Alex Ross’ stunning iconic painted moments. So yes, you very much need to have read the Graphic Novel first, to appreciate the audio book.
I’ll post links to both items, and more, throughout this post.
“And fingers that can fuse coal into diamond, crawl across human bone. And in the hush, ears that can hear a cell divide, pick out with chilling ease, the scream of human rage.”
Holy Effing Crap.
I think the performers with one or two brief exceptions for the bit players, are all fantastic. The main characters, Superman, Batman, WonderWoman, Magog, Norman McKay, Wesley Dodds, Spectre, many more— are all picture perfect.
Alex Ross meets Mark Waid meet Elliott Maggin— all add up to the best DC adaptation ever made.
The cassettes have dried up, but sometimes you can catch one popping up from time to time. And hopefully one day they will release the CD (but wouldn’t hold my breath, considering it has been over 20 years since the Audio Book was released). However, if you can snag a copy, it is worth having.
Strongly Recommended!!!
The GREATEST multi-part FANTASTIC FOUR comic book stories—- EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!
Start with the FANTASTIC FOUR OMNIBUS 1,2, & 3. A great way to get into the early issues. Click the images to see more on the titles covered.
They were visionaries. Explorers. Imaginauts. They were Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. And like the Fantastic Four, they continually strove to overcome the impossible and achieve the extraordinary. Now, the first three years of their landmark run are collected in one oversized volume. This keepsake edition also includes all original letters pages and pinups, critical commentaries, a historical overview, and other DVD-style extras.
COLLECTING: FANTASTIC FOUR (1961) #1-30, FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL (1963) #1
Collecting the greatest stories from the World’s Greatest Comics Magazine in one, massive collector’s edition that has been painstakingly restored and recolored from the sharpest material in the Marvel Archives.
COLLECTING: FANTASTIC FOUR 31-60, ANNUAL 2-4
These are some of the greatest adventures of all time! Collecting FANTASTIC FOUR (1961) #61-93 and ANNUAL #5-7, and material from NOT BRAND ECHH #5-7. All Ages
Celebrate 60 years of the World’s Greatest Comics Collaboration! Stan Lee and Jack Kirby conclude their record-setting tenures on the FANTASTIC FOUR, the book that birthed the Marvel Universe! In Kirby’s final issues, Doctor Doom lurks in the shadows, the FF save Apollo 11 from an alien threat, and the Sub-Mariner and Magneto team up to attack our heroes! Then, Stan Lee is joined by Marvel art legends John Romita Sr. and John Buscema to forge a new future for Marvel’s first family! Along the way, the Thing battles the Hulk, the Surfer is taken captive by Galactus, and the Overmind menaces Earth — leading to the strangest event in Marvel history: Doctor Doom joins the FF?! Guest-starring Black Panther, the Inhumans and more!
COLLECTING: Fantastic Four (1961) 94-125, Fantastic Four: The Lost Adventure (2008) 1, material from Fantastic Four Annual (1963) 8-9
Okay now onto the issues you can afford to pick up in issue form, and the ones i recommend having:
FANTASTIC FOUR 161,162,163,164- These issues completely wowed me as a kid, and continue to entertain me as an adult. Simply great work by the team of thomas, buckler and sinnott.
FANTASTIC FOUR 164,165– Great covers, Great issues!!!
FANTASTIC FOUR 168,169,170 More Thomas, Buckler greatness!!
For my money John Byrne invented the concept of wide-screen entertainment with his seminal early work on AVENGERS 164 thru 166. This is him a decade later, showing he is still the bar, by which super hero action will always be measured.
Without argument John Bryne was one of the best writers and artists on Fantastic Four (Right up there with Stan the Man Lee, Jack King Kirby, John Buscema and Roy Thomas ), but until you go back and revisit his lengthy run on The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine’you forget exactly how good he was. Issue 251 thru 265 is really one large, fluid story about— families lost and families found.
It was the world’s greatest comic magazine – again! Not since the days of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby had a creator so perfectly captured the intense mood, cosmic style and classic sense of adventure of Marvel’s First Family. Fresh off an earth-shattering and reputation-making run as penciler on UNCANNY X-MEN, John Byrne proved his writing talent was every bit the equal of his art as he pulled double-duty on FANTASTIC FOUR, launching Reed, Sue, Ben and Johnny into realms of imagination and wonder into which few creators before had dared to travel. From the four corners of the globe to the farthest reaches of space to the deepest depths of the Negative Zone, the FF face off against foes old and new – including the Dr. Doom, Galactus and Annihilus! Plus: The FF aid the Inhumans, bid farewell to the Baxter Building, don new costumes and celebrate their 20th anniversary in style as Byrne reminds us all there’s a family at the heart of this team of adventurers!
Collecting: MARVEL TEAMUP (1972) #61-62; MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #50; FANTASTIC FOUR (1961) #215-218, #220-221, #232-262 and ANNUAL #17; PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN (1976) #42; AVENGERS (1963) #233; THING (1983) #2; and ALPHA FLIGHT (1983) #4.
Superstar John Byrne’s legendary run concludes with one of the most innovative periods in Fantastic Four history! The sensational She-Hulk replaces the Thing, Sue Richards becomes the Invisible Woman, and Mr. Fantastic is tried for crimes against the universe! Also featuring the return of Dr. Doom, the fate of Reed and Sue’s unborn child, the resurrection of Jean Grey, and more — as the FF confront deadly foes including the Mole Man, Dr. Octopus, Terminus, the Beyonder, Mephisto, Psycho-Man and Annihilus! Plus: the unfinished “Last Galactus Story,” reprinted for the first time!
COLLECTING: Fantastic Four (1961) #261-295, Fantastic Four Annual #18-19, Alpha Flight (1983) #4, Thing (1983) #10 and #19, Avengers Annual #14, and material from Secret Wars II #2, Epic Illustrated #26-34, What If? (1977) #36, What The -?! #2 and #10, Thing (1983) #7, Fantastic Four Roast and Fantastic Four Special Edition — written by John Byrne, Mark Gruenwald, and Roger Stern; and illustrated by John Byrne, Mark Bright, Ron Wilson, and Jerry Ordway.
The original first run of the FANTASTIC FOUR ran 416 issues. For my money you can stop reading with the recommendations in this post. The series never gets better or as good as the issues listed above.
Well this post was a good amount of work. If you enjoyed, then please like, subscribe, comment, email, and use the links. It is all apprecaired! Hope all you gals and guys are doing great!!!
2009’s WATCHMEN Trailer, 2020’s JUSTICE LEAGUE Trailer, Zack Snyder, Alan Moore, DC, Broken Agreements and the Films!
To this day, my favorite trailer of all time is the 1st WATCHMEN movie trailer, with the simply haunting SMASHING PUMPKINS song. You have to understand, that 2009 trailer represented the culmination of over 20 years of attempting to get that iconic book to screen.
And I have to say — I was one who was happy with the graphic novel, and just didn’t think a filmed version was feasible or needed. And I’m typically not that guy/gal who complains if someone wants to make a movie, or cartoon, or whatever from a successful book or movie. I say, more power to them, that’s just business. That is the nature of film, since the dawn of film.
Sometimes adaptations work out great (quite a lot actually) where the movie is actually superior to the source material, example of this would be Michael Mann’s MANHUNTER being superior to the original novel RED DRAGON by Thomas Harris. Or the Russo brother’s CIVIL WAR being superior to the over-bloated comic-book version. So yeah I’m always game to be pleasantly surprised by an adaption.
I guess where Alan Moore’s WATCHMEN differed for me, is the creator made an agreement with the publisher, that would have given him the rights to WATCHMEN, once the book went out of print, He made this deal in a time where there was no such concept as an ‘evergreen’ graphic novel. Everything went out of print in the Comic Book world. Alan Moore’s WATCHMEN became the first book, that DC would never let go out of print.
So while Alan Moore is known for being historically difficult, the reason may be that he has been hoodwinked more than a time or two. And WATCHMEN perhaps being the most painful of the many various conflicts he has had with publishers and other creators, would notoriously be a sore subject with Mr. Moore.
At the end of the day, 35 years removed from Moore’s heyday in comics, he is still that name we reach toward when we think of what is best in comics. So to have the medium’s best writer, our modern day Shakespeare (a writer, writing in a castigated medium for the mob, works that would stand the test of time) not involved with the adaptation, and not wanting the adaptation of his most acclaimed property; well you tend to understand, as a fan of that writer and that property, and not really need to see that adaption.
So I wasn’t calling for a WATCHMEN film, and I was not boycotting it either, I just had no interest in seeing it. Two things started to excite me about the film, One/ that Zack Snyder was attached as Director (coming off 300 he had skyrocketed as one of the most exciting directors, and one of my favorite directors) and Two/ then seeing that first trailer in 2009. The first trailer with the Smashing Pumpkins song… holy cow!!!
For someone to take a long un-filmable project, that had been gestating for decades, and bounced between different writers, directors, production teams, and finally land with one of the most stylish action directors to come along since Sam Peckinpah and John Woo, and to produce a trailer like that— mic drop.
That trailer, as someone like many, who loved Alan Moore’s WATCHMEN; that trailer completely screamed Alan Moore’s WATCHMEN. And more than that it screamed iconic, it screamed visionary, it screamed Zack Snyder.
Visionary is a high compliment, but when looking at the visuals of Zack Snyder, it is well earned. And that vision and love for the source material was all on display in that trailer, and add that perfect song…and you have something that highlights the strengths of Zack Snyder, his visuals, and replaces dialog and plotting, with the pure emotion of the right song.
To this day, that first WATCHMEN trailer remains my favorite trailer of all time. And while the movie was not the trailer (meaning it could not maintain that level of perfection and excitement over 2+ hours, but arguably no film can), the film while definitely having issues (overlong, pacing issues); at the end of the day, flaws and all, it is an achievement of film-making.
You could not cast that film any better than it was cast, it starts great, it ends great, and in-between it is compelling if overlong (but given the depth of content, it was the length it needed to be). And let us speak of that ending, I spoke earlier of adaptions that are better than the original; this film is not better than the graphic novel, but there are moments in this film, that are. One of those moments is the ending. The culmination of Ozymandias’ master plan makes far more sense in the film than in the Graphic novel.
All in all Zack Snyder’s WATCHMEN is a flawed masterpiece, and I’ll take that every day of the week. And the trailer… flawless. Check out the below review.
Since then others have taken a crack at Alan Moore’s seminal work, to surprising (and I would say impressive) effect. I still wish Alan Moore’s name was on all these adaptions, and he was getting paid, since he is making corporations quite wealthy milking his ideas.
Part of this is Moore’s own ‘line in the sand ‘ attitude, but seriously I really wish fences could be mended, as Moore is not getting any younger, and it would be nice if people would laud him, monetarily and credit wise, while he is alive, rather than empty speeches after he, like we all must, passes off this mortal coil.
Anyhow that was just a quick aside about how much i love the 1st 2009 WATCHMEN trailer, and while Zack Snyder has been hit and miss for me film-wise, his visuals (with the exception of the stupid costumes/CGI for the FLASH and CYBORG) are always top notch; and the trailers… genius.
I just saw the trailer for JUSTICE LEAGUE THE SNYDER CUT, and once again, that marriage of iconic visuals as only Zack Snyder can do it, with the perfect song– it makes me excited now to see this, when I had no interest in a ‘Snyder Cut’ of a film that did not work for me the first time.
“You won’t let me live, and you won’t let me die.”
In a very impressive trailer weekend for DC/Warner Brothers, the SNYDER JUSTICE LEAGUE may be my favorite trailer, just edging out both THE BATMAN and WONDER WOMAN 84. Now I definitely think both WONDER WOMAN 84 and THE BATMAN are going to be vastly better films than this re-cut JUSTICE LEAGUE CUT (I don’t see the edit substantially being able to change/better the film. Change it a little, yes. Better it a little, yes. But substantially? No.); however based just on trailers, the Snyder Cut hearkens back to his successful 1st WATCHMEN trailer, and that formula (for the trailer) just works.
UFC252 Part2 : Post Fight Results – The Final Word
Wow.
UFC252 lived up to the hype in surprising ways.
Chito Marlon Vera stops the unbeaten Sean O’Malley in great style. By all reports it was Vera’s great kicks to O’Malley’s legs that caused the leg to buckle. And Vera, like the warrior he has proved himself to be, finished O’Malley. Thumbs up for Vera. And hats off to O’Malley, he is a young tough guy, falling down and learning from it, should only make him a better fighter.
Stipe defeats Cormier by decision. I heard the play by play and have seen the screen grabs, what a great fight. Stipe gets it done, cementing himself as one of the best and longest running Heavyweight champions (adding all his time as heavyweight champion, and all his title defenses).
And Cormier’s already high stock, only goes up with this fight. To put on the kind of performance he did, from bell to bell, and after effectively losing an eye in the 2nd round— wow. When you use the term legend and champion performance, its hard not to have Daniel Cormier in mind.
It does bring up the thought they need to either alter the gloves like fighter Cory MacDonald suggested, so that fighters can still grapple but not fully extend their fingers, to make eye-pokes less prevalent, or have these guys go in with at least protective contacts. Contacts won’t help with avoiding a detached retina (that may come with a severe eye-poke), however they should help protect the cornea from getting scratched, which is potentially the more severe issue.
That damage to DC’s eye looked very severe. Hoping he gets immediate and great care, and that therE is no permanent or irreparable damage. He can go into retirement knowing he has repeatedly fought the best in the world and, in victory or in defeat, always been the best in the world.
My best goes out to all the fighters, and hoping they all have a speedy and full recovery.
Best Cheap but GREAT over-sized comic book posters of the Day!!!
Best Cheap but GREAT over-sized comic book posters!!!
Makes fantastic gifts or presents for the pop-culture fan in your life, or give to yourself as a nice present!
Captain America – Madbomb Marvel Retro” Maxi Poster 36 x 24
Alex Ross 70721 Marvel Generations Oversize Vinyl 62×48 Poster
Magneto Triumphant Marvel Comics Retro Cover Art Cool Wall Decor Art Print Poster 24×36
Princess and The Panther by Frank Frazetta Cool Wall Decor Art Print Poster 24×36
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Currently Watching / Quote of the Day : PULP FICTION The Golden Age
I am currently watching PULP FICTION: THE GOLDEN AGE OF SCI FI, FANTASY AND ADVENTURE, courtesy of Youtube and Roku (the only way I watch a Youtube video), and it is just a riveting watch. If you are a fan of books and writers or simply history, and 20th century Americana, this deep dive into the early years of a uniquely American art form, pulp fiction, you will be riveted by this feature. It is less than an hour in length, and get past the incredibly hokey opening, it gets serious and informative and impressive, very quickly.
There is a line in the feature that, while being a patron of pulps and pulp writers and knowing this to be true, still actually gave me chills to hear it so succinctly laid out.
‘The fascinating thing about the writers who were working in Pulps, was they were writing what was considered disposable fiction, trash. I mean, most of these stories you’d read them and throw them out, and yet… the top writers in these fields, whether Westerns or Science Fiction or Horror or Mystery, they are now considered the literary giants of the 20th century.’
—Marc Zircee, Historian
That line gave me chills. And it is still the case. The writers who are moving the needle here in the still early days of the 21st century, are writers who wrote in under appreciated genre fields.
Similar to successful pulp writers Ray Bardbury, Issac Assimov, Harlan Ellison, Walter Gibson, HP Lovecraft, Sax Rohmer, Dasheil Hammett, L Ron Hubbard, Raymond Chandler, Norvell Page, Cornell Woolrich and Stan Lee (who as a kid started writing pulp stories in the comics, 20 years before he and a cadre of artists would give birth to the revamped Marvel Comics) and others who survived the brutal starvation years of the pulps, and did not join the mass of such writers… who died young and broke, but continued at it, to write, and write, and write, and transition their forward looking pulp sensibilities to the new mediums of radio, and television; that is what is happening today.
And not to be remiss the pulp artists, both cover artist and interior were equally important. They gave the astounding, jaw dropping artwork that got you to stop and pick up the story, and the spot illustrations that powered you through it. And like the pulp writers of the day, the artists were woefully underpaid and horribly overworked to barely eke out a living. Most died broke and unknown, with their work not even credited by the publisher, but a few rose above the carnage of those years to create work that is remembered, geniuses like Norman Saunders, J. Allen St. John, Elliott Dold, George Rozen, Jerome Rozen, Rudolph Belarski, Frederick Blakeslee, John Newton Howitt, HJ Ward, Virgil Finley, and the criminally neglected Barye W. Phillips who did one of the best pulp covers ever with FANTASTIC #1 from 1952. I will be doing an article on the artists in an upcoming installment.
The pulp work… wins out.
The perseverance and love… wins out, and those trash/pulp writers of the 20th century are the ones who are celebrated and rediscovered today, where the ‘serious’ writers are largely forgotten and unread by the masses.
The pulp writers who were pushing the needle in the 20th century, with fast, hard,ugly, brutal, and imaginative tales that did not fit the sensibilities of the ‘serious fiction’ of the day.
That unruly challenging and imaginative fiction they were writing then… about our basest desires and wildest hopes remains…. today, still relevant. The way Mary Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN will always be relevant, the way Shakespeare will always be relevant, the way Chester Himes’ Digger and Coffin Joe, will always be relevant. Because people then, as people now, understand the extremes of hope and despair, and that is the place pulp writers evoked for us best.
Now the modern equivalent are writers such as Stan Lee and Alan Moore and Frank Miller and Pat Mills and Neil Gaiman and Mark Olden and Warren Murphy to name a few. People who slaved away in the late 20th century in the looked down upon realm of Comics or Pulp novels, but wrote about our hope and our fears writ large, modern myths to reflect our modern fears. And like always men who define the conversation of the extreme (the dreamers), in their own time, end up defining the conversation of the masses for their children’s time.
And today we have a new generation of talented pulp writers. From Dennis Lehane to Walter Moseley to John Ridley to Derrick Ferguson to Thomas Ligotti to John Jennings to Joe Hill to Charles Saunders to Percival Everett to John Sanford to Collin Whitehead to Victor LaValle to Richard Gavin to Ed Brubaker to Christopher Priest to Warren Ellis to Brian Michael Bendis to Robert Kirkman to Al Ewing to Eric Powell to David Walker to name a few.
Serious Fiction talks about what is, Pulp Fiction uses the past, present and future as allegories to talk about who we can be, when we screw our courage to the sticking place. And as such it will always be a place waiting for us… to discover.
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A word about subscribing, there are a lot of demands on our time, too much for all of us to be aware of all the cool people and cool things, we might like to be aware of. Wednesday Words was a well received feature I did years ago, and it was just a quick touch on people whose name and work you may want to have on your radar. Subscribing will get you, every two weeks a very short, but very informative edition of WEDNESDAY WORDS.
So if you haven’t subscribed, please do, and bring a friend with you. Collaborating, especially in these oft marginalizing times… seems like the right answer.
And for now, go to Amazon or your local bookstore or library and check out the writers mentioned in this piece. Till next time… be well!
3 days left to PREORDER your comics in October! Here is how! The FINAL Part!
Here is the promised final part.
Just in time to order, pull the trigger by this Wednesday 24 July 2019!
Books worth pre-ordering by 24 July 2019, and save money off cover price, of books being released early October! Halloween!
Here then are the recommended books!
Books worth buying from Marvel:
While Marvel under the auspices of the great film division helmed brilliantly by Kevin Feige, are doing gangbusters on the big screen and television screens; the comic books are a train-wreck. I’m not talking talent wise, I think Marvel, The Comic Book Division has talented and creative people actually writing and drawing and creating the books.
Where Marvel falls down is in marketing and pricing their books, and over saturating a small market, with a lot of noise. I think Editorial and Marketing between the two of them are steering the company, periodical wise, at high speed right into a wall.
You do not have to be a genius to realize, Johnathan Hickman or any writer, is not going to revamp crap, if you are diluting and smothering a good idea, (in this case the ‘revamping’ of the X-men) right out the box, by comprising your jump on story 6 to 12 new titles, by that many creative teams. It is the moronic, diminishing returns crap, Marvel publishing has been doing for the last few years. Drowning whatever signal they may produce, under a crap load of noise.
One X-men title. One exciting creative team, writer, artist, colorist, letter. One steady price-point, $2.99. Not 10 mutant titles to dilute and confuse your audience. One title. One jumping on point. One easy brand to market to retailer and customers. If you are a Marvel Comic book company, with Marvel Studios having done the hard work of giving you a potential GLOBAL audience of BILLIONS. And you can not sell ROUTINELY hundreds of thousands, if not millions of EVERY issue of X-MEN, the issue is gross mismanagement.
It is not the customer, it is not people do not read, it is not competition from video games or movies, it is gross incompetence by your marketing/management and arguably editorial divisions.
Disney needs to farm out the marketing and management of Marvel Comics, to anyone but the people who are currently failing at it.
Books to buy from Marvel:
None
Books to buy from DC:
My above rant about Marvel periodical, also applies to DC periodicals. (With the exception of their $1 reprint line, one of which you will see below).They raised their periodical prices to $3.99 to coincide with hiring Marvel Poster Boy Brian Michael Bendis. And they were on an upswing before doing that. Following their price hike I dropped all of the books that went up in price, except Christopher Priest’s DEATHSTROKE. And to this date, that is the only periodical book I am buying from DC Comics.
TWOMORROWS PUBLISHING
November 2019 – 100 pages (FULL COLOR)
ALTER EGO #161 (100 pages, $9.95) is a full-issue tribute to Stan (The Man) Lee and his contributions to comics! Roy Thomas writes on his more than 50-year relationship with Stan—and shares 21st-century e-mails from Stan (with his permission, of course)! Art by Kirby, Ditko, Maneely, Everett, Severin, Romita—plus tributes from pros and fans alike—and special sections on Stan by Michael T. Gilbert, Bill Schelly, and even the FCA! Vintage Galactus cover by Jack Kirby and Vince Colletta! Edited by ROY THOMAS.
Diamond Comic Distributors Order Code: JUL192270
Order Books here:
https://www.mycomicshop.com/subscriptionservice?AffID=200301P01
3 days left to PREORDER your comics in October! Here is how!
‘Preorder? Preorder?
We don’t need no stinking preorder!’
Little bit of a bastardization of the famous line from the great john Huston directed, Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston led movie, TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE.
One of the best films ever made, and a must watch if you have, in an age of Disney Blockbusters, never seen this quintessential bit of Americana. From 1948, the film is as riveting as SICARIO or any other thriller you will see today, and amazingly still as timely and as timeless.
Pre-ordering is something unique to that weird world of comic books.
Not every comic store can carry every comic. There are a lot of publishers, coming out every month with new titles. Staying on top of it can be an initial learning curve.
But pre-ordering helps you save money, depending what online or brick and mortar retailer you use, the amount is typically between 10% and 50% savings.
The particular online retailer I use, and that I recommend, saves you 35% off the cover price of your comics.
Why do I use the retailer that saves you 35% as opposed to the retailer who saves you 40 to 50%? Well I’ve used that 50% off retailer in the past, and had issues with their customer service, as well as problems getting the issues I ordered, and problems with how i was being charged.
With the 35% off retailer, the customer service has been excellent, and I get the books I ordered in quality condition.
Therefore they are the ones I use, and the ones I recommend.
Okay this is part one of my comic book pre-order tutorial, the little trailer/preamble if you will. I am hard at work on part two, with suggestions of what to order and the link you can use to order from my retailer of choice.
Give this post a like, and come back in about 4 hours to see the 2nd and final part of this pre-order for books shipping in over 2 months, in October.
Thanks!
Youtube Channels On Rob Liefeld, Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur and the Demise of DC Comics?
I listen to some of these Youtube channels, with hosts expressing all types of varying views and opinions.
People get up in arms about a lot of things, than rush to share their opinion.
Here is the thing, everyone has an opinion, but what you should share is an INFORMED opinion. I’m always amazed by the number of people who don’t take the time to make their opinion, an INFORMED opinion.
” Oh No! Rob Liefeld is saying DC is heading for a collapse!”
And that is news why?
I don’t personally care what the opinion of Rob Liefeld is. Not saying I dislike him, but in a long day of numerous issues, the opinions of Rob Liefeld generally do not make my radar. Or most people for that matter, we live busy lives.
However a podcast put this particular Liefeld stance on my radar.
DC comic company heading for a demise.
Just a cursory glance at the comic market will make that stance seem like an outcome with a hefty potential, to be the likely stance.
As far as most of America is concerned there is no such thing as comic books. The best selling comic books of the biggest companies in the US, Marvel and DC, have been struggling for years to sell a 100000 copies in a nation of over 300million people.
That is an unprecedented level of failure.
That is a market hanging on by its fingertips, and is staying alive by resorting to desperate 1990s moves of multiple and variant covers, and price gouging their remaining dwindling audience.
Comics are going up exponentially in price because the big two American Comic book companies rather than attempting to grow an audience, is simply concentrating on milking to death their existing dwindling audience of extremists.
And you have to be an extremist of some sort to pay $4 and $5 and up for books of lessening quality and miniscule content.
And recent talk of AT&T’s acquisition of Warner brothers and by extrapolation DC, points to the print division of DC Comics as one not viewed favorably by At&T; one can argue with good reason.
So to speculate and even err on the side of the demise of the periodical print form of comics, DC comics specifically, that is only looking at the situation clearly and making some informed conclusions. Especially in the wake of the biggest book retailers, far larger than DC. suffering calamitous years of their own.
If you had to bet on DC print division, returning to the glory days of selling millions of copies OR going strictly to a digital and collected/trade model (with some print on demand tossed in); you have to look at the latter as the most likely option.
So yeah talk of the demise of DC Comics, or Comics in general, is just acknowledging the same falling dominoes we see in other physical media markets, from newspapers, to book retailers, to CD and DVD providers. The only difference being all of those things, still sell better than Comic Books.
To not see demise in the wind in the desperate price gouging antics of Marvel and DC, is to not be paying attention. Now I being a fan of print would like a return to a thriving sequential market, but it will take following the path of innovative sequential companies like Alterna, who eschew relying on just the flawed Diamond Direct Market model.
I urge you to check out the Alterna channel for great discussions on these very topics.
And what is funny is the same people who will argue for the health of the direct market, will then call for the cancellation of titles like MOON GIRL AND DEVIL DINOSAUR and MS MARVEL. “Oh those minority books, diverse books are low selling. they should be cancelled. Why aren’t they being cancelled? ” Again it is a case of people not taking two seconds, in a digital age, to get informed.
While the titles do not sell gangbusters in periodic form, in the flawed Diamond direct market model, they sell gangbusters to libraries. MOON GIRL AND DEVIL DINOSAUR and MS MARVEL sell great to libraries, and are critical darlings. And are quickly becoming bigger IP money makers than the traditional “Give us only white guy” titles, that surprise, surprise, after a few issues, stop selling, and need to be rebooted to bolster sales.
It has been my experience that most people on social media, are here to spread gossip or an agenda or be outraged about something, the truth be damned. They just want to have something to move their lips about. That becomes the babbling of idiots, rather than any type of cultivated discourse.
So to combat this type of co-opting of the conversation by those who probably really have no love for comics, those of us in a position to have even a minor audience, we owe our legitimate audience better than regurgitating the suspect ramblings of the agenda prone, we owe them better than our uninformed opinions, or theirs, we have to hold all of us to a higher level of discourse.
There can be no civilization without holding ourselves to civil discourse.
The truth is out there. You just have to take the time to shut your mouth long enough… to hear it, and read it, and internalize it. 🙂
Hear Endeth the Lesson!
Heroic Times 